I wake up early the next morning, I feel great! All the stress from my lack of sleep has faded away, but a new stress has filled the void: What will I choose? To live, taking on the worlds problems as my own, putting myself in service to the spirits once again, opting to protect this world till the end of time, or to die and be sent to the great spirit to be judged, possibly reuniting with my family, returning to my people, finally achieving peace...I have to say, that last one doesn't sound to bad.

Now don't get me wrong, I've never been nor will I ever be suicidal, so get that thought outta your heads, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that sounded tempting, a reprieve from this, the constant worry and stress, sure if I'm gone everyone here will "inherit" my problems but, how bad could that be right? I mean, I pushed that ancient evil off my world, life returned and has prospered in my absence, they don't need me here anymore...

"Ugh! I need to take a walk" I stand from my bed, brush my teeth and leave the library.

As I walk the streets of a darkened Ponyville I glance up at the moon

"Ah Metztli, as beautiful as ever huh?" I say smiling, I take my eyes off the moon and start to just enjoy the night, from where the moon is I can tell its probably around three in the morning.

I make my way through the deserted streets just thinking to myself trying to figure out what to do, especially considering the events of last week, how am I going to patch things up with my friends and OH SHIT! I didn't help Spike clean up yesterday, fuck, now I owe him.

"Damn, how am I gonna make it up to Spike for flaking on cleaning yesterday?"

"I don't know, maybe some gem cupcakes?"

"Holy fuck! Pinkie please! You gave me a heart attack!" I yell as I jump a good five feet away from her

She just materialized near me, like some Doctor Who shit

"Oh, I'm sorry, you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, quick question why're you up?"

"Well I am super duper excited for the Apple Family's cider!"

"Cider?"

"Yeah! Cider season starts today! AJ and her family have been working really hard to get ready, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep so I decided to wait in line early! You wanna join?!"

I give it a thought, I mean, cider sounds good, I might even be able to apologize to my friends for the way I acted last week

"...Why not sounds fun"

"YAY! Markie's gonna hang out with me!"

Jeez she sounds like she won the lottery, we start walking, well I start walking, she's hopping, towards Sweet Apple Acres.

We arrive at Sweet Apple Acres and AJs' stand is already set up, no one's arrived yet, sweet front of the line

"Ok Pinkie so how long till it opens?"

"In about five hours"

"Five hours?!" UGH! WAITING!

"Don't worry I got a tent!" then she pulled out a tent...how, How, HOW!? I mean she's naked, there are no pockets on her, how could she have been hiding a tent for two!? I mean shit man?! So I had only one course of action

"Well isn't that nice" don't address it, just move on

She gestures for me to enter the tent

As I enter the tent I see sleeping bags already set up, when did she have time to do this?

"Well make yourself comfortable"

"Okay, thanks Pinks, I appreciate it"

"Oh! Pinks! Is that my nickname!? I love it!" I mean I could call her worse names but why would I do that?

I take a seat on the sleeping bag nearest the flap, Pinkie climbs over me to get to the other sleeping bag

"So how're things Markie?" oh that name

"Things are...well they're things"

Pinkie gained a bit of a puzzled look

"Why? What's the matter?" she asked with sincerity

For a second, I fell silent, allowing my exhaustion and uncertainty to show through, and allowing the bright pink pony to witness my scars for only the tiniest moment in time before I masked it once again. I refocus on Pinkie to see a shocked look on her face, like she had just witnessed a train wreck inches from her face, which, in all honesty, I must have looked like

"...Pinkie..." I say solemnly, "Nothings wrong, I'm just a little off today is all" Flashing the brightest smile I could, but one look and I could tell she knew I was bullshitting

We just sit there awkwardly staring at each other for a time, I didn't know what else to say to get me out of the predicament I had put myself in, she had probably the most serious face on I had ever seen her have, or even imagine she could have

"look Pinkie, it's something I have to deal with, human business, nothing you need to worry about" her face starts to soften at my sincere words, "I promise, I'll be fine"

"Okie dokie, but pinkie promise me, if it's something important, you tell us"

"'Us'?"

"Yeah, me, Twilight and the others, we're your friends, even Rarity, we'll help, no matter what's bothering you"

'If only you knew Pinkie, if only any of you knew a fraction of the storm that I've been asked to walk' I thought somberly

I look at her in the eyes, expecting me to make a promise I can't keep, a promise that, more than likely, will be broken

"*sigh* Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye" I chant her most sacred of melodies as I go through the necessary motions, oh god, well I'm in trouble now

I large smile stretches across her face, inside a second she had cross the distance and wrapped her hooves around my neck, immediately the stress and worry I had been feeling melted away, as if nothing in this world or the next could possibly interfere with my happiness, it felt amazing

Soon though her hug ended and she moved away, she sat back in her sleeping bag and smiled at me and I gave a genuine smile in return, then I remembered something

"Hey Pinks, how're the Cakes?"

"They're fine, why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to apologize to you and them, I really didn't mean to eat all those pastries, I was going through some stuff and it's all fixed now" I say with an apologetic look

"Oh that? They forgave you a while ago, apparently when they chased you out of Sugar Cube Corner and you were trying to explain yourself, saying how you couldn't help it, that they were some of the best you've ever had, ponies over heard you and wanted to see what the fuss was about, they got like, triple business all week!"

"...Do you forgive me?" I ask her sincerely

"Of course, why wouldn't I? Personally I thought it was hilarious!" She asks

I breathe a sigh of relief, I've always had a problem with forgiveness, usually accepting it, so of course I answer back

"That ain't good enough!" I yell standing up in the tent, with my fists clenched, Pinkie gave a startled squeak at my sudden out burst, "You can tell them that I, Mark Crow, here by offer my services as free labor for a week! This I Swear!" I yell raising my fists above my head animatedly

After my over dramatic declaration she started to laugh, damn even her laugh calms me down, I lower my arms and join her

"I'll be sure to do that"

We both lie back onto our sleeping bags, and just stare into the tents ceiling

slowly my eyes start to shut, and I let sleep take me

"MARKIE! MARKIE WAKE UP!"

Yelling along with violent shaking is what greeted me as my eyes opened, immediately I leapt to me feet with my fists raised in an attack stance ready to fight, this action however lead to me launching Pinkie up and out of the tent, this was accompanied by a 'WHEEEE!' as she flew a good ten feet into a nearby tree, upon realizing what I've done, I stick my head out of the pony sized hole in the tent and look up and see Pinkie tangled up in the trees branches

"Hey Pinks, you alright?"

"Yeah! That was great!" she giggles, She gives very little fucks about anything huh?

I take a second to turn my head and see a huge line of ponies behind us and they all have their eyes on me, Pinkie slowly makes her way down and walks over to the tent

"Sorry about the tent Pinkie, I'll pay you back" I apologize as I duck my head to exit the tent

"It's no problem, thanks" she accepts and we begin to fold up the tent

All of a sudden I feel a whoosh behind me and the unmistakable voices of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, this is gonna be fun I can tell

"Hi Fluttershy! Hi Rainbow Dash!" Yelled Pinkie as I continued to roll up the tent

"Hi Pinkie, it's nice to se-"

"Who are all these ponies!?" interrupted Rainbow

Yeah that's what I want to know

"Oh, well I was super duper excited for Cider season and I got this brilliant idea to camp out, so I was on my way and I ran into Markie" she gestures to me

"Yo" I answer walking over to the group, I notice Fluttershy fly behind RD and said mare gaining a fierce look, aw man now I feel bad, I have to make sure I apologize to Fluttershy, and Rainbow? She will feel the power of my gloating for I regret nothing!

"Eventually a bunch of other ponies saw us and got the same idea, and that's what happened!" She looks out over the massive line behind her, "Oh boy, I hope they don't run out before you get any", that was cold, unintentional or not that was like a serious middle finger, and Rainbows face showed it, she was pissed! So of course I decided to join in

"I don't know about you Pinkie, but I can't wait to try some of that cider, it'll be delicious! Especially since we get the first" I smirk while never breaking eye contact with rainbow, oh she knew what I was up to and I loved that she knew

"Oh Mark I'm going to hurt you so bad"

"Oh your so cute when your mad" I say this getting nose to nose with her

The reaction was immediate, her face got red, with anger or embarrassment I couldn't tell, maybe both, her head reeled back and eyes shrinking to pin pricks

"Did you just call me cute!?" she demanded with teeth bared and with a grin I replied

"D-d-d-d-d-d-did I stutter?" Oh man I think she might tackle me, this is getting good, her and I immediately go head-to-head glaring at each other

That's when Pinkie gets in between us somehow in a referees uniform

"Alright folks I want a clean fight no hitting below the belt, no biting, no name calling, no dumb puns" which got a 'aww' from me

"Alright ponies let's get ready to RUMBLE!" That was when I noticed a crowd had gathered around us putting us in a circle, nice, I see Fluttershy next to Dash trying to find some way to defuse the situation and right when Pinkie was going to lower her hoof

"AY!" we all stop and turn to the new voice, it was an old green mare with a scowl that could stop a raging bull, Granny Smith the matriarch of the Apple family, behind her was Big Mac, Apple Bloom and Apple Jack all carrying barrels of what I must assume is cider, they each wore curious looks on their faces wondering what was going on

"What in tarnation's goin' on here?!"

The crowd dissipated immediately going back to their original spots in line leaving me, Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy standing there

Granny Smiths eyes glance over us and upon finding me they stayed and narrowed, oh boy

"Oh it's you"

"Hi" I wave at her with a smile and the other apples who wave back, except AJ who just turns her Stetson down covering her face and going back to work, hmm strange

Granny Smith starts to approach us

"Now I'm gonna ask ya'll this one more time, What in tarnation's goin' on here?" Oh crap that's her grandma voice, that's the voice you don't fuck with. Ok, the one who answers will probably get it easy so, I'll let Pinkie or Fluttershy answer, more than likely they'll be able to get us off the ho-

"We weren't doing anything"

Rainbow Dash you Fool! Don't you know? Grandmas know Everything!

Granny Smiths' eyes turn to Rainbow

"Excuse me?" Oh shit, she marches over to Rainbow

"From what I could hear it sounded like someponies were fightin' and I don't tolerate that kind of behavior here, now since your so keen on answerin' hows about you tell me what happened, and just so you know, whoever was fightin' isn't gettin' no cider today"

A collective gasp resounded around the ponies around me and those waiting in line, Rainbows face turned white, wow this cider must be damn good

"Well, i'm waitin'" I look up at Big Mac to gauge his reaction, the look on his face confirmed my belief, she wasn't playing, this was for real

Rainbow Dash sighs and lifts her head to look Granny Smith in the eye

"Well, I wa-"

"It was me" I say cutting in before Rainbow could finish

"Oh really?" Granny says raising her eyebrow

"Yeah, I was teasing her, and I pushed her a little too far, that was my fault, all me, this guy" It was the only way, sacrifices had to be made

She stands there staring into my eyes trying to see if I was lying

"Well alrighty then, that's it then yah ain't gettin' any cider today" I sigh in relief, then she pulls me closer and whispers in my ear "Ya'll is lucky yah gettin' any at all" to which I could only answer back with:

"Okay Grandma" this was the smallest, and meekest voice I had ever heard myself speak in since my own grandma was around, wow, that's scary

"And you three" the three other ponies around me stiffened up when being addressed by the older mare, "Get back in line or no cider for you either" they immediately left me sitting in the dirt, thanks friends, and I notice all the eyes on me

She makes her way back to a stand that AJ had set up during the whole thing

Well, nothin' else to do but chill I guess, I make my way over to a shady tree and sit there contemplating the fact that I just got punished by an elderly tachnicolor horse with a butt tattoo, as well as the fact that I used to have near godlike power untold millennia ago...what the fuck is going on with my life?

A few hours pass and I fall asleep, eventually I feel a poke in my side that wakes me up I sit up and look around to see Twilight, Spike, Rarity and Pinkie standing there, holding mugs of bubbling cider, smiling at me, well except Rarity but I deserve it

"Hey guys"

"Hello Mark"

"Sup Bro"

"Hiya"

"Hmph"

I stand and stretch, popping my back a few times

"So what's going on?" I ask with a yawn

Spike hops off of Twilights back and walks over and takes a seat next to me

"Nothing much, we got our cider and now we're just relaxing"

Twilight and Pinkie take a seat in the shade with me while Rarity making an effort to stay the farthest away from me, putting herself in the hot sun

I sit there staring at her as did the others

"What-what're you doing?"

"Taking a seat"

"Yeah i see that but why in the sun? Don't you wanna sit here in the shade?"

"I am perfectly alright sitting here" she shot with her usual venom

"Rarity come on! Look what if I scoot over? That way you don't have to sit next to me and we both get to sit in the shade" I offer hoping to coax her, well it at least seems as though she calmed down significantly since the last time I saw her

"No, I'd rather sit out in the sun and sweat like a pig than be anywhere near anyone as ungrateful as you, hmph!" and with that she sticks her nose up in the air

Ok I've had enough, with a straight face I stand up, walk over to her and pick her up from under the arms, she's not very heavy

I could feel everyones eyes on me, Rarity's as well since I caught her off guard so her's held a bit of panic from being in the air

"What are you doing you ruffian put me down this instant!" She yelled kicking her hooves like a dog held over water, cute

I take her over to where I was sitting and place her in my spot and I take her spot in the sun

"There, now your the same distance from me, your in the shade and i'm in the sun, happy?"

"..." Rarity gives me a glare but I can tell, no matter how much she may deny it, she was grateful

Then we all sit in silence, eventually the awkwardness of the little exchange me and Rarity had ends and eventually everyone starts talking with each other, I just usually kept quiet and enjoyed the sun, ah I love the sun's rays I don't get tired or overheated in the sun like most people do, I was like that before , everyone I knew thought I was crazy enjoying weather that was over a hundred degrees

"Hey Mark"

"Yeah Twilight?"

"Since we got a little time I wanted to ask a few more questions about humans"

"Ok shoot" When I say that I notice everyone else, even Rarity perked up, guess i'm more interesting than I thought

She magically levitates a quill and parchment from god knows where and gets ready to jot down everything I say, *sigh* student to the core huh?

"Well I wanted to know more about human kingdoms"

"Kingdoms?"

"Yeah who rules your people?"

"Heh, that's a funny question"

"Why is it a funny question?" Twilight asks

"Well the funny part of it is that most of my people for the longest time were fractured and separate, many warring nations constantly at each others throats" I say with a grin

I quickly assessed the faces of the group, they were all shocked I guess war isn't a very common occurrence here and to hear that war and death was something that was almost daily had shocked them

"Really? Then how do humans live with each other?"

"We usually don't, we have a hard time putting up with each other, most of the time over ridiculous reasons"

"How ridiculous?" Rarity asked this one, and not with a snotty attitude with genuine curiosity

"Like, you hating Twilight since she's purple and your white" I say pointing at Rarity's coat

The two unicorns look at each other then back at me and they both start laughing along with Spike and Pinkie

I let them have their laugh and I chuckled myself

"Wow that is ridiculous" Twilight said wiping a tear from her eye

"Yeah it was, but old hatreds were still present when I left, shadows from ages passed, but I got off topic, no we don't have Kingdoms, we have nations led by elected officials"

"You mean like mayors?"

"Yeah, but with a lot more power"

"Really? There are no human kings or queens?"

"No there are kings and queens in certain human nations each nation usually followed their own ideologies which usually brings us back to the previous topic"

"Well it seems that your people are truly barbaric, fighting for such trivial reasons" Rarity shoots at me, aww I thought we made progress

"Well Rarity, I do agree that humanity can be quite barbaric at times, however humans are a people guided by their emotions and as well as having a hard time accepting new things, people and beliefs, even though humanity usually meets with swords and spears, if given time you'll see the true blooming flower of humanities heart"

Silence, I look up at the faces of my Pony and Dragon friends, they all looked, well I can't really explain it, impressed?

"Wow, that was very poetic Mark"

"Thanks Twilight" Ok, wasn't really going for poetic but ok

"Nice" Spike said, good to see he has an appreciation for art

"Yes, I'm impressed that a sense of art is even present in someone like you" Wow a compliment from Rarity! It was a bullshit, backhanded compliment, but, hey I'll take it!

"Yeah! That was great!" Ahh Pinkie always outspoken

"Thanks but if it's alright with you I'd rather not talk about human politics, it's usually a very complicated and tiresome topic that I'm sure I'm gonna get in trouble with someone about"

"Well ok, so how about you tell us about-"

"Oh surprise surprise!" We all turn our heads to look at the line to see an irate Rainbow and a worried looking Applejack

"You ran out again!" oh my god did they run out of cider before she could get any? Aw! That kinda made my sacrifice meaningless

"Yeah! What's the big deal we've been waiting all day" some stallion said coming from the line

Then just like that, a bunch of angry yells came from the ponies that must have been waiting all day to get a taste

I'd be mad, waiting all day in the hot sun only to be denied, ah well that's life

AJ jumps on top of the stand and addresses the crowd

"Now hold on every pony, we've done our best to improve supply this year-"

"You always say that!" don't fuckin' interrupt a lady...

"And it's always true, we here at Sweet Apple Acres pride ourselves on makin' the best darn cider in Equestria, but that takes time and a lot work " well put AJ well put

The crowd soon dissipates grumbling angrily

"Now don't ya'll worry none, we'll have more cider tomorrow, just be patient"

I see Rainbow Dash walk away from the stand with a grumpy face, I see Pinkie's eyes light up and then I blink ,then she's right in front of Rainbow, Jesus she's quick!

Me and the rest of the group walk over to her

"Come on Dashie! Don't look so sad! You can't rush perfection, and this years cider was perfection!" I wince and quickly make my way over to her putting my hand around Pinkie

"Ok Pinks I think she gets it" Silencing her

Rainbow, upon seeing me, narrows her eyes and looks like she's about to say something when we all hear a noise coming down the road, sounds to me like an old car

We all look down to see a very steam punk-esc machine with two unicorn stallions driving it, both yellow with red manes with a white stripe, both had straw hats and one had a mustache. Soon the strange machine pulls up and stops in front of the stand while also damaging the apples' fence. Fuckin' rude.

The two stallions hop off their machine, I immediately get the impression of two turn of the century salesmen trying to sell snake oil

Then, they break into song, what? They just started singing some patter song and everybody's eating it up, they introduce themselves as Flim and Flam

"Hey Spike what's going' on?"

Spike just looks at me and shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know man, this happens sometimes"

"Seriously?"

"It's not that bad, it at least keeps things interesting", I mean I guess

Wow now even the crowds getting into it, ok so their showing how the machine works, taking apples and making it into cider, hmph all I see is unneeded smoke and damaging of the trees, and of course the crowd was eating it up, yeah I can see where this is going

I look at Spike to see if he's eating up this particular load of shit, oh ok he has a skeptical look on him, respect earned Spike the Dragon, respect earned

They offered some to Granny Smith and the look on her face shows that the cider tastes ok at least

Eventually the song ends and the two Stallions make their way over to the Apples, so basically that whole song was a sales pitch to get the apples to partner with them

"Ya'll got a deal" yelled Applebloom, someone please stop the child from selling property please

"Now hold on just a minute" Granny Smith to the rescue, pulling Applebloom away from the unicorn brothers

They get into a huddle to discuss this, what do they have to discuss? The answer's simple, no, that's all you need to say, I already know how this is going to go down, they're gonna try to undercut you, then they're going to sell inferior, knockoff cider using crops that you work to make and eventually they'll take you over that's how this always turns out, don't believe them! The cake is a lie!

Then the two stallions make their way over and sneak their way into their huddle, corporate espionage! That's corporate espionage!

Ok my curiosity has been peaked I close my eyes and focus my trained hearing on their conversation, but due to the crowds noise I only hear a bit of what was being said, but I heard all I needed to hear, the two brothers offer the apple's seventy five-twenty five split going their way, that's a load of horse shit! They agree to terms like that they'd make no money outta the deal!

The one with the mustache, Flim I think, walks out towards the crowd and stands tall, whats this guy about to say?

"Ponies of ponyville! How long have you waited with parched throats?" Oh I see what he's doing, sly mother fucker

"Your children without a drop to drink!" Dramatic little- they can drink water!

"You poor ponies deserve better and with this machine we could give you cider for three ponyvilles, YEAR ROUND!" Oh god my ears! The whole crowd exploded with cheers, I look up to see Rainbow Dash losing her shit! Like seriously she's doing flips in the air, twirling around and shit I mean damn! Calm down!

"But this can only happen if the Apple Family here agrees to partner with us at the terms we've set, so tell them Ponyville tell them what you want!" They crowd goes into a frenzy, they start to chant "Do it!" over and over again, this is getting stupid, and my disappointment grew when I hear that these same chants are being repeated by the ponies I've actually come to respect

"Come on AJ!" This came from Rainbow, well so much for loyalty

"Yeah! Do it!" Pinkie, come on

"Oh yes Applejack! Do it!" Rarity, please

"..." Flutter shy just looked worried, as she should be

I look over at Twilight to see her putting one of her hooves up to her mouth and gaining a serious look, as if she's doing calculations in her head, hopefully she'll come up with the same outcome I did

And Spike, surprising me again, he wore a frown on his face shaking his head, at a boy Spike, question the system!

Hey, Mark relax, your getting too worked up, it's not your problem, let these people make their own choices, and mistakes, remember your just a bystander now, you don't need to get involved, besides there was no way the Apple's were gonna take this deal

However, when I looked at the Apple family they looked conflicted, probably due to the fact that their customers and friends just turned on them for some fancy new toy, but come on! Were they actually considering this errant bullshit! They went back to their huddle, you gotta be fuckin' kidding me! Ok, Relax! Mark, breath imagine a stream, filled with cold refreshing water

They stayed discussing this for a good ten minutes, eventually they break, each wearing unsure looks on their faces...what is going on?

Granny Smith walks forward with a troubled look on her face, there is no fuckin' way

"Well, Flim Flam," Imagine the steam, don't get involved

"While we'd prefer to keep to ourselves, and Apple cider season to a tradition, ya'll are right in your words, the ponies of ponyville *sigh* do deserve better, and if we could we'd give'm exactly what they want" You. Are. A. Leaf. Floating in the stream! DO NOT GET INVOLVED!

"But with the way it is, we don't see another way to please all the ponies of ponyville" YOUR A LEAF, A LEAF IN A CALM, CALM STREAM!!!

"So we would-" FUCK THE STREAM!!!!

"DON'T DO IT!" The chanting stops, everyone and their mother turned to look at me, and I gave them something to look at my teeth were bared, fists clenched and my eyes, burning with a fiery intensity, stunning many of the ponies around me especially my friends. I'm sorry but, there was no way in hell I was gonna let this stand, I may have been denied their cider, Granny Smith may hate my guts for a reason I'm not entirely sure about yet, but I know a raw deal when I hear it, I've been gettin' those all my life and I'll be damned if Imma sit back and let it happen to anyone, especially if it's to people as nice as the Apple's

I meet Granny Smiths eyes, who looked confused and startled at my loud and unexpected outburst

"Don't you see? They're gonna take you all for fools!" I say marching closer to the Apple's and the two thieves in hats

"They'll say they'll do this and they'll say they'll do that when in reality all they'll do is take and take and take until there is nothing left, they'll sell a shitty mass produced knock off with no regards for the craft or the people" I yell pointing an accusing finger at the two sales ponies

"They don't respect the land, they don't respect the craft, they don't respect the people and they don't respect your family or your work, the only thing they respect is the coins in their pocket" I turn to the Apple's with a concerned look

"You have worked hard and long everyday to maintain this farm and to care for these trees, this farm is a home that your family is proud of to call such and you've gotten apple farming and baking to a science, your craft is your families legacy, these two!" I turn, pointing to the two brothers, "are nothing but swindlers, who while having built this machine only did so to profit from doing absolutely nothing! And I'll be Damned if I'm gonna let that go quietly!" thus ends my unneeded, unasked for, and completely unwanted rant

And once again I'm met with silence, I look out at the crowd to find there mouths hanging open

"Hahahah, brother do you see this? I don't believe you have any stake in this, strange...monkey thing" That's true, but it needed to be said

"Yes, who are you anyway? You know what never mind, we have a business deal to finish now if you'll excus-"

"No"

All attention turned to Granny Smith, who now sports a look of solid indisputable authority

"Um, excuse us?" she didn't fuckin' stutter

"Ah said no, we ain't sellin'" She said finally, and I gained a small smile, that's right you do it right or you don't do it at all

The crowd did not like that, the boo's came immediately but this time the Apple Family stood resolute staring down the two brothers with some back up from yours truly, well to be honest most of the boo's were for me, I mean yeah the whole, cider for everyone year round would sound good, if you didn't know the consequences that came with it

Flim and Flam back off with surprise plastered over their faces, however they quickly compose themselves and regain their confident smirks, good God I wanna smack them!

"Well that's all well and good Apple's and we commend you for your pride, but how will you be able to satisfy everyone hmm?" The Apples once again falter only slightly

Well time to seal the deal, I walk up to Granny Smith, she eyes me as I walk up to her, kneeling down so what I say can be said to her while looking her in the eye

"Granny Smith, I offer my service to you, I'll help with anything you need for as long as you need me as an apology for butting into your families business dealings, with no payment, this was my choice and I need to own up to it, I'll even have no cider for the rest of this cider season" That got a reaction, muttering came from the crowd, "Will you accept my apology" I look up to see Granny Smiths reaction, her eyes held a critical look, she was appraising the quality of my words, to see if there was any truth to them, she'll find the promises I make are unbreakable

"Well, ya'll got us into this situation with your words, rilin' us up like that, so yes, I'll accept your apology" she says with a small smirk

"Thank you ma'am, you won't regret it" I stand and walk over to the rest of the apple's who gave me wide eyed stares, surprised at my actions, even AJ who looked like I had grown a second head, when I reached the group of stunned Apple's I turned and gave the two brothers a confident smirk

Flim and Flam were not amused, they quietly walked up to us and spoke with a confident edge

"Well then, that's unfortunate," Flim said

"I guess if we're not gonna be partners," Followed by Flam

"We'll be competitors" Flim finished

"Don't worry every pony!" Flam yelled gaining the attention of the crowd, "There'll soon be cider for all!" Gaining an applause from the crowd, *sigh* like children with a new toy

While the cheers of the crowd rise, Flam leans over and whispers to us, "After we run Sweet Apple Acres, out of business" now it took a lot of self control not to knock the taste out his smooth talkin' mouth but, I gotta keep my composure, remember you don't need to fight Mark, that time is over, same logic could have been applied before but, hey, they had it coming!

The two brothers make their way over to their machine and drive off down the road, soon the crowd dissipates, while giving me stink eyes, whatever, I'm soon approached by the apples

Big Mac walks up to me with a smile

"Thank yah Mark, those were just the words to wake us up, ah don't know what we were thinking' we'd lose the farm if we agreed to those terms, ah guess with all the other ponies wantin' what they were sellin' so bad, we just thought it'd be the right thing to do"

"Don't worry, Mac, I got your back...I didn't mean for that to rhyme" I answer back, he gives me a grateful smile, aww now I feel all warm

Applebloom walks up to me with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow

"Ya'll got a big mouth" I bust up cuz it's true, I shouldn't have butted in but as I said, it needed to be done

"But thanks, those were some really nice words, did yah mean'em?" I bend down and boop her nose

"Every word" she giggles and gives me a hug, more warm and fuzzies!

"Yeah, they were very kind of yah to say" This coming from AJ, she gives me a tip of the hat without meeting my eyes, what the hell is the matter with her?

"Holy shit! She can actually speak! now if only she could look me in the eyes!" I say with a smirk, she cocks her eyebrow and gives my thigh a light tap, that still gave me a charlie horse, good god she's strong!

"Ow! You don't have to hit" she's looking the other way, but I can see she has a smirk on her muzzle, that cheeky bitch, at least I got a reaction

"Yeah AJ be gentle, we need'em" Granny Smith says walking up to me motioning me to kneel down to talk to me face-to-face, "now ah hope ya'll weren't blowin' no hot air, since now we're gonna work hard, your gonna work hard, hope ya'll are ready" I match her serious look and reply

"I won't let you down, this I swear" I say placing a fist over my heart and giving her a nod

"Good, well let's pack it up and get ready for tomorrow" the Apple family go to start taking the barrels and stand back to the farm. I look to my left and see two empty cider barrels, I walk over and as I'm about to bend over to pick them up I hear a whoosh behind me and I turn to greet the enraged eyes of one very parched Rainbow Dash

"WHAT THE BUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU!" Ow my ears

Behind her I see the remainder of the group, Pinkie wore a disappointed frown, I've never seen Pinkie frown now I feel like a bit alf an asshole, Rarity had her usual snotty face upturned, well didn't get any points with her, Fluttershy gave me a curious eye, oh cool looks like I did get some points with her, at least she's not hiding from me, Twilight had a look of respect on her face, seems like she came to the same conclusion I did, and Spike gave me the thumbs up, to which I reciprocated

Rainbow noticed this along with the others and saw Spike's approval, and she didn't like that

"Spike! You agree with this?! We could of gotten cider YEAR ROUND! And this guy just screwed it up!" Spike quickly lost his smile and adopted a startled look at Dash's outburst

"Yeah Spike, don't you want cider all the time?!" Pinkie said materializing behind him making him jump clear off Twilights back

"Spike, you can't possibly be even considering that this brutes actions were in the right, were you?" Rarity pleaded getting right up in his face, oh playin' the pity card on him just cuz he likes you, that's low, and I've had enough

"Hey! Lay off him!" I yell gaining the groups attention

"It was my choice to do what I did, I did it because it was the right thing to do, so if you want to lay into me" I look at Rainbow

"Or question me" I look at Pinkie

"Or guilt trip me" I look at Rarity

"Then do it, but don't go gettin' mad at Spike just cuz he agrees with me, now I have work to do so if you don't mind," I say putting the two barrels under my arms, "I've gotta go help my friend" and I walk off, towards the Apple Familys' barn. I remember something and I yell over my shoulder

"Hey Twilight, I need to pick something up later so I'll be by the tree house in a bit ok?"

"Alright see you then!" she answers

A few hours later and I'm beat, sweat pouring off me, especially since this cryo suit don't breath, wheezing, but looking out at the rest of the Apple family I can see they're all in the same condition I am, all i've been doing is carrying basket back and forth from the trees to granny smith who appraises them and then to Big mac who turns them into cider, from what I can see we've made about double what they originally came out with today! Feelin' good!

"Alright youngins' time to pack it in, we need to rest up for tomorrow" granny smith yells rubbing her probably sore eyes

Everyone tiredly makes their way to the house while I start to walk down the path out of Sweet Apple Acres

"Hey where yah goin'?" I turn to see Aj standing there with a brow raised

"Now ya'll weren't thinkin' of walkin' out on us were yah?" she asks suspiciously

"AJ I'm hurt, why would you ever think that way about me? I just need to go to Twilights to pick something up" I state with a big grin

"Mhmm, well ah'll tag along just in case" she finishes with a flick of her tail as she walks ahead of me leading me out, y'know ponies need to seriously consider underwear since I just saw a lot! Seriously, it may have been only for a second but in that second, if I was in amsterdam I would have been charged cash money!

With a slight red tinge to my face I follow, why am I blushing? I don't know it just seems...embarrassing, I don't know why it's embarrassing to see a mare's...place...

Right moving on

Me and AJ make our way through the moonlit streets of Ponyville side by side, quietly enjoying the night air, pretty sure it's about eight, I could be off but oh well, I didn't care

I look over to AJ to see her eyes dart away and her head turn to look down a passing street, what is up with her? She's been acting this way all day, time to get some answers

"Hey AJ" must have startled her since she jumped a bit

"Y-yeah"

"I wanted to ask, what's goin' on with you? Somethin's been botherin' you and I want to know what"

"Nuthin'"

"Gettin' sick and tired of these one word answers AJ, is it about last week?" I can see her visibly stiffen, gotcha

"No" she says quickly

"Look, AJ whatever happened I'm sorry" I say with my head low, her head turns and for the first time in about a week her emerald eyes meet my Azure one's

"I've been under a lot of stress, all last week I couldn't get any sleep due to some...unforeseeable events, and only till last night did I get some good rest, but with it I also got some, shocking news" my head gets even lower, reminding myself of my predicament, I also notice her eyes soften

"I'm sorry for passing out in the barn, and honestly, I have no idea when I grabbed you, I guess i'm a cuddler when I sleep" we both share a small laugh, awesome finally got a real reaction!

"I just hope that it didn't mess with our friendship" I finish giving her a look of sincerity

I can see her head bow, her stetson covering her face as I wait for her reply

"...Well partner, thanks for that but you didn't have to apologize"

"Uh, yes I did, you've been avoiding me like I have the plague"

"Yeah, well, ah'm sorry too, I shouldn't have been avoidin' you like that" Cool, things were patched up!

"Awesome then we're good, and now we can focus all our efforts on crushing those two smart mouths tomorrow!" I shout raising my fists in the air

"Yeah! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces tomorrow! And thanks, for reals this time, without those words of yours, Ah'm sure we would've ended up makin' a big mistake!"

"No problem AJ! No matter when or how, what I say is set in stone! And I mean every word!" We both start laughing heartily

"Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement, cuz what you were sayin' to me while you had me wrapped up in the barn had me-" She immediately blushes red and covers her muzzle, what did she say?

"What did you say?"

"Ah didn't say nuthin'" her eyes are darting everywhere and her face is scrunched, I call bullshit

"No I heard you say something, now what did you-"

"Hey look we're here" She points ahead of her and I turn to see that we had arrived at Golden Oaks, I immediately forget what I was saying cuz Through the windows I can smell pancakes, MARK WANT! I sprint up to the door and knock on the door hard, bouncing on my feet like an excited child

Twilight soon answers the door with a disgruntled look

"You almost knocked my door down"

"Well, pancakes" and thus was my answer as I walk in, she just rolls her eyes at me, giggles and goes to greet AJ

Well priorities first, I run upstairs into Twilights room. Now I know I put them somewhere, I look around Twilights bed and near Spike's basket, seriously she needs to get him a damn bed, he ain't a pet, I look over to my makeshift bed on the floor and I notice a bundle of clothes from Carousel Boutique, a simple white, button up t-shirt and denim pants considering she hates me, and the fact I didn't exactly specify what I wanted she did a damn good job! Now I really got to apologize to her for calling these things shoddy, they looked fine as fuck! I make my way downstairs to find the girls waiting for me

"Ya'll get what yah needed?"

"Yeah I got it just one more thing though"

"Oh, what's that?" Twilight asks

I walk passed her into the kitchen to see Spike putting the last of the pancakes into a stack bigger than he was, then he put a slab of butter on top, drenched it with maple syrup and with some blueberries on top, breakfast for dinner and this mofaku want to put on a presentation like that?

"Yo mah boy!" He jumps at my outburst

"Whoa! geez man you scared me half to death!" He says clutching his chest

"What have we here" I say circling the pancake tower, eyeing it like a predator does prey, he immediately gets defensive pointing a wooden spoon at me, Shit! That's my kryptonite! out of the corner of my eye I can see the two girls watching with amusement but that's not the pressing issue, the issue is that a baby dragon is pointing a deadly weapon at me

"Nuh-uh, very single time I try to make food look good, you always come in here take half of it and destroy my hard work!" He growls

"Pfft, like when?"

"How about the fruit salad? with the orange smiley faces? Huh? You walked in took half and walked out, there wasn't even any words between us you just kept walking"

"Ok, well name another"

"How about that vegetable stew I made? I walk out to ask Twilight if she wanted some, I come back to see you walking out of my kitchen, I check the stew and three quarters of it is gone, how'd you even manage that?"

"...name one more" I say staring into his eyes

"Ok, what about those steamed vegetables and rice? I literally turned around for two seconds and half of it was gone!"

I stood in shock, wow, he was right

"You know what Spike? Your right" His eyes widen, I caught him off guard

"I am?"

"Yes you are and I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you, especially since I flaked yesterday on the cleaning, when I'm done helping the Apple's, I'll come here and I'll do all your chores for the day, ok?" I declare as I place my hand on the top of his head

"Alright, apology accepted, oh you know what? Some blueberry syrup would be great on these" he says as he turns to go get the syrup

"Sounds good, but me and AJ gotta go and get some sleep, see ya Spike" I say as I turn and walk towards the mares

"Well later Twilight , I'll see ya tomorrow" I say quickly, then I turn to Applejack

"Walk with me AJ" I say with urgency

"O-ok, well later Twi, see yah"

"Oh, ok goodbye, don't you wanna stay for dinner though?"

"It's cool I'm on a diet" I yell as I shut the door, Then I look at AJ

"Now run!" I yell as I take off down the street with AJ following close behind

She eventually catches up to me

"Why we runnin'?" she asks, to which I answer by pulling out a stack of pancakes I'd been hiding, her eyes widen

"What the? how'd you? What?"

"Pinkie ain't the only one who's got tricks" I laugh

"You took the whole stack!?"

"No! Just the top three quarters"

"..."

"Hey don't give me that look! Y'know a lot of women would be grateful for a guy who brings them dinner"

She gives me another stern look but eventually she starts to laugh, then I start to laugh, it doubled when we both heard 'DANG IT MARK!!!!' on the wind not five minutes later, we ended up laughing all the way home, and for a good minute, all was right with the world.

Author's Note

SWEET LAWD!!! I LIVE! Again very sorry for the lateness, took some time off to focus on finals, which I destroyed ladies and gentlemen! And in return for your patience I've given you the biggest chapter to date! Enjoy, also I'm gonna start doing chapters dedicated to specific characters so as to give some character development. Also, HOLY SHIT! Over Two hundred likes!? and one away from TWO THOUSAND VIEWS?! Man you guys are awesome, I really appreciate it, and I'll continue to try and make this story better and better, I hope this makes up for the ungodly amount of time in between and as always, any ideas and constructive criticisms are welcome, Tlazomatli