A work horse's beating heart

"Romeo was a fool," Ren said, suddenly back in human form. "His big mistake was not announcing the marriage. He should have told both families. Keeping the marriage a secret will ruin Romeo. Secrets like that can be the downfall of any man. They're often more destructive than the sword."    -Dhiren, Tiger's Curse

Chapter 8 - Surprise

It’s always a tense moment when someone is taking a long time to tell you something, isn’t it?

Macintosh had heard something along those lines once. He had thought of it as absurd at the time; for he hadn’t had friends like he did now at that time.

Now he understood that feeling. After about eight awkward seconds had passed, the Stallion Pegasus in front of Macintosh finally drew in a ragged breath.

“I...I…I am Dinky’s father.” He finally forced out. Macintosh stood patiently for a second before what Time Turner had just said hit him. The Brown Pegasus saw Macintosh hadn’t expected it at all. Turner’s posture worsened more. His ears dropped and legs grew closer to the ground. For the other Pony, Macintosh, just stood there in a silent shock as emotions ran through his head. In the same breathtaking tone as Time Turner.

“How?”

Well, not as broken up. Even in strong moments Macintosh was an unmovable Pony physically and emotionally with a firm voice, nevermind he didn’t use it much. Turner looked back up. In spite of how pathetically he seemed to be acting he had a solid expression on.

“We weren’t ever married or anything, just…” At this, Macintosh pieced it together.

“So thats why Dinky never had a father.” Macintosh said. “You two were too embarrassed to go along with it and never spoke of it again.” Turner made a slight nodding movement, confirming Macintosh’s deduction. Again like they started, both ponies stood silent and unmoving for a few seconds before turning back to Sweet Apple Acres.

“Just don’t tell Ditzy i told you.” Turner murmured.

The subject wasn’t raised again mostly because Macintosh and Time Turner actually were distracted by work. The red Stallion had to get back to apple bucking after waiting so long and Turner had to fill an order of HourGlasses, so he left to go back to his shop. Macintosh made sure to not give away to Ditzy what Turner had told him. Even after she had left the Apple household (with a reddening peck on Mac’s lips, causing Scootaloo to make puking noises.) Macintosh still remained wary. He didn’t want the rest of the Apple family to know either.

Although Macintosh thought as he braced himself and smashed his legs into another tree Hiding secrets relevant to Ditzy hasn’t worked well. Which was true, as everyone knew now. Keeping Ditzy hidden from his family had only lasted Mac about three days, and only technically. So hiding another fact, which not only was about Ditzy but Time Turner and Dinky, was going to be harder. But since that incident keeping secrets was a lot easier, shamefully for Macintosh. Still didn’t stop that feeling of deceiving somepony when the Cutie Mark Crusaders walked up to Macintosh when he was bucking apples.

"Hey Big Macintosh! Can we help you buck apples?" AppleBloom said energetically,

looking for another way to get her Cutie Mark.

"Ah thought you already tried that" Macintosh responded.

"Well, we did, but we don't think we tried hard enough!" Scootaloo quickly said. Sighing, Macintosh nodded his head and let them join him. He went back to his work, but only a couple minutes later (as expected) Macintosh heard signs of trouble and went back to help them. When he got there, it appeared that the fillies were basically trying to push the tree down instead of buck the apples from it. AppleBloom and Sweetie Bell were trying to not fall over while staying in a two-legged kicking position while Scootaloo and Dinky were readying to slam into the apple tree, probably at the same time AppleBloom and Sweetie Bell kicked it. Walking over (not in a hurry, mind you. Macintosh was all about learning from your mistakes) Macintosh stopped them, causing the grounded ponies to fall. Shooing them away, Mackintosh tried to go back to his apple bucking, but was interrupted by Dinky,

"Maybe my mom can help you! She's a strong Pegas-" Dinky stopped when Macintosh glared at her, and pushed the CMC away again.

"Ditzy is busy, remember? She's a MailPony." With that, Big Macintosh successfully got them to go away.

Rubbing his hoofs of on the welcome mat (not that it helped; you would get dirtier from the mats thirteen year old muck) Macintosh pushed open the door into the house. Seeing her brother, AppleJack got up from the rugged couch and joined Macintosh,

"Ready to set up the apple stand?" Nodding, Macintosh responded with a simple

"Eeyup" and followed his sister out to the garage. Opening the door with his strong legs, Macintosh walked into the garage. Walking over to the dusty cart, he saw the clothes Rarity had made for him. Picking them up in his mouth, he moved to put them in the house before AppleJack trotted in with the apples in her saddlebags.

"Oh, are those the clothes Rarity made for you?" She asked

"Mmph" he struggled out. Loking at the bundle in his mouth, Macintosh recompinsated by nodding. Going back to his original target, Macintosh layed the clothes on his bed and went back to the cart. Telling his sister to go ahead and set up the stand, Macintosh hooked himself to the now-full apple cart. Pulling out behind his sister (well, she was very far away by now) the red Stallion set out on the path. Going down the path alone gave him time to think for once through recent crazy days. He realized now a lot of things;

well, I'm luckier then most Stallions he thought. Then he added with a childish smile

i've got a marefriend and they don't! It was one of the most absurd things for Macintosh to boast to himself about, but he did. Thoughts along those line continued until he saw someone when he entered town:

It was Dumb-bell and Hoops.

The bullies, they were back. Convincing himself they were just in PonyVille for shopping business, Big Macintosh continued on. But a work of doubt was eating at his mind. He knew there are shops in CloudsDale, and... The bullies had started following Macintosh. That second the farmer also realized nopony else was around; he was ripe for picking for the Pegasi. Then, they walked over to Macintosh, a mean expression on their face. Mac tried to block them off with his main body mass, but Hoops was to quick and smashed into Macintosh, knocking him over. Grimacing, the fallen pony tried to stand back up but was cruely kicked in the nose by Dumb-bell, causing a spray of blood. Dumb-bell leaned down to Mac's height.

"That's for your sister breaking my nose" he snarled. It was a unbearable pain for Macintosh when hoops went up and kicked Big Mac's stomach, nocking the wind out of him and cracking a rib. Mac didn't even try to defend himself as they continued to wreck havoc on his body; he could barely think straight because of the pain. After half a minute of this onslaught, suddenly the attack from the two stopped and Mac realized a second later they were the ones grunting from pain. Managing to look up,Macintosh saw the bullies restricted from moving by magic. Looking skyward, the red farmer saw his savior: Princess Twilight Sparkle. Except instead of her kind eyes she had a fiery glow. Flying down and landing, Twilight bonded the two with her magic and walked over to Macintosh. A moment later he felt better, and was able to get up.

"Sorry, Macintosh." She said, almost grinding her teeth.

"I'll talk to you later. Now, I have to deal with these two." She gestured to Hoops and Dumb-bell, and unbinded them, telling them to follow her. Macintosh watched as the three flew away. Thanks to Twilight, it seemed she had healed Macintosh, so not much harm. On a lighter side of recent events, Mac's mortal enemies were no longer. Even though it had been a unbearable pain, Macintosh never had to deal with them again. He thought this as he continued back to the stand. emerging through the final path, he saw his sister at the market stall. Trotting over, Mac quickly filled her in on what had just happened. It was a very dark note and frankly, both ponies just didn't bring it back up the rest of the market day. And it was going good, until the end of the day. Macintosh's was packing up the stall and locking it, when he looked up and saw Time Turner. The Pegasus didn't see Mac, but Macintosh still stood shock-still. Turner was looking worse for ware to Macintosh. His coat had hair sticking up all directions, ungroomed. And his wings didn't look air-worthy either; in a state just as bad as Time's fur. Macintosh woke up slightly when his sister tapped him on the shoulder, gesturing that they should head home down. But before he left with his sister, Big Mac glanced back at the Pegasus who was damaged by guilt, now that his secret was out, even if only to one pony.