“Seriously, you backed down timberwolves?” Twilight asked. "How did you do that?”

“Maagic.” Robert answered. Twilight glared at him. "No, seriously. I used an illusion. And a little bit of telekinesis.”

“Ah. I see.” Twilight said. Robert quirked a brow at the way she said it.

“What?” he asked.

“Never found much use for illusions myself.” Twilight shrugged.

“Because she's not very good at them.” Spike pointed out.

“My illusions are...” she started.

“... like Rainbow Dashes attempts at art.” Spike finished.

“Hey!” Dash objected.

“We are not that bad. Said a very poorly made rabbit.” Fluttershy laughed quietly. Angel gave Twilight a look of disdain. Rainbow laughed out loud.

“See, I told you. My drawing is much better.” Spike nodded. Twilight stared for a moment, then laughed.

“Okay, I guess it is.” she said.

“It is simply a matter of practice.” Rarity said, from across the room, standing near the book shelves. Every set of eyes went from where she continued to lay, to the duplicate standing across the room. "Once one learns to focus on the small details, it is simple enough to duplicate one's appearance. And it is much easier to create the illusion of a dress, than make the whole thing and decide you don't like it.” The duplicate was suddenly wearing a massive gown that only slightly clipped into the wall. "Of course somethings are simply better in the mind's eye, than in reality.” The gown vanished. Then the illusion disappeared.

“Your horn wasn't glowing.” Twilight said, more than a little startled.

“Oh, but it was. I was simply covering my horn with an illusion to make it appear not to.” Rarity said. Twilight's jaw worked for a moment.

“How did I not think of that?” Twilight asked.

“It wasn't on a checklist.” Spike muttered. He didn't pay attention when she glared at him. "Well, it wasn't.” he added after a moment, still not seeming to look up.

“You simply did not have time to come to the conclusion Darling. You would have gotten it given time to work it out.” Rarity said confidently.

“Yes, probably.” Twilight said. "You said you used telekinesis?”

“When I smashed the lead timberwolf with my 'paw'”. he made air quotes with his fore paws. "It sold the illusion enough to fool the others, but it's not something I'd want to do more than once if I can avoid it.” he shook his head.

“Why?” Twilight asked.

“It took most of the power I had left to do that. I could do it maybe twice, but I'd be drained completely.” he answered.

“Ah, I see. Is that the power requirements or the difficulty of applying such a heavy blow?” Twilight asked, note pad appearing beside her. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“Twilight. Notes later, lunch now.” Twilight grinned sheepishly.

“Sorry.”

“For what Sugarcube?” Applejack asked, arriving with a picnic basket, and followed by a bouncing Pinkie.

“Taking notes during our lunch break.” Twilight said. "I'm just fascinated.”

“Ah know, but right now let's eat and you can be fascinated after lunch.” As if to punctuate the point, Twilight's stomach rumbled. "Plus today I brought a little treat.” she paused. "Pinkie, that's your cue.”

“Huh?” Oh, right. Pinkie reached into her mane and extracted Gummy. Who proceeded to belch up a keg of Sweet Apple Acres Cider Reserve.

“Ew.” Rarity said for the lot of them.

“No worries, Gummy's sanitary.” Pinkie said, to no one's belief. She didn't seem to notice though. Instead she slid through space and snuggled up to Robert. "So... what's up buttercup?”

“The sky.” he answered. Rainbow laughed.

They set out the meal and watched the pets play while they ate. After a little while, Rarity looked at the others. “Girls, I'd like to thank you for coming with me to Manehattan. It means a lot to me to have you there with me.”

“We wouldn't miss it.” Applejack said. "Not for all the apples in Equestria.”

“Or all the frosting.” Pinkie added.

“Or most of the animals.” Fluttershy said. No one noticed her phrasing.

“I'm excited to see the museums.” Twilight said. "Getting to do it with my friends just makes it all the better.”

“Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Though not as awesome as me.” Rainbow put in. Everyone laughed. Rarity noticed Robert staring off into space.

“I'm sorry I couldn't get you a ticket on such short notice Robert.” Rarity offered.

“No worries. I'm not a big city type.” Robert shrugged. "Of course, if you happen to bring me a snowglobe, I'll count that as repayment enough.”

“A snowglobe?” Rarity asked. He nodded.

“I always wanted to collect snowglobes from places I went but they don't seem to have a Ponyville Snowglobe. So I'll settle for one from Manehatten.” He was reasonably certain there wasn't a Ponyville snowglobe, since he'd spent the better part of a day checking every single shop in town, including Sofa's and Quills, who had, characteristically enough, been out of both Sofa's and Quills. He'd left with a pencil and raincheck on an ottoman, if for no reason other than to cheer up the salespony.

“I suppose somepony with some influence should change that.” Rainbow said, elbowing Twilight, who grunted.

“Stop poking me.” the alicorn said with a groan. “All of Manehattan and all you want is a snowglobe?”

“I know only two things about the place. It's not my kind of place, and I want a snowglobe from there. I'll even pay you back if you like.” he said, looking her in the eye.

“Well I guess I, I...” she kept saying it for a moment.

“Oh now look what you've done. You've gone and broken Twilight.” Rarity said.

“Don't worry, I've got this one.” Pinkie said and produced a tremendously large mallet.

“Ah, Pinkie!” Twilight jumped back as confetti exploded in her face.

“I've been itching to try out my new party mallet!” Pinkie grinned, blowing smoke from the open end of the mallet head.

---

While Robert technically had the day off from Zecora's Lab, he was still working. This time though he was manning Bon-bon's sweets stand, and frankly, he was enjoying it. So far he'd sold more than half of what she'd made up for him that morning, though she promised a resupply about lunch time. He'd bought himself a couple of the sweets, slipping bits into the box and munching the food. He stayed away from anything sticky, as much to save the trouble of extracting it from his teeth later, as to keep from having it in his mouth when trying to sell things.

He'd learned two important lessons. First was perhaps the more important of the two. Do not show teeth when smiling at the customers, especially since not all the residents were used to smiling predators that weren't about to eat them. The second however, was to always be ready for a song. The morning contained no less than three songs, one of them sung by Pinkie Pie for some completely unfathomable reason, since she was supposed to be several hundred miles away in Manehattan. Not a single pony found that even curious, including Robert, he realized as he ate his lunch. It was not the weirdest thing he'd seen her do.

Bon-Bon was true to her word, and just after noon, she and Lyra arrived with fresh sweets. “How's the morning going?” she asked.

“Not bad. Once I realized my smile was the problem, I started doing a bit of a booming business. In between songs anyway.” he answered with a shrug.

“Songs?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah, three so far. Including a rendition of Streets of Baltimare led by Pinkie. How she managed it, I'm pretty sure I'll never know.” he answered. "Probably for the best.”

“Yeah, probably.” Bon-Bon answered.

“Enjoying your day off?” he asked, watching her expertly arrange the sweets.

“Yes, we are.” Lyra answered.

“I guess that explains the flour.”

“Flour?”

“On your cutie mark.” Lyra slowly turned red as realization dawned on her, her tail surreptitiously reached around and swept both sides clean.

“Thank you.” she said, still glowing. Bon-Bon was laughing too hard to say anything. Lyra dumped the remaining sweets on the table, then took tray and maniacally laughing marefriend and beat a hasty retreat.

“What's with those two?” Cloudkicker asked, landing in front of the stand.

“Got caught in evidence of debauchery.” Robert answered.

“What, again?” she asked with a grin.

“Apparently.”

---

The wagon creaked to a halt. Big Mac wiped the sweat from his brow. He'd spent the morning picking apples and sorting them. Taking them to town in the afternoon was usually Applejack's job, but she was off in Manehattan, so it fell to him. It wasn't that he minded, but after a morning of work in the fields, heading into town with the wagon bothered him. He preferred to stay on the farm, and work there, where none of the animals bothered about his smell. Still, with his sister away, it was his job to sell the apples. So he'd submersed himself in water to wash away the worst of the smell, and started into town. He stopped the cart behind the stand and set to setting up. He surveyed the market as he did so, noticing who was and wasn't there. He was slightly surprised to see that Bon-Bon wasn't at her stand. She was almost always selling sweets. Just as he was wondering if she was sick, she arrived with Lyra in tow, the latter carrying fresh sweets. The tiger, Robert, poked his head over he counter when she arrived. They held a conversation while Lyra laid out the sweets, then Bon-Bon exploded into laughter, and Lyra burst into flame, and eventually drug the cream coated mare away. Big Mac watched the scene impassively. Living in a Town containing Pinkie Pie, it wasn't really worth getting excited over the various lesser antics. Not that Mac'd ever been particularly excitable to begin with.

He was well aware of the perception that he was slow. He considered that while some meant it as an insult, being slow meant that he was less likely to jump to an incorrect conclusion. It did not mean that he was stupid, or incapable of rapid action in a crisis. Since this most likely did not qualify, he spent the afternoon considering the implications of Robert running the sweet stand. Come the end of the day, Mac stowed the bit box and ambled over to Robert.

“Hello... Big Mac?” Robert asked. He wasn't the best with names.

“Eeyup.”

“Don't see you in town much.”

“Nope.”

“Look it's been a long day, do you mind dropping the dumb blonde act?”

“Not at all.” Mac grinned. "Most people don't see that.”

“I'm insightful.” Robert answered. "What's she do with the left overs?”

“Never has any.” Mac replied.

“Ah, figures.” the tiger glared at the stand. "Want to split them? I'm buying.”

“Sure.”

---

“Is it just me, or is this town awfully rich on female companionship?” Robert asked, padding along beside Big Mac.

“Eeyup. Balanced between the tribes, but not so much the genders.” Mac made for if not quite so intellectual conversation as Twilight Sparkle, conversation that was much easier to process in a tired brain.

“Sounds a more familiar than I expected.” Robert said.

“How so?”

“My tribe has a lot of females, and not so many males. It does tend to make dating a little competitive.”

“Ugh. I'd rather not talk about dating, thank you.” Big Mac rolled his eyes.

“Oh?” Robert asked.

“Between Mares assuming things about my name, and assuming things about me being single, it's bad enough. But when my own sister poisons me...”

“Okay, now I have to hear that story.” Robert said, chuckling. Big Mac told him. By the end of it, Robert was laughing so hard he was having trouble walking in a straight line.

“It's not that funny.” Big Mac said.

“Yes. Yes it is.” Robert gasped between guffaws. "Best romantic Comedy I've heard in years.”

“Yeah, right.” Mac shook his head. "I was going to invite you to stay for dinner, but I don't know about that now.”

“I promise to behave.” Robert said, raising his paw. "By Celestia and the Sovereigns I swear to endeavor not to embarrass you intentionally.”

“Good enough. Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Yes. You're sure there'll be enough?”

“Definitely, Granny Smith always makes far more than we can eat. I didn't get to be Big Mac on small meals.” Mac chuckled.

“Sounds delicious.” Robert said.

---

Bon-bon shook the cup.

“Roll already.” Lyra grunted.

“I'll roll when I'm ready.” the earth pony replied.

“You're ready, roll.” A burst of magic knocked the cup out of her hooves. The dice bounced and jostled then landed. "Snake Eyes. Pay up.”

“Nope. Doubles. Means I get a re-roll.”

“No it doesn't.”

“Yes it does.” Lyra put a hoof on one die the same moment Bon-bon put her's on the other. They stared at one another for a long moment. "It do...” Lyra shut her up with a small motion.