//------------------------------// // Lovers // Story: By and by // by Bysen //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie returned to her home the next day. She and Bysen had spent the last night as husband and wife, as mates, or as they both called it in either’s language: as lovers. She had planned to do this for so long but now was the time. She was leaving the farm and though she didn’t want to, she had to tell her father so. And, tell her father why. Clyde had always asked if Bysen had tried anything inappropriate and Pinkie had always been told no. He’d even asked Octavia and Blinkie if they’d heard Pinkie say anything about them being together. Neither of them had because until now, they hadn’t. As Pinkie returned, Blinkie was the first to notice. Clyde was half passed out trying to rest after the morning’s work. He was old, and rock farming was far too much for him despite how little there was left these days. As long as he had at least one of his daughters still working though he would manage. Not that the farm would manage much longer. In all honesty it had maybe a month left before the last rocks were gone. His wife had passed, Octavia practically lived with her friends now and Blinkie was moving in with her finance… all he had left was Pinkie. “Father?” Pinkie said as he walked in and saw him in his favourite chair. She hadn’t called him anything but ‘Dad’ in years now so using ‘Father’ was the first sign this wasn’t going to go well. Clyde stirred awake, slightly annoyed but just glad she was back from her night with that buffalo. “Yes Pinkie dear… err, honey?” despite how long he’d tried to stop saying ‘dear’ he just couldn’t. “I have something important to tell you. Something really important.” she said as she walked over to beside him and took his hoof. “You know I love you, even with how much we fight, you know that right?” “Of course Pinkie.” he replied, starting to think this was something really important for once. He saw the band on her wrist but didn’t pay it much mind. Some of the weird outfits he’d seen his daughter get from who-knows-where, a small bracelet wasn’t really that eye catching. “That’s good. Father, I know you’ve never liked him, but me and… Bysen and I… we’re married.” she said, raising her left hoof to show him the braided band. He didn’t react though; he hadn’t quite taken the information in yet. “And I’m going to be living with him.” “W-when did…?” he stuttered. “Last night. We got married, or mated by his people’s customs. We made the bands together performed the ceremony to bind them together.” “Mated?...” was all he could say as he stared at his daughter. The one last thing he had to hold on too, now being taken away. But she had been with Bysen for so long, and like Octavia to her friends, spent so much time with him that it was arguable that she already lived with him in some way. She was going to be living with him, but she would be nearby still. “I just want you to know. I’ll be leaving soon. And I want to put all our fights behind us. Please, don’t hate him and just accept that I love him. We’re leaving this land and…” “Leaving?!” Clyde spoke, startled by the words. “What do you mean leaving?” “We’re going back to the plains where he’s from. The badlands. An-and don’t say I couldn’t survive out there. You know that ponies are starting to settle out there and he’ll take care of me, and I’ll take care of him! Just please, I love him and he loves me and we’re married and we’ve shared the deepest bond imaginable.” “So… you and he… had sex?” he asked. Everything slowly sinking in and every word of it hurting him more than the last. “No, that’s not what I meant… I mean yes, we did. But I mean we shared…” “Where is he!” Clyde shouted, pulling his hoof away from Pinkie and leaping out of his chair “Where is that savage beast hiding!? I’ve let him live on my land, be around my daughter and now, he makes you do some neighgan ritual and tries to run off with you to some desert?!” he shouted directly at Pinkie. Blinkie had been listening in intently to the conversation but keeping herself out of it. Now she couldn’t any longer “Father, if that bracelet she’d wearing was…” “Quiet!” he shouted towards Blinkie. She’d tried to teach him about Bysen’s culture a number of times but Clyde had never taken an interest. She wondered why she’d thought he would now. He grabbed Pinkie by the hoof and pulled her forwards, then said quietly, but seething with anger “Where. Is. He?” “I… I won’t tell you! I-I wanted you to be happy about this, so that you two cou…” “Happy? Happy!? How could I be happy about this?!” he shouted once more, then started pulling Pinkie towards the front of the house and threw her on the ground just at the door so she was looking out. He then pointed towards the old patched up part of fence Bysen had broken years ago. “He’s that way somewhere, show me!” “No!” she shouted back as she lay on the ground crying. “I was, I was going to try and get you two to meet again, to be friend but… why? Why won’t you just accept I love him?!” “Because he’s a savage buffalo filth!” Clyde yelled, before he walked back inside, leaving Pinkie in the doorway. Blinkie ran up to her now that her father was out of the way. “Are you alright Sis? You’re not hurt?” she asked. “No…” Pinkie cried. But what she was actually saying was ‘No, I’m not alright’. “This is your last chance.” Clyde said standing at the door behind them once more. “Tell me where he is, or I will burn down this whole forest to flush him out. I’ll light it up and then light up all around it, and trap him in a ring of fire. There’ll be no way out. Now. TELL ME WHERE HE IS!!!” he yelled, his voice echoing through the empty air of the farm. “He’s exactly 3,278 metres; 27 degrees above east of that fence!” Pinkie cried, horrified by what her father had just threatened. But as he walked past her she became even more frighten. He was carrying his rifle. “No! Don’t! Don’t dad please!” But before Clyde could say another word Pinkie’s hoof came up, upper-cutting across his jaw, knocking him over. He lay there stunned, rifle still in his hooves. Pinkie stood up, as Blinkie recoiled from what had just happened. Pinkie moved over towards her father. But, before she could do a thing, this time the butt of his rifle came flying up, clocking her in the side of the head. And everything went black. ~ ~ “Ooouuugghhhhh…” Pinkie groaned as she came too. She couldn’t remember what had happened, all she knew was her head hurt. That, and that Blinkie had wrapped her tightly in her hooves. “Oh thank Celestia you’re alright!” Blinkie practically screamed as her sister stirred. She’d been out for only ten-odd minutes but that was more than enough to scare Blinkie beyond anything she’d ever seen before. How her father could do that… she didn’t even think him capable of it. And now he’d gone after Bysen. “Get up! We have to stop him! Quickly!” “Wuh?...” Pinkie asked as she rubbed her saw face. “Stop who? What’s going o…” it came back. Her father, Bysen, a gun. “Oh no! Where is he?!” she screamed, instantly flipping to her hooves, knocking Blinkie over in the process. She dashed off towards the fence, and jumped over it, running at top speed. “Bysen…”