/x/x/x/
After a perfectly average shift of working the counter at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was enjoying the fruits of her labor. Now, these fruits aren’t fruit in the literal sense, like an apple. They’re figurative fruits. It would be literal if she was eating apples, but no, she was eating cupcakes. Vanilla flavored, and vanilla comes from a bean, which is sort of like a fruit, but still. Cupcakes are not fruits. That would be ridiculous.
Anyways, husband and wife Carrot and Cup Cake- formerly Cup O’flour before she got married- were descending the staircase into the main room. They were to take their shift, the evening, while Pinkie watched the twins Pumpkin and Pound. It was part of the daily routine, and the pink pony quite liked this arrangement.
Every day, she woke up to get them out of bed. She would set up the shop with Carrot while Cup Cake fed the babies their breakfast. She would then get the next four hours to do whatever she wanted with them: play in their room or take them for a walk around town in their stroller, it depended on the weather.
After the four hours, it was her job to then watch the counter for the lunch rush. Cup and Carrot had started baking first thing in the morning, so there was plenty of fresh merchandise to sell. The cupcakes often sold out, so Pinkie would have to bake more as the day went on. However, she would ‘accidentally’ overestimate how much she needed, and wound up with extra.
She was currently enjoying those extras.
“Cutting down the day’s waste, Pinkie Pie?”
“You know it, Mister Cake. Wouldn’t wanna throw away these delicious delicacies!” she said, before finishing one off.
“You turned the ovens off, right?”
“Um, duh!” She chomped down on another. There were two left, not including the one she just mutilated with her mouth. “I’m not gonna let this place get blown up.”
“Alright then.”
Pinkie took the two leftovers and presented them to her employers. “Want some?”
“Sorry Pinkie,” he said. “I’m watching my figure.” He glanced over at his wife, then gazed longingly upon the frosted dessert. “But... I’m sure the babies will eat them.”
“Speaking of the kids,” Cup Cake said, unaware of her husband’s mouthwateringly intense desire to break his diet. “They’re upstairs waiting for you.”
Pinkie gasped, and dashed back up the stairs. Carrot watched as she did, then bowed his head and headed into the kitchen. After a minute, Cup Cake sighed, rolled her eyes, and said “One.”
The oven was turned on and the pantry was opened less than three seconds later.
/x/x/x/
After Pinkie and the Cakes swapped jobs, she usually stayed inside, except on the most gorgeous sunny days. Luckily for her, the weather patrol were saving up clouds for a six-hour downpour the next day, so there wouldn’t be a cloud in the sky for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
On sunny days like that, Pinkie would strap on the dual saddlebag Snugli and walk Pumpkin and Pound around Ponyville. It was during this time she would go about town- and sometimes out of town- to see her closer friends, and let the babies socialize with the various ponies around Ponyville.
After gathering emergency supplies- diapers and baby powder, toys, a bag of flour- Pinkie put the twins into their Snugli, and headed back downstairs. She bid Mrs Cake a temporary farewell, and stepped out the door. She had three hours before their bedtime, and she planned on packing as much fun into those three hours as she could.
After the three hours, she would put the twins to bed, and have the rest of the day free of responsibility. Of course, since their birth, she would be headed to bed soon after, as they’ve proven to be quite a handful these past few months. Even with all the extra cupcakes after lunch, Pinkie found herself drained of stamina at the end of the day.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
/x/x/x/
It took ten minutes for Cup Cake to wonder what the hay was taking Carrot so long to prepare just one cupcake. She got up from the counter and trotted into the kitchen. There, she found her husband and... almost every ingredient in the whole pantry out and spread around the room.
“Honeybun, which one do I like more? Chocolate cream, or creme de chocolat?”
At no response, Carrot Cake looked up at his wife. He mouth was agape, and she was looking all around at what he figured she would call a mess.
“What is this mess!?”
‘Called it’ he said mentally.
“I’m making my cupcake. And, since this is going to be a rare occurrence, I want this one to be special. To be perfect, and unique. A cupcake that I’ll remember as I go without all the sugar and fat that this place has to offer. I want to remember this one, so it will deter me from attempting to cheat this diet for the next few weeks.
Because, if I have one that’s so expertly crafted, then why would I settle for an ordinary gallop-of-the-mill baked good when I know it’s in my power to make one that’s so much better? This cupcake, if I make it perfectly, will be satisfying enough to carry me through these pounds. Does that make sense to you?”
He awaited a response. Eventually, one did come. While it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, he knew it would probably be said anyways.
“Carrot, you’re insane.” she walked up to him. “But, that’s why I married you.” she kissed him.
“What about my charm, and good looks?”
She raised her eyebrows, tilted her head, and smirked at him.
“And your sense of humor.” the front doorbell ringed, and she started to walk out of the kitchen. “When you’re done, please put everything away.”
“You got it.” he replied, turning his focus back to his work. “Do I want to marble the red velvet with the yellow, or the angel food... ”
/x/x/x/
First on Pinkie Pie’s list of fun things to do required a daredevil pegasus. Rainbow Dash had wanted to take the twins up into the clouds for quite some time now. She was always asking the Cakes if she could fly Pound and Pumpkin, but it was only until yesterday that they’d finally said yes.
It took a minute figuring out how to adjust the Snugli to fit a pegasus, but it eventually did. The next hurdle was Rainbow Dash trying to take off without being dangerously reckless. Eventually, she did find a way. However, that way involved asking several ponies to borrow their house.
Lyra couldn’t because it would have bothered Bonbon. Roseluck wouldn’t allow it, as her garden was on the roof. Berry Punch didn’t answer the door- probably drunk. The fourth house they knocked on was Vinyl Scratch, who didn’t have a problem with it. When Rainbow Dash climbed on the roof, it was thumping rhythmically, for some odd reason.
After gently taking off- which felt quite strange to the pegasus who normally just shot off like a bullet- she climbed slowly into the clouds. Pinkie Pie wasn’t going to miss out on all the fun, so she went to find her Pinkiecopter, and followed Dash into the sky.
They flew for a good twenty minutes, but sadly, all good things must come to an end. Carrot Top had requested a watering sometime soon, since there would be no more water until late in the afternoon tomorrow. They landed, and Pinkie Pie took the kids and Snugli back. After sharing farewells, Rainbow Dash shot off in Carrot Top’s house’s direction.
Pinkie noticed there were some similarities between Carrot Top and Carrot Cake. Same color mane, same color coat, same first name. But when she asked, it turns out that it’s just a fluke. Carrot Top’s real name is Golden Harvest, and ‘Carrot Top’ is just a nickname, like Colgate: her real name was Romana Minuette. Plus, Carrot Top’s coat was closer to cream-colored than yellow, and the hair color was a fluke. The two had no relation.
After reflecting on that, she noticed the babies reaching up at something. She looked up, and saw the apple tree. Pinkie looked around, and saw that she had landed in Sweet Apple Acres. That worked out quite well, as it was the next place Pinkie was headed.
Much to the twins’ chagrin, Pinkie reminded them of the fact that they didn’t have enough teeth to chew an apple. But, she put a smile back on their faces when she reminded them that they could have applesauce. They cheered: Applejack made the best applesauce in Ponyville.
Applejack was more than happy to comply. While she made it, Granny Smith- the oldest resident in Ponyville- talked to the two youngest residents. Not much conversation went on. Applebloom played with the future members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Big Macintosh just watched these interactions, too shy to ask to hold them. Luckily for him, Pinkie could sense it, and she offered.
A few minutes later, Applejack was finished, and she had a small jar of the sauce. Pinkie gave the babies their snack before she started to head out the door. But... something unexpected happened.
Her back leg twitched. Then, her ear twitched. Her eyebrows shot up, and she quickly turned her head around to look at her tail. If it twitched, that meant... No, it couldn’t be THAT, she distinctly remembered turning the oven off. If her tail didn’t twitch, it just meant that something would break. Pinkie stared intently for thirty seconds. Nothing happened, so she relaxed.
But then, her tail DID twitch.
She bolted out the door and full-out galloped to Ponyville.
/x/x/x/
Who takes forty five minutes to make a cupcake?
“I’m finished!”
Cup Cake looked over at the kitchen, returned her gaze to the front door, then walked into the kitchen.
Inside, Carrot Cake proudly admired his handiwork. “Look, Sugarplum!” he stepped aside, presenting the cupcake tin with one space filled with cupcake batter. “I marbled yellow cake with some angel food that, get this, has little rainbow-colored candies in it that, when baked, become crispy.”
“That’s... interesting.”
“And look at the spread of toppings I have set up here! For the icing, I’ve prepared a chocolate ganache with some of that pear liqueur we had hiding in the back of the pantry. And to put on top of that, I made some pumpkin-flavored graham bits, and for garnish, I have a white chocolate-dipped cherry!”
She looked at him as if he were crazy. “Dear, that’s an awful lot of flavors.”
He looked down at the batter and topping. She did have a point.
“Well...” his face fell. “You’re right. You think I got a bit carried away?”
She trotted next to him. The aromas hit her like a kick in the face. “A little.”
He sighed, and shrugged. “Oh well. Might as well enjoy it as best as I can.” he walked over to one of the ovens. “Well, I might still like it. I don’t hate any of the flavors by themselves, so I can eat it piece by piece.” his optimism carried him as he opened the oven. “Of course, that kind of defeats the purpose of the cupcake as a whole.”
He walked back over to his workspace, and grabbed the cupcake tin- well, muffin tin being used for cupcakes- and walked back over to the oven. After sliding the tin into the oven, he reached up to the temperature dial. He sniffed the air.
“Do you smell something?”
He turned the dial, and then he realized what it was he smelled.
Gas.
The pilot light clicked on.
/x/x/x/
Maybe last time was a fluke.
Pinkie Sense is hard to understand sometimes.
Maybe it was a different order last time?
No... the memory was clear as day. This day was incredibly clear, not a cloud in the sky, so it would make sense that the clearness was directly comparable from today’s day to the memory. Back leg, ear, tail meant an explosion of some sort. It happened on the day that Princess Celestia said they had to all start writing friendship letters, when Rainbow Dash did her Sonic Rainnuke on Applejack’s old broken-down barn.
Since Rainbow Dash was doing something for Carrot Top, it couldn’t be that. If Rainbow Dash was out of the issue, that meant that leg-ear-tail would either apply to a barn being destroyed, or an explosion. Since Applejack said nothing about dismantling any barns... it left one choice remaining.
Why this information was all being clearly organized in Pinkie’s mind, the simple fact of whether she left the oven on or not slipped out of her recollection every time she tried to remember. On one hoof, she had her forelegs full with the cupcakes, On the other hoof, her mouth was free to click it off, and she distinctly remembered doing so.
Maybe it wouldn’t happen to Sugarcube Corner, but to somepony else’s house. Why was she running only for Sugarcube Corner then? If things are all right there, then there’s still the possibility that another house would explode.
Maybe, Zecora would have an accident out in the Everfree Forest making a potion or something? Or, one of Twilight’s experiments could go wrong. Or maybe Spike would send or receive a letter? Wait, no, then the twitch series would happen on a twice-daily basis...
She could see Sugarcube Corner now, after finally entering the town. It was still there. Pinkie scanned the horizon- no smoke anywhere.
Maybe it was a fluke after all?
She slowed down. Maybe last time WAS for a different reason, and it was just something small. Like, maybe a certain kind of animal had a baby last time, and that animal just had a baby a few minutes ago? Or, maybe Peewee became ashes last time it happened, and he did again just now?
Pinkie stopped. She didn’t even know what triggered the twitches last time. A thousand different things happen within a mile every second, it could be anything. In fact, when the Sonic Rainnuke happened, the mailmare Derpy was distracted mid-flight, and she flew right into a wall. Maybe that happened just now?
She breathed a sigh of relief. Surely it wouldn’t take THIS long for-
The kitchen wall blew outwards, followed by fire, which dissipated into thick black smoke. All the windows in the whole house blew out, and the roof slanted slightly. After a few seconds, the walls cracked, then collapsed. The hole in the wall was closed up by the roof debris.
Back leg, ears, tail. An explosion levels a building.
She galloped to the wreckage.
/x/x/x/
Author's Note
So a new feature's been added to the site, and a rule I hadn't seen. Apparently, they added an Author's Note section, and you can't label a story as both Sad and Tragic. That second one hit me form out of nowhere, I must not have been on when that was added.
Anyways, I had said that if you like this, I'll add this to the multiple works I'm already doing, and if you don't, I'll drop it.
/x/x/x/
Ringing in the ears is never a pleasant sensation. It’s even less pleasant when your eyes sting from particles of plaster and you have what feels like 200 kilograms of rubble pushing down on your body.
Mrs Cake reached a hoof up to rub her eyes. She got a layer of dust off and was able to open one eye first: it was not solid white, but there were enough specks in the air to obscure the ceiling, as if a snow storm had brewed inside the kitchen. That means there were enough in the air to inhibit normal breathing.
She coughed several times. Not the shallow kind of coughing you do when you’re trying to dislodge phlegm from the throat, but the kind of hacking cough you do when you breathe in smoke. It was painful to the mare to expand and contract her chest in quick succession while under so much pressure.
The baker attempted to pry the rubble away so she could breathe more easily, but was shocked when she discovered the rubble was actually flesh. She snapped her eyes opened and gasped, causing her brain to scream in pain as she winced as shakily exhaled. Opening one eye slightly, she examined the blockage: it was her husband.
Mrs Cake glanced to her right side, and saw bits of the roof on the linoleum floor, but not much else. With a hoof, she brushed it all to the side. It took considerably more effort than it would normally take, for obvious reasons, but the earth pony’s waning strength was not noted by her mind. Instead, she began to focus on a different task.
Rolling over, she deposited her husband’s body onto the floor. She set him face-up, and moved herself over his body. Unbeknownst to the mare, her left foreleg was covered in blood, not of her own. Attempting to make speech, she only let out a weak K sound before devolving into another hacking fit.
After recovering, she let out a shaky ‘Car, Carrot?’ but no response was received. She took his shoulders in hoof, and shook gently, but the body was limp. Again, ‘Carrot?’, she asked. Again, silence was her only answer. His coat was covered in the white dust on the face and the outer part of the legs. Suddenly, one spot on his face became wet.
“No...”
Cup Cake moved her hooves to the yellow stallion’s chest, and began to do compressions. “Don’t you dare,” she said before inhaling. Resisting the very strong urge to cough, she opened her husband’s mouth, and exhaled into it, before resuming the compressions.
Pulling away, she allowed herself to cough out the invading dust. Her mouth was incredibly dry, caked with white powder, and it was more painful to breathe in than before. But what hurt worse than her mouth and chest was her heart.
“Please, no!” she cried, voice breaking. ‘Please, wa-’ She stopped, coughing, before resuming. “Wake up!”
Still no response. She leaned over and attempted to give him air again, but no response was given. She looked into his eyes, still open, but seeing nothing. Refusing to accept this, she resumed compressions at an even quicker rate, shaking her head back and forth in denial. More vibrant yellow spots began to show through the ghostly-pale dust.
“Celestia damn you, Carrot Cake,” in a near-whisper she said, “Don’t leave me like this!” After coughing as she concluded the command, she breathed in again and tried exhaling into him a third time, to no avail. The compressions slowed, before finally stopping. The urge to keep coughing won over, and she did so, letting tears fly in random directions, wettening more dust around them.
She let the hacking fit subside, before moving her hooves to Carrot’s eyes, and closing them. She set her hooves down on either side of his head, feeling her resolve weaken, and her muscles grow limp. “You promised me...” she whispered. “We’d be together ‘til I died.” She locked her eyelids together, attempting to restrain them.
“Why did you lie to me...”
She felt her body hit the ground, and roll to the side. Then, nothing for a spell. After what could have either been a moment or an eternity, she heard steadily louder clopping, before feeling herself be picked up.
“Don’t worry, Mrs Cake.” an echoey disembodied voice said. “I gotcha.”
The mare’s eyes opened a crack, and a blurry pink filled her vision. Then, she passed out.
/x/x/x/
Pinkie Pie set the older mare onto the ground before heading back in. She held her breath before heading in to get her other employer, knowing the dust would impede her ability to rescue the Cakes. She nudged her muzzle underneath his back, and was met with warm, viscous liquid.
She pushed her head underneath, before pulling her neck up to move Mr Cake over onto her back. The bit of the young mare’s mane that always hung in her eyesight was not the normal shade of magenta, but red. She refused to think of this, instead focusing on getting him out of the wreckage.
It took some effort, but it was no problem no transport the body out of the bakery. Moving boulders as a very young filly had given her a muscular foundation to build candy chub over. However, she was definitely winded afterwards, causing her to breathe heavily for a few moments, and since there was dust lingering in the air, she coughed twice.
She looked up to see a pegasus stallion- Thunderlane- pick up Mrs Cake. To her side, she could see Blossomforth wanting to support Mr Cake, and she turned her body over. When ownership was finished transferring, she could see the two pegasi exchanging nods before flying off in the direction of Ponyville General Hospital.
Pinkie trusted that Nurse Redheart would be able to help them in whatever way she could. In the meantime, she started walking back to Roseluck, whom was currently holding the twins. However, she was stopped by a small crowd.
“Pinkie, are you all right?” a stallion asked.
“You’re covered in blood!” a mare exclaimed.
“I’m fine,” she stated, waving them off. “It’s theirs, not mine...”
Blood. From a burn, caused by that explosion. From the ovens... Pinkie tried not to think about that. She could distinctly remember turning them off. But... her memory could be failing her due to the force of habit.
“Where’s Pumpkin and Pound?”
“I have them right here, Pinkie.” Roseluck assured her. “But you should come inside and lay down for a minute. You look a bit shaken up.”
Pinkie looked up to see that the twins were, indeed, still with the cream mare. She gave a slight smile and nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll sit a second, but I need to go to the hospital and check on the Cakes ASAP.”
Pinkie followed the red-maned mare into her abode, and was welcomed with the faint but lovely scent of calla lilies. The walls were painted a simple beige, but pots of flowers sat on shelves every so often, offering splashes of color here and there. She looked up to see that the twins, who had never been in this house before, were not-so-silently looking around and reaching towards the flowers.
“Hey Rose, would you mind feeding them some of that applesauce while I wash out the blood?”
She smiled and nodded. “Of course, Pinkie.” she said. “Go on and use the kitchen sink over there.” she pulled off the Snugli and set it on the floor, allowing the twins to crawl out. She went about acquiring spoons and such as Pinkie started to scrub out the red in the sink. She tried not to think about the reason why Mr Cake was bleeding, instead focusing on what was outside. A massive crowd was gathered in Ponyville Square: it was a swarming mass of ‘What happened?’s and ‘Are they all right?’s.
Once the job was finished, she could see that Blossomforth and Thunderlane had returned, but joined by Flitter and Cloudchaser. Pinkie turned to her neighbor and said, “Hey Rose, Blossom and Thunder are back. I gotta go see if Mr and Mrs Cake are all right. I’ll be back right afterwards to take the twins back, okay?”
“Actually Pinkie, I wouldn’t mind watching them for a while longer.” she replied, before spooning more applesauce into the baby’s mouths. “Plus, they seem to be enjoying this.”
The emerald orbs were full of compassion, and the mare looked way happier than Pinkie normally saw her to be. Pinkie smiled a bit before responding. “Well, they do look like they’re having fun... all right, but I’ll be back before night falls, I promise.”
Roseluck nodded and returned her attention to the twins. She started playing the choo-choo-train game that you play with baby’s food, before Pinkie headed out the door. She pushed through the crowd, throwing out ‘Excuse me’s and ‘Pardon me’s before the crowd slowly started to make more room for her, until she reached her destination.
“Thunder, Blossom, how are they?”
Her question caused the crowd to slowly stop talking, and ‘Shush!’s were exchanged, until everypony became silent. She noticed the somber expressions on the pegasus’ faces. Thunderlane looked up and opened his mouth, as if to say something, but he closed it, nodding his head. He looked to Blossomforth, and she sighed.
“Mrs Cake’s not looking so good, Pinkie.”
The earth pony looked down at the ground, upset to hear any bad news. A pit formed in her stomach, as she had a hunch that the worst was yet to come. “Okay, but...” she started. “What about...” she hesitated for a moment, before pushing on. “What about Mr Cake?”
Behind the main two, Pinkie could see Flitter start to cry, as Cloudchaser wrapped a foreleg around her. Blossomforth looked to Thunderlane. The pit in Pinkie’s stomach felt increasingly heavier as the moment drew out.
Finally, the stallion took in a breath. “He’s gone.”
The pit dropped into a chasm. The crowd seemed to shrink and grow farther away, and it felt to Pinkie that she was growing smaller. It just couldn’t be true, could it? She asked the question that you ask, not because you don’t know the answer, but because you wish that it doesn’t mean what you know it means.
“What do you mean... gone?”
He looked Pinkie in the eye, then looked away before answering her, as it was too much to say right to her face. He could see the moisture start to gather, the hope that it was a cruel practical joke, a faint, dying ember in the cold fireplace of loss. “Carrot isn’t with us anymore.” he said. He exhaled, and looked directly at Pinkie this time.
“He’s dead.”
Five bodies came in proximity to her, two above and three on the ground. Five hooves rested on her back, letting her know that she had at least somepony who would be there for her. But that didn’t matter: those two words crushed any hope inside her soul that things would be all right. Pinkie felt completely and utterly alone.
She collapsed and started sobbing.
/x/x/x/
Author's Note
It's a bit short. I wanted there to be more of the chapter, but I think that was a good place to stop.
I hate myself for writing this, by the way. I hate sad stories.
