Best Of Friends, Worst Of Places

Disclaimer: This collection of words is a lot of things. None, I repeat none of them are canon, classy or really defensible, that being said you might enjoy.

Better Than Nothing…

That’s basically what I thought when I realized there was an actual outside beyond the stable. However, after stumbling around in the dark, I realized just how low my bar had been. Within the course of two hours I had bumbled into a pack of slaver ponies, and they hadn’t stopped looking at my flanks. I was worried, nearly as worried as I had been that the stable door lead into a void.
It was odd though that they hadn’t taken my things.
Rather, they’d be jovial, almost friendly, even. Asking me how old I was and my name. Giving me the occasional prod or tugging me in close in a light hearted headlock, it made me feel strange. No-one had ever really given me attention before, least of all stallions. My legs were chained together, and I really didn’t want to aggravate the ponies with the guns.
“Hey lookee there, she’s got a blush on her face!” One of the stallions, wearing a chewed up jacket said to the others. They all began to laugh. A big stallion, with a quiet sounding voice walked up to me. I knew that he had a big gun stuck in his barding, but it didn’t seem to make him threatening.
“It’s alright, Airhead acts like that to all of us, especially the mares.” He said this to me before chuckling slightly. One of the ponies at the head of the group had stopped, so we had stopped. There hadn’t been any big noises, like gunshots.
“Oh, a-alright,” I said with a much more uncertain chuckle. After that he picked up one of his meaty hooves and began to run them up and down my sides. I felt uncomfortable at his touch, my body wanted to move away from him, wanted to lean away but he’d just hold me tighter. Not painfully but very noticeably so. He’d occasionally rest his head on my shoulders and I felt little bumps as he’d clench his jaws. Every once in awhile he would say something vaguely comforting before playing with my mane. It wasn’t outside of my attention that some of the other Stallions were watching me and him, they had their mouths open and tails raised. Somehow, this made me feel more afraid than anything else.
After maybe ten minutes of fondling that felt longer than most weeks, he back off but not before winking and saying. “See ya later tonight miss, here’s hopin’ we have a place to put ya.”
I heard a few words being exchanged between the Slavers. Apparently they had made their rendezvous with another group of Slavers. They were apparently a large organisation, the destination a few miles out from Ponyville. We hadn’t even been walking for that long. However, I didn’t see any nearby buildings of sorts. Instead, the leaders of both groups broke off and exchanged some words in the distance. As the two spoke, I heard one from my original group sauntering up from behind me, stopping next to me. He just stood there, swinging side by side, occasionally bumping into me, but I knew better than to make a fuss. He began bumping more frequently into me, and would sometimes linger, rubbing up against me. I felt bodily unwell with each longer touch. I bristled and shook subconsciously, prompting a hissed “relax, meat!” and an “accidental” kick to my right foreleg. Just as the two in the distance returned, he simply walked on, as if he’d just been standing there a moment, brushing his tail from my hip, along my sides to my shoulders as he passed. All I could do was hang my head, clench my eyes shut and swallow the vague lump in my throat.

---===*===---

Wasteland Steel

It had been just the usual smash and grab, smash the defensives and grab anything with a lot of arcana. What we hadn’t expected was that the little Ministry of Awesome bunker had been made the base of a fuck ton of slavers. It’s a little ironic at this point to say that I had been one of those for attacking the place anywhere.
“What are they gonna do? Call us names.” I had said. On an entirely unrelated note, I needed to muzzle myself more often.
To be fair, it had gone pretty well, up until the point me and two others pushed into one of the interior corridors. Fucking ministry of awesome had installed a spark emitter in the walls. Whatever, if they hadn’t have had that then I would have shoved my entire hoof up their asses, I did actually yell that at them. Maybe it was short sighted.
In any case, are armours were dead and we were stuck. The rest of the rangers retreated, to either get some technicians and heavy weapons or to leave us and go somewhere opposition wasn’t actually a thing. It left us shit outta luck, regardless.
The slavers were at least smart enough to split us apart and chain us as soon as they found the release for the armour. So, the slavers now also have three sets of armour in good condition.

It’s been a day since then, Asshole slavers, both genders mind you, have been leering at me. I just suck it up, but as I walk down a dark road in the dark, I can’t help but think about what they have planned. Honestly, as I looked at the sign on the side of the ruined highway, the name Ponyville written in spray paint in perfect block letters is disquieting enough.

---===*===---

Cellmates

They had marched me straight back into Ponyville, this group quite a bit less subdued than the first. They made comments and jokes about me, my size and the cute things they wanted to watch me do. After passing some boarded houses on the outskirts, I was led down a wine cellar. The walls were lined up with impromptu cells, crudely but sturdily built with walls and separating black cloths as curtains. I was shoved to a cage that had another captive, a grey earth mare, waiting with her captors, who seemed no less excited than my escort. The door was opened, and she was led in first, then I felt a push against my rump, prompting me to follow her in. Stealing a good look at her hindquarters as the door closed behind me. She was no Velvet, but still I wouldn’t mind sharing a cell and the pile of hay in the corner with her.
I could hold on to her for strength and comfort, maybe!
So. While she just seemed to glower at the floor, I scooched a little closer to her. No reaction yet. I got up on all fours again and cleared my throat. This got me a “What’s up, squirt?” and a huff from her as she seemed to size me up.
“Um, not our luck…” I said, quickly regretting my words. This large mare just looked at me before letting out a loud breath of air, it was like one-eighth of a laugh. She looked down at the mat of moldy hay and just let her body drop on top of it. Her mane was blonde and she looked like she could fit take most stallions’ lunch money. Judging by her size and general disposition. I sat down next to her, not close to her, just kind of close to her. The large mare gave me an apathetic look.
“If they’re gonna put us in a cage together, I should know your name. I mean, I wouldn’t want you taking all of the hay or you using my toothbrush.” She made that fraction of a laugh again. She kept her eyes locked on mine.
“I’m littlepip, I uh, just left my stable. By the way have you seen a mare named Velvet Remedy?” I looked down while telling her this.
“And you got captured within what, five minutes, that’s gotta suck. I mean, these guys aren’t gonna be fun. Not to scare you or anything, but we bust up places like this sometimes, and the insides aren’t pretty.
This sparked my curiosity. She was brave or stupidly brave to just go out and attack them, might as well see if there are other groups than these monsters out there.
“You went and actually attacked these ponies? Who are you?”
She gave me, or rather, my stable jumpsuit a look.
“I’m with a group that preserves Equestria’s culture and science to rebuild our once great nation. Got nabbed in a failed raid on this place. You can call me Paladin Icepick. They were lucky, basically.”
“Oh! So your buddies will come bust us out of here?”
She sighed and turned away from me.
“Try and get comfortable. I’m sorry to see your first, what, week?-”, “day.” I amended, now looking down at my hooves - “day, has ended like this, but that’s life in the wasteland for you. With any luck at least they’ll keep us fed for what they’ve got planned for us.”
“Holding us ransom?”

“Nah. I think you can get a pretty good idea how they might make money off us and still be motivated to keep us alive.”
My heart began to race. My breathing quickened and I fell back on my haunches. This was bad. I was stuck here with this strange mare, no sign of Velvet anywhere and in for a very bad time if I couldn’t get out of here soon. Preferably immediately. My thoughts were interrupted by her pressing a hoof against my chest.

“I don’t know about you but I’m keeping my dignity.”

I didn’t know what she meant by that, though I’d find out. All, I wanted at this point was a pillow, a Velvet Remedy song on the radio and a night’s sleep worth getting.
“So don’t expect me to join you in breaking down. Not going to give those fucks that kind of satisfaction any time soon. And you shouldn’t be too excited about seeing my battle buddies for another reason, by the way.”
“I can’t imagine them being any worse than this.”, I told her.
“See that clunky foreleg computer of yours?”

“A pipbuck as any other pony in the stable would have me fix up when theirs are on the fritz. What about it?”

“We see to salvaging technology and other artifacts of prewar importance from savages who don’t know how to properly appreciate and care for it.”
“Shouldn’t I be fine then, I love technology, all the numbers and…” My voice trailed off, her eyes just seemed to cloud. She let out a sigh, she hadn’t moved her hoof.
"Even though as a stable technician you'd be more qualified than most,” Her voice had a weight to it. She locked eyes with me. I felt inklings of a blush hitting my face. Of course she was a young-ish grey mare. “You'd still have to fork that over as soon as we'd rescue you.”
I felt anger and despair surge inside me.
“But then I’d be left with nothing! You’d practically be leaving me for dead.”, I sobbed with a stomp of my hoof.

“I’m already losing any trail Velvet might’ve left and without my pipbuck I’d be completely lost. Wouldn’t even be able to find the way back to the stable if you dropped me off in the middle of nowhere.”
“By the time they rescue us, if they do, you’re gonna be too focused on finding a mares…” She said with a shrug and a shiver.
She proceeded to lay down on the mat. Within a minute or so, she was asleep.
I didn’t really feel compelled to get any shuteye just yet. I paced along the bars, sometimes stopping to glance furtively at my pipbuck as I did.

“You better not make me get up and make you stop.”, came from her resting form.

“Really, you don’t want my full weight pressing down on you. And you’re gonna need your energy tomorrow, squirt. Go. To sleep.”
At that, I scurried over to the pile of hay and settled in it. My back to hers, but not touching, I figured we could share and stay out of each other’s mane for tonight.

Before nodding off, I wanted to know what she’d be good at, right. So, I let my eyes drift over to her flank. Her cutie mark was a bunch of metal shards flying off in random directions. That could be useful.

I passed out a while back, the sleep wasn’t good.