Little Macintosh walked through the graveyard, the dreary clouds still hanging overhead, all rained out. The pegasi had not taken the time to clear them out, the whole of Ponyville too distraught over the death of two of its favorite citizens to attend to normal business.
Applejack looked so tiny by herself, standing just in front of the graves for their parents. She hadn’t moved since the end of the funeral three hours ago.
“Applejack, come inside. It’s getting late.”
She just shook her head.
“What’s gonna happen Macintosh? They’re not gonna separate us are they?”
Sighing, he sat down next to her. Wet cheeks showed she’d been crying. Macintosh hadn’t cried since the night it happened. If the extended family had seen how torn up he was, they would have interfered with his plan to keep the farm running by himself. A plan he couldn’t afford to have thwarted.
“No. Ah asked Granny Smith to let me stay here and take over the farm and that Ah’d take care of you two. She’d only agree if Ah let her stay here too and see how it goes first. Ah won’t let anyone separate us AJ.”
“But, Macintosh you’re still in school…”
He knew that. It hadn’t taken him any time at all to decide that he didn’t need any more schooling than he’d had to pick apples. Maybe AJ could be the brains when she’d finished learning all those fancy mathematics.
“Don’t you worry about that.”
She realized it was a big sacrifice he was making, giving up school when he’d only made it to the 9th grade.
“Oh, brother…”
Turning to hug him, she instead hurt her forehead slightly when it hit the yoke Macintosh wore around his neck. She stared a moment before she realized what it was.
“Macintosh, that’s dad’s…”
He looked down, rubbing a hoof over the wooden adornment. It had been returned from the ruins of the house, barely burned, even with everything it had been through.
“Yeah. This thing’s heavy but if Ah need to be as strong as dad to work the farm, Ah thought it would help.”
He reached back behind him, pulling their mother’s hat off of one of the studs on the yoke.
“And Ah thought you’d want this…”
He placed it on her head, the rim falling over her eyes. She tilted it back, smelling the faint aroma of the apples picked in the last season. It was good to have these reminders but at the same time Applejack hated the need to be reminded. She buried her head in his chest, his arm stroking her hair as she started crying all over again.
The faintest whispers passed through Little Macintosh mind, now Big Macintosh.
Take care of them…Be strong, my boy…
He couldn’t explain it but his fears for the future calmed and his breathing steadied. Some foreign power, the unknown start of the mysterious earth magic he would need to take care of his family, awakened in him.
Everything would be alright.
---
Macintosh was unsurprised that his dreams had been invaded again last night, his subconscious no doubt trying to spur him onward with visions of his past.
Twin Snakes, sitting in front of the fire with a prairie oyster and feeling the after effects of his binge drinking, had been sick as a dog that morning, the bucket next to him half full. He barely managed to give him directions to White Heart’s grave between retches.
On his way out of town, Morning Glory had stopped him and given him a small lunch, popping his collar up around his neck against the cold.
“Be careful out there.”
“Ah will, miss.”
The small flattery of not being called ma’am wasn’t lost on her and she smiled, Macintosh thinking she wasn’t so bad after all despite how she had acted at their first meeting. The slap on the flank as he left changed his mind pretty quickly but she still just smiled as he tried to muster a half-hearted glare and walked away.
It was fairly straightforward. Walk straight out of town and follow the highest marked paths for about three miles. It was snowing lightly again, if it ever stopped at all, and the sun rise could barely be seen in the distance, peeking through a tiny break in the clouds.
Cresting the last upward path, he found it. A large pile of rocks and a large pedestal behind it sans any sort of statue.
Bypassing the grave, he looked at the pedestal, wondering if someone had stolen Sleeping Mare for some reason. Instead, he saw a scrawled message carved into the stone and a poorly chiseled but recognizable image of the sun either setting or rising between two mountains.
“Those fearing death, those afflicted and poor and those hurting can find the light of help on our doorstep. The only payment requested is a willingness to face the possibility of death and a willingness to fight it.”
Looking out over the landscape, Macintosh saw the two mountains in question. Where he stood, the peaks of mountains were above the clouds and the sun shone beautifully. The spot shown on the carving was marked by the actual sun in the same spot here, sliding up the leftmost side of the left mountain. Maybe a two hour walk.
“Macintosh.”
The sudden voice in the peaceful quiet startled him, his body whipping around to see who it was. Iron Flank stood there, his three remaining soldiers behind him, wearing coats they’d picked up in town.
Cantrip handed her leader a newspaper which he threw down at Macintosh feet.
“What’s this?”
“You have eyes, read it.”
Still keeping an eye on them, he glanced down, shocked at the headline.
“Macintosh Innocent!”
The byline read Quill Pagein, the article detailing the secret investigation and subsequent ruling change by Celestia. It was an amazing bit of writing, at once both sympathetic to the Princess and Macintosh, simply grateful that the world was normal again.
“Is this real?”
“I wish it weren’t. We have to take you home so the Goddess can…she asked us to bring you. Now come on.”
Macintosh stared back at them, happy that Quill had done it and sad that even if he returned home, it wouldn’t really be home. Not yet.
“No. Ah can’t.”
Iron Flank took a step forward, his face starting to seep the anger he was already feeling inside.
“What was that?”
“Ah’m following a lead on White Heart. Ah’m going to find my sister.”
Iron Flank spat each word out, enunciating each one so the obviously addled farmer could understand what was supposed to be so simple.
“White Heart is dead! I don’t know if you know that but I was there! I was the one that broke his legs, snapped his spine and I’m sure, at one point, his neck too! I killed him! He’s not the one!”
“He is!”
Iron Flank advanced, going nose to nose with Macintosh, ready to push him right over the edge of the cliff. His neck snapped around to look at the grave, the pile of rocks covering a wooden coffin that peeked out where some of the stones had fallen away. That would prove it.
“Meteor Storm, pull that coffin out!”
A yellow aura surrounded the rocks, sweeping them all aside in a single swoop, the coffin lifting into the air and spinning around before lowering upright.
Iron Flank stepped up next to it, striking the clasp that held it closed and breaking the frail wood around it.
“Look! This is White Heart!”
It swung open, a pile of perfectly white, broken bones spilling forth, clattering upon the rocky ground. A unicorn skull landed atop it, staring at Macintosh with its empty sockets and pointy horn.
“He’s dead! Do you understand now? Your adventure ends here. You had a good run but us professionals are going to take over.”
“No.”
If there was something Iron Flank never heard, it was someone refusing an order from him. He stepped forward, closing in on Macintosh.
“What was that?”
Macintosh stepped backward, slipping towards the edge of the cliff. He looked down, a hill of gravel and rocky outcroppings forming an impromptu stairway down. He hoped there weren’t any nasty surprises below the clouds.
“Ah said Ah’m going to rescue her. She’s my sister and if anyone does anything to a member of the Apple family, it gets handled by the Apple family. By me.”
He dropped off the edge of the cliff, slipping down a cascading waterfall of broken stones and pebbles, hooves catching the occasional rock outcropping as he tried to stay upright.
Iron Flank watched him disappear, grinding his teeth again at this newest interruption of his duties and most recent slight by Macintosh against Celestia. He wasn’t about to follow though. He was reckless, not foolish.
Plus, his eyes glancing over the message in stone Macintosh had surely been looking at, he knew exactly where to find him.
“What now sir? He refused to come back.”
Iron Flank walked past his communications officer, the other two trying to cram the bones back into the coffin.
“We’re going to arrest him. Ignoring a royal order is a punishable offense. If we have to get violent, all the better.”
“And this, sir?”
Earth Mover finished packing the rocks back on top of the coffin, now staring down at the pedestal carving.
“That bull? I guess we’ll see what it’s all about when we get there.”
---
Macintosh had made excellent time after sliding down the mountain, using his magic to keep his stamina up as he sped down trails and up paths. The sight of the bones had shaken his belief in the who but his sister was still missing which made the who less important.
As he ran, he’d catch brief glimpses behind him, the group of soldiers teleporting after him but always keeping their distance. It looked like they weren’t giving up either.
He slowed as he arrived at a wooden sign that simply read “Shanty Town”, the path leading up the mountain to the sun marked spot from earlier. Steep in some places, it appeared to be quite well maintained, as though regularly traveled and kept clean to avoid accidents.
Macintosh went back and forth up the mountain, going slowly through the heavily fogged areas until it leveled off under a massive rock overhang. Practically half of the mountain was carved out or naturally missing. Posts were planted all around the lip of the overhang, a large wooden gate just in front of the end of the path.
Looking back down the mountain, he couldn’t see Iron Flank or his posse anywhere.
Unidentifiable noises came over the gate as he approached.
“Are you sick?”
He turned his head up to see a pink pony looking down at him from a watch tower near the gate. She was barely older than Apple Bloom but there she was, guarding the gate.
“Um, no. Ah was-“
“Are you infirm?”
“No, Ah’m looking-“
“Wait a moment.”
She disappeared, leaving Macintosh alone in the cold wind for several minutes. It was enough time to eat the sandwich Morning Glory had given for him and fool around with the door. He pushed on the gate a few more times, wondering just how much force it would take to break it open when she called out to him again.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you in. Sorry.”
“Is Dr. White Heart in there?”
She shook her head.
“We’re not allowed to talk about anything in our village. Sorry.”
“Oh.”
Macintosh backed up to the gate, the girl still watching as he focused earth magic into his legs.
The gate ripped from its hinges, flying inward.
He felt a little bad about it. Surely he could’ve tried talking a bit more but he didn’t think anypony with a wall that big was too keen on opening it for a stranger. He’d offer to fix it later and hope that made up for it.
Walking in, he saw large, well built homes in perfectly planned rows that hardly resembled a real shanty town. Each house was carved directly out of the mountain, the edges of buildings curved down into the ground instead of straight edges.
Ponies hid behind walls and peeked through windows at Macintosh, not used to having visitors at all, much less one so violent.
“I’m sorry, I really am.”
They hid as soon as he opened his mouth, ducking back behind buildings, inside barrels and still peeking through windows.
Definitely not used to visitors.
“Ah’m looking for Dr. White Heart. If anyone could tell me if there’s someone here named that or just a white unicorn here with a scalpel cutie mark it’d be a huge help. Anything would help, really.”
The quiet continued, no one wanting to step forward and possibly get beaten up by someone who had already broken down their gate. He entreated them again, holding his hooves out in a pleading manner.
“Please? Ah’ll go as soon as Ah can get an answer.”
One pony finally stepped forward from behind a building, walking crookedly, as though one leg were longer than the other. The closer he got, Macintosh could see that one leg was prosthetic, formed from a black metal with green lines running through it that shifted periodically. He looked into Macintosh eyes, the left eye with the same black material forming the sclera and the iris colored the same green as the lines.
“Who are you? We’re just a peaceful town trying to live quietly. What do you want?”
Other ponies peeked a little further out, Macintosh seeing that many others had similarly missing and replaced limbs, some seemingly normal or changed in some way Macintosh couldn’t see. He tensed, just a bit worried at how unnatural they seemed but talked to the brave one who had met him halfway.
“I’m looking for Dr. White Heart. He’s a unicorn, white coat, scalpel cutie mark. He kidnapped my sister and her friends.”
“Haven’t seen him. Sorry.”
“You suck at asking questions.”
Iron Flank and his guards had finally caught up, walking in through the busted gate. What little courage the mountain dwellers had gained against Macintosh vanished when more outsiders showed up, ducking back to their hiding spots.
“There’s a lot of magic gathered here but so few unicorns…”
Meteor Storm was taking the magical measure of the land, Iron Flank’s team meeting Macintosh in the center of town. The brave pony’s bizarre eye flitted back and forth, scared of the newcomers. Iron Flank growled at Macintosh.
“Are you always so polite?”
Without waiting for any response from him, he slugged the brave pony in the jaw, sending him sprawling to his back.
“I’m only doing this so we can get out of here. It’s cold.”
He straddled the pony, pinning him to the ground and raising a hoof to strike him again.
“Now, answer the kid’s question. Is there a Doctor White Heart here?”
“Yes!”
“Se…”
Just about to give Macintosh a ‘told you’ look and a triumphant ‘see?’, his face instead froze in mid-sentence. Macintosh pressed the questioning.
“So they’re here?! My sister and her friends?”
He coughed as Iron Flank pressed on his chest, the air in his lungs squeezed out. The townsfolk crept closer, gaining courage when they saw how badly Iron Flank was hurting one of their own.
“I can’t say! White Heart said these latest experiments would finally unlock the last few secrets to the pony body! We might all be normal and healthy again! He’d finally be able to conquer disease, to rebuild bodies from practically nothing!”
He can’t be…
Iron Flank now, very badly, wanted some answers as well.
“Good, cause if you don’t tell me, he’s gonna have to rebuild yours!”
His hoof pistoned down, cracking the solid rock next to the ponies head, giving him the general idea of what would happen if he didn’t speak.
“Th-the lab!”
He pointed towards the back wall of the cave. Macintosh dashed off as soon as the pony gave him a definite place to go. What none of them had noticed while occupied with the interrogation was the growing number of the crowd that encircled them. His powerful legs easily vaulted him over the heads of the crowd, leaving the soldiers behind.
“Uh, sir…?”
“We’re fighting through.”
Whatever was going on here warranted his investigation and, so help him Celestia, someone was getting beaten up either way, weird ponies, White Heart or impostor. Hell, Macintosh for dragging him out here might catch hell as well.
---
Two metal doors rose up in front of Macintosh, rage and magic filling his body as he smashed them aside, charging down a white hallway lit with bright fluorescent lights and stone floors, a strange juxtaposition with the crude and slightly dirty homes from outside.
“Applejack! Applejack!!”
He yelled as he ran looking into doors that led to empty rooms all along the main hallway, each filled with some unusual project or flash of fleshy mess as he raced by. He was close, he could feel her!
The hallway ended at two large doors, once again crashing open as he charged through them. The room was large, a ceiling that reached high up into the mountain. Glass cylinders held the same flesh masses he’d passed earlier, probably blank homunculi. The unusual metal limbs and eyes he’d seen in the citizens outside lay on a long table against the wall, waiting for ponies they could be attached to.
What he had traveled all that way for was in right there.
Six cells, three on each side, were set into the walls, each one holding one of the six missing ponies he’d been searching for.
He ran over to the first cell on the left, a foot thick wall of glass with no entrance serving as the door, and there she was. Applejack looked up at his approach, her eyes wide as she recognized the familiar red coat and orange mane. As she yelled, her voice alerted the rest of the girls to this miraculous appearance.
“Macintosh!”
More cries of Macintosh filled the air. They were glad yells full of hope.
His eyes flitted over the surface of the glass and he saw, just as before, that there was no exit or entrance. There were no switches next to them and no way to open them up.
“Please, I’m trying to take notes!”
Suddenly, whatever sound Applejack or the girls had been making was silenced. Macintosh turned towards the sound of the note taker.
It was White Heart sitting at the end of the room, scribbling notes in a journal. The statue of his wife looking down on him from a pedestal he’d erected before his work space, a stairway on either side allowing viewers to approach and look closely at it.
The noise of Macintosh’ entrance and the subsequent yelling seemed to knock him out of his work trance, making him throw his pencil down on the table.
“How am I supposed to work like this?!”
He stood up and turned, raising an eyebrow as he saw Macintosh. He was clearly surprised and smiled as though he were genuinely happy.
“Macintosh, what a surprise! If I’d known you were coming I’d have baked a cake. Or perhaps some other treat more to your liking. Apple Pie?”
Macintosh took a step closer. He was willing, not happy to but willing, to try talking first.
“Let them go!”
White Heart shook his head, clicking his tongue at such a huge demand. He walked towards the cells on the other side of the room, Macintosh seeing that his legs were the same black and green metal as those outside. A long strip ran along his back, amounting to what was his exposed spine.
He checked the few notes he’d taken on each subject, clipboards hanging next to each. He looked at Fluttershy inside the cell, passing down to Rainbow Dash and then Rarity in the cell directly across from Macintosh.
“Mac, Mac, Mac, I’m doing important research. Since perfecting magical surgery, I moved onto biological medicine and disease, prosthetics for anyone who needs them, genetics and magical technology. Have to come up with a catchy name for that last one.”
He floated a pencil and pad over, making a brief note, ignoring the angry red pony.
“Why did you do this?”
White Heart cupped his chin, thinking. He walked back to his desk, slapping the pad of paper down.
“I heard that the ‘Elements of Harmony’ had certain magical properties that I might utilize for my work. Changing the fundamental natures of objects like removing ‘good’ and ‘evil’ or what-have-you. It seemed promising for Micro-Magical studies, the scale of magic needed to operate on the atomic level. You see-“
“Shut. Up. I don’t care. Just tell me if I’m getting my sister back without killing you.”
It was as simple as that to Macintosh. The reasoning and explanations meant nothing to him at this point and he was tired of talking.
“I’m afraid not, my boy.”
Macintosh didn’t let him finish the sentence after he heard the ‘I’m afraid’. He dashed forward, hitting White Heart with the strongest hay maker he could muster, sending him rolling into his work desk and papers flying into the air. It was one of the most satisfying punches he’d ever thrown in his life.
White Heart stood, his smile lagging a little as the green flecks in his legs glowed brighter. His horn lit up green as he sucked magic from the air in the same way Macintosh interacted with the earth.
“I can see, Macintosh, that we can’t talk this out. I’m sure I’ll find some use for your organs.”
White Heart was across the room in an instant, catching Macintosh by the throat and slamming his face into Applejack’s cell, applying force enough to crack the foot thick glass. Macintosh struggled, the whir and click of the prosthesis creating more and more pressure in his skull.
His eyes met the cages occupant, his sister, who pounded on the glass, screaming for White Heart to stop, yelling all manner of threats and promises of violence that carried little weight for the doctor, if he could even hear them. She looked at her brother, mouthing something that couldn’t be heard through the glass.
Kick his ass, Macintosh!
Macintosh wasn’t dying here.
He kicked the doctor, going straight for his unarmored belly, pushing him back enough for Macintosh to catch a breath and long enough for the grey blur speeding across the room to stagger White Heart with a hammer blow across the face.
The doctor looked up, a magical defense taking most of the damage. His usual friendly face turning to burning rage when he recognized the assailant.
“Iron Flank.”
“White Heart.”
They circled one another, measuring the other’s strength. Macintosh rubbed his jaw and watched, wondering just what kind of crazy world forced him to fight alongside a pony who had only recently wanted him dead.
“How’d you survive me breaking your legs and spine?”
The doctor grinned.
“Spell of Death Likeness when I saw I wasn’t going to win. Floated myself back to this lab after they buried me. Had to amputate the limbs and make new ones.”
Iron Flank glanced at the statue, smirking.
“Still carrying a torch for a dead mare? Give it up White Heart.”
“Don’t talk about her.”
The acid in his voice was the first genuine sounding emotion Macintosh had heard in his words. It told Iron Flank just how to get at him and make him slip up.
“What’re you gonna do? Wait until I get sick and let me die? You seem good at that.”
White Heart let out a blood curdling cry, charging Iron Flank, his body a burning inferno of magic. Blinded as he was by rage, it gave Macintosh a perfect chance to strike, a double hoof buck to the side breaking the charge, shattering a few ribs in the process.
He landed on his side, rolling across the ground and upsetting shelves of books near his work space that came tumbling down on him. He stood, his legs trembling as he pushed the case off to the side. Any previous sign of the jovial villain was gone, instead replaced with a desire only for murder.
“Is this…Is this what they mean by lesser minds…uniting to oppose genius…?”
He charged directly at the two of them, crazed as his legs glowed bright, magic pulled from the area fueling his power.
Iron Flank and Macintosh stood side by side, readying to meet the charge, each ready for an end.
He was atop them, hooves striking out to clash two against one when a burst of liquid exploded between Iron Flank and Macintosh, each covered in something unknown as White Heart dodged backward, a new smile appearing on his face.
Another explosion, and another, the sound of shattering glass as the two were soaked in a clinical smelling liquid.
Macintosh collapsed to the ground, losing all his strength as the liquid seeped into his coat. Iron Flank still stood, shaking his suddenly foggy head.
“Did either of you forget I’m a doctor? I make potions?”
A suddenly visible flash appeared next to him.
“Fast acting poison in invisible bottles. I really don’t know who I hit with what but whatever you’re currently stewing in is guaranteed to leave you a mess.”
Macintosh struggled, trying to move legs and head that wouldn’t respond. Iron Flank was able to stand but stumbled back and forth, unable to stay up straight. White Heart diagnosed as he walked closer, that congenial speech back again.
“Ah, Paralysis and Confusion. Excellent.”
Iron Flank swung, the punch no where near the doctor, his vision splitting into doubles and triples as his depth perception disappeared altogether. His legs were kicked out from under him, White Heart kneeling down to whisper in his old enemy’s ear.
“I’m not sure I like being called out on my love by someone who can only love an unobtainable princess. I’ve wondered what Celstia’s insides look like too but I’m a mad doctor. What’s your excuse, deiphile?”
He crushed one of Iron Flanks legs underfoot, the bone snapping. He clenched his teeth, refusing to give White Heart any satisfaction in his screams.
“I’d love to talk at length later. Let me deal with Macintosh and we can have a nice chat.”
The ‘chat’ was punctuated by stomping on the broken leg. Telepathically lifting him, he tossed Iron Flank like a rag doll across to the far end of the room, slamming his body against the stair case, relishing the thought of further pain he could inflict on his former tormenter.
He turned on Macintosh, smiling at him again, happier now that any danger had passed.
“I won’t torture you Macintosh. In fact, you could say we’re very much alike and I feel for you. But my purpose in life is much greater. The science I’m creating has the potential to help millions, to save lives. So…goodbye and I’m sorry.”
Much greater? His life was so much more important than the insignificant lives of a few ponies? From where he lay, Macintosh could see three of the girls, the pleading looks on their faces. Applejack silently begged for her brother’s life, her hooves clasped together. Her life meant more to Macintosh than any one else’s.
With a great cry Macintosh wrenched magic from the earth, not absorbing it gently but allowing it to pour into him like an unstoppable raging rapid.
The paralysis vanished, Earth Pony magic made specifically for enhancing the body, stamina, and keeping the user healthy even against poisons.
He lunged up, smashing his forehead into White Heart’s nose, surprising the overconfident doctor. Macintosh lunged again as he stood, another head butt that knocked White Heart to his knees. He was done playing around.
“How did you…?!”
The brief distraction took his mind off the fight, letting Macintosh strike him several times, heavy blows that rattled White Heart’s brain, pushing him back each time. The doctor’s breathing was ragged, his side hurting, but he couldn’t stop his mind from wondering what insanity let Macintosh shrug off some of the strongest paralysis poisons in the world.
Macintosh was upon him, the visible blazing aura emanating from his body. Blood flowed down his face, the magic tearing his body apart as it ran rampant through him.
White Heart pulled more magic through his prosthesis, his body blazing just as bright. Heat swelled up in his legs, too much magic passing through them. It was a risk he had to take. Any less would be like a paper shield against the angry Macintosh and the next blow a fatal one.
Blows went back and forth, the fight dwindling to a slugfest as reason and strategy dwindled in their minds. They were both hurting, each desperately fighting for someone they loved and ignoring whatever pain they were in.
“White Heart…give up! I’m stronger than you!”
He punctuated this with a sledgehammer blow to White Heart’s face, a tooth cracking in his mouth. White Heart smiled around it, the hoof still against his cheek.
“But…I’m smarter.”
A sudden burst of telekinesis under Macintosh blew him upward, exposing his belly to White Heart’s low tech trump card. He pushed forward, gripping Macintosh and driving his horn into his gut, pushing as deep as he could and twisting his skull, digging into whatever meat he could find. A lung, the heart, the stomach, anything would be fine, so long as it killed Macintosh.
Time stopped for a moment, Macintosh rigid body slumping over White Heart but not fighting back. His grip neither grew tighter or lessened.
White Heart stepped back, the horn slipping out of the clean round wound and Macintosh falling to his knees. It didn’t even take a doctor to know Macintosh was still alive, his chest heaving with deep breaths but his body was burned out. The magic all rushed to his stomach to keep him alive but the shock of being stabbed was very distracting.
“White Heart…White Heart!”
He turned, his face bloody from stabbing, and wasn’t at all surprised to see Iron Flank standing at the far end of the room but his eyes went wide when he saw just where he was standing. The broken leg tucked up under his body and the other leaned heavily against White Hearts wife’s statue. The sleeping mare slid noisily across the pedestal.
“Get away from her!”
He tried summoning magic from the area, to use telekinesis to pull his wife towards him. His legs sparked, the delicate machinery he’d created burnt out from the fight. His legs shook, now just lumps of metal that held him upright.
“Looks like I won again White Heart.”
The statue slid further, Iron Flank still woozy from the poison, swaying back and forth as White Heart’s face went even whiter.
“But you’ve been fighting and killing for years just for this one mare. Lots of ponies died…just for her.”
It slid further, starting to tilt forward.
“You hurt my new enemy here, Macintosh.”
Slide.
“It made him hurt me and my guards.”
Slide.
“And you hurt Macintosh’ sister and her friends.”
White Heart was crying, listening to the awful truth he’d known all along. He did not regret becoming a monster to save his wife but that it now threatened her as well showed him the dangerous path he’d chosen.
“It’s time we ended this.”
“…stop…”
The weak cry was barely heard across the large room, White Heart shocked more than any one.
Macintosh stood, trembling. His head throbbed, his stomach churning as his guts tried to spill out of the tear in his belly. But he was standing.
“But she didn’t do any of those things. It’s not her fault.”
The statue was on the precipice, a single hard push ready to send it down the twenty foot drop, and shatter on the stone below.
“But she’s the root cause. Cut off the head and the body will die.”
Iron Flank’s hoof pushed from the bottom, the statue now starting its descent. Macintosh ran, leaping over White Heart’s head, screaming as he passed over the unicorn’s head.
“Launch me!”
White Heart’s mind raced, seeing, hoping that what he thought was happening was. Macintosh shattered the horn between his hooves, White Heart’s own natural magic bouncing between each little fragment. The green wave threw Macintosh, his body flying like a missile through the air, the statue dropping for every foot he flew.
Macintosh slid under it, hugging her close to his body as his arms grabbed it from the air. The wall shook as he slammed into it, hooves first.
The room fell quiet again, the heavy clops of White Hearts metal hooves the only sound as he dragged them across the room. It went on, the sounds out of sync as he limped, until he stood over the tired Macintosh who cradled the statue. Damage had still been done, one leg broken off and lying somewhere amidst the rubble they all sat in. It had been the only part to hit the ground.
White Heart took her in his arms, sobbing heavily, grateful that his only reason for being alive had been saved. He hugged her tightly.
No one would have expected the crumbling of the statue, the stone skin flaking away where Macintosh blood touched it, revealing the soft coat beneath. Macintosh’ blood from White Heart’s face, the blood from where Macintosh had grabbed her that leaked from his stomach.
“Like the poison…”
He dipped his hoof in Macintosh’ belly wound, wiping it over her face again, the stone crumbling away. He looked at the red stallion, mouth agape at what he was thinking.
“You’re immune to physical changes…Macintosh, have you ever been sick?”
“N-no. Just hurt.”
White Heart smiled, tears falling down his face.
“Please, Macintosh, listen to me…”
---
The winter snow fell all around Macintosh as he took deep, deep breaths in the middle of an orchard on Sweet Apple Acres. The barren trees held promise of a new year and heralded the return of his simple, uncomplicated life one month after the awful adventure he’d had to partake in. The coat he still had was nice though.
“Big Brother! Where are you?”
He savored every word his sister said, even when it interrupted his reflective moments. She appeared through the trees, the newest resident of Ponyville in tow. An aqua colored unicorn who was much older than she looked.
“Lookie who’s here. Came by to bring us gifts for the holidays.”
Moon Drop smiled at them, carrying a couple of wrapped presents in her saddle pack that she gave to them. Macintosh had first met her on the train home when she’d woken up. During the entire time White Heart had created a vaccine from Macintosh blood, she’d been under a deep sleep spell, just as her husband had hoped. She’d never known she was ‘Sleeping Mare’.
“Well what’s this for?”
“You’re only my favorite neighbors, silly. I mean, you went all the way to whatever facility I was in just because my husband asked you to…before…you know.”
Macintosh did know. He’d told Moon Drop that White Heart had asked him, with his dying breath, to take the vaccine he’d worked on his whole life to his wife. He’d realized that what he’d done, the monster he’d become was something he never wanted Moon Drop to know about. Remaining hidden in the far north was best for everyone.
The other lie, rather an omission of truth, was that her left leg was another of White Heart’s prosthesis, covered in illusion magic provided by a sympathetic Twilight.
Hopefully she’d never have to know any of those things.
“It’s okay. We were…close. I would do at least that much for him.”
Macintosh hated White Heart for everything he’d put the girls through. Though he’d never gotten the chance to tear the Elements of Harmony from their bodies, he’d told Macintosh his whole plan when it was over, not wanting his brilliance to go to waste even though it got him punched in the snout. Macintosh regretted hitting him while he stitched the hole in his stomach but only because White Heart had had to start over, the thread pulling out as the doctor fell over.
The girls didn’t talk much about the incident. They hadn’t been hurt and, once they’d gotten to know Moon Drop, hadn’t wanted to traumatize her with the truth.
It had been a fight to get Iron Flank to agree to any of it, still wanting more than anything to murder White Heart but they came to an uneasy agreement, the terms of which Macintosh had not been privy too.
Macintosh had tried to get Iron Flank in trouble, complaining that his methods and actions had overstepped the bounds of reasonable guard work. He had simply been told that a certain amount of ruthlessness was necessary for a guards work and he had gone unpunished, right back to Celestia’s side.
Macintosh hated Iron Flank too.
“Isn’t it about time to go, Macintosh?”
He looked up at the sun. Applejack was right.
Walking together they wound up at Sugar Cube Corner. One of Pinkie’s many holiday parties already in full swing as loud, blaring music welcomed them into the warm bakery.
There was Apple Bloom goofing off with her Cutie Mark Crusaders, stealing more than their share of cupcakes and wondering if speed eating was a real cutie mark.
Quill and Fluttershy smiled and talked quietly in a corner, sharing the one large scarf. He was serious about her and she about him but they were both too shy to let each other know. Macintosh waved and Quill waved back.
Spike was fawning over Rarity again, bringing her a cup of punch that she accepted gratefully.
Each and every pony there was happy and laughing, excited about the here and now.
Macintosh smiled.
Everything he needed in life was right there in Ponyville.