The Teachings of Lost Love

by ChaoticHarmony

Markets, Celery and Stallions Whipped

[}—–{ Lessons of Lost Love }–—{]

Markets, Celery and Stallions Whipped

---

The red stallion cast his gaze furiously about the marketplace, searching for the one pony that inadvertently evaded his eyes. At his back was the hard-yet-soft wall of the turnip stand, the pony at the front of said stand looking down at him with an expression of confusion which was easily ignored by Big Macintosh as he continued his mission. As a group of gossiping mares crossed his vision, the stallion couldn’t help but feel a twinge of irritation when they stopped and stood right where he was searching.

Big Macintosh slowly edged away so that he could look around the ponies, his field of view becoming slightly more mare-free. When they suddenly moved away, he was greeted with the thing that he had been searching for. A thrill of fear and excitement passed through his body as he stared at the stallion that was standing in front of the onion stand, suddenly turning into terror as the pony started turning towards him. Performing a stunt that he had read about in one of the Con Mane novels that he had read in his spare time, more commonly known as a barrel roll, he slammed his back up against another stall with his breath coming in short gasps.

As slowly as a stallion his size could manage, Big Macintosh poked his head around the corner, ready to whip back behind it at the slightest sign of his target spotting him. Said target was still standing across the street, now bartering with the cherry vendor for a better price on the stand’s specialty. After a few seconds of watching them argue, Big Macintosh felt yet another trembling wave of excitement pass through him as the stallion turned to the side and started walking to a new stand. Unfortunately, the excitement was washed away by the torrent of disappointment that came splashing down onto him as he spotted the stallion’s Cutie Mark. Horseapples, t’ain’t him.

“Hey buddy, you gonna buy something or what?” Big Macintosh nearly jumped on top of the stand at the sudden intrusion of the shopkeeper’s voice into his search. As it was, he was jolted out of his trance and he looked up into the annoyed eyes of the stand’s owner. “You gonna buy some celery or are we gonna sit here all day ‘till you make up your mind?”

Big Macintosh cast a confused glance down to the mentioned vegetables, noting how pathetic some of the stalks looked in comparison to the ones that he had seen down the street and how their prices were even higher. “Nnnope.“ He stepped away from the sad, wilted leaves and shook his head, watching as the shopkeeper’s face grew darker.

“Then get out of here! You’re bothering my customers.” The farm pony looked around bemusedly, noting with a raised eyebrow at the fact that nopony else even cast a glance at the stand in question. “Go on, get!” Turning away blindly and smacking headlong into something slightly soft, Big Macintosh raised a snicker from the pony who had sent him away.

“Big Mac? What are you doing here?” The stallion whipped around, bringing himself face to face with the pony that he wanted to see the least of at the moment.

“Ah should ask you the same thing.” Cheerilee flinched backwards as if he had shouted, his voice coming off a lot ruder than he had meant it to be. Big Macintosh felt a rush of shame as the teacher stared at him with wounded eyes, and cleared his throat before speaking again in a much softer tone. “Ah mean, Ah’m just… uh… out shoppin’.” A few seconds of semi-silence followed his words, within which Cheerilee glanced over his body in search of the nonexistent shopping basket or a similar article.

Upon finding nothing, Cheerilee couldn’t hide her amusement. “Yeah, shopping. Okay, Big Macintosh Apple. If you say you’re shopping then you’re shopping.”

Pushing past the mare’s raised eyebrow and knowing smile, Big Macintosh plowed on. “What are you doin’ here?”

Cheerilee turned slightly to reveal her semi-worn saddlebags. “Shopping? Why else would I come to the market?” Walking past him towards the front of the stall, the teacher grabs a bundle of celery and tosses it into her saddlebags after throwing a few bits up onto the counter. Noticing Big Mac’s obvious expression at her purchase, she smiled and trotted close enough to whisper into his ear. “I have to have something to feed my hamsters, don’t I? It’s not like I’m going to eat this wrinkled stuff.” Cheerilee and Big Macintosh chuckled at the disgusted look the stand’s owner shot at them before sweeping the celery from the counter and slamming down a Closed sign onto the worn wood.

“So, Big Mac, what kind of things were you shopping for?” Cheerilee turned away and started off towards another of the many stalls that dotted the sides of the street. “Besides nearly wilted celery?”

Big Macintosh knew that he had no option in events and resigned himself to following the mare that would just drag him along somehow if he refused. “Uh, nothin’ special. Ah was just… uh… scoutin’ out the best place to set up our stand.” The stallion cursed himself as he looked around the marketplace, regretting his lack of ability to make up a quick lie.

Cheerilee followed his glance about the nearly full street that had absolutely no space for an apple stall. “Riiiight.” The mare rolled her eyes at the stallion’s deadpan face and giggled before turning her attention back to her shopping. “So how has your day been going, Big Mac?”

“Uh, what?” The words left his mouth with all the grace of a swan, minus the actual swan part.

“Two turnips please.” Cheerilee tossed a few bits onto the counter and turned back to her stallion escort with an amused expression on her face. “I asked you how your day has been.” Big Macintosh opened his mouth to answer but the only thing that came out from it was a loud grumble. “Um, excuse me, Big Mac?” The stallion turned an even deeper red as he shook his head and opened his mouth again to answer her, the words coming out as loud and almost dog-like growls. Cheerilee couldn’t suppress a giggle as the farm pony jammed his hooves into his mouth to stifle the earth-rumbling sounds.

Giggling again as the stallion threw her a helpless glance, Cheerilee walked over and grabbed his hoof. “All right, Big Mac, let’s go get you something to eat before you cause the Ponyville Earthquake Response Team to start running through the town again.”

“Big Mac?! Miss Cheerilee?!” The slightly less-accentuated voice of Big Macintosh’s younger sister, Applebloom, punctured the air with a fearful note. “What are you two doing out here together?”

“Oh nothing, Applebloom, we just ra-“ Cheerilee froze for a second as she spotted the other two crusaders slowly coming up to them, a large wagon in tow. “Well, we were going out to get some lunch together, that’s all.” To solidify the lie, she turned and winked very visibly in the direction of Big Macintosh, who had the sense enough to wink back. She could barely suppress the smile that was working to break through her mask of innocence, which when coupled with the laughter that was bubbling within her was nearly impossible task to accomplish. When she turned back to the filly, Cheerilee was pleased to see that the pony’s expression was one of disbelief and sheer terror.

The other two crusaders, still oblivious to their friend’s predicament, were still bickering back and forth. “I say that we use ten rockets each!” Cheerilee began trotting away happily, awaiting the results of her work with an attentive ear as she distanced herself and Big Macintosh away from the potentially ear damaging noise that was sure to erupt any second when her plan came into fruition.

“Ten is too much! Last time we only used two and we ended u-“

“Sweetie Belle, you worry too much. Applebloom here thinks ten is a good number too, right Applebloom?” A moment of silence passed, within which the other two crusaders looked around to see their third member staring at nothing in particular. “Uh, Applebloom?”

Sweetie Belle waved a hoof in front of the yellow pony’s eyes, putting on a minor pouting face when she didn’t get a reaction. “I think she’s in shock about something.” She looked to the bold pegasus of the trio for guidance, receiving only a shrug in return. “Well, I’ll just do what I saw Rarity do to Rainbow Dash when she was sleeping in the costume closet of the boutique.” The filly trotted off with the air of a pony on a mission, leaving the orange pegasus to stare at the frozen-in-place Applebloom.

“How on earth is she going to do that?” Scootaloo reached out with a hoof and poked Applebloom, watching with slightly suppressed laughter as the filly rocked back and forth like some sort of rocking chair. “She’s like a statue.” Suddenly she found herself with an answer to her metaphorical question, dripping with water that was flung from a bucket by Sweetie Belle. Recovering her wits, Scootaloo shook her whole body in a manner reminiscent of Winona before turning on the unicorn. “What did you do that for!?”

Sweetie Belle made a shushing gesture before trotting over to Applebloom, who was still staring off at nothing. “Even that didn’t work. What happened to her?!” She tossed the bucket down onto the ground, the loud clang seeming to snap the stunned pony into speaking, or rather stuttering.

“B-b-b-b-b-b-“

“She’s talking!” Scootaloo pushed past Sweetie and took the filly’s face into her hooves, staring intently into the shuddering eyes. “What is it, Applebloom?”

“B-Big Mac a-an Miss Ch-Ch-Cheerilee a-are-“

A few streets over, Cheerilee and Big Macinosh were slowly making their way over to the restaurant, sharing a small amount of laughter as they waited for the sound that indicated their impromptu plan had been a success. Needless to say, they didn’t have to wait long, the fillies’ signature scream blasting apart the sounds of anything else. ”Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

After recovering from her laughter, Cheerilee gently knocked her hoof against Big Mac’s shoulder and smiled. “Is that ever going to be unsatisfying?”

“Nnnope.” Big Macintosh let out another soft laugh. “Them fillies decided we should be together, Miss Cheerilee, an’ Ah’d hate to prove their judgement wrong, after all.” Big Macintosh threw his hoof good-naturedly around Cheerilee, the latter forcing herself to remember that it was simply a gesture of their friendship and nothing more. “Ah still cain’t believe that they made us drink love potion.”

Cheerilee returned the smile that Big Macintosh flashed her. “Not a love potion, a love poison. I read that book that Twilight gave those little fillies, after lecturing her about giving books like that to little ponies, especially ones like the Crusaders.” She shook her head bemusedly. “The book specifically stated that the potion turned out to be a poison, I guess they didn’t read past the first few lines of instructions to see what the potion even did.”

“Eeyup, that sounds like my little sister.” Big Macintosh shook his head almost regretfully. “Ah swear, you’d think that somepony didn’t teach her any better than to fool around with things ya don’t fully understand.” Chuckling to himself again, Big Macintosh looked over to one of the stands of the market, its table full of pots and pans along with a mare who was trying her best to look like she was eager to serve any customer that happened along. “Ah guess Applejack listened, that’s why she don’t do anythin’ involvin’ ‘fancy mathematics’ as she likes to call them.”

“Ah, we’re here!” Cheerilee slipped out from underneath Big Macintosh’s hoof so as to avoid being confused for a couple by an overzealous waiter/waitress. “Table for two please!”

After being seated by a nearly expressionless waiter, they both pick out what they want to eat within seconds, calling the stallion back over before he could make a full getaway. “Are you ready to order, madam?”

“Yes, I’d like a daisy sandwhich, please.”

“And you, sir?”

“Ah’d like me one of them apple salads ya’ll have here.” Big Macintosh ignored the waiter’s grimace at his accent, instead settling for setting his menu down firmly and smiling at the unsavory stallion. “Thank you kindly.” After the pony had left the two alone, a comfortable silence fell between them, leaving them to cast looks towards the other tables situated about the restaurant. That is, until Cheerilee broke it with a question.

“You know, there’s a big rumor around Ponyville that the Apple family almost always eats apples.” Big Macintosh looked at her with an expression that was a cross between confusion and amusement. Mentally slapping a hoof against her face, Cheerilee elaborated. “Is it true?”

“Eeyup.”

“What about the rumor of the trees being on top of dead ponies?”

“Eeyup. Us Apples always want to be buried underneath our favorite apple trees.” Big Macintosh’s eyes grew distant as he looked towards his past. “Ah remember exactly which trees my ma’ and pa’ are under.” The silence slowly shifted into a more uncomfortable area as the two ponies waited for the other to continue speaking, Cheerilee being the one who eventually broke the tangible quiet.

“What about the one about colt-cud- I mean, what about ponies who love other ponies of the same gender?” If Cheerilee had felt uncomfortable in the silence before, she felt downright unwelcome in the one that pressed down onto her very being as she waited fearfully for the stallion, whose face had grown slightly darker, to reply.

“Mah kin don’t approve of two mares or t-two stallion getting’ close to each other romantically or anythin’ like that.” Pausing for a moment, Big Macintosh took in a deep breath and braced himself for the inevitable surge of recollections that were sure to flow in. “Back when Ah was just a colt, my cousin’ Breaburn was caught one time out by the backside of his barn with another colt and his pa’ whipped him about fifty times.”

Cheerilee tentatively reached out to touch the stallion with a comforting hoof. “H-how do you know that he was whipped?”

Big Macintosh let the answer hang in the air like some great apple that had to be picked eventually lest it rot into uselessness. He glanced down at the apple-print tablecloth, playing with it in his hooves for what seemed like hours before he finally picked the metaphorical apple. “His pa’ did it in front of all the family during one of our annual reunions.”

They both fell silent as the waiter made his way over to them with their food, setting it down unceremoniously. “Your food, Madam and Sir. Enjoy your meal.” With as much gusto that he had arrived with, the stallion departed once again to leave the two ponies alone with their thoughts, except this time they had food to share some of their focus with.

Cheerilee lifted her sandwich and took a bite that would have put quite a few stallions’ teeth to shame. After carefully swallowing the food, she wiped a napkin across her mouth before tentatively breaking the silence that separated her from Big Mac. “Wh-what was it like? Watching one of your cousins getting wh-whipped by their father?”

“Well, like Ah said, Ah was only a little colt, just barely able to buck apple trees, about Appleblossom’s age.” Big Macintosh smiled at Cheerilee’s confused expression at the mention of his sister’s name. “It’s what Ah call Applebloom.” He reached down and snagged another bite of apples before continuing. “Anyway, Ah was spending some time with my cousin Orange Peel. She was always my favorite cousin, always tryin’ to get us into trouble. Faced it too, when we got caught. She never tried to get out of it by just blamin’ me. Course she never let me try to get out of it either.” He chuckled at certain memories that Cheerilee would never be able to see, the many different jokes and crazy plans of mischief replaying themselves in his mind.

After a few moments of thoughtful silence, the reminiscent smile faded from Big Macintosh’s face. “Well, after a bit of catchin’ up with each other we heard some shoutin’ come up from behind the barn. Normally there’s all kinds of shoutin’ comin’ from the family as they got to see ponies they hadn’t seen in what seemed like years.” Cheerilee reached out and touched Big Macintosh, who had fallen silent as his eyes grew even further away. “But this was a different kind of shoutin’. It was my cousin Breaburn.”

---

“No! Let. Me. Go!” Big Macintosh looked up to see his slightly younger cousin and friend being dragged up onto the wooden platform that Granny always used to announce things for the reunion. “I don’t wanna get whipped pa!” The colt tossed his head back and screamed in pain when the stallion who had a hold of him smacked him with a hoof. “Why are you doin’ this to me pa? I ain’t done nothin’ wrong! We were just playin’ a game!”

Big Macintosh froze when the stallion then uncaringly tossed the colt forward onto the wood. “Now git up there, boy. That wasn’t no game that you were playin’ with that other colt. You’ve got somethin’ in ya that needs to be fixed. Ain’t no other way but to whip it out of you.” The crowd that had assembled in front of the platform watched in a grim silence as the bullwhip was lifted to the sky and brought down with an air-splitting crack. The resounding scream was nearly unbearable to hear.

But it was only the first of many to cut through the mid-afternoon air.

---

“Back then, Ah didn’t know what his pa’ was shoutin’ to us about and Ah didn’t understand why nopony felt sorry for my cousin.” Big Macintosh finished off his apple salad with an absentminded bite, tasting the apples that now seemed almost bitter to him. “But now Ah sure as apples do.” They both sat there for a moment, Big Mac staring down at the remains of his food and Cheerilee looking at him helplessly. “Ah just wish Ah didn’t.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Big Mac.” Cheerilee’s hooves itched to move and not knowing what to do, eventually settling on touching the upset stallion. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s fine, Miss Cheerilee. You don’ have to say nothin’. Ah’m just glad you felt like listenin’.” Big Macintosh coughed before bringing up his tearful eyes and forcing a wavering smile. “Thanks for that. Listenin’, Ah mean.“ They both glanced about the restaurant and returned to looking at each other in a sort of awkward silence. “So how has my little Appleblossom be-“ He froze in place for a second before snapping back into action. “Thanks for the meal, Ah have to go now and… uh… do some more shoppin’.”

“Big Mac? What’s wrong?” Her question went unanswered as the stallion galloped to and around the corner that his gaze had been fixed upon. Cheerilee glanced past the running stallion to see the barest flick of a tail around its bend, a smile slowly lighting upon her face when she saw it.

Comments

[Brony of Truth]

I really wish I could personally relate to this story...but I can't. The only keeping me here is the possible CheeriMac ending and that's it.

And 50 lashing from a bullwhip are you shitting me author?! Do you even know what a bullwhip is capable of? When done properly, a bullwhip is supposed to break the sound barrier causing ear popping effects and fully grown bulls to whimper like a little calf with one strike. But 50!?! on a child no less, that could probably cause death or permanent scaring both mentally and physically! Certain homophobes might be drastic, but there still human!

[KibaWR]

2300193

or permanent scaring both mentally and physically!

I think thats exactly what Breaburns father intented to do

[Tsukune]

Ok nevermind I got my question answered.