"Well? What d'ya think?" Pinkie asked, posing in front of an enormous sign made of chocolate. It had the Choco-con logo of a candy bar with the year inscribed onto it. It was surrounded by a small fence of velvet rope as a cheap way of keeping ponies from eating the edible sculpture. Twilight herself felt tempted for a an unnoticeable sample, but she resisted and turned her attention to the entrance.

"Why's it empty?" Twilight asked, noticing the lack of ponies buying entrance badges.

"As ponies that have a booth, we're allowed to come in early to set up and bake some of our signatures dishes." Bon Bon answered, trotting ahead to an entrance booth. Bon Bon was greeted by an official looking pony who glanced over an ID around her neck. The stallion smiled and allowed her to enter. Lyra followed behind and did the same.

"Uhh, Pinkie? I don't have one of those badges." Twilight said nervously. Pinkie only smiled and looked to her friend with a lighthearted giggle. Pinkie bounced through the queue, turning the sharp corners and reached the front of the line, while Twilight just walked around the empty line.

"Silly filly, we could just get one right now." Pinkie Pie answered, grabbing Twilight's side and dragged her to the same booth.

"Where are your badges?" The stallion asked, noticing they didn't have any.

"We didn't get our IDs yet." Pinkie answered.

"Alright then. Come with me," he instructed, leading them to a gray room. There was a list of names on the counter and Pinkie Pie saw Sugar Cube Corner's information.

"Alright what's the name of the booth?" He asked, keeping his neutral face.

"Sugar Cube Corner." Pinkie said straightforwardly.

"You are Mrs. Cake right?" He asked, causing the pink mare to giggle uncontrollably.

"Nope! I'm Pinkie Pie." Pinkie answered, continuing her giggling fit.

"Right, and this is?"

"Mrs Cake." Pinkie Pie lied. Twilight was about to speak up against that, but Pinkie shoved a hoof straight into her mouth. "Right? Mrs. Cake!?" Twilight was forced to nod by the hooves around her jaw.

"Okay then. Here's the location of the booth. Have a nice day." He gave Pinkie a small pamphlet and gave a straightforward cue for them to leave.

Twilight thanked the stallion and left the room with her friend. Upon exiting the room, Twilight questioned Pinkie on her lie about her being Mrs. Cake. Twilight sighed to herself when she figured out the answer. Twilight yelped loudly as Pinkie grabbed her by the side and whisked her away throughout the convention halls. Twilight's purple eyes scanned the booths around her that were setting up, marking places where she'd want to visit. When she did want to investigate a certain booth, she would hold her hooves against the floor just enough so it gives her some extra time to view the point of interest.

"Sweet Celestia, it's cold in here." Twilight complained, pointing out the low temperature in the room. Twilight shivered and rubbed her hooves together as a simple way of generating heat.

"Of course it's cold! You don't want all the chocolate melting, do you?"

In a matter of seconds, the two reached their assigned area and began to set up. Bon Bon eventually showed up with her items and took a spot adjacent to the Sugar Cube Corner booth.

"Looks like we're near each other again." Bon Bon remarked, happy with her location.

"Remember that one year where we got booths next to each other?" Pinkie asked happily.

"And we decided to merge them and call it 'Sugar Cube Confectioneries?' " Bon Bon reminisced.

"And we ended up giving the whole convention eating disorders?" Pinkie Pie finished, and they giggled happily with their memories.

let's not do that this year. Twilight thought with a sly smirk. Twilight helped with the set up and did her part. And when the baking came along, she stood to the side and supplied Pinkie with some of the ingredients. They spent nearly the entire morning buying supplies, so saying they were prepared was an understatement. They had entered the convention with various bags full of baking necessities like flour and sugar, but they also had excessive amounts of sweets, ranging from gummy bears to ice cream sandwiches, (so there might have been a good possibility about the eating disorders).

Pinkie Pie hummed an upbeat rhythm while she worked, and she would often mumble a few lyrics of whatever song she was singing. Pinkie would sing her baking cupcakes song to herself while pouring cups of flour into many different bowls. She worked quickly, but she still kept a gentle and almost masterful approach to the skill. Twilight would help in the preparation at times, but she groan a few seconds later and would ask for help from the bubbly baker. Twilight sighed and mumbled to herself that she preferred the eating part of the baking stages.

Twilight took it as a cue to leave when Pinkie placed the final tray into an over sized oven provided to most of the top earning and highly visited stands. Twilight wanted to visit the places she had marked earlier. She ambled slowly through the halls, watching groups work on their custom goodies. Twilight was particularly interested in a group erecting a gingerbread style house out of red velvet cake. She watched the small home begin to teeter off-center, startling the mint green mare working on it. Twilight magicked the sides in her telekinetic grip and saved the mare's sweets. The green pony thanked her and shook her hoof.

"No problem Miss..." Twilight peered down to the counter and saw the pony's name and almost struck herself straight in the face with her purple hoof. Thin Mints

Of course everypony's names has to do with candy. "Were you a filly scout?" Twilight asked. The mare only shook her head in annoyance at the reference.

"No," she answered with an irritated sigh. "I could never stand the teasing if I joined the filly scouts."

"Okay, bye Thin Mints." Twilight trotted away, feeling a bit too awkward about the situation.

"It's way too cold in here." Twilight complained to herself again. Twilight looked around for anything that could warm herself up. She glanced around and noticed a stallion at a stall of hot chocolate. Twilight approached the stand and tapped on the counter. The stallion's attention was easily captured by the sudden noise.

"Hey, miss. What can I help you with?"

"Is your cocoa ready yet?" Twilight asked, and the cocoa salespony only shook his head. Twilight groaned, walked away, and began searching for another source of warmth. Unfortunately, she found nothing that could warm her freezing body. The purple unicorn kicked at the ground with one of her fore hooves. She racked her brain with everything that could help her thermal problem, but only one thing came into mind.

Back at the Sugar Cube Corner station, Pinkie Pie helped her candy maker friend with her projects. Bon Bon skillfully poured the chocolaty liquid over the tips of strawberries. Bon Bon twirled the fruit around to get an optimal, yet inexpensive enough to sell. Pinkie did the same before sparking up a conversation.

"So I hear this convention's top earner gets a thousand bits." Pinkie mentioned happily.

"That's great, but I didn't bring any secret ingredients." Bon Bon complained.

"I did. And when everypony gets a taste, they'll just want more." Pinkie said with a hint of devious intentions.

"Sounds interesting, but didn't the officials ban 'secret ingredients?' Especially after three year's ago." Bon Bon joked.

"You and I both know that's code for-- never mind." Pinkie stopped herself mid-sentence as a mother walked by with her children, giving the party pony a nasty glare. Bon Bon looked over to her pink friend and mouthed, "how did she get in?" Pinkie Pie shrugged playfully and went back to spinning strawberries on the edge of a tiny chocolate fountain.

"I'm not sure how much of it I have left, but a limited amount could leave ponies wanting more. It could also attract more ponies to my booth," said Pinkie with pride. Bon Bon couldn't help but have a strange feeling about Pinkie's plan.

~~

"A double calorie spell?" Twilight repeated, swallowing a lump in her throat. Her sudden exponential gain in weight made sense now to her mentor's insight. Celestia kept a calm attitude to juxtapose Twilight's reaction. Twilight found it hard to form a coherent sentence other than just repeating "double calorie spell." Twilight hung her head in shame, knowing completely that it was a test from Celestia. And she failed, miserably.

"I'm so sorry, Princess. I'm pathetic." Twilight apologized quickly. Celestia harbored a smile behind her stony face and let it show each time Twilight would put her head down or look away. She would chuckle to herself, but mask it in the form of a cough. She had done the routine for as long as she could remember. Celestia combined the cough and laugh seamlessly through thousands of years of the same shtick. The playful prank was sort of an initiation; each generation of Celestia's personal student faced a joke that would test their patience. Or, at least that was Celestia's excuse.

"Nonsense Twilight. You just made a mistake. I'm sure it won't happen again." Celestia said sternly. Celestia had found Twilight's weakness early on. Twilight had feared disappointment; the filly would go the extra mile to avoid the disapproving glance. Twilight also worked herself up for situations that didn't matter at all, and it only took a few day's to find the egg head's weak points. Celestia stayed silent, stretching the tension as far as she can.

"I'm just very disappointed in you, Twilight." Celestia said quietly. There was the words that Twilight feared, and she dropped her ears in shame. "I expected more from you." She purposefully added the second part to mess with her student's mind. Celestia shook her head slowly, her slow movements causing Twilight to tear up.

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't take the teasing." Twilight explained.

"It couldn't have been that bad." Celestia assured, extending her hoof to lift the slightly sobbing filly's chin.

"Try erasing 'Twilight Porkle' from your locker." Twilight responded, giving an example of a nickname she was given.

"You won't believe the names I was stuck with." Celestia said to cheer her up, almost offering a competition. "You accidentally grope somepony one time in the second grade, and you never live it down." Her voice was spiteful at that point and Twilight picked up that rage.

"Did it really follow you for all those years?" Twilight asked, immediately guessing the unfavorable nickname.

"Yes." Celestia answered bluntly, "The press always has ways of getting information like that." Twilight actually smiled a bit with Celestia's reassurance; a little too much smiling.

"You were the first of my students to cave in." Celestia lied, passing on her now grim tone to Twilight. Whatever high point she was in right now, crashed as Celestia spoke. Twilight shrunk back away from her mentor and feared the inevitable discipline for her actions. If I'm the first to fail... Twilight stopped thinking, knowing full well that she was better off not imagining the punishments like termination of her lessons from Celestia, to being demoted back to magic kindergarten.

"Although, I give my students about three strikes before I just throw them out, but you did fail your first trial." Celestia deliberately pointed out the mistake to intensify the unicorn's guilt. Her lie was concealed expertly as it definitely wasn't Celestia's first "test" aimed at Twilight, but it was certainly the most obvious.

Celestia had found Twilight's weaknesses, but Twilight's unnatural study habits had blinded the purple filly from noticing obvious traps. The sun princess recalled a lackluster attempt at tricking Twilight, including a chocolate cupcake with cocoa frosting, topped with chocolate syrup. The treat was placed in the center of a dull white room to showcase the cupcake, accompanied with a large trapdoor ready for activation.

Saying it failed was an understatement. Twilight didn't notice the chocolate cupcake at all because of a copy of, An Introduction to Equestrian Physics Volume Three: How To Destroy the Fourth Wall Twilight literally had the book pressed against her face, somehow navigating through the halls with ease.

Celestia was glad to have finally gotten to Twilight this time; her efforts had finally paid off, and all she had to do was exploit the natural urge of losing weight without putting any effort. Her best pranks were usually on the spot and improvised.

"Please don't kick me out of your school." Twilight begged, early groveling on her knees. And Celestia enjoyed every second of it.

"I'm expecting a very detailed essay on shortcuts and when not to use them." A merciful judgement on Celestia's behalf, considering her borderline sadistic tendencies. Her other unfavorable nickname to mind, and she couldn't help but smirk slyly. Twilight shot up in graitude and relief, hugging the princess and saying several thank yous. Celestia dismissed her grateful student just so she could have a few minutes to herself. Twilight quickly left the room and galloped to her own dorm, leaving Celestia alone in a room to laugh wildly when she was in private.

~~

"You're kidding right?" Bon Bon asked skeptically. Pinkie Pie explained a long-winded story about seaponies and their seajelly. "That's just a story we tell foals." Pinkie immediately giggled at the sudden dismissal of the forgotten race of seaponies. All Pinkie Pie needed was the seajelly to prove her statements true. The only problem was that Twilight had the final jar of the sickly seagreen jelly stored in a personal pocket dimension.

"They're real! Just ask Twilight." Pinkie said, searching for the mentioned unicorn that was no where in sight. Feeling slightly disappointed, Pinkie just sat back on a chair and waited for Twilight.

At leas a half an hour later, Twilight came by with a stallion that ha a brown coat and a bright orange mane. Twilight levitated samples of tricolored chocolate pieces into her mouth as she conversed with him.

"Hey, Pinkie. You have to talk to this guy. He's a riot!" contradictory to Twilight's statement, he seemed to be slightly uncomfortable with her. Pinkie began to notice the slight slurs in Twilight's speech patterns, but she disregarded it and decided to humor Twilight by asking for his name.

"What's your name?" Pinkie asked, looking to the brown colt with sympathy on her face.

"Reese," he mumbled, causing Twilight to snort loudly and laugh.

"See isn't it funny? His name is Reese, and he also happens to look like the candy!" Twilight slurred at leased half of her words, making Pinkie Pie feel off edge. Pinkie brought her hooves to her head and rubbed the sides, feeling like she was becoming Twilight's foalsitter. For once Pinkie Pie wasn't the one acting ridiculous. Twilight's erratic behavior led Pinkie to believe that the aforementioned seajelly had something to do with it.

"I get it," Pinkie said, trying to stifle a giggle herself. "Stop teasing him... Poor guy."

"I know right? His parents must have hated him." Twilight guessed, ignoring the fact that Reese was right next to her. Reese opened his mouth to speak but immediately closed it as he figured out he could just walk away. The brown coated colt trotted away angrily, shaking his head as a way to curb the frustration. Pinkie huffed before turning to her friend that had lost her mind.

"What is wrong with you?" Pinkie asked, feeling like she should be the one being scolded.

"Just a little something I call, liquid courage." Twilight muttered quickly, making it hard for Pinkie Pie to comprehend the speech pattern. Twilight turned away from Pinkie as if to reach for something, but frowned when she didn't have anything on her back.

"I swear it was just hear a second ago," she said with a confused look.

"What?" Pinkie interrogated fearing what Twilight was going to say next.

"The seajelly of course! I must have left it behind somewhere." Pinkie sighed, knowing that her not so secret ingredient was now lost, and they were probably not going to find it amid the sea of ponies that will flood the convention hall.

"Bon Bon!" Pinkie called out in desperation. Bon Bon quickly trotted over with her friend's distressed call. "I need you to help me look for a jar about yay-high, and a blue-ish green." Bon Bon nodded and went a separate direction. Pinkie looked over to Twilight, who was currently in her own little world-- again.

"How much did you eat exactly?" Pinkie asked, concerned about Twilight's intake of the seajelly. Twilight stuck a fore hoof up and made a licking gesture to it. "About that much then..."

"Why? Am I gonna die?" Twilight asked, keeping an alarming amount of peace with a serious question.

"Yeah." Pinkie yelled worriedly, "so let's go get your stomach pumped." Pinkie Pie grabbed Twilight's leg and dragged the limp form.

"Okay," she mumbled. The ponies around them just watched as Pinkie Pie pulled Twilight through the empty halls. Pinkie managed to find Bon Bon searching the ground. Pinkie Pie yelled her name without hiding her desperation.

"What's wrong with her?" Bon Bon asked, gesturing to Twilight, who just kept her face planted on the floor.

"Seajelly." Pinkie answered shortly. "Mind helping out?" Bon Bon nodded and grabbed a loose leg.

"And you were planning to feed this to everypony!?"

"And? Why do you think hay-fries always taste good?" Pinkie Pie pointed out.

"I don't know what to say to that."

"Have you seen a jar of green jelly?" Pinkie asked. She had questioned every single pony that was in the vicinity with the exact same words, but each pony led her to a dead end or gave her useless tips. Eventually they grew tired of dragging Twilight on the floor and resorted to renting a foal stroller for her. After at least an hour and a half, (and long after the convention actually opened), the three managed to find a lead.

"I think that gal was using it," he said, pointing to an oblivious mare that had a suspicious sea green cupcake. Pinkie Pie immediately flocked to the mare that had the bright colored cupcake on display.

"You! Where'd you get that?" Pinkie pried, hoping to get a statement that would deny the use of the seajelly.

"It was in my bag," she answered, clearly startled by Pinkie's attitude.

The mare turned to a brown bag wit a rose stitched into the pattern. The sight of the bag ignited a spark of recognition in Twilight's face. The purple unicorn mumbled something about remembering the bag.

"Listen, I kind of need that since my... special friend kind of misplaced a jar of-- green apple jam." The mare in question nodded in understanding; she uttered words of apologies and went to grab the cupcake.

"Uh, I think your friend got to it first," she trailed off, her voice becoming quieter, showing that she was afraid of the pink pony that had questioned her threateningly. The unfortunate pony who was stuck with the jelly recoiled away from Pinkie Pie.

"She what!?" Pinkie yelled, turning over to where the green cupcake was on display. "The seajelly was not meant to be eaten like that!"

"Just what exactly does seajelly do?" Bon Bon asked, concerned about Twilight's behavior.

"You know when you have a lot of one thing and you build a sort of tolerance to it? Well seajelly's the exact opposite of that. And now Twilight has eaten an entire jar's worth in less than a minute!" Twilight began to laugh maniacally for a few seconds before returning to a calm state. Pinkie pounced on her friend and tried her best to restrain her now insane friend.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Pinkie begged. Pinkie had Twilight's skull in a tight headlock, but the unicorn did nothing to try to wiggle out. Twilight breathed heavily as a new feeling washed over her mind. She felt her brain go numb and lost all contact with any logic. Twilight's dark pupils grew wide and nearly took over the whites in her eyes. The unicorn's mouth began to foam slightly and Pinkie Pie was prepping her hooves for another cognitive rehabilitation. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but her voice came out quiet and monotonous.

"I'm sorry; the number you have dialed is unavailable. Please try again later."

~~

Twilight looked down a her blank sheet of paper. Failed attempts at writing what she learned surrounded her in crumpled messes. Twilight held her head with her left fore hoof and just stared, visioning what she would write next. She levitated her quill and set it on the paper. And every time she wanted to write what she had in mind, she often came up with nothing. Twilight sighed loudly and slammed a lavender hoof on the wooden desk.

That totally helped.

Twilight took a deep breath before taking a nibble from a chocolate bar. She cursed herself for taking another bite, fearing that the effects of Celestia's calorie spell was still in place. Although, after taking the bite, she was given a small amount of inspiration for her essay, and she began to drag the quill throughout the page easily. Hours passed, and she believed that she was finally finished with her works. With a quick flick of magic, she lifted the paper up to her face and read the words that said,

Dear Princess Celestia,

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait; I had to rewrite parts of this chapter, (and rewrite entire chapters of my other fics) several times after some technical issues. I didn't expect you guys to even like that Spike prophet thing. Considering this fic will be over in about a week's time, I think I might actually write that.