Celestia's sun bore down like the glare of an angry mare. Big Macintosh often wondered if it meant something. Weather was the duty of the Pegasi, but Celestia was the living avatar of the sun and it often brought to mind that when it was exceptionally hot that the princess might be in some sort of emotional state. Anger? Joy? It was hard to imagine that sorrow would make it more intense. Either way, the heat was unbearable for almost everypony around, but a hard working farm pony like Big Macintosh? It was bearable, as he was used to the heat mixing in with his intense line of work, but it didn't make it any less uncomfortable for him.
That being said, Big Macintosh lifted his foreleg and wiped the sweat from his brow, a smile pulling at his lips. As uncomfortable as the heat was when he was at work, when the labor was done with, nothing felt better than looking upon freshly plowed fields after a hard's day work. It was exhausting, that was a fact, especially when Applejack was out on another one of her crazy friendship adventures, but it was because it was such a taxing task that made the fruits of his labor so rewarding. Especially when he got to take in this view.
Large, proud apple trees that had roots in this land as deep in the Apple family itself stood tall on the rolling hills of the farmstead. The brown of the trunks against the green grass and blue sky with just a hint of red dotting the land was a sight that may not draw the eye of some fancy schmancy art dealer from Canterlot, but when he took in the smell of dirt and apples, those simple colors became so much more. They were an experience, one he was glad to take part in every day of his life. Sure, he may have been a bit closed off from the rest of the world, but he still had a majesty of wonder here. Especially with the passage of time.
He'd marvel over the change from what he saw now, to a whole new pastel of colors once the sun set, adding in hues of orange and purple that otherwise seemed out of place with the nature of the farm he knew, yet saw it every day, to the enveloping darkness that didn't so much hide the natural beauty to one of a different sort. But beating that out was the changing of the seasons. Everything in its prime and out there during the summer, the leaves changing colors and falling during autumn, to what seemed like withered, lifeless husks in winter, yet finally renewing themselves in the spring. It was something many ponies overlooked, a splendor that only one such as himself could appreciate, not that he believed himself above others for his recognition of the intricate changes in scenery the same place could go through.
Even on this simple homestead of his, he had seen things few other ponies were blessed with seeing. Sure, some of them were terrible things, like when Discord tore at the very fabric of reality or when Tirek attacked, but he could see Twilight Sparkle's amazing crystal castle from the hills. He could see all of Ponyville in fact, its simplicity beautiful when you could truly admire it from afar. Why, he had even seen a Sonic Rainboom when he was but a wee colt. Sure, with Rainbow Dash's skill improving and training, more were seeing it, but he still found each one he saw as specially, particularly that first one. He could even see the minute differences between that one and the one he was seeing now. That this one had a slightly sm-
Wait, one that he saw now?
It took Big Macintosh a moment to recognize that he was staring at a quickly growing Sonic Rainboom that was streaking across the sky. It was beautiful as it always was, but something was off about it. Big Macintosh was no expert on flying, but the way it wavered seemed to indicate it wasn't performed correctly, but for it to occur, something an intense amount of effort had to be put into it.
Narrowing his eyes, Big Mac was barely able to make out the speck of blue leading the Rainboom. It was difficult, as not only was it incredibly fast, but it was almost impossible to make out against the blue sky itself, but years of examining apples for flaws gave him a pretty good level of perception. His eyes widened as he was able to get a better look at it, or rather, her.
Rainbow Dash, as he had suspected, being the only pony he knew who could perform a Sonic Rainboom, was darting across the sky like a shooting star. He was used to that, seeing as the mare could hardly keep her pace slow whenever possible. The difference was that her wings were moving awkwardly. One of them that is. Her right wing was outstretched perfectly fine, but the left seemed to be twitching oddly. Not so terrible that it looked like it wasn't working, but even with his limited understanding of aerodynamics, slight deviations in angle and movement at high velocity could drastically change the course and overall outcome of one's flight in general. She was lucky that she wasn't spiraling completely out of con-
It snapped. Big Mac's eyes widened in shock as he noticed the twitching wing suddenly snapped back. From this distance, he couldn't tell what was the cause or how bad it was, maybe it wasn't even what he thought it was, but all he knew was that Rainbow Dash's wing couldn't stand the wind pressure and pressed back against her body. Her velocity dropped immediately as the Sonic Rainboom came to an end. It was worse when he recognized that, even with his discerning gaze, the lack of the Rainboom trailing her made it difficult to follow her path.
Big Mac sucked in air, not even realizing that he had been holding his breath as he watched the scene unfold... and then ran. He ran away from Rainbow Dash, straining his muscles to push his massive bulk forward. His head turned to the side occasionally, glancing back to make sure he could get some sign of the Pegasus. She was descending now, the small speck of her form against the sky slowly growing larger, but he was glad for that. Had she kept going at the speed she was before, she'd have flown straight past Sweet Apple Acres and into the Everfree Forest, but the sudden disruption had made it so that she would end up short of the heavily wooded region.
By the time Rainbow Dash was just over the tops of the orchard's trees, Big Macintosh had reached the very end of his family's property and turned to face the descending Element of Loyalty. She was heading straight for him and had started spiraling in such a way that her limbs were flying out in all directions. Snorting, Big Mac tensed his muscles, digging his hooves into the earth as he prepared for impact.
And then he blinked.
In that short span of time between his eyelids closing and opening, he got hit with the wildly falling Pegasus. The air was knocked out of his lungs as he was sent skidding backwards, his hooves leaving trails in the ground as though he just ran a rusty and chipped plow through it. Even as he braced himself and pushed hard to keep himself upright as the blue pony barreled into him like a cannonball. His mouth opened to let out a pained groan as he felt something snap behind him, but with the air already out of his lungs he couldn't make a sound.
Several more things snapped behind him, if that was even the proper way to describe it. His eyes stayed shut tight after the collision, but he could have sworn he felt full grown trees collapsing in their wake. Seconds stretched over hours for the farm pony as he bore the brunt of the impact, trying to keep himself tensed to keep from hurting himself, yet also trying to allow some give so he didn't hurt the pony before him.
At last, Big Mac felt no more movement. Once more, he took in a deep breath, almost wincing at how labored the very act was. Maybe he had a cracked rib? Or several cracked ribs? He could take a lot of punishment, but he'd never taken a hit from something moving fast enough to form a Sonic Rainboom, even if she wasn't moving at that speed when they collided.
Shaking it off, he had to focus on said Sonic Rainboom forming pony. Looking down, he saw Rainbow Dash had slumped to the ground, lying on her right side and almost curled into a fetal position. There was a look of pain on her face, not so terrible that she seemed truly distressed, but not so mild that he could just ignore it.
Pressing his forelock against her cheek, he carefully nudged the Pegasus' face, but received no reaction. Big Mac wasn't a pony to show too much concern, even when he knew his sisters were always off on crazy adventures that seemed to risk their lives, he had trust in them and would be there to help pick them up off their hooves. But now, there was an injured mare who may have...
"B-Big Mac?"
The stallion's eyes refocused on Rainbow Dash's face, her vibrant pink eyes focused on him through wincing eyelids. She was hurting, there was no denying that. Even with his help, there were cuts and scrapes over her body, and he had no doubt she'd have at least one massive bruise from where they made contact, but she was conscious, at least for now.
Seeing the curious, questioning look in her eyes, Big Mac chuckled deeply, ignoring jolts of pain rising up from his chest. He finally replied "Eeyup."