The Line Between Fire and Light: Parallel Stories

by Stolenalicorn

Lyra's Human Hunt

Author's Note:

I really like the Human obsessed Lyra. I just thought I'd put something here about that.
This takes place before chapter 44 when knowledge of what James and Lucca are is still limited to a handful.

It had taken months for Lyra to find to find the door, the portal to exactly what she had been looking for for years. She'd known since she was young that humans really existed and had joined group after group of believers. She'd been called delusional, suffered through patronizing humor. Her own girlfriend didn't believe her. Though she thankfully didn't make her feel any less for her belief in these mythical creatures.

Now she was going to get the proof! James was the key. He and Tali came from a land nopony had ever heard of, used phrases that Lyra knew would be associated with humans, and despite being friends she had never actually seen Tali. She was always wearing a suit that completely concealed her and she said she couldn't eat anything in this world.

Key phrases, odd habits and limits. These had only further convinced her that they were the key to finding humans, if not disguised humans themselves. One of the recurring theories going around the human hunting groups was that humans could magically disguise themselves. They'd have to have some kind of magic to be so elusive for so long.

But hiding from ponies like that that hinged on the angle that humans were intelligent enough to have a civilization, which was a hotly contested theory in the human hunter groups. She was on the side of intelligent humans, but knew some that disagreed with her. Right now, though, she didn't care if she was right or wrong about her pet theories as long as she got to find a human.

She smiled as she looked at the door before her. Bonbon had told her about it, having seen it when she had agreed to help James with something and mysteriously couldn't remember anything about what she had done. This had to be it, why else would there be a clock by it set to the wrong time? It had to be a be like that for a reason. She hoped to find out what it meant later, but for now she was going to press forward and begin her search.

Her horn lit up and the door began to open. Her heart skipped a beat when the door squeaked, even though she knew the castle was empty. She suddenly felt as though everyone in Ponyville knew exactly where she was and what she was doing.

With a breath she finished opening the door, just on the other side the stonework changed dramatically from a dark (yet colorful) gemstone, that appeared to be a single smooth stone, to gray stone laid like brick. The room wasn't large, only a few meters round lit by a warm electric light, across from her was a pine door with a gemstone handle.

She stumbled as she stepped through the doorway, suddenly overcome with a sense of vertigo. Her mind raced as she tried to come up with reasons for it. Maybe it could be part of some spell that hides the presence of humans. Or something to do with why Bonbon hadn't remembered working with James. She had prepared though, bringing a camera and notebook to record as much as she could. She brought out said note book and took a minute to record what she had just experienced and her ideas about it.

This was so very exciting!

The sharp click her hoof made as she stepped told her that this was ceramic tile she new stood on. She may not have the aptitude for magic that Twilight or Starlight had but she did have a few skills. Her horn lit up and a pale green light washed over her. She took one more step and didn't hear anything. She happily pranced forward and opened the door, relieved that this door didn't make any noise as she walked through.

Beyond the doorway was a hallway with several more doors, each with a placard next to it with a picture and some characters that had to be some kind of writing. She took pictures of each placard as she passed, excited as she had already found something amazing even if she didn't find any humans.

Another curiosity was the fact that even though it was midday when she came here, looking out the windows showed it was night. She only glanced out of curiosity, as interesting as this was she had an agenda of what she was looking for. She would be going out soon enough if she didn't find the evidence she wanted here anyway.

She tried several doors as she walked through the halls, most were locked, others had some kind of magical field preventing her from walking into the room, though they didn't keep her magic from opening the doors. There was nothing more she could do in here, and eventually found her way to the foyer.

Outside she looked up to see a never ending expanse of stars unlike any she had seen in Ponyville. It was beautiful. On a whim she turned off her flash and took several pictures, hoping that to share this sight with Bonbon.

Her pictures taken, Lyra forced herself back to the task before her and looked along the cobblestone road through a wall towards the forest.

She felt an immediate pang of disappointment, as she had long been a proponent of humans as city dwellers and not forest dwellers.

She took a breath and thought for a moment, she had no evidence so far that humans lived in the forest, if they were even here. She needed to calm down, her excitement at finding the portal had her leaping to conclusions.

It wasn't too long until she was out of the woods and walking through dimly lit streets. The quiet of the streets told her that whoever lived here weren't nocturnal. If there were any humans here, that shot down her theory.

She had long believed that Princess Luna had once been the protector of humans until her transformation. And it was their decline and that helped push her into becoming Nightmare Moon. But with Luna's return and fervent denial Lyra had reluctantly abandoned the idea.

The city looked fairly normal, not a point in her favor for finding humans but it didn't rule it out either. She just needed to keep searching.

At another crossroads she was about to go straight through like she had been doing so far when the faint sounds of someone singing came to her from the left. She galloped off towards the music as quickly as she could, eager to find the singer. She reminded herself that it may not be a human but couldn't shake the feeling that something amazing was waiting for her.

She froze the moment she saw it, something walking on it's hind legs like some dragons do but it had a mane! It was far in the distance and walking further away from her.

In her excitement she had trouble focusing on her magic and fumbled with her camera. She was only barely able to take a picture as it was walking outside the radius of the lamppost. After several clicks she remembered that she had turned her flash off and would be lucky if anything could be seen when the pictures were developed. She took off at a gallop once more towards where the human had been, hopefully they wouldn't have gotten too far.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to be seen or heard when she arrived at the lamppost, they had stopped singing and she couldn't even hear any steps.

She had entered a neighborhood when she began running and though she wanted to call out to find who was just here she didn't want to wake up everyone sleeping. She'd made that mistake once in Ponyville and Bonbon had made her promise to not Human Hunt in town anymore, at least not at night.

She had to check the time quickly as she needed to be back well before Twilight's classes ended. They may be friends, but it would still look suspicious if Twilight caught her walking around the castle with a camera and notebook.

She took a few quick notes on what she saw while it was still fresh in her mind, even if the pictures turned out she wanted to have more than just those. And after a quick look around the neighborhood she went back to the main road she had followed.

She knew what she had seen, but there were still so many details she needed to have. With renewed enthusiasm she chose a new direction to walk to hopefully find more evidence of humans. The next intersection she found she chose a different direction, continuing towards what appeared to be shops and not neighborhoods.
Success!

… almost. What she found instead of humans were closed stores, but hey had all sorts of human things available. Several clothing stores had mannequins, there were advertisements, there were even news papers in vending machines, although they didn't take bits. Immediately she began taking notes and pictures, she needed as much of this stuff as possible.

Had the stores themselves been open she would have likely spent every last bit she had buying as much human merchandise as possible. For the moment she had to be satisfied with pictures and collecting different advertisements. She had so many things she wanted to do here, and had to plan another expedition.

The advertisements also brought up a strange realization. These creatures didn't have muzzles, instead they had flat faces like Tirek. Were they closer to centaurs than they were ponies? It wasn't too inconceivable, the assumption that they would have pony-like features was just anthropomorphism anyway. The ads also served to provide an end to the debate about whether or not humans had tails.

She'd been here for a while now, and as much as she wanted to stay and keep looking around she needed to leave. It wasn't difficult to find her way back to the castle she had left (which she took a picture of as she approached) and easily made her way out of Twilight's castle on the other side of the portal.

***

That night, Lyra worked carefully in her improvised dark room. Her heart pounding as she silently watched the prints develop. First the night sky over the forest. The view was much better in her memory.

She was already planning her next Human Hunting trip, maybe she could convince Bonbon to join her. It's not like she could keep denying humans with the evidence she had gathered.

Several pictures began to grow dark as they developed, a cone of light near the center with a shadowy figure crossing through it.

Lyra's heart raced as she examined the photograph. It lacked some definition as the figure was vanishing into the darkness, but it had the outline! She could see it's hair, albeit barely. Grouped with the advertisements, and pictures of the clothed mannequins in the storefronts how could anyone continue to deny their existence?

She pranced in place a moment as she imagined sharing this with her Human Club meeting later that week.

***

“Yeah … I mean I guess it kind of looks right.” A pegasus stallion hesitantly said as he examined the picture. “I don't know, there's just too many ways this could be faked.”

“What?!” Lyra gasped as her jaw dropped.

“It's blurry at best, and it only kind of matches what we know about humans.” A unicorn mare clarified.

“But I've got the negatives! And what about the Mannequins and advertisements?!”

“That's what makes this so difficult.” He answered. “The mannequins actually make it harder to believe the blurry pictures are authentic.”

The mare nodded in agreement as she levitated the advertisements back to Lyra. “And these just look too weird to be real humans. I mean, where's their muzzle? And tail? And are these supposed to be human runes on this page? I can't understand any of it.”

“And aren't you the one who thought they were nocturnal?” An earth pony mare spoke up. “Shouldn't there be far more humans around then?”

“I was wrong.” Lyra said earnestly. “We were all wrong about a few things with them!”

“Isn't it just a bit too convenient that your pictures show the, quote unquote, human as living in the city?” Spoiled Rich asked as she rolled her eyes. “We've been over this, if humans lived in cities we would have found them, or at least abandoned cities of theirs, long ago. They have to live in forests, because they are forest animals. And look at it Lyra, there's no way I could have that thing as a pet.”

“Unless they aren't what we thought they were!” Lyra was getting frustrated. Of course Spoiled Rich would say that, she didn't care about humans beyond what kind of social status they could give her as either a discovery or an exotic pet. “And we wouldn't be able to find them if somepony were keeping them hidden.”

“Lyra …” The pegasus uncomfortably said. “Princess Luna has already denied any knowledge of humans.”

Now was the time to present her new theory. “I know. And I believe her, but there's another Alicorn. One from a land he calls New Guardia: Guardia as in guardian. An alicorn that nopony had ever known until he mysteriously showed up in Ponyville to introduce himself to Princess Twilight! When Twilight became an Alicorn there was a big coronation. We heard about Flurry Heart being an alicorn at the same time as her Crystaling. Everypony hears about every alicorn because it's big news!”

“But then here comes this alicorn stallion out of nowhere that nopony has ever heard of, not even the Princesses. When everypony does learn about him, it's because he was protecting Twilight. Everything about this stallion is weird. The way he talks and moves, his strange name and magic. The entire kingdom he rules was (and still is) a total mystery.”

“And you found it inside Princess Twilight's castle …” Spoiled Rich said sarcastically.

“It's a portal!” Lyra insisted. “A portal to the Human Kingdom!”

“Look, Lyra,” the unicorn gently said. “We all do believe that humans exist. But creating these … pictures, isn't going to help anypony. It's only going to make us look even more silly to everypony else.”

“I can take you there.” Lyra's voice was weak with desperation and disbelief. So many years believing on nothing, no solid evidence and half remembered stories. But she came with the very evidence they needed, what may have been proof if she hadn't turned her flash off earlier, and nopony believed her for a moment.

“Please, Lyra. Maybe you should take a little time to yourself to rest.”

“I didn't fake these!” Lyra almost shouted, tears welling up in her eyes.

“It's okay. We've all made photos to look like what we think they'd be.”

“I haven't.” Spoiled Rich huffed.

“All of us who care.” the unicorn mare whispered to Lyra before speaking normally again. “Just take some time and relax. A month, then you can come back and we can get back down to business. Okay?”

Lyra's face twisted in frustration as her horn glowed, ripping the pictures and advertisements away from the rest of the group. She had worked too hard to get these and they accused her of faking it!

***

“Lyra?” Bonbon asked as she walked into Lyra's dedicated human room. Many of the old sketches and footprint castings had been taken down and thrown into a corner. “What happened?”

“Nothing.” Lyra huffed, not looking towards her girlfriend.

“I heard about what happened at your group.”

“What, that I'm a liar and faker?”

“I know what they said.” She said as she sat next to Lyra.

“I know you don't believe any of this, but I really did find something,” Lyra admitted, clearly depressed.

“I know you did,” Bonbon assured her. “You're not a liar, and I don't mean to sound rude, but there's no way you could have faked these.”

“You believe me?” Lyra asked with a weak smile.

“Yes. There is something out there,” Bonbon admitted, nudging her girlfriend. “And it may just be a human.”

“If you believe me, then I don't care what they think.”

Bonbon kissed Lyra's cheek and looked to the pile of pictures and paper she had in front of her. “Tell me what you know and we'll see if we can figure this out. We'll have something to show everypony by your next meeting.”