Lyra had searched for them for years. She had pushed ever forward to the very edges of the world in her search. Nopony believed her, but she knew they existed.

Yetis.

Lyra lifted up her yeti plushy to examine it. The majestic yeti was simply the creature that was closest to her reach. Everything about them, from their cute fangs to their adorable claws to their exotic bipedal form, was beautiful and mysterious. She had to be friends with one!

Really, she’d take just about anything that was cool and exotic as a friend, anything from a ghost to a torrasque would do. That’s why she spent thousand upon thousands of bits in search of them. That was what brought her so far north. Some ponies thought it was a waste of her vast wealth to go on these expeditions, but it was her money and she wasn‘t doing anything bad with it. Lyra was a job creator, even.

Still, it stung that even after years of searching she still didn’t have a single monster friend.

“Soon, my precious yeti,” Lyra said to her doll. “You can run, but sooner or later you will be my friend!”

Gale’s entry was announced by a howl of arctic wind rushing in from the open door. He shook his wings to knock off the thick snow that covered him. His fur and cloths were the same color as the snow, so it was hard to tell how good a job he did.

“Well, all the traps are set,” said Gale. “Unsurprisingly, the other teams haven‘t found anything yet.”

Gale was just one of the ponies Lyra had hired to help her scour the northern wasteland in search of the Yetis. He didn’t believe in yetis, yet, but he did believe in money, and Lyra had enough to keep him and plenty of other ponies around. Right now, Lyra had twenty ponies and over a thousand baited traps scattered throughout this yeti hot-spot.

“Though I have to ask,” Gale said, “if these yetis are an intelligent people, then wouldn’t it be unethical to capture them with these snare traps?”

“It’s for the greater good,” Lyra assured him. “Think of all the ways that discovering a yeti would change the world!”

Gale muttered some sarcastic comment about how that wouldn’t take very long, and then went off to tend the fire and start dinner. Outside the snow was starting to fall in blankets and a blisteringly cold wind was blowing. But inside her cabin, with her warm fire, mountains of blankets, stuffed animals, and enough food to last a month, Lyra was perfectly cozy. She felt bad for the yetis, though.

It was actually summer. This was about as warm as it got here. The winters were unbearably cold, so Lyra’s only window to look for yetis was in the summer. She had come here the two summers before this but still had no luck. Next year she may have to do more than just upscale her operation.

“Maybe they live in those mountains to the north?” Lyra mused. “If we don’t find any this year then that’s where I’m going next.”

“Nopony has ever gone that far north, Lyra. It would be like this times ten,” Gale said as he gestured outside. “Heck, you could probably see the north pole from the top of them. If you’re going to the mountain, then you might as well go all the way north and actually accomplish something.”

“Maybe I will. There’s something else I want to find that may be there. Legend has it that an ancient pirate king tried to sail to the North Pole to hide his treasure. They say he got there, but he froze to death, and now his ghost haunts the frozen wasteland.”

“The North Pole is miles inland. How did he pull that one off?”

“Well this was back before the Crystal Empire vanished. Legend also has it that these wastelands were once inhabited by ponies that were made of crystal or something. Their magic made large portions of this place as warm as Canterlot is in the summer. Back then the rivers to the north weren’t frozen.”

“So we have yetis, ghost pirates and vanishing nations. Anything else I should look out for?”

“Well there are also a lot of vampony sightings around here,” Lyra explained. “They say that they’re waiting for the day that our foals don’t give enough candy to Nightmare Moon so that they can help her devour us. Oh, and frost dragons used to live up here too. Some ponies say there may be one or two left.”

Gale finally got the water to a boil and began throwing vegetables in. “Well I’ll be very impressed if you actually find any of those things. I guess there’s enough magic and weird stuff in the world that some of those things could be true but…”

“But what? It’s a proven fact that two out of five legends are true and my money is on the yetis and ghost pirate.”

Just then Lyra felt a tug from the spell that monitored the nearby traps. Lyra leapt to her feet. “One of the traps went off!”

Gale was less excited. “It’s probably another dire wolf. I’ll get the tranquilizer.”

Gale had only taken off half his gear and now began to put it back on while Lyra fitted herself with her own attire. It was a mere fifteen minutes before they managed to get outside.

It was night and it was snowing. It was dark and it was cold, but the blazing lantern that Lyra held created a bubble of heat and light around the two ponies. Though the lantern was bright, the heavy snowfall kept visibility to a few yards.

Lyra didn’t mind the hostile conditions, they just made everything that much more exciting. Beneath her three scarves Lyra’s face was locked in an enormous grin. This time it was for real, she knew it. Her yeti was just down the hill.

The bubble of light crept through the blizzard to where Lyra’s trap had been laid. When the edges of light finally touched the trap Lyra’s heart sank.

The trap had been sprung, but there was nothing inside it. Interestingly enough the bait was gone. Lyra’s mood bounced back up upon realizing the implications of this sight. “The yeti must have tripped it on purpose. Don’t you see? This proves conclusively that yetis are fully sapient just like I thought!”

“I don’t think this is enough evidence to conclude that,” Gale, ever the skeptic, said. “What’s strange is these hoof prints. They’re too covered in snow to tell for sure, but they look like they were made with hooves instead of paws.”

Lyra looked down at the trail of hoof prints that lead off into the darkness. They were barely visible anymore, but Gale had a point. “That’s odd. The trap was baited with fish. What has hooves and eats fish?”

Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized the answer. It was so obvious.

“Vamponies,” she whispered.

“What?”

Lyra bounded off in the direction that the hoof prints went. Gale cursed and called after her, shouting some nonsense about being careful.

Maybe it wasn’t a yeti, but a vampony was just as good! Lyra wondered what kind of music they listened to. What was their favorite color? Did they like hats? In just a moment she’d be friends with one and then she’d have all the answers she wanted.

As the snow fell the trail became less and less clear until it vanished from sight entirely. Lyra looked up to find that a silhouette of a stallion was visible at the edge of her light. The figure turned to look at her with a pair of glowing, catlike eyes.

It was a vampony.

Breathlessly, Lyra stepped forward and lifted her lantern to reveal his cute fangs beautiful, bat-like wings. It was seriously a vampony!

Gale approached her from behind. He looked worried for some reason. “We need to be careful about this, Lyra.”

He then stepped forward and addressed the vampony. “Excuse me, but do you speak Equine?”

Lyra couldn’t contain herself any longer. She bounded forward, and called out to her new friend. “Hello! My name is Lyra and I’m your new best friend!”

The vampony responded with the most adorable bloodcurdling hiss Lyra had ever heard. Gale took it the wrong way and leapt in front of Lyra, wings spread protectively. That was his job, but he was being too paranoid.

“Don’t be like that! He’s clearly wants to be friends with us! I‘ll show you.”

Lyra pushed her way past her protector and approached the vampony before he could stop her. She was now close enough to notice the dazed look in his eyes. He stumbled around a little before falling to the ground.

He was hurt! Lyra ran to his side. She had to help him; if he died then she’d never be able to ask him anything. The vampony’s body was covered in bruises and cuts. He was thin and, with almost no cloths on, was shivering badly. He looked up at Lyra, but the glazed look in his eyes suggested he wasn’t entirely conscious.

Lyra felt so bad for the little guy. She immediately bent down and grabbed him in her hooves.

“Lyra!” Gale shouted. “We don’t know what that thing is. We have to-”

“That ‘thing’ is my best friend!” Lyra snapped back. “And we know that he’s hurt. We have to help him.”

Eventually, Gale admitted that Lyra was right and lifted the stranger onto his back. The two ponies were soon running back to the safety of the cottage.

“Don’t worry,” Lyra reassured her new friend, “I’m going to take care of you.”

Even though she was worried, Lyra couldn’t keep herself from smiling. This was going to be the biggest discovery of her life.