The journey home had taken many days, but they seemed to fly by for the human who tried to sleep them away. The six ponies and the dragon all took to the windows to see their beloved home of Ponyville rise on the horizon. They all yearned for a proper bed to sleep in, their own baths to draw and their own pantries to raid.
"Who will the human stay with y'all?" Applejack inquired. "He might stay in ma barn, but I don't know how the family would react to seeing a critter of ancient legend crashin in the hay loft."
"He might stay with me at the boutique, but I have customers coming in and out all the time!"
"Forget my place, he can't walk on clouds," intoned Rainbow Dash as she strapped on her saddlebags.
"I don't think the animals would be comfortable with a meat eater around," said Fluttershy.
"I already pay enough monthly rent for staying with the Cakes! He would have to pay the utilities or something to cover the cost."
Twilight glanced back at the still sleeping human. When he was ever awake he said his drowsiness was a symptom of being asleep so long. "He could stay with me at the library, nopony except you all go in there anyways. Besides, I want to gain his trust and get some answers."
The train stopped in Ponyville, it was only then they realized they had no plan for getting him to the library. So, they simply walked off the train, human in tow wearing his dragon disguise. Everything was going well until the Mayor managed to find them in the town square. "Girls! Where have you all been! We've been so worried about you, being gone for three weeks and all."
Twilight tried to calm the frantic mayor. "It's alright Mayor, we just went on a little expedition."
"And who is your quite tall friend?" She referenced the silent, hooded human. Caught, they tried to think of a lie quick enough, but could not. When suddenly a voice from heaven, with a Trottingham accent, saved the day.
"Ah, Madam Sparkle! You brought Ambassador Zinra home with you! How absolutely delightful! Pardon me Mayor, but Madam Sparkle and her friends were sent by my personal request to visit the Ambassador in his harborage in Canterlot. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to make the trip myself." Doctor Whooves wedged his way between the Mayor and the silent human.
"That is all well Doctor Whooves, but it still does not explain why they left without warning!"
"Quite, the Ambassador is an old friend of mine from the deepest part of the tropical jungle kingdoms, he was only allowed by his king to stay for a few weeks, and the girls saw fit to bring him here to see me! How absolutely delightful of them! Ambassador Zinra," at that point the Doctor made several clicking noises and what sounded like choking for a second.
Aaron did not know what to do, so he clicked and choked back. "Smashing story my dear fellow! We shall have to continue at my abode." The Mayor became too confused and simply bade them good day and left. Doctor Whooves waited for the Mayor to be out of earshot, then turned back. "Alright, who the bloody hell is this bloke? Did you find Stronghold?"
"I think we'll just have to talk at your house Doctor. Girls, I think you can all head home." Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Spike, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash all left, determined to rid themselves temporarily of the human. The remaining trio took the short walk to the curious house of The Doctor. Once inside, Aaron took a seat in a beaten and ragged couch, leaving his disguise in place and remaining silent.
"Well, did you find Stronghold Miss Sparkle?"
"Yes, but we didn't find any information. We found something better."
"What, technology? Working artifacts? Something tangible at least?" Twilight nodded to the figure seated on the couch.
"What, him? What is he anyways, some kind of hairless dog?"
Aaron spoke up, "Try again you swishy Brit wannabe." He took off his hood, exposing his face to the Doctor.
Doctor Whooves simply stared at the human, in his mind he overlaid the image of the demon skull from the dig over this creature's face. The anatomical resemblance was chilling. The Doctor looked back at Twilight. "Is this some kind of joke? He can't be!"
"He is, he's the only one of his kind to walk the earth. He is what we call a demon."
The Doctor held his mouth agape for a second, then cowered on the floor shouting, "Don't eat me!"
"Relax, Doctor. I don't really prefer earth pony, unicorns have so much more flavor." He smirked at Twilight, who had become immune to the human's odd sense of humor.
Twilight helped Doctor Whooves back to his feet. "Doctor Whooves, we went out there to find a source of information, and here one is! He is probably better than any library or archive we could have found!"
"How did you possibly come across such a creature?" The Doctor kept his distance from the idle man on his couch, inspecting him as completely as he could without getting too close.
"We found him with thousands of his sleeping brothers and sisters, sheer luck brought us to him."
"Thousands!? An entire civilization of demons, sleeping?"
"Not in a traditional sense, they were inside of glass tubes being kept preserved with their technology."
Doctor Whooves looked to the human. "Is she right, demon? Is your entire race simply sleeping, waiting to be awoken?"
"Yeah, she got the gist of it. And I don't like being called demon. My name is Dr. Aaron Patterson, citizen of the United States of America and drafted soldier in the United States Army. I am a human being, god damn it!"
"Wait, you are a doctor?"
"More of a scientist really."
"Strange, in another life I might have considered you a colleague. What is your field?"
"By education I am a biologist, by necessity just about anything else. How about you 'Doctor Whooves'?
"Anthropologist, engineer and physicist."
"Interesting combination, do you study humans regularly?"
"Never intentionally, I traveled the world to study pony and other creature cultures, hoping to find something of our clouded history."
"What a coincidence. I happened to be there when your kind was born."
The corners of Doctor Whooves' mouth swept upward as his theory proved itself. "So I was right! Your kind was around for our origins! Tell me everything!"
"Give me a sense of scale, I have no idea how long I slept."
"You don't know? By our timescale, it has been roughly two thousand years since one of you walked the earth." Aaron sat speechless, dumbfounded by the extreme overshot. Suddenly he snapped.
"TWO THOUSAND YEARS?!?! Jesus fucking Christ! We were only supposed to sleep for a century at most! What of the Chaos Plague? Do you even remember the war!?"
"The War of the Fallen Race? There was some mention of it in our most ancient documents."
Aaron forced himself to be calm, talking to himself. "It's alright Aaron, you got this, so we overshot our landing by just a bit. Could be worse, we could never been woken up at all. Okay Doctor, tell me what you know about humanity, and I'll fill in the gaps."
"All we know is that your kind conquered the world, then the Princesses came and liberated it from you."
"Let me say first off that it was our world to begin with. You took it from us. My species ruled every landmass on the planet for thousands of years before your kind ever became intelligent."
Twilight asked, "Wait, we were not intelligent?"
"No, you were our pets and work animals for thousands of years, no smarter than any other animal."
"That's not true! Ponies have always been this way!"
"No, for me it was less than a year ago, but to you it was two millenia ago that magic swept across the world and changed you to the way you are. You rose against my species and fought valiantly, but we won almost without question. Then another wave of magic came, we were crippled and your kind became stronger. We tried to stop your magic at the source, a great battle was fought known as The Day of Judgement. At first we won, then your Princesses came and slaughtered us like cattle. It was then a small army of my brothers and I hid away at Stronghold, hoping to one day rise again and claim the land for ourselves again."
Doctor Whooves and Twilight were stunned by this revelation of their history. All they had been taught, everything they knew was now useless. They had been the aggressors, they had stolen the world from the humans.
"We weren't monsters, we were people. And every day I hear the cries of the billions of human souls, all murdered by your kind for being who they were. All of this," he waved a hand at The Doctor's possessions, "it's all a mockery of our achievements. We strove to overcome any challenge the world threw at us, and we did until we had to face you in the war. Yes, my species was capable of evil, but we were good at heart." A single tear slid down Aaron's face, he felt the pain of every single human who had died in the war, all he wanted was to bring his kind back, give them a second chance.
Twilight sat next to Aaron, she wanted to comfort the human, but there was no way she could alleviate the pain and horror he had witnessed millenia ago. "Aaron, I'm sorry for what we did. I may never know why we did those horrible things, but if your kind are all like you, then we were wrong to do it. I'm sorry."
The human looked to the unicorn at his side. "They were innocent, most of them anyways. We did not deserve the fate we were given."
"That's your nightmare isn't it? The war?"
"The war is part of it, Twilight. But I was asleep when the Chaos Plague wiped us out. There is one that haunts the recesses of my nightmares, one who swore she would murder me and my species, and now two thousand years later it looks like she made good on her promise."
Doctor Whooves cleared his throat. "Well, it's getting late, you had better head home Twilight. Dr Patterson, would you care to stay with me for the night?"
"No, no more questions for tonight. Besides, Twilight owes me something, and I need to be with her to make sure she keeps her promise."
"Ah, I see then. Would you do me the honor of filling me in on your species' history when you have some time?"
"It'll be a long story, but I don't see why not. Goodnight Doctor."
The pair left the Doctor's house, darkness had fallen, making their journey across Ponyville go unnoticed. They reached the library, Twilight unlocking the door with her magic. He took a spare room in the basement, it looked like the unicorn had been trying some science of her own down there. It felt homely to the human. He lay in the cot set up down there, steeling himself for the nightmares that were to come.
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Nothing, the nightmares didn't come that night. Aaron slept peacefully, morning dawned without him being bathed in sweat. Groggily taking the stairs from the basement, he wondered what Twilight would have for breakfast. He entered the main library room, suddenly realizing he had no idea where anything was. "Hello?"
He heard someone moving around in a bedroom, his hopes fell as Spike walked in to the library. "Oh, it's just you."
"Morning demon. Twilight's out delivering all the book requests that backed up over the weeks." Spike walked into a separate room that the human guessed was the kitchen, he followed with his stomach leading the way.
Aaron looked at the various cupboards and glanced at what he guessed was a pony style pantry. "Got any food around here?"
Spike dug around in a cupboard, tossing out Twilight's limited supply of food. "We've got everypony's favorite, hay. And maybe some gems for me."
"You eat gems? Shouldn't that break your teeth?"
"No, we may have some fruit or something."
"Getting kind of tired of fruit, but it's better than nothing." Munching on a surprisingly delicious banana, Aaron began to look at some of the books in the library. He stopped at books of history and myth, "Obscure Unicorn History, this should be worth a good laugh."
He crashed in a chair that would have been comfy for a pony, but kind of awkward for a long and lanky human. Flipping to a chapter, he read about great magic users across Equestrian history. Apparently that's what they called their liberated nation, Equestria. He didn't understand a lot of the magical mumbo jumbo, but he tried to learn. Flipping through the pages, his eyes caught a familiar name that yanked him back to the war. "Starswirl the Bearded? Why is that name familiar?"
"He was one of the greatest pioneers in magic known to ponykind."
Aaron was startled by the voice behind him. "Twilight! I thought you were out doing deliveries or something."
"Not many ponies actually wanted books while I was gone. How do you know Starswirl's name?"
"I'm not sure, but I think I may have met him once. Purple fur, graying in the mane, kind of a sour attitude, affinity for blue robes?"
Twilight's eyes were like dinner plates. "You knew Starswirl the Bearded?"
"We met once, not on the best of terms of course. I recall him calling me a 'two legged monkey'. When I saw him, he only had a really short beard. I did know the pegasus leader very closely, his name was..."
"Cloud Hoof. General Cloud Hoof."
"Yes, we were friends for what it was worth."
Twilight had to sit down, her head swimming with this new information. "I don't see how this is possible, this has got to be the least likely thing that has ever happened. I think he may have written about you! Fluttershy said that the general wrote memoirs, mentioning a demon that he considered a friend."
Aaron's eyes nearly watered, his heart brought some solace that he had been remembered as a friend. "Cloud.....Cloud wrote about me? I figured he would have forgotten about my sorry hide after The Day of Judgement." Aaron had to stop for a moment, breathing deep and controlling his emotions. "I'm sorry, it's just that I consider Cloud to have been one of the most trusting, most generous, most loving friends I have ever had. He would have taken a bullet for me, I'm sure of it. And I would have taken one for him."
"This is all so exciting! You knew both Starswirl and Cloud Hoof! You are like a walking history book!"
"Is that a pun about my age?" The human had a serious look on his face, which broke down into a vigorous laugh that became infectious. The two settled down after a while.
"Aaron, I know Doctor Whooves wants to know about your kind's history, but I want to learn about your people, who were they, what were they like, what defined your culture?"
"That's a story that will take days, maybe weeks."
"Without your card, I don't think you'll go anywhere."
"Changing the deal? Alright then, I'll add some demands to even it out. How about some decent food? Something with protein."
"Um, Applejack has chickens, maybe we can get some eggs? If you want something sweet I can have Pinkie whip you up the best cupcakes in Equestria."
"That's a start. Now, what do you want to hear about first?"
"Hold on!" Using her magic Twilight levitated a quill and some parchment to a table that sat next to the chairs. "Now, when were you born?"
"By human count I was born April twelfth, 1991. That was around two thousand years ago though. At the time two human countries known as America and the Soviet Union competed for global supremacy in a Cold War. I was born an American in a city called Chicago, though my parents moved us to Kansas after I was born."
The next few hours were consumed by the human's life story, though he selectively left out most of the War. His triumphs, his failures and his darkest hours were all meticulously recorded by Twilight. She began to understand parts of this creature which sat across from her. His species was just as he said, people. Not monsters, demons, conquerors or destroyers. Just people that struggled to make the most out of life. Just like anypony that she knew.
He recounted his childhood with pleasant memories of life in a small town, visiting his grandparent's farm and adventuring in the woods and hills of his home. His school years came with some dread, he was mostly a social outcast, not making many friends. But he persevered and excelled in science, much to the chagrin of his father, a clergyman of something called a "Catholic Church". He had learned how to fight to defend himself from those other humans who preyed on those they considered socially weaker.
He pursued higher education, and years of deep thought and hard study did not pay off very well. The world had made frightening changes, and people didn't hold the reverence and respect they once had for men of science. He was shunned and could not find a way to give his talented gift of knowledge to the world. Then the war came. Aaron had been pressed into service to find a way to stop the hostilities, but he did not say whether he was successful or not. The rest, as they say, is history.
Twilight set down her quill, standing to stretch her legs from hours of stillness. Turning her head, she noticed the huge stack of papers and several empty ink bottles. All that information in one afternoon, and Aaron said he hadn't even scratched the surface yet!
"Aaron, thank you so much for telling me all of this."
"No, thank you for listening Twilight. That was one of our major flaws, nobody ever stopped to listen to each other. Maybe it's why the War happened, nobody cared about their fellow man."
Their thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of none other than Pinkie Pie, who had decided Aaron needed a proper welcoming gift in the form of a massive pile of cupcakes. They were quite possibly the best baked goods he had ever tasted, rich, sweet, and flavorful. Pinkie's visit was brief, having caught sight of a pony she didn't think she knew out in the street.
"If I can ever show my face around here, I am definitely getting these everyday," he said as he bit into his fourth cupcake.
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Today had been the best day of research Twilight Sparkle had ever done, but she felt like she needed to go deeper, do something more to view the world from his point of view. So she did what she always did, hit the books. Books of ancient history that still had traces of the humans were next to useless, they always just referenced the humans off hand, not actually calling them anything. She wanted more.
He actually knew Starswirl the Bearded! The thought couldn't leave her head. But it felt like some kind of hint that nagged at her subconscious. Something that might be key to knowing the humans better. Aaron had known Starswirl, so it only made sense that maybe Starswirl knew other humans during or after the War. Maybe talked to them extensively. So by her logic, a unicorn mage like Starswirl would have recorded absolutely everything he knew about them in depth. The only trouble was that Starswirl's personal memoirs and spellbooks were in the Canterlot archives, completely off limits to regular ponies. Good thing she had an in with Princess Celestia.
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"Can you be sure Luna? We haven't seen a Man in two thousand years, much less Him."
"I am sure Celestia, I can feel Him, I felt his first breath when he was reborn into the world."
"Are you aware that my student actually made the trip to Stronghold? My intelligence does not say whether they have returned yet or if they even found the wretched place."
"I hope they found Him there, just so I can rip His demon heart out!"
"Luna! He did what he did out of fear! He believes we are responsible for the death of his species, if he saw you alive, who knows what He would do? He could bring back an army just to wipe us out! They had the capability the first time, only infighting amongst their ranks and poor leadership gave us victory."
"I don't care, all I want is my revenge against that one monster! To hell with his army, if he even has one hidden up his sleeves."