Three young fillies sat together at a small table at the Sugar Cube Corner confectionery. They were depressed due to their most recent failure of their cutie mark "crusading."
"I just don't understand it!" Apple Bloom slammed her hooves on the table nearly knocking over the three shakes on top of it.
"We've tried everythin' we possibly could!" she complained.
"And we still don't have our cutie marks!" Scootaloo added.
There was a long moment of silence, which was soon after interrupted by Sweetie Belle.
"Do you think we should just give up?"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stared at her dumbfounded. Sure, sometimes they felt like giving up on their long crusade and just wait patiently for their cutie marks like most fillies and colts did. But they never really considered actually giving in.
"We can't give up!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, beginning to stand on the table. Her friends just stared at her as she did this.
"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders for Pete's Sake! And we ain't gonna stop crusadin' 'til we have our cutie marks!" Apple Bloom preached to her friends.
"I guess you're right, Apple Bloom." Sweetie Belle admitted. Scootaloo nodded, agreeing with her friend's comment.
"Besides," Apple Bloom added, "we couldn't have failed THAT many times." Her friends were quiet again.
"Let's just say that we're REALLY running out of options." Scootaloo answered.
"What do we try now?" Sweetie Belle asked. The crusaders then began to ponder on what they could possibly attempt in getting their cutie marks this time.
"Ooh! We could try getting the highest scores on the arcade machines!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"I feel like we already did that." Scootaloo sighed.
All of a sudden, the bakery became silent. The only thing that could be heard was the entry bell on the bakery door. There stood an orange earth pony with a poncho and a large, dark stetson hat that covered his face just enough for him to be unrecognizable. The pony stood in front of the door a few seconds longer as all eyes continued to stare, and threw off his stetson and poncho revealing himself to the shocked crowd of ponies.
"I'm back Ponyville!" the pony exclaimed. The mysterious pony was Cheese Sandwich, one of the best party planners in all of Equestria besides Pinkie Pie. The ponies seemed very glad to see the party pony again, since he co-hosted the best party that any of them had ever been to. The Cutie Mark Crusaders seemed shocked to see him as well, since they figured that the last time they saw him would be the only time in their lives to see him ever again, but apparently not. As the crowd of ponies greeted Cheese Sandwich, there was a pink flash that zipped past the crusaders from the staircase to him. Pinkie Pie had seemed to be the most excited about the party pony's return to town, but she had every reason to be, since he was the only one who seemed to have as big of a passion for parties as she did.
"Cheese!" Pinkie hugged him excitedly, which caused him to blush.
"I'm super duper excited that you came back to Ponyville!" she exclaimed.
"Because I thought that I would never ever get a chance to see you never ever again! Which is just so terrible since you are one of the most super duper party ponies ever!" she rapidly spoke. Cheese chuckled.
"It's nice to see you too, Pinkie." A thought then crossed Pinkie's mind.
"Wait, why are you here?" she asked "There aren't any big parties that need to planned right now." The crowd of ponies around Cheese faded away by this time as he explained.
"You see Pinkie Pie, it gets pretty lonely on the road all by yourself. There's not really anyone to keep you company all those long days and nights." Pinkie still wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at.
"You're retiring?" she asked
"Not exacly." Cheese chuckled again. "I'm basically taking a vacation to, you know, get away from it all."
"Oh, that makes a lot more sense." Pinkie caught on. There was still something looming over her mind though.
"But why did you pick Ponyville out of the places in Equestria?" Pinkie questioned.
"It's a great town, there's a lot of nice folks here." Cheese answered."Besides, I-" he paused and his faced turned bright red. Pinkie looked expectantly at him waiting for the sentence to be finished.
"Besides what?" Pinkie asked, noticing the stallion's face turn bright red.
"My vacation will be a lot more fun to spend with somepony who appreciates the finer arts." he improvised in his best Canterlot pony impression. Pinkie giggled at how ridiculous he sounded.
"Do you like baking?" she randomly asked as she continued giggling.
"Of course I do! What kind of party pony would I be if I didn't like baking!" Cheese answered. A smile spread across Pinkie's face.
"Do you wanna bake some muffins then?!" Pinkie said as she started bouncing excitedly.
"Totally!" Cheese smiled. Pinkie continued on bouncing and giggling.
"Come on then!" Pinkie smiled as she and Cheese Sandwich bounced their way into the kitchen as their laughter continued.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had watched all of this but didn't think too much of it, these were two of the craziest ponies they had ever met that were being dealt with. But Apple Bloom still questioned the events that had just happened right before them, and so quickly.
"Didn't y'all think this was a little weird?" Apple Bloom asked about the return of the party pony.
"Nope." Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle answered flatly. That didn't stop Apple Bloom for wondering if what he said was really why he decided to come back. If this wasn't the case, why now?
Apple Bloom made her way home after the events at Sugar Cube Corner. She was upset that she still didn't have her cutie mark yet, since she and her friends have been so committed to getting them.
"There's still a bunch of things we haven't tried yet," she said, "like snake charmers or boxers."
However, her failed Crusade wasn't the main thought on her mind. She was still dumbfounded that Cheese Sandwich had come back to Ponyville.
"What did he mean by vacation?" Apple Bloom pondered.
"I didn't even know that party ponies took vacations."
"It just seems... suspicious."
"Maybe he just has some important business to do here or somethin'." Apple Bloom thought aloud.
"But then again," Apple Bloom considered, "what kind of business does a party pony do anyways?"
"And he clearly said that he was on vacation, there's not that many was to interpret that."
"I mean, Pinkie Pie never takes vacations." At that point Apple Bloom was just rambling on the subject. Then today's earlier instance recurred to her. She remembered how he blushed when Pinkie started talking, and how he was set on impressing her the first time he came to Ponyville. A wide smile spread across her sad face when the answer came to her.
"Unless," she paused, "it was all an excuse!"
"Maybe he used the whole vacation thing as a ploy so that he would have an excuse to see her again, because..."
.
"It all makes sense now!" Apple Bloom exclaimed,a bit louder than what she had expected.
"What makes sense?" Granny Smith interrupted from the kitchen. Apple Bloom was surprised to find that she had been so distracted by her rambling that she didn't notice that she was already inside. She gave a little jump and answered, "Sorry, Granny, I didn't realize I was talkin' to myself." she blushed, hoping that Granny Smith hadn't overheard everything she said.
Granny Smith just nodded. She appeared to be occupied with a pot on the stove. Whatever was in it seemed to start bubbling over the side, only to be quickly calmed by Granny Smith. The substance in the pot looked almost like some sort of scarlet molasses, it didn't exactly look to appetizing.
"Uh, what's that you're makin', Granny?" Apple Bloom asked her Grandmother.
"It's a new recipe." Granny Smith answered.
Apple Bloom scrunched her muzzle, the strange molasses didn't look like anything that her Granny had ever made before.
"Come over here and try it." her Granny said. Apple Bloom really didn't want to try it, but she also didn't want to hurt her feelings either. She stepped over to her and tried it.
However, she was pleasantly surprised. It turned out that it wasn't molasses. It was some strange concoction that tasted like the sweetest of apples.
"That was delicious!" she exclaimed, "I'm surprised that more ponies don't know about this! Then an idea came to her, a wonderful idea.
"Ya know, Granny," Apple Bloom smiled deviously, "did ya ever consider havin' ponies sample some of this?"
"No..." Granny Smith slowly replied.
"Well, we could have a party, and then there will be a lot ponies to taste some and see how delicious it is!" Apple Bloom nudged Granny Smith.
"A what now?"
"A party!" Apple Bloom emphasized. Granny Smith didn't look too convinced at her idea.
"Think about it, ponies love a good party and who knows how many will come and have some of it! And I could even make a stage for it!"
"That's mighty sweet of you, Apple Bloom." Granny Smith hugged her granddaughter.
"It's no problem, think of all the publicity that Sweet Apple Acres will get!"
"Who's gonna plan this thing?" Granny Smith questioned.
"Oh, don't worry," Apple Bloom grinned, "I know just who's gonna plan it."
********
Author's Note
I'm really sorry for the long wait on this chapter. I was suffering from some writer's block and I wasn't too inspired, which is why this chapter is so short. I'm going to try to upload chapters more often, and they'll be longer. I'm hoping to have some CheesePie for next chapter! Yay! Please tell me if there are any errors.
Thanks for reading!
