Another Day

by PonyTom

Road Trip

Seven ponies trotted down the dirt path into the woods. Well, six ponites trotted - one hovered a few feet above the ground.

Big Mac looked up at the sky for a minute and sighed a little sigh of thanks - it was not spectacularly warm today, so he would not need to waste any precious water trying to keep hydrated pulling the cart that carried Rarity's various belongings. A soft ache had begun to worm it's way into his nose; a fact that made him wince a bit. "Applejack, could y'all-" He stopped. He had forgotten that he had put Miss Smartypants right with his pain killers. Close call, really. He sighed, trying to think up a way to get his medication without potentially exposing his beloved doll. Biting his lip, he decided at that moment to just bare it.

"What was that, Big Mac?" asked Applejack, trotting up to catch up to him.

He thought quick.

"Ah'm a mite thirsty."

Applejack quirked a brow. "What? Aint it a bit early t' be drinkin' hard cider?" Just then, her glare intensified. "And if Ah recall, y'all aint s'posed t' drink alcoholic beverages an' couple 'em with meds!" She had him there. So much for nulling the pain with booze. He sighed internally in resigning to suffering just a bit longer.

"Ah. Well, could you gimme mah canteen then?"

Applejack gave him an analytic gaze. "It aint filled with booze too, is it?"

"Nope."

Applejack stared at her brother. "Fine, but Ah'ma give it a sniff t' be sure. Ah'd hate t' have t' explain t' Granny that y'all became an alcoholic durin' our trip." She leaned down to grab the canteen that was tied to his saddlebag. She untied it with her teeth and plucked it free, stopping just a moment to twist it open and take a sniff. Certain it was, indeed, water, she caught back up to her brother. "Alright, here ya go, Big Mac." She placed it to his mouth, and poured just a little water into his muzzle. Pulling back, she watched as he gulped it down and smiled.

"Thanks, Applejack."

She returned the smile, putting the cap back on and (much to the bewilderment of physicists everywhere) used her hooves to tie the canteen back onto his bags.

And so, the group continued their journey. As time passed by, Big Mac felt the pain in his snout grow slowly, but certainly. What had started off as just some discomfort had grown into a dull pain, and he knew it wouldn't be too long before it would be too much to bear. Already he could feel the itch of fire in the damage.

'Oh Applejack...' he thought to himself, 'You've hurt me in more ways than you realize.'

Then it hit him. The perfect, absolute perfect plan.

"A.J. Ah gotta use th' restroom."

Applejack blinked. "What? Really? Ah thought you went b'fore we left?"

Big Mac shook his head. "Nope."

Applejack shrugged. "Well... if ya gotta go..."

Big Mac cheered on the inside. He unhitched himself from his harness and nodded. "Be right back." With that, he turned and trotted towards some nearby bushes, behind them, out of sight, and out of mind. He sat on his haunches and pulled his saddlebag from his back, and began to rummage through it. Grabbing onto his pain meds, he pried them from the bag and popped the bottle open. He took his canteen from his back, wishing he didn't have to waste water earlier, and put a pill in his mouth, following with a swig to wash the thing down.

He stared at his bags momentarily, before taking and placing his pain medication in the opposite bag of the doll. He could easily keep Applejack away from her now. Standing up, he placed the saddlebags on his back again. If he actually ended up having to use the restroom TOO soon, Applejack might grow suspicious. After all, he did possess a notoriously strong bladder.

Stepping back from the bushes, Big Mac returned to the mares and hitched himself up. Rarity looked at him with a look of slight distaste. "Please tell me you washed your hooves?"

Big Mac turned to quirk a brow. "With what?"

Rarity's horn lit up and levitated from her various baggage a box of moist towelettes. She levitated them to Big Mac, who simply shrugged and took them in his hooves and swabbed them - he wasn't sure how important it was to clean hooves when he wasn't cooking anything at the moment and, likewise, was walking in dirt that had probably been used as a toilet for generations, but she was a mare, and he was nothing if not gentlecoltly. Once done, he stared at them, uncertain what to do.

"Oh, just cast them aside." said Rarity. "They're biodegradable, so they won't leave any lasting marks." Big Mac hummed, shrugged, and tossed the little towelette to the ground. With that, he hitched himself back to his harness and the party resumed their trot.

With his meds in his system and Miss Smartypants segregated from them, he felt both his pain and his anxiety slowly wash away.

***************************

"Oh BOY have we been walking a long time! Not that I'm complaining, because I love walking with my friends, and seeing the outdoors, so I'm just curious, but how much further 'til we reach the campsite?" said Pinkie Pie, who did not understand that she was not, indeed, walking with her friends, but instead bouncing along the path like her hooves were made of rubber.

"Not much further." said Twilight as she levitated a map up and looked it over. "According to this map, we should be there in about thirty minutes..."

Rainbow hovered just over Twilight and looked the map over. "Huh, about time! I'm half tempted to go on ahead and secure the place before the rest of you!"

Applejack smirked. "Yeah, but then y'all'd have t' wait fer us t' catch up. You an' waitin' don't exactly get along, last Ah checked.

Rainbow wanted to rebuttal - but A.J. had a point. Much as she hated moving slowly, she hated waiting even more. It was like her own personal hell, really. She sighed and shrugged. "Can't we move a bit faster? If we went at a jogging pace, we'd be there in like... fifteen minutes!"

Twilight gave Rainbow a side-glance. "Didn't you learn anything by me beating you at the Running of the Leaves? A pony has to pace herself. You, Applejack, and Pinkie might be able to make that distance, but the rest of us would likely tire out faster."

"Especially you, huh, Egghead?"

Twilight stopped and turned to face Rainbow. "Okay, forgive me if I'm being irrational, but that sounded somewhat mean-spirited."

Rainbow shook her head and waved hooves defensively. "Oh no! I didn't mean anything by it, I swear! It's just..." she rubbed a hoof behind her head. "You know... you don't exactly work out a lot."

Twilight hummed and shrugged. "You have me there. Still, try to phrase it better next time, alright Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash gave a nod. "Right. Sorry, Twilight."

"Apology accepted" said the purple alicorn with a smile.

Big Mac silently listened in to the mares' conversations. Strange, these fillies.

*********************************

"We're HERE!"

Everypony gazed about at the area before them. It had taken an hour or so of walking, but they had finally reached their destination. Before them lay a vast clearing overlooking a large, beautiful lake, several trees that seemed to have various birds and squirrels running about, doing their everyday routine of gathering and foraging. The sun reflected off of the lake water, sparkling wonderfully.

"It's gorgeous..." said Twilight.

"It's wonderful..." said Fluttershy.

"It's amazing!" said Pinkie with a hop.

"Eeyup." said Applejack and Big Mac in unison.

"Y'see," said Applejack, holding up the map. "Granny found this here place when our daddy was still a foal. She took 'em here every year until he started a family of his own." The orange mare stared out, her eyes seeming to gaze into the distant past. "We came here once every year. That was until.... until........."

Everypony turned to see as Applejack suddenly became solemn. Big Mac frowned and, still hitched up, trotted towards his sister and gave her a hug. Applejack sighed and shook her head. "But yeah... when our folks passed, we didn' have th' heart t' come 'ere no more. Mah Granny did it for our pa, an' he showed it to us. It didn' seem right t' come here without 'em. That was until we found th' map in our attic, an' Granny said that daddy'd want us t' share it with our friends."

Big Mac unhitched himself and looked to Rarity. She stared back. "... What? Is there something on my face, dear?" Her expression panicked. "It's not a bug is it!?"

Big Mac quirked a brow. "Y'all gonna unpack?"

Rarity giggled and waved a hoof. "Oh, maybe, but it'd be nice if a nice, strong stallion would do it for me?" She batted her eyelashes at Big Mac. He gave a sigh - he knew what she wanted, and much as he wanted to say no, or pretend to not understand, he knew it might reflect poorly on his sister. So, he got to work and began to unpack her various things.

Twilight sat on her haunches and stared out at the lake, at the sun. "It's amazing, Applejack. Did Granny really find this place for your father?"

Applejack trotted and sat next to her. "Well, sorta." She hummed and looked around. "Originally, she an' th' family found it durin' their travels, before settlin' in Ponyville. They half considered settlin' here, but decided against it. Granny never was specific on why - everytime she told the story, there'd be a different reason. Poisonous snakes, timberwolves, manticores, an' one time even said there was a dragon that lived here." Applejack gave a little laugh, shaking her head. "Ah swear, Ah dunno if she was jus' foolin' with us or if she jus' can't remember."

Twilight giggled a bit. "Right... so.... uh... are we sure those things AREN'T around?"

Applejack shrugged. "Well, not really. But if they are, they aint bugged mah Granny or Pa or us since we started comin' 'ere."

The alicorn sighed in relief. "Thank goodness..."

****************************************

Big Mac sighed, wiping a hoof across his brow as he stared at his work. He had finally finished setting up Rarity's tent - it was a big thing, almost like a small house. He had just finished furnishing the tent, almost hoping that Rarity had a desire to make this her new home so he would not have to take it all back out and go through the trouble of taking the dang thing down again.

"Oh thank you, Big Mac!" said Rarity as she trotted up to the stallion and gave him a hug. "You are such a gentlecolt!"

"Eeyup." he said with a blush.

With that, Rarity trotted into the tent and out of the outdoors. Big Mac sighed, wondering if she had any intention of actually ENJOYING this experience or not. Turning, he trotted towards his own belongings and began to unravel the parts for his own tent. Rarity peeked back outside at him.

"What are you doing?"

Big Mac looked at her. "Uh... settin' up mah tent?"

Rarity pursed her lips. "But... I brought one big enough for everypony."

Big Mac shrugged. "That's awful kind of ya, miss Rarity, but Ah figure you girls'd like yer privacy t' do mare stuff."

The fashionista smirked at the colt, quirking her brow. "And what exactly do you think we mares do on a camping trip?"

Big Mac hummed. He had never actually thought of that before. What did Applejack do? "Sing camp songs n' tell silly stories?"

Rarity giggled. "Well, those certainly seem like fun ideas, but I don't see why you can't sleep in this tent with us."

Big Mac had a few reasons. First off, while he was comfortable with Applejack's friends, he didn't know how he felt about sharing sleeping space with them. Secondly, if his bags were with theirs, there were chances one of them might find Smartypants - he began to rue even bringing her with him. Thirdly, Rarity might try to pretty him up. He liked how he looked.

"Thanks, but Ah'd rather sleep in mah own tent."

Rarity sighed and seemed almost disappointed. "Alright, McIntosh, but just remember, the offer is on the table if you change your mind. We'll keep a space available for you and everything." She smiled at him before retreating once more into the tent. Big Mac sighed a bit and shook his head, returning to the task at hoof.

******************************

Fluttershy stared at all the little animals as they went about their business, her eyes wide with wonder. "Oh my! Look at them! All of them! So sweet, so innocent, so cute!"

"Yeah yeah yeah, wanna help us out here, Flutters?"

Fluttershy turned to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, who were sitting there as if waiting; Rainbow somewhat irritated, Pinkie smiling and bouncing in place. "Oh, so sorry Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow smiled. "Right! Now, I wanna show you girls some of my new stunts, and I was hoping you could cheer for me and tell me how awesome I am!"

Pinkie stopped. "Wait, Dashie, don't we do that normally?"

"What?" said Rainbow, confused.

"Yeah!" shouted Pinkie. "I mean, we're on a camping trip! Shouldn't we do something fun and outdoorsy? Like, look for treasure? OH! Maybe we'll find a mansion that's abandoned, but it's not REALLY abandoned because it's full of zombies! And then, we'll have to fight our way through a buncha them and get into the basement, where we'll find a top-secret facility that makes the zombies, and then Twilight will turn out to be the bad guy and then she'll get stabbed by a super-zombie, but she's not really dead and gets superpowers! Oh, and then we'll escape and there'll be a big explosion!"

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stared at the pink mare.

"Uhh... Pinkie?" said Rainbow.

"Yes?"

"... As cool as that sounds, I don't think we'll have to worry about ANY of that coming true."

Fluttershy whimpered. "I-I-I don't want Twilight to be a bad guy..."

Pinkie hummed and shrugged. "Well, we can just go exploring then, right?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Well, I guess... but if we find any treasure, I call dibs."

***************************************

Big Mac stepped away from his tent, having finally finished it, and looked out at the scene. It was as beautiful as he remembered it as a foal. Unchanged by pony hooves, unaltered by time... the very sight of perfection. That's when he noticed something to the corner of his vision.

Applejack standing in front of a stone.

Big Mac sighed and trotted towards his little sister, looking down at the stone. On it were a few, simple words.

'Clementine Apple'

Big Mac frowned a bit. Applejack turned to look to him, her eyes sad, though looked as if any tears they might shed had dried up long ago. "... It's funny... we was plannin' for one of these trips when we lost 'er..."

Big Mac sighed and put a hoof on his sister's withers. "Eeyup..."

Applejack looked at the stone again, that frown as strong as ever. "... Ah remember... Ah remember that fer a while... I was angry at Applebloom... Ah remember tellin' daddy 'if it wasn't fer her, we'd still have ma'.... an' everytime Ah remember that... Ah hate m'self..."

The older stallion brought his sister in for another hug. "Don' talk like that. You was jus' a foal an' didn' know how t' cope with somethin' so terrible. No filly deserves t' lose their mother..."

Applejack sighed. "Ah know... but still..."

Big Mac smiled. "An', if Ah remember right, it was yer idea t' put this stone here. That way she'd always be here with us when we returned."

Applejack smiled a bit. She looked up to her older brother, and then her eyes began to wet a little as she let her frown come back. "Do... do ya think ma and pa'd be proud of me, brother?"

Big Mac tightened his hug on her. 'Eeyup' just didn't seem like the right thing to say. "Ah think they'd be more than proud. Their lil' filly is a full grown mare, responsible and honest as they raised 'er t' be. Strong an' diligent as they wanted her t' be. An' braver an' more heroic than they ever could have asked her t' be."

Applejack returned the hug, choking a little.

"Thanks, Big Mac..." she said softly.

He smiled.

"Eeyup."

Comments

[Rossamunderling]

That bit at the end is awfully sweet, but awful in the good way. It's a cliche but it is one of the best because it allows writers to create some really nice dialogue.

I quite liked this chapter, the Resident Evil reference I found to be quite funny.

All in all, I hope to see more chapters in the future, thank you for this new installment.