The Colosseum
There are so many things floating around in my head right now, it’s unreal. I’ve been abandoned into the institution of slavery by people that I considered family, and my chances of gaining freedom are slim to none.
By the Emperor, what would you have me do?
When I followed my master's eyes I caught sight of a far off train making its way to the station. The equine and reptile thing were giddy with excitement for some reason. They probably wanted me to greet the visitors the way they taught me an hour ago. Perhaps I should play dumb just to spit them? Meh, doesn't matter in the end.
My master and the reptile began talking, if their tone was anything to go by they were getting really excited. The train stopped with an iconic sound, something that I wasn't entirely familiar with even though I had ridden on trains going to and fro Constantinople before.
Passengers started exiting the train. No one looked like royalty, or anything of real importance. I reclined in my seat as my master and the reptile took off to some unimportant looking Equines. I sighed. 'What do I do with my life? Do I embrace the rebellion I’ve carried with me my whole life? Or should I submit to this purple unicorn? She has treated me well, strange enough. Or do I find a balance between submission and rebellion?'
Twilight came galloping up to her friends, and upon seeing her, her friends did the same. “Twilight! Spike!”
They all came together like a mighty wave crashing against a rocky shore. Emotional Rarity and Fluttershy were holding back tears. An incoherent torrent of 'We missed you so much!' came out from all of them.
Rainbow Dash wisped around the two. “Whoa Spike, you grew so much since we’ve last seen you!”
He grew a shade redder and waved the pegasus off. Spike was still a baby dragon, but now he was at least as tall as them. He chanced a glance at Rarity, mistaking her brotherly love for romantic interest —again.
Rarity was more interested in catching up with Twilight though, but Spike would always hold a special place in her heart. “Oh darling you must tell us all about what you did in Canterlot.”
Pinkie Pie was hopping all around them. “I need to throw you a 'tell us all about your princessie training' and” –Pinkie got right up to Spike's face– “you got a dragon growth spurt party!”
Twilight rolled her eyes, with a growing smile.
Fluttershy was enjoying being part of the reunion even if she wasn't saying too much, until she looked behind Twilight and spotted something that made her go rigid. “Uh- th- hu-” The only logical response to seeing an unrestrained human looking straight at her was to hide behind Applejack.
Fluttershy was already shaking, the idea of humans being around her was bad, the idea of being around a human she didn't know was tamed, or chained, or didn't even have its owner nearby was far beyond nightmarish to the timid mare.
Applejack now aware of something shaking next to her back hooves, turned around. “Ugh, you okay sugarcube? What's got your nerves in a bind?”
Fluttershy summoned all her willpower just to point at the thing sitting in the bench.
Even brave Applejack jerked when she locked eyes with the creature. “Gals... we got ah problem.”
Rarity was the only one that happened to hear Applejack over their conversation with Twilight. And once the fashionista followed Applejack's eyes and saw the brute, she gasped. But managed to stop herself from screaming. Not wanting to startle the beast into doing something horribly violent.
“Oh my goodness,” whispered Rarity, “don't look, but there is an unchained human sitting on a bench unattended behind you Twilight.” Rainbow looked. “I said don't look!”
Twilight cleared her throat, not sure how to explain this point. “Well actually-”
Rainbow interrupted Twilight before she could Finish speaking. “Pft! I could take that guy in ten seconds flat! And even if I couldn't we have Applejack here, she has slaves of her own.”
“Rainbow that's-”
This time Applejack interrupted Twilight. “Sugar, working with humans rule number one: Never walk up to ah human you don't know, could be violent. Plus, I think you're underestimatin' humans by ah large margin.” Applejack's eyebrow arched up as she finished her sentence, scrutinizing Rainbow's bravado.
Fluttershy managed to force herself to speak. “S-should we call a guard?”
Applejack shrugged. “Should be fine as long as no one bothers him. Just don't ah... get too close, they can be territorial.” The mares were all gathered in a semi-circle discussing the human.
“Girls, He's my-”
“OH! OH!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “He's coming this way!” she cried in an attempted whisper. “Everypony think non-territorial, nonthreatening, unbothersome thoughts!”
For reasons Twilight would never understand she found herself joining in with the 'herd think'. Fluttershy surpassed her friends by leaps and bounds —by goat fainting.
Twilight cleared her throat. “Girls, this is my human. He's safe.”
As they all turned to him, he gave them a bow. “Hello girls.” Twilight grinned despite herself, he was learning the language so quickly, just a week ago he probably knew next to nothing about Equis.
Her friends looked back and forth between the human and her uneasily. “It's a long story. One that I was hoping we could talk about a little later?” Twilight's plea came out like a question by accident.
“Ugh...” They shifted uneasily. Fluttershy began to shake harder, bordering hysteria.
'Poor Fluttershy.' Twilight wanted her friends to feel comfortable around the human, because the human needed to be around her as often as possible. She had a report for Celestia due ASAP after all.
“Look,” Twilight began, “he's perfectly safe.” She motioned to the ground. “Sit,” she said in an authoritative tone.
The slave went down to one knee, with his forearm swinging over his one propped leg and hand dangling in the air. Twilight's friends, including Fluttershy, got an extremely well-trained, yet friendly impression from the action.
His face, his eyes, they hinted at something 'more, something intelligent, more intelligent than a human should be.'
Twilight smiled as her friends took a step closer to the creature. “All the way down.”
At that the human put one hand on the ground to lift himself a bit and got his legs in a crisscrossed position under him. On instinct his hands curled upward near his crotch in a meditative hand sign. The mares just thought it looked cool. “Ooohhhh,” they all mumbled in interest.
“Good human,” Twilight praised. “Now on your belly.”
The human gave her a look she wouldn't soon forget. He then shook his head. “Non,” he told her, in his strange foreign language.
The girls laughed. Taking the whole thing as a set up for a joke. While Twilight, who was not acting, dropped her jaw. 'He- He said no! That's what 'non' must mean, no. But he shook his head! That's a similarity in the body languages between ponies and humans! I didn't teach him that! Humans must have developed that all on their own! This is a breakthrough! This is-'
“A'right, a'right,” drawed Applejack, “we get the picture. The gen-u-ine genius Twilight figured out how ta teach an expensive first tier human to jump through hoops and such. Mighty impressive.”
Twilight looked up to see that even Fluttershy was wearing a smile, even though she still looked nervous, but then again Fluttershy always looks nervous...
'Well... If every ponies happy, I guess the tricks did its job then.' She looked at the human. The human was still looking at her with attentive eyes. It was unsurprising that her human didn't follow through with all the tricks, the books explained that a human could become very aloof when told to perform the same trick over and over again.
Twilight rubbed the back of her head. “Well now that that's taken care of, I wanted to tell you girls something.” They gave her their undivided attention. “There's a jousting tournament that's going to begin soon, would you guys like to come? We have exclusive Royal seats.”
Rainbow was the first to get up. “AH YEAH! I always wanted to watch a Crystal Empire tournament!” She turned to the rest of her friends. “It's the coolest thing you could possibly imagine! They have everything from sword dueling to mock battles! IT’S AWSOME!”
They all shared their agreements and went off to the festival. Unknown to Twilight the qualifying rounds started an hour ago and the tournament was already well underway. But they figured this out when trumpets echoed throughout the city.
As they neared the stands they could hear iron horseshoes hitting dirt and crowds cheering.
Since they were arriving a little late, the only ones outside were a few ponies moving around crates filled with supplies that other contestants would need. But the human slaves seemed to be doing the majority of the work. They continued towards the royal section of the tournament square.
The sheer size of the arena was inspiring. The milky white crystal walls extended up and out in a magnificent display of epic architectural achievement.
They were all startled by the sound of a whip striking the back of one of the slaves. The creature stumbled over taking his box of supplies with him for the fall. The stallion, who wasn't a crystal pony, wiped the slave again for falling. “Get up you lazy mongrel!”
After one quick glance at the human, it was easy to tell that the human wasn't lazy, or even overworked, or underfed, but past his prime. Another whip ringed out into the empty street. Twilight winced and looked to her friends.
They all looked unsure of what to do. Another whip came, it drew blood. The human, ugly beyond all reason due to the cruelty of nature moaned pathetically.
Twilight looked over to her slave, who was watching the whole scene unfold. His eyes were pained, wrinkles that should not have been on his young face sagged and expressed some hidden old, dark wisdom. But he showed no sign of intervening.
The princess stopped, and watched the scene unfold. The whip came again, the human struggled to get back up. Her morals called out to her, and her mind flashed back to the temple of Murustang with Octavo. This was far from just, and this was far from fair.
Her friends stopped and turned back to her.
“Are ya gunna get involved, sugar cube?”
Twilight wasn't sure how to respond. She took a few steps toward the scene, stopped then looked back at her own slave. His pained eyes looked back at her. His features were grim as he calculated the situation before him with intelligent eyes. He closed his eyes with a pained look. In one deliberate motion he shook his head and jerked it down the road they were heading.
It unnerved Twilight, she wanted to intervene, to 'fix' the wrong before her, but for some strange reason she trusted her slave's logic. “No, let's go.”
And as they did, the beaten slave got up and picked his things up. With one last crackle of the slave's whip he went back to work.
They reached the royal admission area inside the Colosseum. It was empty and only had two guards standing watch over the grand doors into the inner Colosseum. There were a few large paintings depicting the ancient glory of the Crystal Empire in their long past golden age.
“Oh how marvelous, Twilight!” Rarity was swinging her head side to side attempting to see all the subtle artistic attributes of the interior building, and attempting to memorize a few for inspirational purposes. “I always knew that the Crystal Empire was a truly magnificent, artistic, beautiful city, but it still never fails to disappointed.”
“Looks like just another dull building to me,” remarked Rainbow Dash as she sped past the others, hoping to hide her smirk at getting under Rarity's skin again.
Never one to be fooled twice, Rarity did her best to hide her cringe of animosity. “Very funny, Rainbow Dash —but I'm not falling to anymore of your pranks again,” she deadpanned.
Rainbow snickered. “What do you mean?” she asked innocently.
Twilight was only aware of the guard she was heading towards, she should have been more happy to see her friends, but the slaver and the brutalized slave were distracting her thoughts. And that's when Pinkie Pie jumped out of nowhere and covered her vision. “What's it been like being a princess, Twilight!? Have you done anything exciting!? I mean of course you have, but what exactly have you been up to since we've last seen you?”
Now completely surrounded by her friends Twilight stopped. Fluttershy was the next to speak up, taking her spot next to Pinkie. “I would love to hear what Celestia has been teaching you.”
Applejack nodded. “Same here.”
Seeing that this may take a while the human went over to a sofa and took a seat. The guards gave him a disgruntled look, those seats were not meant for slaves. “At first,” Twilight began her story with a small smirk, “all I was doing was meeting a few nobles who had a lot of power in royal court.”
Twilight paused. “It was nice, Celestia was with me, the nobles were friendly, they offered me advice on how to work with the other nobles, gave me tips and such.” Twilight waited for a response.
“Oh!” Rarity chimed in, already giddy with excitement. Already thinking how being friends with Twilight might change things for herself when attempting to fraternize with the upper nobility. Not that she needed any help with that. “Do go on, darling!”
While the mares were talking the two guards looked over at each other. Wondering if the mares were just going to stand there and chat away. The guards wanted to ask them if they were going to come inside or not. Or just stand in the royal admission center. The guards realized that would probably cost them their jobs though, so they didn't.
Twilight nodded. Just then a muffled roar of excitement came from all around them as a clash of metal could be heard outside. Wanting to join up with her brother and Cadence, Twilight gave the short version of what she had been up to since she went to Canterlot. Her friends asked her a few questions and she answered them thoroughly. They had a little laugh, remembering the fun times.
“Cadence would love to meet you all,” said Twilight, urging them onward.
“Alright!” Rainbow cheered, “I've been wanting to check out the tournament for a while now.”
Looking around for her human, Twilight spotted him, laying down in a sofa, using his cloak as a blanket, and snoring softly. She walked up to him, and rocked him back and forth till he jerked up awake. His eyes darted everywhere until he caught sight of Twilight then relaxed, and sighed.
“I have to say,” said Rarity, as she took a cautious step closer to Twilight and her human, “that is a gorgeous cloak he's wearing.” Twilight noticed that her friend was attempting to hide the fact that she was bothered that a mere human was wearing something so beautiful.
Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Rarity.” When the human got up, her friends took a few steps back away from him. They had seemed to have forgotten how tall he was and how deep and defined his thick muscles were. They were not lustful of him, but scared. The human lazily picked up his cloak and wrapped it around himself, even tying the knot near his neck.
Without wasting more time they moved on, the guards moved apart and opened the door for the mares, and closed it after they went in. Beyond the doors was a lounge, a bar off on the side caught their view, mostly because of the stallion with a slick combed back, black mane was cleaning glasses.
“Princess Twilight,” -The bartender bowed- “Princess Cadence and Prince Shining are in the room up ahead.”
“Thank you.” Twilight led her friends to the door the stallion pointed at and opened it. Immediately they heard the crowd roar with cheer and another loud clash of steel.
“Not a bad show I must admit,” said a familiar male voice Twilight couldn't place.
Twilight entered the stands, which were situated high above the performance below.
Cadence was the first to see them. “Oh Twilight, I'm glad you're here, I was worried you'd miss more of the show.” Before Twilight could respond Cadence noticed her friends. “And you all! It's been too long really.”
Shining walked over to his wife. Twilight noticed her brother looked a bit worn down for some reason. “Shining, are you-”
“It's good to see your friends came by,” he interrupted her.
“Hiya Cadence!” Pinkie Pie practically yelled. “Remember me don't ya huh huh?!”
Cadence giggled, “Of course I remember you silly.”
Twilight drowned out the noise of her friends introducing themselves as she looked over to the other member of the room. Standing there in his thick leather armor, was him again.
The warlord nodded at her, it was a relatively friendly gesture. “Oh Twilight, we meet again.”
She cringed upon seeing him, not a dignitary from the griffin kingdom, but the king himself. Or perhaps a better title for him, a legal thug.
“Your uhh, assessment of the humans was... interesting... back at Canterlot that is...” -He took a sip of some dark drink- “it was one of the few purposeful things that was said in Celestia's day court... two weeks back, or was it a week and a half maybe?” His talon scratched his beak as he asked himself the question.
'Charming,' Twilight quipped. His attempts at being diplomatic were nothing to write home about. At least not at first glance.
“Well...” Twilight felt a need to at least play the scene as far as diplomacy goes, she had no real power in the Crystal Empire, but she was related to the rulers here and that counts for something. “I hope things aren't too bad for you. I heard that the humans are not letting up... At any rate I hope you enjoy your stay in the Crystal Empire.”
He smiled. Twilight didn’t trust that smile, it was a real smile, but she just knew he was smiling for some other hidden reason. Yet he didn’t seem like an outright evil guy. “I am. Thanks for asking, Princess Twilight.” The smile lingered for a bit.
Twilight examined this creature for a moment.
The warlord shrugged and took another sip of some drink that Twilight couldn't place. As he did so, he looked over her shoulder to see the human in the room, unchained, looking straight at him, with a not so mellow look on his face. As the trumpets blazed to signal the entrance of the new contestants down below, the warlord spat his beverage out.
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Sry it took so long guys.
I caught a bug and was very sick
But at least I learned that my body HATES tequila
So live and learn i guess.
Then I caught a cough.
And while i got sick my proofreeder broke a thumb in some silly European sport that no one understands how to play or even keep score
4578661
At least you're still alive!
This chapter is much better than the other chapters! It look like during your break, you leveled up your writing skills! DING-DING!
That's funny, she didn't seem disappoint
4578661
World Toe Wrestling? Look it up, it's strange but fun
4578661
You aren't supposed to drink da worm!
Rugby? Because Lacrosse is Canadian... and basically rugby with sticks (all the better to hit you with)
I
LOVE
THIS
Now imagine the protag standing there with the sun shining behind him and this playing in the beckground.
Hey! This was featured!
Damn this story is good. I hope you update often!
4578661
It's great to see that you're back and that this story is still alive. And I agree with Quiet, your writing skills have gotten a lot better compared to the first few chapters, the dialogue is a lot smoother and more natural, the descriptions are not over the top nor are they too vague. I really enjoyed this one. Though the jumping of POVs is my only gripe with this chapter, because it jumps from first PPOV limited from one character to another without any sort of transitions or if there were, they weren't very polished or worded right to make the jump seem natural. Apart from that, great chapter! and I can't wait to see the next one.
Oh yeah, if you'd like I could be your beta-reader/proof-reader for this story and help iron out some of the parts that were off.
p.s. If you think Tequila is bad, have you tried Bacardi 151? That thing nearly killed me
, but hey what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger, eh? And this time, I'll be ready for round two
well, this will be entertaining.
4579039 Nein! Tequila and Bacardi 151 are amazing!
But it's so nice to see another chapter!
I want the ponies to get fucked over so badly. I hope they learn how smart they are soon. And this will be interesting to see the Griffon Warlord with the Human Slave.
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Hey man, I enjoy Tequila, and I didn't say that I didn't enjoy the Bacardi 151 either, hell I loved it, after the first five shots you don't really taste the alcohol anymore
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My money's on cricket. If there's one sport that no one understands... Look on ye rulebook, mortals, and despair.
very interesting fic, please continue
this isn't a human shaming fic is it?
shits goin down
4581162
Naa, I'm not gunna preach to you.
Just have fun.
Next chapter will be within a couple of days btw.
Hm, an interesting upgrade in skill… I guess getting sick made you work better, eh? Ah, well. Whatever the reason, this is impressive. Now, my question is, what does our protagonist intend to do about his current status? Will he resist? Will he show his true level of intellect? Or will he simply decide to keel over and submit eternally? It's so confusing… I wanna find out, now! So keep up the good work!
Cannot wait till the ponies figure out that humans are as smart or smarter than they are
Really nice story. Favourited and liked.
Here, have some moustache:
Welp, time for the announcement that humans only send those whose are genetic abominations into slavery, and are more advanced than any of the other races.
4579812 *points at you, gasping*
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oh Emperor damn it! not you again!
I am going to assume from your mentionings of Constantinople that Europe is pretty much, geographically, the same as it is in the real world, if so, where is pony land ? Across the pond in America?, up north ?, far east in Asia ?, Antarctica ?, Never Never Land ?, Narnia ?, Africa ?, other misc. random place ?
MWAHAHAHAHA! I NO LONGER HAVE TO CO--
dammit
4588639 PURGE THAT XENO FILTH