Mac's hoof thumped heartily on Twilight's door.
"Hello Macintosh, I was just- Smarty Pants?" she gasped, seeing the doll atop his back. Her magic enveloped it as she remarked on its condition.
"It looks like she's had some work done!" Twilight added happily.
"Ah got her fixed up for ya. Fluttershy's a miracle worker with a needle and thread."
Twilight threw her forelegs around Mac's broad shoulders, taking him a bit by surprise.
"Thank you so much, Mac!" she chimed, as he slowly returned the hug. "I tore the library apart looking for her! I was a mess when I thought I'd lost her for good."
Mac followed her inside as she continued to thank him. She carried her doll up to her room while he waited below.
"How do you think Rainbow's doing at tryouts?" Twilight called from upstairs.
"Good Ah hope, but we'll know soon enough," he replied, taking a seat on her couch. "Twilight, you wouldn't happen ta know anythin' about Rainbow's locket, would ya?"
"You mean the one with the gibberish written on it?" she replied flatly, her frustration at her inability to crack the language clear in her tone.
"That'd be it."
"We tried Mac. Heck, I tried for two nights straight trying to just figure out what language it was written in!"
"No luck?"
"None, whatsoever," she added coming down the stairs. "You want to try and translate it for her eh?" she smiled.
"Well, Ah thought, with your help Ah might have a better shot at it than just goin' it alone," he admitted, Twilight blushing at his compliment.
"Well, I do hate leaving a project unfinished... okay! Let's do it!" Twilight said happily, clapping her hooves together, the familiar rush of impending knowledge pumping through her veins. "I've got a couple of new linguistic books from the library in Canterlot I didn't have last time." she added, gathering the proper books from their shelves.
"Any idea how long this might take us?" Mac asked, not quite sure what he was getting into.
"I can't say. Maybe a few hours, maybe a few days!" she sang, her tone by itself speaking volumes about how excited she was to research a mysterious language. "But there's no reason you can't come back tomorrow, is there?"
"Ah suppose not..."
After a chewing out from Spitfire, Rainbow was simply glad to make it out of the second day of tryouts with a shot to join the team. Tomorrow was the final day, the last day of stress before the Wonderbolts made their decision. As Dash made her way back to her house, she noticed an orange filly trotting along slowly down a deserted road near her home.
Circling, she fluttered next to her, startling the nervous filly as she turned to her idol. Her bright smile tried to hide the puffy-ness in her eyes.
"What are you doing out this late, squirt?" Rainbow asked, draping a wing around her number one fan.
"I... I'm..." the tears that seemed so close before came rushing back, as the young pegasus knew she was out of lies to tell Dash about her parents.
"I ran away," she whimpered, trying her best to wipe away the tears, so as not to cry in front of her hero.
"Why?" Rainbow asked softly, drawing her in close with her wing.
"Because..." she sniffed, "My dad hates me."
Rainbow smiled. Sometimes she enjoyed helping Scootaloo with simple problems. "Your dad doesn't hate you," Dash assured her. "C'mon, what'd he do? Ground you? Take away your scooter?" she prodded, trying to get a smile from her little companion.
Scootaloo turned to face Dash, the light from the streetlamp they were under illuminating the filly's face, showing a nasty bruise above her right eye. The air left Rainbow's lungs in one sharp exhale, followed by a gasp.
"Your... your dad, did that to you?"
Scootaloo didn't answer, she simply broke down, crying as hard as Rainbow had ever heard any adult pony weep. She buried her running nose into Dash's chest as she hugged the little filly as tightly as she could. As soon as it had come, the sorrow and guilt Rainbow had been feeling was replaced by a searing anger at the thought of somepony putting their hooves on Scootaloo like that.
Dash broke the hug, "Get on, kid," she commanded, motioning toward her back.
"Where are we going?" she asked, once she climbed aboard.
"Back to your house. I'm going to have a few words with your father," Rainbow growled before ripping into the sky, careful not to go too fast.
"Rainbow please! You don't have ta do that!" Scootaloo pleaded over the rushing winds, "I just wait for him to sleep before I head back home!"
"You shouldn't have to do that at all!" Rainbow called back, seeing her house and fighting the urge to simply crash through the window and start beating on the first pony she saw.
Dash landed in the yard and Scootaloo hopped off, pulling Rainbow's tail in a vain attempt to stop her as she strode toward the door.
"Please Rainbow! You don't have to do this!"
"Hush Scoots, it's for your own good," Dash whispered harshly as she knocked on the door. After some shouting inside the house, a gruff, older looking earth stallion answered the door. His mane was unkempt, and green with streaks of grey in it. The stubble around his mouth suggested he wasn't much for hygiene, and on top of that, Rainbow could smell cider on his breath.
"You this filly's father?" she demanded, as the stallion looked through half lidded eyes toward Scootaloo, who was now trembling in fear behind Rainbow.
"How'd you get out of your room?" he growled, not even answering Rainbow's original question. "Just wait till I get you back in that house, girl!" he said taking a step towards her before being blocked by Dash.
"Keep your filthy hooves off her!" she snarled, getting close to his face. "How dare you call yourself a stallion when you lay your hooves on your own daughter like that!"
He grunted out a laugh as he shoved Rainbow off the porch, sending her sliding onto the ground on her back. The force of the impact making her smack her head on the ground, leaving a sizable bump. "She ain't my daughter!" she heard him say.
Rainbow shook it off in time to see him toss Scootaloo back into the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
Dash feared for her friend's safety, but knew there was nothing she could do about it. She did however, know someone who might be able to. In record time, Rainbow made it to Sweet Apple Acres to find Macintosh sitting on the front porch of his country home, half asleep.
"Mac! I gotta problem!" she shouted, skidding to a halt in front of him.
"What is it?" he asked, getting up from his seat, sensing her panic. He noticed the bruises from Rainbow's scuffle with Firefly, and immediately stepped toward her.
"I found Scootaloo walking by herself on my way home. She told me she ran away, and I asked why, and she said because her dad hits her!" she spat, nearly in one breath.
"So I tried to confront him, right? And I went over there, and he was drunk, and I confronted him, and he pushed me off the porch and—"
"Let me see if Ah have this right," he interrupted, holding a hoof in the air to silence her. "He hit his foal, then put his hooves on you?"
Rainbow nodded, "It didn't hurt or anything, but—"
Mac walked past her, heading to the barn without a word.
"Mac? Where are you going?" she called after him.
He didn't answer as she fluttered off the porch behind him as he entered the barn. "Mac! Answer me!"
"Ah'm just gonna ta talk to him," he said, eyeing his wall of farm implements carefully before retrieving a machete and scabbard with a shoulder sling.
"Why do you need a machete to talk to someone?" she asked, panic flowering in her chest, to which Mac calmly replied:
"Ah'm just gonna talk to him."
Mac strode out of the barn and toward town, Rainbow attempting to stop him the whole way. "Mac! There's a thing called prison, you know!"
"Ah'm not going ta prison, Ah'm just gonna talk to him," he assured her, as she put her forelegs on his chest and dug in with her hind legs in an attempt to stop his stride. He merely pushed her along in front of him, dirt gathering beneath her hooves as she slid.
Within the hour, they were in front of Scootaloo's house, all the lights having gone out since Dash's last visit. Mac pounded hard on the door, its old hinges nearly giving way behind the force. Muffled obscenities from beyond the door grew closer as Rainbow begged Mac not to do anything stupid one last time.
"Please Mac, I'm not visiting you in jail!" she snapped harshly.
"Don't worry, you're technically my accomplice, so you'll get locked up with me," he replied, smiling down at her.
"What?!"
The door opened, and Mac looked at the pudgy stallion before him, then back to Rainbow.
"This him?" he asked calmly.
"Yeah," Rainbow sighed, resigned to her fate as an accomplice to whatever revenge Mac was planning. She'd never seen Mac really upset, but supposed she was about to.
“Oh, you’re back, are you?” the stallion sneered. “What, you think some hired muscle’s gonna intimidate me? I’ve got friends, you know, and at one word from me, they’ll-Ack!"
Mac wrapped both forelegs around his neck, lifting him up, and over his head before slamming him into the dirt of his front yard on his back. The oxygen in his lungs exited in a rush of air, cutting his tirade short. The much larger Big Macintosh stood over him, drawing his machete from its scabbard with a sickening metal hiss.
"Now," he growled "Listen to me as hard as you fucking can. If Ah ever, hear anythin' about you putting your hooves on another filly or mare again, Ah'm gonna come back here, and take one of yours with me," he swore, dragging the blade across the pudgy earth stallion's ankle menacingly. "Understand?"
A low moan escaped the drunken stallion's mouth. Macintosh grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him down again, rage burning in his eyes. “Understand?” he yelled.
Scootaloo’s father whimpered, nodding so quickly that his head was a blur. Macintosh withdrew, sheathing the machete, letting him scramble to his hooves and flee to the house. “Ah’m glad we understand each other.”
He waited until the door slammed closed, then turned to Dash, smiling. "See? Ah told ya Ah was just gonna talk to him," he said happily, as if he didn't just threaten to amputate another ponies limb. "Sometimes all bullies need is the fear of Celestia put back in 'em," he added, motioning for her to join him on his walk back to the farm.
"So, how was practice?"
Rainbow woke up a few hours before tryouts, unable to sleep. Unlike the last two nights, in which sleep came easy. It seemed her nerves were dead set on making sure the last day of tryouts would be as nerve wracking as possible. Her locket sat on her bed as she paced back and forth in front of it.
Her stomach was turning as she walked, her mind racing with all sorts of terrible possibilities she had managed to suppress for the past two days. Dash had never recalled feeling this nervous before; in fact, the butterflies in her stomach soon grew into hornets as she rushed to her bathroom. She barely made it to the toilet before vomiting.
As she panted over the rim, she made sure she wasn't going to puke again before moving to the sink and washing her face. As she examined herself in the mirror, she prayed these were just her nerves, and not her coming down with something on the final and arguably most important day of the tryouts. She put a hoof to her forehead. Not a fever, but still a little warm for her liking.
Not today, she thought confidently, trying to push the nervousness out of her system.
She propped her forelegs on the counter, staring at her reflection in her bathroom mirror. She hadn't had the perfect night, but she seemed too tired, even to sleep. The nausea had vanished as quickly as it had come, but the butterflies refused to abandon her stomach.
She continued pacing around her room, checking the clock as the minutes seemed to drag by, one by one. Her eyes scanned the room, bouncing from her signed photo of Spitfire, to her locket, then back to the clock. It was almost time to leave. She stepped onto her porch and breathed deep the cool morning fog. The acidic taste stuck to her tongue, even though she brushed her teeth a few seconds ago. Her nerves were all over the place today. She tried to focus on the task at hoof, but terrifying visions of failure bombarded her mind's eye as she flew. She could hear the grating voice of Firefly as she mocked her for not making the cut.
Dash's eyes narrowed. She'd be damned if she let that punk steal her thunder.
In the blink of an eye, Cloudsdale appeared on the horizon, the lights of the Cloudesium shining brightly in the pre-dawn sky.
Her heart began to race the closer she got to the ancient structure.
This is it. Today is the day you prove to the world you belong with the best!
She landed softly, catching a glimpse of her rival as she landed to stretch. They exchanged glares as Spitfire and Soarin showed up right on time.
"Okay ladies, there are only five of you left," Spitfire said, stepping towards her group, "That being the case, there will be no elimination heat today." Some of the mares smiled with relief. Rainbow and Firefly weren't as receptive, having been denied a chance to go head to head again.
"This is the last day of training. If you've been holding back, now's the time to step up," she warned, beginning the drills.
Macintosh finished his chores earlier than usual that day, knowing he had somewhere to be that morning. After a quick wash up, he set off toward the library he had grown somewhat accustomed to, seeing as how he had spent many hours with Twilight trying to figure out the message on the back of Rainbow's locket. He had just made it back to his house when he had to deal with Rainbow's little 'problem'.
He had asked Twilight to keep their project a secret. He grinned as he imagined the smile on Rainbow's face and the shine in her eyes after learning he had translated her locket for her. She'd be happy, he just knew it. He came upon the treehouse, raising his hoof to knock before a canary yellow pegasus opened the door, both of the quiet ponies startling each other.
"Oh! Hello Big Macintosh," she said timidly.
"Howdy Ms. Fluttershy," he responded cordially, "How's the coop holding up?"
"It's doing well, you did a great job," she added sincerely.
"Well, it was no trouble at all. It was the least Ah could do for all you've done for our livestock."
Fluttershy blushed as she took a few steps to clear the doorway, Twilight appearing from within her home.
"Hi Mac! Ready to pick up where we left off last night?" she asked happily.
"You bet!" he answered, ready to finally solve the puzzle of his marefriend's most sacred item. Fluttershy looked to Mac, then back to Twilight before taking her leave.
"Thank you for the books Twilight. Bye!" she nodded, acknowledging both ponies.
Mac and Twilight entered the library as Fluttershy set off back toward her cottage.
Big Mac sure has been going to Twilight's a lot... Fluttershy thought as she took her books on bird migration back to her woodsy home. I'm sure it's nothing, he said he likes Rainbow! He's too honest to cheat on anypony. Still...
She shook the thought from her head. Yes, it was strange that Mac had been spending that much time with Twilight while Rainbow was away at tryouts, but there was nopony more honest than the brother of the element of honesty, right?
Fluttershy, you're being silly! she thought, though she knew Rainbow Dash would tell her about any suspicious things her coltfriend was doing while she was away, if she ever got one.
Still, she had seen him leaving Twilight's late last night while she had been running a late night errand to buy Angel more of his favorite rabbit food.
I'm sure it's nothing scandalous.
Try though she might to push the thoughts from her head, she couldn't stand the thought of her best friend Rainbow Dash being hurt by somepony. I'll just ask her if Mac has a reason for seeing Twilight while she's been away. I'm sure he's under her instruction anyway.
"I spent most of last night looking up ancient and dead languages after you left," Twilight began as Mac took a seat on her couch. "And I finally think I've figured out the language!" she chimed happily, clapping her hooves together as she prepared herself to reveal the mysterious script.
"And? What'd ya find out?"
"It's a derivative of Latin, a language that died out a long time ago, in fact, it used to be the language all royal business was conducted in 500 years ago, until it was decreed that the language of royalty should also be the language of the ponies," she explained.
"All we have to do is compare those letters with our language, and we'll have this thing translated by tonight at the latest!"
"Sounds good," Mac answered, almost all of Twilight's research going in one ear and out of the other.
"Alright ladies, I know this was a tough practice, but I've seen all I need to make my decision. We will be contacting all of you within the next two weeks, so check your mailbox daily," Spitfire instructed. "Only two of you will be getting in. The other three, I want to see you next year, better than you were before, understand?"
"Yes ma'am!" they answered enthusiastically, tired though they certainly were.
"You're dismissed."
Rainbow didn't hang around to talk trash or try and get any names out of Spitfire. She was truly exhausted, and unsure whether she'd even be able to make it back to Ponyville.
Deciding it better to sleep in her old room at her mothers house than crash on the way back to her own, she made the quick flight to her familiar home. Her mother greeted her in her bathrobe and welcomed her daughter inside, offering her some of the dinner she'd just put away. Rainbow heartily obliged and nearly ate everything in the house before sauntering off to her foalhood bedroom.
After a kiss goodnight, Rainbow found herself on her back, staring at an all too familiar ceiling. Wonderbolts posters adorned nearly every square inch of the walls, while the stuffed animals she played with as a kid sat in a small pile in the corner. Her mother no doubt came in after she moved out to organize.
She felt terrible about leaving her mother alone in Cloudsdale like this. After her father died, filly Rainbow had promised her mother that she'd never leave her alone like daddy had. It seemed that was a promise she couldn't keep, and it ate at her conscience whenever she thought about it. Rainbow tossed to her right, beneath the Wonderbolt blanket she'd slept under every night as a filly.
Sweet Celestia, I hope I made the Wonderbolts, she thought, knowing that if she didn't, there would be no weather job to fall back on. In fact, she didn't even have a plan for what she would do if she didn't make it.
The next few days would be the most stressful as she would wait by her mailbox every morning for Derpy to bring her what she had prayed for every night since she could fly.
Her eyelids growing heavy, she began to drift off into a well-deserved slumber, only semi-confident that she would be wearing the winged bolt by next week.