Those thoughts.
She started getting sick of them.
They kept stealing her mind away in favor of a meaningless riddle that she couldn't make any sense of. It wasn't just those words that were crowding her brain, either, oh no. There was a feeling of spite. That something or someone had done it to her for no reason.
She also couldn't stop thinking thoughts of a strange toy that she remembered from her childhood. As she stared up at the sky, the corners of her vision fading, she focused on those thoughts rather than the others, because they held no ill intent in her mind.
The world swirled away.
↺
"You can't make trains fly! That's impossible!" Brooke said.
"But I can't get it across here. You took the track!"
"Hey. I needed it to make this part over here. You already have all those pieces, so do something about it!"
Cala stared at her sister, who was crossing her arms. She narrowed her eyes. After a moment, she said, "I don't wanna."
Brooke gasped. "Don't you da—"
"Mooooom!"
She sighed, holding a hand up to your forehead.
"Play nice," someone called from the other room.
Cala grinned and went over, taking her pieces of the track back from her sister. She went about repairing her own area. She already had about two thirds of the toy wooden train tracks, and had built a sprawling design of interlocking track pieces.
After a few minutes, Brooke said, "You know what, I don't care. These trains are for babies anyway. Have fun being a baby, baby!" And she took off out of the room.
Cala silently cheered, going over and taking Brooke's train. It was the last one they had that worked because she had broken the other two. She set it on her track and turned on the power switch, watching as it started moving with a mechanical whirring sound. It approached an intersection in the track, and she reached over and turned it so the train would go under her bed.
She went over to the other side of the bed and waited as the toy went through the 'tunnel'.
Suddenly there was a flash of light and a magic popping sound from under the bed. Cala gasped and looked underneath it, wondering what just happened. The train rolled out from underneath the bed and Cala stared at a new addition. In one of the little cargo carts, near the back of the train, there was a toy she had never seen before. Certainly not something she had put there herself. It was a little unicorn. Its coat was an aquamarine color, its mane and tail light teal with white stripes running through. Its little golden eyes looked incredibly lively as they stared at her, piercing her soul and tugging on her heartstrings.
She picked it up in her little hands and turned it over in her grasp. This was absolutely perfect! The best little toy for the best little girl. She had always wanted a My Little Pony toy. The commercials all made them look so great.
She looked at its haunches and saw there was a picture. A glowing, golden harp. She liked music. She listened to music just about every day with her mom. She looked at it and thought, before lighting up with an idea.
"I think I'm going to call you... Harper!" she said.
Its little golden eyes shined in amusement.
↬
Within a day, Harper had become Cala's favorite toy. Within a week, she had started bringing it everywhere with her, from home to school and to anywhere she went out. Within a month, Brooke got sick of her immense fascination with it, and began spending her time pursuing activities more common for an adolescent. Within another few months, their mother was exhausted and still couldn't figure out where it had come from, so she just let it be.
After a year, it was starting to get worrying for everyone involved. Cala had spent nearly every day at that point practically glued to the little unicorn figure. She often talked to it like it was listening, and could almost swear that it wanted to respond to her, though it had no way to actually speak. All of her friends at school had accepted that she was strangely attached to it, and they even went along and played with it with Cala. But her mother had started sending her to a counselor to try and sever the bind, claiming it was unhealthy. The counselor was simply baffled that such a thing could happen to a young girl. Brooke didn't want anything to do with her sister, and it had very much strained their relationship.
The unicorn had been through a lot in that time. The color in its mane and tail had completely faded, leaving it a bland white. The image on its flanks was fading, and if you didn't know it, you might not have been able to tell that it was a lyre. Its eyes still shined with that lively light in them, but no longer with that youthful vigor that had first enraptured the girl.
Cala loved Harper. But a point came that it had to be put to an end. So what her mother did, is she put it up on a shelf in Cala's bedroom. She said to Cala, that she could have an hour every day to play with it, and no more. Over time, she lowered that threshold; it began to be only a half hour, and then only fifteen minutes. Cala agreed at first mainly because her mom's word was law, and it still allowed her to enjoy the toy. Near the end, she gave up and simply decided to leave it there on the shelf for good. And so she stopped. She moved on from that stage in her life because she eventually realized that nobody liked her when she played with that unicorn toy.
It was left alone, there on that shelf in the open closet of Cala's bedroom. It was piled behind other junk over time, gradually being obscured from sight and forgotten. But it didn't forget. Harper was still there on that shelf, experiencing every second of that eternal solitude. It was left there for years.
The light in its eyes had began to appear a bit manic.
↝
...
OK, Harper is bonkers due to years of sensory deprivation.
And projecting that on Cala instead of her mom.
It doesn't actually make it better, but at least it makes it a bit more understandable.
...huh.
Up until now, I passed Harper off as being an imaginary friend. Not a bad thing, mind you. But not necessarily inherently magical.
Now, though... hmm.
The description of Harper sounds an awful lot like Lyra...
And of course, there was this:
May want to change the reference to Cala having wanted a "My Little Pony toy" if you want it to still be part of the Ponies After People universe that Starscribe began, however; he's stated that MLP doesn't exist in the universe.
6089400
You don't say...
*glances at character tags*
Wasn't aware of this. I'd assumed Friendship is Magic itself didn't exist, but the whole franchise? Could you maybe link to where he says this?
6089400 Exactly what I was about to say.
6089394
It's part Cala too, since she realized she was being ostracized when playing with the toy.
Then again, she is a YOUNG CHILD.
6089435
I hadn't looked at the character tags until just now when you said that.
As for when Starscribe said that MLP doesn't exist in-universe... Jeez, I can't remember where it was precisely. Pretty sure it was in the comments for Last Pony on Earth, and there's well over a thousand of those now to scroll through. Probably not a big deal anyway unless Starscribe says something about it directly.
6089979
Right, it's time for some god damn serious talk now. I don't think anybody mentioned that fucking tag until I did just earlier. It's like nobody even notices the damn story they're reading! Did you not notice that there's some beautiful cover art there that I made myself? Did you not see that I ended up changing nearly everything in the story's description, and yet the Lyra tag has been there since day 1?! Did you not notice that I've been doing this shit every day for literally a week now! I don't even care anymore! I'm just pounding on my damn keyboard and ain't nobody gave any shits! I got twenty-nine likes and five dislikes and I complained, I COMPLAINED THAT MY STORY WASN'T RATED VERY WELL. And god fucking damn, even with that rating I got put into that stupid-ass 'Stories that get little attention' group! Why is my story featured in all these damn groups all of the sudden, where did they come from? Why is mine the only ponies after people fic in the 'Human turns into X' group? What the hell is wrong with you people?! Do you not see anything that doesn't connect to you in your little fucking hug box of shit that nobody cares about fuck this all I'm done you're all just a bunch of fucking marks anyway I don't need this shit community to live my life
6090223 Um, whoa. I didn't mean to upset you. I did, in fact, notice the art, and like it very much, and I'm sorry for not saying something earlier. I'm one of your upvotes, I'd upvote every chapter if I could, I've been enjoying the story very much, and I'm sorry if I haven't said as much explicitly. I don't look at character tags very much for ANY story, it isn't that yours has merited less attention from me. Your work IS appreciated.
6090254 Wow. Thanks for kissing my ass, mark. I didn't do anything to deserve it, but you did it anyway, huh? You fucking kissed my ass and followed me and said you love my story right after I got done yelling. So I guess I should say I wasn't even yelling in you in particular. I'm just getting kind of sick that nobody is criticizing my work. You all just either upvote it or downvote it without giving any reason why, following me and my story so you can keep having your daily dose of fucking horse words.
This community baffles me. God, the price I pay for being an aspie...
6090467 Fucking CHRIST. I try to show a little goddamn appreciation to an author who's feeling underappreciated, recognizing the fact that I haven't been commenting much on the story and perhaps not saying much of use when I DO comment, and you jump down my goddamn throat AGAIN?
Ugh, I can't even... look. I'm not gonna stop reading your story, because guess what? No matter what hurtful things you hurl at ME, I still like the work itself. But insulting your readers is not the way to get your story noticed.
6090481 Thanks, mark.
Hey... don't go yelling at your readers who gave you an upvote and comment on the story! *sigh*If it was meant to be funny (which I hoped at first) it really didn't come across as such.
I read the description, saw the character tags and still didn't get it until the 'heartstrings' part which Ireally smiled at. I think the story is underrated too - but a lot of people don't read a story when it's tagged dark or sad and these stories get a lot of drive-by downvotes by people who never even look at the actual words.That's shitty, but that's the way it is.
For a story with both of those tags your views/likes ratio is actually quite good.
How about thinking of it in this way: confirmed 29 people look forward to reading new chapters of your story. The actual number will be higher as many people simply forget to upvote or wait until the story is finished before they decide. How'd you feel if 29 real people came up to your front door to thank you for writing an enjoyable story?
And it's also rare that you'll get a comment explaining an upvote. Much less a downvote.
Don't take Last Pony as comparison to your own work. The response to that story is phenomenal, more than I've ever seen here. And Starscribe isn't one of those 'distinguished', established authors with 1000+ followers that can write whatever they want and have 50 upvotes within 2 minutes (with no comments on the actual story) even if that story isn't something special.
*sigh* please continue this story, it's something you really don't see everyday. I've actually not come across something like it before. Another reason it hasn't got so many upvotes. People aren't used to this kind of concept and that costs you readers. Don't go driving off those who very much appreciate it for exactly that reason.
/rant
i gave you an upvote and I won't change it to a downvote just because I disagree with you. I voted on the story and I meant it.
Alright. I suppose I owe an apology to the marker, GITPSilverbolt. 6090481 Sorry I tore into you, I'm going to admit that I was looking for a reaction.
To the reactor, Celefin. 6090693 Thanks for being the first one to point this out to me. But you only did this because I started doing something drastic, and I don't like that because it makes me look and feel bad.
I want you guys to tear into my story. No exceptions. I can't even believe I have to tell this to you, but I expect that — in return for providing you with a half hour or so of reading each week — you criticize it harshly so that I can correct my mistakes, improve, and start making better content. I don't care about popularity at all except that it will bring in more potential critics.
Now, don't get me wrong, I immediately regretted saying that after I started to think about what I said. And I'm gonna leave it there. I got up and booted my computer back up just to say all this right here. Let it be testament that if you guys trap me in a hug-box, be warned that I will bite unexpectedly, because I guess I'm just stupid enough to do that kind of shit.
...
Oh, and I may have accidentally spent all day on 4chan or some shit today. Maybe I shouldn't do that.
Heh, ironic. I went and made a blog about some changes that I made to the story, and I said to post about it there so that the comments here don't get 'clogged'. So then, guess what? I proceed to clog the comments, of course! What a hypocrite am I. I'm shit. This story is shit. I just can't ever shut my damn trap and it probably makes me look like a total floozy.
Weeell at least I'm honest, right? Right? Oh yeah, except when I bait people. I really need to break that habit.
Dang, trapped as a toy for years, if that isn't the worst experience of visiting Earth from Equestria then I don't know what is.
6090844 Calm down now, will you?
I've made it a habit to offer constructive criticism for stories I like. So far I haven't found anything to criticize, simply because I'm not sure how to go about it since your style is very different from what I'm used to, it's really well written, has hardly any mistakes and the concept is intriguing and I just like it. So I'm currently just along for the ride to see where this is going. No hugfest from here.
If something bugs me I'll let you know.
Now stop depreciating yourself and continue. I want to see where this is going!
Don't panic -- I've been away today, so two chapters tomorrow. Posted from phone