Applejack put the letter down, blanching. "Ah can't believe it. This just ain't right!" She stomped a hoof on the paper resting on the table. "They have no right taking away honest folk from their homes just so the Princess can have an army!"

Big Mac sighed. The letter was addressed to him, and he knew it would come eventually. "Eenope." He looked down to his sister, trying to put all his emotions into his expression. It wasn't working nearly so well as he hoped so, instead, he stepped into his sister's personal space and hugged her. "Gotta do it."

Surprised by her brother's expansive words and gesture, Applejack's fury crumbled and she leaned into the big red stallion. "You know Ah'll miss you, right?"

"Eeyup." McIntosh squeezed a little harder, he knew his sister could take it. It was all that stopped him from crying. "Be strong." He surely didn't mean physical strength—not only was he known for being the pinnacle of physical shape, but his sister was too.

"Be together, Ah would say more." Applejack buried her snout in her brother's mane and inhaled. He smelled of stallion, of hard work, and of course apples. That smell had meant so much to her for so long, wherever he was, was her home. "But she is ripping us apart… five years…"

"Eeyup." Big Mac sometimes hated that word, like right now. It was implying agreement with the world, when all he wanted to do, in his heart, was scream and rage against it.

"What'n tarnation're you two doin'?" Granny Smith hobbled into the room. "Cryin' all over each other…"

Not ready to let go yet, Applejack held tight to her brother and gave a sniffle into his thick mane. Mac, however, lifted one huge hoof and pointed to the table, and the note thereon. He didn't need words, and he was thankful, he had a feeling that soon he would be required to use far more than he would ever want to.

Hobbling on rickety legs, Granny squinted at the letter, finally pulling out eyeglasses to read it. "Mandatory service? Ain't you still too young fer that?"

"In a week he'll be o' age, Granny." Applejack had to fight from actually bawling like a filly right then and there. A week, then her brother would be gone for years. "What'll Ah tell Apple Bloom?"

Granny's eyes narrowed at the two siblings. "Yer don' tell 'er nothin'." She glared at each of the pair in turn. "Ah'll tell 'er, this ain't goin' ta pass muster, no sir-ee."

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

"Big Mac!" Apple Bloom raced into the kitchen. "You can't go!" The filly hobbled the big stallion, wrapping her little form around one of his huge forelegs. "Nothin' can split us apart… family," she sniffed back a sob, "forever."

Mac lay down, carefully putting his weight on his unencumbered leg; it gave the filly the chance to let go and hug him properly. "I gotta do it." He curled one foreleg around the back of his little sister, letting her squeeze at her own pace, but keeping a little pressure on her. "If Ah don't…"

"What? They will make you?" Apple Bloom looked up at her big brother, her cheeks stained with tears as surely as his mane would be.

"Eeyup." He lowered his snout down, pressing it to Apple Bloom's mane. He wanted to remember, to take the important things with him. He fumbled in his mind for what Cheerilee had told him, about 'old factory' senses being the strongest. He wasn't sure on that, but he always remembered smells.

"They couldn't take you, you are too strong…" Apple Bloom knew the problems with that. The Royal Guard were known to be half unicorns and half pegasi, of course they could overpower an earth pony with magic and numbers both. "I'm going to miss you so much, but… we can come visit?"

"We'll see about that. They're comin' tomorrow ta bring yer gear." Applejack found her brother and sister embracing and hated herself for even thinking that she wanted to join them. Let 'em have their moment, AJ. She sighed.

Apple Bloom sat up suddenly, tears staining her eyes, but fire was blazing in her heart. "You will be the best guard!" The words, the fire, hit Big Mac hard. He had never thought about that aspect. On the farm, he was a cog in the machine that took in food and spat out apples. He did the jobs he was best at, naturally best at. Reaching to be best at something else seemed odd to him. Odd, and interesting.

"Eeyup." Mac lifted his chin, imbued and invigorated by his little sister's fire. "The best!" He looked up to see surprise on Applejack's face, surprise and support. "Gonna sleep in the barn tonight."

"Me too!" Both Applejack and Apple Bloom looked to each other as they exclaimed it. Both grinned widely.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

A rooster crowed, calling his delight at another false-dawn, echoed through the barn. The siblings might be a little slow to rouse, but they were farm-bred earth ponies, long days were in their blood.

Apple Bloom yawned, lifting her head from her brother's shoulder. She grinned as she realized she had literally used Mac as a mattress. She got a kiss on the cheek from Applejack. "Morning!" Her heart soared, she drew in more of the lovely clear air. She had her family with her and… It is going to be broken up.

Seeing her sister's face fall, Applejack reached out and poked the filly. "Don't you dare wear that face for him today." Their brother slept still, or so AJ hoped. "He needs us strong today, Bloom." It hurt Applejack to tell her sister, but she saw shock and surprise in Apple Bloom dive into acceptance. The filly nodded.

"We can cry tomorrow, right?" Apple Bloom saw her sister nod and smiled. "Then I can be happy for him and me, we have him for today." Of course, with a squirming filly on top of him, and with talking going on, Big Mac was not destined to sleep much longer.

"G'morning." McIntosh yawned widely before being attacked. His siblings were both wrapped around his neck, but he moved and stood up. It was an old game.

"Ah got his head!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, clinging and hanging from Mac's neck. "You get his back!"

"On it!" Applejack swung herself over, landing on her brother's back; if the stallion noticed the weight, he did not show it. "Ah don't think it's workin'!"

"We need to squeeze!" Apple Bloom giggled like a little fiend and snuggled herself into her brother's neck tightly, even as he clomped out of the barn on legs that were almost bigger around than she was.

Applejack was at a loss, when they were foals she would do this with Mac, and he would let her win, but she couldn't hope to bring her brother down, even with double her strength. Grabbing a coil of rope from the door as they passed it, she started to work a lariat out of one end. "Ah got this…"

Big Mac felt the rope grab on his left-front leg, felt the noose tighten. Clever. He went to take a step and nearly yanked the rope from AJ's grip. Another plodding step, then when he lifted his trapped leg again, he found putting it back down… impossible. "Oh," was all he said as he started to fall.

"We got him!" Apple Bloom swung under her brother's neck, landing on his shoulder as the big stallion hit the ground. Her sister was quick and very good with rope, soon getting all of Mac's legs bound, hog-tying him. "We win!"

"Uh, ahem!" A new pony cleared their throat. "Big McIntosh?"

"He fits the description."

Apple Bloom looked up, seeing two unicorn Royal Guard ponies. "No, he's ours! We caught him!"

"Bloom, what'd Ah say?" Applejack started untying her brother, freeing his legs and coiling the rope back up. "It's him."

The second unicorn took in the sad moment and almost recoiled back. "It's not so bad as all that, you get used to-"

"Shut up, Evening." The first unicorn glared at his companion. "You are the first on today's run… would you rather Big or McIntosh?"

"Big Mac, or just Mac." McIntosh got up, one hoof reaching over to rub Apple Bloom's mane. "Where is the armor?"

It wasn't that her brother had spoken a lot of words, he had done that before, it was how casual his use of them was. Apple Bloom had to fight a losing battle to not cry, only to be rescued when Applejack picked her up and pulled her into a hug.

"So quick? Well, you have been assigned white, pegasus." The first unicorn was inspecting a floating clipboard. "Don't worry about size, I promise, one size fits all." He half-grinned, clearly it was a bit of a joke; to him at least.

"You are such an arsehole, Afternoon." Evening tried to give the red stallion a look of compassion, but he could see some other hurt. "You wanted unicorn? I am sure we-"

"We can't change the armor, you know that. The Princess would know…" Afternoon shook his head. "You can put it on now, and we can pick you up on the evening train back, give you some time to get used to it." Afternoon gestured to a train that was sitting in the station, in the distance.

"Eeyup. Let's go." Big Mac started to plod forward, trying to be as enthusiastic about it as he could, if only so his sister's would be happier.

"I want to watch." Apple Bloom surprised even herself when she jumped from her sister's grip and started trotting alongside her brother.

"Me too." The words came from Applejack, the mare finding her legs moving too. "Ya ain't going ta rob him of this without us bein' there."

Mac stared at his sisters, fighting not to cry. Suddenly he wanted them at his side, no matter what it would take.

"Don't you dare, Afternoon. They can watch us steal their brother." Evening glared at the other unicorn. Part of him resenting that they looked so much alike that they could be twins. "Have a heart."

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

Big Mac looked at the heavy armor. Gold-bronze plates that lay over each other down the neck, a faux mane of blue; even the tail-clasp. "Ah gotta wear all of it?" Both unicorns nodded at him. He sighed. He knew that even though he couldn't see it, that armor was laid with so many spells and enchantments it would give a unicorn a headache. He reached for the helmet first.

"I… I would suggest the chest-plate." Afternoon actually looked embarrassed at his caution. "Trust me, it will do most of the work. If you put on the other bits first, it will leave you feeling… worse."

There was compassion and a little embarrassment in Afternoon's expression. Big Mac nodded to him. "Thanks." He put the helmet back down and picked up the plate. It would be heavy to any pony who lifted it; but not to Big McIntosh. He could see how it was opened, how it would buckle closed, taking a deep breath he put it over his shoulders and onto his back.

The magic took hold. Applejack and Apple Bloom gasped as they watched the wave of white pour out from where the armor sat, it was like paint staining a canvas. Big Mac lost a little of his bulk, but gained a sleekness to his features he had lacked. The stallion felt as he was reshaped by the enchantments in the armor, his red mane recolored to blue. But it was the physical, muscular and skeletal, that really shocked the stallion.

Big Mac screamed as his new wings pushed out, wings he had never had before, wings that he didn't really want all that much. It didn't hurt, but it was a twisting of everything that was 'him' into something else.

"Stop it, it's hurting him!" Apple Bloom rushed forward, gripping the leg of the white pegasus. "Take it off him!"

"Bloom." Mac was fighting with that disfiguring wrongness, he reached down and nosed at his sister. "It… It's okay…" A muscle spasm caused him to jerk a back leg as his heavy muscles toned down into a more sleek and compact strength.

When Applejack slammed into her brother's side, she felt him shift a little more than normal. She wrapped her forelegs around his more refined neck. "Ah'll find a way to get you out of this, Mac."

Author's Note

Project day! Welcome to my first Saturday Crazy Project.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
Canary in the coal mine
Daremo
Mary Rowland
Boulder
A.P.O.N.I.

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Daremo
Vutava