Chapter 24 - Questions from Lyra

Chapter 24 - Questions from Lyra*Joshua’s P.O.V.*

When we got back to the library, Mom told me about my changed teeth.  I looked in a mirror and saw she was right.  I didn’t get too upset though.  We had dinner later and went to bed that night.

Saturday...

Another week of school was done.  Nothing else was changed in my pony transformation before today.  After we all had breakfast, I went out to walk around again.

“Heya Joshua!”

I turned around and saw Lyra trotting up to me.

“Hi Lyra,” I said waving my hand.  I then remembered that I said I would answer some of Lyra’s questions about humans.  Now would be a good time, I thought.  “Hey Lyra, is it okay if I answer your questions about humans now?”  Lyra’s mouth turned into a big grin when I said that.  She then scooped me up into a big hug.

“Yes, please!” she said, “Let’s head to my house and you can answer my questions there!”

“Okay,” I said.  She then placed me on her back and started walking back the way she came.  We then came to a small house and went inside.  Lyra then sat me down in a couch, used her magic to bring over pieces of paper and a writing quill, and sat down next to me.

“Okay, first question,” she said taking one of my hands in both her hooves, “What are hands like?  It’s something I’ve been wanting to ask for a long time.”

“I don’t know answer that,” I said, “Sorry.  It’s just something that’s been with us forever.”

“Aw, that’s okay,” she said, “Let me see, what next?”  She rubbed a hoof to her chin for a little bit and then said, “How about holidays?”

“Holidays I had back home?”

“Yep.”

“Well, there was Halloween, one of my favorites.  Kids would dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating for candy.”

“Hey, how about that?” she said, “That’s like Nightmare Night.”

“Cool!’ I said, “After that is Thanksgiving.  There was one food my family and I never ate that was part of a big meal we had each year called turkey.  Some humans ate meat, but my family and I never did.  We were vegetarians.  Other foods we had for Thanksgiving were corn bread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie for desert.”

“Mmm!” Lyra said, “Sounds tasty!  What next?”

“Christmas is my favorite one,” I said, “It happens during winter.  We decorate trees and give presents to each other.”

“That’s a lot like Hearth’s Warming,” Lyra said, “We celebrate that to celebrate the founding of Equestria.”

“Next is New Years.  We celebrate it to welcome a new year to grow and learn,” I continued, “Then there’s Valentines Day.  It’s a day when we give cards with hearts to people we like.”

“That’s Hearts and Hooves Day here,” Lyra said, “We give something special to our special someponies.”

“Cool.  Those are the ones I can remember.  What’s next?”

“I could only think of a couple more,” Lyra said, “The first one you already answered when telling me about your Thanksgiving holiday: what do humans eat?  My last one is can humans do magic?”

“No,” I said, “There wasn’t any magic like here in Equestria back home.  Some people knew how to do magic tricks like pulling rabbits out of hats and coins out of ears.”

“Sound kinda like the magic Trixie does,” Lyra said.

“Who’s Trixie?” I asked.

“She’s a unicorn stage performer,” she said, “She visits Ponyville regularly and does performances.  The town didn’t take a strong liking to her at first.”

“What happened?”

“When she first came, she was boasting about how great and powerful she was, calling herself the Great and Powerful Trixie.  She even claimed that she beat and Ursa Major.  She then challenged ponies in town to prove they were better than her.  Some of Twilight’s friends took her on, but she bested them.  She then challenged Twilight, but she didn’t want to show off.  That night, Snips and Snails wanted to see Trixie vanquish an Ursa Major like she said she did, and they ended up bringing one here.  Trixie couldn’t stop it, and said that she never did beat one.  Twilight managed to save the town and put it back to sleep and sent it back to where it came from.  She then told us that it was merely and Ursa Minor, a baby.  Trixie left Ponyville for a while after that.

“On her next visit, when Nyx was Nightmare Moon, Twilight’s friends tried to have Trixie take Twilight’s place as the Element of Magic, but they failed.  After Nyx took away the Elements of Harmony, she took Trixie’s hat and cape that she uses in her magic acts.  Trixie fled again, and Nyx used her magic to turn into Trixie and impersonated her.  We were all very scared after seeing the Elements of Harmony fail to defeat her to care about how funny it was.

“Trixie’s third visit was sometime after Nyx was returned back to normal.  She found a mystic, powerful, and dangerous amulet called the Alicorn Amulet.  Whoever wears it is blessed with untold powers, but will also get corrupted.  She challenged Twilight to a magic duel, because she wanted revenge on her and Nyx after Twilight humiliated her with the Ursa Minor, and after Nyx impersonated her in front of Ponyville.  Trixie managed to beat her and banished her and Nyx from Ponyville.  They ended up staying at Zecora’s and Twilight trained with Zecora in magic.  Fluttershy, through some careful maneuvering, managed to sneak out to tell Twilight about the Alicorn Amulet.

“Twilight then came up with a plan to get her and Nyx back into Ponyville.  She challenged Trixie to another magic duel, while wearing an amulet herself.  It started to look like she was beating Trixie, until Trixie took the amulet off of Twilight’s neck.  She then took off the Alicorn Amulet and put on Twilight’s.  Rainbow Dash managed to take away the Alicorn Amulet from Trixie, and Trixie tried to fire a spell on Rainbow that was supposed to make her ‘writhe in agony’ she said, but it ended up tickling her instead.  Turns out, the amulet Twilight had was one of Zecora’s doorstops.”

“Then how did Mommy beat Trixie if it was a doorstop?” I asked.

“She used a different kind of magic; she had her friends help her make it look like she really was performing those spells while all she did was make clouds of pink smoke with her magic.  In the end everything worked out.  That night, Trixie ended up apologizing for her actions, and Twilight managed to forgive her.  She then left Ponyville again, but on her next visit, she came back a better mare, not as boastful as before, instead putting on magic shows for the kids of this town.”

“Wow,” I said, “I’d like to meet her someday.”

“Well thanks for answering my questions Joshua,” Lyra said hugging me, “I really appreciate it.  I might have some more later on, but I think that should be enough for now.”

“You’re welcome Lyra,” I said returning the hug.  Lyra then saw me out of her house and we waved goodbye to each other.  The rest of the day was quiet up to when we all went to sleep at night.