//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Forging Animosity 
// Story: Applejack Through the Ages 
// by Paradise Oasis 
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The Dream Valley forge rang with the sound of pounding hammers, as dozens of ponies brought their tools slamming down upon their anvils, shaping the hot metal beneath them. The great fire from the furnace roared as the earth pony stallions stoked the flames, working the great bellows in the blazing heat and crackling flames.  Soot and cinders filled the air all around them, and the massive cloud of smoke made the smithy's eyes water. At the center of the great room, stood and orange stallion with a blonde mane. Again and again he brought his great hammer down, sending sparks showering off in every direction. The master smith's very name, Lighting, came from the sight of this beautiful shower of light his work in the forge created.

The smith's anvil and tongs were his sacred instruments, just as they had been his father's, and his father's before him. Years and years of blacksmithing, since the days of his colthood, had left him tall and strong in his adult years. He looked liked the ancient god Hephaestus, from the human's mythology, creating the mighty lightning bolts of the heavens in his forge. Some mares would even come to the great smithy's entrance, to watch the stallion's sweaty and rippling musculature in between the sparks lighting up the darkness. But the visitor who came trotting down the stairs now had no interest in admiring Lightning's magnificent physique.

"Master Smith?" The Pink mare with a cherries cutie mark asked him impatiently, tapping her hoof. "I would have words with you, if you have the time."

"Cherries Jubilee, I didn't expect to see you in my forge." Lighting grunted, hammering away on a sword he had just pulled out of the furnace. "I would appreciate it if you could make this quick. I've just returned from a mission with the royal knights, and I have an order for forty blades I need to complete by sundown." 

"It's about your wife, Applejack, and all of the colorful tales she has been telling your daughter." The mare sorted, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's a good idea to let her fill the head of your daughter with such wild tales of immortal ponies and nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense, Miss Jubilee. My beloved AJ is one of the original harmony bearers." The stallion replied simply, putting down his hammer, and picking up the hot blade he had been working on with a pair of tongs. "There is nothing wrong with my wife telling our child about her adventures throughout the years."

"I can hardly believe a practical-minded stallion such as yourself even believes all of that junk."  Cherries Jubilee scoffed. "It such a shame that a bad mare from such a bad family has led you so far astray, Lightning."

"You know Cherries, this hatred of the Apple family of yours is seems almost like an an obsession. It's been generations since any member of the Apple family has caused a Cherry any harm." The stallion noted, plunging the blade and tongs he held into a barrel to cool them. "If I didn't know better, one would almost think that you actually were the original Cherries Jubilee, and it was your machines that Applejack broke so long ago!"

"Hey, it's your wife whose lying about being immortal here, pal! Not me!" The mare snarled, turning her head away in disgust. Looking around the forge, she noticed a familiar little white colt with a blonde mane over in the corner, working the bellows. "Oh my, isn't that you and Applejack's little boy over there, Apple Delight?" 

"Yes, our firstborn." The stallion replied proudly, taking the blade out of the water, and setting it and his tools aside. "He's learning how to work the forge, just as I did. I suppose his apple orchard cutie mark must be interpreted as having something to do with smithing, instead of Apple farming."

"Such a lovely little child, so unlike his mother." The mare commented, trotting over to the little colt, and putting her hoof under his chin. "You know, one thing I do know about your wife's past to be true, is that she did spend a brief period of time as a terrible monster."

"Yes, AJ was turned into a dark dragon by Tirek, everybody knows that."  Lighting snorted in annoyance, glaring at the mare. "So what of it?"

"It might be a good idea if AJ were to leave the details of that little part of the story out of your daughter's report." The mare smiled. "After all, what might other ponies do if they thought there was even a possibility of some of that darkness still lurking inside your wife?"

"... Miss Jubilee, I would humbly request you to leave my forge this instant, and not return unless you having some blacksmithing you need done." The stallion snarled, barely able to keep his growing anger in check. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some other business that I need to attend to."

"As you wish." Cherries Jubilee only smiled, as she trotted back towards the door, contented in the fact she had managed to get under the angry stallion's skin. 

"Why that stupid, stubborn and arrogant mare! How dare she say something like that about my beloved wife!"" Lightning angrily turned back towards his work, his hammer coming down if far heavier blows as it cracked and splintered the stone anvil beneath it. The sounds of his angry pounding tore like thunder through the halls of Dream Castle, letting every pony who lived there know, that the master smith burned with a fiery, white-hot rage... far greater than the mighty flames of his very own forge.