Chapters It was a peaceful morning in Ponyville when Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting on a bench in the park. They had not been able to spend much time together and decided that they needed to make up for it. Lyra asked, "So Bon Bon, what do you want to do today? Do you want to eat at Sugarcube Corner or the cafe?"
Bon Bon and Lyra had been seeing one another for quite a while and wanted to go somewhere with a bit more privacy. Bon Bon replied, "I know the cafe has that one private corner so I was thinking that maybe we could eat there."
Lyra hugged Bon Bon and said, "I was hoping you'd say that! Let's go."
Once they arrived at the cafe they were able to get their favorite seats, in the very back where they could have their privacy. Unlike with most ponies, they sat together on the same side of the booth. The waiter was new and had never seen them in there before. He had an odd look on his face and asked, "Uh, why are you two sharing the same side of the booth?"
The question bothered Bon Bon a bit but Lyra was perfectly fine with it. She replied, "Because we love each other, that's why."
The waiter asked, "Ok. Well anyway, what do you two want?"
Lyra replied, "I would like a double cheeseburger with only cheese along with some pretzels and a diet pop."
Bon Bon nudged Lyra and laughed, "Oh Lyra sweetie, you're always ordering the meaty stuff!" She looked up at the waiter and continued, "I would like a daffodil sandwich with a milkshake."
The waiter nodded and headed back to the kitchen to give the cooks their order. While they were waiting for their meal Bon Bon and Lyra had begun to talk about what they had been doing since they last saw one another. Lyra had traveled to Canterlot to do some research on her favorite thing, the ancient beings that were believed to inhabit the world before ponykind inherited the earth, humans.
Bon Bon asked "So Lyra, what did you do during the past week?"
Lyra replied, "Well I went up to Canterlot to catch up on some reading. Celestia granted me permission to go into the ancient history part of the library up there."
Bon Bon frowned and said, "Don't tell me you read about humans again."
Lyra smiled and replied, "Now come on sweetie, what is so bad about me reading about them?"
Bon Bon's frown turned into a scowl and she asked, "Look Lyra, you know those things never really existed don't you?
Lyra replied, "Come on Bon Bon, they did too exist! Just you wait, one day I'll find evidence that they were real and nopony will tell me I'm stupid for believing they were real ever again!"
Bon Bon smacked Lyra and shouted, "How can you be so stupid Lyra? I don't know how much longer I can put up with your childish beliefs."
Lyra got out of the booth and said, "Oh, so that's how it is huh? The hell with you Bon Bon, WE'RE FINISHED!"
Lyra kicked the door open as she stormed out of the cafe. As Lyra stormed out of the cafe Bon Bon yelled,"Good riddance!"
Lyra slammed the door and headed into the Everfree Forest. For a long time her and Bon Bon had been marefriends but she finally had enough. She ended their relationship and decided to go on an extended vacation in the Everfree Forest as she felt it would give her the peace she needed. In Ponyville the pegasus ponies had planned a perfect day but as everypony knows the weather operates on it's own over the forest. A brisk wind was blowing as Lyra headed deeper and deeper into the forest. Lyra saw the clouds getting thicker and thicker overhead and said to herself, "Well it looks like I better find a thick canopy to stand under or a cave to get in."
Suddenly rain began to pour down and lightning began flashing in the sky, accompanied with deafening thunder. Lyra suddenly realized something. She realized that being under trees in a thunderstorm is not a wise idea. She began running frantically trying to find some sort of shelter. She ran deeper and deeper into the forest until she saw a cave off to her left. She darted for the cave and got in right before lightning struck a nearby tree. The boom from the thunder threw Lyra further into the cave, where she landed right in front of what appeared to be a chest that was mostly buried underneath the rocky floor. Normally she wouldn't think anything about it but something kept telling her that she needed to check the buried chest out. What she would find would shock her.
Lyra's Discovery
After getting thrown into a cave by the boom of thunder Lyra got up on all fours and stood above what appeared to be a buried chest in the back of a cave. Lyra was bound and determined to get this chest unearthed. First she began to poke at it with her hooves, trying to dig out around the rocks and dirt but to no avail as it was buried too tightly. She looked over to her right and saw an old shovel. She levitated it to herself and began to dig it out. Unfortunately the shovel was horribly rusted and it broke on her. She looked at the shovel and could tell that it was ancient. She said, "Good grief this thing is old! Nopony must have been in here for ages."
She decided that as much as she didn't want to return to Ponyville so quickly, that she would have to go home and get one of her shovels. She was bound and determined to get that chest out of the ground so the following morning she headed back home. Despite rushing into the forest and frantically running around when the storm hit she was able to get back home easily. Once she got back to Ponyville she was stopped by Bon Bon. She said, "Look, I'm sorry for smacking you and belittling you in the restaurant. Do you think maybe we could start fresh?"
Running into Bon Bon brought back all those bad memories from the previous day and Lyra broke down crying. She cried, "No! I can not love a pony who doesn't accept me for who I truly am. I can not be with a pony who treats me like dirt, especially in public." She headed back towards her house and continued, "I'm sorry Bon Bon, but that memory of what you did to me at the cafe yesterday is just too much."
She rushed towards herself and Bon Bon yelled, "Just you wait Lyra, you'll come crawling back to me eventually! Nopony else would ever want you!"
Lyra rolled her eyes and headed into her tool shed, where she grabbed her shovel, which was in vastly better shape than the old one she discovered in the cave. Once she knew Bon Bon was gone she headed back out towards the forest. An hour and a half later she finally reached the cave she had found the chest in. She began to dig it out of the ground. The wood the chest was made out of was incredibly old so Lyra had to be careful not to rip it apart. After an hour of careful digging Lyra lifted the chest out of the ground. She unlocked the chest and opened the first of three books. The series was titled, "The Complete History of Humanity." When she opened the first book and looked at the cover page she was shocked. Underneath the title it read "© 2036." She was ecstatic because all of the old books regarding pre-pony history theorized that the human year of 2036 was the year that humans went extinct.
She dropped the book, began jumping up and down like a school filly and shouted, "SWEET CELESTIA! I AM RIGHT! THEY DID EXIST!"
She knew that she would need to get the chest home so she could read the books comfortably at her kitchen table. Luckily for her there was a full moon that night so she was able to easily find her way home. It was around three in the morning when she got home. She placed the old chest in her bedroom closet until the next day when she would begin to read the history of her favorite topic, written by one of the beings she holds so dear. What she would find would open her eyes to a new side of her beloved humans, a side that was not so pleasant.
The following morning Lyra woke up with a smile on her face as she knew that she could finally learn everything about humans. As she opened the first volume she read about the human theories about how they evolved from apes in Africa. She was fascinated by this as she had always believed that the world was far, far older than anypony else did. She continued to read the book and she began to read about how Cro-Magnons had caused Neanderthals to go extinct. Lyra smiled and said, "Yep, I was right! Survival of the fittest is how the world works!"
Everything she read in the first volume involved the era that the humans of the time of the book called prehistory. She smiled and said, "Well, everything theorized about early humans was right!"
After reading the first volume Lyra was ecstatic and the events of her fight and breakup with Bon Bon were a distant memory. She opened up the second volume and it began to discuss the events of the great empires, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. As she began to read this she began to read about things that she never knew about humans before, war. She began to breathe more heavily as she read about the wars between waring ancient powers and things became even more disturbing when she read about how religious persecution would cause governments to kill those in the minority using horrifically brutal torture methods.
Tears began to run down her cheeks as she continued to read on through the second volume. As it moved into the topic of dark ages Europe and the increased religious persecution and worsening punishments, she began to cry loudly and screamed, "NO! HOW COULD THEY BE LIKE THIS?"
One part of her just wanted to stop reading right there and forget she ever came across the chest but another part of her wanted to continue reading, and that is exactly what she did. She wanted to discover what finally wiped out the creatures that she thought so highly of. As she read onwards through the second volume the history continued to involve more and more war, more hate and hostility and the eventual discovery and conquering of lands known as the "new world."
After she finished the second volume she just sat there with tears running down her cheeks. She was hoping that in the third volume that humanity would change into what she had learned from books written by ponies, that they were peaceful, loving beings who would never harm anyone. She then opened the third volume and began to read about how the nations of Europe began to conquer lands around the world and treated their new subjects horribly. As she continued reading she read about how nations around the world would win their independence from their imperial oppressors, which gave her a sense of hope that her beloved humans would eventually become what she had initially learned about them during her studies of mythology.
Finally she reached the second half of the third volume and the issues it discussed only became worse and worse. She read about the first world war, the global economic depression and the horrific events of the second world war and what terrified her the most was how the war in the pacific was won with the detonation of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. After she read this she almost slammed the book down and was ready to take it back out to the cave but her curious side kept her reading. She read on about the corruption, further wars, jihad, increasing prevalence of viruses and finally, she got to the final part of the book which described the final few years of humanity.
She continued to read on about increased violence and hatred in a land called "The Middle East," global overpopulation and super viruses that would periodically emerge from southeast Asia. When she got to the final couple pages of the book she read about how an accidental missile launch caused two global powers, the United States and Russia, who were once allies declared total nuclear war upon one another. In days this would cause every nation in the world to join one side or another. After three years of global war both sides were diminished to the point where the war finally stopped but the radiation that existed continued to cause suffering. On the final page it described how the global population had dropped to under 10,000 and that it was theorized that humanity would die within a year.
Lyra's views on humans had changed dramatically and suddenly she went into a trance, she saw visions from the past. She actually saw herself standing in a leveled city where everything had a radioactive green glow to it. She stood over an ill human, the final human. In this trance she began to cry uncontrollably as this human started choking for air as a green snow began to fall and finally, she saw the human pass. Everything felt so real to her, as if she truly was there. She began to cry and scream uncontrollably, "No! Please Celestia no! Let her live, please!"
Finally she snapped out of her trance and caught her breath. She wiped the tears from her eyes and realized two things. She realized that she was indeed right about the existence of humans yet she also realized that her views on them had been incredibly flawed. She realized that they were not these sweet, peaceful beings who were simply killed off by illnesses, that instead they were responsible for their extinction. She then realized that had it not been for their violent nature, that ponykind would have never inherited the earth and that she would not even exist. She smiled and said, "I guess their extinction was a good thing after all."
Lyra's Vindication
Lyra was saddened but angered at the same time. She felt like her whole world had suddenly been turned upside down and knew that she needed to talk but who would believe her. Nopony in town would believe her. She then realized that she could take the books to one place and cause one pony to realize that she has been correct all along, Twilight Sparkle. She put the three books in the chest she found them in and ran over to the library. She knocked on the door and was greeted by Twilight, "Oh hi Lyra, how's it going?" asked Twilight
Lyra replied, "Oh they could be going better. Yesterday Bon Bon and I broke up because of her smacking and belittling me at the cafe."
Twilight asked, "I heard about that. Why are your eyes red? Have you been crying this long over it?"
Lyra replied, "No." She then levitated the chest and showed it to Twilight. She continued, "Twilight, I think you should take a look inside this chest. After you check it out you will understand why."
Twilight, being the eternal skeptic, rolled her eyes but invited Lyra in with her chest. Twilight opened the chest and saw ancient books. Her eyes lit up and she asked, "Lyra, where did you find these?"
Lyra replied, "I found them in the back of a cave deep in the Everfree Forest."
Twilight began to read the books and was fascinated by them. She realized that these books were not written by ponies or any other creature from the time since ponies had evolved to where they are. After two hours of reading she looked over at Lyra and said, "I am so sorry for doubting you Lyra. I am certain that these books were indeed written by humans in their final days."
Lyra's eyes lit up and she asked, "So you don't believe they were merely mythological beings?"
Twilight replied, "No Lyra, I am now certain that they were real. Only a human could have written something this detailed about them."
Lyra asked, "What do you think we should do now that we know this?"
Twilight replied, "Well I'm not sure, but if you need somepony to talk to or to vent to about everything you have learned, I'll be here for you."
Lyra let out a sigh of relief. She said, "Thank you Twilight. You have no idea how happy I am that somepony finally believes me when I am adamant that humans did exist."
Twilight smiled and replied, "I can tell how happy you are. It is just that humans are much different than you believed they were."
Lyra said, "I know. Now I feel as though I need to write a book that will replace all the old books that don't depict them the way that they truly were."
Twilight replied, "Well I think that perhaps it would be for the best if we just let this stay between us. I don't want anypony to target you."
Lyra sighed, "You're right Twilight. I'm just glad to know that I was right when it came to the fact that they did indeed exist."
Despite Twilight wanting the books for her library Lyra took them back home with her. Despite Twilight telling Lyra to just leave the issue alone Lyra decides to write a book regarding the history of humans. With the help of Celestia, she was able to not just get her book published, but she was able to get the old volumes published as well. Soon Lyra becomes a well known author and continues to write books regarding the history of humans, more detailed books regarding specific time periods. In the end Lyra and Bon Bon settle their differences yet they do not get back together. Despite Bon Bon wanting to be Lyra's marefriend again, Lyra believed that the only reason Bon Bon wanted her was because of her wealth and success.
