The sun was setting and the time had come. I waved to Fluttershy as she walked off towards the library. She was off for an evening with her friends. Mares only. And that meant that it was also a stallion night. I trotted off to Time Turners's shop. Mac and I would be meeting him there to begin our big evening.

I spotted Mac walking through the door as the shop came into view. I picked up the pace and caught the door before it closed fully. Mac looked behind him and smiled. "Took ya long enough." I rolled my eyes and joined him in the main room. Time Turner was nowhere in sight. He must be in his cabinet. I walked over to the tall, blue cabinet and knocked. "You in there Timey?" I pressed my ear to the door. I heard a muffled 'Come in!'. There was a slight echo. He must be in pretty far. I opened the door and motioned for Mac to follow.

We walked in to find Time Turner working on a gold and diamond clock. And I do mean literal gold and diamonds. How he had moved it from the shelf to his worktable was beyond me. The thing had to weigh hundreds of pounds. His head appeared from behind the clock. "Hey guys. Just finishing up with this clock. The minute hand gears are a little stiff. That's what you get for making them out of emeralds I guess." I chuckled. "Yeah. That's why I use metal in my clocks." Mac and I laughed. Time smiled and made a few more adjustments. The minute hand ticked forward. "Got it!" He shut the back of the clock and walked over to us. "Let's have some fun."

Big Mac was the one who had planned the evening. He refused to say what we were going to do as we walked through town. All we could get out of him was 'Nope'. He led us out of Ponyville and off towards Sweet Apple Acres. What was there to do out here? We made our way towards the farmhouse. But instead of going in, Mac led us around to the back. Nothing in the open yard. What was he planning? I turned to Mac and he was standing next to a cellar door. He kicked the door open and walked down the steps. I looked at Time Turner and then we followed him into the cellar.

It was dark. Or at least it was until Mac flipped on the lighting. I looked around the cellar. Boxes, bags, and barrels. Storage? What was going on? Mac walked along the barrels and turned a corner. There was more? How big was this cellar? We followed him around the corner. Another line of barrels with a cabinet standing at the end of the row.

Mac stopped at the cabinet and motioned around at the barrels. "This is the family's private stock." I looked around for a moment before it clicked. My eyes grew wider. I saw Time Turner out of the corner of my eye. He was just as surprised. He looked at Mac. "You mean this is all..." Mac nodded. "Our homemade apple cider." I could already feel my mouth watering from the mere thought of the famous cider. I stared down the row of barrels. There was so much of it!

Mac opened up the cabinet to reveal a collection of bottles on racks. He pointed to the top left bottle. "That's from when Granny was about AJ's age. And every one after that is from each harvest up until last year." My jaw had to have dropped to the floor now. Aged cider! Was it true that it got better with age? Were we going to find out?

Mac pulled down a bottle from the racks. He brought it over to us and flashed the label. "This is from my first harvest when I was a colt." He pulled out the cork. "And now Ah'm gonna have a sip." He tipped the bottle up and let the cider fall to his open mouth. He stopped the flow and closed his mouth. His eyes closed as he swallowed and sighed. He held out the bottle to Time Turner. Timey grabbed the bottle and took a swig. He had the same reaction as Big Mac. The bottle was held out to me and I took it. I looked down at the cider. It looked like any other cider I had ever seen. I glanced at Mac and Time. They still had their eyes closed, enjoying the moment. I lifted the bottle and poured the cider.

I opened my eyes slowly. There was an orange blur in front of me. I blinked a few times. The blur had eyes. And a hat. And she was upside-down. Oh Horse feathers.  Applejack was frowning....I think. She didn't say a word as I rolled over. I turned to find Mac and Time on the floor behind me. I shook them awake and they looked up. If we hadn't been in the cellar, I'm sure those two would have launched into the clouds. We stood together as Applejack stared at us. Applejack motioned to the cellar. "And what were you three doin' down here?" Mac shuffled his hooves. "We were just havin' a cider or two." That got her mad. "A cider or two?! Look at this place!" I looked around.

Wow....

I glanced at Big Mac and Time Turner. They both looked equally surprised. Applejack stomped her hoof on the ground. "There were thirty barrels of cider down here. Do you know how many there are now?" We slowly shook our heads. Applejack's frown got even frownier. "Two! You left two barrels!"

My eyes were getting wider by the second. That meant....28 barrels were gone! But...there were only three of us. How could we have each drunk nine barrels of cider? I could see Mac was trying to figure out what to say. He began to open his mouth, but Applejack put her hoof over it. "Not a word out of you. Any of you!" Time and I backed away.

And then Mac started smiling. Applejack looked shocked. "What are you smilin' about? You think this is funny?" Mac nodded. "Eeyup." Everypony looked shocked. I couldn't help it. I smiled too. And so did Timey. The three of us started to laugh. Applejack's anger turned to confusion. "What are you three laughin' for?" I sat down. "Do you really think we could have drunk all that cider? Come on! 28 barrels? We barely finished one between the three of us!" Time Turner stepped forward. "The rest of the cider's in the back orchard. We moved it and then played cards the rest of the night." I could see her anger was starting to come back. "Why would you take the cider out of the cellar?" Mac stopped laughing and wiped away his tears. "Payback for the other day. Now we're even."

Applejack stuttered for a moment as she fought for words. Finally she paused to take a breath. "Macintosh! That was a harmless prank. This was a bit over the top to get even, don't ya think?" He shook his head. "Nope." We fell over laughing again. Applejack shook her head and turned away from us. "I found 'em!"

Our heads shot up as we watched....'gulp'...our marefriends walk into the cellar. Applejack whispered to each of them. Rarity scolded Time Turner. Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. Fluttershy...she didn't look at me. Rarity stepped forward. "That was a cruel thing to do to a friend. Hiding one's property is not 'funny'." Twilight looked up at Big Mac. "There are plenty of other ways to get even with Applejack other than making her believe that you three depleted the family's stock of cider." Applejack began to pace. "Now that we've found ya, y'all can go and bring the cider back to the cellar."

Rarity actually grabbed Time Turner with her magic and carried him away. Twilight walked up to Mac and whispered something to him. It must have been pretty serious because Mac lowered his head and walked out of the cellar. I looked at Fluttershy. We made eye contact. I gave her a weak smile. She smiled back. Her eyes shot to the still-frowning Applejack and she realized that she was supposed to be harsh with me.

"HEY!"

She had actually grabbed my ear in her mouth and was pulling me up the stairs. What a way to end a stallions night. Next Chapter: Special Occasion Estimated time remaining: 30 Minutes