Patched Hearts
Rainbow Dash couldn’t remember much of the dream that she had just awoken from, but she remembered that Princess Luna was there. It felt as though she had been watched, and it made her feel exposed.
In an attempt to scrub away the discomfort of being watched, she took an early morning shower. She began to lather her mane with some new, apple-scented shampoo, before realization set in.
She pulled her most recent purchase in personal care products to her face, examining the label. The red plastic had a green apple printed on the front, and when she read the ingredients list, she noticed only two words, “Macintosh Apples.”
She sighed, and put the bottle down, before rinsing her mane. Buying this shampoo was not a conscious decision, she was just shopping, and picked this one up instead of her normal shampoo.
She shook the worst of the water off, and trotted to her balcony, which overlooked the meticulously groomed fields of Sweet Apple Acres, and took flight. The wind flicked all the water out of her mane and coat, making a small vapor trail that disrupted her rainbow trail only the slightest.
Content that she was dry enough to be presentable, she decided that a hard morning of cloud busting and flight training would clear her mind of Big Macintosh.
Big Mac was, in fact, trying to get his mind off of the colorful streak that was splitting the sky overhead.
It wasn’t working.
His farming work was so second nature, that devoting himself to it just caused his mind to wander again. It was not second nature enough to keep him from making mistakes though, as he discovered when he almost lost the entire cart full of apples when he hit an exposed root.
Several overzealous, missed applebucks, and a few less-than-straight rows of plowed field later, and he decided that it was time for a break. He began to trot towards the old house that had been in the family for four generations.
Mac walked inside, and trotted over to the sink, where he dunked his head in the cool water, and got himself a glass of ice water. He allowed the water to drip down his neck and cool him down, while he took a swig from the glass.
Suddenly, he heard his name being called from outside, so, downing the last of his drink, he walked for the front door.
Applejack was outside, prancing around and calling his name. “Oh, there ya are, Mac!” She said with a chipper smile. “Ah got great news for ya.”
Red flags went up in Macintosh’s mind. “What?”
“Ah got ya a date!”
Mac’s stomach dropped as fast as his jaw. “P-p-pardon?”
“With Fluttershy, in an hour. So git cleaned up an’ git over there.” She said, pushing him back to the house.
“B-but, Ah got chores ta do!” He protested. “An’ it’s the middle of the day!”
“Don’t ya worry, big brother, Ah got yer chores. You jus’ go an’ have fun with yer new ladyfriend.”
“But-!”
Rainbow Dash leapt out of the window as quickly as she could, when she heard voices coming up the stairs toward Big Mac’s room.
As she soared over the farm, she adjusted the book that she just barely managed to hold on to during her escape. She let out a deep breath and set down on a cloud, to begin reading.
I walked out on deck in the early morning light, struggling to stay upright on the slick, wet deck. The slightly strange sensation of my scruffy beard being blown by the wind was distracting, but not as distracting as Daring Doo.
She was out for an early morning flight, performing stunts and maneuvers that made me smile. Sure, I had seen far more impressive, but she was still pretty good.
A faint hope welled up in Rainbow Dash’s chest as she began to desperately hope that he was referencing her flying skills; after all, she practiced over his farm on a regular basis.
I could’ve watched her fly for hours, but she appeared to notice me on the deck. She landed gracefully in front of me and planted a gentle kiss on my lips. “Hey, Captain, how’s it going?”
Dash’s heart fluttered at the thought, which made her both giddy and disgusted.
I smiled at her and nuzzled her gently, knocking her helmet askew, which prompted a short round of giggles. “Ah’m doin’ just fine, but Ah gotta git the crew up now.”
“Oooh!” I heard a voice come from behind me. I turned to find Chance sitting on his haunches, a big goofy grin plastered across his face. “I’ll do it!”
He bounded down into the gut of the ship, leaving me and Daring alone on the deck. She turned to look at me, an adorable quizzical expression on her face. I just shrugged my shoulders, showing that I didn’t know what was up with the excitable pup.
A bark in the real world confused Rainbow for just a moment, before she realized that it was coming from below her.
“Hush, Winona,” Came a deep voice, that easily carried up to her resting place. “Down Girl.”
Rainbow peered over her vaporous bed to see Macintosh, wearing a fine suit, and his with his mane combed back. It was a very different sight, being used to the tough, dirty farmer. It wasn’t unwelcome, the red stallion dressed up nicely, it was just different.
Curious, she followed him, noticing eventually that he passed off of the trail to Ponyville, and onto the path to Fluttershy’s cottage.
Rainbow’s heart dropped so fast and hard, that she thought she was going to drop out of the cloud. She had never felt so sickeningly betrayed. Fluttershy, her oldest, most trusted friend, stealing her stallion right out from under her muzzle.
Rainbow felt sick, and almost dropped the book through the cloud. There was simply nothing more she could think to do. Looking back to the hardback book in her hooves, she decided, with some difficulty, that there wasn’t any harm in reading the rest of the chapter.
Shortly after Chance’s descent into the ship, he returned with the crew. Many of the ponies, and dogs were moving sluggishly, a testament to the early hour, and late night.
I commanded the crew, giving them direction, and assigning positions. While I did, I came across Stitch and asked, “Did ya check on our visitors today?” Upon receiving a negative response, I decided to do so myself.
Daring Doo, who had almost taken upon the title of my shadow, followed me into the hold, where we found Vincent attempting to stand, while Gilda was still sprawled out over her bed.
“Heh,” Rainbow mumbled, “she did like to sleep like that.
“Good morning, Captain. I am terribly sorry that we did not come to talk to you yesterday, I fell asleep, again, and slept the rest of the night.” The way he talked, now that he was hydrated, was rather regal, and his posture echoed his diction.
“How did Gilda end up on a pirate ship and in a romantic relationship with a prince?” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but whisper to herself.
I smiled at the apparent prince, “S’alright. Ah jus’ wanted ta know what yer plans were from here.” I pulled a bench over for Daring Doo and myself to share while we talked to him. “Also, Ah’d like ta know yer story.” The look of intense interest on Daring Doo’s face showed that she wanted the same thing.
Vincent looked back and forth between us and sighed, resigning to tell us. “Alright, just allow me to get comfortable. It is a long story.” He adjusted the blankets and sheets on his cot into a makeshift nest, before he nestled in, poking his head up enough to allow his head to be visible.
“I was the second-born to the Emperor, and I lived a fantastic life, even though I was living in the shadow of my older brother.” He chuckled slightly, “He actually failed to inherit the Phoenix’s Feathers, like me,” He lifted his wings so that we could see the golden plumage on the underside. “So he dyed his. He wasn’t ever as strong as me either, but he was the next-in-line so he got everything.”
“Phoenix Feathers?” Dash cocked her head to the side as she pondered the term, “Gilda never mentioned ‘Phoenix Feathers.’”
Gilda adjusted her position in her sleep, which distracted Vincent for a moment.
“Terribly sorry about that.” He said, shaking his head, and coming back to the story. “When I turned eighteen, I decided that I wanted to join the military. I colored the feathers on my wings, left home, and enlisted in the Navy. I served on a ship for about two months, before the ship was taken down by the Swiftwing.” He shuddered at the memory. It was dark, our job was a simple escort service, and we had a small 20-gun ship.” He took a deep breath. “Captain Swiftwing had learned that the son of the Emperor had joined the Navy and was on my ship. It was a massacre.”
With another deep sigh, Vincent continued, “He fished the few survivors out of the sea, including myself. He interrogated all of the sailors about the prince, but I had not told any of them about my true identity, and so none of us told him that the prince survived.” Vincent gave Daring and myself a halfhearted smile, “He still never knew that I was really a prince. He actually managed to spread the story about how he killed me personally. My parents and my brother vowed to kill him, to sink his ship, while he was tied to a mast.”
The pain in his eyes sickened me, “But,” he choked out, “they won’t get a chance, and I thank you for saving me from his service. He treated the griffons that he captured or ‘rescued’ like dirt, until they proved that they were heartless, like he was.” He then looked wistfully over at Gilda. “I feel so bad for her.”
Rainbow sat up straighter.
“Why is that?” Daring Doo asked, a kind, gentle interest obvious on her face.
“Well,” he began, looking over to her. “The captain found her sleeping on a cloud close to shore, she seemed to have been crying, to be underfed, and almost dead. He brought her to the deck, clipped her wings, tied her talons and paws together, and gagged her, before throwing her down in front of the crew.”
Tears began to fall from Vincent’s eyes to his beak and then to the floor. “He offered her to the crew as payment.” He choked on his words, “It… was disgusting…” Taking a deep breath, he began again. “I decided to save her, so before anyone could have their way with her, I asked for personal possession. The captain, seeing this as me proving myself, agreed and gave me my own private quarters.”
The story was disgusting to a country gentleman like myself, and I could tell that it was messing with Daring at my side.
Dash almost couldn’t take hearing this about her old friend, it sickened her more than anything she had dealt with in a while.
“I put her on my back, and carried her down to the new room, where I gently laid her down on the bed. She was crying, and looking at me with panic and fear like I was going to do what any of the others onboard would have done. -That hurt worse than anything, seeing her so scared of me.- It took me hours to convince her that I was trying to help her, and for me to be able to take the restraints off without being killed.” He began to smile slightly. “I kept her there for a while, bringing her food and helping her recover. It took a lot of work, and sick creativity for stories, to convince the captain that she was ‘good’ to be part of the crew, but eventually he accepted.” He laughed slightly, “We grew to love each other, as she recovered. She was so strong, so confident, I love her, and she loves me. We would try to develop plans to escape, but none of them were good enough. Then, just a few days ago, there was the call for an unknown ship on the horizon.”
I could tell that he was about to share the story of when we took out the other ship, and It was extremely surreal to hear from the other side.
“The captain was feeling rather creative, and when he noticed Miss. Doo scouting the ship,” he gestured to Daring who shuffled her wings uncomfortably, “he decided to ‘meet’ them personally. He took off, but before he did, he made us go to our battle stations, hoping to get us ready to sink this ship if he wanted. Gilda and I were working the guns, so we rushed down, hoping not to have to shoot another ship. A few minutes passed, and then we saw the captain take off for our ship, so we prepared to fire on the signal. Suddenly, though, a lamp came flying in through the gunport next to ours and burst on the deck, sending flaming oil all over the barrels of gunpowder. I grabbed her and began to run, completely oblivious to the others, and then the barrels blew, sending us flying, along with shredded timbers. I just landed on the deck, but she was slammed into a mast. The ship began to sink fast, and I rushed to her, determined to keep her safe, and then we ended up in the water, abandoned by the rest of the crew. The rest is common knowledge for you now, I suppose.” He finished with a shrug.
I could feel the emotions that his story had roused threatening to make me cry, but I refused to allow them to break through.
My companion, on the other hand, was unable to do so, and the tears were flowing freely from her eyes, while I pulled her into a tight hug.
Rainbow Dash didn’t feel so lame crying, if Daring Doo did it too.
“That is so awful…” Daring Doo choked out.
“You’re telling me.” Came a raspy, weak voice from behind us, and we turned to find Gilda rolling over, revealing her puffy eyes and tearstained feathers. “I had been struggling for years, my dad sent me to a pegasus flight school as a punishment, he then punished me for enjoying myself. Years later, after being kicked out of the house for not being married, I went to reconnect with my old best friend, and when I found out that I had been replaced I was hurt. I’ll be the first to admit, now, that I was out of line during my visit to her, and rightfully kicked out of that town, but it still hurt. The following years had been hard, what with little food, no home, no friends, and a lot of crying. It had been around two years living on my own when I was taken, and you already know the rest, I guess.” She seemed ashamed, and hurt.
Correction, that sickened her more than anything that she had dealt with before.
Daring Doo gave her a large, comforting hug, and continued to do so even as Vincent had limped over and joined the embrace. Both the pony and griffon prince whispering words of comfort and reassurance to the hurting griffoness.
After a few minutes of this, Gilda had managed to calm herself down, and the others had broken away, still rubbing her back softly. “Well, the crew an’ Ah would be happy ta have ya join us on the ship, but ya don’t have to make any decision yet.”
They both seemed appreciative of my offer, and smiled weakly at Daring and myself. “If y’all would excuse me, Ah’m gonna go up on deck, we’re gonna make port tomorrow.” Daring Doo followed me, leaning into my side and filling me with hope, as we entered the light of day again.
Rainbow Dash shut the book and cried.
She did this for a few minutes, trying her hardest to keep silent.
Finally, she regained her cool, and dunked her head in the cloud, allowing the condensation to cool her face off and refresh her. Then she took off for the Apple’s house to return the book, and hoping to forget about Big Mac and Fluttershy.
Applejack was patiently awaiting the return of her brother from his semi-blind date. She had managed to get all of his chores done, in addition to hers, and was now patiently waiting for the sound of hoofsteps as her doubtlessly lovestruck brother came down the road.
She sipped on her iced tea, hoping to distract herself from the vitally important results of the date. This motion distracted her for long enough, to allow Big Mac to round the corner without her noticing.
He began to stomp up to the porch and then she noticed him. “Howdy, loverboy.” she teased “how’d it go with Fluttershy?”
The icy glare that Big Mac gave her told her all that she needed to know. “Oh… W-what happened?”
He looked at her, his ears tucked back, and his brow furrowed slightly. “We got kicked out of the restaurant.”
Applejack’s mind almost broke.
There was almost nothing, besides unintentional destruction, that she could think of her brother doing to get kicked out of a restaurant. “What happened?”
He sighed, “We were too quiet, and it made the other customers ‘uncomfortable.’” He emphasized the last word with his hooves. “Ah ain’t allowed back there again.”
“Ah-Ah’m so sorry…” Applejack said, it was all her fault, after all.
“S’ alright.” He said as he started to walk inside. “Ah’m gonna shower, and then Ah think Ah’ll break out Ma’s old guitar. ‘S been a long day.”
Applejack felt guilt rip her heart in two as her brother walked into the house and away from her. She hadn’t even been sure that Fluttershy or Mac liked each other, and she just ruined it for both of them.
Rainbow Dash had returned the book, and was desperately needing to clear her mind. It had been a long day of crying and heartbreak, so she really needed to fly hard to some music.
Sadly, she had no real way to play music for her to fly to, so flying would have to stand as a substitute.
The dusk hours sent shadows and an assorted plethora of colors over the clouds and fields below, causing her mind to blank as she twisted around them.
As she flew, she could almost imagine the soft plucking of a guitar. The music grew, and even though it was quiet, It allowed her to find something to focus on, and completely lose herself. The consuming rhythms and tones steadily became more inspiring as she intensified her routine.
Finally the song came to an end, and she alighted on a cloud, allowing her newfound peace wash over her.
Then another song started.
Confusion dawned on Rainbow Dash as she pondered the possibilities of this. Suddenly it hit her that she hadn’t been imagining the first song, she had heard it.
This revelation caused her to search out the source of the almost heavenly music.
A short time scanning the area had resulted in locating the general source of the music as somewhere along a lake in the midst of one of the fields.
The lake would be incredibly hard to find, if she wasn’t able to fly. It was secluded, and the sunset caused a beautiful assortment of colors to splay across the surface of the water.
There was a small cliff, with an alcove located in it, that appeared to be the source of the music, the natural shape of the small cave amplifying the strumming of the guitarist.
Dash set down on the beach a few steps away from the edge of the cave. She slowly approached it, worried about the possible reaction of whoever was playing.
When she finally reached the mouth of the alcove, she peered in, seeing clear to the back of the cave where a pony was sitting on a stump, gently caressing the strings of his instrument. Upon closer inspection she realized that the pony was… “Mac?”
Her whispering alerted him to her presence, and both of them stared awkwardly, the music continuing as though Dash’s intrusion didn’t interrupt Mac at all.
A few more moments of uncomfortable semi-silence passed before either of them spoke. Then it all broke down.
“Howdy.”
“I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t know.”
“Rainbow.”
“I-I didn’t mean to.”
“Rainbow.”
“I just heard music, and I wanted to see-”
“Rainbow.”
“I just needed to know who was playing it.”
“Rainbow.”
“You know what I mean?”
“Rainbow, it’s alright.”
“Huh?”
By this point, Mac had stopped playing, walked over to her, and was looking into her eyes. “Ah said, It’s alright.”
“Oh…”
“Ya wanna stay ‘n listen?” Rainbow Dash’s heart began to pound against her ribcage.
“Sure.” She whispered.
Mac went back to playing, and Rainbow sat at the edge of the shore listening intently. Eventually, Mac reached a simpler part of the song and began to make conversation. “So why were ya out this way?”
“Oh, uh, I was doing some flying, and then I heard a guitar so I decided to check it out.” She could’ve died with how stupid that sounded. “S-speaking of which, I, uh, didn’t know that you played.”
Mac smiled a little, it was a genuine but hollow smile. “Eeyup, mah Ma’ taught me.”
Knowing how touchy Applejack was when talking about her parents, she began to panic. “Oh, I, um, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”
“It’s alright.” Big Mac assured her, “Ah’ve made mah peace.”
Dash nodded, before a shiver ran up her spine, reminding her of the late hour.
The shiver was subtle, but not enough to go unnoticed by Big Macintosh. “Ya cold?”
“Oh, no, I’m fine, I’m used to it, it gets cold in the clouds.” She reasoned, in vain, as Mac trotted over and placed himself in the way of the chilly night breeze. Before this moment, she had thought that there was absolutely no way that Mac could seem any more attractive, but now she was sitting on the beach, while the guy of her dreams sat next to her playing guitar.
Rarity never needed to know about this night.
“So Mac, did you do anything interesting today?”
“Heh,” He said, in a dry chuckle. “Well…” He proceeded to tell her all about his disastrous date with Fluttershy, and her hope grew with every passing word.
Maybe she did stand a chance.
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On another note, How would a pony play guitar?
....I know this is tagged as a tragedy......
but so help me...if there isn't an alternate HAPPY ending......
Or, you could spin it to actually end up happy....that'd be nice.
This next chapter is either going to be amazing or I will have to hunt you down and kill you... slowly
Phoenix feathers? That'd mean that a long time ago some batshit Griffon had to've ... Y'know... With a Phoenix...
HOW WOULD THAT EVEN WORK?
2434486 I was thinking eat. Then the whole burning and being reborn from the ashes thing kicks in, and brings the griffon with it.
2433265 the guitar thing... Heck if I know.
More
please? 
Read this up to here from chapter one. I will not lie, I have shrieked like a school girl
Question! Which story is the tragedy? You do realize you actually have two stories in one right?
So...which one: Mac/Daring, Mac/Rainbow......or both?
Until then, I will wait patiently in the shadows for the next update. *Slowly walks backwards into bush whilst looking to and fro*
...
...
...
...
2438561 alright, the original story wasn't going to extend beyond eight chapters, so the death of granny smith was the tragedy. That tag is outdated and superfluous.
I'm going to fix it soon.
2438616 *Sigh*
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/4500363264/hD734B1A1/
Good work, That was enjoyable.
I like how you got to play the meddling sister angle.
I also like the sad back story with Gilda and the prince.
Ah, can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
Good luck and I hope for the best in the future.
Bitches love guitars
I just found this story, and it is absolutely fantastic. I love the way you have wrapped two radically different stories around each other into a cohesive whole while keeping the interplay between them clear to the audience but subtle enough for Rainbow to believably miss. I also like the way you are naturally weaving known characters into the sea story, and even if it is a little odd for them to all converge there it makes sense given its nature as a dream.
Ah...now I really like your portrayal of Mac, because whenever I'm in emotional turmoil, and don't have the time or energy to bleed it off with running, I lunge for my guitar.
On the note as to how ponies could play guitar...earth ponies would be limited to barre-power chords and single notes, but a pegasus might be able to use his her wings. Unicorns are the trivial case.
Swing and a miss, AJ.
I can't help but feel that you could have made Mac's date either more creatively disastrous, or more succinct in its failure. "Kicked out of a restaurant for being too quiet" is not only ridiculously unlikely, but it also doesn't emphasize a lack of chemistry between him and Fluttershy; they could have been perfectly content staring silently into each others' eyes until they left, or had a good time after they left the restaurant. Obviously they DIDN'T, but I only know that because you, the author, were clearly trying to introduce and then discard the potential relationship as soon as possible.
Big Mac could have simply explained that they barely spoke a word to each other and both found it extremely uncomfortable; that would have been more meaningful and more plausible. But if you really wanted to go the extra mile, it would have been much more enjoyable to actually see a scene from the date, with each of them trying and failing to break the sense of awkward silence and only making things worse, and then becoming so desperate in their embarrassment that they end up causing a disturbance that WOULD get them kicked out of a restaurant.
I would like to finish by saying that this is the first and only criticism I have to offer so far. By and large this story is excellent, and I'm totally hooked.
Once again, you are an amazing author! Honestly, people sometimes laugh at me for reading these fan fictions but that's because they don't give it a chance. You wrote this beautifully, and I nearly cried while reading some parts. That hardly ever happens! Great job, and I am looking forward to this next chapter!