• Published 23rd Oct 2012
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The Xenophile's Guide to Equestria - archonix



A chronicle of Twilight Sparkle's life with the human Lero and his herd. Based on Xenophilia.

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Interview with Lyra Heartstrings

Interview with Lyra Heartstrings

This transcript includes more detailed notation and a record of silences indicated numerically in seconds.

Date: 1215/11/11

Time: 6:30am

Interviewer: TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Interviewee: LYRA HEARTSTRINGS

(Start of Interview)

TWILIGHT SPARKLE: -not really reliable yet so I've had to stick with the old- oh it's on. Sometimes it takes a little while to warm up I guess.

LYRA HEARTSTRINGS: Maybe it's not used to early mornings.

TS: It wouldn't be the only one.

(0.3)

TS: (yawning)

LH: You want to do this later? I know you were up pretty late last night-

TS: No that's fine. I had reasons for this. (inaudible) There. I've been adjusting it to try and get a more detailed transcript. It should- uh- well never mind that. So. (0.2) So yeah. Interview with Lyra Heartstrings yadda yadda, date as recorded (inaudible) time in the morning. Say Hi Lyra.

LH: Hi Lyra.

TS: Very funny.

LH: It was inevitable one of us would end up making the joke. Might as well get it over with, right?

TS: If that's how you want to excuse it, sure. Okay. Okay, lets start with (pause) How you met Lero.

LH: If you're sure. I mean it's not like-

TS: I'm sure

LH -there's much to tell, but okay. Uh. Lets see. I think it was a week or two after you found him. For some reason you'd all gone up on the Saddles- I never did find out why.

TS: If I remember correctly I wanted to see if there was any way to compare his morphic field to the local background. It didn't work out too well.

LH: That- yeah, so- yeah I saw you running around on the way back from my meditations so I had a quick peek and there he was. And then he walked off and I nearly- uh well I-

TS: You were a lot more poetic about it first time I asked.

LH: I remember I didn't have any recording devices pointed at me.

TS: Right. Well that was when you saw him. And when you met him?

LH: We talked about the weather.

TS: Uh-huh.

LH: He still thinks it's amazing even now. The way he describes the weather from his home makes me wonder just how much we're missing out on.

TS: Try camping out in an everfree storm and then tell me how great feral weather is. (pause) Well. So. (0.2) (yawning)

LH: How late were you going to bed last night?

TS: Oh, I didn't sleep. I was trying to get the advanced recorder to narrate in past tense omniscient. It kept switching to second person.

LH: That sounds annoying.

TS: You have no idea. It- oh lord it has me doing it too!

LH: Lord who?

TS: What?

LH: What? (inaudible) should get some sleep.

TS: No, there was a- (yawning) there was a reason I wanted to do this early. Okay. So Rainbow thought Lero was kind of scary when she first met him.

LH: She admitted that?

TS: I know, that scares me! (0.2) You seemed to have a different view of him.

LH: Oh. Yeah, I suppose I did. I mean um, the first time I saw him he was just- I don't know how to describe it. It's like some part of me just reached out and connected with him straight away, you know? Like he was somehow the centre of- of something. Something new. Something special.

TS: There's the poetry.

LH: Poetry in motion.

TS: (laughter)

LH: Corny, I know, but the way he moves is just- (0.4) It's special. I can't put a hoof on it. Anyway I ended up with orders to watch him- discreetly mind you- which was fine with me. I could watch him walk all day. Maybe- (0.5) Twilight? (inaudible) fall asleep?

TS: Princess I'd be happy to groom (inaudible) so much butter in- um. (0.2) Oh. Oh my.

(1.2)

LH: Are you sure you don't want to sleep?

TS: I'm fine. (inaudible) coffee or something. How did you feel about your, uh, feelings toward Lero?

LH: How do I feel about my feelings?

TS: Oh give me a break.

LH: (laughing) Fine, fine. Okay. (0.4) Okay, you know what they made me feel? Scared. I knew I was on the cusp of something but I had no idea what it would mean. (0.3) Oh boy did I find out though.

TS: And that scared you?

LH: Yeah. I mean, my entire philosophy is built around stability and continuity. Being still, uh, it's, uh, well it's not about never moving, you know? It's about moving in time with the world. Always striving for harmony by not, um, trying if you see what I mean?

TS: I think so.

LH: The thing is, it's easy to do that when your world consists of the same mundane simplicity every day. Floating down the comfortable river of existence doesn't challenge you all that much, you can just drift along and be at one with the universe because the universe seems like a nice place.

TS: But then-

LH: But then imagine that river turns to a waterfall. The temptation to fight it is- (0.4) I'm not explaining this too well, but that's what it was like when I realised how I felt. My comfortable river had just turned into this sheer drop. Suddenly I was, uh, challenged by the universe, I was shown it wasn't just this, this easy lazy journey to nowhere. It's hard, it can hurt. To face something like that, to realise what it truly means to be still and not fight the flow of your life-

(0.8)

TS: Lyra?

LH: I fell into forever. (0.5) Uh. Sorry. Zoned out for a second.

TS: Bon Bon warned me you'd do that sometimes.

LH: Ah, Bonnie, always has to get her hoof in. (0.3) You know, Twi, you could have caught me in the afternoon or when I got back from the Saddles.

TS: I know. I kinda wanted to ask- um, that is if you're okay with- with- could I watch? (inaudible) much for meditation and I figured if I watched I could get an insight.

LH: Um. Sure. You want to head up there now or-

TS: I guess. I'll just turn this-

(RECORDING ENDS)

(RECORDING RESUMES)

LH: -always dedicated to the physical side, but she's a bit lax about the mental and spiritual elements.

TS: I suppose Dash can appear sort of focussed on just physical performance, but I found out a while ago she's a lot deeper than people give her credit.

LH: Ponies.

TS: Oh. I keep doing that. Okay this thing is all set up. (0.4) So we're in a small copse of trees on the Saddles, about a mile from the border of the Everfree Forest. It's very, uh, quiet, peaceful, um. There's a brook-

(thuds, sounds of water flowing)

TS: -right there. It creates a sense of tranquillity that I can't really describe. Is that why you picked this place?

LH: It's why I stayed, yeah.

TS: And there's a shallow depression that seems to be empty of any plantlife. You're standing in the middle of it?

LH: I do my morning exercises here. The pit- I never thought of another name for it. It forms a natural flow toward its centre.

TS: Okay. So you just, uh- um- why don't you walk me through what you're doing.

LH: Certainly. Still Way one oh one it is. (inaudible) admit I'm not the best teacher.

TS: Dash seems to think otherwise.

LH: There's certainly a few things I'd like to teach her. Oh did the recorder hear that? Crud.

TS: She won't mind.

LH: My mother might. (0.3) Okay.

TS: We should come up here more often.

LH: Yeah. (0.3) Okay. So. How much do you know about the Still Way?

TS: I'm afraid I don't know all that much. I understand it can help a unicorn focus her magic more effectively, but the philosophical underpinnings that accompany that have always been a little opaque.

LH: It does require something of an alternative mindset, to be sure. (1.2) Enjoying the view?

(2.2)

TS: Um. Could- could you describe what some of these motions are for? (0.5) Okay not that one.

LH: (laughter)

TS: I'm pretty sure that's not part of your usual meditation, Lyra.

LH: (inaudible)

TS: I'm not complaining.

LH: Sure. (0.3) Most of what I do here is to focus my mind for the day ahead. (0.5) And to stretch out my back. Ow.

(1.2)

LH: A lot of the movements I make are more for the benefit of my mind than my physical body. We envision the hapsis-

TS: The arc?

LH: Yes. We envision it as a series of interconnected points on the body. In theory the exercises are meant to balance them, but that's a load of hooey when you get down to the root. They're really just there to help you reach a more receptive state of mind.

TS: Receptive to what?

LH: Well. (0.4) Everything, I guess.

TS: Wow, how do you move your legs like that?

LH: Lots of- uh- lots of stretching. I incorporate a few elements of falling leaf into my regime to help loosen up my back legs more.

(1.2)

TS: Could you perhaps explain some of the philosophy? I mean it's a martial art-

LH: Sure, sure.

TS: -but my understanding is that Still Way adherents usually prefer a peaceful resolution to any conflict.

LH: Of course. I know it's sometimes hard to reconcile a pursuit of peace and stillness with the ability to snap a neck from a hundred body lengths.

TS: Huh.

LH: Let me put it as a question. What was the underlying philosophy of everything you learned about magic?

TS: I- I'm not quite- uh- (0.4) The use- the appropriate use of our power.

LH: Uh-huh?

TS:And I guess when not to use it. When to refrain from inappropriate use.

LH: Exactly. Now imagine that, but applied to everything you do.

TS: Oh.

LH: That's pretty much the Still Way in a nutshell. When to act and when to, uh, be still. To not act.

TS: How do you know? When to- to act?

LH: You don't. In a way you can't. Active knowledge conflicts with passive motion. The very core of the Still Way is that every single step I take occurs because it is where the universe requires I be.

TS: Doesn't that conflict with the idea of free will?

LH: Certainly not. I freely choose everything I do.

TS: But-

LH: But my choice flows from every choice that came before and flows on into every choice I make after. I am the sum of every motion of every atom in the entire universe.

TS: And that sounds a little narcissistic.

(1.1)

LH: It makes me feel very small.

(5.2)

LH: Perhaps if I told you a story of the first Grand Master, Pleasant Posture, you might start to understand.

TS: Sure.

LH: Let me just get comfortable over here.

(1.1)

LH: Okay. (0.5) It is said many years ago that the unicorn Pleasant Posture discovered the truth of the Still Way whilst seated on the peak of a mountain, staring at the sun. Pleasant Posture would climb the mountain to watch the sun rise each morning, seeking the source of all things, the eternal centre to which all returned, until one day she fell asleep. And as she slept she had a vision of a great stone falling from a great height to the centre of a deep gorge, where it was worn away to a pebble by the eternal flow of a great river. On waking Pleasant Posture was overjoyed, for she had realised that while she slept it was she that had fallen from a great height and landed in a pile of snow at the foot of the mountain. “Truly,” said the great master Pleasant Posture, “the center of all things is Stillness, for once we are Still we must be at a place where we can fall no farther!” And from that day forth she sought to be still in all things, for it is in stillness that we find our balance and our place in the world.

TS: Ouch.

LH: What do you think she learned from that?

TS: Don't fall asleep on top of a mountain.

LH: (laughter)

TS: I suppose it's meant to be a neatly packaged life-lesson? A parable. (0.3) Don't- don't climb too high? Don't try and seek knowledge? No, she learned something, that's-

LH: Twilight, what is stillness?

TS: Um. Lack of motion?

LH: No.

TS: No?

LH: Think about magic. You cast- how do you cast a spell?

TS: By consciously lensing the flow of thaumic energy through the medial cornifoma and the vitreus dens.

LH: And the opposite of that is?

TS: I was about to say not casting but- but I think I know what you're about to hint at. (2.2) The first thing a unicorn has to learn is to control her magic so she doesn't unconsciously cast.

LH: Yes. An inert horn-

TS Is a controlled horn. In a fully relaxed state a unicorn naturally casts an undifferentiated thaumic field.

LH: Yep, exactly. When a unicorn doesn't consciously control her magic, her horn emits energy whenever it reaches a saturation. In one sense that is what it means to be still. To be at one with yourself, to act without conscious direction because you are acting as part of and in concert with the greater whole.

TS: I- I think I can- (wait. (0.5) Wait, you're saying the ideal state of a unicorn is to never control her magic?

LH: That's the nice happy theory, yeah, but there's a little more to the tale.

TS: (0.5) Go on.

LH: Something you learn as you advance in the Still Way is that Pleasant Posture never again climbed a mountain to seek wisdom, just in case there wasn't another snowdrift.

TS: I- I don't get it.

LH: The Still Way is ultimately about action without will. Falling is the ultimate effortless action. You move passively, without conscious direction, making it the perfect expression of stillness. Of course you don't see me dropping off cliffs every other week do you?

TS: I hope not!

LH: That's what Pleasant Posture understood. Falling might be the theoretical perfection of the Still Way, but in practice it tended to make a mess. The same goes with magic. If I were to let my magic cast entirely at random I wouldn't be acting in concert with the greater whole. The final great lesson of the Still Way is that lack of self-control is not the same as surrender. I could hardly be at one with the universe if I was blasting a hole in the wall every hour or so.

TS: (laughter) Okay I think I get it. I guess that's enough for the record anyway.

LH: Any time. (0.6) So are you heading back?

TS: The others are all out. I thought the two of us could make a day of it together.

LH: Oh! Well hey, if you want to try something a little different we could-

(RECORDING ENDS)