It's Great to be Different.

by Filly Derpyshy

The Gray Mare.

Lyra could only stare at the letter. She read it over and over again, as if they would change somehow. She didn't know what the point of this was, why the anonymous gray mare had wanted her to see this letter. Maybe it was a joke?

Now, of all times, wasn't the best time for a flashback, but your mind has a way with betraying you.

“Lyra, You are special. It doesn't matter if you cant use magic like the other fillies and colts in school. All that matters is that you be who you want to be. Don't let anypony tell you any different. Okay sweetie?”

Her mothers words were like cotton on her ears, a welcomed change from the flaming insults, and her fathers betraying last words as he walked out on Lyra and her mother. Lyra stood up, letter in hoof, and walked slowly back towards her home. She didn’t know what to make of this. She just needed time to think.

When she arrived she sat back down on her sofa and just stared off into space, her minds activity betraying her blank stare.

Why did she give me this letter? Is there something she knows that I don't? Who is she anyway? Why am I even worrying about this? It's a letter... it means nothing.

She looked over to where her lyre had come to rest after her earlier outburst. In a moment of instinct, she walked over and picked up the golden instrument and sat down. She just stared at it, split between happiness for her one and only talent, and sadness that this talent was so enormously irrelevant.

She brought her hoof to the strings and began playing. She didn’t even know she knew the tune she was playing, but she was playing it as if she knew it for her entire life. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to get lost in the music, all fears and sadness forgotten for just that moment.

She opened her eyes, and they came to rest on the letter across from her, on the sofa where she had left it. Without thinking, her voice joined in with her melody again. This time, a song she never sang before.

“Isn't it great to be different? Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are? When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star.”

She didn't even feel the tears that had begun to fall from her eyes as she sang. She repeated the same words over and over again, each pass becoming more pained than the last. She eventually decided to place her lyre in the glass storage case it was housed in and pull herself into bed. Which due to mental exhaustion, confusion, sadness, fear, and any other type of emotion, had been the sofa.

*

Lyra was walking down the streets of Ponyville one cool autumn day. She was keeping to the shadows of the quiet, but friendly town as she normally did, when she saw Bon-Bon at the apple cart owned by the local, stetson donning farmer.

“Bon-Bon! I'm so happy to see you! I-”

She was cut off when Bon-Bon turned around and shot her a slightly evil look. “I don't want to see you Lyra. Stay away from me.” She began walking away from her, Lyra trying to make sense of the situation, when she caught what she had to say next. “A unicorn who cant do magic? What the buck was I thinking?”

Suddenly, the world changed, she was in a small room with no windows and only a bed and a small nightstand next to it. The door opened and her father walked into the room.

“What the buck is wrong with you Lyra?” He said in a soft voice as he entered her room. “You know it's unnatural, you being involved with Bon-Bon.”

Her anger welled up inside her, yet she did not speak. He advanced on her a few paces.

“You are going to listen to your father and never talk to this mare again, do I make myself clear?”

Again, she said nothing, turning her face away from the dreadful creature passing itself off as her father.

He closed the distance and slapped her across the face, leaving a hoof mark on her cheek. She tried to back up away from him but she was rooted to the spot, her muscles not obeying her.

“You will listen to your father!” He screamed.

Lyra spat in his face, immediately regretting it.

“So that's how it's gonna be is it?” He raised his hoof again, bringing it down hard onto her cheek, but before it could strike her-

*

Lyra’s eyes shot open, dry and fresh tears, as well as beads of sweat both clung to the sofa. She realized where she was and she broke down into the sofa, one of her many breakdowns. She didn't know how long until she would run out of tears to shed.

She stood up after a few moments, an unseen force driving her to go to her lyres case and take it out. She slowly walked back over to armchair and sat down. She drug her hoof across the strings again, playing the same melody as last night, still unsure how she learned it. Again a few simple words came into her mind, and before she could stop herself, they were rolling off her tongue.

“Isn't it great to be different?”

A soft, beautiful voice spoke up from behind her. “Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are?”

She didn't stop, and together they sang. “When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star.”

She ended the melody, taking this moment to look over to her doorway. There stood the gray mare from last night, looking at her softly with her wall-eyed stare.

She spoke, Lyra’s heart beating faster as the words softly hit her ears. “I heard you play and sing before, and I heard a sadness I could not bare. I just wanted to tell you the hardest thing I faced, wasn't the teasing or the pain.” She looked away for a moment, when she turned back to look into the stunned unicorns eyes, there were tears, but a small smile across her face. “It was convincing myself I wasn't stupid strange or lame, and convincing others to do the same.”

She turned, stepped out into the morning air, and flew away.

She didn't stop her. She didn't know what to think, but she knew one thing: Something inside her changed at that exact moment. She felt... free. She felt as if some type of lock inside her had broken, rusted away after the years left unkeyed.

She looked down at her lyre, seeing it like she never had before. She pulled it up to her shoulder, she began playing the beautiful tune she had only just learned last night. Her voice didn't sound like her own, the words came out unrestricted.

“It's so great to be different! It's truly wonderful to be exactly who you are! I have learned to start accepting myself, and now I feel like a shining star!”

Again the melody came to an end, tears stinging her eyes, but not tears of pain, no, they were tears of freedom. She stood up, placing the lyre back into its case, and looked outside at the beautiful day laid out before her. She took a glance at Celestia's sun, not yet high enough for it to burn her eyes.

She knew exactly what she needed to do, and nothing was going to stop her from doing it. Her life starts now.

A/N: This is part 2 of 3 of this fic, and i wont lie i am really happy with how this chapter turned out. Please give me some feedback on how i did on this, if you didn't like it please tell me and give me a reason why. If you did tell me why also :3 Part 3 will be up rather shortly with how much time i have on my hooves, if i can get past the whole block thing.

Comments

[iCuddles]

[Filly Derpyshy]

1258178.

[TheLast7Eevees]

Not gonna lie, i can kinda relate to this...Being the only person i know that likes MLP after telling people that i like it...Lost some friends and other things like that... This story is really inspiring and now that letter is my new favorite saying from now on and probably forever :) Cant wait for the 3rd chapter!

[Filly Derpyshy]

1260402 i cried for hours after hearing the song this is based on i aint guna lie x3 it pulled me out of a depression and inspired me to do this...which was only like 4 days ago lol

Like i said if you havnt already you should give the song a listen. And chapter 3 of 3 will be up tomorrow! (i hope)

[TheLast7Eevees]

1260552 I listened to it after i read the first chapter and i really like it. Hope the story ends well :D