Walking, it sucks, I will be the first to say it, but, let me just go further, and say, that when your arms go to your feet, it takes a lot more effort to do. I learnt this, a week ago, after Kami sent me on my way, she wished me luck, and then sent me off to the nearby village I had been to the day before.
Once I had arrived, I had found Fire Iron had finished my armour, faster than I had expected, but he said that he was actually glad to have finished our business so quickly, apparently those I had helped get to the village, had spent all night blaming me for every problem, ever, and so being seen cooperating with me was not good for his business. I accepted this, hate was nothing new to me, so put on the armour, finding it fit well, paid him, and left. I travelled around the town, and surprisingly without any verbal communication, managed to buy a saddle bag, that I converted to a messenger bag, as well as a map of Equis.
I left as soon as I could, nobody talked to me, and I was starting to get pissed, I mean, I'm wearing a tie, how can they not like that, or find it in anyway scary, I mean sure, bow ties, those are scary, but a proper, Windsor knotted tie, is something to respected, admired even. But I digress, I walked off, glad that the armour didn’t make noise, and set off towards the Everfree, I figured that it would be just like Earth, and, apart from dragons, I should probably be able to take whatever came my way.
I have been travelling for a week now, at first, all I saw was the country, and this place was truly beautiful, the colours brighter, the grass greener, even the little wildlife that I stumbled upon, where, extremely, beautiful. I lived on any fruit I found, testing it for poison by rubbing it on my body parts, then my lips, then eating a small bit, then eating it all, if anything bad happened, I would drop it immediately, then wash in the nearest pond, which was always as clear as crystal.
Then I began to wonder on the mythology and history of this place, I realised I should have asked Kami more than I had, but she was so sad that making her happy was all I could think of, so I had left, armed with the little knowledge the show had provided me.
But lately, I had been thinking of my past, before Kami. I was raised by an orphanage, after my mother had been raped which created me, forced to keep the child by a deeply Catholic father and then died in child birth. I was left by that same father, who showed up drunk, yelled this entire story at the caretaker, dumped me in her hands, and walked off. I knew all this, as though I was a child then, I was constantly reminded of it by the elder boys there. I grew up tough because of it, soon becoming so hate filled, prospective parents weren’t even shown of my existence, the people at the orphanage to afraid of what I might do, what I might say. I soon found a vent for all this hate, at the age of ten committing my first armed robbery, I continued doing this, stealing, threatening, I was big for my age, so people still found me scary, but one day, I fucked up, and threatened a seemingly harmless old man. Turns out, he was the head of the local family, so was shocked by my trying to intimidate him, believing himself to have transcended petty crime decades before, but regardless, I soon found myself surrounded by his protection, all brandishing guns bigger than a baby’s arm, yet all he did was laugh at my flick knife, still pointed directly at his heart. When he stopped, he looked at me, at what he later called my dead eyes, and said
“I like you boy, you got guts, still holding that knife, but you’re not going to get any money robbing old codgers like me, why don’t you join me, I’ve always wanted a son, and you seem catholic enough that even my wife would like you”.
After that, he took me under his wing, though he never loved me, we shared, I guess, a mutual respect, he let me live at his house, and I learned all the ways of his business. I was soon running a gang of teenagers, selling his products, yet the day came which I had long expected, he died.
After that, I split off from the mafia, and ran a thievery ring, with drug selling on the side. It was a violent business, guns and the like often being used, yet I found my size intimidated those who didn’t know me, and those who did knew to fear me. The two people I found accosting Kami knew this, and also knew what I thought of rape, so ran as soon as they saw me.
After that, Kami told me to leave the gang, so I did, she didn’t understand at first, after asking me what my job was, yet once she did, she hated it. I never even gave it a second thought, I was proud, when I did them, of what actions I had done to become a boss of a gang, but once I met Kami, so innocent and pure, I realised that I had no right to live in a world where she existed, and became hateful of what I had done, so left immediately on her asking.
When she wanted to play with me, I had shown her my own form of escape, the childish games of Nintendo, having always been a way to cut myself of from the world. Ironically though it was, gaming was how I became a thief in the first place, the requirement of money to own games, or to just steal games, making me do it. Yet the joy I found in playing games was the only time I really smiled before Kami, and once I got to play them with her, the fun was, as they say, doubled.
Eventually though, even thinking about myself grew boring, and I yearned for something to keep myself entertained, which is what I am doing right now, watching a pony village, the first I had actually seen, my map said it was called “Last Stop”, in full swing for some kind of circus. I was deciding on whether or not too ruin their day, but found it unable to resist, when I saw one pony selling bananas, something I hadn’t eaten since I left Kami. I didn’t care for the fact that I no longer had any bits, just that their where bananas, and with god, or do I say Celestia now, as my witness, I will acquire them.
I walked towards the town, and found myself on a well-used dirt path, following behind a large wagon train. This train was making multitudes of noises, from roaring, to growling, to noises that sounded like bubbles popping, and I’ll admit, I was curious, this really seemed like some kind of zoo wagon train, and I wanted to see what kind of animals Equis had to offer. I walked faster, using my arms, as I had found, if I propelled myself using them, I travelled extremely quickly, and could also use them to turn pretty quickly to. I caught up with the first wagon in the train, and saw a large lion with wings, and a strange tail, a manticore, the next held a large bear, which I though was pretty tame, the next held some wolves made of wood, Timberwolves although there existence seemed just like someone proving a pun. I was about to see through the cage of the next one, when the whole wagon train stopped, and two ponies jumped of the head wagon.
They approached me, which was surprising, any pony that had seen me walking along the path had run into the nearest cover, and stayed there til I was long gone. I am desperate for compony (ha) so I waved, which stopped them dead in their tracks, but, after a moment, they walked forwards again. I saw one was a black and white unicorn, and the other a white and black Pegasus, yet they looked similar to each other, so I assumed something like the cake twins was going on. I spoke first yelling out
“Good morning, how are you”, causing the two ponies too look at each other, then the unicorn yelled out
“Good, strange creature, my brother and I would like to talk with you, we have a proposition for you”, this surprised me, till I thought about it for a moment, and realised, ‘oh it’s a zoo, I’m a strange animal, they want to use me in the zoo’.
By now they were a few metres away from me, noticeably at just the wrong distance from a good leap on my part, these guys knew their stuff. They looked at me expectantly, and I thought about it, coming to the conclusion that, it would probably be the easiest way to travel, and I would get to see more of these ponies world so I said
“What is this proposition, you offer me?” The two brothers looked at each other, before the Pegasus one said
“I am Big Top, and this is my brother Show Stopper, and we are the leaders of this circus, The Greatest Circus in Equestria, and we would like for you to join us. A creature like you has never been heard of before, so would be a big draw for crowds, we would pay you, feed you, and provide you with board, and all we ask in return is that you smile and wave at the pony crowds.” He finished the last part with a large happy sigh, as if his offer was the greatest in the world.
I responded “I accept your offer, and shall join your circus, but on a few conditions, you will accompany me when I leave the cage you present me in, as I fear the townspeople would hate if I did otherwise, secondly, you will provide me with bananas, and thirdly, we head towards Canterlot in as quick a manner as possible”.
They nodded in acceptance, so I produced my hand, for them to shake, and only then became aware of the fact that their hooves where tiny compared to my hand, yet both willingly trotted up and shook my hand, proving their bravery again. We walked together, and they took me to a large cage wagon at the front, that up until recently had held a huge manticore, one so big they had to get rid of him as he ate too much. They told me this was the best they could do, at the moment, but after the show in this village, they would work on increasing its height, as, even then, I could easily tell it was way too short for me to stand in. I walked up some steps, and lay down in side of it, finding the straw matting on the floor reasonably comfortable, I looked at the two ponies that I had just thrown my lot in with, and nodded, so they returned to the front wagon, and told the earth ponies pulling the wagon to start up again, and we were on our way. I found the rhythmic motion of the wagon peaceful, and found myself falling asleep, but not before realising I had willingly put myself in something akin to a prison.
I woke, to the sound of cheering, and the clopping of hooves, wow, that sounds oddly erotic. I stood up, or at least I tried to, but hit my head on the roof of the wagon, so I fell back down. I groaned then sat up, while hearing laughter; I looked outside the cage, and saw I was under the scrutiny of a large amount of ponies, all looking at my antics with joviality. I decided I may as well be entertaining, holding a crowd is important when leading a gang, so I should be able to provide a decent show, which could only be a good thing.
“Good morning mares, and Gentlecolts, I am DK, and it is a great honour for me to be able to provide you entertainment this day”, I said, sitting in front of the bars of the cage.
Ponies in the audiences gasped, a few fainted, and I heard shouts of “it talks”, and the like. I crawled over to the door of the cage, and opened it, before getting out and then leaping on top of the wagon, pulling myself up by the arms. I looked around, and saw a whole circus around me, with a ring of cage wagons to one side, and a big top tent to the other, with wagons for games and food spread between the two. I turned back to the crowd, now looking on in abject fascination, as I watched at them from atop the wagon.
I wasn’t sure where to go now, so decided to introduce myself and said
“My name is DK, and I am a Gorilla, champion of Kami’s forest, here today to tell you of my home, a world of deceit and hate, yet of true love, that survives all”
After this I told story after story, of movies that I had seen, Titanic and Romeo and Juliet being the favourites. They listened in awe, as I sat upon the wagon and regaled them of tales they believed true, until the sun descended in the sky, and Big Top flew down next to me and announced
“Thankyou mares and gentlecolts, for attending this year’s circus, because you guys are great, no seriously, we love you Last Stopians, don’t we DK?”.
I laughed and agreed before adding “Thanks for listening to my tales, go forth and spread their message, of love and tolerance, Arrivederci”,
The ponies got up and left, some of the younger ones waving me goodbye, and it was actually pretty cute. The whole message of love and tolerance was an idea that I had; figuring that, if they only hear me tell tales of love and tragedy, they would not fear me, and besides I knew from experience, love is the greatest thing of all. I really miss Kami, I haven’t seen her in a week, and I yearn for her company, yet this mission was what she wanted, so I shall succeed in it, to make her happy.
We left that night; I rode on the top of my wagon, my armour and satchel placed inside, my tie billowing in the wind while I watched the world go by. I ate bananas, and looked around at the massive moving ‘town’ that the circus created, wagons for games, food, animals, flying artists, magicians, clowns, while we travelled to the next town.
As I sat their watching, big top flew over too me, and said
“DK, I liked your show today, but if you don’t mind my asking, where did you learn such tales”
I responded “can’t you guess, my dreams, my friend, my dreams”, dreams, movies, same thing.
He nodded and so I asked “why are you and your brother not scared of me, almost everybody else was, when they first met me and some even more so after they spent time with me”.
He replied “you may be big, but that doesn’t mean your evil, or to be feared, I have seen dragons before, beasts so big they make you look like a fly, and they were courteous towards me, so I fear little, until it shows aggression”.
I nodded, his response was what I truly believed, but I was tired now, so I said goodnight to him, then went back to bed in the cage.
The next day, I arose from my straw to see a clown griffin looking at me, waving a huge flower in my face, dolled up in the costume and makeup, white face paint and all. Suddenly, the flower sprayed me with water, and the clown griffin dashed off. I crawled out of my cage, after retrieving my satchel, and made my way over to the fixer upper guy, I had been told about the day before; he was who I would have to consult to get a higher roof. He was, almost unsurprisingly, a Minotaur, almost exactly the same as Fire Iron, only he was a dark brown, while Fire Iron had been more of an auburn colour. I introduced myself, and he introduced himself, as Wood Work, I told him what I wanted done, and he said he should have it done by the end of the day.
I wondered around the clearing the circus had stopped in, and found that the circus was fall of different creatures, a cacophony of griffin, ponies, and a few minotaur, all working together. I hadn’t expected this, it surprised me, from what I had seen, the inhabitants of this place where extremely racist, so to see them like this was shocking. Big Top and Show Stopper trotted over to me, their features showed them to be happy, and Show Stopper said
“Hey DK, we just wanted to thank you, that was one of our most popular shows yesterday. We wanted to know if you would like to change to a normal wagon, sentient creatures shouldn’t have to live in a cage.” I shook my head, and replied
“No thanks guys, I think it would probably be better if the first time anybody saw me, I was behind a cage, if only for their peace of mind. I understand, you know, I am a pretty strange looking creature, besides I already got Wood Work to start on raising the roof”. I had thought about that a lot the night before and realised they just feared what they didn’t know, a base instinctual reaction, something I could understand, I didn’t appreciate it, but I understood it.
They seemed surprised, but accepted this, then told me to enjoy this rest day, as once they had finished the repairs they needed to do, it was onwards to the next village. I wandered around, found a stand giving out food, and took some toffee apples, figuring they would be pretty good, especially when somepony mentioned they were from Sweet Apple Acres. While I sat there, munching on my fourth toffee apple, still moaning in ecstasy from its taste, I saw that not a single one of the circus folk feared me, they just walked by me as if I was nothing new, or came up, introduced themselves, then continued on with what they were doing, I was surprised to say the least, yet thankful to. I asked one of them about it, a Unicorn mare named Bulls Eye, a knife thrower, and she said they were just used to the unexpected, and besides, it’s not like I was hurting anyone.
We left that night, my remade wagon now allowing me to walk upright in it, so I sat there eating bananas, while drinking some non-alcoholic apple cider from a barrel that a cook griffin had given me after I asked for a barrel, although I actually just wanted the barrel, the cider was pretty delicious. I had been asked at one point in the day, to help feed the manticore, with meat, I had walked into his cage, without a fear in the world, and the manticore just looked at me, while I placed the meat on the floor. He stayed to the other side of the cage, while I placed the meat down, and only went to get it once I had left. I asked Show Stopper about this, and he told me it meant the manticore was just naturally afraid of me, as I was bigger than he was.
When we arrived at the next town, a frontier town called Apple Valley we set up next to a huge apple orchard, of a scale I had never imagined. The town appeared to have been made in the style of a spaghetti western, and I began thinking of all the horrible clichés I could entertain myself with later. But at this moment, I had a gathered crowd to entertain; I walked up to the bars of my cage, and did, to the letter, the exact same thing I did on my first show. I ended up atop my wagon, which was now higher than before, and looked down at the gathered crowd, I saw a few unicorns, a few Pegasus and many earth ponies, yet there was another type of pony, one I hadn’t been expecting, a pink furred, multicolour maned Alicorn sitting next to a white furred blue maned unicorn, that was larger than any unicorn I had seen before.
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