Big Mac pushed open the back door and sighed. He stepped out, carrying a garbage bag in his teeth, and made for the garbage cans out back of the old farmhouse. He pulled the lid off, dropped the bag inside with a hollow clang, and closed it again. He shot a surly look back at the house; though he couldn’t exactly fault his sisters for finding some new friends, he didn’t exactly see how that equated to him waiting on them like some high-falutin’ butler.
He turned and walked back towards the kitchen. He was just about to head back inside, when he noticed something odd: at the foot of the old apple tree in the back yard sat two colts—a white unicorn, and a bluish pegasus. Big Mac frowned, then trotted over to them.
“Can I help y’all?” he asked.
Both of them looked up. The unicorn brightened a little.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re an Apple, aren’t you?”
Big Mac stood up a little straighter. “Last I checked,” he said, a little edge creeping into his voice.
The unicorn nodded towards the farmhouse. “How are they?” he asked.
Big Mac narrowed his eyes. “What’s it to y’all?” he asked.
The unicorn straightened up. “Just that three of them are my sisters,” he said, haughtily.
The pegasus, sitting on the other side of the tree, looked up. “You, too?” he asked.
Both of them turned to look at him, and he stared dopily back. “My sisters are in there, too,” he said, with the slightest whine in his voice. “Mom said to wait for ‘em while she went to talk to the doctor.”
Big Mac glanced between the two colts for a moment, then sighed heavily, and sat. “Big Macintosh,” he said, holding out his hoof.
“Shining Armor,” said the unicorn as he shook it.
“Surfer Beach,” said the pegasus. He didn’t shake Big Mac’s hoof, instead, he just clicked his own hoof against it.
“So…” Big Mac began uncertainty. “Y’all’s sisters were wrapped up in that mess down at the river, too?”
Shining Armor nodded. “Mh-hm,” he said. “My little sis used a trick I showed her to keep them all from going over the falls.” He sighed. “She’s going to be insufferable for the next few weeks…”
“Yeah, well,” Surfer Beach said bitterly, “at least your sister didn’t start it. I mean, if Flyby was just a little stronger, then this wouldn’t have even happened—”
“My sister did start it,” Big Mac said. “She was the first one to jump in after that filly, instead a’ waitin’ for someone with a lick a’ sense to come along…”
They sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Shining Armor looked up.
“Hey,” he said. “You guys ever up in Canterlot?”
“Not really,” Surfer said. “Why?”
Shining Armor shrugged. “I was thinking that, maybe, we could go out for a doughnut sometime,” he said. He quirked a little smile. “I mean, it seems like we all have something in common—even if it is the fact that our sisters seem to have a knack for getting into trouble…”
Big Mac nodded slowly. “I… think I could get away,” he said. “If I set it up ‘aforehand.”
Surfer shrugged. “Why not,” he said.
Shining Armor smiled. “Cool,” he said.
Big Mac opened his mouth to respond—
One of the windows slammed open, and all three jerked their heads up.
“Big Mac!” screeched Granny Smith. “Y’all get back on in here and—!” she trailed off into barely-comprehensible gibberish—but then again, he was learning to speak fluent gibberish.
Big Mac sighed, then climbed to his hooves. “Gotta go,” he said.
“Have fun,” Surfer said. “Then, at least one of us will…”
Big Mac turned back towards the house. As he walked, he felt himself start to smile.
After all, it had been a while since he’d made a real friend.
~The End~