Bush Beat’s Journey

by Tree Sharp

Chapter 6: Party Time

“Everypony! Please may I have your attention!” The purple mare’s voice reverberated across the room, amplified by a megaphone. Bush Beat recognized her as Twilight Sparkle, but with a noticeable difference: She was an alicorn. Apparently the show wasn’t entirely accurate after all.

The commotion in the library quieted as everypony perked up their ears to listen. “Thank you all for coming. And thanks to Pinkie Pie,” she briefly pointed a hoof at the pink pony, “for putting together yet another great party to celebrate this occasion. We’re here to congratulate...” After a short pause, she pointed the same hoof at the azure pegasus who was hovering above the group. “... Rainbow Dash! For passing her History of the Wonderbolts exam!”

The room erupted in hoof-clopping applause. Scootaloo, standing in front of Bush Beat, was particularly euphoric in her appraisal, though the fillies on either side didn’t exactly spare their hooves either. Rainbow Dash flew towards Twilight Sparkle and landed beside her with a beaming smile.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight motioned to the other pegasus to come forward, and she promptly emerged from the small crowd. She was carrying in her mouth the book that Bush Beat saw at the train station, now gracefully adorned with a red ribbon tied into a bow. “We have a little congratulatory present for you here,” Twilight explained.

Rainbow Dash jumped in front of Fluttershy and stared at the book in jubilant disbelief. “It’s the newest Daring Do! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” She clasped the book between her forelegs, lifted off, and frantically circled the room trailed by streaks of rainbows in the air. “This is so awesome!”

Bush Beat felt his heart lifted.

As the rainbow-maned pegasus calmed and landed again, she looked at Fluttershy quizzically. “But... this book wasn’t supposed to come out until the next Running of the Leaves!... How did you...”

Fluttershy smiled. “A.K. Yearling asked me to wish you all the best with the Wonderbolts.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes began to water. Then she stepped closer to Fluttershy and gave her a tight hug with one foreleg. “You guys are the best friends a pony could ever have.”

---

With numerous ponies leaving the library, Scootaloo scurried to catch the departing Bush Beat. “Hey dude, wait up!”

Bush Beat turned his head toward the sound of Scootaloo’s voice and saw Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle trailing behind her. “Great party, girls,” he said, “thanks for the invitation.”

“Actually,” Scootaloo explained, “the party wasn’t the real reason we wanted you to come.”

“Oh?” Bush Beat said curiously while the other two fillies caught up and stood on either side of Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom decided to cut right to the chase. “You’re the oldest pony Ah’ve ever seen who didn’t have no cutie mark!”

“Yeah,” added Sweetie Belle. “We wanted to ask you if you’d like to join our club!”

Of course Bush Beat knew about the Cutie Mark Crusaders from watching them on TV, but the whole story would be awkward to explain, not to mention implausible. He thus decided he had to feign some ignorance. “Your... club? You girls founded a club for ponies without cutie marks?”

“Yup!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “We’re—” She nodded a signal to the other two fillies, then all three bellowed cheerfully, “—the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

Sweetie Belle continued, “We help ponies find their talents and earn their cutie marks!”

“Wanna come and see our clubhouse?” Scootaloo passionately suggested, picking up her scooter from leaning against a tree.

---

Moved by the characteristic buzzing from Scootaloo’s wings, while pulling Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Bush Beat perched inside a smaller wagon, the scooter chugged along steadily through Ponyville. Sweetie Belle provided the majority of the entertainment along the way, retelling the events leading to her sister and her five friends earning their cutie marks. Although Bush Beat was struggling to hide the fact about being familiar with the stories already, he admired the passion with which the fillies revered them.

All of a sudden, his horn began to glow. A glow that quickly grew brighter. Bush Beat looked unsettled and panicky. The horn radiated energy in all directions, and then abruptly pulled Bush Beat sideways. He bumped against the side of the cart, causing the vehicle to swerve.

Scootaloo lost control of the scooter. The wagon tipped over and rudely dumped the fillies onto the ground. She was yanked off her scooter, which tilted and fell into the dirt. Bush Beat felt himself hurtling through the air, before he finally crashed into a hedge. The stop was painful but welcome nonetheless.

A few seconds passed while the four ponies took a heavy breath and looked at each other. Sweetie Belle finally spoke up by asking Bush Beat, “Are you alright?”

Bush Beat crossed his eyes to look at his horn and found it to have stopped glowing. Then he noticed that his landing had severely damaged the hedge, which had previously been a smoothly-cut, carefully catered-for cuboid shape. He sighed.

A sign caught his eye. The hedge was lining a walkway that led into a building that stood out for being taller than all the surrounding houses. The sign revealed that building to be the Hay and Stay hotel. Bush Beat’s heart pounded; not only was he in trouble, but with his only place to stay for the night.

He felt a flash of a memory whizzing through his mind. He remembered the moment in Brightside’s apartment when he concentrated a magic spell towards a plant. The memory felt unexpectedly comfortable, and perhaps a little inviting.

He got back up on his hooves and looked around to see if anyone came out of the hotel. There wasn’t anypony in sight. He took a deep breath and reactivated his horn while concentrating on the damaged part of the hedge. He tried his hardest to repeat exactly what Brightside had taught him.

Some branches of the hedge slowly changed shape. The Crusaders, now back on their hooves, walked closer and watched Bush Beat, who appeared totally absorbed.

“Um...” Apple Bloom hesitated. “What are you doing?”

“I think I can fix this,” Bush Beat asserted with a confidence that felt surprisingly alien to him. “Let me try something.”

Within seconds, the hedge was engulfed in a shining magic aura. Some branches curled. Some straightened. Some entwined with each other and some separated. The leaves organized themselves into arrays and constellations. The Crusaders watched in awe as the hedge transformed itself into something new.

After a while, the implicated part of the hedge had turned from looking nastily mutilated into something inspired. It exhibited two thick, twisted columns seemingly resting on a base of accentuated green, both of which propped up a green slate on top, giving their sight a sense of balance and harmony.

Bush Beat felt like he was on a roll. He continued to reshape and reimagine the plant, working his way along the entire hedge, which was perhaps a good twenty feet long. It took a minute or two to complete his task, but in the end, the hedge was unrecognizable from its initial form. It had been converted from something ordinary to an eye-catching beauty.

He deactivated his magic, still keeping his eyes on the work of art he just created, examining it from all sides. Finally, he looked at the fillies with a satisfied smile. The three stared back at him in astonished disbelief.

“Wh... what just happened?” Scootaloo asked with a tilted head. Apple Bloom exclaimed excitedly, “ Look!” Her hoof was pointing in his direction.

Bush Beat looked behind himself to see what Apple Bloom might be pointing at. There was nothing there. Just then he noticed an unusual sight. On his haunches, to be precise.

“A cutie mark!” Sweetie Belle enthusiastically squeaked. “You earned your cutie mark!”

Bush Beat was exhilarated. “I... whoa. I had no idea I could do this!”

The cutie mark was a stylized image of a plant; generic, bent in a way that was unusual and yet aesthetically appealing. Bush Beat’s smile widened.

He suspected the joy of the moment about to be marred, spotting a pony who came walking out of the hotel’s front door. She looked at the redesigned hedge with some surprise. The earth pony mare’s coat and mane sported the same colors as the sign leading into the walkway.

“What happened here?” she asked in a highbrow accent. Her gaze soon fixated itself on Bush Beat.

“I... I...” Bush Beat was at an anxious loss for words. He noticed that while he was enthralled by his experience, it hadn’t occurred to him that the hedge’s owner may have their reservations about a radical change to the scenery, no matter how aesthetic it might look.

“He did this!” Apple Bloom blurted out, much to Bush Beat’s chagrin.

“Yeah! Isn’t it amazing?” Scootaloo added with an excited smile. Suddenly Bush Beat realized that he may have misjudged Apple Bloom’s sentiment.

“It’s so beautiful! I’ve never seen anything like it!” a thrilled Sweetie Belle contributed.

“Why, I’m...” the hotel mare started before trailing off. “Wait. Did you do that all on your own?” she asked while giving Bush Beat a skeptical look.

“Um... listen, I’m... I’m sorry,” Bush Beat stammered. He pointed at the tipped-over wagon and explained. “We accidentally crashed into this hedge and damaged it and I thought I’d... try to make up for that... a bit...”

“A bit?!” The mare gasped with delight. “This is fantastic! This is amazing! It’s so... beautiful!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle huffed and murmured to themselves, “That’s what we said.”

“My name is Inn diGo,” the mare continued. “I run this hotel. We’ve been looking for a gardener to look after our properties for a long time.” She nodded in the direction of Bush Beat’s haunch. “Judging by your cutie mark, it seems that you might be just the pony we need! Do you...” Her face changed into a questioning one. “Do you live in Ponyville? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

Bush Beat quickly recognized the parallel of taking a job at a hotel. He’d been there before, and that didn’t end well. He quietly sighed, but then rearranged his thoughts. This would be different. It wasn’t Manehattan, after all. All the ponies he’d met so far were much kinder. And in some sense, he did owe his cutie mark to this hotel.

“No, I don’t,” he thus answered, “but I...”

“You’re a hotel!” Apple Bloom interjected.

Scootaloo added, “Yeah! Can’t he stay here with you?”

“Would that suit you?” Inn diGo smiled and held out a hoof for Bush Beat to shake.