Authors Note: I'm very pleased with the positive reception the first chapter got. Thank you guys for all of the support! I hope that I can keep whatever it is that made you like the first chapter through this and the rest of them.

Dusk let out possibly the longest sigh that anypony in the history of Equestria had ever made. Spike looked at him in distain and let out an equally frustrated, if shorter sigh.

"You done?" Asked spike, gazing over the side of the carriage to the ground hundreds of meters below them. Dusk let out another exaggerated sigh and sunk his head into his hooves.

" I can't believe the princess told me to go and make some friends! I have friends!" Dusk complained loudly, eliciting an annoyed glare from the pegasus pony pulling the carriage.

"Oh yeah, who?" Spike asked snidely.

"Shining Armor! He's my friend!" Dusk cried indignantly. Spike looked at him with a strange mix of sympathy and ridicule on his face.

"He's your brother dumbflank. Doesn't count." Spike said, inspecting his claws with a bored look on his face. Dusk looked at Spike in horror.

"Whaaat? It doesn't?" Dusk cried with a dejected look on his face. Suddenly a smile lit up his face and he turned back to Spike. "What about you? You're my friend right?"

"Nah, you're more like an arch nemesis/bane of my existence thing." Spike said nonchalantly, drawing an even more horrified look from Dusk. The poor Stallion looked like he was about to cry. "Whoah! Whoah! It was a joke alright! I'm sorry! Geez... Anyway, you're like my big brother anyway so that doesn't count either."

"We're coming up on Ponyville now sir!" Said the Pegasus Stallion in front of them, obviously relieved to be away from Dusk and his social difficulties.

Dusk sighed yet again and started to get his legs warmed up after a good two hours just sitting around. "I guess we better get this over with" He said, obviously dreading what he would find in the small town. "Anyway, the princess said we'd be staying in a library, so I can continue my research there once we've finished the preparations for the summer sun celebration."

The carriage touched down on a cobbled road just on the outskirts of Ponyville and Dusk stepped off. Spike handed a small stack of bits to the driver which, Dusk assumed, was his payment. Little did he know that the Princess had payed for the carriage and that Spike was paying him for putting up with Dusk's antics. The Pegasus Stallion gladly accepted the gift and flew off as fast as his wings could carry him.

"So, now we're here we just need to check and see if everything is ready and then we can go home!" Dusk said, anxious not to have to see anypony that didn't need seeing.

"Aww, come on Dusk, the princess said to try and make some friends! You could at least say hello to somepony!" Said Spike, partly out of concern for his surrogate brother but mostly out of anticipation to see him as uncomfortable as possible.

Dusk sighed for the umpteenth time that day and walked up towards a hot pink Stallion with hair that looked to be made out of cotton candy. For a brief second Dusk wondered what it would taste like and considered licking it, before deciding that was probably not socially acceptable behaviour,

"Uh... Hi?" Dusk asked nervously, not used to talking to anyone other than Spike, the Princess, and his brother Shining Armor.

The Pink pony took in a huge intake of air that almost pulled Dusk into his mouth before fleeing and leaving a trail of fire in his wake. Dusk just stood there in shock as Spike walked up to him and whistled.

"Well someone just hit 88 miles an hour." He said, walking up to Dusk and poking him in the side. "You okay there champ?" He asked, not really caring that much.

"I think that guy just created a vacuum with his mouth... Is that physically possible?" Dusk asked, still slightly shocked at the stranger's recent outburst. He shook his head and took a checklist out of his saddlebags, taking a moment to cast a following spell on it so it would float beside his head without him having to keep up a telekinesis spell on it. "Anyway, the first thing we have to check on is the food. Looks like a pony called Applejack is responsible for that" He said, his head rising from the checklist to look at Spike.

"Lets get going then." Said Spike, climbing onto Dusk's back. "Giddy up horsey!" He shouted, digging his ankles into Dusk's ribs.

"Ow!" Dusk cried out in pain. "Don't do that! It hurts!" he yelled at Spike who sheepishly looked back at him.

"Heh, sorry" he said apologetically. "But we really should get going."

Dusk nodded and started off at a trot to sweet apple acres.

Later, at sweet apple acres

Dusk trotted along the dirt road flanked with apple trees that led along to a small farm house and a barn. The sun was beating down on his neck and it was starting to get to him. Through the haze of heat he thought he could see the outline of a large orange Stallion kicking the trunk of a tree like it just insulted his mother. Dusk quickened his pace and trotted towards the mad tree-kicking pony.

"Hello?!" Dusk shouted towards the pony in the orchard. The pony stopped kicking the tree he was focused on and swiveled his head in the direction of Dusk.

"Hi! Are you Applejack?" Dusk called to the approaching pony. As he got closer Dusk could define more of him. He was orange with a blonde mane and three apples for a cutie mark. He also had a brown stetson perched upon his head.

"Ah sure am stranger!" He said with an unexpected southern twang. "But y'all can call me AJ!" He walked over towards Dusk and extended his hoof. Dusk took it and Applejack shook his hoof vigorously. When he pulled away his hoof Dusk's was still moving up and down with the left over momentum.

"So, now I've told you mah name what's yours?" Applejack asked, a kindly smile on his face

"Oh, my name's Dusk Shine, I'm the Princesses correspondent to Ponyville for the summer sun celebration. I'm here to check if all the food is set up." Said Dusk, holding up his head in pride.

Applejack's eyes widened "Well why didn't y'all say so?" He said as his friendly smile went up to a manic grin. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the family!" He started to trot over towards the barn house and Dusk followed behind him. If he had been paying attention to them, which he wasn't, Dusk would have noticed that Applejack's flanks were looking very muscular and toned, He wasn't paying attention to them though. And he definitely wasn't sneaking glances whenever he could. And it would have been ludicrous to say that he was thinking about giving one a nice hard slap. Absolutely ludicrous.

Dusk blushed lightly at his thought processes and carried on trotting behind Applejack. Unfortunately for Dusk, Applejack turned around at that moment.

"Y'all alright there sugarcube? Y'all are as red as a ripe apple!" He asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Dusk blushed even harder at this. "Uh-uhm... It's the sun! Yeah... The sun... I don't have any sunscreen and I'm starting to get heatstroke!" He stumbled, trying not to blush harder than he already was.

"What are you talking about Dusk? We have factor 50 in your-" Spike started but was cut off by Dusk's hoof in his mouth.

"As I was saying..." Dusk growled, trying to get Spike to shut up. "We forgot to bring sunscreen"

Applejack looked at Dusk with confusion. "Well if you say so ah guess..." He murmured as they closed in on the farmhouse.

'I will definitely have to do a study on this when I get home' thought Dusk as him and Applejack reached the farmhouse.

As soon as they reached the house a veritable horde of ponies came rushing out of it. Applejack's grin returned and he looked out over the huge crowd. "This here's the family!" He said. "I'll get the introductions out of the way first! This here's-" And that's where Dusk lost him.

Author's Note

Footnote: Whoever decided that the interrabang was not a good idea needs to go to hell. That piece of punctuation would make writing so much easier