Chapter 216 - A Deeper Understanding
“So…” You were looking over your oversized yet sturdy mallet before throwing it up onto your back. “We only need mallets? Nothing else?”
Yona shook her head. “No, only mallets. Yaks who go gather logs bring us logs to use mallets on. If we needed anything else, Spike tell us.”
“Hmm, do we need to do this? Spell not last long, remember?” You said, looking around the cold village as sounds of smashing can be heard up ahead.
“Anon, it not matter, remember? We have to do yak things like yaks so you can learn what being yak is like. That include talking good, like yak talk, because yak talk good.” Yona said as she turned towards you, giving you a deeper stare. “I know Anon lying about what Anon said, Anon bad liar.”
“W-what? L-look, Yona, Anon just used to talking certain way, that’s all. Pony talk very similar to how human talk, so that what An-” But you stop when you notice she was staring even harder at you. Fuck, man, it was starting to dawn on you how insensitive you could actually be, even when you’ve been trying not to be as insensitive as others have been perceiving you. “Okay, look. Anon just tell it like it is, Anon is insensitive. To be fair, Anon like this with everycreature. Er, ahm…”
“Hmmm, so Anon is as Ocellus say, Anon think he big and smart all the time?” Yona said, never breaking her stare, she wasn’t even blinking. It was creepy.
You grimaced at those words, especially from where it came from. Damn, seems deep down, Ocellus didn’t exactly have the best opinion of you. Well, she outwardly didn’t have that good of an opinion of you, but damn, that kind of stings. You didn’t even know what to say.
“Yona see why Anon in school now, Anon need it.” Yona said as she finally broke her stare, and shook her head, feeling shame for you.
“Okay, er, come on! Don’t say that! Anon… Anon just…” Dammit! It was like she could see into your damn soul, you knew she wasn’t going to accept any excuses. You give in, and sigh, relenting on your defensive feelings. “Anon sorry, okay? Would it make squarsies if Anon admit he can be jerk for no reason?”
“That weird way to make squarsies, but Yona accept apology, as long as Anon not say mean things about yak anymore.” Yona said. It seems she was willing not to hate you, or chastise you, as long as you could be more mindful of others. “Yona want to believe in friendship ways, so Yona give Anon a chance. Yona want all her friends to be nice to each other. That mean others being nice to Anon, as Anon should be nice to others too.”
Friendship ways, huh? Dammit, Anon, why did that always seem to be out of your grasp, even when it isn’t? You’ve made tons of friends, you’re a hero, you’re an heir to a company, shit like that. And yet things just slip through your hooves whenever you just decide to be a jerk, or rather, inconsiderate of others feelings. You keep learning this lesson, and keep fucking it up. Holy crap, no wonder people get pissed at characters returning to the status quo, even after learning a big lesson. “Okay, Anon understand. Anon not say anything bad about yaks from now on. Anon was big time wrong, and to be honest, Anon was glad to be away from humans, so really, Anon shouldn’t criticize too much.”
Yona nodded, and finally gave you a rather pleasant smile. “Yona like those words, Yona… Wait, you not like humans? Yona not know what humans are, but if Anon was human, shouldn’t Anon like them?”
“Er… It take long time to explain.” Not to mention you’d rather not have her find out you aren’t even really a ‘boy’ through a slip of the yakkish tongue. “Plus, Anon not like talking about it. It long time since Anon human.”
“Yona, understand. Well, Yona don’t, but she not pry if make Anon uncomfortable.” Yona said with a cautious nod as she looked on ahead and pointed. “Look, Yona can already see logs being put up for wall in distance, we need to hurry before other yaks wonder where we are.”
“Yeah, Yona don’t want to worry Queen Twilight. Queen Twilight get weird when things not go right. Pinkie remembers one time, Pinkie bake birthday cake different as silly prank, and you know what happen? Queen Twilight start eating ingredients she thought was in cake because it didn’t taste like usual birthday cake. Then, when Pinkie told her Pinkie used different ingredients, Pinkie had to sit down and listen to four hour long apology about how she should have taken joke better and not eaten all ingredients in bakery. On that day, Pinkie learn pranking Queen Twilight is fate worse than... You know” A yak with cotton candy like fur, covering her entire body to the point that all she seemed to be was that big puff of pink fur, said, as she suddenly appeared looking at the both of you. At least you think she was staring? You honestly couldn’t tell.
“Uhhh… Okay.” Welp, ‘Queen Twilight’ was neurotic in a whole different way than original flavor, it seemed. “Anon understand, er, Pinkie Pie?”
“Pinkie Pie? Why Nonny not call Pinkie, Ponk?” Suddenly, the pink puffball let out a big gasp. “Is Nonny sick? Or is Nonny become too big for friends now? Hmmm? HMMM?!” Pinkie said as she suddenly got close to you, and from what you could presume, was eyeing you up and down.
Christ! You gulped, and backed off slowly. “S-sorry, Ponk. E-erm, Anon just have lots of things in head right now.”
“Oh. Want Pinkie to use her horns to dig things out?” Pinkie asked
Oh god, no. “E-er. N-no, Anon fine. Anon just want to help with wall. That’s all.” You said, with a big gulp, hoping you weren’t about to have your skull dug into. You could hear Yona giggling beside you, she obviously thought this was fucking funny… Dammit.
“Oh, that make sense. Well, Pinkie have work to do too. All yaks are to have big party after wall is built, so Pinkie have to go set things up! Good luck, Nonny! And Yona, make sure Nonny not use head for once, he nearly bring whole village down last time.”
Yona’s eyes went wide with bewilderment. “Really? Anon do that?”
Pinkie… Presumably nodded. “Mhmm, Yona not remember? It pretty bad.”
“Er, Yona just don’t remember too well. Sorry.” Yona said with an embarrassed giggle.
“That okay. Just remember; use mallet, not head!” Pinkie said as her body shifted towards you. “Got it?”
Er, for the sake of not nuking an entire fucking village, you just agreed to it. Because holy hell, even arrogantly, that was not something you wanted to deal with, especially if it carried back over to Ponyville in any way. “G-got it, Anon understand.”
“Good! Good luck, you two! Work hard, and have fun!” Pinkie said as she bounced off, like a nearly floating puffball.
“Wow… Anon with yak head sound dangerous.” Yona said with a gulp, before turning to you with wide worried eyes. “Y-you think Professor serious?”
“Erm, don’t know. But trust Anon, Anon not want to find out.” If your head could destroy the town, somehow, then you were smart enough to follow fucking directions... Even if it did make you a little curious to see what would happen anyway.
And with that, you both carried on to the edge of the village. And boy, was it busy. You could see rows of yak, two each being raised on platforms by rope by other yaks below so they could get high enough to pound the logs into the ground, side by side, to form a crude wall. In the distance, you swear you could see the Apples in the background, working in tandem to smash the logs into place and then move on to their next section. It was almost like looking at an organic machine, with rows of logs being placed within minutes at a time.
And overseeing it all was a huge purple yak with long long braids, a huge book attached to her back, and horns shining almost majestically as they jutted to the side and then straight up in a curl. They were huge. Riding on the yak’s back was Spike. That had to be Twilight.
Spike seemed to be working on his own thing, looking over the other yaks and writing things down on a scroll as he spoke to the queen. “Twilight, this is awesome! We’re ahead of schedule again! How’d you find rope that could support the weight of two yaks?”
“Twilight use potion recipe that make things as strong as boulder on all ropes. Learned it from nice shaman yak that live in Everfree Snowforest. Twilight knew it’d let us work twice as fast, so it was good idea.” The queen replied, pleased with how things were going.
“Oh, right, Zecora. I didn’t know she had potions like that. Good thinking, Twilight! This is why yaks are best at being smart!” Spike cheered.
“I know, yak very smart.” Twilight said with a very self satisfied nod.
“Oh, hey. I see Anon and Yona. Want me to set them up next to the Apple’s line?” Spike asked
“Yes, please. And remember to remind Anon about using head. As in, don’t do it.” Queen Twilight said, before suddenly becoming stern. “A week’s lecture on why you listen to elders for him, if he doesn’t listen. No, a month!”
“Er, got it. Don’t worry, Twilight. I’m sure he’ll get it this time.” Spike said as he swiftly climbed down from Twilight’s back to approach the both of you.
“Wow, Yona, It almost like entire town is here working.” Like seriously, it was impressive to actually see so many of the townsponies, as yaks, working on this wall. Yaks pulling up the platforms, on sets of pulleys, so each group of yaks on said platforms can smash the logs in with their mallets. It was all within a harmony that seemed impossible.
“Yona think entire town is here. But that how it is.” Yona said, smiling at everything she was seeing. “Yaks work together, no matter what. Anon, isn’t it nice? It just like Yakyakistan.”
“Yakyakistan? Never heard of that place before. Alright guys, time to stop daydreaming and get ready to work.” Spike said as he approached the both of you. “We got things set up for your team right over there. Even got all the logs set up for pounding. Faster we get this all done, faster we can party. Oh, by the way.” Spike began to nudge into you as he snickered. “The queen even got that yeti working on the other side of town on this thing. You’re lucky your aunt is nice to you, Anon, because I’ve never seen a yeti so scared of her in my life.”
Christ, seriously? Yak Fluttershy must be some battle hardened warrior yak in this version of the world to help get a yeti to help build this wall. “Wow, that surprising. Aunt Fluttershy really that scary?”
“Only when you threaten her friends and family. Anyway, Queen Twilight asked me to remind you not to use your head, okay? Yeah, we all get it, it’s super strong, but we really don’t feel like repairing half the town, okay? I’m serious, Anon, don’t be lazy, and don’t rush things. The other yaks really want to party down after all this and I don’t think your rep can take another hit if you screw things up again.” Spike explained.
Christ, it really was that bad? Pinkie mentioning it is one thing, but Spike made it seem like you were some sort of asshole about it. “S-spike, c’mon. Anon know what he doing, why does Spike have to mention it like that?”
Spike sighed and shook his head. “C’mon, Anon, we all know why. We get it, you’re the adopted son of the ‘not so great’ fifteenth yak spirit, Discord. But that doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want all the time, okay? It’s either you’re hanging out with the evil dark witch or getting into trouble with the Canterlot High Council, and none of that looks good on us, or you. For once, please, dude, just use the mallet. Okay? Please?”
For some reason, that stung pretty bad. It was almost like your yak version was actually hated versus your pony self. You just stood there, thinking about what you could have done to gain that much ire. Was it more than you apparently destroying the town? Was it something worse? No, actually, it was obvious, wasn’t it? If you were a close match to your pony self, then it was clear yaks had less patience for the bullshit you’d pull. But, you were improving, weren’t you? The only major fuck up was with the Storm Ravager, thats it. It just had to be how yaks were, they were obviously just less patient, that’s all. Right? “Y-yeah, Anon can do it.”
“Cool, thanks, Anon, really. None of us want to be mad at you, okay? But you gotta give us a reason not to, y’know? Anyway, I’m gonna go back to the queen now, we’re probably gonna go check the progress of the wall on the other side of town.” Spike said as he gave your side a gentle pat and walked off.
Yona noticed you weren’t really moving though, she noticed you seemed rather upset. “Anon, a-are you okay?”
“Anon… Anon don’t know. Y-yona, is Anon that big a jerk? What Ocellus say about Anon?” You asked, slowly turning your head towards her.
“Erm, Yona don’t think she should say. Yona actually not like hearing about it. Ocellus just seem not herself whenever she talk about what Anon does when Anon does bad things.” Yona said, as she became uncomfortable with the situation.
“Please? Can Yona just say? Anon promise not to hate Ocellus, Anon just… Anon just want to know.” You said, trying to mentally prep yourself for whatever she was about to say.
“Anon… Yona shouldn’t say. But, erm, if Yona was to say something. Yona would say that Yona doesn’t think Anon bad pony. Erm, it just seem like Anon likes to do whatever Anon wants, even if Anon shouldn’t. But, erm, like Yona just say, Anon not bad pony. Anon just need to be nicer pony.” Yona said, before giving you an awkwardly wide smile. “Anon, you good friend, that is most important thing. Anon do good things all the time, that why Anon 'Hero Colt'”
Were you? Did you? Hell, you looked back and Yona, and realized you tried to cheat her out of this whole project thing in the first place with your spell, to just get through it as easily and painlessly as possible. And really, despite it being a short time already, you can see that yaks were honest, hard working, and had deep familial ties, perhaps even more so than ponies, as you couldn’t see every pony in town working on a project like this without some disorganization or complaint. You were literally the only yak who seemed to cause some sort of major problem. To the point that the history you have, somehow, has you as the black sheep of the whole town. But goddamn, why? You do so much good too, right? You reformed Chrysalis, to the point she teamed up with Celestia! You… Just kind of fuck up with everyone else that isn’t her. Discord, Twilight, Cozy, Ocellus, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Scrappy…
“Yona, whatever Ocellus said, I… Look, it probably is true. I’m not as perfect, or as great, as I like to think I am. I screw up a lot, even when I try to do good. And sometimes, I do things that aren’t good, and are for my own personal benefit. I dunno, I try to change, but I just screw up from somewhere and end up at square one. It’s not like I hate anypony, I just… I just do what I do. I dunno, seeing Sweetie Belle actually working with Rarity, seeing everycreature in town work on this wall, and then finding out I’m the only one who seems to cause enough trouble for Spike to treat me like that. I dunno, I just don’t know. I don’t want my friends to hate me like that… I mean, I don’t care if ponies who don’t know me hate me, but it hurts to know my friends just kinda see me like that. To think about how it affects Aunt Fluttershy, how much she has to work to make me look better than I make myself look like sometimes. I mean, I can see why yaks are so close knit now. Family and friendship is more important to them than I realized, and their entire society works despite all the negatives because even if one of you were to be knocked down, the rest of you would stand up for them. I’m sorry if I made you feel bad about all I’ve said about yaks. Really, I’m worse than any yak.” You said, lamenting on how much of an asshole you seemed to be seen as. Feeling like shit that you could insult Yona in any way when you were the one everyone had a problem with. You couldn’t imagine how it must have looked back with everyone you actually know. Hell, you wondered if even Lyra and Bon Bon had bad shit to say about you. Like, really bad shit.
“Anon, all Yona going to say is Anon is probably thinking too much about it. Anon is fine, maybe not best at friendship in some places, but very good at friendship in others. Anon doesn’t have to be like yak to be good. Anon good the way Anon is. But… Yona is glad to hear that Anon more understanding of yaks.” Yona said, sounding rather cheery. “Anon should just be Anon, and just improve in bad spots.”
“Heh, you think I’m not that bad? But what about what Ocellus said?” You asked, still feeling some self doubt.
“It just how Ocellus feel, it not how Yona feel, or how others feel. If Anon feeling that bad about what Ocellus say, Anon should talk to Ocellus then. That only way to make things right.” Yona explained before giggling. "Yona be honest, Anon have big big head, but Yona think Anon has big heart too. You helping evil bug queen take big heart, and Yona know you help her someday."
Fuck… That’s actually good advice. And hell, you haven't told her you already managed that. Wait, that's it! Fuck, it’s so obvious! “Yeah, I should do that. And I should be willing to listen to her, and compromise, and all that good stuff! Yona, woah, I mean, it should have been obvious, but I just couldn’t see it. I gotta say, yaks best at advice that Anon need. Aha!” You said with a chuckle.
“Good! Now that Anon feeling better, Yona want to ask something.” Yona said, as she seemed to be looking up at something.
“What is it?” You asked, confused.
“What that?” Yona said as she pointed towards a giant neon sign, with the name ‘Jimmy’s Hive Casino’ flashing in brilliant green, as a huge twisted spire stood before the both of you, neon lights twisting all over it to make it look like an infested hive-like tower.
Wait… You were a pony again, and water was flowing upwards in the distance, and there was an icy volcano in the sky, and…
Oh god, the yak part of the project was over! You came to understand not only yaks, but yourself, and that yaks were dumb and... OH GOD! THE ADVENTURE, THE ADVENTURE OF YOU! OH GOD, NO! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A BONBON THING! YOUR HORN! YOU STILL DIDN’T HAVE IT! OH GOOD LORD! THIS WAS THE ADVENTURE! THIS IS BAD! GOOD GOD, NO! OH NO!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
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???
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It means the adventure, the oh so small adventure Yona wanted to try... is dealing with actual factual Jimmy
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Wait, if I'm understanding correctly, That means the magic is going to have Yona learn about humans?
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In a sense. The project was to learn more about each other, and when it comes to Anon. His adventures, and human tendencies, Jimmy is the closest to it next to Chrysalis. But unlike Chrysalis, Jimmy has embraced it to the point he chose to change his goddamn name
The ending reminded me of this:
11036840
Ohhhhhh noooooo. I’m not optimistic about what will come next. Mwuhahahahaha.
Sorry had to get that out of me. Great chapter, the character introspection was very interesting and seeing the world from a yak point of view was great. This chapter also gave me an idea on how Anon could use his chaos magic.
I give you …. The Yak-Anon Cannonball!
It is what it sounds like, Anon in yak form fires himself out of a cannon and delivers the worlds best head-but to his target/enemy/victim.
Anon's friends really are kinda shitty to him lmao
I forgot about his part of the project and for a second there, the stakes skyrocketed. That'd be a great place to cut the episode, but Anon had to remind me that no, there are no stakes, everything is under control, no one took over ponyville, it's just chaos magic shenanigans.
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Don't worry. Stakes come soon
walrusesarecute likes this chapter too. Good point and sad lament scene make walrus emotional.