War of the Fallen Race

by PegasusKlondike

Forbidden Knowledge

They managed to sneak Aaron out of the library for a day, he was to visit the Apple family farm. Hopefully to shed some light on the digsite that had been covered up in their fields. Applejack also believed that maybe her family could be trusted with the knowledge of the human.

"Alright y'all, I'm havin a special guest over today, whatever you do, do not be frightened," she addressed the Apple family at their breakfast table. "He is a little....different. And he's also not a pony."

"Is he a dragon big sister? Cause I seen dragons before."

"Not quite, he's here to look at the hole they dug in the south field, y'all might say he is alot more knowledgeable about it than Doctor Whooves."

Granny Smith took a slow drink of her cup of coffee. "Well little missy, so long as he ain't no monster or nuthin', we ain't gonna quarrel."

"Big Macintosh?"

The large stallion turned the page on his paper. "Eeyup. Fine with a guest today."

A knock on the door had Applejack scrambling to make the place neat and orderly in less than a minute. Opening the door, she beheld the human leaning against a post chewing on a piece of grass.

"Well howdy pardner! Won't ya come in for a bite to eat?"

"Down home, bonified, country cooking? Don't mind if I do. Do you think your family will tolerate me?"

"As long as we don't mention the 'D' word, they'll think your just some normal critter they ain't heard of yet and act like you're one of the family." Applejack looked around. "Where's Twilight?"

"Said something about business in Canterlot, caught the earliest pegasus chariot there."

Applejack shrugged and let him come inside. "Everpony, this is Aaron," introducing the human to her family.

The room sat silent, nopony really knowing how to react. To Aaron's surprise the elderly mare stood and shook his hand.

"Mornin there Mister Critter."

"Um, good morning madam. I'm here to see the dig."

"I bet ya are, want somethin to fill them bony ribs of yorn?"

"Please." Aaron enjoyed a hearty, home cooked meal for the first time in literally centuries. No meat of course, but he had eggs and hash browns and various other divine artery cloggers.

The little red maned filly couldn't keep her eyes off of the strange creature that wolfed down eggs and drank coffee in her kitchen. "What are ya mister? Ya ain't like nothin I ever seen before."

"Well Miss...."

"Applebloom."

"Miss Applebloom, I'm a very rare creature. We call ourselves humans." Thankfully the name did not invoke anything negative out of the filly.

"What ya want in my dig site?"

"Your dig site? Did you dig that up all by yourself?" He said it in a way one might praise a small child. The filly beamed.

"Me and my friends did all by ourselves! Till Applejack came along and stopped us."

"Well Applebloom, just like the Doctor, I'm going to your dig to see if I can find some answers."

"Can I come along? They wouldn't let me go after Doctor Whooves took over."

"Ask your sister, if she says okay, then you can come along."

Applebloom scampered away to find Applejack, giving Aaron time alone with Big Macintosh. The large stallion didn't seem too interested in the human, focusing more on the weather section of the latest Equestria Daily.

"So, you farm apples?"

"Eeyup."

"Know anything about the dig?"

"Nope."

"Curious as to why there is a weird monkey creature drinking all of your coffee?"

"Nope." Aaron looked around awkwardly, drumming his fingers on the table. Taking a quick peek at the newspaper, he noticed the sports section.

"So, how about them," he squinted at the name, "Cloudsdale Razors?" The big stallion cleared his throat and turned the page, obviously ignoring the demonic creature of pony nightmare trying to strike up a conversation. Applejack cantered back into the kitchen, ready to take the human to the dig that had started this whole strange episode in pony history.

"Right, let's go Aaron. Are ya sure ya wanna let Applebloom come along?"

"Why not? I'm good with kids, I practically raised my younger cousin." Applejack rolled her eyes.

It was a decent walk there, the human and the filly enjoying every step of the way. By the time they reached the dig, Applebloom rode on Aaron's shoulders in an irony worthy of Bizzaro-world. But they both laughed, and Applejack had honestly never seen the human so energized and jovial.

"Well, here we are." The dig had been mostly filled in, but with a couple of shovels and some elbow grease, Aaron had a decent hole cleared out by noon. With a strike of his shovel he hit something hard. Going down on hands and knees, he scooped away dirt until the pale whiteness of bones showed to the sunlight. He reached down and pulled a human skull out of the dirt.

"Oh my goodness Aaron, I didn't know that they were here." Applejack stood back, stunned at the ancient human remains.

The man sniffled, wiping a stray tear from his eye. "It's alright, I knew, I just had to come pay my respects to my fallen brothers and sisters. Back in the War, I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to them." He turned his attention to the skull, pulling two coins out of his pocket he placed them in the eye sockets. He sniffed more heavily, barely containing his sobs. "He had a name. He was just like any other man or woman here, a soldier, a humble man, a family man. A... a..." Aaron choked back his pains, hardly holding back his swelling emotions. "He was a person. Just like you and me. God bless for your sacrifice, you made your country proud soldier. Now rest in peace." He replaced the skull into the earth.

Applejack and Applebloom watched the solemn ritual, hoping that the human found some closure by putting the souls of his comrades to rest.

"They didn't do this for power or greed, they did it for their lives and the lives of my people. They wanted to be remembered, that's all any person ever asks for in life. Remember us, and we will live forever." He gradually filled in the hole, and once filled he erected a simple monument. With a knife he carved an eternal message to all those who would pass by.

Here, in the year 2017 of the Common Era, upon the seventh of November, brave men and women gave their lives for freedom and a brighter future. Your race is run, rest in peace, for your brothers carry on your memory.

***********************************************************************

The trudge back to the farmhouse was solemn, neither of the Apple ponies willing to strike up conversation with the depressed human. Arriving at the barn, he sat on an overturned barrel, his head lowered. Applejack walked to him, not knowing really what to say.

"Ya did the right thing. It doesn't matter who they were or what they did, nopony deserves to be forgotten."

The human said nothing, his eyes on the ground. Applebloom sat next to him, trying to cheer up the once jovial human.

"If it'll make y'all feel better, we can go buck apples or somethin'." The human turned his head to the filly, his bloodshot eyes displaying the turbulence of his soul. Without warning he reached down and scooped up the filly. Applejack thought for a second he had been overcome by some kind of bloodlust and was going to eat Applebloom. But he didn't, he hugged Applebloom to his chest, his eyes closed as he hummed to her. Tears streaked down his face as he hugged the filly. Applebloom looked frightened, but calmed after the soothing tone of his humming reached her. He began to rock the filly back and forth, his hum carrying a tune from his childhood.

Applebloom cuddled against his chest, content with making her strange friend happy for the time being. Granny Smith and Big Macintosh had joined Applejack in the spectacle of the broken man. The aged mare walked over to the man. "Sonny, you got a look like a critter runnin' from somethin'. I know that look in yer eyes. You've seen everypony you loved suffer and leave ya. I don't care about whatever monsters you got in yer past. You got a home here if you're lookin fer one."

The human opened his eyes. "Thank you," he said in a whisper. He loosened his grip on Applebloom, but she stayed put in his lap. "Thank you all. But my home is with my kind."

"I don't see many of your kind at all sonny, so y'all probably ain't common enough to be gatherin' for box socials every Saturday evenin'. So until you need to be leavin' us and rejoinin' yer family, I'm willin' ta share mine with ya, and you're welcome to be a part of this here family."

Aaron smiled. "So, what can I do to help out around the homestead?"

"The apples in the east orchard need harvestin' if you're willin' to give apple buckin' a try," said Applejack.

"Yeah, maybe I could give farming a try." His eyes brightened at the prospect of a simpler life where he did not have to be haunted by his mission and his sins. The thought of being a part of a loving family that cared about him appealed to him more than all the gold and jewels in Canterlot and Fort Knox combined.

But above all the mission came first; whether rain, sleet, snow, the apocalypse, or magic talking ponies.

*****************************************************************************

Twilight Sparkle took her time searching the library of Canterlot Castle, books on every subject lay here. But somehow not a single copy of Starswirl the Bearded's personal Essays on the Origins of Magic! She finally broke down and asked the librarian, an old acquaintance, where to find the books.

"Excuse me, Book Light? I need some help."

"Miss Twilight Sparkle! How long has it been? I remember you used to scamper through these very aisles as a filly, determined to impress the Princess in your lessons. How can I help you?"

"Actually, I need a book. Starswirl the Bearded's Essays on the Origins of Magic."

"Ugh, what a boring topic. But I have good news for you, we happen to have Starswirl's original copy and his journals in our restricted archives. Normally we do not allow visitors to touch them, but I think we can make an exception for you. They are in the books of ancient knowledge and lore, right next to Commander Hurricane's Art of Conquest in the back section."

"Thank you!" Twilight scampered away, feeling like a filly again, looking for that one book that could contain the answers.

She walked into the ancient and musty back section, passing the 'No visitors' sign that marked the beginning of the forbidden books. It was not hard to find, Starswirl's book was easily the largest tome in the library. Carefully using her magic, Twilight lifted the ancient tome and laid it on a viewing table. Gently opening the cover she saw an ink written message forewording the tome. "For White Dawn, though our time together was short and you left this world before we ever saw peace, I never stopped loving you. May The Mother's warm heart be as loving as our passionate embrace."

"Aw, how sweet, Starswirl had a lover." Getting over the sappiness of the first page, she began to flip through the parchment pages of the ancient spell book. It was only partway a spell book, it was more like a journal of Starswirl's successes and failures over the course of his career as a wizard. Spells, runes and incantations that would have normally intrigued the unicorn seemed inconsequential to Twilight. Then she came upon a journal page from years after the war.

The day is July the 21st of what the humans call 2025 of the common era. Eight years since the death of my beloved White Dawn and eight years since the end of the war. Something is killing the humans, and it is not anything we are doing. We continually try to gain their trust, but mostly we are met with a cold shoulder. They are still afraid of us, nearly a decade after we stopped our attack on them the traumatic wounds done by the war fester in their hearts. But we have to help them, one day we will send an emissary to one of their villages and they just turn him away, but when we send the same emissary back the next day the entire village is burned to the ground with only a few humans left standing! Those that can still talk only do so in maddened rants. Their sickened laughter haunts me. I have examined them before, all humans contain latent amounts of magic left over from their early alterations by The Mother, this magic resides within their bodies and is what we might call a soul. When questioned about it they have no answer, displaying their unintentional ignorance of the fact. But the ones affected by what is called the Chaos Plague are different, they do not have a single scrap of magic left in their bodies.

Closer examinations of the psyches of Chaos Plague survivors revealed something startling. If we were capable of making them physical, I believe we would see something akin to long jagged tears in their consciousness, causing the madness. The Chaos Plague is no biological disease as the humans suspect, it is some kind of curse being laid on them by a malevolent entity. We cannot help those afflicted, they are too far gone. Regretfully my research team and I had to put down the individuals we had for examination. It was the merciful thing to do, at that stage they could not even be considered people.

Twilight flipped to a later page, the thought of something murdering off every single human horrified her. No wonder Aaron had nightmares.

The day is August 26th of the human year 2027 of the common era. It has been years since we have seen our beloved Princesses. We have managed to positively identify the source of the human's corruption. A monster of unfathomable nightmare, with parts of ponies, dragons, manticores, and other creatures. He harvests their souls for some kind of sustenance and he becomes stronger and faster with each one. Mother forgive us, he is too powerful for us to stop. On another note, we have identified a strange phenomenon in the magical fields of the humans. There is some kind of error, a hole if you will imagine, in their souls.

From there the writing was stained and too faded to read. Twilight groaned and flipped to a later page hoping it would shed light on the 'error'. But she knew what had murdered the humans. Discord, the very monster she and her friends had defeated a few years earlier. It made sense, he fed on harmony and delighted in the type of chaos Starswirl had described.

Later entries reported slow progress with human-pony diplomacy, Starswirl resorting to some kind of magical spell to take their form and gain their trust. "Starswirl the Bearded, was a human?" Even later reports claimed that a few human settlements agreed to trade with the ponies for their own survival and for protection against the more primal creatures created by magic. Twilight eagerly turned the page to see the spell for human transformation, but sadly it had been torn out centuries before. She almost screamed in frustration.

************************************************************************************

It had been a day of hard work, the Apple family came to admire the dexterous and agile human who could climb the apple trees to pick only the ripest apples without hurting the trees. He had been shocked to learn what apple bucking was, believing it to be unnecessarily rough on the trees. The sun was setting on the horizon, and he was too tired to stealthily make the trek back to the library. The only time he could remember being more exhausted was after his original escape from Canterlot.

They ate a mostly apple based dinner, to the human it seemed more like a dessert bar than a wholesome meal, but he ate heartily and without protest. After some mild mannered chatter with the Apple family, Applejack decided it was time for some shut eye and Big Mac wordlessly agreed. Applebloom protested, but was silenced by her own yawn.

"Y'all go on, I wanna talk to our guest." Granny Smith dismissed the younger ponies. "Grab a mug of cider young feller. You deserve one."

"Thanks ma'm, I can't say how thankful I am for your family's hospitality."

"Fiddlesticks, you looked like you needed somepony to be there fer ya."

The human grabbed a mug and filled it with cider from a small keg on the kitchen counter, he adjourned with the geriatric mare to the living room. She slowly took her place in her rocking chair, Aaron took a large comfy chair he guessed normally sat Big Mac.

"Well, we can drop the whole 'critter' charade, demon."

Aaron choked on a mouthful of cider. "You know what I am?" he said after coughing.

"Yesiree, I knew what ye were the moment ya walked into ma kitchen door this mornin'. But I know ya ain't no monster."

"Are you going to turn me in? I will never go back to Canterlot, dead or alive!"

"Calm yerself, I ain't gonna turn ya in. I can tell ya are too good of a creature to deserve that."

The human calmed himself, shakily accepting what she said. "How do you know about my kind?"

"Back in ma fillyhood, my momma bought me a very old book from an obscure antique shop in Canterlot. It was 'sposed to be a book o' fairytales, 'cept them fairytales didn't ring of pony writing."

"Who wrote it?"

"I only realized it this morning, a human like you wrote it. Some feller by the name of Abel or Edgar or Essop."

"Aesop? You read Aesop's Fables?"

"That's the one! Anyhoo I diligently read every one of them stories, but until you came along I thought y'all humans were the fable. I looked at them bones out in the field, and when I saw ya I thought to myself that them bones out there might look like the ones you got hidden under that meat of yours."

"You said yourself that I looked like I was running from my past, how do you know I'm not a monster?"

"My Applejack may not be the brightest gal, but she is a good judge of character. Besides, only a monster does somethin' horrible without feelin'. You ain't no monster, from what I see yer a kind, compassionate and affectionate critter who just lost his way. When she left for weeks on end and came back more tight lipped than a clam, I was worried fer the poor gal. But then in you walk and she just seems ta trust ya so much, I figured that you musta done somethin' to gain her trust, somethin' that coulda gone bad quick."

The human's eyes became distant. "I murdered, I killed ponies to save Applejack and all of her friends. And I did not feel a thing except....anger. I was angry that they would try to hurt them in some way. I killed all of them. Oh god I am a monster!"

"If you could look at yerself you'd see that ain't true. Them ponies tried to hurt innocent mares, you did what was right dagnabit!"

"Right and wrong are just words Granny, I feel what I did was bad, I could have done it differently. Maybe I should crawl back into that hole they saved me from and die."

"I know yer kind are a wise race, you got good in yer hearts. What you did saved my little Applejack, and fer that I cannot thank you enough. Yer a young man still, you still got time to look in yerself and find the means to forgive yerself for what ya done. And ya ain't alone in this. Ya got somepony to be there fer ya. There will always be a shoulder to cry on fer ya here, or a kind soul to find sympathy."

Tears welled up in the corners of Aaron's eyes. "Nobody can show me sympathy, nobody else has seen what I've seen. Everyone I ever loved died in front of me. They're all dead, my entire species....all dead."

Granny Smith took in a sigh, picking up a framed photo from the table next to her rocking chair. "Take a look at this, young feller." Aaron took the picture from her hoof, gazing down at a family photo with Applebloom as a baby and a very young Applejack wearing a stetson hat far too large for her head. A lanky Big Mac smiled at the camera, and standing next to him stood a light colored mare with an apple cutie mark like the rest of the family. "That mare there is mah daughter. Applebloom was just a little foal when she passed, so she don't feel as bad about it as the rest of us. But Big Mac and Applejack, they watched her go. Their own mama slipped out of their lives after that accident. Since then, Big Mac ain't talked much, and Applejack just works the orchard day in and day out. I've learned to cope with the pain. I'm old, I see my friends and family leave this life more often than I like. Ya may feel like the loneliest critter on the face of the earth, and ya may well be, but ya ain't alone. Not while ya got folks that care about ya."

Aaron set down the photo, holding back the pain and horror he had witnessed so many years ago. "A lot of them died because of me, how do I forgive myself for that? How do I cope with that?"

Granny Smith nodded. "I'm sure them folks would forgive ya, ya remembered them and feel sorry fer doin' what ya done. Ya just gotta learn to forgive yerself. But until the day that ya do learn to forgive yerself, this here family can provide a hoof ta pull yerself back up. I know Applejack and Applebloom have warmed up ta ya as a member of this family, and Big Mac respects ya. And I personally accept ya as a member of this family, and I see a kindred soul in dark times."

A small smile crept up Aaron's face. "A real family...."

"Yer durn tootin' there pardner." Applejack stood at the top of the stairs, a gentle smile on her face. Walking down quietly, Applejack threw her forelegs around his shoulders. "Welcome to the family, big brother."

Aaron returned the hug, tears flowing down his cheeks as he smiled. "A real sister," he whispered to himself.

***************************************************************************

Twilight felt a nudge at her shoulder, she mumbled incoherently out of the corner of her mouth.

"Miss Sparkle, wake up! Your drool is going to get on the books!"

She snapped to full attention. Moonlight filtered in through the windows of the great library and the librarian stood tapping a hoof at the sleepy unicorn. "I'm so sorry! I must have fallen asleep while reading! This has never happened to me before!"

"I told you it was a boring subject, now you'll have to leave. We are closed for the evening and have been for the past three hours!"

"Alright! I know the way out, I'll be right behind you." She stood and tried to work out the desk shaped kink in her neck.

The librarian walked away, determined to get home and relax. Twilight sighed, she had learned so much today, but something still nagged at the back of her mind, something about Starswirl.

"What am I looking for!" she said aloud. She looked up into a moonbeam that touched the wall, following its path she found her answer. Its glass case had hung above her desk all day, and she hadn't even bothered to look up!

"The missing page." Her eyes grew wide, it was the missing page from Starswirl's spellbook! She cautiously looked around, then using her magic carefully opened the case and brought down the page to the ancient tome. On the top was a picture of a pony laying spread eagle with a double set of limbs spread out. Beside it, the picture of a man like Aaron, but aged with a beard and a similar spread of his limbs. Under the man was scribbled a small note, "Vitruvian Man" it said. Below the cryptic drawings lay the various incantations and magical weaves needed to accomplish the transformation.

The nagging at the back of her mind stopped, "This is it, this is the key!" Twilight knew she was looking at Starswirl the Bearded in both of his forms, unicorn and human! The soft clop of hooves panicked the enraptured unicorn. She swiftly packed the page away in her saddlebags.

"Miss Sparkle? Did you fall asleep again? You said you were right behind me."

"Coming! Just had to clean up after myself." Inside her head she partied like Pinkie Pie drunk on salt. Calmly walking out of the library, she checked into a hotel, determined to catch a chariot back to Ponyville at first light.

************************************************************************

He awoke a little late, but still managed to make his way back to the library without notice. Still sore from his day of work at Sweet Apple Acres, he decided to curl up with a good book. Trouble was, he didn't know where to start to find a good book.

"Spike! I'm back!" he shouted to the empty library.

The baby dragon crawled out from his basket bed, groggy and annoyed with his two legged roommate.

"What do you want?" he asked with a grunt.

"Time to wake up soldier, you're burnin' daylight."

"You seem a little too happy, what's up with that?"

The human felt a thousand feet tall, "I don't know, today just seems like a wonderful day. Too good of a day to sleep through. And you know what? I actually had nice dreams last night! Know of any good books or something to read?"

"It's apparently such a wonderful day and you want to spend it reading? You are one weird creature. Um, okay, how about one of those Daring Do books?"

"Aren't those for children?"

"Rainbow Dash seems to like them just fine. How about the latest self help book from Iron Will?"

"Naw, those books are always garnered to appeal to a slim portion of the population that always falls within a certain socio-economic status."

He looked dumbly at the man. "Huh?"

"No self help books."

"Gotcha."

The human looked around and saw his cloak and "dragon scales" laying in a heap. His eyes brightened. "On second thought, maybe I'll take a walk. Which way is the park?"

"Twilight says you can't go out during the day!"

"If Twilight told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?"

The dragon considered for a second, "I don't know, how high is the bridge?"

"Hmm, it's the Golden Gate Bridge."

"How tall is that?"

"Oh yeah, destroyed thousands of years ago. Yeah it was about four thousand feet tall, into a gorge full of spiky rocks and flesh eating birds or something." He sidled up to the dragon and nudged him with an elbow. "Come on, be bad. I know all the prettiest girls are into bad boys."

"Really?" he said in a half dream, thinking of Rarity.

"Absolutely! Now, I'll need a bit of cash, and I think I'll take one of those Daring Do books anyways."

Dreamily the dragon handed him a sack of coins and pointed towards the park. "Good sport, now go get her you little scaly rebel without a cause! And try out a mustache, chicks dig the 'stache!"

The dragon scampered off to find a biker jacket. "I can't believe that Rebel Without a Cause crap still works two thousand years after James Dean died. I do miss that movie, maybe we have it cached in the Vault somewhere." he said to himself.

Donning his dragon outfit, Aaron walked boldly out into the broad daylight of Ponyville. Ponies looked at the strange creature wearing a long cloak with odd stares, but he waved to them with his fake claws. They smiled and waved back to his surprise. "Friendly town" he muttered. He walked out to the park area, he could only say one thing. "Wow."

It was absolutely beautiful, like a park should have been in the twenty first century. The plus side being that there were no drunks, hookers, vagrants, or hipsters to spoil the atmosphere. Fountains graced the path every hundred feet or so, ponies played games and had picnics under the shade of trees. Entire fleets of butterflies wafted past as bunnies nibbled on grass. It was, for lack of a better word, idyllic.

He looked for a place to rest, all the benches were taken, so he found a nice tree to climb. Laying on his wooden perch he cracked open his book. This Daring Do seemed to be a love child of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, minus Lara's figure and Indy's gun skills. Still a good book though.

About four chapters in he heard some ponies approaching from below. He ignored them. "Ambassador Zinra!" called a mare's voice, he ignored the call. "Ambassador!" He realized suddenly that was his pseudonym around here. "Ambassador! I know you can hear me!" He closed the book and looked below to see The Mayor and her entourage. A devious plan formed in his head. Time for a little fun.

He choked and clicked at The Mayor. "Why yes! Hello Ambassador! I was hoping you would come down to meet us." Time for a little acrobatics. He stood on the branch, balancing his form carefully. He began to bounce up and down, gathering the needed momentum to make this work. He jumped for another branch, grabbing it with his hands he pulled himself partway up, then used his legs to swing back over the branch, landing lightly with his feet on the ground. His martial arts sensei would consider it showboating, his gym teacher would have been proud.

The ponies stomped their hooves in applause. "Well, that certainly was impressive Ambassador. But on behalf of all Ponyville, I would like to extend our welcome to our most notable of guests." Though he understood perfectly, he acted confused, even scratching his hooded head with a gloved hand. "Oh my, you still do not understand Equestrian." She began to use her legs to sign what she meant while loudly speaking out each word. "WE." she waved a hoof at her companions, "WELCOME YOU." She took his hand and shook it slowly. He took her hoof and looked at it funny, turning his head like a confused dog, even bending down to sniff it. "Oh my." she said.

He decided to let out his inner ape, moving to The Mayor's mane he started picking for bugs. Going the extra mile he completely undid her hair do. The Mayor and her entourage stood confused at his antics. But he only got stranger, stepping back to do an interpretive dance. The three huddled together to question this odd creature's sanity.

"This thing is a politician?"

"Doctor Whooves vouched for him!"

"Look, maybe this is some kind of customary way of saying 'hello'. We don't want to offend the ambassador for an entire nation do we?"

"Mayor, we are on a tight schedule, we need to scram before he brings out the ancestral mucus cup!"

"I agree, let the Princesses deal with his odd ilk. I'm a small town mayor for goodness sake!" she turned back to the human who still performing his rendition of Thriller. "Ambassador! I'm afraid we must be going!" she pointed a hoof at her pocket watch. Without warning the three small time politicians bolted. He stood proud of his handy work, laughing until he had to stop for breath, turning back to the tree he noticed a sky blue pony had stolen his spot.

"Hey, move it! I had that branch claimed!"

"Like buck you did, I nap here everyday."

"Wait, Rainbow Dash?"

"The one and only. Hey Aaron. What are you doing out? I thought you only came out at night."

"I decided to treat myself, now could you at least throw me down my book?"

"Only if you tell me how you did all those tricks."

He groaned, "Simple acrobatics, my martial arts master taught us them so we would have a greater advantage when using the environment. Mathematically these things are incredibly easy if you have the right body type."

"You mentioned math and I lost interest. I never did like the way all the professionals try to chart out their moves and do things mathematically."

The human smiled, "That's right Rainbow, keep 'em flyin'."

"Keep what flying?"

"The flags of discontent, remember to never trust anyone over the age of thirty." he hoped ponies didn't know any of those Charleton Heston quotes.

"Aren't you like, a thousand years old?"

"Chronologically yes, biologically I'm 25. Wait, what is today?"

"May 2nd."

"Make that 26, my birthday was around two weeks ago." The rainbow maned mare snapped upwards.

"Well what are we doing sitting here? Lets go out and celebrate! Get something good to eat, live a little!"

"Well I did promise to myself to have fun, but you can't tell Twilight!" Rainbow Dash drew a hoof over her lips, zipping in the urge to blab.

*************************************************************************

Twilight slammed the door to the library shut and closed all of the curtains. Peeking out she hoped nopony had followed her from Canterlot. She breathed a sigh of relief when she only saw the regular crowd walking past. She trotted back to her study, gently removing the parchment page from her saddlebag Twilight placed the page on her desk. Though ancient to the point of being a national treasure, it was still legible. The cryptic drawings of the man and the pony at the top were clear as spring water. Only then did she realize that everything was too quiet.

"Spike? Aaron?" she called out. No answer. "Is anypony there?" The ticking of a clock was louder than the response she got.

"Huh, the human must still be at Sweet Apple Acres, don't know about Spike."

She glanced back at the page, would she ever get another opportunity to be alone like this? Nervously she tossed around the idea. "What would I even look like? I've only ever seen human males. Oh, buck it!" she looked at the page and began the weaves for the spell. It was incredibly complex, altering her very body to the absolute extremes.

Ten minutes of diligent magical weaving and utter concentration had Twilight not recognizing herself in the mirror. She lifted a hand, not a hoof, a hand! Five long, delicate fingers touched her new face. "My skin is so soft, and I can feel everything!" Whereas hooves do not feel, fingers felt everything that they touched, new levels of detail and texture were now at her fingertips. Her eyes were still purple, and her hair black with the purple stripe like her mane. Any other human would have described her as having a delicate face, with elf like features. Moving back her hair, she noticed a silver spot on her forehead where her horn normally lay. Twilight tried to stand from her seat at the desk, her attempts to walk on four legs were futile, but walking on two legs was just as unnatural. "Woah!" she cried as she stood upright, suffering a severe case of vertigo and nearly falling.

She sat on her bed, wanting to reverse the spell. She reached out with her magic, only to realize she had no clue where to start. The door to the library open and shut, somepony was here! Desperately she lunged to her bedroom door and locked it, only to hear the human laughing out loud with another pony. "And that's when I said, 'You can't take it with you!'" both of them laughed like they were drunk. "Alright Rainbow, thanks for showing me a good time, catch you later!"

"Later monkey boy!" They both laughed at the allusion to an earlier joke.

There were sounds of shoes walking around the library, "Twilight? Are you home? I see your saddlebags."

He walked to the door of her bedroom and knocked, "You in there?"

"Don't come in!" she shouted desperately.

"Is something wrong? Are you alright? You sound different."

"Um, I'm very sick!"

"Well I'm a doctor, maybe I should take a look."

"No! I think it's the flu! Magical flu! I don't know how it will affect you!"

"Oh my goodness, are you sure I can't help somehow? Do I need to get a pony doctor?" Just then the library door opened again, the human addressed Spike. "How did it go bad boy? Get the girl?"

The dragon fell to his knees before the human, he started to bow like a cultist. "Teach me more, Master of the ways of Love!"

"That well, huh? Thank me later, we have a problem, Twilight is sick and I can't get near her. Twilight! I'm sending in Spike!"

Twilight considered for a moment, "Okay, send him in, I going to have to have you go to the basement though Aaron."

"If it will make you better, it shall be done." he quickly went downstairs. The door to Twilight's bedroom opened slightly and the baby dragon slipped inside. All the lights were out, the late afternoon sun casting shadows across the entire room. Twilight was hidden under a sheet on her bed.

"Twilight? How sick are you?"

"I'm not sick, a spell backfired and I need help."

"What happened? Why do you not want the human to see you?"

The sheet shifted as she pulled it off, Spike was lost for words. "You....he...human..."

"I'm hideous aren't I! I tried an old spell to become a human, and now I don't know how to reverse it!"

"Calm down! We'll find a way to fix this. Now who can we go to that can help?"

"We can trust Rarity, she is fairly accomplished with magic, maybe we should get Doctor Whooves as well, see if he knows how to reverse this."

"I'll get them as quickly as I can, and Twilight?"

"Yes Spike?"

"You're kind of cute as a human."

The unicorn/woman smiled, "Get a move on Spike, this is serious."

A half hour of scrambling around Ponyville had both the Doctor and Rarity examining the magical phenomenon that was Twilight Sparkle in human form. Rarity probed the nuances of the spell with her magic, The Doctor gave a physical examination.

"Well Miss Sparkle, I can say that there was no damage caused by the transformation. You are a perfectly healthy human being like our friend. Your diagnosis Miss Rarity?"

"Hmm, this is a very powerful transfiguration spell, but it seems to be fraying off at a rapid rate. The spell should lose power at an exponential rate and you will return to your normal self by morning. Now Doctor, would you mind giving the two of us some girl time? Maybe take the other human back to your house for the night. And Doctor, make sure he does not know about this."

"It would be a delight Miss Rarity." The brown earth pony left the room, Rarity turned back to Twilight.

"I just don't know what to do with you anymore, miss bookworm. First you have him stay in your home, then you become like him. Where does this end Twilight?"

"This was harmless Rarity, I'm perfectly fine."

"No, it was not harmless. Why do you continue to keep him here? He fulfilled his end of your bargain, why don't you give him what he wants?"

"I am giving him what he needs! He needed somepony to be there for him, he needed the love and friendship that only we could give."

"He needs his own kind! And becoming one of them does not justify you keeping him here any longer. Twilight, look at me. He needs to go home."

"I can't let him go back. What if he is the only good man of his kind? What if they come back to destroy us?"

"You know he won't let that happen. If anypony knows what kind of creatures they are, I do. If they are even the tiniest bit like him, they are good and wise. I'll be the first to admit that he changed our lives for the better, and we hopefully changed his for the better. But we have to let him go back to his people, he will never rest until they share the world with him again. Will you be the one to stand in his way? The one that tells him "You get to live, but your kind must die."

Twilight looked in the mirror, ashamed of the monster she had become. "No, I wouldn't hurt him like that."

"Then once you are a unicorn again, give him what is his. Let him do his duty to mankind."

**************************************************************************************

Well, I'm back from the land of the dead. I reread the original chapter and decided the shipping didn't do much for the storyline, so I did a complete overhaul and now we have this beast of a chapter that took a week to write. Shout out and overall thanks to SovietBacon who proofread the original chapter and gave me tips for improvement. If you would like to be a pre-reader, simply shoot me a message and I'll see what I can do.

Comments

[LordTwinklesprinkle]

finally a new chapter

[Obsidian]

Honestly, the shipping... ehhh... I think it takes some of the story away, plus it was far to rushed.

[Largefish8]

Lynchpin451's opinion = i42.photobucket.com/albums/e322/T-7/clapping_1__3AA6D808-F895-16F0-23C615B3747B49ED.gif

[derpyvio]

Pretty good
Should be interesting when the princesses find out

[Vi Et Armis]

Excellent, though I am hoping that you're going to bring the rest of the humans into the mix later on, which would be interesting to say the least. The shipping was an...unexpected turn...just don't make it too prominent I guess (in moderation).

[Shpoople96]

Yes...
Oh god I just thought of something...

[gforce]

Well done sire, well done. I am looking forward to ever more from you.

[Shpoople96]

...And there goes my well thought out theory on the direction of the shipping.
But this version is still better, the relationship was too rushed.

[Corona Blaze]

Holy mackeral, you're back in business! Thank goodness!

[Slaughterstone]

217754
... Screw that just drop a MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs - look it up) on them. Largest "NON"-nuclear bomb made by humanity so far. I would assume that humanity would still have those after nuclear disarmament.

[Kyle the Scrublord]

305668 well, it also counts as a EMP.

[Mr Swanky Hat]

305668 ah, I see you've not heard of the unofficially titled "FOAB, Father Of All Bombs" from Russia. At the time of commenting at least