//------------------------------//
// -16- Wednesday Part: Four 
// Story: The Anthropologist 
// by Weavers of Dreams 
//------------------------------//

"T'was a dark and stormy night..."

"Lyra."

"What that's how it happened?"

Dr. Fritz sighed a little and wiped his glasses. "Mrs. Heartstrings..."

"Uhp, last name basis, time to get serious," Lyra groaned as she passed a hoof through her mane in another vain attempt to control it. Failure.

"You need to talk about this, Lyra," Dr. Fritz scolded her as if she were a little filly.

Lyra just sighed sadly. "I know, doc. I know. But, it doesn't have to be depressing. Please allow me some humor."

"Duly noted and set aside until after this session," Dr. Fritz informed her.

"Does my doing your guys' job earlier at least qualify for this to be a free session?"

Fritz gave a long-suffering sigh. "Are you quite done yet?"

"Oh, fine," Lyra said, leaning back on the plush couch. She shifted about for a moment until she was comfortable and took a deep breath. This was always a hard thing put into words. But she was with a friend.

"I was about eleven at the time. My big brother had recently graduated from the guard academy..."


*	*	*


Little Lyra, her chubby little legs bouncing with excitement, ran down the Canterlot streets, her best friend, Bruno, balanced upon her back, while her carried a gift in her magical grasp. It was a special gift, just for her brother. She was going to surprise him with it as soon as he and their parents got home.

It was going to be the best day ever.

In her excitement, she didn't notice the figure step around the corner right in front of her.

"Oof, ow," Lyra complained, shaking the stars from her head. She scowled up at the obstacle that had gotten in her way. It was a mare, peach fur with a strawberry unicorn mane, and a smile on her face. It would only polite to smile back, right?

"Hello, lady," Lyra greeted the mare with a wave.

"What do we have here?" the mare asked, not looking at Lyra, and instead picking up the gift that the filly had purchased.

"Oh, that's a gift for my brother," she stated proudly. "It's a watch, compass, Swiss army knife(1), a whetstone, fire starter, telescope, magnifying glass, mirror, refillable pen, and candy dispenser."

"It's no bigger than a tenpiece(2)," the mare muttered in amazement as she looked at the steel and brass disc.

Lyra sighed and lowered her ears a bit. "I wanted to get the big one, but I was a little short. But, I guess a full set of kitchen knives and a granite cutting board aren't necessary on for a guard."

"A guard? Oh, you're Lyra, aren't you?" the mare asked as she passed the thingamajig back to the filly. "I should have guessed from your" -she looked at Bruno with a quizzical expression- "friend."

Lyra gasped. "Do you know my brother?"

The mare thought for a moment before speaking. "Oh, yes of course. We're good friends from the academy. I heard he was coming home today, you see, I graduated before he did, and wanted to surprise. But, I just can't seem to find where he lives."

"You mean he didn't give you our parents address?" Lyra asked innocently, sitting down as she rubbed her chin. "Why would he do that?"

"Oh, you know colts," the mare said quickly, "their heads are always somewhere else."

Lyra giggled a bit. "That's what mama says. Ooh, I can take you to my home. It's not that far from here."

The mare shook her head quickly. "Oh, no-no-no. I was just going to drop off a message to his parents... but I think it would be even better if you gave it to him. Your parents wouldn't even have to know."

Now Lyra was a bit suspicious. Her mother always to told her to tell her if she talked to strangers. "Why don't you want my parents to know?"

"Because, it's an invitation to a surprise party," the mare said, giving a toothy grin, "and you know how parents are about parties, right?"

Ah, now it made sense. Lyra nodded knowingly. "Of course. Just needed to make sure you're on the level."

The mare handed the letter to Lyra and began to walk away, until a new thought struck her. "Oh, why don't you come to the party as well. Earlier in fact. That way we can all surprise him."

Lyra gasped. A party with the big kids? How could she say no?

"Yes!" she shouted louder than she intended. She quickly gave a polite cough. "I mean, yes. I would love to go to a party for my brother. Just, um, where is it going to be?"

"Do you remember your brother's old friend, Roller Dee?"

Lyra deflated a bit. "That boring colt who played Dungeons and Dragons all the time?"

The mare chuckled at this and nodded. "The very same. But don't worry, this party will be anything but boring."

Lyra shrugged and quickly sprinted on home.


*	*	*


"And so you went and delivered the letter to your brother, and made sure to slip away from home in time to get to the 'party' early, right?" Dr. Fritz inquired when Lyra just seemed to pause her story.

The mare nodded as she collected her thoughts and rubbed her hooves together in a dyscognitive fashion.

"Take your time, Lyra," Fritz told patiently. "Let it out as it comes."

Lyra took a deep breath and let it out in a deep sigh. "Yeah, I got to the party, and then..."


*	*	*


"You want me to do what?" Lyra asked, looking up at peach mare.

The mare groaned, acting a little impatient. "Go into the closet, and wait for the signal. Then jump out, eyes closed and laugh your head off."

"Why?" Lyra asked, tilting her head to the side. It still didn't make sense.

"Because...," the mare thought quickly, "Because that's just part of a grown-up's party. And you want to be a grown up right?"

Grown-ups? Lyra's head spun. This wasn't a big kid's party, it was a party for adults. Oh, she had always wanted to go to an adult party. They didn't have a bedtime, or stupid only-one-piece-of-cake rules, and a whole bunch of other things that every child wanted to do, but wasn't allowed to. Or, at least, that's how she imagined it to be.

And here she was messing everything up by not listening to what this mare was telling her. She was probably spoiling everything for everyone else. This was totally embarrassing.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked. "I didn't mean to ruin anything."

The mare, never really got the name, smiled and patted her on the head. "Oh, don't worry, little filly. You'll fit right in."

"What's the signal?" Lyra asked, hoping to speed things along so she could enjoy her first adult party. "How will I know when to jump out."

"You'll hear a scream," the mare said.

Lyra looked about curiously at the other ponies that were setting things up. "Who's going to scream? What if someone else screams before the right scream happens and I mess everything up?"

"You're brother's going to scream," the mare said, her smile taking on a fiendish aspect. Lyra got a little worried.

"Why's he going to scream?" she asked, really wanting to know.

The mare and some of the other ponies in the room gasped and placed hooves on their chests.

"You mean you don't know," the mare began, looking aghast. "You've never been to an grown-up surprise party before, have you?"

Argh. She was ruining everything again. Come on, Lyra, stop questioning everything.

"Uh, of course I have," she fibbed, badly, "I-I was just... um, testing you. Yeah, I was just testing you."

The ponies all snickered until the mare silenced them all with a glare. She turned back to Lyra and smiled innocently. "I knew you were mature enough to understand."

Lyra beamed proudly as the mare patted her stiffly on the head.

"Now, your brother is going to be here any minute now," the mare said, glancing at a clock, "quickly get into the closet and wait for the scream."

Lyra did as she was told, giggling like the little school filly she was. once the closet door was shut, she sat down and pulled out the gift meant for her brother. She just couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he opened it. This was going to be so much better than giving it to him at home.

So enthralled was she, that, in her building excitement, she almost missed her queue. There was the scream. She knew that scream well, because, every little sister worth her salt knew how to terrify her older brother.

Not bothering to ponder why this would be part of an adult party, she burst into action.

She leapt out, eyes closed, opend and her mouth and laughed. Only, she wasn't laughing.

"You stupid hideous creep, serves you right. Such a worthless stallion deserves to smell just like the dumpster that spawned him. Hahaha."

That was her voice, that was her mouth that was moving it. But, it was not her that was saying it. Her eyes shot open in bewilderment. And the first thing they landed upon was her brother. He was covered in what could only be the result of taking a large bucket and submerging it in the sewers beneath Canterlot.

What was going on? What kind of sick party was this?

Then, it got worse. The other ponies at the party, the ones who were supposed to be her brother's friends, all began shouting more insults at him. Saying things that would get Lyra's hide tanned if she ever said them. Then they started grabbing the decorations and refreshments and bombarding her brother with them.

All Lyra could do was watch in horror.


*	*	*


"The Ventriloquist Vandal spell?" Dr. Fritz said, having heard the story before.

Lyra nodded. "They took control of my own voice and mouth to tear out my brother's heart and show it to him while it was still beating."

"And what happened next, Miss Heartstrings," Dr. Fritz urged her onwards.

"My brother did what anyone who had a heart would do if such a thing happened to them," Lyra said as she looked towards a window. "He ran away crying."


*	*	*


"Why are you do this," Lyra shrieked angrily as she was forcefully ejected from the house. Several of the ponies nursing bruises delivered from Bruno. She was near tears herself. "Why did you do that to him?"

She didn't get a reply, just the door slammed in her face. Laughter could be heard the other side, which made both Lyra and Bruno even angrier. Bruno beat at the door a couple of times, leaving some long scratches. But they were ignored.

Lyra turned away from the house and charged in the direction she thought her brother might gone. The furthest place away from home.

She cried out his nickname, the one she always called him when she was upset.

"B'ro, I'm sorry. Please come back. B'ro. Please. Brother. I need you."

She dashed through the streets, up and down alleys, through yards. Calling out for her beloved sibling.

"Please, it wasn't me. I didn't know. I didn't say those things. Come back. Please, forgive me."

A storm began to kick up in the darkening sky, and poor Lyra's cries became all the more desperate. In time, her chubby little body began to wear out as she neared the edge of the city, and when she actually found herself standing on the road to the city's gates, she collapsed in a sobbing heap of aches and grief.

"No, no," she cried, covering her watering eyes with her hooves the gift she had gotten for her brother dropped to the ground with a metallic clatter, followed by Bruno. She cast a forlorn look at the pocket survival kit and at her best friend. The smooth lump of granite with its two googly eyes she had glued onto it stared back at her, offering no comfort.

She covered her eyes back up again and resumed sobbing brokenly.

This went on for some time, until a flash of lightning caused her to look up the mountain in terror. The lightning had struck an old tree, whose roots spread far and wide to hold up the side of the slope. No longer.

It was like watching a wave on the ocean, only lumpy and brown. She shrieked in terror as she attempted to rise to her hooves, but, even with the fear pumping through her veins, she hadn't the strength to stand. Then she became silent as one question came to the forefront of her mind.

Why?

She closed her eyes to accept her fate, but then felt someone grab her, holding her tight.

"I'll always love you, lil'sis."

Her eyes shot back open and she found herself looking into the eyes of her brother. He was surrounding her, acting as a shield against the terrible wave that turned the whole world black not a split second later.


*	*	*


"They found us the next day," Lyra sobbed, held tightly in Fritz's hooves as she cried. "My brother... dead. While I suffered two broken legs and a few cracked ribs. He made sure that I was safe, even while believing that I had betrayed his trust."

"It's alright, Lyra," Dr. Fritz comforted her. "It was a long time ago."

"Time doesn't dull all wounds," Lyra said as she wiped at her eyes. "I went through three years of therapy, along with a four month period I couldn't even bring myself to leave the house. Mother and father never blamed me, they knew that I had been used, and it hurt them when my trust of 'adults' became severely limited for many years afterwards."

She pushed her self away from Dr. Fritz and attempted to assemble herself. She ran another magic comb through her mane in yet another attempt to get it right. Success. Small victories.

"Every chance I got, afterwards, I would go to the spot and search for the gift I had bought. I studied book after book after book, looking for spells to help me locate it. Which helped me get into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, where I had access to even more books to help me."

She turned and looked at her cutie mark. "That's how I got this. I took up music and found that everything had a different frequency. So, I eventually managed to home in on it six years ago." She produced the small gift from the confines of her lunchbox, holding its battered frame up to the light. "It doesn't work as well as it used to, but I never really planned on using it."

Dr. Fritz nodded sagely. "And what of those ponies that set up the 'party'?"

Lyra just shrugged. "Disappeared. I don't really care. I found out later that the mare, never did get her name, knew that our family was very well off, and tried to stake a claim with my brother. Fortunately, our mother had the foresight to teach him the kind of mares he should avoid. She was just so angry at being turned down that she had some of her other friends seduce my brother's friends, feeding them lies and somesuch. They believed them."

She placed the gift back into the greasy confines of her lunchbox. "Brother always had a hard time fitting in. I guess that's why I became an anthropologist, so that I could help those who had a very hard time fitting in. And, well, here I am. The world's greatest anthropologist. No brag, well, maybe a little, but all fact as well."

"Your brother would be proud of you."

Lyra rolled her eyes and managed a chuckle. "I don't need you to tell me that. He loved me to the end. I got over the worst of it a long time ago doc. It's... it's just nice to have an ear to listen every now and again for when things become a little harder."

(1) A human once brought one over and flooded the market. Why bother changing the name?
(2) A large bit worth ten bits, duh.