Once it hit noon I let Applejack know who was just finishing up the final stall. "alright Applejack its time to get going!" she nodded as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead and stepped out of the stall covered in grime and shit... "want to go get changed first?" she nodded as she walked out of the barn and I put the final bag of bedding into the stall before I began to empty it out. Once that was done I went to check on Fluttershy to found that she had already cleaned all of the buckets. I was very surprised, to be honest.
I gave a whistle as she eeped from where she was and almost sprayed herself with the hose. "sorry Fluttershy." I stated sheepishly rubbing the back of my head.
"i-i-its alright Lance." she stuttered out.
"well Applejack and I will be heading out shortly. She just needed to change her clothes so we will be back in hopefully less than an hour." she nodded. "please let Pinkie Pie and Cheerilee know please." she nodded as I watched Applejack jump off the porch and ran towards the truck. I smiled as I pulled my keys out of my pocket, threw them in the air, and caught them as I reached the car. She was so excited to see her family again I could just tell.
Starting up the truck I watched through the mirror as Fluttershy floated towards the front door. Soon though I turned onto the road as I sped up slightly. "so glad to see your family again?"
"why of course I am! Haven't seen them in so long!" she yelled at me as I detected worry in her voice... I could understand where she was coming from as I stayed silent. After a quiet drive, we soon entered the town as I spotted the roof of the Center. Heading towards it I pulled into the loading bay and found 4 anthro's surrounded by guards. The big red male stallion was keeping the three younger ones behind him as he eyed them heavily. Applejack's eyes widened as tears came to her eyes. After I stopped and unlocked the car she burst out from the seat. "Applebloom! Big Mac!" I could see the small yellow pony and the stallion look over towards the truck as their eyes widened and tears came to their own eyes. She rushed over to them as they entered a group hug. I gave a small smile as noticed a guard reaching for a remote with a sneer on his face. Quickly opening my glove box I pulled out a Sig Sauer P229 and quickly took aim at the guard's hand and fired... causing him to yell out in pain as Applejack's reunion was cut short. The other guards looked over at me and I could tell that some of them recognized me as they paled... and I was pissed. " I saw you pulling out a damn remote buddy!" the guard was holding his bleeding hand as I walked over. Rage in my eyes as he fell backward. "only I get to punish them if they do anything worth punishing..." I pressed the gun up against his forehead. "got that?" he quickly nodded his head as I pulled the gun away. " I might just quit coming here after I get the final three tomorrow..."
"Sir I assure you he will be extremely punished for his transgression towards you." the rep yelled as he ran over with a few other guards plus a medic. "severally!" the guard flinched. "punished..."
"are... you... certain?" he gave me a nod as I stared into his eyes... those were the eyes that knew the Pendragon Rage... happens whenever someone in my family gets extremely pissed off enough where they don't care about anyone. I was lucky I didn't inherit it fully. "good... when will the three arrive at my home tomorrow?"
"approximately 10 in the morning sir..." the guard was dragged away by another two as the medic yelled at them to allow him to fix his hand.
"I will be waiting for you..." I growled out... "Applejack!" she looked at me, or more obviously my gun, with fear. "get them to the truck..." she nodded as she started to push the three younger ones towards the truck. Macintosh soon following as he kept his eyes on me. "anything I should know about?"
"besides when the three Pegasus arriving tomorrow o don't believe so sir," he said as I finally calmed down.
"then I believe you still have a customer." he gave a nod.
"thank you for not allowing one transgression to ruin your pick up and hopefully future shopping," I grunted as I walked back towards the truck. Both Applejack and Macintosh were standing outside the truck with Macintosh trying to get an explanation. I was stopped halfway by the rep as he handed me the collars. I stuffed them into my pocket without a second thought. "get in!" she hurried into the truck as she pushed him into the front seat. She sat in the back with the younger three.
As soon as I got in I opened the glove compartment and put the gun away and closed it... doing my breathing exercises as I took deep breathes and counted from 1 to 10 back to 1 all over again. Opening my eyes I started the truck and pulled out of the Center. "sorry for having you four see that side of me." I said as I stopped at the road and looked both ways before heading towards the clothing store. " I saw the remote and I just snapped."
"i-i understand where ya coming from Lance... but really? A gun in your truck?!" Applejack yelled as I saw Big Mac eye the glove compartment.
"don't even think about it..." I growled out. "it locks once I close it two times in a row... now... the names Lance..."
"Big Macintosh," he stated simply as I nodded.
"what about you three?"
"A-Applebloom." the yellow one said as she pushed herself into her sister's arms.
"Sweetie Belle." the white one said calmly but I could see the panic in her eyes.
"Scootaloo." the orange one said.
"well pleased to meet you four. The first trip is the clothing store so you all can get some clothes." I pulled into said clothing store as I pulled out the collars and set them with names and the frequency. I gave them to each of them but they didn't put them on.
"please... we could get into trouble if you don't have them on..." I groaned out as the three young ones put them on while Macintosh needed to be coaxed by Applejack. Once they were on we all got out and walked into the store. Macintosh looking for his own clothes while Applejack helped the three younger ponies. I watched to figure out the best way to deal with them. Big Macintosh was always watching me and just knew that I was watching him. He most likely will trust me more once he sees how I act at the farm. He was very well built. Much more built then quite a few heavy lifters in the town and could most likely hold his own in push comes to shove.
Applebloom seemed to be an outgoing personality but also seemed to need her sisters help quite a bit at times but seemed to strive to not be in her shadow anymore.
Sweetie Belle seemed to always be looking at clothes and cried at the more fashion looking ones. Most likely her older sister is a fashion designer. She seemed to also have a few confidence issues with herself but for what I had yet to figure out.
Scootaloo though seemed to be putting up the tough girl act but I could see behind her eyes the fear of what she thinks was to come.
Applejack though was immensely happy knowing that her family was now in safe hands. She continued to help the younger three finish up while Macintosh walked over with his clothes... he had several light green muscle shirts along with blue jeans and overalls. He also brought over several belts as well as two pairs of work boots. Already knowing what he was going to help do. After taking into account what he bought I watched as Applejack lead the three over here as I saw what they brought.
Applebloom grabbed overalls that had no leggings so basically overall shorts along with light green short sleeve shirts. She also grabbed some sandals and boots.
Sweetie Belle picked some sundresses of a multitude of colors as well as sandals and flippers.
And finally, Scootaloo went with simple camouflage shorts and dark blue shirts. Her footwear was just plain sneakers.
After paying for everything, I swear it somehow cost more than before, I got them all out to the truck. Soon we were out of town and just driving towards home. Applejack was asking how things were in Equestria... and from what I was hearing things were pretty bad at the moment. A large rebellion has been created in Equestria... causing people to want to put a tighter leash on anthro's everywhere... possibly killing some anthro's to draw out the rebels...
but due to this, I fear for some changes in how things are happening when I just got into the guise of things... I also feared for what they were going to do to those they captured... knowing my own family it would most likely be absolutely horrible.
I turned onto the dirt path as I looked ahead and saw Fluttershy sitting on the porch with some tea. She smiled when she saw the truck and stood up as I stopped the truck. Everyone got out as Fluttershy walked over with a smile on her face. "are the rooms all done Fluttershy?" she nodded. "well then show them around... ill finish up the chores for the day..." she nodded as they all walked inside as I started to walk over to the barn. Walking inside I bumped into Betty as I sighed... wondering how she always got back into the barn even though I know I put her out... I quickly brought her back outside as I stopped and looked over in the distance... I narrowed my eyes as I saw the cows hanging around a down part of the fence... I could see at least two cows on the other side of it.
I sighed as I walked back inside. Grabbed my toolbox for the first time that day and walked out along of the fence. Quickly reaching the fence as I grabbed the rope I brought with me and lead the two cows outside the fence inside. "go on! Get!" they all ran off with Betty following them at a walk. I looked at the fence as I saw the damage...
one of the cows must have decided to attempt to jump the fence again. One of the beams was broken in half entirely while the lengthwise one was slightly broken in one spot. The beam would most likely be broken again by a cow which thinks its smart but ends up injuring itself.
And unfortunately for me, I didn't have any more beams because I haven't had the time to order any... so I had to hope I could fix this one enough to where it could be used again... I crouched over the two halves and began to ponder how I could potentially fix it... I eventually came up with a mediocre idea and walked back to the barn leaving the rope up to hopefully hold back the cows.
I entered the barn and grabbed a large piece of wood and began to cut it into two-inch width and one foot long pieces of wood, four of them total as I then picked them up and walked back out to the fence to see the cows already around the opening... I sighed as I shooed them away again before I took down the rope and put the two pieces together. I then slowly let go and sighed in relief as they held together for a moment. Picking up my hammer and a nail I quickly nailed it into the bottom one before holding the top piece in place and nailing into that one as well. I did this to all four sides before putting the beams back together. I stood up and looked at my handiwork before putting my tools away, picking up my rope, before standing up... although when I turned towards the barn I stopped as I saw the one pony who could potentially break me into two...
Big Macintosh...