Bushkeeper Post-Mortem: It's never too late to drop by. · 6:50am Apr 6th, 2021
If you've read Bushkeeper, I hope you enjoyed the ride.
Upfront: This blog contains my personal post-epilogue world-building for Bushkeeper. It is contained in the quote a little ways below.
It is short: 697 words long. It goes into fine detail—though imperfect—on the world of Equestria after the conclusion of Andrew's story.
It is likely that you haven't read it. I don't blame you; it was my obligation to make this known, and I made the wrong decision in leaving it as a comment. But instead of sulking, I've taken action.
I'm not asking you to read Bushkeeper again (and I haven't made any changes to the story since I published the final chapter, "Till Sleep Claimed Him").
I made this mistake, and I'm going to fix it now. It's never too late.
Thank you all for reading.
"My personal take on how Andrew is remembered, and a short timeline, is as follows..."
Andrew dreams. And when he passes that night, Harmony keeps her promise.
For hundreds of years, she keeps quite close to the ponies, helping them in times of minor crises (i.e, a harsh winter here, a bad bout of sickness there). Eventually, though, the ponies grow to the point that community in the larger villages isn't enough to keep their society together, and for the first time since Andrew's keeping, begin to develop systems to facilitate leadership: government.
Harmony, noting this is of Andrew's work, chooses not to interfere. A firm believer of fate, she chooses not to intervene even when the ponies begin to live under leaders of their same tribe. The division of the ponies unknowingly leaves behind artifacts from Andrew's time, and the ones who adopt these are earth ponies who continue to live in Tall Tale even when the unicorns and pegasi are gone.
During the events of Hearth's Warming, Tall Tale would've been where most of the food for the pegasi and unicorns was grown. Following the events of Hearth's Warming, more earth ponies would move to the newly founded Equestria. With the purpose of Tall Tale's exportation defunct, and content to continue following the isolated agrarian lifestyle promoted by Andrew, the earth ponies don't expand east towards Equestria, but rather move west. Harmony watches over all ponies, but she watches over these earth ponies far more closely. It is a silent, yet eternal watch.
In the modern day show-period, Tall Tale has been absorbed into Equestria's borders. But out in the Undiscovered West, small villages of earth ponies remember Andrew through carvings and murals etched in the mud and stone of their dens. Much of his life is passed down through oral tradition, but due to the harsh nature of living in the west, his story appears to be much more fierce and of brave fighting. In a sense, they are correct, but the gap between their current understanding of his story and the understanding of the true story is ambiguous enough that many earth ponies believe Andrew was real, but many ponies outside of the western villages liken him to that of a fictional hero.
To go into further depth, Andrew is presented in two forms: as a strong earth pony who led them, or as the biped he was, typically as a minotaur with horns to show the strength they say he possessed. While Andrew did get ponies to pass ideas down to one another, he did not share much about his own self with them; humanity is a foreign, and forgotten concept. What is clear to anyone looking into the other recorded histories of these earth ponies is that 'The Bushkeeper', as he is referred to in their traditions, is a tale that predates the events of Hearth's Warming, and if any curious ponies listened to the traditions long enough and followed them far enough, they might find themselves standing on an old section of Tall Tale's ancient orchard, where an unmarked cemetery for earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and for Andrew himself, lays at rest.
To many ponies, they feel that they were the first civilization to develop and advance because they were lucky. The princesses and Discord recognize there is more to this; while Harmony does not speak to them, they recognize that a minute, ancient tendril of magic tethers the god to a point unfathomably far into the past, centered in the cradle of pony civilization, Tall Tale. It is the longest kept spell in Equestria, and it is shown only to those who purposefully seek it out: it is a promise. Despite this, they never learn the full truth; it is too far in the past to feasibly travel. But they recognize that despite her aeons-long silence, Harmony is connected--somehow by word--to someone from a time at the cusp of pony civilization.
To the western earth ponies, Andrew is remembered as the first tribe leader, and the inner strength of pure will. To the Equestrians, Andrew is remembered as the very lessons of friendship and harmony, and their constant drive to innovate. To the immortals, Andrew is remembered as a promise, unbroken, and unerring.
There was a reason I chose now of all times to publish this in its own blog. One year ago, my friend James passed away. He was a fantastic friend, and he'd hate to see me babbling like an idiot, now.
Please, if you can spare the time, check some of the stories he wrote.
Again, thank you all for reading. To those that are interested in more from me: I hope to publish more in the coming year, but the world we inhabit is controlled by a thief of happenstance; friends and time are always lost to the insatiable bastard that is life. So above all, thank you for your time.
Accidents happen without notice; there will not always be a portent.
Be safe, be well, and keep friends close.
I always like to see someone rediscovering his burial site and the reaction from ponykind
Did not think I'd see more Bushkeeper lore crop up, wowzers! And in true Bushkeeper form, it feels weighty.
Thanks for the epiblogTM (epilogue/blog), good to hear from you again.
No joke, this brought me to tears.
Bravo Odd_shot, Bravo.