She had always been given three simple instructions before being dropped off anywhere.
Alongside a farewell hug, she was told to behave herself, make lots of friends, and be careful with her hat.

They were simple enough directions to follow, and she never had any real difficulty living up to them.
Her well-meaning nature ensured that she seldom got into too much trouble, while her earnest attitude rarely ever failed at getting people to like her. And even though it was much too large for someone so young, that hat never strayed too far from either her head or mind.

Things were no different on her first day at elementary school.
As exciting as new people and places were, she always remembered to mind her manners and be respectful of the rules. But even then, the lively spirit of her family—as well as the weighty legacy of that hat—reflected through her every action. Whenever someone needed help, she offered a neighborly hand. Whenever someone seemed lonely or afraid, she offered a warm smile and a welcoming presence.
She was hard-working. She was uplifting. She was a true friend.

She was also quite fortunate that day to meet not only another true friend, but her best friend. And like so many of the best people in her life, that hat connected them in more ways than one. It's just a shame that it had to take quite a beating to get things started...

It was nobody's fault, really; just one of those things that happens. She got a little too into playing, and the wind was a little too strong. Before she knew it, her hat had flown off and landed directly in the path of a veritable stampede. None of the other kids even noticed, instead too busy focusing on whatever game caught their eyes next. And in their careless wake, her hat laid half trampled and trodden over in the dirt.
All things considered, this could've been much worse. After so many rodeos and roundups, it would've been rather sad for such a sturdy piece of headwear to be retired by little more than a herd of tiny tykes. Most of the damage was actually just superficial, and it regained its form after only a couple of vigorous shakes; however, its brim was an entirely different issue. Almost half of it had been torn then, creating an opening that only seemed to widen more with her every desperate attempt to fix it.

In her short time on this earth, she had sustained far worse injuries.
She's lived through scratches, scrapes, and broken bones—all courtesy of either too much horseplay or too much pride in working too hard. However, seeing that hat in such a state then brought her more pain and fear than anything she could ever recall. Her heart began to race as her imagination ran wild, foreseeing countless bleak fates for something so precious and irreplaceable.
She felt helpless... She felt heartbroken... She felt her eyes beginning to moisten, and could do nothing but cling tightly to her ruined hat as everything else faded into the distance... Well, almost everything else.

From our of nowhere, a loud gasp interrupted her moment of silent mourning.
Startled by the noise, she looked around and spotted another girl running daintily towards her then. This newcomer was certainly...something. Her purple hair retained an unusually intricate shape, her manner seemed strangely reserved, and her clothes looked so fancy and well-kept compared to all of the other kids. Rather prissy, all told.

“Oh, dear! You poor thing!” the prissy girl declared, her accent as strange as her look.

She initially thought that this stranger's concerns were being directed at her, but that all changed when her hat was grabbed straight from her own hands then.

“Hey, that's mine!”

Her protest went largely unnoticed, as the culprit was too busy inspecting the damages.
“Ohhh... I saw the whole thing. Those barbarians should really be more careful. You may be a bit shabby, but that's hardly cause for such treatment.”

This prissy, pompous girl examined things for what felt like an annoyingly long time then.
She could've tried to swipe her hat back, but what if that caused it further harm? At this point, it was literally being held hostage, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She was at the mercy of this weirdo, who finally spoke again after the umpteenth moan of consideration.

“I simply cannot allow such high crimes against fashion to stand! You with the freckles! Kindly fetch me some glue and a thin brush!”

“Huh!? What're y'all talkin' abo—”

The prissy, pompous, pretentious girl grabbed and shook her by the shoulders.
“This is no time for questions! Every second is of the utmost importance! Can you procure what I asked of you, or not!?”

She nodded blankly.
This gal didn't even look like she could lift a bale of hay, but was nevertheless surprisingly strong-willed.

“Good! See to it that you do, and meet me in the home-economics room tout suite!”

With that, the prissy, pompous, pretentious, and particularly bossy girl ran off towards the school building, leaving her completely dumbfounded.
She didn't know what to make of that whole exchange; however, for the sake of her hat, it seemed better to table her curiosity until after this was all over. And thus, with an uncertain spark of hope welling within, she raced off in search of the required materials and—

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, TIME OUT!!!

****

Applejack stopped her story at Rainbow Dash's request...for the third time now since beginning it. Everyone looked over at their disruptive friend in annoyance then, but she didn't seem to notice the collective ire being aimed at her.

“Wait just one sec! Be right back!”
With that, she bolted from the table, leaving behind nothing but a multicolored trail that followed in her wake.

With a unified sigh, the girls decided to make use of this intermission as best as they could. Fluttershy offered to refill everyone's drinks, while Pinkie Pie went to fetch more snacks for the table. Sunset opted to look up the results of their latest fundraiser, and Applejack merely watched as Twilight tried to figure out whatever was wrong with her phone.

“Any luck, Twi? Or is my phone just plain kaput?”

“Just give me a few more minutes. I may have ascertained the problem, but we won't know anything until I run some tests.”

“Sure. Take all the time ya need.”

So far, their group effort to unravel this mystery was proving ineffective.
Applejack's phone simply refused to send or receive any messages or calls. And it wasn't just hers, either. It seemed like all of the girls were having trouble getting in touch with one another, although nowhere near as bad as she was. Most likely, this meant that Rarity's phone was also malfunctioning. So, even if they could get theirs to work, she might ultimately be unreachable regardless.
Still, one bridge at a time. Twilight had been toiling away on Applejack's phone for the last hour, and though progress was slow, she was confident in her ability to crack whatever was going on with it.

In the meantime, and following Sunset's proposal, the girls opted to spend their afternoon at the Canterlot Mall. It wasn't much, but it never needed to be. Just being together with everyone helped Applejack to relax a little. Well, “everyone” might be a bit of a stretch, considering how Rarity was halfway across the country and Rainbow Dash was consistently halfway across the mall then. Nevertheless, it was all still fun, and there were things worth discussing outside of technical support. When everyone reconvened, for example, Sunset decided to kick things off with a bit of good news.

“You guys, this is amazing! Our CDs are selling like crazy! Look!”
She passed her phone around the table.

“Oooh!” Pinkie Pie said between slurps of her smoothie. “That's a lot of zeroes! That's as many zeroes as the O's in that 'oooh' I just said. Can you guess how many that is?” she playfully asked, turning to Fluttershy.

“Um...a lot?”

“Exactly!” she cheered, handing her timid friend the phone.

“...Oooh!”

“I know, right!?” Pinkie giggled.

Applejack was handed the phone next.
“Huh, guess Rainbow Dash was onto something after all when she suggested recordin' our songs!”

“Of course I was!” Rainbow said, snatching the phone from her country friend. “As awesome as we are, I knew people would wanna be able to hear us wherever they went!”

She slid the phone across the table back to Sunset, who capped off the news with a bit more detail.
“And it's not just CHS students buying them. Thanks to Twilight, our friends at Crystal Prep, and Post Crush and Vignette promoting us on Snapgab, they've been a hit throughout Canterlot and beyond!”

They all gave a cheer to that and raised their drinks in a toast then. It was indeed a hard-earned victory, after all, especially considering what the money would ultimately be used for.
Of all the fundraisers that the Rainbooms had been involved with, this music CD was easily one of their most ambitious and difficult to realize. Between setting up a proper studio, the actual recording process, acquiring all of the materials, burning the songs, designing art for jewel cases and booklets, and creating a website to promote and sell the finalized product, there were endless complications along the way. But for the sake of their final year at Canterlot High School, this would all hopefully be worthwhile.

It was a palpable feeling shared among the seniors of CHS—the sense that their time together was steadily coming to an end. For some, of course, their journeys would segue further into college together. For others, it would take them to new and foreign locales far away from the people that they've come to know so well. But one way or another, a massive turning point was on the horizon for everyone.
It was a daunting thought, and more than a little depressing as well, but it was also a motivating one. After everything these young adults had been through together—all of the adventures and changes and whatnot—it couldn't just end on such a gloomy note.
This needed to be big; bigger than big! To commemorate such a meaningful time in their young lives, the seniors of CHS vowed to make this entire year a celebration unlike any other!

A noble aspiration indeed, but such lofty festivities obviously wouldn't come cheap.
Thankfully, the Rainbooms weren't the only ones going the extra mile lately. Between Trixie's magic shows, Micro Chips' tutoring sessions, Photo Finish's scenic pictures, and several other efforts already underway, everyone was working harder than ever to realize this goal. And every penny that was earned would provide for all of the upcoming events—the first of which was especially important to Sunset.

“If things keep going like this, we'll definitely be able to make this year's Fall Formal one to remember...for all the right reasons, this time.”

“Speakin' of, any word yet on what Principal Celestia might be plannin' fer that?”

“I heard she's been in talks with a few possible performers,” Fluttershy said. “They might even be hosting it somewhere outside of school this year.”

“Ooh,” Pinkie added, “maybe they'll have it on the beach! Or Equestria Land! Or maybe we could go back to Princess Twilight's castle! That was super fun last time!”

“Yeahhh,” Rainbow replied skeptically, “I doubt many people are gonna want to go to the Fall Formal as a pony. It's hard enough just walking on four legs, let alone dancing on them.”

“Well, we prolly won't know anything till it gets a tad closer, anyways. I'm just hopin' fer once that it's a nice, quiet gatherin'.”

“Fingers crossed,” Sunset said.
Nobody was wishing for that more than her. After all, it had been almost two years now since her selfish actions first introduced Equestrian Magic to this world, and that all took place on the night of the Fall Formal. Of course, rarely did she regret anything that brought them all closer together, but being responsible for that never stopped bothering her, especially after all the dangers they had faced since then.
Still, at least this passing summer had proven to be a relatively uneventful one, and hopefully that would just stay the case for the remainder of this year.

“We can worry more about the fine details later,” Rainbow said. “For now, where were we before all that?”

“Welllll,” Pinkie answered, “Sunset called us all up to hang out here since you were still working, and to see what was going on with Applejack's phone. Then, Fluttershy and I noticed that our phones were acting wonky too, since she never got any of my texts on how many snacks I should make for her animal bake sale, and Twilight thought that maybe our phones' VIPs were being too secure for their own good—”

“Uh, Pinkie?”

“So she started playing with Applejack's phone while we had lunch, and then Fluttershy and Sunset told us what she said about her and Rarity never being apart for so long, and we were all, like, 'no way!'”

“Pinkie.”

“And then we all realized that we never actually heard the story of how they met, and you and I were both SUPER curious about that promise she made, so she started telling us about her first day of elementary school and—”

“PINKIE!” they all shouted.

“...What?” she asked innocently. “Did I skip something?”

Rainbow sighed.
“I know where WE were! I meant, what happened next in her story!?”

“Ooh, yeah, I wanna know that too! What happened next, AJ!?”

They all excitedly looked over at a slightly uncomfortable Applejack then. Campfire stories were one thing, but the farm girl wasn't used to narrating her past so vividly like this. She couldn't even tell if her story was that interesting, let alone if it was being told well at all, but everyone seemed anxious for her to continue on regardless. Give the audience what they want, she guessed...

“Um, right... So, anyways...”

****

Within ten minutes of reaching the home-economics room, she found herself waiting anxiously as the purple-haired girl worked on mending her hat. Apparently, the glue was just there to hold the brim together while the real repairs were taking place. She never expected any actual sewing to occur, but that's exactly what was happening then.

At first, she was doubtful over this whole thing, and more than once considered just taking her hat back and making for the nearest exit. But as that needle deftly wove between planes of fabric, and the rip steadily began closing in on itself, she couldn't help but start watching with mild curiosity.

She had tried sewing a few times throughout her life, and found herself to be unquestionably awful at it. Dexterity had never been her strong suit, nor had patience or finesse. Frankly, if she was the one wielding that needle right now, her hat would probably be little more than a pin cushion.

But this girl was entirely different.
She wasn't so much fast as she was efficient, her motions careful to avoid mistakes while still brisk enough so as not linger too long on any one action. Her slender fingers kept that needle moving seamlessly, all the while never poking herself or getting it stuck within the firm fibers of the brim. It looked like demanding precision work, and yet that face reflected neither anxiety nor intense focus, but instead a zen-like confidence. It was as if this was all just second nature to her, like breathing or blinking.
And during the entirety of this procedure so far, the seamstress remained largely silent.
She did as well.

It wasn't that she was so stupefied by the sewing, or afraid to interrupt it, that she couldn't speak. It was just...what could you say to someone like this? Someone so radically different from yourself? Any attempts to talk would probably just feel awkward, and she still couldn't decide if this girl was even that likable. Still, though, her family did teach her better, and such generosity absolutely deserved recognition.

“...Um... T-Thanks, by the way...”

“Hmm? What was that?” the girl said, not breaking her focus from the task at hand.

“Thank ya kindly...fer tryin' to fix my hat an' all.”

“Oh... My pleasure. I'd do the same for any chapeau, really.”

“...Any what?”

“Er, um...any hat, as you put it.”

“Oh...”

Prolonged silence yet again. Maybe that was enough, she thought. No need to try and make more out of this than necessary, right?

“......Y'all, um... Y'all seem to know a lot 'bout this kinda stuff. Didja take a class too?”

“Pardon?”

“A class. Like, fer learnin' to be fancy an' all that? My auntie n' uncle took me to some of them when I was real young. Didn't get too far, though...”

“Hmm, indeed... But, no, I haven't really had any lessons, per se. I taught myself most of this.”

“Really!?

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“No, no, just...interestin' is all...”

She decided to stop there. This wasn't going anywhere, and she started feeling more like a bother than anything else. Some people just couldn't click, it seemed...
Much to her surprise, however, the silence broke once more.

“...A stetson.”

“Huh?”

“This chap—erm, well...this hat of yours. It's actually called a stetson.”

“...Is that bad?”

“Not at all. Few people wear these anymore, but it seems to suit you rather well.”

“Heh, that's kind of y'all to say. I sure hope that's true...”

They both seemed to relax a little after that. The seamstress even smiled a bit, almost as if she was pleased to be talking about this sort of thing. Maybe none of the other kids really gave her much of a chance to discuss clothes and sewing. To be fair, were it not for this incident, she probably wouldn't have even spoken to this girl, let alone gotten to know her. What a shame, considering she was actually kind of interesting. Weird...but interesting.

“Though, I must say, this particular stetson does seem to be a bit too big on you. And I know that they tend to project that classically tough image, but it's also rather worn-out and weathered. Honestly, where ever did you even find this dusty old thing?”

“......It's my pa's...”

For the first time during this whole affair, that needle nearly slipped out from under those dexterous hands. In any other situation, it might've been comical to see this prim young thing suddenly break into an embarrassed stammer, trying desperately to regain her composure after committing such a faux pas.

“Oh, I... Um, w-well, I-I... I-I-I'm—I'm sure it looks absolutely fetching on him!”
A well-meaning attempt at a save, to her credit. Sadly, however, one slip is usually followed by another.

“So, um... Well, what kind of hat does he wear now? Probably something just as bold and masculine, I imagine.”

“......He's......He ain't around no more...”

Even then, the needle still didn't slip from those hands...but it did stop moving entirely. For a moment, everything seemed to stop as the gravity of those few words took full effect.

“...I... I'm so sorry... I-I didn't mean to—”

“Naw, it's...it's fine... It was a while ago...”

Neither girl could so much as look at the other after that, and the silence that followed just made that ever-lingering heartache all the more prominent for her. She didn't expect either side to speak again after that, but...

“...You know... Your clothing can say quite a lot about what kind of person you are. Were you aware of that?”

“...Can't say I was... That really true?”

“Oh, yes! Um... Well, take this stetson, for example. Now, I-I know I called it weathered before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, looking at it a bit closer, I can tell that it has held up remarkably well. That means that its owner was very hard-working, but also careful of what mattered the most to him. And as I said before, it is the very image of rugged masculinity.”

Strange as it all seemed then, hearing those words did make her feel a little bit better. Her father was exactly as described, and it felt nice to know that his most treasured belonging apparently conveyed those qualities. It's like his spirit remained with her no matter what.
Ruminating on all of that, she didn't even notice the finishing touches being put on the repairs.

“And, of course, if your father entrusted you with it, then both you and this stetson must have been rather special to him.”

The seamstress walked up to her and handed over the finished piece.
“So...do take care to wear it with pride, darling.”

With that, she took her hat back and examined it repeatedly, gazing in awe at how much better it suddenly looked. It was almost like it had never even been damaged, to begin with. The only notable difference was the twines of silver that now kept about a third of its edge bound together.

“I do apologize for not having a less bold color of thread. It was all I could find on such short notice, and—”

“IT'S PERFECT!” she cheered, jumping to her feet and giving it a light toss into the air.
With nary a moment's hesitation, she caught the hat atop her head and made sure it was on tight before addressing its savior.

“How'd y'all do such a bang-up job!?”

“Oh, um... Well, I suppose I am a talented couturier, if I do say so myself.”

“Well, I don't rightly know what any a' that means,” she chuckled, “but you sure got a knack fer fixin' clothes! My name's Applejack! What's yers?”

The girl seemed a bit taken aback by such a forward manner, but she gave a little curtsy nonetheless.
“It's Rarity. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

She grabbed Rarity's hand with both of hers and shook it with all of her gratitude—so much so that the seamstress's entire body practically swung up and down then.

“Nice to meetcha too! Only wish I could pay y'all back properly fer all yer help! Say, are ya hungry!? My granny made me some fresh apple fritters to share with my classmates.”

“Oh, no,” she replied, her voice wobbling in the midst of such an enthusiastic handshake, “I couldn't possibly impose—”

“Aw, c'mon! I insist! That's what friends are fer, right?”
With that, she took a still hesitant Rarity back to the playground, excited to celebrate and learn more about her new friend.

When they reached the—WAIT, HOLD UP!

****

The girls couldn't suppress their frustration this time and groaned in exacerbation as their disruptive friend rose from the table yet again.

“I'm sorry! Just give me one minute! Promise I'll be right back!”
Rainbow barely finished that plea before speeding off once again, forcing yet another impromptu intermission.
Soon after, Twilight let out another groan, as her head bumped against the table.

“Hey,” Sunset said, patting her back, “I'm sure she'll be back shortly. Then we can listen to the rest of it.”

“It's not that,” Twilight replied. “Well, it's not just that. It's this phone! I've tried everything conceivably possible to get it to work! I checked to make sure that it wasn't in airplane mode, or that the 'Do Not Disturb' and 'Call Forwarding' functions weren't interfering with it. I looked to see if any numbers were accidentally blocked. I tested the signal strength, made sure all the network settings were appropriately configured, including the VPN...”

She stated that last step rather sharply, her glare narrowing at an oblivious Pinkie Pie all the while.
“But nothing seems to work!”

Twilight handed her friend's phone back to her, finally conceding in failure.
“I'm sorry, Applejack. I can try and examine it more thoroughly when I get home, but there's nothing more I can do right now...”

Disappointing as this news was, Applejack still wore a genuine smile then.
“Hey, it's alright, Twi. I just 'ppreciate y'all tryin'. Least now I know Rarity's not just outright ignorin' me...hopefully...”

“Guess that means all our phones are buggy, huh?” Sunset asked.

“I guess so...” Fluttershy responded, checking her own phone in the meantime. “I still haven't gotten any of the pictures you sent me, Pinkie...”

“Did you try turning your phones off and on again?” Pinkie asked, with not a trace of irony or sarcasm in her voice.

As much as she fought to resist, Twilight couldn't stifle her laughter at that question.
“Oh, Pinkie. I'm sorry, but I highly doubt that would help in this instance. We'll probably just need to contact our providers and—”

She was interrupted by Fluttershy's phone letting out a little ping.
“Oh!... It worked! I got your pictures this time, Pinkie!”

“Wow, that was super-duper fast! I just sent those ones, like, a second ago! What do you think of the little fish-shaped cat treats!? Aren't they cute!? I was thinking of mixing in some real—”

“WAIT, WHAT!?” Twilight shouted. “But...But...HOW!?”

“How what, Twilight?”

“YOUR PHONES!? ARE WORKING!? HOW!?”

“Well, I just figured maybe they were tired and needed a little break. So, I turned mine off and on again. Technical doohickeys like these run really REALLY fast, so a few seconds off is like an eight-hour nap for them, right?”

“...I...B-But I...”

Pinkie Pie turned to address a gawking Applejack then.
“Did it work with your phone?”

Applejack anxiously followed her cheery friend's instructions.
When her phone powered back on, she brought up her chat-log with Rarity. For a moment, her heart raced as her fingers hesitated. She wasn't sure what to say, or if it even mattered. She didn't even know what state their friendship was in after almost two weeks of silence following that nasty argument. But she couldn't stand waiting any longer for something—anything to finally give her some semblance of her best friend's presence.
And so, she typed the first thing that came to mind:

Hey. Can we please talk for a spell?

Without even thinking, she hit the Send button right away.
The moments afterward dragged on like nothing else, as that little loading icon incessantly spun around and taunted her with uncertainty. Finally, however, her message popped up on the bottom of the screen; and underneath it, displayed next to a small thumbs-up icon, was the phrase “Message Sent.”

“IT WORKED! YEE-HAW!”
Everyone joined in on that cheer—well, everyone but Twilight, whose head once again hit the table with an audible thud. Sunset would've moved in to comfort her then, but she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash nearly colliding with the table upon her hasty return.

“Whew... Sorry about that. I told this customer I'd have to check the stock room to see if we had the right-sized cleats, so I've got at least three minutes this time!”

“Uh, Rainbow?” Sunset asked, a slight tinge of annoyance lining her voice. “I thought we agreed not to use our powers as often for everyday needs. Remember what happened the last time you started doing that?”

Nobody present could forget that collection of nightmares. And to think it was all due to a few simple accessories.
As Twilight determined a while ago, the girls' magic-granting Geodes were interconnected not just in origin, but also in usage. Whenever one was active, it caused a sort of magical resonance to occur between all of them, steadily amplifying their overall power in the process. Under certain circumstances, this proved immensely beneficial in moderation. When they were all together, said resonance could be redirected as a powerful stream of magic, or even concentrated into just one Geode to grant its user a vast increase in their abilities.
However, with overly frequent use of even a single Geode, all of the girls could find their powers steadily going haywire, which usually caused...complications in their daily routines. Going through that ordeal once was enough, and since discovering this little setback, they'd all been making a concerted effort to resist relying upon their powers too often for frivolous needs.
Of course, with a little extra effort, any situation could be spun as dire enough to warrant a bend in those rules.

“Aw, come on, Sunset,” Rainbow reasoned. “It's not my fault that Applejack decided to be free when I'm working overtime! Or that she chose to tell a cool origin story now! You don't expect me to just miss out on all of this, do you?”

Only then, in the midst of portraying her so-called plight, did she notice Twilight's head bumping against the table repeatedly.
“Um...what's with her?”

“We, uh...figured out how to fix our phones.”

“Oh, awesome! You'll have to show me how when I get back! But right now, what happened next in the story!?”

Applejack could already see where this was going. For the sake of not having to concede to any more intermissions, as well as risk losing her place, it seemed better just to finish this whole thing off with an abridged version.

She sighed while placing her stetson on the table.
“Long story short: me an' Rarity got to talkin' over lunch. I told her a bit 'bout farm livin', she told me 'bout bein' fancy an' growin' up to be a famous fashion designer. Said it'd been her dream since kindy-garten...”

She lifted the hat up then and showed it to everyone, her thumbs gently rubbing against the silver twines that united the brim still after all these years.

“...She was so passionate 'bout that dream, I couldn't help bein' impressed. And after everything she did fer me, I knew I had to repay her generosity back somehow. So, I made her a promise as a friend. I told her that, no matter what, I'd help her to realize that dream a' hers. She prolly forgot this whole thing long ago, but I still hold myself to that promise even now...”

Saying all of this aloud was already mildly embarrassing for Applejack. But when her audience cooed with a collective “aww” at that ending, humiliation radiated from her cheeks as brightly as break-lights.

She quickly donned her stetson and tilted it downward, if only to make herself feel slightly less exposed then.
"...An'...well, that's that..."

“That's so sweet,” Fluttershy said, not helping to mitigate her friend's discomfort. “I'm sure Rarity remembers that day as well.”

“Heh, I'm kinda hopin' not, to be honest. 'Specially considerin' I ain't been doin' all too hot a job helpin' her...”

“You shouldn't be so hard on yourself,” Twilight said. “We can all lose our patience from time to time, but that doesn't change how we feel, or what we're willing to do for each other.”

“And I'm sure Rarity understands that as well,” Sunset added. “Just give her some time.”

“Yeah...yer right. Thanks, y'all.”

After a few moments of benign silence then, Pinkie Pie raised her hand.
“Ooh, ooh! Remember the first time we met, Applejack!?”

“Um...well...”

****

When she was given a fresh apple pie to take with her to school that day, it came with one instruction: share it with her friends.
It wouldn't be difficult to do so—this was too much for one person to eat alone, after all—but as she waited in the cafeteria for Rarity and the others to arrive, she noticed a pair of excitable eyes glancing longingly over at her dessert. They belonged to a classmate adorned in this wildly colorful dress and sporting some absurdly bouncy pink hair. By chance, the two ultimately sat together, and as they glanced over at each other, she couldn't help but attempt to break the silence.

“Um...hi.”

“Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie.”

“Well, uh, howdy there, Pinkie Pie. I'm Applejack. Y'all, um....... Y'all like apple pie?”

“I love apple pie! Actually, I like all sorts of pie. Cherry pie, blueberry pie, peach pie, lemon pie, key-lime pie, cranberry pie. Ooh, and not just pie! I like all desserts! Cookies, cakes, ice cream, ice-cream cakes—although I'm not sure if those are different or part of the same group. Also cobbler, cupcakes, pudding—especially pudding—and yogurt, and gelato, and—”

And that went on for...for quite a while...

****

Pinkie Pie sighed wistfully then.
“Haha, yeah... Good times...”

They all shared a good laugh over that quick little tale, and as the conversing and joking continued, Applejack only occasionally looked down at her phone. She was still nervous over whatever reply might come, but it felt better than worrying about whether or not her friendship was permanently ruined.

In the coming hours, she would begin debating on exactly what to say to Rarity. What did she regret saying that day? What truly upset her back then? What's been bothering her ever since? And what about those dreams as of late?

But for now, Applejack merely basked in the warmth of good company, as well as the pleasant memories that started it all.

Next Time: Miscommunication

Author's Note

I never realized how much fun it would be to write for Pinkie Pie. She's got so much happy-go-lucky spirit, and her nature as a comedic focal point allows for jokes that otherwise would be jarringly out of place.

I'm pleased with this chapter for how much legwork it does to set up future plot points; however, I must admit that I opted to keep the Fall Formal vague since I'm not completely happy with where I was planning to take it. I'll have to noodle on that for a while, but alongside constructive critique, any ideas for how the Formal should be set up are certainly welcome.