//------------------------------// // Letters // Story: Perseverance of the Ancients // by The Bourgeoisie Bear //------------------------------//     A stallion laid on his mat. The steady smoke from the incense danced and swirled in the air before being dispersed. His chest rose and fell beneath the covers. The underground room beneath the temple was illuminated by only a few candles.     Opening his eyes, he knew something was amiss. He looked around.     Adorning the walls were the ancient, yet well-preserved artistic paintings around him. Showing the glory of foreign places, inviting the viewer into another world. The shelves were filled with odd treasure, much of which had unknown uses.     The stallion looked to his left to find a strange hollow spear with a metal spike connected to it on the table next to him. It had a trigger that seemed to do nothing. Another odd piece was an extremely rusted helmet that could only fit a human.     It was oddly appropriate for a place dedicated to travel, the pursuit of righteousness and traveling to far off places to apply these tried and tested moral principles.     He sniffed the air. Silk Road Spice, he realized, his favorite incense blend from the sultans of the East.     “Octavo,” the voice came from everywhere and nowhere.     He knew his master's voice. “Travafe, I am here. Ready to serve.”     “Good. You've rested long enough.” There was a pause as Octavo stared ahead, watching the red candle light make shapes on the stone ceiling. “Take the road Karma until you reach the town of Geneva.”     Octavo's eyebrow arched. “That would take me near the griffin border. There is a bloody war going on there.” The Champion's voice was free on any emotion, it never rose above a casual level.     “Yes it will. Does that frighten you?” Travafe, with his psychic connection to his champion asked him an honest question.     “...No. I was merely curious.” It was an honest answer in return.     “Rise.”     With a soft grunt he rolled over to his hooves and out of his mat that was laid across the stone slab.     The god continued with his orders, “Grab the rifle and the A.S.D, the Atomic State Drive.”     The stallion froze. “I don't know what those things are, my master.”     There was a pause. “My mistake. Grab the hollow spear thing to your right and the pouch next to it. Then grab the thing at the back of this room that looks like a steel orb with a hole in it.”     Octavo first grabbed the hollow spear thing, then went to the back and began moving a few things around. It was easy to find. Surprisingly it held it's age well, and looked like what Travafe said it would. Though odd enough, the hole looked intentional, even machined manufactured. But no machine he knew of could make such a thing.     “You have them. Good.” Ocatavo heard Travafe sigh. “I don't know if you will survive this task. You may very well die.”     Octavo found a brown bag and put the two items in it. “I will serve you until then, my master.”     Another moment of silence. “I've gazed into the cosmos and saw a future, my champion. I don't know if it is ours, but I know if we don't act it will be. Even I, an immortal god, will die if swift actions are not taken.”     A bit null to such grave warnings, Octavo kept preparing his saddle bag. “How bad was it?”     “It began with all sapient species being wiped out on this planet, by the humans, it continued as the humans formed a vile empire that reached out into the stars, and ended with millions of civilizations brought to ashes by their onslaught.”     Octavo froze. “That's hard to accept as true... the humans you say? Hmmmm... Also I think you just admitted that aliens exist to me.”     The champion could have sworn he heard the god scoff. “I may have, but don't forget you are sworn to secrecy.”     “Of course.” He put on his saddle bag. “Now what do I do when I get to Geneva?”     “You will meet Twilight.” Octavo's eyebrows rose, but he choose to stay quiet for now. “She's going to send you a letter to meet her in the Griffin Kingdom tomorrow, but it won't reach you. I have foreseen it. Though I know not who would be foolish and shortsighted enough to work against the survival of this world.”     Double tapping his chin, Octavo began thinking of what would draw her out here. “Guess she decided it's time for her field study, but what do I do when I find her?”     The answer was immediate. “You keep her from dying. At any cost. Princess Twilight's death will signal the beginning of the end for this world. King Viggo's death will signal the end for griffin kind, and the beginning of much suffering for the equine race. I know not the specifics, visions are an obscure thing.”     Octavo stood, determined. “I understand then.”     “You are my last champion, do not disappoint me. Now go.”     Doing as his master commanded him, he left. First heading upstairs and thanking the priests for their help in seeing to his recovery. Then, after outfitting himself, he left.     The following day, the god's vision was already turning true. As King Viggo lay leaning back in his chair, with his back legs propped up on a table in front of him, he snored next to his three empty bottles of mead. He was in the bed chambers that the rulers of the Crystal Empire had provided him, passing time by doing nothing but waiting.     Then came the knock on the door. The warlord slept through it, gibberish complains escaping his beak. Then a louder knock, again the warlord slept through it. After not receiving a reply, the griffin outside just opened the unlocked door. Olaf, a thane of the Griffin Kingdom, took in the scene. “I don't believe this,” he said to himself. “In the middle of the day? Truly? No joke?” He walked over to his sleeping master. For a moment the urge to drive a knife into this fool was almost unbearable, he didn't think he had it in him to resist. Just to feel it in his claw, the thane grabbed the dagger hidden in a pocket in his armor. Slowly he pulled his dagger out just an inch.     King Viggo mumbled something in his sleep, then rolled over. Causing him to fall out of his chair and hit the floor. “W-who? F-fall back!” Without any coordination the warlord's limbs flailed around until he was able to take in his surroundings. He took note of his thane looking down at him with an irritated look. “Oh Olaf, it's only you. My most trusted friend, how goes your mission?”     Letting go of the dagger, Olaf retracted his claw from his pocket. “A complete success your grace. The ward worked exactly as intended, I don't even think Twilight noticed that her letter would never meet it's intended target.” Olaf kept a smile as he handed his warlord the document.     Viggo took it as if it were a present, with eager claws snatching it up and opening it, but slowly his wide grin became neutral, then it turned into a frown. “Olaf.”     Giving him a questioning look, he responded, “Yes, your Grace.”     The warlord stopped reading it, and looked up at his thane. “This isn't what I wanted. I'm not happy. This is a letter to some stallion named Octavo, not Celestia. It doesn't have any information we can use.”     “I-” the thane froze. “I apologize, I did it exactly as you instructed me.”     Rolling his eyes the warlord began ripping the letter to shreds. “Well try harder. Now get back out there and do it again.”     In his mind, Olaf was on top of him, gouging his eyes out and ripping him to pieces. “Your grace, that ward you sent me to cast. Took me three hours to set up.”     This was nothing that concerned the King Viggo, at least that was how he saw it. “Then I guess you should get started right away then. Hmmm?”     It took all his willpower, but the thane turned and left. 'Oh soon Viggo, so very soon.'     On the other side of the castle one floor down, Twilight was getting Charmer ready for the big day tomorrow. She hopped her slave would be good on the road. That he wouldn't slow them down much, and would be a good human and stay by his master's side.     For the first time ever, Twilight thought she heard her human growl at her as she scrubbed away. He was rolled up in a ball, making giving him a bath very difficult. Rainbow Dash was having the easiest time by using her wings to stay balanced in the air while scrubbing with her hooves. “Twilight,” Rainbow complained, “he won't let me wash his chest. Why is he in the fetal position anyway?” She put the brush aside to try and get his arms out at least.     Noticing this, Applejack spat out her brush. “Now Rainbow, you jus' now recovered from this guy throwin' you into bottles of beer and you're already provokin' him?”     Before Rainbow could respond, Pinkie Pie emerged from out of the bathtub with goggles and a snorkel. “All squeaky clean down here Twily!”     Off on the side, Rarity was filing his nails. She blew on them, getting the residue off. “Just one more finger to go, darling.”         The suds on his head were growing to a silly height, he had a bubble beard and mustache courtesy of Pinkie. He broke his blank stare forward to shut his eyes as Fluttershy poured water from a bucket over his head. “Ummm... I'm done with his hair on his head, Twilight.”     Unable to get under the humans arms Twilight settled on brushing his shoulders. “Thanks for all the help everypony. It took me longer than I thought it would to get everything ready for tomorrow.”     Rainbow gave up on trying to force the arm to let go of its death grip on its leg. “No problem, Twilight. We're still up for one last night out, right?”     “Hmmhmm,” Twilight grunted. “It looks like we're more than half way done here already. It's quick work with all of you guys helping.”     Applejack gave up the brush for a wash cloth she was wiping along the top of his chest. “No problem Twily, ma' humans can be a bit of a handful on washday as well. Can ya' coax him out of this little roly-polly thing he got goin' on?”     “Yeah,” Twilight replied as she walked next to him on the edge of the bathtub, “I think so.” Without even trying she had his attention, though she wished he didn't look so troubled by all of this. “Come on now Charmer, open up.”     His reaction was delayed. Charmer only watched Twilight's overly animated gestures, wondering why she was treating him like a baby. After what Twilight was certain was an eye-roll, the human released his grip and let his legs spread. The girls immediately made him raise his arms and began scrubbing away, he couldn't look more uncomfortable. Then Pinkie shot out of the water spitting out her snorkel. “Holly molly! That's a giant pokey!”     The reaction was immediate, all eyes fell on what lay beneath the soapy water. Rarity was the first to react. “Pinkie!”     “But it's true!” The jolly mare protested as she climbed out of the tub.     None of them getting a good look at it with all the soap in the water blocking the way, he had been hiding his genitals with his hands during the entire time, not giving them even a peek at him. Rainbow turned from trying to catch a glimpse of him to Twilight. “You know we are going to have to make him stand if we are going to wash every bit of him.”     “Eeep!” Fluttershy growing even more red, dropped her brush down into the water with the human, right in front of his crotch.     “Yeah, I know,” Twilight replied, she was going to mention how she'd seen it before but didn't really have a lot to compare it to, but in the end she saved herself by staying quiet. Walking up to his side again, she motioned him to get up. He looked at her, giving her one of his stubborn looks telling her he wouldn't.     Fluttershy was trying to get back her brush again by prattling the bubbles away. Then she stuck her hoof down to try and feel for it, expecting it to be right on his lap. “I just need my brush back,” she mumbled.     “Come on Charmer, get up now please,” Twilight begged. “ We have to clean you.”     He sighed, by this time all of the girls had already positioned themselves in front of him, readying themselves for Pinkie's promised show, and that's when Fluttershy felt something. “Got it,” Fluttershy told her friends behind her even though they weren't even interested in what she was doing.     The human flinched a bit, cringed a bit, and let Fluttershy pull him up, using his legs to carry the vast majority of his weight up. Rarity gasped, then shoved her hoof in her mouth to quite herself. They all dropped their jaws as they saw what Fluttershy was stretching out. “What?” Fluttershy asked as she gave what she thought was her lost item one final tug.     “Oww...” the human complained.     When Fluttershy looked behind herself to see what her hoof was holding she actually screamed, released her grip and flew behind her friends and hid behind her mane. It was all wrong, or maybe all right, they thought. It looked completely different to that of a stallion's. Fluttershy stretched it out to more than twice its size and it was already snaking inside of himself. There was no sheathe at all, and what normal imperfect humans had, the foreskin, seemed to have been cut off. For some reason. Even the shape of the head was different.     Applejack sat down, instinctively protecting her hindquarters, taken aback by the size of it, and how much of it was hidden inside of himself. “Ah thought ya' said this one ain't got no weird mutation!”     “I thought he didn't!” Twilight defended.     Rainbow rolled over laughing. “Oh sure Twilight, we believe you.” She emphasized her point by giving her a wink, then proceeded to laugh even harder.     “See! Told you,” Pinkie claimed, “That's a giant pokey.” She nodded with a self satisfied grin.     Rarity shook her head. “How did I end up here? This is so uncouth.” Although she was complaining, she couldn't stop looking at it.     “I really didn't know! I swear!” Twilight was a vibrant red by this point.     “H-holly molly?” the human asked Twilight. “Th-that's a g-giant pokey?”     Twilight finally broke eye contact with his thing and looked back at his face. “Please never say that again, Charmer.”     “Okay, Twilight,” the human replied, waiting awkwardly for something to happen.     'I don't even know if I should mail this information to Celestia, but I did promise to send everything I learned about humans, and I guess that includes reproductive organs and their reproductive cycles.' Twilight let that thought aside for a moment. “Girls... can we please, please, please, PLEASE just-”     The door swung open to the bathhouse and Spike smiling and holding a laundry basket came in. “Got his loincloth and his cloa-” he stopped mid sentence when he noticed every pony looking at something on the human, his eyes followed theirs. He dropped his basket. “My eyes! They burn!” He flung an arm over his eyes and shut them tight. “Why is it so freakishly big!?”     “Spike you have to go!” Twilight yelled at him, “Just go! It's for your own good!”     He turned and ran without looking, hitting his shoulder on the door frame, but kept on going closing the door behind him.     Twilight facehooved. “Can we just get this over with? We're almost done with him.” No one was listening to her, they just kept on staring. Twilight noticed that even Fluttershy had stopped hiding and was watching the human's thing intently. It had stopped retracting inside of itself, but it was still pretty big, and just like the rest of him even his genitals looked muscular. Probably mutated, she guessed. 'I suppose there are no exceptions to the mutation rule.'     Twilight wondered why she didn't notice that to begin with. 'Because you’ve spent your entire life in books and you can only compare it to what you’ve seen in those books,' her mind answered her. 'Gee... thanks brain.' She cleared her throat. “Girls!” That got their attention. “May we please finish up?”     “Y-yeah,” replied Applejack as they all went back to their previous spots.     Fluttershy found her brush, and her and Rainbow were brushing the human's backside. “I have to admit,” said Rainbow, “he doesn't have that bad of a flank.”     Applejack sighed. “Please Rainbow, don't make this worse than what it ought to be.”     Twilight and Rarity were working on his armpits, using their magic to reach up high, while Pinkie and Applejack worked on his belly. All four taking frequent glances at his swaying length. Looking at it closely, Twilight could see where the rest could recede inside of his body. 'This may require studying... tonight.'     Attempting to try to take their mind off of what they were all thinking about, Applejack tried to start up a conversation. She spat out her brush out and used her hoof to brush the slave instead. “This here is mighty fine muscle definition I must say, Twi. Could probably work the fields from dusk till dawn and not even break a sweat. You must take good care of him.”     Twilight laughed, attempting to regain some lost composure. “Why thank you, Applejack. I-”     Rainbow laughed. “Yeah I bet you do take REALLY good care of him, am I right?”     “H-hey!” Twilight was growing red again, it was made worse by the fact that Pinkie and Applejack were working on a region that was a bit south of the stomach now.     “Rainbow!” Applejack called out in a chastising manner. “Stop teasing Twilight like that!”         “Pfft! She's knows I'm only playing with her, and even if you did, Twilight I-”     Before Rainbow could go on Twilight interrupted her. “I did not!”     Rainbow groaned. “It was just a joke Twilight. Sheesh.” She sighed, “Fine, I'll be good.”     Rarity stopped cleaning his arm pit and began to clean by his upper thigh, right next to it. “T-that would be best darling.”     “Going to have to be gentle,” Twilight mumbled as she brought a washcloth to her slaves genitals. Twilight just now realized that Rainbow and Fluttershy were behind her now, both starting to have trouble flapping their wings. “We're both umm...” Fluttershy struggled to speak, “d-done with his back side.”     All the mares were watching intently what Twilight was doing, up until the point where the human snatched the cloth out of her magic aura. “This is so uncouth,” the human complained in Rarity's refined accent. Cleaning that region at ten times the speed Twilight was going at. After a few quick motions of cleaning the length of his penis, and a few brushing motions on his balls he was finished. “Done,” the human affirmed.     The human got out of the bath tub and walked past them, the girls watched Charmer intently as they did so, all huddled together, looking at the same thing. He went to a shower head and turned it on himself to get rid of the last pieces of soap. Finishing up , he ran his fingers through his hair, letting the water do its work. After he turned that off, all by himself, they marveled. He looked around for a few seconds then went to his pre-placed towels and began drying himself.     As the towel went up and began drying his hair and leaving other parts bare, Twilight became especially drawn to the strange reproductive qualities of the human. 'For science of course,' she assured herself. 'I may also have to take a more scientific observation of all his sexual characteristics later, when I'm alone with him, for science.'     “Huh.” Pinkie watched his thing with growing wonder. “How the hay does it all fit in there?”     They all waited for Twilight to give her some egghead explanation of it all, but her mind was elsewhere. Seeing that no one else was going to put in their thoughts, Fluttershy decided to throw in her guess. “Umm... Well most of it is inside of him until well... it’s pulled out.” She pawed the ground for a moment.     “Clothes!” Twilight said coming out of her stupor. It made her friends jump a bit. She trotted to the tumble over basket that Spike brought and began pulling apart the different pieces of fabric. The human followed after her. He began dressing himself when Twilight handed him his loincloth, then his cloak, and then his trousers.     “Thanks for making something comfortable for Charmer last minute, Rarity. I really appreciate it. The Griffin Kingdom is going to be even colder than this.”     The human pulled up the loose fitting leg ware. “Thanks, Rarity,” he parroted, no pony thought much of it till he waved at Rarity herself.     Taken surprise on how quickly the human managed to learn their names, Rarity kept a surprised look on her face. Then giggled a bit. “Oh I can see why you named him, Charmer. Isn't he just the sweetest thing?” The human grinned dumbly at them all, but it quickly fell when the generous mare took a step forward and fluttered her eyelashes. “Don't you keep him too long with the griffin now. Come back to ponyville when you get the chance.”     Rainbow took a step forward as well. “Yeah bring him by next time, Twilight.”     “Don't be a stranger, Twi.”     Twilight just finished putting up the basket and wet towel. “Hmm? Oh right right, I'll bring him by Ponyville eventually. Just that there is so much to do. I think I should send a letter to Celestia today... about humans...”     Pinkie Pie hopped over to Twilight. “Do you still have time for our last night out before you go?”     Nodding with a big smile on she said, “Yes, you girls helped me out so much today. Thank you all. I still have an hour or two to spare.”     A roar of applause echoed throughout the room. The human tilted his head to the side, like an adorable puppy, an adorable, sexy puppy. “A meal sounds mighty fine right about now.” How much of their conversation he understood was debatable to them, but they all just thought how it was neat how he would parrot them sometimes with their accent, and repeat it at strangely appropriate times.     On the other side of the castle, a certain drunk griffin slept for hours on end.     Time ticked by, and Viggo still sat at his chair, sleeping. The only difference being that there was more than a dozen empty bottles surrounding him now. An especially loud snore bellowed out of his agape beak. The sun was beginning to set.     Then a knock on the door came, then a louder one. After no response the door opened. Olaf looked around. “You slept all day?” went the hateful question. He wiped his face with his claw. Only gripping his dagger seemed to calm him down as the warlord snored away. “Your Grace!”     Jerking awake, Viggo fell out of his seat. “D-don't scare me like that Olaf!”     The thane cleared his throat, and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment. “Just a minute ago Twilight attempted to send a letter to Celestia, as ordered I intercepted it.” He gave his document to his liege. “I did some spying on her and I can assure you, she has no idea the letter didn’t go through.”     Smiling to himself, Viggo broke the seal, swaying a bit from the drinks. “Excellent, excellent. Good work, my friend. Now let me see here. HA!” He looked over to his subordinate. “Perfect! This one is a letter to Celestia.” He began reading, only slightly slurring his speech. “It appears to be about the anatomy of humans. Now let me see.” He was quiet for a several seconds. Then he began to look a bit troubled, his eyes squinted, he began rereading lines, skipping a little as he did so. “What the-? But... A retractable... what? To ensure many offspring? For competitive purposes... Eww... ” He shook his head in a spastic movement, clearing his head. “Evolutionary... m-mating? Can be... subject shows a remarkable ability to...” He gagged a bit but continued reading. His expression became more and more troubled, till the point where he actually began to look frightened. “BY THE GODS AND EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY WHAT THE PLUCK AM I READING!?”