The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

The Alicorn Who Knew Nothing

Chapter 5

It’s a Circus life for me

Dusty Mane sat behind the counter of the returns desk, her shift almost over. The only major concern that she had left to consider for today was what she was going to have for dinner whenever she left.

“Maybe I can stop by that new restaurant that opened up on the corner?” she thought aloud.

She decided that would be an adequate dinner, and then got up to close the main doors to the library.

“I wonder just how busy its been since it opened last wee..”

Dusty never got the chance to finish the thought, for she saw two stallions crossing the street from the hospital toward the library.

“Please don’t be coming in here, its five minutes till we close.”

Dusty glanced at the clock on the wall and confirmed that it was ten fifty five.

Silently she sighed and turned back toward her desk to help the two stallions who she observed were carrying several stacks of books.

“Well so much for getting out of here early.” She thought to herself.

After glancing both ways across the street Ridge slowed trotted his way across the road.

“No sense in getting hurt again”

With Circus taking up the rear they entered the library with their cargo of books, then quickly made their way over to the returns desk.

Circus went past Ridge and began to talk to the rather middle aged Mare who sat behind the counter.

“Hello Dusty, how are you doing this fine evening?”

Caught off guard by this strange stallions question Dusty wasn’t prepared to respond.

“….uh…I’m sorry do I know you?”

“It’s me Circus? I’ve been by here every day this week, I thought you would have remembered me  Dusty?”

“Oh?..Um..Oh yea!! How have you been since yesterday Circus?” she struggled out while trying to remember the young stallion.

“I’ve been just fine, I’m just here to return the books I got for my friend here.”

“Oh, this is the stallion who wanted all those books huh? What was his name again? …Ridge is it?” Dusty said as her memory slowly caught up to her ponyself.

“Yes ma’am it sure is.” Circus slowly scooted Ridge closer to the desk with his hoof, trying to get the stallion to introduce his ponyself to the librarian.

“H..Hello ma’am my name is Ridge.” Ridge said with growing embarrassment at having to make an introduction to somepony who already knew him.

“Do you have a last name boy?” Dusty said with a knowing smirk on her face.

“N..No ma’am I don’t know what my last name is. I was in an accide…”

“Ha I’m just pulling your hoof son, Somepony who had an accident that bad wouldn’t remember anything at all. Your lucky to have pulled through, count your stars you had a nurse as skilled as Circus here."

“Aw.. don’t be so modest dusty, I just did what I had to do.”Circus said with a blush upon his face.

“Well you’re still over qualified to be just a part time nurse. Did you ever think about becoming a Doctor?” Dusty asked.

“No, I prefer it just as a hobby. I would not have enough time for my day job if I went back to school.”

“You should think about it Circus, its a lot of good bits.”

“I know dusty, I will someday…maybe.” Circus knew it was easier to just go along with whatever Dusty said, It was the only

way he was going to get out of here quickly.

“Alright then, what else can I do for you and your friend here.”

“Actu…”

“Do you know a mare with the initials T.S.” Circus cut ridge off.

Ridge just left his jaw on the floor not believing Circus had asked that out loud like that.

“Hmmmm…sorry boys I can’t say that I do.” Dusty said.

“oh okay then, sorry for asking my friends question for him.” Ridge quickly recovered thinking of what his other question was he wanted to ask.

“A.Actually,  I was going if I could get another book for myself. I..If that’s okay Circus?”

Circus just stood there confused as to why ridge would want another book. He had already read all the books pertaining to Alicorns.

“Yea sure, it’s fine by me. How about you Dusty?”

“Sure thing which book you want me to get?”

“D..Do you have anything on basic unicorn magic?”

“Um…Let me look it up, I think we just had that book returned today in fact.”

Dusty turned around and hoofed through the ‘just in’ bin, after about a minute of searching she pulled out a small book that was about forty pages thick.

“AH!!! Here we are! A foals beginning to magic: An Introductory Guide.”

“Thanks…” Ridge said embarrassed as he revealed that he was going to have to read a book that was written for foals. Circus picked up on Ridge’s embarrassment and tried to help his friend feel better by saying

“Hey everypony has to start learning the same way. Just look at it like a new beginning Ridge.”

“Yea. I guess it’s alright.” Ridge said his frown going away.

“Well if that’s all you two need, I believe I will start closing down the library for the night. Don’t stay to long.” Dusty said as she began to sort the pile of books Ridge and Circus had returned.

“It’s okay Dusty. We will just be leaving then. You sure you don’t need help sorting those books?” Circus asked wanting to help the older mare.

“No its fine, you all have you a good night now.”

“Okay don’t stay too late now. Bye Dusty” said Circus.

“Bye Cricus. And goodbye Ridge.”

“Bye Ms. Dusty. It was nice to meet you.” Ridge said.

After that both Ridge and Circus turned toward the exit. After they had both exited the library Circus sighed and confessed to Ridge

“I do wish she would see a Doctor.”

Ridge was confused as to why Circus had said that about Ms. Dusty.

“Why, she seemed normal enough to me?”

But with a frown and a sad tone of voice Circus said.

“After she leaves here, she will go down to the sandwich shop on the corner and try to order a sandwich.”

This seemed to only confuse Ridge even more.

“So she has a routine, that’s no reason to see a doctor.”

“But the thing is, that store has been closed for the past year.”

“Oh…” Ridge said realizing she was starting to get mareztimers.”

“And I bet if we were to walk back into the library, she wouldn’t even remember that we had even been there.” Circus said sadly.

“I'm sorry Circus…I had no idea.”

“It's fine Ridge, that just means we have to enjoy the time we have with the people who have it more.” Circus said this with a forlorn look on his face.

Ridge hated to see his friend sad so he decided to ask Circus if he wanted to go anywhere else.

“Is there any place else we have to go before we go back to the hospital?”

Upon hearing Ridge mention that he thought they were going back to the hospital Circus knew his friend had not discovered that he had no intention of letting him go back to the hospital.

“Yep, we have just one more stop.” Cirucs was beaming with joy now that he could finally do what he had been looking forward to this whole week.

“But, it’s a surprise…”

Ridge heard the way Circus had said ‘surprise’ and he immediately knew that it wasn’t going to be good.

“Well can’t you at least tell me where wer….WOAH!!!”

Ridge had been grabbed by Circus and they were now running through Manehatten streets toward parts Unknown.

“Okay here we are!” Circus finally took off the blind fold that had been placed around Ridge’s face about fifteen minutes ago.

“Why would you do that to me!!” Ridge yelled not observing his surroundings.

Smiling like a mad pony Circus gestured behind the yelling Alicorn.

Quickly Ridge turned around wanting to know why he had been hoofnapped by his best friend. What Ridge saw was beyond anything he thought he would see right now.

“You brought me to a circus?”

“AH HA!! Not just any circus my friend…”

Circus jumped around in front of Ridge and stood on two hooves and splayed his arms out to his sides.

“This is my circus!!!”

Ridge just stared back with a blank expression toward him. His mind started to slowly process what he had said and ever so slowly began to understand just what circus had meant.

“Circus…your…circus”

“YEA!!! What do you think huh! Bucking Awesome right!?”

“Wow…I did not expect this... how….why…but you’re just a nurse at a hospital, how can you afford to own a circus…?”

“Being a nurse is just a hobby I have, as for why you didn’t expect it, it’s my name duh…and as to how….Several years ago all this was just a one cart ensemble that belonged to a pony who was down on her luck, and she sold it to me so she could buy some amulet or relic or something.” After Circus finished his speech he jumped back down to eye level and waited with baited breath as to what Ridge would say.

“Circus…I had no idea…wow. This is the most AWESOME thing I have ever seen!!!”

Ecstatic at his friend's response Circus felt it was okay to continue with what he was going to say.

“We can look at all the carts later, I promise. But first I want to show you where you're going to be sleeping.”

Hearing Circus say that made Ridge pause and say

“Sleeping?”

“Of course you can’t be living in the hospital forever silly, and I thought you know…maybe you would stay here with me and

the circus?” Circus had been dreading asking Ridge to stay here at the circus, but he knew it was by far the best option for Ridge and his…ahem…condition.

“I don’t know…I can’t ask you to take me in like that. I wouldn’t want to be a burden.”

“Burden? HAHA!! Ridge look around, does it look like you would be a burden?”

“N..No I guess not.”

“Good then, with that settled lets go”

So they trotted onward toward the middle of carts that dotted an abandoned parking lot in the middle of Manehatten. The closer they got to the center Ridge had noticed that it had gotten quieter, and the big extravagant carts were being replaced with small three pony size living carts.

“What are all these small carts for?” Ridge asked.

“Oh, this section is for all the ponies who live here.”

“Live here?”

“Yea everypony has to live somewhere Ridge, This is a traveling circus after all.”

“WHAT!?”

“yea? We’ve been here about a year, people sleep here, work here, and make bits here. What’s wrong with that?”

“N..Nothing I…I just don’t know about living with a traveling circus.”

“Well I think you will fit in rather well considering…your um…condition.”

“SHHHHH!! Quiet Circus!” Ridge hissed.

“Just calm down, and look up. Were here now.” Circus said rolling his eyes.

The sight that greeted Ridge was a tall two story cart that appeared to tower above the carts surrounding it. The windows were dark and foreboding and were very contrasting to the outer shell, which was a very brightly painted pink with several depictions of ponies performing varying feats of bravery and courageousness.

“Is this your house?” Ridge Breathlessly asked.

“YEP, now let’s get inside before the cold gets you sick.”

Having his mind decided for him Ridge was pushed past the threshold of the cart into the blackness beyond.

‘quaint’ was the word that came to mind as Ridge entered the cart.

The abode contained several pieces of ornate furniture that ridge thought was very typical to a circus ring leader.

“Circus Ringer…” Rigde said, how he hadn’t put hoof and hoof together yet was beyond him.

The small sofa that was currently in front of Ridge seemed to be as a good as a place as any to sit down, so Ridge trotted over to it and sat on it and was struck by a thought he wanted to ask Ridge.

“Why are you doing so much for me? When you know I can’t do anything to repay you, or even come close to thanking you enough?”

“well… I was in a situation similar to yours several years ago, and well… I  don’t want to see what happened to me happen to somepony else.” Circus said as his eyes glazed over. Clearly thinking back to a time he didn’t want to talk about.

“What happened?” Ridge asked.

“That my friend is another story for another day…”

Ridge sensed that Circus wasn’t going to give any more details as to what happened so he decided to switch the subject.

“So.. How long has your circus been here in town?”

“Tomorrow will be exactly one year…so I wouldn’t get too comfortable here…” Circus solemnly said.

“Why… what's wrong?”

“Our lease runs out tomorrow so were going on a tour of equestria…starting tomorrow.”

“WHAT…!?”Circus was again wondering how his friend could not tell him important things like this.

“DON”TYOU THINK THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION TO TELL ME…!?”

“Ooops…?” Circus said flatly.