The Rise of Passion

"You put the whole thing in the oven, set the timer for an hour,
and that's how you make your banana bread with power!"

After her rap was finished, Pinkie bounced around the room, watching over the students as they fixed up their baked goods as intended. Sandbar had been paying close attention, but had missed the call for sodium bicarbonate, and was thus baking a brick today. As he popped it into the oven, Pinkie bounced up to him. "How ya doin', Sandbar?"

"Oh, I'm doin'..." he chuckled. "Had a bit of a stress scare recently, but everything worked out okay."

"What happened? Can I help by singing a song?"

"No, that's fine. Gallus had a bottle of some chemical spill on him that hurt his eyes, but we washed it out. He's fine now."

"Can I sing a song, anyway?"

Sandbar rubbed the back of his neck. "I... guess so?"

As Pinkie started beatboxing, Sandbar set the timer on his oven for just under an hour to make up for the time he'd spent talking with Pinkie.

"Hey, Miss Pinkie Pie, can I ask you something?"

"Well, you certainly can, my friend, Sandbar.
I hope you won't find it too bizarre,
if I answer all of your thoughts with rhyme;
in fact I hope you find it an enjoyable time!"

As she slipped back into her beatboxing, Sandbar cleared his throat and started bobbing his head.

"Well, teach, I hope you don't mind if I begin,
by telling you I wanna spend time with my friends.
We're takin' a vacation in a couple of weeks,
and we... ummm..."

There was some murmuring as Pinkie continued to beatbox, waiting for him to finish, hoping he'd stick to the rhyme scheme. If he floundered, that was okay; she wouldn't totally roast him if he dropped the ball.

"And he don't want it to reek!" shouted a mare at the next table over.

"And I don't want it to reek." nodded Sandbar.

Pinkie picked up right where he left off.

"Well, tell me 'bout your plans, and I hope they're not too long,
'cause I'd hate for you to come back sayin' everything went wrong.
Time spent with friends should be met with lots of smiles,
rather than a string of sadness that drags on for miles and miles.
To help you pass the time, I suggest a travel game,
to keep you occupied if the transportation's lame."

There was a bit of clapping from the rest of the class, and even some cheering.

"We're going to Aquestria with our friend, Silverstream,
to see her home town for which her eyes gleam.
We're starting on a train from right here in Ponyville,
and going to Manehattan, where we're gonna... gonna..."

"Take a spill?" suggested a gryphon.

"Eat your fill!" called a dragon.

"Hang out and chill!" said a yak.

"We're gonna hang out and chill," accepted Sandbar.

Pinkie nodded and smiled.

"Well, if you're going to Aquestria, you're gonna need some help.
Sure, they have food you can eat, like seaweed and kelp,
but any baked goods will be dissolving in the water,
and to keep the fish away, you are gonna need a spotter.
Much more than that, you're gonna need some gills,
or you'll completely miss your chance to enjoy all the thrills,
'cause ya can't relax and ya can't calm down,
if the whole time that you're there, you're tryin' not to drown."

"Well, that's just it, I can't breathe under the sea.
Do you have a way of helping me?"

"Ya wanna take to water like a duck?
Pinkie Pie can help you; you're in luck!
I know of the ingredients to a special cake,
and it's an easy recipe; just mix and bake!"

Sandbar's eyes shot open, and he had to take a step back. He'd never heard of such a thing.

"Are you tellin' me that there's a baked good
that can let me swim around her neighborhood?
I thought for sure that I was gonna need some air,
to keep me from succumbing to the... water?"

"Pressure down there!" called the crowd.

"Right, that..."

Pinkie furrowed her brow, but did not stop beatboxing.

"Well, this cake doesn't assist you in breathing,
it's more of a workaround to keep you achieving.
It makes you swim faster, smoother, stronger,
but it won't help you stay underwater longer.
It'll help you surface, though, and that's a big relief,
'cause Silverstream was raised near the top of the reef.
You can and should surface with regularity,
unless you have diving suits from my mare, Rarity."

"I think my friend Yona's asking her for assistance."

"Then I doubt Rarity's gonna put up a resistance."

"Is there any other help you can offer us, Pinkie?"

"Let me see, now, Sandbar," she answered, tapping her forehead. "Thinky, thinky, thinky...
Yes, I can help her in showing off the suits,
from the diving helmet down to the diving boots.
That way you know what every feature is,
and you can drop down there, knowing all the biz!"

"You're a lifesaver, Pinkie Pie, really, you are."

"Lifesavers are a type of candy, silly Sandbar!"

With that, Pinkie stopped beatboxing, and the whole room cheered for her and Sandbar's duet, though mostly for Pinkie's parts. She was clearly well-versed in verse, and had paid several billz with her skillz. Sandbar, on the other hoof, was very much out of his element, and had been doing his best to keep up, though he had needed some audience participation to keep going.

As Pinkie bounced around the room to check on how the other tables were doing with their banana bread, Sandbar brought his dirty dishes back to the sink. Having Pinkie ready to help out with the diving suits was a good thing. With what they needed to do to her and Rarity, they had a unique need to be able to cover them in some kind of shroud, and if they could fit in the diving suits, that would make them unidentifiable.

There was still a lot they had to figure out, like how to convince them to take Zecora's potion, but they had created an opening. That, more than anything, was the point of today.