Luna and the Greatest Cake
“Mmm, cheesecake. Frosted vanilla. Strawberry. Smoke.” Celestia muttered still apparently dreaming.
“Smoke? Really? Why does this seem familiar?”
The teenage Celestia awoke to the mixed smell of sweet desserts and smoke and charged into the royal kitchen.
“Luna what’s going on?” Celestia demanded.
“Your birthday has come early and I’ve made you three cakes. You could say the delicious has been tripled!” Luna cheerfully responded.
Celestia observed the three black masses on the kitchen counter.
“Early birthday? Oh, thank you sister. Love you. What flavors?” Celestia inquired.
“Cheesecake, frosted vanilla, and strawberry. Deeelicious.” Luna answered.
Young Luna loved cakes almost as much as she loved her sister Celestia. The mere thought of a slice of that superb angel cake, lemon cream, chocolate, or pineapple spice took her to pony heaven. Indeed, she looked forward to getting that next slice in her hooves (then mouth) as much as a typical filly looks forward to Hearth’s Warming. As one may guess Luna eagerly anticipated birthdays with the thought of her favorite dessert.
Luna took up the art of cake making with enthusiasm that made her sister smile. When she first started it wasn’t uncommon for more of the ingredients to end up on the floor than in the actual cake. She had a fun and mischievous time making a mess and that unto itself was almost as important as the final product for filly Luna. With that in mind, merely burning the cakes could be considered a step forward for the energetic baker.
Celestia humored her little sister and took a sample taste of each of the three burned masterpieces. She kept a smile and withheld tears of both love and taste cringing while she sampled the cakes.
“Sister, this is a fine early birthday surprise. Much appreciated.”
~~~~~
Then eventually came Luna’s own birthday and unsurprisingly Celestia treated her to the same surprise.
The slightly groggy Luna made her way to the royal kitchen and smelled something divine. She saw the splendor and wonder as she entered. A magnificent dessert stood before her at least six inches tall. It was a medley of icing, fruit and decoration. She immediately swooned over the sliced limes, bananas, cherries, and other delectable goodies.
“Sister, where did this this nice, sweet looking, amazing, did I mention sweet looking, amazing....?” Luna rambled happily.
“Oh Luna. Happy birthday. I made it for the occasion.” Celestia said with a grin.
Luna wasted little time diving into the frosted patch of heaven. She ate with vigor and smiled with icing on her face.
“You made this great cake yourself?” Luna asked.
“Yes sister. I’m glad to see you like it.” Celestia replied.
“Thank you, thank you sister. This makes me really love cakes more. And making cakes.” Luna chirped.
Then Luna’s young mind went into insane genius overdrive. She had to be the best cake baker and make a cake a step above this one. No, make that a mile above this one. She’d make the best cake in Equestria for the family. It would be a super cake to put it lightly. In fact a cake that could be seen from the moon.
“Sister, you’d have to look down from the moon to truly like what I have in store.” Luna thought with glee.
The sisters finished the cake with the family and had had a fun day overall. Even at the end of the day Luna was still joyous.
The next morning Luna sprung out of bed a couple of hours early and began work on the greatest cake. She began to examine her checklist.
“Sprinkles. Check. Fruits. Check. Flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs. Check. Rocket ship to the moon to see it? No check. We’ll just have to use a catapult.”
Then the baking extravaganza that seemed more like a mad science experiment commenced. Young Luna whistled quietly as she worked. She was mostly making up the recipe as she went along, but did refer to a few pointers from a cookbook.
“Hmm, one capful of vegetable oil.” Luna said aloud as she used her horn magic to levitate a baseball cap and fill it with oil and subsequently pour in a mixing bowl.
“Next, a pinch of cinnamon. Huh, does pinching it make it taste better?” she asked herself and then threw an absurd amount of the spice into the mix.
“Now for a few twists of lemon.” And she attempted to literally do so with a whole fruit using magic. The lemon then splashed down into the bowl.
After several comically unnecessary additions and adjustments Luna put the creatively done mixture in the oven.
“This’ll be great!” Luna declared.
The cookbook she was poorly following said that the baking time was 19 minutes, but since she looked at that page upside down she thought to leave it in the oven for 61 minutes.
“This is a while to wait. I’ll keep myself occupied with a magic bounce ball.” She thought.
At just past the halfway point to the wrong deadline, the cake was clearly about to explode. Luna looked at it and wondered if it was baking normally. When it finally dawned on her that this was not part of the baking process she dashed out of the kitchen. Just the moment she made it to the hallway the cake went kaboom.
Luna became understandably worried about the consequences of what had just happened.
Celestia naturally heard the commotion and came to see. She knew pretty much right away that Luna was at it again.
“Sorry Celestia. I wanted to make the best cake. The one you made for me yesterday was so good I just had to go further.” Luna explained.
Instead of being upset Celestia laughed.
“I’m glad you want to excel at something. Sometimes we all get over our heads wanting to do the best. The effort you made is enough for me to tell you it IS the best.” She said.
“I’ll help you clean up this mess. Just promise no insane cake baking experiments sister.” Celestia finished with a light grin.
“It’s a deal. Thanks sister!” Luna answered happily.
Author's Note
This was a WTG submission I originally posted on Deviant Art. I took it down from there and brought it here. I was mainly just experimenting to gauge the differences in feedback.
