"You named it Anthro?" Blueblood's voice was clearly showing frustration beneath his calm complexion, planting a hoof on his face to hopefully rid him of some of the negative energy of what Lyra had admitted. The three ponies that sat with Anthro only moments before were now upstairs in the dark and sealed off archive. The three had moved upstairs to discuss the mysterious creature's reason for existing when Lyra accidentally made it clear she gave him a name.

Lyra sighed, knowing she had goofed up one of Blueblood's most important rules when caring for the creature. "Since you changed your manner of caring for this creature to accommodate it and give it a desirable environment, wouldn't it be healthy to develop a bond with it?"

The doctor nodded in agreement, "As risky as it is to name a creature, Lyra is right in this case. To establish a basic relationship at the level of mere friendship you have to first know their name, seeing as Anthro cannot give his real name likely due to a language barrier it is impossible for us to know his real name so we instead name him. Besides, Anthro is kinda catchy."

Blueblood took a few steps back to take in all this information, the first few moments he becomes a lenient and nicer boss two of his faculty disobey him. Albeit it had first begun when he was still inconsiderate towards them the fact still remains that it was a very awkward moment for all of them. "Okay," he began after taking a moment to calm himself, "you two are probably right, he's going to need a name if we want to communicate with him. Lets get back to what I brought you all up here for in the first place."

Lyra immediately remembered Blueblood mentioning a closed off carriage for Anthro to bring him to his house mid-day, and Lyra quickly stated, "If we're going to take Anthro to your garden then we're doing it at night. He can't stay sealed off much longer, much less in a smaller more confining room where he cannot tell when the next bump is going to hit. I think we should get either an carriage where he can look out the windows or we walk there by hoof. Chances are Anthro might like the fresh air and exercise."

The three took a few minutes again to think about the plan a bit more, the problem was that Blueblood hated having to walk too much by hoof, Anthro being exposed to the risk of witnesses could result in dire consequences, and Anthro might take the opportunity to run away despite promising not to. The three eventually concluded with Anthro being escorted to Blueblood's house by some of the stronger special agents that stood outside and would be accompanied by Lyra and the Doctor while Blueblood went ahead of them to prevent any suspicious looking activities. When it was settled, Lyra and the three went downstairs to see that Anthro had already eaten through all the food Lyra provided.

Lyra knelt beside the messy eater as she said with a giggle, "Someone was a little hungry today."

"Yeah," Anthro began as he finished off the last doughnut courtesy of Doughnut Joe before continuing to pronounce every word strangely and slowly, "I was very hungry."

"We'll you won't have to be hungry for much longer, Blueblood will give you food right?" Lyra gave a simple smile to the white prince only to see him nod sheepishly with a weak smile of his own. Lyra turned back to her hairless angel as she said, "There will be trees, and water, and all sorts of little critters there so you can feel at home in the forest."

Anthro looked up, his eyes hinted at how his mind was gathering the information of another language before slowly repeating, "F-forestay," he made the shape of trees with his hands as he pronounced the word in a strange accent, nodding his head as he repeated the word quickly.

Lyra nodded her head as well, "Yes the forest! Trees, grass, water, and sky!"

"Forrestay, trays, grauss, wodder, skai." he would repeat with growing excitement each time. As Lyra pumped him up with energy and psyched him over getting out of this prison room he would begin to climb the walls and swing from the hanging long and thin lights. It was then that Lyra realized that the fabric that had been dug up that seemed to be used to warm these creatures would not fit Anthro's limbs. His hands and feet were like that of an ape's only he was capable of remaining bipedal indefinitely. She suddenly wanted to ask Anthro what the relation of the socks had with him but was unfortunately unable due to the still present language barrier.

As Anthro swung from the ceiling using his bottom set of hands he reached down and picked up the small mare with his upper hands and brought her in for another hug. The warmth that his body gave off comforted her, reminding her that what she had done over the past couple of days would not go to waste. It was pretty obvious that Anthro would not run away on the first opportunity if Lyra could continue persuading him. Before she knew it, Anthro had out her back onto the ground as to not dangle her any longer so he could continue celebrating in his own way. She watched in awe as he performed acrobatics like circus professionals, swiftly moving across the ceiling beams and backflipping between each swing without making a single mistake. He took full advantage of his lower hands in ways similar a monkey would.

Eventually the tall hairless creature brought itself to the ground once more to rest itself after burning out all its available energy, panting through his big whitish-yellow smile. As Lyra and the Doctor turned their attention back to Blueblood who had already begun to speak, "Also I would like to have a word with Lyra alone upstairs."

Lyra was caught off guard at this, a little confused but not too worried by it she simply replied, "Sure... okay." She would slowly follow the white prince as they trotted up the stairs into the dark and empty room, the light only leaking through the tiny spaces between the planks of wood that were nailed over the windows.

Blueblood took a few seconds, it looked to Lyra as though he was trying to muster up the courage to say something to her. His quick pacing back and forth told Lyra that he was somewhat nervous about the situation, but after a few seconds he finally managed, "Listen, Lyra..."

Her ears perked, "Yeah?"

I'm really sorry for who I was, for everything that I have done to you and Anthro," he seemed to pause before saying Anthro's name, almost as though he were resenting the idea of it being named, "it didn't seem right how I apologized before, so I decided to personally apologize to you instead."

Smiling, Lyra brushed her hair from her eyes with her hoof as she said sheepishly, "Yeah well... you have that whole religion thing where you believe he is the spawn of all evil and stuff. While its still wrong to hurt something based off a book it does shed some light on why you were like that." She gave a shy look up to her superior, it wasn't often that they would ever actually chat like regular ponies would, instead it was usually Lyra being bossed around by him and having her life be made miserable by him regularly. This kind of chatting seemed so awkward all of a sudden for her and probably Blueblood as well. As she replied she tried her best to make it obvious that he would have to give a sincere apology to Anthro before their relationship move any further, wherever that may be.

"That's right, you're an atheist aren't you?"

"I'm agnostic," her words were quick to correct Blueblood's as though it were insulting to be called an atheist in her mind, "atheist and agnostic are two different things."

"Well..." Blueblood struggled to understand, "what exactly are the differences?"

"Atheism is the outright denial of any god or gods existence, some say its believing in the lack of belief but that's besides the point. Agnosticism, however, is being unsure of the existence of deities and the such, not outright denying it but not accepting it at the same time. Agnostic is being somewhat in the middle."

Blueblood began to smile at the corner of his mouth for some reason, "How can you be at the centre, I thought you believed in science and evolution and all that science-fiction mumbo-jumbo."

Lyra gave a quiet laugh, again swaying her hair from her eyes as she retorted, "That mumbo-jumbo as you call it does seem a lot more likely than being created in a few days, but that doesn't mean that evolution wasn't the work of a higher power."

"So wait..." Blueblood was beginning to amuse Lyra with his struggles to understand her, "You believe in evolution may have been controlled by a god?"

"Exactly! Maybe a god did create everything around us but used an evolutionary tactic to let everything do the work themselves. Its like the seven days of creation in your religious books." Lyra was beginning to actually smile, she had never experienced a Blueblood that was open to how other people saw her view on life.

"Only instead of seven days it took a few million years or so right?" Blueblood chuckled a bit at the joke he made, a huge step from emulating the roaring laughter of a crowd and made him seem almost modest. Despite the fact he somewhat laughed at his own joke, Lyra laughed with him.

"Yeah it took just a little more time than expected huh?" Lyra finally showed her teeth in a large smile that was for the first time brought upon her by Blueblood and an actually okay joke he made.

The two laughed quietly before locking eyes, silence once more filled the room except this time it was a good silence. Lyra looked towards her hooves as Blueblood said with a sigh, "I'm trying my best to be a bit more modest here."

"You're doing good so far," she chuckled, "I can tell that whatever happened it really changed you."

The two returned to staring into each other's eyes, smiling like stupid young teens on their first date when a loud knock was heard on the door. The two snapped back into reality when a voice from the other side spoke in a deep tone, "Prince Blueblood, sir, your ride has arrived."

The two instantly remembered their plan to get Anthro back to Blueblood's garden, except that was supposed to happen at midnight. Blueblood turned to Lyra as he spoke once more, "So," he began awkwardly, "would you like to ride with me?"

Lyra paused, her eyes wide with surprise. Did he just ask me out? She spoke within the confines of her own head, asking herself all sorts of questions as to what had just happened and what will happen. She darted her eyes in every direction as she sought for the right answer, hoping it wouldn't result in any hurt feelings. After a few seconds, Lyra shrugged as she said, "Well... I wasn't expecting your carriage to arrive so early, and I was also planning on going up with Anthro in his buggy you know to give him company." Lyra watched as Blueblood's shoulders slouched in disappointment, slowly dragging his hooves across the dusty floor in defeat. Lyra suddenly, and for the very first time, actually felt bad for him as she watched him slouch his way to the door to leave. Before he could exit the building, she quickly trotted up next to him and put a hoof on her shoulder as she said, "Hey... I can see you tried your best to be different, and I liked it a lot, thanks."

What happened next confused the two of them, Lyra had no idea what her body was doing as she wrapped both of her hooves around his shoulders and back for a gentle hug. She suddenly imagined Blueblood having a meltdown over getting so much peasant on his nicely pressed suit, instead he just stood there. Lyra's eyes popped open and looked at how she was hugging him, taking a few extra seconds to finally come back to its senses and let go of him. She quickly unwrapped her hooves and began to blush while avoiding eye contact.

Stunned, Blueblood simply babbled, "Um... er... will you be here to be picked up at midnight-ish?" His face had gone completely pink around his cheeks which made him resemble his adolescent years once more, also trying to avoid looking Lyra in the eye.

"Yeah..." she awkwardly began, "see you at your place."

Before leaving, all he said in return was a quick, "Be sure to lock up when you're leaving here tonight and when you leave with Anthro."

"Sure thing, boss." Lyra gave a fast nod of her head before returning downstairs, leaving the prince alone to quietly celebrate to himself at how he was hugged. With nothing more to be said in the empty room, Blueblood opened the front door that had its wooden planks torn down and revealed the numerous black-suited stallions that awaited him outside.

*****

Lyra trotted down the stairs to see Anthro and the Doctor trying to communicate once more, it was then that Lyra looked to her saddlebag to see the unopened letter from Bon-Bon that she had somehow completely forgotten about. Lyra quickly made her way to the letter and avoided talking to the others as she pulled it from her white saddle bag. The letter was a plain envelope with her address printed on the front and Bon-Bon's signature in the top corner. The wax that sealed the letter had the candy cutie mark of her best friend pressed onto it.

Lyra did her best to open the letter while avoiding damaging the letter as Anthro and the Doctor continued to talk amongst each other. Pulling out the small 8x11 piece of folded paper, she read:

Dear Lyra,

It's been quite a while since we last spoke, I think almost a few months now. Why did the writing stop? Is your new job as the royal harp player really that busy that you can't write one simple note back to me every now and then? I'm just kidding you, anyways I'm just writing to let you know that I have finally made enough money to come and move in with you. I know we were planning otherwise but quite frankly Ponyville is just boring without you and if you can't come here then I'll just have to move my derriere in with you. I'll be visiting this weekend and hopefully then we can plan things out a bit better.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Yours,

Bon-Bon

Lyra's eyes widened, a mixture of excitement and worry swept over her as thoughts raced through her mind. What if Bon-Bon figures out I am caring for a bipedal sentient being? What will she do? Will she report it to Twilight? What if too many ponies find out? Her thoughts were quickly dismissed when Anthro approached Lyra with another drawing of him in the trees, hanging upside down from his lower set of hands while looking to the stars and struggled to say, "Do good yes?"

Lyra set aside her worries, taking the moment to care for Anthro's amazing artistic abilities, she began to think about how he would react when he is able to roam about the trees in Blueblood's private gardens and how happy he will be. Lyra tussled the long shaggy brown hair of Anthro as she said with a warm smile, "Yes, you do good, Anthro. Just wait until you are actually able to be a bit more free."

Author's Note

By the way, I was planning on doing an april fool's chapter where out of nowhere a deus ex machina appears and Anthro dies and the story ends but i figured that would be a tiny bit rushed.