Don't even get me started

Thwack!

The sound echoes out across the hills until it hits the trunk next to their upward pointed ears. Thinking they had been far enough away to just observe without getting further involved, the two mares fold back their ears in a twitch before pivoting them forward once again. Long into the day, the clear sky above comes with the price of one who has already done a good days work. Bored, she would do her usual routine of finding another of a more earth bound pony that had been taken to another routine of the more ornery kind.

Thwack!

"So how many times?" Rainbow Dash leads off, sitting on her rear with an amused stare down the hill.

"At least once a week, for the last six darn months." Applejack replies after spitting out a stalk of wheat. "Nothing."

Thwack!

"So why still do it?" Rainbow glances over, looking at the ever determined look in her best friend's eyes. "Dude isn't going to budge no matter how many times you smash his shy fence. Besides, you're the one who put it up in the first place!"

"I don't care!" Applejack curls her upper lip. "I made a stupid mistake, let things get to me, and thought he'd take a hint and see how it feels. But then I felt bad, and I went and smashed it all to pieces." Snorting loud. "But he rebuilt it."

"And you went nutty?"

Thwack!

"I ain't nutty, Dash. I'm annoyed." Applejack makes sure to correct the assumption, just like she is sure to use the ball of her tail to wack away a bee filled rotten apple. "One you ain't aware of, the other..." She softly growls. "Keeps you up at night."

"You sneak out at night to go and smash some furless stallion's fence at least once a week in the hopes that you'll get some kind of reaction." Rainbow rolls her eyes with a puff of air pushed between her teeth. "Even Rarity doesn't get that batty."

"Rarity done gave up on the guy a long time ago. Like a lot of pony that think it's some sort of game. But you all don't get to see him everyday. I do, so does my brother, and my little sister. Even Granny done gone and tried, and nothing. Good or bad, nothing."

"Really getting under your coat, isn't it?" Rainbow teases. "Getting you all riled up and bothered, with nothing good enough to scratch." Encouraged by the angry expression forming on the apple pony's face, she pushes it a little too far. "Pounding like thunder, in the night, so much that you wake up in a sweat that makes you gallop to the one thing you can't wait to get your hooves on and-"

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

"Buck you!"

Thwack!

"Seriously? Well I think he said okaaaaarrrgh!" Rainbow tumbles to the grassy ground on top of a few rotten apples, causing her a quick yelp before the light buzz of a bee whizzes away. "Hey, what's your problem?! It's not like I mean't any of that stuff!"

Applejack just continues to stand over Rainbow who does her best to squeeze or buck out from under. In perhaps taking lessons from her less than neighborly neighbor, Applejack doesn't look down even as she shifts her weight just enough to reminds Rainbow who the has the home turf advantage. Making sure not to actually hurt her friend, Applejack waits for Rainbow to tell her she is ready to talk.

"AJ! If you don't get off me I'll-!"

"What do you go and do when you get hurt, Rainbow?" Applejack simply asks, finally looking down at Rainbow.

"Hide from all of you?" Rainbow shrugs to the honest truth. "Then get forced to go see Nurse Redheart."

"Even if it isn't nothing serious?" Applejack clamps her hooves inward to deter her friend's struggle like a vice. "It's not just because we're all worry worts you know. Hay, I'm the same way, and I get away with it less than you do with my brother and granny, but it's nice you know bruising or serious, you got a place you can go for help." Leaning her head down until their muzzles touch. "He doesn't."

"Horse radish!" Rainbow aggressively smudges her nose against Applejack's. "We've all tried and the best it's gotten us is a disappointed letter from Princess Celestia. I've got too much on my plate to worry about a stallion with hurt feelings."

"There's a path, leading from Double Down's house into the Everfree all the way to Zecora's. He uses it so he never has to go into town to go to work." Applejack raises her head, but continues to stand over an upside down Rainbow. "Thank goodness, because if there wasn't my Apple Bloom wouldn't be here, and neither would Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo." Speaking louder for the last name. "Swear."

"Swear? Why!?"

"Swear you ain't gonna tell Rarity or the others, and especially not to any of those three fillies."

Distracted by memories of something she'd rather not remember, Applejack fails to react to the brief look of surprise in Rainbow's eyes before a flash of anger flips her up and over, forwards. Landing on her back with a thud and squish, she hasn't the time to open her eyes before the pressure hits her sides along with the hot breath bearing down that almost overpowers her own.

"Best friends never need to swear." Rainbow's nose grinds grass stains into the back of Applejack's mane. "Now spill."

With Applejack square on her back pointed head first in the direction of the not so distant fence, she cannot help but try to no better success what Rainbow had with her. Lighter but more dexterous, Rainbow seems to have little trouble keeping all the squirming and light bucks from setting Applejack any more free. But even as both push the letter of roughhousing play, they are content to keep it only up to that.

Snorting loud and wet, it is at least enough for Applejack to get Rainbow to remove her nose from her own.

"Six months ago Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, an Scootaloo nearly took the farm house door off the hinges. It was dark outside, but clear as Luna's moon could make it. They were cold, wet, and Sweetie Belle had a bloody nose. Didn't know quite what to think, since they wouldn't come out from underneath the couch." Applejack voice shimmers up and down throughout her words. "They were plain scared to death."

Looking up and then back down, Rainbow seems to grasp at dangerous assumptions.

"Now don't go getting any ideas until I'm done talking, Rainbow." Applejack reaches up and presses her front hooves over either of Rainbow's wings to keep her grounded, whom growls in appreciation. "Took a while to coax them out, and even longer to find out what had happened. Wasn't any mentioned of Double Down, and as far as those fillies are concerned and to be concerned, it's gonna stay that way."

"Then get to the point." Rainbow tries to wiggle her wings free, with no success. "Cause you really suck at this stuff."

"So. Turns out those three decided to go and visit Zecora without letting anypony know, or tag along. Then, lost in their little world, they forgot the time of day and ended up really getting lost in the dark when trying to make it back to Fluttershy's. Now if that weren't enough, one of them rascals decided to get curious and got into something back at Zecoras, which riled those Timberwolves like a case of rabies."

"Do you know what Rarity is going to do to you if she ever finds out you kept this from her?"

Thwack!

"Do to us, best buddy of mine." Applejack grins. "I say we got a split chance on who gets taken down first. She ain't no Twi, that's for sure." Sending out a bout of laughter that is not shared. "Hey, you wanted in, and now you're in it for the long haul."

"How the hay was I supposed to know knocking down a stupid fence was code for Sweetie Belle getting chased by Timberwolves?!" Rainbow lifts and jabs a hoof down at Applejack's muzzle. "How the hay those squirts kept from blabbing all this already..."

"They can't blab what all they don't know." Applejack tilts her noggin to emphasize just how much more there is to be told. "They were scared Rainbow. They just ran down the only path that should'a been, and had they found the one to the old castle there of been nopony there to protect them." Nodding up direct down the hill where the crack of metal and wood had grown mostly silent. "Understanding, now?"

"The fence?"

"No, you darn fool, Double Down!"

"Yeah, right." Rainbow puffs air through her teeth. "No way I'm buying that."

"I didn't either, till I went and followed their tracks back this way the following morning. Till I got mighty curious about the plank blown right out from his side onto mine like he done kicked it good. Maybe even more, when I saw the blood right there on the blank from Sweetie Belle herself." Applejack mimics Rainbow's puff of air with her own. "I almost turned back, and If I had, I never would have known the truth."

"So what if they ran through his run down little plot of land? That doesn't mean anything, AJ. Especially not when for the last year the only thing he's made sure we all knew what just how much he hates us." Frowning towards the fence line. "Waste of time, too."

"I found her ribbon on the ground." Applejack speaks loud and clear, about something with no doubt in her mind.

"What? What ribbon?"

"They had been close enough to the back of her neck to snag the ribbon with their teeth. There were a few puncture marks going through it, but no tearing, and I couldn't understand why if she broke free." Applejack closes her eyes. "That's cause she never did. The ribbon had been cut clean through the threads with a sharp edge, and when I got home Granny was still trying to loosen the knot left in Apple Bloom's mane."

"You're still just guessing." Rainbow refuses to believe in mere assumptions, instead only in the facts. "He's still a jerk."

"Yeah, he is." Applejack agrees without any hesitation. "Or that's fine with him letting us think that way."

"Still haven't said anything that's going to change my mind."

"Never tried to." Applejack taps a hoof against Rainbow's side, making sure not to hit the wing when doing so. Standing up after Rainbow jumps up into the air, Applejack stretches herself a once over. "Just telling you why I'm out here."

"Feeling guilty is a waste of time unless you're able to do something about it." Rainbow soars around in order stretch herself out, refusing to admit how much strength her pony friend has on her, many times over. "And you haven't."

"Don't mean I won't."

Applejack just plops back down in front of the apple tree, looking on down the hill towards the rebuilt fence. Moving her eyes in small spurts at random sections of the fence, she seems to search for something that she still cannot find. So distracted, but undeterred, she fails to notice the gusts of downward breeze hitting her left twitching ear. Flapping her lips with a breath, she turns to her left side.

"About all there is..." Applejack just keeps turning, even as her body must get up follow to do so. "Rainbow?"

"What in blue hell is that pony's problem." Double Down glares across all the damage to the planks that he had just barely repaired from the weekend prior, many chipped and warped from pressure. "Doesn't she know I got better things to do than to fix this stupid fence?"

Trying to shake his mind of wandering thoughts.

"Not enough that comes to break my stuff when I'm busy." Shaking his head even more. "Now she's bringing more and fucking them in plain sight. Rolling over apples and slobbering on each other like I ain't got enough to deal with on my own!"

Twirling the hammer handle in his hand with a forceful jerk of his wrist, his agitation slowly gets the better of him. Catching a lone nail head that had somehow escaped him earlier, he twists on one ankle while bracing on the other with a full swing spewing blue sparks on impact. Driving it all the way in, and part of the hammer head right after it, he instantly regrets when the fence cracks and creaks.

"Damn it." He presses his free hand palm flat on one the thicker post driven down into the ground, hoping to somehow ease and support what he just didn't have time left to mess with. "What the hell else is going to go wrong today."

Breathing easier as the fence seems to give him a break, and not itself, it suddenly leans his way forcing his feet to dig into the dirt to become a living brace. Held in place, and just a little confused, his long unkempt bangs spread away from his eyes under a hot breeze.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash leans down towards Double Down from atop the fence like a perched bird of prey, somehow agile enough to hold herself from teetering over forward. "Don't think just cause Applejack puts up with it that I'm just going to accept being ignored."

Controlling his breathing by only using his nose, Double Down just continues bracing the creaking fence.

"Must be nice to mess with ponies by just existing, huh." Rainbow yells the last word, her front hooves between the hind ones holding her steady even at an almost ninety degree angle off the fence. "But the one thing you ain't got is the one thing you messed with of mine."

Concerned for the fence that might buckle any minute right on top of him, Double Down takes the anger rising from getting a little spit from the loud mouth pony leaned right into his face to buy a little more time. Gritting teeth behind a closed mouth, he pierces his gaze into the wooden fence post in a tactic that had even turned this particular pony away not so long after he first met her.

"But if you think things are rough now, wait until ponies find out how three little fillies came running from here, scared out of their mind with one even having a bloody muzzle." Rainbow throws any foreplay to the winds and goes straight for the main event. Flapping her wings not to take flight, but only to entice a fight. "Wait until Rarity finds out that it was her little sister. You remember Rarity, right?"

Like he was sucker punched into a different mood, Double Down raises an eyebrow to such a notion, which is entirely lost on Rainbow who only grits her teeth for a few seconds from the obnoxious expression. Glaring towards where his vision holds all interest, her mane hits the top of Double Down's head like a whip when she looks down and under to finding absolutely nothing but a misunderstanding.

"All of this..." Rainbow whips her mane onto her back and uppercuts her nose into his. "Is going to end."

Expecting something, maybe even anything for all her genuine effort for the pony still sitting back at the apple tree up the hill behind her, Rainbow lets her jaw fall when all Double Down does is turn and walk away. No words of anger, or even a physical reaction with a swing of his long arms, comes her way but the shine of the sun off the beads of sweat running down his bare back.

"Hey!" Rainbow yells even louder than she had when she utters the same word on her arrival to her perch on the fence, but with another emotion riding shotgun to her anger. "How did you get those!?" Pushing down hard to jump into the air. "I'm talking-!"

But as the fence bends back towards Apple Acres, it holds long enough to be whipped towards Double Down's plot. Sending the first wave down either side like a bunch of domino, the second wave meets the first on it's way back in an impression explosion of planks, beams, and braces. Thrown into the air and across both Apple Acres and Double Down's like a bloody battlefield of timber, it ends what never began.

"...to you."

Losing full sight of Double Down's retreating form from the dust and debris kicked up in the air, Rainbow's brain begins to process all the smaller details she hadn't paid much attention to in their brief reunion after nine months. Where his brown mane had been cut short and clean like many stallions, it was now ragged and long in all the ways that would make Rarity shriek. His clothing, once tidy and perhaps overly form fitting, had worn and torn down to barely hanging from his waste to halfway down his two legs. Barely, if that.

But he didn't look unhealthy outside of perhaps needing to take a good long bath. Not used to seeing something without a coat of fur or body of feathers, she had only always thought it looked embarrassingly funny. But while no where near what she would imagine a Bulk Biceps as whatever the hay Double Down was, it just didn't so embarrassing anymore. He looked healthy.

"I'm no Rarity but the very least you could do is throw yourself in a river for awhile you stinking jerk!"

Having watched the loud but mostly inaudible confrontation between Rainbow and what she assumes was a concealed Double Down just behind the fence, Applejack continues to sit patiently at her apple tree with widened eyes. Having never accomplished such destruction, she doesn't know whether to be impressed, or worried.

"I can be both, right?" Applejack mutters to herself as Rainbow turns and starts her way back. "Well that sure went-"

"Not my fault." Rainbow lands on the grass in a short skid. "So don't even start with me, alright?"

"Gets you so darn mad you just have to bust stuff up, don't it?"

"What did I just say?"

"Don't worry Rainbow, I know how it feels to try and make amends and not be given the time of day. I ain't judging ya, long as you don't go and judge me." Applejack shows a honest smile. "Got some chores if you wanna tag along before we go see the girls?"

"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow shakes her head to her discontent. "I don't know how you haven't just bucked him at least once."

"Oh, I've wanted to for-" Quick on the uptake, Applejack just isn't quick enough. "You know what you are?"

"Quicker than you?" Rainbow looks down with a long smirk.

"A darn stinking rattler!" Applejack snaps her teeth towards the pegasus. "Striking when you ain't expecting it."

Leading off in laughter, It soon travels from the air down to the ground as the two rowdy ponies speed off towards what they both know is more important. Their work, their friends and family, and their ongoing lives that already asks so much of their time. Thankful or not, such distractions separated by a tall fence will have to wait for another day to try and see if amends can still be made.

But as Applejack and Rainbow go back to their lives, they miss the long stare of who only wishes they'd stay there.

"Don't count on it." Double Down twirls the hammer in his hand like a bad habit. "But bring it, all the same."

Walking back and onto the small porch of his shoddy little shed, Double Down gives one last look back just to make sure, having no time left in the day to make a show for the ponies who just cannot take a hint. Raising his head to look up into the sky, even the sun gets the same treatment with just a little more confrontation. His hammer raised in point to drive one home, he gives the sun some acknowledgement.

Thwack!