RainbowMacintosh:Big Mac Tastes the Rainbow

The Thin Line:Love and War

Rainbow Dash lay in bed, only partially covered by cloth. She watched the red stallion pull the heavy horse collar over his neck, getting ready for his job in Appleoosa. Moving had been a tough decision, all her friends lived in Ponyville but Appleoosa had recently struck gold, its placement meant it had the best food in miles. Not to mention with it's newfound buffalo fame there came Bits, lots of them. The opportunity was impossible to ignore. Big Macintosh had been offered a huge sum of bits for work for the summer at Appleoosa. He had always helped his cousin Braeburn during the summers but never had the work been this hard before. The work was demanding and difficult in the hot sun, the kind of labor most ponies wouldn't want to do. Opening the door to their house, rays of sun shimmered down on the red stallion's orange mane. Standing in the door frame for a moment before stepping out, the red pony said.

“Dash? Yall know how much I love ya right?”
“All of what I am doing is for us! you'll see.” With that, he smiled stepping out into the Appleoosian sun. Rainbow Dash’s eyes followed him out, her heart filled with butterflies as her mate disappeared behind the closing door.

There was not much need for a weather pony in Appleoosa. Rainbow Dash spent her days lost in thought about her home in Ponyville. She missed her friends but she loved Big Mac and she knew how important this was. None the less, she was homesick.

Outside, a loud commotion broke Rainbow Dash’s thought, she hurried through the door to see what was happening. A crowd of ponies gathered just outside. In the center, three nasty looking buffalo surrounded Big Macintosh. The biggest of the three had a golden horn and an eye patch around his left eye. There was an expression of fury painted on the red stallions face. Stepping toward the front of the crowd, Rainbow Dash heard the buffalo in mid sentence

“ …… Still an outsider! Outsiders ain’t welcome in Appleoosa.” The lead buffalo said as a hoof came up to tap Big Macintosh in the chest.

Big Macintosh turned his rear, facing his assailant, he gave a full buck kick to the chest of the buffalo. The buffalo was knocked off of his hooves, hitting ground with a loud thud. Snarling, his eyes bursting with rage, the buffalo jumped back up as he shouted to his goons.

“Grab him boys!”

The other two buffalo had been quiet until now. They quickly followed their boss' order without hesitation. Grabbing Big Macintosh, the two overpowered him with pure force. The red stallion, not going down without a fight thrashed violently. The two buffalo received cuts and bruises, but alone Big Mac could not overcome the powerful creatures. Big Macintosh struggled to no avail, quickly being pinned back by the two beasts, each almost twice his size.

Rainbow Dash was shocked, she knew that he needed help. Without a second thought she zipped in the direction of Braeburn's house. Getting to the door, Rainbow Dash bucked it down without even knocking. Braeburn was inside, his jaw dropped and his eyes went wide.

“Rainbow? What the hell!……” He started, only to be interrupted by Rainbow Dash.
“There are buffalo…… Gold Horn!……. Big Mac!……. In Trouble!…….” She managed to say.

“Woah now. calm down and say that again, Did you say Big Mac is in trouble?” The wide eyed earth pony asked.
“YES!" They said something about “Outsiders ain't welcome here.” Rainbow Dash cried.
“Outsider? Big Mac? Everypony knows him.” Braeburn replied with a smirk, regardless he followed Rainbow Dash out the door.

Stopping only to collect the sheriff, Braeburn and Rainbow quickly made their way back to the now bigger group of ponies surrounding the commotion. Bursting through the masses as fast as they could, they were shocked to see Big Macintosh. His face bloodied, he was barely conscious. Horror in her eyes, Rainbow Dash saw the beaten pony mouth.

“I love you Dash”

A flicker of golden light caught her eye, she turned to see the lead buffalo charging at Big Macintosh. The two goons were still holding him in place, his body now just slumped. The buffalo's horns collided with Big Macintosh giving almost no resistance as they sunk into his chest.

“NOOOOOOO!” Rainbow Dash screamed.

Braeburn forced his way into the commotion, bucking the gold horn gangster in the side of the head catching him off guard.The kick collided with the buffalo's cranium, knocking him to the ground. The intimidating earth pony stepped over the still dazed body of the buffalo raising a hoof.

“Ya don’t mess with family.” He said, coldly bringing his hoof down several times, full force on the buffalo’s skull.

By now the sheriff was giving chase to the two goons who had dropped Big Mac, letting his body crash to the street. Gunshots rang out as one of the buffalo fell, then the other. Warm puddles of oozing red liquid poured from the criminals’ bodies.

Big Macintosh lay in the middle of the dusty Appleoosa road. Blood seeped out of him at an alarming rate. Mixing with the blood and bits of gore from the dead gang leader, the two danced in what seemed to be slow motion. Rainbow Dash rushed to Big Mac, He was barely breathing. The buffalo's horns had missed his vital organs by just inches.
The blue Pegasus screamed, fighting through tears.

“No! Big Mac! Please don’t die. I love you!” But the red stallion had passed out from loss of blood.

Braeburn stared at the body of his cousin, then at his bloodied hooves. He looked like he was in shock. Staring into the distance a moment later, he was in a different world. It seemed like hours before the Ponymedics pulled the still sobbing Rainbow Dash off of her critically injured lover.

At this point every second counted, Rainbow Dash had naturally wanted to hold her dying lover in her arms but Braeburn held her back. Looking into his eyes Rainbow Dash could see that Braeburn was now crying too.
Doing their best to patch up the bleeding Macintosh, the Ponymedics strapped him into a stretcher before loading him into a wagon. Rushing to the hospital on the other side of town seemed to take forever. The wagon could not go very fast over rough patches of ground, which the Appleoosa streets mainly consisted of. With Big Macintosh in his wounded state, any bumps or jars endangered his ever lowering chances of life. Rainbow Dash and Braeburn rode in the wagon, near the body of the heavily bandaged red earth pony. Dark spots of blood seeped through where the buffalo’s horns had impacted.

Rainbow Dash wept as she held her body close to her lovers. In his ear, she whispered.

“Big Mac... I love you so much!.”

His eyes still closed, Big Macintosh's ears twitched as Rainbow Dash's traumatized voice seeped through his unconscious mind.

After hours sitting in the fluorescent hallways, only occasionally would surgeons or doctors gallop the halls. each time Rainbow dash perked her ears up only to be let down when there was no news. Rainbow Dash couldn’t take it. She kicked a trash can knocking it over, her scream filled the hall. Braeburn hugged her. Minutes later, the surgeon stepped out in an all white coat.

“There is nothing more we can do In Appleoosa.” The doctor said. Seeing the expression in Rainbow Dash’s face drain, the doctor quickly added “We have stabilized the patient. A Mr. Big Macintosh. He had several contusions, deep lacerations in his face and puncture wounds in his chest, luckily missing his heart or lungs. It will be safe to transport him in a sky chariot to Canterlot Medical where they can do more.”

Relieved by the news, Rainbow Dash questioned. “He has family! is there any way I can contact them?"

The doctor pony pointed a hoof down the long white hallway.

“Look for the desk, the mare there will help you.” He said.

The hallway opened into a big waiting room full of ponies with minor injuries attributed to a hard day of work in Appleoosa. The hospital here saw enough business but they were still a relatively new establishment. The equipment had not been well suited for a pony in as critical condition as Big Macintosh.

The white earth pony mare sat behind a desk in the heart of the room, her bright fuchsia eyes locked on a Baby dragon who had vivid pink scales and sky blue spikes. They had been talking.
Rainbow Dash walked to the desk. The earth pony’s twirly light pink mane bounced as her head turned to face the saddened pegasus.

“Yes?” The white pony said, blinking her eyes several times at Rainbow Dash.

“Hey. My uh....” Rainbow Dash struggled for words. “Friend got hurt…. The doctor said you could help tell his family to meet us in Canterlot?”

“Oh yes! Oh yes! I just need the full name of the town they live and their family name so I can send the town dragon a scroll” The earth pony said gleefully.

“His name is.... Big Macintosh, send the letter to........ the Ponyville library, my friend Twilight Sparkle has a dragon there. She will know what to do.” Rainbow Dash offered.

The dragon had been writing the whole time Rainbow Dash gave information. After a moment, the dragon rolled up the scroll and sent it away with a burp of pink fire. No sooner than the scroll had vanished, the white clad doctor from before stepped into the waiting room.

“Miss?” The doctor said. “He is awake, He asked for you.”