//------------------------------//
// In the dark of the night 
// Story: The judgment 
// by TwiwnB 
//------------------------------//

He reopened his eyes to see just darkness all around and a small fracture of the sky high above. Then he felt something moving under him. The whole ground was shaking very violently, and he got thrown aside, fell on the hard rock ground and screamed out of both fear and pain.

Another scream responded to his own, louder and higher pitched, right next to him.

There was something, right there, in the darkness, something alive.

And he already knew what the creature was, though he couldn’t still imagine it could be real.

“What’s going on ?” A voice asked, coming from another direction.

Other voices joined: “Are you alright?”. “Where are you?”. “We’re coming, just hang tight !”.

He had to go. He got up, felt his left leg killing him, ignored it and just used the rock wall to keep a semblance of equilibrium. Things became way easier when a light revealed the rocks he was grasping on and walking over. He could see now, meaning they could see him too.

“A human !” They shouted.

“Don’t let it escape !” One of them ordered.

“Leave it to me.” Another one said.

He considered just surrendering at this point, seeing no way to flee fast enough in his condition, but a violent shock propelled him to the ground. By reflex, his cowered and put his arms in front of his head. That was a very good reflex, as a cascade of punches just fell onto him, so fast they felt simultaneous.

Death by pony. Now that is one hell of an epitaph. Good luck explaining that one at the gates of paradise.

“Stop it, stop, just stop !”

He couldn’t feel his arms anymore. Or more accurately, his arms were hurting like hell, but the terror of dying was still overcoming any other sensation.

The punches had stopped though.

Opening a quarter of one of his eyes, he saw two ponies holding another one who was explaining in no uncertain terms what it was going to do with him. It was surrounded by a purple halo too. Magic most likely. He had seen documentaries about it.

A Pegasus, on normal pony and a unicorn. His eye wandered a bit to the right and he got corrected. Two unicorns. And this one was approaching him.

He crawled back again, offering one last prayer under his breath.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to be afraid, we are not going to hurt you”. The unicorn said. “Well, we are not going to hurt you anymore. Sorry about that.”

“It would be good if he stayed a little bit afraid though.” Another pony said. “Would make things easier.”

He was of the opinion that he was more than scared enough. Hearing those words had calmed him down a bit and thus, all of his body took this opportunity to remind him of how much damage he had received. He moaned and started crying.

Then the pain just all went away. He was surrounded by the purple light. Magic. That was truly an incredible power. He wished he could do it too.

And understanding the situation, immediately regretted the thought.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t repair your broken arm and leg. We truly need you to stay with us for the time being.”. The unicorn said. It then turned to the others and added: “I call for a judgment”. 

“Seriously?” Asked the Pegasus. “But it’s a human!”

“I call for a judgment. Do you agree?”.

One after the other, they all agreed, until it came to the Pegasus.

“It’s a human!” It complained.

“I know. But we are ponies and such circumstances call for a judgment. Do you agree?”

“Humans are our enemies.” It argued.

“Do you agree to a judgment?”

Reluctantly, the Pegasus nodded, but not without a very telling look at him.

“Then let us start".