Waking up the next day, the smell of freshly brewed coffee lingered in the air as the aroma seeped under your door from your neighbors’ apartment across from you.

Groggily getting out of bed you walk down the hallway from your bedroom and into your bathroom on the left side of the hall. The bathroom of course was crowded for your size, but honestly you really couldn’t complain. Actually that’s a damn lie; you could go all day complaining just on your bathroom alone, anyways, pulling down your costumed made boxers you relieve yourself of the golden flow that built up over night.

Making your way through the living room you open the door to the hallway outside your apartment. Knocking on the door of 221, a shuffling noise can be heard as someone comes to answer. As the door opens you see your neighbor and best friend in town, Earl Grey. His normal Curly white hair was a mangled mess, and his purplish-blue coat was stained with drool around his mouth. His cutie mark of course was a cup of coffee, and he really showed why, the mochas and lattes he could make were fantastic.

“I assume you want some,” he says in voice raspy voice; guess he hasn’t fully woken up yet.
“Damn straight, I could smell it from my apartment, and it smelled so good I had to come get a taste,” you answer with a light laugh.

“Ugh, fine. Hurry up and go grab a cup, we’ve haven’t got to talk in while anyways,” with a smile you rush back to your kitchen and grab a cup from the cabinet and head back across the hall. The two of you sit in mild silence as you both think about the day that a waits. The silence has gone on for too long and you decide to break it with the good news.
“So, I have a hot date tomorrow night,” You brag, sipping the hazelnut coffee.

“Oh. And will this one turn out like the other five? With you walking home alone,” he says not fully paying attention.

You sit there for a second, gazing into your cup.

“No,” you say with a stern voice that knocks him out of his trance. “This one won’t be the same; I could feel it in my pants yesterday when see gave me her address.”

Wha- what does…,” he trails off for a second before realizing what you had said. “She gave you her address? Why would she do that?” his voice full of shock and surprise.

“I don’t know, because I’m so fucking awesome I guess. She said she wanted me to go with her to some kind of get together,” giving a slight nod, Earl gets up to re-fill his cup.

“Ok, well let’s see the piece of paper then hot shot,” Earl’s voice seemed full of disbelief.

Once again you walk back across the hall and into your bedroom. Rummaging through your dirty clothes and sheets that laid waste to your room, you search for the pants you were wearing yesterday in hopes that you had left Fleur’s address in the pocket. For five more minutes you search but to no avail, where did you put those pants?

“Fuck,” you sigh in defeat as you fall back on your bed, soon as you hit the mattress a piece of white paper flies up and lands back down on the sheet.

“How did you get there? Damn I must have been tired last night,” you mumble to yourself. Unfolding the paper you peek inside and find that it is Fleur’s address.
Taking it back into Earl’s apartment, you both sit on his couch; he grabs the paper and studies the words written on it for a minute.

“I want to say that I recognize this address, I think I’ve catered there once or twice if I’m not mistaken,” he says pulling the paper closer to his eyes with his magic, as if the letters and numbers will pop out and remind him. “What was the name of the mare who gave you this?” His eyes still concentrated on the piece of paper.

“She said her name was Fleur de lis. She’s taller than your average mare, pink mane with white highlights in it,” as you continue to describe Fleur, Earl goes into his kitchen and gets his calendar off the wall.

“Is this her?” he hands you the calendar via magic, grabbing it; you see a side shot of Fleur on the beach looking out onto the sunset.

“Yeah, this is her,” you say mesmerized at how the sun shines off her face.

“Well, I must say you did a fine job at picking this one out. But with Fleur, there’s no such thing as a small get together, never with her, her manager Fancy Pants would never allow it. She only attends and hosts the highest of fashion parties throughout Equestria,” he throws back the rest of his coffee and sets the cup down on the mini table in front of you.

“So… do you remember every address you’ve ever catered at, because that’s kind of creepy if you do?” You place the calendar on the small table alongside his cup.

“Haha,” he gives a small chuckle at your question. “No, just the really pretty and unforgettable ones.”

“Wait, are we talking about the parties or girls?” You give a slight smirk.

“Why not both?” Sitting for a second in silence again you begin looking around his apartment, his clock read eight-thirty, so it was about time to start getting ready for work.

“I guess we’re going to skip work today and get you ready for the party tomorrow night, like getting you some nice clothes,” it was his turn to break the silence.

Wait, you can’t skip work. Not today, and neither can he, and plus you have all day tomorrow to get everything you needed done.

“Sounds good, I’ll go get ready and we’ll meet back outside your door in forty-five minutes,” he gives you a nod and an “alright”. After taking a shower and getting dressed you head back outside to meet Earl and start the day. He’s already standing beside his door as you exit.

“It’s about time,” he says in a sarcastic tone. “I thought you had slipped and fell or something of that nature,” You start walking down the stairs and out the building, thank god you only lived on the second floor. “Now the first thing we’re going to do is get that hair of yours cut, it looks trashy.”

“What!? My hair looks perfectly fine,” he gives a little scoff, but agrees to not drag you to a barber. You both decide that the first thing on the list is to go and get a suit tailored for you. It probably wasn’t going to be cheap, but on the other hand it wasn’t going to be that expensive either. After walking a couple of blocks down the street, you find the shop and head in.

“Please stand still while I take the measurement,” said the seamstress pony in a nasally voice, but honestly it wasn’t your fault, the measure tickled when she wrapped it around you, and another twenty minutes of this and you were going to scream. “Good, all I need now is your legs and crouch, and we shall be finished. A pink aurora covered the measure once again as it stretched the length of your leg. It slithers between both legs and measures your crouch; you’re able to hold back the giggles as she finishes up her ticklish work.

“Everything will be ready by tomorrow, come back around noon to pick up,” she says putting the measure away. Maybe it was a good idea that you came today.

“So how much is this going to be?” you ask nervously, worried of the answer.She ponders for second; humming to herself as she looks around the room and at the notes she took of you.

“I’ll say thirty-five bits,” she answers. That wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be.

“Damn good price,” Earl adds in. “Here, we’ll go ahead and pay in advance,” he brings out a pouch of bits and places them on the counter. “Consider this a ‘go get lucky’ present from me to you,” the seamstress eyes you curiously for a second.

“So this is for a date?” she asks.

“No, I was going to go hiking in these clothes,” you reply back in a smart-ass tone. Earl gives a light throaty chuckle and grabs the receipt from her.

Walking out onto the bright Canterlot streets, you look both ways in hopes of finding something to do now, out of your peripheral vision you see Earl still looking at your hair.

“For the last time bro, I’m not getting my hair cut,” he gives you pleading look.

“But it looks so trashy!” he looks up at you giving you the puppy dog face.

Brushing it off in a simple “nope”, the two of you begin heading towards the market district.

“You want to go bowling? We’ve done everything you’ve needed to get done, and we have the rest of the day to ourselves, I was actually thinking it would take longer than it did.” That sounded good.

“Sure, why not? I could go for some bowling, teach you ponies how we humans do it, and maybe get some lunch.”

Author's Note

This chapter is a little slow and boring, but like star wars taught us; we need these parts to help lead us to the good parts. Also Earl Grey is NOT an OC. He is a waiter who serves Rarity coffee at the beginning of Sweet and Elite, snacks during the song, and snacks again at the garden party.