The days chores seemed to drag on. By the time he was done the sun was beginning to set, it's light causing the pegasi maintained clouds with glow brilliant colors. Every shade of the rainbow bounced off the sky, creating one of the most beautiful sunsets he'd seen in years.
"Finally done." Big Mac sighed as he dropped the last bale of hay in the barn.
"You could of let me help, ya' know." Said Apple Jack from the doorway, "I ain't helpless."
Big Mac's only response is to nod his head as he passed her. He stopped a few feet passed her and turned, looking at the cast on her leg.
"I ain't so sure of that." He said before turning and walking away, leaving Applejack grumbling.
It was roughly noon when Mac got to the café, just in time for the lunch special to start, hay fries, a daisy salad sandwich, and coffee. Not a full meal by any means, but enough to tide him over until dinner. He sat and stared at the people bustling around him, slowly munching on his food and sipping his coffee.
"I know you're there Ms. Pie." Big Mac says with a sigh, causing the pink mare at the table behind him to jump.
"But how? I just sat down, and I didn't do anything to let you know it was me!" The mare said as she walked around to the seat opposite Mac.
"Simple. What does a bakery smell like."
"Cakes and pies, cookies and brownies. And anything else they bake."
"Exactly, Mrs. Pie. now look up at this lovely tree here and tell me which way the wind is blowing."
The pink pony looks up, watching for a few seconds as the branches sway.
"From my table to your's...." Mac's companion lets out a bark of laughter. "You always were able to tell it was me, even if you couldn't smell me."
"True enough." Big Mac nods his head to the chair Pinkie was standing next to and she takes the seat.
“So, what brings you to my neck of the proverbial woods?"
"I just figured I'd see how my old friend was doing these days." She says after a seconds of silence. "Still eating the same old meal?"
"I know that isn't why you're here, and yes, the same old meal."
The pink pony lets out a long sigh, knowing she'd been caught.
"Alright, I came because the firm wanted someone close to you to break the news. The insurance company isn't going to pay for the surgery."
"Mine or AJ's?"
"Neither."
Big mac sat in silence for a few seconds before getting up and walking away, his lunch forgotten. Pinkie watched as he left, knowing that something had to be done to help the Apple family.
"How was town?"
Big mac walked right past AJ, her seat on the porch forgotten as she chased him inside. He walked up the stairs, leaving her stuck at the bottom, yelling after him.
The hallway before him stretched for what seemed like miles, but he was to his destination before he even knew it. Fourth door, left side. The door swung open silently, the hinges old but oiled well, then shut again as he entered the room. The springs of his bed creaked as he crawled into it.
He laid in bed for what seemed like hours, before getting up and slowly dragging himself back downstairs. Waiting downstairs was an obviously pissed Apple Jack and a scared looking Apple Bloom.
"Pinkie found me today. So it seems she works for the insurance firm now."
"Wait, Pinkie works for the insurance company? How can she..." AJ wandered into thought before snapping back to the present, "So what did she have to say?"
"......"
"It was bad wasn't it?"
Big Mac just nods, his face locked in a frown.
"Which one?" Apple Bloom finally speaks up from the far side of the living room.
"Neither." Big mac replies as he lifts his head. "Neither of us is going to be stuck like this."
"But the insurance won't pay for the surgeries, so how are we gonna pay for them?" Apple Jack practically yells from her spot on the couch facing the fireplace, her back turned to Big Mac.
"The same way we pay for everything else." He replied.
"But the doc said it would be over 20,000 bits each, the farm isn't even worth that much on a great year! How are we going to get that money?!" Apple Jack jumps up from the couch, her legs almost buckling under her.
"I'll think of something." Big Mac turns and walks out the door.
A few miles down the road Big Mac walks up to a fallen tree and pulls a gryphon leather bag from a hollow in the trunk. Mac looks around to make sure that no one is around before pulling out the contents of the bag.
As the bag falls away, it reveals a pendent on a chain. The pendant itself in a silver metal, inlaid with 4 jewels. One white, one midnight blue, one light pink, and one lavender. Big Mac lays the pendant on his upturned hoof, and slowly turns. The jewels rotate as he turns, the white keeping towards North, the blue towards South, the pink towards West, and the lavender towards East. The chain looks to be made of the same metal as the body of the pendent, but seems to shine with a sky blue glow.
Big Mac tosses the pendent in the air, and it slowly floats down onto his neck, light as a feather. The second the chain settles around his neck, and the pendant against his chest, there is a bright flash and a sound akin to a sonic rainboom, and Mac is gone.