November was less than half over in Canterlot City. The leaves had already changed color, and most of them had fallen from the trees and were now littering the yards and sidewalks. A brisk wind blew through the bare branches as the people went about their day dressed in scarves, gloves, and jackets. On this day, Applejack and Apple Bloom were going door to door collecting everyone’s rotten jack o’ lanterns. Wait, what?
Apple Bloom rang the doorbell of the house that she and her sister were standing in front of.
When the door opened, she said to the woman inside, “Howdy, ma’am. We’re the Apple sisters.” She recited the rest of her pitch with a surprising amount of maturity and professionalism as she held out a stack of leaflets. “We’re looking to see if you have any old pumpkins left over from Halloween for us to use as fertilizer for our apple trees. For every pumpkin you give us, we’ll give you a coupon, good for 10% off your full purchase of our delicious Apple family apple products.”
Five minutes, one “Thank you, ma’am,” and one “Have a nice day” later, the sisters were walking back to their brother Big McIntosh’s truck, two leaflets less and two moldy jack o’ lanterns more.
“Ya know, Apple Bloom,” AJ said to the younger Apple, “I was a little unsure about this at first, but this is turning out to be a real good idea. We get fertilizer for the trees and get to drum up business for our apple products.”
“Yes!” AB cheered as the two of them pitched the rotten pumpkins into one of the crates on the back of the truck. “That Filly Guides creative problem-solving badge is as good as mine!”
Applejack laughed as she and Apple Bloom piled into the truck. “That’s the last house, Big Mac. Let’s head back to the farm.”
“Eeyup,” her brother replied as he shifted the car to drive.
Sweet Apple Acres Orchards was the pride of the Apple family, a nice swatch of farmland densely packed with apple trees, each branch heavy with the autumnal fruit. A bright red barn with a concrete driveway and a cozy, red farmhouse completed the idyllic scene.
A large, wooden stand and several shelves were setup at the end of the driveway, displaying a variety of goods, all made from apples, from jugs of caramel-colored cider to candy apples with their sweet, glassy shells to pastries of all kinds. A line of people stretching all the way down the block and around the corner stood in front of the stand. Fortunately for the Apple siblings, a few of their friends were over helping with the whole operation.
Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo took care of picking and transporting baskets upon baskets of ripe apples from the orchard to the farmhouse kitchen where Granny Smith and Mrs. Cake were going back and forth between sorting the apples and making the apple treats. Pinkie Pie was there too, helping make the treats. Of course, Mrs. Cake had to stop every few seconds or so to make sure Pinkie didn’t sneak any of the treats for herself.
Meanwhile, Rarity sat behind the stand helping customers with their purchases and collecting their payment. Her sister Sweetie Belle stood nearby holding a large, arrow-shaped sign reading “Buy our apples!” in colored rhinestones, no doubt her sister’s handiwork.
“Rarity, how come I can’t sit behind the stand?” Sweetie Belle whined.
“Because, Sweetie Belle, I have more experience than you working a cash register,” Rarity coolly explained. “Now, be a dear and put more energy into holding that sign. These apples aren’t going to advertise themselves.”
Sweetie Belle growled underneath her breath but did as she was told.
“APPLES FOR SALE!” she screamed, putting her very loud voice to good use.
Thankfully, the Apple siblings returned home before she could cause any permanent hearing loss.
“Finally!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she and Scootaloo pulled a red wagon full of apples towards the farmhouse. “It’s about time you got back. Hauling these apples is taking forever.”
“Why don’t you just use your super speed?” Apple Bloom asked as she and her siblings got off the truck and unloaded the crates of pumpkin carcasses.
“She tried,” Scootaloo replied, “but all that did was send apples flying everywhere.”
Applejack chuckled. “Well, Dash, as soon as we get all this pumpkin mushed up, you can use that speed of yours to scatter the fertilizer around the trees while Apple Bloom and I take over the pickin’.”
“Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!” Pinkie Pie squealed rushing out of the kitchen with a container of sprinkles in her hand. “Allow me.”
“Wait, Pinkie, don’t!” AJ cried in warning, but it was too late.
Pinkie scattered handfuls of sprinkles over the pumpkin waste, which began to glow with white hot intensity. Luckily, Rarity had moved fast and used her gem magic to contain the foul-smelling explosion before everybody got splattered in decayed pumpkin.
Meanwhile, in the part of town closest to the city area, Twilight was in her brother Shining Armor’s room with a calculator and a pad of paper. Shining Armor was with her, packing assorted comic books and action figures into boxes.
“Okay,” Twilight began, scribbling a series of numbers on the pad of paper. “By my estimates, your entire collection should be worth just enough for you to buy Cadance that ring. If you start outrageously high and haggle down, you might even end up making a little extra.”
“Right,” Shining Armor agreed before looking forlornly at the boxes of colorful toys and paper. “Goodbye, old friends. It was fun while it lasted.”
“So, what’s your plan for proposing to Cadence?”
“Well, right now, I’m working on step 1, get the ring. Step 2 is take her out to dinner tonight. Finally, step 3 is the most important step out of all of them, get down on one knee and pop the question.”
Twilight blinked twice, unimpressed. “That plan seems, eh, straightforward. So, where are you planning on taking Cadance out for dinner?”
Shining Armors eyes suddenly widened as the sound of glass shattering played in his mind. “Uh…”
“Oh, good grief.”
Back in the suburbs, in a house in a small cul-de-sac, Flash Sentry was about to walk out the front door.
“Mom,” Flash called to his mother, “I’m heading to the school with Micro Chips to help sort out the donations from the food drive. We’ll meet you and his folks over at the soup kitchen later, okay?”
“Okay, honey,” his mother Lantern Heart replied from the dining room. “Have fun and drive carefully.”
Lantern turned back to her mother Free Bird and asked, “Mom, are you sure you want to come with us to the soup kitchen? Maybe you should start taking things easy.”
“Lighty, we’re just helping out at a soup kitchen, not hauling cinderblocks. I’ll be fine,” Birdie firmly insisted.
“And the fact that you shattered your wrist so bad that you had to get surgery?” noted Lighty’s twin sister Flare Burst gesturing to her mother’s right hand, which was currently in a cast and sling.
“I just have to stay off it and not use it for a few weeks. There’s plenty I can do at the soup kitchen with just one hand.”
The sisters shared a look with each other. Birdie saw that look and sighed. She knew her daughters well enough to know that they were worried about her, and at her age, there was one major worry that overrode all the others.
“Girls,” she began, “I know you don’t want to talk about it or even think about it, but everyone’s time comes. It came for your dad, and one of these days it’ll come for me, God forbid that it be anytime soon. Either way, when my time does come, I don’t want to go out sitting still looking pretty. Oh no, I want to go out having the time of my life.”
Her youngest grandson First Base winced as he flexed and unflexed both his arms. “I’m guessing that your definition of the time of your life somehow involves making 15 batches of dinner rolls for a soup kitchen.”
“What can I say? Your grandma knows how to live,” Birdie said with a hearty laugh. “By the way, the next batch of rolls should be about done in the oven. You might want to take it out and put the next batch in.”
Before anyone could get a word in edgewise, the kitchen timer rang, proving Birdie’s statements correct.
“I’ll get it,” Flare volunteered, getting up from the table.
While all that was going on, Micro Chips had walked over from his house to Flash’s driveway where Flash was waiting next to his car.
“Hey, you ready to go?” Flash greeted his best friend.
“Yeah, let’s do this,” Micro replied.
The two boys climbed into Flash’s car, and Flash started the engine. As Flash drove towards the school, a faint scent tickled his nose.
“Hey, Micro, were you just helping your parents with their soup kitchen donations?” Flash asked.
“Yeah, why?” Micro replied.
“Because something smells like smoked turkey and chorizo and I know it’s not coming from me.”
Micro’s face twisted in befuddlement, and he sniffed at the sleeve of his shirt, confirming Flash’s statement.
“Oh, yeah?” he retorted with a huff. “Well, you’ve got flour on your face AND your hair.”
The two friends shared a laugh as Flash continued to drive.
Flash pulled his car into the Canterlot High parking lot. Several tables were set up just outside the gym’s back exit, and students were busy sorting cans, boxes, and bottles of food into cardboard boxes. Flash and Micro got out of Flash’s car and ran up to join them. The two of them searched the cluster of tables for the girls in charge of the event, Sunset Shimmer and her friend Fluttershy.
Flash spotted them at the largest table, and he and Micro Chips went up to them.
“Flash Sentry and Micro Chips reporting for duty,” he said cheerfully to Sunset.
“Hi guys,” Sunset greeted with a curt nod. “Thanks for coming. We really could use the extra hands.”
“So, where do you need us?”
“I think Bulk Biceps’s table is short a few helpers,” whispered Fluttershy, timidly pointing to said table.
“Uh, what did she say?” Micro Chips asked.
“I think she wants us to help out where she’s pointing,” Flash guessed.
“That’s exactly what she wants,” Sunset directed as she hastily looked through a clipboard, “and when you’re done, start loading up the boxes to take to the soup kitchen. If these papers are correct, you also signed up your car to help with the delivery.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Flash gave Sunset a mock salute before he and Micro headed for their assigned table.
Sunset gave a small smile as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.
As afternoon neared evening, the Apple siblings and their friends closed the stand and began putting away any unsold product while Granny Smith counted the day’s sales.
“Well, Granny,” Applejack asked, “how much did we make?”
“A whole lot,” Granny answered as she shut the cash box and wrote down a number on a ledger. “That was one hooey of a sales day! Yeehaw!”
“So, what are you going to do with what you didn’t sell?” Mrs. Cake asked. “The baked goods aren’t going to be nearly as good tomorrow, and you don’t have enough juice and cider left to sell tomorrow.”
“Oooh! Oooh! I could finish it,” Pinkie volunteered, hopping up and down excitedly.
“Pinkie, no. Do you have any idea what all those carbs could do to your figure?” Rarity scolded.
“Rares, this is Pinkie we’re talking about,” Rainbow Dash countered. “She can burn through calories faster than a cheetah.”
“That’s still no excuse to overindulge,” Rarity huffed.
“Hey, aren’t Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy dropping our food drive donations at the food pantry/soup kitchen today?” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “Why don’t we just donate whatever we didn’t sell to the soup kitchen?”
Pinkie gasped as the smile on her face widened. “That’s a super dee duper, spectacularly splendirrific idea, Sweetie Belle. We get rid of the extra apple treats and make a few smiles while we’re doing it. It’s the perfect plan.”
“Gee, Sweetie Belle. Looks like we’re both getting that creative problem-solving badge,” exclaimed Apple Bloom.
“When’s it going to be my turn to solve a problem?” muttered Scootaloo. “I want to earn that badge too, you know.”
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash called, taking the younger girl under her arm. “Don’t sweat it. For someone as awesome as you, a problem you can solve is bound to show up eventually.”
“Yeah, well, for now, why don’t you and Rainbow just help us load our extra product onto the truck to take to the soup kitchen?” Applejack half-suggested, half-ordered.
Meanwhile, with Shining Armor and Twilight, the two of them had just left the jewelry store.
“This is perfect!” Shining exclaimed as he proudly held up a ring box. “Not only did I get enough to get Cadance a ring, but I also got to keep Superman.”
He gestured to the action figure that was currently riding in his left jacket pocket, causing his sister to roll her eyes. When the two of them reached Shining’s car, he stuffed the ring box into his right jacket pocket and started the car. One short drive and one long search for good parking later, the two of them began walking towards Cadance’s loft.
Shining Armor took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door. He resolutely balled his hand into a fist, and then, the door suddenly swung open. Luckily, both Shining Armor and Cadance stopped moving in time to prevent Cadance’s face from colliding with Shining’s fist.
For a while, the two of them just stared at Shining’s fist, Cadance is mild shock and Shining Armor in absolute horror. Finally, Shining dared to meet Cadance’s eyes, those beautiful, kind, caring, purple eyes that first captured his heart all those years ago.
“Umm, hi,” Shining greeted nervously, slowly lowering his arm.
“Hi,” Cadance greeted back. “So, what brings you over?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. I was wondering. Eh, how does you and me going out for dinner tonight sound? We could go to that Italian place you like so much. They’re having a special on butternut squash ravioli, yum. Heh-heh.”
Shining Armor laughed awkwardly while Twilight clenched her teeth, resisting a powerful urge to facepalm. If Cadance had picked up on her boyfriend’s sudden spike in awkwardness, she didn’t show it.
“Oh. That sounds lovely,” Cadance replied with a smile. That smile, however, quickly disappeared, a small frown taking its place. “But I really can’t tonight. I signed up to volunteer at the soup kitchen, and with both prep and cleanup accounted for, I’m probably going to be busy for a few hours.”
Shining Armor’s awkward grin slowly changed into a soul-crushingly sad frown. “Oh. Okay. I guess we can go out some other time then. Heh-heh, it’s a good thing that I didn’t make reservations or anything like that. Heh-heh. Because if I had that’d be really dumb.”
“Shiny, are you feeling okay?” Cadance asked with concern
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Shining Armor forced himself to grin. “Hey, you know, why don’t I drive you over to the soup kitchen?”
“Shiny, that’s really sweet of you to offer, but I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all. I wasn’t doing anything important anyway.”
Back at CHS, Flash, Micro Chips, and the rest of their classmates had just loaded the boxes of donations onto Flash, Fluttershy, and Bulk Bicep’s cars. Once everything was loaded, the drivers slammed their trunks and back passenger doors shut and got behind the wheel. Each of the them had one other volunteer accompanying them, sitting in the front passenger seat. Micro, of course, went with Flash, Sunset Shimmer accompanied Fluttershy, and Derpy Muffins went with Bulk Biceps.
The three drivers started their engines and drove to the building where the soup kitchen/food pantry was. Right as the three of them were pulling into the parking lot, three other cars and a motorbike pulled in as well.
“Yeehaw!” Applejack cheered, greeting her friends as she and her siblings got out of Big Mac’s truck. “Fancy running into you people on this lovely evening.”
“Land!” Rarity cried, practically throwing herself out of Pinkie’s van. “Solid land!”
Sweetie Belle also got out of Pinkie’s van, her legs shaking like a plate of canned cranberry sauce on a shoddily built table in the middle of an earthquake.
“Whee!” Pinkie Pie squealed, bounding out of the driver’s seat. “That was so fun. We ought to carpool more often.” Rarity and Sweetie shared a look, both turning green at the thought of reliving what they had just experienced.
“‘Sup, peeps?” Rainbow Dash greeted as she and Scootaloo dismounted from her motorbike and took of their helmets.
“Girls!” Twilight cried joyfully as she ran over to the growing group of teenagers from her brother’s car.
Cadance laughed as she watched the teens unload the donations from their vehicles and carry them towards the building.
“Oh, goodness, it’s so wonderful to see such helpful kids around this time of year, isn’t it, Shiny?” she asked Shining Armor.
Shining returned her smile and replied half-heartedly, “Yeah, sure, wonderful.”
“You know, you and Twilight are welcome to stay and help out. As Ms. Birdie says, many hands make light work.”
“Uh, who’s Ms. Birdie?”
“Oh, she’s one of the regular volunteers here. You’ll like her. She’s like everybody’s grandmother.”
Speaking of which…
“Hey, kids. It’s so good to see all of you,” Flash’s grandmother stepped out of the building, greeting everybody with open arms, err, arm.
“Grandma!” Flash cheered, bending down and pulling his grandmother into a hug.
“Hi, Grandma Birdie,” Twilight greeted next.
“Well, hello, dear,” Birdie broke the hug with Flash and pulled Twilight into a hug next.
Then, she turned to the rest of the high schoolers and said, “Oh, come on in. I’ll show you kids where to put everything. Come on now.”
Shining Armor turned to his girlfriend with wide eyes, questioning, “Your volunteer friend is also my sister’s boyfriend’s grandma?”
“Small world,” Cadance laughed. “Come on. We better hurry up, or we’ll fall behind.”
After everyone put the donations away, all the volunteers got to work preparing the night’s meal and packing grocery bags to distribute. The menu consisted of barbecued turkey with chorizo and rice dressing, dinner rolls with apple butter, mashed potatoes with gravy, peas and carrots, and assorted apple pastries with a choice of either hot chocolate or mulled cider. The adults and the older teens had the extra responsibility of making sure the younger teens (and Pinkie) didn’t try to sneak any of the food, especially the desserts, for themselves.
Soon, the soup kitchen opened its doors, and a massive line of hungry people soon formed. Grandma Birdie welcomed everyone into the dining room, her injured hand doing little to detract from her warm smile and welcoming presence. Meanwhile, everybody else either served the hot food or gave out the grocery bags.
After a while, the line began to slow down as the dining room filled up. During a lull in activity, Scootaloo noticed Shining Armor sneaking off to the back of the pantry. She followed him and saw him slump against the wall.
“Hey, are you okay?” Scootaloo asked him, making her presence known.
“Huh?!” Shining stood up and turned towards her, somewhat startled. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine.”
“Really? ‘Cause people who are fine normally don’t sneak off to sulk.” Scootaloo folded her arms and stared at him intently.
Shining Armor sighed, realizing that he wasn’t going to get Scootaloo to leave him alone without a satisfactory answer.
“Okay, fine, I’m not fine,” Shining Armor grudgingly admitted as he slipped his right hand into his right jacket pocket and closed his hand over the ring box. “I wanted to take my girlfriend out on a date today, and,” he hesitated, not wanting to fully disclose his plans to the young stranger, “do something extra special for her, but she had signed up to volunteer today, and now we’re both working at a soup kitchen.”
“What’s wrong with working at a soup kitchen?”
“Well, nothing. It’s just since we’re here working right now, I can’t do what I wanted to do for her.” Shining Armor shrugged.
“But,” Scootaloo asked, “can’t you do whatever it is tomorrow? I mean, who said that you had to do it today?”
“Well, nobody, of course,” Shining replied. “It’s just that I wanted to do it today because, well…” He trailed off and restarted, “She probably doesn’t even remember this, but on this day, eight years ago, we had gone to a school dance together and that’s when we started dating. Because of that, I thought that today would be a good day for me to, uh, do the thing.”
Scootaloo’s face morphed into an expression of disgust. “Is ‘the thing’ code for something TMI?”
“What?!” Shining cried. “No! It’s, UGH!” He growled under his breath, clutching at his temples. “Okay, if you have to know, I’ll tell you, but you cannot tell anyone else. Are we clear?”
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Scootaloo promised while performing a series of gestures that Shining Armor wasn’t familiar with.
He quickly shook off his confusion and slowly pulled the ring box out of his jacket pocket. He looked to the left and then to the right and then behind him. He released a breath that he had been holding and shakily opened the box.
Scootaloo’s eyes nearly exploded out of their sockets when she saw what was in the box.
“No way!” she exclaimed as Shining Armor closed the box and put it inside his left jacket pocket.
“Remember. Don’t tell anyone,” Shining Armor firmly commanded in a tone that would have cowed her into submission had Scootaloo been fully paying attention.
However, Scootaloo had not been giving Shining Armor her full attention. She was too busy coming up with a plan.
“Follow me,” Scootaloo said as she began walking away from the pantry.
Shining Armor had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like whatever it was that Scootaloo had thought up but decided to play along, just so he can find out what her idea was and maybe stop her from executing it if necessary.
“Hey, girls,” Scootaloo greeted Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as she approached them with Shining Armor following behind her. “Has the line picked back up yet?”
“No,” Sweetie replied. “Nobody else has shown up.”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed. “The grownups think that everybody who was planning on coming already have. We’re just waiting around in case anybody comes in last minute.”
“Well, ladies, I’m afraid waiting around is just going to have to wait,” Scootaloo said in a dramatically serious tone, driving her fist into her palm. “Get everybody in the dining room NOW.”
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shared a look with each other.
“Now, why would we want to do that, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked eyeing her friend suspiciously.
“I can’t tell you,” Scootaloo replied, “but you’ll find out. Oh! And tell Pinkie that we’re going to need her emergency confetti poppers.”
“Pinkie has emergency confetti poppers?” Sweetie Belle questioned.
“Of course, I do.” Pinkie Pie answered, appearing from seemingly nowhere, startling everyone. “I always have emergency confetti and confetti accessories just in case of an emergency celebration. I’ll go get them right now.”
As quickly as she came, Pinkie Pie dashed out of the room towards the parking lot. Sweetie and Apple Bloom shared yet another look and simultaneously shrugged their shoulders before going off to do as Scootaloo asked.
“Are you nuts?!” Shining Armor cried, once he and Scootaloo were alone again. “You want me to do the thing here now?!”
“Well, you don’t HAVE do it here and now,” Scootaloo pointed out. “You could always do it tomorrow at a fancy restaurant with candles and all that, but didn’t you WANT to do it today?”
Shining Armor opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. He closed his mouth and frowned, thinking his choices over.
“Neither of those choices,” Shining Armor finally replied, “are ideal.”
“No, but if you make too big a deal about making everything perfect for the thing, you could miss your chance to do it. Besides, isn’t actually doing the thing and why you want to do it more important than where or when you do it in this situation?” Scootaloo added.
Shining Armor bit his lip as he once again thought through his options.
“You know what?” Shining Armor said resolutely. “I’m going to do it. Today. Here and now.”
He straightened himself and marched towards the dining room. The room was packed full of people with the volunteers standing in a crowd close to the door to the serving area. Shining Armor’s resolve faltered for a bit when he noticed just how many people he was going propose to Cadance in front of, but he soldiered on.
“May I have your attention please?” he announced, as he stepped into view. Soon, all eyes were on him.
Shining Armor forced down the lump that was growing in his throat as he kept his focus on Cadance.
“Eight years ago, today,” Shining Armor began, “Cadance and I went to the Crystal Prep Homecoming Dance together. Actually, there’s more to the story than that, but long story short, that was the day our love story began.” Shining Armor smiled, his confidence growing as he continued, “Cadance, I know our relationship has had it’s ups and downs since that day, but everything that we experienced together has convinced me that, that I, that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life without you.”
A collective gasp went out as Shining Armor knelt before Cadance and said, “Mi Amore Cadenza, will you marry me?”
Twilight facepalmed when she saw what her brother had pulled out of his jacket pocket, and no, it wasn’t the ring box.
“Uh, Shining Armor?” Cadance asked, staring at the object her boyfriend was holding out.
Shining followed Cadance’s gaze and screamed when he saw that he had pulled out his Superman action figure instead of the ring box. He hastily stuffed it back into one of his jacket pockets, fumbled out the ring box, and jerked it open.
“Will you—?” he began again.
“Yes,” Cadance answered, beaming.
“Excuse me.” Shining Armor blinked twice, hardly believing what he just heard.
“Yes, yes I’ll marry you.” Cadance held out her hand as cheers erupted throughout the room. Shining Armor took the ring out of the box and slid it up Cadance’s finger before getting up and pulling Cadance into a deep kiss.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie cheered, setting off her confetti poppers and once again appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
While everybody was celebrating the happy couple’s engagement, Scootaloo gave her friends a smug smile and said, “Looks like all three of us are getting that merit badge, huh?”
“Who cares?” Sweetie Belle cried, grabbing Scootaloo by the shoulders and shaking her friend violently. “They’re getting married! I’m so full of ship I could burst!”
