This is what we do ch 6
by Foxgear
Mac yawned loudly as he trotted out into the castle garden. Today marked his third day in Equestria. So far the majority of his time as been spent indoors under Luna’s watchful gaze as she taught him the basics of magic and how it worked and the types of magic and all that. Last night she even continued to teach him in his dreams, using the infinite possibly of the dream world to further show him what she was talking about. He got the gist of what she was talking about, hopefully, at least he would have the notes he took to fall back on once he got home.
After two days of studying with Princess Luna who seemed to have more free time then he would have thought, deemed him ready for actual magic practice or more specifically he was going learn how to use his dragon pony magic, such as breathing fire and the like.
Mac arrived at the open field he was to train on, some targets set up at a distance. It was almost like a shooting gallery, except instead of scattered shells and the smell of gunpowder, there was the smell of smoke and ash. Mac stood at firing line alone, behind him stood Luna and Fierce Fury, who was subbing for Sixes who had to go on a mission.
“Ok Mac, you said you accidently breathed fire before, so now we’re going to teach you how to do it on purpose,” said Luna as Fury walked up to the line. “First you’ll want to dig in your claws like so, this will keep you stable, next take a deep breath and use your magic to heat up your insides, after that the heat will build up, you’ll feel a burning in your throat.” Fury’s chest began to glow and heat began to rise up from between his scales. “The longer you hold your breath, the hotter the fire will be, once you get it to where you want it. RELEASE!” A stream of fire come out of Fury’s mouth, burning up the ground and the scorching the target.
Fury stepped back looking satisfied with his work and offered Mac to step forward. Mac did so, letting his hooves morph into claws and dig into the earth. He took a few shallow breaths before sucking in a massive amount of air, his cheeks puffing out. He closed his eyes and focused on his magic, feeling it swirling around inside him, and imagined it heating up. A burning feeling instantly rose in his stomach feeling like a hot poker on his insides. His chest burned as wisps of flames exploded out from between his teeth. Whipping his head back Mac opened his mouth and let out his breath the resulting flames were not very impressive. A pitiful fireball, the size he’s seen in the Mario games flew through the air and spat against the target leaving a singe on it.
“Well, you made fire and you manage to hit the target. That’s better the most beginners,” Fury drawled looking bored. “Do it again.”
Mac went through the steps again, firing a second shot the same size as the first, but at a much faster.
“Hold the fire in your gut longer and let it release all at once. Letting it out slowly only lessens the power, do it like this!” Fury took a breath and let loose another massive stream of fire that completely destroyed the target. “Again!”
Teeth grit in anger Mac sucked in a breath, letting it boil in his guts, he released, opening his mouth wide. The fire exploded into a large stream of fire, but only made it halfway to the target.
“More magic!”
Mac did it again, reaching three-quarters of the way.
“More air!”
Mac fired again, the stream was large but still fell short. He huffed harshly, his throat burning and his coat slick with sweat from the heat.
“Again!”
He sucked air, and tried to ignite it, but broke into a coughing fit. Clouds of black smoke coming out of his throat with each cough. Fury glared with fiery eyes.
“Again.”
“Fury,” Luna said firmly. The red pony backed off and took a deep breath causing his entire body relaxing. He looked at Mac and then to Luna.
“Sorry, take a break; I’ll go get some water.”
“Thank you, Fury,” Luna nodded as she cast a cooling spell over Mac. “Sorry Fury isn’t the really the teaching type. He expects everypony to get things right away and when they don’t he is quick to lose his temper. He’s not as bad as he used to be. You are doing very well, though.”
“I feel like your coddling me,” panted Mac.
Luna smiled and thunk him on the head, “I am only looking out for your health. I understand wanting to push yourself, but if you hurt yourself then you will waste your time here. Unless you change your mind about only staying a week, I know Sixes would appreciate it.”
“What is he doing anyways? I’m kind of surprised you sent him on a mission.”
The Princess looked sour as she sat down next to him, “I did not want to send him. I know how much he was looking forward to training you, but unfortunately, it was a matter that only he could deal with.”
That peeked Mac’s curiosity, “Can you tell me?”
“It’s not like its top secret. I merely sent him to look at the ruins of The Rainbow Factory upon Topaz’s request. In our investigation of the portals between our worlds we thought it ideal to begin at the place where Nico and Madhoof disappeared. Sixes is one of the few ponies still alive from when the teleport room was destroyed, he being the cause of the room destruction.”
“The Rainbow factory, what kind of place was it? I saw that stain glass window in the dining hall about it and dad. What was so important about that place? What kind of a factory was it?”
Luna stared ahead with a faraway look in her eyes, “it was a factory of nightmares and that’s all I want to say about it.”
Judging from the tone of her voice Mac decided to maybe change subjects; also he wondered where Fury was? Did it take that long to get water? “So um… what was my dad like? I mean what was my dad like when he was a pony?”
“Nico was brash and quick to act before thinking,” Said Fury carrying a bucket of water in his mouth. He set it down between Luna and Mac walking around to sit opposite of them. “When Sixes and I chased after the blood nobles to the factory a thousand years ago, Nico was secretly trailing us. It was thanks to him that the princesses were able to find the base and it was also his actions that brought down the factory’s barrier and allowed our forces to attack. He was reckless, but he followed his gut and did what he thought was right. He was also a bit of runt.” Fury chuckled gruffly. “Drink up, breaks almost over.”
Mac nodded as he dunked his head into the bucket of water and drank it empty. Feeling refreshed he retook his place at the firing line and started over. For the rest of the day, Mac continued to shoot fire breath after fire breath with each one getting better with every shot. The burning in his throat no longer bothered him and he was able to shot multiple blasts consecutively.
“I think you can stop.”
He smiled and turned to see Sixes standing there, “You’re back.”
Sixes nodded. “Wasn’t a hard mission, just a quick flight from point A to B is all. I’ll tell more when Topaz finishes investigating. So how was fire training under Fury? I assume he yelled at you at least once.”
Looking over Sixes' shoulder Mac saw both Luna and Fury were gone. He wondered when they left. “He did, wasn’t too bad really.” Mac noticed steam rising off his coat. “Is that normal?”
“You just need to cool off and eat some gems is all. Fire breath burns up a lot of magic if you don’t manage your magic well.”
“Kind of like an engine.”
“Exactly,” Sixes confirmed signaling for Mac to follow him. He led Mac over to another training ground with large stone pillars covered in claw marks. “Alright next you’re going to learn how to harden your claws, an easy enhancement technique.”
Sixes engulfed his claws in magic and then raked it across the surface of the stone, leaving behind three deep scars. “As you can see this allows you to cut deeper into armored opponents. Strike without magic and then with magic to tell the difference.”
Mac nodded raising his claw and swiped gritting his teeth for the pain that was sure to come. Much to his relief, there wasn’t much or any pain. He opened his eyes and saw that his claws had indeed left a mark, not as deep as Sixes, but it would still have been bad for anything made of flesh. Raising his claw for a second strike he imagined his claws sharpening, a glow of orange engulfed his claw and he swung, cleaving through nearly halfway through the stone pillar.
“A little overpowered, but you seem to get the concept. Now we can move onto the next skill, scale armor.” Sixes stepped away from Mac and held up his right front leg. “Hit me with a normal claw slash.”
“Okay,” Mac raised his claw with hesitation. This didn’t seem like a smart thing to do, but Sixes probably knew what he was doing. Mustering his will Mac swung down with all his might. His claws dug into Sixes’s scales, but that was it, his claws were stopped cold! Sixes’s scales felt like steel compared to the stone pillar.
“Much like with the claws you can harden your scales or grow more scales if needed. All you need to do is focus on the scales on your body and imagine them hardening or growing. Be warned scale armor will not block every attack. It may make a fatal blow less fatal, but if something significantly stronger than you hits you and you're unfocused expect to get hurt. Now it’s my turn.”
Mac quickly raises his foreleg Sixes’s claw striking the scales below his claws. Sixes continued to push down putting more force into the attack, the tips of his claws sinking into the scales. Gritting his teeth Mac flicked his leg to deflect Sixes’s claw and swiped at Sixes who jumped back and let loose a stream of fire. Rolling Mac fired back and charged Sixes who spun whipping Mac’s leg out from under him with his tail. The black rinin swung his claws again and Mac raised his leg and blocked. Much to his surprise, it was covered completely in scales.
“Good, good, keep going!” Sixes continued his assault ramming Mac with his head and flinging him into the air and shooting fire up at him.
Flailing in midair Mac countered with his own fire, the two streams clashing and creating a huge inferno. Mac huddled his limbs close as he fell through the flames and crashed hard into the ground. He staggered out of the crater with his legs completely covered in scales. When his balanced returned he spotted Sixes’s smirking face and snorted angrily before charging at the black rinin, who spread his wings and flew into the air, letting loose a barrage of fire from the sky that had Mac running to avoid being barbecued.
“That’s not fair!”
“Battles are rarely fair Mac,” Sixes replied sternly as he gathered a massive amount of flame in his mouth till hot flaming liquid spilled from between his teeth.
Knowing what was coming next Mac puffed up his chest with as much fire as he could manage and fired before Sixes could spit lava. He watched in dismay as his fire was consumed by Sixes’s lava that fell to the earth with a ‘splash’ sending hot molten earth everywhere.
Trotting away Mac turned to see Sixes still floating in the same spot with another round of lava prepared. Sixes let the hot magma loose and Mac ran for all he was worth, a river of lava coming up behind him.
(I gotta do something else, but what?)
He thought back to what Shadow Specter had said about his dad being able to change his breath to other elements by eating gems. He ate those gems. Maybe they would still work? With little choice, Mac skidded to a stop as Sixes’s lava breath ran out, but the black rinin was already preparing another. Closing his eyes Mac imagined the gems inside his body, he felt them in his stomach, and they felt cool, like ice cubes. He sucked in a breath and willed his magic to cool the air. His chest expanded and the stinging cold of ice filled his throat as he let lose a blue stream of subzero ice into the air.
Lava and ice clashed!
Mac’s ice breath forming a huge wall of ice that fought against the lava. The ice wall began to sweat as the streams of lava spilled down the side, turning it to water and then to steam. Mac jumped back out of the way as the lava completely devoured the ice. He prepared for another attack until Sixes floated down to the ground.
“Now that was impressive. Come on, I’m hungry, let’s go eat.”
Mac’s own stomach grumbled and he suddenly felt exhausted now that the adrenaline rush was over. “Sounds good,” He sighed as he ran up to Sixes’s side. “Was all that really necessary?”
Sixes smiled, “Maybe not, but it helped you learn quickly didn’t? Look you still have your scale armor on.” He pointed to Mac’s legs, which were still completely covered in orange scales.
Mac willed the scale armor to turn off and then turned it on again and then off. “Huh, that’s neat.”
“Come on Mac, all the good food will be gone if we don’t hurry!”
“Coming!” Mac replied excitedly as he ran to catch up. He wondered how everyone back home was doing.
Aria lay on her belly, her gun pressed firmly against her shoulder and her crosshairs lined up to a small rotten apple on a plank. The apple was more than two hundred years away, but even at this distance would be an easy shot for her. Gently she pressed her finger against the trigger and squeezed.
BANG!
The gun recoiled feeling like a light punch in her shoulder. She worked the bolt as the apple exploded off in the distance.
“Nice shot.”
Aria sighed as she rolled off her stomach and jumped to her feet. Adagio stood smirking with her arms crossed, a pair of ear muffs over stuck out from her puffy orange hair. If she had those then she’d been here awhile, watching her.
“What do you want Adagio?”
“Can’t I check on my little sister?” She said cutely as she pulled Aria’s cheek. Aria fumed and gently slapped her hand away.
“Worry about Sonata, she’s the one who nearly got killed last week,” She scoffed.
Adagio frowned, “I already check on her, her and Applebloom are watching some show their both crazy about together. So now I can focus all my worries on you, because you’ve been acting gloomy, well… more gloomy than usual.”
She crossed her arms and huffed, “I’m fine Adagio. Stop being such a mother hen.”
Adagio exclaimed, “You’ve been out here shooting apples for four hours every day since Mac left!”
“I’m practicing!” Aria shot back with spite.
Adagio cocked back her arm and thunk Aria’s right shoulder. The pink siren hissed and cursed.
“What did you do that for?”
Adagio only nodded as she roughly pulled on and Aria’s shirt and pulled it off her, revealing the large blue bruise on the pink siren’s shoulder. “I knew it! You’re hurting yourself.”
“I’m just practicing!”
“No, you're trying to release whatever pent up emotions you have by shooting things and it’s clearly not working! So talk! What’s bothering you?” Adagio’s tone turned soft at the end and she handed Aria her shirt back. The pink siren huffed as she sat down on her blanket with pouting lips.
“Can’t get past you,” She said finally with a heavy sigh. “Fine, I’ll tell you since you asked so nicely. I’m stressed and angry! Ok!” Adagio rotated her hand urging her to continue. “And… I guess disappointed… Sonata got hurt because I wasn’t with her; I was at home taking a fucking shower when she was out in the woods getting chased by cyclops! I should have been with her! Now Mac’s went to Equestria and I’m the only one to left to do chores and run the stand and… and… it’s getting to be too much! I don’t know how Mac can fucking to the half a million long list of shit there is to do around here daily, but I can’t do it!”
“Oh Aria,” cooed Adagio laying the pink siren’s head in her lap. “You should have just asked for help. Applebloom would be happy to help, and Sonata would probably like to get back into the routine of things. I know you all would throw a fit, but I can still do things around here too. You don’t need to take on everything by yourself.”
Aria rolled so her face was pressed against Adagio’s thigh. The yellow siren smiled and rubbed Aria’s back as she felt her jeans dampen from Aria’s poorly hidden tears. “There, there, that’s my tough little sister.”
“Shut up,” Aria mumbled sourly.
“Come on, let’s get you the house and get some ice on that shoulder. After that, you can sit down and enjoy whatever show Sonata and Applebloom are watching.” Adagio hoisted Aria up and offered her bandana to dry her tears. Aria took it with reluctance but did so to keep her tough persuade intact.
“Who’s going to do chores?”
“I think I’ll call Miss Cherry Jubilee, she knows what to do.”
“You’re really going to ask that cougar?”
“Aria!”
“Do you see how she dresses and acts around Mac and her own farmhands? It’s amazing she doesn't have some sort of restraining order on her!” Defended Aria, Cherry was just as bad as Explicit on Main Street. She also wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were related.
“Still it’s not a very nice thing to say, technically we are older.”
“Which makes you a super cougar then.”
Adagio grit her teeth tightly together with a wide forced smile, “Get to the fucking house before I make you ass match your shoulder.” Aria took off like a bullet, only to quickly run back and pick up her gun and spent shells and then ran off, leaving Adagio shaking her head.
“Come home soon Mac, I’m not having an easy time either,” She said aloud. Her hand brushed her lips and she remembered the vivid dream she had the other night. It really felt like Mac had kissed her. “Psht, as if, I must be getting sappy.”
Adagio continued on her way back to the farmhouse, humming a soft tone as she went about her way. Entering the house she smiled as she passed by the couch where sonata was using Aria as a snuggle pillow as the pink siren held an ice pack against her shoulder.
“Who wants pizza?” Adagio asked from the kitchen as she dialed Cherry’s phone. A chorus of ‘I do’s’ responded. Chuckling she explained the situation to Jubilee and then placed an order for the pizza place in town. “Alright move over.” She said scooting onto the couch to watch TV.. Thirty minutes passed and the pizza guy showed up.
Adagio paid the delivery driver, apparently, Derpy Hooves worked for Godfather’s pizza. She wondered how she passed the driver’s test with her eye and why the pizza place hired her as a driver. Since didn’t seem to matter to her bosses, she supposed it shouldn’t matter to her either. She paid Derpy for the trip; it was expensive to have pizza delivered out here, so she made sure to leave a little extra for Derpy’s trouble.
Taking the three pizza boxes and laying them on the coffee table the household of girls dug into as pop cans were popped. It was Friday so Applebloom was allowed to stay up late.
“What show is this?” asked Adagio as she pulled two cheesy slices of pepperoni onto her plate.
“Grimm, it's super addicting!” Applebloom said excitedly as she dished up her own pizza.
“It’s awesome, it’s almost like our life! There’s monster hiding in plain sight and…” Sonata talked at length and Adagio nodded along pretending to understand the characters and story plot. They were in season five, so she wasn’t expecting to get it.
“It's fine,” was Aria’s comment.
“I might have to start from the beginning,” Adagio said as she sat back and watched the show. Time passed and the pizza disappeared and the pop can’s multiplied into a small mountain. She looked up at the clock reading midnight.
(It's that last already?)
Standing up Adagio swiped the remote from Sonata and shut off the TV. “Alright time for bed, all of you.” She said firmly. Applebloom and Sonata groaned in displeasure but a firm glare got them moving off to bed. “You too Aria or are you going to sleep on the coach?”
“I’m going, I’m going,” grumbled the pink siren.
Deciding to leave the dishes for tomorrow Adagio went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth to get the sugar from the pop off before finally settling down for bed.
(I wonder if I’ll same a dream like last before.) Closing her eyes Adagio drifted off to dreamland.
Adagio stood in front of a door in a hallway of doors. Looking left and then right she shrugged and opened the door in front of her. Inside the world was seemingly made completely of muffins. Slowly Adagio stepped back into the hallway and shut the door.
“Ok… that was strange.” Moving to the next door over. Adagio opened it and was greeted by the sight of Cherry Jubilee in a bikini flirting with some guys. She promptly shut the door. “One more…few doors away.”
The next door she picked was red with a big green apple sliced in half. She had a good feeling about it. Opening the door she found the inside to exactly like the house. Maybe she had been sleepwalking and now just woke up? It was certainly plausible.
From Mac’s office, she heard soft mumbles and scribbling. Curious she walked over and opened the door, inside was Mac hunched over his desk his brow frowned in concertation.
“Mac… your home? Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” She demanded. She ran towards him and he turned and looked… surprised?
“Adagio? What are you doing here?”
She stopped in her tracks. “Um… I live here? Do I not?”
Mac blinked, causing Adagio to fume, “What are you looking so confused for? What did you hit your head when walking out of the portal or something?”
“No, no, it’s just…” he said looking uncertain.
“Just what?”
“This is my dream is all, I’m still in Equestria. Are you really here? I mean are YOU the real Adagio?”
(Dream walking, not sleepwalking, that’s neat. If this is a dream then does that means…)
Adagio waved her arms creating a blinding light that encompassed her body and changed her clothes from modest night wear to something a little more… explicit. She grinned as Mac’s eyes looked her up and down thoroughly.
“Yeah, you’re the real one, even in my dreams, I won’t imagine you in… well, that…” Mac coughed. She giggled as she seated herself in his lap.
“I know, now what are you looking over here?” Mac’s hands snaked around her sides as he rested his chin on her shoulder.
“Just the notes of everything I’ve learned from Luna and Sixes about magic so far. After my first night Princess Luna told me I was a lucid dreamer, so she taught me how to control my dreams so I could review everything.”
Adagio snorted with laughter, “Only you would learn how to control your dreams and use it to study. I mean come on! I was expecting at least an orgy of clones of me or something.”
“I think you and I have very different dreams.”
“Yeah, but that’s what makes our relationship so fun.” Adagio suddenly grinned and jumped off Mac’s lap. “I just realized you’re a pony now! Show me what you look like!”
“Really, you don’t want to know how you’re able to control your dreams or anything like that?”
Adagio made a fart noise with her mouth, “Tell me when were both in rocking chairs have nothing better to talk about. Now I want to see my sexy pony husband!”
Mac rolled his eyes, but none the less stood up and morphed into a silhouette of orange and shrunk down into a pony that stood just below her breasts. Adagio leered with a mischievous grin as she looked him over.
He was red, which was expected, but the fangs and claws and scaly tail… well, she found that interesting.
“You have a little more Nico in you then I was expecting,” She giggled brushing his mane, it was like silk in her hand. “Still man or pony you look sexy. I might have to pop over for a bit to give these fangs a test run.”
“Adagio…”
“I’m serious!” She said excitedly. “How about I change to? Would that make you feel better? Never mind I’m going to do it anyway.” Her body lit up with yellow and morphed into a pony. When the light faded she looked curiously at herself in a mirror she made appear. “Hmm… this is a little different.”
“Don’t you know what you look like?” Mac asked as she looked over his wife’s pony form. She was earth pony with scales here and there and fins running up her legs with a mermaid-like tail. She didn’t look bad really.
“I do,” She said hotly, “I thought I would look more like I did before, but… I turned into this for some reason. I look like a siren cross bred with a pony. I wonder if this because I’ve been feeding off you?”
“You look at me like I’m supposed to know.”
“Well, you went to study magic!” She shot back.
He rolled his eyes, “Only battle magic, maybe it’s just a fluke. If you really want to know just go into the mirror and find out.”
“Maybe I will,” She humped changing back to human. Mac followed suit and took her by the hand and lead her to the couch to sit down.
“So, all the magic, jokes, and flirting aside, how are things going at home?”
Adagio took a deep sigh as she laid against Mac’s chest, “Applebloom is fine; I’ve gotten her to school on time all week in case you’re wondering. Sonata’s recovering; I’m making sure she does her stretches so she stays limber. Aria… Aria’s having some difficulty. She seems to think it’s her flaunt Sonata got hurt and she’s worried that she can’t keep the farm up with you away. She practiced shooting till a bruise the size of her head formed.”
Mac frowned. He had noticed Aria wasn’t being herself lately but figured she was just being grumpier than usual but didn’t ask about it. “I’ll see if I can talk to her when I get back. Some days I feel like Sonata and Aria feel more like daughters than sisters in laws.”
Adagio giggled as she snuggled up against him, “Well they do make good practice, so how as Equestria been? What have you learned so far?”
“Fire breathing, making my claws sharper and making my skin into scales, stuff like that,” Mac listed off nonchalantly. “Oh, I did learn I can do what my dad did with his breath magic! I can breathe ice if I eat gems or something, I’m not really sure if I can do other things like lightning, but it’s still neat.”
“That is neat, so… I assume you’ve been asking about Nico then?”
He nodded but sighed as he laid his head on the back of the couch, “I’ve asked a ton about him and I’ve found out new things about him. Some pretty awesome things, the way everypony… everybody I mean talks about him makes him seem like such a bad ass and it’s really cool, but… I don’t know I have a hard time picturing it. Dad was dad, I looked up to him, and he was exactly the man I wanted to be when I grew up. I guess maybe I’ve still having some trouble coming to terms with who he actually was. I’m worried I won’t be able to do things he did.”
They sat in silence, their hands intertwined, after what seemed like eternity Adagio sat up and kissed Mac, straddling his waist as she smiled and held his face so he was looking right at her. “I may not have known Nico well, frankly he was just a scary asshole to me, I mean he threaten us into his employment, which you did too… that’s beside the point. Look stop worrying about trying to be your dad, just be you and you’ll be fine. I mean you suckered me into marrying you, so you got something right at least.”
Mac chuckled as he kissed her, “You make it really hard to have serious conversations.”
“I know,” She replied with a grin.
Shaking his head Mac lifted Adagio off his lap and summoned his notes, “I still have some studying to go over. You wanna stay and help me?”
“I suppose I can offer my insight on certain monsters, what are you looking at now?” Adagio pulled Mac’s book away from him. Her eyebrow cocked up at the monster on the page. The monster was depicted as tall pony covered in bones and sporting antlers, a unicorn horn, and wings and claws on its front legs. “Is this something Discord made?”
“Who’s Discord?”
“The Spirit/god of chaos, really messed up guy,” Adagio answered prowling over the page. This thing looked familiar. What was it? “Regis Ossis Deus minus, lesser bone king god, Grau or historically known as the Grey One. You cannot tell me this thing is walking around in modern Equestria. This thing sounds like it’s from the even darker dark ages!”
Mac turned the page, “Here, it says Grau was defeated during the Alicorn wars, and Professor Hoofenstien attempted to recreate it but was stopped before a working product would be complete. Why this thing got you scared?”
Adagio closed the book, “You didn’t live in ancient Equestria, my folks used to tell me stories about things like this from age of the ancients back when there were more alicorns, ponies like Princess Celestia and Luna, these things were like the Equestrian boogieman.”
“Well it’s gone, so there’s nothing to worry about. I can feel myself waking up; I’ll be home in a few days.” Mac kissed her one last time and disappeared and Adagio woke up back in her own bed. Looking at the clock she determined she could sleep in a bit longer. As she laid her head on her pillow a thought accorded to her.
(Wasn’t Derpy supposed to be at camp with Applejack and the others?) She wondered sleepily as her eyes fluttered shut. She was sure it didn’t matter.
Mac yawned as he trotted down the stairs to the dining hall. Today would mark his fourth day in Equestria, he left Tuesday, so today should be Saturday, Applejack and her friends should be home soon. Hopefully, he would be done here before they noticed his absence, but if not he was sure Applejack wouldn’t be suspicious of his absent for too long. Although from what Adagio told him last night returning home sooner than later seemed like the better choice.
As far as his training goes he has learned some magic, learned some monster bios and learned some new tricks. There shouldn’t be much more he needs to learn really, but staying for two more days shouldn’t hurt and he can go back to his life on Monday.
With a plan figured out Mac was itching for some breakfast. He also wondered what kind of breakfast would be served today. For the most part, pony breakfast was pretty similar to a human one, minus bacon and sausage, though they did have hay bacon…
“I wonder who introduced hay bacon and where they got the idea, also… where am I?” Looking around Mac found he had wondered down the wrong hall because he wasn’t in the dining hall or any hall he was in a cemetery garden.
Big pony sized marble statues depicting fallen Night Patrollers lined the walkway. He walked steadily down the rows looking from statue to statue; it was quite a way to be remembered, better than just a name and date carved on a stone. At least this way people knew what you looked like.
“I guess you can get a photo placed in tombstones nowadays back home, I wonder if that’s something Adagio would like?” He chuckled, it was probably a little too soon to be thinking about that kind of stuff… or maybe not soon enough given his parent’s lifespan and he was living just as dangerous of a life. “Maybe I should get a will written up at least for Adagio’s and Applejack’s sake.”
Speaking of Applejack he would have to talk to her about what she plans to do when he gets home. She’s expressed interest and monster hunting or at least wanting to see what it was like and he knew if he came on strong and stubborn against it, he would only end up pushing her towards it. She was stubborn like that.
“If only there was someone I could talk to about this,” He pondered aloud as he reached the end of the row. Looking left and right Mac spotted a blot of orange and blue at the corner of the cemetery. Needing directions he trotted down to the blot that took the shape of Topaz Slicer.
The orange rinin craned his neck, his eyes tired and hollow, “Oh, it’s you, Mac, I thought you were somepony else.” He turned and resumed looking at the marble grave.
Mac stepped beside Topaz looking up at the grave, it was older than the others, much older, the white marble faded and chipped from the weather. The pony depicted was a unicorn rinin standing tall and proud. He read the name carved in the stone, Emerald Cutter.
“This is my sister’s grave,” Topaz said somberly, “She died a thousand years ago trying to defeat Princess Lu… I mean Nightmare Moon. She even went so far as to eat an alicorn amulet.” He closed his eyes and grit his teeth fighting back the pain. “It wasn’t enough.”
He looked at Mac with gloomy eyes, “Sorry didn’t mean to dump that on you. Is there something you need?”
Mac pawed awkward at the ground, “No I just was on my way to breakfast and got lost is all. Sorry to bother you.”
Topaz chuckled, “It’s alright. I’ve been standing her for too long anyways. Emmy wouldn’t like me moping in front of her grave like this. Come on, I’ll show you the way to the dining hall. You better enjoy today’s meal cause from what I heard Sixes has something special planned for you today.”
“What’s that?”
He grinned, “I could tell you, but then Sixes would send me with you and I personally don’t feel like not eating for three days.”
Mac come to a stop and blinked, “What was that now?”
As previously warned Mac ate a big breakfast, perhaps a too big of a breakfast as he felt sick to his stomach as he stood wobbling before Sixes while aboard the Night Patroller’s airship, the Nightmare Dusk.
“Mac, do you know what the difference between patroller and a hunter are?” Sixes asked as he sat down in front of the red rinin. Mac shook his head no. “Patrollers will walk around and look for trouble in his assigned area, he is there to ensure the safety and protection of those within his area, but he is not required to go looking for danger. He follows his route and that’s that. A hunter will look for danger, will enter the dangers territory and kill the danger where ever it maybe. This is will be your final lesson. You will be dropped in the untamed region of the Everfree Forest; your mission is to make it back to the castle as soon as you can. Along the way, you WILL run into many dangerous monsters. Use the knowledge you have gathered over your lesson to defeat them and survive. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
Sixes nodded with satisfaction, “Glad to hear it. You have three days of rations and two canteens of waters. There are a lot of poisonous things in the forest so it’s best if you get out before you run out of safe food.
A harness was wrapped around Mac’s body. He was lifted and hoisted over the side of the ship and lowered down into a clearing to the forest floor. He unbuckled the straps and watched the harness and rope disappear.
This was it, he better get moving. Walking to one edge of the clearing Mac tried to peer over the canopy and spot the towers of the castle. He saw a small speck in the distance. How far away did they fly him? He was kind of wishing he had paid attention while they were flying.
“I’ll just head that way,” He decided, only for a pack of Timberwolves to appear all around him. “That was fast.”
The timbers wolves charged as did Mac as he plowed head first into the leader of the pack with a scale armored head. The lead timber wolf shattered to bark and bits, leaving the rest of the other wolves stunned. Swirling around Mac blasted the pile of sticks with fire, turning it to ashes.
The wolves scattered.
“That was easier than back home,” he laughed trotting into the tree line. The ground was damp and small streams of greenish water flowed beneath his claws and hooves. Ahead of him was a swamp. Carefully Mac trotted around the edge of the swamp hopping along the boulders that lined the shore. One boulder moved when he landed on it.
Jumping Mac narrowing avoided the snapping jaws of a rockadile. He landed the next boulder with turned out to be another rockadile and the next and next after that, and the one after that. Finally reaching the other side of the swamp Mac ran into the woods with the rockadiles charging through the trees like a tank as they gave chase. He unleashed a fire breath on them, but their rocky hides were unaffected by the flames.
Scrambling up a tree Mac whipped his tail, smacking a rockadile that tried to climb after him. They began to pile on top of each other to get him. From his pack, he pulled out a blue gem and quickly ate it. He felt the icy tingle travel up his throat and he let loose a blast of ice that froze the pile of rockadiles into a giant ice sculpture. Letting go of the side of the tree he landed on top of them and then fell through, shattering them all into tiny ice shards.
“This… this is not going to easy,” he concluded. He’s been in here for five minutes and already he was attacked twice! Warily he pressed on, his eyes watching everything.
Hours passed and night fell over the forest. Mac climbed into a small dugout under a large tree and covered the entrance with a barrier of logs he cut from some large branches. The tree was hollow all way the way up the trunk allowing him to lite a fire for light and warmth. Mist drifted across the dense vegetation of the forest cooling the temperature dramatically.
Pulling a ration bar out of his pack and Mac bit into it while staring into the fire. The bar was hard and grainy, probably mostly oats, some nuts, and dried berries, it tasted alright. Settling against the dirt walls of his little hideaway Mac stared out past his makeshift barricade for monsters taking only a few minutes at a time to rest his eyes.
He was too afraid to sleep.
With good reason too, hissing through his teeth as he sprinkled water over the slash marks over his left foreleg where a timber wolf had gotten him earlier today. Not in the first attack, but in the third attack, probably only an hour before finding his refuge. The timber wolf had been strange; it wondered alone and was made up of purple branches with moss covering its body and mushrooms growing out it. He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, trying to remember such a creature in his studies.
“Fungi Bright Wolf,” Mac said remembering the passage. Fungi Bright wolves were timber wolves created in bright filled areas. The wood that made their bodies were soaked in poisoned waters and the mushrooms that spawned from the moss were also toxic. “Shit.”
Spilling the contents of his pack onto the dirt floor Mac looked for something that might treat his wound. His leg began to burn and bubble, purple slime appearing on the edges of the wounds. Picking up a small container filled with a white salve he quickly applied the ointment the burning stopped for now, but he knew it would be back. He needed an anti-toxin.
From outside a chorus of howls echoed in the night and Mac remembered something else about Bright Wolves, one wolf scouts and when it infects its prey it goes to fetch the rest of the pack, leaving the prey to weaken from the poison for an easier kill.
A shadow passed outside the entrance and then another, Mac counted six in total. He rose up as a chunk of bark fell into the fire. Up above the glowing purple eyes of a bright wolf stared down at him, they climbed the trunk to cut off all escape. He needed to break through.
Blasting a stream of fire out the entrance Mac made his move and ran, leaving his pack behind in his run. The wolves howled and gave chase one running up right beside him. He rammed into it and forced it into a tree, breaking it into splinters. His legs faltered and he stumbled.
There was a stick stuck in his side!
No time to treat it Mac got up and continued to run. His vision blurred and he clipped a tree trunk. Fresh blood dripped down his right side as he stumbled into a clear blue pond. The pond was shallow, barely ankle deep, but the bottom was strange. He couldn’t really tell with his vision blurred, but it felt like the pond bottom was made of some sort of carved stone. He felt his way around, making a lot of noise as he splashed around heading towards the center of the pond. He turned and facing the bright wolves that gathered on the shore.
He fired a fireball at them to try and scare them away, but his aim was off, way off. The wolves knew he was out of it. They cackled with laughter as they broke apart into thousands of growing pieces and began reforming into one giant wolf.
The giant wolf seemed to smirk as it stepped into the pond, the water turning purple with every step it took. Mac unleashed a stream of fire and back peddled trying to buy time, but he tripped on something and fell into the water. For a brief moment all he saw was red and at first, he thought it blood, but blood didn’t shine. He rose up out of the water, his vision clearing for a moment giving him a good clear view of what had tripped him.
A gem, a big red gem was embedded into the carved stone under the pond. Now probably wasn’t the time to be staring at a red rock, but it held his attention, almost forcing him to look at it. Carefully he reached out and touched it with the tip of his claw, a surge of power coursed through his body, melting away his pain and fatigue.
He turned and growled at the wolf that seemed to notice something was different as it stopped its advance. He charged up a fire breath, the heat in his chest burning so hot that red steam was rising from his chest. He let the fire loose, and it wasn't fired that came out, but something more akin to a beam of pure red energy. The blast incarnated the wolf into ashes.
Mac took his claw off the stone, his vision blurring as his legs gave out beneath him.
“What was that,” He gasps as he tried to keep his head above the water. He was so weak now. It felt like he pulled every muscle in his body.
As his eyes fluttered open and close he could hear the sound of water splashing as something trotted towards him. A set of gray striped legs appears and he looked up and saw a silhouette with a Mohawk looking down on him.
“What a surprise for me, to find you here in a place known to no stallion or mare beyond me,” Said a feminine voice. “Wait patiently for I have a remedy for your ills, you seemed to have quite the thrill.” There was a sound of cock popping and followed by chugging. The gray striped mare leaned down and mashed her lips against his transferring whatever medicine to his mouth. Mac swallowed it with burning cheeks; glad Adagio wasn’t here to see this. At least he was feeling better.
“Thanks, I thought I was a goner Miss…”
“Zecora, I am merely a shaman who makes her home in these woods. Though I have taken on a sort of guardian role of stone you see before you. I hope it is not your intention to take it for I will be forced to defend it.”
Mac shook his head, “Nope, it’s all yours. Did come in handy against that wolf, though, what is it?”
Zecora stepped side, giving Mac the full view of the gem, he noticed it was placed on top of some metal thing carved into a unicorn head with wings coming out the sides. “This is the red alicorn amulet, a dangerous and evil treasure that corrupts the hearts of ponies that use it. It was entrusted to me by the now Princess Twilight Sparkle. Though there are others, it is nice to know this one is safe from the hooves of fools and villains who would use it.”
“I suppose so. You’re not going have to erase my memory or something like that now that I seen this thing are you?”
Zecora laughed, “Fear not, I suspect you do not know where you are, nor will you ever, but it does raise the question of why you are here… Mr….”
“Macintosh.”
“Ah another Big Mac, I should have suspected given your looks. I am to guess you are not from this world originally?”
Mac blinked, “How’d you guess?”
“A feeling is all. Your magic is off, similar but different to the magic of this world. Not that is of my concern. Now you have given you name, but not your purpose.”
“I’m just here for some training by Sixes,” Mac said explaining the situation as best he could without going into pointless details. Zecora nodded looking satisfied with his story.
“It is all clear to me, that you are no threat to me. Whether merely by chance or by destiny we meet is not up for debate. All I ask you not tell Sixes or any other of this place.”
“You don’t want me to tell him not to drop ponies off around here?”
Zecora nodded, “The best-kept secrets are the ones no ponies knows exist. Tell others to stay away and you make ponies what to come and see why.”
He could agree with that logic, it made a lot of sense. A personal example would be when his dad told him and Applejack to stay away from the west orchard for the first time. The first thing he and Applejack did was go to the west orchard.
“So where are we going?” Mac asked ducking under a branch. The trail they were on looked well-traveled. The presence of the forest also seemed to change. The air seemed… tamer, if there was such a thing. Nothing has attacked them in a while either.
Zecora answered, “I’m taking out of the forest. I have treated the toxins but your body will need rest and you will not find it here. I suspect Sixes will find your training here significant.”
“I guess I was only supposed to find my way out, though this feels like cheating with you just showing me the way out.”
“Sixes did not say you have to leave in a specific way, only to get out, correct?” Mac nodded yes to her statement. “Then there should be no issue unless you want me to lead you back into the wild zone.”
“I’m good, I’m eager to go home anyway.”
“You did not ask answer why you came here,” said Zecora, “It is not my business of course, but I sense you are bothered by many things. I smell musk on you, are you perhaps trouble with your mate?”
Does everypony here know he’s doing it? Was there a sign above his head that said ‘I’m getting some and I want everyone to know’?
“You ponies are strangely open about… intercourse.”
Zecora shrugged, “When everypony can smell it, there’s no reason to hide it. So is it mate troubles that brought you here? Have you say had a lover’s spat?”
Okay, this was getting a little too personal for him. “No, that’s not why I’m running in the woods in a completely different body than usual in a parallel world. I just had a brush with a really strong monster and I thought it would be a good idea to take Sixes up on his training offer. My mate is with child and I want to be able to protect them.”
“A noble reason, but I sense that is not all. Also, I’m not psychic, I’m merely a shaman.” Zecora said with a smirk. He had been about to ask if she was psychic and her statement didn’t really help to change the fact she seemed to possess some sort of sixth sense, but he was getting off topic.
“I’m also worried about my sister, she and her friends have been involved in some dangerous magic business and I want to try to protect her from that. I’ve been hunting monster for only a few months and I’ve come close to death a couple of times and I don’t want her to live this life, but I know I can’t stop her if she really wants to do it. Even if she doesn’t it seems trouble finds her and I’m not sure how to handle it.”
Zecora nodded with a knowing smile, “I’ve heard this story before. I know of pony that could help you work through your troubles.”
“And who would that be,” he said skeptically as they cleared the forest and entered into a vast orchard. In the distant kicking a tree was a big red stallion wearing a yoke. The stallion looked towards them; surprise clear in his eyes as Zecora giggled and disappeared back into the forest.
“The best pony to talk to is you,” said Zecora’s disembodied voice as the pony Big Mac walked up to him.
They stared at each other, the same, yet different. A minute passed with neither one speaking till finally pony Mac held up his hoof with a shaky smile.
“Howdy, names Big Macintosh.”
Mac held up his own claws hoof and shook the other Mac’s leg, “Macintosh Apple.”
Mac and Mac sat on the porch of Sweet Apples Acers with two bottles of cider between them. The earth Mac couldn’t help but look in awe at how similar the farm of Equestria was compared to his own back home. The trees seemed shorter though and little more spread out, but there were so many more trees it seems. He’s like to survey how many acres this farm was.
“So…” Pony Mac played with his half-empty bottle of cider, eyeing human Mac a degree of uncertainty. He seemed to be handling the ‘meeting you from another world thing’ better than human Mac probably would have if hadn’t known about there being more than one world. “Just to limit the confusion, how about you refer to me as Macintosh and I’ll call you Mac.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mac replied with an equally awkward smile. This was proving to be awkward, very awkward. They could barely speak to each other! How as he going to ask about Applejack?
“So how are things going around here? Looks like you keep your farm as tidy as I do. No old rusty junk where I can see it was my dad’s motto. I think it’s something he picked up from my grandpa, though.” Mac chuckled as he took a sip of his cider. The stuffed tasted just like the stuff back home.
Across from him, Macintosh nodded along, sporting a grin of his own, “My dad said the same thing. Gotta keep the place clean, he was always so proud when ponies would talk about how clean the farmyard was. Been getting tough keeping the place clean lately, Applebloom is off running with her friends all the time and Applejack is off doing her friendship quests every other week it seems. Granny’s pushing me to get mated and start putting out foals, if she were here now she’d really give it to me after smelling you.”
The smell again, he was just going to scoot around that on for now on. “What are these… friendship quests? I have an Applejack and Applebloom back home too; they’re both in high school at the moment.”
“Oh, AJ gets called by some damn map in Twilight’s castle to go help some ponies or some other species with a friendship problem. I’m not sure what the purpose is exactly, seems to help promote good nature and all that. That’s just part of the time, the rest of the time she’s off saving Equestria or dealing with some ancient evil that’s awakened or just some villain that appears out of the blue. Those go in streaks, most of the time her quests are pretty mundane.”
This must have been what dad had been talking about when he said Applejacks are destined not to live a normal life. Course maybe this was normal here, couldn’t hurt to ask. “Is this normal? I mean is it normal of ponies to have such adventurous lives?” Macintosh looked at him strangely.
“Normal… I guess maybe to some. Seems normal to me now, but overall? I wouldn’t think three-quarters of ponies have even half exciting of lives as my sister and her friends. She’ll probably go down as some legend like our ancestor Applejack the first from a thousand years ago. I’ve to talk to some of them dragon ponies once and they said she was a founding member of Princess Luna’s Night Patrol.”
(I guess that’s why dad said Applejack’s don’t live normal lives.)
“I guessing your Applejack is not just a normal high school girl?” Macintosh inquired earning a nod from Mac. “I figured. It’s not just my sister or our ancestor Applejack the first, it’s all the ones in between too. I don’t think any of them lived a normal quiet life, but I guess if they did they wouldn’t have written it down to pass on.”
“So how do you deal with it, I how do you deal with your little sister going off on dangerous missions? My sister has fought against two demons, was kidnapped and experimented on by a mad woman that’s now living in a shack in my orchard. I’ve fought a lot of monsters myself too, and they only get more dangerous.” Mac hesitated, gripping his cider bottle tight in his claws. “I don’t want my sister or any of my family in that kind of danger. My world isn’t like Equestria, we didn’t have monster roaming around till recently, it’s not… normal to be fighting monsters.”
Macintosh pulled another cider from the cooler and placed it next to Mac. Popping the bottle top off with his teeth, he took a few good gulps before answering his counterparts pleads for advice. Though he probably wouldn’t like what he’s got to say.
“Well Mac, I’ll admit wasn’t very comfortable with my sister going off and doing dangerous stuff. In truth, I wish it was me. As a simple farm pony I can’t help but dream of adventure and grandeur, but somepony needs to stay here and tend the fields and the trees well everypony else is running across the country and beyond. I’ve come to accept that my role is to make sure my sister has a nice home to come home to. Do I worry about her? Of course, I do, but I don’t have the skills, the magic, or the experience to do the things she does. If destiny appeared right now and offered me to switch places with her I would, but we both know that isn’t going to happen.” He looked sternly at his counterpart, frustration clearly writing all over his face. “My advice, just go with the flow and do the best you can, it’s all you can do after all.”
Mac chuckled humorlessly as he drank back the rest of his cider, “Here I thought I was going to get an answer about how to stop fretting over it all, but I guess that wouldn’t real life.”
“Nope.”
He grinned, “Nope indeed. Thanks for the cider. I best be going.”
“Come back anytime Mac if you need to talk again, I know how difficult Applejack can be,” Macintosh hollered laughing as he watched his counterpart disappear into the distance. He waited a few minutes and smiled when Applejack came trotting down the path to the house looking confused.
“Oh good! You’re normal!” She sighed in relief. “I thought I just saw well… YOU looking like of them dragon ponies and I thought I better make sure first before kicking down Twilight’s door. Though he did look a lot like you, he isn’t a cousin is he?”
Macintosh smiled as he patted the other chair for Applejack to sit down in and passed her a cider, “Nope, just a stallion looking for advice on how to deal with a stubborn little sister.”
“Very funny,” Applejack huffed drinking her cider, still she did wonder who that was.