I spent the rest of the day on learning the song and generally preparing all I could while the rain lasted. I found an old blanket and cleaned it, and then I put some plates and glasses into my saddlebag. I wanted to prepare the food by myself, but then I would have needed Applejack out of the house. I could also buy it, and I knew a pony that could help me: Pinkie Pie. If there was somepony who knew her way around in the kitchen, it was her. She would most likely know what Applejack liked to eat.

I didn’t know what was wrong with me that day. Every time I thought of the upcoming night, something inside me started cramping as if I had swallowed a stone. I hoped that I hadn’t caught anything in the rain last night. I almost started leaving trails in my room due to my constant walking in circles. I went through the guitar tabs and the upcoming date over and over in my mind. It was my cell phone that got me back into reality as the battery went under ten percent. I leaned out of my room and listened. Downstairs, I heard some little hooves dashing through the house, but all in all, it was quiet. I quickly realized that the kitchen wasn’t an option today since the Cutie Mark Crusaders had one of their crazy ideas, and looking at the chaos they produced, I didn’t even dare to ask.

“Hey, Apple Bloom, where is everypony?” The best thing would be to analyse the situation.

“Morning, Tio! Applejack is at Fluttershy’s to help her with her rabbits, and Big Mac is somewhere outside.” Good, with Applejack on the other side of the town, I could prepare everything without any stress. “Do you wanna help us?”

“Umm, no. Sorry, but I don’t have any time. I still have some things to do.” I just wanted to go but was interrupted by Sweetie Belle.

“Ooohhh, he’s excited for his date with Applejack,” she said in a sweet voice. Scootaloo snorted.

“You’re going out with mah sister? How do you know that, Sweetie Belle?” I already knew the answer before she said it out loud.

“My sister. Rarity talked about it with Fluttershy yesterday when I came home. She wanted to go to the spa but couldn’t because of the rain.” I don’t know where Rarity heard it from, but we certainly weren’t very quiet in the market. I left the three fillies in the kitchen and made my way to the town. For a Saturday morning, there was a lot going on. I took a look at the scene and saw a couple of ponies carrying boxes on their backs while others decorated the outsides of their homes. In the middle of all that was a beige mare with a grey mane and small glasses on her nose who seemed to be coordinating it all. I had certainly seen her a few times in the series, but I couldn’t remember of her name.

“Excuse me, may I ask what’s going on here?” Of course they were preparing for some kind of festival but none of the ones I had seen in the series.

“And you are?” she asked sceptically. I still didn’t know her name, but from her voice, I recognized her as the mayor.

“My name is Tio, and I have been living with the Apple family for a few days now. I’m new here.” I decided to tell her everything right away to quickly get to the point.

“Well in that case, let me introduce myself. I’m Mayor Mare, mayor of Ponyville.” The name hit me like a bullet, and I had to suppress a giggle due to the double entendre.

“We’re preparing for the arrival of the princess. Twilight Sparkle sent me a letter, in which she said that the princess would give us the honour on Sunday.” I swallowed. If Twilight brought the princess right away, it couldn’t be good for me. Or she needed her to send me home. I couldn’t let my assumptions take over my mind.

“Is there a certain occasion?” Maybe there was just a certain event this weekend.

“The letter didn’t say anything about any occasion. But since you’re here Mr. Tio,” she paused at my name. “Would you mind lending a hoof? We could use the help of an able unicorn.” I looked around and noticed that there were only two more unicorns besides Lyra. They all had a pleading look in their eyes.

“I’m not really good in casting...” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I was pushed over the place, right next to Lyra who was busy hanging garlands along the main street.

“Thanks for your help.” And there I was, standing next to Lyra, looking pretty dumb because she just smirked when she saw me. Mayor Mare went down the street again and gave orders to some pegasi.

“Hi, I’m Lyra. Do you remember me from the party?” She threw herself in my field of view. Her smirk still went from ear to ear which seemed a bit strange to me.

“Yes, of course. But I have to give you a heads-up, I’m really bad in letting things levitate and stuff like this.” She still smirked.

“Don’t worry; I know that humans can’t cast magic.” My brain went from zero to panic in less than ten seconds.

“Humans?” Although I looked really dumb right now, I was even worse at playing dumb.

“You know, those creatures in the world you’re from.” Small towns, nothing stayed a secret here.

“Uhm, yes, what’s with them?” I hoped that she was just curious. By the way, she was still busy decorating the houses and pushed the box with the garlands along with us.

“They can’t cast magic, can they? Well, at least it isn’t mentioned in any of my books.” On the inside, I cursed the fandom. “So tell me, how was it living with them? Do they really just think about eating, sleeping, and you know... it?” At least the books seemed to be good.

“That’s humankind in a nutshell, plus the wars because of things like money, oil, or religion.” She seemed to be content with that explanation and kept asking questions.

“What’s oil or religion?” Oil would be easier to explain right now.

“Oil is natural resource found in the earth, similar to your gemstones. Humans need it to run their machines. The problem is that it will be used up at some point, so that’s why they fight for every drop.” She just nodded while putting another garland on the house.

“And religion. That’s harder to explain. Some humans believe in an invisible power which created their planet, even the whole universe. Some even claim they spoke to it and wrote down what they heard. On the other hand, there are people who want proof for this existence and trust in science.” I didn’t know any better way of explaining it.

“And why do they fight about it? Isn’t that something you should examine in a discussion or something like that?” If only.

“Yes, but the thing with the humans is that some of them tend to be violent when they run out of arguments. And then there is another problem that there aren’t just these two sites fighting, but even fights between other religious sites. I like to call it a fight about whose imaginary friend is the coolest. ” The last sentence made her laugh.

“Don’t you believe in this power?”

“Not really. Please don’t ask why. This would take hours.” She seemed to be disappointed.

“But there isn’t anything better to do now anyway.” I pointed at the houses. “Oh, we’re done already? Do you have any plans? I’d like to hear more. Are hands really as useful as they sound? Why do humans sit in that strange position? Why...” I literally had to shut her up with my hoof.

“I’m sorry, but I still have to stop by Sugarcube Corner.” The puppy eyes she put on couldn’t affect me. “See you, Lyra.” I took my hoof out of her mouth and went on my way. When I turned around again, she was talking to Mayor Mare. There were ponies cleaning their houses and running errands. It was a big event for them, although in the series, the princess was just there every now and then. I was somehow excited to meet her and even thought about giving her a banana for a second.

There was some intense activity going on when I arrived at Sugarcube Corner. Mister Cake was at the counter taking one order after another, and Mrs. Cake was trying to keep up with them. Sweat was running down her forehead. I lined up and waited for my turn. There were a lot of ponies I had never seen, and I’ve met a lot. It took quite some time until I reached the counter. I was already thinking about leaving when the line moved, and I could see the counter in front of me.

“Hi, may I take your order?” Mister Cake greeted me.

“I just wanted to know if Pinkie Pie is here. I need her help.”

“Well you didn’t need to wait in line to ask. She is upstairs with the twins.”

Facehoof. Note to self: if you just need to ask something, nopony will complain about line-cutting. I thanked him and went upstairs into the apartment.

“Pinkie, are you here?” I yelled into the hallway. Some noise came out of the room to the left of the stairs. I knocked.

“Yes, come in, Tio,” I heard Pinkie’s voice from behind the door. Somehow she knew it was me. I entered and found Pinkie and the twins, Pumpkin and Pound Cake, in the bathtub. I don’t know what was going on. Usually I would be embarrassed if it was someone from my own species, but somehow the embarrassment was missing. On the other hand, Pinkie didn’t seem to mind it either; after all, she asked me in. The two foals were playing with a rubber duck which took turns between being in Pumpkin’s mouth or between Pound’s hooves, who tried to get away with it. Pinkie was busy keeping them in the bathtub.

“What can I do for you, Tio? I’m always happy to help my friends.” She smiled at me as she pushed Pound back into the water from which he tried to escape again. Ignoring the fact that she knew I came for her help and that she even knew who would come, this scene was just adorable.

“I wanted to cook something, but I don’t any ideas for recipes I could try, so I wanted to ask you if you have time to cook with me.” Pumpkin gave up the duck and discovered Pinkie’s mane as a replacement.

“Of course.” She beamed. “I’m almost done here, and then it’s time for these two to take a nap. After that, we can cook something. I never had an apprentice. That’ll be awesome!” With the last word, it was her who almost got out of the tub. She took the showerhead and rinsed the shampoo leftovers out of the twin’s manes. “Could you take Pound out of my hooves for a second?” With that, she pointed at a towel on a small cabinet behind me. I took it and wrapped Pound into it. He immediately tried to escape, but with hooves and teeth, I managed to keep him in. In the meantime, Pinkie got out the tub with Pumpkin and shook off the water like a dog before she got herself a towel. Shortly after, she was dry and turned to Pumpkin.

When she was dry as well, we went down the corridor, and she showed me their kitchen before she brought the twins into another room. As one could expect from a baking family, the kitchen was top notch and huge. There were work plates along the walls and even in the centre of the room was a small counter. The plates were made of some kind of stone I couldn’t identify, and the rest was some kind of precious wood. The fridge was popping out a bit from my angle, but it was probably necessary to store all the ingredients for experimenting with recipes. It took a while until it was quiet in the twin’s room, and Pinkie came back into the kitchen. Of course, she was jumping now that she didn’t have to take care of the babies.

“So, what do you wanna cook? We can fry or bake or barbecue,” she said while getting some cooking utensils out of a drawer.

“Well, I want something Applejack likes to eat that tastes good when it’s cold since I plan to give it to her tonight.” Pinkie knew everything anyway, so why keep it a secret? She thought about it for a second and then got a cooking book and held it under my nose.

“Cold Snout?” I didn’t expect that they had something like that, but we’re talking about Pinkie here.

“Yep, that’s a cake made out of cookies and a lot of chocolate. Instead of nuts, we just use apples. I’m sure she’ll like it.” Why not? Pinkie knew what was good.

“Aunt Pinkie’s gonna show you something.” With that, my mane became chaos. Pinkie rushed through the kitchen with a speed that Rainbow Dash would have been proud of and collected all the ingredients we needed on the table in the middle of the room. There was a lot of chocolate, eggs, a package of homemade cookies, and palm fat. “I’ll have to go out real quick; we’re out of powdered sugar and apples. Be right back. Why don’t you boil some water?” The last words came out the hallway she was jumping down. I used the rest of the noon to layer cookies, chocolate and apples in a form that resembled lasagne. Pinkie took her teaching role very seriously and corrected me on occasion. After an hour, the form was filled and stored in the fridge where Gummy was sitting and apparently doing nothing.

“How long will this have to rest for, Pinkie?” She looked into the book.

“Eight hours,” she said euphorically.

“Pinkie, I need something to eat in four hours.” Every word gave the feeling as if she was trying to play a prank on me.

“That’s why I already made one yesterday.” She pulled out the same form that had just disappeared in the fridge out of thin air from behind her back and placed it on the table. I couldn’t help but drop my jaw because the Cold Snout in front of me was the exact same as the one we had just made. Even the nuts were replaced with apples.

“Why didn’t you give me this in the first place?” was the first thing I was able to say.

“Dummy, how else would you have learned something?” I sighed deeply.

“And I thought you were playing a prank on me.” Relief was spreading inside of me.

“I would never play a prank on a friend, especially if he has a date with another good friend.” She smiled from ear to ear. I left it at that since I was dealing with Pinkie Pie. There was something else that bothered me.

“Friend? We just met a few days ago.” I knew that Pinkie wanted to befriend everypony, but I also knew that this didn’t always work out.

“Of course, you’re actually a very good friend.” Her smile was carved into her face.

“How can you know that after such a short time?” She took a deep breath.

“You took care of Twilight in your world and helped her come back. Then you made a good impression with the party, and your small performance was really funny. Then you helped to clean up even before I was there, and you helped on the farm without having to, and just moments ago, you helped decorate the town, and for two days, you’ve been doing anything possible just so that Applejack can have a pleasant evening and...” she took another deep breath ”... that’s it.” Just like an old computer, it took me some time to process that mass of words. I blinked twice and gave up trying to process it all at once.

“So, what do I owe you for the lesson and the cake?” She chuckled since it couldn’t have been more obvious that I didn’t get any of what she had just said. She put everything into my saddlebag and said, "One does not simply ask Pinkie for a Pie and pay for it" while looking me straight into the eyes and lifting her hoof as if she wanted to do the appropriate gesture. Trent, how can I ever thank you enough for your spell? We both couldn’t suppress an honest laugh.

I took my leave and made my way back to the farm. The store downstairs was still filled with Celestia knows how many ponies who wanted to get their pastries. I somehow felt sorry for them. Outside, they were almost finished decorating. Every house now looked as if it was finished two days ago. Banners, with the symbol of both princesses, were hanging all over the street and were also showing words of greeting and a quote by an author I didn’t know. Some pegasi were still busy hanging some more garlands, though in doing so, they almost ripped down another one. I wasn’t surprised when I saw a familiar face in one of those three. What did surprise me was Vinyl standing at the end of the street where all the cables ran together.

“Oye, Vinyl, what are you doing?” She waved at me as she saw me.

“The mayor asked me and my invention for support.” She kicked against her magic battery. “There aren’t enough unicorns to keep the street lit all night.” She grinned like a Cheshire cat.

“Well, good luck then. I need to go.” I still had to find a good place after all.

“Have fun, newbie, and remember that the princess will be here tomorrow. You don’t wanna miss that! We’re testing everything today.” Since all the ponies were somehow on the main street or at the great plaza, the way back was rather quiet. With that, I could concentrate on myself. With every step, I came closer to the farm. Something inside of me seemed to tighten up. I’ve got this, I thought to myself when I finally reached the property. I got the guitar out of the hay from the barn where I hid it and went on a discovery trip with it on my back.

The area of Sweet Apple Acres was huge, not to say gigantic. I was walking around for almost half an hour until I found a promising hill. From the top of it, you could see the whole town. Knowing that they would test the lighting tonight, this place was perfect. I hid the guitar in a bush nearby and my bag in another one since revealing both surprises at the same time seemed boring. All I had to do now was to catch Applejack when she returned from Fluttershy.

For the next few hours, I made myself comfortable at an apple tree next to the entrance. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Dawn - who showed up a little later - and Big Mac all didn’t know when she would be back. It was the first time I actually missed my laptop because I would have loved to pass the time with some music. Right before I almost fell asleep for the second time, I finally saw an orange pony slowly trudging along the path to the farm. The sun was half down, and if we didn’t want to miss the lighting test, we would have to hurry. I met her on the other side of the fence.

“Evening, Applejack. I hope you’re hungry,” I greeted her while leaning over the fence. She jumped into the air as I freed her from her thoughts.

“Oh boy, you scared me. But sure, why not. Where to, sugarcube?” She blushed a little, which was hard to notice from under her orange fur. I gestured her to jump the fence, which she did, and then I led her up the hill I had found. I even marked the way with little arrows I carved into the trunks with my hooves. I felt sick to my stomach but not solely because of the butterflies. With all the planning, I didn’t eat anything myself. Applejack was slightly behind me.

“Tada!” I said as we reached the hill.

“Not to ruin this, but there’s nothing here, sugarcube.” I said nothing and grabbed my bag from the bush and spread the blanket on the ground. So my first meal today would be some blanket, great. After that, I got plates and two glasses out of the bag. Together with the Cold Snout, I placed it all on the blanket and served it. Then I put a piece of cake on every plate and poured some apple juice. Again, I made the same gesture as we arrived.

“Wow, looks delicious, sugarcube. Did you do all this by yourself?” she asked as she sat down.

“I had some help from Pinkie with the cake, but the rest I did by myself.” I sat down and got two forks out of the bag, but as I looked up, I saw that Applejack had already dived in head first into her piece of cake. I threw the fork away and followed her example.

“This is great. What is it?” she asked as she surfaced for air.

“A recipe I know as Cold Snout, but instead of nuts, I used apples.” The palm fat didn’t fail its purpose, and it was just like eating chocolate-apple-flavoured ice cream. Unusual but very delicious.

“When you said something earlier about eating, I thought you’d take me out in some fancy restaurant.” She smirked at me.

“Leaving out the fact that I couldn’t have afforded that, that’s not really my thing.” I don't even know the difference between a regular fork and a salad fork. I kept my distance from those fancy places.

“Then that makes two of us.” She had to laugh. I was glad she had fun, and when she finished her piece, it was time for me to reveal part two. I went to the bushes and got the guitar, which literally made her jaw drop. I sat down again, positioned the instrument in front of me, and started playing:

Why don't you come on down
To Sweet Apple Acres?
Got a whole family full
Of Tasty Treat Makers

And to top it all off
We're Apple Pie Bakers,
Don't be fooled by
The Flim Flam Fakers.

We'll whet your whistle
With sweet Apple Cider
We wanna be your number one
Apple provider.

We got everything you could
Ever ask for.
And I bet we even got
A little bit more than

ALL THE APPLES
YOU COULD EVER WANT
ALL THE APPLES
YOU COULD EVER WANT

And more....

I didn’t get any further since tears started building up in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I pushed the guitar aside. I hoped I had just messed up the notes and not some drastic blunder.

“It’s not your fault, it’s just...” She sobbed.

“Just what? You can tell me.”

“The guitar was my father’s. I haven’t heard it since I was still a filly. It just reminded me of him.” She kept sobbing while talking.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to... I mean I didn’t know...” I couldn’t form a whole sentence, and my brain was somehow on standby, but Applejack shook her head.

“It’s okay, I’m just glad it sounds as beautiful as it did in the past.” She was clearly fighting back the tears. I had to change the subject.

“Can I ask you something, Applejack?”

“Call me AJ; all my friends do.” I took that as a yes.

“Why did you agree to a date with me? And I mean both times. I was a salted wreck the first time, and the other time, well you were there.” She didn’t look at me and took off her hat.

“You were so carefree at the party. You were alien to a new world, far away from family and friends. Still, you made the best of it and were friendly to everyone you met. Even to Fluttershy you were as kind as possible.” I shivered at the thought of my first meeting with her. I kinda felt the evil looks of bronies. “On top of that, you’re kinda... cute.” Cute? Me?! The last time I had heard that was when I was five. “When you offered your help and that without magic, I knew you were a nice guy who was worth to forgive a mistake.” I was stunned. What had I done to leave such an impression? That was literally the first time that a girl, or in this case a mare, threw herself at me, and the cherry on top of that sundae was that I liked her back.

“But now I want to ask you back. Why did you invite me?” This was one of those moments where I didn’t need to think about it.

“AJ, I like you for you being yourself. Honest, strong, and beautiful.” Cheesy, but true. “You don’t need glitter to affect others. I’m living proof for that, and you’re worth every trouble that might come. Be it a giant, angry, red stallion ripping off my head...” she had to laugh at that, “or whatever else.” I stopped for a second. “I’m just surprised you agreed so quickly. Where I come from, you have to court a mare for weeks before she so much as looks at you even when she likes you,” I said to explain my question. Everyone knows the women’s game.

“Why would anypony do that? If two ponies like each other, they should spend as much time together as possible.” That was one of the reasons I fell for her. Simple logic against which nopony could say something. It had gotten dark, but not for long. When the lights were turned on, it made a wonderful view. We bathed in the bright night for what seemed an eternity.

“You got some cake there,” AJ said, and I felt her mouth picking a crumb from my cheek. A bit startled, I turned and lost myself in those large green eyes staring at me.

Author's Notes:

Thanks goes to both of my translators: Darth Keks and Beks

Edited by JBL. Thank you!