Exploration
Again, Big Mac’s cheeks were burning as he awoke from his dream. Even though Braeburn wasn’t upholding his promise, Mac was happy his red coat covered the blush he was sure to have at the moment. He once again had to deal with the discomfort of his secret crush appearing in his dream.
Mac heard his cousin’s alarm clock start ringing and he glanced over in time to watch Braeburn clumsily turn off the alarm. Braeburn then rolled over and settled back into a comfortable sleep, before snoring returned.
Big Macintosh shook his head as he realized that his cousin wasn’t about to get himself up as promised. He wrote down the latest chapter of the story and secured Braeburn’s hat and vest to his yoke.
Mac gently slipped his head under the sleeping form of the plains pony and slid him carefully over his back. Braeburn mumbled something unintelligent as his transportation left the room and took off towards the rodeo.
Braeburn had said that Big Mac didn’t have to get him up, so Mac was holding him to that promise.
Big Mac arrived at the Apple family stand at the rodeo and promptly dumped his payload on the floor.
Braeburn groaned in pain and squirmed. He rolled onto his side and picked his head up, looking around. The look on his face was one of utter confusion and disorientation. Finally, his eyes locked on the red posts that were Big Mac’s legs and things began to sink in.
His eyes followed the crimson trunks up to his cousin’s eyes, Braeburn’s ears were tucked back and he laughed sheepishly as Mac looked at down him.
“I guess I didn’t really get up when I said I would, did I?” Braeburn said, rubbing his neck.
“Nnope.”
Braeburn sighed, unable to figure out why he couldn’t ever get up when he was supposed to.
“Now, ‘elp me git the stand ready ta run.” Big Mac said, never being one to hold a grudge.
Rainbow found herself awake and unable to get back to sleep before her alarm went off. She tossed and turned, but was unable to coax her eyes to close in blissful sleep.
Eventually she decided that it would be easiest to get ready and just read until she had to go to work for the weather team.
She laid back down on her bed after showering and eating breakfast. She grabbed the journal and opened it to the page she had left off on.
I awoke to a gentle rapping on my door. Obviously one of my crew was trying to get my attention.
I rolled out of my hammock and hobbled over to the door, having not yet installed my prosthetic. I opened the door to find Smoky Mirror standing in the entrance.
“Captain!” she said, seeming almost surprised to find me there. “Uh, sorry, I didn’t want to wake you, but we’ve, um, found, uh, land.” She said, with an uncomfortable smile, apparently worried that I would make her trot the plank, or something.
“Thanks,” I nodded to her, “ Ah’ll be out soon.” I shut the door, leaving the immensely relieved mare out on the deck. Quickly I screwed my leg onto its mounting bracket, and tested the strength of the limb. I then went back to my closet, grabbing my hat and cape, but just as I was about to turn around I saw something.
There was a long, narrow, latched box tucked in the corner. I pulled it out, and fumbled with the combination lock for a few moments. It was useless, I had never been good at guessing games, and I didn’t have much time to deal with it. So I set it down and turned away from it.
I then brought my hind hoof down on it with enough force to smash the locking mechanism.
I lifted the top of the box and peered in. Contained within the box was a well-used cutlass and a pistol.
“Oh, of course.” Rainbow mumbled into her pillow, “He just happens to find a sword and a gun. That just happened.” She rolled her eyes, but was enjoying the story too much to find herself able to bash too much on the coincidences.
I lifted the blade, feeling the balance. Being used to the feel of farm equipment, this felt fantastic. It felt natural, and even though I had no idea how to properly use it, I felt as though I could fight an entire army with it if the opportunity presented itself.
My very limited experience with guns had left me with a certain distaste for the fires of war. Possibly because I had no idea how to properly fire the weapon when my father taught me as a little colt, and it ended up kicking back and hitting me in the face.
Rainbow Dash’s sides were aching. The mental image of Big Mac hitting himself in the face while trying to shoot a pistol was just too much for Rainbow. She laughed hard enough to draw tears from her eyes, and cause her sides to split.
I figured that these would be vitally important to my image as the captain, no matter how unprepared I was to use them, so I strapped on the holster and sheath. I grabbed the powder horn out of the box, as well as some ammunition and wadding, tucking them all into my belt.
I felt much more intimidating with all of these things on. I decided that my cape had just become significantly more important, until I better earn my crew’s trust. I threw the black fabric over my back, and checking that it adequately covered my newly acquired weapons.
I swung open the door and stepped on deck, feeling the worried glances from the extremely tired eyes of my crew. I looked over on the horizon and could see the dark mass of land looming up off the bow of the ship. I smiled at the sight, and could feel the crew relax.
Sea Dog came bounding up to my side. His ears were tucked back slightly and his tail was slightly low, like he was looking for my approval. “Cap’n,” He said, I could hear how tired he was. “We got ‘ere as fast as we could, but she ain’t sailin’ fast without tha mainsail.”
“Oh, come on,” Rainbow mumbled to the crew, “Big, Mac isn’t that scary.”
I smiled and nodded, causing his demeanor to perk up significantly. “Eeyup.” I looked around at all of the crew, all of which were trying to look like they hadn’t been watching intently. “Y’all, ‘ave done good.” Sighs and light cheers went out among the ponies and dogs. “Jus’ one more job, then y’all kin’ sleep.” Some murmuring went out. “Git’ her a little closer, n’ drop anchor, Ah’m gonna find us a mast.”
A surge of energy went out among the beings on deck as they rushed to bring us in. Soon the ship had been moored and the sails had been stowed. Almost everyone had gone to their respective bunks to get some well-earned sleep.
Almost. “Cap’n,” Sea Dog said, not willing to let me go by myself. “Ye jus’ don’t know what’ll be out there.”
“Eeyup, but Ah kin’ handle mahself.” I pulled my cape back enough to reveal the intimidating blade attached to my side, causing his eyes to bulge slightly.
After a few more minutes of arguing, I had finally agreed to allow him to come with me to land. Then we lowered the dinghy to the water and began to row to shore. Way before we were ashore, he had curled up and fallen asleep, looking like a sweet little puppy.
Rainbow, having been in direct contact with diamond dogs before, couldn’t imagine one ever looking like a ‘sweet little puppy.’
I hauled the little boat on shore and then scanned the surrounding areas for a tall pine from which to make a mast. Finally I located a grove of the looming evergreens in the distance, and began to walk out in that direction.
I wandered through the woods for a little while, then I noticed something weird. There was a sort of brick walkway on the forest floor. It was ancient and worn, breaking away, and overgrown; but it was there. I decided to follow it, as it seemed to be heading in a similar direction.
I saw some soft hoofprints in the loamy soil surrounding the ancient path, as well as destroyed vegetation nearby. There were also signs of scratching and clawing. All of these were heading in the same direction as myself.
Finally, the reason for the path was evident. As a gigantic temple loomed into view. The structure was ancient and obviously untouched; except for the door.
I approached and saw that somepony had just recently dislodged it from its previous resting place. Hoof prints were more obvious around the entrance, as were the deep ridges formed from the use of claws.
I looked down the dark passage, feeling the cool, stale air rushing out from the depths of the structure.
Then something moved, deep in the torch-lit tunnel. I took a step back as I realized that it was heading my way. Steadily the shape of this thing became increasingly evident. Then it burst out of the tunnel, revealing itself to be a pony mare.
The panicked look in her eyes was painfully obvious as she leapt, extending strange-looking wings to gain altitude. I ducked, and she soared, haphazardly, over my head.
“I bet it’s Daring Doo.” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically, seriously doubting that Big Macintosh had ever even heard of the stories before.
I stood upright again, looking back at her as she skidded to a halt. She stared at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity, before screaming, “NO! Not another one!”
I recoiled slightly at the outburst, then responded as adequately as I could, while she cracked the whip she had pulled off of her wing. “Uhh, another what, exactly?”
The anger on her face melted away into confusion. “D-don’t you know what’s in there?” She said, gesturing towards the open door of the temple.
I looked back, evaluating the opening, and made the best educated guess that I could. “Spiders?”
She chuckled slightly and pulled something out of her pouch, “So, I guess you’re not after this?”
I examined the sparkly trinket, and shook my head. “Ah’m a sailor, lookin’ fer a new mast.” Then I looked back down the passageway again. “What were ya runnin’ from anyway?”
Having been reminded of her pursuit, she threw the object back in her bag and said, “Oh, yeah, we better hurry! He’ll be out soon.” She then took off down the path, and I did my best to keep up with her, my false leg holding me back.
I was held up long enough to hear a truly disturbing laugh echo up from the depths of the tunnel.
I galloped as fast as my three-and-a-half legs would carry me, slowly loosing the mare ahead of me. She wore more clothes than anypony I had ever seen before. She had a pith helmet, and a tan explorer’s shirt. Something seemed eerily familiar about her, her coat was a sandy-tan color, while her mane and tail were a greyscale progression. The most colorful thing about her appearance was her magenta eyes, that I was sure I had seen before.
“Wait, is it Daring?” there was no way that this story could get that good.
Finally, I was fed up with not knowing what we were running from, and just before she left earshot, I called out to her. “Wait! Miss!”
I could see her glance back, then realize that I had called out to her. She dug her hooves into the ground and flared her wings out, bringing herself to a quick stop. She looked around worriedly, as though I were holding her up too much, but she waited anyway for me to limp up.
“What’s holdin’ ya up?” She asked of me, obviously exacerbated by my delay.
I simply replied by lifting my cape up enough to reveal a cracked and beaten old table leg in place of my hind leg. The look on her face made her shock obvious.
“Now, what’re we runnin from?” I asked, with some of my breath back, but before I could respond, I heard the light tapping of padded feet stalking down the old path. I turned around, as the demonic laughing from the temple came through the brush.
“That, is what we’re running from.” My guide said, pointing with a hoof at the large, blue, beast that stepped out of the plants.
It had a long face, with the eyes mounted at the end. His front appendages were tipped with paws that were better suited for grasping, much like the paws of the Diamond Dogs on my ship. Its body was covered in tattoos and jewelry and rows of serrated teeth filled its maw while it smiled menacingly at my accomplice. The most interesting thing, though, was its long tail, tipped with another paw like it had on its front legs.
“I am most impressed, Daring Doo.” He said, his deep voice sweet as honey, with the sting of the bees. “You may have managed to escape my trap, and defeat my cats, but I am one step ahead of you. Now, hand over the scepter, and I will allow you and,” then he turned to me, looking at me with a certain uncertainty. “...Whoever this is, go free.” He finished with a smile befitting of a cobra.
Rainbow Dash gasped, “It IS Daring Doo!” She squirmed with excitement as her two favorite books combined into one clever story.
Before her elation could progress any further, however, a buzzing drew her attention, as her alarm began going off.
“What? No!” She screamed, desperate to know what happened next. “It can’t be time for work, not yet!” Unable to convince herself that she could keep reading, she marked her page, determined to come back to it after she finished with work.
A day of cloud busting had never seemed to last that long for Rainbow Dash, it wasn’t an abnormally cloudy day or anything, time just ticked by so slowly. Finally as her shift ended, and she punched out, she took off for home. Vapor trails curled off of the end of her wings as she flew. Her rainbow contrail streaking across the sky.
She hardly slowed as she reached her cloud house and barreled through the door and up to her bed where she grabbed the book and settled back in to story mode.
“Ahuizotol, you will never get this scepter! You just want to use it for power, it has many other uses, and belongs to the ponies of Equestria for study.” The pony, apparently named Daring Doo, said.
The creature rolled his beady eyes and said, “Of course I want it for power, The Serpent’s Scepter can allow one to rule the world.” He was beaming with the notion of world domination. “So give it over.”
Now it was my turn to talk. “Wait, what?” maybe it wasn’t my most intelligent interjection but I wanted to know what was happening.
Rainbow snickered at Mac’s cluelessness.
Both of the two bickering beings turned to look at me. “Who is this, by the way?” The blue thing asked Daring Doo, while pointing at me with one of the fingers on its tail.
Daring Doo shrugged, “I dunno, I almost tackled him when I came out of the temple. Apparently he was just looking for a mast for his ship.”
“Let me see if Ah got this right,” I said, rubbing my temple. “Yer tryin’ ta take over the world, and yer tryin’ ta stop him?” I said, pointing to the possessor of each goal. They nodded, each one seeming annoyed by my mere presence. “Alright, just checkin’.”
They went back to their stare down, no longer paying me any attention. I took my chance and pulled out my pistol. I sighted in the exposed ribcage of the blue monster.
The sound of the muzzleloading weapon caused all the ambient noises in the forest to cease. Birds stopped singing, frogs stopped croaking, leaves stopped rustling, and the two “explorers” stopped bickering.
Both of them looked at me with an expression of horror, and the monster with one of anger. I blew the smoke from the barrel of the handgun before holstering it. The breathing of the blue thing became labored as the lead ball settled itself into his lungs. It attempted to lash out at me with the claws on its tail, but the blood loss and collapsed lung were too much for it.
The mighty foe had fallen.
I looked from the wheezing form on the ground to the mare whom it had been chasing.
“D-did Mac just kill Ahuizotol?” Rainbow stared stunned at the pages in front of her eyes. “And did he just use ‘whom’ correctly? How would he know how to use ‘whom’?”
“Well, that’s done, let’s go miss.” Truthfully, I could barely believe what I had just done, killing had never been something I wanted to do, but in this case seemed like it may have been necessary.
I began walking off, Daring Doo staring at the limp form of her enemy. I stopped and looked back, “You comin’? Ya look like ya could use a doctor, ‘n Ah got one on tha ship, she could probably fix up yer wing.”
She looked away from the dead treasure hunter and to the scarred and burned appendages at her sides. “Yeah... That might be a good idea.” She still seemed to be out of it.
She followed me for a while in silence, no words passed between us in the blissful silence that apparently annoyed everypony else.
Rainbow’s ears perked up a little bit, “So, he knows that nopony else likes the awkward silence that surrounds him?” She scratched her head, “So why doesn’t he break the silence?”
Finally my traveling companion decided to break the spell of silence. “So... We were never properly introduced.”
“Eeyup.” I agreed.
She was silent for a few more moments, probably hoping that I would begin. Then she took the initiative. “My name’s Daring Doo, explorer extraordinaire, adventurer, and professor at Hoofington University during my down time.” She said with pride at all of her titles.
“Macintosh Apple, ship captain.” I put simply.
“Ooohh, a captain,” She observed, raising an eyebrow. “So... What brings you here again, ‘Captain Macintosh’?” She inquired, favoring my title.
“Ah told ya, a storm broke out, n’ destroyed mah mast.” I turned my head, to look in the direction of the pines that were my original target.
She must have thought that I was disappointed in the turn of events, so she shut her mouth. Once again, we were plunged into semi-silence as we approached the beach where my dinghy and first mate were; and judging by the sounds that I heard, my second-in-command had awoken.
“Captain!” I heard his scratchy voice call, full of worry. “Where are you?”
“Right ‘ere, Dog.” I announced, as my partner and myself emerged from the vegetation. “N’ we got company.”
“Was he calling him Dog, like his name, or like the animal?” Rainbow pondered.
He didn’t seem to pay much attention to my guest, “Oh, good, yer back. I ‘eard gunshots, ‘n they woke me up. I was hopin’ they weren’t at ye.”
“Nnope, from me.” I corrected him.
“Ahh, gettin’ some practice?” He said, with an uneasy smile.
“Nnope,” poor guy was in for a shock, “Killin’ someone.”
Sea Dog’s jaw dropped in shock, his tail curled under himself, and he shied away from me slightly.
“I never thanked you for that, by the way.” Daring Doo remembered, “I really do appreciate it.”
“It was nothin’. I couldn’t just stand there while he tried ta’ take yer trinket, n’ tha world.” Actually, I hoped to never have to take another life, but I was worried that my hope was in vain.
“Wait,” Sea Dog had decided to join the conversation. “A-are y-y-you D-Daring Doo?”
The mare in question adjusted her hat and shirt, pride evident on her face. “Yessir! I was hunting down the Serpent’s Scepter, when Ahuizotol showed up.” She was obviously an excellent story-teller, judging by how much she was getting into it.
“Well, duh.” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes at Big Mac’s stupidity, “She writes stories about her adventures.”
Sea Dog’s tail had resumed its happy dancing, as she began recounting her latest adventure. As entertaining as the story was, there was more pressing business we needed to attend to. “Uh, excuse me, we should get to the ship. Ms. Doo needs medical attention, n’ the ship does too.” I said while ushering the other two into the rowboat.
When they got in the boat, I pressed my shoulder against it and pushed it out into the open water. She told us about her adventures until we got to the ship.
As we were hauled aboard, I noticed that all of the crew, except Grog, had got up and were prepping the ship. I stepped on board and immediately called Stitch up.
The twitchy unicorn was standing as still as she could while I gave her orders. “This mare needs attention to ‘er wings, ya got it?”
“Um, uh, y-yes S-SIR!” She saluted me, before turning to my companion. “R-right this w-way, Miss-... You’re Daring Doo...” She said with shock, drawing a gasp from the entire crew, as they crowded around her, trying to catch a glimpse of the, now bashful, explorer.
Apparently I was the only one who hadn’t heard of her before.
“Wait... Is he serious, or is it just part of the story?” Rainbow mused, “Because, he must have heard of her to know that much about her adventures.” She reasoned with herself.
“Alright, ya lazy bums, git this crate ready ta go, n’ beach her, Ah found some trees fer a mast.” I commanded, and quickly they rushed to do as I had commanded.
Stitch led Daring Doo off to where she had her medical equipment, and I watched over the ship as, again, I led my ship and crew to an unknown destination.
As Rainbow Dash finished the chapter, she looked at her clock and noticed something important.
“Oh, No! I promised Pinkie Pie that I would join her for dinner!” As she rushed out of the door, she left the book open on her bed.
Stats
Page generated in 0.038 seconds
Total duration
803 users online
658,773 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hey, all you guys! Someone wrote a prequel and you can find it...
Here.
And I listened to you guys to make it longer.
Have fun!
holly crap.........this is a true story isnt it...... like Big Mac is putting down something that happed in the guies as a story. He eventually gets his leg healed........ Or Im guessing wildly
1734114
oh you made me blush !!
and i really am loved this chapter, and i may of acted out the pistol firing scene while reading haha
Another great chapter! Still curious about that whole crush business, considering the only canon pony in his story that Big Mac ever had the chance to meet would be...
Oh my.
1736415 Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyup.
MK
Really enjoyed this chapter and can hardly wait for the next. I've noticed some improvement on your writing abilities as this story goes on, keep up the good work!
1744709 Thanks for the feedback!
, but I'm warning you, I will not confirm or deny anything
And I must say, I love that you guys are making predictions
I havent become this enthralled with a story ever since the immortal game. im reading through chapters at an amazing rate not even spending 5 minutes in most of them. i am that enthralled in this story, only reason why i writing this now is because i need to express my gratitude thank you good sir
Yeah, okay, sorry mate but you're just not really grabbing my attention here. It's just too boring. I don't know how it's possible that the pacing is too fast and too slow at the same time but... Eh?
The framing device is kinda cool, and obviously Dash is gonna show up later in the dreams as the one and only pegasus on the ship, and the Captain's love interest... but I just can't stick with it long enough to get to that part. The dialog ought to be punchier, and the Mac/Braeburn segments... they're just kind of out of place. I don't see what their point is, really. I'm sure you'll get there but right now they're brief, detail-free interludes about... Braeburn being kinda lazy?
Mac's a bit of a badass, yeah? Shooting someone and being all chill about it. Also:
Ah, Dash, always the sucker for Daring. If she shows up in the book herself, yikes...
~Skeeter The Lurker
For obvious reasons that gun scene reminded me of this.
2755366
Agreed, because the story could have been about anyone but it focuses mainly on Mac and Dash so it makes it easy to assume that it's a fic about there relation.
~ArmageddonMoose
2752768
I'm thinking the crew members are all allegories for the ponies in Mac's real life, it is a dream after all.
Smokey Mirrors=The Great and Powerful Trixie
Grog=Braeburn?
Daring Doo=Rainbow Dash/secret crush?
These are just off the top of my head of course, but it may show how Mac's dreams apply to his every day life.
I baet it actually hapoend (except for granny dying) and celestia regrew his leg and erassed everyponys memorey
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/082/c/4/fuck_yeah_meme_vector_by_henskii-d4tnpu1.jpg
Okay, can I just say what an amazing job you did? You just combined a fiction story of your own creation (which I am totally hooked on!!!) with an MLP story that flows wonderfully! You are a really good author! Keep it up!