Rum Raisin Brandy

Chapter 7

"Aha! I found you!"

"Whah?" Crescendo barely had an instant to process the voice he heard when his vision was filled with a wall of pink and two large blue eyes.

"I knew it!" Pinkie Pie squealed, "I knew there were two new ponies in town! See I saw one of them in town earlier but I missed you so I knew I had to find you too and now that I know where you are I can give you your invitation to your welcome to Ponyville party which I forgot to give the other guy because I was so surprised that I missed one of you because my Pinkie sense was telling me that there was one more of you so I gasped and rushed off really fast to find you and here you are so here's your invitation!"

The pink earth mare didn't even stop to breathe through her whole rant, and ended with a big grin and a letter. Crescendo opened it up and read it.

Dear new pony,

Welcome to Ponyville! You are joyfully invited to your welcome to Ponyville party tonight at Sugarcube Corner!

By the time you finish reading this, I'll have found the other new pony and given him his card too. I hope you two are friends, cuz then I can make two new friends with one stone!

Your new instant best friend, Pinkie Pie

Crescendo stared blankly at the card for a moment. "Huh. That was abrupt and random." He smiled to himself. "Well, this is Pinkie, after all. I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

The pegasus looked up at the sky. It was around four in the afternoon now. He wasn't sure what hour the Apple family stopped work, but he hoped it was soon; his legs were burning and sore from all the hard bucking he'd been doing. Sure, the muscle's Midi gave him with his transformation spell were strong enough to get the apples out of the trees, but they still needed exercise to keep up with AJ and Mac.

He started carrying his full buckets back to storage. A few minutes later, Applejack met Crescendo to tell him the day's work was over.

"By the way," said Applejack, "would y'all like to stay fer dinner tonight?"

"What? You aren't coming to Pinkie Pie's party?" Crescendo tilted his head.

The mare looked confused. "Pinkie's having a party? She never told me anything about that."

Suddenly the bubblegum-colored party pony popped out of a nearby rain barrel with a loud splash. "Oh, sorry, sorry about that, AJ! I was looking around for the other new pony. He's a slippery one. Took me almost five minutes to find him! Here you go." She handed Applejack a perfectly dry letter and disappeared into the barrel.

Crescendo couldn't help himself. He ran to the barrel and looked inside, but only saw a shallow pool of water. "How the buck does she do that?"

Applejack read the letter she'd been hoofed.

Dear Applejack,

You're invited to my party at Sugarcube corner to welcome two new ponies to Ponyville! That's right, TWO new ponies, so the fun will be doubled!

Your bestest friend, Pinkie Pie

"Well, looks like we're goin' to a party tonight." Applejack tossed the card in a bin. "Y'all are comin' aren't ya?"

Crescendo nodded. "Hey, is Big Macintosh coming too?"

Applejack shook her head. "Nah, he's not one fer social gatherings. Only goes to a party when it's a family thing."

The pegasus drooped a bit. "Oh. I see."

"Something wrong, sugarcube?"

Crescendo sighed. How do I tell her I have the hots for her brother? "Nothing much. He just seems like a nice guy, and I wanted to get to know him, that's all." Real subtle.

AJ smiled. "Aw, shoot, you'll have plenty ah time with him here. That and we're gonna be headin' to a rodeo in a couple days. Maybe you could come 'n' help us out there too?"

Crescendo perked up. "A rodeo? Sounds like fun! Who's competing?"

Applejack lifted her head proudly. "That'd be me, ten-time champion o' Ponyville. Ah'll be competing in the Appleloosa league this summer."

"You, um..." He shifted uncomfortably, drawing a circle in the dirt with his hoof. "You don't think I'd get in the way there, do you?"

"What?!" Applejack laughed. "Naw, shoot, you'd be fine! Ah could use all the support Ah can get. After all, there'll be some big name competitors there."

Cres smiled. "Alright, I'll go. If you really think I can help there."

"Great!" Applejack shut the barn door. "Now then, we best be gettin' to Pinkie's party. Trust me, y'all don't wanna see what happens when the guest o' honor misses her party."

"Boy, don't I know it," Crescendo muttered under his breath.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Midi tip-hoofed in place, looking in all directions. "I can't do this! I hate parties!"

The unicorn stallion had just survived a verbal barrage from Pinkie Pie, and had an exploding invitation shoved in his face. After a moment for the message to sink in, Midi was having a full-blown panic attack.

"I can't do crowds! All those ponies looking at me! What if I do something stupid? What if Derpy sees me? If she thinks I'm an idiot, I'll have no chance with her! With anypony! I'll be alone all my life!" He slapped himself in the face with a forehoof. "Get it together, Midi! You don't even know her or anypony else yet... well, except for the Mane Six... and the princesses... and certain close family members."

He scowled at himself. "This is wrong. I shouldn't even be here." He closed his eyes and sighed. "But I've already come too far to turn back. This is my life now. I am Midi Waffle. Time to live with it."

He spotted Crescendo and Applejack walking up the road towards him. "At least I'll have Cres to support me. Yeah, this won't be so bad."

Perking up a bit, Midi turned and trotted towards Sugarcube Corner.