Forgetting Yesterday
Big Mac’s eyes shot open as a nurse walked in through the door. She was humming to herself as she merrily flipped through a clipboard.
A nurse? Big Mac struggled to figure why exactly he was lying in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages, with a very cheerful Nurse Red Heart attending to the various devices around his bed.
A hospital? It came back to him in a flash. His wife, the foal, something about a carriage? His wife was having their foal… their f-
“Nurse! Nurse! Ah’m sorry, but I got somewhere to be.” He struggled to get up from his bed, but Nurse Red Heart was ready for him.
“I’m sorry Mr. Mackintosh. I’m afraid you missed the birth.” This news managed to stun the big earth pony back into his former position.
“I-I missed it?”
“I’m afraid so.”
I’m a failure of a husband.
“How’s my wife? Is our foal ok? Is it a colt or a filly?” Nurse Redheart held up her hooves to stem the flood of questions.
“Yes Mr. Mackintosh, your wife and foal are just fine. Absolutely no complications with the birth, and both of them are perfectly healthy.”
When can I s-
“I can take you to see them right now if you feel up to it, you took quite a blow to the head on your way over here.”
Whoa, mind reader Big Mac thought, as he allowed himself to be led out of the room and into the hall way. Why he had been in that room in the first place had been his next question. As they walked through the halls, all the various nurses and hospital staff waved at him as he walked by. Funny thing was, he didn’t recognize more than half of them.
They entered the maternity ward and approached a private room, with “Apple” taped to the door. Nurse Redheart opened the door and followed him in.
There in the small room, lying in her bed propped up with pillows, holding a tiny pink bundle, was Big Mac’s angel.
“F-fluttershy?”
Fluttershy smiled up at him, placing a hoof to her lips.
“Shhhhh… she’s sleeping.”
“Sh-she?” Big Mac stuttered as he leaned in closer, and Fluttershy handed him the sleeping foal.
“Be careful with her wings.”
“wings?…” The dazed father took the filly in his strong forelegs, and for the first time looked at his daughter. Time stood still as Big Mac sat there and held her. It was his foal, his daughter, and she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was definitely an apple, a red coat like her father, and an orange mane like so many of his cousins. It wasn’t hard to piece together were she got her wings. She was heavy for a newborn, but Big Mac figured she got that from him. He sat there, completely lost in thought until Nurse Redheart broke the silence.
“What’s her name?” she asked around the pen she held in her mouth, poised above her notepad.
Big Mac looked at Fluttershy who smiled back at him.
“I wanted you here for this. I’ve been thinking of some names, like Crème, or Amber, Daisy… I don’t know, does Daisy sound good to you? Or what about Apple Flitter?”
The whole time Fluttershy listed off names, Nurse Redheart sat staring at Big Mac, occasionally taking notes in her pad.
“Apple Flitter… I like that name.” Big Mac said, as he finally found his voice.
“Apple Flitter it is then.” Said Redheart as she quickly jotted something down in her notepad.
“Apple Flitter… my own little foal.” Big Mac held her close. “I never want to forget this moment.” Fluttershy burst into tears as he finished his sentence. In a flash he and the newly named Apple Flitter were at her bedside.
“What’s wrong? Nurse is there something wrong?”
All Nurse Redheart could do was stand there with a sad smile, as she continued to take notes in her pad. As she did so, there was a soft knock at the door, and a unicorn in a lab coat let himself in.
“My apologies, am I interrupting?” asked the gray maned doctor.
“Yes, I mean no. You came just in time something’s the matter wi-“
“No, no I’m fine. Just a little… emotional, that’s all. You should know me by know Mac.” Fluttershy said quietly, breathing deeply to try and get her emotions under control.
“If you’re alright Ms, I actually came to speak with your husband. I had a few questions to ask you, and I’m afraid there’s a few more tests we need to run regarding your head.”
Big Mac was obviously reluctant to relinquish his daughter having just met her, but at his wife’s insistence he left with the doctor who made sure the door closed behind them.
“I didn’t catch your name doc.” Big Mac was the first to speak after they had walked the halls in silence for a bit.
“Oh? My apologies then, I am Dr. Neural. Though it seems to me we may have met.”
“Nope, ain’t never seen you before today.”
“Oh? Well then my apologies I must have mistook you for somepony else.” Nueral replied as he looked up from his clip board he held in his magic. “Right this way Mr. Mackintosh.”
As they walked, Big Mac noticed a calendar on the wall with a large 13 on it.
“Hey doc, you know that calendar is a week fast?”
The doctor looked up from his notes once again and regarded the calendar.
“This calendar?” he asked, tapping at the offending wall hanging with a hoof.
“Yee-up.”
The doctor let out a small sigh before opening a door on his left.
“Very well Mr. Mackintosh, I’ll make sure somepony fixes that. Now, if you’ll just step in here we’ll give that head of yours a quick scan.”
* * *
As soon as she was sure the door closed, Nurse Redheart walked over to the bed, her notepad in her mouth.
“Any word from Lady Twilight?”
“None, I doubt my letter has even gotten to Saddle Arabia yet, and with Spike and Rarity on their honeymoon I don’t have a faster way of sending her a message.”
“Fluttershy you kn-“
“Listen, can’t we just keep him here just a bit longer? Maybe he’ll get better? Dr. Neural said that-“
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but it’s been a week. We can’t keep this charade going much longer. If today’s test results don’t show any signs of change, we can’t keep him here. Soon he’ll notice that his foal is a week old, and we can’t legally hold him he- “
“You think I don’t know that!?” Fluttershy hissed at the nurse through clenched teeth. “Mac and I have had that conversation six times now! Now he’s going to come back through that door and-“
The filly started crying at Fluttershy’s harsh tone. All of Fluttershy’s anger immediately disappeared as she realized that she’d woken her filly.
“Oh, oh my. Please d-don’t cry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She started rocking the child back and forth, all the while trying to hold back her own tears. Nurse Redheart stepped forward.
“Fluttershy, you’ve been caring for her for almost two days straight, and you’ve hardly gotten any sleep all week. Please let me take her, just for a bit. You need to rest.”
Fluttershy looked as if she was about to protest, but then dropped her gaze and mumbled something along the lines of. “You’re right.” She handed her child over to the Nurse and lay back against her pillows.
“Shall I put Apple Flitter as her true name?”
After a few moments of silence Flutteshy replied.
“Yes, it seems to be the one Mac chooses most days.”
* * *
Big Mackintosh opened his eyes with a start. The cry of the rooster could still be heard as he quickly took stock of his surroundings. He was in his bed, in his house, and his wife was snuggled up to him.
Now hold on a second…
She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
“Morning.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital?” Big Mac asked sleepily.
“No sweetie, I had our filly and everything’s fine ok? Now before you get up, I need to explain some things to you.”
Big Mac nodded slowly, now wondering if he was actually still asleep. He was pretty sure he’d remember his own foal’s birth so he was confident he was dreaming.
“You were on your way to the hospital, running late. You hadn’t finished the harvest but you’d left anyways, I was having our foal that night. As you ran over, you were involved in an accident. You crossed the street without looking and a carriage was unable to stop before hitting you.” She paused to look him in the eyes, looking for some spark of memory. Like every morning there was none.
“The doctors said it did something to your brain. Now your memories aren’t locked away every night like they’re supposed to.”
“Flutters that’s impossible how could forget my own foal?”
Almost as a response to his question, there was a faint cry in the room as a certain filly woke up.
“Oh, honey I think it’s your turn. Why don’t you go say hello to Apple Flitter?” she reached behind herself and came back with a bottle. “You’re going to need this.”
Big Mac heaved himself up from the bed not quite sure what to think. A crib in on Fluttershy’s side of the room was not what he expected to see.
He slowly approached the crib, bottle in hoof, still trying to determine if he was dreaming or not. He looked in the crib. Twin blue eyes looked back up at him. The bottle dropped to the floor. Apple Flitter was now ten months old, at the youngest.
“W-what’s today?”
“So it’s going to be a bad day?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked the big stallion as he knelt down to retrieve the bottle.
“Some days are harder for you than others and I think that today might be one of those days… today is the 6th.”
“No it’s not, unless we adopted a filly. Because you’re due today…” His response died as he looked at his clearly non-pregnant wife get out of bed. She gave him a sad smile.
“I-is she…?”
Fluttershy walked over to the crib and scooped up their filly.
“Happy Birthday little one.”
The bottle hit the floor again.
* * *
“So I really won’t remember any of this tomorrow?” asked Big Mac as he gathered all the dirtied dishes and set them in the sink.
“Probably not.” Replied Fluttershy without looking up from the floor she was sleeping.
“Probably? So there is some chance of my memory working again?”
Fluttershy instantly regretted letting that slip, she thought is was almost cruel to herself and Mac to get their hopes, no matter how small, up only to be smashed in the morning. Well it wasn’t so bad for Mac because he couldn’t remember it, but the point remains.
“The doctors said that there was no way of knowing if your condition’s permanent.”
“I just want to remember today. Flitter’s growing up, and I want to at least pretend to know her when she’s old enough to really know me.”
“Honey she already knows you, she calls you dada.”
“Flutters, I think she calls almost every stallion dada. She was calling Braeburn dada today at the party.”
“Oh…” said Fluttershy somewhat deflated. Though she quickly brightened when a thought struck her, “We could keep a journal, I’ll buy one tomorrow when I go to get your book renewed.”
Big Mac looked up from the dishes.
“Have I been reading the same chapter for a whole year?”
Fluttershy did manage a small laugh at that.
* * *
By the start of year two, Fluttershy had things down to almost a science. They’d wake up to the cry of the rooster, and she’d give a brief explanation before watching him have his morning dose of dad shock. Then they’d normally flip their scrapbook together before breakfast. They were able to have some kind of normalcy in their home. It was true some days were worse than others, and Fluttershy would wake up to her husband staring into the crib with the scrapbook lying open and discarded.
It hurt Fluttershy to see him like that. She knew he felt it was all somehow his fault and no amount of her arguing that it wasn’t could change that.
As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, Fluttershy was beginning to think deep in her heart that he may never be “normal” again. She believed that everyday Big Mac would wake up, she’d need to explain what happened. And as time passed, she accepted it. They were together, and they loved each other. She was happy. Granted things could be better, but at least it couldn’t get worse.
* * *
“Morning ‘Shy.”
Fluttershy smiled as she was woken up by her husband’s gentle voice.
“Good morning Dear.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back. She saw no signs of the usual confusion and panic, she thought perhaps today would be a good day.
Big Mac pulled himself out of bed and headed for the bathroom when he stopped midstride, staring at what was undoubtedly the crib.
“Ok, now don’t panic, but when you were running to get to the hospital yo-”
“Who had a foal, and why is she in our room?”
Now that question was not the one Fluttershy was expecting.
“Wha-? I mean. Why that’s our foal. Remember? I was pregnant with her and you got hi-”
“You were pregnant?”
Fluttershy suddenly realized what this could mean.
“You d-don’t remember?” she asked, fear and panic starting to creep into her voice.
“Nope, now quit playing around and tell me who’s foal it is we’re babysi-”
“Don’t you remember!? What do you remember!? Do remember the night I asked you for hay fries with cilantro sauce and by the time you found some I wanted pistachio ice-cream instead!?”
“uhhh no. I don’t see the joke Fluttershy, you don’t even like pistachio ice-cream.”
“Okay, we’re going to the hospital. Right now. Grab Flitter.”
“Who-“
“Just- I’ll get her, just get downstairs.”
As she scooped her daughter up, Fluttershy’s imagination conjured up all kinds of terrifying possibilities. The doctors hadn’t said anything about his memory getting worse. What if now, instead of never remembering what if he never stopped forgetting?
* * *
“Mrs. Fluttershy? Mrs. Fluttershy are you listening?”
Fluttershy looked up at Dr. Neural who sat across from her, grim faced as he delivered the news.
“Y-yes.”
“Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“So this could be a regular thing, him forgetting?” she already knew the answer, Dr. Neural had just spent the last twenty minutes explaining it to her.
With a small sigh of resignation, the unicorn got up and gestured to a series of images hanging on the wall.
“As I said before these are several scans of the earth equine brain.” He paused for a moment to make sure the pegasus was paying attention.
“This first is of a normal, undamaged earth pony roughly the same age as your husband. The part of the brain that’s been affected is right about here.” He levitated a small pointer placing it over a large white space in the fore-front of the image.
“Now this second one is your husband’s the night of the accident.” He moved the pointer to the next image, highlighting the same area, “See the difference?” The second image had a considerably darker section, it looking cloudy and blemished compared to the first.
“Now as I said two years ago, we have no way, magically or medically, to correct this. However we had not anticipated this happening.” He pointed to the third image. It looked even worse than the one before. It looked like some misguided foal had tried to erase the blemishes of the second, only managing to smear the darkness across the affected area.
“We fear his memory may continue to degrade, perhaps at an accelerated rate as time progresses.”
“Why is this happening now? It’s been two years?”
“Frankly, we don’t know. We just don’t know enough about the equine brain. Your husband’s case is very… unique.”
“What are our options?” she also knew the answer to this one, but she refused to acknowledge it.
“I’ll be honest, we can’t reverse it, we can’t stop it, and we can’t slow it. We’re not even sure what’s causing it.”
Fluttershy simply stared back at him, her red rimmed eyes threatening tears.
“If you wish, we can have him as a permanent reside-
“NO! no, he has m- a daughter that needs him. We’ll just live like we’ve been living the last two years.” Dr. Neural drew breathe to say something but Fluttershy continued, talking more to herself than to him. “We’ll just add to our journal a bit, and-and I’m sure Applejack could come and help out some days.”
“He may wake up some day and not know who y-… his sisters are.”
He said it. Her worst fear since waking up yesterday had been confirmed. Someday, he would wake up, and Fluttershy would be a new face to him. Now that it was out in the open it seemed like a tangible thing. Like some dark looming threat.
But as long as Big Mac was Big Mac, Fluttershy couldn’t help but love him. And as long as she loved him, everything would work out. This is what she told Dr. Neural, and this is what she told herself every morning for the next year. Dreading the day she knew would come. Though according to the doctors, it could be tomorrow or it could be in ten years.
* * *
Within two months, he had forgotten they had had their honeymoon. It was almost comical to see him rushing around throwing things into a suitcase thinking they were going to miss their airship. It would be another month before he asked her what she was doing in his bed. He no longer recognized her as his wife. That had been a bad day.
As almost a cruel joke, he remembered some things, but others were gone forever. He remembered the pie recipe he had learned to make just for her, but he couldn’t recall learning it. He remembered Applejack’s 25th birthday party, but he couldn’t remember what he’d done while he was there.
As his memory continued to fade, it became harder and harder to explain to him what was going on. Most days went something like the following-
“Morning Sh-… why are you in my bed?” Suddenly realizing that he was in bed with a mare, he jerked back in surprise and managed to topple out of bed.
“Big Mac this may come as a shock, but we’re-
“I-I we-we didn’t do anything, I-I swear!... I think.”
“Big Mac we’ve been married for over four years now.”
“What do you mean? We’ve only been dating for less than two months!?”
“Well, after about a year I got pregnant with our foal and when you were running to the hospital to witness the birth, you were hit by a carriage and your memories are a bit screwy.”
Big Mac simply stared at her, his mouth opening and closing several times with no sound coming out.
“W-we I-I f-fOAL?”
“Yes, now would you like to meet our daughter?”
It had hurt when that first happened, him not even remembering their marriage. She’d cried a little the first couple days, but like everything else that had happened since the accident she’d come to accept it. She had to. If she dwelled on it too much, she knew it would consume her. All those moments that she held so dear that he would never know, it was enough to destroy her if she let it.
But she refused to give in. Her husband needed her more than ever, and Flitter needed her too. If Big Mac brought her sadness, Flitter could bring her joy. Fluttershy had always dreamed of being a mother, but some days she was unsure who needed the other more. Flitter or herself. To his credit, after he accepted the truth, Big Mac always tried to be a good father, though it was hard seeing that he could never really know her, and no amount of explaining, retelling, and scrapbooking would ever fix that.
But there was still one day Fluttershy feared most, the day when her one true love would wake up, and not know her name. Almost all of Fluttershy’s free time was spent trying to find some solution, some way to prevent this from happening. But all her time spent consulting different doctors, all her hours spent scouring old tomes, and all the letters she sent to the princesses all amounted to nothing.
She could see the day getting closer. The day he forgot their first kiss, their first date, their first dance all came and went, she thought she was prepared. That was at least until the day actually came.
* * *
“Big Mac it’s time to wake up.” A soft voice said, managing to rouse the slumbering Big Mac.
“Ah don’t wanna.” He replied sleepily.
Somepony playfully hit him with a pillow.
“Wake up sleepy head.” The voice said again.
Probably Applejack, maybe Apple Bloom
“Ah thought I told you to stay outta my room.” He replied as he reached for a pillow to strike back with. “Why, the rooster hasn’t-“ He opened his eyes as he pulled out a pillow starting to bring it down when he saw who had hit him. He paused mid swing. “even… crow… ed… yet.” Lying across from him, in his bed, with a pillow held in her teeth, was perhaps the most beautiful pegasus he’d ever seen. He reared back in surprise, managing to fall out of bed and take most of the covers with him. He landed on a mattress that somepony had thoughtfully placed down. “Who put this here?”
The yellow mare’s face appeared over the bed, concern written on her face.
“Are you alright Big Mac?”
“Who are you? And what are you doing in my bed?”
“Well this might come as a sho-… wait, what did you say?” the mare looked suddenly on the verge of tears.
“Whoa miss, hold off the water works. I just asked who you are that’s all.”
Suddenly and without warning the mare hugged him, tears flowing down her cheeks.
“Big Mac, please. It’s me. Tell me you know me. Please?”
“Ah’m sorry miss. I’m afraid I don’t.” this brought on fresh tears, as her sobs grew louder. Big Mac did his best to comfort the mystery pegasus, it hurt him to see her so sad.
“Y-you really don’t know me?” she asked.
“No, I’m sorry I don’t.”
“Please! Does the name Fluttershy mean anything to you?” the mare asked desperately. As her tone rose, a faint crying could be heard in the adjoining room.
“Who’s Fluttershy?”
She slapped him. She slapped him, apologized, and fled the room saying something about a “Flitter”?
* * *
Fluttershy had to call in Applejack that day. She needed a break. Just some time alone with her animal friends. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t cried more than a little bit. Ok, she cried a lot. All the emotions she’d been holding back over the past couple months just spilled out from her as she sat under her favorite tree at the edge of the Everfree.
“Fluttershy, why so sad? Has somepony done unto you bad?”
Fluttershy almost jumped a full five feet in the air. As the zebra appeared, breaking the silence.
“Oh hi Zecora, I’m fine. Just a little… spent. Big Mac’s memory faded just a little more today.”
“Ah, so the rumors are true? And he truly has forgotten you?”
“Yes. This morning he didn’t recognize me.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do to let him remember. If not me, at least his own foal.”
Zecora looked thoughtfully into the distance.
“When a zebra’s mind is broken, prayers to the moon are spoken.”
“I already tried the princesses. They all said they couldn’t help. Including Luna.”
“For the aid you seek, with her alone you must speak.”
“You mean privately? But I couldn’t leave Mac and Flitter long enough to go all the way to Canterlot.”
“If you previous attempts have gone awry, perhaps there are other means to try”
“You mean in dreams? She only comes during nightmares, and I don’t have too many of those…” Fluttershy trailed off as Zecora withdrew a small vial from her saddle bag. It seemed nothing out of the ordinary. Just a small glass tube with a cork stopper filled with a brackish looking liquid.
“Any more than a drop, and the nightmares won’t stop.”
“A nightmare potion? Don’t you think that’s…” she was going to say extreme, but stopped as she realized waking up every morning with Big Mac not even knowing who she was, was already a nightmare.
* * *
As she got ready for bed she looked at the vial sitting on her nightstand. Nightmares. Was that truly her answer? All she had to do was have a nightmare, and Luna would come? At this point she was willing to endure anything. There was nothing left to try.
Fluttershy took hold of the small vial and removed the stopper.
”Any more than a drop, and the nightmares won’t stop.”
She very carefully placed a single drop of the dark fluid in the glass by her bedside. She waited for the water become clouded before knocking back the glass in a single gulp. She immediately felt tired, and as she climbed into bed she tried to fill her mind with images of Big Mac, Flitter, her friends, anything to result in a hopefully strong nightmare. The potion worked all too well.
* * *
Big Mac woke up to the sound of somepony crying. Turning on his side, he found a beautiful yellow pegasus in his bed, sobbing in her sleep. She kept shaking her head and her hooves flailed wildly in the air. It was obvious to Big Mac that she was having a nightmare.
“Miss? Miss wake up?” She turned away and said his name under her breath.
“no Mac, please”
What the scrap?
“Wake up! Your having a nightmare!” He leaned over and shook her roughly.
Her opened her eyes and saw him. She screamed in terror and tried to scoot back, falling off the bed with a loud thump
.
“Ma’am!?” Big Mac jumped out of bed and hurried over to the fallen mare. Her sobbing intensified as he approached her.
“Ma’am are you alr-“
“Go away! Get away from me, haven’t you hurt me enough you, you, you monster!?” She said, her voice weak.
Big Mac drew back in surprise.
“Miss you were having a nightmare, You’re awake now. Now I don’t know how or why, but you seem to know ma name. While we’re at it, could you tell me why you’re in my bed?”
“B-big Mac is that you?” she asked sounding hopeful.
“Ma’m ah’m not going to ask you again, how do you know my name? And what were you doing in my bed?”
She blinked several times, and wiped the tears from her wide eyes. Suddenly she threw herself around him in a hug and started crying again.
“J-just, I can explain.”
* * *
That day was hard, with Big Mac starting the day by thinking that she was crazy. Luna had not come, but Zecora had said it might take more than one try. So she tried again, and again.
“Ah don’t know ya and I don’t want to know ya! Who could ever care about someone so weak and helpless!”
“P-please! Big Mac list-“ She was cut off by his hoof striking her again.
“Why, you can hardly even fly! You’re Worthless! Little! Weak!” He punctuated each word with a blow to her head, wings, legs, anything that was exposed. Fluttershy wasn’t sure which hurt more. The physical blows, or the words spoken by her beloved.
“Insignificant! Useless! No one will ever love you! How could I possibly ever love a wretch like you?! How could anyone?!” He brought his hoof up to hit her again.
There was a flash, and in a blinding burst of light Big Mac was gone, and there was Luna keeper of the night. It was Fluttershy’s third night of terror, and Luna had finally come. The princess of the night swept the trembling pegasus up in a strong hug.
“Why Fluttershy? What were you thinking?” she asked with sadness in her voice.
All Fluttershy could do was cry into her chest, as she tried to forget the terrible parody of her husband that had visited her for the past three nights.
“Fluttershy, I know you needed to see me privately, but a tantibus potion?” she asked quietly, releasing Fluttershy from her calming embrace.
“I’m sorry, I needed to talk to you. You’re the only one who can-“
“I know what it is you would ask of me, I have seen it in dreams past. You wish for him to know, to remember. I am sorry Fluttershy, but this is something I cannot do.”
Fluttershy looked at her with fresh tears, begging her to help.
“Please! You have to help him! There has to be something you can do!”
The lunar princess looked away sadly as Fluttershy continued.
“He doesn’t know me! Every day I have to explain to him why I’m in his bed, and who his own daughter is! She’s almost five now and she needs a father! One who knows her!”
“Fluttershy if was that simple I would have helped long ago. But it is old magic, very old. Magic that was once forgotten, I fear I am unable to do the spell. I am truly so-”
The normally timid mare cut the diarch off mid apology.
“Sorry!? Sorry? You don’t know what it’s like! To be forgotten!”
Luna couldn’t meet her gaze.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to be tossed aside by the ones you love? I know it’s not even his fault, but every time I look at him, all I can think off are all the times we had together before the accident that he doesn’t even remember anymore!”
“Thou knowest we do.” Luna said sadly, tears beginning to form in her eyes as she thought of days past.
Immediately all the anger and rage drained out of Fluttershy as she remembered who it was she was shouting at.
“Oh, oh my! I-I didn’t mean it, I di- I-”
“Hush now Fluttershy, none is held against you. Is that how you truly feel? Forgotten?”
“H-he doesn’t recognize me anymore. I’ve been trying so hard to find a way to help him that I’m not even sure I know what I’m doing anymore. I think I barely know myself anymore.”
“W-I know that you care for him very deeply in your heart. Your nightmares are proof of this. What would you be willing do to help him?”
“Anything, I’ll do anything to fix him.” Fluttershy replied, the barest trace of hope in her eyes.
“Then forgive me, his memory will continue to fade. Within 13 moons, when he is at his worst, he will barely know himself.”
Fluttershy almost gave a small sob at that, it seemed the doctor’s worst fears would be realized.
“Fluttershy, all I ask is that you don’t give up on him. If within 13 moons you love him the same as you do now, he will be healed.”
* * *
“Morning handsome.” A voice said sweetly.
The stallion opened his eyes to a smiling pegasus… in his bed.
“Good morning beautiful.” He was dreaming he knew it, but he wasn’t about to interrupt it himself.
“Oh Big Mac, you’re a shameless flatterer.”
Before he could ask who Big Mac was, a small voice spoke up.
“Mommy is daddy up yet?” The slightly confused stallion looked down at a small filly looking up at him with big eyes.
“Yes, almost dear. Big Mac, this is your daughter Apple Flitter, but we normally just call her Flitter.”
“My- d-daughter?” The sleepy stallion looked back at the small filly who gave him a toothy smile.
“Mommy, I don’t think he remembers yet!” she said brightly, as if this was the greatest news she could give.
“I-I uh-“
“Here, read this.” The yellow mare handed him a small letter. “It’ll explain everything. I’ll go get breakfast started.” She nuzzled him before heading downstairs, their filly in tow.
Dear Big Mac,(that’s you)
This may come as a shock, but your memories are practically gone. You are Big Mackintosh Apple, and your special talent is apple bucking. You are maybe the strongest pony around, rivaled only by your sister Applejack. You have a family of your own now. You have a beautiful pegasus daughter named Apple Flitter, but we normally just call her Flitter. She’s almost three years old now. You also have me, Fluttershy. I’m your wife. We’ve been married five years now. All you need to know is that we love each other very much. Your memory may one day return, but for today, that’s the about everything you need to know.
With Love,
Fluttershy
In the margin of the note, there was a small line with a number written on it. It had been erased, whited out, and re-written seemingly hundreds of time. It had a small heading that read.
Approx. Days to 13th moon.
Under this heading the number “1” was written in proud, large hoofwriting.
Today promised to be a good day.
* * *
Flitter munched on her oatmeal like she did almost every day. Today daddy hadn’t jumped out of bed so today would probably be a good day.
“Mommy, when is Daddy going to know me?”
“Soon dearest, soon I promise.” Fluttershy replied without looking up from the stove where she was frying some hay bacon.
“But that’s what you said yesterday.” Actually that’s what she had been saying for most of the past month.
“Well we can’t rush the princess now can we?”
“But I want him to remember me.”
“He will I promise.” Fluttershy said as she placed a plate with a veritable mountain of food at the head of the table.
Heavy hoofsteps could be heard as Big Mac slowly made his way downstairs.
“Good morning Mac.” Fluttershy said sweetly, pulling out a chair in front of the large plate.
“Morning daddy.” Flitter said through a mouthful of oatmeal.
“Morning… Shy’, and Fritter.”
“It’s Flitter!” the three year old replied indignantly. She would never understand how her daddy managed to get her name wrong almost everyday.
* * *
That night, as Fluttershy lay asleep the folds for a dream enveloped her.
“Fluttershy, it is done.”
* * *
“Good morning honey.”
“Morning Shy’”
…
“Why are you crying?”
Author's Note
My first crack at this whole "romance" thing. Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments.
Written for One-Shotober
