Dash awoke in her bed the next day. Her head throbbed, and her stomach felt queasy. She groaned as she rolled over, and through bloodshot magenta eyes, she saw a note on her nightstand. Over the top of the neatly folded parchment was a lone flower; a yellow rose.

She leaned towards the small table, lifted the flower, and opened the note, reading what it said:

Dear Rainbow Dash,
The answers to your questions may be hard to believe, but if you really want to know, meet me in the Saddlebacks today at 4. Your friends are invited too. My cabin is along the path leading west, out of Ponyville. You should be able to see the house from the road. I’ll have a fire going so just look for smoke if you get lost.
Until next time,
Clyde
P.S. Thanks for the cider.

She unfolded the last bit of the paper, and out fell a small pouch. It made a jingling sound when it landed on the floor, and when she opened it, she found a collection of gold coins. Amidst the bits was another note, but this one only said “repayment”. She knew it had to be for the cider she bought him.

Dash checked her clock. It was nearly 3; she had to be at his house in an hour. She groaned again, put on her lucky sunglasses to conceal her red eyes, and forced herself out of bed and down to Ponyville to find her friends.

Rainbow Dash flew over the buildings of the town, scanning the ponies below for her closest friends. She drifted over the market, but didn’t have any luck. They weren’t in the park either, and even A.J. wasn’t at work in Sweet Apple Acres.

Dash started to think where else they could be. They couldn’t have already left; the town’s clock tower was just now striking 3 in the afternoon. The only other place they could be was at home. She darted to the library as fast as she could go hung over to test her theory.

She knocked on the door of the living oak that was Twilight’s home, but heard nothing inside. She knocked a second time, and heard the pitter patter of footsteps approaching the door from within. The door swung open, and a small dragon stood before her.

“Hey Spike,” she said, forcing a smile down at him, “Is Twilight around?”

“Hey Rainbow. She hasn’t woken up yet. I’m starting to get worried about her.”

The light blue mare stepped inside the hollow tree, and ascended the staircase to the librarian’s bedroom, Spike watching as she floated up the stairs. She opened the door, not even attempting to be quiet, and saw her friend sprawled over her bed, sound asleep. On her nightstand was a note as well, again, with a yellow rose laid over it. She picked up the paper, put her sunglasses on top of her head, read it, and found it said more or less the same thing hers had.

“Hey Twi, wake up.” she barked.

The unicorn’s ear twitched, but the rest of her body stayed still.

“Get up Twilight. We need to be somewhere.”

Again, her friend remained motionless. Dash grabbed a nearby flower vase, removed its resident flora, and brought it to the bed. She began to tilt the vessel, and as the first few drops were beginning to clear the vase’s edge, her friend rolled over with open eyes. The pegasus quickly put the vase down so as not to alert her of her previous intentions, and bid a hasty good morning.

The purple unicorn groaned, holding her head in her hooves.

“Ohhhhh, my head.”

“Come on,” Dash said, “You need to get up. We need to be somewhere in a little bit.”

“Where? It’s Saturday.”

Dash tossed Clyde’s note into her lap. The bookworm immediately skimmed over the note, looking up when she finished.

Rainbow Dash, standing in the doorway, said, “Be at Rarity’s in ten minutes.”

“Why?” inquired the ever-curious unicorn.

“To freshen up; you look awful.”

The blue mare offered a sly smile to let her know she was only kidding, then dropped her shades over her eyes, turned, and trotted out the door to retrieve the other four.

Rainbow Dash sped around Ponyville, finding the same scene in each of her friends’ homes; somepony sound asleep in their bed with a yellow rose and a note on their nightstand. She woke each of them, and then waited for them to shake off the previous night’s ‘festivities’ before telling them to meet at Rarity’s.

Eventually, they were all in the boutique, trying to make themselves appear presentable.

“So, it’s a casual event?” Rarity asked while brushing her mane.

“Sounds like it from the note,” said a groggy Pinkie Pie while she washed her face in a tub of lukewarm water.

“I just hope it goes well,” said Fluttershy while arranging her mass of lightly colored hair into its usual style.

“Chill, in the note Clyde said he’d tell us about himself, so we won’t have to try to get him to talk anymore,” said Dash rubbing her eyes.

The six didn’t take long to get ready, and within ten minutes they were out the boutique’s door. They walked briskly along the westbound road where Clyde had told them he lived. Eventually, they saw light smoke rising above the trees with the towering mountains in the background, and followed it to their destination, the walk being enough to chase the last of their persisting cramps and headaches away.

The group approached the home's front door. It was a large log cabin, two stories high and very wide. A pile of chopped firewood was stacked neatly next to the porch, and a lonely ponderosa grew adjacent to the house’s northern wall.

They reached the door and knocked.

From within, they heard a muffled, “Come in.”

They opened the heavy wooden door and stepped inside. The interior of the home was beautiful. To the left of the entrance was an expansive living room filled with a large arm chair, an elongated sofa, and a coffee table topped with a bowl filled with plump green apples, all in front of a large, lit fireplace and a stone mantle. Several shelves and a single, enormous glass case filled the space at the back of the room. The cabinets and shelves held several treasures, most of them made of precious metals, but some were of crystal. The case’s sole content was breathtaking; a pristine set of Equestrian battle armor, each piece hung on a wire frame somewhat resembling a pegasus.

The house was filled with the fresh, sweet scent of pine, revealing the homeowner’s choice of building wood. To their right was a staircase leading upwards to more rooms. Beyond the staircase was the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen, in which their host was cooking. The mares could see him reared up against the counter, frying tomatoes over the stove in a cast iron pan. He turned from his cooking for a second to tell them to make themselves at home, and then resumed tending to his culinary work.

Most of them went into the living room to gape at his dazzling collections, but Pinkie Pie went straight to the stallion’s side.

“What’s for supper?” she asked gleefully.

Fearing she may break into song again, the stallion eyed her carefully before answering, “Tomatoes, which are going over some bread in the oven, some provolone I bought from town today, fruit salad and wild blackberries.”

“Yummy!” said the pink earth pony, her mouth beginning to water.

“It’s almost done; should only be a few more minutes. You could go take a look around if you want.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie,” she said, bouncing out of the kitchen.

“So long as you’re anywhere but the kitchen, away from everything sharp,” he said under his breath.

Suddenly, the mare returned, seemingly materializing next to him in an instant.

She looked to him, and asked, “What did you say?” with an exceptional amount of high pitched cheer in her voice.

“N-nothing,” he said, looking to where she was milliseconds before, then back to where she, somehow, stood now.

His guest looked into his eyes, her face contorted in a sort of squinting glare.

Then suddenly, her face relaxed, and she smiled saying, “Ok then,” and bounded off a second time, humming.

Clyde let out a sigh and shook his head as he turned back to the meal.

Five minutes later, dinner was served. The mares stopped gazing at the many lustrous antiques and treasures in the living room and took a seat at a hickory dining table while Clyde passed out plates filled with food.

As he was dishing up his own platter, Twilight complimented him, saying, “You have an absolutely gorgeous home.”

“Thank you. It’s pretty new; I finished building it about a week ago.”

“Wait,” started Applejack as she removed her hat, setting it on the table, “Ya built this yerself?”

He looked to her and nodded as he took his seat at the head of the table.

He waited to see how his cooking sat with his guests before eating. He could tell by their silence and their delving in for second bites that the bread had turned out crisp and the fruit was ripe.

“What do you think?” he proposed.

“It’s very good,” said Rarity, levitating a glass of water to her lips, “Much better than I could’ve done. I must say, I didn’t take you for a stallion of, umm…” she struggled to find the right word.

“Sophistication?” a deep voice proposed.

The white mare nodded as she wiped her mouth with a napkin suspended in a blue tinted glow.

“Well,” Clyde began as he started to swirl his cup around in his hoof, “You don’t need an accent or fancy clothes to be sophisticated. I guess you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

He turned his emerald eyes to Twilight as he finished, winking when her eyes met his, as if he knew the phrase would connect especially to her.

“I’m just sorry we don’t have very lively entertainment tonight,” he apologized satirically, looking at Pinkie Pie with an amused smile on his face.

The pink mare was too preoccupied with her meal to really notice his shining eyes, but the rest of the group caught on.

Clyde’s eyes floated towards the yellow mare sitting near the end of the table.

“Oh, you wore the rose,” he observed, genuinely pleased, “I knew you’d like it. It looks good on you; matches your coat.”

Fluttershy reached to her ear, behind which the yellow rose she found on her nightstand that morning was tucked. She blushed, smiling a bit; she really did like it. It was beautiful and rare, and made her feel… special.

“So you did carry us all home last night?” inquired the blue pegasus.

“Yes. I couldn’t just leave you there. And besides, after all the cider we drank together,” he turned to the orange mare at the table, who had set her hat on the table, and added, “which was delicious, by the way,” and then continued, “even you couldn’t fly straight, so I had to make sure you all got home safely. That’s what anypony ought to do. Besides, you six of all Equestrians would know that without simple acts like that, harmony in Equestria would crumble.”

He leaned back in his chair, the same way he had the previous night in the makeshift tavern, and continued swirling his glass of water in his hoof. He had a small smile on his face, but he hid any other clues as to what was going on between his ears.

Twilight looked to her friends. She saw four stunned faces returning her expression, but one pink face was still munching away happily at a fruit salad. She knew they were thinking the same thing she was; it was like he’d known them all along. Applejack challenged him,

“Now wait just a minute. I was there last night, and I heard the conversations goin’ ‘round the table, and nopony said anythin’ that’d lead you to knowin’ us so well all of a sudden. Now, you better tell me just who the hay you are and how you found out ‘bout me and my friends so darn quick.”

“All in good time,” He replied calmly.

The mares were uneasy; their host was being mysterious, almost creepy. They could tell he had no intention of coming clean at the moment, so after a nervous visual exchange, they hesitantly began eating again.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys! Thanks for reading. Please comment and rate. Thanks!

P.S. this is where the little things that will all tie together start happening, so read closely from now on.