“New quills, check, more ink, check, check, check,” Starlight read off the list she had levitating in front of her in her magic. “All that's left is to pick up Twilight’s order at Sugarcube Corner," she thought to herself as she continued down the road putting the the list back into her saddlebag.

Eventually Starlight arrived at her desired destination. She walked through the doors of Sugarcube Corner and was surprised to see the bakery deserted of customers. The only pony she saw was a bored Pinkie sitting at the counter who, at the sound of Starlight’s entrance, had looked up and almost jumped out of her seat in excitement at seeing somepony visiting to break her boredom.

“Hey Starlight, what can I help you with?”

“Oh I came to pick up a order for Twilight," Starlight said looking around. Tables and chairs were lacking the ponies they desperately needed. The whole bakery was unnaturally silent unlike last time Starlight had visited it was lively and filled with satisfied customers. But now that life it once had seem dead. “I've never seen this place so empty it feels weird," she added. Pinkie nodded her head in agreement.

“It's been like this ever since Sweet Bakes came in," the cotton maned mare said as she went walking towards the back to retrieve the order. Soon she came back with a square white box. “After they came in business has dwindled down everyday," Pinkie then arrived back to the counter and set the box down gently. “You're actually our first customer all day," she finished saying.

Starlight looked at a nearby clock, “But its already four o'clock," She said as she began to levitate the box into the air and onto her back. “I wouldn't think a new shop could do that well, especially considering since Sugarcube Corner has been here for so long," she added.

Pinkie let out a sigh, “I know,” Pinkie lets out another sigh before finishing. “I just hope business picks up soon, I don't think I’ll like what will happen if it doesn't.”

“I’m sure it will pick up soon,” Starlight said, before turning around and starting her walk home. “ See you later Pinkie pie," Starlight said as she walked out.

Across town there sat the new bakery with the name Sweet Bakes printed onto a pink sign with white lettering. Outside of the building there were two lines that had formed, one slowly moving line full of fidgety ponies going in and the other line of happy, chatty ponies going outside. While inside there were many chairs and tables all filled with ponies eating the freshly baked good and having conversations with each other. Up towards the back of the store was a long counter with a display case showing off different baked goods, cookies, brownies, scones, and so on.

Behind the counter was a middle age pegasus mare, slightly older than the Cakes. She had a bright brown coat the same colour as the sugar cookies on display, also she had a long white mane similar to cane sugar. She wore a pink apron with the name of the bakery on it.

“Thank you, Please come again!” said for umpteenth time that day by the middle age mare at the register waving to a customer who was walking out with a bag of baked goods. The light brown mare looked to the next customer in line and smiled Cheerfully. “Hello Derpy! The usual again?”

Derpy smiled and nodded her head “yes, Ms.Sweet, two Blueberry muffins.”

Ms. Sweet looked back to a stallion “Can you get me two blueberry muffins please,” she asked, but before the stallion could react a mare came trotting up behind him with a white bag setting it down on the counter near Derpy.

“I saw Derpy come in so I grabbed the muffins and bagged them, Mom," the mare said before she walked back to what she was doing.

As she passed the stallion he mumbled quietly “show off”

“Thank you sweetie," Mrs. Sweet said to her daughter.

"Yes, thank you Honey," said Derpy as she quickly paid for the muffins and then proceed to leave, excited to devour the sweets. Just as she was out of earshot Mrs.sweet could just hear “Thank you Sugar Sweet, see you later," Derpy said as she trotted through the exit and was quickly lost in the crowd of ponies outside.

Mrs.Sweet smiled as she prepared to serve the many customers waiting in line, overjoyed with how the business has been going for the past month. The only thing that has made her happier right now was the joy she saw on ponies faces as they got their orders or tried Sweet Bakes goods for the first time.

Starlight walked down the crystal hall of the castle. Her hoofsteps echoed through filling the silent castle with some life. Soon she arrived to the end of the hall and used her magic to open up a door to reveal the castle library. As she continued in she could see a crate containing several books with in it.

“Starlight, can you organize the books that arrived from the crystal empire? I would usually do it or spike but were both working on the treaties for Yakyakistan," Starlight remembering the conversation from breakfast. She happily did since it meant she would get first dibs on the books and what she see what might be interesting to read. So far though she hasn't really found any interesting books to read.

“Crystals and you,” Starlight read out loud as she put the book on the shelf. Most books seemed to be either there junk books or extra copies of. “Crystal Barging” she read dryly really hoping for something interesting, but losing hope as she went from dull book to dull book. She knew she was eventually going to read some (if not all) of the books in the crate, but for first pickings she didn't find any that seemed to be something she would be interested in. Her disinterest continued growing until she found.

“Crystal Enchanted Cooking?” Starlight read the book cover out loud, before she opened the book and and began to read. Nothing catching her interest at first, just some simple spells that didn't really do much of anything. A few would change the color of the food, some would make a dish taste sweet instead of spicy and so on. She was about to throw the book into the deepest darkest corner of the shelves when she noticed one particular spell.

“Eat it, Want it." Starlight read. “This enchantment when used will make any food made from this spell taste unlike anything made before," Starlight read out. “Just enchant the items used to make the baked goods and the spell shall then embed itself into the food made with the items," she continued to read on, her mind rapidly going through all the possibilities the spell held.

She began to reread the spell over and over not believing what she was reading. “This is great this can help Pinkie pie! I just need to use it and anything she makes will become better than it already is," Starlight went silent for a moment as she went processing what she had just read.

Soon though issues she could see happening started going through her mind. “What if Pinkie doesn’t want this," was one of the issues. But as soon as they started appearing she started answering them. “I don't need to tell Pinkie about the spell, what she doesnt know wont hurt her… probably. She and the Cakes would believe it's just their cooking and be none the wiser."

She looked back to the book, “This is probably the only way I can help Pinkie, and Twilight did say it's good to help a friend in need,” looking out a window on the other side of the library, Starlight could see the sun setting. “Well I guess I can sleep on it and decide in the morning.”

Starlight the went finishing putting up the last of the books and then took the “Crystal Enchanted Cooking” and proceeded to go to her room to go to bed for the night.

Back at Sweet Bakes Mrs.Sweet walked to the entrance of her bakery and closed the door and locked it and flipped the open sign closed. Putting another end to a very successful day.

Ms.Sweet turned around seeing both her son and daughter cleaning up the store. Her daughter Honey Sweet, who looked just like she had when she was still that young with a similar bright brown coat, a sugar-white mane and wings, was busy washing tables with a wet rag. While her Son Starch Sweet who had some similarities with his mother like the bright brown fur but he shared more with his father, Like his gray mane similar to steel. Also like his father he was a unicorn and was using his magic to control multiple brooms to sweep the floors.

“When you two finish cleaning you can go to bed, I'm going to go start some prep for tomorrow," Sugar said as she headed towards the back.

Honey Stopped cleaning and looked to her mother “Do you want me to come and help after I get done cleaning?” she asked.

Sugar looked back just long enough to look at her daughter. “No dear, you should get a full night's sleep I can handle getting prep done," she spoke before turning away and disappearing into the kitchen..

Honey waited to see if her mother would come back, but after a few seconds she shifted her attention towards her younger brother. “So Starch, you haven't said much of how you feel about the bakery," She said as she continued to wash the tables.

Starch let out a sigh before speaking, “I’m lukewarm about the bakery. What I don't like that we had to leave the Crystal Empire to come here. Why didn’t we just stay there?” He asked almost petulantly.

“Mom wants a fresh start, the Crystal Empire has too many bad memories. You could have stayed if you wanted to and not help Mom with her dream," Honey retorted back to her brother.

“But you two are the last remaining family I have. Besides when are we going to live our dreams?” Starch stated.

“I’ll probably want to go and take over the bakery if it keeps doing good. So I'm already close to living it," Honey said. “But what is it that you want to do?” She asked.

“Well I don't really know,"Starch answered. Near silence filled the room with the only sounds was the noises coming from multiple brooms sweeping, and occasionally something from the kitchen in the back of the store where Honey was making dough.

Starlight’s hooves couldn't carry her fast enough to Sugarcube Corner the following morning. She was rushing over so she could start her plan that would surely get Sugarcube the needed customers. Right now to start it she just need to talk to Pinkie Pie to get the ball rolling. Sugarcube Corner was finally in sight and luckily the pony she needed to talk to was just outside.

“Hey, Pinkie!” Starlight yelled as she came running up. She had yelled loud enough to make Pinkie jump high into the sky, legs twitching every which way in shock, before she landed with a thump. Many bystanders looked at Starlight confused but with a small part of worry.

“What's wrong? Is there some big friendship emergency? Is there a new threat to Equestria? Have cakes been made illegal?” Pinkie asked rapidly to Starlight.

Starlight smiled “No, Pinkie there isn't any emergency at the moment," Starlight said. Both mares ignored the towns folks collective sigh of relief.

“Well the morning is still young. But If it's not an emergency why did you come running up to me shouting my name like there was?” Pinkie asked.

“Well I think I know a way that can get Sugarcube Corner customers again,"Starlight said. “Why don't you throw a big thank you party for so many years of business and have Sugarcube cater the party and have it available to the whole town.”

Starlight pitched her idea to Pinkie. Pinkie looked to be thinking for a while the whole time Starlight struggled to hide her fear, ‘Come on Pinkie I need you to do this so that my actual plan can work. If you don't do this I don't know if enough ponies will eat the food after I enchant it,’ She thought to herself. Just when she was about break a new voice entered in.

“That sounds perfect, Sugarcube Corner should thank the customer more often, we should throw this party for the whole Town," Said Mrs.Cake who was standing in the doorway of her bakery. Starlights struggle to contain her fear was immediately replaced with her struggling to hold her excitement.

“When do you think you'll have this thank you party?” Starlight asked almost immediately. Mrs.Cake looked at Pinkie for a second.

“Probably in a few days maybe a week depending on how long it takes to prepare. Why do you ask?” Mrs.Cake asked.

“So I can go and spread the news," Starlight said hoping that will be the end of the questioning.

“You don't have to do that, Dearie. We can do it when we’ve got a more solid date planned," Mrs.Cake said.

Luna's moon was high in the night sky. Most ponies were asleep around this time of night. Only a few ponies were up during this time. One of which was Starlight, who was at the moment trying to sneak through Ponyville undetected, a task made far more difficult with the addition of a saddle bag that would shift around, making noise as she sneaked through the deserted town. Her target Sugarcube Corner was finally coming into sight.

As Starlight approached the building she scanned the visible part of the building. Trying to see if anypony within was up and moving around. For all she could tell nopony was, she carefully went to the side of the bakery to the entrance to the kitchen. She did one last look around to see if anypony saw what she was doing. When she figured she was okay she lit up her horn and quickly teleported inside.As she reappeared inside the building she waited and listened if the cakes or Pinkie had noticed her coming in.

When nothing happened she then levitated out the Crystal enchanted cookbook, and started to walk towards the closest appliance which, luckily enough, happened to be the oven.

Starlight opened the book and rapidly flipped through the pages until she came to the spell she wanted. With her light from her horn she read the spell and when ready she began to cast it onto the oven. A key lime green colored stream of magic slowly approached out of her horn and flowed out to the oven. The oven was soon surrounded by the key lime green colored magic aura. Starlight watched in anticipation as the aura surrounding the oven pulsed and flickered, before the magic started to sink into the heavy steel appliance, disappearing with a final, faint, flicker of light.

Starlight let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. “One down,” Starlight said as she looked around the store “many more to go.” Starlight finished and continued to the rest.

She tried to get as much done as she could with making the least amount of noise, and soon she had gotten just about everything from the fridge to the mixing spoons, bowls to pans. She covered everything she figured would have contact with the food that was hopefully going to be made for Sugarcube corner’s celebration.

Job well done she decided to take her leave and head back to the castle. With one last look around she focused her magic and, with a little modification to the teleport spell to make it noiseless, disappeared from the room, only to appear in her room. Exhausted she gently set down her saddle bag and then flopped herself onto her bed, falling asleep before her head touched the pillow.

Author's Note

Thanks to The wind king for editing this