Forgive The Forgotten

Danny Bullwhip

Now Daniel Keaton Bullwhip liked to think he was a very practical pony. He made simple observations and gave reasonable demands, asked only for what he believed was rightfully his (usually) and tried to remain as unobtrusive as he possibly could be.

But some days that just wasn’t enough. Days like this when everything under the sun just seemed to fall on its plot and expect to be promptly taken care of, as if he didn’t have other, more important arrangements to attend to. It was just his rotten luck that today was turning into one such day and already he had bitten off more than he could believably chew.

“Now I’m tellin’ ya for the last time!” Growing increasingly more aggravated as the day wore on and the cowboy’s tone reflected as much as he scolded the twenty strong herd of cows who all looked reasonably chastised under his accusing stare.

“I mean it! I’m puttin’ my hoof down! No more goin off beyond that there fence for anything! Not grazin, not sunbathin, and no chattin’ with that Minotaur friend who I have yet to see Claribelle.” He stressed causing one cow in particular blushed a ripe cherry red.

“But,” One piped from the center of the bovine mob, grimacing as she found herself on the receiving end of Danny’s dirty look. “The grass is so much…greener, on the other side…” This did not seem to make the impression she had wanted, if anything the stallion’s look only got darker from her complaint and with an apologetic moo she settled down.

Danny sighed, praying for patience he really didn’t have to spare. Not only had all the cows up and left the pasture, broke the fence too but they’d dang near knocked over the hen house and had eaten all the seed!

He dragged a weary hoof over his face and made it a point to gentle his voice. “Girls, I know ya like it over on the other side of the fence but while that there grass is greener the timber wolves are bigger. I can’t keep watch on ya’ll all the time and it’d be bad if somthin’ were to happen t’any of ya. Understand?” The stallion’s husky drawl corded through the cows who murmured varied responses of assent and apologies before turning back to the fields they’d been instructed to return to.

Sadly this wouldn’t be the end of Danny’s problems.

While he now had regained possession of the heard and the timber wolves had been sent packing – he had the bite mark on his left forehoof to prove it if anypony called him a liar – he now had to make a trip into town to purchase more chicken feed and possibly buy some plywood to repair the broken fence.

“Jus’ gonna be one of them days…” He breathed tiredly, trudging up the road to Ponyville.

Danny was compiling a mental list of the items he needed to buy from the market. The fence along was probably going to need a few boxes of nails and he could always do with a new hammer if the prices were fair, and wood. Gosh he was going to need a lot of wood if he hoped to pen in those rowdy heifers.

“What is this,” he scoffed unhappily. “I’m a bronco not a repair pony!” It seemed like every other day he was fixing this or patching that.

Bemoaning his ill fortunes of the past couple of days the stallion was more than a little surprised when he felt an intense gust of wind roll over him. He planted his hooves and braced himself against the small gale as his mane whipped around wildly before settling in an ever larger state of disarray than usual.

“What in tarnation…”

It was a pegasus. Of course it was a Pegasus, it was always a Pegasus. Bunch of no good flying troublemakers they were!

He knew he was being arbitrary so he schooled his features to look a little less furious and settled on just being perturbed.

A voice rose behind him as he turned to meet the new pony, "Hello! Daniel Bullwhip, correct?"

“Uh, Howdy?” Not exactly certain how to interact with a pony who was so…cheery. Frankly it made him a little uncomfortable but he wasn’t about to mention that.

Danny was surprised to hear his name and blinked in astonishment for a moment before his eyes narrowed a bit with suspicion. “Depends on who’s askin.”