Chapters I was in love, deeply madly, in love. I left the gang for my love, I stopped my criminal activities for my love, and I became a better person, for my love. I fell so madly deeply happily in love with her, and she with me.
We met under a moonlit night, my motorcycle and I finding her weeping, about to be accosted by those denizens of society’s darkest depths that I, until recently, associated with. I stopped their frightful thoughts with a glare, and we met, I hugged her to my side, and led her from that deplorable part of town. I asked her name and she whispered “Kami”, no second name, just Kami, she asked mine, and I responded “DK”, my nickname, from my initials, of David Kane.
She had stayed with me since that night, only admitting our love for the other after a week of this closeness. She was like a child, her little knowledge of this world shocked me again and again, when it came to making love she knew more than enough, yet it was physically obvious she had never committed the act before me. This last gift was what broke me down completely, any barrier I had built against love torn down by her willing gift.
She begged of me to stop, what she believed, my wicked ways, and I complied, who needed anything when I had her. My accomplices complained at this, but I said I was out, and there was naught they could do about it, my wallet was hit by the loss of my income, but I resolved to re-enter the honest work force, something along the line of protection. Yet the ways Kami enriched my life made up for this, she cared so deeply for the world around her, loving every flora and fauna she saw, leading me to love them as well. Then she showed me My Little Pony and the fandom connected with it.
I became enamoured with it, the love these ponies showed made me happy, as a former orphan, love was nothing I had known, until Kami, and this world she had revealed to me, of caring and love, was just another way to show her appreciation of me. We watched the episodes together, looked at the art, read the stories, listened to the music, tasted the show inspired foods and drinks, all for the adoration we both felt collectively towards those 6 ponies. Then came the night, she admitted to me, that she came from there.
I was surprised to say the least, but then she asked, “Would you like to go there”, I nodded, not thinking, still shocked by her statement, to which she replied, happily, “good, because I need your help”. Suddenly, I lost consciousness, as if overcome by sleep, and I descended into a slumber too deep for dreams.
I woke, and opened my eyes, turning, expecting to see Kami next to me, as she had been, every time I awoke, for the last month. She was not, neither was my room, nor my bed, nor my floor, rather, there was dirt, and green lush plants, surrounding me, I looked up, and found huge tree’s blocking my view of, what I assumed, was the sun. I noticed then that I felt wrong, my whole body just felt, different, I looked down at my body, and groaned, unbelieving at what I saw. I was a dark, dull brown, at least, my fur was, which decorated all of my viewable body apart from my chest and feet. I looked at my arms, which felt strangest of all, and found they now reached my feet, and my forceps and hands where huge, easily triple their previous size.
I stood, and found myself unsteady on my feet, but soon balanced, using my long arms as third and fourth feet by my side. The trees before me moved suddenly, their limbs collecting together until a shape created of leaves, came to be, which looked oddly familiar.
“Kami, is that you”, I queried, scared and confused. The humanoid leaf shape seemed to whisper along the wind, her answer coming from everywhere, and nowhere.
“Yes my love, it is I, Kami, but I should let you know, I am, quite obviously, not what you thought, rather, I am the spirit of this forest you now occupy, though it is a small forest, it is what you now epitomize, as my champion, as my representative, in this chaotic game of Discord’s, my chess piece, if I could be so crass, as to reduce you, my dearest, to such a thing. Because of this, you are now the physical actuality of this forest, and hence, you feel it all as I do”. This finished, the trees shifted, and she broke apart, leaving me to wonder on her words. But at that moment I had only one question.
“Why Kami, I love you, and would do anything for you, but why, why did you bring me here?” The trees reformed, and the tree being looked endearingly down at me, before the wind sighed to me.
“DK, I need your help, recent problems created by these chess pieces, has led to the Diamond Dogs, of Gem Fido, entering into our forest, I cannot reach them, they are too far underground, but you my sweet can, and will teach them what it truly means by spirit of the forest”. I was confused immensely, but assumed I would learn in time, as long as Kami is around, I would be happy, but still I asked another nagging question.
“Kami, I don’t understand what’s going on, I know I’m not dreaming but, I know you don’t like violence, you said so yourself, why would you ask me to cause it?”
Kami smiled and the wind whispered to me “I said I abhor needless violence, but this violence has a need, you are a manifestation of this forest, do you not feel the wrongness that the presence of the Diamond Dogs have caused, do you not feel the very personal invasion, that these diamond dogs have caused. Do not place any strange feelings as to being caused by your new body; only your conscience and memory have been placed inside this body, the rest of you, is as used to your body as it can be.” I nodded, realising she was right, I felt like I could run, beat my chest, swing from tree to tree, do anything in this body, yet still I felt wrong, my entire body felt strange.
I growled my grievance to this incursion, to which Kami murmured, “my brave warrior, you are like the tree’s, your body as strong as oak, yet you need not fear fire, only the strongest and the swiftest of attacks shall harm you, but as is always with this boon comes a price, you must always remain in contact with nature, through tree’s or through the ground, mortar counts, but seas do not, nor air, avoid these at all costs, as without contact, I cannot aid in your mission. Now my love, I must leave, these wretched dogs are trying to assault my tree’s, but fear not, the closer you come to what you quest for, the tunnels of these dogs, you will know, the feelings may begin to overwhelm you, but accept them, they will help you, do what must be done”. With this, her presence left, and I felt it.
I lumbered over to a large pond, desperately thirsty, using my legs to actually walk and my arms to provide the right gravity to the movement. I drank deeply from the pond, and found it quite delicious, the crisp fresh taste so different to what I was used to. Once I had finished this drink, I looked at my reflection in the water, seeing my face for the first time, as well as getting a better view of the rest of my body. My first reaction was, ‘oh, I’m a gorilla, I guess I should have expected that’, but then I looked closer, and saw that it was much more cartoon like, akin to a meaner, badder, darker version of, Donkey Kong, than an actual gorilla. I realised what Kami had done, creating me from a character in a video game was her sense of humour, especially as he was my favourite character on Super Smash Bros Brawl. Yet I was surprised by how truly dangerous I appeared, ‘what kind of problems did Kami expect me to face, to need such a physique’, I wondered.
I decided to climb a tree, figuring that, as a gorilla, I should be able to go all Tarzan on these trees and their vines. As tall as I was, slightly taller than I was on earth, at about 6 foot 7, these trees where many multitudes higher. I went to the first tree I saw, and grabbed its lowest hanging branch. I pulled myself up the tree slowly, branch to branch, resolving to see the sun first, and so climbed for many minutes, until finally I alighted on the top of the tree, and found that, much to my gladness, I had picked one of the tallest trees in the forest. I looked at the vast expanse of trees my love and I now protected, then I looked further, to one direction seeing what I assumed was the ocean, and to the other a huge, overbearing mountain, which high as I was, seemed to reach into the heavens above. I realised that I did not know where I was in Equestria, if I truly was in Equestria, although I knew for sure Kami would never lie to me. I had never seen anything like what was before me, on earth or in the show, as I hung of the tree, one huge arm clinging to a limb, the other above my eyes to block out the sun.
Eventually I decided that I’d had enough of the view, and so descended slightly, hoping to find a vine to try and swing off. I found a strong looking candidate, and grabbed it with both hands; I jumped of the limb I was currently, and swung towards a nearby tree. As I was swinging, it occurred to me, that I had no idea how to stop, or how to slow down. As this occurred to me, I found myself rapidly approaching the tree, before I connected, with a solid “thunk”. I was stuck to the tree for a moment, in true George of the Jungle fashion, before I found myself disconnecting from the tree, a face full of bark, and falling to a lower branch, straight on my testicles.
I lay on that branch, gasping in pain, recalling the little I knew of physics, and realised I had been going about it all wrong, rather than just stopping, I would have to let my kinetic motion reduce, either by climbing the vine, by swinging until it stopped, or just taking the momentum on my arms, which I decided could probably take it. I got back up and grasped a conveniently placed vine, and swung from it, leaping of my branch. I swung towards some more vines, and managed to go from mine to another, without losing any momentum, I did this again and again, swinging from vine to vine, until I decided to stop, and let go of my vine, aiming for a nearby branch. I grabbed it with my arms, and then found myself swinging around it repeatedly , before finally I stopped, and landed in a heap a top the branch, thinking, ‘I'm hungry’, before recalling that, beyond bananas, I really had no idea what I ate.
I didn’t even know if I was a vegetarian or an omnivore, I had pretty big canines, but the idea of eating meat just sickened me, which it had never done before. I decided to stick with fruit, and see where that got me. I rose to my feet, which I found where almost like another set of hands, so could grip just as easily, and looked around for a fruit tree, I noticed a banana tree in the distance. I swung over to it, and grabbed a bushel of bananas as I passed, before landing on another tree, easy as can be, and began munching on the bananas. Now, I was never a big fan of bananas, but currently I found them irresistible, they just tasted so good, and soon I found myself looking at a large amount of banana peels, and no bananas.
I was tired after my exertions, and decided to sleep, finding a small canopy of large leaves, which when I stepped cautiously on it, I found myself not falling; I believed this was good enough. I lay down, finding the leaves extremely comfortable, I fell asleep to the sound of Kami whispering “goodnight, my love”.
So my first adventure related fic, see where we go, just decided that maybe a piece should interact with their master in a nicer fashion, as in LOVE, but really, thought this might work.
Tell me what you think
I awoke, to buzzing, numerous bugs around my head, I swatted at one, a large mosquito, before remembering the size of my hands. Just as I did, my hand made contact with my face, and I was knocked unconscious against a large branch I had been using as a pillow.
I awoke, several hours later, to the sound of wind chuckling, it was needless to say, beautiful, but also slightly humiliating as I realised the chuckling was aimed at me. I looked up, and saw Kami’s leaf body hovering above me, shaking slightly to provide movement to the laughter.
I swung seamlessly, as if, once I had learned, it became instinctual to be able to do, and followed Kami’s breeze, until we reached a huge cavernous hole in the ground in the ground, like a mining tunnel back on earth. As we approached the hole, I felt my feeling of discomfort worsening, this whole place just felt wrong, unnatural even.
I dropped to the ground and rolled to lose the momentum. I stood, and began looking at the hole, noticing only then, that rather than dropping straight down, it was angled downwards, with a ramp heading into a dimly lit passage. I walked over to the hole, which I found bereft of any Diamond Dogs, and wandered in, only recognising my stupidity once something hit me in the face, and burst, releasing a gas. I started to sway, seeing Diamond Dogs that had hidden in the passage coming towards me, carry spears and nets, before I fell to the ground, unconscious.
I came to, in a huge cavern, with a large metal collar on my neck, surrounded by griffins, and a few ponies, while three anamorphic dogs stood before me. They eyed me suspiciously, while I noticed that only one of the three had vials of the knockout gas that had affected me, while the others just carried spears, knives and nets. I looked around at my surroundings, seeing the griffins and ponies, were toiling away at the rocks, digging, looking for what I assumed must be gems. I turned and looked at the Diamond Dogs before me; they were shorter than me, the tallest by at least a foot.
I groaned, stretched and then hit the tallest, who happened to be, coincidentally or not, the one carrying the gas vials, right in the face. I felt him squish under my huge hand, his face turning to pulp, just before he flew across the cavern; I turned to his compadres, and flicked them both with either hand, sending them, slightly less damaged, to either side of the cavern. Reaching up, I pulled at the collar around my neck, and strained, I pulled harder and harder, feeling the metal bend, before finally snapping, and breaking into pieces.
Meanwhile, the griffins and ponies had stopped digging, and where now looking at me. Surprised by my own strength, I was, personally, looking at the two shards of metal in my hands, all that remained of my collar, not even noticing the Diamond Dog blood dripping of my fingers. I smiled dropped the pieces and turned to leave, figuring that if there were any more Diamond Dogs, they would have showed up by now, even though the amount of prisoners seemed like an awful lot for only three diamond dogs.
As I was walking out, a unicorn pony cleared his throat, and began to speak “excuse me, um, sir, but would you be so kind as to free us, as you see, the remainder of the Diamond Dogs will be returning soon, and so we had best be on our way”.
I grasped his collar, and was about to begin pulling, when I heard the pony from earlier clear his throat again and say “not to tell you how to rescue people, as I am ever so grateful, but I think you would actually find it easier if you used the keys that one was carrying “and pointed at the Diamond Dog who’s face I had pulped. I blushed, which was something I didn’t even know I could do, before nodding, and retrieving the keys from the body.
I walked over to that stallion, who had been the only one to speak, while all the other captives looked on in mute fascination, and unlocked him. He rubbed his neck, and introduced himself, offering his hoof “hello, my name is Silk Tie, it is most agreeable to me to make your acquaintance”, I grasped his hoof as lightly as I could, and rolled my shoulder, trying to be as gentle as possible, shaking his hoof. I continued unlocking the other hostages, who all gathered around Silk Tie, in my belief because he was the most level headed, until I reached the male griffin from before, who was muttering under his breath about how he should have “joined Captain Griffin when he had the chance”.
The unlocking finished, I saw the Ponies had gathered together in one group, and the griffins in another, both were looking at me, with a strange mix of fear, apprehension, and appreciation. I spoke, asking “so how many more Diamond Dogs are their”, I got an average guesstimation of 12, including the alpha, whatever that was.
Silk Tie, then asked me “would you be so kind as to escort us to the nearest town, I’m sure we could pay you for the service?” I nodded, I wanted to get out of there immediately, and I decided I should probably help these guys out, considering I was responsible for their current situation, of being free, but in a lot worse danger than if they weren’t.
We were headed towards a relatively nearby Griffin outpost, nearby meaning, on the edge of the coast, through the entire forest, but this was apparently the closest settlement, and so we walked. I started talking to Silk Tie, as he was still the only one to have talked directly to me, we chatted about his business, ties, which led me to asking if he had any large red ties, and whether he could do embroidery with yellow, when he answered in the affirmative to both my questions, I smiled happily, and told him what I wanted done. He then asked me about myself, curious, as he had never seen anything like me before, and he had seen a lot of things, as a travelling tie salesman, I nodded and said “I’m a gorilla, enhanced by magic”, he accepted this, either not surprised by it, or just too good at hiding his thoughts to show it. I eventually grew bored of trudging along the ground, as compared to swinging; walking was just the worst thing ever. I convinced the ponies I was guarding that it would be easier from on high, and so leapt up into the trees, where I found Kami’s leaf body waiting for me, and the wind started whispering
I grew bored quickly, and was somewhat glad when night descended, as I was wondering what foods the former captives had, and had made a bet with myself that they had merely forgotten. So I was unastonished when Silk Tie said they had forgotten about getting food, I raced of, collecting as many fruits as I could for the ponies, while the griffins set of to hunt for meat. I came back and dumped the fruits at the pony’s hooves, while keeping a few mangoes and bananas for myself. Then went and laydown above them in a canopy made of leaves, similar to my bed of the night before, before falling asleep.
I was stirred from my slumber the next day, by shouts of anger and annoyance, as well as sounds of a battle, clashing swords and spears. I looked down from my canopy, and saw the creatures I was supposed to protect, being attacked by at least 12 diamond dogs. I leapt down from the canopy, and landed on a diamond dog crushing him into oblivion, before throwing an uppercut at the next nearest mongrel, he flew off into the trees, I found myself surrounded by Diamond Dogs, as they crept up on me, while I steadied myself, having over strengthened my punch. I decided it was now or never to see whether video games lied, and so I started, for want of a better word, twirling, on the ground, until I was spinning so quickly my arms did the same, jutting straight out from my shoulders as I went faster than I expected. I directed myself at a diamond dog, and hit him, which caused a pinball affect, sending me wildly spinning at another diamond dog, and knocked him out. I recoiled from one diamond dog to the other, until all but a large one was down, and I stopped spinning. He looked at me in shock, before howling and racing towards me, sprinting, a small sword in his paw. I avoided his first attack, but was hit on the shoulder by his second, however, he over swung on this, just managing to cut me, before his sword continued down to the ground. His back completely open to me now, I put my hands together, and brought them down on his back, reducing his torso to a blood pulp.
I looked at the ponies and griffins, which, for the most part had been caught under nets, and said “let’s sleep in the trees from now on, ok”. They nodded, so I picked them up, and placed them on a huge low branch, easily wide enough for them to sleep on, then lay down myself and fell back asleep, exhausted, but only lightly wounded on the shoulder, something that was a lot less bad than injuries I had earned as a human.
I woke early, the wind whispering in my ear, telling me to. I woke the ponies and griffins around me, and then dropped to the ground making sure all of the Diamond Dogs from the night before, where still dead. I picked up the short sword that the alpha diamond dog, as I had been told the last one was, had used. It was in terrible condition, but I wanted something other than my hands to protect me, so I picked it up.
I brought the ponies down from the trees while he griffins and the one or two Pegasus flew down, and we continued on our way. I swung from vines every so often, but had to move extremely slowly from tree to tree, waiting for them to catch up. I got so bored at one point that I climbed a tree, and was delighted to find the ocean was fairly near, and that we should reach it by that afternoon.
I swung through the tree’s looking for lunch, while my companions just plodded forward; I found some bananas and ate them, before finally deciding I may as well try to find out more about Equestria. I descended from the trees, and walked up to Silk Tie, who was sitting on a cart being pulled by two to other ponies, and asked him about it.
He told me how he had been at the Princess Cadance and Shining Armour wedding the week before, and how he had seen changelings before his very eyes, which was quite shocking to say the least. I was happy he told me this, as I now knew the time frame in relation to the show. I at that point asked him about the worlds outside Equestria, to which he responded that they were bad places, and he would never have ventured out this way, if the griffins hadn’t decided, pretty much over night, that they needed to look smart, for some reason.
I nodded, it was pretty much what I was expecting from what I had seen, especially the racism between the two races, who had been quite obviously avoiding interactions between each other. None of the other ponies had talked to me yet, and it was getting quite upsetting and creepy, I wasn’t sure whether it was fear or disgust, as all the other ponies averted their eyes when I looked at them. When I asked Silk Tie about this, he just laughed and said “oh their just doing the three fillies, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, whenever they interact with you, I would be to, but you seemed nice enough, and one of us had to say something”.
I was affronted at this, insulted even, I had just been told the ponies and griffins I had freed, thought I was evil, merely because of my appearance, it was a bit hurtful, to be honest, and I wasn’t expecting it, I had just thought they were mute, or shy or something. I drifted into silence at this point, and went back to mindlessly swinging between the trees.
Much to my relief, we soon reached the town, at which point we bid our farewells to each other, at least, Silk Tie and I did, the rest just avoided my gaze like it brought the plague. Silk Tie gave me a bag of bits, which he said should be enough for a better sword, or some decent armour, which I could see the Minotaur blacksmith about, and 3 of the tie I had requested, a red silk tie, with the initials DK embroidered in large block letters at the base.
I ventured into the small town, the smell of fish was overpowering, but I soon found the blacksmiths even without any griffin I asked telling me. I walked in, and saw a half bull, half man, almost as large as me, working a kiln, a small hammer head seemed to be what he was building. I nocked extremely lightly on the door frame, which still caused the whole place to shudder. He dropped the metal in the kiln, before turning, his goggles giving him a wild look, and gasped, seeing the huge gorilla in his door way. He said “the names Fire Iron, and, what can I do for you, my fancy friend”.
I smiled and said, “I need gloves that can with stand direct hits by a sword, go up most of my arms, yet won’t impede my swinging ability, I was thinking something like a chainmail with clasps to hold it in place, and talons on the end to help with grip”. Fire Iron nodded, and said he could do it, for the exact amount of bits I had, I agreed, and left, promising to return the next day, when he said it would be done, once he had taken measurements. I raced to the forest, missing its comforting closeness, I found Kami awaiting me, the sides of the forest creating a massive face of leaves.
“Did it go well” the wind queried, whispering in my ear.
Second Chapter, what do you think, Read, Review, Do What Ever You Want To Do
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.
READ, Rate Review, Do what ever you want to do.
Well, this was going to be interesting, if those two ponies where who I thought they were, this was my first, total and utter, confirmation that I am in the world I had seen on the show. I stood, preparing myself, and began to tell tales of love, like I had done before. I walked slowly back and forth atop the wagon, while looking down at my pony audience, all enraptured in my presentation. The rest of the circus was in full swing, and I could hear the sound of drums erupting from the big top tent, and smell cotton candy, and other carnival foods, although I was quite surprised when I smelt something along the lines of a Philly dog.
I finished the most memorable scene of Titanic, Jack descending into the depths as Rose watched on helplessly, seamlessly changed to ponies. I saw those ponies listening to me, a tear in many an eye, with some openly crying. The pink alicorn, however, was merely conversing with her partner, every so often glancing up at me. I finished this story, then sat, and said it was time to break for lunch, before I re-entered my wagon, and sat upon my barrel seat, eating a collection of fruits.
I was deep in thought, not really, I was just day dreaming about Kami, when I heard the distinctive sound of somebody regal clearing their throat. I turned, and found the pony I believed to be Princess Cadance, and the pony I believed to be Shining Armour.
She spoke, saying “good morning, DK was it? I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and this is my husband Prince Shining Armour, we would like to ask you for a favour”, before looking back at me in the eye, while her husband the whole time stared at me cautiously.
I turned and eyed them, then said “Princess Cadenza, Prince Armour, I would be delighted to help the monarchy of Equestria, yet I will do no such thing unless I would receive a favour in return, so before you tell me what it is you require of me, know that the only thing that would divert me from my goal is if you are aware of a spell that allows a spirit to be physically manifested, if you do however, there is little that I would not do for you”. They looked at me in surprise; I smiled at them, stood up, and walked out of the wagon.
Shining Armour stepped between myself and his wife, still eyeing me, before Cadance said “DK, I am indeed aware of the spell you sought after, in fact, my aunts have been making me practice it often lately, for some reason, so what you ask will actually be possible for me to do, firstly though I must ask, have you anything to do with the Griffin character who was at my wedding?”
“I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Princess, now, what is this favour you would have from me?” I responded truthfully, curious to say the least, about why she would think I was similar to a griffin in anyway, but I put that aside and awaited her response.
Well, this was surprising, but I guess it makes an odd kind of sense, I mean, its magic, I probably won’t ever fully understand it, but still, if she could help Kami, then I was all for it, besides, how bad can changelings be. Shining Armour had, the whole time his wife was talking, been protecting her, blocking between myself and him, physically, I was sure I could easily take him, but I was extremely worried about magically, still, I was being polite, so he was, at this point at least, being a bit rude.
“If you can help me with my spirit, then I shall help you. Regardless though, Prince Shining Armour, I’m fairly sure you can stop with the protective stance and all, I am a sentient creature, and I’m not going to attack you unless you give me cause”. They both blushed slightly, and Shining Armour seemed slightly surprised, as if he didn’t even realise he was doing it. They moved themselves, rearranged so they were now standing shoulder to shoulder.
“Sorry about that, you’re just a very daunting creature, the like of which I have never heard of, let alone seen. Also, please, in the future, just call me Shining; I don’t think I will ever get used to being called Prince. Now what we want you to do is to travel with us, near the Everfree forest, as many of the changelings are dying, from lack of love, around there, and then help us return them to the Changeling Wastelands. The fact that you basically broadcast love, will attract them to you, and once they do, we can give them some concentrated love, that we have been given by Celestia, before sending them on their way, back to the wastelands”. He and Cadance nodded in unison, and smiled up at me, I nodded my head slowly, pondering.
I replied “So, if I understand correctly, you just want me to walk around the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, waiting to be, wait will I be attacked or what?”
“Oh no, they won’t attack you, they will merely try to subdue you, but trust me, from the way you look, they won’t be able too, Tartarus, it took a few hundred of them to stop my sister and her friends and their half your size” Shining responded, chuckling after the last part, while his wife stood silently beside him.
“Ok, I’m in. Just remember as soon as where done, you accompany me to Kami. Don’t, and you will regret it. I’ll go find Big Top, and Show Stopper, and tell them I'm out; their the owners of the circus, before you ask, then we can leave”. As luck would have it, as soon as I turned around, I saw the two brothers approaching.
They walked up, bowed at the Cadance and Shining, and then Big Top asked “So, Shining, we haven’t seen you in years, you really ended up marrying Cadance, wow, I remember when you first came to us after she broke up with you, that was hilarious. Then your parents came, and dragged you kicking and screaming home, oh Celestia, and you were going through puberty, so your voice kept cracking, I don’t think Show Stopper and I have ever laughed so hard”, and he started laughing, alongside his brother, who was chuckling quietly.
Now Show Stopper asked “so my lieges what brings you too our humble circus, I assumed you would go somewhere warm for your honeymoon, not to the back of the beyond, like here. And also, I must ask, what do you think of the newest addition to our circus, not only is DK here a pretty decent story teller, but he is really scary, it’s like listening to Diamond Dog sing lullabies”.
Shining then responded “it’s good to see you guys too, but my wife and I are here on palace business, which is actually why we were talking to your friend DK, we wanted his help with something”
They looked at me so I said “Yeah, sorry guys, but this looks like it’s where we stop, it was fun while it lasted, thanks for everything”. After that, Shining and Cadance, bought the heightened wagon off the two brothers, because as of then, they only had the wagon that Shining himself was hauling, which they were fairly sure was too small for me, even if they weren’t in there with me.
We left the circus, after I said goodbye to the few ponies, griffins and Minotaurs whose names I remembered. I was dragging the wagon behind us, with a rope attached to my waste, and found this to be actually incredibly easy, while we went shopping for supplies, I bought a large amount of fruit, both fresh and dried, cider, both non-alcoholic, as well as a blanket, a bed and some pillows, no more straw for me. The two royals, meanwhile had gone to a café and where sitting there feeding each other with their magic. It almost brought a tear too my eye, Celestia I miss Kami.
Eventually, we left the village, and headed towards the Everfree, I had hooked myself up to both wagons, with the couple’s wagon at the back. Who was I to interrupt a honeymoon, even if both Princesses deemed it necessary? Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being played, the way they had been acting around me, made me feel as if these changelings where more dangerous than they said, even if I knew he wasn’t lying about how easy the mane 6 had found fighting them.
As I walked, consumed by my own thoughts, mainly of Kami, I noticed, a buzzing sound, coming from the forest around the path we travelled on. I turned and looked into them, but saw nothing. I continued hearing this noise for a while, but I just kept walking, trudging along, pulling everything like a pack animal. Eventually, I reached a large clearing, so I went of the path, and pulled the wagons into the clearing, which was surrounded by forest. I called out to the couple, who I could only assume where distracted by other activities, in their wagon. They came out, after a long moment, and began trotting alongside me, as I went about setting myself up for the night, building a fire from sticks around us, then pulling out my barrel seat.
“I heard a buzzing noise” I explained, whispering quietly to them, “I’m not sure what it is, but from what you have told me about them, it seems likely that is what it is, how would we go about capturing them”.
“No, that’s not what where doing, you see we have a crystal with a message recorded upon it, in the Changelings language, by their queen Chrysalis, as soon as they come to us, I will play it, and the Changelings will come to us for the concentrated love, which we have in vials in our wagon” Cadance responded, whispering like myself.
“Ok, well, what will cause them to come to me, to I just, I don’t know, think about Kami, or what?” I asked. They chuckled, and nodded. Cadance cleared her throat, as if wanting to ask something, then paused, and nudged her husband.
He looked at her, then back at me, before saying “look, we don’t mean to pry, but, you being in love with a forest spirit, well, it’s never been hear of before. I ask, because, well, we want to understand how something like that could occur. Not many people even know there are nature spirits; we only do because Celestia and Luna are worried about Terra doing something, they won’t say what, but yeah, something, and since the spirits are basically her kids, she figures they will be involved”. Well, nuts, I hadn’t even thought about Kami having parents, but I guess it made a certain kind of sense, I wonder what this Terra is like, figures, she probably won’t like me, most parents don’t, although that was probably because all I used to look for was sex. I stood thinking about this for a moment, hand on chin.
Finally, I responded “well, she needed help, and I was there to offer it. Beyond that, there’s not much else you need to know. Now, back to these changelings, you guys get on top of the wagon, and play that crystal thing, I’m sure that there’s a fair amount of them in the forest around us by now”. They both looked at me for a minute, as if wanting to pry into my life further, but then appeared to decide against it, and instead followed what I had told them to do. My thinking was that, it would probably be bad to tell them I came from some kind of alternate world, or dimension, or whatever.
Cadance flew up on top of my wagon, and then produced a small yellow crystal from her wagon, through the use of telekinesis. Once she had done this she placed her horn upon it and immediately, a buzzing started ringing out from it. Almost exactly after this, a large group of changelings gathered around the wagon, surprising all of us. Hey looked sickly, their dark bodies seeming ridiculously thin, and any movements they made slow and tired.
Cadance then pulled some deep red bottles out of her wagon, which she passed out to all of the changelings. They drank from them deeply, and seemed to perk up instantly. After this, Cadance showed them all a map of Equis, and pointed to them in the direction they had to go to get home. They flew of, disappearing easily into the rapidly approaching night.
Eventually, I got bored, so decided to strike up a conversation “so, how did you two meet”, I asked, knowing full well they probably met when Cadance was babysitting Twilight, but I wasn’t supposed, to, and I was still curious about specifics. They explained how, at first, it had just been a very usual thing, with Cadance’s royalty not changing anything both of them finding the other attractive, after meeting while she babysat Twilight. Then after this, when they had become more serious, trouble had started emerging, what with Cadance being 40 years older than him, causing her to break up with him, after he acted childishly one too many times. But eventually, they got back together, and had been ever since. I was shocked by how honest they were being, and decided to say this. Once I had though Cadance just said that they felt like they could trust me with matters of the heart, just a gut feeling of some sort.
After this, Cadance decided we should sing campfire songs, although I and Shining were startled by this. She began singing a very relaxed and happy song, with music seeming to come from her horn, yet surrounding us on all sides, like a surround sound system. Her voice was delightful, mournful, yet innocent, truly wondrous. Almost too soon, her song was done, both Shining and I clapped, although his made a more, clopping sound, than anything, which made me smile.
Cadance then asked me to sing something from my homeland, saying that she believed if my singing voice was any like my speaking voice, it would be quite a treat. I wasn’t wanting too, my singing was, at least when I was human, cringe worthy at best, but eventually they convinced me to. I asked about getting backing music, to which she produced another crystal, then held it against her horn for a moment, before handing it to me and saying,
“It will play whatever you want it too, just say the words Muscia a memoria, and it will play”
I nodded, said the words, and began to sing Little Green Bag , an inconsequential song, that I had always liked, and besides, it’s always easy to lead with something you know. As I was singing, the music played, and my two pony companions seemed to, surprisingly, be enjoying my singing. We talked after this; rather, I asked questions about Equestria, confirming what I already knew from the show, just to make sure, and they answered them. I knew they wanted to ask about my history, but once I had finished my questions, and eaten, I went to bed, explaining that, after pulling both wagons all day, I was tired, which, since I had been doing it for them, was a perfect excuse.
I stared out of the cage, looking at the surrounding forest, thinking, seeing those two today had really made me wonder about Kami. Sure, she had brought me here, for what an outsider would probably perceive to be selfish reasons, yet, had she not; I would still be selling drugs, and screwing up other people’s lives. Even if I had only known her for just over two months now, those two months where the happiest of my life, so, being in Equis would probably only be better. I was thankful to her, I realised, for she had quite literally given me a whole new life, something I was quite willing to spend the rest of my life repaying, however long that may be.
Read, Rate, Review, Do What Ever, You Want To Do
Somewhere Else
“You sank my battleship” replied his gaming companion, a strange chimeric creature, constructed of body parts from multitudes of differing beasts.
“Ha” the human laughed, slapping his thigh in a jovial manner, as heard the boat explode, going everywhere on his opponents board.
“I really don’t see what the humans find entertaining about this game. E5” the creature grimaced, not understanding the others joy in the game.
“Miss. Eh, it’s been around for a while, I think it might just be because their naturally attuned to war. J10” said the human, his eyes betraying a hint of seriousness behind these words.
“Miss. You say they made a movie on this? G3” queried the beast, his face showing utter confusion.
“Hit. Yeah, well, it wasn’t very good. A2” laughed the human.
“Miss. Anyway, Tezcatlipoca, my old friend, I wanted to talk to you today, as I am confused by your choice of piece. Though I find him being based on an arcade game character hilarious, well done on that by the way, I must say, he seems a mite to serious for a trickster god.” The beast said, smiling with mirth, eyes lit with curiosity.
“Discord, you know very well my own opinion on these games of yours, the orphans created the last two times, all those children, they never grew up with a parent, rather, those of us that had the heart to do it, had to create a whole new world for them, and leave them out to dry. I will not allow that to happen this time, never again will I let the chess players leave a destroyed world behind, rather, I like others, want to stop your world destruction. I, personally, find nothing wrong with a good game or two, but, I cannot condone the orphaning of children. My piece, though he does not know it yet, was put into play, to protect these innocent victims” responded the homosapien, his face displaying anger and hate.
“Yes, well, as noble as your goal is, it appears that your piece is already adding to these orphans, and I believe he will soon be adding more to it” replied Discord, smirking with a slight cruelty, remaining quiet, though his eyes showed a reflective dislike of the man.
“Just so we’re clear, I never want to see you again, you used to be so much fun, Peter, but these days your no longer the child I so adored. Now that we have finished our discussion, I call tactical nuke.” Discord said, before clicking his claws, and a small atomic bomb appeared above the game, descending rapidly towards. The creature then disappeared, leaving the human, his eyes showing a quiet sadness. His clothing rapidly changed, becoming a t-shirt and shorts, as well as boots, formed out of leaves and vines, while the human’s own body rapidly changed, regressing to that of a young boy of twelve.
“Never is an awfully long time” whispered the boy, his head dropping to his chest, shaking as the boy sobbed, before he too, vanished.
The next morning, I woke up, the sun shining through my wagons bars. I jumped up immediately, desperate to empty my bladder, and fled the wagon, heading into the surrounding woods. Still barely awake, I stumble around, eventually knocking my head on a low hanging branch. Disoriented, I swang around, and lost the direction that I came from. Not seeing it though, I started to relieve myself on a nearby tree, hoping that any animals in the area weren’t sentient.
I finished this arduous yet necessary task, and turned around, hoping I was heading towards the wagons. I realise now that I should have climbed a tree, but at the time, I was still awaking from my stupor, so the necessary mental capacity to decide this, was simply not there. Instead I stumbled around the forest for a while, before quite literally falling on to what looked like a wolf. I just tripped, and landed on it. I slowly got up, now slightly more aware, and found my chest covered in blood, dripping slowly down my pectorals and onto my stomach. I looked around myself, and found I was surrounded, by a large group of very angry looking, very flesh and blood wolves, there had to be at least 10 of them, all eyeing me. I saw the largest bend back, getting ready to leap at me, when suddenly, I saw a black blur erupted from a nearby shrubbery, and leapt onto the coiling wolf’s back.
Once it reached the wolf, I saw the black blur, was in fact a dark black rabbit, which was now viciously ripping into the wolf’s neck, while the rest looked on in abject fascination. Not thinking, I reached over with one arm, and grabbed the wolf, bunny and all, then ran off, soon hearing the sound of the wolves racing after us. I was surprised to find the wolf in my hand was in fact dead and leaking blood heavily. I dropped it, throwing it behind me, but keeping a hold of the bunny, which was strangely not struggling at all, by the scruff of its neck.
I found the wagons, bursting out from the trees into the clearing we had camped in the night before. I jumped in my wagon, dropping the rabid rabbit on my bed, wincing slightly when I recalled it was covered in the blood of its foe. Still, the beastly little critter had in fact helped me, and who was I to decline my saviour the use of my bed, only because of cleanliness. I saw that both Shining and Cadance were staring at the wolves now coming out from the tree line, having just sat down to, it appeared, eat breakfast. The wolves growled, stalking menacingly forward, before breaking out into a sprint straight at the honeymooning couple, filled with a burst of anger, I leapt out of my cage, the door clanging against the bars. I raced towards the rapidly advancing wolves, when I felt myself lifted above the ground, by some unknown force, and saw the wolves entrapped in a small pink bubble.
I felt my body being turned around, before I was dumped on the ground, I looked at the two ponies, Shining was looking at the caged wolves, and my blood and gore covered chest, alternatively, while Cadance had rushed back to their wagon. A moment later, she came back out, cantering towards me, some kind of first aid kit clutched in her teeth. I, meanwhile, was crouching on the ground, wiping the wolf of my chest, by the time the princess had reached me, most of it was gone. She dumped the first aid kit in front of me, and began scrambling through it, before emerging with a large needle, and thread. She advanced towards me, the large as fuck needle pointed straight at me. I stumbled backwards, backpedalling quickly, until I found myself caught in her magic.
“It’s not my blood, I fell on a wolf, now get that needle the fuck away from me” I, basically, screamed. I felt myself dropped, then saw they were both looking at me strangely, with their heads cocked sideways, much like a dog.
“What, so yeah, I tripped and fell on a wolf, it’s not like that’s the first time it’s happened to anybody” I said, sarcastically.
“Well, firstly, these are actually Barghest, and secondly, I am actually more surprised by how afraid you are of needles”, Shining said, trotting over towards me. I thought about this for a moment, I could tell them the truth that I feared needles after a few immunisations went wrong, as the nurse at the orphanage didn’t really care how many tries it took to hit a vain, but eventually I decided to go with a half-truth.
“When I was younger, I was attacked with a needle; in fact, I still have scars from it. So, I really, really do not like them”, I explained, while Shining picked up his bubble of Barghest, whatever the hell they are, and trotted towards the forest. Cadance meanwhile, much to my chagrin, was rolling around in the grass, laughing. I went and picked her up, before placing her on the ground in front of me, serious face on my features.
“It’s not nice to laugh about someone’s fears, how would you feel if I laughed at your for being scared of, I don’t know, Shining leaving you or him dying of old age, while you live on” I asked, somewhat miffed at her laughing about my fears, regardless of rationality. I seemed to have struck a chord, as she started crying loudly, bawling her eyes out, and since she was a pony, one of these adorable creatures, and pink, it almost made me start crying too.
I reached out to pat her, it seeming the right thing to do, even if I would personally find the action condescending. She shied away from me, and instead walked slowly back to her wagon, sniffling all the while. After a while, of my sitting on the ground, feeling guilty about what I had said, Shining stepped out from the forest. He heard his wife, still crying, through the walls of his wagon, looked at me, anger in his eyes, and then ascended the steps of his wagon, and walked in, leaving me to my thoughts.
I heard a metal rattling noise and turned back to my own wagon, which I saw now, contained a very irate black bunny rabbit. I walked over to the cage, and opened its door, where I found myself assaulted by this same bunny, it was beating into me, as if trying to hurt me without actually breaking the skin, or causing any real damage. Eventually, she, as I now noticed, calmed down.
“What is wrong little one” I asked, calmly, trying to sound reassuring. I was unsurprised by her sentient appearance, if angel bunny was anything to go by, this was normal. The bunny then began a series of movements, playing a complicate game of charades with me, but eventually getting the point across that her parents had been killed by the barghest, and she had decided, as was the way of her ‘people’, the dark rabbits, to seek vengeance for them, by killing a leader. The leader in question was apparently the same one as that which I fell on. So now, though she was thankful that the creature was dead, she had been robbed of causing the death herself, something I could understand.
I apologised, to which the bunny accepted, then asked “So, what now”, She began the charades game again, motioning that she wished to follow me, for reasons that I was unable to discern, though I believe it had something to do with abject curiosity, if the magnifying glass was anything to go by. I agreed to her accompanying me, to which she seemed pleased, but then I realised, my new companion had no name, so I began thinking of one, recalling any rabbit related information I had. It occurred to me a few moments later.
“Demon, yes, that would be a good name for you” I said, enunciating my decision, to which the rabbit accepted, and agreed to the new name. Monty Python, eh, it’s allowed, it’s not as if I'm liable to run into any other humans while I'm here. Now, all I had to do for the rest of that morning was waiting for my other two companions to leave their cabin.
After an hour or so of waiting, I decided they weren’t coming out, and so I hitched myself up to the two wagons, and started walking along the path, still headed towards the Everfree. I trudged along, Demon having apparently decided that my shoulder was a comfortable place to rest, after I had placed her there while I walked around the camp, making sure we were ready to leave. She was lying against my head, her black fur making her seem to disappear into my fur. It had at first surprised me how little I had cared about my nakedness, but I had decided that nothing was clearly visible, my covering of fur thick enough to hide it. This gave me great comfort, as I had at first feared, that wearing both clothes, and having fur, I would be much to warm.
I had been walking for a long while, passing a few carts along the road, each time the hauler, which I had noticed was exclusively an earth pony, would eye me, fearfully and curiously. I would stare right back at them, which each time made them cow away in fear, going as far to the other side of the road as they could. I hadn’t seen anyone for at least a half-hour, or at least that’s what I believed, not having access to a watch, something I aimed to fix at the earliest opportunity, when I heard hooves alight themselves atop my wagon, the thudding noise of trotting on wood, coming closer towards me.
“Hello DK that is a very nice looking rabbit, what is its name?” asked Cadance in her light voice.
“Its name is Demon, a name from my home, and it is a she. What brings you here, and where is Shining?” I asked. I hated to act so callous towards her, but currently, I was not sure how to act around her, she is, at least for now, as I had only realised recently, vastly more powerful than me. Her magic, in a fight, would make her easily defeat me, as I had figured out when she had picked me up when I was running towards the barghest. Something that, knowing the weight of a normal gorilla, of about 400 pounds, a fact I had no knowledge of how I know it, would be at least increased by half in me, was a very impressive task, especially since it didn’t appear to take that much out of her.
I hated to admit it, but for now, I had every reason to fear the more powerful of unicorns. I aimed to find some way of negating this effect, as I figured there had to be something that would stop it, otherwise unicorns would have been ruling this entire world a long time ago. Still, as of right now, I actually feared my two companions, something I am loathe to admit, both because they were nice ponies, and because I don’t like to admit that I feel fear, as it is something I am unused to.
“Oh, I just thought you might want some company. Shining said he was tired, so he’s having a nap” she responded, I had turned to face her by now, still walking along the road, not really need to see the road, as it was straight at this point, and I saw her blush slightly, heh, honeymooners. I smiled at her, and she looked at me, with a tinge of sadness in her eye.
“What’s wrong princess” I asked, slightly sarcastically. She looked at me in surprise, before finally getting up, and flying down to the ground beside me. She trotted by my side for a moment, obviously deep in thought, before finally clearing her throat.
“DK, what you said this morning, it, it really is something I think about almost constantly. I just, these days, can’t imagine life without Shining. When I was in the caves underneath Canterlot, I missed him so much, I just get so scared when I think of how he’s probably going to die one day” She said, much to my surprise, here she was, just completely opening up to me, somebody she had only met days before.
“Look, you’re actually older than me, so I can only assume you know more of this aging thing than me, but, well, in my opinion, it’s really, not that bad. Think about what you just said, you fear he is going to die, I too fear that Kami is going to die, but I get on with life, things die, that is how it is, and will probably always be. I have seen people die, cradle them in my arms as the gasped their last breath, even if they usually where only in my arms because I needed protection. I have seen death in many forms, accidental, natural, and malicious, and I can honestly say that fearing it is totally and utterly natural. I don’t mean to sound like a cliché, but really, take the time you have, don’t think too far ahead, if that does happen, well, you’ve got a good 60 years before it does.” I preached, nodding as I realised I agreed with this statement, even as I made it.
After this, I walked along, the pink Winged Unicorn walking beside me, marching along in silent contemplation. Demon was nuzzling my head affectionately, something that caused me endless mirth when I considered how I had seen her take down a barghest. After a time, I found we had entered an area again completely surrounded by trees, having wandered through plains of wild grass for a while. Soon, I again heard a familiar buzzing, only this time it was louder, as if something bigger was making it. The sound built up and built up, as the changelings gathered around us, increasing in closeness to us, and in number.
Cadance went ahead and di her thing with the crystal. As it spread out its words, I heard ominous thuds coming from the forest. Out of it stepped a group of changelings, the likes of which I had never seen in the show, they were huge, easily bigger than Shining Armour, one of the biggest ponies I had seen up to this point. Sure I was still bigger than them, but with a group of 5 from what I could see, I was fairly sure at the very least this would be an even fight. These brute changelings, seemed to completely ignore Cadance, and instead ran at me, charging like a herd of elephants. I was surprised, as I was fairly sure you couldn’t beat the love out of someone, but this didn’t seem to be stopping them.
The first reached me, so I picked up Cadance and threw her into the air, before bringing that same hand down on the brute’s head, feeling it crack under the pressure. This one seemed out of commission, but just as this thought entered my head, I was hit from the side by a changeling, getting gored in the process, by its horn. My side in pain, I head butted it, killing it instantly. I found I was now surrounded on all sides by the changelings, so I began swinging my arm, before finally advancing towards the nearest, and hitting it with an uppercut, sending it flying.
I picked up the next closest one, and threw it at its compatriots, before jumping in the air and dropping down on the pile this created. I felt carapaces break under my arms and feet, cracking. I stood up, and saw I was surrounded by a battlefield of twitching changelings, some in their death throes, other’s just in immense pain. I looked up, and saw Cadance flying above me. She smiled sweetly down at me, before flying towards her wagon. Only then, on knowing she was safe did the adrenalin leave my system, and I found myself clutching my side, blood pouring out from the hole I had been stuck with. I felt a tap on my foot, so I looked down, and saw a very irate bunny looking up at me; evidently she had fallen of my shoulder when I began fighting. Cadance came back towards me, medical kit in mouth, before she dropped it in front of me.
“I can heal the internal damage with magic, but I'm going to have to use a needle and stitch for the actual wound”, she said, calmly and in an assuring tone, before levitating a large needle from the bag, and some thread. I started backing away from her. Slowly stepping backwards, I tried to reassure her that the damage wasn’t that bad, no matter on the truth of the statement. I felt myself hoicked of the ground, and then a zapping noise. I felt myself instantly tire, my eyes drooping, the last thought I had being, fucking magic.
Woah, this bloody month, if I told you guys what happened this month, you wouldn't believe me, just agree when i say it was shitty. Anyways, new chapter, tell me what you think
“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.
