Humani Victoria

Chapter 7- Innocent Lies

"When truth is replaced by silence, that silence is a lie"

                                                       - Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Goldenoaks Library, Ponyville, Equestria, Tuesday, 2nd of April, 2:57 pm, 2205 AC

Jason had long since sat down, coming to terms with what this white fairy-tale character had just told him.

His race, his species, Humanity, was gone. It didn't seem possible, they were too big, too wide-spread. Surely nothing short of divine intervention could wipe Humans out? Jason had always thought the axeman of Humanity would be Humanity itself

"I'm alone," saying it out loud didn't help. It was all too much, this had to be a dream, it had to be. Horses didn't have wings or horns, they certainly didn't talk, and Humanity still lived.

But yet, the words of this ridiculous creature had a tone of truth in them, some sense in the recesses of Jason's mind told him that this was not the result of a particularly vivid dream, an unlikely scenario to begin with as Jason was plagued by insomnia, but was reality.

"So what now?" Jason's voice bore no emotion, as he was busy stuffing them in the back of his mind "For all intents and purposes, you and me are enemies. You should hate me, and I you. My race and yours apparently have been fighting for a millennia, until here you and I stand, the last of our kinds. Now what?" Celestia was shaken to say the least. The Humans emotionless delivery was disturbing given the circumstances. The Alicorn struggled to get her words out.

"I don't know. I'm not sure how to feel about this, but, I am going to give us both a a chance to make amends, heal, and live in peace and harmony with each other, as nature intended," Celestia softened her gaze

"Will you accept that chance?"

Jason sighed, he needed time, time to figure out what in hell he was going to do, or what was going on, and this.... Alicorn was offering him a peaceful existence in which to answer these questions.

"I guess it's worth a shot," Jason said "Lord knows I'll need some time to figure all of this out," Celestia actually smiled, if a but unsure, then a thought made her smile drop.

"Well first, we need to figure out what your story is," the Human raised an eyebrow

"Say what now?" The Alicorn sighed

"Upstairs, six ponies are waiting. They are young, innocent, and vastly important. I cannot allow them to know the events of the past, they're not ready."

Jason heaved a breath, this was getting even more complicated

"Alright, here's what we tell them..."

                                                              ~~*~~

Upstairs

Twilight had long since resumed her pacing, a steady string of questions coming from her mouth. Rarity's advice having no effect now. Rainbow Dash was lazily gliding around the library, clearly bored out of her mind. The other four mares sat patiently in wait for the Princess.

"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed "What is it? Is it okay? Is it really from another dimension? Is it-" the Unicorns mile-a-minute stream of words was cut off by Celestia, placing her hoof over Twilights mouth.

"My dear student, your questions will be answered if you would give me a chance to do so," the Alicorn smiled at Twilight who nodded eagerly, activating her magic and levitating a quill and piece of parchment from her desk over to her. Placing the tip of the quill on the parchment she nodded to the Princess.

"Now, first things first, this creature is not from another world, rather, another time. And he is born of this planet," Twilight opened her mouth to ask a question, but Celestia shushed her with a raised hoof.

"The creature is in fact a member of the Human race, an ancient and powerful species," The purple unicorn raised her hoof to ask a question, still emanating that schoolfilly energy, Celestia nodded.

"How ancient exactly? Who do they pre-date?" The Sun Alicorn smiled

"Very ancient Twilight, they pre-date Equestria, they are older than me, and older than the Alicorns as a whole," the ponies present expressed different degree of shock, with Rainbow Dash speaking the thoughts of all of them.

"But that's impossible, Alicorns created everything!... Didn't they?" Since childhood, young colts and fillies were told that the Alicorns were a God-race, and had crafted the universe around them. It was a common small-time religion among common Ponies, and The Mane Six were not exempt from this common upbringing.

Celestia smiled at her naïveté "That's a myth dear Rainbow Dash. In reality, while Alicorns are old, we are but children in comparison to the age of the Human Race." While Rainbow Dash absorbed this information with a dumbstruck expression, Twilight spoke up.

"But Princess, the Humans are a myth too. I mean there's hundreds of documents depicting them, books, scrolls, art, even structures built in their honour. But no actual evidence of their existence," the Princess nodded

"True, but trust me when I tell you, the Human race is very real. In fact, several of the structures that were 'built in their honour' were built by the Humans themselves. Now it seems one has turned up."

"But how? You said he was from a different time? How is that even possible? And why now?"

"I am unsure Twilight. It seems that something influenced the magical fields that flow through our world, or even the flow of time itself, to bring this Human from a time long past."

"Wait ah minute..." Applejack spoke up "ya' mean ta say that this... human, comes from the past?"

"Yes Applejack. This particular Human comes from ancient times, before the existence of Alicorns or Dragons, when the Humans ruled the planet and were abundant in number."

"Abundant?" Twilight asked, looking up from her notes "How abundant? And how many are there now?"

"In their prime they numbered in the billions.." This was met with a soft gasp from Fluttershy, who blushed when every pony looked at her.

"Um... That's a lot," she whispered, and Celestia smiled before continuing.

"Anyway, recently the Humans have... diminished. Over the years their race experienced a population crash. Nowadays they are as  rare as Alicorns, living at the edges of the world. But enough of that, we have more pressing matters to discuss," Celestia suddenly became much more serious, gaining the full attention of the six mares.

"Humans are one of the most dangerous species to walk this planet," Celestia said "They can be the greatest of friends and the worst of enemies. Each of them posses a vast amount of knowledge, and they are vastly more advanced than Ponies could ever hope to be," the Sun Alicorn paused to let this sink in.

"They are deceitful, manipulative, intelligent beings. This particular Human comes from a time when Humanity ruled over nature, a time of privilege and luxury. He will be used to looking down at other species. It is your task, as the Bearers of Harmony, to befriend him, make him comfortable, give him a life to live. He has already agreed to try and live peacefully, help him do so." There was a pause, filled with silence, until Applejack cleared her throat.

"Uh... with all respects Princess," she said slowly "But from what you've told us, this...thing, is dangerous, should we really trust it? I mean it took on a full-grown Manticore! And might have won hadn't we gotten there first," Applejack removed her Stetson "Wouldn't it be better to keep it somewhere where it can't hurt nopony?" Celestia looked at the orange mare with slight shock, and the sternness.

"He..." Celestia put stress on the word "Is a free creature, he is intelligent, and deserves the right to do as he wishes. Thus-far he has only demonstrated his prowess in a self-defence setting. The incident with the Manticore was a misunderstanding, and I am sure Fluttershy can arrange for them to talk it out," Celestia smiled at the Pegasus, who smiled back, albeit a bit flustered. The White Alicorn turned back to Applejack "I am not asking you to trust right away, quite the opposite. Rather I simply wish for you to give him a chance to prove himself, while still keeping an eye on him just in case," The farm pony considered this before replacing her Stetson.

"Ah'll try, but if it.... he, try's anything, ya'll be the first to know," Celestia nodded and turned to the other five mares "Does anypony else have concerns?" None of the spoke for a while, until Twilight did for all of them.

"I think we can be good friends with this Humans," the unicorn was suddenly filled with school-filly joy. "He can tell me all about his species! Oooh! If only I didn't send Spike off, his writing is better than mine!" Suddenly a pink blur bounced next to Twilight.

"Forget about that! I can't wait to throw a Welcome-to-the-future-with-talking-ponies party! I only get to do that once per H-I-E story! I wonder if the narrator will come! Or the writer! Wait... aren't those the same person? I forget.." As Pinkie Pie rambled on about no-one-knows what, the other mares affirmed their agreement to the plan and the Writer and the Narrator took the chance to try strangle Pinkie Pie for breaking the wall again.

"We shall certainly make him as comfortable as possible your Majesty," Rarity said.

"Um... I just hope he's nice," Fluttershy said.

"Don't worry Princess! Well take care of him!.... In a good way!" Rainbow Dash stated.

"You can count on us Princess," Twilight said with a smile.

"I cannot thank you all enough. Now, let's meet our new friend shall we?" Celestia smiled as she made towards the basement door... Only for it to slam open, revealing a disgruntled Jason.

"You take too long," He said "And it smells down there."