Lyra Heartstrings is a brilliant spell-caster and spell-crafter, and remains one of Princess Celestia's first choices for research into complicated magics. Will she be able to study her latest assignment objectively?
The reasearch topic is humans, and Lyra is determined to experience them first-hoofhand. The only problem is she has no idea how to human.
Art by the amazing Dilarus. Keep up the wonderful work!
Contains: Transformation, of course. Pony turning into a timberwolf and into a human. There is nudity (about as much as the show ever gave us) but it is not the focus of things in and of itself.
This story was (originally) written for the Autumn Pony to Human TF Contest (and won second place), but has received the extra attention the limits of that contest (word count) wouldn't allow me.
See This Blog for licensing.
A little piece I'd written for a contest a friend was part of. I had a grand plan for what I wanted to happen, but quickly found myself hitting the word-cap with the plot at around 90%. Submitted it for the contest regardless, and made a promise to Lyra that I'd come back and finish it.
Thanks to a wonderful friend for adding her thoughts and a few fixes. You're a wonderful help!
—Damaged
Thanks to this story I now know that humans can have up to eight nipples!
9993518 SCIENCE!
I do love when stories remember that Lyra's no slouch when it comes to magic. Not with her background and connections.
Given how "were" is Old English for "man," she's not really either, but I'll blame that on translating from Ponish.
It's practically the motto of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
Any rumors that Celestia had deliberately introduced a flaw in Twilight's device so she'd have something to do during retirement were roundly dismissed.
Besides, that had been Luna.
And in the human world, the local Twilight Sparkle felt an inexplicable pang of empathy.
"Which raises some questions given how they're birds and not mammals, but anything around Klugetown makes no sense."
I quite enjoyed this in the contest, and seeing it expanded is a delight. Thank you for it.
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I know! By my thinking, being in Celestia's classes meant you were probably already pretty sharp with magic.
I debated going with the books' canon (that werepony is a pony that turns into a timberwolf) but that wouldn't have supported the joke so well.
I kinda see Lyra as the Colin Furze of Equestria. Nopony every stopped to think "We need a maniac who does crazy things", but now we have one, it's a relief.
Poor Luna. By canon, she comes back after a thousand year exile, is allowed to do her thing again for 8 odd years, then "Oh, we're retiring now!"
This was an honest shout-out to how awesome the HiE in Spring Breakdown was. It eclipsed everything else about the vid.
I had to hunt through MLP art for quite some time to work out if we'd seen any other critter with a bust. The parrots were the only ones.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I always enjoy stories where Lyra and Bon Bon unequivocally love each other, and this one delivers. In some other story, these same circumstances would have resulted in frustration and angry words, but not here -- Bon Bon knows that this is who her wife is, and she loves her for it.
Fun! Being experienced enough to have automatic reversal is a great plus.
Thank you for expanding my head canon. You have added:
* Sweetie Drops is smart, intelligent, and well versed in the world (i.e. she not only takes Lyra being human in stride, she also understands the implications of being human and help Lyra understand it better, see part where Bonnie looks at Lyra's teeth.). Her whole attitude and behavior amused me greatly.
* Lyra as top-notch researcher for Celestia. I've seen goofy Lyra, and magic-y Lyra, but this one felt a bit different. And I love the fact that she can ask, and receive, special requests from the Princesses, such as changing the freaking lunar schedule for a freaking magic experiment!
* There are no rocks, pebbles or twigs in Ponyville. Otherwise, while walking to Rarity's nude, Lyra should have been screaming her head off about her feet hurting, I know I would be. (and yes, I know the ponies don't want to walk on those things either, but their hooves handle more than our feet.)
These are all welcome in my head-space. Thank you.
10246637 Heh, no probs! I admit that the Lyra and Sweetie I write in Life of Lyra had a big impact on how I wrote them here.
Sweetie Drops as a member of the E.U.P. Guards' Monster Hunter regiment would have left her with a sharp mind and a trained body, but her investigative abilities would be second to none given how often Equestria needs saving from minor monsters that are really just misunderstood.
Lyra isn't just any unicorn—she's one of Princess Celestia's students. That whole class, IMO, would be exceptional each in their own way.
The last part—I'll be honest and say I didn't think on that, but you're absolutely right and I wish I'd have used it.
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Damnit! Another bloody story to add to my "Read it later" list. Sigh. I have too many of those and not enough time.
N'aaaawww, this was so, sooo~ much fun! It's an interesting portrayal of Lyra, one I've never seen before and I quite like it. And their interactions with one another is just sugary bliss! This is just... great. This was great.
Thank you, so much!
10551661 Glad you enjoyed it!