Twilight was in a flurry, rushing from one side of the room to the other. In front of her was a checklist that became longer and longer as she wrote down what needed to be fixed and what needed to be changed. Spike trailed closely behind her, making his own checklist of things he thought he needed to make note of.

"Twi'," Applejack said carefully, her voice slightly lowered, "don't you think you're goin' a bit overboard with this?"

"No!" Twilight quickly said in reply, a bit louder than she had intended. Calming herself down, she spoke once again, "I'm sorry for snapping. It's just that there's so much to do and I don't know if we have the time to do it all before the Festival arrives!"

Applejack moved over to Twilight and placed a single hoof on her shoulder. Twilight seemed to be trembling slightly, due to the amount of pressure she was putting on herself. She looked as if she hadn't slept at all; her hair was slightly tangled, there were the beginnings of sleepless lines under her eyes, and the whites of her eyes looked bloodshot.

"Twi'." Applejack said calmly. "You know we'll get through this. We do just fine, every year! If anything, this should just spice things up a little bit," she offered in an attempt to reassure the panicking unicorn.

Though her trembling seemed to lessen, she still insisted in an almost breathless voice, "But what if we can't? What if I fail, and the whole town is mad at me? I cannot afford to have that follow me around after I've worked so hard to-"

She was cut off by the orange mare wrapping her forehooves around Twilight's neck and holding her close. "We'll do just fine, sugarcube. Just you wait 'n' see," she said comfortingly.

Spike smiled a bit at the display, but judged from the look on Twilight's face, her eyes widened and confused, that he needed to give them some breathing room. "I'll let you two talk things over," he said nonchalantly, "I'll head into the market and pick up some supplies."

As he walked away, Twilight heard him mumble something about quills and ice cream, but she couldn't focus. Tears of frustration had welled up, clouding her vision and making it hard for her to focus. She instead decided to nuzzle Applejack on a whim, finding comfort in her friend's kind nature. Every so often, Applejack would run a hoof down her back in comfort, consoling the unicorn and calming her chaotic thoughts. They stayed in that position for what seemed like minutes before Twilight pulled reluctantly away from the embrace.

"Thanks," she said softly, embarrassed by her unstable emotional state. "I'm trying to handle this calmly, I really am," she told Applejack as she wiped the tears from her eyes with the tops of her forehooves.

"I know, sugarcube. You've got every right to feel worried at a time like this, but you'll hurt yourself if you carry on like this. I won't lie when I say I'm startin' to get worried 'bout ya," Applejack reasoned with her, her emerald eyes showing genuine concern.

Twilight took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling slowly. "Well you don't have to worry," she replied, offering Applejack a sincere smile of gratitude.

"Well, that's a relief," the orange mare replied, surveying her surroundings as she did. "We oughta get this place cleaned up," she said, looking back to Twilight.

"But!" she added just as Twilight began to walk towards the nearest pile of papers. The unicorn stopped in her tracks and turned back, confused. "We'll do it together. One step at a time," she said with a nod and a confident smile that made her eyes seemingly become sharper in color.

Twilight smiled a bit wider then, and nodded to Applejack in complete confidence. She levitated the list, and took a look over it. The first thing on the list was: "Separate stacks by category." She turned to a pile of papers and focused her magic upon them, causing the papers to split into four smaller stacks. Putting two down, she then split the two stacks multiple times until individual sheets floated around her.

Applejack stared in awe as she did these things and complimented Twilight, "I knew you were good with magic but this.. This is downright amazin', Twi'!" She sat on her haunches and merely observed with wide eyes as the unicorn set to work on the papers.

"Thank you," Twilight said humbly. A compliment coming from any other pony would have been nice, but not nearly as special. The purple unicorn took it to heart, and could feel her pride swelling up inside of her. Before she lost concentration and dropped the hundreds of papers, she focused solely on the task at hand.

The papers, Twilight noticed, were already filled out and ready to be sent, much to her delight. Looking at the headings of the letters, she separated them in alphabetical order. Papers floated and slid into place behind, in front, and beside each other until Twilight levitated them over to a nearby desk that had assorted office supplies about it, as well as more papers. She neatly moved them aside and placed the supplies in their proper containers or whatever happened to be able to hold them at the time until further notice.

She then neatly placed the stacks of papers on the desk and turned to Applejack, who was sweeping the floors with the end of her tail. She had taken off her hat and placed it on a nearby table, atop another pile of papers. She was whistling a bright tune and had a smile smile on her face as she worked.

A thought occured to Twilight at that moment, and she couldn't help but smile at the hope it brought along with it. Maybe, with her friend's help, she would do just fine. She found herself thinking back to when Applejack had hugged her, or rather held her, to comfort her. It gave her a sense of happiness that the mare was at her side in this endeavor. For the first time in a long time, she felt truly at peace, and it was because of Applejack's effort.

Though she didn't quite understand the feeling, Twilight felt a warm sense of happiness at the Applejack's presence, and she enjoyed it. She couldn't help but smile wide, inciting a raised eyebrow from Applejack. Twilight turned away and pretended to be busy, for she realized she had been staring at her friend.

She heard a chuckle, and the sounds of sweeping resumed. Twilight idly shuffled the papers, half-paying attention to what she was doing as she thought about her new position as mayor, and she felt, for the first time, truly prepared.