The Survival Of The Species

by Borderline Valley

Chapter 10: Old Wounds and New Ideas

Alexander Birchwood

A moment ago, I was walking home, trying to think of a good way to spend my lunch hour.

Then I was whisked away by some incredibly strange monster, before I could so much as scream.

I found myself in some sort of very large building. Given the large stain-glass windows, and the lavish decorations I imagine it serves as some sort of temple, but a temple to what, I have no idea.

I still am unable to scream, my movements reduced to moving my head around a little.

I chance a look down, and am horrified to discover that I don’t seem to possess a body anymore.

AHHHHHHHHHH! Am I dead? What did that thing do to me? Where is this place? Am I invisible? WHAT’S GOING ON?

I notice the monster that had grabbed me, now floating a few feet to my left. It’s… bizarre. Parts and pieces of him look like they belonged on various animals, some of which are familiar to me. One leg is reminiscent of a lion, another of a goat. The thing has two horns, each seemingly pulled from a different kind of animal.

Everything points to some sort of magical creature. I wonder what it wants with me?

The monster starts to speak. “Luna! Celestia! I’m glad I caught you. You’ll never believe what I found out.”

I follow its gaze to see two very strange horses further down the red carpet. They certainly remind me of horses anyway. I've never heard of a horse with wings before, or a horn for that matter.

Oh wait, there was that pony thing that was running around the village a week or two ago; it had wings.

It was sentient too. Which means these two probably are as well.

True to form, the tall white one speaks something, in a language I can’t understand. The tones sound light and soft, yet they echo with an inexplicable volume.

“True enough.” Somehow, I knew the monster had just rolled his eyes, despite having his back to me. How did I know that? “So I investigated, and the little princess was right after all. Humans are back in Equestria. But they are wonderfully different than they used to be, I’ll have you know. Take a look.”

With the practiced motions of an actor, that somehow looked graceful in spite of the mismatched animal parts, he dramatically motions to where I float invisibly. With a flash of light I suddenly find myself falling the remaining foot to the floor, where I stumble, gasping in the sudden shock of being able to move my body again.

Now that I think about it, I can breathe again! How am I not unconscious after not being able to breathe for a bit there?

The tall blue one says something in shock and the taller white one exclaims something that sounds like a reprimand.

The mismatched monster simply laughs and begins to float in the air over my head. “Oh relax! He can’t do anything to anyone. Just look at him, he’s got no magic.”

In another situation, I might take offence at this, but seeing how easily I had just been subdued and abducted, I content myself by scrambling for the exit to the room. Which, with a snap of the monster’s fingers, vanishes, becoming simply more of the same stone wall.

I turn, trying to find an escape route, but the only other one is past the two horses, where I can see a balcony.

The horses in question have transfixed me with their eyes, the white one, with an impassive face I can’t read and the blue one with undisguised suspicion.

“Oh, come on Governor, you can give a better first impression than that I’m sure.”

I force myself to calm down. If I’m being judged it will reflect upon the entire village! And we can’t exactly afford to offend anyone quite yet.

I glare at the monster. “If you’d just been abducted by an eldritch horror, I’d imagine your nerves would be frayed as well!” I feel the blood leave my face. Where did that come from? How could I possibly think antagonizing it was a good idea?

“Aaand I’m going to blame that on the nerves as well,” I give a rather dry swallow, and am surprised by what is obviously the sound of laughter coming from both the monster and the white horse, though the horse actually makes an effort to conceal it.

“Ehehehehe. Because I’m the horror here,” the monster chuckles.

The blue one approaches me warily, saying something in in that melodic voice all the horse-like creatures here seem to possess.

I just look at her, trying to fathom what she wants from me.

She repeats herself, looking impatient.

I turn to the monster, even though I don’t like him, because at least I can understand him, “What is she saying?”

Wait, how do I know it was female? I don’t know enough about horses to tell, aside from the obvious, so why am I so confident that the two horses are mares?

The blue one lifts one leg to her face, muttering something under her breath as the monster laughs at her expense.

The monster says something, and this time I can’t understand him. His… words don’t sound any different than before, but somehow their meaning now escapes me completely.

Can he somehow control what I understand? Is he in my head?

I manage to keep the horrified expression off of my face, regaining control of my panic just in time to hear the blue one speak words I can actually understand.

“I Princess Luna, welcome you to Canterlot.” I instinctively bow; royalty of any kind demands a show of deference.

“As do I, Princess Celestia,” the white horse says, coming up to stand beside Luna.

I turn to the monster, half expecting an introduction as well, but he’s staring thoughtfully at his claws for some reason.

I bow again to the other royalty in the room, and speak, “I thank you for the kind welcome, though I admit; I know nothing about anything that is going on here. I am Alexander Birchwood, the Governor of my humble village.” There. I think I’m over the fright; I'm in a situation somewhat resembling familiar territory after all: Politics.

“I see.” The gaze of the one called Luna hardens. “If you are the leader than you are the one to answer for your people’s crimes, yes?”

“Crimes?” I ask, the picture of innocence, “I know of no crimes.” This is bad. What could it have been? Dammit, this was exactly what I was afraid was going to happen!

“Discord?” Celestia asks the monster, leaving a question unspoken.

‘Discord’ what kind of question is that?

The monster grins. “You should have seen it, Celestia; you would have hated it, but I found it deliciously Chaotic. Your old palace has been turned into a hotel! Hundreds of humans are crawling all over your old stomping grounds like a swarm of ants!” He continues to ramble on, but has slipped into whatever dialect it is that I can’t understand.

He goes on for a while, his ‘hands,’ if you could call them that, gesturing wildly, little images I can't quite make out popping in and out of existence.

Eventually he seems to be wrapping up his tale, and slips back into a dialect I can understand. “-and no matter where I look, or how much cheese I offer the old windbag, I can’t find so much as a rumor of where Timber is now. It’s as if he up and left Equestria without anyone knowing.”

Celestia and Luna somehow look both relieved and concerned simultaneously. I for one, am concerned that I might sweat through my clothes. The good captain gave me a full account just after they got back, and he had said that Rodin had called the massive enemy ‘Timber’, just before he unleashed that spell. I wish I knew Rodin had that kind of power years ago.

We are so screwed.

Celestia seemed to notice my discomfort, in spite of my attempt to remain calm. “Do you know what happened to Timber, Alexander?”

“Of course he does!” the monster exclaims, “You can practically smell it on him, he knows what his people did.”

Luna growled. “And are you also responsible for the use of forbidden magic we've sensed?”

I frown. “We do have a mage, but I do not believe he dabbles in necromancy, no. As for Timber, his death was necessary to our continued survival. His wolves were attacking our men as they gathered food from the forest.”

“That’s not all you gather,” the monster crows at me.

“Hush, Discord, we can deal with that later.” Celestia reprimands him.

Wait, Discord is his name? I guess that makes sense, what with the mismatched parts.

Luna is not pleased with my answer, however. “'Timber's Death?' What you suggest is neigh impossible. I would have words with this mage of yours, if he indeed has used forbidden magic, I will end him.”

Well this isn't good.

“Oh come now Luna,” the thing named Discord interrupted, “It was self-defense, surely. Do you think that any mage would have used such magic if it wasn't necessary?”

“It is forbidden for good reasons Discord,” Celestia explains, “Not even you have ever dared to use it.”

“Well sure! My life has never been in danger before. Mortals tend to have that problem.”

Shit, these creatures are Immortals? If they attack us we’ll be dead before the battle even begins! At least Discord sees our side of it.

“I have every faith that Rodin did whatever it is that he might have done for the right reasons. He’s never given me reason to doubt his judgem- his character before.” I must speak nothing but the truth. I remember something about Immortals being able to sense lies and read minds.

“Even so. They have caused quite the disruption already. I have hundreds of complaints pouring in daily, due to the massive cloud of smoke now spreading across Equestria. The Pegasi tell me it will take months to clear completely, and Twilight herself has sent me two separate reports detailing the danger of the strange magical fire these humans wield! No Discord, they are not the same humans-” she glances at me and continues in a dialect I can’t understand.

I keep my face neutral, but inwardly I am very curious. What is it they don’t want me to know?

She finishes her rant, fixing me with a calm gaze. This gaze feels cold. I’d bet two years of my life that she’s currently imagining how best to rip my soul from my body.

Discord interjects, in that same dialect, seemingly making a point that gives Celestia pause. Luna scoffs, making her own position clear on the matter.

I think I’m getting better at reading their body language… but there’s no real way to know for sure.

This three sided argument stretches on for what feels like the better part of an hour. Discord getting less and less aloof as the conversation stretches on, seemingly unwilling to make light of these proceedings. Eventually, the two horses seem to be too fed up with the discussion to continue.

“Fine, Discord,” my attention latches on to words I can actually understand, “The humans can stay in Equestria. We won’t prevent them from leaving the Everfree forest.” Luna states for my benefit.

“But there is a catch.” Celestia interjects, “Since you argued for them, they will be your responsibility. I expect you to oversee their selection of residence as well as ease their introduction to the other races. Should there be an incident we will hold you responsible. You are also to handle their” *a word in that unknowable dialect* “in a manner acceptable to both them and us.”

Discord at first looked annoyed at this turn of events, but then erupts into a shout of joy! “YES!”
I look at him, afraid of what this might mean. “Thank you Celestia, Luna,” he teleports to directly in front of them and shakes their hooves up and down, almost too fast for my eyes to follow. “I’ll make 100% sure that I won’t regret you making this decision!”

“Discord…” Celestia’s expression carries both amusement and warning.

He’s busy throwing an assortment of clothes into some sort of cloth bag he summoned out of thin air. “Well it's been fun but I've got humans to meet, see you girls next Sunday for tea and cake, right?” The bag is thrown over his shoulder, and he has one very strong lion paw wrapped around my shoulder, as he looks over at the two mares with an innocent smile for confirmation.

The moment Celestia’s head finishes nodding in affirmation, he’s snapping one finger, and I feel a familiar jolt as we teleport somewhere.

Even as we arrive on the doorstep of my house, I’m still desperately trying to figure out if everything has just gone horribly wrong, or horribly right.

---

James Mender

The patient’s body is healthy. Internal organs are fully functional and the heart beats healthily and strong.

The patient’s spirit is a perfect reflection of the health in its body, there is no imbalance there.

The patient’s stay in my care has brought it to the apex of health, yet both body and spirit remain maimed. Where his legs should be, there is nothing but bloody stumps. Both the twin gashes in the patient’s spirit and the stumps have stubbornly refused to so much as staunch the bleeding, ever since they entered my care.

Through a combination of heavy stasis, tourniquets and clamps, I've managed to keep him from slowly bleeding out, but I have yet to be able to heal the wounds.

This man’s arm had been broken as well, when he had first arrived, but that had been healed easily. Something was keeping him from channeling energy into the patient’s legs; whenever he tried it just slipped right off them.

Rodin had checked them for a magical influence, but, as he had said, “It’s obvious that something’s there, but I can’t so much as detect it. Whatever it is, my neither of our magics seem capable of affecting it.” This man had been with them ever since, but had been kept in constant stasis.

I finished my examination. Nothing was different from the last time.

I turn to the other long-term patient that had arrived with him. This one was a girl, but their injuries were very similar.

She had lost her right arm at the shoulder, and her hamstrings had been viciously cut from behind. She too, was stable and in heavy stasis, but there was no healing those injuries somehow.

Sometimes I wonder what did this to these two. They had arrived suddenly one night, and with no real explanation. I never even learned their names.

I sigh and stand, unwilling to waste more of my much needed time on a problem I can't solve.

I walk past the two statues, the eyes of my spirit seeing the spirits of the occupants clearly still attached to their stone forms. They were in a kind of half-stasis when they first arrived. I could see their horror at their situation written on their spirits, and with a little testing, confirmed that they were somehow aware of their surroundings.

I have yet to find a cure for them either, but to save their sanity; they agreed to be put into deeper stasis for the wait. I’m just glad it worked.

Most of my other patients are relatively straightforward cases. Wounds I understand, horrifically life-threatening as they may be, are comparatively easy to deal with. Either stasis will tide them over until I find a sacrifice, or it won’t. Either one sacrifice will be enough to bring them back up to speed, or it will take more.

The healing aspects of this magic are actually rather simple. It’s when you branch out into its other uses that it gets both more difficult, and more ethically questionable.

There’s a reason I’m selective when it comes to choosing my apprentices.

My walk of the hospital brings me to Rodin’s bed.

I ponder his particularly interesting case. He always seemed to require more energy than others to recover. It had puzzled me for a long time, but I found the answer in his mind.

He literally is a magical human. Humans have no innate magic. Yet he was born with magic running in his veins and infusing his flesh, just as his father was, just as his daughter was. It’s remarkable, really, that his body functions so exactly like a humans as to be nearly indistinguishable.

But I know what to look for. Parts moving with more energy than they should, fat and muscle burning and building at strange rates, all signs of the extra magic building and being used up as he works.

I've seen him go from gaunt and starving to a little overweight in the span of a month.

I’m even pretty sure he actually has to use his magic, or the fat will keep building. Still all mostly theory though. It’s not like I can just ask him. Hells, I think I know more about how Rodin’s body functions than Rodin knows himself.

Still, this means that rebuilding that burned flesh is going to require a whole lot of energy than one measly sacrifice.

Dammit. This was so much easier when we were mentally linked. I think it acted like some sort of amplifier.

I shake my head at myself. No, I can’t think like that. It was incredibly dangerous for me to do, and we’re all very lucky it worked out as well as it did.

There’s a commotion outside again. Did the chimera abduct someone else too?

Cries of alarm are sounded, and the pounding of metal-clad feet echoes loudly outside my door.

I push aside my assistants, saying only “Stay here and keep everyone stable.” before leaving the hospital in pursuit of the commotion for the second time in the same number of hours.

As before, I scan the crowd with my spirit’s eyes, and what I see concerns me. Fear, worry, but also now anger.

I am not the tallest of men, so until I finally manage to push my way to the front, I don’t see the cause of all of this.

I indeed see some kind of chimera. I can see parts of multiple groups of animals all blending seamlessly together as if they grew there. But that is not what shocks me to my core. With the eyes of my spirit still open, I am nearly blinded by the sight before me.

The spirit of the being before me is larger than it has any right to be, extending infinitely in all directions, yet paradoxically is the same size as the chimera. He radiates a golden light, and I am forced to shut the eyes of my spirit from the pain.

With very physical tears pouring from my physical eyes, the Captain notices the awe and terror on my face.

I watch as the being stands, its amusement plain for all to see as the Guard surrounds it, while ushering a distraught Governor to safety.

“What is it, Mender! What do you see?” the Captain is asking me.

I’m horrified at the reaction of the crowd, throwing insults and jeers as the monster that had dared take away their leader from them, even for such a short time.

We can’t afford to do this! I realize, We can’t afford to make him angry!

I force myself to tear my eyes from the being and focus on the Captain. My focus narrows to his face. I have to make him understand; all our lives depend on it!
“I see that.” I emphasize, pointing at the being literally laughing at the crowd’s calls for blood, “And that, Captain Weathers, is a physically present god!

His face turns an impressive shade of white to mirror my own.

“I-”, he starts, before stopping, still processing the situation, “I’ll try to calm down the crowd.”

I nod, seeing the physical god in front of us beginning to wind up his laughter. The second he gets annoyed by all this instead of amused, we’re all dead.

“Good plan. I’ll help you.”

---

Author's Note:

You only get two perspectives this time. Oh well.

If you'd care to spend a moment writing a comment, let me know what you think of Discord's portrayal so far; I'm curious as to how he comes across.

Comments

[StarKeeper]

Hehe, with that name change, I had thought this was some sort of old story that I followed ages ago, and forgot about.

Discord seems fine, I guess he wants his own peeps to play with.

[Minalkra]

Discord is alright - I'm more worried about the trope of 'Celestia knows of and hates humans' that's been done to death.

[Borderline Valley]

2755999
It's a good deal more complex than that, but I'm rather hesitant of revealing the inner workings of the situation. 'Spoilers' and all that.

[Minalkra]

2756501
I'll stick around but I absolutely detest the whole 'Celestia knows about humans and hates them because they are EVUL (except my 'not self insert for reals gaiz' self insert protagonist who is the only good one and I'll ship him with all the Mane Main 6 because he is the best)' ... thing that some people end up going into.

If this goes that way, I'm out! Just saying.

Please don't go that way.

[Borderline Valley]

2757190
I feel that I can avoid giving anything major away by saying the following:

[REDACTED] neither Celestia nor Luna perceives humans as evil, but [REDACTED]
I have no plans to ship any characters...currently. We'll see if the plot demands it later.
To my knowledge, none of the characters are self-inserts.
This fic adheres to canon (if only my interpretation of it) up until Twilight gets wings, and is in fact set some time after that event. (At least I've outright said it now.)

I look forward to having you aboard. We'll see how long I can retain your interest.

[Adamanthys]

Damn. I hate those three's better than you attitudes and speciest views..... I hope they get what's coming to them....

[Truthseeker]

Putting Discord in charge of ANYTHING is so monumentally didiotic that it completely destroys any possibility of Celestia or Luna being portrayed as even remotely intelligent. Furthermore, what right do they have passing judgement on something like this without even hearing the Humans' side of things!? I couldn't even make it half way through this chapter before I said, 'fuck it'. Downvoted.