Mankind Triumphant - Relic

by Dafaddah

AD 2200 - State of Heads

Author's note:  When I first read Chatoyance's story it shook me to the bone. It scared me, it kept me awake, it affected me. When she invited others to submit stories around her TCB New Universe scenarios, I knew I could not refuse. I felt this story calling to me. Resistance was futile. So here it is.
PS thanks to Microshazm for improving this story immesurably by masterful editing and story advice! (Dafaddah bows.)

Humans had a duty to produce offspring, which they did by the vat-load. The baby vats were tended by pony pediatricians, and the children were nurtured by pony nannies of course, as had been the young Wilberforce Sachs. Only the best children made it to middle-age without being ponified, and WiIberforce was the best of the best, of this he was sure. In fact this is what inspired him to his great ambition: to be the first to speak to Celestia in her case, to show the former Princess the greatness that was mankind. To tell her about humanity's achievements since, and describe all that might never have happened if Celestia had not foolishly attempted to invade the Earth. He wanted to show her this great society that could never have been built without the bounty of her blood and the serum that was its product. Yes, Sachs wanted to thank Celestia, for what she had done, and for the way she monthly contributed literally of herself to ensure the perpetuation of mankind.

Wilberforce Sachs walked up to the security station. He placed his palm on the reader and waited for the green light to indicate that he could enter. It did, and the door to the vault rose ponderously, emitting a hiss as negative air pressure kept thaumaturgicly tainted air from escaping its confines.

He was not wearing any protective clothing. He knew that it would likely be of no use, and he wasn't expecting to stay very long, anyway. He, like his worthy father and grandfather before him, had worked tirelessly for many years to finally achieve his position as leader of the Executive Council of the Eastern Alliance. Unlike them, this was not his true goal. His struggle was to amass the power and influence that would allow him to enter this room and see this object before him: a reinforced steel case euphemistically called the Treasure Chest. Its contents were nothing less than the still living head of the former ruler of Equestria, Celestia herself.

The Treasure Chest was not very imposing. It gleamed dully, its metal impregnated with the anti-magical Substance D  produced from the ground fragments of Celestia's nemesis, Discord. Low on one side was a spigot from which every month the accumulated magical blood of Celestia was drained to produce ponification serum. The serum was used as a general punishment for most crimes, these days. As a result, the population of the Earth was now over ninety percent pony. They were happy ponies, growing food and tending gardens, doing all the low level jobs of the world of men and living simple lives.

None of this truly concerned Sachs. The object before him did.

Sachs smiled warmly as a technician drilled a pinhole and inserted some specialized nanites. They would safely build a sight and sound bridge between the inside and outside of the case, using the substance of the case and Celestia herself. How fitting that she would contribute to her own new ears and eyes. The technician bowed to Wilberforce and left. It would only take a moment for the nanites to do their work and connect directly to Celestia's nervous system. Already a view-screen was forming on top of the Treasure Chest. In a moment it would display a holographic image of Celestia's head just above the case, as if her head were sticking out through a hole in its top surface.

Of course he had read the reports of the sound of screaming supposedly coming from within during the monthly harvest of Celestia's blood. He was ready to be patient and understanding, if it took her a while to stop screaming. And he was ready also for the tears that no doubt would come. After all, what a change of circumstance she had suffered, all because of her own selfish ambition to conquer humanity. Her feelings of guilt must be simply crushing.

He was also ready for the begging when it came time. Begging to let her out, to let her go, and of course he would have to explain that they could never set free a creature as dangerous as she, a failed invader, the chief architect and perpetrator of an attempted genocide.

And when she came to realize her fate, he expected Celestia to then beg for death, to seek release from her shame and her guilt, to wish to end the pain of living in a box, without comfort, without company, with only her thoughts and regrets. But how could he grant her such, when the constant supply of her blood was one of the very pillars of society? No, Celestia's blood was needed. Truth be told, and he would tell her, Celestia owed humanity for the deprivations she had caused: the loss of so many lives in her war, the extinction of so many brilliant minds by ponification, the sacrifice of almost a sixth of the Earth itself and close to half of humanity in the ensuing disasters. No, she owed humanity still, and such was her punishment that she would be obliged to continue paying that debt, until such a time as humanity judged otherwise and released her from residence inside the Treasure Chest.

Sachs was not an evil man. Only a strong-willed person could ascend to the heights he had achieved, but he had always endeavored to keep and nurture the solid core of compassion in his inner soul. So he felt for Celestia, he really did, and he had steeled himself against her begging him to stay another few minutes and keep her company, to delay her return to isolation. But he could not remain longer than a few minutes without risking overexposure to the thaumaturgic energy radiating from Celestia herself. He would however, generously promise to visit her again, when his heavy obligations permitted it, in a few months or a year. He resolved that he truly would be generous with his time.

Sachs felt good about this visit. He licked his lips in anticipation, and watched as the hologram of Celestia's head rapidly took shape over the Treasure Chest. Her eyes were closed but it was clearly the face from those long ago vids, despite the odd clot of blood matting her white fur. Her reputed rainbow gossamer mane was absent, which disappointed him somewhat, as did her so far passive attitude. It was Wilberforce's policy to always take the bull by the horns, or in this case, he smiled at the thought, the alicorn by the horn.

"Celestia." His voice rang out, neither cold nor warm, but familiar, like an old acquaintance or a colleague greeting another in the corridor. He meant to reassure and not to frighten the poor creature.

She slowly opened her eyes, and he felt the gaze of her keen intellect wash over him. He had expected to see terror, fear, hate, remorse in those eyes. But what he saw there instead disturbed him greatly. It shook him to his core. It made him want to hate her, to despise her, to scorn her. What he saw in her eyes was the last thing he expected to see. What he saw was compassion. The ache of it burned in him, and he felt his smile turn into a scowl. But the look on Celestia's face never wavered, her compassion never faltered.

"How dare you?" he said. Right then and there he almost decided to turn and leave this unrepentant criminal. But something held him back. He took a moment to calm himself, and then he understood. His deepest instincts had saved him. If he had left, she would have won, and he would have been a coward. No, he would face her down, prove to her once again the superiority of humanity. That was why he had come here today. That is what he would do. Now was the time to attack her delusions and shove her muzzle firmly into the pungent truth. This criminal deserved no less.

"How dare you look upon a human without contrition, murderess." he reprimanded Celestia, calmly, rationally. His smile returned as he said the word 'murderess'. It was a fitting word for the creature before him. "Do you not regret your crimes?" He raised an eyebrow to show that this was not a rhetorical question, and that he expected an answer.

"I look upon you as I have looked upon countless humans before you. Never in hate, always in love. I am what I am, and cannot be otherwise," said his prisoner in a sweet, gentle voice.

"So you admit your crimes and refuse to repent?" said Sachs. He knew how to unmask evaders. All it took was patience and the intelligence to ask the right questions. Sooner or later, the guilty party's evasions contradicted themselves. He would be ready to spring the trap. He knew this game well.

"I have acted only in the best interest of all the inhabitants of Earth and Equestria, whether human or ponies, or griffins or dragons or other sentient species," replied Celestia.

"Is that so?" he cocked his head to one side. Wilberforce noted that she was smart enough to know this time his was a rhetorical question and kept her silence. "Tell me, Princess, if your plan had succeeded, would not the earth have completely disappeared, swallowed up by Equestria and humanity with it? Would that not have been a genocide?"

"Our objective," said Celestia, "was to provide an escape to all humans from that extinction. Humanity would not have ceased, it would have... transcended. But even if the collision between the Earth and Equestria had not happened, the long-term prospects for mankind were quite dismal. The earth was mostly dead, its ecosystems destroyed, its oceans toxic. Life on earth would have been increasingly curtailed, with resources to support an ever dwindling population. And trust me in that I know this for a fact, if Equestria had not appeared when it did, there would be no humans left on Earth by now."

"And how is that different from your planned invasion? Sounds like the same result from my perspective: no humans. Instead we now have a vibrant Earth with mankind. A green, living Earth, tended mostly by ponies, thanks to you, Celestia." Wilberforce chuckled. This interview was now proceeding as he had planned. It was time to make Celestia aware of her 'contribution' to mankind.

"I am aware of the current pony population of Earth. And I am proud of what they have accomplished," said Celestia. "Through their magic the Earth is reborn: cleansed of toxins and green again. Life has even returned to the oceans, has it not, my dear Wilberforce?" She smiled her infuriatingly compassionate smile.

Sachs grew irritated again. How did she know all this, and how did she know his name? He had never introduced himself. He had hoped to hold his identity from her, a potent psychological weapon, when he had at leisure been able to study up on the Equestrian Princess. He knew practically all that was known by humanity about her. He nevertheless decided to pursue his intended course.

"The ponies have provided most of the physical labour to undertake these great works. But kid yourself not, the plan was from the minds of humans, as was the idea of using your blood to create ponification serum. You see, every month or so you provide us with the means of protecting the best of humanity, and giving those poor inferior souls who do not make the grade a new life as a pony. We even provide a place for them in our society where they can contribute and live happy, productive lives. Such is our mercy. Have we not surpassed you by finding a way to accommodate ponies while preserving our humanity?" He watched Celestia carefully to see how his revelations would affect the former sovereign.

"I am willing to admit that it might seem so from your point of view." Disappointing him again, Celestia smiled. "But you must admit that without the magic of ponies and the seed stock brought in from Equestria before your intervention, Mundus would have died a slow death."

Wilberforce was starting to dislike this creature. His earlier admiration for her perhaps misdirected but still considerable accomplishments was fast wilting under the harsh sun of her self-delusion. He began walking around the Treasure Chest. Of course, having no body attached to her neck, Celestia could not not turn her head to follow him. He enjoyed forcing her her to lift her chin and swivel her eyes in order to track his orbit around her. It was time to make her feel the pain of knowing the consequences of her intransigence.

"Let's talk about our... intervention, as you called it." With a glint in his eye he came around and lowered his face to within a finger's breadth of hers. "Did you know that we succeeded in destroying Equestria with twin Hypernuclear devices? Did you know that all the ponies in Equestria, and the billions of unfortunate humans you had ponified and forcibly relocated, that all these were turned to less than ash, in a blink of an eye. Not to mention a considerable part of your royal self!" Wilberforce smiled beatifically while delivering this news.

There was a moment of deepest silence, then Celestia blinked. Ah-ha! Wilberforce rejoiced. He had finally elicited a reaction. Her infuriating smile was gone and in its place was a bemused expression. Was Celestia finally showing some regret for her outrageous actions? Perhaps there was hope for this criminal still.

"I am certainly in no position to deny that my head was left behind when Equestria and Mundus were sundered." Celestia laughed as if her situation was merely some jest, a prank committed on a friend in good fun. Sachs felt his anger rise. His entire upper body tensed and he caught himself just short of slapping the insolent pony face for making a farce out of the death of billions! But he knew this face was but a hologram, and that his hand would pass through without striking, without hurt and without satisfaction.

Perhaps it was time to end this charade. But so great was his compassion that he had a thought: what if Celestia had gone mad from several hundred years of isolation and no company but the thoughts in her head? In all that time, could she have withstood the guilt of bringing to an end all that she held dear? Who knew what fictions she had devised in order to live with herself and keep herself from descent into hopelessness? Could any sentient being, no matter how godlike, have survived undamaged?
"No." Wilberforce answered his own question. He stood back and looked down at Celestia with pity and compassion. "I must leave you now." He truly felt sorry for the deranged entity before him. It would be more 'humane' to extinguish her outright, but he knew that this final mercy was not his to give, yet. "I will come to visit you again sometime. Until then, goodbye."

"Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I have truly enjoyed our conversation Wilberforce. Goodbye," replied Celestia. As he reached over to deactivate the view-screen, he paused, staring into her fathomless eyes. Those huge eyes were inhuman, alien. How could he not have noticed before? He switched off the hologram, turned away and walked back out of the vault, filled with melancholy.

Celestia's mind withdrew from the interview with Wilberforce Sachs feeling melancholy. "What a sad man," she said to to her sister.

"Why do you expend the energy to maintain that wordline, Celestia? It is so dismal, so dark. And it causes you such pain," replied Luna, a look of deep concern on her muzzle.

"We have discussed this before, dear sister. I could not allow so many to be extinguished, that would not voluntarily come to us. This way, they are slowly being added to the herd, and the simulacra amongst the ponified give us a way to gently influence mankind into a more compassionate society."

"But there are so few left. How long will you continue this sad charade, Celestia?" Luna approached her sister leaning into her to ease the sting of her words.

"As long as they still need it in order to live, dear sister." She sighed. "I am what I am, and cannot be otherwise," said Celestia in a sweet, gentle voice.