Anthro

The alarm clock at Lyra's bedside table began to ring, 8 o'clock in the morning. After grumbling and mumbling to herself, she slowly tumbled her way out of bed and dragged herself to her dresser to fix the dirty pillow-mane she was suffering from. She calmly brushed her hair as she looked into the eyes of her reflection, the turquoise pony that stared back had sleep in her eyes and were half shut. Pictures hung around her mirror, many of them being fossilized remains of past civilizations while others were of Bon-Bon and her friends outside the facility. Wait, the facility, there's a creature she's been waiting for all her life that's sitting in there waiting for her. Lyra's mood quickly went from grumbly and grouchy to happy and hoppy as she rushed out of the bedroom to prepare her meal for the day.

Packing apples, carrots, and a dandelion sandwich as she quietly chanted to herself, "Today's the day, today's the day!" while prancing around her sunlit living room. Her burgundy couch was warm from Celestia's gentle heat of the sun as her cat slept upon one of the armrests before being abruptly awoken by her master, "Today is the day, Darwin!" She exclaimed, it wasn't often that she was this happy about her job. Mostly because it was the first time that she wouldn't be simply sitting there while the scouts searched the mountains and forests for the anomalies out in the wilderness, hoping to do something aside from crosswords all day. You might enjoy doing nothing while on the job, but a dedicated hard worker like Lyra didn't.

Lyra galloped out the door with her saddlebag floating behind her, surrounded in a turquoise aura. Her door slammed behind her and locked with a click.

Lyra bolted through the city, not stopping on her usual commute to pick up flowers at one of Rose's stands, not picking up quills and Counch'n'Quills because today it was hooves-on study time with her new pet... err friend. She did, however, give every pony bright and cheerful smiles as they waved at her. Doughnut Joe noticed Lyra rolling through town like a mad-mare and attempted to match her speed as he called out with excitement, "Hey Lyra, whats the rush?"

Lyra knew the protocol, tell nopony at all costs, with Doughnut Joe it was an often encounter so she knew what to say, "Gotta beat Bon-Bon to our picnic," she called over her shoulder as she galloped, "gotta make it a surprise for her!"

"Ooh a surprise," the yellow stallion exclaimed, "then take these doughnuts, on the house!" He pulled from his saddlebag a small paper bag that contained two chocolate sprinkle doughnuts for Lyra and tossed them towards her. Lyra needed not to look over her shoulder as she caught the baked treats with her magic and tucked them into her saddlebag without breaking her speed. Lyra continued to gallop and watched from the corner of her eye as Joe resumed his business, already distracted with another citizen entering his shop. With every approaching step, Lyra grew more and more excited to spend time with this creature, she finally had a good reason to show up to work on time.

The turquoise pony approached the metal doors to the building and cheerfully pushed them open, the archive's insides were dark and dusty. Blueblood managed to use his political powers to have this place cut off to private use, that way nopony would enter the building by accident.

Lyra opened the door to the basement and was met with the most heartbreaking moaning she had ever heard. Her smile was instantly gone and her eyes immediately focused on Blueblood at the panels that regulated the chamber for the creature sat inside. Lyra had a bad feeling about what was going on and called down the stairs, "What's going on with it?"

"It won't shut up again," he began as he continued twisting the heat dial on the panel, "it can't seem to speak hoovian... if it can speak at all."

Lyra stepped down the stairs, she could see the creature had its arm again wrapped around its abdomen as it clenched itself. It's eyes showed signs of tiredness and pain, as well as other unpleasant feelings. "Have you tried feeding it?"

"Do you know what it eats?" Said Blueblood, his eyes looked baggy and showed fatigue, this thing must have been more annoying than Lyra thought. Blueblood swished the hair from his eyes as he continued, "I certainly don't. Don't want to anger it even more by feeding it the wrong stuff."

Lyra suddenly remembered the apple inside her saddlebag, she pulled it put of the paper lunch bag saying, "Maybe we can start with fruit? If it turns it down then it must be carnivorous and if that's the case then we get fish for it. I know a mare in Ponyville that would be more than happy to provide."

"No!" The white stallion exclaimed, "If you open the chamber up the thing might attack you. You can never be too sure with things you have no idea about." Blueblood used his magic to pull the apple from Lyra and unknowingly take a bite from it, not realizing he had just pried it from his associate's grip. Blueblood swallowed his mouthful of fruit before saying, "We'll wait another day until its desperate for food, then we can feed it whatever we want with minimal risk of denial." Lyra wanted to object, she wanted to use her knowledge to tell him what really needs to be done, but she was so distracted by the creature's fixed stare that she completely forgot how to speak.

"You're gonna starve the thing to feed it? Seems really logical." Lyra made sure her sarcasm was loud and clear, she had a feeling that there was more to this creature than Blueblood was acknowledging. She felt a little put off by his lack of manners after taking her apple from her, but she quickly remembered how Blueblood was always like this, and no matter how much you told him to change his behaviour, he would always threaten to throw you into prison by making up a story to the authorities or mama Luna... yeah Luna adopted him not knowing he was a total poo-brain when he was just a foal. Without a true mother figure, Blueblood grew up not being parented properly, and with no awesome role models to teach him manners he just stayed as the same bratty colt throughout his life.

Blueblood took another bite of the apple, "I let you in on this facility, I gave you a royal blessing and oath to keep this secret. I can fire you just as quickly as I hired you, you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"N-no your highness."

"Good, but the fact of the matter still remains, that the creature is dangerous and must be treated as such."

"How will we learn that it's not dangerous, cause there's a chance that it is peaceful if we nurture it."

Blueblood let out a long and exasperated sigh, he was at her wits end as he grumbled, "I don't know, just watch over it today okay?" Blueblood then made his way up the stairs to the outside world as he exclaimed, "Squire, where's my crowd of admirers?"

Lyra watched as the creature looked Lyra in the eyes, welling with tears and cheeks stained of pain and agony. It broke her heart to see this creature simply in front of her yet she had no power to help it whatsoever. All she could do was stare back at it, that's when she realized that it had suddenly calmed down now that Blueblood was gone. It's moaning and gibberish had come to an end now that the only pony it could trust so far was in the room. "Don't worry," she whispered, placing her hoof on the glass to match it's paw, "I'm not like him."

Lyra didn't know whether it could hear her or not, but she felt better about herself when she told it the truth. Blueblood's orders or not, this thing needed food and it needed it badly. The creature brought both hands to the glass, it's green eyes looking down at its left hand and back at Lyra. The pony had no idea what it wanted, it had already been established that it didn't speak Hoovian, but she had a feeling it wasn't a complex request. She looked around the room, scanning for the royal (and quite unprofessional) superior. When it was clear that Blueblood was having tea time and wouldn't be back downstairs for a while, she placed her other hoof over top of the other paw. The creature's eyes widened with amazement as it shrieked and moved its paws to other spots, Lyra quickly mimicking it. She watched as the creatures naked body jumped up and down as it posed its paws once more to different spots.

It soon became clear that the creature was establishing the first sign of communication, the basic level of an ape. She realized that it was testing her understanding just as much as she was testing the creature's, and it wasn't long before Lyra began to smile at the creatures facial expressions. Unfortunately, a deep voice cut through their matching game and ruined the little fun that was had, "What are you doing?" Blueblood barked.

"Nothing at all," Lyra gulped, she stared into The snooty prince's gaze as it went from her back to the chamber a couple of times, "I-I think I'm uhh I'm establishing communication with it."

Blueblood gave a dismissing "pfft" as he trotted down the steps, his mane was in much better condition and he smelled of unnecessarily expensive cologne, he was probably lying to the press about all the wonderful things he is doing so he could get another date tonight that would be forgotten the next day. When Blueblood approached the chamber, he placed a hoof on the glass and watched as the creature lost its mind. It banged its paws against the glass as hard as it could as it shrieked in anger and Blueblood said, "This thing is a stupid animal. You have no proof that its intelligent."

Lyra approached the glass cylinder as she stammered, "Just watch me, it seems to like me."

"I'd doesn't like you, it just hates you less. There is no such thing as love in the animal kingdom."

"But it was calm until you entered the room."

"Much like a dog hates an owner that abused it, if there was such thing as love in an animal then it would need theory of mind to ask itself why it loves you. It doesn't have that, apes have always been stupid since our great creation by the deities." Another thing to note, Blueblood was raised as a faithful follower of Faustaism, the belief that all creatures were created by mysterious and powerful beings simply called the Deities. Lyra, however, was raised with an open mind and the choice to follow the religion or not. She had nothing against the faithful, in fact some of the structures they made were quite beautiful, but those who constantly preached it (like Blueblood and his idea that he was born better than every pony else) annoyed Lyra. Lyra had become agnostic at a young age, always wondering about the higher power, never acknowledging its existence but at the same time never dismissing it.

"How do you know that as truth? How can you dismiss mine as fiction and support your ideas as fact when there is no less proof for me than for you!" Lyra was becoming frustrated, the shrieking of the creature was trying her patience despite how bad she felt for it.

"Because I have been educated, I have read the Good Books that have been passed down generation by generation. Have you? The ancestors were first there when the deities created us, were you? If these things can think and love then why haven't they proven it to us yet? The books tell of the truth, and you'll need to accept that one way or another." Eventually the monster's shouts snapped Blueblood, a blast of electricity from his horn knocked the creature on its face as he shrieked, "SHUT UP!" Blueblood took a deep breath before continuing, "This thing is dangerous, the books tell of a two legged and hairless demon that terrorized the planet. These things match it's description and therefore must be treated the way they treated us." Blueblood moved his gaze to the weeping demon, "We treat them like animals. Stupid and vicious animals. You're free for today."

Lyra was in shock, she had never seen the prince act with such aggression before, much less to something he didn't understand. Lyra raised a weak hoof I'm protest as she muttered, "Can it be fe-"

Blueblood again shouted in rage, "GO! I need time to calm down." as he rushed her assistant out the door and back into sunlight. As Lyra was escorted, she took one look back to see the creature staring into her eyes with looks of pain and helplessness. It's lip quivered as it began to recover from the electrocution and rocked on the floor. Lyra couldn't even protest the feeling of heart break before she found herself back in the true reality of things once more.

****

The restaurant of Canterlot had its usual amount of ponies, it was your average Wednesday afternoon and every pony was still in school or at work. Lyra found herself alone at the bar inside, sipping on her cold apple cider. She rarely looked up from her drink, she stared into her reflection much like the creature stared at her when she was kicked out. She could clearly see its looks of pain still etched into her mind along with the thoughts of what was happening to it right now.

A sudden, smooth voice was heard next to the mare, "So Lyra," the colt began, "How has the project been going?"

Lyra raised her head to see a brown coated colt with a black slicked back mane and an hourglass cutie mark, it was Dr. Whooves. "Oh hello doctor," she sighed with depression in her voice, "where do I begin?"

*****

"That bad eh?" The doctor said as he trotted alongside her, "And there is nothing you can do to change his mind."

Lyra quickly said back to him without looking away from her doughnut, "He says they are all savages and must be treated like such, this one didn't do anything wrong so why does it need to be punished?"

Dr. Whooves took the final bite from his doughnut before sitting himself down on the town square's fountain's rim and motioned for Lyra to join him. Once she had herself sitting down, he took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He was subconsciously getting her to relieve some stress from earlier, "What we do at the facility is hard, and the fact that it is all secret makes it harder. I know how you feel, when you wish you could talk to any pony but be forbidden from doing so, it makes you feel alone inside. Thankfully you have me, and I have you. Two genius ponies being the only ones to understand each other in this world."

Lyra pointed over to a couple of foals that were at play, "You see those fillies, they have no idea of the things we have uncovered. They are playing happily amongst themselves with the only nagging thought being their late homework due yesterday," that little bit got the doctor to chuckle before she continued, "Mr. Waddle has no worries aside from getting his slippers warmed up before eating his pudding."

"What are you getting at?" said the curious colt, he was interested with where his gal-pal was going with this.

"I'm saying that what they see as normal problems are truly insignificant compared to what I have to worry about, being informed puts so much stress on me because I know why the chimera attacked last week, because its babies were attacked by no-good colts. I want to tell ponies why it actually attacked, but Blueblood forced me to say that it is a stupid and savage creature. Sometimes I wish that I didn't know as much as I do."

Whooves took a deep breath, he raised a hoof to pat his friend on the back as he said, "That may be so, but imagine if every pony was as informed as us, how depressing their days would be. Maybe it's best that what we know remains as what we know, it's what we chose to ignore that allows our days to go by easier." The colt pointed at Mr. Waddles as he said, "What you saw as his biggest problems was his smallest, he was diagnosed with a terminal disease and only has three months. His greatest worry is about his family he's leaving behind. That one filly," he pointed back at the aforementioned group of fillies, "Daisy Chain has much more to worry about then homework. She realized last week that she likes mares and not colts, and has a school-filly crush on her friend's older sister. She faces the humiliation of her friends if they realize it."

Before Lyra could say anything, the doctor continued, "But they are all so happy because they chose to ignore those problems and enjoy the now! Ignore the fact you are alone with Blueblood and I and enjoy the cider you forgot to pay for at the restaurant."

Lyra's eyes widened with shock, she just realized she had accidentally dine-and-dashed as she said, "Why didn't you tell me anything?"

The colt began to gallop away, motioning for her to follow as he said, "I thought the three burly colts suddenly chasing after us would be enough!" And so the ponies dashed into the maze of streets. Turing corners and twisting through the streets until it was clear the colts were no longer in pursuit. It was only three bits for the drink. The chase ended with Lyra and the doctor in a back alley, panting and laughing. Lyra had an incredibly large smile on her face when the stallion exclaimed through quick breaths, "See? You completely ignored what happened earlier today and let yourself enjoy the moment! That's how these ponies live."

Lyra gasped for air before downing her unspilled beverage, "T-thanks for the talk Doctor, Ill... I'll pay for the drink when I get back."

The colt patted her shoulder with his chocolate brown hoof as he said with a wink, "Time and Ponies are what I'm best at, I'll see you tomorrow!" With nothing more, he galloped off into the distance and left Lyra smiling alone in the alleyway, only a few blocks from her apartment.