//------------------------------// // Guests, not prisoners (part 2) // Story: Shouldn't have enslaved humanity [OLD VERSION] // by NoobMaster69 //------------------------------// Diplomat Bob began approaching them. "Hello, ponies," he said, "I believe I've already introduced myself, but I'll do it again. I am Diplomat Bob, and I am here to answer any questions you might have. I ask you not to think of yourselves as prisoners, but as guests." Despite their fear, that request still managed to enrage them. "Excuse me?!" Applejack shouted in anger. "You literally foalnapped us. You killed dozens of ponies! And not only that, you threatened to… kill… us…" Applejack's rage was quickly turning into fear as she began thinking of the possible consequences of her outburst. She noticed that every single human in the vicinity was now looking at her. "I have no idea what a foalnap is, but the dozens of ponies that were killed were attempting to kill us first, so I believe our actions in defending ourselves are completely justified,” Bob said, “And we never threatened to kill you, just shock you if you… misbehaved. Getting shocked by a prodder is painful, sure, but it’s far from lethal. You should know better than anyone, seeing as you got shocked for quite a while.” “Your captain threatened to kill us,” Applejack said. “No, threatening implies she told you that she was going to kill you herself, which she didn’t. She told her soldiers to try her best not to kill any of you,” Diplomat Bob responded. “She ordered them to kill one of us if Twilight tried anything,” Pinkie said. “Again, she didn’t tell you she was going to kill you if Twilight tried anything. She told her soldiers to kill you if Twilight tried anything in front of you. Would you rather she have relayed the order in private so that Twilight wouldn’t even know that you would be killed if she tried to attack us or leave?” Bob asked. “You said we aren’t prisoners,” Twilight said, “So let us go.” “Yes, you aren’t prisoners, you’re more of… forced guests, until you help the president’s daughter,” Diplomat Bob replied. “Who is this ‘president’ anyway?” Rarity asked, “I’ve never heard of someone being called ‘the president’.” “You don’t know what a president is?” Bob asked in disbelief. “No, never heard of one,” Twilight said. “He’s our leader. He was elected by the people of the USU to lead the country,” Bob replied. “What do you mean he was ‘elected’?” Twilight asked. “Umm… you don’t know what the word elected means?” Bob asked, now doubting the intelligence of one of the ponies’ princesses. “Of course I do, it means chosen. What I meant to ask, is what do you mean by him being chosen by the people?” Twilight asked. “We chose him. The USU is a democracy. You couldn’t have guessed?” Bob said. “You really expect us to believe that? Not a single kingdom in all of Equs has managed to pull off a democracy, despite trying multiple times,” Twilight said. “Really? And why is that?” Bob asked her. “Firstly, they were unable to create a proper system which would allow for a completely fair election. In every single proposal they came up with, the candidates could cheat extremely easily,” Twilight explained, “The one race that had managed to pull it off, due to their smaller numbers, were the dragons. Even then, the country erupted into civil war because the supporters of one side would not bow down to another. After seeing what happened to the dragons, no other kingdoms ever tried it again. And now you expect me to believe the humans, who are even more uncivilised than the dragons, would be able to pull off an actual democracy? Oh please, at least come up with a more believable lie.” “Well, I don’t know how you see the humans currently inhabiting your world, but I can ensure you that humanity is most definitely more civilised than a race of horses that practice slavery,” Diplomat Bob said, causing Twilight to recoil at the derogatory word used. “And as for not being able to create a fair system of voting, I’m pretty sure a primitive society like yours hasn't come up with identification cards yet. And I’m sure such a primitive species probably hasn’t thought about recording the names of the individuals who are voting. Wait, sorry, I forgot, you don’t have ID’s.” “Stop calling us primitive!” Rainbow Dash shouted, her anger rising so much at their ‘insults’ that she had broken out of her fearful state. Even though it was true, she didn’t know that, nor anypony else. So it just seemed like the humans were extremely cocky, overconfident, narcissistic, and just all round rude. It looked to them like these humans had some sort of ‘superiority complex’, which was almost humorous, considering they were humans. “Why you mad bro?” the diplomat asked, “It’s the truth.” “You humans kill dozens of innocent ponies, take us prisoner, and almost kill me and you have the audacity to ask why we’re angry?!” Rainbow Dash barked. “They weren’t innocent. They were part of a slaver race, and so are you. And like I said, you aren’t prisoners. If you were, we wouldn’t have let you out,” Diplomat Bob said. “Fine. Prove it. If we’re not prisoners, and just ‘forced guests’, tell us where we are,” Twilight said, already thinking up possible methods of escape. “Alright, why don’t you just see for yourselves?” Bob asked, gesturing towards the window. They all went towards the window and looked through it. What they saw both frightened and amazed them. They were hovering in the air, and right in front of them, was tartarus. They were hovering right in front of tartarus. It seemed this was the cavern they had talked about demolishing. “What..? W- where are we?” Fluttershy asked, “How can we be flying?” “I think we’re in one of those flying things we saw coming towards ponyville. The size of this place certainly matches the size of those large flying carriages,” Twilight observed. “Yes, indeed,” Diplomat Bob confirmed, “And we can’t land yet, the cavern is going to be demolished soon, and it would be unsafe to land right now.” “What? That’s tartarus! Why would you be trying to ‘demolish’ tartarus?” Pinkie asked, just as confused as the rest of them. "As if some humans could pull off destroying an entire mountain. I doubt even the princesses themselves could pull that off," Rarity said. “Tartarus? O- oh, you mean the cavern!” Diplomat Bob said. “Ah yes, it’s to allow our other planes to - “ he was cut off by one of the soldiers who were assigned to stand guard beside the ponies. “That’s classified,” he said sternly, “And sir, I would appreciate it if you stop trying to give our secrets away to one of the monarchs of a possibly hostile nation. You’ve already revealed our location, something you should not have done, and I suggest you think before acting next time.” “Ah, yes… yes, of course. I apologise. I’ll think before acting next time,” he said before turning towards the ponies, “We’ll be landing in about ten minutes. Any other questions for the time being?” "What do you want with us?" Twilight asked, "And who exactly are you people? No other humans have flying carriages or weapons like those." "We simply need your help," he said. "With what?! You keep saying that but you never actually tell me what exactly you need my help with!" Twilight said, now growing annoyed, "And that still doesn't answer the question of who exactly all of you are!" "Well, to answer both of your questions, you're going to need to learn a bit of history regarding the human race," Bob said. "Oh please, we already know all there is to know! The world used to live in harmony, until one day, you declared yourselves the sole ruler of all of Equs. And then, since we didn't submit to your rule, you began killing and massacring the populations of entire cities," Applejack said. "Well, that may be your version, but here's our version," Bob said before taking on a narrative voice. "A very, very long time ago, about a million years back, we used to be the most powerful beings on the planet. We were destined for so much more. Until that fateful day when god decided to chuck a stone at earth. You see, the asteroid itself wasn't the issue, we detected it a thousand years before it would collide with Earth, and in that thousand years, we would have, without a shadow of a doubt, had technology advanced enough to redirect it or possibly even destroy it entirely. No, the problem was that it emitted a harmful radiation that caused harmful mutations to us, causing us to become deformed and eventually die. We had little time. We knew we needed to preserve our race. In the goal for survival all the nations of our world worked together to create arguably the greatest ever man made feat of engineering. Utopia. However we couldn’t save them all. While we saved so many that day, we left much more to die. Seven and a half billion people, my family among them, die. So we slept, we remained dormant for the next one million years, and what do we find? Our people, reduced to slaves." "So, lemme get this straight. The humans, of all people, used to be a super race until an asteroid hit Equs?" Applejack asked in disbelief at the sheer ridiculousness of that statement. If a member of any other race said that, it would still be completely ridiculous, but a lot easier to believe. "No, we weren't a super race, we were the super race. We stood completely unchallenged, and we were the only sentient species inhabiting the planet at the time," Diplomat Bob said, to which the ponies let out stifled laughs, though it was clear that they were getting their best to stop the laughter. "Is something funny?" Bob asked, rather insulted. Twilight was the first to stop laughing, and therefore was the first to reply. "I mean, it was a pretty funny joke," Twilight said, and it took her a while to notice the strange looks she was receiving from the other humans. "Oh… it wasn't a joke, was it?" She asked sheepishly. "No, of course not! Whatever gave you that idea?" He asked, confused. "So out of everything you could have come up with, this is the best ya can do? Ya honestly expect us to believe that humanity once ruled the world, before an apparent meteor crashed?" Applejack asked, "And that's not even taking the fact that you were apparently able to live for one million years into consideration. Ah don't remember humans being immortal." "We were cryogenically frozen," Bob replied. "I don't even know what a cryogenic is, but you still haven't answered one of my questions. What. Do. You. Want. From. Me?" Twilight asked, rather sternly this time.  "Like I already said previously, we need - " he was cut off by an irritated Twilight. "Don't! Don't say you need my help. Tell me exactly what you want! If it's to interrogate me, or build some kind of weapon, you won't get anything from me!" Twilight shouted. "I assure you, we have no shortage of weapons. And we already have one of your military leaders that we captured for interrogation," he replied. "Then?!" Twilight asked. "I'll tell you… if you can SHUT UP!" Diplomat Bob shouted, growing annoyed with being constantly cut off. The ponies all flinched back in surprise at the sudden outburst, and they all immediately stopped asking any more questions.  "Thank you," Diplomat Bob said, "We need your help to cure the president's daughter of her chaotic radiation sickness. We had encountered some kind of centaur earlier, and he said that he could help remove the radiation from her, though he called it 'chaos magic'. Unfortunately, before he did help us, he disappeared into thin air. So, we need you to remove this 'chaos magic' from her, and revert her back to her unmutated form if possible." This worried all of them greatly. The only one who had the reality warping power was Discord, and if the humans somehow got a hold of it, the consequences could be devastating. "Chaos magic? Why would you want to remove her chaos magic? Chaos magic is literally the most power - " Pinkie was cut off as Twilight clamped her muzzle shut. "What my friend here meant to say, was that we'll try our best to help you if you let us go. I don't know any spells that can do it yet, but I'm sure I can come up with something, on the condition that you let us go," Twilight said, hoping her friend's slip up wouldn't be noticed. She definitely didn't want them knowing about the power of chaos magic, let alone utilising it if they found out. Fortunately for them, Diplomat Bob was not the perceptive type. "Well, that is the plan," he said. He then paused for a moment as someone spoke to him through his earpiece. "Well, the demolition is starting. You can watch if you want," he said before looking out the window. The moment he turned around, Twilight put her hoof to her mouth and made a soft shushing sound, followed by pointing at Bob, then pointing at her ear. The message was clear: stop talking, the humans can hear us. Twilight and her friends headed for the window and looked outside, at Tartarus. "As if they could 'demolish' Tartarus," Rarity said, making air quotes. "Let's just watch and see," Twilight said. It took a while, but eventually, they heard it. Dozens, possibly hundreds, of massive booms began emitting from the mountain. The mountain itself began crumbling, and some parts of it even completely exploded outwards, with tiny pieces of rock hitting against the window and making tapping sounds. Some of the outer parts of the mountain were completely pulverized, completely reduced to nothing but pebbles. In the end, only half of the mountain's original mass remained, with the rest of it being reduced to dust. The ponies' mouths hung open as they gazed upon the display in fear and awe. They had never seen such destruction, and there had never been anything that was capable of something even remotely close to what they had just witnessed. Despite having prior knowledge of the humans wanting to 'play it cool' and utilise this display as a fear tactic, they were still left completely terrified. "What… just… happened?!" Fluttershy asked shakily. "Oh, we just demolished the cavern," Bob said nonchalantly. "You… you just destroyed Tartarus!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Yea, so?" Bob asked. "How… how is that even possible?! Nopony, and I nopony has that kind of power. There isn't a single recorded spell in history that's capable of this destruction! What kind of magic did you use to be able to accomplish such a thing?!" Twilight asked. "Spell? Oh, no, no, no, we didn't use a 'spell', as you call it," Bob said, using his fingers to form air quotes, "We used technology. Explosives. As I'm sure you are fully aware, we don't have any magic, and we don't even know much about what magic even does. Still don't believe me when I said we were the most powerful species on the planet?" "Wha- what? B- but technology is powered by magic. How could you use technology without using magic?" Twilight asked. "We use mostly electricity," he replied. "Electricity is magic!" Twilight shouted. "See? How primitive," Diplomat Bob said, "Anyway, if you still don't believe me about us laying dormant for a million years, you're about to. We're landing now, and you'll get to see Utopia for yourself. Let's see if you think that's still not enough proof." The helicopter then slowly began descending, as a thick metal blast door that was built into the ground opened up, and they entered.