Bushkeeper

by Odd_Sarge

24 - Lessons

Despite their clear intelligence, the ponies were a lot less productive than they seemed. Mint listened with rapt attention to Andrew’s words and motions, but the other ponies were clearly lost in the grand scheme that Andrew had attempted to wheel into motion. Groaning, the teenager put his twig down and leant back.

He threw his hands into the air. “Guys!” Five heads shot to him. “Listen to me!” he hissed, pronouncing each syllable clearly. His finger landed on the alphabet he had drawn upside down for the ponies. “I’m trying to teach something to you guys, and all I get are dull eyes. What happened to the intelligence?”

Mint tapped on the alphabet. ”Bushkeeper, what is this?”

“Writing.”

Mint cocked her head, then repeated Andrew. “Writing?”

“Yes.” He pointed to Mint. “You.” His finger went to the alphabet, but his eyes remained on Mint. “Writing?” A glimmer of hope surged into Andrew’s deteriorating soul as Mint nodded eagerly.

“Writing! We do, we do!” she whinnied. Mint violently plucked the twig from the ground, then began drawing into the dirt. Andrew had to walk around to Mint’s side to see what the mare was drawing with the stick, but his jaw dropped upon seeing the completed work a minute later.

“Mint…” he began slowly. “What’s this?”

“Writing!” she provided happily.

Forty-six individual characters stared up from the ground at Andrew. All of them were clearly from the pictographic language, but there were just too many for him to be able to take in all at once. Andrew went to share his inability to understand the writing with Mint.

”Alpha. Leader.” Andrew looked at the owner of the green hoof that had landed on the first character. Greeny looked up at Andrew with a warm smile. ”You understand?”

Andrew nodded simply. “Yes, Greeny.”

With those four simple words from the unicorn, a whole world of understanding was unleashed upon the ponies that had been previously idle in the group’s ‘productive’ planning session.

”A name for you!” Storm whickered excitedly to Greeny.

“Greeny.” Mint ran her snout along Greeny’s neck with a pleasant smile. ”My mate… a name.”

Brownie’s eyes were wide with recognition. ”A name…”

Andrew hopped in. “Name.” He pointed to each pony as he mentioned them. “Greeny. Mint. Storm. Blackie. Brownie.”

Greeny tapped on the written pony language. “Name?”

Andrew was all too happy to oblige; things were starting to go somewhere. “Word.”

Mint piped up. “Words?”

Andrew clapped excitedly and laughed. “That’s the intelligence I’m looking for!” He nodded vigorously. “Yes. Word. Words.”

“Ponies.” Mint was standing now, with Andrew watching in amazement as she took control of the learning. She pointed to Storm and Blackie. “Pegasi.” She pointed to Brownie, then looked to Andrew for support.

She wanted Andrew to name the words as they went on. So Andrew did.

Mint, along with the help of Andrew, began to name everything she pointed at. “Pegasus. Hornless.” She pointed to herself. “Unicorn. Unicorns.” Mint gestured to all of the ponies, this time speaking without Andrew’s assistance. “Ponies.”

Mint and Andrew let the words sink in for a while. Greeny repeated the words in shaky English, and once he had, he gave a brisk nod. He looked to Andrew and whickered softly. ”Shall I teach you of our language, Bushkeeper?”

Andrew smiled and nodded. “I’d love that.”

Over a small period of time, a plan was silently designed between Andrew and Mint. The group of six was split into a group of four and a group of two: Greeny would begin teaching Andrew of the written pony language, and the other group would practice English with Mint. Andrew threw a look in the mare’s direction as she taught the three ponies what words meant what to Andrew.

Andrew grinned. “This’ll work out just fine.” He returned to Greeny and gave a nod.

The pony pictograms were actually a lot more simple than Andrew had feared. They contained whole meanings for words, such as alpha and leader, but there were some strange combinations that seemed to exist; some symbols put together meant different things. As Greeny spoke the words out loud, it became obvious that both languages were put together with modular structures in mind. Andrew had tried his hand at emulating the symbols, but it had turned out poorly. Similarly enough, Greeny also had trouble writing in English. An agreement was formed between Greeny and Andrew that writing could wait.

The group decided to call it quits after the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies had returned from their expeditions. Many of the earth ponies and unicorns came bounding up with what Andrew recognized as wild wheat stalks in their mouths, and more than a few clouds were being tugged along by the pegasi. A few words were shared between the earth ponies and the pegasi with clouds. As Andrew stepped forward to question the reason for the clouds, he had to pause to watch a couple of the earth ponies begin digging a hole. Within seconds, a decent trench had been dug into the ground. The pegasi flew over with their clouds, and after a few strong bucks to the clouds, a water began to pour from the clouds and into the trench.

Ponies all around scrambled for the water and began to drink, and Andrew himself felt attracted to the liquid. He stepped over to inspect the water, and was surprised by what he found; the water was the same azure liquid that he had seen in the cave.

It had felt like weeks ago since he’d been in the cave, but he could recognize that water anywhere.

Andrew scratched his head and looked to Mint as she pulled up beside him. “Where did they get this water from?”

All Mint could offer Andrew was a pair of folded ears and her sympathy.

“Right, whatever. I’ll figure it out eventually.”

With food and water secured, Andrew settled in with the berries in his hood to listen to the lead leaders speak with their ponies.

The white unicorn and her foal trotted out of the crowd of excitedly blabbing ponies and bowed before Mint and Andrew.

”Fwalfa, Bushkeeper.” She stood. ”We have returned with the yellow grass.”

Mint nodded. ”Thank you. What else did you discover?”

”A strange hollow,” came the immediate reply. Andrew cocked his head and leant forward, arms crossed. ”It held an… unfamiliar aura.”

Andrew threw one of his hands out. “Care to explain?” Mint nodded in agreement.

The mare shuffled awkwardly as her foal ran back and forth between her hooves. ”There was something calming in the forest. Many of the herd paused to rest, and it was only through the help of our fwafwa that we were able to wake them.”

”Strange,” Mint whinnied quietly. ”That is worrying. Were you able to identify the cause?”

Unfortunately, the mare shook her head.

Andrew uncrossed his arms and sighed. “So we stay out of the woods. Got it.” He spotted Blackie talking to one of his pegasi. Picking up his walking stick from where he had left it, Andrew left the two mares to their conversation.

”—and there is a well-protected glen there as well.”

Andrew clasped a hand on Blackie’s withers. “What’d I miss?”

”Bushkeeper!” The stallion that had been speaking bowed low and then stood again. ”There is a good place to stay the night!”

Andrew laughed and shook his head, causing a burst of confusion from the stallion.

”Bushkeeper?”

Andrew smiled and waved him off. “I was just thinking that we’d be staying there longer than a night.” He glanced about for a moment, then turned back to the pegasus and made a gesture with his hand. “Lead the way.”

The pegasus understood immediately. After bowing again, he lifted up into the air and began flapping away. It wouldn’t be too hard for Andrew to catch up to the stallion, so he looked again at the ponies. They all seemed busy eating to their content and taking care of the foals. Some of the adults were even playing with each other. Andrew thought that they all looked so… so carefree. They had just escaped fiery damnation, so Andrew supposed it wouldn’t be too far out there to imagine that they wanted some joy before their next adventure.

With a quick wave goodbye to Mint, Andrew went after the pegasus, walking stick in hand.

The pegasus had paused up ahead to wait for Andrew, but was surprised to find that Andrew was very fast on his feet. Smiling, Andrew skid to a halt and pat the pegasus on the leg. The two were off again quickly, and Andrew was pretty impressed that the pegasus was nearly outpacing him.

Nearly. The walking stick Andrew had didn’t slow him that much.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, it seemed that the two had reached their destination. The pegasus landed on the ground and looked back to Andrew with a snort.

”What do you think, Bushkeeper?”

Stepping forward, Andrew inspected the area.

A well-sized stream that had branched off from the main river to the east came down from a nearby hill, dividing the area in two. One one side of the stream lay a small grove of apple trees, which Andrew was all too happy to see. On the other side was a hilly meadow that had a few hills that were taller than Andrew. From where Andrew was standing on his own hill, the area seemed to be about four city blocks wide; decently sized for a starting area. They were located in the center of the plains, for the forests to the north and south were at least a couple miles away. It would make it easier for them to defend if worst came to worst, and the existence of the blueberry patch close by meant that more food could be easily accessible. Living closer to the main river also meant that fishing could be a possibly, and Andrew deeply desired meat.

Just the thought of meat caused Andrew’s stomach to rumble. It was in that moment that he realized just how hungry he was. He had been neglecting the fact for long enough, and the mere idea that he had not eaten in at least a day only made Andrew hungrier. Andrew turned, one hand clutched to his stomach, then nodded to the pegasus. Andrew didn’t say anything, too occupied on the thought of food.

The pegasus led Andrew back to the other ponies. Most of them had joined in playing, but a select few from each species of pony were sticking close to Mint. As Andrew approached, he realized that Mint was teaching the foals and some adults the little English she knew. Some of the foals were off to the side practicing their writing. Greeny was nearby carving into his tooth. Andrew was curious to see what new additions the unicorn would be making, but the rumble of his stomach again cut that thought short. Blackie was close enough by to hear Andrew’s stomach, and immediately stood from his place. Mint smiled and waved to Andrew, which the teenager weakly returned.

”Bushkeeper, are you hungry?”

Andrew’s stomach grumbled again. “Yes… I am.”

Blackie’s ears folded against his head at the sound. ”Do you want fish?”

Andrew’s eager nod made the pegasus chortle.

”I will send some of my herd to cross the Great Open to the eastern river.”

“That would be great,” Andrew gave him a wide smile, “Thanks.”

Smiling back with just as much force, Blackie trotted off to assemble a party.

Andrew hiked over to where Mint was instructing and sat down. Seeing the pony at eye level with him made Andrew recall his first time meeting Mint in the blueberry thicket, and that forced a particular emotion of nostalgia into his throat. He combed his hand through her cyan mane, causing the mare to pause for a moment, but she recovered quickly enough. Andrew leant against the mare and listened to her speaking to the ponies. The others seemed to not be able to pick up on English as well as the herd leaders, but Andrew was sure that under the leadership of Mint, they would learn soon enough.

Sighing, Andrew shut his eyes and waited for the pegasi to return with meat.

Comments

[KMCA]

I don't really consider fish to be meat. I think of it as its own thing.

[sjo3989]

Thanks for the update

[Fanliterature101]

Absolutely love it!

[stephen51991]

8164908 I never understood the distinction to be honest. It is the flesh of a lifeform belonging to the biological kingdom "Animalia", therefore it is meat.

[Rhombicosidodecahedron]

8165029 makes it sound more exotic and with which you can apply capitalism to drive up prices
maybe idk

[Inucroft1]

[KMCA]

8165029 Fish is fairly distinct compared to other meat. Plus it's a water animal rather than land.

It's still eating flesh if you want to get that generic and I'm not sure how reptiles would compare but they might make me re-evaluate my position.

[Hein des Nisseroi]

8164908
Meat is usually used to refer to beef or pork, in particular. Although fish and poultry could still fall under meat in general.

[mastermenthe]

Turn one of PonyCiv is nearly completed.

[RazorWing_GB]

8164908 Land Meat, Air Meat, Sea Stuff; Am I right?

[Zenai]

Happy to see another chapter! A few typos here and there that I can't be arsed to point out since I am on my phone ATM. Nice chapter albeit slightly slow paced. :)

[stephen51991]

8165295 To be honest, the real reason that some people don't count certain types of animal flesh as meat is almost always cultural/religious.

The following topic I've linked (and the comments beneath it) does a better job of explaining why than I ever could:

https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46964/why-is-fish-not-considered-as-meat

[Thesciencefanficwriter]

8165686 ur kidding, right? this went fast as hell.

[Odd_Sarge]

8166220
Yeah, uh. No clue where he got that from. These chapters zoom by fast.

I guess if you're a slow reader... I don't know. It seems like a lot when I'm editing, but when I go through and read it myself it zips by fast.

[Zenai]

8166220 There is a huge difference between pacing and lenght. Yes it was a short chapter, but I mean slow pacing as in not alot of events happened. It was mostly just "Teaching horses english and being hungry."

You could argue that the horses learns the language too fast, but in a story like this the amount of time that passes is skewed. A day may be very short if they spend 6 hours studying... Because who wants to type/read about studying for the equivelent duration of 6 hours?

No need to be rude.

[An everfree rat]

startng to get civilization flash backs here. soon they’ll have black powder and proudly show off their new musketeers... then get NUKED BY GHANDI, JUST LIKE IT HAPPENED TO ME!