“Lyra! Lyra!” came an excited mare’s voice accompanied by a loud and persistent banging that reverberated off the solid wood door and echoed around the house.
Bon Bon, conditioned by years of experience with SMILE, span quickly on her hooves and took an aggressive martial arts stance, ready to protect herself and her marefriend from whatever horrors lurked the other side of her front door.
“Lyra! Lyra!” the banging continued unabated.
In an instant, Bon Bon recognised the voice and began to unwind, taking a moment to shoot an exasperated look to nopony in particular, then shrugged and walked toward the door. She lifted the latch and stood back as the door was flung open and a grey pegasus burst in, her two eyes pointing happily in different directions.
“Excuse me” she offered sweetly by way of apology as she thundered past the incognito secret agent into the house, carrying on with her cry for the other occupant.
Lyra poked her head out from around the bathroom door, mouth obscured by frothy bubbles where she had been partway through cleaning her teeth. Her eyes grew wide as she suddenly caught sight of Derpy in full charge, quickly appreciating that the accident-prone mail pony was not going to stop.
Lyra was knocked onto her back by the impact and came to rest with Derpy standing on all four hooves looking down at her where she lay pinned, one of her eyes focused on her, whilst the other seemed perfectly content to stare off elsewhere.
“Lyra – I’m so glad I’ve found you …” she exclaimed.
“I live here” Lyra deadpanned, freeing up one of her forelegs so she could wipe the toothpaste off her mouth.
“I know” said Derpy sprouting a proud smile, “That’s why I came here.”
“What’s the matter?” asked Bon Bon, coming to see if her marefriend was alright.
“Oh yes …” Derpy continued, so happy to have found her quarry that she had momentarily forgotten why she had to find her. She cleared her throat, then continued, “Maud Pie and Doctor Stable are at Ghastly Gorge. They wanted to see you.”
“Did they say why?” asked Bon Bon suspiciously.
“Nope” replied Derpy then reversed carefully off Lyra, before squeezing past Bon Bon and turning to leave the house with her head held high, secure in the knowledge that she had done a good job.
“That mare …” sighed Lyra getting to her hooves and dusting herself down.
“Yes” agreed Bon Bon, “But it did sound important. Come on, let’s go see what the fuss is all about, huh?”
“Can I get breakfast first?” asked Lyra, the first hopeful stirrings of a smile creeping across her face.
“Grab a snack” said Bon Bon, “No, make that two, one for me too, then we’re out of here, OK?”
Lyra agreed, then went to the kitchen while Bon Bon grabbed a saddle bag and filled some water bottles. In a matter of minutes they were packed, and Bon Bon stood by the door, holding it open for her marefriend to leave first. As she stepped out to follow, her gaze fell upon the freshly chipped paint on the front door that just happened to be an exact match for the flecks of paint that Derpy would find under her hooves later that day. Bon Bon rolled her eyes, thinking about how much effort it was going to take to repaint the door. Again.
Ghastly Gorge was not the most welcoming of environments. As well as being home to a colony of vicious Quarray Eels, it was unstable and prone to rockslides, all good reasons why ponies didn’t go there. Even Rainbow Dash had been caught by a rockslide here once before and had to be rescued by her tortoise.
The two friends wiled away the journey by throwing ideas between each other as to what reason could have attracted the other two ponies to go there in the first place. Maud was widely known as being into rocks, and the doctor was known for, well, being a doctor more than anything, but why these two should be together and why they required Lyra was a mystery. Bon Bon encouraged light-hearted banter about their desire for her marefriend’s musical talents, whilst deep down, her mind was racing with the possibility of more sinister reasons.
Eventually they arrived at the rim of the gorge and peered over, taking in the inhospitable terrain below, and seeing no trace of anypony.
“Hello!” shouted the unicorn, “This is Lyra Heartstrings! Is Maud Pie or Doctor Stable down there?”
The two ponies held their breath to listen and were both surprised to hear a mare’s voice echo faintly from the bottom of the gorge, “Oh, sorry …”
Shortly, a grey pegasus with blonde mane and tail could be seen flying up to meet them.
“Um …” she said a little uncertainly once she had landed, drawing figures guiltily in the dirt in front of her with a forehoof, “I was supposed to guide you here, but I forgot, then I lost you, so I came straight back here to wait for you …”
The two friends exchanged glances, and both shook their heads with a resigned little giggle; Derpy was an absolute sweetheart, but more than a little on the ditzy side.
“So, how do we get down?” asked Lyra, puzzled.
“Easy” said Derpy, quickly regaining her happy composure when she knew she wasn’t going to be told off, “I’ll carry you down!”
Once again, the two friends exchanged glances, but this time one borne of uncertainty.
“Um …” questioned Bon Bon, used to going on missions with trustworthy fellow professionals, “Are you sure?”
“Oh yes!” replied Derpy happily, “I’ve done it lots of times.”
“Want to go first?” asked Lyra, trying not to let the doubt she felt taint her voice.
“OK Derpy. You’ve got me” Bon Bon volunteered bravely, not wishing to put her marefriend at risk, “You sure you can carry me and the saddle bags?”
“Oh sure” she replied cheerfully, “I carry the mail all the time.”
Next, she reached out to give Bon Bon a hug, then spread her wings before flapping them enthusiastically, if a little unsteadily. Lyra watched wide-eyed as Derpy struggled to get into the air then waddled uncertainly towards the rim of the gorge, before apparently toppling off the edge.
She looked down, forehoof raised covering the gasp from her mouth as the mail mare appeared to recover and glide down to the floor below. She only let out the breath she was holding when she saw Bon Bon released from Derpy’s clutches on the old riverbed and step to one side to give the pegasus room to take off once more.
Before she knew what was happening, she too was enjoying a ride down into the gorge to meet up with her marefriend. Once they had exchanged grateful hugs and a kiss, they set off following Derpy to where Maud and Doctor Stable were busily engaged with something by the cliff face.
“Ah, Lyra” commented the doctor, “So glad you could make it. I guess you must be wondering why we sent for you?”
“You want some music?” asked Lyra with a broad grin.
“Certainly, your music is delightful, but first I’d like to ask you about these intelligent two-legged creatures you have told so many stories about.”
Lyra was taken aback.
Bon Bon was suddenly very interested.
“I … er …didn’t think anypony took me seriously” she floundered, the first flushes of embarrassment spreading across her muzzle.
“Well, it could just be that you have been one step ahead of all of us” explained the doctor, “Tell me are you afraid of a few old bones?”
She shook her head.
“Very well then” he acknowledged, stepping aside so she could see Maud chipping away at the rock.
“Hello” she said, putting down the geologist’s hammer she had been holding in her mouth.
“Yes, well, young Maud Pie here called me when she found some unusual remains and wanted me to identify them. I have to say we’ve been rather busy uncovering what looks like the skeleton of a creature just like you have described; a human, I believe you called it. See, it has no hooves, just strange bony appendages at the end of its forelegs, like we saw with that braggart Minotaur; Iron Will, I think was his name.”
Lyra gasped. After all the years of being disbelieved, humoured and even ridiculed, she was suddenly completely overwhelmed by the possibility of having been presented with the proof she thought would never be found. A tsunami of adrenaline pumped through her body, leading to the onset of an uncontrollable trembling that began to afflict every part of her. It wasn't nerves, moreover a dawning understanding that she could be on the cusp of taking a big leap forward in realising her life's ambition, thanks to this one, long-dead character.
“Don’t worry” reassured the doctor, misunderstanding Lyra's reactions, “It can’t hurt you.”
“In about another 8,200 years it could have become a fossil” interjected Maud, “Approximately. Assuming consistent compaction and water seepage. The conditions in the ground here are ideal.”
They all pulled back to give Lyra a better view, and she inched slowly forward, trying to equate what she had seen in her visions with the skeleton in front of her, while fighting to keep her rising conflicted emotions under control.
As she stood next to the skeleton, the surge of emotions finally became too strong to keep bottled up any more, and found the only way out they could. Her eyes began to fill with intense sadness, and then she knelt down, reaching out to softly cradle the upper body and leaned forward, giving the skull a gentle kiss.
“You poor, poor thing” she whispered, her wet tears landing on the long dead remains to give them their first touch of emotion in millennia, “What happened to you? What were you like? What did you know?”
Bon Bon looked at Doctor Stable who looked straight back at her, a slightly disturbed look on his face. She shot him the merest inflexion of her eyebrow that conveyed the clear message, “Give her this.”
Meanwhile, Maud stared on seemingly impassive at the outpouring of tenderness, but secretly reached out unseen to Boulder for emotional support.
By the time Lyra got back up again and withdrew respectfully from the skeleton, the adrenaline had subsided and she no longer shook. Instead, not only had she made peace with these ancient remains and what they stood for, but she had also found peace within herself.
The others gave her time to collect herself, then Doctor Stable punctuated the silence by observing, “See the way it’s laying in a straight line, hind legs together and forelegs by its side ...”
“We can’t keep calling this individual ‘it’” objected Lyra politely, but assertively, “Doctor, can you tell what gender is most likely please?”
“No, not without some other evidence I’m afraid” he responded apologetically.
“Then I’m saying ‘his’ name is ‘Cliff’, because that’s where you found him” she announced proudly, “Just be careful getting him out, OK?”
Bon Bon put her forelegs around her marefriend and gave her a gentle hug, happy to see her good spirits return.
“Told you I was right” Lyra proclaimed, beaming cheerfully.
Glad that she had broken out of her maudlin initial response to the skeleton, Doctor Stable asked, “So, what can you tell us about old Cliff here and his friends?”
“Sure" she acknowledged cheerfully, "They stand upright on their hind legs, you know, kinda like the Princesses do at the Summer Sun Festival, and they’re really clever with their forehooves, but they’re not actually hooves at all, and they call them ‘hands’. On the end of their hands are wiggly bits called ‘fingers’ that they can use to play musical instruments …”
Lyra was in her element as she reeled off all the things she knew about humans, as well as a whole lot of things she thought she knew, mixed in with a load more stuff she had made up because it fitted in with her fantasies; a catalogue of information that she had kept to herself for so long because nopony else had ever really taken her seriously. Now the floodgates had opened, there was nothing to stop her giving her audience the full benefit of her wisdom, pausing every so often to giggle at something she found funny.
“But why is he here?” asked Bon Bon.
“Well, I don’t know that” she replied with a playful little snort.
“He’s laid out neatly, so he was evidently placed there carefully by others” Maud observed dispassionately, “If they buried one, it is probable there may be more.”
“You mean, all his friends are round here too?” Lyra gasped excitedly.
“That would be a logical deduction” she confirmed, “Boulder thinks so too.”
“Do you think” asked Doctor Stable, “That this points to these humans having lived right here before ponies colonised the area?”
“Either that or they flew here to bury their dead and then flew back to where they came from” offered Bon Bon, stroking her chin thoughtfully.
Lyra’s eyes went wide at that snippet of speculation, her imagination running riot with strange thoughts of humans from other worlds.
“Highly unlikely” Maud monotoned, suddenly turning as if somepony had spoken to her, “What’s that Boulder? … No, I can’t say that.” She turned back to the ponies assembled round her and then added, “Boulder thinks it’s unlikely too.”
“So, we’re in the middle of a long dead human city?” gasped Lyra, her mind racing to speculate on what it could have looked like.
“Possibly” came the terse answer.
“You know Maud” said Lyra, cosying up alongside the geologist, “I’ve always had a very strong interest in digging for fossils and things …”
“Since about two minutes ago” scoffed Bon Bon good naturedly.
“No, really” she continued, “Maud … can I stay and dig here with you; you know, see if we can find some more of his friends …?”
“That would be unwise” Maud attested, “The strata here are unstable. If we dig too far, the cliff will collapse. We should wait for time and the weather to bring it down.”
Lyra’s expression deflated momentarily, but then recovered quickly, “But, we could keep digging in the area, you know, like either side of the gorge. What d’you say?”
“Perhaps” said Bon Bon, putting a foreleg around her marefriend and giving her a gentle squeeze, “But isn’t it enough to know that you were right all along, and your humans have been here, possibly even lived here, and that anything you find and can't explain could have belonged to them?”
“Tell you what” suggested Doctor Stable, checking Maud’s face for approval, but receiving the same expressionless stare as always, “Somepony is going to have to report this discovery to Princess Celestia; why not you? Have you ever met her before?”
“Sure, I’ve seen her before …”
“But have you ever had the chance for a personal chat with her about humans?” asked Bon Bon.
At this her face lit up, her smile stretching as wide as it could go.
“I’d like that” she confirmed, “But first I want to help Maud finish getting Cliff out so he can meet her too; it's only fair for him to tell his side of the story!”
