Sweet Apple Summer: A Braeburn and Pinkie Pie story

by Boomstick Mick

Rating: everyone
Tags: Romance, Comedy, Random, Slice of Life
Length: 40399

The fit hits the shan when Pinkie Pie and Braeburn tear a path of awesomeness through Sweet Apple Acres with eighty eight millimeters of incendiary love shells!

Pinkie Pie feels sorry for poor Braeburn. Between helping the cutie mark crusaders get their cutie marks, wrangling behemothian reptiles, stealing honey from irate hornets, planting trees at sweet apple acres, and all the shenanigans that come with those activities, he hasn't had time to make any new friends… Well, don't you worry, folks! Miss Pinkie is here to solve his problems in the best way she knows how. With a— aw, you know!

Warning: The humor that is used in this story is very silly and will not always make sense.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-18 20:39:31 UTC

A warm welcome to Ponyville

Gummy hissed in protest and wriggled around in his doting mother's forelegs as she attempted to lower him into the sink for his weekly bath; it was all he could do to illustrate his displeasure as his large purple eyes never seemed to blink simultaneously, and his toothless mouth was incapable of conveying facial expressions. His usual way of displaying his pleasure, or lack thereof, would be to utilize a series of hisses, gargles, and groans.

Pinkie Pie brought his face in close to hers before she narrowed her eyes. “Don't you get snippy with me, Mister!”

Gummy silently gazed back at her, blinking that odd blink of his.

“Oh, wait - was that a sassy hiss, or was that an 'I love you' hiss that just sounded like a sassy hiss?"

Gummy attempted to point his nose down toward the gelid water as he hissed, to which pinkie would only reply with "I love you, too, my Gummy-wummy!" She gave him a tight hug and a peck on the nose before plopping him down in the frigid water.

The frustrated amphibian continued to hiss and grunt as Pinkie gently scrubbed his scales; if it were not for the prospect of hypothermia setting in, the ectothermic reptile may have enjoyed his bath. If only Pinkie's innate ESP included telepathy, her irate alligator may be projecting thoughts along the lines of: Oh, Celestia... Why do you hate me?

Pinkie Pie giggled mirthfully as she listened to Gummy's cute little hisses, to which her only reply would be, "No, I love you more!"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie felt an odd sensation within her: Her back itched, her ears twitched, the muscles in her hind legs involuntarily tensed. Gummy took the opportunity to attempt an escape while his mother seemed distracted, but his attempts were fruitless due to his short legs hindering his retreat; he was still just a baby, after all. That, or his growth had been stunted from the over consumption of sweets and lack of proper cuisine his carnivorous body demanded.

Pinkie Pie gasped when she finally realized the meaning of the sensations she was feeling, her eyes shimmering and widening as they reflected Gummy's image back at him. She pulled him from the sink by the nape of his neck, set him on her back, and raced down stairs. Out of the bathroom, out from her bedroom, she descended the stairs, and into the bakery she flew, an after-blur of pink trailing in her wake, all while Gummy clung tightly to his mothers warm body, relieved to be out of the subarctic hell he knew as 'The Sink.'

“Mrs Cake, Mrs Cake!” She called before coming to an instant stop that would have severed the cervical columns of even the thickest of necks from the speed she had just been traveling, which launched gummy across the bakery and into the open oven that had just been used to bake a fresh batch of Blueberry muffins.

“Somepony new is arriving in Ponyville today!”

"Oh, what's that, Dear?" Mrs. Cake responded as she turned away from the oven and tapped the door closed with her hind leg, inadvertently trapping gummy inside.

“Somepony new is coming to Ponyville today! He, or she should be here any minute now! Would it be okay if I prepared the floor for their Welcome-To-Ponyville party?” The manic mare leaped in the air, and in a physics defying act that would leave both God and scientists alike baffled to the point of reconsidering their raison d'etre - she stayed suspended above the ground as she anticipated Mrs. Cake's answer.

“Oh, I'm sorry, dear, but we have been terribly busy today. We were actually planning on closing the bakery early. I don't suppose it can wait til' tomorrow?”

Pinkie Pie's mane deflated, her eyes glazed, and she puffed out her lower lip as she slowly descended back to the ground where she remained anchored.

“I'm sorry, dear, but Mr. Cake and I are exhausted. It's been a busy day, and I'm sure your new soon-to-be friend will be here tomorrow.” The bulbous blue mare then pointed toward the middle aged stallion who was snoring in a pool of his own saliva on a nearby table.

“Okay,” Pinkie Pie responded somberly as she looked down and gently scraped at the floor with her hoof.

Mrs. Cake thought for a moment. “I have a good idea,” Mrs. Cake said.  “Why don't you go meet your new friend today, then you can invite them to a party tomorrow? Mr. Cake and I can even help you. You would even have time to invite more guests.”

Pinkie Pie's mane inflated as her wildly happy smile returned.

“That's a great idea, Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie's instant transition to her happy personality was contagious as the blue mare smiled back at her before she returned to the oven, curious over the source of a strange scratching noise that she thought she had been hearing for the past minute.

Mrs. Cake opened the oven to reveal a smoking and panting Gummy.

“Oh Gummy, you're not a cupcake, you silly-billy,” Pinkie Pie laughed as she bounced over to the oven and took him affectionately in her forelegs. “You wanna come with momma to meet our new friend?” The doting pink mare asked rhetorically as she placed him on her back. "Oh," Pinkie remembered just as she was about to head for the door. “I can't go welcome a new friend without my rocket launcher!”

Mr. Cake's snoring came to an abrupt end as his eyes snapped wide open in horror.  The fearful stallion gazed at his wife, who returned a fearful look of her own.

Pinkie Pie ran upstairs and instantly came back down with a flamboyantly decorated Panzerschreck rigged to her back. "Found it! Funny thing, though: It wasn't where I last put it." Pinkie took a moment to puzzle over a possible explanation as to how her new upgraded version of her party cannon could have just seemed to have sprouted legs and hid its self under the Cakes' bed.

“H-how did you know where to find it?” Mr. Cake asked nervously

“Pinkie senses!" She answered energetically. "But still, how did it get under your bed, Mr. Cake?”

“The Cakes gave each other another concerned glance. “Well, m-maybe...” Mr. Cake stuttered as he managed to fabricate his white lie. “Gummy hid it... I thought I saw him playing with it the other day.” Mr. Cake chuckled nervously.

Pinkie Pie let out a panicked gasp before snatching Gummy from her back and bringing him eye level with her. “That's a bad Gummy! You don't play with momma's rocket launcher! You could put an eye out!”

Gummy wriggled and hissed weakly in response, but anyone familiar with the language of alligators would translate his hisses to: ”Mr. Cake, I swear on the millions of years my ancestors have walked this planet, you will pay for this egregious accusation against me!”

“Um, Dearie?” Mrs. Cake nervously addressed the now-armed Pinkie Pie. "Do you really need that thing just to welcome a new pony to town?"

“Well, duh!” The pink mare chortled. "Of course I do! This baby fires eighty eight millimeter custom made confetti and fireworks shells! It would almost be a crime to not use it. Or did I load the incendiary shells that it originally came with? Oh well. I guess I'll find out!" And with that, she was out the door, giddy with the anticipation of making a new friend, and excited to try out her new toy.

The Cakes gave each other one last worried glance before going about their business, trying with all their might to put their worries aside.

Braeburn stepped down from the train station platform and surveyed his new surroundings. This small, quaint little town of Ponyville seemed like a metropolis compared to his hometown. He beheld this strange place that would be his home for the next four months. He smiled as he scanned the area. He'd never seen so many restaurants, shops, booths, and ponies just walking about so casually. The closest thing he'd ever see to this kind of  hustle-n'-bustle where he was from was when a tumbleweed blew through its single dirt road. This new town was so animated, so alive, he'd bet that they even have that fancy-schmancy new thing that he heard was all the rage...

What was it called? Plumbing?

Braeburn's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a familiar name spoken in a not so familiar, but sweet and bell-like voice.

“Is that him, Apple Bloom?”

Braeburn turned his head toward the source of the voice, but he saw no pony in particular interest who would be looking for him.

“Down here, Braeburn!”

Braeburn looked down and his eyes met the gaze of his young cousin who seemed to be in the company of two other fillies who's acquaintances he had not met yet.

In a random, aggressive act of affection, Apple Bloom took one bounding leap, threw her forelegs around Braeburn's neck, and applied pressure that would have any grown stallion tapping the canvas in a wrestling match. Braeburn winced as he struggled to stay on his hooves.

“Y'all Inherited... Your sister's... Strength,” he managed to let out behind his clenched teeth as his eyes bulged from their sockets, his face becoming a darker shade of blue with every passing second.

The white filly cleared her throat loudly, as if to remind her Apple Bloom of their presence.

“Oh, Ah'm so sorry, cuz,” said Apple Bloom. “Ah forgot to introduce the crusaders.” She skipped toward the two fillies and joined them in what appeared to be a practiced and well-synchronized triangular formation.

“That's Sweetie Belle.”

Sweetie Belle whipped her head around and flicked her mane while doing her best to imitate the seductive smile her sister had taught her. “The beautiful one,” the ivory filly added with a flutter of her eyelashes.

Apple Bloom then gestured toward the orange filly. “Here, we have Scootaloo.”

Scootaloo fluttered her small prepubescent wings as she struck a pose that seemed reminiscent of a Crane Stance. “The awesome one!” the gamboge-colored filly added enthusiastically.

“And then we got me - assuming Ah don't need no introduction.”

Apple Bloom crouched in front of them and struck a dramatic pose that would make Captain Ginyu proud, raising her forelegs in the air which formed a V-for-Victory. “And we are—“ she paused for dramatic effect, then they all spoke in unison.

"THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"

Braeburn was not sure if he actually saw what he was seeing, or if it was from the near-asphyxiation effecting his oxygen starved brain, but he could almost swear he saw a rising sun symbol behind them as a photo-realistic ocean roared in the background.

“That's certainly an amazing introduction,” Braeburn choked as he rubbed the newly formed bruises on his neck.

“You really think so!?” All three of the fillies asked excitedly, their eyes shimmering like hopeful little diamonds as they looked back toward their flanks.

Braeburn's curiosity was peaked when he saw how quickly their smiles turned to disappointed frowns.

Scootaloo was the first one to break the silence after rolling her eyes. “What would a cutie mark in 'introduction' look like, anyway?” The two crusaders mumbled among themselves in agreement.

“Hey, cuz,” Braeburn interrupted. “Ah'm elated to make your friends acquaintance, an' all, but could ya show me the way to Sweet Apple Acres? Ah never traveled there from your train station before.”

“That's actually why we came straight to the train station from school,” Apple Bloom explained. "Big Mac and AJ are making add-ons to the fence; you know, since the perimeter has expanded? So they had me come get ya.”

Braeburn smiled warmly at his cousin before he took one last pause to appreciate the new sites and sounds that encompassed him.

“Right, then, should we be off?” Braeburn paused for dramatic effect, lifted one hoof to the sky, and playfully mimicked their highly energetic introduction.”Cutie Mark Crusaders?”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle giggled while Scootaloo gave the stallion that stood before her an approving nod, appreciating the stallion for his enthusiasm.

Braeburn collected his saddle bag, lashed it to his flank, and they exited the train station platform together.

Pinkie's impulsive entrance

"Looks like you're pretty popular with the ladies, Braeburn," Scootaloo commented with a cheeky smile as they proceeded along a dirt path through Ponyville.

"That's what mah momma always told me," Braeburn chuckled heartily with that roguish grin of his that seemed to be his trademark facial feature.

Scootaloo turned around to whisper to her two friends, hoping her voice was out of earshot for Braeburn to hear. "Do you think he knows?"

"Knows what?" asked Apple Bloom.

"He's turning the head of every mare we walk by," Scootaloo stated matter-of-factly. "Look." she pointed her hoof toward a familiar looking mare who had baskets of freshly picked carrots hanging from her sides.

Apple Bloom noticed that she was staring at her cousin, not even trying to hide the fact that she was gawking at him with her mouth open and her face blushing as bright as a tomato.

"Hi, Carrot Top!" Scootaloo greeted her, waving enthusiastically.

The carrot carrying mare's trance was instantly broken with a start as she looked down toward the three fillies, who she hadn't even noticed until they called out to her.

"H-hey, girls" she uttered in surprise.

Scootaloo pulled her two friends in closely. "Girls, we can use this to our advantage," she whispered to them mischievously before looking back at Breaburn, who was eyeing them curiously.

"What do you mean?" Apple Bloom asked with perturbation, knowing that her friend always meant well, but her schemes always seemed to lead to disaster.

Scootalo looked back again, appraising Braeburn's ruggedly masculine physique and perfect smile that could easily land him on the cover of every magazine in Equestria if photo finish ever found out about him.

"Take five, Braeburn, we have an issue we need to discuss really quick." She looked at him, then looked at Carrot Top who stood near the well, trying very awkwardly not to make eye contact with their male companion. "You look thirsty. Why don't you get some water?" Scootaloo shot him an innocent smile while pointing at the well that the bashful mare was standing next to.

"What're y'all cook'n up over there?" Breaburn asked, tilting his head with an inquisitive expression.

"Girl stuff," She responded. "You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

"Alright, then, you little ladies take your time doin' what ever you're doin'. Ah ain't gonna rush ya." Braburn said as he walked toward the well, eyeing them suspiciously one more time before finally deciding to just throw his curiosity to the wind.

"Scootaloo, what're you about?" Apple Bloom asked apprehensively.

"Just watch," Scootaloo answered tersely.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle watched as the awkward interaction between Braeburn and Carrot Top unfolded before them.

"Hey there, ma'am," Braeburn gestured politely, tapping the brim of his hat.

Carrot Top's eyes fluttered nervously a few times as she took a step back from the stallion and brushed a strand of her mane behind her ear.  "H-hi," she greeted shyly.

"If you'd allow me, miss," He offered as he continued to beam his perfect smile at her. "I'll draw the bucket for ya."

The mare struggled to shake off her nervousness before responding. "Th-thank you for the offer, but the crank for the bucket seems to be missing." She stood on the edge of the well with her forelegs, looking longingly into the darkness of the underground tunnel, "I was really thirsty, too."

"Why not just pull the bucket up by the rope?" He asked.

"Because," she explained. "I can't reach the rope." she demonstrated by bending over the stone of the well, and reaching toward the rope that was anchored to the bucket at the bottom, which seemed to be just out of her reach. "Plus," she added, "this is a really heavy wooden bucket, and the well goes really deep. Being the weak and clumsy ditz that I am, I'd probably end up dropping it, or collapsing from exhaustion before I've pulled it even half way up," she admitted abashedly while scratching the back of her head with her hoof.

"Oh, is that all?" And without another word, Braeburn leaned over the cobblestone well,  grasped the rope, and began to draw the bucket with a series of strong, fluid pulls.

"Scootaloo," Apple Bloom whispered. "Ah still don't get where you're going with this..."

Scootaloo stroked her chin with an attentive look on her face. "I'm thinking," she stated with a sly smile. "That gorgeous hunk of stallion could be the ticket to getting our cutie marks."

Flummoxed by her answer, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom turned toward her with perplexed expressions on their little filly faces.

"We could be," She paused for dramatic effect. "Cutie mark match makers! We could have little hearts for cutie marks!" Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly.

"That would be adorable!" Sweetie Belle's honeyed voiced cracked in a high pitch as it would do from time to time.

"Oh, no!" Apple Bloom protested. "No, no, no, no, no. Don't y'all remember what happened the last time we tried that? Big Mac still hasn't lived down them awful nicknames he gave our poor teacher!"

"This time will be different," said Scootaloo in a placating tone. "We're not going to use a love poison this time. We don't need one. Carrot Top's totally drooling over him, and with the right kinda push, I'll bet we could get Braeburn interested in her as well."

The three young fillies turned their attention toward the two standing near the well again. They gauged Carrot Top's expressions and body language with increasing interest as she surreptitiously scanned him from his muscular forelegs that rippled with every pull of the rope, to his golden tail that playfully swished around from side to side as he happily hummed a country tune, completely oblivious to the mare's lusty gaze.

"See that?" Scootaloo asked as she gestured toward Carrot Top. "She's totally checking him out!"

"Carrot Top is pretty cute," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "So, it shouldn't be too difficult to get Braeburn interested in her."

"Oh, don't tell me you're goin' along with this asinine plan, too!" Apple Bloom face-hooved as she shook her head disapprovingly.

"Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Freaking hearts on our flanks! Hearts!"

"Yeah," Scootaloo added. "Not only would we finally have our cutie marks, but they'd be the cutest cutie marks ever!" She took a moment to look back at the two potential lovebirds. She watched as Breaburn had finally managed to pull the heavy bucket up by it's rope and set it down on the cobblestone ledge, which was a feat of strength that, even Scootaloo had to admit, was pretty impressive. The chivalrous stallion then grabbed the ladle from the nail it was hanging on, gently took the mare's hoof, and set it in the crook of her foreleg.

"Ladies first," he offered with a smile.

"S-such a gentlecolt," Carrot Top replied sincerely as she blushed an even brighter shade of red before taking a series of generous gulps, letting small streams of water escape from the sides of the ladle to run down her neck and chest. When she had realized the glutenous, unladylike display she had just presented, she wiped her mouth and glanced up at Braeburn with a sheepish smile. "I, uh, told you I was thirsty."

"Oh, it's alright, ma'am," Braeburn said playfully before taking off his hat, lifting the entire container over his head, opening his mouth as wide as he could get it, and pouring the bucket over him, soaking himself completely. Braeburn's comical display was successful in making the mare drop her bashful guard as she giggled with a hoof over her mouth.

"This is almost too easy," Scootaloo whispered.

"What do you mean?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Braeburn is acting silly," Scootaloo answered. "I think he's already warming up to her."

"He's always acting silly," Apple Bloom remarked "He lives to make ponies laugh, which is why he doesn't deserve to be used like this!"

"We aren't using him!" Sweetie Belle squeaked defensively.

"Lives to make ponies laugh?" Scootaloo asked. "Well, that sounds like somepony I know."

And just like that, with amazing timing, as if it was on cue, a loud and concussive blast reverberated through out the sky above them. Pinkie Pie's home made rocket exploded into a shimmer of dancing sparks that formed the words 'Welcome to Ponyville' in the sky as a shower of streamers and confetti rained down upon anypony who may have been within the radius of the blast.

All three crusaders, Braeburn, and Carrot Top stared dumbly at the fantastic display of aerial pyrotechnics.

Scootaloo was the first to break her gaze from the fireworks, knowing that a wild Pinkie Pie was about to appear and ruin everything.

Pathologically High-Spirited

"Pinkie Pie, wait!" Sweetie Belle clamored as she dove in the path of the manic mare to keep her from ruining her and Scootaloo's plans, but instead of stopping her, she unintentionally tripped her.

Pinkie Pie let out a high pitched yelp as she stumbled over Sweetie Belle, the momentum she created from the speed at which she was running sending her flailing and tumbling as her rocket launcher and pet alligator were sent flying in different directions. Pinkie rolled out of control until she slammed directly into Braeburn, subsequently taking him to the ground and slamming the back of his head against the cobblestone well with a loud and thunderously resounding thwack.

They both opened their eyes at the same time and shared a very awkward stare with their lips firmly pressed together. Braeburn tried to pull away, but the back of his head was against the wall of the well. Their cheeks burned a glowing red for a moment before pinkie attempted to speak.

"mmffmlkfamlr," Pinkie Pie mumbled, not thinking to unwrap her mouth from Braeburn's.

Sweetie Belle urgently grabbed Pinkie from behind and pulled her off of him. "Are you okay?!" She asked concernedly. "That was my fault! Please, don't tell me you're hurt!"

"Yeah, you hit that wall pretty hard," Carrot Top added as she reached out with her hoof, but quickly withdrew it, not knowing if it would be okay to touch him. "Are you alright?"

Braeburn didn't answer, his gaze was fixated on the pink mare who had just inadvertently tackled him. "What were you saying, ma'am?"

"I said, You look familiar," Pinkie Pie propped herself up with her forelegs as she tilted her head to the side with an inquisitive expression on her face.

"Hello?!" Sweetie Belle waved her hoof in front of Braeburn in an attempt to bring him out of his trance. "You alright?" She asked.

"Ah'm fine, miss," Braeburn said as stoically as he could as he rubbed the newly-formed knot on the back of his head before getting to his hooves.

"I am so sorry!" Sweetie Belle's eyes widened with concern when she noticed the large crack in the stone well that Braeburn's head must have made. "Don't be angry with me." Sweetie Belle continued to apologize profusely as her eyes began to shimmer under a veil of tears.

Braeburn gently set his hoof under the chin of the apologetic filly, then lifted her head so their eyes could meet. "Now, how could Ah be mad at such a cute little face, hmm?"

"You're not mad, then?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Of course not." Braeburn responded with his perfect smile.

Sweetie Belle attempted to offer one more apology, but Braeburn set his hoof over her mouth.

"Ah'm fine. Quit apologizing." Braeburn playfully ruffled Sweetie Belle's mane with his hoof.

"Jump'n in the way of Pinkie Pie when she's in full motion?" Apple Bloom joked. "That's probably the quickest way to kill yourself!"

Sweetie Belle cracked a smile on one corner of her mouth and rolled her eyes before she trotted off to join her friends.

"What did Braeburn just tell you?" Scootaloo asked.

Sweetie Belle fidgeted awkwardly for a moment before she looked back at Braeburn for a moment. "Uh... He said I was cute..." The snow white filly announced as her face, which was previously pale with worry and concern, was now a scarlet red.

Scootaloo's mouth slowly crept wide with a sly smile.

"What?" Sweetie Belle asked defensively.

♪Sweetie Belle and Braeburn sitting in a tree♪ She sang quietly and mischievously before Apple Bloom clapped a hoof over her mouth.

"Mah cousin ain't a creeper like that!" She lectured. "You trying to get him arrested, or somethin'?"

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle added with a squeak as she stamped her hoof.

"It was a joke," Scootaloo countered as she rolled her eyes. "Geez, we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, not the Cutie Mark White Knights - learn to take a joke!"

"Hey," Carrot top addressed Braeburn anxiously. "Are you okay? Do you need a doctor? You just hit your head pretty hard; I can't believe you're getting up so soon after that." She asked as she traced the cracks in the cobblestone with her hoof in disbelief. "I can't believe your head just did this."

"Ah'm fine, miss, but have you seen mah—"

"Hat?!" Pinkie Pie sported Braeburns stetson as she suddenly jumped between them.

Braeburn, taken aback by the pink mare's impulsive interruption, walked back a few steps as he observed the adorably comical image of her wearing his hat, which was several sizes to large for her. He had to suppress a chuckle as his stetson hung down in front of her face, obscuring her features from the top of her head, all the way down to her muzzle; it was cute in way, almost like when a child lumbered around in their father's boots.

Carrot Top, obviously annoyed by Pinkie's intrusion, cleared her throat loudly in an attempt to telegraph to Pinkie that it was time for her to hit the road, but Pinkie only responded by looking back and asking her if she needed a lozenge, to which carrot top responded with an agitated glare.

"Excuse me, miss...Pinkie, was it?"

Pinkie Pie turned her head around to look at Braeburn, causing the hat to spin around on her head like a top, which amused the stallion thoroughly as he lightly stamped the ground with hoof and let out a hearty laugh, which, in term, made Pinkie giggle.

"Hey," Pinkie abruptly interrupted her own laughter. "Why are you soaking wet?"

Braeburn wiped his wet mane back with a hoof, letting it cling to the back of his neck, a gesture that placated Carrot Top from her irritation and nearly made her melt where she stood.

"Ah dumped that bucket over mah head," he answered while pointing to the container on the edge of the stone well.

"Silly!" Pinkie Pie remarked with a giggle. "Why would you do that?"

Braeburn shrugged nonchalantly. "Cuz, it was funny."

"Was it really?!" Pinkie Pie asked before she pushed the container back down the well. "Show me, show me!" She spoke in a tone that, somehow, sounded as if she was pleading and demanding at the same time.

Braeburn looked back at Carrot Top, they shared a brief shrug, then Braeburn hoisted the bucket back up by it's rope, lifted it over his head, and poured it's contents over himself for the second time.

Pinkie Pie's lips slowly stretched into an almost ear-to-ear smile as she snorted.

"Ma'am?"

Pinkie's eyes started to tear up.

"Miss, are you okay?"

Unable to contain her mirth any longer, Pinkie Pie fell back and laughed hysterically as she kicked with her hind legs and held her sides with her forefronts.

Carrot Top cocked an unamused eyebrow as she watched the crazed mare toss about in her fit of mania, but Braeburn couldn't help but be charmed by the pink mare's whimsical antics.

Pinkie Pie's chorus of chortles slowly simmered to gasping and panting, but one look back up at Braeburn, who was still saturated from mane to tail, sent her reeling into another side-splitting outburst of giggles and cackles.

Braeburn retrieved his hat from the ground where it had rolled off of Pinkie's head. He then looked up in the sky where the explosion had gone off. "Did you set off that explosion?"

Pinkie took a few deep breaths and calmed herself as she wiped a tear from her eyes. "Yeah, it was a special custom-made rocket from my party-panzerschreck."

"Panzyshark?" Braeburn cocked his head to the side as he attempted to pronounce the foreign word.

Pinkie Pie cupped a hoof over her mouth and giggled. "Pansy shark!" She snickered.

The curious stallion looked over his shoulder at the metal pipe-like device that she had dropped when she was sent tumbling into him. "Are you referring to that odd-looking device, miss?"

"Yep," Pinkie Pie answered cheerfully. "There was a time when I used a cannon, but I discarded for something a bit more portable." The bubbly pink mare rolled over to her hooves and ran to retrieve her destructive device.

"Um, Mr. Braeburn?" Carrot Top addressed the stallion shyly.

"Miss Top?" Braeburn's roguish grin returned to him as he turned his head to acknowledge her.

"I'm on my way to go pick up a friend's daughter from school, then I have to get these carrots to my stand in town, so I need to be going, but...." The orange maned mare blushed and looked down at the ground so that her mane would conceal her eyes. She scraped the ground nervously with her hoof a few times before she spoke again.  "I'd really like to get to know you a little better. I-if that's okay with you, of course."

"That'd be nice," Braeburn responded with a toothy grin before Pinkie Pie jumped in between them again.

"I have an even better idea!" Pinkie aimed upward with her launcher and shot a rocket into the sky.

Braeburn looked up in the direction of the metal projectile as it propelled it's self into the sky. He looked over to notice that Pinkie Pie was standing strait up with her forelegs in the air, her chest slowly expanding as she took in a deep breath.

"Miss, what are yo—"

"BOOM!" She yelled over Braeburn and fell back as the projectile in the sky exploded into a brilliantly dancing display of sparks and fire, which inked a message in the cloudy canvas above them.

Braeburn shielded his eyes with his foreleg for a moment before he was able to look directly at it and read out the message it had made.

Pinkie Pie's welcome to Ponyville party. Everypony is invited!

Pinkie Pie turned her head back to Braeburn, her eyes gleaming intensely like flickering stars in the night sky. "Now everypony in Ponyville will have a chance to get to know you!" Her rocket launcher clinked in a metallic cadence as she bounced and skipped around him joyously. ♪And you will be the guest of honor~♪ She sang gleefully.

"And they say Ah'm enthusiastic when I greet newcomers." Braeburn stated to no on in particular as he admired Pinkie Pie's energy, her erratic movement, her unpredictable behavior, the vibes of sheer joy that practically emanated from every poor in her body; her energy and enthusiasm practically dwarfed his in every way. He looked up to the sky and examined the spectacular show of dancing fire one more time. "It could be fun - ah guess," he finally answered.

"I was thinking something more along the lines of a date," Carrot Top interjected. "Just you and me..."

Her attempts to grab Braeburn's attention were completely and utterly fruitless as Pinkie Pie's antics had completely captivated him. The irritation within Carrot Top seethed to a dull boil before she finally turned around and trotted off without saying a word, but not before staring daggers at Pinkie Pie one last time as if she had hoped her gaze would set the bubbly mare on fire.

"Yeah, it's all coming back to me now." Braeburn stated as Pinkie's wild merrymaking continued. "Pinkie Pie, you were the one who sang that silly little song back in mah hometown. The one that started the war."

Pinkie Pie's hopping and skipping came to an abrupt stop. "That wasn't my intention, you know!"

"Ah know, Ah know." Braeburn said with a smile. "Now, how did that go?" The stallion tapped his hoof on his chin for a moment as he thought. "Oh yeah, now I remember". He cleared his throat as he placed a hoof over his chest.

♪You gotta share. You gotta care.♪

Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Pinkie Pie were completely taken aback by Braeburn's hypnotically honeyed singing voice that any bard or ministerial would kill to posses.

"Apple Bloom," Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both addressed their friend in unison. "You never told us he could sing like that."

"Y'all never asked," Apple Bloom countered.

♪It's the right thing to do~♪ He went on.

Then Pinkie Pie joined in as her bouncing continued around the stallion who's head swayed slowly to the rhythm of their melodic voices.

♪You gotta share~ You gotta care~♪

Braeburn and Pinkie Pie's interaction when on for hours as they traded songs and jokes with each other. Pinkie listened with intense interest as Braeburn informed her of the expansion of Sweet Apple acres territory, that he was there to help them with the additional land, his plans that he had with his own farmland once he got back home, and all the additions that had been built around Appleloosa since she had been there. Pinkie regaled Braeburn in kind with her riveting story of how she had cloned herself using a mystical pool, she introduced the stallion to her pet alligator, Gummy, whom he instantly became infatuated with as it's first response in greeting him was to clamp it's toothless jaws around his muzzle. Pinkie Pie even spoke of the time when the demented unicorn illusionist, Trixie, had temporarily enslaved her to be her own personal dancing jester; a usually sower subject for her, but she felt so at ease with the southern stallion, she could actually look back at it and discuss it as if it was a comical story.

All three of the crusaders watched them speaking back and forth to each other in awe; their energy and passions about the subjects of which they spoke were evident in their cheerful and enthusiastic demeanor. Neither one of them would let the other leave out a single detail in their stories.

"Just look at em go," Scootaloo commented.

"Pinkie Pie is talking really fast. Do you think your cousin can even understand what she's saying to him, Apple Bloom?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Hey, wait a second," Scootaloo said impishly as she turned her head to Sweetie Belle. "Look how compatible these two are."

"No," Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle said flatly.

"You didn't even hear me out!" Scootaloo protested.

"Okay," Apple Bloom said. "We'll hear you out, then we'll say no."

"Y'all some busters!" Scootaloo spat.

"Ah was never on board with your stupid plan from the beginning," Apple Bloom spat back..

"What about you, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo leered at her with a look that feared betrayal.

"As much as I believe that there is somepony out there for everypony..." Sweetie Belle paused to look at the stetson wearing stallion and the pink mare who seemed enraptured by each others company. "I wouldn't wish a relationship with Pinkie Pie on my worst enemy."

"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom said in surprise. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"Hey, I like Pinkie Pie as much as the next filly, but she's crazy!" Sweetie Belle said defensively.

"When you think about it that way..." Scootaloo admitted. "It's not every day that somepony begins an introduction using a rocket launcher... Or keeps a pet alligator... Or deflates their mane when they're upset... Which doesn't really make sense when you think about it."

Apple Bloom thought for a moment, desiring to rush to Pinkie Pie's defense. "She ain't crazy... She's just... Pathologically high-spirited?"

"Which means crazy," Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said in unison.

"Ah guess..." Apple Bloom sighed in defeat. "If ya want to be all politically incorrect about it!"

"You've been using a lot of big words lately," Scootaloo pointed out before she turned her attention to the other two who were conversing happily by the well.

"One cannot obtain her cutie mark by simply meandering about fatuously!" Apple Bloom stated, showing off her eloquent vocabulary.

"Hey, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo called to her fellow crusader.

"Hmm?" Sweetie Belle acknowledged with a high pitched hum.

"Do you think Braeburn and you sister would be a good match?"

Sweetie Belle had to suppress a giggle before speaking. "No way in Tartarus!" She said in a tone that was absolute.

"But Rarity seems like she'd go weak in the knees for a stallion of Braeburn's profile."

"You'd think," Sweetie Belle said. "But she's really not into the ruff-n-tumble type."

"What's so 'ruff-n-tumble' about Braeburn?" Scootaloo asked.

Apple Bloom took in a deep breath before she went down a quick and methodical list: "He wrestles with buffalo, he thinks that the vigorous application of dirt is a sure-fire way to heal any wound, he likes to set things on fire, he never plays any kind of game that doesn't involve knives in some way, he chews, he spits, he deep fries just about everything he eats, he goes camping for weeks at a time and brings nothing with him but a knife, and one time, a snake bit him, and he actually bit it back!"

Sweetie Belle's and Scootaloo's eyes widened in astonishment as they listened to Apple Bloom's list.

"That just makes him sound cool!" Scootaloo said.

"Except for the chewing and spitting thing; that's kinda gross." Sweetie Belle added. "As pretty as his face is, I really doubt he's my sister's type. She's really into the high society type."

"Hoity-toity sissy boys?" Apple Bloom asked, quoting her sister's translation of the type of male company Rarity likes to keep.

"Exactly," Sweetie Belle answered with a curt nod.

Scootaloo let out an exasperated sigh as she slumped to the ground on her belly. "Well, I guess this was a bust. It's going to be night time soon, and we're no closer to getting our cutie marks than when were at the beginning of the day."

Upon hearing that, Apple Bloom looked to the sky and noticed the sun's position as it began it's descent behind the mountainous terrain in the distance. "Hey, Braeburn, Ah think it's time to head to Sweet Apple Acres. It's going to be night in a few hours, and sis is waiting for us."

"What's that, cuz?" Braeburn asked, turning his head to his younger cousin.

"We should probably get going, Braeburn." Apple Bloom reiterated as she pointed a hoof toward the waning son on the horizon.

"Oh, shoot!" Braeburn said in surprise, as if he had just snapped out of a trance. "Ah didn't even realize how late it was gettin' to be."

"Aaaawwww!" Pinkie Pie stamped her hooves as she whined. "You have to leave?!"

"Afraid so, miss," Braeburn answered regretfully. "But hey, I'll be at the party tomorrow night. Where didja say it was gonna go down at?"

"Sugar Cube Corner," Pinkie Pie answered. "Make sure you bring your appetite!"

"Ah will, miss Pink—"

Pinkie Pie cut him off as she lunged at the unsuspecting stallion and embraced him.

Braeburn responded with an awkward chuckle as he patted her on the back with his hoof.

Pinkie suddenly broke her grip from him and backed away, looking even more surprised than he was when she grabbed him.

"That wasn't too soon, was it?" She asked nervously.

"Was what too soon?" Braeburn asked.

"I accidentally hugged you," Pinkie Pie responded.

"How do you accidentally hug somepony?"

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "I don't know, my body just moved on its own when I was suddenly overwhelmed with an urge." Her face went gaunt as dark shadows formed under her eyes; her face seemed to have taken a rather dark and serious expression. "An urge that could only be satisfied with a hug." She said darkly and slowly behind her clenched teeth.

Braeburn's eyes slowly widened before taking a few steps back from her.

Pinkie suddenly snapped back to her bubbly and cheerful demeanor as she thudded her hindquarters on the ground and pensively stroked her chin with a hoof. "I guess you could call it a hurge, or maybe an ug."

Perplexed by Pinkie's odd explanation, Braeburn cocked his head to the side in bewilderment. "What if ya just combined the two words into a portmanteau?"

Pinkie Pie hummed thoughtfully for a moment before her eyes widened with satisfaction. "Urge-hug!" She yelled out before abruptly leaping the distance Braeburn had put between them and locking him in an even tighter embrace, the impact forcing him to slide back several feet; if Braeburn hadn't been so strong, stout, and sure hooved, he would have been knocked to the ground by the sudden attack.

Not knowing how to react, the surprise-stricken stallion once again patted her back with his hoof before Pinkie impulsively lunged away from him. "I need to go start planning for the bash tomorrow night, and I need to finish giving Gummy his bathy-wathy!" She giggled as she lifted Gummy off her back and snuggled her face against his, to which he responded by kicking his scaly little legs and hissing frantically.

Gummy's translation: "Dear Celestia, no!"

And without another word, Pinkie set off in a pink blur.

Dumbstruck, Braeburn stared at her as she made her way down the dirt path until she finally turned a corner and disappeared from his vision.

"We should probably get going, cuz, we wasted too much time." Apple Bloom called out.

"Yeah, Ah guess." Braeburn responded, seemingly unable to break his transfixed gaze from the direction he was looking.

"Did she traumatize you?" Scootaloo asked with a sarcastic smile.

"A bit," Braeburn answered.

"Just forget her - she's insane." Scootalloo remarked as she casually waved her hoof.

Pink blush lines formed on Braeburn's face as he smiled and turned to the little filly. "She ain't crazy... She's just..."

"Pathologically high-spirited?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Yeah, what you just said." Braeburn responded as he approached his little cousin. "It's adorable how smart you are. How can this tiny little head fit such a big brain?" Apple Bloom giggled as Braeburn ruffled her mane.

Braeburn looked once more in the direction where Pinkie Pie made her sudden exit. "Pathologically high-spirited." He said to himself with that laid-back smile of his.

Pinkie's invitation

The heat of the morning sun was just beginning to scorch the summer sky over Sweet Apple acres as Braeburn and Apple Jack stood at the top of a grassy hill that over looked the fertile land that was yet to be touched by the hooves of the Apple family. The Everfree forest loomed ominously in the distance, and beyond that was a rough terrain of hilly scenery and mountain crags that glowed clay red in the sun's light. Braeburn took in the site for all the glory that it was, smelling the fresh air, admiring the rising sun as he basked in it's warm light. The beauty of this place always seemed to remain the same, no matter how many times he'd come to visit. The labor-hungry stallion could feel almost as if the virgin land was beckoning to him.

Apple Jack looked to her cousin to gauge his response. Such a mission she had for him would be a daunting task for most, but her cousin surveyed the land and, as expected, he could only smile. "So do you think you can handle all of this before the summer's end, cuz?"

"This shouldn't be a problem," Braeburn replied to his cousin with a confident and determined grin.

"We have ordered saplings by the plot load, but the company that is supplying them can only bring so many in on one day." Apple Jack pointed to a large wagon that stood lonely in the middle of the vacant, grassy field. "Them there are the saplings we have for today. Plant all of those and then it should be lunch time. After that, you can come down to the orchards to help me and Big Mac with the apple buck'n for the rest of the day. Take a break whenever ya need one."

Braeburn turned his head to look at the wagon in which twelve apple tree saplings stood, ready to be planted. The sides of the cart had hooks that suspended all the tools that he would need: A shovel, a pick axe, a rope, and some stakes, just in case any of the saplings were too frail to stand up on their own.

Braeburn quickly took inventory of everything he brought with him in his saddle bag: His homemade bowie knife, a leather skin full of water, and a loaf of bread if he were to get hungry before it was lunch time.

"Ah got everything Ah need, cuz." The golden stallion confirmed with a smile and a nod.

"Alright, then. You know your job, and Ah got mine to do. I'll see ya at lunch time." Apple Jack gave her cousin a quick hug before turning away with a whip of her tail and a flick of her mane, and she was off to assist her hulking brother with their chores.

Braeburn's work was done how it always was: Quickly, efficiently, methodically, and without pause. His routine of digging the holes, then planting the saplings, then burying them had nearly put him in a trance. It was physically exhausting labor as the saplings were nice and heavy; just the way he liked them to be.

When he buried the saplings he had the shovel strike the earth at a quick, rhythmic pace. Braeburn made a game out of it. He moved the wagon farther away from his work site so he could carry the young trees a greater distance. One sapling was not enough for him. He'd hold one sapling in the cleft of each foreleg and balance another sapling on the back of his head; his fit physique and hardy constitution was honed through the years of this strange habit of turning even the least physically taxing of tasks into harsh tests of his endurance; it always made the work seem fun when it was more of a challenge.

The work-savvy stallion happily hummed to himself as he walked back to his wagon, and to his satisfaction, there were no saplings left to plant. He looked back at the land and paused proudly to survey his work. The twelve baby trees stood erect from the ground in a strait line. He then looked at the sun which was not yet at it's zenith, indicating that it was not time for lunch yet, but he was getting a bit hungry. He lashed his saddle bags to his flank and dug out the loaf of bread to eat it on his way back to the orchards where he was off to join his cousins.

He made his way from the grassy plane and into the thick orchards of his family farm toward the location his cousin told him she would be. But, just then, he heard a feminine voice that was not that of his cousins'; It was too high in pitch to be Apple Jack's, and it was too mature to be Apple Bloom's.

"Why can't I see him now?" The familiar voice rang out like a bell.

He then heard Apple Jack's voice. "Because, sugar cube, he's working on the new land, and it's crucial that he finishes planting those trees before the next shipment arrives."

The other voice became even higher and whinier than before. "But I'm having a welcome to ponyville party for him tonight, and he needs to know what time it will be!" The whiny voice was followed by a chorus of angry stamping hooves.

"He'll be here when he gets done. Can ya just sit tight?"

"No!" The whiny voice cracked and became even higher. "There are two ponies in Ponyville that haven't been accounted for, and I need to track them down before it's too late. That's two ponies, count em, two ponies that wont be able to make friends with him! If I were the sheriff around here that would be a federal offense!"

Braeburn could finally see her now. The pink mare was rolling around on the ground and thrashing her legs about like a spoiled little foal. Braeburn hated to admit it, but he would have liked to see her carry on for a bit longer; she just looks so darn cute when she's angry.

"Miss Pinky?" Braeburn called out. "What's all this ruckus about?"

"It's not a Ruckus!" She insisted. "It's a fracus!"

"Not too keen on the difference." Braeburn retorted. "What's got you in such a tizzy?"

"Apple Jack wont let me talk to you, because she's a meanie!"

"Well, that ain't very neighborly of her. Why ain't she letting you grace me with your presence?"

"Because!" The pink mare ranted as she proceeded to roll about and thrash her limbs. "You're out working in the field, and she thinks I'm going to distract you!"

Big Macintosh opened his mouth, about to speak, but Apple Jack raised a hoof and silenced him. "She'll figure it out in a minute, Big Mac. Just give it time."

"Oh," said Braeburn with a boyish grin. "Ah must be having one of them out of body experiences, then."

Pinkie Pie lay still for a moment and panted to catch her breath from her exhausting tantrum. She slowly rolled over to lay on her side and looked at Braeburn for a moment before her mind registered what Apple Jack and Big Mac had already figured out.

Braeburn's foresite and past experience with the Pink Mare had tipped him off to what was about to happen. He let Pinkie Pie stare at him a moment more as he walked and stopped in front of a sturdy looking apple tree.

Pinkie Pie's eyes and mouth widened into a radiant smile as she slowly began to rise to her hooves.

Smiling, Braeburn lifted his right rear leg and placed his hoof against the tree behind him.

Pinkie took one hop, a skip, and a jump before landing with her forelegs crouched down and her posterior in the air, her tail  and rump slowly wiggling about like a cat about to pounce.

Braeburn took a quick moment to push the tree with his hind leg to test it's sturdiness.

Then the pink mare took a bounding leap. "Urge-Hug!" she yelled out like a war cry.

She made solid impact, the force traveling down from Braeburn's chest, out through his hind leg, and absorbing into the tree which shook as the stallion transferred the power of pinkie's charge into it. An apple fell from the tree, and in a smooth display of dexterity and hoof-eye coordination, Braeburn deftly reached out and easily snatched it in mid air as Pinkie Pie hugged him. He then took a generous bite from it before wrapping his forelegs around Pinkie Pie in return, enjoying the embrace with a slight blush.

Apple Jack cocked a curious eyebrow as she observed Braeburn's behavior. His head was down so his hat would obscure his eyes, but his toothy grin and pink lines on his face that showed under his fur made his affection for her pink friend obvious.

Pinkie pie released her grip and skipped back so she could face her new friend.

"You got a lot of power in that hug of your, Miss Pinkie," Braeburn stated before he ate the last of the apple in two large bites, followed by the core, slinging it in the air and catching it in his mouth with a loud chomp.

"Ah, I was gonna ask for a bite!" Pinkie complained.

"Not a problem," Braeburn said before turning around and punching the tree lightly with the hoof of his right foreleg. Two apples fell and Braeburn snatched them both before they could touch the ground. He opened his gaping mouth and bit off  large portion of one of them before holding the other apple out for Pinkie Pie as he chewed with a content smile.

Pinkie Pie graciously took the apple before nibbling at it like a corn cob, the red, round sphere some how spinning about in her hooves as it gradually lost mass with each interval, and bits of the peel flew in every direction like a piece of lumber put to a circular saw.

Apple Jack and Big Macintosh watched on in silence as their strange interaction continued.

"Thank you!" She said cheerfully as she held the core out and spun it on her hoof.

"You don't eat the core?" asked Braeburn.

"Eww, no way. Did you know that apple seeds contain traces of cyanide? No thanks!"

"I'll take it off your hooves, then," Braeburn offered.

"Waste not want not," Pinkie replied before tossing it to Braeburn who playfully caught in his mouth and practically swallowed it whole.

Pinkie Pie snortled at the silly stallion.

Braeburn raised an eye brow and tilted his head slightly. "Apple Cores are good."

"Yeah, whatever you say," Replied Pinkie Pie, waving a dismissive hoof.

"What did you need to say to Braeburn?" Apple Jack reminded Pinkie Pie impatiently so they could get back to work.

"Oh, yeah!" The pink mare suddenly remembered. "The party is going to be at seven tonight. Everyone in Ponyville is invited. Make sure to bring your appetite."

"Well, shucks, miss Pinkie, I feel a bit awkward having a whole party in mah honor," Braeburn said. "Ah got an idea though."

"What's that?" Asked Pinkie.

"How about just you and me?" Braeburn asked with a shy, yet confident smile.

"Silly!" Pinkie responded. "A party isn't much of a party with only two ponies!"

"Ah know, but it don't gotta be a party. You can just show me around town. We can maybe have dinner, or see a movie, or both?"

Apple Jack leaned toward her big brother so only he could hear her. "Is it just me, or is Braeburn asking Pinkie Pie out on a date?"

"Eeyup," he answered.

"That sounds like it'd be fun, but everypony already knows about the party. That shell I launched in the sky yesterday was basically an invitation for everyone who could see it. It could hurt somepony's feelings if I just uninvited them so I could have you all to myself."

So she can have me all to herself? Braeburn thought for a second. As much as he liked the way she phrased that, she had a point.

"If you'd like though," Pinkie pie continued, "I could show you around town tomorrow night."

Braeburn smiled warmly before saying, "That sounds good to me, Miss Pinkie."

"So, you'll come to the party tonight?" Pinkie asked, her eyes widening into hopeful, shimmering orbs. "I promise it wont feel awkward. You'll be having to much fun for it to be."

"Of course. Ah'm look'n forward to it, so long as you'll be there."

"Of course, I'll be there, silly!" Pinkie laughed. "I'm the hostess with the mostest!"

Braeburn looked down for a moment, completely forgetting his obligations to his cousins for that instant. Then he blurted, "You wanna do something until then?" He could hear Apple Jack clearing her throat loudly. He looked at his impatient cousin for a moment who cocked an eye brow as she glared at him.

"Ah think ya got some prior duties to fulfill before ya run off and elope with Pinkie, cuz!"

Embarrassed, yet composed, Braeburn smiled sheepishly and said, "On second thought... I'll see ya at seven."

"Great!" Pinkie Pie cheered and, to Braeburn's surprise and bewilderment, the mare threw a hoof full of confetti in the air before bouncing around excitedly on her tail.

"I still have to track down two more ponies, so I can get a head count of all who are coming. I'll see you tonight."

"Yeah," Braeburn answered in a far away tone as he rubbed the stubble on his chin, perplexed as to the origins of the confetti the pink mare had just strewn about.

"I'll see you around~" she said playfully in a singsong voice before abruptly ending their conversation and skipping away merrily.

Braeburn watched her leave, admiring her tail, among other things, as the exuberant mare sang to herself while she bounced gleefully back toward the town of Ponyville.

The confetti anomaly was quickly thrown from his thoughts as the stallion could feel his pulse quickening, spreading out all four of his legs, he slowly slumped to the ground on his belly, little hearts practically rising from him and bursting with little pops as he blushed profusely with a narrow eyed smile.

"Well, well," He heard Apple Jack laugh..

"Hmm?" Braeburn hummed questioningly in response, seemingly still intoxicated in his state of romantic euphoria.

"You got yourself a little crush, Ah take it." Apple Jack said amusingly.

Braeburn rolled over to his back to look up at his cousin who was now beaming at him. "Now that's a mare, Ah tell ya."

"Yep," Apple Jack agreed. "She's definitely a mare alright. Of that I am certain."

The love struck stallion rolled over to his belly before getting back to his hooves. "Alright," he said. "Let's get to the apple buck'n."

"You sure snapped out of that fast," Apple Jack commented, surprised by Braeburn's sudden change in disposition.

"We need to get this over with as soon as possible. Ah saw a beehive on mah way back to you guys." The stallion's brain seemed to race with an assortment of different thoughts as he brought up the random topic.

"Uhh... Alright, then." Apple Jack commented as she took her hat off and scratched her head confusedly. She looked back at her brother who had already returned to his labor without saying anything. Not giving it anymore thought, she stayed quite and shrugged her cousin's vague statement off before returning to her work.

And the day went on as it usually did for the Apple family as they toiled in the orchards. Braeburn was successful in providing entertainment throughout the day with his silly antics and quips which made the day for his cousins seem as if it went by faster than it actually did. Eventually, the sun began to lower, and it's radiant shine dimmed to an orange, rippling glow as it had begun set.

Apple Jack wiped the sweat from her brow as she inspected the wagons that contained the apples they had harvested for the day. "This is a nice haul. Ah don't think we've ever had this much in one day. Ah'm mighty proud of you, Braeburn! You did fine work, like always!"

"He's gone," said Big Mac.

Apple Jack's mane whipped as she spun around. "Where'd he run off to? He does know that his party is starting in a few hours, don't he?"

"He said something about a beehive before he ran off..."

"Again with the beehive," Apple Jack sighed. "You don't think he's up to something dangerous, do ya?"

Her tired-eyed brother could only respond with a curt shrug.

Pinkie Fever

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.

Nuzzle

"Come on." said Pinkie Pie as she dragged the stallion along behind her. "It's up the stairs on the fourth tier of the bakery."

Pinkie's room... Pinkie's bedroom... Braeburn's thoughts were muddled and chaotic as they jumbled around in his mind. Which one should Ah call it? Would 'bedroom' sound too intimate?

Pinkie Pie stopped just as they approached the fourth tier of the bakery, into the area where the ceiling opened up through means of a small cord attached to a rectangular door, like the entrance to an attic into her circular, cupcake shaped room. "Why did you get so quite all of the sudden?" She asked as she fished around in the dark for the draw cord.

"Just anticipating all the crazy things ah might see in your bedroo— er... room, Miss Pinkie." Braeburn chuckled awkwardly as he thought of the possibility of a plethora of military ordnance scattered about her room in place of the usual teddy bears or plush toys a normal girl would most likely have.

"Found it!" The pink mare cheered before pulling hard on the cord which sent a collapsible ladder unfolding downward at a dangerous speed. It struck the unsuspecting stallion in the face and sent him reeling backwards. Fortunately, he was able to grab onto the railing of the stairs and catch himself before he was knocked completely off his hooves and sent tumbling down the spiral staircase.

"By the way," Pinkie Pie pointed out. "There are some fold-up stairs that come down when I pull this cord. Just thought I'd give you the heads up."

Braeburn smiled as he rubbed the new bruise on his face. "Ah'll keep note of that, Miss PInkie." He then thought back to the time when Pinkie had accidentally tackled him and smashed his head against the well. He involuntarily rubbed the back of his head and felt the solid lump that had formed when he had made impact and cracked the cobblestone. It was quite clear that if Braeburn was going to spend time with this mare, he'd have to endure some lumps and bruises. Was it worth it?

A light suddenly clicked on from above him. Pinkie Pie had obviously found the switch that lit her room. Her smiling face suddenly popped up in the roof's opening like a jack in the box. Braeburn was instantly enamored by the mares bright blue eyes that glinted off the light like beautiful sapphire flames.

Totally worth it...

"Are you just going to keep staring at me, or are you coming up?" Pinkie Pie asked with a sideways glance that instantly snapped Braeburn back to reality. He took hold of the wobbly staircase and climbed upward into the attic-like opening.

He popped his head up through the overhead entrance and scanned his surroundings. Pinkie Pie's bed lay at one end of the room which had a very thick, purple quilt laying over it. Upon it lay a sleeping gummy who was curled into a green, scaly ball as he snored softly. He opened one of his purple eyes which met Braeburn's for only a brief moment before opening it's mouth wide with a disinterested yawn and falling back asleep.

Braeburn continued to look around at his surroundings and saw nothing that was really out of the ordinary. He ascended through the entrance and beheld this circular, spacious room in which he stood. A sweet scent pervaded the air that slightly tickled the stallions sinuses for a moment, but he couldn't quite place a name on it; it smelled sweet and spicy, but the scent was all together unfamiliar. One of the things that did impress Braeburn was the projector screen that stretched from the ceiling, down to the floor on Pinkie Pie's wall, opposite of the side of room where her bed was. Next to the screen lay a box which contained stacks of thrity five millimeter film reels, most likely movies for her projector screen; it wasn't often you'd find anyone with their own home theater system. Watching a movie in the comfort of your home? Without having to go to a theater? Braeburn thought to himself. Utter madness!

He then looked up and took note of the white, star-shaped stickers that were placed all over her bedroom ceiling. He scratched his chin quizzically for a moment before the lights suddenly shut off on him.

"I see you're checking out my stickers." Pinkie giggled in the darkness.

The star-shaped stickers glowed faintly in the twilight of her room just as the real stars did in the night sky. "That's impressive, Pinkie Pie."

Braeburn jumped when he heard Pinkie Pie make a sudden high pitched sound. The lights suddenly flicked on, revealing Pinkie Pie looking at him with a giddy smile.

"Something wrong?"

Pinkie shook her head slowly. "No," she replied. "That's just the first time you used my actual name without referring to me as 'miss,' or 'm'am."

"That really makes you that happy?"

Pinkie Pie closed the distance between her and the stallion with three bounding leaps before coming to an instant stop. She smiled warmly, which made Braeburn struggle to keep from shuddering as that grin of hers continued to send his affections for her soaring. "That makes me very happy." She stated, seemingly oblivious to how hot and bothered her smile was making her new friend. "I really would prefer it if you'd just drop the formalities and call me by my name."

"If that is your wish, Miss P— er, Pinkie Pie."

The pink mare snortled with a hoof over her mouth. "You're silly when you're nervous."

That struck a nerve with the golden stallion as he had just realized how nervous he really was. Was he really so nervous to the point where he was actually showing it? He had a reputation back in his town for having nerves of steel, but he had to admit as he looked at Pinkie Pie, knowing that the time would soon come where he would have to admit his feelings for her: he was absolutely nervous. Practically quivering with anxiety.

"So, why are you so nervous?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Did you think I brought you up here to knock you out with a drugged cupcake, so I can drag you to a hidden cellar and restrain you to a table to torture you at my leisure, or something?" Pinkie Pie snortled again. "That's silly. You're silly!"

Braeburn's eyes widened in surprise at the pink mare's sudden macabre outburst. He cleared his throat before turning the subject away from creepy-town. "So, uh, you said something about showing me something cool?"

Pinkie pie suddenly gasped. "That's right!" The pink mare sauntered over to her bed, reached under it, and retrieved that rocket launcher Braeburn had so adored envisioning her with. "Come with me." She then strapped the device over her back and skipped to a pair of glass double doors behind a thick, pink curtain.

His curiosity roused, Braeburn followed her to the doors, feeling a breeze from the cool night air as he drew closer, and closer before finally pushing aside the curtain and meeting Pinkie Pie's happy gaze as he stepped on the outside deck. He looked over at Pinkie who bit down on her lower lip as her eyes narrowed in concentration while she fiddled about with her rocket launcher.

He looked out beyond the deck and admired the lamp-lit streets of Ponyville. He looked beyond it's borders and saw a section of sweet apple acres, as well. He couldn't help but feel a sudden twinge of envy for Pinkie Pie who had access to such a magnificent view at night.  He quickly pushed those feelings out of mind as soon as he looked back at Pinkie Pie, who still seemed to be occupied with what ever she was doing with her launcher.

You provide a view more beautiful than any landscape, He thought with an affectionate smile.

"Got it!"

Braeburn jumped at Pinkie Pie's sudden cry of triumph.

"What did ya get, exactly?"

Pinkie Pie didn't answer. She knelt down on one knee, placed the large barrel of her launcher over the railing, and fired a shell without giving warning.

Braeburn watched as the projectile left a trail of smoke in it's wake before it burst into a magnificent display of dancing sparks and fire that lit up the night sky with a loud boom.

"I made that shell just for you," Pinkie commented with a cute smirk as she set her forelegs on the railing and rested her head on her hooves. "You seemed so excited by that rocket i fired for you the other day - I just had to make something spectacular for you! They look even better at nighttime, don't you think?"

Braeburn watched with his mouth agape and his eyes wide as saucers. He slowly removed his hat and placed it over his chest as he marveled at the display in front of him.

This... This is love... This is love that Ah'm feeling... He took a few shallow breaths.

"You don't have to act that impressed just for my benefit." Pinkie Pie giggled modestly.

Braeburn turned to look at Pinkie Pie, then immediately turned to the explosion in the sky. His wide, disbelieving eyes narrowed into his laid-back smile.

No more being nervous. If she says no, she says no. The world will keep turning. He took a deep, cleansing breath and let the muscles in his body relax. He closed his eyes and pointed his muzzle to the sky as he thought of the right words to use. He wished his cousin didn't point out to him that he had never told a mare he liked them before, that they always seemed to be the ones throwing themselves at him. His lack of experience didn't do well for his confidence. He once again, pushed his nervous feelings out of him, and just spoke naturally. He would simply word whatever came to mind.

"Miss Pinkie?"

"Hmmmm?"

"Ah don't suppose - you got somepony you're seein' at the moment?"

"I'm seeing you right now, silly!"

Braeburn chuckled at that; that was adorable.

"Ah mean..." Braeburn rubbed the back of his head shyly. "Do you have a special somepony? Somepony you're currently with, or maybe have your eyes set on?"

Braeburn looked to Pinkie Pie to gauge her reaction.

Pinkie Pie's smile slowly dimmed as her eyes darted around awkwardly. "N-no... No one like that..."

Braeburn was alarmed at Pinkie Pie's sudden change in demeanor. Her happy, care free expression was suddenly dimmed with - anxiety? Fear? Depression? He couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"I.. I have a lot of friends, though!" She suddenly blurted. "Everypony in town is a good friend of mine! Berry Punch, June Bug, Derpy, Colgate, Pokey Pierce, Carrot Top, Rose, Vinyl Scratch, Cherilee," Her voice became faster and more insistent with each name down her list until she finally finished with "and lets not forget my five best friends in the world!"

"Did Ah say somethin' to upset you?" Braeburn asked, alarmed and concerned.

"Of course not, silly," Pinkie Pie answered, doing her best to feign her usual happy, energetic personality with an obviously forced smile on her face.

"Pinkie... Whatever Ah said... Ah'm sorry..."

"You didn't do anything," Pinkie responded, no longer bothering to go on with her happy-go-lucky facade. Braeburn watched as her eyes were now expressionless, devoid of all emotion, as if she was deep in thought while looking out at the sky.

"What did you think of the fireworks?"

"Pinkie, please don't change the subject. Ah know Ah must'a said somethin' to upset you."

"When you asked me..."  Pinkie Pie laughed humorlessly and made a dismissive gesture with her hoof. "Nah, I'm okay." She forced another smile for the stallion's benefit.

"When Ah asked you if you had anyone you liked?" Braeburn guessed.

Pinkie's eyes darted around again. "Hey, you wanna go back down to the party? I'll bet there's some leftovers. I'm getting kinda hungry."

Braeburn, knowing he must have done something wrong, knowing what ever he did, he just blew his chance with her, sighed in defeat. "Sure."

With a solemn and heavy heart, he turned from the ledge of the balcony and started toward the exit. And the world... will keep turning...

Pinkie Pie suddenly reached toward him with a hoof. "Wait!"

Braeburn's ear twitched before he looked back at her. This time it was him who was forcing a smile. "Yes, Miss Pinkie?"

Pinkie pie had a hoof over her head as if she was suffering from a migraine. "Can you keep a secret?"

"A secret?"

"Yeah," responded Pinkie Pie with a weak smile. "Let's make a deal: I'll tell you a secret, then, as collateral, so I know you'll keep it between us, you have to tell me one of your secrets."

Braeburn looked at his saddle bag at his side that contained the gift he had brought for her, then smiled. "Sounds fair."

"Lets go inside," suggested Pinkie Pie after looking down at the streets below suspiciously. She then turned around and followed Braeburn inside, shutting the glass door and drawing the curtain behind her.

Pinkie Pie walked slowly to her bed and sat down on it's edge. Gummy, sensing that his mother was upset, stirred from his sleep and crawled into her lap, and it was there he snuggled his head against her. Pinkie Pie smiled slightly as she gently stroked her pet's scaly back.

Braeburn thought about sitting on her bed next to her, but quickly thought better of it, and just sat across from her on the floor. She just sat, looking down at her baby alligator for a good long while before she spoke while Braeburn waited patiently with, what he hoped, was a comforting smile.

"I'm sorry I got a little weird on you so suddenly..."

"Ah really do apologize, Miss Pinkie, but you can tell me all day and night that it wasn't something Ah said, but you and I both know that's not true."

Pinkie Pie smiled. "Call me Pinkie Pie."

"Sorry, Miss P— er Pinkie Pie."

Pinkie Pie laughed. "I know that you think you did something wrong, but you didn't. And... That's why I'm telling you - what I'm about to tell you. I would feel bad if I thought you went home kicking yourself over assumptions. The reason why I don't share this story often is because it upsets me, and looking back on it, it's kind of stupid that it bothers me so much."

"Pinkie Pie, I ain't gonna laugh at you, and no matter what it is, it's not going to make me think any different of you."

"Promise?"

Braeburn went through an array of strange, foreign gestures with his hooves before looking at Pinkie Pie with a silly grin.

"What's all that mean?"

Braeburn smiled even wider "Ah just crossed mah heart with your secret it in it, cut mah chest open, removed my heart, sealed it in a lead box, dug a hole, buried it, built a mansion over the hole, saw that somebody realized the floor boards looked strange where the hole was under the floor boards, then blew up the house along with the box containing my heart which contained your secret along with whom ever thought there may be a chance that those floor boards looked different and may contain a secret."

Pinkie Pie stared at Braeburn for a moment before her mouth turned upward in a tight-lipped smile as if she were trying to hold it back before bursting into a sudden fit of laughter. When the laughter died, she wiped the tear from her eye. She looked back at Braeburn, who was still beaming that silly grin before he once again made that 'blowing up the house' gesture with his hooves as if to emphasise that he would take her secret to the grave with him. Pinkie Pie laughed again.

"I wont be able to tell you if you keep making me laugh!"

"Just thought Ah'd loosen you up with a little giggle."

"You did," Pinkie Pie panted. "Thank you so much for that."

As happy and appreciative the pink mare seemed to be, her smile seemed to slowly diminish again. "All jokes aside..."

Braeburn, knowing it was time to be serious now, wiped the stupid grin from his face, and went back to that attentive smile of his.

Pinkie took a slow and deep breath. "I was a really awkward-looking kid..."

"Is that it?"

"No, it's not. Well - it's part of it..."

"Whenever you're ready, Pinkie. Take all the time you need." Braeburn said sincerely, hoping he didn't just sound as if he was being sarcastic.

"I was a little pudgy... I had acne... braces that made me sound like I had a lisp...My mane was even more unruly back then than it is now," Pinkie Pie then looked up at Braeburn as if she was expecting him to reply to her next statement. "And believe it or not, I was a bit of a spazz."

"...R-really..?" Braeburn replied, trying with all his might to not sound sarcastic.

"Hard to believe, I know."

Braeburn was beginning to wonder if Pinkie Pie was the one who was being sarcastic.

"Well... During hearts and hooves day at school, I had finally worked up the nerve to tell this boy that I really liked, that, well - I liked him."

Pinkie Pie suddenly choked. "This is really silly that I'm still so hung up about this..."

"Ah'm guessing he didn't feel the same way?"

Pinkie hid her face under her forelegs. "If it was just that, it would have been fine."

Braeburn slowly reached out to give Pinkie a hug, but before he could even touch her, she threw herself into him and buried her face into his chest. He then slowly brought her back to the bed, set her down, and continued to hold onto her as he sat next to her.

"He pushed me down..."

Braeburn's eyes widened in surprise.

"He said I was fat." She looked up at him with a veil of tears over her eyes. "I know that girls get weird about being called fat, and I know boys think it's stupid when we do that, but he just said it with such a cruel pleasure on his face. This was the boy that I liked saying this to me!"

Braeburn gave her a caring smile before lowering his head close to hers and whispered softly "and then what happened?"

"He said—" she sniffled. "He said I was more sow than filly, then his friends joined in, then some of the girls even joined in. The boys took to referring to me as a pig, but the girls preferred to call me a cow."

Braeburn could feel a tear of his own rolling down his cheek as he felt her grip on him becoming tighter. "Where was the teacher?"

"She didn't stop it; even she thought some of the things they were calling me were funny! I was upset, but I figured that there was always a better tomorrow. But after that day, it just wouldn't stop. Through that freak chain reaction on hearts and hooves day, all the other kids in the class room designated me to be their source of entertainment. I was the butt of everyone's jokes. I was the one they'd snicker at as I passed them by on the playground. I was always a bit of a loner in school before that; it was almost as if I was invisible. I would have happily gone with that if I could have gone back to it, but I quickly went from being invisible, to not being able to be left alone, no matter how hard I tried to go unnoticed."

"Then what happened?" Braeburn whispered again.

"I got older." She replied laconically. "I stayed the same weight as I grew. The braces eventually came off. My acne cleared up... They just left me alone after that."

Braeburn could now feel her grip loosening from around him.

"To give you a belated answer to your question, Braeburn, no."

He cocked his head sideways in confusion.

Pinkie Pie sighed. "I don't have a special somepony. I have never in my life had one. And I don't plan on ever having one." She then looked back at Braeburn accusingly.

"I know you think it's stupid! Don't deny it! To be so upset about something that happened so long ago! I don't blame you for thinking it's stupid! Heck, even I think it's stupid!"

Braeburn smiled, got down from the bed, removed his saddle bag, then began ruffling through it as Pinkie Pie continued her rant.

"I'm in my early twenties... I've never had anyone to call a very special somepony... But I guess when you're—" She sniffed as she whipped her eyes with her leg. "More sow than filly," her voice cracked. "It's rather hard to find someone who can stomach being around you. But, don't feel sorry for me. That's not what I want. I'm very happy. I have a good life, a good job, lots of friends..."

She turned around to see Braeburn standing there with a smile on his face and a jar in hoof. She looked at him dumbly for a moment.

"Miss Pinkie, Ah came to this here party with one intention tonight: to admit to you my feelings. Ah know this may seem like a strange gift to be a symbol of mah affection, but Ah figured something that Ah went out and got myself instead of something store bought would be better."

Pinkie Pie stepped back. "You're just saying that to make me feel better..."

"No," Braeburn chuckled. "Ah'm not. Look at the sincerity on my face before you call me a liar."

Pinkie looked away defiantly. "Please, stop it, Braeburn. I'm not a child. Don't just tell me something I want to hear to make me feel better..." Pinkie Pie's eyes widened as if she had just made a mistake. "I mean - something you think I want to hear."

"Pinkie Pie... Why would Ah have brought you a gift - a token of mah affection for you - if ah wasn't sincere?"

"Braeburn... Please, stop," Pinkie pleaded.

"You really think Ah'm so cruel that ah'd do this to you after the story you just told me?"

"I don't think you're being cruel," Pinkie answered somberly. "I think you're trying to be nice. But if you think about it, it is kinda cruel..."

"Why in the world do you think Ah wouldn't like you?"

Pinkie looked Braeburn over for a moment before walking to her dresser mirror on the other side of the room. She looked into her reflection with disgust before she mumbled something unintelligible.

"Didn't catch that."

Pinkie Pie sighed impatiently. "I said 'because, look at you.'"

Braeburn, taking what she had just said as literal as possible, looked down at himself with a flummoxed expression on his face.

"and..." Pinkie Pie looked back into the mirror. "Look at me..."

Pinkie Pie looked down at her dresser in frustration when she heard Braeburn chuckle.

"Ah am looking at you. Ah can't not look at you when you're around."

"Yeah," Pinkie Pie growled in agreement. "Because I'm so—"

"Beautiful."

Pinkie Pie had finally decided that she had had enough. She turned around, walked right up to Braeburn, and sat with a look on her face that was so serious, it was kinda cute.

"What do I gotta do to show you how serious Ah am?" Braeburn asked.

The next words on Pinkie Pie's lips were so sudden, so without emotion, the blushing stallion couldn't believe she had just said it.

"Nuzzle me!" She demanded with a harrumph and a twist of her head with her eyes closed in a haughty expression.

"You want me to give you a nuzzle?" Braeburn asked in disbelief, not knowing if she was serious. "We ain't even been on a date yet, and as a gentlecolt, I'm a firm believer that—"

"I thought so." Pinkie interrupted conclusively, knowing that not even Braeburn would take his fib so far as to steal her first nuzzle from her so disingenuously, which made it all the more alarming to her when she opened her eyes, looked at him, and nearly jumped when his face was only an inch from hers.

"Miss Pinkie."

"C-call me P-pinkie pi—"

Braeburn moved in, then slowly and gently caressed the tip of his muzzle against hers affectionately. When he moved back, she stared at him blankly, her heart pounding, her legs shaking, her face hot and red like blazing coals.

"You were saying?" Braeburn asked, grinning all the while.

"Call me what ever you want..."

Pokey Pierce jerked back to consciousness before wiping the drool from his mouth and neck. The first thing he checked was his watch. "Alright, everypony. It's getting late!" He shouted over the music so the last few remaining party guests could hear him. "Most of you have to be at work in the morning, and I for one have a busy night ahead of me after I help Pinkie Pie clean this place up, so if you don't mind..." The unicorn looked among the remaining party guests, but could not find that pink mare among them. "Where's Pinkie Pie?"

"You didn't see?" rang out a masculine voice. Pokey Pierce turned his head to see Apple Jack standing next to an inebriated Berry Punch. On the other side of her stood a tall, wiry-looking stallion he recognized, but couldn't place a name with his face.

"Didn't see what?" Asked Pokey Pierce.

The stallion and Apple Jack looked at each other and shared a brief chuckle. Apple Jack then sat next to Pokey Pierce and informed him that the last time Pinkie was seen, she was dragging Braeburn behind her to her room.

"What?! Braeburn dragged her away to her room?!" Pokey Pierce was suddenly fuming with ire.

Apple Jack face-hoofed. "No, sugarcube, listen to ponies when they speak. "She was dragging him."

Apple Jack jumped with a start when Pokey Pierce suddenly slammed his hoof hard on the table. "This will not do! You just let that animal whisk her away as she kicked and screamed for help?!"

The chestnut-maned stallion was now the one to face-hoof. "SHE was dragging HIM!"

"And they bofe seemed pretty conshenchual about it," Berry Punch added with a loud hiccup. "Lucky girl!"

Apple Jack leaned over the table. "Caramel? Sugarcube? Can ya make sure she gets home safe?"

Caramel nodded in agreement before placing a concerned hoof on Berry Punch's back. "C'mon, lets get you home."

"I want another cupcake!" she protested.

"We'll get you a cupcake, but then I'm taking you home."

"Nopony sees anything wrong with all this?!" Pokey Pierce blurted.

"Wrong with what, sugarcube?" Apple Jack asked.

"That lascivious, conniving, deviant stallion! Your cousin, whom, by the way, Pinkie Pie went through so much effort for, forcing himself on poor Pinkie Pie. This will not stand! I will not stand for this!" The infuriated unicorn shot up from his seat and stomped toward the spiral staircase. Apple Jack immediately jumped in his way and barred his path.

"Now, hold on a second, sugarcube! Ah will not let you talk about mah cousin that way, and Ah done told you, Pinkie was the one who took him upstairs! Braeburn is a gentlecolt! He knows how to treat a lady, so quite your worrying!"

"How can you be sure?" Pokey Pierce sneered,

"Because, Ah know mah cousin! He would never hurt her - specially not in what ever sick way you're thinkin'! I'll bet you anything he's already admitted his feelings to her in the sweetest way imaginable, and, who knows? Maybe Pinkie likes him too?"

Hearing this, Pokey Pierce's expression became even more enraged than ever. "He's not good enough for her!" he said in a strange, high pitched squeal which made Apple Jack giggle.

"You're just oozin' with manliness, ain't ya?" the blonde mare laughed.

"I don't have time for this. Move!"

"Nope."

"You think I wont hit a girl?!"

Apple Jack grabbed Pokey Pierce by his horn, then pulled his face close to hers before narrowing her eyes dangerously. "You think AH wont...? Sugarcube?"

Pokey Pierce, looking slightly intimidated, pulled his horn free from her grip. "You know what, Miss Apple Jack?"

Apple Jack, keeping her eyes narrowed, tilted her head slightly.

"I'm sorry. You're right."

Apple Jack's eyes rounded in surprise as her aggressive posture relaxed. "Oh, uh, well. Ah'm sorry, too. Y'all can understand me defending mah family, and all. It's just that Braeburn really likes her, and Ah want him to be happy. Ah want Pinkie Pie to be happy, too; Ah love them both very much."

"That's sweet." Pokey Pierce smiled."Hey, wanna see something cool?"

"What's that?" Apple Jack asked with genuine interest.

"Keep your eye on the birdy." Pokey Pierce said with an innocent smile as his horn began to resonate with energy.

Apple Jack stared at the tip of his horn. "Huh? This another one of your magic tricks?"

Pokey Pierce suddenly loosed a gout of blinding light from his horn, incapacitating Apple Jack as she fell backwards rubbing her eyes.

"Pokey, you dirty rat! When Ah get mah hooves on you!"

Pokey Pierce didn't care to stick around and listen to her threats. He scaled the stairs as fast as he could, his hoofs clopping hard on the metal as he bared his teeth in anger.

Pinkie Pie and Braeburn sat side-by-side on her balcony as she nestled her and rubbed her muzzle gently on the side of Braeburn's neck. "So, you wanna do something tomorrow night?" She sighed.

Braeburn's smile gleamed off the moonlight with his leg over her. "Sounds good. The night after sounds nice, too. Maybe we can catch movie?"

Pinkie Pie hummed contently. "I have some movies, and a home theater system. You can just come up here if we decide to see a movie." She rubbed her snout against the side of his neck again.

"It's a date," Braeburn concluded as he attempted to control his shuddering. "We should probably get down stairs. Ah gotta work tomorrow, and mah cousin is probably wonderin' where Ah ran off to."

"No," Pinkie ordered playfully before wrapping her forelegs tightly around her stallion.

Braeburn laughed. He turned his head toward her, and they nuzzled again.

Their brief moment of affection was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Pinkie's glass door flying open behind them.

The couple both looked at Pokey Pierce who stood their huffing angrily with an accusing scowl.

Pinkie Pie didn't even so much as try to hide her annoyance with the interruption. "Have you ever heard of knocking?"

Pokey Pierce ignored her protests as he frowned at the stallion who had her in his in his forefronts. "Unhoof her, you... you... Molester!"

Accusations And Revelations

Pokey Pierce winced in agony as Braeburn had him pinned against the railing of the balcony with his leg wrenched painfully behind him in an almost unnatural angle.

"Savage!" he yelled. "Molester!"

"Ah'm the savage?" Braeburn asked. "You're the one who charged at me with that horn of yours like a rampaging bull."

"Pokey, what's wrong with you?!" Pinkie Pie asked in a panic. "I've never seen you act like this before!"

Pokey Pierce, without answering, pointed his horn upward, and once again, channeled his arcane energy through it. He produced another blinding orb of light, but Braeburn quickly ducked his head down and shielded his eyes with the brim of his hat.

"What?!"

"You think Ah ain't never seen a trick like that before?" Braeburn responded before wrenching the unicorn's leg even harder, to which Pokey responded by letting out an involuntary, feminine-sounding squeal.

"You okay, Darlin?" Braeburn asked concernedly, not taking his eyes off his opponent.

"I had a feeling that was coming, so I shielded my eyes. He kinda does that alot," She answered.

"Good," Braeburn responded. "Partner," he said to Pokey. "Ah'm gonna let you go. Ah suggest you take a few breaths and check your attitude. And if you try to attack me again, Ah reckon you should use somethin' better than a cheap shot, or some cheap parlor trick. Because if it don't put me down, Ah'm putt'n you down. You dig?"

"Who in tartarus uses that expression anymo—"

Braeburn torqued his leg harder.

"AHHH OKAY, I DIG!"

Braeburn released his grip on the unicorn who stumbled backwards and rubbed his throbbing joints. "You think this is some silver screen western flick where it's okay to just assault someone at the drop of a hat?" Pokey spat.

"Partner, you came at me," Braeburn countered.

"Shut up!" Pokey Pierce growled. "Come on, Pinkie, I'm here to rescue you from this savage!"

The irate unicorn grabbed pinkie by her foreleg, then attempted to pull her away, but his attempts were in vain as she threw her free leg over the back of Braeburn's neck and tightly anchored herself to him.

"Let me go!" Pinkie demanded. "You're jumping to conclusions again, Pokey!"

"I know filth when I see it!" Pokey said as he pulled on her even harder.

"Pokey, you're hurting me!"

Braeburn's eyes flashed as he took Pinkie and pulled her away from the unicorn, setting her behind him then taking a firm, protective stance in front of her, obscuring her from view as she rubbed her bruised leg.

The staunch protector smiled dangerously and imposingly. "Sir, Ah will have you know that Ah detest violence, and Ah will always avoid engaging in confrontation whenever possible - but if you lay another hoof on Pinkie, you're going to see a whole nother side of me that Ah do not wish for her to see." He then turned his head slightly. "You okay, darlin?"

"I'm fine." Pinkie said with a smile as she rested her head on Braeburn's back.

"Darlin?" Pokey scoffed. "You Apple Family kin really are a bunch of rednecks, aren't you? No wonder manual labor is the only thing you're good at."

Much to Pokey Pierce's annoyance, the golden stallion only retorted with yet another gleaming smile.

"Pokey!" Pinkie Pie yelled in surprise. "What's wrong with you all of the sudden?"

"You want to know what's wrong with me?" Pokey Pierce pointed an accusing hoof in Braeburn's direction. "You are what's wrong with me! You think you can just come to this town and do whatever you want? You come in here with your... your... muscles, and your chiseled features,,, and your...your...hat!"

"That's what Ah been doin' so far, Ah guess," Braeburn laughed innocently.

The silver-maned unicorn's upper lip curled into a sneer. "You leave Pinkie Pie alone. She doesn't like you!"

Pinkie Pie stepped out from behind Braeburn and snuggled up to the side of him, all the while looking up at him with a blushing smile. "On the contrary," she giggled.

Pokey Pierce's jaw nearly dropped through the ground. "How?! How did you do it?!"

Braeburn cocked an eyebrow. "Do what, partner?"

"You used a love poison, didn't you?" Pokey Pierce hissed. "You slipped a roofie in her punch, didn't you! Oh, thank Celestia, I got here just in time before you assaulted her!"

"Pokey!" Pinkie Pie cut him off. "He didn't drug me. He's not using a magic poison. And stop treating me like a child! And if you say one more mean thing to my Braeburn, I'll... I'll.. Bite your face!"

Pokey Pierce fell silent for a moment. "'Your' Braeburn?"

"That's right," Pinkie answered with a harrumph.

"And you'd actually jump to his defense - against me?"

"Mmhmm," Pinkie answered with a high pitched hum, her eyes closed and muzzle lifted in a haughty expression.

"It's okay, darlin'." Braeburn said soothingly as he pulled Pinkie Pie closer. "Ah think Ah get the problem here." He made direct and determined eye contact with Pokey Pierce. "Ah think his heart's just been broken. Ah think this is just his way of venting his frustration."

"Don't you judge me, Braeburn!" Pokey Pierce suddenly snapped.

Braeburn shrugged in response. "You're right, sir. Ah'm sorry."

"Now you're mocking me!"

"Ah would never kick someone when they're down."

The blue unicorn's voice suddenly became high pitched, and very offensive to the senses. "What?! Down?! I'm not down! What does that even mean?! You think you can take me down? Well, c'mon, then! I'm not afraid of you!"

Pinkie gave Braeburn an affectionate smile. "Here he is being all mean to you, and you respond to him with kindness, forgiveness, and understanding." The pink mare's eyes shimmered with a new found appreciation for Braeburn. "You're just too sweet!" She then put her hooves against him, stood up on her hind legs and reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Sugar," Braeburn whispered. "As much as ah appreciate your gestures of affection, you should probably hold off on them in front of him. Ah think he likes you."

"What?!" Pinkie Pie revolted in surprise. "No, no, no, no, no. Pokey is a friend... I think... I'm not sure anymore with how he's been talking to you..."

"It's true, Pinkie!" Pokey admitted.

"We have known each other for four years. You've never even once given me a hint that you liked me."

"It's because I'm a coward! I admit it!" Pokey Pierce made melodramatic gestures with his hooves. "And here comes this clown!" Pokey pointed at Braeburn, "and he steals you away from me!"

"He didn't 'steal' me away from you. He openly admitted his feelings for me after only being her for two days." Pinkie Pie pointed out matter-of-factly. "You had four years!"

"So, if I had just came out and told you that I liked you, you'd end up being with me?"

Pinkie Pie thought for a good long while with her hoof on her chin. "Probably not."

"This is turning into a soap opera," Braeburn commented under his breath before looking out from the balcony. "Look, mister, Ah'm sorry about your broken heart, and Ah know it's painful, and the last pony in the world you probably want to hear that from is me, but if you ever need someone to talk to, Ah'm stay'n at Sweet Apple Acres with mah kin." Braeburn then turned slowly and gave the unicorn a fierce scowl. "But Ah better never hear about you laying a hoof on miss Pinkie again, and if you come down to sweet apple acres to talk to me, you better leave the drama at home. Ah ain't gonna fight you for Pinkie Pie like a couple o' stupid roosters over the mating rights to a hen."

Pokey Pierce glared at Braeburn as if he were trying to intimidate him before they both heard a loud thump from inside Pinkie Pie's room.

"Pokey Pierce, Ah'm gonna turn you inside out!"

"Her vision wasn't suppose to come back to her for another hour!" Pokey's eyes widened in sudden terror before running over to Braeburn and cowering behind him. "Tell your cousin I'm not here!" he blurted.

"Pokey? That you? Where you at, boy!"

"Ah think she knows, partner," Braeburn laughed.

Apple Jack threw aside the pink curtains and revealed herself, standing there looking around with flames where her green eyes normally were. "Where is he?!"

"Where's who?" Braeburn laughed innocently,

"Don't play games with me, cuz, Ah heard him out here!"

"What happened?"

"That darn polecat blinded me with some kinda spell! Ah was trippin' and stumblin' around like Berry Punch for a good ten minutes before mah vision came back to me!"

Braeburn shot an outraged look at Pokey who still coward behind him. "You used that filthy, cheap spell to blind mah cousin!?"

"I didn't mean to!" He lied.

"Pokey? That you?" Apple jack asked as she frowned at her cousin who stood defiantly with his chest out.

"N-no..." he responded.

"Braeburn... Move..."

"Ah will not, cuz."

"This is between him and me. I owe him a few good licks for what he did to me, then ah owe him a few more for the things he said about you when he was down stairs."

"Cuz, you know words don't hurt me."

"Ah know, but the things he was say'n about you—"

"If an ass called you an ass, would you get angry? No. Because getting mad over being called an ass - by an ass - just ends up making you look like one."

"Did you just call me an ass?" Pokey whispered.

"Yup," Braeburn responded with a bored expression on his face.

"Well, fine, you obviously don't care, but Ah will take an eye for an eye! Now move!"

"Cousin Apple Jack!" Braeburn chided before smoothing out his voice again. "An eye for eye only makes us blind."

Apple Jack glared resentfully at her cousin for a moment, hating him for his wisdom.

"Take a few breaths, cuz."

Apple Jack glared a moment longer before sitting down, relaxing her posture, then breathing in and out deeply a few times.

"Feel better?" Braeburn asked with a smile.

"...yeah..." She said solemnly as her eyes darted to the sky. "Dang it, cuz, why do you gotta be so... Pacifistic."

"Ah'm not a pacifist, cuz. Pacifism implies that Ah wont fight, no matter what. Ah'll throw down if Ah gotta, but never to even a score. But if it's to protect mahself, or someone I care for..." He smiled at Pinkie, then turned a hard gaze to Pokey.

"Right," Apple Jack rolled her eyes. "It's gettin' to be that time, cuz. We gotta work tomorrow, and Sweetie Belle passed a message onto Rarity to give to me, so Ah could give it to you.

"What's the message?"

"She's coming down with her friends to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow to ask you for assistance with a matter of 'dire' importance."

"She used those exact words?"

"Yup, the little drama queen is taking more, and more after her sister every day."

"Why couldn't she just give the message to Apple Bloom to give to me?"

"The three of them are having one of their little slumber parties in their clubhouse tonight."

"What could that little filly be up to?"

"Heck if Ah know, I'm just delivering you the message." Apple Jack let out an unladylike yawn, her mouth gaping open as a hippo would when attracting a mate. "It's about time we head on back home."

"You don't have to leave just yet!" Pinkie Pie interrupted before clasping herself around Braeburn, much to Pokey Pierce's frustration, who still lay hidden behind the bulky stallion.

Braeburn looked longingly at Pinkie Pie, wanting to spend more time with her now that they had reconciled their feelings for one another. "Ah'll come strait here after work tomorrow. Maybe we can watch some of them movies you got in that box of yours?"

"I'm holding you to that," Said Pinkie happily. "We can have us our own little horror movie marathon."

"Horror? Ah'd assumed that you'd be more into comedy."

"Horror is the ultimate form of comedy!" Pinkie replied insistently. "You think I'd wanna watch some boring love comedy? Puuulease! Give me zombies and chainsaws any day!"

"Chainsaws and zombies it is." Braeburn laughed before giving Pinkie another nuzzle. "Now, this is a lady Ah can show off to mom." he added proudly.

Apple Jack's tired expression slowly stretched into a wide, beaming smile. "Baeburn, you actually did it? You dog, you!"

"He's not a doggy," Pinkie giggled. "He's a stallion." She nuzzled up against his neck again. "He's my stallion," she sighed romantically.

"Dat swagger," said Apple Jack, slightly impressed.

"Did you just use the word 'swagger'?" Braeburn asked disapprovingly as a snuggling Pinkie Pie still latched onto him.

Apple Jack smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, Ah heard Rainbow Dash use it once. Ah wanted to try it out."

Braeburn raised an eyebrow and squinted. "Yeah, no."

"Pinkie Pie?" The sniveling unicorn interjected. "Do you still want me to stick around so I can help you clean up?"

"I think you should go home, Pokey." Pinkie responded, not making eye contact.

A look of genuine hurt showed on the unicorn's face. "So, now that somepony better looking comes along who gives you the attention you want, you just cast me aside?" Pokey raised from behind Braeburn with an accusatory scowl in his eyes.

Apple Jack watched silently. Braeburn opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but Pinkie Pie reach up with a hoof and silenced him before he could speak.

"Pokey," Pinkie said. "I have never seen you act like this before. You always tend to act a bit strange whenever a stallion comes along and starts paying attention to me. I disregarded it at first, thinking that maybe you were simply wanting to protect me like a big brother would for his younger sister, but now, I know it's because you had your own motives, your own means that you were serving. In your own strange way of thinking, you probably think that you are the one who has been betrayed, but you are the one who has actually betrayed me. If you really cared for me, you'd let me be happy with whomever I choose to be happy with. I'll still be your friend, Pokey, but I don't want to see you again until you have grown up."

Pokey's expression was completely blank as he replied with venom in his tone. "You are telling me that I need to grow up? This coming from an adult who can't control herself around sweets? This coming from someone who throws a little pity party for herself every time she brings up that one time some boy called her fat in grade school? By Celestia, Get over it already!"

Apple Jack finally spoke up. "Wait, what's goin' on?"

Braeburn took Pinkie Pie in his forelegs and pressed her face tightly to his chest, expecting the worst.

"Pokey," The protective stallion said darkly. "Every tear she sheds over that comment you just made - will be a bone in your body that Ah break. Ah'll give you only one word of advice: run."

The unicorn lip curved into a cruel smile. "I thought you said words—"

"Don't hurt," Pinkie interrupted before pulling her face away from Braeburn's chest, smiling that adorable smile of hers up at him. "If an ass calls you an ass?"

Braeburn smiled down at her before nodding proudly. "That's right, darlin."

Pinkie Pie looked at Pokey pierce one last time to stick her tongue out at him before snuggling back up into Braeburn's chest.

No amount of bones Braeburn could have broken, no comeback Pinkie could have quipped with could have left Pokey Pierce with the empty sense of defeat and loss he was left with after that. He simply stepped back with a sneer on his face. He bowed, then lifted his head, his eyes now wide and round, his smile now so wide that it was practically stretching to both of his ears.

"You two are really starting to make me sick, you know that?" He laughed. "I'll leave you two love birds in peace!" The daft unicorn then whipped his neck around and brought his horn down on the ground, creating a thick screen of smoke. When the veil of of smog was gone, so was he.

Braeburn, Apple Jack, and Pinkie Pie stared at the last remains of the smoke until it had completely cleared. Pinkie Pie suddenly broke the silence when she produced a noise maker from seemingly out of nowhere, blew into it directly into Braeburn's ear, scaring the hell out of him.

"Yay, we have his blessing!"

Ogres are jerks

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo watched Braeburn as he lay with his head against the trunk of an apple tree, his mouth hanging wide open as his snores carried the delicate and melodic pitch of an old chainsaw that was in dire need of an oiling.

"Well, we tried everything, girls." Apple Bloom said in defeat.

Scootaloo stretched out the muscles in her forelegs. "Not everything..."

"Hey, wait, what are you thinking?" Apple Bloom held her hoof out in an attempt to stop her brash friend from doing exactly what she thought she was going to do.

"Braeburn!" Scootaloo, not holding anything back, let the sleeping stallion have it with a hard right hook. "Wake up!" She assaulted him again with a left hook, then a right cross, then an upper cut. She looked on in amazement at the stallion who was still snoring away. "Are you fricken cereal?" The punch happy filly's eyes shrunk to the size of pinpricks before her surprised formed into an irate scowl. "Okay, no more miss nice filly."

"Scootaloo, stop pummeling mah cousin!"

"We need to wake his lazy butt up!" Scootaloo retorted before letting Braeburn have it with a hard hay maker that connected with his jaw. "Jeez!" The filly rubbed her throbbing hoof. "It's like punching a brick wall!"

"You'd think a chicken would be better at waking somepony," Apple Bloom commented with a giggle.

"I don't see you two coming up with any better ideas!"

"I've had enough of this mindless violence," Sweetie Belle suddenly stepped in front of her brutal colleague.

Scootaloo frowned, still rubbing the aches out of her hoof. "You have a better plan?"

"A proper lady, such as myself, has no need for such ruff-play. I have the poise, the elegance, and the tactical mind to tackle any task without having to result to such barbarism."

"Look at miss snooty-patootie over here," Scootaloo said in a low whisper to Apple Bloom.

Sweetie Belle approached Braeburn who still lay against the tree, seemingly dead to the world as if he were in a coma. She cleared her throat with her hoof over her mouth, just as her sister taught her, then spoke the words she knew would rouse Braeburn from his deep sleep. "Hey, look, it's Pinkie Pie... And she's wearing lingerie socks!"

Braeburn's snoring came to grinding halt, his ears suddenly twitched before his eyes half-opened.

"Huh...? Where?" He sleepily scanned left-to-right in search of that adorable pink minx of his, but all he noticed was the open space of his work site and the three young fillies who sat on their haunches looking up at him.

Scootaloo shook her head in frustration. "We tried yelling in your ear, nudging you, pouring water over you, hitting you, and the thing that wakes you up is the mention of Pinkie Pie... In lingerie..."

Braeburn stared back at them with sleepy eyes as the sensation of blunt force trauma on his face and realization that his mane was soaking wet suddenly hit him. He rubbed his cheek with a sad and pitiful look.

Guilt suddenly struck Scootaloo with the force of a heavy weight in her heart. "I-I'm sorry that I hit you... Are you okay?" She ducked her head down with her ears flattened back.

"Ah could care less about a couple a licks," Braeburn mumbled before taking one more thorough look around his surroundings. "Pinkie Pie ain't really here, then?"

Scootaloo face-hooved. "No, she isn't here."

"Oh... Why'd ya say she was?" Braeburn asked somberly as he rubbed his battered face.

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Nothing else we were doing was waking you up. I really didn't think the Pinkie Pie thing would work, but it was worth a try."

Braeburn laughed away his minor irritation as he stretched his legs. "Ah understand y'all got a message for me, Sweetie Belle? Sorry Ah fell asleep while Ah waited for ya. Didn't get much rest last night."

"I understand," Sweetie Belle assured before getting to the point. "I want you to come on an errand with us tonight."

"Tonight tonight?" Braeburn asked.

"Yeah," the ivory filly responded. "Tonight tonight."

"Sorry, darlin - Ah cant tonight. Ah got a date with Pinkie Pie."

"But we're going to need you," Apple bloom suddenly spoke up.

Breaburn rubbed his chin inquisitively. "Why y'all need me?"

"We're going to need a body guard if we're going into the Everfree forest." Sweetie Belle offered. "Apple Bloom says you're really tough and we thought you'd want to—."

Braeburn held his hoof out, stopping her in mid sentence. "Hey, hold on, now. Come again? Why are you going there?"

"I was getting to that." Sweetie Belle cleared her throat. "In the heart of the Everfree forest, a rare flower called a Nightingale rose grows. My sister recently got an order from a client offering a large sum of money for a corsage made from this particular plant. She went to the florist, but she didn't have the particular flower my sister was looking for. The mare working at the flower shop then told her that the closest place she knew of where Nightingales grew was the Everfree forest. I'll bet we could find them if we all go together."

"Absolutely not," Braeburn responded with a firmness that took the fillies off guard. "Ah never been there mahself, but from what Ah heard, that forest is host to terrible creatures that prey on whoever sets hoof within it's borders."

"Scared?" Sweetie Belle asked, attempting to goad the stallion.

"Ah am," Braeburn admitted, not even trying to attempt a tough guy facade. "But Ah'm more scared for you three than Ah am for me."

Sweetie Belle acted almost as if she was channeling her sister's personality to a T as she harrumphed and looked away from him. "Well, if you're not coming, we'll just go on our own."

Braeburn narrowed his eyes, not liking her sudden change in attitude. "You wanna run that one by me again, young lady?"

Sweetie Belle scowled defiantly. "I'm going to get that flower for my sister regardless of your disapproval of me doing so."

Braeburn didn't like the haughty tone she spoke to him in, but she was young, and he factored that in as he mulled over his response. "Suppose Ah tell your sister about this little escapade o' yours?"

"You can't do that - she'd flip! She might even send me to go live with my parents for the rest of the summer!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle gasped.

"Then Ah guess you and Ah got an understanding between us?"

Sweetie Belle grimaced over the thought of her having to spend the rest of the summer with her lame parents, away from her best friends. not being able to see them until the school year started again.

Braeburn looked down at her, waiting for a response. "Answer me, young lady."

"Fine!" Sweetie Belle snapped. "You snitch!"

"Darlin, you gotta understand that Ah'm only looking out for you." Braeburn reached down to set his hoof on Sweetie Belle's head, but she slapped it away.

"You know, I thought you were really cool when I first met you." Sweetie Belles eyes glazed over as she looked up him. "But now I find out that you're just a snitch! I just wanted to do something nice for my big sister, but you have to ruin everything!"

Braeburn felt a pang of guilt, but he wasn't about to let his personal feelings cloud his judgment. "Darlin... I—"

"And don't call me 'darlin'!" Sweetie Belle demanded, emphasizing the word to mock the stallion's southern drawl before she sauntered off with her nose in the air, flicking her tail at him as she walked away.

Apple Bloom looked at Braeburn, then looked back at Sweetie Belle. "That escalated quickly," she said before running off to  placate her sassy friend.

Scootaloo approached Braeburn who was now in the process of dusting himself off before getting back to work. "Hey, don't feel bad. Sweetie Belle didn't mean any of that. She tends to get a bit passionate sometimes."

"A little drama queen," Braeburn spoke as he remembered the words his cousin had said to him the night before. "Just like her sister."

"Pretty much," Scootaloo agreed before offering him a parting nod, then trotting away in the direction her fellow crusaders went.

As guilty as the stallion felt for denying Sweetie Belle a chance to do such a kind deed for her sister, he couldn't help but smile when he thought of the night ahead of him. Visions of Pinkie Pie's smiling face were the only thoughts that occupied his mind for the rest of his work day, though he wished that Sweetie Belle had never inserted the image of her wearing socks into his mind. It was not at all an unpleasant thought for him by any means, but it was a definitely a distracting one.

"Pinkie Pie?" Mrs. Cake called out from the bakery kitchen. "Are you going to help Mr. Cake and I close the bakery down, or are you just going to keep staring up at that clock?"

"But he's almost here!" Pinkie exclaimed as she padded the ground underneath her nervously. "He might turn around and go home if I'm not here to answer the door when he knocks!"

"Right," Mr. Cake replied condescendingly. "So. this 'boyfriend' of yours?"

Pinkie Pie smiled instantly as she glanced back at Mr. Cake. "Yes?"

"He's probably a clown, or a super hero, or something to that effect, right?"

"He's a cowboy!" Pinkie answered gleefully, not noticing the facetiousness in the baker's tone.

"Oh, a 'cowboy,' is he?" Laughed Mr. Cake. "Is he like one of those pretty boy cowboys on the covers of the romance novels, or is he one of those tough guy Colt Eastwood types?"

"Sugar beat!" hissed Mrs. Cake from behind the counter. "Stop patronizing her! If this boyfriend of hers is real, then you should be a little more supportive."

"But I doubt that he is... A cowboy? Seriously?" he whispered back.

"I can hear everything you two are saying." Pinkie Pie announced as her gaze remained fixated on the clock above her. "I'm not going to bother convincing you of anything, Mr. Cake. Just wait 'til he gets here. If you two were here for his party last night, you would have met him."

Mrs. Cake could feel a slight twinge of chiding in Pinkie Pie's tone. "I know I promised Mr Cake and I would help you with the party, but an order from out of town came up," she offered remorsefully.

"It's Okay, Mrs. Cake," Pinkie Pie said. "I understand that you have a business to run. The party was still really fun, and I got to finally meet the special somepony of my dreams, so I think I can forgive you."

.

Mr. Cake rolled his eyes. "Well, when Eastwood gets here, be sure to tell him I really liked him in Dodge Junction massacre, and be sure to get an autograph for me."

"His name isn't Eastwood, silly!" Pinkie Pie laughed. "What's aunt Pinkie's special friend's name, Pound Cake?"

"Babun!" The young foal answered from his play pin in the kitchen.

Mr. Cake turned to his infant child with a look of shock. "You can say the name of Pinkie Pie's imaginary boyfriend, but you can't even say 'daddy' yet? What kind of a name is 'baboon' anyway?" The baker then turned to look at his daughter who played beside her brother in the pin. "You can say 'dada,' can't you. princess?" he asked with a big, hopeful smile.

"Doodoo!" she exclaimed before flicking her magical horn in his direction, pegging him square in the forehead with a block.

"Dada!" The baker corrected as he rubbed the bruise on his head.

"Babun!" She responded.

"You're saying it, too?"

Pumpkin Cake responded by blowing a raspberry at him, then flicked another block in his direction.

"You're only a foal, and you're already breaking your daddy's heart." The emotional stallion pouted with a protruded lower lip.

Mrs. Cake restrained a laugh while she rubbed Mr. Cake's back sympathetically. "There, there dear."

Pinkie Pie could feel her ear twitching as her smile grew wide with excitement. "He's here!" She exclaimed before rushing to the door. She came to an instant stop and bounced up and down excitedly.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake watched Pinkie Pie's erratic behavior as she seemed to be expelling all of her pent of energy she had withheld while sitting in front of the clock for most of the day. Everything was silent other than the pogo sounds pinkie Pie was making as she hopped.

Nearly an entire minute went by before Mr Cake spoke. "I thought so," he said conclusively. "Pinkie, I think it's about time you went out and met some real boys. I really don't think this is healthy for a grown mare to—" This disbelieving baker fell silent when he heard three knocks at the door.

Pinkie Pie glanced back and Mr. Cake to give him one last 'I told you so' look before she opened the door to let Braeburn in.

He stood there - looking into Pinkie Pie's eyes as hers stared back into his. Her blue eyes were big, round, and intense with a overwhelmingly affectionate joy. Like magnets with opposite polarities, they were instantly drawn into each others' embrace, neither one of them knowing or caring which one had made the advance first.

Mr. Cake watched in defeated awe while the two love birds intertwined with one another as intangible hearts appeared and burst from an unknown source above them.

Pinkie Pie stood on her hind legs to reach his ear. "Shall I introduce you to the cakes before we go upstairs?" she asked before dragging him to the kitchen without waiting for an answer.

"This is Mrs. Cake." Pinkie Pie pointed to the blue mare.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Braeburn," Mrs. Cake greeted with a smile.

Braeburn walked up to her, took her hoof, then kissed it. "It's nice to meet you as well, ma'am."

Mrs. Cake's face flushed, not knowing how to respond to such an intimate greeting.

"And I am Mr. Cake," The baker interrupted with a scowl on his face. "Mrs. Cake's husband," he added, putting heavy emphasis into his title.

"So nice to meet you, sir," Braeburn dipped his head politely toward him.

"You're not gonna kiss my hoof as well, you little home wrecker?"

"Honey!" Mrs. Cake exclaimed.

"Is one mare not enough for you?" Mr. Cake fumed in irritation, bothered that Pinkie Pie had just made a fool out of him, and upset at the sight of his wife being so taken by the charms of another stallion.

Braeburn chuckled as he grabbed Pinkie Pie and pulled her close. "This is all the mare Ah need, sir." He then took even Pinkie herself by surprise when he put his hoof under her chin, turned her head toward him, then kissed her. Pinkie, not expecting such an impulsive and powerful display of affection seemed to be confused for a moment. But it only took a few seconds for her to close her eyes and relax herself, which commissioned the strange hearts to once again appear and pop above them.

"I remember when you were that bold and passionate," Mrs. Cake sighed as she watched them.

Mr. Cake sneered at the stallion who he had already realized that he didn't like while Pinkie Pie dragged him to the foal's pin.

"This is Pound Cake, and this is Pumpkin Cake."  Pinkie watched Braeburn's reaction, not knowing what to expect as she wasn't sure of his position, or disposition towards children. Most stallions really didn't seem to care at all about babies that were not their own, but Braeburn once again surprised her with an over-the-top reaction that took her, and the Cakes, completely off guard.

The knife wielding cowboy stallion contradicted pretty much every single law in the tough guy's rule book on how to act and be hard when he put his hooves up to his mouth and made the biggest squee face any of them had ever seen on a male.

"These... little rugrats... are they yours?!" Braeburn looked back at Mrs. Cake who's eyes were wide in surprise of the stallion's reaction upon seeing her children. She could only nod dumbly.

"Hello, little guy!" Braeburn picked up Pound Cake from his play pin. "Just look how adorable you are!" he cooed softly as he rubbed the child's belly. The baby began to laugh and wriggle about, attempting to grab Braeburn's hoof to keep him from tickling him. He then held him out over his pin. "Who's awesome?"

The foal tilted his head as he stared at the grown stallion, not knowing what to make of him as he curiously pointed at himself.

"That's right!" Braeburn cheered for him. "You're awesome!"

Pound Cake threw his legs up and laughed in response before noticing a wooden object protruding from the stallion's vest. Overwhelmed with curiosity, he took it in his legs and pulled it free from it's concealed sheath. The foal's eyes widened in astonishment as he looked at his own reflection gleaming back at him in the blade of the bowie knife.

"You carry weapons around with you?" Mr. Cake interrogated the stallion as if he were ready to pull his child away from him at any moment.

Mr. Cake felt his wife nudge him. "Honey, lighten up."

"Ah like to think of it as a tool," Braeburn laughed as he gently took his knife back, careful to not upset the young foal. "That's not a toy, little man."

"A tool? What exactly does this 'tool' come in handy for, if you don't mind me asking." Mr. Cake pressed, ignoring his wife's plea.

"Well, it comes in handy for cutting rope, prying open boxes, cutting apples, slicing the ties on hay bails. Anything, really. Ah made this knife so there would never be another one like it. It's equally balanced at it's center, so it can be thrown with surgical, aerodynamic precision. It's sturdy enough to saw through the thickest branch, yet fine enough to shave a face. Ah even had a unicorn friend o' mine back in Appaloosa enchant it so it would never dull or break."

Pound cake reached for Braeburn's knife again, but he held it out to keep him from reaching it. "It's not a toy, little guy."

To the amazement of the other adults in the room, the foal didn't cry, which was his usual response when anything dangerous was taken from him. His interest in the knife transitioned to a sudden fixation on Braeburn's hat, which he took and attempted to wear, but his entire head was engulfed by it.

Braeburn could now hear Pumpkin Cake in her pin.

"Babun, up." He looked down and saw her reaching up to him with her legs. "Up, Babun!"

"Do you feel neglected, little lady?" He asked in a gentle sing-songy voice before setting Pound Cake down, letting him keep the hat for the moment.

"Up," she insisted again with her tiny fore legs out.

"I had no idea you were so good with kids, Braeburn!" Pinkie stated, looking on in amazement.

Braeburn smiled as the little foal yanked on a long strand of his mane. "Ah love kids," He responded, smiling at the child who yanked on his mane. "Especially adorable little ones like these!"

"Pinkie," Mrs. Cake whispered with a nudge.

Pinkie Pie looked at her, and when she did, the blue mare pointed at the golden stallion near the play pin before giving her a surreptitious 'he's a keeper' expression, to which Pinkie Pie replied with an 'I know' face.

Braeburn gently set Pumpkin Cake back into the play pin beside her brother before he looked back to a half-concealed Pound Cake. "May Ah have mah hat back, little guy?" he asked the foal who now laid on in his belly with the hat on his back, most likely thinking he was cleverly hidden.

"Ah wonder where that little rascal Pumpkin Cake went," he said playfully before lifting his hat. "There he is!" The foals, Pinkie Pie, and Mrs. Cake laughed. Mr. Cake, however, did not seem to be amused in the slightest. It only took five minutes for his wife and both of his children to succumb to this wild-eyed stallion's wiles, and he didn't seem to appreciate it. It always seemed as if he had to work hard for his family's affections, and here comes this new guy in town who practically had them pouring theirs out all over him.

With a bounding leap, Pinkie Pie pounced on Braeburn's back and locked her legs around him. "You ready to come upstairs now that you've met everypony?"

"Lead the way," he answered.

"You know the way," Pinkie responded before nestling her face into the back of his neck. "I'm quite comfy up here." Braeburn smiled at the foals before taking his hat back which Pound Cake wouldn't give up with out a slight fuss. But he was quick to release his grip from it once Braeburn soothed him with a promise that he would bring one of his own back for him on his next visit. With his hat adorning his head once again, and Pinkie Pie mounted to his back, he dismissed himself with a polite bow to Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

"Have fun, you two." Mrs. Cake said with a wave.

"But not too much," Mr. Cake grumbled before being elbowed by his disapproving wife.

"They're adults - let them be!"

Mr. Cake rolled his eyes. "It's really hard to think of Pinkie Pie as an adult. And those cowboy types are the kind to love em and leave em. You'll see..."

Mrs. Cake elbowed him again. "If you have time to criticize, you have time to help me clean!"

Braeburn carried Pinkie Pie up the stairs as her tail swung around like a pendulum from his side. When he made his way to the drawstring hanging from the ceiling, he must have forgotten about the ladder as he pulled the door open. The collapsible ladder fell from on high and Braeburn quickly made the sacrifice of taking the impact to his head other than the alternative of ducking under it and letting Pinkie take the blow.

"You okay?!" Pinkie Pie asked as she gently rubbed the stallion's bruised noggin.

"Yeah," he answered while his eyes rolled about, swearing he could see little thong-wearing cupid's with M-60 Machine guns flying around his head before shaking them away.

Pinkie Pie climbed off of him once they had made their way to her room. She pulled the ladder back to the trapdoor, then pulled a string to close off the ceiling. She then sauntered her way to a box that lay in the corner of her room near the projector screen than hung on her wall.

"What kind of movies do you like?" She asked while she mused with her hoof on her chin as she looked into the box of circular film reels.

"Ah never been a big movie buff. Why don't you pick?"

"Okay..." She mused a moment longer before looking back at the stallion who was still standing in the same spot near her door.

"You can make yourself at home, you know."

Braeburn looked back at her. "It ain't often Ah'm ever a guest at anyone else's home. Back at mah house, Ah'm usually the one with guests to entertain."

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "Oh, well just act like you're at your place with one of the boys then."

"You're assuming that the guests Ah entertain are male?" Braeburn laughed.

Pinkie Pie looked back at him again, her eyes narrowing. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Ah didn't mean nothin' by it," Braeburn shrugged. "Most of my guests are mares. Some of em have a habit of just randomly showing up, wondering what Ah'm up to. It wouldn't be neighborly to just ask them to leave. Ah at least grant them the courtesy of inviting them in for tea."

"Uh huh..." Pinkie Pie quickly realized that she would need to keep her eyes peeled for other mares who seemed to be getting to friendly with her stallion. Braeburn didn't seem to her to be the type to cheat, but the very thought of some hussy trying to steal him made her think dark thoughts.

Braeburn tilted his head. "You okay, sugarcube?"

"I'm fine," Pinkie answered. "Just wondering what movie I should put on." She about-faced and dug through her movies again, completely pushing her macabre thoughts aside. "Just relax on the bed."

"If y'all insist." Braeburn approached the large bed of the likes which he had never seen before. It's purple comforter looked very thick, and it was made out of a material he couldn't identify. He felt it, and was pleased when he had a feel for just how soft the material was. He sat on the bed then laid back. His eyes widened in surprised when it suddenly felt as if the large thick comforter was swallowing him.

"Comfy, isn't it?" Pinkie asked as she fiddled with the projector with one of her films.

"This must be what one of them clouds feels like that the Pegusi are always making their beds from."

"Yep," Pinkie said. "My bed and comforter are actually stuffed with clouds. My friend Rainbow Dash gathered the clouds for me one day, Rarity quilted my comforter, and then Twilight Sparkle cast a special spell on them so the clouds that the bed and comforter are stuffed with will never dissipate."

Braeburn was now thrashing and struggling to keep his head above the layers of the comforter, as if trying to keep his head above water.

Pinkie Pie clicked the switch on the projector and the screen on the wall lit up. "You're going to love this movie. The director got arrested for filming it because he used real dead bodies on puppet strings for the zombies!" She then jumped onto her bead beside Braeburn and slowly sank in beside him.

Braeburn took note of Pinkie as she relaxed and simply let the thick comforter contour to her body. He stopped his struggling and laid still for a moment. The material of the bed seemed to be pushing him upward slightly, though he was still sunken into it deeper than Pinkie Pie was. Once he was use to the strange bed, he found that he actually liked it.

As the night went on the two enjoyed watching Pinkie Pie's maccob assortment of cheaply made B-horror movies. He found these flicks to be strangely charming in a way. Evil Dead was probably among his favorites. He liked the lead character's corny acting and the cheap stop-motion effects of the demons and zombies. These movies seemed to have a strange appeal to him that the newer, fancy, big-budgeted movies seemed to lack.

"What they obviously lacked in funding," Pinkie Pie would go on to say, "they were forced to make up for in creativity."

"Ah still think the whole thing about the director using real dead bodies is a rumor," Braeburn chuckled. "If he got arrested, why would they have released the movie in the first place?"

Pinkie Pie had a thoughtful look about her. "You have a point..."

"And ya know what else?"

Pinkie Pie looked at him. "Wha—mmff"

Breaburn had once again seized those lips of hers. Pinkie Pie had felt as if she'd never get use this whole kissing thing, but before long, she had began to grow bold. She removed his hat as he kissed her before dropping to the side of her bed as she kissed him back. The movie had ended, but they didn't seem to notice. What they did notice however, was a strange tapping sound that suddenly came from the window of Pinkie Pie's balcony.

Braeburn looked toward the glass door, swiping his hair back with his hoof.

"What was that?" Pinkie asked with unfocused eyes, her mane now ravaged and frazzled.

Braeburn shrugged before smiling back down at her. "Nothin', ah guess."

The two were just settling back into their little cuddle-session before hearing the noises again. This time the noise was louder, and it's rhythm more consistent.

"What the hay?" Braeburn looked back at the window, becoming annoyed. He rolled away from Pinkie Pie and touched his hoofs down on the floor, then approached the glass door that lead out to Pinkie's fourth story balcony.

"What if it's a pervert trying to peep on us?" Pinkie Pie's eyes swelled up before pulling her comforter up to her neck.

"Well, if that's the case," Braeburn scowled. "They'll be getting a bloody nose and a free trip to the police station for their trouble." He drew aside the curtain and pushed the door open. "Eh, Pokey?"

Braeburn saw nopony on the balcony. He stepped outside and looked from side-to-side before doing a quick patrol of the rounded deck before coming back to the doors. He pondered over the origins of the strange tapping sounds before a small stone hit him in the head, adding to the many lumps his scalp was now ridged with since he had come to Ponyville.

"What the hay?" He looked down from the balcony to see his cousin looking back up at him from the ground. Pinkie Pie's head soon stuck out from the railing beside Braeburn's to look down at Apple Jack.

"Hey, AJ!" Pinkie Pie greeted.

"Hey, cuz." Braeburn greeted as well, but not as happy about the interruption as Pinkie Pie seemed to be. "Might Ah say, you got great timing," he said, attempting to give his cousin a subtle hint without being rude.

"Ah'm sorry if Ah'm intruding on y'all's date, but Ah don't suppose Apple Bloom is up there with ya?"

"She ain't with us," Braeburn answered, forgetting his frustration. "Maybe she's out with her friends? They could be having one of their slumber parties in the treehouse."

Apple Jack shook her head before yelling back up at them. "She never told me she was doin' that tonight, and she's always been real good at letting me know if she was coming home or not. Besides, the treehouse was the first place Ah checked."

"Ah'm sure she's fine, cuz. I'll bet she's already back at home."

"Ah hope so." Apple Jack's concern in her voice was evident. "You two have fun, Ah'm heading back home. This ain't been the first time she's stayed out late without saying anything, but it's still very unusual."

"I hope Apple Bloom's okay." Pinkie said.

"Ah'm sure she's fine. She's probably with her little friends getting in all sorts of shenanigans right now. Ah wasn't very compliant about curfew when Ah was her age neither." Braeburn turned to see nothing but Pinkie's face an inch away from his. It was now her turn to suddenly seize him before dragging him back into her room. Some time went on and it was completely nightfall when the noise sounded again. Braeburn was now laying with his head propped up by pillows so he could see the projector screen while Pinkie laid her head on his chest. They both shared a glance before rolling their eyes and walking to the balcony. This time looking down, Rarity was the one who was standing there. Her ivory-white coat lit up as it reflected the light from the lanterns in the street.

"Darling," she said. "Could I perhaps convince you to come down here for a moment?" Braeburn looked to his side where PInkie Pie was, but she was no longer beside him. He looked down on the road to see her standing right in front of Rarity. "How in the world did she...?" he trailed off in his confusion before descending the stairs to join the two mares.

He clumsily made his way through the dark bakery to the entrance where he could now hear them conversing.

"She's usually home by now!"

"That's funny. Apple Jack was just here looking for Apple Bloom a while ago."

"Rainbow Dash is looking for Scootaloo. She usually takes her back home to cloudsdale because the poor dear isn't able to fly, but she can't find her anywhere."

That's when Braeburn came walking out from the darkness of the bakery. "Miss Rarity." he dipped his head chivalrously.

"Oh my!" Rarity did a double take. "Breaburn?! I didn't even know you were in town! Why are you with Pinkie Pie, if you don't me asking?"

Braeburn and Pinkie Pie gave each other an affectionate look as if to negotiate who'd break the news, but their faces were all the explanation Rarity needed.

"That's not fair!" Rarity stamped her hoof dramatically. "Why is it that Pinkie Pie finds a nice stallion, but every guy I like turns out to be a self-obsessed jerk?!"

"City boys just don't seem to know how to treat a lady right these days," Breaburn laughed.

"Sorry Darling, I could just never get into the whole...'rustic' thing." Rarity retorted, carefully choosing her words so as to not offend Pinkie Pie's boyfriend.

"Well, anytime you feel like changing your mind, just let me know. Ah got some friends back home that'd die for the chance to take a pretty little thing like you out on the town."

Rarity blushed as she was taken aback by Braeburn's compliment. "Well, maybe if they're as handsome and well mannered as you, I could probably be swayed."

Pinkie Pie cleared her throat loudly. "So!" she said with a harsh tone. "You were saying something about Sweetie Belle?"

Rarity's eyes widened, looking slightly ashamed that Braeburn surprising her could throw her off of her train of thought so easily. "Oh! Oh my, yes! Have you seen her?"

"Not since noon." Braeburn answered.

"Where has that little filly gone? She knows how I worry!"

Breaburn smiled at her reassuringly. "Well, look at this way: All three of them are gone, so they must be together. Safety in numbers, right?"

"I know, I'm probably just being paranoid, but that little filly is becoming harder and harder to manage. Not at all like me when I was growing up." Rarity then flicked and adjusted her mane, a gesture that Braeburn could have sworn he'd seen Sweetie Belle imitate.

Breaburn suppressed a chuckle before he spoke again. "Do you remember her saying anything to you the last time you saw her?"

"The last thing Sweetie Belle told me today was that she was going out and coming back with a surprise for me. I didn't really think much of it at the time. I thought that meant she was going to go draw me a picture to stick on the fridge, or something. She's developing into quite the little artist, you know."

Braeburn's blood suddenly ran cold. "A surprise?" he asked.

"A surprise." Rarity repeated.

Braeburn suddenly grabbed Pinkie Pie, kissed her, and said, "No time to explain, but I'll make this up to you." Then he let her go and ran in the direction of the Everfree forest with as much speed as he could muster.

"Braeburn!" Pinkie Pie futilely reached toward him while stumbling over her hoofs. "Come back! Where are you going?" She looked up at Rarity as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Did he just ditch me?"

"I don't think so, darling." Rarity said soothingly. "If he did, that was the oddest ditch-tactic I have ever seen."

"I knew it!' A male voice suddenly thundered from behind them before Mr. Cake came stumbling out from the darkness of the bakery. "Loves em then leaves em. I thought so!"

Pinkie Pie gazed back at him. "But we didn't—"

"I knew he was no good!" Mr Cake said triumphantly. "This is why you need to listen to me, Pinkie. I can spot a dirtbag from miles away!"

Pinkie Pie looked back at him with an expression of hurt on her face. "Have you been eavesdropping on us?"

Mrs. Cake suddenly shot out form the bakery like a bat out of hell, socked Mr. Cake over the head with a rolling pin, then dragged him back inside. "Stop being so insensitive!"

Pinkie Pie just sat there on her haunches with her mane now strait and dangling toward the ground as her lower lip protruded. Rarity set her hoof on her back. "Darling, it's okay. I'm sure whatever Braeburn just did, he had a good reason for it."

"I think I know the reason." Pinkie said somberly.

"And what's that?"

"He doesn't like me!" The neurotic mare suddenly wailed before fainting backwards. Rarity somehow pulled her Fainting couch from out of nowhere in an attempt to catch her with it, but Pinkie, once again, broke the rules of gravity as she fell the other direction, recovering instantly from a fifty five degree angle and landing hard on the ground in a fetal position.

An ogre with skulls from numerous species of animals strung around his neck like a ghastly fashion statement had been chasing the three crusaders throughout the forest of Everfree for what seemed like hours now. He howled and laughed with twisted pleasure, knowing they they were frightened of him. "I love little fillies! Love them, love them, love them! The younger the meat, the more tender the treat!" He howled like a mad man as he ran on his feet and knuckles with his back arched.

"I can't run anymore!" Sweetie Belle panted between her panicked breaths.

"Don't talk!" Apple Bloom yelled. "Just run!"

"Up that tree! It's probably to fat to be climb!" Scootaloo ran toward the trunk of the tree of which she was speaking, leaped at it, then took several agile steps up the base, riding her momentum all the way up and grabbing a branch.

Apple Bloom followed soon after. Her powerful legs were able to get her just a bit higher than scootaloo's jump, but instead of utilizing agility to run up the tree, she grabbed the branch and pulled herself up with one powerful pull. The two young fillies were now looking down at Sweetie Belle expectantly.

"What makes you think I'm capable of something like that?!" she yelled up at them before looking back at the ogre that was now smiling at her, a row of razor sharp pointed teeth protruding from his twisted smirk and overlapping it's bottom lip. It then slowly approached her, dragging his knuckles along the way. That's when the the ogre could be seen clearly under the beams of moon light that pierced through the canopy of the forest. Sweetie Belle's heart sank even deeper soon after being able to see it's grotesque necklace with more clarity. One of the skulls around it's neck looked as if it's had belonged to a young pony at one time.

"G-girls, help!" Sweetie Belle reached toward them, her voice shrinking.

Without thinking of her own safety, Scootaloo jumped down from the tree and boosted Sweetie Belle up just high enough to where Apple Bloom could snare her leg and pull her up on the branch. She then bent down as if to prepare to jump but the goblin yanked her by her tail and pulled her under him.

"The meat in the legs are always the tastiest." He hissed as he pinched a muscle in her hind leg.

"Don't touch me, you creep!" The terrified pegasus kicked him as hard as she could in his face, but it seemed to have no effect.

The creature let out a vulgar laugh. "I haven't had me a filly in so long! I'll be sure to slow cook the meat. I can't let you dry out, now can I?"

"You let her go!" Apple Bloom demanded. "I'll tell mah big cousin on you, and if he comes down here, he'll—"

The ogre cut her off with chorus of shrill laughter. "He'll what? Kill me? Better ponies than your cousin have tried, I can guarantee you of that." The ogre could not have predicted Scootaloo's next move as she painfully dangled from his hand by her tail. She hooked a stick she found on the ground, broke it off at the tip with her mouth, and hid it behind her back as the ogre raised her to his face to sniff at her. Just as he did this, the orange pegasus stabbed the ogre through his eye, taking him by surprise as he let her go and doubled backwards with his hands over his face.

Scoots retreated and made another bounding leap up the tree to join her friends.

"I should have never dragged you guys here," Sweetie Belle sobbed. "I'm so sorry for those things I said to Breaburn!" she wiped the tears of panic from her eyes.

"Crying isn't going to get us out of this situation," Said Scootaloo as she watched the ogre down below thrashing about with it's hands still over it's face, feeling a small sense of triumph.

The monster then rubbed his gouged eye for a moment before looking up at the three fillies who had no where to go. "You think i can't reach you up there?" He said with an enraged teeth-baring frown. "I'll cleave the living flesh from your bones, little fillies! You'll scream, and scream, and scream! You'll beg me to stop, but I wont! You, little orange one. I'll hang you from a meat hook over a bucket before I tear your wings off. I'll laugh as your face twists in agony!"

All three fillies' faces went pale as the creature began to scale the tree to reach for them. Sweetie Belle was nearly within his reach but Apple Bloom pulled her away and lifted her to a higher branch.

The ogre punched the trunk of the tree in frustration. "Delay the inevitable all you want!"

The crusaders had played this game of cat and mouse for nearly thirty minutes until they were at the very highest branch of the tree. They scooted up close to each other, holding each other in terror as the ogre slowly made it's way toward them.

"O-only one thing we can do." Sweetie Belle Whimpered.

"I don't like it, but there's nothing else." Scootaloo agreed.

"Alright, then." Apple Bloom said. "One, two, and.."

All three off the fillies drew in as deep a breath as their little lungs could handle before throwing back their heads and screaming as loud as they possibly could.

Braeburn studied the bends of the hoof prints in the grass closely. The bruising where the grass was bent was at a slightly lighter color, indicating that whoever made them was there only recently. He paused and closed his eyes, listening to the owls, the crickets, all the wildlife around him that sang their songs at night that would give away the position of anypony, or anything else that may be near. He noticed that the insects were silent going on north, but every other location around him, they chirped. He proceeded on through the path of broken twigs and hoof prints before stopping to examine a new pair of prints. They were large, deep, and whatever it was, it had feet instead of hoofs. The deepness of them were an indication of it's heavy weight. His ears twitched when he suddenly heard multiple shrill screams northbound.  He tore through the vines, jumped over fallen logs, and pounded the ground at a quick pace. He could here the screams again, but this time they sounded more like howls of agony than terrified cries like the first time. His mane and tail whipped and flowed through the wind as he picked up his pace.

He was suddenly blocked off from his path by a group of three timber wolves that turned and snarled upon noticing him. "Ah don't have time for this!"

He wasted absolutely no time in putting them down. Before they could even think to attack he was upon them. He jumped and landed hard dead-center in the middles of the center one's back, making it's spine crumble with a thick snapping sound. Another one lunged, but Braeburn spun around and clothes lined it, knocking it's head off. The other one surprised him by leaping on his and driving it's fangs into the back of his neck. Pained, but not even close to giving up, the stallion leaped and fell backwards. He then rolled to his hoofs, grabbed it, then threw it hard into a nearby tree. Splinters and broken timber flew in every direction trailed by an eerie green light. Braeburn made note of the fallen wolves that were already beginning to put themselves back together before he retreated to the sounds of the screams again, so as to not return to the location. He knew that just like regular wolves, these ones would howl once they amalgamated, and it would summon more of them.

"Now, you're mine!" The ogre reached out and finally managed to snatch Scootaloo from the branch upon which she was perched.

"Don't lift us up by our tails!" Apple Bloom screamed. "It hurts!"

"Oh, this will seem like a vacation when you're roasting over a fire, little fillies," he cackled just before leaping from the top of the tree, all three fillies in hand by their tails screamed as they plummeted. The ogre landed hard on the ground, causing deep imprints of his feet to be left behind in the earth as it quaked under him. He then looked up and sniffed the air. "Who goes?!" he yelled just before Braeburn slid into a view.

"Braeburb!" The three fillies exclaimed, desperately reaching out to him.

The ogre's upper lip curled into a sneer. "Leave me be, or I'll kill you, too."

"Drop them fillies, and Ah'll be on mah way, partner."

"These three?" The ogre smiled cruelly while he held them up. "You can have what ever's left. I'm not particularly fond of eyeballs, bladders, or livers, so I just may be willing to share."

"No deal."

"You're kidding, right?" The creature laughed. "I just wanted to eat these three young ones. Children are such tender little morsels. Adults are fine, but their muscles are tough. But I digress: I'm offering you one more chance to leave - I suggest you take it."

Without another word, Braeburn charged forth, leaped, and drop kicked the creature directly in it's groin and struck his intended target under the ogre's loin cloth. The monster instantly let the three fillies go who dropped to the ground, scrambled to their hoofs, and ran behind Braeburn for protection.

"Please don't tell me that was the extent of your attack strategy!" Scootaloo stammered in panic.

"Makin' it up as Ah go along, little darlin." Braeburn chuckled in a carefree manner.

"If it's a fight you want, then!" The ogre looked back up, and his one good eye that Scootaloo had left him with was glowing red with fury. Without another word he lunged forward at a speed that contradicted his massive size, then grabbed the stallion before he could have a chance to react. He held his face close to his, flashing those brown, jagged teeth of his.

"You misunderstand mah intentions. Ah ain't gonna fight you. Ah'm just gonna completely wreck you." Braeburn bent his legs up to his chest and kicked the ogre square in his mouth with all his might, knocking several teeth out. The ogre dropped the stallion as he fell backwards. He quickly got back to his feet and bent down to spit out a mouthful of blood before he threw his head back and roared furiously.

"Years of apple buckin'" Braeburn chortled before swiping the three terrified fillies off the ground and retreating with them on his back. The ogre followed Braeburn in a state of blind fury, unaware of the stallion's cunning plan.

"When I catch you, I'm going to grind you into paste!"

"Paste would be convenient since Ah knocked them teeth out of your skull," Braeburn taunted with an insufferable laugh as he quickened his pace.

"Are you mad?" Apple Bloom cried. "You're making it angrier!"

Braeburn laughed confidently. "He who is quick to fury is slow to be tactful. Seek to exploit his ire, for he is a fool, and a fool's greatest weakness is his own foolishness."

Braeburn recognized the location he was now it as the place where he had fought the timberwolves. He looked off into the darkness of the forest and noticed several pairs of green eyes that were leering back at him. "Perfect."

Braeburn dug his knife out of his vest with his mouth and turned around.

"What are you doing?" Scootaloo cried. "You gained some distance on him, you can get away. I know you're tough, but you don't stand a chance against that thing!"

Grasping his knife firmly in his mouth, Braeburn completely shut out every sounds that would be a distraction to him. He utilized every sense he could to focus himself. He looked back to see the group of timberwolves amassing behind him, then he looked in front of him again. He quickly concluded that he could have escaped the ogre, only to run into a nasty ambush by those wolves. He would have no way to protect the fillies from such a group. He had one shot, and only one plan. He waited.

The three fillies' eyes were wide as they came to understand their situation, knowing that without a doubt they were doomed. Sweetie Belle slowly lowered herself to Braeburn's cheek and kissed him.

"I'm so sorry..."

Braeburn smiled back at her. "Hold your kisses, apologies, and your applause for the end of the show, little darlin'."

"You can't sugar coat this, Braeburn," Sweetie Belle said. "Please don't treat me like an ignorant little child. I know this is going to be the end of us, and I just want to spend my last moments telling you how sorry I am, and how I wish I..." She was no longer able to continue. She just buried her face into the back of his mane and broke down.

The ogre was nearly upon them. Everything was as if it was moving in slow motion. Taking a deep breath, Braeburn spun around, and let loose his bowie knife.

Sweetie Belle's tear stricken face peeked up from the stallion's mane. Apple Bloom closed her eyes, and Scootaloo held on for dear life, content to squeeze onto Braeburn until she drew her last breath.

The stallion watched as the knife flew directly into it's target. The ogre stood dumbly for a moment, his vision absolutely black. He could no longer see, and a horrible pain assaulted him all the way from his eyeball all the way into the center of his skull. It's hands groped around it's head for a moment in disbelief before feeling the large knife embedded in it's face.

When he realized what had just happened to him, he stumbled down to one knee in a state of shock.

"I'm blind!" it howled before pulling the knife out, which caused it to howl even louder. He threw the knife in what he hoped would be Breaburn's direction, but it hit a tree branch at an odd angle and it ricocheted before the blade landed near the stallion instead of in him. He picked it up and sheathed it before watching the creature roll about with it's hands over it's face. "I'm blind!" he howled again. "I'll kill you all! I'll find out where you live, and I'll eat your family's right in front of you! I don't care how long it takes for me to find you!" He tried to get back up, but he stumbled over in his state of literal blind fury.

"Braeburn!" Sweetie Belle whimpered.  "Timberwolves!"

Braeburn looked back, and sure enough, he saw a large pack of at least a dozen timberwolves behind him. The largest of them, he assumed was the pack leader, slowly made his way to the stallion and sniffed at him for a moment. He then growled something unintelligible to the rest of pack before looking at the thrashing ogre behind them.

"Ah'm gonna teach you a little something about carnivores, ladies." Braeburn stated. "Given the choice, they'll always go for the easier meal."

The pack leader looked back at Breaburn with those eerie green eyes of his before letting out a whimpering sound as if to say, "You gonna eat that?"

Braeburn smiled. "He's all yours."

The pack leader barred his wooden teeth in a non-aggressive manner, almost as if it was a sign of  thanks for the stallion's generosity before throwing his head back, howling, then rushing toward the downed ogre. The pack of a dozen soon were in a blood-crazed frenzy of gnashing teeth as they proceeded to tear the ogre to pieces, intent on consuming every last bit of him until nothing but bones remained.

The three fillies buried their heads into Breaburn's back, unable to watch. "Don't look, ladies." said Braeburn. "Let's just go home."

Braeburn turned around as the three fillies stayed mounted to his back. All three of them had their hooves clamped tightly over their ears so they wouldn't have to hear the tormented howls of the ogre being ripped apart behind them.

"Braeburn?" Sweetie Belle sniffled.

"You're sorry - Ah know. We all make mistakes, sweet heart."

"Well, yeah, I am really, really, sorry, and no amount of apologizing could ever pay you back in full for the risk you took in rescuing us, but I was going to say something else."

"What's that, darlin?"

"Ogres..."

"Yeah?"

"Ogres are jerks!" She squeaked with genuine disgust.

Braeburn could only throw his head back and laugh in response that level of adorableness.

.

Broken Wings

It had been nearly a month since Braeburn had rescued the Cutie Mark Crusaders from being a three course meal for the now-dead ogre that terrorized the Everfree forest, and the story had been exaggerated to ridiculous proportions since then. The true story of how Braeburn had managed to devise a clever strategy and utilize the fauna of the forest to his advantage had been fabricated into an absurdly over the top, yet epic tale: The Bronco from the southern frontier had descended from the heavens on high and smote a legion of ogres with a mighty roar... The story was asinine, of course, but no matter how many times Braeburn had attempted to correct this yarn that had been spun - the citizens of Ponyville would either seem to selectively ignore him, or disregard his editorial as modesty.

Braeburn recalled that night he had rescued the three fillies as Fluttershy carefully removed the stitches from the back of the cowboy's neck, careful not to exacerbate the wound. "Taint nothin' but fantastical tomfoolery, Miss Fluttershy, Ah assure you. Ah did sustain this bite from a timberwolf, but this business about killing an army of ogres with a shout? That's silly talk." He winced when Fluttershy began tugging the laced stitching free from his skin.

"I still don't understand why you wont go back to the doctor to have these stitches removed,” Fluttershy stated in a gentle voice before carefully snipping another stitch. “I hope I'm not hurting you. I've never performed this procedure on a pony before."

"Really?" Braeburn stretched on the sunflower-colored mare's kitchen table before laying back into his slumped posture. "Ya seem real good at it; Ah'd think ya was a nurse if Ah didn't know no better."

Fluttershy smiled shyly at the stallion's compliment. "I'm more accustomed to stitching up smaller animals, but I guess this isn't much different."

"You'd better remain still, or you wont get a treat," Discord, who proceeded over the operation, a doctor's mask over his mouth, and a steel tray in his paw upon which laid an assortment of surgical tools, laughed in mild amusement.

Braeburn chuckled in response as Fluttershy loosened the seam of the final stitch. She then snipped it, tugged it from her patient's skin, then discarded the thread into a small dish she used as a medical-waste container.

"Alright, now just let me put some ointment on this and we'll be done. I don't want this getting inflamed." Fluttershy held her leg out to discord who handed her a tin which contained a thick solve that carried a nutty fragrance. She gently worked the ointment into the stallion's wound before wrapping it with a white cotton bandage. "All done."

Braeburn stepped down from the table and rolled his neck around, happy that he was finally able to move his neck again.

"And here's your treat!" Discord snapped his fingers and conjured a doggy biscuit at the edge of the stallion's nose. The insufferable draconicus twiddled his fingers with a playful smile on his face as he noted Braeburn's unamused expression. "Would your prefer a squeaker toy?"

"Discord, stop teasing him!" Fluttershy chided before turning her head back to her patient. "I'm so sorry, Braeburn. It's kind of in his nature to be annoying. He is the god of chaos, after all. After we were able to rehabilitate him, he has found other ways to get his kicks... Harassing everypony that has the misfortune to come visit me is probably his favorite hobby now..."

Braeburn's eyebrow went down and his expression softened, the bone-shaped dog biscuit still teetering at the edge of his snout. "It's okay, miss Fluttershy. Ah can appreciate a bit of humor at mah expense." He then knocked his head back, making the biscuit fly through the air. He caught it in his mouth and chewed as he winked back at Fluttershy, who giggled with a hoof over her mouth at the cowboy's silly antics.

Discord's smile curved into an irritated frown. "Would you like another?" he asked begrudgingly.

"Let me have it," Braeburn answered with his mouth agape.

Discord once again snapped his fingers, this time conjuring a bottle of soda to appear in front of Braeburn. It glowed as it telepathically shook in front of him before the cap burst open, assaulting the stallion with a torrent of sticky-sweet grape soda. "How'd you like that? Sorry if it wasn't cold enough."

"Discord!" Fluttershy exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, Braeburn!"

The stallion stood there, soaking wet, swishing around what little bit of soda he was able to catch in his mouth before swallowing it. "Ah like grape just fine, but Ah'm more of sarsaparilla guy."

The draconicus cocked an eyebrow. "Well played, Braeburn..."

The stallion then kissed Fluttershy on her hoof, making her draw back in surprise, then he made his way to the door. "Ah hate to just leave ya after ya patched me up, Miss Fluttershy, but Ah got plans with miss Pinkie tonight."

Fluttershy's cheeks were still rosy red from Braeburn's affectionate display of gratitude, but she was able to pull herself together with a few short breaths. "A-are you two going to the summer carnival tonight?" she inquired, not able to look him directly in his eye out of embarrassment.

The stallion seemed almost ecstatic by Fluttershy's question. "We sure are. Ah can't wait to see them fireworks she told me about. Ah wonder if they'll be as amazing as the ones she makes."

"Yeah,” Fluttershy agreed. “Her rockets are pretty fun to watch."

Braeburn turned to exit through the front door, but not before tipping the brim of his hat down over his eyes and looking back with a blushing, toothy grin. "Ah was talking about the ones she makes in mah heart, miss Fluttershy." He nodded his head toward them once more. "Ladies." And then he was gone, closing the door of Fluttershy's cottage behind him.

"I'm so telling Pinkie Pie he said that," Fluttershy cooed with her hooves on her face.

"I'm not a lady," Discord grumbled with an indignant smile as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Braeburn sped down the hill from Fluttershy's cottage. He rounded about the cyclical dirt path that curved down and away from the edge of the Everfree forest, ran down the dirt road, and came upon the bridge he had used to gain access to the valley in which Fluttershy lived. His quick pace was brought to a grinding halt when he noticed the orange cones and yellow caution tape that was set across both access points to the bridge, which stretched over a dangerously powerful channel which carried water into Ponyville. He then noticed the ponies in construction attire that were about the area. A team of Pegasi wearing orange reflective vests and yellow hard hats flew about busily, not noticing the cowboy who had entered their work site.

Braeburn looked around for a pony who didn't seem to be too preoccupied with the bridge to answer his questions. He looked to a plump stallion with a dark five-o-clock shadow who sat on a log with a cigarette in his mouth and a foam coffee cup in hoof.

"S'cuse me, sir?"

The construction worker took in a long pull from his cigarette before answering in a deep voice that was laced with a thick Manehattan accent. "Eh, what can I do for ya, cowboy?"

"What happened to the bridge?"

"As ya can see, da bridge is in dire need o' repair." He gestured toward the center of the bridge with his hoof.

Braeburn turned and looked at the battered structure in bewilderment: it was pockmarked with large holes, and the boards were cracked and warped; it didn't look like it would be able to sustain his weight if he tried to walk across it. "Ah just crossed this bridge an hour ago, and the only damage it had in it was a cracked board... What the hay happened to it?"

The bulky manehattanight face-hoofed as he let out a chagrined groan. "Hurricane fricken Derpy happened to it, dat's what."

Braeburn tilted his head, perplexed by the worker's vague answer.

"New girl." The worker disambiguated before pointing to a grey mare holding a bucket of water over her head at the foot of the bridge.

"Am I doing a good job, boss?" She asked, noticing the foreman was looking at her.

"Ya doin' good, sweetheart, just keep that bucket level."

"Yes, sir!" The blonde-maned mare replied enthusiastically before her left eye glanced off in a different direction.

The construction pony turned back to Braeburn and said "I'm not gonna give ya all da details, but let's just say dat girl and power tools don't mix. We was called out here ta' replace a few boards, but dat ditzy mare turned what was suppose to take ten minutes into an all day project." He took another drag of his cigarette before carelessly tossing the butt into the stream. "But what can I do? I don't got the heart to fire her - She has a kid ta' feed."

"That's real nice of ya sir, but is there any other way to Ponyville?" Braeburn asked anxiously. "Ah don't have all day to wait for the bridge's repair."

"Yeah, ya can take the detour through the edge of the forest. Careful though: even on its edge the Everfree forest can be a dangerous place - I don't suggest you go alone. I heard about some crazy cowpony that lives in there. Ripped an ogre's head clean off with his bare hooves then drank his blood from the neck socket, from what I heard; Scary stuff..."

"Ah'll watch out for him," Braeburn chuckled before he hastefully set off down the detoured path through the edge of Everfree

The construction worker shouted one last bit of advice to the cowboy as he fled down the path:"Stick to dem arrow signs and you'll be okay!"

"Thanks, mister!" Braeburn yelled back before turning down the road that lead into the outer forest.

The edge of the forest didn't seem to be as perilous as it's inner regions. Braeburn was thankful for that, for he was fearful of having another run in with the timberwolves or any of the other horrors that awaited unfortunate wanderers who would dare stray beyond it's edge. It wasn't too long until the familiar sweet smell of Apple trees tickled his senses. The path, braeburn thought, must wind around Sweet Apple Acres. He soon surmised that if he strayed from the detour signs and followed his senses, he'd be able to cut a path straight to the farm thus shortening the trip to his destination. He continued on at a brisk gallop, his heart yearning to reunite with that pink-maned blue-eyed angel of his. She was probably worrying about him that very moment. No doubt she had already assumed that he was intercepted along the way to the bakery by Slenderpony, or Big Foot, or one of the other strange conclusions Pinkie Pie would jump to when she worried about him. It didn't take long for Braeburn to recognize the path he was on. He had already exited the Everfree forest and was traveling down the route that lead through the orchards of his family's farm. He stopped when he had come upon the crusader's tree house and pondered if he had enough time to stop and make sure the girls were staying out of trouble. However, Part of him doubted they would be up to any mischief so soon after serving their sentences.

He remembered that Apple Bloom's punishment was for her to assist him with his work on the new property. After the task had been done, she was to march directly to her's and Apple Jack's room where she would remain the rest of the day. Her sentence lasted two weeks.

Sweetie Belle was sent to live with her parents, but she came back after three weeks of desperate pleading, much to Braeburn's relief; the little lady needed to be disciplined for her brash actions, but she didn't deserve to be separated from her friends for the whole summer.

Scootaloo received no punishment to his knowledge. Rainbow Dash thought it was awesome how she had gouged the ogre's eye out. In fact, he had even heard that Dash took Scootaloo out for icecream and a movie that night after the incident. Braeburn knew it wasn't his place to question Rainbow Dash's guardianship, but an undisciplined child would more often than not end up as an unruly adult. It would not surprise him in the least to find out that the rough and narcissistic Rainbow Dash was raised in a similar fashion. Still though, Dash was one of Pinkie Pie's best friends, he didn't want to think ill of her.

Braeburn decided to pay them a quick visit, just for the peace of mind. He scaled the ramp and knocked on the door. He waited for what felt like an entire minute before knocking again. After another long wait, he assumed that nobody was there, but just as he turned to leave he could hear a small voice from inside the club house.

"Who is it?"

"Scootaloo?"

"Braeburn?"

The stallion turned around just as he heard the door's hinges squeak. Half of the orange filly's face peered out from behind the oak wood door from the darkness inside. Braeburn instantly noticed with concern Scootaloo's puffy pink eyes and the slight tremble in her voice that she was conspicuously trying her damnedest to hide. "Braeburn... W-what's up?" She stammered.

"You okay, darlin?"

"On top of the world," she answered with as much a smile as she could force.

"Can Ah come in?"

"If you want."

Her face disappeared into the darkness of the tree house, leaving the door open for the concerned stallion to enter. Braeburn stepped inside the dark building and closed the door behind him. Compared to how bright it was outside, the inside was nearly pitch black. It took several moments for his eyes to adjust to the dark. He could barely make out Scootaloo sitting at a table across the room in complete silence. Braeburn couldn't find a chair big enough for him so he just sat on the floor next to her. She remained silent as she busied herself with something on the counter in front of her, but he couldn't make out what it was as his eyes had not yet completely adjusted to the dank room. More moments of uncomfortable silence passed until Braeburn decided to brake the ice.

"So where are the others?"

"Out," she answered curtly.

"They just left ya here?"

"I told them to."

Braeburn could hear the crumpling sounds of paper. His curiosity piqued, he strained his focus on the source of the noise. It was there in Scootaloo's hooves he could see that she was making origami figures.

"Ya like origami, huh?"

"Not particularly."

"Well, then, why are ya—"

"Because, Okay!?" Scootaloo shouted abruptly.

Braeburn speechlessly shrank back, startled by the filly's sudden outburst.

The enraged filly's face slowly softened into a look of remorse. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that." Her lip began to tremble before she quickly turned in her stool and went back to her project.

Braeburn's eyes could finally make out what she was making. "Are those..."

"Yep," Scootaloo whispered under her breath, her jaw trembling. "Chickens... " her eyes overflowed like cracked floodgates with the tears she had been holding back as her mouth turned up in another forced smile. "Flightless birds... Ironic, isn't it? My nickname, I mean."

'Sugarcube," the stallion's voice came out as soothingly as he could make it. "Tell me what's wrong... There's gotta be a way Ah can help with whatever you're going through."

The distraught filly remained silent. She laid her head down on the table and blew the paper birds of the desk, watching them as gravity dragged them helplessly to the ground. "Rainbow Dash took me to a doctor yesterday - she was becoming concerned with the muscle growth in my wings..." She fell silent again, but Braeburn remained attentive for her.

"He prodded at the muscles and tendons at the base of my wings, then he took a few X-rays. When the doctor diagnosed me, Rainbow Dash became furious. She got right in the doctor's face and demanded a second opinion from what she called 'a competent doctor'; she was more upset than I was. I really wish she didn't make a huge scene like that - it's not like it was his fault. But, as I was saying, they brought in another doctor."

Braeburn could feel beads of sweat running down the back of his neck as his mind went through the worst scenarios he could possibly imagine. Scootaloo was silent again, which only seemed to compound the stallion's concern. "What did they say?"

Picking her head up from the puddle of tears that had accumulated on the table, she faced Braeburn with glazed, expressionless eyes. "Lame Wing."

"Sugarcube, Ah don't know what that is."

"It's a crippling malformation that effects the wings." She then opened a drawer in the table and produced a hospital pamphlet that read 'living with broken wings.' "Let me tell you something," she scoffed with a humorless smile. "It's a good thing they had one of these to give me, or I'd just be lost in my misery!"

Braeburn remained speechless as he watched her furiously tear the pamphlet to shreds before she collapsed to the floor in an emotional fit of hysteria.

"I have nothing! All I wanted out of life was to follow Rainbow Dash in her hoof steps! We had it all planned out: she was going to join the Wonder Bolts, and I was going to follow her! We were going to be Wonder Bolts together! We use to just hang out and talk for hours about the things we would do, the obstacles we'd overcome!"

Braeburn had never felt so helpless in his life. He desperately thought of something he could say to consul her, but nothing would come to him. But that didn't stop him from trying. "Darlin, you can't just keep on like this. Ah don't want to throw cliches at you, but its always darkest just before dawn. You can't just stay cooped up in this tree house for the rest of your life with the blinds drawn over the windows."

"The blinds are drawn because I don't want to see the sky anymore. It will just remind me of everything in life that I can never have. I might as well live in darkness for the rest of my life. There is no dawn for a crippled Pegasus."

"But there's always somethin' to look forward to. Ah'm sure if you think about it, you'll see that—"

"You just don't get it, do you!?" Scootallo sat up and glared at the wall. "You're not a Pegasus. I don't mean to sound like I'm being prejudice, but you just don't understand what it's like. How could you? Everything in Pegasus culture revolves around flight: our social activities, our sports, even our courtship rituals. Heck, our cities are all built on clouds way up in the sky, and it's not like they'll build access ramps for me. there is no point in looking at the sky anymore; it will only end up with me pining for the life I'll never have. I might as well just be struck dead..."

An idea slowly came to the stallion as he sympathetically watched the distraught little filly curl up into a fetal position. It was a shot in the dark, but what he had planned was better than nothing. "You know what? You're right: Ah ain't a Pegasus. Ah could never in a million years understand what you're goin' through. You need a Pegasus to help ya, and Ah got just the one in mind, too."

"I don't want anyone's help, Braeburn. I just want to be left alone. And Rainbow Dash is probably thinking of a way to get rid of me so I wont hold her back, so there is no point in even going to her... Can't say that I blame her. Everyone would probably be better off if I just faded away from existence." After several moments of silence, Scootaloo looked back and saw that her visitor had already taken his leave. She laid her head back down with nothing but her self-deprecating thoughts to keep her company until she sobbed herself into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A rapping at the clubhouse door roused the orange filly from her sleep. She stretched out, uncurling her body from the balled up position she had been laid in and sleepily shambled to the door. She opened it by just a crack and peeked outside to tell the annoying stallion again that she didn't want his sympathy. Standing there, however, was not the golden earth pony she had expected. It was a young colt: light grey coat, dark grey mane, purple eyes. He eyed her curiously as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She silently looked back at him before her sleepy brain's light switch flipped on. She let out an involuntary squeal of surprise and slammed the door right in his face, then quickly backed against it to keep him from trying to enter.

Braeburn, you idiot! Why did you have to do this to me? Of all the ponies he could have sent...

"Scootaloo?" Rumble's muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"Y-yes? What?"

"You wanna come outside and talk?"

"N-no! I-I mean! I'd like to, but I'm not feeling all that well right now..."

"Well, can I come in there, then?"

Scootaloo kept her back firmly pinned against the door. She glanced at a nearby mirror while keeping herself firmly backed into the entrance and repelled in disgust at her reflection: her mane was a mess, her face was streaked with dried trails her tears had left behind, and her eyes were still pink and puffy; there was no way in Tartarus she was about to let him see her like this. She quickly scanned the room for inspiration in order to fabricate an excuse. Her eyes locked in on the CMC banner that proudly hung across the ceiling on the other side of the clubhouse. "I'd like to let you in, but this is the Cutie Mark Crusader's clubhouse... You have to be a blank flank to be let in."

"I am a blank flank..."

Scootaloo cursed under her breath as she searched for another excuse. "No... Uh... No boys aloud!"

"That's not fair!"

"Yeah, well, you better get use to it, kiddo. The world isn't a fair place." She wished she hadn't said that. It only served to remind her of how true her statement was as she looked back at the useless appendages that protruded from her back. Several moments of silence passed before the filly curiously opened the door to check if the colt was still there. Just as she had opened it to barely a crack, the door was suddenly forced open as Rumble slammed himself into it at ramming speed, sending a surprised Scootaloo sliding across the floor on her back.

She looked up at him hovering over her, then quickly hid her face. "You jerk!"

"You're the jerk!" Rumble spat. "You're a sexist jerk! No boys aloud my butt!"

"No, you!" Scootaloo countered weakly, her face still hidden away by her forelegs. "You just resort to force when somepony doesn't let you have your way?"

"I thought you wanted me to come in!"

"Why? I said you couldn't come in! As in 'do not enter! Keep out! No trespassing! No entrada!'"

Rumble shrugged. "My big brother told me once that when girls say no, they actually mean yes."

Scootaloo sneered in disgust. "That's not true, and your brother sounds like a misogynistic pig!"

Rumble looked surprised by this stunning revelation. His brother always seemed like a fountain of knowledge as he was the one that taught the little colt everything he knew. "So... That's not true?"

"No, it's not!"

"Oh, okay... Well, I'm in here. We might as well hang out."

"No!"

Rumble brought his wings to his sides and landed softly on the ground. Tension grew even stronger within the young filly as she could hear his rhythmic hoof steps approaching her.

"Scootaloo, do you hate me, or something? You have always been really nice to me. I thought we were friends."

"I don't hate you," Scootaloo answered somberly before rolling to her belly and sitting up on her haunches. Rumble curiously watched her turn her back to him as if she was hiding something. "I don't hate you, Rumble. I'm just going through some things right now."

"Lame Wing?"

The orange filly sniffled before looking down in annoyance. "Braeburn made you come here, didn't he? He probably told you everything." She suddenly tensed her entire body when she felt Rumble's hoof brush gently against her back.

"No, he didn't. I can tell from looking at your wing's muscles. And it wasn't Braeburn who talked to me, it was Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

"So you already know. I guess you'd find out eventually. Did you come here to laugh at me? Or are you just here to give me your sympathy. I'll bet you came here to try and convince me that I'm not useless."

Rumble shrugged indifferently. "I'm not here to do any of that. You're only as useless as you think you are. If you think you're useless, then you're probably right. Nobody knows you better than you, so who am I to disagree with your opinion of yourself?"

"I agree, Rumble. I'm useless. I'm a crippled Pegasus. What's a Pegasus without her wings? I'm more like an earth pony without the dense bones and thick muscles, I guess..." She looked at the the group of origami chickens on the ground next to the table. "I guess I'm more of a chicken than anything else. I'm a flightless bird that serves absolutely no reason other than to simply exist."

Rumble's eyes narrowed. "So, what then? You're just going to lay down and die? Do you know how pathetic and selfish you sound right now? Do you think Rainbow Dash thinks you're useless?"

"She's probably going to disown me; I don't blame her. It's not like she'll be able to lug me around wherever she goes. She can carry me right now, but do you really think she's going to want to do that when I'm older? Do you think I can be a Wonder Bolt if I have Rainbow Dash hanging on to me all the time?"

"I don't think you really want to be a Wonder Bolt," Rumble said with an irritated frown. "I think you just want to do it because Rainbow Dash wants to do it. I'll bet if she was, I don't know, a chess player, you'd try to do that instead, am I right? You're not only a chicken, you're a robot. An automaton. You don't want to be original, you just want to emulate. You're a robotic chicke—"

Scootaloo spun around and struck the colt in the face before he could finish his sentence, leaving a dark bruise on his cheek. Rumble turned his head to face her again.

"How dare you judge me!" Scootaloo barred her teeth as a new stream of tears streaked her face. "Don't talk to me like you think you know me!"

"I don't know you," Rumble replied calmly. "How could I? You don't even know yourself. You're too busy trying to be somepony else, and now that there's a roadblock in your way of that goal, you're incapable of getting over or around it."

"It's not about not being able to emulate Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo shouted.

"What is it, then?"

"It's about being a Pegasus! A Pegasus needs the sky, Rumble! I can't believe I have to tell you this! I'll never even be able to play one of our most basic games in the state I'm in..."

Rumble placed his hoof under his chin curiously. "What game is that?"

"Free falling," Scootaloo answered. "As easy as it seems, it looks really fun, but it's just another thing I'll never be able to do in my lifetime... Rumble, look, I don't care what you think of me, because it doesn't matter to me anymore. There was a time when I actually liked you, like, really liked you, but there's no point anymore. You've obviously come here to gawk at me, the miserable crippled Pegasus. Now that you've seen her,  you can leave. Maybe if I pray and wish really, really, really hard, Celestia will take pity on me and put me out of my misery so I can be spared the pain of being further ridiculed and ostracized."

"Okay," Rumble growled, "That's it. I tried this Braeburn's way, I'm taking this into my own hooves now. I've only heard you carry on like this for a few minutes and I'm already at my limit!"

Scootaloo looked up at Rumble who was now approaching her. She quickly got up on her four hooves and backed away. "You said Braeburn didn't tell you to come down here."

Rumble took an aggressive-looking crouched stance as his wings shot out. "I lied!" He then charged toward her, took her in his forelimbs, and smashed through the roof.

"What are you doing?! Rumble, I can't fly!" The panicked filly looked down at the shrinking world below her with terrified, tear-stricken eyes."

"You wanna go free falling? You wanna die? I'll grant you both of those wishes right now! Life played you a bad card, I'll give you that, but I am so sick of you whining about how useless you are, and how you wish you could just die! You're cooler than all of this, dammit!"

The irate colt carried her as high up as he could go. Scootaloo kept screaming in protest, but Rumble kept climbing until the oxygen became almost too thin to breathe, until they could see the curvature of the planet off in the distance. The air became so cold that white lines of frigid air trailed at the tips of Rumble's wings as he tore his way through the sky's zenith. He finally stopped climbing, and evened himself in the air at a hover. He looked down and smiled at the filly in his legs who now seemed too scared, or most likely out of breath, to continue with her screaming. The only sound she made was the chattering of her teeth. Whether it was from the cold or from fear, Rumble couldn't guess.

"Please, don't drop me..." Scootaloo whimpered as her body tremored uncontrollably.

The terrified filly could feel his legs loosening around her. "But I thought you wanted to die," he said before releasing her completely. She kicked and her body flipped and flailed uncontrollably as she plummeted in terminal velocity toward the ground far below, but Rumble quickly caught up with her. Rumble, having far more experience with free fall than her, was able to twist through the air by making motions with his legs like a rudder on a zeppelin. He twisted himself around and situated him self behind Scootaloo, and then coupled his front legs around her.

"Rumble!" She screamed as loud as she could over the howling wind. "What ever point you're trying to make, you've made it. Don't let me fall!"

"But falling is the fun part! It's the ground you have to worry about! It's kind of like life, you know? You live until one day you just stop living. No one knows when their day or time will come, but it will, and that is the only thing we can really be certain about. It's kinda like when you fall. You fall, and fall, and fall, and fall, until, eventually, you hit the ground. You might as well enjoy the fall, right?"

"I get it! 'enjoy life,' yeah, that's all well and good, but how can I enjoy life when all I have are broken dreams?!"

Rumble spread his wings, causing them to fall at a slower pace. "I'm going to tell you something. So you'd better listen to me. I'm not trying to compare my sob story to yours, I just want you to know this: My dad died before I was born, and my mom died from complications soon after having me, which left Thunderlane as the reluctant parent. My big brother had dreams, but he was never able to realize them. He dropped out of school and had to work a full time job and a part time job to support us both. You wanna know what the funny thing is? This is the kicker: he never complained, not even once. Through the act of simply being born, I destroyed my brother's hopes and dreams. Everything he was going to do with his life was flushed down the toilet. He could have put me up for adoption, but he said 'No, he's my brother. I'll take care of him' and he brought me home from the hospital. He was seventeen when that happened, and it's been about nine years since that day. He'd be all done with college by now if it hadn't been for me. I have asked him on several different occasions if he regrets the decision he made. And do you want to know what he said? 'No, because having a little brother like you is better than anything else I could have had. If I had the choice to go back in time and let the hospital take you away from me, I'd decline in a heart beat, even if that would mean having to raise you all over again.' Do you understand the moral of this story? Crap happens. Even if your dreams are destroyed by an insurmountable obstacle, life has a funny way of giving you something else of equal or greater value. You need not look any further than your own testimony for evidence of that. You were an orphan, weren't you? Look at what you have now though. You have Rainbow Dash to look after you. And I don't want to hear crap about how she's supposedly trying to get rid of you. You also have Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom for friends. I would say those three more than make up for having a lack of parents."

Rumble's words struck their intended target. Even as they plummeted it was as if Scootaloo had forgotten all about the premise of falling to her death while her mined mulled over the information that was just given to her. It took a moment, but when she had digested everything Rumble had said, it felt like she was opening her eyes after a long sleep.

"Y-you're right... About everything...You're actually right. I-I can't believe how much sense you just made!"

"What?" Rumble yelled over the wind.

"I said, you're righ—"

Rumble released his grip so he could turn her around to better hear her. Once he had her facing him, he locked his legs around her again. They continued plummeting in that diving formation while he waited for her to speak again. However, the combination of the rate at which they were falling and the way Rumble was holding her made it extremely difficult for her to focus her thoughts. She took a deep breath before trying to articulate herself again.

"I said, you're right, about everything. I don't know what it was. Maybe I just needed the wind the clear my head, or maybe I needed to hear the right words from the right pony. It all just feels clear now. My blessings in life far outweigh my misfortunes..."

What was once a hard, disapproving gaze softened into relieved smile on the colt's face. He lowered his head forward and rested his forehead against hers, which caused her to turn a shade of red. "You actually get it, Scoots. I'm going to admit that you had me scared for a while... All that talk about wishing you didn't exist, and how everyone would just be better off without you. I'm sorry if I was a little harsh with you."

"It's okay. Your harsh words were the only ones that were getting my attention."

Before the two knew it, they were awkwardly staring into each other's eyes. They both looked away when it became apparent how intently their gazes were.

"S-so," Rumble said, attempting to ease the tension.

"Y-yeah?" Scootaloo responded, anxious clear the awkward feeling from the air.

"Are you ready to start living again?"

"I am. I'm still a little upset about my wings, but I think I can move on now."

"That's good news." Rumble flapped his wings, turning their rapid descent again into a steady climb.

"What are you doing now?"

Rumble gave her a wink. "You know how I said living is like falling? Well, you said you were ready to start living again, so that's what you're going to do." The rambunctious colt took her into the air and dropped her once more. This time, instead of holding onto her, he let her fall freely with him. Scootaloo flailed a bit, but Rumble sped up beside her to show her a proper falling formation. "Spread out all four of your legs and puff out your chest," he advised. She did exactly as he said and it caused her to stop flailing and spinning out of control; she was amazed by how well it worked. An excited smile began to crack at the corners of her mouth as she felt adrenaline coursing through her. "Now dive." Rumble tucked his forelimbs to his sides, and kept his hind legs straight. He was now falling ahead of her at a much greater speed. It took Scootalloo a moment to get her limbs the way he had his, but after a few difficult seconds of struggling against the force of the wind she was able to dive, and the velocity at which she fell increased dramatically. It took a massive amount of concentration to be able to breathe while falling through the air at that speed, but, once again, she mastered it. Her slight smile was now a thrilled, ecstatic grin. Even though the wind stung her eyes and chilled her to the bone, she could do nothing to keep from covering her mouth with her hooves and breaking into a wild giggle fit. The fear of having to live her life with her disability, just like the fear of falling had all dissipated into an intoxicating surge of adrenaline.

The pair eventually broke the layer of clouds, indicating that it was time to slow down. Rumble locked Scootaloo in his grip and their plummet slowed into a steady drift. He brought her gently to the ground, and even though he attempted to place her on her hooves, she instantly collapsed onto her back. Rumble watched her with an amused smile as she placed a hoof over her rapidly expanding and contracting chest. "Please... Please tell me we can do this again!"

"Yeah, we'll do it again. How about we get some grub first though?"

"I don't have any money."

Rumble rolled his eyes before approaching a nearby tree with a stone at it's base. The winged colt pushed the rock aside and retrieved a small bag. He weighed it in his hoof for a moment before he explained. "You know how I told you first that your friends asked me to come talk to you?"

Scootaloo nodded.

"Then I said I lied and revealed it was actually Braeburn who had me come see you?"

Scootaloo nodded again.

"Well, those were actually both true cases. Braeburn found Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in town. All three of them found me and told me about what was going on with you. They didn't even have to ask me to come see you, the moment they said you were upset, I asked where you were so I could come talk to you. Braeburn gave me this bag of bits and told me if all else fails, I could at least take you somewhere for lunch. I'm not really sure what he was trying to hint at though. Everyone seems to know something I don't..."

"He did that?" Scootaloo asked. "But you didn't fail. I feel so much better... And then some."

"Yeah..." Rumble chortled with a sly smile. "But I'm hungry, so let's pretend I failed so we can have a miserable meal together."

Rumble approached Scootaloo and extended his hoof to help her up, but instead of letting him pull her up, she dragged him to the ground and latched onto him with the tightest grip she could manage. Rumble let out a yelp of surprise as she nearly squeezed the life out of him.

"Rumble."

"Yeah?"

"You're awesome."

The little colt could only laugh in response. "No, you're the awesome one. The way you do those tricks on that scooter of yours. There is nothing I could do in the air that looks nearly as cool as that."

"How about we just both be awesome, then?"

Rumble got to his hooves and helped the exuberant filly up. "That sounds good to me."