It had been a month since the thank you party and in that time Sugarcube Corner had never been so busy in the time since it had first been opened. Both of the Cakes and Pinkie were forced to work harder than they ever had before just to break even with the increased demand. Waking up before Celestia had raised her sun only to find a line of ravenous ponies waiting at the door. This state of affairs would continue until the cupboards finally ran dry, and they had to announce to the waiting ponies that they had run out of ingredients to make their goods and would have to close until the next morning. Once the milling crowd had been dispersed Mrs Cake and Pinkie would do whatever they could to get ready for the next exhausting day; cleaning down the kitchen, ordering more ingredients while Mr Cake tallied the day’s profits, a number that had only been going up over the last few weeks. Once this was done the three of them would slump down in the backroom, eat whatever they could order from Fresh Dough’s pizzeria, before finally slouching their way to bed, and falling into a weary slumber.

Today was like every other day at Sugarcube Corner since the “thank you” party. One of the three ponies taking orders at the counter while the other two kept the ovens churning out baked goods, with today being Pinkie’s turn to mare the counter. The bakery's tables all had Ponies sitting there with assortment of pastries. In the middle of the bakery was the line that seemingly had no end.

In the back in the kitchen the Cakes had every oven going at full tilt, with the worktops covered in a plethora of mixing bowls and cakes pans just waiting to go into the oven. Both Cakes worked hard on getting the orders filled, but even as they filled one, another two would take its place. Despite this they, somehow, managed to keep up a decent pace of fulfilling orders, the line that stretched through the door and down the road in constant motion, some ponies even returning to the rear of the queue as they finished their first round with their delicious treats.

"How?" and "Why?" were the two questions going through the very bored Starch's mind, as he sat in his family's bakery waiting for customers. Customers that Sweet Bakes had been slowly losing over the last month, the number of ponies coming through his door lowering day by day. This past week he had seen next to no customers at all.

With no customers to keep him busy he had slowly grown more bored as less and less customers came in. Everyday he would wait along with his family for any customers.

His boredom was broken ever so slightly when the bell the bell over the door chimed, his ears perking with excitement before flattening back down as his sister came in, two bags clutched in her teeth. The bags were blank but Starch knew that she had just gone to Sugarcube Corner, it seemed to be the only place she, or his mother would go for food anymore.

She didn't even hesitate going past him as she hurried into the kitchen in the back, the muffled sounds of her setting the bags down on a table when she got in there. “Mom, I got those cookies you wanted.” he heard Honey call out. This was followed with the sound of hoofsteps coming down the stairs.

“Thank you, Honey.” Starch’s mom said.

Starch went back to focusing on the front of the store as his family ate. He could see ponies walking past the windows outside. As he watched silently he started noticing a pattern of the ponies was that the ones walking from the left side of the building heading towards the right side all seemed to be in a rush. While the ponies walking from the right side towards the left seemed to either have bags similar to what his sister had just brought in, or stuffed and distended stomachs looking almost exactly the same as they had after the ‘Thank You’ party last month.

“So did any customers come while I was gone?” Honey asked as she exited the kitchen to sit besides her brother.

“No, not a signal customer has came in today. Just like all week and the week before.” Starch said dryly. “Why have they suddenly just stopped coming.” He muttered, mostly to himself.

“Maybe the appeal of a new shop has ran out?” Sugar said as she entered the room.

“If that was the case, we would still be receiving a few regulars at the least,” Starch said. "There were enough customers who generally liked our pastries."

“Yes, but have we done anything new to bring in customers?” Sugar asked. “For the two months we've been open we haven't had a special; just the same old menu, made the same way.” Sugar continued. “So maybe if we go out and find something new to do and promote it we could bring in customers again.” Sugar finished and stayed silent as she waited to see what her daughter and son would say.

The two siblings looked at each other as they thought about what their mother had just said before speaking. Honey was the first to speak. “That might work.”

“It wouldn't hurt to try at least, and it would be far better than just waiting for customers that never come.” Starch said. “But where we would start?”

“We could go and see if Princess Twilight has any books in her castle’s library that I've heard about.” Sugar said she looked at the clock, making a note of the late afternoon. “If we go now we could be back in time for some dinner.”

“Alright, you and Starch can go and I’ll watch the bakery.” Honey said.

“Why am I going?” Starch asked.

“Because you’ve been complaining about being bored all week and I'm getting tired of it. Getting out of the house may be what you need,” Honey said.

“So its a plan, let’s go grab our saddle bags Starch then we can go.” Sugar said.

Instead of fighting against his mother’s proclamation, Starch just decided to go along with it. “It would be better than just staying here any longer with no customers.”

Soon the two were ready and head out the door and across town to get to Twilight's castle.

The mother and son both walked through town. The walk to the castle had been uneventful so far, with neither of them speaking a word to the other. Instead staring at the crowds of ponies too busy stuffing themself to respond to Starch or Sugar’s greetings.

Sugar’s mouth salivated and her stomach rumbled seeing all these treats, almost cursing herself for not having Honey get her more when she went to Sugarcube Corner earlier.

In contrast to his mother, Starch found the entire thing even stranger when seen without the buffer of Sweet Bake’s windows. His mind whirring away at the sight of so many ponies eating from the same place. It had been one thing to hear it from his mother and sister, but to see the “Sugarcube-Mania” in action was another thing entirely.

Eventually the both of them picked their way through town to reach Twilight’s castle, the crystal edifices that loomed over the town reminding them uncomfortably of the Crystal Empire. Sugar Sweet was the one to knock on the door before the both of them waited for the door to open.

It didn’t take long for the sound of footsteps to reach them, and the pair’s ears perked up as the door opened to reveal Spike. Both ponies immediately bowing at the sight of “The Hero of the Empire”, mumbled praises coming from her mouths as they pressed their heads to the ground. .

“Hello, uh, Can I help you guys?” Spike asked awkwardly, the small dragon a little taken aback, as he wasn’t used to being praised when he wasn't in the Crystal Empire.

“Hello, Spike the Brave and Glorious, we came to humbly request that we borrow a few books." Sugar said still bowing.

Spike just watched them for a second, shuffling from foot to foot as neither pony made any attempt to lift their heads, before he responded, “You wanted to borrow some books from the castle’s library?”

“Yes, oh Heroic One.” Sugar Sweet replied.

“Alright, follow me.” Spike said, before turning around and waddling away as quickly as possible, Sugar and Starch following him as he led them into the Castle.

Starlight sat in the library quitely reading “Crystal Enchanted Cooking”, studying the large variety of spells that the book contained. The only one she had used so far was the “Eat-it, Want-it” spell at this point, but she wanted to see if the book contained any other spells that she could that she could use. Although, so far it had been a complete bust, the spells either being overly complicated gimmick spells, or intended to work with only the Crystal Empire’s unique crystal vegetables. The only exception to this had been the “Want-it, Eat-it” spell she had used to help Pinkie and the Cakes. But she hadn’t finished the book yet so she held out hope that she could find something useful.

“Hello, Miss.Glimmer." Starlight jumped at the sound of a soft voice she didn’t recognise coming from right behind her, falling out of her seat, knocking over the table, and scattering the books resting on it. She looked around as she tried to recover spotting Sugar Sweet and a crystal stallion who she guessed was Sugar’s son, considering how young he looked. . Although more important were the looks of surprise on both their muzzles.

All three ponies stood frozen for a second before Sugar rushed over to Starlight’s aid and pulled the unicorn to her hooves. “Sorry to scare you, Starlight,” Sugar said apologetically as she helped Starlight up.

“It’s alright, I guess I was more invested in the book I was reading then I thought.” Starlight said, her ears folding down against her head in embarrassment.

“Must have been a really good book then, maybe we should give it a read sometime.” Sugar smiled gently as she tried to make conversation with the blushing unicorn.

“No! I mean, uh, I’m not done with it yet. You'll have to wait until I'm done reading it.” Starlight said hesitantly. “Might not be good to let them know about the spell yet, Sugarcube just finally doing good since they came to town” Starlight thought to herself as she looked at the mess she made trying to spot the spellbook before Sugar or Starch could. Her eyes flickering left and right before she spotted a flash of light against the golden lettering on the spine. Thankfully, though, the rest of the book was covered by another one, the second tome laying sprawled wide open over every other part of the spellbook.

Starlight then levitated the books off the ground and set them back onto the table, at the same time levitating the book she had been reading behind her. “Did you two come to borrow a few books?”

“Yes we are, I wanted to see if I could find anything that might inspire a new recipe to use at the bakery.” Sugar said. “Do you know of any books that might be able to do so?”

Starlight thought for a second. “Well I don't know for sure, we might have a few recipe books from donations Twilight received after the last library she lived at got destroyed.” She said, looking around until she stopped at the desk loaded with the books she had just picked off the floor. “There might be something in those stacks. I haven't looked through every one yet since they just arrived from the crystal empire last week, but there could be something there.”

“Thank you Starlight, guess we can try there first.” Honey said before she and Starch trotted over to the desk, Starch grabbing a second chair in his mouth. While Starlight walked out the room with the book still levitating above them. “I'm going to finish reading the book I was reading earlier, holler if you need me.

Starch and Sugar were going through book after book, quickly checking each title before placing them to one side depending on how relevant they found them. They have looked through a few books. Sugar actually putting some to the side to take. Starch just glanced at the books almost giving little care of what was one them.

“I'm glad Starlight pointed us over here, I’m finding some books that might have what we need.” Sugar spoke as she placed several books to the side.

“Is it just me or was she acting a little weird?” Starch asked his mother.

Sugar stopped going through the stacks of books. “ I thought I raised you better than to judge other ponies.”.

“What? She said she was too invested in the book she was reading to hear either of us approaching, but did you even see the book she was reading?”

“No, I did not and I don't think it would matter too mu..”

Starch quickly interrupted his mother. “It was Crystal and you. A children's book! I read that old thing in magic kindergarten!” Starch exclaimed. “ I thought she was really smart, how could one small foal’s book interest her so much?” he asked.

“Well she isn't from the Crystal Empire like use. Also to her that book is over a thousand years old.” Sugar Sweet said and turned away, feeling like she had settled the matter even as Starch continued to frown at the back of her head.

Sweet Bakes had closed for the night and the occupants have all gone to sleep for the night like the rest of the town. This was all except one unicorn who presided in Sweet Bakes.

Starch for the life of him could not get a wink of sleep. He had tried almost everything to fall asleep, counting sheep, opening a window, taking slow deep breaths, he even went down to the kitchen and made himself a warm glass of milk, but nothing seemed to work.

With sleep eluding him, he turned to his favorite pastime instead, deciding to grab some of the books he and Sugar had brought back from the castle for a bout of late night reading. Sneaking out of his room for the second time that night he tiphoofed his way down to the living room and retrieved several of the lighter of the lighter looking books, before returning to his bed to read. The pale light of his magic illuminating the pages as he held them.

He was already a few pages into his second book having almost immediately forgotten his quest to fall asleep. The first book had been unbearably dull, and the second wasn't faring much better. He closed the book with his magic and then set the book on top of the first one on the ground to his left. He then picked from the top of the stack of books on his right resting on the ground as well.

He repeated this with the next few books. He would open one up, read a few pages before getting bored with it, set it on the growing stack of books to his left, only to repeat the process with another grimoire from the dwindling stack on his right. All the while growing a little more irritated with each book that failed to interest him. This all stopped when he got to the last book.

“Crystal Enchanted Cooking,” Starch muttered quietly to himself as he read the title,. “Please interest me.”. He open the book and read the first few pages. He was surprised to see it being a spell book and peaked his interest more than the other books did at first. Further in he started to think it was to be like the other books as his interest started to die down. This was tell he found one spell in particular.

“Color dye?” He read the spells name in his head. “With this spell you can change the colors of any food cooked or baked.” Starch mumbled to himself as he read the description of the spell. A sly smile crept onto his face as his mind started turning the spell into a few ideas for the restaurant.

“I could do so much with this spell.” He thought out loud as his brain struggled against the weight of exhaustion. “e could do something like the ‘Pink Blueberry Pie’, it’s just weird enough to get attention, but we wouldn't have to change much. Maybe we won't say this was all done with magic. Just say its a new recipe.’’

All the while he was skimming through the book while he kept thinking of all the things to do with such a spell. Every few pages he would read another spell entry but none of them were like the “Color Dye” spell. Even the “Eat it, Want-it” spell, no this was better.

“This enchantment when used will make any food made from this spell taste unlike anything made before." he read the description to himself, the vagueness of the description not helped by the how tired he was.

“This could be useful, I do tend to over cook a few products.” He thought at first. But soon he started forming a few ideas “I could use this to make it so that we get customers again, we already make good pastries if this makes them taste even better I don't even know how that would taste. That town would go nuts for them.”

“But will any of these spells work?” Starch asked. He looked over to the clock that rested on his night stand seeing that it was a quarter past three in the morning. “f I fall asleep now I'll get at least three hours of sleep.” He figured, adding up the time to when he would have to wake up. He looked back at the open book, “Or I could test these out.”

It didn't take much for his curiosity to trump sensibility in his decision making process. He closed the book and hopped off his bed, before sneaking out of his room for a third time. The book floating behind him as he trotted down the stairs and into the shop’s kitchen.

When he first got in there he immediately went to the oven and proceeded to open the book to the “Eat-it, Want-it” spell, before reading the page over until he felt ready he started to cast the spell. His horn glowing brightly in the darkened kitchen until a small stream of green magic burst from his horn to strike the oven which started to glow with the same colour as the magic seeped into it. Soon the stream stopped and then the glow of the oven died down until it was nonexistent.

“Now with that done I can get started.” he thought to himself.

Honey yawned as she trotted down the stairs heading towards the kitchen to start today’s prep that had that she hadn’t managed to finish yesterday. She had just woken up and was still groggy to almost miss the smell of something burning wafted out of the kitchen. The acrid smell catapulting her into wakefulness as she galloped down the last few steps.

She couldn't see anything around in the front of the store she was currently in and she hadn't seen anything in the living area upstairs, which left her only left the kitchen to investigate. She looked to the kitchen the door leading to it was closed, light outlined the door.

Seeing this she immediately cantered to the door where she tried to open it, but it was locked, leaving to hammer on the door in the hope that either her mother or brother were inside. She was soon answered by a tired sounding “Just a sec.” her panic abating at hearing her brother in there.

She could just about make out the sound of something rustling, the heavy thunks of things falling onto the ground, and the click of cupboards opening and closing. She was starting to grow inpatient, but before she could say anything the door was opened by what she assumed to be starches magic.

When she entered she slightly taken back by the mess that was in the kitchen. Flour was everywhere, counters, floors, all the appliances, all over the ceiling, and even her brother. The sink was filled with as many baking utensil and mixing bowls as it could feasibly hold, and then some more. The garbage was overflowing with junk, plastic wrappers, egg shells, discarded bags, and milk cartons. Although none of the wreckage compared to the state the stove was in.

What was once a simple white stove had now been covered in what looked like soot. “What have you been doing?” she was nearly yelling at Starch as he stood there with a goofy grin on his face, both his eyes slightly glazed over..

Starch looked around the kitchen, almost as if he was seeing the mess around him for the first time, “Baking.”

Honey facehoofed “I can see that, but why are you baking when we don't have any orders to fulfill, and you weren't put on preparing?”

“Well I couldn't sleep last night. so I started reading some of the books we brought back from the library and while I was doing that I got inspired so I came down and started baking.”

Starch turned around and walked to the oven. When he got there his horn lit up, as his magic pulled the oven door open letting a cloud of heated steam billow out of the oven. Starch then levitated four pies out of the oven. He set them down and then closed the oven. He waved his left foreleg in front of his face clearing away the steam, coughing all the while.

After the small coughing fit he levitated the pies into the air and had them follow him to the counter near where Honey stood watching Starch, before he waved a hoof inviting her to come and examine the pies as he took a slice out of each of them which he put on separate plates.

She inspected the contents of the pie on the plates. Each of them seemed a little strange compared to normal, although she didn’t know if that was her brother’s sleep deprived cooking, or the fact that they were differents colours from the normal recipe. One was sky blue, another was as green as a blade of grass, another was as pink as a farm pig and the last one was the only normal one as it was simply yellow. All four of them also had a mixture of black in the colors, where he’d probably burned in the fillings in his daze

“What recipes would make any of these.?” Honey questioned aloud.

“Just a few I found, but sadly they taste as bad as they look, this is the fourth time I've tried making them.”

“Oh, I bet they aren't that bad,” Honey and Starch both and looked to their mother who was entering the room with her usual warm smile.

“I've tried them and they are.” Starch moaned.

Sugar just continued to smile and got closer to the pies. “Well I have not tried them yet, so let me be a judge if this is good or bad.”

Starch shrugged before lighting his horn. Across the room drawers and cupboards opened up. Another set of plates floated out, surrounded by a swarm of cutlery and serving knives, before setting themselves on the counter in front of Sugar and Honey. The knives went to the pies where they began to cut into the pies into equal slices. When they were done, the knife was set down in the sink and each of the three plates held a slice from each of the four pies.

Honey just looked at the pies. Where at first the pies had looked weird,now they looked appetizing, and she could feel her mouth beginning to water. “What kind of pies are these anyway?”

“The blue one is cherry, the green one is raspberry, the pink one is an apple pie, and the yellow one is chocolate.” Starch said.

Both mares raised their eyebrow hearing what they were supposed to be, both of them struggling to come up with an excuse to backpedal on their decision to taste test for Starch.

Starch levitated a fork and picked at the yellow chocolate pie. Honey and Sugar watched carefully as he took a bight. He immediately spit out the pie. “Yeah, this still sucks”

“You’re probably over exaggerating,” Sugar said, before looking back at the pies and gulped as she tried to work up the nerve to test her son’s conconctions. “Honey, we're trying this together.”

“But..”

“Trying this together.” Sugar said again.

Honey sighed, just wanting to get this over and done with. Both mares took a hold of their forks. They then then went picking a slice and took a chunk out with the fork. They hesitated for a moment as it got closer to their mouths, before they could back out they both put the pie into their mouths.

Both mares dropped their forks in surprise. Their eyes going wide open while they continued to chew

“See, I told you, it's that bad.” Starch said. “I wonder if I cast that spell wrong?” Starch thought to himself as he waited to for them to spit the food out but was surprised when both mares began to devour the slices of pies they had taken bites of.

“I don't, know, what you’re, talking, about these are, amazing!” Honey said between mouthfuls of pink apple pie.

“These might be as good as Sugarcube Corner’s!” Sugar said as she finished off the slice of yellow chocolate pie, moving on to her slice of green raspberry. “What did you do? What recipe did you use?”

Starch looked behind him at a cupboard just a few steps away from him. He then looked back at his family. “I...just used a recipe I found and I… made it.... With Love.” He said rubbing the back of his neck.

“You'll have to show me it later…. right know I need more pie!” Sugar said as she finished the last slice on her plate, she then proceeded to go and get more. Honey doing the same as her mother.

“Just maybe we should not have them have weird colors. I'm not sure how well that would sell” Honey said.

“You think this would sell?” Starch asked, almost disbelievingly as he watch both of the mares fill up their plates for a second round of pie.

“I know these will, we just need to get some ponies to try them and get some word of mouth going around.” Honey said.

Starch thought for a second before a thought sprung to mind. “I’ve got a idea but I'll need both of you to go out and get a few things for me?”

“Alright, just let use finish eating these” Sugar said.

Soon both mares finished the pies, both their plate and all four of the tins were licked clean of any remnants of the pies that had just been there, although the same couldn’t be said for Sugar and Honey’s muzzles. Starch, meanwhile, had written down the things he needs for his plan, and handed Sugar the list as she leant back in her seat. Soon both of the mares were leaving to get the things that Starch had asked for, as he busied himself with cleaning down the kitchen.

“Maybe while we're out we should get some pies from Sugarcube Corner and see which is better.” Honey said as she and Sugar left the building just in earshot of Starch. This also sparked a idea in his head, before he filed it away for later, his current plan had to come first otherwise he might not have a roof over his head for much longer.

“While you’re out could you maybe return the books, since we won't be needing them anymore?” Starch asked.

“Yes of course, do you mind getting them together while me and Honey get ready?” Sugar asked.

Starch nodded before rushing up to his room and grabbing the pile of book from last night’s binge reading session in his magic. When he returned downstairs he couldn't see his family anywhere. Double checking that he was alone he quickly rushed over to the cupboard he had looked at earlier. He opened it revealing the Crystal Enchanted Cooking book, which he quickly riffled through, hurriedly making a copy of the “Eat-it, Want-it” spell in his personal recipe book before he shoved it into the middle of the pile and then set the books out by the front door.

Just as he was stepping back into the kitchen Sugar and Honey came walking down the stairs, both of them having cleaned the pie from their muzzles. Stopping only to say goodbye and pick up the books as they headed out the door, leaving Starch to clean the bakery.

The next day

Rarity was on her daily stroll through Ponyville on her way to Sugarcube Corner. Her body shivered slightly from the brisk morning air. Celestia had only just raised the sun a few minutes ago and it hadn't been up long enough to heat everything up.

A month ago she would have still been asleep at this time, but after the party Sugarcube Corner had thrown she had been craving snacks daily, and unlike before, when it had been easy to satisfy her cravings for the sugary treats and she could just trot there at her leisure and get what she wanted. The problem with that was now Sugarcube Corner was always packed wall to wall with other ponies tartarus bound on satisfying their own addictions for the Cake’s culinary concoctions. So now she had to leave early like today so she could arrive as early as possible, hopefully before the queue that was almost always stretched outside the bakeries doors got too long.

As she walked down the road something caught her attention. Just a block ahead of her was a group of ponies all standing around. Curious, Rarity stopped at the group when she got close enough to see what they all were looking at.

She was surprised to see Mrs Sweet and another, younger, stallion behind a table. On the table was multiple plates with a slice of pie on each of them.

“These are good, where can we get more?” Rarity heard some stallion, that she could have sworn was called Thought Drift, ask.

“You can get more at our bakery, Sweet Bakes, it's just a block away from here.” Starch said pointing in the direction of the Bakery.

Most of the crowd quickly rushed off towards the Bakery, leaving only a few ponies left to finish off the free samples. With fewer ponies there Sugar Sweet was able to pick Rarity out of the crowd. “Ah, Rarity, it’s nice to see you today.” She said as she waved her over with a smile.

“It's nice seeing you too, Darling. What are you doing here?” Rarity asked taking a look over the table.

“Well, we’re hoofing out some free samples of a few new recipes my son came up with,” Sugar said gesturing to Starch to her right. Rarity's eyes went from the table to Starch, who when he noticed her staring at him just waved awkwardly, a pale blush just noticeable through his coat.

“Here, why don’t you try a bit?” Sugar Sweet said as she slid a plate with a slice of chocolate cake over to Rarity.

“Oh thank you, Darling, it looks positively exquisite.” Rarity replied as she took the plate in her own magic, before spearing a bite-sized chunk on a fork and hovering it to her mouth. She paused for a second to take a deep inhale of the cake’s rich scent, hints of vanilla and lemon tickling her nostrils, before her mouth closed on her fork and the chocolate cake touched her tongue.

It was as if her taste buds had exploded with flavors. It was utterly indescribable, and the only thing that she felt could do it justice was to compare it to the divine dishes that had been coming out from Sugarcube Corner.

“So how do you like it?” Starch asked politely, despite already knowing what she would say.

“It's divine, it's simply one of the best cakes I've ever had.” Rarity said before she continued eating the rest of the cake.

“That's good to hear. If you want more you'll have to go get more at our Bakery.” He said.

“ Oh I definitely will.” Rarity said as she finished the cake, before turning to trot down the road leading to Sweet Bakes.

Author's Note

Thanks to The Storm King for editing this chapter.