Ponied

The ponies got me. Their hooves were too much. The dog had run in, quick, nipping, yipping, but it was too small and too loud and they turned on the poor thing. They trampled it so fast I couldn’t even remember seeing it happen, or maybe didn’t want to. I ran in after him, calling his name out, but by the time the horses backed off there was hardly anything left of my dear little creature. I started yelling and shouting and crying all at once, kicking up a commotion. My ruckus must have made those ponies turn sour somehow. All of a sudden they start pawing and stamping at me, working up the courage, testing me and forcing me backwards. Before I knew it one was running headlong at me. I tried to calm it but that great big barrel of a body rushed at me and only dodged at the last second when I clapped loudly at it. I could smell the sweat on its mane in the air that followed its charge. Then the next one charged me, followed by its twin. There was a madness in them that I’d never seen before, and I was sitting confused in the mud without knowing how I got there after it toppled me with a brawny shoulder. I hadn’t changed their feed or anything. It was winter, so there shouldn’t be any mating disagreements to rile them up. I couldn’t figure it out. The group came at me all at once then, and it didn’t take long for them to start trampling and breaking bones. I didn’t have much fight in me then. You can’t fight what you don’t know. I sure didn’t know what all this was about. I guessed I may as well die a confused man as die an angry man.