Lyra's alarm clock was set differently this morning, it rang five hours earlier than usual. The mechanical beeping abruptly pulled her from the sweet deep sleep she was in, her world of dreams shattered by reality. Yet, reality felt no more real than her dreams, she still felt as though this was all some big dream she hasn't yet escaped. If that were so, she hopes that nopony will ever wake her up. Her eyes felt dry when she tried to open them, her lack of hydration overnight made her mouth pasty and her eyelids crusty and heavy. Her abrupt jump back to the real world disoriented her for a moment, but her memories of the reason to wake up so early got her moving with the same amount of energy as though she had a full nights sleep. The nightlife in Canterlot seemed so alien to her, it was so peaceful and silent yet so alive with colours the day could not bring. City lights filled the sky, the starry sky as clear as they could be with the moon bathing the world in a blue hue.

Lyra yawned, her hooves jerked out of bed, her body slowly following behind it as she moved into the kitchen. Darwin was sound asleep on the nice burgundy couch as his owner tip-hoofed past him. Lyra crawled her way into the kitchen and turned on the kitchen light, the brightness temporarily blinding her as she looked for food. She searched high and low and managed to collect two apples, two sticks of celery, two carrots, and a cucumber. She remembered the canines the creature had, it was probably an omnivore, it seemed happy to be receiving vegetables and fruits. Lyra silently packed the food into her bag and exited her apartment, the thought of the creature still fresh in her mind.

A few minutes later, Lyra was standing in front of the Archives, the doors chained and locked. She began to lose hope, she was still thinking of the poor starving creature sitting alone in the basement of the facility as it waited for her to show up. Then she remembered the small window to the bathroom, it seemed big enough for her to fit in. Just barely big enough of her to pass through, her bag made it just too wide for her to fit in through a crawl. After slipping inside, she pulled her saddlebag through the small window after her and landed on the tiled floor. She gasped at the slightest noise she made, freezing herself in silence in fear of some pony hearing her. When the coast was clear, she opened the bathroom door to see the creature sleeping atop its heated towel, the silent hum of the heating vent was a white noise to both Lyra and the creature. She took one last look around before silently inching towards the glass cylinder as she whispered, "Hey... Hey wake up."

The creature didn't move, his breathing showed that he was still asleep along with the rapid movement of its eyes beneath its lids. Lyra tapped the glass gently, she worried that she might wake up the entire town if she made anymore noise than the crickets outside. Wen she tapped the glass again, the creature jerked upright and inhaled loudly. It's eyes didn't open until after it stretched its limbs, it was waking up from a deep sleep in an uncomfortable position. When it's eyes opened, it bared its teeth and crawled to Lyra with excitement.

Lyra placed both her hooves on the glass as she whispered, "Seems like something... Or someone is happy to see me." Her face was stuck in a smile, she had little to no worries about being interrupted by her ignorant boss. The creature didn't have to worry about being hurt by the white unicorn, everything was peaceful. Lyra watched as the creature brought up its paws to match her hooves and babbled some more gibberish, she simply took it as a thank-you for bringing food to her. Lyra pulled the food from her saddlebag and whispered again, "Got you some nice fruits and vegetables."

It's eyes widened, it looked like it had forgotten what food looked like, the creature eagerly jumped to where the control panel was and pointed at the lever. All while not making a sound.

Lyra nodded her head when she understood what it was doing, the creature obviously had learned of how this thing worked and knew what she needed to do judging by the motions it was making. Lyra quickly complied with its directions and opened the door, the sound of it made both flinch in fear of being noticed but judging by how late it was waking up ponies who were used to sleeping through city noises was little to no worry in reality. Lyra also remembered how Blueblood babbles and complains at every peep or pin dropping when he sleeps in his luxury mansion. So he would also be well protected from noises far away, and not know a thing about what happened this night.

As the door came to a full open, the creature stood there, it's eyes fixed on Lyra and on her saddlebag. The creature seemed hungry, and Lyra began to have thoughts about it being carnivorous, remembering how much Blueblood hated a creature he didn't even know. Maybe there was something he was hiding. Could this thing really be dangerous? Lyra began to back up nervously when the naked pink thing started walking towards her, she had a feeling that it might have tricked her into her own demise. The creature lunged at her, it's arms open, the creature pounced on the unicorn and she nearly let out a scream of horror until she realized that it wasn't biting her. It had its paws wrapped around her gently as it pressed its face into her white and turquoise mane. The warmth this creature gave off and the gentle brushing of her hair gave the startled unicorn a hint that it might not have been looking for the same thing she thought. In fact it was looking for just the opposite, it was looking to keep her in its arms forever, it's tender embrace made it clear it was beyond grateful for being somepony it could trust. Lyra was stunned, this was more physical contact then she had expected, not that this was a bad thing. Lyra gently embraced the creature, her hooves softly brushing its head and back as she hummed a lullaby that her mother had sung for her when she was a foal.

This hug lasted for an eternity for Lyra, and she was enjoying every millisecond of it, she was learning more about this creature than Blueblood did in his entire "education" (he bribed his way into university and had all the professors that failed him banished for lying). When the hug ended, Lyra pronked her way into the chamber as she pulled out all the food and said, "Somebody needs to eat their greens."

As the creature entered, it babbled, "Taaan oooo." Lyra giggled, she loved how they could almost have a conversation despite the language barrier. Then she had an idea, one that would hopefully blow away Blueblood and his snooty ignorance.

When the creature reached for the apple, she held it up in one hoof and the celery in the other and said, "Apple?" The creature nodded when the apple was closest to her, and shook its head when the celery was presented. Then she brought the apple back to him as she said very slowly and patiently, "Yyyyessss..." Every time the creature reached for the apple, not understanding what she was trying to do, she'd pull it away and repeat until it got the idea. It's bared it's teeth and its eyes widened when it realized she wanted to help it more.

The creature made her repeat it one more time, it then took its time before slowly saying with a slur, "Yyyyyyyeeeaaasss..."

Lyra jumped for joy, she had a smile that nothing could give her, she was essentially teaching an alien to speak Hoovian. She squeaked in her joyous tone, "You spoke! You spoke! You said yes!"

The creature bared its teeth one more before pointing its paw at the apple saying, "Yyyess yes!" It was rewarded with the biggest and shiniest red apple you could ever find, and the creature ate it like a parasprite would eat anything. The creature took no time in devouring it before doing what sounded like laughter as it said once more, "Yes!"

Lyra approached the creature, she held up a second apple as she said slowly once more, "Aaaaapllllle.... Plllleeeeaaaassseee"

The creature immediately responded, "Apple... Please." Again it was rewarded with the apple and devoured it like the starving creature it was. Lyra wasn't all too afraid of over feeding and endangering its diet because she had studied the effects of over feeding starved apes before while an intern at a vet. So she let it eat the food as fast as possible.

Lyra felt the urge to continue her teachings when she held up the carrot as she said with her patient and beautiful tone, "Caaannnn..."

The creature followed her, "Ccan..."

"I..." said the excited unicorn.

"I." repeated the creature

"Have..."

"Hhhaaaavvve..."

"The..."

"The?"

"Carrrot."

The creature paused before slowly repeating, "Carrot."

Lyra finished it off by adding in manners and said, "Please."

"Please!" It said joyfully.

"Can I have the carrot please?"

The creature immediately responded, "Can I have the carrot please?"

Lyra rewarded its behaviour and effort with one carrot before it nearly ate it whole. Lyra then held up the other carrot as she said with a smile, "Can I have the carrot please?"

The creature nodded its head and said with a smile, "Yes!"

Lyra burst into laughter, she was having more fun on this night than ever before, the creature realized this and shook its head before saying, "Can I have the carrot please?"

Lyra gave it a hug as she said, "Yes." And gave it the veggie that it craved. The rest of the night the spent together went incredibly well, the creature learned basic reading from a foal's reading and speaking book thanks to Lyra and it managed to formulate, "I need bathroom."

Lyra didn't mind the simplicity of the language it was speaking as long as it kept up this speaking and kept reading through the book over and over again throughout the night before she left. By the end of it, the creature had stuffed itself with the goodies Lyra had brought, it was getting dozy and said with half shut eyes, "Good moon." As Lyra left through the window, she understood what it was saying and smiled at it, it had fallen asleep on a much thicker pile of towels and blankets that formed a very thin mattress for it. It had a towel wrapped around its waist to hide its genitals and buttocks as though it were ashamed to have them exposed. Lyra didn't understand why it felt the need to wear fabric around such a specific spot when most ponies were going around half naked for the most part, another mystery for another time.

Before she left, she looked back ad the sleeping creature in its enclosed chamber as she said, "Good moon... Anthro." With nothing more to say, Lyra closed the bathroom window as best as she could and galloped off back to her apartment for the remaining bit of the night she had. She had a tear in her eye as she galloped, not one of pain, but of love. She felt like what sat in that cage wasn't a pet, or a lab rat, but a baby. A baby she had the privilege of raising and teaching to love her. She said to herself, "If the world comes crashing upon us, I'll be happy to have spent my last night with you."

Author's Note

So thanks for the wonderful comments you guys have posted, as well as the helpful critiques some of you have offered. You know who you are, thanks for turning this story in the right direction. And thank you all very much for getting me featured on here, dream come true!