“Another day another bout of hunger pains,” I said sighing loudly. “Life hasn’t been easy since I decided to leave my Stable, but I didn’t have a choice after what happened. The problem is that I’m so used to the fresh food we had. I won’t say those apples from the orchard were great but they were a lot better than the pre-war crap I’ve been eating for the last few weeks. It seems like we never even have enough to keep going, at least thanks to this stupid rationing system you implemented.”

“Will you please stop?” my companion asked me. “I get it, alright? You hate the life you now have outside your comfy grey shelter. Well you want to know something interesting? I never had any of those luxuries! I’ve lived my whole damn life out here! I’ve NEVER tasted something fresh out of a garden. Be happy about the luck you had and don’t complain about what you’re doing right now. You made your bed now LAY IN IT!”

I frowned, remembering that my ‘friend’ has lived out here forever. Well he’s not so much a real friend as a companion of necessity. He’s a survivalist and a good one at that. He taught me how to handle a weapon, how to pick locks, even how to hunt and clean animals (closest thing to ‘fresh’ food I’ve had but again I use the term loosely since well everything’s irradiated to hell even after cleaning the mutated animals to the best of our abilities we still take a couple Rad-X’s before our meals). What I'm saying is without him I'd be dead.

"What, no response?" he said with a smirk, "Normally you'd have some response by now. I finally break ya?"

"No, sorry," I replied, "just lost in my thoughts. Look, my Pipbuck says that there's supposed to be an old shopping mart near here. Maybe maybe we can re-stock?"

"By re-stock I assume you mean stuff your face?" he said with a slight chuckle.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled with a blush. I had to admit, he wasn't entirely wrong. I was committed to being full for once in my life, since coming to the wasteland.

The final shot rang out, the final raider slumping to the ground. Smoke drifted away from the bullet hole in the stallions head.

"Well saw that coming," my companion said returning his gun to his saddlebag. "These places are huge havens for their sort. Plenty of food, lots of protection, not to mention loads of new wastelanders who think they'll find lots of food. Easy pickings."

We started forward towards the old shopping mart. Time had not been kind to the old place, and neither had the raiders. Mangled remains of dead ponied littered the area, and a crude wall made of literally anything the raiders could pile into a heap had been erected around the front of the place to try and keep out any visitors. My eyes widened as my friend trotted ahead of me to the side of one of the raider corpses.

"Wait... you knew we'd be in for a fight and you led me into it anyways? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Look, you can only learn so much from animals. You needed to fight some intelligent enemies," my companion replied as he kicked one of the raiders’ saddlebags. A partially eaten book fell out onto the ground. My companions eyes rolled as he picked it up and deposited it into his own bag. "Well, semi-intelligent."

"Yes... clearly they thought brain food was the same as real food. You know real food, right? Like what WE NEED?!" I screamed.

"Ugh. Cut your whining already. Let's see if they left anything around."

“Alright. But I wasn’t whining I was complaining.”

"Well," I said as we exited the shop. I had a frown on my face that didn’t even begin to express my level of disgust. "That was a bust. All we found was a box of cake mix, some dirty water, and some copies of Wingboner. Why do we need this junk again?"

"Ermm... umm... uh..." My companion was blushing brightly, tapping his front hooves together as he searched for an answer. Finally he grinned sheepishly, "Warmth?"

"Right… warmth," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.. "That doesn’t change the fact that we still need food."

"Like this?" Both of our heads turned immediately to our left. An earth pony ghoul stood there. We hadn’t even heard him walk up! Draped across one of his outstretched forelegs was a completely fresh and absolutely juicy looking carrot. My mouth watered at the sight of it.

"WHAT THE!? WHERE IN LUNA'S NAME DID YOU COME FROM!? Also, where did you get that carrot?" My companion yelled in surprise. The ghoul raised what I assumed was an eyebrow, but I couldn’t really tell over the rotting flesh of his face.

"Well, to answer your first question... I appear wherever somepony needs food. To answer your second question, haven’t you kids ever heard of a garden?"

"Who cares where it came from, it’s mine!" I shouted, pouncing forward and grabbing the carrot from the ghoul’s grasp. In one swift movement I gulped down the sweet, juicy vegetable and sighed. "Man... that is good." The ghoul’s expression turned to a grimace as my companion smacked me upside the head.

"You dolt! What are you doing?! Haven’t I taught you anything? Nothing is free out here!” he said angrily. The ghoul smiled as I pulled some caps out of my bag.

"Oh. I’m sorry, here you go for the carrot,” I said grinning sheepishly. The ghoul waved a hoof, pushing my outstretched money back at me.

"Thanks, but there’s no need for that," he said. "I'm just glad to share the bounty of my garden with those in need. Perhaps you'd like to stock up there before continuing? It’s just nearby."

"YES!" I yelled.

"NO!" my companion yelled at the same time. He was fuming now. The ghoul sat there impassively, tapping his hoof on the concrete. He looked… bored.

"So… are you coming or not? I do have others to visit, you know," the ghoul said.

"Like it or not," I said glancing over at my companion. I adopted the sternest face I could. "We need food. He's offering us food, for free no less. Plus, I'm still hungry."

"No YOU need food, NOTHING is free, and..." he paused for a beat, "Actually, you got me there."

"Well, then if you will follow me. Like I said, it’s not too far away from here," the ghoul said, turning to walk in the opposite direction. He shuffled loudly along slowly. I blinked. How in the heck had we not heard him walk up to us?! Shaking the thought from my mind, I trotted along after him. My companion let out a sigh, and did the same.

A short time later, we appeared in front of an iron gate that looked like it had been rusted shut. Drywall had been placed on the other side of the gate, along with the rest of the fence, likely to prevent others from seeing the inside of this ghouls private garden.

"Here we are," the ghoul said. He fished a key out of his saddlebags and slid it into the lock. "While you’re here eat what you desire and take what you need to travel on."

The ghoul pushed the door open and my jaw dropped. Inside the little compound was the absolutely most incredible thing I had ever seen in my life. Strong looking trees, bearing apples redder than any Stable orchard, stood in rows near the back of the compound. Vines filled with purple, green, and black grapes lined the walls, and three large fields of fields of carrots, potatoes, and even tall grass for making hay populated the rest of the garden. In the center of the garden lay a sturdy wooden table, a massive feast of epic proportions laid out before us. the ghoul motioned for us to follow him towards the table.

"Please. Sit. Eat. Be merry. I insist," the ghoul said, motioning to the chairs on each side of the table.

"Don't mind if I do!" I exclaimed happily as I picked up what appeared to be a piece of pie. Without a care in the world I rammed it into my mouth, letting the ooey-gooey goodness slide down my throat. The ghoul turned to my companion.

"And you? Will you not join your friend at the table? The food is quite lovely," he asked. My companion frowned, looking very pensive.

"I'm still not sure..." he replied.

"Come on," I said stuffing my face full with another large piece of pie. "It’sh good! Just dig in!" My companion rolled his eyes. He finally sat down at the table.

"Well... I guess you're not dead," he said. He glanced around the table and picked up a piece of pie. After sniffing it curiously for a moment he popped it into his mouth. “Hey you’re right. This is --”

Pain wracked my body and my eyes widened. My companion and I fell out of our chairs, hitting the ground hard. I tried to stand, but found myself unable to. All I could do was roll about in pain. My stomach felt like it was going to explode and my muscles were getting weaker and weaker by the second. From the fleeting glances I was getting of my companion, the same was happening to him.

"I… I told… told you…” my companion managed to choke out. “Nothing… nothing’s free," he rolled over, his body spasming for a brief second before he finally went still. The ghouls eyes lit up.

"Your friend was right. Nothing is for free," he mused. I tried to growl, the sound from my lips coming out as something more akin to three cats mating.

"You... you tricked us… you… you BASTARD!" I yelled with the last of my breath before I felt something inside of me burst. I gurgled loudly, fluids flooding my mouth and preventing me from talking further. The ghoul grinned widely, showing off silvery fangs as opposed to pony teeth.

"No..."he said. My eyes widened as the being in front of me became enveloped in a green flame. After it dissipated, standing above me was… me. The me-pony licked its lips. "The only one you have to blame is yourself. I only lead you here because you wanted fresh food. It was your own fault you’re in this predicament."

I gurgled in response, trying to scream at the pony or whatever the hell it was that had taken my body. The me-pony trotted over to the table, picking up an apple from it. It smiled sweetly using my own face.

Now you’re going to do me a little favor,” it said. “You’re going to lead somepony else here and then they’ll do the same as you. And so forth, and so forth. After all… the plants have to be kept alive. My beautiful, beautiful garden. It gives me all the love I need.”

I gurgled again, my eyesight starting to fail. Then the me-pony looked down and smiled.

“Oh I’m terribly sorry about all this. But I need the love of my plants to survive. It sustains me,” it said sickly sweet in my own voice with a demonic smirk. “You do understand don’t you?”

As I slid deeper into death's embrace I heard a chuckle from the lips of the imposter who had stolen my face. My heart failed completely as I heard these final words.

“The circle of life continues. My garden will thrive. Unfortunately... that means the end of you."

Author's Notes:

There's two people to thank for this being as good as it is. First off volrathxp for editing, and secondly the person who has no idea they were involved, SuperJeenius. The idea came from the quote (“That’s like saying oh I held someone's head underwater but I didn’t kill them the water did.”) which is from his Persona 4 LP. Originally I was going to do Gold, but that quote made this idea pop into my head, yes this idea came on a whim from a random quote.

So if you want to thank those two feel free, personally I think this is some of my better work because of the pre-reading/editing of volrathxp, and without SuperJeenius the idea wouldn't have came.