Ch1: Everything You Need To Know
It started off innocently enough
Marcus had been just sitting back in his nice, cozy home for quite some time. He was sitting in an easy chair, with a good book on constellations and their importance he got from Luna a while ago, and a glass of ice water to chase the mild heat of late summer away.
He treasured every moment of the silence.
I can see you are confused friend. Allow me to elaborate on who this man was and why he was enjoying the silence so much.
He is Marcus the Human. Odd name for a pony yes? Well it's just that, he isn't a pony. In fact, his species does not coincide with any other recorded names of animals, sentient or no, documented in Equestrian history, even from the minds of the country's immortal rulers.
No this man was quite truly an alien. An interloper. An outsider.
A human he called himself. Homo-sapien or 'wise-man' in scientific terms.
He had a similar build to a minotaur or a dragon, but that's where the similarities end. His skull was similar to that of a primate instead of an equine, a lizard, or a canine like most others had. Flat face, triangular nose, and small forward-facing eyes that denounced him as a predator, if not a very good one. He was mostly hairless, save for a large patch of unkempt, short black hair on the top of the head and sparse patches on the arms, legs, stomach, chest, and groin. He had rather striking blue eyes that contrasted nicely with his hair and fairly pale skin (Being a night owl does that to you). On either side of his cheeks, grew some impressive looking side-burns, the only facial hair he seemed to have.
When you get down to the core of it, he really wasn't all that different from a pony. He was able to express a wide range of emotions, he could perform facial expressions, he had hopes, desires, dreams, yadda yadda.
None of that was too much of a far cry from any other creature in Equestria.
No, what really, truly made him an alien, was his mind.
A great man with a lot of great ideas once said: "There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those that we, ourselves, erect."
Contrary to popular belief, the pony mind is actually very one-track and linear, only caring about what needs to get done that particular day, the next week, or in Twilight's case, the next month. It never ventures far enough outside of ones special talent because that special talent cements them a place into society. They focus on that talent like a sniper scope and work at it, contributing to their community until the day they die. That special talent, walls in the pony's curiosity and traps it, never allowing it out to try new things and go new places as the talent they so love consumes them. In a way it's a horrid and wretched existence: having your future laid out for you in a straightforward path of monotony and routine. But ignorance is bliss as they say. Not having to go out into the harsh world and find your talent without knowing what is is afterward by way of a rump-mark can save you the disappointment of never finding it.
It's all a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils in this case.
But back to the matter at hand, however. The human mind is not burdened by such constraints. It is not walled in by a set future. No, the human mind carves out a path to the future of it's own, the road it leaves behind twisting, turning, looping, and sometimes backtracking. The absence of a cutie-mark allowed his mind to be freely curious and outgoing about anything.
This ties into why Marcus was enjoying the alone time so much. It seemed that, not long after his arrival, his state of mind unwillingly called the attention of a certain purple unicorn-turned-alicorn. The way he always seemed to be able to do the odd-jobs around town that would usually require a specialist with the coinciding skill set, fascinated her. When she asked him how his thought process worked however... it didn't go very well for him.
Twilight is very bad at these kinds of things. She always needs some kind of measurable value to put something into. She needs to know that everything has some sort of scientific explanation. It almost broke her fragile psyche when she could not find a solution to the Pinkie Sense fiasco. She was already on edge and pushing her over the cliff by saying "You can't explain it. You just can't." was one of the worst decisions of his life. After that day, she just kept coming back with the same request with a different coating on it. It ranged from surgery to a modified mind reading spell to fit this purpose.
He denied every one of them. From early on in his childhood, he learned that the only place that he could be truly safe from the prying eyes of others, was his own thoughts. For Twilight, his best friend, to basically ask if it was okay to violate his personal space and privacy, was a giant bitch-slap in the face to him. He denied this one even more fervently than the ones before, saying if she ever went snooping around in his mind without consent, he would find a way to hurt her, ignoring any and all consequences and/or backlash for doing so. She relented for a time, respecting him enough not to do that, mixed with a little fear from the threat.
That didn't stop her from asking every fucking day afterward though. So with each passing day, she asked if she could look into his mind for answers, and each day in return, his trust and friendship with her would wane just a bit. Soon enough, there was a huge gap in between them. Twilight, once again, had abandoned friendship for the sake of science.
This is why he was enjoying his peace and quiet. He knew she was away on business for the week and he was to be left alone for the time being.
So that brings us back to his house: with our favorite bipedal as he was reading an engaging book about constellations and their importance, provided to him from Princess Luna's own personal library. It seemed she had been taking a liking to him as of late. Allowing him access to her book collection, inviting him to anything she can that wasn't too boring, the occasional visit from time to time. Perhaps it was time to act on his own growing interest in her and-
*Knock Knock*
He was torn from his thoughts by two curt knocks resounding from his front door. Closing the book and setting it on the glass coffee table with a sigh, he stole a quick glance at the wall clock beside the door to his kitchen.
"9:30? What could someone possibly want at 9:30 at night?" he said more to himself than anyone else as he walked to the door to answer it.
He really wished he didn't.
"Marcus! You never answer the door anymore!" the newly crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle exclaimed from the door way.
He didn't answer. He was just in too much shock. "Why is she here? She only left two days ago!" he thought, still allowing his brain time to processes this information.
Taking his silence as an invitation to let herself in, she plopped down on one of the oversize couches that had been custom-made for his size and weight.
He finally came back to himself long enough to turn around and tell her to kindly fuck off. When he did turn around, however, he noticed she had a rather smug grin on her face.
"You lied." she stated, not even giving him a chance to tell her off.
His brain stopped, mid-thought, again. What had he lied about? She seemed to have nothing more to say, so he took the initiative.
"What?" was all he could spit out in the sheer stupidity of the moment. He honestly had no idea what she was talking about.
"You lied." she repeated with that stupid little grin still on her face.
This was really starting to piss him off. "Yeah I got that. What I don't get is what I lied about." he stated with a little more clarity in his head to work with.
She pinched her snout with a hoof(however that works) in frustration before adopting that smirk again. "I see you are still denying it. Very well then. Let me break it down for you. While I was away at the Crystal Empire, I had an experience: an experience that involved humans. Now I am able to safely say that you lied about yourself."
He ignored her rant about how he was lying and decided to pursue her experience with the humans in order to get more information about it. This he had to hear.
For the next half hour, she regaled to him her time at Canterlot High School. By the time she was done, it was 10:15 and she had left him in a puddle of confusion. What this had to do with his supposed lying, he knew not.
"Twilight," he said cautiously " I don't know what this has anything to do with me lying to you. I will admit it was a good story to listen to though." Perhaps this was her first steps toward fixing the rift between them!
"What this has to do with it is: I was a human for the entire time I was in this other world. I was just like you and I didn't feel any different than how I feel now. So everything you said about your mind being different than a pony's is a big. Fat. Lie." she finished her statement by putting on that smug looking smile again, saying to him "I know everything." She just quashed all chances of that ever happening.
It was the last time she would get to have that smirk before the night ended.
Immediately he got up, walked over to her, grabbed her by the face and hissed two words at her.
"Do it."
"What?" it was her turn to squeak out the word this time.
"Do it. Cast the spell. See into my inner thoughts. Then see that you just made the biggest mistake of your life." he snarled out at her. Call him stupid, call him weird-looking, even call him a whore if you so desire. But never, ever call him a liar.
She put on an incredulous and slightly fearful look on her face when he was finished.
"Your secret is out Marcus. Letting me see into your mind won't change a thing. You're no different than a pony." she stated, while she backed away from him as much as she could.
"Humor me." he retorted, following her until she was trapped against the back of the couch.
She thought about it rather quickly, as he was breathing erratically, his fists were clenched, and his right eye would twitch every so often. All of these were signs that he was holding back a large amount of anger.
"Okay. I'll do it, but this is only going to humiliate you further." she got to her hooves on the couch and prepared the spell she had been meticulously modifying for the past six months.
He didn't say anything in response as a lavender aura encased them both. He watched in silence as a bubble formed between them and two wisps of the aura got closer to it.
He and Twilight both blacked out before they hit the cushions.
He was going to show her what a real Human is.
Twilight 'woke up' in a strange place. Don't get me wrong it was supposed to be strange, she had done this many times before on her friends to test it out. She had even done it to herself the first time to prove that it was safe, that was an enlightening experience.
This place was even more strange than those places however. Instead of a black void like the others, she was placed in a room. A small, gray room with a large mirror that took up most of the right wall. In the middle, was a metal table and chair that were bolted to the floor. As her vision cleared even more, she found a projector on the ceiling, a pull-down projector screen in front of her, and a door on her left. It almost looked like an...
An interrogation room!
She made to get up and escape, but found herself bound to the table by two metal cuffs. She panicked and tried to magic the cuffs away... only for absolutely nothing to happen. She tried again with the same results. She could not get out of the chair either as is was bolted to the floor. She tried flapping her awkward new wings to try and force her way out... with similar results. She was completely at the mercy of whatever Marcus had in store for her.
...
Marcus!
"Marcus what is the meaning of this? Let me go!" she yelled out as she continued to thrash about in a vain attempt to escape.
"You will hold still." his voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, sending chills down her spine. He sounded like an omnipotent overlord in there. But of course this was his mind, he could sound like Princess Celestia on crack if he wanted to.
Her heart was beating a-mile-a-minute as she obeyed his command, not really knowing why she did at the time.
"First let me ask you a question: Did you happen to read any history books in this so called 'human world'? he asked her in a calm, even tone.
"Yes! What does that have to do with anything?" she managed to stammer out, fighting her instinct to struggle again.
He seemed to ignore her question and continued on. "And when you read this book, did it, or did it not, read almost exactly the same as an Equestrian history book?"
She was about to tell him to release her again when she fully caught on to his question. It had almost the exact same information as one of their own history books, if a little bit of a change in some of the grammar and syntax. Hooves for hands, two legs instead of four, etc.
She answered his question a little more calmly this time around. "Yes. It was almost exactly the same as our... history... books." she trailed off as she realized the one fact that could have saved her the night of torment Marcus had in store for her.
"I see you realize it now." he said with a hint of amusement as she started to thrash about with renewed vigor. "Those 'humans'? Those were just copies of ponies. No real human traits about them. Just a shell with a pony soul and mind in it."
She tried to plead her case "Marcus I'm sorry! I didn't know! I'm sorry I called you a liar!" tears began to form in her eyes. She shut them tight.
"Ah ah ah, can't have that can we?" he lightly chastised as Twilights eyes were forced open and pointed forward with her head, not of their own accord. "Much better. Now you can see what I have to show you!" he spoke with maniac glee evident in his voice. It reminded her of Discord in a way. Not a good thing...
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked as she trembled within her bonds.
He chuckled a bit as the screen on the wall slowly, methodically pulled itself down. "I'm going to show you, an abridged version of human history. I"m going to show you the atrocities, the miracles, the things mankind has done over it's short existence. You should count yourself lucky, for not many get to see this first hand or hoof."
He didn't mean that as a joke.
Tis' a pity none could hear her screams of fright, her cries of joy, and her rage filled bellows except for her and Marcus. By the time they were at the end of Hannibal's reign she was already begging for it to stop from information overload. He didn't. They weren't even halfway through yet!
This was his revenge on her for asking, day in and day out, for access to his mind. For calling him a liar and making him snap like a fucking twig. Now she was getting what she wanted. She hated it and he knew it.
But he also loved it. This was the first time in a long while that he was able to truly express himself. To truly do something bad. To be human.
She had become a whimpering mess by the time the Holocaust had ended, to the end of the 'film'.
"Ready for dessert?" he asked her as her head shot up in alarm.
"There's more?!" she yelled disbelievingly at the mirror.
"No my dear. This is just the beginning. You saw general human history, but that's not what you wanted. Oh no, what you wanted is me, my thoughts, my mind, my curiosity." he paused for a second, seemingly to build tension. "I'm going to give it to you. But this room is no place to do that, oh no we need something much more spacious for that."
As soon as he finished his sentence the room started to melt away, leaving the black void she was so used to seeing when she did this. He hooves were still bound to the table however, so she was forced to sit there and watch as the room gave way to darkness.
"Lets begin shall we?" he said, finally stepping out from behind her.
Her screams from the 'history lesson' were dwarfed by the ones from this... this thing.
I won't even try to describe it. It was just... wrong.
It had been a week since Twilight was over at Marcus' house for some reason. He wouldn't mention why, and every time she asked about it he just said: "All is well now". But ever since that day, every time she saw him, she could not help but shudder just a bit. Even more frightening was the fact that when he caught her shivering, he gave a knowing and somewhat creepy smile. Almost like he knew something she didn't. Maybe it had something to do with the magic fatigue she felt after she woke up the day after...
Ch2: What I Learned Today.
The world slowly came into focus as Twilight blearily opened her eyes. Her mind was foggy and muddled, as if waking up from a particularly long nap in the middle of the day. The rest of the world came into focus as her mind caught up with her waking senses. Her eyes snapped open and her head shot up in alarm. Flailing her head back and forth only garnered the feeling of being dizzy and disoriented. While she was recovering from her panic attack she noted that she was still in Marcus’s living room and the owner of said living room was still sprawled out on his love seat. Wrestling control from an immensely powerful alicorn in the dream realm and subsequently displaying every inkling and factoid about human history and human nature no doubt mentally exhausted the psychology major, hence his still sleeping form. No doubt he would be out of commission for a day or two.
The last note she took before she acted was that at that moment, that instant in time, he was completely and utterly at her mercy. He was subject to anything her imagination and magical and physical limitations could muster up. Magically induced comas, regardless of their length, could have disastrous results if the victim were to wake up. Anything from a real coma, to an increased inclination to disease, to possible permanent brain damage were possible outcomes. All these factors were taken in while she slowly, methodically, made her way over to Marcus’s prone form. She stood over the helpless human the way Celestia would stand over a pony that had for lack of a better term; ‘Fucked up’. If he were awake he surely would have been trembling in fear as he could not see her face in the dim light, masking her true intentions. She then did something that would probably have even Discord scratching his head for days.
She leaned down, kissed him on the forehead as soft as she could, and whispered a quiet “Thank you”.
‘Huh?’ indeed dear reader.
Now I may have mislead you dear reader. In the time when I explained the ways in which Mr. Aliyev presented his… ideas and concepts, my own mind was still struggling to comprehend the sheer magnitude of what he revealed. As with any natural response to the unknown in any mind, human or pony, the brain resorted to fear. A completely natural response, which in the days of the hunter-gatherer, would trigger the flight or fight response in order to escape or engage in combat. Evolution never intended for humans or ponies to last as long as they did and that response of ‘fear the unknown’, still dominates intellectual minds today. It closes so many doors it’s almost hard to count. Unlimited possibilities have been shut out because of a single, primal instinct.
The point is; the things he showed Twilight weren't necessarily as horrifying or even simply as scary as I made them out to be. For this misdirection, I am truly sorry dear reader. The same could also be applied to Miss Sparkle. Her mind was already tired out from the first session. When he started the lesson on the human psyche, her mind just could not process that much unknown information. At first she was screaming in fear, the fight or flight response kicking in and blocking it from being absorbed. Her emotions were varied during the history lesson, fear, rage, elation, and contentment were all running rampant between them. Yes, Marcus was participating as well.
By the time he had realized that the way he was presenting the new information was getting nowhere fast she was screaming in pain this time around. She had dislocated several bones from her thrashing so violently and several deep gashes where the clamps dug into her skin. It was a dream world, but it was his dream world. He had made it as realistic as possible: real emotions, real senses, real pain. Even in his smug stupor he could see he was causing her a massive deal of pain. This was not his goal. His goal was to educate her, in more ways than one: Be careful what you wish for, high and mighty gets you nowhere, don’t trade friendship for science, yadda yadda yadda. He quickly stopped the blitzkrieg of knowledge and allowed her to catch her breath and come to her senses. Using the power of the Dream-Scape, he numbed her body, reset all the bones, and healed all the gashes.
While she was catching up with reality, Marcus realized something very important and very sobering. Something he should have realized before he started subjecting her to torment by teaching: He was being a real dick. plain and simple. He was acting like a self righteous, white knight prick. He felt confident that his lessons would put her in her place after they finished up, but he was having some serious doubts about that. Back then he only cared about getting her away from him at all costs, it didn't matter to him anymore that he was already being a giant hypocrite in regards to his ‘mental safety barriers’, all that mattered was getting back at that pretentious little asshole for calling him a liar and no better than an average pony! The more he thought about it, however, the more he realized that he was also being racist and/or speciesist. No better than the average pony? The average pony half his size and any race could most likely cause serious, if not permanent damage, whether by hoof or horn. The only things he had going for him were his hands, which were a novelty at best; diamond dogs, dragons, and minotaurs all had hands, and his ability to seek out his own destiny and make it anything he wanted. Sure this was cool and all, but it was not much when most humans can’t find their own calling anyway. Ponies have it laid out for them on a more or less silver platter. Sometimes quite literally in some noble families.
He really fucked up this time around.
“Makush?”
His head instantly snapped up to look at the broken and bound pony seated before him. He faintly noted that streaks of wetness had made their way down his cheeks. All was forgotten however when he got a good look at what he had made. She looked tired. Exhausted beyond any stretch of the imagination. A mere husk of the confident pony that walked in not twenty minutes before. “Heh” he thought bitterly, “She even came in here because of some misinformation. A giant cosmic fluke that sent her to a human world with exact copies of the ponies here. I blew up in her face because she fucked up the information, now she is paying dearly for that.” He came back from his thoughts to note that Twilight was trying to say something to him, but the words were so garbled and incoherent it sounded like her whole mouth had been injected with Novocaine. He quickly took the numbing effect off of her face while leaving the rest of her body senseless. He knew from personal experience that having bones reset hurt like a bitch, even after it was all done.
Twilight could feel the motor control coming back to her face when Marcus waved his hand at her. She was getting ready to speak when he did so first.
“Twilight?” he managed to squeak out as his emotional barriers began to show cracks.
“Twilight… I know you probably cannot, nor will you ever begin to think about accepting this. But for what it is worth, which is not much… I am truly, truly, truly!... Sorry.”
“I dun goofed. I dun goofed hard and unbearably bad. You came into my house and told me some false information. For that, I not only blew up in your face, but also breached my own mental securities for a petty victory. A Pyrrhic Victory it seems as well. I should have realized that I was insecure about my own thoughts and created both mental and social barriers around myself. I also should have known that you were only pursuing your special talent in the pursuit to simply know. The way you kept knocking at my door every day in order to pick my mind apart, was just your calling. Your special talent. When you came to me today, you came with as much information about the human mind as possible, as much as I let you: None. You came in tonight with information you garnered at this human world and took it as fact. You did so because you knew next to nothing about my humans. My specific species. I thought of you as ignorant and condescending when you were really just misinformed. My actions were extreme, unwarranted, and unwelcome. I realize now that I am the villain here and I-I hope some d-day you can find it in you-your heart to forgive me.” He managed to spit all of that out hurriedly before finally choking up at the end. He placed one of his hands over his face and let the almost silent tears flow. What would you do? The same thing after maiming someone who you once thought of as a close friend.
“Marcus? Marcus please look at me. Please?”
He found the inner strength to lift his suddenly very heavy head to look at her, fully expecting a long lecture or something more extreme like a prison sentence. All he got to gaze at, however, was another tear stained face. One, not marred by tears of pain, but of sorrow.
“Marcus please don’t take up all the blame yourself. I am about as much at fault as you are. Yes I did come in here misinformed, but I also came in here like a pompous ass. Barging into your home, calling you mean names, and calling you out like that? Not to mention demanding you let me into your head every single day. Completely unacceptable -- especially for a princess for crying out loud! I feel like I should be asking for your forgiveness as much as you are to me.” Although her eyes were red and her words were obviously strained, she managed to keep her voice level.
Marcus chose his next words very carefully. The way things had been going for the two, they could not just forgive, forget, and move on. Too many bad memories and hurtful actions to forget.
“We both screwed up didn't we.”
“We both screwed up didn't we”
They slowly turned their heads up to each other. Instead of breaking out into laughter like they used to when they both said the same words, they finally allowed smiles to adorn their faces. Perhaps there was a chance for this lost friendship to be found and rekindled after all.
“You still want to?” he asked with great trepidation.
“What?”
“Do you still want to… you know… learn... about me?”
…
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
…
“Alright. Let’s get you out of that thing.”
He made his way over to the chair that was still restraining her, and with no small amount of gentleness, removed her bonds. He slowly rubbed the matted fur on her forelegs, a subtle, but at the same time, glaring, reminder of the agony he caused.
“This is a dream world, any physical harm done here is inconsequential in the real world.”
“Just because there are no physical scars, does not mean there aren't any mental ones.” he added solemnly.
Slowly, he lifted her limp form up like a groom carries his bride and made his way over to the door, previously a dull, steel grey, now a warm mahogany wood color.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere a little more comfortable.”
He reached for the knob and agonizingly slowly, opened the door to reveal quite a sight. The new room was a personal movie theater. The walls were adorned with brown, mahogany walls and old movie posters, some dating back to the 1930’s. Hanging from the ceiling was an HD wall projector, no doubt worth quite a pretty penny. On the red velvet covered floor sat two fat bean bag chairs. In the far corner was an old fashioned popcorn maker, its contents hot, buttered, and ready to go. The opposite corner contained a cabinet with a glass door, behind which were a plethora of DVDs, Blu Rays, and a few VHS tapes. The whole room’s feel was a far cry from the cold and dismal aura that the interrogation room gave off.
“What is this place?” Twilight asked, beginning to soak in the cozy feeling of the room.
“Back on Earth, I was a rather rich man. I made money by helping troubled soldiers with various war diseases find peace. It was good work, I helped a lot of soldiers, and It payed rather well. With the money I made I was able to live a pretty nice lifestyle. It allowed me to pursue a little hobby I had: Movies. I used quite a lot of money to have this room built and decorated with authentic posters in my old home. The popcorn maker was something I just happened to find in my parent’s attic.” he stated rather proudly, inklings of nostalgia creeping in.
“This is my personal theater.”
He gently set her down on one of the bean bags. She began to relax as she sank into the chair.
“But for now, it is going to be my classroom.”
The lights dimmed like a real movie theater and the projector hummed to life, ready to begin the feature presentation. Twilight was already intently focused on the back wall before something rattled next to her. She turned her head and…
“Popcorn?”
…
“Sure.”
In the days that followed, Twilight almost completely lost her memory of that night. Being put to sleep by magic can have any number of detrimental side effects, one of them being temporary anterograde amnesia. Perhaps it was for the best after all. Ponykind might not be ready for such a big revolution in thinking. It would be like trying to explain the way the fourth dimension works to a group of fifth graders. Their brain could not physically comprehend it, it needs more time to mature.
After Marcus figured out what happened to Twilight, the sly wink and knowing smirk that shook her to her very core, last remnants of the memory of the interrogation room, became a full fledged smile, a wave, and amiable words. Twilight even forgot why she ever wanted to pick apart Marcus’s mind in the first place.
A couple of years later, Marcus decided that he was going to write everything down that he taught her in that dream so many years ago. He bought a few thick journals, and filled them to the brim with the smallest handwriting possible. He locked them in his house safe and buried it in the Canterlot Gardens with Luna's permission, hoping one day, that either he or someone else can dig it up and show Twilight and the world a new revolution in thinking. A way to derail off the the linear railroad track of pony life and soar in the new sky of freedom.
Author's Note
Love it or hate it, it's here. You know the drill: Comment, like/dislike-explain why.
Not sure if I want to continue the story with a sequel or prequel or leave it be.
Ehh.
I'll see how well this is received before I make a decision.
As always, your faithful writer,
Not Luna
