//------------------------------// // 3 - Mostly serious talk. // Story: I like Big Mac // by andrizzi //------------------------------// ‘Well, here we are…’ Thought Rainbow Dash while shifting her weight from one leg to the other. She was right in front of Big Mac, the one whom she has accidentally declared her attraction for. So he probably was pretty confused and scared right now, like a box of sappy emotions ready to explode in her face, easy peasy. Time to disarm the bomb and save the face. “Soooo, have you seen the… ugh.” Rainbow facepalmed, just say the word ‘video’ had a sickening and embarrassing effect. Big Mac, on the other hand, was just standing there, focusing on Rainbow Dash with a neutral look. The poor fella was just too lost to say anything. Might as well be direct. “Have you seen it?” she asked bluntly. “Eyup.” “Of course you have,” even more bluntly. It would have been just too good to be otherwise. Now she had to restrict the damage and try her best to help Mac to come out from his pit of insecurity and despair. ‘Come on Dash, be Awesome!’ “T-that’s why I’m here, you see, I, hmm, I didn’t want you to misunderstand that thing for… well, you know. It’s just something stupid that came out,” ‘Way to go Dash, point out how good you are to act like an idiot!’ “I know, totally uncool from me. I hope you didn’t give it too much weight.” “Enope.” “You didn’t?” Big Mac chuckled and shook his head. He gave her a pat on the shoulder that meant 'Don’t worry', then he got over her and started moving through the halls of the school. Rainbow Dash was shocked, the guy here had seen her little performance and now he was simply moving on like nothing had happened? She turned towards him. “Wait! Is it ok? Just like that? We're cool?” “Eyup,” Big Mac matched his answer with a nod. “But-but I sang out loud how…” she paused and blushed. “How hot you are. A-and now it’s on the web, so everybody can see it.” There was a little pause, during which Rainbow thought hard how to apologize about that. “I mean, it wasn’t my fault. That thing shouldn’t exist in the first place.” Big Mac talked calmly, “Ah figured.” Then he left waving his hand happily. Rainbow Dash barely returned the gesture, her expression was showing her disbelief. She had come there to confront him, prepared for anything: a rejection, awkwardness, teasing, even a declaration. Instead, nothing. He didn’t care at all. Rainbow Dash lowered her head, ‘Well, that’s just how much I mean for him as well I guess,’ she thought. Which was cool, totally cool, just what she was hoping for. She had faced him just to restore their ‘sibling’s-friends’ relationship, and didn’t it work out just great? A problem of the best kind: the one that solved itself. Neat. Great. Cool. Awesome even! Then why was she feeling that miserable? Rainbow Dash suddenly stood up and coughed a little in her fist, then she put on the best proud smile she had. She was just concerned about the video, of course. Who cares if Big Mac doesn’t take her feelings seriously, she didn’t even want him to know about them anyway. Not like she had such feelings, that was a mushy thing for little girls… or Rarity. Maybe he would have cared more if she was more like Rarity. Who cares anyway. She didn’t need a boyfriend, everybody knew that, that’s why nobody ever tried to hit on her. Except Zephyr, but he was an idiot. However, her point stood, she was just too awesome for a sappy thing like ‘romance’ or ‘boyfriends’ and that was great, even if that meant she would have never ever got a date with Big freaking hot Mac! Rainbow Dash checked the time. Usually, at that time of the day, she would go to practice soccer alone at the school field, probably with the audience of her friends. That day, she only wanted to go directly home and lay on the bed. She felt like she had some liquid awesomeness to spread out. Big Mac finally reached his truck. He was looking as calm and stoic as ever, but he actually was a little concerned about something and he wanted to sit in the driving seat and think about it. As soon as he heard the door clicking closed, Big Mac crossed his arms on the wheel and laid his chin on them. Just yesterday, on the same spot, he had checked his notifications by cellphone and had found the video that Pinkie sent to everybody… *** He was quite astonished while watching it. He didn’t instantly call back Pinkie, Applejack or Rainbow Dash just because Braeburn had met him while he was still in shock. He had come to Appleloosa for a delivery, and the job turned out to be a good distraction from the intrusive song. It only came back to his mind when he was already driving back to Canterlot, and by then he was much calmer already. On second thought, it would have been better for everyone to have a proper conversation face to face, instead of some distant texting. But what would have he said? Big Mac started to seriously think about what he had seen. It was embarrassing, of course, and probably Rainbow Dash wasn’t aware of the recording until the end. On the other hand, if that was true, then she really was attracted to him. It wasn’t that surprising, even if he didn’t have time to care for his appearance he knew that he had quite a breathtaking body. He was actually very proud of that, more of his strength than his appearance, yet he never complained about the latter neither. He was a boy too, ultimately. Lifting heavy weights when cute girls were around was something that, secretly, rewarded him like nothing else. Still, he never had a relationship with any maid. He lacked in time in order to find a woman to court, and no one had ever declared any will to have a romantic story with him. His daily routine was so simple, full and satisfying that he didn’t have any hurry to find a special somebody who would eventually become his sweet half. Yet, now somebody actually declared to him. Ok, it wasn’t a proper declaration but, still, a nice lady confessed her attraction for him. And as a little thing as it was, that was driving him to paint a scene with him and somebody to hold between his arms. Yes, he was looking way too forward and he knew it. But he liked to dream about that picture, even if it wasn’t real. Maybe he was liking it too much, to the point that he had to ask himself about his true feelings for that girl. She was cute, really cute, no doubt about that. And she had a strong attitude, she wanted to be independent, yet she was one of Applejack’s best friends, maybe the best. She was cocky, loyal and confident. On the negative part, she was stubborn and lacking in modesty, which to be honest were common traits between Apples. Big Mac focused harder about what he liked about her: she had that way to move, to talk, to smile… but he liked more what she was keeping for herself. Clearly Rainbow Dash didn’t want to trust anyone to talk about her softer side, you didn’t need to know her in order to know that. Also, Applejack lamented to him about that, like a lot of times. Anyway, Big Mac was intrigued by that mystery. He felt like he would have found a raw gem if he had gone deep in a relationship with her. It was a good thing that he was thinking away from home because he was blushing madly. He was going quite too far with his fantasies. Such a silliness from him. But he knew how to respond now. If Rainbow’s intention were serious, and she really had some feelings for him that she wanted to explore, he wouldn’t say nope. *** Too bad it didn’t turn out to be that case. Big Mac wasn’t really disappointed, he already knew which one was the most likely scenario. She didn’t want to face him at all and when she finally did, she was only embarrassed. Just as she said, all she wished was that he had never seen the video. Which was understandable. So he pleased her as well as he could. That’s how he had been thought to act in order to be a respectable person. With that little final consolation, Big Mac pulled himself up straight and, with a hint of melancholy, turned on the engine of his truck. It was time to get home. Applejack and Fluttershy were at the soccer field, they were waiting for Rainbow Dash to show up in order to hang out or just cheer for her while she practiced her play. Since the superstar was late, the two bored girls started to play with the ball on their own. “What Ah’m saying is, sometimes Ah just want ta strangle her.” “You don’t mean literally, right?” Applejack moved forward with the ball, in attack. “Don’t you worry, sugarcube. Ah love her too much to actually hurt her. But ya’ll know how much annoying she can be.” “Rainbow Dash can be a little, hmm, rough sometimes. But you know she does that for her image.” “Come on now, try to build a relationship with somebody ain’t something you should be ashamed for.” Applejack finished her sentence with a little too much anger, trying to dribble the ball. But Fluttershy stomped heavily on it, stealing it from her friend. “You should know her better than this.” After a moment of silence, Fluttershy took a step back and started to move the ball around. “Do you remember that day when we all went to the SPA?” “Uh-hu?” “And I guess you also remember that Rainbow Dash spent all our time there sitting alone, waiting for us.” “Yeah. And that proves Ah stand correct. She’s only hurting herself with that crazy attitude.” “That day, I left you and the others just to provide Dash some company. While we were there, Spitfire happened to enter in the SPA demanding a manicure. I had to hold my breath after seeing the face of disbelief that Rainbow was wearing, or I would have laughed right at her. “However, right after that, Rainbow Dash stood up saying that she would have gone to grab some magazines at the desk. When she thought I wasn’t paying attention, she reserved a full treatment for the next week.” Applejack was incredulous. “You don’t say!” “Yes. Also, last time I went at the SPA, Lotus told me that Dash is a golden member now.” “HA!” Applejack guffawed, “‘ur strong and cool Rainbow Dash.” But there was something that bothered her, so she asked, “But why doesn’t she come with us? Rarity would love to go with all her friends. Heck, Ah would love it too.” Fluttershy rolled her eyes, “She’s just too stubborn to admit that in front of us.” Fluttershy resumed to attack with the ball, gaining ground. “Shoot, That’s a good story. But Ah don’t quite get the point...” “The point is, Applejack, that Rainbow Dash knows her own potential and wants to bloom it. And in order to prove her worth she has to become a strong, bright, awesome champion. Like Spitfire is. “Spitfire is the coolest girl around from Rainbow’s perspective, that’s how she decides if something is cool or not. She has never seen Spitfire date a boy, therefore she thinks that dating boys is lame. Besides, knowing her I don’t think that what she’s feeling now is shame.” “Then what is?” Applejack kept running around Fluttershy, trying to defend. “Probably terror, she’s afraid of anything that could make her look a ‘softie’.” “Whait, yah mean… she’s scared of Big Mac?” “As a potential boyfriend, Yes.” Fluttershy feinted to move to her left, getting rid of Applejack for a moment. Then, with one kick, she tossed the ball inside the net. Applejack, for her part, was speechless. “What?” asked Fluttershy. “Yah now yah’re scary sometimes, sugarcube?” “Oh.” Fluttershy reached her chin with both her hands. “Sorry.” Exactly in that moment a strong wave of light came from inside the school building, then a column of smoke started to come out from one of the windows. “Ah have the feeling that that’s the room where Sunset and Twilight are studying Pinkie and Rarity.” Fluttershy gasped. “Do you think they’re in danger?” Before she could respond, Applejack got a message from Pinkie Pie. ‘LOL! It just happened the craziest thing.’ ‘Is anyone hurt?’ ‘Of course not… kinda.’ ‘Need help?’ ‘Of course not, silly, why would we need help?’ Applejack gave another worried look at the smoking window, but she trusted Pinkie enough to not interfere. While Applejack and Fluttershy were still there, a little trio of friends with strong hearts came to greet them. “Hi sis’. Hi Fluttershy!” Applejack embraced her little sis. “Hello there, Ya’ll. What brings you here?” Scootaloo, who was holding her ball between her hands, replied, “We came here to see Rainbow Dash. Did she go already?” “Aw shucks, she didn’t came at all today.” Applebloom made a disappointed pout. “Consarnit, Ah knew we should have gone home with Big Mac.” “Is he still here?” “We saw him leaving with his truck just a minute ago.” Applebloom gave her sister a quizzical look. “Why? Is important?” The gears inside the heads of Applejack and Fluttershy started to spin. Rainbow was nowhere to be seen and Big Mac had stayed late for school? The two girls didn’t take long before making two plus two. “Aw shucks.” Finally Rainbow Dash got home, without bothering to announce her presence to the world she went straight to her bedroom. She was so quiet that her father didn’t even notice the return of his loud and eccentric daughter. Not that he was waiting for her to come home so early. As soon as the moment she closed the door of her room, Rainbow Dash let fall her backpack and started staring at her bed. It looked big, comfy, warm, and tempting. Heh, funny, just like Big… Tears finally climbed up to the eyes. Before they could come down, Rainbow Dash threw herself on the bed, sinking her face in the pillow.