The Party Must Go On

Gala and Pound woke up the next morning, slightly surprised to see that they had slept in the same bed, but them the memories of the night before came rushing back to them. Their faces grew red and they could hardly look at each other they were so embarrassed. They eventually got out of bed, packed up and then left the hotel room after cleaning off and checking out.

They hopped on the first train back to Ponyville and arrived back home a few hours later. They both went straight to Sugarcube Corner to start work.

“How was Canterlot?” Mr. Cake asked Pound when he and Gala walked through the door.

“It was nice.” He answered. “The food from the restaurant we went to was really good.”

“So your birthday dinner was satisfactory?” He asked, tilting his head and giving his son a strange, funky smile.

“Yeah.” Pound said.

He and Gala walked by him. They passed Mrs. Cake as they walked into the kitchen. Today Mr. Cake was serving and Mrs. Cake was taking orders while Pound and Gala cooked in the kitchen. They started out with Sugarcube Corner’s most popular treat, cupcakes. They baked one batch each and then moved on to cookies and cakes.

Throughout the day they made 10 batches of cupcakes, 6 batches of cookies, 4 batches of brownies, 2 batches of tarts, 3 pies, and 5 cakes. Almost everything was sold. At the end of the day, the only treats left were a few cookies. Mr. and Mrs. Cake shared them with Gala and Pound and took the last one up to Pumpkin. She still wasn’t doing very well.

Gala was devastated at the thought of losing Pound, but hopefully she wouldn’t have to. Gala decided she would go with Pound to talk to the ponies she knew to see if any of them would take control of the shop while Mr. and Mrs. Cake are in Canterlot and until Pound grew old enough to own Sugarcube Corner himself. She thought for a moment, Fluttershy was responsible, but she already had so much to do, and she was always so tired that Gala didn’t want to put that on her. She then thought of Apple Bloom. She had once lived on a farm, she was pretty responsible then, right? Then she thought of all the other things that she had seen Apple Bloom do, and how irresponsible they were.

“What about Scootaloo?”  She asked herself. “She’s more irresponsible than I am. That’s a definite no. But what about Sweetie Belle? She’s always organized and very responsible for her childish attitude.” Gala then decided that she would talk to Sweetie about it and hope that she said yes. She waited next to the door of Sugarcube Corner for Pound to come back down from Pumpkin’s room so she could talk to him about it.

He came back down a minute later. “Hey,” He said with a shy smile as he trotted over to her.

“Hi.” Gala said, smiling back at him. She suddenly felt really shy around him, she wasn’t sure what to do or say. Memories of their night in Canterlot flooded back into her head and her flushed deep red. Pound’s smile grew and he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

“Did you want to talk to me?” He asked her.

“Oh… Ummm… Yeah. Remember how you told me that you need to get someone to own Sugarcube Corner for the next year until you turn 18 and can own it yourself?” Gala asked him.

“Yeah, why?” Pound’s face contorted in confusion and he tilted his head at Gala. She smiled, she couldn’t resist, he was just so adorable.

“Um, well, I thought I could ask Sweetie Belle, she’s really responsible and-” Pound held his hoof over her mouth.

“I don’t care about the reasons. If you think she could do it, I trust your judgement. I’ll go with you to ask her.” He said. Gala blushed deeply as she stared up at Pound.

“Tomorrow.” Gala said. She leaned in and kissed Pound slowly and deeply, and then she left Sugarcube Corner for the long walk home.

The next day after work, Gala and Pound set off to find Sweetie belle ask talk to her about owning Sugarcube Corner if only for the next year. They hurried off towards Sweetie Belle’s house. It had been a while since Gala had seen Sweetie, and she was excited to see her again. With Pound next to her, she knocked on the front door. A few minutes later, Sweetie Belle opened the door.

Her long pink and purple mane was pulled up into a knot at the back of her head. A few strands stuck out here and there, curling around her ears. “Hi, Gala.” Sweetie said. She sounded slightly out of breath. “Did you need something?” She asked.

“Well, umm… Yes. I need to ask you a very important question.” Gala said.

“Oh, come on in.” Sweetie stepped aside, opening the door wider and Gala and Pound walked inside. Sweetie closed the door and led them through her spotless house and into the kitchen which was extremely clean and organized. They each sat down and together Gala and Pound proposed the question to Sweetie Belle. Near the end she was wiping away tears.

“Oh, of course, I’ll do anything I can to help.” Sweetie Belle said once they had finished explaining everything.

“Thank you so much.” Gala said, hugging her. They worked out all the details with each other and with Mr. and Mrs. Cake. (I’ll spare you the boring details… Partly because I have no idea how any of that kind of stuff works).

About a week later, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pound Cake moved to Canterlot so she could be taken care of by better doctors. Sweetie Belle then owned Sugarcube Corner and she helped around when she had the time. She said it just felt right that way. But for the most part, Gala and Pound were the only two working.

It was easy for them, they’d had days where they worked alone together. It wasn’t too much work, and it wasn’t hard. They managed to keep it running until Pound turned 18 and was able to maintain ownership of Sugarcube Corner by himself.

Pound and Gala stayed together for the next year. They remained happy. They hardly had any arguments and some night Gala slept at Sugarcube Corner so she could start extra early the next day.

After all, she was almost 17 and soon she would be full time living there. Fluttershy was happy to see her happy. Over the past year, Gala occasionally visited Fluttershy and helped out with the animals and talked with her and Discord over tea. Sometimes she would bring Pound with her, and sometimes she would go alone.

As Pound and Gala tended the bakery on their own, her brothers, Chocolate Rain and Skittles, would visit Sugarcube more often. When the work day was early, or when they closed early, Gala and Pound would go down to the basement and work on cleaning it up.

They debated whether to continue its use, or to clean it and use it as something else, like a storage room. Gala continuously tried to convince Pound to keep it as a torture dungeon because, although she had never really met her mother or father, she only had vague memories of them, she wanted to continue their legacy. Make their spirits happy. She just couldn’t explain why, but Pound understood her.

They talked about it and talked about it over the past year and eventually decided what to do.