Chapter 23: Awkward Family Reunions

Six years.

It had been six long years since Mac had last seen his sister through his own eyes. Even though he had been around her for the last year as Wild Blaze, she hadn’t known he was still alive until that moment. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was, to wrap her in a hug and never let her go. He had missed her and Apple Bloom so much over the years and had so much he wanted to tell them, yet all he could say was…

“Howdy, Applejack.”

Applejack stared back at Mac, her eyes wide and glistening in the morning light. She opened and closed her mouth several times, the words dying on her tongue. She took a hesitant step forward, not breaking eye contact with him. Even after all she had been through that night, the disbelief was evident in her eyes as she got closer. In just a few steps she stood mere inches away from her long deceased brother.

“Big Mac?” she croaked, looking right up at his big red form. “Is that… really you?” Mac smiled painfully down at her; he could see all the anguish she had gone through since he had died. How he wished he could take it all back, to stop any of this from happening.

“It’s me,” he replied, fighting back his own tears as he watched one escape Applejack’s eye. She dragged any others back with a wet sniff, nodding as she closed her eyes.

Mac had seen and fought creatures that were much faster than they ought to be, but nothing compared to Applejack spinning around and getting into apple bucking form. Even after what he had endured at the claws of Blackheart, what followed was ten times as painful.

“Ya no good son of a bitch!” Applejack hollered as she drove her rear hooves into Mac’s side. One hoof slammed into Mac’s shoulder with a meaty crack, leaving little doubt that it was broken. Her other hoof caught Mac in the jaw, snapping it as well and knocking out more than a few teeth. The whole ordeal sent Mac stumbling backwards, collapsing with a hiss as his ruined shoulder failed to support him.

“AJ!” Rainbow shouted, Mac pushed himself up just enough to watch Applejack turn on her.

“Shove it, Miss slept-with-a-demon! Ah got a pretty good idea who that demon was!” Applejack growled, before rounding on Mac as he spat blood and teeth across the grass. Orange flames moved across his body, bones shifting and reforming in their wake.

“Besides, Ah saw ‘em impaled and transformin’ inta a Alicorn, he can handle some more,” she said in a low growl, taking quick steps towards the fallen stallion. Mac was just starting to get back up when he AJ struck him again, his groan barely audible under familiar popping of his ribs breaking. He tumbled back some more as his little sister advanced on him, orange flames already licking his wounds.

“AJ... Ah know yer upset, but right now we gotta—”

“Upset?” Applejack spat out, green eyes locked on the stallion. “Ah’m upset when Little Macky fergets ta clean his room. Ah'm upset when mah husband tries ta sneak pies in the middle of the night. Findin’ out mah brother is alive and has been lyin’ ta be for the better part of a year?! Ah’m more’n upset!” Applejack screamed, striking Mac again. Mac had almost forgotten how strong she was; with how angry she was at him, he would almost rather go up against Blackheart again.

He stood his ground the best he could, not backing down from his sister. He had fought a lot of creatures over the years and learned how to take a hit or two, but it was still more painful when it came from family. Still, he took it in stride, not fighting back or even attempting to get out of the way; Applejack may have been six years older, but he still knew just how badly she needed to vent..

“Six years! Six years you’ve been gone, you lousy bastard!” Applejack screamed, pounding her hooves into Mac’s chest with every syllable. “Ya no good demon-possessed dolt!” Her hooves kept hammering, now on every word. “Thickheaded, arrogant, yellow belly, dung swingin’, dimwitted, pin brained, half-wit…” Applejack’s blows lost power over time, fading as they spread out to every other word. “Lyin', pig-wallowin', sheep-lovin', no good, lousy… lousy…” Applejack whimpered, her hooves limply returning to the ground. Her chest filled with a single trembling breath as her head slumped and shoulder sagged,, before it rose again to lean into Mac’s shoulder. His leather jacket had been torn in the fight, and part of his shoulder was exposed, letting him clearly feel the tears streaming down Applejack’s eyes, at once both a soothing balm and burning tar against his coat.

“Oh Celestia…” Applejack whispered, “Ah… Ah thought Ah was done havin’ these dreams of you comin’ back,” she whispered, her voice choked with tears, turning Mac’s gut into tight knots. He had never meant to hurt her. All these years he thought he had been shielding her from the pain of his choices. Now it seemed he had caused her even greater sorrow and misery than he thought possible. Sighing deeply, Mac wrapped his foreleg around his sister, feeling her tense under him as he did so.

“This ain’t no dream, AJ,” Mac rumbled, pulling her into a tight hug. “Ah’m back, Ah’m finally back” he whispered, as a tear escaped his own eye. How long he had yearned to be back home, to finally have his life back, and here he was holding his sister once again. The dams Applejack had built up around the memories of her brother finally broke and she openly cried into his shoulder, wrapping her hooves around his thick neck, sobbing into his fur. Mac just smiled, holding her tight against him, savouring the steady beat of her heart and the unmistakable scent of home in her mane; two things he never thought he could experience again.

He made shushing noises as Applejack cried against his shoulder, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he held her. Those knots tightened in his stomach at the idea that he took joy in this, but it was family, and he had missed the feeling for so long.

“Dis… Discord?” The reunion between siblings was cut short by the quiet sobs of Fluttershy, reminding Mac of the other victims of Blackheart’s brutality. Turning to face Discord fully—Mac still trying to adjust to the loss of his eye—Mac saw Fluttershy standing next to the wounded Lord of Chaos, her hooves soaked in his yellow blood. Mac mentally cursed himself as he broke his embrace with Applejack and hurried to Discord’s side. Without Discord’s help, Blackheart would have won the day.

“Do… don’t worry about me…” Discord wheezed, his eyes cloudy and unable to focus. “Tis nothing but… a flesh wound,” he laughed, though he broke out into a coughing fit. Mac grimaced at Discord’s state. He knew the pain Discord had to be going through; the savage attacks of Blackheart’s dark magic had probably screwed with his natural abilities like it had with his own healing.

“Ca… can’t you heal him, Mac?” Mac’s ears perked up at his name; it was strange to hear it again. He turned to Fluttershy, her eyes streaming with fresh tears, her blue eyes bright as she held Discord’s paw. “Like you did with Braeburn?”

“Ah… Ah can’t…” Mac said, his voice barely above a whisper, looking away from Fluttershy as he spoke. “Rider and Ah don’t have much strength left after all of that… and we couldn't heal him if we wanted. His soul is tainted. Ah’d probably end up hurtin’ him even worse.” He didn’t want to look up and see the dread on her face. He could feel the grief washing off of her, that complete and utter hopelessness one could not overcome in the presence of death.

“So… fussy… just because you have… power… you think you're top dog?” Discord wheezed out, clutching his side as he spoke. He turned his head to face Fluttershy, one eye closed, the other cloudy and wandering in its socket. “I’m afraid… I’m going to miss the wedding…” he said, yellow blood trickling out of his nose and ears. Fluttershy’s tears renewed as she threw herself at Discord, her forelegs wrapped around his long neck.

“No… don’t die… please…” she whispered, her words strangled by her tears.

“Who said I was planning on dying?” Discord asked, green sparks dancing across his body as he spoke. “I just… need time to heal properly… and I can’t in this dimension…” Discord said, waving his griffin claw through a series of gestures.

“How long will ya be gone?” Mac asked, watching Discord’s magic starting to take shape. His body was beginning to fade out of existence, presumably into his own dimension to heal. Discord laughed weakly, the lower half of his body already gone.

“Don’t know… could be good as new in a day… or in a hundred years… devil magic…” Discord whispered, shutting his eyes as the fading moved up to his torso. “Don’t worry, Rider… I’m not going anywhere just yet…” Discord said, locking eyes with Mac. Or at least he tried, with barely one good eye between the two of them.

Inside Mac’s mind, Ghost Rider growled, wanting to emerge and take the weakened Lord of Chaos, but after all the energy the two of them had expended and the night they had gone through, Rider’s drive to emerge was no more than a mild headache to Mac. Though he couldn't help but grimace at the pain, something the Lord of Chaos noticed.

“As I said… bonded forever,” Discord said, only his neck and head still a part of the dimension. “But enough about me… that agent… missing a foreleg…” Discord wheezed out, as he fully vanished before them, leaving nothing but a pool of yellow blood.

“Bentgrass,” Mac hissed, whirling around to where Ghost Rider had stepped in the agent’s blood, unsure if he had even survived; the sheer volume of blood loss might have killed him, even with Ghost Rider’s help. With the loss of his eye, it took Mac a few blinks and squints to get his bearings and face where Agent Bentgrass had fallen; a sensation he was going to have to get used to.

When he finally did find where the agent lay, Twilight was already standing over him. Her horn glowed with power as she levitated Rumble and Spike over to Bentgrass. Mac let out a breath as his eye rested on their limp, sparkling forms, having forgotten about Spike and Rumble as well. Leave it to Twilight to take the logical approach to a problem over the emotional one. Limping over to her, one of his legs having been cut by that damn dark magic, he looked down at the three who had fought Blackheart while he was on a fool's errand.

“Are they gonna make it?” Mac asked, noticing the intense scarring around Bentgrass’ stub of a foreleg, red and pulsing in pure agony. The agent had passed out at some point during the violent altercation between Ghost Rider and Blackheart, most likely due to the intense pain of his foreleg being removed then seared closed.

“I think so,” Twilight responded, eyes roving over Spike, cheeks taut and forehead wrinkling as she forced herself to look at the bruises Blackheart had left on him. “But I will need to take them to the hospital. I don’t want to leave anything to chance.” she said, rounding on Mac, “I will take them there and keep it from spreading. I don’t know how to explain everything I saw tonight, but you and I will have a long discussion later, Macintosh Apple,” Twilight’s voice was low as she glared up at the stallion. “Or should I say Ghost Rider?” she asked, turning her gaze to Applejack and the others.

“I will not bring any of you into my report, at least for now,” she said, looking at the injured next to her. “This will be quite a mess to sort, through, especially if what had happened in Canterlot was as bad as it sounded,” she said with a low huff. Her horn glowed lavender as light exploded from its tip, leaving nothing but a scorch mark where she and the unconscious had been.

Mac shuffled in place, looking at the mares around him. Six years… Mac thought, looking at each one of them. Only Rainbow Dash had seen him out of disguise, but that was always behind closed doors where no one else could see them, could see the long dead stallion. As he stood there, looking at each face in turn, he felt so out of place, that he shouldn't be around, that his time to see and be with them had long since passed.

“Well, we’d better start headin’ home,” AJ said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. “M’sure Soarin is wound up tighter than an eight day clock,” she said, shaking her head at the mere thought, turning her attention to Fluttershy. “And if Ah know mah cousin, he’s there too just as worried about his bride ta be.” At those words, Fluttershy’s face turned a bright shade of red, her wing unconsciously moving against her left ear where the engagement earring hung.

“Should probably bed him before the honeymoon,” Rainbow Dash said, nudging the other pegasus as she walked by, earning a mousy squeak. “You know, just to make sure he is good in the sack and that this whole thing doesn’t happen again!” Rainbow laughed, as Fluttershy’s face grew a darker red at the very thought and she hid behind her mane. “Hey, what good is it being married to the guy if he’s bad in bed?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Applejack hollered, turning to face the two, Fluttershy covering her face with a hoof as Rainbow kept on laughing to herself. “Stop teasin’ her, and don’t be talkin’ bad bout mah cousin!” Mac saw Rainbow roll her eyes at Applejack, as she kept nudging Fluttershy who looked all but ready to faint from embarrassment.

Ain’t been more than a few moments since they almost died, and here they are jokin’ around with one another. Mac thought, as he shook his head, turning away from them and looking to where his motorcycle had crashed. After so much conflict he should have felt exhausted, especially after transforming back from being Rider, but he felt normal. He wasn’t even dehydrated which had never happened before in any of his transformations.

As he took a step away from the group, something smacked him in the back of the head, causing the large stallion to stagger, and laughter to erupt from Ghost Rider. Mac heard the dull thud of a rock hitting the ground near him, and somepony clearing her throat behind him. Turning around, Mac found Applejack staring at him, green eyes narrowed in such a disapproving manner he wondered how Little Macky could even think of doing something bad again with that look waiting for him.

“And where do ya think yer goin’?” Applejack asked, glaring at the stallion still with no fear of the demon that lurked within him.

“Figured Ah’d give ya some time… ta come around to this whole ordeal,” Mac said softly, looking around as he spoke, keeping his eye from making contact with hers. “Big shock and all. Thought ya might want time fer yerself and ta tell the fam—”

“Bullshit!” Applejack spat, stomping towards Macintosh till she was a breath away from him. “Yer just tryin’ ta run away again. Ah ain’t havin’ it this time; yer stuck here in Ponyville, mister, and there is not a damn thing ya can do about it,” she barked, never breaking eye contact with Mac. “Either of you,” she added, dragging Ghost Rider to the fore of his mind and drowning everything out under his laughter. He couldn't suppress the cringe.

“After all of that… yer able ta laugh,” Mac grumbled, rubbing the side of his head with a hoof. He looked up to see Applejack cocking her head to the side; Mac gave a sigh as he pointed to his temple with the tip of his hoof. “Ghost Rider. He likes ta pop up in mah head. Laughs a lot.”

“I only laugh because it is funny!” Mac’s eye went wide as a voice not his own escaped his lips, a rougher, gravellier growl. Applejack backed away from him, her eyes just as wide as his had to be. He looked around to find that both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had also taken a step back from him.

“W… what was that?” Applejack asked, looking Mac up and down. “Ye… yer eye just flashed orange…”

“It did?” Mac looked around, as Ghost Rider’s laughter consumed his mind. That hadn’t happened before: Ghost Rider possessing him without the transformation.

I am going to enjoy this. Ghost Rider said within Mac’s mind. Mac shook his head, grumbling under his breath as he did. This was going to cause problems down the line, but that would have to be a thought for later. His current situation was much more daunting a task, as he looked to Applejack again.

“Looks like with the seal broken, Rider can come out a bit more,” he said, shrugging looking at the mares gathered. “Small price ta pay.” Applejack just sighed, rubbing her head with the news.

“Mah brother is alive, but possessed by a demon, an Alicorn, and now can change into the Ghost Rider at any time… am Ah missin’ anythin?”

“Don’t think Ghost Rider is a demon,” Mac said. “Ah think he and the Alicorn are the same pon—” Mac idn’t get to finish as Applejack slapped him upside the head, silencing the big stallion effectively.

“Don’t be gettin’ cute on me,” Applejack groused, shaking her head again. “We’d keep the Alicorn talk secret fer now; enough questions about what you are now,” Applejack said, before glaring at Mac again. “But before Ah take ya anywhere, Ah want ta know everythin’,” she said, boring into Mac’s good eye. “Ah want ta know about that night in the barn all the way till ya arrived in town.” All the while, Ghost Rider kept on laughing inside of Mac’s mind.

Now where was she that night? She is definitely more worthy of being my host than you were, Mac-Mac. Mac rolled his eyes.

“Really? And who just released more of yer power?” Mac said back, raising brows and prompting sideways glances among Applejack and the others. Shaking his head, Mac pointed to his temple again. “He’s talkin’ again, gettin’ his second wind feels like,” Mac said as he looked to each of the mares around him. Rainbow Dash simply shrugged and puffed her cheeks for a moment, having dealt with that intrusion quite a few times. Applejack and Fluttershy looked at him with concern though, something that would have to be addressed later.

“Just stay quiet,” Mac murmured, shaking his head once more. “You had the night to yerself; give me the day like we arranged,”

Ghost Rider’s laugh echoed within Mac’s skull, slowly fading out as the presence shrunk back into the recesses of Mac’s mind, granting the stallion a small amount of peace. Sighing, Mac looked back at Applejack, having difficulty judging where she was with the loss of one eye. “He’d should be leavin’ us alone fer a while,” he said softly, looking to her and the others. “You sure ya want me to tell the story? Ain’t a pleasant one,” he said, looking to Rainbow Dash, the only other pony who knew it.

“Better than thinkin’ you were dead all this time,” Applejack huffed out, sitting down before him and glaring at him. “Now start talkin’ before Ah decide you need another beatin’,” Mac looked down at Applejack and sighed. She deserved the truth, no matter how much it hurt him.

“Alright,” Mac conceded. “It all started about seven years ago now… the year before the accident happened…”

Telling the story again didn’t ease any of the pain that went along with it, especially with Applejack there, learning the details of how Granny died and how he became the host of Ghost Rider. To the credit of his sister, Applejack handled the truth far better than he had expected: a few tears fell from her eyes, but nothing even close to the breakdown or rage he had dreaded. Fluttershy was the one they had to be concerned with, crying more openly than either of the other mares.

“... and that was when Ah wound up outside Ponyville, with Rider sensin’ Blackheart’s power,” Mac said, head bowed as he spoke.

“Oh, Macintosh,” Fluttershy whispered, wiping the tears from her eyes, leaning against Rainbow Dash for support. “You poor soul, how awful for that to happen to you,” she said, glancing up at him. Mac remained silent; at that moment, only one pony’s opinion mattered to him. Fluttershy rose up, soft eyes and trembling lips showcasing her wish to hug the stallion, but Rainbow Dash held her back, magenta eyes fixated on the siblings.

“That's all of it?” Applejack asked, not looking up at Mac.

“Mostly,” Mac said, shrugging a shoulder as he spoke. “Rest ain't all that important, or too violent fer me ta retell.”

Or the parts about sleepin’ with one of yer best friends. Mac thought as he watched Applejack carefully, never taking his eye off her. “Ah’ll understand ya don’t want ta see me fer awhile.” It was all Mac could think of to say. He had spent years hiding from his old self; he didn’t know how Applejack would react when given time to reflect over such a crazy tale.

Applejack didn’t look up at Mac as he spoke, her hat shielding her eyes from him. He looked over to Dash and Fluttershy, seeking some kind of indication on what he should do. Fluttershy held her hooves against her mouth, tears freely streaming down her cheeks. Rainbow Dash bit her lower lip, looking between the two with glazed eyes, unsure herself of the next action.

Mac sighed as he stood back up. Once upon a time, he might have had a clue of what to do, but it had been years since he had consulted anypony. “You know where ta find me now,” Mac said, turning away from Applejack. He'd stay in Ponyville for another day or two; if she didn't make contact, he would take it as a sign to go.

“No…” Mac didn't turn towards the voice. It wasn’t the voice of his sister, at least it hadn’t been for a long time. Where confidence and surety once were, came quavering uncertainty, the voice of a filly. “Ah’ve already lost ya once. Ah might not be able ta make heads or tails of all this, but Ah know—”

A pair of forelegs wrapped themselves around Mac’s thick neck, pulling him in close to their source. Hot tears forked across Mac’s neck as Applejack nuzzled her head into him. “Ah can’t lose you again!”

He kept perfectly still as Applejack held him, crying openly into his coat, but his mind was ablaze. For years he had wanted to go home, dreamed of finally returning to his family. Now that it was here, part of him still wanted to run. In all the ways he imagined reuniting with his family, he never thought that it could be like this.

“Come home, Mac,” Applejack whispered, holding him still. “Come back home.”

Author's Notes:

We are almost here at the end! Just two more chapters to go! That's right! Two more! Holy shit! How many years has it taken me to write this?

As always thank you to Arbarano and Totallynotabrony for all of their help. Has been a wild ride so far, and we are just about done.

Sorry for such a short chapter, but it felt right to end the chapter there. Meaning this next chapter is going to very long!