Bushkeeper

by Odd_Sarge

38 - The Antithesis

Andrew… was a wreck.

The teenager’s mind felt like it was in the wrong place. He felt himself at odds with the world, seemingly claimed by an endless cycle of pain and rejuvenation. Each step had led him further into the fresh hell’s depths, culminating in an unrealized promise; one of freedom from the magical land of ponies, dragons, and hydras. That was the goal he faced now, but it wasn’t exactly what he’d started with. The journey begun as a sudden detour, but had blown out into a test of will with pauses of some tranquility in between.

But now, there would be no recuperation. There would be no breaks to the cycle. A world of hope held up Andrew’s shoulders, but atop it sat the weight of countless worries and woes; what hope was there to be found in lieu of lost friendships and ongoing betrayals?

He didn’t know how to answer that.

In hindsight, it truly was a privilege that Andrew could simply sit there in exchange for allowing the rain to have its go at him. It held back, a light drizzle in the cloudless sky, caressing the teenager’s cheeks with each slick and momentary touch. Yet, each droplet left a ghost of a sting in its place, reminding Andrew that despite the odds, he had remained alive and breathing in a warring world away from home. Almost a month of life away from home… or even a month… Andrew didn’t know. He didn’t want to know.

Unadorned titulars, meaningless motions, ineffectual inventions. These had been the staple archeologies of the Bushkeeper’s tale. From the first berry shared, to the countless ideas given in the pursuit of uplift… it had begun with the ponies, and now it would end with the ponies. This was truly going to be the end of his stay here.

Andrew bit into his lip, unsure if he wanted to believe the notion. Or even if he was ready to.

He wiped the tears from his eyes and stood.

The walk was a long one, but Andrew had time on his side. Time knew him all too well. He felt himself more closer to the concept than anything around him; this feeling pooled in the connections between his arrival and return from the pony lands. Time never slowed for him. Time never got ahead of him. Andrew bode himself with time, ignorant of borrowed lies and their heartfelt cries. Had these thoughts consumed him earlier in the journey, Andrew would have laughed with some mirth over the idea that a few creatures could easily hide their innocence behind a facade.

Time was unlike the ponies. Where Andrew had been reluctant to continue forward with them, they urged him forward. When he had gone too far, he’d played right into their hooves. What the ponies had seen in him was easy prey, and what they had used him for was the unabashed domination of the landscape.

“Mint…”

The rain hid the tears.

At the center of it all stood Mint. The azure unicorn that Andrew had trusted. The one he'd held faith. The one he’d loved. That he hated. He… feared.

Above all, Andrew feared the loss of his friend. He didn’t want to lose her no matter the cost. Even across boundaries they’d understood each other, and even through the vile hatred and contempt he knew of her now, there still sat a resemblance of a real… friend.

It all sat there on that dreaded word. Friends and friendship. What meaning did such ideas really have when the world you’d built up to surround friends with collapsed in an instant? It was a whole new environment, with unfamiliar faces and even more unfamiliar ideals. Mint had revealed herself as a monster in Andrew’s eyes, almost irrevocably shattering the teen’s perception of his pony ‘friend.’ What happened now had no effects on the faux past established by Mint. She couldn’t possibly sway him with how much venom had been revealed to Andrew…

But the idea of maintaining a friendship with a ‘demon’ simply reminded the teenager he was stubborn. From the beginning and even now, he’d adhered to a one-track mind. Adventure had taught him nothing. He hadn’t earned any knowledge, everything had been handed to him, a puzzle fed to him piece-by-piece. Nothing had been found, and yet… something was lost. There weren’t any feelings there to guide him, no souls of the sky seeking to use him as a pawn, no animals around the corner prepared to follow him to their next meal. Andrew was an individual, and individuals could make decisions, but societies could change worlds.

That was what it meant to be the Bushkeeper. It was nothing but a title, nothing more than a placard upon a lanyard to show him off to the world as an individual. A Bushkeeper was free to make a name from themselves, and carve the world as they saw fit alongside their peers. It was never their intention to work towards the recession of violence, never their position to be the good of the world, never their duty to take the role of a leader… Andrew had a purpose, and it was up to him to decide what would be done to achieve his goals. All the ponies had wanted was to change their world for the better, and Andrew had answered by seeking to establish a society of ponies; he’d brought it upon them to unite and do it themselves… but the idea had been his own. There had been no direct orders from Harmony. There had been no plans outlined by Mint. All that had been given to Andrew were vague hints of where to go and what to do. It was his mind and his hands alone that had morphed the world.

Andrew had forgotten what it was like to be human.

An individual had power. But it was raw power. Under the guidance of many individuals, this power had meaning. Under the strongest individuals, however, a single mind controlled its power of its own volition. It gave itself meaning, and as such, a means of progression. Life moved forward in a group of consolidated power, and even so, it continued when there was but a single mind. But Andrew realized he had been wrong twice now; it had not been the fact that the ponies could not work together as a people, and it had not been the fact they could not work without a leader to coordinate them—both of these fallacies had been disproven through his actions—it was the fact that the ponies were too consumed by their set definitions of the world. They viewed their landscape as unchangeable, with solid variables in place that had to either be removed or added. The ponies viewed the magical power of the world as one of these variables, and had so strongly believed the Bushkeeper to be a missing variable. Andrew saw past these flaws now, and saw a world of opportunity. Not one of preconceived variables, but one encompassing the freedom of creation; the world was not but presets, it was one where each idea was carefully crafted be it through individuals, or through societies. Only through his presence did the secluded world of ponies begin to crumble.

Andrew was human. That was what made him a Bushkeeper. That was what made him the opposite of what the gods of the world were; the antithesis. Harmony and the goods wanted to take his mind, prevent him from spreading his individuality and world-altering seeds. Their command to him had been to destroy his progress by taking Mint away. His power; friendship with an individual… a herd. He had begun to develop a society, the first step on the path of creation, which the gods themselves viewed as their unchangeable variable truths. He wouldn’t let them destroy what he’d begun. He would tear apart the order of the gods, and in its wake, sow a path of revolution against the values of magic and power. A human was just what the world needed to rid itself of the primordial beings and their bindings against life itself; the ponies simply needed an example to begin their rebellion.

The Bushkeeper’s shoes trudged to a stop before the pony encampment. Andrew breathed a slow, methodical breath.

… But he already knew he didn’t need it.

Comments

[Viper Pit]

i think i get what your trying to say (at least partially) so andrew has decided to embracehis desteny as bushkeeper now when does celestia and luna come into play is my question

[Phantom Night]

An update, sweet.

The biggest question in this story is if Andrew will be able to acomplish a bushkeepers greatest task.....building a shrubbery!!!

[KMCA]

8866016
It cannot be done!

[Alondro]

So, bad gods again, and of course a lone human believes can stop them?

You know, even the Greco-Roman gods were more bad-ass than that. They trolled humans constantly and with impunity. And they weren't even omnipotent or omniscient!

He needs to slow down his internal rant for a moment and think: is he so sure these 'gods' can't simply wipe the slate clean if the world doesn't go the way they wish it? Can he be so sure they aren't merely playing a game and can hit the 'Off' switch whenever they choose?

He's vastly out of his league and in his arrogance, believes himself a savior to the world, despite having no power at all to enter or leave it at will and the fact that he is very mortal.

This guy has his own God Complex going on. Somebody needs to smack him in the face and remind him he's just a naked ape.

[Ash Bark]

8866800
Every instance of power in this story has been painful and pretty much out of his control. The "gods" in this story seem more like a stagnating force rather than an omnipotent and powerful individual. When he's saying he will strike out against them, all he's really saying is that he will attempt to guide his followers into a cohesive civilization instead of a nomadic community. At least, that's what I think is being said, there may be more going on.

[Alondro]

8869290 Stagnated doesn't necessarily mean 'weak'. It may be uninspired, but exceedingly powerful. At the very least, it's beyond any human experience. He's making a rash decision without any plausible means of accomplishing this monumental task nor fully comprehending what he's up against.

[Ash Bark]

8869313
Sure, I would agree he has a monumental task ahead. I imagine he will second guess himself alot in that journey (as he already does). What I don't know is the motivations and reach of harmony and the like. I haven't seen enough of it(?) to judge its ability and plans.

[Alondro]

8869572 That's what I mean. He's in as alien a world as possible, yet he thinks he understands enough to move forward. He's already set himself up to make disastrous mistakes.

If the Harmony god-thing made any real mistake, it was picking this guy! Should have nabbed a biologist. I volunteer.

[Azelze The Mephistocorn]

8898328
I never said it's a bad story. In fact it's really welll done. It's just the plot that really confusing

[Odd_Sarge]

8898334
I appreciate it, but the fact of the matter is that the story is bad because of the confusing plot. You accidentally commented on the latest chapter, which I really wrote to try and remedy the the confusing plot, but if you'd spoil yourself and taken a look through this chapter's comments (The Antithesis) and the previous chapter, you'd see that most speculation about the story is just trying to fill gaps in my work. I was never going for a confounding unsolvable mystery, I was just trying to write an adventure; it's hard to write one when the story is confusing for both the author, and more importantly, the reader.

I've given this story my all, but I really should've drawn this out better and listened to a fellow fanfic author's advice: Don't give up and don't go back and fix things until you're finished. I've really messed the plot up by constantly trying to backtrack and explain when the comments signify confusion.

[ABitterPill]

9031605

Not just hiatus it would seem. It is cancelled in all but name, which is a damn shame. No your writing isn't perfect and could use some work, but you have one of the most original HIE story ideas I've seen. It's not perfect no, but it's not a cut-and-paste format like so many others. Originality is appealing, and it is a pity you no longer get any joy out of writing it. I suppose I'll keep reading (I'm on "Interests" currently) and see how it progresses. I would like you to see this to conclusion, but even an unfinished story is better than a completed copy/paste I've read a thousand times.

[Odd_Sarge]

9033214
Hey, I appreciate your words. I'm really hoping that even though this may have come off as a complete cancellation, that I will indeed return to finish it one day. For now though, I suppose it will have to sit in this state of half-cancellation-half-incomplete hybrid. I've seen other authors pull their own cancelled works out from the grave, and I'm praying that Bushkeeper won't tip over into that hollow coffin I'll have to pry open another time. And hopefully it won't be a never.

Thanks for commenting.

[Vutava]

He would tear apart the order of the gods, and in its wake, sow a path of revolution against the values of magic and power.

That sounds an awful lot like something Discord would say.

[lazyreader19]

9197901
Was thinking song similar lines for the last chapter or so

[DerpTape]

Yeah, humans are good at killing gods . . . Just saying.