The sun beat mercilessly down on a young zebra as she dug a rusty hoe into the ground, over and over. Around her neck a metal collar latched with grenades weighed her down as a constant reminder of her new position in life. Sweat covered her coat as she worked, occasionally glancing up at her captor. Just another pony in a world filled with them. A shotgun and the detonator to her collar at his hip.
The wasteland wasn't an easy place to live in. Growing food was hard and there was little of it to spare. It's why they guarded it so closely. It's why she should have looked for traps longer when she tried to steal some from the small plot. It's why having a slave, even a zebra one, was such good fortune for the stallion. Why it had been worth making the slave collar. Why it had been worth the few medical supplies to heal her wounds after she set off the traps.
It was why she swore to the clouds above if she ever got free, she would kill him and his family with her bare hooves. A threat she had told him often during the first week of her servitude. He had merely beat her with his gun and told her to get back to work.
Her bad fortune had begun a few months ago, before she had lost her family.
Her family didn't have a lot of value, mostly surviving on what they could salvage or steal. There had been more of them once, or so her mother said, an entire herd of them. But one by one the herd dwindled from the effects of the harsh wasteland. By the time she was born there was only her mother and father left.
They traveled a lot, going from town to town. They never actually entered any, always staying on the fringes. In fact, before her capture the closest she had ever come to a pony was watching small groups of them travel along the roads, while she hid behind a bush with her mother.
Her father took care of gathering the resources they needed. Their small family had one valuable item, something from before the world had ended. A zebra invisibility cloak. Using the cloak her father would sneak into towns and take the supplies they needed. Unfortunately he wasn't perfect, sometimes ponies would notice things were disappearing into thin air and they would have no choice but to run.
It was night when it happened. The world had erupted around them in flame and rock. Metal ponies turned the world to ash around them and surrounded the three. Then as quickly as it started the explosions stopped. Her father had tried to protect them but he was shot dead before her eyes. Her mother had put the cloak over her and told her to run. She had been too frightened to do otherwise.
Slipping by the metal ponies had been easy with them unable to see her, but her mother had no such luck. All the zebra heard was a scream. When she turned she saw her mother on the ground, unmoving. She didn't even have a chance to mourn, having to run as far as she could as they began to search for her.
Alone in the wilderness with no supplies, the world was a dangerous place for one so young. She lacked her fathers skill when it came to stealing and was too afraid to enter the towns. Instead she would salvage or steal from those who camped out in the wasteland, with meager results.
Unfortunately she was so starved that when she saw the meager garden she hadn't noticed any of the tripwires or explosives. She had woken up with a shotgun in her face, a collar around her neck, and every bone in her body aching.
She had tried explaining but her excuses fell on deaf ears. Her new 'master' made it dreadfully clear what he thought of her. Even if she was only a little older than a filly she was still a zebra. And at the end of the day, that was only one step below a dog. She would have to work or die. The only good thing was that he had no idea of the magic in her cloak, he merely assumed it was a normal cloak and used it as a mere blanket to be stored for a cold night. With no other choice, she worked. And plotted. For over a month she tilled the land, slowly getting to know her captors.
There were three of them. The stallion was the big problem. He held the control for her explosive collar at all times and watched every move she made. At night he would tie her down to make sure she couldn't attempt an escape or anything. He was an earth pony and was built like one. Even without his shotgun or the collar, she doubted she could take him in a fair fight.
His wife, another earth pony, was a completely different sort. It wasn't that she pitied the zebra, in fact she was terrified of it. She had on more than one occasion told her husband to put it down before it turned on them like a rabid dog. She was almost as hated as the stallion.
The last one was simple. A little colt barely old enough to climb up the stairs of the run down house, let alone pose an actual threat to the zebra. The colt tended to watch her with curiosity, unsure of what to make of the thing that looked like a pony but clearly was not one. Sometimes the child would sneak down after his parents had fallen asleep and poke the sleeping creature and talk with her. And so the child became her ticket to escape.
During a few of the child's excursions she used soft words, told him that his father was just confused and didn't realize what she really was. Made up soothing stories and the child ate it up. She eventually convinced him to bring her a small rock. Now it might not seem like much, but the rock was invaluable when combined with a small piece of metal she had managed to break off the hoe.
She couldn't move much when tied up, but every night she would slowly and methodically sharpen the edge of the metal. After a little over a week of hard work the small piece of scrap was as sharp as any dull knife one would find in the barren wasteland. Tonight she planned to use it to her advantage.
After a full day's hard work the sweaty mare was slowly led inside, held at the end of a shotgun. She was led to a small corner of the room where a hook had been lodged into the wall and she was tightly and painfully tied to it. Her hind and forelegs were tied together and later a gag would be put in her mouth. For now a small plate of brown gunk was put on the ground in front of her, which she slowly ate without objection. After all, come night time, she would have her vengeance on the stallion.
Soon the night had fallen completely and the ponies retreated to their beds, leaving her gagged and bound on the cold floor. Once the floor above her went silent she slowly wiggled around. Just a little bit away from her resting place a small moldy floor board was quickly moved aside as she reached under the floor, fumbling a bit with her forehooves until she felt something sharp. Pulling it free she held the small piece of metal up in the darkness. She began to slowly and painstakingly cut at the bonds around her body.
Unfortunately the edge wasn't as sharp as she hoped and it took most the night before her bonds were cut open, especially due to having to use her mouth while gagged. But it was enough. A vengeful grin spread on her face as she dropped the metal and slowly sneaked out of the front door. She navigated out of the house and around the simple traps she had long since memorized, soon finding her trusty hoe leaning against the side of the house. She took it in her mouth and slowly slid back into the house, her eyes burning with a desire for vengeance.
She slowly crept up the stairs and slid towards the door to a small room. She pushed it open, just a crack, and gazed at the bed wrapped in darkness, imagining the man and his wife cuddled up in it. She thought about every bruise, welt, or moment of suffering she had gone through at their hooves, and tightened her grip on the hoe. She charged and began to bring the hoe down on the ponies mercilessly, cutting until the blankets were nothing more than scraps.
A sudden blow to the back of the head brought her to her knees, a second one brought her completely down. Through blurry vision she saw the stallion and his wife standing over her, and realized her mistake as she rested on the covers. There was no pony in them, they had to have heard her sneaking about. What a foal she'd been. Why hadn't she just taken some food and ran? Her last thoughts of regret were blotted out as the stock of the shotgun connected with her head.
She awoke to the sun shining directly into her eyes. Her entire body ached as she slowly tried to look around. A gag was wrapped tightly around her mouth and her hooves were tied. She looked up and her heart nearly froze, her forelegs were tied over her head to a large rock. Under the rock a mine had been placed, so if she moved it the mine would go off. She slowly moved to glance at her hind legs, and saw them in a similar position. If she tried she could likely move the rocks, but then she would be blown up. On the other hoof if she didn't move she would eventually be roasted alive, suffering the slow, agonizing death of thirst and dehydration.
She laid there and baked slowly, trying to focus on other things. She wondered if the stallion put this much thought into the ponies he killed, or did he save such methods of murder for zebras? Why did she ever even come to this place? She swore if she ever get out of this she would never go near another pony settlement again! Except maybe to burn them to the ground.
Her thoughts were disturbed as she heard some rocks moving about on her right. So the bastard was coming back, probably hoping he'd broken her will. She swore she would kill him even if she had to set the mines off. The sound came closer and her heart fell as two little antennae popped out over some rocks. A radroach. Bucking wonderful.
The radroach came straight at her as more of its kind followed closely behind it. She shrieked as the first one came to her and bit at her side. She struggled and wiggled about, trying to shake it off, but it was to no avail. More and more of them descended on her and started nipping and biting at her body. Each bite was small and tiny, little more than a scratch, but they kept coming over and over. She screamed into her gag as the slow torturous death continued.
And then her ears practically exploded as lightning struck. Three of the radroaches were turned to smoking husks while the rest scattered. The zebra gasped as the little nibbling bites finally went away, leaving her with hundreds of little marks all over her flesh. A moment later a gray unicorns head popped into view, a wicked grin on its lips.
“My my, what do we have here?” the unicorn said as another pony came up besides her, a red earth pony holding an old, rusty machine gun.
“Looks like a zebra. Didn't think there were any of their kind here. Think we should kill it?” the earth pony said as the machine gun was pushed to the zebra's head.
“We'll bring her back to the boss. Never know, might be worth something,” the unicorn said as her horn glowed yellow. Moments later electricity coursed through the zebra's body, lighting her nerves on fire, before unconsciousness mercifully took her.
She was woken up as a cold splash of foul water dropped on her face. Coughing and sputtering she tried to get her bearings. She was in a small makeshift camp surrounded by five wagons with large cages holding assorted ponies. Once again she was tied down and staring up at ponies, lots of them. Most were armed and wearing assorted pieces of body armor. Only a few of them were unicorns, the vast majority of them being earth ponies.
“Happy you decided to wake up, kid,” a blue unicorn wearing spiked leather armor said. “You're in luck, a zebra ain't worth much more than target practice. But I've never been one to just toss a resource away. So I'm going to make you a little deal.” The unicorn moved down and slowly forced the zebra's face up with her hoof. “You tell us who tied you up out there and I'll give you this.” A short rusty knife was levitated in front of the zebra's face.
“Three of them. Earth ponies. A farmer, his wife and his kid,” she didn't even hesitate to tell them, she owed nothing to those three. And she was pretty sure these slavers would give them what they deserved. “Farm is trapped but doesn't have a lot of food. He has a plethora of explosives I think he salvaged. I don't know where it is but he probably left tracks or something from where he tied me up.” The knife was dropped in front of her mouth, she took it and began to frantically saw at the ropes.
“Happy to see you're being so friendly. Means I won't have to leave you unarmed for this,” the unicorn said as she motioned to a gray earth pony. “Go ahead. Give us a show.”
The earth pony nodded as he drew out a butcher knife from his saddle and began to advance on the zebra. It took her a few moments to realize what they had in mind. She quickly finished cutting her legs free and then rolled to the side as the butcher knife cleaved down where she had been a moment ago.
She jumped to her hooves and backed away from him, the other ponies forming a tight circle around them. The pony was almost twice her size, had a larger knife, more experience with it, and was not suffering from malnutrition. It wasn't meant to be a real fight, just a butchering. The slavers were reacting accordingly, cheering him on and calling out parts for him to lop off first.
She backed away as the pony charged at her, letting out a shriek as she was shoved from behind. She fell forward and lost her grip on the small knife as it flew from her grasp. The earth pony towered over her as she stared up and tried to think of a way to survive. She had only one chance as the blade came down. She lunged forward between the ponies legs and ran under him. As she jumped out from the other side, she leaned down on her forehooves and bucked back as hard as she could, hitting him square between the legs.
He couldn't even scream as he crumbled to the ground and held himself. The zebra didn't hesitate as she grabbed her knife firmly in her teeth and charged back at the pained pony. She plunged it into him over and over, unsure of where the vital organs were but figuring that if she did it enough times she'd eventually hit something important.
As he shifted from pony to corpse, silence filled camp. She pulled the knife from the body and slowly turned to look around at the slavers. “Who's next?” she asked as she held the bloody knife in her bloody mouth, trying to ignore the taste. A number of guns were raised on her.
“Wait!” the blue unicorn yelled out. Slowly she trotted towards the zebra, a grin on her face. “Seems you're a bit of a fighter. Maybe we can have a little more use out of you than just target practice. It's that or I let my boys fill you with lead.”
The zebra slowly looked around before dropping the knife. “What? Why?”
“You killed Iron Weight. Viciously. A zebra like you might be useful for a bit. Besides, isn't like there's is anywhere else you can go even if you try to run,” The unicorn said with a smirk, “Your kind aren't worth much for selling. And you want payback on those three that left you out to die, don't you?”
“Yes,” the zebra said softly as she tried to process what the woman was saying.
“Good. My name is Perpetual. Yours?”
“Shade,” the zebra said as she looked around at the slavers, most looking confused and not sure if they should shoot or not.
“Okay everypony. Get a team and a few new collars ready. We've got three new slaves to get our hooves on.” Perpetual turned her gaze on Shade. “And you'll be going with them.”
The zebra slowly bowed her head as she spoke, “As you wish.” If nothing else, being a slaver had to be better than being a slave.
The night found a small band of four creeping towards the small house and garden, explosive collars and guns latched on their saddles as they advanced on the unsuspecting and sleeping prey.
