Fair warning: I'm going to be slow on the updates as I have finals fast approaching. That goes for all fics I'm writing.

---

"Why do you suppose your granny called me Pease Blossom?" Tammy asked Applejack as they continued their apple bucking.

"Not sure. I don't know any pony by that name."

"It's weird. That's what Dad used to call Mom."

"Really? Huh, that's strange. How come?"

"Probably because of her love for gardening. She used to grow all kinds of flowers on a balcony."

After kicking another tree, Applejack looked seriously at her new friend. "Tammy, what happened to yerr ma?"

Tammy avoided the question. "I could ask you the same thing about your parents. Where are they, anyway?"

The cowgirl glanced down at her hooves. "Apple Bloom was only a few months old. Ma and Pa got into a fight. She was so upset, she ran into the Everfree Forest. He went after her. Then they ran into some Timberwolves." She sniffed. "They were outnumbered. They didn't stand a chance."

Seeing tears in the pony's eyes made Tammy feel guilty about concealing her emotions and chose to come clean. "It was a car crash that took my mom."

Applejack stopped crying and looked up at her. "You mean a train car?"

"No, an actual car."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. You wanna know the funny thing? She was picking up my birthday cake."

"That's a bummer."

The two looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering over them.

"Were you eavesdroppin' again?" Applejack asked.

"No. I just happened to hear you." She landed beside Tammy and put a hoof around her. "Hey, these things happen. I lost my mom too."

"Really?" Tammy said.

The pegasus nodded. "I was very little, so I don't remember her much. I was raised by my dad, which could be the reason why I'm such a tomboy."

"It's hard to lose the ones you love," said Applejack, "but even though they're gone, they always remain in your heart."

Tammy could feel her sadness melting away. She looked at the two ponies. When her mom had died, she was so upset that she had shut out all her friends. Since then, she could not emotionally connect with anybody, until now. She didn't know what to say, except, "Thanks."

They turned when they heard a loud scream coming from Scootaloo.

"This is hard!" She shouted, kicking an apple tree. Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement as she did the same. The pegasus filly finally gave up and slumped to the ground. "I didn't want an apple cutie mark anyway."

The older ponies laughed.

---

A few hours later, after all the zap apples had been harvested, Granny Smith had made a batch of jam and spread it on bread. Tammy had never tasted anything so incredible in all her life.

"Tastes kind of like Skittles," she claimed.

"What are Skittles?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Twilight then entered the kitchen. "Oh, I see you've all finished. Tam—Taffy, the party at Sugar Cube Corner starts in an hour. We should head over to Carousel Boutique and get ready."

"Count me out!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "I'm not letting Rarity stuff me into another frilly outfit!"

"Ditto," Applejack mumbled.

"Can you give me a lift?" Sweetie Belle inquired. "Rarity wants me home before sundown."

"Before ya go," the cowgirl handed Twilight some jammed bread, "take a slice."

Since the alicorn had more experience in flying than Tammy, Sweetie Belle rode on her back to Carousel Boutique. When they entered the shop, they found Spike working as a pin cushion for Rarity. The unicorn was putting together an ensemble on a horse-shaped mannequin. She didn't notice her visitors until Twilight had cleared her throat.

"Oh, Taffy! I was just putting the finishing touches on your dress for the party!"

Tammy gazed up at the dress with a blue bodice and forest green skirt. "That's my dress?"

"Yes. I figured the blue would go well with your brown hair, and it really makes your eyes stand out. Don't you like it?"

"It's great, but," she pointed to the collar, "I'm not exactly the lacey type."

"Oh, of course." Rarity used her magic to remove the lace collar. "There, now almost…" She plucked a pin from Spike and put a sleeve in place.

"Doesn't that hurt?" she asked the baby dragon.

"Thick scales," he declared. "Can't feel a thing."

He then looked dreamily at the unicorn. Tammy could have sworn his eyes had turned to hearts. She then glanced between them and understood. The dragon had a crush on the unicorn, but she seemed to think nothing of it. What is with all the weird pairings here?

"Done!" Rarity announced. "Now, let's get to work on your hair."

"What's wrong with it?!" Tammy exclaimed.

"Don't misjudge me, it's a lovely color and goes well with your coat, but it's all tangled! And oh, are those split ends?! It's like you've been taking fashion tips from Applejack! Well, I can fix that."

She clapped her hooves and a screen appeared in front of them. Everything had happened so fast, the only thing Tammy noticed was her hair being tugged at. In a matter of seconds, the screen went away and a mirror was pulled in front of her.

It was the second time that day that Tammy didn't recognize herself. The dress had magically appeared on her body, her wings sticking out of a pair of holes in the back. Rarity had been right about the color, and the puffed sleeves somehow worked. Her hair had been combed and brushed into a long, sleek ponytail hanging down the side. Rarity was waiting for an answer.

"Well?"

"It's…it's…" she was lost for words. "Wow."

"What did I tell you? You look marvelous, darling!"

Twilight and Sweetie Belle stomped their hooves in agreement.

"As always, Rarity, you never fail to disappoint," the alicorn said.

"Now let's get you into an outfit, your highness!"

---

"You're not letting me go to the party?" Discord asked Fluttershy in bewilderment. "Come on! It's a Pinkie party!"

"I'm sorry," the pegasus apologized. "I want you to go, but last time I took you to a party…"

"So I put a hare in the punchbowl! It was adorable, wasn't it?"

"I'm talking about turning that stallion into a piñata."

"He tripped you on the dance floor!"

She stomped her hoof. "Discord! I've had enough of this! You say you're reformed, but you still do mean things to ponies. Don't you see why every pony hates me? Don't you…?"

She turned from him. Discord put his paw on her shoulder.

"What do you mean? How could any pony hate you?"

"Well…" she sniffed. "It's not really me they hate, it's…it's me being friends with you."

"I thought you didn't care about their opinion!"

"Well…they have reason…the way you treat them…you…"

She burst into tears. Discord did not know what to do in this situation. He hated seeing his friend cry, but he had no experience in comforting ponies. So he did the next best thing and made a compromise.

"Look. I promise I won't do any more than the usual harmless pranks. I won't hurt any pony."

She sniffed. "Pinkie Promise?"

"Why does it always…? Fine! I Pinkie Promise."

He crossed his heart and summoned the cupcake. Fluttershy faced him and smiled.

"Okay, as long as you behave yourself."

The things I do for this pony, he thought with a sigh.

---

"Oh, we're going to be the belles of the ball!" Rarity exclaimed as she, Tammy, Twilight, Sweetie Belle and Spike approached Sugar Cube Corner.

"I thought we were going to a party," Sweetie Belle said in confusion.

"Never mind."

As they opened the door, they were greeted with a loud "Surprise!"

"Surprise?" Tammy said, raising an eyebrow at the party pony. "But you invited me here."

Pinkie Pie obviously ignored this and dragged her inside. The bakery was decorated with streamers, confetti, balloons and the works. A banner was hung on the wall reading 'Welcome to Ponyville Taffy.' There must have been at least a hundred ponies in the room.

"Let me introduce you to every pony! This is Cheerilee, Caramel, Bon Bon, Derpy, Carrot Top, Colgate, Doctor Whooves, Mayor Mare, Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake, Pound Cake, Pumpkin Cake, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Twist…"

"Whoa there, Pinkie!" Applejack interjected, grabbing hold of Tammy. "You're gonna make her dizzy!"

"Thanks," the disguised human whispered.

"Well, look at you. Rarity sure fixed you up real nice."

"I know, right? I haven't dressed up like this or been to a party since my twelfth birthday."

Pinkie gasped dramatically. "You haven't been to a party since you were twelve?!"

"Well, I don't really get invited, and school dances don't exactly count…"

"Then we'll have to make this party the most super, awesome, amazing party you've ever been to!"

"You might want to brace yourself," Applejack whispered.

"For what?"

"PIN THE TAIL ON THE PONY!"

In less than a second, Tammy was dragged to a wall with a picture of a pony, blindfolded, had something fuzzy put in her mouth and was spun around three times.

"You can do it, Tammy!" she heard Applejack cheer.

Aren't these ponies a little old for this game? Tammy said to herself. Apparently not, for a lot of voices were cheering for her. Sighing, she stepped forward, felt around for the wall, came in contact with the paper and placed the fur forward. There was a lot of laughter, and Tammy took off her blindfold to see that she had pinned the tail on the pony's nose.

"Ah, don't worry, Taffy," Pinkie said cheerfully. "You at least got it on the poster. Now who's up for…BOBBING FOR APPLES?!"

Oh boy, Tammy thought as the energetic pony hauled her to the other side of the room. Rainbow Dash had her head in a barrel of apples floating in water. When she resurfaced, Tammy shrieked.

"There's an alligator chewing on her face!"

Pinkie giggled. "Nah, that's just Gummy! He doesn't have any teeth!"

The blue pegasus shook the animal off. "Ugh, not again!"

"Go on, Tammy! Take a shot!"

She glanced down at the barrel, afraid of what else was in there. "I don't know…"

"Come on! It's super fun!"

She took in a deep breath and dunked under. She came up wet and empty.

"Try again!" Pinkie urged.

What am I doing? Tammy then remembered the old trick and kept her eyes open. She slowly leaned forward and carefully took an apple into her teeth.

"Ta-da…oops," she said, dropping the apple in the process.

"Nice job!" Pinkie then paused as a new song started playing. "Ooh, this is my jam! Come on, Taffy! Time to shake your hoof things!"

"Shake my wha...gah!"

Pinkie pulled her to the middle of the dance floor and started grooving to the music. Tammy looked around at all the other ponies dancing. She didn't want to be awkwardly standing there, so she began moving to the beat. Pretty soon, she didn't care that she was being watched and lost herself in the groove.

"Nice moves!"

Tammy glanced down at Scootaloo, who was spinning on one hoof.

"You're not so bad yourself," she complimented. "Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"I just do my scooter tricks, only without the scooter."

"Well, you're really good. Hey, maybe your scooter tricks are your special talent."

Scootaloo stopped to ponder. "Hmm, you think?"

Tammy turned as some pony tapped her on the shoulder. She remembered his name was Caramel.

"Hey, Taffy, was it?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"Care for a dance?"

The human glanced behind her shoulder and then back at him. "Me?"

"Do you see any other pony here named Taffy?"

She blinked at him. No one had ever asked her to dance before. Now she had finally received her first invitation and it was from a horse. It was both flattering and embarrassing.

"Uh, no thank you," she said politely.

She moved past him towards the refreshment table, where she was met by a brown pony with an hour glass cutie mark. What was his name? Doctor something.

"Want to dance?" he asked.

She forced a smile. "Uh, no thanks."

After the stallion had left, she glanced down at herself. How was it that no boy had ever noticed her as a human, but after being a horse for one day, she was suddenly popular?

"I see you've caught the eye of a few males," Rarity said, giving her a wink.

"Yeah," Tammy murmured. "If only they were my species."

"You could at least dance with a few of them."

"They're horses!"

"Ponies! And trust me, if you were a pony twenty-four seven, you would see how handsome those stallions are." Tammy pretended to listen as she poured herself some punch, having slight difficulty with her hooves. "And you know, by pony standards, you aren't unattractive."

Suddenly, a hare appeared in the punchbowl and Tammy spat the liquid out. She heard a familiar laugh above her and glanced up.

"Oh, you should have seen the look on your face!" Discord chortled. "Priceless!"

"A hare in the punchbowl," Tammy grumbled. "Funny."

"Glad you appreciate it!" He waved to the crowd. "Hey, every pony! Discord's in the house!"

A couple of stallions, including Caramel and Doctor Whooves, raced out the door, for fear of being turned into piñatas. The draconequus then materialized at the turn tables beside Vinyl Scratch.

"Let's crank up the music, shall we?"

"Oh boy," the unicorn murmured, ducking for cover.

"Discord!" Fluttershy shouted.

With a mischievous grin, he turned the stereo to such a high volume that Tammy's glass shattered, along with every other glass object in the room. Vinyl Scratch took the liberty of pulling the plug. Even she knew when enough was enough. She looked up at Discord angrily and pointed to her broken sunglasses.

"Dude, this is the fifth pair this week!"

"Sorry, but you should really get stronger sunglasses."

Fluttershy flew up to him, glaring. "Discord, you promised."

"I was just having a little fun…"

"Discord!"

He sighed. "Oh, alright."

He snapped his fingers, fixing everything he had broken and returning the music to its previous volume.

"Now I don't want any more mischief from you for the rest of the evening," Fluttershy warned her friend. "Understand?"

"You know you look cute when you're angry?" the draconequus asked innocently.

She gave him one more glare before flying away. Discord slumped himself on a stereo. Tammy walked up to him.

"That's your idea of winning a girl over?"

"Well, what would you suggest?" he snapped.

"How about asking her to dance?"

He opened his mouth and then paused. "Hold that thought."

He transported himself to Fluttershy's side, scaring her into dropping her slice of cake. "Hey Fluttershy, let's dance!"

Discord didn't wait for an answer as he grabbed her hooves and spun her around. Tammy put her hoof to her forehead and groaned.

The rest of the evening went along smoothly. Tammy couldn't remember the last time she had had this much fun. She watched as Pinkie Pie accepted Rainbow Dash's challenge of stuffing cupcakes into her mouth (forty-five!). She talked with many of the ponies and even danced with a couple of stallions. She made the mistake of entering a dance contest with Discord, as he 'accidentally' tripped her with his tail. There were plenty of party games like Twister. Discord beat every pony at that as well. Tammy felt like a kid again!

As the moon rose in the sky, the ponies started to clear out.

"Are you sure you don't wanna stay a little while?" Pinkie asked her best friends. "There's still plenty of cake!"

"No thanks, Pinkie," Twilight grumbled. "I already ate too much. Besides, it's past Spike's bedtime."

She pointed to the baby dragon who had fallen asleep in the punchbowl. She lifted him onto her back.

"So Taffy," she said to the human, "what do you think of Ponyville?"

"What do I think?" Tammy repeated with a grin. "I think it's the most amazing place in the universe! You guys have been so nice, the Zap Apples were delicious, I haven't felt this pretty in years, and the party was awesome! This has been the best day of my life!"

"Happy I brought you here?" Discord asked with a smirk.

"Happy? Dude, happy would be an understatement!"

"I'm glad to hear that," Twilight said. "You should get plenty of rest before we send you back tomorrow."

Tammy's face fell. "Back? Tomorrow?"

"You have your family to get back to, don't you?"

"Oh…right."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Since you can fly now, how about you crash at my place tonight? I can give you a quick tour of Cloudsdale."

That lifted her spirits a little. "That would be great."

The two pegasi said farewell to the others and took to the skies. Rainbow led Tammy to what appeared to be a city built entirely of clouds. Even though it was night, there were still a few pegasi hovering about. Two stallions, one brown and one tan, stood in their path and laughed.

"Well, if it isn't Rainbow Crash!" the brown one taunted.

Rainbow gritted her teeth. "Not now, guys. I'm not in the mood."

They stopped once they noticed Tammy. The tan one laughed goofily.

"Hey, who's your pretty friend?"

Tammy rolled her eyes. "Trust me, dude. You're not my type."

Rainbow chuckled as they steered around the confused stallions.

"Wow," Tammy gasped. "That felt good."

"How so?"

"Guys never hit on me as a human, so I've never had to reject anyone before. And it feels good!"

Her friend laughed and gave her a hoof bump. "You're alright, kid, for a human."

They approached a house and Tammy was astonished when Rainbow Dash landed on the surface of the cloud without falling through.

"It's okay," she said. "Pegasi can walk on clouds."

She hesitantly lowered herself down and realized that Rainbow was right.

"Cool!" she exclaimed.

Inside, Tammy gawked at the structure of the place. Almost everything had been crafted from cloud.

"Designed it all myself," Rainbow said proudly. "Guest bed is over there. Make yourself at home."

Tammy noticed a big pile of books over by what must have been her host's bed.

"I didn't think you were the reading type."

"Not as much as Twilight is, but who doesn't love a good book? Daring-Do is my favorite!"

"By the way, I'm sorry I thought you were a guy and all," Tammy apologized as she slid out of her dress.

"Nah, it happens all the time," Rainbow said as she hopped onto her bed. "Being raised by my dad, I thought I was a guy for a while." She snickered. "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

The human looked down at her hooves. "Yeah, sure."

The pegasus could see that something was bothering her. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah just…my dad and I haven't really been close since Mom…"

"Oh."

She slumped on the cloud bed. "At first I didn't mind him avoiding me and going to his room. That's what I did too. But after a while, it was like I didn't exist. He kept working late, going on business trips, missing my birthdays, not even congratulating me when I won the school talent show last month! He hardly even looks at me anymore!"

She turned to face the wall and there was silence for a while.

"I was wrong about you, kid," Rainbow said. "I just wasn't used to seeing humans before, but you know? You're no different from us ponies, though you really should have those wings for keeps."

Tammy rolled in her direction and smiled. "Thanks. You know? You guys are the first friends I've had in years?"

"Really?"

"After Mom died, I did nothing but mope and my friends got tired of it. It's great to have someone to talk to."

Rainbow grinned. "I'm gonna miss ya, Taffy. Night."

As she blew out the lamp, Tammy went over the events of that day. She had forgotten what it was like to have fun with friends. She didn't want to leave them. Her train of thought was cut short as the softness of the cloud had lulled her to sleep.

---

Hmm, no dun dun dun, no evil laugh, what do i do?

Um...Rate and Review!