It's Great to be Different.

by Filly Derpyshy

Rating: teen
Tags: Derpy Hooves, Slice of Life, Sad, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 3734

Sometimes solutions to problems can drop right out of the sky.

Lyra's life has fallen apart. She lost her only other friend, her past creeps up on her constantly. The lies told to her eventually became nasty truths in her mind. An unexpected event changes her life forever, though at first she doesn't realize it.

This story is my first fic that i am willingly allowing myself to share on here. It was Inspired by the beautiful song "Isn't it great to be different" by Forest Rain. If you haven't already give it a listen. It inspired me not only to write this, but to make my own life better.

Published 2012-09-10 13:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-12 04:24:24 UTC

The Letter

It's Great to be Different.

Lyra woke up, her pillow once again stained with countless tears. Her dreams always plagued with the same memories her mind refused to repress. Beside her Bon-Bon was looking at her.

“Again?” She muttered, with small hints of annoyance in her voice as she always had on these mornings. Mornings that were becoming much too common.

Lyra nodded, tears again forming in her eyes at the obvious annoyance in her marefriends tone.

“When will you see you need help? You can't possibly expect me to pretend I don't notice this, what it's doing to you.”

Lyra could only close her eyes and hope that her sobs didn't render her speechless. She has indeed become aware of the constant depression. Everyday tasks were becoming increasingly difficult. The cotton candy maned earth pony next to her was taking it hard, she could tell.

“Lyra, I really didn’t want to tell you this but I think I cant put it off any longer.”

The unicorn choked, but it went unnoticed.

Bon-Bon got to her hooves next to the bed and turned away from her, the silence that followed was eating away at the unicorn. “I can't stand by and let this happen to you,” She finally let out slowly. “I think it's best for both of us if-”

“Just go, Bon-Bon.” Lyra snapped. “I cant deal with this right now.”

Bon-Bon turned to look at her, hurt in her eyes, threatening to well itself out. “Fine, I'll leave you.” She walked over to the door of the small bedroom they had shared for only a few nights, turning just before she left, her eyes damp. “Goodbye, Lyra.” She left, out of Lyra's life.

Lyra knew what this moment meant, and she nearly broke down again into the wet pillow. She instead pulled herself out of bed and walked somberly to the door, looking over to a picture frame bearing the likeness of herself and Bon-Bon at last years hearths-Warming Eve celebration. In a moment of either blind fury or incredible depression, she swung her hoof across the desk it was lying on and tossed it across the room. It came to a halt on the opposite side of the room with a crunch, its glass broken.

She carried herself to her kitchen to make breakfast, instead just sitting in the chair, burying her face in her hooves on the table. Without warning, past events came flooding from the back of her mind.

“I'm sorry Mr. Heartstrings, but this filly is just beyond teaching in this school."

Lyra got up forcefully, knocking over the chair, and stomped into the living room, sitting down on the oversized green sofa, burying her muzzle into the arm.

“Fillyfooler! You're unnatural! Daddy says all Fillyfoolers should be locked up and burned."

She forced the thoughts from her mind as she sat up, reaching for her lyre, now the only form of solace she could think of. Her golden lyre her mother had gotten her as a filly after she had seen it in the window of a music shop.

She strummed her hoof across the strings, the sound always a comfort to her, but today it was different.

“A unicorn who can't do magic? You might as well rip off my wings! You're nothing Lyra, when will you see that?”

She continued playing, the notes coming slow and strained. She joined her own voice in with the melody, singing the song she had sung just before she and Bon-Bon shared their first kiss.

“I've seen the way you look at Bon-Bon. You should feel ashamed! You're so dirty."

Lyra flung the lyre across the room, luckily stopped by the armchair opposite her, dealing no damage to the delicate instrument. She slumped back down into the sofa and allowed her emotions swell to the breaking point.

“What is wrong with me?” She wailed, her sobs tearing at her throat as they forced their way out. "I'm a unicorn who cant do magic, I'm useless... why do I even try?"

She stood up and walked over to the picture of her parents.

“Why do I even try with you leela? I work my flank off all day and you have little to no respect!”

“Please don't, not with lyra here.”

“I could care less, half of this is her fault anyway! You tell her everything is fine with her, that her having no magic is okay, that being a fillyfooler is completely normal, well it's not! I'm sorry but this isn't going to work, I refuse to be a part of this.”

Lyra punched a hoof into the picture, meaning only to harm the horrible stallion in the picture. The picture fell the ground, small drops of blood on the jagged edges of the broken glass.

“I cant do this!” Lyra ran across the room and flung her door open, stepping out into the cool morning air.

She ran. She ran and she didn't know where exactly she was running to, or why she was even running in the first place. She came to a halt just outside the Everfree Forest. She slumped to her stomach and just allowed herself to cry. She had always tried to see past the things everypony said to her, but to no avail. She endured every event of her life with gritted teeth.

It wasn't long until there wont be any teeth left to grind.

“What did I do wrong?” She screamed, directed towards nopony or nothing in particular. She dropped her voice to barely above a whisper. “Why am I so bucked up? This isn’t who I should be...”

A painful sleep overtook her, she didn't care if she ever woke up from it.

*

She awoke to fluttering above her. She shot up to alertness looking around for what made the sound.

“Who's there?” She asked, fear eating at her words.

Something fell in front of her, a small envelope, sealed with a heart sticker. She looked up, trying to figure out where it fell from, and she noticed a gray pegasus mare. She thought she was seeing things, her delirious mind playing tricks on her.

The pegasus simply waved, and flew away.

She watched her go, back over Ponyville until she was out of sight. When she gathered her thoughts her mind came back to the envelope. She picked it up and eyed it cautiously, deciding immediately to tear the sticker and open the envelope. A small note card fell out of the envelope. She picked it up and read the simple message on it, written in sloppy, barely legible writing.

Isn't it great to be different?
Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are?
When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star.

The Gray Mare.

Lyra could only stare at the letter. She read it over and over again, as if they would change somehow. She didn't know what the point of this was, why the anonymous gray mare had wanted her to see this letter. Maybe it was a joke?

Now, of all times, wasn't the best time for a flashback, but your mind has a way with betraying you.

“Lyra, You are special. It doesn't matter if you cant use magic like the other fillies and colts in school. All that matters is that you be who you want to be. Don't let anypony tell you any different. Okay sweetie?”

Her mothers words were like cotton on her ears, a welcomed change from the flaming insults, and her fathers betraying last words as he walked out on Lyra and her mother. Lyra stood up, letter in hoof, and walked slowly back towards her home. She didn’t know what to make of this. She just needed time to think.

When she arrived she sat back down on her sofa and just stared off into space, her minds activity betraying her blank stare.

Why did she give me this letter? Is there something she knows that I don't? Who is she anyway? Why am I even worrying about this? It's a letter... it means nothing.

She looked over to where her lyre had come to rest after her earlier outburst. In a moment of instinct, she walked over and picked up the golden instrument and sat down. She just stared at it, split between happiness for her one and only talent, and sadness that this talent was so enormously irrelevant.

She brought her hoof to the strings and began playing. She didn’t even know she knew the tune she was playing, but she was playing it as if she knew it for her entire life. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to get lost in the music, all fears and sadness forgotten for just that moment.

She opened her eyes, and they came to rest on the letter across from her, on the sofa where she had left it. Without thinking, her voice joined in with her melody again. This time, a song she never sang before.

“Isn't it great to be different? Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are? When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star.”

She didn't even feel the tears that had begun to fall from her eyes as she sang. She repeated the same words over and over again, each pass becoming more pained than the last. She eventually decided to place her lyre in the glass storage case it was housed in and pull herself into bed. Which due to mental exhaustion, confusion, sadness, fear, and any other type of emotion, had been the sofa.

*

Lyra was walking down the streets of Ponyville one cool autumn day. She was keeping to the shadows of the quiet, but friendly town as she normally did, when she saw Bon-Bon at the apple cart owned by the local, stetson donning farmer.

“Bon-Bon! I'm so happy to see you! I-”

She was cut off when Bon-Bon turned around and shot her a slightly evil look. “I don't want to see you Lyra. Stay away from me.” She began walking away from her, Lyra trying to make sense of the situation, when she caught what she had to say next. “A unicorn who cant do magic? What the buck was I thinking?”

Suddenly, the world changed, she was in a small room with no windows and only a bed and a small nightstand next to it. The door opened and her father walked into the room.

“What the buck is wrong with you Lyra?” He said in a soft voice as he entered her room. “You know it's unnatural, you being involved with Bon-Bon.”

Her anger welled up inside her, yet she did not speak. He advanced on her a few paces.

“You are going to listen to your father and never talk to this mare again, do I make myself clear?”

Again, she said nothing, turning her face away from the dreadful creature passing itself off as her father.

He closed the distance and slapped her across the face, leaving a hoof mark on her cheek. She tried to back up away from him but she was rooted to the spot, her muscles not obeying her.

“You will listen to your father!” He screamed.

Lyra spat in his face, immediately regretting it.

“So that's how it's gonna be is it?” He raised his hoof again, bringing it down hard onto her cheek, but before it could strike her-

*

Lyra’s eyes shot open, dry and fresh tears, as well as beads of sweat both clung to the sofa. She realized where she was and she broke down into the sofa, one of her many breakdowns. She didn't know how long until she would run out of tears to shed.

She stood up after a few moments, an unseen force driving her to go to her lyres case and take it out. She slowly walked back over to armchair and sat down. She drug her hoof across the strings again, playing the same melody as last night, still unsure how she learned it. Again a few simple words came into her mind, and before she could stop herself, they were rolling off her tongue.

“Isn't it great to be different?”

A soft, beautiful voice spoke up from behind her. “Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are?”

She didn't stop, and together they sang. “When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star.”

She ended the melody, taking this moment to look over to her doorway. There stood the gray mare from last night, looking at her softly with her wall-eyed stare.

She spoke, Lyra’s heart beating faster as the words softly hit her ears. “I heard you play and sing before, and I heard a sadness I could not bare. I just wanted to tell you the hardest thing I faced, wasn't the teasing or the pain.” She looked away for a moment, when she turned back to look into the stunned unicorns eyes, there were tears, but a small smile across her face. “It was convincing myself I wasn't stupid strange or lame, and convincing others to do the same.”

She turned, stepped out into the morning air, and flew away.

She didn't stop her. She didn't know what to think, but she knew one thing: Something inside her changed at that exact moment. She felt... free. She felt as if some type of lock inside her had broken, rusted away after the years left unkeyed.

She looked down at her lyre, seeing it like she never had before. She pulled it up to her shoulder, she began playing the beautiful tune she had only just learned last night. Her voice didn't sound like her own, the words came out unrestricted.

“It's so great to be different! It's truly wonderful to be exactly who you are! I have learned to start accepting myself, and now I feel like a shining star!”

Again the melody came to an end, tears stinging her eyes, but not tears of pain, no, they were tears of freedom. She stood up, placing the lyre back into its case, and looked outside at the beautiful day laid out before her. She took a glance at Celestia's sun, not yet high enough for it to burn her eyes.

She knew exactly what she needed to do, and nothing was going to stop her from doing it. Her life starts now.

A/N: This is part 2 of 3 of this fic, and i wont lie i am really happy with how this chapter turned out. Please give me some feedback on how i did on this, if you didn't like it please tell me and give me a reason why. If you did tell me why also :3 Part 3 will be up rather shortly with how much time i have on my hooves, if i can get past the whole block thing.

Bright Future.

Two years later.

The last few years flew by just like a blur. The events of that night in her mind, but taken a back seat to her new life, one Lyra always dreamed of. She used her magic in music instead of in her horn, and nopony ever believed for a second she didn't have talent. She realized it wasn't the other ponies keeping her from living her dreams, she knew now that it was her own thoughts keeping her chained down.

She had finally found her true self. She didn't hold any resentments against anypony. From her father to the rude and judgmental fillies and colts of her old school in Ponyville, they were all the past. One that Lyra would always believe, without a doubt, had strengthened her, molded her into the mare she is now. She regretted letting all those events get to her for so many years, the happiness she felt now was beyond anything she could have ever dreamed of.

She was who she was meant to be, and it was all thanks to that gray mare with the wall-eyed stare.

“Miss Lyra, you're on in five minutes.” Came the voice of the earth pony band manager outside her dressing room door. She was about to perform her first ever gig in Canturlot. Her heart was beating out of her chest. She eyed the tool of her success, of her happiness, of her freedom. Her mothers lyre had been her instrument of choice since her career had started in Ponyville, and it was obviously showing its wear. At least it was still playable. She walked out into the hallway and slowly made her way towards the stage. After the announcer was done introducing her, she walked out, expecting a few cheers and hollers like she would always get in Ponyville.

The Stadium shook.

Ponies of all size, tribe and age were cheering her on as she took the stage. She looked out over the audience with wide, shock filled eyes. She had never seen this many ponies at a single show, let alone one she herself was the star of.

It took her a few moments for her heart to slow down to a reasonable speed. She sat at the stool in the middle of the stage and gave one last look around at the still screaming crowd. As if on cue, the cheering died down, all focus on the aquamarine unicorn now all alone on the stage.

Before she could introduce herself, not that she needed one, the announcer again came over the booming loudspeakers.

“Before we begin, there is a very special guest here this evening,” This took Lyra by surprise, she was never informed of anypony else arriving. “Please welcome, cellist of the royal Canturlot symphony, Octavia!” Lyra's heart nearly exploded.

Octavia walked up the stage stairs to the left of Lyra, she was unable to take her eyes off of the mare as she approached, her cello slung over her back in its brilliantly decorated case. Octavia has been Lyra's idol since before she could remember, seeing her now was like a dream come true. Octavia trotted over to her and placed her case on the stage next to her, opened it and pulled out her instrument. As the crowd died down, she turned to Lyra and gave her a wink, then turned back to the exited onlookers.

“I presume you all wish for me to explain? I saw that the one and only Lyra was coming to Canturlot, and I simply could not let this moment slip by,” She turned to Lyra, giving her a bright, warm smile. “It would be my highest honor if you would allow me to accompany you in tonight’s performance.”

Lyra's mind was racing, she just stared at her idol, words eluding her at this moment. All she could do was smile at her, and nod.

“Wonderful!” She stood up her cello, stood up on her hind legs, took her bow and laid it out on the strings, all in one simple movement. She looked over at the still stunned unicorn, “You lead.” She flashed her beautiful smile again, and awaited the unicorn to begin.

Lyra collected her thoughts, bringing her hoof up to the strings. She tested them to make sure they were tuned correctly, then began to strum. She began softly, slowly building into a beautiful melody. To her left, she heard the deep sounds of the cello mix with her lyre, as if Octavia knew the song by heart. This made Lyra smile, she not only enjoyed her music, but knew it enough to play it with her on stage.

The song came to an end, and again the stadium shook. Everypony stood up and gave loud cheers at their performance. Lyra glanced over at Octavia and noticed she were clapping her hooves together. Lyra felt her pride nearly burst.

Octavia spoke after the crowd had quieted again. “Lyra, I need to know, what motivates you to work this beautiful magic? I see talent in you that I haven't seen in anypony for a very long time.”

She mentally shook her head, trying to form the words to answer her question. She stood up, placed her lyre on the stool carefully, and turned to the crowd.

“I think the best way I can answer that is to tell my story, if there is anypony who objects to this?” She looked over the audience, then to Octavia, and continued after she noticed no objections. “I grew up hated for being different. From my own home to my school, I was never good enough in anyponies eyes. I was a unicorn who couldn't do magic, I was branded unnatural for my own sexual orientation. My own father was disgusted with me.”

Octavia cut in, “That must have been so terrible.”

Lyre turned to her and smiled. “I just wanted to tell you that the hardest thing I faced wasn't the teasing or the pain,” She turned again to the crowd. “It was convincing myself I wasn’t stupid strange or lame, and helping others do the same.”

She looked out over the audience, for a second she thought she heard a couple sniffs. Her thoughts tugged her back to that night two years ago. She turned to Octavia, then to her lyre, picked it up and sat back down. “I'd like to introduce this peace, inspired by a friend years ago.”

She again pulled her hoof across the strings, the melody she hadn't played in two years again coming into play. She closed her eyes and allowed her voice to join in with the tune. She knew this was the first time she had sung not only this song, but any song, on stage in public.

“Isn't it great to be different? Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are? When you learn to start accepting yourself, you'll become a shining star!” She allowed the melody to die down. She opened her eyes and looked out into the crowd, noticing that there were many a damp eye, including her own, before they erupted into cheers, stomping their hooves on the ground.

As she glanced around, out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she noticed a certain gray mare, looking up at her with a wall-eyed stare.