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

          "Ok what in the name of Celestia happened!?"

          Rarity's voice caught in her throat, her practiced excuses and explanations melting away as she frantically clawed through her mind for something witty to say.

          "U-uhm.....tea darling?"

            To say Rarity was ill prepared for Twilight's arrival would be to say the very least. And to think, there she was believing that'd she'd have just a bit longer to make a scarf or two, and perhaps mmmmmaaaaayyybbbee convince Applejack to bring Spike back to the shop before Twilight caught wind of the situation. But of course life couldn't ruin it's reputation and be fair for once, could it?

           There she sat again, the same chair with the same unicorn in front of her. Just the same as she had a few days before. The only difference is that this time the purple unicorn did not drink her tea, and the fashionista dared not to offer any hooficures.

           "Rarity I appreciate the hospitality, but I'd like to know why Spike isn't here. I thought you said you could handle it?"

         'Ok good,' Rarity thought, 'she's not mad, just concerned.' She gave a small smile to the frowning librarian across the table, praying that "winging it" would prove to be effective.

           "Oh he just um....well you see Thunderlane came over and well....I'm under the impression that he felt uncomfortable.....uh....and he left?" Rarity felt her stomach sink as her own words hit her ears. So much for winging it.

           "Who in the hay is Thunderlane? Why does that even matter, Spike gets along with everypony," Twilight gently pushed the still full teacup away from her, her tone betraying the illusion that she was being patient.

          Rarity bit her lip, reluctant to tell the parents that the babysitter was inviting her boyfriend over on the job. But of course, Spike was technically a guest in her house so...

           "Thunderlane is my coltfriend dear, I've been dating him for a little while now," Rarity paused to take a sip of her tea, noting Twilight's body language with her peripheral  vision as she bought another few seconds to plan her words, "I guess he felt like a third wheel an left for Applejack's house in the night."

          "Aaaaand it didn't strike you that mmmmmaaaayyybbee you should have went looking for him?" Twilight crossed her forelegs in front of her, giving Rarity her best skeptical look.

            "Ok fine, you wanna know the truth?" Rarity asked curtly, unintentionally slamming her glowing teacup down onto the table. "Applejack took him. Because apparently I'm not allowed to have a relationship around Spike, because that upsets him so,"

           The unicorn felt the anger welling up her. The nerve of that mare, telling her she had to take the dragon's colthood crush seriously.

        "I'm a healthy grown mare, but my biological clock is ticking! Do you see these wrinkles Twilight?" Rarity grabbed Twilight's shoulder in one hoof and yanked on a section of her face with another. "I'm getting older every day! I can't just sit around and be lonely now can I?"

           "Well I understand that you don't return Spike's feelings. Heck I've told him more times than I can count not to get his hopes up, but I trusted you to not screw this up-" Twilight sighed and put her hoof over her eyes.

        "Look I'm sorry, I've just had the worst time in Canterlot," the purple unicorn reached for the tea she had pushed away, hoping it might calm her nerves. "Shining Armor had me put up the most unnecessary barrier spell I've ever seen, and I just barely finished when a scroll popped up out of nowhere and set the stupid thing off. We spent two hours inside of a fire cloak barrier waiting for the Royal Guard to come and turn it off."

         "A-and the letter?" Rarity asked.

         Twilight gulped down a bit of the herbal tea, barely tasting it. She slid her hoof away from her eyes and massaged her temple.

           "Applejack wrote it and had Spike send it. Between the scribble-scratch and the air igniting into magical flame, it was a bit hard to make out. But it had some pretty nasty stuff in it, and that was just the first few sentences."

          "I suppose I should have expected that," Rarity stared down at her teacup as she pushed it around with her hoof tips. For a second she felt every bit as alone as the one little drop dancing about in the bottom of the cup, but her ego wouldn't let itself dull from an insult from the farm mare.

          "But honestly darling she's always looking for some way to get under my skin, and Spike will get over this I'm sure. He and I will be right as rain once this blows over,"

           "I sure hope thats soon Rarity, he took his basket to Applejack's." Rarity stumbled as she was following her levitating teacup back to the kitchen.

           "Whatever for?"

           Twilight called over her shoulder as she was trotting back towards the door of the Carousel Boutique.

           "Probably so he doesn't risk running into you or Thunderlane,"

              "Big Macintosh how do -you- get girls to like you?"

            Macintosh paused in mid-buck as he was asked the question. He looked up at the dragon crawling about in the branches of the neighboring tree, his claws easily sticking to the trunk.

          "Well um......," Big Mac paused in thought. How did he get girls to like him? It's not like he actually ever tried, nor did he ever care for that matter. A smile and a nod seemed to be all he ever needed when talking to the opposite sex.

          "I suppose ya jes gotta be polite to em'," he paused to finish bucking a rather large apple from its branch, "ifin ya ain't a gentlecolt then ya ain't much of a stallion yunno?"

           "Yeah," The little dragon inched forward on the tree branch, his tail archoring him lest he lose his exceptional grip. Only a few inches from him lay his prize, a heavy red delicious that would make anypony's mouth water. He reached out slowly with both claws, using one to hold the apple from the bottom and the other to slice the stem. From there he released the apple to drop into the basket a short distance below, hearing it knock into place amongst the other apples.

            "Hey Big Macintosh?"

             "*grunt* yeah?"

               "What if that's not enough?" Spike laid down on the branch to watch Big Macintosh finish with his tree, the dragon having just finished his own.

            "Well she's prolly inta somethin' stupid, *thunk*"

            Rarity? Stupid?

            "Like what?"

             The red pony walked over to his baskets, each one practically overflowing with the Sweet Apple Acres produce. Sitting down amongst the baskets, he selected one and thought about how to answer.

          "Well some mares like bad colts. Dunno why really, they don't do much sides' get inta trouble,"

           Spike crawled down from the tree along the trunk, trying to make sense of what Big Macintosh had just said.

            "What's so great about that?"

            "It's supposed to be excitin', or some such hooey. Uncle Tart was like that. Yup, two years in the slammer cause he beat up some colt who was lookin' at his marefriend. Poor feller didn't know she taken. Said Uncle Tart was dancin' with some other mare that night." Macintosh paused to let out a chuckle. "Most ignorant stallion I ever met."

          "Yeah sounds like a real charmer." Spike sat down across from the  big red colt. Only a few hours ago he was nervous to ask him if he could help pick apples, but the large pony proved to be quite easy to talk to despite his usual silence.

         "It's gettin' pretty late, dontcha think ya outta get back to Twilight?" Big Macintosh looked at Spike from the corner of his eyes, one side of his mouth packed with a bite from a granny smith apple.

        "Mmm not really. I asked if I could just chill out here for a day or so, u-uh I mean if it's ok with you an everything," the dragon finished his sentence wildly waving his claws in front of his face and offering his best smile.

        "Well-" Big Mac paused to motion at the four baskets Spike had managed to fill over the three hours he spent working that afternoon. "Ye seem to be earnin' your keep. Keep this up and we might just hafta keep ya,"

           Spike beamed with pride from the wink Macintosh gave him. True the first hour was spent in relative silence and awkwardness, just going by what little instructions Applejack had given him. But when he cut down an apple that for whatever reason didn't want to be bucked, Big Macintosh opened up quick to the little dragon.

           "So......I heard about what happened at Miss Rarity's home," Big Mac placed his wheat stalk back into the corner of his mouth, trying to seem as non-confrontational as possible.

        "Oh......aw man, I was kind of hoping nobody else would know about that," Spike rested his head in his claws, shame burning hot in stomach.

          "AJ told me she don't think much of ya," Spike avoided Big Macintosh's searching eyes, his own cast down to the ground.

           "And I think that's mighty shameful,"

          Spike perked up, chancing a glance at Big Macintosh.

          "AJ said you jumped in front of her, like a real gentlecolt when that other un' flew the coop,"

          Perhaps Applejack hadn't been entirely accurate with her retelling of Thunderlane's actions, but there was an interesting grain of truth to Macintosh's words. He had acted like a gentlecolt after all hadn't he? Maybe jumping in front of Rarity was just his internal panic switch being flipped on but....

          "That's really nice of you Big Macintosh, but she doesn't want a gentlecolt. She just wants someone who isn't a dragon,"

          "Nnnaaahhh!! That Thunderlane is just a smooth-talker, shelf life of a few months at most," Eiffel trotted right up beside Spike without him hearing or seeing, giving him the perfect opportunity to playfully shove him over.

          "Nice way to ruin the moment," Big Macintosh said to Eiffel, shifting his wheat stalk in an annoyed manner.

         "Eh what can I say? That feather brain only has one trick, and I getta kick out of it,"

         Spike spit out a mouth full of dirt he very nearly consumed, and turned to stare at the new pony. How did he know what was going on!?

         "Wait a second- Does all of Ponyville know about this??" Spike insides felt very cold for a second before the blue pony winked at him.

         "Course not, I was here when AJ brought you home." As Eiffel finished his sentence he flopped down I the dirt in front of Spike, his face only inches away.

         "So what's it like in Applejack's room? I nearly got in like twice, but she caught me and slapped me around both times,"

          Spike opened his mouth but no words would come out. He turned to Big Macintosh hoping for some kind of support. The large red colt just kept staring into the distance, seemingly trying to ignore the blue colt, but gave Spike an answer nonetheless.

         "Spike this is Eiffel, friend of the family,"

          "Yeah and friend to the family dragon now too huh? You start sleepin' in AJ's room enough and she's bound to keep ya around huh?" Eiffel playfully poked Spike in the ribs, earning him a sigh from Macintosh.

        "Eiffel ..."

         "Aw come one Mac, I was just joshing the kid. Unless yunno he -is- the next heir to your farm," Eiffel giggled, getting a death glare from Macintosh. "But anyway you guys look just about done for the day, how bout I take you guys out for some ice cream on me?"

         Spike wasted no time jumping on the new pony's back, his stomach easily bitchslapping his reeling mind to the back-burner.

         "Yeah, I haven't had any rocky-road in forever!"

         Eiffel reared back like a western superstar, whinnying for effect and took off full speed for Ponyville. Big Macintosh shifted his wheat stalk again and stood up slowly, following along at a much slower pace.

****Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to get this out but I decided to chill out over the Christmas break. And by chilling out I mean eating pizza and watching movies with all my friends pretty much every night. Pretty nice! But I'm making some time to write more, I've got a few ideas for the boys trip to the ice cream shop ......

As always, if anything seems out of place or misspelled let me know! I'll be quick to blame my iPod