Plowed Fields: A Big Mac Romance

Chapters

Welcomed Visitor
An Empty House
Family Stallion
The Dance
Ah Won't Back Down

Welcomed Visitor

Plowed Fields

A Welcomed visitor

A Big Mac Romance

A soft shudder went through Jessica as she finished her workout. She had considered joining a retro gym, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to. She had everything she could possibly want right here. A quick look around helped her take in everything she had. The farmhouse sat on a modest thirty acres of land. Her grandmother had told her about a time when that modest thirty acres was actually well over two hundred acres of some of the best peach orchards she’d ever seen.

The story of what happened after that was pretty well cut and dry. Her great uncles had slowly sold the place off until all that remained was the homestead. A three story farm house, thirty acres of land, and a small peach orchard was all she had left. In a way she blamed My Little Pony for her staying here. She had grown up on the show, and the Apple Family had been hers and her grandmother’s favorite characters.

Still, even with her taking care of the chores there was more to do here than she could ever hope to accomplish. It was just the way things were. She could work from dawn to dusk and never really end up accomplishing much more than getting a couple of acres of peaches picked. In the end she was certain that a large portion of what was growing was feeding what wildlife was near the farmland.

A beeping sound caught her attention and she flicked on her console. The older generation computer powered on, and she pulled on the VR goggles along with her haptic gloves and watched as the brilliant white screen turned into a green star lit sky.

“Andy Williams’ new Book New Frontier is set to become a major motion picture, and those who are members of the Phoenix’s crew fan club will be getting a rare treat in meeting with Mr. Williams, the cast and crew of New Frontier, and see the premier screening. Do you want to reserve your spot?” a rich voice asked.

“Well, I am interested in meeting Andy Williams, but I could care less about the movie. The movies are never as good as the books. Go ahead and put me down for the meet and greet,” she said.

“Very well Jessica. Jessica, you have an email arriving from Vogon Biotech. Would you like to open it?” the voice asked.

“Open it,” she said.

“Hello, how would you like to see one of your favorite fictional characters come to life? Wouldn’t you like to be able to visit with a living, breathing, and existing character from one of your favorite television shows, or movies, and perhaps even have them as a helpmate?” a blond maned chestnut brown anthropomorphic stallion said.

Jessica studied the stallion for a moment and then sighed. Having help would be nice, and it did get lonely out here. Finally giving in she reached out and touched the anthropomorphic stallion and everything around her changed from the email page to a multicolored psychedelic rainbow. The same anthropomorphic stallion walked toward her and stuck out his hand. She took it and gave it a firm shake.

“Ms Tiner, it is a pleasure to meet you. Our records show that you are interested in a helpmate, and that you are primarily heterosexual,” he said.

“What do you mean primarily?” she asked.

“There has been a few movies that you’ve watched over the course of the last three months that indicate an interest in homosexuality. Of course these movies only make up a mere ten percent of your normal viewing habits,” he said.

“Yeah, but what is this about a helpmate?” she asked.

He smiled brightly and snapped his fingers. They walked and each step she could hear the clopping of his hooves against a nonexistent floor. Together they stepped over to a window covered by a deep crushed crimson velvet curtain. Along it was a single crushed velvet rope of the same color. He grabbed the rope, pulled it, and it opened to reveal almost the entire cast of My Little Pony behind it. She looked over it and instantly saw the main six, or at least the main six minus Pinkie Pie.

Her eyes went back to Applejack and she looked around the farm pony to see the entire Apple family. She looked back at him shook my head.

“What are you selling exactly?” she asked.

“What we’re selling Ms Tiner is a living breathing fantasy. It’s a fantasy that will not end when you shut off your computer. It won’t end when the television show ends, but instead it will remain with you, and grow with you. Think of it Ms Tiner. Think about what it would be like to have that perfect somepony. That one special somepony to spend the rest of your life with. Isn’t that something worth considering?” he asked.

She looked back at the apple family, and her eyes settle on Big Macintosh. Her hand gently drifted to him and when she touched him he turned from his presentation on the show into his anthropomorphic version of himself. She looked at his closed eyes, the way his mouth was just barely open like he was breathing. He looked peaceful.

“How much is he?” she asked.

“That’s always the rub isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how much an artist loves their work it comes down to how much is it worth. They are all twenty-two thousand credits a piece, but take into consideration what you are getting. These aren’t machines. They are real, living and breathing fantasies. He will eat, sleep, sweat, and even bleed. Everything he feels when he wakes up will be real. Granted he will have memories. Everything the writers of the show had ever written about him, expressed in the show, or outside of it, will be given to him, and of course any fan based content that you would like us to consider will be added as well. All of it will be slightly altered to match his new body. But beyond that all of his experiences after that will be made between the two of you,” he replied.

She studied him a little more and kept touching him.

“Okay, I want him. I want Big Macintosh Apple,” she said.

“Well done Madam. Simply continue to press on his image,” the stallion said.

A moment later he glowed red, his eyes opened, and he gave her a smile before he disappeared.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“He's being prepared for you right now. It takes a two month process to accurately grow and implant his memories. I should also state that he will be one of a kind. We here at Vogon pride ourselves of ensuring that our customers get exactly what they are paying for. You are getting Big Macintosh Apple, not a Big Macintosh Apple, but the Big Macintosh Apple. There will be no other versions of him made,” he said.

It was strange that only one other had been bought at the moment, but at least that meant that someone had tested the waters. A question came to her mind and she looked at the stallion.

“How will he arrive?” she asked.

“He will be arriving in one of our transports, and he will be dressed in the suit of clothes that you choose for him,” he said before two suits of clothes appeared.

One of them was the jacket, shirt, and a pair of matching pants from the episode of Filli Vanilli, and the other was a set of overalls with his cutie mark on the back pocket, a white t-shirt, and a green scarf that had been on a piece of fan art at the time. She looked at both of them, and while the suit was official she wanted him to be comfortable. She took a moment, breathed in, and pressed the overalls. The overalls and everything with them disappeared and then once more the stallion snapped his fingers.

What appeared next was a checkout counter, and behind it was an anthropomorphic version of Discord. He grinned, ran a package over the register and then handed it to her.

“Take very good care of Big Mac. After all, you wouldn’t want Applejack getting upset about something happening to her brother would you?” he asked.

She watched as the screen went dark, and she took over the VR goggles and the haptic gloves. Two months and there would be someone else here. The idea filled her with what could be possible. She wouldn’t be alone anymore. It had been lonely since her grandmother passed, and there would even be help with peach orchard.

She thought about signing back in, and seeing if it would be at all possible to get Apple Jack, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom, but the twenty-two thousand credits was already going to be hitting her. She had the money to do this, but not the kind of disposable income to get the entire Apple family. Instantly she hoped that it wouldn’t bother him being the only member of the Apple Family here.

With that in mind she walked around the farmhouse and looked at the other rooms. The room she was in was her old room. She had never seen a reason to go anywhere else in the old house, but she knew there was a few other rooms available. She looked through them and found one of her great uncle’s old room. She cleaned the rooms fairly often, coming through and dusting, but it was the first time she really stopped and looked at the room.

Her great Uncle Michael had lived here as a boy, and left when he turned eighteen. Her grandmother had told her that out of all of her brothers Michael was her favorite. He had been the kind of brother would tell her stories, read to her, and walk her home from school. She said that when he turned eighteen he went into the army.

She let out a sigh as she thought about the rest of the story. Michael had died trying to protect a young girl. The news had come home. There was the clean version sent by the government, and then there was the true story sent by his friends in the army. She said that they talked about how they came across a family that had been killed, and there was the sound of a young girl screaming. From their accounts Michael had rushed behind the house to find an eight year old girl tied to the ground with a group of armed men around her. Without thinking he engaged them. They rushed back there to find him leaning against the wall. The young girl in his arms, and the other men lying on the ground. He had opened fire, and in the end he had taken a direct hit from one of them. Still, he had saved the girl. The same girl that had come back to the states and became part of their family.

In a lot of ways her Great Uncle Michael was quite a bit like Bic Macintosh. They were both family oriented, and she had a feeling that if Big Mac would have been in the same situation that her Great Uncle Michael had been in he would have done the same thing.

She went to work on the room, not really changing much of it, but adding a few things here and there. As the days began to pass she went through her great uncle Michael’s clothes. To her surprise most of them were farm oriented. She could see overalls, jeans, t-shirts, old flannel shirts, some boots, and a few other odds and ins.

She took down the clothes, and went through them. Most of them looked in good condition, but she knew that anything that may have been hanging up for that long would need to be washed, dried, and checked to see if it needed to be re-stitched. She began taking them down to the laundry room, and for the next couple of weeks she worked on getting his room ready, clothes together, and checking the orchard to see how it was doing.

The first month passed and she was confident that the room she had set aside for him would be fine. The next two weeks she looked into every apple dish that Applejack and Granny Smith had fixed on the show and went around finding ways to make those. She also took down every peach recipe that her granny had ever made and practiced on them.

The days passed slowly, and she began to wonder if he was going to be resentful. She didn’t want him to be, but there was the possibility that he would be upset. Still, there was the fact that Vogon was making him for her. Her questions turned from would he be resentful to would he be able to think for himself. They said he would be alive, but would he have free will?

Finally the two months passed, and she was starting to wonder if she had been scammed, for the second time, when the sound of a car coming down the dirt road could be heard. She walked out and saw a rugged looking transport. It pulled up and two men got out, walked around the back, opened the door, and out stepped a tall, red furred, orange maned, anthropomorphic Big Macintosh. He looked a little skittish at first. She also noticed that one of the thing she was wearing, besides the clothes she had picked out, was his ever present work horse collar. She walked toward them and the two men bowed slightly, stepped back, and walked back to the transport.

“Big Macintosh?” she asked.

“Eeeyup,” he said.

She smiled and offered him her hand.

“Welcome home,” she said.

He touched her hand, and in the next instant he pulled her against him. She felt the bone crushing power he had in his arms as he held her.

“Jessica,” he said soothingly.

Author's Note

(Okay, I’ve been asked to do two more I see Pink Stories. So far the requested stories are Princess Celestia and Vinyl Scratch. I am planning on doing them both, but I would like to open it up to a vote. So, here it is. If you want it to be Princess Celestia, in the comment, say Princess Celestia. If you want to see Vinyl Scratch, please say Vinyl Scratch.

That said, of course if you see any typos let me know. Thanks for reading and commenting!

An Empty House

Plowed Fields

Chapter 2 ‘An Empty Home’

A Big Mac Romance

Time seemed to slow down as Big Macintosh looked around at the room he was in. It was similar to his own room back at Sweet Apple Acres, but at the same time it was different. The sounds of Applejack’s snoring wasn’t vibrating through the wall, and he didn’t have ‘Bloom running in at a moment’s notice because she was scared.

He leaned against the wall as he sat on his bed and thought about where he was. It was a farm, which was good. He was glad that he was on a farm, and not somewhere like Canterlot or Manehattan, but he didn’t smell the sweet smell of apple blossoms in the air. Instead it was something else. A different kind of blossom hugging to the trees. Then there was Jessica. He knew she was a mare, he could smell that much, but she didn’t look like any mare he had ever known before.

His mind thought back to Ponyville and he kept picturing here there, but it was off. He knew she hadn’t ever been there, but then he felt as if he had always known her. The moment she touched him he felt like she had grown up around him, and they had been something of foalhood sweethearts. A soft grunt escaped his lips as he stood, and walked out of the room. The sun had already set, and he supposed that meant that Princess Celestia had already turned things over to Princess Luna.

His green eyes looked up at the night sky. Thousands of stars twinkled back at him, and for a moment he felt like he was home. He slowly walked out to the porch, and there he found an old porch swing hanging from a rafter. He took a seat in it, rocked it back and looked to the side of the porch. There was a tall weed standing up, and he quickly plucked it from the ground, wiped it off, and bit down on it.

“Eeeeeyup,” he muttered as he looked at the night.

“Big Mac?” Jessica asked from behind the screen door.

He turned toward her taking in how she looked. Something inside of him made him realize that Applejack would like her. They seemed to be cut from the same cloth, and in a lot of ways she even reminded him of their mama.

“Hmmm?” he asked.

“What are you doing out here alone?” she asked.

“Just looking at Princess Luna’s sky,” he said.

She grinned. With the exception of his telling the Cutie Mark Crusaders off that might have been one of the longest things she had ever heard him say. She walked out in her oversized hockey jersey that fell to the middle of her thighs, a pair of gold work boots, and her brown hair was pulled back into tight pony tail. He wanted to laugh at the name that was called. Her crystal blue eyes settled on him before she took a seat next to him.

“Something bothering you huh?” she asked.

He nodded as he looked up at the moon.

“Just wondering what ‘Bloom, Applejack, and Granny Smith is doing. It don’t feel right being without them,” he said.

She touched his hand, and he lifted it up only to put it around her shoulders and pull her up closer to him. She leaned against his side as he looked at the night sky.

“Ya reckon they’re lookin’ at the same moon Ah am right now?” he asked.

“Big Mac I know they are,” she replied.

He leaned back against the swing and began to hum lightly. The humming turned into him singing a little. His rich baritone voice floated through the air. Jessica felt the warmth radiating from him, the softness of his coat as he sat out on the front porch in just his overalls, and she wondered exactly what had made her really want this.

He looked toward her as she sat in contemplation for a moment. Leaning down he gave her a small peck of a kiss on her forehead.

“Best get ta sleep. We’ve got an early morning, and lots of apple buckin’ ta do ‘morrow,” he said.

“Ummm… peach bucking,” she replied.

He looked down at her and smiled. It wasn’t apples, but he could handle bucking. His eyes drifted toward the open sky again, and once more he wondered if the last time he had seen his family would truly be the last time he would ever see them. Slowly he got up, and Jessica got up with him. He followed her inside, and his eyes took in how she looked. Her legs looked different than his own, her boots didn’t look like the tough work boots he had known some of his family, like Braeburn, to wear. They were shaped differently.

Regardless she had toned legs. He could see the muscles in them working with each step. Her rump was something else that he noticed, and instantly he averted his eyes. His mama and Granny smith had raised him better than to oogle a mare. They had taught him to respect a mare, get to know her, and then see how things went from there. His eyes drifted back to her and a soft smile crossed his lips as he thought about what a future with her could lead to.

A respectable stallion or not he was still a stallion, and he had a feeling that what he had noticed was gonna cause him to chop a little firewood later. He walked toward his room, and watched as she walked toward her own. She turned and looked at him. A gentle, warm, and soft look crossed her face with the smile she gave him.

He smiled back at her, watched as she walked into her room, and he waited until she was out of the hall. He walked into his own room and felt the tightening of his overalls in the crotch.

“Gonna be a long night,” he muttered.

Author's Note

(And thus ends the second chapter of A Plowed Field. Again, thanks for everyone who has read this. If you see any typos let me know.

Read and Comment

LF)

Family Stallion

Plowed Fields

Chapter 3 ‘Family Stallion’

A Big Mac Romance

Jessica looked at the handwritten ledger once more. She was thinking that she was wrong, but it all added up. The Peach Orchard, now renamed Sweet Nectar Acres, was actually making money. They were selling enough fresh peaches at the farmer’s market, and to a local bakery that she was able to let her online tech support job go. It was a freeing feeling to let them know that she appreciated what they had done for her, but she had an opportunity to do something better.

That wasn’t the only thing that had happened in the last few months. A soft smile crossed her face as she remembered that fateful night less than half a month ago with Big Mac. He had been a gentleman, well gentlecolt, but enough was enough. She had went from liking having him there, to loving being with him. That wasn’t the only thing either. He had really helped her. She wanted to be with him. To open up to him, and to get past what had happened when she had lived in the stacks for a short while before her grandmother was able to get custody over her.

He had reached her, and slowly he helped heal her hurt. She found herself trusting him completely, and she was trusting normal human men more and more. That’s when she decided that she wanted to give him something that had been stolen from her. He was nervous, like herself, but he was so gentle. She had seen him kick a tree so hard that every ripe piece of fruit fell into the buckets below, and she had seen him bend a steel fence post into the shape they needed with his bare hands. Still, all of that power didn’t come out at once. Instead he was completely gentle with her. He had even put them into the position where she was in complete control.

She looked at something beside her ledger. The letter from the courthouse indicating that her request to change her last name had come through. She wasn’t Jessica Wilkins anymore. No, she was officially Jessica Apple. Big Mac had asked her about it, and she had told him that she wanted to do it. As far as she was concerned she wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he.

Since then he had taken a more active role in the orchard. He wasn’t just bucking, but he was also letting her know things they could do to make it better.

“Jessica, got a minute?” he asked from the hall.

She got up and walked out. The smell of sweat, sweet apples, and peaches rolled off of him. She walked over to him, felt him pull her against him and they kissed deeply for a moment before he pulled back.

“We’ve more peaches than I can haul outta here by maself,” he said.

She walked with him to the barn and saw what he meant. The bushels were full. She wanted to know how this was happening. Her trees had always been good about producing fruit before, but they were producing well over twice as much as they had been, and they seemed to be doing it in a sort of schedule. It was as if nature was changing it’s designs for Mac.

She looked at currently in use wagon, the same she had helped him repair, and saw that it had a full load of peach bushels already on it. They had some money now, but it was far more cost effective to have Mac pull the wagon to the market, and the bakers. Both places cleared a full wagon in a couple of days, and that wasn’t including them eating several different peach inspired dish a night.

Their finances did give them quite a bit of wiggle room. The thought of a truck came to her mind, but it would far too expensive to maintain an electric powered truck let alone a combustion powered engine one. She could look into finding a Clydesdale for sale, but most horses now tended to be bought up by large cities. There was traditional taxi cabs, but more and more people had started using horse drawn buggies in cities that had enough wealth to afford the care of the animals.

No, buying a Clydesdale would be out of the question, and besides she wasn’t sure how Mac would take seeing what a normal horse looked like.

“It’s too bad that AJ ain’t here. Ah know she’d help out in a second, and Ah’d kind of like to introduce ya to her. What with ya takin’ ma name and all,” he said.

That hit her perfectly. Big Mac missed his family, and while she wasn’t too keen on the idea of sharing him it was wrong to keep him separated from his family. Not to mention the fact that Applejack would want to help make sure that her brother’s farm was doing well.

“Let me see if I can find her. Maybe we can have her agree to come out,” she replied.

He watched as she walked off. Her heart shaped rump making those jeans look better and better. He was lucky to have her, and… something struck him as odd. She mighty ornery last month around this time, and the month before. She wasn’t acting all ornery this time. His ears splayed out as it occurred to him. She wasn’t ornery. Applejack acted a might different when it was her. She got ornery sure, but she also went to working harder, and sometimes she would go to Zecora and get a little bit of black root to chew on for some kind of cramps.

Jessica wasn’t acting like she had those cramps, and she wasn’t acting ornery.

“Pa always said to be a stallion about things like this,” he muttered as he hooked up the wagon and got ready to pull it to the market and then to the bakers.

Jessica watched as he left, and then she slipped on her haptic gloves and VR goggles. She began going back through her browser history trying to find Vogon, but she couldn’t find it at all. She kept looking, but nothing came up. She checked her email, and the original email was gone. There was another chance. Netflix would often have pop ups, and maybe she could find a pop up of Vogon. She groaned and finally she logged into netflix. It was a long shot, but maybe it would pop up again. If it did then she could get to it through that.

The episode of Filli Vanilli began and she watched it. It ended, and she waited for the pop up. She watched the side of the credits, and nothing happened.

“Please, come on, please pop up… He misses them so bad, and we could really use the help. It made him so happy to see Pinkie Pie at that meet and greet with Andy Williams, so I know he needs this please,” she whispered.

Almost as if the digital anthropomorphic stallion had heard it he appeared. It walked toward her, bowed and smiled.

“Click me,” he whispered.

She reached out for him and once again the entire setting became blindingly bright. The psychedelic rainbow appeared once more and she was standing in the exact same room she had been when she got Big Macintosh.

“I take it that you are happy with your purchase Miss Wilkins, or should I say Mrs Apple?” he asked.

“Wait, how do you know about that?” she asked.

“Mrs Apple, Jennifer, Vogon is a multinational, multibillion dollar business. We like to keep tabs on our clients and ensure that they are getting the most for their money. Now, what can I interest you in?” he asked.

“The Apple family,” she replied.

“The entire Apple Family? You do realize that according to some cannon, and most fans, that means the bulk of all Earth Ponies. Why, even Pinkie Pie is related to the Apples,” the stallion said.

“Okay, Big Macintosh’s immediate family,” she replied.

“Ah, that’s a much more manageable request,” he said.

The curtain opened, without his pulling on the cord, and Applejack, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom all three lit up.

“They are still twenty-two thousand credits a piece I should add,” he replied.

“I… I only have enough to spare for two,”

“My dear, then what you need to do is decide which two you want to have. Think about what he needs,” the stallion said.

She breathed out, reached out, and touched both Apple Bloom and Applejack. For a moment they glowed, their eyes opened and then they disappeared.

“Very good. Now, their memories will be created from the show, but is there any memories you would like to add from fan content?” he asked.

She thought about the stories containing Applejack and a good part of them that concerned her with humans did usually end the same way. She’d either hate the humans, or she end up shacked up with them. Still, she was always honest, always family oriented in most of them. She thought hard, and came up with two. She quickly typed in Set in Stone by Kudzuhaiku, and then she added Room for Rent by Drax99.

Applejack wasn’t the main character in either story, but the authors had done a good job of portraying her in a good light. As for Apple bloom she decided to let her memories simply exist from the show. The stallion nodded and smiled. Once again a bright light covered her and she saw Discord dragging something over a register.

Take good care of the former element of honesty and her sister. I’m sure that they miss their brother,” he said.

She looked at him strangely for a moment before he disappeared. She pulled off her goggles, the gloves, and looked at the console. There was far too many questions to ask, but they had help coming, and she was doing something nice for Big Mac.

Author's Note

(And there’s the next chapter. Expect an Applejack story to be coming out in the next couple of days, and here’s a small glimpse of the first chapter.)

Ah lay in that confounded bed and listened to what was supposed to be ma sister-in-law making little soft moans, saying ma brother’s name over and over, and then there was the sound of that damned bed. Those springs squeaking, the headboard slapping the wall. Finally Ah couldn’t take another minute and Ah walked to his room, and banged on the door.

“Better get some shut eye ‘cause we got a lotta buckin’ ‘morrow, and I expect ta get it all done!” I shouted.

“Kinda busy,” he replied through the door.

“Celestia, please, please just make me deaf for tonight. Ah wanna sleep,” Ah whimpered as I walked back to ma room.

(Thanks for reading and commenting

LF)

The Dance

Plowed Fields

Chapter 4 ‘The Dance’

A Big Mac Romance

The heat of the sun bore down on Mac as he finished the last few trees on the back forty. Jessica had sent an invitation to his two sisters, and he hoped that they would end up coming out. They could use the help, but more importantly he missed seeing them. He missed hearing Apple Bloom talk about the adventures she and the rest of the Crusaders went on. He missed Applejack fussing over the farm, and trying to make sure that everything went like clockwork. He stretched as he started to hook himself up to the wagon he had brought out with him.

“Mac?”

He looked up at the voice and saw a young human colt running toward him. he smiled and knelt down as the boy reached him and gave him a hug.

“Harold, your mama know you over here?” he asked.

“Yeah, her and Dad are still working,” he said.

Mac looked in the distance at the gated Corporate farm. He’d been over there once, walking Harold back, and it wasn’t run like a farm. The folks inside weren’t happy, and they didn’t seem to want to be there.

“How’s yer folks doin’?” he asked.

“Mama, she’s getting sick again. Daddy said he thinks it’s because she’s carrying me a baby brother or sister. Daddy sounded awful happy and sad about it,” Harold said.

“Why?” Mac asked.

“If Mama is going to have a baby she can’t work. If she can’t work we can’t make rent to live on the farm. We’d have to go back to the Stacks,” Harold said.

Mac had heard about the Stacks. Terrible places where bad things happened to good ponies. He had heard about some of those kinds of places in towns like Trottingham, and Neighyork, but it was far and few between back home. The way people talked about it here it was common place.

“Why don’t ya and ya folks come to supper?” he asked.

“Seriously?! That’d be awesome! Is Ms Jessica gonna make a peach pie?” he asked.

“I’ll ask her to. Go ahead and go tell yer folks,” Mac said.

He took off like a shot and ran toward the direction of the Corporate Farm. Mac walked inside and saw Jessica going through the process of making Peach Jelly and preserves. Another order from the Market, and it was one that he was glad they wanted.

“Jessica I invited Harold and his folks to supper,” he said.

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Mac shuffled his hoof and waited for her to finish with the jar she was working on. She did, and then she sealed it before putting it with the others she had already done.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Harold said his mama’s gonna have a foal, but it means they’re gonna have to move back to the stacks,” he said.

A look of understanding crossed her face. She had confided in him about her time in the stacks, and he had proved to be the stallion she knew he was. Now one of his new friends was faced with having to go back there.

“Is there anything we could do to help?” she asked.

“Dun know. Ah’d like to think there was, but Ah ain’t sur,” he said.

“Margret was talking about needing help with the market. They need some folks to work the local one while they make deliveries to their farm fresh grocery chain. Maybe Harold’s parents could talk to her. I can ask anyway,” Jessica said.

“Ya think that Margret and Frank would hire ‘em?” he asked.

“Well, they’ve worked for a corporate farm, so they’re not strangers to hard work. Harold isn’t a half starved little scarecrow, so they know how to budget, and I’ve never smelled anything on him that indicated his parents were into drugs, so I’d say there’s a pretty good chance they would,” she replied.

“Jessica, how do ya feel ‘bout a barn dance?” he asked.

“Okay, where did that come from?” she asked.

“‘Em folks are workin’ ‘emselves nearly to death over there. Though it’d be right of us ta give ‘em something relaxin’,” he said.

She leaned back and looked at the jars of Jelly she had already made. There was six flats ready. That was a full day of just mixing the gelling agent and the prepared peaches together, sealing, processing it, and letting it become the jelly it was supposed to. That didn’t include preparing the peaches, or sterilizing the jars. The order they had was for another ten flats, and that was realistically possible, by herself, in another two days. She had a week and a half left to finish them.

“Okay, but you’re going to help me finish up this order of jelly and peach preserves,” she said.

He nodded, and then watched as she got up, walked toward the small shelf that held several cookbooks and she pulled off one he had seen, but never seen her get down before. She looked at it, closed her eyes, and then opened it.

“Okay Granny, you said that everything you ever learned about get-togethers, barn-raisings, barn-dances, and family reunions is in here,” she said as she began looking through it. After a moment she stopped and then took note about what they had.

“Okay, we can do this. We’re gonna need some washtubs, tables, materials for cakes, extra materials for pies, and we need to make sure to have enough for about forty people,” she said.

They both looked at what they had. There was no denying that they would need flour for the pie shells, and cake, and then there was frosting. Jessica could remember her Granny making home made frosting for birthday cakes, cupcakes, and the like, but it was something she hadn’t quite mastered. They were going to need to get some pre-made frosting, and that meant a trip into town. She looked at the time and saw that she would need to start supper pretty soon. There wouldn’t be anyway they could get to town and back before dark.

The Corporate Farms had an open Company Store, that they even opened to the precious few private landowners, but everything there was four times the cost it was in Leona Valley. It wasn’t like they were going to throw the barn dance tonight. She could go into town after she and Big Mac prepared the jelly and preserves. Having decided on what to do she finished putting the last bit of what she had made into the jar, sealed it, and placed it into the pot where she was finishing out the last six. She got the pot to boiling and then turned to Big Mac.

“As soon as these finish we’ll put these flats away, and then we’ll get started on supper. Did Harold want anything special?” she asked.

“He asked if’n you’d fix a peach pie,” Mac said.

She smiled at that thought. The boy could eat an entire peach pie by himself. She’d watched him take two of the biggest slices she’d ever seen and was completely content with them. Still, she needed to make sure that she fixed something they would all like. So, one peach pie, maybe two would be on the menu. She already had a pot of beans cooking in the slow cooker, so there was the main course, and she could fix a loaf of corn bread to go with it. The potatoes were another thing. Beans didn’t taste right if there wasn’t any fried potatoes to go with them, and Mac could eat an entire platter of fried potatoes. She had about four good sized potatoes to make home fries with, but not enough for everyone. She didn’t mind skipping on the fries, but there was still the problem that Harold’s parents might not get enough.

She considered it for a moment and then a smile came to her face. It’d be more desert, but she could make peach fritters. Mac liked them, just as much as the potatoes, and he’d eat those in the stead of the potatoes. Grinning she got to work, and felt two big hands on her waist. She leaned against the stallion behind her.

“Ya ain’t mad are ya?” Mac asked.

“No, I’m not mad Mac. You’ve got a good heart, and it’s kind of to invite them. We’ll get a good supper cooked up for them, and invite them to stay the night if they don’t want to walk home,” she said.

“Reckon some of those trouble makers are out?” he asked.

“The world’s full of them, but they don’t really come out into the rural areas much. Most of what’s out here is Corporate Farms, and they know that the corporations that own those farms don’t mess around,” she replied.

That was something else Mac had heard about. The owners of those Corporate Farms didn’t wait for someone to explain themselves. If they came into the farm armed, or had attacked someone, they were dealt with quickly. Harold had told him that he had heard about it from some of the other human foals. They talked about how somepony was trying to make somepony else let them into the farm by holding one of the workers against their will. The guards had ended up dealing with them both.

“Still hard ta believe,” he said.

She leaned against him, enjoying the closeness they shared. Ever since she had opened up to him, confessed what had happened, and let him help her she could feel herself becoming more and more comfortable. She wanted things to work between them. More than that she needed them to work between them.

“Mac… I… I think that I’m…” she started before he pulled her tight against his bare chest.

She loved the feel of his fur, even when he’s been working all day and gotten sweaty he felt soft.

“I feel the same way,” he said.

“Are you ever going to let me say it?” she asked.

“When yer actually ready ta, and not before,” he replied.

gentle didn’t even begin to describe Mac. He was more than gentle. He was kind, sweet, and amazing. She looked at the dishes she was cooking, checked the timer and saw that it was time to put the rest of the jars with the last flat. She flicked off that burner, used her tongs, and got the last six jars out. She quickly dried them off, and Big Mac moved them quickly, partly because he didn’t think about how hot they were, to the flat.

“Go ahead and take those to the basement if you don’t mind, and I’ll get to finishing up supper,” she said.

She watched him lifting the flats up, carrying them to the basement door, and then working around to opening it. It amazed her how strong he was, and yet how she barely felt it when he was with her. His hands which could be as hard as steel were as gentle and soft as crushed velvet with her. She smiled, went back to the potatoes, fritters, and pie she was making.

Time seemed to slip away as she cooked, and a little after an hour there was a knock at the door. Big Mac, who had come back up the stairs and helped with the cooking, walked over and opened it to reveal the dark haired boy and his two parents. She smiled and offered them all a seat. Both of Harold’s parents looked ragged. She smiled and offered them both a glass of lemonade. They accepted, and she watched them.

Stephanie, his mother, looked extremely tired. She remembered meeting the woman when they first came here from the stacks. She had looked pretty, but it was obvious that she was used to living as poor as possible. Still, it was somewhat of a surprise to see someone coming from the stacks who didn’t look like death warmed over. Stephanie’s long blond hair, green eyes, and lightly tanned skin was a contrast to the normal sunken eyes, pale skin, and miles of track marks, or missing teeth from meth use, and her husband Robert was much like her.

He had looked healthy, and possibly a fourth or tenth, Irish descent. Now his coppery red hair, was shorter than ever, his green eyes looked sunken, and the hope, precious hope she had seen when they first arrived was long gone. They both looked like they had accepted that this was the way the world was.

“Thank you kindly for inviting us to supper,” Robert said.

“It’s fine, and I thought that I might ask how things are going,” Jessica replied.

“Our quotas have been upped from last month. We managed to actually reach quota, and so they didn’t dock our pay, but now they want twice as much. The only way to do it is to double our shifts… We’re already working ten hour work days. It’s that or we make the children work in the fields as well,” Stephanie said.

Mac looked at her and she nodded.

“If you guys are interested I know the owners of the Farm Fresh grocery chain, and they’re looking for someone to run the local Farmer’s Market. I’m not sure what the living arrangements would be, but the work wouldn’t be nearly as hard as what you’re doing now,” Jessica said.

Robert looked at her, then at Mac, and then back at her.

“Is there a catch?” he asked.

She looked at him with a questioning glance.

“I’m serious, is there a catch? Is there something you want, or that you,” he said pointing to Mac, “want to make this happen?”

“No, yer ma and Jessica’s friends. We wanna make sur that the two of ya are happy,” Big Mac said.

No sooner had those words left his mouth than Stephanie jumped up and wrapped her arms around him. I watched as she hugged the stallion she wasn’t sure of before tightly. He gently returned it and then let her break away from him.

“When could we find out?” Robert asked.

“We’re going to be delivering a load of peach jelly and preserves to the market in about a week. I can ask her then, or if we get finished early I can ask her when we get there,” Jessica said.

“How much more do you got to do?” Robert asked.

“About ten flats,” Jessica replied.

“Stephanie, do you feel like working tonight?” he asked.

“I do if you do,” she replied.

Jessica smiled, shook her head.

“If you two want to help do them that’s fine, but sleep tonight. It looks like you could use a real bed, and some real sleep. Tomorrow we’ll get to cracking on it, and if we’re lucky we might get through with them. If you want to ride over with me and Mac I can introduce you to Margret and we can go from there,” she said.

The nodded, and she watched as something returned to their eyes. Something that had been gone when they arrived here. Hope was there. Hope of getting out of the near slave labor they were in. The night progressed, and she watched as Harold put away more pie than anything else. Stephanie and Robert both ate a decent serving of beans, cornbread, and home fries, and like she expected Mac put away the fritters. he actually beat her great Uncle Michael’s old standing record. The lot of them headed off, and she showed them and Harold to two separate rooms. Harold was excited to get his own room, and she knew that it was going to give Stephanie and Robert a chance to be husband and wife without worrying about Harold being in there.

She walked toward her room and stopped. This wasn’t where she wanted to be. Sure, it was the master bedroom, but it wasn’t Mac’s bed room. She started to walk toward his room, when she realized how badly she most likely stunk. She walked toward her bedroom, pulled off her jeans, panties, gray t-shirt, and sports bra. She grabbed a New York Rangers’ Hockey Jersey. Once she was done with that she walked into her bathroom and started the shower. She felt low pressure and realized that someone else, Mac, was taking a shower as well.

She began washing using the soaps she had noticed he liked. Tea Tree Oil shampoo for the peppermint smell for her hair, Dove Lavender for her skin, and finally when she felt clean she stepped out and dried her hair, and body. She pulled the hockey jersey on, and looked to make sure that it fell down between her thighs. Grinning she walked out, closed her bedroom door and walked into Mac’s room.

She saw him facing away from her. It was the first time she had ever seen him nude before.

~~~~~Clop Starts Here~~~~~

The well defined muscles of his back and legs moved and flexed eveningly and smoothly. It was like watching a living piece of art as he faced his bed. She could tell that he had just straightened it, and she couldn’t help, but notice the way he was checking over it, bending over slightly, giving her a full view of his stallionhood. Even flaccid it was impressive. She wasn’t sure why, but she had half expected it to look more along the lines of a normal horses.

Instead it looked surprisingly human. Granted like a human who had never been circumcised, but it looked human. It also looked somewhat threatening in its sheer size. She gathered up her courage, closed the door behind her, and caused him to turn around. He looked at her, his hands moving to cover himself. She walked toward him, taking one of his hands and putting it between her breasts.

“I love you. I’m ready to say it, and I’m ready for something else. I trust you Mac, and I want to be with you,” she said.

She leaned up to him, catching his mouth in a kiss. His other hand left from covering himself to moving under her shirt. She felt him feeling the shape of her ass, moving to her lower back, and then she felt his mouth moving from hers to her neck. She stepped back, pulled off her jersey, and let it fall to the floor. From there they moved to the bed. To her surprise he kissed down her, stopping to gently suckle at her breasts. He kissed down further until she felt his tongue moving around her mound. She could feel it slipping inside, spreading her gently open, making her squirm. He stayed there, working on her, making her squirm, and causing her to moan deeply. Finally he moved up her and she felt him touching her.

“Do ya want to?” he asked.

Even now, he was gentle, and she loved him for it. She nodded, and she felt him pushing forward. He went slow, pushing into her, giving her time to adjust, and she felt the thickness of him as he filled her. Inch by inch he kept going until he was completely sheathed inside of her. She let out a soft moan as he pulled back, and her hips rolled forward, He pushed forward and met her. Once more she let out a moan of pleasure.

He lasted about four minutes the first time, and it was well over two and half hours later when they lay beside each other covered in sweat.

“I love you Jessica,” he said.

“I love you too Mac, I love you too,” she replied.

Author's Note

(And Jessica finally got over some major issues. If you’re wondering about what she got over, go check out An Apple in a Bushel of Peaches. This was a longer chapter for the two of them, but I felt that it should be. The next chapter is going to be a fun one. Expect a visit from the bruiser from the corporate Farm as he tries to intimidate Big Mac.

Again, thanks for reading and commenting.

LF)

Ah Won't Back Down

Plowed Fields

Chapter 5 ‘Ah Won’t Back Down’

A Big Mac Romance

Mac opened his eyes. He yawned for a moment and wondered if the previous night had just been a nice dream. He turned his head and saw Jessica sleeping peacefully beside him. The sun was shining light into his room, and he could see the way the light played with her mane. He leaned forward, gently kissing the back of her head. She stirred for a moment, mumbled a few half spoken words before going back to sleep.

He could smell the mixtures of scents in the room. Jessica’s shampoo and soap was mixing with the smell of sweat, and finally there was smell of sex that hung around them both. A sheepish grin came to his face. Granny Smith would tan his hide if she found out that he had taken a mare to bed without introducing her to the family and letting her see if she was Apple material.

Still, he knew that she would have approved of Jessica. He felt her scoot back against him. She was just as soft as he was, but it was different. He knew that part of his softness came from his coat, but hers was more difficult to explain. It wasn’t just how she felt, but her actions, how she spoke, and how she opened up to him. It made her feel softer, and it only made her more beautiful in his eyes. He wrapped his arm around her, and he felt the tautness of her stomach. He gave her another kiss on the top of her head before he looked up to see the time. It was already seven fifteen in the morning. He had slept a full hour and a half past what he had planned on sleeping.

He gently moved, and worked his way out of bed without waking Jessica up. Once he got up the first thing on his mind was taking a shower. They had guests in the house, and it wouldn’t be right to go down stairs smelling like he did. He quickly grabbed a pair of jeans, a plaid shirt, some boxers, and walked into the hall bathroom. He opened the door, walked inside, and started the water. He waited a few moments while the water turned warm, and then he stepped into the spraying hot water.

The hot water felt good as it hit him. The fact he had taken a shower last night didn’t really matter. The water still felt good, and besides, he needed to be smelling better. He reached down and grabbed the bottle of Old Spice 3-in-1 and dolloped a bit of it on a wash rag. The rich, lightly crisp, and somewhat soapy smell of it wafted around the steam that was starting to gather inside of the tub. He rubbed the wash rag together, and then he began working it into his coat. A moment later he heard the door open and his eyes pointed forward.

“Hello?” he asked.

The shadow on the curtain became more pronounced, and then it pulled back. He could see Jessica standing there. Her nude form a pleasant sight to behold. She smiled, stepped inside of the tub with him. She pulled the current back closed and took the wash rag from him. He felt her lean into him and kiss him again.

“Let me get your back for you,” she said.

He turned around and felt her starting to wash his back. It was always a trouble spot for him. He could get part of it, but without a brush it was hard to get his back really clean. Instead, at the moment, he was feeling the wonderful feeling of Jessica scrubbing his back. She seemed to lather it up and then she moved a little while he turned around and stood under the streams of water.

~~~~~(Semi Cloppy Scene here)~~~~~

He watched as she went to her knees. She took the same wash rag she had used to scrub his back and he felt her cleaning his stallionhood. She lightly stroked it, letting him get excited, and then she went to washing it. He turned back around, but this time she was reaching around him, taking time to wash his length, and once it was fairly clean of the body wash he turned back around and he felt the warmth of her mouth.

The warmth of her mouth was welcomed as she moved down him. His hands buried into her hair, and each moment felt as if he stepped right into the elysium fields. He could feel himself tightening.

“Jessica… Ah’m gonna…” he practically moaned out.

She moved faster. Her actions determined in giving him the much wanted release. He felt his hands hold onto her head, and he exploded. After a moment he let go, and nervously stepped back. He had forced her to take his seed like that. He didn’t ask, he just did it, and that was something he had been taught better about. He had always been taught to ask to make sure the mare he was with wanted to do anything.

“Ah’m sorry,” he said.

She stood, looking confused, and he watched as she swallowed. She leaned forward, kissing his neck,.

“Don’t be. I wanted to,” she whispered.

“Ah didn’t ask,” he replied in a whisper.

“No, but I wanted to do this with you. Mac, I love you. I don’t know if you even realize how good of a m… of a stallion you are. You’ve been nothing but kind and considerate of me. That’s far more than any other male has done for me. Even now you’re being so sweet and worried that you might have screwed up with me,” she said before she gave him a soft kiss.

“I think that’s just part of being in a relationship. There’s going to be times that we’re going to do things that we might not agree on, and there may be times that we’ll screw up. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to love each other any less,” she said before she kissed him again.

He smiled through the kiss and gave back as much as she gave. She finished helping him wash off, and wash his hair with the three in one. He then moved behind her, letting her move forward and enjoy the hot water from the shower. Using his hands he worked the body wash into a rich lather. He began working it on her shoulders, back, lower back, and then she felt him rubbing it on her ass. She leaned forward a little, and let him work the lathered soap into ever nook and cranny he could. She turned around and let the hot water move down her back, enjoying the relaxing feel of it.

He lathered up more body wash and started on her front. She grinned as he paid special attention to her breasts, and then under them. She felt him taking his time as he worked the lather on her. The soft touches, small fondles, and gentle caresses made her feel so warm inside. She turned around to wash off her front and then she put her head under the water. She leaned back and felt his hands once more on the top of her head.

~~~~~Semi Cloppy Scene Ends Here~~~~~

She felt the incredibly powerful hands being so careful and gentle. He worked the Old Spice 3-in-1 into her hair and on her scalp. She reached up and helped him. Guiding his hands, letting him work it into her hair as it fell down past her shoulders. She leaned forward and kept his hands there. He kept working, now removing the sudsy multipurpose body wash from her hair. She leaned back and turned off the water. He stepped out of the tub on the mat and quickly dried off. He then placed the towel into the hamper and grabbed her a towel from the small linen closet. She wrapped her hair up in it, and he realized that she needed another. He found a fluffy one that he passed to her.

She quickly went to work drying herself off. He watched as she passed the towel over herself. Once she was reasonably dry she wrapped the towel around herself and stepped out onto the mat. He walked over to the door, opened it, and held it open for her. She stepped out and he followed her.

“Morning,” Robert said as he walked toward them.

Mac looked a little surprised, and a little nervous, until he looked at her relaxed Jessica was.

“Good Morning Robert. If you and your family wants to take a hot shower, go right ahead. Mac and I just finished, but there should be enough left in the hot water tank for each of you to have a shower. There’s some Old Spice 3-in-1 in there, or if you want some regular soap there should be a few bars of Dove in the linen closet,” she said.

Robert smiled and nodded before he walked back toward the room where he and Stephanie had spent the night. Jessica walked with Mac toward their rooms, and then she kissed him deeply. He pulled her close, his hands moving under her towel.

“Afterwhile,” she promised.

He grinned, watched her walk into her room, and he walked into his own. The clothes he had carried into the bathroom were back in his hand. He quickly dressed and walked downstairs. Jessica usually fixed breakfast, but this morning he wanted to do it for her. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bowl of fresh peaches.

He lifted one and smelled it. Like the last several bushels these peaches had become more fragrant, juicier, and sweeter. He grabbed a knife, cut it half, cut the pit out, and placed it to the side. He then placed the two peach halves on a cutting board and started cutting them into small cubes. He grabbed another peach and repeated the process until he had done this to six of them.

From there he started making the dough for the shells. There was a few instant pie shells, but he didn’t like those as much as he did the actual flour. Once he had them fixed he took the pieces of peaches and began grouping them into the dough. He grabbed a jar of honey and added some to the peach pieces and then wrapped the dough up.

He grabbed a pot, poured some vegetable oil into it, turned the burner on the stove on, and let the oil start heating up. Then he went on to make the next fritter. When the oil was ready he had made forty peach fritters. He took five of them, dropped them into the oil and listened as they began to fry.

Memories of cooking Apple family apple fritters came to his mind. The smell of the oil as it boiled around the dough and cooked it through. The smell was similar to the smell of the peach fritters cooking. He smiled as he smelled the food cooking, washed off the cutting board, and washed the bowl he had mixed the dough in. Once that was done he turned back toward the refrigerator and opened it up.

There was a few cans of instant biscuits on the lowest shelf, and while he hated to admit it, they did taste mighty good. He pulled a can out, turned the oven on, and then grabbed a cookie sheet. When he was done, there was eight biscuits cooking for them. A bit of jam or some honey would be welcomed for them. A good and hearty breakfast for the two of them, and for Robert, Stephanie, and Harold.

He heard the sounds of feet on the stairs and turned around to see Jessica coming down. She was dressed in her jeans, and a tank top shirt that she swore was nice and cool to work in.

“You decided to cook breakfast for us?” she asked.

“Eeeeyup,” he replied.

“You are the sweetest stallion alive,” she said as she kissed his cheek.

“Something sure smells good,” Harold said as he came down stairs.

“Peach fritters and biscuits,” Big Mac replied.

Harold looked excited. Mac remembered Harold telling him that a normal breakfast was usually something called Fruit Rocks Cereal and powdered milk. From what Harold told him the cereal was sweet, but it tasted like eating a bowl of sugar and not much else. Mac had nothing against something sweet. After all, he had eaten more than one of Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes, pies, and triple fudge cakes before. Still, he enjoyed having something that was a bit more than just sweets.

He thought about the human stallion he saw with Pinkie. He had seemed nice enough, and it was obvious that he thought the world about that mare, but it was a little odd in seeing two almost completely different personalities together like they were. Regardless, they seemed to be good for each other.

He finished up the fritters and the biscuits. Around the time it was finished, both Robert and Stephanie came down the stairs, and from the look of things they had enjoyed each other’s company quite a bit. A knowing smile crossed Mac’s face. He didn’t say a word as he put the fritters and biscuits on two different platters. He then placed the jar of honey, and a jar of peach jelly on the table between the platters.

Breakfast felt like a normal breakfast back on Sweet Apple Acres. The five of them ate, talked about what they had planned, and when it was done they all pitched in to clean up the little bit of a mess that remained. When it was done Mac, Jessica, Stephanie, and Robert went down into the basement to get the rest of what was needed to finish out the order. The four of them began the work.

They worked until around two in the afternoon when Jessica and Stephanie took a break. The two of them fixed some of the beans and corn bread left over from supper last night for lunch. All of them ate again, and then it was back to working on the preserves and jelly. At the end of the day, ten sixteen flats of preserves and jelly were finished.

Jessica looked at the time and shook her head.

“We could possibly get to town and get back before dark, but I’m not sure,” she said.

“Do you think we could do it if we helped make sure everything got loaded?” Robert asked.

“It’s worth a shot,” Jessica said.

They carried the flats out to the wagon, loaded them, several bushels of peaches, and then Jessica, Robert, Stephanie, and Harold got onto the wagon. Mac hooked himself up to the wagon and began pulling it toward the town. Mac picked up the pace, wanting to make sure that they had enough time to make it to the Farmer’s Market and then back. As they traveled Harold looked at the surrounding area. Corporate farms seemed to stretch out almost as far as the eye could see. Briefly between them he could see a private farm or home, but they were few and far in between.

After an hour they arrived.

“Jessica? Girl, you barely made it!” Margret shouted as she walked out to her, “You’ve got the preserves and jellies already done?”

“We had a little help, and speaking about help, are you still looking for someone to take over the day to day duties of the Farmer’s Market?” she asked.

Margret smiled and gave a small laugh.

“Yeah, Frank and I need to have someone run the day to day here. Why don’t we unload this, and we’ll talk about it inside?” Margret asked.

Frank walked out, and like Mac, the man looked like a pile of muscles. Still, his hair had lost whatever color it had originally been, and now it was a whitening gray. He helped carry alongside of the rest of them and in after about five minutes, they had the wagon emptied and the stock of Sweet Nectar Acres Peaches was refilled on the shelves.

“I can’t keep them more than a couple of days at the best. I know you both can’t just be hauling wagons over everyday, but I wish that you would. Everyone has been bragging about how good these peaches are, and they’re right. I’ve never had peaches so juicy and delicious before,” Margret said.

“Thank ya,” Mac said.

“It’s the truth honey. So, now what’s this about some help for me?” she asked.

“Margret, this is Robert, Stephanie, and Harold,” Jessica said pointing to them, “I know for a fact that they’re hard workers, and I know they will continue to work just as hard for you. You could do a whole lot worse, but I’m not sure that you could do much better.”

Margret looked at them, sized them up a bit and then smiled.

“I take personal references very seriously. If Jessica says that you’re all hard workers then I believe her. I’ll be willing to give you a chance. Frank and I need to go see about our grocery chain, and it normally means either one of us going, or shutting down the Market for a couple of weeks. Naturally we’d rather have the market open, so if you do a good job on this then consider yourselves hired,” she said.

Marge and Frank talked to Stephanie and Robert for a while. After about another hour Margret walked toward Jessica and Mac. She pressed her thumb against a small reader on her tablet and let Jessica do the same. After a moment there was a beep.

“Okay, we’ve paid in full,” Margret said.

“Robert, do all of you want to come back to the farm?” Jessica asked.

He shook his head.

“Marget said that she wants to start training us tonight, and she’s going to let us stay in the apartment over the market. Jessica, thank you so much,” he said.

She smiled at him and nodded. Mac and her quickly picked out a few things for the barn dance they wanted to hold, and then they walked to the wagon, Mac go hooked up to it, and they headed back to the farm.

When they got back the wagon was put away, the barn relocked, and they walked toward the house. As they neared the house a tall man walked around the side of the house. He looked at the two of them, and then shook his head.

“Can Ah help ya?” Mac asked.

“Maybe ya can. My employers are wanting to make the two of ya an offer on yer orchard,” he said.

“Not interested in selling,” Mac said.

“See, now that jest hurts ma feelings. Here I was planning on telling ya about what they had to offer, but na, ya want to say no. I guess that I should try to convince ya,” he said walking toward Mac.

Like Mac and Frank, this new man seemed to be sculpted from stone. He neared Mac, sizing the anthropomorphic stallion up before finally throwing a testing punch. Mac blocked it. The newer man smiled as he noticed the fighting style. It was something used in more civilized parts of the world. It was a sort of basic boxing. He checked on Mac, feeling him out, seeing where his weaknesses was, and finally he struck again. This time he landed a blow on Mac’s shoulder.

Mac rolled with the punch, struck out himself, and landed a solid hit. The man recoiled as his his right eye was covered by Mac’s fist. It wasn’t a testing punch. Mac wasn’t trying to figure out an opponet, but instead he wanted this fight over with. The other man swung wildly, catching Mac on the end of the muzzle, and at that point Mac struck back hitting him hard in the ribs. The sound of something cracking could be heard, and the next punch was one that hit Mac soundly in the ribs. Mac backed away grabbing his now bruised ribs. The other large man looked at him with his one good eye.

“Ya stupid sumbitch! Ya jest had ta listen to ma offer!” he shouted.

“Ain’t selling,” Mac said.

He growled, ran forward, and tried to tackle Mac. Mac wrapped an arm under him, lifted him up, and tossed him back onto the ground. That winded him, and then Mac picked him up by his collar and began dragging him back toward the Corportate Farm. He tossed him hard into the gate and looked up at the guards.

“Ah dun appreciate being told Ah gotta sell. Might look after ‘im, and dun send ‘im back,” Mac shouted up at them.

He walked back feeling his ribs bothering him, and his muzzle bleeding. It wasn’t a long fight, but he didn’t want it to be one. The one thing his pa had taught him was how to handle himself in a fight, but he also told him that ya should never start one.

“Son, fightin’ ain’t no good for nopony. Somepony always gonna ta git hurt when there’s a fight, so it’s best if there ain’t one, but if’n there’s gonna be one end it before it can go too far. Blind them, wind them, and give them a little somethin’ to remember ya by. Tweak their ribs, or pop their shoulder outta place. Either one will remind them not ta start another fight with ya,” his pa had told him.

Part of him hoped that Jessica would feel like working the soreness outta his ribs tonight.

Author's Note

(And there’s the introduction of the Bruiser. He’s going to be in the story quite a bit more, and the next chapter we should have the barn dance.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

LF)