It was a normal day in Ponyville. The pegasi managed to do a good job at their jobs today, and it was clear skies for miles around. At Sugar Cube Corner, a brown pegasus stallion with an orange mane and blue eyes charged in, with a deep violet unicorn stallion with red eyes hot on his heels. The two stallions both waited for a few seconds to catch their breath before ringing the bell on the counter.
“Yeesh... What’s it take for someone to get some help here? There’s no one in here!” The violet unicorn said. “Hey! Anyone home?”
A few more minutes -and several rings of the bell- later, a familiar yellow and orange maned stallion trotted out from the backroom. “Yes?”
“Finally!” The violet one said. “We’d like to commission a cake for a good friend of ours. See, he’s going to be moving to Ponyville within the week.”
The yellow stallion gave the two a questioning look, but whipped out a notepad from his apron. “Any specific ideas?”
Now, it was the brown pegasus’s turn to talk. “Yea. We would like the Triple Chocolate Mountain Explosion please.”
The yellow stallion wrote down the order, then returned the notepad to his pocket. “Sure thing! Your friend must REALLY like chocolate, huh?”
“Sir, you have no clue how much he does. If he could, he’d eat it daily!” The violet one shook his head in amusement. “Anyway, we’d like to have that made for him. Think you can do it with the week?” Mr. Cake smiled.
“Of course! But, I don’t think I can do it myself, and if it’s a new pony coming to town...” Mr. Cake trailed off, as all three could understand what he was trying to imply. He turned toward the back room door, “Pinkie! Can you come here for a second?”
With the boundless enthusiasm known to only one pony in the whole region, a hot pink mare with pink curly hair bounce -she never walked- out to the counter. “Heya Mr. Cake! You called! Actually, my Pinkie Sense just went off with a left knee shake, hair twitch, eye itch, right ear flop, and tail wag! And you know what that means, oh heya Skeets and OH! Bramble! I haven’t seen you two in days! How are y-” A hoof in the mouth was the only thing to get her to stop rambling.
“Ahem, yes, Pinkie, I did call you. These two gentlestallions have an order for a cake and I need somepony to take care of it. It’s the Triple Chocolate Mountain Explosion.”
Pinkie’s eyes lit up when she heard the term “Triple Chocolate Mountain Explosion”, and she started bouncing around Mr Cake. “Ooh! Of course! Although I’ll need some help from my friend, but she’s always helpful!”
Mr Cake nodded, giving the notepad to Pinkie. “Alright, go get Swirl. We should get this cake ready as soon as possible.” Pinkie simply nodded, before bouncing out of the restaurant. Bramble just looked at Pinkie bounce out, then shook his head. “Sometimes, I wonder how much crack she uses every day.”
Skeeter tried his hardest to not laugh at that, in an attempt to do so, he asked Mr. Cake just who, exactly, the Swirl pony was. Mr. Cake smiled at him. “Swirl? Ah, you don’t know her? Chocolate Swirl? The pegasus who’s queen of all things chocolate?” Both Skeeter and Bramble shook their heads. “Heh, I’m not really surprised. She lives around here but, with her talents, she often goes to other places to show off her skills. Why, I believe she just got back from Baltimare. Anyway, if you want the TCME, and want it done right, she’s the mare to call on.”
Mr Cake nodded to himself. “Yeah, you put her and Pinkie in the kitchen together, that cake will be the best one you could get.”
Skeeter shot a sidelong look at Bramble, shrugged, and nodded. It might be a bit more, but, hey, the guy was a good enough friend to deserve it. After filling in the info and paying half in advanced, Skeeter and Sky Hawk trotted out of SugarCube Corner.
Chocolate Swirl yawned, slowly getting out of her bed. It had been a long flight from Baltimare for the dark brown mare, and she had went to bed really late. Looking at the clock, Swirl noted that it was noon. Sighing to herself, she got out of her bed, and shambled over to the bathroom. Her light brown mane was a mess, and her eyes were puffy.
Splashing some water on her face, Swirl lost sight of the mirror for a few moments, but when her gaze returned, a certain pink earth pony was standing right behind her.
“Hiya Swirl! I need your help!” Shouted Pinkie. Growling to herself, Swirl quickly fixed her mane, and turned to face Pinkie. “I just woke up Pinkie, what is it?”
“Oh well, I just wanted to welcome you back from your trip and see how you were doing and make sure you were ok because I really like you as a friend-” Yet another hoof to the mouth from Swirl, followed by a low, tired growl.
“Pinkie...”
“OH! RIGHT! I need your help!” Pinkie chirped. “See, a few stallions want a cake for a friend-” Another hoof.
Swirl closed her eyes and shook her head in an attempt to clear her head. Smacking her lips, she look back at the mare in question. “Lemme guess, the ever popular, ever potent TCME cake? The one you always need some help with to make perfect?”
“Ohmigosh yes! How did you know?” Swirl rolled her eyes at that.
“Pinkie... I’m a master chocolatier. That cake is nothing but chocolate. Not that hard to figure out.” Her face softened up. “Oh, what the hay. I haven’t done one of those in quite a bit, and I do kinda like baking with you. Usual fee, I assume?”
Pinkie brightened considerably at that statement, which was saying something from the fact that she was already in an extremely good mood. In the blink of an eye, and in complete disregard for logic, Pinkie vanished into a closet, leaving a bewildered Swirl behind. “I swear... The things she can do...”
It took awhile for Swirl to arrive at Ponyville’s premier sweet shop, mostly due to the fact that her toaster had burnt her toast really badly. Pushing the door open, Swirl noticed that the parlor was completely empty. Must be a really slow day.
Making her way to the back, Swirl had her eyes and ears peeled for Pinkie, mostly nervous about the pink party pony jumping her like she always did. Entering the kitchen, Swirl noticed that the kitchen was deserted. She sighed deeply, and walked over to one of the many ovens in the kitchen. I wonder where Pinkie is?
As if summoned, the pink mare in question bounced into the kitchen, and over to the brown pegasus. “Hiya Swirl!”
Swirl couldn’t prevent her slight recoil and grimace, but recovered quickly. “Ah, there you are... Well, shall we begin?” The usual gasp of surprise and sudden vanishing was her only reply. “Right. I guess you are ready to do this...”
Looking around the kitchen, Swirl was not the least bit surprised to see that a number of tools were prepared. On one counter, the one near the sink, she saw the usual collection of bowls and pans and utensils one would use for a cake. Glancing slightly to the side, Swirl smiled. There they were: the ingredients that would make the ever legendary TCME.
60% Cacao... Bittersweet Chocolate... Special dark... White Chocolate... Flour, oil, salt, vanilla, all you need for a cake was out. Well, just about. “Pinkie,” Swirl began, “where’s the sugar at?
Pinkie snapped around looked wide-eyed at Swirl. “Ohmigosh! I forgot!”
Swirl rolled her eyes. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised. “It’s ok, Pinkie, where is it? I’ll go and get it.” Pinkie Pie pointed to a set of shelves on the other side of kitchen.
“Can you get it? This oven is being a meanypants and won’t start! Silly knob won’t be nice and turn!” To accentuate her frustration -if you could call it that- Pinkie gave a few tugs at the knob in question.
Swirl merely rolled her eye, and took flight toward the bags of sugar. Grasping it in her forelegs, Swirl grunted and lifted it up, and began her descent. Which is around the time that Pinkie made a slight error.
Putting more force than she really needed on the knob, it snapped off, hitting the floor and bouncing with the force of a bullet- right into the small of Swirls neck. Swirl cried out in pain, halted flapping her wings, and began to fall, landing with a resounding crash on the floor with the sugar bag split open and on top of her.
Now, it should be noted that Chocolate Swirl both loved and hated her job. Loved, because she got to travel to many exotic places and even cook for royalty, not to mention, work with her favorite food: chocolate. But she hated it at the same time for the fact that she could never actually eat what she made. She was sensitive, you see, to sugar. A mere half cup was enough to send her into a sugar rush induced frenzy that rivaled Pinkie Pie her self.
With the bag on top of her and split... It was safe to assume she managed to consume more than a half cup of pure, potent sugar. The world, in Swirl’s eyes, slowed to a crawl. Everything in the world aligned perfectly. She achieved nirvana, and what better way to celebrate by making a cake in the most fun ways possible?
Pinkie’s eyes widened, and she rushed over to the fallen pegasus. “Swirl! Are you ok?”
To any pony outside the room, the loudest racket ever heard rang out. Swirl was literally flying off the walls, sending pots and pans cascading out of each cupboard she hit. A frown came on Pinkie’s face as she watched Swirl bounce around. “Swirl, what is with you? Slow down!”
However, the brown pegasus had no intent on stopping, and she flew over to the counter with the ingredients. In an unbelievable flash of movement, she quickly put the ingredients together in a bowl. Seeing an opportunity to stop the hyper-accelerated mare, Pinkie jumped onto Swirl, pinning her to the floor.
“Swirl, what has gotten into you?” Pinkie shouted, as Swirl fidgeted under her grasp. “Nothingit’sfinejusthavetonsofenergyrightnow!” Swirl replied, not pausing to breathe at all. Pinkie just stared at Swirl in awe, and in doing so loosened her grip on Swirl. Without warning, Swirl shot out from underneath Pinkie, and started flying across the room again.
Pinkie fell flat on her belly, getting up with a look of pure disbelief on her face. As she watched the brown pegasus bounce to and fro, Pinkie soon came to the rather morbid conclusion: “What am I going to do now?”
