"Thank you, come again!" Pinkie said cheerily to the customer, handing her one of her new cupcakes. As she looked around at all the patrons taking pleasure in the new pastries, Pinkie allowed herself a little smile. As far as she was concerned, she should have listened to the voice long ago. Doing so resulted in a booming business day, and surely would lead to many more. Plus, she was making everypony in town just a little bit happier, and what could be wrong with that?

At that moment, the bell rang indicating another customer, and when Pinkie looked, she was ecstatic to see who it was.

--

"Hi, Twilight! Hi, Spike! I'm so glad you could come. You get to try some of my brand new, extra-special, super yummy cupcakes!" she greeted, pulling a tray of cupcakes out from behind her and holding it out in front of them. The frosting was colored with brown and white swirls, with a little touch of yellow at the top. Spike's eyes lit up upon seeing them and he couldn't resist licking his lips at the sight of them. Pinkie giggled at the dragon's excitement. "First one's on the house."

"Great, thanks!" Spike said quickly, grabbing two cupcakes and running off to eat them at a table.

"Well? Don't you want to try one, Twilight?" Pinkie asked. "They're freeeeeesh." She fluttered her eyelashes in an attempt to convince Twilight.

"Uh, no thanks, I'm not hungry." Twilight replied, holding up a hoof to emphasize her refusal. Pinkie shrugged.

"Eh, suit yourself." She put the tray away and began rearranging some of the items on the counter.

Twilight had several questions on her mind, of course, but she had trouble figuring out which one would be best to ask first. Knowing Pinkie, she figured that it would be best to lead in to the bigger ones, so she began with something simpler.

"So...Pinkie. You're looking...chipper. I assume that you're feeling better after what happened a few days ago?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pinkie took a second before turning around and making a smile that was bigger than necessary. "Of course I am! I just needed a few days, that's all." she responded, giggling a little.

"...Rrrright." Twilight said awkwardly. "You know, Rainbow Dash is still a little upset over you...hitting her..."

At that moment, Pinkie's smile faltered for a few seconds, but she got it right back up. "Oh, she knows I didn't mean it. I'm sure she'll be perfectly happy to see me again in a few days!"

"Mmm, I don't know." Twilight stated. "I don't think she's the type to really let go of a grudge."

"Trust me, Twilight. I know her better than even Fluttershy does. It'll all be fine! So stop worrying." the party pony answered with an innocent smile.

The unicorn thought that Pinkie's answers would make things easier for her to understand, but if anything, they just made it harder. Why was Pinkie so quick to get over her anger, especially from what Rainbow Dash told them? Pinkie may have spent more time with Rainbow, sure, but Twilight was better at reading social cues than her, which was really saying something. Why was she trying to act so sure that Rainbow would just drop this?

The easy answer to this would have been to just write it off as "Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie", but for Twilight, the easy answer isn't always the right one, so she pressed on.

"All right, all right, I won't worry about it." she said, trying not to worry even as she said it. "So...new cupcakes, eh? What are they made of?" Pinkie giggled.

"I can't tell you that, silly!" she replied. She then looked around to make sure no one was listening in, and leaned in to whisper into Twilight's ear. "It's a secreeeet."

Twilight's ear twitched at having Pinkie breathe those words into it. "Good to know." Then, taking a closer look at the cupcakes, she noticed something...familiar about them. She couldn't figure out what it was, but...

Suddenly, Pinkie's eyes went wide. "Oh, excuse me, I must have left the oven on!" She then went around Twilight to address the rest of the bustle in the shop. "Sorry, everypony, we're going to have to close early! I need to fix the oven!"

The ponies in the shop all groaned. "Aw, I was hoping to get two more of these!" one of the stallions exclaimed.

"Uh, I don't smell any burning." Twilight tried to say, but Pinkie talked over her.

"I know, I'm super-duper sorry, but I have to give you the best of the best, and I can't do that while the oven's burning." she said, putting her tray of fresh cupcakes behind the counter. Before Twilight could question this, the party pony began pushing her outside. "Go on, Twilight, you don't want to burn up, do you?"

Soon enough, all the ponies were outside, the door to Sugarcube Corner was locked, and the lights inside were all turned off. While the rest of the crowd dispersed and grumbled over having to be practically pushed outside, Twilight and Spike were both still trying to comprehend what just happened.

"Huh. I didn't notice the oven was burning." Spike noted, shoving the last of his cupcake into his mouth.

"It wasn't. There wasn't any smoke in the kitchen. I could see that." Twilight said matter-of-factly.

"Then why would Pinkie say it was?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know. But what I do know is that she's hiding something. And I'm going to find out what it is."

The two began to make their way back to the treehouse, Twilight considering everything that happened today. It was clear to her that Pinkie had a huge secret, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was. With Gilda missing, Pinkie suddenly acting happier with barely a word to her friends and suddenly kicking them out, and those new familiar-looking cupcakes...

Twilight felt a light turn on in her brain, as if the pieces finally fit together, but she didn't know exactly how.

"Twilight? You've got that look in your eyes again. You realize something?" Spike asked.

"I think so. But I'll have to do some research before I come to any conclusions."

The baby dragon groaned. "So does this mean...?"

"Yep! It's time to go through the library!" the unicorn exclaimed, sprinting off towards her house.

Spike sighed. "Well, this will take a while..."

--

Once everypony was outside and the lights were off, Pinkie breathed deeply to try and calm herself.

"That was too close." she said to herself. It was then that the voice came back.

You're telling me. I thought you've done this kind of thing before.

Pinkie chuckled nervously, sweating a little. "I...I guess I'm a little out of practice."

Hmph. In that case, we'll have to bring you back into practice. We need to be more careful.

Suddenly, without warning, Pinkie felt a sharp pain in her head and let out a little scream before her poofy mane went straight again.

"Just leave everything to me..."

It was when she headed back to the basement to fix everything up that she noticed Rarity looking in the window with a shocked expression.

Author's Note

Hi! It's been a while since the last chapter, hasn't it? In case any of you thought I was abandoning this story, that is far from the case. Things have been popping up in my real life and I've been focusing on my YouTube channel for a while, but I'm back with another chapter! Hope you enjoy, and I'm feeling inspired once again to continue this story more often than I have before.