Eq Renaissance Part 18 (Ed)

    It was a long, hard walk back, despite the short distance, to where they had dropped their backpacks in their mad sprint to reach Twilight.  Each of them wanted to drop where they were, in soreness and exhaustion, and none more than Twilight herself.  They set up camp where they found the first pack.  Big Mac went off and gathered up the rest of the equipment while the others sat down and made due.  Applejack lit the little portable gas stove, anxious to get something cooked up for Twilight to eat.  She clearly hadn’t eaten in awhile.
    “Not much, please,” Twilight said.  “Maybe just some soup.  I can’t keep down very much.”
    “Twilight, what happened to you?” Pinkie asked, having trouble averting her eyes from the ruined stump that was once Twilight’s arm.
    Applejack scolded Pinkie for asking such a question, and Rarity scolded Applejack for making such a fuss while Twilight was in such a delicate condition.  Rainbow Dash added her voice to the ruckus, more for wanting her voice to be heard than for having any real point.  As they argued, a weak, weary smile grew on Twilight’s face.  She was happy to see her friends again, even at moments like this.
    Twilight drank her warmed soup from a thermos lid while the others started preparing their own meals.  Twilight’s face turned from an ugly pale gray to a worrying shade of green, but then back to gray again.  She managed to keep the soup down.  Applejack offered her more once she was done, but Twilight declined, not wanting to chance it.
    “It started with a dream,” Twilight said, handing the empty cup back to AJ.  Everybody else except Big Mac leaned in closer to hear her.  “It seems strange now, starting from a dream.  Even the dream itself was strange.”
    “I had the dream the night before... I started my tutelage under Zecora.”
    “Was it prophecy, child?” Zecora asked.
    Twilight looked up at Zecora then back down at the black floor.  “I... don’t know.  Maybe.  It could also be a riddle, or allegory.  Either way, it was more than an ordinary dream.”
    “Well, tell us what it is, silly,” Pinkie said.
    “It was dark.  It was dark and I couldn’t see a thing and I was lost and I couldn’t find my way out.”
    “I think we’ve all had that dream, sugar cube,” AJ said.  “At least recently.”
    “It was this place, wasn’t?” Dash asked.  “That must be it.  You dreamed we’d come here.”  There were murmurs of agreement all around.
    “No,” Twilight said.  “No, it wasn’t this place.  It was a forest, I’m quite sure of that.  I can remember the smell of the forest floor, and the rustle of the wind through the branches in the darkness.  Whether that was supposed to represent this place, or the Everfree Forest, or my own ignorance, or something else entirely... I do not know that either.”
    “Go on, child,” Zecora said.
    “I was safe at first.  Comfortable.  It was even a pleasant feeling.  Then things started to turn.  There was something else in the forest with me.  It was hunting me.  It was evil.  It wanted to kill me.”
    “Was it Nightmare Moon?” Rarity asked.  “I still have nightmares about her.”
    “No,” Twilight said.  “At least I don’t think it was.  We defeated her.  I haven’t worried about her since then, but now that you mention it, there was sort of this dark malevolence to it that reminds me of that night.  When we journeyed through the woods with her on our heels.
    “At any rate, in the dream... I fled from what pursued me.  I gave it the slip, then doubled back on it.  I came to a sort of a clearing.  It was lit.  I could see what was after me.”
    “Was it some kind of monster?” Pinkie asked, chewing on some caramel corn that she had packed.
    “It was gangsters.”
    “Wha-huh?” Pinkie asked.
    “It was out of a movie or something, I don’t know.  I think that part of the dream was more of a regular dream then any thing else.  In the dream, though, I knew these were the bad guys.  So I reached into my pocket for my gun.”
    Unnoticed, Big Mac’s eyes darted towards the bulge in the side pocket of his backpack.
    “I’ve never even thought of you as having a gun,” Rarity said.
    “I’ve never even touched one,” Twilight replied.  “But I thought I had one in my pocket.  Only when I reached for it, there was something else there.  There was a bulge, maybe six inches long, an inch in diameter, and very hard.”
    “Is this going to one of those kinds of dreams?” Pinkie asked.  “You know?  Are you sure you want to be telling us this?”
    “Oh, Pinkie.  You know, I thought about the phallic nature of it, but I don’t know if that has to do with anything.  It was a horn.  Some kind of animal horn.  It had spiral fluting and tapered to a very sharp tip.”  Twilight’s friends were silent as they considered this.  “I think it was a unicorn’s horn.”
    “There’s no such things as unicorns, Twilight,” Pinkie said.
    “I know, Pinkie.  They’re only in myth.  But they’re full of symbolism.  It must mean something.”
    “What color was it?” Dash asked.
    “Purple,” Twilight answered. “Vivid purple.  That stands out very sharply in my mind.  Odd that you’d ask...”
    “Well now,” Rarity ventured, “purple is the color of royalty.”
    “Tyrian purple,” Twilight said.  “I considered that.  The pigment is also made from the Murex snail, it has a shell which also tapers in spiral fluting.  I don’t know what it could all mean, except perhaps for some connection to Princess Celestia.  I’ve been over this a million times in my head, but I get no answers.”
    “Let’s get back to yer dream,” AJ said.  The others responded with agreement.  “What happened next?”
    “Nothing happened,” Twilight said.
    “Nuthin’?”
    “I woke up,” Twilight said.  The others waited for more.  “Only the thing is, in the dream, when I reached into my pocket, before I pulled out the horn, I pricked my finger on the tip.  I can remember seeing a little drop of blood on the tip of my finger, in that dream.”
    “I wish you had told me,” Zecora said.  The others weren’t following.
    “I don’t think you could have helped,” Twilight said.  “The thing is,” Twilight explained to the rest of them, “when I woke up the next morning, my finger actually hurt.  When I looked at it, there was the tiniest of puncture wounds, as if I had pricked it on a rose thorn, or something similar.  I thought, I hoped, that the strange dream had been a coincidence.  Maybe I had pricked my finger while awake, and simply hadn’t noticed it, or had forgotten it.  That morning, I put some rubbing alcohol on it, and forgot about it.
    “At that time I became obsessed with the things I was learning under Zecora.  I was particularly interested in the subject of other worlds.  I don’t know why that drew my attention in particular.  There were many other subjects for me to learn.  There’s simply something about it that called to me.  I was fixated.  While this was going on, the little sore on my finger grew worse.  I can remember using more alcohol.  Peroxide.  Antibiotic ointment.  It didn’t seem to do much good.  Maybe I should have seen a doctor.  I know now that wouldn’t have helped, but I’m surprised I actively avoided seeing a doctor at the time.  Healing magic was no good.  If anything, it seemed to make it worse.  I should have been paying attention to that fact, but I didn’t.
    “My fixation on the subject of alternate realities grew rapidly.  I guess you could say it was feverish.  It ended up being too late before I made the connection.  I went to Canterlot.  To the library.  There were books there that mentioned the subject of other worlds.  The books had always been there, I just didn’t know what to look for.
    “Luna came by.  I... trusted her at the time.  She asked me what I was interested in.  She was the one that first told me about the mirror underneath the palace.  I knew there was something wrong with the way she said it.  I could tell it was a dangerous thing, and she wanted me to find it anyway.
    “It didn’t matter.  I was under a compulsion.  I had to see that mirror, regardless of the danger.  It’s difficult to explain. I was under sound mind, yet still there was an irresistible force pushing me there.  It was something greater than Luna.  I don’t think she could have even stopped me if she had wanted to.
    “So I packed some supplies, sort of like you did, and I stepped through.  It’s like I was being pulled through.  I instinctively knew there was something on the other side of the mirror.  Something on the other side of this place, and I had to see it.”
    “It’s your finger, wasn’t it?” Dash asked.
    “Yes, Dash.  The magic pulling me through was the same magic that had infected my finger.  It came from that dream.  That unicorn horn.  I don’t know how or why, but I think by the time I stepped through that mirror, my finger was swollen to two or three times its usual size.  It was all red and I couldn’t bend it.  My hand was starting to turn red too.”
    “What happened?” Pinkie asked, in a hushed whisper.
    “I got lost,” Twilight said.  “I was compelled to find the other side, but this place is a maze.  The magic led me here, but it wasn’t leading me through.  The compulsion didn’t stop when I stepped through the mirror.  It only grew worse, as if it knew I was getting closer, and was getting more anxious.
    “I walked for days, but found nothing.  My food started to run out.  My hand?  It hurt.  It was this horrible sort of dull ache.  It was shooting up my whole arm.  Then one morning when I got up, and I looked at it.”  Twilight took a long pause.  She was clearly deep in thought.  Her audience gave her time until she was ready to speak again.  “I could see the veins.  They were turning red.  All the way up my arm.  Dark red, I could see them through my skin.  I’m not sure if you guys know what that means.”
    “Blood poisoning,” Applejack said.
    “I panicked,” Twilight went on.  “I started to run.  I checked every door.  I looked around every corner.  I thought that maybe I could find the mirror leading to the other side at the last moment, like some kind of story where the day is saved at the very end.  I couldn’t find it.  It might have been afternoon by the time I stopped looking.  Time is hard to tell here.  But when I stopped and looked...,” Twilight turned that shade of sickly green again, and swallowed hard.  “My finger had become gangrenous.
    “I knew.  Part of me wishes I hadn’t.  Part of me wished I hadn’t read all those books, or even learned how to read at all, but I knew I didn’t have any choice then.  My arm had to be amputated.”
    Twilight seemed to stop talking completely.  Finally, it was Pinkie who broke the silence.  “But who did it then?  I thought you were alone.”
    “I had to do it myself,” Twilight said.  “With my left hand.  There was a knife in my pack.  My magic helped some, holding the flesh together while I stitched it shut.  I managed to stop all the bleeding before I passed out.”
    “I think we found where you did it,” Applejack said.  “We found some blood.”
    “I don’t know how long I was out,” Twilight continued.  “Even when I came to, I wasn’t able to stand up for hours.  Once I was able to walk, I tried to get as far away from there as possible.  That was maybe three or four days ago.  The thing is, the drive was gone.  What ever magic had compelled me to seek the other side was cut off, just like the infection.  I tried to find the mirror back.  Any mirror.  I didn’t care which.  I really think I was about to give up.  Then I heard your voices calling me.  I thought it was a dream, but then you actually touched me.”
    Twilight was finished with her story.  Her eyes started to well up.  It was Pinkie who was the first one to break down.  She rushed forward and threw her arms around Twilight.  Twilight’s other surviving friends did the same.  “I should have known you would find me,” Twilight said while she was still being mobbed.  “You hold the other elements.  I could feel you, even from this place.  That’s how I knew Fluttershy was gone.”
    Twilight looked up at Zecora and Big Macintosh as her friends gave her room.  “I didn’t know the two of you would come.  Thank you, though.  I’m glad to see you again.”  Zecora gave Twilight words of kindness and thanks.  Big Mac didn’t say anything at all.  Twilight was just being nice.  She was his little sister’s friend, after all.  She probably didn’t even know who he was.
    They wrapped Twilight up in their thickest, warmest blankets.  She was soon sound asleep.  The rest tried to sleep as well.  It wasn’t easy for them.  While they hadn’t said it out loud, each had hoped that finding Twilight would mean they could go home.  They thought that she would lead them out, but now they knew that she was as lost as they were.
    Big Macintosh, Zecora and Rainbow Dash were still awake after the others had fallen asleep.  Instantly, all three of them sat up at once in their sleeping bags.  They had heard something, off in the distance.  At least they thought they had heard something; each had been close to sleep.  They looked off in the distance, where they thought they had heard it coming from, then they looked at each other and shivered, realizing the others had heard it too.
    Rainbow Dash pulled her sleeping bag up tighter, as if to protect herself from whatever was out there.  Zecora remained stock still.  Big Mac waited, listening for it again, then he got up out of his sleeping bag.  He grabbed a flashlight and started walking in the direction he thought the noise had come from.  He didn’t go very far from the camp before stopping and shining the light this way and that.  In the enormous size of the chamber they were camped in, he could see for hundreds of yards.  He scanned the light left to right, then back again, for some time.  He found nothing.
    Big Mac returned to camp, and after giving a shrug to Dash and Zecora, crawled back into his sleeping bag.  He remained there, motionless, listening, for a couple more hours, even after the others were asleep.  The rest of the night was uneventful.
    Twilight’s appetite had partially recovered when they woke up.  By the time they had spent a day of walking and searching for an exit, it had properly, fully returned.  At their next camp, Pinkie stuffed Twilight full of food.  After a couple more days of searching, it looked like Twilight was finally beginning to put some weight back on.  They all began to worry it might be too little too late.  They were all nearly out of food by then.
    On the fourth day after they had found Twilight, there was another squabble after they set up camp.  The girls started yelling at each other.  Somebody mentioned how they couldn’t find an exit.  Somebody mentioned how finding Twilight hadn’t helped their predicament.  Big Mac had been watching the whole thing, and what followed, and finally spoke up.
    “Hey!” he said, loud enough for them to hear him over the arguing.  They all stopped and turned to him, but it was too late.  By the time they saw Twilight, she had already gotten up from where she was sitting, and was walking away.
    Twilight came to a door, went through it, and closed it behind herself, shutting herself off from the rest of the group.  Dash tried to follow her, but AJ grabbed her wrist.  “Leave her alone,” AJ said.  “I think we’ve done enough for one night.  Leave her alone and give her time on her own to think.  She’ll come back when she’s ready, and then I say we all give her an apology for acting like such horses’ asses.”  They agreed it was a good idea.  They sat back down to try, once again, to ration out the last of their stuff, both the food and the gas for their stove.
    Big Mac watched the whole thing from beginning to end.  He sat there silently, expecting that sooner or later they’d change their mind, and go to apologize to Twilight in the other room.  He waited an hour or so, but nobody got up.  So eventually he stood up himself.  Nobody noticed him walking away, with a loop of his backpack around his shoulder.  Big Mac had always been quiet enough that he could go off by himself whenever he wanted, and no one would give any mind.  He looked back, made sure nobody was watching him, and slipped through the same door that Twilight had passed through.
    This room was larger than the one their group had camped in.  It took a few seconds to find Twilight.  Her back was to him.  This room contained one of those huge, impossibly deep circular pits.  Some of these contained spiral staircases that wrapped around the inside edge.  Others had nothing.  They had been avoiding these pits, even the ones with staircases.  Twilight was at the edge of one of these, sitting with her legs dangling over the ledge.  Big Mac made some noise as he approached, wanting to make sure he didn’t startle her and send her tumbling over.  She turned her head at his approach, just a bit, before turning away again.  She had heard him.  With only one arm, Twilight appeared lop-sided from Big Mac’s point-of-view.  It looked like she could tip over and go tumbling in anyway.  It made him feel a little nauseous.  It gave him as much vertigo as that pit yawning before him.  Still, he pressed on, and sat down on Twilight’s left side, next to her remaining good arm.
    Big Mac didn't know what he wanted to say.  When he came in, he had wanted to extend an apology on behalf of the others, but now he wasn't sure if that was appropriate.  Maybe Twilight just wanted somewhere quiet, where she could sit and think.  Maybe he shouldn't say anything at all.  Maybe Twilight had wanted to be alone, and he shouldn't have been in there with her to begin with.  By the time Big Mac realized that he didn't really want to say anything, it was too late to try if he'd wanted to.  So Big Mac did what he does best.  Big Mac didn't say anything at all.  He just stared out into the abyss, and tried to think of some deep thought, like Twilight might be doing.
    Twilight didn’t know what to say either.  When Big Mac sat down next to her, she thought he wanted to talk to her, but instead he just sat there, silently.  She wasn’t sure why he was here, although it was kind of nice of him to give her company.  She hadn’t really wanted to be alone after all, she just didn’t want to listen to all the squabbling and chatter.  She didn’t know what she should say.
    Twilight stole glances at Big Mac.  She looked down into his lap, where his hand was resting.  It was all wrapped up in bandages.  “They never told me what happened to your hand,” she finally said.  “Did you hurt it bad?”
    Big Mac was reluctant to talk about it.  Obviously he wasn’t as badly hurt as Twilight was, so he felt pretty guilty drawing attention to it by explaining it.  He looked down, turning it over to expose his palm, then back again.  “Yeah, well,” he drawled.  “I guess... I guess I got real mad, you see?  An’ I kinda hit something I wasn’t supposed to hit.  Serves me right, I suppose.  I ain’t proud of it, that’s for sure.  It ain’t no big deal though, so don’t worry about it none.”
    “Nonsense,” Twilight said, reaching for it with her left hand.  Big Mac flinched when she touched his hand.  It wasn’t because it hurt, but because he was surprised she was touching him at all.  Her little hand seemed half the size of his.  He could have crushed it if he had the inclination.  To his wonder, Twilight’s hand seemed to glow a faint red.  “I can’t knit the bones back together,” she said.  “But maybe I can reduce the swelling a bit, make it feel a little better.”  She rubbed her hand all over his, both back and palm.  She ran her fingers up and down his.
    Big Mac gaped; it really did feel better - a million times better.  “Thank you kindly,” he said once it was all over.  “It feels as good as new.  I wish there was some way I could repay you.”
    Twilight blushed and laughed just a bit.  “It’s not as good as new.  Don’t think you can go around using it as if it’s not broken.  And you don’t have to repay me.  If anything, I owe you for risking so much to help my friends find me.”
    “Hmm,” Big Mac grumbled.  He didn’t really agree with Twilight on that regard, but he didn’t want to be disagreeable with her, so he let it go.  He stared back out into the empty void.  “Now wait just a minute,” he said.  “I might have something after all,” and he reached for his backpack.  “I was squirrelling it away.  I suppose I’m lucky that Pinkie Pie didn’t find it, knowing how she is.  I guess you can have it.  You need it more ‘n I do.  If you don’t mind me saying so, you could use some more meat on your bones.  I mean... I just... I’m saying to get your health back.  Not that yer not pretty or too skinny or something.  Anyway, here you go.”
    Big Mac pulled something out his pack and put it Twilight’s hand.  She looked down at it.  “A pudding cup?”
    “Is that OK?” Big Mac asked.  “Can you stomach that?  I figured everybody likes chocolate.”
    “It looks delicious,” Twilight said.  “But I don’t...”
    “Oh, you don’t have a spoon,” Big Mac suddenly realized.  He dug back into his pack and pulled out a clean one.  He offered it to her.  He held the spoon out in space for about three seconds or so, before he remembered that Twilight didn’t have a right hand to take it from him.  He became deeply embarrassed, and lowered it.  He became befuddled, then realized the first thing he should do is open the pudding for Twilight.  He pulled back the plastic cover while she held it in her single hand.  He still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with the spoon.  There was a lot of awkward shifting around as they tried to figure out how to make it work.  Finally, with the spoon in his good, left hand, he scooped up a bite from the cup in Twilight’s own left hand, then held it up for her to eat.
    Twilight, feeling it was the best way to get out of this awkward situation, leaned forward and took a bite.  “Mmm,” she said.  Before she could swallow, Big Mac already had another spoonful ready for her.  She quickly took a bite of this before saying, “you can have some too if you want.”
    Big Mac took a bite before offering her another.  Then he alternated back and forth between the both of them.  Twilight developed a taste for it, and quickly grew impatient for Big Mac to serve it up faster.  Soon he was scraping the bottom of the cup with his spoon.  “I don’t think I’ve had chocolate pudding since I was a kid,” Twilight said, once she had eaten up the last bit.
    Big Mac wiped off the spoon, put it away, and tossed the empty cup down the pit.  They couldn’t hear it reach bottom.  “Yeah, I can’t say I eat a whole lot of it myself.  Back at home, in the pantry, my little sister Apple Bloom’s got a box full of them.  I just grabbed one when I was packing,” he explained.  “OK, maybe every now and then I’ll eat one when she’s not looking, even when I’m not off somewheres.”
    “I suppose it makes sense to have a lot of snack food around the house when there are little kids around.  It must be nice having such close family.”
    “Hmm,” Big Mac said.  “Well, it’s something alright.”
    “That’s something I never really had,” Twilight said, “a close family.”
    “What?” Big Mac asked skeptically.  “C’mon now.  You must have had a mom and dad.”
    “Sure, but we were never very close.  They pushed me towards school at a very young age.  I mean, I know I made them proud, but we didn’t spend a lot of time together.  After I left for my private schooling, I hardly saw them at all anymore.  We hardly ever talk.  It seems like sometimes I don’t even remember them.”
    “Huh,” Big Mac said, looking down at his wounded hand.  “Sometimes I worry that I won’t remember my Mama.”
    Twilight was silent for awhile.  “I’m so sorry.  Listen to me go on about my parents because I haven’t spoken to them in awhile.  You lost your parents, didn’t you?”
    Big Mac scratched at his bandages.  “Eyup,” he said.  He stared out again into that deep dark pit, but there was nothing to see.  “Lost my Papa first.  An’ then just after little Apple Bloom was born we lost Mama.  She don’t remember, of course and AJ was tore up something fierce over it.  I don’t remember a whole lot of those days cause I had to be the man o’ the house n’ all.  Do all the work.  Even though I weren’t so big then.  Sometimes I worry that I forget what they look like.
    “My Mama most of all, though.  Ya see, I can see my Papa now every time I look in the mirror.  Just add some gray, n’ some wrinkles, n’ that mustache.  But Mama, well, then I have to look in the photo album.”
    Big Mac chuckled softly now.  “Speaking a puddin’.  There’s a picture of me.  Mama must have took it.  I weren’t no older than maybe eight or nine months old, sittin’ in my high chair at the table.  She gives me this chocolate puddin’, only of course it ends up all over my face.” He gestured with his good hand, waving it around his face to show it really got everywhere.  “Had a little tuft of hair sticking up with puddin’ in it.  Heh.  I’m sure that’s why she took the picture in the first place.
    “Anyway.  Well.  You can see her hand in it.  Just her hand.  In that picture.”
    “It sounds like you have some wonderful memories,” Twilight said.  “I don’t think you’ll ever forget them.  And it sounds like you and your Granny and your sisters have an awfully close and wonderful family, even though your parents are gone.
    “Eyup,” Big Mac nodded his head vigorously.  “That we do.  Maybe we’re even closer cause we had to come together.”  He thought about this for a long stretch.  “Is that what you was talking about?  Not having anybody you was real close with?”
    “I guess so,” Twilight said.
    “You never had nobody?  No one?”
    “Well, there was Celestia.”
    “Huh,” Big Mac said.  “I guess she was kind of like a mother to you?”
    “More.”
    “More?
    “She was everything to me.  I’ve been with her ever since I left the care of my parents.  She was my whole world.  Maybe you understand how she is to the rest of Equestria.  How important she is to the whole soul of the nation.  She was like that to me, but more.  When I was by her side, it felt like she was the centre of the universe.  And she cared for me too, I know she did.
    “I can remember this one day.  I was stressed out from my studies.  I think she may have been stressed out from her own business too.  She rarely talked about it.  So she ended up whisking the both of us away, for a whole day.  We ended up thousands of miles away from Equestria.  I don’t even know where it was, except that it was some tropical island.  We had it all to ourselves.  We spent the whole day on the beach, playing in the water.  It was a magical experience, and I’ll never forget it.
    “That’s all over now.  It will never happen again.  When everything started to change, I could just sense that Celestia and I would never have that same relationship again.  I don’t know what it will be like if I ever see her again, but it won’t be the same.  And now... now it’s just me.  I’ve got no one left anymore.”
    Big Macintosh didn’t like that sort of talk at all.  It struck him as defeatist, and pessimistic, even if she really believed it was true.  He wanted to speak up and tell her it would be alright, but he figured he’d sound stupid, or maybe even angry, and he didn’t want her to think that.  He exhaled heavily, letting out a lot of frustration.  Then he remembered.
    “You know,” he said, “I got something.  I got something else.”  He turned to the side and grabbed his backpack again.  “I can’t believe I packed it.  I mean, it’s not food or clothes or anything important like that.”  He started to rummage through the pack digging way down at the bottom, past all his clothes.  “Not sure why I brought it, except maybe sentimental reasons.  Though that still doesn’t make much sense to me...  Ah, here it is.”  He pulled something out of his pack.
    “The thing is, it’s not really mine.  I mean, I found it.  But I’m pretty sure it’s yours.  Well, more than pretty sure it’s yours.  So... you should really have it back.”  He held it out for Twilight to take.
    Twilight’s heart was in her throat as she reached down to take it from Big Mac’s big, strong, bandaged hand.  She could see it with her two eyes, even though her mind didn’t really believe it.  When she touched it, though, held it in her hands and felt the fabric against her skin, then she knew it was real.
    It was her little old rag doll.  The patchwork fabric holding it together was filthy.  It was missing a button eye, and the other one was loose.  The yarn hair was ratty.  The stitching was loose in numerous places.  Twilight didn’t care.  Her doll was just as beautiful as it had always been.  “Had always been” was key from Twilight’s point of view.  The doll had always been, since before her earliest memories had formed.  It had laid in the crib with her, since before she could give it a name.  She had held it close to her body and fallen asleep with it throughout her childhood.  It was one of the few things she had taken with her for her schooling, and it had watched from a shelf as she grew into a brilliant young woman.
    “Smartypants,” she whispered, overcome with emotion.
    “Hmm.  Smartypants?” Big Mac asked.  “That’s his name?”
    “Hers,” Twilight replied, distractedly.
    “Ah,” Big Mac said.  “I was calling him Buster for awhile.”
    “Where did you find her?”
    “Well now that’s a strange story.  Mighty strange.  And I don’t recollect half of it.  But I do know I found her just laying out in a field.  So I picked her up n’ took her home.”
    “You said it was sentimental?”
    “Yeah, that’s what I don’t really understand.  I mean, it was just laying there in the grass.  All on its own and defenceless, you know.   Didn’t seem right to me.  I kinda figured it needed a home, like even though it was just a doll, it still needed love too, you know?  I didn’t tell no one about it.  I never had no dolls when I was just a little kid.  I didn’t tell no one.  I know a grown man like me ain’t supposed to find no sentimental attachment with stuff that’s only meant for little girls.  But isn’t a grown man supposed to make up his own mind?  Ain’t he supposed to do whatever the hell he wants to?  So I kept him.  I mean her.  Smartypants.  An’ I took care of her.  An’ I guess you could say I loved her, even though that’s a pretty darn stupid thing to do.”
    “It’s not,” Twilight said.
    “So anyway.  You sounded blue and sayin’ you didn’t have no one.  I knew she was rightfully yours n’ I thought you should have her back.  I think maybe you need her a whole lot more than I do.”
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “Eyup,” he said.
    “No, really.  Thank you.  This means an awful lot to me.”
    Big Mac had nothing to say, so he didn’t reply to that.  Twilight tucked the doll down by her side.  Then with her hand she reached up and cupped Big Mac’s chin.  She carefully pulled him down to her, so that she could place a grateful kiss on his cheek.  Big Mac blushed.  He hadn’t shaved since he had left his home.  There was a lot of short, wiry red hair all over his chin.  Twilight had kissed him there.  She pulled him down again.  This time Twilight kissed him higher up on his cheek.  Her lips pressed into his skin.  She left them there for a long time.  It only seemed right to her: Big Mac had been so kind.  She couldn’t remember having received such kindness before.
    When she was done, she didn’t remove her hand from his chin.  He turned his head toward her.  They looked into each others' eyes in the dim light of the chamber.  He was already leaning over her some.  He didn’t have to lean much further in order to place his lips against hers.  It was a tender kiss at first, cautious, as if either of them didn’t know if the other felt the same way.  Their kiss soon grew in strength, though, as each second not only confirmed that the other wanted this, but the passion within themselves grew.  Their mouths opened.  Their tongues danced across each others'.
    When they fell back to the floor, away from that pit in front of them, it was an automatic, spontaneous movement.  When Big Mac rolled on top of Twilight, he grabbed her by her belt, and dragged her away from it, to protect her from it, until her feet weren’t even dangling over the edge anymore.  It felt strange to Big Mac, the way Twilight was running the fingers through the rough mop of hair on his head with her left hand, but where her right arm should be holding him, there was only empty space.  She seemed so delicate, so fragile, he was worried he might break her somehow.  So he rolled over onto his back.
    Twilight promptly rolled over on top of him, hardly letting their lips part for more than a second.  Her aggressiveness was no less diminished by her weakened state.  Over the last several weeks, both of them had separately faced dangers greater than they had ever known.  They did not, could not, know what fate had in store for them.  They could both die tomorrow.  There was little food, and little hope they could long survive without it.  This might be their last chance to find comfort in the body of another human being.  Their last chance to enjoy physical bliss before a slow and painful decline towards the inevitable.  They both knew that, and made love as if it were their last night on earth, or whatever this place was.  They were furious, and rough, wanting to make it happen before they could be interrupted by the camp, just on the other side of that door.
    With her single hand, Twilight clawed at Big Mac’s belt, not to drag him along, as he had done to her, but to undo it.  Her fingers had a difficult time with his buckle.  She gave up, and slid her palm further down the crotch of his pants.  She could feel his rock hard erection through the denim fabric.  She couldn’t believe it at first, how big it was.  But she could feel its warmth, she could feel it throbbing from her touch, and she could tell it was all real.  Big Mac helped her unbuckle the belt.  He pulled his fly apart.  Twilight didn’t hesitate to reach into his boxers and pull out his manhood so she could feel it directly.
    While she was stroking his shaft, and cupping his head with her palm, he was already unbuckling her own belt.  He had her pants open, and then pulled down to her thighs.  He ran both hands underneath the lace of her white panties, so that his palms slid down her butt cheeks.  Then he quickly pulled these down too.  He returned one hand to the back of her head - they were still making out.  With his other hand, he kept sliding it down her butt.  He slid his fingers down the crack of her ass, down, down until he met the warmth and wetness of her love.  She was more than ready.
    She was pressing down with her hips, forcing his cock against her body, so that it stretched from her mound of venus to her navel.  Then she slid off of him, and Big Mac rolled over on top of her.  She never had time to roll over herself.  Big Mac took her from behind.  Her pants were still around her knees.  His pants were still on entirely, except for his fly being open and his massive penis sticking out.  He pressed the head of it up against her wet, delicate lips.  He pressed it forward, gingerly at first, in one long, fluid motion.  Both of them moaned as it went in, the simple physical sensation of it was something the both savoured.  He kept sliding it in until it was all the way to the base, balls deep.  Twilight, biting her lower lip, was still surprised at how big it was.  It hurt, just a bit.  But it was a good kind of hurt.  She wanted more of it.
    Big Mac gave it to her.  She was so wet, he started pumping as soon as he was all the way in.  The way she was grunting beneath him, he could tell that she wanted it bad.  He started pumping hard.  Her grunts were turning into little squeals.  He himself was surprised at how animalistic he felt, and how fast he had gotten this way.  He was exhaling heavily through his nostrils, and had forgotten completely about how fragile she might be.  He gripped her hard around her waist, pulling her backwards as he slammed his cock into her pussy.  He gripped so hard his bad hand hurt.  He didn’t slow because it felt so good.
    Twilight had only the one arm to support herself.  She tried to keep it centred underneath herself, for balance.  It wasn’t easy.  Every time Big Mac hammered into her, she was pushed forward a bit.  Her elbow was beginning to buckle.   Her thighs, once perpendicular to the floor, were now lowering.
    It was only a matter of time before she collapsed onto her belly.  Big Mac didn’t stop fucking her.  He didn’t even fall out.  Big Mac let go of her waist, and placed either hand near her shoulder, to support himself, as if he were doing pushups.  Twilight continued to writhe underneath him.  Her pants were still caught around her knees, so her legs were still together, but Big Mac’s dick was sliding it at an angle, going deep with every stroke.  She could feel his big warm balls against her thighs.
    Big Mac’s hand started to hurt, the pain was shooting through it.  He got down onto his elbow, and still kept pumping, even at a lopsided angle.  Then he got down on top of her completely, resting much of his weight on her.  His mouth was right at her ear.  He started to nibble at it as they fucked.
    “Hard,” Twilight whispered.  “Fuck me hard.”
    Big Mac fucked her hard.  She started to scoot forward on the floor as he shifted on top of her.  Her pants were pulled down to her ankles.  “Harder,” she moaned.  “Give it to me.  Make me feel alive.  I really want to feel it.”
    Big Mac gave it to her as hard as he could.  He knew exactly how she felt.  This might be their last time together.  He had to make it count.  He could feel the whole length of himself driving into her.  He could feel her tailbone.  He could feel her ribs against his chest, and the heavy breathing in her lungs.  He wanted to fill her up.  “Faster,” she whispered.  She caught a glance at the door.  She didn’t know how much time they had before somebody would come to look for him.  “Faster,” she whispered again.  The pressure of needing to finish quickly only heightened the ecstasy.
    Big Mac sped up his rhythm, but then, getting too excited, he slipped out of her.  For a few strokes, before he stopped, his cock slid beneath her body, rubbing its full length against her clit.  She gasped with the pleasure of it.  He grabbed himself, then pulled up, until his cock was laying between her buttcheeks.  He was sliding it back down, hoping to penetrate her again, when his wet, bulging head rubbed across her anus.  “Yes, there,” she gasped.  He hesitated.  “Fuck me there.  Make me feel it.”
    He pushed himself into her.  Twilight screamed out, both in pain and desire, and still he pushed.  His head disappeared inside of her.  There was another long, slower, drawn out stroke as he forced himself all the way in.  This was tighter than before.  She felt more filled up, both from his perspective, and hers.  Big Mac began to pump it again.  He was much slower than before.  “Yes,” she whispered.  “I want to feel it.”
    He put a little more force into each stroke, but he didn’t thrust any faster.  It felt too good.  He didn’t think he could last much longer.  He was groaning into her ear.  It seemed louder and loader each time he squeezed in.  “Yes,” she whispered.  He was almost out of breath.  “Yes.  That’s it.” With his head on her shoulder, he could hear her encouraging him clearly.  “That’s it.  That’s it.  That’s it.”  She had her one arm pressed against her own chest.  He had both of his arms around her, hugging her tight.  There was one perfect moment where he could feel everything.  Her heartbeat.  His.  Her thin butt against his hips, driving up as he drove down.  The tight, flexing walls of her ass, squeezing against his member.  He released.  He exploded into her.  The sudden rush of cum seemed to fill her.  He glided into her more easily.  Still he kept thrusting until each warm drop was out of him and inside of her.  He kept pumping and pumping until he had no more to give.  Only then did he stop, flop down on top of her, and gasp into her ear.
    Twilight managed to turn her head far enough to plant kisses at the corner of his mouth.  Once he caught his breath, he nibbled at her ear some more.  His seed was spilling out from around him.  Eventually he began to appreciate, once more, that he was on borrowed time.  He pulled back, and slowly slid out.  He got up and started to fix his pants.  Twilight managed to get to her feet, and she pulled her pants up, but had trouble getting them fastened.  The coldness had returned to her body.  She was trembling.  The fingers of her remaining hand weren’t up to it.
    Suddenly Big Mac was behind her again.  He had his arms around her, and he took care of the pants and belt buckle.  He placed a few more stolen kisses against her neck.  She wished he could do it forever.  “We should get back to the others,” she said, “before they notice we’re gone.”
    “Eyup,” he agreed, and abandoned her to fetch his backpack, still at the edge of that precipice.  He hoisted it onto his shoulders, and was returning to that door.
    “Wait a minute, Big Macintosh,” Twilight said.  He stopped and turned around.  She was holding up Smartypants.  She pressed it against his chest, and squeezed it there with her hand.  “I want you to have this.”
    “But it’s yers.  I’m givin’ it to you.”
    “I want you to keep it.  To remember me by.”
    “Remember you?” he was surprised by how much his voice raised.  “Whaddaya mean, remember you?  You know something I don’t?  You planning on going somewheres?”
    “I don’t know.  But I want you to keep it.  Because I can’t love you.”
    “Oh,” he said.  Big Mac didn’t feel like saying anything else.
    “I can’t love you,” Twilight said.  “I’m not saying I can’t fall in love with you.  It’s too late for that.  I think I’ve already fallen in love with you.  But I can’t love you.  Not in this world.  Not with the way things are.  Maybe that will change.  I hope it will change.  I’d like to love you some day, but I can’t now.  So please.  Please take this.  I know you’ll take good care of her.  Do it until that day.  Please.  And some day I’ll come back for her.  I’ll come back for you.  Do you understand?”
    “Ah,” he said slowly.  “I understand.”  He took her doll, now his doll again, and stuffed it away into one of the side pockets of his backpack.
    “Okay, we should go.”
    “Eyup.”
    Twilight had no sooner opened the door that lead back to the camp, then they were spotted.
    “See?” Dash shouted and pointed at them.  “See?  They're over there! I told you they’re over there!”
    “Oh my god, it wasn’t them,” Rarity said.
    “What?  What’s going on?” Twilight asked.
    “Twilight!” Pinkie shrieked in weird sort of hushed whisper.  “Come here!  Come over here!  Quick!” she was gesturing at the both of them wildly to come over.
    They hurried over to the rest of the group.  They were mostly looking off in another direction.  They looked as if they had seen a ghost.   Zecora had her staff in hand.  She was clutching it with both fists, her knuckles were turning white.  “What’s going on?” Twilight asked again.
    “We heard something,” Dash said, sounding unusually scared.
    “I thought it was you two,” AJ cried, “but... but... but it weren’t you two.”
    “Guys,” Twilight tried to calm down their panic.  Big Mac set down his backpack and started to search through the pockets again.  He was desperately searching.
    “I think I heard somebody crying,” Pinkie said.
    “I only heard footsteps,” Rarity said.
    “Guys, please,” Twilight tried again.
    “Something’s following us,” Dash said.
    “We heard somethin’ last night too,” Big Mac said.  “I looked for it, but I didn’t see nothing.”
    “Something’s following us,” Dash said.  “I didn’t want to say anything, but I’ve thought there’s been something following us for a long time.”
    “How could anything be following us?” Rarity asked.  “We broke the mirror behind us.  Luna couldn’t get through.  Isn’t that right, Zecora?”
    “What if it was already here?” Pinkie asked.  “What if there’s some kind of monster.”
    “Guys, it’s okay,” Twilight said, forcefully.  “Please, calm down.  I know what it is.”
    Zecora seemed to unclench.  She relaxed, trusting Twilight’s judgement completely.  “It’s safe?”
    “Yes, it’s safe,” Twilight said.  “We’re going to be okay.”
    “What is it?” AJ and Dash asked at the same time.
    “Yes, tell us what it is,” Rarity said.
    “Tell us!” Pinkie demanded.
    Big Mac stood up, abandoning his frantic search in his backpack.  Twilight looked at him for awhile before turning to her friends.  She wasn’t sure before, but now she knew.  “It’s okay,” Twilight explained.  “It’s Fluttershy.”