“So, tell me again why I’m doing this?” asked Rainbow Dash. She’d been in the midst of taking a nice, peaceful nap when she was suddenly dragged off to Sugarcube Corner by Pinkie Pie.
“Well, the Cakes are out of town for the day, Rarity’s looking after the ‘Cutie Mark Crusader Pet Groomers’ for the afternoon, Twilight’s in Canterlot visiting her folks, Applejack is working on the farm and Fluttershy has some sick animals to look after. Besides, you made a Pinkie Promise to come help me, remember?” The pink mare grinned, sticking her face right in Dash’s. “And you don’t want to break a Pinkie promise, would you?”
Dash sighed, she remembered now. She’d promised that the next time Pinkie needed help at Sugarcube Corner she’d help out, and now it seemed she had to pay up and help. A Pinkie promise was a Pinkie promise, and nopony broke one of those. She shuddered at the very idea of doing so.
“So, what do you want me to do?” she asked, looking around the store, “Man the tills, sweep the floors?”
Pinkie shook her head, her mane bouncing about like a sack of balloons. “Nope. We’re baking!”
“B-baking?” She blanched, she couldn’t think of anything less cool to do, well no she could, letting Rarity dress her up and style her mane was probably less cool than that. “Since when do you need help baking? I thought you could handle that on your own?”
“I would, but we ran out of cookies, so we need to makes lots and lots of cookies! And besides, everyone loves cookies right? So let’s get baking!” She grabbed Rainbow’s hoof and dragged her off into the kitchen before the pegasus could protest.
“I dunno Pinks, I’m not really a baker.”
Pinkie giggled as she hopped about the kitchen, pulling out bowls and pans and mixing tools as she went. “It’s okay silly-willy, baking’s easy. We just follow the steps in the book.” She held up a cookbook in her hooves before setting it on the counter. “First, we put on our aprons.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes shrank at the sight of the very pink, very frilly aprons that Pinkie had pulled out from one of the drawers, one of which was already affixed to her. There was no way she was wearing that! If anyone saw her in that, no, she wasn’t even going to think about that. “Uh, do ya got anything less pink? Something, I dunno, cooler? And less frilly.”
Pinkie tapped her chin thoughtfully for a few moments before digging back through the drawer. “What about this? It’s not frilly.” She held up a simple looking white apron with blue trim.
“Eh, it’ll do I guess.” At least it wasn’t pink and frilly. It still wasn’t ‘cool’ but she doubted that an apron could be cool, unless it had The Wonderbolts on it. Then it would be cool, or cooler at any rate.
“You need any help putting it on?” asked Pinkie as she handed the apron over.
“Pinkie I think I can put an apron on by myself,” laughed Rainbow.
She looked down at the apron and bit her lip nervously, she’d never put one on before, but it couldn’t be that hard to do could it? She held it up, turning it over and moving the ties about and looking at Pinkie to see how she’d done hers up. Part of it went over her head and some of the ties seemed to do up in the back, just behind her wings, or did they go just before them?
Pinkie was humming her to herself when a thump and crash caught her attention. Looking over she saw Rainbow Dash, on the floor, tangled up in her apron and apron strings like a fly in a spider web.
“Dashie you silly-filly, that’s not how you wear it,” she giggled as she made her way over to her friend.
Dash gave a forced grin and weak laugh before, “Maybe some help would be good.”
Her legs slid free and hit the ground with a thump as Pinkie pulled the ties free in a flurry of movements, doing them up properly behind her back right after.
“There, now we can get to baking.” She clapped her hooves together happily before zipping off towards the table and cookbook. “Ok, first we need to mix in the sugar and butter till it’s all nice and creamy.” Her voice sounded dreamy as she spoke.
“What kind of cookies are we even making?” asked Rainbow Dash as she dropped a chunk of butter into the large bowl.
Pinkie’s grin spread even wider across her face till it seemed to reach from ear to ear. “Chocolate chip cookies!” She threw her hooves in the air in excitement, sending the bowl flying through the air and Dash chasing after it to catch it so the contents didn’t spill on the floor.
“Pinkie!” Dash snapped as she set the bowl back on the table. “Watch it, I don’t plan on wearing this stuff.”
Pinkie covered her mouth with her hooves, giggling slightly. “Oopsie. Sorry Dashie.”
The pegasus mare rolled her eyes before dragging out the bag of sugar to help measure it out for the cookies. Pinkie hopped from hoof to hoof as they worked, humming all the way, even as she held the mixing spoon in one hoof as she stirred the sugary-butter mixture around, even as she balanced a pair of eggs on her nose before adding them to the mixture.
“Dashie, can you get me the flour and baking soda?” she asked, pointing up the top shelf where the bags of flour were stored, they'd been up high to keep them out of the reach of Pound and Pumpkin Cake who had taken to dumping them out for fun.
“Aye-aye ma’am.” She gave a mock salute as she zipped off with a flap of her wings. Dash grabbed the top bag quickly, but was startled by its weight as it was heavier than she’d expected it to be, and the bag fell from her hooves before she had a chance to say anything and warn Pinkie Pie.
A cloud of white dust filled the air as the bag hit the ground, exploding open upon contact, landing a few feet from where Pinkie stood. As the cloud began to settle, a pair of blue eyes stared back at her from the white mess and Dash began to laugh. “Oh Pinkie you should see yourself, you look so funny.”
A devilish grin crept across the flour-covered mare’s face as she rose to her hooves, the mixing bowl now set aside. “Oh, it is on sister!”
Dash’s laughing was cut short as a clod of flour hit her in the face. How Pinkie had managed to throw the flour like snow was unclear, but she had and now Rainbow’s face was covered in flour.
Dash dove down at her, tackling the Element of Laughter and barrelling through the flour. There was a thud as Pinkie flipped her over and Dash found herself on her back on the split bag and its contents, flour in her mane and tail and in between the feathers of her wings. Then, she felt something brushing on her sides and stomach and she began to shake, bit her lip as she fought to keep from laughing.
“Pinkie stop it that tickles,” she squeaked as she began to laugh, the pink mare tickling her sides with her hooves. “Pinkie!”
“Does this mean I win?” asked Pinkie, holding her hooves in front of herself gleefully.
Dash gave her a confused look at first before, “Sure Pinkie, you win, just stop tickling me.”
Pinkie skipped about joyfully, still coated head to tail in flour. “I win, I win. And I know Dashie’s tickly places too.”
Rainbow Dash looked horrified for a moment as she pulled herself back to her hooves before, “Don’t tell anypony about that, got it?”
Pinkie stopped bouncing to look at her and nodded, “Okie-dokie loki. I won’t tell anypony. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She went through the motions of the Pinkie promise, complete with sticking her forehoof in her eye, though she seemed utterly unaffected by it. “Now, we have cookies to make. I think we’re gonna need more flour though,” she said, pointing to the bag/
The bag that Dash had dropped was split nearly in half and flour coated just about everything, the floor, the counters, the two mares and the walls.
Shaking herself off and flicking her wings, Dash went back for round two, this time prepared for the weight of the flour bags. She kept a tight grip on the massive bag before letting it land with a satisfying thump on the counter.
She wasn’t quite sure what baking soda was, or even why soda would be used in baking but she wasn’t going to argue with Pinkie about it. If Pinkie said use it, then obviously it went in. With a shrug she opened the fridge and looked around, wondering just what baking soda looked like. Was it just flavourless soda, like soda water?
“I can’t find any baking soda, would just normal soda work?” Rainbow Dash asked, holding up a bottle of soda pop from the fridge as she looked over at Pinkie who was, laughing? Dash frowned, why was Pinkie laughing at her?
“Oh Dashie you’re so silly, we don’t use that for baking. This is baking soda,” she held up a box with white powder.
“Looks like flour to me,” she said, putting the bottle back in the fridge.
“No, this is flour,” she pointed to the torn bag on the floor, “This is baking soda.”
Dash looked between the two things, trying to figure out what could possibly be the difference between the two white powdery things. “Ya sure about that Pinks? Cause they look the same to me.”
“Oh yes, very sure. It’s right here in the book see?” She pointed with her hoof to the passage in the cookbook. “Now, you want to try stirring it? Then we get to add the chocolate chips to make it all yummy.” She pushed the mixing bowl and wooden spoon across the table to Dash, smiling hopefully.
Dash eyed the bowl carefully before taking it in her hooves, the spoon in her other. The batter was thick, incredibly resistant to her attempts to stir it and only getting worse with each rotation as more and more of the flour got mixed in.
“Geeze Pinkie, how do you manage to do this all the time?” she asked, gritting her teeth as she fought with the mixture. Pinkie made it look so easy, just throw the ingredients in a bowl and stir till it was blended.
“Pinkie?” She looked up when she got no answer and frowned, where had she gone? She set the bowl back on the table, rubbing her sore legs, before looking around, where had that mare gotten off to now?
“Ohh, I just can’t decide. They’re all so good!” came her voice from the other room. “White chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips! It would be a crime to leave any of them out!”
Dash peered into the room to see Pinkie sitting on the floor, several bags of different kinds of chocolate chips lying on the floor around her.
“A crime you hear me, a crime!” She turned to face Rainbow Dash, grabbing and holding her face in her hooves. “Do you know how much ooey-gooey goodness the cookie would have if we used all these chocolate chips? Do you?”
“Umm, a lot?”
“Yes exactly. Lots and lots of yummy chocolaty goodness.” She stopped to give a loud gasp. “Dashie you’re a genius! We’ll make them Triple Chocolate Chip cookies!”
She grabbed the bags and whipped past Dash, causing the poor mare to spin around several times before managing to stop herself so she could follow Pinkie into the kitchen. Pinkie was standing over the mixing bowl, dumping in copious amounts of chocolate chips of all varieties.
“Pinkie, don’t you think you’re going a bit overboard there?” asked Dash. “That looks a bit much-”
“Too much, are you crazy? You can never have too many chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies. Too few most definitely but never too many.” She bounced away from the table to fetch some pans and Rainbow Dash could swear her mane and tail were even poofier than before, if that were even possible.
“Come on Dashie, help me make these into cookies so we can bake’em,” she chirped, bouncing back to the table where the bowl and trays were sitting.
“How do I do that?” asked Rainbow Dash as she made her way over, a look of confusion on her face.
“Oh that’s easy, you just take some dough between your hooves, make a little ball and gently flatten it a little when you put it on the pan, like so.” She stated each step as she went, carefully rolling a small ball of dough between her hooves with utmost dexterity and precision that shouldn’t have been possible, before placing it on the cookie tray and gently pressing it down so it was a bit flatter. “Now you try!”
Rainbow Dash eyed the gooey, chocolate chip filled mix in the bowl before carefully taking a glob of the mixture with one hoof. It was sticky and messy and she was getting more of it stuck to her fur and hooves than was to end up on the pan. Finally she plopped her oddly shaped ball of dough onto the pan beside Pinkie’s, accidentally flattening it too much as she did.
“Wow Dashie that certainly a, unique cookie,” said Pinkie encouragingly. “I’m sure the next one will be better.”
It wasn’t, and neither were the next few either. She may have been the fastest pegasus in Ponyville and able to execute a Sonic Rainboom near perfectly, but rolling a small blob of dough between her front hooves and having it turn out properly, that was out of the question.
She heaved a sighed and tossed her dough caked hooves in the air in defeat, “You know what Pinkie, why don’t you finish making those and I’ll just put them in the oven after. I certainly can’t screw that up.”
“Okie-dokie, just follow the settings right there in the book.” Pinkie pointed to the bottom of the page of the open book, batter dripping off the end of her hoof.
Dash glanced at the book, then over at the oven, it was already turned on and the heat set to the temperature listed in the book, Pinkie must have done that earlier to get it ready. She looked back at the book; they needed to cook for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Dash frowned 12 minutes? Surely they could cook faster couldn’t they? She looked back at the oven thoughtfully, tapping her chin lightly before a thought struck her. She looked over at Pinkie to make sure she wasn’t looking before sneaking over to the oven and adjusting the temperature so it was higher, after all, higher temperatures meant less cooking time right? Stepping back she looked at the newly set-and much higher-temperature and smiled to herself, now the cookies would be done in no time and she could get back to what was really important, her nap.
“Ok Dashie here you go!” Pinkie pushed the tray of unbaked cookies down the table towards her; her hooves caked with bits of dough.
“Then do we get to wash all this off?” asked Rainbow Dash, indicating their flour and dough caked coats. “Because I think this stuff is starting to make me itch.” She flicked her wings, shaking off some more of the flour in a small cloud before grabbing the tray to put in the oven.
“Not yet, there’s still the best part!”
Dash frowned and gave her a quizzical look. “What’s that?”
“We get to lick the bowl of course!” She held up the empty, batter caked bowl and spoon. “Or do you want the spoon?”
“I’m good there Pinks.”
“If you say so, more for me then.” Her head vanished inside the bowl and all Rainbow Dash could hear was loud slurping as Pinkie licked the bowl clean. When she pulled her head back out there was batter in her mane and on her face. “You have no idea what you’re missing here Dashie, you sure you don’t want to lick the spoon?”
“I told ya, I’m good.”
Pinkie just shrugged before cleaning off the wooden spoon in a few short licks. “Alrighty, follow me.” She bounced off towards the stairs, leaving a trail of flour prints as she went.
Rainbow Dash tossed the apron over a chair as she followed her, having found it easier to untie and slip out of than she had putting it on.
The kitchen was a disaster area; the torn bag of flour was spilled in the middle of the floor, covering everything around it including the walls and counter and cupboard doors and even the ceiling! Bits of batter and dough were splattered on the counter and hoof prints tracked the flour through the kitchen and up the stairs to where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash had gone to clean up.
Water dripped from Rainbow Dash’s fur as she pulled her head out of the sink and sniffed the air. Something smelled, off. “What’s that smell?”
Pinkie peered out from under a towel, her coat slowly returning to its bright pink colour. Her mane, despite being wet, was still oddly puffy. “What was that Dashie?” she asked, her blue eyes curious.
“You smell that? It’s smells-”
“The cookies!” Rainbow Dash was cut off as Pinkie screeched, eyes widened in terror before she took off in a streak of pink.
Twisting the taps off, Dash flew down the stairs after her to see what was going on, the burning smell getting stronger. She was greeted by a plume of smoke from the open oven and the foul smell of burnt food. She coughed as she landed, covering his nose with one leg and using her wings to try and clear the air around her as she looked for a window to open to air the place out.
“Pinkie what happened?” she asked as she pried open a window over the sink, fresh air greeting her face. “What’s with all the smoke?”
Pinkie’s voice was quiet as she spoke and Rainbow Dash didn’t catch what she said at first.
“What was that?” she asked, turning back to face her friend. “I didn’t quite hear ya.”
“The cookies…” Pinkie looked up at her, blue eyes watering and bottom lip quivering as she tilted the pan so Dash could see the top of it. The cookies on the pan were black, black as charcoal.
Rainbow Dash gulped, evidently turning the heat up had been a really bad idea, even with the shorter amount of time they had burned to a crisp. “It’s okay Pinkie, I-I’m sure they’ll turn out better next time,” she said comfortingly, wrapping a forehoof around Pinkie’s shoulder.
“Really?"she asked, looking up at Rainbow Dash hopefully.
“Totally, I bet they’ll be the best cookies ever.”
Pinkie smiled as she wiped her eyes. “So you’ll help me tomorrow then right?”
Almost as soon as the words left Pinkie’s mouth than a rainbow colour blur bolted from Sugarcube corner.
Author's Note
June 12th 2014-Made some small edits to fix some formatting and typos.
