The Fire of Life

Chapter 8

After filling up on food from the Apple’s farm, and even lending a hoof to help replace the food he ate, Wildfire set out to his next location. Sugar Cube Corner, which was nearest downtown. The Cakes, owners of Sugar Cube Corner, were in charge of most of the sweets for this year’s celebration, even though the Apple family had already taken up a majority of the food duty.

Wildfire landed in front of the giant-gingerbread-like building, observing it briefly and admiring its attention to detail. He could also smell the confections and other treats baking inside. It was an incredibly sweet smell, which made Wildfire a little sick after eating so much back out at the farm. After dealing with the leftover food in his teeth real quick, he marched into the building, opening the door to the chime of a small bell as he entered.

The inside was just as “sweet” as the outside. Candy canes, gumdrops, and lollipops decorated the room in some sort of candy land fashion. It wasn’t an overwhelming touch, but it was enough to trick Wildfire into trying to remember any other buildings he ever seen to beat this one.

“Hello?” spoke a voice from the back.

An older blue colored mare with swirly dark and light pink hair walked through the saloon style swinging doors in the back of the room.

“Hello, dear! What can I do for you?” asked the mare, greeting Wildfire with a bright smile.

“Um, Mrs. Cake?” asked Wildfire.

“Um-Hmm.” nodded the mare.

“Well, I’m here to check up on things for the Celebration, and-“

“Oh! You must be Twilight’s new assistant!” was Mrs. Cakes understanding of his situation.

“Um, I guess you could say that…” said Wildfire, wanting to avoid correcting and explaining the situation to her.

“Why don’t you come into the back dear?” said Mrs. Cake, directing Wildfire into the back room.

“Ok…”

Wildfire pushed the swinging doors out of the way, coming into a room lined with tons of candies from wall to wall. Wildfire couldn’t believe how sweet the smell was, but then again, he’d never been into the kitchen of such an astounding bakery.

Pinkie was over by the counter, filling a large cupcake tray with cake batter, bowl in her mouth as she poured.

“Hi Wildfire!” she greeted with a muffled voice, keeping her jaw still enough to pour the cakes evenly.

“Hey.” greeted Wildfire.

“Go ahead and head on back dearie, I’m just going to put my apron back on.” she said, tying up a yellow apron with pink lace.

Wildfire continued into the kitchen, where he was met with a more slender stallion with yellow coat and orange mane mixing a bowl of batter on the kitchens center island. He was wearing red and white stripped bow tie and a white apron over his front.

“Oh! Hello!” greeted the yellow stallion, surprised by Wildfire’s arrival.

“Did Cup Cake let you in?” he asked.

“Yes, she did.” said Wildfire.

Pinkie bounced into the room behind him, tray in mouth, and over to one of the three ovens, setting the tray down and turning the knob to preheat. One of the ovens went off, making a soft ding. Mr. Cakes head popped up from the bowl of mix he was working on and trotted over to the oven, grabbing a heat pad off of the counter and opening the door.

“How are things going over here for the celebration?” asked Wildfire, stepping into the room and over to the island.

“Oh, smooth as silk dear. We have everything handled.” assured Mrs. Cake, walking over to the far counter and picking up a tube of icing.

“If you’d like to help out,” said Mr. Cake, “you can be the first to try my new recipe.

“Is it finished, Carrot Cake?” asked Mrs. Cake, putting her icing back down and walking over to the island and laying out another heat pad on the table.

“It sure is, darling!” said Mr. Cake, gently placing an upper tier of yellow cake on the table.

“Wildfire, would you like to try out our new lemon cake?” he asked, taking a small fork from a drawer on his side of the island.

“Lemon cake?” asked Wildfire, his interest piqued immediately.

“We really like to mix things up here! No pun intended!” giggled Pinkie Pie, popping the cupcakes into the preheated oven.

“At least one new recipe every year! How about it?” asked Mr. Cake, shallowly dipping the small fork into the center of the fresh cake and removing a small chunk of it.

“Well, I’m a sucker for deserts…” said Wildfire.

Wildfire grabbed the fork from Mr. Cake, immediately biting off the chunk of sweet bread from the end and chewing slowly. He moved it around in his mouth some, wanting to taste it properly. Mr. and Mrs. Cake watched intently as they awaited a response from Wildfire, a hopefully good response.

“Well?” asked Mr. Cake, half smiling as he watched Wildfire chew.

“Pretty interesting. I like it.” he said, chewing and swallowing the cake.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake smiled broadly, happy with their work thus far.

“Would you like some cupcakes dear?” asked Mrs. Cake, taking out another batch of fresh cupcakes.

“No thanks. I had a lot to eat out at the farm.” said Wildfire, the taste of the lemon cake sending shivers through his body as it told him not to eat another thing.

“Ok Mr. and Mrs. Cake! I’m heading out to help with decorations!” said Pinkie, starting out the kitchens back door.

“Alrighty! What time are you going to be back Pinkie Pie?” asked Mrs. Cake.

“I won’t be too long! Wanna come along Wildfire? I’ll need help deciding on the games and decorations and party favors and stuff.”

“Sure, I can tag along.” said Wildfire.

“Great! Let’s go!” said Pinkie, going out the back door and leading Wildfire along.

“See you in a few Mr. and Mrs. C!” said Pinkie, heading to Town Hall as she drug a wagon full of decoration materials.

“So, how’s it going Wildfire? Enjoying Ponyville?” asked Pinkie.

“Yeah, I think so.” said Wildfire.

Pinkie gasped some. “You think so? Ponyville is the most awesome place on earth! What do you mean you think so?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just not settled in enough yet?”

“You will soon enough!” said Pinkie, hopping up and down.

“Yeah… maybe…” said Wildfire, eyes down to the dirt beneath him.

“Pff, you think so…” sighed Pinkie, shaking her head in a sarcastically disappointed manner. “I know! We could hang out sometime, and I could show you around and we could see all the sights and stuff. Sound like fun?”

“Yeah, sure.” smiled Wildfire.

“Oh, and I almost forgot!” said Pinkie. “What’s up with you and Dash? Is she angry at you or something?”

“Well, I think she is.” said Wildfire, his mind beginning to wonder some as he thought about Dash.

“Did you do something?”

“Well…” Wildfire trailed off immediately, rolling his eyes as away from Pinkie’s as he bit his lower lip.

“Aw, come on! You can tell auntie Pinkie Pie anything!” she said, patting Wildfire on the shoulder.

Wildfire sighed, looking Pinkie stern in the eye. Her smile wasn’t leaving, which gave Wildfire a better sense of trust.

“Alright.” said Wildfire with a sigh.

“It started a couple days ago, when I was flying above Ponyville.”