April 17th, 2012 “Well, howdy there! Ain’t seen you two ‘round these parts before!” a rather corpulent and elderly lady in her late sixties instantly greeted Applejack and I as we strode into the diner. “Ya’ll come on over here an’ have yourself a sit down. Ya both look mighty hungry.”
“Thank you kindly, ma’am,” I replied as I pulled out a chair and began to sit down. Before I could, however, I received a slap on the backside of my head.
“Where are your manners, youngin’? Ain’t ya gonna pull your lady friend’s chair out for her?”
I looked at AJ, who was trying her best to stifle a laugh, then back to the woman. “Uhhh... yeah.” I stood back up and walked around the table to pull AJ’s chair out for her. Once she was settled I went back over to my side and sat down.
“Now. What can I get you two?” she asked, her tone still just as elated as when we arrived. “We got some specials on desserts today, y’know.”
“AJ?” I looked over at Applejack, who appeared deep in thought about what to eat, since she didn’t respond. I turned back to the woman. “She’s a vegetarian. Got anything that might fit that kinda diet?”
“Sure as sugar we do! We got pancakes, soups, salads, fried taters. You name it, an’ I betcha we got it.”
“Ah think Ah’ll have some tomata soup an’ some salad if’n ya’ll don’t mind.” Applejack said quietly.
“You bet you can sweetie. An’ how about you, boy? What tickles your fancy?”
“Double bacon cheeseburger an’ a Coke please. Coke for her too.” I replied without hesitation.
“You got it. Now you two sit tight an’ I’ll be back with your drinks.” With that, the old lady scribbled away on a notepad she had stashed in her pocket and walked briskly away.
“She’s so nice!” Applejack said once she was out of earshot.
“Yeah... yeah she is. Must be a Kansas thing.”
The diner didn’t have many people inside, maybe six at any given time, all of them likely regulars. They all appeared to be farmers as well, judging by the way they dressed. One of them in particular looked almost like a mannequin. A big muscular fellow with a messy, almost amber-colored head of hair. Everything about him exuded a nagging sense of familiarity, from his stoic appearance to the sprig of hay sticking out of his mouth.
“Hey AJ, stay here for a bit. I’ll be right back.”
“Where ya’ll goin’?” she asked as I stood from my seat.
“Gonna talk to that guy over yonder.” I pointed behind me to the man perched unmoving at the counter.
“Alrighty... have fun?”
I walked over to the beefy mass and took a seat next to him. “Howdy.”
He didn’t say anything, deciding to nod rather than speak.
“Got a name, bud?”
“Mac,” he intoned with a rather deep, yet calm voice.
“Mac, huh? You Irish or somethin’?” I felt like a dumbass with the way I was talking to him.
“Nope.”
“Scottish?”
“Nope,” he replied in his same uninterested manner. I looked back at AJ who was looking all over the diner. I waited for her to look back toward me then I motioned her over. She got up quickly and promptly took a seat next to me.
“Need somethin’?”
“Try talkin’ to this guy, he doesn’t seem to like talkin’ to me all that much.”
“That’s cause you ain’t much fun to talk to,” she quipped. “Howdy stranger.”
“Howdy...”
Applejack looked to me with a smug grin then back to ‘Mac.’ ”What’s yer name?”
“Mac.”
“Quiet feller, huh? Come here often?” I rolled my eyes at that comment; it was beyond cliche.
“Yup.”
“Whaddaya do fer a livin’?”
“Mostly farmin’ an’ dealin’ with apples. Bit o’ this an’ that on the side.” My eyes went wide as he managed more than two words in one response.
“Well Ah’ll be, same here!” She was obviously getting excited although I didn’t see why.
It was then that the old lady came back and handed us our drinks. “Be nice to ‘em Mac, they’re from outta town.” He nodded quietly in response.
“Got a favorite kind o’ apple?”
“Red delicious.”
“Them's good eatin’. Ah prefer them Norlan apples though. So ya got any family?”
She seemed full of questions today.
“Two sisters an’ muh granny. Ain’t seen ‘em in a while though.”
“Ah know how ya feel. Ah ain’t seen muh granny nor muh brother Big Mac in a while.”
At that comment, ‘Mac’ froze up and went bug-eyed as he turned to look at Applejack.
“AJ?” he asked, seeming surprised, however hard that may be. “That you?”
“Ya darn tootin’ it is!” Quick as a whip, Mac stood up and scooped up AJ in a big, bone crunching hug. I hadn’t gotten a very good look at just how tall he was until he was towering over me at nearly seven feet. “Easy there big fella!” she cried out.
“AJ, where ya been all this time?” he asked as he sat my blonde-haired friend back down.
“Ah been lookin’ fer all ya’ll an’ muh friends.” At that moment, it seemed to click in my head. In the show, Applejack had an older brother named Big Mac, and this guy was a Big Mac. Had the same background and everything.
“So, Amy Joe, when did ya’ll decide to get out of Monett an’ come lookin’ for me?”
“Wait, what? Amy Joe?” I couldn’t have heard him right. “Monett? As in Monett, Missouri?”
“Yup,” came the ever-steady reply.
“Oh Jesus Christ. AJ, he ain’t your brother!”
“Now just hold on there. Are you sayin’ this little lady ain’t muh baby sister Amy-Joe Macintosh?” he asked dumbly.
“Not even close, brother,” I said. This earned me a rather forlorn look from the big guy.
“Ah’m sorry. She just seems so much like ‘er an’ what with the same kinda family an’ such, I jus’ put two an’ two together an’ got five.”
“Them’s some fancy mathematics,” I mumbled quietly.
“Don’t you fret none, Ah reckon it was all a simple misunderstandin’,” Applejack replied as she got up and gave him a pat on the shoulder.
Mac sat quietly for a moment, looking a tad forlorn. “Ain’t nothin’.” I took this as my cue to leave and sat back down at our original spot. I watched as Applejack stood next to him a moment longer before she turned back and walked to the table. “Think he’ll be alright?”
“Ah sure hope so,” she replied as she sat down. “Honestly, Ah feel jus’ about the same right now. Ah miss muh brother an’ muh sister an’ Granny an’ everypony else.”
I nodded in response and looked back at Mac. “Well, we’ll find ‘em eventually. Till then, we’re gonna get some food in our bellies and find ourselves a hotel. After all, we’re gonna be in Chicago tomorrow.”
~
We rode down I-70 a bit more until we came upon a small motel complex just outside Topeka, Kansas. It was dark by the time we got there, so I didn’t bother trying to figure out the name of the place. All I wanted to do was go inside, take a shower, and get some sleep. I had paid for one room hoping for two beds, but instead only got one, much to my chagrin. I had even gone so far as to hope that we could end the day without any sort of ‘problems.’ But once again, I was not so lucky.
“Hey, Garrett?” Applejack asked as I unlocked our room door and proceeded to head inside. “Remember when we met an’ you had Rainbow on yer shirt thingy?”
“Yeah, right after you flipped out and we had to run from the farmer with his boom-stick,” I replied as I sat on the bed and proceeded to yank my boots off and hurl them across the room. “Why?”
“Ah was wonderin’...how do ya’ll know about us?”
“Ah shit, that’s right. I never did tell you all that,” I took my phone from my pocket, tapped the YouTube icon and waited for everything to load. Luckily, the motel had WiFi and wasn’t secured. I typed in ‘mlp fim s2e12’ and waited for the results to show up. Once they had loaded I tapped one of the videos that was at least twenty minutes long and let it buffer. I then handed the phone to AJ and tapped the screen to let the video begin. “Watch this while I go take a shower, I’ll answer all of your questions when I get out.”
I left to shower just as Granny Smith started howling about Timberwolves and the episode began playing.
~
Squeaky clean, shaved the scrubbies, everything was in order for the next day. Everything except Applejack’s sanity. As I stepped out of the bathroom, towel wrapped loosely around my waist, I spotted AJ huddled up in the far corner of the room crying. My phone had been hurled at the wall, where it somehow managed to get stuck in the plaster molding. I could still hear the episode playing, although it was only the outro credits.
I rushed toward AJ and knelt down next to her. “Hey, what’s going on? Are you alright?” I shook her shoulder lightly.
“T-timberwolves,” she stammered. “Where’s Ma an’ Pa, Granny?”
“What are you talking about? C’mon, there ain’t nothin’ here ‘cept us two.”
“NO! MAMA! PAPA!” she shrieked as I tried to stand her up. “DON’T GO!”
“APPLEJACK!” I lost my patience and shouted. “CALM DOWN! There’s nothing HERE! See?” She opened her eyes and looked around the room. She was still sputtering and sniveling, but for the moment she seemed to be calming down. “What the hell was that all about?”
She wrapped her arms around my waist and started crying into my shoulder “Them Timberwolves took Ma an’ Pa. That thing you showed me got it all wrong. They took Ma an’ Pa that night, took ‘em into the forest an’ ate ‘em!” She continued crying for a few minutes before she started regaining her composure. “T-they ain’t that skittish. Takes a lot more than bangin’ a bunch o’ pots an’ pans to scare ‘em off.” She sniffed as some mucous started running out of her nose. “Gotta kill one before they start to even think about leavin’. Ma an’ Pa got one of ‘em before they got killed. An’ poor little Apple Bloom wanted to go after ‘em, but we knew there was nothin’ we could do! Broke our hearts to see her breakin’ down like that, she ain’t never lost somepony before, an’ in one night she lost both her parents.”
“Jesus... I’m so sorry.” I really was. I’d never lost somebody close to me before, so I didn’t really know how it felt, but I could still sympathize. “I didn’t know it was like that...” I was nearly speechless at this revelation. “I thought Equestria was all nice an’ safe an’ shit... Damn.” We sat there for a while, no talking, just her crying and me doing my best to console her. It also gave me time to think. Just how much did the show portray that was false? What else could there be that posed a threat to the ponies? Is this why AJ’s parents were never shown in any episodes? All this and more swam fluidly through my noggin, and honestly, it was starting to give me a headache. “AJ?”
“Yeah?”
“I just want you to know, so long as I’m around, ain’t nothin’ gonna hurt you, not even some Timberwolves or frilly dresses.” I offered a smile to go with my joke, though the fact is that it was met with little success. “Now you get to bed, we got a big day tomorrow.” I walked toward the motel door and pulled a cigarette out of my pack. I opened the door and began to light up.
“Hey, Garrett?”
“Right here,” I replied as I exhaled some smoke. “What’s up?”
“Ah just wanna say thank you. For everythin’.”
I turned and walked out of the room, then closed the door behind me. “No. Thank you, Applejack.”