P.L.O.T.

[Thunder Knight]

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It's the year 3085 A.D. and the world is in complete disarray. Gasoline ran out late in the twenty-first century and electricity became so scarce that only the richest of the rich could afford it. In the human world, transportation came to an almost completely stand-still until the year 2967, when humankind employed an ancient method of power, which they had rejected long ago when it had become obsolete. They called it horseflesh.

At first, it was a small moment, mostly comprised of Draught horses that were being trained to pull heavy loads and mobilize pulleys and levers. But then, seemingly overnight, the movement exploded. Soon horses, oxen and other large animals were made to pull and carry virtually all over the world. They were being bred at an astonishing rate and later most of them would become "genetically enhanced". Suddenly, horses were everywhere to many people who were struggling to make a living, they were everything.

All would have been well for the animals, if humans were not inherently corrupt and alas, they are. Very soon, the business of turning out as many horses as possible become huge and the animals' personal welfare was put on the back burner, or rather, forgotten about entirely. Now it was nothing but work, if you were a horse and when you couldn't work anymore, they simply replaced you. But the humans had forgotten one important factor; the horses could think. Most of them were by now "genetically enhanced" and their intelligence was unrecorded as of yet by humans hands. A horse named 4722, but called Rose by her herd mates and later nicknamed La Pie, started a movement among the horses: a resistance. Its goal was quite simple: freedom. Desperate to escape their oppressors, the equids began to sneak away, little by little.

Eager to find a place where all of the rebels could hide, La Pie and her partners in crime found such a place, a rich island off the coast of Italy. It was not the land that the humans called Sicily, but a new island, diverse in landscapes and solvent in natural resources where the horses retreated. Their arrival was not by swimming, but over a bridge that no human eye could see. And the equids called their domain "Costruire un Ponte la Liberta", which in Italian means, "bridge of freedom".

For many years, horses continued to escape from the humans and form their own herds. Many of their kind still remain in the cruelty of the humans and are still being smuggled away to freedom, but after over a hundred years, the original herds had formed into powerful societies. Some were separated by breed or by their human country of origin, but each herd had a system of ruling. Some were led by the kind and brave lead mares and dominant stallions, but others were not so fortunate, when their leaders were cruel, indifferent monarchs. The leaders of such herds usually had two main interests: expanding their family and keeping the lineage of their descendants pure and taking over the rest of the island.

The Earth had passed through many difficult times in its history, but it was still young as the conflict that it hosted. Now is the time when the herds must decide whether to form alliances with each other, who to betray and who to attack. There is no good and evil and right and wrong is left to be defined by each individual. War is swiftly approaching, whether the equids like it or not and the only question remaining is:

How will they respond?

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