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// Carrot Cake X the Changeling Swarm 
// Story: Sensational Serials: Silly, Short Stories for Silly, Short Ponies 
// by PhycoKrusk 
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Ponyville had fallen, most of the populace taken captive by the seemingly unstoppable changeling swarm save the lucky few who’d managed to hide. Inside of the bakery known to the residents of Ponyville as Sugar Cube Corner but known to us as Sugar Cube Corner also, that number of ‘the lucky few’ was about to decrease by one.

“Alright, that’s all I can stand!”

Carrot Cake stormed into the his store room, trailed by his wife, Cup. “And I can’t stand any more!” Without wasting another moment, he walked straight to the cupboards where the flour was kept and started pulling them out. It wasn’t the flour he was interested in, of course, but what was hidden behind them.

“Carrot, what are you doing?” Cup demanded before her eyes widened with realization. “You don’t still have that, do you?”

“I was only going to keep it for a week, just in case!” Carrot fired back. “And that turned into two weeks, and then a month, and then… well, then it was easier just to pretend I didn’t have it.” He pulled another sack of flour aside, and then popped out the panel making the false back that only he knew about, and there it was, waiting for him just like it had always been. Solemnly, he grabbed it with a hoof and turned around to face Cup, not at all surprised by the disappointment he saw etched across her face.

“I thought you wanted to leave that life behind,” Cup stated.

“I did! And I did leave it behind. But I have to do something, honey bun! I can’t just hide in here all day while these punks are wrecking our town! I know I promised you, and I’ve worked really hard to keep that promise, but I can’t anymore. I have to go out there,” Carrot replied a bit more harshly than he meant to. With a sighed, he removed his hat, stuffed the item he needed inside, and then replaced it on his head, turning back to face Cup. “We can’t wait for the Guard. I might be the only one left who can do anything.

“I’d say I’d give ‘em one for you, but it’d be in poor taste,” he added with a sad smile.

And then his beautiful wife, to whom he made the promise he was about to break so long ago, kissed him softly and looked at him with eyes full of understanding. “Make it a baker’s dozen,” she said.

With a chuckle, he stepped back from her and to the front door, took a deep breath, and then unlocked it and stepped outside to find anarchy. Some buildings were on fire, doubtlessly set accidentally by ponies fleeing in panic. Most of the town, it seemed, was outside under the watchful eyes of hundreds of changelings, all of them with their legs, wings, and horns bound up in green goo.

Even Princess Twilight Sparkle had been captured, her faced forced into the dirt while the changelings’ queen gloated.

With a sigh of resignation, Carrot walked forwards like a stallion on his way to the gallows, and it wasn’t long before three changelings noticed and descended on him. They landed roughly on the ground and made a big show of flashing their fangs, although their expressions changed to uncomprehending confusion when he came to a halt but did not fly into a panic like almost all the other ponies had, looking at them impassively.

The changelings stared in uncomprehending confusion as he, rather than surrendering, withdrew a small cylindrical object from underneath his hat.

The changelings watched in uncomprehending confusion and he smashed it between his hooves to neatly pop the top of it opened.

The changelings stared in uncomprehending confusion as Carrot Cake, baker extraordinare, retired Leftenant of the Equestrian Navy, and amateur sailor emptied an entire can of spinach into his mouth.