//------------------------------// // 40 - From Their Land // Story: Bushkeeper // by Odd_Sarge //------------------------------// There was a great trepidation among the assembled warriors. If they could be called that. Before them all, great plumes of flame wafted upwards. A good deal of the ponies seemed hesitant to approach, but Andrew couldn’t blame them; after what they’d experienced in the Greenland, there was no doubt in his mind that this amount of fire was worrying. The more experienced firestarters however, were more than happy to tend to the fires as the ponies waited for the last batch of warriors to arrive. Not too far away, a great herd of ponies and deer crested a hill. A broad grin broke across Andrew’s face at the sight of Mint. “That’s my mare.” The unicorn trotted up to the teenager, who greeted her by combing his hand through her mane; she replied with a nuzzle to his arm. Mint trot off to see to Greeny, who had secured himself as one of the ponies responsible for a roaring fire. The Keeper allowed the ponies returning with the deer to disperse, and for his part he approached the cervines. A deal had already been negotiated between the ponies and deer a day prior. Even after the fact, Andrew remained surprised; he hadn’t expected the deer to be so willing to cooperate, especially with how dangerous and strange the plan must of have seemed to them. There were mutual benefits to the plan of course, but the amount of deer that had volunteered to come along was quite generous for what had been organized. “I’m glad to see you all here.” Andrew emphasized the statement with a neat bow. They bowed in kind. Andrew had quickly opted on a new plan for language in this world; he would try to learn the language of the natives first. Of course, he couldn’t speak their language, considering the fact most ponies and deer spoke in various degrees of ‘animal sounds’ he had no hope of fully emulating, but he figured that he could get the basic gestures and tone down at the very least. More of his lessons would come later in time, but for now he would stay simple; tones and gesture would be his language for now. “This is the main idea,” the Keeper began firmly. He led the deer over to one of the fires. Incidentally, the firepit belonged to Greeny; the stallion smiled up at him, and Andrew smiled back. Stooping downwards, the human picked up the mainstay of the makeshift arsenal. “We’ll be using these,” he gestured to the large pile of bark-tipped torches, “and you all—” a swift, sweeping motion across the ponies and deer, “will do this...” He carefully lit the branch and held it up for all of them to see. A wave of excited huffs wound throughout the new arrivals, and Andrew was all too glad to hear it. He handed the torch to Greeny and continued. “We’ve already split into several groups.” The Keeper broadened his smile further and gestured to some of the other fires. “They’ll tell you more of what you need to know. We’ll be leaving here shortly.” On cue, each one of the firestarters began carefully herding groups of both ponies and cervines away. From where the teenager stood, he could see the quick primers on torch-wielding were going smoothly. The sky was perfect; far above, the air was clear of cloudy blemish for miles. Now it was certain, for the weather would hold; their land would be secured. Andrew let a breath loose. He was there at the front of the herd, torches flaring and hearts thumping in tandem. The forest loomed at them, daring an attempt. And the mortals answered. The Keeper let loose a yell that was quickly buried underneath the thunderous sound of hooves. The rough terrain bit at his heels as he leapt over scattered stones and scraggy brambles, but he pushed onwards to keep pace with his ponies; they were quickly gaining ground. Soon, they found themselves away from the bright plains and in the shady homeland of the spiders. Andrew held his torch aloft, an illumination in the darkness that made up this dark and decrepit portion of the woods, and three dozen more blazed alongside it. Deeper and deeper their force drove into the territory. Just as he had scouted earlier, the spiders on the inner edges of the forest were there; however, they were now on the rebound. Behind him, the tempest of ponies and deer shook the unfathomably large webs adorning the deep forest’s gangly trees. The herd moved as one, splintering off momentarily to push against any beasts that came too close, but never too far. The pegasi held the front, the earth ponies the rear, and the unicorns at the center of it all. It was a well-oiled machine to Andrew, but to the ponies and deer, their Harmony oozed life into the dead forest. Ahead, the spiders had coalesced into a wriggling black mass and mostly come to a halt. As the party drew closer, the situation became clear. There was only so far they were able to travel before the walls of the encroaching mountain began to push in on them; a cavern was the end of the line for the spiders. One-by-one they squeezed past each other, desperately retreating into the abyssal void carved into the mountain. The Keeper's herd leveled out in neat rows behind him and their leaders. Each pony and every deer clung taut to their torches, unsure of what to do as they observed the demons from afar. When the last spider had disappeared into the cave, Andrew still stood heaving from the chase. "That's not... going to work. We need to keep them out of here for good. If we just leave now, they might stay in that cave but odds are they won't. We're gonna need to solve this before it just gets as bad as before." He took a moment to recollect himself, eyes scanning the environment for some kind of clue on how to proceed. The forest opened up in the natural alcove, leaving the looming cliffs in plain sight. Scattered about, the mist of a plan began to develop. Silently, the Keeper trudged forward, followed closely by Mint. The mare matched her gait alongside the human and peered up into his eyes. "Wait." The herds watched curiously as Andrew began to unsteadily scale the cliff. He had chosen the smoothest incline available, but it was still no easy feat; the teenager was a runner, not a climber. However steep it was, he managed to reach the top, but more importantly, his goal. With his back against the stony outcrop and his feet pressed up against the large boulder, the human began to push. The ponies had begun to creep closer when the rock went tumbling down. A tremendous crack ruptured through the miniature valley. The clash of stone on stone was a usually terrifying notion to a pony, signifying an oncoming rock-slide or the impromptu weapon of a clever hydra. There and now, it signified a triumphant victory. And it was just the beginning; the rock had come to a clean rest at the mouth of the cave, and Andrew was already working his way to another boulder. Hugging the cliff as he shuffled along, the Keeper gestured to the ponies and deer gathered below. "Mint, Blackie, Brown! Help!" The ponies and deer were quick to organize themselves once more; torches found themselves scattered on the stones as they went to work. While Blackie soared upwards to assist Andrew, several other teams of pegasi scattered about to push other stones down the mountain. The earth ponies—under Brown's guidance—carefully maneuvered each boulder into a perfect fit in the cave's entrance, and some began digging at the dirt on the edge of the clearing to fill in the gaps left behind. The deer assembled at the mouth of the cave and the edge of the clearing with their torches at the ready. For the unicorns, however, Mint's horn was alight in an overwhelming brilliance brightened further by her own herd's horns. As Andrew and Blackie made for the next boulder, he bore witness to the unicorns; the crunch of roots being torn from the soil and the wafting bark aroma of the uprooted tree was a sight and smell experienced by all in the clearing. Packed in by the earth ponies' mystically stable dirt, covered in stones dropped by pegasi, and encompassed by the husk of a hulking dead oak, the demons were finally locked away. Andrew was gently deposited before his flock by a pair of pegasi. Everyone around wore relieved smiles, and the hugs were in surplus. Before he could find his bearings, the human found himself wrapped up in a mob of hugging equines. He celebrated alongside them with booming laughter as he scooped up pony after pony into his arms. The largest threat to their land had been sealed away, and from the sturdy look of their barrier, it was going to be a very long time. Soon they would return to their New Greenland, for the time of pony-kind had come.