Chapter 1
Three young fillies sat together at a small table at the Sugar Cube Corner confectionery. They were depressed due to their most recent failure of their cutie mark "crusading."
"I just don't understand it!" Apple Bloom slammed her hooves on the table nearly knocking over the three shakes on top of it.
"We've tried everythin' we possibly could!" she complained.
"And we still don't have our cutie marks!" Scootaloo added.
There was a long moment of silence, which was soon after interrupted by Sweetie Belle.
"Do you think we should just give up?"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stared at her dumbfounded. Sure, sometimes they felt like giving up on their long crusade and just wait patiently for their cutie marks like most fillies and colts did. But they never really considered actually giving in.
"We can't give up!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, beginning to stand on the table. Her friends just stared at her as she did this.
"We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders for Pete's Sake! And we ain't gonna stop crusadin' 'til we have our cutie marks!" Apple Bloom preached to her friends.
"I guess you're right, Apple Bloom." Sweetie Belle admitted. Scootaloo nodded, agreeing with her friend's comment.
"Besides," Apple Bloom added, "we couldn't have failed THAT many times." Her friends were quiet again.
"Let's just say that we're REALLY running out of options." Scootaloo answered.
"What do we try now?" Sweetie Belle asked. The crusaders then began to ponder on what they could possibly attempt in getting their cutie marks this time.
"Ooh! We could try getting the highest scores on the arcade machines!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"I feel like we already did that." Scootaloo sighed.
All of a sudden, the bakery became silent. The only thing that could be heard was the entry bell on the bakery door. There stood an orange earth pony with a poncho and a large, dark stetson hat that covered his face just enough for him to be unrecognizable. The pony stood in front of the door a few seconds longer as all eyes continued to stare, and threw off his stetson and poncho revealing himself to the shocked crowd of ponies.
"I'm back Ponyville!" the pony exclaimed. The mysterious pony was Cheese Sandwich, one of the best party planners in all of Equestria besides Pinkie Pie. The ponies seemed very glad to see the party pony again, since he co-hosted the best party that any of them had ever been to. The Cutie Mark Crusaders seemed shocked to see him as well, since they figured that the last time they saw him would be the only time in their lives to see him ever again, but apparently not. As the crowd of ponies greeted Cheese Sandwich, there was a pink flash that zipped past the crusaders from the staircase to him. Pinkie Pie had seemed to be the most excited about the party pony's return to town, but she had every reason to be, since he was the only one who seemed to have as big of a passion for parties as she did.
"Cheese!" Pinkie hugged him excitedly, which caused him to blush.
"I'm super duper excited that you came back to Ponyville!" she exclaimed.
"Because I thought that I would never ever get a chance to see you never ever again! Which is just so terrible since you are one of the most super duper party ponies ever!" she rapidly spoke. Cheese chuckled.
"It's nice to see you too, Pinkie." A thought then crossed Pinkie's mind.
"Wait, why are you here?" she asked "There aren't any big parties that need to planned right now." The crowd of ponies around Cheese faded away by this time as he explained.
"You see Pinkie Pie, it gets pretty lonely on the road all by yourself. There's not really anyone to keep you company all those long days and nights." Pinkie still wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at.
"You're retiring?" she asked
"Not exacly." Cheese chuckled again. "I'm basically taking a vacation to, you know, get away from it all."
"Oh, that makes a lot more sense." Pinkie caught on. There was still something looming over her mind though.
"But why did you pick Ponyville out of the places in Equestria?" Pinkie questioned.
"It's a great town, there's a lot of nice folks here." Cheese answered."Besides, I-" he paused and his faced turned bright red. Pinkie looked expectantly at him waiting for the sentence to be finished.
"Besides what?" Pinkie asked, noticing the stallion's face turn bright red.
"My vacation will be a lot more fun to spend with somepony who appreciates the finer arts." he improvised in his best Canterlot pony impression. Pinkie giggled at how ridiculous he sounded.
"Do you like baking?" she randomly asked as she continued giggling.
"Of course I do! What kind of party pony would I be if I didn't like baking!" Cheese answered. A smile spread across Pinkie's face.
"Do you wanna bake some muffins then?!" Pinkie said as she started bouncing excitedly.
"Totally!" Cheese smiled. Pinkie continued on bouncing and giggling.
"Come on then!" Pinkie smiled as she and Cheese Sandwich bounced their way into the kitchen as their laughter continued.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had watched all of this but didn't think too much of it, these were two of the craziest ponies they had ever met that were being dealt with. But Apple Bloom still questioned the events that had just happened right before them, and so quickly.
"Didn't y'all think this was a little weird?" Apple Bloom asked about the return of the party pony.
"Nope." Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle answered flatly. That didn't stop Apple Bloom for wondering if what he said was really why he decided to come back. If this wasn't the case, why now?