I weave through the crowd, running at a brisk pace with the sea foam green unicorn in my hand, I got some looks from passersby's but I ignore them I have bigger problems to worry about. I find a dark alley and quickly duck inside, I keep my hand over the unicorn's mouth, lay my back against the wall and wait, I look to see if anyone had followed us. The coast is clear, I release the unicorn from my hold and kneel down to her height.

"Now, your going to tell me exactly what you know, no missing details, no cutting corners, and don't lie, I...hate...liars..." I quietly growl. However, despite my best attempt to sound threatening to her, she completely ignores me and looks directly at my hands with an unmatched determination. Lightening fast, her hooves shoot out and grasp my right hand inspecting it like a jeweler does a diamond.

"Hands...so beautiful..."

I raise my eyebrow, this was not the reaction I was expecting...

"Lyra!"

Her eyes look to me, looks like I finally got her attention

"For the last time, what...do...you...know..."

Her face adopts a blank look

"*sigh* how do you know of the human race?"

her eyes light up in understanding

"Yeah I know a lot about humans!" she says loudly

I rub the bridge of my nose in frustration

"That's great, HOW do you know?" I hate repeating myself, let alone three times

"Ooooh oooh I know! I know!" She says bouncing up and down with one hoof in the air like an excited student in class, so damned adorable.

"Ok, ok lyra can you tell me what you know about humans?" four times, you see, anybody else makes me go through this, they'd end up getting the crap slapped outta them at two.

"My grandpa used to read me stories about human beings from this really old looking book"

Interesting, from what Celestia told me, there used to be a tome detailing the history of me and my people during the rise and fall of my reign, However, from what I know there was a very limited amount, given to only a select few, so why would her family be in possession of one?

"Really, and did your grandfather ever loan you this book?"

"Yeah! He said that our family has had the book since the beginning of pony history!" she says with a proud smile

Hmm, could her family have been historians at some point?

"My grandpa told me all about the humans, and their king!" My brain stops, does she know?

"A great ruler who led the humans into their greatest golden age, and in the end gave everything to protect what would eventually be equestria! In fact..." her yellow-orange eyes fix themselves on me, I look as calm as I can, but on the inside i'm hyperventilating, please great spirit don't let me lose my new found freedom, not yet...

"Do you know anything about him?" Oh thank you great spirit

"Uhh, yeah! Actually you can say he and I were really close" I'm not lying...don't look at me like that

A mile wide smile stretches across her face

"Really!? Can you tell me about him!?" She says putting her hooves on my chest

"Sure, under one condition"

"Yeah?"

"You can't tell anybody about me or the humans, it might...uuh..."

"But they need to know! They need to know the truth!" She yells dramatically standing on her hind legs with her front hooves in the air

"But just think of the mayhem!" her smile evaporates immediately

"Mayhem?"

"Yeah! the history that your people have come to know and trust completely vanishing into thin air" The look on her face shows that i'm getting to her

"Yeah panicking in the streets, screaming, flaming raccoons falling from the sky riding skateboards pulling off sick kick flips utter, utter chaos"

"Really? Raccoons?" that's what she got outta that?

"Yes! Such raccoons, and they will fall, and they will pull off sick tricks, but that can all be avoided if, AND ONLY IF! You decide to keep this between us" you see now I'm lying

"Okay, i'll keep it between us" Lyra says with a downcast look

"Aww come on Lyra, look how's about this, I'll meet up with you and tell you stories about us humans and even the king that not even that old tome could tell you"

Immediately her mood takes a 180, her downcast look is replaced by a shining smile

"You'd do that for me?!"

"Of course Lyra, we're friends now" while I say this, I absent mindedly reach my hand over and run it through her mane, immediately she gains a far off relaxed look with a serene smile settling over her face.

Interesting response. I slowly take my hand away and her serene look disappears so quickly it's like she just saw a train wreck

"Why'd you stop?" she whines

"*sigh*" I start to run my hands through her mane again but this time I started to scratch behind her ears gently but firmly, this brought about an even more interesting reaction. She immediately falls to one side with a trance-like smile. I wonder if I should stop...

"*Snore*"

Holy shit did I just put her to sleep? I did! Oh my god do you know what this means?!...well when you do please explain it to me cuz I'm at a loss.

I scoop up lyra, while shaking my head, and take her out of the alley. I walk pass the onlookers in the street, probably weird to see a tall ape carrying a unicorn out of a dark alley...a unicorn who's currently drooling on my arm...lovely...

I find a bench under a tree and lay her down gently in a comfortable position. I look upon the sleeping form of Lyra curled up on the bench was probably the single most cutest thing I have ever seen but I can't help but have a frown on my face, someone else knows about my people, it was a wonder that she didn't connect the dots of who I am but I'm not complaining, the less she knows the better, the less anyone knows the better.

I turn around and head back towards the apple stand, I hope Apple Jack won't be mad at me...wow, ex-guardian of earth hoping that a small orange horse girl isn't mad at him...I feel like eating ice cream...

Thankfully when I got back to the stand Apple Jack wasn't waiting for me, good. I take the sign off and lean back in the convenient stool I had placed a while back, I then kick my legs up feeling good...

"So where'd ya'll go?"

"OH GOD!" I fell out of my stool and land in a heap, looming over me is the smug look of Apple Jack with a raised eyebrow

"Jesus Christ AJ tie a bell around your neck!"

"Why? Ya'll got somethin' ta hide?"

"No!"

"So where'd ya'll go, and don't lie cuz ah'll know"

"Okay but first off did you mean for that to rhyme or did it just happen?"

She raises an eyebrow then a gets a slightly irritated look

"Quit dodgin' the question"

"I'm not dodging"

"Yes ya'll are"

"No i'm not I just want to know if you've got a bit of a poet inside that tough cowgirl exterior"

"...No, it was an accident, now answer the question" damn she's to the point, and I don't think the amazing sick trick flipping flaming raccoons falling from the sky excuse is gonna work this time kids

"...Something came up..."

"'somethin' came up'....that's ya'lls excuse?"

I can see that you can see that this is going poorly for me, ok I have only one shot, a hail mary, an all or nothing

"Look, ah know that ya'll volunteered to help and ah appreciate it" I watch her for any subtle movements, any that'll give me an opening

"but at least be straight with me" She looked away for a second, now's my chance

"Ah mean I was about to take the cart back but ya'll really need tah-ahhhhh....*snore*" YES! I am correct once again, before she could get into scolding me I started to scratch behind her ears like I did Lyra and just as before her eyes dulled, her body went slack and soon collapsed into peaceful slumber

With a triumphant smirk I pick her up and carried her over to a tree that wasn't to far away go back to the stand and start to pack up

About an hour later I had loaded up the cart, taken it back to the barn, as well as running a quick inventory sweep, locked up the barn and walked back to the tree to check up on AJ.

When I arrive she was still sound asleep, wow this is powerful, I must use this abilty for good and the benefit of the world!...or when I get in trouble whichever comes first...probably the second one to be honest I mean let's just face facts...

I take a seat leaning on the tree and just gaze up at the wide blue sky, the same sky I used to play under as a child with my...friends...

I look over at the peacefully slumbering AJ, and gain a serene smile, the same sky that these new beings live under, I can tell that they are kind and giving race, however I can also tell they do not appreciate the sky they live under, or the earth that they walk on yet, but they are young and they are making good progress

My eyes drift to the main street and can see all the citizens of Ponyville going about their business, not a care in the world

"...No Rarity them's mah apples...wha?" I look back at AJ, I see her groggy eyed with a strand of spit hanging from her mouth

"Good afternoon sleepyhead"

Her gaze looks up to meet mine remaining unfocused for a full second until realization hit her and I jumped away from a quick kick aimed at me

"Whoa AJ now that was rude" I say with raised hands and a smile

"What'd ya do tah me?!" she demanded, but I could tell she wasn't exactly mad, just confused

"What? All I did help you to relax when you obviously needed to"

"Ah didn't need tah- Ah mean ah- *sigh* what time is it?" oh she gave up, didn't expect that

"Probably around six, six thirty maybe, why?"

She stiffens up and covers her eyes with her hooves

"Ah was supposed to have the cart back and inventory done by five! I'm gonna get such a-"

"I took care of it"

she freezes and lowers one hoof, one of her emerald eyes looks right at me

"Ya did?"

"Yep, when you were passed cold"

She gets quiet and looks like she's thinkin' about something

"Well, Thank ya kindly Mark, I really appreciate the help, so ah've decided tah not knock ya'lls block off"

"Oh thanks I really do like my block, it's very nicely shaped and toned"

"Anyway ah'll be on mah way, ah'll see ya'll tomorrow, take care Mark!" she trots away, with what I can see is a much more relaxed gait

I open the front door to golden oaks library as the sun was going down, I see Twilight sitting on the couch reading a book, I walk up next to her and take a seat next to her.

"Oh, hello Mark, how was your day?" she asks without looking up from her book, must be interesting

"Is good, is all good"

"Um, you mean 'it's good'" ...did she just correct my grammar?

"Uh sure, sure I mean yeah it's been good, met this unicorn, Lyra, she was nice, if a bit...eccentric"

"Well I'm happy your making friends making friends, oh! before I forget, there was a package sent to you from Princess Celestia"

"Really? Where is it?"

"On the kitchen table"

I get up from the couch and make my way to the kitchen, I see on the table a small bundle wrapped in cloth with a note on top, I take the note and read it

"Dear Mark Crow

Upon further excavations in the tomb we have found more human artefacts, most contained in air tight seals that we aren't capable of opening at the moment, however we did find one, very sure it belongs to you, hope to hear from you again soon

Sincerely Celestia"

My eyes drift to the bundle and reach my hand towards it

'I wonder what she found?'

My hand lightly grazes the cloth when my mind is assaulted by images of fire, pain and ancient whisperings echoing in the confines of my mind.

"Aaah!" I yell out in surprise and quickly withdraw my hand knocking the satchel to the ground

"Mark are you alright?! What's wrong?!" I hear Twilight yell to me

I take a quick second to compose myself before answering

"Y-yeah, Twilight, yeah I'm fine, just thought I saw a spider"

"Oh! Okay, geez you scared me half to death!"

I ignore Twilight's words, my focus was on what had fallen out of the cloth. On the floor laid a sheath with ancient runes that I had come to memorize. My old blade, an unassuming stone tecpatel eternally wrapped in ancient leather, this stone tool, is what I used to cut down an army and then laid to rest forever... now it has found its way back, and what's worse is that it calls to me once again.

Author's Note

Alright new chapter, I apologize again for the late updates but family and school comes first. Full day for Crow huh? First day of work, meeting Lyra, which is always fun when your human, and finally his old Tecpatel calls out to its master, what does this mean for him? maybe in the next chapter the answer will lie not in the waking mind, but one at rest? Again any constructive feedback is welcome, Tlazocamatli