(A/N: I just don't know what went wrong! Apparently I upload the wrong chapter, so everyone here is confused. So sorry! I can't believe i made this mistake! Here is the first "TRUE" chapter 1!)

THE CONVERSION BUREAU: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM

CHAPTER ONE: THE HUMAN

"There are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are constantly handing over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself."
– Ralph Waldo Trine

"You see, Nightmare Moon. When those elements are ignited by the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element; the Element of Magic!"
– Twilight Sparkle

Ponyville, Equestria, 2nd Year Anno Harmonia

Twilight Sparkle watched in horror at the creature thrashing against the hospital bed's restraints, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"SPARKLE, YOU EVIL WHORE! WHERE HAVE YOU BROUGHT ME! WHICH BUREAU IS THIS?"

"I...I don't know what you're talking about" she replied, feeling a moment's pity for the poor thing that called itself a 'hew-man', or was it 'human'? "This is a 'hospital' – it's where we make ponies better..."

"I'M NOT A PONY!" he roared, flexing his arms and torso in an attempt to sit bolt upright, at which point two of the heavier nurse stallions leapt in to pin him down. "I'LL NEVER BE A PONY! I'D RATHER DIE BEFORE TAKING YOUR POTION!"

"He's going to tear his stitches!" shouted one of the nurses. "Someone sedate him, quickly!"

"I...I don't know if I can..." whimpered the anesthagician, a fearful unicorn colt. "His...his body mass is far more than that of a pony!"

"Just try!" pleaded the attending doctor, and with a small swell of courage the anesthagician stepped forward, his glowing horn enveloping the human in a twinkling field of medicinal magic. Immediately the patient's limbs flopped back against the restraints, his entire body going limp.

It didn't stop him from screaming though.

"GET OFF ME! GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU WON'T PONIFY ME!"

"I...I don't understand" gasped the anesthagician. "That same spell would have put a full-grown stallion to sleep!"

"Never mind," soothed the doctor. "He's a completely unknown species, though perhaps we may need to request a specialist from Canterlot. You prevented him from hurting himself further, and that's enough, for now..."

Fingers scrabbling like the legs of a spider, the human managed to twist his head in Twilight's direction, his bloodshot eyes staring straight into her own, and she felt her ears flick back as if in the presence of a dangerous animal.

"YOU WON'T CHANGE ME, SPARKLE! I WILL KEEP MY HUMANITY, YOU GENOCIDAL MURDERESS!"

Twilight flinched and turned away, unable to steel herself against the force of his screams. Quickly, she trotted away from the human and made her way towards the lobby of Ponyville General Hospital, the human's furious howls chasing after her as she went.

"THAT'S RIGHT! WALK AWAY FROM ME, YOU PRINCESS CUNT LICKING DRONE!"

It was enough to make Twilight feel sick, not just from the vulgarity of what he was shouting, but the fact that the creature, a complete stranger, was angry with her at all.

'Why' she thought to herself, completely out of her depth, a situation which terrified her. 'Why does he hate us ponies so much?'

As she pondered, her troubled thoughts leading her nowhere but in circles, her hooves managed to lead her into the lobby, where her friends were waiting for her in worried expectation.

"Sugercube, are you okay?" Applejack asked softly, looking back to the room the unicorn had just vacated.

"I...I don't think so." Twilight said quietly, her voice faltering. "He called me a...he called me all kinds of names."

"Twilight, Darling." Rarity cut in. "The brute called all of us names. There's no need to feel he's singled you out for worse abuse than the rest of us."

"That's just it though," Twilight muttered, head turned down as if searching for enlightenment in the gleaming floor tiles. "He knows us, all of us, by sight."

Then she whipped her head back up and stared at them, features contorted in frustration. "And he called each and every one of us by our actual names. You don't think that's weird?"

"Um...why?" Pinkie replied, her usual enthusiasm only partially dimmed by the strange events. Before Twilight could answer, the pink party-pony reared back and spread her forelegs wide. "I mean, this means we must be famous enough to be known throughout the whole world! Isn't that super-de-dooper amazing!"

"Pinkie. We didn't even know the name of his species until he shouted...no, screamed it at us. How can he be expected to know us so intimately, while he remains a mystery to us?" Twilight said, bringing a hoof to her face in frustration, before jabbing the same appendage in Pinkie's direction. "And he called you 'Pinkamina'. How many ponies know that's your actual name, let alone complete strangers!?"

Sudden realisation struck at Pinkie, who fell back onto all fours, her jubilant expression collapsing. Twilight meanwhile had begun to pace, voicing her thoughts out loud in an effort to untangle them.

"It makes absolutely no sense. I mean, yes, I felt an magical anomaly forming in Ponyville and got to the square just before that portal opened and he was hurled out of it, but that kind of long-distance magic takes incredible power. Why go to that much effort just to fling a random 'human' from Celestia-knows-where into Equestria? And then, the portal closes back up, no explanation, and when Spike and I tried to help him up off the ground, he took one look at us and screamed in fear..."

'No...' Twilight paused, correcting herself. 'Not just fear. Outrage, and hate. A noxious mess of emotions, all directed at ponies who had only been trying to help...'

For some reason, that last thought left a bitter taste in her mouth. Wondering what could have inspired such emotions in the stranger, she could not help but shudder.

"He was afraid, and he was angry."

"Well, duh, Twi," Rainbow Dash snorted from where she was resting in a wheelchair, various bandages covering her body and her expression pale from a combination of exhaustion and painkillers. "He might have been screaming at you, but he attacked Applejack and me the moment he saw us."

As if presenting evidence she indicated towards her cyan wings, which were both strapped against her barrel to prevent her from moving them. In a tussle that had lasted only a few seconds, the human had managed to dislocate both at the shoulder joints, grounding the supersonic Pegasus until they healed.

Applejack nodded her head in support of that statement, turning back to Twilight. "Dash is right. He may have run from you at first, but the moment he laid eyes on us, he darn flew straight from fear into anger, and take it from a pony who corrals critters fer' a living, he was spoilin' for a fight."

The sturdy farm-pony grunted as she shifted her weight to her hind legs, which were heavily bruised, darkening the three apples that made up her cutie mark.

"He knew almost exactly where to hit us too," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry that my Stare didn't work on him," Fluttershy whimpered hoarsely from a corner, causing all the ponies to shiver in fear. That the Stare, powerful enough to quell full-grown dragons, had failed here, suggested the human possessed monstrous will power. Fluttershy herself had almost gotten choked to death the moment she tried to use the Stare on the human, and it was only thanks to Pinkie blasting the attacker with cream pies and her Party Cannon that the butter-soft Pegasus had walked away relativity unscathed.

"It's alright Fluttershy" Twilight muttered, trotting over to give her quailing friend a supportive nuzzle. "I don't think any of us could have expected the Stare not to work on him. Still..."

"What's wrong?" Pinkie asked, joining Twilight in comforting Fluttershy. The indigo unicorn remained silent for a moment, rubbing slowly at her chin.

"Well" she clarified. "Let's recap what we know. He knew us all by name, did not have a positive opinion on any of us, was fearful, angry, driven, and knew how to fight ponies effectively. And there was something else... He kept screaming about 'staying true to who he was' and something about a 'potion'."

"Potion? What potion?" Applejack asked, momentarily cocking her head, before leaning forward and narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "You don't suppose he's one of them there folk who take dangerous tonics and herbs for fun or somesuch hooey?".

"No, I don't think it's anything like that," Twilight muttered, rubbing at her forehead to try and massage away an impending migrane. "He used the words 'ponify' and 'ponyfication' a lot in conjuction with references to this 'potion', so perhaps that's some sort of clue."

"Ahuh, 'ponyfiction' huh? And whassat when it's at home?"

"That's just the thing. I have no idea what he was talking about" Twilight all but screamed, falling back on her haunches and flailing her forelegs in frustration. "It's one thing to be an inexplicable six-foot hairless ape that for all I know is from beyond the stars, but to be making up nonsense words, whilst simultaneously speaking perfect Equestrian!? I'm sorry, I don't have an answer, but when the universe decides to resume spinning in the right direction and everything returns to normalcy, I'll let you know!"

The other Bearers of Harmony shot one another a serious glance as their friend continued to ventilate her increasingly disjointed thoughts. Twilight seemed to be working up into one of her full-on obsessive freak-outs, the kind that tended to require several days and the reconstruction of half of Ponyville to clear up. Before they could intervene, a sharp "Ahem!" from across the lobby cut Twilight off at the rictus-grinning event horizon of delirium.

"Miss Sparkle," Nurse Redheart said, firmly but not unkindly. "Much as I appreciate your help in moving the...'patient' here without further injury to himself or anypony else, would you mind taking your frustrations outside? This is a place of rest and recuperation. Besides, a walk in the fresh air might do you some good."

"I'm...but he's, and we're..." Twilight stammered, before suddenly taking a deep breath and slumping forward in sudden exhaustion. "You're right, I'm sorry."

"It's not a problem dear. No go, we'll take care of the 'human', so go rest yourself" Redheart smiled. "That goes just as much for your friends."

As the six friends made their way towards the exit, the older mare paused and turned to glance back at them.

"You can leave the wheelchair, Rainbow Dash," she added sternly. "You're grounded for a few days, not crippled."

"Aw, ponyfeathers!" Dash seethed, before dismounting from the chair and bucking it back across the lobby.

"I'm sorry guys..." Twilight said as they walked out of the hospital, hanging her head low in shame. "I mean, humans are...sorry, were nothing but an oddity known only to antiquarians and fringe lunatics. Aside from a few cryptic references inferred from archaeological digs and old records, nopony had more than a crude idea as to what they supposedly looked like, or even if they were anything more than an old myth from the paleo-pony period. But now here's a creature claiming to be one, screaming at me, attacking my friends, and accusing me of being a...a 'genocidal mass murderess'."

As the rest of the group followed her towards her home in the Golden Oaks library, nopony (expect perhaps Pinkie) appeared to notice a pair of golden eyes watching them from the bushes beside the road.

"I better write to the Princess and tell her what is happening," Twilight murmured as she led her friends into the library. "If anyone might have a clue as to the origin of that portal, and maybe even the human, it would be her."

The moment the library door shut, the aforementioned bushes rustled and a mint green unicorn jumped out.

"A human! I knew they existed!" Lyra squealed, dancing about on the tips of her hooves in giddy excitement, before suddenly coming to a halt as the rest of the conversation she had eavesdropped on settled into her mind. "Fringe lunatic? Oh Twilight, you narrow minded little filly!" she growled, remembering how often the magical prodigy had managed to come across as more than a little eccentric herself, both before and after the two of them had graduated from Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. The moment's gloom was short lived however, as Lyra's enthusiasm transformed her into a aqua blurr of fur and flying hooves as she thundered up the hill towards the hospital.

"Ohmygosh! Human-human-human! I've got to see this for myself!"

Reaching the hospital she forced herself to act casual. Somepony had left an empty wheelchair just across the lobby from the door, and borrowing it (with a mental promise to return it later), she slowly wheeled herself around, playing the role of a patient trying to get some exercise. Finally she located the room the human was being kept in, only to find it was being guarded by a couple of security ponies.

"Horseradishes!" she grunted, before tapping her hoof against her chin, thinking on how to get around the latest obstacle cruel fate had decided to throw in her way.

"Hmm...Oh!" she beamed widely as her eyes alit on a door marked 'locker room'. Ignoring the smaller print that declared 'only properly authorised ponies allowed beyond this point', she discretely slipped in and found a spare doctor's coat, leaving the wheelchair for somepony else to return to the lobby.

'This...is genius' she crowed to herself as she donned the garment, before rearing back on her hind hooves and slowly trotting her way, biped-style, back towards the human's isolation room. 'All that practice in the bedroom mirror paid off at last! Bon Bon, I wish you could see me now!'

The two guards stared in disbelief as she approached, holding her forehooves out to the side in a faltering attempt to keep her balance.

"Lyra Heartstrings" she announced, attempting an officious tone. "Doctor of Anthropology at Canterlot Medical University. I'm here to examine the human, gentlestallions."

"Uh-huh" growled the first, a heavyset colt with stubble thick enough to sand down walls. "Bigshot Doctor from Canterlot. With no identification, no credentials, and no word from any of the local staff that you were coming. Pull the other hoof kid, it's got bells on it."

'An intelligent guard' Lyra thought, her grin becoming a little fixed. 'Did not expect that.'

"Yeah" added the second guard, a younger colt whose grin was wide beyond smug and approaching sickening self satisfaction. "Loads a' ponies been coming by trying to get a look at the human...takes more than that to get by us. Nice try with the weird walking though, looks painful. You get points for style, kid."

"So," grunted the older guard. "You can trot off back to Canterlot, 'Doctor', and..."

"Canterlot!?" exclaimed another voice, and Lyra, falling back onto her forehooves, turned to see an actual doctor approaching. "Ah, you must be the specialist we requested to help us with the human!"

"I...ah...yes, yes I am..." Lyra replied, as the doctor led her straight through between the two stammering guards.

"Excuse us, gentlestallions."

"Uh, ah, yessir!" the senior security pony replied, utterly abashed. "Sorry for inconveniencing you, Doctor Heartstrings."

Lyra silently answered them with a smile and an imperious nod of her head as they parted to let them through the door. The real doctor was continuing to natter about how quickly she had gotten to Ponyville, praising the speed of the Friendship Express from Canterlot, but she finally managed to get a few words in edgeways, requesting a few minutes alone to examine the 'patient'.

"Ah, of course" he replied. "We've attempted to sedate him ourselves but the spells seem to wear off almost immediately."

"So, he's resistant to magic?" Lyra questioned, intrigued.

"Well yes...and no. Trying to heal him with magic has yielded as much results as waving a magnet at a wooden plank. It's almost as if he was...well, dead to magic, a lump of cold iron..."

"As pure, warm iron as is the blood and bone of life and magic itself, so is cold iron, child of the forge and smithy, a worked and exhausted corpse, stolen of life, and lost unto magic..." Lyra recited in answer, remembering the old words from her schooldays. "Starswirl the Bearded."

"You know your classics" smiled the doctor, before shaking his head. "Well, perhaps you can find some answer. If he gives any trouble, just give a shout."

The door clicked shut softly behind him, and Lyra felt a grin of elation spread over her face. Finally inside, and with no-one else to bother her, she trotted slowly up to the curtain that had been drawn around the room's sole bed, her breath quickening.

"A human..." she said softly. "A real, live, human..."

From where she was standing, the curtain hid everything except for a booted pair of feet that hung over the bottom of the too-small bed, but the sight of that alone was enough to excite her. She eyed the workmanship of the boots, which seemed well-made, and intended for practical use, unlike the fanciful clothes ponies tended to wear solely for decoration.

'Cold iron...' she thought to herself. 'Child of the forge and smithy. Worked and shaped and tempered until it is devoid of magic, but serves a useful purpose. What shaped you, human?'

Faintly, she could just perceive the sound of metal against metal, and drew a hold of the curtain with her magic, sliding it back. The tinkling sound stopped and she heard the human inhale sharply. Something went 'plink', and she glanced down to see a small metal pin lying on the floor, just beneath where one of his restrained hands lay on the bedspread. Captivated, she moved in closer, eyes fixated on the five digits that graced the end of his arm.

"So..." A deep voice called out, causing her to jump back. "They finally bring the Potion. Well, let's see how long it takes you to force it down my throat, you heartless bastards."

Suddenly, the hand that had so fascinated Lyra raised up from the bed, and she realised he had used the pin to pick the lock restraining his arm. Momentarily marvelling at the dexterity of his fingers she suddenly realised she could be in danger, and backpedalling sharply she watched in awe as the human sat up.

"I...will never...change" it said firmly, turning to look at her and falling abruptly silent.

Lyra stared, heart thudding away inside her chest as her eyes took in everything. Her first observation was that the human wore clothes as well as the boots; the legs were clad in pants made of a thick material dappled in different shades of green. His chest however was bare, exposing a heavily muscled and strangely hairless body, one that was covered in a horrifying assortment of scars and freshly-dressed wounds, as were his arms. The neck was short and trunk-like, and the face, although vaguely similar to that of a pony, was flattened, the snout an almost unrecognisable bump just below the eyes, which were small and piercing. His dark mane was cut very short, and his two tiny, unemotive ears were just a pair of shrunken stumps positioned low down on the sides of his head.

And then she saw his mouth, hanging open in what could only be an expression of shock as the human stared back at her. Feebly, she waved a hoof.

"Hi, my name is-"

"Lyra..." The human whispered, the two syllables catching in his throat. "Lyra Heartstrings."

Lyra reacted with surprise. "Yeah, how'd you know my name...who are you?"

"You're...you're alive." He whispered, tears beginning to shed from his eyes, and his chest heaved in a gigantic sob. "You're alive!"

"Err...the last time I checked I was," Lyra replied, grinning nervously. Somehow, this human knew her, and was implying that she had been dead some point, which was just ridiculous.

Then she saw that the human was fumbling with the lock securing his other hand, and took a step closer, suddenly concerned. "Are...are you sure you should be doing that, the doctor said you needed help to- eek!"

Freeing himself, the human had twisted to one side and fallen out of the bed, sprawling himself across the floor. Before Lyra could say anything he pulled himself up and clumsily staggered over on his knees to embrace her in a titanic bear hug. She blushed brightly; no-one held her like this since she was a foal, except perhaps her marefriend.

"You're alive." he wept, cradling her tightly. "How...how did you escape? Is Bon Bon alright? Do you have a safehouse nearby?"

Before Lyra could answer any of his bizarre questions, the wardroom doors banged open and the two guards burst in, followed by the panting doctor. Alerted by her shriek and the sound of the human falling, they drew up sharply at the unexpected sight of the creature cuddling a pony to himself.

The human's demeanour changed instantly. Face contorting into a baleful scowl he grabbed hold of Lyra and pushed her behind himself, as if trying to shield her. All four ponies momentarily gasped at the incredible spectacle as he rose to his full height, almost as tall as a full-grown minotaur.

"Stay back! You're not taking her away again!" he roared. Ignoring the threat, the two guards rushed forward, only for him to grab hold of the bed and swing it across the room on its castors, knocking the two of them sideways. The doctor's horn lit up, but before he could cast any kind of a spell he took a bedpan to his face and fell back, stunned. Lyra had barely enough time to raise a hoof in protest before the human scooped her up into his arms and sprinted out into the corridor, bull-rushing past nurses and doctors.

"Wait! Wait!" Lyra cried out, but the human ignored her and pushed on, despite the fact that he was staggering and weaving uncertainly, possibly from the last time the staff had tried to magically sedate him. Twice he veered off course and crashed into passing staff and patients, pausing only to seize the bed sheets off of a gurney to fashion into a crude poncho.

"I will keep you safe, Lyra, I promise," the human muttered as he resumed his madcap ran.

"Safe?! Safe from what?!" Lyra asked, struggling to breathe in his tight grip.

"From the Sun Tyrant Celestia, of course!"

Stunned, Lyra could only shake her head in disbelief, but resigned herself to being carried along. Despite all his anger, she had the strangest feeling that the human would not do anything to hurt her, and trying to get away from him might only put more ponies in danger. All she had to do was wait until he tired himself out, and then talk him back down to reality. Either that or make a break for Ponyville.

But when he pushed through the hospital's main doors, instead of following the beaten track down into the town, he turned off and began fleeing across the fields towards the Everfree Forest, thick, dark and threatening in the evening light.

"What are you doing?" she yelled, resuming her struggles as they reached the treeline. "Don't drag me into the Everfree! There's monsters in there!"

"The...the Everfree?" the human stopped just within the fringe of the forest, suddenly uncertain. "And...and monsters?"

"Yes!" Lyra shrieked, managing to finally twist free of his grip, landing in a mulchy bed of leaves. "You know so much about me, so how can you not realise that in this direction Ponyville is bordered by the Everfree Forest, and every manticore, hydra, cockatrice and grundle that comes with it!?"

"Grundles good..." the human muttered, staring off between the trees down towards where the lights of Ponyville twinkled in a fold of the valley. "Pon...Ponyville?"

Lyra slowly came around to his side as his eyes travelled up to Canterlot, majestically cantilevered off the towering flank of the Canterhorn. The capital city gleamed proudly in the waning light as Celestia's sun made its bed behind the hills to the east.

The human gave a single, bitter laugh, like the bark of a dog. "I...I thought we were in upstate New York, maybe in the Sleepy Hollow Bureau...easier to deal with me away from the chaos of Manhattan I supposed. But this... this really is Equestria, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" Lyra asked. "Of course this is Equestria. And what was that about 'Manehattan'...I've got family there and I'm certain they would have let me know if someone like you had dropped into the Big Apple!"

Suddenly feeling much like Twilight most likely had, Lyra drew a deep breath and released all her feelings in a single shout, trampling the ground with her hooves as she did. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

The human looked down towards her, sadness filling his eyes. "Lyra..."

He kneeled and stared into her eyes, as if searching for something deep inside her. Lyra herself was captivated by his gaze, barely noticing the familiar way in which he had cupped her cheek and was lightly scratching the sensitive spot just behind her ears.

"Yes...yes it is you," he said at last, sitting back and sparing a quick glance at her cutie mark, a golden lyre. "I could never mistake you for anyone, or anypony else. Which means..."

He fell back into a seated position against the foot of a tree with a pained moan. "That bitch took your memories didn't she? She wiped all recollection of us, of your friends, and the PHL..."

Lyra, clueless as to what he was talking about, took a single step closer, only to rear back as he pounded the ground beside him with a clenched fist, roaring with rage.

"DAMN YOU CELESTIA! IT WASN'T ENOUGH TO TAKE MY FAMILY, MY HOME, MY CULTURE! NOW YOU'VE STEALING MY FRIENDS TOO!"

"Um..." Lyra said, slowly edging closer. She had no idea what the human was talking about, but now that he had finished screaming, she could almost feel the pain radiating off him. More to the point, he was crying, and her inner pony cried out at her to comfort him.

"I don't think we've ever been friends" she said kindly, nuzzling against his side. "But I'd like to be. Would, would you like to talk about it?"

"Heh. Still the same Lyra..." he smiled, reaching out to once again scratch behind her ears with those amazing fingers of his.

"Don't worry, once I figure out how to breach the barrier and get us back home to New York, we'll find some way to restore your memory. Maybe Vinyl knows some kind of spell that could jog your mind, or perhaps we could just play you some Charlie Chaplin movies. You always loved those old comedies..."

It was as if he was talking gibberish, but she had made him smile, and that was enough for Lyra. Spreading her bespoiled medical coat out like a blanket she curled up beside him on it and gave him a light prod with her horn.

"Alright," she grunted. "This isn't all coming for free. If I'm going to play along with this, then I want some answers. First of all, what's this 'barrier' you're going on about?"

"The one that surrounds Equestria...or half of Earth the last time I checked." The human growled. "Don't ask me to go into an exact thaumic description of how the damn thing works; explaining trans-dimensional physics was always more Cheerilee or Doc Whooves' domain."

"Wait wait wait, backtrack for a moment!" Lyra exclaimed, causing the human to stop. "What are you talking about!? Cheerilee and Doctor Whooves? What do Ponyville's schoolteacher and Derpy's husband have to do with anything? How come I've never heard of any barrier around Equestria? Where or what in the hay is 'Earth'? And most importantly, why do you keep talking to me like I died or something?"

"Because you did die..." the human said sadly. "Lyra Heartstrings, former Equestrian ambassador to the United Kingdom, first pony to speak out against the Conversion Bureaus, heroine of the Battle of Thunderchild, founder of the Equestrian rebel group PHL, the Ponies for Human Life, leader of the Manhattan/Manehattan Underground Railroad. After all that, how could you, 'the pony who said 'no!'', not be at the top of Celestia's hit list? When they caught you, she had you publically executed 'to make an example of you', or so I thought."

He gestured with one of his arms, spreading it wide to encompass Ponyville and Canterlot. "Here, you're just a memory-blanked drone, one of Celestia's millions of pony-puppets. But back home, you're a symbol, a legend, a heroic martyr who provides hope and inspiration to everyone who stands against Celestia's tyranny, human and pony alike. You led the PHL for our cause, you saved thousands of human lives with your warnings and actions, sabotaged dozens of batches of Potions so they were ineffective, and smuggled human artefacts and culture into Equestria to subvert Celestia's propaganda."

"I...I don't understand." Lyra muttered.

"You came to the aid of mankind in our time of crisis, and other ponies followed. You all fought alongside us to save humanity, and liberate both Earth and Equestria from the Tyrant Sun Princess, Celestia, and her dark protege, Twilight Sparkle."

He turned to look down at her, eyes full of emotion, and Lyra suddenly felt both hopelessly tiny and gloriously empowered.

"Lyra, you were trying to save humanity from being ponified."