Hello everypony!

Welcome to "Lyra's Quest" this is a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' type of story. However, unlike traditional CYOAs, this will work on a voting system which will decide the one action to take. After I post this, you have 2 days to vote for which action our heroine will perform. Since characters and such can vary depending on your decisions, I will only start by listing Lyra alone.

After the 2 days, the voting is closed and no further votes will be counted for the chapter. Lyra will then proceed to do what most of you voted she should do.

You can only vote ONCE by posting a comment with your vote on it. (The comment can be the vote alone, if you don’t feel like saying anything.)

~WD

Lyra stared in complete bafflement at what she had discovered. Looking around, she made her way to the merchant, her horn alight as she levitated the metallic box behind her. “How much for this box?”

The merchant, an old pony with a dusty red coat, fading yellow mane with grey streaks and a pile of dirt for a cutie mark glanced at it and snorted. “That thing? 200 bits... but for you Lyra, only 100 because I like you and I want to get rid of it. It’s nothing but a solid piece of metal, even if it looks like a box. Believe me. I’ve tried opening it.”

Lyra smiled. “Thank you, Cheap!”

Dirt Cheap snorted again. “Whatever, Lyra. If you want to waste your money chasing mythical creatures, who am I to stop you?”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “You know they did exist, Cheap, you’ve seen enough evidence.”

Dirt Cheap coughed, looking away. “Lyra... I’ve seen some odd things but no evidence... no real, palpable, proven evidence, that humans existed.” He sighed and looked back at her. “Don’t you get tired of the same old story? You always get proved wrong, either by Celestia’s student or some other shenannigan. I even heard Miss Pie the last time I was here call your human-seeking adventures cliched.”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “That Pinkie Pie... she's always been one to share her thoughts...” she chuckled halfheartedly.

“And I hear Miss Bon-Bon is also not very happy with your spending habits, not to mention-”

“Do you want your 100 bits or not?” Lyra growled venomously. “Because from where I’m standing they just dropped to 80.”

Dirt Cheap shook his head and took the bits. “Just don’t be disappointed when it turns out to be something completely useless, okay?”

Lyra sighed. “I won’t be... I can almost feel it this time, you know?”

“No,” Dirt Cheap admitted promptly. “But I guess that’s what makes us different.” He looked at the sky. “Well, Lyra Heartstrings, it’s time for me to go, as always you were my first customer of the day, and the last.” He hesitated. “Since you, uh, checked everything I brought, did you find anything that’s worth selling for more than 500 bits?”

Lyra thought about it. “Well, there’s an old jar that seems to have been made by a skilled artisan... you might want to double-check with Twilight, but I think it’s old enough and in good enough condition to be sold to a collector rather than in the market. That might sell for a nice amount.”

Dirt Cheap nodded. “Yeah, I know which one you mean.” He smiled. “Well, good luck to you, Lyra!”

“Goodbye, Dirt Cheap!” Lyra said in return as she turned around and trotted towards her home, metal box floating behind her.

It took a few minutes for her to be safely installed at home as her eyes scanned the floating box as it rotated, allowing her to see every angle. “This one’s different... I can definitely feel it!”

Carefully placing the box on her table, she concentrated and summoned a pen and parchment from her desk. “The Human Conundrum, entry four hundred and seventy five.” She dictated as her magic wrote out her words. “I believe I have succeeded in finding something that is undoubtedly human-made. It is a metallic box. It seems to be made of separate pieces of black metal, but put together so tightly its almost impossible to see where the edges are, and Dirt Cheap, the merchant who sold it to me is convinced that it’s nothing more than a lump of metal which just happens to look like a box.”

She levitated the metal box and turned it around. “It might be too old to see correctly, but I believe there is a small indent on one of its sides. I will attempt to push one of my tools into it to see if anything happens.”

Choosing a screwdriver, Lyra levitated it and slowly pushed it into the indent she had found. Her eyes widened when something seemed to turn inside the box. An outline of a circle appeared on the front of it, backed by a blue light of some sort. Describing what happened, she continued. “... I don’t know where the light is coming from, or rather how it is originating... it does not feel like magic.”

She pushed her hoof against the glowing circle and the box shuddered, pieces sliding back as it somehow unfolded in front of her amazed eyes. “Oh, Celestia! The box it- it opened up and several strange symbols have appeared,there is a white dome of light forming in the center and its spiraling and... and... it’s not doing much else...” she bit her lip. “I’m afraid that this might be too much for me to try to understand on my own... I need help... but this is big! Who can I trust? Should I contact another member of the Hands Society? Or maybe Twilight Sparkle?” she put down the pen and stared at the box.

“Oh, what should I do?!” Lyra groaned.

o.0.o

If you want Lyra to contact:

Twilight Sparkle - Vote 1
Hand Society Agent Gray - Vote 2
Hand Society Agent White - Vote 3

Voting for this chapter Ends: Voting Closed!

Twilight Sparkle: 26 Votes
Agent Gray: 4 Votes
Agent White: 3 Votes