> The Horse Collar
>  by Mercury Zero
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The New Collar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big Macintosh groaned deeply, thrusting himself forward.  Sweat trickled down his brow as he loosed a roaring moan.  He put all his bucking strength into each thrust, hammering his weight forward mercilessly.  He was out of breath and sore, but he couldn't stop now.  He was so close to finishing.  With a final volley he thrusted again and again, plowing harder and harder.  Until finally... finally... he reached the end of the field.

Applejack smiled at her brother, "Hoo-wee, that's some mighty fine plowin' Big Mac.  That new horse collar sure is doin' ya right."

Big Macintosh looked back at his perfectly straight trench with satisfaction, nodded sagely, and replied, "Yeeup."

Applejack smirked, "Naw whaddid ah tell ya?  I told ya Zecora would have a horse collar.  You said there was no way but ah knew better.  Let this be a lesson always to trust yer little sis when she tells ye what's what.  Ain't that right?"

Applejack sure was milking this one.  He still thought it was pretty absurd that a medicine zebra from deep in the forest would have horse collars, but he couldn't argue with results, and it saved him from having to make a trip down to the Barnyard Bargains on the other side of town.

Big Mac wasn't one for fussin' over a little friendly gloating  He had been known to do it himself when the tables were turned, so he nodded sagely once again, and replied, "Yeeup."

Big Mac reached back to start untying himself from the plow, letting his haunches drop to the ground while he worked at the knots in the thick brown rope.

Applejack wasn't quite done teasing Big Mac.  She slipped up next to him with a smug smirk.  "And it's black too, and covered with markin's.  It's quite a fashion statement ah'll tell ya.  Ah bet Fluttershy's gonna notice it don't you?"  She sang the last sentence like a playground taunt.

One thing that was surprising about big mac was that, despite his vibrant red coat, you could still see him blush; quite easily in fact.  He flushed right up as Applejack started teasing him over his crush.  He wondered why he ever confided in her.  He must have known this was coming.

Applejack gave Big Mac a soft little punch on the shoulder to drive her point home.  It sure was fun to torment her big brother.  He was a good sport after all.

Big Mac finally removed his ropes, and turned to make his way toward the orchard.  He turned back to Applejack, "Apples need buckin'  Ye comin?"

Applejack was staring off into space next to the abandoned plow.

Big Mac furrowed his brow.  "Applejack?"

Applejack seemed incredibly distracted, but she heard Big Mac just fine.  "Sure.  Yeah," she replied with hushed distraction, and started walking off toward the orchard, past the dumbfounded Big Mac.

He hummed softly.  Something seemed to have gotten under her fur.  Perhaps she was worried that she went too far with the teasing?  Perhaps it was something he said or did?

In the end he decided he should just count his blessings and be happy that she's not mocking him unmercifully anymore.

Big Mac caught up with Applejack, and sauntered casually toward the field, before blinking as Applejack suddenly doubled back.  She trotted straight back over toward the plow, and assumed the same position she was standing in when she first spaced out.  She started wiggling her hips and rolling her shoulders, reaching out an arm and squirming.

Big Mac was certain now.  Her sister had lost her marbles.

"Watchy'all doin?"

Applejack was overtaken by a sudden and furious blush at the question.  "Ain't nothin'!" she cried out.  She developed a very perturbed and embarrassed expression at being asked.

Big Mac was worried now.  He marched over to applejack, leaned in, and pushed his head into her rump, forcing her forward.  "Comeon'  It's atime for buckin'"

Applejack gasped sharply, and jammed her hooves into the dirt.  Big Mac was astonished.  Applejack had never resisted this hard before!  She would always just get a move on after a gentle nudge.  What had gotten into her?  He jammed his head forward again with little success, and then pulled back with a sigh.

There it was again.  That spaced out expression.  This time her brow was furrowed hard and she was heaving heavy breaths, and Big Mac was getting frustrated.

"Fine.  Stay here." he said grumpily, and he moved off to take care of his chores.

Big Mac set about his daily apple bucking.  He was quite content about it.  There was something about taking care of the farm that filled him with contentment.  Perhaps it was the simplicity of it all.  There wasn't anything complicated or stressful about his job.  He had the ability to seek a zen like peace while he was on the field.  The sweet art of repetition was food for his soul.

His routine, however, was interrupted by Applejack, carrying a picnic basket in her mouth.  She ran up to him excitedly, brandishing the picnic basket containing a fresh squeezed lemonade.  He blinked at it.  Applejack was getting stranger by the moment.  "Now you tell me what's goin' on sis." he said critically, squinting at her.

Applejack set down the lemonade and gasped a feigned gasp that would put Rarity to shame.  "Why, now ah needs an excuse to do somethin' nice for mah big brother?

Big Mac squinted suspiciously.  He took the lemonade and sipped on it.  It didn't taste like it was spiked with poison joke.  What was the deal?

Applejack fidgeted.  "Ain't ... Ain't you gonna sit down?  Relax?"

Big Mac's squint was getting paper thin now, but he walked over to the shade of a tree, and sat down, leaning up against it.

Applejack bounded in, and sat beside Big Mac, nestling up tight, cuddling him cheek to chest.

Big Mac's fur all stood on end, he nearly coughed lemonade out his nose.

"Naw what ye doin'?" he cried.

Applejack seemed a little distracted, but after a moment she said, "What?  Ahm not allowed ta sit next tah my big brother?"

"Ye know dern well what ahm talkin' bout, sis."

Applejack didn't respond.  She just kept cuddling in close.  She was taking sharp breaths now, and closing her eyes tightly.  Before long they started getting really sharp, and trembling.

"What ye doin' Applejack?  Yer scarin' me."

Applejack's body suddenly twitched and curled.  She broke into a stiff, arching stretch, and at the tip of her stretch, convulsed, releasing a sharp, sultry, "Hahh!!" with each twitch.

Big Mac jumped away from her like she was on fire.  There was a scent in the air.  It was a scent he didn't believe and didn't want to acknowledge.  He stared at his little sister with his jaw slack.  "Ahm tellin ye, yer sick and yer scarin' me!  Now we're gonna get you inside right naw!"

Applejack looked up.  Her cheeks were very flushed and her lips and ears seemed a little redder.  Her eyes were half lidded and she was trembling.  She released a very satisfied sounding sigh, then furrowed her brow.  She looked aside, then up at Big Mac, then aside.  Her expression was filled with shame.  "Ah.. heh.  'Twas a joke.  Ye shoulda seen yer face!"

Big Mac couldn't have been any less convinced.

Still, he was going take any opportunity to end this awkward situation right now.  "Good one Applejack.  Ye really had me going."

Applejack couldn't have been any less convinced.

Still, she wasn't going to belabor the conversation.  "Well.  Good luck with the apple buckin'."

Big Mac backed away slowly, leaving his bushels behind and heading to another tree.  "Right."

Applejack agreed, getting up and heading toward the farm house.  "Right."

Big Mac reiterated, "Right," before finally getting out of earshot.

The lemonade rested peacefully in its basket in the shade.
> The Test
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big Mac munched his apple pie slowly.  Munch.  Munch.

His gaze didn't waver from his little sister, who refused to gaze back.  She looked guiltier than a sinner in church.  He slowly squinted his eyes.

Surely the thing he thought happened, did not happen.  Because, firstly, those things don't happen, and second, this was his little sister, and third, this was Applejack.  There's no way she had a twitching orgasm just from gently cuddling him.  Not him, of all ponies.

Squint.  Munch.  Munch.

This called for a test.  Somehow he had to end up cuddling somepony.  Preferably not a family member, in case it worked.

Granny Smith squinted.  She looked across the dinner table between the two of them with curious and judgmental eyes.  What secrets were they keeping now?  She piped up, "Y'all bes not be up to some tomfoolery you two.  Ah was young once.  Ah know mischief when I see it."

Applejack developed a fiery tomato red blush.  She hated telling lies, and she sure as sugar wasn't going to tell the truth, so she cleared her throat loudly and told a half-truth instead.  "Oh lookit that it's time for me ta hit the hay.  Not feelin' very good.  Need a might bit a rest."

Before Granny Smith could protest Applejack had wolfed down her apple pie and excused herself with a little puff of smoke in her wake.

Granny Smith turned her probing gaze onto Big Mac next.

He wondered why he had to endure this scrutiny as well?  None of this was his fault!  He quickly punctuated Applejack's remarks with, "Yeeup!" and finished off his apple pie in much the same way as his little sister, running off to bed.

Granny Smith and Apple Bloom blinked at each other.


***


Big Mac immediately regretted this idea.  He crawled out of the underside of the rose bush with a bitter groan.  He was covered in scrapes and thorns.

He'd be lying to himself, though, if he didn't admit that he really really wanted this crazy plan to work.

He made his way toward Fluttershy's cottage, and timidly knocked on the door.

Fluttershy peeked out the crack of the door nervously, then flung it open when she witnessed Big Mac's cut up coat.

"B-Big Mac!" she cried out with a blush.  "Oh you poor thing come inside."

It wasn't uncommon for apple family members to visit Fluttershy after getting a few scrapes.  They knew that she had veterinary training and kept well stocked on first aid supplies, and her house was closer than the hospital.  Big Mac, in particular, very much enjoyed to visit Fluttershy instead of the hospital, because of his coltish little crush.

Big Mac graciously accepted Fluttershy's invitation inside.  "Ahm sorry ta impose Miss Fluttershy."

"Oh no no no no," Fluttershy hastily said in denial, "you can come here any time you're hurt, you poor guy."

Big Mac blushed hotly, and a knot started to form in his gut.  Why did he choose Fluttershy for the test?  Oh Celestia, what has he done?  She's so sweet, and he really does love her.  How can he be doing this?

"Let me get those out," Fluttershy insisted in her sweetest whispery voice, stepping closer to Big Mac, preaparing to lean up against him.

He abruptly stepped aside.  "Wait!"

Fluttershy blinked, shocked, her foreleg still outstretched toward Big Mac's prior position.

Big Mac blushed hotly, "I mean.. you should fly up, so that you don't have to press up against me.  That way you won't get any thorns in your fur."

Fluttershy smiled.  "Oh, you're so thoughtful, and gentle!  Um .. if you don't mind me saying."  She looked downward self-consciously for a moment, before gently taking off into a hover above Big Mac's back.  She set to work cleaning and disinfecting the thorn wounds, tossing thorns into the garbage.

Big Mac was completely disappointed in himself.  Either he was a disturbed lech who believed in silly fantasies about magic orgasm power, or he was right about the magic orgasm power and he was some kind of monster who wants to go around mind controlling mares.  Maybe the sting of the antiseptic was just deserts for his foalishness.

The fates themselves, however, care not for the petty scruples of a stallion with a crush.

Fluttershy's antiseptic cloth floated gently past Big Mac's face, as if in slow motion.  A sweet and gentle, "Oopsie!" escaped from Fluttershy's lips.  Instinctively, they both reached for the cloth.

Ever so gently, their cheeks and hooves touched.  They both released a slow gasp, and then drew away from each other.

Their eyes met, giving each other the same concerned, curious stare, but for opposite reasons.

Fluttershy looked down after a moment, seeming somewhat calm.  At least, she was as calm as Fluttershy ever got around another pony.  Big Mac thought this was a good sign...

... until he looked at her wings.  He had never seen such desperately flared wings in his life.  Not even in those 'special magazines' he keeps under his mattress.  If Granny Smith ever found those, then he sure as shootin' would have got the switch.

Fluttershy must have realized the predicament her wings had presented.  She tried to speak, but it only came out as a distressed squeak.

Big Mac's heart was pounding in his chest.  It really happened.  He gave her a rush of pleasure just by touching her!  Whatever's happening, it's real.  He wondered if Fluttershy realized what's happening.  Maybe, like Applejack had been, she was confused, and didn't know he's the source of her pleasure.

Applejack had been so desperate to find out what caused it.  She wanted badly to repeat the experience.  Maybe that was going through Fluttershy's mind right now?  His heartrate increased even more as the temptation got too high and he made his decision.  He was going to show her.

"Fluttershy," he said, before stepping in closer.  Fluttershy instinctively backed away, but Big Mac reached his forehoof out to gently rub at her shoulder.

Fluttershy melted before Big Mac's eyes,  Her jaw dropped and she craned her neck up as all four of her knees buckled.  She released the sweetest and softest of breaths that trembled with lust, but still, she stepped away again.

Fluttershy didn't know how to feel about this.  "What are you doing to me?" she asked.  She sounded betrayed.

Big Mac's heart broke in his chest.  What was he doing?  Did he just rape Fluttershy?  "I--" he said.  His voice cracked and he was unable to finish his sentence.

"Why are you doing this?" Fluttershy asked.  Tears welled in her eyes.

"It wasn't on purpose!" Big Mac lied hastily, and transparently.

"Are you using magic to get me to have sex with you?" she asked.  Her sweet little face was filled with so much heartache.  It looked like someone had stomped her heart into dust and spit on the remains.

Big Mac couldn't look at that face.  He backed up so far that his hindquarters slammed into the door.  "I'm so sorry Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy broke into tears, and Big Mac could take no more.  He threw open Fluttershy's door, and leapt out into her front porch.  He started to run, and didn't stop running, even as he looked back toward the house with tears in his eyes.

What have I done?
> The Consequences
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why ya hidin'?" Apple Bloom shouted in her usual cheery, energetic southern drawl.

Big Macintosh was attacking his horse collar with a hammer when his youngest sister arrived to greet him.  He jumped with surprise.  "Apple Bloom!" he bellowed.

Apple Bloom leapt atop the workbench Big Macintosh was using to try to pry his Horse Collar loose.  "Thats mah name!  Yer hidin' in the barn from granny's boiled celery ain'cha?"

Big Mac furrowed his brow.  Why was his sister choosing this moment to chat with him?  She was a hoofful when he wasn't under the spell of cursed farm equipment.  Oh well.  That seemed like a convenient enough excuse for why he was in the barn in the barn after sundown.  "Yeeu--"

Apple Bloom lunged forward nearly getting cheek to cheek with Big Macintosh.  "Hey!" she cried.  "Why ya tryin' tah take off yer fancy pantsy new horse collar?  Applejack gave that to you!"

Big Macintosh nearly had a heart attack.  Apple Bloom was nearly touching him.  He lunged backward as though Apple Bloom had been a leaping shark threatening to snap off his head.

Apple Bloom stared down from atop the workbench at the cowering workhorse below.  Her jaw hung slack for a moment before she bristled, nearly leaping on the spot while she shouted, "What's gotten into yah big brother?"  She crouched down like a cat ready to lunge and squinted at Big Macintosh.

She added, "You an' Applejack been actin' mighty suspicious lately!  What kinda devilry you bin' up to?"

Big Macintosh lamented inwardly.  What happened to his simple life?  What happened to being able to go about his day, barely saying two words, and returning home to a warm bowl of honeyed oats?  "Well, I uh...  Ye see..."

Apple Bloom interrupted Big Macintosh with a joyful gasp.  "Naw don' tell me!  Ah gots an idea!  Cutie Mark Crusaders Private Investigators!  Oh this'll be fun!"

Well, buck me sideways and call me Seabiscuit.

Big Mac winced.  "Nnope.  That dun' sound fun at all Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom had already boarded the hyper train, however.  "Oh ah can't wait to see what mah cutie mark looks like after ah find out all these secrets!  Ahm gonna get the girls an interrogate mah big sis!"

Apple Bloom hopped off the work bench and dove gracefully into a pile of old boxes.  "Where's that really bright desk lamp, Big Mac?  Ye know the one.  It's all metal and metaly."  She rooted around, tossing bits of old family knickknacks aside.  "Big Mac?"

She peeked up over the edge of the boxes and frowned.  The barn door flapped gently in the breeze and Big Macintosh was nowhere to be found.

Apple Bloom whined exasperatedly.  "Land sakes, big brother."

Big Mac was galloping as fast as he could by now, before coming to a sudden stop to hide behind an apple tree.  He panted, leaning his back up against it and catching his breath.

His fears were all but confirmed now by the fact that some magical force was keeping it in place.  It was the horse collar that deserved blame for all this, or the credit, depending on which part of his brain was assessing the situation.

He closed his eyes, and breathed slowly.  If he just relaxed, surely the solution to his problems would come to him.

At least he was in his orchard now; safe, and far away from any females that he might end up violating, accidentally or otherwise.  The one thing he truly knew was that, out here, he was at peace.  The orchard was his true home, and the twilight would never judge him.

There was a paff sound, and a metallic scent in the air that Big Macintosh had smelled before.

"Oh horseapp--"

"You!" Twilight Sparkle cried, marching up to Big Mac, blowing hot air from her nostrils like a furious bull half ready to charge forth and gore him.

Big Mac got up to his hooves, "Now Twilight, ah--"

Twilight Sparkle wan't going to hear any of it.  She reached out to touch Big Mac's red coated shoulder for a fraction of a second.  He tried to draw away but it was too late.  She pulled her hoof away and released her breath sharply as though she had just been zapped by static electricity.  She developed a pained expression.  "It's true!  How could you, Big Mac?"

Her words were drenched with shock, disbelief, and heartbroken contempt, "How could you do that to Fluttershy?  She's never hurt anypony in her life, Big Mac."

Twilight was nearly bringing herself to tears.  Big Mac didn't stand a chance.  It wasn't long before he started to weep.  Twilight was right.  She was right about it all.  Fluttershy was the last pony in the world that deserved to have sick sex games played on her against her will.

"Ahm sorry, it wasn't on purp--"

Big Mac couldn't get a word in edgewise.  Twilight cut him off with an impassioned rebuking, "Don't lie to me!  Don't you dare lie to me!  It'll make it..."  She hung her head.  "It-it'll make it worse for you, when..."  Her voice grew more hushed.  "When I tell Princess Celestia."

Big Mac was gripped by a sudden wave of terror.  He drew in a sharp gasp, and trembled on the spot.  Surely she wouldn't do that?!

Twilight explained herself.  Her voice, which only moments prior was filled with haughty indignation, was quickly sinking into sorrow and pity.  "Using magic to get sex is a terrible crime, Big Mac."

Big Mac hung his head, and begged softly.  "Please, Miss Sparkle.  Please don' be tellin' Celestia what I done.  Ahm sorry.  Ahm rightly sorry."

"I can't just forgive you, Big Mac!  What you did; it was--" she struggled for words, even though she knew the word she needed to use.  What other word was there?  "It was..."  She stopped, and asked, "Did you know she was in love with you?"

This was rock bottom.  Big Mac's eyes widened as his mind reeled from Twilight's words.  He had been struck like a ton of bricks.  He had no idea a stallion could possibly feel this much pain.  He had crossed the line, and a wound had torn open inside of him that promised to become a scar so deep that his heart would be disfigured forever.

He couldn't cry any more.  He might never cry again; not after this.

Big Mac wanted to tell Twilight that he had no idea Fluttershy was in love with him.  He wanted to tell Twilight that he loved Fluttershy too, and he just made a terrible mistake.  He wanted to tell Twilight that his heart was mangled in his chest and it hurt so bad.

But, all that came out was, "Please don't tell Celestia."

Twilight spoke softly.  Her words were cold, but they were also conflicted.  There was inner turmoil in the young mare's mind.  Life can be unfair, and sometimes the decisions that are so important can come so early.  This night was going to have consequences.  "I've thought a lot about what to do."

She started to shake.  Oh Tartarus why was she shaking?  What was she thinking?  Had she just resolved to do something?  Had she just decided to tell Celestia?

"It was rape, Big Mac.  You used magic to rape somepony."

Her tone of voice made Big Mac all the more convinced of his fate.  She sounded more certain of herself.  He closed his eyes, and wondered if perhaps he was lucky Celestia would end his misery.  He tried to accept his fate with dignity and serenity, taking slow breaths.

"I mean, we've all thought about doing it, but you have to resist the temptation."

Big Mac's eyes shot open.

Twilight was staring at him.

"Uh.. Miss Sparkle it wasn't--  I didn't--"

"I mean we're all curious, and maybe a bit inexperienced.  It's hard to make friends and it's even harder to fall in love, and sometimes... you might have fantasies."

Big Mac's eyes slowly grew wider.

"And I-- I could tell her.  I could tell Celestia right now, so...  You'd..."  Twilight's trembling grew ever more violent.  "You'd better do what I tell you!"

Big Mac furrowed his brow in terrified disbelief.  "Twilight, what I dun to Fluttershy, did it make you--"  His words caught in his throat as he was suddenly wrapped up in a soft magenta glow, and levitated off the ground.

Twilight tried to overcome her trepidation by barking orders at the confused and helpless Big Mac.  She turned him over in her magic field so that his back was facing toward her.  "Don't look at me!  You don't get to look at me."

He immediately disregarded her instructions, looking back over his shoulder with wide eyed panic as he saw Twilight moving closer to him with her hoof outstretched, ready to touch his withers.  "Twilight!  Dun do this!"

Twilight snapped at him, but refused to make eye contact.  "I said don't look at me!  You have to do what I say!"

Terrified, Big Mac looked straight at the tree in front of him.  She was right.  He did have to do what she said.  She had everything she needed to blackmail him, and even if she didn't, what was he going to do about it?  He was trapped in a levitation spell.

Twilight Sparkle slipped her hoof gently into the bristling fur of Big Mac's scruff, and broke into a delighted shuddering moan.

Big Mac stared at the apple tree with a pained expression as Twilight Sparkle's lewd moans started to get louder.  She was really scaring him.  She had so much power over him that, for all his strength, he might as well have been a tiny baby chick compared to her.  She was crossing a line and she knew it, but that wasn't stopping her.  What's going to happen next?  She could really hurt him if she wanted to and, Celestia help him, she just might want to.  He was overcome with grief and helplessness.

Twilight spoke, and by the sound of her voice behind him, he could tell that she was grinning with pleasure.  "Hahh.  This magic feels so..  Hahh!  Already?!" she cried out.  Her sharp moaning gasps grew more desperate with each passing moment.

Big Mac tried to peek over his shoulder now.  Circumstances aside, this was hot.  He was going to make her cum and she wanted it bad.  He couldn't help but grow hard at the sight.

Twilight's knees quivered, and she fell down to her belly over her unsteady hooves.  Desperately, she was certain to keep her hoof firmly attached to Big Mac's fur, despite her growing convulsions.  She reached up with her other forehoof and ran it through her mane, tangling the pink and purple stripes together into a frizzy mess.  "Ah!  Aahn!  Ohhh!" she wailed, shrieking loudly as her body tensed sharply, convulsing against the grass.

Big Mac started to flail in mid air with panic.  "Twilight!  Twilight!  Enougha that caterwallin!  Somepony's gonna hear!"

Twilight breathed, "Oh... wow," in airy disbelief.  Her hoof weakly slid off of Big Mac's back.  Soon, she was humming sweetly with afterglow.  "Mm.  Mm."

Big Mac squirmed a bit more in the levitation field, and sighed with relief.  He looked down at Twilight, pleased to hear silence once more.

Twilight parted her lips and giggled, before thrusting her hoof even firmer against Big Mac's fur and loosing another impassioned scream of pleasure.

Big Mac tried desperately to get his fur away from her hoof.  "Twilight!  Stop!"

She managed to muster up enough anger to say, "I told you not to look at me!  You're not allowed to be turned on by this or I'll tell!  I'll tell Celestia!"  Her own words of cruelty were giving her a sinful rush of pleasure, accelerating her orgasm.

Big Mac quickly obeyed and looked back toward the tree, but there wasn't much he could do about being turned on.  He was rock hard now.

Twilight was overcome with the hot rush of an incredible orgasm.  By the sound of the screaming, Big Mac was convinced that Applejack would come running out of the farmhouse any moment now, ready to slay whatever creature had escaped from the Everfree Forest fixin' to devour the sweet and innocent Twilight Sparkle.

"Twilight stop yer hollerin'!"  Big Mac struggled violently, bucking at the air.

Twilight pressed her muzzle into the ground, and let her hoof slip free of Big Mac's scruff.  She panted contentedly into the wild grass as the last of the twilight faded into the horizon.

The magic field holding Big Mac seemed to sputter and pop, before it finally gave way and let him fall to the earth.  "Oof!"

Twilight took a long, contented sigh.

Moving quickly to his hooves, Big Mac tiptoed away nervously while the distracted Twilight enjoyed the afterglow of her second orgasm.  She was so awash with relaxation now that she couldn't muster up a levitation spell even if she tried.

Big Mac galloped away from the sorceress quickly with his rigid stallionhood tapping his belly with each step.

"You can't tell or Celestia will find out.  You can't tell anypony," Twilight called to Big Mac as he made his escape.  There was the a hint of fear in her voice.

Why me?

A nearby bush rustled softly.  Sweetie Belle leaned over and whispered loudly enough for both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to hear, but softly enough that Twilight wouldn't catch them.

"Maybe he was tickling her?"
> The Conversation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fluttershy told me what ya did," Applejack said sadly.

So this was why she wanted to talk to him in private.  They sat on the upper level of the barn on top of the large pile of hay bales where, hopefully, no Cutie Mark Crusaders would find them.

Big Macintosh remained silent.

Applejack didn't want to look at her big brother.  "She was cryin', Mac."

Big Mac winced, and put the back of his hoof on his brow.  He was considering doing the same, now.

He didn't want to be talking to his sister about any of this, but he knew it had to come sooner or later.

He replied solemnly, "Yeeup.  Are ya mad?"

Applejack picked at an individual piece of hay in the bale beneath her, "Ah don't rightly know how ah feel right now, Big Mac."

Big Mac was silent again.

Applejack asked, "So ya know now.  Y'all know what happens, then?  What you made me... feel..."

Big Mac furrowed his brow, and hesitated in his response, before rebuffing his little sister, "That wasn't mah doin' sis.  That was y'all.  It was yer touchin' what set it off."  Big Mac wasn't angry.  He spoke softly, and just wished this conversation would end and the topic would never come up again.

Applejack didn't want to reply to that.  Her gaze remained steadfast on the hay bale under her haunches.  She's already pulled an impressive little pile of hay out of the bale, and lined it up in a row.  "Was it mah fault what happened tah Fluttershy?  Ifn' ye knew what she woulda felt.  Ifn' I explained it to ya sooner..."  She didn't finish her thought.

Big Mac wished she wasn't explaining it to him now.  "Ain't no way none of this is your fault, Applejack.  An even if it were, d'ain't no sense fussin' bout what's dun."  He wished he could take his own advice.

Silence fell upon the bales once again.

Applejack didn't usually go for any fancy city perfumes, but today she smelled like fresh chamomile; Big Mac's favorite.

Big Mac choose to break the silence, "Y'all needs ta know ahm awful sorry about what I dun tah Fluttershy.  I want to tell her mahself, but, I can't go see her again.  Not after what I dun."

Applejack squirmed her haunches on her hay bale.  Her hind hooves reached down to the old planks of the barn's upper floor, and she was gently rubbing her hoof in circles against the wood finish.  "Didja like it?"

Big Mac didn't sound distressed by Applejack's question.  Nothing about this conversation could possibly get less comfortable than it already was.  He answered her in the same soft monotone he had been using for the rest of their heart to heart.  "Ah'd be lyin' if ah didn't say ah wanted her tah feel good.  Ah wasn't thinkin' that she'd be right rational.  Ah thought she'd lose control an we'd end up..."  He didn't finish his thought.  Applejack didn't need him to.

After a moment, he continued, "But she knew what I was doin' an she started cryin' not ten seconds later."

Applejack was breaking a single piece of hay now into tiny squares with her forehooves.  She didn't want to look up at Big Mac, and he shared the sentiment.  "That's not what ah meant.  Ah meant didja like it... when... ah came."

Big Mac shook his head.  "Yer my sister."

Applejack picked at the hay even more.  She had done quite a bit of damage to this bale by now.  Her voice carried softness and shame, as though she was responding to being terribly scolded by Granny Smith.  "Yeah..."

Big Mac looked up from the floor; not at Applejack, at first, but past the edge of the second level down to the barn's dirt floor below.

He peeked toward Applejack's face awkwardly.  She looked shameful something fierce.  At some point during the conversation, she had taken her hair band out, letting her mane dangle elegantly.  The way she looked now reminded him of Fluttershy.

She didn't look back at him, but her hind hoof slid across the floorboards toward his.  She stopped short of touching him.  "But, ye can't help what yah feel, an, maybe yah thought it felt good.  Maybe yah thought about it afterward." she added.  

She swallowed hard.

Big Mac said, "Ah think it's the horse collar.  Ah tried takin' it off and it wasn't gonna budge.  In mah books that says it's mighty suspicious fer what caused all this."

Applejack's hoof slid back toward herself, away from Big Mac.  "Ah was thinkin' the same thing, on account of it startin' at the same time.  Zecora did say she didn't know where it came from.  She said she inherited it from her grandmother back in her native land.  Ah think we need tah give her a talkin' to; get this all sorted out."

Big Mac couldn't agree more.  "Yeeup."

Applejack reached up to slip her hair band back into place.  "There's somethin' else you should know.  Twilight knows too, an... I won't sugar coat it, sugar cube.  She's angry.  Yesterday she was making some mighty unsavory threats.  Threats of which ah would-- have-- none, let me jus tell you that."  She tapped the hay bale next to her to punctuate her certainty and conviction as she spoke.  "An this mornin' when ah saw her ah didn't know who looked more heartbroken, her or Fluttershy."

Applejack reached out and was about to gently pat Big Mac on the back before her hoof tensed up, and slowly withdrew.  "Bes you stay away from her an let this blow over."

Big Mac didn't want to be reminded of Twilight right now.  He was doing his best not to imagine, wherever he went, that she would appear next to him in a flash and use him as a plaything again.  He didn't like hearing the word 'heartbroken' either.  "She was upset?"

Applejack nodded, though neither of them were looking at one another at the time.  "Ah think she didn't want to talk tah me because I told her she'd be regrettin' all the things she was saying bout you come the mornin'.  Ah told her tah take it easy an sleep it off an forget all this business about goin' after my big brother all lookin' fer trouble.  Why, this mornin' she probably realized ah was right, as usual, and was feelin' mighty guilty about it taboot."

Applejack looked up at her big brother, and stared at the glistening carved texture of his polished ebony horse collar.  "All the same, you bes' be keepin' yer distance, ya hear me?"

Big Mac couldn't agree more.  "Yeeup."
> The Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gasp!

"Two hoof twitches?  No!  Three!  And a tailswirl!  A whole swirl!  Do you know what this means?!" Pinkie Pie shouted while bounding alongside Big Macintosh.

Big Mac sighed, but it was barely audible over the gentle rumble of the carriage full of apples he was pulling.  "Nnope."

"Neither do I!  And I knew that I wasn't going to know because my pinkie sense told me that right before!  I was hoping you would know!"

Big Mac replied, "Nnope."  He had his suspicions, though.

Pinkie Pie hummed, lifting a hoof to her chin and curling her lips to the side in thought.  "I know it has something to do with love.  I know!  You love apples!"

Big Mac blinked.  This was getting too close for comfort, but he certainly couldn't deny that.  "Yeeup."

Pinkie Pie bounded for joy, hopping gleefuly ahead of Big Mac while he sauntered down Ponyville Main Street at a leisurely pace.  She started walking backwards so she could face him.  Now she was getting too close for comfort in a literal sense too.  Pinkie Pie was a very physical creature.  You never know when to expect a sudden hug.

"So now you can cheer up!  Because you have lots of apples!"

Big Mac gradually slowed down the closer Pinkie got to him.  "Cheer up?  Ahm doin' just fine Ms. Pie."

Pinkie Pie lunged forward, and Big Mac came to a sudden stop, sending a couple of apples spilling down over his croup.  He stood stiffly, and drew in a shocked breath as Pinkie Pie closed in to within inches of his face.

With a gentle puff, he released the breath trapped in his lungs; eyes wide.  Pinkie Pie was staring at him from inches away, scrutinizing his expression.  "Hmmmm!"

Okay Big Red.  She's sizin' you up.  Last thing you need is somepony else to find out what's goin' on.  Relax.  Don't think about mares.  Don't think about what will happen if she touches you.  Don't think about Fluttershy.  Don't think about how you just thought about Fluttershy because you were trying not to think about Fluttershy.

"Nope!  Definitely way down in frown town, mister!"  She gasped, and backed up a few paces, as if posing herself square within Big Mac's field of view.  "Do you know the very very best thing for when you're feeling low?!" she asked with a delighted beam.

Big Mac waited for Pinkie Pie to answer her own question for an awkward moment before finally deciding that it wasn't rhetorical.  "A party?"

"No silly!  Talking about it!"  She blinked.  "Why would you want to throw a party when you're sad?  You're a pretty silly guy Big Mac!"  She zipped in close to Big Mac again, this time coming to rest alongside him.  At some point in transit she ended up wearing a lab coat and a head mirror.  "Doctor Pinkie is ready to listen!"

Big Mac blinked at her for a moment, and then started to move off.  The cart behind him rumbled to life as he dragged it along with him.  "Nnope."

Pinkie Pie developed an exaggerated expression of dejected worry.  She ran back out in front again and resumed her backward walk, having somehow shed her doctor's uniform in the interim.  "But!" she called out pleadingly.  "How am I supposed to make you happy again if you won't tell me why you're sad?"

There was no sense denying it anymore.  "Thankin' ye kindly, Pinkie, but ah'll be fine."

Pinkie's ears sank to the sides of her head, and she pouted, letting her muzzle hang low as she came to a stop, allowing Big Mac to pass by.

Big Mac took a slow breath.  He felt bad, but it was for the best.  He needed to be alone with his thoughts.

"Is it a tummy ache!?" Pinkie Pie called out, popping her head out from a nearby alleyway.

This couldn't be good for Big Mac's heart.  "Pinkie Pie!"

She smiled, "Sure am!  I bet it's a tummy ache."

Big Mac kept on walking with a soft grumble.  "Nnope."

"Are you lonely?  You don't have to be!  Pinkie Pie is here and she's gonna stay with you all day if that's what it takes," she insisted with a cheerfully resolute voice.

That was definitely not what Big Mac wanted.  "Nnope."

"Is it because you got into an argument?"

Big Mac was not happy about it, but she was getting warmer.  He looked across town.  He could make a run for his destination, but it wouldn't achieve much.  He was delivering the apples to Sugar Cube Corner where Pinkie works, and even if he wasn't, nopony ever outruns Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie proffered another guess.  "Is it beacuse you somehow ended up with a cursed ebony magical horse collar and you're giving mares super duper hot sexual feelings just by touching them anywhere and you don't want to give them orgasms like giving orgasms to your sister by accident and then sometimes you do want to give them orgasms but then that doesn't work either and now everything's all messed up and you're scared and you don't know how to get it off?"  She heaved a sharp breath to replenish all the air she just lost with her guess.

Big Mac stopped, and stared at Pinkie, blushing up a storm.

She was grinning from ear to ear.

Big Mac looked around, to see if anypony else heard her 'guess'.  Thankfully nopony was listening.  "Lucky guess?" he asked.

"What?  No silly!  Applejack told me.  How could I possibly guess all kinds of details like that?"

Big Mac wondered, then, why that wasn't her first guess.  "She prolly dun want ya talkin' ta anypony about that."

She smiled and replied with her usual sing-song intonation.  "You nutty buddy!  I'm not talking to 'anypony' about it.  I'm talking to you!"

Big Mac resumed walking, picking up his pace a bit and looking around nervously.  "How 'bout we git inside before we talk?"

"That's a super duper great idea!" Pinkie cried out excitedly.  "Once we're inside we can try it out and we don't have to worry about anypony looking!  This'll be great!"

Big Mac's eyes were pinned wide while walking down the street.  He knew he wanted to run, but he didn't know whether he wanted to run toward, or away from Sugar Cube Corner.  "Wut?!"

Pinkie Pie's worried expression returned.  "Oh you don't want to?"

He didn't say that.

His pace increased even more.  He was practically galloping now.  Pinkie Pie didn't seem to care, perfectly matching his pace.

Pinkie continued, "Because, I wouldn't want you to do anything you don't want to do."

She furrowed her brow, "Oh no!  Now I've super duper embarrassed you.  I'm sorry."

Big Mac came to a smoking halt behind Sugar Cube Corner, nearly upsetting the apple cart enough to spill his load all over the back door.

Big Mac wanted to say something.  He wanted to tell her no.  He wanted to tell her yes.  He wanted to ask her what in the dickens had gotten into her.

Ultimately, he focused on his work, however.  He hauled the enormous apple baskets onto his back, and opened up the chef's entrance.  He sighed with relief when he saw that none of the Cake family seemed to be around.

Pinkie followed Big Mac, still carrying her worried expression with her the entire way.  "Are you sure you don't want to talk?  We can just talk, if that's what you want."

Pinkie furrowed even more as Big Mac ignored her and kept going about his work.  He stocked the kitchen's apple supply to the top.

Pinkie was starting to worry.  "Are you mad?  I'm sorry.  Please don't be mad at me."

Big Mac shook his head, and finally responded, "Nnope, Ah just din' know ya felt that way about me."

Pinkie's expression only got more worried.  "Aw.  Big Mac.  You're so super nice.  I know that you're just thinking about me and...  Big Mac sex isn't like that for me."

Big Mac turned to look at Pinkie.  He had an idea of where this conversation was about to go.  Was she really offering this to him?

He never once thought about it before, but now it was crowding out all his other thoughts: Pinkie was a beautiful mare.  She was sweet, energetic, fun, and she had killer looks.

Pinkie continued, "It can be...  Maybe it will be some day and I really really hope so...  but it's also something for friends too."

Big Mac couldn't help but feel that Pinkie has made this speech before.

Pinkie walked closer to Big Mac.  She was moving much more slowly than she usually did, and Big Mac found himself stepping backward in lock step until his haunches pressed back into one of the pie oven handles.  "Pinkie, how long ya bin... like that?"

Pinkie smiled brightly at him, and gave him an intensely sensual stare.  She was close enough now for him to tell she had cherry licorice for breakfast.  She was almost whispering now, and it seemed so completely unusual for her, of all ponies, to be this quiet.  "That's crazy.  I'm not 'like' anything.  I'm just Pinkie Pie!  There's nothing wrong with me being Pinkie Pie is there?"

Big Mac could feel his heart beating in his chest.  He felt a rush of nervous tingles down his body.  She was right, of course.  He was raised to look down on promiscuous mares, but he never believed it himself.  Those were his grandmother's words in his mouth.  "Ah'm sorry.  Ah din mean to say there's anything wrong with you."

Pinkie's lips were getting closer now.  He drew in a timid, sharp breath, staring back into the other earth pony's sky blue eyes.  She wasn't just fooling around.  She was trying to seduce him.  She clearly knew exactly what she was doing, because every time Big Mac would make a nervous twitch or take a shaky breath, she would smile with amusement, and just kept watching him.  Big Mac couldn't help but wonder how many stallions she had done this to.

She heaved a whispered version of one of her trademark gasps.  "This is your first time isn't it?"

Big Mac's heart was hammering in his chest, and he was overcome with a heady wave of euphoria.  How did she figure that out, and she was calling this a 'time'; his 'first time'?  Sweet Celestia, this was really happening.

He had the power of the collar at his disposal, and this time there was mare in front of him who was truly willing and eligible.  "P-p-pinky.  Ah.  You.  What are ye askin' for?"

Pinkie Pie's confident amusement grew.  "The Cakes won't be back until the storefront opens.  We have hours."

Big Mac's eyes widened, and he leaned in to allow Pinkie's lips to touch his.  She twitched and sputtered at the feeling of his lips, drawing away from him quickly, and breathing heavily.

Wide eyed, she lifted her forehoof up to her muzzle.  Her forehoof gently ran across one lip, then the other.  She almost stared 'through' Big Mac's face.  The confident, controlled, seductive look she had just seconds earlier was replaced with shock.

She leaned in quickly, trying to lock lips with the bashful stallion.

Big Mac drew away.  "Pinkie Pie wait!"

Pinkie exhaled sharply.  She was barely able to stop herself from jumping on Big Mac and ravishing him.  She took a trembling step back away from him.

"Yer mah sister's friend.  Innit weird?  And... Pinkie, sex is like that for you, but it's not for me.  I dun love you, Pinkie.  I jus can't.  It wouldn't be--"

Pinkie pressed her muzzle into Big Mac's mouth, and took in a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs so she could keep her lips locked to his, but she barely lasted a second before the breath crashed out of her chest and onto his lips, followed by a lust soaked moan.

"Ye stop that right this second, Pinkie!" Mac demanded.  His voice was muffled by Pinkie's lips.

Pinky pressed in close, drawing her cheek up against his and nestling it down on his withers.  Big Mac's scruff stood on end.  She felt incredible.  She was squeezed up neck to neck with him, and she was so soft.  Her quivering breath puffing against his scruff filled him with warmth.  He knew she was drawing rapidly toward an orgasm with each quiver her body made against his.  He knew he could pin her to the counter top right now and it would be the most incredible sex she'd ever felt.

Big Mac gently shoved Pinkie away, and she gave him a crestfallen expression.  "Pinkie Pie ahm tellin you, no!  Ahm tired of bein' somepony's toy!"

She finally stopped trying to touch Big Mac, and hung her head.  "I'm sorry I didn't mean to pressure you.  I never wanted to do that.  I'm not... like that," she said, repeating Big Mac's earlier words back to him.  She was ashamed of herself, and her precious smile was gone; wiped away.

"You would never just be my toy, Big Mac.  Never ever ever ever.  And, I'm not just your sister's friend.  I'm your friend, Big Mac.  I'm your friend."

Big Mac stared at the floor.  He didn't respond to her.

Every second that passed without a word was like a needle in Pinkie's heart.  What had she done to him?  What did he think of her now?

Big Mac stepped away from Pinkie, and she almost reached out to him.  She wanted to beg him to stay, but she stayed her hoof, drawing it back to her neck and hanging her head.

Big Mac stepped over to the door.

And locked it.

Pinkie's smile returned, brighter than ever as Mac turned around, trotting back toward her with a salacious grin.

He approached, walking slowly and staring lewdly at Pinkie, much as she did to him moments ago; saucy and playful.  In kind, Pinkie pie was the nervous one now.  He started to circle around her, staring down her body appreciatively.  She stood perfectly still.

She drew tremulous staccato breaths of anticipation, and looked backward when Mac got behind her.  She didn't turn her entire body.  This was what she wanted.  She wanted her behind to face him, with her tail twitching and flashing brief glimpses at Pinkie's prize.

"T-touch me," she begged.

Mac was high on a wave of lust now.  He had never felt so virile and powerful.  Just moments ago, Pinkie Pie had him wrapped around her hoof. He was terrified of her greater experience and casual comfort with sex.  Now she was so desperate she could barely see straight.  She needed him bad.

What in the world did that collar make him feel like?

"Buck me," she begged.

By now, Mac had forgotten all about his scruples.  Pinkie told him that it's okay because they're friends, and in his lustful stupor it seemed as though there could not have been a position more logical and sensible than that.

"Pleas--" Pinkie began to whisper, but her voice was cut off by the sudden feeling of being lifted into the air by Big Mac's powerful forelegs.  She drew in a sultry gasp, beaming a glorious and contented smile.  "Anh!  Yes!" she wailed.

Big Mac gently dropped her chest onto the counter top and slid her forward until her hindquarters were dangling off the edge before him.  Her body forced aside some partially kneaded pie dough, sending it to the floor with a splat.  He mounted her body and pressed his muzzle into the side of her neck, listening to the sounds of Pinkie's lust.

His cock was already stiff now, and it was teasing at Pinkie's opening, but he wanted to wait until her first orgasm to slide himself inside.  He listened closely.

She was close.  First, she drew in a quick breath, then another, then one more without exhaling.  Her body lifted under Big Mac's barrel chest with the pressure of her lungs as they filled to capacity.  She breathed out slowly, and through her vocal cords came a soft, whining, almost pained sounding slow moan.

Big Mac smiled at what he was doing just with this simple embrace.  He could feel her stretching her body out as stiff as it would go, then curling sharply, twitching again and again.  She used the last of her lungs' worth of air to blaspheme the sun goddess, "Annh Celestia!"

Mac could feel squirt after squirt of something slick hitting his inner stifles and dripping down toward his fetlocks, and in that moment he plunged himself deeply within Pinkie's flower.

Pinkie was overcome with more and more pleasure.  She brought her forehoof to her head, almost dizzy with the incredible feelings now saturating her loins with tingling.  She dropped her jaw and pressed her open muzzle into the loosely strewn all-purpose flower that coated the counter top, airily crying, "A-another?!"

Big Mac knew they would keep coming.  He could make her feel as many as he wanted, and the sensation was incredible.  There's no way using his hoof could compare to what he was feeling now.  Pinkie may claim to be promiscuous, but she was anything but loose, and that's even before the pleasure made her clench.  He was tingling down to his bones in ways he never imagined, and he needed more.

The pots, pans, and silver bowls atop the counter slid in rhythmic resonance with Big Mac's, now fast and desperate, thrusts.  He loosed a guttural groan that made Pinkie giggle and beg for more.

Big Mac cut off her pleas by leaning forward to press his muzzle into Pinkie lips kissing her passionately.  He was just in time to feel her kiss become sloppy and slack jawed from the sudden onset of her second orgasm, shooting deliciously tense relaxation through her body.  She winced and wailed out against his smiling muzzle.

Bic Mac drew back, setting one forehoof on each side of Pinkie's head, and started to drive her deeply and quickly with his additional leverage.

Pinkie had never been fucked by so much raw weight.  "Yes!" she cried, "Anh yes!"

He groaned out louder and louder, building toward a crescendo of deep voiced cries.  "Hahh!  Hahh!  Nnh!  Unnh!  Ahhh!" he bellowed as he hilted Pinkie deeply, firing shot after shot of seed into her depths.  Pinkie's cunt clenched tightly for her third, and now simultaneous orgasm, milking Big Mac's throbbing cock for every drop of thick seed.

Mac slid his cock free, and slumped down on his side against the counter top, untangling himself from the energetic pink pony.

Pinkie was smiling and laughing with her eyes closed, guffawing with disbelief at the intensity of what she just felt.  "Whoa.  Whoa.  Wow."  She said, sliding her hoof up through her mane.  "Touch me again?" she asked with a cheery sounding voice.

Mac smiled.  "Yeeup."

He slid closer to Pinkie Pie; cuddling up tightly.  The feelings of sexual pleasure from Big Mac's collar were coming slower, taking longer to work her up to orgasm.  She knew it might take a several minutes until the next one, and even longer until the next, but, despite the fact that the counter top could barely hold them, neither of them were going anywhere for a while.

The watched each other's eyes, nose to nose, as they relaxed.
> The Confession
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy murmured softly from behind her door.  She was barely audible.  "Um.  Who is it?"

Twilight's voice was almost as soft.  "Twilight Sparkle."

Fluttershy knew something was wrong.  She leaned against the door jamb and slowly opened the door.  "Oh!  Twilight.  You came to visit me."

Fluttershy was surprised that Twilight hadn't yet bowled her over, chattering a thousand words about some new worrisome conundrum that she had worked herself up about.  Twilight was actually strangely quiet today.

Twilight gave Fluttershy a grin that the yellow pegasus knew was forced.  "Hi Fluttershy.  I hope you don't mind me just dropping by unannounced."  Twilight's nervous sing-song delivery made her timid friend think that perhaps there was some worrisome conundrum brewing there after all.  She just wasn't panicking yet.  In fact, Fluttershy thought, she looked sad.

Fluttershy bristled with worry, and stepped aside to usher her friend inside emphatically.  "Don't say that, Twilight!  You can come by any time you want!"

Fluttershy put on a kettle, and made her way over to her coffee table, and started setting up her tea set.  Before long, she looked up to discover that Twilight hadn't followed her.  She stood at the door, looking forlorn.

"Are you going to sit down?  Um.  I mean, if you don't mind?  It's okay if you want to stand.  I like to stand too.  We can both stand if you want."  Fluttershy grasped at straws for some way to ease the discomfort in the air.

Twilight did approach the chair, and sit down, but she said, "Fluttershy, I want to talk about something."

Fluttershy could not possibly be more absorbed with attention.  "Of course!  We can talk about anything."  Sad thoughts started entering into her own mind as well.  She looked away and played nervously with the edge of one of her tea saucers.  "Is it about Big Mac?"

Twilight grabbed onto that.  "No--  Yes--  No.  It's about me.  I think I might be sick."

Fluttershy's heart dropped, and she picked up the saucer the was playing with, clutching it to her breast and furrowing her brow.  "Are you dying?" she asked.

"No no no no, I'm not dying!" she would be almost amused by the misunderstanding if she wasn't already so gloomy.  "It's not even that kind of illness."

Twilight didn't seem to be elaborating, and Fluttershy wasn't Rarity.  She wasn't going to demand that Twilight deliver all the scandalous details before the first sip of tea, so she let the silence linger.

She headed over to the stove, and filled her tea pot with hot water and fresh chamomile tea, before turning to deliver it back to the table.  She gently poured two cups and took a seat.

This was bad.  Twilight still wasn't saying anything.  Fluttershy was perceptive and kind enough to know what she had to say next.  "Twilight, you know whatever it is you can talk to me.  I'm your friend and I love you."

Not a moment after the words escaped Fluttershy's lips, Twilight's face curled in anguish.  She covered her eyes with shame so Fluttershy wouldn't see the tears, and choked up.

Fluttershy left her tea behind and drew her chair close to Twilight, drawing her into a soft hug, wrapping a foreleg around her head and just holding her.

Twilight choked down her tears, and started to explain calmly, at first.  "When you told me and applejack what Big Mac did.  I...  Fluttershy, there's something wrong with me."

Fluttershy frowned deeply, and stroked Twilight's mane as she cried.  "Shhh" she whispered.  She might as well have been the soothing breeze itself.  She carried a scent of wildflowers and her whispers came with no judgement or anger.  "Everyone gets angry.  Everyone says things they don't mean."

Twilight's sobbing suddenly increased, and she trembled in Fluttershy's arms before slipping away from her.  "I can't!  I can't look at you," she said as she pulled away, and stared at her tea, watching the surface of the liquid ripple as her tears fell into it.

Fluttershy frowned, but she gave her friend some space.  She folded her hooves between her hind legs and stared at the floor, silent.  She knew she said something wrong, and she wasn't going to risk it again.  She let Twilight speak whenever she was ready.

Twilight tried to work up the courage to confess.  "When you told me what Big Mac did, I wasn't angry.  I realize that now.  I thought I was angry, but inside, I was feeling something else."

"What was it?" Fluttershy asked, trying to reach out to gently touch Twilight's stifle, so that she would know she wasn't far away.

Twilight said it.  "I was jealous."

It was a minor miracle that Fluttershy didn't suddenly wrench her hoof away.  She took in a shocked and slow gasp.  "You..."

Fluttershy couldn't believe it.  It couldn't be true.  Does Twilight like mares?  Does Twilight like her?

"You're in love with me?"

Twilight laughed bitterly.  "No.  That's not it."

Fluttershy didn't know whether to feel relieved or not.  She was glad this wasn't some kind of 'confession'.

Twilight finally admitted the terrible truth.  "I wished it was me.  I wished I was the one doing those things to you.  I wanted to-- I imagined holding you down until you couldn't resist the pleasure anymore.  I wanted you to beg me to stop.  It turned me on, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy was starting to wish her misunderstanding was true.  Somehow, Fluttershy's strength shined through, and she kept her hoof on Twilight's stifle; reassuring her friend.  She couldn't lie to herself, though.  She was scared that a friend she thought she knew so well had thoughts like these.  She was scared that she was alone with her.

Twilight's tears started to flow more freely now, and her words struggled to make it out.  "Not long after I got my cutie mark, when I first started noticing stallions," her voice lowered reluctantly, "and-- and mares, and I was discovering myself, I started to have fantasies."

Fluttershy drew in to give Twilight a tender hug.  Twilight's eyes widened and her tears stopped, replaced with a hiccuping feeling in her chest like her tears were struggling to break free.  Twilight could feel Fluttershy's love and warmth.  "How could I think about it, Fluttershy?  How could I think about those things?  You would never hurt me.  You would never hurt me."

Fluttershy shushed her beloved friend softly.  "Twilight, you're a good pony."

Twilight's mouth curled in anguish again.  How did she know exactly the right thing to say?

"Twilight, you're filled with love, not hate, and it doesn't matter what things you think about inside your fantasies."

Twilight could feel peace slipping into her body.

"I know you'd never act on it."

Twilight felt like she had just been stabbed by a red hot knife.  She sobbed so hard she couldn't breathe.

Between wheezes she cried out, "You-- don't-- know-- what-- I-- did!"

Fluttershy started to tremble now.  A tear of sympathy ran down her cheek.  She didn't let go of Twilight.

"I confronted Big Mac!  I threatened to tell Celestia what he did.  I held him down with my magic and I forced him to make me cum!"  She was screaming loudly enough now to scare the animals.  "I wanted him to suffer, Fluttershy!  I almost hurt him!  I wanted him to hurt for what he did to you!"

Twilight noticed that she was getting Fluttershy's coat wet now.  She looked at the puddle of tears and saliva as though it was a symbol of all the terrible things she was doing to Fluttershy.  Despite the words, and despite the wetness, Fluttershy would never let her go.  "And I liked it so much.  It felt so good.  I don't want to feel these things!  I don't want to like it, Fluttershy.  Why do I like it?  Why do I like it?  You're not going to be my friend, now!  Nobody will be my friend.  I'm evil."

Fluttershy shushed her friend even more.  She was reluctant to speak, but it had to be said.  "If you were evil, you wouldn't be crying.  Twilight, you're not defined by your sexual fantasies.  You're defined by this."  She squeezed Twilight tighter to drive her point home.  "You're defined by the love in your heart, and the pain that it brings you whenever you hurt somepony else.  You're also defined by the joy that you feel whenever you help somepony else.

"Twilight.  This doesn't mean you're evil.  You did an awful thing, but it reminded you of who you really are.  That's all this means.

"Shh.  That's all it means."

Fluttershy thought about her own words.
> The Spa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pinkie Pie looked back and forth between Fluttershy and Twilight as the three of them had their spa bath.  She was grinning broadly and seemed even more excited than usual, and she seemed to have been stuck in that state all day.

For some reason, now, she had become fixated on her two friends, looking at them as though there was some very amusing thought playing back inside her head.

Neither Twilight nor Fluttershy wanted to acknowledge Pinkie's mysterious new mood.  They had quite a bit on their mind.

Their expressions were subdued, and wistful.  Fluttershy, in particular, had been longing for a nice relaxing spa treatment for some time.

Relaxation, however, seemed to be off the table now that Pinkie Pie spotted them on their way toward the spa and decided to invite herself.

"We should have a foursome with Big Mac!" Pinkie finally cried out, unable to contain herself.

Twilight shot her head up from her laid-back position against the side of the bath and opened her eyes at Pinkie widely enough for the cucumbers that were covering them to slide off her face with twin plunks into the water.

Fluttershy blushed hotly and slowly sank down into the bath until she almost reached her eyes, releasing a few nervous air bubbles.

Pinkie beamed.

Despite the fact that her friends were aware of her proclivities, they rarely talked about it, and this was the very first time she's ever suggested that they join her in some new sexual escapade.

Twilight quickly rebuked her friend.  "Pinkie.  I have no idea what's gotten into you, but if you knew what Big Mac did to Fluttershy you wouldn't be suggesting something like that.  Also, ew.  No."

Pinkie Pie frowned.  "He did something bad to Fluttershy?  That's super crazy.  Why would he do that?  I thought he had a crush on you!"  She turned to Fluttershy with a disconcerted expression.

Twilight started to slowly squint at Pinkie Pie as suspicions crept into her mind.  How much does she know about Big Mac?

Fluttershy furrowed her brow and replied with more bubbles.

Twilight wanted to find out exactly how much Pinkie Pie knew.  "Why are you taking such a sudden interest in Big Mac?"

"Because he's got super duper fantastic new sex powers, duh.  I thought you knew!"

Twilight released an exasperated moan.  "Pinkie, that's supposed to be a secret."

Fluttershy considered coming up for air.  She was wondering if drowning would be all that bad.

Pinkie nodded emphatically, "I know!  I won't tell anypony!  Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

Twilight moaned with frustration again.  "Pinkie, you just told me."

Pinkie couldn't disagree with this.  "Yeah, but you totally knew already so that means it's okay."

Twilight could see that this failure to communicate wasn't going to alleviate itself, and Pinkie was technically right.  There was no harm done.

Fluttershy finally drew her muzzle from the water, and heaved a heavy breath for precious air.  Both of her friends turned to look at her, blinking.  Squee.

Twilight turned away from Fluttershy with a roll of her eyes and continued to lecture Pinkie Pie.  "Also, you said you didn't know what Big Mac did to Fluttershy."

Pinkie thought on this for a moment, then replied, "Mmm nope.  Only that he tried to make Fluttershy feel good and she didn't want to.  So he left!"

Twilight shouted in befuddled exasperation, "That's rape, Pinkie Pie!"

Twilight quickly blushed, and hunkered down with a frown.  She glanced around to see if anypony had heard her, but they were alone.  She reiterated herself in a whisper.  "That's rape."

Pinkie blinked.  "I thought he just touched her leg."

Twilight groaned.  Why wasn't her friend getting this?  "Pinkie.  She didn't tell him it was okay.  He was trying to manipulate her into having sex by forcing magic on her."

Fluttershy quietly listened to all this, staring down sadly at her own reflection.  Her friends were getting carried away in their dispute, forgetting she was even there.  Fluttershy thought this was for the best.  She didn't want to be a bother.

Pinkie Pie was perplexed.  "This is super duper confusing.  Didn't he stop right away when she asked him to?  That's what Applejack said."

Twlight sighed.  She already figured out, by process of elimination, that it was Applejack that told Pinkie.  If she was honest with herself, it would have come as no surprise that word was getting out.  She and her five closest friends were so tight knit that there's no way they won't all learn about it eventually.

"He's a pervert, Pinkie.  He didn't care about Fluttershy's feelings.  He just saw her as a mindless sex object.  He's a monster.  He was probably clopping himself all the time; thinking about it; dreaming for the opportunity to one day use magic to abuse someone."  Twilight started to develop a pained expression.  "He's sick.  He has a sickness."

Pinkie, as was her style, tried her best to remain cheerful, but the corners of her smile were starting to melt.  "I know a whole lot about stallions, and sometimes they need to be reminded that sex and love aren't the same thing.  And... Big Mac is a stallion.  That's why he forgot.  That's why he thought Fluttershy would like it if he touched her."

Twilight groaned as she tried to contemplate Pinkie's seemingly circuitous logic.  "He doesn't deserve this, Pinkie.  He doesn't deserve to have you defend him like this.  He should never be forgiven for what he's done.  The ponies who do things like that are monsters."

Applejack couldn't be aware of what Twilight did to Big Mac, so Pinkie didn't know either.  If Pinkie knew, Twilight wondered, would she be as quick to defend Twilight's actions as she was to defend Big Mac's actions?

Pinkie Pie's smile was almost gone now.  She hung her head low.  She tried desperately to keep herself perked up, but her wet mane dangled listlessly over her shoulders.  There was a bitter coldness entering her words.  "It just wasn't, Twilight.  Rape isn't like that.  Real rape is... real."

Twilight replied to Pinkie.  Her voice was very hushed and gentle.  "Pinkie.  Have you ever--"

Pinkie forced herself to perk up.  She ignored Twilight and lunged toward Fluttershy, smiling brightly.  "So!  Are you gonna try it?  It's so super duper ultra nice!"

Fluttershy tried to back away from her energetic friend, but her back was already up against the side of the spa bath.  "Eep."

Twilight's jaw dropped.  "Pinkie Pie, did you already have sex with Big Mac?"

Pinkie Pie was oblivious to the shock in the eyes of both her friends.  "Uh uh!  Wanna know how big he is?!"

Fluttershy had been silent all this time, but now she was making a strained moan, trying to hold in the rush of tears that threatened to burst from her eyes.  "You had sex with Big Mac?" she asked.  Her voice was soft and sweet, even when she was feeling so betrayed.  "I-- I told you how I felt about him.  And then you..."

Pinkie Pie gasped, and flailed her arms, trying to console Fluttershy with frantic shouting.  "Oh no!  Don't cry!  It was just sex!  And I really really wanted to know what his super spiffy keen magic horse collar did!"

Twilight was aghast.  "Pinkie Pie, how could you?"

Pinkie Pie got defensive.  "Me?  I didn't make him!  He wanted to!"

Fluttershy, unsurprisingly, wasn't comforted by that.  The tears were flowing now.

Pinkie Pie tried desperately to salvage the situation.  She chattered rapidly.  "But!  But you weren't special someponies!  You never dated once!  And I thought you were fighting now so it would be okay?  And I could help you get together with him!  If you tell him you want sex, I'm super sure he'll do it."

Fluttershy climbed out of the bath, and took flight, sending lines of water beading off her glistening wings.  She made her way toward the exit quickly, trying to wipe her tears and sniffling.

Twilight shot Pinkie Pie a fiery glare, then climbed out of the pool after her yellow coated friend.  "Fluttershy, wait!" she called out vainly while chasing after her.

Pinkie Pie remained in the tub, with tears welling in her eyes.  "I.. I just wanted everypony to have fun."

Twilight caught up to Fluttershy in the change room and teleported in front of her with a flash.

Fluttershy flapped her wings rapidly, coming to a halt and setting her hooves on the tiled floor.

Puddles were rapidly forming under the sodden ponies.  Twilight frowned sympathetically at Fluttershy, but the timid and heartbroken pegasus refused to look up and meet her eyes.  Twilight stepped in closely, and slipped her neck over top of Fluttershy's hunched nape, holding her closely, rubbing her cheek and neck against the dripping yellow fur.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Twilight asked.

Twilight could feel Fluttershy shaking her head 'no.'

Twilight stood there quietly, respecting Fluttershy's choice to remain silent, but after some moments the crestfallen yellow pony spoke.  "I really thought we had a chance, Twilight.  I wanted to forgive him.  But, he moved on."  She tried not to let it happen, but speaking made her choked up feeling want to turn into full weeping.  "He slept with Pinkie Pie.  Do you... do you think he knows how I feel about him?  Do you think he knows I--" she pondered hesitently, "Do you think he knows I love him, and he's trying to hurt me on purpose?"

Twilight didn't say anything for a short while.

"No.  I don't think he knows.  I think he's just on the rebound."

Fluttershy nodded, drawing away to wipe her eyes and sniff.  She blinked up at Twilight.  Twilight's expression looked painfully embarrassed.  Fluttershy wondered what she was thinking about that would give her such a self-conscious expression.  Even more perplexing, she wondered what Twilight was staring at.

Fluttershy turned around to follow Twilight's gaze across the change room toward its destination: an alabaster unicorn with an immaculately kept mane, and wide, shocked eyes.

"Pinkie Pie slept with Big Mac?" Rarity asked, having made an educated guess about which stallion they were referring to.

There was no sense denying it now.  They both nodded slowly.

"Why how utterly uncooth!  How dreadfully scandalous!  How terribly, hideously barbaric!  You simply must tell me everything."  Rarity's voice dropped an octave on the last word.  She was practically salivating to hear all the salacious details of this latest gossip.

Twilight sighed.  There was no reason to hold back.  "I guess you were going to find out sooner or later, but you can't tell anypony, alright?"

Rarity zipped in, practically giddy with anticipation.  "Why, darling, I am the soul of discretion, you know that!"

Twilight squinted one eye skeptically.  She glanced at Fluttershy, who was wiping her eyes and muzzle softly.

Fluttershy gave Twilight a gentle nod.

"Have you seen Big Mac's new horse collar?" Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded emphatically, "Why it's completely divine, dear.  Much better than that rustic brown monstrosity he used to wear."

Twilight replied, "Right, but, it has an enchantment on it.  It won't come off his neck, and if a mare touches him, it'll make her feel good.  Really really good."  She winced slightly and watched Rarity, waiting for her to catch the drift.

Rarity hummed, and replied, "Oh," then she thought about it more and started grinning an utterly predatory grin.  "Oh!" she sang.  She laughed at all the savory deliciousness of this discussion.  This is going to make her week, if not her month.  "Uaha!  Reeely?  Why I simply had no idea such things could exist!  Well it simply is no wonder that Pinkie Pie would sleep with him!  Why, she must have been driven mad when she heard about such a thing!"

Rarity expression melted a little.  "Poor Fluttershy, dear.  To think that your favorite stallion would be such a base specimen that the moment he got some sordid pleasure spell, he would run off and start seducing Pinkie Pie with it.  Why, couldn't he tell how you felt about him?  At the very least he should have tried it on you first!"

They both gave Rarity a disgusted look, much to Rarity's shock.  Twilight tried to bring her up to speed.  "He did, Rarity."  Rarity was worried now.  What happened to her friends?  They look so pained.  "He did it without asking."

Rarity gasped!  "Why of all the--  Fluttershy!  Did he hurt you?!"

Fluttershy cowered away from Rarity's question, and the sight of her friend in such heartache filled Rarity with righteous indignation.

Twilight replied on Fluttershy's behalf.  "He reached out and touched her before she even knew what was going on, but he ran off afterwards."

Rarity hummed.  "So perhaps he did have some feelings for you, but they were all of the physical variety.  Well, now you know, dear."  She stepped in to join the two of them, giving them a group hug.

Fluttershy replied nervously, "Um.  I know, but--"

Rarity shouted sweetly.  "No buts, Fluttershy!  Big Macintosh could never compare to your grace and dignity.  Why, it seems he's little but a lowly, foul farm creature, incapable of your level of kindness.  It simply wasn't meant to be.  He doesn't deserve you."

Fluttershy hung her head listened to Rarity.

Rarity continued, "Well, first thing's first.  He simply must have this collar taken away from him."

Twilight nods, "One step ahead of you, Rarity.  Zecora and I have been working on a potion, and we have something that we think will break the spell and cause the collar to break.  I've already given it to Applejack.  We won't have to worry about this for long."

Pinkie Pie peeked around the corner of a row of lockers.  Her hair was dry now, but it was still dangling straight and limply over her shoulders.  She looked up at her friends with a guilt ridden expression.

Twilight and Fluttershy looked back sadly.

Rarity hummed softly, looking back and forth between her two sets of friends.  "What say we all go inside and talk this out, hmm?"

Reluctantly, they all filed slowly back to the baths at Rarity's behest.

Despite Rarity's efforts to get them to talk, the spa visit mostly passed in silence.

It was anything but relaxing.
> The Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Big Mac leaned back against an apple tree and sighed.  This orchard used to be such a peaceful place for him, but now it left him with a feeling of unease.

The sun was shining.  The breeze was gentle, but cool.  The birds were chirping.  In his basket there was an ice cold glass of lemonade.  Everything was perfect, but Big Mac couldn't be happy.

He turned his hoof to look at the black vial he was holding.  It was small and angular in appearance, made of thick, resilient glass, engraved, and painted with gold to bear similar marks as those on his horse collar.  He looked at it with a sigh.

"This has to be yer choice, sugar cube.  It's important to me that y'all be the one to choose," Applejack had told him when she gave it to him.

He sighed again.  He had been told that his sister was the embodiment of honesty, and dependability, and that it rose to the level of magic.  Was this some kind of test?  She could have just slipped it into his lemonade, and that would have been that.  Was Applejack the avatar of honesty, giving him some chance to show his true colors?

And, how did she know?  How did she know that he would be reluctant to make a decision.  His morning with pinkie pie had been playing in his mind over and over.  It made him happy.  She made him happy.  That scared him.  It was more than just making love to somepony when he had no feelings of love.  He did have feelings of love.  He had feelings for Fluttershy.

He sighed again, and brought his hoof to his chest, pressing the vial softly toward his heart.  He stared at the slowly rustling leaves of the apple tree that was shielding him from the harsh summer sun.  He took in a deep breath and held it for a moment.

He heard soft hoofsteps moving through the grass toward him.  "Ick!  So muddy," Rarity mumbled.

Big Mac's deep breath came out of him in one exasperated groan as he looked down to see an immaculately kept unicorn tiptoeing around mud puddles in his general direction.  "You dreadful stallion!"

If Big Mac had any more breath in his lungs to sigh out, it would have crashed out of his body with a lamentable cry of frustration.  Somepony else has found out.

"I've been told that Applejack has given you the mistaken impression that Twilight's potion is optional!  This will not do.  Use it at once."  Rarity snapped insistently at Big Mac.

"Afternoon, Rarity."

"Afternoon yourself you-- you-- vile carnal beast."  Rarity's voice was rising in pitch the longer she went on.

Big Mac ignored the insult.  "Naw why y'all wan' me ta be drinkin' this potion so bad?"

"Hnf.  I should think it would be obvious.  You're going around using awful perverted magic to score with my friends.  Why, I wouldn't be surprised if you had your eyes set on me now!"

Big Mac hadn't thought about it until she mentioned it.  He looked her over.

She instantly noticed the nature of his glances and twitched and sputtered with indignation, "My eyes are up here you uncivilized cur!"

Big Mac grit his teeth for a moment. "Rarity, ah ain't gonna abuse the horse collar no more.  Ah admit, ah dun wrong, but Fluttershy can tell ya, ah left 'fore I dun any real harm and ah ain't bothered her since.  Why y'all botherin' me now?"  Big Mac's heroic level of stoicism was finally starting to crack.  If anyone was going to make the big gentle lug snap with frustration, it was Rarity.

Rarity cried out, "There's no time to argue!  Drink it!" and Big Mac felt his hoof lunge toward his face, trapped in Rarity's magic field.  "Rarity!  What y'all doin!  Stop that!  Tha cap's on anyhoo!  What in tarnation do ya mean there's no time?"

Big Mac was bowled over, sending the vial flying.  Rarity scrambled to catch it up in her magic again once it landed in the grass.  Pinkie was standing atop Big Mac now.  "I came to save you!  Gimmie the vial!" she cried gleefully before starting to buckle and shake at the knees, finally falling down atop Big Mac with a moan.

"Pinkie Pie!  What are you doin'? I dun droped it!"

Pinkie Pie sprang up, and scanned around for it, spotting it easily because of Rarity's glowing energy field scooping it up.  "There it is!"  She lunged for it, struggling with Rarity's energy field until it fizzed and popped, allowing her to make a run for it with the vial in her mouth.

"Land sakes you mares!  What in sam hill you doin' now?" Big Mac bellowed with frustration and disbelief.

Big Mac suddenly got a face full of pink-streaked violet tail.  He shook his head, trying to get the stars out of his his field of vision from the teleportation wave.

Twilight growled at Pinkie, "Hand it over Pinkie!"

"Nope, mine now!" Pinkie giggled, bouncing on her tail as she bounded around the trees.

Twilight and Rarity nearly slammed into each other while trying to tackle Pinkie, before Twilight finally came to a dust kicking halt and caught Pinkie up in a levitation field.

Twilight smirked with satisfaction.  Pinkie wasn't going anywhere now.

Applejack sailed gracefully over the pair of infuriated unicorns, slamming into Pinkie Pie and pushing her out of the levitation spell.  She took up a wide legged stance and squinted at the unicorns in defense of Pinkie Pie, "Ah told y'all already!  Mac's gonna be the one who gets that there potion an' nopony else!"

Applejack blinked at Twilight and Rarity's shocked faces, staring over her shoulder.  She turned around with a blink and saw Pinkie Pie darting into the distance.  "Sweet salt lick!  Where's she goin' now?  Pinkie Pie, ye stop right there, ye hear?!"

Big Mac stared slack jawed as the mares went at it.  He scanned about, watching Pinkie Pie gleefully bounding about, giggling all the way with the potion in her mouth.  With an airy, bewildered voice, Big Mac asked, "What in the blue blazes?" before wincing with the realization that Pinkie Pie was, by this point, doubling back toward him, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

"Awh horseapp--" he cried as Pinkie Pie slammed into him, clinging tightly.  She grabbed the potion in a hoof and cried out, "Now you gotta touch mac if you want it back!"  She slipped the potion under the back of Big Mac's horse collar, prompting him to flail about, trying to reach behind him and dig out the potion, or failing that, at least get the quivering pink earth pony off his back.

The three other mares winced as Pinkie Pie started to wail out exaggerated moans, and quiver genuine quakes of lust, squeezed up against Big Mac.

"Ifn' that's what it takes!" Applejack shouted, before springing onto her brother and wrestling with Pinkie Pie.

Big Mac silently begged Celestia to save him.

It wasn't long before Applejack and Pinkie Pie's struggles slowed, and they started to pant, drawing their muzzles in closer to one another.  Pinkie came first, twitching violently.  Applejack knew what was happening to her cheery pink friend, and her eyes widened at the sight of Pinkie's pleasure.  Her cheeks flushed sharply.  "G-get off mah bother!" the protested in an airy, half-hearted way.

Twilight and Rarity were smart enough to keep their distance from the three earth ponies, grabbing on to their tails with their magic and trying to haul them apart, but they were seriously entangled.

Applejack finally snapped, crying out, "Ahn it's so good!" and drawing in rapid, puffing breaths.  She stretched out so far and firmly that her quivering lips pressed up against Pinkie's, and they shared a slack jawed, trembling kiss as Applejack was shocked by the intensity of her orgasm.

"Awh no sis!  Jus' no!"  Big Mac groaned.

Fluttershy gently set down just outside the scuffle.

Applejack finally pulled the vial free from the horse collar, and leapt off of Big Mac's back, panting heavily and humming with delight, running a forehoof up and down her chest with a blissful expression.

Pinkie dove off of Big Mac onto Applejack and the battle was joined.  Twilight and Rarity finally decided to get their hooves dirty, springing into the pile and fighting to get the vial.  Big Mac slowly backed up away from the brawling mares.  The vial sprang from the fray, landing on the grass nearby while the mares continued to wrestle, clawing and kicking to inch closer toward it.

Fluttershy made a distressed, "Eep!" and Big Mac turned around to see her staring, wide eyed and trembling at him.  He blinked, and looked at his hind legs to see what had gotten Fluttershy so scared.

Big Mac was rock hard now from what just took place on his back, and Fluttershy was genuinely afraid she was going to faint at the sight of it.  Still, that wasn't enough for her to take her eyes off of Big Mac's package before he suddenly dropped to the earth, lying down on his chest and belly.

Rainbow Dash landed on the ground with a gentle boom, standing up tall, proudly appreciating her wicked awesome entrance.  With a smile she asked, "Hey, why's everyone wrestling?  I want to wrestle!  What's going on?"

"Rainbow, grab the vial!" Twilight shrieked.

Rainbow raised a brow, squinting the other eye, then she casually walked toward the group of flailing, mane pulling, leg biting mares.  She leaned down, and lifted up the vial in her teeth, speaking with her mouth full in reply to Twilight, "This one?"

Twilight struggled to get Pinkie Pie to stop licking her face, crying out in panic at the sticky goopynes of it all.  "Yes!  Now use it on Big Mac!  Quick!"

Rainbow dash was utterly perplexed.  What the heck did she mean by 'use it'?

Applejack caught Rarity in a double nelson, and Rarity squealed out at the indignity of it all.  "There's mud in my mane!" she wailed with all the composure of a spoiled little filly in a candy store, and just as high in pitch.

Applejack called out, "No Dash!  Give it tah me!  Or tah Big Mac!  Jus do it quick!"

Rainbow Dash's muzzle was suddenly enveloped in a simultaneous wave of white and purple.  She dragged her hooves and fluttered her wing to resist, easily keeping herself and the vial from moving very far.  "Wait!  I'm not gonna give it up if it's something awesome!  Is it something awesome?!"

Twilight booted Rarity in the face in the fray, and Rarity squealed, wailing out an over-exagerated cry.  Her voice could easily break a wine glass.  "Twilight!  I'm on your side!"

"Oh my!  I'm so sorry Rarity, did I hurt you?" Twilight asked.

Rarity managed to struggle one leg free from Applejack, and she used it to slap-fight with Twilight.

Fluttershy managed an uncharacteristically loud scream.

"Stop!"

The battle came to a sudden halt, with everypony still clinging to each other, staring wide-eyed in unison at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was fed up.  She cried out chastisingly.  "You're all being selfish!

"Rarity!  I know you mean well, but this is none of your business!  You injected yourself into this when nopony asked!

"Sometimes I think you're more interested in gossip and meddling than the feelings of your friends.  Just because you're generous, doesn't mean you have to go and try to fix everything every time there's a problem.

"All I ever wanted was for you to listen.  You could have just listened!"

The pony melee started slowly disentangling itself, brows furrowing.

"Pinkie Pie!  Did you even think of anypony but yourself?

"I wouldn't have stopped you from doing what you did.

"That's not what hurt.  What hurt was that nopony cared to talk to me and ask me what my feelings would be!

"After you heard what happened to me, the first thing you did was run to Big Mac hoping for sex, wasn't it?

"And now what are you going to do?  You're going to steal Big Mac's potion without even talking to him?  Nopony ever judged you for your choices, and now you think it's okay to start making other ponies choices for them?"

Pinkie Pie stepped backwards from what was moments ago a mess of pony bodies, and she dropped to her haunches.  She wanted to speak, but Fluttershy wasn't done.

"Twilight!  I know you're angry at yourself, but that doesn't mean you should take it out on anypony else.  You're not angry at Big Mac.  You're angry at yourself!

"I told you, you're not evil, and I mean that, but you're wrong Twilight.  You're so wrong, and I should have told you earlier.

"It's not your job to judge yourself.  That's Big Mac's job.  Did you even tell him you were sorry?  Did you tell anypony you were sorry for what you did?

"You hurt somepony, Twilight.  You have to face that!  Forgive yourself, and ask for forgiveness from others, and know you may never be able to make it better."

Twilight covered her mouth with both forehooves.  Tears welled in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe what she was seeing.  What in Tartarus had been going on?  Her jaw was open so wide now that she dropped the vial.

"And the same goes for you Applejack!  Can't you see you're making your brother uncomfortable?

"Don't you realize what you did?  You took advantage of him by touching him for your own desires.

"That's what you were doing just now, wasn't it?!  You wanted one more chance at him!

"I know you've been feeling guilty about it, but did you tell Big Mac you knew it was wrong?  Did you say you were sorry for doing what you did?  Are you sorry?"

Applejack developed a pained and angry expression.  "Fluttershy... shug'..."

"And you!" Fluttershy turned her frenzied eyes onto Big Mac.

"I love you, Big Mac.  I've loved you for a long time," Fluttershy cried out furiously.

Big Mac's eyes pooled up with tears.  He stepped closer to her.  "I love you too, Fluttershy, and I'm so sorry fer what ah dun!  Ah can't...  I..."

"You bucked Pinkie Pie."  Fluttershy growled with contempt.

Big Mac, for all his might, cowered like a frightened dog before Fluttershy, backing up to Rainbow Dash's hooves.

"You don't love me.  You don't even love Pinkie.

"Big Mac.  You hurt me bad.  I thought I could trust you in my home, and you violated that trust.  You were so selfish.

"You were all so selfish!" Fluttershy added.

Fluttershy's soft voice started to return, and her eyes slowly turned back to their usual sweet, and worried expression.  "Um.  I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have shouted."

Big Mac heaved a sigh, and closed his eyes gently as a cacaphony of sorrowful apologies started to ring out behind him.  He heaved a single sigh, and by the time he opened his eyes, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash were approaching Fluttershy to to hug her comfortingly.

Twilight and Applejack hung their heads and looked at Big Mac.  Twilight was trembling.  She looked up at Big Mac with sorrow, and Big Mac simply nodded, and said, "I know.  I knew it weren't the real you."  Tears drew down Twilight's cheeks.

Applejack grit her teeth.  She was fighting back both rage and sorrow.  She gave Twilight a baleful glare.  "What did she do?" Applejack asked.  Big Mac frowned at her, and Twilight covered her muzzle with both hooves and gasped at Applejack with shame.

Twilight pulled her hooves from her muzzle, and with an agonized expression started explaining herself.  "I--"

Big Mac interrupted, "There'll be time 'nuff fer that.  Ah know y'all came to say somethin'."

Applejack hung her head.  "Big brother, ahm so sorry."  She chuckled bitterly.  "If ah could hug ya ah would."

Big Mac sat and sighed.  He looked up first at the leaves of the nearby apple tree.  He gathered a breath, trying to appreciate the beauty and simplicity that this place once held, and may soon hold again.  With sadness, he turned his glance down to look at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy looked back.  She had a pained, but resolute expression.  He had thought that she was a sweet, delicate flower, but he realized now that she was filled with so much strength and wisdom.

He reached down, and gathered up the potion.  He didn't need to look at it any more.  He bit the cap off, and drank it down.

With a flash of light, the horse collar cracked and fell from his neck, sprinkling still glowing pieces of broken magic all over the grass around him.

Fluttershy gently slipped free of the hugs, consolations and apologies of her friends, and walked toward Big Mac.

She stepped forward, and hopefully, cautiously, reached out to gently touch his foreleg with her hoof.

There was no pleasure, except for the peace of knowing that Big Mac had made the right decision.

She held it there.
> The End
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Braeburn laughed as he worked to unload the last of the apple cider shipment from Ponyville.  "Big Mac that's one doozy of a story, ah tell ya."

Big Mac nodded, and replied, "Yeeup."  He still hadn't gotten a new horse collar, and he seemed strangely naked without it.

Braeburn generously stepped in to grab the last barrel, and he loaded it onto the platform with a huff.

He added, "Ifn' ah got given a horse collar like that, hoo-wee, ah'da thought it was the best dern thing since sliced apples.  Guess looks can be decievin', eh Mac?"  He playfully slapped Big Macintosh on the shoulder, grinning wide at Big Mac's tall tale.

Big Mac nodded, and closed up the loading doors.  "Yeeup."

He turned around to thank Braeburn for his help.

Braeburn was staring off into space, looking very distracted.  His hoof was still outstretched where it had been when he touched Big Mac's shoulder.

"Oh horseapples."
> Epilogue: The Scarlet Ribbon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Excerpt from the sequel.  It's a new story.  You don't need to have to have read The Horse Collar first, but it might answer some questions.]

His words were soft, confident, and dangerous.  She could tell he was smiling by the sound of his voice.  His lips were so close to her violently trembling cheek that she could feel his warm breath.  She could practically smell the salty tears that streaked his muzzle, even as they began to dry.  "Perhaps I should start with a few questions?  Hmm?  Would you like some questions?"

Her response came, first, in the form of a choking sob, followed by panicked pleas.  "No!  Please!  I'm sorry!  I don't know what I was thinking!  I'll do anything you want to make it better.  I'll do anything!"  She didn't look up off the floor.  She was hunched inward, and her chest was heaving.  She wanted to crawl backwards inside of the wall that her croup was pressed against.

He patiently listened to her as she begged, relishing every syllable.  Something about the last plea tickled him.  He breathed deeply, and his voice still trembled from the crying he was doing just moments earlier.  "Oh you'll do anything will you?"  He choked out a raspy and satisfied laugh.

She screamed out a yelp of shock as he suddenly bucked a nearby table with a shattering crash, sending it flying across the floor and into a nearby wall.  She jumped, and sobbed as tears streaked down her muzzle.  She swallowed down her remaining screams, and continued to stare at the floor.  "Yes!  Anything!"

With a scrape of chains, he brought his hooves close to her.  His shackles still hadn't been removed.  It all happened so fast.  He grabbed her by her muzzle, and forcefully lifted her gaze to face him.  Tears rolled down onto his hooves.  "Let's start with a request then."