Lyra sat by herself, hands clasped together gingerly around the odd little trinket she was given. Her eyes were nervously glancing to and fro inside of Princess Celestia’s castle quarters, her golden eyes looked up at the books lining the shelves, and eventually landed on the desk nearby where behind it, the princess sat with her side facing Lyra. The princess of the sun was looking outside of the window, her mane still and not flowing like it usually did.
Lyra could almost see Celestia’s mane turning pink as opposed to its other colors..
The young filly didn’t know what was going on… or why Celestia herself had taken her to the castle. While she felt safe and secure inside the massive castle… she couldn’t stop herself from feeling nervous under the gaze of an immortal ruler like Celestia. Lyra was given a shirt and new pants, but the paint she had on her face and arms remained for some reason, and Lyra couldn’t bring herself to wash it off.
It felt like a little barrier between her and the worst the world had to offer.
Many of the guards she had passed by had given her looks, eyeing her black and white paint and the trinket she was given with wary and even slightly fearful gazes. Even the most veteran guards seemed to wary of her… treating her as if she had been tainted by some disease. She didn’t know why however, but she didn’t try speaking… she was still scared of what happened to her a few hours ago, she was tired and hungry as well.
“What is your name again?” Celestia had asked little Lyra, who looked up at the leader of their nation with a tiny gaze.
“L-Lyra H-Heartstrings, Ma’am.” Lyra said quietly, fidgeting with her new clothes. She felt itchy and nervous under the gaze of such an old and powerful pony, having been told by her mother that Celestia was a very powerful alicorn… If you ever meet her… be sure to be nice and polite. She recalled her mother telling her.
It was hard to do that given everything going on.
“Lyra Heartstrings?” Celestia mirrored, leaning back in her chair with her eyes looking over the filly, and the markings covering her body. She couldn’t stop the shiver going down her spine from how much she looked like one of them. The paint nearly covered her minty green coat around her arms, neck and face, her hair was dirty and her eyes slightly bloodshot from crying. Celestia felt so sorry for this child… losing the only family she had left… “Tell me… do you know what those creatures were, that saved your life?”
The filly shook her head, shaking in her seat.
Celestia leaned forward, before pushing a small book over across the desk and gesturing for the filly to pick it up. Once she did, the filly opened up the book to where it was bookmarked and saw charcoal drawn pictures of the creatures… however these looked incredibly different. “They are called humans.” Celestia told Lyra, who suddenly looked fascinated.
The book was written in neat calligraphy, with pictures drawn within of the tribal creatures that had come into her village and slaughtered the caribou. But these lacked the skull markings and bone crafted clothing and armor. These were more… docile looking, carrying simple looking spears and bows, wearing little clothing as they stalked along a hillside as some ponies watched them. Some fascinated and others wary looking, as if they were waiting to be attacked.
‘The species of “Homo Sapiens” or Humans, seem to be split up into many different tribes spread across the badlands, this one in particular is a small hunting tribe that has watched over many travelers who traverse through the badlands.’ One of the entries below the photo read off, and Lyra turned the page, finding more pictures of these humans. All of them however showed the varying tribes spread out across the land, some dressed in heavy clothing and others almost completely naked, some wore paint and others didn’t.
Lyra didn’t know there were so many tribes around, let alone this many humans. She wanted to know more about them… but she honestly didn’t expect there to be any books about them, looking up at Celestia she saw the solar diarch was looking out of the window again.
“There are rarely ever humans in Equestria,” Celestia started saying in a soft tone, as if remembering something from a distant past. “The ones who saved your life… are the only ones to have crossed our borders since Nightmare Moon’s Reign.” She sighed sadly, rubbing her forehead. “And they just had to be the Dead Ones...” It was so quiet Lyra almost didn’t catch it. Looking back over to Lyra, the mare continued, “And they marked you...”
Looking up, Lyra locked eyes with Celestia for the first time since meeting her. That had been something she wanted to ask about, what that meant. “M-marked?” She asked, looking down at the paint covering her arms and hands. They had covered her coat well, making her look like some kind of ghoul on Nightmare Night. Only a tiny part of her told her that it meant something… more.
Nodding, Celestia stood up before walking around her desk and kneeling in front of the filly. She gently took one of Lyra’s hands, her own incredibly smooth ones tracing the lines that were meant to signify bone. “Despite my ever lasting knowledge, there is little that I know about the tribes themselves and the things they do to ponies.” Looking down at the markings, she wished she could have taken the time to learn more about what being painted like this meant.
Of course…
No one knew anything about the Dead Ones… only that they were incredibly dangerous, and they were not known for helping ponies.
She wondered what made Lyra so special.
“But...” Looking up, Celestia held Lyra’s hand gently, saying, “They must think you are special somehow…” Patting her hand, she smiled as Lyra held the book in one hand to her chest. “Do you wish to learn more about them?”
At Lyra’s nod, Celestia smiled brighter.
“Then let’s begin.”
