Exhibit Z

"Have a nice day," Big Macintosh waves off another satisfied customer, smiling the best he can. It isn't that he doesn't enjoy working the apple stand, but it wears on a pony to be nice over and over again. Sometimes he feels the urge to make some sort of secret, derisive gesture at a customer. He isn't sure what it would achieve, but the idea is so tempting for some odd reason. He has wondered about it ever since he was a little colt.

With any luck, he won't have many more customers today before Applejack takes over. A good round of apple bucking sounds really good to him at the moment. It sure beats grinning awkwardly as ponies try to decide exactly how many apples they want to buy.

"Busy day?" Visitors are another story, especially when the visitor is Rarity.

"Busy enough. Is it obvious?"

"You do look a little strained," she tells him, poking him between the eyes with a hoof. "How are you feeling today?"

"Normal." He spits out the word with all the contempt he can muster, an art he has mastered over the past month. He notices Rarity rolling her eyes and giggling to herself again, quite the different reaction from the vicious scolding she would dole out for the first week or two. She finds his reaction rather silly now, even if Big Macintosh is perfectly serious.

"Amazing what just a little medicine every morning will do for you."

"I still don't buy it," Big Macintosh replies with an added grunt. "Now that I'm not hallucinating, I've never been so convinced I'm hallucinating. It's just too easy. I can't help but think something isn't right."

"Maybe you should ask the doctor if he has pills for paranoia." Rarity giggles again, amused to no end with ribbing her special somepony about his mental condition. The fact that Big Macintosh just furrows his brow and shuts up is a sure sign of love on his part. "You'll get used to it, I promise."

"I was just expecting a little more struggle, you know?" Big Macintosh says. "I walked in there ready for a yearlong treatment of some kind, but instead the doctor fills out one little sheet, gives me a prescription, and tells me to 'come back if anything else bothers me.'" This time, Rarity puts a comforting hoof around Big Macintosh. There is no poking fun at him for not considering himself lucky or fortunate. She isn't here to pour salt on his wounds, but she is aware he does need reassuring of that from time to time. Even if she finds his wounds silly, she will nurse them.

"You're doing well, darling," she reminds him. "And you'll keep on doing well. You don't have to worry anymore; that's what the medicine is for. Just let the magic and the medicine work." At this, Big Macintosh has to sigh in defeat. It isn't like he doesn't know he's being paranoid, he's just uncertain. It's like going on a decade long journey to the dragon's den only to find the dragon is old, weak and ready to yield to his aggressors.

"It's just anticlimactic."

"Well, you'll just have to get your excitement from elsewhere, won't you?" she says with a grin. She lifts herself up and gives him a good kiss on the lips, to remind him that she's there. He kisses her back and embraces her, to remind himself she's there.

"Rarity and Macintosh sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

The pair break away from each other and blush, remembering that they are still in public. A few ponies within earshot are giggling too, encouraged from the prankster lounging in a cloud above the apple stand. The two lovers only need to look up in order to see Rainbow Dash making kissy face down at them.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity yells up at her friend, but the pegasus just laughs and darts off. Rarity can only fume in her wake. "I swear, I wouldn't mind if she went back to being all gloom and doom like she was a month ago."

"I keep hearing about Rainbow Dash being in some sort of trouble," Big Macintosh says. "What's that all about?"

Rarity sighs and leans back into Big Macintosh's chest. Everything that happened before Big Macintosh went to the hospital is a big, messy blur for her. It seemed like everypony was having some sort of crisis.

"Something about the Wonderbolts," Rarity says, not too sure on the details herself. She had her own mess to worry about. There is, however, one thing she remembers explicitly. "She went back to normal rather suddenly. Kept going on about something called a 'Hollow Kingdom.' None of us have any idea what she's talking about."

Big Macintosh gets quiet, more quiet than usual. He doesn't over think what he's just heard. He knows what it means. If he was honest with himself, he had suspected it all along. Even if he can't hallucinate, Equestria is filled with strange and wondrous things.

"Well, being normal is a good thing." It is the first time in a while he managed to say normal without hating both syllables. He just hugs Rarity closer and stroked her shoulder. "As long as it isn't too normal."

"Nothing is ever completely normal around here," Rarity says with an exhausted sigh, but she's right.

"It's normal for things not to be normal." As soon as the words leave Big Macintosh's mouth, he knows the response he's going to get.

"That's silly." And it really is.

End Exhibition

Author's Note

This is the end of The Hollow Kingdom of Big Macintosh. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. For those of you who particularly enjoyed this, the greatest thing you can give is your recommendation to anyone else you think would enjoy this. Your readership alone is enough of a treat, so I thank you once more.