"Oh that poor mare! Why would you do that to her?" Cherry asked as the two of them left the building for lunch.

"I wasn't really thinking. I heard her coming and figured if she was just going to walk in, we'll, Pinkie's renting the room but there should be some considerations of privacy," he replied. "I grew up in a big family. Having a chance to close out the rest of the world, to have a quiet refuge where no one would bother you was a luxury. Our rooms were kind of the closest thing to a sanctuary we had."

"But still, did you have to act like some sort of...of Nightmare? It just seems mean."

Recon huffed in irritation. It wasn't like Mrs. Cake was hurt by the joke and afterwards he and Pinkie had explained that it was a joke, but Cherry was feeling very worried for the baker.

"I'll stop by and double check on her, Cherry. Otherwise I'm not going to worry about it. It was a joke and I'm confident that she understood it was a joke.

"If you want, you can come along as well. I heard they do some simple lunches there, my treat."

The trip to the Corner was quiet, Cherry still in a tizzy over his joke with Pinkie. The two walked in, seeing the older mare behind the counter. Mrs. Cake slowed for a split second as her eyes landed on the changeling but she smiled, greeting them as she would any other customer.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

"Just curious about your lunch menu, Mrs. Cake. That and to make sure you aren't secretly planning to have me exorcised. You're okay, right?" Recon asked with a grin.

"He told me what he did to you last night and I told him he should be apologizing," Cherry added, shoving the stallion with her shoulder. "That was very mean."

"I'm fine, Cherry. Thank you for the concern though. I just get a little nervous with Pinkie sometimes, she just acts so...out there sometimes. Like she's not bound by the laws of nature or common sense. There have been a few ponies who've suggested that kind of thing before," Mrs. Cake explained as she led them towards an empty table.

"Ponies have actually suggested she's made pacts with a demonic entity before?" Recon asked in surprise. He could vaguely remember reading stories about Pinkie's shenanigans before his arrival on Equis, but it had been several years ago and about a cartoon character.

The blue earth pony nodded.

"That and many other ideas as to how she accomplishes her strange accomplishments."

As they sat down, the mare turned to business.

"Lunch is a fairly simple affair as you know, Cherry. Carrot does have his carrot and potato soup on the stove though. There's a few more servings left if you're interested."

Recon skimmed the relatively sparse lunch menu and nodded. Spartan was a good way of describing it, but then again Sugarcube Corner was a bakery. The fact that they had a lunch menu at all had surprised him.

"I'll try the daisy sandwich, I guess. And some of that soup you mentioned."

"The same for myself," Cherry responded, pushing the menu card back to the center of the table.

The moment Mrs. Cake was back to the counter, having passed the order to a pink hoof in the back room, Recon turned to Cherry with a smile.

"See? No trauma, just a bit of nervousness. I didn't actually know about the theories about Pinkie, though. Maybe I'll ask her about it."

"She won't tell you how she does it. I don't think she knows."

"Bah, I meant the ponies theorizing, not how she does what she does," Recon clarified, waving her off with a hoof. "I'm curious as to what she thinks of the whole situation."

That caused Cherry to stop short.

"You know, I never thought of that."

"I can't see it being healthy for someone to continually be dismissed as a weird or strange individual," Recon said as Mrs. Cake returned with two glasses of water.

"Is there any drinks you two would like? We're also trying out selling shakes. Pinkie seems to enjoy making them."

Not having had a shake in a long while, the disguised changeling nodded.

"I'll try a chocolate shake, sure. And if she has a moment, I'd like to talk to Pinkie."

The baker looked around the bakery, taking note of the dwindling number of patrons before nodding.

"It's about time for her lunch break anyway. I'll let her go when she's finished with your shake."

"Awesome, thanks!" Recon replied with a smile. Turning back to Cherry, he was surprised to find her a bit troubled. "Something wrong with saying 'hi' to Pinkie or inviting her to talk?"

"No, nothing's wrong with it. Pinkie's just a bit...much for me," the mare admitted with a wince. "

"It's only for lunch," Recon admonished. "I checked in on Mrs Cake, you can suffer through a lunch with Pinkie."

Cherry gave a non-commital grunt and the two settled in to wait for their meals, thought she did give the changeling a few irritated looks. Just as Mrs cake was leaving them their shakes he decided to break the silence.

"So what is it that bothers you?"

"Wha-?"

"What about the mare unsettled you?"

Cherry poked at her shake for a moment, worrying her lip.

"I'm not certain. She just always seems so intense."

"And yet if she suddenly started acting what you'd consider normal, you'd wonder what was wrong with her," he countered. "It doesn't matter how strange she acts now, or how strange she could act in the future. The transition would be even more jarring both for you and those around her. Even if she is aware of the fact that she's making others a bit uncomfortable with her spazzing, she cant exactly just change on a dime. Besides, you're asking her to change because she's too intense?"

When Cherry opened her mouth to object he rolled his eyes.

"Avoiding her or asking her to change, either one is mean. Yea she's silly, but she's someone that I can talk to and know there's no ulterior motives. She's cheery, she tries to be nice to everyone. I can't think of a reason to not be nice to her at the very least."

"Yea. After all, you never know when she could be listening."

Recon blinked, just now registering that Pinkie was seated at their table, her lunch already spread out before her. Cherry's reaction was much more explosive, the mare jumping in fright at the sudden intrusion.

"Where did you come from?"

"I've been here for a bit now, why?" Pinkie answered, taking a bite of her sandwich. One of several that were now set out on the table, along with the milkshake the stallion had ordered.

"I'm certain you weren't there a second ago," Recon retorted calmly, taking a taste of his milkshake. "This is pretty good. Been a long while since I had a chocolate milkshake."

"Glad you liked it!" Pinkie beamed, tossing the rest of her sandwich into her mouth. "It's something different to make, so I like making them."

"Huh, well I guess I can understand that. Something fresh..." the changeling said before digging into his sandwich.

Pinkie started giggling, which caused Cherry to raise an eyebrow. Suddenly her eyes widened and she facehoofed, groaning and drawing a round of chuckles from the others.

"So how's life treating you, Pinkie?" Recon asked.

"Good, my Pinkie-sense has been getting a bit weird, like it wasn't sure what was going on anymore," Pinkie said before giggling. "I also feel like there's something big going on, something weird. Like it's something that I should know about, but nopony's bothered to tell me which kind of makes me feel sad that they don't trust me with it but I guess they have their reasons."

Recon rolled his eyes. It almost sounded like it would be directed at him, but it could also be figured to be Celestia not mentioning Luna's impending return. That or it could be other ponies not wanting to talk to her. There were hundreds of other possibilities he could think of off of the top of his head.

"Everyone has their own reasons for keeping secrets. Sometimes it's out of fear, sometimes it's out of embarrassment. Don't let it get to you if someone doesn't want to share."

Pinkie nodded sadly.

"I don't. It's just that sometimes it feels like I'm not being the best friend I could be, you know. Like I'm not doing enough to earn their trust."

"Oh, speaking of friends, I heard there's a bowling ally in town, would you be interested in a few rounds?" Recon asked the pink mare. "I haven't bowled in ages."

The pink party pony pouted.

"I'd like to, but Mayor mare sent a note to the cakes that there's going to be a lot of food needed for the SSC. It's going to be kind of crazy soon. They want to make everything as soon as possible but if we make it too early it will go stale and if we try to wait to the day of we won't get any sleep so Mrs. Cake's trying to make everything that won't spoil as soon as possible in order to make it easier the day of which is great because I plan on holding an all-night party for everypony. I haven't decided where it will be though. I can't use Sugarcube Corner since the cakes will need this place for all the baking."

"I'm sure you'll find the answer, Pinkie. Just don't work yourself too hard, okay? And you're welcome to visit if you want to get out of the Cake's manes for a bit," the stallion offered.

"You mean it?" Pinkie responded in surprise. "I-yea I think I'd be happy to visit. We can talk about find-mph."

Recon blinked, looking to where the mare was currently sitting with a hoof shoved in her mouth.

"Oh...oh! don't worry about that," he said, waving off Pinkie's concern before turning to Cherry. "We're looking into finding a mare. I feel like she should be here, but she's not. As I told Mrs. Cake, we're calling it a convergence of gut feeling and Pinkie Sense."

Secret Cherry's eyes widened at the thought.

"You, you think this mare could be important? Do you know who she is?"

"Rainbow-maned pegasus mare, should be called Rainbow Dash but the biggest thing would be a cloud and lightning bolt cutie mark. We need her to be in Ponyville relatively soon," Recon answered.

"I'll check for such a name. pegasus, so she should have ended up in flight school, correct? I'll see what I can find."

Recon smiled widely, as did Pinkie.

"Thanks, Cherry. If you could find anything for us we'd greatly appreciate it."

Recon dragged himself out of the office, his mind a blur of reports and his nose able to detect nothing but the cleaning agents that were currently still burning his senses. While the majority of the papers were now cleaned up and the room didn't smell like rotten hayburgers, now the real fun began. Now he had to sort all of those reports. Several years of reports, requests, requisition forms and sick leave. Going by the mayors argument on the first day, somewhere in the most recent few months there were some mistakes in the requests and reports as well.

"How long ago this has been going is anyone's guess as well," he muttered to himself as he dragged his hooves on the way to the apartment. A quick chug of his stashed emotion would get him out of the funk, but until then he'd likely feel like he was walking through molasses.

"Boy howdy, you look like yah've gone ten rounds with a minotaur and lost each one," a drawling voice called out to him.

Stopping at the voice, the changeling looked to the source and found himself under the concerned gaze of a concerned farmer.

"What's the matter? Somethin' on yer mind?"

Slapping his cheek to try and wake himself up, he did his best to focus on the mare.

"No, well yes. Too much, actually. I'm kind of fried at the moment, sorry. I spent the last two hours reading and sorting weather reports."

"Never did care much for paperwork," she said with a shake of her head. "Aunt Orange was all about that though. Names Applejack. Yerself?"

"Recon. Mayor's hired me on to clean out that mess she calls a weather office and I'll see where things go from there. Has the mayor already contacted you?"

"Got'er message early this morn', thanks. It's a mighty big honor ta be able to help in this way, we're already sendin' notices to the rest of the family to call 'em in to help," the farmer said with a chuckle. "Ah don't think mah brother and Ah can do this on our own. That was an awful lot'a food they're askin' for. Granny's a whiz when it comes ta bakin' but even she's got 'er limits."

The disguised changeling nodded in agreement.

"Easy to push yourself too hard when you feel it's for a good cause. Take care of yourself, things will likely only get crazier over the next few weeks."

"Shucks, Ah ain't got nuthin' ta worry about. Got mah family fer that. Mah big brother and granny will let me know if Ah start slippin'," she dismissed.

Recon nodded, taking note of the cart full of jars and boxes she was carrying. The boxes looked like jars and containers of dry baking goods like flour and baking soda, but the jars were...

"Making preserves?"

Applejack gave him a slightly confused look before looking back over to her cart.

"Ya made jam before?"

"No, but my grandparents did. Also spent some time working at Mason's glass factory a few months ago so I recognize the packaging for their jars," the stallion said, gesturing to her cart with a grin.

Applejack nodded before puffing up slightly.

"Well, the Apples sell Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays if'n yes interested in havin' some of the best apples ever grown in Equestria."

"Quite confident, aren't you?"

"Ain't confidence ifn' ya know it's true and it ain't braggin' if ya can prove it," the farmer replied simply.

"I'll try to stop by your stall tomorrow. If nothing else than to familiarize myself with the market."

Applejack stopped in confusion at that, her cart bouncing off her flanks.

"Yer new in town?"

"Miss Pinkie and myself didn't get off on the right hoof, so there was no party. We've since talked things out but a party now would just be even more awkward I think."

"Ain't never heard of Pinkie takin' exception to a pony, even when they did some mighty uncalled for things. What did ya do to her?"

"Nothing, her Pinkie sense was reacting to me but she didn't know why. As I've said though, we've come to an understanding."

The orange earth pony gave her a measured glare before calming.

"Ah suppose if Pinkie's lettin' it go there's no need to dig around. Be nice to that mare though. She tried real hard to brighten up a ponies day. Ah don't wanna hear nuthin' bout her gettin' in trouble by the new colt in town."

He couldn't help it. Recon rolled his eyes at the threat, a smile blooming on his face.

"We talked over lunch and I even invited her to play a few games of bowling. Unless she's lying to me, I have no reason to not believe we're square."

AJ scowled at his dismissal but nodded. Judging by the irritation, the mare would likely seek Pinkie out for her own price of mind later on, if not that very evening. It was good news though. In spite of Cherry's apprehension with all things Pinkie there were ponies willing to watch her back. Walking away from the farmer, he idly wondered if it was just an Apple clan thing or if Pinkie just inspired these conflicting emotions in all the townsponies.

Wandering the town to familiarize himself with the layout a bit more he eventually turned in for the night, lock-in his door before pulling out his alchemy supplies. Saturday would be an interesting experience. With the office closed, he would be free to see the town in full splendor, including the market.

"I do not look forward to remembering how to barter."

"If you need a refresher, Auntie Pinkie would be happy to help!"

"Holy fez!"

He wouldn't lie to himself, the mare had scared the piss out of him. He'd just been ready to drop the disguise as well, his changeling magic's levitation simplifying the process of potion making a hundredfold. In fact that, more than security, was the reason he'd locked the door...he had locked the door, right?

"Pinkie, did you get into my house with the door locked?"

"I dunno, did you lock it?"

Walking over to the door while trying to slow his heart rate the changeling rattled the door for a moment confirming that yes, it had been locked.

"Locked huh? Maybe I came in through a window?" Pinkie offered.

Shaking the questions from his mind he walked back to his desk and began pulling out ingredients for burn ointments.

"Pinkie, I know I said you were welcome to visit but I'd like you to give me warning beforehoof. Some of these potions are delicate and if you scare me while I'm working on them they could be ruined or even explode. I've lost enough eyebrows to exploding potions, I don't need any help with that."

As he set up his magic-powered Bunsen burner, the mare watched curiously.

"So you really do make potions? Are you making more of that glory stuff?"

He bit back an affirmative as he enjoyed her curiosity. Technically she was helping him make some honey right now.

"I'll make some more later. For now I offered Fluttershy some burn ointment and pain relievers."

The pain relievers were fairly simple. A normally poisonous mushroom, finely diced and ground up with a common flower that neutralized the poison to an extent, leaving only a numbing effect. A little powdered ruby to increase the time it lasted, and his first batch of the pain relievers were set over the burner to simmer for five minutes.

He set about gathering up his ingredients for his second project of the night even as Pinkie watched curiously from behind him. Burn ointments came in a variety of potencies and styles but his favorite kind used what was for ponies a very rare ingredient. Ground changeling shell. It was fairly easy to get as long as he had a few vacation days saved up and plenty of emotion to force a molt. The issue was that he could only keep so much of the ground chitin at any given time without drawing attention to himself. He also couldn't sell it, as most ponies would ask how a Pegasus managed to find such pristine and fresh shells. This he ended up disposing of them, a difficult task when you couldn't burn the damn things.

It didn't require much ground shell to make the potions, so his half-jar would likely last another few weeks at his rate. Hopefully it would last until he managed to get the hell out of dodge.

"Unless I get bored and start experimenting again."

He added a bit of aloe and, on a whim, some stoneflower petals. It wouldn't go to Fluttershy, but he'd almost forgotten he'd used the last of his shell sealer a few days ago. The petals would case what was normally a burn ointment to thicken considerably, allowing him to use the resin-like material to repair hips and cracks in his shell easily. This mixture he hooded to Pinkie.

"Set that in the fridge, will you?"

As the pink pony accepted his request with a silent salute the changeling reached for the pain reliever balm and pulled the glass from the burner. The mixture was bubbling merrily now, a swirl of purples now present in the fluid.

"Looks about right..." he muttered, swirling the flask slightly as the cooling mixture started to thicken. Pouring the ointment into a smaller jar that he wouldn't miss, he smiled as it cooled into a white paste in the smaller container.

"Isn't that hot?"

Recon stared at the cooling flask in his grip.

'I knew I was forgetting something.'

"Kind of, but I've gotten used to the heat. Being a Pegasus also helps."

The last bit was grasping for straws. Pegasi received cold resistance from their innate magic, but there was no proof that the resistances went the other way as far as he'd been able to find.

Pinkie seemed satisfied with the answer though, merely nodding as she continued to watch the stallion work.

"It's kind of like baking, isn't it? You need to know how your ingredients react both to each other and to either mixing, settling, or cooking."

Bringing his tools to the sink, he smirked.

"Want to give it a shot?"

"Can I? What am I making? What do we use, can I make a potion that changes my coat color? What about-"

Pulling out his book, the changeling grinned as he paged through to coat-altering potions.

"Okay, rule one of potions. When you're first starting out you do things by the book. It helps you understand why some ingredients react the way they do and teaches you the possibilities. Coat-changing potions are pretty simple. All you need is the basics of a healing potion, which will bring the dye to the rest of your body, and something to specify the color."

As the two set up the next set of potions, Recon found himself relaxing once more. It wasn't the same, not exactly, but alchemy always reminded him of home. It was a science, even if the effects were magical.