A work horse's beating heart

Chapter 7 - Time Twister

Grumbling, Macintosh awoke to the sounds of several Thumps! rubbing his eyes with his hooves. looking around, he remembered he was in Twilight’s library. poking his sister to wake her up (successfully), they walked passed the rows of books downstairs where the saw Twilight.

“oh, hello AppleJack and Macintosh” she said sleepily." Macintosh and AJ took notice of how tired she was. There were bags under her bloodshot eyes and her ruffled mane.

“I don’t have an actual breakfast ready, but you can find something in the pantry.” Yawning, Twilight walked away to a pile of open books where she started to read more than five at once, holding them up to her muzzle with her magic. Walking past the disgruntled Alicorn Mac and his sister walked into the kitchen. AppleJack opened one of the many cupboards, where a few books flew out of.

“She has got to get a hobby.” said AppleJack, holding one of the books up. Shifting through the cabinet a bit more and finding something that was covered in moss, she wisely put everything back and suggested

“maybe we should eat at home.”

“Eeyup.” Macintosh agreed, putting back all he could find (a half eaten apple). Exiting out of the kitchen, they passed Twilight again. Who, appeared to be so tired she didn't notice them sneak past her to the door, and then outside. Making the crazy sign above with her hoof, AppleJack and brother hooked the cart they had left outside Twilight's library a headed back to Sweet Apple Acres. Along the way out of town, AppleJack waved to a few friends and even talked to them. Macintosh mostly sat still. He wasn't afraid of ponies questioning him about Ditzy Doo, no, not at all. But he was smart enough to know he would be buried in gossip if he did engage in communication. He waited a few minutes, leaning on the cart. When he saw AppleJack come back he stepped out. Instead of just his sister, the towns mane designer, Rarity, was walking by AppleJack. Rarity practically gasped when she saw Macintosh, and before he could do anything, she ran around him with a measuring tape that had appeared out of nowhere while talking at a very fast speed. After Macintosh cleared his head, he spoke up.

"What?"

"Why, your clothes of course! It never hurts to make a good impression on your Marefriend!"

Casting a help me! look at his sister, Macintosh gestured at Rarity, but AppleJack just shrugged. So Mac just went along with it, it only took about five minutes. At the end of this, The fashion designer ran away, and then returned a minute later with quite a lot of clothes. Clearing her throat, AJ stepped up.

"Thanks, Rarity. Can we just put it in the cart now...?"

Nodding her head, Rarity placed the clothes in the cart with her magic.

"Oh, yes. Just don't let them get dirty!" Hooking herself back to the cart, AppleJack and Big Macintosh broke back into a steady pace, headed back to the farm. They had bearly gone a few ten yards when Macintosh, with an extreme sense of Déjà vu, ran into somepony. Shaking his head off after running into someone for the third time in town, He looked up and saw a brown Pegasus with a short (also brown) mane and tail. Recognizing him as Time Turner from the grain clock as a Cutie Mark.

"Your Time Turner, then?" Macintosh asked as the Pegasus got up. Looking up rubbing his muzzle, the brown pony nodded.

"Yeah. So your Big Macintosh then? Oh, sorry about running into you, I still can't fly well after that storm yesterday." He said that last part while looking at his wings, moving them fraily.

"Why are you out here, anyway?" Time Turner said, knowing the Apples usually stayed in the outskirts of PonyVille. Macintosh explained about Hoop's and Dumb-Bell (who Time Turner apparently had met before and had the same problem with) and how they stayed in Twilight's house.

"I could come with you as you go back home." Turner suggested.

"Technically, I'm a WeatherPony on duty, so they can't do anything to us if I'm with you." Whispering so only Macintosh and AppleJack could hear.

"Actually, we've all been exused for today because of the weather storm." He added. Nodding to him, Mac and AJ (with their new companion) finally started back to the farm, successfully making it out.

Rolling up the final hill, the two siblings approached the dusty barn of which they lived in. Pushing up the garage door with his strong leg, Macintosh and AppleJack unhooked themselves from the cart and pushed it in the big shed. Closing it behind them, both went up to the door and pulled out the small key that was under the welcome mat and unlocked the door. Walking in, Macintosh saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders (yes, all four!) attempting to play a game of chess.

"Knight to zed-four!" Sweet Bell said triumphantly. But before she could do anything else, Scootoloo interrupted.

"Hey! There is no zed-four!" Carefully stopping the situation before they broke something, AppleJack moved between the four. Meanwhile, Macintosh wen't into the kitchen where he saw Ditzy, who was stirring a mixture with a spoon in her mouth and holding up instructions with her wing. Seeing Mac out of the corner of her eye, She put the spoon and paper down.

"Hi, Macintosh! Oh, hey Time Turner!" She said cheerfully, now noticing Time Turner. Nodding back in her direction, Macintosh and Turner asked what she was doing.

"Oh, I was taking Dinky here so she could meet her friends, and when we got here your grandma wasn't home, so i just started making food myself." She said.

"I'm not the best cook, but I started anyway." Slowly stepping forward, Macintosh and Time Turner sniffed the steamy brew.

"Well, it doesn't smell half-bad." Said Turner. Macintosh added a well known 'eeyup' to emphasize Turner's point. Taking their word, Ditzy went back to her cooking. Stepping back out of the kitchen while Turner went and sat on a old couch, Macintosh saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders again.

"Well, there goes a chess cutie mark." Sweetie Bell said in a low voice. Scootoloo jumped in at this

"Told you a queen doesn't work like that!" She said. Inside, Mac laughed a bit at this. Ironically though, he didn't know how to play chess either, his dad had never taught him. Speaking of that, "parents" were always a sore spot for Big Macintosh and his sisters. Not the reason everypony thought, but for the reason of what everypony thought (if that made sense). No, is what Macintosh would say when someone asked if his parents were dead. It was more of an Apple family thing; they had actually moved away to start another farm with one of Macintosh's cousins soon after AppleBloom was born. They had trusted Granny Smith enough to take care of their children. No one believed him or his sister when they said that though, everypony thought they were lying to not have to deal with it. It would have been funny, yet the humongous amount of ponies that didn't believe AppleJack and Macintosh was frustrating. Mac's thought's were interrupted when someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Hello? You okay Macintosh?" A voice asked.

Shaking himself awake, Mac saw the speaker, which was a quizzical looking Time Turner.

"Eeyup." Macintosh said. He realized he had been in a very deep thought, and had nearly sat on the poor Pegasus. Getting back up, the Macintosh went over to his sister to ask if she was ready to go back and buck apples.

The rest of the day went Uneventfully. Near the end of it Ditzy left (after everyone had eaten a small apple soup, which was quite good). Throughout the day, though, Macintosh got along well with Time Turner. He was a humble pony, not in the higher class. Actually, he was slightly famous for his special hoof-made hourglasses (even known through all of Eqeustria, albeit not majorly). At the end of the day, Turner asked Macintosh if he could walk with him. Following the Pegasus outside, Mac became more clouded on what was happening as Time Turner went farther out. Eventually stopping about thirty yards in the west field. Clumsily drawing circles on the ground with his hoof, Mac saw it seemed hard for Time Turner to get words. Finally, he took an intake of breath and said...