//------------------------------// // The Lyra saga 1 (EDITED) // Story: Human Nature // by Dragonfire2lm //------------------------------// Lyra woke up the next morning to find no trace of Sunset. She was careful to avoid waking Derpy as she tip-hooved through the house in search of her other friend. "Hey morning Lyra" Ben greeted from the archway behind her. "AHH!" the unicron yelled, startled by the dingo's sudden appearance. Ben simply snickered at her reaction. "Dude! Don't do that!" she fumed, but this only Ben to burst into laughter. "Man oh man, you are so much like a friend of mine, it's almost uncanny" he said between bouts of laughter. Lyra merely grumbled something in response. After he had calmed down, Ben asked Lyra what she was doing and after her response he seemed to lose all signs of playfulness. Ben scratched his chin as he tried to put into words his assumption of Sunset's actions he had seen last night. "Well you see...she decided to go it alone ya know? After seeing Derpy getting hurt, although in the long run everything will work out, I think she blames herself for it and doesn't want any of her other friends getting hurt" he explained as Lyra looked more confused by the second. "What she doesn't think we can defend ourselves?" she retorted angrilly. "Well..." Ben replied, unsure of how to answer. "Oh no, no way man am I just going to sit and do nothing, no way in tartarus" Lyra ranted. "Ok, Ok before you blow a fuse just here me out" Ben placated the angry pony. "Can you defend yourself at all?" Lyra snorted "Of course I rutting can, I grew up on the strets of neigh york for crying out loud!" "Right..um can you read a map?" he asked, wary of the mare's temper. "Yeah, I'm not stupid" she replied. "Last question, would you be willing to take a life?" he asked seriously. This stopped Lyra in her tracks, as tough as she was, there had neer been a circumstance where she had to take the life of another being, pony or otherwise. "Now just hold on a minute!" she snapped, her composure regained. "Just what do you take me for? I am not some ruthless killer" Ben grinned. "Good to hear, just be careful though, there are others who won't hesitate to kill, be it for food or power" he stated. After getting a map, some dried herbs, a few containers of water and beastiary from Ben and sharing a quick breakfst with Derpy, Lyra began her treck across the dessert in search of her friend. Several hours and complaints later... The frozen volcaneo that rose from the surrounding vegtion loomed evr closer in the disttance as Lyra tridged forward and tried her best to ignore the buzz and hum of the heat wave that washed over the sandy dunes. the dried herbs she had snacked on only served to make her mouth all the more dryer, and it wouldn't be long before she ran out of water. "Ok I can do this, if I can just make it to the edge of the forest then I can rest and plan my next step...huh?" The mare looked up to see a black winged thing circling her high in the skky. "oh great just what i need, a damn buzzard thinking I'm its next meal, Well sorry to disappoint you pal! but pony is not on the menu!" Lyra yelled up at the sky. Determined to prove the bird wrong Lyra grimaced and pressed forward, her hooves sinking in to the soft sand slightly as she walked across the dunes, and with the storm clouds behind her and her goal infront, she kept moving. time semed to move to a crawl, the bird of prey continued to follow her every movement, but it wasn't long before her hooves touched down on soft moss covered ground raather than sand. "Oh thank Celestia I made it WOO!" the mare yelled as she leapt and bounded on the moss covered path that wound its way through the forest. An unnatural screech broke her train of thought. She looked up to see the bird from the dessert perform a nose dive towards her. As it got closer fear ran through Lyra's viens as she realised it wasn't a bird. "Oh Crap, oh crap, oh crap" she exclaimed in sheer terror and bolted for the cover of the trees. This did not appear to detour the winged monster that raced after her, she continued to run. she did not dare to look back even tough she heard the sound of wood splintering and shattering as the monster plowed its way through the forest to reach her. Running on fear and adreniline Lyra ducked and weaved through the trees in an effort to shake off her pursuer, it had no effect as it simply used brute force to smash its through any obstacles to reach her. Thinking fast she decided to change tactics and used levitation to hurriedly propel herself over a rock. she landed awkwardly and scrambled to her hooves and fought her tired muscles to run ever further as whatever was after her got nearer, and running out of options she hid behind another rock further away. She gasped for air and tried to slow down her racing heart as the sounds got closer. she covered her nose and mouth with her front hooves as the smashing of wood slowed to a complete stop and silence filled the air. A hissing noise reached her ears and she could sense the creature was padding around near the rock she had levtated herself over, as if searching for a trace of her. She screwed her eyes shut as the hssing gained an irritated tone and she heard her pursuer as it leapt over the rock and landed with a dull thud not to far from her hiding spot. The sea green unicron could hear the irritated hissing from her hiding place behind the boulder, her heart hammered inside her and for a brief moment she feared its volume would alert the beast to her presence. Come on Lyra! You can beat this guy! she thought in a manner that Rainboe dash would be proud of as she gulped and steadied herself for the confrontation of the century. It was then that the creature spoke. "Come out My Little Pony, don't make me strain myself more just to pry you out from behind a measly rock" the creature, although soft spoken, sounded male and very annoyed with her. Lyra burst out from behind the rock...And froze as soon as she looked into venom-green eyes with a slitted pupil. What is this? Is he some sort of cockatrice? She willed for her body to move, but her hooves felt as if they were glued to the ground and in her fear and desperation she looked at her captor more closely, while at the same he was doing the same thing to her, having never seen a pony in his life. The creature was roughly manticore sized, with a very dark shade of green that could be mistaken for black. it had the head and neck of a snake, webbed ears and a crest of echidna-like spines jutting out from the back of his head and a small way down his neck. He had a body shaped vaguely like a bird of prey's with powerful legs with owl-like talons. he lacked any fore limbs and instead large and pwerful webbed wings were half open at his sides. his long serpentine tail had a thin scythe-like blade on the end. "How can such a small creature possibly survive out here?" He asked himself. Lyra could do no more than pronouce a sm all "Eep" as he studied her with his hypnotic gaze. "Hm no matter,You will make a nice source of entertainemnt for The Idiot" he said and launched himself into the air, hovered over her and in a quick motion he grasped her in one talon and flew upwards to escape the confinements of the canopy. As they soared over the rainforest the wyvern (For Lyra could think of no other creature to call him) banked left and headed to the plains. "What are going to do with me?" Lyra managed to ask as her piolet descended to land at the doors of a giant three-towered black castle in the centre of the plains. "I'm going throw you into a cell with a dragon to study your interactions" He replied as if it was most the normal thing in the world. Needless to say, she had nothing to reply to that.