Uncle Buck

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by Snowfirechakat

Scraps

buckle up he's got a backstory

Hailing from Oatstralia, Buck broke free of the dull family fishing business the second he could, deciding instead to make a name for himself as a big game hunter. There are many non-sapient creatures both in and beyond Equestria, some large, some powerful, some beautiful beyond imagination....and most of whom look pretty darn good stuffed and mounted on a wall.

Buck knew he wasn't in perhaps the most moral of businesses, but trapping and hunting game beat sitting out with Cutthroat on a fishing boat back home any day. The work was challenging, varied, and most importantly, profitable. Manticores were a bitch to catch and kill without getting mauled, but their skulls and venom were worth a fortune on the black market, as were the scales of quarray eels, the antlers of jackalopes, the hides of maulwurfs, etc. And of course, the worth of non-magical creatures couldn't be discounted....hey, ivory is ivory, whether it comes from a magical stag or a run-of-the-mill elephant.

And so Buck did this for years, even sending back photographs and trinkets to his family back home. Cutthroat thought his little brother was something of a hotshot, but was secretly quite proud of him (and maybe a bit envious of all the adventure he got to have).

One day, Buck is stalking through a wildlife reserve within the Marengeti, following the tracks of a leopard, when he happens upon a zebra, Radhi. Buck.....still isn't sure how he lost a knife fight to an unarmed mare, but he wakes up bound, in a small cell. It turns out neither Radhi, nor her herd, take kindly to poachers.

Buck tries to talk his way out (never met a mare he couldn't charm!). Radhi stomachs that for two seconds, before committing to the "let's kill him" side of the debate. Unfortunately, her herd- a group of kind-hearted conservationists- aren't super keen on murder, or even the more convenient alternative of leaving him to starve in the wilderness. So they decide to keep him as a prisoner, and get in on some sweet, sweet free labor.

Buck isn't happy about the arrangement-he's stripped of his weapons, told when to eat, made to do labor around their camp like one of them, and led around on a rope like a dog! He's surly as he's made to help the mares with their cooking, help the stallions keep the shelters tidy, made to subsist on water and fruit and grasses like some sort of hippie- nopony eats this way back in Oatstralia, you'd starve!

But, as the months go by, the zebras start growing inevitably fond of their grumpy, pissy outsider....or at least, the foals do. They advise Buck not to eat from a crop of poisonous berries, then nurse him back to health because he ate them anyway (oy, what do a bunch of kids know?). Buck is grumpy, but grateful for this....and thanks them by telling wild, daring stories over the fire at night, leaving the little colts and fillies in awed silence (or giggles when he makes a funny face).

Slowly, Buck assimilates. He guesses the herd of peace-lovin' flower-sniffers ain't so bad. He maybe starts to enjoy the chores, just a little. Radhi, fascinated in the novelty of his idiocy (she laughed for days the time Buck accidentally drank bad cactus juice and hallucinated for hours), starts talking to him, and they become something like frenemies. True friendship between them, however, is cemented the day Buck helps her save a foal from a crocodile. That moment of peril offered him the chance to escape-and for an instant, he did consider it- but he stayed and fought and helped save a life......and Radhi starts thinking he maybe isn't so bad, for a mangy poacher.

Warily, the herd decides to finally cast off Buck's rope leash, on the condition that he doesn't hunt anything. How boring. But Radhi drags his grumpy ass off on a mini-expedition, to teach him that wildlife has value and beauty, so stop trying to kill something and listen, dumbass invader. Buck is skeptical....but the little things start to get to him. The plains at sunset. A wildebeest calf getting nudged along by it's mother. A bird of paradise performing its mating dance. A newborn elephant being welcomed by the herd.

Yep, in the end, Radhi "Colors of the Wind"-ed his ass.

So Buck has his "oh hey, I might be bloody terrible" revelation, and decides to poke a wary hoof into the waters of conservationism....partly because he's truly come to care about the world around him, and partly because he's grown really attached to Radhi's herd, and he doesn't want to leave them.

He sticks around for a few years, studying the wildlife and helping the herd defend against poachers. After some time, he makes an offer to Radhi to take their conservation schtick on the road- and she agrees. They travel the world together, keeping journals stuffed full of their adventures, protecting and studying species after species. At some point, Radhi fights off a pack of trophy hunters single-handedly, but is critically injured, and wakes up to Buck blubbering over her and demanding she never do something so reckless again....when she asks why, Buck says "Because I love you, you goddamned cow", to which Radhi eloquently replies "Gross", and they have their first kiss.

~

Buck and Radhi caught wind of Cutthroat moving to Ponyville (something about a wedding?), and decides to pop over to say hello. Fey, Cutthroat's new, delicate-looking wife, is a lot less happy to meet her new brother-in-law than Buck is to meet her....Buck knows his big brother can be a bit less than gentlemanly, so he gives Fey a warm hug and urges her to just let him know if ol' Cutthroat isn't treating her right. Fey comes to love Buck and Radhi, and greatly appreciates their visits- rare, precious breaks from the boredom of being a fisherpony's wife. When her first son Butch drowns, Buck and Radhi both show her the comfort and compassion that her husband does not, and Buck vows to be more present in the life of his new nephew, Bruce.

Little Brucie adores Uncle Buck so much you don't even knoooooow. His uncle tells the best stories, sends the best presents, can toast the best s'mores! And his zebra partner knows all the facts about every animal ever and is so pretty. I see teeny Bruce having the doofiest kiddie crush on her and always clamoring for her attention/affection/stories, which Radhi eagerly provides.

But sadly, this all comes to an end when Buck and Radhi announce their happy engagement. Cutthroat had always found the notion of his brother dating a zebra to be bountiful material for jokes, but to actually marry one, mate? He takes his foolish little brother in for a talk to set him straight, but Buck, oddly enough, doesn't take it very well. The two brothers have a loud row-with Radhi, Fey, and Bruce listening in outside, Brucie huddled up in Radhi's hooves. Cutthroat decides to shut things down with some choice words about Buck's "wife"- and Buck responds by breaking his older brother's nose. As Buck storms out, Cutthroat lies bleeding and bellowing that he and that zebra are no longer welcome in his house- so the pair go to leave. Brucie doesn't want them to, even tries to block the door....but Radhi can only give him one last hug, and Buck ruffles his mane and proposes that they'll maybe all see each other again soon, eh, little mate?

They wouldn't see each other for many, many years, not until Bruce is adult, not until the days following Cutthroat's funeral, not until Bruce is out catching up with his mum, when he hears two very familiar voices......

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