The Element of Chaos

“Boy Dizzy! You sure do spend a lot of time in the library!” Pinkie said suddenly, waking Discord up with a start. She had gone looking for him after class, and had found him fast asleep next to a computer. Little paper pterodactyls were trying to eat his clothes, so she thought it was best to wake him before they did too much damage. “Are you sure it’s okay for you to be making those?” she pointed to a particularly voracious pterodactyl that snapped its teeth at her. “I thought your magic was supposed to be a secret.”

Discord yawned and snapped the dinosaurs away. “Nobody saw them. We’re fine. The librarian’s been hiding in her office all day.” Still shaken from that spider bookworm from earlier that morning no doubt. Discord smirked at the memory.

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie grinned. “Ready to go make some cupcakes?”

Discord stood up and stretched. “I suppose.” He glanced at the computer and then shrugged. The picture would alert him if Sunset Shimmer opened the e-mail and signal her location no matter where he was. He could make cupcakes with Pinkie. Still, he was surprised she hadn’t checked her e-mail yet. Weren’t teenagers addicted to their electronics nowadays? You’d think she’d have opened it by now.

“Oh goody!” Pinky said, grabbing his arm. “Let’s go then! We’ve got lots of baking to do!”

She brought him to a very pink gingerbread shaped building. A sign hung out in front with a picture of a cupcake and the words Sugarcube Corner written underneath. “So why did you promise to invent a new cupcake flavor for…er, the Cakes was it? Are they your friends too?” Discord asked, not without a hint of bitterness in his voice. He still wasn’t really comfortable with being only one of Pinkie’s many, many friends.

“Of course they are!” Pinkie answered, completely oblivious to the tone in Discord’s voice. “But they’re also my bosses. I work here most days after school. I live here too.” Pinkie led him inside. Already customers were lined up, making out their orders to a very tired looking Mrs. Cake.

“You live in a bakery?” Discord asked looking around. The shop was cozy and cute, yes, (a little too cute for his taste) but he couldn’t really picture Pinkie living here. Oh wait. He thought of Pinkie’s reaction to food, especially sweets, and how she always somehow had a surplus of cupcakes hidden upon her person at all times. Yeah. Pinkie would sleep in a bakery. Actually, he quite liked the idea. He imagined she slept on a cake bed in the kitchen and used fondant as a blanket. He grinned at the thought.

“Not in the bakery silly!” Pinkie giggled, destroying Discord’s little fantasy. “There’s an apartment upstairs where me and the Cakes live. My family lives on a farm way out in the country. My parents homeschooled me for a while, but I didn’t like it. It was so hard to make friends living so far away from everyone! I begged them to let me go to public school, but we lived so far out that it just wasn’t realistic. The Cakes are an old family friend, however, and when they heard about my problem they decided to step in and help. I’ve been living here ever since! The Cakes have been so good to me, helping them out with the bakery and the twins is the least I can do! Speaking of twins…” Pinkie walked over to a playpen which had two burbling infants inside. She reached down and hugged the pair. “How are my favorite little flufflykins?! Have you been good today? Pinkie missed you!” She gave them a good squeeze while they giggled and grabbed a bunch of Pinkie’s hair, trying to eat it. She laughed and set them both back down in the pen, disentangling their hands and mouths from her hair as she did so. “How many times do I have to tell you two that my hair is not food?” She smiled at them.

“Could have fooled me!” Discord said, coming up behind her, plucking off a bit of her hair like it was candy, and popping the pink bit of fluff into his mouth. “MMM,” he said. “Tastes like cotton candy.” Pinkie quickly pulled out a small bit of her hair and ate it too.

“Hmmm,” she tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. “Tastes more like cupcakes to me.” Her expression suddenly brightened. “Do you think we could make cotton candy cupcakes? That would be delicious! Although I would prefer not to use my hair as the main source of cotton candy flavoring. People might be a bit put off by it, and besides I would rather keep my hair where it is.” She giggled. “I’m a bit attached to it.” Discord grinned at the pun. “I bet you are!” he said. He put his thinking cap on, which was actually a baseball cap with a brain pictured on the front. “I could easily make a cotton candy cupcake with my magic, but I’m not sure if we can manage it without it.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Can’t hurt to try,” she said. “But before we do that, we need to help the Cakes man the front counter.”

Discord raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were making cupcakes?”

“We will,” Pinkie responded quickly. “After the shop closes, but until then we need to give Mr. and Mrs. Cake a much needed break.”

Discord grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but Pinkie had already hopped behind the counter and didn’t hear him. She went into the kitchen and then came back out pushing a very bewildered Mr. Cake and his wife upstairs. “Now are you sure you have everything handled Pinkie? You don’t usually work this shift by yourself,” Mrs. Cake asked.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Cake! Dizzy’s here to help me! You and Mr. Cake haven’t taken any time off in ages! You can take a break for one afternoon,” Pinkie insisted, picking up the twins and handing them to Mrs Cake. “Me’n Dizzy have got everything covered!”

Mrs. Cake looked uncertain. “Are you sure Pinkie? Does…um…Dizzy even have any experience baking?”

“Weeeeelllll,” Pinkie replied. “I’m not sure if you could call it baking, but he sure does have a lot of experience with food!” She grinned. “I promise you have nothing to worry about!”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Mrs. Cake said. “I suppose we can let you handle things.”

“Of course you can! Have a nice break!” She shoved them up the stairs and slammed the door shut with a huge sigh. “I thought they’d never leave!”

“Hey! I need a chocolate chip muffin over here!” Shouted a disgruntled voice from the ever-growing line of customers. “I want a bear claw!” “A rainbow cupcake would be nice!”

Pinkie put on her biggest smile. “Coming!” She dragged Discord behind the counter and slipped a pair of bright pink aprons on the two of them. “Discord I’m going to need you to handle half of the customers while I handle the other half. Just give them the item they ask for and take their money. The amount each item of food is worth is written underneath the counter. Got it?”

“Um…yes?” Discord said nervously.

“Good!” Pinkie said. She turned her attention to the customers and shouted brusquely, “I need two lines here people! Let’s move it!” To Discord she added kindly, “Don’t worry, you’ll do fine!” before she began serving the line that had formed before her. Discord wasn’t quite so sure if he agreed with her. He gazed at the increasingly long line of impatient people before him and gave an involuntary shudder. What had he gotten himself into?