But First!! Here are Some Doubts....

              The dragon felt his eyes begin to droop. The slight sway in Applejack's step was beginning to rock him to sleep, a much welcome comfort to the cold sweeping his insides. He was nearly asleep too, his face covered by the Earth Pony's mane, when Applejack spoke softly to him.

           "Ya might wanna send Twilight a letter tomorra mornin', don't lemme forget now,"

            Spike gave a small "mhmm" in approval, repositioning himself on the mare's back. He remained quiet, feeling the mare's steady heartbeat with his clawtips.

            "I'm sorry I overreacted Sugarcube, I jes......it wasn't right gosh darn it," Applejack sighed and trailed off, unable to fight off the awkwardness of her situation.

           "I know," Spike answered in a small voice.

            Applejack held her breath, listening for anything else the dragon might have whispered. But nothing audible came from the dragon, save for a single solitary sniff.

           "Yunno Spike, I jes don't get it,"

            She felt Spike perk up on her back.

            "Ya bust yer hump for that mare every which way, and she just keeps givin' ya the runaround. Why do ya keep goin' back to her?"

            The dragon pulled the mare's mane over his face, feeling shame at his own actions. He catered to the every whim of the fashionista since he came to Ponyville, whether she asked or not. Perhaps maybe she had never wanted his affections, or his help for that matter. And yet there he was, pushing the envelope like it was the natural thing to do. Yeah natural, as natural as a pony and a dragon could be together.

             "I wanted to make her happy," was all the dragon could come up with.

            "Wonder when that stopped bein' enough fer mares nowadays...," Applejack couldn't hide the notes of disgust in her voice, thinking back to the long line of snobby, prissy colts Rarity had crushed on over the years.

          "Do you think I was just wasting her time?"

          "What makes ya think she wasn't wastin' yours?" Applejack replied.

         "Well.....she doesn't want to have babies with me...."

         Applejack stumbled a bit, taken aback by the dragon's ignorance of the genetic impossibility of it all. Not that it mattered much in the end, an adoption would have given Rarity her family in the end.

          "Uh....well...Spike, now I don't much think you an' Rarity could have babies of yer own but yunno there's little foals all over that'd  give anythin' to be adopted."

           For a while nothing was said, perhaps because Applejack's words were sinking in. As the silence passed on, the mare questioned whether or not it had been wise to imply such  a thing to the emotionally distraught dragon; perhaps she should have let him believe he could naturally give Rarity her foals one day.

         The silence ebbed on, save for the chirping of crickets in the growth beyond the dirt path. The Princess's moon was only half full tonight, bright enough to make out objects in the shadows but dim enough for them to be easily missed. Perhaps it was this calming light that finally pulled the initial snores from the dragon on Applejack's back. She breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling alone with her thoughts.

          "What's Twilight gonna think bout all this hogwash?"

           "Prolly just that--hogwash," said a voice in her head.

            "That mare needed her hindquarters kicked, been that way since the first time I met er',"

         "An' that makes it okay to break inta another Pony's house and kidnap a dragon?"

        Applejack looked back at the snoozing ball of scales, fast asleep between the saddlebags on her hips.

         "Yes. It darn sure does,"

         She made a mental note to smack Macintosh on the arm when she got back. The giant red pony was always making her question herself, even when he wasn't there at all.

            Big Macintosh sat on the porch of the family home, picking at a half eaten cherry pie. Normally he would have wolfed down such a treat in seconds, being that cherries were a rare delicacy on an apple ranch. But there were many things on the stallions mind, and to be honest his hoof was starting to bother him. A mug had shattered somehow in the kitchen sink, and before he had known what it was that his hoof had touched, he had a nice gash going across the side.

          The stallion readjusted the bandage wrapped around the hoof, the bleeding just starting to subside. The dull red stains in the bandage were just barely visible in the dim light, something Macintosh was quite thankful for. The sight of blood always made him a bit squeamish, which made him feel better about not becoming the doctor his mother had wished him to be.

         "Yeah right," he thought, a smile on his face from picturing himself squeezing into a lab coat, "Got enough ta worry about with their daughter..."

         Macintosh heaved a great sigh and rested his head on his good hoof. His eyelids began to feel heavy as he passed on into what must have been an hour waiting for AJ to return. Another hour and he'd have to go looking, an idea he dreaded. Applejack's friends were a much too social bunch, and talking to them was a chore in itself. The pink one scared him at times.

           "You ought to be in bed you know,"

          A voice roused Big Mac from his thoughts, but did not startle him.

            "Waitin' fer AJ to get back," he calmly replied to the voice. From out of the house's shadow stepped a blue Earth Pony colt, his fur brilliantly camouflaging him in the dim glow of the moon.

           "At this time of night? Where'd she go?"

          Big Macintosh slowly rose to his hooves, stretching out his back as he did so.

           "Mmm.....*pop*.....hopefully anywhere but the jailhouse." Macintosh gestured the colt to follow him as he collected his pie tin and made his way through the screen door to the house.

           Big Mac placed the half eaten pie on the kitchen table and pulled open the refrigerator with his teeth. He didn't even bother to look up to see if the colt had followed him as he pulled out a milk bottle, he knew the colt had.

           "Forget to eat dinner again?" Macintosh heard the scrape of a chair being pulled out from under the table.

          "Nope," Macintosh calmly replied through teeth clenched around the milk bottle, the liquid pouring into a readied mug.

          "Mind if I finish this off then?"

           "Nope," the red stallion replied as he heard the fork being picked up from the aluminum tin. He downed half of his milk, and waited for the colt to speak again. But the colt made no noise other than soft chewing, and finally Macintosh turned to face him.

         "Eiffel I don't think this is gonna work,"

         The blue colt looked up from the now cleaned pie tin with his mouth still full.

           "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice muffled by the cherries and crust.

            "Somepony's gonna guess what we bin up to, Applejack keeps talkin' like we're connected at the hip,"

          Eiffel swallowed and gave the stallion a sly smile.

           "Aren't we though?"

           Big Mac sighed and sat down, his hoof tapping at his brow.

           "That's the kinda thing that's gonna get us caught,"

            The blue stallion leaned back in his chair depositing the pie tin in a nearby trashcan as he did so.

            "Nobody is gonna care Mac, I keep telling ya," upon returning the chair to its proper position the colt noticed Big Macintosh's bandaged hoof. Wordlessly he reached across the table and gently picked it up, lifting the soiled bandages.

          "What did this?" he asked, unraveling the rest of the bandage from the hoof.

          Macintosh chose to ignore the question, but did not take his hoof away. He trusted Eiffel not to jar the wound.

           "Granny would care. If'n Pa could see me he'd be ashamed right now."

           The blue colt simply sighed and set to work wrapping a fresh cloth (Granny's good  cloth napkins no less) around the hoof. He kept quiet until he was finished with the wrap. Placing his hoof over the much larger male's, he spoke up.

           "So you haven't told anybody?"

           Macintosh drew his hoof back and settled it in his lap.

          "I don't wanna tell no one, I'll never hear the end of it," Big Macintosh stood back up, pushing the chair back under the table with his back hoof as he turned toward the hallway stairs.

           "So would you rather us not talk anymore?"

         "Now I didn't say all tha-," Big Mac stopped mid-sentence as he saw his sister's Stetson bob into view on the porch. Eiffel raised his brow, oblivious to Applejack's arrival until Macintosh signaled him a frantic "shushing" motion with his hoof over his lips. The blue colt understood clearly as he heard the the screen door's spring stretch open overhead.

            "You sneaking back from a party or somethin?" Eiffel said in a loud dramatic whisper, one hoof cupped over the side of his mouth. Applejack smiled as she wiped her hooves on the welcome mat.

           "Might as well been, sure was rough enough. Brought ya back a party favor," Applejack said in a soft voice as she motioned to the sleeping dragon on her back. Eiffel nearly fell as he lost balance of his lean in the chair.

           "I take it Rarity's fine with all this?" Big Macintosh strolled back into the kitchen, his plow collar no longer hanging from his neck.

           "Ooo ya shoulda seen er' Mac, had that colt's hooves plum near allover er'!" Applejack's voice dropped again when she remembered the sleeping dragon on her back. "I'm taking him upstairs with me fer the night, gonna send Twilight a letter tomorra'."

          "Ooo is the little guy gonna get some action?" Eiffel gave AJ his best winning smile as she turned around mid-stride to glare back at him.

           "Shoot I might as well, show him that there's still some mares who care about sensitivity an whatnot,"

         Applejack trotted up the stairs, dragon in tow as Macintosh followed her with his eyes, shaking his head as he did so.

          "She being serious? Sounds kinda kinky...,"

           Macintosh glared back at the still smiling blue colt.

           "Go home Eiffel, I'll see you tomorra," Big Macintosh was halfway up the stairs before Eiffel called back.

           "No kiss goodnight? No hug? Okeedokee...."

            Big Mac waited on the stairs until he heard the door creak open and close. He stood for ten more seconds before he sighed and trotted  back down the stairs and out through the kitchen.

           The blue stallion was just barely visible in the darkness as Macintosh caught up. Eiffel smiled as he turned around, halfway expecting that goodnight kiss.

           "Gonna walk ya home at least," Big Mac returned a soft smile to the colt. Eiffel snorted and bumped Macintosh on the hip with his rear.

*****Notice anything inconsistent or just grammatically incorrect? Be sure to report it to me, iPod user here!