The princess Celestia was at the throne room. Her sister had just returned from lifting the moon when she saw the magical smoke that she expects with anxiety each day now. Luna saw the letter forming itself in front of her sister and went with her to ask
"Is it from Twilight?" Celestia turned her eyes to see her and said
"Yes it is, do you want to hear the report of the day?" Luna nodded "It says:
Dear princess Celestia
Right now we are at Manehattan, at Applejack's familiar's house. If tomorrow we don't get signs that Fernando is still here, we will separate to the only other big cities that he might be in. Fernando once again has shown signs of cleverness when he used the traps that the other ponies had set up. Also, we think that one of the reasons because he doesn't want to come with us is because he doesn't want to get locked up. He hasn't shown any signs of being aggressive towards anypony nor he has committed a crime, so is it possible to not make him a prisoner? I think that the reason he keeps on running away is because of that.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle"
After Celestia finished, Luna asked
"So, what are you going to do?" Celestia sighed and told her with a troubled look
"I don't know. The best I can do is to let him wander around the castle, and even then, he would have to hide from all of the visitors that might come here. The way I asked for him to be brought to me made him look like a fugitive. What I fear is that he could create questions among the ponies out there that could not be answered by me or you, but that doesn't stop there, they might do this to all the ponies involved. Then they'll think of this as conspiracy and that could create chaos in the cities"
"Yeah, that might be the case," Luna gave her a comforting look "but that's taking it too far, and I'm pretty sure that Fernando won't have any troubles with hiding from others"
"I hope you're right, Luna" Celestia told her as she brought with her magic a parchment and a quill to respond to her student. Just as she was starting to write, a guard entered to the room and after bowing he told to the princess
"There is a mare here that says that she might have information about the human that is of high importance"
"Okay, allow her in" Celestia responded
The mare that entered the room was a mint green pony with a mane of two colors, one white while the other was a light shade of blue (I'm not sure). Her cutie mark was a lyre and she had with her a saddle bag. She bowed too and after the princess allowed her to rise, Celestia asked her solemnly
"Greetings, unicorn, what might be your name and business here?"
"My name is Lyra Heartstrings, princess. I'm here because I know something that I think you should know about the human" she said, with a grin that showed how excited she was about this.
"And what would that be?" Celestia inquired
"Well, in my free time I like to investigate something that until now was nameless. It came in a book from the library in ponyville and some bed stories from my grandfather. It's about a kind of tailless monkey that was believed extinct" she informed the princess
"But I have lived for thousands of years. I have seen the start of some species and the extinction of the same, how come I have never heard of these creatures before?" asked Celestia with an arched eyebrow
"That is because" there was a shine in the eyes of Lyra when she started to talk "these creatures were believed to live in the Everfree forest. There has been nothing more that three sightings in all of the history, in the same year, and because of that, they were thought of only as a myth, thus they weren't considered important" she then paused for a breath. Celestia took this opportunity to ask
"And, how does this species relate to the human?" at this question, Lyra took from her saddle bad a book and offered it to the princess
"It's in this book. The image of the monkey is vague, but you can appreciate that it is bald. Also, in the description you can see that in these three cases the monkeys had some kind of clothing that resembled a little that of the pony kind. Like the clothing that this Fernando wore".
"I see" said Celestia as she went through the book that Lyra had brought. She stopped when she read something interesting. It was like this:
The second and third times that this specie was spotted, the specimen was using some kind of tool. One to fight one of the local beasts and the other to help a comrade that was injured"
"This could explain the use of the enviroment" Celestia thought. When she saw Celestia interested in the book, Lyra approached to see which page she was on. She recognized it immediately and commented
"This observation has brought me to think that maybe these humans don't have any magic, nor strength to fight with bare claws" remember that she too doesn't know that they are called hands. Celestia contemplated the uses of this information and then started to talk
"Lyra Heartstrings, your information is indeed important and could be useful in the future. Now, with your knowledge about this topic we could use your help to try and convince this human to come with us, or if he still refuses bring him by any means necessary that don't harm him. He has suffered a lot by now and I'm pretty sure that there is still some things to come"
"It would be an honor help you" said Lyra, bouncing from the excitement. Celestia turned to one of her guards and asked him
"Are there any carriages avaible?"
"Yes, your majesty. Every carriage had been under maintenance and are ready" the guard answered
"Very well, then prepare one, because Lyra Heartstrings has to get to Manehattan before it's too late in the night" Celestia commanded.
"I'll prepare myself, princess" Lyra said before leaving the room. Luna, who has been silent, but had heard everything, spoke to her sister when Lyra had left.
"See? Everything is sorting out itself, soon we will look back at this and we'll be able to laugh at this"
"Yes, you're right" Celestia responded with a smile before resuming her letter to Twilight, adding now the fact that they were getting help.
Meanwhile, the HHT were talking about their plan for tomorrow while Spike was ready to go to bed, but a sudden burp caught everypony attention and deprived Spike from his slumber.
"Okay, the princess let's see what the princess can do. It says
Dear Twilight Sparkle
I'm now aware of what you think, but the best I can do is to let him stay in the castle without anymore restrictions than that he is not seen by anypony that is not either you, me, my sister or the guards. Also, there is a pony that apparently knows more than anypony of us about the human species, so I sent her there. She should arrive before midnight."
After Twilight finished, she looked very surprised
"Well, I wasn't expecting that" she said
"What, the part about the information or the part about the help?" asked Spike
"Both, but it surprises me more than everything the fact that there is information about Fernando's species" responded Twilight.
Back in the streets, Fernando is currently running from some late hunters. From the last time we saw him, he has encountered other three teams and two solo hunters. Because of the hour, there weren't many ponies at the streets, so he was safe to go out without too much probability of being caught, but he still preferred the alleys, because he didn't feel exposed.
He entered an alley and found a dead end. It wasn't very wide, so he thought quickly and said to himself
"Let's be spider-man". He then put his left hand to the wall and did the same with his right had to the opposite wall. He then did the same with his feet, putting as much pressure as possible as to not fall, then he started to climb, moving one limb at a time as quick as possible. When he considered he was high enough, he looked down, and saw his chasers only peeking at the alley before moving along.
"Darn, if this continues like this I'll never get away enough to think how to return to my home" he thought when he was at the ground again. He exited the alley and went in the opposite direction of his stalkers. He walked some time, staying out of the reach of the street's light, until he found what appeared to be a map of the city. He approached the map, but he couldn't read anything. Luckily for him, he found a big red arrow, that he deduced was his actual location, and the image of a train not to far from him, to the east. "I hope I reach the midnight express he thought as he went that way.
In the Orange's house, there was a knock at the door
"That must be the help that we are getting" said Twilight as she went to the entrance hall, were Applejack's aunt was already at the door opening it. Lyra was on the other side of the door, and greeted when the door opened.
"Hello, is this place where Twilight and her friends are staying for the night?"
"Yes, it is. Who might you be?" asked Mrs. Orange
"My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and I'm here to help the elements to bring the human with the princess" she responded.
"Oh, right, I'll call them" the Applejack's relative said
"There's no need to do that, Mrs. Orange, I'll take her with us to the guests room" said Twilight, revealing her presence to the other two.
"Hi Twilight" said Lyra with a grin
"Hello Lyra. I haven't seen you in some time now" greeted Twilight too as they were already going with the others.
"Well, we were supposed to see each other at your brother's wedding, but you know that I got impersonated" Lyra commented as a response.
When they entered the room and everyone greeted Lyra, Twilight asked the question that everyone had
"What and how do you know about the human species?"
"Well, I know quite a bit thanks to some books that I have read, and my grandfather used to tell me bed stories that involved them, because he was the last one to see a human... well, until now" she answered with a sad smile, remembering her deceased grandfather.
"And who wrote these books? I remember you borrowing them some weeks ago, but I didn't paid too much attention considering it's about myths and legends" she then frowned a little "by the way, you're tardy with their devolution". Lyra got a sheepish look and answered with an equal sheepish looking smile
"He he, about that, I was about to return them, I swear it" Twilight rolled her eyes, and returned her attention to the books, but didn't found any authors or sign anywhere.
"Well, this is a task for another day" she said with a resigned look in her face. "Well, what do you know that might help us?" Twilight inquired
"Some things are useful, like the fact that their society was believed to be formed in great part by the trust they had between them, other things is that they lack magic, so they create tools from almost anything they find, and use it depending on the situation" Lyra responded, hopping almost like Pinkie Pie just by talking about her favorite obsession. "Also, their hands are the part of their body that they use the most, after their brain, because unlike another animals that look like them, an example are the monkeys, they can't use their feet with that ease.
"I differ in that last statement. I had an encounter with Fernando this afternoon, and he could easily avoid the traps set by the ponies in this town while running. He told me that having only two legs gave him more agility, and I observed it because he can side-step while we can hardly do that without falling". With this new information, Lyra got even more excited, like a kid that got what he expected for Christmas.
"Please, can we go to sleep now?" asked a very tired looking Spike, that wasn't having luck sleeping with that much noise in the room.
"Okay, we'll continue this in the morning" Twilight said.
At the Canterlot castle, Luna was going to her sister bedroom to announce her that as she said, she would go looking for Fernando, and that she will bring him even if she didn't convince him. When she arrived at her sister's room, she knocked at the door, and when Celestia gave her the signal to come in, she did so. She then started to talk
"Celestia, as you know, Fernando didn't cause ay harm to any of our subjects, so tomorrow I'll go looking for him. It's clear that he is not a threat to any of us, so maybe I can convince him, and if I can't, I don't think that he can escape from an Alicorn that is directly looking for him".
"Okay sister, but give some time for Lyra Heartstrings to help the elements. I think that with her knowledge she might know how to convince Fernando in coming here" Celestia said, trying to stop her sister
"One day, sister. One day is what I'm giving to those mares. It is taking even more time than the incidents of Discord, the wedding and... Night Mare Moon together" the princess of the moon said with a frown.
"I know, but they were evil and we could simply use brute force and the Elements of Harmony thanks to their overconfidence, but Fernando is smarter than any villain we had encountered and he hasn't shown signs that can tell us that the Elements of Harmony will work" Celestia responded with a serious face
"Anyway, I'll go and try to catch him if he is not here by tomorrow" finished Luna, tired of all this drama over only a creature that didn't even had done anything wrong.
Fernando was walking through the deserted station looking for any place to sleep after his plan on a late escape was discarded. He found the perfect place beside the train. In the gap between the train and the platform.
"I hope that I wake up before this train leaves the station" he thought before drifting to sleep.