//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: 3:10 to Appleloosa // Story: Everypony's Looking // by lethalogica //------------------------------// "Tweet, tweet! Tweet, tweet!" robins and sparrows of different sizes and shapes sang outside of the window. "Ugh, shut up!" the pegasus yelled, sending them the furious face of a pony hungover and tired. Frightened, they bunched together, shaking, before one valiant bird, then many and all, flew away to what she suspected was another tree to terrorize somepony else. "That's right," she growled, "I don't need nature's alarm clocks to wake me up..." Turning over, she froze at the sight of something else in the bed. Something big. And red. Her eyes widened. Oh my Equestri- Celestia, Luna, I don't know, Cadence too, I guess! Please, please please don't tell me I slept with Big Mac last night! Her breath quickened as her mind raced with thoughts, like What the buck happened last night! and How did I end up in the Apple house?, so she rolled back over facing the window. But the new sunlight shining through hurt her barely adjusting pupils, leading to her getting up as quietly as she could to sneak out before anypony else woke up. "Now hold on, Miss Dash," the colt began, "where are you goin'?" Rainbow turned her head slowly to find Big Mac's eyes locked with hers. She sputtered, "Uh, I was just- just gonna go and- and- and, uh... Go?" With a heavy sigh, he affirmed her hopes, attesting, "If you're worried if we did more than just sleep, Ah can tell ya' that you're sadly mistaken. Last night, after matching me then Braeburn and AJ drink for drink, ya' finally passed out. Since Ah was sumwhat at fault for it 'cuz Ah was the one who challenged ya' to it, Granny Smith ordered me to give ya' mah bed for the night. Ah still needed mah sleep, tho', so Ah ended up sleepin' next to ya'." "Oh- oh..." "Miss Dash," he snickered, "excuse me if Ahm wrong, but is dat discontent Ah hear in your voice?" A flurry of scarlet brushed across her cheeks as she gawked. "N-no! Wha- why in Equestria would I ever- no! There's no way I would ever... No! You're delusional, Big Mac! I mean, I- I- no!" she reputed in increasing volume. "That's an awful lot o' denial for what could've been a simple 'no'," he noted smugly as he knew he'd gained the upper hand. The red intensified and Rainbow Dash stuttered, "I- I- you- there's no- ah! I'm leaving now! Hmph!" She rushed out, tail between her legs, as Applejack entered the room and observed her upset friend trotting off, inciting the mare to ask her brother, "Big Mac, what dija' say to Rainbow?" "Heh... Nothin'," he replied, before snuggling back into bed to sleep just a little while longer. The two days Braeburn stayed ended before anypony noticed, the weekend flashing by like a daydream. Braeburn worked the fields alongside Big Mac, which cut the usual work time in half, giving the Appleloosan time to court Rainbow. He forgot about his girl troubles at home and just enjoyed his time there with his beloved cousins and new found infatuation. But, alas, it was ten after three on a Sunday afternoon, and time for the lover boy to go back. "We'll miss ya', Braeburn, but remember: you can come back an' visit us anytime you want, no matter how or why, even if the why is simply concernin' a certain pegasus you may or may not be missin'," Applejack teased. "Aw, shucks, AJ, ya' found me out! Although Ahm suspectin' you're just sayin' that so you'll have more help 'round the farm," he joked. She sighed sentimentally and found herself hugging her cousin once more. "Don't forget to write us letters, alright? And you take good care a' 'im, will ya'?" "Ah won't an' Ah will, don't you worry. Golly, you're startin' to sound just like your momma." The bell for the train rang one last time, so Braeburn stepped into the main car after swinging on the railing one last time to say, "Farewell AJ!" The train departed and the goldenrod mare was left in the dust with a smile and a slow wave into the air. "Ha, I think I might actually miss that guy," Rainbow muttered, lying in her cloud bed. I gotta admit, at first, I was just using him to get back at Big Mac that one time in the field. Nothing gets an Apple better than another Apple! But, honestly, he grew on me. I mean, that lusty Southern accent, gorgeous green eyes, unbrushed, yellowish-orange mane, soft and vibrant red coat- wait, what? Brain, what are you doing? Stop! That's- that's Big Mac, for Celestia's sake, not Braeburn! Both are quite handsome for being apple farmers, though... Oh, I just realized! Every Apple I've met so far has had a signature thing! So, let's see... AJ has her hat, Applebloom has that hair-bow-thing of hers, Mac has his yoke, Granny Smith's got those hair sticks, and Braeburn's is a vest and his... His... Oh, buck! She quickly sat up and looked at the Stetson laying loftily on her floor. "His hat! I forgot to give him back his hat!" she panicked. Before she knew it, she'd already raced out of her empty home towards the Ponyville Express with the hat in her mouth and determination in her eyes. She flew past the schoolhouse, Carousel Boutique, the library, Sugarcube Corner, even the unstable city hall, giving a quick, "What's up, Derpy?" as she passed the ditzy pegasus. She flew past flora and fauna, occasionally doing a loop-de-loop before remembering her priorities. Phew, it's a good thing I'm awesome and fast. After the finding the right tracks and flying for approximately twenty miles, she spotted the train chugging along. To her luck, the first car she entered, the last one of the train's assembly, was the right one, with the name "The Apples" engraved into a golden plate on the door. "Braeburn? Oh, Braeburn, are you here? I have something you forgot with me," Rainbow sang softly into the dark after she jimmy-rigged the lock. There was a mumbling in the side, where she suspected the beds were. Finally being able to distinguish shapes with her eyes taking in the darkness and making sense of it, she found that somepony was sleeping, sheets all wrapped around like a mummy as he breathed slowly but evenly. "Oh, you're sleeping, huh? Well, I know you can't hear me, but I'm just here to return your hat. You must've left it with me when we were... Playing around in the meadow. Anyways, I gotta go- but before that, though, let me just give you a departing gift..." Placing the Stetson carefully on the floor, she bent over the sleepyhead, about to place a kiss on his forehead, when the door opened wide, the lights flicked open, and a familiarly jubilant voice piped up, "Big Mac, sorry to disturb ya', but the café does indeed have- have- have- Rainbow Dash?" The mare, frozen in place, let her frightened eyes glide from Braeburn's astonished expression to Big Mac's miraculously still asleep face. She babbled, "*Brae-Braeburn?* But- but- so this is- is- Big Mac?" Forest eyes startled open, and seeing Dash close to him all of a sudden bolted Macintosh up, sending adrenaline through his system. The chemical, however, was instead wasted when he immediately sat straight up and hit his head hard on the ceiling of his bunk. "Buck! Rainbow, what are you- waita' minute, Braeburn?" He paused before the gears began turning again. "No, this isn't what it looks like!" The pegasus concurred, "Yeah, Braeburn, I- I thought he was you! I was just here to return your hat when you forgot it with me!" They both began bumbling on about what happened and that it was all just a misunderstanding, but their speech simply melted together in the Appleloosan's ears. Great. Lost another one to another cuz'. What rotten luck Ah got... With a lingering sigh, he trotted over to take back his hat then leave, saying without even glancing back, "Ahm goin' to the restrooms." The door slammed and the two fell silent. After minutes of gut-wrenching tension, Big Mac was the one who broke the ice, berating Rainbow, "Why are you here? It was trouble enough convincin' him to go back without ya', t' face the heartbreak, what he tried escapin' for a whole weekend, but now- oh, and now you've gone and broken his heart, just when it was barely fixin' itself!" "Me? Why are you blaming me? This was purely bad luck, Big Mac, right place, wrong time! Besides, you were the one sleeping here, which lead me to believe that you were him! Why were you sleeping here in the first place?" she pronounced, almost shouting. "'Cuz for the last coupla' bucking days, a bunch o' moronic birds 'ave been perched outsida' mah window, singin' annoyin' little 'la-di-da-da' tunes and waking the buck outta' me, an' this train ride has been the only opportunity Ah've been able to take ta' get some much needed rest in before startin' yet another series o' chores over at Appleloosa!" She paused before starting a random rant, repeating his words in her mind silently. Her cheeks puffed up and she covered her mouth, trying to hide her amusement. Sniggering, she asked, "Okay, okay, let me get this straight- you haven't been able to sleep lately before of some stupid birds waking you up early?" "It- it's worse than it sounds, alright?" he faultered, also seeing the senselessness of his words and beginning to loosen up just the tiniest bit. "But that is not the point here! The point here is that you leave bigger messes than you can clean up, Miss Dash, but you better damn well go an' try to tidy this one up with Braeburn right this minute!" "Psht, doesn't Mr. Serious Face have a flair for the dramatic," Rainbow Dash soliloquized under her breath. "Excuse me?" "Nothing, Big Mac. You know, you're lucky I actually want to apologize in the first place, otherwise you wouldn't be getting anything but a swollen hoof print on your cheek right now," she declared, turning acutely as to whiplash Big Mac with her tail and plod away before he could react. As she reached for the handle, it turned into a symphony of fiery colours. Undeterred, she grabbed it, Rainbow being Rainbow. "Ahhh! Buck! What the buck!" The lights flickered. Macintosh looked at Dash sternly. "Was that you? Tryna' play another one a' ya' tricks on me?" "No! I'm not that immature, Mac! That's such an elementary grade prank! If I really wanted to scare you, I would've first taken some glow-in-the-dark paint- the good ones that are invisible in direct light, ya' know what I mean? - then slathered it all around the floor and set a booby trap with a-" Something made a cluttering sound from the top of the car. "B-Big Mac? Wha-what was that?" the light blue pony asked, staring intently at the ceiling, with a hint of apprehension towards what may come next. The whole car began to shake and rattle viciously, the two ponies getting tossed around the white bits in a snow globe. "Rainbow," Mac called out, "c'mere!" "No!" she rebelled. "Rainbow, c'mere!" he repeated. The peagasus studied her surroundings, falling to her knees at one point when she lost her balance. Damn it! I have my dignity and I have my pride, but I'm not gonna lose my life over them! Dash scrambled over to the stallion, taking a steadfast hold on him. He held on to what he could of the ladder and Dash with his other leg. It abruptly stopped and the two relaxed, inhaling deep breaths. "It's finally over, righ-" and Big Mac was disrupted by the car rotating fully over and over again. He'd let go the moment he said so, and the two could only cling to each other as they were flung all around. "You just had to say it, didn't ya', Mac? You just had to!" The car ultimately flipped on its left side after what seemed like minutes, leaving two injured ponies hanging on to the other. Rainbow whimpered slightly, and Mac tucked her in closer by nature. "Are you alright?" "Yeah, yeah, I-I'm okay," she cringed, "just little battered up." There's something wet and sloppy stuck on her wings. Painfully spreading them, she took a sample and tasted it. Iron. My wings are bleeding. Buck. The daredevil mare had taken enough rough landings and messy accidents to know how it tasted by then. "Are you okay?" "Eeyup," he said solemnly. With a shaky laugh and an obviously mock-confident tone, she enjoined, "Mac, you can get off of me now." They separated and Big Mac got back up on his hooves first, offering his fellow victim a hoof, who snappishly accepted it. Trudging next to each other, they climbed out of the sideways door, the handle a normal temperature again, and let the blindingly radiant light of the sun shoot down the air of unnerving strain between them. A simoom breezed by the two, invigorating the pegasus, shivering in joy, as she stepped out with the farmer still behind. It was the first moment he'd ever seen her look so free. An' beautiful. The wind combed through her wild, streaked hair, and the sun outlined her fine features, illuminating her profile as if she were some sort of deity. Something he never noticed before? How much the violet-pink of her irises were emphasized by her cyan coat. An', her coat, o' course! The sirocco gently ruffled her coat, which lead his eyes to her wings, sleek and smooth, which she sprawled to stretch and let be tousled the wind. But there were stains one of them, standing out starkly as Big Mac noticed, his eyes widening at realizing what they were. Blood! Her wing's bleedin'! "Rainbow," he ran over, "ya' told me that you're alright!" She swung her head towards her injuries, grimacing as she moved them stiffly. "And I meant it. Don't worry, Mac," Dash smiled, "I've had worse." "Ya' idjit, it doesn't matter if ya' don't feel anythin' right now, you don't know what's in th' dust! You could get an infection!" he chided heatedly. She stepped aback, slightly flabbergasted. I've never seen Big Mac this angry for someone who's... Someone's who's not another Apple. He noticed her caution and, thinking he may have scared her, Macintosh consoled, "Ahm sorry, Dash, Ah guess Ah got all caught up. As much as we can both get on each otha's nerves, Ah jus' don't wanna see ya' gettin' hurt when Ah coulda' helped you, alright?" She nodded agreeably, and retrieving her wit, she grinned, "Then, unless you have a first aid kit, we should go looking for civilization, right?" "That would be a good start," the farmer answered. "We should start trying to find our way back, huh?" "Eeyup." With a laugh, Rainbow asked, "Do you even know where we are?" "Nnnope." "You're so useless, Big Mac," she giggled. "Coming from a pegasus who can't fly." She shot a glare from him, protesting, "Hey-" but after seeing his mischievous smile, she shook her head somewhat and continued, "You're such a bucktard, Mac! You really gotta work on those jokes of yours, though, they sound like the things Granny Smith would say at night!" "Hey-" he began, then stopped as he realized her move. "You got me good, Miss Dash." "Well, what else would you expect from Equestria's awesomest pony?" Fully turning around to look the stallion in the eyes, she noticed something in the horizon, strangely town-like yet faded. "Hey, Big Mac? Do you see that too?" she pointed in the distance. "Or am I just going crazy and seeing one a' those desert-mirage-thingamajigs?" He inspected what she was referring to, and after walking around the crashed train segment to get a closer view, his eyes glowed with anticipation. "Ah- Ah see it too!" "Awesome! Let's go then, come on! Or, what, you wanna stay here?" "Well," he quickly scanned the wreck, "no, but maybe we could salvage somethin' before we go." Rolling her eyes, she sighed dramatically and droned, "Fiiiiine..." After gathering what they felt was useful in pillowcases then sling it over their backs and galloping for what felt like hours, Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh arrived at the entrance of the town. Scrawled a webbed, rotten sign with sanguine paint was the name, "Coltergeist".