Contrary to what Lyra had first told Kyle about her climbing prowess, she was actually at the bottom of her class. While other foals could manage to scale the rocks for hoof holdings, Lyra could only succeed in creating a miniature dustcloud as she flailed about hoping her hooves would catch onto something.

Kyle was at least sincere as he scaled the plateau with incredible ease. Looking down at Lyra he couldn’t help but break into a smile. The Minty Unicorn was huffing and puffing as she inched herself forward upward, only to slide down a few feet at a time. Her once vibrant coat was now sullied with dirt and debris, and her mane was even worse off as the white became gray and brown.

Kyle could not resist teasing the poor mare, “Hey Lyra!”

The dirty unicorn stopped her struggles to look up at her friend who was about halfway to the top.

Kyle extended his arm as if he was trying to reach out to her, “Need a hand?”

“Oh har har, that joke was so funny it’s a wonder you haven’t picked up any human females with your witty speech,” Lyra rasped. She knew that the comment was poking fun at her little obsession with hands, but she had other interests as well . . . she liked feet too.

Grunting, she pulled herself up to a ledge. Catching her breath for a moment she looked up to see that Kyle had nearly reached the top, having scaled the rocks and crevices using those magnificent fingers of his. Shaking her head, Lyra knew she could not lose track of what she was doing right now.

“I gotta stay focused right now, I can’t lose to Kyle otherwise he might not let me live this down!”

Planting her hooves firmly into the ground, Lyra gritted her teeth, “Here goes nothing!”

With the grace of a manticore in the heat, the determined unicorn charged up the side of the plateau, kicking up a storm of rocks and shale. Grunting and closing her eyes to protect herself from the dirt she was kicking up, Lyra pressed forward determined to reach the top. Muscles constricted and nostrils flaring, Lyra Heartstrings pushed on forward.

Sputtering as she inhaled dust, Lyra felt her hoof catch a flat surface. Ecstatic, the minty unicorn reasoned that what she felt was the top of the plateau. She had made it! Shaking her head a few times and wiping a hoof across her eyes, Lyra cleared her vision to get a good look were she was at.

“Impressive! Through the haze of the small dust storm you created I saw that you made it just a couple feet more!” Kyle called down to her.

Lyra’s eyes widened in shock as she fully assessed her situation. Through all that hard climbing, her hoofs had torn through the earth and had actually dug a small crater into the side of the plateau. She had only managed to reach a small ledge that was nowhere near the halfway point where Kyle had been. Speaking of Kyle, where was he anyway? Her eyes scanning upward, Lyra’s mouth hung open as she saw where the human was: his legs dangling over the edge on top of the elevate landmass smirking down at her.

“So, what was that all about you being at the top of your class?”

Lyra dunked her head in the cool water hoping to get some of the grime out of her beautiful mane. Shaking her head a couple of times, she tried to see her reflection cast in the water, but the ripples from the last plunge distorted the view.

Kyle was not far off from her right at the edge of the pond, having his legs submerged. He sighed, liking the cool water on his legs after a rough climb up a rocky plateau.

“Stupid dirt,” Lyra grumbled as she scrubbed at her hair vigorously, “Why – won’t – you – come – out?”

Kyle overheard her, “I bet now that you’ve come to the conclusion that a climb up a steep landmass wasn’t the best choice for a relaxing afternoon?”

“No, I still think it was a pretty good choice,” Lyra shook her mane, “I mean of course we got dirty, but I think it was an overall good exercise for the both of us.”

“I would agree on the latter of your statement, but as for the former it looks as though you took a dirt bath.”

Lyra’s ears twitched, “Well I guess others are lucky to not have coats which dirt can easily cling to.”

“And I’m thankful that my ancestors grew out from their hairy bodies.”

The two of them stared at each other intently for a moment, before Lyra’s mouth gave way to a smile and Kyle soon followed with a chuckle. Soon the both of them were in a fit of laughter.

“Hehe, you know I never gotten over the fact that you believe you came from apes!” Lyra chuckled as she got on dry land to shake her hooves off.

“Well in my defense I find it a little easier to believe that all ponies came about as a result of magical tears made by the alicorns.”

Lyra, satisfied that she was mostly dried off, turned to Kyle with a smile, “Like I said, ponykind needs to get into the study of anthropology.”

Kyle brushed his legs free of water, “Anthropology? Wouldn’t you be more interested in what your cutie mark is?”

Turning to look at her cutie mark with a frown, Lyra shook her head, “That’s what it’s telling me, but not what I really practice. It’s what Rarity is like, her talent is locating gems and such, but her passion is in dress design.”

Suppressing a small shudder that coursed through his body, Kyle could recall how many times Rarity requested that Kyle model for the new human clothing she would be making for the new human arrivals. After a while Kyle decided to stop visiting or coming near Carousel Boutique, lest he be dragged in for more modeling some of Rarity’s more horrendous designs.

The minty unicorn sat down and stared across the pond, using her hoof to motion Kyle to sit next to her, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as interested with how we came about as much as you, but the real reason I’m into anthropology as I am is because your presence – human presence – had influenced Equestrian society when nopony else wanted to believe you even existed and tried to explain your kind away as a myth.”

Taking his place next to Lyra, Kyle gave his pony friend an amused look, “Your not considering any of your conspiracy theories again?”

Lyra hit Kyle on the shoulder, “Okay so maybe I was a little overhyped on the whole ‘Celestia is hiding the truth from us’ but I think I grew out of it.”

“You think?”

Lyra began playing with her mane, “Well I have had some thoughts on the whole ‘Hearth’s Warming Eve’ pageant.”

Kyle felt a part of himself perk up, “Do share with me.”

The minty unicorn brushed her human friend off, “Oh you don’t need to hear it, its silly.”

“But now I do since you claim it to be silly.”

Lyra threw up her hooves in the air, “Ugh! I can tell you’re going to continue pestering me about so here it is: I have a suspicion that Celestia deliberately created the whole pageant to cover up the previous ancient human civilization that existed before it was wiped out by Discord. The reason why she did it I really haven’t the faintest clue!”

Kyle suppressed a chuckle, “Better not tell Twilight that little theory of yours, she really is protective of the Princess.”

Lyra’s ears perked up, “Hey, speaking of Twilight, do you think we could stop by Sugarcube Corner? Pinkie Pie works there so Twilight might be there as well.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but what’s with the sudden interest in Twilight?”

Lyra grinned, “Ever since you guys came here I’ve been trying to get Twilight to see the importance in anthropology, my hope is she’ll catch on and convince Celestia to ratify anthropology to be a taught course.”

Kyle nodded, “So do you think she is considering it?”

“Oh I bet she is getting ready to concede to my reasoning,” Lyra smiled triumphantly, “I have a way getting what I want.”

Twilight took a bite out of the cupcake as she explained her situation to Rainbow Dash, “And that’s when she asked me to send a special request to Princess Celestia asking to make anthropology a taught course, not just some extra one credit course that nopony gives a hoof about!”

Dash leaned over and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, “So Lyra’s really obsessed with this whole ‘antho-thingey’ process, why not tell her to just buzz off?”

Twilight buried her head into her hooves, “Because she has a valid point! I mean, we have been skipping over so many valuable subjects. No wonder Nightmare Moon was regarded as a myth all this time, there was no Ancient History courses in the school curriculum!”

Rainbow whickered, “So who cares about classes anyway? I mean, I usually skipped those classes to hang out with Gilda or just being plain hooky and I turned out alright.”

Twilight chose to hold her tongue, not wanting to upset Rainbow by pointing out she was still stuck doing a weather job when she could be at a higher position in Cloudsdale, maybe with a better chance at getting into the Wonderbolts.

Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared out of thin air, announcing another batch of her delicious cupcakes. Rainbow eagerly took the one with a lightning bolt on it while Twilight being less enthusiastic took a vanilla frosted cupcake with red sprinkles.

“So is anypony else enthralled about the idea making anthropology a major required class, or is it just Lyra?” Rainbow asked as she took a bite out of her cupcake.

Nibbling on her cupcake, the treasured student of Princess Celestia gave an exasperated sigh, ”Normally I would have the ear of the Executive Board of the School for Gifted Unicorns and the Equestrian School Management about any other topic, but this time they seem unusually unsupportive about considering anthropology a major subject. All I want to do right now is not focus on the matter and take a small break, and the last pony I need to see right now is –“

“Hey Lyra! Hiya Kyle!” Pinkie Pie called out, causing Twilight to slam her head on the table again.