A Place To Lay My Head

Applejack stormed out of the clubhouse, dragging Pinkie along behind her by the tail. Pinkie seemed lighter yesterday when Applejack was carrying her, now the mare felt like a lead weight. But Applejack was no slouch, she dragged Pinkie right down that ramp and through the mud leading towards the center of Sweet Apple Acres.

"A-Applejack, where are we going...?" Pinkie was getting covered in mud, she didn't mind...it's kinda like how her heart felt right now. Might as well have the exterior match the interior.

"We're gonna talk ta Rainbow Dash..." Applejack said out of the corner of her mouth. Her voice was filled with righteous indignation, well as much righteous indignation one could have with a pink tail in their mouth.

AJ just kept dragging her friend along behind her, she didn't really care if Pinkie was getting muddy. There were showers for a reason after all. AJ found the mare behind her start resisting her grip, she could practically feel Pinkie's hooves digging into the muddy ground, trying to find their purchase.

"N-No AJ! I can't talk to her!" Pinkie hanged her head. "Not again..."

For Applejack's part, she didn't quite care. She wasn't going to make Pinkie talk to that feeling-hurter. That was her job. Applejack was going to give RD a piece of her mind bigger than the east orchard. Ooooh, when AJ got her hooves on that filly...it was not going to be pretty.

--

"Why'r you givin' me that look, Suugar pie..?" Big Mac looked into the actually-angry eyes of his marefriend. That look...it took him back to the years when he was just a little colt and Granny would box his ears. That glare made him feel oh so small compared to the pegasus.

"Why would you say something like that, Big Macintosh? Pinkie's a good pony." Fluttershy's voice was stern. He had heard that before when she was scoldin' Angel. Big Mac knew that rabbit was tougher than him, so this was not going to go well.

"W-well..." He was stuttering, sure he had vehemently defended his decision with Applejack earlier, but this was Fluttershy. He couldn't yell at her, that would be like yellin' at a puppy for just bein' rowdy. "She was talkin' to Applebloom 'bout sinful stuff...stuff a filly shouldn't know about."

"Pinkie would never bring up something she wasn't supposed to talk about." Fluttershy vehemently defended her pink friend. "What did she talk about?" Fluttershy knew Pinkie, she also knew the perky party pony would never say anything bad around a filly.

"Well...It was about..." Big Mac could feel his ire rising with each word. The closer he got to the actual subject the angrier he seemed to get. "Her bein' a...y'know...a filly-fooler." There! He said it! He could only close his eyes and hope that Celestia would not smite him for even bringing the subject up.

"Is that it?" Fluttershy felt like a silly pony, kind of like Applejack.She was about to get very stern with Big Mac over his family's archaic beliefs? Oh that was nothing new, Big Mac still thought kissing in public was taboo. "What's wrong with her liking mares? It's perfectly natural."

"What?!" The stallion did not mean to have such an outburst, it just flowed forth. "That ain't natural! Mares belong with Stallions, not other mares! If Celestia meant for 'em to be together they would have parts that fit." Big Mac couldn't believe what Fluttershy had said! Heresy of the highest degree.

"Well...I mean...a tongue sorta fits in-" Fluttershy was about to finish her statement when her coltfriend's hooves when over his ears.

"EEEEEEENOPE! NOT HEARING IT! NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!"

"Oh my...this is going to be more difficult than I thought..."

--

"Rainbow Dash, y'all get your flank down here!" Applejack shouted up into the storm clouds. Sure, Pinkie and herself were now covered ears to hooves in mud but she could still be angry!

"No way, AJ. Rain's going to start up again in a minute, that stuff is murder on my mane. No one likes a mare with a wet mane, AJ." Just barely,Applejack could spot a multicolored tail in between two clouds."Plus,I'm busy trying to catch some extra Z's, this training is tiresome."

Applejack had it up to the tips of her ears with Rainbow, stuck-up pegasus. More like a rat with wings if you asked AJ! She should be more loyal to her friend's requests, not to her stupid training schedule! Grrr, this pony could be so concieted.

"Ah said to get down here, ya pigeon!" That did it. Almost immediately Rainbow was standing in front of AJ, her chest puffed out and her wings fully extended.

"What did you call me?" Rainbow was furious, every word dripped with venom and warning.

"Y'all heard me." Applejack stated calmly. "Pigeon." The last word came out barely as a whisper, just loud enough for the pegasus to hear it.

"Why I oughta..."

"Oughta what? Shoot me down like ya did Pinkie? Say how ya can never love somepony jus' because of their race?" Every accusation flowed forth from the farmer's mouth as if it was any slang she had ever used. "Yer the worst kinda pony, y'know that?"

"Me? I cant help it if I want somepony who can do what I love. Plus,I'm not into mares, alright? Not my grind, so mind your own darn business, hayseed!" Rainbow and Applejack's noses were practically touching at this point, both mares' eyes were narrowed and glaring sharp, deadly daggers at each other.

"Ah'm tryin' to help my friend! Ah'm tryin' to be a good friend and figure out why in the hay you were so mean...alright Loyalty?" Applejack tried to lace all of her intentions in that one word, everything she wanted to do to Big Mac was in that one utterance. Every drop of loathing and anger.

"Listen, I can't help if I come across as a bit mean. I mean, what was I supposed to tell her? Yes?" Rainbow pushed Applejack away from her. So maybe I wasn't as nice as I should've been, but you don't just spring news like that on somepony out of the blue!" Dash raised her hooves wildly for emphasis. "I mean, how would you feel if she said that to you? Don't get me wrong, I still want to be her friend, but it will be harder knowing she's thought about plowin' me, alright?" Suddenly, Applejack saw RD's point. Okay, yeah. She should've been more tactful, but it was a pretty big thing to drop on somepony at a moment's notice. Maybe Pinkie could have eased Dash into the subject.

"Alright...Ah see your point. But ya still need to apologize to Pinkie." Applejack pointed to the sulking pink mare behind her, who was now laying in a mud puddle looking more depressed than ever. Applejack knew that it was better to make her happy now rather than later.

"Right..." Dash trotted past the farmpony and looked at Pinkie. The sulking pony's sad blue eyes met her own. Dash wanted to just look away, nopony should have to look into the eyes of a sad Pinkie. It was like seeing a puppy that's been kicked one too many times. "Umm...I'm sorry Pinkie.." Dash's forehoof went to the back of her neck, subconsciously she knew she was just smearing her neck with mud, but it didn't really matter. "I really am, and I still wanna be friends..."

No response came from Pinkie, both of the other mares waited for one...but it did not come. The pink pony only lifted her head, nodded, then let her head fall back into the mud puddle. Applejack and Rainbow Dash simply looked at each other in confusion. This was supposed to work. Pinkie was supposed to pop up and be all smiles or something like that.But why wasn't that happening?

--

"-But you have to be tolerant, Macintosh." Fluttershy had just given, what she thought was, the best speech ever regarding tolerance of homosexuality. The short version is, you don't have to like or respect it, but you have to recognize that others do and that you can't go around bashing ponies just because of who they love. Whether or not Big Mac actually listened was totally up to him.

"Fine...but ah'm not havin' her tell mah little sister all of that stuff." Big Mac crossed his hooves, his brow was creased with frustration. Why was nopony on his side? Why was everypony siding with Pinkie? it wasn't fair.

"Well then just talk to her about it, set some ground rules. But don't be mean, nopony listens to anger." Big Mac could only huff an agreement. He was going to have to go with this lest he be shunned by his own marefriend.