Absolutely Alone: Beyond Humanity
It was as close to a “normal day” in Ponyville as Twilight Sparkle could expect. She’d lived here for about a year, and she’d finally started to get accustomed to life there. Of course, there were days that still managed to surprise her. Today looked like it might turn out like that. She wasn’t sure how, but she seemed to have a feeling in her gut. She chuckled bemusedly. She could only imagine what Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense was telling her.
She found her way downstairs, and was mildly surprised to see her friends had already gathered in her living room. “So, are you here about the recent rumor boom? The ones about the Everfree Forest?” The rumors around the Everfree had spiraled out of control after Nightmare Moon was defeated. Somepony thought they saw a monster in there not recorded in historical records... The thought of finding some kind of Ancient Creature in the Everfree was exciting to Twilight. Just the thought of the studies she could write about…
She was knocked out of her musing as Applejack cleared her throat. “Ah know yer excited, Twi, but we’ve gotta take it with a grain of salt. We don’t know if somethin’s in there aside from what we know is in there.”
Flapping her wings with anticipation, Rainbow voiced her opinion. “But isn’t that all the more reason to check it out? If it really is baseless, we should put it to rest! If it’s true, then that’s just a bonus! We’ve got nothing to lose!”
Rarity shook her head. “I don’t know, darling. I’d rather not go in there again unless I have to. I’m pretty sure it won’t be worth it.”
Vibrating like a pair of wind-up teeth, Pinkie spoke up. “But I’ve got a feeling about this! I’m pretty sure somebody new is in there! My Pinkie Sense’s never been wrong before!”
Fluttershy was a bit put off about that suggestion, but she pushed that aside. “If it’s a beast that’s hurt, we should go. I-if it’s a p-pony or other s-sapient… W-we should still go and check.”
Twilight let herself smile. “The ‘I’s have it! Let’s all get going. We shouldn’t waste more time!”
After a collective nod, the group walked out of the library. They started off towards the forest, but they soon crossed the path of a certain dark teal unicorn. He raised his eyebrow over his blue-green eyes. “Where’re you girls off to so quickly?”
Letting out a sigh, Rainbow addressed him. “Listen, Maestro Spectrum. We’re on business. It doesn’t concern you.”
Adjusting his blue glasses and blowing away a stray strand of brown hair, Maestro replied indignantly. “You don’t have to be hostile. I’ve never done anything wrong to you, so what’s the deal?”
After jabbing Rainbow, with one of her hooves, Applejack sighed. “Sorry about her. Ah think what she meant ta say is: ‘Why does it matter to you?’ Frankly, Ah agree. Is it that important to you?”
Straightening the turquoise streak in the middle of his mane, he gave a shrug. “I thought you’d confirm my suspicions. You’re going to the Everfree Forest to see if the rumors are true, right?”
Blinking a bit, Twilight let herself have a dry chuckle. “How do you do that? You always seem to know what’s going on…”
A sly smile lit upon Maestro’s face. “It’s a gift. I don’t question it.” He cleared his throat. “That aside, do you mind if I tag along?”
The girls debated amongst themselves for a bit before coming to a consensus. Twilight smiled. “I don’t see why not. You’re likely the only other one that might want to go along. Plus, if none of us knows what we’ve found, it would do us good to have an expert in obscure knowledge.”
He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, then started walking with them towards Everfree Forest. It wasn’t that long before the group of seven found themselves on the edge of the forest. No matter how many times they went in, there was always some trepidation in the air. Maestro spoke up. “Are we all ready to do this?” After he saw them give a signal that they were ready, he turned back to the forest. “Alright, here we go.”
It’d been a few minutes, and they’d gotten pretty far into the forest. Fluttershy had been marking their path, seeing as they went off the beaten path to try and find the rumored creature. However, they were starting to doubt that there was really anything new out here.
Just then, they stumbled across a clearing. There at the far end was a rudimentary house. This one was built much bigger than a typical pony dwelling, closer to the size of a minotaur’s home. Even then, it dwarfed those in dimensions as well. The walls and roof were made of wood, and it was only partly built. Pieces of wall were missing, in sections that had yet to be finished.
As they tried getting closer, they noticed a Timberwolf at the foot of the porch. Those usually weren’t found out this way, yet here one was. They didn’t think it’d noticed them, but it shot to its feet and started growling while tugging at a makeshift leash that tied it to the porch.
Fluttershy spoke up. “U-um, Nopony’s ever domesticated a Timberwolf before. J-just what are we dealing with?”
Before they could ponder much about it, they heard a male voice shout from the house. “What’s the matter, girl? What’s got you so worked up today?” The ponies froze as they heard that voice. Something about it had a commanding feel, like somepony’s strict but fair father. They unfroze just as the owner of the voice stepped out into the light.
The figure stood tall, easily towering over anything aside from an adult dragon. He had pale pink colored flesh with black hair adorning his head, face, chest, and arms. He had an ovular head, with a triangular nose. His sapphire blue eyes stared back at the ponies, an idle curiosity in them. He was clothed with a green plaid button-up shirt, tan slacks, and blue shoes. He squatted down and his hand ruffled the fur poking out of the Timberwolf’s head. “Calm down, girl. It’s just some ponies. They won’t hurt you.”
After a few seconds, Maestro was the first to recover. “Astounding! A living Ancient! I thought that all of them went extinct over 3000 years ago! Pray tell, sir. How’d you survive thousands of years?”
The “Ancient”, as Maestro called him, raised an eyebrow in confusion as he stood up. “So you can talk and understand me? That’s quite peculiar… But to clear things up…” He put a hand to his chest. “Even if you remember my kind as such, we didn’t call ourselves ‘the Ancients’. I am the last- or so I’m led to believe- Human in this world. My name’s Zayeth. As for how I survived this long…” he gave a shrug. “It’s not that interesting, really. During the 22nd Century AD, a few of us volunteered for the Stasis Project. It was supposed to only be a test to prepare for the worst case scenario, but…”
As Zayeth let that hang in the air, The ponies digested what he’d said. According to him, he was the only human left. But Twilight couldn’t accept that. Her curiosity at his biology could wait. “Do you happen to know where the other humans that went into stasis are?”
Silence fell as they watched Zayeth think. After a little while, it looked like he recalled something. “Although I do remember where, it might be useless info. Exactly how long has it been since humans were last seen?”
The girls turned to Maestro, for none of them knew anything about the tales from that far back. He chuckled nervously. “You said you were from the 22nd Century, right? From the records I’ve referenced, the calendar changes to be Post Revolution around the end of what your people referred to as the 24th Century. Since then, It took 2000 years for Ponies to unite into Equestria, Equestria had both princesses ruling for a century before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. Since then, it’s been 1001 years. You’ve been asleep for 3301 years.”
At that number, Zayeth sat down in total shock. Noone wanted to disturb him processing all this. He let out a sigh. “Bad news: Nobody I know is here with me. Good news: It’s shorter than I thought. Give me a map, and I’ll figure it out from there.”
As Rarity hoofed him a map from her saddlebags, She asked him a question. “Don’t you want some company at least? It can get quite dull traveling alone. At least one of us should accompany you. Fluttershy can look after your pet while you’re away.”
Zayeth saw Fluttershy inch near the Timberwolf after pocketing the map. He saw her nervousness, and the Timberwolf growled at her. He sighed. He stooped once more so he was nearly at Fluttershy’s height. He gently put his right hand on her back, causing her to stiffen slightly. He didn’t pull away, though. He spoke in a gentler tone. “Calm down. Risha won’t be as agitated if you’re more relaxed. She’s a big dog, but she’ll behave if you do things right. She’s a sweetheart once you get to know her.”
The girls watched as Zayeth took his right hand off of Fluttershy and extended it slowly to Risha. Risha stopped growling, and sniffed his hand. After a minute of that, Risha started gently licking his hand. Applejack spoke with astonishment. “Well Ah’ll be! You trained her to do that? How?”
At that, Zayeth gave a hearty chuckle. “Just like my ancestors, I used reward and punishment to motivate her. She does something I approve of, I give her a treat. If she does something bad, I confiscate her favorite chew-toy. Simple. She knows a lot of basic tricks, but nothing fancy.”
Hearing this, Fluttershy visibly calmed down. She felt calmer knowing that Risha was basically a domestic dog, despite her looks. Sensing the shift in Fluttershy’s demeanor, Risha gave her a playful lick on the snout. Fluttershy giggled lightly. “I-i think that I’ll get u-used to this. She seems to like me, so it shouldn’t be too hard.” She gave a somewhat confident smile.
With a sigh of relief, Zayeth turned back to the others. “Alright, now that that’s sorted out, I’m not adverse to one of you coming along. But just one. You all seem nice, but I don’t want you to drop everything for me. The optimal thing would be for each of you to take a turn for each trip. There’s six locations, and six of you which aren’t occupied by Risha. It works out splendidly. First I’ll show you the locations, then you can decide who’ll go where. Does that seem fair?”
After he heard their agreement, he sat down and spread the map out in front of them. He pointed to five different cities that he said were close to where the other humans were in stasis: Appaloosa, Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Canterlot, Cheeseton, and Brayston. Expectedly, Applejack went with Appaloosa, Rarity with Manehattan, Rainbow with Las Pegasus, Twilight with Canterlot, and Pinkie with Cheeseton. Maestro got stuck with Brayston, but he didn’t complain. They agreed that Applejack would go first. It was almost noon, so they decided to start tomorrow. Before they left, Pinkie asked the inevitable question: “Would you like to come into town? We want to assure everypony that you’re not dangerous.”
Nodding, he untied Risha’s leash and kept holding it. “Risha needs a walk anyway. The townsfolk‘ll likely focus on me, distracting them from her. It’ll allow her to show them her sweetness.”
With that, the odd group started on their way back to Ponyville, Pinkie going on ahead to get the ponies ready for the new arrival…
To Be Continued…
Author's Note
Sorry it was a bit late, but I've finally reconstructed it into a new direction. The previous script wasn't the best, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.