Cheese surveyed the ballroom before him, satisfied with the results of the last several hours of decorating. Actually, not to be outdone, Cheese had arranged for the hallways and outside of the Student Center to be decorated as well, all in the colors of the University of Mareland: black, red and yellow. Pinkie had tried her hardest to sneak in some pink and purple, but Cheese had put his hoof down on that one.
Cheese smiled to himself when he thought about Pinkie. Asking for her assistance had been the smartest move he’d made since coming to Baltimare. He had only found out she was Maud’s sister by accident, when Maud had described her childhood on the Pie rock farm. He still had a difficult time imagining Pinkie in such a place… but anyway, he had managed to keep it together and not let Maud know he knew Pinkie. And Pinkie had somehow convinced Maud to show up tonight for the Ball!
Everything had to be perfect tonight; this might be his last chance to impress Maud before his Cheesy Sense pulled him toward his next destination. So he had spent hours in preparation, even before Pinky had arrived at lunch time, flush-faced and muttering something about a dress making her late. There was a lavish feast spread across several tables at one end of the ballroom. At the other end, Vinyl Scratch was queuing up the music for dancing. Cheese’s own accordion was safely stashed behind Vinyl for use after the partying had really gotten going. Pinkie was in the kitchen overseeing the last of the food. And a few fillies and colts had started to show up, mixing in small groups and eyeing the banquet tables hungrily. Cheese rushed over to get them started on filling their plates, and queued Vinyl to start the music.
“Great party, well done!” Cheese turned to see Kathy Andercolt, the Dean of Students, standing next to him, munching on a canapé. “We haven’t had this successful a ball on campus in a very long time.”
“Thank you, Dean Andercolt,” Cheese replied, feeling giddy in his success. Around them, ponies were beginning to pair off and dance. More ponies were munching and laughing in groups around the room. The room was quickly filling up, but not a pony among them had soft grey fur and dazzling green eyes.
“You know, Mr. Sandwich, I could see us making a more permanent arrangement for your services. Our graduate students tend to be overly focused on their studies. Even serious young ponies need to have fun every once in a while, don’t you think?”
“Um, sure,” Cheese replied, his attention diverted. He was barely listening, as at that moment, a young mare with a beautifully coiffed purple mane and a dazzling green dress in a shade that perfectly matched her eyes stepped into the ballroom doorway. She had arrived alone, and was looking around uncertainly.
“Excuse me.” Cheese strode as fast as he could to the doorway while maintaining some illusion of composure. Maud continued to look around, until she saw him… and their eyes locked.
“Maud! You’re here!” Cheese shouted over the ever-growing din of the party. He eyed her appreciatively. “You look beautiful.”
Maud’s gaze became startled, and she looked toward the floor. Was that a hint of pink under the grey of her cheeks? Her mouth opened and she looked up and around again, as if trying to catch her breath and think of something to say at the same time. Cheese thought it was adorable.
“Here, Maud, come sit down!” Cheese led her to one of the tables lining the walls of the ballroom. “Would you like anything to eat? Or drink? Everything you could possibly want is here…” Cheese didn’t mention that he knew that was true because he had pumped Pinkie pie for information on her families’ food favorites, ostentatiously as research for the ball. “Wait, I’ll just get you a plate of things to sample.”
Later, Cheese would wonder what might have happened if he had sat down with her instead. Or perhaps asked her if she wanted to dance. Or offered to take her for a quiet stroll outside. Anything that would have meant he hadn’t turned toward the buffet tables at the very moment and witnessed Pinky carrying a bowl of something very, very pink toward the spread of food.
The problem being, of course, that there had been nothing quite so pink in the carefully conceived menu he had planned.
At that moment, Pinkie saw him, and came bounding over, carefully balancing the large bowl of pink glop in her hooves. “Cheese! I was hoping I’d find you! Look, it’s your families’ secret cheese sauce recipe, but I pinkified it for you! Isn’t it GREAT?”
Cheese Sandwich stared at the bowl. His families’ secret cheese sauce was a sacred institution, a cornerstone of his parties’ success. He had carefully prepared the sauce earlier and left it to chill. Pinkie simply had to place it out on the table at the right moment.
“Pinkie?” squeaked Cheese, when he regained his ability to talk. “Why is my families' sacred, secret cheese sauce HOT PINK?”
Pinkies’ face fell for a microsecond, but then she cheered back up again “Oh, silly, everyone will love it oh-so-much-more now that it is pink! Pink is the bestest, most partyish color around!”
At that point, Cheese grabbed onto the edge of the bowl, “Pinkie, I really can't let my extra special cheese sauce be PINK…”
Pinkie was having none of it. “It’s still the same SAUCE, silly, why would you NOT serve it?” She began to tug on her side of the bowl.
Cheese was beginning to feel a bit desperate. There was no way he was going to let this cheese sauce go out on the buffet as a hot pink mess. He began tugging harder on his side “Pinkie, give me the sauce.”
The tugging grew more frantic and the two ponies argued the merits of cheese sauce of unnatural coloring. Maud watched the fiasco, half amused and half embarrassed. Cheese and Pinkie really were making a spectacle of themselves, and several ponies had come over to watch. In fact, even Vinyl was staring in their direction, and seemed to have forgotten to queue the next album in her set.
Neither Pinkie nor Cheese seemed to notice. They were caught up in their own world of perfect-party-paranoia, tugging frantically back and forth on the unsuspecting bowl, which was vibrating under the pressure. Then, just as the current song was ending…
CRAAAAACK!
In the ensuing silence, every ponies' eyes watched as the bowl of hot pink cheese sauce split in two. Unfortunately, as it split, the contents of said bowl were thrown upward, outward, and managed to land squarely on Maud.
Hot pink cheese sauce coated her new dress. Hot pink cheese sauce covered her carefully coiffed mane. In fact, the only part of her that was not covered in hot pink cheese sauce was her eyes, which were currently staring daggers at Cheese and Pinkie.
Cheese was not sure how long it took for him to register what had happened – the quiet in the hall was deafening. As he and Pinkie stared in horror, Maud slowly stood up. Then, her head held high, and with as much dignity as she could muster, she slowly walked toward the doorway and out of the ballroom, dripping cheese sauce as she left.
Pinkie turned to Cheese, and Cheese turned to Pinkie. They both blinked several times. But it was Pinkie who finally broke the silence.
“We are in sooo much trouble. I have NEVER seen Maud this cheesed!”