When the Circus Came to Town

The lights, the colors, the sound, all the happy ponies trotting around in the distance made me smile wider and wider and forget my sorrows for a moment, but they soon caught up. I was separated from what I desired by a thin pane of glass. I closed my eyes. Determined to get out of that place and see what my father barred me from, I brought my hoof back, only to thrust it forward again, shattering the fragile glass. It cut my leg and blood began slowly trickling down, but that couldn't stop me from getting what I wanted. I quickly climbed out the window, disregarding the sharp little shards of glass left in the frame and on the ground below because of the thought that my father heard the shattering and would come running.
I ran.

I could feel the blood slowly descending my leg and the wind flowing through my mane. The lights were just within my reach, they were in the town square and I dashed with as much speed as I could muster toward them. I got closer, closer, then stopped. I came to my senses and realised that I couldn't run up to this mysterious thing in my current state. All the ponies would wonder what happened and ultimately I would see my father, denying that he had anything to do with it, which he did every time somepony noticed my battered body. Only once did I say something about it, and that night the only reason I slept at all was because he knocked me unconcious.

So I trotted off to the side of the path, looking for one of the few streams that flowed around our town, and conveniently enough, one flowed not far from where I was. I memorized the whole town like the back of my hoof because I had to. The last time I had a bath in a tub was when I was a little colt, now I had to take them in ponds, streams, and the occasional bathroom under a sink. So I went to the closest stream I knew of. I put one hoof into the water to see how cold it was. It was close to freezing, but that was expected, as it was mid-november, but I jumped in anyways. I was determined to discover the mysteries of that wondrous place. Quickly, I scrubbed myself down, making the water run with a redish tint against the reflection of the moon in the water. As fast as possible, I left the cold water because I knew that if I stayed in for long I would risk getting too cold and having to find a way to warm myself and probably drawing attention, and I didn't want that, not tonight. I cleaned the blood and the chill made my blood vessels contract, nearly stopping the bleeding, but one problem remained: my swollen muzzle. I had no way of fixing that, so I had to think of a way to explain how I got it without startling anypony.

I fell on the corner of my desk? no, everypony in town knew that I'm never home, and a few saw me without the bruise earlier.
I got into a fight? most ponies would probably be there to denounce the idea.

When I was walking down the street my weak little legs gave out and I fell face-first onto a rock and I'm dumb and weak and durr? they might buy that, since they will believe anything making me look like a fool.

So that was my story, I'm dumb and weak and just go away.

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As I approached the Lights and sounds I jumped around to warm up a bit so that I didn't get hypothermia and die in a gutter. That might solve my family's problems, but I didn't quite feel like doing them any favors. Not tonight. The lights grew nearer, brighter. Soon the colors were all around me, enveloping me in a sense of warmth and joy. I smiled an unconditional smile, not a smile of "I stood up to my father" or "I just got to eat something other than raw oats and wheat straight from a field", it was a smile of pure, unbridled joy. I walked from place to place, smelling the smells, hearing the music, seeing the smiling ponies and the aura of joy that enveloped the whole place. I had no bits, so I couldn't indulge in any activities, but just seeing everything made me smile ear to ear. It was a paradise.

But a paradise can turn to a trip to hell in the blink of an eye.