Author's Note
This chapter isn't 1 year after the war began. It is ment as the backstory of how Jacob survived the fight-to-the-death. Next chapter will be 1 year in front. Feedback is much appreciated!
And yes, it's long. Couldn't decide whether to split this into a Prologue and Chapter 1, but stuck with just a whole chapter.
Chapter 1 - Deathmatch
January 16th, 2017. 35 days after war began.
Chapter 1 - Deathmatch
Cold. Propped up against the mudbrick wall with his hands tied behind his back, is a human, a soldier, a captured soldier. A prisoner of war. Unable to move from being fed just seeds and water. Weakened and broken down to nothing. Nothing but a small Welsh boy. He wasn't tall, for sure. 6 foot 4 isn't small for his age. Only 18 when he enlisted, he was forced to. A violent war between worlds broke out, between humans..and ponies.
A wide, grand portal was created in an attempt to reach far away aliens. But when it did connect to a random portal, the outcomes were..unfortunate. Humans had their weapons with their safety off, prepared for battle. So were ponies. Unicorns combined magic by charging their spells, ready to cast an earth shattering explosion. Pegesai held their rifles close. Earth ponies manned heavy machine guns behind, and Celestia stood strong. The rift opened, and suddenly unwanted fire began from the other side. The humans.
Humans mindlessly invaded Equestria, thinking it'd be easy as the species are just ponies. They don't think, they're animals. Propaganda flooded America, Britain, Asia, Europe, Africa as a whole. Ponies were referred to as witches, or just horses. While in Equestria, humans were degraded to aliens, self destructive monsters that have the mission to tear apart a world about peace, friendship and harmony. It was true, but at the same time there were people like Jacob. Forced into enlisting in the army, being sent out to the front lines without thinking of the consequences, and just wanted peace. It's nearly impossible to show ponies that some humans are trust-able, because 90% of the time humans are comitting genocide of innocent cities and towns.
Take Fillydelphia for example, a beautiful town ravaged by U.S soldiers in a few hours. Bombs dropped, close to napalm. Tanks and squads of heavy-armed men stormed the town, massacring both soldiers and civilians. That triggered the war, and the world we live in now. Earth is also in an unrecoverable mess from where unicorns and pegesai have combined together into magical fighter planes, dropping energy bombs on London, New York, Paris, Hong Kong. Humans retaliated by building a large military base at the portal, sending rockets, satellites and missiles up into the atmosphere of Equestria.
As the name suggests, Fillydelphia is home to thousands of families. It's the perfect place for them, plenty of schools, utopian parks and a flowery outdoor place to hang out at. While at the same time, industrial buildings towered the north. All the parents worked there, it was a happy community of fillies, colts and grown-ups. Until, the war of course. Now, families are torn apart, broken away from each-other as the father or mother dies, leaving the poor child on his or her own, only to be swept away by the cluster bombs or spike traps left by U.S militants for their enemies. If you walked down the main street of Fillydelphia, you'd be traumatised like Jacob as impaled young bodies fill the street, burning corpses of workers fill your lungs until you vomit, and even then you'd get scarred, blinded, burnt by the pale, dusty white phosphorus drowning your suffering body in fire.
Jacob knew that his fate was surely death. Even if he won, he'd be denied his wish. Jacob came from Wales, a small country part of Great Britain. They have their own language, which could only be spoken by under a million people. His comrades spoke it too, they came from the same country. Not exactly fluently, but enough to piece together a sentence of sense.
Suddenly, a blinding light shone on his face. The battered door creaked from when iron meets rust in an unpleasant squeak.
"Your turn."
A huge white stallion stood over his worthless body, picking him up by the neck and threw him facing towards a fence. Jacob recognised the human in there. It's one of his comrades.
"Oh, did I say it's your turn already? I meant to say it's your turn to watch." the stallion smirked as he galloped away. Jacob forces his eyesight towards his friend.
"Alright, rules are rules so let's read them." a cheery voice came above him from a makeshift speaker.
"Of course, no weapons until the last minute. No cheating, obviously. And no dick kicks, that's just pathetic."
Jacob couldn't help but chuckle at that last rule, but it was very true. Kicking somebody in the dick is itself, a dick move.
"I know how they have forced us into these camps, but come on. 'ave some sense in yah."
A smile quickly turned to a frown. It is also very true that humans have forced ponies into refugee camps after destroying their homes.
"Anyway, let's begin in five! Four! Three! Two!" the announcer counted down.
"One! Fight!"
There was also another person inside that fence. A grey rock-solid unicorn. Dirty unshorn fetlocks and gore covered his mane and fur. It finally came to Jacob that he was about to witness more and more bloodshed.
Both the challengers charged at each-other, fists and hooves out, ready to slam each-other into the ground. The massive soldier sucker-punched Jacob's comrade, forcing his body to jerk forward open to more attacks. Stomping his hooves onto the defenceless humans neck, the snapping could be heard for miles, surely. Jacob immediately turned away from the fight, upset at the scene. What was minutes felt like seconds as suddenly the battle was over. Jacob dared to turn around, and instantly regretted it. His comrade, no more. Nothing but fleshy pulp. The stallion was pleased with himself, but obviously not his first won battle.
And now it's Jacob's turn.
A sharp yank of his camouflage army jacket pulled his slender body into the arena. Faceplanting once again towards the dirt, he reluctantly looks up at his killer. The grey stallion stood there, smiling, mocking him for being scared and weak.
"Alright alright alright! You both know the rules here but I'll go over them again in case the human can't understand English right. Now, no cheating."
Jacob felt a sensation in his heart, a violent one.
"No weapons until last minute. That includes telekinesis"
He stumbles to his feet and unfolds into his military trained stance, ready for combat.
"No dick kicks."
He's going to kill him.
"You have three, count 'em, THREE minutes to kill each other!"
He's going to kill everyone.
"Let's countdown together, fillies and gentlecolts."
Jacob isn't taking any shit.
"Five!"
Adrenaline fuels his body. Revenge fills his mind.
"Four!"
Focus on the target.
"Three!"
Jacob knows that if he doesn't win, he'll die. And he'll be forgotten.
"Two!"
But if he wins, he's a hero, right? That's what a hero is, no?
"One!"
His face is flushed with anger and concentration.
"Let's go!"
The raging stallion charged towards Jacob, but Jacob didn't move. Letting the stallion gain incredible speed, Jacob jumped out of the way last second, causing the enemy to slam into the fence at undesirable forces. Temporarily confusing his victim, Jacob ran up behind him and hooked the dazed stallion directly in the head multiple times until his knuckles ached. They didn't ache for long, as epinephrine pumped to his lower body giving a boost in both strength and speed. Still paralysed, Jacob grabs the enemy's head and slams it into the fence until one final throw that causes him to let go of the stallion and flop the body on the ground.
Blood is already appearing, and it's barely been a minute. Boos from the crowd direct at their general being brutally beaten by a human. Jacob was about to crush the downed stallion's neck, but the enemy grabbed his leg, knocking him down to the same cursed ground as him.
"Now it's my turn, faggot."
Jacob grimaced as sharp hooves beat his legs into patties-
"Two minutes remaining!"
Act now, think later. The human jerked to the side to avoid the death-bearing stomps and span towards the fence, using it as support to regain his balance. A sudden back-breaking kick to his behind flinches him backwards. Out of defence, Jacob tugged on the stallions glossy mane and twisted it before retaliating with a sharp jab to the pony's eye. The general was pissed, to say the least. So was Jacob in the matter of fact. Afterall, being placed in a non-negotiable life or death situation like this is enough to upset even the calmest of people. As a result, the bellicose stallion grabbed Jacob by the neck once again and violently shoved him to the other side of the arena. Like a brick thrown at a window, unstoppable, unexpected and leaves a mess.
"One minute!"
Suddenly two sharp, rigid combat knives were thrown into the arena at both ends. One near Jacobs bruised head, and the other by the furious stallion. Before Jacob could stretch for it, the bulking grey soldier comes rushing towards him at unwanted speeds, all the while floating the weapon in front of him with telekinesis, of which painted white by his silver, ragged mane. As the enemy leaped, Jacob rolled to his side, immediately kneeling to grasp the knife. Firmly in his fists, he turns back to see the stallion leaning over his body. Jacob slashes the soldier on his flank, rolling to the left again to avoid any oncoming attacks. He took the opportunity to get on his feet.
"Thirty seconds!"
As Jacob rushed to a stand, his stance not stable, the stallion bucks him into the nearby solid chain-linked fence. The utter sheer force of his hooves cracked a rib inside Jacob and felt a tooth loose too. But regardless, Jacob must win this, to prove his strength in front of dozens of blood-driven ponies. The enemy once again readies to charge, kicking up dust and pebbles behind, and sprints. Adrenaline pumping throughout the humans body, his palms of sweat, blood and determination solidly clutched the knife. He had a plan, yes. However it was made up in the spot, but just remember that if he wanted to be a hero, he has to be sure and it has to be SOON. Tears of fear crept out of his emerald shining eyes, broken by those his species have made suffer, and those he is about to kill. "It's out of defence" flew out of his mind completely, ill thoughts populated his brain.
But no. This isn't needed.
"Ten seconds!"
The stallion is in range of attack. Jacob lashes at the soldier, stabbing him directly in his fur coated head. Ill-fated bloody spurted out onto Jacob's hands. The cracking of a thick skull, the itty-bitty chunks of flesh cling to the knife as he yanks it out, repeatedly impaling the stallion with it in different regions of his head. He grips the handle with a mindset of rage- and revenge.
"Five se-" an abrupt pause.
A thick blanket of silence unfurled upon the crowd, choking them out of air at the shock of their blood-riddled general starting to decompose in front of their blind, furious eyes. The audience's expressions were similar to a poker face. Were they sad? Angry? Confused? Nothing.
Their gore-fuelled pleasure came to a forceful and unexpected end. Like seeing your home on fire, knowing all your loved ones are inside with their bones melting because you forgot to turn off the oven, paralysed. Soulless. Surprised that a..human. Let alone, a prisoner. Prisoner #612, had just won. Something totally unheard of in Hope, or Equestria for that matter.
No cheers, no boos, no talking. Quieter than a pre-war library, silent like ceasefire. Only the blood leaking out of the stallions mouth, and Jacob's starved, heavy breath put sound on the arena. He jerked his head upwards, staring at the shocked ponies around him. Before he could move, the heavy chain-linked fence unlatches in front of him. There, 2 pegesai armed with automatic rifles behind a tough, jade green stallion stood upon him. Jacob couldn't care less about their appearances right now, he just wanted to grant his wish.
"So..you win." a deep, abyssal voice called. The stallion took his time between sentences.
"As promised, you get a wish. Use it wisely, human."
The trio turned their flanks towards Jacob laying on the crusted ground. Before they set off, Jacob spoke.
"I already know what I want." Jacob spoke in a coarse, rough voiced. Denial of water was the main issue while imprisoned, with only a bowl of water each day, drinking it like a dog in a hot car. Exactly what they were forced to do.
"Hpmh, speak up then, human."
"I want to..be a guard for this place." Jacob knew his wish would be considered bizarre to them, especially after being held captive and denied human rights for two weeks. But it's what he wanted. On his way in(when not faceplanting the ground), he saw the state of the camp. Dozens of little colts and fillies without tents or proper guidance, scared out of their mind to this new world they've been forced into. Adults were scared too, they tried not to be as they are the heroes, the leaders, the role models. But to no avail, they were terrified of the future to come.
"..what?"
The expected response, just as confused as when Jacob killed the general 5 minutes ago.
"What, you don't want freedom or..?"
"No. There is no freedom now. If you send me out there, it's suicide. I'll get sniped by a pegasus on a cloud, and if I don't and I survive back to base, your world will be destroyed. And I don't want that, neither of them."
The response gave the trio a long pause, more than likely thinking "What the bloody hell do we do now? We give this human a job?", however it was the only way. Promises are promises.
"Fine. You'll be a patrol guard-" the bulking green stallion pounced towards Jacob.
"But you'll be under close watch until we feel like it. And you'll go through the SAME process as everypony else. Got it? HUMAN!?"
Jacob nods.
"Good. Let's go, then. Human.." the two pegasai with rifles were mares, awaiting their leader to leave first, then them after. Before leaving, they both gave dirty looks at the Jacob.
He rose himself up off of the floor. His bruised and battered face, blood stained fists and slit legs slouch their way towards the gate. He turned towards the dead stallion, leaning forward to hesitantly pull the knife out from it's foul-smelling skull, sliding the weapon into his ragged trousers pocket. Jacob looks around at the still frozen crowd, and limps towards the barracks, where he'll begin his new life as a traitor to an entire planet.
