From between the clouds Comet could start making out a silhouette. A Town not bigger than few thousand ponies.

When the royal chariot pulled by two pegasi landed Comet could finally take a better look. It was an old town with a square. Had a really nice rustic charm to it.

"Thanks guys." He told the two guards before getting down from the chariot with Spike and his baggages. They nodded in understanding and took off.

"You know, the best way to break the ice so to speak is to just try getting it over with." Dragon said to his adoptive brother.

They noticed an earth pony stallion with light gamboge coat and brown curly mane. He was wearing a yellow polo shirt and his cutie mark was that of cut cheese sandwich.

"Let's try with this guy." Spike proposed.

"Alright, let's get this over with."

The pony in question was getting closer and closer.

"Hi, I'm Comet Tail, I'm sorry to bother but I just wanted to ask-"

The puffy-maned stallion stopped in his track and looked at the comet with his green eyes. Suddenly his left hind leg started vibrating.

"Umm, everything okay there, buddy?"

Stallion's face turned to that of pity and compassion. Before Comet knew it the stranger was already hugging him.

"You poor, poor soul. What went wrong in your life?"

Comet did not know what to say.

"Excuse me?"

"Your party life. It's been pretty much nonexistent since you turned twelve right?"

Comet was released from the awkward hug.

"I-"

"Shh" The stallion put his hoof on the comet's mouth. "You poor, poor soul. Don't you worry, I, Cheese Sandwich vow to make you a part you won't forget for the rest of your life. See ya then!"

And with that he disappeared into the alleyways of the town.

"That was interesting." Said Spike.

"Creepy is the word I'd use."

They couldn't pay too much mind to the eccentric stallion. There were still things that needed supervision.

"So what's on the list sent by the princess?" Asked the unicorn.

Spike took out a small piece of paper.

"Banquet preparation. It's written here that we will have to head towards Sweet Apple Acres."

"Let's not waste any more time then." Said the pony and both of them headed towards their destination. After a few minutes of asking around and actually walking they reached a Enormous red farmhouse. Next to it was an apple Orchard that stretched out for miles.

"Yeehaw!"

The duo noticed an earth pony stallion with light golden coat and gamboge mane. Upon him rested a leather vest and a cowboy hat. He tucked his hind legs up and bucked the tree with enough force to make all of the apples fall down.

"This guy definitely means business." Comet muttered to himself. "Hello there, hi! My name's Comet Tail and-"

" Hey there now partner! Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, where we sure do love makin' new friends. Ah'm Braeburn here, an' how might Ah be able tah help yuh out?" Stallion spurted out while vigorously shaking the unicorn's hoof.

"I was sent here-" He broke out his hoof from the shake. "I was sent here by Princess Celestia herself to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun celebration. I take it you're in charge of the food."

"Ah am sughacube."

Comet turned around to see an earth pony mare. She had an orange coat and a blonde mane. Upon her head also rested a cowboy hat but with a slightly different shape.

He took a look at both of the ponies. There unmistakingly similar, down to their apple related cutie marks.

"I take you two are related?"

Pony known as Breuburn laughed.

"That right there's mah cousin Applejack, . And let me tell ya jack, Comet Tail here is no slouch either. He was sent here by Princess Celestia herself to supervise. Can you imagine?"

The mare smiled.

"I sure hope he would like to sample some." With that she pointed to table filled apple fritters, apple pies and all other types of apple related baked goods. A table that Comet would've sworn was not there before.

"Well there seems to be everything fine with the food, so maybe I'll make my way and-"

"Aww, you're not staying here for brunch?" Asked a yellow filly with crimson red mane.

"I-no. Who even are you?"

"That's mah sister Apple Bloom and these ponies over there are Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apples, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp…" She took a deep breath and the unicorn noticed there were far more ponies now than before.

"Big McIntosh and finally matriarch of the family, sweet Granny Smith."

"Hello there youngin!" Greeted him an elderly mare.

Comet didn't really know what to say, so he decided to do something that seemed the most reasonable.

"Would you look at the time?" He asked and quickly pointed to the non-existent watch on his wrist. "Gotta go, bye!" And with that both him and Spike run away in a hurry.

" Well, ain't he just a strange ol' colt?" Asked Braeburn.

"Eeyup." Replied a huge red stallion introduced as Big McIntosh.

"So I see you've chosen a coward's way." Spike laughed. "Pretty embarrassing."

"Knock it off dude." Growled Comet. "How was I supposed to tell them I don't like apples? They centered their whole life around them."

"Yeah. I can see your point. Anyway…" Spike rolled out the parchment. "Next one on the list is weather." They both looked up to see a cloudy sky.

"As opposed to food they seem to be lacking in this department." Noted Spike.

"No kidding." Grumbled Comet. "When I leave my baggage at the Golden Oak Library, I'll have a word with whoever is in charge.

"Excuse me…" They turned to see a dark gray pegasus stallion with a silver mohawk. His voice was weirdly calming which contrasted his aggressive appearance.

"I'm not usually the one to eavesdrop but I've heard you two were talking about the weather?"

Dragon and his brother looked at each other.

"Yeah, what of it?" Asked Spike.

"I'm the head of the weather patrol here in Ponyville."

Comet furrowed his brows. "Well you haven't been doing a very good job now, have you?"

Stallion chuckled slightly. "I know how it looks like but we actually have everything under control."

Unicorn didn't really know how to respond to that. "What?"

"Today is Soarin's shift. He's napping right now on that cloud over there."

Dark stallion pointed to one of the clouds and sure enough one could make out a silhouette of a pegasus laying there. Pegasus on the ground took air into his lungs.

"Soarin, get your flank down here quickly!" He roared.

The other stallion in question violently shook up from the sudden wake up and after taking in his surroundings flew down. He had a pale blue coat and dark blue mane which was unkemptly combed backwards.

"What is it man?"

Weird way to greet your boss, but Comet was already used to weird things in this town.

"I'm afraid you'll have to clean all that sky as soon as possible."

Soarin seemed less than pleased. "Can't I have like half an hour more of sleep?"

"No you can't." It was Comet's turn to enter the conversation. "The Summer Sun Celebration is right around the corner and the sky is in the state I would describe as less than flattering. Do what they pay you to do."

The pegasus looked at Comet with his dark green eyes, his brows also furrowed slightly.

"Bro, can you like, chill out for a moment. The celebration isn't even today. It's tomorrow at dawn, if my memory serves me well."

"I'm not your bro. I was sent here by the princess to check on the weather. All I've found so far is the head of the patrol who doesn't know how to manage one stallion under him. Said stallion being to lazy to properly work leaves sky in a state that doesn't adhere to royal guidelines."

The head of patrol looked at his subordinate seriously. "It's time."

Soarin nodded knowingly and stretched like a cat.

The next few seconds were hard for Comet to register. Previously lazy stallion flew into the sky and in the few blinks of an eye made it crystal clear.

The only place where he saw pegasi fly with comparable speed was the Wonderbolts shows.

The dark grey stallion was smiling as Comet stood there his mouth agape.

The blue pegasus flew down to the ground.

"As I was saying bro, I needed to save energy for my later training. Wonderbolts won't just take anypony in and I need to impress them tomorrow."

"I… I guess." Said dumbfounded unicorn.

"And this…" Said the second pegasus. "Is why Soarin is the only pony on his shift."

Stallion in question smiled slightly due to the praise. "Now gentlemen, if you excuse me…" He spread wings. "Daily exercise schedule is not going to complete itself."

And with that he was gone again.

"That's our Soar alright." Said the other pegasus with a sigh. "If only he wasn't that lazy, he already would've been a Wonderbolt. I'm sure of that"

"I must say I'm rarely impressed but that was one of these times." Said Comet.

"I'm more impressed by the size of your baggage."

Unicorn looked at his bags and realized it would take him a long time to bring them to the library.

"Where do you intend to drop them off?" Asked the gray stallion.

"Why do you care?" Comet replied suspiciously

"It's a huge load and you don't strike me as a stallion that lifts, no offense. So I thought perhaps I could help you out "

"None taken." Comet thought for a moment. "You know that if you try anything I know what you look like. Robbing a royal protege is quite a serious crime."

Stallion laughed. "Don't worry royal protege, I'm not quite out of my mind today, but I'm afraid I didn't catch your name."

He felt he could trust that stallion. "Comet Tail. And this little guy next to me is Spike."

"Hi." Said the drake while waving his claw.

The pegasus nodded. "My name's Thunderlane."

"So… Thunderlane before you leave with my belongings you should probably know

that they're expected at Golden Oak Library."

"I will take that into consideration." Replied the stallion teasingly and flew up with the heavy load as though it was nothing. After a few seconds he was nowhere to be seen.

"See, at least one good thing happened today." Said Spike.

"Yeah, let's hope it's not the only one."

He turned his gaze to the dragon "What else is there?"

Dragon checked the list again "We need to pay a visit to somepony known as Time Turner. He is in charge of the Town Hall's clock."

After a few questions both of them made their way towards said pony's workshop.

It was a rather spacious building with sizeable telescope sticking out of the roof.

They knocked on the door. No answer. This encouraged the duo to enter on their own. They had an important task after all.

The inside was mainly illuminated by different contraptions sitting inside. The owner however was nowhere in sight.

"Coming!" They heard a distinctively masculine voice. Shortly after a pony emerged from the shadows. It was an earth pony stallion with grayish amber coat and dark gamboge mane.

"What brings you two into my humble estate?"

"My name's Comet Tail. I'm Princess Celestia personal protege and I've been sent manage a few things. Including the performance of Town's Hall clock."

"Our first priority here is to keep the princess happy. Follow me please."

Time Turner led them to a more spacious room with a humongous grandfather clock that resembled almost a small tower.

"I fixed the chimes but the pendulum needs to adjusted."

"How long do reckon this will take you?"

Earth pony scratched his chin. "Hmm. I would say between two and three hours."

"Sounds good enough for me."

"Can I ask you about something Comet?"

"Uhm… Sure go ahead.'

"What is a personal protege of Princess doing in this middle of nowhere? If her majesty wanted to supervise she would've sent one of her trusted officials, not her favourite student."

Comet thought for a moment. "Do you promise to keep your mouth shut."

"I'm one of the ponies that would keep most of their knowledge to their graves. I'm rather greedy."

"Her majesty is… concerned with my social skills. She believes that I need to make friends."

Time Turner thought for a moment. "She raises a good point, you know. The wisest scholars usually have the best connections."

Unicorn chuckled. "Yeah It's just that… I have a hard time trusting ponies. I used to be a little gullible and…" Comet sighed. "I paid a price.

"I think I somehow understand."Replied the earth pony. "I used to be mercilessly bullied in school and closed myself to other ponies but then…" He paused for a moment and smiled slightly. "I met somepony. Somepony who finally understood me. After that I finally got it. I got why ponies need friends, I've started making new acquaintances. You shouldn't isolate yourself from others."

Comet contemplated his words.

"Actually I do have one friend, although I never referred to her as such. Form me she was always a study-buddy."

"She must be quite smart, if she impressed the protege of Celestia herself."

"The smartest mare I know, except for her Highness of course." He looked at the Time Turner. "Thank you."

"What for?"

"I've never really talked to anypony about these kind of things, beside Spike over here and my mom. But you strike me as a reliable stallion, so thank you for listening to me."

He smiled. "You're welcome."

Another thought entered Comet's mind.

"Say… Do you perhaps make wristwatches?"

"I do. I take it you would like one?"

"Yeah, that would be nice."

They both trotted towards other parts of the workshop.

When they finally arrived Time Turner pulled out a fancy looking wristwatch.

"The Chronometer, one of my favourite creations."

Comet took his coin sack. "How much for that?"

"It's on the house."

Unicorn looked at him with disbelief. "Come, on I'm serious now. How much?"

"Nothing. You remind me of myself when I first settled here. I want you to have a better start than me.

Comet didn't know how to respond to that expression of generosity.

"I'll remember that."

"Good to know." Responded the earth pony.

With that the princess protege and his assistant parted ways with the inventor.