Mac's Tale II: The Blood of Apples

by Sir Barton


Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Virgin’s Blood

Dusk was falling over the quiet little town of Ponyville. Celestia’s sun sat low on the horizon, offering a warm golden hue to the evening sky that gave a beautiful sense of calm to the world. Many ponies took a moment to reflect on their day at this time. They basked quietly in the glow of their sovereign’s light and silently offered their thanks to the great alicorn princess that guided the sun’s path each day.

Caramel, though, was not among the participants this day. As he leaned in and took another draw of his vegetable barley soup the caramel-brown colt kept a focused eye on his dinner companion across the table at the outdoor dining area of the Lucky Clover Inn’s restaurant. Sassaflash was a beautiful pegasus pony mare, her amber eyes, aquamarine coat and blonde mane and tail were the stuff that young colts mounted their pillows over.

For Caramel, she was a gift from Celestia, not in a literal sense but, metaphorically very real. His longtime crush had finally been broken, Applejack was a beautiful, robust mare bequeathed of long blonde tresses, emerald eyes, and a dusty orange coat with a shy dusting of white freckles across the bridge of her muzzle. An earth pony like him, she’d been his heart’s longing ever since they were foals. The only thing was, her heart was never in it. Worse was ever since that last winter wrap up where he’d mislaid the grass seeds for the second year in a row, he couldn’t look her in those green eyes without seeing her disapproval even if it wasn’t there.

Sassaflash had been his redemption. It was the spring after that winter wrap up. She’d found him sulking out by one of the lakes trying to come up with a way to redeem himself to Applejack only to find this pegasus swooping over him again and again waving her foreleg or taking a phantom buck over his head. He’d asked her what she was doing all that for.

“Trying to get rid of that dark cloud over your head you silly colt.” She’d told him.

When he’d asked why, she replied by flashing a lightning bright grin while hanging rump over withers above him from a tree branch, “You’re just too cute to look that glum.”

He’d finally cracked a grin at the comment, and had been grinning ever since.

They’d never even planned on becoming a couple, but their friendship just grew with Sassaflash making a habit of popping up to ‘breathe some fresh air into his day.’ They just seemed to just click for each other. When Sass had contracted feather flu so badly, Caramel had visited her every day at Ponyville hospital for over a week lifting her spirits, and more than once holding her head. They’d even spent last Hearts and Hooves Day together without planning it.

And now they were here …

Sassaflash looked up from her cream of broccoli soup and gave him a knowing grin. In some ways this was their first official date. Official in that this was the first time that one had ever asked the other to meet for dinner. Not that this was the first time they’d had dinner together, it was a fairly regular occurrence actually, though it was almost always a spontaneous event. This time though, Sass had asked him directly.

Caramel brushed his chocolate mane back nervously, but returned the smile genuinely.

“Drink your Perri-Air Caramel.” the arctic blue mare gestured to a glass of clear slightly blue tinted water beside him. He hooked the glass in is pastern and drained it in a show of good will. It had a slightly sweet taste, sort of like cool summer rain, with a hint of mint. Sass had had Rainbow Dash bring her some on the weather captain’s last trip to Cloudsdale. Didn’t seem like a big deal, he actually liked it better the time they’d split a pitcher of rainbow juice at the Summer Harvest Parade. Still, this was her idea and he didn’t want to disappoint his now official marefriend.

The waitress brought their entrees soon after. His was a roast vegetable platter, hers was a spinach salad heavily laden with Camembert and chopped eggs.

“Why so much protein?”

Sassaflash looked at Caramel as the waitress departed. “I’ve got some exercise planned later and I’ll need the energy. If you think this is a lot of protein, I’ve got a cousin that suffers from Diomedes Syndrome, she actually has to eat a steak once a week or risk suffering constant exhaustion.”

“Steak, that’s …” Caramel swallowed the last word uneasily.

The mare nodded. Diomedes Syndrome was a rare enough condition but seemed more prevalent among pegasi by over two to one versus earth ponies or unicorns.

“Yeah,” she continued, “my aunt and uncle actually had to move near the Griffonian boarder to be able to buy the ‘medicine’ my cousin needs.”

“What kind of workout do you have planned?” Caramel really wanted to change the subject away from carnivorous horses as he took a reassuring sniff of his veggies.

“Oh something invigorating, endurance training of a sort, I had Rainbow Dash help me set some of it up earlier. I was hoping you’d be willing to give me a hoof and a motivating push or two, in-spear-ay-ton if you would.”

Caramel felt his face twist slightly in confusion as Sass went back to her salad burying a grin in leafy greens and chopped egg. Caramel too went back to his dinner, crunching down the perfectly light roasted veggies. Neither pony completely surrendering the eye-lock they shared.

As the waitress, an off-yellow mare with hazel eyes and a deep blue mane and tail highlighted by sparse fuchsia streaks collected their dishes she offered to take the couple’s dessert orders if they’d care to place any. Caramel was about to enquire what the special was if any but Sass put a hoof to his lips and informed him she had dessert waiting after their workout. Caramel merely nodded in agreement and squared the bill as Sass stretched her wings before they trotted off.

As the couple headed out of town pointlessly chatting over the merits of their meals, their direction didn’t escape Caramel’s notice. They were heading out of town towards Sweet Apple Acres. Albeit so was the Ponyville fair grounds, and for that matter, Rainbow Dash’s cloud tower on the edge of the Serenity Valley was not far off on the same path.

“Sass,” he began as “where exactly are we going if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh, just a spot I picked out for this little exercise.” The icy blue pegasus gave back with a toss of her blond mane and tail. Picking up her pace a little she gave her wings an excited flutter sending a light breeze back at the trailing colt, a breeze that brought Caramel to a standstill.

Caramel felt something in the air as it wafted by him. There was something there. Something … He sniffed the air again, his face contorting in the Flehman response as another flutter of Sassaflash’s wings drifted his way.

The tingle in his nose spread like a rush into his body, bypassing his brain and flowing like a flash flood straight to his other head before curling back to his consciousness.

She’s in Heat! The thought exploded into his head.

“Where … exactly … are we going?” Caramel addressed his marefriend, his voice becoming deeper with an adrenaline fueled arousal. The blonde maned mare looked back over her shoulder to give him a knowing smile and a come hither glare and a saucy wink from her amber eyes.

“Maiden’s Grove.”

Caramel’s heart jumped up a gear or two, Maiden’s Grove, Mare Maker’s Meadow, The Orchard of Lost Cherries! The small hidden clearing near the edge of the Everfree Forest was known by many names in Ponyville, all spoken in hushed tones of secrecy and reverence. It was the temple of lost innocence, where two generations or more of Ponyville youth had gone to ‘do the deed’ with their first loves. He could have dwelt longer on the monumental history of the place and its various meanings, but his brain distilled it down to three words for him.

Gonna …

Get …

LAID!

And then reality chose to slap him upside the head.

“But I didn’t bring any … you know … protection.” He offered with a guilty grin of disappointment.

Sassaflash gently cantered back towards where the brown colt now hung both heads limply towards the dark earth of the wagon track. She rubbed her muzzle up both sides of his face to gain his attention before finding an ear and giving it a soft nip.

“I know, I told nurse Tender Heart what I was planning, and I’ve been taking ‘No Foal’ for the last month. When we go in to Maiden’s Grove, you’re going to go all the way in, and you’re not coming out until we are both totally spent. Do I make myself clear?”
With that Sassaflash gave her chosen colt a peck on the lips, both his heads erect and pointing straight ahead, before slowly walking away from him and giving him the wink every colt hopes to get one day, the wet pink wink of a willing mare.

Pawing the air Caramel bolted after his mare like a wild charger, closing the ground so easily between them Sassaflash had to take to the air just to be able to lead him to the hidden grove. As she landed in the overhung opening Caramel piled into her unable to resolve stopping and the want to wrap his legs around her, sending both young ponies tumbling to the gentle turf within.

“Hey!” Sass nearly screeched as she pushed against Caramel to gain some separation. “Easy there big boy. Gimme a moment, I need to take care of a little something before we take care of each other.”

Caramel looked at his heavenly pony of passion with glittering blue eyes glazed over in lusty anticipation. Bringing himself to his haunches he nodded as his lover-to-be as she fluttered from the grove.

As the scent of mare-in-heat faded slightly, Caramel’s mind likewise unfogged, allowing him to appreciate the contents of the small clearing. It was a little more than three lengths by two. Oval in shape, with the trees and bushes forming a natural cordon that closed off the outside world and allowed access by a curved path overhung with weeping birch to conceal its presence. A small dais near the further of the shorter ends had been ringed with flowers and a sheet and pillows laid over it truly made it look like a bed. And all about the place, hung from branches and pinned to the trees themselves, were the tokens of past lovers enshrined in this nest of holy passion.

“Get Out.” the heavy voice cut into the calm of the twilight air.

What the Buck? Caramel’s brain knew that voice, of that he was nearly certain as his mind tried to pull itself free of the entangling decision of which set of Sass’s lips he’d like to kiss first. The obvious answer was whichever set she wanted kissed.

“Hey buddy, occupied, y’ know.” The brown soon-to-be-stud stallion shot back. Then the voice clicked, McIntosh!

Big McIntosh Apple, the older brother of Applejack. ‘Big’ brother was a more apt term. The Scarlet Stallion was one of the most recognizable and least talkative ponies in town. The massive work pony hardly ever said more than ‘Eeyup’, ‘Nnope’, and maybe ‘Hi’ to be polite. He stood a good hoof or more at the withers over almost every pony in town, and was built like a red brick outhouse.

Normally if Big Mac deviated from his normally curt vocabulary, ponies tended to listen. Caramel didn’t feel like that right at this moment. He was maybe a few moments away from getting laid for the first time and like Tartarus was he going to leave for anypony.

“Leave the filly and get out.” The big stallion breathed heavily form behind Caramel. “Now.”

Oh, that's it. Caramel gave a brief prayer of thanks to Luna for his passion fired courage as he turned to give the big red interloper some hot Caramel attitude as he got up and turned around.

Straight into an onrushing hoof …

The blow hit with the force of a runaway wrecking ball. Caramel felt his jaw snap, his nose break, and several teeth pop loose from the impact. The force of the hoof-punch knocked Caramel around close to a quarter turn, more if his staggering counted.

The first blow left Carmel’s head reeling and half blinded from a concussion. The young colt never saw the follow up coming. The second was a vicious upper cut style shot that crashed into the middle of his barrel on the left side right where ribcage met soft belly. Caramel felt his last couple of ribs break from the impact as his diaphragm collapsed and the wind driven from his lungs. Worse yet was the bruising impact driving his well-fed stomach into his backbone, causing the involuntary evacuation of his dinner along side the air from his lungs.

The spattering of vomit on the ground was, other than a grunt from his assailant, the only sound Caramel could hear as his body fought to somehow bring air into his lungs. The winded brown pony staggered near senselessly as a third blow drove into his left shoulder on a steep downward line.

Through the creeping air voided numbness of his concussion new pain burst into reality. He felt is shoulder blade and upper leg bone break from the down driven impact. The whole joint could be felt to shift, tearing muscles and ligaments as it was brutally forced into an unnatural position sliding against his ribcage. Before a hefty shoulder connected against his side knocking him onto the dais where he and Sass were to have given their bodies to each other.

The soft impact of his body on the white flower strewn sheet barely registered but the soft ‘whump’ of his body landing barely covered the heavy tottering sound of a stallion moving forward on his hind legs alone. His pain blinded world erupted in a crescendo of hurt as the standing stallion dropped full weight and both front hooves onto Caramels barrel. Ribs broke and the prostrate pony vomited bright frothy carnelian blood onto virgin white sheets as shards of bone pierced one lung.

As the last of his awareness faded he thought he could hear fireworks above, hooves crashing through the woods, and then … Sass screamed.