At a distance the school house resembles exactly what it is, a school house. A meduim sized red building with a small playground in the front an a bell tower sticking out of the roof. In the mornings it was usually extremely busy, that could not be said for the afternoons.

The magneta earth pony sat at her desk, staring hard at the massive heart shaped piece of paper, covered in glitter, ribbon, and hoof-prints. 'Hopefully the girls have learned thier lesson,' Cherilee thought as she continued to stare at the card. In truth, she did want a very special somepony, but explaining to the girls why she wan't a stallion should be left for thier families. At this thought she reached into the normally locked drawer of her desk to remove a heavily folded and worn picture, a testament to the months it had been kept.

Her light purple coat, the pink stripes in her hair, her intricate and complex cutie mark that a pony could get lost in, not to mention she was kind, intelligent, and respected everyone.

Twilight Sparkle was a mare worth having a crush on.

Sighing she returned the picture to its usual place in the drawer, locking it.

'I need to loosen up.' she thought, heading out towards Sugar Cube Corner, where the sounds of a party could already be heard from the few blocks away.

---

An hour before the party the over pink pony was inspecting the last of a shipment of freshly delivered punch.

"Thanks Berry!" she cried out in her bubbly, energetic voice as she looked over the last barrel, "I would have made it myself, but Gummy has been sick lately, thanks for coming at such a short notice! Say, I just had the super-duper-amazingest idea ever! Why don't you stay for the party?"

Berry Punch glanced at her best customer, and only competitiom, then glanced at her saddle bag, in which the bottle of wine she was smuggling home weighed guiltily against her side.

"I don't know if I should stay Pinkie," she began, only to be cut off by a pair of powerful pink puppy eyes from the pink party pony.

"Awww, how about you stay for just one hour, a teensy little hour, that can't be too long for a party!"

Berry Punch shrugged, an ackward motion involving her neck, it had been a while since she's last been to a Pinkie Pie Party, and the wine wasn't going anywhere.

"Sure Pinkie, but just one hour, you got that? One hour."

---

Cherilee glanced around the party was in full flow, pink balloons, streamers, and cupcakes were scrambled around the interior of the bakery, it looked to be a party for a partys sake, Pinkie Pie threw these when she wanted to party, but did not have a reason to party. She didn't have these that many times, as she usually has a reason for a party.

She picked a cup of punch, and took a whiff, a habit she developed when one of her students decided it was funny to put things in other ponys drinks. It smelled delicous, a blend of fruits, with a small infusion of strawberry and blueberries, presumably to add to the punch flavor without deriving from the fruit.

Before she could drink any of the mouth watering punch though, cloud of pink rammed into her at 88 miles per hour, sending the cup flying over head, to land on a light pink pony with a darker pink hair, she had a cutie mark of two grapevines, one green, one red.

Blushing, Cheriee rushed out as Pinkie fussed over the other pony.

"Pinkie, who was that pony?" was the last thing she heard from the party.

---

Cherilee, even her name sent flutters down her spine. Her lush, light pink, mane, her green eyes, and her cutie mark of three smiling flowers. Beautiful, perfect.

Berry Punch had left the party soon after Cherilee, under the pretense of following her and apologizing, Pinkie had a sparkle in her eye when she told Berry that Cherilee was the school teacher, and could be found near the school at work hours. She was unsuccesful in tracking down Cherilee, and upon returning home decompressed by taking a massive bubble bath.

For the first time in a long while, a wine bottle stayed hidden and unopened in her house.

She had something happy to think of now.

---

Cherilee walked down the street, looking for the address that Pinkie Pie had given her for a good punch maker.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had finished the chores that they had been assigned, albiet with a little help from Big Macintosh, and they had decided to treat the girls with a picnic under the gazebo. Since the girls are too young for apple cider, she had went off looking for Pinkie Pie to ask for some punch. Pinkie, as it turns out, had used it all in an incident involving a skateboard and her bedroom wall, and gave her the address of her emergency supplier with a strange gleam in her eyes.

Walking into the small store, Cherilee glanced around, an abandoned front desk with a small bell sat in front of a hallway, which had a few doors going down it's length, presumably leading into different parts of the store or the owners living area. The entire building smelt of berries, various fruits, and a strong smell she had only encountered once before.

Alcohol.

Walking up to the desk she flicked at the bell, the metal on her shoe causing a highpitch ringing.

"Comin'" a mares voice came out from one of the rooms, it seemed strangely forced and a bit garbled.

Out came a very familiar pony. Magneta mane, with a light pink coat, but there was a subtle diffrence. Her eyes were bloodshot and had dark bags under them, adn her hair seemed to be storing enough static to kill a pony. She was carring a strange cup, it was glass, it resembled a flower, with a loing stem and circular foot, but it had a cup shape at the top end. The cup part was filled with a strong smelling red liquid, which the other pony quickly swallawed upon seeing Cherilee.

Her cutie mark was two grape vines.

The two mares ackwardly stared at each other.

"Uh, hi," the blushing pink pony managed to get out from the shock of seein her newfoudn crush in her store.

"H-hello. I, um, just need some punch, and Pinkie Pie recommened yours," Cherilee haltingly said, blushing.

"Yeah, well I do make the best punch, other than Pinkie's of course." Silently cursing Pinkie Pie, Berry turned towards a cabinet, filled with barrels of what was presumably punch.

"How much do I owe you for the bits?" Cherilee asked, still blushing.

"Don't worry, the first barrels free, Miss Cherilee." Cherilee's blush grew into an even brighter shade of red when she heard the mystery pony use her name.

"Oh thank you miss..."

"Berry Punch."

"Good to meet you."

Berry Punch finally managed to get a small bottle of punch out, and wathced Cherilee's cutie mark as she left the store as quickly as possible. 'No, this is my only chance, I will ask her out... to discuss if I can get any of my punch in the kindergarten snack of course.' Steeling her nerves for what she wa about to do she rushed out towards the door, stumbling a bit.

"Wait!"

Surprised by the sudden call Cherilee whirled around to see Berry Punch in her door.

"I don't suppose that we could go to a restaraunt to discuss some business tommorow?"

Blushing, and determinded to finally connect with a mare she might have feelings for, Cherilee answered, "Why, okay, where? When?"

"Maybe six at Bumblebee's Inn?" That was a good time, they were both off of work tommorow, and Bumblebee made some of the best fried hay in the area.

"Okay!"

---

The waiter glared at them, probably aware of Cherilee's orientation, and he was known to dislike mare and mare couples.

"Will this be a normal social event, or should I get a closed booth?" his snobbish voice only made that much more difficult for the two mares.

"Just a normal social event, we're discussing how my punch can be integrated into the snacks at the school," Berry Punch said, coming to the rescue of the shocked and blushing Cherilee.

"Right then, this way madams."

Thier table was at the far end of the restaraunt, near a light blue unicorn with a white mane and a cutie mark of a wand who kept taking hige drinks from a flask around her neck, and a pegasus colt with a red mane and white coat wearing blue glasses shaped like a V. His cutie mark was a microphone inside of a pair of headphones. Whenever a waiter came up he started into random rants about food, something he called "dubstep". Whenever this happened his eyes, when visible, started to get out of sync, slowly moving to stare at diffrent directions and snapping back into focus with a blink at the end of the rant.

"So, how long have you been in Ponyville Berry?" Cherilee asked, trying to get a conversation started after a few minutes of ackward silence.

"All my life, I've been raising my daughter, a unicorn here, I think that she's in your class."

"I run the school here, so she must be, what does she look like?"

"Well she- augh!" Berry Punch's description was cut off by the blue pony walking up to their tabel and putting her front hooves on it, looking closer she was blushing and smelled heavily of alcohol.

"You two filly foolers should get out of the Great and Powerful Trixie's sight! The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need to look at such a mockery of natural order, she demands that you leave this premsise at once!" she demanded in a pompous voice, a familair voice.

"Trixie, not only are you boasting but you are drunk, either leave us alone, or I will get the waiter to kick you out," Berry demanded of the arrogant pony, a waiter had already noticed the disturbence and begun moving his way towards the rowdy show pony.

"Madam, please return to your table and leave these two ladies alone, or you will be ejected from this establishment. Grunbling, the showpony began to make her way towards the exit, but not before the red maned pony called out to her.

"I'm not gay! Just sayin'..." he blurted out, seemingly at random. Trixie stopped, and looked him over.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie will allow you to be graced by her great and powerful presence, though you do not deserve of it," came the answer.

The colt bounced up, and out, behind Trixie as they both left the building, the waiter turned at asked for thier orders, a few minutes later the two mares were sharing a meal and conversation.

Nobody knows when, but at some point they turned from just friends, into something more.

And the both of them were happy with each other anyway.