It was the day after the Equestrian National Dessert Competition in Canterlot. All in all, the trip had been pretty fun. Not to mention far better than the last major road trip involving Applejack's decision to run off to Dodge Junction. At least no pony had been abandoned in the middle of the desert this time.
“You know, darling, I never thought that Doughnut Joe could make something like that city,” Rarity commented as the group trotted towards Sugar Cube Corner, where Pinkie Pie was waiting for them. “I mean his doughnuts were certainly fabulous, but he did not strike me as the artistic type.”
“You'd be surprised,” Twilight replied, giving a smile. “He's especially creative around the holidays, remind me to take you there next Hearth's Warming.”
“Sounds good tah meh,” Applejack replied, looking hungry at the thought. She didn't get to even try any of his special doughnuts at the competition.
Rainbow Dash gave an annoyed groan. “Ugh, you're making me hungry...”
“Um...aren't we going to Sugar Cube Corner to eat because we were hungry anyway?” asked Fluttershy in her typical timid way.
“...Yeah...”
The group finally arrived at the restaurant and Twilight, Applejack, and Spike entered without issue. However, the moment Rainbow Dash stepped hoof in the door, an alarm blared in their ears and she, Rarity, and Fluttershy found themselves pushed back out and dumped flank first on the ground by the Cakes.
“I can't believe this!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as the group sat at the outdoor diner in Ponyville.
“Well...we did mess up rather greatly, darling...” muttered Rarity...before patting the still crying Fluttershy on the back. "It's not entirely surprising we got banned."
“Not that...” the cyan pegasus replied before giving a sigh. “I mean that I'm supposed to be the LOYAL one and I stabbed Pinkie in the back like that...What was I thinking?”
“And it was just plain selfish of me...” the fashionista muttered. “Sneaking a bite of cake is one thing. It is another when that cake is so important to somepony else.”
Fluttershy sniffled, looking up with tears in her eyes. “I...I was a big dumb meanie this time...”
Rainbow Dash gave a growl of frustration and finished her daisy sandwich in one bite. “Come on!”
“W-Where are w-we going?” the shy pegasus questioned in response.
“To go fix our own mess.”
Mr. Cake carefully fed little Pumpkin while his wife fed Pound, the two little foals still young enough to require plenty of care and attention.
“...Mr. Cake?”
The orange stallion gave a growl and looked over, seeing the trio of, in his mind, thieves standing just outside the door. “We told you you're not welcome here anymore.”
“We know...” said Rainbow Dash, giving a guilty sigh. “Look...what we did was bad...”
“Yes, it was,” Mrs. Cake said, not even looking up from her little colt.
“And we're sorry...” Rarity added, lowering her head.
“We really are!” Fluttershy added, unsurprisingly looking the most guilty out of the three.
“Look, I'd be just as mad if somepony wrecked a big stunt that I spent months planning for the biggest flying contest in Equestria...I'd be more than upset, I'd be furious...but can we please just make it up to you somehow?” asked Rainbow Dash, with an unusual seriousness about her. “...I'm a lot of things...but I hate the idea of betraying somepony...I did, and I want to make up for it.”
The parents looked over to the trio, seeing the guilty and apologetic looks on their faces. The Cakes turned aside and whispered to each other. The Cake twins blinked, looked to one another, and joined in with goos and gagas in imitation of their parents while being kept in their forelegs.
The three ponies waited nervously for an answer. And got it when the Cakes tossed them buckets and cleaning materials.
“Alright, if you want to make if up to us, you're going to be working your flanks off,” Mrs. Cake replied. “If you do, the ban will go from 'until further notice' to working off what you were nearly took from us and the work you wasted, deal?”
“...Do I have to wear a hair net?” Rarity asked with a bit of hesitation in her tone.
“If we need you to,” Mr. Cake replied sternly.
“...I suppose I had that coming.”
After Rainbow told the Weather Team she'd need a vacation day and Fluttershy got the CMC to go keep an eye on her animals (which would turn out to be a poor decision), the trio got to work. Rarity simply resigned herself to preparing to work double time to reach her quotas.
“Ugh...How in the world did they get baby food all the way up here?!” Rainbow Dash muttered, scrubbing the top of the wall with a sponge. “And how long has it been up here?!”
Pound Cake merely giggled, saying something to his sister in baby talk. The baby filly seemed to look rather proud.
“At least it is food that never got past the mouth...” Rarity muttered, covering her mouth with a gag as she cleaned up some of the little one's throw up (which had happened right after they'd gotten their punishment, as fate would have it) with a large brush.
Fluttershy merely scrubbed the other half of the floor while looking forlorn.
That was when Rainbow Dash noticed Pinkie Pie at the counter, scrubbing away at the glass above the frosted confections at the counter, seeming in equally as bad of a mood. “Pinkie? How'd you get in trouble? You're the only reason we didn't do worse...”
“Oh...Well...I didn't technically have to...but if I'd been better at my job, Dashie, then you'd never have gotten to the MMMM! And then you wouldn't be in trouble!...So if you're going to make it up to the Cakes, then I want to make it up to the Cakes too!” the pink party pony replied with unusual seriousness. “Plus it's kind of my fault for making MMMM sound so tasty in the first place, Dashie!”
Rainbow Dash would've replied and said something...but found herself too weirded out by the eerily unusual sight of Pinkie Pie of all ponies being serious. Especially after the 'Party of One' Incident.
“That's also why made the 'Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash Alarm' that caught you for the Cakes. Though Mrs. Cake said it might have been too much.”
“Say what?”
“When you greedy guts are done scrubbing, the ovens need a good cleaning!” Mr. Cake called, poking his head out from the kitchen. “We haven't had a chance to clean it for at least a week with all the work you girls nearly made amount to nothing and taking care of two newborn foals! And we need somepony to go down stairs and clean out the cobwebs and dust from the basement!”
“And one of you needs to clean up the antic too,” Mrs. Cake chimed in, coming through with a plate of cupcakes. “It's been years since that's been cleaned.”
The trio looked at each other apprehensively.
An imagine spot involving multiple cute little animals living in the antic (a situation that she'd been called in for on several occasions) played in Fluttershy's mind. “Um...I'll take the attic...if that's okay...”
“Okay, guess I'll take the basement,” Rainbow Dash replied, rolling her shoulder. “I've been scrubbing all day...”
“Then I suppose that leaves me with...” Rarity gulped with a shudder. “...the oven...”
Fluttershy and the fashionista peeked into the kitchen to see one of several ovens in the restaurant’s possession. The kitchen appliance had a great deal of baked on grime, a fair amount of grease, and was generally as unpleasant as one would expect an oven that'd been running several days more or less straight. Rarity almost fainted.
The yellow pegasus noted her friend's distress and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Um...Rarity, do you want me to do it?”
Rarity gulped and took a deep breath. “N-No, darling. I have no pony to blame but myself for this situation, so I'll reap what I sowed...even if it's a dirty...grimy...disgusting oven...”
“O-Okay...” Fluttershy muttered.
“Now, let's finish the floor and then...move on to...this...” Rarity said, looking at the dirty oven and getting a little green around the gills.
“Alright, so basement...” Rainbow Dash muttered, opening the door and descending the stairs...and looking for a light switch and finding none along the path down. Which lead to her giving a shout and tripping down to the bottom, giving an 'oof' with each stair. “Ow...Dang it! What kind of place doesn't have the light switch along the basement stairs?!”
“An old one,” answered Mrs. Cake's voice from upstairs. She trotted down with a flashlight and hooved her another one as the mare sat up. “The switch is down here.”
The cyan pegasus took it and gave a sigh, turning it on and getting back to her hooves as Mrs. Cake headed back up. Looking around, the beam of light only revealed old boxes and crates, covered in cobwebs. “Ugh, this place is kind of creepy...” she muttered, as she wandered around in search of a way to light up the room (and stubbed her hoof on more than one crate). “Where is that stupid light switch?” she asked, as all she was greeted by was more and more cobwebs. Sure enough, she eventually stumbled face first through one and staggered a bit in surprise...
And caused her light to land on what looked like a pile of skulls. The cyan pegasus gave a scream and staggered back, crashing into a crate and causing her light to change targets to reveal what seemed like a bloody knife. This got another scream out of her and sent her staggering in another direction, straight into a wall. By luck, Rainbow Dash's hoof finally hit the light switch...and revealing the skulls and knife where in a box labeled 'Nightmare Night Supplies.'
The cyan pegasus trotted over and messed with the knife, finding it plastic and the blood being fake, contained inside the blade by a layer of plastic so moving it around caused it to 'run'. The pegasus laughed at herself as the situation dawned on her. “Yeah right, like this place would really have anything like that in the basement. That's like some bad horror movie plot.”
Rainbow Dash knew Pinkie Pie had some weird project in the basement she mentioned sometimes (or was it the sub basement below the basement?) involving partying, but the Cakes and her being psychos or something? How stupid could you get?
“Alright, let's get to...cleaning...this...place...up...” the mare started...then gradually saw just how much dust, cobwebs, and built up grime was on everything. Worse yet, the crates were too close together and the 'ceiling' too low for flying around in her normal zipping style to be possible. “...Crud...”
One would think Pinkie Pie lived in the attic of Sugar Cube Corner, but this was not exactly true. She lived in part of the attic, namely the part inside the cupcake, while the rest of the attic was in the ceiling of the main building. This particular part of the attic was decidedly less colorful and inviting than the pink party pony's housing quarters.
Fluttershy whimpered, crawling up into the darkness of the attic with a feather duster in her mouth. “H-Hello?” she asked, eyes darting around the gloom. She jumped with an eep as the upward opening door to the attic slammed shut behind her with a loud bang. Shaking like a leaf, the yellow pegasus crept along, beginning to dust things by flashlight...and jumping at every last sound and stray noise.
“H-Hello?” Fluttershy asked at the sound of a sudden creek. “Any l-little animal u-up here to k-keep me c-company?” She slowly moved the flashlight around in the dark...until she saw a white shape floating in the darkness like a ghost. Fluttershy gave a loud scream and ran to the opposite edge of the attic, hiding in an old chest.
“Fluttershy?” asked Mrs. Cake, pocking her head up into the attic a few moments later.
Fluttershy poked her head out of the trunk, shivering. “G-Ghost!” she shouted, pointing a hoof out at what looked like a specter.
The blue baker trotted over...and took a blanket off a chair, revealing it'd only been a trick of the light. She gave the pegasus a flat look.
The trunk opened, the Fluttershy poking her head out of it with blink and a blush. “O-Oh...”
“...Dear...you have a spider on your head...”
The little pegasus nodded, looking up at it. “W-We were talking about the 'g-ghost' while I was in the trunk...”
“...Alright then...Just keep up the cleaning, alright?...And leave...him up here.”
Rarity stared at the dirty, greasy oven...and stared at it. All the while Pinkie Pie created a fairly impressive looking cake in the background by herself as part of her own self imposed punishment.
“Miss Belle! You better not be slacking off in there!” called Mr. Cake from the other room. “Either you're working while you're here or you're not working!”
The fashionista jumped. “N-No! I-I'm not!” she called back. She gulped and raised the cleaning equipment like a sword ready for battle. “Alright...Bring. It. On!” She rushed in and nearly threw up the moment she started scraping away the grease and oil. While primarily using her magic, she was rather sensitive to all sorts of unpleasant things. And that naturally included foul odors such as the ones come from the uncleaned cooking device that made her turn a little green in the face. She whimpered as she looked over to see it was in no way the only one of it's type in the room. “...Maybe if I'm lucky Mrs. Cake will suddenly need a new dress made from scratch I can do instead...”
Unfortunately for Rarity, such a thing was not in the cards for the day. Only more grime and grease. A lot more.
“There...finished...” Rainbow Dash groaned, coming out of the basement looking filthy from dust and cobwebs and tired.
“G-Goodbye, Mr. Spider...” Fluttershy whimpered, coming down from the attic shaking like a leaf and looking frazzled at every little thing in addition to being as dirty as her cyan friend. “The d-dark, s-scary a-attic i-is c-clean...”
“Good,” said Mr. Cake, suddenly trotting up to them, causing the already fidgety and startled Fluttershy to scream in surprise and zip behind her cyan friend and cower in fright. Rainbow Dash gave her a flat, tired look that caused her to blush and slowly creep out from behind her. “Now go clean the outside of the building. Top to bottom.”
“What?!” Rainbow Dash asked in surprise.
Mr. Cake reached into a bag and produced a list. “This is the list of everything that went into that cake you three decided you couldn't wait to have a bite of before Equestria's biggest confection competition...” he explained, rolling it out...it rolled to the ground and then out underneath the pegasus.
“...Where's the water hose?”
“Outside in the shed.”
As Mr. Cake left, Fluttershy looked to Rainbow Dash. “Um...Maybe some random things will happen that make the Cakes money for the day?"
The cyan pegasus raised an eyebrow. "Fluttershy, don't you mean make the Cakes LOSE money for the day, and being so frazzled they think we're jinxed and let us off the hook?"
The yellow pegasus gasped in horror. "Gasp! No! Why would I want that?! I meant so they'd consider us paid off from all the money they got!"
Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head, looking a bit guilty. "Oh...yeah, that'd be better for everypony..."
Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash wearing beeping shock collars worked nonstop at Sugar Cube Corner.
Pinkie Pie stood over them like a happy smiling slave driver, "You three, our super lucky ponies, are here, FOREEEEEEEVEEEEEEER!!"
The cyan pegasus quickly shook her head to get THAT image out of it. “...Or maybe not...or maybe my brain is a little fried from working down there around the Nightmare Night props for so long...Come on, let's get out there and get this over with...” she muttered, trotting over and out the door. Fluttershy followed...and had to quickly cover her eyes, the light being painful from her several hours of cleaning in an extremely dark attic.
Rarity gave a sigh, mane a mess as she emerged from the kitchen. Grease and grime streaked her fur such to the point one might be forgiven for mistaking her for a zebra. “Alright, all the ovens are clean, darling...” Her eye twitched. “Can I wash up real quick? Please?” she almost begged.
“Huh? Oh, yes...” said Mr. Cake...before hearing Pound start crying. “But first handle the counter for a sec while I take care of the that...”
“But...but my mane! If somepony came in-” Rarity cringed back from Mr. Cake's look and took his place at the counter. “It's fine, Rarity, this place isn't very busy right now...”
“AHHHHHHH!”
The fashionista looked over outside the window as Rainbow Dash flew by, being chased by a swarm of bees. “FLUTTERSHY! DO SOMETHING!”
“Um...bees, please stop...” called Fluttershy as she flew by and hovered in front of the window.
“OW!”
The yellow pegasus cringed at something out of sight of the fashionista. “Oh my...”
Rarity prepared to rush over to tell the Cakes to aid her friends...only to hear a somewhat offended sounding huff, having missed the sound of the bell at the door while distracted with her friends' bee situation. She looked over to see Zecora giving her a rather sour look. The mare raised an eyebrow before following Zecora's eyes and noting the zebra-like appearance her grease and grime covered coat gave her. “Oh...Darling...well...you see...this isn't what it looks like!”
“Ow!” Rainbow Dash cried out as Fluttershy tended to her bee stings. “So you had to WHAT?”
Rarity, now cleaned up but still quite frazzled in every sense of the word, sat across from them as Pinkie Pie handled closing up. All of it. By herself. “I had to give her a few free things to keep her from being offended enough to just walk out...Then repay the cakes for it out of my own wallet.”
“Well, at least we did our best to make it up to them...” Fluttershy replied, applying a baking soda paste to her cyan friends' stings.
“Yeah, but this is way harder than being weather team manager...” Rainbow Dash muttered, cringing as the venom drawing mixture was applied.
“Well done you three,” said Mrs. Cake, giving each of them a glass of lemonade. “We'll see you tomorrow, early.”
“What?!” asked all three at once.
“T-There's more?” asked Rainbow Dash, eyes wide.
“Of course, did you think you'd make up all the time, effort, and money we put into that cake in one day?” asked Mr. Cake, seriously.
“...If I may dare ask...about how much?” asked Rarity, staring in shock.
“Do you have the next month or so free?” Mrs. Cake asked, then jumped as all three slammed their heads into the table.
“Well...I guess this is what they mean when they say sneaking snacks in the middle of the night will make you regret it later...” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
The End.