(A/N - F the Wolverine, my Adamantium is a brilliant, gold color, not dark gray. See: any picture of the Emperor.)

After storming off in a well-justified huff, The Forgemaster returned to his home to work off his stress. The Forgemaster is one of a select few individuals who can take their negative/pissy emotions and turn them into something productive. For 2 solid days, The Forgemaster worked his forge, never sleeping and never being interrupted. Well, the locals attempted to interrupt, but they were usually just stone-walled or insulted and 'kindly' told to leave. Let it never be said that he was an amateur at forging: by the time he was finally interrupted for real, he had already forged 73 swords, 12 warhammers, 28 maces, 34 axes, 7 complete sets of pony armor (He had no reason to make armor for himself, just yet), and created 22 more ingots of Adamantium. And all were of a quality the likes of which ponies had never seen; the Royal Guards were especially grateful at the gift of such weapons and armor.

What could possibly interrupt such a man, hell-bent on working the grief out of his bones with blood, sweat, and a whole heap of hammering you ask? Well, what they say about a woman scorned can apparently be applied to ponies, as well.

Rainbow Dash fluttered down from the clouds after spending the previous day with the Wonderbolts. Rainbow had taken them up on their offer immediately, hanging out with them for the entirety of the previous day. Her good mood was sullied, however, when her friends told her of the 'miserable' state of The Forgemaster. Apparently, he had been constantly working his forge over the past 2 days. As soon as he had arrived back home from Cloudsdale, he had gone straight into his home and a riotous hammering was soon heard, reverberating throughout the entire town. Apparently, only the Apple family had gotten much sleep in those 2 days.

From 'conversations' he had had with the townsponies and her friends, the only possible conclusion was that he was really, really pissed at ether Twilight, for giving Rarity wings, or Rarity, for almost being made gravity's bitch. His words, though no pony understood why he had called her a female dog. Then they realized that it was an insult. But, they had no clue how, exactly, it was an insult.

Rainbow Dash flew down to The Forgemaster's house, and found him exactly where she was told he would be: at his forge. She alighted upon a small stack of a brilliantly golden pile of metal ingots. He spoke to her before she could do the same to him, not even looking up from where he was hammering away on some piece of metal.

"What do you want, Rainbow?"

She shivered at his voice; it was filled with so much ice, hatred, and loathing that she couldn't help herself. It felt as though the backyard had suddenly dipped 20 degrees in temperature.

She suddenly found herself nervous and tripping over her words, "I-I just w-wanted to see how my coltfriend w-was, that's all!"

She cursed herself mentally; she had sounded as though she had done something wrong and was begging forgiveness.

He stopped for just an instant, a casual observer might have missed it, but he hesitated just the same before immediately getting back into the swing of forging.

"I am fine, but if you see Twilight Sparkle; tell her that the next time she makes anything out of dew and gossamer I AM going to knock her the fuck out with a frying pan."

Rainbow suddenly found herself chuckling at The Forgemaster's words. She had to physically force herself to stop, while mentally berating herself. She was shocked at what she had just done: she had laughed at something incredibly vulgar and violent! But… maybe she was just starting to get his humor?

"Why did you lock yourself up in here?" she asked, mental debate concluded.

He snorted, about to take use the method he always had of gaining time, pointing out another's mistake, "I am hardly locked in here, Dashie, the door is unlocked, and the gate is open."

She face-hoofed at his obvious ploy, "You know what I mean, now answer the question!"

He waved her off, and went back to hammering, "Suffice to say that it is a very good reason, and one that I would rather keep to myself."

She flapped her wings and was in his face in an instant, "No! You tell me right here, right now!"

He glared at her, "Or what?"

She floundered, "I uh, well, I- oo! I'll get Twilight to come over and annoy you!" she smirked, feeling victory in her grasp.

He scowled, "Fine. I'll tell you. The way Rarity was about to die before you saved her was the EXACT same way my son died. Only I wasn't fast enough to save him from plummeting to his death like you were able to save Rarity. Damnation! I wasn't fast enough!"

He roared in anger, grief, and pain before hammering one last time onto the sword he was forging, shattering it into 2 pieces with a loud *CLANG*. He stood there, breathing heavily for a few moments, and then began to calm down.

"It brought up some troublesome memories." He finally said, calmly.

"Troublesome?" she asked, shocked, "Troublesome!" she asked again, angry now.

He nodded, "I will admit that it was difficult for me, and having Twilight Sparkle and Rarity conceive of a plan so similar was… troublesome."

"You've been moping about your house for 2 days." She indicated the house with her hoof, "2 DAYS! And all you can call that is 'troublesome'?"

He spoke to her in an angry tone, "Excuse me if I wish to be alone after being reminded of the death of my son!"

"You shouldn't have just called it 'troublesome'! Try a stronger word, you big idiot! He was your son, for Celestia's sake!"

"That word fits the best! All it did was cause some trouble for me, nothing more, nothing less! It made me act like a bloody child!" he sighed, and then looked around at the rather large stockpile of weaponry he had made, and then he chuckled, "At least some good came of it."

"Are you insane!" she asked, clearly outraged and angered by such callous disregard for his own son.

He put a hand to his chin, thinking in the Rainbow's outraged face, he eventually said, "I prefer the term 'Morally Inept.' Or maybe 'Morally Destitute', hmm, I'll have to think about that."

After a moment of awkward silence, he continued, "Don't think I don't miss my boy, or that I didn't love him. It's just that, enough time has passed to the point where I don't feel the need to grieve over him as much as I used to, though I will always miss him. Almost as smart as his old man, he was. I've learned to remember him fondly, and that he will always be with me in his own way, just not in any way I can comprehend."

Another moment of silence.

"I suppose that I just lost my cool there for a moment. To see something so similar triggered some emotions… best left buried."

Rainbow Dash held a hoof to her forehead and slowly shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever understand you."

"Good. Also, I don't think that you really understand just how much of a fixer-up I am." He then chuckled quietly, "I suppose that females are always attracted to damaged goods, no matter the species; to their eyes it's a challenge, and when, no, if, they win, then that makes it all the sweeter."

He then started to laugh, shortly joined by Rainbow Dash, much to both of their surprise.

The Forgemaster reached behind his head and scratched his neck idly with one hand, "Well, I suppose I ought to thank you for knocking me out of my funk, no matter how much damage it caused in our relationship."

She smirked at him, "Whoever said that I would let you get away?"

"Uh… I did, actually."

She rolled her eyes at him, "And when have I ever listened to you?"

He sighed, "Very, very rarely."

A moment of silence was observed, the 2 just staring at each other. Then, The Forgemaster went completely off-topic with an age-old saying that has lasted for millions of years.

"I'm hungry." Just then his stomach growled, violently agreeing with him.

For some unfathomable reason, Rainbow Dash found this to be ridiculously hilarious, and promptly fell to the ground, clutching her sides in her mirth.

Her laughter only doubled when The Forgemaster said, "I'm serious!"

After a few moments, she managed to speak through her convulsions to say, "You better take me someplace special, you dumb colt!"

"Is there something wrong with my kitchen?" he asked, feigning being hurt.

She rolled her eyes at him once more, "Well, duh! I'm your marefriend; you have to take me out on a date at least once a week! Them's the rules."

"Are there any other rules that I should be aware of?"

"Well, obviously! You gotta buy me food, and take me out to clubs or a show, having a marefriend is very tricky business, you know."

"But you forced this upon me!"

"S~o?"

He sighed, and took a long moment to collect himself: he knew of all these things, he had dated before, but it had been a while and he wasn't used to it.

"Fine, we'll get some dinner at one of those posh restaurants in Canterlot… and I think DJ Pon-3 is going to do a show there, too. Is that acceptable?"

"Celestia! How is it that you make asking me out on a date sound as dry as a business deal?"

"I'm told it's my way." He said with a ghost of a grin on his face.

"Ugh, fine! But you're paying for it!"

"Gods, how can you make it sound as though I have a choice in the matter?"

"I'm told it's my way!" she said, with a huge grin on her face.

He sighed, he seemed to be doing that a lot with Rainbow, "Alright, Dashie, let's go. At the very least; it'll be interesting seeing the reactions of those damnable high class ponies! Nobles always seem to forget that the word has 2 meanings."

wWwWwWw

The Forgemaster and Rainbow Dash were having an excellent time on their date to Canterlot. The Forgemaster was in his pony form, and as an alicorn, all of the high-class ponies were staring after them as they walked down the streets. There weren't too many alicorns, in fact, the number of alicorns could probably be counted on one hand, and all of the alicorns were members of the royal family. So, all of the ponies assumed that he was some previously-unknown prince of the royal family, and it tickled him to no end! He also did not feel the need to correct the insipid nobles on who he was, though he was sure that he would get a similar amount of attention as the Lord-general of the Royal Guards.

In fact, they had a small crowd of ponies 'discreetly' following them. When they had gone to the restaurant, the waiters and managers were so terrified of offending a member of the royal family that they had given him everything he had wanted! Of course, that also meant everything that Rainbow Dash wanted, too. He had gotten the best table in the house, near the windows with a great view of the Palace and the surrounding fields of Canterlot. During the course of the meal, a waiter was constantly at attention not more than 2 feet away at a time, always ready to refill their glasses or to remove empty dishes. The look on the poor young colt's face when he heard all the things that he and Rainbow Dash had said to each other was positively priceless! The words the pair had exchanged were… risqué, to put it lightly, and the young waiter was struggling to not either laugh out loud or blush furiously. The waiter failed at one of those things.

The Forgemaster was astounded when he saw the variety of alcohols that the restaurant carried, just as the restaurant staff was astounded when he ordered a glass of each one and drank them all, seemingly without getting drunk at all! Thank the gods for the legendary '3rd liver' that he was blessed with. Rainbow wasn't nearly as blessed as he was, so he had cut her off after the 3rd glass, though it was strong and so she was still tipsy.

After the colorful display at the restaurant, there was plenty of time left before Vinyl Scratch's performance was due to start in the local nightclub, so the pair went walking through the Canterlot gardens. After finding an amusingly mismatched statue of some horrible creature that he knew to be named 'Discord', Rainbow Dash started to giggle madly at the statue.

"Hahahaha! W-What is it?" she said, before laughing some more.

The Forgemaster replied, "Oh, it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Personally, I'd call it 'ugly'"

"Hahaha! That's a good name for it! It matches it perfectly!" she snorted, before falling into the grips of the giggles once more.

The Forgemaster pointed at the time, and the pair left the gardens to go see DJ Pon-3. They weren't in any danger of being late; it's just that The Forgemaster wasn't comfortable being near that statue, though he would never tell Rainbow that.

The couple arrived at the nightclub and quickly found their way inside. The pair found themselves a booth, and sat down in it. For the first few minutes, it was relatively calm; a few ponies were dancing to a rhythm that was being played in the background, but that was all. Suddenly a spot light was turned on and pointed towards the edge of the stage.

The announcer spoke over the crowds, "Quiet down everypony, and welcome to the stage, for your hearing pleasure, the famous disk jockey herself: DJ Pon-3!"

The pony in question came into view from behind the stage, right into the spot light. She was wearing her signature grin and purple glasses and quickly walked over to the DJ booth that occupied center stage.

Without preamble, asides from a boisterous greeting, the DJ began the music.

1 ½ hours later

After basically being dragged into dancing by Rainbow Dash, The Forgemaster was upset with his choice of entertainment for the evening. It's not like he doesn't enjoy dance, he just never had the opportunity to dance as a pony before. Thankfully, the majority of the 'dancing' appeared to be jumping up and down and/or grinding with your partner, which The Forgemaster was fully capable of. It didn't hurt that his grinding partner just happened to be one of the hottest mares in Equestria, as the mare in question and 9 out of 10 colts that have ever approached him have told him. He couldn't tell, however, he was as a human is. The only way he could tell the various ponies apart, aside from gender, race, and other defining characteristics such as Applejack's hat, was their coloring.

Aside from the wings and the Stetson, if you put Applejack and Rainbow in the same room, with the same coloring; The Forgemaster would find it difficult to tell them apart. Until they spoke, then he could tell them apart.

Well, at the end of that little 'dancing' escapade. The Forgemaster felt that it was time to go home. It was after midnight, and daresay, his bedtime, too. Rainbow Dash readily agreed, seeing as how DJ Pon-3 was just about to finish her set.

Once back at his place, the slightly drunk Rainbow Dash refused to go back to her own home, saying that she would rather stay the night with him.

'Ugh, the things I'll do for mares…'

(A/N – Wooo, Forgey!)