"Where shall we shelter... where shall we sleep?" -Davner
The Perilous Road
Big Macintosh stared at the smoldering embers of the once roaring fire. His mind would not let him sleep a wink, the thoughts of their seemingly hopeless situation filled him with worry and dread.
He raised his head from the fire and peered out the cave entrance, the oppressive darkness of the night only served to increase his worry tenfold. The fire was dying, and he had stoked it only an a few hours ago with their last log… he would need to venture out into the night if they were to stay warm.
As if she could hear his thoughts, Rainbow tightened her grip on her husband’s neck, holding him firmly against her. Mac chuckled to himself. ‘For such a little filly, she sure is strong.’
He considered carefully removing himself from her iron grasp so he could fetch the much needed wood, but their argument from earlier flashed through his mind. He may be as stubborn as a mule, but he wasn’t as dumb as an ox. The last thing he wanted to do was incur the wrath of Rainbow Dash… twice in a row for the exact same reason.
Nudging her gently with his muzzle, he let it linger next to her ear, “Hey sugarcube, we need firewood.” His soft murmuring caused her to stir and further bury he face into his chest, but nothing more. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he took his large hoof and gave her a firm shake, which only gave him the same result.
Waking up his wife could be a chore at times. He remembered the morning after their first night together. After an hour of trying multiple methods, he had ended up having to leave her alone in his bed, less he be late for work. It wasn’t until noon that she had actually joined the land of the living!
“I bet she would wake up for a nice cup of apple cider,” the stallion said with a shake of his head. To his utter shock, the rainbow hued pegasus immediately shot up out of his embrace.
“Cider? Where? Please tell me they’re not sold out already!” Rainbow looked around frantically until her sleep induced haze subsided and her memory brought her back to the present.
“Oh yeah, we’re stuck in a cave.” The mare visibly sagged and turned around to see a flabbergasted Big Macintosh. “What?” She asked as she spotted her husband’s wide eyes.
Mac shook his head as he mumbled a hushed “notathing,” under his breath.
‘Ah’ll have to remember that fer the future, if Ah knew it was that easy to wake her up, Ah could have avoided a ton of pain in the past.’ Mac silently mused as he stood up to join his wife. “The fire is dyin down, we need ta go get some wood before it’s gone.”
Rainbow rubbed her weary eyes with a hoof as she looked down at the hot coals.
“Alright,” Rainbow said with a yawn as she stretched. Realizing something, she looked over at Mac with a smirk, “You learn quick, I thought it would take many a beating to knock the stubborn out of that big head of yours.” Big Mac sighed and shook his head.
“Nope, Ah may be stubborn but an idiot I ain’t.” The earth pony walked with his wife out of the cave entrance and into the harsh cold of the night. “Besides,” Mac said as he scooted closer to Rainbow, “nothing beats having the company of a beautiful mare while ya work.”
Said mare bumped him with her flank, a light blush staining her cheeks. “Don’t get too full of yourself… but it never hurts to pour on the flattery.”
After walking for a good twenty minutes, and gathering enough small branches to fill Mac’s back, the couple turned back toward the cave. Mac had the idea to mark the trees as they traversed the forest, so finding their way was no more a hassle than walking through Sweet Apple Acres.
“Some honeymoon, huh?” Big Mac gave a nod in response to his wife’s question. “It sure would be nice to be sitting in a hot tub right about now, sipping champagne, me bothering you with how bored I am.” Rainbow mused, causing the stallion to smile at the image, knowing that would be exactly the case if they had made it to their destination.
Rainbow had wanted to go to a theme park, but her friend Rarity had insisted they go somewhere more romantic.
At first the pegasus was reluctant, but her friend had easily changed Rainbow’s mind by loaning her a book that contained suggestions for many ‘private’ acts her and Mac could indulge in at the spa.
“Well, that’s one perk to ending up out here, it sure ain’t borin.” Mac smiled as Rainbow smacked him with her tail. “What’s wrong? Ya can’t tell me that you’re bored right…” Mac stopped and sharply turned his head. Rainbow soon followed as she realized the stallion was no longer beside her and back tracked to where he stood frozen in place.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked in a hushed tone.
“I heard somethin just now, sounded like a twig snappin.” Mac did not turn to look at her as he responded, his attention completely on the trees behind them.
Rainbow peered into the trees, looking for any signs of a threat. Just as she was about to give up, she saw a shape move. “Mac, did you see that?” She whispered to the stoic stallion.
“Eeyup,” he whispered just as quietly.
“What should we do? I can’t tell what it is, should we try and fight it?” Rainbow’s wings started to flare as the threat of a confrontation loomed ever closer.
“Nope, not yet. Not unless it attacks us first.” Mac sidled up next to his wife.
“Just move slowly, and don’t take your eyes off of it.” Mac directed as the pair began to edge backwards. They came to a halt as another shadow moved to the right of the original, followed by a shadow moving to the left.
“There’s more than one Mac! They’re trying to flank us!” Rainbow rasped as she took a fighting stance, nowhere near ready to go down without a fight.
“Eeyup,” was all Mac had to say. His keen eyes following the multiple shadows that surrounded them.
He turned just in time to see the first one leap out of the brush and lunge toward his flank. Quickly lifting his hind leg, Mac sent an earth shattering kick to the beast’s jaw, sending it flying from whence it came.
The second lunged at Rainbow, thinking it could easily overpower her based on size alone. What the beast didn’t expect was for the mare to slap it in the face with her wing, followed by a quick succession of kicks to the head. The battered foe turned around to retreat, but fell to the ground unconscious before he could make one step.
The couple quickly turned in the direction of the third beast, but were caught off guard as its jaws clamped down onto Mac’s neck. The stallion began to swing his head wildly in a desperate attempt to throw the beast off.
Meanwhile, a fourth attacker made a desperate leap for Rainbow’s wing, but was met with the brunt of the mare’s noggin as she bashed it square into her foe’s face. Confused and in pain, the bloodied beast ran off into the forest.
“That’s right, run home to your mama!” Dash roared in fury as the beast left a warm trail of blood in its wake.
Rainbow turned just in time to see Mac run straight at a tree, repeatedly bashing his opponent’s head into the hard trunk. After several seconds of repeated abuse, the beast could no longer hold on and fell to the ground. The large workhorse was taking no chances though and reared up onto his hind legs, bringing them down with enough force to crack stone.
With a sickening crunch he connected his massive hoof with the beast’s head. After several seconds of thrashing its body finally lay still.
Mac turned away from the former threat and turned to see his wife slowly limping his way. The large stallion collapsed to the frozen earth, his neck in searing pain.
Rainbow sped to his side as Mac’s vision began to spin, and his neck could no longer hold up the weight of his head. Kneeling next to him, she checked his injuries. His neck was pretty torn up but was not bleeding half as bad as she thought it would be. Sighing in relief she nudged his face gently.
“Can you stand up?” The mare gently probed, to which Mac slowly opened his eye to peer at her face.
“Eeyup, just worn out from havin a wild animal chewin on my throat.” Mac slowly lifted his head so he was eye level with Rainbow, to which he gave a weak smile. “Do ya think we got um all?” The injured stallion asked as he looked around them as far as his neck would allow.
“Yeah, we taught them a lesson or two.” Rainbow smiled as she tore off a large piece of her sling and proceeded to wrap it around her husband’s torn neck. “What do you think they were? I’ve never seen anything like them.” Concern was evident in her voice.
“Can’t say Ah know, they looked like timber wolves ta me, cept with fur.” Mac groaned slightly as his wife tightened the wrap, and tied it into a firm knot. “Ah wouldn’t be surprised if they were related somehow though.” Mac sighed in relief as Rainbow finally finished patching him up.
Rainbow nodded in agreement. Leaning in close, she whispered into his ear. “Anyway, seeing you buck the crap out of those things was a real turn on.” The stallion couldn’t help but blush at his wife’s comment. “You’ll have to be sure to buck me just as hard when we get out of this mess.” Mac’s eyes went wide as his wife gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
Mac weakly chuckled at his wife’s comment, it seemed that not even a dire situation could deter her one track mind.
With a little help from Rainbow, Mac was able to stand. After finding his balance he reached for the discarded wood that was so rudely thrown off of his back during the confrontation.
“Nu-uh! What do you think you’re doing mister?” Rainbow promptly walked up and snatched to wood from Mac’s grasp, holding it between her forelegs as she lightly hovered next to him. “You’re hurt even worse now! I’m not letting you do anymore hard work for the night.” Mac made to protest but shut his mouth as his wife gave him a death stare.
“Plus, you haven’t even gotten to rest yet! The minute we get back to the cave you’re going straight to bed, got it?” Rainbow’s words left for little argument, and Mac lightly nodded his head in consent, feeling much like a disobedient foal being lectured by their mother.
“Yes ma’am.” Mac said with his ears folded tightly atop his head.
“Good, now let’s get out of here before those things come back.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes as they started back towards the cave. She wasn’t naïve, she knew how pack animals worked. There would probably be more of them, they might even be watching them right now, waiting for the opportunity to strike when they were at their weakest.
With Mac injured in multiple places, it would be up to her to protect them tonight. She would have to form a plan, come up with a defense. If she let her guard down or left Mac unwatched they would probably ambush him.
‘There is no way I’m letting that happen!’ Rainbow’s brow furrowed in anger just at the thought of Mac being killed. ‘If they show up tonight, I’ll break every single one of those filthy beast’s backs!’