Mommy

by NeuPferdfurt

The trader

“Phew! What a stench! You sure they are still alive?”

The young dragon male was staring into the darkness of the wagon. He would never get used to the smell. Female dragons were supposed to be nice and perfumed! But this? Something that was smelling so foul truly deserved to be treated like dirt.

It was hard to examine one particular specimen in this bundle of tails and legs, so he had to go by color and the shine of the scales.

“Gimme that green one. That yellow one with the black stripes. And... yeah, that purple one. Let’s have a look at those three.”

The trader nodded and together with his assistants, they were dragging the selected girls out of the wagon.

“Tss, tss, tss...”, the merchant said.
The striped one was awfully small. He put one claw on her chest.
“I don’t feel any fire.”

“I believe this one doesn’t have fire, Mr. Quill. She must be from one of the poisonous tribes.”

The young dragon considered. It was difficult to sell the poisonous ones, but he just happened to know of a pharmaceutical company who was in need of new raw material...

“Alright, I just might take her anyway. You understand though that one cannot spend a fortune on a cold lizard.”

He moved on to the green girl. He pushed her with his tail.
“Are you kidding me? That one is actually dead! Dead, I tell you!”

“A thousand pardons, sir. Some are better at hibernating than others.”

And then there was that purple one. Not the prettiest one, but she was tall and her fire was strong, even after the long period of starvation. That sort of thing could come in use.

In the end, he bought all three, even the dead one. He still needed a present for a griffin warlord he owed money to. Griffins loved dragon meat.

-

-“Plüschheim? What are you, nuts?”

The young dragon trader had arrived at the Dracoslavian border with his merchandise.
He was spending an evening at the local pub, drinking beer with a colleague.
“I know what I’m doing. That girl will make a good boiler. Plüschheim is perfect for her. Lots of little old carebears with cold feet living in big mansions. I’m sure to sell her for a good price.”

“Quill, I tell you, you are making a mistake.”

The other dragon leaned forward.
“Think about it. If there is one thing we have, it’s slaves. And there is more and more of them by the day. Even Dracoslavia’s immediate neighbourhood is starting to get all saturated.”

Quill nodded. That much was true.
At the beginning of the war, the most obvious choice had been to sell girls into prostitution in Dracoslavia proper. But there had been a shocking inflation ever since the big families had started that “Sisters of Draconia” sheme. Which was a good sheme, of course- it was easily confused with "Faithful Hearts of Draconia", a legitimate charity.
You could still sell for a profit if you knew where to go, but the margins were shrinking.

“Quill, I give you one word: Equestria.”

“Equestria? Don’t tell me... That’s this new place. With the ponies. Ha! Ponies...”

“Equestria is the way to go, my friend. They are building castles there. Entire cities. And they don’t have that many dragons. See where I’m going?”

Quill was grinning. Sure, he knew what his dear colleague was trying to say. It was a story he had heard more than once. It was just a warmed-up version of the lies the “Sisters of Draconia” were telling to get the merchandise in the first place.

The other trader insisted.
“Think about this logically-like. Plüschheim is just a few days away. They are practically sitting at the source. There’s lots of competition in the prices. Equestria, on the other hand... That’s pretty much virginal. You can get whatever you want! We could be pioneers, you and me!”

So that’s what this was all about.
“Let me guess... You are planning an expedition into Equestria right now?”

“We’re almost ready to go. But we could use more... associates. Transport doesn’t come cheap, and with the last bunch of sweetmeat we bought...”

“You want me to buy a ticket for that ponyland of yours, just so that I get to try selling the purple one thousands of miles away instead of just dropping her off in Plüschheim.”

“I heard you made a fortune with the yellow one you sold. You grew quite a few inches too, if I may say so.
And they say you have already bought a new lot. Tell you what: You help me finance the trip and I even get you a share on all profits. Come on! You know a good deal when you see one.” The older trader grinned.
“Have another drink. This one’s on me.”

-

The older dragon had been right about Equestria.

They had to operate through locals who would lead the transactions in their stead for a small fee. In these parts, hardly anyone had even heard of Dracoslavia or the civil war, and the perversity of dragons selling other dragons would have turned off potential buyers. The fine people of Equestria didn’t want to think of themselves as slave owners. Which was kinda funny, considering these ponies had de facto enslaved several sentient or semi-sentient species already.

Mammals, Quill thought, they say they were all about empathy. More like hypocrisy if you ask me.

No, it was better if the customers thought of dragons as exotic pets with a million different uses. The fact that the girls were just waking up from hibernation was helping. Some of them seemed to have suffered permanent brain damage, and that was even better. Some were trying to talk, but with the way their lips were stitched together, their new owners didn’t suspect a thing.

Profits were rolling in. Quill was growing at a comfortable yet handsome pace. They were travelling through a young and beautiful country which was not marked by the horrors of war. Life was good.

-

The purple dragon girl was still wearing the chains they had put on her all these month ago. She was alone now. All the other girls on the cart had been sold. Now she got this cart all to herself.

She felt as if she had to teach herself how to think again. She didn’t remember her name, but she knew that she wasn’t supposed to be here. They had lied to her parents. They were KIDNAPPERS and LIARS, who took pleasure in torturing her. She had to escape.
She started rolling around, trying to get a sense of her surroundings. And then she droppen off the cart.

The cart was basically a wooden platform on wheels, they had put a large tarp on it to protect the "merchandise" from the rain. She was supposed to be tied to the vehicle, but somehow they had negelected to secure the chains after removing the other girls. This was her chance.
She would gain her freedom.

It is the fire, a voice in her head said. It took her a second to realize that these were her thoughts. They were back. The fire inside keeps me going.

She heard male dragons laugh, but they were making too much noise to hear her. It had to be that way.

She felt grass under her belly, and if she had not been as dehydrated as she was, she would have cried. The air. The smells. She had forgotten how beautiful it was outside.

Like a worm, she was crawling away from the cart, one centimeter at a time. The woods seemed so far away. But she would make it. She would get there, and she would hide, and she would find water, and a way to get rid of the chains...

She had almost reached the trees when she heard someone swear behind her. She was sobbing. Oh no. No, no, no.

The voice of the male dragon was coming closer. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone? Why did he have to take her again? Why couldn’t he just let her go? She deserved to be free!

She was still advancing. Even if her capture was imminent, she had to go on.

And then he was above her.

-

Quill was drunk, and not just a little. When he had discovered that the dragoness was missing, it had been like a grotesque nightmare.
But there were tracks. It had been easy to follow them.

And there she was now, the little runaway.

Quill was both impressed and disgusted. The purple one was crawling like some sort of maggot. No real dragon should move like this! No one should be so pathetic, so... undead. Did this kind of vermin really deserve to be called a dragon? He supposed a real dragon lady would have died of shame before becoming a creature like that. But of course this was not a lady, not like his mother used to be, or his sisters. It was merchandise. Yeah.

But there was something about this little thing... with all these muscles, moving under the iron chains...

Quill was licking his lips.

That's when the young dragoness was lifting her rear into the air. Quill almost laughed. Wasn't that conveniant!
It wasn't.
When she whiped him with her tail, she took him completely by surprise. Somehow, she had managed to free her most powerful appendage from the chains.
He fell down, his face bleeding. He blessed the alcohol for making him feel so numb, but he knew it was going to hurt quite a lot in the morning.

"...You little purple piece of..."

And there was the second blow. This one sent him flying through the air.

When he opened his eyes again, the dragoness had advanced further still. If it was going on like this, she would actually manage to escape. Preposterous.

"... I heard of courage born of despair, but this is ridiculous...!"
She was strong, he had to give her that. In fact, she was also slightly taller than him. It reminded him how young he was- almost all of his apparent maturity was due to freakish greed-growth. It was even possible that this dragoness was older than he was.

But she was still wrapped up. Nice and tight. He owned her.
Quill realized that he had never been so horny in his entire life.

-

“You managed to get that thing pregnant?”
The older trader chuckled. “That is great news.”

“It is?”, Quill asked. He wasn’t very comfortable with this. In fact, he had even considered looking for ways to get that round belly of his prisoner all nice and flat again.

“Sure! Now we can sell her as a “dragon hen” or something. Consider: Not only can she be used as a heating system, but she will also lay eggs! With the right advertising, these ponies will go coo-coo for dragon eggs. A gift that keeps giving.”

Quill considered. It was a long shot, but then again, this whole trip had been.
Once a dragoness got pregnant, she had the ability to produce a seemingly endless stream of eggs, like an ant queen. Only by eating at least one of her own eggs could she stop the cycle.

He grinned. They would end their journey by selling an egg-factory.
“Am I amazing, or what? Somehow everything I do is turning into profit. You were right all along. We made a lot of money on this trip.”

The other dragon nodded.
“Indeed. And there’s even more to go around if I don’t have to share with you.”

“What...?”
Quill was staring into his empty beer mug. He was feeling kinda dizzy.
And then he dropped to the floor.

The other trader laughed and emptied his own mug. He would leave this country with a maximum of gold and a minimum of dragons.
Of course there was always the risk that the kid could find his way back into Dracoslavia one day and take revenge. That’s why they would cut out his eyes and perform a few strategic amputations. It appeared the diamond dogs were looking for slaves to use in their mining operations.

-

The earth pony maid giggled as she walked over the warm tiles with her colleague.
“Isn’t this amazing? We’ll never get cold hooves again.”

“It’s hard to believe that there is a dragon beneath our hooves... It’s a little scary, don’t you think?”

“Nah. He’s all chained up. And besides, the royal architects know what they’re doing. That thing is pretty much walled in.”

“I heard it’s a she-dragon! It’s laying eggs. They say they are going to give them to the students of the Academy, so they can do magic-stuff with them.”

The other pony smiled and was shaking her head.
“Isn’t it amazing? The march of progress? So much talent... So much hope... So much faith. I am so glad my family decided to come to Equestria... and that I got to work in this wonderful city.”

“It’s like a dream come true...”

They were now standing on a balcony, gazing over this magical city where ponies were working together to forge a glorious tomorrow.

The future belonged to Canterlot.