Is Your Friendship Mistaken?

Kyle slept soundly, knowing he had a good day to look forward to.  However, something inside him did not.  In his sleep, he convulsed and jerked violently, as if something was tugging on his shoulders, dragging him into oblivion.  He woke, aware of some problem.  But as soon as he rose, he blacked out.

He woke early, before Spike, and Twilight wasn’t in her bed.  Forgetting his earlier problems, he made a quick trip downstairs, which told him Twilight had fallen asleep over her notes.  As much as the young man wanted to put her into her bed, it felt wrong, so he simply decided to take a walk.

Few were up at this hour, and he encountered nobody on his journey.  He walked a long while, with no destination in mind.  After an hour and a half of traveling, he came to the edge of the Everfree forest, as he learned to call it.

He decided not to enter; there was much pain in that place, especially that old castle or fort.  ‘Speaking of pain…’ the boy thought, reaching a hand to his chest, feeling memories stir beneath it.  He pulled his hand off, now was not the time to think about that.

Instead, he walked the forest’s edge.  There he found a large, dead tree that had fallen over, forgotten.  But it was still intact, unlike most of the other dead trees around here.  It seemed perfect for making something.

The idea came to him quickly.  With a spring in his step, he charged back into Ponyville, looking for a metal-worker.  After a few minutes of searching, he found just that pony.  With a hammer striking an anvil as his cutie mark, he seemed like the right kind of pony to ask for this job.

Within the space of fifteen minutes, Kyle walked out of the forge with a hatchet and knife, thanking the forge master for is tendency to rise early and his cooperation.  Another ten minutes of running and he was in the same place as he was about half an hour ago.

He walked closer to the forest, his tools in hand.  He dug the knife into the trunk of a living tree near the one he was working on.  He wouldn’t need that for a while.

After a few hours of solid work, Kyle had shaved the tree down to a heavy wooden block about the size of his torso.  It was now late morning, and he had work to go to.  He jogged back to Twilight’s home, and set it next to the door before heading out to Sweet Apple Acres.

Kyle arrived with no time to spare.  Apple Jack was heading outside to begin when he appeared up the road.  Luckily Apple Bloom had school, so she wouldn’t bother him.  She waved him over and headed to the expansive Apple Family orchard.

They walked silently to the edge, and stopped in front of one of the trees.  “Now…” She said, business in her eyes, “All you have ta do is give this tree a good hard kick, ‘an make sure the apples fall into these buckets.”  She instructed, indicating the buckets placed around the tree.

Apple Jack walked in front of it, turned, and bucked it.  Apple tumbled from the trees into the awaiting buckets, their open tops suddenly seeming more like yawning mouths.  “Now why don’t you give it a try?”

Kyle shrugged walked to the next tree over.  He placed his foot on it and pushed, testing the trunk’s strength.  It was sturdy.  He knew he didn’t have the leg power that the orange mare had, so it was time to try something different.

He stood in a ready stance, and let forth a crippling roundhouse kick as high as he could manage.  The apples followed a fate similar to the ones Apple Jack had used as a demonstration.

The farmer’s eyes widened at his raw power and form.  He seemed weak, as skinny as he was.  He also didn’t turn and ask anything of his companion, he simply walked to the next tree and repeated the action.  She watched for several minutes as he kicked methodically, tree after tree released its hold on the precious fruit it protected.

She mentally shrugged, what did she know about humans anyways?  She walked off to do her chores, thinking the teen seemed capable; she decided to let him off an hour after lunch.

Kyle worked tirelessly, knowing he could sit when he returned to the library.  He quickly became bored of doing roundhouse kicks, and decided to switch to other forms of assault on the fauna.  Within the space of an hour, he was using his full repertoire on the helpless trees.

At noon Apple Jack called him to have lunch and meet with the rest of the Apple Family.  He was seated at a large round table while the other members of the family gathered around.  He was greeted by a large red colt with a corn-colored mane, and a tiny yellow filly with a yellow coat and an apple-red mane, as well as an old pony with a green coat and a mane snow white with age.

Apple Jack introduced them as Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith respectively.  They all greeted him in turn.  The red colt seemed simple, but there was an unmatched intelligence in his eyes.  The filly was young and innocent, and had determination set into her face.  For what, he didn’t know.  Granny Smith had history in her bones, which were quite strong for somebody her age.

He shook hooves with all of them.  They were quite a close family.  But after having a lunch filled with the family’s fruit of choice, Apple Jack told him he had the job and could come tomorrow.  As he left Apple Jack smacked her forehead.  She had forgotten to ask about his odd ways of apple bucking.  Never mind, she could always ask later.

He arrived to find nothing had changed much.  Twilight and Spike were helping ponies choose books, while simultaneously organizing the shelves.  How they did it, Kyle had not a clue, but they were efficient.

The building cleared out hurriedly after his arrival.  Perhaps he was not quite as welcome as the pink mare would have him believe.  He grabbed the block of wood he set by the door and carried it outside.  It felt like a leaden weight.

He set it down back by the door, deciding it could wait.  He then remembered something important.  “Hey Twilight!” He shouted to the mare shelving books.

“Where?”  She asked, once again not understanding human terminology.  He really had to use pony phrases more often.

“Never mind.  Do you… know any places a friend and I could go?”  He asked, uncertainty creeping into his voice once more.

Twilight looked up from her shelving and gave him an odd look.  He looked innocently back at her, a pleading look in his eye.  She sighed and began to make a list.

Kyle left to go pick up the clothes Rarity promised him.  When he arrived, the place was in complete disarray.  Things were overturned, fabrics were strewn across the walls and furniture, and Rarity laying on her back, a hoof over her forehead.

He looked around the room before looking at the distressed diva on the floor.  “Is… something wrong?”

The unicorn looked up at him, “Of all the worst possible thing to happen, this is bad, but not the worst possible thing.”  She began, “I was sewing you clothes when I realized:  All the colors clash!  Now they’ll look horrible.”

“I think you’re thinking with pony fashions.  They’ll look great once I put them on.”  Kyle gave his best effort to comfort the crazy drama queen.

She seemed to give this some thought, and then her horn began to glow.  All manner of human clothing came from the corners of the room, and into his outstretched arms.  He took his time trying them on, in an attempt not to upset the designer.

He was right, by the time his little fashion show was over, she was happy as could be.  Thanking her, he walked out of the building.

He headed back to his room in Twilight’s house to take a shower and change.  By the time he came down, clean as a whistle, Twilight had finished her list.  It had taken her some time to thin it out.

Upon asking Twilight responded, “Well, at first I thought it was a romantic kind of thing, and then I though friend-date would be better, so my top suggestions are Sugarcube Corner or a walk through the Sweet Apple Acre’s Orchard.”

Kyle through for a moment, ten berated himself for over analyzing it.  It was just something among friends, nothing more.  But still, maybe something was lacking…

A great distance away, Luna was in the castle, talking to her sister about similar things; although she was less discreet about all of it.

“So Celestia, do you think I you could raise the moon for me tomorrow?  I’m met this guy and we were going to do something tomorrow.”  Luna said to the larger Alicorn, an eager but hopeful tone in her voice.

Celestia cocked eye and eyebrow at the younger monarch.  She thought about it for a moment before saying, “Oh all right, but I’d like to hear more about this ‘guy’.  He seems to be quite the character.”

Luna and her sister happily chatted all night about Kyle, what he was like, and places for the two of them to go