“DK, get up, I finished stitching you together again” were the words I woke up to, blasting through my consciousness. I returned from, what I could only hope was, the realm of dreams, being one of the few people, or now, gorillas, that can never remember their dreams. I opened my eyes, and saw that I was lying on the ground, a small gauze wrap around my midsection. I hoped that Cadance had either shaved my fur, or used a non-sticky wrap; otherwise I was likely to be in immense pain at some point in the future.
I felt fine though, there was no discomfort, I’d been shot in the stomach once, by a small .32 pistol, and it had hurt immensely, and taken weeks to recover from. This goring was deeper than that, and the hole wider, yet, through the use of magic, I had been healed in mere hours. I’m starting to rethink my belief on magic, though I fear it, it seems immensely useful.
Demon, was lying on my chest, looking at me with her beady black eyes, however, I thought she looked astonishingly cute. I picked her up with my hand, and placed her gently upon the ground. I stood up, swaying momentarily from the headache that arose from lying down to long, and not drinking enough water. I stumbled over to my wagon, and opened it, pulling out a water barrel. I pulled of the cork, and drank deeply from it, gulping huge amounts of water.
Cadance cleared her throat, and then looked expectantly at me.
“Oh yes. Thank you, I suppose. But, alternatively, I would never have been injured if you had told me of the existence of these giant changelings” I said, gesturing to the ground around us, still littered with the dead husks of the large changelings. She looked at me confused, and I saw Shining Armour walk up behind her, having evidently woken up from a sleep.
“Everybody knows there are brute changelings, worker changelings, breeder changelings and the queen, it’s like a bee hive, or ant hill” Shining explained, looking at me curiously.
“Well, as I'm sure you have guessed, I was not aware, but I suppose, I should have investigated more into what I was getting myself into. Now, what do we do with these bodies, it’s getting kind of late, and I don’t want to sleep surrounded by the dead” I said, noticing that the sun was very low in the sky, starting to dip behind the trees.
“Well, I think Shining and I should probably report to Celestia that there are hostile changelings around. Sadly, I think tomorrow we shall have to split paths, as I believe it would be best if we teleported there, and, no offense intended, I believe, though it would be possible, that teleporting you with us would be a difficult task. But for tonight, we shall rest up, and be nice and ready for our journeys in the morning” Cadance said, walking around in thought. I remembered the whole reason I was on this trip though, something she had clearly forgotten.
“Cadance, I believe you are forgetting something” I alleged, talking to her in my most friendly tone.
“Right. Of course, your spirit manifester. I actually spent some time building it the last few nights, I’ll just go get it” she said, a look of apology on her face, as she trotted around to return to her wagon. Moments later, she returned, carrying a small purple crystal, hung on a loop of string. She floated it over to me, and placed it around my neck.
“Okay, so basically, this will manifest the spirit body of this Kami of yours, into something you can feel and touch, though you have to remain extremely close to her to do so. Forest spirits have a natural magic surrounding their spirit body, so as long as the two are connected, you will be able to use it indefinitely. To activate it, just say Manifestus, and it will work” she explained, mentoring me in the use of it.
Meanwhile, Shining had begun picking up the carcasses with his magic, moving them into a large pile. He manipulated a large pile of dirt out of the ground, and moved the carcasses into the hole. Then he covered the bodies over, dropping dirt unceremoniously on top of them, all in silence. I realised only after that how unusual, death was to them. Cadance had been reacting by just ignoring it, concentrating on me, while Shining had taken to being cold and callous as he dealt with it.
“My friends, I am sorry for these deaths, but simply, as you must realise, it was us or them. I have no knowledge of how you ponies fight, but I believe you are more about incapacitation than anything. Where I come from, death is what I deal with often, sometimes, it is unavoidable” I said, hoping to snap them out of their funk. Death was nothing new to me, and unlike these ponies, even when it was I didn’t care when others died, even now, the only person that I would care about if they died is Kami.
Shining Armour, much to my surprise, walked over to me, and hugged me, then, Cadance did the same. I was shocked, so stood as still as possible, frozen in a semi-uncomfortable position; I did not want to have any part in what was occurring right now. They stopped hugging me after a while, much to my happiness.
“DK, please, tell us about yourself, keeping it inside will only make it worse” Cadance cajoled me. I almost laughed aloud in their faces; they truly believed I was saddened by my lot in life. I mean sure, it hadn’t been easy, but the last few years had been relatively happy, and since I had met Kami, everything had been, forgive the pun considering I’m now in Equestria, sunshine and rainbows. Hell, I remember, when I was younger, trying to seek solace in god, now that was a funny experience. In fact, thinking about that filled me so much with mirth, that I started to chuckle, and, unable to help myself, I soon began guffawing aloud.
The two ponies, seemingly offended by my laughing in their faces, walked of, trotting back to their wagon. I watched them walk of, concerned, sure, but I really didn’t care at the moment, at least they seemed to have gotten over their problems with the recent deaths.
Still, as I sat on the ground, eating a banana Demon had, much to my surprise, and happiness, gotten me from my collection of fruit in the wagon, I thought about how easily I had visited death upon beings, both on Earth and here on Equis. When my blood was boiled, either by being taken prisoner, or being attacked, killing just seemed easiest, and yet, pondering on how Kami had been around animals of all ilk on earth, I started to truly question my very self.
Violence is, was, and remains to seem to be all I really know, sure, some might have called me a businessman, but truly, my business was having the biggest sticks, and the most men. Regardless of situation, this meandering ever-going curve of death of those around me was beginning to become, dare I say it, tiring. Why must I always be the one to end life, for money, for respect, for protection, etc?
Why can’t I be the one to nurture life, to make others bloom and discover who they are? It just seems cruel, that all I seem to do is hurt others, both directly and indirectly. I create sadness, and situations like the one I was brought up in. I have not become a part of the problem, I am the problem.
I lie down, hands behind head, this was something I needed to think about. On the one hand, there is no going back from what I had done, however this world though, it doesn’t know me as an evil person. Yes, I had known for a long time that I was, somewhat dramatically, evil; others would claim they were just providing a service, but I had seen what the drugs I helped create and sell did, and I revelled in the destruction I caused. I was, am, an evil person, there is no denying it.
Yet, now I think back to my time with Kami, how I miss her, and instead revel in her passion for life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, heh. So, where am I to go from here, I know nobody, apart from the two I just ostracized, and Kami, who I am a more than a week of quick travel away from. I have little to live for here, yet so much more than I did on earth. However, at the very least, on earth I had a purpose, now all I have is make Kami happy. Is that enough?
My mind was torn from these thoughts by an annoyed groan, Shining Armour was walking away from the wagon. He seemed to have the visage of a person about to do something they thought was unwise.
“DK” he exclaimed “we know you were a human”.
Short and sweet, I know, I'm not going to be able to write for a while, maybe a few weeks, so just sorry, I guess.
Comments if you please, seeing people like this is what makes it worth it.