Fluttershy pranced along the outskirts of Ponyville, taking in the beauty of the world around her. The wind gently tossed her mane around as she moved through the fields. Suddenly, she heard a whimpering coming from the treeline. It sounded like an animal in distress. Without thinking she quickly jolted towards the brush to check up on this creature. Making her way to the source of the crying, there was a manticore laying on the ground.
“Oh goodness! What happened to you?” Fluttershy asked the manticore in a mortified state. The manticore had had its wings clipped off and bruises on its hind. Its legs had given out from its injuries, and it had collapsed on the ground. Apart from its injuries the manticore's face was covered in white makeup and had cherry red cheeks drawn on it. As she approached the manticore in an attempt to tend to the creature's wounds, it lashed out at her and nearly ripped her front legs off. Fluttershy quickly flapped her wings and rose into the sky.
As she was hovering above the ground, she heard the stomping of hooves coming her direction, quickly she hid behind the leaves of the closest tree. She was wondering why anypony would be out here in the brush besides herself.
“There’s the fucker!” a voice shouted as two ponies emerged from the shrubbery. As they approached the manticore it panicked letting out a shriek and tried to swipe at the approaching ponies. The first of the ponies, an earth pony, wearing a blue tunic with a black collar, quickly dug a whip out of a red bag with yellow stripes they wore across their neck and slapped it across the manticore's snout. The manticore’s head fell to the ground as it lashed about in agonizing pain, screeching and kicking. The second pony, a unicorn, wearing a red tunic with yellow stripes across it cast a spell on the manticore causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke.
“Well, I sent it teleporting to the backyard, we better hurry back so we can set up the big top,” the Unicorn told the Earth Pony. With that final remark they retreated the way they had come and vanished out of sight and sound. Fluttershy emerged from the leaves of the tree she was cowering in nearly in tears for how they had treated that poor animal and flew back to Ponyville to tell someone about what she had just seen.
As Fluttershy reentered Ponyville there was commotion from the denizens of the town surrounding a flier that had been posted on the billboard in the center of the market. Ponies were pushing each other over to see the news. It was an advertisement for a traveling circus and its accompanying sideshows that was performing in two days.
“Only two bits per admission! What a steal!” a pony near the front of the crowd shouted towards the back for those who couldn’t see.
“They’ll have a live changeling on display!” another pony squealed in excitement.
Fluttershy was observing the crowd and recounted what had just happened. She had seen a manticore in distress be taken away by ponies in unusual attire. She gasped in horror. That manticore that was being abused was likely part of this performance and everypony about to attend was giving the circus more reason to harm the poor creature.
“I have to find Twilight! She’ll know what to do!” Fluttershy thought out loud as she zoomed over the crowd towards Twilight's home. As she flew through town, she witnessed ponies who she had never seen before in the town posting papers on the doors of homes and signs that littered the streets. As she carried on her trek to Twilight, she could see from her spot in the sky that the Ponyville station was bustling with ponies transporting large boxes. After a few more minutes of flying through Ponyville, Fluttershy saw Twilight's home right in front of her and landed near the door.
As Fluttershy made her way inside she rushed to Twilight's library as she was most commonly found there. She pushed past the door and called out to Twilight who was sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by a pile of books. Twilight turned around to stare at Fluttershy.
“Oh, hey there Fluttershy. What brings you here?” Twilight asked Fluttershy before looking back down at her book.
“Have you heard of the circus that’s coming to town?” Fluttershy responded to Twilight's question with her own.
“Circus? I’ve heard of them in my studies, but I’ve never seen one before, you say ones coming to town?” Twilight looked up from her book again with a sparkle in her eye.
“Yes! And they hurt their animals!” Fluttershy exclaimed to Twilight.
“Oh, I read about that in my books, it’s not really harmful to their animals, they just use a few physical training methods to tame the most wild of creatures, they try to be reserved with it,” Twilight responded to Fluttershy's concerns.
“No you don’t get it! I witnessed it myself! They were beating an escaped manticore!” Fluttershy protested against Twilight sweeping the problem away.
“That’s pretty standard, an animal like a manticore is pretty resilient so it needs what looks like more than needed violence to keep it in line,” Twilight brushed off Fluttershy’s complaints, “plus it’s a manticore, they’re pretty violent by themselves and an escaped one could have caused serious harm to Ponyville. It’s good they caught it!”
“No! You don’t understand, its wings were clipped off and it had bruises all over it and-!” Fluttershy objected to Twilight's claims, but before she could finish Twilight cut her off.
“Wings being clipped off is standard practice in the industry, and they make sure it’s as painless as they can make it for the animal, are you sure those bruises weren’t just makeup that had been running off, it was escaped after all,” Twilight interjected to Fluttershy’s rant.
Feeling defeated, Fluttershy made her exit from Twilight's home and headed off to find Applejack who knew ethical farm animal practices. She was determined to expose the circuses conduct. She took to the skies once more and began to fly towards Sweet Apple Acres. As she flew through the town once more, she noticed a large red and white tent being set-up just outside town with various smaller tents around it and a few rides being assembled. Passing the market again the ponies had spread out and excitedly discussed the news among their friends. She thought she might be able to appeal to the common pony and dived down and went up to the smallest crowd she could find.
“Um, hello,” Fluttershy awkwardly started, “that circus abuses its animal performers!”
The group of ponies turned to look at her trying to identify her. After a couple seconds they realized who she was.
“Oh, you’re that pony who’s super sensitive about animals, obviously they need to use some harsh practices but you’re definitely blowing it out of proportion,” one of the ponies in the crowd responded. The other ponies exchanged murmurs and agreeances with the pony who spoke up. Now embarrassed, Fluttershy backed up before taking flight once more and continued on her way to Applejack's farm.
The ringing of bells signaled meal time for all the ponies of the circus. Butchers, stagehooves, performers, and more all made their way towards the Cook House. Grains and oats were all lined up on paper plates for easy access. Among the members of the circus, on a makeshift stage of boxes and chairs stood the ringmaster, Dazzle Clem, a unicorn, wearing a red tunic with yellow stripes across it.
“Ahem, attention everypony. We have a tight schedule to set up the tents and rides today! So chow hour is only thirty minutes for today,” Dazzle Clem announced to the crowd receiving groans and complaints as he walked out of the Cook House.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me, that geezer expects us to get work done with thirty minutes break whilst we’ve been working since dawn. What an ass,” a disgruntled circus employee complained to their tablemates.
Exiting the Cook House, Dazzle Clem was heading back to his wagon so he could plot out what act would replace the manticore jumping through a hoop of fire, as the circus manticore was too injured from the beating it had received for trying to escape. It was regrettable that they had to injure the creature, it was another incident in a string of bad luck that had been happening. As he crossed the circus grounds it was empty and mostly quiet, with only the sound of the wind blowing against the half-finished tents.
As Dazzle Clem approached his wagon, he paused for a moment to scan his surroundings. The wind gently tossed his mane around. He noted that the setup for the circus was behind schedule, they would have to work twice as hard tomorrow to ensure the tents and rides were put together in time.
He continued his walk to his wagon. He had worries the circus wouldn’t perform well, they had been gaining less and less traction and his crew had been getting restless and upset at the lowering quality of food and quarters. If it kept up this trend, he’d have to close the circus and all the ponies working with him would lose their home, and more importantly, it would make it harder for him to keep on the run on the force he was fearful of. After a few more minutes of walking, he had arrived at his wagon.
Upon entering he collapsed on his bed from exhaustion. He had already dealt with a rogue manticore today and didn’t want anything else to go awry. He turned to the window looking out admiring the circus grounds. He was going to turn around their losses and save this circus, he was sure of it. He was just settling in, and he pulled out his notebook to find out what act he could pencil in as a replacement for the manticore, when a knocking came on his wagon's door. He reluctantly got up to open the door, wondering what the matter was, hoping that it wouldn't be another problem. He opened the door to two ponies who weren't part of his travelling show.
"Howdy there, are you the leader of this show?" the first pony, an orange Earth Pony wearing a cowboy hat with three apples for a cutie mark. The second pony, a yellow Pegasus with pink flowers for a cutie mark, stood behind her, not speaking.
"Yes, I am, who might you be?" Dazzle Clem answered their question, following up with his own.
"My names Applejack and this here is my friend Fluttershy. We have some concerns regarding your treatment of the critters in your show," the Earth Pony answered him.
"Well, what issues do you take with our treatment of the creatures we keep?" Dazzle Clem probed the duo.
"You beat them! I saw your manticore in the woods and you were so violent with it!" Fluttershy piped up from her silence, clearly invested in the welfare of the animals belonging to the show.
Drips of sweat formed and dripped off of Dazzle Clem's forehead when the Pegasus brought this up.
He shut the door on their faces. They began to knock once more as he looked around frantically trying to come up with something to sweep the incident under the rug. The knocking became louder as he stalled. He returned to the door and swung it open once more.
"Would you come inside please?" Dazzle Clem asked the critics of his show.
The two ponies entered the wagon, in awe at the various memorabilia strewn around the room along the walls and shelves from the locations the show had toured in the past.
"Pretty nifty home you've got 'ere," Applejack commented on the wagon's contents.
"I collect lots of things from all around, I try not to tour the same location twice," Dazzle Clem replied. "Now about your, concerns?"
"Why'd you do it?" Applejack assertively demanded an answer.
"You must understand, it's not standard protocol, but that manticore has always been trouble," he responded.
"Then why not release it into the wild!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"It wouldn't survive in the wild, it's had its wings clipped to make sure no one here falls under harm's way, and it's been raised since birth, it doesn't know how to survive out there!" Dazzle Clem explained as calmly as he could, but his voice was raising in defense of his show.
"Then why raise it at all if it's this bad for the creature!" Fluttershy interjected.
"Because ponies all over Equestria enjoy watching tricks and performances of dangerous creatures performing feats of strength!" Dazzle objected to her concerns.
He shoved the two out of his wagon and slammed the door behind them. He turned to his desk squeezed in the corner of the wagon and uncovered a brown, leather book without any markings on the cover or binding from beneath a stack of advertising posters for his show. After analyzing the book for a few seconds, he opened up a drawer on the desk tossing the book inside and slamming it shut, shaking the cabin.
"I just need more time, more time," Dazzle Clem repeated himself, pondering if taking this route in life was a good decision, not that it mattered since he couldn't change the past.
He looked back out his window, chow hour had ended, and his crew was working on setting up the attractions. This could very well be their last show, a tear formed in his eye which he wiped away. They would have nowhere to go if he had to shut down the show, and he himself would have a much harder time fleeing his fate.
