Anthropology

She's not crazy, no matter what anypony else says.

Humans exist, right? After all, how couldn't they? The whole world seems to be built with them in mind. Is it too hard to believe they at least existed?

Lyra asks herself this question a lot, as she's been utterly devoted to finding the truth for the past few years. When Lyra finds what she believes to be indisputable evidence in the form of a lyre, she becomes determined to prove their existence, no matter how much society (and her roommate) object.

This My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfic by JasonTheHuman has been featured on Equestria Daily and can be found here. There are also two official side stories: the February Write-Off entry Caretakers and the decidedly non-canon April Fools' Day chapter Truth vs. Fiction (a sequel to the author's earlier fic Gurren Jesus).

Note: This trope page is currently under construction. Anybody who has read Anthropology should feel free to add any tropes we seem to have missed.

Tropes used in Anthropology include:

• Aerith and Bob: Lyra considers how some ponies have human names (such as Pony Joe) to be evidence.
• Ancient Astronauts: Celestia reveals humans were like these, though how technologically advanced they were is still unknown.
• Body Horror: Lyra casts spells on herself in an attempt to turn her forehoof into a human hand. It succeeds, and is easily reversible, but not after many squicky failures.
• Book Ends: “Are you gonna eat that?”
• Cassandra Truth: Nopony believes Lyra, about anything she says. Not even Twilight, the one pony who would actually listen to her, who actually has any inclination to for inquisitive fact finding. Lyra appropriately throws this back in Twilight's face when she recounts how nopony believed Twilight about Nightmare Moon.
• Changeling Fantasy
• Chekhov's Gunman: In Chapter 11, Lyra sees books by authors Robert Jordan, Steven Erikson, and Thomas Michelakos. While Robert Jordan and Steven Erikson are Real Life authors (best known for The Wheel of Time and the Malazan Book of the Fallen, respectively), Thomas Michelakos isn't, and he becomes very significant starting in Chapter 17.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: You're probably human, the very species' existence Lyra is trying to prove.
• Dramatic Irony: Played for Laughs, when Bon-Bon recieves Lyra's letter that she won't be returning home, while offering rent for nearly 6 months. Bon-Bon is overjoyed that Lyra got over her human obsession and found a musical career that pays so well. Of course, Lyra was just turned into a human.
• Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either: Nopony has even heard of humans before, except for Celestia and Luna, and Lyra's parents, before she found the ancient books.
• Fantasy Forbidding Parents: When her parents realize the scope of Lyra's obsession, they tell her to stop fantasizing and to throw out all her "artifacts".
• First Episode Spoiler: It appears that Lyra's adventures in the human world are going to be the bulk of the story. However, they come as a plot twist in the first few chapters.
• Fish Out of Water: Lyra on Earth.
• Furry Fandom: Inverted, as Lyra is a creature obsessed with humans.
• Genre Savvy: Thomas, who can tell that Lyra's lyre necklace is important simply from the fact that she got it from Celestia.
• Gilligan Cut: Bon-Bon deduces after receiving Lyra's letter that she's finally moved on from her human obsession. At that exact moment, Princess Celestia has just turned Lyra back into a human and is sending her out of Equestria.
• Horror Hunger: Although she doesn't hunger for it more than anyone else Lyra is disturbed to find she enjoyed the taste of hamburger after finding out it's made of cow meat.
• Humanity Ensues: To Lyra, though she was originally human in the first place.
• Humanity's Wake: Though thoroughly gone, Human society and inventions greatly influenced Pony society.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Celestia reveals that the reason there aren't any humans around anymore is because of... humans.
  • Well, with a push by Discord.
• I Ate What?: Lyra's reaction to finding out what a hamburger is made of. She admits she liked it, though.
• I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Lyra has a dream of Manehattan, except everyone, including her, is human.^[1] After realizing this, she thinks about how there's so much she wants to see, and then is woken up by Bon-Bon.
• Lower Deck Episode: Scenes from the series where Lyra and Bon-Bon are in the crowd are written into the story, with added context of course.
• Mary Sue: [invoked]Lyra's opinion of The Last Unicorn.
• Masquerade: Lyra believes the supposed nonexistence of humans is this, and she appears to be right.
  • Lyra appropriately points out all kinds of inconsistencies within the Hearths Warming Eve story that everypony else takes as almost literal fact, her roommate dismisses it offhand.
  • Confrimed as true.
• Mistaken For A Spy: Played for Laughs, when Twilight was asked by Princess Celestia to find out as much about humans as she can, and so naturally goes to the human-obsessed Lyra for help. However, this was just after Princess Luna gets angry at Lyra for the mere mention of humans, and assumes Twilight's there to find out how much she knows and eliminate her. This goes into insane and hilarious levels of paranoia, even after Twilight's intent is proven genuine.
  • The implication is that Twilight is acting as an Unwitting Pawn to Celestia in order to spy on Lyra, which could make her Properly Paranoid.
• The Not Love Interest: Despite the two practically being the OTP of the fandom, Lyra and Bon-Bon are simply roommates in this story. Bon-Bon even threatens to kick Lyra out at some points.
• Parental Obliviousness: Lyra's parents disapproved of her human obsession and ordered her to stop, but they have no idea that she picked it up again after moving out. Lyra does a good job hiding it when they visit again, at least until Twilight needs help writing a report on humans.
• Prolonged Prologue: After he posted Chapter 9, leaving a huge cliffhanger ( Lyra is a human), JasonTheHuman wrote on his blog, "I hope you all enjoyed the prologue. The story begins next Monday."
• Saying Too Much: When questioned about humans, Luna immediately begins ranting about how better off everyone is without their influence. Then she orders Lyra to drop everything regarding the subject, and promptly storms off.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Lyra was born a human from the human world, came to Equestria when she was a baby through a mechanism we never discover, and then returns to her home world.
• Tomato in the Mirror: After revealing the truth about humanity and all its flaws, Celestia reveals one more thing to Lyra... She's adopted.
• Unfortunate Names: After Arriving in the human world, Lyra name-drops Twilight Sparkle to her new human friend, Audrey. She assumes Twilight must have been raised by hippies and that she must be teased "because of the books."
• Wham! Episode: Chapter 9
  • Another comes in chapter 24 when Discord reveals he followed Lyra to the human world and changes her back into a pony.

1. ↑ (presumably Manhattan)