Story
The office windows were dark. The lamp on Princess Celestia’s desk burned with a yellow light, seeming pitifully ineffective at driving away the darkness in the room. Despite the late hour, she was still awake and in her office. Someone was coming to see her. It was important that she met with him.
A piece of parchment lay on the desk in front of Celestia. She’d read and reread the words written on it until they were burned into her mind. The terms were dry and their meaning grim. At the bottom of the page were two signature lines.
Celestia’s ears twitched at a noise outside her office. A moment later, the door was pushed open. The armored guard who held it stared with narrowed eyes at the tall figure who strode past him and into the room.
The man was clad in a black uniform. There were four stars on his collar and little else in the way of decoration. His face carried more detail, with a pair of intense eyes and a long, deep scar crossing his cheek.
A large sidearm was strapped to his hip. Its metal was worn with use and frequent cleaning. The man’s boots were similarly worn yet polished. The heels clacked harshly as he crossed the floor.
Celestia stood. “General.”
The man approached the desk. “Princess.”
“Please have a seat,” she invited, drawing on all her politeness to do so.
The man adjusted the chair on his side of the desk and sat in it. Celestia returned to her seat across the desk from him. Their eyes met.
“I’d like to get this out of the way,” Celestia said, looking down. She turned the parchment towards the man, sliding a quill and inkwell over to him.
He continued to stare at her. “Princess, do you understand the terms of the treaty?”
Celestia’s jaw tightened momentarily. “I was involved in the writing of it.”
“But do you understand what will happen when you sign it?”
Celestia took a moment to compose herself. She let out a breath before raising her eyes. “The last few years have been unprecedented in Equestria’s history. We never expected to come in contact with a new species from the stars. I cannot stand to see my ponies killed. I want this war to be over.”
“I’ll ask again,” said the man. “Do you know what you’re getting into? I don’t think you do.”
“And who are you to tell me what is best for my country, General?” Celestia now had no trouble meeting his gaze.
“Let me tell you about humanity. I want you to understand a few things.” The man sat up straighter and went on. “Our species has been roaming the stars for centuries now. Before that, we lived isolated on our home planet.”
“I’ve read your history,” Celestia cut in. “Many people died in an attack from a species you called the Alphas.”
The man nodded. “The attack on Earth was our first brush with life outside our home world. We saw to it that it was the last brush the Alphas had with anyone. We developed a space program fueled by vengeance. We went after our enemies and destroyed their world.”
Celestia looked at him coldly. “An eye for an eye never solved anything.”
“You’re correct,” the man said, surprising Celestia. His next point, however, completely shattered any momentary understanding he had built with her. “Simple, equal retribution accomplishes nothing. Are you familiar with the concept of genocide?”
“I can guess what it means,” Celestia replied, a sudden sinking feeling overtaking her.
“The Alphas indiscriminately killed our civilians in their attack. We killed all of them. Our planet was never threatened again.”
Glancing away, Celestia gritted her teeth before replying. “I should have expected as much. The psychology reports I’ve read about humanity do not paint a pretty picture.”
The man continued to stare at her, seemingly unaffected by her mood. “You should have seen us when we were still isolated. With no outsiders to fight, we got along fine by killing each other. Millions and billions died without ever leaving the planet.”
“What?” This was something Celestia had not heard before. “How…how could you possibly have survived as a species, then?”
“The only thing humanity does as well as tear itself apart is come together. We had to in order to survive the environment. Princess, unlike your planet, we didn’t grow up in an idyllic paradise.”
“I would hardly call the amount of natural disasters and dangerous creatures we have idyllic,” Celestia retorted.
“People don’t have magic, weather control, or the ability to eat grass,” the man stated, flatly refuting her. “Despite that, we killed all the dangerous creatures and fought our way to the top of the food chain. Mother Earth was not gentle or kind, so when we were able, we took our revenge.
“We bent the planet to our will. We stripped the soil of minerals and built anything we wanted. We dug canals that separated continents and demolished entire mountains. We were the masters of our own destiny.”
“I imagine the appearance of the Alphas in the middle of that was quite a shock,” Celestia observed.
The man nodded. “But we overcame. After we glassed their planet-”
“Glassed?” Celestia asked.
“We burned everything so thoroughly and at such temperature that even the soil melted.” The man looked at her, annoyance at being interrupted clear on his expression. “After we did that, we landed and began mining. They were dead and we took their planet.”
“But…why didn’t you give them a chance?”
The man blinked, as if the idea was a foreign concept. “They attacked us. Despite that, we did offer them a treaty of surrender. They didn’t take it, so we killed them all.”
Celestia’s mouth hung open for a moment before she closed it. “And what of other species you have encountered?”
“The Betas contacted us peacefully and we drew up a treaty of formal alliance. That was important later, when the Gammas declared war on the Betas, which might as well have been directly on us.”
“And you destroyed one species in defense of another?” Celestia surmised.
“No. The Gammas accepted the terms of surrender when we offered. They knew what happened to the Alphas.”
“And that brings us to the Deltas,” Celestia murmured. “I certainly know of them.”
“They don’t seem the type to offer surrender,” the man said.
Celestia paused and then shook her head. “No, they haven’t replied to any of our diplomatic communications.”
The General looked down at the treaty in front of him. “Princess, you said that want this war to be over with.”
“I do.”
He looked up to meet her eyes. “Do you understand what will happen if we sign this treaty?”
Celestia closed her eyes and recited the first paragraph of the text from memory. “The signatories of this treaty establish a formal alliance for the purposes of mutual defense. Each shall come to the aid of the other in times of war.”
“Princess, if you sign this treaty, we will help you fight the Deltas.”
She looked at him. “You’ll destroy them?”
“We will.”
Celestia cast her eyes over the treaty again. “I just want the war to be over.”
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Damn.
That's some heavy shit right here.
Nice work.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Please do continue!
This is one universe that needs extrapolation.
I wake up to this?
Whoa.
Awesome, AWESOME twist at the end.
... That was an interesting twist there, you sly dog. Had me going.
It's like picking your poisons... It's join or die... damn. Deep s***, man...
This was... interesting. It is starting to stray a bit too far into misanthropic territory for my tastes, but it's interesting.
3621201 Misanthropy isn't my usual shtick. I felt like trying something new.
For a minute there, I was afraid humanity was aggressing the ponies. :|
Interesting....more
Phew. Almost thought it was another "ALL HUMANS ARE NAZIS THAT MURDER INNOCENT ALIEN BABIES" fic. That twist in the end was great.
-Powers
I also was expecting an Evil Humans story.
I also find your word count amusing.
Nice word count.
So how come every other species is named after the Greek alphabet? Are the ponies the only species that named themselves, or are they the Epsilons?
Agggggh that was supposed to be an edit not a second comment. Oh well.
Maybe after this conflict, the Equestrians and the humans will become respectively the good and the bad cop of the galaxy .
Oooh nicely done. Very nicely done. That was the best bit of misdirection that I've read in a while.
3621553 I actually had that in mind, that Equestria = Epsilon.
3621566 If you write that sequel, it will be amazing and I will link to it.
A very nice twist at the end there. I thought they were fighting humanity when infact humanity has come to help. I give you
out of 
.
It seems the Deltas didn't learn from the Alphas. Poor bastards...
I winner if the Equestrians will get a Greek letter? And what of the griffons?
The Alliance was completely left field and I love it! It takes a very conscious effort not to drop hints before the big reveal.
What A twist! lol
Good little story, I want more.
Loved the moral dilemma Celestia is going through
A good short story, and I think its fine just like that.
Great work.
That seem to oddly happen once a week for half of the year.
Reminds me of a game I played years ago. You play as an alien during the Cold War sent to get rid of WMDs, as logically the sheer number meant that they wish to eradicate any hostile planet they come against. Of course we know we were just playing "who has the biggest dick" and nearly destroyed our own planet.
This was about perfect. If one wanted to continue, I don't think it would be bad but it is definitely unnecessary as it stands.
Very nice. The only hint that the treaty wasn't to end a war with humans, looking back on it (which I completely missed), was the fact that the conversation took place in Celestia's office.
3621553
My guess is that when the Alphas came, there was no communication of any kind (except weapon fire). The humans didn't know what they called themselves, so the called them Alphas, since they were the first aliens they encountered. I guess the theme stuck.
Humanity = Become our allies or die. We might give second chances, but we do not give thirds.
I'm just glad this wasn't Celestia signing Equestria over as slaves to humanity.
We do have lots of nukes. Their kinda useless weapons but we have them.
3621201
I didn't find it misanthropic at all.
Everything the general said was true and none of it was really self depreciating. I mean there was a smidge when he talked about humanity's history of warfare and killing but it wasn't enough to really even count IMO.
I really can't fault the humans in this fic for doing what they did. Celestia was right when she said an eye for an eye solves nothing, it only creates resentment and leads to more fighting in the future. I find an interesting contrast here between the ponies and humans, where ponies are more then happy to lose an eye and forgive and forget, humans lose an eye and then take their enemy's head off. This doesn't make humans evil, we just prefer to end threats to us in a very permanent manner.
3621819
Nothing is useless. Just less useful in certain scenarios.
I want to know more! I need more context and lore building! :(
Wow. An interesting twist in a genre saturated with overdone cliches. Well done!
Humans are awfully adept at destruction, aren't they?
It may not be a fully fleshed out idea, but it really sparks the imagination. Thanks for sharing with us!
Best of luck, stay healthy, and update soon.
-Sky66
This reminds me of 'Alan Dean Fosters 'With friends like these'
3621916 Indeed. If you want to destroy some entire world much more clean and inteligent thing to do is to drop several rocks from orbit, kinetic attacks are quite efficient.
3621341 Yeah I'm glad how this worked out. Yeah humans are ruthless but we can cooperate with others if they want to be fair with us as well.
3622184
by "fair" i think you mean "favorable" but yes
The discussion of the war with the Alphas reminds me a bit of this exchange in Orson Scott Card's Xenocide:
I offer my sincerest approval to this story. I feel it appropriately represents humanity's capacity of war, vengeance, and compassion.
Alright, credit where it's due. I thought they were talking about something entirely different.
Short, sweet, and tense. Good story.
Loved it, It represented Humans as an aggressive and terrifying race if angered, but did not make us look like genocidal psychopaths.
MAKE THIS A COMPLETE STORY NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
3621819 I dunno. we only used them twice, and they ended a war.... sparing literally millions of lives on both sides. And they effectively prevented a major world conflict for over half a century afterward, without ever being fired again.
Darned effective if you ask me.
3622380 Dittos. Nice to see humanity portrayed at our best... as avenging angels.
3622519 The best of friends or the worst of enemies.
I'd have signed in an instant.... then again, I'm not Celestia and annihilating your enemies doesn't seem like something someone should be upset about doing. But perhaps that's just me.
3621818
"We are the biggest, meaniest, most ruthless motherfuckers in this side of the galaxy; and we are now on your side".
i like this story. very much so in fact.
it is short, well written, and gives the emotions of the writer right to our faces.
there are two good types of one-shots in my mind. those that dance their way to the conclusion and those that march.
this story, marches with the posture of a general and i like it.
very well done
3622567
I think the point is with humanity as an ally "The War" will never actually be over. So she is essentially choosing a state of near perpetual war siding with her previous aggressor or annihilation.
Or not, but that's how I read it.