Chapter 3: Mother

Leaky could hardly believe it. Grass in The Outside. She’d only read about it in pre-war books, and other than the dead and dried up patches of vegetation that dotted the Zona, she had never seen anything like it. Not even Plum’s trees made her this giddy.

Soft green blades tickled the undersides of her hooves as she ran them through a particularly green patch and couldn’t help but smile. The scent of various flowers were carried by a soft, gentle breeze that playfully brushed her mane aside. The bakeries opened early this morning, so the streets were filled with the delicate, buttery aromas of fresh baked goods.

It was perfect.

She trotted down the streets and spotted Mrs. Sugarbottom haggling with an annoyed townspony. The stallion she was arguing with sighed and levitated a sack of coins out and grumbled off. Leaky chuckled and shook her head, knowing Mrs. Sugarbottom had a special talent for squeezing more out of patrons. Children chased each other and squealed in delight as they played their silly little games, dressed in faux-armor made of cardboard and pans making shooting noises with their mouths.

A beige filly with black hair spotted Leaky and jumped off the barrel she was pretending to shoot from. “Mom! Look at me!” shouted the filly as she ran up to her. She spun in circles energetically, showing off her costume. Little more than a colander helmet, cloth kneepads and an oddly familiar cape, the armor was as almost as adorable as the filly.“Isn’t it cool? I made it myself!”

Leaky smiled at her, faking astonishment. “Yeah, sweetie, it’s amazing! Especially that cape! Where have I seen that before...”

The filly’s nose scrunched as she stepped back. “I’ll put the curtains back after I’m done! Swear!”

“Alright, alright,” she giggled. “But don’t get them too dirty, okay? It’s harvest day and I’m going to be too busy to clean them.”

The filly nodded profusely, helmet wobbling precariously. “Okie! Promise!”

One of the children she was playing with screamed and fell to the floor, tongue hanging out. “Drippy! Requesting assistaaaaance!”

“Oh no!” gasped the filly. She looked back at her mother and stamped her hooves to the ground. “Mom! Mom! Can I go? Can I?! I need to go save the day!”

Leaky chuckled and patted the filly on the shoulder. “Go! Quick! They need your help!”

“Yus!” agreed the filly as she saluted her. “Oh, and Ms. Plum was lookin’ for you. She says to go meet her at the orchard when you can. Okaybye!” The little beige bolt ran off, making shooty noises with her mouth. The children ran away and squaled in delight, some falling to the floor and kicking their hooves in the air in pretend-agony.

Leaky stood there, wanting to admire the scene longer, but sighed contentedly and trotted off along the dirt path.

An ocean of green came into view as she happily made her way out of the bustling town. Mares and stallions of various shapes and sizes worked tirelessly, tending to tall majestic trees carrying a bounty of fruits. Workers on ladders carried baskets on their backs and plucked ripe rewards from their sagging branches while the ponies below them dug trenches, placing healthy-looking crops into the modest holes and moving on to the next row.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” chirped a mare from behind. Her delightfully yellow dress blew in the wind and contrasted her dulled pink coat. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Plumwood be so productive!”

Leaky smiled and nodded sweetly. “Hi, Ms. Plum. You wanted to see me?”

Plum waved a hoof and walked up beside her, never ceasing that trademark warm smile. “Ah, nothin’ important dearie. Just wanted to talk to ya about some boring politics, but that can wait for later, Ms. Mayor.” She tittered and sighed. “That’s so weird still, comin’ from my lips!”

The pair sat and admired the toiling of the ex-Stable dwellers. Not a single unhappy face, despite the taxing work. The positive vibes were contagious all over.

“Plum…” sighed Leaky. “I wanted to tell you something.”

Plum snorted and nickered playfully. “Yer not gonna thank me again, are ya?”

“Of course I am...” smiled Leaky. “I don't know what we would have done if we didn’t find Plumwood… or if you didn’t allow us to stay here in the first place.”

Her companion waved away her gratefulness with a hoof. “Nonsense, dearie. It’s not exactly like you folks were a burden, anyway.” She raised her forelegs in the air and pointed them at the fields before her. “Looks what you folks have done for us! Truly the Goddesses’ work.”

“I guess...” sighed Leaky again. “I don’t know… It’s like, I don’t know how we can ever repay you.”

“Well!” chirped Plum with a broad smile. “You can start by tongue-punching my rotten clit!”

Leaky stumbled backwards, jaw nearly hanging off the floor. “W-what..?”

“You heard me, you wood-peckered smoothskin!” Plum stepped forward, smile growing by the second. Her voice steadily became deeper and deeper until it became irritatingly familiar “Start licking!”

“--And so I was just standing there, bleeding out of fucking everywhere, ready to meet whatever fiery afterlife ponies used to believe in, and this fucking ghoul merchant was ransoming sex from me in return for medical attention.

“I couldn’t believe it either at the time, ponyfriends. You can’t make this kind of shit up out here.

“It’s not like I had a fucking choice though, right? I was dying!

“So, with blood coming out of my mouth and everything, I leaned into that zombie’s putrid ass, grabbed both flanks, and---”

Click!

With a button press, Leaky spared herself further details from the radio pony’s tale of ‘conquest’.

‘Auuughh...’ thought Leaky as she rubbed her tired eyes, slightly traumatized at the sudden turn of an otherwise pleasant dream about the future of Plumwood. ‘Always happens to the good ones...’

GUURRRG

Leaky looked down at her round belly and rubbed it tenderly. Coming from an entire lifetime of living under strict rations, she was very well acquainted with that sound. She brought up her Pipbuck and navigated its interface with a few clicks, casting the small room in a faint green glow.

“1am… huh.”

She had only slept for 3 hours, and her hunger had already returned. Leaky shrugged and propped herself up off her bed, wondering if the longhouse was still open, and more importantly, if they kept leftovers. She slid off the bed onto her lethargic hooves and stretched. Being pregnant wasn't getting any easier.

She trotted to the door and grasped the doorknob in her telekinesis before pausing. She had remembered a side conversation during the feast earlier about a curfew. ‘It’s just a quick snack,’ she reasoned as she opened the door and peered outside.

The streets were quiet, bathed in small freckles of moonlight, silent enough that she could hear her heartbeat. Leaky breathed in the crisp night air and trotted towards the longhouse.

“Hello?” Leaky whispered loudly. No response.

She tapped a hoof sternly at the wooden door’s glass window. A single candle illuminated the interior of the longhouse; the tables were depressingly clean, not a crumb sitting on their polished faces.

She sighed and slumped. She could go without eating for tonight, just like she had managed every other day of her life. But now that she had the option not to, her hunger was almost impossible to ignore.

She skulked to the steps of the building and sat her haunches down, wondering if any of the shops were still open for business at this late an hour, questioning the morality of extorting free food from innocent ponies with her ‘saved the mayor’ card.

“Hey, dearie...” a somber voice floated from nearby, as if somepony was trying to force a smile while giving bad news. “A bit late to be wanderin’ aboat, isn’t it?”

Leaky looked up across the street. Plum sat at the steps of a big, beautiful house, decorated with a single modest plaque. “Mayor Plum Pudding, charismatic leader of our fine town.”

“Oh… Hi, Ms. Plum.” She noticed a large weapon of some kind cradled in her hooves, a large tapered barrel topping it’s tip. “Ahhh, you okay, Ms. Plum?”

She smiled and nodded her head slowly. “Yah, dearie. I’m fine. Just… thinkin’ aboat stuff, ya know?”

“What about, Ms Plum?” asked Leaky, eyes locked on the weapon in the mayor’s hooves; the polished wooden stock gleamed in the moonlight, well cared for. The metal barrel was pristine and scratchless, without a hint of rust on its intricately engraved face.

“Ah… Y’know. This and that.” She tried to smile, but it didn’t reach to her somber eyes. “Have a seat next to me, dearie. I could use some company.” She patted the wooden step next to her.

Leaky trotted across the dirt street and sat next to the mayor. “What happened, Ms. Pudding? You seem… down.”

Plum chuckled faintly. “Yer an observant pony, aren’cha?”

She clasped the weapon in between her forehooves and placed it on her knees, staring quietly at the rifle for a few moments before starting with a longing sigh. “Y’know… when I first came into power over the fine folks of Plumwood, I was given this heap of metal and wood.”

The mayor traced the delicate floral carvings with the tip of her forehoof. “The old stallion who handed me it didn’t say anythin’, but I knew what it was for. It was an inheritance. Symbolism and all that jazz. I figured it was meant to be the extension of my will as protector of this town. Throughout my time as mayor here, I learned yer not fit to be anythin’ else without first proving ya have the will to do anythin’ fer yer people.”

She paused the tender caressing of her rifle and looked over at Leaky drearily, eyes filled with solid doubt. “What do ya know aboat sacrifice, Leaky?”

The Stable dweller turned to Plum, taken aback by the ordinarily chipper mare’s solemn question. “Sacrifice?”

“Yahuh,” nodded Plum. “Sacrifice. Like, ya know, givin’ somethin’ of yers up fer the bigger picture. What do ya know aboat it?”

“Well...” began Leaky. “I don’t know. We’ve been on rations for decades, just so we have almost enough food to go around. I guess that’s something.” She shrugged. “And… well, I chose to go out here all on my own, even with… you know.” She pointed at her round belly.

“Mm-hmm. That’s a good set o’ sacrifices, right there.” Plum paused, weighing her words.

“Why do you ask, Ms. Plum?”

Plum looked up at the moon poking it’s ethereal tendrils of light through a thick curtain of clouds. “For as long as history cares to remember, Leaky, ponies have been creatures of sacrifice. Know what I mean?”

She looked at Leaky, who blankly stared back, intrigued but lost.

“When the folks of Stable 30 first came to what is now Plumwood, they didn’t have the amenities we enjoy today. We took our Pipbucks, one of the last bit of home we had left, and we broke them down fer parts to build our power grids. Our Stable-grown trees, the things we had cherished more than anything, were chopped down and became our houses. Countless lives were lost defending our people from the savage creatures that fill this horrible place. And fer what, Leaky? A few crops? A couple of houses? The luxury of stuffin’ yer face with food everyday?”

She shook her head and continued. “No. We did it fer our future. Do ya get what I’m smellin’ at?”

Leaky nodded slowly. “I… think, Ms. Plum”

“Even those infernal flanamingos were created a long time ago so frontline soldiers didn’t have to go die fer some meaningless war. Sure, it didn’t… quite pan out in the end, and it was really morally shady to be messin’ with the laws of nature like that in the first place. But ya gotta be willin’ to do whatever ya can to guarantee yer people’s future, even if it means doing somethin’ you don’t fully agree with.”

Plum let out a long, drawn out sigh as she clasped the rifle in firing position. “It’s our sacrifice, Leaky. Our sacrifice makes us ponies.”

Leaky held her hooves together, not knowing how to respond to the monologue.

“And now yer folks are comin’ over and makin’ Plumwood stronger. Sure, it will be a bit rough at the start. Sacrifice always is. But we’ll get there, and when we do, we’ll have no regrets.” She smiled her first genuine smile since Leaky found her on the steps of her house. “And that’s what life should be like, shouldn’t it? No regrets? Not even in the face of armageddon?”

“I suppose so, Mrs. Plum,” Leaky smiled back half-heartedly.

“We’ll be fine,” she reassured herself, trademark jubilance returning to her face. “We’ll be okay!”

She shot up from her porch and landed on all legs, rifle slung snuggly around her neck. “Thanks for the talk, dearie. Even if it was basically just me pourin’ my thoughts into yer earholes!” Plum giggled a bit and patted Leaky on the back.

GUUUUUURRRRG

Leaky covered her belly in embarrassment. She had almost forgotten how hungry she was.

“Ah, that explains why you were wanderin’ around this late an hour!” Plum chirped, suppressing a giggle. “Well, I can make ya some sandwiches for ya to take back to yer room, if ya’d like!”

Leaky nodded. “That would be lovely, Ms. Plum.”

The mayor set the rifle beside a wall and opened the door to her house. “Great! Come inside and make yerself at home, dearie. Ooh! Have I ever told ya about how the acidity of plums shifts their flavor each season? It's quite the doozy!”

Holding the paper bag of sandwiches with her mouth was a bad idea. The whole walk back to her motel room was pleasant torture as smells of freshly sliced bread and daisies wafted to her nose. But she wasn’t thinking. She just wanted to eat.

Leaky opened the door to her modest room and jumped on her bed blissfully. She wrapped a sandwich in her telekinesis and hungrily ripped off a chunk, savoring the warmth of the still warm bread and the fresh crispness of the flowers. She never realized how tasty plants on bread would be.

She felt tiny kicks from her belly, causing her to tenderly rub her ever-growing bump. She smiled and layed back on her pillow. “It’s coming, it’s coming, hold on...”

Before she knew it, she was already down to the last bite. She lazily popped it into her mouth and reached into the bag for another.

CLANK!

Her ears shot up at a noise, like the muffled clank of metal, somewhere near yet strangled by walls. She wearily picked herself up off the bed and peered across the street as she bit into her sandwich. An ugly shed of slightly rotting wood stared back at her, flanked on both sides by big finely painted houses. A red “O” was painted on its doors, a featureless face staring straight through her. Leaky pondered the stark contrast between it and the finely made houses that lined the town.

Another clank startled her. This one was significantly louder than the last, definitely coming from inside the shed.

Leaky scrunched her nose. Maybe it was a thief who found her way into a pony’s tool shed?

She wrapped her pistol in telekinesis and furtively made her way outside. If someone was indeed burglarizing the shed, stopping them was her duty as a soon-to-be member of Plumwood’s community.

As she made her way to the decrepit shed, she noticed no guards were patrolling the streets. There wasn’t even a lock. They were really trusting of everypony here.

She suddenly remembered what Plum Pudding had told her about the exterminator trapping all the radroaches in town in one single shed. One marked with a red O. One exactly like this one.

Leaky shivered and recoiled. No wonder there wasn’t a lock on this shed. A small room full of radroaches? Not exactly something a pony would want to snoop around looking for.

She pressed an ear against the door and listened deeply ( [Perception 8+] Success!). She heard faint movement inside, but whatever was there was way bigger than any radroach she had ever seen. And she’d seen plenty.

She slowly pushed the door open, prepared for any bigger-than-she’d-ever-seen radroaches to land on her, only to find a room faintly illuminated by a soft candle light. Leaky frowned and walked inside, making sure to latch the door shut on her way in. There weren’t any radroaches here. Given the lack of cockroach molts either, maybe there weren’t any to begin with.

‘Why would Plum lie to me?’ she wondered, feeling slightly hurt.

The walls were lined with crude hoof-paintings by children: suns, flowers, a happy plum, and a stick pony were just a few she managed to recognize. A lone, thick book sat by the candle illuminating the room. She remembered those stories she used to read in Stable 16 about nice towns full of friendly ponies turning out to be cannibals. She jokingly called back to the steak she ate earlier and how weird it would’ve have been if they were serving her other ponies.

She shook her head at the morbid thought.How tiringly cliche.

As Leaky walked over to the book, the floor made a hollow clang. Looking down, she saw a poorly disguised trap door, meagerly covered by a worn welcome mat featuring the sweet-smiling face of a yellow mare with a pink mane covering her soft turquoise eyes. “Please wipe your hooves!”

Leaky stared at the trap door. Whatever was in here, must have been big enough for Plum, a mare who’s life she had saved earlier today, to lie about its contents.

‘Just go back to the room...’ Leaky chided to herself. ‘Maybe it’s some spells, or their treasury. Whatever it is, it’s not your business, and definitely not worth risking Stable 16 over...’

She bit her lip. Not even she believed herself. She lifted the mat away and opened the trap door, praying to the Goddesses that it would be something uninteresting. Instead, all she saw were a score of tired, pleading eyes staring right back at her. She fell to her haunches in horror.

An underground cage was built into the dirt, a big iron padlock barring the doors shut. Children attempted to climb over each other to reach the new light source, stepping on the withers of the biggest. Their eyes adjusted to the new light and, upon seeing an unfamiliar face, a chorus of tiny exhausted voices began to swell and fill the room. “P-Please! Where did Pots go?” ”Where’s my mom?!” “I wanna go home!!”

Leaky shut the trap door, unable to process the horror she had just seen. She felt disgusted and betrayed, but most of all, horrified. She pressed her ear against the trap door, the voices behind it subsiding to muffled sobbing and cries for help.

“Children, please... I’m going to help... but I need you to be quiet.” Leaky spoke with the softest voice she could, attempting to choke down her anger and horror. The tiny voices on the other side subsided. “I’m going to open the door, but please... don’t make any noise.” She lifted the trapdoor, the sight no less heartbreaking than it previously was.

“What happened to you all? Who put you in here?” The sight made her stomach churn.

A pale blue colt with jet black hair and an eye covered in bandages spoke up.. “Our parents put us here... they said it was for the best of Plumwood. Ponies come every week to take some of us away... I-I just wanna go home...”

An older filly with braces spoke up. Her mane was matted with blood. “Pots was the only one that escaped... she picked the lock and promised us she’d send somepony big and strong and brave to help us. We haven’t heard of her since then... did Pots send you?!” The cage started clamoring again, all of the little ones asking similar questions. Leaky remembered that morning on the plain. The filly who was mauled by a flanamingo.

Leaky smiled softly and fought back tears. “Yes... Pots sent me. I’m that big, strong and brave pony, and I’m here to get you out of this cage.”

She looked at the padlock. It was heavy and made of iron. It was newly casted, probably after a little filly managed to pick the lock. Leaky had learned how to pick a lock from her friend Pilfer back at Stable 16 when they were raiding the sweets pantry, but this one seemed way beyond her skills.

Leaky remembered what Plum had told her about the supply shed marked with an “X”, the one the monster was being held inside. If she could maybe find some bolt cutters, she could cut the lock open and rescue the children.

“I’ll be back, children. I promise. But you have to be quiet. I’ll be right back.”

The children looked up woefully at Leaky, in no hurry to be shrouded in pitch black again. As the last rays of light were cut off by the closing trap door, the pit was hushed, save the quiet murmurs of the older children comforting the youngest.

Leaky poked her head out the door. The town was still asleep.

‘Thank the Goddesses…’

She had spotted the shed with the big “X” while on tour of Plumwood earlier. Getting to it would be no problem. Leaky had always been a furtive pony in a Stable where privacy was a luxury.

She grabbed her pistol in her mouth, not wanting to alert the town with a big orange beacon, and ducked her way to the shed. It was tucked away beside a big house and just a bit bigger than the one that held all the children. She paused, wondering at what point tonight a cage holding children became normal to her.

***************************************************************************************

The shed had no lock, just like the previous one.

‘These ponies are too trusting…’

Her ears perked at a faraway sound as she began pushing the door open. carefully. The room was dark, illuminated solely by a dim flickering overhead lamp behind some sort of cell. The smell of blood hung thick in the air. Leaky slowly creeped into the room and closed the door. There was just enough light to notice the shadows of various tools lining the wall. Scanning the room as best she could in the dark, she found what she was looking for: a rusty bolt cutter. She wrapped it in her telekinesis and picked it off the wall.

“Pony... no more hurt dog.”

The low grumbling voice made the gun in her mouth drop. She spun around to see a towering figure barely outlined by the lamp.

“Dog do everything pony said... dog make holes for pony tree. Dog am sorry for eating fruits...”

Leaky dropped to her back, frozen in sheer terror. The figure had long sharp claws and menacing teeth, with a hide as thick as the kevlar-reinforced plates in her security barding.

“D-Demon!!” she shouted before cupping her mouth.

The Overmare had warned her of the Demons. But no diagram or drawing could match the horror that was it in person. Two tons of death, muscle that could move faster than the eye could blink, claws that could slice through any armor with ease, and a hide all but immune to small arms fire still didn’t convey the coiled power in the beast’s stance, nor the stench of blood that permeated the area around the creature, nor the malign, calculating shine in the beast’s eye.

The figure stood unmoved, following Leaky with its head. “Dog not mean to eat pony fruit. Dog am sorry. Pony no more hurt dog”. His hide was lacerated all over, scabs and scars a lattice through the bony ridges across its body, and from the look of his bloodied cuticles, somepony had attempted and utterly failed to remove it’s claws. Despite this, it stood stoically near the cage, just outside of the light’s range.

“Y-You can talk! Demons can talk!” The Demon nodded his head slowly, but said nothing. Leaky approached the cage slowly, her fear ebbing into amazement. She scrunched her nose. “Those innocent caravan workers. You killed them.”

The Demon shook his head slightly. “No. Dog no hurt pony. Dog was hungry, ate pony fruit. Pony catch dog, make dog hurt.” Its gruff voice rumbled through the room, like gravel scattering after thunder. It lifted it’s claws, bound together in thick, rusted chains. “Force dog to dig for trees. Not let dog go after pony promise to. Dog am sorry.”

Leaky examined its cell. It was old and rusted, and the chain that kept it closed was in no better condition. She could set it free if she wanted to. If she wanted to.

“Why haven’t you escaped? I’m sure those chains can’t really hold you.”

The Demon lowered its head, almost ashamed. “Pony hurt dog. Dog no more want hurt. Pony hurt dog more if dog escape.” Leaky almost felt sorry for the behemoth. It lifted its head up and looked her in the eyes. “But Mama no like other pony. Mama listen to dog.”

‘Mama…?’

Leaky shook her head and dismissed it. “If I let you go...” The Demon’s ears twitched slightly, but remained motionless. “...will you help me do something first?”

The Demon stood quietly and rattled his chain slightly. “Dog love Mama forever. Dog follow Mama everywhere.”

‘This is insane.’

“Stand back, uh… dog. I’m setting you free.” Leaky floated the bolt cutters over to the chain holding the cell closed and cut them with less effort than she thought it’d take. She then trotted over to the Demon and puffed out her chest, trying to look intimidating. “No funny business. Got it?”

‘Dog’ nodded slowly.

CRINK!

With a metallic crunch, the chains binding the Demon were cut loose and rattled loudly to the floor. It stood, towering over the room as it braced its palms against the ceiling and stretched, before looking down at Leaky with a mouthful of teeth. She took a step back and tried focusing on where she dropped the gun.

It smiled a sharp, toothy smile. “Dog love Mama forever and ever.”

****************************************************************************************

The door creaked slightly louder than Leaky would have wanted. She looked around the town, leary of any ponies that might have heard their exchange. So far, the town still slumbered peacefully.

“Alright... you.” Leaky wasn’t sure what to call this beast, or if it even had a sense of self-awareness. “Stay low. If we’re seen...” she started before shivering. “Please, just keep low.”

The fiend sniffed the air and looked down at her savior. “Dog keep low.” She wondered if it even knew what she meant.

She shook her head and lowered herself to the floor. She fondly remembered her “trouble days” (as her dad put it) back in Stable 16, where she and and Pilfer used to sneak off and raid guarded pantries for food during particularly hard days. Even now, all those years past and being as pregnant as she is, she was sure she could still sneak her way around. She wasn’t sure she could say the same about the lumbering hellbeast behind her.

She felt herself slipping into a rhythm. Barrel, crate, corner, pause, listen. On an empty street with no back alleys or tiny alcoves, she could still see places to hide, places no ponies would notice. It had been a while, but she couldn’t help grinning. Pilfer was right. When she put her mind to it, she was invisible. At least, until she started feeling the stomps of her 'companion' behind her. She shook her head in dismay and moved on.

As she attempted to sneak her way to the shed of children, Leaky spotted a small gathering of ponies in a tree-shrouded garden across the street. They sat around a small hole, dimly lit by a weakly flickering lamp that sat above a finely crafted wooden bench. A tall stone monument stood in the middle of it all. A plum.

Leaky crouched behind a barrel and squinted at the scene. The mare in the middle of the figures kept repeating something, though Leaky was too far to understand her. She considered moving up to get a better look, but mentally slapped herself as she knew there were things much more pressing than eavesdropping on somepony’s private ordeals.

As she began to get up, a muscular stallion appeared from the hole in the ground, a small bundle wrapped in his telekinesis. The mare sobbed loudly and turned away. The small bundle unwrapped slightly as the digger lowered it inside the hole, revealing a brightly colored, smiling padlock adorned on a small bright green flank.

“Pots...” whispered Leaky.

Her spine shivered at the realization of what she was looking at. It was a funeral. In a park, where happy children once played, no less.

‘Those must be her parents.’ She felt stupid for believing Plum’s orphanage story. All horror she had felt turned into gut-wrenching rage. Not at herself for believing such blatant lies, but at the citizens of Plumwood. At Plum herself. She bit her lip, unable to comprehend how ponies could be so evil.

“Stop right there! Hooves in the air!” barked a loud voice. Leaky’s blood turned cold as she shot up and raised her hooves to the air.

“Oh,” said the voice in an irritated manner. “It’s just you.”

Leaky turned slowly. Sheriff Stu stood before her, stained from head to hooves in dirt and mud. It was obvious he was tired, but he puffed his chest to try to look intimidating. She looked behind him. The Demon was nowhere in sight. It must have darted off as soon as she turned around. She felt stupid once more, this time for trusting another denizen of this horrible place.

“What are you doin’ out and about at this hour? There’s a curfew in effect.” His eyes narrowed.

She didn’t have time for this. “Bathroom,” she blurted out. “I had a big meal, I was looking for the bathroom.” Leaky realized the poker face she had on too late, and conjured up the most earnest smile she could fake.

The sheriff circled her. “Curious. There’s a bathroom in your motel room.”

“Ha! Well, I didn’t see!” offered Leaky. She wasn’t sure she even believed herself. “It’s pretty dark out tonight.”

“Yea-huh,” grumbled the sheriff. He stuck a hoof to her chest and closed in on her face. “Listen here. I don’t trust you. I can’t prove it, but I know yer up to somethin’.” He stepped back and smoothed out his matted mane. “Betray the fine people of Plumwood, and I will personally be there to pull the rope to hang you. Do I make myself clear, stable dweller?”

Leaky nodded wordlessly, not trusting anything she could say. Her chest was a furnace of hate. The protector of this town, supposedly, and he sat idly by as the horrors here went on.

“Good.” Content his bluff has worked, he glanced at the service and winced. He was supposed to be the one burying the filly. “Now head back to yer room. There’s a curfew out tonight.” He gave her one last squint and trotted away. Leaky stared blankly at the sheriff, astonished that he had not offered to escort her back to her room or even allocated someone to keep an eye on her. She looked down at her hooves and saw the rusty bolt cutters right there in plain sight. He was not a smart sheriff.

The rest of the trip to the shed was silent and unseen. Even with the town this deep asleep, Dog’s lumbering would have woken up someone. As she pushed the shed door open, something touched her flank and she spun around violently, ready to take a swing at whoever found her out.

The Demon stood out in the middle of the street, arms clutching Leaky’s Stable security barding and her machete, along with her saddlebags. “These are Mama’s. Mama forgot these.”

“Get in here!” whispered Leaky, motioning the giant mass of muscle and claws inside the shed. He squeezed inside as she shoved against him futilely and closed the door. “Are you crazy?! You could have gotten caught!!”

The creature shrugged and placed her things on the floor. “Dog smell things. Dog bring to Mama. Mama forget things.”

“I didn’t forget—” she began and stopped. Truthfully, she had. She rubbed her face in frustration. “Agh… Just... keep an eye out for trouble, please? I’m going to set these children free.”

Dog nodded and lumbered over to the door. Leaky squeezed on her armor as fast as she could. Things had gotten too weird for her, way too fast.

She opened the trapdoor to see the weary children still all there. Their faces lit up. “You came back!”

“Shhh… Of course I came back.” Leaky remembered the humble funeral. “I promised Pots.” She levitated the bolt cutters to the iron padlock and clamped down on it.

Crak! Clinkclinkclink.

‘Oh no. Nonono.’

The bolt cutters broke apart, years of neglect finally taking their toll. Leaky’s heart sank, but she turned to the worried children and smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry children... I saw another one of these back at the shed… I’ll go get them.”

There weren’t any more bolt cutters.

Leaky’s mind raced as she thought of what she could do to open the padlock. She cursed the goddesses that Pilfer vanished one day from Stable 16 before she could teach her about lockpicking

“Dog help,” the beast boomed as he lumbered to the cage. He grabbed the cage door with both massive claws and ripped the entire door off it’s hinges. The children screamed in terror at seeing his monstrous mass hulking over them, to which the hellhound replied by screaming as well. The scene was louder than five stable doors opening at once.

“Everyone! Noo! Quiet! Before--”

From behind the door, faint shouts of townsponies could be heard. “There’s someone in the cage!”

“Grab the guns!”

Leaky groaned in response to everything that could have gone wrong going wrong. She hushed the children. “Children! Please! He’s a good friend! Pots told him to help too!” The screams of the children died down into whimpers. The beast looked back at Leaky confused.

“The stable dweller is gone! I knew she was up to no good! Surround the shed!”

‘Crap.’

Leaky needed a plan, and she needed it fast. She looked at the Demon she had rescued, who was trying to hush the children, and remembered all of the stories she heard about them.

“You… ah… Dog. Can you dig?”

Dog turned to Leaky and shook his head sadly. “Pony hurt dog’s claws. Too much hurt to dig.”

She heard the commotion outside the shed growing louder. She stamped her hooves on the floor trying to come up with an idea. Her head shot up in realization.

“Dog. Can you distract?”

Dog flashed his sharp, spiky teeth. “Dog distract.”

************************************************************************************

Plum Pudding stepped outside her home, rifle slung around her neck. She had not anticipated getting up for a gunfight today, much less with the pony that had saved her life. She sighed trotted impatiently towards the commotion.

She walked to the sheriff fiddling with a megaphone and mumbling angrily at himself. “I told them. I told them all. I knew she was trouble but nooooo, Sheriff Stu is just a big old joke to them all.”

She swatted the oversized cowboy hat from his head. “Give it here, you goober. Give it.” She took the megaphone and adjusted it, pointing it toward the shed.

“Leaky. This is Plum. I don’t know what ya thought you saw. I don’t know what yer tryin’ to do. But I assure ya. Everythin’ I and the good people of Plumwood do is fer the greater good.”

She stopped to listen for a response, continuing when none came. “A few weeks back, our prosperous little town was raided by ponies. Not slavers. We’ve handled slavers before, but these… these weren’t yer average everyday hoodlums. The determination, the weapons they had… that blasted armor… I can still see it whenever I close my eyes...”

She paused to shake an image from her head and resumed. “I managed to strike a deal with ‘em. Instead of taking the whole town, they would take a few children every week, and I would give ‘em a home base of sorts. Resupply when they need it. Things like that. I don’t enjoy doing this, but I gotta. When you have ponies that look to ya for their salvation, ya gotta make sacrifices. Ya gotta be the monster in the storybook fer yer people to have their happy ending. Do ya get what I’m smellin’ at, Leaky?”

“No, Plum!” shouted Leaky from inside the shed. Her voice was strained, on the verge of tears. “This isn’t the way to go! There has to be another way! We have numbers! We can help you fight them off!”

Plum shook her head sadly. “You haven’t seen them, Leaky. We can’t. The ruthlessness as they stormed our gates… Yer folks will just mean higher casualties.”

She paused. An eerie silence overtook the scene. “Be reasonable, Leaky. I like ya. I really do. Ya saved my life, so I owe ya. I can’t let the children go, as much as it pains me to not be able to… But how’s this: you come out now, and I will allow ya to leave with no bodily harm done. None whatsoever, not even from Sheriff hair-trigger and his merry band of incompetent misfits over here. What do ya say?”

The shed was quiet in response. The crowd was quiet as well, save for the clicks and chinks of loading guns.

Plum sighed and shook her head, then tossed the megaphone. “A downright shame, it is. It really pains me. Perforate the shed, boys.”

As the posse took aim, all that could be heard was a steady thump, thump, thump coming from inside the shed. Before anypony could pull the trigger, a massive, nearly-reptilian arm shot out from the doors, splintering them. In the space of a heartbeat, it was followed by an earth-shaking roar, and the front of the building exploded into a mass of claws, muscle, and death. Determination turned to panic in an instant.

“The Hellhound! She let the Hellhound loose! Run for your lives!” shouted Sheriff Stu at the top of his lungs as he scrambled away, only to be swatted away violently by Dog’s giant hand. The posse opened fire on Dog, but not a single shot penetrated his scarred-over hide. He roared once more, casually batting ponies into the air left and right, being careful not to kill -- as per Leaky’s instructions.

A mare wielding a cattle prod dashed up from behind and stuck him at the base of his tail, yielding a howl of pain in the instant before his tail sent the mare flying, breaking her concentration. Before she could blink, the beast snatched her from the air, bringing her around and roaring into her terrified face.

There was a whizzing sound, and then a storm of fire and jagged steel engulfed Dog. When it cleared, the mare in his grasp was gone, what little was left of her scattered at his feet. He stumbled back, whimpering. He collapsed on a knee, shredded hide barely holding together.

Ca-CHIK!

Plum Pudding cocked her grenade rifle forward and loaded a new round into the chamber. “Foul beastie. I knew we shoulda off’d ya when we had the chance.” She aimed the rifle at Dog’s crumpled form. “Oh well. No point in fussin’ over things when yer gonna do ‘em eventually. Ya get ulcers that way.”

“Plum!” screamed Leaky as she ran out of the hole that used to be the shed’s door. Her eyes were wide in abject horror as she shakily held her pistol in her telekinesis. “Please! Stop! Don’t do this!”

Plum held her weapon steadily pointed at bleeding, whimpering mountain of death. “You probably think the worst of me right now, eh, dearie?”

Leaky gingerly stepped closer, pistol raised to the only friend she had made in the Outside. “Please… Plum… Stop. We can still do this. We can still make everything right.”

The mayor faltered slightly and re-aimed her rifle at the beast. “You don’t get it… they’re comin’ in the mornin’. Your people can’t get here fast enough. If they get here and see that all the children are gone… They’ll attack. My people would die, and all I’ve sacrificed would have been pointless.”

The mob had dispersed back to the safety of their homes by now, save those wounded on the ground, shouting in agony.

Her lip trembled as she offered a weak smile. “I don’t have anything left to sacrifice, Leaky.”

Leaky slowly lowered her pistol. “I’m begging you, Plum… It can’t be like this.”

Plum blinked away the tears slowly building in her eyes. “Hey now. No regrets, right? Not even in the face of armageddon?”

She spun around and aimed the grenade rifle at Leaky, trembling smile on her face as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“NO!” screamed Leaky as she brought up the pistol and fired with a quick pull of the trigger. A deafening BANG! rang out as the bullet was sent ripping through Plum's neck.

She staggered, the grenade rifle clattering out of her hooves. She clutched her throat and gasped, coughing blood as she collapsed on the ground, sputtering as her lungs filled with blood.

Leaky lowered her pistol in shock, barely comprehending what she had done. She ran to Plum’s side, face contorted in grief. “I-I’m sorry Plum, I’m s-so sorry...”

The mayor's eyes pleaded frantically at Leaky, eyes darting between the pistol and her wet face. Leaky paused and looked at her pistol, slowly realizing what hat her friend was asking for. Plum coughed a lungful of blood on the dirt and heaved, only to cough again.

Leaky nodded slowly and lined the pistol up to her friend’s head. “Even… even boogies don’t deserve to suffer...”

The pink mare gasped for air and offered a weak smile, even as her body trembled in agony and tears filled her eyes.

BANG!

*************************************************************************************

“Wow, guys. You should really see it. It’s quite the something.

“Oh shit, yeah. News.

“So.

“I’m coming to you live on some fucking hill somewhere, where the pleasant little town of Plumwood is burning. And I mean burning. Sources tell me that a few hours ago, some preggo Stable dweller and—get this—a fucking Hellhound, ‘rescued’ the children of Plumwood for some really shady shit that was going on down there. My money was on child sacrifices. No place can be THAT perfect without SOME kid getting sacrificed. Anyways, we’ve even got some people calling her the ‘Mother of the Zona’ or some shit like that.

“Well my ponyfriends, she ain’t no momma of mine. That’s because shortly after her daring ‘rescue’, a literal army stormed Plumwood, and what they couldn’t enslave, they set on fire... and I’m here to tell ya that the air smells suspiciously like a cannibal’s brunch. Same sources tell me that the two events are linked. I may be some low life scum, ponyfriends, but a destroying an entire fucking town? That’s “stuck in between a Hellhound’s teeth” low.

“Plumwood, probably the only shining beacon of true civilization in this hellhole I'm proud to call a home, is now kill. Kapoot. Just like that.
Soon, this whole fucking place is going to starve, now that the only reason we aren't ALL eating each other is now nothing but ashes raining down on our heads. And we have this…”Mother of the Zona” to thank for it. Yup, we sure do.

“Damn, that fire is going strong…

“So if any of my faithful listeners out there find yourselves in the same area as this broad, do your old pal Muckraker a solid and put one between her baby blues for me before she tries to make our slow death by starvation come any quicker by doing this shit somewhere else again. On second thought, hell, I might even join in on making this terrorist fuck feel welcome in the Zona.

“This one’s for you, darl. Because I know you’re listening. “

~ ♪ Darlin' darlin' darlin'

I can't wait to see you

Your picture ain't enough

I can't wait to touch you, in the flesh ♪~

*****************************************************************************************

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Mother of the Zona. You seem to have made a reputation for yourself! Of sorts. Children will now be friendlier to you. You'll also sometimes have access to unique dialogue options, for better or worse.

Author's Note