Romancing the Cheese

When Cheese arrived in Ponyville later that evening, he was surprised to see that not only was there not a party being planned, but that most of the ponies were away from home celebrating Hearts and Hooves Day with their special somepony.

"I completely forgot today was a holiday," he muttered to himself as he moseyed around town. "You should have reminded me, Boneless Two."

Sometimes his Cheesy Sense would react to holiday functions, and Cheese usually stayed out of those as they were more often than not a private affair. He also didn't host weddings or royal events unless he was personally summoned.

As he walked, he noticed a few couples here and there, and it further reminded him that his travels kept him rather lonely. Sure, Boneless (and now, Boneless Two) were good company, but they weren't quite the same as having an actual pony to talk to. He wondered if Pinkie had a special somepony already, and if she were throwing a party for him. She would be the type of filly to do such a thing.

"I don't even know where she lives," he said to himself as he neared Sugarcube Corner. He felt his stomach growl, and he made a face, thinking he should've eaten before coming all this way. He at last noticed the bakery and decided to try seeing if they were open. He raised a hoof up and knocked on the door, hoping that he wasn't disturbing the owners…if they were even home.

Pinkie flipped off the bed when she heard the unexpected knocking, but she popped right up as if it hadn't hurt her in anyway. She tilted her head, making sure she hadn't simply been hearing things. When she heard another knock, she sighed and yelled,

"We're closed!"

Apparently they didn't hear her, because the knocking continued. Pinkie was sure that she had put the "closed" sign outside, but since she wasn't one-hundred-percent sure, she figured she better head down there and explain. Just because she was feeling under the weather was no excuse to be rude to Mr. and Mrs. Cake's potential customers.

Unfortunately, that meant going downstairs, and that meant having to see all her decorations again. Hopefully whoever was at the door wouldn't see any of that. She was so embarrassed of it now.

"I'm coming!" she announced as she unlocked the door and swung it open. She dropped her jaw when she saw none other than Cheese standing there, who looked just as shocked as she was. "Cheese?"

"Pinkie?" he asked, a small smile appearing once his initial surprise wore off. "I didn't know you lived here! A bakery, ha! Who would've guessed that?"

The pink pony kept staring at him with this petrified look on her face, and without a word, she slammed the door in his face. Cheese leaned back and blinked, looking back at Boneless Two in puzzlement.

"Was it something I said?"

"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh!" Pinkie kept chanting to herself as she came close to having a nervous breakdown. "What I'm going to do? He's right outside! Ugh, how did he even know to come? I guess that Cheesy Sense of his is stronger than I thought!"

She hopped to the window and peeked out the blinds to see if he was still there. He was.

"Ahhh, Gummy, what do I do!" She picked up her beloved pet and stared into his blank, purple eyes, not receiving an answer. "I can't let him in, he'll see all this…this…stuff!"

"Pinkie, is everything okay in there?" she heard Cheese ask her from behind the door.

While part of her was thrilled that he came out here, the other part of her was mortified. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry about the whole situation.

"Hang on, I'll be right there!" she screamed loudly as she panicked, chewing at her hoof as she tried to figure out what to do. Her eyes then popped open, and she sat up straight. "I know what to do!"

Cheese was growing rather concerned about Pinkie's welfare the longer he stayed out there, and that only increased when he heard a great deal of noise coming from inside the bakery. After a good half-minute of banging, Pinkie finally opened the door again, this time wearing a large grin.

"Sorry about that! Didn't want you to see the big mess that was left!" She tacked on a laugh at the end, a nervous one that she hoped didn't sound too fake.

"Gosh, Pinkie, I don't mind a little mess," Cheese smiled at her, though he appreciated the gesture, "but that was rather nice of you to go through all that trouble."

She smiled harder, her cheeks beginning to hurt. "No problem! Why don't you come on in?" She hopped backwards so he could come in, and she shut the door behind him. She cast her eyes around to make sure she had gotten rid of all the evidence that she'd been planning to throw him a party. "Soooo what brings you to Ponyville anyway?"

Cheese didn't want to admit that he'd dropped in mostly to see her, so he played it cool. "Oh, just passing through," he answered casually, taking a look around the bakery. "So you live here? Cute enough place." Cute like Pinkie, is what he wanted to say, but he knew better than to say things like that out loud.

She giggled a bit and refrained from tapping her hoof nervously on the floor. "Yeah, I live here with the Cake family. They're the owners, but they let me live upstairs."

"Oh, I see," he nodded, before looking up at the ceiling. A humorous smile graced his lips, and he said, "Is that a giant heart piñata?"

Pinkie's eyes bugged out and her face went bright red as she stared at the looming heart hanging over their heads. She would have slapped herself in the face if Cheese hadn't been standing right there in front of her. How could she forget something so obvious!

"Oh! That?" she asked as if it wasn't unusual for it to be there. "That was left over from…the party that I threw the Cakes! Yeah, I threw them a surprise romantic dinner, and they wanted to save the piñata for later!"

She squeaked a grin, hoping that story was realistic enough for him to buy. Cheese gave her an unsure look, but he grinned back anyway.

"Sounds like they're real lucky to have a friend like you around."

"Thanks!" she replied back, getting a little nervous again as she looked into his lime green eyes. "Hey, so if you didn't know I lived here, why did you come anyway?"

Cheese almost forgot why he had knocked on the door in the first place. "Oh!" He grew a bit shy and avoided her gaze for the moment. "I was kinda hungry and thought a bakery would be as good a place as any to grab a snack from. But from the looks of things, it's closed."

"No, no, it's no trouble at all!" Pinkie hopped a few times in place, getting some of her spunk back. "You stay right here, and I'll find something super-dee-duper for ya!"

He couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Well thank you. I like anything sweet, so I'm not really picky."

"Okie dokie lokie!" she chirped at him, turning tail to dash into the kitchen to dig him something up.

Cheese chuckled again, shaking his head at how adorable she was. He decided to back up and observe the enormous piñata hanging above him, as that wasn't something he usually came across in most ponies' houses. In doing so, he didn't watch where he was going, and he accidentally stepped right into Gummy's basket.

The normally listless alligator did not appreciate this clumsy colt being in his personal space, not to mention it panicked him, so he leaped up and latched his toothless gums around one of Cheese's back ankles. When Cheese felt something hard and slightly wet hit his leg, he bugged his eyes out and slowly turned his head down and behind him. When he saw the small alligator chewing on his leg, he naturally flew into his own panic.

An embarrassing yell erupted from him, and the stallion instinctively bucked his back legs out behind him, effectively throwing Gummy off of him and flying him through the air. Gummy soared until he landed on a closet door, his feet latching around the knob. That was all it took to allow the overgrown closet to spill open, its contents pouring out like a massive tidal wave…which was heading straight for Cheese.

All he could do was stare in horror as the giant pile of heart-shaped items crashed on top of him, fully buried underneath. "Help?" he called out, hoping Pinkie could hear him under all the rubble.

Pinkie had heard the crash while in the kitchen, and she gasped very loudly. "Oh no!" she shrieked, galloping into the main part of the bakery. She gawked at the mess, mortified to see that the secret stash of hearts had been uncovered from their hiding place. "Cheese? Cheese are you here?"

A golden-tan hoof poked its way out from the bottom of the pile, and Pinkie immediately started throwing things off of him to help him up. "Ohmygosh, are you okay?" she asked him once he was out of the mess.

"I think so." He had to straighten his sombrero up, which somehow had managed to stay on his head through the commotion. "What in Equestria is all this?"

He made a sweeping gesture over the pile with his hoof, and Pinkie made a face. "Uh…that was…stuff from the party earlier!" She forced a grin at him. "I had to clean it up real quick and the closet was the only place I could think of on short notice!"

The two of them stared at each other, with Pinkie's trying to convince him to believe her story, while Cheese gave her puzzled look as if trying to make sense of it. He glanced his eyes back and forth between the mess and Pinkie a few times, and then he closed his eyes and sighed sadly. He hung his head down, his eyes overshadowed by the rim of his hat.

"It's okay, Pinkie, you don't have to lie anymore."

Her face fell, her head tilting to the side in confusion. "Huh?"

Cheese found Boneless Two amidst the rubble and threw him backwards onto the little saddle he had on his back. "You don't have to lie to me anymore," he repeated himself quietly, still not looking at her. "I should've known that you of all ponies would have something special planned today, and I showed up without warning and interrupted whatever it was you had planned."

He began to tear up, but he forced them back and headed for the front door. "I'll leave you to have your Hearts and Hooves Day celebration with your special somepony. I shouldn't have come and made you think you had to lie about having somepony here with you out of some friendly obligation."

Pinkie simply stood there in shock, not knowing what he was talking about. She put two and two together and realized the misunderstanding, then trotted up speedily in front of him. "Cheese, wait, you got it all wrong!" she told him, putting a hoof to his chest to make him stop walking. "I…I…"

She sighed, trying to gather all her courage. "Truth is, I did have a party planned in hopes that the recipient would be my special somepony as a result."

"Whoever it is, is really lucky," Cheese replied softly, taking another step forward.

Pinkie pressed a hoof against his chest again, insistent on finishing her story. "But the party was for you!" She gasped at having blurted it out loud, and threw both of her front hooves against her mouth.

Cheese stared at her with wide eyes, a blush creeping on his cheeks. "For…for me? You were throwing a Hearts and Hooves Day party for me?"

Pinkie started panicking, spitting out her entire story in nearly one breath while she rapidly tapped her hooves nervously against the floor. "I know it was stupid, please don't think I'm crazy, I just thought you'd like a party since you throw parties like I do, and then Rarity showed up and said you would think that I was trying too hard and would think I was some silly filly, and then I thought maybe she was right, and then you came unexpectedly, so I had to get rid of all the evidence and-"

She felt a hoof cover her mouth, this time belonging to Cheese. He didn't have to say anything for her to know that he wanted her to be quiet, but she was so anxious that she wasn't sure if she could be quiet. Her stomach felt sick when he kept looking back at the mess of heart-related décor that had been puked on the floor from her backstabbing closet.

"You actually threw a party for me?" he asked her kindly, giving her a sweet smile. "I've never had anypony go through all that trouble for me before…usually it's the other way around."

Pinkie wasn't sure what to say about that. She swung her hoof back and forth, scuffing the floor gently with it. "So…does that mean you like it?" she asked him uncertainly, her stomach tightening as she waited for his answer.

Her aforementioned stomach dropped when Cheese donned a very serious expression, dropping his head down. "No, I don't."

Pinkie wondered if this was how Fluttershy felt all the time: ready to die of embarrassment. The curls in her mane and tail started deflate, feeling like an absolute fool.

"I don't like it," Cheese repeated quietly, and then he picked his head up. "I love it!"

He bounced up and threw his sombrero and poncho off to the side, revealing his yellow polo shirt he always wore underneath and his fluffy brown mane that was atop of his head. Pinkie blinked her bright blue eyes at him, taken aback at his sudden change in persona. Cheese started bouncing around quiet excitedly around the mess of hearts that Pinkie had tried so hard to hide.

"This is the greatest, Pinkie, I can't believe you thought I'd hate it!" he laughed as he picked up some of the streamers and wrapped them around his neck like a scarf. "You've seen my parties! You know I love crazy stuff!"

Pinkie shook her head and got back into the spirit of things, giggling at how silly she'd been being. "Sorry, I got all caught up in my friend was telling me about how these sorts of things are supposed to be."

"Well, maybe she doesn't like giant heart piñatas, but I certainly do!" He wrapped some of the streamers around her too, making her giggle more. "And while we're being honest, the real reason I came to Ponyville was to visit you."

She grinned widely at him, her heart beating erratically. "Really?"

"Really!" he nodded at her with a smile to match hers.

She squeaked a laugh and was so excited about her plans working out in her favor, that she didn't realize that she had started hopping in place. So enthusiastic she was, she bounced herself high enough to accidentally bop her nose against his. Pinkie let out a little gasp when she realized what she did, and the both of them were blushing pretty heavily.

"Oops, sorry!" she grinned sheepishly at him, but she hushed up when he leaned down to gently bump his nose against hers in return. It wasn't a kiss, but it might as well have been one.

"Don't be sorry," Cheese said once he pulled away, and then did a half-skip to the side. "Come on, let's see what's inside that piñata!"

Pinkie squealed happily, absolutely elated that he liked everything. "You bet!"

Rarity had been going past Sugarcube Corner on her way home from her date that had ended early because he'd been an uncouth, good-for-nothing fool of a colt that had left her high and dry at the restaurant he was supposed to be meeting her at. In going past the bakery, Rarity had heard the sounds of laughing and an overall good time taking place, so she took the opportunity to sneak a peek inside, smiling at her friend having fun, and then went on her way home feeling rather warm inside.

Once home, she lay on her bed as her cat Opal lazed nearby. The purple-maned pony used her unicorn magic to make her pen write in the pages of the diary that the six friends shared with each other.

Dear Diary,

Today I learned that romance isn't defined by the fancy trimmings, candlelit dinners, or dancing. Those are nice things to want, but they are not necessary to have. If you love somepony, you should love them for who they are. Everypony has their own way of expressing their feelings…what works for one pony, might not work for another. Love can come in all forms, and as long as the two ponies are in love with each other, that is all that matters. I hope that someday I find that special somepony that understands these things.

With love,

~ Rarity ~

The End