No! It’s okay. I mean, I wouldn’t get sad if I didn’t still care for him. I don’t want to forget about him… and I don’t want ponies to act like he didn’t happen.

It didn’t work out. I know we both tried, but we grew apart. There was no big fight and we didn’t split up on unfavorable terms. I mean, we hardly ever fought at all. There were a few times, and I won’t pretend they were small or insignificant. But we got through those.

We both thought it was meant to be, but… it just couldn’t stand up to time…

Life caught up to the both of us and… we were just so busy… Sometimes we didn’t talk for days or weeks. Then I turned around and… a whole year had passed…

[Sniff] … Part of me wishes we could have got married. But part of me is glad we didn’t. Not glad… terrified that if we had, this still would have happened. And things between us would have ended much worse. At least this way I can always love him and look back fondly on the time we shared.

… I’ve never mentioned this before… but shortly after we broke up, they changed the laws on interspecies marriage… Krastos and I… We could have… it just wasn’t meant to be…

Hmm I don’t remember saying anything bad but I also can’t remember what the redacted word was, haha. In other news, your government sounds scarily like ours.

1) That’s nice, dear. Now go play.

2) You’re absolutely right. Let me go use my lyre playing talent to go advance irrigation technology.

3) If I get into a fight with a dragon, I’m gonna lose. I can at least try to fight it; I might even get lucky and escape. But you can’t win against aging. Ever.

4) Well would you look at that.

5) I’d be devastated. If he ever did, I’d rather never find out.

6) No, because being a prick is subjective. The concept of evil is supposed to be cosmically defined.

7) I don’t recall getting “a very nice ask” in quite some time.

8) For the most part, it works fine for us. Massive societies work best when governed on individual district levels. The only reason there’s any issue is because changing laws regarding non-pony marriage falls under immigration/integration, which in a nation with open borders can only be regulated at the national level. And a law regarding name changing is a matter of security, which is also a national concern. We don’t have things like facial recognition software, so names are important for identification.

Changing either law, with proper process, wouldn’t cause any problems. It’s just that the kind of laws they are require national legislation. And that means the ponies with the money/influence can toss their weight around to sway others away from change that may have unforeseen side-effects.

1) B: Slim, though the possibility does exist. As early as in a year or so, in fact. Somewhat recently a chief justice was married and subsequently asked why she took her husband’s last name. Her reply was very interesting, to the many present who were not aware. As a filly she was emancipated from her abusive parents and she choose to drop her last name to distance herself from them. Under current law, she had no alternative but to take her husband’s last name in order to marry. And to quote her, “Were my husband and I to have both retracted our surnames, marriage between us would have become a legal impossibility.” If you watch and listen to the video of the interview, you can easily hear somepony in the background quietly remark, “Well, that’s stupid.”

B: Every fire starts with a spark.

B: However, none of this is information Lyra doesn’t possess herself. But for her to accept this knowledge and willingly relay it to others would be accepting the possible repercussions it may one day carry. Our Lyra has never faired very well with the concept of hope. I assume I need not explain why.

2) B: Let’s see now… I believe it was: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and then Lyra would likely not finish the quote and offer some wholly unnecessary remark about sexism.