I was running, running for my life, dodging the trees that came at me as I ran. The dark forest slowing me down unforgivably. I could hear the battle cries of many other men behind me as we committed ourselves to another charge. I could barely see ten feet in front of me. They were screaming obscenities in modern Latin.
I burst out of the clearing and began running up the hill above me. The tiny eye holes of my faceplate didn't restrict any of my vision, more due to enchantment than perfect design. Now visible in the sunlight the black powder from the earlier battle still clung onto my suit.
I was the first to climb to the top of the hill.
Below was a quaint valley, and a whole lot of armed griffin. Strangely, they were all in camp, huddled around fires, trying not to let the gentle snowfall kill off their source of heat.
The closest griffin was getting water from the stream between us. The creature looked up and was taken aback by the strange human on top, wearing the most intricate armor he'd ever seen in his life. He watched the human point the oddest spear he'd even seen at him. The spear was hollow, the end was pointing at him. More legionnaires began to reach the top of the hill.
I fired, chaos ensued.
The other legionaries pointed their rifles at the targets out in the open and took them down. I already had my ramrod out and was pummeling the mini-ball into the back of the barrel. I took my percussion cap out and put it on the needle and cocked my hammer.
The griffin were in complete disarray. Some running into their own tents, trying to find their weapons. I found my mark, a junior officer by the look of it, if pointing and ordering others around was anything to go by.
I fired. The ingeniousness of the Empire's ingenuity took over, the hammer hit the percussion cap (a small piece of copper put at the back of the rifle) igniting the shock-sensitive primer, igniting the gunpowder, which expands the hollow lead mini-ball ammunition, the expanding projectile hugs the walls of the barrel and begins to spin because of the grooves on the inside of the rifle, making the projectile extremely accurate.
We were very proud of ourselves when we got the mechanics working. Surely the world would fall over to our dominion quickly, or at least that was the theory behind it.
The junior officer held a talon on the spot where he had been shot, the mini-ball pierced his armor. He slumped over and died.
In under fifteen seconds I had already reloaded. I took another griffin down.
“Centurion! Centurion!” I spared a second to look over to see our commander running up the hill with the majority of our regiment.
“What is the situation?” I heard our Centurion ask a Legionnaire nearby.
I fired, another hit. They were falling like flies before us, but it just felt like we stirred up a hornet's nest.
“As ordered we charged at the fleeing griffin regiment, but I think we stumbled into a completely different company!”
And that was when some strange dog-like creatures started pouring out the ground like a bunch of royally pissed off ants. “OH SHIT!” was all I could say.
“HOLD YOUR GROUND MEN! HOLD THE HIGH GROUND! FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR CEASAR!” The centurion pulled out his sword. “VICTORY AND GLORY, OR DEATH!”
I shot one of the ugly things in the head, my comrades were freaking out. Which was understandable from my perspective. “We're all going to die! There's way too many of them!”
The Centurion was still trying to rally his men, we weren't prepared to go up against a fresh force. Some griffin began flying up in the air. Light shock troops, I realized as I shot one out of the air.
The legionnaire next to me was hit by a bolt from a crossbow by one of the dog things. It would have been a fatal wound if not for the legionnaire's superior armor. We kept firing through the haze of smoke our guns were making.
A war-band of at least a hundred imperfect humans came out of the clearing fifty yards away from our position. The legion had taken it upon itself that the imperfect humans were all well equipped to repel the griffin invasion. They had an older model of our own armor, plated, light, but effective and easy to produce.
A band of heavy griffin infantry charged at them. Several griffins fell before the barrage of spears and throwing axes the imperfect threw at them, their commander was shot down by our marksmen, and then they clashed. The griffin fought bravely against the mismatched genetic abominations. Both sides scratching, biting, and swung heavy weapons, decapitating and severing limbs. Blood mixing with the thin layer of snow on the grass.
“They must outnumber us ten to one! We must pull back!” People were beginning to lose hope.
A flying griffin shot an arrow aimed directly at my head, I saw it soar through the air coming straight at me. 'Nope,' I thought, as I dropped to one knee and shot down the griffin. I had no idea if the arrow that went over my head hit the guy behind me. Still more humans were climbing up the hill. We weren't prepared for this, this wasn’t a well-coordinated assault, both sides were taken by surprise.
Another imperfect war-band, this one to our right, organized itself and began a charge at the superior force. Screaming freakishly in the way only abominations can.
Well, guess this is it, damn. Only had six more months left on my service. Can't believe it's all going to end here. Fighting these things. I let my mind wonder, not worrying about the ministry of loyalty sensing treachery or weakness. After all, you can't punish a dead man. I hope we can still win this war. My birth parents don't live far from here.
Just then a horn blared, it was a deep bellow that echoed throughout the battlefield. The enemy began retreating, even though they were stronger, had many times more men, they were retreating.
The commissar took a few steps forward, we still kept up our fire. “They must think we're part of a much larger force!” He informed his legionnaires. “Keep at them! Give them no rest.” He turned to our left flank and waved his sword to draw attention. “Fall back! Do not pursue them! Hold your ground!”
My smile couldn't be bigger as I begun a series of back shots. Thinking how I narrowly escaped death. I was sweating, my hands worked methodically, just like they were trained to do, but I couldn't stop them from shaking. I was so close to dying! “HA HA HA! I'm alive! The God of War favors us, idiots!” A few of my, not friends but acquaintance glanced in my direction making sure that it was I who was screaming like a maniac. Yep, it looked like good ol' reliable, quiet, always friendly, subject IY54-FT4-U027 finally snapped under the pressure. The gunshots were so loud that only those closest to me could even make out my words. The commissar was yelling some more orders, but I was so wrapped up in my euphoric episode I couldn't hear him. “Our father Caesar provides! The Mother Legion protects! For the EMPIRE!” My well aimed shot hit some commander in the back of the head.
“AHAHHhahaHah!” The sight of fleeing diamond dogs cramming back inside the holes to get back down underground was too much for me. The griffin were actually tripping over each other. I inhaled deeply and let out an even louder maniacal laughter. A few more glanced in my direction for a second, then went back to reloading their own guns. A few even began to join me, feeling a bit elated themselves from watching certain defeat turn into a victory for no good reason whatsoever.
Everything went black and hazy, like that part of my life was obscured, hard to recall. I heard an agonizing scream in the blackness, it took me a moment to realize who’s voice it was that was begging for mercy. My blood chilled as I realized it was mine.
The human jerked up, his hands were trembling underneath his covers. His cloak was folded into a nice rectangular shape next to his 'blanket bed.' When he looked to the bed next to him he saw that his master was gone, the sunlight that was coming in through the window suggested that it was late morning. Then remembering that there was a clock on the wall that used the Arabic numbering system, he read the time. It was ten thirty.
Wow, I really overslept. My master and the reptile thing must have gotten ready without me and left. The slave wondered for a minute if he had been dreaming, he felt like he had woken up from some nightmare, something felt off.
The human rubbed his groggy eyes. There was some shuffling of papers on the far side of the room. When he looked up he saw a griffin's ass, it was a sight he didn't want to see this early in the day. It was King Viggo. The human hadn't seen him since the bloodless tournament his master took him to two days ago. 'It was a lot more tame than the one's I'm used to,' he remembered in recollection.
'What is he doing in my master's room,' subject IY54-FT4-U027 asked himself.
The griffin was opening drawers and shifting through paper, only giving each a brief look. The griffin was in a hurry. The human took the covers off of himself as quietly as he could. Unsure if the griffin knew he was in the room, or if the warlord thought that the human wouldn't wake up while he was searching through his master's things.
Walking silently, like how the empire taught him to, toes touching the ground first then rolling the rest of the foot onto the ground, he got closer and closer. The beast was using the noises of the griffin flipping through various parchments to conceal the noise of his footsteps, but he stopped abruptly. That's when the human heard what the griffin heard. Armored hooves cantering by the door, they came and went.
As soon as the sound was gone King Viggo began searching through papers again. The human was getting very close now. The griffin stopped on something he deemed important, he was enraptured by what he was reading, stopped then put a few papers underneath his wing. Shifted through some more, found something very important that made him oblivious to the human almost right behind him. The griffin was muttering some Equine words that the human didn't recognize.
“...my own research has led me to believe in an evolutionary pull away from harmful genetic mutations...” The griffin read out loud. He skimmed over a few lines. 'Nothing too strange yet,' he thought.
“...though humans are known to be an aggressive species, reactionary exchanges would be encouraged. When humans attack nations in mass, and are driven back to their forest they always stay there for extended periods of time, long after they have replenished their numbers. This phenomenon would imply intelligence, and even suggest that humans will teach their offspring to 'stay away' from the 'powerful griffin and equine'. Further research into human tribes, and human parental techniques would be ideal. Perhaps even walking among them would help. I met a stallion named Octavo who might be able to help me with that. For now I will simply study them with the books I-”
It was suddenly very hard to read, like somepony turned off the lights. Which didn't make any sense, the door would have made noise, and he was alone in Twilight's room. The warlord looked up at the wall ahead of him. It took him a few seconds to make it out, the silhouette of the shadow that covered him. Even with a human head on top looking down at him.
Get. The. Pluck. Out!
Instead of moving, his body began to tremble. Letting a human sneak up on him once had nearly cost him his life the first time. Now, it was a gamble. Here he was, with Twilight's possibly violent human that had thrown Rainbow Dash across the room in a game of hoof wrestle. The papers in his talons began to fall out as he turned, shaking madly the whole while.
The human behind him was giving him a menacing look as he towered over the smaller griffin. A-at l-least he isn't f-foaming at the mouth, the warlord thought, wondering how he managed to stutter in his head.
What Viggo did next surprised both of them. He baked like a chicken, threw Twilight's papers at him and began wailing on him with his powerful wings. The human meanwhile took it all with just an amused, lone eyebrow raising slowly. He looked like he was receiving a beating from a fluffy pillow, instead of a limb that could easily knock Pegasi out of the sky. The warlord even swiped his claws at the human, however the human's skin proved to be extremely resistant, almost unnaturally so.
The altercation left the two of them standing in the hallway outside Twilight's room. The warlord was half turned toward the human, prepared to run down the hallway if necessary. The griffin's chest was heaving madly. The warlord was staring at the unchained, dangerous beast that Twilight kept as a pet, the slave spat a feather out of his mouth. King Viggo watched his feather fall. The beast gagged as he put his strange, long fingers in his mouth and pulled out another feather, then flicked it off his hand.
Annoyed beyond all reason the warlord glared at him.
When the human lifted his hand to scratch the stubble that was beginning to grow on his face the griffin jerked and took a few steps away from him. 'ARRGGHHH!' King Viggo silently fumed. 'I need to see Twilight's letters to Princess Celestia! Get out of my way fleabag!'
The human leaned forward, like he was preparing to charge. Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no!
The human charged him while yelling in his strange language.
Not freezing up this time the warlord took off with his wings in a panic and baked once more.
Chasing the griffin around the castle wasn't what the human wanted, and he gave it up after a minute, however the griffin continued to flee, not knowing the human had stopped his pursuit. Thinking that the human was right behind him and that turning around to check would doom him.
As the human began walking back, a memory came to him of interacting with petrified griffin prisoners of war. It was a shame, he helped them when he could, but the Empire was war incarnate, and was not known for its great mercy.
During his daydreaming a maid ended up going down the same hallway as him. She froze upon seeing him.
The human waved lazily. “Hey,” he told her in the Equine language. She didn't wave back, all she did was tremble as she tried and failed to not make eye contact with the wondering beast. She was pressing herself against the opposite wall, trying not to get too close to the monster. 'Rude... she could have at least waved back.'
After wandering into some bathhouse ten minutes later, he admitted he was lost. All the mares took off actually screaming while covered in soap. Some felt a need to throw a towel on themselves before they fled from the savage monster, even though they usually didn't wear clothes most of the day anyway. He sighed. “Why have you forsaken me my beloved emperor?”
Meanwhile, Twilight was back at her room with her mouth nearly on the floor, looking at her once immaculate room with her researched papers thrown into every nook and crevice. She even had a twitching eye to go with it.
Her monument of cleanliness and organization had remained perfect, despite having what the books called 'mess making fiends,' which were humans. Her slave was usually careful not to mess with her things. This train of thought was interrupted by a flying griffin feather landing on her muzzle.
She looked at the feather still on her face. “Why is it wet and smells like spit?” Twilight didn't have the answers she needed.
Walking inside revealed that the human was gone, fear began to flood her senses. When was the last time I fed him!? Oh please let nothing bad happen! Color drained from her face as she took off out of her room and down the hall. Passing up a terrified mare with half her body covered in soap suds, and another mare dripping wet. There's no way that this can end well.
The human began pushing two large doors. ’I'm not the best with directions, but I'm pretty sure that Twilight's room is just beyond this door.’
The door was pushed open, the courtyard outside stretched out into the city. ’But... how? I don't even remember going down stairs...’
“Damn,” the human said, his new favorite equine word from... Who the heck was that stallion Twilight is always with? Shi- Shin- Awww who cares. Forget that boob. That arsehole who threw me roughly into a cage. Never forget. He thought briefly of what those slavers put him through. I'll get even, of that I'm sure.
It involved going down paths not designed to be traversed, falling down walls that were not meant to be fallen from, but the human had made his way well within the city. Finally he found it, a beautiful place within the city, a park, a wondrous fake waterfall. Perfect. A few ponies caught sight of him but he didn't care, at best they might even bring Twilight to him, saving himself the trouble of searching for her. At least he was at the perfect spot. He sat down, crossed his legs, found his center and began his meditations. All the sound drifted away. Fresh air filled his lungs, the sun above hit his features, all was well.
It felt like his mind was reorganizing itself, refreshing, reshelving them in his mind, his library of memories. He commanded his subconscious to repair itself, and it did. Memories destroyed by the unicorn resurfaced.
'The snow is picking up,' was the first thing he noticed. 'Fields of red snow lay out before me once more.'
The scene before him was a mess. Griffin and diamond dogs lay dead. Subject IY54-FT4-U027 walked around the battle field, looking at the commanders he had shot, and the light shock troops shot out of the sky by him.
One of the griffin moved a few inches as he passed him by, Subject IY54-FT4-U027 took notice. It was a heavy infantry griffin, who had taken a mortal hit in the chest. He was sprawled out, surrounded by red snow.
The voice in my head became clear. 'All legionaries take care of what remains. Capture or kill at your leisure.' We all sent back our agreements to our Centurion through the psychic network. I looked down taking in the sight of his wound, he wasn't even shaking, he was dying, slowly. The griffin looked up to see the strange human, with his weird faceplate armor, his odd weapon that had killed so many of his friends so quickly at such range, raise his weapon. The bayonet gleamed in the rays of sunlight coming through the clouds above. The blade rammed through his armor into his heart, he died instantly.
Four minutes of searching and he found two more griffin worthy of the same fate, and one diamond dog as well, whimpering and crying, unable to survive his wound, but incapable of dying quickly without help.
Then an odd noise echoed out, a griffin hen crying out in pain. Subject IY54-FT4-U027 looked around to see that one of his fellow legionnaires found a female griffin. Apparently they allowed such things in their military, at least on a small scale.
The legionnaires watched the thing squirm in pain on the floor. They were laughing at it, the hen was trying to crawl away from them, grunting in pain from every movement. Walking a few steps closer subject IY54-FT4-U027 began to see the hen's injury: An injured wing, and that was all. She had probably fell from a short height and hurt herself, but she seemed okay. Maybe a broken rib or two at worse, but even that was questionable. “Hey,” called one of them, “let's have some fun with her. Why not, huh? I hear these griffin and Equine like to have sex with the imperfect humans sometimes. This should be a treat for her.”
One of them kicked her over, she cried out as she rolled over her injured wing, the musket ball hole in the feathery appendage was easily recognizable now that it began to bleed profusely. Subject IY54-FT4-U027, the commissar called out.
I stopped. This is subject IY54-FT4-U027. I am ready to serve.
The legionnaires were surrounding the hen now. Holding her down.
You have been selected for fire duty, I was informed. You have thirty minutes to comply. Don't take your time either, it's cold out here, and it's getting late.
I acknowledged the order then went back to watching the hen resist. I could see at this distance that the one holding her back legs was trying to get his crotch armor off. His other two friends were each holding one of her front legs, she was putting up a valiant effort, kicking, screaming even biting a little. But she would lose, and be raped. The perfect humans such as subject IY54-FT4-U027 were creations of the old ones. The original humans had through the use of technology, perfected their physical form through genetic manipulation, one of the many, many advantages they gave themselves was bigger male genitalia. This hen was in for a nasty surprise. A very painful one.
'Hmmm, I could intervene. If I wanted to. I could stop this and still have time to-'
I was thrown out of the forest through time itself, I was captured by equines, brutalized, physically, emotionally, spiritually, then I was bought and sold into slavery. I was in a strange crystal land, my master who called herself Twilight was in front of me in a park. She looks disheveled, and disappointed, but mostly let down.
The slave didn't know it but he had been meditating for over three hours.
“S-s-s-s-so-sor-sos- sorry Tw-Twilight.” The human's voice came out distraught, from having been so deep into his own mind, then thrust forward so quickly.
Thinking that she caused some sort of traumatic event in her human Twilight drew her head back. 'Am I really that scary?' she asked herself. 'I... thought I was one of the good slave owners.'
It brought Twilight near to tears. She sat down, less than a meter distance between them. His hands were shaking and sweaty. She didn't mean to scare him like that, she really needed to watch her tone. The tears were getting ready to fall. 'And I must look like a mess to him... I'm a bad-'
Right when she was about to cry his hand caught her chin, forcing her to look up. His thumb slowly came into view, and wiped away the tears in her eyes. In surprise she watched her human. It felt nice to have somepony have your back in that way. Before she realized it, he was petting her head, those hands felt reeeeaaaally nice especially when they played with the ears.
Her human was smiling at her. “You okay, Twilight?” It was utterly ridiculous how quickly he was learning the language. A very sharp human, Twilight realized. Before she could respond he drew her in for a hug. Now, she really didn't mind him not wearing his cloak. Perhaps she would have to find a way to get rid of it. She never resisted the embrace. “Everything is okay, Twilight.” She breathed in his scent and blushed. His rock hard muscles were pressing against her. “Not your fault,” he finished.
What was he talking about? Twilight wondered, having forgotten the subject he was 'talking' to her about, she cared more about those hands at this point. A small moan escaped her as his hands went back behind her ears. Twilight began freaking out when she heard Rarity's cough behind her. Oh that's right! My friends were following me when I was told that my human was here!
She forced herself out of his grasp and spun around.
Rarity had her eyes averted. Rainbow Dash was failing at whistling as she looked around. Fluttershy was looking down, blushing and trying to hide behind her mane. Applejack had her hat over her eyes. Spike was covering his eyes with his claws. Pinkie Pie meanwhile was staring straight at her, with wide eyes. 'Oh buck.'
“Oh right!” Twilight accidentally yelled, too startled to use the correct volume of voice. “I found my human.” She put her hoof on the human's bare shoulder to emphasize her point. They didn't respond. “We can go get lunch now. If that's okay with you guys!”
Applejack was the first to respond. “After all that runnin' around, ah meal sounds mighty fine right about now. Ain't that right fellas?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Yep.”
“Of course.”
“Yes-sir-eei!”
“You betcha.”
Now with Twilight’s runaway human problem solved, they headed towards what they hoped would be a wonderful restaurant(Cadence recommended it). Twilight thought it would be best to take her human with her, since he didn't even eat breakfast today and she didn't want to go back to the castle to lock him up.
Walking down the path to the restaurant, Twilight realized that the human earned himself a few glances from some mares who looked him up and down. She wondered if they did the same thing to him the first time she took him through the city, and she was just now realizing it.
The human didn't appear to be shaking anymore either, he adapted to the cold quickly, almost unnaturally.
When they arrived at the restaurant, they were greeted by a waiter that sneered at the human as soon as he came into view. He told them that they would have to get an outside table if they wanted to take that thing with him. Rainbow informed him that they were going to get an outside table anyway, in her blunt, defensive manner. Picking on her friends was not okay with her. Rarity also questioned his gentle stallion ways as he led them begrudgingly to their seats.
The waiter sighed. “Will that be all madam?”
Rarity looked over her menu, giving him a snobbish, chastising look. “Indeed.”
The waiter almost rolled his eyes but stopped himself. “And you Princess Twilight, what might I get you and your... and your... human...” he said with distaste.
Doing her best to ignore it, Twilight ordered. “I'll have a rose salad.” While the waiter wrote her order down Twilight looked over to her human who was looking through the menu. It looked kind of cute, Twilight thought, a human acting like a pony. Sitting proper, well groomed, eyes moving left to right. That realization sent a jolt through her. 'His eyes. They're moving left to right, then down a bit, and left to right again. Could he be trying to read?'
“And for the human, madam?”
The waiter distracted her for a moment. Twilight had planned on getting him the toasted egg sandwich, she fumbled through the menu trying to find it. Off on the side the human got her attention by tapping his menu. He had it pointed to her, and his index finger tapped the picture of biscuits and gravy.
“Uhh...” Twilight cleared her throat. “Biscuits and gravy please.”
The stallion began writing the order down. He looked annoyed, like they were bothering him. “That comes with a side of eggs or breakfast potatoes.”
“Eggs,” the human interjected, watching the stallion intently. Curious if what he said made any grammatical sense.
The stallion gave the human a wary look, even taking a step away from him. “Will that be all?”
The human answered him again. “Indeed.” The stallion backed away slowly, before turning away.
He turned to Twilight and her friends. 'Don't remember teaching him what eggs are. Maybe he overheard me call his breakfast yesterday eggs.'
Twilight was sitting next to her human, and Spike felt like he had to be the one to sit on the other side of the creature on the round table, even though he felt creeped out by the thing.
Ignoring the strange talking human Rainbow began a conversation. “Wow, does that guy have a stick up his flank or what?”
“Rainbow!” Applejack chastised her. “None of that, watch that mouth or I'll wash it out with soap. Ya' hear?”
Rainbow snickered. “Tightwad.”
That got a rise out of Applejack. “Hey! Wait a minute now.”
The rest of their conversation went unnoticed by Twilight, she was looking at her human. Again that sense of true intelligence hit her, like he understood more than he let on. Like there was some level of intellectual potential hidden in there, like some abandoned mine just waiting for somepony to dig a little bit deeper to discover its treasure.
“Stick up his flank,” the human parroted. Twilight facehooved.
Fluttershy looked down. “Oh my, Rainbow. Look what you did.”
Rainbow Dash was already laughing. “He actually picked that up! He remembered that!?”
Not wanting her human to pick up bad habits, Twilight gave him a scowl. “Don't say that. You're not allowed to say that from now on.”
The human's head tilted in a puppy dog like expression. “Tightwad.”
Twilight's eyes went wide as her friends began to snicker. The slave watched her reaction with interest as it changed from a surprised one to an angry one. “Sorry, Twilight.”
She sighed. “It's fine...” After seeing the human's expression Twilight chuckled. “What is it now?”
The human was staring back at his master with a smile of his own. “Ah meal sounds mighty fine right about now,” he even spoke with Applejack's country accent.
Twilight's smile dropped, the human mimed her reaction.
Applejack looked over. “Did he get that from me?”
'This shouldn't be possible. The books never said anything of this. He may not understand every word he's saying. But still. He's learning too quick. Or is he only just repeating the words he's hearing? No, he knew what eggs were. Somethings wrong here, I'm not noticing something that should be obvious. What could all of this mean?' Twilight snapped herself out of her own thoughts. “Uhh, yeah... he's a smart one. Yeah...”
The meal they had was good, Twilight's human wolfed down his meal, but was careful not to make a mess with his gravy. Wonderful table educate, for a human, Rarity was impressed.
The human became very quiet after that last comment. He seemed preoccupied with something. Perhaps he felt he could get in trouble for speaking too much, Twilight wondered. For now he only listened to their talks. When Twilight got back to the castle he helped her put back all her research papers that were scattered on the floor, but when she began scolding him for the mess he made, he broke his silence and said only two words: “King Viggo”
Twilight wasn't sure if she believed that, but she decided it would be better to protect her work with magic from now on.