Band of Disharmony

by Circus

A Circus Freak Accident

“Nobody wants to make you feel totally responsible, but...”

A ring rolls by the pair of ponies as though to make a point. It stalls and spins into a collapse on the dirt ground, dust puffing up and splattering onto the two. Doll Stripe sighs, tugging at his white and black scruff collar. An uncomfortable silence settles into the air as the other pony gazes at him with forced sympathy.

Finally, the older mare shakes her head, “You’ve been a great employee, Doll. Don’t get me wrong. But everypony keeps complaining that… well, y’know, that you’re too…”

“That I’m too what, Ice Spot?” The white stallion demands, struggling with wavering anger. His black and white mane falls over his grey eyes, and he thanks gravity for relieving him of having to see the older mare’s painfully pitying expression.

“Um… Bossy, dishonest, strict, self-absorbed…”

“Oh, no, go on.” Doll Stripe rolls his eyes, and when Ice Spot doesn’t say anything, he snarls out, “I’ve just been trying to put on the best acrobatic show in Equestria- go ahead, tear me down. Do you know how hard it is to lead these ponies? To keep them together? They’re about as harmonious as peanut butter and… something that doesn’t go with peanut butter!” He stomps his hoof. Ice Spot flinches, her gaze turning down and staring at the spot he ground his hoof into.

“I respect that you have been leading and organizing everypony in the shows, but that was never your place.” Ice Spot murmurs sternly. She lifts her blue eyes and digs a glare into Doll’s grey ones, a tight frown settling into her weathered face. “Your place was to perform and follow. Do what you were told. You never had to play peacekeeper or- or- or fearmonger. So, I guess what I’m saying, Doll Stripe, is that you’re fired. Your skills as an acrobat can’t make up for your complete disregard for everypony else.”

Doll Stripe steps back, shaken, anger bubbling up within him. He trembles and opens his mouth, but he’s not sure he could sweet talk his way out of this. Ice Spot had always been, well, icy, when it came to decisions. She had that look in her eye, one that told Doll Stripe that he was better off running to the nearest train without an argument than fighting for his job back.

He turns and lowers his head, looking around the circus. He can admit that he made a mess of things. His ex co-workers are sitting, defeated and dirty, looking at broken equipment and sending him dirty looks. Maybe changing the routine at the last minute and demanding neverending practice out of his fellow performers wasn’t the best idea he’s ever had.

Just minutes ago, he had been spinning on an aerial hoop just like the one in his cutie mark, a white hoop with a black ribbon, in the big top. They had been performing after weeks of tiring rehearsal. Others were originally going to come down on their own hoops around him. It was going to be beautiful. The problem? He had apparently overworked his performers. A pony had spun too hard with too loose a grip and had fallen from the aerial hoop, essentially starting catastrophe.

Doll Stripe had demanded the others continue while the medical ponies on hand dealt with the fallen acrobat, but they were too distracted and too tired, for they too bailed, and Doll had been the only performer left. The crowd made noises that Doll remembers now as a horrifying blur of audio and, in an attempt to save the show, Doll signaled for a unicorn pony to open the ceiling of the big top and instead it came crashing down, the unicorns too panicked and tired to follow through. Chaos. Doll Stripe figures that he’s lucky to have made it out unscathed, his hoop having been close enough to the ground for him to jump off, and his reaction time being fast enough that he could run like hell to get out of there.

So. Mistakes were made.

He pushes aside the entrance flap into his tent and climbs onto his air mattress. He sucks in a breath and stares sadly down at his hooves. He doesn’t want to sulk, but he’s sulking. The circus- this circus- is all he knows. He’s lived there his whole life. And all he wanted was a perfect show, for everypony to have fun and get along… but his controlling, power-hungry nature destroyed everything.

Doll Stripe blinks back tears and releases a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. All that is left for him to do here is packing. He doubts anypony wants to say goodbye. A whole life there, yet the only friend he had made was Ice Spot, and barely so. Still, he had thought that he and everypony else were some sort of family.

Maybe, if he apologized… No, who needs them? Who needs a family?

He furrows his brow and forces the unpleasant thoughts out of his head. Packing. He just needed to pack and leave, that was all. Their circus is currently set up near Ponyville, a common spot for them to be. Lucky for Doll, this means he knows his way to the train station. He gets up and looks around his tent, trying to locate his suitcase. He probably can take his tent with him, if he asks. They’d give him that, probably. Shelter, since he is bitless- the performers in this circus never get paid since they are cared for by the circus itself.

His chest aches with trembling pride. He dismisses the idea of asking and steps outside his tent to start dismantling it. Well, they were kicking him out. Might as well leave them with a little act of revenge. He finally pulls the tent down and attempts stuffing it in his suitcase.

Maybe he should’ve thought this through. Stuffing an entire outfitter’s tent into his suitcase was not going to work. Doll Stripe sighs loudly and pulls the fabric out of his suitcase, humming for a solution. A single hoof step causes him to freeze. Damn, he’d been caught.

“Doll Stripe…?” A soft voice snaps him out of it, and he looks over his shoulder at a small blue mare. Ice Spot’s young mare daughter, Snow Whip. She was learning to become a beast trainer. Doll Strip turns to face her, ignoring battling feelings of guilt and contempt.

“What?” He mutters, shoving the tent’s remains away with his back hoof.

“Take my tent.” Snow Whip smiles gently before picking his suitcase up and trotting away, leaving him to follow.

Doll Stripe wanders into ponyville with his suitcase between his teeth, stuffed with a much smaller and portable tent. Snow Whip had been kind to give him her tent, especially since she had caught him trying to steal his own. Even so, he is having a hard time ignoring the feelings of shame and embarrassment eating away at him. He deserved to be yelled at, told to leave without even the costume on his back, maybe even slapped. All he got was a smile and shelter to take with him. He hates it.

He wanders into the town square and sets his suitcase down next to him as he takes a seat at the fountain. The water glares up at him accusingly.

Don’t look at me like that, you glorified mess of chemicals. Doll Stripe hisses in his head, Who are you to judge me? I did my best for that circus and they kicked me out. So what if I tried to steal from them? That was my home! Where am I really supposed to go?
He pauses, a solemn feeling washing over him.

Where am I supposed to go?
A drop of rain splashes into his mane and Doll Stripe looks up at the sky. Various pegasi are throwing together a storm. Great, now the weather matches the tone of the situation. He huffs angrily as the rain picks up and he turns into a matted mess of sadness. Doll Stripe drags himself onto his hooves and slugs himself and his suitcase over to the nearest area protected by a roof.

He settles into that dry area and just watches the rain fall.