The Manticore Tamer’s wipe snapped and was followed quickly by the high pitch squeal from Free Spirit. New Alpha was furious with her, during the last show she had done everything that she had been told. She’d been proud that she finally remembered what all the complicated commands had meant, but once her part was done, he hadn’t given her the chicken to eat, so as she was being taken away, she took the chicken. It wasn’t hard snapping it’s neck even with her blunted teeth. He was furious with her and tried to take her prize from her, so she snapped at him and ran away with the now very dead chicken.
She had run back into her spot to eat her prize in peace but New Alpha and his scary red nosed multicolored monsters came and grabbed her after the show. She tried to think about what she’d done wrong, but with each crack of the whip it was getting harder and harder to do anything but squeal and whimper. After her lashing she was unceremoniously thrown back into the cage that for the past two years had been her home.
She lay as flat on her stomach as she could to not disturb the lash marks on her back and softly licked the whelps on her fore legs from stray whip lashes. After a few minutes there was a soft bang of something metal falling to the dirt ground of the supply tent. Her ears perked up; whoever it was they weren’t supposed to be here. There were no angry voices of the stuff falling down, nor had they made any noise coming in. She shivered though; it wasn’t likely that they would whip her again, they normally wouldn’t whip her again unless she made to much noise, a lesson she learned fast after the red nosed creatures got mad at her howling. Another noise, this time much closer. Her curiosity piqued she softly moved her head to the side to try and see what was making all the noise. The thing making the noise froze as her eyes locked with its. It was like her, but a boy. He had a light grey coat and a light blue mane, and was one the ones with a horn. She barked a him once before going back to whimpering over her lashes. The thing walked around the cage till they were face to face again.
“H-hello.” She looked at him blankly, Nobody but New Alpha had spoken to her, many of the Red Nose Monsters had yelled at her but not really speaking to her. She assumed that whatever he had said was a command a command she didn't know. Her ears folded back as a few whimpers escaped her mouth. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. You're alright." His voice was soft like mother's tongue licking her when she was hurt. She barked her tail softly wagging behind her. "Right forgot you're feral, you can't understand what I'm saying can you?" There was a loud noise as somebody came into the tent. "I'll be back soon." He slipped away. A few seconds later two of the red nosed monsters came in with there multicolored zigzag and polka-dot suits.
"Damn it you stupid bitch, you've been licking your whelps again! Get the gag." One of them grabbed a little ball with a belt. Her eyes went wide 'gag' was the thing that was soon followed by pain. She peddled back into the corner of her cage as the red nosed monsters came in. One with a bottle of pain water. "Stand still you fucking mutt filly." She growled desperately trying to scare them away. One of them just slapped her across the face. She hit the bars of her cage her vision doubling. The red ball was forced into her mouth despite her struggling and the belt was tightened around her head. One of them put their hoof on her head pinning her while the other popped open the bottle of pain water and started pouring it on her back and hooves. Free Spirit's eyes shrunk to pin pricks as she screamed into the gag thrashing in a desperate attempt to get away.
"Damn this never gets old. I fucking hate foals, should have never been a clown."
"You can say that again, the little fuckers can be so annoying, two minutes of peace and quiet is that to fucking much to ask?" The one holding her pushes her harder into the cage floor. Once they'd finished bathing her in pain water the walked away leaving her crying on the floor of the cage with the gag still in her mouth.
"We'll take that out when you learn not to lick your wounds stupid feral cunt." The cage door was shut and locked and the key put on a wooden box as they walked away. After a minute had passed the boy thing came back. He ran over to the box and grabbing the key he ran back unlocking the cage, she looked up at him to scared and hurt to fight back. With the gag in her mouth she couldn't even growl and show her blunt teeth to try and scare him off.
"Don't worry I see a first aid box over there." He ran coming back with a little box, he opened it up and pulled out a roll of something. He moved behind her and then started warping it around her. She screamed into the gag as he went over the cuts. "I know I know I'm sorry. Shhh, shhh." He continued warping around her. She looked over her shoulder until her wounds were completely covered. He pulled the gag out of her mouth. "Better he asked softly rubbing her head. She leaned over and started licking her other hoof her tail wagging a little bit. "I'm going to get you out of here okay, get up." He pulled her to her hooves she looked at him a little confused as he guided her out of the cage. He eyes flashed with understanding. She wasn't in her cage, New Alpha and his red nosed monsters weren't around. One of the things had understood her pleading barks and come to help her. The two of them were about just stepping out of the cage when they heard somebody coming in from the front of the tent. "Never mind this way." He pushed her flank with his head going toward the side of the tent. They were struggling their way under the tent when every hair on her coat, mane, and tail stood on end as one of the meanest red nosed monsters screamed.
"What the fuck the feral cunt isn't in her cage!"
"Come on." He grabbed her hooves and pulled her to the other side. The storage tent was in the middle of a large clearing. The wagons were in a half circle around a cliff over looking a river. The only path out was toward the circus to five hundred meters to the south. "Run." He started galloping away she tried to keep up but the lashing she'd received kept her moving at only a slow trot. He slowed down to stay by her side to keep her moving at some kind of pace. They hadn't gotten more than 50 meters from the big equipment tent before they'd been spotted.
"There she is, who's that with her. Fuck it get him to Ringmaster will want to deal with him too!" One of the Red nosed monsters started galloping full speed at them two more joining in a few seconds later. The colt seeing they weren't getting away turned and counter charged.
"I'll be okay just keep running!" He was quickly grabbed lifted into the air before he hit the ground with a thud. Free Spirit watch as he bounced a foot of the ground as another of the red nosed monsters slammed her into the ground.
"Ringmaster's going to punish the two of you for this. You're never leaving that cage of yours again." They dragged the two of them to Ringmaster's wagon.
Ringmaster ran his whip slowly across the colt's cheek. "Right so what's your story, run away."
"Fuck you!" He grunted as one of the red nosed monsters punched him in the gut, and they dropped him to the floor. He looked over Free Spirit. "I'm sorry, I guess I didn't really think this through."
"No. no you didn't." Ringleader looked him over. "I'm going to work you over worse than her, runaways disappear never to be seen again, and you when I'm done you'll never disobey me again." He pulled back and swung his whip at her. The colt screamed as he jumped between him and the whip and it cut into his hide.
Free Spirit snarled, going from docile to rabid in and instant, her hind hoof fired out catching the red nosed monster in the groin. They fell over with a squeak. With the best roar she could muster she attacked the Ringmaster biting his hoof as hard as she could he dropped his whip and threw her out of the wagon. The colt ran out after her slipping past the other red nosed monsters. They backed away to the ledge and the wagons.
"Wow look." The colt pointed tapped her flank. Where once she had nothing she now bore a matching set of cutie marks. Of a timber wolf biting a chain snapping int in half. "Now that's a mark." He smiled as the got to the edge of the cliff. Ringmaster and his red nosed monsters trapped them cutting them off from anything but the fall.
"You're going to regret that." He pulled back the whip snapped cutting the wolf's head in half with on her left flank. Her eyes went wide as she felt something sacred about her being completely desecrated. "You're going to beg to go back to your cage."
"No she's not!" The colt wrapped his hooves around her and pushed of the cliff. They fell into the river.
Nearly 30 kilometres the the two of them dragged themselves onto the rocky shore. "That that was not fun." He rasped. She barked in agreement, she didn't know the words, but she certainly understood the feeling behind it. The two slowly trudged toward the tree line and to freedom.
