A couple of months after Butter’s spectacular failure, he received his final grade, an almighty A+ for his final assignment. Butter was thrilled for the grade as the assignment had been one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. The class had been tasked with providing a restaurant standard of quality for one of the teachers. Each of the students would be marked across all sections of service. The teacher who ordered a meal in the ‘restaurant’ would be grading the service, speed, and friendliness of the servers working the front of house. In the kitchen there was another teacher checking the cooking ability, such as the speed of the chefs and the presentation of the meals. It seemed odd to make a group of students that had applied to this academy to learn how to cook different food, get graded on elements that they hadn’t come to learn. Yet it was a fact of the business that often times you would have to fill in the shoes of others when short staffed or a new business. It didn’t matter if you could cook the finest cuisines in the land if your social skills were trash. When it had been Butter’s turn to serve, he had attacked the customer with a politeness that the others just hadn’t been able to muster, whether it was through lack of interest or lack of ability. The teacher posing as the customer had been most impressed with his warm and caring attitude and his apparent stance that nothing was too much for the customer. She even praised him on the expedient, yet safe, way that he brought the food to the table. She didn’t even mind that he dropped one of the meals and had to return to the kitchen for another, of course, not before he apologised profusely. It was obvious that he had been flustered and embarrassed but he didn’t let it affect his performance.

When it came to the cooking side of things, Butter was once again on complete form. He whipped up starters, mains and desserts without even putting one foot wrong. They were waiting out on the counter for more than a few seconds before the waiters snapped them up and took them out to the front for consumption. The assessor’s socks were metaphorically blown off as he chowed down on Butter’s food. If Butter was in the mood for giving his ego a little stroke, then he was perfectly inclined to say that it was his food alone that had netted him the high grade. With his graduation taking place a couple of days after his final grade, he was still thinking along the same lines when they handed him his certificate. His cooking was pretty much masterful, exactly what the academy wanted from him. Considering all the bullying that had gone on in his journey through the academy, he was more than pleased with the results. At the end, it showed just how much a little dedication went in relation to getting a good reward at the end of it all. The bullies, who had spent most of the time picking on their intellectual betters, had either left the academy without graduating, or got the lowest possible honours.

Now that he was a fully-fledged graduated of the Academy, he was finally getting a chance to head back to his roots. During his time in extra education, he had begun to get a little homesick; missing the time he had spent when he had been living in Ponyville. That kind of life didn’t translate well into the city life. Everything was so big and scary, and there were several hundred more folks walking around. Despite not getting much time outside of the Academy, he had gotten a little sick of city life. All the hustle and bustle was certainly much more frantic than life in a place like Ponyville. He wasn’t going to avoid the city completely and who knows? Maybe one day he’d come back for a visit or an extended stay sometime, but for now he just wanted to get back home and see how everything had changed. Or how everything had stayed the same, you never could be too sure with places like Ponyville. So he’d bid his friends a fond farewell, and made haste for Ponyville, thinking about how he was going to celebrate his return.

There were many things he could do; he could celebrate with some kind of party, though that was likely something for Pinkie Pie to orchestrate. She had been the one that was always so bubbly and interactive during their time at school, the social bunny rabbit of good times. Butter hadn’t had a chance to interact with her, or attend any of the parties that she had thrown, but he heard stories about how wonderful they had been. In fact, the more he thought about it he realized something; it might have been that the only two people that didn’t attend these parties were Applejack and himself. Namely because wherever he went, Applejack would be there with him. Thinking of her, Butter thought of another way to celebrate his return to town. He could pay her a visit; perhaps bring her a pie, an apple pie perhaps, to kind of make amends for leaving her. Given his long time away from the town, he still considered Applejack to be the same small, defenceless girl with aspirations to be something bigger. He hoped that she had finally achieved her dreams, even if it was only in a metaphorical sense. He hoped she hadn’t moved out of town or something, which would certainly put a dampener on his plan. He was confident that she’d still be there however; she was all about the family business and certainly all about family itself. If she had to leave her family alone, it would break her heart.

He arrived on the outskirts of Ponyville with his idea finally decided. He was going to be working on a nice little pie for Applejack as a ‘sorry for making you mad’ kind of thing. If she didn’t remember that he had caused her to yell at him in the school, then it would be a nice gift to break the ice between the two of them. He felt that childlike part of his personality experiencing a resurgence, sizing itself up against his adult side. If Applejack was happy to see him, then they could have so much fun together, making up for all those years that they’d spent apart and all those experiences they’d missed out on. It was a little strange really; he didn’t really care this much about any of the other people he’d known from childhood. Applejack seemed to be very special and certainly very dear to him. Did that mean something? Did he have some kind of long dormant feelings for her, feelings that he’d been completely ignorant of before? It made sense in a way, given that he was always leaping to the defence of Applejack and always there when she was feeling down. It certainly had the makings of some kind of relationship, but he’d need to see what she was like since he’d left before he even began to consider making a move on it. For now, he’d set about getting the things for his welcome back pie, and the first stop would be to secure his apples.

After settling back home and hugging his parents, Butter set out for the market. There was only one family that dealt with apples that would be perfect for him to use in his pie. That was the Apple family themselves, the owners of the only orchard in Ponyville and the purveyors of the finest apple cider this side of Canterlot. It could even be his chance to meet up with Applejack, as there was no doubt that she was the one in charge of the stall. He didn’t like to think about it, but Granny Smith had been of a ripe old age when he had been young. If she was still out and about, taking part in the family business, then she had to have been a miracle incarnate. For that reason alone, he assumed that Applejack would be the one in charge of selling, whilst Big Mac would have been the one in charge of picking the apples. It made the logical sense to him, but he figured he’d see for himself when he actually managed to locate the stall. That was proving to be a little difficult at the current time as the centre of Ponyville was much more packed than he ever recalled it being. People were milling around, queuing up at whatever stalls gained their interest or had the stock they wanted to buy. Butter almost couldn’t believe how many stalls had been set up in the time he’d been away. He almost mistook it for life back in the city. Had something big come around while he was gone to swell the population?

He pushed his way through the crowds, noticing a distinct density of the populace around one stall in particular. So much so that he couldn’t actually see through the gaps between the people to work out what was so interesting. He soldiered on, listening to a variety of different sounds, most of which appeared to be wolf whistles. There were people yelling out quantities, and being answered by an aged, southern accent. Once he got to the front of the queue he was both relieved and confused. Relieved because he had found the apple stall, which surprisingly was still being manned by Granny Smith. The confusion came from the fact that he had heard wolf whistles. All the folks that were gathered around this stall were relatively young, some even as young as Butter, which meant that their whistling was rather unusual. There was one hell of an age difference between the people in the crowd in comparison to Granny Smith, but if that was what they liked, Butter was hardly in a place to argue. The other part of his confusion came from the fact that although the stall had plenty of people, very few of them seemed to be buying anything. They were here for something else, but what that could be, Butter wasn’t sure.

“Well ah’ll be darned, do mah eyes play tricks or do ah see lil Butter Nut back in town?!” exclaimed Granny, as she caught sight of Butter pushing himself to the front of the queue.

“Hiya, Granny Smith! Yeah, it’s me, back in town for a little cooking and a visit to the old stomping grounds, y’know?” replied Butter. “Seems like you’re pretty busy here, but would it be possible for me to get a bushel of apples from you?”

“Ain’t a problem, deary. An’ seein’ as how yer actually buyin’ somethin’ unlike these dern fools ah’ll give ‘em t’ ya at a special rate.”

“Well thanks, Granny, but I-”

“Applejack! If ya ain’t too busy w’ ya fan club, ah need a bushel o’ apples over here!” Granny cut him off with a holler.

“Comin’ right up, Granny!” came Applejack’s voice.

Butter looked around to see where it had come from, the crowd around him doubling their somewhat creepy attempts at being noticed. It seemed Butter had gotten it wrong; perhaps it wasn’t Granny Smith that they were getting excited over, but could they really have been getting that way over Applejack? The cute, tiny little creature that he had went to school with? The crowd began to whoop and cheer much to the chagrin of Granny Smith as someone appeared behind her. Butter looked up, a little bit out of decency as he was actually staring directly at the chest of this person. She was tall, whoever she was, easily around ten inches taller than Butter. He estimated that the top of his head just barely rose to her orange, freckled, shoulder. Growing up had been kind to this woman; her chest blossomed outwards underneath the white apron she was wearing. Though given her size it was more like a small bedsheet, having to cover her from her neck down to her shins. She was certainly a shapely female, curves in all the right places and rippling, yet subtle, musculature along her bare arms, and assumedly everywhere else. A shadow had fallen over her face, thanks to the hat she had chosen to wear, but once she flicked it up a smidge, Butter got the biggest shock of his life so far.

“A-A-Applejack?” he stammered.

“B-Butter?!” she spluttered in response, nearly dropping the apples she had brought over. The two childhood friends stood there in shock for several seconds, before Granny Smith coughed to break the awkward pause before it could form.

“M-My...time has b-been kind t-to you, h-h-huh?”

Applejack didn’t respond; she just placed the apples on the stall and stepped back. Butter, still reeling, snapped them up and cast a fair amount of money down on the counter, slipping away from the stall hastily. Applejack was sad to see him go, but she couldn’t exactly stop him as he was swallowed up by the crowd. Even if she called out to him, it would likely pale in comparison to the crowds and all their whistles and comments. As he disappeared into the masses, the final strands of that fiery, ginger hair being obscured, Applejack turned back to the stall. Butter backed his way through the crowd, staring forwards as though he were on autopilot. He hadn’t expected what he had seen and what he had, had shocked him right to the core. Applejack had transformed from the cute skinny little friend he had known, into this amazon of a woman. As the change settled in his brain, Butter found himself exploring those feelings of relations with Applejack again. After all, she was a definite stunner now. She was practically Butter’s dream girl: tall, athletic, strong, and a fiery spirit full of compassion and care. At least, if she was still the same girl he last saw outside the school all those years ago. What kind of changes, physical aside, could she have gone through?

He was sure to keep those feelings in check for the moment though, despite how strong they might have been. He pushed his way out of the crowd, stumbling backwards and receiving an angry glare from the ponies he shoved aside. Once he got his footing again, he was surprised that he hadn’t managed to spot her earlier. Applejack’s hat was clearly visible over the tops of the heads of the people in the crowds and when she moved closer to Granny Smith to deal with a customer, the emerald green of her eyes was also visible. He wandered away from the crowds, carrying his purchase close to his chest and busying himself with looking for a place to by the ingredients for the pastry. Whilst he wandered off, Applejack continued with her work, sitting in autopilot as well. She was filling orders that were called to her without so much as another thought on the matter. Surprisingly she didn’t make any mistakes, but it wasn’t like she would be aware of it if she did.

Instead, her mind was focused on Butter and how little he had changed in the time he had been away. She recalled the day that he had left, and how eager she had been to see him and possibly make amends for how she acted. All the emotions came flooding back to her, but she did her best to stop them from being visible. If that had been the universe’s way of giving her another chance at making amends then it was one of the cruellest jokes in existence. Butter hadn’t even stayed around long; he’d taken one look at her and ran off, which was quickly becoming the story of her life. Whether she was struggling to get into doors, crushing flimsy chairs under her rear, or dealing with lust-filled folks who only had one thing on their minds it made for a terrible life. Applejack had regretted leaving on such a sour note with Butter, but no matter how annoying those elements got in her life, she had remained confident that Butter would make her happy again. Just like the old days.

Perhaps if she could get him alone, away from all this noise and nonsense, maybe sit him down to lose some of the height difference, then perhaps they could talk it over. That was, if she could find him at all. He’d disappeared into the crowd so fast that for all she knew he had left the town already. If that wasn’t the case, then she wasn’t going to find him standing here. She needed to leave the stall and get looking around town in all the nooks and crannies that Butter was likely to frequent. She snapped herself back to reality and continued to complete orders, thinking up the best way to ask for permission to leave. She could always pretend that she had some kind of illness, but Granny Smith had seen through most of those when she was a child. It wasn’t like she had become superior in that regard either as she’d grown up, so Granny was likely to see through still. She could just duck out from the stall when she wasn’t looking, but that was likely to earn her some kind of rollicking once she got back home. Which, if things did end up going well with Butter, wasn’t something she would want to bring him home to…

Whilst Applejack tried to think up a way to get out of the stall, Butter had stumbled upon the place that would give him the ingredients for the crust, Sugar Cube Corner. He’d passed by it quite a few times when he was younger, but he’d never actually been inside. It had been a peculiar building even then; decorated like a gingerbread house from some kind of fairy-tale, rather than the usual thatch and brick. Butter assumed it was to go with the fact that it was a bakery and that it had a sweet sounding name. He liked the quirky aspect on the outside, but he wondered if it was going to translate into the interior, or the staff. He walked inside and was immediately disappointed; the interior was much more bland than the outside, akin to a regular home interior. The counter at the far end of the bakery was staffed by a familiar face, or at least she looked like one, Butter couldn’t be sure. He stepped closer, taking in the decor whilst trying to calm himself down from his earlier run in with Applejack.

“Oh! A new face! Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner, I’m-” exclaimed the counter clerk.

“Pinkie Pie, right?”

“Yes! You’ve heard of me? Strange, I don’t forget a face, I can remember everyone in town and even further, but I don’t know you! Have we actually met or did you hear about me from one of your friends?”

“We, uh, we went to school together. Well, you were at school when I was; I suppose we never met because I never got invited to your parties.”

Pinkie’s hair seemed to deflate a little. “You never got to go to one of my parties? But I thought...I thought I held one for everypony…”

“Hey, it’s not a big deal. I wasn’t the only one; I’m pretty sure Applejack wasn’t invited to any of them as well.”

Pinkie gasped. “Applejack?! You’re friends with Applejack and I didn’t invite either of you to my parties? Well this just won’t stand! I’m gonna throw you and Applejack the biggest and best party that you ever saw! It’ll make up for all those parties that you didn’t get to come to at school and then some! There’ll be sweets and streamers and confetti and punch and games and-”

Butter hold up his hands to stall the flood of words. “Heh, alright if you insist, but can it wait a bit? I kind of need to pick up some ingredients for a pie crust, cook a delicious pie, rekindle a friendship, and you’re the key to most of that.”

“Oh, hehe, silly me. What did you want?”

Butter informed her about the ingredients he required and Pinkie was quick to gather them all up from the stockroom, before bringing them back to Butter. Whilst Butter fished through his pockets, juggling the apples from one arm to the other whilst he looked for the correct money, Pinkie Pie cast her mind back. She thought about the time she had been at school and how she could have missed such a colourful person. That ginger mop on top of his head would surely have made him stand out amongst the crowd. She recalled several times when they had crossed paths, but she had been so caught up in thinking about her next big party that she had only registered the face subconsciously. She even confirmed for herself that he had never been at her parties before, which hurt her somewhat. She searched deeper in her memories as she tried to fact check everything that he had said. What was that about being a friend of Applejack’s? She thought about it, checking the memories with notable sightings of Butter and sure enough, Applejack was never far behind. Pinkie Pie laughed internally as she flashed through memories of Applejack from her childhood. It almost seemed like another dimension in comparison to the stunning, tall, incredibly beautiful amazon that she was these days.

The pair had clearly been good friends; they wouldn’t have been together so much if they weren’t. If there was one thing that Applejack was good at doing, it was choosing friends; after all, she had chosen Pinkie hadn’t she? She smiled brightly and warmly as Butter handed her the correct change and bid her farewell. He didn’t know it, but the formation of that smile mainly came from all the delightful memories that she was going through. Pinkie was already very interested in Applejack; she was beautiful, funny, and a little hot-headed at times, but so was anyone given the right conditions. This mysterious friend of hers seemed to be a little more of the same: cute, gentle, and perhaps a little shy? Pinkie could get him to come out of his shell though, she was sure of that. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to get to know him a little better in the future? Who knows, if things went well and they maintained a friendship with each other as well as Pinkie, then she could have both to have fun with! There surely wasn’t a more perfect scenario than that.

Butter on the other hand, had encountered a problem upon leaving the bakery. He hadn’t expected to, but the universe could be a very cruel place sometimes. Just by mere happenstance he’d manage to run into the bullies that he’d stood up to back at school, the one’s that had resulted in Applejack arguing with him. He stopped dead when he crossed the paths of Steel Beams, Brass Tax and Bulk Biceps, with the trio instantly recognising him. It was hard not to when you came across the only person that had ever dared to stand up to you in your lifetime. It was hard to know if time had been good to this trio as that all depended on one’s definition of good. They hadn’t gotten any taller, so Butter had a slight height advantage, but they had certainly been hitting the gym more. Their muscles stood on top of other muscles, bulking them out in every conceivable direction, but also making them look a little comical. Bulk Biceps was especially well off in resembling his name, although his eyes looked a little less cruel than he recalled them.But Butter wasn’t laughing or smiling; he could see that landing him in hot water with the trio. In comparison to them, Butter looked thin in the limbs and chubby in the gut. His build had changed little unlike all of his old classmates it seemed.

“Well, well, well, look wot we got ‘ere. If t’aint Butter the Brave, ah fink ah owe ya a beatin’ don’ ah?” Began Steel Beams, his diction clearly taking a beating over the years.

Meanwhile, Applejack had managed to get away from the stall by telling Granny Smith that she had ran out of apples and needed to get some more. When she had gone to check if she was telling the truth or not, she had taken the chance to ditch the stand. She felt terrible, but she couldn’t pass up the chance to meet with Butter again and set him down for a chat. Once she set her mind to that, she completely forgot about what she had done, in favour of thinking about Butter. She rounded a corner to a street she was familiar with, where her friend Pinkie Pie lived and worked, and fortunately for her, it was where Butter was. Though from what she could see, he seemed to be in some kind of trouble. The whole scene that she was observing seemed to be a call back to the day that Applejack and Butter had argued. Except the roles were reversed; she was in Butter’s position and she could see her frightened, timid, self-reflected in modern day Butter. She wasn’t going to stand back though, much like Butter himself hadn’t then she realized. If she was going to prove herself to be sorry, then this was it, the perfect chance.

“Hey! Wut d’ya think yer doin’?!” exclaimed Applejack, striding over to the bullies, recycling the line Butter had used back in the day.

The bullies all turned to look at her as she came up behind them, grabbing one of them by the scruff of his neck. She effortlessly lifted him off the ground and let him dangle in her grip, his arms and legs flailing around as he tried to strike Applejack. The other two bullies saw that Applejack was the superior one within a second and fled before she could pick them up too. Applejack giggled to herself as the bully in her grip saw his friends leave him the moment the going got tough. He struggled a little more before Applejack tossed him aside like a used handkerchief, into a cart of hay stashed down an alleyway. Butter smiled as he watched her throw the bully about, happy that she had finally gotten to stand up for herself. He also felt seriously intimidated at just how easy she’d made it look. She might as well have been holding a baby in her grip with how casually she’d dealt with his weight and bulk. Most of all though, he felt something special stirring within him. To him he felt like it was their friendship evolving, and had he been much younger, he might have called it a childhood romance.

“Are ya ok, Butter?”

“Yeah…yeah.” Butter said quietly.“I’m great Applejack, especially now that you’re here. Listen…Applejack, I’m sorry about running away earlier, but wow, you sure have changed.”

“Ah know, ah know, ah hope ya don’t find it intimidatin’, ah mean, th’ strength an’ all…”

“Actually, I thought it was, well...quite attractive actually…” Butter blushed. “Listen, I’m uh, gonna make an apple pie, want to join me? We can catch up and discuss something – a few things maybe – that uh…”

“Ah’d love ta! An’ if it’s an oven yer needin’ ya c’n use th’ one back at th’ homestead!” Applejack replied quickly. Too quickly perhaps, as Butter looked at her and she felt the need to fidget.

Finally, Applejack gave Butter a quick hug, which he reciprocated, and then she took him back to Sweet Apple Acres. Thankfully, Granny Smith wasn’t home yet, so Applejack and Butter had plenty of time to use the oven and talk. They talked about all that had happened, how Applejack had been so close to seeing him at the station. How they had both spent time dwelling on their feelings for each other, with Butter sitting on his possible feelings of romance for her for the moment. He wasn’t stupid though; Applejack was acting shyly around him and there was definitely something she was hiding from him as well. Once the pie was done, they each took a slice and stood around near the kitchen counters to eat and talk. It was halfway through a moment of eating and very little talking, that Butter decided to break the ice again. He swallowed the pie in his mouth and cleared his throat before he spoke.

“You know, that moment back there, with the bullies, that was a moment of déjà vu, except maybe with the roles reversed, huh?”

Applejack laughed, snorting a little in the process. "Yeah! Ah guess this means ah'll be th’ one protectin’ ya from now on, huh?"

"Well, you're certainly big enough to scare them all away!" Came the quick snark, always with a fondness for his friend tucked inside. Alas it nearly fell flat like it had over two years ago.

"...y-yeah." Applejack sighed, suddenly feeling freakish once again.

"...But hey, funny twist or not, I'm glad to have you back Applejack. I didn’t realise how much I needed you in my life. And, I think...if you’re ok with it, I’d like to step up our friendship another level. Even if we have just newly renewed it, I don’t want to have another day without you.” He leant over and hugged her tightly, well as tight as he could anyway.

Applejack returned the hug as well, squeezing Butter tightly, though a little more awkwardly. She had been right after all, despite everything that had happened, and all those moments of unease; Butter had made her feel good in the end. It might have taken a few years, but this moment right here made up for all of it. She could spend all day here to just soak it in and let it all wash over her. She didn’t care who happened upon them, they were going to be exposed to their relationship at some point in the future. She knew that Butter felt the same; his lack of willing to struggle against her embrace told her of that. He was more than content to simply stay pressed into her chest. The pair of them stood there locked in the embrace of one another before Applejack whispered her response to him.

“Ah’d be glad t’ spend mah time w’ ya, Butter, an’ turn our friendship into a proper relationship…”