It was cloudy. That was the first thing Clyde noticed as he stepped out of his home, and he wanted to cheer. It was definitely a welcome change from the constantly sunny weather as far as he was concerned. It had been a little over a week since he had met Roseluck, and it felt like every time they talked, it was in scorching heat.

Well, aside from that dinner offer that he had taken her up on. “‘I wanna read a book’,” he mocked himself as he closed the door behind him. He had felt a little bad after coming up with that lame excuse, but he just wasn’t in the mood for dinner. At the very least, he had come clean to Roseluck about that the next night, when he did have dinner with her and her sisters. She had laughed it off, thankfully, and they’d had a great time.

With the promise to do it again some time, Clyde had gone home for the night. It had been nearly a week since then, and now that it was finally his off-day, he was going to make good on that promise. First, he’d take her out for some coffee and just chat for a little bit, and then he’d see where the day took them.

Of course, he’d go say hello to Daisy and Lily first. While it was true that he had grown closer to Roseluck than her sisters, they were still great ponies to be around. The walk to the marketplace was quick, and the two noticed him as soon as he entered. They waved him over with smiles on their faces.

“Oh my gosh, Clyde,” Lily addressed him as he approached the pair, waving a hoof in greeting. “It’s been a few days since we’ve seen you! How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” he smiled, leaning up against her stall. Crossing his arms, he continued, “Sorry for disappearing, I’ve just been pretty busy helping out Rarity with a new fashion line she’s going to be debuting in Manehattan. How are you, girls?”

“We’re doing great,” Daisy beamed. “With Princess Celestia coming to town in a few days, we’ve gotten a huge influx of orders. Hay, all three of us have been working overtime just to make sure we can fill them all. Even some delegates from Canterlot are visiting and requested to have their tables decorated with ‘only your most elegant flowers’,” she said in a mocking tone, drawing a chuckle from Clyde.

Huh. That was certainly news. “Wow, that must be pretty great for your wallets, though!”

“Oh, for sure,” Lily nodded. “We may be able to take a week or so off after it all settles down.”

Time off was always great, and it was something Clyde could certainly use more of. Wait, what had Daisy said? Celestia was going to be in Ponyville the very next day?

“Princess Celestia is coming to town? What’s the occasion?”

“She’s meeting with Princess Twilight and her friends,” Lily answered. Clyde switched his gaze over to her as she continued. “After that, she’ll be hosting a public brunch at Sugarcube Corner!”

“We’ve gotta go, right?” Daisy asked, looking to her sister.

Lily nodded. “You are so right.”

“Right?”

“Well,” Clyde interrupted them, chuckling, “I’m sure Rarity will drag me along to that brunch. I actually haven’t spoken with Celestia since Twilight gave me the news that I’d be stuck here.”

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see that you’re coming to terms with that.” Daisy leaned over the stall and pulled Clyde into a one-legged hug. “Call me crazy, though… you’re just hiding your sadness, right?”

“Well… yeah,” he admitted. “It would be pretty unnatural to just up and say I’m fine with it. I’m not from here, I’m from Earth. I had family and friends there…” He trailed off, tears welling in his eyes. Reaching a hand up, he quickly wiped them away, and offered a meek smile to his friends. “You girls are doing a good job of helping me adjust, though. So… thank you.”

“You’re just lucky you’re not a total bore,” Lily giggled. That got a slight chuckle out of Clyde. “Anyways… I’m sure you’re itching to go see Roseluck, right?”

“So I’m that easy to read, huh?” Clyde asked, giving a full-winded laugh this time. “And here I was thinking it would be harder for you to read a human.”

“Way too easy,” Daisy tittered. “But hey, you’re in luck! Rosie’s at home doing a bit of gardening. She wanted to help us out with the stall today, but the orders we got basically cleared out our entire inventory, so she’s working on refilling that stock.”

“Man, you weren’t lying when you said you had a massive influx, huh? Anyways, thanks.” Clyde said, stepping back from the pair. “It was good to see you girls again, hopefully we can all hang out later tonight!”

“We’d love to!” They both exclaimed. Clyde chuckled. It was certainly funny just how in sync some of these ponies were with one another. After saying his goodbyes to the flower sisters, he headed off towards their home.

Roseluck wiped a bit of sweat off of her forehead, taking a brief moment to glance up at the sky. It was nice and cloudy, and she silently thanked Celestia for that. Gardening could already be a pretty grueling activity depending on what she was doing, so the fact that it wasn’t sweltering outside like usual at this time of year definitely made this an easier task.

She looked back down to her next target, a small patch of weeds growing out from under the house. Getting them out completely was going to be pretty tricky. The last time this had happened, she and her sisters had had to remove some of the carpentry and work around it. That had been an expensive venture, and not one she particularly wanted to go through again. Thankfully, it was about to become apparent she wouldn’t have to.

“Need some help?”

Roseluck jumped straight up into the air and yelped. After a couple seconds, she crashed back to the ground on her back, looking up to see Clyde standing over her. His blue eyes met the gaze of her own, much larger, green eyes, and she gave a weak smile. “Oh. Um. Hello, Clyde.”

“If I had known you were this jumpy, I would have done this sooner,” Clyde laughed. Rolling her eyes, Roseluck grabbed onto his hand when he offered it. He pulled her up, and she quickly dusted herself off. “Trying to get some weeds out?”

Roseluck looked back to the weeds in question sticking out from under her home, and nodded. “Yeah, they’ve been growing out from under the foundation for a while now. Daisy wants to hire somepony to come out and get them up completely, but they haven’t reached out far enough to affect our flowers yet so I’m pretty hesitant to spend that kind of money again.”

“Well, you never know. Sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Clyde motioned towards the weeds Roseluck had been eyeing when he’d arrived. “May I?”

“If you don’t mind getting your hooves—” Roseluck cut herself off, looking down at those claw-like appendages.It was still strange just how long each of them were. “... Er, hands, dirty.”

“Not if it means helping a pretty girl,” Clyde grinned, chuckling as he also corrected himself. “Er… mare.”

He crouched down onto the ground, inspecting the weeds that she was intent on removing. “Crabgrass, huh? My dad showed me an easy trick to get rid of these when I was younger.”

Roseluck leaned over his shoulder to get a good look at what he was going to do. Her mouth formed a tiny ‘O’ as she watched him wrap the fingers on his right hand around the crabgrass, and yank it right out of the ground, roots and all.

“Whoa, that was incredible!” She shouted, a huge smile forming on her muzzle. In all her years of gardening, she’d never seen anything like that. Looking down at her own legs, she continued, “I’d never be able to do that with my hooves.”

“I’ve always wondered how you guys are able to hold anything,” Clyde said. “I wouldn’t lie if I said seeing a pony bend their hoof was a bit off since that’s impossible with the equines back on Earth.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well, they don’t have joints that can rotate as far as yours. It’s mostly just a forward and backward motion,” he explained. “Then again, I’m not an expert on horses and being here has made me question everything I thought I knew.”

“Oh wow. Every time I learn more about your home, I’m glad I was born in this one,” Roseluck giggled. “I don’t know how I could garden without being able to hold my tools!”

Clyde joined in her laughter. “Or talk!”

For the next few minutes, he pulled up the rest of the weeds as Roseluck watched. She was amazed at the ease with which he did it, and found herself looking down at her own forehooves every so often, wondering what it would be like to have hands instead. Eventually, she settled on… odd, but helpful.

“All done!”

Roseluck watched as Clyde got back up to his feet. The knees of his jeans had a bit of dirt on them, but he rubbed it off quickly. “Wow, you just did an hour’s work in fifteen minutes…”

“Heh, you sound a bit surprised. Didn’t expect these hands to actually come in handy, huh?” He said, ribbing his new friend.

“No, no! Thank you,” she smiled at him. “So what made you come over?”

“I can’t come just to see my favorite pony?” Clyde said with a grin. “Lily and Daisy told me you were working pretty hard today to refill your stock, so I was thinking you could take a quick break so we could go get some coffee or something,” he added.

She could practically feel her cheeks burning at his request.

“O-oh, sure!” she exclaimed giddily. She certainly wasn’t expecting that, but she was happy regardless. “Where did you have in mind?”

“I was hoping you might know a good place,” Clyde laughed nervously. “I would suggest Sugarcube Corner, but Pinkie is there today and I’m not sure I can handle her right now.”

Roseluck raised a brow at that, and began trotting down the trail towards the road. “Why? Do you not like her?”

“Oh no, I think she’s great,” Clyde replied, hurrying up to her side and settling into a speed that matched her own. “But every time I go there, she offers me some free cake. … Well, offers probably isn’t the right word. I’ve probably gained about fifteen pounds since I got here, because she basically force-feeds it to me.”

“I wish she would offer me some free cake,” Roseluck giggled. As the two turned onto a path that led them between a few buildings on the outskirts of town, she continued, “I hope you don’t mind taking a bit of a shortcut.”

“No complaints here.”

Roseluck glanced to her side, and her eyes met with Clyde’s for a moment. Her thoughts drifted off as they kept walking, to a conversation she had had with her sisters the day before.

“So what are you gonna do for your day off, Rosie?”

Roseluck, who had been digging a hole, paused for a moment and turned to her older sister. “I’m not sure, Daisy. I’ll probably just do some gardening.”

“Oh em cee, she is such a bore!” Lily laughed. Roseluck was about to reply when Lily suddenly rushed to her side, wrapping a foreleg around her neck. “You should totally go see if Clyde wants to hang out with you.”

“...”

“Aw, look, she’s blushing!” Daisy exclaimed, causing said blush to deepen. “Does little Rosie have a crush on the local human?”

“N-no!” She cried out, dropping the trowel she’d been holding. “Why would you even think that?”

“Just the way you looked at him at dinner the other night,” Lily chimed in.

“What do you mean?”

“Doy!” Lily, foreleg still wrapped around her sister’s neck, twirled her around so that they were face to face. She did her best to emulate the dreamy look Roseluck had had on her face. “You were giving him this look all night!”

“Th-that doesn’t mean I like him, though!” Roseluck stuttered. “M-maybe I was just interested in what he was saying! You know, about that uh… band he likes?”

“That would be true,” Daisy replied, stepping next to Lily, “if you hadn’t given that exact same look to that colt you liked back in school. What was his name, again?”

“Girls, please just—”

“Thunderlane!” Lily shouted.

“But I never ended up asking him out, it was just a crush!”

“Exactly!” Daisy beamed. “You see? You do have a crush on Clyde!”

Roseluck finally relented, her shoulders drooping a bit. “F-fine, I guess I think he’s… kind of cute.”

“Awww!” Her sisters both cooed.

“You should totally ask him out!” Daisy said.

Roseluck rolled her eyes. “No way am I going to do that, Daisy. You’ve heard what ponies were like where he’s from. There is no way he’d want to date one,” she argued. “Besides… I’m sure these feelings will pass. I’m sure it’s just because I’ve only ever hung around with ponies.”

“Suuuuure,” Daisy replied with an eye roll of her own. “Well, when it’s been a few weeks and these feelings are still here, you can bet your flank Lily and I are going to set the two of you up.”

“Go right ahead,” Roseluck replied. With a sigh, she picked her trowel back up and knelt to the ground, picking up where she’d been interrupted.

‘It’s not like that’s going to happen.’

“Roseluck?”

Roseluck shook her head, getting that memory out of her head. “S-sorry. What’s up, Clyde?”

“I was just asking if we were almost there, we’ve been walking in the same direction for like ten minutes.”

Roseluck stopped in her tracks and took a look at their surroundings. “Uh… this way!” She bounded off to her left, and could hear Clyde jogging to catch up to her yet again. This time, their walk lasted only a few moments before they finally reached their destination. “Here we are! The Coffee Bean!”

“Huh, looks pretty quaint.” Indeed it was. There was a little sign in the shape of a coffee bean hanging over the entrance, but that was the only indication that they sold coffee. Clyde pulled open the door, and motioned forward with his free hand. “After you.”

Roseluck smiled, trotting inside and right up to the front counter. The door slammed shut behind her, and she turned back to see Clyde eyeing the menu overhead.

“Well, I’ll be…” Roseluck turned back to the counter, and gasped when she saw who was behind it.

“Flitter!” Roseluck exclaimed. “You work here now!?”

“Yeah, I got the job a few weeks ago!” Flitter grinned widely, and her eyes went wide when she finally seemed to notice Clyde. “Whoa, you brought Clyde! Hi, Clyde!”

“Hi, Flitter,” he smiled. “How’s the wing?”

Roseluck looked between the pair a few times before settling her confused gaze back on Flitter. “Wing? What’s he talking about, Flitter?”

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” Flitter closed her eyes, throwing her hoof out in dismissal. “I clipped my wing on a tree branch a couple of days ago. Clyde saw me rolling around on the ground in pain, so he brought me to Nurse Redheart.”

“No big deal!? You hurt yourself!” Roseluck yelled. “What if Clyde hadn’t shown up to help you?”

“I know, I know… I should try to be more careful when I’m out night-flying,” Flitter groaned, rolling her eyes. “You’re such a nag, Roseluck.”

“A nag that you love,” Roseluck winked.

Flitter giggled. “Alright, alright. So what’ll you guys have?”

Clyde, who had been patiently waiting while they had been chatting, looked back up at the menu. “I will have… a medium vanilla coffee, decaf.”

“Oh, what a great choice! The vanilla here is to die for,” Flitter smiled. “And for you, Rosie?”

“I’ll get the same thing, but a small.”

“Alrighty, two cups of vanilla coffee coming up~” Flitter sing-songed, prancing over to the coffee machines. While she was getting everything ready, Roseluck led Clyde towards a booth in the corner of the shop. The two took a seat across from each other, and Roseluck watched with interest as Clyde did his best to position himself comfortably in the tiny booth.

“Hehe, you’re a little big for the booth, huh?”

“No kidding.” He moved his legs around for a few more moments before, finally, he seemed to be comfortable. Well, as comfortable as he was going to get. “So, what made you pick this place?”

“This was the first place I ever went to when my sisters and I moved here. I like to think of it as a second home, because I come up here a lot to just… get away from everything,” Roseluck explained. For a moment, neither of them said anything, and Roseluck blushed a bit. “You must think that’s pretty silly, huh?”

“Nope,” came the blunt reply. “I had a place like that back home, actually. But it was the local deli, not a coffee place.”

“Alrighty, two vanilla coffees! A medium for you,” Flitter said, placing a cup down in front of Clyde. “... And a small one for you,” she continued, repeating the action for Roseluck. “So, what made you two want to come here?”

“Clyde actually asked if I wanted to go get some coffee,” Roseluck smiled. “Well, after he helped me finish pulling up some weeds.”

“Ohhh, so you two are on a date? I’m so sorry, I’ll leave you alone!” Flitter yelped out, rushing behind the counter and through a door. Meanwhile, leaving behind two madly blushing individuals.

“Sorry about Flitter, she’s just—”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Clyde cut off Roseluck. “So, how has your week been?”

His attempt to change the subject didn’t go unnoticed, and Roseluck was more than happy to go along with him. “It’s been pretty good.” She paused, taking a small sip of her coffee. “Aside from helping Lily and Daisy, obsessing over the princess coming to town in a few days.”

“Oh yeah, they told me about that. She’s holding some sort of brunch, right?”

“Well, she isn’t, but yes. Ponyville certainly is” She took another sip, then looked at Clyde’s cup. “Are you not gonna have any?”

“Just waiting for it to cool off,” he smiled. “So where’s this brunch being held? I’m pretty sure they told me, but it slipped my mind. It’s been a pretty busy week.”

“Sugarcube Corner.” Roseluck answered, laughing at the disgusted face Clyde made. “Sorry, but there’s no escaping the free cake this time.”

“Ugh, damn it…”

Roseluck stopped her laughter, a confused expression replacing her smile. She tilted her head to the side a bit. “What’s that mean?”

“What?”

“You said ‘damn it’. What does that mean?” Roseluck asked, her eyes blinking curiously.

“It’s a curse word. You use it when you’re frustrated,” Clyde replied, looking just as confused as she did. “Does it not exist here?”

“The only curse words I know are ‘pony feathers’ and ‘horse-apples’,” she shrugged.

Much to her chagrin, Clyde broke out in laughter. “Seriously? Okay, that is way too adorable.” Finally, Clyde took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “Hey, this is actually pretty good.”

“Told ya!” Roseluck smirked. A question that had begun burning in the back of her mind caused her to change subjects. “So what was that whole business with Flitter?”

“You mean with her wing?” Clyde asked, and Roseluck nodded. “I had to stay late at Rarity’s a couple days ago. Something about a shipment arriving late from Saddle Arabia or something, I dunno. To be honest, sometimes I kinda zone out when Rarity is talking about where she gets her fabrics. I think that might be because—”

“Um, Clyde?” Roseluck interrupted him. “Flitter?”

“Oh, sorry! Speaking of zoning out, heh. Well, I was outside organizing the packages she’d gotten. She likes to have everything organized before we bring it inside. You know, to make things easier?” He paused, taking another sip of his coffee. When he put the cup back down, he was wide-eyed. “Wow, this is really good.”

Roseluck giggled cutely. “You’re really easy to distract, Clyde.”

“Sorry,” he chuckled. “Anyways, it was really quiet outside. So when I heard what sounded like wood splintering, I decided to go check it out. I ended up finding Flitter a few hundred feet behind Rarity’s boutique.”

“What happened? I mean, aside from her clipping her wing.”

“Well, I’m sure it was to maintain her pride, but she didn’t tell you the whole story. She flew straight into this little tree. Couldn't have been more than fifteen feet tall. It fell right down on top of her wing.”

“Oh my gosh!” Roseluck turned towards where Flitter had run off to, then back to Clyde. “Thank goodness she seems alright. How badly was she hurt?”

“Well the tree was pretty light-weight thankfully, so she just sprained it. She should recover within a couple of weeks”

“Well she’s lucky you were there to help her,” Roseluck smiled. The two each took a sip of their coffee, then she continued. “So you carried her all the way to Ponyville General?”

“Eh, it was no big deal. She was going on and on about me being her ‘hero’, but she was pretty out of it.”

A tinge of jealousy sprung up inside Roseluck upon hearing that, but she did her best to ignore it. “S-so, um. What happened after that?”

“I went home, and today’s the first I’ve seen her since then,” he shrugged. “Like I said, it wasn’t that big a deal.”

The cream colored earth pony definitely disagreed with that, but she knew that she wasn’t going to change his mind on the matter. Still, now she had a new thought burning in the back of her mind. Why had she been jealous when he’d mentioned Flitter calling him her ‘hero’?

She zoned out, all of her focus going towards that all-important question. It was true, what Lily and Daisy had said the day before. She did have a tiny crush on him. Was it possible that it was bigger than she thought?

Come on, Roseluck, she berated herself. That’s just silly. I mean, he’s not even a pony! Not to mention he’s clearly not looking for a relationship. He just found out that he’s stuck here forever, for Celestia’s sake! But then… why do I get a funny little feeling in my tummy whenever he smiles?

Roseluck let out a sigh, which didn’t go unnoticed by her human counterpart. “Is something bothering you, Rose?”

“N-no, I just…” She trailed off, her thoughts consuming her yet again. Wait, had he just called her ‘Rose’?

There you go again. You can’t even finish a sentence because you’re too busy thinking about him! She scolded herself. Deep down she knew she just needed to calm down, but for some reason she couldn’t. Okay, there’s only one thing to do. A surefire way to find out whether or not you actually like him.

“I, um…”

Come on, you can do it! She thought, her internal struggle continuing. She looked up at Clyde for a moment, only to be greeted with a look of what she could only describe as a mix of confusion and concern painted across his face. That was the last straw, and she knew she was going to do this no matter what. It was too late to turn back. Damn it, Daisy was right, she confessed to herself, using the phrase she’d learned from Clyde.

Roseluck took a deep breath, then bellowed out, “do you wanna go to Princess Celestia’s brunch with me?!”

This is the first chapter of a massive re-write this story is undergoing. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on it or ideas for how I could pace the story better than before!

Thank you for those of you who have continued to support me over the years!