1) Show? Oh, the cameras.

All you see is a small portion. Like a series of documentaries covering a single subject. Or a collection of reality television shows. There were facets of the very country you live in that you weren’t aware of. How do you expect to fully understand a world you can only see through a single lens?

2) Lyra: Mr. Cake liked my costume. No pony else seemed to get it. Which is… whatever. I rocked that [omitted].

Bon-Bon: There were a few ponies that knew who I was! One of them even stopped to tell me things about Joan of Arc that I didn’t know!

Lyra: You mean lecture you about things you didn’t care about.

Bon-Bon: She was fine.

Lyra: I do remember those commercials! They played them forever!

3) I complain a lot, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t play it.

4) Bon-Bon: I don’t remember you doing that. Maybe I blacked it out.

Lyra: Can’t imagine why.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. Not having many questions usually leaves me with time to work on other projects, but I haven’t really felt like doing anything. Things aren’t going so well career-wise.

1) Did you do that last year? I think somepony did.

Not any less creepy. I’m just a mare.

2) Blissfully. Better off not knowing. Because knowing about atrocities doesn’t help anything if you never had any chance of being involved, and lack the ability to change them.

But luck has little to do with it. All it really takes is knowledge that someone is watching you.

Safety goes up; freedom goes down.

1) We get along just fine, but I’m not supposed to spend much time with her. Tootsie’s mother hates me. She thinks I’m useless trash and doesn’t want me around her daughter.

Even though I know she wouldn’t show me the same courtesy, I try to respect her wishes. If nothing else, I don’t want Tootsie or Bon-Bon to wind up getting in trouble.

2) And you see how easy it is to not notice it? How easy it is to live your life completely unaware?

3) Bon-Bon: Lyra’s been helping me research for that. I’m trying to sprinkle in simple french words and phrases to really sell it.

Bon-Bon: “How are tu? J'adore your costume!”

Lyra: I loved it as much when I first played it as I do now. And I don’t really know what you mean, no.

4) I’m not too worried. I’ll still look awesome either way.

Uh… Good luck with that kilt, though.

5) Lyra: Milky Way.

Bon-Bon: Kit-Kat, I guess. I don’t really eat candy bars.

1) I don’t know. I don’t really know how old Mr. Cake is. I do know that he’s around foals a lot. I mean, come on. He works in a confection shop! I’m sure his job just puts him closer to the pulse of child culture.

Didn’t mean to make you feel old! Sorry!

2) A proper strategy game gives you simple tools and lets you formulate how to use them yourself. The trick is which ones, where, and in what sequence.

The problem with Pokemon is that it gives you a bazillion complicated, interconnecting, one-shot, trump cards! I know they were bugged as a entomology museum, but the first Pokemon games were simple enough to fully wrap your head around.

I don’t know. I’m sure I’d still like the game if I played it, but that wouldn’t suddenly make that aspect (because I don’t want to call it a fault) any less pronounced. I just wish the series hadn’t taken such a Magic the Gathering-esque turn.

3) Lyra: Not just three double yous, three double yous and a period. Still stupid. I mean, it doesn’t stop spammers anyway. They just use “(dot)” instead of “.”

Lyra: I’m going to be the Demi-Fiend from Nocturne! I even got glow-in-the-dark body paint!

Bon-Bon: I was originally going to go as a royal guard, but Lyra suggested Joan of Arc instead, as something more specific. So in addition to armor I’ll be carrying around a… battle standard? Oh good, I remembered!

1) You were an adolescent back then? Luna above! I knew you were older than me but I didn’t realize you were that much older! You’re old enough to be my dad!

2) Huh. You know I think I read that book before. I might go back and read it again. But if I do, it would only be because it’s midnight. … That was a- That was a stretch to… Heart of a Lion-Anyway.

I think it took your “Awwww.” and saw “www.” and sent it to Tartarus.

3) Even when I was playing Silver I wasn’t really that into it. And from what I’ve been hearing these newest generations are less legit tactical rpg and more “You activated my trapcard!”-style measure, counter-measure, counter-counter-measure when fighting others. Or just steamroll easy in the regular game.

I mean- I’d totally play it if I had a 3DS and a copy of the game, just to play something different. But I don’t have either.

4) White Flag.

1) Bon-Bon: There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re all different.

Bon-Bon: Oh, that was a little before my time. I’m sure Cheerilee would know better. I have seen pictures, though. I can definitely tell you it happened.

2) I think autotuning has a place in, like, techno or similar styles of music. Outside of that you can tell what a minimally edited voice sounds like and autotuning comes off as so… unnatural. Detached.

1) Long time Jolteon fan, here. Pin Missile, yo.

Of course, the last Pokemon I played was Silver. I think the main problem is that after G1, I played other rock/paper/scissor style games like Jade Cocoon and Nocturne and realized Pokemon was nothing extraordinary.

2) … Not sure how you expected me to respond to this.

3) I don’t think I’ve ever had peanut butter and cheese. Mostly because I don’t care for peanut butter.

4) You just don’t know what to look for. I mean, I don’t know what to look for in an aging human myself!

I don’t know.

You’re not there.

I give you my love,

But yo~u don’t care.

What is right?

What is wrong?

Give me a sign…

Pokemon!

1) Probably.

We’re a quiet, vegetarian species that mostly lives within our own borders, which just so happens to be largely docile forests and rolling, green hills. There are some intimidating species and climates out there.

2) Deflation implies a change in the economic value of money and goods. There really hasn’t been one here; things are just valued differently. That could change. There’s been talks for a while about altering the way our current legal tender works, but nothing has happened yet. At least as far as I know.

3) Exactly! What if those caverns were just mined out from a past civilization? Diamond Dogs couldn’t have done it; Griffon history began tracking the caverns before they ever ascended. Griffons and Dragons couldn’t have done it all, right? I mean, it’s all over the world!

4) Bon-Bon: Well- not that there’s anything wrong with it, dear. But I’m not really a wallflower myself. Lyra just tends to steal the show.

Bon-Bon: Largely novels by pony authors; I don’t think you’d know any of them. There’s this author, Anaphora Syntax, that writes these stories with similar themes. They all take place in popular religious settings, but from the view point of average folks. I’ve read a bunch of hers. The one I’m on right now- the perspective just changed for the third time. It’s been going down the line from mother to daughter. The second mother just died and her daughter, the new main character, hasn’t found out yet.

1) Do eggs taste like cheese? I didn’t think so. Eggs need cheese too!

I forget what started this.

2) That’s interesting, but for a minute I thought you drew me a picture!

Also, Bon-Bon says if you’re hugging her fairly often, you must be doing so while she’s asleep and you and her need to have some words.

Come on, dude. Most of the time when you come over she’s at work!

3) Yeah! Where I came from we always called it hair metal. Gilda turned me on to proper hard rock. Great stuff too!

I prefer grudge that’s more harmonious than raw myself, which some would say defeats the purpose.

There are plenty of good hip-hop tracks out there, but they are admittedly awash in a sea of tripe. However, that’s really no different than the mountains of derivative, boring glam metal, or of any genre popular enough to produce so much material.

I would say the key difference is in scale, caused by the sheer number of ponies willing to produce soulless, heavily studioed material (caring more about commercial success than the medium) and the masses willing to just take what they’re given.

If there is a traceable decline in a good-to-bad music ratio (for there will always be good music), it’s certainly not the fault of any genre. It would have began when labels realized that you can literally just put different words to the same combinations of core beats and rhythms and sell them over and over again.

And for my bits, I would say that’s why the average consumer is so docile about the whole thing; a bloated industry. It’s hard to find what’s good. And let’s be honest, it can be difficult to tell at first to which tracks have the layers and subtleties that signify a refined piece when there’s just so much to sift through.

Still the best craftspony in Equestria, E sent me these for his giveaway!

Now I can be a real Lyra!

In the softest voice there’s an acid tongue.

Illustrated by PhoenixSwift

1) Well, you hadn’t posted anything slightly nsfw in a while. So I went ahead and followed! I would appreciate if you tagged anything involving depictions of intercourse or sexual anatomy with a nsfw tag so I don’t risk it popping up while Tootsie is in the room.

Other than that keep being your delightful self!

2) You don’t hug Bon-Bon as often.

3) I disagree with your interpretation, but I believe you’ve earned a hug for defending it.

4) I still say if there’s no cheese it’s not worth grilling. And I think you could pull off a kilt.

5) Bon-Bon: That’s very sweet, but I’ve just never had that natural charisma that Lyra has. Whenever she’s around I just, you know, sort of blend in.

Bon-Bon: Read. Plan out some possible recipes for when I have time to try them. Eat, of course. Some simple exercises. Check my email. But mostly read.

1) What are you talking about, silly goose? I follow you! Look! You’re right there!

2) Well, I don’t spend too much time with the kindergarteners. I don’t get to see all the stuff they do. But today it was raining during recess so they learned how to play four corners. I remembered playing that when I was in primary school. Anyway, they had a blast!

3) Pretty sure I don’t need a hug. Not a necessity of life.

4) Uh huh. Oh hey, what’s this I have here? Oh my. It’s a picture. Let’s all take a look, shall we?

This is called a minotaur. They have fingers. His name is Iron Will. He has fingers. Minotaurs have fingers. Minotaurs have fingers.

5) Bite me, spam-bot.

1) Oh, absolutely! Tots required listening.

2) Even twenty years ago? Well, I’m sure you’re not the only one that feels that way. One working theory is the rise and fall of renaissance-style movements. Current “modern music” as a classification beginning only after the end of he last musical renaissance, which itself would have taken place sometime around your 1950s-1980s. It’s all based on nothing more than opinion for now, though.

And of course, if somepony from your world’s distant past heard some 80’s metal they’d probably be all, “Da [omitted]-ith be this depravity inflected upon mine ears?” And then Lyra would have to smack them for speaking ill of Ratt’s Round and Round; one of my favorite songs.

3) Bon-Bon: Why thank you very much! I’m not used to anypony paying so much attention to me! Sweetie Drops is open from 9 to 9 so I would say twelve hours, but I don’t really work during that whole time. It’s just if anypony happens to drop in I’m there.

Bon-Bon: Well, as one can imagine Lyra has exposed me to all sorts of music. But I tend to like the lighter, more upbeat ones. There’s this one really good one that I listen to sometimes.

4) That’s pretty cool. Kinda like a resort?

But I didn’t know they built preplanned school house-style facilities. Figured that was just a rural thing. Converted churches and what-not.