lyra.

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

Here's my first long-term pony fan fic (yay). It's a parody of Seth McFarlane's "Ted." In the story, a physics student brony and Lyra wish upon shooting stars, and their lives are changed forever.

 

(PS this is NOT a self-insert).

 

(vector by Silentmatten)

Chapter 1a - Star-Crossed Encounters - Earth

Leonard gingerly slid his key-card into the slot and carefully opened his dorm room door, returning from a grueling night in the library. It was late. He peaked over, catching glimpse that his roommate’s clock radio was reading 1:45AM in it’s usual deep-red digits - the only light in the pitch-black room. His roommate, along with most of the hall, had long since went to sleep, another saga of “Thirsty Thursday” in the history books, a few more braincells missing from a few more heads, and the rowdiness that marked the hours before settling to a peaceful quiet. Leonard didn’t party, though. The extent of his social life was left at home when we left for college. "Home," also being a state of mind he hadn't felt since he came to college. Indeed, most of Leonard's day was either spent with his face buried in either a book or computer screen. He knew he could still maintain his near-perfect GPA if he did only a fraction of the work he actually did, but he did it anyway. It was an easy excuse to get out of socializing with people, an easy escape from the nagging sense of home-sickness that followed him everyday. He felt just like Twilight Sparkle, it's something he told himself everyday.

 

Yes, if you can't tell by now, our friend Leonard is a brony. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is his only real vice. At the end of a long day of classes, nothing helped him unwind and forget the troubles of our world more than a few episodes of MLP, and a few (less than) quick visits to Derpibooru, the message boards that he frequented, and Equestria Daily. At least it was a more constructive and positive vice than the drinking and promiscuity that most of his classmates took part in. And even though he felt this disconnect from his peers, he couldn't help but wish he could be comfortable around them, to just loosen up and learn to have a good time. "Carpe Diem" was a phrase he wanted to live by, but couldn't seem to muster the strength. In a way he envied Twilight Sparkle, they had a similar egg-head personality, but at least Twilight had some friends in her life, and a place to lay her head that actually felt like home.

Leonard carefully put his bookbag down while removing his laptop, tiptoeing through the dark room so as to not wake his roommate. Even though it was late, he wasn't quite ready to sleep, yet. No, this was his favorite time of night, this was his personal pony time. Now normally this would involve an episode of MLP:FiM and a few PMVs and brony songs, but tonight he decided to shake things up a bit. Instead, he decided to listen to another old classic. He navigated his way to Youtube, put in his earbuds, and played the dramatic reading of My Little Dashie, read by Mic the Microphone.

As the reading went on, Leonard found himself being drawn more and more into the story, a pang of sadness slowly welling up from his heart. Ever since he first read My Little Dashie, he couldn’t help but dream about having a pony of his own - a friend for life. A friend who would always be there regardless of where the rivers of time took him. He was a longtime believer in the multiverse theory, a theory he was well-versed in as a physics student. Thinking of the multiverse, he couldn’t help but hold a small glimmer of faith in the idea that out there, somewhere, on the many intersecting planes and branes of space and time, in a universe ever so close to ours, yet equally ever so far, there was an Equestria. And even though he knew that the chances of him and this world ever crossing paths were infinitely small, the very thought that there was a mere probability that Equestria existed out there brought him a great deal of comfort.

 

"You lucky bastard," Leonard couldn't help but think, as the story went on.

 

His favorite pony was Lyra Heartstrings. She was a dreamer like him. He often wondered that if there were a Lyra somewhere in the multiverse, if she was wishing to meet humans, as much as he was wishing to meet ponies.

He got lost in his thoughts as My Little Dashie continied.. Eventually, he decided to call it quits when he saw that the clock was nearing 3:00AM.

“You know what? The rest of this can wait until tomorrow. Might wanna quite this before it gets sad,” Leonard said as he closed his laptop, set it on his dresser, and turned his mind toward sleep. “I hope Luna's got something good planned for me, tonight” Leonard said with a chuckle as he shut his eyes, silently making the same wish that night that he did every night - that maybe, just maybe, his hopes about the multiverse were true, that the land he so loved was real somewhere.

If only he stayed awake for a few seconds longer, he would’ve seen the shooting star streaking past his window...


Chapter 1b - Star-Crossed Encounters - Equestria

Lyra and Bon Bon trotted down the streets of Ponyville as they did every evening. The sun was slowly setting in the west, the brilliant blue skies that marked Celestia's day giving way to a plethora of orange, red, and purple. The town was peaceful, yet buzzing with life as ponies took to the streets to enjoy Luna’s beautiful night. Day and night, this cycle of life was a sure thing, an absolute fact of nature.

It was a sure thing...just as much of a sure thing that as soon as the two ponies plopped down at their favorite cafe for their dinner of dandelion sandwiches and hayfries, that the topic of conversation would soon turn to Lyra’s favorite topic: humanity.

Without prompt, Lyra started...

“It’s a beautiful sunset tonight, isn’t it?"

 

Bon Bon hunkered down mentally, she knew what was coming... Hesitantly, Bon Bon asked Lyra how her day was.

 

"Very good! I was in the Canterlot Archives again, reading anthropology, and I just found out the most interesting thing. Humans have elements that harmonize their world just like ours. They're called the fundamental elements. They’re called....lightning....strength....weakness....attraction, and...um, it starts with an E...oh darn why can’t I remember...? Anyway, humans found this out by using giant metal fire-rings. They take weeeeeeeee bits of matter, so small you cant even see them...and SLAM them together, and this made flames! And reading the flames told them the fundamental truths of their world. Why can’t we do that here? Ponies don't ask 'why' enough. Humans ask 'why' all the time and they're doing so much cool stuff. They're entire history is based on 'why.'"

 

Lyra went quiet for a moment as she tried to finish her thought, while Bon Bon took advantage of the moment of peace to enjoy a hearty bite of her sandwich.

“EMPOWERMENT!!” Lyra suddenly burst out, Bon Bon choking on her sandwich in surprise. Lyra continued, "Now I remember! The fifth element is the element of empowerment. I have no idea that it means, but I'm sure a human could tell me!"

 

"Ok, I'm done," Lyra finished, with an innocent grin, seeing the look of distress on Bon Bon's face.

“Huh, is that a fact?” Bon Bon eeked out as she coughed her throat clear.

“Eeyup!” Lyra said jokingly, mimicking Big Macintosh with a giggle.

 

"How do you keep getting into the Canterlot Archives so easily? Isn't that area restricted to the royal scribes?"

 

"Invisibility spell...works every time," Lyra retorted, nibbling a hay fry.

 

"And how do you know all these stories are real? How do you know that all these stories of anthropological mythology aren't just that, myth? The royal scribes have them listed under 'myth' for a reason."

 

"Because I choose to believe," Lyra finished.

Bon Bon playfully rolled her eyes as she continued with her meal. Her nightly statement about human civilization made, Lyra quickly followed suit. After all, you can’t study anthropological mythology very well on an empty stomach now, can you?

Just then, a sudden wave of oohs and aahs overtook the streets of Ponyville, as everypony in town craned their heads skyward, catching glimpse of a beautiful shooting star passing overhead. Everypony made a wish. It was a long-held pony belief that a shooting star was a sign of generosity from Princess Luna, and that she would grant the wish of one lucky pony in Equestria.

Lyra silently made her wish, a grin once again coming across her face as she took another bite of her sandwich. The nature of her wish? Well, that should be obvious, it's the same wish she makes with every shooting star.
 

 

 

 

 

 

That's what I've got so far. Well...thoughts? Critiques are welcome and wanted.

Edited December 27, 2012 by StratoPegasus

[~SadisticFluttershy~ 779]

I have to say m8, i have a feeling that this is gonna be a awesome story with many life changing experiences!

I am really liking it already, even though the chapters are short. But i'm looking forward to reading more of you're fan fict!

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

I have to say m8, i have a feeling that this is gonna be a awesome story with many life changing experiences!

I am really liking it already, even though the chapters are short. But i'm looking forward to reading more of you're fan fict!

It's only these two chapters that are relatively short. In fact, this is meant to be one chapter, as the events taking place are occurring side-by-side.

 

Once things progress and the plot really starts getting going it will get even better.

Edited December 27, 2012 by StratoPegasus

[~SadisticFluttershy~ 779]

I Am writing a fanfiction myself.

However, chapter 1 has not been put on www.fimfiction.net

 

check out this topic though: http://mlpforums.com/topic/43454-my-fanfiction-updaterequest/#entry1029926

 

the description about the story is on the bottom 

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

Good luck with your story. I'll give it a read once it's complete. I can try taking a crack at some cover art. Can't exactly guarantee quality, though. I'm still an art noob at pretty much everything but sketches.

 

I'll be uploading my story to FIMFiction, too, eventually, once I'm happy with it. I've already made a bunch of changes to this chapter in just the last 5 minutes.

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

Huh.

 

This oddly makes me think of my current story I'm writing.  It's also Lyra centric, except it's based around the human being an actual alien that goes to Equestria.  But yours is more or less the opposite, the pony goes to Earth. 

 

Right now, you don't have a thorough explanation of why Lyra knows so much about humans.  Sure, most people use the whole 'Lyra's always been into them' idea, but that can get old for a lot of readers.  I took it in a different route, where Lyra has had dreams of many different alien races, humans being one of them.  I wonder how you'll take it.  You can still stay with how other people write it, but personally I'd change it.

 

As for how the story is right now, I don't see a huge problem with anything.  It's short, so you need to add in some more to better flesh it out.  Also, what's with the whole Lyra knowing weird Earth science stuff?  That totally threw me off completely.  Maybe you could use other facts, such as basic things that are weird but could be made to read for a silly way?  Such as underwear, or maybe she could talk about human mating habits or how they sit?  You could probably think of some ideas.

 

As for another personal manner, I don't really care much for the whole 'the protaganist is a Brony' thing.  But once again, that's just personal preference.

 

An interesting thing to note though, I haven't seen many people write a proper 'pony goes to Earth' story using the whole Brony idea.  As in -

 

Pony comes to Earth.

Someone finds Pony.

They become totally awesome friends and what not.
Other people find out.

"Holy crap, it's a pony from the show!"

And now treated like a celebrity.

Maybe even Hasbro tries to sign the pony, and whomever the pony is familiar with, into deals?

Many ways to play it out after people find out about the pony.

 

I dunno, those are just ideas that you could use.  Not saying you have to, just some interesting things to think of.  Maybe you already have an idea of where the story should go.  And if these conflict too much, just ignore them. 

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

As for the human being a Brony, I know it seems cliché, but it's the only way I could make it work as a parody of Ted. After all, Mark Wahlberg's character has an emotional connection to his teddy bear, which drives the plot forward initially. Not to mention it would be pretty difficult for a non-Brony to wish on a star to cross paths with Equestria.

 

As for how she knows so much about human science and technology, I was thinking something like this: MLP basically already involves a lot of role-reversal, right? With mythological creatures like unicorns and pegasi taking the place of humans? Well, just like how we have myth and legend stories about pegasi and unicorns, our own history would be a mythological epic in the eyes of ponies (just like their history would read like mythology to us). The idea was that our history (including scientific discovery) is kept in books at the Canterlot Archives as works of mythology, which Lyra reads to no end.

 

...

 

...

 

Yeah, on second thought, I can see how that can be seen as kinda schmaltzy (the science part, I mean). TBH I'm also writing this in the scope of another work I recently read, the playwrite for "Now, Then Again," in which a physicist's life is profoundly effected by the very quantum mechanics he is researching, including converging/diverging paths of existence. I was originally hoping to eventually provide a sci-fi explanation for their encounter later in the story, and I figured making both the human a physics major, and Lyra interested in physics would provide for a good way to tie things together under one theme.

 

If its going to be as much a problem making that sound natural, I might just go back to my original idea, the human being a mythology major and Lyra knowing more mild types of anthropology (which, to a pony, is mythology) that she could either come up with on her own, or she still finds as mythology in the Archives. Basically each would be studying the mythology of their own worlds, which is the anthropology of the others'. Then they cross paths.

 

...Yeah, mythology is starting to sound better again. Thanks, Hazardus.

Edited December 27, 2012 by StratoPegasus

[Hazardus_Havard. 479]

 

See what I just did up above, in replying to your post?  This automatically tells others when they've been replied to.  Just something to point out.

 

And yeah, the science thing was really weird.  In my Lyra story, I have it so it's her job to write out scenarios on foreign beings in their world.  She does alien ones on the sides though, which the princess still accepts cause she finds them interesting.  My human is more or less an environmentalist with a degree and everything.  Yeah, that one is hard to bring in, but I'll make it work. 

 

So your science thing could still work, but you'd need to make it more acceptable in how we read it.  I just can't see how Lyra would just know about the Bosom like that, since that type of thing just came about.  If you do go with your second idea, Lyra reading up on humans and being an Anthropologist, it should be stuff from the past.  So for example, Greek humans would be what they'd associate with.  Much like in our mythologies, we read up on stuff from that era.  You could still get away with her knowing other things, maybe from our timeline, but you'd have to give good reasoning as to why.  Also, wouldn't that be more interesting to read?  Lyra going to the human world and expecting all this Greek stuff, only to find our awesome technological advancements we currently have?

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

 

Made a few more changes. Went middle-of-the-road on this. The human is still a physics student, but the stories Lyra are reading are mythology-versions of human history. I was going to make it so that when Lyra and Leonard meet, she'll end up getting a scientific explanation of everything she read.

Edited December 27, 2012 by StratoPegasus

[~SadisticFluttershy~ 779]

Are we ever gonna see more of this writting? 

 

I liked the first part of this story alot and I want to read more, and more, and more.