Humani Victoria

Chapter 14- Fallen

"There is no great genius without a mixture of madness."

                                                                                        -Aristotle

It is amazing what the Human mind can create.

Great metal birds soaring through the air, defying gravity. Huge steel whales dominating he surface of the ocean and below it, awe-inspiring ships that reached to the stars and the moon. Weapons that could wipe a civilization off the map, leaving the ground stripped bare of soil, the air burning with intense heat, the very water molecules in the air evaporated into the nothingness.

Huge machines that could manipulate the finer materials of existence, smashing atoms into each other to create new materials, small devices no bigger than a stone that could process more information than any biological mind. Suits of armour that could withstand the death of a star, blades that could slice through entire forests of trees, and rods that could harness the power of lightning...

Arguably even greater is what the Human mind can create in the ethereal plain of unconsciousness, rather than the physical one.

The world was a great tundra of blue, the snow blended in with the air but one could still feel it; cold and wet against the flesh, a river of tumbling emotion cut through the cold hard land. But rather than fish, grant orange bubbles of reality floated down the unreal silky liquid before coming to a waterfall made of snippets of consciousness, the bubbles fell down the cascade of emotion before exploding into waterfalls themselves, but these were of different colour, texture, and meaning.

The thousands of waterfalls hit against the stones below, these stones flashed with pockets of reality every time a molecule hit them, giving off a flashing light that was painful to watch, the stones themselves were smoothed from the erosion of emotion and memory, revealing beautiful jewels and gems that were hidden within, the crystals glowed with a strange purple energy, steaming as the liquid hit them and giving off gas that soared into the sky.

The gas swirled around itself, dancing and twisting in a great show of chaotic beauty, soon the gas formed a body, a body with wings and it soared higher, through other gases that protected the blueness below. A cold that could not be described, light fractured and went everywhere as lightening arced between the beams, heat without fire that melted flesh and bone. Through all of this the gas-flyer escaped into a bleak emptiness without the heat, the cold, the river, or the fall.

Around it was nothing, except itself, the unreality, and a single burning ball of fire. It gave off an even greater heat than before, but the flyer went closer, too close; it's feathers caught on fire and evaporated into the gas it was created from, it's wings disappearing into mist as the flyer fell back into the blueness.

As the laws stated the flyer cascaded back towards the river, through the coldness, the brightness, and the heat. Before splashing into the pool created by the waterfall, it's final moments were spent drowning in memories and emotion.

The landing of the flyer was enough to move the pool, it cascaded down a cliff and formed a new shape, and turned from blue to steely grey. Eyes, they were eyes, these eyes looked around, it was a dark cave with a small amount of light from what looked like a caged door, the light from the cages door increased and the eyes were forced to form eyelids so the body could close his eyes.

Jason opened his eyes.

An Unknown place, at an Unknown exact time, probably still in 2205 AC though

Jason came to in a dark room, judging from the feeling of the ground on his backside it was solid, rough stone. Across the cave-like room was a bared door, seeping through said door came the faint flickering light that came from some sort of torch that probably lined the walls of the hallway.

Jason tried shifting his body but was met with resistance, it was at this point that the Human realized that his arms were bound together with some sort of metal band, after shifting his shoulders a few times Jason could hear the clicking of a metal chain against the band and the stone wall, confirming that he was chained to the wall.

It was clear he wasn't going anywhere, and that wasn't exactly comforting, Jason felt the slow crawl of panic begin to overtake his body, he began shaking slightly as the situation became too much for him.

Jason remained in his hopeless position for at least another minute or two, it was hard to tell time in the dark. Soon the soft pattering of feet could be heard echoing from the hall and the light steadily brightened as a torch was brought closer to Jason's cell.

The Human looked up to see the shadows of three beings, he couldn't make out who or what they were but it was revealed when one of them spoke.

"Ahhhh, I see your awake Pony-friend thing." The Diamond Dog rasped "Ready for work you are, grab him!" The two remaining dogs opened the cell door with the jingling of keys and the creak of the hinges. As the approached Jason was able to give them a better look; they were large an bulky clad in steel breastplates and helmets, as they were fiddling with the Humans bonds he could see short swords and curled up whips on their sides, clearly these dogs were a cut ahead of the ones Jason had dealt with on the surface.

Finally Jason's bonds were removed and he was given the freedom to rub his wrists, it was short lived at his arms were quickly grabbed by the two thugs and he was dragged rather uncomfortably across the stone floor, slamming his knees into the hard stones painfully. He was brought to the cell door were the remaining Diamond Dog was waiting, when he reached him he felt his hair grabbed roughly in the paw of the canine and his head jerked up to look his jailor face to face.

His beady yellow eyes practically glowed in the dim light, but what Jason noticed was the long thin scar that ran across his face, that could only mean...

"Remember me Pony-friend thing? You poisoned Diamond-Leader guy you did, with Eel goo, very painful, almost died but no, I survived and now you get too feel my pain..." Jason barely had time to worry about that before the canine punched him in the stomach.

Now Jason wasn't in the best condition, having just survived a plane crash relatively recently, so not only did the blow hurt like hell and knock the wind out of him, but it sent Jason's head thumping painfully and the room spinning.

As Jason struggled for breath the Diamond Dog looked to his canine brethren.

"Take him to shaft forty-seven, and get him set up to mine. You'll be here forever Pony-friend thing, no one escapes Lupa Mine."

The dog stepped aside and his henchmen dragged Jason out of the cell and down the hall, The Human lacked the energy to even keep his head up so the trip for him was just the stone floor below him and the occasional stone hitting his knees and scraping at his pants.

Eventually he was brought to another bared door, which was unlocked and opened so the two dogs could throw Jason in. He landed painfully on the other side and looked up just in time to see the cage close behind him, leaving him staring at the monstrous canines through the bars.

"Start mining Pony-friend thing!" One of them barked, before they walked away. Jason lied on the ground in defiance, more out of the fact that his head was pounding painfully rather than any sense of rebellion. It was another minute before the thumping subsided and outside sounds took it's place; the sound of pickaxes hitting stone was prominent, but one could hear wails of pain and misery echoing through the caves.

The Human rolled onto his back and sat up, scanning the cavern he was in. It was a large circular pocket with a decently sized campfire in the middle with several spades and pickaxes piled around it, on either side two shafts extended further into the rock, after looking down these off shoots one could see that they were full of Ponies of every shape, colour, and race. All of them looking beaten, bruised, and tired but hammering away at the rock nevertheless with a sort of miserable obedience.

They're slavers.

While inside Jason had already realized this, fully accepting that fact was another matter all together, and the hopelessness of the situation was begging to effect Jason, his breath becoming ragged as panic gripped his body again and the Human gasped for air. It seemed as if the cavern had been emptied of breathable air, leaving only fear-inducing gas behind that threatened to overwhelm Jason.

As the Human struggled with reality, one of the many Equine miners took a step from his digging site, breathing deeply and wiping the sweat off of his brow. Taking a look at his pick the Earth Pony took in the nicks and cracks that riddled the old tool, deciding to retrieve a fresher one (and take a break from work) the slave made his way to the main chamber of Shaft 47, and towards the pile of pickaxes and spades.

As he exited the tunnel and into the chamber, he immediately noticed the creature near the caged entrance to the shaft. At first he thought it was a Diamond Dog but almost as quickly forgot that as the thing was sitting in a sort of curled up position, and was wearing clothing completely unlike that in which the Dogs utilized.

So that only left one logical conclusion: it was a new slave.

"Best be getting to work mate." The creature immediately reacted to his words, jerking it's head up and fixing on him with small, beady, grey eyes that gave the old slave a strange shiver.

"The Dogs'll whip you if you lag around too long, get on and grab a pick, the lest you resist the better." The thing didn't speak, merely continued to watch the slave with its stare. The Slave shrugged and moved over to the tool pile to select a good pick.

"What's your name?" A dry voice asked from behind him, the creature. The slave shrugged without looking behind him.

"No names down here, we're slaves, property, expendable, best not get too attached to that in which can die of a mine collapse the next morning."

"....but doesn't that kill off the hope of escape?"

"Can't kill what was never alive, no one escapes Lupa Mine and that won't change."

"But you can't believe that, you can't just accept a life of slavery."

"Better to accept the unchangeable reality, than to give yourself a false hope of a better one." No response came from the creature, and the slave picked up a pickaxe and tossed it towards the thing, it landing at its feet.

"Now, like I said you might want to get to work or you'll get five lashes for laziness." The slave turned around holding his own pick to see the creature grasping his new tool and coming to its feet, the creature towered above the slave, coming to a hight that a Diamond Dog would be intimidated by. The slave grunted at gestured towards the tunnel he had come from.

"Come on, I'll show you the way." The slave carried his pick back down the tunnel, the sound of the creatures steps being heard over the din of the tunnel, they passed one or two other slaves that dug at the stone of the wall, eventually they came to a spot in the wall that had clearly been dug at, the slave pointed towards the patch to his right.

"There, you can have that spot, have fun." Without another look the slave took hold of his pick and continued in his unwilling work.

Jason moved over to his patch and stared dully at the grey rock before blankly hefting his pick and taking a swing. It was immediately obvious that this was going to be a problem, as the moment the Human moved his body with any semblance of energy or muscle it sent another series of painful thumping to Jason's head, making his vision swim and him almost topple to his knees.

Taking deep breaths, Jason tried again with similar results, his progress was like this for the next few minutes, taking a swing only to rest for another second or two. Eventually the exertion became too much for Jason's damaged body and he was forced to rest for several minutes, unfortunately for him his stamina had run out at the wrong time, the sound of padded feet coming down the hall could be heard, announcing the approach of a Diamond Dog. Jason struggled to move and appear as if he was simply hefting his pick for another swing but he was too late; one of the many armoured canine guards turned a corner and almost immediately spotted him.

"Slacker!" He howled, pointing at him, the Dog zipped down the hall and gripped Jason's arm with a furry appendage.

"Think you can slack Pony-friend thing? Leader tell Dog-guards about you, tell us to treat you roughly he did." True to his orders the guard roughly pushed Jason against the stone wall, bagging the Humans already damaged head against the rocks sending his vision swimming.

"Stop slacking slacker!" The Dog growled, Jason gritted his teeth in anger and defiance and gripped his pick tighter before swinging the tool madly at the canine. His attempt was futile as the guard easily blocked his weak strike by grabbing his wrist.

"Fighter huh?" The Diamond Dog growled "Well Dog-people have places for Fighter-Slaves." The guard slammed Jason's wrist against the wall, forcing him to drop the pick and then the Human was being dragged down the hall, looking back at the slave who had originally helped him, shaking his head in apparent disappointment.

He wasn't brought far, they entered another chamber, this one lite by only a few torches and he heard his captor speak to his canine brethren.

"This one be a fighter, teach him the lesson of lashes." The Human was roughly grabbed by another pair of paws and he was bragged across the room, his arms brought up and bound to the wall, leaving him in a kneeling position facing the wall, he felt the Dog grip his shirt and rip the fabric apart, revealing his bare back.

The Dog took a few steps back, Jason could hear the snickering and light cackling of the observers of his punishment.

"Five lashes Pony-friend thing! Prepare yourself!" Jason at this point finally realized what was actually happening and barely had time to steel himself before the first lash came.

At first, he didn't feel the pain, only the cool smooth touch of the leather whip. It was only the second after the whip had left his flesh that the pain could be felt, and oh it hurt, imagine tiger claws dipped in acid ripping into your back and you wouldn't even come close to the pain of the whip, as it hit Jason his vision flashed pure white and he let out the loudest scream imaginable, tears coming to his eyes as he took in the brief respite of in between lashes.

The next minute was hell, melding into a pain-filled world that seemed never to end, but it did, leaving Jason with his back on fire and just barely hanging on to consciousness, he could hear the Dogs speaking as if they were behind a door.

"...Take him to his cell, he'll think twice about slacking now." Jason was unbound and dragged again, this transport was a miasma of flashing images of reality that was painful to the eyes, his head thumping uncontrollably and his back dipped in molten lead, soon he was brought to the cell and thrown in, leading thankfully on his side as he quickly lost consciousness.

The last thing he saw before subjecting to the darkness was a flash of colours.

"Rainbows..." Jason slurred, before the Void took him.

                                                               ~~*~~

Ponyville, Equestria, Wednesday 10th of April, 8:27 am, 2205 AC, only minutes after the crash.

The remainder of the mane six and indeed the majority of Ponyville stared up in disbelief at where Jason and Rainbow Dash had collided into each other and fallen to the ground. Makers Fire and Twilight Sparkle stood next to each other, their minds not willing to accept the worst case scenario.

"Jason." Maker said.

"Rainbow" Twilight said.

Both Ponies took off at almost the same time, galloping towards the crash site, Twilights friends close behind them all of them focused on one goal: find their friends.

OhnoOhnoOhnoOhno Rainbow, please be okay, please please please, your tough you've walked away from worse crashes than this, just please be okay please be okay please

Jason! You bucking idiot! You better be okay you stubborn Human, I warmed you about the spring damn you! If your not dead when I get there I'll kick your hide to Tartarus myself! And I would really like that pleasure!

They burst from the Everfree Trees, coming to the craggy grey stone ground that the plane had crashed on, sure enough the twisted totalled chaise of the flying machine, but a disturbing lack of life in or around it.

"Rainbow Dash! Jason!" Twilight called as Makers Fire stared at the ruined construct, his keen eye spotted at splash of red on the grey stones that caused his hope to plummet, he sat on his haunches and stared at the ground as Twilights friends arrived and started calling for their lost companions, not knowing the hopelessness of the situation like the Smith had.