//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Once Upon a Pinkie... // by Teyeson Bee //------------------------------// "Aaaaaand we are closed!" Pinkie Pie announced as she locked the front door to Sugarcube Corner. It was quite a busy business day for them, but now it was over, and Pinkie could start helping with the cleanup. Her bosses, the Cakes, had already started. Carrot Cake was wiping down the counters and tables while his wife, Cup Cake, was busy washing the dishes. As Pinkie looked around to see what she could do, she noticed that there were crumbs all over the floor. With a leap in her step and humming a catchy tune, Pinkie went to the closet to retrieve the broom and dustpan. Within minutes, Pinkie was sweeping the floor as she hummed away, even swaying a little to the music. Suddenly, the doors connected to the kitchen burst open and the two children of the Cakes came running out, one chasing the other, and laughing. "I'm gonna get you Pound!" "Nuh-uh! You're too slow Pumpkin!" It seemed like only yesterday when the Cakes came home with their newly born twins, a pegasus named Pound Cake, and a unicorn named Pumpkin Cake. Now they were both five, but they were still as rowdy as when they were babies. The two galloped around the tables as Pinkie tried to sweep around them, only to fail as the two scampered through the piles, spreading the crumbs and dust further. Pinkie sighed of playful exhaustion as she swept up the piles. "Kids!" Mr. Cake shouted from the kitchen. "How many times must I tell you? No roughhousing while we're cleaning!" "Sorry daddy," said Pumpkin as she and her brother stopped in their tracks. "If you're going to play, take it upstairs kids," Mrs. Cake sweetly called. "C'mon Pumpkin!" Pound said excitedly to his sister. "I'll race you upstairs!" Pumpkin nodded as the two started running toward the stairs. As Pinkie watched as the two made their way to their room, she heard Pumpkin shout, "Hey! No fair flying Pound!" Pinkie just chuckled as she got back to sweeping. After everything was swept and even mopped, Pinkie tossed the supplies back into the closet and gave a great sigh of relief. She looked over at the clock on the wall. 9:15 pm. There must have been a lot to do, cause Pinkie started around 7:45. Pinkie walked into the kitchen, where Mr and Mrs. Cake were just finishing putting the clean dishes away. "Everything's clean as a whistle!" Pinkie said with a salute. "Of course, I always thought whistles weren't that clean to begin with. I mean, ponies blow into them all the time. How can they be so clean if they got pony spit on them all the-" "Thank you Pinkie," Mr. Cake interrupted, chuckling at Pinkie's usual display of silliness. "Well I don't know 'bout you Honeybun," Mrs. Cake said as she put the last pan away, "but I am plum-tuckered out!" "Same here," Mr. Cake replied. "I think it's time for all of us to get some good shu-" Mr. Cake was suddenly interrupted by a thudding sound from upstairs, along with some faint playful screaming and laughing. "Are those kids still up?" Mrs. Cake asked as she looked up at the ceiling. "It's well past their bedtimes!" "If you want," Pinkie said, "I can take care of them." "You sure?" Mr. Cake asked. "Of course!" Pinkie responded with a smile. "I've been able to get them to go to bed before, so this'll be no problem. You guys get some rest, and I'll see to it the twins are tucked in and sleeping before you know it!" "Well thank you Pinkie," Mrs. Cake sweetly said. With that, the two Cakes wished Pinkie a goodnight and trotted upstairs to their room. Pinkie shut off all the lights in the kitchen and counter area before making her way up towards the twins' room. As she got closer, she could definitely hear the two doing something. Almost sounded like they were throwing something. As Pinkie opened the door, her hunch turned out to be right as she was greeting with a stuffed ladybug to the face. She pulled it off to see Pound and Pumpkin at each end of the room, wearing their pajamas with plastic buckets on their heads, hiding behind their own pile of toys. "Oops! Sorry Aunt Pinkie!" Pound said. "My hand slipped." "Alright you two," Pinkie chuckled. "I've been sent by your parents to tell you it's past your bedtime." "But we're not tired," Pumpkin whined. "Then why are you in your jammies?" Pinkie asked. "These aren't jammies," Pound responded. "They're armor! We're in the middle of a battle here!" "Well then call a truce," Pinkie said as she pulled the buckets off their heads. "It's time to sleep. You don't want to be dead tired tomorrow do you?" The twins groaned as they headed for their beds obediently. Pinkie smiled and headed for the door. Before she could turn off the lights though, Pound intervened. "We still aren't tired Aunt Pinkie. What are we supposed to do?" Pinkie thought for a second, and then a classic idea came to mind. Something that she was able to do when the twins were just toddlers. "How 'bout I tell you guys a story?" The twins' ears perked up and their faces curled into an excited smile as they sat up. If there was anything Pinkie was famous for with the Cake kids, it was telling stories. Well, that and playing a mean game of "Where's Pinkie Pie," but that's a different story. Pinkie headed over to the small bookshelf in the corner of the room and looked through it. Just the basic stuff; picture books, puzzle books, nursery rhymes, the usual. As Pinkie looked through, she them came up with another idea. She quickly turned around to face the anxious twins. "Alright guys. I'm gonna tell you a special kind of story. You may have heard the plot before, but I'm gonna put a little twist in it." The twins looked at each other with anticipating eyes. "You guys ready?" "Ready!" the twins said together as they got comfortable. Pinkie grabbed the rocking chair by the door and positioned it so that it was between the twins and sat down. And with that, the story began. "Once Upon a Time..."