I'm Not THAT Twilight! [Open]

[Twilight Sparkle]

”Hi and welcome to the Running of the Leaves,” Twilight said as she handed an informational flyer to the boy in front of her.

”Heya Twilight, didn’t know you were…”

”Sorry, but I’m not that Twilight. I’m from Star Swirl Academy,” she interrupted for what felt like the umpteenth time today. The boy just apologized, took his flyer, and headed off as Twilight groaned with frustration.

Since her attempts at getting some extracurricular activities at Star Swirl Academy had gone downhill, she had no choice but to see about helping out at Canterlot High’s events. Fortunately they had their big fall charity event. While her request was unusual, they were happy to let her on board…even after informing them no she was never at this school before. Seriously, did she have some secret twin or whatever that had been at the school?

In any case, once they let her help out, she had gotten to work making plenty of information flyers about the day’s events, stalls, and plenty of “fun facts” about apples and autumn. The nearby trash can filled with her flyers sort of had her feeling a bit down though. Did they not have any inkling of curiosity about the different kind of apples and their care and maintenance? Well, she knew the Apple Family did, but for once Twilight had met people who knew more than she did and could be even more enthusiastic than her. It was actually kind of scary, and she couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how people viewed her?

Beh, there was no time to start going down that kind of road. She had pamphlets to hand out in an ultimately futile endeavor to educate the students and community.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Another year another marathon. This year was straying from tradition though. The funds created today were to go toward rebuilding parts of the school. There was more than just the running going on though. Vendors had arrived to set up and a few festivities were going to be held throughout the day. Lyra had arrived to scope it all out a little early so she could figure out all the things she didn't want to miss.

There was also a second motive to it as well. Sunset Shimmer seemed to feel a little awkward about it all. She wanted to find something to help get her friend excited. Yeah, technically the damage had been her fault, but she was all hopped up on dark magic at the time. Her participating in events meant to help the school could be a good way of trying to make up for it.

The musician strolled up to a sight that wasn't the greatest to see. There was a girl trying to pass out flyers of some sort to people passing by. Judging by the looks of things it wasn't going so well. If people were going to just toss it away couldn't they at least be nice enough to do it out of her sight? The girl looked familiar, but Lyra couldn't place her. Maybe she was related to a student and was just volunteering, and Lyra was picking up on some familial resemblance?

The decision was quickly made. It was time to brighten someone's day!

She strode up to the stripy-haired girl, giving a quick glance at a nametag. Her name was Twilight. Wasn't that a similar name to that Twinkly girl? "Hi there Twilight!" she greeted the other girl. "Whatcha passin' out?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

After seeing a couple more flyers thrown into the trash, Twilight found herself being approached by a student who looked more mint green than a tube of toothpaste. At least she seemed rather nice. When she called her Twilight, however, she was tempted to blurt out another clarification but held her tongue. It was possible that she knew her from somewhere other than Canterlot High after all. The last thing she needed was to get kicked out of this because she kept yelling people about not being “Twilight.”

”Oh, uhm, hi,” she said, pulling out a flyer and handing it out to the girl.

”I’m handing out information about the events, and I even went and put fun apple facts on it for extra fun!”

Looking over the flyer, Lyra would have quickly seen the “fun facts” included diagrams and Latin mumbo-jumbo, also known as the scientific names of the different apple species. The language would have also looked like it came from a textbook. Over all, not exactly the most exciting thing to be reading unless you were someone like Twilight. Still, she had a rather hopeful and excited smile on her face. Sure, all the other students had thrown it out, but maybe this time the girl would actually keep it.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Lyra took the flyer and quickly began looking it over. She only skimmed it, but for the most part it seemed very informative. The so-called "fun apple facts" read like it came out of an encyclopedia. She expected something like the world record for biggest apple, or why certain recipes called for certain apples and not others. It was very obvious this girl lived in a castle made of textboooks. A+ for effort though.

"It looks like you put a lot of effort into this." She said as she looked up from it. "This is exactly what I needed Twilight. You saved me a bunch of time walking around asking about everything so I could tell the rest of my friends what was up. I'll make sure they each get one so everyone has a copy." The flyer was folded up neatly and placed in a pocket for future reference.

Lyra held her hand out to the other girl. "I'm Lyra by the way. Lyra Heartstrings. I haven't seen you here before. Are you some volunteer or someone's cousin or something helping out?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight’s smile brightened up a little more as the girl gave a rather positive reaction to her flyer and simply put it into her pocket instead of the trash.

”Oh, it wasn’t that much effort. Spent an afternoon at the library reading up on apples was all,” she replied. It really wasn’t that much to do; a lot of it she already knew. She had just needed to do a bit more reading to double check and triple check the correctness of the information.

What did surprise her a little was Lyra offering a handshake and introducing herself. After an initial surprise Twilight timidly returned the handshake.

”Oh, uhm, I’m just a volunteer,” she replied, just a little bit nervous. Twilight didn’t exactly want to mention why she was volunteering here,”My name’s Twilight Sparkle. It’s a pleasure to meet you Lyra.”

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Lyra grinned at seeing Twilight get back some of her sparkle. It could be hard when you're trying to pass out information only for it to fall on deaf ears. No one ever listened to her on her Sasquatch or alien theories. It usual fell on blank expressions, or rolling eyess. She wasn't that into apples, but for today she would be if it'd brighten Twilight's day. A few minutes of her time to make someone feel good was decent trade off.

"So where'd apples come from originally? I know as people expanded they'd bring crops of their own to new places. Everything we have here now wasn't necessarily here when Equestria was settled, and there's like hundreds of different apples out there right?" Twilight was nervous, and it easily showed in her handshake. The best way Lyra could think of to get her to come out of her shell was to get her talking and in control of the conversation.

Twilight was the closest thing to an expert here, and it was Lyra's job to make her feel like it again!

[Twilight Sparkle]

Not only did she keep her flyer, she was actually asking questions! By the time Lyra was finished Twilight was almost beaming; finally someone who could appreciate intellectual curiosity! Since Lyra had already put her flyer away, Twilight simply grabbed another one from her stack; it did have the answers to her question after all.

”It’s really fascinating actually. I mean, everyone knows the apples you can get down at the store like Red Delicious or Granny Smith’s and so on, but worldwide there are approximately seven thousand five hundred different varieties of apples in existence,” she said, pointing to where on the flyer it said that. Technically the phrase was “cultivar”, but she knew enough to try and avoid using too much jargon when she could. Granted, her definition of what was ‘jargon’ and what was ‘plain speech’ might have been a bit skewed.

”Of course almost all of those kind can be traced back to the malus sieversii species…oh, right, forgot to mention the domesticated apple is called the malus domestica. Anyway, the malus sieversii originates from Central Asia. They got brought to Europe by Alexander the Great, and then brought to North America in 1625 by William Blaxton. Although to be fair, crab apples were a native variety that predated Blaxton’s apple orchard.”

There, that covered the basics of the basics of where apples came from and how they got around the world. Twilight was about to go into even more things about apples, but hesitated. Sure, Lyra had asked about it, but she still kind of doubted she would her to keep going on above and beyond what was asked. That was how she got kicked out of the chemistry club after all…

”A-anyway, I don’t mean to keep rambling on about apples. You should go and try and enjoy the rest of the fair after all,” she said, giving a nervous laugh.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

That... was a very good answer she got. This girl knew what she was talking about! She also didn't come off as a complete egg-head. She was obviously smarter than her, but Lyra could understand what was being said. So she was a little rough around the edges, that didn't mean she deserved the brush off she was getting. In the back of her mind she began formulating a plan.

"Whoa whoa whoa. You said seven thousand five hundred?! I would have said like... four hundred would seen like a lot, but that many different apples are insane. All those apples originated from one kind which got brought from place to place, except for crab apples. If hundreds of years hadn't passed to make all of that happened I'd be calling shenanigans, and believe me I've seen some weird stuff in my life. Even in this park."

"I have a few more questions to ask about, and I'm waiting for friends to arrive. I already know when stuff will be going on thanks to you. Maybe I can help pass out flyers for a bit. Don't your arms start to bug you after a while holding that thick stack? Also I'm ssssssort of a celebrity in school. I'm so cool you can measure me in kelvin." Lyra beamed as she got to toot her own horn (not that one). She wasn't super popular and had adoring fans and followers, she was very well known. It was had not to know who she was.

"So. If you can tell me what the biggest apple ever grown was, I'll tell you about the two brand new species I found in this park are. I even have photographic evidence of never before seen flora and fauna. A new plant and a new animal... _{Wait was that the right order? Flora, flower. Fauna, faun like a deer..} Yup got it right."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight was glad to see she still had more questions and was really enthusiastic about the whole deal. Even if the statement “measure me in kelvin” was pointless; Celsius and Fahrenheit were perfectly capable of measuring coolness after all. Though if one could argue that there was an absolute zero in terms of coolness, Kelvin could be considered the most appropriate unit since then you’d have meaningful ways of saying “twice as cool as” someone else….oh, wait, the girl offered to help.

”Honestly, it doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve carried waaay much more than this walking home from the library,” she said, laughing a little,”But if you want to help I won’t stop you.”

It would be nice to take a small break; even if not physically demanding, mentally the constant rejection was tiring. The mention of new species, however, made Twilight quite suspicious. She had been in this park a lot-the shade was a quite pleasant place to read-and also had a list of the various plants and animals that could be found within. It could just be the case Lyra had simply seen something she had never seen before and assumed it new when in reality was just a normal plant or animal. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to humor her.

”Well, if you go by weight the world record for largest apple is about three pounds. Going by just size, there are varieties of apples that can grow to about the size of a grapefruit. So then, what’s are these new species you’ve seen?”

[Lyra Heartstrings]

Three pounds didn't seem like a lot for a setting a record for an apple. Five would have been believable and impressive, but three? Maybe she needed a sense of scale, like how much an average apple weighed. The size was impressive though. Grapefruit got big. An apple that size would be pretty hefty.

"This park has all sorts of rumors and stuff about it. Every now and then I come here to try and either witness it or debunk it. I was here several days ago with a camera to do just that. I was walking off the trails because any creature with mild intelligence that wouldn't want to be spotted wouldn't hang out by a well used trail during a time of high traffic. I mean if you didn't want to get seen walking home from school it'd make more sense to take side streets and alleys than major streets right? So I was walking along when I see this- hold on a sec."

Lyra grabbed a good handful of the stack of flyers and walked forward to meet someone entering the festival grounds. "Hi, and welcome to the Running of the Leaves." she said just like Twilight had been doing. "Here's a flyer with today's events, and a few facts about apples. The perfect thing to keep in mind in case some teacher decides to do a pop quiz on it for school history, or assign a paper about it. These facts might bump a grade up or get you some extra credit. Think about it~."

Lyra walked with the person back to Twilight, and stopped when she rejoined her new friend. She watched as the person looked over the flyer for a moment, then stuffed it in a jacket pocket. The musician pumped her fist in accomplishment at that. "See Twilight, it's not enough to have the information there for free, you need to sell it. I don't know if there'll be a popquiz or paper come Monday, but there might be. Even if someone's skeptical about it, there's no harm in holding on to a piece of paper."

"Okay so where was I again? Oh right. So I'm walking around when I see this weird shadow and when I looked up I saw this weird creature flying through the air." Lyra spoke as she tucked the flyers under one arm and used her free hand to get her phone out and start tapping on it. "At first I thought it was this big giant bat, like a fruit bat, but they don't live in this area, then I noticed the bunny ears and the bigger rear. I chased after it with my camera trying to get it on film. Thiiiis is the best picture I could got once I had time to review the footage."

Lyra held up her camera for Twilight to see, and tapped her finger to flip through a few other pictures of it to show different angles and motion. "I don't know what to call it. A bat rabbit, like a jack rabbit but a bat, or a RabBat? Theeeen I found this flower." Lyra swipped and tapped here and there to bring up a picture of the Poison Joke flower. "I found this shortly after. This weird looking blue flower. I had a really bad reaction to it so I let the proper authorities know. Turns out it's related to Poison Oak, but is waaay more poisonous, dangerously so. So it got all dug up and moved so it wouldn't hurt anyone anymore. If you DO see it, don't touch it, or even sniff it. The pollen might also be dangerous. Find a way to let me know and I can get a hold of someone to properly move it out of harms way."

Lyra didn't know if Discord would try the same trick twice. With the amount of people here he could cause a lot of chaos with that flower. Twilight seemed responsible enough to be told not to touch it and under stand that. She didn't look like the type to be told not to do something, then immediately do it.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Ah, yes, the “urban legends” of the Everfree Park. All a bunch of local folklore which, while interesting, wasn’t exactly solid scientific fact. She didn’t know how to feel about Lyra apparently being interested in it, though she did seem interested in providing some level of scientific sense to it all by actually investigating it. Twilight figured she might as well give her credit for being willing to do that much. But did that mean the “new species” she was talking about was just another legend?

Before Lyra could get to it, she walked off and gave some flyers to a group, mentioning something about a pop quiz or paper that might happen over apples. Sure, at Star Swirl Twilight could totally see something like that happening, but would that actually happen at Canterlot High? Twilight’s face was scrunched up a little in uncertainty as Lyra told her about how to sell the product.

”I don’t know, that seems a little…dishonest? I mean, if I got told there was possibly going to be a pop quiz about something I’d end up worrying about it all weekend….”

Then again, she knew she tended to overreact about a lot of things. Even know she could see the person walking around as cool as a cucumber. She let out a small sigh and simply let Lyra go on about the weird animal thing. That was apparently some bunny-bat animal. Twilight had to raise a skeptical eyebrow at the thought.

”Realllly now.”

She took a look at the photos, which were kind of blurry. Shocker. Still, it did look like there was something there, but photos were so easy to manipulate that it was kind of hard to exactly believe. Still, it was better than a “I swear there was this thing!” kind of story. The picture of the flower was a lot clearer, however, and she had to admit she could not think of anything that looked like that. And dangerously poisonous? Sure, the bat rabbit thing was probably a dead end, but this did seem at least legit. But wait, she called someone and they came and cleaned it up? If this was a brand new species how did any ‘authority’ know how to deal with it?

”Did the proper authorities know what the plant was called?” she said, inching a little bit closer to the picture to see if she could get a better look at it.

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"I view it less as dishonesty and more like tactical thought planting. The guy I passed the flyer to is on one of the sports teams. Those in sports know they need to keep their grades up. The only way he's gonna freak out and stress about a pop quiz is if his grades are bombing. If they are, then he should be worrying already. If they aren't, then he's not going to worry. Still, doing well on a possible pop quiz, or having some smart and fun facts to throw into a paper will look good."

"I'm a musician, mostly. I know it sucks, but sometimes you need to do more than be there to get noticed. Need to advertise, and give people a reason to look at what you have to offer. The schools putting a lot of focus on the festival this year to try and shift attention away from what happened to the gym and focus on moving forward. I wouldn't put it past a teacher to do a pop quiz or some form of extra credit."

Twilight probably heard that the funds were going to the school for reconstruction instead of being donated to charity. How much she knew about the incident was unknown. Luckily Lyra had simple excuse straight out of the playbook for covering up incidents. The oldest of the old, the simplest of the simple. There had been a gas leak.

Back to the matter at hand though there was some other answers to be given.

"The person that came didn't quite know what to make of it, but had an idea. They looked me over and gave me a balm that helped, and said I should go to my physician if any symptoms came back. I got a call a few days later both asking how I was doing, and letting me know that they were classifying the plant. Tox-i-co-den-drum something... I looked it up online and the best I found out was it's in the same family as poison oak... or genus. Something like that. Like I said I'm a musician, not a botanist. I pluck strings not flowers."

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight still wasn’t exactly buying what it was that Lyra was selling there, but she did get the point that she should probably learn some better marketing strategies or something. Maybe she could stop by the library later and pick up some books on marketing and advertising later…

”Alright, if you think it’ll help the school out,” she said, still making sure to stay secretive about what school she actually went to.

At least this stuff about the plant was interesting, although for being an absolutely never before seen species it would be really weird for someone to already have a balm ready to deal with any toxins or other reactions to it. Twilight was starting to get a little suspicious at this point, wondering if indeed this plant was just some kind of photoshop job. Her advertising strategy aside, though, Lyra didn’t seem like someone who would just outright lie for a prank. There was something going on here, and it didn’t seem like a good thing either.

”Toxicodendron, the genus that poison ivy and oak fall under. I guess if they’re thinking it’s under that I could understand them having a balm so quickly on hand. So tell me, what kind of symptoms did you show?”

[Lyra Heartstrings]

"Itchy red skin, hives, swelling, and numbness in my fingers. You know how when you get shots at the dentist's office how you're both numb but can feel certain things. Kinda like that. I've dealt with poison ivy before, the numbness was new, and the symptoms came on quickly when it usually takes a long time. That's what caused me to worry. No lasting effects have been felt. My fingers are all fine, and there's none of it around here anymore to hurt anyone else."

"Or would you rather me say it was some magical flower conjured up by some chaos being for the purpose of ruining someone's day for their own delight? I may have strong beliefs about certain things and would like to see empirical evidence on whether certain things exist or not, but I'm not crazy. Science isn't about proving your theory. It's easy to prove something. It's about trying to disprove something until the only option left is that it's true. I could prove it to you with a simple experiment, but I've already told you that most people will only try to prove their theory so that'd skew your answers."

Lyra pursed her lips together and wiggled her chin a little as she thought hard. "Mmmmmm... Okay. I'll tell you the experiment so you can try it out on friends and class mates. I learned this from a teacher that stumped us all. Get a person or a group, it doesn't matter too much, and tell them it's a number game. You're going to give them a string of three numbers that conforms to a specific rule. They have to guess what that is. They can give you their own string of numbers, and you can tell them yes, or no, if it conforms to the specific rule. They get a certain amount of guesses they can use to guess if the rule they think is correct."

"Most people will look to keep proving they believe is correct rather than look for other reasons they might be getting the answers they want, and spend no time disproving their ideas. The rule my teacher used was ascending order. It took a lot longer than it should have for the groups in class to figure it out. Speaking of classes and teachers, what school do you go to? Probably some private school right?" Lyra hoped that the change of subject would stick. The number game was fun, and if Twilight liked learning as much as she seemed to she either knew about it already, or would really like it. There was still a chance for Lyra to dig herself out of the hole she'd started.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Numbness did seem like an odd symptom, but everything else sounded like what you would expect for that kind of plant from that family to cause. She did have to laugh at Lyra’s other possible explanation for what it could have been though. It sounded like something straight out of a fantasy novel.

”That’s a good one Lyra; something like a chaos being sounds completely ridiculous.”

Fortunately, it seemed Lyra was very dedicated to the scientific method; she was even appealing to principles like falsification as the proper discourse of science. That kind of theoretical thinking was quite advanced, and the numbers game did seem like a good way to show off confirmation bias and the human tendency to try and stick with one solid belief.

Of course, seems Lyra was playing her in a long-con to get off the topic of the plant and onto something else. Specifically, what school, and even more specifically private school. Lyra must have already figured out she wasn’t exactly from Canterlot High..

”Oh, uhm, well I actually go to Star Swirl Academy…” Twilight said, looking away just a little bit to try and retain some modesty. Sure, she was proud of being able to be there, but she didn’t exactly like trying to brag about it like other students there. Still, there was just enough strength in her voice saying that it could come off just a little bit snooty about it.