Sweet Apple Summer: A Braeburn and Pinkie Pie story

Braeburn stood over the work bench in the barn where he had made his decision to bed down for the summer. It was a hovel at best, lacking the luxuries of a proper house like the Apple family homestead where his grandmother had made it quite clear he was more than welcome to stay, but he personally felt more comfortable when he was roughing it out on his own with limited modern conveniences to his disposal; he loved camping out near the wilderness - it made his stay with his family seem more like a vacation.

The rugged stallion set a hoof on the work table, his head tilting back as he quickly consumed the bottle of sweet, tangy cider he had taken from the fridge in the Apple family house, and set it down on the bench once it was drained of it's contents. After setting the bottle down, he opened the drawer labeled 'gardening supplies' and selected a pack of salt peter, then emptied the compound into a cooking pan he had brought with him. The next ingredient was brown sugar that he had stirred in with the chemical.

He exited his shack and held the pan over a fire he had made right outside of the entrance of the shed and stirred it around until the material began to fuse together in a congealed form. He then poured the contents of the pan into the empty bottle, then snapped the cap back on. He held the glass container up and examined his work as a chemist would do, and with a satisfied nod, he placed the bottle in his saddle bag along with a book of matches. He was now ready to make the trek back to the beehive.

Braeburn looked to the sun between the opening in the orchard's canopy. He estimated that it was about half passed five judging from the sun's position, but he couldn't be one hundred percent sure. He hurried his pace, knowing Pinkie would be waiting for him in town within just a few hours.

Braeburn felt an odd presents as he continued to trot through the orchards. If only he had some sort of scouting device over his eye that was able to read and detect power levels, he may have been able to pinpoint the source of the odd presents he felt leering at him from foliage. He stopped for only a moment to scan his surroundings. Ah guess it's nothing, he thought before shrugging and continuing his pace.

Braeburn heard more rustling, and much to his discomfort, he could hear the sounds of a child-like laughter emanating throughout his surroundings. Braeburn had seen enough horror movies to know where this may be leading, but he continued to trudge on, still smiling, still confident, despite the potential creepypasta story that was at work here.

Suddenly, Scootaloo emerged from a tree and landed on Braeburn's back, making the stallion jump before looking back at her gleaming, impish smile.

"Little darlin', what're you up to?"

"Distracting you," she whispered before yelling "girls, I got him!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped out from the foliage and ambushed him. Each of the two fillies grabbing both of Braeburn's forelegs as if to hold him still.

"What's all this?" Braeburn laughed.

"Shush, you!" Apple Bloom ordered before throwing a lasso over her cousin's neck, leashing him as if he were an unruly dog.

Braeburn amusedly cocked an eye brow.

"We caught you!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"Caught us a wild Braeburn!" Scootaloo added.

"That so?" Braeburn chuckled mischievously.

"Yeah," Said Apple Bloom. "We did."

Sweetie Belle let out a playful giggle. "You're worth one hundred bits. That's enough money for ice cream every day for the rest of the summer!"

"One hundred bits?" Braeburn scoffed. "Trust me, ladies - that's not anywhere near worth the trouble Ah'd be worth if y'all tried to take me alive."

Apple Bloom smiled at him challengingly as she tightened her grip. "Resisting arrest?"

"Don't mind if Ah do." The stallion laughed maniacally before leaping up on his hind legs and flinging Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom in the air. He watched the two fillies flail around in the as gravity brought them back to him.

"Surrender, Braeburn!" Scootaloo demanded as she gripped the rope around the stallion's neck. "You may be bigger than me, but you'll never crush my spirit!"

Braeburn let out a chuckle as he relaxed his body and fell backwards, pinning poor Scootaloo under his body weight.

"Gah! my spirit!" She wailed in defeat.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle waved their legs around as they came plummeting back down to the ground, but just before they landed, Breaburn caught them both. They wiggled and kicked to escape from his grip until a cloud of dust began to kick up, which obscured their skirmish from anyone who may have been watching. The only one who attempted to escape was Sweetie Belle, who tried to crawl away on her belly until Braeburn's foreleg shot out from the cloud, snared her tail, and dragged her back into the fray, a loud surprised squeak escaping from her mouth as she was yanked back in.

The dust had finally settled, revealing Baeburn sitting with a cocky smile on his face as he looked down at the three fillies who were now tied together with their backs facing each other. "Ah caught me three wild fillies," he cackled. "Wonder how much y'all would be worth."

"Dang it dagnabbit dammit, we almost had you!" Apple Bloom complained with a scowl, her little hereditary apple family muscles expanding, contracting, wiggling, and twisting in a vain attempt to free herself.

"Baby," Braeburn chided in a soft, yet stern voice. "Watch your mouth. What y'all doin' out here, anyway? Ambush'n your poor cousin like that - shame on you."

"We're practicing," Apple Bloom grunted as she struggled with her bonds.

"Practicing?"

"Yeah, we're trying to be bounty hunters. We needed somepony tough to practice our capture techniques on." All three of the crusaders continued to wriggle around.

"You ladies do know that ah tied them knots special. The more you struggle, the tighter that rope'll get."

Scootaloo let out an exhausted pant. "I was wondering why it was getting harder to move."

Braeburn dug through his saddle bag and produced his bowie knife. The three crusaders looked at him, their eyes now wide with fear.

All three of the bound fillies let out a nervous gulp. "H-hey, cuz. This is just pretend!" Said Apple Bloom. "We weren't really trying to hurt you!"

Braeburn let out a muffled chuckle before attempting to convey his intentions behind the knife handle in his teeth. "I'm cut'n y'all free."

As pure as Braeburn's intentions were, his muffled speech sounded more like "I'm gonna cut you three."

"Wait!" Scootaloo pleaded. "I still have too much to do: I still have to learn to fly. I still have to get my cutie mark! I haven't even confessed my feelings to Rumble!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stopped struggling with their binds and forgot the terror of their situation. "You like Rumble?" They both asked in unison right before Braeburn sliced the rope that bound them together, freeing them.

Braeburn let out a hearty laugh as he slipped his knife back in his bag. "You three ladies be safe, and, Scootaloo, Darlin? You go have fun reconciling your feelings for this Rumble kid."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gave each other a look before bouncing around Scootaloo and bursting into song. ♪Scootaloo and Rumble sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G♪

The unamused filly sat completely still with her forelegs crossed tightly over her chest with a blushing frown on her face. "Well - who do you like, then?!" she yelled back at her friends who were taunting her, but Braeburn decided to answer it anyway.

"Pinkie Pie."

The eyes of the three fillies lit up like hearths-warming eve decorations.

As Braeburn turned about and continued down his path, he was again intercepted by the Cutie Mark Crusaders who barred his path.

Braeburn cocked an eyebrow. "You little ladies should learn when to give up."

"You like Pinkie Pie!?" They asked, which sounded more like a demand for information than a question all together.

"Well... yeah," Braeburn answered.

"Why?" Scootaloo blurted as she narrowed her eyes in confusion. "She's a bit... crazy."

"Pathologically high-spirited," Braeburn and Apple Bloom corrected.

"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo waved her hoof dismissively. "Seriously though..." She stared at Braeburn quizzically, her two friends joining in as they too were athirst for answers to this stunning revelation.

"Ah'm a bit pressed for time, ladies. If y'all'r gonna ask me questions, can ya just walk with me? I'll answer whatever questions ya got."

The three looked at each other, shrugged, then followed Braeburn to the beehive with the intentions of interrogating him the entire way.

"About my question..." Scootaloo reminded her male companion.

"Yeah, about that. Ah really don't know how to answer... There really isn't anything to not like about her."

"Oh, come on!" Sweetie Belle interjected.

Braeburn thought long and hard for what seemed like an entire minute, all six eyes of the crusaders beaming at him with more and more anticipation every second.

The golden stallion shrugged "She's got a rocket launcher..."

Scootallo's eye twitched as she came to a dead stop, the two fillies so put off by Braeburn's answer they didn't notice that Scoots had stopped in front of them, resulting in the two slamming into her, and inadvertently falling over each other in a pile of flailing, tangled limbs. They scrambled in a mad frenzy to untangle each other, but before they could get up, Braeburn had grabbed Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and pulled them onto their hooves. He offered his hoof politely to Scootaloo, who ignored his friendly gesture and got up on her own.

"That wasn't an answer!" she complained as she dusted herself off and shook the dirt from her mane.

Braeburn turned around and continued toward his destination. "Ah'm not sure what y'all want to hear. Ah responded to your question."

"Yeah, but - a rocket launcher? Sersiously, dude!?"

"What's wrong with a girl that packs a bit of firepower?" Braeburn smiled as thoughts of Pinkie Pie handling that 24 lb, eighty eight millimeter piece of ordnance with the greatest of expertise flooded his mind.

"So...if  you were to make a dating video, your list of turn-ons would be something along the lines of 'I like puppies, long walks on the beach, country music, and wild, neurotic, unpredictable, eccentric girls who's idea of a good time is blowing my house up' would be your opener?" Scootaloo retorted humorlessly.

Braeburn's eyes widened. His face turned beat red as he glanced down at Scootaloo. "What stallion wouldn't love a girl like that?!"

Scoots face-hoofed. "Uhm... Sane ones?"

"Sanity is an irrelevant and arbitrary term that is used by others who like to dictate the laws and limitations on what normalcy is," Braeburn remarked with a smile. "If being 'sane' means being boring, then give me a strait jacket and padded room - lock me up with them and throw away the key, because these social 'lunatics' are the spice of life. And without spices - everything is bland."

Scootaloo pondered over Braeburn's sudden and impulsive philosophical words. "I... I honestly don't have a response for that. That's a thinker, that one...But still, can you think of anything... anything else as to why you like her?"

"She's...." Braeburn paused for a moment. He searched his heart for a genuine answer that might satisfy the fillies' curiosity.

"She's...?" Sweetie Belle said while making impatient, circular gestures with her hoof.

"She's..." The stallion searched for a way to describe her in one word, but the daunting task proved to be almost impossible. He envisioned her without the rocket launcher, a task that was difficult, but with some effort and focus, he managed to do it. He thought of her smile first. He thought of how wide with excitement her blue eyes were when she had informed him that she had just summoned everyone in Ponyville to a social event in his honor, which lead back to thoughts of her with that rocket launcher. Braeburn then erased the thought from his head and started again. Completely leaving any memories of her with that rocket launcher out of the equation. He thought of her personality: her contagious, radiant joy, her adorable smile, that cute way she bounces around when she gets excited as her rocket launcher clinked around on her back... It was becoming increasingly difficult to think about her without that rocket launcher...

"The only thing that comes up when Ah think about her is... She's absolutely beautiful in every way I could describe. She's fun, she's funny, she's real cute..." Braeburn smiled even wider as he lowered the brim of his hat down to obscure his face.

Apple Bloom quickened her stride and closed her distance between her and her cousin. She tilted her head down at an angle and looked up to see Braeburn's gleaming pearly white smile and his beat red face. Braeburn quickly turned his head and adjusted his hat to avoid further embarrassment.

"Cutie mark crusaders, I have an announcement!" said Apple Bloom as she threw her head back with a smile. She turned around and kept up with Braeburn while walking backwards as she shot her fellow crusaders a michivious smile.

"What?" The other two asked.

Apple Bloom's smile was almost as big as Braeburn's at this point. She looked up at him one more time, then looked back at her fellow crusaders. "Braeburn's blushing!"

"Ah ain't," Braeburn insisted before adjusting his hat again. He suddenly felt a weight on his back, then his hat was ripped from him. Standing in front of him was Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, soon joined by Scootaloo who leaped from Braeburn's back and rolled when she landed on the ground to join them. They beamed bright smiles at him as they watched him awkwardly fidget as he looked back at them.

"What?" he asked shyly.

"What?" he asked again. He then turned his head, letting his mane whip around to cover his face. He peeked up at them through one eye behind his hair, but they were still staring at him. "Ain't y'all got better things to do than pick on me?" He asked, trying to sound playful about it. "And Ah ain't blush'n. Ah think I just might be runnin' a slight fever."

"Awwww!" All three let out before approaching the stallion and hugging him.

"You got a fever, alright!" Scootaloo commented with a smirk. "You got the Pinkie fever!" The filly then climbed up to the back of Braeburn's neck and set his hat back on his head. "I'm sorry for taking your hat from you. I just really wanted to see that shy, adorable mug of yours."

The stallion smiled back at her. "It was kinda funny." he said. "All dizzy and red faced over a mare like some nervous little school colt."

Scoots rubbed the back of her neck. "It's a good thing you're not one to hold grudges."

Braeburn continued on with his pace. "Life's too short for such pointless animosity. Now, come on. Ah'm gonna teach y'all somethin' cool."

The three fillies' eyes lit up before scurrying over to him,

"What are you going to teach us?" A bouncing Sweetie Belle asked excitedly.

"Will it get us our cutie marks?" Scootaloo added.

"Hard to say, but it'll be fun." Braeburn chuckled as he could now see the hive in the distance.

"What are you going to do with that beehive?" Sweetie Belle asked apprehensively.

"Little darlin," said Braeburn as he ran a playful hoof through the inquisitive filly's mane, "You ever had fresh, pure, natural honey straight from the hive?"

"Can't say I have," Sweetie Belle admitted.

"We got honey in the house, cuz," Apple Bloom announced.

"Processed junk," Braeburn said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Once you get a taste of the real stuff, you'll never go to a store for honey again."

Apple Bloom nodded, "Okay, but why do you seem to be in such a hurry?"

"Pinkie Pie's party is in just a few hours, Ah ain't got much time."

The crusaders traded shrugs and looks of confusion.

"Ah intend on giving the honey from that hive up yonder," Braeburn pointed at the object dangling from tree with the edge of his hoof, "to miss Pinkie as a gift. She likes sweets, so ah figured some delicious hive honey would make for an exceptional gift."

"D'awww," cooed Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow. "That's a real sweet thing, and ah really hope Pinkie accepts your feelings for her, but you could just, I don't know, buy some chocolates, or something? Messin' with bees seems a might bit dangerous."

Braeburn rubbed the stubble on his chin for a moment. "A sincere gesture of ones affection cannot be bought at a store, little darlin'."

Apple Bloom pondered her cousin's words for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Always the philosopher, you."

Braeburn produced the bottle from his saddle bag and set it up under the hive, his movements slow and stealthily so as to not alert the dangerous insects that swarmed about.

"What is that?" asked Apple Bloom.

"It's a smoke bomb Ah made out'a salt peter and some brown sugar."

"Whoa, that's awesome!" Said an eager Scootaloo. "You can't learn this stuff in school!"

"Alright, then. You ladies jump over there behind that there bush - ah'm gonna lure these bees out."

The crusaders kept their distance as they were told while Braeburn set the bottle he had packed with the ingredients to make his smoke bomb. "You ladies don't move from that spot," he cautioned just before striking a match against his vest. He dropped the match into the opening of the bottle, then immediately ran and jumped behind the foliage where the three fillies lay hidden.

The crusaders watched with intense interest as a torrent of smoke plumed from the opening of the bottle and enveloped the hive. The swarming sound grew louder, and louder within and around the hive until a cloud of bee's retreated from the smoke and flew off in different directions.

"Brown sugar and salt peter?" Apple Bloom whispered to her cousin who was laid next to her.

"Yup," Braeburn answered as he got up, leaped over the bush, and proceeded toward the now-seemingly-deserted hive. "Ah could teach you how to make one later."

"You want me to climb up there and get that for ya?" Scootaloo offered.

"Nah," replied Braeburn before producing his knife. "Ya need to always remember, little darlin, that ya gotta make sure the hive is completely empty after ya smoke it out. There could still be a few of em left in there. Ah learned that one the hard way when Ah was your age."

The crusaders watched and consumed everything Braeburn was teaching them with great interest. They observed, slightly impressed as he clenched the blade of his knife between his teeth, edge facing outward of course, and then he whipped around in a three hundred and sixty degree spin and let his knife loose into the base of the hive. Three irate stragglers flew from the hive and off in separate directions just as the previous ones did, all the while most likely cursing the stallion in their bee language.

"Good throw, cuz!" Apple Bloom cheered. "Can you teach me how to throw knives like that?"

"Me too!" Scootaloo added. "A cutie mark in knife throwing would look awesome!"

"Ah never thought girls were into this kinda stuff," Braeburn chuckled as he approached the trunk of the tree.

"Tom boy!" Corrected Scootaloo in an agitated manner.

"That's one of her hot buttons, cuz."

"Noted." Replied the stallion as he crouched, then he leaped onto the branch from which the beehive hung. He hung from the branch for a moment before kicking his hind legs and wrapping them around the limb. then shimmied upside down toward the hive,  his hat falling to the ground, allowing his main to swing freely side to side.

"You're agile for an earth pony," Scootalloo critiqued.

"Yup," Braeburn agreed with a grunt.

"But you're no pegasus," Scootaloo added with a sly smile as if she scored a point.

"Nope," Braeburn agreed again before drawing his knife in the cleft of his leg. He began to saw at the stem from which the hive hung for a few moments before it came crashing down to the ground. Braeburn clenched the blade of his knife again, edge facing outward, and swung from the branch after releasing his hind legs from around the limb. He then released his forelegs and landed with a thump on the ground, a circular ring of dust expanding from the point where he had landed. He scooped up the hive in his foreleg like a football and continued at a quick pace back to the shed where he stayed.

"Where are you going with that?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Ah'm taken this hive to mah shed. I gotta extract this honey while it's still warm - so it flows easier from the combs. You ladies can help, if you'd like."

"Nah," Scootaloo declined, speaking for her friends. "If we're going to be bounty hunters, we need to keep practicing our capture methods." Scootaloo turned her head to face Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "We need somepony weaker. Easier to manage... Somepony that can't fight like..." Scootaloo turned glanced back at Braeburn. "Like him..." Scoots thought for a moment, scrunching her face in concentration as she stroked her chin. "What do you guys think Fluttershy is up to?"

"You ladies better stay out of trouble. Ah don't wanna hear about y'all picking on Fluttershy." Braeburn tapped the brim of his hat with his hoof and chivalrously dipped his head before turning with a whip of his tail, sauntering away to his shed where he had set up his camp.

"Hey, wait." Scootaloo held out her hoof. "You gonna put the moves on Pinkie Pie tonight, or what?"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both looked at Scootaloo in surprise, but then immediately looked at Braeburn, just as eager to hear his answer as she was.

Braeburn stopped and turned his head slightly, his smile gleaming. "Y'all'r makin' it sound like Ah'm try'n to propose to her." The golden stallion laughed for a moment before his eyes narrowed, and his lips stretched into a roguish grin. "Ah'm giving her this honey. Ah'm gonna ask her out on a date. Way Ah see it - the worst thing that can happen is she'll say no. The world'll keep turn'n regardless of her answer." He then  turned his head and began to pace his way back to his shed, leaving the three crusaders to ponder his parting words.

Scootaloo whispered in a low voice so as to not alert Braeburn to her plans. "Who wants to go Flutter hunting?"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom smiled at each other. "But the Scootaloo is good this time of year."

"Huh?" Scootaloo looked back at her two friends who were now each holding half of the long rope Braeburn had cut, their malevolent expressions on their faces giving away their intentions immediately.

"Oh...crap."

Braeburn could see the waning sun giving way to twilight from a window in his shed where he painstakingly worked to strain the honey from the combs into a mason jar, another item he had 'borrowed' from the apple family house. Every few minutes he'd hold the nest over his fire to heat up the honey inside so it would flow easier, but it was tricky work: He would need to keep the nest away at a distance to make sure it wouldn't catch on fire, but he would need it close enough to heat up it's innards.

He was slightly disappointed after he strained out the very last bit of honey the hive could muster. "Only half a jar's worth?" He held the jar up to his lantern and observed the tawny light it produced through the jar of amber-gold honey. "Guess it'll have to do."

Just then, the door on his shed swung open so fast, it fell completely off it's hinges and landed on the floor with a dull thud. "Sorry 'bout that, cuz." A chagrined Apple Jack leaned her head into the shack and observed the broken door. "Ah can fix that for ya."

"No need," said Braeburn. "Ah'll fix it tomorrow."

"Y'all ready for Pinkie Pie's party?"

"Yeah, Ah'm pretty much done doin' what ah was doin'."

Apple Jack approached the work bench where Braeburn had been straining the hive for honey. She looked down at the table and inspected the bits of shredded honey clusters that scattered the table before picking up a particularly large piece with her mouth and eating it. "Now that's good eat'n" she mumbled as she happily chewed the sweet cluster. "Haven't had me some honeycomb for a while."

Braeburn set his jar of honey down next to her. "Ya want me to bag up the pieces for ya, cuz?"

"Y'all don't want em?"

Braeburn again inspected his handy work as he sniffed the jar of fresh honey before screwing the cap on. "Nah, Ah already got what Ah needed from this hive. Y'all can have what's left."

"Thanks," she said before slipping another chunk of honey comb into her mouth as if it were candy. "Your party should be start'n any time now. You wanna head out?"

"Sure." Braeburn slipped the jar of honey in a saddle bag before removing his vest and hanging it from a rusty nail that dangerously protruded from the wall.

"Leaving your vest behind?" Asked Apple Jack.

"Yeah, feel like goin' all natural tonight. I like the feeling of the night air on mah coat."

"And the hat?" Apple Jack asked with a smile, knowing what his answer would be.

"Ah'll leave mah head behind 'fore Ah ever leave mah hat." Braeburn then draped his bag containing the jar of honey over his back before grabbing a nearby bucket by it's handle in his mouth. He stepped outside to his fire he had built to heat up the hive and drowned it. He set the bucket aside, stirred the soaking wet ash around with a near bye branch, and poured the last bit of water from the bucket over it. "Alright, let's head out."

"So, why'd y'all go through all that headache just for some honey, anyway?" Apple Jack asked her cousin as they walked through Ponyville's Mane Street, the path that lead to sugarcube corner.

Braeburn stated with a shy, boyishly innocent smile. "It's a gift for miss Pinkie."

"Ah, now Ah get it."

"You didn't already?" Braeburn asked.

"Braeburn, all ya said was 'Ah saw a beehive on mah way here' and ya took off like Winona after a squirrel."

"Sorry if Ah was a bit impulsive."

"Don't apologize." Apple Jack said with a dismissive gesture of her hoof. "You ain't nothin' if not impulsive. Just like another pony Ah know that you happen to have the cutest little crush on." A menacing, toothy grin stretched across Apple Jack's face. "The way you was starin' at her flank as she bounced away with hearts in your eyes. It's kinda funny to see you givin' the chase for once. It always seems like you're the one always playing defense"

Braeburn's face turned pink. "Ah wasn't starin' at her flank!" He insisted. "Ah'm a southern gentlecolt... Ah don't go around leering at mares' backsides like some creepy old lecher."

Apple Jack laughed. "Oh, my little Braeburn is growin' up before mah eyes. You're a healthy, young stallion. There's no shame in admitting it you was check'n her out."

Braeburn frowned. "A'hm four years older than you... Wait, what do you mean by 'playing defense?'"

"Ah've never seen you with a date - let alone a girlfriend. Mares always seem to be the ones givin' you the chase. Every time Ah come to visit you in Appaloosa, it always seems like ya got a different one hangin' on ya."

"They're just friends."

"I'll bet ya they wouldn't have it that way if they could help it."

"Whataya mean?"

"Your superfluous kindness and sincerity has a tendency to lead girls on. Your charm that you're so oblivious to is like a curse."

"Ah was raised to treat ladies with respect." Braeburn countered defensively.

Apple Jack was about to continue her lecture, but she could see sugar cube corner in the distance. "We'll have to discuss this later. You're not understand'n what Ah'm say'n."

"No - Ah'm not." Braeburn agreed before turning his attention on the towering structure which looked like a gingerbread house with a tower sticking out from the center of the roof. The top of the tower resembled a cupcake with a wooden patio-balcony complete with a wooden guard rail surrounding it. "That, there, is an elaborate-looking bakery."

"Pinkie and the Cakes live here," Apple Jack pointed out. "It's their business as well as their home." Apple Jack then pointed a hoof up at the cupcake shaped structure that sat atop the highest point of the bakery. "That's Pinkie Pie's room. It use to be an observation deck, but the cakes renovated when Pinkie Pie moved in with them."

"Wouldn't mind see'n it from the inside." Braeburn remarked as the two approached the front door, the sound of loud and rhythmic music now audible from the inside of the bakery.

Apple Jack knocked on the door, and after a few moments of tapping her hoof, she knocked again before giving her cousin an impatient look. "How are they even suppose to hear us over the sound of that thump'n techno music in there?"

"Knock harder," Braeburn suggested with a shrug, subconsciously tapping his hoof to the beat of the music.

Apple Jack raised her hoof to the door, but just before she could knock again, it swung open with a loud creek. Braeburn smiled as he anticipated Pinkie Pie would be standing there, beckoning to him with her cute smile and those adorable, sapphire, sparkling eyes of hers.

Out from the flashing lights, and pounding music that filled the room emerged the head of not Pinkie Pie, but a strange looking, blue male unicorn with a silver mane, much to Braeburn's disappointment.

"How ya doin'. Pokey?" Greeted Apple Jack with a raise of her hoof, the blue unicorn mimicking her movements precisely.

Apple Jack cocked an eyebrow, which prompted the blue unicorn to cock an eye brow on his opposite side. Apple Jack tilted her head with an annoyed expression on her face. The unicorn continued to mirror her bemused body language, either unaware or indifferent to the fact that he was annoying her.

"Pokey, that's start'n to get annoying," warned Apple Jack with a scowl.

"But it's fun," retorted the silver maned stallion, finally breaking his silence.

Braeburn turned his head to look at his cousin. "Lighten up, cuz, it's a neat trick."

"Tricks are my trade," said the unicorn with a daft smile. "I'm a magician." The unicorn held his hoof out to apple jack, and with a blurring swirl of his hoof, he produced a rose, seemingly out of thin air. "For you, miss Apple Jack."

Apple Jack, looking slightly impressed, took the rose from him. "You didn't even use your horn."

The unicorn shrugged with that bizarre grin on his face. "Only the most inept of magicians would need to utilize their horn for such a minute trick. Take that Trixie girl for instance: her magic is too flashy. The girl is an armature at best - the way she uses her horn for even the most uncomplicated of tricks. She may be able to wow a crowd in a rustic town, but any proper unicorn magician, such as I, scoff at such displays. But I digress: My name is Pokey Pierce." He inclined his head toward Braeburn and set his hoof over his chest. "Won't you come in?" The unicorn then stepped aside and held the door open.

"Ah think Ah will, thank you," Responded Braeburn with a bow of his head before stepping around his cousin and passing by the well mannered  Pokey Pierce.

"May I take your hat?" he offered.

"Ah'll keep it, thanks."

"Wearing your hat inside is rude." Pokey said chidingly.

"He's got a thing about his hat." Apple Jack explained.

"Well then, shall I take yours?"

Apple Jack smiled. "Nope." She continued passed a frowning pokey, following her cousin into the bakery where his welcome party was being held.

Braeburn looked around among the flashing lights and pounding music, but saw nopony whom he had recognized. It was only a matter of seconds until Pinkie Pie somehow materialized instantaneously into his peripheral vision and assaulted him with another one of her urge-hugs. For the the first time, disoriented by the music, the lights, and focusing on distinguishing Pinkie's face from the other ponies, he was taken off his hooves.

"I finally took you down!" She cheered triumphantly.

"That, you did," Braeburn laughed.

Pinkie Pie bounced off of him and offered her hoof to help him up, which Braeburn accepted.

"Ah got a little somethin' for ya, miss Pinkie."

"You have something for me? Did I forget my birthday again?"

"It's not a birthday gift. It's just somethin' Ah thought you'd like." Braeburn was about to reach into his saddle bag, but was surprised when a light purple colored mare seemingly shot out of nowhere and wrapped a leg around the back of pinkie Pie's neck.

The mare spoke quickly, and erratically. "Pinkie PIe, who's your hot friend?! He's hot!"

"Uhm..." Braeburn, caught completely off guard, stammered for a moment before clearing his throat. "Mah name's Br—"

"His name's Braeburn!" Pinkie Pie interrupted. "He's Apple Jack's cousin."   Pinkie Pie then turned her head to Braeburn and gestured toward the purple mare with her hoof. "This is Berry Punch."

Braeburn flashed that perfect smile at her - and that was it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Pun—"

"You. Are. So. HOOOOOOOOOOOT!" She squealed while learning her face in toward him, her hooves clapping hard over her blushing cheeks with a loud slap.

Braeburn leaned back, slightly discomforted by the mare's vehement advances. "Ah'm flattered you think so, miss."

"Hey, Berry Punch, look!" Pinkie Pie suddenly cut in.

"What?" The purple mare looked at Pinkie Pie for a moment, then looked around. "What is it?"

"It's a thing over there!"

"What thing where?"

"I don't know, but go get it!"

"RIGHT!" Berry Punch ran off in the direction Pinkie Pie was pointing.

Braeburn stood next to Pinkie as he watched the mare dash off into the crowd. "What's she gettin'?"

Pinkie Pie snickered with her hoof over her mouth. "I don't know - You looked like you were getting a bit uncomfortable, so I thought you'd appreciate that."

"Ah wouldn't say she was makin' me uncomfortable, but she did surprise me a bit."

Pinkie Pie then leaped to Braeburn's side and smiled at him. "You wanna meet some more Ponies?"

That smile of Pinkie's made him feel warm on the inside. He remembered the honey in his bag, but he pushed the thought of giving it to her at that moment out of his mind. He decided to give it to her at a later time, perhaps when the party had died down, and maybe somewhere where there were not so many prying eyes.

Braeburn agreed with his big grin to go meet Pinkie's other friends, which he did, and he had fun, but he was not as energetic as he liked to be. The thought of how exactly he'd break the news of his feelings for that pink mare kept creeping into his mind and occupying his entire thought as he met what must have felt like the entire town. By the time Pinkie Pie was done introducing him to everyone, midnight started to set it and most of the party guests had already left, only her closest friends seemed to remain: Pokey Pierce who's head was slunk back as he snored loudly in his seat, Apple Jack, who was getting ready to leave, herself, Berry Punch, who was still looking for the object Pinkie had tasked to her to find, and a few others.

"So some of the ponies at this here party are from cloudsdale as well?" Braeburn seemed to struggle with the fact that Pinkie Pie could know somany ponies so well all in her hometown as well as a town in the sky of which she did not visit frequently.

"Pinkie Pie nodded enthusiastically," It doesn't matter what town you're from. I love to make friends.

"You do it so well."

"Being social is my special skill," Pinkie replied happily.

"So, how did you invite the pegusi of cloudsdale if you can't get up there?" Braeburn asked with genuine interest.

"Quite a bit of them saw the fire works produced from my custom made rockets that day when I met up with you. Everypony around here knows that when they see my shells bursting the air - there is a party in the works."

"AH gotta admit, that rocket launcher o' yours is probably the coolest thing Ah ever did see." Braeburn commented with a smile before taking another sip from some of Pinkie's punch in his cup. "And this is delicious," he added.

"I'm glad that you like it," Pinkie smiled in kind. "It's my own special recipe."

This was probably the opportune time Braeburn was looking for to reveal his feelings for Pinkie Pie. He looked down into his cup of punch while tracing its ring with his hoof as he quickly tried to work through a series of scenarios in his mind, trying to find the best way to talk to her alone. Would it look strange if Ah pulled her aside in front of her remaining guests? he thought to himself, feeling a hint of anxiety. Braeburn continued to muse, and mull, and ponder until Pinkie Pie broke the silence with a question he had not expected.

"You wanna come up stairs to my room?"

Braeburn's eyebrow raised. He then took his eyebrow with the tip of his hoof and slowly moved it back down. He remained silent for a moment as he wondered if he had just heard her right. Here he was, wondering what method he could utilize to go about getting some alone time with her, and it turned out that she was the one that ended up providing him with the opportunity.

"Come on, I wanna show you something cool!" Without waiting for Braeburn's answer, she unexpectedly locked the hook of her foreleg around Braeburn's, pulled him away from the table they were sitting at, and lead him toward the spiral stairwell that coiled it's way up through the tiers of the Cakes' house and business.