//------------------------------// // The Second Remove // Story: Welcome Home // by Trick Question //------------------------------// You are Big Macintosh. Officially, your name's 'Prince' Big Macintosh, but you don't take to that title. You must be thinkin' about the whole prince thing at the moment cause your sis got her wings spread real wide right now. "Mac?" your sister says, and then she walks into the room and places a hoof on your shoulder. "I, um, I'm okay," you say, trying not to sound nervous, but you're pretty sure you failed at that thing. "Nightmare." Applejack rassles her arms all the way round your bod, which ain't easy, even for a mare of her generous size. You can see Apple Bloom right there in the door with an equal helpin' of concern on her own little face. Then again, you guess her face ain't all that little no more. "You need somethin' to getcha back to sleep, Brother?" asks Apple Bloom, stepping into your room. You feel very foolish and dumb for screaming from a nightmare, because stallions ain't supposed to do stuff like that. You also don't like having your sisters in your bedroom with you, cause it feels cramped. Bein' around too many ponies in a place too small to give 'em all some breathin' room makes you mighty iffy—even if they're kin. You really hate bein' blocked in on all sides. You look at the clock beside your bed. "Nnope," you say. "Might as well get to moseyin', almost dawn now." You hope they'll get the hint, and you're pretty safe there cause they ain't dumb. Bless the Stars, Bloom's the smartest Apple you ever known, and you've known a passel of 'em. You can't even believe you're related, to be honest. Thinkin' about smart stuff always sends your brain hurtin'. But wait a sec, weren't you just thinkin' all about magic and clever stuff when you woke up? No, must have been the dream. Maybe it wasn't all that bad after all. AJ releases you, then she steps back and smiles. "Must have been one humdinger of a dream!" she says, and whistles. "It's been a few years since I had one that bad. Remind me to scold Princess Luna next time I see her." Despite how your innards are all a-twist, you smile a tad. "Luna ain't got nothin' to do with it," you say. Deep down, you're grateful to have kin who care so much about you. You got a good life, 'cept the hard work. Wait, what are you thinkin'? You love hard work! You done got yourself a perfect life. All's well at Sweet Apple Acres, maybe except the prince thing of course, but that don't matter for real. Now you smile a lot more. Bloom catches the smile from you and AJ—that stuff's like a bad cold—and then they leave you be. You head off to take a shower and exfoliate. You wish there was a different word than 'exfoliate' because that one sounds so floofy. You don't like things that sound floofy cause you worry what ponies'll think. You worry about that a whole lot, even though you know it's silly. On your way to the shower you make a note in your head to wash your sheets before hittin' the hay tonight. Usually you shower in the evenin', but today you're gonna need two: one now, and one after chores. It's kind of a hassle, cause it takes a long stretch of time for somepony like you to shower your bod. But you got stuff to think about, so it ain't bad. You start by thinkin' about your marefriend, which happens a lot in the shower, though you don't never tell nopony that. You been visitin' her a lot, and she seems to tolerate you good enough. She been keepin' up her end of the bargain, too. Pretty soon you're gonna have to make her an honest mare. None of this woulda happened except Twilight came stickin' her muzzle where it don't belong to make a match, and like usual she was right. Twilight knows that kinda stuff, what with Friendship and all, so it seems cut and dried, but the idea of finally poppin' the question still gives you the willies. You're brave enough to handle a 'nnope', but you don't wanna make her feel bad if she don't want you. It ain't always been like this, though. A long while back you had your heart set on Shy (though the two of you since parted ways all mutual-like). Now that you're a prince and all, the fact Shy's a princess didn't matter to you no more because you can't become a prince two times. At least, you don't think so. You wish you could go back to zero times, but no matter what you do, with sis's Honesty and all, you're stuck a prince, even though your new honey ain't royalty from any angle. You take a big sigh while washing your tallywhacker, and try to accept what life gifted you. Still... Sometimes? You actually think about bein' a princess. Not for the title, obviously, cause that ain't no better than prince. You just like to think about bein' smart, and havin' magic to do stuff with, and bein' able to fly around, like your sister and her friends get to do. Maybe even wearin' fancy gold shoes, or somethin' wild like that. Course you ain't never told nopony none of it, except for Shy and the mare you're datin' now. At the end of the day, it's just a dream. That kinda stuff don't happen to colts, and you ain't smart enough by a country mile, and your daydreams don't matter a lick. But simple facts don't stop the dreamin', and maybe someday if your dreams drift the right way you'll have your own wings and a horn for a while. You might be afraid of what ponies think, but you ain't afraid to dream. Now that'd just be silly. You finish your shower and towel off, then head out to face the day. It's all bright out today, nice and sunny and hot, just the way you love it. You also love it when it rains and when it snows, just not quite so much. Today's a sweatin' day, and there's plenty of work to be done, so you trot down to the orchard and get to workin'. Your mind wanders a lot, even though you ain't got much mind to wander. Mostly about stuff that can't never happen. You reckon most ponies probably got fantasy thinkin' goin' on at least part of the day, but it's mostly all day long for Mac. The stuff you gotta do is simple and most folk'd be bored stiff by it, but it's great exercise. It feels good all over your body, and especially in your gut—and you don't mean the flesh part neither, even though that part feels good too. There's a warmth in your heart that won't ever vamoose when you're doin' your part for the family. You want that warmth to be in you every day. Then it's about noon, so you start thinkin' about puttin' grub in your muzzle, and you head on back to the farmhouse to do that thing. Normally AJ'd be ringin' the bell for lunch, but she got somethin' to do today so it's just you and Bloom. When AJ ain't around for lunch, Bloom usually goes and eats with her friends. So you rassle up some vittles by your lonesome and stuff your face with them, then get back to work haulin' apples from the orchard to the root cellar. Several more hours pass, so it's gettin' a little late in the day. Normally, you'd continue workin' until just before Sundown, but today there's somethin' important you gotta do instead. You got a party to get to. Now, you ain't really into shindigs outside of kin, but this one still counts as kin because your marefriend is gonna be there, as well as the little—well, not quite so little anymore—filly whose birthday you'll be celebratin'. So you rub a little soap on your bod and hose yourself down in the yard. It's faster than a shower and you'll be mostly dry by the time you make it into Ponyville. As you canter into town, your dumb brain keeps wanderin' as always, first about how you ain't never gonna be a princess, then s'more about Berry. You worry she might see you before you dry out, 'cause you're still drippin' wet at the moment, but then again some mares are supposed to like that kinda thing. Besides, you ain't gonna be ashamed of your work, cause work's what makes life worth livin'. That and family, and maybe friends too. But that don't make no... Wait. Somethin's wrong. A cart just crashed down the hill by that stone house what's still bein' put together, and it looks like a little somepony flew out of the cart and into the wall. You hear some loud naughty words, too, and they sound like Berry. She got a mouth on her, but she tries real hard not to use it, so she must have gone and hurt herself somethin' bad. On accident this time, you hope. Berry needs your help, and you set to canterin' lickety split. You'd gallop full bore, but you gotta eyeball the situation to know what's right, and so you do that thing. You notice a bunch of stones way up there on the roof of that there house, and they're in a pile what's too narrow and tall and too near the edge, and they got a wobble goin' on 'em already. Now you're in a gallop before you even tell your hooves to pick up the slack, which you think is kinda neat. You reckon you know what's right so good that you can do it without thinkin' first. That's good for you, cause you don't think too good. And now you need it because that's a filly right under them stones, and she gonna get smashed if you can't go fast enough to get her. Dear Sun above, you hope that ain't Pinchy. Not that you want any filly to be in danger, course not. As you race, you look at the rocks, and you puzzle real hard. In a farmer's minute (that means real fast) you reckon out the exact moment each one gonna hit and the exact spot each one gonna land at. The first one'll hit next to the filly, and the second one square on her. You only got seconds to spare, so you turn up the juice past the breakin' point. You wish you was fast as Rainbow Dash right now, with every muscle you got in you. You don't need to be no princess (even though that'd be mighty nice), just as long as you can get to that little filly in time. You can't even see Berry, if she's there, because your vision goes into a long, dark tunnel from how focused you are. The first stone falls right beside her, exactly where you done knew it was gonna. Your hooves just keep movin', and it's hard to breathe. You ain't never run this fast before. You see more stones fallin' toward her, and you jump real hard... You land a few hooves away from the filly just in time to see stones come smashin' down on her. It looks real bad, but you stand u— No, hold up. It turns out you don't do that thing. Several big stones hit your back and there's a real loud crackin' sound and the stones ain't the thing what cracked. You think you're pinned under 'em, but you can't tell 'cause you can't feel a goldurn thing south of your withers. You don't wanna admit it, but you reckon even if you do come outta this, you ain't never gonna move those back legs of yours again. And that ain't good, 'cause it means you'll be a big-sized burden on your sisters' saddle. You almost hope you don't make it outta this one, even though you're sure that's ain't the right thing to hope, and you know your sisters and Berry don't want that neither. Then you look up and see a big grey mass gettin' bigger fast, and all of a sudden you feel this overwhelmin' sense of peace. You done right, Mac. The stone hits your shoulders nice and square, and they crunch like dried applewood and you can't hardly breathe no more. You don't feel no pain, but you feel warmth flowin' right out of your mouth, kinda wet-like, and the warm parts in your chest are gettin' mighty cold. And that's okay. It's just gut warmth, is all. The physical kind. It ain't the important kind. That ain't ever gonna leave. You feel so very cold and sleepy, and things get all dark, then there's this ringin' in your ears as ev— Hold up, now. Slowly, real careful-like, you see a light. It's a white light, and it starts to feel warm again deep in your innards, and you gasp for breath because your lungs still ache. You blink repeatedly, and you flex your legs, all four of those. You can feel them again, as a tingling sensation covers them. You stretch, and look yourself over as you start to breathe normal. Okay, this is interesting... Where in Tartarus are you? You're sitting in a comfortable chair next to a bottle of pills, but how come? This house looks very familiar. Weren't you trying to help somepony? Didn't you feel broken and cold? What the buck... For that matter, who are you?