The Cakes' Special Treats

"I already know how to bake. I made a really yummy cake for my family for my first party," Pinkie huffed, following Mr. Cake. He went down the stairs, but Pinkie instinctively stayed at the top. She took a deep breath and started heading to the first floor.

The kitchen wasn't far, but Pinkie stayed glued to Carrot Cake's side. She silently waited for Mrs. Cake to pop out any moment and punish her, but Carrot Cake was right. They couldn't force her to do anything. Pinkie didn't want to go back to the basement, and it's not like Cupcake could threaten to stab her if she refused.

"Do you know how to make a cake that doesn't use rocks as the main ingredient?" Mr. Cake said as he took out the baking supplies.

"How else are you supposed to make flour? We gather some rocks, different types depending on the flavor we want, then we crush them and mix them with powdered wheat. How do you do it?"

He pulled out a large container. "It's just powdered wheat. The only rocks most ponies use in baking is salt. What do you want to make?"

"That's so expensive, though? Wheat was so scarce and expensive."

"Maybe on your farm since it was so isolated and barren, but here flour is only a few bits for a bag."

There was a nearby recipe book, so Pinkie flipped through it until she found something she liked. She didn't even know what half of the things were. 'Crème brûlée, tres leches, peach cobbler, I've heard of that one before.'

She turned to Mr. Cake. "Can we make something simple? I have no clue what any of these things are. I need your help."

He walked to her and flipped the book to a page labeled 'Banana Bread,' she read over it and it seemed easy enough. Pinkie agreed, and they started making it.

First Carrot Cake helped Pinkie locate the ingredients in the unfamiliar kitchen. She needed bananas, flour, butter, baking soda, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. It didn't take long, but she found it fun to zoom around the room, searching for everything.

"Are we gonna add meat?" Pinkie asked while smashing the overripe bananas.

He answered by going to a part of the wall and tugging on the doorstopper at the bottom. It opened and revealed itself to be a hidden fridge. Mr. Cake grabbed a container filled with red mush, then placed it on the counter. He scooped out a portion of banana from the bowl and replaced it with the blended meat. He then added a drop of banana extract.

"I thought we'd use a lot more, like half a pony or something," Pinkie said, mostly to herself.

Mr. Cake put the meat back in the fridge, then responded to her ramblings, "We only need enough to give the banana bread a good flavor. If we add any more, it might become more noticeable. We bake a lot, which means we use a lot of meat, but only a little in each batch."

They kept making the bread. It was pretty easy. Pinkie mixed the bananas, butter, and meat, then Mr. Cake added the dry ingredients.

He pulled out a cupcake tin, greased it, then started filling them. Pinkie looked at him, confused. "Aren't we making bread? Shouldn't it be in a big loaf?"

He kept filling the molds. "Muffins cook faster than a loaf, and I assumed you'd like to taste your creation faster."

After the muffins were ready, Mr. Cake opened the oven. "Do you want to put them in?"

Pinkie nodded.

"Alright, I know you can't be hurt or anything, but don't touch the oven racks. They're extremely hot."

They placed the muffins in the oven. Now it was time to wait. She sat at the table and stared into space. Three minutes passed before Carrot Cake poked her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Pinkie looked at him, genuinely confused, "Yeah? What's up?"

He scratched the back of his head nervously. "You're usually so hyperactive. It's weird to see you so still."

"You told me to wait, and that's what I do when I have to wait. I just kinda dissociate. After a year of staying in a basement with nothing, I've gotten pretty good at waiting. I could do it for days. In fact, that's the reason I trained myself to be so good at it. So if you guys left me alone for three days again, I wouldn't lose it more than I already have." She looked at him, "Did you really have to go to Canterlot?"

He didn't answer at first and instead pulled out a calendar. After flipping back and forth through the book, he found the page he was looking for and gave it to Pinkie. It was labeled 'BIG CANTERLOT ORDER, MAKE MARZIPAN MARSCAPONE MERINGUE MADNESS, 3 COOKIE CRUMBLE CAKES, 4 DOZEN CUPCAKES!'

"That was a big order," Pinkie said as she gave the book back to Mr. Cake. "I don't even know what any words in the MMMM mean."

He gave Pinkie a questioning look, so she elaborated, "The MMMM, you know because each word starts with an M. I thought it was clever."

"It was clever. Come on, the muffins look ready now." Mr. Cake said as he moved to the oven.

Pinkie peered inside. The golden-brown banana bread muffins looked and smelled delicious.

"Do you want to take them out?" Mr. Cake asked. Pinkie nodded. As he turned around and grabbed a rag, Pinkie stuck her muzzle into the oven to grab the searing tin. "You need to be careful, Pinkie, or else you'll burn yourself. You need to grab the tin with a rag, potholder, or oven mitt, or else you'll hurt yourself." He said, still turned around.

Pinkie placed the muffin mold on the nearby cooling rack. "Done!" she said through her mangled lips.

"Honestly, don't know what I was expecting," Mr. Cake said softly to himself. Pinkie heard it and smiled. Her lips healed as she grinned widely.

"Are we going to try them?" she asked.

A bell rang before she could get an answer. The front door, somepony was here.

"It's alright," Mr. Cake said after seeing Pinkie's panicked expression, "I'll talk to her."

Cupcake's hoofsteps could be heard coming through the hall. Pinkie climbed on top of a cabinet, her body slightly deforming to fit before Cupcake came in.

Mr. Cake looked concerned for some reason. It couldn't be about her because of his confidence earlier. What was he worried about?

Cupcake stepped into the kitchen and was immediately hugged by her husband.

"Oh honey, what's wrong?" Mr. Cake said.

Cupcake hugged him harder. "We buried them exactly one year ago. Why did they have to go? Everypony knows how dangerous the Everfree is, but they went to save a bunch of chickens. They didn't even succeed," Cupcake buried her face in Carrot Cake's chest. "Pear Butter survived for two days before dying. How much pain did she feel? What if that happens to one of us? When we're collecting ponies? Imagine if one of us died and you or I had to survive for two days before dying trying to find..." she tried to keep talking but ended up sobbing instead.

Carrot looked at Pinkie and motioned for her to go back upstairs. Mrs. Cake was too busy crying to notice her, so Pinkie easily slipped away to her room.