• Published 24th Jan 2014
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Perseverance of the Ancients - The Bourgeoisie Bear



Twilight is sent to learn more about humans.

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The False Beginning

The bright morning sun greeted the passengers as they exited the train into foreign lands. The awed crowd lurked around the same area for some time wandering into all the gift shops and buying various trinkets to remind them of their marvelous trip to the Crystal Empire.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Shining were off on the caboose side of the train, waiting patiently for the boxcar to open up. The crew was leisurely going about their work and began unlocking the big bright green door. They continued waiting patiently like they were told, both sitting next to each other. The other passengers were still on the train station, looking through the gift shops, buying snow globes Twilight noticed.

The door opened up from the inside revealing a well-built brown stallion in overalls with a conductor hat. His eyes spotted them and he nodded in recognition, then pushed out a metal ramp that led up to the train. “Alright you two, your human's in the back.” The stallion turned around and walked out of view.

Unsure if they were supposed to follow, the two hesitantly walked up the ramp into the unlighted cart. Inside they saw a cage at the far end, in the direction the brown stallion was walking towards. They began walking down the walkway, still unable to see the human with all the boxes cluttering the area.

At a choke point of storage clutter, Shining stopped to let Twilight go ahead of him, as the walkway wasn't wide enough for two. Ahead they saw the unloader looking dead-eyed into the cage at the human that was still out of view for Twilight.

The place was dusty, and the only light was the natural one beaming in through the slits of openings in the rail car. Twice Twilight's hoof accidentally hit something hard. 'Oww,' she internally whined.

“You alright Twily?”

“Yeah, I just hit my hoof on something.”

“Be careful,” Shining instructed her in monotone, slightly rehearsed words, they were beginning to lose meaning to the accomplished princess. Words that had been spoken many times by her protective brother, back when she was a filly.

Twilight reached the worker's side and saw her human. That concept of owning a near sapient life brought a strange feeling to her, one that she couldn't identity.

The human, was sitting in the back of the cage looking back at them with piercing, attentive eyes. Though these deep brown eyes were healthy looking, as opposed to the more glossy ones she'd seen earlier, she was surprised to see that this didn't unnerve her. Their was still that same malice behind them, that same look that the sickly human gave her back at the marketplace, but they didn't look savage-like.

Twilight was snapped out of her day dreaming as Shining joined her side.

She looked back at the beast that was clothed in shadow.

“You should be very wary of this human,” said the worker as he continued staring at the beast. “He tried to escape twice.”

Shining peered over Twilight's head to look at the stallion. “And how exactly could he have made an escape attempt from inside a locked cage?” The Captain of the Guard asked a bit condescendingly, used to giving orders to his stallions and discipling incompetency.

The conductor cast a look of disdain in Shining's direction, whom did not flinch with his patronizing look that awaited an explanation. The unloader produced a fork from his pocket. “These little fancy forks are pretty common among you unicorns in Canterlot I imagine, with your fancy magic and full-course meals.” There was a tension filled pause. The unloader continued with much less hostility in his voice. “Which is where this little bugger probably acquired one.” He looked over to the human, whom Twilight guessed knew exactly what the stallion was talking about. “We found him jamming it into the lock. We had to hit him with electric batons for a full minute to get em' ta stop an release the fourk.” If Twilight's guess was right, the worker's Manhattan accent thickened as he reached the end of his story, revealing some stress or fear he had pent up on the situation, but she hadn't been to Manhattan in ages, so perhaps she misplaced the accent. Shining was eying the lock on the chain that was holding the cage closed, levitating it to look inside the key-hole for anything that still might be jammed inside of it.

“What was the second time?” Twilight asked.

He swallowed. “Second time we realized we left a crowbar and a rag too close to the cage, and without us realizing it he took them, and he tied the rag around two bars, then he put the crowbar in the loop he made, and began twisting the crowbar forcing the two bars closer together while bending them. Luckily, we sent somepony back out here to check up on him, and he was able to beat the human into giving up the crowbar with the electric baton.” The unloader had been gesturing how the human was twisting the crowbar, then made a final movement towards a bent iron bar on the cage, showing where the damage was done.

The worker sighed. “I never liked humans. I find slavery wrong on so many levels... but perhaps that's just because I can't afford one.” He was looking at Twilight intensely now while keeping some distance. “But if you want my advice, cut your losses and just send it back to wherever you got him from. He's too much trouble for you Princess. Too many things could go wrong.” Before Twilight could respond the worker continued. “This thing's smart, it'll escape sooner or later mark my words.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “I need him as a subject on a human study, his intelligence will just make him a better test subject. And I'm not some slave driver. I'm not going to work him to death. He's just going to sit around in a cell all day and eat as I record his activity.”

The worker averted his eyes. “It's your funeral lady. I warned you.” The stallion pulled out the key to the cage. The human stood up in anticipation, even in the darkness all three could see his half curled fist. The half bouncing movements the creature made looked like he was preparing to pounce. The stallion turned to Twilight and spoke in a tone brave enough to hope, “I hope you have a magic leash for him.”

Twilight snapped herself out of her fear induced stupor. “O-oh right!” She began patting her saddlebags, trying to remember which one contained it. 'It was in Octavo's bag,' she remembered.

Still holding on to finding the leash, Twilight turned to her brother and saw Octavo's saddle bag strapped onto him.

'Ah, good thing Shining thought it would be a good idea to carry Octavo's supplies for me.'

“A-HA!” Twilight triumphantly cried as she found the leash in her brother's saddlebag. She then began levitating the leash into the cage. “Alright, in you go.” With her tongue out on the side, she took on an air of focus as she levitated the leash towards him.

The human backed away from the glowing-green collar that was surrounded by Twilight's purple magic. Eying it curiously, he swayed from side to side, but by magical force it found his neck. It wasn't a matter of speed or agility, they was no opportunity to evade it, one moment it wasn't on his neck and the next it was.

The glowing-green light faded and it took a much more natural, physical look as it's powers took hold on the man. He poked at it realizing where it was, he then dug a finger underneath it in between his neck and the collar, and began pulling at it. He grimaced as he went about his work to remove the magical liability. The sound of electricity crackling could be heard for a moment before the human let go of the now bright glowing collar. The human flinched. It's magic working to stop the human from attempting to free himself of it.

“Well,” began the worker, “it's time to give it a go.” He turned to Twilight as he put the key in the padlock. “I hope you've got really good insurance for your human princess.” The padlock was unlocked and put aside. After the chain was untangled that too was put aside. And then the door was opened.

The human stood there in the dark, fist clenched, right arm raised, left hand dangling low. The collar was barely glowing, revealing his defensive, defiant nature. That's when Twilight realized that he wasn't preparing to bolt out and attack anypony, he was just holding his ground.

Shining eyed the human up and down. “Is the collar working?”

Twilight nodded. “It's working fine, he just doesn't want to fight us. I think he thinks we're going to attack him.”

The worker squeezed by them and spoke to them as he walked towards the train station. “I would appreciate it if you could lead your property out of here in a timely manner, I've got work I've gotta do.”

Shining grumbled at the stallion as he beamed his bitter eyes at the rude worker. “Well if you didn't give us a long winded explanation of your opinions we wouldn't have wasted so much time to begin with.” The only ones who heard him were Twilight and her human.

“Quid vis?” Both ponies turned to the human. Twilight was surprised by how proper the language sounded compared to the guttural sounds the monster from the marketplace made.

Shining was the first to speak. “I-I don't know too much about humans Twily, but I heard rumors that wild humans supposedly have an extremely primitive language.”

“So have I...” Twilight backed up a bit trying to get the human to follow her. “I need to begin documenting him soon.”

Hesitantly, the human walked out of the cell. His legs were crouched low, similar to the fighting stance the monster used on Octavo. His loincloth was now visible in the sparse sunlight.

It was much easier than Twilight thought it would be. She was succeeding in leading him outside, he seemed eager for something new, anything but a cage. Twilight and Shining walked down the ramp to the train station, to her delight, most of the crowd had left and moved on to the city. Meaning that there were fewer things that could aggravate him.

When the human came to the exit of the train he held his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun that he hadn't seen in some time. Even Twilight who didn't like humans herself, still found some remorse in the pitiful gesture. But she didn't like humans out of hate, but of fear she realized gladly, not looking forward to becoming some cruel, stereotype slaver.

Even Shining was swaying a bit, nervously waiting for the human's sun starved eyes to adjust to the light.

He lowered his hands to let them hang by his side; half-cocked and ready for anything. The two unicorns gave him another moment to look at the ground with his squinting eyes and knitted brow. Old wounds and scars were all over his body, most looked like scratch marks a fierce beast would make.

Out of his cage and away from dank, dark cells, Twilight was now able to see her human under far better circumstances. His skin, like she first observed, was more of an olive, darker, and what she would later learn to be a more tanned complexion than what she was familiar with. His lanky, wiry build seemed alien to her. When he turned to look another way, and Twilight was given a sideways view of him, it caused her to do a double-take. It looked like he was in danger of breaking in half, especially his lower, less wider, part of his torso. It didn't look too wrong however, while also looking creepily thin, he also looked strong and healthy, sporting protruding abdominal muscles, and strong legs. Brown hair, brown eyes, everything seemed to be in perfect harmony with him physically, despite his alien physique.

“I hope he doesn't make a run for it,” commented Shining.

Twilight shook herself out of her early observations to notice that the human was looking in the direction that lead away from the city. His piercing eyes were fixed on something far away in the horizon.

He walked down the ramp to the train station never averting his eyes to the seemingly never ending, green, hill country. Twilight fumbled for words for a moment. “Ummm...” It caught the human's attention. “Hi.” Twilight grinned awkwardly.

The human began clawing at the back of his head, scratching it rigorously as he gave the pony a deadpanned look. Twilight didn't need Octavo's expertise to interpret the meaning of the expression. After relieving his itch the human took a look at his hand to see dry blood on it. The creature froze in surprise, his eyes darted off, rolling around looking at things that weren't there.

Shining surveyed the human's twitching movements with a suspicious glance. “Is there something wrong with him? He looks... confused.”

“I don't know. The slave owner said he was injured when they purchased him.”

Twilight saw from the corner of her eye Shining's contemplating expression as he looked over her. 'He's probably wondering if I spoke with that stallion that was killed during the human break out,' she thought.

The human shook his head and was back to reality before Shining could put two-and-two together, and was watching them with little interest. The creature mumbled something to himself, while staring straight at Twilight, speaking again in his foreign tongue again. Though this time he was looking at her like she was covered in filth, for reasons beyond her understanding. 'I took a bath last morning,' she silently defended herself, actually getting offended by the look.

“Okay then, it's now or never.” Twilight backed up and began beckoning him as she walked backwards towards the city. Shining followed her, but faced ahead, while casting a glance backwards every now and then.

The human, though a bit hesitant at first, followed her lead. With eyes knitted and raised, he continued following her outside of the station. Barefoot and nearly naked, he decided to give the equine creatures a chance and be led towards the city.

After reaching the halfway mark, Twilight was comfortable enough to turn around and continue ahead, confident that the now calm person would follower her without trouble.

A shiver went through the human's body as he folded his arms and began rubbing them. “Huh,” spoke Shining, interrupting the uncertain silence, “guess he can't handle the northern weather as well as us.”

“Makes sense, he has very little fur on his body, not counting the top of his head.”

She looked behind her and was confirmed that he was still following her. They passed the first house and several other ponies. Twilight slowed down a little to try to get the uneasy human to walk closer to her and not get lost in the crowd. With slightly raised shoulders he moved nearer to her as they walked. They continued onward for a couple of minutes with the human close behind them. Twilight looked behind herself to check on the slave again.

'Hunched shoulders!' she realized. 'Is this some defensive posturing? Some defense mechanism?' The thought of already learning this much was making her giddy with excitement.

“Hey Shining, didn't you tell me that the most important thing in fighting was protecting yourself?”

Seeing his sister smile made him smile. He chuckled. “Yeah, I did.”

“Well, look what the human's doing.”

He looked behind himself as they neared the castle doors.

With her eyes shut she raised her head in a smug expression. “If you haven't already noticed, then take note of the rigid raised shoulders perfect for” - “Uhh Twilight,” Shining tried interrupting her to no avail. - “blocking attacks from the side, leaving its predators restricted to it's most vital” - “Twilight.” - “area. Of course there's always the front to worry about although lowering one's head could always-”

A blinding white light flashed behind her, causing two pony's shadows to form on the door in front of them. When the light died down, Twilight turned around to see her human knocked out cold and steam coming from his neck where the collar had been.

“Yeah,” said shining nonchalantly, “he was tugging on that magic collar for a while, I didn't think he could rip it off though.”

Unable to comprehend the physical absurdity of what just happened, Twilight fumbled for words. “T-that's impossible! How did he r-rip that off!? It's supposed to be strong enough to pacify a bear! How can something his size be that strong!?”

This reminded Twilight that she needed to weigh him, and get to work documenting him. The sooner the better she realized.

The smoke was beginning to clear, revealing a nasty scar on his neck. He had passed out with his eyes open, and stared intently at their hooves.

“Soooo,” - Shining paused after giving the human an unsure look. - “was that magical discharge, or...”

“Yeah,” answered Twilight, with a huff, disappointment apparent in her tone, “It was magical discharge from shattering a containment spell designed to never fail.”

'Nothing ever works out for me,' her inner pessimist told her.

Shining lifted the limp body up with his magic. “I'll take him to your study, we already got his cage set up.”

Twilight nodded, thankful that Celestia had sent a letter to Cadence to prepare everything before hoof.

Following her brother to the study, Twilight found herself grateful that the discharge hadn't done serious damage to the human. The creature looked directly into her eyes in his unconscious state as he hung in the air.

'At least I can get to work,' she told herself, as the door to her study was opened.

Spike who was inside, dropped the books he had been carrying and rushed over to his life long friend.

“Twilight!” he cried as he tackled the unprepared mare as she yelped. Spike, who was now as tall as his nearly pummeled friend, had grown in the last couple of months. Though as gentle natured and kind as he was, he still didn't fully grasp that he weighed a bit more than he used to. Even the hardened veteran Shining had winced at the reunion.

“I thought I'd never seen you again!”

“S-Spike,” whimpered Twilight, as she laid on her back in his embrace, “your h-heav-”

“It had been so long that I thought you'd forgot about me.” His arms tightened her hold on her neck.

“It's- ard- to brea-!” she wheezed out in struggling breaths.

“Uhh Spike,” Shining Interjected. When the still baby dragon looked up to see Shining grimacing at the unintentional violent assault upon his sister, he let her go. And she gasped for her ever loving air.

“Oh,” Spike chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, “sorry Twilight, still not used to this growth spurt yet.” He turned to the still unconscious human. “Uhh Twilight, what's with the human?”

“It's work Spike,” Twilight responded as she stood up on her hooves.

Shining threw the human in the steel cage, he locked up the cage with a large key that was beside it. Then he chained the door and locked it with a giant padlock that used another large key.

“Spike,” - The dragon saluted upon hearing his friend's commanding tone. - “I need you to get me The Anthropology Guide, The Beast of Northern Front, Human Tribal Warfare, and Bartering With the Beast, we have some long weeks of study ahead of us.” In a flash he was gone. “Actually,” Twilight called out, Spike stopped halfway up the steps to the second floor, “also bring me Arcane Self-Defense.”

After Spike was gone, she walked up to her eyeful brother. He was watching the human stir and twitch.

“Everything okay Shining?”

“Not yet,” he murmured, then cast a spell on the cage. “There... now he'll have no hope of breaking out. That spell is nearly ten times stronger than the one on his collar.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks Shining.” She turned around and began walking towards her desk. Long weeks of studying awaited her.