”Split!” Blackie ordered. The harsh whinny cut through the sound of the flames and stomping earth ponies ahead. On command, the three mares took off, sending Andrew and Greeny reeling back from the pegasi’s quick takeoff. Blackie turned to Andrew, gave a curt nod, then followed after the distantly growing flock.
Andrew stood frozen. “Holy cow.”
”Incredible,” Greeny agreed, separating himself from Andrew’s side. ”You have chosen well, bushkeeper.”
Andrew shook his head. He slapped Greeny on the shoulder and pointed the soaring pegasi out. “No, I mean… look how fast they’re going.” The pegasi went about the thick smoke above, sending bucks left and right into the black smog, bursting the ashen clouds in something akin to an explosion of powder. “I think I understand why you call them cloudmasters now.”
”Bushkeeper!” A worried neigh diverted the duo’s attention to the approaching herd leader of the earth ponies. The brown mare came up urgently, only just able to resist yanking Andrew forward to rush him into helping the exhausted, yet hard-working herd. You come!
“I do. Now, what do you need me to do?”
”Help us.”
Andrew blinked. ”How am I supposed to do that?” He glared at the mysterious orb on his stick, still hovering quietly. ”What are your secrets?”
”Bushkeeper?” Greeny nudged his side. Andrew looked down into the determined stallion’s face. ”I will help you use the fwafwa.” The mare standing before them grimaced at the use of the word, but recovered before the stallion or Andrew could notice.
“What do I do, Greeny?” Andrew tapped the stick into the ground with emphasis. “I honestly have no clue what I’m supposed to do with it.”
Greeny was hesitant. He went to reach out to the orb, but pulled back at the last second. He looked up at Andrew and shook his head. ”It is not my place.”
“Crap,” Andrew muttered. “Crappity crap crap.” Staring up at the blaze, Andrew rolled his shoulders. Taking a concentrative breath, he relaxed his muscles. “Alright, we’ll just see where this goes.” Eyes flicking to the purple orb, Andrew began to move his free right hand up to touch it. As he inched closer and closer, his hand began to shake, his thoughts lingering further and further towards hesitation. Sucking in his gut, Andrew finally laid his hand on the orb.
Immediately, heat surged into his hand. No, it did not cover his skin as it had before, this time, Andrew felt it in his blood. His eyes went wide, mouth cracked open in a silent scream. Greeny held onto him, preventing the teenager from crumpling to the ground.
”Hold it!” Greeny cried. ”You have never used fwafwa. You must hold it!”
Tears tore at the edge of Andrew’s vision as the heat began to rapidly extend from his hand and up his arm. Spotting Greeny’s collapsing strength, the brown mare came forward and helped Andrew stay upwards. Andrew recognized Greeny’s words, and instead of pulling away as he had been naturally attempting to do, he forcefully wrapped his hand around the orb.
The heat immediately went up his spine and into his head.
Now screaming in true pain, Andrew lost complete control of his body. The two ponies struggled to keep him standing, and it was not until a large orange stallion, vaguely familiar to Andrew’s dwindling thoughts, arrived, helping Andrew up into a standing position once again. The stick dropped out from Andrew’s left hand, but the orb remained hovering ahead of him. Scalding heat erupted from Andrew’s pocket, and on instinct, his newly freed hand shot out to the pocketed orb and yanked it out. It cooled suddenly, causing steam to rise up into the already dense air.
The three ponies were yelling something to Andrew as he stood there shaking, a physical white orb in one hand, and a blazing ball of purple light in the other. He could not discern their words, their language having dropped back into the all too unintelligible sounds of ponies. However, as Andrew’s blurry vision focused enough to take in his shuddering hand on the purple orb, a word cut through; it was not from Greeny, nor the two earth ponies. It was a hazily memorable voice, yet one that he could not recall ever hearing.
”One.” The voice was thunder to Andrew’s ears, but the ponies seemed not to notice. ”Make one whole.”
Through the firestorm raging through his mind, his arm, and his hand, Andrew felt the phrase click in place somewhere. In one quick motion, the white orb of amethyst in his left hand slammed into the purple mist contained by his right hand. There, he held the two orbs within each other. Shuddering, Andrew felt his scream die down, the heat disappearing from his body slowly. As the last of the heat fell into the orb, Andrew felt ready to fall over completely, but the ponies held him up. His hands were a mess of shaky movements as he tried to step back, the white orb dropping from his hands and onto the ground.
No longer did the artifact hold the shine of amethyst crystal; it had turned into a white ball of marble. The purple mist had disappeared as well, but from the corner of Andrew’s still recovering vision, it had disappeared from the air and coalesced at the tip of Andrew’s walking stick again. He ignored the worried brays of the ponies beside and behind him, simply bending over to pick up the stick. As he held it up to support himself, Andrew could feel something within the stick, bubbling just beneath the surface. In severe contrast to the heat he had felt prior, a cool sensation crossed over his fingers.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Andrew ran his fingers over the stick with both hands, a smile taking shape on his face.
Greeny stood in front of Andrew, watching the bushkeeper’s hands travel along the stick. He was hesitant to speak, clueless as to what had just occurred between Andrew and the fwafwa. Greeny wished to speak out and ask how the bushkeeper felt, but something about the sudden calm of Andrew’s attitude felt private.
Breathing slowly, Greeny looked to the herd of earth ponies, still working hard to clear the land of possible tinder. He knew it wouldn’t work; the embers would set the berry forest alight soon enough. He looked back at Andrew, the teenager still lost in the faintly glowing stick. Time was of the essence, and despite his best wishes, Greeny knew that it was time to see if the bushkeeper could truly help the herds stomp out the Light Land’s frolicking borders.
”Bushkeeper?”
Andrew cracked his eyes open carefully. Back in control of his senses, Andrew looked down at the stick in his hands.
”Bushkeeper?”
Andrew looked up, allowing his left hand to take control of the stick once again. “Greeny?”
The stallion looked at the stick, then to Andrew. ”How do you feel?”
Andrew thought it over for a moment. “Great.” He looked over the mare and stallions around him, smile still occupying his features. “Thank you.”
”Can you stop the Light Land, bushkeeper?” Andrew looked from the stick to the east, the flames much closer now.
He shook his head, turning his gaze down. “No.” Andrew kicked the marble down the hill, watching it roll.
”How can you be so careless?” the brown mare growled, stomping right up to Andrew’s peaceful smile. ”You sit here, watching the Great Green burn—”
“—knowing that I can do nothing to stop it? Yes.” The mare shook her head.
”You are a coward.”
Andrew nodded his head, leaning around the mare to watch the marble roll. “Maybe, maybe.”
Greeny looked hopeful. ”Bushkeeper, surely you must be able to do something?”
“I really can’t.” Andrew paused, then gently pushed the mare away from him. He looked to Greeny, smile faltering. “But you can.”
”I do not—”
“Bring them.” The stick flashed purple with each syllable Andrew spoke. “Bring your herd.”
Greeny froze at the sound of Andrew’s true voice.
“Greeny,” Andrew flashed again with his stick. “Bring our herd.”
With an automatic bow, Greeny pointed his horn to the black clouds above. A faint green aura encompassed his horn, growing with ever brightening intensity. Andrew stared at him as the two earth ponies looked away from the blinding light. Grunting, Greeny let out a roar, sending a piercing beam of white light upwards with a shockwave and bang. The clouds parted, revealing the blue sky beyond the layers. It stayed like that as Greeny came back, huffing and puffing from the draining act.
“Good.” The stick did not flash as Andrew spoke.
“I heard some things, Greeny.” Greeny looked up at Andrew, recognizing the calling from Andrew’s previously understandable words. “I think... I think I know what your sky gods are trying to do.” He shook his head. “I don’t really understand what’s going on right now; my mind is more or less merged with another, but I don’t know who they are. They aren’t a god, that’s for sure.” Andrew hobbled forward to place his hand on Greeny’s head. “I don’t even think anybody’s in here with me.”
“But still, I don’t know what thoughts are my own. I can’t think of anything for myself at this point. Everytime I try to focus for myself, I’ve been completely diverted into processing something. It’s really weird for me, Greeny.” Andrew stepped back. “Something’s using my mind for something, and all I can do is move around. I don’t think I will be like this for long, but something in here—” Andrew tapped his temple “—tells me that by the time this is all over, we can move forward.”
Coughing into a hand, Andrew looked back to the Berry Forest. “All these possibilities keep flashing through my mind, but I can’t remember what any of them were meant to show, or at least not completely. The unicorns could be here five seconds from now, or not show up at all. Something may have happened to them; the hydra is hurting them all, or they simply up and abandon us.” Sucking in a breath, Andrew looked back to Greeny. “I don’t even remember what I just said. The process is telling me every possibility from the past, the current, and the future. Everything independent of the process keeps getting lost. I’m stuck here in the lost part, Greeny.”
Suddenly, Andrew gave a large, body-encompassing twitch. He leant his stick down, putting the purple orb between him and Greeny. The staff flashed as Andrew spoke. “It is done. The fwafwa is for the herd to use.”
Silently, and with a hoof full of apprehension, Greeny reached up and touched the orb. A snake of purple uncoiled itself from the edge of the orb, trailing along Greeny’s hoof and into the tip of his horn. Greeny’s eyes widened, stumbling backwards as Andrew straightened and turned around.
“Do you hear that?” Surely enough, the sound of galloping hooves cut through the darkened hilltop. “The herd arrives.”
Mint, followed closely by Lemon, came bounding out from the trees. She slid to a halt before Andrew, the teenager opting to watch four unicorns from the herd follow.
“Bushkeeper.”
“Herd leader.” Mint flinched at that.
”The sky gods remain?”
Andrew shook his head, stick flashing as he spoke. “No. This is their doing, but it is not them.”
”Falfa?” Lemon went up to Greeny. ”We saw the sign; what is your need?”
Greeny stared blankly at Lemon. ”The fwafwa.”
Andrew clutched his head with his right hand, growling. “Oh god, oh god…”
“Andrew?”
“You have to—” Andrew’s eyes went wide “—you have to help me.”
”What’s happening to the bushkeeper?” a curious and worried unicorn asked from the assembled herd.
”The sky gods have permitted the use of the fwafwa!” Lemon leant back at Greeny’s sudden cry.
”What are you on about, falfa?”
“The fwafwa.” Andrew’s eyes remained wide as he took the rapidly flashing stick up into two hands. “You’ve got to take it!” His hands wrapped around the stick tightly as he began to hyperventilate. “Now now now now—”
Before anyone could move, the purple orb of mist gave off a powerful explosion. The purple mist sprayed everywhere, reforming itselves into lines as they surged towards the unicorns. Each unicorn fell still as the fwafwa sank into their horns. Andrew dropped the now dim stick, eyes wide as his chest heaved.
“Free free free,” Andrew repeated. He shook his head clear of the repeating phrase and looked around. “Where… what…” His eyes landed on the unicorns staring at him. The two earth ponies watched with Andrew as the unicorns sank low to the ground, bowing. Mint stood up, separating herself from the obedient herd. Her eyes were surrounded by the faint glow of purple, the same exact coloration as the previously existent purple mist.
”Hello, bushkeeper.”
New, yet obviously past events, made themselves at home in Andrew’s memories. Andrew’s brain ground to a halt as the voice occupying Mint’s body and mouth came into recognition. Stepping backwards fearfully, Andrew realized who the voice belonged to.
It was the strange voice of a spider from a dream he had never remembered until now.
”It’s time to talk about my gifts.”