The five o'clock hour chimed from the belltower, reminding me that I needed to hurry. Tucking my multi-tool into my old backpack, I double checked the bottles and supplies before zipping it up. Both the shops Key had taken me to had ended up being incredibly fun to explore, and after spending almost every bit Luna had given me, I was thoroughly convinced I had the makings of a bar stocked to amuse an alicorn princess.

Luna’s party didn’t start till seven, but I intended to be there an hour early, which left me just enough time to shower, shave, and get dressed the best I could. I really did need some formal clothes, but I’d have to make do with the change of clothes I’d left in my plane: blue jeans, button-up shirt, and a belt. Honestly, it was my default attire for going on a date, so hopefully Luna wouldn’t think it overly casual.

After a good scrubbing and preening, I dubbed myself as fit as possible to host a Princess, and headed out the door with my backpack of goodies. It was a quiet walk over. Canterlot was always a quiet city in the evening; the nightlife not yet started, and the morning’s business long concluded.

At the castle I lingered to chat with a few familiar ponies, slowly making my way towards Luna’s private chambers.

“Hey, Strawberry,” I said, greeting him with a wave. I hadn’t expected him on door duty tonight. “They change your shift?”

Strawberry gave me a somewhat formal nod before relaxing. “I traded shifts. A friend is holding a fish fry next week, so I traded to get the day off.”

“A fish fry!?” I laughed as I spoke. “Oh wow, there’s some memories for me.”

“Oh really?” Strawberry’s expression brightened as he opened the door for me. “I could probably get you invited.”

“Sure, but don’t be surprised if I help cook.”

Strawberry rolled his eyes with a smirk, before motioning me to go in. “You’re the first one here. Princess Luna should be in shortly though.”

Inside I found the chambers to be well lit, but unoccupied, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was trespassing. A small raised platform had been brought in since the last time I was in here. A microphone sitting on it told me it would be Plowshare’s stage, which only fueled my curiosity to hear him sing, it wasn’t something I could easily imagine of the hulking stallion.

Poking around the room, as politely as I could, I eventually recognized a bit of furniture against the back wall as a fold-away bar. It was a beautiful piece, too, mahogany and brass with intricate inlays of silver and jet. Years of regular use gave it a patina that added strength to its otherwise delicate nature.

Carefull not to add any scratches, I rolled it away from the wall and began unfolding the bartop.

I had almost finished stocking the bar, when the click of a door announced someone entering from the room’s other door. Looking up, I confirmed it was Luna. “Princess,” I said, greeting her with a bow.

“At ease. None of that in this room tonight,” Luna said, her magic floating in a bowl of what looked like chex-mix. It also dawned on me the that she was wearing none of her usual regalia.

Setting the snacks in the middle of the table, Luna then came over to investigate the bottles I had lined up on the bartop. Looking past the wine and liquor, her eyes fell on one of the two packs of beer I had brought.

“Coffee ale?” she asked, taking a bottle into her magic.

“It’s a dark ale, brewed with coffee. Something similar is popular in my world,” I said, pausing in my chore to give Luna my full attention.

In what seemed a practiced motion, Luna’s magic removed the cap before taking a healthy sip. She pondered the taste a moment, before nodding in approval. “This is good.”

Taking a second drink, she nodded again, as if affirming the opinion to herself. “There’s an ice bucket hidden behind there,” she said tapping a panel with her hoof. “One of the guards will fetch ice from the kitchen, if you ask.”

Noticing my old backpack on the floor she gave it a sideways look before touching it. “That is a strange material. May I look at it?”

“Sure. It’s made from oil, but I couldn’t tell you how,” I answered. A second later and she was exploring the many zippers and pouches, pausing occasionally to examine whatever was inside.

“Mint: wild, from the smell of it,” she said, rooting around the garnishes and mixers. “Pink salt; from the Crystal Empire, I assume?”

I nodded in response. I’d been rather proud of that find, and hopefully I’d get to use it to introduce margaritas to Equestria. That is assuming that Badlands juice leaf liquor was something like tequila.

“This all looks quite tempting.” Opening a side pocket, Luna pulled out a plastic bag I didn’t recognize at first.

“What’s this? Something from your world?” she asked.

It was the bag of horse treats, I had forgotten completely about them. “They’re a candy of sorts. I suppose.” I couldn't find a way to say they’re pet treats for horses.

“Smells delicious.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but couldn’t put together an explanation before she had tossed one in her mouth.

“Mmm...” she hummed, her ears perked up with delight as she chewed.

Setting the bag down, Luna washed down the chewy horse treat with the beer. “Those are delicious. Do you have the recipe?”

Looking at the bag, I saw an ingredient list on it. “Kinda, but it may take a few tries to get it right.” They were just something the mennonites down the road made; couldn’t be that hard to reproduce.

Luna smiled, giving me a nod. “I would consider it a favor if you would give the recipe to the kitchen.” Standing up, she walked back to the other side of the room with the beer still floating beside her. “I have a few errands to run before the girls start arriving. I will leave you to prepare,” she said before before leaving the way she had entered.

When the door clicked shut behind her, I blinked. That was not the rigid Princess Luna that I had feared for the past several months. I had been getting glimpses behind her stone mask, but this was something altogether different.

Taking a breath, I returned to my task. Herbs, fruits, tonics, salt, and sugar all found a home inside the bar. Popping open the trick door, I found a silver ice bucket inside.

Strawberry offered to make the ice run for me, but honestly I was out of things to do, so I got it myself. I needed to make some simple syrup, too, and I didn’t feel like bothering the cooks about it.

I ran into a few familiar faces along the way, familiar colors and marks anyway. There’s probably three ponies I could honestly say I recognize by face alone. Not including the princesses; but they look so vastly different, I’d know them even in the dark.

Anyway, I didn’t pause to chat for long. Having Luna’s party to tend to was excuse enough to keep the conversation short.

“There you are,” Plowshare greeted me as I walked back into Luna’s chambers. “I knocked on your door, but you’d already left.”

“Wanted to get here early.” I was a little surprised Plowshare hadn’t dressed up for the evening. Nude was the norm for ponies, but they also seemed to enjoy dressing up for special occasions. Then again, if I was as ripped as Plowshare, I might consider shirtless as being dressed up.

Plowshare shrugged. “No problem.” Following me behind the bar, he gave my set up a quick inspection. “Fancy... I don’t even know what most of this is.”

“Mostly me trying to recreate stuff I used to make back home. Plus a few experiments.”

“Hmm... I’ll have to try one or two.” Returning to his makeshift stage, Plowshare picked up a stack of paper, and shuffled through it. “I wanted to ask you something though.”

“Oh? What's that?”

Pulling out a page from the stack, he held it up for me to see. I couldn’t read it from here, but I did recognize it as sheet music. “A friend of mine is helping pull music off some gizmo of yours. She sent me one of the songs she translated. You mind if I sing it later?”

I blinked, then stared blankly at Plowshare. Princess Twilight hadn’t had my phone for a week, and ponies were already circulating sheet music of songs from my phone.

Plowshare wilted a bit, looking from me to the sheet in his hoof. “If you don’t want me to...”

“No, no. It’s cool. I just didn’t expect to hear anything from my phone so soon.”

“Oh!” Plowshare chuckled. “My friend, she’s a regular client, her talent is in electronic music. Princess Twilight hired her to duplicate the music. She’s not supposed to show it to anypony, but when I mentioned you...”

Well that made some sense, I suppose. Actually, the most surprising this was that ponies had eletronic music. “Did she translate it for you?” Last thing I needed was Plowshare to serenade Luna with phonetic reading of “Closer”.

“Yeah.” Plowshare chuckled, turning the page so he could read it. “Princess Twilight thought it was an incantation at first.”

Incantation, ha! I actually knew what he meant by that. “Really? What song— Actually, don’t tell me. I want to be surprised.”

Author's Notes:

pt 2, should be out in a two weeks. Trying something different. Was going to hold onto this till they were both ready, but figured y-knot.