Chapter 2 [EDITED]
“What do you mean he’s not here?!”
The elderly mare, Granny Smith, continues to stare out over the field before her as she slowly rocks back and forth in her rocking chair, promptly ignoring her granddaughter beside her.
"I meant what I said, sweet pea,” she replies slowly, still staring forward tiredly. “Your brother walked off and into town. Said somethin' about needin' to talk to somepony about somethin' or other…” Granny Smith’s head then droops. “... amongst other things.”
With the uttering of these words, the two young mares present exchange quick, yet worried, glances with one another before returning their attention to their elder.
“... Granny,” Applejack starts her question cautiously. “Did Mac… say anything to you while he was here? Anything that didn’t quite sound like himself?”
Halting her rocking, the old earth pony slowly shakes her head from side to side in confirmation.
“Yes… and no..." she explains in a drained tone. "I... I reckon everything he said was from the heart. Every last bit of it...”
Orange fur meets faded green as Applejack hobbles closer to her granny, hugging her tenderly.
“Oh Granny,” she coos soothingly. “Don’t you fret now; Big Mac is just sick is all. He stepped in those same lousy flowers as I did all those moons ago and went all loopy," Applejack's grip tightens ever so tightly. "You know he didn’t mean anything he said...”
Granny sighs at this, leaning her head against her spry granddaughter's own. “I… I-I just can’t believe it though....”
“You don’t have to," the cowfilly replied quickly and fiercely in her embrace. "Those hurtful things he said were just straight up li-”
“... Hurtful?” suddenly interrupts the green earth pony; breaking out of her embrace and looking at the youngin before her queerly. “What in tarnation are you talking about, filly? The words that came out of your brother’s mouth were some of the nicest, kindest, sweetest things anypony could have said to an old mare like me!”
“Wha?” intelligently inquires Applejack and Twilight, both ponies clearly confuzzled.
The old pony simply smiles.
“... He said that I was like a mother to him; that no matter how hard I ever was on him growin' up, that no matter how quiet he usually is, that fact would always be true.” Granny Smith's smile becomes warm as she looks past her two guests and takes in the sight of her orchard in its entirety instead.
“He said nothing but nice things to me," she continues, her form radiating pure contentedness. "... answering every little dangling doubt I ever had in mah head and in mah heart... It was a lovely time.”
A moment of silence transpires between the three mares as one stares out over the orchard, one stares at her kin, and the third stares at both.
“... Why did you think he was only gonna to say nasty things to me, sugarcube?”
Applejack, having been caught completely on the spot, sputters as she replies “W-well, this mornin’, that’s all he said to me! Told me mah hat was ugly and that mah mane smelled bad…”
“And?”
“A-... a-and?”
“Was that all he said to you?”
“Er… well, yeah…" the apple mare admitted sheepishly, feeling more like an apple filly under her granny's stare. "B-but... b-b-but that’s only because I-I noticed the blue spots on his tongue right away! I just had to ran off after that as fast as I could to get Twilight here to fix him!”
Twilight, now being the one caught on the spot, stands as still as a statue as her friend gallops up to her side and begins to rummage through her star-branded saddlebags without the princess's consent.
“See?” Applejack calls from within the bag, her teeth clamped around a little baggy of herbs that she had claimed from its recesses. “The cure for poison joke! I knew Twilight had some with her. She told me before how she keeps some in her bag, in case of poison joke emergencies!”
“Please don’t say it like that. It makes it sound like I’m Pinkie Pie...”
Twilight’s first real contribution to the conversation was promptly ignored as Applejack continues to speak.
“I just had to cure him lickety split! He was talking a mile a minute and I knew, I knew he was gonna eventually say something that he’d regret! So I ha-”
“Like what?”
“... Beg pardon?”
With her bones creaking loudly, making one fear that she had actually broken something, Granny Smith returns to her rocking chair slowly and then gives her granddaughter a leveled stare, her forelegs crossed as she does.
“What were you afraid of him saying to me?”
"..."
Applejack’s face begins to scrunch up.
“Er, n-nothin’.” she answers, eyes darting every which way except in her grandmother’s direction. “Just, you know… stuff.”
Granny raises an eyebrow.
“... Stuff?”
Her stetson nearly flies off her head as Applejack nods vigorously. “Uh huh, stuff. Good stuff, bad stuff; it don’t really matter. He’s spewin’ his heart out to ponies! That can’t be a good thing!”
“... I reckon,” Granny admits after a time… but then her eyes narrowed. “Although… you seemed awfully sure that he was going to say something nasty to me, sugarcube.”
Sweat runs down AJ's face.
“Um…”
“But he didn’t.”
“Y-... y-yeah...”
“But you thought there was gonna to be something bad said…
"... why is that?”
“W-with…” Twilight finally speaks up, shrinking back as two sets of eyes turn to look at her in response. A little more steadily then before, she tries again. “W-with... W-well... j-judging by the symptoms Applejack described to me, it can be assumed that Big Macintosh’s poison joke affliction is causing him to speak nonstop. Judging by his soft spoken lifestyle, it can be assumed that he holds many secrets and opinions about those around him that he’d rather not share with anypony. While it’s possible that he might simply share favorable opinions about certain individuals, odds are that he will eventually say something hurtful… n-not that there’s anything hurtful to say about you though, Granny Smith! H-heh...”
“... Right…” replies the elder, her eyes still narrowed.
“W-we,” Applejack speaks up before clearing her throat and trying again. “We should probably catch up to him and get him back here on the double! Come on, Twi! And... er... um... B-byeGrannyloveyousomuchbyeagainbye!”
In a puff of dust orange workhorse was suddenly gone. The speck that was her body could be seen galloping over the hills and away into the distance. Giving Granny an apologetic smile, Twilight unfolds her wings and takes off after her wayward friend.
Granny Smith watches the two leave, frown still etched to her face… until both are clearly out of sight, that is. Leaning back into her chair, the elderly mare begins to chuckle to herself softly.
“Hehe, oh Applejack; you’re such a silly pony sometimes.”
____________
“Twilight!” Applejack calls to her right, were the princess was now currently gliding in an attempt to match her friend's speed. “We need to figure out where Big Mac went and stop him before he does something stupid!”
Twilight nods her head in mid flight; a dumb idea which she quickly rectified with the flap of her wings. “I know, AJ. I know... I don’t understand why he went into town though. Is there anypony he deals with on a regular basis that he’d maybe want to unload on?”
“... What? Are you askin’ me if there’s somepony specific mah brother would want to rant at?”
“Um… er… y-yeah," sheepishly admits Miss Sparkle. "I-it makes the most logical sense as to why he wouldn’t simply stay in his room though...” A thought suddenly crosses Twilight’s mind. “Wait... He does know that he’s sick today; right, Applejack?”
Applejack slows down thanks to this question, her head now lowered in thought. The alicorn, seeing this, makes a quick aerial u-turn and gently lands by her friend's side.
“I…” responds Applejack after a time. “I think he knows. I left in a hurry, but he did seemed shocked at what he was sayin’ when I talked to him...”
This causes Twilight to lower her head as well, trying to put together the pieces.
“So he knows he’s sick, yet he still ventured outside… into town…”
“Even though he knows that he’s gonna say somethin’ he regrets…” adds Applejack.
“Hmmm…” ponders Twilight as she scratches her chin.
“Hmmm…” ponders Applejack as she wipes sweat from her forehead.
“Hmmm…” ponders Pinkie Pie as she brushes her mane with a hoof.
...
... This, unquestionably, scares the living crap out of the previous two heroines.
“Ah!”
“Pinkiewhattheactualhay?!”
“Shhh…” Pinkie Pie shushes softly. “I’m thinking about something you two.”
Having recovered, Twilight grunts frustratingly at her friend's words.
“Pinkie, what are you doing here?" she asks plainly. "You’re supposed to be helping me find more weird agricultural events happening all over town!”
Pinkie waves her friend's words off passingly with the simple wave of her hoof. “Yeah, I know, and I was. See, I even made a list!”
With the glow of magic Twilight procures said list, quickly reading it over.
“... Pinkie, all this says is that ‘bad stuff be goin’ down’...”
The party pony nods. “I know. I’m good. I’m very humble about it now though. Toning down the pride, ya know?”
A very unprincess-like groan emanates from Twilight’s mouth.
Applejack steps in to save the day.
“Pinks, what’s got you so down today, filly?”
Forgetting her annoyance briefly, Twilight decides to take a better look at her pink friend before her. Applejack was right; Pinkie was not her usual peppy self at the moment. While she wasn’t quite flat-mane, back-the-buck-back (as Rainbow Dash calls it) mode yet, she still seemed quite down.
“Well,” said the pink pony. “I... I’m just feeling all crummy because of what Big Mac said to me...”
Applejack and Twilight exchange glances at this yet again.
“... Pinkie, did mah brother say somethin' that made you upset?”
“... Yeah, he did,” admits Pinkie with a sigh.
Twilight steps forward. “Can you go over, in detail, about what happened to you, Pinkie?”
Though she contemplates it for a solid five seconds, Pinkie eventually nods her head, sits down on the ground, and prepares to repeat her tale.
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4968252
Fixed. Ty for pointing it out
You don't have my attention yet. But you do have my curiosity.
Normally nodding indicates someone/somepony nodding their head up and down, I think you had meant "shook her head from side to side".
Just thought I'd let you know, it was pretty awkward to read.
4968405
Fixed. Ty for pointing it out
If I know Big Macintosh he'll go to the one pony he hangs out more.
Poison Joke would play this on Mac.
Turn him from a stallion who carefully chooses his words and never says more than he needs to, into a wordvomiting Pinkie clone.
Should be good.
Is... is the return beginning?
<-(happy tears)
This story seems to be interesting. I can't wait to read the next chapter. I hope you can publish it soon.
4968933
Debating when to release it. I want to stockpile them and release them at a nice click, but I also don't want to leave anypony high and dry
4968877
*Hugs* The first steps, at least
As soon as Pinkie mentioned the hook and broke the fourth wall, I said to myself, "goddamn it, Pinkie Pie." Then I finished the chapter and was worried that I had a stroke.
4969092
Heh, I don't often break the fourth wall in my writing, but when I do I make sure it's surreal
4969078 Well excellent, I'm here if you want me to edit anything.
4969076 Maybe every week?
4969219
Thanks for the offer! Maybe I'll take you up on it later on, if these chapters get any larger then this. For now though I think I'll be fine with these little chunks
Pinkie, calm down. Unlike you, we can't put our lives on hold just so we can have a party!
"Hmmm... " ponders Leonzilla as she taps a comment with his phone.
~Leonzilla