The Cherry Jubilee was in full swing when Applejack's ship arrived at Dodge Junction. Every street was full of booths and carriages and tents and the narrow path between them were packed with ponies celebrating Dodge Junction's number one crop. Music blasted away, and the sounds and sights and smells of a country fair filled the air.

The city council welcomed Princess Applejack with open arms; as Celestia and the others had expected, the country ponies were apparently tickled pink to have one of their own wearing the royal tiara, and having "their" princess attend their jubilee was just, well, the cherry on top.

For Applejack it was even a little touch of homecoming. No less than Cherry Jubilee herself was there to greet the princess and her entourage. The two mares laughed as they reminisced about the last time Applejack had passed through Dodge Junction. "I'm glad you finally went back and patched up whatever it was you was running from back then," Cherry Jubilee said, giving Applejack a hug. "I always hoped to get another chance to see you when you didn't have a cloud over your head. Though I certainly wasn't expecting you to have a horn growing out of it when I did," she added with a raised eyebrow and a grin.

The Apple princess rolled her eyes. "Nor wings outta my back, I reckon," she chuckled. "Changes coming fast and thick these days."

"Don't I know it," Cherry Jubilee said. She looked up at Applejack's hat. "Though some things stay the same I see. Interesting wear for a princess..."

Applejack adjusted her headgear self-consciously. It had been restored and reblocked, and the hatband was replaced with a jewelled gold band, but it was quite obviously her old beloved Stetson. "Got a word to the wise," she said. "That I shouldn't just throw away the old me 'cause of all the new. Besides, I'm a princess now-- that means I get to decide what that means." She grinned.

"Good advice from a thousand year old mare, I reckon?" Cherry Jubilee said.

Applejack shook her head. "From a twelve year old filly," she said.

"Well Princess, I hope you have a few words of your own," Cherry Jubilee. "We'd all be honored if you said a few words..." she gestured up at the grandstand where a microphone waited. Already a huge crowd was gathering, ready to hear the first words from their new Princess."

Applejack winced a bit, but hid it. "I reckon that's what I'm here for," she said. Part of it, anyway, she thought.

Applejack took a deep breath, smiled nervously and nodded. This would be her first public speech-- and her first try at using the alicorn seeking spell. She'd spent most of the trip being coached for this. She had some mare whose entire job was to teach her diction and elocution and all that other Canterlot style stuff. She'd even written stuff out on notecards to say.

She stepped up to the podium and lifted the microphone in her magical grip to hide the telltale glow as she cast the seeking spell, took a deep breath, looked at her audience.... all those ponies there to see their new Princess, uncertainty and hope on their faces, unsure of what to expect....  and chucked it all out the window. "Greetings, y'all," she said with an awkward smile.  There was a round of polite applause. "I'd say I'm happy to be up here in front of you all, but I'm the alicorn of honesty, and the honest truth is I'm pretty much scared spitless right now." There was some muted laughter. "I know I ain't what you all expected. Sakes, I ain't even what I expected, and I see myself in the mirror every morning." More laughter.

She got a little serious. "A lot of changes have been coming round lately for all of us. Big changes, crazy changes." she rustled her wings and glanced up at her horn. "Case in point.

"I know how scary that can be. Specially for folks like us. I'm an Apple, and an apple farmer from the day I was born. I know what it's like to be a farmer, to rely on things bein' the same as they always were, an' always will be...to be part of that. Rain and shine, sunrise and moonrise, th' turn of the seasons, the blooms in spring and the fruit in the harvest...

"Now all these changes coming around, upsettin' the apple cart-- or the cherry bucket, one of the two--" another brief ripple of laughter. "New princesses popping up all over.You gotta be wonderin' about us, about me; tryin' to take my measure. After Nightmare Moon from one side and Alicorn weddings fulla changelings from the other, you gotta be wondering what shenanigans I'm going to be gettin' up to." The laughter was a little more robust.

"I won't lie to you. Changes are a-coming. A lot of 'em. Some might be a mite unsettling." The crowd was silent. "And some of 'em...some of 'em are going to be wonderful.

"But I promise you this much; what I see here...friends, an' family, and tradition....  Folks lovin' the land, and workin' it, and bringin' forth the goodness in it... that will never change. We may not be able to tell which way the branches are gonna grow, but I promise you that we're never gonna forget our roots. Maker so help me, There'll be cherry blossoms blowing in the hills of Equestria a thousand years from now, and a thousand more after that.

"So whaddya all say we get this shindig underway? I hear tell there's a cherry pie out there with my name on it!" Whoops and cheers answered her, and more than one hat was tossed in the air. The applause sounded like a stampede. The bluegrass band on the stage behind her struck up a fast tune. A hoedown started spinning up even as she descended from the grandstand. "So how'd I do?" she said to Grey Wolf, half joking.

The Captain of her guard answered her seriously. "Very good, actually," he said. "You spoke to them in their language and on their level, and you reassured them about two big points-- that you were still one of them, and that you weren't going to go turning their lives upside down. And you did it without being anything but yourself. I give it, mmmh, eight out of ten." He gave her a grin to let her know he was pulling her wing a little.

Lockheed the Gryphon gave her a wry look. "Might not go over so well when you meet the Fancy Pants in cities like Manehattan," he said.

Applejack shrugged. "Shoot, I know Fancy Pants," she said, unconcerned. "Nice feller, and a gentlepony right down to his hooves." Lockheed let his beak click shut, nonplussed.

Babs and Applebloom came running up. "Great speech, Applejack," Applebloom said, giving her sister a hug.

"Yeah, great speech, Cousin Applejack," Babs said.

"Can we go look around the fair?" Applebloom said.

"Don't see why not," Applejack said. She reached into her pannier and pulled out a sizeable bag of bits and tossed it to her sister and cousin. It tickled her pink to see their eyes go round when they saw how much was in it. "Now don't go expecting this EVERY time we go out someplace.." she started to say. But she broke down and chuckled as they shook their heads solemnly "no." "Go on, splurge a little," she said, giving them a wink. "An' don't stop till ya hit the bottom of the bag. Lockheed, would y'all mind keepin' an eye on them?" The gryphon snapped off a salute. "Go on, you two." The two fillies took off like a shot, their gryphon bodyguard in tow.

"So what's up next?" Applejack asked Cherry.

"Oh, the bake-off," Cherry Jubilee said. "And I do believe a certain Princess has been nominated as one of the judges."

Applejack grinned. She might be an Apple to the core, but a slice of cherry pie always went down smooth. "Lead the way!".

Applebloom and Babs were fit to be tied. They had more spending bits than they'd ever had in their lives, and it was burning a hole right through their panniers... but they couldn't make up their minds what to spend it on! For lack of options-- or more accurately for a surfeit of them-- they each bought a cherry ice cream cone and took to wandering the midway, looking at all the booths, Lockheed tagging along behind. There were cherry pies and pastries, cherry baskets, cherry preserves,  cherry seedlings and saplings, maraschino cherries, chocolate covered cherries, cherry tarts, crafts made from hoof-carved cherry wood, cherrychimichangas... as well as a plethora of tools for farming, tending, pruning and harvesting cherry trees.

"Gotta say, they got almost as many things for cherry farmin' as we got for apples," Applebloom noted.

"Well, duh, yeah," Babs said. "Trees are trees and fruit are fruit.... Is fruit? You know what I mean."

Applebloom nodded. "Huh, well that's different," she said, pointing. Up ahead was a rather sizable pavilion with several ponies working it. But unlike the other cherry themed booths and stands, this one seemed to be themed around... bees? Curious, the two fillies wandered over to check it out. It was indeed, a display on honey bees and their products. There were beehives of various makes, beeswax products, leaflets on apiary practices, and rows and rows of jars of honey, all neatly labeled with doily lids and glowing golden in the sun.

"What's this doin' in a cherry festival?" Babs wondered.

The mare behind the counter, A butter-yellow earth pony with a (what else?) honey colored mane and a honeycomb cutie mark, overheard them. "Well, young filly, bees are an important part of cherry growing," she said enthusiastically. "Without our bees, the cherry trees around here wouldn't get pollinated and we wouldn't get any cherries!"

"I was gonna say," Applebloom said. "At Sweet Apple Acres we gotta have a beekeeper come round every year with his hive when the apple blossoms come out. Couldn't have apples without 'em."

"Too right," said a voice behind them. The girls turned around; standing right next to them was a pony Applebloom recognized immediately. "Toffee!" she said, surprised. "What're you doing here?"

Indeed it was Fancy Toff, the upper crust colt she'd met at the Junior Gala... and humiliated herself in front of, she remembered suddenly, blushing. He looked considerably different; his light brown mane was tousled rather than carefully slicked back, and tucked under a pageboy hat. He'd traded his suit in for a scarf-- more of an ascot, really-- that contrasted nicely with his darker brown coat. "Hello again, Applebloom," he said. "Good to see you again. Though I hope you're feeling better than you did the last time we met."

"Um. yeah..." Applebloom muttered, blushing red as a tomato. "I'll be fine as long as nobody tries to feed me mud bugs again."

"And who's this?" Babs said.

"Oh, uh, Babs, this is Fancy Toff, from the Junior Gala," Applebloom said. "Toffee, my cousin Babs Seed." The two greeted each other. "So what're you doing here at a cherry festival, Toffee?"

"Actually, I'm here with the Apiary ponies." He waved to the beekeepers. "One of my father's businesses is in sweets and sweeteners--  sugar, syrup, sweet leaf, agave nectar, and of course honey. Well, after meeting you at the gala I got sort of curious about life out in the country, so I asked Father if I could come along with the beekeepers on their business tour, help out a bit, learn the jolly old family business, sort of thing." He shrugged. The girls made sounds of understanding. "So... would you like me to show you around a bit?" The girls looked at each other then nodded. Sure, why not?

Toffee escorted them through the minor maze of displays, chattering about each for a short while. He told them odds and ends about beekeeping, about how to handle a new swarm into a new hive, about the uses of beeswax and honey and royal jelly ("did you know that honey never spoils? And you can use it on a cut or burn...") and other interesting tidbits. After a bit they came around to a table with a huge display of pint jars, and a tray full of plain crackers. "Oh, this is my favorite part," Toffee said. "The samples." He picked up a tiny paper plate and laid out some crackers on it. "Which would you like to try? Clover? Apple blossom? Cherry blossom, of course..."

"Oh yes," the stallion behind the counter agreed. "And the blossoms do make such a lovely honey..."

"There are different kinds of honey?" Babs said.

"Over three hundred kinds. Alfalfa, Avocado, Basswood, Blueberry, Clover, Eucalyptus, Fireblossom, Orange blossom..." He shrugged, dabbing a different type of honey on each cracker. "The flavor of honey is different depending on which flower the bees get their nectar."

Applebloom looked skeptical. "Does it really make a difference?"

"Oh a great deal of difference," the older stallion said. "Take a look at this." He reached under the counter and pulled up a couple of jars. "Now these here are for display only-- they're real honey, but you never ever want to eat them."

"Why not?"

"'Cause they're poison," the stallion said. The girls gulped. The stallion held up a jar. "This? This is Oleander honey. A taste of it will kill you. This one is from rhododendrons. And this one is from azaleas. Any of these are deadly." The girls took note of the "poison" symbol etched on the side and nodded. "Now there are other honeys that won't kill you but you don't wanna eat them, either. This one here--" he held up another jar. "Is Poppy honey. It won't poison you but it can leave you feel like Discord stirred your brain with a stick. Make you see and hear things and more." The next jar was... oddly colored. None of them could put their hoof on exactly how. "This here, is Poison Joke honey. Nasty little magic plant in the Everfree that--"

"--We know about Poison Joke, sir," Applebloom said.

"You do?"

Applebloom snerked. "Leastwise my sister does. I had to help whip up the cure when she an' her friends got in a batch."

The old stallion chuckled. "Well you know what that plant does, then," he said. "this stuff does the same thing... only lots faster. And it takes a lot more than a bubble bath to cure it. You have to take a dunk in the cure at least once a day for three, four days before it works its way out of your system. Otherwise you just relapse the next day."

"I'll be sure an' stay clear of it," Applebloom said.

"Well that said, why not try some of the much more pleasant kinds, here," Toffee said, handing both girls a plate. He offered Lockheed some, but the gryphon declined. The foals spent several minutes munching on crackers with dollops of honey and comparing the taste. There was even some discussion between Toffee and Applebloom about the possibility of Zap Apple honey. Of course the bees would have to move pretty fast, they agreed, but maybe?

Babs licked her lips. "Kinda makes me wonder how bees make the stuff," she said.

"I know they make it out of nectar, but that's about it," Applebloom admitted.

"Oh that's simple enough," the pony at the stand said. He pointed to a poster with a stylized bee decorating it. Toffee quickly scanned the poster-- and suddenly began frantically waving at the old stallion from behind the girls, emphatically indicating the negative. The old pony didn't notice, but it was too late anyway. Squinting, Applebloom began to read out loud. "Huh. '

"Honey is made by the domestic honeybee. It is a thick, golden liquid produced using the nectar of flowering plants and is saved inside the beehive for eating during times of scarcity.

Nectar is extracted from flowers using a bee's long, tube-shaped tongue and stored in its extra stomach, or "crop." When a honeybee returns to the hive, it passes the nectar to another bee by..."

She squinted. "Re- regur..."

"Regurgitating," Toffee said fatalistically.

"'Regurgitating the liquid---' what's that mean?" Applebloom asked.

"Um..." Toffee said.

Lockheed cleared his throat. "It means, 'throwing up,' your Highness," he said faintly. Applebloom froze.

Toffee stepped between her and the poster. "Look, you really don't want to keep reading now..." Toffee pleaded. Applebloom pushed him aside and kept reading. She wouldn't have been able to say why; it was some uncontrollable impulse, like standing at the edge of a cliff and feeling the urge to leap off.

"Regurgitating the liquid into the other bee's mouth. This regurgitation process is repeated from one bee to the next, until the partially digested nectar is finally deposited into a honeycomb where it is allowed to thicken....."

Bab's plate hit the grass, and her hoof went to her mouth. "Y-you mean this stuff is...bug puke???"

Toffee looked a little distressed. "I... I wouldn't say that precisely, I mean--"

"Not just bug puke," Applebloom said. "Recycled bug puke..." her eyes were as round as saucers. "They fill up on nectar..."

"Shut up Applebloom..." Babs said.

"An' then they fly back to the hive..."

"Shut up, Applebloom..." Babs pleaded. She was looking ill. Even Lockheed, standing stoically at attention, was looking queasy.

"An' they find another bee... and they--" she swallowed mightily. "And then THAT bee goes off and finds another bee... and then that one finds another... all of 'em puking into each other's mm-mm--m-m-m---" Her stomach lurched. She slapped her hoof to her lips, her face turning bilious green. She spun in a circle, looking for a bucket or a trashcan or...

"Not on the display!" the old stallion yelped.

Heroically, Toffee whipped off his pageboy hat and stuck it under Applebloom's chin. There followed a minute of horrendous retching noises as the farm filly proceeded to utterly destroy a fifty-bit hat in the most thorough way possible.

When she was finally done, Toffee gingerly set his hat down away from himself and offered a napkin to the gasping filly. She looked at him with devastated eyes. "It's okay," he said feebly. "Never liked that hat anyway... heh..."

Applebloom did the only thing she could do. She turned and bolted from the pavilion, running like Tirek was on her tail. The old stallion behind the counter looked at the stunned colt and at the dust cloud left behind by the fleeing filly and sighed in a world-weary way. "The Birds and the Bees, young feller. It ain't always pretty," he said.

Next Chapter: Chapter 20 Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 7 Minutes