Anthro

Anthro leapt from tree to tree, the early morning sunlight shining brightly through the small gaps between the leaves and into his eyes. He quickly rushed his way through as he approached the side of the large royal house. There was a branch that hung next to Lyra's window and he made his way to it without any detour, his eyes locked on the branch that hung next to her window. He remembered as clear as day itself the image of Lyra's shadow shown on the window, the black silhouette against the yellow lit panels casted a bright light that etched the image clearly into his mind.

As he reached the branch he sought for, his arms aching from working so soon after waking, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he looked through the window. Staring inside, he looked on as the two ponies, Lyra and the Doctor, slept in the large bed. The red carpet was lit up by the sun's beautiful light that gave it a warm and soothing glow while the four walls remained in darkness. Anthro began to stand straight, watching as his shadow stretched across the floor and grew closer to the other end of the room.

The warm sun shined onto his back, the concrete walls slightly pained his hands with a slight burn, and his long hair helped heat up the back of his neck. Anthro looked into the room at Lyra who remained in peaceful sleep with her back turned to him. He thought over how she treated him unlike anyone else in his life, as though he was wanted for something more than science. As he stared into the window, he placed one of his hands on the glass, sighing as he thought of how she would feel if he left her without a goodbye.

Suddenly, Lyra began to roll over, Anthro's heart began to race as he began to plan a quick escape to avoid the painful goodbye. When she rolled over, her eyes were wide open and staring right at him. He held his breath as he froze in place, even if the sun was burning his back he was still frozen in that position. The pony covered her eyes to shield the blinding sunlight and get a better look at the silhouette, her mouth whispering his given name in her dialect.

He turned his head side to side, looking for a possible distraction, but when no results or possibilities showed he decided to face her smiling gaze. He gave off a weak smile in the corner of his mouth, hoping to mask the pain he was feeling inside as he watched her climb her way out of the bed as to not disturb the doctor. She made her way to Anthro and pushed the window open as she whispered, "Good morning my little secret."

Anthro tucked his chin in slightly as he sheepishly replied, "Good morning."

The mare waved her hoof into the building as to allow Anthro to enter the building despite Blueblood's request to keep him out. When Anthro had climbed in and sat himself on the ground, the unicorn slowly wrapped her arms around his neck as she whispered into his ear, "Ready to learn a lot more today?" Anthro simply nodded.

****

The massive and endless garden towered over Lyra and Anthro as they walked along the leaf-covered ground. Their necks had grown tired of all the looking up that they were doing, their hands and hooves growing tired of all the exploring without rest. "That right there is a bird..." Lyra pointed her hoof towards the little delicate creature as she focused on Anthro, "can you say bird?"

"Bird," he replied casually as he carried the saddle bag over his shoulder. Inside the saddlebag were a couple of children's books courtesy of Blueblood's unused library that the two had raided. They were looking for a nice spot to watch nature and read, hoping to expand Anthro's vocabulary.

"Good job!" The mare bounced with glee as the two crossed a tree trunk over a river, while Lyra had to keep her balance, her precious biped could cross with ease using his opposable thumbs to grip the large mossy log.

"Lyra?" Lyra could hear the trouble in Anthro's voice, he seemed to have thought over what he was about to say.

There was a silence that hung in the air, the two paused at the centre of the log as they watched the water fall over the edge down below.

Lyra smiled toward the creature, "Yes, Anthro?"

She watched as Anthro paused, his eyes showed that he was thinking over every word he could say, almost as though he needed to say something important. After a few seconds without a response, her subject closed his eyes as he said, "Y-you... teach me... thank." There seemed to be no emotion coming from Anthro, Lyra simply shook it off as nothing more than a bit of trouble translating.

Lyra's cheeks reddened as she giggled, "You're welcome, Anthro."

There wasn't much talking for the next couple of minutes, the two simply looked at the world around them with the nature sprawling its beauty in all directions. At one point they crossed over a simple wooden fence with writing scribbled onto it, taking no notice of it the two carried on with the viewing of the forest's elegance. After the long and silent journey through the dense bushes, the explorers reached a clear in the forest where a flat rock sat with the sun shining onto it.

Lyra studied the rock, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her hoof as she spoke to Anthro, "Do you want to read here?" Lyra pulled the books from her saddlebag to help Anthro with putting together what she had asked him. She didn't mind the amount of bugs that were flying through the air for the nearby waterfall drowned out the sound of the buzzing insects.

Anthro looked around as well, studying the surroundings more than the rock itself, looking up into the trees and in the bushes before he nodded his head and shrugged. His forehead beaded with small droplets of sweat from walking through the thick warm air, his hair matted to the back of his neck from all the heat. Lyra assumed that Anthro was warm blooded much like she was, and that the sweating was the same as monkeys sweating.

The two approached the rock and sat down, Lyra spoke aloud to no one in particular, "This probably won't take long," she turned her sapphire yellow eyes to the biped as she continued with a smile in the corner of her mouth, "you seem to learn much, much faster than foals do. Almost like twice the speed."

The biped gave a confused look, having trouble to understand what she said.

Lyra quickly remembered how he was still a beginner and said, "You... learn... fast."

Anthro responded with a blush as he smiled sheepishly.

****

It had been five hours that the two of them read from the plethora of books that Lyra had packed, now they were snacking on some food that Lyra had packed for the hike. While Lyra munched on her salad, her friend was gobbling up the loaves of bread as though he were a vacuum. Lyra gulped down her leaves, "You did amazing today, Anthro," she turned her head to face him and brushed her silky smooth hair, "I'm amazed by you."

Anthro wiped his mouth of all the bread, "Thank you." His speaking was slow, but his accent was beginning to disappear, "I am good with language."

Anthro looked around at the pile of books, his eyes darted over all the titles until he found the anatomy book for apes, he quickly opened the book and flipped through the pages until he planted his finger on the desired section. After finding the page about the ape's brain, Anthro pointed his finger at the ape's frontal lobe as he said, "I am better there," he then moved his finger to the temporal lobe as he continued in his slow speaking, "and I am not good here."

Lyra paused form eating her snack, she looked at the diagrams and remembered her neurology lessons and understanding of the brain. She realized she might be at the cusp of a breakthrough as she grabbed the book with her magic and said, "So, you are good with language, what are you bad at?"

Anthro appeared as though his mind was beginning to race, Lyra wondered if she had asked a question too difficult for him to answer. After a few seconds, she watched as Anthro's blue eyes focused on the drawing pad, he took the drawing pad in his hands and began to whip up a sketch as he mumbled, "Just a minute."

After a few minutes, Anthro presented his diagram to Lyra as he said, "I have problem in the brain."

Lyra took the diagram in her magic and floated it in front of her. On the large white rectangle she saw multiple pictures of her with different facial expressions that were very exaggerated. Beside each drawing of her face, there was a "+" sign followed by Anthro's eye, followed by a "=" sing followed by another face of hers.

Lyra was having trouble deciphering his drawn code as she mumbled in confusion, "I don't..."

Lyra lost her train of thought when she began to notice a pattern in the drawings, her eyes widened with awe as she scanned the image over again. Beside her angry face, she noticed that the end of the equation had her with a very calm face, the same thing went for sad and the look of discomfort. Beside her face for frustration, and rage towards a spilled drink there were drawings of her shouting at a cowering Anthro. Beside her face for being calm and relaxed there was all of her exaggerated facial expressions beside the "=" sign. Lyra cracked the code that the creature tried to explain to her, her eyes grew wide with surprise and her jaw nearly dropped into her salad bowl as she said, "Oh my goodness... I can't believe it."

Anthro began to inch away as he said cautiously, "What's wrong?"

Lyra jerked her head to look at her biped with a look as though she were staring at a god as she whispered, "You just explained a symptom of autism in the most simple way possible."

Anthro nodded his head with excitement, his mood showing he had gone back to being calm as he took the pad again and began to scribble on it, "Not exactly Artism," he began as his voice trailed off, after a few more minutes he held the pad to her again as he said, "it's like this."

The intelligent creature presented Lyra the next drawing.She saw that this time he placed a number beside the first diagram that appeared on a linear scale that had a stable increase in bars from right to left. He then drew his face on the scale opposite to the number.

Lyra's jaw nearly unhinged, "This is incredible... so you have Asperger's syndrome?"

Anthro nodded his head, snapping his fingers as he said with a smirk, "You got it."

Lyra got to her hooves and began to pace around as she quickly spoke, "So you have the inability to differentiate between facial expressions, kind of like a lack of emotional recognition. Also you seem to have hinted towards lacking social queues, but not on a scale as serious as autism. While your facial and social abilities are hindered, your frontal lobe has an increased strength giving you an increased comprehension of language and communication."

She turned to look at Anthro, he said slowly with a shrug, "What? Are you happy?"

Lyra nearly tackled him with a hug as she exclaimed, "I'm more than happy, I am amazed by your intelligence, you managed to explain in the simplest manner how mental disabilities work! You also proved to me that you are a visual learner, and proved to me that you creatures have mental disorders just like us!"

The hugging didn't last long, Lyra quickly backed away as she spoke with a look of embarrassment, "Are you okay with hugs? I know that a symptom of Autism and Asperger's is that you don't like it"

He nodded his head, "Yes, not from behind, those scare me."

"Okay then," Lyra resumed squeezing the life out of Anthro as she giggled, "I can't wait to document this!" Her mind drifted off into imagining her winning awards for single handedly discovering every aspect of this new creature, becoming a hero to all those that will follow in her steps.

But then, Anthro raised his hand to her mouth and hushed her, she watched as he scanned the area and said cautiously, "You hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lyra began to feel a bit uneasy, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary aside from an awful stench that emanated from the trees to their right.

Anthro's eyes began to widen, his grip beginning to tighten around her as he spoke, "We are in danger."

What happened next passed in a blur, Anthro wrapped his arm around Lyra and tossed her to the side as brown body lunged from the bushes. Lyra rolled on the ground and tried to regain her awareness to see a large timberwolf with its paws planted firmly on Anthro's arms, pinning him to the ground.

She watched in horror as her biped struggled to free himself while the beast lowered its sharp teeth to his face, the fowl smelling breath probably causing him to grow sick. Frantically, Lyra searched the ground for anything she could distract the wolf with, looking for any sort of weapon to free Anthro when she laid her eyes on a large rock. She picked it up with her magic and tossed it towards the beast's face with pinpoint accuracy as she shouted, "Over here you dumb animal!"

The rock pelted the side of its face, a piece of wood chipped off the side and fell onto the ground, angering the wolf enough to bark in rage towards the unicorn. Anthro shouted towards her with his arms struggling more to free themselves, "NO!"

As soon as the creature turned its focus and lunged towards Lyra, the long haired biped broke free of its grip and chased after it. She closed her eyes and her body tensed up, expecting her body to feel the pain of mauling. But when she opened her eyes she saw that Anthro had jumped after it to intercept its lunge, saving her life again. Anthro landed on its back and quickly wrapped his death grip around the neck and firmly gripped the ground. Once he made sure the creature couldn't escape, Lyra watched as he dragged it towards the ledge, his eyes closing tightly with fear of what was to follow.

Lyra quickly caught on to what Anthro was planning as she begged him with panic in her voice, "Don't do it, you'll hurt yourself."

It didn't seem as though Anthro heard her, he continued moving towards the edge, gripping the ground tightly with one set of hands and keeping the forest-creature locked in a chokehold with the other set. The wooden wolf thrashed its paws in all directions, contorting its body right, left, up, and down to free itself from it's captive's grip but to Lyra's surprise Anthro was more than capable of holding it tight.

Lyra watched in horror as her hero approached the ledge, his brows furrowing in either frustration or in preparation of pain. She watched as Anthro tightened his grip on the animal, the sound of wood breaking could be heard coming from his death-grip. The amount of pressure he was applying didn't seem to phase the timberwolf, though, for it continued to claw at Anthro and deliver minor insignificant injuries.

As She continued to plead to Anthro to reconsider his decision, it appeared as though his mind had been made. He tensed up his body head to toe, turning into a living statue, and fell off the edge of the waterfall with the timberwolf in his arms. Lyra watched in horror as the two tumbled into the water below, the wolf yelping in horror as it plummeted to their doom.

Lyra shouted at the top of her lungs, "NO!" She had no idea why she didn't do anything to stop him, the way he violently threw her off of him told her he knew what he was doing, but the way he never even looked at her or acknowledged her existence before jumping off confused her even more. She galloped towards the waterfall, her heart had jumped into her throat and was beating at a near heart-attack speed as she thought of all the possible ways Anthro could have been injured or maybe even killed.

As she firmly planted her hooves onto the ledge making sure she wouldn't face the same ending that Anthro probably faced, she peered over into the water below. The sound of bodies slapping against the shallow river followed by a shout of pain made it only worse for her thoughts, images of her precious biped floating lifeless flashed through her mind. Her heart slowed down, though, when she noticed Anthro's head moving up and down in the water while the timberwolf's scattered bits drifted away in the water's current. It didn't take long for her panic to return when it appeared Anthro was having trouble swimming, his arms splashing the water violently as he gasped for air between his yelps of injury.

Lyra didn't take a moment to spare, she rushed around the waterfall's edge, galloping her way down the calmer sloped side towards the shore Anthro was attempting to swim to. As she urgently made her way towards the water with the feeling of her lungs on fire and tears welling in her eyes, she held her breath tight and jumped into the water after Anthro. The chill of the ice cold water made her body instantly curl up, but the constant thought of Anthro drowning caused her to fight her instincts. She kicked and pushed at the water as hard as she could while trying to avoid his thrashing arms before she slowly and carefully placed a hoof under his left arm. She kept her stomach pressed against his back and her chin buried in his neck and shoulder as she swam on her back towards the shore whilst keeping his head above water.

Upon arriving at the shore, Lyra used her magic to pull her saviour from the water and placed him on the flat and dry safety of the ground. She then pulled herself out and shouted in a mixture of panic, anger, and relief, "What is wrong with you?! Are you insane?"

Anthro didn't look up at her, his eyes still shut with pain as he began to roll over onto his back. Lyra covered her mouth to hide the shock when she saw the disgusting angle his right arm was bent at. His hand fared no better and all but his thumb and first finger weren't dislocated. The skin stretched and his bones jutted out in places where they weren't supposed to as Anthro screamed in pain now that his adrenaline had passed.

Lyra rushed to his side, doing her best to keep looking him in the eye and not at his dislocated shoulder as she said with panic heavy in her voice, "Anthro, I need you to breathe okay? Breathe."

Lyra thought quick, she had never dealt with an injury as serious as multiple dislocations. The only memories were of her books showing the joints of monkeys and various apes, how the ball and sockets of apes were eerily similar to Ponies. Lyra had no time to question why the joints were much the same, she had to apply her knowledge once again to help her new friend who appeared to be feeling more pain as time went on. She quickly rehearsed inside her head, "Get the injured subject to bite down on something strong, get them comfortable, give something like a painkiller, then bend his elbow at a 90 degree angle before proceeding."

Lyra looked around her surroundings frantically, looking for an object the injured creature could bite down on. She quickly spotted a thick stick and used her magic to place it in Anthro's mouth, making sure he understood what was about to happen. Once his teeth were clenching down on the stick, Lyra motioned for him to sit up whilst keeping an eye on his shoulder.

After Anthro complied with her and was sitting upright with his elbow bent at 90 degrees, Lyra checked over his shoulder to determine which of the two dislocations her book told of. She scanned his back to see that his shoulder blade was intact and there was no sign of fracturing or shattered bones, Lyra said calmly, "Okay, thank goodness its the injury I can repair myself."

As Anthro sat on the ground, his eyes finally opening up, he pointed with his good hand towards a bushel of blue plants as he stuttered in agony, "P-plant... give... now."

Lyra looked in the direction of his finger, she noticed he was pointing at a bush of Poison Joke leaves. "That's poison joke, are you"

Before she could finish her sentence, Anthro shouted at the top of his lungs, "JUST DO IT!"

Lyra rushed towards the small bush and used her magic to pluck out a dozen stems as she stammered nervously, "This stuff isn't safe for ponies."

As she approached the injured and shaking creature with the plants in front of her, Anthro grabbed them with his bare hand and placed a handful of the leaves in his mouth and began to chew. Lyra watched to her surprise as Anthro's shaking began to stop, the sweating began to halt, and his body began to relax. As she watched him sigh in slight relief, he said between spitting out the poison joke seeds, "Stops hurt. Not long though."

Lyra didn't have time to ask of his immunity to the plant, instead she approached his side and ran her hoof over the injury as she said to herself "Now that the painkiller has been given, his arm bent at the right amount, and with the stick back in his mouth, its time to put his arm back in place."

Lyra held Anthro's arm and bent his arm inwards as she said calmly, "This is going to hurt." She looked into his eyes as he simply nodded, she figured he was either used to injuries like this or simply knew what to do as well.

"On three, okay?" Lyra made her voice loud and clear as Anthro responded with his eyes locked on hers, never leaving her gaze or blinking. With her hoof, Lyra held the branch tighter as her eyes shut and she called out slowly, "One..." there was silence in the air that seemed eerie, as though the forest paused to watch what was going to happen next, "Two..." the two of them prepared for what was to follow, for neither of them would enjoy it, "Three!" Lyra used the force of her magic and hoof to rotate Anthro's arm out, there were a multitude of noises that were extremely unpleasant which were followed by the faint sound of his shoulder going back in place. As the procedure went on, Anthro's expression changed from extreme agony to ecstatic relief as soon as his arm was functional again.

Lyra watched as tears of pain rolled down his cheeks every time he blinked, his teeth had bitten down on the wood hard enough to nearly break through. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, the sight of her precious Anthro going through such pain was hurting her more than she had expected.

She ran her hoof around his shoulder, his soft wet skin stuck to her hoof as she ran it gently down his forearm to his hand. Slowly and cautiously, Lyra made her way to his fingers, the skin around the sockets had sunken in on one side and his fingers rested under the bones of his hand on the other side. Lyra counted to three one last time and instead used her magic to pull all three injured fingers back into place at once, making the ordeal end quicker and save extra pain for the two.

As soon as his fingers went back in place, a loud popping noise was heard followed by Anthro punching at the ground in a mixture of angry laughter and pain. The shouting quickly stopped once the pain had passed, Lyra watched as his eyes rolled around in joy now that the pain had stopped.

A few seconds later, Lyra found herself in the icy water with her relieved friend. She looked at his face to see a look of pure relief as he sighed, his body floated in the water as the sounds of nature filled both their heads.

Neither spoke to each other for a solid thirty seconds, they simply swam in silence as Anthro waited for the poison joke to wear off and end its numbing. After a moment of silence, Lyra looked toward Anthro as she said with a look of worry, "Anthro I want you to look at me."

"Okay," he slowly replied as he rolled over in the water to face her upright, "what is wrong?"

"I am very angry at you, you scared me half to death, and you came even closer to death while doing that." Lyra could feel the guilt in her stomach for not stopping him, but there was an even stronger sense of guilt as she watched her hero lower his head in shame.

"Sorry," the ashamed and confused biped turned his focus to his toes in the water, making sure to avoid looking Lyra in the eyes, "I was trying to protect you."

"And you did," Lyra began, she got to her hooves and began making her way closer to Anthro, "you saved me from the timberwolf." The cold water once again shocked Lyra's body, the low temperatures were something she seldom experienced on the city of Canterlot. She had no time to care about how she felt, she focused on looking Anthro in his small eyes as she spoke.

Anthro began to look back up at her, "I care for you. Are you still mad at me?"

Lyra paddled her way towards him, her mane getting wet from the splashing water around her. Once she reached Anthro, her hind hooves searched for a tall rock to stand on, once finding it she balanced herself against Anthro while standing on the rock as she said, "No I am not mad, I am proud of you, and worried for you." She wrapped her arms lovingly around him again, her lips meeting his wet cold cheek to plant a kiss as she said, "Thank you." She could feel the warmth from his body, she couldn't explain it but she seemed to feel safer than ever when she was holding Anthro.

There was silence, the only sound was the waterfall churning as the trees sighed in the wind, the two stood together as they hugged. Anthro ran his cold soaked hands through her colourful mane, rocking side to side as she sniffed out her tears of mixed emotions. Their bodies grew cold, and the distance between them grew shorter as they hugged tighter and tighter to warm the chilled river. It was at this moment that Lyra realized she had completely forgotten about Bon-Bon's arrival, but she didn't seem to care either for at the moment she felt like she was at peace. She held Anthro tight in her arms, letting her tears roll down her cheeks and drop into the water as they smiled together.

There the two sat in silence and they embraced each other as they let their built up emotions flow out of them, the only sounds to break the silence were sniffles and light breaths of relaxation. Neither of them took notice of their surroundings nor to the little bit of red that trailed down Anthro's back from his head.