Lyra Story Chap 5

Lyra nearly collided with the door as she scrambled to get it open, pushing it open with her shoulder as she undid the latch at the last second, kicking the door closed with a powerful slam. Her heart was racing, not from the run back home, but from the excitement. She carefully unrolled the scroll, glad to see it still safe. The cracked and dry parchment was stiff, but she had time. Eventually, it came to a wide enough range where she could begin to decode what was there.

All it took was flipping through the book she had gotten from the Library and spotting key words to realize the significance of this document. Multiple times, words such as “Agreement” and “peace” showed up, leading her to predict that, most likely, this was a legal document and perhaps even a treaty. If this was the case, she had hit pay dirt, so to speak. The sheer volumn of information available and diversity of words she would be able to decode meant that she might have a primitive encyclopedia established fairly quickly.

As she began to read in to it, she found something she wasn’t expecting: War. This wasn’t a treaty between two nations to settle trade disputes; it was to end a conflict, one that from the preamble, she inferred left a fowl taste in the mouths of those at the table.

“By the edict of Captain Arkadios, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, all hostilities are to end immediately. Following the ending of hostilities, Captain Arkadios is to be provided provisions for continued efforts in the Everfree Forest in the form of nourishment. The Pegasi (Under the command of General Stormcloud) are likewise to refrain from further harassment and to return to previous stations.”

Lyra looked up from her hastily scribbled translation, looking at it with a sort of dim understanding. She had never even heard of violent conflict in the history of the Ponies. As far as she was aware, even at their worst, the Pegasi had only ever used their skills to harrow or drive back foes. To think that, in the past, Ponies had fought and died over something was… Appalling. So much had been accomplished in recent years simply through working to talk and understand one another, reaching compromises. What could these alien beasts have done to cause the Pegasi to respond with violence?

In any event, the sheer fact that the treaty existed was proof that the folly of the fighting was realized, and the two factions went their separate ways, but from the looks of it, not so peacefully however. Reading further to perhaps discover some extra clues, all she found instead was political rigmarole. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, however: As she finished translating the Equestrian side, she took note of some odd script that didn’t quite match up. It was not in the Ponies languages, but instead in the other dialect. Reviewing what she read, and taking the spacing of the paragraphs into account, she proceeded to try and comb through for a copy of this word, but alas, none was found.

With a sudden sense of excitement, she realized an important fact: It had no translation in the Ponies language. This meant that it was entirely unique and, most importantly, was not an object thought, no, it was an object, be it a location or an item. It took the rest of the day proofreading and re-reading both her translation and the original document before it clicked. Multiple times, the document referenced “Seachariot” of some sort. She had to assume this was what that strange word was referencing, perhaps the real name of the object, wherever it was.

Lyra sat back on her haunches, and put a hoof to her chin. She’d have to ply the library some more, but that would be an adventure for later. Maybe she could find references to great strife in their past against outside forces? Maybe it had been Mysticised? Whoever these things, apparently intelligent and capable of reason, did not just vanish from common knowledge as if they never existed for no reason.

There was a gap here, and a large one. She was sure she could find it, but before she made her way to bed, she cast a glance, more by chance than anything, at the pottery piece, and with a gasp, she realized something.

Those figures on the pottery, the tall ones, first offered an apple. Then, they raised those circles of theirs, as if to defend. Finally, they picked up something, a tool made for fighting she expected, and attacked. Last in line were the sitting figures, and with that it all made perfect sense. This pottery was made to commemorate the occasion, to provide a visual clue into what was going on. Soon, Lyra would know what she needed.

As it happened, sleep was impossible. Her mind was too awhirl with questions, and all too often she found herself staring at that annoying piece of parchment, having wormed her way out of bed, unable to get her mind off of it.

What started the fighting? When did the ponies and beasts become violent? Why was the figure on the vase holding his circle up first, then taking the long object up above its head? What had happened that could have caused such an event to be forgotten?

Early morning, with her borrowed book in tow, Lyra stopped by the Library. After some brief pleasantries with Twilight, Lyra got down to business.

“Listen, Twilight. I need a rather… Special, book.” She began. The purple Pony perked up at the request.

“I have a lot of specialized books, what kind are you looking for particularly?” she asked, prancing off to the main table to look over her index.

“Something involving Pony Pre-history.” Lyra said in an admittedly broad manner, “Specifically, around the Everfree.” Best to narrow it down.

Twilight flipped through the pages for a few moments, before settling on something, “I thiiink I might have something that can help.” She responded, smiling wide. Calling out for spike, she asked the Dragon to see if he couldn’t hunt down something, before going through a nearby bookshelf. “Why do you need it, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Lyra paused, should she come clean? How would others lable her work, this was hardly pleasant history she was diving into here. She would have to gauge Twilights reaction as a measure for how to move about getting more funding, so clean it was.

“Well, I was out in the Everfree, by the old palace,” Lyra began, “Doing some work to figure out the history of the place.”

“That’s all well-known though,” Twilight responded with a frown, “Isn’t stuff like that already written down?”

“Yeah,” responded Lyra hesitantly, “But that wasn’t the focus. The focus was to collect rare specimens from that time period.” Twilight nodded that she was still following, and Lyra decided to level the hammer, “And I found something. Three somethings. And it’s big, Really big.”

Twilight looked over, wide eyed, “What is it?”

Lyra smirked, knowingly, “Ponies have had to contact and, as it seems, fought with another species sometime in our past and, evidently, they look nothing like any of the other intelligent races we know of.”

That got Twilights attention, who hopped down and was about to go off at a mile-a-minuet with the questions Lyra was already stuck on, but thankfully Spike entered at that exact moment, holding the book Twilight had sent him to retrieve. With a smile, deciding to put her questions to the wayside in the bustle of the new development, Lyra uttered a hurried thanks, and made to leave.

“I’ll let you know what I find out!” She called over to Twilight, “Thanks for the book!”

A repeat of the earlier day was in order, however this time Lyra was a little more cautious about the door. Slamming open the book, she flipped through its contents, such as the origin of “Harth’s Warming Eve” and various other ancient tales, until she found a rather small entry on the Pegasi.

“According to tradition, the Pegasi Commander of the Guard will leave his helmet at the foot of the Everfree forest as part of resigning.” She read, enthralled, “An unusual act, but one that lies with its roots grounded in the presenting of a gift to parting enemies, so as to aid in the numbing of old wounds. The reason for the location or the importance of it is, thus far, unknown, but it is speculated that the Pegasi won a great victory in the area before most recorded history, and as such present the helmets as a means to further bolster the importance of such an act, even against defeated opponents.”

Lyra sat back once more, her mind realing. No, something was off with this account, very off. The translated treaty specified a giving of supplies to the “Captain Arkadios”, not something the victors would do. However, the spirit of the act, to show humility, was not lost. Lyra was becoming more and more certain that, at some point, the Pegasi bit off more than they could chew, and the resulting battles ended in the defeat of the Pegasi, who then presented their helmets as a form of resignation or honor, fulfilling their traditional gift-giving despite being on the losing end.

The only thing stopping Lyra from going to the Mayor and preparing for the next expedition, was simply that she was at a loss for where to start. Where could she start?

Wait, wasn't Twilight in touch with Celestia? And if she was interested in Lyra's work...

She had her next heading. She would inform Twilight of this news, then, hopefully, Twilight would be willing to pull some strings and get Lyra an interview with the current Captain of the Guard. Perhapse a living member of such an ancient order could shed more light on this? It was flimsy, at best, but it beat just asking around randomly and hoping to stumble upon something worthwhile.