I awoke, to buzzing, numerous bugs around my head, I swatted at one, a large mosquito, before remembering the size of my hands. Just as I did, my hand made contact with my face, and I was knocked unconscious against a large branch I had been using as a pillow.
I awoke, several hours later, to the sound of wind chuckling, it was needless to say, beautiful, but also slightly humiliating as I realised the chuckling was aimed at me. I looked up, and saw Kami’s leaf body hovering above me, shaking slightly to provide movement to the laughter.
“So, I take morning sex is out of the question then, one of us might get, I don’t know, leaf rot or something”, I said, and then smiled, showing I wasn’t worried about this, she however was, and the leaves started shaking again, but this time with crying, the sound of wind crying, is needless to say, the saddest thing, ever. I reached out to touch her form, but she shied away, before whispering
“I took you away from your home, changed your body, and now you’re stuck with somebody you can’t love properly, I’m a terrible person”. I was aghast at this, yesterday she had been as happy as a child in a sweet store, but today she was almost the exact opposite, like a child in a morgue, or something akin to that.
I cooed and said “love isn’t just physical, you know that, its spiritual, emotional, mental, the corporeal procreation is only a small part of it, besides I don’t think that’s what is really wrong, why are you so sad?”.
The leaves shivered before the wind sighed “Those curs burnt down one of the first trees, they destroyed it, and I couldn’t stop them, there were just too many of them” the wind started howling “they must be destroyed, you must help me DK, we have to, before they hurt us both”, I nodded my approval. The wind stopped howling and settled, before Kami flowed down her trees beckoning me to follow, I swung down following a billowing breeze that seemed to flow through all the leaves.
I swung seamlessly, as if, once I had learned, it became instinctual to be able to do, and followed Kami’s breeze, until we reached a huge cavernous hole in the ground in the ground, like a mining tunnel back on earth. As we approached the hole, I felt my feeling of discomfort worsening, this whole place just felt wrong, unnatural even.
I dropped to the ground and rolled to lose the momentum. I stood, and began looking at the hole, noticing only then, that rather than dropping straight down, it was angled downwards, with a ramp heading into a dimly lit passage. I walked over to the hole, which I found bereft of any Diamond Dogs, and wandered in, only recognising my stupidity once something hit me in the face, and burst, releasing a gas. I started to sway, seeing Diamond Dogs that had hidden in the passage coming towards me, carry spears and nets, before I fell to the ground, unconscious.
I came to, in a huge cavern, with a large metal collar on my neck, surrounded by griffins, and a few ponies, while three anamorphic dogs stood before me. They eyed me suspiciously, while I noticed that only one of the three had vials of the knockout gas that had affected me, while the others just carried spears, knives and nets. I looked around at my surroundings, seeing the griffins and ponies, were toiling away at the rocks, digging, looking for what I assumed must be gems. I turned and looked at the Diamond Dogs before me; they were shorter than me, the tallest by at least a foot.
I groaned, stretched and then hit the tallest, who happened to be, coincidentally or not, the one carrying the gas vials, right in the face. I felt him squish under my huge hand, his face turning to pulp, just before he flew across the cavern; I turned to his compadres, and flicked them both with either hand, sending them, slightly less damaged, to either side of the cavern. Reaching up, I pulled at the collar around my neck, and strained, I pulled harder and harder, feeling the metal bend, before finally snapping, and breaking into pieces.
Meanwhile, the griffins and ponies had stopped digging, and where now looking at me. Surprised by my own strength, I was, personally, looking at the two shards of metal in my hands, all that remained of my collar, not even noticing the Diamond Dog blood dripping of my fingers. I smiled dropped the pieces and turned to leave, figuring that if there were any more Diamond Dogs, they would have showed up by now, even though the amount of prisoners seemed like an awful lot for only three diamond dogs.
As I was walking out, a unicorn pony cleared his throat, and began to speak “excuse me, um, sir, but would you be so kind as to free us, as you see, the remainder of the Diamond Dogs will be returning soon, and so we had best be on our way”.
I turned and looked at the ponies, and realised that I had really forgotten that they would want to be released too, I was just so caught up in my thoughts that releasing them had completely left my mind. I laughed, loudly before saying “of course I'm releasing you, I was just checking to see if there were any Diamond Dogs around, yeah, just checking to see, that’s right”, and walking over to the nearest prisoner, which appeared to be a male griffin, who eyed me cautiously.
I grasped his collar, and was about to begin pulling, when I heard the pony from earlier clear his throat again and say “not to tell you how to rescue people, as I am ever so grateful, but I think you would actually find it easier if you used the keys that one was carrying “and pointed at the Diamond Dog who’s face I had pulped. I blushed, which was something I didn’t even know I could do, before nodding, and retrieving the keys from the body.
I walked over to that stallion, who had been the only one to speak, while all the other captives looked on in mute fascination, and unlocked him. He rubbed his neck, and introduced himself, offering his hoof “hello, my name is Silk Tie, it is most agreeable to me to make your acquaintance”, I grasped his hoof as lightly as I could, and rolled my shoulder, trying to be as gentle as possible, shaking his hoof. I continued unlocking the other hostages, who all gathered around Silk Tie, in my belief because he was the most level headed, until I reached the male griffin from before, who was muttering under his breath about how he should have “joined Captain Griffin when he had the chance”.
The unlocking finished, I saw the Ponies had gathered together in one group, and the griffins in another, both were looking at me, with a strange mix of fear, apprehension, and appreciation. I spoke, asking “so how many more Diamond Dogs are their”, I got an average guesstimation of 12, including the alpha, whatever that was.
Silk Tie, then asked me “would you be so kind as to escort us to the nearest town, I’m sure we could pay you for the service?” I nodded, I wanted to get out of there immediately, and I decided I should probably help these guys out, considering I was responsible for their current situation, of being free, but in a lot worse danger than if they weren’t.
The former captives gathered gear from a room adjoining the cavern, such as carts, as well as gems, bits, and much to my surprise, large crates of ties. We left with me looking at the map, and finally finding out how far from Ponyville we were, after Silk Tie pointed out where we actually were on the map. I soon found out that I was many thousands of kilometres from there; Kami’s forest was situated in the upper right corner of the map, while Ponyville was in the middle, apparently the whole land was called Equis, and Equestria was just a small part of it. I chuckled, the size made sense, when you thought about it, but up till then, I had really believed that I was in a part of the Everfree forest that just hadn’t been shown before.
We were headed towards a relatively nearby Griffin outpost, nearby meaning, on the edge of the coast, through the entire forest, but this was apparently the closest settlement, and so we walked. I started talking to Silk Tie, as he was still the only one to have talked directly to me, we chatted about his business, ties, which led me to asking if he had any large red ties, and whether he could do embroidery with yellow, when he answered in the affirmative to both my questions, I smiled happily, and told him what I wanted done. He then asked me about myself, curious, as he had never seen anything like me before, and he had seen a lot of things, as a travelling tie salesman, I nodded and said “I’m a gorilla, enhanced by magic”, he accepted this, either not surprised by it, or just too good at hiding his thoughts to show it. I eventually grew bored of trudging along the ground, as compared to swinging; walking was just the worst thing ever. I convinced the ponies I was guarding that it would be easier from on high, and so leapt up into the trees, where I found Kami’s leaf body waiting for me, and the wind started whispering
“What are you doing, not all of the Diamond Dogs are dead, go back and kill them, stop bothering with these animals”. The leaves of her body shook with anger, emphasizing her point. I looked at her disapprovingly, she knew why I was helping these animals, just as well as she knew why I helped her the night I met her, somebody needed my help, so I was going to give it. I glared at her until she calmed down, and then she whispered “it’s just I believe in the Canterlot Castle there might be a spell that could give me a corporeal form, and once we have made the diamond dogs afraid to enter here, I need you to seek it out, and bring it here, so that we can be together again, physically”, the last part she murmured seductively, leaning in the branches of her leaf form, to prop up against me.
I responded “my love, there is plenty of time for this, and besides, the more good will I spread by releasing these ponies and griffins the more likely it is, when the time comes for my journey to Canterlot, that I will find easy and safe passage”. With that I swung off, leaping from vine to vine, quickly catching up with the group of ponies and griffins, who had throughout the whole conversation, menially trudged along, unaware of the relationship arguments occurring above them.
I grew bored quickly, and was somewhat glad when night descended, as I was wondering what foods the former captives had, and had made a bet with myself that they had merely forgotten. So I was unastonished when Silk Tie said they had forgotten about getting food, I raced of, collecting as many fruits as I could for the ponies, while the griffins set of to hunt for meat. I came back and dumped the fruits at the pony’s hooves, while keeping a few mangoes and bananas for myself. Then went and laydown above them in a canopy made of leaves, similar to my bed of the night before, before falling asleep.
I was stirred from my slumber the next day, by shouts of anger and annoyance, as well as sounds of a battle, clashing swords and spears. I looked down from my canopy, and saw the creatures I was supposed to protect, being attacked by at least 12 diamond dogs. I leapt down from the canopy, and landed on a diamond dog crushing him into oblivion, before throwing an uppercut at the next nearest mongrel, he flew off into the trees, I found myself surrounded by Diamond Dogs, as they crept up on me, while I steadied myself, having over strengthened my punch. I decided it was now or never to see whether video games lied, and so I started, for want of a better word, twirling, on the ground, until I was spinning so quickly my arms did the same, jutting straight out from my shoulders as I went faster than I expected. I directed myself at a diamond dog, and hit him, which caused a pinball affect, sending me wildly spinning at another diamond dog, and knocked him out. I recoiled from one diamond dog to the other, until all but a large one was down, and I stopped spinning. He looked at me in shock, before howling and racing towards me, sprinting, a small sword in his paw. I avoided his first attack, but was hit on the shoulder by his second, however, he over swung on this, just managing to cut me, before his sword continued down to the ground. His back completely open to me now, I put my hands together, and brought them down on his back, reducing his torso to a blood pulp.
I looked at the ponies and griffins, which, for the most part had been caught under nets, and said “let’s sleep in the trees from now on, ok”. They nodded, so I picked them up, and placed them on a huge low branch, easily wide enough for them to sleep on, then lay down myself and fell back asleep, exhausted, but only lightly wounded on the shoulder, something that was a lot less bad than injuries I had earned as a human.
I woke early, the wind whispering in my ear, telling me to. I woke the ponies and griffins around me, and then dropped to the ground making sure all of the Diamond Dogs from the night before, where still dead. I picked up the short sword that the alpha diamond dog, as I had been told the last one was, had used. It was in terrible condition, but I wanted something other than my hands to protect me, so I picked it up.
I brought the ponies down from the trees while he griffins and the one or two Pegasus flew down, and we continued on our way. I swung from vines every so often, but had to move extremely slowly from tree to tree, waiting for them to catch up. I got so bored at one point that I climbed a tree, and was delighted to find the ocean was fairly near, and that we should reach it by that afternoon.
I swung through the tree’s looking for lunch, while my companions just plodded forward; I found some bananas and ate them, before finally deciding I may as well try to find out more about Equestria. I descended from the trees, and walked up to Silk Tie, who was sitting on a cart being pulled by two to other ponies, and asked him about it.
He told me how he had been at the Princess Cadance and Shining Armour wedding the week before, and how he had seen changelings before his very eyes, which was quite shocking to say the least. I was happy he told me this, as I now knew the time frame in relation to the show. I at that point asked him about the worlds outside Equestria, to which he responded that they were bad places, and he would never have ventured out this way, if the griffins hadn’t decided, pretty much over night, that they needed to look smart, for some reason.
I nodded, it was pretty much what I was expecting from what I had seen, especially the racism between the two races, who had been quite obviously avoiding interactions between each other. None of the other ponies had talked to me yet, and it was getting quite upsetting and creepy, I wasn’t sure whether it was fear or disgust, as all the other ponies averted their eyes when I looked at them. When I asked Silk Tie about this, he just laughed and said “oh their just doing the three fillies, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, whenever they interact with you, I would be to, but you seemed nice enough, and one of us had to say something”.
I was affronted at this, insulted even, I had just been told the ponies and griffins I had freed, thought I was evil, merely because of my appearance, it was a bit hurtful, to be honest, and I wasn’t expecting it, I had just thought they were mute, or shy or something. I drifted into silence at this point, and went back to mindlessly swinging between the trees.
Much to my relief, we soon reached the town, at which point we bid our farewells to each other, at least, Silk Tie and I did, the rest just avoided my gaze like it brought the plague. Silk Tie gave me a bag of bits, which he said should be enough for a better sword, or some decent armour, which I could see the Minotaur blacksmith about, and 3 of the tie I had requested, a red silk tie, with the initials DK embroidered in large block letters at the base.
I ventured into the small town, the smell of fish was overpowering, but I soon found the blacksmiths even without any griffin I asked telling me. I walked in, and saw a half bull, half man, almost as large as me, working a kiln, a small hammer head seemed to be what he was building. I nocked extremely lightly on the door frame, which still caused the whole place to shudder. He dropped the metal in the kiln, before turning, his goggles giving him a wild look, and gasped, seeing the huge gorilla in his door way. He said “the names Fire Iron, and, what can I do for you, my fancy friend”.
I smiled and said, “I need gloves that can with stand direct hits by a sword, go up most of my arms, yet won’t impede my swinging ability, I was thinking something like a chainmail with clasps to hold it in place, and talons on the end to help with grip”. Fire Iron nodded, and said he could do it, for the exact amount of bits I had, I agreed, and left, promising to return the next day, when he said it would be done, once he had taken measurements. I raced to the forest, missing its comforting closeness, I found Kami awaiting me, the sides of the forest creating a massive face of leaves.
“Did it go well” the wind queried, whispering in my ear.
“Of course Kami, although other sentient beings seem very resistant to even communication with an unknown creature, I can only imagine what these other chess pieces are going through” I responded. I paused for a moment, considering how to word my next question, then I continued “Kami, why did you really bring me to Equis, I know you could easily handle these diamond dogs on your own, you can manipulate the very nature, I know you could easily defeat thousands of diamond dogs, let alone 12”.
The wind cried again, and Kami’s face disappeared but the wind whispered “I was so alone”.
I ran into the forest, and shouted “Kami, I don’t care why you brought me here, I know what it’s like to be alone, I was just worried about your safety”
“Really” the wind breathed, “that is why I love you so, do not worry about my safety, the only thing that can hurt me, is a dragon, nothing else is powerful enough, now go my brave warrior, sleep, and tomorrow you shall set of for Canterlot, for I wish to be with you again”. With that, I felt her presence leave me, so I ascended into the trees, alighted on a canopy of leaves, and slept.
Second Chapter, what do you think, Read, Review, Do What Ever You Want To Do