big mac… was fucking terrified.

he’d asked applejack to step aside into a room secluded from where the rest of the family was, and she didn’t seem to be prepared at all for the news he was about to give her. he didnt look particularly devastated yet, so he could understand how she’d think this was just another sibling talk about something that didnt quite matter. he began by facing her, but he faltered before he could get out his first confession.

“out with it, now,” applejack prodded with casual amusement.

big mac cleared his throat and started with more confidence than he expected to have in this moment. “applejack… i’m… i’m gay.”

applejacks mouth opened into a small “o” for just a second before she shook her head, smiling lightly. “ah shoot, you know i’ll support you no matter what. most of my friends are gay – i could never judge you for that. granny, though…”

he lowered his head just slightly, trying his best to maintain eye contact. “it gets worse.”

“what’dyou mean?”

“i-” he faltered once again, coughing in an attempt to regain composure. “i also… had premarital sex.”

applejacks smile faded and she took on a disappointed frown, replying, “oh, big mac. you should know better than that. you- you KNOW how bad that is! if word got out of this stuff-”

“it gets worse.”

“oh, for heaven’s sake, what could it POSSIBLY be?”

“well…” he finally shifted his eyes to the side, no longer able to face his sister for what he was about to say. “it was with flim.”

“big mac!” she exclaimed. “how could you?? he’s an enemy of this family – he’s- him and his brother have tried so hard to RUIN us! oh, you better have stopped that nonsense, or i’ll have to-”

“it gets WORSE.”

“‘FUCK’S SAKE-”

“he’s pregnant.”

applejacks expression turned grave and big mac turned away entirely, his back to his sister now.

“how… COULD you?” the silence became heavy – unbearably so. applejack finally had to break it, but not without frustration. “this is HUGE, big mac. this is BAD. you know the whole family has to find out now, right? what’ll they say? we… oh, we can’t let this get out.”

“nope…” he replied as meekly as she had ever heard him before.

“you- you have to marry him.” he tensed up, lowered his head even further, but did not reply. “you know it.”

big mac didn’t love flim. he never intended on marrying this man, not to mention having a CHILD with him, but now he could see that there was no other option. the extended family didn’t know much about flim and flam’s plots against the farm, so if they were married and word never got out about it, that wouldn’t be the largest issue. not a lot of them supported gay marriage, but at least they would be married when flim started to show, right? they could just claim it had happened on their honeymoon night. so really, this was the option that would cause the least amount of damage towards himself and the least amount of shame for the rest of the family. it was his job to protect them, and he’d failed. this was the least he could do.

“… yeah.”