Pinkintosh Tails

by The1Ryu

Big Mac's Garden

Big Mac’s Garden

“Oh to Mackie’s spot, to Mackie spot we go! Hi I’m a marry mare, to Mackie’s spot we go!” Pinkie pie sang out as she hopped alongside Big Macintosh. The content smile on his face dwarfed by the huge toothy grin on hers.

“Are we almost there yet?” She bounced up again shaking as her eyes sparkled hopefully.

“Eenope,” Big Macintosh shook his head. They were a ways away from their destination, but he was looking for something he needed before they could start heading that way.

Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing and looked up at Big Macintosh a curious expression spreading across her face. “Huh, how come? Where are you going?” She asked quickly hopping from one side of him to the other.

Big Macintosh paused and reached into the brown saddlebag with an apple shaped clasp on his back and pulled out a green clump. Holding it out to Pinkie Pie he revealed it to be a clump of moss.

“Oh are we looking for more moss?” Pinkie Pie guessed.

Big Macintosh gave her a smile and a nod, “Eeyup.”

“Okie, Dokie, Lokie!” Pinkie Pie vanished leaving a Pinkie shaped cloud of dust still staring at him. She reappeared to take the clouds place just as it began to fade away.

“Here!” She said proudly holding up another clump of green.

Big Macintosh’s eyes scanned the clump of flora in Pinkie Pie’s hoof, then he shook his head, “Eenope, lichen.”

Pinkie Pie frowned down at the lichen in her hoof for a moment, it looked exactly like the moss Big Macintosh had. A smile shot back across her face as she tossed the lichen away and said, “Kay let me try again.”

Big Macintosh watched her disappear again this time for several seconds after her dust cloud had disappeared. With a contented sigh and smile he waited, letting his eyes move across the trees around him. Suddenly his attention focused on something at the base of a nearby tree and he started towards it.

Suddenly Pinkie Pie appeared in front of him again holding out another clump, this one a grayish green, in one hoof while the other held a small while book with images of plants across its front and back.

“Here you go Mackie,” She paused to reference the book for a moment, “Reindeer moss.”

“I didn’t know there reindeer around her, maybe they’re new?” Pinkie Pie gasped and giggled a little, “That means a party!”

Big Macintosh looked the vegetation over, but as soon as Pinkie called it Reindeer Moss he shook his head slowly. “Eenope, lichen.”

Pinkie Pie’s eye shot wide as they darted from Big Macintosh to the Reindeer Moss and back several times. “But, but, but, it’s the second word in its name!”

Big Macintosh just shrugged as if to say, he wasn’t the one who had misnamed the lichen and moved over to the tree that had caught his attention and began hoofing at the ground.

Pinkie Pie groaned at her second failure and crashed face first onto the ground stunned by the absurd naming practices and difficulty of finding moss of all this. What kind of a pony names a lichen, moss? That like naming a pegasus, bird earth pony.

Pinkie Pie lay there for a few minutes before Big Macintosh came back and picked up her book, placing it in his saddle bags. He wondered where she had gotten it, but knowing Pinkie Pie she probably ran to the library and checked it out in those few seconds after she disappeared. Next he grabbed her hoof and pulled the still dazed mare up to her hooves and began gently brushing away dirt that had stuck in her mane and coat from the fall. After a minute of grooming her he finished by planting a kiss on a small scrape on the end of her muzzle. She leaned in towards for another, but he had already pulled away, and she opened her eyes to see a teasing smile across his face.

Pinkie seemed to be rejuvenated by the kiss and began bouncing and giggle happily once more. “So are we gonna keep looking, huh, huh?”

“Eenope,” Big Macintosh shook his head and held out a freshly harvested clump of green moss.

“Oh wow you found some already,” She stared at the moss wide eyed, still bouncing. “You’re really a super duper moss finder Mackie!”

“Eeyup,” He replied half-hearted putting the moss into his saddle bag.

“So can you go to super special secret someplace now?” Pinkie asked giving him a hopeful look.

Big Macintosh gave little chuck, “Eeyup.”

“Yes! Let’s go, let’s go!” Pinkie Pie cheer hopping around him once again.

They traveled through the orchard for another few minutes before reaching the point where the orchard’s boarder brushed along the Everfree forest. Moving along the dark trees they eventually came upon a deep depression in the ground at the forests edge and Big Macintosh held out a hoof towards it.

Pinkie Pie rushed up the lip of the depression and looked down, her breath catching in her throat. The depression was deep and unnaturally round like a bowl. The upper edges were bare stone the grass stopping at the upper lip of the depression. However the stone only persisted for a couple of feet before turning an emerald green that persisted all the way to the bottom of the depression.

It was Big Macintosh’s moss that covered the rest of the depression giving it a soft look as it grew to cover the ground and stones arranged in intricate and beautiful pattern. That the deepest point was a small emerald lake being fed by a gentle trickle of water that flowed from an opening in the side of the depression. At the edge of the lake grew the only true plant in the garden, a tree with a dramatic sway in its trunk and a wide canopy of leaves. Sitting at its base was a second tiny tree that looked very similar to the larger one.

Big Macintosh led them to a path that winded along the edge of the depression ending at the base of the tree. However, before they had dipped past the green edge of moss Big Macintosh paused and began unpacking his saddle bags taking out the moss, a jar and a brush.

He opening the jar and Pinkie Pie shot up at the sour smell coming from it. Turned literally green she took a step back and covered her nose. “Oh Mackie that smell awful, what is that urine?”

“Eeyup,” Big Macintosh confirmed taking the brush in his mouth and dunking it into the jar. When he pulled it out it was covered in a thick creamy yellow paste which he smeared on the top half of a nearby boulder that was only half covered in moss, and once it was covered, he spread the moss he had collected over it. Looking over his work, Big Macintosh smiled at it and gave a nod. Then packed up his supplies, wrapping the soiled brush in a worn sheet of wax paper, and started back down the path, gesturing for Pinkie to fallow.

Pinkie did so, now walking calmly next to him as she took in the vast moss covered depression again, it smelled so fresh and clean like grass and rain. Looking up at her coltfriend she breathlessly asked, “Mackie did you cover this whole place in moss?”

“Mmmyup.”

“That must have taken forever,” Pinkie Pie exaggerated the last word.

“Eenope,” Big Macintosh shook his head. Thinking back to how he had discovered this place shortly after his parents passed away, it did seemed like a lifetime ago and he consider contradicting himself with a, ‘Eeyup.’

“Well it’s amazing!” Pinkie Pie shout with a jump giggling as she brushed up against a thick soft patch of moss. Her eyes shot wide as a though struck her, she turned back to Big Macintosh and her tone dropped flat. “But don’t expect any more kisses when you come here, with that nasty stuff.”

Big Macintosh let out a whinnying chuckle and turned on the mare puckering his lips and starting towards her.

She giggled and cried, “No,” hopping out of the way and around him.

Laughter filled the green garden of moss as Big Macintosh galloped after the hopping Pinkie Pie. He cut in front of her several time forcing her to retreat away from him for a few hops, then she would bound straight over him or sneak around him and flee back towards the base of the depression. They slowly made their way down the path, as they played.

At the bottom Pinkie Pie’s blue eye fell upon the crystal clear water. With a giggle she shouted, “Last one in is a silly pony!” and hoped towards the pool.

She was at the lip of the pool spring up into the air when something caught her fluffy tail and pulled, causing her to snap back like a rubber band. She landed in the soft moss at the lip of the pool with a little grunt and looked up to see a hoof reaching down to help her up.

“Eenope, sorry,” Big Macintosh apologized as he pulled Pinkie Pie to her hooves, then pointed a hoof slowly to the water.

Pinkie Pie tilted her head to one side and peered into the pool whose crystal green color was shared by her coltfriend. Several large orange, white and black fish swam in slow circles through the water. Pinkie Pie cheeks darkened to match Big Macintosh’s coat as she looked down at the defenseless fishes. “Oh I’m sorry Mackie, I guess I got carried. Pinkie Promise I’ll be more careful, ‘kay.”

“Eenope,” Big Macintosh smiled and shook his head gently, causing a bright smile to spread across Pinkie Pie’s face.

Gesturing towards the tree Big Macintosh started towards it, Pinkie quickly fallowing behind. Once the shade of the tree’s canopy fell over them Pinkie’s eyes fell upon the small tree, potted in a flat rectangular pot, which sat under the tree.

Big Macintosh took a seat in front of the potted tree, which seemed even smaller dwarfed by his titanic frame, and brought out a small pair of pruning shears from his saddlebag. Then he sat stock still not moving a muscle as he stared down at the tiny tree.

Pinkie Pie approached closer, her eyes shifting from the tiny tree, to Big Macintosh and then to the even larger tree they sat under. She started to ask him what they were doing, but the air had suddenly grown heavy and couldn’t bring herself to break the calm silence. She approached closer instead, standing right next to Big Macintosh, waiting for some indication of what he was doing.

Pinkie Pie let out a noiseless sigh and sat down next to Big Macintosh looking down at the plant that had him so preoccupied. Another long silent minute passed as Big Macintosh remained still. Pinkie looked up at him, her eyes moving across his face, but it was as stoic and welcoming as the rest of him.

Pinkie Pie let out another sigh, just as silent as before and leaned against Big Macintosh’s side. A content smile spread across her face as she felt the warmth of his body against hers. Her eyes relaxed as she continued to watch the tiny tree as time slipped by unnoticed.

Finally Big Macintosh raised the shears and broke the silence with a single crisp, ‘click’.

Author's Note:

This story's random prompt was Bryophyte, which is as you guessed a kind of moss. This was not as easy of a subject to write for as the last two, but I managed.
After all: the random word generator givith whatever it feels like.

Comments

[SFaccountant]

How Zen.