It was business as usual at Sugar Cube Corner. Pinkie Pie stood behind the counter, giving boxes full of sweets to random customers, while Carrot Cake and Cupcake were in the kitchen, baking more treats and goodies for Pinkie to give to more customers along the way.
Meanwhile, both of the Cake Twins, Pound and Pumpkin Cake were also in the lobby, playing with their blocks, stuffed animals, and other toys in their little play area.
Pinkie Pie placed a sizable assortment of Lemon Meringue Muffins into a large, white box before tying them up and giving them to the crossed-eyed pony. “Here you go, Derpy.”
“Wow, thanks, Pinkie! You know how much I love muffins.” She fluttered away before bumping her head on the door ledge. Smiling that her muffins are still intact, she flew off without saying a word.
“Have a great day!” The element of laughter waved with a giggle. She then darted her head towards the Cake Twins to check on them. They were perfectly fine in their play area as she sighed in relief. “Looks like that was the last customer of the day. Hmm… Now that I’m done, I might as well get a little--”
But before she could go to the kitchen for some food, her ears caught a loud, honking sound, causing her eyes to widen like a beach ball. She turned around to see if that sound came from the twins, but they were still playing with their toys together.
Pinkie shrugged as she started to head back to her work. “Huh. Must be my imagination.”
There it was again. That same honking sound from nearby. She whirled her neck back, only to see that it really was the Cake Twins. But it didn’t come from the toys they were playing with. It came straight from their mouths, much to Pinkie’s shock.
“Uh… Pumpkin Wumpkin and Poundy Woundy? Did you just say the--?”
They made the honking sound right in front of her face before going back to playing. Pinkie Pie gasped before zooming to the kitchen to tell Mr. and Mrs. Cake.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cake! You’ve gotta come over here quick!”
“What’s wrong, Pinkie?” Mrs. Cake asked.
“Pound and Pumpkin somehow learned a new word that they shouldn’t have learned before!”
“What?! What is it?!” Mr. Cake chimed.
Like a slinky, Pinkie stretched her neck and foreleg over to Mr. Cake, whispering the word in both his and Mrs. Cake’s ears. They both gasped at what she whispered, followed by Mr. Cake fainting.
“You’re-you’re joking, right?” Mrs. Cake asked.
But she shook her head. “Come with me.”
Pinkie Pie hopped through the double doors while Mrs. Cake tried to wake her husband up.
Back at the lobby, both Pinkie and the Cakes strode towards the little fillies’ play area. They had to be sure if they really said that word, after all.
“Uh… Pound Cake? Pumpkin Cake? Would you mind telling Mommy and Daddy if you really said that--?”
And there it was. Straight from the horses’ mouths as they made that honking sound again in front of them before giggling. Both the Cakes and Pinkie’s mouths dropped at what was said. Carrot Cake fainted once more. How did such cute and innocent fillies learn such a forbidden word?
At the kitchen, he got up, fully conscious again. “Ugh… What happened?”
“Don’t you remember?! Our twins just learned the… you know!”
Mr. Cake rubbed his head until his mind finally lit up at what happened. “H-how did this happen?!”
“I don’t know!” Mrs. Cake gasped. “You don’t think we must’ve--?!”
“No-no! That’s ridiculous! We would never do something like that, especially not in front of the little foals… right?”
The Cakes then placed their hooves on their chins, trying to figure out if they were the ones who accidentally taught their babies that word.
Sometime ago, Mr. Cake bolted back and forth, waiting and sweating for the cupcakes to get done for the lunch rush in time. The timer slowly ticked before making a ringing sound.
“Done!” Mr. Cake opened the oven and was about to take out the tray, but because he wasn’t wearing oven mitts and was in a hurry, the tray burned his hooves.
“Yow! What the ****!” He gasped, quickly covering his mouth in shock and darted his head to make sure no one heard that.
Unbeknownst to him, the Cake Twins halted their playtime as their ears caught what he just said.
“Oh, dear! What have I done?!” Mr. Cake panicked.
“It’s okay, honey. You didn’t mean to--” Her eyes soon widened as she reminisced about the time she inadvertently said that word as well.
Mrs. Cake carried a tray of pies behind her back on her way to the kitchen. What she didn’t anticipate was a wet floor stain right in front of her while she was humming a tune. As expected, she slipped and fell onto the floor. A plethora of pies followed suit, all falling on her and the floor.
“Oh... ****!” She gasped, covering her mouth while directing her eyes for anyone hearing that.
Unfortunately, at the Cake Twins’ Room, they glanced at the doorway from their beds after hearing the word.
“Okay. I’m guilty, too.”
“Oh, this is bad! Like really bad! We’re bad parents!” Mr. Cake cried.
“What? Pfft. No, you’re not.” Pinkie Pie bade. “You didn’t know that was gonna happen.”
“Uh… Have youeversaid the “K” word, too, Pinkie Pie?” Mrs. Cake asked.
“No, I Pinkie Promised myself to never say--”
But present Pinkie Pie would soon eat her own words when past Pinkie Pie sat at the lobby, trying to blow a huge pile of balloons for a party. She tried to blow the last, long balloon, but her last blow was so long that she accidentally popped it. This, however, caused a chain reaction that made each balloon pop after another until the entire floor was completely filled with torn balloon pieces.
Pinkie’s face dropped before heating up in anger. “Grr… ***!” And just like that, Pinkie covered her mouth as well while the foals heard the honking.
Pinkie chuckled nervously. “Maybe that was before I made that promise.”
“Oh, we’ve got to do something! If this keeps up, not only will we be setting a bad example for our little foals, but… oh no...” Mrs. Cake paused.
“Oh no?!” Mr. Cake asked.
“I completely forgot that the food critic is coming to Ponyville tomorrow to check on Sugar Cube Corner!”
“WHAT?!” Mr. Cake shouted before rushing over to check on the babies, who were still playing with their toys in peace.
“Okay. No need to panic. We just need to find a way to teach both Pound and Pumpkin Cake not to say the “K” word before the food critic gets here.” Mrs. Cake said.
“But how?”
Pinkie Pie thought before a light-bulb came from her mane. “I’ve got it!” She then saw that the Cakes were blinded by the light-bulb before glancing at it. “Oops, sorry. How does that keep happening, anyway?” She pushed the bulb back in her mane.
“So, what’s the idea?” Mr. Cake asked.
“I’ll teach them not to say the “K” word,” Pinkie Pie then whispered. “It’ll just be between you and me that we discussed it.”
“A-are you sure you can do it in time?” Mr. Cake asked.
“Don’t worry. Just leave it to me.”
Pinkie then rushed out of the kitchen while the two Cakes glanced at each other. Is she really able to convince them not to say the “K” word? Let’s cross our hooves and hope for the best.
At the Cake Twins’ Room, they both snored peacefully in their crib like the adorable little fillies they are, all while listening to a soothing lullaby player that sat at the nightstand. In the meantime, Pinkie, wearing a black ninja suit, crept through the room like a spider, albeit a huge, pink, fluffy spider, but still.
It took some effort to stay completely silent, thanks to the creaking floorboards, but she finally made it to their nightstand without waking up the foals. Now with great determination, she took out a silver disc from her mane and quickly swapped it for the lullaby one before making a quiet b-line out the door... in her own Pinkie way, that is.
The music player softly restarted. ‘Up and down and all-around. The birdie lands on the ground. Tweeting. Tweeting. We never make the “K” sound.’
The song continued playing while also repeating the phrase ‘Never make the “K” sound’. How Pinkie Pie was able to make a song and disc play that, we’ll never know, but as the old saying goes, ‘It’s Pinkie Pie. Don’t question it’.
The next day, Pinkie Pie stretched her limbs as she got up from her bed. Today was the day for the food critic to come to Sugar Cube Corner for an inspection and judging by the complete silence from downstairs as well as the seemingly lack of that awful word, clear skies were ahead for both the Cakes and Pinkie.
As she strolled downstairs, Pinkie soon spotted Pound and Pumpkin Cake playing with their toys as usual. Everything seemed too normal around here, so she slowly walked towards the twins, acting like nothing was wrong.
“Hey, Pumpkin Wumpkin and Poundy Woundy. How was your--?”
HONK!
Pinkie gasped. How did that disc not work?! Babies can be very impressionable, especially when listening to music, so how could they still be saying that ‘K’ word?!
She didn’t have much time to figure this out since the critic will be here at any moment. So she made her way back to the kitchen where Cupcake and Carrot Cake were at, pacing the floor about what to do.
“So, I’m guessing you already know that my plan didn’t work?” Pinkie nervously chuckled.
“How could they still be saying that?! You said you’ve got it covered, Pinkie!” Carrot Cake shouted.
“I tried! I don’t know why they keep saying that word, either!”
Mr. Cake sighed. “Then I guess we’re going to have to tell the food critic to close down the Corner, and--”
“No, we are not going to do that! There’s gotta be some way to teach them not to say that word in time!” Ms. Cake shouted.
“But how?”
“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Pinkie Pie chimed. “Why don’t we just explain to them not to say that word upfront?”
“Hey, you’re right!” Cupcake hoofpalmed. “Why didn’t we just do that from the start?”
“I guess we’ve been so busy panicking that we couldn’t get our heads straight.”
“Let’s do it!”
With enough time to spare before the critic gets here, the three ponies walked upfront to the Cake Twins like they said. Sweat was dripping from their coats, especially Mr. Cake’s, as they got ready to have a serious talk with them about the ‘K’ word.
“Uh… Pound Cake? Pumpkin Cake? We need to talk,” Cupcake said.
The twins darted their adorable heads at the trio. Judging by how frantic they did it, it became pretty clear to them that they had done something wrong.
“It’s okay, Pound and Pumpkin. You’re not in trouble. We just need to tell you about that recent word you’ve been using.” Carrot Cake explained.
“Ya see, that word isn’t something you shouldn’t have learned and we should never have blurted that word out loud. We’re sorry.” Pinkie Pie added.
Cupcake sighed. “You see, there are some words that are nice and some that aren’t, and that word wasn’t very nice for any of us to say. It’s a very bad word.”
The twins glanced at each other before turning back to the trio in confusion and concern.
“Listen, can you promise us to never say that word again?” Carrot asked.
After a few seconds, both twins nodded in agreement. Pinkie bounced with cheer at their victory before Cupcake covered her mouth and pointed at the critic, who just arrived early for the inspection and heard the whole thing nearby. Tears were in his eyes as he processed what happened.
“That was very beautiful. I used to teach my foals about that a long time ago. It’s never right to say bad words like that, especially around your loved ones. Now, may we start the inspection, Mr. and Mrs. Cake?”
“Yes, Mr. Venture. Let us show you what we’ve been working on lately.”
And with that, the twins continued playing as the ‘K’ word had finally left their mouths and everypony, including the critic, were as pleased as possible.