"Horse feathers, this is heavy." Twilight spoke in a strained voice as she held a large basket of freshly picked apples in her hands. Several other baskets surrounded her, floating in her magical grasp as she struggled to keep up with Applejack, who was carrying two in each hand with relative ease.

"Just a little bit further sugarcube." Applejack said in an encouraging tone. "We're almost there." She knew Twilight wasn't exactly the strongest pony, but appreciated the help regardless.

If Rainbow Dash had shown up to help, like she promised, then Twilight wouldn't have to be here straining herself just to lend a hand. She would have asked her brother for help, but he was busy with his own work on the other side of the farm. No point in making him slow down just to help her. He had some important jobs to get done today.

They walked for another minute or so before finally making it to the barn door where Twilight's body and magic finally gave out and dropped the baskets to the ground, somehow being lucky enough to not spill any of the ripe fruit. "How in Equestria do you manage to do this for so long?"

Applejack flashed a proud, yet somewhat cocky, smile to her friend. "Years of practice ah guess. When you've been apple pickin' fer as long as ah have, you tend to get used to hauling around some heavy artillery." Overall it was her extensive history of hard work paying off, but she also had a natural born advantage.

Twilight watched in awe as Applejack carried all of the baskets into the barn, barely showing any sign of a struggle. Her strength was remarkable, which was something she could really admire about earth ponies. With them not being able to harness magic with a horn, or use it to allow their bodies to fly, as well as having thicker bones, earth ponies were gifted with the magic of muscle tone. "No kidding..."

Once all of the baskets were in the barn she closed the door and turned back to face her friend. "Thank yah kindly fer your help, Twi. That should be it fer pickin' today. Feel free to swing by tomorrow if you feel like lendin' a hand."

"It's no problem at all, Applejack." Twilight said with a smile as she prepped herself to head back home. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Just as she was about to take her leave, Applejack decided to check up on something. It had been a while since she had seen Twilight and she never gotten around to asking what was going on with her at home. "Before you head off, how's that thing of your doing?"

Twilight cocked her head at her friend and shot her a questioning glance. "That thing of mine?" She asked, finding it odd how vague Applejack was being. She was usually very upfront about things unless she didn't truly understand them.

"You know, that thing we pulled out of that giant metal monster. Ah haven't heard a thing about'em since we took it to Ponyville General."

Her eyes widened in realization of what her friend was talking about. "Oh, you mean Ryan? He's doing fine. I mean, he's kind of weird, but he's been...well, weird."

"His name's Ryan? Sounds a bit funky to me, but I aint nopony to judge." She commented, "What do yah mean by; he's weird?"

Twilight twiddled her thumbs together as she tried to think of a decent way to describe him to her. "Well, he's a bit eccentric, he seems to have allot of energy, and he's fairly unpredictable. I can never seem to guess what he's going to do or when."

Applejack almost looked like she was in a state of absolute horror. "Sweet Celestia, it's another Pinkie Pie..."

She giggled at Applejack's reaction. It was almost identical to how Rarity had reacted when she told her about Ryan. She wanted to tell her friends about how she and Ryan had agreed to start a relationship, but it was still early. It just didn't feel right to start announcing it, so she would hold off on that for a bit. "Not exactly. You'd really have to meet him to understand the difference."

The farmer put a hand to her chin and started thinking. "Ah really don't have too many chores to get done tomorrow. Maybe ah'll swing by to meet the fella."

"That sound great." Twilight said, being more than happy to let her friend come visit. "I'll see you then. Bye, Applejack." She said with a wave as she left the farm and made her way back home.

The walk was quiet, peaceful even. The ponies in Ponyville were all going about their day accordingly. As usual, the market place was pretty busy, but not ridiculously so. With how everypony was moving around, they didn't slow her down too much. However, the peace was immediately disturbed when she was just about to enter the pathway leading to her castle.

In the distance she could hear never ending waves of shouting and yelling, like two ponies arguing. It seemed to get louder the closer she got to her home. Finally, she found the source. She saw Rainbow Dash standing right in front of the entrance with her foot blocking the door, like she was trying to keep it from closing on her.

"Where is she, what did you do to her!?" Rainbow yelled to the figure standing on the other side of the doorway.

"For the last time," Ryan began, yelling just as loud as she was. "I don't know where she is! She left this morning to go help someone, that's all I know. Now, fuck off!" He grabbed the door handle and tried to pull it shut again, only for Rainbow's foot to keep it ajar.

"Listen here, freak!" She continued to scream, "You can either tell me where she is or I'm gonna pound you into next week!" Rainbow was fuming and desperate. If she needed to beat down this alien just to get some answers then she would happily do so.

"I'd like to see you try, bitch!" He shouted in return, accepting her challenge with open arms.

Put your dukes up, hoe!

"I'm not kidding, you're body will be twisted and bent in directions you didn't even know existed!"

"I could have you face down, ass up, in the dirt right now if I wanted to!"

Am I the only one that thinks this is starting to sound dirty?

"Quiet!" Twilight shouted, quickly earning both of their attention. "What in the wide, wide world of Equestria are you two fighting about?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"Twilight!" Rainbow called out, charging right for her and stopping not even an inch away from her face. "What happened? Did he hurt you? If he did I swear I'll-"

Twilight shoved her hand over the rainbow maned pegasus' mouth to, quite simply, shut her up. "No, he didn't do anything to me. Why would you ever think that he did?"

She pulled Twilight's hand from her mouth so she could answer. "Spike said that he heard you two yelling at each other this morning. Then he said that you just up and vanished. I've been worried sick!"

"I left to go help Applejack at the farm because she told me that you didn't show up like you said you would." Twilight explained in a somewhat reprimanding tone.

"I was looking for you, I thought you had been ponyknapped!" She said in her defense. It seemed a bit unfair for her to worry about her friend and take the initiative to make sure she was okay, only to be talked down to.

"Well I wasn't, and I'm fine." Twilight gave her a look, a look that she knew Rainbow would recognize since she had been forced to wear it almost a million times.

Rainbow Dash seemed to calm down pretty quickly at her words, but an unpleasant look crossed her features as she realized that she was now going to have to apologize to the human she had accused of attacking Twilight. She turned around to face him and crossed her arms, letting out an annoyed sigh. "I'm sorry for accusing you of hurting Twilight. We cool?"

"Let me think about it for a second." He paused for not even a full second, "No..."

Rainbow's ears flicked at his answer as her anger started to pick back up. "Hey, I just said I was sorry, you jerk!"

"Eat my ass!" He yelled, "You apologized, big fucking deal. You want an award?"

Now her blood was starting to boil. In the blink of an eye she flew back up towards the door, sticking her face right into his. "Listen here, fruit cup-" She stopped as the human started laughing hysterically at her. "What's so funny?"

He nodded, "Nothing, nothing at all. I just find it humorous that, of all the ponies here, I'm being called a fruit cup by the only one that looks like a fucking gay pride flag."

And that style makes you look like a cross between a hillbilly and a dike. Never thought I'd ever see such a disgusting abomination with my own eyes.

Rainbow Dash growled angrily at Ryan, but before either of them could react Twilight stepped between them and pushed them apart. "That's enough! Both of you need to calm down." She said, trying to get a handle on the situation before it escalated further. "How about I make us all some tea to help us relax, okay?"

Ryan glared at Rainbow, who returned the favor in kind as he turned around and walked deeper into the castle. Twilight took a sigh of relief at his departure. At least one of them was being cooperative.

"How do you live with him?" Rainbow asked, her voice clearly showing that she was still agitated. "He's such a hard-head."

"Remind you of anypony?' Twilight asked, causing Rainbow Dash to tense up. It wasn't the fact that she had said it that shocked her, it was the fact that she said it. She wouldn't be surprised if any of her other friends talked to her like that, with the exception of Fluttershy, but never did she think in her entire life that Twilight would be the one to call her out on it.

Damn, you have the right to remain sassy!

Ryan chose to remain quiet for once. He may have been deeper in the castle, but these walls echoed like a cave. He never thought Twilight had it in her to stand up to someone like that. She always seemed like a by-the-books kind of person who would avoid confrontation and go with trying to talk things out. Maybe he was wrong about her.

After a few minutes of walking and glaring, everyone managed to find themselves in the living area. Before they could settle in though, Twilight and Rainbow Dash froze up in shock at the condition of the room. Before, it used to match the rest of the castle with it's crystal-like structure. It was also pretty empty minus a few chairs and a table.

That was no longer the case though. Now, the entire room had a much more traditional look. It had walls that looked like stacked wooden logs, the floor was made up by several dark oak planks, and in the corner was an unlit, brick fire place. There was a large rug that nearly covered the whole floor, the chairs and table were now made from mahogany, and a large chandelier covered with lit candles hung a few feet above their heads.

Both ponies turned to see Ryan standing at the door and looking around the room with a prideful smirk on his face. However, Twilight was the only one willing to speak up. "Did you do all of this?"

"Yep." He simply replied, "You like it?"

"Like it?" She began, "I love it. It's beautiful..."

"Consider it my apology..." He paused to glance over at Rainbow Dash, "for not giving you a chance sooner. And, you know, for all of the times that I'm likely gonna be a dick in the future."

It's inevitable, it's going to happen.

Twilight paces around the room to get a better look at the craftsmanship, admiring every little detail put into its design. "How did you do all of this, and so fast?"

He shrugged, "On top of being a stripper, I did dabble in construction with some of the best." He watched as she made her way to the fireplace, "I wouldn't recommend lighting that yet. I haven't gotten around to finding a way for the smoke to get out. This crystal is some strong shit." He said, knocking on a wall just outside of the room.

Once the ponies were pulled back into their natural state of mind, Twilight left to get the tea ready. This meant leaving Ryan and Rainbow Dash all alone together in the living room.

The two would glare at each other hard for seconds at a time. More often than not, Ryan's glare was followed by the raising of his middle finger. Rainbow didn't seem to understand the meaning behind this, just the look she gave him explained that. "In my world, this means Fuck you! Fucking, dumbass..."

She growled at him again, giving him the most painful death stare she could manage. "One more word out of you and I will put you through that wall."

"I will take every piece of my wood from this room and smack you upside the head with it!" Rainbow Dash shot him a disgusted look, making him think back on what he had just said. "That came out wrong...or did it?" He whispered the last part, making his hand aggressively cup his crotch and squeeze.

You are making this into a very uncomfortable situation...I salute you!

Their bantering came to a grinding halt as Twilight entered the room with a tea set levitating just in front of her. She set everything down the small wooden table and took her seat, using her magic to pour the steaming hot liquid into three individual white cups. With the cups filled she handed one off to Ryan, then one to Rainbow Dash

Twilight sipped her tea and merely observed as the two others continued to lock eyes with each other. She could practically smell the bloodlust surrounding them as they stared into each others soul with nothing but hatred.

Ryan chugged his tea and set the cup down, going back to his visual battle with Rainbow. "You like what you see?"

"As if." She huffed, "Try keeping your eyes to yourself, pervert."

"You first, Thomas Bickham."

Rainbow Dash may not have known what he was talking about, but she knew for sure that it was an insult. That was all she needed to prompt her to splash what tea she had left in her cup onto the human sitting right across the table. Ryan's body instinctively reacted by kicking his leg out, causing Rainbow to grimace in pain and curl up slightly.

Twilight's head shot over to her friend, who appeared to be in pain. She looked up at Twilight and pointed an accusing finger at Ryan. "He kicked me-"

"I kicked her right in the pussy." He said, not caring that it made him look bad. Ryan had never once been driven to strike a woman in any way shape or form. Not even the one who tried to stab him with his own knife, in his own bed. But this bitch, right here, was asking for it.

"Okay," Twilight yelled, finally snapping. "that's enough! Both of you need to stop this! The only reason you're at each others throats like this is because of a simple misunderstanding. Why can't you let it go?"

"Hey, I apologized!" Rainbow replied defensively.

"And what an apology it was." Ryan began, "I could really feel the sincerity behind ever syllable. You ever think about going in for acting classes? I'm sure they could use another hot-headed, brainless, fuck up."

"That's it!" Rainbow finally had enough. She stood up from her chair and flipped the table over before tackling Ryan to the ground, starting the next wrestling match of the century. "I'm gonna beat you to a pulp!"

"I'll rip your fucking head off and wear as a nut cup!" Ryan shouted in return.

DEATH!!!

Twilight sank into her chair and buried her head into her hands, dragging her palms across her face as she pulled them down. This day did not go as she had anticipated. It started off so well too. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Author's Note

For those who don't know, Thomas Bickham aka Tomboy is the guy who made the song It's Okay To Be Gay. [OK2BGAY]
There, that should make that a bit easier to understand.
Anyway, as usual; If you enjoy this story please like it and share with your friends. Feel free to leave a comment below, comments make me feel special :P
That being said, I'll catch yall later. Deuces!