At Home on the Range

Chapters

1. Some Vacation
2. White Lightning
3. Swimming Lessons
4. Once Bitten, Twice Shy
5. Guys and Dolls
7. Sandstorm!
8. Rustlers Revealed
9. Jailbreak
10 TKO
11 Last Train to Ponyville
Alternate Ending
6. Macintosh of Arabia

1. Some Vacation

Chapter 1-Some Vacation

By: Bronius Maximus

'Stupid glass. It's not my fault they built a farmhouse with crappy windows!' Rainbow thought, rolling over on her bed. She had woken up inexplicably early that day. Dash knew Applejack would be by early to get her, but it always seemed like she could never get enough sleep when she knew she had to get up early the next day.

Rainbow thought back to how she found herself in this position in the first place. Like any other day, she had just been practicing her routine above Sweet Apple Acres after work. It was pretty much the only place near town with the kind of clear airspace she needed to perform unrestricted. Rainbow always made it a point to end her practice sessions with a sonic rainboom attempt. She hadn't managed to perform one since saving Rarity at the Best Young Fliers competition, and it seemed like she would never do it again unless one of her friends were in trouble.

Though she had thought about dropping Rarity to help motivate herself. However, she knew the fashionista would never go for it. Not twice in one week, anyway.

Finally, after a rather unremarkable practice session, it happened. She climbed as high as the frigid temperatures of the upper atmosphere would allow, and dove at a shallow angle over the farm. As her speed built, she felt the sonic barrier form in front of her. She was awfully close to the farmhouse at that point, but still she pushed on, knowing with a couple more knots she'd break the sound barrier, and break it she did! At the expense of every window in Sweet Apple Acres, as well as a stampede of frightened farm animals.

"Rainbow Dash! Get a move on, we're burnin' daylight!" Applejack shouted from below her house. She raised her head to look out the window.

The sun isn't even up yet, how exactly are we 'burning daylight'? Rainbow thought, flopping back onto her pillow.

Whatever, the sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can get back to my life.

She sulked on her bed for a few more seconds before burying her face back into the comfort of her pillow.

Ugh, this is so lame! I can knock out the weather in ten seconds flat but this? This is cruel and unusual punishment.

On top of that, she had to use the vacation days she'd been saving for a trip to Cloudsdale to take off from work to help AJ! This week was off to quite a rough start. Rainbow flopped out of bed and opened a hole in her wall, her bedraggled mane sticking up at strange angles.

"Hold on a sec," she mumbled, not really caring if Applejack heard her or not. "I'm comin'."

She made a half-hearted attempt to straighten her mane before giving up and flying out the door to greet her taskmaster for the day.

"Alright, so what is it today? More apple bucking? Slopping the pigs? Cleaning the barn? Stop me if I guess it!"

"Nope. None a' that," Applejack answered with an devious smile.

Rainbow raised a curious eyebrow. "Then what are we doin'?"

"Not we," she answered as they walked toward the farm in the pre-dawn darkness. "You."

"Whaddya mean me?"

"Well, you and Big Macintosh ta be specific," Applejack clarified with a grin. Rainbow recalled her country pal had been trying for some time to set her brother up with one of her friends. She had already tried it with Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity, but both they, and Big Mac seemed disinterested. Still, Dash couldn't blame a girl for trying.

"Is that right?" Dash responded dryly, "Well what is it then?"

"A cattle drive. We're takin' our herd a dairy cows ta auction in Prairieville, and Mac can't keep the herd in line and watch for rustlers by himself," she explained, "Normally I'd be goin', but Applebloom's been havin some trouble with her mathmaticals, so Ah've got ta stay here for a conference with Cheerilee."

"Prairieville?! But that's like a thousand miles away!" Rainbow protested, "That could take weeks!"

"You shoulda thought of that before ya broke all our windows," Applejack responded unsympathetically. Having to sleep in a drafty room every night had driven the empathy from her completely.

"I said I was sorry!" Dash shot back guardedly, "What more do you want?"

"For you to go on the cattle drive with Big Macintosh. Do that, and I reckon we'd be just about square."

Rainbow groaned, but knew this was her only way out. "Ugh ... fine, I'll go on your stupid cattle drive."

"Ah knew you'd see it my way!" she added as they came to the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. A herd of about one hundred cattle was already waiting outside as they approached the barn. A large red stallion waited outside with them, loaded down with saddlebags

"Ready ta head out, Mac?" Applejack asked, receiving only a nod in response.

"Good. Rainbow here'll be comin' with ya. She can fly and all, so don't be afraid to make her keep an eye out for rustlers!" AJ added, volunteering Rainbow's wings for her. The ever stoic Macintosh took a look at Rainbow, sizing her up for the rough journey ahead before whispering something to Applejack.

"Of course she's up to it!" Applejack answered, much to Dash's annoyance.

"Hey! If you got somethin' to say, I'm right here!" she spat defensively.

"Naw, it wasn't a slight against yer ability Rainbow, he just needs ta make sure you're up ta the task," Applejack added happily, ignoring her friend's annoyance. "There's a lot a work that needs doin' out on the range."

"I can take anything you throw at me! I bet I'm even better at cattle driving than you are!"

"Is that so?" she answered, taking a step toward Rainbow in challenge, "I've never lost a single cow. Beat that, and maybe you'll be as good as I am. One day," she added, knowing exactly how to push Dash's buttons. A low growl escaped Rainbow's clenched jaw as Applejack turned to face her brother.

"Whadya say we make it interesting?" Dash suggested, knowing Applejack would never back down from a sure thing. The country mare looked over her shoulder with a confident smile.

"Your funeral. What's the wager?"

"If I don't lose a single cow, you have to let me practice my routine whenever I want, day or night, and not complain about it."

"Fine, but if you lose, you have ta help us with th' applebuck harvest—"

"No problem!" Rainbow interjected.

"For the next three seasons."

"What?! No way!"

"Them's the rules sugarcube. Take it or leave it." Applejack smiled slyly, "Unless you're chicken like your little buddy Scootaloo!"

Dash narrowed her eyes in determination, "You're on!"

Both spit on their hooves and slapped them together, sealing the contract.

Applejack turned to face her brother.

What happened next would blow Rainbow's mind clear across Equestria.

"Mah hat," Mac asked expectantly.

Applejack removed her iconic headgear and sat it atop her big brother's head. Dash could hardly believe what she was seeing. AJ nearly had a fit every time she had playfully taken her hat while she worked, and to watch her just hand it over? Rainbow's jaw hung open.

'Mental note; ask Big Mac how he did that.'

"Ready?" Mac asked.

The amazement from the moment before quickly evaporated as the cold hoof of reality slapped her across the face.

"Yeah..." Dash moaned.

"HE-YAH!" with a slap on the flank of the rearmost cow, the rest of the cattle began stampeding to the west as he took off after them.

"You better git a move on Rainbow! Mac ain't gonna wait for ya!" Applejack shouted over the thunder of hooves.

A beat of her wings and Dash flew gracefully above the thundering herd, spying their crimson guide sticking out like a sore hoof from the brown, black and white hues of the cattle below. The huge burning sphere that was Celestia's sun just began to peak over the horizon. It would have been a beautiful sight from this altitude if Rainbow wasn't still a bit upset she was up early enough to see it in the first place.

It's bad enough I gotta work to pay for these stupid windows, and now I can't even hang out with AJ? Ugh, this is gonna suuuuuuuuck!'

Rainbow felt sure she would lose her mind before they even made it to Prairieville. Just her, a borderline mute stallion and a bunch of smelly cows.

"This is so the way I wanted to spend my vacation days," she said aloud sarcastically, knowing she wouldn't be heard way up there.

Rainbow folded her forelegs in contempt as Sweet Apple Acres slowly grew smaller behind them.

Big Macintosh had never been on a cattle drive with anypony other than his sister. Even though he did most of the hard work, she still knew what she was doing, and could take initiative to correct a problem without being told. This Rainbow Dash filly, though, she was going to be trouble. That, he could already tell. A city-slicker like her probably didn't know the first thing about cattle driving, or where to find a good water source in case the familiar ones had dried up last season, or pretty much anything useful.

'Why couldn't Fluttershy have broken out our windas?'

Now there was a mare he wouldn't mind being stuck out under the stars with. Quiet, gentle, with a good knowledge of animals and how to care for them at the very least. If it weren't for Applejack's constant attempts to play cupid with all of her friends, he may have been able to make some time with her. But as it stood, coerced interaction with her via Applejack simply came off as awkward for both the shy pegasus, and the quiet stallion. Still, Mac knew what's done is done, and complaining about it wouldn't solve anything.

After nearly an hour of running, the cattle began to tire, slowing their pace until the plume of dust behind them shrank to a third of what it had been. Dash noticed a stream in the distance Mac appeared to be directing the herd towards. She zipped down toward the front of the group as they slowed to a trot, and then to a walk as the exhausted cattle moved eagerly toward the water.

"Settle in, we'll be here a while," Mac said, sensing Rainbow had landed near him.

"What for?" Dash asked in protest, "We've only gone a few miles! We'll never get to Prairieville at this rate!"

"Tired dairy cows get less at auction. Better ta have them move at their own pace than ta try an force 'em on," Big Macintosh answered calmly.

"You've got to be kidding."

"'Fraid not."

His tranquil expression and tone only drove her annoyance at the situation. Her two least favorite things, boredom and not moving had somehow combined into a perfect storm of aggravation as she took a walk toward the stream. She bent her neck and dunked her head completely into the gently moving water in an attempt to wake herself up. While underwater, she heard the distorted sounds of a stallion's voice. She pulled her head up and shook the water from her mane, the wet strands whipping at her neck and face.

"What?" she asked glancing over her shoulder at Big Macintosh's ever present look of apathy.

"Ah said, ya might want to move upstream before puttin' your head in th' water," he added taking a walk up the small tributary "The cows use the stream for a lot more than just drinkin'."

Rainbow looked upriver in horror at the cows wading in the water with looks of relief on their faces. After a few extra shakes and gagging sounds, she quickly flew past the herd and into the stream where Big Mac had just finished filling up a few canteens. After re-dunking her head a few extra times for good measure, Rainbow fluttered back to where Mac had laid down. Nothing but a scowl was plastered across her face after her disgusting incident.

"You think that was real funny back there don't ya?" Dash sneered. If there was one thing she hated, it was being the butt of a joke.

"I never said that, but now that ya mention it..." Mac let a small grin break across his face.

"Don't you dare laugh!" she growled.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said in that calm, unprovoked manner that she found so irritating.

It's gonna be a long trip, the two ponies thought simultaneously.

2. White Lightning

Chapter 2-White Lightning

Rainbow studied her hooves in boredom while the cattle drank their fill of river water. A strained sigh announced her feelings as Mac tipped his hat forward over his eyes.

At least we have one thing in common, she thought, setting her head down on her forelegs, eager to catch up on the sleep that had been so unceremoniously denied to her this morning. A gruff response from her left shattered her attempt at relaxation.

"Don't go to sleep."

"Why not?" she frowned in annoyance.

"Somepony's got ta keep an eye on th' cattle," he added, "you can sleep next stop."

"Isn't that what you're for?" Rainbow shot back, her patience wearing thin. She quietly began thinking she would much rather lock herself in a padded room with the Cutie Mark Crusaders than to continue this earth pony work for another second.

"Nope, that's what you're for," Mac answered, his eyes still covered by AJ's hat. "Didn't ya hear my sister?" he teased, though she didn't see the humor.

Rainbow growled, accepting his reasoning begrudgingly.

"Unless a'course, you're lookin' forward ta helpin' us with th' next three applebuck seasons?"

It appeared as though the stoic red stallion knew a bit more about her than he had originally let on. It would be a cold day in Celestia's chambers before she would willingly lose a bet, regardless of how tired she was.

"Fine."

Stupid cows. Stupid Macintosh. Stupid crappy windows.

Rainbow glared at each cow, trying to take out her frustration by gaze alone on those bovines that seemed to need a constant eye on them. After a few moments, a soft snore drifted from her right. It looked like Big Mac could give her a run for her money in the quick nap department. He may have told her to stay awake, but that didn't mean she had to stay put. After a quick stretch of the legs, she began slowly strolling around the perimeter of the resting herd. A flutter of her wings and she was on the other side of the group, thinking to herself how much it must suck to be a cow.

Rainbow scanned the heavens for a cloud to lie on, only to be met with a clear blue sky. She groaned quietly as she continued her lazy saunter around the herd. She tried to look on the bright side of her situation. All she had to do was keep a bunch of cows in line, make sure they don't get stolen, and make sure they get to Prairieville for auction. Plus there was all the clear sky she could ask for to practice her moves while the cows napped.

Thats it Rainbow, just keep your chin up and everything-

Just as Dash had nearly completed that thought, she brought a foreleg down in a rather unfortunate result of being near cattle.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Rainbow glared at her foreleg in disgust as she fluttered toward the river to wash it off.

I hate cattle.

After a quick rinse and thorough inspection, Dash found herself back where she had started next to a still sleeping Big Macintosh. Something about his calm, calculating coolness bothered her, even while he slept. Rainbow couldn't comprehend his type. How could nothing arouse your passion, or anger, or, any emotion really? It was like he was some kind of farming robot, with nothing on his mind except apples and apple accessories. And sleep, obviously.

Rainbow groaned and stomped her hooves impatiently. This trip was going to be the end of her sanity, she just knew it. Nothing and nopony for miles around, and this was just the first hour. She quickly lifted herself off the ground and began to drift aimlessly around the sky. Time seemed to fly by when Dash flew, and this was as good a time as any to speed up the hours that seemed to drag by.

Her wings growing fatigued, she spiraled slowly back down to the ground next to the napping earth stallion. Idly surveying the scene, she noticed Mac had taken off the rather large group of saddlebags and lay nearby. With curiosity and boredom getting the best of her, she wondered what an experienced cattle driver would bring on such a trip. Silently, she crawled over to the nine or so bags and flipped the first one open.

Blankets? Its the middle of Summer! she thought closing the flap and moving on to the next pack piquing her interest.

Another quick peek revealed a bag filled with nothing but what appeared to be sticks and twigs of various sizes.

What the... why in Equestria would we need these?

A flip of another bag revealed some rather personal items.

A harmonica, a tin of tobacco... hello, what's this?

Something below the other items struck her as odd.

"What the..." Dash grabbed a part of the obscured item between her teeth and began to pull it out of the bag.

She dropped it immediately and closed the flap after hearing a grunt from behind her. Startled as she was, she noticed Mac was just waking up, and hadn't seen her snooping through his things. Dash breathed a sigh of relief as Macintosh moved his hat back up on his head and stretched his legs.

"Ready ta move?" he yawned.

"Yeah," she squeaked, still relieved he hadn't caught her.

The two of them walked back over to the herd, with Mac repeating the same hind quarter slap to get them running again. Once past the river, the gentle flatlands stretched for as far as the eye could see. Sloppy gliding gave way to bored slaloms, punctuated with the occasional glance down at the herd. She was starting to believe this was just Applejack's way of trying to get her alone with her brother. The idea of cattle rustlers seemed just a little dated to be an actual threat.

The sun marched across the sky slowly as the cattle walked, guided only by Big Macintosh's knowledge of the route and the land. Rainbow knew they'd been on the move for much longer than last time. In fact she was fairly certain it had to have been around two in the afternoon. She had skipped breakfast for sleep, and now she was two hours past lunch. Her stomach rumbled angrily at her mistreatment as she dove down toward the red stallion steadily trotting beside the herd.

"When are we stopping for lunch?" she shouted over the thunderous hooves of the cattle.

Mac cast her a slightly confused glance, "Lunch?"

Rainbow frowned at his reaction. "You tellin' me you don't stop to eat?"

"Not during th' day. Breakfast and supper are th' only meals our rations can afford us," he shouted back.

He noticed her expression and figured she had skipped out on breakfast. He figured city slickers like her weren't awake before noon anyway, so there'd be no way she'd have the drive to make food before sun up.

"There's some hay in th' bag on my left flank if ya gotta eat somethin'," he offered.

Dash normally would have more pride, but she simply could not ignore her empty stomach any longer.

Holding her hover, she flipped open the flap and grabbed a mouth full of hay. It was dry, and scratchy, but it was food, and that's all that mattered. While her head was in the bag, her eyes cut to the right, catching a glimpse of Mac's cropped tail flailing wildly as he kept a constant speed. She found herself following his tail down to where it joined his flank, his muscles working fluidly to keep the big stallion moving. Before she knew it she had stopped chewing and her mind drifted to how a pony could get so big. None of the other stallions in Ponyville even came close to matching him in size or strength. She had even witnessed—on rare occasion—Big Macintosh kick down entire trees on the farm.

After a few more mouth-fulls of hay, she shook such thoughts from her head and resumed her position above the herd, now thirsty as well as hungry. Rainbow stomached her dry throat and continued flying. She wasn't one to complain, and if Applejack could handle this kind of thing, she could too!

After a bit more flying, the sun began to sink low over the horizon. The cows fatigue soon began to show, their thunderous trek reduced to nothing more than a weary trot. In the middle of such wide open spaces, Mac pretty much let the herd stop where they may.

Dash landed softly next to Big Macintosh once the cattle had settled down for the night, the evening's twilight casting a beautiful orange glow across the grasslands. Mac removed his rather weighty gear and set it next to him, digging through one of the saddle bags. In short order, he began piling some of the sticks from within in a conical shape, before producing two rocks from the same bag.

Rainbow watched uninterested from a few feet away, wondering why they would even need a fire in cool weather.

Not thinking of any reason not to, she vocalized her thoughts, "You cold or somethin'?"

"Not now, but it'll get that way shortly," Mac answered in his trademark monotone.

"What? It's like the middle of summer!"

Mac stopped what he was doing and looked at her with just a hint of a condescending grin. "You've never been out under th' stars at night, have ya?"

Truthfully, she'd had some campouts with her friends while she was in flight school, but they slept on the clouds, not beneath them. Add to that the fact that there were no clouds in the sky for her to sleep on anyway, the ground was to be her home away from home.

"No," she admitted guardedly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothin', it just gets a little chilly at night in th' grasslands is all."

Macintosh turned back to the fire and pulled a large knife from a saddlebag. Then, holding the handle in his teeth, he struck it repeatedly against a piece of flint, sending a shower of sparks onto the tinder. As soon as he saw an ember, he bent down and gently blew on it, coaxing the ember into a flame. A few minutes after that, a fire was blazing cheerily, the smoke chasing away the insects that had just started to buzz around.

"Besides, if you think it'll get cold tonight, just wait till if we have to cross th' wasteland."

Rainbows ears perked up. "The wasteland?"

"Thats right. Nothin' but barren desert for half the trip. Ya fry durin' th' day, and freeze at night. But if we make good time, we won't have to worry bout it."

Soon the night had fallen and the fire provided the only light for miles. Rainbow considered the perils of this 'wasteland' as she glanced up at the quickly brightening night sky. The stars were unlike anything she had ever seen in Ponyville, or anywhere really. The heavens seemed to dazzle her with the uncountable amount of stars making up their galaxy. A faint glow in the center instilled in the lightning quick pegasus an alien sense of insignificance in the face of the vastness of the universe itself.

"Ya might want ta close your jaw, or you'll catch a horsefly in there," Mac teased, having seen that expression on many a mares face when he took them out to see the stars on the far away hills of Sweet Apple Acres.

Rainbow quickly snapped out of her daze, "You worry about you. What's for dinner?"

Mac took her demanding attitude in stride as he went back to his bags and removed some dried haycakes and about a few dozen daisies. Dividing them in half, he set Dash's dinner out beside her, only to have his generosity returned with a look of suspicion.

"That's it?"

"You want to make it to Prairieville without starvin' don't ya?" he asked rhetorically, Rainbow's glaring lack of knowledge beginning to wear on his nerves. This was like traveling with Applebloom, except worse. Applebloom was slightly competent, and at least willing to learn. This mare didn't know anything about the outdoors, couldn't help herself, and would probably get lost out here without him to lead the way.

'Heck, at least she can fly. That's gotta count for somethin'.'

Rainbow made quick work of her dinner, yet still found a nagging hunger in the pit of her stomach.

"B'sides, it ain't all dry food and walkin'." he added digging into his bags, producing a jar of a clear liquid, looking almost like water.

"I pack some spirits ta help with the hardship."

Rainbow perked up, now he was talking her language. She had never gotten her thrills from the bottle but certainly wasn't averse to knocking back a few after work with some of the other pegasi on the weather team.

"Alright, that's more like it!"

Mac got an honest chuckle from her enthusiasm. "Oh no, this is white lightning. It ain't for mares," he added unscrewing the lid, "The cider is in the leftmost bag there."

Rainbow was taken aback by Mac's perceived sexism.

"Not for mares?" she growled, "You think just because I'm a girl, I can't handle your fancy booze?"

Mac sighed. I shoulda just waited till she went to sleep.

It wasn't as though Mac thought she couldn't handle it because she was a girl. He simply had yet to meet a girl that could go a few rounds and still walk a straight line.

"No, I just don't feel like spendin' twenty minutes holdin' your mane away from your face while you're hurlin' into them bushes," he said flatly. Once again, he should have just kept his mouth shut. That was the last straw, Rainbow strode over to him and snatched the jar out of his hooves. Without thinking, she took multiple full swigs of the homemade moonshine. Before she knew it, half the jar was empty and the burning in her throat and belly raged like she had swallowed the sun itself. Her eyes watered, but her pride held back her want to gag and loudly ask how and why anypony would drink something so painful on purpose.

"There," she panted, passing him the jar. "Wasn't so bad."

Mac stood behind her, always the consummate gentlecolt as he held her vibrant mane back from the unpleasantness in front of her, just as he predicted he would.

"I bet... you think... you're so funny," she panted in between heaves. "W-With your fancy... white lightning, and y-your... hat!"

Mac rolled his eyes, knowing this was just the liquor talking.

"You Apples think you're so good...*hic* with your clothes! And-and your apples!"

"Are you about done?" he asked impatiently, settling back on his hooves, allowing her mane to fall back into her face.

Dash didn't want to dignify that with a response. She strode back toward the fire without a word in a bit of a wobble before settling where her legs refused to go on. She rolled onto her side, her wing ruffled and pinned beneath her. Normally she always took care to keep her wings tucked; preening was one of her least favorite activities. She allowed the other one to flop lazily over her stomach as she rested her head on the dirt. The stars still seemed to be spinning as she lay there, drunk off her flanks with a goofy grin across her face.

Dash wasn't an angry drunk, in fact she was generally the life of the party when just enough drinks had been added. Her grudges long forgotten, she had to know how Big Mac got his sister to give up her hat.

"Hey... Big."

"Yes Rainbow?"

She flicked her half open magenta eyes across the campfire toward the stallion with the hat in question over his eyes. His mountainous silhouette shifted slightly as he tipped his headwear up, the jar of white lightning still by his side.

"How'd you g-get AJ... to give ya... her hat?"

Dash swore she saw a smile crack over his stoic features. "It used to be my hat."

"Pfft, you earth ponies and your clothes," she huffed, "You think you're better than the rest of us?"

Another eye roll from Macintosh followed a weary sigh. "No ma'am, just get some rest for tomorrow. We'll be gettin up with the sun."

"Whatever..." she yawned, her eyelids finally closing on the faint glow of the dying fire and the massive shadow before her.

Mac couldn't help but laugh at the lightweight's drunken mannerisms.

He tipped his hat back over his eyes, and rested against the saddlebags he'd been carrying. As funny as she had been these past few hours, he knew by morning she would be nursing what was in all likelyhood the worst hangover she would ever experience.

'Well, at least she was a funny drunk.'

3. Swimming Lessons

Chapter 3-Swimming Lessons

The sun cut an unmerciful path straight to Rainbow's eyes, triggering a delightful cacophony of hammers pounding away between her ears. Luckily, her headache was a lot less severe than her hangovers normally warranted. Probably because at least half the liquor was expelled the night before. Now she remembered why she didn't drink regularly.

Her wing ached from sleeping on it all night. The stiffness stayed in her tired joints as she pulled it across her chest in an attempt to preen it, but not before shaking off the dirt.

After a quick flutter, she tucked them by her sides and glanced at Mac through half open eyes. He was already awake and had breakfast waiting for her. Double the portion she remembered last night, though it was still the same bland fare as before.

"How're you feelin' this mornin'?" he asked knowingly, a dim smile across his lips.

Rainbow glared at him before answering, "Fine. You eat yet?"

"Yeah, before you got up," he answered standing in front of the fire, kicking some dirt over it as smoke continued to rise and swirl from the pile into the morning air. A longing, yet subtle glance the red stallion gave her rations led Rainbow to believe that he wasn't being entirely truthful, though she was too hungry to probe further.

"We're runnin' behind. I shouldn't a' let ya sleep so late," he added, "Be sure ta eat all that, Ah know you're probably pretty hungry, seein' as how your dinner is over there in them bushes," Mac smiled, not being able to resist a touch of humor, if only to see how she'd react.

Rainbow feigned a sarcastic laugh and began eating. She certainly couldn't pretend she hadn't nearly starved last night, and was a lot more grateful for the extra food than she would ever let on. After her inhalation of breakfast, a quick flap of her wings lifted her into her usual hover.

"Ready?"

Mac nodded, picking up his bags as the cattle rumbled and mooed restlessly behind them.

Once again, Rainbow found herself above the thundering herd, moving parallel to a range of mountains in the distance. The midday sun began to heat up as the grasslands began to disappear, replaced by parched, hard packed dirt. The stout bushes were less frequent, as scrawny, wiry desert plants took their place. By the afternoon their path crossed a raging river, much wider and more aggressive than the comparatively small stream they had rested near the day before.

Rainbow fluttered down toward Macintosh while the cows drank timidly from the riverbank, appearing to be frightened by the rushing water. Most were heavy enough to withstand the current, but the slightest misstep into the deeper parts of the river would send a bovine into the murky deep rather quickly.

"This is the last water source for a long while. Ah'll go refill th' canteens, then we'll get th' herd across."

Rainbow took a careful drink from the river, not wanting a repeat of yesterday's incident. Beside her, Mac stocked up on water. They would certainly need it if they had to traverse the wasteland. Luckily, Big Mac figured if there were no unscheduled stops that ate up more than an hour or two, they could take the longer, yet safer route through a valley near Prairieville.

Macintosh remembered the part of the river where the water was most shallow from his other cattle drives; six paces south of the old, petrified tree stump, he recalled. All that needed to be done now was make sure it was still a viable route. But if one crossed the river, the other had to herd the cattle across, a simple, yet smelly job considering you'd be behind the herd. Being the gentlecolt that he was, Mac decided to offer the lady a choice.

"You want to check the river for the cattle to cross, or do you want to herd 'em over?"

Rainbow considered her options. She had certainly had enough interactions with cattle to last her the rest of her life, and a little water never hurt anypony. Besides, she wagered the stiffness in her joints from sleeping on the ground last night might even loosen up a bit with some cold water over them.

"I'll check the river."

Mac pointed her in the right direction and Rainbow tested the water with her forelegs, ankle deep. A chill ran up her shins as she acclimated to the cold water. With a few more cautious steps, she entered the river. Soft, easy steps were the order of the day as she navigated the murky bottom. While the riverbank had been mostly sand and mud, the middle of the river seemed to be made up of a bed of rocks. Once she reached halfway across the river, she cast a slow look back at the opposite shore, Macintosh still standing with the cattle, awaiting the all clear.

"Keep on movin'!" he shouted from the shore. "You're doin' fine!"

The lithe pegasus was no thousand pound bovine, nor was she as sturdy as her stallion companion. The river's current was quick to remind her of this as she felt her hooves begin to slide on the rocks, downstream. Before she even had time to yell, her forelegs slipped off the underwater plateau. Without four points of stable contact, Rainbow was swiftly swept off her hooves and floating down river.

Dash kicked her legs frantically in an effort to keep her head above water. Pegasi weren't known for their ability to swim, or do anything besides fly really, and Rainbow was no exception. Macintosh was already sprinting toward her when he lost sight of her vibrant mane beneath the whitewater.

"Hang on Rainbow!" he shouted, digging into his saddlebag as he ran. Macintosh retrieved a lasso, twirling it expertly above his head while he held it between his teeth.

Mac sprinted ahead of where he thought she would be, praying that he hadn't already missed her. For a moment, Big Mac had assumed she'd simply fly out of the water, only to realize that feathers don't work when water-logged. His worry intensified as he realized Applejack would probably mount his head on her wall if he let one of her friends drown, not to mention having to explain to the Princess why she would have to find a replacement element of harmony.

C'mon Rainbow... come up for air!

Seconds seemed to take hours to pass as he waited nervously on the river bank for a target for his lasso. Finally, Mac's attention drew towards a sopping wet multicolored mane bobbing up and down in the water a few yards ahead. With surgeon-like precision, he cast the lasso around Rainbow's foreleg, putting all his strength into fighting the river over the possibly drowned cyan mare.

A few strong tugs as well as driving legs pulled Dash to shore as she began to sputter and cough, her wings hanging limply by her sides while her mane clung to her face and neck as though it had been painted on. After coughing up the water she had attempted to breathe, she looked toward Macintosh.

Mac was resting on his haunches, panting just as heavily as the pony he just rescued.

"You... okay?" he asked, between breaths.

Rainbow's indignity was apparent on her face as the hope Mac held out for a simple 'thanks' quickly evaporated.

"I didn't need your help back there," she breathed heavily, her pride shining through so vividly, the country stallion knew now why she and her sister were such good friends. "I would have made it out by myself."

You've got ta be kiddin' me. Not even a 'thanks for saving my life?'

"That's odd," he snapped back, "All th' drownin' you seemed ta be doin' suggested otherwise." No reason to be cordial if it was just going to be thrown back in his face.

Rainbow got to her hooves and vigorously shook the water from her coat and wings, getting it all over Mac in the process, as she intended.

"Let's just get those cattle across the river," she called over her shoulder as she walked back to where the herd waited, some wandering aimlessly while others began to cross the river on their own.

"Sounds good to me."

Mac got to his hooves, still with a touch of disbelief that one of Applejack's friends could be so ungrateful. "Try not to fall in this time."

Dash responded with a glare as she picked up the pace back to the cattle. Once they'd both arrived, the midday sun had dried Rainbows wings enough to enable flight. She quickly hopped over the river and made sure the cattle that had already crossed didn't wander off, unlike a straggler in the distance Mac noticed on his side. He sighed. How in Celestia's mane this cow managed to get this far away in such a short time span he hadn't the slightest. But every bovine mattered, and each one was worth bits; bits Mac knew the farm sorely needed.

"Where're you going?" he heard Rainbow shout.

A pointing hoof gave her the answer as he continued to trot over to the lone cow, grazing on what little vegetation there was to be found.

"Alright, come on now, feedin' times over," Mac said calmly as he approached the bovine, still grazing peacefully as if he wasn't there. "Go on now!" he said giving it a slap on the hindquarters. As it began to run back toward the heard, the rushing waters of the river seemed to get louder, though he wasn't any closer to the river.

He knew rivers don't just increase their volume at whim, though Mac just couldn't place the noise. It was coming from somewhere, and oddly enough, the further away from the river he got, the louder the sound became!

Somethin' about this noise seems mighty familiar...

Macintosh was suddenly reminded of the significance of the noise, as a rattlesnake sank it's teeth into his right hind leg, near the hoof.

A jerking of his back leg in response flung the snake off of his ankle and into the river, though not before confirming his worst fear. It was a rattler alright, and a diamondback at that. A burning sensation spread into his calf and thigh as the venom worked it's way through his veins.

He sighed. He was actually entertaining the idea that the universe intended to kill him before they reached Prairieville.

"Buck."

4. Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Chapter 4- Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Luckily for Mac, the wound was well below his heart, and on an extremity like a leg, he'd at least have some time to contemplate the horrendous death that awaited him. He was still a ways away from the river crossing, a light trot was all he felt safe doing as the burning pain intensified, as though someone was driving a white hot iron right through his calf. He had to keep his heart rate as low as possible, lest he aid the venom in it's spread. Soon he wouldn't be able to walk at all, but his resolve to get at least across the river before resting pushed him onward.

Rainbow waited impatiently on the opposite shore, her annoyance growing with each passing second while the earth pony seemingly took his sweet time getting over to her. That was another thing that rubbed her the wrong way about not just him, but Applejack sometimes as well. It was like their whole family did everything at half the speed of everypony else. Every time she'd bring it up with AJ, she'd always have some story about how 'things that are worth doin' are worth doin' right.' or some such nonsense.

"You want to hurry it up?" she yelled, noting no increase in the stallion's pace. Eyes narrowing to a glare at being ignored, she cast a quick look around the herd. They all seemed to be milling about in one place; not wandering too far from each other as the last stray made it across the river. As Mac drew closer, she realized he seemed to be limping.

Great, he hurt himself.

Though she couldn't imagine how he'd managed it. She assumed maybe he'd stepped on a cactus or something while tending to the wanderer. A flap of her wings and she lifted into the sky, gliding over the river and hovering next to him as she noticed how sweaty he looked.

"What'd you do to yourself?" she asked bluntly as he still managed to limp toward the river, though his pace was growing slower and his legs weaker with every step.

"Snake... bite..." he panted. The venom was acting quicker than he suspected. Macintosh made it to the edge of the river, before collapsing to his knees, unable to go a step further. The world began to slowly swirl around him as he fought for his internal bearings. It appeared he would also have the pleasure of going into shock before being killed by rattlesnake poison.

"Snake? Like venomous snake?" she repeated nervously, hoping she had misheard him.

Macintosh grimaced in pain as he answered her, "Eeyup. Probably got about four hours ta fix it up before Ah'm out cold."

Rainbow dropped to her hooves and noticed two small holes in the red stallion's hind leg. Blood streamed steadily out of the wound, to the quick pegasus' horror.

Mac's breathing grew deeper and hurried as Dash tried to comprehend the implications of her only guide out in the wilderness slowly succumbing to his wound.

"Rainbow, Ah'm going to need your help," Macintosh wheezed, sweat now dripping from his face as the color began to fade from his normally bright red coat.

"W-What do I have to do?" she asked apprehensively. Suddenly being thrust into a life or death situation was usually Rainbow's element, but it was also usually her hide on the line, not another's.

Macintosh was wary of any help from his traveling companion, considering how much practical knowledge she had shown up to this point. As the burning spread to his thigh, he knew he had maybe four hours of consciousness, and at the most, a few minutes of useful limbs. After four hours, a coma would follow; followed then by...he shook the thought from his head. He figured as long as he told her what to do, she'd do okay. He just needed to have some confidence in Rainbow's abilities.

Her medical prowess was severely lacking in several key areas: namely, all of them. The only thing she knew about snake bites was the woefully inaccurate old mare's tale of how to remove snake venom.

"D-do I have to suck it out?" she asked timidly, praying the answer was no.

Macintosh looked her right in the eyes with utter disbelief across his face before throwing his head back.

"Dear Celestia Ah'm gonna die out here!" he howled toward the heavens. Dash's words weren't exactly inspiring.

"You won't if you tell me how to treat you!" she snapped back, somewhat annoyed at Mac's lack of confidence in her as of yet undemonstrated medical abilities. She'd been in the hospital more than once for her flight related injuries, and had been conscious for most of the procedures performed on her. How hard could it be?

Mac calmed himself as he managed to shrug the saddlebags off his back. "In the flap with the red cross on it... there's vials... with snake names... on them..." his breathing became more and more labored as he continued.

"Find... Eastern Diamondback..." he added, cutting out extraneous words that required extra effort.

Dash quickly fumbled with the flap until it finally gave up its contents. About twelve vials rattled around in the bottom of the bag, along with a sizable syringe, fitted with an elastic strap for use with hooves. One simply affixed the strap around one's foreleg, and withdrew and pushed the plunger with either the mouth or other hoof, as the situation warranted.

As soon as Dash noticed the needle however, she froze. Gently resting her teeth against her bottom lip, she began to shiver herself. There was one thing none of her close friends knew about the normally dauntless pegasus. She harbored a deep, nearly debilitating phobia of needles. She had foregone pain medication many times while laid up in the hospital simply because it to had to be injected. For a long moment, she simply stared at the shiny needle taunting her at the bottom of the saddlebag, paralyzed by fear.

"What's the... holdup?" he managed to gasp, growing weaker with every word.

Rainbow's head darted back in his direction. He was looking worse with every second that ticked by. She looked back at the bag, still afraid to even reach in and get the vials, as if the needle was going to somehow bite her.

"Big... I can't..." she whimpered, gripped tightly by her one, irrational fear.

Macintosh couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was she really about to let him die the horrible death brought on by untreated rattlesnake venom?

"Why!?" he shouted, anger temporarily pushing the pain from his mind.

"I... I just can't..." she stammered. Dash couldn't admit her fear to him! This was the first time she had spent more than a minute or two in his company, and now she was going to tell him what made her cower like a foal? Not on her life. Her life wasn't hanging in the balance, however. His was.

Could she dare face Applejack if she came back with no money, cattle, or Big Macintosh? Not if she didn't want to join him in the great pasture in the sky.

"I'm gonna be dead in an hour... and you're just gonna stand there?!" he added, panic rising in his strained voice.

"An hour?!" Rainbow replied, jolted out of her inner turmoil by his plea. "I thought you said you had four!"

"Ah might have... if I'd have eaten breakfast... this mornin'..."

Rainbow's mouth fell open as Mac rolled onto his back, now appearing to be forcing every breath.

"You told me you ate before I got up!" she snapped in disbelief that the element of honesty's brother would lie.

"Nope... Ah... gave you... my rations... 'cause you... lost your dinner..." he grunted in agony.

Rainbow could think of only one response.

"You idiot!" she barked, "What the hay is the matter with you?"

Dash took a nervous look back into the saddlebag where the object of her terror still waited.

She waited for a reply, before realizing none had come. A quick glance revealed Mac sprawled out in the afternoon sun, still breathing, but apparently unconscious.

Oh no! C'mon Rainbow! It's just a stupid needle! Reach in there and grab those vials! she admonished herself, closing her eyes and quickly grabbing as many vials as she could, withdrawing her hoof as though the bag would eat it if she weren't quick enough.

See? That wasn't so hard...

Holding the vials close to her face so as to read the tiny print, she carefully read each one.

"...Death Adder... no... Copperhead... no... Tigersnake... nope... Trousersnake... no... Ah! Eastern Diamondback!"

Dash dropped the rest of the vials back into the bag and prepared herself for the most demanding part of her task: handling and injecting of the anti-venom.

Rainbow read carefully the directions on the vial, before swallowing her fear and removing the syringe from the bag. Her hooves shook nervously as she affixed said medical instrument to her right foreleg.

She glanced back at Macintosh. His chest still heaved, though it was obvious even in his unconsciousness his breathing was growing more labored and shallow. Without the administration of the anti-venom, he would soon slip into cardiac arrest. No amount of anti-venom would save him then.

Rainbow fumbled with the vial as she read the instructions to herself in an attempt to calm her nerves.

"One vial equals one dose. Inject intramuscularly at muscle mass nearest the wound. Please note it may take eight or more hours for maximum blood concentrations to be attained!?" she finished in shock, praying she wasn't already too late.

Setting the vial on the ground, she slowly drove the needle through the rubber lid and pulled back on the plunger with her teeth. Adrenaline poured through her veins, partially from terror, and partially from the realization that she was quite literally holding Big Macintosh's life in her hooves.

The syringe was large enough to hold the whole vial as she walked over to the red stallion's still, but thankfully breathing form. Though by this time, he was drenched in sweat and his normally bright red coat was a dull hue of its former glory.

The largest muscle mass near the wound was his right flank, on which he was currently laying. Positioning her shoulder against Mac's ribs, she pushed as hard as she could, barely nudging the heavy draft horse. Rainbow gritted her teeth and dug her hooves into the ground, forcing her muscles past their limit. For a moment, Mac seemed immovable, but with a guttural roar and one final push, she managed to roll him over.

After a few gasps for air, she searched for a suitable spot to inject the cure. Gently, she put her hoof on Mac's cutie mark, recoiling in shock at how physically hot the earth pony had become. She didn't really have a clue as to what made an injection site suitable, so she simply began feeling around for the biggest muscle she could find. Though they were all big, she finally located one after a bit of searching. Finally, she held the syringe an inch above his flank, closed her eyes, and stabbed her traveling companion, eliciting a twitch from the muscle as she pushed the plunger down with the other hoof, praying one vial would be enough to rouse Mac from his comatose state.

She withdrew the needle and quickly took it off her foreleg, tossing it a few feet in front of her, convinced that if she never had to do that again, it would be too soon. Rainbow slumped down to her flanks, sitting against Mac's strong back as she gave his flank a slap, partially to congratulate herself on facing her fear of needles, and partially for a reason she would never likely admit, even to herself.

Once she had taken care of Mac, she decided to read the rest of the instructions on the empty vial.

If symptoms of envenomation persist, or if new manifestations appear, it may be necessary to repeat administrations with two or more additional injections?! Dear Celestia, I hope it doesn't come to that.

Dash hoped it wouldn't come to that as she noticed her back begin to sweat against the still superheated stallion.

"Please just get better," she whined, having played enough doctor for her tastes.

Glancing across the river, she realized the cattle had actually settled near it, appearing to be ready for the night.

"Looks like we aren't driving any cattle today," she said to herself. She then realized that she couldn't exactly leave Mac on the wrong side of the river while the anti-venom worked its magic. After pondering her situation for a moment, Dash decided to move the supplies across first; the heavy rucksack being the lighter of the two objects. The saddlebags dragged along the ground as Rainbow donned the straps holding it to her back. She was nowhere near Big Mac's height, which would have been a problem if she had to cross the river on hoof.

A few strained flaps and she was off to a heavy start, keeping only a few feet above the river before dropping to the ground and unloading the pack onto the other side, but not before collecting the medical supplies she had strewn about while looking for the proper vial.

Once back at Mac's side, she attempted to hook her forelegs underneath his own and ferry him across the river. That plan was short-lived, as she realized that as many times as she had lifted Fluttershy into the air this way, her ability didn't apply to Big Macintosh. He was easily three and a half Fluttershys, if not four.

After a few nearly pulled muscles, Rainbow sat back against him as she had done before, wracking her brain to try and think of another way to get the big stallion across the river without drowning them both.

"There has to be an easier way to do this..."

She cast a gaze towards the setting sun across the river, as it elongated the shadows and bathed the dry landscape in an orange glow.

"I got it!" she said to herself standing up and flying back across the river. Retrieving the same lasso Mac had used to save her flanks, she enlisted the help of one of the sturdier looking cattle and brought it across the river with her. After getting the cow to lay down, she tied the rope around his yoke as she donned his hat on a whim. She then led the rope over the cows back and pulled with every ounce of strength she had left, praying she'd have enough leverage to raise the heavy stallion onto the surrogate beast of burden.

"Gah! Mac... you weigh a ton!" Dash gasped as she fluttered her wings in an effort to get even the slightest bit of help. But her plan seemed to be working. After a few more strained grunts, Mac's forelegs dangled off one side of the cow, while his still bleeding hind leg rested on the other side.

Dash heaved an exhausted sigh and secured her cargo as best she could before leading him back across the river. She hovered a few feet in front of the cow; guiding it and making sure Macintosh didn't end up as she almost had. Once they made it across, she untied him and flopped down next to his still out cold form, though the heat he had been suffering earlier seemed to have gone down. Or perhaps it was the chill of the approaching night; she wasn't certain which.

Checking over her red charge, she noticed his breathing had become more regular, and less shallow. Thanking Celestia for small miracles, Dash noticed his wound was still bleeding, as well as the injection site of the anti-venom. His color was also rather flushed and though he may not have felt as hot as before, he was still covered in sweat.

I guess one more dose couldn't hurt.

She dug through the medical bag and found one last vial of the appropriate anti-venom. Calming her nerves, she assured herself that if she did this once already, she could do it again. After administering another dose, she noticed her wings involuntarily flutter. A cold breeze blew across the flatlands as she drew them around her for warmth. She looked to Mac's face, still scrunched in pain, but alive. His wet mane now clung haphazardly to his face as she gently brushed it out of his eyes, thankful he wouldn't remember the act.

Another cold gust drew her from her moment. It looked like in addition to playing doctor; she would also have to play Big Macintosh as well. Grabbing the large knife and rock he had used the night before, she set out in search of dry underbrush to start a suitable fire, never going more than a few yards away from Mac.

She gathered as much kindling as she could find and piled it up the way she remembered him doing so last night. After a few bouts of profanity, frustrated stomps and small outbursts, she finally managed to get the embers to transform into flames. Dash tipped Mac's hat back and sat on her flanks near the fire, quietly observing the firelight dance and sway over the stallion's body. Naturally, Rainbow couldn't help but feel a familiar sense of pride.

"You better not die on me you big lug," she whispered, retrieving her dinner from the bag, careful not to overeat.

After dinner, she truly realized how well she had done. Pride swelled in her chest as she plucked a tall blade of the dry grass and put it in her mouth, emulating Mac's semi-constant sprig of wheat. Dash chuckled and lay on her back, looking into the vibrant night sky.

"This cattle drive thing is all hype," she scoffed to the heavens, "I could do this with my eyes closed!"

She shifted as she allowed her wings to spread out wide behind her, the right one still a bit achey from being slept on.

"Yep, I got this whole thing locked up. Mac'll get better, we'll deliver these stupid cows, he'll get his money and I'll be free to practice at AJ's place whenever I want!"

Rainbow grinned widely, ready to welcome the sandpony's embrace when a distant sound sent a chill down her spine: the lonesome howl of a wolf.

5. Guys and Dolls

Chapter 5-Guys and Dolls

Rainbow tipped the hat back, eyes scanning across the vast, open plains nervously. She had a fire, and was surrounded by thousand pound beasts, as well as one unconscious one.

Okay Rainbow... it's just a wolf... they don't eat ponies.

Truth be told, they weren't known for eating ponies. That didn't mean they were above it if they had been looking for a meal for a while. Dash cast a quick glance back to Mac. His breathing seemed steady, and his color was beginning to return, though he still looked sick. It would more than likely be morning before she knew whether or not she had acted in time with the anti-venom. The howl seemed pretty distant, Dash allowed herself a moment to relax. Reflecting on the trouble the two of them had run into so far, it was a wonder they were both still alive.

Rainbow looked back toward the saddlebags beside the fire, her thoughts drifting to what she had almost seen inside the day before. Seeing nothing better to do, and with no chance of Mac rousing from his coma anytime soon, she decided to give in to her burning curiosity. Trotting softly over to the bag, she flipped each one open until she located the familiar pack. Locating the object, she gently pulled the rest of it free from the bag and set it in front of her. It took a few seconds to register what the item actually was before Rainbow fell over laughing.

"Why... would he... bring this?" she said between laughs, wiping a tear from her eye.

"What is he, five?" she said looking over the doll as it lay limply on the ground, bathed in the firelight. It appeared to have blue and white polka dotted overalls and one of its button eyes seemed to just barely be hanging on to its face. Something was vaguely familiar about this doll, though Dash couldn't quite put a hoof on it.

And here I thought this guy was some kind of muscle head. Dash thought, nudging the doll with a hoof. No matter the reason, this thing was sure to yield an interesting explanation.

She took the doll in a foreleg and held it up to the light. It certainly looked like it had seen better days, but she supposed the wear and tear was what made the item sentimental. Setting the doll back in the bag where she found it, Dash began pondering what lay beneath the quiet, rugged and red exterior of the currently unconscious stallion. Perhaps Rainbow jumped to the conclusion that Macintosh was all work and no play before getting to know him. Thankfully for her, Twilight wasn't there to lecture her about not judging a book by it's cover or some other book related metaphor. Still, the thought of the big sweaty stallion beside her snuggled up next to that tiny stuffed doll did make her giggle.

Oh, if only I had a camera!

Even though Mac was in the grips of the fight of his life, Rainbow still couldn't help but think how funny it would be to have that kind of dirt on the toughest stallion in Ponyville. However, he had given her his breakfast that morning...which was also indirectly responsible for his current comatose state. Although he wouldn't have ended up this way if she had just kept her footing in the river. Dash found herself in quite the moral predicament. So far by her count, they had each saved each other's life once, assuming Mac didn't fall over dead by tomorrow morning.

Even though nopony enjoyed a good prank more than Rainbow, she knew where the line lay between embarrassing prank and mean spirited character assassination. She decided to keep the doll a secret, at least for now. Macintosh shifted slightly, drawing her gaze from the fire. She could still see the beads of sweat glistening off his face as he stirred. His color appeared to be steadily returning, though the light of the fire made it hard to tell how much.

Rainbow settled herself against the saddlebags as a makeshift bed; it looked like her turn to look after somepony that had been incapacitated. She took AJ's hat off and rested it on her hind knee, examining it. It looked old, and like the doll, seemed to have seen better days. Still, that's probably what made it so special to her earth pony pal. Her thoughts drifted back to Applejack, and how she imagined she was handling helping Applebloom with math.

The idea of AJ trying to figure out filly level math brought a smile to her lips as Dash still gazed absently at the brown hat before her. She glanced back toward Macintosh, the slowly dying fire still casting its shadows across his stern complexion.

Looking back on the days events, Rainbow had a lot to be proud of. She had given Mac not one, but two injections involving actual needles, something she wouldn't even let trained medical professionals do to her, yet he trusted her to give to him. Perhaps forced is a better word than trusted, but still, she'd done it.

Unfortunately, it was that same pride that caused her to act like such a jerk for the past two days. Mac had saved her from drowning out in the rapids earlier today and she didn't even mutter so much as a thank you. It was that stubborn pride of hers that insisted she would have figured out a way to get out of the river if given enough time. Though had she listened to it, she would most likely be dead downriver somewhere.

Macintosh wasn't a bad pony; he certainly didn't deserve her company with the way she'd been acting towards him. If there was one thing Rainbow hated more than losing, it was guilt. Maybe she could stand to try and relax, and just take things as they come until they reach Prairieville. Maybe the rest of the trip would go smoothly and the two of them can take the train back to Ponyville in silence, then never have to speak of this again. She could only hope.

Acting on a bored impulse, Rainbow tossed Mac's hat toward him trying to land it on his head. She missed, ringing it on one of the posts of his yoke, but figured she had gotten close enough. Dash scanned the heavens, praying for a low level cloud to sleep on. From the ground she could spot only cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere, out of reach even for her. Not that it mattered, really. Those clouds were made mostly of ice, and therefore not good for sleeping.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she accepted the ground as her bed once again. Something just didn't feel natural about pegasi sleeping on the ground.

Dash settled herself against the saddlebags as best she could and bunked down for the night, the still glowing embers of the fire serving as a fine nightlight. Her eyelids growing heavy, her last thought before drifting into the night was a silent prayer that Macintosh wouldn't meet his end because she had been too slow with the needle.

Big Macintosh loved days like today. The clouds were overcast, shielding the fields from the heat of the sun, while providing what others would call a gloomy backdrop to a days labor. Mac however, loved the cool, still air overcast conditions brought. Though in his opinion, the weather pegasi could afford a few more days like today. Frequency of overcast days aside, he had work to do. This was the last field of the day, and his muscles were aching for rest, especially his right hind leg for some reason. He had just finished the last row as he untied himself from the plow and surveyed his work. All lines straight, no curves or skips, perfect.

The fields he plowed were different from his old Sweet Apple Acre home, in fact a much smaller farmhouse sat on a hill a ways out form where he stood. This was his farm, the one he and his wife owned and worked together, planning one day to pass it along to their foals. It was the life he wanted, the one he imagined when he closed his eyes. The thought alone seemed to fill him with a simple contentment he had seldom known. In the distance he saw two foals galloping towards him from the house. Both were orange, Mac recognized the color as being the same as Applebloom's little friend Scootaloo, though their manes seemed to be two toned, half his color, and half another color he couldn't quite place.

Regardless, he embraced his two foals, a filly and colt as they politely informed him that momma had supper waiting for them at the house. He smiled and mussed the youngster's manes, and allowed them a ride on his back as they headed towards the house. A cooling breeze tried to wipe the sweat from Mac's brow, though it persisted for some unknown reason.

Once he arrived at his house, the children jumped off his back and bolted inside, greeting their mother with a flurry of questions as he heard a somewhat familiar voice answer them from within. Macintosh moved past the front door and into the living room, pictures of his relatives adorning the walls as it did in his old house. He nodded contently at the sepia-toned photographs, passing by the hoof-carved furniture that carried with it the scent of apples, and into the kitchen, where the mare of his dreams awaited...

"Well hey there, slick."

Macintosh's smile cracked, his eyes widening in horror.

How... you can't be...

Rainbow Dash was the mother of his foals? Impossible!

He glanced around to see his children were no longer the lovable earth pony scamps they had been, but now rowdy, rainbow maned trouble makers flying around the house, fighting with each other and breaking whatever they pleased while Rainbow shouted obscenities at them in a effort to quiet them down.

The second he turned away from the cyan pegasus, the idyllic country home turned into a trashy hovel. The floor was littered with fast food and pizza boxes, the walls were covered with crayon drawings, and Dash had inexplicably gone from the kitchen to the couch. She sat and drank deeply from a can of cider, her belly much larger than Macintosh remembered, reading a stunt flier magazine. Though from the looks of it, she hadn’t been stunt flying in a long time.

"No..." Mac muttered to himself, recoiling in horror at the scene before him. Was this real? Was he really trapped inside some hellish hole in the wall with this filly and her, their offspring?

He shook his head violently in an attempt to rouse himself from what he was certain for the sake of his sanity was a nightmare. The scene around him disappeared; leaving him enveloped in an inky blackness that he assumed was death. His memory of the rattlesnake bite came flooding back to him, and with it, the disconcerting realization the Rainbow Dash had managed to kill him, and he was now safely in the afterlife.

Though if he were, where were all his long dead relatives and such? Isn't there supposed to be a heaven or hell he'd be going to? Or maybe this was that purgatory place some ponies believe in. Still, he was sure he had been a pretty good pony during his time, so he thought he'd at least be on the waiting list for heaven. After what could have been a few minutes, hours, or even days, the all encompassing numbness began fading away, sense by sense. A faint light stung his eyes as the earthy scent of dust and dirt tempted him to sneeze, though he fought the urge.

It was only when he'd felt the loose sand and dirt beneath his forelegs that he considered the possibility that he wasn't dead after all. With a rather violent grunt, Mac's head shot up, eyes wide, startling Rainbow from her sleep.

"What! What is it!?" Rainbow asked, head darting back and forth, believing something was trying to eat one or both of them.

She glanced at Mac, noting for a second the odd look he was giving her as he donned his hat. On the outside, Dash kept herself collected, but on the inside she was heaving a huge sigh of relief that Mac had woken up. Though it did take him about twelve hours.

"Good, you're awake," she yawned, looking toward the rising sun.

Relieved to still be alive, Mac had to know; "How... how did you..."

"Save your flank?"

He nodded dumbly, still not entirely over his brush with death to respond in his usual demeanor.

"I just gave you the right stuff, like you said," she added nonchalantly. It wasn't as though she had faced a huge phobia she'd harbored since she was a filly or anything. His leg still hurt, but the agonizing burning had been reduced to a dull throbbing. He got to three of his working legs and gingerly tested the injured appendage. It only took a small amount of weight before buckling.

That's okay... it'll just take a bit a' walkin' to get it back in the swing of things.

He showed no grimace or trace of pain as he forced his injured leg to bear at least some of the load.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Rainbow asked, the wound on his leg still looking somewhat discolored, though the bleeding had finally stopped.

"Ah'm fine. How much time did we lose?" he asked urgently.

Rainbow sighed. Maybe she was right about this stallion being an emotionless farm robot. "About twelve hours."

Mac moaned. "Dang... we'll have to get through the wasteland if we want to have a chance of makin' it to Prairieville in time ta sell these cattle."

"Fine, but don't you think you should get a bandage on that first?" Dash suggested, trying out her 'try to be helpful' attitude toward her stallion guide.

Mac wasn't one to argue a point, especially if it made sense. Although, with the nightmare still fresh in his mind, he was reluctant to let her attempt another medical procedure. Though if she had managed the anti-venom without trouble, he figured she could probably wrap a bandage. How wrong he was.

Aside from looking as though his leg had been wrapped by a blind pony, he figured he probably couldn't have done much better if he had attempted to do it himself. He decided to spare her feelings and keep his opinion to himself, thanking her for the effort and hoping some of the politeness he was displaying would rub off on her.

"Now go get some water," Dash demanded, wrinkling her nose and covering it with a hoof. "You've been sweating like a pig all night, and you're kinda starting to smell like one."

Mac gave her a deadpan stare before moving in silence toward the river. The roused cattle soon joined him, though thankfully only for a drink. The stallion carefully stepped into the swift water and splashed it over himself, hoping it would at least do something to clean him up. A proper bath was still miles away. After drinking his fill, he refilled every available canteen, hoping the water supply would last two ponies until they reached the oasis.

It was imperative that the cows drink as much as they could from the river, as there was only one small oasis in that part of the wasteland. Tiny enough to be overlooked by caravans, and undetectable on any map, Macintosh's great grandfather had stumbled across it while lost in the desert. The knowledge had been passed down from father to son until Mac's father had made him memorize how to find it, should he ever become lost or disoriented in the wasteland.

Even with knowledge of the water hole's location, it was still a treacherous journey. Celestia's sun scorched the land during the day while Luna's moon allowed a hard freeze at night. Not to mention the plethora of lethal insects, snakes, and other undesirable creatures inhabiting the same land they'd be trying to traverse. Macintosh gingerly tested his leg again, before slinging the saddlebags over his back. His bad leg faltered for a moment, but he managed to straighten it before he fell over.

However momentary it was, Rainbow noticed his moment of weakness, but decided not to say anything. She, for one, hated it when others saw her struggle, and could only imagine how much appearing powerful and in control meant to a stallion. They practically had machismo embedded in their souls.

Still, she could identify with the male plight somewhat. Even though she generally tried her best to hide her sensitive emotions, at least as a girl she could express them if she wanted to. She never did, but at least she had the option. Stallions who openly expressed their feelings or cried were generally looked down upon in Equestrian society. Most stallions were expected to be able to break a leg and not shed a tear. How that proved one was masculine Rainbow hadn't the slightest. Content with her self proclaimed good deed and casting her thoughts on gender equality aside, she started towards the herd.

"So this wasteland place, it's just a desert right?"

"Eeyup," he answered, getting the cattle into gear with a slap on the flanks. Thankfully, Rainbow had taken her position above the herd, letting Mac's limps and grunts go unheard and unseen as he kept up as best he could on an injured leg. Still, he had to wonder why he cared whether or not this filly saw him limping. Why did he care if she thought he was a tough, capable stallion, able to power through even the most grave of injuries? Mac's eyes shot wide as he began to realize something he was desperate to push back into the depths of his mind.

"Nope! She's just one of Applejack's friends, and that's it," he said to himself, still catching his eyes glancing her way to see if she was watching before he could take some of the weight off his leg.

Dangit Mac! She's loud, crass and rude! There is nothin' about her you like! he admonished himself.

Besides, Fluttershy was much more his type. Quiet, loves animals, would work well out on a farm taking care of the sick livestock, and running the household while he was out in the fields. But maybe that was just it. Maybe he had let predictability run his entire life up until that point. Perhaps Fluttershy would be the most predictable of his sisters friends to settle down with. The thought occurred to him, though it was immediately repressed: what if he did something very un-Macintosh?

What if he became a bit... unpredictable?

7. Sandstorm!

Chapter 7-Sandstorm!

The night passed quickly; far too quickly for Rainbow’s liking. It felt as if she’d barely closed her eyes before the sun crept over the horizon, bringing with it the wasteland’s oppressive heat. As the sun met her eyes, she shifted uncomfortably, Mac's foreleg still around her. Something had been prodding her right in the lower back for the last hour, and she just couldn't get comfortable-

Rainbow suddenly realized exactly what was making her so uncomfortable. She bolted out from under the blanket and hastily averted her eyes.

"Jeez Mac!" she snapped, now fully awake and standing over him. "You want to control yourself?!"

He grunted, rubbing the sleep from his bleary eyes. It took a moment for him to realize what she was referring to. If he wasn’t red before, he certainly was now.

"Ah'm sorry Rainbow, it's not somethin' Ah really have any control over," he admitted, embarrassed, before noticing she was in a similar position. "Kinda like how you don't have control over your wings right now."

Rainbow's cheeks flushed as she lowered her ears. Both wings were standing straight out proudly, for the entire world to see. Luckily, the only pony around was Mac. Speaking of which…

Macintosh looked behind her, then to his left and right. This had to be a dream. He was going to wake up and the cattle would be right there across from them where they left them. He shook his head vigorously, waiting to find himself with his foreleg around Rainbow, and the cattle still huddled together.

“Well, now that we’re both embarrassed, how about we get these dumb cows across…the…” Rainbow came to the same horrifying realization Mac had been trying to avoid.

“Rainbow, where are the cattle?” he was unusually calm for being in such a dire situation.

She was as red as the rising sun, not daring to turn and face him as she answered.

“That’s a good question.”

Mac sprang from beneath the sheet, his morning problem long since eradicated. His heart sank as he realized the odds of this being just another nightmare began to shrink with each passing second.

“You lost the cattle?!” Mac snapped, probably for the first time in his life.

“Hey, you were asleep too!” she spat defensively. Mac looked in every direction, finding no trace of the herd.

“Ah went ta sleep ‘cause you told me there weren’t any cattle rustlers gonna steal the herd!”

She opened her mouth to respond, but Macintosh was having none of it. His open minded attitude towards Rainbow quickly evaporated upon the failure of the only task she had this entire trip.

“You had one job! One!” he growled, striding over to her and skidding to a halt inches from her face. “All you had to do was make sure nothing happened to the cattle! I hope you manage weather better than you manage livestock!”

Rainbow’s helpful attitude also cleared out the moment Mac raised his voice. She hated being talked down to; especially by somepony she may have even considered a friend if this hadn’t come between them.

“I didn’t see you volunteering to stay up and watch them! This isn’t just my fault!”

“Yes it is!” he shot back, their argument now so loud it could be heard for miles in the quiet desert. “If you had listened to me, and done it the way Pa had taught me to do it, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“The way Pa taught you to do it is stupid! Trains exist so ponies don’t have to do this outdated crap anymore!”

Rainbow sensed that last sentence might have come off a bit harsher than she had intended, but couldn’t back down now, lest she lose face.

Macintosh's face grew red with rage. Dash shrank back slightly, painfully aware she may have gone too far.

“Don’t you ever. Ever. Talk about my Pa. He was an honest, hardworking pony, unlike you! You’re just a cheating, lazy pegasus whose only claim to fame is how fast you can fly, and how you’re the element of loyalty,” he growled in a low, threatening tone.

His angry words seemed to slice right through her normally thick skin. She was used to insults from those who were simply jealous of her abilities, but for some reason, the hurtful stream of words coming from him struck a deep nerve. In the back of her mind, she knew she had screwed up by insisting on sleep, leaving little blame for anypony but herself.

“Celestia knows why you’re that element! Ah saw you cheating when you challenged mah sister to the iron pony competition! You can’t even give an honest chance to a pony whose supposed to be your best friend!” he continued, now more fueled by anger than rational thought.

“How anypony can stand to be around you for more than a few minutes, Ah haven’t the slightest! Ah honestly have no idea what Applejack sees in you. You're loud, rude, and seem ta have a chip on your shoulder that makes ya have ta prove you're better than everypony at everything! As far as Ah’m concerned, if Ah never see you again after this, it’ll be too soon!”

Now it was Mac’s turn to regret the harshness of his words as they left his lips. He had let her have it with both barrels, and it looked like it stung pretty badly. For the first time on this trip, Rainbow had nothing to say. No witty rebuttal, no clever comeback, no nothing. He could see the pain in her eyes as she realized it truly was her fault, and all he had done was rub salt in her wound. Mac's angry glare broke as she turned her head away from him, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.

Dash spread her wings and took off in whatever direction would carry her farthest away from him. As she climbed, she heard him call out to her, but she didn't care what he had to say. He had said quite enough in her opinion, silent tears beginning to wrap around her face as the hot desert wind pushed them from her eyes. She didn't know where she was going and she didn't care, so long as she didn't have to listen to him anymore.

Mac sighed, taking a rest on his flanks. At least the rustlers had the decency to leave them their gear. Macintosh knew he may have said more than he meant to, and now he had gone and made a filly cry. Something he had never done before, and hoped he would never do again. He felt ashamed of himself as he examined the bandage Dash had wrapped for him yesterday. While most of what he said was true in his eyes, that didn't mean she deserved the berating he gave her, though for being one of the tougher and fearless ponies in Ponyville, she sure seemed to take it to heart. Now, not only was he without cattle to sell, but also without the pony with which he'd begun the journey.

"Pa'd whip my hide if he were here ta see that..." he admonished himself, remembering what his father had taught him about how to treat mares, regardless of what you thought of them personally. It wasn't entirely Rainbow's fault, he should have insisted he stay up on watch if she wanted to go to sleep. That would have been the gentlecolts thing to do. Instead he chose to go to bed as well, leaving the cattle resigned to whatever fate befell them. Mac glanced over to where the herd had been. Not even any hoof-prints to follow. If the cattle had been rustled, then whomever pulled it off must've been professionals.

The sun began to beat down on his coat, prompting him to put his kandura back on and begin walking in the direction she flew. He knew Rainbow wouldn't last long in this heat without water, and he'd be damned if he was going to have her blood on his hooves for making her storm off like that. Something besides saving his own skin from the charge of negligent pony-slaughter pushed him to find her, something he couldn't quite place, but resided deep in his heart all the same. Even though she had torpedoed the entire trip by losing the cattle, he, for some reason, hated to see her so upset.

He didn't have time to ponder why as he continued at a steady pace, hoping to see a multi-colored mane stick out from the dull hues of the desert. As he walked, he noticed a breeze blow in from behind him, increasing in speed as time went by. He glanced over his shoulder and froze, blanching in fear. A wall of dust and sand, nearly a thousand feet high, loomed in the distance, bearing down on him at a terrifying speed.

He broke into a gallop, realizing that Rainbow was as good as dead if she stopped to rest somewhere and this storm caught her. The angry winds would bury her in sand in a matter of minutes.

Dear Celestia Ah'm sorry Ah yelled at Rainbow! Please just let me find her before this storm hits! he found himself attempting to bargain with the deity as he scanned the horizon for any sign of her. Something inside him cared about his fiery tempered traveling companion; whether he cared to admit it or not, she had actually grown on him. Well, until she lost the cattle. Still, this one mistake didn't mean she deserved to die of thirst in the middle of the wasteland.

He glanced behind him to check the storms progress. It was closing fast. In a matter of minutes, it would envelope him, and he'd have no choice but to wait it out and pray Rainbow hadn't been buried alive. His hooves hammered into the ground, which was beginning to change from packed earth to loose sand. Less than a mile ahead, he saw a cyan speck atop a rather large dune in the distance. Behind her, were about five palm trees, though what they were doing out in the sands, or how they could even survive without water he hadn't the slightest idea.

Unfortunately, Mac felt the sting of being blasted by the tiny particles of windblown sand, meaning the storm was nearly upon him. He called to her as loud as he could, hoping she wouldn't take off again at the sight of him. Without any mouth or nose protection, she'd most likely suffocate before being buried by the winds. For the first time in his life, he wished he had wings, his strong legs simply unable to move him fast enough to reach her. Still he pressed on, knowing if he could just get to her and shield her from the dust they'd both be alive so they could argue over who lost the cattle later.

She must not have heard him, but she apparently saw the massive sandstorm coming and quickly jumped into the crown of one of the palm trees.

Macintosh affixed his head cover across his nose and mouth, wetting it with water so his sinuses wouldn't dry out. At full sprint, he just made it to the base of the palm Rainbow had perched atop as the visibility began to drop. Apparently, Rainbow had discovered a small oasis on her own, the spring water supporting the tiny grove of palms.

"What do you want?" Dash snapped from her lofty seat.

"You have ta come down from there before the storm hits!" he pled, the sand particles now stinging his eyes as they threatened to close. "Ya have ta cover your face or you'll suffocate!"

"I could just fly out of the storm!" she snapped, her eyes now well shut against the blinding sand, "I don't need you!"

"The winds are too strong, it'd be like flyin' into a hurricane! And you don't know what kind of poisonous critters live in that tree!" he argued, "Please come down from there until the storm clears!"

Rainbow considered her options. Though she was still hurt from what Mac had said about her, he was the more experienced pony. As she pondered her answer, Mac made her choice for her. With a swift turn, he bucked the palm tree as hard as he could, nearly breaking it in two. He heard a yelp just before his hooves made contact as Rainbow, as well as a long green snake fell from the tree.

Mac recognized the species of serpent, nearly draining the color from his face. A Boomslang!

He swiftly stomped its head before another snakebite had the chance to afflict them. Rainbow landed with a soft thud, landing on her flanks as Mac ripped part of his kandura and dunked it into the water before covering Rainbow's face with it as he held her close to him. Against the palm trees, they'd be able to wait out the storm and head back to the larger oasis once it had passed.

He hunkered down on top of the pegasus, shielding her smaller body with his own. As the savage winds whipped around them, the two ponies were relatively safe, if not lacking in personal space. Mac's mouth was near Dash's left ear, while Mac's ear was opposite Rainbows lips.

"Rainbow...listen, Ah'm sorry for what Ah said to ya earlier. Ah was just upset that...Rainbow?"

Dash had heard his voice, though it was as if he were talking with his mouth full. His words seemed distant and mumbled for some reason, though she assumed it was due to the cloth over his face, and the rushing winds around them. She didn't respond, only shutting her eyes tightly against the stray grains of sand that occasionally made their way past Mac's clothing. After a few minutes, the sandstorm had moved past them, the harsh winds and zero visibility giving way to the overbearing desert sun.

Mac climbed off of her, shaking off the sand covering his clothes and pulling his hooves from the sand that had gathered around them. Dash stood up and did the same, all the while feeling a sharp pain in her left foreleg. She brought it to her face, noticing what looked like a small scratch with a small trickle of blood leading from it. Assuming she'd caught a sharp branch on her way down, she looked towards Mac, removing the wet rag he had put over her mouth and nose.

"Sorry bout buckin ya out of th' tree," he apologized, checking the saddle bags to make sure no sand had gotten into their rations.

"Yeah, it's fine," she mumbled, still somewhat upset at him for what he had said during their argument. "Now what?"

Mac sighed, realizing he would have to face his sister with no money and no cattle. At least he had brought her friend back in one piece; though it was small consolation considering the herd would have easily fetched a few thousand bits at market.

"Ah guess we head back ta Ponyville. No reason ta continue on ta Prairieville without cattle."

His answer surprised her. "You're just gonna give up? Just like that?"

Mac stared at her with a curious expression, "Without cattle, we got nothin' ta sell."

"So why don't we find out who stole them, and get them back!" she suggested, wanting more than ever now to prove she wasn't the complete screw up she believed he viewed her as.

"Ah checked the area 'round the camp," he began, shifting uncomfortably on his hooves, "There weren't any tracks ta follow, and even if there had been, the storm would'a covered them by now."

Mac noticed the scratch on her foreleg, his coat color nearly turning completely white. "You didn't get bit by that snake that fell outta that tree you were in, did ya?"

Rainbow re-examined the scratch. It didn't look like the bite he had gotten, and it didn't seem to be bleeding nearly as much as his had.

"No, I probably caught a branch on the way down," she assured him.

Mac breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing they needed was another snake bite. Especially from something he didn't carry the anti-venom for. The cattle drive never took him this far east, and it especially never took him in the crown of a desert palm, where the Boomslang lived.

As they began their trek back to the oasis, Mac contemplated repeating what he had said during the sandstorm. After an hours walk, they had arrived.

"Rainbow, Ah'm sorry for what Ah said to ya earlier. It's just... there's a lot more on the line than new windas, and... Rainbow?" he looked back to see her panting, sitting on her flanks with a dazed look on her face.

Dash heard a muffled noise, as though someone was speaking to her. The glare of the sun nearly made it impossible for her to tell what was making the noise, as everything around her began to spin. A ringing in her ears grew in volume until she could hear nothing, save for the throbbing of her head.

Mac darted towards her just as she flopped over onto her side.

"Rainbow!" he shouted, trying to stir her awake. Taking a canteen, he lifted her upright with one hoof and dumped water over her face with the other, trying to rouse her. It had little effect; if anything, Dash seemed to slip further into unconsciousness. Figuring she was merely dehydrated, he put water to her lips, smiling in relief when she began to weakly drink a few sips. After a few modest gulps, she stopped drinking, and passed out completely. Red flags raised in Macintosh's mind as he re-examined the 'scratch' she had gotten in the palm tree. It hadn't stopped bleeding, confirming his worst fears.

What are th' odds?! Ah've never had any snake problems on a cattle drive, and on this one, we both get bit?

He was now certain some sort of higher power was out to kill the two of them. Another grave realization leapt to the forefront of Mac's mind. Ponyville would be the quickest town to get to, but the hospital more than likely didn't have the proper anti-venom for this type of snake, as there was no desert in or around the little town. Prairieville would have some, but he'd have to run nonstop to make it in time to save her life, and even then, he may be too late.

She saved me from a snake; looks like it’s time for me ta return the favor.

He lifted her up, and gently placed her on his back, the way he used to carry Applejack when she was little, her forelegs dangling limply around his neck as he stood up. A sharp pain shot through his hind leg, reminding him of what she had done. He would have loved another one of her magic leg rubs, but used the pain as motivation to make sure she survived this trip. He broke into a gallop and set off toward Prairieville at a blistering pace. He tried to ration his water as best as he could, but ended up giving most to Dash to keep her from dehydrating.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself onward, trying to ignore the terrifying limpness of the load on his back. Just…a bit…further…

Rainbow felt like she had been bucked hard in the face. Her head seemed to weigh a thousand pounds as she bounced, though she wasn’t sure what was moving her, or why she felt this way in the first place. One thing she knew for certain was that she was hot, extremely hot, in fact. She didn’t dare open her eyes, lest she get another dose of blinding white light.

She remembered Mac saying something about how the cattle were worth more than just the debt she had to repay, but couldn’t exactly recall what. In fact, she had no idea where she was, or where she was going, only that with every jostle, she grew more tired. Perhaps if she just slept for a little while, she would wake up in Ponyville, this whole trip finally over.

There was something soft beneath her. That was the first thing she noticed. Rainbow stirred, shifting the blankets covering her, and squinted against a set of white lights. A moment later, the smell of antiseptic greeted her nose as a hospital room swam into focus around her. She lifted her head from the stiff hospital pillow, opening her mouth to call for Macintosh. Where was he? How had she gotten here?

A nurse she hadn’t noticed quickly bustled over, gently pushing her back down. “Easy there, Miss Dash,” she spoke reassuringly. “You’ve been through quite a lot.”

Rainbow looked her over. She was an older mare, probably a grandmother to somepony, if her greying bun was any indication.

"Where's Big?" she slurred anxiously, still a bit dehydrated.

"Who?"

"Macintosh! A big red stallion with a goofy accent!"

"Oh!" the nurse said, realizing whom she was referring to, "Not to worry, he's right over there."

She drew back the privacy curtain, revealing a dirty, tired, and ragged looking Big Macintosh, asleep in one of the many uncomfortable hospital chairs with their gear piled lazily next to him.

With a relieved sigh, she allowed herself to lie back onto the bed.

"What happened?"

"You were bitten by a Boomslang. Highly venomous, but it seems you received what we like to call a 'million-bit-bite'."

Dash stared at the nurse quizzically as she looked over her charts.

"It was just a warning bite, very little venom actually made its way into your system. Enough to cause mild symptoms at best, though they were probably exacerbated due to your dehydration." she explained, motioning to the IV in her left foreleg.

"You're quite lucky to have such a devoted Coltfriend, you know."

Dash scoffed at her assumption, but before she could refute her assertion, the nurse continued.

"He galloped fifty two miles across the wasteland to get you here, and refused to let us treat him until you had been stabilized. In fact, he still hasn't let us touch him! He demanded to wait by your bedside until you woke up."

The nurse cast a loving gaze toward the still sleeping stallion, his now discolored kandura still draped over his massive frame.

"He... carried me the whole way?"

"That's right, he's quite the gentlecolt that one. I'd hold onto him if I were you," she added, smiling as she began towards the door.

"He's not my..." by the time she looked back to the nurse, she was gone, leaving the two of them alone.

She turned her attention back to Mac. The window behind him was dark, the street lamps of what she assumed was Prairieville casting a bit of extra light through the partially drawn curtains. Even in this most ragged of states, she couldn't help but smile at him. His shaggy, straw-coloured mane hung over his eyes, his chest rising and falling gently. A light snore escaped his mouth as he slept. He was, dare she even think it... cute. He risked his life to save her, even though she was apparently not in as mortal a danger as he'd suspected.

She began to wonder that perhaps there was something inside him that cared about her, even though she had been nothing but a jerk for most of the trip. She didn't think him the type to leave a pony dying in the desert, but still. Would he have waited by just anypony's bedside until they woke up, refusing treatment until he made sure they were okay?

Dash leaned back against her many pillows and continued to stare admirably at him, a face she would never be able to live down if any of her friends saw it.

"Mac! Maaaaac!" she called, deciding he had had enough sleep. Realizing he slept like a rock, she grabbed one of her many pillows and hurled it at him.

"Mah hat!" he awoke with a start, a bewildered look across his face before he remembered where he was. He hopped from the chair and strode towards her bedside.

"Rainbow! Thank Celestia you're alive!" he said, both hugging each other tightly. After the embrace, the awkwardness of their affection began to set in, both beginning to blush quite severely.

"Mac... I'm sorry I lost the cattle, and I'm sorry I said the way your dad taught you to do stuff was stupid," she apologized, realizing that even after all she had said and done, he still cared enough about her to carry her across the desert on his back.

Mac smiled back at her gently, realizing what a huge moment this was for her. Up until now, he was almost certain the phrase 'I'm sorry' wasn't in her vocabulary.

"It's okay, Ah know ya didn't mean it. Ah took it personally, and said some things Ah didn't mean either," he added softly, "You may be a jerk, but as far as jerks go, you ain't so bad."

"Hey! I was apologizing and you—" he cut her off with a wink, Rainbow belatedly realizing what he said was supposed to be a joke.

She grinned, lying back on the rather stiff remaining pillows.

"You're gonna have to work on those jokes, Big."

"Ah thought it was pretty funny," he answered, returning her smile.

The good feelings soon evaporated, as they both realized their predicament.

"What do we do now?" Dash asked.

"Well, the auction is tomorrow afternoon, not that it makes a difference ta us," he said sitting back in the chair he had been sleeping in. "Without cattle ta sell, all we got is enough for a train ticket back home."

Rainbow's ears lowered in shame. Surely there had to be something they could do!

"I guess I lose the bet huh?"

Mac laughed in agreement, "Yeah, Ah think that's fair ta say," he shifted uneasily in his chair, "Ah reckon if one lost cow was three seasons worth of work, a hundred lost cattle'll have you workin' for us for the next three hundred years."

"What?! I'll pay you back for the windows, but I'm not—" she caught him smiling at her again. She really wasn't used to him having a sense of humor. She especially didn't expect it after how upset he'd gotten earlier that day.

"You're getting better at those."

Silence entered the room as they both pondered if there was any possible way to return to Ponyville with at least a little more money than they'd left.

"Hey! I got it!" Dash exclaimed happily, "The cattle got stolen right?"

"Eeyup,"

"And cattle thieves took the cattle because they're worth money, right?"

"Eeyup, that's how thieves work, generally," Mac added sarcastically.

"The only place you could get money for cattle around here is the auction!"

Mac looked at her, a slight confused.

"Ah don't follow."

"Do I have to spell it out for you? The cattle are probably somewhere in town! All we have to do is find out where they are!"

Mac couldn't help but grin at the idea. "Rainbow, Ah never thought I'd say this, but you're a genius!"

"I think that's enough jokes from you for one day," she glared at him before breaking into a gentle smile.

"Now let those doctors treat you so we can be ready to go cattle hunting tomorrow. We'll only have till the afternoon to find them."

Mac nodded, turning toward the door when Rainbow called to him. "Oh and Big,"

"Yeah?"

"You could really use a bath."

He grinned. It looked she was no stranger to joke telling either.

"So could you," he smiled back.

8. Rustlers Revealed

Chapter 8-Rustlers Revealed

Though the bed was stiff, and the blankets far too thin to provide any real warmth, Rainbow managed around six hours of solid sleep before the sun blasted through her window. Ordinarily, she'd simply roll over and continue her slumber, cursing the sun for its impudence. Not today.

Today was the day she’d prove she wasn’t just dead weight. She would recover the cattle, get the cash Macintosh and the farm needed, and earn the rights to the airspace over Sweet Apple Acres in one fell swoop. That is, as soon as she convinced her body it was time to do that. It seemed to have other ideas, and was defending them with several rather persuasive arguments.

In the time it took her to force her rebellious limbs out of bed, her thoughts idly turned to why she wanted to prove herself in the first place. It was easy to call it a matter of pride, but that just didn’t seem to cover it, in this case. There was something else; something she couldn’t quite place. She had to prove herself, to Macintosh more than anypony else. But why?

Why do I care what he thinks? He's AJ's brother for Celestia's sake! He's just a hardworking, ripped stallion who probably knows a thing or two about how to please a mare-No! Stop that!

Rainbow rubbed her hooves against her eyes with a groan, trying to sort out a flurry of unfamiliar feelings as they swelled in her chest at the mere thought of Big Macintosh.

Okay Rainbow, this is no big deal! It's just a passing interest. A coltfriend would only slow you down! None of the Wonderbolts have special someponies; it would just get in the way of being awesome!

Dash grinned and sat back in bed. “The hay was I thinking? I don’t have time for a coltfriend. My awesomeness is a full-time job.” She folded her forelegs behind her head, having successfully convinced herself she had no feelings for anypony. Especially not one who’s name started with M and rhymed with Smackintosh.

Her legs still refused to get her out of bed. Dash sighed. How about a compromise, legs? Fifteen more minutes, then we move. Good?

Satisfied, she allowed her mind to drift away from the annoying topic of her most-definitely-nonexistent feelings for Macintosh and closed her eyes.

Before she knew it, she’d gone from a graphic plan of exactly what she’d do to the cattle rustlers when she caught them to a bizarre fantasy involving a picnic with a certain red stallion. She’d gone well past the point where she imagine them sharing a blanket under the stars before she realized exactly what she was thinking of.

No! Bad! She jerked her mind away from that topic, but to no avail. A horrifying thought slowly pushed its way to the forefront of her mind and refused to leave until it was acknowledged.

She liked Macintosh.

The more she tried to convince herself it wasn't true, the more she recognized the signs. He carried her across the desert, even after she'd lost the farm a considerable amount of money, and even after she had inadvertently insulted his dead father! Surely nopony was that polite?

As if playing devils advocate for herself, she began to explore the possible outcomes of a romance with Macintosh. She couldn't deny he was pure stallion. Strong as an ox, or stronger, with labor-hardened muscles and rugged features to boot. Physically, he was everything she could have asked for. Somepony to talk to, watch dumb movies with, laugh with, eat amazingly tasty dinners with, and especially warm up a cold bed before she climbed in... with.

Even more so than the superficial reasons of spending time with somepony, she wanted a stallion who would be there to help nurse her wounded ego whenever she -dare she even think it- fail at something she attempted. Sure she had her friends, and they were great at making her feel better when they were around, but they couldn't be with her in her bed while she silently doubted her abilities, or kicked herself for what she should have done, or should have tried. It was hard to go home to an empty house after a tough loss or a second place finish, rare though they may be. She had Tank, and he was great for listening, but not much for talking back.

Fearless and tough though she may have been on the outside, inside she was still a girl, a girl who sometimes needed somepony to tell her everything would be fine, and a loss wasn't the end of the world, the way her parents used to when she was just a filly.

Though she hadn't had what anypony would consider a true coltfriend, she had a few one night stands under her belt, as any mare her age might want to be a little adventurous in the avenues of love. Though most involved alcohol and she plainly remembered that none of them had been particularly satisfying. It seemed she desired a stallion who had the strength to lay her down and give her what she needed without having to be instructed on how, or timidly asking if they were hurting her or something. She wasn't some delicate flower; she was practically a Wonderbolt for Celestia's sake! Well, she would be if it weren't for those pesky tryouts always being scheduled during her work week.

Still, the more she thought of what bedding the big stallion would be like, the more she was reminded of certain portions of her daydream. A knock at the door pulled her from her thoughts as the same older mare from last night entered her room with a tray of hospital food.

"Breakfast time, Ms. Dash!" she announced cheerfully.

Rainbow threw her blanket over herself in an effort to hide her rather embarrassing wing situation all those intimate thoughts had given her.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

Rainbow swallowed nervously, "Yeah..."

"Splendid. That dashing coltfriend of yours was nearly exhausted by the time he let us have a look at him."

News of Mac's condition piqued her interest. "How is he?"

"Oh, he's fine. Nothing a saline solution couldn't fix," she said, placing the familiar hospital fare on her lap. "You're scheduled for release as soon as you're comfortable."

"Thanks. What about Mac?"

"He's in the waiting room. He spoke very highly of you, though he insisted he wasn't your coltfriend," she added, gathering Rainbow's empty IV and removing it from her foreleg with careful tug. "But I know the shy type when I see them! He was quite flushed when I assured him we wouldn't judge a pegasus and an earth ponies love. Some folks are pretty closed minded about that sort of thing, but not us!" she continued cheerily.

"He's not my coltfriend," she corrected.

The nurse set her items on a nearby gurney with a surprised look on her face.

"Really? I was almost certain the two of you were-"

"Nope," Rainbow cut in.

"Any reason why? He seemed pretty fond of you."

The mere mention of this brought some color to her cheeks. "Yeah!" she snapped, "Lots of reasons! Like..."

Try as she might, she simply couldn't think of a valid reason to not like him. Still, that didn't mean she did!

"Don't worry about my reasons!" she added, turning an icy shoulder to the older nurse.

"I'm sorry dear, it wasn't my place."

With that, the nurse left her alone with her thoughts, though Rainbow almost wished she hadn't. Pushing the mushy thoughts of Mac from her head, she focused on her now grumbling stomach. Rainbow glanced down at the unappetizing tray before her. Ordinarily, her previous experiences with hospital food would have been enough for her to skip breakfast and get something to eat in town. However, she hadn't eaten anything besides a meager late night hospital dinner, and on top of that, she had no money. So, she happily scarfed down every crumb, silently thanking Celestia for implementing free kingdom-wide health care.

After breakfast and a much needed shower, Rainbow was ready to hunt down the herd. Leaving her room, she found her way to the waiting room where Big Mac sat asleep in one of the chairs. He certainly was good at napping anyplace, anytime.

"Mac, wake up."

Macintosh stirred awake, getting to his hooves and glancing towards her. He found himself staring a little longer than was necessary. Rainbow's mane was still wet, sticking around her neck and wrapping elegantly around her face. She obviously didn't want to waste time drying off, even her wings glistened under the artificial light as she ruffled them, a brief shower creating a rainbow around her before dissipating.

"Somethin' wrong?" she asked, knowing, but not admitting how good it felt to exercise her femininity every now and again. Only a coltcuddler would be immune to her, and if Mac's cheeks were any indication, he certainly wasn't.

Mac shifted on his hooves nervously "Eenope," he answered, his voice shaking slightly. "Ya ready ta find them cattle?"

"You know it," she answered, shaking her mane dry while wetting Mac for the third time. They stepped out of the hospital, and into the western town of Prarieville. The dust from the red clay roads swirled to greet them, as all manner of modestly dressed ponies went about their daily lives. The style of dress reminded both of Appleoosa, though Prairieville seemed a bit more populated.

"Did we go back in time?" Rainbow asked.

"You'd think," Mac answered calmly.

"Well, where do we start?" Rainbow asked, squinting her eyes to avoid the kicked up dust.

"This town's a lot bigger than it was the last time Ah was here," he observed, taking careful glances up and down Mane street, "Ah reckon tryin' ta search everywhere by this afternoon'd be a fool's errand. If we want ta catch rustlers, we're gonna have ta think like 'em."

“Hang on,” she said, spreading her wings. “I’ll see if I can get a better view.”

She took off without waiting for a reply, and hovered a few hundred feet in the air. From the street, the city was crowded. From above, it looked like a disturbed anthill. Well… an anthill filled with cows and ponies. Unable to tell one herd from another, she gave up and landed beside the red stallion.

"See anythin'?"

"A bunch of cows. This is like finding a needle in a stack of needles," she sighed, before realizing something about the cattle Mac's family kept at the farm.

"Hey, can't your cows talk?"

Mac nodded, "Daisy Jo can talk. She speaks for them, and can understand them. She's an Ayrshire dairy cow, their kind can learn our language. The cattle we're after are Holstein cows. They ain't smart enough ta speak, but we pay Daisy ta help us understand what it is the cows want, and what we want of the cows. We don't do anythin' to the cows, unless they let us. Anythin' less would be cruel."

"So I take it Daisy Jo is back on the farm, huh?" she sighed.

"Eeyup, she's got the arthritis, she'd have never made the journey," Mac finished, turning to Rainbow. "Now, we gotta ask ourselves where we'd find rustlers in this town."

Dash nodded, "Okay, where would lawbreakers and thieves normally hang out in a place like this?"

Mac turned his head to the left, noticing a rather run down building with the words 'Saloon' written on what appeared to be no more than an old piece of plywood haphazardly mounted above the door.

"There," he said, pointing a hoof toward the rough looking watering hole. They wove through buggy traffic and herds of cattle and made their way to the saloon. A ragtime tune played on a piano drifted out through the doors as they got closer, as did murmured conversations. Mac pushed the door open, allowing Rainbow inside first. No sooner had they entered, the griffon on the piano abruptly halted his melody, every eye cast towards the out-of-towners. The bar patrons were mostly earth stallions, dressed in some manner of dusty clothing, be it a vest, Stetson, or otherwise. Rainbow still couldn't figure out the connection between earth ponies and clothes, but was more concerned about the harsh stares they all seemed to be giving them, especially her. The only other mares in the room were either serving drinks, or seated on one of the stallions laps.

Macintosh paid no mind to the stares as he stepped towards the bar and took a vacant seat after setting down his weighty gear, motioning Rainbow to follow. As soon as they sat down, the music started back up and the other ponies seemed to go back about their business. The older looking unicorn stallion behind the bar sported a wide handlebar mustache, as well as a nicely pressed collared shirt.

"Say, aren't you two the pair what come from the desert?" the bartender drawled, polishing a mug with a rather dirty looking rag.

"Eeyup. How'd you know?" Mac asked earnestly.

"Word travels fast in a town this size," he grinned, "though I believe my wife was treatin' ya. She's a nurse up there at the clinic."

"A older lady with a blue cross cutie mark?" Rainbow chimed.

"That's her," he chuckled, setting the mug behind the bar and producing a sizable bottle and two shot glasses.

"So what brings a fine looking young filly and her beau to a dirty old hole like this?"

"He's not my—"

"She ain't my—"

They stopped, realizing they spoke simultaneously.

"It ain't like that, mister..."

"Call me Doc."

"Doc, we're here for the dairy auction, but our cattle got rustled on the way over."

"Rustled? I ain't heard of cattle rustlers 'round these parts since I was a colt! No sir, not since they put in that rail line."

Mac didn't have to look at Rainbow to feel the I-told-you-the-railroad-was-safer stare she was boring into him. Doc filled the two shot glasses with an amber liquid from the bottle and slid them toward Mac and Dash.

"Appreciate it, but we ain't exactly flushed with bits at the moment," Mac admitted, pushing the glasses back towards him.

"It's on the house. Ellie May told me what y'all had been through in the desert. After somethin' like that I reckon the first place I'd go is the saloon too!" he added happily, sliding back the glasses.

"That's mighty kind of ya," Mac said throwing back his shot, earning an elbow from Rainbow in the process.

"Are we here to drink, or find the cattle?" she whispered harshly.

"Easy Rainbow, it'd be impolite ta turn down a neighborly gesture. You gonna drink that?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes and slid the glass over to him. He certainly didn't seem too upset that the cattle had been lost now that he'd had a few drinks.

"Anyway, we're here lookin' for the two bit varmints that stole our cattle. We figure this is th' only place they'd have taken them on account of th' auction this afternoon."

Doc nodded in agreement, "I suppose that's a valid assumption. Though may I ask what you plan on doing once you find them?"

"We're gonna kick their flanks and take our cattle back!" Rainbow interjected.

Mac smiled at her enthusiasm, "Ah hope it won't come ta that, but if force is th' only thing that their type'll understand, then we have no choice."

"Sometimes it is necessary, though if all else fails, y'all should try askin' the sheriff to help ya. Things used ta be pretty rough and tumble 'round here till the two of them showed up."

Mac turned to Rainbow, "Maybe we should ask the sheriff. It'd probably be easier than goin' around askin' folks if they've seen anythin'."

Dash could feel the numerous sets of eyes ogling her the moment she set hoof in this place, and was feeling thoroughly disgusted with the notion. "Fine, whatever gets me away from these dirty stallions," she sneered, glaring over her shoulder at the drunken eyes still watching her from the many poker games and tables.

"Thank ya kindly for th' hospitality Doc." Mac said, nodding before getting onto his hooves. Rainbow did the same, and as Mac was about to pick up his gear, he heard Dash yelp in surprise.

"Hey there lil' filly...how much fer a good time?" a very drunk stallion had built up his courage and come from across the room to proposition her with a rather hard slap on the flank. Rainbow’s face twisted in anger, and she mentally prepared a tirade of a few choice obscenities. He was about to let him have it when Macintosh stepped in front of her.

"Apologize to the lady," he growled, "Now."

"Hey! I can—"

Mac held up an insistent hoof, quieting her as the drunken stallions friends began to gather behind him.

"You gonna make me, mister?" he slurred. He was maybe an inch or two shorter than Mac, and not nearly as muscular, but alcohol had a tendency to make one believe one was capable of feats otherwise deemed impossible by a sober stallion.

Mac bent his neck toward the ground, his yoke sliding off effortlessly before he cracked his neck from one side to the other.

He turned to Dash, "Hold my yoke."

Mac sat on his flanks inside the dingy jail cell, not a scratch on him.

"Macintosh Apple, you got a visitor," the guard said, letting in a familiar pegasus.

Rainbow's glare was well deserved and he knew it. Maybe it had been the alcohol, in combination with the frustration of losing the cattle, and the implications it held for his home, but Mac simply couldn't let such an insult to Rainbow's honor go unpunished.

"I hope you're proud of yourself!" she stated bluntly.

"Ah wouldn't go that far," he sighed. He was rather embarrassed, especially after he had just got done saying he'd rather not resort to violence to solve problems.

"I didn't need you to beat those jerks up for me, I could have handled myself."

Mac rolled his eyes. She was certainly delusional if she thought she could take on five stallions at once.

"And after how nice Doc was to us, you go and throw ponies through his windows! It's a good thing he didn't make us pay for those or the tables and chairs you smashed!"

“Ah didn’t break the chairs,” he said defensively, which only irritated Rainbow further.

“Oh, yeah? Then what did?”

Macintosh shifted uncomfortably. “Their heads.”

Dash stomped in anger and turned away. “I can’t even look at you right now! How could you put yourself in danger like that? One of them could have had a knife!"

The incarcerated stallion winced, though felt compelled to ask, "Why do you care if Ah put myself in harms way?"

Rainbow knew she'd said too much. Without a ready comeback, she felt the heat in her cheeks begin to rise. Cursing her involuntary response, she muttered the first few words that came to mind.

"Uh...W-what was I supposed to tell Applejack if you got hurt, huh?"

Mac noticed her hesitance, but seeing how uncomfortable it made her, decided to drop the subject.

"Ah'm sorry ya had ta see that, but it looks like Ah'll be spending a while in here."

Rainbow scoffed, "No you won't. I paid your bail."

"How?" Mac raised an eyebrow, "We only had enough money ta buy two train tickets."

"I used that money to buy into a poker game after they hauled you off. I cleaned them out!" she added, puffing out her chest pridefully. "You're lucky I win the poker games the girls and I play every now and then, or you'd be in there a lot longer. But now we're broke."

Something about Macintosh catapulting hapless drunks through windows reminded Rainbow of her own debt, as well as what Mac had mentioned in the desert before she began to fade from the snake venom.

"What did you mean when you said there was more than just windows riding on this drive?"

Mac's normally stoic demeanor began to crack as he looked at his hooves, ears lowering in shame.

Might as well come clean...

"The farms finances are in a bad way at the moment," he sighed. "The older the place gets, the more repairs and such it needs. The crops used ta pay for it all, with some left over for necessities, and a few luxuries," he explained.

"But as time went on, things became more expensive, and Apple prices didn't rise ta meet them. We had ta start cuttin' back on some of th' things we used ta buy. This cattle drive was supposed ta hold us over till zapapple season, but without the money, we'll have ta sell part of the land ta make ends meet. Less land means less profit, and Ah'm afraid if we have ta do that, it's only a matter of time before we have ta let the whole farm go..." he finished weakly, what Rainbow would swear was a tear gathering at the corner of his soft green eyes.

"Mac... I had no idea..." she whispered in disbelief. If she had known so much was on the line, she wouldn't have been so unhelpful. "If this was so important, why was it just me and you in charge of keeping the cattle?"

"Applejack couldn't go, and we can't afford ta hire any outside help. All our cousins are busy with their own farms, if they were ta come help us, they might find themselves in the same situation. Somepony's even put an offer on the parcel of land that we'll have ta sell." he sighed.

"But AJ said I was going with you to keep an eye out for rustlers! That guy at the saloon said he hadn't even heard of rustlers since he was a colt! That had to be at least fifty years ago!" she protested.

"In case ya ain't noticed, AJ fancies herself some kinda matchmaker as of late. She's been at it since Applebloom tried ta poison me and her teacher, despite my insistence she knock it off."

Rainbow knew it, but at least Mac was aware of it as well. Still, if rustlers hadn't existed for so long, why did their cows get stolen? On top of that, how had they managed it without leaving a trace of where they had gone?

"So now you know. Mine and Applejack's home depends on us findin' those cattle, and it's already past noon," he added in despair. It didn't look good for Sweet Apple acres. "Maybe you were right Rainbow... Ah should have just used the train like a normal pony..."

Rainbow took offense to his self-doubt, "Now hold on a minute!" she spat, striding over to the bars, "We may have been nearly been killed a bunch of times, but what's done is done, and there's nothing we can do about it! What we can do, is find the cattle, get the money, and save your farm!"

If anything, he had to admire her persistence. A smile broke across his lips as he got to his hooves.

"Ah like th' sound of that!" he agreed.

Another guard in a vest and badge came into the otherwise empty cell block, drawing their attention.

"The sheriffs will be here ta let ya out directly," he called before disappearing again.

"Sheriffs?" Mac asked, returning the same quizzical look Rainbow wore.

A few moments later, two unicorn stallions entered the room, one with a mustache, and one without. Both wore matching stetsons and striped vests, both turned and grinned at the shocked ponies before them.

"Well if it isn't Big Macintosh, and his quick pegasus friend from our brief stint in Ponyville! Quite the pickle they've gotten themselves into, eh Flim?"

"I couldn't agree more, Flam."

Mac couldn't believe his eyes. On top of lost cattle and zero money, and imprisonment, the Flim Flam brothers had shown up to laugh at his misfortune.

"What're you two doing here?" Rainbow hissed.

"The deputies tell us you came to town looking for those scoundrels who stole your livestock!" Flim answered.

"Well look no further!" Flam completed.

"Ordinarily, this would be the part where we explain how and why we did it with a jaunty tune, but the ruining of our illustrious reputation in Ponyville spread farther than we expected, so much so that dear brother and I had to get out of the cider business, and fire our songwriter!" Flim responded angrily.

"So we came out west, to start life anew! There's a sucker born every minute, and this town is an honest to goodness candy shop," Flam added.

"You stole our cattle?" Mac asked, dumbstruck.

"A bit slow on the draw isn't he Flim?"

"I daresay you're correct Flam."

Rainbow couldn't believe their luck. They'd found the cattle rustlers, and in the sheriff's office no less!

"You two aren't too smart either! You just confessed to stealing our cattle!" she snapped confidently. "As soon as the sheriffs get here, it'll be you two behind bars instead of Mac!"

Flim and Flam both grinned at each other, "This is the fun part!"

"I do so enjoy it brother of mine!"

Turning back to the pair, they opened their vests to reveal two shiny, matching gold badges that read, 'Prairieville Sheriff'.

9. Jailbreak

Chapter 9-Jailbreak

"Well this is a fine predicament you find yourselves in isn't it?" Flim sneered. Rainbow gritted her teeth, fighting her every instinct to wipe that smug grin off his face with a well-placed hoof. Things had gone from bad to worse in record time.

"Just wait till we get those cattle back and kick your flanks!" she growled, her wings flared angrily.

"Oh, I don't think you two will be doing anything like that anytime soon!" Flam answered happily.

"The both of you will be in jail till at least tomorrow morning," Flim completed, the same grin from before across his lips.

"What?! Bullspit, I paid his bail!" Rainbow protested, "And you can't throw me in jail, I haven't done anything!"

"Deputy!" Flam called over his shoulder, producing a rather large green earth stallion with a black leather vest and a few lassos on his hip in the doorway. "This young mare threatened Flim and I, and threatening a law enforcement officer carries a penalty of a night in jail, does it not?"

The silent stallion nodded, his demeanor nearly identical to Mac's at the start of this trip. Rainbow quickly turned, her back legs towards the two unicorns and the advancing deputy.

"Take another step and I start breaking jaws!" she threatened, ready to buck until her legs gave out.

"Rainbow!" a voice she didn't expect called from behind the iron bars, "We don't need ta hurt anypony, just calm down."

She cast a confused glare toward his cell, "What?! This is the last chance we've got Mac! We have to kick their flanks now before they sell our cattle!"

Macintosh ran toward the corner of the cell closest to Dash, but out of whisper range of the sheriffs or the deputy, who had wisely kept their distance.

"Rainbow, Ah'm gonna need ya ta trust me on this. Let them arrest you."

"No way!" she whispered back sharply. "What possible good would both of us being in jail do anypony?"

"Ah just need you to trust me," he whispered urgently, "Do you?"

He had already saved her life more than once, and carried her across the desert on his back. Dash couldn't think of a reason not to, but still had no idea how trusting Mac to let herself be arrested could possibly have a positive outcome for the two of them.

"... Fine."

Rainbow released her fighting stance and turned to face the sheriffs. The deputy opened the jail cell and Dash stepped inside as Mac rose to leave, determined to find a way to bail out his partner and get the money for the cattle. As he neared the door, unicorn magic slammed it closed, nearly catching Mac right in the nose.

"Hey! My bail's been paid!" Big Mac protested, a hoof over his slightly grazed muzzle.

"Oh, I believe the paperwork for that won't go through until tomorrow! The deputies get a reprieve from all the red tape when the auction is in town. Better for morale. Besides, we can't have too many officers on the streets, lest something terrible happen to someponies herd of cattle." The two brothers shared a moment of laughter before turning to leave.

“Sheriffs!”

Flim turned, barely able to mask his annoyance. “What is it? Can’t you see we’re sharing a joke?”

“Sorry,” the new officer said, panting from his run across town. “But another sum of money’s gone missing from the town treasury.”

“Another one?” Flam gasped. “But I thought we ran the thief out of town last week!”

“Perhaps there’s more than one,” Flim replied grimly. “Not to worry, Flam and I will personally investigate the missing bits. We can’t have more of the town’s money vanishing, now can we?”

“In any case, I’m afraid it must wait brother of mine,” Flam finished. “The auction is starting soon. We will look into the matter later. Fair?”

The officer saluted crisply. “Yes sirs!”

“Now go,” Flim said. “We have an auction to get to.”

He winked at Rainbow, who was fighting her every instinct to try and plant a hoof straight in the middle of his face from behind the bars. “You two have fun.”

The two of them laughed all the way out of the building as the large deputy sat in a chair outside their cell, half of his attention seemed to be on them, while the other half was intent on napping.

"Well?" Dash spat, sitting heavily on the cell’s single cot and folding her forelegs.

"Well what?"

"I trusted you to let them arrest me, and here we are!" she snapped, gesturing at her dingy surroundings.

"Eeyup."

Rainbow stared blankly at him, the disbelief crawling over her face not lost in Mac's peripheral vision. After a few tense moments, Dash spoke up again.

"Well are you gonna do something or what?" she snapped impatiently.

"Eeyup," he nodded, motioning to their guard, nearly asleep at his post. Rainbow realized they would have to wait for him to fall asleep before attempting any escape. A gentle and distant rumble from a loudspeaker heralded the start of the auction, filling both with a sense of urgency. Mac couldn't afford to wait any longer to implement his plan.

He stepped toward the back wall and stood on his hind legs, tapping each brick with his hoof and listening intently to the sound they made.

Rainbow laid down on the bed, tucking her legs neatly beneath her as she set her head down, lazily watching Mac do whatever it was he was doing.

"We aren't gonna get the cattle back, are we?" she asked, her eyelids growing heavy.

"Not with that attitude, we ain't," he replied, having made it about a quarter of the way down the small cell's back wall, still gently tapping on each brick.

"Listen, I'm not usually the one to say this, but I don't see how we'll be heading back to your farm with anything but our tails between our legs."

Mac stopped his tapping and settled back onto all fours, his turn to shoot her a confused stare.

"You're just gonna give up, are ya?" he asked, a berating edge to his words. "That don't sound like the Rainbow Ah thought Ah had brought with me."

Dash scoffed, "You barely even knew me before this, now you think you know me like AJ does or something?"

"Ah didn't have ta know you personally ta know of you. Applejack talks about ya, and Applebloom's little friend... what's her name, the orange one?"

"Scootaloo." Dash answered quickly. Though she rarely showed it, she loved her fan club's president more than she would ever admit. Even on her worst days, Scoots would always be there to offer words of encouragement and unending praise, be it warranted or not.

"Right, like Ah was sayin', Ah get more than enough hearsay 'bout you ta know that you rollin' over ain't somethin' you're likely ta do."

He had gone back to tapping on the brick halfway through his sentence in an effort to speed his plan along.

"Yeah well... it's not like I don't want you guys to keep your farm, I just... don't see a way for us to do that."

"That's why you need to trust me when Ah say Ah've got a way ta get everything we need, and a ticket out of this crooked town," he added, his continued tapping finally coming to a stop about three-fourths of the way down the wall, just above the end of the cot Rainbow laid on.

"What is it, then?" she asked, her head perking up from atop her forelegs.

"Bust out of here, confront Flim and Flam, get either our cattle, or our money; whichever that happen ta have, and then high tail it outta here and never return," he explained, turning toward her with a small, prideful smile across his face.

"Thats a pretty good idea, but won't the cops be after us pretty much the entire time if we break out of here?" she asked, stretching out her legs and wings while rolling onto her back. "And how are just me and you supposed to confront those two jerks? They've got the law on their side, and they're the criminals!"

"Ah... well..." he had only come up with a rough draft of the plan, but it was still better than nothing.

"We'd need a way to prove to these ponies that Flim and Flam have no business being the law of their town."

The holes Rainbow had punched in his plan began to drain his enthusiasm as well. "Ah hadn't really thought about that. How could we prove they're up to no good?"

Rainbow rolled onto her side, once again resting her head on her forelegs in thought. "That's the million bit question."

Mac sighed, "Ah'll bet it was those Flim Flam brothers who made th' offer on that piece of th' farm Ah'll have ta sell if we can't figure this out."

Suddenly, Rainbow had an idea. It was a long shot, but if it worked, everything would be right with the world again, and Mac and herself would come out of this whole ordeal smelling like guest room soap.

"What if it was?" she asked, rolling back over onto her belly.

"Ah wouldn't be surprised." Mac answered.

"They said they had to get out of the cider business and fire their songwriter or whatever after we whooped them in Ponyville, right?"

"Eeyup. So?"

"So, it means that if they're so broke, where are they getting the money to put an offer on your farm?"

Mac blinked as he processed the reasonable points Rainbow had brought up.

"So you think they're lying about having th' money ta buy the farm?"

Rainbow drug her hoof down her face in annoyance. He may have been smart when it came to the outdoors, but he could use a lesson or two from Twilight on how to devise a plan.

"No, they have the money, the question is, where did they get it from?"

An expression of understanding donned over Mac as he realized where she was going with her idea.

"So you think they're gonna use the towns money ta buy a part of our farm?"

"Bingo."

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Rainbow’s plan began to look more and more promising.

"That's right, the cattle wouldn't be worth the land by a long shot, they'd need ta get extra money from somewhere," he reasoned, putting a hoof to his chin in thought.

A bell ringing echoed through the town, signaling the sale of the first herd of livestock as Mac and Rainbow prayed the Flim Flam brothers weren't the first to the auction block.

"Alright, we ain't got no more time ta waste," Mac said sternly, positioning himself in front of the wall's weakest point, ready to buck right through it.

"That's how you're getting us out of here?" Rainbow asked cautiously.

"Eeyup, you got a better idea?"

Dash opened her mouth to speak, but found she didn't have a better plan either. "No, but don't you think you kicking down a wall would wake him up?" she added, motioning toward their guard.

He was the one small problem they hadn't accounted for. Though the guard outside their cell was asleep, he would certainly sound whatever primitive alarm system they had in this place, should he wake up.

"We'll have ta make sure he doesn't give our escape away," Mac agreed, but was unsure as to how.

"I got it," Rainbow smiled confidently, "I'll get him near the bars, and you get the rope from his vest and tie him up."

Mac raised an eyebrow, "How're you gonna get him near us?"

Dash smiled. It looked like she'd get a second chance to flex her feminine muscle this trip, and not just to fluster Mac. "You leave that to me."

Rainbow took a few steps back opposite Mac and took a deep breath.

"Ready?" she whispered. Mac nodded.

"How could you, with her?!" she shouted, startling Mac a bit before he caught on to what she was playing at.

"Ah... Uhm, i-it's not mah fault she knows how ta please a stallion and you don't!" he shot back, the guard now fully awake and watching from a distance in amusement.

A quick glance over her shoulder let Rainbow know the guard was paying attention. "Oh yeah, you're one to talk! I faked every one of my—"

"Rainbow!" Mac interrupted having grown quite red from the argument, even though none of it were true.

"Well it's true!" she said striding over to him and skidding to a halt in front of him, "I hope you and that hussy are happy together!" Dash snapped, sealing her commitment to the bit with a firm slap across Mac's face, leaving a red hoof print on his cheek.

"Sorry!" she whispered with a wink before putting her angry face back on. Rainbow stormed off into the corner of the cell closest to the guard as Mac sat on the ground with his hoof to his still stinging face.

"Fine, wake me when you're done being a typical mare," he spat, climbing onto the cot and facing the wall, pretending to go to sleep.

They both huffed at each other before Rainbow's part in the play began in earnest. She had curled herself up in the corner, putting on her best 'filly in distress' face. Needing to speed things along, she began to sob, hoping to coerce a reaction out of the deputy guarding them.

"Sounds like you're in need of a real stallion, little miss."

Rainbow smiled to herself before calling on her most flawless impression of Rarity.

"Yeah...better than him," she added dramatically, getting to her hooves and turning to face the guard. The few tears she had managed to force out had stayed stubbornly around her eyes as she flashed her most adorable expression.

"Well look no further. Soon as you get outta there, I can show ya how much fun a young lady like yourself could have 'round these parts," he said, standing from his chair and stepping towards the bars, where Rainbow waited.

"Sounds like a good time," she smiled seductively, biting her bottom lip ever so slightly while looking the stallion up and down.

"Trust me darlin', it is when you're with me." He grinned back.

Rainbow giggled innocently, "Anything else you want to... show me?"

Mac opened one eye and cast it towards the cell door, where Rainbow was busy distracting the guard. He waited for the proper time to strike... though they hadn't agreed on what would constitute the 'proper time' to attack a prison guard. As he watched Rainbow raise up onto her hind legs, drawing the guard closer to the bars, Mac felt an unfamiliar fire ignite inside him. Try as he might, he just couldn't put a hoof on the feeling. It took a few more moments of Dash giggling like a school filly for him to realize he was jealous! Of the prison guard who was about to be tied up in the next few seconds.

No, Ah'm not jealous. Ah just want ta get the cattle back. Sure, Ah guess Rainbow wasn't as useless as Ah thought she was at first, but that don't mean that-

Mac's head shot up off the cot as he realized Rainbow was now kissing their guard, casting a nervous eye back at him, pleading with him to take action. Just before he rose from the cot, she detected a look of... anger? Disgust? She couldn't quite place it but something was upsetting Mac. Suddenly, Dash put two and two together, realizing why he seemed so upset. An arrogant grin spread across her at work lips, but only for a moment.

The small brushfire in Mac's chest escalated to a full-on firestorm as he quickly but silently strode off the cot. In one swift motion, he put the stallion in a sleeper-hold, since he had foolishly stuck his head through the bars to kiss Rainbow.

She ripped her lips from his and wiped them furiously as she coughed and gagged. In a few moments, Mac had put the guard to sleep.

"Ack!" Rainbow spat, "His breath was terrible! It's like he was eating an onion filled with garlic for lunch!" she complained as Mac tied the guard with his own ropes to the bars.

"Don't pretend like you didn't enjoy it," Mac added, a familiar grin across his lips, easily hiding the surprising jealousy he had been feeling.

"I definitely did NOT—"

Rainbow cut herself off as realized this was yet another one of his ill-timed jokes.

"Very funny," she mumbled, rolling her eyes as Macintosh positioned himself at the back of their cell wall. The stallion took a slow breath, focusing his strength, and then kicked the wall as hard as he could. The brick and mortar wall came crumbling down, letting sunlight stream into the room.

"Mac!" Rainbow shouted over the crumbling bricks. "He had the keys on him!"

Macintosh looked at the hole he made, and then back to the guards vest, where a large keyring sat affixed to his garment. Wondering how he didn't see those before, he made a reasonable assessment of the situation. "My way was quicker."

Rainbow rolled her eyes again and unlocked the cell door, having been filled with a rush of adrenaline not unlike pulling off the perfect stunt at the perfect time. She prayed she wouldn't make a hobby of breaking out of prisons as she trotted quickly down the hallway where their gear waited for them. Dash soon re-appeared with the gear and they both made their escape back into the shuffle of Prairieville.

"Well, Ah figure it'll be at least an hour or so before either the guard wakes up, or the other deputies find the big hole in the wall," Mac said as they walked down the busy street, blending into the other ponies milling about.

"And the auction has already started!" Dash added.

"We don't have much time. We're gonna have ta split up if we want ta get the bits, and run Flim and Flam outta town."

Rainbow knew this was the best idea, though was reluctant to leave Mac by himself to potentially fight the entire sheriffs department of Prairieville.

"You're right, I'll take care of ruining the con-artists, you take care of the bits."

Mac nodded, "Sounds good. Ah'll meet you back here in..." Mac cast a quick glance to the sun to gauge the time. "Five hours. If Ah ain't back in jail."

Rainbow smiled, thinking back to what she had seen earlier back in the lockup. Mac was jealous, she just knew it! She also knew that he was about as likely to admit it as she was to admit to the daydreams she was having in the hospital that morning. Mac turned to head in the opposite direction before Dash called back to him.

She had trotted quickly behind him, as soon as he turned to acknowledge her, he felt a weight settle on his yoke, Dash having put her forelegs on his only article of clothing to bring her head to his level. The wonderful sensation of soft lips pressed against his cheek, nearly caused him to recoil awkwardly. Realizing what was going on, he froze. This wasn't a new experience for him by a long shot, but to have something he viewed as so personal, such a private moment thrust upon him, and in public no less! He responded the only way he knew how. Stoic silence, and furious blushing.

Dash felt the heat rise in his cheeks as she pulled away, holding back laughter at his reaction.

Who'd have thought such a big, tough stallion would get all mushy over that! Sometimes it's too easy being this hot.

"Sorry for hitting you so hard back there," she whispered to him, settling back on all fours and taking in his still flushed form, "Good luck, Big."

10 TKO

Chapter 10-TKO

Before Mac had a chance to respond to her affection, Dash had taken flight. A wide smile found itself splayed across her lips as she flew over the rooftops. She couldn't deny how much fun it was to fluster Mac, especially when it was so easy.

Pushing the thoughts of her ever increasingly significant stallion out of her mind for the time being, she focused on the task at hoof. Flim and Flam using the town's money to buy the Apple's farm was a long shot, and if it wasn't true, then they'd be back to square one. Even if they did manage to get the money that was stolen, surely those crooked unicorn brothers wouldn't stop until they felt their vengeance had been served.

Her thoughts only served to strengthen her resolve. Her mind raced as fast as her wings, wondering where she should even start. It wasn’t as if they’d leave a notepad obviously titled “Evil Plan” lying around, however convenient that would be.

“C’mon, think,” she said, tapping her forehead with a hoof. In an act of desperation, she forced herself to think like somepony who’d be able to solve the problem: Twilight.

If I were an egghead, where would I go to try and expose two scammers?

Putting herself in Twilight’s head turned out to be more difficult than she thought. How could she think like somepony who’s main motivation was books? Nevertheless, she managed to come to a conclusion.

There seemed to be only once place to look that made any sense; the town hall. The only problem was, she was unfamiliar with Prairieville, and unsure of which building actually was the one she was after. Scanning from left to right, she tried to remember what the mayors office back in Ponyville looked like. Soon enough, she spotted a building with a short, but stately dome perched atop its walls.

That must be the place! Dash streaked downward. Everything was going smoothly so far. The only way it could’ve been better would be if she could have kicked Flim and Flam’s flanks instead of Macintosh.

She sighed in resignation and pushed the door open, stepping into the town hall’s cavernous foyer. The silence was surprising; it was as quiet as Twilight’s library. The reason for that was obvious enough: the only other pony in the building was a bored-looking clerk behind a desk at the far end of the room.

"Excuse me, you know where I can find like, town financial records and stuff like that?" she asked, stirring him from his trancelike state.

"Hey, aren't you a deputy?" Rainbow asked, before he could answer her first question.

He withdrew slightly against the counter, "Nope, that's my brother, Ruff. But I've got more than one job around here ya know."

"... Right. So I'm looking for town records," she continued.

"Records are in the farthest section to the right, in chronological order," he stated plainly, resuming his slouch against the counter. The body language was clear: why aren’t you gone yet?

"Thanks..." Rainbow added halfheartedly, trotting back towards where he had instructed her, ready for a boring time of searching though books for spending discrepancies.

Ugh! This is so a job for Twilight. she thought, picking out a record with an appropriate sounding date and set it, and herself on one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs.

As she cracked open the appropriate tome and began scanning through the numbers, she couldn't help but think about how well Mac was getting on with his plan of getting his money back. If he was even half as angry as he had been in the bar fight earlier that day, Flim and Flam would have no chance.

Getting a chuckle from the idea alone, she settled back down into the book before her, only to realize that without an exact hire date for the two town 'sheriffs', she had nothing to compare! Although elections were the typical way to pic a head lawpony, it wasn't unheard of for the mayors of some outpost towns like this to just pick a sheriff.

Seeing nothing referencing an election, she stood from her chair and revisited the deputy turned clerk.

"Is the mayor here? I need to talk to him."

"Dad—I mean Mr. Mayor is very busy, he has to make sure nothing goes wrong at the cattle auction, as it is our town's biggest annual event."

"Nonsense my boy!" A loud voice that Rainbow seemed to recognize echoed down a spiral staircase to her right leading to his office.

"Or, here he is now. Whatever," he mumbled. Dash could sense some family issues here, but didn't have the time or effort to try and help them resolve them. As the stallion came down the steps, she recognized him from the bar earlier!

"Doc?" she asked in mild surprise. "You're the mayor, and the bartender?"

Doc grabbed his Mayor's vest pridefully, "You bet!" he beamed, "As well as the baker, banker, barber, ferrier, blacksmith, grocer, and a right many other jobs!" he added, settling in front of the two of them. "When you've lived in Priarieville as long as I have, ya get accustomed to doing all sorts a jobs that need doin'. Now what can Mayor Holiday do for you, young filly?"

"Did you hire the two town sheriffs?" Rainbow asked bluntly.

"Why yes I did! Things have been peaceful, calm, and quiet since I brought them onto the payroll," he explained proudly.

Dash could see his pride meant a lot to him, and certainly didn't want to get on the town baker/barber/mayor's bad side for calling his judgement into question, but saw no other option.

"Bad news about your sheriff picks, Doc. Where I come from, we ran them out of town for trying to sell us bad cider, and trying to buy my coltfrie—I mean my friend's farm."

Doc's expression tightened up, clearly not happy about his ability to do his job being scrutinized. "You say Flim and Flam are crooked? Those are some mighty serious allegations, miss."

"I know, and I wouldn't be making them if I didn't think I could prove them! I just need your help," she pled, though Doc's previously nice demeanor seemed to be fading.

"I'd like ta believe ya miss, but you gotta understand, it's your word against theirs, and they're the sheriffs."

Rainbow was getting nowhere, she had to appeal to Doc somehow.

"I know you love this town Doc, and you'd never want to see anything bad happen to it," Dash began, hoping to convince him to at least give her a chance, "Which is why you need to help me run those two out of town! Nothing good will come of them being the law. Now, when did you hire them?"

Doc thought for a moment, his son still behind the counter, apathetic to the entire scene playing out before him. "Okay, if you can prove Flim and Flam don't have to town's best interest at heart, I'll take care of them. They were hired six months ago to the day."

That was all the confirmation Dash needed to get to work.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I must be gettin' down to the auction. The Mayor opens and closes it, you know."

His words rang alarms in her head. "Close? How much longer until it's closed?"

Doc produced a pocket watch from his vest and examined the time, "In about three hours I'd say."

"You won't regret this Doc!" she called, racing towards the book she had abandoned earlier. Diving straight into something she absolutely detested, she began comparing numbers to other numbers and figures to other figures, trying to figure out a way to nail the two phony pony sheriffs to the wall.

Macintosh didn't have time to react before Rainbow had taken off. For a moment more he just stood there, trying to wrap his head around the implications of what had just happened.

Was it just an apology for hittin' me? Was it a 'just friends' peck on the cheek, or somethin'... else?

Thoughts like these raced through his mind as he began moving in the opposite direction. He pushed those ideas out of his head, focusing instead on the task at hoof. The first thing he had to do was check out the auction. He prayed he wasn't too late to get his herd back as he approached the crowd. There were hundreds of ponies crowded around to watch cattle get sold to the highest bidder. Mac was from a simple town, and took pleasure in the simple things as well, but he simply couldn't imagine how the entire town could get so excited over something so terribly mundane.

Since he was a few feet taller than almost everypony in front of him, seeing the stage and those surrounding it wasn't too hard. Mac noticed quite a few deputies, but no Flim Flam brothers. He worked his way to the stage, still not finding any sign of the two he was looking for. Disheartened, he figured there was no harm in simply asking a passerby if they knew where to find the pair.

Taking a stroll out of the crowd, he settled on a bench next to none other than the nurse that had taken care of Rainbow Dash when he had brought her out of the desert.

"Hello there Mr. Apple, how are you feeling?" Ellie May asked—ever the concerned nurse, even off of work.

Relieved to see a familiar face—but somewhat off put by seeming to run into the same people in a rather large town— he let his mood lighten as he questioned her.

"A lot better, thanks. Any idea where I could find the town sheriffs?"

"Of course dear!" she answered cheerfully. "Just down the end of the main street through town, on your right, is their house!" she added, gesturing down the dusty road. "It's a big house, and barn, you can't miss it!"

With a renewed sense of confidence, Mac set off down the street, calling over his shoulder his thanks. An unusual smirk across his lips as ran through the thinning crowd. Soon, it was only him and a few other ponies on the poorly maintained road as a house and a barn rose up over the distance. Fueling his resolve was the thought of sweet, hard-hoofed justice against those who had wronged him.

He approached the front door and knocked loudly. He waited for an answer but received none after five minutes. Figuring he would at least find out how those rotten brothers had stolen his cattle in the first place, he walked to the barn on the side of the house, noticing how tightly locked up it appeared.

On top of the unusual security, it seemed the regular sized barn doors had been replaced with doors the size of the barn themselves. Mac stared in awe at the large doors, before noticing they hadn't locked them! A single strand of rope hung from one of the doors. Mac took it in his mouth and pulled as hard as he could, the heavy wooden structure creaking open far enough to allow the large pony access. What waited for him inside was simply mind boggling. It appeared to be a zeppelin, with what Mac recognized as a modified version of their automatic cider maker attached the the underside of the aircraft, as well as a cockpit type area mounted ahead of the device.

"What the..."

"So you've escaped from jail, and found our latest invention! Bravo, Macintosh!" Flim called from the barn door, beside his ever present brother.

"I suppose you were wondering how we made off with your entire herd? A few simple modifications to the Super Cider Squeezy 6000, and a touch of magic, and it was all too easy to ensure you and your friend ended up with no cattle!" Flim explained pridefully.

Mac glared at the two ponies, sure that if they had brought backup, he'd have seen them by now.

"And this!" Flam said hefting a large burlap sack filled with bits over his shoulder. "Is how much your cattle fetched at auction! Quite the sum!"

"So you two sold my cattle huh?" Mac said, walking towards the two of them.

"Thats right! And you can do nothing but sit back and watch as we buy your farm, and—"

Mac cut Flim off with a solid crack to the jaw. He crumpled to the ground in a heap, his brother in shock with a wide eyed expression before receiving his punch in the head. After both brothers were out cold in their hangar, Mac smiled. He was never one to take pleasure from the suffering of others, be it well deserved or otherwise. However, he harkened back to his earlier attempt to act a bit more unpredictable.

What's more unpredictable than a punch to the face? he thought grabbing the bag of bits and putting it into one of his bags.

"Gentlecolts," he nodded, tipping his hat as he stepped over the two motionless sheriffs. He walked out of the hangar and headed back toward town, ready to get back to Ponyville, and hire a shipping company to move his cattle from now on.

Rainbow finally had it! After hours of boring, tedious reading of figures, she was sure she had proof Flim and Flam were up to no good. Grabbing the book she had wedged her notes into, she dashed to the front of the building, only to find the mayor and his son had vanished.

"Oh, of course they disappeared!" she commented looking around for any sign of anypony. Seeing nothing, she casually stepped outside to bathe in the last rays of sunlight as the sun began its descent. Stretching her legs, she trotted towards the town square, where stage-hoofs were deconstructing the platform the auction had been held on. It seemed to have been over, Dash praying Mac had recovered something from Flim and Flam.

Just as Rainbow reached the center of town where she was to wait for Mac, she noticed a plume of dust coming over the hill opposite her. A red speck seemed to be leading the trail as it came toward her at full speed. Taking to the air, she hovered over him, "Did you get the money?"

"Eeyup. We need ta leave now though, before Flim and Flam wake up," he said, not dropping his pace.

"Okay then, I—wait, wake up from what?"

"Don't you worry 'bout that, let's just get to th' train station and get outta here!" Mac insisted, dodging and weaving through the various stragglers still hanging around from the auction.

"After all that boring stuff I just did?!" Dash protested harshly. "I thought we wanted to run them out of town?"

"Ah did, but right now, I'd much rather put this whole town ta my back and not return."

Rainbow was dumbstruck, not a few hours ago he was ready to hurl the Flim Flam brothers off a cliff himself!

"What's with the change of heart?"

"Because if we did that, then they'd just want revenge on me or you, and it would never stop! It'd just be an endless cycle of revenge until either one of us is dead, or we're both ruined."

Mac could see how upset all this was making Rainbow, "Don't you worry, they got theirs. Trust me."

"Fine... I guess we can go," she moaned, stuffing the book she had been carrying into an empty bag on Mac's back.

As soon as puffy white smoke from the locomotive came into view, Mac breathed a sigh of relief. Rainbow settled on all four hooves as they approached the ticket counter. There were a few other ponies in line to buy tickets, which made Macintosh a bit nervous. He hit Flim and Flam pretty hard, and were it anypony else, he'd have felt guilty as sin. However, the thought of being caught by two crooked sheriffs when they were this close to freedom kept him looking over his shoulder constantly.

One more pony in line, then we're outta here! he thought happily.

"Hold it right there, Macintosh Apple!"

That voice filled his heart with dread. It appeared he hadn't hit either of them hard enough. Turning to his left, he and Rainbow recognized the infamous brothers, and the Prairieville sheriffs department. Their faces now a slight more colorful than Dash had remembered.

"You two are looking better than usual," she sneered.

"Well, we have your friend here to thank for that. Something he'll be spending a lot of time in jail for doing!" Flam retorted.

"Assault and robbery! We'll be seeing a lot of Mac down at the station I think, dear brother!"

The deputies began advancing on the two of them. Dash could have easily taken flight, but she couldn't leave Mac behind after all he's done for her. Then she had another idea.

"I'll be right back Mac, don't let them arrest you!" she called, flying away from the train station and back into town.

"Where in tarnation are you going?" he called after her.

"You'll see! Just trust me!"

11 Last Train to Ponyville

Chapter 11-Last Train to Ponyville

Macintosh pounded down the platform, painfully aware of the hoofbeats of Flim and Flam’s deputies behind him. Don’t let them arrest you, he thought sarcastically. Great advice! Behind him, the train blasted its whistle, and steam hissed from the boiler.

The earth pony’s mind raced. He could keep ahead of the deputies, but was rapidly running out of platform. If he didn’t think fast, he’d have to either fight off the sheriffs’ deputies or find some other way to escape.

It took barely an instant to decide which course of action was preferable. Just before he passed the last few cars, he jumped onto a ladder and scurried to the top. As the huff of the straining locomotive increased in frequency, he spotted a pair of fairly large deputies two cars down. The earth pony took an involuntary step backwards, as the two deputies quickly closed the distance.

"Ya got nowhere ta run, fella," the grey stallion on the right shouted over the rushing wind, twirling his lasso above his head, as if taught by AJ herself. "You gonna come quietly?"

Macintosh’s glare was all the answer the deputy needed.

"Alright then!" he spat, casting his lasso at Mac. As the rope neared, a raised foreleg knocked it to the ground. It was after all, just a rope. It seemed Mac's assailants realized this as well, discarding their long lassos for a more up close and personal tactic.

"We'll make sure your face matches the sheriffs'!" the other jeered as they advanced. Mac's hind hoof slipped off the edge of the train car, nearly sending him to his death beneath its iron wheels. Once he'd regained his hoofing, he turned to face the deputies intent on giving him the beating of his life. In the blink of an eye, the grey stallion turned, ready to send his hind legs into Mac's face.

Macintosh dodged at the last second, wincing as the deputy’s hoof scraped against his jawline. While the deputy was still off-balance, he wrapped his forelegs around one of the deputy’s legs, and with a grunt, knocked him back into his partner and to the edge of the train car.

With the two deputies incapacitated, he turned tail and continued making his way to the front of the train, hoping just to put as much distance between himself and his pursuers as possible.

Hurry the hay up, Rainbow!

Dash scanned the town below frantically for any sign of the mayor. If she could get to him before Flim and Flam got their hooves on Mac, she could save the day and finally call it even between the tennis match of responsibility the two of them seemed to be playing in regards to blame. She'd be damned if they didn't make it back because of something she did. After a few circles over town, she spotted the mayor leaving the auction square.

"Mayor Holiday!" she called, swooping down toward him, skidding to a halt before nearly colliding with him.

"Well hello, Rainbow!" he greeted in his normal, jovial attitude. "You seem ta be in quite th' hurry."

"I am! I found proof the sheriffs are crooked, and I've got it right—" her heart sank. She had stowed the book with the proof of Flim and Flam's misdeeds in Mac's bag! And Mac was still dodging arrest at the train station as far as she knew.

"Horseapples!" she swore, realizing what she had done. "You have to come with me to the train station! Hang on, I'll fly us there!"

Doc chuckled. “Now hold on there, missy.”

Dash gave him a sour look. “Come on, Doc! We don’t have time for this!”

In response, the mayor tapped his horn. “Last time I checked, teleportin’ was faster than flyin’.”

Rainbow chuckled nervously. “Oh. Unicorns. Right.”

Hang on Mac!

Macintosh landed heavily on the chassis connecting the two cars, his breath rushing out with a loud “Oof!” He shook his head and forced himself to his hooves, spying the catch that kept the cars hitched to each other, and to the lever that controlled it.

Thinking quickly, he darted to the car in front of him and hauled on the lever, raising the catch with a squeal of rusted metal. The cars at the back of the train immediately began losing speed, leaving the two pursuing deputies powerless. He took a moment to wave his hat at them in farewell before entering the car.

Confident that he had lost the sheriffs’ deputies, he walked into the car and collapsed in an available seat, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. He quickly lost himself in the gentle swaying of the car, and began idly wondering where Rainbow had gotten to.

He opened his eyes and glanced toward the front of the car as he heard a door slide closed. Three more deputies entered the car and started advancing on him.

How many police are in this town?! he thought, barging back out the back door and scrambling up the ladder to the roof. From inside the car, he heard muffled shouts from the deputies, mixed with cries of confusion from the passengers as they gave chase.

Macintosh darted to the next car, ignoring the deputies as they scaled the ladder behind him. If Ah could get to the engine… maybe Ah could shut myself inside and buy some time.

The train had now accelerated to a significant speed, and the rushing wind was making it difficult for him to keep his ground. He lowered his head and pressed on, but stopped when another pair of deputies hauled themselves onto the car roof in front of him.

He darted past the still climbing deputies and advanced down the long train toward the locomotive. The train was moving quite fast now, the wind making it difficult to even stay on top of the cars as Mac skidded to a halt. Two more deputies popped up from the gap ahead of him.

"Ya got nowhere ta run, boy!"

Mac turned around. He was right; three more law ponies advanced from the rear. Their lassos drawn, Mac looked frantically for a way out of the situation, when an opportunity caught his eye.

"You're right. Ah'll come quietly," Mac said, laying quickly down on his stomach.

The deputy in front of him frowned. “You surrender? Just like that?” An instant later, a group of signal lights spanning the tracks passed over him, taking out all five deputies at once. Macintosh allowed a faint grin to cross his lips, before turning and continuing to make his way to the front of the train.

With a flash of light and a brief smell rather like old moth balls, Dash and Mayor Holiday appeared on the deserted platform.

The pegasus looked around after she’d gotten her bearings. “Where the hay did he go?” she mumbled. “Mac? Big, where are you?”

"What am I supposed to be looking at exactly?" Doc asked.

Rainbow scanned the platform for any sign of what might have happened to him, before realizing he must have hopped the departing train. That certainly complicated matters.

"Mayor Holiday!" A deputy called from the inside the ticket booth, having just got done interviewing the clerk about where the red stallion could be headed. He skidded to a halt in front of the mayor, panting.

“Thank goodness you’re here! The red stallion… he resisted arrest and hopped the train! The sheriffs ordered all units to pursue, but… he’s not giving up easy."

Doc’s face darkened. “Rainbow, you better have some solid proof. If any of my deputies are injured as a result of your actions—“

"I can't say he isn't fighting your deputies," Dash cut in frantically. "But he's doing it because Flim and Flam are trying to keep him from exposing their crimes!"

A look of consideration fell over Doc's face as he weighed her plea. Right now, it was her word against the police, and he was generally inclined to believe the local cops over the travelers. Finally, he sighed, "I like to think I'm somewhat talented at readin' ponies, and you've given me no reason to doubt you. I'll give ya one last shot ta prove your accusations, or else Macintosh will be facing a hefty sentence."

"I'll try to catch up to the train," Mayor Holiday said somberly.

"I know he has it," Dash swore "I'll prove he's innocent!" With that, she spread her wings and took off into the sky along the tracks.

Doc watched her go, pondering. After a moment, he turned to the deputy. “Get what staff you can and prepare my hot-air balloon. If the winds stay strong, we might be able to catch them.”

Macintosh skidded to a halt, panting. After making sure there were no signal lights or tunnels coming up, he allowed himself a brief respite. As he fought to get his breath back, he spotted a speck on the horizon, which rapidly grew larger. He squinted at it against the sun, frowning. Was that…

“Oh come on!” he yelled, recognizing the contraption from Flim and Flam’s hangar.

"You won't be escaping this time, Macintosh!" A voice from a loudspeaker mounted on the airship announced, as unicorn magic dropped ropes from the cockpit, more deputies fast-roping on to the train to face Mac, cracking their necks in anticipation of a fight. Macintosh himself stood still, hoping to lull them into a false sense of security. The situation might look hopeless, but he was at least going to take one or two with him.

The deputies surrounded him as he tuned out the sound of the rushing winds and the chuff of the distant locomotive. There would be only two things in this fight. Mac's punches and the thud of unconscious deputies hitting the steel roof of the train. Or so he hoped.

This image was driven from his head as a hoof connected to Mac's jaw, knocking him off balance and setting his ears ringing. His eyes sharpened into a glare as he caught the face of the smiling deputy that had thrown the punch. With a grunt of effort, he drove a hoof into the center of the deputy’s smug grin, smashing him down onto his back.

The remaining deputies all attacked at once, piling onto Big Mac while quickly tying ropes around his appendages. He tried to buck them off him, but their collective weight was too much for him and he just ended up exhausting himself. Before long, he was trussed up like a cow at the auction, completely helpless.

Rainbow followed the tracks before spying the white cloud of the steam locomotive in the distance, as well as a blimp of some kind following the train.

"That's got Mac's name all over it," she said increasing her speed, nearing sonic rainboom velocity. A quick flyby revealed Flim and Flam controlling the airship. Macintosh noticed the multicoloured contrail and sighed in relief. Help, it seemed had arrived, even though it looked like too little, too late.

"Rainbow! Get me outta these ropes!" Mac shouted as the deputies attached him to another line leading from the zeppelin cockpit, slowly beginning to reel him up.

"I'm working on it!" she called back, as Flam began firing bursts of magic at her in an attempt to bring her down. Dodging and twisting through the air, she thought quickly as to how she could take out the monstrosity chasing the train.

How can I crash that thing? she thought frantically, continuing to dodge anti-air magic. A random fact from Twilight popped into her head: most airships were filled with hydrogen, which was cheap and had a good lifting capacity, but was also quite flammable. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the necessary blowtorch, matches, or even flint and steel.

Rainbow felt panic rise in her throat as the zeppelin rose gracefully into the higher altitudes. Struggle as Mac might, the ropes were too strong to break. He was raised to the cockpit, where a bruised and angry Flim and Flam waited to exact their various degrees of revenge.

"Now Macintosh, we'll make sure you eat your meals in the Prairieville jail through a straw!" Flam said, putting the airship on autopilot. Mac was totally bound by about five ropes, unable to do anything but take the punches he was about to receive.

Dash thought quickly, and swallowed in anticipation of what she was about to do. This is gonna sting…

She took a quick circuit around the airship to build momentum, then pointed herself straight at the cockpit and beat her wings as hard as she could. Her hooves drove into the glass an instant later, shattering the windscreen completely and spraying glass shards through the cockpit. A moment later, she slammed into Flim, knocking him clear to the other side of the cockpit.

Dash leapt to her hooves, ready for an immediate counterattack, but relaxed slightly when she saw the unicorn had been knocked out cold. Behind her, Macintosh picked up one of the glass shards and carefully started sawing at the ropes that bound him.

"Mac, get to the top of this thing!" Rainbow demanded, trying to hold the remaining brother’s attention long enough for Macintosh to escape.

She sighed in relief as the earth pony freed himself from most of his bonds and scrambled up a ladder behind him, which probably lead through the gas envelope and to the top of the airship.

A moment later, she frowned as she realized that the airship’s control panel was a sparking mess of wires and shattered plastic.

Whoops... she thought, looking back at an incensed Flam.

"My airship!" he howled, his horn glowing brightly. A flash of green filled Dash’s vision, and she felt herself lifted and flung out another window in a shower of broken glass. With an effort, she managed to spread her wings and pull out of her fall, wrinkling her nose against the smell of burnt hair and feathers. Just as she regained her wits, another blast of magic screamed by, reminding her that there was still a certain unicorn trying to end her.

The pegasus quickly juked another blast, her mind racing. Maybe she could take cover along the side of the zeppelin. Flam was angry, but he wouldn’t be crazy enough to risk hitting the envelope and igniting the explosive hydrogen.

She dodged two more blasts of magic before getting to the side of the zeppelin, and tried to flatten herself against the canvas envelope. Her heart leapt into her mouth as Flam leaned out of the cockpit, horn glowing… and went back down to her chest as the unicorn dispelled his magic.

“You’re just delaying the inevitable!” Flam yelled. “We’ve got the entire town wrapped around our hooves! And when we get our hooves on you… we’ve got some ideas in mind for you two!”

Rainbow had stopped listening a long time ago. Instead, her vision was focused, with a dull sort of horror, on the cloud of dense, black smoke floating behind the train. A cloud of smoke filled with cinders and unburnt coal. The cloud that the airship was heading directly towards.

Try as she might, her limbs were frozen with terror. And so she could only watch, with a detached fascination, and a few embers alighted on the canvas wall of the gas envelope. There was a brief pause as they burnt through the canvas and the fragile walls of the gas cells.

Rainbow was blown away from the side of the zeppelin as the hydrogen gas ignited with an ear-shattering thud.

She forced herself back into level flight, trying to shake the ringing from her ears, and stared in horror as a curtain of flame engulfed the gas envelope. Atop the roof, Macintosh let the shard of glass fall from his mouth and locked eyes with her. An instant later, he was gone, and the zeppelin fell toward the ground, the remnants of the hydrogen spiraling away in a massive fireball.

“Mac!” she screamed as the zeppelin slammed into the ground, the envelope’s metal skeleton buckling and collapsing under the impact. She streaked toward the ground, uncaring of the searing pain along her left side, expecting to see a red stallion stagger out of the wreckage, alive and well.

But when she landed, she saw only the charred remains of what used to be an airship. She fell back onto her haunches, staring dumbly at the mess of metal. No, she thought numbly. Not now. Not after all this.

She was barely aware of a dull crunch behind her as the mayor landed in his balloon. The unicorn gaped at the wrecked zeppelin, his mouth working for a moment before he found his voice.

“What in tarnation happened here?” he finally demanded.

“It flew through the smoke,” Rainbow heard herself say. “The whole thing… it just…”

Her voice broke. What could she do now? Macintosh was gone, and with him, any hope of staying on the outside of a jail cell.

She turned around, holding out her forelegs. “Go ahead,” she said bitterly, holding her tears back by sheer force of will. “You can tell Flim and Flam that they’ve won.”

Doc frowned at her. “I don’t suspect it’s time to give up just yet.”

Dash shook her head. She couldn’t even bring herself to say it.

A hoof landed on her shoulder, but it was a comforting one, not with the weight of authority. “I think you need to look behind you.”

Rainbow looked back over her shoulder, and her jaw dropped. She scrambled to her hooves and raced toward the zeppelin, finally throwing her forelegs around the singed, but very much alive stallion trotting from the wreckage.

Macintosh returned her hug, letting the sack of bits fall to the ground with a dull clink.

Dash pulled back a bit, frowning. “But how—"

The earth pony grinned, jerking his head to indicate the frayed rope still tied around his midsection. "Seems like airships don't crash as fast as ya might think.”

Now she let a few tears go, and held him tight. “I told you to not get arrested, not scare me to death!" she whispered fiercely. "If you ever do anything like that again I swear—”

“Ah won’t,” he cut in. “But Ah think we’ve got a name to clear.”

Dash pulled away, blushing. “Yeah,” she said, gathering herself.

"However much I hate interrupting such a touching scene,” the mayor said, “I hope you have an explanation for my injured deputies."

"Got it right here!" she said digging through Mac's bag and retrieving the ledger, opening it to the proper page and holding it in her mouth for him.

"Shee? They were shtealin' from you th' whole time!" she managed.

Mayor holiday, looked over the figures for a few lines, reading her notes and her underlined sections before coming to the same conclusion she had.

"By Celestia's mane!" He gasped, "I wouldn't believe it if I weren't seeing it right in front of me," he said, the deputies he had come with still rather upset about being fought on a train.

Several battered-looking deputies shifted awkwardly behind him. “Uh, mayor?” one asked. “Are we arresting them, or not?”

"Yes you are!" A voice from the wreckage behind them commanded. Rainbow groaned in frustration and looked back toward the zeppelin, just in time to see Flim and Flam extricate themselves from the cockpit, shaking soot from their coats. "Arrest those fugitives!"

“These two have caused no end of trouble!” Flam yelled.

“Assault on an officer of the law,” Flim stated, rubbing his head. “Resisting arrest…”

“And let us not forget destruction of property!” Flam finished, indicating the zeppelin. “I demand that you lock them up immediately!”

"I don't think so." Doc growled, stepping past Rainbow and Mac with the deputies in tow.

"Deputies, arrest the sheriffs," he ordered as they sprung into action, magic restraining cuffs slapped onto both scheming brothers forelegs.

"What—" Flam sputtered, "On what grounds?!"

"Embezzlement, abuse of power, conduct unbecoming of a law pony... need I go on?" Flim looked past the mayor to a grinning Rainbow Dash, realizing exactly how the mayor had found out about their activities.

"You! You did this to us! You'll pay for this Rainbow!" he yelled, to which Dash simply smiled smugly.

"This isn't over Macintosh Apple!" Flam called as they were loaded into the police buggy and taken back to town.

After Flim and Flam had been dealt with, Doc turned to the two exhausted adventurers.

"Priarieville is in your debt,” he said gratefully. “Who knows how much money may have gone missing if you two hadn’t come along. How can I ever repay you?"

RD and Mac glanced at each other before answering.

"I'm sure we can think of something," Dash answered, grinning.

"Well, a ride into town is the least I can do for Prairieville's two latest heroes!"

Rainbow and Macintosh had been set up with a first class train ticket back to Ponyville, free of charge, as a small token of Mayor Holiday's gratitude. First class even included a room on the train to themselves. They were both tired, and there was only one bed. One small bed.

Rainbow's forelegs and wings were both wrapped in bandages tightly after her little charge through the glass panes of Flim and Flam's zeppelin, so Mac volunteered to get in first, the idea being she could use him as a pillow. After Mac had settled in, Rainbow slid in next to him, in a similar position to the first night they had to share a bed. As the gentle sway of the train on the rails began to lull them to sleep, Rainbow thought of something she was still curious about.

"Hey Big..."

"Mf..." he answered, half asleep.

"You never told me why you had that doll in the first place."

She felt Mac smile beneath her. "Nope, Ah don't reckon Ah did."

Rainbow craned her neck around to look at him expectantly.

"Well, are you gonna?"

Mac sighed. The explanation would be a bit awkward, considering recent transpired events, but if she wanted to know, then he could oblige her.

"It was... ta start a conversation with a certain somepony," he admitted.

Rainbows ears popped to attention. "Really? Who?"

"Ah don't think that's any of your business, is it?" He grinned back at her.

"Should I be worried about this, mysterious mare?" she asked coyly.

"Oh, Ah don't think so."

Dash smiled. No further explanation needed. Although, thinking back on it now, she had never actually given Mac a clear signal as to whether or not she was interested in him. After all, a quick kiss for good luck isn't necessarily something friends don't do. Better to leave no doubt in his mind of her intentions.

She leaned backward awkwardly, though her stiff bandages and slings would only allow her to jostle oddly until Mac had to know what on earth she was doing.

Embarrassed, and red as the freshest apples, she admitted to how difficult it was to kiss somepony smoothly when your forelegs and wings don't work.

Macintosh got the hint, and met her halfway. After more than a few bruises, multiple life-or-death situations, and a painful amount of time, they shared their first real kiss. After all that had happened between them on this journey, nothing felt more right than that moment. As they only used their lips, their brief moment of intimacy broke after Dash separated herself and began to rub her cheek into Mac's chest affectionately.

"Ya know, even though this whole trip was a disaster, Ah'm glad somethin' good came out of it," he whispered to her as her cheeks ran a bit red.

"Yeah. Me too," she added quietly.

After a moments pause, she glanced back up at him. "So, same time next year?"

Mac laughed honestly, probably for the first time Rainbow had ever witnessed. "Hell no. Ah'm shippin' the cattle by train from now on."

END

Welp, there you have it! Firstly, let me thank my editor FanNotANerd, and my two reviewers from Ponychan, Vanner and Jmoizzel. Without them, the story wouldn't be what it is today! And last but not least, I want to thank all of you lovely readers/lurkers/commenters who've kept the story going through your praise, criticisms and favorites! The sequel to this story will be posted here and EqD assuming it makes it through. No idea when though. Anyway, thanks again for reading about a pairing I honestly didn't think anyone would like!

Link to the sequel: Breaking Barriers

Alternate Ending

At Home on the Range: Alternate ending.

"Even after all that, he still wasn't sure you were into him?" the young mare asked.

Rainbow smiled gently from across the dinner table. Her daughter and son had brought the kids over for a visit with their grandma. She hated that title. It never suited her, even though she had slowed down considerably since her youth. The quiet in the den suggested the little ones had worn themselves out, though it was well into Luna's realm.

"Yeah, your father was never good a taking hints."

A handsome pegasus stallion sipped from his mug across from his sister. Ordinarily, a visit from her children was a joyous occasion. Especially since they lived so far away from her in New Neighas. This one however, was to mark an occasion they'd all like to forget.

Three years ago today, their father, the honorable and honest Big Macintosh was felled by his heart. He was a big stallion, bigger than most. A big body requires a strong, big heart. A fact which eventually caught up with him. She had only recalled the story of their first real kiss at the request of her children. Not so much to hear a sappy romance story about their parents, but to know the strange circumstances behind their folks meeting. They had always heard about it, but nopony seemed to have time to sit down and tell the whole thing.

"You know," her son began. "Sometimes I try to imagine what dad would say about some of the stuff going on in the world."

"Probably nothing," Rainbow chuckled, "Just a nod."

"Yeah," he agreed. "I wish he could have held on to meet his grandfoals..."

A comforting hoof reached from his side, "Me too. He'd have loved them," his sister reassured.

Rainbow nodded, adding to her sentiment.

A brief silence entered the dimly lit kitchen before Rainbow decided it was past her bedtime. Sometimes she wondered what the young, cocky pegasus she had been would think of her now, if she knew she had to suffer the indignity of a 'bedtime'. A self imposed indignity, though it may have been. Without a solid eight hours, she was slow to wake up, and her wings always ached in the morning unless she stretched them thoroughly. A job she was increasingly reluctant to do each day.

"Thanks for bringing the foals by, I'm always happy to see them," she said, getting up from her chair. "But I think it's time I turned in," she yawned.

"You're right, the foals should have been in bed hours ago," her daughter added, catching her mother's yawn.

Rainbow put their coffee cups in the sink and began rinsing them out one by one. Again, she found herself wondering how her younger self would react if she could know she would fall into the same cleaning habits as her egghead friend, Twilight.

"Bye mom! Love you!" her children said as they quietly loaded themselves into the waiting taxi, Rainbow watching as it disappeared down the dark dirt road on which she and Mac raised their filly and colt.

Rainbow turned back to her house. It was dark, save for a candle still burning in the living room and in the kitchen, it's light casting dancing shadows around the room as she closed the door. Her house had been so full of life once. So many parties thrown, so many birthdays and anniversaries celebrated. Even though three years had passed, it still seemed as though any moment now, Mac would poke his head out from behind the hallway to their bedroom and ask if the kids had been put to bed yet. After the foals were asleep, he would always make time for her.

Whatever she wanted to do for the hour or so a day they could get alone, she could do with him, be it a corny movie, a dumb game, or just time for him to hold her after an exhausting day. If there was anything she missed, it was his touch. So strong and commanding, but soft and yielding when it came to her. She walked out of the kitchen and into the doorway between there and the living room.

She cast a glance back at the dinner table, seeing the adult ponies she had just talked with as foals again, celebrating their first birthday, cake smeared on their faces. All of her old friends came, and even a few Wonderbolts! The scene before her was perfect, even if it only existed within the confines of her memory. The kids were born a year apart, almost to the day, so to save time they had both parties on the same day.

Mac held the youngest in his lap while the oldest sat in the high chair in front of a special cake, curtesy of the Cakes.

"Take a big breath, and blow out the candles!" she could hear Mac's happy voice echo through the room as though he were there.

As soon as her son blew out the candles, the entire memory curled into thin air, like so much smoke from extinguished flames.

She turned to the living room, recalling even more from her tired mind. First steps, first flutter, first buck, she remembered it all, as though the memories were painted on the walls themselves. She sighed as she wiped a tear away from her eye. It sure was hard outliving the one pony you made a commitment to spend the rest of your life with. She wasn't even that old! She had always felt Mac had been taken from her before his time.

Still, a heart condition was nothing that could have been prevented, something he was quick to remind her of when they first found out. He made her promise she wouldn't treat him any differently than she had before, and to enjoy every second they had together. It was only after he was gone did she truly realize how precious the time she spent with him had been to her.

Dash took the candle in her mouth and guided herself down her hallway to the bedroom that was meant for two. The hallway leading to her room was lined with the pictures of her friends and family, as well as Mac's. Their faces had once brought her such joy, but now...they seemed to ignite a longing in her heart for days gone by. Days when she could still take to the sky on a whim and smash the sound barrier like it was made to be broken.

She pushed the door to her bedroom open softly, the creaking door letting the light from the candle cast long shadows on the room.

More photos, revealing a happier time hung near her bed, but one particular image, she always kept closest to her. Resting on her nightstand, was a picture of Macintosh, looking dapper in his fathers ill fitting suit and top hat, while she hung her forelegs over his shoulders, giving him a kiss on the cheek from behind, rice still in her mane, her veil still partly on. The day she settled down with him had been one of the happiest days of her life. That photo, along with one other item brought her more comfort than anything else she owned.

She closed the door and laid gently on her bed, slowly pulling the covers over herself. This had become a semi nightly ritual for her, and as embarrassing as it would be for others to know, she honestly didn't care. Dash pulled open the drawer to her nightstand, and pulled out an old, raggedy looking doll with blue and white polka dotted overalls and button eyes. She should have given it back to Twilight. Heck, Mac should have given it back to Twilight, but for whatever reason, they held onto it. There was a good reason for it, however. Somehow, even after three years, it still carried Mac's scent. Rainbow didn't dare wash it, but it wasn't like it ever got dirty. The next part of her ritual was by far the most unflattering, and the part most certain to upset young and confident Rainbow, if she could have ever known.

Dash grabbed the extra pillow from beside her, and gently hugged it close, while keeping the doll against her cheek. She was a grown mare, an adult! This kind of behavior was embarrassing, but comforting. She and Mac used to always sleep this way, but on some nights, when she missed him more than she thought she could stand, she began taking shelter in her imagination. If she could just pretend Mac was right beside her, where he belonged, maybe, for a brief few seconds, she would believe Mac would roll over to greet her. His blond mane shaggily hanging into his eyes as he smiled at her, knowing Rainbow would practically beg him for five more minutes of sleep.

But every morning for the past three years, she was proven wrong, time and again.

She rubbed her head into the soft down of the pillow, warming it with her motion, and feeling the tears begin to well in her eye. A quick inhale, and she was surrounded by him again. His strong back shifting gently under her embrace as she wished for nothing more than to have him back, just for a night.

She knew this stupid pillow and dumb old doll were a poor substitute for the stallion she loved. Tears were streaming down her face as she buried it into her pillow. Crying yourself to sleep. What would Mac think? she thought in disgust.

Dash knew he was gone, she knew no amount of wanting, or wishing, or praying could bring him back to her. He lay peacefully on his family farm, near his sister and her family. In the darkness, she looked through her blurry eyes at their wedding picture. She couldn't take comfort in much, and knew even less about the theories of life after death. Something she knew brought her comfort was the hope that one day, she would be able to see him again. Perhaps one day soon this restless flyer would find her way back into the strong, red forelegs of the stallion she loved.

One day.

Honestly, not as sad as I thought. Oh well, this was how I was going to end it, have the whole story be a recap of events being narrated by Rainbow in reflection on the 3 year anniversary of Mac's passing. This obviously contradicts Breaking Barriers, because Mac gives Smarty Pants back to Twilight. Anyway, I hope you guys liked it.

6. Macintosh of Arabia

Chapter 6-Macintosh of Arabia

Unpredictability wasn't exactly Macintosh's strong suit, and he struggled to figure out how he could even apply such a vague word to his situation. Still, perhaps he had been a bit closed minded when he started the drive. His preconceived notions of her being a loudmouth, rude athlete with an unhealthy competitive streak seemed to be spot on. Yet he felt compelled, if only to say he had tried, to give Dash a chance to prove she wasn't just what she outwardly appeared to be.

After all, Rainbow was one of his sister's best friends! Surely she's got some redeeming qualities inside that tiny frame of hers? he thought, the pain in his leg reminding him that she had saved his life...though he had saved her first, and still had not gotten so much as a 'thanks'. Now that he thought about it, he wouldn't have even been bitten by a snake in the first place if she had just held her footing in the river.

The pain in his leg began to fade, to the point that Macintosh was able to block it out, as he had been able to do in the past. In fact, he had once plowed an entire field on a twisted ankle, showing no signs of injury or pain. Where other pony species had birth given special abilities, earth ponies were, well, plain by comparison. When he was a colt, he had asked his father why he wasn't born with wings or a magic horn like some of his friends had been. He carried the answer with him always, as he did most of his father's advice. An earth pony's natural talent is strength, and none had more talent that Big Mac.

His thoughts shifted to the journey ahead, and the hazards of the wasteland they'd have to endure in order to get the cows to auction. Crossing the inhospitable terrain with Applejack was hard enough, but now he'd have to do it with an injury, look after the cattle, and make sure Rainbow Dash didn't kill herself. Or him, for that matter. A nagging flutter in his chest shifted his thoughts toward his airborne companion. He glanced upward, and his gaze locked on the slaloming back and forth above him. Physically, she was similar to Fluttershy, but he supposed all pegasi were naturally thin or athletic, as he had yet to see a fat one.

Must come with havin' wings. he thought, still staring at Dash while she hung in the air, oblivious to his attention. In all honesty, had he no knowledge of Rainbow's attitude before hand, he might have even thought of her the same way he thought of Fluttershy. On the outside, Dash was actually pretty attractive. She kept herself in shape, and was apparently some kind of higher up on the weather team, if his sister was to be believed.

His thoughts trailed off as he became acutely aware that he was staring for much longer than he should have been. In the moment it took for him to tear his eyes away, Rainbow’s eyes locked onto his, catching his stare. He could have sworn her expression was one of concern. Macintosh looked away quickly, a slight blush warming his cheeks.

How long had Ah been staring? he thought to himself, noticing Rainbow beginning to descend in a circle around him until she hovered beside him.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Macintosh breathed a sigh of relief. At least she didn't catch me checking her out- No! Mac you were not checking her out!

"Nothin'," he answered quickly. "My bandage is coming loose, may need ta stop and wrap it again."

It was a boldfaced lie, but in all honesty, the sloppy wrapping job could have used another attempt from the start. Dash nodded and streaked ahead, eventually bringing the herd to a halt. Mac glanced to the herd as they rested. The area of the wasteland they'd be crossing wasn't very long, and if they ran the cattle the whole way, they could probably make the journey in a day. Unfortunately, the extreme conditions made walking the only viable option, as the cattle would need to conserve as much energy as possible to make it to Prairieville, and still look healthy enough to be bought. At a walking pace, they'd spend two nights in the desert before arriving.

Rainbow hovered beside him after stopping the cattle, ready to try her new attitude out on Applejack's brother. Mac slid the saddlebags from his shoulders and sat on his flanks, releasing a sigh of relief to be off his aching hind leg. Dash was already digging through the medical bag by the time he looked up from his injury. A fresh roll of bandage linens in her mouth, she trotted over in a somewhat lighter mood that Mac had noticed before. Perhaps he still had some snake venom rattling around in his brain.

Why is she happy all of the sudden? he wondered as she began slowly unwrapping the previous bandage, the clean whiteness of the wrap growing more and more crimson with each layer removed. Mac watched as she came to the last layer, the bandage stuck to his leg and now completely red with blood.

"Aw, I thought the bleeding stopped last night," Dash sighed, discarding the old wrap and examining the wound a bit closer.

"Th' walkin' must've opened it up again," Macintosh answered, joining her in looking at the now swollen and somewhat discolored ankle.

He frowned. "Grab what's left of the white lightning for me, would you please?"

Rainbow smiled. Maybe there was something to this 'try to be helpful' thing after all.

"Sure, but I don't think drinking is a good idea in your condition," she said, searching the bags for the jar of fiery intoxicant.

Mac couldn't help but return her grin, "It ain't for drinkin'. It's for sterilizin'."

Rainbow set the jar beside him while giving him a curious look. "Huh?"

"Just pour a little bit over it."

Rainbow cringed at the idea. The stuff burned enough to drink. She could barely imagine what it would be like on an open wound. Still, her newfound outlook demanded she comply as she carefully began to tip the jar over his bite. As a few splashes landed on the injury, Mac hissed in pain, gritting his teeth. After a few gasps, and a few stomps, the intense burning subsided. Dash carefully laid the bandage over his ankle and began wrapping with a bit more care than she had the first time around.

"You know, your bath in the river didn't really do much for ya," she complained, wrinkling her nose but continuing her nursing duties.

Macintosh raised an eyebrow. Perhaps her attitude hadn't changed that much. "Well by my count, you're about two days out from a proper bath yourself."

Rainbow applied slight pressure to his wound with her foreleg as she continued wrapping, eliciting a sharp inhale and hiss from her guide. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last part, you want to repeat that?" Dash asked, her passive aggressiveness erasing Mac's smile.

"Never mind." he grunted as she put the finishing touches on his bandage. Mac examined the newly wrapped leg. She had actually done a pretty good job, considering her last attempt. Satisfied with her work, Dash took his hind leg in her hooves and began massaging her knee into his aching calf muscles. Mac's cheek lit a blazing red as he pulled his leg back, only to be insistently tugged on by Rainbow.

"Uhm...what are you doin'?"

"Helping you loosen up," she explained, massaging softly the sore muscles in his injured hind leg, "You think I didn't see you limping back there?"

"Well Ah... ya see—"

"Hush and let me do this," she insisted, "I help the recruits with wing cramps when they've been flying for too long all the time."

"Ah don't think wings and legs are the same—"

"I thought I told you to hush?" Dash interjected. Mac immediately fell silent, reluctant to upset the pony holding a very sore appendage in her hooves. Rainbow drove deeper into the tissue, and sure enough, his leg began to feel better. As a matter of fact, he could feel all of his muscles begin to relax. Before he knew it, he was spread eagled on his back, feeling more comfortable than he had ever felt on the range in his entire life. It was like her hooves were magic, the tension and pain in his calf melted away like butter on hot apple flapjacks.

“If I had a bit for every time a recruit looked the way you do right now,” Rainbow remarked, standing over him. Macinosh suddenly realized she had stopped massaging his calf five minutes ago.

As she stood looking down at him, something happened the both of them were not ready to admit. As their eyes met, both waited for the other to break the stare, but neither did. They just kept on looking into each others eyes, Mac noticing a slight blush come over Rainbow's cheeks as he felt a fire rise under his own red coat. Something about the way those magenta eyes stood out from her cyan coat transfixed his stare, leaving him powerless to free himself from its grip.

"W-We should probably get movin'," Big Macintosh stammered awkwardly, snapping both of them out of their trance as he donned his gear.

"Right," Dash agreed, quickly resuming her position above the herd. Once they started moving again, the signs of the wasteland began to appear in the terrain. The hard, parched dirt cracked endlessly toward the seemingly infinitely flat horizon. The mountains to the west still remained, though their high peaks kept any wandering clouds at bay, partially responsible for the arid conditions in the first place. Ahead of them, the mountain range continued, though hundreds of miles in the distance, the mountains looking like small hoof-hills from their perspective. The plant life was few and far between: mostly the saguaro cacti standing like guarded sentries sprinkled throughout the desert. A token tumbleweed rolled across their path as the few wiry shrubs that dared call this environment home peppered the landscape. The dust the cattle kicked up began to rise skyward, forcing Rainbow to creep ahead of the herd if she wanted to keep it out of her eyes.

As she flew, she noticed Mac's pace had quickened, and his limp seemed to almost vanish; only a small hitch in his step gave his injury away. Big Macintosh raced ahead of the herd, and began slowing them down in a manner similar to how Rainbow had done earlier. Knowing they had only gone a mile or two, Dash descended next to him as he shrugged off the saddle bags and began digging through an as of yet untouched bag. The cattle now slowed to a walk, Macintosh had time to don what he referred to as his 'desert apparel'. Mac removed his trademark yoke and stuffed it into the bag from which he'd produced the garment.

Rainbow held her curious tongue as she watched him wrestle with the white garment over his head and stuff his forelegs into the sleeves, now wearing what appeared to be a full length white cotton robe of some kind. Dash couldn't help but make a simple observation.

"Nice dress," she chuckled, holding back more laughter with a hoof.

Now I really wish I had a camera!

"It ain't a dress," Macintosh responded indignantly, "It's a kandura," he added, walking over to her and removing his sister's hat.

"Can Ah trust you to keep this safe?" he asked, Rainbow realizing what a leap of faith he was taking by allowing her to even touch AJ's most beloved and only article of everyday clothing. She snatched it up quickly and put it on, fixing it just right before looking to him.

"How do I look?"

Mac smirked, "Ya want th' rude truth or a polite lie?"

Rainbow inhaled sharply, "Was that a joke?" she asked sarcastically, returning his small grin, "From mister all work and no play? I must be dreaming."

Mac let out a snort before donning what seemed to be a white cotton rag held in place by two black ropes resting on his head.

"So what's the dress for exactly?"

"Keeps the heat off," he answered turning back to walk with the herd, "I'd have brought one for you, if Applejack had told me you were comin' a bit sooner."

"Thanks but no thanks," she scoffed, "I like my dignity." She returned to her usual hover, but not before receiving a canteen from Mac. He knew it would only be a matter of time before she'd be drenched in sweat, but figured it best to let her find out on her own.

And find out she did. Not half a mile into the desert, Rainbow lost awareness of everything save the oppressive heat. It was as though Celestia had slowly brought the sun closer to the planet, inch by inch, seeming to get hotter the farther into the wasteland they trekked. Dash felt sweat begin to form beneath her coat, her wings slowly beginning to droop. After a few miles, she slowly fluttered to the ground, her normally strong wings unable to carry her further under the scorching sun. She had only been flying, and at a relatively slow pace, but the heat's effect on her body was far greater than she could have expected.

I can't believe it's this hot! she thought, trotting along beside Macintosh, attempting to take a swig of her canteen, only to find it bone dry. She had tried to ration her water, but the arid heat of the desert made her mouth about as parched as the earth they walked across. By her count, it was the afternoon, but she wasn't sure what time. The sun was beginning it's descent, but was still an hour or two away from setting. She caught up with Mac, walking beside him and surrendering her empty canteen.

"Out already?" he asked, slinging it around his shoulders by the strap, "You were supposed ta ration it."

"I did ration it!" she spat defensively, the heat beginning to drive her helpful attitude away, "It's hotter than heck out here!"

"Ah told ya, ya fry during th' day," he added, turning towards her. Rainbow immediately noticed something she thought rather unfair. He didn't appear to be sweating at all!

"Hey, what gives?" she said striding in front of him and skidding to a halt, forcing him to stop. "Why aren't you all sweaty?"

"Ah told ya, the white of the cotton reflects most of th' heat," he explained, giving her another canteen from their stash. "Try ta make this one last till we get ta th' oasis. We should be there by sundown," he said walking around her to rejoin the herd.

Rainbow took a little bit of water and splashed it over her face. It felt amazing, to say the least as she took a few small sips. She caught up with Macintosh and walked beside him, deciding to only drink when he did. Apparently, Big Mac was also part camel, because after about another hour of walking, she found herself completely abandoning her previous plan. Dash nudged the canteen as it dangled around her neck. It felt about a third of the way full, though the good news was the sun was beginning to set, the unrelenting heat finally breaking into a cool twilight. The setting sun would have been quite beautiful, if it hadn't been the bane of her existence for the past ten hours.

"There it is!" Mac pointed with a hoof to a small groove of palm trees sprouting out of the otherwise dead landscape in the distance. A spring about ten feet by ten feet greeted the tired cattle and their protectors as Dash nearly created another sonic rainboom flying ahead of the herd and straight into the water, despite Mac's call for her to wait. He picked up his sisters hat that had flown off during Rainbow's dash and gently placed it in an unoccupied saddlebag.

Rainbow threw herself into the cool waters, allowing them to wash away the sweat she had built up on the way over. As the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, Big Macintosh finally joined her with the rest of the herd.

"Ah thought you would have learned not ta go jumpin' into strange water sources by now," he said from the shore, filling up the empty canteens while the cattle drank thirstily from the spring.

"Nice try Big," she said standing in the shallow water, shaking her mane and tail off, wetting Macintosh again. "I know there's no gross cow pee in this water."

"That ain't what you should be concerned about," he added as the sun finally slipped below the horizon. Almost immediately, what had once been an oven, had now become a freezer. The temperature change was so drastic it nearly sent shivers down Rainbow's spine as she stepped out of the water.

"You're gonna get pneumonia if you stay wet," Mac sighed.

Dash began to shiver as the night set in. With no clouds to trap the warmth, or plants to absorb it, the brutal heat of the day escaped into space, leaving the desert extremely cold.

"Then give me something to dry off with!" she insisted, pulling her wings around her and folding her forelegs for warmth. Mac began digging into the saddle bags and produced a heavy blanket. Dash snatched it from his hooves and wrapped it around herself, sighing as the water soaked into the heavy cloth.

Big Macintosh built another fire, as the cattle huddled together in tight formation to conserve warmth. Rainbow leaned as close to the flames as possible without actually catching fire. Once dry, she noticed Macintosh bedding down for the night, draping another blanket over himself before realizing they had a problem.

"Where's mine?" Rainbow asked expectantly.

Macintosh pointed a hoof toward the still wet blanket she had dried off with. "Had you not jumped in the water, you'd have a dry blanket," he explained, "But since you did, you can either freeze to death, or you can share this one with me."

He lifted the blanket, allowing her to enter. She didn't have to think about it for more than a second, as it was only going to get colder, and a wet blanket would soon become a frozen blanket in this weather. "Okay, but this never leaves the camp." she backed herself in, facing away from him as he moved his forelegs to let her in, draping the blanket over both of them.

"Y'know, if Ah didn't know any better, I'd say you got your blanket wet on purpose, just so you could share mine."

"Keep dreaming, Romeo!" she laughed, though she appreciated his body heat more than she would ever admit. Macintosh felt her back press against his chest beneath the heavy, multi-layered wool blanket. Her wings ruffled against him as she tucked them neatly by her sides, careful to avoid any unintentional 'happenings' while they slept. With nowhere else to put it, Mac stretched his left foreleg across her, expecting a reprisal, but instead getting a gentle tug from her hoof as she pulled it around her tighter.

What in Celestia's name is she doin'? he thought, his heart rate beginning to rise and a flush coming over his cheeks. Rainbow pushed her neck back into his as he caught the surprisingly sweet scent of her mane. His head was still above her own, though she continued to shift, rubbing the top of her head against his chin as she got settled in.

Is she... naw, she couldn't be... his train of thought was interrupted by a soft whisper.

"Hey Big... I never thanked you for saving me from drowning yesterday, so... thanks."

"Oh, uh, no problem, you'd have done the same for me."

Rainbow snorted, "Yeah right. There's no way I could have pulled you out of that river. I could barely get you across the river after your little accident."

She tugged on the blanket to wrap herself a little more, and backed her rump right into a… rather sensitive area for stallions. Her gentle adjustments in an attempt to get comfortable testing the very limits of Macintosh's control over certain physical aspects of his anatomy. The toned muscles of her flank softly rubbing against his groin flushing even more redness to his cheeks. He was certainly grateful she was facing away from him.

Easy Macintosh... that don't mean a thing, he thought, assuring himself these were just innocent movements, and nothing more.

"Ah've been wondering how you got me across the river," he whispered back to her.

"I used one of the cattle. I couldn't lift you with two of me," she answered softly, a smile breaking across her lips.

Mac let out a brief laugh before settling back in, Rainbow still insistent his hoof stay around her for warmth, though he couldn't argue. The fire was helping, but soon it would die, and all they'd have is their body heat to last them throughout the night.

"So really, how did you get AJ to give you her hat?"

"Ah told ya, it was my hat," he responded, "Before Ah was old enough to work on th' farm, my Pa gave me that hat. Once I was strong enough to pull a plow, he gave me mah yoke, and Ah passed the hat down ta Applejack."

A tinge of sadness in his voice led Rainbow to a conclusion she had always suspected about the parents of her best buddy AJ.

"Your folks aren't around anymore, are they?" she asked, a gentility in her voice that sounded alien, even to her. A pregnant pause caused her to turn her head to look at Mac as he answered.

"Naw, they aren't." he whispered back.

"I'm sorry, Mac." she nuzzled him, but softly enough that it could be mistaken for another adjustment.

"Nothin' for you ta be sorry about. They're at peace now," he answered stoically.

After another moment of silence, Rainbow spoke up again, the heat beneath the blanket now more than enough to keep her warm, but finding herself secretly enjoying the security the strong forelegs currently embracing her provided.

"Why do you do it Mac?"

"Why do Ah do what?"

"This cattle drive thing. Couldn't you just load them on a train or something?"

"Ah suppose," he added thoughtfully, "Ever since Ah was little, Ah've always loved the freedom of being out where nopony else is. My Pa would always say Ah had 'the wanderin' in me. He'd find me at all hours of th' night when I was a tiny colt out in the apple fields, just walkin'."

Rainbow had a hard time imagining Mac ever being tiny, but kept on listening, though her eyelids grew heavy.

"After the first few times he found me out there, he decided ta take me on a cattle drive with him. After that first time, Ah was hooked." he grinned, recalling how happy he had been when his father told him he would be taking him on the range for the first time. He loved the time he spent with his father while he was alive, it was one of his most cherished memories.

"In a way, Ah guess Ah do it ta keep his memory alive. It's the way he taught me ta do it, and it's the way Ah get it done."

After he heard no response, he nudged Dash awake. "Don't go to sleep now, we gotta take turns sleeping so we can keep an eye on the cattle."

"Why?" Rainbow groaned, hating being deprived of sleep more than anything, especially after a day like today.

"We don't want anypony to rustle them."

Rainbow propped herself up on her elbows and faced him with an annoyed glare.

"Seriously Mac? Rustlers? When was the last time you ever heard of cattle rustlers even existing?"

"Ah... well..." in truth, he had never seen or heard of any cattle being rustled, but his father had always made him keep vigilant watch for them anyway.

"Exactly. Nopony's gonna steal the cattle, now let's get some sleep," Dash insisted, snuggling up close to her heat source, and pulling his foreleg and the blanket around her tightly, with a content smile she was glad Mac couldn't see. He saw no reason to argue, and was soon adrift in an easy slumber as well.