Slowly Steve set one foot in front of each other, his feet sinking in a few centimetres into the freshly ploughed soil with every step as he stepped out of the unusually quiet forest and into an empty field. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath through his nostrils, filling his lungs with the scent of nature that surrounded him, enjoying the tranquillity and peace that he was immersed in. After a while, he opened his eyes again and began looking around, trying to spot something familiar. In the distance, at the end of the field, he was able to spot a large red barn as well as some other wooden buildings next to it.
Is that Sweet Apple Acres? How did I get here? And what am I even doing here? he asked himself, feeling bewildered as he trudged towards the farm, apple trees appearing at his sides as he trudged up the dirt road. He tried looking around, hoping to locate Ponyville in the distance but the glare of the sun seemed to increase rapidly, forcing him to turn his attention away. His question soon got an answer as he saw an orange pony galloping towards him from the line of apple trees to his right.
“Hey Applejack!” he called out to the mare, waving a hand at her direction as she got closer to him, a cloud of dust rising behind her from the high speed. When she arrived in front of him, she glared at him with a strange spark in her eyes, her mouth twisted in an ugly frown. He raised a brow in confusion. “Applejack? What’s going on -?”
Applejack gave him no time to even complete his sentence. Instead, she quickly spun around, every muscle in her body getting tense while she stabilized herself with her forelegs as she lashed out with her hind legs. It all happened too fast for Steve to react and the next thing he felt was immense pain as the pony’s legs hit him directly in the stomach.
He fell to the ground, writhing and groaning in pain as he held his trembling hands over his stomach, clutching it tightly. Tears shot into his eyes and he had to sharply breathe in air, trying to soothe the pain as much as he could.
His eyes fell onto Applejack who had turned around again, slamming her hooves on the ground closely in front of his head, causing him to flinch in fright and looked down on him, her eyes filled with contempt.
With a loud cough, he tried clearing his throat and looked up at the mare, fighting the waves of agony that ran through his body. “What the fu…” he was able to press out under the pain before being cut off by Applejack.
“Whatch ya think yer doin’!?” she yelled at him, her voice filled with an anger he never heard from her before. It sounded dark, menacing even, holding the promise of pain if he made the wrong move. “Back on the fields with ya!”
The confusion he felt got overwhelmed by anger, the feeling surging through him, making him feel stronger. He opened it his mouth to curse her, but before he could even get a word out, Applejack had already pulled out a whip which was now being held in one of her hooves. “Don’t ya’ think about talking back to me now or you’ll see how a whip can cut through flesh.”
Any attempt he had in mind to retaliate from the pain Applejack just inflicted on him got annihilated as she cracked the whip close to his face, causing him to wince at the loud sound and as the small draft of wind passed over his face from the closeness of the weapon.
“Now, we’re going back to the fields, ya got me?” she snarled and held the whip ready. Without waiting for a reaction, she grabbed one of his arms with her mouth and roughly pulled him onto his legs.
His body had begun trembling uncontrollably, completely unable to understand anything that was going on right now, failing to notice the small but steady trickle of blood that had begun to fall from the wound where the farm pony had bitten him, its crimson thickness tainting the ground in small drops.
“Move,” she ordered in a tone that tolerated no dissent and pushed him forward. He almost fell on the ground again but was able to catch himself in time. He started to turn around again but the crack of the whip caused him to stop his motion.
“I ain’t gonna say it again. Move!” she repeated, her eyes boring into his, daring him to contradict her.
His mind was racing. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Although every fibre in his body was screaming at him, urging him to tackle the pony to the ground and shout at her till his lungs were burning while repaying her cruelty, he was too afraid of the whip that she still held in her hooves, so he had no other option than to comply and he started moving, his body still aching from the kick.
“Faster!” Applejack ordered and pushed him from behind, causing him to stumble a bit. “Yer lucky to get off this easy for trying to sneak off the fields.”
Shortly after they arrived at the fields Applejack had in target. Steve stood in terror as he witnessed the scenes unfurling right before his very eyes. A group of stallions were desperately trying to plough the field under the eyes of Applejack’s five friends, ponies Steve would never have thought to be so cruel and completely devoid of compassion as they all marched up and down the fields, surrounding the hapless stallions, each one brandishing a whip, either in their mouths or levitated by magic. The stallions all looked horrible, deep rings under their eyes, the bones in their malnourished bodies clearly visible underneath their fur, riddled with old scars and new wounds, judging from the puffy, raw-looking gashes that dominated their entire body as they desperately tried to pull the heavy plows behind them. As soon as one of them slowed down or even stopped, he was screamed at and felt the sting of a whip until he continued working again.
His frightened eyes, almost comical in the way they were so wide, fell on a smaller, light brown stallion, looking as though he had barely reached adulthood, seemed to be struggling more than the others, unable to pull a plough that was almost the same size as him through the fields. Silently he watched as the stallion grunted and strained, muscles heaving as sweat dripped down into his eyes as he tried desperately to advance forward, yet the plough would only budge forward ever so reluctantly. It wasn’t long before his body was overwhelmed by the effort, his trembling limbs unable to keep his body upright as he collapsed onto the soft dirt, his sides rising and falling harshly as he panted for air. His rest was short as Fluttershy appeared behind him, a scowl on her face. The otherwise demure mare began yelling something incomprehensible for Steve to understand, before she kicked the stallion in his sides.
Horrified, Steve could only look on as Fluttershy mercilessly began pummelling the stallion with her hooves as the stallion lay there, unmoving, staring ahead blankly as the mare continued to rain blow upon his body. The screams of pain only came when she grabbed her whip and continued her assault on her victim that never raised a hoof in his defence, new welts covering the old ones. On and on it went, Fluttershy keeping a steady rhythm until she gradually slowed down and then stopped, grinning wildly as she surveyed her handiwork as the stallion lay at her hooves, trembling as blood slowly seeped from his wounds, whimpering to himself. She seemed to signal to one for one of the stallions, who had all continued to work relentlessly while making sure they avoided looking at their comrade. He shuffled forward as Fluttershy pointed him to the red barn. Nodding his head in obedience, he reached out and latched onto the broken stallion with his teeth and began dragging him in the direction of the barn, slowly at first until a whip to his back spurred him to move faster.
Not caring about the consequences and unable to contain himself any longer, he turned towards Applejack and yelled, “You sick bitch, how could…” He abruptly stopped as the enraged mare charged at him. He quickly threw his arms around his head as he braced for impact, narrowing his eyes. However, the blow didn’t come the way he expected; Applejack had instead galloped behind him and lashed out with her hind legs once again, kicking him in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble, before she sent him sprawling into the dirt with a quick swipe of her hoof to his head. She had already planted a firm hoof on his abdomen before he could even think about fighting back, looming over him ominously, her face darkening in rage at his actions.
“Why are you doing this?!” he yelled desperately, his eyes filling again, the pain from the blow to his head and tears blurring his vision. “P-please… don’t…” he whimpered as Applejack raised her whip, ready to swing it. Shaking, he wiped his eyes as he noticed several shadows above him, blocking the harsh sunlight as they surrounded him.
“This one’s been giving you trouble?” came a voice he knew too well. Rainbow Dash, he thought, as she came into focus. She grinned at him, not the cocky smirk of pride he had known before, but one of pure malevolence as the rest of the mares came into view, sneering down at the wounded human as Applejack nodded her head in response to her question, but lowering the whip, much the relief of the human.
“He certainly doesn’t look like much,” Rarity said, snorting in disdain as he slowly tried to sit up from the dirt, making no effort to help him.
“Useless stallions shouldn’t be kept around for long,” Pinkie Pie growled. Steve stared at her, almost not recognizing her. Gone was the bubbly mare that wanted to throw him parties and hug him until his bones started to creak. Instead, she looked at him, her mane flat against her face and eyes utterly devoid of emotion, although a crooked smile was on her face as she reached into her saddlebags to pull out a knife. A knife, Steve observed faintly, that seemed to be crusted with old blood. Pinkie Pie noticed his stare and slowly, almost seductively, brought the knife to her face and began licking the blade clean, twirling her tongue in an erotic dance, seeming to take cruel delight at the horror etched upon Steve’s face.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say he’ll be completely useless,” Twilight said, as she trotted up to his prone body, swaying her hips. Gazing down at the human with half-lidded eyes, she began slowly rubbing her hoof up and down Steve’s battered body sensuously, smiling at him lasciviously as she drew the human closer. “If he can’t work the fields, he can always be used in differently. I can think of a few activities he and I can do that we would both find extremely….. pleasurable,” Twilight murmured, whispering the last sentence into his ear before taking a playful nibble at it.
That intimate contact finally spurred the shell-shocked human into actions, scrambling backwards on his hands and feet, trying desperately to create some distance between the group of mares and himself. It was a futile endeavour as once again Applejack stormed up to him and delivered another painful kick to his stomach, his agonized scream cut short as he began hacking up and spitting blood. Clutching his stomach, he turned towards his attacker, who once again brandished the whip for him to see.
“Please….. no more,” he wheezed, begging her with her eyes. Below him, the ground began to shake as he quivered in fear.
“It didn’t have tah come tah this, but ya asked for it,” she replied and swung her whip.
Terror filled his eyes as he saw the whip approaching him. The world began to slow down and he wanted to scream, hold his arms in front of his face, do something but he couldn’t. It was only a few heartbeats until the whip would hit him directly in the face…
The ground below him rumbled heavily, the land itself seeming to groan……
The sky above him glowed brighter, blotting out the background in its powerful glare….
And then, the whip made contact…
“AHHH!” Steve shouted and shot up in his bed. Panicked, he looked around in the darkness that was surrounding him frantically, panting heavily, a cascade of sweat running down his body. Oh thank god… it was just a dream, he thought, a trickle of relief flowing through his body as he tried to calm himself down. That was the third one already, he sighed and slowly sank back into the sweat soaked sheets of his bed. He slowly pulled them around his shaking body, resting a damp hand on his head, a dull headache already on its way to beating a rhythm inside his head. As much as he tried, he couldn’t stop the vivid images of his dreams from playing across in his mind, the horror and fear he felt in them still resonating. He sighed, a ragged, pitiful thing, and squirmed around, trying to make himself comfortable despite knowing that the chance of him actually falling asleep again were slim. Not that he wanted to, if those dreams were what awaited him. Can’t get a single night of peace anymore…
Hm, I hope the next chapter is longer. This story is good and I want to see a good update
3160163 I think you've been spoiled on too many bigger chapters! Besides the length of the chapter, was everything else to your liking?
3160178
Yeah, it made sense. I'm guessing he's sort of scared, at least to some degree, of ponies now, because of the sexism of the shopkeeper, if I remember right.
And of course I'm spoiled by larger chapters :P I read this in no time at all.
3160163 The size doesn't matter
3160185
I like to read long stories
It's nice that it's next week. Something to look forward to, along with the ridiculous upload rate of Diaries, which I also love.
3160194 The reason the chapters have been so slow in coming is because I'm pretty sick, so I've slowed down a lot. Dengue isn't pleasant at all.
3160223
Oh no
Dengue?
*Wiki's*
Oh, that's terrible simply dreadful
Hopefully you get better soon. What, are you on some medicine for it, hopefully? Antibiotics or something like that?
3160225 Yeah, got medicine from the doctor yesterday. I'll probably have to go in the hospital for a few days as it gets worse. Most days I spend in bed, reading. The only story I'm working right now is this one, so I plug away at it slowly.
3160241
Oh well, hope you get better soon :P
Seen that one coming
Good stuff.
That he got nightmares was somehow to be expected after last chapter.
The interesting bit is, that the sexism is somewhat mixed with display's of slavery that are seen in one move or another, but I'm not sure why.
Aside from that, this time there is simply not much to say.
Am I the only one who thinks he's over reacting? You'd think that being the member of a race that did practice slavery, that the idea wouldn't affect him so much. Seems a bit over-dramatic to me, what with constant nightmares now. I mean sure I could understand if he was a bit unsettled considering how recently the ponies reached equality. But I think it's just a bit too much as of now.
I expected Luna to show up.
3160714 Well it's one thing to read about it, and another to be threatened with something resembling it....... if that makes sense, thinking is kinda hard right now. He knows that they wouldn't deep down, it's just that his subconscious is still bothering him about it. I think this will be the climax of these fears, without giving too much away. Look out for the next chapter!
3160958 Stay tuned!
3161453>>3160714
As a person whose ancestors were slaves, I can easily say that what he is experiencing is a very real and saddening reaction. Like JBL said, reading about racism and slavery does NOT compare to actually experiencing it. Believe me I know.
I was 8 years old when I experienced my first bit of racism. Before this, I had read about slavery, racism, and the civil rights movement but didn't quite understand the significance of it all. But suffice it to say, I learned very quickly and painfully that day.
I was a kid volunteer at one of the V.A. Hines Hospitals.(A hospital for veterans) I was doing this because my aunt works there and I enjoyed being there with her. My job was very simple; all I had to do was wheel around the patients, ask if they need anything, or fill their cups with ice water if they desired. It was fun and the old guys enjoyed talking to me quite a lot I later found out.
But it was this particular day that things went sour. I was on my water run and ran out of ice. I normally go to a particular ice machine but it was broken so I had to go to the cafeteria in our unit and use that one. It wasn't a problem so I explained to one of the kitchen staff what happened and she showed me to the machine and allowed me to use it. You'd think everything would be fine except for one issue.
There were old people still in the cafeteria.
They were playing BINGO.
The ice machine was really, really loud.
I knew the machine was loud but I had hoped that they were far enough away so that it didn't bother them. Even so I didn't really have any other options. As a kid, you aren't really allowed to go to many other units without supervision or permission besides your unit so I was stuck with this noisy machine. Unfortunately, it did bother one old white man who stood up, stopped the lady calling the numbers, and gestured in my direction before saying, "I can't hear anything!!!" he yelled before looking right at me. "That little ...." he hesitated just slightly, "Boy... is over there messing with the ice machine and I can't here a dang thing!" he growled out.
At this point I was shocked, I had never had an adult yell at me like that before. The other bingo people were shocked as well by the guys ferocity. I was frozen, the only thing I could think about was those eyes. Those eyes that stared and glared so terrifyingly said everything to me that I didn't understand before then. Hate. Pure. Unfiltered, unadulterated hate. I didn't know what to do so I left the ice machine and the tray and left the cafeteria in a daze. That hesitation when he was referring to me; I knew what he wanted to say, what he wanted to call me but didn't. I was so lost that I didn't hear the arguing coming from the cafeteria after I left nor the patients that waved at me kindly as I passed by. When I didn't return them like I normally did, their faces going from cheerful to worried and concerned in an instant. Especially when they saw that I was crying. I didn't know it or even feel it, but I was crying. They tried to ask me what was wrong but I couldn't say anything; my voice was gone.
I just slowly shuffled away sadly until I found my aunt and told her I wanted to quit. She and everyone else in the unit eventually found out and tried to console me. What was amazing was that a number of the patients I serviced (Both white and Black) were appalled and went searching for the man that did this to me. It was an action that cheered me up slightly but the damage was already done. I quit the very next day and the rest was history.
To this very day, almost 17 years ago I still feel the effects of what I experienced. I still have the difficulty or perhaps psychological problem of not being able to make eye contact. Before that incident, I always made eye contact whenever I met someone; now it feels like something strike s through me each and every time I try it. Those same eyes still haunting me.
Long story short, experiencing first hand is completely different from second and third hand accounts when it comes to racism/sexism/slavery. That saying of "walking a mile in another shoes" holds true here. I hope I haven't bored anyone with my tale, just trying to give an example of how these things can affect us so deeply.
Yet again well done JBL and Gron you are hitting the points very nicely with this topic. Thank you for choosing to explore this issue and for the awesome story. Keep up the excellent work!
~8chill
P.S. I hope you feel better and I wish you a speedy and fast recovery!
Got my fave, sir.
3163774 That was easy, but Twilight isn't amused
3163784
Heh, I'm sure Twilight wouldn't mind my having an opinion, but she might think I'm strange for caring whether she has wings or not.
This story is good. Awesome job.
I'd be carrying at least one or two sidearms with me after a dream like that had I been him. While never easy (at least to those who are actually sane in the head), humanity has become quite good at killing to the point where it's almost natural to want a way to protect yourself. Especially since we have no claws or immense strength like that of a lion, instead turning to our tools, guns and such. And with the dangers of the MLP universe, not just the wild predators, but also the damage that could be done by ponies like applejack or with magic, I wouldn't be surprised to find him keeping a gun on his person in the next chapter. Not a tazer, a full blown gun. The sound alone would be enough, a loud bang like that instilling a feeling of shock and awe into the less technologically advanced races.
3163795 nothing wrong with a nice pair of wings on a mare..waait! that sounded wrong what I mean is wings could accentuate the female form not that I notice such things... quick look over there a distraction! (runs away)
3162922 I wish i had words enough to help you with that problem. I do hope you can someday find peace in what happened and that it doesnt affect you in ways other than lacking eye contact. You can miss alot by not looking someone in the eyes. I am so deeply sorry. :(
3160958 remember that he did not under ANY circumstances want Luna in his head again. ;P
You know. I don't see why this could bother him so much. It's not his race. Not his History. So why give a shit?
4921366 the mind is a very strange place when you are asleep. it can focus on the image of a loved one and then twist that image into something horrible. that is the concept of a nightmare.
the sleep of reason produces monsters.
What bothers me the most about this chapter, unlike what I've read as being an issue amongst some of the other commentators, is that you're strongly implying that he can smell and feel pain while dreaming. Everyone knows that one way to tell if you're dreaming or not is that you have no sense of touch or pain in the former.
One thing I don't get is why is it Such a big deal human history as done far worst thing in the past. Hell only around 70years ago Hitler did is whole thing in just saying.
3160185 its how well it works
5652786 hey I can feel pain from my dreams
Oh, great. Our MC is not only stupid and emotionally fragile but also a weakling, and that is because he got basic training in conbat and had phisical competitions weekly for almost 2 years.
I hate when the MC is useless like that, but again I realize that represents tge majority of people nowadays.
Wrong, humans fight, it's our natural reaction to almost every emotion, one only has to look at the history of every Era, culture or race to see that. Quite frankly fear and is perhaps one of if not the fastest way to send most humans into a black out rage. History both modern and ancient dose have a lot of kill it with fire incidents in it. Also the point of training even the pitiful amount one sometimes receives in boot camp is all about getting one to react accordingly without thought. ie if it's hostile, put that fucker down by whatever means available.
Also I find it hard to believe anybody on a mission such as his would be so terribly undertrained, have you seen the types of qualifications astronauts have before even getting specialized training as an astronaut, and that's just to go to the space station, let alone on a space exploration.
Yes I went to Navy bootcamp, we do have ground side combat rates you know.