//------------------------------//
// Hoomans? 
// Story: Polishing a diamond 
// by RoyalUnicornJohn1994 
//------------------------------//

"... Why."

Diamond stared in disbelief. The paper in front of her marking the address of the pony who supposedly could tell her more about that thing at her backyard, and it was telling her she was at the exact location! The one of the crazy pony!

Of course, everypony in that little village was crazy, not to mention the flower ponies, who always made a huge theater of a small situation. And then, there were some other ponies and even some fillies who could be classified as crazy.

But this one! Ugh!

It was the house of Lyra Heartstrings, the local crazy obsessed with non-existent creatures type of pony. Of course, a pony of her class had never had the necessity to deal with those kind of ponies, and she had hoped to never have the need to do so.

Yet, that purple lizard had sent her there, just right towards the crazy pony's house! Oh, she would be sure to make that lizard suffer later, and then... whatever her father wanted to do with him. What was it called? Leather or something like that?

Whatever. She would solve it later. After all, she had some work to do. Even if this pony was actually crazy, if she had answers of how to get rid of that thing, then she would find them, even if she had to squeeze the answer out of said pony!

Without looking where, Diamond made the paper a small bundle and threw it away, her eyes gazing at the door with a fiery determination, reflecting as clearly as Celestia's sun shone upon the land, that she was determined to end that matter once and for all. And finally, that creature would go out of her house!

And then... things would go the way they were. Everything would go back to what once had been the perfect place.

Diamond knocked on the door, suddenly realizing the sudden quantity of ponies looking at her.

"What is She doing here?"

"What kind of business she might have with Lyra?"

"This can only go so bad."

She didn't care what others thought of her, but she was ultimately uncomfortable with all the stares. It wasn't something she hadn't experienced before, but she had been receiving stares all the day! First when she went to the library, and then at that moment!

That day could not actually go worse... right?

Firmly, and quite loudly, she knocked on the door, with the actual Diamond Tiara mark on it (almost ripping the door off of its hinges). This, in turn, only served to cause the stares to intensify, causing Diamond to get even more peeved.

"What are you all staring at!?" Diamond asked, turning around suddenly, causing most of the unfortunate ponies out there to ran away, startled and scared of the little filly.

Diamond smirked once more, seeing in satisfaction at the scene. That was until the door behind her opened, revealing a disgruntled Lyra Heartstrings.

"What in the hay are you doing here?"

Aside from the fact that she was crazy, Lyra was also hated by Diamond from the fact that she seemed to be the only one in the whole town to be crazy enough to defy her. Her! Of all ponies!

Diamond turned around, still with the harsh glare she used on most ponies. 

"It's not of your concern whatever I am here for, you dumb mare!"

The answer to that was a harsh slamming door that, if not for the door's limits, would have sent Diamond away. In that instant, Diamond's head was filled with every kind of thoughts about bullying and maybe even making her dad sue that pony. The nerves of her!

At that moment, she thought about turning back and getting home as fast as she could so her father would teach that pony a lesson! And so, that pony, and nopony else would ever dare to yell at her!! EVER!!!

...

Unless, of course, that thing in her backyard dared to yell at her. If that was the case, then she wouldn't have any kind of defense against it.

"Ugh!!" Diamond groaned loudly as she knocked once more in the door. It wasn't even three seconds before the door swung open again.

"You again!? What do you want!?" Diamond's eye twitched... after all, it wasn't every day she was yelled at.

"... As much as I don't want to do this... I-I... I need you help."

Lyra's expression went from angry and annoyed to that of surprise for a moment. Yet, it returned to neutral, with a hint of curiosity.

"... And what is that thing you need MY help with? Unless it's music, which I assume it's not, then there is nothing I can help you with." Lyra said before making a movement of closing the door, until the small hoof of Diamond stopped her.

"...please..."

"... What?"

"... P-Please... I just..." Diamond groaned as she tried to think about what to say. "... There is that stupid homework Cherilee assigned to us... and it was about an investigation of sorts... about strange creatures."

Almost unnoticeable, Lyra's ears twitched at that, almost knowing what she was getting to.

"... A-And... Well, those three stupid blank flanks already took the good ones out there! And I was left with nothing left! I can't be defeated by them!" The door was finally opened fully again, and Lyra looked no less angry than before, but she also seemed curious. And besides, the last part seemed true, at least with the past of the crusaders and her.

"And what can I do for you, then? You know I'm a musician, not some kind of zoologist."

"Well... I went to the library, looking for something... and there was this book that mentioned something about a strange creature... some thing that stands on two legs, has this weird... clawy hooves on them-" Suddenly, the hoof of the pony was thrust into her mouth, silencing her.

Looking up, she saw the anger on the pony's face was gone. Instead, there was only seriousness on it.

"Say no more. But I've got bad news for you. What you are looking for is nothing good. And it doesn't exist, even! Trust me, I know."

Diamond spat the hoof out of her mouth, looking at her with shock.

"W-What!? B-But... the lizard said-"

"Sorry, but I can't help you." Lyra said before closing the door harshly, not saying another word.

Diamond was in shock again. The nerves! Seriously, the nerves!!

"... Urgh! I should have known this was a loss of time! Why did I even bother to come!?" Diamond turned around, only to face dozens of eyes looking at her with curious eyes. "And what are you looking at!?"

Almost everypony ran away at the shout, too fearsome of the richest pony in town's daughter. Upon seeing the street empty, Diamond sighed, starting to think she wouldn't be able to get rid of that thing on her backyard. She'd have to live with it always on her backyard! What if it ate her!?

"Psst!"

Diamond's ears twitched, upon hearing a small voice.

"Psst! Over here!"

Diamond turned towards the voice, leading her to seemingly a cellar door, partly open, revealing a pair of eyes looking at her, narrowed, every now and then, looking at the sides suspiciously.

"I heard you! Come with me! I know what you want!"

Having few to almost no chats with her dad, Diamond had never heard the no.1 rule for a foal: never go with strangers.

As soon as she got close, the door opened fully, and a bag was thrust into her, cutting off any sense of sight. However, she could hear things, like a harsh slam behind her, as well as the sound of hooves hitting wood, almost as if the pony was going downstairs.

Finally, after a few moments, the bag was lifted from her head, Diamond groaning in annoyance as she noticed her mane had been slightly damaged due to the bag. Once that had been taken care of, she turned around, only then noticing she was in some kind of basement, at least judging from the lack of light, only provided by a single lamp above her.

Suddenly, a chill ran down her back as she heard giggling behind her.

"... Finally... ehehe..."

"H-Hello?" Diamond asked with nervousness on her voice, and the giggling didn't help at all. After a few moments, the giggling pony talked again.

"Ehehe... Finally... after all these years..." Diamond finally saw the pony, and it was nopony else than Lyra. Upon seeing her, Diamond almost started to sweat. This version of Lyra was creepy, her wide smile, the giggling and the almost maniac look on her face didn't help. 

"W-What do you m-mean?"

"... Diamond Tiara... I've been waiting for this moment for years." Lyra said with that maniacal grin, her horn lighting up. Suddenly, a knife was revealed in front of Diamond, causing her to freeze up. She started to remember all the times she had been mean to her, all the times she had bullied her and other ponies... did that mean-?

Before she had more time to think, the knife was thrust in her direction, Diamond's eyes almost popping out of her skull as she saw the knife flying at her. At the last moment, she closed her eyes, waiting for the unavoidable. That was, if the unavoidable had come.

Just as she opened her eyes, she saw the knife lodged right at the side of her head, almost cutting down a whole part of her mane. Yet, another thing she noticed was the red ribbon the knife was cutting through. Just a slim line of red held the ribbon together.

Diamond noticed it just in time to see the ribbon snap in half. At that moment, many lights lit up, some kind of horn sounded and many other ribbons started to slide back into the darkness. Just as the last ribbon vanished, a huge sign was lit, revealing a wide-smiling Lyra.

"Welcome!" Lyra stood up on her hind legs as she fired a few fireworks around, only then noticing it was some sort of exhibition, like those in the fairs she sometimes went to. Lyra continued. "Welcome, to the one and only... hooman museum!!"

Diamond, still in shock, merely watched with wide eyes at the unicorn, which was starting to tremble from the effort of holding herself in two hooves.

"... W-Well? Y-You l-like it?"

Almost instantly, the shock on Diamond's face was replaced by a glare, one that could turn anything to ice.

"ARE YOU KIDDING!? YOU ALMOST KILLED ME BACK THERE!!"

"Oh, you mean the knife? I-I thought it would add some... excitement?" Lyra said as she returned to four hooves, her horn lighting up, moments before a notepad floated towards her. "Note to self: forget about the knife. Maybe a cannon?"

Diamond's eye twitched as she looked at the mare, who started to talk to herself, muttering something about laser beams, or something like that. She huffed as she started to look for a way to get out of that demented mare's place. That was, until her eyes caught sight of a picture on the wall, of a sickly yellow color, and its borders almost falling apart with a few chunks of paper already missing.

However, it wasn't the paper itself what caught her attention. It was the image.

"That's it." Diamond said loud as she walked towards the image, which was locked inside something resembling a glass box. The shout she made snapped Lyra away from her muttering, turning towards the small foal.

"Oh, you're interested in that picture? It's the mayor proud of the museum, and I researched many spells to prevent it from decaying." Lyra said as she got closer. Finally, as she stood next to it, Lyra made a pose to show off the picture. "I give you... the last and only remaining picture of a hooman!"

Diamond stared in awe at the picture. Aside from a few details, it was exactly the same creature roaming around in her backyard. She almost lost herself looking at it, until something Lyra said clicked on her mind.

"Wait, what do you mean 'the last and only'?" Lyra turned to her, still smiling, not as creepy as before, but the excitement on it was noticeable.

"Oh, that's because these are the last vestiges of them." Lyra said, waving her hoof at the whole place. "Everything you see in here, everything was made by hoomans."

Diamond almost ran towards some items in a shelf, containing something strange that she had not seen before. Her foalish curiosity made her stretch her hoof towards it.

"DON'T TOUCH!!" Diamond almost jumped at the scare, as she turned around, looking at a seemingly scared Lyra, who after realizing what happened, smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. It's just that many of these things are old. Very old."

"How old?" Diamond asked as she turned once again to the shelf.

"Too old. Some of these things are way from before the unification of the pony tribes. Some say these things are even older than Celestia and Luna themselves."

Diamond went wide-eyed at that phrase.

"Then, if these things are so old, why the hoomans hasn't made some new?" Diamond asked with curiosity. There must have been other hoomans out there... right?

"Because these things were used by the last hoomans who ever existed." Lyra said as she pulled a book from a shelf. She floated it towards Diamond, who stared at the picture of a snowy mountain on it. "That was the last place where the hoomans were seen before they went extinct." Lyra said with a sigh.

"Extinct?"

"Oh, right. You foals don't know these words. Extinct means that they no longer exist." Diamond couldn't wrap her head around it. If they didn't exist anymore, then why was one at her backyard?

"Hey?" Lyra turned around from her reading as the filly in front of her sported one of the biggest grins she had seen. "What if I told you... that there is one at my backyard?"