//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Chocolate icing? Timeline splicing! // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------//         “Oki-doki-loki miss Cake!” Pinkie spoke in her happy voice as she saluted to the Cakes who were on the point of leaving SugerCube Corner with their children for a well deserved vacation. “I will keep the shop nice and clean!”         “Thank you so much Pinkie, and don’t forget to clean up the shelves as we told you.” replied miss Cake as her husband was carrying all their luggage and the two foals on top.         “H-Honey?” he spoke as he struggled to keep everything up.         Miss Cake turned herself around faster than usual and only waved one last time to the pink mare before the door closed behind her.         “And, they, are, gone.” Pinkie spoke to herself as she began to bounce over to the window. While she allowed her eyes to look out of it, the blue rimmed seekers caught the family turning out of the street and making their way over to the train station. But her eyes kept looking for a bit longer to everything to be seen on the street.         She saw Rainbow Dash flying through the air and moving herself through the many clouds. Clouds that simply poofed away as she flew through them. But much lower, back on the ground she saw two Unicorns, two who she instantly recognized, talking about subjects she didn't knew and disappeared just as they come.         “Focus Pinks.” she said to herself while turning her body around. Pinkie began to bounce again, this time making her way over to the kitchen of the place she had both been calling her work and home for a long time now.         SugarCube Corner was probably the best place she ever could have ended up and she showed her gratitude in all manners possible to the Cake family. Sometimes to their annoyance. But most of the time, they just loved it. The mare took care for their children or helped them out with deliveries or even baking as a whole.         And adding the fact that Pinkie had a near limitless supply of energy, she was pushing out as much work as two master bakers wouldn't even be able to do on a day.         As she found herself before the shelf with all of the cooking books on it, Pinkie placed the bucket of water and the cloth on the ground. “Now let’s see here.” she mumbled to herself while her eyes kept going over the many books.         Pinkie didn't want to mess up the order they were standing in and she carefully took them off of the shelf one by one. But as more and more books began to build themselves up in her hoof, she of course had to find a place to set them.         With her eyes looking over to a suitable place, she could feel the balance shifting on the very top. “Uh-oh...” she spoke to herself while readjusting herself so, so that the books wouldn't fall. Tipping on her hindlegs she moved forward and back, right and left while trying to keep the books in a straight line.         But no matter how much she adjusted herself, eventually the books all fell over and Pinkie fell along with them. Right on her behind. As she looked up, she placed her forelegs over her head under a soft yelp for the falling books were coming down upon her faster than expected.         Tok er de tok, tok, tok, was the sound that echoed through the room before a deep groan of discomfort left the poor EarthPony. As a deep sigh left through the nose of the mare, it was with one loud thud that she fell to the floor, giving up on her given task for the time being.                  For many minutes she simply laid there, Holding her head with the both of her front hooves. “What in the name of Celestia...” she spoke to herself. With her cyan blue eyes she gazed to the ceiling of the building and began to count the amount of decorations there could be seen. Only then the turning eyes she had came to a standstill.         Pinkie managed to hoist herself back up again and sat on her behind. With her eyes removing themselves from the ceiling and over to the stacks of fallen books, a sigh left her. “Can’t even take care of the house without making a mess.” Pinkie said out loud and crawled back upon all four of her legs.         The mare made her way to the books and began to collect every single one of them under a well known whistle of her. But when she had all of the books nicely stacked up upon each other again, Pinkie turned herself around in order to take the small piece of cloth out of the water and actually do what she was assigned with.         While the shelf was empty of the books, it was covered in dust and with one long swipe, Pinkie simply cleaned it all with a smile. “That went a lot faster then expected!” she spoke to herself while her eyes went over the shelf just one last time.         Her eyes caught one small corner that wasn't clean at all and she began to rub that particular spot harder than she ever had rubbed before. So hard even that some drops sweat formed itself upon her face.         “And be clean!” she shouted through the building and carefully removed the cloth from the spot as she removed the drops of sweat from her face. Anxious to see the gotten result, she didn’t even dare to watch it.         Though when she completely removed the little piece of cloth, the sound of a click did its turn through the ears of the mare. A click that was near silent yet loud When she dropped the cloth back in the bucket of water, her left eye opened itself gently in order to see her done job.         “What!?” she yelled once more as her other eye opened it faster than lightning and they saw the spot was still as dirty as it was. But she also caught something else. Something that she had never seen before in her life. “Oh~ Now what are you?” she spoke in a much calmer voice while reaching inside a small compartment that had opened itself. Little did she knew that the little click was actually from the little thing opening. In her hooves she was holding an ancient looking book and her eyes simply gazed over it. “A book? I didn't knew the Cakes held books behind? Oh! Secret recipes perhaps?” she giggled to herself and walked over to the kitchen with the book. As she entered the normal kitchen of the sweet-shop, she placed the book upon the counter-top and opened it. Though most of the pages were almost unreadable and continued to flip through most of the pages. But there one page which caught the attention of the hyperactive pony more then anything else. “Hmm~ Chocolate icing!” she said to herself while closing the book again to watch over the title and author. “Magical recipes to...” she mumbled to herself. “To do what?” a young, southern sounding voice asked behind Pinkie. The pink mare jumped up on the air with a crazy expression on her face while her mane and tail blew themselves up before she came down like a balloon. “Did Ah scare ya?” the voice asked. Pinkie turned herself around as she was hyperventilating and allowed her eyes to fall upon the little filly that was standing before her. “N-Not all A-Applebloom, just, practicing.” she spoke in an awkward giggle. “Oh well, that is good, Ah suppose.” the red maned filly spoke as she gave of a warm and bright smile to the mare. “Applebloom, you want to make some more cupcakes with me again? In this book here I found a recipe to make even better chocolate icing? Oh~! That is the title!” The light yellow coated filly cocked her head sideways while the expression turned into that of a confused one. “Huh?” “Magical recipes to enhance pastries!” giggled Pinkie as she turned herself around again and swung her hips from side to side under a soft hum again. Applebloom had to do her best to not stare at the bouncy hips of the Earth Pony and she walked up to her with a question on her mind. “Ya sure we are going to make, cupcakes?” “I am.” she replied. “But it says magical, and neither of us know magic.” “Zecora is not a Unicorn or Alicorn either and she knows magic.” Pinkie spoke under a giggle while turning her head over to Applebloom. “So we are, gypsies?” the young filly asked even more confused. “Who knows, maybe we are!” Even though Applebloom was having her doubts about everything, she was getting more and more curious to the recipe Pinkie had spoken about. The book got closed once more and just before it fell completely shut, the filly was able to read some of the authors name. The only part that wasn't actually lost in time. “...The Beard...” she mumbled to herself. “Come on Applebloom! We got chocolate icing to make!”