Seeing the Pattern
Part 5: Big Macintosh
Princesses Luna and Celestia shared breakfast in what was known as the white room of the palace. Its archways were high, its ivory walls pristine, and the beautiful balcony provided a beautiful view of the valley beyond Canterlot. It was one of the few times of day both princess could share a private time together, as sisters.
“You seem troubled, Luna.” Celestia said gently, sipping her tea while gently nudging the sun from the horizon. Luna appeared to be surveying her bowl of rice oats and sugar a little too closely. While the princess of the night looked like a blot of dark ink in the white room and it made her no less beautiful, a line of worry had formed itself on her brow.
Luna yawned a little, then looked across the table at her. Her night had just ended, but she did need to speak with her sister before retiring for the dawn. “Something is a bit off, and it troubles us, sister.” She said, poking at her breakfast (dinner?) a little. “It prickles our mane and draws our eye to Ponyville.”
“What’s wrong with Ponyville?” Celestia turned her head to look out of the balcony windows. Out in the valley below, the sleepy little town sat like a content dot on the line of the horizon. Though Canterlot was her home and the capital, the princess of the day cared very much for the town where her prized student and her friends dwelled.
“Something is…” Luna made a circular motion with a hoof a few times, delicately trying to find the right words to explain. “Something is tugging on the fabrics of fate.” She said. Flicking her gaze at the four private guards present, two solar and two lunar stallions, she had to remind herself they were sworn to silence on pain of gelding (that is, losing what made them stallions) if they repeated private conversations like this one. The dark princess leaned forward with a concerned expression. “Deaths, sister. Ponyville has missed at least four deaths in the past few months. Maybe more.” She said with a low voice.
Celestia blinked a little, sipped her tea once more, then lowered the cup for a slightly more serious tone. “Missed? How?” Both sisters barely spoke of such high-concept things like fate, destiny, and the fabrics of reality. They were goddess-oriented things that would only worry the average pony. But now and then, something went wrong and the sisters had to work together in order to smooth out the proverbial wrinkles.
“Something is diverting fate from its normal course.” Luna said with a furrowed brow, stirring her breakfast a little. “We have been able to sense four deaths that should have occurred, but have not.” She made a mild gesture, like a weather pony showing off how interesting his storm map was.
“Deaths are prevented every day, Luna.” Celestia said gently, smiling in a stoic way.
“No no, not these.” Luna shook her head. “These were deeply rooted in karma.” Karma was probably the closest material-plane word that the goddess’ could use. The tapestry or reality had been carefully weaved, giving all ponies an equal chance at life as well as death. If somepony was due to die, it was through no fault of their own, it was simply their karma having run out. “We think there is somepony divining the fate of others and then actively circumventing their demises.”
Celestia frowned rather openly, a strange expression for the sun goddess. The closest she had come was a neutral line for the past decade or so. But a full-on frown was worrisome indeed, for the guards looked away with a shudder. “Nopony is allowed to know the future, though. One would need to predict events before they happened if what you say is true.” The sun goddess said gently.
“Indeed.” said Luna mildly, sipping her own tea. “Now and then, when we hang the stars in the sky, we can see a nexus of threads leaning towards Ponyville. Its only mild, but it may turn into a knot sooner or later.” Referring to reality like a fabric was, again, the simplest way to put it. But, putting a knot in the fabric of fate, destiny, and karma was a serious thing indeed. The entire universe could be thrown off if a pony didn’t die when they were supposed to, as dictated by their destiny. One’s destiny was not set in stone, but it had a general direction. To upset it entirely was dangerous.
Both goddesses looked at each other, then out at Ponyville. Celestia gave a quiet sigh. It was no secret that, as princess of the night, Luna had a special set of things to deal with. Death, fertility, fate, the night sky, among other things. They’d divided the job of running Equestria ages ago. “What do you suggest?” Celestia referred to her sister, for death and fate were her territory since she’d returned from the moon.
“We shall go to Ponyville in the night when we feel just such another tug on fate's strings.” Luna said with a firm nod, referring to only herself of course. “There, from shadow, we shall investigate and see if anypony is doing anything suspicious. If we can identify our fortune-teller then we can stop him or her.” She clopped her hoof on the table rather roughly, and all four guards flinched. How unlike a princess to speak of eliminating somepony!
“Well,” Celestia said with a patient smile. “Perhaps just make him or her see reason, and then strip said divining powers?” Luna nodded thoughtfully at her words. It would not do her dark reputation much good to schedule the first execution in almost a century. Ponies might be upset. The princess of the night nodded her assent, though she seriously doubted anypony that could read the future so accurately would willingly give up a power like that. She would no doubt need to use force.
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“Lickity Split!” Pinkie Pie called, bouncing down the street towards him.
The stallion looked over his shoulder worriedly. She was in primpy, fuzzy, hyper-happy mode today. Cocking his head he shuddered. He liked the moody, dominant, straight-maned version more. He said he liked both, but further exposure had made him lean towards the other. “Oh uh… hey, Pinkamina.” Lickity said with a smile. “How’re you?”
“So formal with me, hee hee! Well I just saw you on the street here and thought I’d pop over and say hello and see what you were up to you’re usually running the ice cream parlor until after dark it must be a really popular—” Pinkie Pie had already gone way beyond the lung capacity of a normal pony with her run-on sentence, and the poor stallion’s mind was starting to glaze over like a sugar coma. He shook his head quickly and gave her a look. “What?” she smiled good-naturedly.
“Listen, I uhm…” his face dipped a few shades darker in the cheeks. “I’m sorry about yesterday, if I made you uncomfortable or anything.” He hadn’t been able to help himself, he’d just WANTED her mouth on his right in that moment. “I didn’t mean to make you upset.”
Pinkie Pie cocked her head. “Ohh, you silly!” she giggled, bounding forward until they were almost nose to nose. The happy scent of vanilla wafted under her muzzle and she smiled. “It means a lot that you thought enough of me to do that!” she was of course referring to the bag of chips from yesterday morning, but he didn’t know that.
“R-really?”
“Oh yeah! It was really sweet of you!” she crossed one hoof over the other in a shy expression.
“Y-you think so?” he brightened, smiling and eyes shining. “Oh gosh, that makes me feel so much better!” he confessed, sagging down like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “I was so worried I’d upset you!”
“Well, it was unusual, yeah. Not the sort of thing I’m usually into.” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes in a knowing way. Surely every pony knew she liked sweets, not salts. At least sweets gave you energy, salts would eventually just work against your body and make you even more unhealthy. Though… the bag of chips had disappeared overnight, so who knew what was going on there.
“Not the sort of thing…?” Lickity wildly wondered if Pinkamina was more into mares than stallions. It wasn’t unheard of. After all, ninety percent of the equestrian population was female so it was only natural to find a companion of the same gender.
“But coming from you it was extra special. Thank you!” Pinkie Pie said with a big smile, bouncing up and down a bit. “It meant a lot I think!” It was awkward, praising him over a sudden bag of chips. But, the mare certainly liked the attention from her secret crush and she wasn’t about to let him go around thinking she didn’t like his odd gift.
“It meant a lot to me too…” Lickity’s eyes glazed into a dreamy expression, and his cheeks colored a little more. “W-well, I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you later. Maybe tonight.” He turned before he made any more of a foal out of himself, cantering away and waving over his shoulder at her. Pinkie Pie smiled with glee. What a hunk! What a stallion! Mmm, ice cream cake would be niiiice...
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Pinkamina was an earth pony, and therefore much stronger than unicorns or pegasi. Not as strong as her farm-working aquantence Applejack, but still quite strong. It was hard to believe her back legs could stop a whole taxi cart full of tourists. But right now Pinkamina was just trying to stop a cart with one pony in it. “Faust-damn it, Big Macintosh!” the growled, sweat beading down her brow and through her mane.
The massive stallion had fallen asleep WALKING down a trail after a long, hard day of selling apples in the mid-day sun. The heat-induced fever and poor luncheon had caused him to sleep-walk, and he had sleep-walked right off of a cliff in the park. Pinkamina had caught him just as his weight had shifted off the edge, propping herself against the cart with all her might. She couldn’t shift the stallion’s direction, he was far too strong, so instead she went for the cart.
“You’re! Gonna! Die! At this rate!” the pink mare tried to shout to him, but his eyes were weighted with heat exhaustion and odd dreams of Cheerilee. There was no waking him. Even though his legs were walking on air and he was almost literally hanging by his neck, the yoke held him to the cart itself and properly donning it meant that all of his massive weight was in his shoulders. It would’ve been quite ironic if Pinkamina had helped him hang himself, but it wasn’t the case. “Guhhh! I can’t hold you!” the incline was too steep, the cart and stallion too heavy, and she was giving out at this rate. Who knew how long she’d been holding him there, right on the cliff’s edge. She’d been shouting for help, but the effort always made her slide forward just a smidgen, and she could no longer afford it. “If I die with you I swear to Faust I’ll haunt your whole Faust-damned family! BOTH of me!” she swore at him again, edging further and further towards the cliff’s horizon point. Whimpering with effort while she dripped with sweat, she almost didn’t hear somepony shouting down at her.
“Pinkamina!” a stallion was rushing down the hill. He’d seen her bright pink body in the moonlight, and then the horrible situation at the cliff’s edge. “Hang on! I’m comin’!” he skidded it a halt. Lickity Split! “I was out looking for you and–!”
“THIS IS HEAVY!” she roared at him rudely. He rushed forward, putting his shoulder against the cart. Big Macintosh’s legs slowly bicycled in the open air while he remained blissfully asleep. Their combined strength brought him back from oblivion, and with a final shove they pushed the cart on its side. Big Macintosh went down hard, but didn’t wake. “Whew…” Pinkamina said with a wipe of her brow. She lay there on her back, panting, until he leaned over her. Straight-maned. The version he liked. He split into a grin, and she turned her head to one side with a flap of her mane. “What— are you— looking at?” she panted.
“You.” He smiled, bringing her to her hooves again with some help. Her burning lungs and tired muscles didn’t let her protest to all the physical contact. She leaned on him. “That was very brave, Pinkamina.” He whispered, looking at Big Mac. “I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to the Apple family if they’d lost Big Macintosh.”
“A funeral I imagine. And half the mares in town would turn homosexual.” Pinkamina snorted, eyeing the massive red stallion on the ground. Even now he was merrily cantering somewhere with Cheerilee in his dreams. He would wake on the morn, confused no doubt. “He’s probably the reason half the town has any straight mares anymore.” Her comment was mean, jaded, but probably true at its core. Lickity Split smiled lopsidedly.
“What about you?” he teased a little. She shot him a look. The adrenaline rush of the cart on the cliff, as well as the thrill of victory over fate, had brought a flush to her cheeks. “Without Big Macintosh around to show the mares what a real stallion looks like, would you have— OW!” she’d cuffed him in his sore cheek again. “Why do you keep hitting me there?!” he whined, holding the tender spot. Pressing him to a nearby tree with an aggressive thrust of her hoof, Pinkamina treated herself to some stupid stallion. He was delightfully submissive, murring quietly under her dominant lips. She was abusive, but he liked the abuse. It was kind of cute in its own way.
“You talk too much.” She panted between heady kisses. “Just shut up.”
“Sorry.” He said huskily, wrapping a hoof slowly around her neck to pull her to him. Her scent was entoxicating, her touch like a heady fire. He wanted her, wanted her so much. This dark and dominant Pinkamina was exciting, confident, strong, he wanted more and more. “I just—!”
Thunder erupted across the sky, startling them both. Lightning brilliantly lit the town, sending a great shadow over both of them. Both ponies turned, gasping at the tall figure there. “So it is you, pink one, twisting the strands of fate. I should have suspected.” Princess Luna stood there on the cliff with them. She surveyed the scene, including the pitched over cart and the sleeping Big Macintosh.
Lickity Split threw himself onto his belly, deep in a bow that almost pressed his face into the grass. The princess! The princess herself had appeared in Ponyville?! Why? How? What could she be doing there in the middle of the night? Trembling at her powerful presence, he squeezed his eyes shut for he could not look upon her without breaking into gasping sobs. Like so many other ponies, he feared her more than death itself.
Pinkamina wiped her muzzle slowly, an icy realization coming over her. She was so busted. By royalty, no less. “It is me.” She said carefully. “You interrupted my… treat.” The pink mare walked from under the tree and into the light, sprinkling rain. She stood before her princess, then bowed as was expected. Unlike Lickity Split, however, she rose to her hooves again and looked her in the eye. Bold.
Princess Luna surveyed her. “Coitous Interruptus is not our concern, strange one.” Her wings flapped dominantly open, displaying their full span. “You know not what you do.”
Pinkamina’s face turned scarlet. She’d had no intention of letting things get that far, was she crazy? She decided to let it slide off of her like rain, and not be baited. “Well, I was kissing him for the moment. Moving further than that is probably out of the question right now. It’s raining out here.” Pinkamina said smoothly. Luna’s eyes narrowed into a dangerous sort of anger that sent a shudder down the pink mare’s spine. She stood stalwart, and they frowned at each other grimly.
“YOU KNOW OF WHAT WE SPEAK!” the Royal Canterlot Voice boomed, making Pinkamina’s mane flap wildly in the concussive force it made. “THY MEDDLING HS PREVENTED THE TIMELY DEATHS OF OTHERS, AND YOUR FORESIGHT IS CAUSING DAMAGE TO THE FABRICS OF FATE!” she boomed. Lickity Split started visibly shaking, barely comprehending the actual words. Pinkamina winced, not happy he was there to witness what was being said.
“What would you have me do?” Pinkamina growled openly at the goddess. “Wait and knowingly let them each die? When I have the power to prevent it?” she leaned forward aggressively, unable to stop herself. She had no chance at all if things came to blows, but she would not be known for having presented her neck to the chopping block.
“My sister thought perhaps you might be reasoned with.” Luna’s wingspan lowered just a little and she growled back. They were almost forehead to forehead, if not for the princess’ massive horn. “So we shall give you the chance to do just that! Just one!” she raised an accusing hoof. “I have no doubt you will divine the next death Ponyville is due for. When you do, you will let it pass uninterrupted! If you do not—” Lightning exploded across the sky as Luna’s wings lifted her into the air. “We shall return for you! And when that happens, YOUR death will pay the backlog for all the ones you prevented!” The goddess damned her with only a couple of sentences before rising into the sky, riding the thermals on high like the black spirit alicorn she was. She was gone in seconds. The storm followed her away, riding the goddess’ anger.
Pinkamina let out a long-held breath. She turned and saw Lickity Split staring at her in disbelief. She winced a little, then turned to go. “Wait.” He called, getting to his hooves and grabbing her tail. She glared murder over her shoulder, but he didn’t release her. “That’s what this is all about isn’t it? It WAS you in the freezer the other night. And there with Bon-Bon, and now Big Mac?” he asked softly, looking shocked as the puzzle pieces fit into place. “You’ve been preventing deaths around Ponyville, because you know about them a little beforehand?”
There was a long silence and the pink mare stared at him with angry eyes, dark circles under them. Pinkamina had not been sleeping well for a long, long time. “If only by a few minutes.” She said at last, sighing and stopping her tugging. “I see the pattern. Death has a pattern.” She lowered her head until her mane hung low, casting shadows over her face. “Always… always a pattern.” She said quietly, shuddering.
Lickity Split went to her, closing his eyes and exploring under her mane with his muzzle. She allowed him to nuzzle her face, and she shuddered. Quietly, she leaned into him, faceless behind a curtain of stringy pink hair. He didn’t speak, thankfully, but slowly began to walk her home. (Big Macintosh would wake with a nasty cold in the morning, having been briefly soaked in the rain and left to sleep on the cool ground all night.)
By the time they’d arrived at Sugar Cube Corner, not a word had been exchanged. Lickity had figured almost everything out about the entire situation. Pinkamina could somehow divine the deaths of others, then went out at night to prevent them. This had drawn the gaze of Princess Luna, guardian of fate and destiny and death. She didn’t like it when mortal ponies messed with fate, clearly. “Come in with me.” Pinkamina said under her mane, slipping the key into the door and stepping into the shop. He hesitated in the doorway, but she’d left it open so he had to go in to lock the door behind her. She trailed slowly downstairs, head hanging low. Lickity Split tried to understand what it would be like to be told by a GOD not to help others, but he couldn’t fathom it. “I don’t wanna be alone tonight.” Pinkamina whispered when they’d come to her room. “Stay with me? Just for tonight?” she said quietly. He shut the door of her room, knowing what she meant.
The rest of that night was salt, sweat, and quiet shrieking. But even while her magnificent stallion was moving furiously within her, Pinkamina could not help but have the itchy-twitchy feeling that the next death in Ponyville might be her own.
End of Part 5