• Published 29th May 2014
  • 6,780 Views, 140 Comments

The Equine Masters - OtterP



Giant ponies have enslaved humanity, and once great countries are reduced to mere vassals. What waits for two young siblings in Equestria where humans are sold as property.

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Chapter 1: Taken away

The sun had risen, and mist was covering most of the lowlands. Cold mornings like this were typical for the English countryside, even at the height of spring.

A girl was carrying a bucket full of milk towards the house she lived in. Cold or not, morning duties had to be done and life here was simple, yet harsh. Today would be different from ordinary daily life, however.

Today was the day when they would come. Her family would have to travel to nearby town, as would all other farmers and villagers in the area. Then, they would come and take whoever they pleased back to their world. This was the price all of the people here would have to pay regularly for living relatively free.

They looked like ponies, but were huge, as tall as skyscrapers and possessing abilities beyond human understanding. Flight and use of magic were just the beginning of their powers, and their size made them nearly invulnerable to all the swords, spears, muskets and cannons that humans had.

When exactly they had come to Earth was forgotten, and all the girl knew that it was hundreds of years ago that all the lands where the ponies went were quickly subjugated, allowed to only live free if they agreed to give some of their people to the ponies to be taken away, back to their own land.

Education was minimal for humans; survival was the primary concern, but by the combination of a little luck, skill, and sheer determination the girl had learnt to read and write. It was a rare skill, especially for lower class people such as them, and even rarer for a girl as young as she was.

“Mel! Breakfast will be ready soon!” a boy's voice shouted. She looked in the direction of where the voice was coming and smiled; her 11-year old brother Joshua was waiting for her at the front door.

“I'm coming, I'm coming.” she answered. Only to her brother was she 'Mel'; everyone else called her by her actual name, Melissa.

At 14 years old, she was their parents’ oldest child, and her short hair and tough attitude had given her a tomboy reputation since young age. When she prepared to come inside, Joshua opened the door more to let her in with the bucket.

“Thanks.” she smiled again. Carrying the bucket to the dinner table, she poured the milk to all four of their cups.

They ate their breakfast in silence, knowing what was going to happen today at the town. The mood would be happier in the evening, Melissa hoped.

After they had finished and dressed up, Melissa and Joshua waited for their mother. She was unusually quiet now, fidgeting her fingers; Melissa placed her hand on her shoulder.

“It’s going to be all right.” She said to her.
Joshua looked at her and smiled nervously. Outside, their father had already tied their horse in front of the cart. Melissa and Joshua jumped to sit on the back while their father helped their mother up on the cart to sit on his side at the front.

The trip to the town passed with plenty of discussion, although the children were more talkative than their parents, even sometimes laughing at some of their jokes. This was until their father called them quietly as if not wanting to attract attention.

“Melissa. Joshua.” They turned to see him and saw that he was looking forward, and they stood up to see what was in front, leaning over their parents’ shoulders. Melissa swallowed nervously at the sight.

The town was visible from the small hill they were on, and so were the ponies. Houses and other buildings in the town were at most three stories high, and the ponies easily stood more than a head higher than any of them. Even the tallest humans couldn't even reach their knees.

Melissa could see eight ponies, six grey guards. Two of them in town with a large wagon, four outside of town with two civilian ponies, and a unicorn stallion and earth pony mare.

Joshua sat down as they approached town’s entrance, but Melissa stayed standing, knowing the danger that went with watching the ponies. They were talking to each other, and as the cart passed them, they didn't even seem to notice it, discussing without really caring if humans heard them, and Melissa caught them saying how “he” should be here soon.

In town, their father stopped the cart and they all jumped off, father tying the horse to the nearby pole and giving it a few strokes.

“Hi there, I was waiting for you.”

They heard a voice come from across the way and saw one of their father's friends, John, walking toward them.

“Yeah, I wouldn't miss this,” he joked morbidly.

In reality they, as well as everyone else here, didn't have a choice. If someone didn't show up, ponies would hunt them until they found them, and hiding or helping them was also punishable.

And the most common punishment was taking humans in Equestria, to whatever fate was waiting for them there. Ponies didn't necessarily just take the escaped human, but also random people around this area as a collective punishment. It had worked well enough over the years to keep the local people in check, they hadn't heard anyone trying to escape in a long while.

It didn't even take an hour when they saw it, large cart pulled by two pegasi guards descending from the sky. All ponies and humans had gathered near the market and cleared enough room for it to land. The chariot came down surprisingly gently, and all the ponies and humans bowed when an white unicorn stallion stepped out of the cart.

He was one of the few ponies Melissa knew by name, Prince Blueblood. A spoiled brat of a prince who was well known for his attitudes towards humans. He exchanged a few words with the civilian ponies and nodded at them to begin.

The civilian ponies followed the Prince as he begun to walk in front of the humans, simply selecting them one by one. It was hard for Melissa to stand there; she cringed at the sight that was happening in front of her, there were screams and cries, as selected humans said goodbyes to their relatives and friends, and then walked towards the wagon, escorted by both civilian ponies.

“I think that is all of them,” Prince Blueblood said to the mayor, who was now standing in front of him. The mayor seemed to count the selected humans and bowed.

“Yes, my lord. I hope Your Highness is satisfied.”

The colossal pony prince didn't even bother answering, but walked to the group of selected humans, looking at them with a slight smile.

Suddenly one of the men started to run towards the Prince when he was close to him, Melissa's heart jumped when he took a sword that had been hidden under his clothes He didn’t seem to realize that the sword was nothing more than a needle to the ponies.

“Never!” She heard him shout as he prepared to strike, when a strange coloured aura surrounded him. The sword flew out of his hand, lifted up by one of the unicorn guard's magic, and the man fell down in front of the Prince.

“You will never take me!” he shouted in powerless rage, looking up at the Prince from where he had fallen. Blueblood’s face showed anger, and as he lifted his leg up, there was a great gasp in the crowd.

Melissa saw her mother grabbing Joshua, turning him away just in time when the Prince slammed his hoof down on the man. He lifted it again, revealing an unmoving, mangled body, partly obscured by the dust. Melissa looked away from the grisly scene.

“Now I am short one slave.” the prince sighed to no-one particular, like commenting on some trivial matter.

The mayor seemed to understand immediately.

“Yes... Yes, my lord. It will take only a moment to arrange some suitable replacements.”

“Be sure that they are worthy.”
Blueblood then turned to the unicorn slave trader and whispered something, too quiet to be heard.

The slave trader nodded, turning back to the wagon. His horn glowed as he began to take small cages from the wagon and place them on the ground. The cages looked so tiny compared to them, so tiny in fact that each will probably contain only one human.

The mayor walked hurriedly towards the crowd and waved hastily to the giant guards, who went into the crowd and began selecting people, mostly young, and carried them to the cages at the center of the market.

Cries and angry shouts began and started to grow stronger as more and more people were sent to the market, even children. One of the pony guards, a grey coated earth pony, took a step closer, making the ground shake with a roar.

“Silence!”

The crowd fell silent for the most part, but there was a lot of silent chatter and weeping. Joshua was standing to Melissa’s side when a guard passed them from behind and Melissa felt a strong hoof pushing her towards the center.

“You two, go!”

Melissa and Joshua turned towards their parents, in silent pleading. Their mother had put her hands in front of her mouth and looked like she was on the verge of a panic. Their father looked angrily at the guards, but then turned his face towards his children and his eyes meet with Melissa's.

He formed the word go with his mouth and stopped his wife with his arm. Tears flowed from her eyes as he hugged her tightly.

“Mommy…” Joshua whispers as Melissa took his hand in hers.

Melissa felt numb as she walked past the crowd people. Selected people, about twenty of them total, formed a rough line and just stood and waited there. The mayor walked in front of them, looking very briefly at each one of them, and without saying a word, walked back towards the ponies.

“My- my lord, we have gathered fine examples for Your Highness... It would be an honour if Your Highness could select one of them.” he shouted up at the ponies.

“Very well.” Prince Blueblood said, walking towards the line and beginning to inspect them one at the time.

Melissa had never seen a pony so close, his hooves looked almost like polished and his fur, completely white, was spotless as far as she could see. She looks at the line of people and while most have turned their faces towards the ground, some were defiantly looking the Prince directly in the face.

Melissa decided to raise her head as well, taking as neutral look on her face as possible,

We are not afraid of you.” She thought as the prince inspected the young man on her right. Joshua's grip on her left hand tightened, and the Prince took a step, looking directly at Melissa.

Time seemed to stop at that moment, and Melissa swallowed in fear.. Then the moment ended and he took a look at Joshua. A wave of relief that felt like a cool breeze occurred when he turned his gaze to the next person, on the left of Joshua. But then the Prince quickly looked past the few remaining people on their left and turned his face towards Joshua again.

He said only one word, “Him.”

Joshua's grip tightened so much it hurt. Melissa couldn’t believe this is happening.

No, no, no... this is a nightmare.” she thought and closed her eyes, “We’re all going to wake up at home, and this will be nothing but a bad dream.

But when she opened her eyes again, nothing had changed. The Prince walked away, looking at one of the other ponies and nodded towards Joshua.

That pony, an earth pony mare with a cream coloured coat and colourful mane, came towards them and motioned with her hoof.

“Come, little boy, let’s go,” she said, smiling.

Joshua didn't move, instead moving closer to his sister, trembling and looking at the ground. The rest of the people in the line start slowly move away from them as if they were contagious.

The mare saw his fear, and kneeled closer, “Little one, come now.” she almost pleaded, carefully moving her hoof close to them, so close that they could have reached and touched it from where they stood.

It was huge, almost two meters wide and when standing, it seemed that her belly was as high as three or four men were tall.

“I don't wanna go…” Joshua whispers in a barely audible voice, but loud enough for Melissa and the mare to hear.

The mare looked back at the rest of the ponies, almost as if she was afraid of something.

“We don't have much time... Please, little boy, if they see that you don't obey, they will hurt you.”

Melissa's mind raced, looking for options, but she could reach only one conclusion. Raising her face, she looked the mare in the eyes.

“Can I go instead of him?”

The mare's eyes widened and there was a gasp from the crowd; the nearest ones must have heard it too. Joshua's tear filled eyes looked at her, also wide from surprise.

“Is there a problem!?” the Prince had raised his voice for the first time. The mare rose up to her full height, bowed, and stepped back so that he can see the siblings.

“No, Sire... it is just that the girl wants to go, instead of the boy. I guess they are brother and sister…”

The Prince looked at them and shook his head.

"No. We take them both." The mare looked back and forth between the prince and the siblings, and bowed her head again. She turned her head towards siblings once more.

“Well...you heard him…”

Melissa and Joshua heard a garbled noise from behind them and turned to look; their parents had come from the crowd and were standing there, maybe ten meters away from them. Tears forced their way into Melissa's eyes.

“Mom... Dad... I'm sorry, Joshua can't survive there, not alone... I had to try something.” Their parents were hugging closely each other and seemed to nod, their mother already crying.

Melissa looked at the mare and took a little step forward, Joshua hugging her closely and following along. She looked at him, but he seemed to only watch their parents. Slowly they made it where the other ponies stood, and the mare spoke.

“That was incredibly brave and nice... What is your name?”

“My name is Melissa.” She answered, a little surprised that when she looked at the mare’s face, she saw a sympathetic smile. “Nice to meet you, Melissa. I'm Bon Bon.”

Bon Bon took one step at the time, shaking the ground, as she walked on their side to the wagon, where the rest had already gathered. Unicorn ponies had levitated small cages on the ground and pointed for humans to go in.

The cages were so small that they had to sit down to fit in. Once in, the unicorns closed the cage doors with their magic and begun to lift them in the wagon. At that point, there were just two cages left on the ground.

Bon Bon nodded towards the cages, “You must go into those.”

Melissa, with Joshua at her side, walked in front of the cage. She turned to face to her brother, touching the side of his head with her hand.

“We must go in, Joshua.”

“O- Okay…” He nodded weakly.

Joshua crouched low, shuddering and crawling into his cage as Melissa watched. As he sat and watched her, Melissa tried to give him an encouraging smile. After that, she turned and walked to her cage. Getting down to all fours, she too crawled in and got on her knees to watch as Joshua’s cage was lifted up with magic.

She followed it with her gaze as it rose high and disappeared into the wagon. Melissa turned to sit in the corner when an aura enveloped the cage and lifted it up. Its fast rise forced her to take hold from the cage's mesh. She realized that the unicorn didn't lift up the cage, it was the Prince. The cage rose higher up, to his eye level, and she finds herself face to face with Prince Blueblood. He examines her for a few seconds.

“I know those eyes, little girl. Be sure that you don't cause any trouble for me.”

He then nodded to the unicorn, as he took the cage with his magic. The Prince turned away from her. The cage was levitated into the wagon where the other cages are already in place. Melissa was relieved when she realized that she is going to be placed on the side of Joshua's cage.

Her cage locked in place, and through the cage's mesh he reached her with his fingers, as she touched them with hers.

“We will survive this, Joshua.” she said, offering an encouraging smile, and he nodded, smiling weakly in return.

Melissa watched as the earth pony guard walked in front of the wagon. After the other ponies made sure that everything is in place, he began to pull the wagon, jolting it and forcing Melissa to take support from the cage’s mesh.

All of caged the humans watched, some weeping, as they were pulled away from the town, their relatives and friends, knowing that in all likelihood, they will never see them again.