She trotted back and forth, back and forth, around the mailbox at the rhythm of the world's fastest merry-go-round. Her heart beat uncontrollably and she firmly gritted her teeth as she gazed at the horizon for the umpteenth time that morning only. Any minute now she would to see somepony in a navy-blue uniform, carrying a brown bag full of letters and packages for everypony in Ponyville, and her too, if she was lucky.
In this case luck had nothing to do with it, for Pinkie Pie had been receiving mail a lot more frequently for the past few weeks, always from the same pony. She enjoyed that, and she knew he enjoyed it too. They had been exchanging letters ever since the day he had left town to continue with his career, and she was happy to be in touch with somepony whom she had much in common with.
Her pace increasing and nervous level rising, she opened her mailbox and looked inside, almost sticking her head into it, somehow hoping that some random force of magic of some sort had already transported the letter she was expecting into the hot pink metal container. Closing it back in disappointment and aggravated stress, she almost didn't notice the purple alicorn who had just walked up to her.
"Good morning, Pinkie!" she was greeted by Twilight Sparkle, who was smiling in both happiness and curiosity for what the pink mare was doing. "What's going on?"
"Just waiting for a letter." Pinkie replied, not taking her eyes off of the mailbox for a second, almost as if she thought it would disappear if she were to lose sight of it. She peered over Twilight's shoulder, growling when she saw the mailpony was nowhere in sight, and proceeded to violently shake the mailbox as if it was the inanimate object's fault her mail hadn't arrived.
"Whoa, take it easy!" Twilight exclaimed as she placed her front hooves on the back of the box to stop the shaking. "Whose letter are you expecting to be acting like this?" A wide smile replaced the angry scowl on Pinkie's lips and her eyes glistened as she released her grip from the mailbox.
"Cheese Sandwich's, of course!" she happily stated and she started hopping up and down around the alicorn princess. "We've been writing each other ever since he left Ponyville! He's told me about all the parties he's planned since he got his cutie mark, all the ideas he has to improve them… Twilight, he as the best ideas EVER!" she squealed, smashed her forehead onto Twilight's to look her right in the eyes. "You know chocolate fountains? Well, he came up with CHOCOLATE WATERFALLS!" she screamed the last two words in an almost painful level as she held onto Twilight's neck. "How brilliant is that?!"
"Pretty great, I guess." the princess replied as she tried to smile, her ears now ringing due to her fellow mare's cries of excitement.
Just as she was about to ad some other interesting fact about the party planning pony, Pinkie noticed the mailpony slowly approaching in the distance, and pushed Twilight away to bolt towards the poor unsuspecting colt. Twilight landed on the hard ground with a thud, and as she dusted herself off she watched as Pinkie lunged onto the poor mail carrier as he let a surprised yelp and emptied out his bag in search for her letter, scattering everypony else's mail onto the ground in the process. As soon as she found the one she was looking for she grabbed it and dashed back up to Twilight, who was already back on her hooves, and proceeded to tear through the white envelope. As soon as she laid eyes on the text neatly written on the single sheet of paper, she gasped loudly, her eyes as wide as saucers, and let out an even louder shriek in sheer joy.
"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh OHMYGOSH!" she hopped up and down around Twilight again, gripping the letter firmly between her front hooves. The princess just stared at her inquisitively, completely oblivious to the cause of her friend's glee.
"What? What does it say?" Twilight asked her, starting to get dizzy from observing her.
"CHEESE SANDWICH IS COMING TO PONYVILLE!" she squealed once more, taking one final extra high hop before stopping. "I have to get everything ready! I have to decorate Sugarcube Corner! I have to invite everypony to come greet him! I have to – "
"Pinkie, calm down!" Twilight shouted, placing her front hooves on each of her shoulders to make her hyperactivity cease. She put on a motherly smile to calm her. "I have to say, I know you have tendency to get carried away by emotions, but I've never seen you this excited just because somepony's coming to town." Pinkie looked away, visibly embarrassed. Twilight's smile widened by a few inches. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"Weeeeeeeeeellllllll…" a slight blush crept across the mare's cheeks as she continued to avoid her friend's gaze. When she looked at her, Twilight was raising a brow and smiling deviously at her, obviously knowing she was hiding something. Knowing it was better for both of them, she decided to fess up. "The thing is… I think I really like him! And not 'like' as if he's just a friend, which he is, but…" she breathed in and put on the brightest smile she could manage. "…as in… like-like… you know, like… love."
"Pinkie, that's great!" Twilight took her hooves from her shoulders and beamed at her. "You two have so much in common!"
"I know! And it's not only that! It's like, whenever I see, think or talk about him I feel all fuzzy and warm inside…" she sighed as she rubbed her stomach to make her point clear. "It's like I want to be with him forever!"
"That's love, alright. Well, at least that's what Shining Armor tells me love is like." Twilight giggled, blushing slightly. "And let me tell you, you two are definitely made for each other."
"D'aw, thanks!" she shrugged humbly.
"So when does he say he's coming?"
"Toooooo… DAY!" Pinkie did a backflip in her happy state, yet Twilight was left in shock.
"Today?! Does he say what time?" she pointed at the letter, which Pinkie proceeded to reread closely.
"Hmmm… nope! No time here." she lifted her gaze from the piece of paper. "Maybe he wants to surprise me. Or maybe he's – "
Her eyes went wide and her pupils were compressed into half of their normal size as she looked behind her and realized her tail was twitching. Looking up over the purple mare in front of her she saw what caused her Pinkie Sense to tingle.
"Twilight… you might wanna move." she advised her, taking a step back herself. Twilight remained in her spot, inquisitively raising a brow at her.
"Wha – "
Before she could fully verbalize what she wanted to say, Twilight was crushed by a giant gift-wrapped box. It was covered by a baby blue wrapping paper with white Hawaiian flowers all over and a neatly tied red ribbon. As she admired the object in front of her, Pinkie couldn't help but smile in realization to whom it was from, when suddenly the box started to shake until the top popped open with the sound of a party horn being blown, a million ribbons and confetti flying around, and revealed a light brilliant gamboge earth pony with curly dark brown mane and tail wearing a yellow polo shirt, standing on his hind legs with his arms up in the air and a bright smile across his muzzle.
"Helloooooooooo!" he sang to nopony in particular. Down on the ground, Pinkie was smiling so widely it seemed like she was about to explode from so much delight.
"CHEESE SANDWICH!" Pinkie squealed so loudly, half of Equestria must have heard her. Meanwhile Twilight had been able to squeeze half of her body out from under the heavy object.
"Somehow I should have seen this coming…" she said blankly as she tried to pull the rest of herself from underneath the confined space. In the mean time, Pinkie had just made it to the top of the giant present and was hugging Cheese Sandwich.
"You really came!" she exclaimed in happiness.
"Of course I did! Why wouldn't I visit my favorite party-planning mare?" he gave her a light noogie, making her giggle and blush a tad. "Besides, my Cheesy Sense told me there was a party being planned here!" he elbowed her and wiggled his eyebrows.
"Well, I was going to throw you a surprise welcome party…" she admitted, trying to look as innocent and bashful as she could. "…but you got here even before I could make a guest list!" her ears drooped down and she pouted, looking down. "Now the surprise is ruined…"
"Oh, I'm sorry. But hey, look on the bright side!" he spoke softly, placing a hoof under her chin to lift her head to his eye level, making her blush a bit more. "Now that I'm here, we can both plan the biggest and greatest non-surprise "Welcome to Ponyville" party this town has ever seen!" he almost screamed out the last part, throwing some more confetti into the air. Pinkie's ears immediately perked up and her wide smile returned.
"YEAH!" she started hopping up and down in her excitement once more. "This is going to as epic as Rainbow Dash's Birthaversary!"
"Or better…" he whispered to her, an evil smirk on his face, but returning to his usual happy demeanor right away. "That's why I brought this!"
He kicked the back wall of the giant cardboard box with his hind hooves, making the remaining three drop with it. Just as Twilight had managed to pull herself out from underneath the box, she felt the weight of the cardboard surface hit her back and push her against the ground, making her groan in annoyance.
The content of the enormous gift almost made Pinkie's eyes shoot from her head and her jaw dropped like it had never before. She had no idea how she hadn't noticed it, but she and Cheese Sandwich were standing on top of a tall grey rock-like structure where a dark brown creamy liquid was flowing as it dropped vertically to the base of the structure, which seemed drag the liquid back in to redo the process infinitely.
"Aaaaahhhh?" he teased her as he wiggled his eyebrows. Pinkie just kept staring down until she finally realized what she was looking at was real, and her smile got as wide as ever.
"CHOCOLATE WATERFALL!" she cried at the top of her lungs as she lunged herself down to base at the end of the waterfall where the chocolate was more abundant, falling with a loud splash and making the thick liquid fly everywhere. Twilight had just gotten out from underneath the cardboard wall, when she was splashed by large amounts of chocolate.
"AW COME ON!" the violet alicorn princess cried out, now completely angry.
Cheese took a few steps forward, stopping by the edge of the waterfall, and peered down in search for Pinkie. She was nowhere to be seen amongst the thick brown substance, and he almost wondered if she had drowned, when she suddenly popped up completely covered in chocolate.
"Let's get this party STARTED!" she cheerfully shouted as she proceeded to lick her arm, making Cheese chuckle.
Pinkie and Cheese's non-surprise "Welcome to Ponyville" party was an event of astronomic proportions like very few in Ponyville had ever experienced. It almost surpassed the level of awesome epic-ness of Rainbow Dash's Birthaversary. Not only was Cheese's chocolate waterfall a complete success, but so was everything else he and Pinkie arranged for the celebration. From playing limbo whilst doing the Macarena, to somepony attempting to crack open a piñata while they were the ones hanging from a rope, every single last bit of it was a complete and utter success, from the beginning to the end. Ponies were dancing their flanks off, gorging down on various delicacies from several points in Equestria which Cheese had acquired in his trips, and playing all sorts of improved party games. The two party planners even had arranged for a stage to be set so they could do some karaoke, activity which many ponies complied to with great passion. Even Fluttershy, who had had one apple cider too many, and slurred most of the words. At one point Cheese managed to convince Pinkie to sing a duet with him, not that she didn't want to, but was more nervous to do so now than she was the last time, when her feelings towards the curly-mained colt weren't clear.
At the end almost everypony had collapsed somewhere on the dance floor, the rest managing to head home, some more tipsily than others. As most ponies tried to drag themselves home, some actually being dragged by others, Pinkie and Cheese were sitting at the top of the now turned off chocolate waterfall, both of them munching on their own piece of cake as they watched the sun set over the hills.
"I think we outdid ourselves this time, don't you?" Cheese asked, still hyper from all the excitement and high levels of sugar.
"Totally! I've never seen everypony literally dancing until they dropped!" she replied, taking another bite of the piece of cheesecake on her plate.
"Yeah, it was –" he ceased his speaking as he glanced over at the pink mare and noticed how the bright orange light reflected on her bright blue eyes made them shimmer. Seeing how he was staring at her, Pinkie chuckled nervously as her cheeks flushed.
"W-what?" she stuttered between her timid giggles, bringing him back to reality and making him notice what he was doing. He quickly turned away, blushing profusely.
"Oh, n-nothing!" he quickly stammered, taking a second to clear his throat and then face her once more. "P-Pinkie…"
"Yeah?"
"May I be frank with you?"
"Sure, but why would you want to change your name? I think your real one is great!"
"No, no, not like that!" he laughed at her word play, but quickly went back to being serious. "I mean 'frank' as in honest."
"Oh, OK." she focused her attention on him, probably more than she had ever done with anything.
"You see…" he took his hoof to his chin, carefully choosing his words. "As I mentioned before, you were the one pony who made me who I am today. If it wasn't for you, I never would have realized what my life purpose was. And for that I consider you my greatest inspiration. My muse, even."
Pinkie was unknowingly blushing as hard as ever, and the redness of her cheeks only increased as Cheese placed his hoof on hers, sending shivers throughout her body.
"I literally owe my life to you."
Pinkie was completely flabbergasted, clueless as to how to react to such praises. He kept looking into her eyes, his own shining like emeralds under the dim sunlight. Her heart pounding against her chest like never before, Pinkie did the first thing that came to her mind: she quickly pressed her lips against his, closing the gap between them.
Cheese was in astonished; never in his wildest dreams would he have seen that coming. Of course he had wanted that, but he had always pictured he would be the one to make the first move. He could barely believe that he was being kissed by the one mare he wanted. And it felt marvelous.
Slowly closing his eyes he wrapped his arms around his beloved and passionately kissed her back, gently rubbing her back in the process. Pinkie took one of her hooves to his mane, stroking and somewhat playing with the tangled curly mess. They basked in the softness of each other's lips and the warmth of being in the arms of one another, feeling like they could stay like that forever. Eventually they had to part for air, panting heavily as they gazed lovingly into each other's eyes.
"Wow…" Cheese commented, still a little groggy. "You really are an expert when it comes to surprises."
Pinkie giggled in agreement, looking back at him with half-lidded love-filled eyes. He gently placed his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder, the two fully content with being with each other as they continued to watch the sunset. For a moment nothing else mattered, and the world seemed to be at peace.
They were together.