Hearts of Humans

The human race...  out of all of our allies, they are a species whose hearts are the closest to ponydom's. Like us, they are capable of great good and great evil. Like us, they can be kind or cruel, selfless or greedy, good or evil. Wither it's a trio of hateful witches out to kill us under a singing pile of magical goo, or a sweet little girl whose only desire is to save us from a crazed centaur, humanity is a race that is as diverse as it is unpredictable. I, myself, dearly love our 'simian allies', as some ponies have called them. But not everyone in Ponyland exactly feels this way.

Answering the bet I made with the Moondreamers, I spent an evening whisking my way through the dreams of humankind. There, I found a curious variety of nocturnal images playing out in the minds of these sleeping humans, some of which surprised me and some didn't. there was the usual I've seen in the dreams of other ponies; hopes of young children in future careers, the desire of stallio- er. men finding the woman of their dreams, or the women trying to find the men of their dreams. So many of the dreams I went through were exactly as I expected- a squire who wishes to be a knight here, a little lass who wants to be a powerful sorceress there.

And just as I did with slumbering ponies, I grant their wishes in their dreams But... there are human beings who seem to have desires and wishes that are truly... strange and disturbing. I found a woman in the real world, who was angry at her husband for cheating on her, and I granted her that revenge by making her cheating mate suffer in her dream, as his own lover leaves him alone while his former wife standing there laughing. A young man felt he had been wronged by a greedy merchant  who had sold him a shoddy set of tools. To him I give a dream of the merchant being robbed by trolls, and he gets the smug satisfaction of watching the merchant  get his life torn apart.

These people... look, I know they were wronged. And I know, just like any of to be ponies, they would want to be emotionally compensated for what had been done to them. I even know there are a few ponies out there who would push that desire for compensation, be it emotional or physical, all the way to a desire for revenge. But... I presented these people with alternatives to revenge in the Dreams I gave them- I had the woman met a new true love to mend her broken heart, and had the man find a treasure worth more than what he had been cheated out of. Both humans turned these gifts down to preference to getting their vengeance, and I was left dumbfounded by a level of hate I've never encountered in a sentient being who was not evil.

And that, was my biggest problem with this situation- these people were NOT evil. They are what we would consider normal citizens, with normal lives, who have normal family and friends who care about them. In these humans, I see an inner darkness and single minded selfishness that they keep suppressed. A hidden dark side, a voice whispering dark desires into the back of their minds, and filling their hearts with shadows that these humans must constantly fight off, lest they fall to their own inner demons. I have never seen this kind of shadow in the heart of a pony, and I cannot help but think of the comments made by the few ponies that despise humans; about what kind of evil dwells in their cunning ape brains. They say we should look upon the humans with caution and fear.

I have often been told that humans were evil, and I have often denied it whenever those few anti-human bigots would spout off their vile lies bout a race that includes so many of our valuable and dear friends. Again and again they point their hooves at humanity's selfishness and hatred, and thier opinions were only reinforced by the acts of violence, thievery, and murder I witnessed in humanity's subconsciousness. The more I delved into thier hearts and minds to find signs of humanity's goodness, the more I saw the truth of what the pony bigots had been saying about the faults and failings of the human race.

And yet, the very fact that these ponies say these things, forces me to realize that that same darkness may exist within the hearts of our own pony race, as well. Maybe I've just been refusing to see it in the dreams of the ponies under my care. Maybe... maybe it's not just the evil ponies that harbor a dark side, and maybe I'm just being naive in my belief that all ponies and humans who aren't evil are, at their core, inherently good in their hearts, minds, and souls.  But even if this so, it is an innocent bliss that I will continue to live in, believing in only the best in both species, despite what the skeptics and cynics may say about them. People and ponies are inherently good, it's just both of them have a lot of issues to deal with in their own hearts.

Hmmm, perhaps the moondreamers did have a valuable lesson to teach me by doing this. All right Crystal , you won your bet about the nature of humanity, and how I'd handle it. I did indeed learn something of not only about the race who is our closest of friends, but also about my own perceptions and presumptions about them and their nature. Now if you'll excuse me, since this is only a one-time only job, and I don't have to worry about reprisal from the starlight lantern, I have three witches in a certain volcano I want to give a few bad dreams to, heh heh heh....