3
Silence permeated the room as Mac laid in bed next to the call girl. He stared at the ceiling as he contemplated the steps he took to bring him here.
"Oh my... Mr Apple, I had no idea—"
"It ain't your fault, miss," he replied softly.
Another silence filled the room.
"I hope you find her, Macintosh," Cinnamon whispered.
"Me too."
That night, he dreamt of her. His dreams seemed to be the only place he found refuge from the terrible world he was forced to live in. A world without his wife and son was a world he'd just as soon burn to the ground. In his dreams, he was with her. In his dreams, he was with his son. Zap and Rainbow sat on a blanket, his son babbling as his mother gave him a bottle. The picnic basket was overflowing with fresh vegetables and a bottle of incredibly overpriced champaign. It was one of the things Rainbow always did with her money, though he always made it a point to question why she came home with a five hundred bit bottle of bubbly when a twenty bit bottle would have served just as well.
"Money is like the wind, Mac. You only feel it when it's moving." She would always say. That fit her personality to a 'T'. She was all about flash and appearances. He was just fine without.
Sure as his dream began with a lovely picnic, it always ended in a cold sweat. The clouds above them would darken, and a gale would whip up out of nowhere. This gale would blow his wife and son away from him, as though they were made of straw. In an instant they were gone, replaced by nothing but the cold wind of an oncoming storm. Mac found himself wrapped in it, unable to escape from it. An ordinary stallion would have abhorred sleep, if it brought him the same horrifying visions night after night. However, he embraced sleep. He embraced the dream that brought him close to those he'd lost, if only for an instant.
Besides his love of family, a different force drove him. A different, angry fire rose within him. It was the lust for revenge. It fueled him, in his darkest hour, it drove him. In his weakest state, it gave him strength. He would find those who took his Rainbow from him, those who blotted out his sun, and make them pay. Of that, he was sure.
Months earlier...
"C'mon, Bug, pump those wings!" Rainbow cheered as her son scrunched in exertion. He was almost to the cloud his mother sat on, a mere two feet off the ground. Though, it might as well have been a mile.
Zap's wings tried, but eventually sputtered out as he landed on his hooves.
"Aw, you were so close that time!" Dash said, stepping off her cloud and next to her disappointed son.
"I'm never gonna get it!" Zap whined.
"Not with that attitude!" Rainbow countered. "Don't worry Zap, flying takes time. Now lets go, we can't be late for school again." Rainbow picked her son up off the ground and threw him onto her back. "Hang on tight!" she said, zipping through the air and heading towards the single room schoolhouse of Ponyville.
She landed softly, setting her flank down so her son might slide off it. "Alright buddy, have a good day at school, and Daddy and I will take you to the lake, okay?"
Zap's eyes lit up. "You mean it?! The lake?"
"You bet, kiddo. Now go on, before you're tardy," Dash insisted. School was never her strong suit, but she'd be damned if she didn't at least give her son the chance to become an egghead.
Satisfied that her motherly duties had been completed for the day, she streaked back to the farm as fast as possible, to spend the few precious hours without their son with Macintosh. While flying overhead, she noticed a familiar orange coated mare lose control of an applecart. More worrying, the applecart held her and Soarin's infant daughter atop it as it careened down a hill toward catastrophe. Rainbow sprung into action, zipping down to ground level and catching up to the speeding cart as it raced down the abandoned country road.
Dash plucked the infant from atop the apples just in time as the applecart smashed into a ditch. Rainbow flew to Applejack and set her daughter down next to her.
"Geez, AJ, be a bit more careful with your kid!"
"Well, you know me, I'm just a dumb hillbilly," Applejack replied.
Dash raised an eyebrow. "What the heck are you—" a solid crack on the back of her head interrupted her as she fell to the ground. An enclosed chariot pulled up along the road as 'Applejack' bathed in a sea of green light, reveling her true form, as well as the babe she carried. Both changelings. Out of the chariot stepped a familiar villain.
"Restrain her, and put her in the trunk," he said. "Ready yourselves for act two."
The school bell rang and Zap darted out of the front doors, always one of the first to leave. He bounded excitedly into the schoolyard, looking around for his mother. She was usually waiting for him outside, but today she seemed a bit late.
"Zap!" A familiar voice called to him as he turned. His mother trotted down the street smiling the same smile to which he'd grown accustomed.
"Momma!" he sang, running towards her. They embraced, but almost instantly, Zap noticed something... off, about his mother.
"Mom? Are you alright?" she felt... cold, as though he was hugging a statue of his mother.
"Of course! Now let's head home so you can knock out your homework and have some fun!"
Zap smiled. He recalled her promise to take him to the lake. He only hopped his Dad would get in the water this time.
A covered chariot pulled up along the road and Dash walked towards it.
"We aren't flying home?" he asked, a hint of sadness in his voice.
His mother seemed puzzled. "Uh... no! A very special friend of Momma's sent this to come pick us up!"
Hesitantly, Zap climbed inside, followed by his mother. Inside, sat a unicorn with a hat and a apple segment cutie mark.
"Is this your friend, Momma?" Zap asked, turning to his mother. But when he looked at her, his mother was gone. Only the horrifying visage of a changeling stood in her place. Zap tried to scream, but a cloth covered his mouth. A cloth that soon made him sleepy. In seconds, he was unconscious.
Flim smiled. "Take us to the safe house. Her Highness will want to know of our success."
Mac awoke with the sun piercing through the curtains. He had the same dream again. It pained him, but at the same time, it drove him. He gathered his duster, his hat, and his weapons off the chair he'd hung them. Cinnamon stirred in her sheets, opening her bleary eyes to look at the stallion preparing to leave her.
"Not even a goodbye kiss?" she asked.
"Ah'm afraid not, Ma'am," Mac replied.
"This wife of yours must be somethin' special."
Mac nodded. "She is."
"Well then, I wish ya luck. If you're ever back this way, don't be afraid ta look me up. Just cause I'm a mare of the evening don't mean I ain't got a need for friends."
Mac tipped his hat. "Ah'll keep that in mind."
With that, he strode out the door and down the stairs of the boarding house, but not before loading up on a few supplies for the road. Sure, fried oats and hay cakes may not last him long, but they were hard to come by out there in the wilderness. He saddled his gear and set off back into town. He was stuck in this town until he got a lead, and seeing as how he killed the crime boss with the knowledge of who had taken the blue mare and her son, he was truly shit out of luck.
The most productive thing he could think to do was head back to the saloon. If it weren't a smoldering heap. With nothing else to do, he headed to the town whorehouse. After all, it was said that Cherry ran most of the brothels around the frontier lands. Might be that one of his girls had overheard something about his latest score.
The Shining Doorknob was not the most subtly named of houses of ill repute, but it just made it that much easier to find. As soon as Mac entered, he was greeted by a bevy of fine beauties, all at his beck and call, for the right price. But none of that interested him. He wanted information, not tail.
"Can one of you ladies tell me about Cherry's latest job?" he asked the group of mares that had surrounded him, each vying for his bits, and his stallion hood.
An older, uglier mare stepped forward, the madame of the house. "You want to know about Cherry, do ya?" she asked, slugging a shot of hard liquor and spitting out a lip of tobacco. "I got all the information a stallion could ever want, for the right price," she replied, smiling.
Mac sighed. "Ah got thirty bits Ah'm willing' ta part with, miss..."
"Flowers." She eyed him. "You're cute. That'll do. Come on upstairs with me."
Mac followed the haggard old mare upstairs and into a dingy room stained with things Mac would rather not think about.
"So, what is it you wish to find out here in the wild lands?" she asked, lighting a cigarette.
"My wife and son. I hear Cherry had somethin' ta do with their disappearance," Mac answered plainly.
"Aye, that he did. Him and the oldtowne gang. Made quite the tidy profit off them."
Mac perked up. Perhaps this old crone would be of some use after all.
"I got good bits for ya if you can tell me where the blue mare and her son were taken."
"Aye, I can tell ya, and you can keep your money. But first, I'll need ya to do somethin' for me."
Mac slept on a bed with a roof over his head again that night. His task given to him by Ms Flowers had been one of dubious moral standing. She wanted a stallion in town dead. By her words, he was a rapist, and notorious abuser of her girls that put fear in their hearts whenever he were to show up demanding service on credit. Credit he never paid.
But still, Mac was no mercenary. He was simply a lone stallion looking for his wife and son. Not some hired gun to sort out the squabbles of whores and whoremongers. And yet, Cinnamon had been so kind to him. To think all she probably knew was cruelty, and the rest of the girls more than likely only knew the same. Was it so wrong for him to rid the world of a stallion with such heartless intentions? He thought not, but he couldn't be sure.
When Mac slept that night, a different dream came to him. A horrifying nightmare the likes of which he would give anything to her royal highness Princess Luna to erase forever. The day his perfect life was shattered.
Macintosh paced back and forth across the living room floor of his farmhouse, while the rest of his family sat around him. It had been twelve hours since the last time he saw his wife and son. He now knew what madness must feel like. The royal guards had dispatched search parties, but there was no sign of them anywhere.
A knock at the door drew the entire houses attention. He answered the door quickly, though a pony in a black suit with a white coat and odd eyes greeted him.
"Mr. Apple?" he asked.
"Eeyup. You find Rainbow?"
The pony remained expressionless.
"I'm afraid not, but their Royal Highnesses have summoned you at once."
Mac withdrew. "What? Ah can't leave, my son and wife are—"
The mysterious pony held up a hoof. "I assure you, Mr. Apple, the Princesses are aware of your plight, and will only aid you, should you accept their invitation."
"Who is it, Mac?" Applejack asked from the living room.
Mac looked back at the pony in black.
"Someone from the capital. He wants me ta go with him to help find Rainbow. I'll be back by mornin'," Mac replied, stepping out onto the porch and closing the door.
"What do you know?"
"Nothing that can safely be discussed here," he whispered. "Come back to the capital, and we will tell you everything."
Against his better judgement, Mac followed the stallion to a waiting chariot pulled by royal guards. Once aloft, he turned to his mysterious guide.
"Just who are you, anyway?"
Only now did Mac realize his guide's pupils were not that of a regular pony's, but that of one of Luna's loyal night guards.
"My name is agent Bentgrass. I'm a Company stallion."
Mac had heard of Company stallions. Operators with the highest levels of security clearance, privy to secret information even the princesses may not be aware of.
"And you know where my family is?"
Bentgrass smiled. "I don't, but we've got a few promising leads."
By morning, Mac would know more about his wife and son's abduction than he ever thought possible.
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Bentgrass is in this story as well! And holy crap I was so happy to see a update! Can't wait for more!
quote]bed next to his the call girl.Extra word?
supplies
Missing apostrophe.
Holy shite. I was not expecting them to be involved. Flim and Flam, sure, but not them. And let's see... to get back his wife and son, the mare who happens to be (both a Wonderbolt? I can't remember, and) the Element of Loyalty, whilst ridding Equestria of its enemies...
...Mac's a Company Stallion now, isn't he?
Hmm, how shall ever-so-Special Agent Bentgrass factor in to the tale?
Glad to have ya back, sir, and good to know that at least someone is writing Bentgrass...
Wow. I hope Mac can start search for Rainbow and Zaps soon. I wonder will he even recognize them, or will they be under the changling's spell.
Oh, how lovely to finally see another chapter in this series. Thank you for keeping to your word, Maximus, I appreciate that so very much. I can only look forward to the next chapter.
'QUESTRIA!
I was thrilled to get this update! It's been awhile and always leaves me wanting more.
Woo! BENTGRASS!
It's alive...IT'S ALIVE!!
Just...I'm kinda havin' trouble keepin' up with this, I get the basic jist but it confuses me when I break it down to each given word
kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I hope that gives you my feelings from this chapter.
Glad to see this fic is back!
Would someone be so kind as to tell me why everyone is making a big deal over this Bentgrass fellow? Which fic is he from?
I had completely forgotten about this... Glad to see it back
I really hope Flim & Flam gets what's coming for them.
...What was the phrase? "The best way to destroy a man is to take from him everything he holds dear to his heart, and remind him of it every single day for the rest of his life. But doing so, you also create a terrifying monster that will stop at nothing to get his revenge."
I can't remember it verbatim, but that's the gist of it.
Ooooo, Bentgrass. That's an interesting addition.
Any more work to speak of on this story? I find myself missing it.
Will this be updated?