"SURPRISE!!!!"
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were definitely surprised, alright. When a certain pink party pony (or anypony for that matter) brings you and your secret crush to the most romantically decorated picnic you've ever seen, it's kind of hard not to feel that way.
"Pinkie...you... But how'd ya even know?" asked Applejack as she wondered if anypony else knew about how she felt for Rainbow Dash. Her random, hyperactive friend did have a way of knowing things before anyone else did, but there was always a chance that this wasn’t one of those times, so naturally, she was a little worried.
That got a giggle out of Pinkie, and right after that, she pulled out the purple, feathered turban that usually went with her fortune telling (Madame Pinkie Pie) outfit and placed it on top of her head. "I figured it out a while ago, you sillies! I didn't tell anypony else about it, but after the Running of the Leaves, my Pinkie Sense told me there was something there. I just decided I should wait a while and make super duper positively certain that I was right!”
Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked almost too afraid to ask their next question despite the relief of knowing their secret was safe, but the pegasus decided to go for it anyway: "...and when exactly did you know it for sure?"
"The night of your Most Daring Pony competition, of course! You two got way closer that night, I could tell! When I brought up the competition again and you two stared each other down, the back of my neck started to tingle like it did during the Running of the Leaves, only it was way stronger this time! That's when I knew it was the truth!"
Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash blushed as they heard Pinkie's explanation. Admittedly, they probably should have seen this coming. For the past couple of months, Pinkie Pie had been playing matchmaker for their other three best friends as well; she had sent Rarity and Fluttershy on their own little trip to Manehattan just last week, and the week before that, she talked Twilight into paying Flash Sentry a visit in the Crystal Empire. AJ and Rainbow just didn't expect her to find out about their feelings for each other, as they had been doing such a good job at hiding it from everyone else. Up until this moment, actually, neither of the two even knew that the other felt the same way.
"Soooo! Once I knew for sure that was the case, I got to thinking about how I should help you guys! I thought about throwing a party, but then I figured that if you hadn't even said anything to each other yet, you probably didn't want anypony else to know just yet, either. That's when this picnic idea came to me! A secluded location like this seemed like the most superly duperly perfect place for you two to talk things out and possibly decide if you want to be each other's special someponies for Hearts and Hooves Day! That's in a few days, ya know?" said Pinkie as she started bouncing where she stood.
"Yeah, we know, Pinkie." Rainbow said with a chuckle before looking around. She had to admit, bringing them to the lake was a pretty good idea. No other ponies came out here this late, and as if the gorgeous view of the sunset reflecting off of the water wasn't romantic enough, Pinkie had put heart shaped lights in the tree looming over the picnic and even put some candles and a little on the picnic blanket itself, which was a really nice touch. "... You're right, too. This is a really cool place for this to happen..."
"Couldn't've picked a nicer first date mahself..." Applejack said, looking absolutely captivated by what she was seeing around her. She, then, turned to Pinkie with absolute gratitude in her eyes. "Ya really put a lot of effort inta doin' this fer us, Pinkie... Ah can't thank ya enough..."
"Oh, but I'm not done here just yet!" Pinkie said before replacing her turban with one of her many top hats, this one looking like a pink version of the one that belonged to the Mad Hatter. This had been a thing for some time now; on top of saying 'super duper' a little more often than she used to, Pinkie had developed a certain fascination with hats, and that resulted in her carrying a bunch of them around and alternating between them every so often.
Before either AJ or Dash could ask what their friend was talking about, she pulled them over to the edge of the lake and had them face each other. After that, she pulled out a grilled cheese sandwich, split it in half and gave each half to one of her two friends.
"Pinkie, what are you--"
"We are gathered here today to bring these two special ponies, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, together as each other's special someponies." Pinkie said, cutting off Rainbow Dash before turning to look at her with that excited grin on her face. "Dashie, do you take Applejack to be your special somepony this Hearts and Hooves Day and, hopefully, long after words?"
"Ok, now, I get it." both Dash and AJ thought at the same time. The rainbow maned pegasus looked to the orange mare in front of her, taking in every gorgeous feature about her that she could. Her soft, blonde mane, her deep orange coat, her adorable little freckles, her sparkling emerald eyes... As beautiful as Applejack was all over, Dash loved those eyes the most, for they truly were windows to her equally beautiful soul--a soul she had fallen in love with almost immediately after meeting her. "... I do..."
Pinkie grinned at those words before looking to the blonde mare on her left. "And do you, Applejack, take Dashie to be your special somepony from this Hearts and Hooves Day onward?"
One look at Rainbow Dash was all AJ needed to know her answer. As gorgeous as she was, it wasn't her looks themselves that won her over. The way her dazzling rainbow mane, sleek sky blue coat and breath taking magenta eyes shined like the stars in the light of the sunset certainly made her already eye catching appearance stand out even more, but like Rainbow, it was looking into those magenta eyes and seeing that fiery spirit she loved so much that made the answer that much clearer to her. "Of course Ah do..."
An excited giggle escaped Pinkie, but she soon stopped herself and cleared her throat before she continued: "In that case, I now pronounce you marefriend and marefriend."
Rainbow Dash, being her excitable self, immediately jumped into action as she heard those words and have Applejack a passionate kiss on the lips. As surprised as the blonde mare was by the sudden act, she didn't complain, happily returning the kiss until both of them were out of breath.
"And now, you two get to feed each other your halves of the grilled cheese I just gave you!" said Pinkie, looking especially excited about this part.
Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack chuckled as they heard this, but they decided it would be ok to play along just for Pinkie. “Open up…” the pair said to each other before opening their mouths and taking a bite out of the sandwich half being fed to them.
That one moment was enough to get a dreamy little sigh out of Pinkie. “Now, my work here is done.” she said before switching hats again, this time putting on a hat that looked just like Carmane Sandiego’s. “And now, to go home and celebrate...with cheesecake!”
Rainbow and AJ looked at each other with raised eyebrows before turning to Pinkie and asking in unison “... Cheesecake?”
“Cheesecake! Bye!” And with that, Pinkie started bouncing back towards town, leaving her two friends to wonder why she told them about that in the first place. It wasn’t anything terribly out of the ordinary, but the fact that she went out of her way to bring it up seemed...kind of odd. Even by Pinkie Pie standards.
After their bubbly pink friend was out of their line of sight, the pair looked at each other again, then at the partially eaten sandwich halves still in their hooves. “... Am I the only one seeing a pattern here?” asked Rainbow Dash with a raised eyebrow.
Applejack looked at the sandwich in thought, thinking she knew what was going on here, but she shook it off deciding not to jump to conclusions. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence…” she muttered, though something in her knew it was something much more than that.
“I doubt it…” Dash said with a roll of her eyes, being slightly more open about what she thought was happening.
AJ sighed and shrugged it off, deciding now wasn’t the time to think about this. “We can see if we can get anything out of her about it later. Right now, let’s go eat.” she suggested, already heading over to the picnic blanket with the picnic basket left for them by their friend.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t wanting whatever Pinkie made for us to go to waste.” Rainbow Dash said, eating the rest of her half of the sandwich before gliding over to the picnic blanket.
Applejack ate her half of the sandwich just before Dash made it over to her, and when they were sitting together, she opened the basket and took out everything inside. What they found was a little bit of a surprise, more so to AJ than to Rainbow Dash. Inside the basket, Pinkie Pie had packed several cheese based dishes, each with a sticky note so the girls knew even before opening anything what was in which container. Apparently, she left them cheddar bay biscuits, cheddar fondue and a cheese sampler plate for appetizers, a pizza with four types of cheeses and a cheese stuffed crust as their entree, and a cheese souffle as the dessert. There was even a pitcher of what at first looked like lemonade, but according to Pinkie’s note, it was actually cheese juice. Mozzarella to be precise. “How in the hay does a pony make juice outta cheese?” said an especially perplexed Applejack.
“Still think this is all just a coincidence?” asked Rainbow Dash even as she dipped one of the biscuits in the fondue, thinking it couldn’t hurt to at least try it.
Applejack looked at all of the food and thought back to the sandwich Pinkie gave them, and soon enough gave the only answer she possibly could at this point: “... Eenope.”
---
And so, three days went by, and Hearts and Hooves Day had finally arrived in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie had been given permission by the mayor to be in charge of the town’s festivities this year, and as a result, this year’s Hearts and Hooves Day celebration in Ponyville had been turned into a carnival, and the theme of the carnival itself had been centered entirely around cheese. There were heart shaped lights made to look like swiss cheese strung up everywhere, all of the attractions, rides and decorations were designed to look like cheese, and every stand sold cheese based food items or something cheese related. There was even a cheese fountain in the center of the whole party that was also designed to look like it was made of cheese. This massive, literally cheesy celebration was Pinkie’s brainchild, and she couldn’t have been prouder of herself for coming up with it. There was just one problem. See, Pinkie’s back had been itchy all day long, and she knew that meant her Pinkie Sense was telling her that something really lucky was going to happen to her today. She had an idea as to what it was and had been anticipating this specific event all day, but it was almost the end of the party now, and she still hadn’t gotten the luck she had been waiting for all this time.
The only especially great thing that had happened was Applejack and Rainbow Dash coming to the carnival as a couple and Twilight coming back home from the Crystal Empire, this time with Flash Sentry. As happy as she was for them, Pinkie became a little dejected as her back became less and less itchy throughout the night, as she had expected to see someone else come back tonight, too. “... I dunno… Maybe my Pinkie Sense was wrong this time, Boneless…” she murmured to the rubber chicken now sitting on her back. She closed her eyes and reached up to the top of her head, about to take off the chicken hat she was wearing. She only wore it so the pony she was looking for could easily spot her, and since he probably wasn’t coming, she didn’t have any reason to wear it anymore.
“Umm...Pinkie?”
Slightly startled by the sound of Fluttershy’s voice, Pinkie took her hoof away from her head and turned around to see her and Rarity standing there, the unicorn’s arm wrapped around her recently acquired marefriend’s shoulders. “Oh, hi, girls. Is something wrong?”
“Well...we really hope we’re not interrupting anything... It’s just… Applejack asked us to come find you…” Fluttershy murmured just loud enough for Pinkie to hear.
“It seems that the cheese fountain has stopped working, so she suggested we come find you and see if you can do anything about it.” Rarity added, only taking her hoof from around Fluttershy so she could get a little closer to Pinkie as she spoke.
“Oh...ok, sure. I can do that.” Pinkie Pie said, forcing herself to perk back up as she followed her two friends to the fountain. “... Just a heads up, though, you guys...after I do this, I might have to go home a little early…”
“Oh? Why’s that?” asked a confused looking Rarity. It wasn’t like Pinkie to leave a party she put together so soon, so it was reasonable enough that she would be confused about it.
“It’s nothing, really. I mean, obviously, this is a super duper fun party! I’m just starting to get a little headache...a-and I think I've been eating too much cheese, too…” said the pink party pony before giving her friends another forced smile. “I just need to go home and lie down so I can get past it, that’s all. Nothing you two need to worry your pretty heads about, I swear.”
Rarity and Fluttershy looked at each other and smiled, as if they knew something their friend simply didn’t. The party planner felt her back start to itch again, but she was starting to lose faith in it being her Pinkie Sense this time; maybe it was a mosquito bite or something.
“Well, before you go, Fluttershy and I would like to thank you for sending us on that trip to Manehattan together. We probably never would have gotten together otherwise, so we’re especially grateful.” Rarity said, smiling at the memories she and Flutters made on their trip together.
“Yes. Everything was wonderful…” Fluttershy said with a smile before giving a brief pause. “Although I’m still not sure why you paid for us to go to a cheese museum…”
That one word made Pinkie Pie slightly shudder. She was slowly but surely starting to get sick of the word ‘cheese’ now. “... I’m glad you had fun. And I’m happy I was able to help you two get together. You’re great ponies on your own and you’re great as a pair! You totally deserve each other!” she said, progressively getting more of her usual pep back with each word she spoke. Maybe it was forced, but she was sure it wasn’t so much so that either of her friends would really notice.
“Hey, Pinkie! Over here!”
Pinkie’s attention was directed away from Rarity and Flutters when she heard Applejack’s voice. She turned to see her standing right by the giant cheese fountain. “Ah think Ah might’ve found the problem. C’mere and Ah’ll show ya!”
“Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie said with a little salute to AJ before running over to her friend to see just what all of the fuss was about. She probably should have bounced over like she usually did, but she was pretty sure the others wouldn’t really notice something like that since they seemed more fixated on fixing this fountain.
Applejack pointed to the bottom of the fountain, and when Pinkie took a look at it, she noticed something really strange. “That’s weird… The hose connecting the fountain and the vat of hot cheese underground isn’t here…” she murmured, tapping her chin in thought as she wondered what could have happened to that hose. In that second, her back got even itchier. She would have acknowledged that with more than just reaching back and scratching, but she was so focused on this mystery that she wasn’t even thinking about that anymore.
“Heads up!”
Rainbow’s warning snapped Pinkie out of her own thoughts, and as soon as she turned towards her voice, she was blasted in the face with hot cheese. Only when her entire face was coated in liquid cheddar did the onslaught stop, and after licking it off her lips, the pink party pony just giggled. Genuinely this time. Somehow, Dash’s pranks always made her feel better, even if she was the victim.
Somepony handed Pinkie Pie a towel, and she immediately used it to wipe her eyes so she could look her friend in the face and congratulate her for pulling that one off. “That was a good one, Dashie--” Before the party pony could even finish her sentence, she saw something that made her loudly gasp in shock.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight were both standing over there, but neither of them was holding the hose that had sprayed hot cheese at her. No, the pony holding the hose was the lanky, curly maned stallion standing between the two mares, wearing his usual polo shirt and an alligator novelty hat while another rubber chicken sat on his back. “Looks like your fountain’s missin’ a little somethin’.” he said in that steely voice he used when he first came to Ponyville. He walked right over to the fountain and plugged the hose right back where it belonged, and sure enough, the cheese fountain was operational once again within a matter of seconds.
The fountain didn’t have Pinkie’s attention anymore, though. It was the pony who fixed it that she was fixated on. “Guys…”
“An entire picnic of cheese based food?” Rainbow asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“An all expenses paid tour of Manehattan’s cheese museum?” Rarity asked with a similar expression on her face.
“You even gave Flash Sentry the idea to make a sculpture of me and him out of my favorite kind of cheese. He showed me your letter.” Twilight said, also with a small smirk. “Seriously, Pinkie, if those don’t count as subconsciously placed hints that you’ve been missing Cheese and wanted him here, I don’t know what does.”
Pinkie was so stunned right now that she didn’t know what to believe. To make sure this wasn’t some sort of cruel joke, she had the stallion turn around to face her, and the second he saw those familiar, grassy green eyes again, she knew without a doubt that this was really him. “Cheese Sandwich!!” she finally cheered before throwing her forehooves around him and hugging him tightly.
“Hiya, Pinkie!” Cheese Sandwich said, now using his normal, wacky voice that sounded like absolute music to Pinkie’s ears. She was surprised he could talk with how tightly she was hugging him, but then she remembered this was Super Duper Party Pony Cheese Sandwich she was dealing with. Of course he was perfectly fine.
“Oh my gosh, I knew it! I knew you’d be here! I knew my Pinkie Sense couldn’t have been wrong! Why did you come so late? I was starting to think you weren’t coming at all!”
“Wait...you knew we had planned to bring him here?” asked a dumbfounded Twilight.
“Oh, no, I didn’t know that part. But I did know he was coming here! Haven’t you guys noticed how much I’ve been scratching my back these past few days?” Pinkie said, pointing to her back with one hoof while using the other to keep Cheese Sandwich close to her. “You guys know that means something lucky is going to happen to me, and I got an idea of what that something was the night after I set AJ and Dashie up on their picnic date!”
---
Back at Sugar Cube Corner after leaving Applejack and Rainbow Dash to their picnic, Pinkie Pie found herself in her bedroom with an entire cherry cheesecake and many glasses of milk in front of her. She had just taken another bite of cake, and seeing Boneless and Gummy sitting on the bed with her, she put some more cheesecake on her fork. “Either of you want some?” she asked, holding the fork in front of Boneless first. The rubber chicken simply fell backwards onto the bed, which Pinkie decided to take as a no.
The pink party pony was about to try and feed Gummy when she suddenly felt an overwhelming need to scratch her back. She set the fork down in front of her pet baby alligator, prompting him to lick the cheesecake off. Pinkie was about to give her back a scratch when she paused and remembered just what this itch meant. A massive grin of excitement came over her face, and she immediately grabbed both Gummy and Boneless, hugging them as she started bouncing in circles all over the room.
“Oh! My! GOSH!!! Gummy, Boneless, my back’s getting itchy! Something lucky’s going to happen to me really soon! I can feel it!”
Pinkie’s cheering stopped as she saw something in the window. She carefully set Gummy and Boneless down before running over to the window to see if she was right. Another grin crossed her face as she realized she wasn’t seeing things, as a constellation shaped like Cheese Sandwich’s cutie mark was undoubtedly twinkling high above Ponyville. “...and I think I know exactly what it is…” she whispered, because obviously, this had to be some kind of sign.
Pinkie Pie didn’t miss a beat. At that exact moment, she ran right to the literal drawing board that was in her room, took her original plans for the Hearts and Hooves Day party she was in charge of throwing for Ponyville this year, threw those plans out and started plans for something almost entirely different. If those stars were telling her what she thought they were telling her, she was going to have to make this Hearts and Hooves Day celebration something even more special than she originally planned. This had to be something mind blowing. Something that he would be proud of...
---
“I didn’t know if it was really true or how he was going to get here if it was true, but everything in my heart wanted to believe he was going to be here for Hearts and Hooves Day, so I kept thinking about it, believing it, planning this party out to be a tribute to him, and now...he's here!!” Pinkie cheered in excitement as she hugged Cheese just a little tighter. She felt him hug back, so she knew he was fine. “I had no idea you guys were planning to bring him back here, though! I didn’t even realize I was leaving enough hints to make it that obvious that I missed him…”
"Yeah, well...ya kinda did." Rainbow said with that smirk on her face again. "After Rarity and Flutters came home, we all talked everything over at Twilight's house and put everything together. Once we figured out what was going on, I had to go all the way to Baltimare just to find this guy, but the second I told him why we wanted him to come back, he was on board and already booking it to the nearest train station in a heartbeat." she went on with a chuckle.
Pinkie blushed as she heard that last part, then looked up at Cheese to see he was blushing as well. "... Is that really true?" she asked, feeling her heart race just at the mere notion of him wanting to see her again at all, let alone so much that he bolted towards the nearest train station when he heard that she missed him.
"Well...yeah, it's true... When Dash told me how much you've missed me, I couldn't keep myself away from Ponyville for another second..." Cheese confessed, still blushing as he gently tilted Pinkie's chin so they were looking into each other's eyes. "... Mostly because I had been missing you just as much."
A light gasp escaped Pinkie as she heard those words, but what surprised her even more is what Applejack was bringing to him: a plate with a heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich on it. She let Cheese go, if for no other reason to hold both of her hooves over her mouth in shock. She watched Cheese take the plate from Applejack, then split the sandwich itself in half before returning to Pinkie’s side. “I’ve loved and respected you for the longest time now, Pinkie Pie, and seeing you again all those months ago only made my feelings for you that much stronger. From what Dash told me, you feel the exact same way, and if that’s the case, I can finally ask you this…”
Pinkie felt her heart race and her blush spread across her face as she watched and listened to all of this happen, her eyes sparkling all the while and reflecting her anticipation. "Is this really happening...?"
Now holding out the plate to Pinkie, Cheese looked into her eyes and asked the question that had been begging to come out for years now: “Will you please be my special somepony, Pinkie Pie? ...or is this way too cheesy?”
Any other time, Pinkie would have giggled at that pun, her her heart had practically stopped and her mind was racing so much that she couldn’t even think to laugh. She couldn’t even think of any words to say for a moment, but when she looked into Cheese’s eyes again, she saw a certain desperation in his eyes that begged her to give him some kind of answer so he didn’t make a total fool of himself standing there like this. More importantly, though, she could see the love there that he had just described. That love had been there for longer than she could even comprehend at this point, and it was more pure than anything she had ever seen. His heart belonged to her and only her, and seeing all of this being put out there and on the line in one simple gaze was enough to help her find the words she wanted to say.
With the warmest, most loving smile coming over her face, Pinkie Pie finally took one half of that heart shaped sandwich and said “There’s no such thing as too cheesy, you silly.”
That made Cheese Sandwich light up, apparently serving as the answer he wanted to hear. He grabbed the other half of the sandwich and set the plate on the ground, and before they did anything else, the pair of party ponies gazed into each other’s eyes and gave each other a soft kiss. It was meant to only last a second or so, but it went on about ten seconds longer than that.
“Aww…” murmured the rest of the Mane Six. Even Rainbow Dash couldn’t keep it to herself for more than a few seconds, but she quickly covered it up by looking away from everypony with her forehooves crossed as she hovered in the air like she usually did.
After breaking the kiss, Pinkie and Cheese kept staring into each other’s eyes, refusing to break eye contact with each other as they were fed part of their grilled cheese sandwich. In perfect unison, they both took a bite out of the sandwich half in front of their faces, and that moment only served to bring them closer to each other and melt the hearts of their friends that much more.
“... This is still kind of cheesy, though.” Rainbow Dash whispered to Applejack, which resulted in the earth pony jabbing her in the chest.
“Yeah, but in a darn good way. Now hush and let’s get outta here.” the orange farm pony said, gesturing to her marefriend and the others to leave. It didn’t take long for Twilight, Flutters and Rarity to do just that. Cheese and Pinkie Pie were still feeding each other, and they all wanted them to be able to finish their sandwich in peace. After all the trouble Pinkie went to for them, they knew she sure deserved it.