//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Slavery 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Fly Away 
// by Freeflyingwolf 
//------------------------------//

Fallout Equestria: Fly Away
By Freeflyingwolf
Chapter 9: Slavery
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”-- Abraham Lincoln
Sniffling the air around him, Sunshy awoke from his slumber. He wiped away his dry tears with a dirty hoof. It was at that time that he noticed something on his neck that had not been there when he fell asleep. He decided to open his cerulean eyes and take stock of the world around him. Oh fucking joy, more bars that meant he was caged again! YAY~.
Then he put a hoof against his neck and felt some sort of collar. When he turned his head to see the rest of his body, he felt the collar cutting into his throat a little. He supposed it was meant to be uncomfortable and not for decoration. Now that he was able to see the rest of his body, he found his boarding was gone. Damn, he’d have to get more somewhere. Oh crap, his saddle boxes were gone!
“Hey, pegasus, you okay?” A mare questioned.
Sunshy turned to the source and found a puce unicorn, a purple mane and tail, pink eyes, and a cutie mark of a plow. She too was not wearing any boarding and had a collar on. It was black with a flashing little red light. Sunshy could see her neck puckering around the object, which asserted his thought that it was tightened just enough to make them uncomfortable. He could feel it every time he swallowed or moved his head the slightest amount. He knew that he would never get used to it. 
“No. I don’t know where I am, where my stuff is, or where my sister and friend are.” Sunshy listed as he lowered his ears is sadness.
“Get used to it, kid. You’re a slave now, and slaves aren’t allowed to have any of those luxuries.” The mare told him with a frown. It seemed she had been in a similar position as him or was.
“Why are there even slaves? Why do ponies and zebras do this?” Sunshy asked, trying to hold back his fear.
“Because they think we’re too weak to handle ourselves in the wasteland. So, we do work that helps everypony or some shit like that.” The unicorn spat in the dirt.
Suddenly, the mare went silent and her pink eyes widened. She cowered down as Sunshy turned his head, grimacing at the collar, and saw what she was afraid of, but he didn’t get it. It was just a slimy looking zebra in a swallow tail suit with his mane slicked down. He sauntered over to Sunshy with a wide grin, proud of himself for whatever reason. 
Two emancipated, raggedy, brown dogs followed him. Oh wait, not dogs, wild dogs, which were actually different.  Wild dogs had large circular ears, were mostly brown with splotches of black everywhere; the pattern discerning them from each other. They both had black masks around their eyes and muzzles.
Immediately, both wild dogs went over to Sunshy’s cage and pressed their muzzles against it, whining at him and trying to lick him. The smile on the zebra vanished into a confused frown, and he seemed angrier when Sunshy held his hoof out to the wild dogs. The zebra barked at the two wild dogs. Literally, he barked like a dog at the wild dogs. The wild dogs ignored him in favor of pitying Sunshy and wishing to help him.
“I see that using that hyena pack wasn’t just a fluke. I’ll have to spin your gift with animals as a way to make more caps off your skinny ass. Sure as hell won’t sell you for farm work around these parts.” The zebra seemed to be muttering to himself. Then he could take no more of his canines ignoring him, so he kicked the both of them with his front hooves and barked at them again. They yelped and ran away, tails between their legs.
“Who are you?” Sunshy asked, looking up to the zebra. He did not want to stand up just yet, in case he could use his height to intimidate. Doubtful.
“My name is Cuffs.” The zebra turned so the pony could see his glyph mark. As his name indicated, he had two hoofcuffs linked together with a chain running along at the bottom.
“So I’m in Oasis. And you shot me is Gebo.” The pony stated, staring up to Cuffs. A fake name if he’d ever heard one.
“Yes and yes. You’re a smart one, aren’t you? I can use that for a better profit, too. Boy oh boy am I glad you survived.” He must be related to Mayor, with that attitude and grin. Huh, Mayor was probably a fake name too. Did all zebras adopt a fake name after they find their talent? It was three out of four, with that Zirconium as the only exception.
“My friend Zen wants to kill you.” Sunshy stated blandly.
“Oh who doesn’t?” Cuffs waved his hoof dismissively. “Even my own customers want me dead. Only my guards keep me alive.”
Hearing this, Sunshy decided to look beyond his cage and Cuffs. There was a building to his right, bland and broken-down. To his left were more cages—all tall enough to fit a full-grown giraffe and have its head not touching the ceiling—filled with depressed ponies and some zebras. Shockingly, one held a rhinoceros. It was rather…awesome. That was what Sunshy thought when he looked at it past the other ponies. Huge, gray leathery skin, and a horn on the end of its nose. Yep, awesome. Not awesome that it was sad and had a giant collar around its neck. The pegasus’s heart went out to all of the other slaves.
Further left was some panic box, big enough to hold a pony standing up on their rear hooves. A little red slot at the front said it was occupied. The area around it seemed to be the outdoor potty place. A zebra holding a rifle was taking a dump right on the pile. Nice.
Further out in front of him was a big bridge high up in the air, in a strange shape. Some zebras were patrolling with weapons drawn wearing black light armor boarding, like leather. Next to them, looking over everything, was a giraffe. The brown spotted creature was staring out at the landscape, scanning the landscape while chewing on something.
A wall was built out of concrete and rubble. Some of the rubble appeared to be posters of animals and signs pointing to places. The rest was plain, flat ground, covered with the hoofprints of a thousand transactions. A buffalo was bartering with a zebra over a sullen-looking green pony.
Sunshy was drawn out of his staring when he saw a cheetah walk over to him. The spotted cat made a mewing sound at him; this confused the pony until he remembered that cheetahs do not roar like other bigger cats. Their babies even chirp; damn now he wanted to know if this one had any babies that he could hear chirping. Was that weird?
Cuffs kicked at the cheetah, shooing it away. Instead of leaving, the cheetah mewed loudly at him and frantically swiped at the air in front of him. He started and stepped back a few paces. Out of nowhere, a kangaroo hopped over, leaned back on its large tail, and kicked at the zebra in the side, sending him sprawling a good ten feet away. The kangaroo hopped in place and made a sort of triumphant coughing noise, raising its hands as high as it could. The slaves in the cages cracked smiles as Cuffs cursed in every language he knew, but dared not laugh.
In between his cursing, the zebra rose, and shouted, “Have fun being a sex slave, pegasus!”
Then he turned and limped away into the building, cussing as loud as he could; a couple guards spared him a glance, but went back to patrolling. The cheetah turned to the cage and batted at the lock, gnawed on it, but only succeeded in hurting itself. Dejected, the cheetah cheeped at him and lied down before the pony. The kangaroo hopped away as the buffalo veered towards them, following the zebra with a gun glyph mark and the green slave pony in the middle.
“Cuffs likes to surround himself in animals, but that doesn’t mean they like him.” The puce unicorn told the pegasus with a smirk. “I think this place was a zoo.”
“I hope they don’t get in trouble for me.” Sunshy worried as he placed his hoof at the cage, letting the cheetah lick at it.
“Tall Soft Heart?!” The buffalo exclaimed before galloping to the pegasus; the cheetah dashed away with a yowl. His brown eyes were wide in shock and confusion. Then he narrowed them in anger; Sunshy cowered and crawled back. Thankfully, the anger was not at him. He turned to the zebra and bellowed with as much lung force as he could, “CHIEF FLUFFY DOOM WILL HEAR OF THIS!!”
And with that, the buffalo bit clean through the collar of the green earth pony, bucked the zebra into the wall of the building twenty feet away, and swept the pony onto his back. Then he bolted out of there, breaking the land-speed record, more or less. The guards watched the buffalo running off, or more specifically, the cloud of dust that marked where he was, in bafflement. They had no idea what had happened and before they could react, the dust cloud was gone.
“Why would one of the Nchi Kavu be here?” Sunshy asked the helpful unicorn mare.
“They come by every week to buy slaves. I’m sure they set them free, knowing those softies. They usually spring for buffalo or zebras, though…guess this guy didn’t have much money on him. Oh, I’m Royal Lace. I think I got the wrong cutie mark when the Goddesses were issuing them out.” Royal Lace chortled a little at her own joke. “You can call me Lacey.”
“I’m Sunshy Rays. It’s nice to meet a nice pony in such sad circumstances.” Sunshy smiled warmly at her.
“I try. Oh…” The unicorn’s smile vanished.
Royal Lace cowered and flopped onto the ground, looking dejected and pathetic. Sunshy saw why when he noticed a shadow stop in front of him. Turning to it, he saw a brown unicorn mare with freckles, a dirt-speckled white mane, and a cutie mark of a heart with an arrow through it. The heart was also bleeding.
“Hey you!” The unicorn shouted at a passing guard. After his mini-heart attack, the zebra walked over and nodded at her. She pointed to Sunshy and said, “What can he do?”
“Cuffs says he’s good with animals, plus he’s a pegasus, so five hundred thousand caps is the start.” The guard stated bluntly, with a practiced, stoic, not-taking-any-shit expression.
“Highway robbery!” The mare shouted at him, stamping down her hoof. “Ten thousand.”
“Five hundred thousand.” The guard stated back. 
He then pointed to a sign that Sunshy had missed. It was hanging right over where the cage could be opened; it was held closed with a lock. From his side, Sunshy could not see it, but he guessed it was like at that pet store back home in the sky. Animals that were being sold were held in cages and had a sign with their price displayed.
“I am not paying that much for a pony that can’t even fucking pull a plow!” She shouted back, her face visibly reddening. Sunshy wondered if her talent was actually shouting.
“He’s a doctor, too, ma’am. He came in with a saddle box full of equipment and some doctor’s coat. The price is that high because he’s valuable and needs to be treated right. We can’t sell him to do fucking dirty work any other goddamn pony can do. Now pick another slave or get the fuck out.” The zebra turned away and continued his scouting, considerably stiffer with contained anger.
“Fine! You fuckers just lost a customer!” The unicorn levitated the sign off Sunshy’s cage, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it repeatedly with her four hooves.
Huffing, she made to walk away, but paused and noticed Royal Lace. She smiled upon seeing the unicorn’s cutie mark. Then she frowned at the price sign and huffed again. The mare sulked away grumbling about the prices. As soon as her tail vanished, Lacey stood back up and let out a sigh of relief.
“Thought I was gone for a minute there.” Lacey smiled down to Sunshy, who stared at her in confusion. “You gotta look sad and weak so the ponies don’t think you’re worth the caps. Try to fight and they’ll just want to break your spirit. Are you really worth that much to these punks?”
Lacey’s unicorn magic was pink in color. Sunshy found this out when she levitated his price sign to hover in front of her bars. Then her pink eyes widened and she gaped. She moved it over so that it hovered in front of Sunshy. In chicken-scratch mouthwriting, it read,
Pegasus: medic, tall, weak, not good for physical work.
Starting price 500,000 caps. Will not haggle lower.
Additional items consists of: 1 leather armor, 1 doctor’s coat (holes for wings cut in) 2 saddle boxes: one on each side (magically enchanted)
Inside boxes: 58 healing potions, 64 rolls of magical bandages, 43 rolls of normal bandages, 5 scissors, 11 scalpels, 26 surgical tubes, 2 bonesaws, 13 needles, 7 rolls of thread, 20 antivenoms, some other things we don’t know what they do. Do not recommend using without guidance. Seriously, one guy lost part of his hoof playing with something like the dumb shit he is.
Additional price of items [strike]I can’t math[/strike] Guess around another 100,000 caps.
Items may or may not be optional. Further information needed, this damn thing will be revised too. 
Sunshy knew he should be mad. They were putting a price on his life! They were actually evaluating how much he was worth! 
But by the Goddesses, they had counted his stuff and taken inventory! Organization!
However, he remembered having some jewels still left over…Oh…they must have decided to keep those for themselves. He wondered how many of his other things they had decided to keep and not bother writing down.
“I should be angry, but they organized my things…and I think I’m worth a lot, right?” Sunshy questioned dumbly; still fuzzy on caps as currency thing.
“A lot?! You’re worth more than the rest of us put together!” Royal Lace waved a hoof over to the rest of the slaves.
“Supper time, everypony!” A forcefully cheerful voice rang out.
All the dull and lifeless eyes of the slaves brightened somewhat as they raised their heads and turned to the left. Trotting over was a pale colored pony, like the color of paper. This was a unicorn male, with an alternating yellow mane. Most was short-cut layers, light yellow to darker yellow. Some tufts of his mane were almost the same color of his coat and were swirly. 
His tail was short-cropped with dark yellow, light yellow, swirly pale. The unicorn’s eyes were a vibrant blue and he had a cutie mark of a banana with an…onion? No, wait, ice cream…and some brown strips of something? Upon further scrutinizing that was borderline creepy—easier as he was walking closer—the icon clicked in the pegasus’s head. Banana Foster! Thank you cookbooks! 
The unicorn had bowls floating above his head, one for every slave. As Sunshy was first in line, the unicorn buck smiled at him and floated down one bowl to the bottom of the cage. Then a section of the cage was enveloped in his yellow glow and a slot appeared. The bowl slid through, allowing Sunshy to see what was inside with baited breath.
Not banana foster. Mushy oatmeal or something.
Sunshy was visibly disappointed, earning a little chuckle from the unicorn.
“Don’t worry. My special talent is cooking, so it might not look like much, but it’ll taste great. Trust me.”
The pegasus lifted his head to the pony and his somewhat brightening expression saddened immediately. The unicorn had a slave collar as well. However, he smiled and continued upon his way, repeating the process of bringing food to the other slaves. They were all as close to ecstatic as they could be.
Despite the other pony’s words, Sunshy was not feeling too optimistic about the mushy oatmeal. Then he smelled the aroma wafting from the brown mush and his stomach growled in hunger. Brave face on, Sunshy took a bite of his food and chewed experimentally. Just like that grass from so long ago, this was a pleasant surprise.
The oatmeal was indeed better than he had expected it to be. It actually tasted like bananas! Something had a different consistency in his next mouthful of food and he got a stronger taste of bananas. He suspected the chef snuck in some real fruit into the food, or he used some unicorn magic to make it taste better. Magic was the answer to everything Sunshy couldn’t understand unless he thought hard enough.
The bowl was licked clean within a few minutes, and glancing over, the pegasus noticed the rest of the slaves shared the same enthusiasm. With his work finished, the unicorn buck walked back, stopping when Sunshy called out, “Wait.”
“I’m Sunshy, what’s your name?”
“Banana Foster, like my cutie mark.” The unicorn smiled at Sunshy before floating the empty bowl through the magic-made slot. “I told you it was better than it looked.”
“Thank you, it really was good.” Sunshy smiled back to the unicorn. He blushed a little at the compliment and told Sunshy he was welcome.
Then the unicorn collected the rest of the empty bowls and walked back to the solitary building with the dirty dishes. The slaves still appeared happier, now that their bellies were full with a warm meal. The pegasus stood up and stretched out akin to a cat, earning a giggle from Lacey. Then he went to relieve himself in the far-left corner; by the smell, he was not the first to have done so in this cage.
Sunshy passed the time talking with Royal Lace about their pasts. Lacey had come from a large city called Roaming, named after the destroyed Roam built by the zebras where Hoofington now resided in Equestria. Roaming was the most stable pre-war city the zebra lands had, especially considering it had been hit with a Megaspell. The buildings still stood for the most part, there was a huge wall surrounding it, and there were three sections of the city.
The first was the outermost layer, named Kutisha Mahali, meaning Terrible Place. That was where the poor with no food, no health, and no hope lived. The middle was for the better-off. In that section, there were casinos and whorehouses in abundance; most who lived there did not for long before moving to Kutisha Mahali. It was named Bora Zaidi, Better Off. Finally, in the center was the Mrahaba—meaning Royalty—section, for those who were lucky enough to be rich.
Royal Lace had come from the middle and best section. She was raised to be a prim and proper princess. When she was still too young to have her cutie mark, she was introduced to a Legate of Caesar’s Legion. She was to be the wife of this Legate that was at least thrice her age, but that did not sit well with her.
So she fled and tried to hide in the slums of Roaming, but the Legion had eyes everywhere. She learned later that the Legion controlled all of Roaming. They found her and she was on her way to the Legion’s main stronghold. Along the way, a disgruntled dragon crossed their paths and shouted at the zebras for causing this war and desolation. It ended with them become baked zebra treats.
The dragon made to eat her as well, but she sobbed her plight to it and the dragon took pity on her. So it flew her to the closest civilization it could find and let her be. The closest civilization was a poorly-fairing farm—farms had never done well in the savannah for as long as recorded history could claim. Still, the zebra family took her in, not ones to refuse a dragon, but they put her to work.
Pulling the plow was how she found her cutie mark, and she felt terrible upon gaining it. However, she felt better when their farmland yielded some crops not long after her cutie mark appeared. She told the pegasus that there was nothing like the joy of seeing your labor pay off by producing life. Sunshy agreed, having delivered a few babies; wild animal babies, but whatever.
They became her adoptive family and Royal Lace was given the farm when they passed on when she was an adult. But the Wasteland was unforgiving. Raiders had attacked and burned the farm down. Upon seeing the farm burn down, she snapped. Lacey had taken the locked-away shotgun and blew the brains out of every damn Raider. She commented that she should have a shotgun for a cutie mark.
After that, she became a regular Wastelander, going out of her way to kill Raiders and just survive. Only a few days ago was she captured as a slave in an ambush while guarding a caravan. Sunshy had listened to her story with rapt attention. Never before had anyone opened themselves so easily to him. Zen was doing better, but still had a lot to hide. Lacey was an open book that read its pages for you. It was surreal.
“I see you two have become friends.” Cuffs commented with acid as he walked over to the two, still limping slightly. A nice bruise had blossomed on his side. “Good, somepony wants to adopt you both.”
“They can afford him?” Lacey asked in astonishment.
“And his crap. Thanks for the jewels, by the way.” Cuffs sneered at the pegasus. Sunshy actually glared at the zebra, furious for taking his gift given by Drakon.
Just then, a dirt-brown unicorn mare walked over with saddlebags on her back. She was short and stout, shocking given that most everyone struggled to be healthy enough to not show ribs. A cowpony hat was placed upon her head, covering her mane. Her tail was short-cropped and the dull red of a Brahmin. Her cutie mark was a slab of meat. Under that hat, her beady brown eyes stared at the two ponies with contempt.
“Name’s Pretty Cow, maggots. Ah run a very profitable Brahmin and maize farm, s’why ah need the two of ya. Yew’ll herd the Brahmin,” She pointed a hoof at Sunshy, “And yew’ll plow the fields,” she pointed at Lacey. “Got it?”
“Crystal clear.” Sunshy replied with hidden heat as Cuffs unlocked his cage, glaring at the zebra.
A guard zebra trotted over and set Sunshy’s boarding and saddle boxes in front of the pegasus. As he put his leather armor and doctor’s coat back on, Cuffs unlocked Royal Lace’s cage and another guard deposited her boarding in front of her. It was a ratty duster and a sheriff’s hat. Except for the collar, she would look like another Wastelander. After putting her coat and hat on, she checked her pockets.
“Where’s my gun?!” She shouted at Cuffs, posed to attack.
“Ah got it, ya piece o shit.” Pretty Cow replied hotly, levitating out the gun. 
Though Sunshy was against guns, he had to admit it was a beautiful weapon. It was a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun, small enough to easily fit into a coat pocket. Unlike every other taped-together weapon in the wasteland, this was one in pristine condition. Not only was it devoid of rust, it appeared to have been polished clean thoroughly and often. There was an inscription on the side, ”Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”.
“Mighty fine piece o work, if ah do say so mahself.” Cow said, admiring the gun as she pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a match she struck against the ground. “Yew won’t mind if ah keep it, will ya? Didn’t think so.”
The gun was placed in Pretty Cow’s saddle bag, and Sunshy almost cried at the look of heartbreak upon Lacey. She quickly shook the hurt away and put on a brave face.
“Lead on, master.” Lacey grimaced saying that.
Sunshy’s heart became a lead weight in his chest as he followed the small mare. Royal Lace walked at his side, and nudged his shoulder. “Stay strong with ponies like this. You’ll be beaten if you look sad.” She warned, keeping her voice low.
Nodding, Sunshy held his head up as the group walked out from under the bridge at the entrance to Oasis. Glancing over his shoulder, he took in the whole of the slaver center. The bridge had a cobbled-together sign that said OaSIs in alternating letters taken from different sources. There was an intricate gate that closed behind them, with a plaque that told them to come again soon. Sunshy hoped he would never see that place again.
Sunshy and Royal Lace were ordered to sit on a caravan only a few feet after leaving Oasis. It was being pulled by a Brahmin with an angry zebra in the same guard outfit as the ones in that slave hold. The zebra waited as the three ponies climbed into the empty caravan and then he pulled out a whip. Sunshy gasped and moved to stop her, but the guard whipped the Brahmin, causing it to bray and then pull forward.
Sadly, Sunshy sat down with his ears back and stared at the ground in between the boards of wood. Royal Lace kept her pink eyes around the horizon, Pretty Cow puffed on her cigarette and stared at them in a rather creepy way, and the guard kept her eyes forward.
Along the bumping ride, a pack of hyenas had gotten close, but quickly turned and fled when the guard took a few magic-rifle shots at them. Sunshy wanted to go see if they were alright and made the mistake of asking Pretty Cow.
Poor Sunshy received a black eye for his worry.
Just to rub salt in the wound, the damn fat Cow kept the button that could make his head explode between her hooves for the rest of the trip.
However, she did allow him to put a bandage over it; one he did not mention was enchanted to be an ice pack. She only cared enough to not have her expensive new merchandise damaged to the point of blindness in one eye.
Sunshy could feel the waves of hate rolling off of Lacey towards Cow. He did not blame her for it, but certainly did not want her to be harmed for his sake. So he put a hoof next to her, a silent plea for her to say passive. She must have understood, for the ride to the farm continued in silence.
The farm was a few hours away and rather impressive, especially considering the landscape. It was a good fifty acres large. The start of the farm was marked by a farmhouse redone to be a mock-mansion. Diagonal up-left to it was a real farmhouse with a silo next to it. A large well-built fence went on in a square for twenty or so acres, all full of patches of alternating brown and green grass.
The other thirty acres of the farm was taken up by the maize. The crop was growing rather well, and Sunshy could see it was all due to a well-placed irrigation system. He asked Cow where she got the water for it all and almost instantly regretted it, fearing another kick to the face.
Instead, he was pleased to find she was rather proud to share this information. Apparently there was an underground body of water in a cave on her property. The water was all drawn from that source for watering the plants and for quenching the Brahmins’ thirst. She also proclaimed that they should not get any funny ideas; they were slaves and would drink dirty water or irradiated, depending on her mood with them.
On that happy note, she jumped off the caravan when it stopped and face-planted. Sunshy had to hold his hooves over his face to keep from laughing. Royal Lace, however, did not manage to stop herself in time. She let out a guffaw before realizing what she had done and quickly covering her mouth. Cow got up and turned to face the two.
If looks could kill…
Pretty Cow pulled out another cigarette with her unicorn magic and lit it, her disgruntled face almost the same shade as her tail. Royal Lace was the first to jump down. When she did, Cow purposely tripped her, made her own face eat the dirt, and laughed a belly-jiggling laugh at her. Sunshy was much more graceful, as he floated down with his wings open to prevent Cow from tripping him. She was much too busy laughing at Royal Lace to have bothered.
Lacey stood up, using her hoof to pull her hat down further over her face. Still, Sunshy heard the telltale sniffle and saw her try to sneakily wipe her face. Pretty Cow’s face was turning red with lack of breath from laughing so hard. Really, the other two could not understand how she could laugh so hard at such a little thing.
The Brahmin owner and farmer stopped chortling when the zebra guard walked over and requested her payment. Still smiling, Pretty Cow levitated over a sack of caps to the zebra. She took them, stored them away, and then went back to her spot on the caravan. With a shout and a whip, the caravan was moving, angling towards the barn.
“Pegasus, go move the Brahmin from the field into the barn. Plower, get to plowing the fields.” Cow ordered, all business.
“Yes ma’am.” They answered before leaving to their respective tasks.
Sunshy fluttered over to the barn and made to fly above it, but then his collar beeped frantically. Thinking it was going to explode, Sunshy panicked and his wings locked up against his body. The ground was happy to catch him and give him a twisted hoof. The beeping had stopped once he dropped a few feet, but by then, his mind was not working right. So he had to wrap his hoof and lifted it against his body.
Carefully, Sunshy floated only a few feet off the ground and flew around the barn, only to freeze and gasp, landing on his butt. There were hundreds of Brahmin! There was no freaking way he could get them into the barn! It had seemed large before, but faced with this many Brahmin, it seemed impossibly tiny.
A guard zebra walked over to the pony and poked him with a hoof in the side. Starting, he stared at the guard, who stared back with her hoof close to her body in shock at his reaction. Then she coughed into her hoof and set it down.
“This half, here,” The guard pointed to the ones in front of them, “They’re off to the slaughterhouse. The rest go in the barn.”
“I…I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say slaughterhouse? As in,” swallow the bile back, “killing?”
“Indeed. We sell to just about everywhere that serves meat.”
“But we’re herbivores!” Sunshy argued, blanching.
“Not all of us are. Not after the war shortened our supply of flora. So, some have to make do with fauna. Sorry, kid, but get used to it. Now, lead the doomed to their death or I’ll be forced to use this whip on you.” The guard looked at Sunshy like she really did not want to hurt him.
“Okay…” Sunshy stood up, sad blue eyes staring at the Brahmin.
“Don’t worry, kid, it’s not that bad. Just lead them to that building over there and the machines will do the rest.” She pointed to a large red building twenty acres away. “And then you lead the other half back into the barn.”
“Got it…” Sunshy flapped his wings and lifted off the ground, his tail still touching the brown dirt.
“It’ll get easier, trust me.” The nice zebra gave him a small smile before he listlessly flew off. 
To herd a group of unknowing animals to their doom just so someone can have a steak on their plate. Sunshy felt a few tears roll down his face as he coaxed the Brahmin into moving. With his talent with animals, it was so easy. They always trusted him, did whatever he wanted. He was so nice and caring, they instinctively knew that he was not one to hurt them. 
Goddesses damn Cuffs. Goddesses damn Oasis. Goddesses damn that fucking Pretty Cow.
That night, he was given a pile of hay to lay on in the barn. So he curled up amid the putrid smell of cow patties and the braying of the animals. For the second night in a row, he fell asleep crying.
Level up! You are now level 9!
Perk added! Angry Heart: You’ve been pushed around long enough! When you drop below 20% health, your strength increases to 10 and you gain 25 to damage resistance.