On All Hands
“So long time, no see, huh, Sweets?” and Sunset drops a couple fries into her mouth. “Sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner. You know, busy with the vlog, the magic lessons, trying to get everypony into the new swing of things. Speaking of, how’s things?”
Sweetie Drops chews on her hayburger in Sweet Snacks Café, letting it become her food to fuel her thought. “Honestly, it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought. I thought it’d be the end of the world, but things didn’t break down. Wasn’t there supposed to be like, you know, cities burning because of transformation chaos?”
“That caught me off-guard too, but I think it’s pretty much harmony keeping us safe at this point.”
“Let me guess: friendship is magic, love is magic, and now harmony is magic too. What else is new?”
It makes Sunset laugh. “But really, how’re you coping with pony life? It’s nice to catch up with you when it feels like I’m a diplomat, a vlogger, and a student all in one.”
“Eh, not that bad too. I had to get used to four legs and hooves, but then everyone else here’s like that.” She turns her hoof around for closer inspection. “These things are surprisingly dexterous. And holding things with my mouth too. Plus those vlogs helped a lot, like the one where we shouldn’t think too much about it and just let our hooves do the work.”
“Heh, that’s my most-viewed video. And thanks!”
Then Sunset spots the empty seat beside the Earth pony. “Huh. I thought she’d be with you here. You know, besties and all.”
“Well... argh, you know. Ever since she got arrested for disturbing the peace at the park, it’s been a roller-coaster.”
“Get away from me! Don’t infect me with any more pony stuff!”
“This is ridiculous, Lyra! We’re both ponies!”
“But no, they’re already eating hay, Drops! They’re neighing around, galloping like actual horses, and everypony is... no! I’m even ponifying the words! I didn’t even think about them!”
“Lyra, please, I need you to calm down! You can’t just fix this in a jiffy—“
“Right! But what if I can?”
“Don’t get any stupid ideas!”
“So you’re telling me she tried to fix it? Even though Equestrian magic’s welded so tightly to this world’s reality, to fix it would destroy the universe?”
“Pretty much. She had unstoppable determination, I can’t deny that. But she’s too stubborn for her own good. At first, it was some innocent stuff...”
“Lyra, what in the world is that?”
“It’s tape! Why do you ask?”
“You’re taping a fork and knife on your hoof. To eat bread.”
“And I wish I could’ve eaten all those cans of corned beef but no, I just had to turn into some stupid vegan unicorn and give it to some griffon next door. I’m pretty sure he’s having the best time of his life.”
“Why are you taping them to your hoof though? Why can’t you just eat with your mouth? Or use your fancy unicorn magic?”
“Because that’s not human!”
“You’re not human!”
“Stop reminding me of magic ponies ruining my life!”
“I’m a magic pony now and I’m at least trying to make my life work! Please, Lyra! If not for your own sake but for mine, would you please...?”
“I can see where the silverware may be a problem.”
“Yeah. Not just the silverware. Didn’t you have to learn how to use hands when you came over here? I just... practiced using my hoof and mouth for everything and Lyra got into it as well. Even if she didn’t do put her heart in it. Still wanted hands, wanted to be human again.”
“Yeah... but wait, you said Lyra started doing silly innocent stuff. It got worse, didn’t it?”
A shake of the head and one long sigh over her half-eaten hayburger. “She... she was so obsessed with the idea of being human again, she started dabbling in dark arts. She understood none of it, but she kept on going until... well, I thought she just summoned death itself.”
“Lyra, is that a monster?!”
“I don’t know! It just came up!”
“Came up where? Wait, that book you’re holding and those amulets... Lyra, what did I tell you about shady ponies in dark alleyways! No... n-no, Lyra, you have hands?!”
“Yes, I have hands and just a few more minutes, I’ll glow and I’ll be a human again! And the shady pony was fine! He... he heard me mumbling about not being human anymore, and he told me he had just the thing to help me get back on my feet.”
“What? I thought you told me he gave you an early Night-terror Night trick-or-treat!”
“Yes, but... agh! Uh, monster still on the loose?”
“Why do you think I’m kicking the thing as hard as I can? Where’s your magic? Have any spells to hold it off until the police arrive?”
“No spells! I know how to stop it! The book told me!”
“Then why aren’t you doing it!”
“Sweetie Drops, I... it’s just, I... my old life...”
“So she destroyed the book. She just had to in the end: the monster could’ve eaten the both of us if she didn’t do it at all. Lyra lost her hands and her chance to be a human again. Not like it’d help her fit in or anything... but she cried for a long time.”
She looks deeply into her empty plate, rubbing an idle hoof on it. “I did the only thing I could do then: stay with her all the way and let her let it all out. She’s such a foal some of the time, but I’ve been with her long enough to know that when she breaks down this bad, what she needs isn’t help. Not yet. All she needs is somepony to be there with her before I can say anything else.”
Wipes a tear. A little smile slowly lifts her muzzle. “When everything was over, I told her that not much really changed. I’m still Sweetie Drops; I’m just a magic colorful pony now. And she’s still Lyra. Being a pony didn’t change her personality or anything: she’s still the excitable girl jumping up and down at everything and playing that outdated lyre like a pro just because no one else does these days.”
And Sunset lets out a smile. “So she got better, then?”
“Yeah. Today is her first time going to Twilight for an hour of unicorn magic classes and exercises. And really, I think you should be the teacher!”
“Hey, my vlog reaches all the unicorns in the world, and I already have my hooves full as is, juggling Earth-Equestria stuff.”
“Ah, I get it.” Sweetie Drops pulls out a couple banknotes as the roller-skates waiter picks up their plates and cups. “I just hope that today gets better. Maybe Lyra ends up learning a nifty spell or two. Or at least finally do some telekinesis.”
And Sunset lights up her horn. “From what I’ve seen, once you dive into magic, you’ll never want to get out of it!”
After an afternoon of helping other ponies refit their homes to be equine-friendly—complete with door handles instead of door knobs along with tons of power tools—Sweetie Drops wipes the sweat off her brow and heads home.
The front door doesn’t budge. “Uh, Lyra? Are you in there?”
“SD, is that you? Hold on!”
And the door handle glows in a golden aura. Some unlocking sounds later, the door opens as if on its own.
“Wow, Lyra!” Sweetie says as she enters. “You’re finally using your—woah!”
And there’s Lyra sitting on the couch, blanket covering much of her. She reads a book which floats in her magic, hovers a phone playing some of her recorded lyre music tunes, and levitates a hot cup of tea. Growing on her face is an amazing grin. “Why didn’t they tell me that I could up my chillaxing game with magic? This is so cool, Sweets!”
And Sweetie Drops closes the door with a smile. “Glad to see you safe and sound. How was the unicorn thing?”
Lyra levitates everything onto the table and hops out of the sofa. “You have no idea! I can’t believe it myself, but—“ her horn illuminates the room like a light bulb, and she jumps like an excited schoolfilly “—they somehow made magic better than hands!’
Sweetie Drops can only smile even wider. “Let’s talk about it over dinner, Lyra. I’m getting famished!”
“Don’t worry! I already cooked up some hayburgers! And I pumped them up with maple syrup!”
The Earth pony shakes her head with a laugh as the unicorn hops to the kitchen to levitate a plate filled with syrup-filed hayburgers. “Oh, Lyra, never change!”
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10447334
There could be precedent for this since most of the Humane Seven have their own vlogs. Maybe make it a weekyl/bi-weekly thing on the weekends where they gather around podcast style and discuss dark magic artifacts.
10449073
10449991
Early on, there's quite a few things you can smuggle through inter-dimensional customs if you know what you're doing. Especially if we're dealing with ex-human ponies who see a book and just assume it's any old book, not knowing that they can be magical and can contain forbidden knowledge.
As for the undead... uh, zombie clouds?
10449080
Just wait until you put the barrel in a skyscraper. It's a free roller-coaster for the whole family!
Jus you wait until you figure out hands with magic, or is that magic with hands?
derpicdn.net/img/2017/7/25/1494648/large.png
That resolved rather quickly. Still, nice to see Lyra... uh, being sane. I suppose.
Oh, Lyra. Usually the human's obsessed with unicorns, but this does make sense. If anyone might try to break the universe to get her thumbs back, it'd probably be her. At least she's finally settled in. And she can certainly help make sure the era of humanity is remembered by future generations.
10452333
10452375
The truth of the matter is that most of us here have shades of Quibble, and the positive thing about that is that it gives us an eye for details. No wonder writing him ended up being a blast.
10452480
10452538
If Twilight doesn't have to explain anything at all and just say that it's friendship... oh, Twilight, where has your scientific self gone? At least Sci-Twi would've tried making a hypothesis!
10455351
With the talk of magic and ponying up going over social media as time goes on (thanks to the Rainbooms and their exploits), you'll eventually have some, say, Equestrian equivalents of New Agers and Wiccans (human Tree Hugger would probably be one of the two) getting huge boosts on the world stage since magic is most likely a thing discussed in those circles. With that popularity come hangers-on/quacks and people looking only for their fifteen minutes of fame... so, magic snake oil salesmen incoming (Flim Flam brothers or not)!
Quibble's headcanon on magic likely included the assumption that magic's just something that happens when you wish really hard in a fantasy setting. Considering how his pony self's caught up with how unrealistic the later Daring Do novels got in a world where he's a magic talking pony and Equestria's been threatened by a peanut gallery of villains over the past few years, I'd say that the human Quibble would be more interested in sci-fi stuff because of the propensity for realistic-sounding details they can give.
10452338
Perhaps in the future when she's advanced enough, but by then, the world would be moving on quickly: houses getting fitted for pony proportions, devices made for hooves and not hands. If anything, the hand magic would be for nostalgia and maybe to help others experience what it was like to be a human during "the Old Times."
10452488
From the fan depictions I've seen of Bon Bon/Sweetie Drops and Lyra Heartstrings, Lyra's quite the excitable mare... so I'd also see her as the sort to despair and loudly express her sad emotions when things come to shove. So it does look like she's insane for a while.
10455355
It was a roundabout way of standing out from the usual depiction of EqG Lyra because having any Lyra go ham over hands is more stereotypical than having human Lyra go ham about hooves and unicorns. As it stands, I think this is nice because it shows a pony wanting hands not because of some conspiracy theory-esque obsession over anthropology but because she knows she used to be a human and wants to go back to the way things were.
And given Lyra's obsession over trying to be human again, there may be some underlying sense that she ended up liking/loving humanity more than the average person. Won't be surprised to see her taking Equestrians on tour guides over ancient/historical human cities and letting them experience the magic that is hands.