Mystery's Mark

Mystery, Spike, and Twilight went into Ponyville together as a group. Each of them walking slowly with Twilight and Spike both behind Mystery, eying the gray pony to make sure he didn't try anything on them.

Mystery briefly glanced back to see Twilight's half-eyed stare directed right to him and her head low. "Twilight, you look like you're ready to toss me into an Ursa Major's cave. I said I wouldn't do anything without your orders."

"Think it means I still trust you?" Twilight's eyes leered right up to Mystery's own emotionless expression. She had no reason to believe this unicorn wouldn’t try something.

Mystery simply shrugged and continued his pace as they all stepped across the bridge into Ponyville.

Shortly after, the group ran across a light green pony with pure white hair and a shovel for a mark. The green pony stopped in her tracks and eyed the group; mostly staring at Mystery up and down. "You're…you're…Mystery?" the pony asked quietly.

"What of it?" Mystery shot back a cold response. He was in no mood to discuss anything with any pony. Then again, he probably never had been in such sort of mood.

"You are!" The pony suddenly dashed to a nearby restaurant and opened up the doors. "Listen up! The pony that nearly destroyed Canterlot is here! We need to get him before he gets us! Come on every pony!"

"How does she…" Twilight's eyes were wide with shock. But then it hit her like a pile of bricks. "Pinkie Pie."

"The blabbermouth, I remember her." Mystery said calmly as he watched the one pony at the restaurant. “Surely she couldn’t have told the entire town. Could she?”

Sure enough, other ponies left the restaurant to find Mystery not far off from it, simply standing and watching. At first, a few of the ponies looked intimidated. The green one though, wasn’t going to take this sitting down. “Come on! We outnumber him easily! Let’s all get him!” she shouted as she tried to rally the pony’s strength, as if preparing them for war. The ponies shouted back to her before they all shot Mystery an angry glare. “Charge!” the green pony leader declared. Soon, all the ponies that left the restaurant were rushing directly towards Mystery.

Mystery couldn’t quite count how many ponies there were from where he was, but there was at least ten of them! There was only one thing he could think of to do. "Well Twilight." he glanced at the purple pony. "I've told you countless times that I have to do what you say. I must make a request though; could you please ask me to run away in terror?"

Twilight lowered her composure. Her head, her eyelids, even her ears dropped as she looked away from the gray pony. "Run away in terror," she said with a groan.

Mystery suddenly smiled for once. He nodded with a grin on his face. "Thank you." With that, his expression changed. His mouth dropped open and his eyes were wide with fear as he turned around and darted back out of Ponyville with the angry mob chasing right after him.

Twilight let the mob chase after the gray pony as she made her way into Pinkie's shop. "Pinkie!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly a pink pony hopped down the steps, hopping down every other step with a happy face. "Yes?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently, her hair bouncing with her hops.

"You didn't HAPPEN to tell the whole town about the incident at Canterlot, did you?"

"Oh don't be silly! Not even I can spread news that fast," Pinkie said with a giggle. "No. I told Lyra, and then I told Bon Bon and Lyra told Cheerilee, then they told other ponies, and then they kept telling more and more about it and soon the whole town knew!"

"She is well known for spreading news." Spike cut in suddenly as she traveled beside Twilight, though he didn't want to say anything. Mostly because he figured the mob chasing after Mystery was quite well deserved.

"Well Pinkie, the princess told me that I need to help Mystery earn his mark. He hasn't done cooking and I wanted you to help him out with that."

Pinkie suddenly halted her hopping in mid-air, floating briefly before touching the ground gently. She blinked a few times and tilted her head. "I don't know Twilight. He lied to me about cake. It’s hard to forgive anyone that lies about cake."

"Do it for me." Twilight didn't want to beg, but she didn't want to disappoint the princess either by not doing anything. "If he starts to act suspicious, I'll be nearby to help you out."

"Well…" Pinkie raised a hoof to her chin and looked to be deep in thought for what Twilight would swear would be the first time in the pink pony's life that she had ever done such a thing. "Okay! But you kind of have to get him here without the angry mob."

Twilight nodded. "Leave that to me."

Later that day, Twilight returned to the bakery without Spike. Instead, she had a pony that was wrapped in a black robe to cover its entire body. The pony reached a gray hoof up and pulled back the hood once they were in the shop to reveal a gray horn, black mane, and the gray head. It was Mystery.

"I can't breathe in that thing." Mystery said taking deep breaths shortly after revealing his head. "Now, where is she?"

"Right here!" Pinkie suddenly replied from behind the counter. On the other side of the swinging doors leading to the back kitchen she had taken the liberty of pulling out a variety of cooking utensils after hearing she was getting an 'honored' guest. "Now, you're not going to try anything funny on me?" Pinkie gave Mystery 'the look' with one of her eyes; staring Mystery down to the ground.

"Nothing." Mystery leaned to the ground and stepped back seeing Pinkie's large eye. Such a ‘look’ was effective on almost anything.

"Pinkie Pie promise?" the pink pony asked as her large open eye continued to stare down Mystery.

"What's a…Pinkie Pie promise?" Mystery tilted his head to one side and quirked a brow.

Twilight decided to cut in and explain it. "It's a special promise that you can't break. You have to say 'Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.' To promise her you won't do anything."

"That's the most…ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Mystery regained his pose and looked away from Pinkie. He closed his eyes as his head faced the floor. "I'm not doing it."

"Promise me! Or I'm NOT helping you!" Pinkie suddenly shouted in an angry tone. She wanted Mystery to be honest to her and keep it.

"As long as you're not going to do anything besides cooking Mystery; what's the harm in making a promise that you won't do anything suspicious?" Twilight paused. "Or…ARE you going to do something?"

Mystery just sighed at first. He wanted to get his mark, but getting the help of other ponies was already sounding like a crazy idea. Twilight still didn't show much like for him, and this other pony, Pinkie, was sounding absolutely insane. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." He finally said as he looked away from the pink pony.

Pinkie suddenly giggled. Her ‘look’ vanished from her face as she hopped happily again. "There you go! Alright Twilight, I'll call you if anything comes up."

"Good. I check back on you two in a few minutes." Twilight turned and left the store with Spike, leaving only the gray and pink pony together.

Pinkie led Mystery into the back kitchen. There was one up front, but she figured it was best to keep the pony out of view of others, lest she wanted to start another angry mob.

Mystery followed her into the kitchen and glanced around at the various cooking ingredients and utensils that had been laid out for him. "Where do I start?"

Pinkie moved right beside Mystery and led him to a cookbook placed beside an open window. "Read the ingredients, put them in the bowl, and bake," she said getting a happy tune in her throat. "All you have to do is mix some flour and vanilla." she started to sing in a very bouncy tune.

Mystery stuffed his hoof in her open mouth. "Don't. Start. Singing. I'll go by what the book says." He shut his eyes with his still emotionless expression. He was in no mood to hear a song.

"Mmphmfmph!" Pinkie stepped back and pulled his hoof out of her mouth. "Okey dokey!" It was then that her ears perked up at the sound of a bell. "Oh! A customer! I'll handle it. You get to work on the pie." With that, the happy pony left the kitchen to leave Mystery to work on his own in the back kitchen.

Mystery took off his black robe and tossed it aside as a small smile grew onto his face. He was glad to be rid of such a thing, and much happier that he wasn’t going to be hearing a song. Then he walked over to the book and took a quick look at it. "Going by a book." Mystery glanced at the first ingredient. His horn glowed as a few eggs lifted up in the air with a magical gray aura around them. "Easier than a spell book so I'm sure I can do it." The eggs flew above a bowl and Mystery placed the eggs directly in it, shell included. "Two eggs." He actually felt a bit proud as he looked over at the bowl away from the window.

A sudden gust of wind blew in the window and forced the cookbook to turn a few pages. Mystery glanced back; completely unaware of what had happened. "Four cups of flour." He turned away from the book again and used his magic to raise a small bag of flour and a measuring cup, measuring the flour. As he worked with the ingredient, the book flipped a few more pages and he glanced back again as the flour was dumped into the bowl. "Milk…" he mumbled and added the ingredient, one by one he added each ingredient. Mystery was completely unaware whenever the book turned to a different page and displayed a different recipe. The book never had pictures, and he didn't pay much attention to what the previous ingredients to it were; just the current ones.

"Place in oven at…five hundred degrees?" Mystery checked and double checked the temperature. Even for a pie, it seemed like an awfully high temperature. He shrugged and mixed the ingredients, dumping them into a pie pan was completely overflowing with what he had mixed in.

Mystery just sighed and placed the pan as it was into the oven and walked out of the kitchen. He noticed Pinkie was with another pony he had never seen that, upon the pony seeing the sight that had left the kitchen, shrieked and left. "I can sure make a good impression on other ponies." Mystery's first comment was his eyes rolled.

"You just need to be nice to them and they'll be nice to you." Pinkie turned to Mystery with a grin on her face. "How's the pie going?"

"It's in the oven baking at five hundred degrees now." Mystery glanced back at the kitchen before back at her. "As for being nice to other ponies? Hah. You're funny Pinkie." He had a mock in his tone as his face, not once, smiled at her.

"Five hundred? That pie only required four-twenty-five," Pinkie giggled. She ignored his other comment about being nice to others. He would learn eventually, even if she had to help him with that too.

"The directions said five…" Mystery paused for a moment and took a brief look in the kitchen and at the oven. He saw what looked like an enormous light brown blob growing in it. His eyes widened and he turned to Pinkie. "Duck." He pulled his whole body to the ground and covered his head with his hooves.

"Not duck, pie!" Pinkie said with another giggle at the end. Suddenly there was an explosion in the kitchen as the brown pie mix forced the oven doors open with the pressure large enough to even force the double doors open. In mere seconds, the whole kitchen and store went from very clean, to being covered in pie mix. The force strong enough to send part of the mix through what open windows the store had.

Twilight wasn't far off from the bakery. Upon hearing a small explosion, she raced to the bakery to find that everything was covered in light brown goo. "What happened here?" she shouted and noticed a goo covered pony. It didn't have a horn, so it could have only been one other pony. "Where's Mystery?"

Mystery rose up from beside Pinkie, dripping with some goo on top of him like Pinkie, though since he had ducked, the lower half of him was somewhat clean. "Present." He simply stated.

Pinkie looked at Mystery briefly and rolled on her back laughing. "You look so funny, Mystery! Covered in pie! I know we're going to be really good friends!"

Mystery's blue eyes rolled as he picked up a glob of pie and hit Pinkie's face dead center. "I don't think cooking is my thing." He glanced back at Twilight. "What else is there?"

Twilight sighed at the gray pony. "First, you're going to help us clean up this mess. I noticed you don't have tailoring on your list either so we're going to take you to a different pony when we're done with this."