It so happened that each week, though not always at the same hour, Pinkie pie would slip into the Everfree Forest, carrying a basket with red-and-white checkered cloth on her back, rapidly disappearing from Ponyvillean eyes into the thick of the woods.
This time was no different, and with her usual spring to her step she walked the known trail, taking all the right turns with nonchalance, and nonchalantly avoiding the overeager advances of some gnarled, leafless branches.
She stopped by the glen where she and her favourite friends valiantly laughed off the tricks of nightmare Moon, the trees now standing proud and faceless surrounding the glen. She giggled at the memory: the time with her friends had always been a blast. Of course it had! They were the bestest friends a pink pony could ever have, and she was Pinkie Pie! Master of Pranks, Parties, Preparations and P...Popularity! Mmm... that didn't work too well, she'd have to refine it later. But no matter! In her light trot she had crossed the glen already and was back on a muddy trail.
Oh, how she loved mud! She could play allll day in it (if only the Cakes would allow her anymore, that is), with that delicious sticky wet texture and all the flaky parts when you dry up that you can throw around with a good shake and how it looked like chocolate.... Mmmm, delicious chocolate flakes on her skin. She was sure she did that trick before. It had probably involved a chocolate fountain of sorts.
But-b-b-b-b-but! You're losing your train of thought here Pinkie! What was the last thing you were thinking of? MmmmOh yeah! Nightmare Moon! She pondered if she could ask Luna to make the Shadowbolts join one of her parties sometime. Perhaps they were just part of her? Would it count if just Luna attended the party? Hmm, she'd really have to ask her later. She made Luna party already, but so that was one case covered. In the other one, though, she'd still have to. So that made this task half-done.
She mentally checked the list of "Ponies to still partieeee" with a half-check --with only the first green felt line put in the box-- besides a crayon picture of the Shadowbolts.
Oh lookie! Without even realizing, she had arrived at the desired spot in the Everfree, a large spot of underbrush covered in elongated, vibrant red flowers. Now for the rest of the master plan!
She methodically downed her basket and started to uproot the flowers, minding the black thorns of some other nearby meanie plant, landing her prizes on the checkered cloth.
She really liked how things turned out. After that fateful trip to Zecora, they had never really stopped complimenting on how DELICIOUS and MARVELOUS and AWESOME her punch was, and asking just what her secret was, but she couldn't tell. She had promised Zecora, with a Pinkie Promise at that!
----------------
"Perhaps I can help you with a new way to shape your brew," Zecora had said. (She remembered every word! She was sooo cute when she rhymed)
"A small addition of Heart's desire would make all ponies your drink admire.
Its properties are most valuable, for everyone will find it most palpable.
It will give them the taste they prefer, for an always delicious dessert.
But the flower is most rare and sought, so I ask you for the secret not to be... squawked."
----------------
Eeeeyuppers, always the most proper and delicate rhymes. She'd have to ask her someday how she did it, she'd come up with songs soooo much faster that way! But every time she visited the hut, she always got distracted with all the potions and the pretty masks and the boiling cauldron and the dry leaves and the curvy bottles...
Pinkie realized she was done picking, and covering her harvest with a cloth fold and putting it back on her back, she trotted happily on the way back to Ponyville, humming a few improvised notes. Who knows? Maybe a new song in the makings.