Tales of the Lunar Consort: Volume I (The Original!)

Prologue : Transported

Twelve years ago...

The block lit up in a blinding flash of light. A young cyan colt landed on the rough cobblestones.

"...Ow..."

He lay on the street for a moment, exhausted, literally too tired to move, until he heard an excited voice, that of a foal. Frightened, he scrambled to his feet and looked about wildly, then dashed to the shadowy, dark corner of an alley. A few moments later, three ponies came running by, and from his hiding place the colt gawked. *Equines? Bipoid equines?** he thought, shocked. Then he let out a loud shout; something had grabbed his ankle. And the ponies immediately stopped; he heard them. He scrambled back, tripping over something in the dark. That something grunt and groped again. The colt kicked wildly, it shrieked and let him go. He slid back and a bright light shone on him, blinding him.*

"By the Sun, he's naked!" Cried a surprised male voice.

"Should we get him?" asked another, this one slow and truculent.

"I wanna get him this time! You went last," whined another.

"Quiet!" The first one barked. "Both of you, get him!"

Two large figures jumped at the colt, and he scrambled to his feet and started to run. He got perhaps a meter before he painfully slammed back into the cobblestones, the air leaving his lungs in a *whoosh*. The colt yelled and tried to wriggle free, but the stallion atop him pulled him back and twisted his arms into a nelson hold, immobilizing him. The colt struggled beneath his captor.

"No! Please, let  me -  " he cried.

"Shaddap!" The stallion barked, twisting the colt's arms. The colt cried out in pain, then shut his mouth as he was abruptly hauled to his feet by the scruff of his neck. It didn't hurt, but the colt still started as he beheld his captor. The stallion was *enormous!** Far bigger than any pony had a right to be. And he looked angry. Fear raged in the colt's chest, and he shrank into himself, preparing for a beating, and shut his eyes. If it was coming, he at least didn't have to see it coming..*