The cart moved slow in the night as Lyra rode with Anthro at her side and the Doctor across from her. The only thing to break the silence were the occasional violent bumps in the road as they traveled along the cobblestone pathway to their destination. The poor doctor wasn't all that used to being awake at such an hour and was lucky enough to sleep for most of the ride from when he was picked up at his place by Blueblood's special agent ponies to be transported to Blueblood. Lyra however was wide awake with her head resting upon Anthro's lap as he sat with his back against the wall. Anthro wasn't tired, but he seemed to be deriving comfort from the warmth of her head and breath on his legs as he ran his long fingers through her hair, feeling it between them and watching as it gently swayed in the breeze.

Lyra gently floated Bon-Bon's letter at a distance, allowing Anthro to read a little bit of the new language, his eyes scanning over the paper and its beautiful hoof writing. She turned her head enough to see Anthro running his finger along the lines of writing as his lips moved in silence, his mind was quietly working away a translation of each word. Lyra was sure he would only understand less than half of the letter mostly because of Bon-Bon's hoof writing. When he reached the final line where her signature and printed name were placed, he quietly tried to pronounce the name and repeated it over and over again until he spoke, " What's Bon-Bon?" he asked with a yawn at the end.

Lyra sighed, taking a few seconds to shake off the thoughts of her future with Bon-Bon moving in with her soon, she worried what would happen to her career if anything were to go and worried more when she thought of losing Bon-Bon as a friend because of her job. She gently sighed and pressed the side of her head against Anthro's legs with a bit more pressure as she gently and slowly spoke back, "Say 'who is Bon-Bon' sweetie."

Anthro rolled his eyes, reminding Lyra of how she acted when she was younger, "Who is Bon-Bon sweetie?" He gave a smirk from the corner of his face as he added emphasis on "Who".

Lyra gave a faint laugh, she knew Anthro was giving her attitude without even knowing what he had said, "Bon-Bon is a friend of mine," she began, turning her head to see Anthro eye to eye, "we grew up together and are almost like sisters. We used to share a house when we were living in Ponyville, she would occasionally help the Cakes with making candies of all sorts while I played the lyre at parties and studied about creatures like you. Then Blueblood came for me and told me of the opportunity of a lifetime in Canterlot. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to bring Bon-Bon to live with me so we haven't seen each other in a good while. Now she says she's moving to Canterlot for me." Lyra didn't even realize how fast she was speaking for poor Anthro to comprehend, his eyes darting around in their sockets as he tried to process all those words into his own language.

There was a long pause, neither of them spoke for a while until Anthro broke the silence and said sheepishly, "I don't know those words."

Lyra chuckled once more, she couldn't help but find the honest look on his face a little funny seeing as he sounded like a foal in an adult's body. Taking another peaceful breath and patting his cheek she said, "I said that we are best friends."

Anthro wasn't slow to ask another question, "Will I see Bon-Bon?"

Suddenly, it hit Lyra that she wouldn't be able to tell of her great accomplishments to the pony who mattered most to her, she would have to lie to Bon-Bon every waking moment and fear she find the truth. Lyra sighed and let out a quiet, "No," she then had a thought pass through her mind, maybe not of a solution to the problem she was in but it was a thought that slightly cheered her up as she closed her eyes in a smile and whispered, "you're my little secret."

The cart suddenly stopped, throwing the Doctor onto the floor with a loud thud only to have him arise just as fast. A confused look was on his face as he mumbled and slurred in a tired voice, "Are we there yet?" His eyes were baggy and had sleep in the corners of them as he blinked himself back to full consciousness.

"I don't know," Lyra shrugged, "It was like a three hour ride so maybe we are."

The back doors of the carriage swung open to reveal a dozen of special agent ponies surrounding Blueblood at the centre, "And here they are," he spoke with a calm smile upon his face, "lets get the big guy out before any pony sees and everything is ruined." With nothing more to say, two of the agents up front began to cautiously approach the carriage with a few more behind them with their horns charged and ready to electrocute Anthro if need be.

Anthro didn't need any persuasion, after seeing the open night sky and smelling the fresh air, he threw himself onto the ground outside and quickly stood straight, his quick moves alarmed the protective agents as they were only milliseconds away from dealing with fried biped. Anthro calmly got up, his hands raised as what appeared as a sign of peacefulness as he slowly turned around to face the carriage opening. The carriage was quite high off the ground and required some assistance with getting off, either the help of a pony or steps to lift passengers into the back. As Lyra made her way to the exit, Anthro went gently wrap his hands around her shoulders and hindquarters as he lifted her up in a position much like a cat would be carried. The amount of strength Anthro had within him surprised the small pony as he lifted her with ease and gently sat her on the ground. Only now did Lyra notice that she was about two thirds the height of Anthro, yet probably weighed as though she were only a quarter his size which would explain his ease in carrying her. Once she had her hooves firmly planted on the ground she raised a hoof as well to let the agents know that she was alright.

As Anthro slowly stood upright, making sure he wasn't doing anything wrong, the black suited guards prepared to take Anthro to the ground using their charged electric magic that sparked and crackled from their horns. Anthro ran for the nearest tree and leapt towards its lowest branch and began to swiftly scale it. Showing no signs of struggle, he swung himself from one tree to the next using all four hands of his, letting out what sounded like laughter mixed with victory.

The ponies that watched his acrobatic feats all had the same thought on their minds, whether he had just escaped or not. Those questions were quickly put to rest when a set of hands descended from a branch above the unsuspecting Lyra and lifted her up as she laughed with surprise. The guards again reacted quickly but by the time their hooves were pointing where Lyra once was, she was already long gone. One second Lyra was on the ground, the next she was swinging from tree to tree with two of Anthro's hands gripping her.

"You are quite the active one aren't ya?" Lyra was trying to shield her face from the branches as well as make sure she wasn't going to be tossed into the trunk of an oncoming tree, but every time it seemed like she was about to get clotheslined by a branch, a set of Anthro's hands would intercept her and flip her into the air again only to catch her and repeat the process. At first she let out a few peeps and small squeaks of fear but they were quickly changed to moans of nausea followed by hoots of excitement.

The flipping and tricks came to a stop when Anthro grabbed hold of one of the taller trees that stood above the rest like the giraffe that Pinkie once invited to a party. He had his two upper hands gripping the large tree branch while his lower set were cradling Lyra as safely as possible. Lyra had only a moment to breathe before Anthro tossed her onto his back, using one hand to make sure she had her hooves wrapped around tight before climbing almost as fast as he could run. Lyra shut her eyes tight and buried her face into the back of Anthro's neck in fear of getting a mouthful of leaves but after a few seconds of not even her mane being rustled she opened to see her carrier moving as swift as a hummingbird through the openings.

She let out a gasp of excitement as the two climbed higher and higher, slowly making their way to the top of the tallest tree in Blueblood's forest of a garden. Once they had finally made it to the top, in what felt like under a minute, Anthro gently set Lyra on the thickest branch available. Worrying she might slip, she was quickly reassured when she figured out that the behemoth of a tree had not only branches perfect for gripping but also had branches that were as thick as normal tree trunks. The two stood upon the branch, letting the wind of the night flow through their hair and whatever clothes they had on them. They stared out at Blueblood's massive garden, it seemed to stretch on for kilometres on end until there was a clear cut gap in the trees that made a square, showing where the garden ended and the actual forest began. Lyra tapped Anthro's side as she motioned her head towards the borders as she said over the noise of the wind, "You... cannot... go... farther... okay?"

Anthro nodded, "Okay, I stay in garden, yes?"

To which Lyra replied, "Yes, no leaving!"

There was a bit of a pause, the two decided to take a moment to soak up what they were seeing, the nature being overwhelming to Anthro as he took a deep breath of the night air and said, "That many fun!"

"Yeah it was," Lyra called out over the noise of the wind and the leaves blowing, "its beautiful up here."

There was a silence, aside from the noises of the nature at night, neither of them spoke for a brief moment. The small unicorn turned her head to see Anthro looking back at her, his bright green eyes staring at her with a sort of puzzled and joyful look as though he was thinking of saying something. Whatever he wanted to say would have to wait when the sound of Blueblood's voice called from below, "Lyra," he shouted loudly in a worried voice, "are you alright?"

Lyra had a smile across her face as she shouted back, "Everything is awesome up here, we'll be down shortly." Lyra then proceeded to tap on Anthro's back and watch as he kneeled before her and allowed her to climb back into the previous position from before. The two then looked down below to see that they had climbed the scale of a five story building. Lyra held on tightly as she said, "We aren't jumping down or anything stupid like that right?"

Anthro was simply frozen, Lyra could see the grip on his lower hands had rendered the knuckles a bluish tint due to the amount of pressure. His eyes were wide with fear as the two stared down at the ocean of leaves and branches beneath them, not moving a single bit.

Lyra quickly realized what was going on and asked him loudly, "Are you scared of heights?"

Anthro simply nodded back to her once he translated what she had said.

Somewhat frusterated, Lyra sighed and said calmly, "Just be careful climbing down." She wasn't as calm as she sounded, inside her head were thoughts of all the possible ways they could fall off the largest tree in the forest to their deaths. She expected Anthro to grip the tree as tight as possible and move as slow as a snail, but to her surprise he was quite smoothly paced as he climbed down the tree. She could see his knuckles had turned white from the tightness of his grip on the branches but his face seemed calm and collective as his eyes quickly scanned the various branches for the next one to climb onto.

As the two slowly made their way down the towering tree, Lyra rested her head against the back of Anthro's neck as she spoke with a sigh, "That was quite the rush, I can't wait for all the fun we'll have tomorrow."

"Yeah," he replied in an even calmer voice, "can I know more word?"

Lyra understood that as, "I would like to grow my vocabulary." to which she replied, "Absolutely. I'll bring some more books for us to read some time soon."

*****

After what felt like a few minutes of climbing downward, Anthro and Lyra were finally on solid ground and Anthro could once again walk without fear of falling. Blueblood, along with his many bodyguards, approached Lyra as the prince said with a smile, "It's quite late out, and a long drive home, why don't you stay here for the night?"

Lyra was surprised by the proposition, thinking that he must have been joking about letting an everyday nobody like her in his royal home. But the earlier incident began to change Lyra's thoughts, excluding the fact that she was exhausted and could use the sleep, she accepted that maybe Blueblood had changed for the better for good. Lyra yawned as she spoke through a sleepy smile, "You know what, that sounds great."

Blueblood and Lyra as well as the personal militia of guards walked towards the door that connected the garden to the house as the white unicorn said, "Wonderful! The doctor has already been brought to the guest room, that's where you'll sleep as well. The stallions here will escort you safely to your room."

As Lyra passed through the doors and into the calmly lit house, Blueblood stayed behind with a few of his guards. He nodded to the remaining stallions as he said, "Go on inside, I'll be just fine on my own."

The guards looked at each other, looks of worry on their faces as they cautiously entered the building and shut the doors behind them. There was a moment of silence where Blueblood waited for the guards to be gone for sure before turning back to the confused Anthro. He looked into the bipedal creature's small eyes as he spoke in a deep and intimidating voice, "I know what's passing through your mind, and I don't like it."

Anthro raised an eyebrow as he responded with a shrug, "What?"

The unicorn didn't break eye contact with him as he slowly approached the creature, he may have been only half Antho's height but he was still intimidating as he said with a look of growing anger, "Even if you aren't the hellspawn that the Good Book speaks of, the feelings that you have for Lyra are disgusting and immoral. At no point in the Good Book does it say that a mare may lie with any soul but the stallion that chose her much less one of a different species. Your love is wrong in the eyes of the deities, and I must uphold this rule." Blueblood was not a preacher of his religion, he didn't agree with Stallions marrying Stallions but he believed it wasn't his business meddling with other ponies love lives. What put Blueblood on edge was the thought of Anthro falling in love with an Equine, even worse was the thought of Lyra falling in love with this animal.

Anthro continued to have a confused look on his face, darting his eyes from side to side before giving a sheepish smile, "Pardon?"

Blueblood began to approach Anthro to the point where he was making the creature almost twice his height back up in fear as he said with a growl, "Stay away from my Lyra." The emphasis that Blueblood added to Lyra's name made something click in Anthro's mind, which was followed by an even more confused look on his face.

Blueblood gave an exasperated sigh, "Forget it, you're probably too stupid to understand anyways." Blueblood then stormed off into his house and shut the door behind him, but before he fully closed it he said in almost a whisper, "You know... I wouldn't be surprised if you either wound up torn apart and dead or gone by tomorrow morning. The things that lurk in these woods are probably creatures you've never met before. Just thought you should know." With his loving good-night wishes done, Blueblood shut the door completely behind him, leaving Anthro in complete confusion and silence.

Anthro said to himself in silence, "Me love Equine? Ew."

Author's Note

Sorry if this chapter seemed lacking a bit, I was going to have a segment where it changes to Anthro/Hunter's perspective for a bit but that would have been too complicated for me at the time. So now the next chapter will be another glorious Anthro's perspective chapter and it will clear up a lot of confusion i noticed happening in the comments section. I love you all (except Randy, he's an asshole).

Also, If you notice me being a little rude, or vulgar and using sexual humour that is a little extreme, don't worry. Most of my jokes towards people that say offensive things aren't true (except Randy, he's an asshole) and it only means that I took the time to think about your sexy bodies and find a way to make it look like I wouldn't service your throbbing love.

Randy, you're an asshole.