I was sleeping, having a dream I thought, the kind of dream where you’re falling but it’s not a nightmare, and you land in bed, only when I landed in bed, it didn’t feel like my bed, and I still heard a voice where I shouldn’t, as I live alone.
“Hi, I—oh, I think it’s asleep.”
I know lots of people who are groggy in the morning, but that doesn’t apply to me. If I’m awake, I’m awake. But was I? If I was, why was I seeing something so obviously impossible. I was not in my dull, white-painted apartment, but in a rustic wooden house with smaller windows, and there was the small matter of the unicorn sitting human-style looking at me. She had a green coat and mane and a grin I’d seen many times on image boards.
“Lyra?”
The grin turned to a look of shock. “You know my name?!”
The human mind adapts rather quicker to the simply impossible than to subtler changes. Had I woken up alone in a strange place, I’d likely be panicking, or if there was a regular human in my room, the same, but a pony out of the show I loved watching was something I was, if not prepared for, prepared to be prepared for.
“Er, yes, if that’s right, but how did I get here?”
She started getting excited. “Oh, well, I’ve been researching humans for a while now. Nopony else believes in them but I think they’re amazing! But, the few anecdotes I’ve gathered and the other ponies I’ve talked to about them all treat them as legends, so I wanted to really see if they were real. I’ve been working on a spell to find one, which isn’t easy because spells to find something you know exists have been done, but a spell that just searches all of existence for something is fairly unconventional. Actually, I might be the first to do one, and I’m quite proud, I mean, I’m not a major mage, I’m really just a musician, but I’ve worked so hard on this spell, working my horn day and night, you know how it is when—“
She stopped and looked at my forehead, then at my back.
“But you’re an earth human aren’t you. I guess it would be easier to explain to a unicorn human, but I was just glad to find some human and then I worked single-mindedly on the teleportation spell to bring you here.”
“Actually, I’ve got to disappoint you. There are no unicorn humans or pegasus humans.”
Shocked again. “Really?! How wonderful, since you only have one tribe you must not have any wars in your history like ponies do!”
I got sheepish. “Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you.”
Her horn began to glow and from a table by the window a quill and piece of paper floated over to her and the one began to write on the other.
“I’ve got so many questions to ask and I want to document everything!”
It was my turn for shock. Seeing a talking pony was beyond the pale, so I could deal with it. A glowing, floating pen and paper hit closer to home. “You really can do magic!” I said, getting up to look at them. It was in retrospect a silly thing to say, but I’d been asleep for the spell that had brought me there.
“Of course, stuff like that’s easy, and for earth ponies and pegasi they can just hold the pen in their teeth and—Oh! You have hands, right?! Can I see them? That’s the part I’m most fascinated by!”
I finally had a moment to take stock of the situation. The world of ponies, that I’d watched on TV and read comics and stories about with the other bronies and pegasisters was real, or at least appeared that way to all evidence, and if I couldn’t trust my senses, then there’s no point in considering anything. And I knew Lyra from the fan theories about her, and they all seemed to be accurate. She wanted me to help her understand humans, and that was fine by me, because she’d shown me, by doing this, that the cosmos was not a mundane place of meaningless physics, but that there was real magic in the world, even if it wasn’t the world I grew up in.
For that, I’d do anything, and the joy I felt at seeing this pony work something she’d call easy and I’d call a miracle was so much that I put some of it in mental storage for when I’d need it, and resolved to help her in any way I could, and to try to become her friend.
While thinking all this I had held my hands out and she was poring over them. I moved my thumbs in opposition because I knew that was something that biologists said was important to us. She came over and stared, while my own eyes were glued to the rippling glow coming from Lyra’s horn. I thought that later I’d have to show her cracking knuckles—that would really wow her.
“Lyra,” I began, relishing in saying her name, “I’ll be happy to give you all the help I can, and you can tell me more about Equestria and yourself, too.”
“That’s great! See, I have all these ideas that humans lived on Equestria long before ponies did, and they influenced a lot of our lifestyle. If we can learn from you, we might better ourselves. Though, you do know more about me than I do about you. And I still want to know how you know my name, and you have to tell me yours!”
I told her, and then continued, “Well, I don’t think it’s as simple as us living here before you. Now, this is just a guess, and I might be wrong, but, well, let me begin at the beginning.” I thought for a moment. “Ponies have fairy tales, right, that you tell to young foals?”
“Sure, lots of them. I remember as a filly my dam telling me stories about princes riding on white human steeds. Although, you look like I’d hurt you if I tried to ride you, and you’re not white. You actually look at bit like my friend Pinkie Pie if she were paler.”
I chuckled internally at how they’d played with an idea to put their species on top. Nothing wrong with that. I went on, “Well, some humans have thought that maybe every time someone makes up a fairy tale, that world comes into existence in some other dimension. Or perhaps they already exist, and what we think of as creation is really just perception. In any case, Equestria is one of our fairy stories.”
“So. . . we’re just a made-up world and the human world is real. I’m not sure I like that.”
“Our world might not be any more real than yours. Someone might have just made us up too. But if that’s the case, they did a much worse job. We don’t have any magic at all, and no way to find out about other people and make a spell to get one of them to talk to us. That was all you, Lyra, and I’m very grateful.”
I put my arms around her neck, and she put her forelegs around my back, and we held each other and embraced. We talked all day, about our worlds and ourselves, and every time she absent-mindedly used her horn to open a door or bring food in or such, I wanted to clap and squeal. I gathered she wanted to do the same every time I picked something up with my hands or wrote a note for her with her quill.
Ah, the classic concept of fictons. I'll have to keep your phrasing in mind; it's the most elegant way I've seen for explaining the concept.
158028
I lifted that from Robert Heinlein, but he's dead and can't sue. In the next chapter I out-and-out steal his term for it, "World-as-myth."
If you're really interested, you should read his, "The Number of the Beast," though you might want to read "Time Enough for Love" first as Beast is a sort-of sequel.
A fanfic of a fanfic of a fanfic. And I love it, because both of them (Anthropology and Far From Home) are my favourite fanfics ever. Can't wait for more !
160195
he might not be dead, but if the phrase was copy-righted and the copy-right still stands (though I don't know why ti would), then whomever is in control of it now could sue. I doubt they will, though, since you're not making any money off of this.
“Really?! How wonderful, since you only have one tribe you must not have any wars in your history like ponies do!”
Oh god. I really want to be there just so I can break out in hysterical laughter in Lyra's face.
Usually I'm personally not fond of first-person fics unless they have something to do with My Little Dashie.
Well, there's a first time for everything and for this, it's now. Good work mate.
"A work of fiction is a glance into another world."
For the record, I have no clue who said that.
EDIT: I don't even know if that's the right quote...
ack, I get the feeling lyra wanted some one to tell her how great humans are, and instead got one that will make sure lyra thinks we are monsters and that she wasted her time idolizing us. I hope I'm wrong cause it would be like a brony inventing a way to talk to a pony only to listen to them whine about how equestria sucks. (needless to say I dont have a fondness for elves regardless what you call them.) either way I read on!
Personally, I think this was a bit rushed
I don't think that if I woke up in a room that was not my own and had a fictional character, even if I was prepared mentally, I would want some kind of proof/indication. I don't think that the human mind would adapt THAT quickly to accepting an impossibility within 5-10 mins.
To each their own...
heh universes and parallel universes my favorite subject to talk about xP and my personal belief :D kinda envy on how he explained it all within a few sentences xP
160195 time enough for love is good but i think stranger in a strange land and the moon is a harsh mistress to be Superior.
;
177614 SUPER LATE RESPONSE: Copy-right lasts for 70 years after the person dies. Not sure when this person died though so...
Motherbucker obviously failed high school physics, otherwise he would know physics is the only reason his ungrateful ass exists.
So far, this has everything I want in a Lyra story! Liked and Favorited, I will keep it that way if this story pleases me further.
yeah.. one tribe.
one big happy family, eh lads?
Hoover Dam: Hello Lyra, back for more stories?
2407917
(Lowers machine gun, smiles brightly) Yep!
Wait... You say humans can create universes with their minds? AWESOME IM IMAGINING AN EARTH RULED BY INTELEGENT, DRAGONBORN CHIPMONKS WITH MINI LIGHTSABERS AND THEY CROSS DIMENSIONS INTO EQUESTRIA AND BEFRIEND THE PONIES, THEN THEY ALL (the chipmonk race) SPONTANIOULSY DIE. BEST ALTERNATE UNIVERSE EVER.
I started giggling towards the end of the chapter, or as close to giggling as I can without making an effort to raise the pitch of my voice, and why do I get soo off track?!
You're right, ya know? Every decision we make is meaningless fore somwhere in the multiverse, we've already made the opposite choice, every idea anyone ever had has brached off what I like to call Earth Prime and has become a world in it's own, scary, eh? Quite fascinating, if ya ask me
Enough Philosophy, I must read about my favourite Background Pony!
2407917
To be honest, whens the last time your family was within the same solar system as "fully together".
Reading this run-on sentence was like driving down the road and suddenly hitting an oil slick or a patch of black ice.
I have to say, I am amused...though I have to wonder where this is going to go. This is the first HiE story I've read that has the human being a brony (I'm a bit new to pony fics, having only written two so far) so I wonder how that'll change things about but I'll make sure to read some more tomorrow.
I'm tempted to keep reading, because Lyra is just too darn adorable with her enthusiasm, but sleep is stronger it seems. XD
3122248 Be careful out there, there are an obscene number of "brony self- inserts in Equestria" stories out there, and many of them involve Mary Sues. It's all downhill from there, as you might imagine.
Let's hope this one is better.
she has a dam that tells her stories? now i'm worried for lyra's mental health
3226328 A dam is a mother horse.
2783287 well then mr I IMAGIN A MY LITTLE PONY UNIVERSE WHERE LYRA TRASPORTS ME THERE INSTEAD ........ looks at watch any time now........FUCK 1 day later I IMAGIN A MY LITTLE PONY UNIVERS WHERE LYRA TRASPORTS ME THERE WHEN I AM 13 YEARS OLD.......................1 day later lexie is still sitting in same place waiting.................. 1 year later stillll wating gets up FUCK IT DIDNT WORK (looks around and finds myself in a metaly ill hospital fuckkkkk.....)
160195 this is quite the story, I can already tell.
My everything wants to bitchslap you for that but I'll ignore it and move on.
3024419
That's... that's a pretty apt description, there.
but a spell that just searches all of existence for something is fairly unconventional.
Lyra has to be at least a bit cracked to say.. just searches all of existence. ;) It's on a level with saying 'I was looking up in the sky and I saw this ugly star. Man, that star was sooo ugly. It was an enemy to the eyes of all humankind. So I just, you know, blew it up.'
And yeah, "meaningless physics" is an oxymoron. No physics = no causation = no anything = no you. Maybe you meant to invoke the idea of the cosmos being ultimately indifferent to everything in it.. but I don't really get why that would somehow be falsified by the existence of magical unicorns. If magic exists, it is a part of physics. Ditto for unicorns.
Hugs within five minutes? Dude, what's your secret?!?!?
4100359 Hugs in five minutes...bedroom within the hour. Its basic math. To bad this is rated everyone.
4100359
No secret with me, I just dive right in there!
Interesting'...I shall add you to the Icarus program
Welp, after I spent ten minutes losing my shit...
I decided that some people think like me to
...mind, blown...
3024419 THEN THE SOLE SURVIVOR HAS TO FIGHT PEANUT BUTTer ZOMBIES AND HIGH5 SPIKE AND THEN LIVE IN A TREE INSIDE TWILITS TREE AND KICK MICHALBAY IN THE SPARTA, THEN DO A BARREL ROLL, TELL LUKE THET HE'S HIS FATHER, THEN CATCH PIKMINS IN A BALL AND DEFEAT GANNONDORF WITH A PROTON TORPEDO MADE OF TACOS THAT MAKES THE RED SLIPPERS MAKE TWILIGHT COME OUT OF HER SPARKLES AND GO TO ROUT 66 WHERE GHOSTRIDER BLOWS EVERYTHIG UP. the end
that, my good sir, is a "run on" sentence.
6987313 I can only thank of one thing to say to something like that...
DITO
2783287
Well no.
I know all if that is a joke. But still.
It's sort of like a Myst book from the Myst series of games but I without the potential for book based travel.
The simplest way to put is as follows.
In an infinite multiverse, there is no fiction.