“I always like the buff and strong! And if they’re well-endowed, I’ll even do them for free!”

Big Macintosh wasn’t sure whether he should turn around or not. The first option seemed more polite, so he just decided to drop the apple baskets he was carrying and to look up to Braeburn, posing on the only hill that had yet been grazed by the first rays of sunlight of this beautiful morning.

“Good morning, sexy beast. Ya’ haven’t changed a bit!” A tone of contempt accompanied his words. “I hope you had a blast last night. You seem to be in form, despite all that cider you drank yesterday! You know though that it is primarily meant for all the guests we’ll be having? Now don’t tell me you are one of them; you’re a family member, nothing more and nothing less. The festival didn’t even start and you emptied like 5 barrels of our booze in one night!”

Braeburn trotted down the hill. Instead of focusing on Big Mac’s face, as would be expected, he riveted on his plot. Not being unaware of this, Big Macintosh turned around.

“No need to rush, cousin. Calling you a sexy beast doesn’t imply that you can hump me anywhere you like, nor does it mean that you can shout all over the place that you do me for free, alright-y? We got some standards!”

Whimsically grinning, Braeburn countered with fake surprise: “Oh, do we? I thought you’ve always been the little slut you seem to be when I’m around. And I know you love being around me…”

He began to circle his cousin. It wouldn’t be long till he had him there where he wanted it. Only in a figurative sense for now…the literal sense was just a matter of time.

“Uhm…well…cuz, I’m pretty sure we could come to an arrangement and at least postpone certain…” He gulped. “…activities until later. Okay? Let’s go to the barn. Just lemme get these…apples…to…Applejack first…”

Braeburn silenced him with a long, passionate kiss. Big Macintosh could feel how his cousin let his tongue playing around. Being hesitant had never been an option in these kinds of situations, so he decided to give in, put his hooves around him and to take part. Nopony would stop him now; it didn’t matter where the two Apples were right now or who could see them. Braeburn’s warm breath tickled his coat as he kept exploring his mouth as if it was the first time that they kissed.

A look of satisfaction filled Braeburn’s eyes as he noticed his cousin was giving in. It was a great feeling to seduce stallions like this; it seemed that this was secretly his special talent – not apple farming, but seducing every guy he met. Of course, if the stallion he met was straight it was hard. The gayer his counterpart though, the easier it was to get what he wanted. The biggest success for him meant that he started to make out in public – he just achieved it, although it might have been a bit bold to call an open, empty field during the morning hours “public”.

Big Macintosh started to release Braeburn out of his hug. He cleaned himself up and then tried to bend his head so he could have a look at his member between his legs. Braeburn seemed amused.

“Hah, worried about getting hard in public? Am I giving you so much pleasure already? Well, don’t worry. You’re still flaccid. Either way, does that matter?”

“My sister is waiting.” Big Mac grabbed the baskets he dropped earlier and shoved them in his cousin’s direction. “I’m gonna get another two of those; you take these now and off you go to my sis! She doesn’t have all day. I promise we’ll have some private moments later.”

With that, he left into the other direction. All alone, Braeburn started to head back to where he came from.

***

“I don’t get it.” Spike took the muffins from the counter and ran after Twilight. “I mean, it’s all nice and stuff that your brother is visiting you Twilight, but why does he travel alone? What’s up with Cadance? They’re married after all, Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza…”

He overstressed the last three words. Twilight suddenly felt reminded of the fake Cadance everypony had to deal with at the wedding. A sudden flashback hit her.

“Twilight? Are you okay?”

“…yes, I think I am…well, Shining told me Cadance doesn’t feel so well at the moment. She also doesn’t like cider this much it seems. It makes me a bit sad not to see World’s Greatest Foalsitter again, but what could I do? I’m happy with seeing my brother again though. We’ll have lots of fun together!”

The door to the library stood open. Hoofprints on the floor hinted at somepony who forgot to wipe their hooves before entering. The odd thing about this was that Twilight hadn’t invited anypony to her house, nor did she know who would carelessly leave her door open.

“Hello? Who’s there?” she asked out loud.

The hoofprints lead into the right direction. Each print seemed to consist of thick, wet mud – who wouldn’t wipe their hooves before entering a home? Everypony knew how to do that! The muddy trace ended in front of Twilight’s kitchen door. Rattling could be heard behind it. Carefully, she opened the door…and gasped! Splashes of raw dough sprinkled the room from top to bottom. The contents of a few raw eggs were running over the floor. On the oven, something inside a pan emitted thick, black smoke. In the center of this chaos stood Princess Luna; she as well covered in all kinds of ingredients which were originally intended for a meal. Twilight’s eyes grew wide while her mane started to become visibly fizzy.

“Princess! What are you doing in here?”

“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle! We wanted to affirm our thanks to you for your courtesy, so we tried to make some pancakes in your absence. We’re having a little problem here, though…” She blushed.

Twilight didn’t know what to do, so she just kept staring at the mess. After a short while, she found her voice again.

“I appreciate the offer, but couldn’t you ask somepony for help? And why are your hooves all muddy and the front door gaping wide open?!”

“Did we forget to wipe our hooves? Oh, the shame! Once more we forgot about our good manners…”

Suddenly, the burned dough inside the pan piped up by bursting into flames. Twilight started to scream in panic, grabbed a towel, took the pan, almost burned herself while doing so, ran out of the room and threw it out of the window.

“Spike! Spiiiiiike! Come here and help Luna to clean the kitchen! I’m late for Shining Armor’s arrival, so hurry up! We don’t have all day.”

When she ran outside, still panicking, she almost stepped into the boiling hot pan, still emitting black smoke. A few ponies had gathered around it and stared at it in amazement as if they had never seen something burnt before.

***

“It’s so nice to see you here in Ponyville, BBBFF.”

“Well, thanks for the invitation, sister. I couldn’t decline any invitation by you, could I? It’s just Cadance that had to stay home; she’s sick. Pity. I bet she wanted to see Ponyville as much as me. Care to show me around before you get back to business?”

Twilight was still under shock, so she appreciated the short break she would get by this walkabout and agreed on showing Shining Armor around. Although the whole town was busy, she still caught Pinkie at Sugar Cube Corner and was able to get two cupcakes from her. Dash was dozing on her cloud, as usual. Other ponies were busier: Roseluck was arranging her flowers in front of her house. She hoped that she would make top sales with her large variety of flowers tonight. Bon Bon was busy getting the taps attached to cider barrels. She would be helping out the Apples tonight and sell cider for them for a small fee. When they asked her how she was doing and where Lyra was hiding, she explained to both how busy she was and that she sent her away to do what she felt like doing and how she was no use when she was working…she also hoped that she didn’t get as drunk as last year with Cheerilee. When two boozers met…

As if they asked for it, they found Berry Punch asleep under one of the tables that were placed everywhere in town. Most of them gathered in front of the stage at the town hall of course, where Princess Luna would raise the moon tonight. The fact that she was sleeping irritated Twilight a bit. She told herself that Berry was probably just catching up sleep for later and left with a frown on her face. Shining seemed very interested in every citizen they met and politely greeted every pony they talked to. Twilight introduced Shining Armor as her brother every time and didn’t tell anypony that didn’t know of his position how prominent her brother was. She thought it was better that way.

At Rarity’s Boutique, they found the CMC all alone, sitting in a circle in the middle of the shop – not a bit of Rarity. When they recognized Shining Armor, they all jumped up and started to jump around him chanting “He married Cadance!” in a pretty similar way Twilight once did. She told the CMC the other day about this and, since then, they had been bugging her with the wedding every day. Her brother reacted in a friendly and loving way. Something made him good with children, Twilight sensed that. And still now, although she was older, she still loved her brother as much as she did before. He was a natural-born father. When all three of them had calmed down, Twilight dared to ask Sweetie Belle where her big sister was.

“Oh, she said we should watch over the shop while she’s handing out dresses for important ponies tonight! I think she said she wanted to see…Princess Luna?!”

Luna? Twilight gulped. “Come on brother, we gotta go! Thanks, girls. Have fun together.”

Shining dived out of the boutique; right after Twilight Sparkle that ran so fast as if she was being chased by an entire hornets' nest. When both arrived at the library, the floor was already scrubbed. The door to the kitchen stood open this time; the room sparkling clean – no sight of Spike, Luna or Rarity. Confused, she walked back to Shining Armor who was waiting at the doorstep.

“I could have sworn they would be here…hey, BBBFF, don’t you wanna come in?”

“Well, of course. My pleasure! I’m just used to being invited in. Remember that one time when…?”

He was stopped when he saw Spike coming down the stairs, wearing the sparkliest, fanciest and manliest suit he ever wore since he was born. The white suit, gemmed and made-to-measure for him left Shining Armor speechless. His look on his face told that he had just forgotten where he was or what he was saying a minute ago. “Spike in a fancy suit with a bowtie? That could only mean one thing”, Twilight thought.

“Wow Spike, looking good, little guy! That's one of Rarity's outfits, right?” Twilight gave her assistant a friendly smile.

“You bet Twilight; it's custom made just for me”, he proudly explained. His mouth formed a grin. “Don't tell me you're getting jealous...”

Twilight gave him a friendly punch with her left hoof after that remark which caused Spike to stumble. The three of them laughed for a few seconds just before hearing the sound of somepony coming down the steps. The three of them turned to see that it was their good friend Rarity.

“Rarity!” Twilight and Shining Armor caught themselves shouting at the same time as she trotted up to them, looking very festive.

“My dear friends! I see you’re stunned by Spike’s new outfit? Wait till you see yours!”

Twilight didn’t even bother to tattle with her friend right now. She still had a lot to organize. Still, she couldn’t deny herself one question…

“So, how’s business today, Rarity? I see you’re taking the opportunity to promote your designs. I also heard you would also make a dress for the Princess. Is that true?”

The white mare seemed quite amused when she heard the words “promote” and “princess”. Before responding, she coughed. Twilight and Shining looked at each other as if they shared the same thought.

“Oh things are going just splendid, my dear Twilight! I must say, this was just a great idea Sweetie Belle came up with. When she mentioned that I should create a special outfit just for tonight, I instantly got to work and started making dresses for everypony important here in Ponyville. That’s why you are getting one as well, darling. And your big brother of course as well – care to follow me to my boutique after I’m done here, Captain?”

A sassy wink that followed this question had the desired effect on Twilight’s brother. He blushed and could only giggle in response.

Luna entered the room. At first sight, Twilight couldn’t tell whether Princess Celestia stood for her or her sister. Luna was wearing a bright dress, which build a huge contrast to her coat and mane. The whole dress was truly mystique and created as a reverence towards her beloved moon – sparkling diamonds, frills and several layers of fabric hinted at Rarity’s handwriting. The thought that this dress was given away for free would have caused anypony to faint.

“Say, do we look pretty in this? The Generous Rarity told us we were “truly chic”; we demand that you tell us your opinion on this!”

Twilight sighed. Shining Armor, as always, didn’t know what to say.

“You don’t need to be anxious about your looks, Princess. Rarity is telling the truth! Besides, I bet you already looked at yourself, did you? You’ll look gorgeous tonight!” She bowed in front of the Princess of the Night.

“Oh, but one thing is missing, how could I have forgotten about your earrings! And perhaps we should do something with your mane!” Rarity took her glasses that were lying on a table next to her and began to rummage through the bag she brought with her. After a while, she looked up at Princess Luna in disappointment. “As I thought! Would you accompany me to my boutique? I don’t have the right jewelry with me right now. And you too, Shining Armor. No time to waste. Twilight, I’ll send somepony to you to bring you your dress. Is that fine with you?”

Without waiting for a response, Rarity left the library with Luna to her left and Shining Armor to her right, reflecting on all the fashion ideas she got for them. Twilight sent Spike back to work; afterwards, she went to see Applejack for a final meeting before the start of the event.

***

Author's Note

The cover art for this story kind of fits the opening scene, in case you didn't notice. Not that I intended to model it after it though - it is pure coincidence that both kind of fit together.