“She said what?!”
A group of four very neatly dressed cooks stood in a circle. They were in the kitchen were they usually prepare different kinds of delicious feasts for the princess. But, as much as it may seem odd, they weren’t there at the moment to prepare any glorious meals or deserts. Rather, they were there to discuss a slight ‘problem’ they had.
“How does she expect us to do that?!” One seriously worried cook asked while rapidly glancing from one pony to another.
“Don’t worry Mix, it’s all going to be fine,” Another baker said loudly, although, she had a controlled look on her face. Quite the opposite of the other four bakers.
Mix dropped his angry look and started to take deep breaths. “You’re right, Flour. Everything is going to be fine… everything is going to be fine…”
Flour looked at one of the other cooks. “See, Taste? Told you Mix will handle it.”
“I’ll give you the five bits later, but we have bigger problems to deal with now.” Taste turned to the fourth cook. “Any ideas, Layer?”
Layer shrugged. “Not really. I-“
“Not really?!” Mix interrupted Layer. “So, you don’t have a plan. Perfect, just great. Let’s just ignore the fact that our immortal powerful demigod wants one large cake for every year she accomplished, shall we?”
Everypony looked at Mix. Flour stepped forward. “Would you calm down for once? Let’s just say we ran out of ingredients.”
“That won’t work,” Layer said, shaking his head downwards. “She’s in a special meeting in Manehattan discussing some important business. She won’t be back until the night before her birthday and I can already tell she’ll be pretty mad if one of us just wobble up there and say,” Layer put on a stupid grin. “Hey! Your majesty! Guess what! We have no more ingredients for the cakes for your two thousand’s birthday tomorrow!” He imitated with a silly sounding voice. Not long after, his grin dropped. “Plus, we’re the royal cooks and we shouldn’t even suggest that. I don’t even know why you would do that, Flour.”
Mix looked down. A few second later he looked up with a shy grin. “Are you sure it isn’t worth trying?”
Layer shrugged again. “It’s your choice taking the risk of being investigated and caught with full bags of every ingredient and then get banished to the moon.”
Flour raised a hoof. “I vouch for that.”
“Would all of you stop playing around?” Taste shouted, catching everypony’s attention. “Now, we have one week to prepare two thousand large cakes with as much variety of flavours as possible. We should start now.” Taste clapped his hooves then smiled. He was known for smiling while working after all. Although, he could get a bit angry when something isn’t in order or stuff goes terribly wrong.
Hearing what Taste said, Flour casted an anxious look before speaking. “Yeaaah, about that.” She looked down while scratching the back of her head. “I confused the dates, the start of Celestia’s birthday celebration is actually in two days.”
Taste’s smile slowly lowered to a look of pure anger. “Flour, you have thirty seconds to tell me a good enough excuse for mistaking the dates before I get the frying pan located three feet to Mix’s right and use it to smash that beautiful small cake you made,” He said while looking at the small cherry flavoured cake Flour spent hours on making.
Flour looked confused. “Wait, what?”
“Twenty five.”
“Oh! I-I mean, I had a confusion with my notebook and accidently skipped a page hence, delaying me announcing to you guys what Celestia told me,” she put on a fake grin.
Layer stepped between the two while looking at Flour. “Look, as much as you want to defend your precious little cake from being destroyed by Taste’s impending wrath, even though it’s just one of his dumb bluffs,” Taste suddenly felt compromised. Layer knew him all too well. “We need to fix this, quick.”
“I still don’t think giving Celestia an extra-large birthday cake instead of two thousand large ones is enough to send us to the moon,” Flour said calmly.
Mix approached. “Celestia will be standing in the Canterlot yard chatting with ponies and friends such as the Element Bearers about how excited she is. When she finally gets the standard, non-exciting birthday cake, she’ll be embarrassed in front of hundreds of ponies, wondering where the hay is her real birthday present and then suddenly remembers the chefs in charge of it! Is that enough for her to banish us to the moon?” He shouted.
Flour thought, hoof to chin. Not long after, she trotted towards the exit.
“And where do you think you’re going?” Taste asked.
Flour stopped then looked back. “What do you think? I’m going AWOL.”
At this point, Taste had hoof to forehead. “The term AWOL is for the military, Flour. Sometimes I wonder how you convinced anyone to hire you as a royal cook.”
“Hey! It runs in the family!”
“Anywaaays,” Layer interrupted. “Flour, could you get the rest of the cooks? We have a long night ahead of us,” Layer ordered while he prepared plates.
Flour rubbed the back of her head again. She then released a nervous laugh. “Umm… well… it’s kind of a holiday for us since it’s two days until the princess’s two thousand’s birthday. The plan was to start baking one week ago”
Layer dropped some plates on the counter, not breaking them but making a large enough sound to be heard throughout the kitchen. “Oh for Celestia’s sake… can things get any worse?”
Flour suddenly spoke. “Well yes actually, I think I saw your mom walki-“
Layer held his hoof forward indicating Flour to cease talking. “Just… stop.”
Flour looked confused, she wasn’t the brightest amongst all of them but was smart enough to realize that it was best that she stayed silent.
Mix suddenly realized something. An alternate way. A way that all this could be resolved. The only way. The cooks never used this special tactic before but it seemed like it was their only choice. Even though Mix was thinking about it, he was sure the rest of the cooks were actually silently considering it in their thoughts. It felt like a mad idea, but, considering that the rest won’t suggest the idea anytime soon, Mix stepped forward, looking at Layer.
“Do you think… it’s time?” Mix asked cautiously.
Suddenly, Layer’s eyes widened and his look was filled with nothing but shock. Even though he didn’t notice, the same reactions were also painted on Taste’s and Flour’s faces.
After shaking for a few seconds, Flavour answered. “Yes. It’s our only choice.”
“So what do we do, Pinkie?”
Pinkie Pie stood in front of the four cooks and slowly itched her chin while in deep thought. “We have two hundred and fifty plates in the kitchen, the rest are outside. We need two ponies constantly bringing more plates in and out to the counter while maintaining a constant level of stamina and concentration.” Pinkie walked towards the doors checking the mountain of plates on the outside just waiting to be used. She trotted back to the kitchen. “And we need one pony preparing the cakes for baking. I’ll do the rest. Any questions?”
Layer actually had one doubt. “Pinkie Pie, if Mix and Flour prepare the plates, and Taste prepares the baking, what do I do?”
Pinkie smirked for a quick second then speeded herself to Layer. She whispered something to him not letting the other two cooks hear what she was saying.
After she finished, Layer was a bit surprised. “Are you sure?” He asked.
Pinkie nodded with a smile. “Well okay then,” said Layer, understanding. “Let’s start baking!”
After a couple of days of hard work, the cooks and Pinkie made the impossible… possible. It was Celestia’s birthday. Everypony there was filled with joy and happiness. One of the reasons of the unceasing joy were the uncountable amounts of cake that laid around the garden, being devoured by hundreds of ponies. Including Flour, Mix and Taste. There was no sign of Pinkie though.
However, there was a sign of Celestia, continuously munching the large cakes without hesitation. Some ponies watched and some ponies just joined her.
On the outskirts of the garden, were the party was calmer, stood Layer, smiling at the feast in front of him. Out of nowhere, a purple alicorn approached him.
“Excuse me, sir?” Twilight asked.
Layer turned to her, slightly surprised. “Oh, princess Twilight.” He bowed. Not long after, he stopped.
Twilight smiled. “Are you the one in charge of Celestia’s cakes?”
Layer looked back at his colleagues. Mix was covered in chocolate and Taste was helping Flour get her head outside one of the cakes. Layer smiled. “I’m one of the ones in charge. My colleagues are in the garden enjoying some of the cakes.”
“Oh, I see,” Twilight said after witnessing a few cooks eat a whole cake along with other Canterlot ponies. “Well, I just want to say all of you did a really good job.”
“The pleasure is all mine.” Layer looked back, once again only to see a large untouched caramel cake sitting there in all its glory. He licked his lips. “Now, if you don’t mind, I think I might have a bite.”
“Of course, don’t let me stop you.” Twilight said with another smile.
Layer trotted towards the garden.
Twilight suddenly remembered something. “Sorry! One question!” Twilight called to the chef making him look back. “Have you seen a pink pony? She’s the Element of Laughter, you wouldn't miss her.”
Layer suddenly remembered. “Yes, she helped us with the cakes… a lot. Loads of thanks to her by the way. Although, I think she’s at home, resting.”
Twilight looked confused. “Do you know why?”
Layer looked down, then back up again. “That’s what happens when you mix Pinkie Pie and sugar rush.” With that, he trotted towards the delicious looking caramel cake.
Author's Note
I had loads of fun while writing this. I hope you had fun reading it! Well, this is my second comedy fic and to be honest, I think I'll be doing more of these. Bye for now!
