There was no way Pinkie could sleep. Not tonight. Instead, she drew herself slowly up from her bed so as not to disturb her cousin and walked silently over to the window near the corner of the room.

She hesitated momentarily to open the window, for fear that it would awaken Tulip, but followed through anyways. A warm summer night's breeze swept into the room with a faint, whispering whistle. Pinkie inhaled deeply, smelling the lush greenery and moistness of the night. She closed her eyes - this was what she needed to calm her thoughts. It usually was.

It may indeed have been the most exciting, joyous day of her life so far. Now, after two disheartening weeks of pain and rejection, there was a chance to prove herself. But... that wasn't the right word. She had next to no say in the matter; it was really all the decision of Twilight.

Pinkie sighed, unsure of her emotions. It was easy for her to stay serious when nopony was looking. At this thought, she was alarmed by her cousin rolling over in her cot, groaning softly. Pinkie smiled sleepily at the irony, and, having satisfied her questions, returned to her bed, taking slight comfort in the fact that it wasn't up to her.

As always, Pinkie was awake in the wee hours of the morning, sitting at the kitchen table and writing plans out furiously. When Tulip came downstairs, Pinkie had already finished her designs and had begin to call the businesses that were open at 8:30.

Tulip shook her head, and blew a few loose hairs out of her eyes. "Hi, Pinkie," she said groggily, befor wiping a hoof across her eyes and yawning. "I got 'til eight tonight... what do you wanna do?"

Pinkie had foreseen this question, and had come up with a believable answer. "I was thinking maybe today we could go and see Shimmering Lake. It's over near Fluttershy's."

Tulip looked at her confusedly, and nodded. "I'll just follow you, then. Tell me when."

"Now. Let's go."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Why not?" Pinkie grinned widely. "It'll wake you up. Then we can go eat lunch, and figure stuff out from there."

"I can tell you why not," Tulip said as she followed the pink mare submissively out the door. "One, I'm tired, two, it's morning, three, what are we gonna do at the lake for, like, three hours?"

Pinkie remained silent but smiled to herself, avoiding Tulip's gaze. Oh, the look on her face would be positively priceless.

The pair arrived at the thinly-spread grove of elm and maple separating Fluttershy's cottage from the Everfree Forest. Tulip looked up at the rather impressive height of the trees and breathed, "It's almost like home."

"I was just thinking that!" Pinkie said happily.

"Wavelength!" Tulip replied in a singsong voice, and they clapped hooves above their heads, giggling.

Pinkie led her cousin into the grove, down the rocky path leading to the secret patch of grass near the lake only Pinkie knew about. It overlooked the entire lake, but nopony else had ever discovered it except her. She was planning on walking in a circle around the lake from that spot to the main beach, and then...

It was gonna be good.

"Hey, Pinkie."

Pinkie had just started to walk through the reeds around the lake, and turned her head as well as she could. "What's up?"

"There's a boat here. Why don't we just take a boat across the lake?"

Pinkie thought for a few seconds, and figured it wouldn't undermine her plans. "Sure, but I get to drive."

"You mean row?" Tulip said, climbing into the boat cautiously.

"That's what I said," Pinkie giggled, following her cousin and grabbing the oar lying in the mud next to her.

As Pinkie propelled the pair closer to the center of the lake, she caught a glimmer of neon green disappearing quickly into the brush. They seemed to have everything set up right; she could only hope that it worked out the way it had in her head.

Pinkie pulled the vessel over to the coast, to the outspoken confusion of her cousin. "Why are we pulling up to the coast here? Why not just row across the lake?"

As she helped her cousin out of the boat, she said, "This was the spot I wanted us to come to in the first place."

"Then why the detour?"

"Well, we couldn't have come from the other side, silly," Pinkie giggled, excitement already rushing to her head. "After all, everypony's hiding in the woods."

"Hiding in the-"

"NOW!"

All at once, close to four dozen ponies jumped out of the trees, simultaneously shouting "SURPRISE!" Tulip reared back, almost falling into the water behind her, before smiling at Pinkie and laughing. "You know, Pinkie, you're an absolute genius."

"Thanks, 'cuz," Pinkie replied, laughing and pulling Tulip to her hooves. "I wouldn't really call myself a genius, but..."

"Why not? You planned this entire thing in less than a day."

"Well... yeah, I did."

Meanwhile, a few ponies were pushing a strange-looking wheeled snack tray out of the trees. Applejack strode out, managing to control her apple-cart so it wouldn't careen into the lake.

"Oh, c'mere, Tulip!" Pinkie said, pulling Tulip over to her friend. "I wanna introduce you to Applejack!"

Applejack smiled amicably, and reached out a hoof for Tulip to shake. "Well, howdy-doo, Miss Tulip! Mah name's Applejack, and ah'm mighty pleased ta meetcha!"

Tulip accepted the hoofshake with equal enthusiasm, and started up a little small-talk before walking away to the rest of the crowd to introduce herself to everypony else.

Applejack leaned over to Pinkie. "Is she your new-"

"No! She's my cousin! Why does everypony keep thinking that?" she said in mock exasperation. Then she giggled. "You know, AJ, I wanna tell you some great news. Yesterd-"

"Hey, Pinkie!"

Pinkie stopped mid-sentence and turned her head past Applejack. Her eyes met a pair of sparkling lavender ones, and she smiled, unafraid of letting herself be overwhelmed. After all, if she could hold up long enough, she had a date in three days. She slowly approached Twilight.

"Hi, Pinkie," Twilight greeted her again, and stood silent for a few seconds. "I, um, brought my record player. It's right over there."

"Oh, cool," Pinkie replied. "Just set it up whenever."

"I already did."

There was another few moments of awkward silence, before Twilight began to speak again. "Um, I heard Trixie's looking for a job. Do the Cakes have an open spot?"

"Wait, you mean 'The Great and Powerful Trixie'?" Pinkie giggled, and snorted. "I'll have to check with the Cakes. I'm not sure she's cut out for baking, though." As hard as she tried, she couldn't imagine the puffed-up magician making a tray of cupcakes.

"Alright. I'll just wait for your word, then."

Eventually, just as Pinkie was about to leave, Twilight finally pieced together what she was going to say. "Pinkie, about this Friday."

Pinkie's ears unintentionally pricked up. She tried through willpower to force them down and appear less desperate. "Yeah?"

Twilight seemed very shy about the whole ordeal. "Could you... just... not tell anypony else yet? Don't get me wrong," she added, seeing the pink mare's face, "but I'm just not sure whether I'm ready for my friends - my other friends - to know about something like this. Plus, I'm not sure what it would do to the Elements of Harmony, or whether the Princess would even approve..." She trailed off and sighed. "It's just not the kinda thing I'd thought would ever be part of my life, and... here we are."

Pinkie had been listening thoughtfully, carefully. She'd taken to heart everything Twilight had said, and it actually revealed a lot more about Twilight than she might've intended. "...Okay," she finally responded.

"Thanks, Pinkie. Corner deli at eight, right?"

"See you there."

With that, both mares departed, and walked off into the sizable mob of ponies around them. Peppy party music began to play soon, setting the minds of both the mares at ease... along with the minds of two other mares that happened to be part of the party throng.

Fluttershy had secluded herself from most of the other partygoers - or, um, surprise-partygoers. She would rather stay in this mystical place she'd moved into - it was a veritable oasis of magical calm surrounded on all sides by hustle and bustle. The way the light drifted through the trees and the way the dust floated about like sparkles in the air... it truly was beautiful.

Her extensive thoughts were interrupted by an irregularly small voice. "Um... Fluttershy?"

She turned from her reposing position to come face-to-face with Rainbow Dash. She gasped, and shrunk back.

If there was one thing Dash couldn't tolerate, it was letting her friends down. "Fluttershy... are you afraid of me?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I just... I don't want to... um..."

Dash shook her head, too. "I don't want us to end up without a friendship. I never did. I'm really, really sorry I shouted at you the way I did. I've been hearing taunts and stuff like that all my life, 'cause of the rainbows, and... just the general tomboyishness." She paused. "Is that a word?"

Fluttershy chose to ignore the last question; it seemed rhetorical. "I don't want us to end up without a friendship, either. But, you know, what I said was true" - her voice adopted quite a serious tone - "and I didn't lie. Everything I said, I really do think about you." Her serious tone left her, and it left her embarrassed.

Dash remembered back to the night almost a week ago. Everything Fluttershy said... everything? She blushed a deep magenta. "I - I didn't - I can't -" she stuttered.

Fluttershy stared at the ground between her hooves. "It's okay. We can still be friends, right?"

Dash looked intensely at the other pegasus. There was so little in common between them; Nonetheless, they'd kept a friendship going for just under two decades; maybe they would work well together in a... different relationship. But she'd always been straight. Always.

...Right?

She sighed, and thought things through in her head. Perhaps... perhaps she had been hasty. But how would her reputation suffer if it was publicized that she even tried something like this?

She continued staring at Fluttershy, who, in turn, was staring at the ground. She seemed like there was really something there; like she really did have feelings for Dash. Would the plan she was conjuring up work on both ends?

"You know what?"

Fluttershy looked up at Dash slowly.

"We can... try this. But I don't want it to be public yet."

Fluttershy's mouth was open slightly, and her eyes showed quite a bit of surprise. "You mean..." she nearly whispered.

"How about we meet here tomorrow at eight? Right here, in front of this lake?"

Fluttershy ha the overwhelming urge to jump into the air and fly circles in joy, but she kept herself as calm as possible, even though she could clearly hear her own heart beating. "Of-of course. Yes."

"Alright, then. We'll try this." Dash turned and walked away, leaving an emotionally bottled, yet still uncontainably excited Fluttershy in her wake.

Bottled + uncontainable = not good.

She had to pee.

Pinkie and Tulip returned in high spirits to the apartment at around noon. It was almost lunchtime, and Pinkie already had plans for that, too. She'd ordered a professional meal delivered to the apartment at noon, and picked it up as the pair entered the door. They unwrapped it from its box while it was still warm and began to eat.

After they were finished, Pinkie donned the most exaggerated mischievous look she could and stared Tulip dead in the eye.

Tulip put her fork down slowly. "Alright, beginning to scare me a bit here, Pinkie."

"Well, I have a super-duper surprise for you."

Tulip groaned in false exhaustion. "Another one? I could barely handle the first!" she whined.

Pinkie bucked open the oven and pulled out a lump on a tray covered in aluminum foil. "Well then, I guess you don't want this!" She ripped the foil off of the lump to reveal a strikingly orange, masterfully decorated cupcake.

Tulip stared at the masterpiece, then at her cousin, then back to the masterpiece. It was like gold in an edible form. Unable to speak, she looked at Pinkie, pointed at herself with her hoof, and mouthed, For me?

Pinkie nodded vigorously, and Tulip tentatively brought the cupcake to her lips. She didn't want to ruin it, but, since Pinkie insisted, she bit slowly into it.

Instantly, she was on her hooves. "Pinkiethisisabsolutelyamazinghowlongdidittakeyoutomakethisitssog-"

"Woah, calm yourself, 'cuz," Pinkie said, jamming her hoof playfully onto her cousin's lips. "You don't wanna break my speed-talking record."

Tulip smiled at Pinkie from ear-to-ear, and reached over for a tight hug. "You're the best cousin ever, Pinkie."

Pinkie hugged back. "You too, Tulip."

After all this excitement had died down and they'd been around the town a bit more, Pinkie helped Tulip with her bags and escorted her to the train station. It was a rather emotional farewell even for two cousins who only met once a year.

After this, Pinkie felt an obvious unease. There wasn't much else to do today, or tomorrow. Or the next day. She'd just have to wait until Friday.

So she went upstairs, sat down on her bed, and waited.

And waited.