I was tired from how late we stayed up last night. I didn’t blame Berry Punch for sleeping in today. I felt clumsier today too and I didn’t think it was just not having my gardening apron to keep my tools in. I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of finishing the harvest though. I wasn’t going to let Meemaw down. One last harvest...

A glass jar shattered onto the floor of the cellar and I spun around, suddenly feeling much more alert. I looked over the broken glass, liquid and pickled snow peas sliding across the floor. Ruby was standing across the river of broken glass and snow peas looking down at it stunned.

“Ar-are you okay?” I asked her as I edged near the spill carefully.

“I… I’m sorry. I was trying to put the jar on the top shelf for you…. There’s… more room up there,” Ruby explained a little stunned. “I… I really thought I had it this time. I could feel it. And then...”

“It’s okay. It’s... just peas. Are you okay?” I repeated. She looked up from the broken glass and nodded. “Okay. Be careful. I’ll go get the broom.”

“Wait, maybe I can pick it up with magic...” she said before she looked down at the mess.

“You might miss the little pieces. You don’t want to get anything in your frogs: we can’t afford getting thrush. I’ll get something…,” I said and trailed off to brainstorm. “...sticky.”

I thought there was duct tape in the junk drawer.

I turned and trotted up the root cellar steps. I passed through the reinforced door and with the fake shelves hiding the stairs still pushed up against the wall I stepped right up into the food shed and headed out for the farmhouse. I sighed as I looked over the house again.

There was so much work left to put it up for sale and I knew I wouldn’t get to do that now. I didn’t want to sell it but I didn’t want to see their work deteriorate from neglect. And I couldn’t stay here, not alone. Without them here the air felt different, emptier. It was a blessing my friends came. Otherwise I wasn’t sure I would have finished the harvest, let alone stay.

Comet Tail and Minuette hadn’t called back yet though. I knew Chad worked late but I was getting worried. I needed to call. I couldn’t let something happen to them.

I stopped at the bucket by the door to wash the dirt off my hooves. I started to wash my fetlocks a little harder as of late and was considering adding lye to the bucket because I couldn’t help but think the coat near my hooves was getting darker, stained. I wondered, while I cleaned my hind hooves, how I could make gardening gloves- or I guess they would be boots.

As soon as I stepped into the house my thoughts halted. I could feel something was wrong: something in the air or soaked into the floor. I trotted for the kitchen and spotted what was the matter.

“Berry!” I shouted and galloped to her side. She was passed out on the floor, more disheveled and warm than usual. There was a spilled jar of ethanol next to her. I looked at the lid and panicked. In Papa’s scrawl I saw the letters ‘Mthnol’. No, not ethanol. This was the methanol in the garden shed. I started shaking her frantically.

“Berry! Berry Punch! Wake up! Wake up! Where did you find this?” I shouted. She rolled into consciousness in my grasp.

“...what?” she asked in her drunk daze.

“How much did you drink? That was methanol: wood alcohol. You can’t drink that. How much did you drink? Where did you get this?”

“You said… you left it out for me,” she started before closing her eyes again. I shook her and she snorted irritably.

“No. I didn’t. I wouldn’t do that! Berry, this much is going to kill you!” I yelled at her. She opened her purple eyes again to look at me confused and then she started to tear up. I let her gently crumple to the ground and darted for the pile of spices and cans in the corner. I lifted up one particular old commercial-sized tin can. Inside was the ethanol. I rolled the Mason jar on its side over to my distraught friend.

“You silly pony!” I shouted at her as I frantically worked to get the lid off. The ethanol would block the methanol in her system until it passed through. Every moment she wasn’t drinking, the methanol could be doing more damage to her system. With the methanol jar spilled and her not cooperating I had no idea how much she drank or how long had she been lying here. Her eyesight seemed to be still working. I knew I should have been checking on her.

I got the lid screwed off and tried to lift the tearing up pony to a sitting position against the cabinet.

“You need to drink this!” I yelled at her and pushed the jar between her legs. “The moonshine will stop it from absorbing!”

“Just... let me die…” she said as she slumped more. “I don’t deser-”

I lifted the jar and pushed it to her muzzle, not listening to her suicide talk. I should have let her finish. She started coughing. Some went down the wrong way.

“Drink, you silly pony!” I yelled at her again. She eventually obeyed and swallowed. She lifted her uncoordinated hooves up to take the jar but I wouldn’t let her hold it. I put the jar down after she stopped swallowing and it started running down her chin.

“Berry! Why did you drink that stuff?” I asked her, wanting to know if this was planned. Comet Tail and Minuette had said she was depressed but she seemed to be doing better yesterday.

“You said you’d get it out…” she said nonsensically before she looked down at the moonshine jar now between us. “...y’did,” she slurred.

“Were you trying to kill yourself?” I asked outright, hoping for a more clear answer.

“I... can’t... anything right…”

“Your daughter needs you,” I stressed as I put the jar to her mouth. She tried to push it away but I wouldn’t let her. I saw her swallow a few times before I pulled back and let her uneasy breathing continue.

“No... you can ‘mom’... I don’t deserve her... I don’t... deserve anything,” she tried to lay down but I lifted her upright again.

“You’re right. You don’t!” I yelled. “You don’t deserve anything!” That did it. I finally got her sad, purple eyes to look into mine. “No one deserves anything. Things aren’t fair and they aren’t supposed to be!” I thought about my parents, my first human parents, and their deaths. They didn’t deserve to die, but apparently they didn’t deserve to live either. “Fairness and justice are lies we made up! We’re just scared animals in a cold, dark world. And it owes us nothing!” I didn’t think Berry Punch could look more defeated and still be breathing.

I thought about Meemaw and Papa and the rhetoric they believed. Divine grace, the salvation that one couldn’t earn with deeds or moral superiority but that which was just given. There was a kernel of truth to it, but not wrapped in the lies they believed so that their cult could take.

I brought the jar up to Berry Punch’s mouth and she swallowed more without a fight: she was broken. I sat the jar down and petted her mane.

“And that is why... we have to give,” I told her softly. “We’re owed nothing but we can freely give anything with nothing expected in return: a gift. Everything we are given is a gift. Berry, Ruby Pinch’s love is a gift. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it. It’s a gift and that’s wonderful.”

My purple friend started crying. I made her drink again through her tears. The sobs made it difficult and she choked and started coughing again. I hugged her and patted her back while she cried against me.

“When my parents were taken I was so angry... my grandparents…the universe is a cold, uncaring place. That’s why we have to give. We have to be the warmth. If you receive it… you need to give it. Not keep it. Or take it with you. Do you understand?” I asked the crying, drunk pony. She said something incoherent and hugged me tighter.

While I held her and let her cry herself out I checked the clock. I needed to get her to drink more. I needed to get the tape to clear up the spill in the cellar. Ruby was probably wondering where the hay I was. She was a smart filly though; she wouldn’t get hurt. But for now I let Berry Punch cry a little longer. She needed to get this all out to get better and she needed my warmth against her while she did.

I heard the screen door to the porch squeak open. I expected the little patter of Ruby’s hooves. I expected them to follow the sound of her mother crying and we would have to decide how to explain what happened. I still wasn’t sure what happened.

I didn’t hear hooves though. I heard heavy boots step into the house. Two boots... maybe four boots. They didn’t sound right at all. They sounded dishonest. But I couldn’t panic. I pulled away from Berry to call out to them. There was only one human I would tolerate here.

“...Chad?”

I didn’t hear a response back but I did hear the boots stop and... whispers. There were voices. At least two human voices.

No, no, no.

My heart began racing. I didn’t even feel myself push away from Berry. I headed for the living room almost robotically: there was a problem and I had to solve it. I racked my head for an explanation that wasn’t what I feared.

When I saw the humans I knew there was no other possible explanation. They saw me just as I saw them. They seemed so incredibly tall and wide. One had a pistol and the other had a catch pole like a dog catcher. That one with the pole charged me and on instinct I did a full turn and bolted back into the kitchen.

“I’ll get it!” he shouted after me.

“They’re here!” I heard the other one holler towards the porch. There were more than two. We could be surrounded. The entire town could be out there. They might have got Comet Tail and Minuette. They might have Ruby Pinch.

I practically crashed into Berry who was barely able to hold herself on her haunches, let alone four hooves.

“Humans!” I shouted at her. She tried to blink away her confusion but I saw her thoughts sloshing in her head. I heard the boots still pounding towards the kitchen. I had to do this alone. I remembered what Papa told me to do if people came. I made my decision then.

I turned and galloped as fast as I could back towards them. I grazed the first, intentionally throwing him off as I raced past him. I heard a loud click from the one with the pistol and I heard a dart thud into the hardwood floor over my back. Over my heartbeat in my ears I couldn’t hear what they were shouting. It didn’t matter though. My hooves barely touched the ground as I flew down the hallway to the bedroom. My hooves slid as I turned and threw myself into the bedroom.

I had to stop this.

We couldn’t run. We weren’t going to run anyway. This was our sanctuary. This was my home and I was going to defend it. They wouldn’t get us.

I went under the bed and pulled it out by the cloth wrapping it. I pulled the cloth away and was greeted by Papa’s ten gauge and the box of ammunition for it. My first problem wasn’t loading it, I knew there were already four shells in it. My only problem was how to fire it.

I had to wrap something around the trigger.

I pulled the threaded needle from my armband, the last thing I made with my fingers, as I heard the sound of one of the men coming down the hall for me.

I breathed and blocked the sound of those boots out. I focused and dropped the needle into the loop guard holding the trigger. I stomped the safety off and wrestled the gun into my forehooves.

There was no time to figure out how to hold this as a pony. I wrapped one foreleg over the back and one around the barrel. I bent over the gun and gently lifted the thread up in my teeth.

As I lifted my head I made eye contact with the man as he stepped into the doorframe. He had just enough time to look surprised as I aimed and yanked my head back.

My senses exploded. A painfully loud ringing swallowed my hearing. My forelegs hurt as the gun was thrown from them. The barrel’s length smacked me hard against the jaw. My face and leg hurt so much, for a split second I thought I shot myself. I unscrewed my eyes to look at my target.

My heart fell in my chest as I saw the hole I put through the edge of the ceiling. The shot went wild. There was no one dead or bleeding.

I missed.

In the deafening, all-encompassing ringing I found the shotgun again and with shaking legs I jerked the pump down. The spent shell flew. I felt a new one click into place.

I turned back. In the cover of my muted ringing I saw that man had stormed the room. I reorientated the gun in my shaking limbs and tried to lift the barrel back up to the man. He grasped the barrel and pushed as I tried to yank again for another shot. My thread fell loose. I didn’t feel another explosion.

I screamed “No!” but I couldn’t hear it. He easily yanked the shotgun away from my grip and it landed behind him as he grabbed me instead. I lunged at his arm to bite him and I felt a fist connect to my already-painful muzzle.

I felt something tighten around my neck and I realized too late that I lost track of the catch pole. First I tried to attack him but the length of the pole kept me at bay. So I thrashed as hard as I could and ran. I choked myself as it yanked me to the ground. I pushed off the ground and kept going as it dug in. I saw the shotgun across the room.

I felt him throw his whole weight onto my back and wrestle me to the ground.

I tried to scream again but the air couldn’t escape up my throttled neck. I kicked uselessly and tried to get my hooves back under me. I tried to drag myself out from under him. The catch pole’s grip bit into my neck but I kept pushing against it. I tried to escape his arms around me. His violently hot breath filled my ear.

I continued struggling towards the shotgun. I didn’t stop when my vision went black. I didn’t stop when my legs went numb. I felt like a balloon being squeezed in half. At some point I felt like I burst and lost all sense of anything.

I woke up outside being carried and immediately tried to toss myself out of his arms. My asphyxiated legs were pins and needles though so all I managed to do was make him aware I was conscious again and he gripped me tighter around my barrel.

I focused on breathing. Between the lack of oxygen, my tunnel vision and how loud the ringing was I felt like I was going to vomit.

I felt the sound of a cage more than I heard it. I was pushed inside a wire dog crate in the back of what looked like an SUV. The ponynapper removed the catch pole from around my neck. Higher above the bruise forming on my neck I felt something else and could see a leash lead up from me and out the cage door. In one hand of his was the leash’s loop. I tried to pull myself out of the cage but he closed the door. I saw him lift a simple padlock up and click it shut on where the door met the cage.

The edges of my vision started to return to me. I turned and saw Berry in the cage next to mine. She didn’t make an attempt to sit up or even look at me. She just laid there like there was nothing left inside of her.

I told myself this wasn’t over yet. We could still escape.

I pushed my head and neck against the cage door and pushed harder. I punched at it with my forehoof as it regained feeling. I rattled the cage, testing its strength.

“Don’t think so, missy,” came the first words I heard again after the ringing, from the ponynapper himself. It was quickly followed by my body being lifted by my neck. I was choking again. I scratched uselessly at the thing around my neck choking me. It was a collar, a choke collar. I tried to pull it free with my hooves but I couldn’t get it off. I looked down at my foreleg for ideas and saw my armband was gone. When I passed out they must have seen my phone on it and took it from me.

Just as I started to see stars he put slack back into the leash and let me slump to the floor of the cage again.

I took deep, delicious breaths of air and my oxygen-deprived brain started to recover. The tingling in my limbs was so strong it hurt. I looked over at Berry Punch whose eyes were glazed over. I wasn’t sure if she was tranquilized or just incredibly drunk. Or poisoned. She needed to get more ethanol in her system. Probably a lot more. Or else she could still suffer nerve damage or go blind.

I looked up at the person standing watch over us. He was looking us over with a wide grin and dilated pupils: pleased with himself. I consciously made an effort to memorize his features. Shoulder-length hair, goatee, probably a little older than me when I was a human.

“Please,” I begged him with my nearly crushed windpipe. “Berry needs alcohol. She’s poisoned. She could die.”

“Right...” he dismissed. “You were Miss Claudia Hayes, I presume?”

My human name sounded more like a past job title now more than anything. Hesitantly, I nodded. He stooped lower so that he was eye-level with me.

“My condolences on your grandmother’s passing. The folks at the County Mart said she was a good god-fearing woman.” There was a predatorial glistening to his eyes. “But apparently she was quite the crazy bitch: prepping for the end-times, spouting doom and gloom trying to get the town to join her little cult. She was a good customer though. Ordered a lot of shit through that store. Even had it delivered when she got too feeble to move it all. They said you were in town getting her estate in order. They were more than happy to direct me to come pay my respects.”

“This is my property! And you’re going to leave it!” I rasped. He smiled at my threat from beyond the bars.

“We will,” he promised. “As soon as we find the rest of you.” He stood back up to his full height and looked about the property. I listened intently. Past the fading ringing foretelling my hearing damage, more distant sounds. I heard heavy furniture being tossed about inside the house and glass being broken.

They were tearing the homestead apart. I glanced over at Berry Punch who seemed asleep now without a care in the world. They were going to find Ruby Pinch at this rate. I was surprised they didn’t find her already. I listened intently for the sounds of change to their pillaging of my grandparents’ lifework. I heard a crescendo of glass jars breaking and group laughter. I saw a blonde human digging through my car on the side of the house.

After what felt like an eternity the group of humans started to regroup back around the SUV I was in. To my absolute disgust one of them had Papa’s shotgun in hand and what looked like his ammunition in his hoodie pocket.

Our ponynapper frowned at them and then looked back at me.

“Where’s the rest of you?” he asked me sternly. I looked at him, surprised. They hadn’t found Ruby. The shelter must have been closed up after I left. She heard them coming somehow.

The shotgun firing.

She was a smart filly.

“Well?” he asked impatiently. The sign of relief on my face must have given something away. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through the gravel in my throat, feigning ignorance.

“Fine,” he said, annoyed. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a phone. He made a few taps on it and turned the screen to show it to me.

I looked at the screen. I saw the names ‘Brianna’, ‘Conner’ and ‘Monica’ in a group chat. I saw my unnamed messages. From there it was clear this was Berry’s phone. I knew who was supposed to have this. I looked up at him.

“Nathan?” I guessed. I saw Berry’s eye flit open for a moment and her irises roll towards the human. It was the first sign to me that she was even conscious.

“Close,” he smiled. “After that little cunt broke his arm.” He pointed at my purple friend. “I bought her phone off of him. Hospital bills are a bitch, you know?”

“Yeah? Well I’m going to do more than break your arm when I get out of this cage!” I growled and threw myself against the door of the crate. To my surprise the cage didn’t topple out to the ground. These things must have been secured in place. The men standing around laughed at me.

“Aren’t you a feisty little redhead!” the person who wasn’t Nathan said as he twirled the leash’s loop around his wrist and lifted me up by the neck again. I did my best to not struggle this time; I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of me reacting to it. I tried to maintain eye contact with him until I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head. It was then he let me flop back to the floor. The world was spinning and I fought to not tumble with it.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll fuck that attitude right out of you!” He gave my collar a little yank that caught me by surprise. He grinned at the choking noise I made. “You know, I like redheads.” He began. “If I could afford you, I’d buy you myself just to make sure it gets done right.”

“Garrett?” one of the men standing there watching us spoke up. The person was older with jaundiced eyes. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. I saw the telltale pick marks on his face of a meth abuser.

The person holding my leash, apparently named Garrett, turned to look at him. “I’m getting to it,” Garrett promised, sounding patient. I speculated those two were more ‘business partners’ than friends.

Garrett looked back at me and smiled that predatory smile again. “Listen, sweetheart, we know there’s at least three more of you,” he said as he held Berry Punch’s phone up to me and showed me a picture of Minuette smiling at the camera. He swiped the screen and showed me Comet Tail looking reluctantly up at the camera and then flipped it again to show Ruby Pinch sitting at her desk, still holding a stylus in her mouth. “You can make this quick and we can get you all to where you’re going. Or we can have some fun with you while we wait for them to show up.”

I matched his glare while I thought about my options. They didn’t have Minuette and Comet Tail and hadn’t found Ruby yet somehow. I could tell them the partial truth, that they were gone, but then they would want to know where or wait around for them to return. I didn’t know why Chad hadn’t returned with Minuette and Comet Tail yet but that became a blessing.

If I didn’t tell them anything though, they would wait and Chad would eventually end up bringing the ponies right to them. I didn’t know what they would do to Chad but I know they wouldn’t just let him go. And waiting longer also meant more time for them to search the place and find Ruby Pinch.

I knew getting them to take us to the ‘secondary location’ was the last thing we wanted, but I weighed my friends’ lives with mine. Even if I could decide on the best option, even if their threats were empty and I could delay them until help arrived, I still had to decide on what to say to get the scenario I wanted.

To complicate matters, I would gladly give myself up to give my friends a chance but I couldn’t ask Berry Punch to do the same. When I turned to look at her for ideas I saw her tiredly close her eyes to avoid making eye contact with me.

That was that then, I was going to stall, and I was going to use her to do it. I looked back up at Garrett to give my answer.

“I’ll tell you where they are… if you give my friend the jar of moonshine on the kitchen floor,” I bargained with as much confidence as I could muster from my position. Garrett looked at Berry Punch, who seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, then back at me. I watched the wheels turn in his head for a moment before he nodded. He turned to look at one of his lackeys, the one with messy blonde hair.

“Go get it,” he ordered. The boy obediently headed for the house. Garrett turned back to me. “It’s hers. Where are they?”

“Moonshine first,” I demanded. The older man stepped forward and put a hand on Garrett’s shoulder. Garrett whipped his head to look at him. It looked like he was about to snap at him until he made eye contact and mentally backed down.

“Ya don’t let’em set the terms,” the older man said as if he was teaching a trainee on their first day. The older man looked at me but he didn’t seem to register anything when he did. “She’s not gonna give answers. Burn the place. We’ll either smoke’em out or make’er talk.” He turned to look at the remaining people. “Dylan, start with the shed with all that food.”

Dylan nodded and I saw him head in another direction, presumably to get flammable material. The blood in my veins ran cold. The cellar was well-ventilated but that would be useless if a raging inferno collapsed in on it. He turned to the other person. “ ...Fat Body, get aaall the electronics outta the house, move that car away first, and then burn the house. And for the love of fuckin’ God, watch and see if they come out. Alright?”

Fat Body nodded emphatically at his orders and headed for the farmhouse. As I saw him turn and go something inside of me panicked.

“Wait! Wait!” I called out. I saw this house being built. I remembered holding the ladder when Papa had to work on the roof. I could still imagine Meemaw rocking on the porch and reading. And more pertinently, I imagined a little pink filly hiding in the dark under a dusty old cot.

The older leader looked at me with only mild curiosity. Garrett stared me down.

“They- they’re gone. They left last night. They went to find more ponies. There-there’s more ponies!”

“...how many more?” he asked like he was only obligated to ask instead of actually caring for the answer.

“A-at least two more,” I said. I knew what question was going to come next so I immediately started thinking of an answer.

“And where are they?” he asked, looking extra tired. I saw him scratch at the stubble on his face disinterested.

“Settle’s Ford,” I claimed. A conservation area sounded reasonable, I thought. My captor sighed and looked back at Garrett.

“She’s lying,” Garrett deduced. The older man nodded.

“Yup. It’s in the eyes. Even if they don’t look away, they lose focus while they’re thinkin’. She shouldn’t have to be thinkin’ up an answer.” he finished his psychological explanation. “She’s stallin’. Just burn the place.”

“Wait! Wait! Please!” I begged. The scraggly leader didn’t even look at me now.

I saw the blonde guy come back from the house confused. He was holding two empty Mason jars. He looked back and forth between the older man and Garrett “Hey, so… one jar was empty and the other one looked like it got knocked over.”

“Forget it. She’s not-” Garrett started to reply but was cut off by a cell phone ringing. My phone. He pulled it out of the sleeve and examined it.

I never had ‘Connor’ in my contacts. So when I added him, I put Comet Tail. The phone screen now read that name. He showed his boss then they both looked at me.

“A’right,” the man with the meth scabs on his face said. He pulled a handgun from his waistband. There was a restrained insanity to his eyes. “You play along and act like everythin’s good. You get’em to say where they are. And we’ll go pick’em up.” He pointed the gun at Berry Punch. “Or I’m gonna take your friend out back and put her outta her fuckin’ misery. You un’erstand?”

He was bluffing. He had to be. Even if he didn’t look like it. After all: Garrett said we were worth a lot of money. I wasn’t sure if I could risk her life on that assumption though.

I nodded and Garrett moved my ringing phone near the cage door. I pulled myself forward and he slid it to ‘answer’.

“Comet?” I rasped weakly.

“Carrot?” I heard Comet Tail on the other end of the line.

“Y-yeah,” I said and swallowed. The men standing over me looked angry. I saw a look that told me I wasn’t doing good. “S-sorry,” I said and cleared my bruised throat. “I’m… really thirsty. What’s up?”

“Chad hasn’t showed up yet. I know he doesn’t go into work ‘til this afternoon but... I’m wondering if something is up. He ain’t answering.”

I thought about what I needed to say. I looked up at the men standing around me then back at the phone.

This was it then. I tried not to visibly brace myself for what I was about to say.

“That’s u- Humans found us! Run! Don’t come back to th-” I was yanked up by my leash and began choking again. I felt bile rise up in my throat but get cut off. I saw the phone get turned off and disappear into a pocket.

“You stupid fucking bitch!” Garrett swore at me as he lifted me higher by the neck. My oxygen-starved limbs were numb and I thought my lungs were going to burst. I didn’t know if he was going to stop this time before I passed out.

“Alright! They won’t be comin’ for a while now,” the old man in charge said in exasperation. “But they’ll be comin’ eventually to try and save their friends.”

“So we should call up some of our friends?” one asked. I couldn’t follow the conversation with my eyes, my vision had gone black and my heart was trying to beat out of my chest; Garrett was determined to let me know I made a terrible mistake.

“No. We’ll make ourselves scarce. We’ll go ahead and take these back to the drop house. You and Fat Body stay n’ keep an eye ou-”

I blacked out.

At some point I felt the telltale sensation of riding in the back of a car and my vision came swimming back to me. At first I thought there was something wrong with my eyes until I realized there was a thick blanket over the cage. There was a strong stench of alcohol and vomit nearby.

“B’rry…” I tried to call out to beyond the darkness. I realized there was something over my face and wrapped around to the back of my neck. Like… a muzzle. I was wearing a dog muzzle. I could still feel the bruising from the collar practically restricting my throat. “...we h’ve to g’t ‘ut ‘f here.”

I listened for several minutes for any sign she was out there. There was just the drone of the car going down the road. We were going fairly fast and there was a lack of stopping so we must have been on the highway.

I stood unsteadily onto all four legs in the near blackness and tried to feel around for the lock. I found it easily with the still-exposed tip of my muzzle but had no way of gripping it or biting it, let alone opening it.

There was no way out. Maybe when we arrived at wherever we were going. I slumped back to my stomach and tried to keep myself together. I felt so incredibly alone and hopeless.

“B’rry... please s’y s’mething,” I whined through the scratchiness in my throat. “I need to know you’re ok’y.”

I didn’t hear any words or movement from where I thought she would be and that made me even more worried.

The drive felt like it took hours. I didn’t know what would happen to my friends or me. Everything seemed gone. If I got out, the homestead could never feel safe again. Ruby Pinch was alone in the dark. Our group was scattered. I didn’t know what state Berry Punch was in. If she was still breathing I couldn’t hear it over the sound of the road beneath us.

I thought about my grandparents and Equestria. I told myself not to cry. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing the telltale signs later on my face. I tried to get angry instead but I didn’t have the energy to maintain it.

At some point the vehicle slowed down and started making stops again. Wider turns and slower traveling meant we were nearing our destination. We finally stopped and the engine turned off. Our secondary location.

I heard a shuddering breath and a shifting body near me.

“B’rry?” I tried whispering to her. I thought maybe this time she would hear me. There was no response. I heard the back hatch open.

“Any of them got wings?” a new voice asked. The blanket was thrown off my cage and I was blinded by the afternoon sun.

“No. No horns neither,” said the familiar old man. I squinted up at my captors then over to my side. Berry Punch was in a pool of her own vomit but she was very much still breathing.

“Oh fucking hell. It got sick,” the new man spoke. “Hose that one down before you take it inside.”

“We still getting forty for these ones, right?”

“The deal was a hundred for five. Three with horns,” the other man said. He had a full beard, a beer gut and a baseball cap.

“Yeah, yeah, but come on, there’s still two and we c’n prolly still get the other three.”

The new man thought for a moment, sighed and nodded.

“I'll check. But be more careful with’em, alright? These fucking things look half dead.”

Something was adjusted beneath my cage and it was slid out onto a trolley and wheeled towards a garage. Before I went in I glanced around outside. I spotted one nearby house on the property but besides that nothing but fields and a single country road. We could be anywhere.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” The man with the baseball cap said. After a moment I looked up, realizing he was talking to me. He had the audacity to smile at me.

“Buck you!” I replied with all the bile left in my system. He chuckled, amused at my response.

“That’s probably not it,” he said as he heaved the trolley up on its front wheels and pushed the cage off it with one boot. I flopped to the floor of the cage as it thudded to the ground. While I worked to get back onto my hooves I saw Baseball Cap Man take the loop to my leash and hang it somewhere above me.

“Bill! I got a yellow one with three carrots. And a purple one coming in. Get to work,” he said. I looked around the garage and realized there were two men in here. There was a younger man in a dirty flannel shirt sitting at an old workbench with a laptop. He became aware we were there and took the earbuds out of his ear. He looked me over, took a swig of his beer and started typing. The other, with a shaved head and a scraggly red beard, was gawking at me from across the room. He was drinking something brown in a tumbler glass.

I looked around the garage more. There were piles of full trash bags and several tables covered in what looked like old lab equipment. I sniffed the air. There was the faint smell of cleaning supplies and rotting wood. Like an abandoned hospital. I speculated this was an old meth lab.

A soaking wet Berry Punch got wheeled into the garage. She was laying down and shivering. She had what was probably the same muzzle around her face I had. I saw it was restrained with a simple clip buckle around the back. Something I could take off easily if I still had an opposable thumb.

They slid her cage off their trolley and onto the ground next to me. I saw the loop to her leash get hung up next to mine.

“B’rry!” I called out to her. She glanced at me then quickly looked away with a look of shame in her eyes. I was so happy to see her awake I didn't care.

“Alright. We got Golden Harvest or... Carrot Top. We can definitely move this one. Go ahead and give’em the full forty’,” Bill said. The man in the baseball cap nodded and walked out of the garage back to the waiting methhead. Bill glanced over at Berry Punch then returned to his laptop.

Several minutes passed and I saw the SUV that brought us here back out and drive off. I noted to myself it went right; presumably that was the general direction the homestead was in. If we could still escape, somehow, that’s the direction we would go until we found something familiar.

I saw the red-bearded man walk over to us and slowly sip on what he was drinking. He squatted down and looked me over curiously. I looked away, unable to bear being something on display in a cage. He turned to look over Berry instead.

I saw his eyes roam over Berry, who was facing the wall behind us. She had made no effort to cover her shame with her tail and I saw this person stare intently at it.

I looked away from the voyeur and back up to the person with the laptop. He was looking at pictures of Berry Punch. In the pictures she was giving happy smiles to the viewer.

I saw Berry Punch smile while she was at my homestead but it was never with that level of enthusiasm. Even when she looked at Ruby Pinch and listened to her talk, there was always something tired to her gaze. Maybe that was her depression or she was still recovering. Right now though, with her tail limp, her limbs haphazardly under her and her thousand yard stare it was clear to me she was ‘gone’ now. With her hosed down the way she was there was one word for the way she looked and I felt terrible for thinking it: pathetic.

“Berryshine,” Bill said with a snicker. “Or Berry Punch. Or Pinot Noir.”

“Ain’t that last one a wine?” said the man nearest us.

“It is,” Bill said, grinning. “Apparently she’s quite the alcoholic. She’s pretty popular too: lots of porn.” Bill stood up and picked his phone up off the desk. “I’m going to go see if the Spectrum guys want this one. Keep’em quiet.”

Bill started dialing and stepped out of the garage a little ways.

“Hey, hey, Pinot,” the man near our cages said in a hushed whisper. “You like whiskey?”

Berry Punch’s head slowly rose and turned. With glazed eyes I saw her look over the human. She spotted the drink in his hand, tilted towards her, almost on offer. On heavy limbs she dragged herself towards the front of the cage. She was shaking, possibly from the cold water still clinging to her coat. She opened her mouth as far as it would go and rolled her tongue out towards the glass.

“Oh, you do?” he said grinning. He started to tip the glass onto her tongue but stopped and pulled the glass away from her. “How much do you like it though?”

I saw half-thoughts float behind Berry Punch’s eyes. She looked feverish and sick. She turned her back to him and I thought that would be the end of it. But to my horror she got her back legs underneath herself and arched her rump up towards him. Her tail fell to her side and I saw her flex and expose a very intimate part of herself. I looked away in embarrassment.

“Oh my god,” the man mumbled and laughed. “No wonder there’s so much porn of you. You’re a little slut, aren’t you?”

“Tom, what the fuck are you doing?” Bill said as he came back into the garage, to my relief, interrupting.

“I think she’s in heat,” Tom snickered. “You seeing this shit?” Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Berry had pressed her back up against the cage door. I turned my head away so I could fully block it out of my view.

“Is she… leaking?” Bill asked as he tilted his head and looked at her. Tom laughed, almost giddily.

“She. Is. Dripping,” Tom said, to my horror. If there were any eyes left for me, they would probably see my face reddening. “So what’d they say? They want her?"

“Still only wings or horns. We’ll sell these up north,” Bill said dismissively. I saw Bill grab a pull cable hanging from the garage door and he brought the garage door down, blocking our main means of escape. There was a door left, but the brass knob was not pony-friendly.

I heard the cage door next to mine rattle and a moan. Against my better judgement I turned to look. Berry Punch had pressed her mouth onto one of the cage bars and rolled her tongue out longingly again. She eyed Tom’s glass.

Tom smiled and tilted the glass slightly so that some of the contents would spill onto her flat tongue. Berry lapped at the dribble until he stopped pouring. Berry pulled her tongue back into her mouth and licked at her lips, trying to get every last drop available to her.

“You like that, girl?” Tom asked. Berry nodded and continued to eye his glass. Her unfocused purple gaze made her seem lost somewhere deep in her mind.

“Tom...” Bill scolded disapprovingly. Tom ignored his friend and spoke to Berry.

“Turn around for me, girl. Do that trick again,” he said, eying my friend with hunger in his eyes. I saw Berry turn around and, from the look on his face, she presumably obeyed. I looked away again. I couldn’t bear to see her like this.

“So, Spectrum doesn’t want her...” Tom started. “You think I can give her a test ride then? See how she handles?”

“...what? Here? In the garage?” Bill said in disbelief.

“Why not?” Tom asked. I heard Bill sigh.

“You got a rubber at least?”

“Well that would take away all the fun, wouldn’t it?” Tom said as he walked over to the work bench and picked up a set of keys.

“My god, you’re serious...” Bill muttered. He put his earbuds back in. “Alright, keep the leash and muzzle on her. And I swear to god, if you grow a tail I won’t hesitate for a second to put you in one of those cages.”

“They said it ain’t contagious,” Tom said as he gripped the lead to Berry’s leash in one hand and unlocked her cage with the other. Tom opened the cage and picked up the glass, offering it to my friend.

Obediently, Berry stumbled out of the cage and brought her restrained muzzle to the cup. She lapped eagerly at its contents while Tom carefully fed the leash through the grate of the cage and brought the leash entirely out of it.

This has to be a well-thought out plan. Berry Punch was using him to get out, surely. Any second she was going to make her break for it and run. Maybe if she charged the door hard enough she could break it. She could probably get away. There probably weren’t much more than the three men we’d already seen.

But no, Berry lapped at the glass and Tom started running his fingers through her mane and petting her. Berry seemed oblivious to his hands creeping down her back and under her.

“Good girl,” he praised her as she got to the bottom of the glass. He scratched at her under the chin. “You want some more? I got plenty more.”

Berry nodded feverishly. Tom stood up and led her by the leash over to his work bench. I saw the tall plastic bottle of whiskey appear from behind the laptop and so did Berry as he picked it up and showed it to her. She sat down on her haunches and presented her forelegs like she was begging for a treat. Tom snickered and I saw him visibly adjust himself. Bill looked over at what was going on then looked over at me.

For a brief second Bill and I exchanged a look of discomfort. He looked back at Tom and Berry.

“You don’t need to wine and dine her, just fuck her already,” Bill said, grumpily.

“Can you… wait outside?” Tom asked his ‘coworker’. “It’d be weird if you watched.”

“I wasn’t going to fucking watch. But you know what? Fine. I don’t want to hear it either. I’m leaving Carrot Head here though,” Bill said, pointing at me. I was tempted to beg for him to take me anyway. “I’m warning you though, if you take that muzzle off and she bites your dick off I’m not going to be one bit sympathetic.”

Berry only had eyes for Tom as he undid his pants. “Oh we’re not using the mouth. Are we, girl?”

“No,” Berry said through her muzzle and turned around to present herself to him again. She bent over and lifted her rear towards him. I saw a long, clear strand drip from her before I turned my head away again.

She was actually, genuinely, aroused by this. She actually wanted it. Maybe she was more messed up than I realized.

“I’ll... be outside the door. Please don’t make a bunch of weird noises,” Bill said as he left and closed the door behind him.

I turned back to Berry, expecting her to suddenly break character but she didn’t. Not even when I saw Tom pull his underwear down and probe under her tail with his fingers. Instead she made something that sounded like a moan. I didn’t want to be a witness to this.

“God, you’re warm,” Tom praised her. I felt a shiver crawl up my spine. I was torn between watching for our escape plan and not wanting to see this happening.

“Please,” Berry begged through her muzzle. She panted. “Whiskey. I w’nt it.”

“Alright, just a little more. But that’s it until I’m satisfied,” Tom said as he tugged playfully on her leash. He brought the bottle to his glass, still sitting on the ground, and poured an inch into it. Berry immediately put her muzzle into the glass and lapped at it again.

With her face down into the glass and her tail still brushed to the side, I saw Tom line himself up behind her. I looked away.

I heard him moan out in relief. Berry grunted and then let out a gentle nicker. Tom praised her again and then I heard his pace quicken. I screwed my eyes shut and covered my ears as best as I could with my hooves but I could still make out the occasional moan. I tried to imagine I was far away but my concern for my friend and my hope this was still a plan kept pulling me back.

She still seemed to sway a bit when she walked, maybe she was still drunk or maybe the nerve damage was setting in. Maybe she was desperate to keep the methanol from metabolizing further. But... she was aroused somehow. On some level she wanted this.

The time seemed to drag on and horrifically the only thing I had to note the passage of time was the sound of the thrusting. It was probably only minutes but it couldn’t end soon enough.

“Good girl, good girl,” he said, finally after their motion stopped. I looked up, thinking the worst was behind me. But I saw Berry had turned around to face him and I could see I-knew-what leaking from under her tail. I felt vicariously violated. Berry seemed indifferent, her muzzle going towards the bottle of whiskey now. Tom chuckled and pet her mane while he took his own swig from it.

Berry didn’t wait for her turn. She put her muzzled mouth to his and started licking and probing with her tongue as best as she could, trying to get at what he had swallowed. He started reciprocating. Tom reached around the back of her head and unclipped the muzzle strainer and slipped it off her head. Tom took another swig of whiskey and they continued kissing, now more earnestly. Berry moaned into his mouth as he gripped her.

I felt hot tears form at the corner of my eyes. I thought I was going to start hyperventilating. Berry was gone. She seemed to only care about getting her fix from both ends now. I didn’t know if she even cared Ruby was probably alone in the dark crying. That our sanctuary and all my grandparents’ work was taken from us. Our friends were hundreds of miles away and we might not ever see them again.

“Good girl, Pinot,” Tom said as he pulled away and pet her more.

“...Berry Punch,” Berry corrected him with a slight slur to her speech. Tom sat the glass in front of her. To his word, he poured a good half glass and sat it near her. But she ignored it and stepped toward him. She gently placed a foreleg against his chest. “What’s your name, stallion?”

I would have gagged if my throat didn’t hurt so much.

“Tom,” Tom said with a grin, which I noted was missing a few teeth.

“Tom… “ she said, leaning against him. “...you’re really nice. I like you.” She nuzzled his shoulder then stood up onto all four drunk hooves. “I’m.. sorry...”

“...what?” Tom asked, confused. As he spoke, Berry turned and raised up onto her forelegs.

A fraction of a second passed. I saw every tendon and muscle in her body tense. Then, her body tension released. It traveled up from her forehooves, through her barrel and out through her hind legs. Her hooves made contact against his collarbone and shoulder. I heard the bones crack. Tom was knocked several feet back and I heard a sickening thud as his head hit the ground. Berry fell flat onto her stomach.

Tom started howling in pain. While he screamed, Berry stumbled to shaking hooves and went straight for his pocket. The door opened and we saw Bill.

“What the fuck!” he shouted in the door frame. “Garry! One’s loose! Get the gun!” He called out behind him.

Berry gave up at the keys and charged my cage. I was confused until she threw herself on top and climbed over it to get to the leash. She bit down and pulled it free from the hook. Bill came running up behind her.

“B’rry, b’hind you!” I shouted up at her. She turned to look and tried to buck him. She stumbled on top of the wireframe cage and Bill grabbed her around the middle. Berry thrashed as he wrestled her to the ground.

I heard the crack of gunfire at the door and turned to look. Baseball Cap Man had fired a handgun into the air before stepping inside. In Bill’s surprise, Berry flailed out of his arms and charged my cage again.

She turned and tried kicking at the padlock on my cage. It rattled violently and the cage dented in around it.

“B’rry, just run!” I begged her. She ignored me and raised up and kicked again. She missed the lock. The cage dented and bent around her impact. I saw a pained, determined look on her face right before Bill tackled her again. One arm around her neck and the other pinning her middle. This time he yanked and pulled at the leash still clicked to her collar. She choked and whinnied violently. She fought while Garry with the baseball cap came at her with the muzzle restraint. Berry threw her head towards him and bit him.

“Fuck!” Garry shouted and pulled his bleeding hand away. He kicked at her exposed back. “Fucking horse!”

“Get it back on her!” Bill pleaded as he still strained to keep Berry pinned. I heard Tom crying and looked to see the man on the floor shaking, obviously deep in pain. Garry looked over at him and his patience evaporated.

“Fucking morons!” Garry shouted as he brought a cowboy boot to Berry’s neck this time. He took the leash from Bill and yanked it hard as he continued to step on her neck. I heard Berry gasp and choke harder.

“How the fuck did she get out?” Garry asked as he held the leash taut.

“Tom tried to stick his dick in her!” Bill scolded as Berry tried to desperately get out from under the boot.

“Tom, you fucking idiot,” Garry said. He released his boot from Berry’s neck. “Take her leash, keep it tight.” Garry passed the leash to Bill who wrapped it around his wrist several times to keep it tight. Berry nearly pulled herself back up before Bill yanked her leash harder. Garry stomped over to Tom.

“The fuck were you thinking?!” Garry said to the man shaking on the ground.

“Please… i-it’s broken…” Tom begged clutching his shattered shoulder.

“I bet it fucking is!” Garry said angrily. He looked at the whiskey bottle and glass on the ground. “One fucking job!” He kicked at the whiskey glass and it shattered on contact. Glass and whiskey scattered towards Tom who lamely flinched.

“I-I wa-as-s giving it-t to her. Sh-she likes it,” Tom explained while seeming to fight going into shock.

“Oh?! Did she??” Garry shouted at him incredulously. “Well that explains why your dick is fucking out!”

“Garry! Come on! Get the muzzle back on her!” Bill pleaded as Berry snorted harder. She was drooling now as she continued to try and pull herself away from Bill. She was on her stomach now and nearly back to her hooves.

I had to get out and help: our window of opportunity was closing. I looked at the padlock still firmly in place then at the cage deformed around it. Then I looked at the other side of the door at its hinges.

I turned and, copying what I saw Berry do, rose up onto my forelegs, tensed everything up and pushed out from my forelegs and carried the momentum through my body, fully extending all my muscles through my body and channeling all that force outward at that hinge.

The cage violently deformed around my now aching legs but the hinge clung on.

“You want a fucking drink, huh?” I heard Garry from beyond my cage. Garry picked up an old gas can that had been sitting near a rusting lawnmower. He carried it over to the still struggling Berry underneath Bill. “This’ll stop her squirming. Hold her head!”

Bill obeyed and moved to just grip and force her head still. Even with Bill on her back strangling her, Berry managed to climb to her hooves only to be knocked down by Bill’s legs. I saw Garry force the funnel into her resisting face and try to force it into her mouth.

“B’rry!” I called out as I turned to kick again with my throbbing, pained legs at the door hinge. I tensed up again and bucked all my strength out at the remains of the doorframe. The cage’s resistance caved and the remains of the door were thrown open to the other side, hanging by the padlock.

I hear liquid splatter behind me and smelled gas. Berry violently retched and coughed. I turned and looked behind me. The gas can fell from Garry’s hands. Berry was on the ground wheezing and shaking. Bill was still on top of her. But they were all looking at me as I climbed out of the cage.

There was no surprise as I charged Bill but my inertia and rage met his shock and exhaustion as I tackled him off Berry Punch and started violently kicking at him. Hoof met face and arms as he tried desperately to cover himself.

I heard Garry’s body tackled to the ground behind me and several heavy thuds across his face. I climbed off the still conscious Bill and rushed to Berry Punch’s side. Berry was on Garry, fighting and kicking at his hands trying to grab at her. Her heavy, labored wheezing was interrupted by her violent retching and Garry tried to cover his face.

“B’rry! L’t’s go!” I said to her. She looked up at me, pain and determination in her eyes even as she coughed again and her legs shuddered under her. She nodded wordlessly and ambled towards the door. I quickly followed, even as Bill and Garry slowly tried to sit back up. Without hesitation Berry tried to raise up and buck the door. As her back hooves made contact the the wood splintered but Berry slid to the floor and started coughing and retching again.

I followed her example and tried bucking too. I turned, raised, tensed and pushed all the force I could out through my buck. The broken door on its rusted hinges stood no chance and it practically exploded out behind me.

I helped Berry to her shaking legs and we headed for the road, our leashes trailing behind us. Berry’s wheezing was growing quicker and shallower; there was a thick snot-like saliva falling from her mouth but she kept moving forward. I felt hopeful until I ran past a parked car and she crumpled head on into it.

“B’rry!” I stopped and ran back to pick her up again. “‘We h’ve to go! Now!” I dragged her to her hooves. She seemed willing but uncoordinated. She started coughing more. It dawned on me far too late she got the gasoline fumes into her lungs. She needed water, something, but I had nothing to give her.

“-Just- go,” she said between coughs.

I refused and pulled her along until she got the message and followed. We reached the asphalt and got as much road behind us as possible. I tried to gallop but Berry was limping far too much to break into a three-beat gait. I kept with her. Just as we were making some distance she collapsed again, this time without warning.

“G’t up! G’t up!” I screamed at her. She tried but went limp and just wheezed. I heard the men from the garage shouting. I looked down the road and saw Garry point at us. They stumbled to their car.

I tried to get myself under Berry and carry her. She was heavier than she looked and she wouldn’t cooperate. She pushed me away between coughs and wheezing and kept going down the road on her own. She seemed like she was on the verge of collapsing again but I trotted with her, thinking she could keep this pace. She couldn’t though. She stumbled and collapsed again.

“G’t up!” I yelled at her again. I heard their car start. I looked behind us at the humans climbing into their car. I turned and looked down the long road ahead of us. Then I looked out and saw woods starting just beyond the fences.

“W’ need to g’t off the r’d!” I declared and pointed towards the trees. Berry shook her head.

“I’ll… distrac-tion,” She sputtered. I shook my head and tried to get her back to her hooves. Her four shaking hooves rolled on her. The car was coming now. We both knew if we stayed together we wouldn’t be able to get away. If we split up, Berry would easily be picked off. I looked back at the car then at her.

“Take care of her,” she said, coughed and gasping.”...protect her.”

Her words brought everything back into priority for me. I was being stupid. We weren’t escaping for ourselves. We were escaping to try and save our friends. Berry Punch was escaping for her daughter’s safety. I had to get away for her sake. She had taken my words to heart: she was giving what she had. She was giving us a chance. Tears came to my eyes.

“I w’ll!” I promised. "W'll s've you!" I turned and ran for the fence and the trees just beyond. As I made it to the treeline I looked back. Berry Punch limped away from the car slowing down behind her. I turned and ran as the tears streamed down my face.

Next Chapter: 20. An Intervention (Part 3: Where Your Heart Is) Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 33 Minutes