//------------------------------// // The Human // Story: Perseverance of the Ancients // by The Bourgeoisie Bear //------------------------------// These humans were hideous. Deformities were rampant, and those that were not physically crippled drooled animalistically onto the floor of their cages. Twilight walked beside the now silent stallion as they pressed onward into the marketplace. “All your praying better pay off Octavo. You made me go through a lot over that.” “Huh? O-oh... yeah, sure.” He was a walking zombie, completely consumed with some hidden thoughts Twilight couldn’t deduce. She huffed, brushing it off. Various cages containing a single human each surrounded her and the other customers. These were the finest humans in all of Equestria, owned by the First Tier Company. One human had shown promise, but he had a missing arm, from the look of it he had lost it in some accident or battle. “I’ll come back to him if we can’t find anything better.” To her disappointment Octavo was still daydreaming. She sighed. 'Why bother,' she asked herself. Twilight couldn't help but noticed the trailing eyes that followed her, the humans apparently found interest in her presence. Some watched curiously, some glared at her in fury. To the left of her, the human slammed into the iron bars and caused Twilight’s suddenly shaking legs to fail her. When she turned to look, she witnessed the savagery of the feral beast, reaching out at her with its long frightening arms and broken nails and teeth, flailing madly to get to her. Twilight laid on the ground still, after realizing that she was safe at this distance, yet several other ponies bolted and fled with terror, screaming while knocking over each other to get away. A unicorn slaver yelled at the growling beast, “GET BACK CRETIN!” And shocked the feral human with a low-level spell. It backed off, growled some more, and glared back with milky white, near blind eyes. It was completely nude. Non-existent balls accompanied the deformed penis. He hunched over at the back of the cage, the lack of facial skin didn’t hide the rage in his expression. A hoof was touching her side, it wasn’t just now there, she just now realized it. Coming out of a daze, she noticed Octavo standing over her, horn ready to fire, spell ready and charged. As she put her hooves under her, Octavo backed away. Twilight took his outstretched hoof and offer of help. She was up on steady four hooves in no time, but she began to feel tears form in her eyes, her lips trembled. “I’m so sorry Twilight,” Octavo said with meaning in his words, truly sorry. “I should have been paying more attention.” He was scratching the back of his neck, looking around. She didn’t look up to see his expression. Twilight still heard the employee dealing with the human behind her. ’Inhale deeply, I can push back the tears,' she told herself. 'Everything is fine.’ The tears dried, as she knew they would, but even with Octavo between the mad-human and herself, she couldn’t stop shaking. The image of human rage, of pure anger, of watchful human eyes, of that hideous face passed through her mind again. The slaver turned to them. “I erm... apologize for that... are you both okay?” He looked embarrassed by the whole scene with his wide eyes and twitching legs. “Yeah, I think so.” Her legs shook from the adrenaline as she straightened herself up. The slaver turned back to the feral animal in the cage. “I knew we should have passed this one up. He seemed too unstable, no wonder those humans were willing to sell him for so cheap.” Now that she had a better look at him, she could see several scratches and odd bite-marks on his bulky body. ’Implications unpleasant,’ mused Twilight. She began wondering if she took on more than she could chew, causing herself to wonder if she was really up to the task, if not, then she lied to her mentor when she said she wouldn't let her down. Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself down. In an attempt to keep a potential buyer around he became very friendly. The slaver gave an affable smirk to Octavo. “Wow,” the slaver chuckled, “I thought you were going to kill the human when I saw the look in your eye.” Twilight watched Octavo, if he was prepared to kill before, it wasn't showing now --unless his war face was a no-nonsense one. “I was considering it.” The slaver made no effort to show that he cared. But he looked back at the human, he gave it an almost sympathizing look, if his tone was anything to go by. “Perhaps this thing would be better off dead.” When no pony replied to him Twilight cleared her throat. “Excuse me sir,” she said, then cleared her mind of thought scrambling fear, “would you mind showing us your most prized humans here. We’re on a tight schedule.” His eyes lit up like lights on a tree on Hearth’s Warming Eve’s day. “Oh-ho-ho, big spenders are we? Alrighty then. Those humans are located inside our office building. Please follow me. I’ll take you to my boss.” They spent several minutes in a waiting room. She diverted her attention to subtract from the fact that she had almost been mauled. ‘Don't think about that now... Actually don't think about that EVER,’ Twilight told herself. The classy furniture in the room was non-comparable to Canterlot Castle, but it was impressive nonetheless. The couch they sat on looked like it cost a small fortune. Twilight guessed that it had been imported from Saddle Arabia if the style and woven patterns were anything to go by. The near sterile clean, elegant marble floors, and other expensive-looking decorations pointed out how well the slave trading business was doing, despite the recession. And it showed how flamboyant the company really was with its wealth. The building itself was huge only two stories tall, but it extended down the entire block, and if she knew Canterlot as well as she believed, then she knew that they would have an underground vault of gold and other valuables down below. The mare in the reception desk quietly wrote away, dealing with various papers of vague importance. Just the three of them in the large spacious room gave her an eerie feeling. One that seemed to hide something malevolent, something obvious that she couldn't put her hoof on. “You sure you're alright, Princess Twilight,” asked Octavo, to her surprise she twitched at the sound of his voice. Apparently she hadn't calmed down as much as she believed she had. Her nervousness was noticed by Octavo's half-lidded yet still quite piercing eyes. “I'm fine, I've done much more dangerous and crazy things before. And I would prefer if you'd just call me Twilight,” she replied, trying not to sound too aggravated at the end. “Hmm,” he grunted, pleased with the earlier response, but contorting his brow and breaking eye contact at the request of informality. Twilight was sitting off on the side in a little sofa for one, while Octavo was sitting in a longer couch that formed a right angle with her seat. In front of them both was a coffee table that held a punch bowl and a few glass cups. A little sugary drink to improve the mood of the customers Twilight realized a while ago, it was something that she had learned in the Celestial College during an Introduction into Business course she took. It was the only business course she took, she aced it, but she quickly realized she was not meant for the bourgeoisie lifestyle, she would not follow in her father's hoof steps. Octavo's horn lit up as he began filling a cup, she watched it for an idle moment, considering getting one for herself when he was done. When it was lifted to her hooves she took it, appreciating the friendly gesture. “You should relax for a moment, Princess, calm your mind. Let your adrenaline wear off.” He realigned in his seat more. “Who knows how long they will keep us here.” The princess sipped some punch from her crystal clear cup. And almost dropped it as a stallion threw the door open entering abruptly. “I am so sorry for the wait!” he cried out emotionally. “A princess must have better things to do than waste time waiting on others,” he said, directing his words to Twilight. The thin-but-tall stallion fixed himself up by aligning his tuxedo correctly and readjusting his monocle. His top-hat seemed sown onto his head --never moving. “Oh it’s no trouble at all sir.” Uncomfortable, Twilight meekly shook her head, not sure what to do with the special treatment from an apparently royal or very wealthy pony. “Oh well it matters to me,” he said ever-so suavely, “Princess Twilight.” He said her name in what Twilight would describe as --almost seductively? No question was left in her mind on what he was trying to pull when he brought her hoof up to his lips and kissed it before she had time to react. ‘Eww,’ she whined internally. Every muscle in her body stiffened. “I am ever so pleased you saw fit to grace my establishment with your presence.” “Uhh...” mumbled her assistant. He took a glance in Octavo’s direction, then took a double take. The stallion’s eyes lit up. “O-octavo? I wasn’t expecting you here.” A bit of caution crossed into the slave manager’s eyes. “Why are you here?” he asked more out of curiosity than anything else. ‘Oh please don’t cause me any more trouble,’ she pleaded to him in her head. ‘Actually, feel free to cause as much trouble for this guy as you want,’ she thought as she wiped her hoof on the couch. “Am I not wanted here?” the scholar asked as politely as he could. “That depends.” He turned to Twilight. “I was led to believe that you were interested in buying one of my most valuable humans correct?” She nodded her head, not really understanding why there was tension between the two stallions. ‘I really need to get to know him better, she thought. The idea being directed at Octavo not the slave boss. ‘I didn’t even know he had a history with this company.’ Flustered about not receiving a heads up, she stood by awkwardly, but she couldn’t bring herself to be angry with her new assistant, even if he did leave her in the dark, and almost got her arrested. The posh stallion shrugged. “As long as you’re not here to tell me how to run my business, I have no problem.” Octavo groaned with frustration, but didn’t say anything. Remembering she still had a train to catch before nightfall she stepped in. “Excuse me, but we need to see what you have in stock, we’re on a tight schedule.” “But of course,” he said with a bow, he began walking towards a large set of double doors. “Now I know you’re going to absolutely love this, I have, in my possession, the most, absolutely spectacular, aesthetically pleasing to look at, well toned and well behaved human that I have ever seen in my entire life.” He opened the double doors which revealed a pathway that turned right sharply. On both sides were cells, some empty, some not, they had modest accommodations. ‘These holdings look a lot like prison cells,’ Twilight assessed. ‘Not that I would know from experience --thankfully. She spent a moment remembering several novels she read where the villain, or an occasional unfortunate hero would end up in a place that was described similarly to what she was seeing. They continued following him down the hall. The humans here looked infinitely better than the ones outside, most having a small superficial defect or bad injury. But their less than glorious naked form revealed every mistake nature gave them. Some humans even watched them with interest, displaying some fragment of friendliness. Despite their appearance of non-aggression Twilight began to feel anxiety begin to pool up inside her, which sometimes led to her mental breakdowns. ’Oh I shouldn't have left Spike at the Crystal Empire. It's okay. Just keep it together... STOP STARING AT ME!!!’ The humans ignored her silent plea. “Now I’m not sure if the humans made a mistake when they sold him to us or not, but you better believe it when I tell you that he is not castrated. You’ll be able to enter the very small ring of ponies involved in human breeding, if you so choose.” He shrugged. “It’ll be up to you really.” His showy tuxedo caught her eye, she remembered Rarity telling her something about it to her. That it was a new design made with silk from Saddle Arabia. All designs were custom made. ‘This stallion must be filthy rich to afford such a thing.’ Twilight silenced the rambling Rarity in her head, none of that mattered now. Slowing down he gave himself a chance to explain something before they reached said human. “Oh, I almost forgot, when we bought him, he was in pretty bad shape. He had a sizable stab wound on his back and had several blunt wounds on the back of his head. No brain damage though, in fact our test show that he is the smartest human we’ve ever had. Regardless, he’s fine now. We were going to keep him for a week or two more so he could completely recover, but I’m sure he’ll be fine.” They stopped; the slave boss stretched out a hoof to a particular cage. The creature’s skin was a dark tan color, his legs seemed hairy, everything else was indiscernible by his hunched pose. He was facepalming it seemed, with both hands, sitting on his prison bed. The boss cleared his throat, attempting to gain the human's attention. The boss giggled nervously then banged hard on the bars of the prison door. He didn’t even look up. The two unicorns from the Celestial College grew more and more curious, examining everything they could see. His bare feet seemed to be in perfect form, what skin they could see seemed healthy, and strangest of all, a full head of short hair was on top of his head. “Hmm,” mumbled Twilight just loud enough for Octavo to hear him, “do you think that those hair patterns on him are natural for a non-heavily-mutated genotype of humans or do you think it’s just another abnormality of the species.” She glanced over at him, now questioning if he even knew that humans were the way that they were because of mutations. If he studied the species like he claimed to have, he would know, Twilight figured. She only lightly held back her vocabulary and jargon seeing that he was educated from the same prestigious school she was. The stallion nodded. “It’s normal, I’ve seen several humans with that hair pattern. Seems to be too coincidental for it just to be a random mutation.” A spark from the slave boss’ horn hit the human’s hand causing him to twitch, but other than that he kept still and sat in a defeated posture. Twilight glared at him. “Could you please not do that again?” Her mind went back to the vicious human. ‘I don't want to re-live that event anytime soon.’ The stallion chuckled. “Oh I was just trying to get him to stand up so you could get a better look at him. He’s fine, I wouldn’t actually damage my stock mindlessly.” He fixed his suit up, re-aligning the tie. “And if you’re worried about a violent outburst, don’t be. All these top quality humans have taken extensive aggressiveness training, obedience training and subservience training. This special stock here is one-hundred percent safe. All fully guaranteed to never hit back and they are insured up to five thousand bits by the company.” The boss eyed the human up, his grin never left his face. “In fact, this one is our star product.” He unconsciously licked his lips. “A textbook example really, one has never passed so quickly and with such flying colors before.” Another spark shot out of his horn hitting the human’s hand. His grin grew a bit, it was a sickening smile, it was something Twilight tried not to notice --she tried so hard. This time the human’s hand lowered, revealing two glaring bloodshot eyes. “Hmm,” mumbled Octavo, “what’s wrong with his eyes? Is he sick?” “No-no-no,” replied the boss, “he just cries a lot.” They both turned to him; he could only give a guilty smile in response, that and a fake chuckle. Forgetting him, she mentally began dissecting the features of the human’s face in her head. A full nose that stopped before it reached the lips, a bridge that led to the tip of his nose from his brow, a square jaw. Yes, Twilight thought, he will do wonderfully. He was without doubt to all observers the most pleasing to look at human they had ever seen, albeit their wasn’t much competition for that title. Nevertheless, that position belonged to him. “He’s much taller than he looks when he isn’t sitting down. Hold on. I can get him to stand.” The posh pony began tugging on the human’s hand to get him off the bed. “You’re making him mad,” Octavo warned. “Be careful.” Twilight noted what he was talking about. In the same manner that ponies facially animated themselves, the human had the same exact mannerisms. He was scowling, much like how a pony would when angry, and not only that, but he was scowling at the slave boss, showing that he understood who was manipulating his hand. And then to the surprise of all, he spoke in a foreign tongue. None recognized it, but it seemed to flow with some rhythm. Twilight was too in shock to remember anything but the ending two words. “-lex talionis.” He then pulled his hand free from the magic. She snapped her head to the fellow scholar. Her fast pace mind already forming multiple questions and answers. “Were those real words? Some form of tribal speech for humans?” Octavo scratched his chin sagely. “Hard to say. I've learned over a hundred different words in tribal speech, I've never heard anything that sounded like that. Almost seemed like a proper civilized language. Although I'll need to hear more of it to reach a respectable conclusion.” The posh pony chuckled. “Oh I hardly imagine such a thing to be possible. They are one step above dogs in terms of intelligence. Now As you can plainly see, from his face and body, that he is of very high quality, and as such he would require a very large sum to buy. It is simply supply and demand. I can think of several others that will want him.” The two scholars watched the human for a few more seconds. He was attentive now; looking back at them. “As I said,” began Twilight, “money is not a concern.” The stallion grinned widely. “Excellent. But please, before we start throwing specific numbers around I insist that you see him stand, so that you may see his full form and his full worth.” He began pulling his hand again. “That’s not necessary,” commented Twilight. “You’re making him mad again,” added Octavo. Twilight watched his posture change. The human sat up tall, his upper body turning to the stallion. His shoulders broadened. His chest puffed up. She also realized his elbows were raising up, making him appear larger and more threatening. She gasped as the human bolted to the prison-bars of his cell, slid his long arms through the bars and grabbed the slave boss by the throat. The boss was slowly lifted up to the human’s great height, which to the unbelief of Twilight was even taller than Celestia, even counting her alicorn horn. She froze up. Kicking madly to escape his suffocating predicament, the boss’ suit began to ruffle, his mane quickly became a mess. His face contorted with fear, his mouth couldn’t voice words, he couldn’t breathe. The human smiled at the struggling pony in his grasp. Twilight heard his whisper, “Invictus maneo caballus.” Right before he would have passed out, he was released and he fell to the floor. After hitting the floor with a thud, he gasped for air. His monocle hit the ground beside him and broke. Twilight and Octavo were still in a state of shock. They all backed away from the cage. “SWEET CELESTIA!” The slave boss was literally shaking before the human. Before the opportunity was lost Twilight took in his physical attributes better shown off by the light, now that he stood in front of the bars. ‘Huh, the slaver was right, he does look much taller standing up,’ quipped Twilight, with fear growing inside her. What looked like a large slab of muscle accompanied his upper thigh, they were positioned on the outside side of him, this looked quite natural as far as she could tell. But what didn’t seem normal to her were the abdominal muscle bumps showing through his skin. She could see his abs. Being visible, she counted six of them. Surely it couldn’t be natural for such a thing to happen to a species, though, he was quite muscular and had little fat. Possibly underfed, she guessed. His feet seemed far superior to the other humans. Long and somewhat flat, he angled them partially outwards to keep him standing. Twilight began analyzing his genitalia, something was off about it, she noticed it the second he stood up, but then it dawned on her. His sheath was gone, it looked as though it had been removed. ‘What sort of crazy human ritual would involve that!? Why cut off the human’s foreskin?’ She then quickly looked away, to not be noticed staring at the human’s penis by two stallions. She blushed red. The thought crept on her. ‘Why am I even paying attention to something like that? I wouldn’t even know what to compare that to. And I know next to nothing about things like that.’ Willing the thoughts of her sexual inexperience away she brought herself to the here and now. “I tried to warn you,” added Octavo. “WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME WITH URGENTLY!?” They both jumped at the outburst. He stood on shaky hooves. “I am so sorry. I’m sorry but, this human... is obviously not ready to be sold to anypony. I have some ethics. He is... simply not safe. He must... we need to retrain... no, that simply won’t be enough for this fiend. The company will... uhhh...” “Sir look,” interrupted Twilight, more harshly than she intended, “I’m not your average customer. I’m not looking for a pet or human companion or a protector, nor am I looking for a source of cheap labor. I am a scientist; hired by Celestia. I’ll buy him from you. I’ll keep him locked up at all times, I swear. I don’t care if he’s dangerous. I just need a test subject. A reference for my studies.” He dusted himself off. “I’ll give him to you for a thousand bits, but if he does anything barbaric you’ll have to take the entire blame. I’m revoking all of his training certificates. You’ll have an uninsured, untrained, violent human on your hooves. And I don’t even care if you get sued!” The question to take advantage of him didn’t even cross her mind. “A-are you sure? A thousand bits is...” “Very little. Don’t you think I would know that?” the stallion interrupted. Humility didn’t come off naturally for this flamboyantly wealthy pony, being taken down a notch by his merchandise sat horribly with him. Sufficiently satisfied the human went back to his bed, while the rich pony with half lidded eyes watched. Not wanting to anger the stallion in an attempt at being fair, and wanting to move the slaver's attention away from the human so he wouldn't end up killing her desired specimen, she stole his attention. “O~okay,” Twilight nearly sang out-loud, “I guess it’s a deal then.” Still in a slump he snorted in response as he dusted his custom designed clothing. He led the two into his office and they made the deal, quickly.