Love isn't always perfect. It isn't a fairytale or a storybook. And it doesn't always come easy. Love is overcoming obstacles, facing challenges, fighting to be together, holding on & never letting go. It is a short word, easy to spell, difficult to define, & impossible to live without. Love is work, but most of all, Love is realizing that every hour, every minute, & every second was worth it because you did it together.
- unknown
"Ever wake up, the sun shining through your window, the birds singing, the smell of breakfast wafting through the house, and think 'this is going to be a good day'?" I pause long enough to let out a sigh.
"I've had a great many days like that in my life. Growing up on a farm makes for a pretty simple life, and not much can give you a bad day." I lean back in my chair and take a sip of my coffee. Black, two sugars. The way my Pa drank it. I lean forward again and look across the table at my companion.
"'So why do you sound so sad if you're so happy?' you ask. I know you're dying to know, but it'll come. Let's order us a couple more coffees and I'll tell you the story of my love."
A cold wind blows across the cafe's patio, ruffling the manes of the few willing to cope with the cold weather to have their assorted drinks.
I look up at the giant oak tree that protects the patio from the beating sun during the summer, it's limbs bare and lifeless, and let out another deep sigh.
"Back then I was always happy to make new friends. And with Pinkie around, it was pretty easy, but it seemed like no pony ever stopped to get to really know Pinkamena Diane "Pinkie" Pie for anything but her parties and pastries. I'm one of the few that did." The waiter came to the table and set fresh, steaming cups of coffee in front of each of us, before walking off, oblivious as to the seriousness of the story being told compared to the everyday table talk of the other café patrons. I took a small drink before continuing my story.
"It was a brisk day, much like this, and I was sitting in this exact café, exact same chair, drinking the exact same thing. Black coffee, 2 sugars. I heard the bell above the door ring, but didn't think anything of it. It is a public café after all, ponies come and go as they please." I lean back and stare at the waving limbs of the great tree again. "I remember faintly hearing her voice through the door..." I motion toward the door leading into the interior of the café, "... but didn't realize who it was until a few minutes later. The door to the patio opened and out walked my sister and her friends, the element of laughter bouncy as usual. Until they realized the tables out here only seat 5, that is. I offered to share my table with one of them, and the party pony took me up on the offer.
At the time, I didn't think about it, but thinking back on it all these years later, I notice the wink she gave her friends before she bounced over and the giggled amongst themselves at the other table." I motion to a table where the then fillies were sitting, a young couple talking between themselves, the sounds of fillies and colts giggles and playing floats by on the breeze. I take a deep breath of the cold air and hold it for a second.
"We got to talking, spent hours without even noticing. The other elements of harmony slipped away at one point, but one of them, probably my sister, to pay enough, or open a tab, so that our coffee was always full. I can bet you the waiter walked home with a pretty big bit pouch that night." I let out a small chuckle at my joke, knowing that it was probably true.
"Anyways, back to the story. So, we spent roughly 6 hours talking, just shooting the shit. The only reason it wasn't longer was because the café closed, so we went our ways that night. I didn't sleep that night, I spent the night digesting what I had learned. The next morning I got out of bed, my joints creaking like an old farmhoof's. I realized I'd been laying in the same exact position for hours and hours. I went about my normal morning routine, but with the thought of her still on my mind. After breakfast I walked out behind the house and stretched my joints, getting ready to haul the heavy cart into town for AJ." The coffee sitting in front of me had grown a little chilled over the time I'd been talking, so I downed it in one gulp, can't have cold coffee after all.
"On the way into town that morning, I spent more time worrying about what I would say to Pinkie if I saw her, than to the pot holes in the road. As a consequence, one of the wheels caught a hole wrong and snapped two of the spokes. I had to hold up the cart while AJ fixed the spokes with the extras we kept in the wagon. Lesson learned from a haul in the dead of winter, never a good time to be caught unprepared." The waiter came out of the café door with a twist, the towel over his arm catching the wind slightly, not a single item on his tray sliding even a fraction of an inch, before coming to our table and refilling the empty cups, then making his exit again.
"After we got to town and got setup for the days market, AJ asked me to make a trip to the bakery, a gleam in her eye. At the time I thought it was just the gleam of someone ready to provide for her family, haggling her friends, and selling to the private cider brewers. I made the trip to the bakery, it took longer than it should of. I was worried about what would happen when I saw Pinkie. I walked into the store front, the bell above the door jingaling. I looked around the all familiar room, searching for any sign of the pony I'd spent the whole night thinking of, none appeared. As I turned to walk to the counter, she appeared. The doors to the kitchen swinging open, a halo of light surrounding her, illuminating every curl in her hair, every hair in her coat. My jaw dropped, but was only there for a second before a donut came flying across the room, and she was there, moving my jaw, making me chew, all while asking me how it tasted. Of course all I could do was mumble as she had control of my jaw, but that didn't stop her from asking again." The wind had died off, leaving a dead silence as I stopped talking.
"I should get going, it's starting to get late." The pony across the table from me says. I just start to notice how dark it is getting, the branches of the tree becoming hard to see.
"Alright, Same time tomorrow?" I ask, knowing what the answer will be.
"Sounds good to me. Have a nice day Friend." I hear a pop, and like that, I wake up to a bright new day.
The days chores seemed to drag on. By the time he was done the sun was beginning to set, it's light causing the pegasi maintained clouds with glow brilliant colors. Every shade of the rainbow bounced off the sky, creating one of the most beautiful sunsets he'd seen in years.
"Finally done." Big Mac sighed as he dropped the last bale of hay in the barn.
"You could of let me help, ya' know." Said Apple Jack from the doorway, "I ain't helpless."
Big Mac's only response is to nod his head as he passed her. He stopped a few feet passed her and turned, looking at the cast on her leg.
"I ain't so sure of that." He said before turning and walking away, leaving Applejack grumbling.
It was roughly noon when Mac got to the café, just in time for the lunch special to start, hay fries, a daisy salad sandwich, and coffee. Not a full meal by any means, but enough to tide him over until dinner. He sat and stared at the people bustling around him, slowly munching on his food and sipping his coffee.
"I know you're there Ms. Pie." Big Mac says with a sigh, causing the pink mare at the table behind him to jump.
"But how? I just sat down, and I didn't do anything to let you know it was me!" The mare said as she walked around to the seat opposite Mac.
"Simple. What does a bakery smell like."
"Cakes and pies, cookies and brownies. And anything else they bake."
"Exactly, Mrs. Pie. now look up at this lovely tree here and tell me which way the wind is blowing."
The pink pony looks up, watching for a few seconds as the branches sway.
"From my table to your's...." Mac's companion lets out a bark of laughter. "You always were able to tell it was me, even if you couldn't smell me."
"True enough." Big Mac nods his head to the chair Pinkie was standing next to and she takes the seat.
“So, what brings you to my neck of the proverbial woods?"
"I just figured I'd see how my old friend was doing these days." She says after a seconds of silence. "Still eating the same old meal?"
"I know that isn't why you're here, and yes, the same old meal."
The pink pony lets out a long sigh, knowing she'd been caught.
"Alright, I came because the firm wanted someone close to you to break the news. The insurance company isn't going to pay for the surgery."
"Mine or AJ's?"
"Neither."
Big mac sat in silence for a few seconds before getting up and walking away, his lunch forgotten. Pinkie watched as he left, knowing that something had to be done to help the Apple family.
"How was town?"
Big mac walked right past AJ, her seat on the porch forgotten as she chased him inside. He walked up the stairs, leaving her stuck at the bottom, yelling after him.
The hallway before him stretched for what seemed like miles, but he was to his destination before he even knew it. Fourth door, left side. The door swung open silently, the hinges old but oiled well, then shut again as he entered the room. The springs of his bed creaked as he crawled into it.
He laid in bed for what seemed like hours, before getting up and slowly dragging himself back downstairs. Waiting downstairs was an obviously pissed Apple Jack and a scared looking Apple Bloom.
"Pinkie found me today. So it seems she works for the insurance firm now."
"Wait, Pinkie works for the insurance company? How can she..." AJ wandered into thought before snapping back to the present, "So what did she have to say?"
"......"
"It was bad wasn't it?"
Big Mac just nods, his face locked in a frown.
"Which one?" Apple Bloom finally speaks up from the far side of the living room.
"Neither." Big mac replies as he lifts his head. "Neither of us is going to be stuck like this."
"But the insurance won't pay for the surgeries, so how are we gonna pay for them?" Apple Jack practically yells from her spot on the couch facing the fireplace, her back turned to Big Mac.
"The same way we pay for everything else." He replied.
"But the doc said it would be over 20,000 bits each, the farm isn't even worth that much on a great year! How are we going to get that money?!" Apple Jack jumps up from the couch, her legs almost buckling under her.
"I'll think of something." Big Mac turns and walks out the door.
A few miles down the road Big Mac walks up to a fallen tree and pulls a gryphon leather bag from a hollow in the trunk. Mac looks around to make sure that no one is around before pulling out the contents of the bag.
As the bag falls away, it reveals a pendent on a chain. The pendant itself in a silver metal, inlaid with 4 jewels. One white, one midnight blue, one light pink, and one lavender. Big Mac lays the pendant on his upturned hoof, and slowly turns. The jewels rotate as he turns, the white keeping towards North, the blue towards South, the pink towards West, and the lavender towards East. The chain looks to be made of the same metal as the body of the pendent, but seems to shine with a sky blue glow.
Big Mac tosses the pendent in the air, and it slowly floats down onto his neck, light as a feather. The second the chain settles around his neck, and the pendant against his chest, there is a bright flash and a sound akin to a sonic rainboom, and Mac is gone.
Author's Note
Sorry for such a long wait on this chapter, but I'm hoping the progression makes up for it. Life has been kind of hectic lately, but I hope to get a third chapter out much faster than the second one came around.
Love you all, and thanks for the read.
Stay frosty~