Chapter 1
“This day was going to perfect…
The kind of day that I have dreamed since I was small…”
Caramel’s head banged painfully and he moaned in complaint. Opening his eyes proved to be too hard, but the pony slowly mustered his gusto. Edging his eyes open, blackness was replaced by utter darkness. He blinked a few times, shook his head and tried to focus again. The black persisted.
Staggering to his feet, Caramel tried to inspect the area some more. His sore eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light and he could make out objects well enough. From what he could tell, it was a cellar….an old dusty unvisited cellar…so it couldn’t belong to Sweet Apple Acres. He visited those often enough when he worked part time and they were all kept “Cleaner than plastic in the rain” as Granny Smith liked to say. He never got that metaphor.
“…Where am I?” He wondered a bit out loud. He entertained the possibility of stumbling down some stairs and blacking out at the crash. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened, embarrassingly enough. The beige pony tried to recall his thoughts, all as dark as the atmosphere around him. He trotted towards a small lamp he spotted and turned it on, getting a better look around the suddenly lit up area. Somehow it still felt dark, the way everything was untouched. What had he been doing in the first place anyway?
On the floor where he had been laying, there lay a forlorn scroll that looked too neat and new to be part of the forgotten underground. He reached for it and pulled it open curiously.
“But I was just another fool
My sister’s blinded tool
I’d really dreamt the bar was not that high at all…”
Caramel’s lips quivered with distain as he read the letter. He then began to read it outlook just to make sure he was hearing what he was seeing.
“Dear Brother
Hope you had a nice rest and all. You’re gonna have to stay here a awhile though, at least till the service is done. You’ll start making a fuss n ruckus if you’re there, and you don’t want to ruin my big would you? Don’t worry; I’ll let you out soon enough when it’s done.
Don’t be glum
I promise to save you some cake! ^^
Love, sis”
He threw the innocent page down and ground it into the floor with a harsh hoof as previous events of days before started to awake in his mind. The events he wished he could have prevented before they had gotten out of hoof…like they just had.
“Damn it!” He cursed echoed as he gave the parchment one last determined stomp to let the rage out, which was spreading through every part of his body like wild fire. His whole being shook with anger as he continued to cuss loudly to no one but the walls, his emotions all over the place.The beige stallion took a deep cleansing breath, of the dark musty air, and exhaled. No, this was not the time to get upset. He had to act, and fast.
Caramel once again inspected his surroundings more carefully. It looked like the darkest point around him, so he must have been flung as far as possibly away from the entrance. He spotted what looked like a pathway out, but it had been blocked by barrels of cider. He cursed once more and started up a gallop, steering himself to the side and giving a buck with all of the rage he needed to expend, knocking the barrels off balance and out of the way. He flinched, the pain dinging in his legs for that split second. He had always had strong legs, but they were not made for bucking. He gathered up his determination and pressed onward down the blackened path.
“I must escape this sorrow cellar
Find a way to see daylight
Oh Buck, I’m gonna have to fight.”
Caramel relayed the information that sprinted in his head as fast as his legs could carry him. He had been out of town the previous week. He’d returned home about…three days ago…to find the travesty he was trying to prevent.
“How long have I been out anyway?” he mumbled to himself to keep him company in his slightly wobbly mind. Caramel stopped a second to feel his head, not finding any bruises or bumps. He wasn’t clobbered out; he was probably drugged out of it. The only thing he could remember was seeing his sister to confront her the day before the wedding, after that he guessed he had been out of it. He could not have been knocked out for long enough to miss the wedding at least. That’s what Caramel could only hope on though.
As he galloped through the painfully empty surroundings he noticed cracks in the ceiling. Small rays of light were piercing down from the ceiling. It was sunlight, not artificial lights. The cellar seemed to be more of a cave in design by the way the ceiling was more earth than plank or lumber. They could have turned it into a cellar of course. Any hole is easy to fill up with anything. The rays of light seemed to hint at a new day, so Caramel wagered it was still morning. The wedding was supposed to be at noon. Some fear festered up into the stallion’s tummy as he realised he probably didn’t have much time to get out of wherever he was. With all of that reasoning done, the beige pony tried to focus on his task: escaping the bloody place at all costs.
He had not brought the lamp with him. He’d neglected to pick it up in his hate but the little cracks of light got more frequent as he appeared to be getting closer to the surface, since he was going upward. He had to turn around a few times from the few dead ends of stony walls and corners filled with spider webs and nowhere left to go. Caramel resorted to adjusting to the darkness and following paths that seemed most likely by how many cracks of light it showed. That fact that cracks of lights were even getting through was a bit unbelievable but Caramel certainly wasn’t arguing with the help. He still quivered as he ran at full speed, from the cold of the underground and just a little more out of his still unsteady fears.
He wanted to try and recollect his memories. He could remember them all pretty clearly. The problem was that they were all painful. Seeing them in his head was like running a pitchfork through it. He didn’t want to see them, yet they were the only current memories to the subject franticly panicking mind-set of his brain could muster. Just the look of that stupid smile on his sister’s face as she announced the news spitefully had the tan hided stallion grinding his teeth as he heard it. His mouth erupted with bile, or it might as well have considering the only thing he could taste was disgusted hatred towards her. He remembered as well how he had rushed out to find the ‘groom to be’. To demand an explanation for what the bucking hell was going on. What he found was far more bile, and the painful ripping apart of his heart.
He was treated as if he…as if they…never existed before. Caramel could say he was used to negative events in his life, but it was far too much for him to handle on that faithful sunny afternoon
…
At least, it was until a bit later that day.
Caramel had cried. He was not ashamed to admit it to anyone or thing, he had cried his heart out. Tears were the only things left to comfort him on his secret little affair. They were going to tell everyone eventually, Caramel was just shy about letting everyone know about. Mac never seemed to mind or care much. He never minded much at all. If anything, he’d wanted to just tell everyone from the get-go.
“...Mac” Caramel mumbled as he galloped through the lonely cellar. Like he Like he had before, even the day before this one, he reminisced to reinstall hope in his body. That day, through the tears, he had dwelled over the past. The happy times…that apparently never happened according to his ‘partner’.
It was the little things that Caramel really cherished between them, like evening cuddling so close in hay, watching the moon in the starlit sky, or giggling at Mac’s little rag doll named Smarty Pants, and finding it adorable. One time he had decided to patch Smarty pants up for Mac’s birthday. The bashful but appreciative smile on Mac’s face was enough to make him melt into the ground with glee. Injuries were never as bad as they used to be with Mac around, one particular one he could remember was falling down a hill somewhere. Mac really could kiss it better.
He missed the talks now…yes, the talks. The scarlet stallion might not say much but he was still really interesting and insightful. Caramel had learnt a lot from just watching and listening to him. He enjoyed every conversation they had, even if he seemed to do more of the talking. He only hoped Mac didn’t think he talked too much. Then there was the way Mac would flirt. It was a very weird sweet way. Mac never seemed to be actually trying to flirt with him, but it just came out as one anyway. Caramel had a favourite, because it was embarrassing enough to remember for two reasons.
“Sorry for complaining about the cider…I felt embarrassed and didn’t want to show up to the contest”
“S’alright Mel”
“Shouldn’t you be celebrating your win with the others? I heard it was really rough on you guys.” Caramel’s face dipped down at that point, ashamed as usual.
“You’re here. S’all I need.”
…
It was just those thoughts….All those tiny almost insignificant thoughts. They gave him bravado, perhaps false bravado, but bravado none the less, as he had been lying on his bed crying into his pillow in a big upset blob. The more he thought about it, after he was done being miserable and eating cupcakes shamelessly, the more any of it didn’t make any sense to him.
Logical sense didn’t always apply to Ponyville, but there was a good level of it most times. Nothing at all made sense about the entire thing. He’d only been out of town for five days for Pete’s sake. How did a marriage spring out of from that? His sister lived all the way out in Fillydefia last time he checked, and Mac never left the farm except to go to Appaloosa for family reunions with the occasional shipment. He’d never spoken of her, she has never come to visit Caramel for him to see her and he probably didn’t know about Toffee or that fact that she was Caramel’s sister till recent. He grew suspicious that night, vengefully and spitefully suspicious. He wasn’t going to take it lying down. To prove his point, he got out of bed, to make
sure he wasn’t lying down…and promptly got back in, because it was late and he needed to sleep.
The next day, Toffee seemed overjoyed to see her brother suddenly coming around to the festivities. She toured around with him, showing off all the wondrous colourful and extravagant decorations and plans. Caramel just grinned and bared through it all, turning most of his attention towards Mac for most of it all, when his sister wasn’t watching. He watched Mac’s posture, his demeanour…the way he was smiling. It…it was wrong. It was all wrong. Nevermind how Caramel treated him, he wasn’t acting at all like he was normally. And Caramel would know. He hadn’t spent years half stalking the stallion for nothing. Yes he had stalked, what else was a slightly hormonal and coming to terms young stallion supposed to do, throw
himself at the man like some two bit toy?
Even the way he spoke was wrong. He was speaking far too much, and using words Mac never even thought of using before. The whole ordeal tugged on the beige’s stallion’s brain like a tick to a dog. He knew it, he just knew something was wrong…and it was annoyingly familiar as well. He wasn’t sure how, but it was eating at his insides. He had to know, he just had to before it killed him.
“Not even the darkest pit
Will ever tire me to sit
I know for both of us
I gotta end the blight”
Caramel’s legs skidded to a rocky halt as his thoughts snapped back to reality. He bit his lips red as he looked in front of him. It was a very plain grated iron gate, the bars too close together for him to squeeze through, that looked sturdy but rusted. He trotted a bit closer and inspected it properly around the keyhole. It was pad-locked, a new one as well. He groaned loudly: Typical. The fact that he wasn’t wanted around was really starting to get on his nerves.
The stallion tried to retrace his steps in his head. There had been no other pathway that led to an exit, only dead ends for storing. He sized the gate up, sighing as he realised his only options. He took a few steps back and started summoning up some courage while he steeled his will to be harder than the gate. Without second though, he charged forward abruptly, crying out a little determined battle cry and slammed his hooves into the rusty obstacle. It banged and shook in complained, a feeling that echoed to his hooves as well. Caramel’s legs were strong, but they were not made for bucking. Caramel cursed under his breath as the pain jolted through his legs.
He shook his head and took a few steps back, doing a damage report. It had bent slightly, but just slightly where the rust had been strongest. He frowned in annoyance. At least it was budging…just far slower than caramel was hoping for. Still, he did not give up. He charged back at the gate, slamming his feet against it, again and again and again. After the fifth bang the pain in his hooves were causing him to tear up slightly. He did not wipe them away, all he wanted was the gate out of the way for good. Nothing else matted to his adrenalin pumped veins but that. With a violent shudder and another bang echoing in the darkness, the gate decided it was time to buckle under pressure. It swung open by the hinges defeated, the victorious pony panting in fatigue. Caramel Only gave himself the luxury of a few seconds to recuperate and try to ignore the throbbing of his hooves. Finally wiping the tears from his eyes, and some sweat out of his coat, he crossed through the barricade at
pace and with abandon.
Nothing around him was very comforting. The beige stallion found himself drifting off again in thought. He tried to think of other things but it was no use. The idle questions like ‘how much longer I still have’, ‘what could be done’ and ‘how am I going to cope if I don’t make it work out’ were all simple answer questions. They did no occupy his mind at all, and he was left to dwell on the past again, as much as it hurt. They were thoughts regarding Mac…that was the important part, he supposed.
“For I oh so love the groom
Down to my core his warmth does loom
Oh big mac-intosh, I will prevent our gloom”
Caramel had dismissed himself from all the fancy preparations. He wasn’t sure if he could stomach any more of the internal trauma from each wedding gown to each bright flashy glittery mess of decorations. His sister barely seemed to notice…Mac had probably forgotten he had been there with them. That alone was out of character. Mad made everyone feel accepted, no matter who they were. Caramel watched the sun slowly start to set over the horizon as he walked, the warmth draining from his body in unison. On his sad little dirt trail, he spied the Apple farm out of the corner of his eye. All the lights were on and live was eminent within it besides the hour of day. The itching feeling of the problem started knowing at his tail tip again and he gave a mental shrug in response. It wouldn’t hurt to go check something, or someone’s room.
He didn’t need to knock, the door was wide open and chatter resounded from inside, along with clanking pots and pastry trays along surfaces. The apple family, in all it’s full masses, were squeezed into their busy kitchen. Applejack seemed to be at the middle of it all, barking semi-polite orders at everyone and making sure they didn’t blunder up anything. When she saw Caramel looking confused at all going on in the door frame, she broke out into a hospitable smile and galloped over, hugging him around the neck and going off into an overly southern tangent of how proud she was to be welcoming his family to theirs.
Caramel had almost forgotten that. If the wedding happened, he would be Mac’s brother in law…. That wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
Caramel decided to put the excuse to good use, and said his sister had asked him to fetch something from Mac’s room. AJ just nodded and let him bee, while scolding Applecrust for almost burning the fritters again. Looking a the big picture, Caramel realised that being part of the Apple family might actually be something he wanted in life…just, not because of his sister.
Caramel traced the familiar steps down the Apple household to Mac’s room. Even without Mac being there Caramel was getting nervous, like he had times before, at entering the bigger stallion’s personal space. He even knocked on the door in shy respect, feeling stupid for it immediately, and peeked his head inside slowly, afraid to find something horrific within.
Mac’s room was so simple. There was his bed, a small dresser, one or two pictures of the family on the wooden board walls and absolutely nothing else, if you didn’t count the windows looking outside over the vast aches of the farm. It was like a little tool shack, without farming equipment. He supposed the little hay pile counted as a big cushion but not really. As Caramel looked around, he could find nothing out of place from the neatly tied up bed to the fine condition of everything within it. He could even smell the strong delightful scent of mac wafting into his nostrils, which made Caramel shiver in emotional longing…
…
…wait…
What was that smell?
Caramel looked around curiously again. Something else was in the air. It smelt nice, but it wasn’t Mac’s niceness. His eyes darted around, again reminded about how much of an obsessive, or perhaps pathetic was the right words, pony he was to be able to differentiate Mac’s scent from…perfume?
The stallion’s eyes locked onto a small vial of perfume. He picked it up and twisted it in his hoof. It was bright pink, pinker than pinkie, with fancy cursive lettering on that spelt out ‘Net vir Liefte’. He frowned at the bottle suspiciously, as he had been frowning at almost everything else out of place that day, and did not trust it enough to squeeze the little spray ball. Caramel felt the hitting’s of unpleasant déjà vu again, but the memory just wasn’t clear enough for him to place. Feeling a bit more accomplished at finding a clue, the stallion stuck the bottle carefully in his mouth and trotted back towards the inside of the house. It was not stealing! That’s just what he kept telling himself.
Back at the rowdy confectionary kitchen again, he got Applejack’s attention again and put the bottle on a table covered in flour “AJ, do you know when my sister gave this to Mac?”
The head girl turned her head from a pie and looked at the glass little suspect. “Oh that! She gave it ta him when she came to town. Says I was the final step in the ‘whole idea’ that made Mac want to propose after years of dating on the side lines. Not sure how he kept it a secret from all of us tough, but Mac was always sneakin round the place sometimes to do something.” She smiled obliviously, her normal cowboy hat replaced with a baker’s.
Caramel nodded slowly “Uh-huh…” and looked at the perfume interrogatingly. He could image it threatening to crack under all the investigation it was going through…funny how Caramel had time for silly ideas now.
Toffee came by a day and he suddenly became open about it…sneaking around the place. He had an answer to the latter at least, Mac never really snuck out, it was just evening trips he made out into town for him, he even said the truth and said he was visiting friends. The beige pony stood staring at the vial on the table pensively in silence, leaving Applejack staring
puzzled at him “Caramel? You a’right? If you’re hungry we can spare a cupcake or two for ya…”
…Cupcakes…?
…
Cupcakes…and pies…pies
…
Pookie pie…lovey dovie cutie patooty sweetybear…hearty smarty smoochy wooshy baby waby!
Caramel’s face filled with the shock of realisation as everything clicked right into place in his head, gasping a bit too loud and causing even more confusion out of Applejack. “Thanks AJ…but I gotta get back to my sister with this now…She was in a hurry and all.”
Applejack seemed curious on the issue as well for a few idle seconds, but she managed to shrug it off. She didn’t have the time to be stubborn on the subject like she usually was, not with all the preparation that still needed to get done. She watched Caramel grab the pristine bottle, nod in greeting and bolt out as if his life depended on it. It’ made sense….sort of.
Luna’s bright moon was looming in the sky, almost gloomily, as Caramel sped trough Ponyville as if Cantrolot was coming. His legs were starting to get tired from all the walking and running he had done that day. It was a good thing his legs were used for it a lot, walking and running of course. That was a common misconception Caramel was mocked for. His cutie mark was apparently a big joke. It wasn’t unluckiness, that’s for sure. That did not even make sense. How could someone thingk his special talent was being good at NOT being lucky. You can’t be good at something your bad at doing anyway. His cutie mark was there for logistics and labour. He was good at…well, mercenary work, traveling distances and carrying things. He’d been all over equestrian by now to do all sorts of part time jobs. Things like pulling carriages to Cantrolot, working at the rodeos of Appleosa or just carrying stuff from place to place. Sure he lost stuff and tripped now and then but he still worked his hardest, and he enjoyed earning his pay.
His beige legs brought him to the town inn, for travellers. His sister had arranged for it, but Caramel would not have let her stay at his place anyway. He’d probably have murdered her by now if that was the case. Caramel headed inside, payed the pony at the counter no notice and walked down the corridor to her room number. He banged at the door as reserved as he could. His sister appeared in the door frame wearing a fluffy pink gown and looking less radiantly golden brown with all her make up on.
“Brother? What’s up?” she had asked.
Caramel walked inside past her and spat the bottle he had been teething in his mouth out onto a table counter like it was venom. “We need to talk…” he said, with determination.
…
That…had probably been a bad idea in hindsight, Caramel mused out loud again as he followed the cellar path upward. It was getting less dusty and dirty. The spider webs were slowly becoming less frequent and the wood quality was improving with every few gallops. It gave the stallion hope, however false it may be. He was definitely getting close to the entrance to the cellar. A small triumphant smile caressed the edges of his snout as he kept thinking positive about his nightmare of a day. He was doing it…he was really doing it. He was fighting back. He was not giving up like everyone might have thought he might have. He couldn’t. Even if he needed to crash the whole wedding, knock his sister unconscious and kiss Mac in front of everypony…well, if that would even work.
The incline was getting stepper still. He guessed to roll the barrels into the cellar easier. Ti didn’t matter. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, but Caramel could see the end in his head. He wasn’t celebrating yet. He of all people would know how celebrating too soon was a bad idea. He closed his eyes and listened to his hooves clop on the gravel floor for a bit, just to make sure he was going forward. And then, his hooves hit a wooden step. He flashed his eyes open and got his stance right before he tripped over it. He took a few seconds to get his breath back at the sudden halt after that. He had been galloping steadily for a good while and the place was build more like a mine than a cellar. The only thing that convinced him otherwise was the countless barrels of apple cider. Or maybe they were all empty. Caramel couldn’t care less at the moment.
Caramel huffed and started a trot up the wide staircase, a creak with each step, and hoped the top flap was not barricaded.
That was a stupid wish. Of course it was.
Caramel pressed his hooves up against the trap door of an entrance. It was made of wood, like the rest of the place, and didn’t look too hard to break open. There wasn’t even a lock. The problem was what was on it. Caramel didn’t actually know what it was and had no way to find out, but it was not letting the door budge in the slightest. He tried to think of a few things that it could be: barrels, a boulder or maybe a tractor. Then he wondered why he was wasting time again and chalked the blame up to a tired frantic brain. The stallion pursed his lips as no amount of pushing did anything. He turned around carefully and gathered any last shred of energy he could and kicked the door: nothing but a tiny shake. For Caramel, it was another story.
The pain that shot through his legs was almost unbearable. He yelped loudly and tried to regain his footing, but putting his hooves down on the hard wood only made them hurt more. He lost his balance, his legs slipping as he began tumbling down the stairs in loud clanks and landing a sad heap at the bottom. His entire body ached and complained now. His mane had gone from untidy to a sweaty dirt filled clump of hair and tell-tale scratches covered bits and pieces of his now dirty brown coat. Caramel’s mind yelled at him to get up again.
His body wasn’t listening…
He tried to stand up again but his legs shook and wobbled with adamant protest to the idea and pushed him back down to the ground. All each try seemed to accomplish was letting him lay in a differently positioned heap on the ground. The adrenalin in his body was no longer enough to push him forward. Why did he have to trip? Why did he have to injure himself so bad? Why was the bucking trap door blocking? Why the buck was any of this happening!?
Caramel tried to get mad again, to get fed up with everything he was faced with. That wasn’t working to drive him either. As his body had given up, his mind and emotions began their collapse. The stallion’s eyes watered slowly, but erupted with salty pathetic tears. His sobs and spasm intakes of breath were not loud but more of a soft whimpering. He felt the tears run down his messy cheeks and to the ground where his head lay flat against. His eyes were open, but he had never seen so much blurry uncertain darkness before.
…
He was giving up…He promised himself he wouldn’t…but he wasn’t strong enough to live up to it. He hated how weak he was, or was that just how he felt. It didn’t matter. He was weak one way or another. And in his current state of sudden painful depression, his mind decided to remind him of the last remaining memories he had of the distant past. To the moment that gave him clairvoyance and blindness. The moment and the mistake that sealed his fate to what it now was. Caramel looked around once more in stupid hope to look if anyone would see, then buried his face into his legs and the could ground. The memories flew right back on track, like a horror movie, as he sniffled.
…
That evening, Toffee had let him inside the room, after he barged in, as a gracious guest “Want anything? Some tea?”
“No thanks” Caramel almost added ‘sis’ to the end of his sentence, but the term was bitter to him at the time.
“Oh no, I insist!” she went on as he trotted over to a table, pouring a nearby kettle’s water into some fancy pink cups. Typical Toffee, things always had to go her way or the high way. She wasn’t even facing him as she made the tea. He didn’t matter to he grand scheme of things. “No use for it to go to waste now” he kept talking “I was making some for myself anyway” and finally turend around again with the two teacups now on the table.
She sat on one side of the little elegant coffee table adorned with frilly table cloth and table ware and Caramel decied to sit at the other side, or else nothing would get done “Toffee, I~”
Sugar? Honey?”
“One lump, but Toffee~”
“There’s some biscuits and hay around here somewhere if you need something to snack on.”
“Toff~”
“I don’t have those thick chocolate one you like but”
“Toffee!” Caramel practically hissed her name out as harshly as he could
The mare looked a bit hurt and annoyed “Gee Mel, I’m just trying to be a good hostess here”
“I know what you’re trying to do and it’s wrong and it’s also not going to work.”
Toffee framed shock dramatically “Whatever do you mean Mel?”
Caramel pointed to the equally innocent looking perfume on its own little stand, still covered in flour a bit. “That. That’s a love potion.”
“Mel, don’t be silly. That’s the perfume I gave Mac to celebrate the wedding.” He paused in speech “Were you snooping around in his room?”
Caramel ignored her distracting question “I don’t know where you got it, but that’s a love potion. It’s way too convenient that you happened to give it to him the day before the wedding got announced without anyone ever hearing about the two of you before.”
Toffee didn’t say anything; she just sipped her tea as if she expected more, so Caramel continued “This isn’t the first time this has happened to Big Macintosh. Last hearts and hooves day some fillies decided it was a brilliant idea to take matters into their own hooves. He’s acting almost exactly the same was as he did then: inseparable, talking excessively, that strange look in his eyes like he’s under a spell. It all fits in place Toffee.”
Toffee took her time to listen and sip. After she put her cup down she looked at her brother with a great deal of composure as the stallion glared daggers at her and her bucking tea. “Done?” she asked simply
“No” Caramel looked down at his own cup “Why are you doing this?” he bent low and sipped form it. The talking and galloping from the day had built up a thirst.
“Why? For love of course” Toffee said.
“Stop lying” Caramel muttered out “Sweet talk doesn’t work on siblings.”
Toffee’s face soured quickly, but only the littlest bit. She still looked far too confident in herself after being accused of so much “Do you know how much the Apple farms are worth? They’ve been on easy street for years now and Mac is next in line to inherit. Applejack might run the place, but it all belongs to him.”
Caramel wished he could stab his sister. He could, but always reasoned that it did no good and he’d just get in trouble anyway. “Your doing this for the money? Don’t you have enough of it as it is?”
“True, but this way I won’t have to lift a finger for it AND I’ll get a handsome husband who will buy me anything I desire and do whatever I want! It’s steal.” Toffee looked very pleased with herself, as the expensive inn room showed off.
"It’s wrong. It’s horrible. You’re lying to everyone.”
“And why do you care so much then, hmm? Who made you Mr Morality all of a sudden?” Toffee asked, even though she knew her brother had always been the ‘Mr Morality’ of the family.
“You’re ruining Mac’s life by making him your puppet.”
Toffee raised a brow “Oh, so this is about Mac then huh?”
Caramel bit his lip before he said anything stupid “His life, the whole apple family’s gonna start noticing how he’s suddenly has no time for them and give them problems. You’ll break them all apart for your own stupid money reasons plus forcing someone to love you. It’s just wrong Toffee.”
Toffee raised the other brow “You have been very sure I’m forcing him mel…”
“Mac is a colt-cuddler Toffee” Caramel waited a few seconds for the surprise to face off of Toffee’s face “He told me a while back after I asked him about if he though any of the mares caught his eye.”
“Well…that would explain why he wasn’t interested at all in me before…why would he tell you, of all-“
Caramel interrupted her again, sick of her questions and not wanting to give her time to reason things through. It…it wasn’t like he was ashamed to admit it too. They had been planning to come out after all. Mac had just been respecting his Coltfriend’s wishes. Caramel hated a fuss being made over him, and if they knew everyone would be all over the topic. Heck some would doubt it was true at all, why the handsomest stallion in Ponyville ‘settled’ for plain old clumsy Caramel out of all the available stallions “He is my friend you know…”
But Toffee could already tell. The uncertain and easily embarrassed features of her brother were easy enough for her to read already “Coltfriend eh?” Caramel sat still, trying to keep a serious face when he really just wanted to smile at hearing it: Mac’s Coltfriend “Well, I’m sorry I’m getting in the way of your life bro but I’m not backing out on this one. And you can’t make me either.”
“What makes you think I can’t? Lots of people will believe me….if I tell them…all about…it.”
Caramel’s vision suddenly started to blur slightly till the blur became a big rippling wave of distortion and confusion. He felt sleepy. So very sleepy. Concentrating was getting harder by the second as he tried to focus in and out of things around him. He caught the smug grin on his sister’s face, but it was more like a wobbly line. He tried to hear her, but her voice was drifting off like she was running away.
“Though you might try and stop me, so I came prepared” Toffee said, though the tan stallion could only make out the most important words.
Caramel’s eyes were closing shut fast no matter how hard resisted. The last thing he heard before the darkness was a victorious “I always win, bro”
…
Caramel opened his blurry tear filled eyes. A small puddle of tears had formed under his face and helped to make his fur even more untidy with small smudges of mud. The tear lines had started to dry on his face but he still sniffled in the silence, unmoving.
‘…and here I am…’ he thought to himself ‘…the end…’
His body was till paining, so he could not take his defeat with any form of dignity. Yeah…she always won. Why had he even tried to fight it? It was useless from the start. He didn’t even raise his head from the ground in his shame. He even went as low as planning on how he would have to cope with it. To accept the wedding as just one of the biggest mistakes in history that only he knew about…
He wouldn’t accept it…he’d rather just wither away and die than be miserable for the rest of his life. That was just how pathetic he was after all.
Pathetic, low, worthless and useless…
‘Oh the wedding…I can’t make
He’ll end up making…a mistake
Big Macintosh…will…be…’
“MEL!”
“Yes…?” Caramel whispered out without thinking….
And then he thought about it. Was he starting to hear things too now?
“Mel! You down there!?” Caramel heard thundering hooves down the steps of the wooden stairs and brought his eyes up open to watch the bottom of the staircase, not even daring to get hopeful as he waited for something to appear. There was only one pony with that voice…
^^^
Caramel hung his head low to the ground as he slowly walked alongside the other pony. His head was hung mostly in embarrassment, but he could not hide the smile on his lips as he looked every other possible place but towards his saviour.
Mac paid it no mind. A lazy smile was fitted perfectly on his own lips and set the pleasant mood as he didn’t force Caramel to speak, and kept moving forward along the path.
“…So…did the potion wear off?” Caramel murmured out
“Potion?” Mac seemed a bit confused. Before Caramel could explain properly the red stallion made thoughtful face of realization “Aw…that’s what it was then…”
Caramel nodded slowly. Mac had not answered his question, but then again he doubted Mac acutally knew the answer “One moment I was seein you…next, I wasn’t”
Caramel nodded again. The potion wasn’t supposed to waer off. Last time it only got broken forcibly. Or maybe it was just weaker than the other potion before. Then the beige pony noticed something specific about what Mac said “Wait, you were seeing me?”
The crimson stallion rolled the straw of wheat in his mouth with content idle from the one side to the other of his smile “Thought I’d been looking at you all week…”
Caramel hung his head lower still. His body and mane was still in complete disarray, and Mac was still being sweeter than his own name sake. He wasn’t even trying…it wasn’t fair.
“How did…you find me then?” Caramel looked up behind him. The place above the cellar was surrounding trees in the middle of nowhere. Getting back to the path had taken some time, but it was mostly because they had done so in the same quiet silent slow trot they were in now. It was half because of how tired and sore Caramel was and half out of the blazing in his cheeks. Only the crunching of the recently raced off leaves beneath their hoofs had made any sound before then.
“Hoof prints.”
“Hoof prints?”
“Hoof prints”
Caramel risked looking up at his coltfriend “How did you find hoof prints?”
Big Macintosh turned his gaze to Caramel “Dunno…they just started to appear behind yo sister after I snapped back.” Mac shrugged “Figured I should follow em.”
Caramel nodded yet again. They just appeared? The potion just stopped? Something had definitely interfered with his sister’s plan. Maybe it was unicorn magic, though not even Twilight mentioned magic that did that…Whatever it was, it was nice to know something was on his side at least. ‘Thank you, mysterious magic force thing’ Caramel thought to himself, feeling silly as if he was a young colt again making a wish.
…
“What now?” Caramel asked.
“Hungry?” The conern was eminent in Mac’s voice.
Caramel shook his head. It was a lie.
“We should get you patched and cleaned up then. Gotten mighty filthy with all that trouble it looks like.” Mac said thoughtfully, his stride visibly slower than usual to let the other walk at his own pace.
Caramel was putting on on a bit of a brave face as they walked. The truth was that his body was aching in every vessel and he desperately wanted to be clean again to help wash away the horrible memories still fresh in his head. He was hungry enough to eat a whole apple tree. Thoughts of Mac carrying him on his back crossed his mind, something he knew would actually not mind doing, but after all he’d been through he’d like to keep some of his pride intact after sobbing and beating himself up on the floor of a dusty cellar. He never wanted to burdon Mac more than he already did, but Mac never treated him as one in the first place, which made it very hard to counter argue offers of help “Ok…but what about everyone else? They must be running around confused…and my sister, where’d she go?”
“They weren’t stuck in a cellar, so they dun count” Mac answered.
The beige stallion Mac some now that he had raised his head out of the hang of shame. He looked like the same old Mac he always was, just with a tux that made him more dashing that already was. Even his mane hadn’t been bothered with. Caramel smiled, it was the mac he knew and loved…in a tux.
The smaller stallion blinked as he felt Mac’s face gently nuzzling his cheek “Sorry if I said anything ta hurt ya…I didn’t meant it”
“It’s ok…I know…” Caramel nuzzled back bashfully. Neither of them retraced their snouts for a while along the walk. It was awkward to walk like that, but Caramel wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Let’s just go home then”
“My home or the farm?” Caramel inquired jokingly
“Your home. I like it there more. Cosy.”
Caramel’s smile became an earnest beaming as he closed his eyes and shuffled a few steps to his left to walk closer to the
other, making it easier to walk so close together.
“…Sounds good to me” Caramel said softly. The sun's rays were warm again and the trees were green again. He was not alone anymore. He wasn't even sure how things were going to go on from that point. But that, he was certain, was what really didn't matter anymore...
Neither could tell it as they walked but a transparent white catlike spirit lounged in a tree and watched them from above. It floated upward and followed the two a short distance before stopping and watching them disappear out of range. It smiled a feline smile of satisfaction at it's work of guidance and slowly floated in the other direction in content, a soft purring ringing out into the air as it relished in it's good deed for the day as it's long fluffy tail swayed behind it.
Caramel heard the purr as a soft whistle of wind, not loud enough to tear his mind from Mac, that seemed to sing in words you could only feel within.
‘This day turned out just perfect
The kind of day I never dreamt when I was small
Me and Mac are here today
And together we will stay
Who says a clutz will never find his way…’
(Fin~)