When a young Pinkie Pie sees a fire in the forest surounding her family's rockfarm she goes looking for the source and find somepony very different to any she's met before. Her parents however do not approve of her beavior since she got her Cutiemark
Set shortly after Pinkie Pie got her Cutie Mark, this story follows her over the course of a few years as she meets her first best friend, a buffalo she nicknames Bysen. Wait don't leave! I know it sounds like an self OC shipfic and... it kinda is. But it goes off in a different direction than you'd expect.
This was written before season 4. This means that Pinkie's family hadn't been fleshed out yet. Specifically that Maud didn't exist yet and that Pinkie's family was named by the fandom after the ghosts from Pacman: Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde, and that they were Amish...ish. And Bonnie and Clyde was my personal touch. In fact you can still google those names followed by pie and they'll show up [except Bonnie].
"You probably could have just made a story of just this chapter" - Crimson Dawn
This was pulled from a much MUCH larger story in which this was a single chapter and as such there are a few things that are foreshadowing/throwing back that are just kinda set by this point in the full story and probably need to be changed in this stand alone version. And here’s the full original story.
Did you know that a pony’s adult name and birth name aren’t always the same? When a pony gets their Cutie Mark they change their name to suite their special talent more accurately. Not all ponies do this however, liking their original name, or in rare cases already having a relevant name. A prime example would be Pinkie herself whose name is still similar but changed none the less to fit her.
~ ~
It was a beautiful day! The sky was grey and overcast, the air was dead-still causing the eerie leafless tree to not move an inch, and the road she was skipping down was rocky and uneven. But everyday day was beautiful when you had a smile for an umbrella. Although since it wasn’t raining the smile was actually some other kind of metaphor that made more sense.
A young pink filly named Pinkamena Diane Pie was returning to her home on the rock farm. It had been a week since she’d gotten her Cutie Mark of her special talent for throwing parties. Or maybe it was her talent to make ponies smile. Or maybe it was just balloons. Either way those went hoof in hoof. Both her older sisters still didn’t have their Cutie Marks so she was going to throw them a party with lots of balloons to make them smile. See, hoof in hoof!
Pinkamena, or as she called herself now Pinkie Pie, or sometimes just Pinkie, was returning from the nearby little village of Steadsted. Walking home, no skipping home... bouncing home? Heading home in some form or another, Pinkie was following the path humming some tune to herself as she went. They had eggs, flour and a good variety of fruits back at the farm so all she needed was milk and sugar to bake a cake, but she’d also bought a few other things. Not confetti or the like as it could all be made out of paper and she already had that at home too.
What she’d bought were gifts for her sisters. A my-first-instrument set and a practice first aid kit. She was ABSOLUTELY sure that Inkamena and Blinkamena, or Inkie and Blinkie as she’d started calling them since she’d started calling herself Pinkie, would love them. Her eldest sister would make a great musician and the middle sister would make a super-dee-duper doctor one day!
She continued home everything was normal. Until she saw something that wasn’t normal. Out of the corner of her eye, above the tree line that bordered the road, there was a something grey. And it wasn’t just the grey clouds that perpetually lined the sky. It was smoke. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire. The ground was littered with the dried leaves fallen from the trees. A fire in this forest would spread far and fast. Her party could wait, she had to warn her family and do what they could to protect the farm. She dropped the bag she was carrying and began galloping home as fast as she could.
Pinkie burst through the front gates yelling “Forest fire! Forest fire! There’s a forest fire!” and got an immediate response from her father Clyde. He was a rather old stallion for having such young kids. Fact was, he was stallion of the cloth until very late in his life and kept most of those tenants, even still wearing his collar. He had a grey mane like two of the three of his daughters. Although his used to be pink back in his youth. While that mane was mostly covered by his rather large hat, his grey sideburns still showed his age.
Her eldest sister Blinkie who was just old enough to remember the last fire that had devastated their precious rocks when she was barely able to talk called out “Get some buckets and soak the ground around the fences!” acting fast and wanting to avoid losing as much of their land as possible. At least they had some time to prepare this time. And now that the three sisters were old enough to lend a hoof, that helped too. “Get all the animals out of the pens and into the open! We can round them up later but their no good if they’re cooked!” she always worried over the animal health and well-being.
Who knows, if they have enough time they could save the entire farm! And sure enough, they had enough time to prepare everything. The ground all along the fences were soaked to the point of mud, they had twenty full buckets lined up and ready, with a system to quickly refill them from the well. They’d even managed to move most of the bigger, more valuable rocks towards the house and the cheaper or more fire resistant rocks towards the direction the fire was coming from.
But ultimately… it made no difference. No matter how much you prepare for a fire, there’s not much you can do when it never even comes. They’d stayed at the fences waiting for the first sign it was getting close for hours. Before long, the sky began to darken as night fell and still there was no sign of it anywhere. Clyde knew his daughter wouldn’t lie so the fire had to be out there; maybe it had just gone in the opposite direction.
He climbed to the top of the rock silo and took a look out over the whole forest. Nothing. The sky was dark and cloudy, with no moon light, if there was fire anywhere nearby its orange glow would be impossible to miss. He yelled from the top of the structure “Everypony. We’re safe. There’s no fire!” as he began to climb down. He was exhausted when he got down. His wife, Bonnie, waited for him at the bottom of the ladder “It’s been a long day…” he sighed and let her help him towards the house.
He was old and the farm work was hard on him most days. And today had been incredibly stressful. He knew Pinkie Pie hadn’t lied, she’d just been mistaken. And while Inkie seemed to be over the roof that there was no fire, Clyde was rather annoyed. Truth be told, the farm wasn’t doing too well. If there had been a fire and they’d lost any amount of their rocks… they would’ve been in a very bad situation.
A rock farm can only exist where there’s rock to farmed after all and the rock here were starting to dry up. Both figuratively and literally. The large amount of water in the ground here slowly pushed rocks to the surface while the land still remained solid, if not a little squishy at times. However, what kept this spot in particular filled with rock was a large iron rich magnetic lodestone the house was built on.
Most of the rocks had already been mined though, or harvested; whichever you wanted to call it, over the last number of decades the Pie family had owned the land and they’d been getting less and less rising up each year. Sure there were other lode-stones around here, not even that far, maybe ten or twenty Kilometres away. But you had to find them. They were moderately rare. And none big enough to build another house on top of.
If he had been forth planning and started looking for a new spot nine years ago when the rocks had first started to slow in numbers maybe they would’ve found one. But each year he just let it slip by, thinking next year would be better. Once he had finally started looking though, just earlier this year, he’d grown old. He’d had the hopes that his children would carry on working this farm but that hope had faded when his youngest daughter, and first to do so, had gotten her Cutie Mark in something other than geology.
And if his older daughter’s hadn’t gotten theirs yet having something to do with his line of work, they wouldn’t. The farm would end with him. It was a dying farm anyway. It was a sad wasteland they lived in anyway. Even if the trees were alive, they didn’t look it. The water in the ground and the high heat always made it cloudy and dark… but there was so much light added to his life now. Pinkie’s personality had changed overnight. Before she had been a dull and gloomy as both the land and her sisters. Now… now she was, well Pinkie. But Pinkie wasn’t the same daughter they had named Pinkamena.
It made it all the sadder that he had to punish her for this. As he and his wife headed towards the house, he could see Pinkie looked puzzled. “I know I saw fire. Well, I saw smoke and there can’t be smoke without fire.” she questioned.
“I’m sure you thought to saw smoke.” he said. His voice sounding raspy and tired out. As well as sounding more condescending than he had intended. “You’re grounded for a week.” he finished bluntly.
“But dad I…”
“That’s father!” Clyde scolded. “Listen, I like this ‘new you’, but this is too much! I know you didn’t mean to make this mistake but you still made it! This was good practice, but… it scared me. It scared your mother and your sister’s too.”
“But, but that’s more than twice what you’ve ever given to any of us!” Pinkie replied, having never been grounded for more then a few days.
“What you did is twice as serious.”
“But I…”
“No more buts!” Clyde yelled, silencing his daughter. “Now… let’s go inside. We’ll have a late dinner then it’s off to bed for today. You have school in the morning.” Clyde finished as he turned and started for his little house on the quarry.
“Yes father.” Pinkie sighed as she lowered her head and whispered to herself “I was just trying to help…”
The next day came and Pinkie went to school with her sisters. They were home schooled and their mother had decided today’s lesson would be about predisposed metamorphic geodes, AKA gems or jewels, and how they were formed in perfectly cut shapes by forces unknown to even the princess. Rumoured that they had been done so by an ancient, now dead race called ‘hoomans’. Lunch time came along and while Inkie and Blinkie went out to play, Pinkie was kept inside.
Her mother and father had spoken last night. They’d decided that one whole week was too much. Pinkie’s mother had talked Clyde down to just three days of grounding. They hadn’t told Pinkie yet and would tell her over dinner tonight. That wasn’t all they’d spoken about though. They’d spoken about how she’d changed. Neither of them disliked her new attitude but it was just so different to what she used to be. Calm and quiet like her sisters and aside from the occasional tiff with one another or one of the children from town, all three of them were well behaved children. But such a drastic and sudden change in their daughter, it worried them.
As Pinkie sat at her desk, looking out towards the dull barren fields where her sisters were playing with their favourite pet rock, Pinkie remembered something. “Mother.”
“Yes dear?” she replied, looking up from the book she had been reading : Dragon Eggs, and How to Identify Obvious Ones.
“I know I’m not allowed out to play but could I go out and get the stuff I bought in town yesterday?”
“What did you get?” Bonnie asked in turn.
“It was a gift for Inkie and Blinkie. I also got some milk and sugar to make a cake. I was planning on throwing them both a party.”
“Don’t try and bribe me into letting you out there with the promise of cake Pinkam-... Pinkie.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s that I left it when I saw the… when I thought I saw the fire yesterday. The probably milk’s bad by now but I shouldn’t let the other things go to waste too.”
“Where did you leave it?”
“Just on the path back from town. About half way here.”
“Alright. You have forty minutes.”
“But it’s only thirty minutes to town and back?”
“I know Pinkie. Now go, that forty starts now, don’t waste it.”
“Oh thank you Mom!” Pinkie yelled and hugged her mother, before bolting out the door and out of the front gates. She hopped all the way out there for about seven minutes or so before the bag came into view and that’s when she slowed down. She could grab the bag and come home with twenty-five minutes to spare. Or… “I know I saw smoke yesterday. I know I did!” she said to herself as she looked around the side of the road the smoke had been above.
She got to the bag and picked it up, checking the contents. It was all there, the milk smelled bad like she'd expected so she just picked up the bottle and threw it away. She then swung the bag over her head and onto her back.
But instead of heading back to the farm, she looked to her left, then turned around and looked to her right. Then turned around twice more until she was facing the direction she’d been facing yesterday, while standing in the spot she’d been in when she saw “The smoke was… there!” she pointed with her hoof where she remembered seeing it come from. “I know there was smoke and I’m going to find out what made it!” she proclaimed to nopony.
Without hesitation, even though she’d never been into the woods by herself before, she hopped off the road and started bouncing her way into them. There wasn’t anything to really worry about in this forest other than a few rock-lobsters the real danger came from getting lost. Pinkie and her sisters had always been told not to enter the woods without a compos. The lode-stone that their house was built on was magnetic and so the compos would always point to the farm.
She headed towards where she thought the smoke had been coming from. She’d been walking for about ten minutes now, but still hadn’t found anything. If she didn’t turn back soon she’d be in even more trouble than she was already in. “But I didn’t do anything…” she sighed to herself. “I didn’t… and if I can prove I saw fire then they’ll have to unground me!” she chirped, happy with her completely flawless logic and continued on. If she was late back home it didn’t matter because she was right!
Pinkie kept going, eventually she could hear something up ahead. She stopped bouncing along and went into stealth mode, pulling herself low to the ground and crawling her way slowly forward. The sound had been coming from a bunch of weird looking, white barked trees that were in the middle of a clearing.
As she approached her eyes scanned over the white trees and past them to a giant white rock. They weren’t trees, they were stone of some sort… marble? She continued to sneak around, all the while looking for what had made the sounds she’d heard moments ago. Unfortunately she couldn’t find it though and soon enough she saw something else.
A fire pit. A small circle of rocks with a pile of ash in the middle of it. She hadn’t been seeing things! She had proof now! She had… she had something very sharp poking at her throat and a heavy weight on her back. “You’re not very good at sneaking, little one.” a deep voice said loudly right into her ear. “I could hear you coming before you decided to ambush me.”
“I, I didn’t… please don’t hurt me!” Pinkie whimpered. “P-please…” she feared for her life as her eyes unfocused with fright. She just stared forward, not daring to move for she didn’t know how long. Eventually, mercifully, the object pointed against her neck was removed and the weight came off her back. Despite the weight off of her, she fell to the ground. She’d never been so scared in her life. She curled up and began to cry.
Lying there sobbing she felt a hoof on her side and jumped from its touch. The assailant ignored her resistance and moved his hoof down her back towards her flank. “You are a female?” Pinkie didn’t know much about what her eldest sister had called sex but she remembered her parents telling her about ‘good touch, bad touch’. And with that, he lifted Pinkie’s tale.
And then put it back down. He moved away from the girl he’d just found. Walking back towards his camp, Pinkie got a good looked at him at last. He was big, really big, easily three times her size. She could only see the back of him. Or at least she assumed it was his back. He was very hairy and round, standing on four short legs, which were probably longer than they seemed, just covered by his long shaggy brown coat.
He walked over to a small rock near the fireplace and grabbed something. He then turned around and started back towards Pinkie with a bag in his mouth. Pinkie got a look at his face and knew for sure this wasn’t a pony. He had a dark nose with large nostrils and his forehead pointed out above his eyes. And on each side of that forehead was a long dark grey horn. The only thing Pinkie thought this creature would be was a demon.
“Drink.” he said putting the bag on the ground in front of her. Pinkie looked at the bag and wondered what was in it. But she didn’t dare disobey this creature and reached out for the bag. She tried to open it but couldn’t figure out how. Eventually “The top there, put it in your mouth and bite down.” and she did as instructed. She felt a drop of water spill out from it. It was just water.
Pinkie took a few more sips before releasing it. The creature grabbed the water-skin with his mouth and returned it back where he’d gotten it. Pinkie got to her hoofs and thought about running but feared what he would do if she did. One of this horns had been pressed against her throat and he had moved so silently despite his size, he obviously had great grace and would probably catch her if she tried. Pinkie didn’t know what she should do.
“I am sorry.” the beast said. “I did not mean to scare you. I was told that ponies are smaller creatures. I thought them as small as you. I am just small too I suppose. But I see you are just a child. I thought you intended to hunt me, so I acted first.”
Pinkie was still scared but at least she was in less danger than before. But this thing had nearly killed her and never even seen a pony before. “W-what are you, Mister Monster?”
“I am a buffalo. And you are a pony? A child female?”
“I’m not a child, I got my Cutie Mark. That means I’m an adult!” Pinkie said happily, despite her fear, remembering what her late Granny Pie had told her. “A buffalo? I thought you people only lived down in the badlands?”
“’Badlands’?” the buffalo questioned as he stepped up onto a flat rock near his fireplace and sat down.
“You know, the desert. Down south where ponies don’t live.” Pinkie said. She was shaking and nervous. She’d said a few things wrong already. ‘you people’ calling his home ‘badlands’ and saying that nopony lived there.
“Come, sit. I will tell you of my people.” he said, lifting a hoof and motioning for her to sit on a rock opposite him. She hadn’t moved from where she’d lay before and only did so now very hesitantly. She approached slowly and took a seat, making sure not to point her rear in his direction. “You are scared of me.” he stated.
“No I’m not.” Pinkie lied.
“You are shaking. I apologise for what happened earlier.”
“I’m not scared!” Pinkie insisted. Pinkie lied… “If I was scared, why would I come and speak with you?”
“You are brave to speak to me, this is true. But bravery doesn’t not mean you lack fear, it merely means you do not let it control you. You would be honoured amongst my people for such acts.” he stated as Pinkie finally made herself comfortable on the rock. It wasn’t as comfortable as the rocks she had back at the farm but they did always keep the best rocks for themselves after all. One of the many benefits.
“Thank you?” Pinkie said with a tint of confusing. She wasn’t too sure if that had been a compliment or just that speaking in his weird way. “Can I ask you something?”
“You may.”
“Did you have a fire going about a few hours after now, but yesterday? I saw some smoke from the road and thought there was a forest fire.”
“I did. Though I do not think you have to worry about a fire. The ground is rich with water and though the trees look as if dead, they are very much alive. I found that out yesterday. I thought the tree dead as it was devoid of leaves, perhaps dried during some drought, but when I went to burn it in my pit, it let out very much smoke. Living wood has much water in it and does not burn as clean as dead wood. I am not used to the trees around this new home.”
“Well, that’s good news I guess. I live on a farm not too far from her and a fire would’ve really been bad.” Pinkie cheered, she was becoming less scared of this big lug by the second.
“I apologise if I scared you then too, young one.”
“It’s alright. And you can call me Pinkie Pie. What’s your name?”
“My name is not important.”
“Sure it is. All I’ve got to call you so far is ‘Mister Monster’ and I’m sure you don’t like that name. So what’s your name?”
“I will not say. My name is my name and you may not use it against me.”
“Use it against you? What are you talking about?”
“My people live in peace. For the moment. There are many tribes and we oft fight one another. To know our enemies name gives us the advantage, that we know them. To give one's name is to give one's soul. I will not give you my name to be used against me.”
“Well, I told you my name so even if I were use it against you, you’d have just as much power over me, so c’mon tell me already.”
“I said I will NOT!” he yelled, bringing a small bit of fear back to Pinkie. It was a deep part of his customs. While she was not a buffalo and doubtfully knew any of the shamanistic magicks to use his name against him, he knew one thing about her. “You have not told me your true name.”
“My name’s not true?… you must mean how I changed it a few weeks ago. My name used to be Pin…”
“I do not wish to know. I will call you Pinkie Pie and I will not use it against you.” he however, did know the shaman’s magicks. He was a shaman. Emphasis on ‘was’.
“Well then, how about I give you a name that I can call you.”
“That is acceptable.”
“Yay!” Pinkie cheer, jumping from her seat and then landing back on it, legs instantly tucked perfectly back under her. “Ok what do I know about you? I found you by this rocks, you’re a buffalo and you’re very zen. Hmm…” Pinkie pondered what he was pondering. “I know! I’ll call you Bysen, get it? Because you’re a bison, I found you BY these rocks and you’re so zen!”
“I do not know what zen means. But I am fine with this name, you may call me Bysen. And I shall call you Pinkie Pie.”
“Yippy!” Pinkie cheered as she clapped her hooves together. “I can’t wait to tell my family I made a new friend. Especially somepony, err, someone like you.”
“I would rather you didn’t. I am new to this land and I do not wish to meet any ponies.”
“But you met me.”
“Yes. I did.” he said flatly. Though he wouldn’t say it, but he was surprisingly happy to have met this child.
“I’m not a child remember. Cutie Mark.”
“My apolog…. wait, how did you?... never mind.”
“So how long have you been here?” Pinkie asked.
“Since yesterday. I have travelled many a moons until I came to this place.”
“Wow, you must’ve come really far. But if you don’t want to meet new ponies, then why did you leave and come here?”
“I am a shaman. Or I was set to be one. I am but a young acolyte and when I became of my tenth year I began my rite of passage. I set out on a spirit quest to speak with my ancestors. I went off into the wilderness and communed with the spirits. They gave me a vision. To go north. So I returned to my village and told my elders of the dream. They told me to follow my vision and so I did. I travelled for more than a full seasons until I found this place.”
“What’s so special about this place? It’s just a gloomy old forest.”
“That is how I thought it too. Until I found these.” he pointed his hoof towards the white marble pillars. “The bones of a dragon.”
“These are dragon bones?” Pinkie jumped up and went over to one, poking and knock on it. “I didn’t know dragons where this big!” while she had only ever seen three dragons as they’d passed over her farm, even from so far up in the sky, none had been this big. These were easily five times the size of the ones she’d seen.
“These are indeed dragon bones. And these are indeed very large.”
Legends tell of the Dark Queen who beguiled and enslaved my people millennia ago. She ruled us and fed on what little joy we had. She ruled for seasons untold until a great dragon, far larger than any alive today, larger than any that ever did or ever will exist again, fought her for control of our people.
A dragon as big as he needed as much food as the Dark Queen’s entire people. When he won, my people disappeared. For while they lived in sorrow under the Dark Queen’s rule, at least they lived. With this new dragon king, he would eat them and our people would be soon facing extinction. Or so they had all thought. Instead, he freed our people from the slavery of a ruler and let us form our own tribes with our own chieftains and elders.
We thanked him and celebrated him. But the battle had taken a toll on him. We offered him gemstones in numbers uncountable, but he did not last. In less than a moon he passed. And from his passing, the Dark Queen returned. But she could not harm us. He used his body, his very bones, to form the mountains, to form the great standing mesa of our lands to shield us from her kind. And so, our people worship the dragons. That such powerful creatures would give of themselves to save us lesser beings.
“At each set of remains I passed, I paid my respects to their spirits. And then left them be, continuing until I found these. I saw it as a sign. That this is where I was meant to be. For what reason, I do not know. For how long, I do not know. And if I will ever return to my people... I do not know.” Bysen let out a sigh at his last words.
“That’s so sad. I mean the story sounded good, and kinda sad too, but I mean that you don’t know when you’ll see your friends again." Pinkie could only imagine what that would be like, "Would you like to be my friend?”
“Perhaps.”
“Great!” Pinkie squealed. “I’ll come by every time I can. I’ll come tomorrow and the day after, and not the day after that, but the day after that I will. I’ll come every day I can, I promise!” she beamed, her smile wide and her teeth even seeming to sparkle a little bit.
“That sounds… good.” he said, with a slight smile coming to his face. His people didn’t usually socialise with the other races, but he liked this pony. Something about her just made him feel… happy.
~ ~
As Pinkie bounced through the gate to the farm she saw her mother running up to her. Before she knew it her mother had Pinkie on the ground holding her tightly, stroking the back of her head and crying. “What’s wrong Mom?” she asked but got no response. Not for a while at least. Both Inkie and Blinkie soon came to see what was happening. Both of them looked worried yet also happy.
“Your father’s out looking for you… where have you been!?” Bonnie replied at last. She didn’t stop crying though as she pulled away and looked her daughter in the eyes.
“There was a fire yesterday, I was right. I went and got the bag and then I headed into the woods where I’d seen the smoke coming from and it was really far in there but then I came across this camp where someone had set up a small fire last night and that’s where the smoke was coming from. See I wasn’t lying, there was a fire so there’s no need to ground me.”
But that didn’t stop her from crying. They hadn’t grounded Pinkie for lying, they’d grounded her for scaring everypony. And she’d scared them far more now. “Two more weeks. No, three! A month! You’re grounded! You’re grounded and not to leave this farm AT ALL!!!” she yelled and shook Pinkie a little as she did.
“B-but I…?”
“I was so scared! You were supposed to back hours ago! I thought something had happened and now you’re father’s out there. He’s been looking for you for hours! I’m so glad you’re ok... I’m… so…” Bonnie couldn’t say anymore as she cried her eyes out and just kept hugging her daughter.
Pinkie had only been grounded for just over a week but she wasn’t allowed to leave the farm for any reason at all. Well except for the barber visit but that in itself was a punishment. They’d given up trying to fix Pinkie’s messy mane and taken her to a professional. They couldn’t re-straighten it, except for the briefest of moments before springing right back up. The fling sent the iron right back at the mane therapist, burning him slightly. In the end they managed to clean it up at least. It was still curly but it looked neat now.
Her father had returned very late that night she’d met Bysen with his rifle and a large rock-lobster. He’d shot the thing out of shear anger but felt bad about killing it. The least they could do was not let it go to waste. He cooked it up and had it for dinner that night. It was a punishment for the whole family seems ponies rarely ate meat.
Pinkie didn’t know but her parents had had a very long talk about what to do with her. The fire was understandable and apparently true, not that they’d dis-believed her. At least not at the time. But she’d been given and inch and taken a mile when her mother had let her go get the bag from the road. But she hadn’t made up the reason she’d gone out there for either. Whether she’d planned it and used the gifts as an excuse to go out there or not; they didn’t know.
Pinkie still threw that party she'd been planning for her sisters a few days later. Gifts, confetti, cake and all. She was slightly disappointed that neither of her sisters really liked their gifts, but she was happy when she found out somepony else did. She’d gotten the first instrument set for Blinkie but instead Inkie seemed to love it. And while the first aid kit she’d gotten for Inkie wasn’t loved by Blinkie, Clyde said it was a great thing to have around the farm just in case.
A few other things had happened since then. Every Friday, her mother would cook dinner as usual but Pinkie would also cook dessert. Cakes, cupcakes, muffins, croissants scones, scones, crepes, danishes, Illegal Danish Super Snacks… you name it, it was in her recipe book, in her head. Pinkie had never had a cooking lesson in her life and nopony knew how she could cook so well.
Finally, after two long months, Pinkie was allowed off the farm and could go see her new friend once more. She’d told her family about him; that he had just moved to the forest from the south and that he lit the fire she’d seen the smoke from. She had however neglected to mention the whole, pinning her down and pressing a horn to her neck thing since they’d been scared something had happened to her that day. It didn't bare mentioning.
She’d also neglected to mention the horns at all. Or his size, or that he was a buffalo. Pinkie had said she’d met ‘someone’ instead of ‘somepony’ but they simply chalked it up to another one of her new mannerisms. Her father had asked where exactly he lived but seems Pinkie wasn’t allowed to leave the farm and describing the trees along a five kilometre stretch of road wasn’t possible, he’d never gone and met him.
After a while, Pinkie stopped speaking about him as the issue of the fire had been forgotten by then, so when Pinkie was finally allowed to leave again her father didn’t think to accompany her. But now, as she came along that stretch of road to the trees she knew meant head into the woods at exactly 'that angle' to find him she did so and went into the woods at exactly that angle to find him.
About fifteen minutes later she came to the clearing with the bones. But he was nowhere to be found. Remembering what had happened last time she turned around quickly! But he wasn’t there either. “Worth a try, oh well.” she said to herself as she walked out into the open “Heeelllloooo! Is anybody home?” she called out.
The area had been set up much more than it had been two months ago. A few ropes and tree branches weaved together making a shelter between three bones, decorated in what she assumed was tribal wear. But really, the place looked abandoned. There was no sign of anyone being here. It had been two months after all. Maybe he had moved on.
It was quiet and far off but she heard a response. “Pinkie Pie?”
“Yes, it’s me! Where are you?” she called back loudly, looking around.
“I am coming, I will be with you shortly.”
“Alright, but don’t call me shortly!”
“My apologies.”
“N-no, it was a joke, because you said shortly, and I’m short.”
“I do not find it humorous, I thought had insulted you.” he said as he walked out of the woods behind the dragon’s skull carrying a rather large log on his back. He rolled it down onto the ground and made a splashing noise. Was it filled with water? He’d made a barrel out of a log, that’s quite impressive.
“Sorry, I was just trying to be funny. I’m sorry if I made you sorry.” she said, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
“It is alright. I did not expect to see you.” he replied, taking the seat opposite her.
“Why not?”
“Because you promised you would come to speak with me every day. I have not seen you for two moons and did not expect to see you at all. I was disappointed when I realised that.”
“Did I? Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset. But I promise I’ll be here every day from now on!”
“Do not make a buffalo a promise... if you know you can not keep it. You have already broken one, I do not wish to get my hopes up again.” he said looking away from her. He didn’t want to admit it but he had enjoyed his time with her and was saddened she had evidently not enjoyed their time together sinces she had decided not to return.
“Well, I didn’t break my promise.” Pinkie argued.
“You broke your promise, do not try and lie. I remember exactly what you said that day. ‘I’ll come by every time I can. I’ll come tomorrow and the day after, and not the day after that, but the day after that I will. I’ll come every day I can, I promise!’. And you did not.”
“Wow, how did you remember that?”
“I remember everything you said that day.”
“Wow! You must have a super-dee-duper memory! Quick, how many hooves am I holding up, I’m going to ask you years from now.”
“You are holding up six… wait, how di… nevermind. No, my memory is not as great as you say. I remember what you said because it is the only time I have spoken with another in a very long time.”
“Oh, yeah I guess I’m the only pony you’ve seen in the last two months.”
“Even longer. I have not spoken with any other for almost a seasons. And the spirits of passed dragons do not tend to speak back.” he joked, though he was actually hurting on the inside quite dearly.
“Well, I didn’t break my promise then. If that was what I said, then my promise was to come every day I could, and today is the first day that I could. My parents grounded me so I couldn’t leave the farm.”
“Grounded? But you cannot fly?” he asked there was more than a tone of questioning in his voice. He wondered how an earth pony could fly.
“Nono, grounded means, um… it means I was being punished for not listening to them. I wasn’t allowed to leave the farm.”
“Ah, your elder’s judgement.”
“Yeah, like that. I guess. But this is the first day I’m able to come here. But I promise, from here on I will visit EVERY day.”
“I do not believe you can keep that promise.” he said flatly, sadness clearly in his tone.
It was a few days short of a year since they’d first met and Pinkie had yet to break her promise. Everyday for ten months, or eleven moons, she had come to his camp and talked and helped him gather supplies and played and laughed and even occasionally cried. Sometimes she’d bring a few desserts she’d cooked and sometimes he would offer her some of the gooey brown muck that he ate… it was delicious!
It hadn’t been too long ago that Inkie, or Octavia Philharmonia Pie as she now called herself, had gotten her Cutie Mark. And it was all because of Pinkie’s gift a year ago.
My-first-instrument set had come with a little recorder, a note sheet and a guide to play each note. She enjoyed her time playing hot cross buns over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and you get the point and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and… I’m just gonna stop now. And over.
She did hold a small grudge against her parents though. They tolerated her playing the recorder for a while and even started to like it when she played more than just one song. However, Clyde’s religion, and by extension hers, forbid playing music. He made an exception but she still wasn't allowed to buy a new instrument. She would travel to her friend’s house in town every weekend and stay there for the night. They had a piano there and she would play.
But she finally got her Cutie Mark when her friend had found an old cello up in the attic. Not only had Octavia cleaned it and restrung it and tuned it, she had restored it. The neck had been broken and there was a hole in the body of it. She loved everything about music and instruments and practiced tuning even the smallest thing from glasses of water to the piano after her friend’s parents had purposefully detuned it just so she could do so.
While Clyde was happy for his daughter, he knew it was becoming time for him to teach them about something he’d been putting off for ages: sex.
He had planned to teach them once Blinkie had gotten her Cutie Mark, she being the oldest. Now it had happened in the opposite order and he worried it may already be too late. Octavia had been spending a lot of time at her friend’s place, and that filly had an older brother. And Blinkie had been hanging around that JD kid a bit too much.
Even Pinkie had this mystery friend she’d been seeing EVERYDAY for ages now. He still hadn’t met him and frankly, didn’t think he actually existed. A lone pony living out in the woods, never coming to town, not needing supplies from the stores? Pinkie had an imaginary friend and that was fine. He’d made Blinkie go out there with her a few times to make sure she was being safe and not doing anything stupid. Blinkie never said anything about him either which only made Clyde believe his theory more.
He didn’t want to have this talk with his children and neither did their mother Bonnie. She started out the day as normal but seemed nervous this school morning to the three sister and none of them had any idea why. She was a simple mare and had been taught this was a private matter. As such, it had been just as awkward when her parents had spoken with her about the facts of life some fifteen years ago. Their father came into the room they used as a classroom just before they usually began school. He nodded to their mother and said loudly, without shame, even though he was blushing deeply “Who knows what sex is?”
Octavia giggled at him using a naughty word but quickly silenced herself. Blinkie raised her hoof slowly, looking just as flushed as her father, but not nearly as much as their mother who was content to just stand there quietly trying to keep at least some of her blood in any part of her body other than her cheeks. “Father… promise not to be mad?”
“Of course not dear.” he said but thought ‘Oh, I know where this is going…’
“Well, um, me and JD have um… ‘done it’ a few times.”
“Done what?” asked Octavia.
“Had sex.” Clyde answered for her. “I was hoping to tell you all about this but now I have to ask you a few questions. Did you… do you know…”
“Yes we were safe.” Blinkie answered. “I’ve um… we got this speech already… when his mom, um, caught us.”
“Wait, what IS sex though?” Pinkie asked.
“It’s um… father?” she pleaded for his help on this. It was his lesson after all.
“I think you can tell her.” he joked. He couldn’t ground his daughter for doing what she’d done no matter how much he disapproved of it, but this seemed like a fitting punishment instead.
“Well, I um… I told you it was something that older ponies do when they’re in love.” she said to Pinkie and slightly regarding Octavia as well. She then turned to her father “And I do love him, please don’t be mad at him!”
“I am a little mad but… continue.” he said pointing a hoof back at Pinkie, who now only seemed more confused that her father would be mad at her sister’s friend for it.
“Well… a colt has a um… shwing-shwong and a filly has a… bajingo."
“Um… Blinkamena, what exactly did JD’s parents tell you?” and he thought he was an up-tight reserved pony… he didn’t let the torture go on any longer and took over from there. Blinkie seemed to cringe at every clinical word he used, Octavia giggled a few times but Pinkie just seemed excited to learn about something that everypony deemed to be ‘adult’.
He taught them how a foal was made, what each part of the mare and stallion did and how to have safe, protected sex. Of course his religion prohibited conception too but he’d be damned if he was letting one of his daughters get pregnant. Ironically he would literally be damned for it too. He even told them about hybrids. How donkeys and ponies made mules or how gryphons and ponies made hippogryphs.
Mule’s where pretty common. At least compared to hippogryphs, but he was a little surprised when Pinkie asked “What about buffalo, can they have children with ponies?” and honestly, he didn’t know. He thought it was just youthful curiosity and didn’t really think much of it. Blinkie however, raised an eyebrow wondering if she should speak with her father about Pinkie’s friend in the woods and what the two's relationship was.
However, the lesson was almost over now and Clyde finished off by announcing that he was planning for a big dinner this Friday and he wanted Blinkie to invite JD, Octavia to invite her friend and her older sibling. He then asked if Pinkie had anypony she liked, or had some strange feelings for, to which she replied “No, but instead of Friday, could we have the dinner on Sunday instead?”
“I don’t think so dear, that’s a school night and…”
“Please?! It’s really important, Sunday’s a really big day an…”
“Alright then.” Clyde said. Pinkie never asked for much and when she did it always ended up being more for other ponies then herself. If she wanted it to be on Sunday, he’d arrange that for whatever his daughter had planned. “Sunday it is. Now, you have the rest of the day off. Go to your friend’s places and ask their parents if they can attend dinner on Sunday night. They’ll say it’s a school night but tell them I insist and if they’d like to speak with me I’ll do so.”
“Oh, can I invite someone too?” Pinkie chirped!
“This is a special dinner Pinkie, for special someponies, you just said you didn’t have somepony like that.”
It was Sunday morning and after their Sunday prayers, Pinkie was off to see Bysen as always. But before she did however Clyde stopped her, to have a little talk with her. “So I stopped at the library yesterday and I found out something for you.”
“Really? What?!” she said with cheer.
“Well, when a pony and a buffalo have a child, that child is called a deer.”
“Wow! Buffalos and ponies make deers?” Pinkie replied in amazement.
“Not exactly. They’re called deers because they look like deers, but they’re not the animal. They’re just like mules or hippogryphs. Just like normal people but with different parents. And I also found out about these things called ‘chimeras’ that are the children of a pony and a dragon!” he said, making the last word reek of forced childish amazement for her enjoyment. As if either a dragon or a buffalo, or in an earth pony land like this, a gryphon would ever have a child with a pony. Even one of those dirty donkeys was laugh and a half away from a long shot.
“Oh that is so cool!” she said, and while Clyde had disliked her use of slang words like 'cool' at first, he’d gotten used to it. “I wonder what a buffalo and a dragon’s child would be like!?”
“What’s this fascination with buffalo?” he asked. They’d come up a lot recently.
“They’re just really amazing is all. Did you know they make all their own stuff? Barrels out of tree stumps, bowls out of turtle shell. Or is it a tortoise shell? And houses out of branches and rope! It’s all so amazing!” and that explained it all to Clyde. Pinkie had always been a resourceful one, making her own stuff instead of buying it, saying it’s more personal that way. She was just fascinated with making her own party supplies most likely.
“I didn’t know that. It does sound amazing.” he answered as he patted her on the head and got back to his work. She then started bouncing off towards the road. The long boring walk to Bysen’s little home was just as exciting as always. And today she had big news. She was going to get him to meet her family for the first time! Well except for Blinkie who he’d already met. She’d be met for the… Pinkie thought to herself for a moment. Third time.
As she bounced through the bush, Bysen could hear her coming from a mile away. For nearly a whole seasons now she’d been visiting him constantly and no matter how much she talked on and on about the same things over and over he never got tired of it. It was surprising since one time when her sister had visited and Pinkie had gone off to get some water, he barely spoke with her. Though he found what she had to say interesting and new, the latter more so than anything Pinkie said, he didn’t enjoy his time with her like he did with Pinkie.
“Ah, Pinkie Pie. Did you bring some of those cupcakes I love so much with you?” he asked with glee.
“Nope.” she returned with equal to or greater than glee.
“How about a slice of cake. Or a super snack?”
“Nope.” she replied just as happily. “You know if I bring something every time it’ll make the times I do less special.”
“I do, but a buffalo can dream can’t he?” Bysen chuckled. It was Sunday, or more actually the eighteenth day of the ninth moon and so today was the day she and Bysen would go picking berries and fruits from the surrounding area. He had to prepare, brace himself, winter is coming. Last year he had not properly prepared, being from the warmer deserts where it didn’t snow often, if at all, he had ran out of food towards the end. That was when Pinkie started bring him treats. He had made it through winter, but vowed to not make it so closely this time.
He’d harvested berries and apples and other fruits and nuts and had shown Pinkie how to preserve them. They’d lost more to failed attempts and just eating them than he had managed to prepare properly but it had been fun and he had more than enough. After a few hours, they returned to his camp, eating a few of the better berries on the way back. They’d all be pretty bland when preserved so why not eat the best ones now?
After they’d finished, it was about the middle of the afternoon, still a few hours until her family’s dinner and she’d forgotten to ask him until now. Pinkie had told her father that she’d kept forgetting to ask the person to the dinner and by now he expected her not to bring anypony at all. Pinkie couldn't quite figure out why asking Bysen had been so hard. But tonight was the night and it was now or never “So Bysen, I was wondering if you’d maybe like to come to my farm for dinner tonight?”
“Your farm?”
“Yeah, you know, my rock farm. We’re having a really big dinner tonight! Blinkie’s inviting her coltfriend, Octavia’s inviting two of her friends and my father said I could invite someone too and I’m inviting you! So what do you say? Do you want to join us for dinner tonight?”
“I do not know Pinkie Pie. I am uncomfortable around your sister, I do not think I would be well around more ponies I do not know in a place I am unfamiliar with. No. I will not attend.” he said. He was steadfast in his ways and he felt out of place in this land as it was. This was something he’d confided in with her many times, including how he didn’t really like her sister. It wouldn’t be easy for Pinkie to change his mind.
Pinkie had returned to the farm a few hours ago and had been helping her mother cook since. She was cooking up one batch of cupcakes while her mother cooked everything else… that counts as helping right? Anyway, most the guests were here now. Blinkie’s coltfriend JD was the first to arrive and by the looks of it, had no idea what tonight was about or that their father knew about the two of them being together.
As for Octavia… well there was an awkward moment when Clyde found out that her friend’s older brother wasn’t actually her older brother. SHE was just a some-what tomboyish filly named Vinyl Scratch. Clyde had brushed over it pretty fast but he had mentioned same-sex relationships in his lesson which made Octavia wonder what her father was implying about her and this Vinyl filly who she barely even knew. It was made slightly less awkward that her good friend Lyra was there at least. And don't forget to mention that Vinyl called herself DJ. DJ and JD, that surely wouldn’t get confusing.
Pinkie’s guest hadn’t arrived yet, he had been told to come at around dusk and that was coming up pretty soon. The sun was just starting to lower now and Pinkie was looking out the window every few seconds. Switching between watching her cooking and staring out to the gates. The cupcakes were finished before Bysen's arrival so she got them out and let them cool. It would be a while before she could frost them and since her mother was already laying everything else out on the table, Pinkie decided she’d helped enough. She took her spot at the table between Octavia and an empty seat.
Everything was ready and Clyde had begun to say grace but Pinkie stopped them “Wait, my guest hasn’t gotten here yet. He’ll be here soon. He’s just running a little late.” Pinkie had referred to Bysen as ‘he’ a few times which Clyde hadn’t missed. Either Pinkie hadn’t truly understood what tonight was meant to be about and was just inviting a friend or she had lied to him when he asked if there was somepony she was interested in.
If she had lied, he would let that slide. He knew it must be embarrassing for all his daughters. And if it was just some friend of hers who happened to be male then, the fact that Vinyl wasn’t a male seemed to make tonight a bit more casual anyway. It’s not like he had planned to drill the colts his daughters brought here for information on their intentions with his children. Much…
“Alright, we’ll wait for…” Clyde said but was interrupted by a sound of cracking wood outside. He stood up from the head of the table and made his way to the window. “Is that a… buffalo?” he asked out loud to himself. He’d never seen one but the description was pretty unmistakable. And one had just broken a rail of fencing climbing over it. Into their yard. Clyde’s first instinct was to get his gun, however…
“He’s here!” Pinkie exclaimed, taking a place beside her father at the window before calling out “Bysen! You made it!” and then zipping off to the front door. Clyde’s jaw dropped as he stood there and saw the big lumbering beast walk up to his front door before Pinkie showed it inside.
Bysen was a little nervous to say the least, having never been inside a house before. He was hesitant as he took his first step inside, tilting his head up and looking at the ceiling. Not to mention he barely fit through the door. But Pinkie ushered him over to the table and showed him his seat, which he was equally weary about too. He had his doubts about its stability if he sat on it.
“I am fine just standing, thank you Pinkie Pie.” he said. Everypony but Blinkie was awestruck by the beast in their midst. Octavia looked scared, as did Bonnie and Lyra. JD was fascinated and Vinyl just thought he was cool. He regarded them “Thank you for inviting me to this feast. I am… grateful to meet the tribe of… I mean, family of Pinkie Pie.” cultural differences already drawing ahead.
“Well, haallo. Nice to meet you, name’s JD.” the blue pegasus with a black, incredibly gelled-up mane, sitting beside him said as he extended a hoof towards him. Bysen had only really interacted with Pinkie Pie when it came to pony customs and gave him a hoof bump instead of shaking it. Which quite frankly made JD think he was cool because of it and said “Right on.” and nodded his head.
Clyde was still stunned, trying to comprehend what was going on in front of him until he eventually got a hold of himself. Pinkie's sudden interest in buffalos made sense now but something came to his mind. What about buffalo, can they have children with ponies?. It shouldn’t have impacted him the way it did seems as his eldest daughter was sitting next to a pony he knew she was intimate with. But that was his eldest daughter and Pinkie was his youngest.
He returned to the table, trying like everypony else, not to stare at their guest who looked uneasy with everypony else staring at him. Clyde took his seat and tried to think of something to say. He couldn’t really. And so the awkward silence just continued. Eventually Pinkie broke it with “So are we going to eat or just sit around all night? The food’s getting cold!”
Clyde finally found him voice and spoke up. “Of course. Let’s say grace shall we.” he said and gave his hooves to those sitting next to him. Everypony followed suite. Everypony. Bysen didn’t quite know what was going on until Pinkie took his hood in her own. She then motioned for him to do the same with JD’s. JD himself wasn’t religious but went along with it, and suspected the same of Lyra and Vinyl.
Aside from Vinyl, all the ponies closed their eyes as Clyde began “Dear Princess Celestia. Thank you for the food we are about to eat. Thank you for the day’s in which we harvest our fair and thank you for all that you do. A-neighn.”
“A-neighn” said everypony else in tandem. Bysen felt he understood what that had been. It was similar to thanking the spirit of an animal you were about to eat or kill. Clyde had been rather calm about their latest guest, but his eyes weren’t the only ones that were starting to get drawn back to Bysen. He took a piece of bread and put it on his plate, while half the others were silent and the other half took various foods to their own plates.
“So uh, I didn’t catch your name?” JD asked
“My name is not important.” he replied. Surprising JD a little. The colt felt a little bit insulted since he was just trying to be kind. And Bysen sensed that from him, he hadn’t intended to come off as rude and didn’t even know he had.
Pinkie however clarified “Real names are like a taboo in his culture. I gave him the nickname Bysen. You can call him that. Well not the actual word ‘that’, I mean call him ‘Bysen’.” Pinkie said, cheerful as ever.
“So, um… sorry for telling you my name was JD. Uh man… I did it again didn’t I?” he sighed.
“Don’t worry." Pinkie told the colt. "Real names and news names are different things too. If you changed your name after getting your Cutie Mark than that’s not your true name. Or something. So… oh, Sis, make sure nopony tells him her real name then!” she announced. And unintentionally brought attention to the fact that Blinkie was the only pony, and the oldest of the children here, to not have their Cutie Mark.
To which she sarcastically replied “He already knows my name Pinkie.”
“No, he knows you as Blinkie, but that’s not your REAL real name. That’s just what I call you. Well, me and Octi and Mom and JD and Bysen. But it’s still not your name.” saying that made Blinkie very aware that even her new name wasn’t her NEW name. She still hadn’t gotten her Cutie Mark and chosen a name for herself. She sighed and tried to just let it all slip. Well, actually that was only half true, she didn’t have her Cutie Mark but she had chosen her name. She didn’t want something to do with whatever her talent was, she just wanted something that she liked. ‘Elliot’. Of course she’d also keep the family name Pie.
JD could tell something was up with his fillyfriend but wasn’t too sure what. He’d ask later, but for now he’d ask “I’ve never met a buffalo before. Where are you from anyway?”
“I come from the deserts to the south. Near an area Pinkie Pie showed me on a ‘map’ she called ‘Appleloosa’. My home is around thirty miles west of there.” apparently 'near' was a relative term. But since Appleloosa was about six-hundred miles away, give or take for transferring to kilometres [which all ponies used and buffalo apparently used that old out-dated inches, feet and yards system], JD supposed thirty miles could be considered close.
“Wow! That’s so far, how long did it take to get here?”
“I am unsure. The further I went, the harder it became to tell the difference between changing to winter or simply getting colder heading north, but I would say it was about one and a half seasons.”
“That’s one and half years!” Pinkie clarified for them. Not that it needed clarifying. Bysen talked with a few different mannerisms when it came to time. He called months, moons and years, seasons. Along with having a fourteen day weeks and thirteen month years. Of course that actually made sense, given there are thirteen moons to a seasons and two weeks to a moon.
“Yeah, I figured, thanks Pinkie Pie. Anywho, how did you meet Pinkie Pie anyway?” despite dating his daughter, Clyde was starting to like this kid. He was asking all the stuff he wanted to but couldn’t bring himself to ask. Sure, this buffalo seemed friendly enough but Clyde still saw him as a wild beast. A wild beast that was twice his size or more.
“It was just over one seasons ago…” Bysen began but was cut off by Pinkie.
“Nope, it was less than that.”
“Then it was just less than a seasons ago.” Bysen corrected himself, only to be corrected by Pinkie once more.
“Nope, it was more than that too.” she chirped.
“That does not make sense Pinkie Pie.?” Bysen replied, slightly confused. A normal state of being while around her.
“It was exactly one seasons ago that we met. Well, one year. I’m not entirely sure if there’s the same number of days in a year as in a seasons but I think there is. Anyway. We’ve known each other for one year now!”
“Happy anniversary.” Octavia said, jokingly but some-what meaning it too. It got a laughed from Pinkie, but in all fairness what didn’t? Clyde however didn’t seem to find it as funny. His daughter had been hanging around this monster for a full year and this was the first he was hearing of him! Actually, he had heard about him, he’d just ignored it thinking he was an imaginary friend. Pinkie was still only nine. Wait, no she was ten now… how the hay could he forget such large of a party as her tenth?
“Sorry to interrupt, but you still haven’t answered how you met my daughter.” Clyde said, trying to fight back his nerves. He had calmed dramatically since Bysen had come in but was still wary of it. The fact that he could keep a civil discussion and even read maps helped on that front a lot.
“My apologise.” and he was courteous to boot. “As Pinkie Pie says, it was a year ago. I had just arrived in the forest outside the day before. I was not aware of what creatures live in these woods. I know now there is nothing more than a few rock-lobsters but I heard rustling in the brush and prepared myself. I had never seen a pony before and was unsure of her intentions.”
“Um… Bysen. I don’t think they need to hear this part, just skip to when I introduced myself.” Pinkie fretted over him telling about how he’d pinned her down and pressed his horn against her neck.
“I would like to hear what happened.” Bonnie said, starting to get curious. She’d been just as nervous and scared as Clyde had been when this beast walked in and now she wanted to know what her daughter didn’t want them to know.
“No don’t. I mean, I would appreciate it if you didn’t.” Pinkie said calmly as her eyes almost begged.
“She is your elder Pinkie Pie, and she has requested I tell this tale.”
“Thank you.” Bonnie replied.
“Well, Bysen. I’m your friend and I request that you don’t!” Pinkie said with a rather strong tone, hiding her rather scared one. It was a long time ago, but she’d made her parents so worried about her! She assured them she was fine and had been for the next year to follow. If they found out that she had nearly been killed by the one now sitting at their table, she didn’t know how her they would react. Especially her father.
Bysen was actually torn by what Pinkie had said. He always respected the wishes of his elder. Be them elders in the tribe or simply older than him. But Pinkie was his friend. His ONLY friend. And ultimately, that meant more to him. “V-very well. After me and Pinkie P…”
“What happened Pinkamena?” her mother asked sternly, cutting off Bysen.
“MUM!!!!” Pinkie shouted as loud as she could! It stunned not only her parents and her sisters, but even Vinyl who was pretty aloof and not really paying much mind to all this.
“Watch your tone!” Clyde snapped right back at her. “And it’s Mother, not Mom.”
“But she said it! My name! I just told you not to say that stuff! And you said it!” Pinkie exclaimed. Clyde had to agree on some level but he wouldn’t tell her that.
“Your mother wants to know what you don’t want him to tell us. And so do I. What happened? Did he do anything to you?”
“N-no… I mean not really.” and that broke the flood gates. For both parents.
“What happened!?” both said in unison.
“F-fine… he attacked me. He thought I was going to attack him.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Clyde said as he slammed a hoof on the table and turned to Bysen. “She’s a little girl, how could you think she would attack!?”
“As I said, I had never seen a pony before. I was told they were smaller, and I underestimated an adult pony’s size.” it was a reasonable answer. But Clyde didn’t see it that way.
“What did he do to you Pinkie?” he said, still hard staring Bysen, who was very much feeling uncomfortable and unwelcome at this point.
“He um… he pushed me down and put one of his horns against my neck.” and Clyde’s stare hardened further, starting to bare his teeth a little. “But he stopped as soon as I said spoke. He, he realised he’d made a mistake.”
“It is true. I threatened your daughter and I apologise. I had no intention to hurt her, whether she was hostile or not. Once I removed my horn, I stopped her crying, saw she was only a female by lifting her tail and then offered her some water.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Clyde asked.
“I offered her some wa…”
“Before that.”
“I saw she was a female.”
“You lifted her tail up and looked at her!?” Clyde stated as he put both his hooves on the table and lifted himself up. Without breaking his stare at Bysen he said to his wife “Get me my gun.”
“Dad!”
“Quiet!” he snapped. His wife didn’t move, unsure if he was serious about his gun or not. “Couldn’t you see she was a girl? What kind of perverted creature lifts up a young fillies tail?!”
“I did not mean any offence.” Bysen replied. He didn’t quite know what he had done wrong but it obviously made Clyde mad. “I had never seen a pony, it was the only way I knew that would tell an animal’s gender.” he defended himself. “How else was I to find she was a cow?”
“Are you calling my daughter a cow?”
“Was it not clear?” he said, again not sure what he’d done wrong. Cow was just the buffalon word for a female, like how bull meant male. Clyde grew furious; he stood up and marched over to Bysen at the table. Pinkie pulled out from her seat and tried to stand between them but she was pushed aside, rather angrily by Clyde. As Clyde stood face to face with Bysen, whose face alone was at least his height, he had second thoughts about this course of action.
“Do you have intentions with my daughter?” Clyde stated.
“I do not know what that means.”
“Oh for… do you want to rut her!?” he shouted. He got that they had different customs and phrases but this was his house, his food and his land they were on and they would abide by his own!
“I do not wish to take Pinkie Pie as my mate. I am not yet of age to do so.”
“Good.” Clyde said about the first part. The second part “How old is ‘of age’ and how old are you?” just because he wasn’t yet, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be soon.
“A bull may take a cow upon his fifteenth seasons. I am but thirteen seasons of age.” and that simple fact astonished everypony but Pinkie Pie who already knew. He was only thirteen and already twice the size of any pony here.
Clyde wasn’t satisfied though. To him all that meant that was in two years, this beast would be after Pinkie Pie. “Get out of my house before I throw you out.” he stated sternly. Most everypony doubted he would be able to do so if he tried but Clyde had every intention of following through on his threat. And it worked. Bysen may’ve been bigger, but he was still young and unaccustomed to fighting, not to mention that though he didn’t like Pinkie’s father, Clyde was still an elder and head of Pinkie’s trib… err, family.
“If you wish it.” he said, nodding his head and turning from the table. Pinkie once again tried to step in between her father and her friend but was stopped. This time by Blinkie. Pinkie stayed herself and watched as her friend left.
Once he had gone through the door and was walking away from the house “How could you do that? Why would you be so mean?” Pinkie said, starting to cry.
“I see what he really wanted with you Pinkie. And I don’t believe for a second he’s only thirteen. He came from the badlands? And he’s been here a year? There’s no way it’s possible.”
“It is possible. Because it happened! And anything is possible if it happens! He went on a vision quest when he was ten and it told him to travel north. He traveled for nearly two years and then he came here. And then another year on that makes thirteen! He told me!”
“He lied.”
“HE DIDN’T LIE!!!!” Pinkie screamed back.
“That’s about enough Pinkie Pie!” Clyde shouted back in his tone that usually conveyed ‘shut up and do what you’re told young mare!’ but it didn’t this time.
“He wouldn’t lie to me!… he’s my best friend!”
“He just wants to have his way with you…” Clyde said. He was then interrupted by a nervous, awkward groan.
“Um… Mister Pie, sir.” JD squeaked. “There’s something I have to tell you. Um… you don’t really have a gun nearby do you?”
“I do but… calm down. I know you and Blinkamena have been… ‘active’.” Clyde said, and JD gulped. Mainly because all he heard from that was that Clyde DID have a gun. There were some obvious differences between what JD and Blinkie were doing and what Clyde thought Bysen was doing with Pinkie but that didn’t make JD feel any less shit-scared.
“Oh, you uh, know about that then…” he stammered nervously with an overly put on grin. Made even more nervous when Clyde took a few more steps towards him and up a hoof on his shoulder.
“I’m not angry. I don’t like it but I’m not angry and I’m not going to hurt you or anything.” he assured, relaxing JD. Until he added “But if you ever hurt my daughter in anyway, I will kill you.” he said with the most unreadable face since Neighdy Gaga.
“I-I-I-I… I wouldn’t… I love her.” Clyde liked to hear that but honestly held back a laugh. Young love ALWAYS lasts after all… let them be happy while they are. “If you don’t mind me asking, why, and I really don’t want to push my luck here, but why are you so angry at uh… Bysen, was it?”
“Because you’re a nice colt, and I know you won’t do anything to my daughter. That buffalo on the other hoof. You’ll take good care of Blinkamena won’t you?” Clyde said, trying to ease JD. He may’ve scared the kid a little too much before. He was a nice colt: honest and brave. Or honest and stupid. Same thing really.
“Y-yeah. Right Blinkie…” he said but got no response. “Blinkie?”
“Oh, yes?” she answered, not really listening to what they had been saying. Clyde thought that was very strange; thought she’d be glued to this conversation between her father and coltfriend. With the brief lull in speaking he realised what had distracted her so. Pinkie was crying. She had her face on the table, covered by both front hooves and she sobbed quietly into them.
She was always so happy and bubbly. She’d never cried. Even before she got her Cutie Mark she may not’ve been as happy at times, but she’d never been sad. Clyde dropped his hoof from JD’s shoulder and walked back around to Pinkie. “Pinkie Pie…” he said putting his hoof onto her shoulder now.
She swatted it away. “That’s not why…” Pinkie said after putting her hoof back to her face, then lifting her head and looking at him. “You’re just speciest! You don’t know JD’s a good colt, you just don’t already hate him because he’s a pony!” she snapped.
Clyde had decided to ignore her swatting his hoof away with the state she was in but he wouldn’t take this. “That’s enough. Pinkie, I know you trust him but there’s no way he’s only thirteen…”
“Actually, father…” Blinkie spoke up. “I know he’s big… but he’s bigger than he was last time I saw him. I’ve only met him twice before but… he’s still growing. He is only thirteen. Or some age around that.” she was rather scared saying that actually. “And he’s never seemed like he was trying to get something from Pinkie.”
“Maybe so, but that’s still no reason to accuse…”
“Actually...” she spoke up once more. “You’re a bit speciest. You always turn your nose up at donkeys and you were way too offended when he called Pinkie a cow. And before you say anything, I’m pretty sure cow is just their word for filly. And, and I have more friends than just JD you know. I’m friends with a cow! But you’re always saying ‘bovine’ and I don’t want to invite her over just so she can hear that!”
It was clear that Blinkie was just as mad at her father for this as Pinkie was. Or at the very least she finally had an outlet to say this stuff. And Clyde had to admit on some points they were right… he didn’t dislike donkeys or cows or anything he just didn’t… not dislike them. Sure he’d scoffed at a few dirt-covered donkeys, and the only jobs cows had was making milk but that wasn’t speciest… was it?
Pinkie pulled herself up from the table before standing and walking away. Clyde was about to ask where she was going when she said “The cupcakes should’ve cooled by how, I’m g-going to go put the frosting on them…” as she walked into the kitchen.
Pinkie hadn’t eaten a bite of her dinner yet. She didn’t feel like eating now either. The cupcakes smelt delicious but didn’t change anything. She’d made eighteen all up, two for everyone, and as she grabbed a glaive and scraped up some frosting from the batch she’d made while waiting for everyone to arrive, she remembered that she had made these especially for Bysen. And now he wasn’t getting a single one of them.
By the time she’d frosted the fourth, she didn’t have the will to keep going. Despite how much he loved her cupcakes it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to come tonight. Bysen had been right it turns out. Pinkie could hear her father and what might’ve been Vinyl were bickering now. Pinkie didn’t really know Vinyl’s voice but it was the only one she didn’t know so process of elimination…
That bickering stopped however when Clyde heard a door slam. He turned around and headed to the source of it. When he looked out the windows of the kitchen he saw Pinkie walking towards the broken fence with a small box in her mouth. He yelled out to her “Pinkie Pie!” but she only glanced back and then started running, past the fence and into the woods.
She’d never gone to Bysen’s camp any other way than from the road and even then she’d missed it a few times and had to backtrack to the road and start again. But she didn’t really think of that, just hoping she would run into him on his own way back. These cupcakes were meant for him and he was going to get them.
She slowed down after about a minute and flung the box up onto her back; finally sure her father either wasn’t following or had lost her. It was very dark out this night. It always was. She never really minded the constant cloud coverage but she knew Bysen hated it. It blocked the moon almost every night, making it hard for him to judge time or perform his rites. He was still a shaman, even if only an novice.
Pinkie stubbed her hoof on a root or a rock every minute or so. In fact, she’d done so about thirty times now meaning she’d been walking for thirty minutes. If she hadn’t come across his camp by now then that meant she’d missed it. But she kept on going. She didn’t want to go back to her father. But really, where else was she going to go?
She could keep walking for about two hours and be out of the forest by then, she could turn left and be on the road in about fifteen minutes or she could just turn around. The only problem was if she’d missed his camp then she’d probably been walking in circles, slowly arching as she went forward so ultimately she had no idea where she was. Alone in the woods at night, she was lost.
She had a compass, she always kept one in her hair in case of compass emergency. Something her father had taught her and her sisters. It was dark but she’d been in darkness for so long now, her eyes had adjusted to it. Looking, she could see the needle pointing in one direction but flicking ever so slightly, meaning she was still within range of the farm's magnetic lodestone.
She followed the needle, walking for only five hoof stubbing’s, or five minutes, before she saw a faint glow beyond the trees… she had arced a lot more than she though if she’d nearly done a complete circled back to her house. But as she got closer she realised it wasn’t her house. It was his camp. By sheer luck Pinkie had been in-line with it and her house when she’d started back.
“Bysen?” she called and she heard a rumbling groan and some flickering shadows cast by the fire he had going. Bysen stood and turned.
“Pinkie Pie?” he said, slightly tired, he’d been trying to go to sleep. “I did not expect to see you. You have never visited me at night time. Let alone after what happened at your farm.”
“I know. I uh, I didn’t expect to be here either, well I mean I did want to come here at first but then I must’ve missed it and got lost but then when I was going to head back to the farm I lucked out and came across you.” she spoke incredibly fast. Finding him had lifted her spirits right back up. Well almost all the way back up. “Bysen, I, I don’t want to go back there tonight. Could I stay here? Just for now?”
“Of course you may Pinkie Pie. You are welcome with me.” he said. He then remembered what her father had said. “I must ask. Your father seemed to think that I was… ‘intentioned’ on you. I am not. But are you intentioned on me?”
“I don’t know… maybe. I like you, but… yes.” Pinkie admitted. She had a crush on Bysen. What point was there in hiding it? She’d already basically admitted it to her whole family by bringing him there. “I do like you. Even if my father doesn’t. I know my sister likes you, but not like I do, just… and her coltfriend, um her mate, he defended you after you left.”
“As I would expect. Honour is found within those blessed with wings.” Bysen said as he turned towards the skull of the dragon he was living in. “I would ask you to tell him I am grateful.”
“I will. But he told, he told my dad that him and Blinkie had already… mated. And my dad still said he was a good pony… a pony. My dad only doesn’t like you because you’re not a pony, because you’re a buffalo.”
“That does not sound fair.”
“It’s not…” Pinkie said, looking away, ashamed to be her father’s daughter. Whatever happened to the national oath of ‘love and tolerance’? Her thoughts were growing dark but she hadn’t come here for that. “I brought you something.” she added cheerfully as she grabbed the box off of her back. “I promised you cupcakes remember?”
Pinkie opened the box and Bysen’s eyes widened. Four delicious cupcakes were right in front of him. All for him! Well, two of them were for him. Pinkie gave him one and he quickly took a bite of it. It was small for someone his size but he didn’t care, they were easily the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. Despite Pinkie saying his brown-gooey-mushy-stuff was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted. “It is amazing as always Pinkie Pie.” he said before he took another bite.
Pinkie just laughed and smiled. “Haha, you, you got a bit of frosting below your eye.” she giggled. He tried to wipe it off but couldn’t get it. His horns and forehead blocked his hoof from his eyes. “Oh, let me get it.” she cheered and reached her hoof up to his face. She gently wiped it away and went in for a closer look to make sure there wasn’t any more stuck in his fur.
“Is it all gone?” he asked.
“Almost.” and she lean in and gave him a kiss. Quick and sweet, much like the cupcakes themselves. “There, it’s all gone.” she giggled and blushed.
“Pinkie Pie…” he said softly. “I am sorry. I cannot accept your affection.” Bysen stated. “I am not of age. I am only of thirteen seasons. And you are even further from than I. But only of ten seasons. I am sorry.”
“But my sister’s only fourteen and she and JD are… but that doesn’t mean… we don’t have to mate, we can just be…” she was cut off.
“I am sorry. I cannot.” he said lifting his hoof to her mouth to quiet her. He then moved it from her mouth to the side of her face. “I care for you very much. But neither of us are ready and I do not know if I will even be here when the time comes that we are.”
“But, but…” Pinkie stammered. He’d always said he may leave one day and she’d always accepted that. Because she knew he never would. But using that as a reason now, it scared her thinking that maybe he would one day just leave her. “But if the time comes and you’re still here?”
“Then I would like for you to be my mate. I would like it very much so.” he said. It was true. He knew exactly how Pinkie felt because he fel the same about her too. And one day he would be with her. That day just wasn’t now. “Come, sit with me by the fire.” and so she sat with him by the fire. Even though she was more than warm enough, she snuggled up again his side.
“Bysen.”
“Yes Pinkie Pie?”
“I was just wondering, when I told you about JD… Blinkie’s coltfriend. You looked at the dragon the same way you did when you told me about the really big dragon. And you said he had ‘honour found within those blessed with wings.’ Is that part of the story you haven’t told me yet?”
“It is not.” he replied. “I have always been amazed by those that can fly. The birds, the bats, the insects and the pegasus. I have always dreamt of flying myself. To see the world I walk on from where the spirits above see it.”
“Hmm… I’ve never thought about it. That really sounds amazing.”
“Indeed it does.” Bysen sighed. But it wasn’t a sigh of disappointment. In fact rather the opposite. He was glad they were talking about something cheerful again. “Some of my people believe that when we die, we are deemed what creature our spirits will be next. My tribe does not follow such beliefs but other tribes do. And I do. I hope that I am deemed well enough that when I pass to spirit, that I may became a winged being in the next life. A majestic flying creature of tremendous honour. That I could help those who would have need of me.”
“I’m sure you will someday Bysen. Just… not too soon ok?”
“It will not be soon, I promise.” he said. He thought that would reassure Pinkie. It didn’t.
“Bysen… I can’t keep that promise anymore. I know I won’t be able to see you every day like I have been. I, just won’t be able to, I’m sorry.” she said, pulling herself in closer to him and grabbing onto his hoof.
“You have kept it far longer than I expected you even could. I do not blame you for not being able to any longer.”
“Bysen, will you make me a new promise?”
“Of course. What is it that you want?”
“Don’t leave.” Pinkie stated. She wasn’t sad, she wasn’t happy, but she put more emotion into those words than any other she had ever said. “Please, stay with me here. Or if you ever do leave, wait until we can be mates and then take me with you. I love my family, but this land is so dull. The rock farm’s slowly dying and even the trees look dead. Also, how did you stop smoke coming from the fire anyway? Never mind, just please… don’t leave me.”
Honestly, Bysen had said he may leave one day but he didn’t want to. But maybe one day his reason for coming here would become clear and he would end the journey and return to his people. If that happened would he stay anyway? Would he forsake his tribe for this girl? Yes. “I will not leave you Pinkie Pie.”
“Then let’s promise. I told you about how ponies shake hooves to seal a deal and some ponies even seal a deal with a kiss. But I think we’re not both ponies so we should make our own promise. And I love you, so I cross my heart…”
“And I… I hope to fly.”
“And my cupcakes…”
“Went in my eye.” Bysen laughed. “So that is it then. I cross my heart.” he ran he hoof over his chest. “Hope to fly.” he goofily flapped his hooves, while trying not to laugh at his own silly gesture. “Stick a cupcake in my eye.” he finished, reaching for his face, managing to get past his horns this time and accidently poked himself “ARGH!!... I should remember to close my eye before performing my promise Pinkie.”
“Haha, yeah. Thank you Bysen. And I Pinkie Pie Promise you, that even if I can’t visit every day anymore, I’ll still visit as much as I can, and I’ll bring cupcakes when I can, or something yummy and I’l...”
Bysen’s hoof came to her mouth once more. ”That is more than enough Pinkie Pie. You do not have to make it more than come when you can. That is all I ask, all I want.” he said. His hoof still to her mouth, she mimicked his heart cross, hoof flap, eye poke, and remembered to close her eye. Bysen chuckled and lowered his hoof. “Thank you.”
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.
Pinkie was bounced back towards Bysen’s camp. She’d returned home yesterday limping with a black eye. Naturally her father had assumed the worst. Even though he had no reason to believe Bysen would do that to his daughter or that Pinkie would lie about how it happened, but it still lingered in the back of his mind.
With her Pinkie was carrying a box of cupcakes and a length of rope. She wasn’t far from his camp now, and in fact, she was here. She was a little surprised at what she saw: the shelter already restored. She hadn’t seen any rope around the camp and didn’t think he could’ve went into town at the time that she’d left yesterday but there it was. All strung up with good, heavy looking rope.
Bysen was asleep inside the skull of the dragon. He barely fit anymore but it he still did, even if it was a bit of a squeeze, it was worth it for a warm and dry place to sleep. “Bysen, you in there?” Pinkie called into the chamber. He stirred from his sleep and turned to her.
“Good morning Pinkie Pie.” he replied, then followed it with a yawn as he stretched and stood up.
“Actually, it’s kinda really late in the afternoon already.” which he noticed as he squeezed his way out of his shelter.
“So it is. I must’ve stayed up far later than I realized repairing the shelter.”
“Oh yeah about that. I brought you some rope to use but… you already don’t need it. Where’d you get the rope from anyway? You couldn’t have made it into town yesterday.”
“I made it." he replied. While Pinkie thought he meant he'd made it into town what it actually meant was "It’s a simply weave made from my fur. Not unlike a braid."
"Oh wow, you made it yourself?"
"It’s not too hard, it just takes time. More time than I realized as it were.”
“That’s amazing! Also a little gross, but mostly amazing! Could you teach me how to make rope?” Pinkie yelped as she bounced up to the bones the ropes and branches were tied to, inspecting them. She had to wonder if the old ropes had been made out of the same stuff. They had to be since when he first arrived he had never even seen another pony, let alone traded with them. It amazed her even more that it would last so long.
For the next few hours Bysen showed Pinkie how to weave rope from fur. Her own fur wasn’t long enough so they used his. Her mane was and like ponies, buffalo also had this stuff called ‘hair’ on their heads that was similar to a mane but wasn’t used for this. Also, despite what Pinkie had thought, they didn’t just rip chunks of fur off of him, which was a good thing she’d asked before doing so, but collected his loose fur and strung individual pieces together.
Needless to say it took ages. And due to Pinkie learning how to, they’d only managed to make a very thin short piece of rope. That, and Bysen had been nearly completely out of extra fur by the end of last night. But at last Pinkie had gotten the hang of it. But there was something she wanted to try now. “Hey Bysen, let’s use some of my mane, and some of your ‘hair’ and make something out of that?” she asked, full of cheer.
And completely oblivious. The reason buffalo didn’t use their hair to weave rope was because it was used to weave other things: betrothal bands. A bull and a cow would take strands of the other’s hair, one at a time, and weave them together into two circlets that would be placed on each other’s left horn. While most ponies didn’t have horns, they had a similar tradition involving rings on the left hoof. But Pinkie didn’t know any of this.
“I’m afraid I cannot Pinkie Pie. You do not know what you are aski…”
“You're wrong... I know what I’m asking Bysen. I know what it means. And I want to be your wife, your mate… yours. I love you and I told you that today was something special. I know you don’t know, but can you guess?”
It was a middle of summer, so it wasn’t her thing called a ‘birthday’ or ‘Hearth’s Warming Eve’. Hearts and Hooves day was only a few moons ago which left only one other day that they’d celebrated last year. And the years before that. “It is the day we first met.”
“That’s right. It’s been seven years since we were just a little foal and a little calf that ran into each other somehow. I always said back then that I was grown up because I had my Cutie Mark, but I wasn’t, and you were on your own but you were still just a kid too. But now, I’m a mare, and you’re a bull. We’ve spent almost half our lives together, and I want us to spend the rest of them together too.”
“I would like that.” Bysen said happily. For all the joy this mare had brought him over the years, he’d never felt happier than right now. He reached up to his head and plucked out a single hair from the tuff. Unlike simple rope, these hairs were pulled and not loose, dead fur, but fresh and alive. “I am your mate.” he said as he put the single thread forward. Keeping one end in his hoof as Pinkie grabbed the other end.
Pinkie did the same, pulling a single curly pink lock. “And I am your mate.” she said as she put it alongside Bysen’s. Then while still holding their own, then reached out with their other hooves and curled the two hairs around one another. Once curled, the put the end of both strands back into a single of their hooves. It was exactly the same as Bysen had taught her. He then reached up and took another hair from his head, placing it down alongside the first he said “And I am your wife.”
Pinkie took another of her own and giggled. “No I’m your wife. You’re my husband.” Bysen chuckled as they wrapped the second two hairs around one another, and then around the first. This wasn’t meant to be as long as the rope so they didn’t need to join multiple together first. They repeated over and over. And it slowly grew in width until it was about half a centimeter thick, or just under half an inch in buffalon measurements.
Once it was ready, he hoped the next step would still work. While mostly only unicorns could precisely direct magic, all creatures had some and buffalo were no exception. He only hoped that this would still work with a pony rather than a second of his kin. Though he didn’t vocalize this thought, he could see Pinkie was worried as well. Following Bysen’s lead, Pinkie curled her end of the braid towards his and put the two ends together.
They lent in, and gently kissed with the braid between their lips. They stayed like this for a few moments before Bysen slowly pulled away. As their lips parted, it revealed the band: joined as if woven from one single long hair that went on in an infinite loop. This was more than just their magic working between to different species, this was proof that their love for one another was true. Only love could make the spell work.
“This one is for you Pinkie Pie.” he said, joy over whelming in in his tone. He raised his other hoof and put it on hers. He then took the band and gently slid it onto her hoof. It was different to a horn, but just as intimate. He looked just above her hoof to her eyes looking right back at him.
“Thank you.” Pinkie said, as she started to tear up slightly. “For more than just the band. For trying for me too. I was going by your customs, to become your mate. And you still wanted for be me to be called your wife. So thank you. Thank you so much.” Pinkie finished, before completely crying. She went to wipe her eyes with the hoof wearing the band but Bysen stopped her.
“I know they are tears of joy, but please, do not wipe them away so. These bands absorb the feelings put into them. Tears, though joyous, represent sorrow. I ask that you only ever put great happiness into them. Just like to have put great happiness into me, Pinkie Pie.” Bysen said as he wipe her tears away for her.
She smiled at him and lowered her hoof for a second, before raising it to her head once more. “We still have to make yours.” she said as she plucked another strand and pointed it towards him “I am your mate."
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…”
He trudged through the woods headed about a third above east from the fence. Gun in tow, he was going to scare off this savage if it was the last thing he did… which, it very well might be. After walking through the woods for a good while he saw something off in the not too far distance. Another minute or so and he was on what was unmistakably Bysen’s encampment.
“BUFFALO!!!” he yelled before he’s breached the tree line. Stepping out into the open, he saw Bysen standing, staring at him. The second thing he saw was that hideous band around his horn. Identical to the one around Pinkie’s hoof. “Listen! I’ve let you live on my land for years now. I’ve sat idly by as you spread your filth through our town but I. Will. Not! Let you take my daughter!”
Bysen didn’t reply. He didn’t know how to. They’d only met that once so long ago and Pinkie had always tried to avoid speaking about her father with him, saying that she loved him and she wanted to keep loving him. But if she had to tell Bysen about the things her father had said about him, she wouldn’t be able to.
Bysen took a step forward in the hope of talking this out. Clyde however, was a fraction of the buffalo’s size and took this as a threat. He pointed his gun from the ground up towards Bysen “Stay back!” she shouted. His hoof wasn’t on the trigger, but it was close. He didn’t want this. He never wanted this. But chances where, one of them wasn’t walking away from this. He quivered as he told him “Get off my land. Leave while I’m giving you the chance. Get out of here before I kill you!”
Bysen knew what a gun was and knew what Clyde was holding was one of them. But he never truly appreciated their power, so he just took another few steps. This time he was threatening him. “I am not leaving. Not without my mate.”
“She is NOT yours!”
“She is not yours either!” while true, it infuriated Clyde further. He finally took a step towards Bysen, raising his rifle and moving his hoof to the trigger. “I won’t say this again.”
“Then don’t.” Bysen cut him off. Swinging his head into the barrel of the rifle, flinging it to the side. It fired loudly. Missing Bysen, but hurting his ear that it had been right next to the barrel when going off. The gun however had been thrown from Clyde’s hooves.
“BYSEN!!!” they heard the distant call of Pinkie. Clyde, leapt for his gun as Bysen shook his head, trying to douse the pain in his ear. Clyde slid over to his weapon, quickly grabbing it, pointing it at Bysen. As he did, to the corner of his eye he saw Pinkie burst into the clearing.
“Pinkie Pie. I’m glad you’r-” Bysen began but was cut off.
“Don’t you say another word to her!” Clyde yelled, lying on his back, sights right on Bysen’s head. “L-leave. Get off my land! Don’t touch my daughter!!!” he yelled as he looked at Bysen down the barrel. His eyes flickered to Pinkie for a second who stood there horrified. Before flicking back to his target. “Don’t you…”
“Please Dad! Don’t do it! I love him!” and Bysen took a step towards her. And Clyde pulled the trigger. He’d said not to, but he was going for his daughter. He had to stop him. He had to stop this beast from taking his daughter away! And Bysen fell.
“BYSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEENNNN!!!!!!!!”
She rushed over to him, the shot had hit his shoulder and gone all the way through his other. Pinkie didn’t know much about anatomy, let alone buffalo anatomy, but there was bloods. Lots of blood. His front hooves had given out and he couldn’t move them. He’d fallen chin first onto the ground and had scraped up his jaw too. As Pinkie put a hoof on his wound she could feel his heartbeat. He could feel it too.
“Pinkie Pie…”
“I’m right here! You’re going to be fine! You’re…” she couldn’t get any more out before she sobbed hard. Tears pouring down her face more than ever before. Bysen tried to speak but it wasn’t easy. He coughed dryly. The bullet hadn’t hit his lungs but that didn’t mean he was alright, not even close.
“It… was six.” he said. And for once, Pinkie was the one confused. “You told me you would… ask me one day… how many hooves you… were holding up. It… was six.” he managed to get out. “I remembered Pi…” he groaned in pain before continuing “Pinkie pie. I remember everything you’ve ever said to me.
“Don’t say that! Don’t talk like you’re going to die! Don’t!” she cried. But she could already feel it. His heart rate was getting slower. And he’d lost so much blood. Clyde, despite having wanted to kill Bysen, was in horrible pain seeing what this did to his daughter… but he’d done it for her. She’d see that one day. Blinkie had gotten here just after Bysen had been shot and was looking on from just inside the tree line.
“I am sorry Pinkie Pie. I broke my promise. To always be with you. I am so sorry.” he said weakly. “There is something… something I have always wondered. You never told me… you never told me your real name.”
Pinkie closed her eyes hard and cried. She had told him. It wasn’t that he didn’t remember, “My name… my name was once Pinkamena Diane Pie… but that isn’t my real name. My real name is… is Pinkie Pie.” it was to her, because it was what she had chosen and NOT what Clyde had. To her now, Clyde wasn’t even her father. He was the monster that he claimed be protecting her.
“Thank you.” Bysen groaned. He sensed the truth in her words, along with the pain. “Pinkie Pie… you where why I was sent here. You were my vision… I know it. You brought such… such joy to my life. I am not sad how this… ends for me. I am just glad to have met you.”
“No… no, you can’t just leave me like this! I have questions too! What are the plains like? What’s the secret ingredient in that brown mush? Why are you leaving me?! What… what’s your name?...”
Clyde had stood there long enough, it was time to leave. After the tussle he didn’t know which way he’d come from. He could take a guess and start walking but that could lead him miles off. Or he could just pull out his compass. Pinkie still sat by her lover’s side, crying into his body, Blinkie right beside her offering what support she could. Clyde had always preferred Blinkie and Octavia’s straight hair to Pinkie’s curly hair… so why did it hurt him so much to see Pinkie’s hair straight like that now?
He took a look at his compass, the needle was pointing in almost the opposite direction he’d thought his home was, good thing he hadn’t just started walking. He took one last look at his daughters. He wanted to say something about Pinkie being better off but couldn’t bring himself too. He just began walking.
After crossing the camp he realized that even though he’d fought with Bysen, he hadn’t gone this far from where he’d enter, yet the compass was pointing for him to go right across the camp. He took another look. It was correct, however, the needle was shaking slightly. He took a few more steps and it began again back and forth. A few more stepped and it began to spin chaotically.
He leant down, with a deal of effort due to his age and having just been in a rather intense fight. Or intense on the system if not the body. He dug a small hole, maybe a few centimeters down before he hit rock. "No...?" he recognized it as he moved the compass to it and it spun wildly: iron rich lode-stone. “It… can’t be…” he whispered before yelling “We’ve struck it! Rock! Glorious rock!” he cheered.
Blinkie turned to look at him but Pinkie didn’t even acknowledge him. Judging by the bones lying around the perimeter of the clearing, a stone this big and this close to the surface would pull rocks up left and right in this spot for decades! It’s what he’d been looking for. The farm was saved. And Pinkie was saved! She wasn’t going to be taken and he could support her once more. He could support Octavia and Blinkie too!
“All the pain that buffalo caused… at least it wasn’t for nothing.” he sighed to himself. But despite Pinkie not acknowledging him, she still heard what he was saying.
“How… how could you?...” she whispered and finally turned to her father who wasn’t even looking at ‘that buffalo’. “You killed him… you killed him! You!... YOU!!!” Pinkie ran at him top speed, tackling him to the ground “I’LL KILL YOU!!!” she shouted, a hind leg on either side of his chest as she swung both forehooves into his muzzle, over and over.
“Pinkie!” Blinkie shouted as she tried to pull her sister off of her father. But only got smacked away herself.
“YOU MISERABLE PIECE OF SHIT!!!” Pinkie yelled more. If she kept up beating him much longer she would kill him. And she knew it, and stopped. Sitting there on his chest, she looked him in the eyes. “Why… why did you kill him? Why did you take him away from me…”
“He was...” Clyde stopped as he sputtered up some blood. “going to take you away from me…” and Pinkie punched him once more. Before taking her hooves to her face and screaming into them, letting out all her pain. Or at least trying to.
“He wasn’t taking me… he wasn… you did… I wanted to leave you… you! You drove me to this… I hate you, I hate you! I HATE YOU!!!” she screamed and drew her hoof back but didn’t swing. Instead, she reach over and grabbed his rifle. “I’ll kill you! You killed Bysen! You killed Bysen and I’ll kill you!” she pushed the barrel against his chest, right over his heart.
“Pinkamena. Dian…” Clyde said but was cut off. He was afraid, not of death, but of death by his daughter’s hooves.
“THAT’S NOT MY NAME!!!... my name is Pinkie Pie… not even that, it’s just Pinkie. I don’t want anything to do with you!” she cried. He’d tried to use soothing old words… all they’d done were brought out more hatred towards him.
“Don’t do this Pinkie!” Blinkie pleaded.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Pinkie barked back, not even looking at her.
“He’s our father…” was all Blinkie could answer. In fact it was the only reason she could think of that he shouldn’t be killed. But it wasn’t enough for her sister. Pinkie , turned her head she scrunched her eyes close and pulled the trigger.
To this day, Pinkie didn’t know if she had remembered the gun only held two bullets or if she had truly intended to kill her father that day. She lived with Blinkie now… or rather Elliot. She’d finally gotten her Cutie Mark. Though Elliot wished she had gotten it through different means. But she at least felt good she could help someone that meant so much to her sister.
A red heart, with a gold ring around it, that Elliot swore was actually brown like Pinkie's band. It symbolized her caring for all those all around the world. She’d always loved learning about other cultures and had learnt a lot about the buffalo. She had given Bysen a buffalo burial. Every tribe had their own customs for funerals so they couldn’t be sure which was his, but they took every step to come as close as possible. Wrapping in him in cloth, burying him in his brave regalia and phoenix feather headdress.
All of his clothes, except for one piece. Pinkie took his wedding band, and her own and put them in a small lock box. That box went inside another lock box and that went inside another. She made sure that she smiled when she touched them. They absorbed emotions Bysen had told her so she didn’t want any of what she was feeling now to ever seep into them. Ever.
“Are you doing to at least see me off Pinkie?” Elliot asked. She and JD where leaving today for Zebfrica to aid those who needed it there, leaving their house here in Ponyville to her sisters. Elliot had learnt the language and the customs and was ready to go. “How long are you going to mourn him? It’s almost been a year.”
“One year today. And yesterday was our anniversary.” Pinkie commented. Her tone cold and pained. Her mane was puffy once more and she’d smiled a lot in the last year, but she’d never been truly happy since then.
“Oh… I didn’t kno… actually I did, I just didn’t check the calendar and I’ve been so obsessed with my own stuff and I didn’t even think of you and I’m so sorry, for all of that, it’s just that I, I mean me and JD have been so busy lately and…” she stopped realizing Pinkie didn’t need excuses, or to deal with her neurotic-ness-ism. “Look, Pinkie Pie, promise me you’ll try to be happy while I’m gone. Ok?”
“Don’t make a girl a promise you can’t keep.” Pinkie told her sister, paraphrasing something Bysen had once said. But was telling it to herself too. “Promises are made to be broken.”
“No they’re not. And I’ve never known you to break one.”
“I didn’t… Bysen did.” Pinkie said as she began to cry. Not because she missed him this time, but because she blamed him for this. “He promised he’d never leave. We made a special promise between us and he broke it.”
“You know he didn’t do that. He… he loved you Pinkie. As much as I do. Don’t… he loved you because you were so happy and joyful, he wouldn’t want to see you so sad.” Elliot told her sister, for the honestly-who-knows-how-many-th time. “He never left really. He’s still there; Dad said he wouldn’t move him.”
“I don’t believe that promise either…” Pinkie sighed. She hadn’t said a word to her father other than ‘goodbye’ since then. And didn’t plan to. “I’ll never know someone like him again. I loved him, he made me happy and I made him happy. He was my friend… my only friend.” Pinkie sighed. She’d said that a few hundred times too. Of course she had her sisters but… even they had other friends like Lyra and Vinyl or Mootilda.
“Pinkie, will you make me a promise?”
“I don’t see the point.”
“Just… promise me, you’ll try and make some friends while I’m gone.”
“Promises mean nothing.”
“Then why was his promise to you so important?”
“Because… I don’t know. It was special. We made up this little joke thing with it.” Pinkie said while half-mimicking the routine she’d created. “It was silly.”
“Tell me about it.” Elliot said putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. This was the first time she’d heard about this ‘silly promise’ thing. And despite Pinkie’s words, her tone show it was indeed important to her.
“Well, it goes like this. ‘I Pinkie Promise to… um, try and make some friends. Cross my heart,” she said as she ran a hoof across her chest. And it felt… weird. But not bad. “hope to fly,” she went on as she flapped her hooves… and she felt a breeze that wasn’t from her flailing. She looked around slightly, before continuing. “stick a cupcake in my…” she felt something. Like a warm hoof on the side of her face. She placed her own hoof to it. “eye…”’
She began to cry. She could feel something. Him? It couldn’t be. But it was. But it wasn’t… maybe it was her imagination. But it made her... happy.
To gives one's name is to gives one's soul.
She grabbed Elliot and hugged her tightly. Elliot returned the hug, fearing she’d only made things worse. But when Pinkie finally pulled away, she wore a smile that quickly spread to Elliot too.
“Thank you. I’ll make friends. Lot of friends! And every single one will be as important to me as Bysen was… still is.” she said before turning and looking out the window. Taking a look outside, she saw two pegasi. One yellow with a pink mane and one blue with a rainbowed mane.
It hurt... it hurt so much. She lay in bed crying. Why? Why was this happening? What had she done to deserve this?! Elliot was there in the room with her, doing whatever she could to comfort her younger sister. There wasn't really anything she could do though. Just keep telling Pinkie what she'd told her so many times already. "Remember your breathing Pinkie. Okay, just one more push should do it." and with that Pinkie took a deep breath, held it for half a second before letting it right back out with an ear piercing cry.
As her crying died down it wasn't replaced. The screaming of her new born filled the room. Everypony was still for a brief moment before Elliot passed the foal to Pinkie Pie. The new mother cradled her son in her arms. She hadn't checked, she just knew.
