Let me begin with this. I am not a pony. I am not a zebra, a mule, or anything even similar to that. I am not even a griffin. What I am is a thing of nightmares -- a thing that ponies will forever fear. Some even despise our very existence. Though it is with good reason. The atrocities that my kind have committed are unspeakable. Many have lost their lives and the lives of their loved ones to us. The name by which they call us is fitting.
Hellhounds. The ultimate killing machines of the wasteland, the deadliest predators in existence, monsters. They all fear us, and rightly so.
Many of my kind hunt ponies because of ancient suffering that our ancestors had endured. Wounds dating back to before the days of the wasteland. Some say ponies caused the wasteland, others say it was zebras. Some even say that it is because of ponies that we have become the monsters that we are today. They blame everything on the ponies, and believe that their hunting of them is justified because of it.
But my kind can be just as cruel as they imagine ponies to be. I am a perfect example of how cruel they can really be.
When I was born, I was the runt of the litter. Small, weak, frail. Even though they did not outright kill me, they still didn’t believe I would survive very long. That was one of the reasons they never bothered to give me a name. To them, I was known as ‘runt’, or much more unpleasant names. Despite their beliefs that I would die very young, I continued living with the pack.
My siblings would often torment me because of my size. But things were not that bad until the eldest of my brothers challenged the alpha male for control of our pack. He won. His first act as leader was to cull the weak in an attempt to create a stronger pack.
To him, I was weak.
He attacked me and attempted to kill me. He proved to be stronger, as I was unable to fight him off, but I did manage to take out one of his eyes during our fight. Although I left him half blind, he left me dying at the bottom of a ravine.
I was broken, bleeding to death slowly and painfully. I made several attempts to crawl away, but there was nowhere I would have been able to go if I had. It was only through a chance miracle that I survived.
*
I laid in a forming pool of my own blood. One of my eyes had been forced shut due to an injury that was beginning to swell up, and the other I forced to keep open in order to stave off unconsciousness and the inevitable death that would follow. I pricked one of my ears up at a noise that was nearby. It sounded like rocks being dislodged. There was a high pitched yelp that followed it.
“Gauze!” came a voice. It was unlike the voices I was accustomed to -- much softer in tone.
“I’m okay!” responded a second voice, this one much kinder sounding.
I turned my ears trying to find the source of the sounds. I didn’t know why I did, I was dying at the time. I suppose it was just general curiosity, as this was the first time I had ever encountered ponies. Eventually I found that the voices were coming from in front of me. I searched with my open eye, trying to see what was going on, but my vision was too blurry to see anything.
“Oh goddesses,” gasped the softer voice. Even through my blurry vision I could make out the vague green shape of the owner of the voice. “Blaze, get down here!”
More rocks scraped and fell as the other voice drew closer. “Alright Gauze, what is it that you-HOLY SHIT!” the voice shouted. I heard a click and then the voice resumed its shouting. “Gauze, get back! That thing will rip you to shreds!”
“But it’s hurt!” replied the softer voice. “It needs our help!”
“All it needs is a couple bullets in its skull!”
“Don’t you dare!” The green blur moved in front of where I thought the other voice’s owner to be.
“Alright, I won’t kill it. Let’s just leave it here and go.”
“We can’t, look at it. It won’t survive if we just leave it.”
“That thing is a monster! It will kill us the moment we turn our back on it!” A few seconds passed in silence. My single eye darted around, trying to get a clear view of what was happening. The seconds seemed to blur into minutes, and then into hours. Finally, the harsher of the two voices gave a sigh. “Damn it, fine.”
The continuous, dull pain I was in suddenly flared as I felt myself being lifted by some force. My broken and twisted limbs dangled helplessly below me and I howled and growled in pain as I floated in the air. The sudden surge of pain proved to be too much for me, and I finally blacked out.
*
I eventually awoke after what I later learned to be a few days. My left eye had been bandaged, but the vision in my right eye was clear. I saw that I was in some sort of makeshift shack. I was lying in a bed, or what was once a bed. I tried to move one of my arms but I found it was bound and coated by a white wrapping. I lifted my other arm up. Although it ached, it wasn’t bound. I lifted a claw and pressed it against the wrapping on my arm.
“I wouldn’t do that,” came a familiar voice. It was the softer of the two voices that had brought me here while I was injured. I now saw that the voice belonged to a light green pony. Her head had long flowing hair that was a yellowish color, parted by a single horn at the top of her head. She stared at me with cerulean eyes. “I don’t want to have to re-bandage those wounds.”
I tilted my head slightly as I stared at her. This was the first time I had ever seen a pony before. In the pack, I was too young and too weak to hunt, so I had rarely been away from the den. She seemed to regard me with a similar curiosity. She slowly stepped a little closer.
“Can you speak?” she asked cautiously..
I hesitated to respond. “Y-Yes...” I managed to choke out. The small pony was somewhat startled by my voice, but she continued on with the conversation.
“My name’s Gauze. Do you have a name?” she asked.
“No,” I replied dryly.
“Oh, here you go,” she said as a container of water floated in front of me. It had a greenish glow around it. I looked over to her and saw that her horn was glowing the same color. I grabbed the container and gulped down its contents. I noticed that when her horn stopped glowing, so did the container and it stopped floating, suspended only by my grip on it. A very odd sight. “Do hounds just not have names or something?” she asked innocently.
“They have names,” I replied. “I just do not,” I added mournfully.
“Oh,” she responded. She began to rub the back of her head nervously, as if she had said something to offend me. Her eyes looked around the room, avoiding making any contact with me.
“But if you wish to refer to me by a title, the ones in my pack called me Runt. Among worse things.”
“I thought you said you didn’t have a name,” she said confusedly.
“Allow me to explain. I was the smallest of my litter, and was very weak when I was young. They believed I would die very young, so they saw little need in my need for a name. When they needed to refer to me by a name, I was runt, or other decidedly cruel names.”
Her eyes stared at me. “That’s terrible! Why would they do something like that? I don’t know much about your culture, but that seems just plain cruel!”
“It was not my pack that were the cruel ones. They saw it as a method to avoid becoming attached to me only to lose me. My siblings saw it as a method to torture me at every opportunity. My siblings, especially the eldest, Jagged Claw, were the cruel ones. Claw killed our Alpha and assumed leadership of the pack. Most of my siblings disliked me, but Jagged openly hated me. Easy to see why he decided to kill me. Or try to.”
The pony remained silent for a few minutes after I had finished my story. “You mean your own family did this to you?” she asked, breaking the silence. I gave a slight nod. “That is just not right!” she declared angrily. “Forcing you to endure all that pain, not even having your own identity!”
“Please, it is nothing to trouble yourself with.”
The pony paced around the small shack, mumbling incoherent things to herself. I simply lay in the bed and observed her. I began to examine my surroundings closer.
The shack was littered with various debris. On the side of the room opposite my bed was a wooden door. On the wall beside it was an open doorway that led into another room, though my position did not allow me to look inside. I was also in no condition to be on my feet, so I couldn’t investigate. Light from outside filtered through murky makeshift windows.There were a few shelves along the walls beside my bed that held various things. Bottles of liquids, some clear, some murky, some dark, lined one of the shelves, and one below that held several packets of orange liquid. A few needles were on the shelf below that one, and the bottom shelf held a few boxes.
I recognized a few of the boxes. They held food. Often, my siblings would leave me nothing to consume except for boxes of these ancient foods. They were hardly as delicious as fresh kill, but they sustained me for most of my youth. It was at this moment that I realized how hungry I really was, as my stomach let loose a low rumble.
The mare looked at me with a bit of horror in her eyes, though she tried to conceal it. She gulped nervously. “So uh, I guess you’re hungry then. Uhm, what is it that you eat?” I nodded my head towards that boxes that lined the bottom of the shelf. She seemed to understand, as a few of them were enveloped in a green light and floated over in front of me. I tore open the top of one of the boxes with a claw and dumped the contents into my mouth. It wasn’t very tasty, but it was the sustenance that I needed.
My meal was interrupted by a knocking on the door of the shack. The mare seemed to not notice the knock. When she didn’t respond, the door swung open violently and another pony rushed into the room. He was different from the other pony in that he possessed no horn, yet on his sides were feathery appendages. He was also of a different color than the mare, being red with an orange-yellow mane. Also in his jaws he held some sort of metal device that had an opening that faced towards me.
“‘auze, owr ooh ohay?” the new pony said around the thing between his jaws.
The mare turned to the pony. “Blaze! What the hell?” she scolded.
The stallion mumbled something around the metal, but eventually realized that speech was a lost cause with that in his mouth. He set it on the ground and repeated what he said. “You didn’t answer and I was worried that that...That thing harmed you.” His words seethed hatred and disgust as he referred to me. This was the first time that I had encountered the hatred that ponies had for my kind.
“He hasn’t harmed me. He has actually been very polite.” Her words held no hatred towards me.
“Polite? That thing is a monster! They kill ponies and eat them!” shouted the stallion.
“He isn’t a monster!” she shouted in response. “Let’s not argue in front of him,” she added in a quieter voice, possibly intending for me to not hear.
“Yeah, don’t want to piss the beast off, then he would likely attack us,” he spat as he glared at me.
“Just go, we’ll talk about this later,” the mare said.
“Alright, fine! I’m going. But don’t come crawling to me when that thing rips your limbs off,” called the stallion as he picked up the strange item in his teeth again and left the building.
“Don’t mind Blaze. He can be an ass sometimes, but he is a good pony when you get to know him,” said the green pony as she turned back towards me.
“He hates me,” I replied.
“He doesn’t hate you,” the mare quickly said. “He just has a problem with your kind.” Her eyes widened as she realized what she said. “Not that there is anything wrong with your kind!” she quickly added.
“And you fear me,” I continued. She didn’t refute this statement. “Yet the two of you helped me. Why? For all you knew, I could have been one of the crueler of my kind, one that would kill you as soon as he woke up. Why would you help me even though I am what I am?”
The mare was silent for a moment. “Because it was the right thing to do,” she finally responded. “Because too many ponies would have done the easy thing and left you there. I wanted to do the right thing and help you.”
We spent several hours conversing with each other. I told her about my life in the pack, and she had told me about her own life. She was a doctor that lived in a small settlement known as Pleasant Springs, which was where we currently were. She and a mercenary from the town, the red pony known as Blaze, had been traveling in the wasteland in search of supplies to make medicines for the small town. That was when they had found me and brought me back here. She also told me some about her own past; how she earned her ‘cutie mark’ (whatever that meant, I’m guessing it was referring to the picture of an unraveling bandage on her flank), how she came to reside in the town, and how she effectively allowed the town to expand around her home. I thought she was just exaggerating about her importance in the development in the town, but she assured me that ponies tend to reside in places where there is a doctor to keep them healthy, and where there is a trader to allow for an influx of supplies. But our conversation began to draw to a close, as the light outside began to fade and night approached.
“You can sleep here, at least until your wounds heal,” said the mare. “Normally this bed is reserved for any patients that come in, but for some reason most ponies have just been opting to buy the supplies and use them themselves.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
The pony stood up from the spot on the floor she had been sitting on and walked towards the doorway that led further into the building. As she walked away, her horn glowed (she had told me that this was how unicorns performed magic) and the lantern that hung from the ceiling flicked off. Her horn continued glowing until she was out of the room, fading slowly from view as she left.
I laid there for another hour, just thinking over recent events as I attempted to drift off to sleep. When I did manage to fall asleep, my dreams were plagued by nightmares. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. Big bad hellhound having nightmares? What did I have to have nightmares about? If you experienced some of the things I had during my life, you would understand the chronic dreams of cruelty I suffer from.
*
It had been three days since I had awoken in the small settlement of Pleasant Springs. I had learned more about how I came to be in the town. It turns out that the two ponies had snuck me into the clinic at night. Most of the ponies in the town were initially unaware of my presence, and those that were quickly let the others know. Soon the entire town knew that I, or rather a monstrosity, was living in the town.
The residents of the town were slowly reaching the point where they were likely to surround the clinic with torches and burn it to the ground in an attempt to kill me. The only reason that they didn’t was because many of them had heard about the hardiness of my kind, and feared that burning down the clinic would only release the beast to prey upon the civilians. I was pretty sure that the fire would still kill me, but I was glad that they didn’t test it out.
Although most were too afraid to do anything severe, there would still be the occasional pony that would cause minor troubles, such as defacing the outside of the building or yelling at the green pony that took care of me. The mare repeatedly told me that it was nothing that I should worry about. The red pony continued his harassment of me, usually bursting into the room and calling me a monster at every opportunity, but his insults became less common, and he sometimes even came into the room with his ‘gun’ (I learned that was the metal thing he had). The green one seemed appalled by him calling me a monster, but at least he was consistent in his naming of me.
My wounds were slow to heal, but they were making progress. I was able to get out of bed and walk around some, though the mare advised me that I likely shouldn’t leave the clinic. Despite my growing desire to be outside once more, I heeded her advice and concealed myself from the eyes of the town’s residents.
“You’re getting stronger every day,” observed the mare while she watched as I walked around the room. My legs had sustained many injuries during my fight, and one of them had broken when I fell. Now, though there was still the occasional twinge of pain, I was able to walk around on them. My eye that had been swollen shut previously was now normal, although heavily bruised. I was glad that I was still able to see out of it. “Pretty soon you won’t need to stay here any more.”
“Yes,” I replied. I had nowhere to go, but I decided to omit this information, as it would only cause her to worry.
“Hey,” she called. I turned around to see her walking up to me. “I have been thinking about your story, how you were not given a name during your life. And I think I might have a name that suits you. Underdog.”
“Underdog?” I repeated, tilting my head at the word.
“One who is disadvantaged in life, but can still overcome challenges set before them. I felt that it suited you.”
“You are giving me a name?” I asked. She gave a little nod. I thought it over for a moment. Yes, Underdog. Despite my weakness and my brother trying to kill me, I had survived, and I continued to survive. It was a fitting name. It was a name. I had never had a real name before. This pony-no. Gauze had given me a name. “Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me.”
“Everyone deserves an identity of their own,” she-Gauze replied.
I walked over and wrapped the small pony in a hug, careful to not accidentally crush her or stab her with my claws. She gave a small yelp of surprise, and maybe a little bit of terror, as I picked her up in the embrace. She eventually wrapped her forelegs halfway around me, returning the hug.
Suddenly there was a loud bang outside, followed by cries of terror. I set down Gauze and went to look out one of the dirty windows. She followed beside me.
“Damnit, that had better not be Blaze causing trouble agi..” she trailed off as she looked out the window. I followed her gaze and saw several ponies running through the town. Behind them was a large group of fierce looking ponies, all brandishing weapons of some sort. Several of the ponies from the town lay on the ground in a pool of their own blood, unmoving. “Oh Goddesses,” Gauze gasped as she looked at the tragedy.
“Who are those ponies?” I asked.
“Raiders,” she replied solemnly, as if the word carried some meaning I was unaware of. She looked over and saw the confusion evident in my face and she continued her explanation. “Ponies who attack and kill other just for fun. They are bad news.”
I looked out the window once more. One of the ‘raiders’ had his head explode open. A muffled cheer came from outside. I looked up and saw a red blur flying through the sky, firing at the invaders. Though Blaze managed to take down several of the bad ponies, one of them returned fire and clipped him in his wing, causing him to spiral down to the ground.
“No!” Gauze let out a little shriek as the pegasus (Gauze explained to me earlier how there are different types of ponies) fell from the sky and hit the ground hard. I walked over to the door and tried to open it. “What are you doing? You’re too injured, they will kill you if you go out there!” Gauze cried.
I looked over at her. “You saved my life.” I opened the door and was met with stares from both the citizens of the town and the raiders. “Let me save your town,” I replied calmly as I took a few steps out into the battle.
The sun, despite being covered by clouds as it always is, was bright compared to the dim confines I had stayed in for the past several days. The raiders momentarily stopped their attack as they stared at me. Their faces held a mixture of fear, hatred, and bloodlust. A few of the bad ponies took a few steps back as they locked eyes with me. The only pony in their group who did not move away from me was the one at the front of their pack. On one side he had an especially large gun (at least I think it was a gun, I had only seen the ones that Blaze had) with multiple pipes attached to it. On the other side he had a large box. He stared at me and his horn started glowing a dim red. The large gun on his side started to spin, slowly at first but picking up speed.
“Well, looks like this backwater town might be fun after all. They got a pet hellhound!” shouted the raider, who I guessed was the alpha male of his pack. “I always wanted to kill one of those things.”
I let loose a low growl and charged at the pony. He barely had time to react I was on him so fast. What I lacked in size I made up for with my agility. The weapon on his side started roaring as I was pelted with bullets (Blaze told me it was what most guns fired). Many of the bullets sunk into my hide but very few of them penetrated very deep.
Once I was in range, I leapt at the pony with my claws stretched out at him. He reared back in an attempt to kick me away, but it was too late for him. The claws sunk through his patchwork of armour with ease. A look of shock became evident in his eyes as his body began to register the pain he was in. When my claws were deep enough in his chest, I hooked them on his ribs and pulled back, ripping his chest open. I dropped the corpse to the ground; the pony was dead before he hit.
I looked up at the rest of the raiders. Many of them turned and fled, but a few were paralyzed with fear and were unable to move. I stepped over the corpse of their leader and slowly walked towards them.
“Leave,” I growled. “Or leave in pieces.” This caused the remaining raiders to drop their weapons in terror and run away. One of the raiders looked back at me, likely worrying that I had given chase. I stayed where I was for a few minutes.
I had just killed a pony. Sure, my kind had killed ponies before, but most of them killed them as a source of food. I had learned recently that ponies were actually good creatures, but I realized that ponies were similar to hellhound; some are good and some are bad. These raiders were definitely bad ponies, they had killed other ponies. They even wanted to kill me just to kill me.
I managed to calm myself after a few more moments, and I turned to face the town. Gauze had exited her clinic and was standing over where Blaze had crashed. Several bottles and syringes were floating around her illuminated by a green glow. Other ponies stood silently watching me, waiting to see if they would be ripped to shreds like the raider.
A few voices murmured something about me being a monster, others sounded like they were thankful. I ignored the stares of the crowd and cautiously walked over to Gauze and Blaze.
Blaze laid on the ground. One of his wings had a hole in it. One of his legs was twisted awkwardly. He tilted his head slightly and noticed me.
“Oh hey buddy, how are ya?” he slurred.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.
“That’s just the pain killers kicking in. He’ll be a little loopy for a couple hours,” said Gauze as she placed her hooves around Blaze’s broken leg. “Though I am pretty sure he will still feel this,” she said as she snapped the leg back into place with an audible crack.
“GAH! YOU BITCH!” he shouted in pain.
“Welcome back to the real world, Blaze,” Gauze chimed. “Now I have a lot more patients to tend too. Underdog, would you mind him into the clinic.”
“Underdog?” he asked as he looked up at me. “You named that thing?” Gauze gave a nod as she tore a long string of bandages off of a roll and wrapped Blaze’s wing with it. “Damnit Gauze,” he muttered under his breath.
I picked up the pony as he continued to mutter profanities. The ponies that had been staring at me the entire time continued to do so, although a few of the onlookers went about other tasks such as helping the injured ponies and repairing the damage caused by the raiders.
I gently set the pony down onto the bed in the clinic. “Thanks,” he mumbled in response. “So what happened?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, feigning ignorance.
“I mean, what the hell happened to that group of raiders?” he clarified.
“I drove them away,” I replied vaguely. I wished to avoid going into details, but Blaze continued his barrage of questions until I finally told him the full events of what happened.
“Damn...” he gasped as I finished the story. “Well, now I feel like a complete dumbass rushing in here and waving my gun around thinking that I could take you.” He paused for a moment. “Thank you for saving us.”
“It was the right thing to do. You saved me, so it was only right that I helped you,” I replied.
“I didn’t save you,” he replied solemnly. “I would have left you there to rot. But I am thankful that Gauze convinced me otherwise. She was the one who saved you.” He paused for a few moments. “I am glad that she did. You saved our town, and you saved me as well. You are alright for a hellhound.”
I sat on the floor and spoke with Blaze for about an hour. He was a nice pony to talk to now that he had warmed up to me. He told me that his real name was not actually Blaze, it was just a nickname that Gauze had for him (another name but still the same identity, what a novelty). His real name was Guns Blazing. I still referred to him as Blaze, as that was the name I had come to associate him with. The thing that the raider I killed had been using was a ‘minigun’, which I found odd as the gun was fairly large. He wanted me to go retrieve it before one of the other ponies scavenged it, but Gauze entered the room before I could leave.
“Wow, you two seem to actually be getting along for once,” she commented.
“I blame the painkillers!” Blaze shouted. “But this guy is actually interesting to talk to. You were right, he is smart.”
“That reminds me, Underdog, how did you become so intelligent?” Gauze asked.
“Hellhounds are a very smart species, ponies just tend to not think of us as such. But when I was just a pup, I managed to leave the den for the first time. I stumbled upon a building and inside I found several intact books. I took them back to the den and spent weeks teaching myself to read them. After a few more weeks, my siblings learned of my readings and took the books away from me, burning them in a pile in front of me. But from that point on, on the rare occasion I left the den, I would always try to return with more books.”
“Wow, sounds like your siblings were terrible,” Blaze replied.
“Indeed, they were. That wasn’t even one of the worst things they did. I am still haunted by what they did to my pet giant rat...” I began.
“So what’s the damage, doc?” Blaze asked, quickly changing the subject of the conversation.
“Of the survivors, you were the worst case. I’m sorry Underdog, but Blaze is going to need to have your bed for the next couple days, you can have it back when he is healed,” Gauze replied.
“Wait, you mean I can stay here?” I asked.
The two ponies only looked at me. “Of course you can stay, if you want that is,” said Gauze.
“You saved our hides from being decorations in some raider camp, I doubt that very many in town would object to you staying here,” Blaze added. “Heh, I doubt very many raiders will want to attack if they know we have a hellhound to help protect us.”
I was almost moved to tears. I thanked the two of them and spoke with them for a few more hours. It was beginning to get late, as the light that filtered through the windows was starting to diminish. Gauze managed to drag a mattress into the clinic and set it on the floor for me.
I laid down on it and began to drift to sleep.
“Ah, damnit!” exclaimed Blaze, still lying in the bed across the room. I looked up at him. “I forgot to get that minigun!”
I gave a light chuckle as I fell asleep.
*
It had been almost a full year since I had first woken up in that small settlement. Many of the citizens of the town became a little more accepting of me, a few even looking past the fact that I was a hellhound and treated me no differently than they treated a pony. Of course, many of the ponies in the town were much less accepting. Mothers still held their foals close when I walked by, locks clicked to houses when I approached, and ponies spoke in hushed whispers when I was near. Despite all of this, I managed to make a peaceful living in the town.
I assisted Gauze in the clinic usually. I lived there since I had woken up, as Gauze was the nicest pony in the town. Blaze even gave me back my bed a few days after the incident with the raiders, though oddly he returned to the clinic a few weeks later and has been staying in the room Gauze sleeps in.
The few ponies in the town that were friendlier with me usually gave me bottle caps (ponies use the oddest things for currency) for little jobs. They usually included dealing with a radscorpion nest to the north. Strangely, no matter how many times I killed them, they would just show back up a week later. Gauze thought it was a good thing, as I was always sure to bring back as many of their poison glands as I could. I think she said she made antivenom with them.
Raiders would still occasionally attack the town, but it was never the same group twice. I usually only had to deal with just one or two of them before the others got the message and ran with their tails between their legs.
It was a simple life, but it was peaceful. That is, until I had a chance encounter with a traveler.
*
BLAM!
The crack of a shotgun blast echoed through the usually quiet town. The slug punched through my hide and embedded itself in my shoulder. I looked over at the attacker.
He was a young looking pony, blue coat and a light grey mane. He wasn’t blood covered and dirty like raiders were, and his face was cold and expressionless. His eyes betrayed a mix of fear and hatred though, one that was common in ponies who met me. He was a unicorn. His horn glowed a light blue, the same color as the shotgun that levitated next to him. He popped out the expended shells and floated in fresh ones and took aim at me again.
I almost leapt at him before he fired again, but both of our attacks were interrupted by the green mare that placed herself between us.
“STOP!” she shouted, both at me and the blue pony. I skidded to a halt and the pony lowered his shotgun slightly. “What the hell is going on here?” Gauze shouted.
“Out of the way Miss, before you get harmed by that beast,” spat the traveler. He floated the shotgun back up and pointed it at me again. Gauze stood in his way.
“Underdog would never hurt me,” she shouted back. I gave a nod.
“Ma'am, what kind of drugs are you on? That thing is a hellhound!” the blue pony replied. “It’ll skin your hide and use it as a toaster cozy! Now out of my way and let me kill that beast.”
Another gunshot rang out, but this one came from above. A rifle round sunk into the ground in front of the traveler. He and I both looked up to see Blaze hovering in the air with the rifle on his battle saddle (that was what hornless ponies used to fire bigger guns) aimed at the blue pony.
“Next one’s going through your skull if you hurt Dog!” he shouted. Despite my protests, Blaze and a few other select individuals referred to me as Dog instead of my full name.
The blue pony faltered for a moment and looked to see many of the town’s dwellers glaring at the him. At that moment it dawned on him that I was a part of this community and that he was no longer welcome.
“Fuck this!” he shouted. “This entire town is loony! I’ll be sure to tell everyone that you freaks have a pet hellhound! Yeah, good luck getting any travelers to visit you now!” With that he turned and ran out of the town.
The ponies in the town returned to what they were originally doing before I was attacked as soon as the violent visitor was out of sight. Gauze turned around to look at me, her eyes shimmered with forming tears. Blaze landed next to us and the three of us returned to the clinic.
“What happened out there?” Blaze asked as we entered the building.
“That pony attacked me,” I replied. “I was walking around the town when I noticed a new face in town. As soon as I looked at him, he shot at me.”
“I was afraid of this,” mumbled Gauze. I looked at her inquisitively. She bit her bottom lip for a second and then continued. “Well, many ponies who visit here are often travelers that have had experiences with the less friendly of your kind. They don’t often take the time to find out whether or not you are friendly before they start shooting.”
“I remember that one guy a couple weeks back who came here because he heard we had a hellhound and was looking to take your claws to make himself some hoof-claws,” added Blaze. “Offered his services to remove the problem and we would only have to pay him a thousand caps and let him keep the claws. Bastard was lucky I only had my pistol on me at the time. He got away with only a few dents and dings in his armor. I did recalibrate the sights, so now it is much more accurate. I can hit a metal can from-”
“Blaze,” Gauze interrupted as she glared at him. “Not the time for that.” She looked back at me. “The point is, a lot of ponies are afraid of you just because you are a hellhound. Many ponies hate you because they think you will attack them.”
“Why?” I asked, though I knew neither of them had the answer. “There have been many ponies that have attacked this town. A few of them even succeeded in killing a few of residents. That doesn’t mean that all ponies are bad. Ponies are like hellhounds, some are good and some are bad.”
“It’s just that way things are. We know you are a good hound, but too many ponies out there have had bad experiences with hounds. They don’t like to risk you being another bad one,” said Gauze in an attempt to comfort me. Didn’t really work, but we put it behind us for the time being. “Now, let’s get that bullet out of your shoulder.”
*
Things were normal for the next few days, but I was still plagued by the encounter. My mind was plagued by thoughts. They’ll never accept me. I am just a monster to them. Ponies that come to this town will just be frightened away by me. Why delude myself into thinking I can stay here? I tried ignoring the thoughts, but there was suddenly a knock on the clinic door. Gauze emerged from her room a moment later, her mane was wild looking and messed up. I stayed still, pretending to still be asleep. She stumbled over to the door and swung it open. Standing outside of the clinic was a small group of ponies, at the front of which was the mayor. Or maybe it was the sheriff. I wasn’t sure which he was, maybe he was both.
“Oh,” said Gauze as she took notice of the small group outside. “Something I can help you with?”
“Gauze, is there someplace that we can speak?” the mayor sheriff started. “Away from him,” he added, his eye flickered towards me momentarily.
“Why?” Gauze asked in return.
“There are things that need to be discussed.” With that, they stepped outside. They spoke in low tones, though I was still able to hear them.
“What’s this about?” I heard Gauze ask.
“There hasn’t been a caravan come in almost a week, no travelers either,” replied the sheriff mayor.
“And you fear that this is because of that traveler from the other day.”
“It’s the damn hellhound’s fault!” replied a new voice, loud enough to be audible even if I had the hearing of a pony. “You had to let your little pet run around and scare away all the travelers, didn’t you?”
“Quiet, we don’t want to wake it,” said another new voice.
“How can you be sure that caravans are avoiding us? Maybe the caravans scheduled to come here were attacked by raiders,” Gauze argued. “You can’t be sure that this is Underdog’s fault.”
“We aren’t asking you to get rid of him,” said the mayor-iff.
“I am,” argued the loud voice, but the others seemed to ignore him.
“All we are asking is that you keep him inside, don’t let him roam around where travelers can see him,” continued the mayor-iff.
“You mean keep him locked up like a prisoner,” Gauze replied flatly. “How could any of you suggest that?”
“I suggest throwing him out of the town,” the loud voice said. Thankfully, nobody listened to him.
“Sheriff,” Gauze began (so he was the sheriff!). “Don’t you remember how he saved you from that giant radscorpion a month ago? And you, how could you forget how Underdog saved you from the raiders two weeks ago? In fact, he has saved this town multiple times!”
“I know what he has done for us, but I need to think of the town. Without trade caravans and travelers to sustain our supplies, we won’t be able to live here. I can’t put one hound ahead of the entire town.”
“Without him there wouldn’t be a town! If it weren’t for him, this town would just be another raider camp with our heads on pikes!” Gauze argued.
“I’m sorry, but this isn’t up for discussion. Keep him inside and maybe we can say we got rid of him and bring trade back,” said the sheriff as his voice became more distant.
A few moments later, the front door opened and shut quietly. I glanced over to see Gauze standing at the door, staring at me silently. After a short time that seemed like hours, she finally broke the silence.
“So I guess you heard all of that,” she muttered.
I gave a nod. “They want to lock me in here because they fear I might frighten more travelers.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Gauze said, trying to comfort me. “We can let you out at night when there are no travelers. You can help me out in the clinic during the day, and at night you can roam around. It’ll be nice.”
“I don’t want to be like a caged animal,” I replied. Even in the dim light I could see tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on?” asked Blaze as he groggily stumbled out of the other room. The shouting from earlier must have woken him. He looked over to Gauze and saw her crying. She ran to him and buried her head in his neck while he held her. He looked over to me for answers, a bit of anger in his confused expression.
“Dog is leaving town,” she choked out in between sobs.
“What? Why?” he asked.
“The ponies in this town no longer wish for me to be with them. They wish to confine me inside like a monster.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to leave. We can go talk to the sheriff and convince-” Blaze began.
“The sheriff is the one forcing me to be locked inside,” I interrupted.
“Neither of us want you to leave,” Blaze said. “You’re our friend. At least stay here for the night and think about what you are doing.” I conceded to this and laid back down. Blaze led Gauze into the side room as I drifted back to sleep.
Only I didn’t fall asleep. I just lay there, and I began to think. Was this the right decision? Sure, there were ponies here that hated me, but there were some who liked me. But this could never really be my home. I had no real home, not anymore. Though did I ever have a home? A place to live, yes, but it never really felt like a home.
This place was the closest thing I had to a home. I had friends who managed to look past what I was in favor of who I was, and many of the ponies in town at least tolerated me. But despite how good things were, somewhere in my mind I knew that they wouldn’t last. Some part of me knew that it would only be a matter of time before I was rejected by them as well.
These thoughts swirled in my mind as I slowly lost consciousness.
*
Dawn approached quickly. The events of the previous night were still fresh in my mind, and my resolve to leave had only increased. I thought of what I was leaving behind as well, Blaze and Gauze, my first and only real friends. I didn’t want to leave them, but I knew I couldn’t stay here.
When the two of them entered the room, I explained to them why I was leaving, and how the events of the previous night weren’t the only reasons. They spent the greater half of the morning trying to convince me to stay, but I was unwavering. I asked the two of them to come with me, but Gauze couldn’t leave the town she has lived in for so long, especially because she was the only pony with major medical training and towns rarely survive without a doctor. Blaze said that he couldn’t leave Gauze by herself. It saddened me to leave my friends behind, but I couldn’t stay here.
“Hold on a moment,” said Gauze, her eyes fighting back tears and her voice faltering as she spoke. She withdrew from the room and entered her room. She emerged a few moments later levitating a bundle of cloth behind her. “I bought these for you a while ago,” she said as she unfolded the bundle. “They were going to be a gift, one year since we met.” The bundle turned out to be a large sheet of cloth, durable looking. Inside the cloth was a collar, fashioned from a large belt. It had small metal studs along it, and a small tag hung from it. “This is a cloak for you,” she said as she levitated the large cloth over me. “You might be able to pass for a large pony or a griffin with this. Hopefully it will make it so that ponies don’t just shoot you on sight.” She used her magic to tug and pull the cloak into place. It fit me snugly, as it likely wasn’t designed for something as large as I was. Regardless, the cloak covered me well. It even had a hood to conceal my head. My paws were uncovered, but they were only noticeable up close. “And this is a collar I managed to make for you,” she said as she wrapped the gift carefully around my neck. She latched it closed. “Blaze even made a tag for your name.” I lifted the tag with a single claw. ‘Dog’ was what it said. “We couldn’t fit the whole name on it though,” she apologized.
Blaze stepped up next to me. He opened his bag with a wing and reached in with his mouth. He lifted out a smaller pack in between his teeth and set it down in front of me. “Here,” he said as he pushed the pack forward. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any weapons that you would be able to use, but we managed to pull together a good amount of health potions and caps to give you. Think of it as thanks for all you’ve done for us.”
I wrapped my arms around the both of them. “Thank you both, for everything you have done for me,” I said.
“Please come back and visit us sometime,” stammered Gauze, her voice was shaky and tears were welling up in her eyes.
I picked up the bag and walked to the door. I looked back to see Blaze wrap one of his wings around Gauze to comfort her. He gave me a nod and a slight smile. I nodded in return and left the clinic.
Today, the sun seemed as bright as it had been when I first left the clinic when I originally woke up. Many of the ponies on the street took notice of me leaving the building. Most of the ponies returned to their business, but a few stopped what they were doing when they saw me. A grey unicorn with a light green mane and a tooth cutie mark walked up to me, anger evident in his eyes.
“What are you doing out here?” he shouted, I remembered him as one of the voices from last night. “Didn’t that bitch chain you up?” I tried to pay him no mind and continue walking, but I felt a tug on my collar and saw that it was glowing a light grey. “Hey mutt! Don’t you walk away from me!” I turned to face him, baring my teeth in an attempt to frighten him. “Oh, don’t even try that shit on me. This whole town knows that you’re Gauze’s bitch and wouldn’t hurt anypony because it would upset her,” he sneered.
I stepped closer to him and loomed over him. A low growl escaped my jaws. The pony had to crane his neck upwards in order to look up at me. His arrogance began to drain from his expression as he realized how tall I was and how sharp my teeth were.
“I was planning on leaving this town peacefully,” I began. “Don’t make me change my plans.” This threat was enough to cause the unicorn to sit back on his haunches. The anger and bravery in his eyes were soon replaced with terror.
I turned and continued onward to the entrance gate for the town. It had taken several months, and some of my assistance, but the town had finally built adequate defences. I passed the two guards that defended the town. They were young ponies, a unicorn and an earth pony, stallion and mare respectively. They were two of the few ponies in the town that accepted me.
“Where you off to, Dog?” asked the mare.
“Not sure,” I replied. “I just thought it was about time I should leave.”
“Is Fluoride giving you hell again?” asked the unicorn. “Damnit, I’m going to-”
“No, it isn’t just him. I simply think it is time I left,” I said. It was the truth, the grey pony wasn’t the only cause, but he certainly didn’t help matters.
“Good luck out there, the wasteland is no place for anyone, pony or hound,” said the mare as I walked by the two of them.
The gate to the town shut loudly behind me, and the expanses of the wasteland loomed before me...
Footnote: Underdog
Special:
Strength-9
Perception-7
Endurance-9
Charisma-2
Intelligence-4
Agility-9
Luck-1
Trait:
Hellish Abomination-You are a hellhound, one of the toughest creatures in the wasteland. As a result, you are much more resistant to damage and you deal a lot more damage with your claws. But your species is also much more limited when it comes to weaponry and armor, not to mention that people are more likely to become hostile towards you.
Quest Perk added: Mysterious Traveler- Who is that guy wandering around in a cloak? Nobody knows, but they certainly don’t suspect it to be a hellhound. Greatly decreased chance of hostile interactions while wearing a cloak or other concealing clothing.