Pinkie had returned the next morning. Needless to say Clyde wasn’t happy. She was grounded indifferently. Pinkie had refused to tell her father where Bysen lived and even though Clyde knew the rough area that was still a huge amount of land to search. Without his daughter telling him, he’d likely never find it. He’d probably find a new lode-stone before he found Bysen.
Shortly after that Blinkie was grounded as well for not telling Clyde where he lived. She’d only been there twice but she knew at least enough to narrow down his search. She didn’t say a word. And shortly after that Octavia was grounded too. She had NO idea where Bysen lived but hopefully one of the other two would feel guilty about getting Octavia grounded and confess. Unfortunately all that accomplished was making Octavia pissed at her father as well.
Once Pinkie was finally allowed to leave the farm again Clyde planned on following her to find Bysen. But she didn’t go to see him, not for a good while. At least as far as he knew. Once she finally did, she managed to lose Clyde as he followed her. This happened five times more until one day when he was following her he thought he’d lost her again, instead she was standing right behind him and had said ‘You’ll never find him you know.’
This of course led to her being grounded again. But that didn’t stop her anymore. She was older now, nearly as big as him and he was old anyway. There was nothing he could do to stop her from leaving the farm! And in all honesty Pinkie abused that knowledge a little. A few months after that, her mother passed away. Pinkie sat down with her father and apologised for being as unruly as she had been since he’d lost control of her.
She also told her father she was going to keep seeing Bysen no matter what he did and he would just have to accept it. And he did. Well, he accept that there was nothing he could do about it. He still didn’t like his daughter seeing that buffalo. Was he speciest? Yes. But so what? Ponies would call him predigest, but guess what? By doing so they were being predigest against predigests.
He’d even run into Bysen once in town. Clyde hadn’t known it but Bysen would come to the town once every few months and trade for supplies. He didn’t use bits but traded things he had caught, grown or even made. It was actually impressive some of the things the buffalo had made. And the ponies he traded with never had anything bad to say about him, other than a few scares he gave the first time some ponies saw him.
All in all, he knew his daughter was safe around him and that was the main thing. He had bigger things to worry about anyway. It had been what? Five, six years since he’d met Bysen now, and the rock farm was in its death rows. Money was tight as last year’s total yield had been miniscule and this year’s was going to be even smaller.
In a way it was a good thing that his daughters hated him. Octavia was the only one to outright say that to him after that whole grounding thing and had spent more time with Lyra and Vinyl than with her own family from then on. What Octavia didn’t know was that about two years ago Clyde had spoken with Lyra and Vinyl's parents and they had pseudo-adopted her. Octavia stayed the night and ate dinner and breakfast at her friend’s place far more than she had her own. Because frankly, he could barely afford to feed the half his family he had left.
Blinkie, who still hadn’t earned her Cutie Mark despite that she was nineteen, was engaged to JD and planning on moving in with him. While she still didn’t know her special talent, she knew what she liked doing. Ever since she’d met Bysen she’d been fascinated with other cultures and thought about going to see them and understanding them. Furrypology it was called.
Pinkie was the only one who was still really living with him. She hadn’t told him yet but Pinkie didn’t plan on that for much longer. It wasn’t long now before she planned on marrying Bysen and becoming mates. After that she wasn’t sure what she’d do. Live with him in the forest, travel to some new land or maybe even return to his tribe down in the badlands. Staying at the farm… it wasn’t an option. She knew how bad of a state the farm was in and that it wasn’t going to survive. This land was dead… but, she felt so alive right now, with Bysen. Even now, just sitting with him, doing nothing but being together, she felt more wonderful than anything she had ever done without him.
Sure they’d had their fights over the years but it was nothing they hadn’t gotten past. While not as often as Octavia would stay with Lyra and Vinyl, Pinkie had often stayed nights with Bysen. Sometimes even days, and twice for more than a week. All of that caused trouble with her father of course who hated the idea of his daughter out in the wilderness with a savage. To him it was dangerous and horrifying; to Pinkie, it was wonderful and perfect.
Right now, it was another perfect moment, just like so many they’d had before. Until… “Uh oh.” Pinkie said as she felt her tail twitching. Before she could say anything more the branches that made up the covers they were sitting under fell on top of them. Bysen being bigger, about three times the size of the average pony now, took the brunt of it but some still fell on Pinkie.
He stood up and pushed what was on him and her aside, “Are you alright?” he asked only to be answered by…
“Ough!” Pinkie cried calmly… apparently ‘crying calmly’ was possible. She was covering her face with one hoof and covering that hoof with her other. “Ough… that really REALLY hurt!” she whined. She was alright, but did she mention it hurt? One branch had landed on her hoof quite hard and another had tapped her in the eye. Moving her hooves away, she kept her left eye closed, Bysen could see it was beginning to swell and darken.
The ropes that had held up the roof that had just fallen were put up nearly as long ago as he’d been here. It was remarkable that they’d lasted this long now that he thought about it, but at the same time he also thought his lack of maintenance had hurt his dear friend. “I’m sorry Pinkie Pie!” his dialect had changed over the years, whereas before he used to say every word precisely, now he abbreviated like most ponies did.
While he had taken much from the pony’s culture he hadn’t left his own. A few years ago when he was the age a bull becomes a brave of his tribe, he undertook the same ritual he would’ve back in his home lands. While some changes had to be made due to the lands around him, they had actually made it harder. He was to acquire four feathers from four eagles. However eagles didn’t live in this region and instead he had to take the feathers from phoenixes.
Now he wore a headdress adorned with four bright red and orange feathers. And he couldn’t have done that without Pinkie, who had accom-pony-d him for over a week while he tracked down the birds. It was not part of the ritual to kill the birds, just to take a feather. And as he gained each, he thanked the creature. And he thanked Pinkie Pie too. He had planned on hunting or capturing them, plucking a feather from them. She had shown him that it could be done by befriending them, feeding them and making them feel safe, then asking for a feather. And so he did.
“It’s fine Bysie.” she replied, using her nickname of his nickname. “It’s just a little saw.” she added with a pun no one except the reader would get as she opened her eye, blinking a few times before it was opened fully. “But now your roof’s broken. Look, the rope’s completely frayed all over the place.” she pointed out. Even though it had only snapped in one spot, letting the rest of it go loose, it had been worn down in numerous places. And being numerous was quite impressive seems the rope was only about eight meters long.
“Yes, I will have to repair it. With new rope and new branches. Are you sure you’re alright Pinkie Pie?” he asked as he noticed her wince when putting her hurt hoof on the ground and her eye starting to darken dramatically.
“Oh this?” she said putting more weight onto her hoof and wincing a bit “Uh!... it’s nothing, see?” she said taking a few steps. It did hurt but it wasn’t really anything. She’d limp for a bit that was about all.
“If you’re certain. I can find some herbs that will help the swelling on your eye.”
“Oh don’t worry about it. Just a little ice on it back at the house will do.”
“Ice?” there were still a few modern items he wasn’t accustomed to.
“Um… cold hard water, remember?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Anyway, I should get going. It’s a little late and I wouldn’t want to make my dad angry again. Not before tomorrow!” she said cryptically. Bysen never used dates like ponies did and Pinkie seemed to keep track of them quite fanatically. Whatever tomorrow was, Bysen was more than anticipating now.