Lyra's Discovery

by Thunder Brony

Entering the Badlands

The next morning they left the hotel and traveled to the train station and boarded the train bound for Dodge City.

As they stared out the window watching the scenery passing by Bon-Bon turned and asked “what do you think we will find in the badlands?”

Lyra looked at her traveling companion smiled and replied “hopefully with a little luck and Celestia’s blessings the discovery of a lifetime.”

Upon arriving they at their destination they disembarked and amongst a sea of ponies sat a sky blue unicorn mare with an amber mane and tail with an unfurled map cutie mark. upon spotting Lyra she levitated a sign that read Greetings Lyra Heartstrings. As they approached the unicorn Lyra said “hello you must be my Canterlot contact.” The unicorn nodded “yes my name is Topogra Lands.”

Lyra and said “hello Topogra this is my friend Bon-Bon.”

Topogra turned to Lyra’s companion smiled and said “hello Bon-Bon” then turning back to Lyra “your wagon and supplies are loaded and ready the university has allocated supplies for 5 days.”

She led them to the edge of the station where a wagon sat loaded with fruits and vegetables and other supplies. They both placed their saddlebags in the wagon then Lyra activated her horn and placed the wagon hitch on her back Topogra said “I will take you to the road that leads to the Badlands follow me.”

She led them to a road on the edge of town pointing to the road “just follow that road to the south and once you reach the Macintosh hills you will come to an archway. Once you pass through it you will enter the badlands.” She looked in the direction of the road and back at the station smiled and said “I must return to the university Celeatia’s speed” then turned and left.

As they began walking along the road Bon-Bon said “if you ever get tired of pulling the wagon I would be glad to help.”

Lyra smiled and nodded as they walked along the road they paused and she levitated out her saddlebags and pulled a map looking at it she said “once we pass through the archway then go to the south to balancing rock.” Pointing to the landmark on the map there is a cave to the east we’ll begin there.”

As they walked along they soon came to the archway it was short only 2 meters wide and 3 meters high moments later they emerged on the other side. Lyra said with a smile “were here I need a rest you can pull the wagon if you want.”

As Lyra unhitched herself from the wagon and stretched Bon-Bon smiled and hitched herself up to the wagon as they continued on their journey.

Bon-Bon looked out across the vast expanse “it looked so barren and desolate she asked “how do we find anything out in this vast emptiness?”

Lyra said “what we’re looking for in in the caves not out in the open.”

As they approached the balancing rock the sun was beginning to sink low in the sky Lyra said “let’s set up camp here according to the map the cave is not too far from here.”

Bon-Bon looked around at the terrain then the map and said “I wonder why this place looks like a giant depression it almost looks like a giant crater.”

Lyra looked over at her friend and said as she set the camp up “not exactly 77 million years ago this area was a river delta. The river that currently flows near Baltimare and into the Horseshoe Sea flowed through here which carved out the formations we see now. The region of the forbidden jungle became a delta.”

Bon-Bon asked “what happened to the river?”

Lyra said “nopony knows it changed course about 5 million years ago and now flws on its current course.”

As night began to fall Lyra levitated some firewood out of the wagon and used a bow and stick to start a campfire. As Bon-Bon prepared dinner after they finished eating Lyra took out her lyre and began to play a soft melody she smiled and said “never leave home without it.”

Bon-Bon smiled and said “speaking of things you never leave home without” she reached into the wagon and pulled her saddlebags. She sat down next to Lyra and opened it and took out a box of chocolates and smiled “I made these before we left Ponyville.”

Lyra levitated one from the box and ate it “mmm these are delicious you should open a candy shop.”

Bon-Bon said “I’ve considered it but I do not have enough bits to get started.”

Lyra said “after the expedition is over we should do that, just think ponies from all over Equestria coming to your candy shop for the best candy anywhere.”

Bon-Bon nodded smiled and said “I haven’t decided on a name.”

Lyra thought for a moment and said “how about Little House of Bon’s?”

Bon-Bon smiled and said “Little House of Bon’s I like it I always wanted my own business. You remember about a year ago I wrote a business plan for a candy shop I just needed a name and some bits.”

Lyra nodded “well you have a name and soon you will have bits.”

Bon-Bon smiled “it would be a dream come true and we will run it together?”

Lyra smiled and nodded as she levitated another piece of candy she said with a slight chuckle “this candy is so good I could eat the whole box.”

Bon-Bon smiled and moved over rubbed a hoof on Lyra’s back, neck and shoulders she closed her eyes and said softly “oh that feels nice” Bon-Bon smiled with a soft warm smile.

The next day Lyra woke up as the sun was peaking over the horizon she looked over and saw the sleeping bag next to her was empty. She went outside the tent and saw Bon-Bon sitting outside watching the sun rise over the plateau.

Lyra sat down next to her Bon-Bon looked over smiled and said “I love watching the sun rise” then turned back towards the rising sun “I can see a bit of Celestia in each sunrise.” She looked over at Lyra again and smiled softly.

Lyra yawned and said “I agree it’s always a glorious site but I never thought of seeing Celestia in the sun.”

Bon-Bon said “well metaphorically speaking she uses her magic to raise the sun so therefore a part of her is in the sun.”

Lyra said “never thought of it that way” Bon-Bon looked over and smiled Lyra walked over to the wagon and levitated 2 apples, 2 carrots, 3 celery stalks, lettuce, bread slices and some plates. After they ate breakfast Lyra unfurled the map levitated a compass and said pointing to a spot on the map marked cave 4. She said looking at the compass “its 250 meters to the east of here.”

They put on their saddle bags and began walking towards the cave when they arrived Lyra levitated 2 hats with lights on them from her saddlebags and they made their way into the cave.

Bon-Bon said “isn’t this cave supposed to be haunted?”

Lyra said “you don’t believe in that do you?”

Bon-Bon replied “I’m not sure but can we afford to that that chance?”

Lyra said “tell you what if we encounter one let’s just give it some of your candy and an invitation to the Little House of Bon’s.”

Bon-Bon laughed as they went inside the interior was surprisingly large enough to hold several ponies comfortably.

Bon-Bon asked “why would any pony or other creature want to live in a place like this? Its dark chilly in here.”

Lyra replied as they went deeper into the cave “this place was not always like this, thousands of years ago this area was a fertile valley”. Lyra turned her head towards a wall she noticed something moving closer to the wall paintings came into view. She looked at them in amazement suddenly a wailing sound could be heard as a gust of wind blew past them.

Bon-Bon jumped up and screamed “A GHOST!” Running out of the cave as fast as she could.

Lyra looked around then went outside to find Bon-Bon outside the cave entrance trembling on the ground she came over and comforted her friend. Holding her she said “that wailing sound you heard was air blowing through small tunnels that were carved by water erosion. The ghosts are nothing more than an acoustic effect.”

Bon-Bon said with a nervous chuckle “I was going to give then an invitation to little house of Bon’s.”

They laughed and continued to hold each other as Bon-Bon regained her composure.

Lyra asked “feeling better?”

Bon-Bon nodded “uh huh” and the 2 went back inside the cave Lyra showed Bon-Bon the small tunnels as Bon-Bon looked around she felt kind of silly.

Lyra said “I want to show you something” she walked over to the wall she was looking at earlier as she shone her light on the wall. Bon-Bon’s eyes grew wide as she saw what looked like paintings.

She said “wow.”

Lyra levitated off her hat and focused as her horn glowed and a golden light filled the room and the entire wall came into view there were pictures mostly of ponies and various animals.

Bon-Bon looked at them as she came across an image she did not recognize she sat down and stared at the images.

She said “Lyra take a look at this.”

Lyra walked over and asked “what is it?”

Bon-Bon said “you better come see this for yourself.”

Lyra walked saw something unbelievable a picture a tall skinny creature it had 2 legs 2 arms one of them was carrying a horizontal stick.

She clapped her hooves together and cheered “this lends credence the ancient bipedal theory” as they looked around at some of the other pictures were unbelievable. What looked like smaller versions of the tall skinny creatures were riding some of the ponies.

Bob-Bon asked “what does all this mean?”

Lyra said “as weird as this may sound it looks like they lived and worked together.”

She levitated a camera out of her saddlebags and took pictures as Bon-Bon looked around then a wailing sound was heard as a slight breeze blew past them.

Bon-Bon jokingly said “the ghosts are back” as the breeze blew past some of the dirt was kicked up causing a small dust storm reviling something sticking out of the ground.

Calling over Lyra she said “I found something.”

Lyra came over and levitated a small digging spade and brush from her saddlebags Bon-Bon sat down and watched as Lyra removed the dirt from around the object. A form began to take shape it was metallic shaped like a 20 cm wide curved triangle. Thinking it to be interesting she pulled it out of the dirt.

Bon-Bon asked “what is that?”

Lyra said “I have no idea.”

She placed it into her saddlebag and continued digging but found nothing looking back at the paintings she noticed something the object she had looked similar to an object on one of the ponies in the paintings. The small skinny creature had its lower extremity in an object similar item. She levitated the item next to the picture and they were the same. Lyla sat on her haunches as she processed the discovery she just made.

As Bon-Bon looked towards the exit and could see the sun was beginning to set and said “the sun is beginning to set we better get back to camp.”

Lyra snapped out of her daze and said “huh? Oh yeah, yeah let’s go.”

Bon-Bon said “it seems what we found so far is a good start.”

Lyra nodded and they exited the cave the sun was low on the horizon they went back to camp and ate dinner afterwards Lyra played her lyre.

Bon-Bon closed her eyes and swayed as her friend played a nice tune Lyra smiled and contained playing she looked over at Bon-Bon who was lost in the song Lyra smiled softly.

The next day they woke up early and ate breakfast and went into the cave again and Lyra wanted to be sure she did not miss anything of value. So she and Bon-Bon marked off a small area and Lyra used her magic to levitate anything buried that may have been buried in the dirt. After dividing the area of the cave into 4 sections Lyra walked over the area moving her head side to side as her horn glowed. She passed over the area and finding nothing feeling defeated they left the cave and returned to camp to eat dinner.

Lyra said happily “I’m so glad this expedition is not a total loss.”

Bon-Bon asked “are there other caves to explore?”

Lyra pulled out the map and unfurled it and sighed “it does not say if there are other caves on this side of the plateau there might be more but we only enough supplies for the next 2 days.” She sighed “I wish we could explore more.”

Bon-Bon lay down with a sad look then said “another time perhaps.”

Lyra noticed her friend’s sad expression and asked “are you feeling alright?”

Bon-Bon looked up and said with a slight smile “I’m fine just thinking about something.”

Lyra tilted her head slightly.

Bon-Bon smiled again but did not say anything.

Lyra could see something in her friend’s eyes but was not sure what.

Bon-Bon lowered her head again and said “I’m tiered maybe sleep will be good.”

Lyra said “I’ve known you a long time and I can tell there if there is something on your mind.”

Bon-Bon smiled and said “you know me well, your right I do have something on my mind and I am working on a way to articulate it into words but don’t worry it’s nothing bad,”

She went inside the tent leaving Lyra slightly confused she poked her head inside the tent and saw Bon-Bon asleep in her sleeping bag. She wondered what she was talking about as she levitated her lyre and began playing a soft melody. After playing a few melodies she put it away and joined her friend inside the tent.

The next day after breakfast they decided to explore the area they found a nearby cave that was not on the map. They went inside but it did not have any paintings like the other one did Lyra said “there’s nothing here.”

As they were leaving Bon-Bon tripped over something causing her to fall on her face “ouch”.

Lyra came over “you alright?”

Bon-Bon said coughing and brushing herself off “I’m fine I just tripped over something.”

Lyra looked behind her friend and saw something sticking out of the dirt levitating her digging tool and brush out of her saddlebags and began to dig and uncover something unusual. Bon-Bon sat down as the item slowly began to take shape. As Lyra moved the dirt away she could see it was white and flat Lyra pulled it from the ground levitated a measuring tape. She placed it on the object and said “its 15 cm long.” Rotating it she noticed its most unusual feature was its spade shape and a bone protrusion on one side where a bone was supposed to be attached. But was missing she searched for the missing bone but found nothing.

Bon-Bon asked “what is that?”

Lyra said “I don’t know it looks like a shoulder blade but it does not look like any pony shoulder blade I have ever seen. Pony shoulder blades are about 30 cm long and are wide at the top and narrow at the base.

Bon-Bon said “could it be from those bipedal creatures in the paintings?”

Lyra said “possibly but I can’t be sure not without more pieces we will need more than just this, it’s a good start but we can’t jump to any conclusions without further evidence.”

She dug in the area around where she found the bone expanding outwards to an area 3 square meters wide and 15 cm deep to see if there were more bones but found nothing. As the light in the cave began to dim they noticed sun was beginning to set once more and they decided returned to camp for the last time.

Lyra was slightly disappointed “I can’t believe we have to return already we were so close.”

Bon-Bon said “there will be others right? This should convince the university to fund future expeditions.”

Lyra nodded and smiled “yes I hope to do this again soon” she smiled and continued “having a companion makes things more enjoyable.”

Bon-Bon nodded and smiled softly and said “I agree I do not think I would like being alone in Ponyville.”