Ah, Sweet Apple Acres! It truly is a scenic little ranch, and it’s run by one of the most beauteous mares in all of existence, one Applejack. It is this mare that Twilight ran into as she started on her way to examine the food situation for the celebration.

As Twilight proceeded on her way to the ranch she asked her assistant, “Spike, who do we need to see for food? I would like to know so we can get this over with!”
“But Twilight! What about the whole making friends thing? Who knows, maybe this pony will be more polite!” The young dragon replied, hoping that his request would not be so lightly cast aside.

“Fine Spike, I’ll try one more time. Just give me the name of the pony that runs this place so I can know who I’m being introduced to.”

“She’s an earth pony by the name of Applejack. I believe she runs the ranch with along with her family.” Spike stated, reading aloud from a small scroll that was sent to him from the princess via his dragon breath (truly the only way to send important documents.).

The odd couple overcame the final large hill which hid the ranch from the eyes of those who were simply walking down the main path, and when the two finally ascended the slope, their eyes met with a glorious sight. There was nothing but apple trees for miles, and in the center of the amazing field? A rather large barn. And, working tirelessly as always, next to this barn was a certain orange mare who was just now finishing bucking the last of the apples which were to be used for the celebration.

A startlingly loud “YEE-HAW!” rang through the air, as the blonde earth pony struck the final tree with a fierce buck. The tree finally shook loose its hold of the precious apples, which then began to rain down and collect into several buckets near the base of the tree.

Twilight sighed and began to walk towards this mare. “Well, let’s get this over with.” she said to no one in particular (except for perhaps Spike, but I’m not entirely clear on this point.) “Good afternoon! My name is Twilight Sparkle-” she started, however her introduction was caught short by the furious hoof shake of the apple bucking legend.

“Well! Howdy-doo, Miss Twilight! A pleasure makin’ your acquaintance! Ah’m Applejack! We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like makin’ new friends!” the earth pony exclaimed in a heavy accent.

“Friends?!? Actually, I’m -” she started, flustered . However she was promptly interrupted southern mare.

“So, what can ah do for you?”

Twilight, having barely recovered from the hoof shake that the rancher had just given her, was still dazed. Spike giggled at his friend, which was met by a sharp glare from the lavender unicorn. “Ahem! Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. And you're in charge of the food?”

“We sure as sugar are! Would you care to sample some?” asked the farm pony, ecstatic at the thought of sharing her food with a new friend.

“Hmm, well… As long as it doesn’t take too long.” she said. Almost immediately she began to regret her words as the earth pony started to ring a nearby triangle.

“Soooooup's on, everypony!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly, the unicorn and her assistant were swept up in a herd of ponies of every color. They carried them to a nearby table and set them on a pair of stools.

“Now why don’t ah introduce y’all to the Apple Family?”

“Thanks, but I really have to-” her statement was interrupted by the offer of food and Applejack’s naming of said food items… or perhaps it was her family… Now that I think about it, it was definitely her family. As she said the names the ponies would toss more and more food in front of the guests. The mare recalled plenty of names in record time. Names like Apple Fritter and Apple Bumpkin rolled off her tongue, followed by Red Gala, both of the Delicious twins (Red and Golden for those not familiar with the Apple family tree.), Caramel Apple and Apple Strudel. By now the food was stacked precariously high, and yet still more names cascaded from the mouth of the earth pony.
“Apple Tart, Baked Apple, Cinnamon Crisp-” she took a sharp inhalation of air and continued, but not before force feeding the unicorn a green apple “ Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom aaaand, Granny Smith.” She pointed to a older mare, with a white mane and green coat, who was asleep on a rocking chair that was near. “Up and at ‘em Granny Smith! We got guests!”

The elder pony awoke startled and confused. She began mumbling “ Wha? Soup’s on? I’m ah, I’m ah here, I’m ah coming.”

“Why, ah’d say they’re already part of the family!” The orange filly mused.

As Twilight heard these words she spit out the apple, which she was force fed, and exclaimed “Well , I can see the food situation is handled! So, we’ll just be on our way then!”. She was hoping that the ponies would see how stressed she was and would allow her to get out of this incredibly social situation relatively scoot-free. Unfortunately, this was not the case and the statement was met with groans. That’s when a young filly, Apple Bloom to be exact, walked up and asked with the kind of eyes you’d see on a puppy in a pound “Aren’t you gonna stay for brunch?”

Twilight, who could never say no to a pony who looked as though their dreams were about to be crushed based on what she answered, finally caved in. “Fine…”

Shouts of joy could be heard for miles, and the feasting commenced almost instantaneously. And so, while our heroine spent her afternoon enjoying a nice brunch with the Apple family, on the other side of Ponyville, our hero was dealing with some rather… interesting ponies himself.