Two's Company

"Well thank you Twilight." Mrs. Cake said "I do hope Pinkie here didn't cause you any trouble when she suggested we try one of your spells?"

"Oh, it's no problem" Twilight reassured. "I had nothing to do today anyway, save for some paperwork, but I finished that an hour ago. Besides, it's good to get out of the castle once in a while" Pinkie squeed in excitement. "Now, what did you want my help with?"

"Abiggreystallioncamebyhereearlierandaskedforapiethatwasalsoacake.Wouldyoucallthatapake'???Ooooooh,thatsoundsgood,andfuntosay.Pake,pake,pake,pake,pake.Anyway,Mrs.CakeandMr.Cakedon'tactuallyknowhowtomakesomethinglikethatanditneedstobedonebytonightsotheywantedyoutomagicapieandcaketogether" Pinkie Pie rambled

"Don't mind Pinkie" Mrs. Cake reassured. "You know how intense she can get sometimes."

"Oh, I know the feeling" Twilight replied.

"Anyway, a costumer came by this morning and ordered a cake that's also a pie. They wanted it by tonight. Problem is, I've been baking for years and I've never heard of such a thing. Carrot didn't know how to make anything like that either. But I already have both an apple pie and a plain, vanilla cake in the fridge, so I was wondering if you could use your magic to combine them together somehow."

"Hmmmm, I think I know a spell like that" Twilight pondered. "Just bring them here and I'll see what I can do."

Mrs. Cake trotted to the back of the restaurant to the kitchen. She opened the fridge and swung out a hoof to stack both confectioneries, already in boxes, onto her back. Bringing them back into the dining area, she set them on a table and Twilight got to work.

Twilight began to charge up her spell. It wasn't too complicated. All she had to do was focus on both objects, picture them combined together in her mind, and then extend her magic to make that happen.

However, the moment she finished charging the spell, a blinding rainbow trail streaked into the restaurant with a blurry, blue mare at the front. "WATCH OUT!!!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she crashed into several tables.

Distracted by the commotion, Twilight turned her head to see what was going on. In the process, she misfired her spell. "Rainbow Dash!" she barked, "Be more careful next time. You could have hurt somepo . . ."

But her sentence was cut off by an ear piercing screech.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How many times do I have to tell you Pound?" Pumpkin chastised as the two foals exited their bedroom "I don't read those dumb comics."

"But don't you think Zapp is the coolest Power Pony?" Pound exclaimed excitedly, getting uncomfortably close and completely ignoring his sister's remark.

"Like I said, I wouldn't know. I. DON'T. READ. THOSE. COMICS. Honestly, the only character I even know the name of is Saddle Rager and that's because she's impossibly huge. How could I not notice that?" Pumpkin countered as they trotted down the stairs.

"Geeze, you don't have to get so snippy. I just really like the comics is all . . . Hey, I just remembered. I've got this theory that the Masked Matterhorn and the Mane-iac are secretly in cahoots . . .

"I DON'T CARE!!!!!"

Suddenly, a bolt of magical energy slammed right into both of them from the side. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, pain! Nothing but pain! Pound Cake screamed as his skin melted and his bones contorted in unnatural ways. Although it only lasted a few seconds, it felt like an eternity. Pain everywhere, on and on without end.

Then, it ended. Pound Cake opened his eyes; eyes he didn't realize he had even closed. "Pumpkin" he inquired, staring at the spot where Pumpkin was standing. "Where'd you go?" Pound Cake reeled back at the sound of his own voice. It was higher pitched than it should have been and more . . . feminine?"

Before he could clear his throat however, he heard Pumpkin answer "I'm right here. Where are you?" But it was weird. It sounded like it was his own voice saying it. He could even feel his muzzle moving on it's own. Pound looked around the restaurant. All the ponies there, Mom, Dad, Pinkie, Dash and the Princess, were all staring in shocked silence. Even Pinkie was quite for once.

Of course, that silence lasted for all of fifteen seconds. "Ooooooh Twilight, you really did it now" Pinkie chimed in.

"What?" Pound thought to himself.

"I don't know" he heard Pumpkin's voice say.

"Seriously, where was she? And how could she even hear that?"

"I'm right here idiot" He heard her say again.

"Oh no!" Twilight hyperventilated, panicked "Ohno ohno ohno ohno ohno! Oh Celestia, this is not good!"

Having had enough of the suspense, Pound Cake finally shouted "WHAT'S GOING ON???"

"Do you want to tell 'em or should I?" Dash said

"No, no. I've got it." Twilight panted. Pound watched in confusion as she breathed really hard and did this weird thing where she moved her hoof in and out. After a few moments of her trying to calm down and catch her breath, she finally said. "I'll show you both what happened, but I need you to Pinkie promise me that you won't freak out."

"What's. Going. On?" Pound felt himself say again. How was that even happening?

"I asked you to Pinkie promise."

"Okay, sure" Pound groaned, quickly doing the motions "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

In one swift motion, Twilight levitated a dining tray in front of him and transfigured it into a mirror.

What he saw staring back at him was not what he expected. Instead of his own tan coat, sleek brown hair and deep brown eyes staring back at him, he saw a completely different pony. They had a yellowish cream colored coat, bluish brown eyes, and a duel toned orange and brown wavy mane. For a cutie mark, they had a pound cake on the right flank, and a pumpkin cake on the left. Their face was oddly androgynous and their muzzle was neither the square shape of Pound's nor the rounded shape of Pumpkin's but something in the middle. Between Pound's own tan wings and the yellow horn protruding from the forehead, Pound would have thought he was staring down an Alicorn had he not known any better.

"I was trying to to perform a spell to combine a pie and a cake together" Twilight said sheepishly. "But thank's to a certain someone" she glared at Rainbow Dash "I guess I, maybe, ended up hitting you two instead, Pound and Pumpkin."

"Hey, I justify here!" Dash exclaimed defensively. "It's not my fault you didn't watch where you were pointing that horn."

"Only because you distracted me!" Twilight countered

"Oh Celestia, Oh goddess, this can't be happening!!! Pound Cake screamed internally.

"At least there's something we can both agree on" Pumpkin countered.

"Wait, you can hear my thoughts? Pound inquired

"Of course you dimwit" Pumpkin responded

"Well that's just PEACHY!!!"

"Hey, why are they just standing there?" Dash asked "Twilight, I think you broke them."

"AAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhh" the two screamed in unison.

"Hey, they Pinkie promised!" Pinkie exclaimed, visibly flustered as she revved up to retaliate.

"Settle down Pinkie" Twilight said. "They have every right to freak out right now. I know I would." With Twilight's reassuring words, Pinkie began to calm down, well, Pinkie's version of calm at least.

"Fix it, fix it, fix it!!!" Pound Cake hyperventilated

"I wish it was that easy . . . which ever one of you said that . . . but it's much simpler to mix two objects together than to separate them again.

"He said, fix it! And I can't help but agree. I don't want to be stuck with this slob 24/7!!!"

"Hey, who are you calling a slob? You're just a neat freak."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Stop bickering you two!" Twilight snapped. Here, I'll show you. If I combine this pie and cake together," Twilight cast her spell again "It works just fine." She levitated a knife and cut a slice off of the newly made pie cake. On the outside, it still looked like a vanilla cake, but on the inside was the gooeyness of an apple pie. "However, if I reverse the spell . . ." Twilight shot a beam of magic at the confectionery. In it's place was a scattered mess of cake crumbs and pie filling, all over the table and floor. "That could happen to you two. You understand? I'll do what I can to try and fix this, but it'll take some research; not to mention a lot of experimenting. I want you two back to normal as much as you do but I need to make sure it's safe first and I don't know how long that will take.

"You mean, we're just stuck like this???" Pound Cake screamed

"I'm sorry kids. I'll do everything I can to help you. It'll just take some time. While you're waiting though, why not try and make the most of the situation. This might be an opportunity for a friendship lesson. You never know."

With a reluctant sigh, the twins submitted to their fate. "Fine. Whatever." Pound cake snapped.

"Oh, by the way," Mrs. cake added, glancing at the purple Alicorn in the room "are you going to make another pie cake for us?"

Twilight facehoofed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After many frustrating hours that afternoon, the time came when the twins had to go to bed. The mixed ponies stood in their shared room. The room was split right down the middle.

One side was left unpainted and covered in super hero comic books, action movie posters and action figures of Daring Do and Mare-Do-Well. The comics were mostly by Dancing Clydesdale (DC for short) but there were a hooffull by Marevel comics. The floor was a mess, covered in comics and toys and old clothes that never got washed; some of which had been there for months.

The other side of the room was painted bright pink and covered in heart and rainbow stickers. There were rows upon rows of dolls, books, magazines and anything else that struck Pumpkin's fancy neatly aranged on shelves There was even a little vanity where Pumpkin could work on her mane and makeup.

Pumpkin wanted to wear her usual frilly pink pajamas but Pound Cake just wanted to sleep nude. After a heated argument that kept them up a half hour past their 9:00 bed time, they finally settled on a compromise and only wore the shirt.

They couldn't even agree on which of their bunk beds to sleep on; Pound's bed on the bottom and Pumpkin's on the top. That argument kept them yet another half an hour. Eventually, Mr. Cake had to step in and go through the effort of inflating an air mattress, shoving it to the center of the room and dressing it with whatever random sheets and blankets he could find in a storage closet.

With one last frustrated groan, they finally collapsed onto their air mattress and tried to get some rest.