YhaY: Judgment Day

This whole thing was not a happy situation for anyone, but Sir Harold took the matter with more rationality than the others . Don't get me wrong, the very idea of his entire race being turned into pets, work slaves and sex toys made his blood boil just as much as it did his newfound companions. However, throughout his life as a knight, he learned that anger only leads to reckless violence, and reckless violence only leads to death. Life is so short already, why make it shorter?

Having to drag the heavy unconscious body of a pony AND the heavier dead body of the eight headed beast through the mud didn't help either. He was perfectly capable of doing it, mind you, but the less strength spent on mundane tasks the better.

Another fact that bugged him was that the towheaded woman wouldn't leave him alone for the world. Almost as if she were bound to him.

After about an hour, or an hour and a half, he saw it from the distance. The camp looked just like it did when he left to find food. Apollo was doing something to his arms with a screwdriver, Johan was taking a snooze, and Pat was chopping up the wood she brought back.

"I bring both dinner and a potential information source!" Said Harold as he dumped the beast and the pony next to the ship.

"Shit, another one?" Apollo jumped down from the roof of the ship. "You don't think they're sending spies after us, do you?"

" 'Tis possible, yet I can confirm myself that there are no other settlements for miles. Were they, as you say, sending spies after us, they would take much longer to arrive." He replied

"Well" Started Pat "Considering the fact that someone killed our first source of information, this comes in handy, eh! Tie him down to the same chair Apollo did the last one and keep watch on him until he wakes up, we'll bring you your share of dinner, eh."

With a small nod, Harold hoisted the pony over his shoulder and went inside.

"Vat ze hell is zat?!" Johann asked while looking at their new meal.

"Massive body, multiple heads, reptilian... I'd call it a hydra." Said Apollo.

"Is it safe to eat, eh?"

"Hold on..." Apollo took a good look at the hydra and turned on his scanner. After a quick minute, his left eyeball went *ding*, and he spoke again.

"Everything below the throat is edible, well, throats." He said as he chopped of it's necks. "We're gonna have to skin the bastard, this is gonna take a while."

Location: ????

Captain Leonard J. Hawke, owner and captain of what was now the group's camp, was having a hard time adapting to the dangerous environment. While he could always kill any impending threat by setting his phaser to kill or desintegrate, he needed to conserve energy, lest he be stuck on an alien environment without any means of defense. And the two least energy consuming functions, stun and heat, didn't really seem to affect the ferocious local wildlife.

From his estimations based on the distance of the rising smoke he could see, he was about 6 kilometres from the nearest settlement. Hopefully the translation function of his communicator would aid him in communicating with the natives.

He could only hope that lady luck would be on his side for once.

"It has been almost an hour, how long can one living creature stay unconscious?" Harold asked

"I dunno, but I'm starting to get bored, eh."

As if on cue, the pony started to come to, only to find himself strapped by ropes to a cold metal chair. When he regained his sences completely, he opened his eyes to find the four humas.

"Where am I?" He thought out loud. "Bound to a chair? Dim light? Metal table? Am I being interrogated?" He looked to the side of the chair to find a make-shift copper lock. "Helloooooo! Anypony there?" He asked.

He looked at Apollo, then at the keys in his hand. He tried grasping them with his magic, but for some reason or another, all he could accomplish was to cast his iconic light-blue aura on it. Then, an idea sprung to his head. He looked around for his saddlebag and found it resting in a corner. Using his magic, he pulled out a bacon shaped biscuit from it, and hung it in front of Apollo.

"Are you hungry, boy? I'll give you the treat if you give me the key!" He said while enveloping the keys in his arcane aura, hoping the human would get it.

"No thanks, I already had dinner" Apollo said with a sarcastic face.

The moment he spoke up, Blueblood immediately dropped his hold on the biscuit, the king of all shocked looks adorning his face.

"You can t-"

"YES we can talk!" He yelled out. "Honestly, the question's only been asked once so far and it's already gotten old!"

Blueblood stared at the four humans for a while, then he shook his head. No time for initial shock, there's things going down!

"... What ARE you?"

"Vat does it look like?" Asked Johann. "We're humans!"

"Humans don't talk!" Responded Blueblood. "They're fairly intelligent, for animals, BUT THEY DON'T TALK!"

"Perhaps your version of humans do not" Counterargumented Harold. "But we are not from here."

"Not from here? Whatever do you mean?"

"We mean that we're from a world where humans are the dominant species." Replied Apollo

Blueblood took a moment to picture that, a whole world where humans lead happy lives, and didn't have to buckle under the whims of ponykind... that's the kind of world he'd like Towhead to live in...

Wait a second...

"Hold on, where's Towhead?"

Apollo raised his eyebrow. "If Towhead is the woman you were chasing, then we allowed her to rest by the fire outside."

Blueblood calmed down a bit, at least she was safe.

"What about me?" He asked. "What are you going to do to me?"

"For ze moment, nozing" Contested Johann "But know zat our ultimate goal here is to liberate all humans, and to do zat ve're going to need information, vich you vill provide to us."

Apollo took his time to ask something a little bit out of plan.

"I can see that you are heavily attached to that woman. Would you be willing to cooperate with us in our mission to liberate humanity? We could really use a magic user"

Blueblood took some time again to contemplate what he was being asked. Throughout his childhood, the only friend he had ever had was Towhead, she was the only one who would genuinely stay by his side when he was sad. Maybe that's why he felt such a strong connection to humans in general. This was his chance to go one step further from animal's rights protestor, to animal's rights enforcer!

"... I would be honored! How can I help?"

Everyone raised an eyebrow, they weren't actually expecting him to accept.

"Well..." Apollo begun. "You can begin by teling us all you know about magic and this world's humans."

"Alright then...." He drew in a deep breath. "As far as we ponies are concerned, magic is a force inherent to this world, it resides within every being, living or non-living. It can be used either through mental force, like levitating or manipulating, or it can be used in spells, which require the user to think of a specific set of runes in their head, and channel them through their horn."

"Tell us more about these runes, eh."

"Nopony really knows where they're from or what they mean, but they're words formed by an alphabetic-like system that, when organized correctly, create spells. The more runes a spell contains, the more magic is needed to cast it. Nopony has actually been able to translate the meaning of the words, but we call the language itself "runic"."

"As for humans... they are an interesting bunch, they are way smarter than any other animal, even if they're not quite sapient. They were brought here by Princess Celestia about 30 years ago, they were also-"

"Woah woah woah woah woah!" Apollo broke. "Care to repeat that?"

"They were brought into Equestria about 20 years ago by Princess Celestia." Said Blueblood.

"Explain" Ordered Johann.

"31 years ago, Princess Celestia declared that she would create a new animal that all nations would be able to use as a replaceable work-force. Half a year later, during the Summer Sun Celebration, she cast a spell that she inscribed in a stone tablet. About half an hour later, humans started popping up all over the world. A few days later, planet Epona had it's new work force. After that, Celestia donated the stone tablet to the Royal Canterlot Museum Of Magic And Arcane Arts."

The four humans were stunned, none of them knew what to make of this.

"Is there any way we can see the stone tablet?" Asked Harold

"Well..." Blueblood wondered if he should... "There's this one spell called the Snapping spell, which lets you capture an image of what you're seeing the moment you cast it, then transfer it into paper or any other surface in the form of magic-generated paint. I recently went to the CMOMAAA myself, I took a snap spell of all the exhibits, including the tablet..."

Apollo wasted no time in slamming his hands down on the metal table. "Show us. Now."

A little bit frightened, blueblood concentrated his magic energy into his horn, from which a multicolor beam of light shot out into the metal table, creating an image of a stone tablet with runic inscriptions.

Σε αυτό το πολύ την ημέρα και ημερομηνία.

Θα πρέπει να τροποποιηθεί, τις χορδές της μοίρας.

για μια αυτοκρατορία για τη βελτίωση, ένα άλλο πρέπει να θυσιαστεί.

παρόμοιο με το πώς να δοκιμάσουν την τύχη τους, πρέπει κανείς να ρίξει τα ζάρια.

ξεκινώντας από σήμερα, οι άνθρωποι θα χάσουν τον έλεγχο του σώματός τους.

αναγκασμένοι να παρακολουθούν ως πόνυ κατάχρηση τους, όπως ένα χόμπι.

Με το μυαλό τους ότι θα ρίξει πολλά δάκρυα, που θα αμυδρό φως και αιχμαλωτίζουν το βλέμμα.

Αλλά αυτό δεν θα έχει σημασία, για κανείς δεν θα ακούσει.

Αναγκασμένος να είναι και να αισθάνονται πρωτόγονη. Κλάμα από το πίσω μέρος του μυαλού τους.

Που πωλούνται από την δωδεκάδα. Ή πωλούνται από τα εννέα.

After taking a closer look at it, Pat spoke up.

"It looks like Greek to me, eh."

"Vat does it mean?" Asked Johann.

"Hold on, I'm setting my translator to speaker mode." Said Apollo

Suddenly, from Apollo's ears, a robotic female voice spoke up.

In this very day and date.

Shall be amended, the strings of fate.

For one empire to improve, another must be sacrificed.

Much like how to try their luck, one must throw the dice.

Starting from now, people will lose control of their body.

Forced to watch as ponies abuse them as a hobby.

In their minds they will shed many tears, which will glimmer and glisten.

But that will not matter, for no one will listen.

Forced to be and feel primitive. Crying from the back of their mind.

Sold by the dozen, or sold by the nine.

Silence reigned in the dimly lit room. All that could be heard was Apollo's metallic arm shaking in pure rage, eventually applying so much force that the keys to Blueblood's lock he held in his hand penetrated it's titanium alloy, making a wound from where a mixture of blood, coolant, and other fluids dripped down into the floor.

It was a long time until Apollo spoke up.

"Get your weapons ready, we've got regicide to do."