Had anypony decided to drop in on Pinkie that morning, they would have opened the apartment door to a viable hurricane of pink fur and frantic babbling. Pinkie had received the hoofwritten invitation at nine-thirty, and switched into 'high' mode when she read 'at 10 AM' on the bottom of the card.

Rainbow Dash had taken it upon herself to draw up invitations for a picnic she was planning. For obvious reasons, that surprised Pinkie a little more than the fact that she only had half an hour to prepare. Dash was setting up a picnic? One thing was certain - it wasn't just a trivial little get-together. There was something odd about it. Beyond that, her left leg had been twitching all morning: that was usually some kind of shock sometime during the day.

She fought briefly with herself over what to bring, before the small voice of reason popped up in the back of her head: The invitation didn't even suggest that you had to bring something... But, of course, as with every other voice of reason, it was soon crushed by all her other thoughts. Lemon drop or shortbread? Why even cookies? Can I come up with a shortbread cupcake?

She decided on shortbread cookies (the quickest of the bunch) and before long, she was out on the street with a saddlebag filled with bags of cookies. What with the high she was feeling from baking so much in so little time, she barely felt the weight. She looked left and right down the street for a reason even she hadn't decided on, and trotted off to the valleys to the east.

Along the way, though, she stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of Mane Street when she heard a voice alongside her. "Hey, Pinkie. You going to the valley, too?"

She whipped her head to her left, still panting from the trip. Twilight was trotting calmly alongside her, levitating an invitation in front of herself and smiling brightly at her. "Twilight!" she shouted, shaking her mane. "Grab onto me!"

Twilight's ears pricked up. "What? What are you -" She was cut off and flipped onto Pinkie's back. Without further warning, Pinkie galloped away as fast as her hooves would carry her, trying to ignore the yelps of protest coming from behind her. She could almost feel the seconds pass by, and wished desperately that she'd be able to arrive just in time for whatever odd event was making her Pinkie Sense go crazy.

Finally, she reached the eastern border of town. When she saw a blanket with spots of blue, orange, and yellow in the distance, she sighed and collapsed onto the hill, sending both her and Twilight (with another shrill little scream) tumbling down the hill.

Both of them hit the bottom with a final tumble and a smack! Pinkie sat up, coughing and shaking dirt from her mane, before looking over at Twilight, who was doing about the same. She stared at her for a second or two and burst into laughter.

Twilight looked up at her, still spitting dirt. "That'th not funny, Pinkie."

"Yes, it - yes, it is!" Pinkie replied, dissolving into frenzied giggles. She felt excellent. Golden. Nothing could touch her. Just like normal. She sighed briefly when Twilight didn't show even a hint of a smile. "Oh, come on. Look around you! It's a great day and I brought cookies! Everything's good!"

Twilight remained still, with a frown on her face, before Pinkie wrapped a foreleg around her and made her giggle. "Alright, alright, okay. Let's just get to the picnic - hopefully in one piece." Twilight stood, shaking her head and offering a hoof to Pinkie, who accepted it gladly. She swung her saddlebags from the ground to her back and walked briskly over to her friends, a wide grin still spread across her face.

"Hey, there, Pinkie!" Applejack called out, waving her over. "Yer 'bout ten minutes early. We're still waitin' on Rarity and Twi - oh," she stopped herself, noticing Twilight stumble out from behind Pinkie.

Twilight chuckled. "Um... hey, every-"

"I brought cookies!" Pinkie interrupted, bouncing around the blanket. "I didn't see anything on the invitation that said I had to, but I did anyway. They're, like, my favorites - shortbread!" She paused to dump the bags on the ground. "Here you go!"

Dash looked up at her. "Uh, thanks, Pinkie. I can't complain, really, but come on, you didn't have to."

"Yeah, I did." She winked.

"No, you didn't."

"Yuh-huh."

"Hey, uh, girls?" Applejack interjected, changing the topic hurriedly. "Rarity's here."

Rarity was making her way down the hill cautiously, taking care not to trip. Her face was hidden by a pair of bright blue sunglasses, and shaded by a large, flat-brimmed sun hat. She reached the bottom with a relieved sigh. "Oh, dear, all kinds of things could have gone wrong there," she muttered, before taking a seat next to Fluttershy. "Good morning, everypony," she said brightly.

Twilight smiled and sat across from her. "Hey, Rarity-" She was barely able to reply before Pinkie plopped down beside her with another short bounce.

"Are we gonna eat whatever you brought first or the cookies?" Pinkie asked.

"Don't you usually eat the meal before the dessert?" Rarity asked in response.

"We're all adults here," Pinkie retorted, giggling as she saw Rarity's face. "Calm down, Rare. What's in the basket, anyways?"

"It smells absolutely amazing already," Rarity commented. After the confused look Applejack shot her way, she added as nonchalantly as she could, "Well, I skipped breakfast this morning."

"Oh, uh, Fluttershy was kind enough to take over preparations when I, uh, didn't - didn't - well, it didn't work out too well for me," Dash said, rubbing the back of her neck. "So we have un-burnt clover-slash-dandelion sandwiches. With, uh, what was it?"

"It's a kind of bread that Pinkie and I made up a while back," Fluttershy replied with a hint of pride.

Pinkie snickered. "Oh yeah. We were messing around with Itailian bread and we just -"

"Hold on a sec', un-burnt clover-and-dandelion... sandwiches?" Applejack asked, badly concealing a grin. "How d'ya burn somethin' ya don't cook?"

Slowly flushing a bright red, Dash glanced over at Fluttershy, who had buried her face in a hoof to keep from laughing. "... None of your business, AJ."

Twilight grinned as she finished off her sandwich. "Wow. I have to hand it to you, Shy. That was excellent." She turned to Dash. "And you're lucky. Your marefriend knows how to make something other than sweets."

"Don't pretend you don't love it, Twi."

"I do, but it's not healthy, like, at all."

Pinkie snorted and nudged Twilight with a hoof. "Then it's time for exercise, Twi! I recommend - hey, do you know why they call shortbread 'shortbread'?"

Twilight looked back at her, the hint of a smile on her face. "Did you just... interrupt yourself?"

Pinkie shrugged. "So do you know?"

"Ain't it somethin' about shortening?" Applejack chimed in.

Suddenly, Pinkie's back leg exploded into movement, drawing everypony's attention. Applejack's eyes widened. "Did ah say somethin' wrong?"

"Oh!" she exclaimed, holding down her aberrant back hoof with her front one.. "Is it time?"

"Time for what, darling?" Rarity asked, backing up from Pinkie's spasms a little.

"It's - it kinda - remember that one time - I don't want to go over it again. It's pretty complicated," Pinkie replied, still holding her hoof down. "It's just - I - thpft. Sorry, can't talk today," she said quickly with a brief chuckle. "My Pinkie Sense has been going haywire ever since I got Rainbow's invitation. There's something ahoof."

"Ya know, ah did kinda think it a bit odd that Rainbow, of all ponies, was setting up a picnic," Applejack mentioned.

Pinkie smiled. "See, Applejack knows what I'm talking about."

She glanced over at Dash, who had begun blushing lightly. "Well, uh, you know, sometimes you just wanna - wanna have a picnic. Or something like that." Fluttershy giggled again.

"Does anypony else think we might have picnics... a bit often?" Twilight asked offhandedly.

Pinkie thought for a moment. "Nah. Not enough, I think." She stretched back a bit before finally settling down. She sat up, her ears perking and her eyes widening. "So what's the deal?"

Dash looked at Pinkie for a second and let out a brief little sigh. "Well, I guess now's as good a time as ever." She opened up the (now-empty) picnic basket and reached inside it, moving something around. There was a sliding, then clicking sound. Rainbow looked over at her marefriend as she pulled a small, long white box out from it.

Rarity gasped along with Fluttershy. "What? What's the deal?" Pinkie asked her in a loud whisper, before being silenced by a hoof to her lips. She turned her head to the pegasi again, her mind working slowly.

Dash chuckled nervously. "With, uh, with that introduction, nothing can possibly go wrong," she began quietly. She cleared her throat and opened the box quickly, revealing a thin, jeweled necklace with three small butterflies shining brilliantly in the middle.

Fluttershy covered her mouth with a hoof, looking up at Dash in shock.

"Will you... will you marry me?"

A silence descended on the group. Applejack, Pinkie, and Twilight were stricken comatose except Rarity; a small smile was frozen on her face, her mouth opened slightly in shock.

Fluttershy looked up at Dash, then back at the necklace, then back at her. "I... I... I don't..." she stuttered.

After a few seconds of tense silence, Rarity spoke softly. "I was led to believe... you had only been together a few months, at best."

Dash looked down quickly, and nodded. "That's about right." She turned to Rarity. "But we've known each other forever. It seems like we..." she trailed off.

Fluttershy wiped at her eyes quickly. "Um... Dash?"

"Sorry?" Dash replied, turning back to Fluttershy.

"I - I would" - at this, Dash's ears perked up again - "but it... I mean, eventually. I will, eventually. I promise," she added, smiling.

Pinkie sat still for a moment in contemplation, before popping into the air and joining the building excitement. The empty picnic basket was knocked out of the way as she tackled the two, enveloping them in tight hug. "Oh my gosh I am so so so so happy for you guys! Can I be the best mare? Can I be the flower girl? Can I be both? Oh, this is so so so exciting! See, I knew I needed to bring something special! Come on, group hug!"

Soon, the two pegasi were covered in their friends - literally - and nearly struggling to breathe. Eventually, Dash got a line in in-between Rarity's squeals and Pinkie's babble: "Hey - uh - thanks, everypony, but, um, can you, like, let us go now? It's hard to think in here."

"Oh. Oh, yes, of course. Sorry, darling," Rarity said, pulling away with an awkward smile. "But - but, I mean, really, this is the kind of thing I was made for. Two of my best friends getting married? Oh, dear, I just want to make everything absolutely perfect!" she finished, looking off into the distance with a gleam in her eye. "... When you're ready, of course," she added quickly.

"Yeah, just... wow," Twilight said, sitting back down. "That's some powerful stuff. How long have you two known each other?"

"Oh, uh... I don't remember," Fluttershy answered quietly, her face still red and her mane still a little messy. "I guess I'm not, um, counting the minutes, right?"

"Come on, Shy," Dash said with a broad smile. "We grew up together! Our parents were old friends, all that stuff?"

"Well, whenever you two're ready, ah'll be there," Applejack said, tipping her hat and chuckling. "What a surprise, though. Ah'd never have expected that." She sighed, and checked the sun. "Ah should probably get back to work. We gotta nest of bats muckin' up the barn." She turned her head to Fluttershy. "Oh, forgot to ask. You wanna come help out?"

"Aw! Fruit bats? Of course!" she said. "I'll be there when I can!"

"Speaking of," Twilight said, standing and shaking her mane a bit, "I need to get back to the library. I have... you know... books to do stuff with. Congratulations, though, you guys, that's... wow!"

"I don't have to go, but it's not as fun if everypony's not here," Pinkie said, waving goodbye to Applejack, her smile falling. "Rarity, are you staying, at least?"

"No, no, no. I wish I could, really, just to start going over - everything about weddings in general, but I have an order I have to fill pretty soon." She sighed and stood, brushing some loose pieces of grass off her coat and levitating her sunglasses to her eyes. "I should be off. Good luck, you two!"

"Oh, uh, Rarity! I needed to talk to you about something," Twilight interjected, trotting alongside her up the hill, their conversation dissolving into whispers.

Pinkie look back at the hill until the two had disappeared, and then back at her remaining friends, and then down at the saddlebag full of shortbread. "Uh... keep the cookies, I guess," Pinkie said, rolling her eyes, before standing and skipping away.

"B - what about the saddlebag?" Dash called out to the quickly-retreating pink mare.

"Keep it! I have twenty more!" came the reply.

Dash sighed, and fell back against the still-dewey grass. She sighed as Fluttershy laid down next to her. "You know, that wasn't how I planned it at all."

Fluttershy smiled gently. "For what it's worth, I'll always remember it." She leaned over and kissed her softly, the events running through her mind like wildfire. She pulled away and wiped at her eyes. "Dash, I don't know what to say. ... Are you really... that serious about this?" Fluttershy asked quietly, laying a hoof across her marefriend.

Dash looked over at her, her eyes soft. "Shy... you know when you first said something to me?"

"... Yeah..."

"No, not recently. The FIRST time."

Fluttershy thought back - back to when the two were in flight school together, she was obsessed with the ground, and Dash was obsessed with speed (as ever). Suddenly, a memory hit her full-force, making her gasp. "You mean that one time when -"

"Yeah."

"But - but I wasn't really - I mean, I didn't -"

She was interrupted by a soft kiss. "Either way, I think that's when I started thinking about it. I didn't really consider whether I - you know, like liked you until when you were finally, courageously, might I add, forthright..." she trailed off. "I don't think I've ever loved anypony else, really."

Fluttershy felt a burning behind her eyes. "Dash..."

She was interrupted by a kiss once more before she closed her eyes and returned it. When they broke off momentarily, Dash moved her lips to her marefriend's cheek, then to her neck, then to her chest, traveling down her slowly and reaching a hoof around her shoulders. She sighed quietly as she reached the top of her stomach. "Hey, there's... nopony here but us, Shy."

Fluttershy looked around, already flushed maroon and breathing a bit heavily. "You're... right, but what are you -"

Twilight was still going over what had just happened in her head. A brief lull in the conversation between the two unicorns allowed a moment of retrospection. "... I don't know, Rarity," she began again. "It just seems like... I'm not - trying or something."

Rarity clicked her tongue. "Oh, Twilight, don't think that way. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash aren't your parallels." She shook her mane and shot a smile at Twilight. "Take things your own pace. Stop worrying. ... Well, okay, that's a little hypocritical. But don't worry so much."

Twilight chuckled shortly, and looked down at her hooves. "Still. See, Pinkie..." she trailed off. "Pinkie by this point would go for anything. Anything I came up with, anything we tried, but I just feel odd pushing myself further than I am." She paused. "Does that make sense?

She followed Rarity up to the boutique and stood on the steps, waiting for the help she needed. Finally, Rarity turned around to face her. "You know... that kind of thing has happened to me before."

"R- really?" Twilight asked, mildly surprised.

"Back when I was a lot younger, still a filly, really, I went through a short phase." She giggled. "It wasn't anything particularly rememberable, but I dated another mare for a few months. Eventually, it didn't feel right to me, and I stopped before things went too far." She stopped, opening the wooden door and turning back around. "I'm not suggesting you and Pinkie 'aren't right', though. Maybe that was a bad analogy."

Twilight groaned. "I just don't know what step to take, Rarity! You're... experienced in this, you can help me, right?"

Rarity stood in the doorway, thinking for a moment. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I have an idea. Learn a new move and try it out. I've seen it work before."

Twilight felt her face light up. She looked left and right down the streets. "Uh... like..." her voice dropped to a whisper. "... sexual moves?"

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Partially. Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"You mean never."

Twilight shook her head lightly, locking her eyes on her hooves.

Rarity tilted her head. "Not once?"

"Mm-mm."

She strained visibly to keep from smiling. "Have you ever dated?"

"No," Twilight squeaked. "Is that..."

"No, no, no, no, no, Twilight, I'm sorry. I don't mean to embarrass you." She let her smile show for a second before covering it with a hoof. When she saw her friend's blush deepen, she regretted it. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just - I kind of saw you like that. ... Does that sound bad? No, no, no, no, I don't mean you're not attractive, dear, I mean you seem like you... I mean, what I mean to say... oh, dear. I'm sorry. I'll stop talking."

"No, you're - you're right," Twilight agreed, lifting her head a little. "It's true, I didn't attract too much attention. I was okay with that, though. I didn't have time for it. Now that I do, though, I don't know what I should do."

Rarity placed a hoof on her face. "I'm sorry. I can't communicate very well today." She returned her gaze to her friend, who was sitting demurely on her old fabrics trunk. "Would you like something to drink, darling?"

"N- no, I'm good. I have to get going soon anyways."

"Oh, in which case, I have tons of novels and books and pamphlets I can give you if you need them. You're quite a bit more adequate at studying than I am - I'm positive you can make good use of them."

Over the next few days, Twilight had done her best to avoid Pinkie until she knew exactly what she was doing. It was more difficult than she thought - every once in a while, she had a compulsion to just go and have lunch or go swimming or go dancing (oddly enough) with her marefriend. But she held off as well as she could, even if she did sneak the occasional visit to Sugarcube Corner.

The Thursday after came a kind of revelation. She's squeezed all information out of the books Rarity lent her and was exhausted for answers. That Thursday, though, she was browsing Tom and Perry's, a local bookstore, for anything - at all - to distract her past the library's supply.

She loved the bookstore, as anypony would expect - she loved it with a passion. The smell of new books and old books clashing together harmoniously, the shady reading corners hidden all about the shelves and cases, and even the owner, a kind old mare who'd lived all her life there and knew every section by heart.

She'd scanned for a few minutes before deciding on a few psychology books that she'd seen before but hadn't quite had the chance to take notes on. However, while walking back to the counter, her eyes caught something she couldn't quite process.

There was a series of shelves with magazines, the bottom halves covered in aluminum wrapping and decorated with a bright red watermark. She tried to ignore these types of magazines, but just today, so much was on her mind that she felt like taking a closer look.

The far left magazines had bright, high-definition pictures of mares, mainly facing away from the cover, some smiling, others wearing a terribly... lusty expression. Their rumps were cut off from view by the thin sheet of silver. She choked on air for a moment. Across the other rows were the same, all emblazoned with covers such as 'Mare's Express', 'A Stallion's Guide to Everything', 'Love It', and the oddly compelling 'Reach'.

She glanced behind her, suddenly having a cold feeling some pony was watching her look over this reputation-ruining rubbish. She swallowed when she realized nopony was there and quickly levitated 'FillyFoolersFantasy' and 'Tips and Tricks' over to her and stuffing them in her largest textbook. She felt herself flush deeply when the aluminum crinkled, echoing dully in the nearly-empty aisle.

She walked as calmly as she could over to the self-checkout, wincing when she felt herself wobble even slightly. A shock ran through her when she saw the small, neat 'out-of-order' sign on the machine, and swallowed, looking at the old mare sitting in her office behind the register.

There was a moment of tense quiet as she debated with herself whether it was worth it. If it means I'll feel more comfortable with myself, then... but what do I say? 'Strictly studying material?' Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Feeling more nervous than she'd felt in quite a while, she rang the small bell quietly. The old mare stood and approached the register with a genuine little smile. "Why, hello, Ms. Twilight," she greeted her. "What are we checking out today?"

She bit her lip. Tell her now. Tell her now. Tell her now. "Uh, nothing special." Damn.

The old mare happily scanned her books one by one. Twilight felt herself physically shrink as she heard "What's this?"

Strictly for studies. Strictly for studies. Strictly for studies. "Uh - um - it's not for me, it's for somepony I know." Damn!

"Dearie, you seem to have three items in one! No matter, this new little device I have here can scan six at a time," she replied proudly. As she began began them (quite deftly), she added in a whisper, "It's pretty helpful when somepony doesn't want me to see what they're checking out."

Twilight blushed and just barely kept herself from grinning out of a surge of nervousness. "Okay, you take - take care of yourself. Thank you, bye!" she added as she trotted out the open door.

She arrived at the library emotionally exhausted, and rushed upstairs to avoid any questions from Spike. With a wave of her horn, she shut and locked the door behind her, and pulled a quill with a scroll out of her desk. With a moment of hesitation, she laid down on her bed, levitating the scroll above her and ripping a magazine open with a short sigh followed by a shorter gasp.

A shiver ran through her. Page 28 - 38 ways to please your mare. It was research time again.