//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Missing Piece... of Cake 
// by MisterNick 
//------------------------------//

When her niece and nephew visited, Princess Celestia expected a certain amount of shenanigans to occur.  Typically at some point something would wind up sticky or broken and a lot of hoof pointing between the cousins would happen.  Two weeks ago the pair had somehow managed to transform the western wall of her throne room into a very dense gelatin dessert.  It took a little magic and a couple of baths to straighten matters up but no harm was done.  Today was an entirely different matter.

Long had that last piece of Germane Chocolate Cake waited for her.  Covered in the remaining frosting and bits of chocolate left by previous pieces it was sure to be the most delicious piece out of the entire cake.  Before she retired that evening she checked on it to ensure that nobody else had laid a hoof on it.  Right then she decided it was going to be her breakfast.  After all it had milk, eggs, coconut, pecans and cherries on it.  As far as she was concerned it qualified and as she drifted off to sleep visions of sweetness danced through her head.

That morning she bounded into the kitchen, giddy as a filly on Hearths Warming.  She threw open the door to the fridge an expectant grin plastered on her face.  Yet, when Celestia opened the door all she found was an empty plate with a few crumbs and bits of frosting left behind.  Her face fell as she stared at it in disbelief.  Then her left eye began to twitch, her breathing intensified and she felt as if her mane were about to set itself ablaze.  She shrieked a word she dare not say again before ordering a passing guard to retrieve her niece and nephew and send them to her study.

Once in the study Celestia counted to ten and took several deep breaths in the hope of calming herself.  She did her best not to look at the empty plate she'd brought with her that only fueled her foul mood.  She reminded herself that both Blueblood and Cadence were good foals generally speaking.  They were both kind and inventive in their own ways.  Cadence was very good at skipping rope, making friends and painting.  Celestia thought the hoof print turkey she'd made was rather nice even if the paints left stains on the carpet.

Blueblood on the other hoof was charming and usually reserved unless provoked.  He also had a rather large imagination that didn't always bode well when it came time to fess up about something.  The last tall tale from him involved a bugbear who had splashed honey on him and wrote the almost word 'fank,' on his mirror in crayon.

The click of the door to her study roused Celestia from her thoughts as the two foals entered.  As they walked in she noticed that a thin layer of something brown on Blueblood's front hooves.  She set her jaw and with a scowl pointed one hoof at the empty plate.

At first Blueblood and Cadence didn't notice as they were locked in an argument as to whose fault it was that they were summoned and why.  When Celestia cleared her throat however, their eyes darted to her and then to the crumb covered plate.

Cadence leaned over to Blueblood and whispered, "You are in so much trouble."

Blueblood's eyes widened as he quickly turned to face his cousin in disbelief.  "Me? It wasn't me! I know better than to lay a hoof on auntie's cake!"

"Oh puh-lease," said Cadence as she rolled her eyes.  "This is just like the bugbear..."

"That was real.  He was stuckhead first in the honey tree.  So I used my magic to pull the branch back and swatted him on the ... bottom.  He popped out the other side and I got covered in honey."

"And then he wrote 'Fank' on your mirror?"

"Okay so that part was me," conceded Blueblood, "But it was funny and it doesn't make the first part not true."

"Right.  And you also said that there's an actual king that can control the weather..."

"We're way off topic," interrupted Princess Celestia, "The issue is the cake.Which one of you ate it?  The guards know better than to touch my sweet... delicious... chocolaty...."

"Um... Auntie you're starting to drool," said Blueblood.

Cadence levitated a napkin to her, "I was in my room."

"That's a lie.  I saw you with your paints when I got up this morning."

"Ask the guard where he found me," replied Cadence with a little smirk.

"I will don't worry," said Celestia before turning her attention to Blueblood, "And you?"

"I was in the garden looking for frogs."

"Frogs. You?"

Blueblood explained that after arriving at the castle Cadence and he hadn't gotten along.  It started when she left a bucket of water propped above his door.  He'd retaliated and in turn so had she.  That night he swore he'd hear her tapping on his window off and on.  It was a claim that Cadence was quick to deny once again citing that their aunt could ask any of the guard if she'd left her room that night.  It was a claim that caused Blueblood to utter an, "Unless."

"Unless this has something to do with you eating my cake ..."

"If my cousin is being honest and she didn't leave her room, maybe it has something to do with the shape shifting bug girl I saw yesterday afternoon in the garden."

"Shape..."

"Well, auntie you see I was playing in the garden yesterday I heard some rustling in the bushes.  So I went to look and see what it was."

"...shifting..."

"That's when I saw her," continued Blueblood, "She had these bug wings and a crooked horn and holes everywhere and she had this really long stringy gross hair..."

Cadence whipped her head around and glared at him squarely in the face.  Her green eyes bored into his, "How dare you!   She probably worked really hard to get her hair that way!  You never insult a lady's mane!"  She paused briefly and flipped her hair, "Not that it matters because you just made it up anyway."

"... bug girl."

"A-anyway," stammered Blueblood and looked back at Celestia, "I watched as she shifted to look like a flamingo and then a peahen.  Then she asked if I wanted to help her take over the planet.  I said 'Which one' and she gave me this look like..."

"Blueblood," interrupted Celestia, "There are no such things as shape shifting bug girls.  I've seen a lot in my life and never that.  I think by now such a race would have revealed itself long ago."

"Not if they stayed... hidden."  Blueblood saw his aunt's face stern as ever locked on him.  He gulped, "You... you don't believe me."

She sighed, "Blueblood you have to admit it's far fetched... even for you."

"Yeah," said Cadence as she circled about in front of him her pink eyes trained on him, "Just admit to aunt Celestia what you did."

Blueblood cocked his head. "But your eyes were just gree...," his eyes widened in shock, "You're the shape shifter! Auntie that's her!"

"Oh brother," muttered Cadence.

"It's true! All of it!"

"He even has icing on his hooves aunt Celestia," said Cadence pointing down at his forelegs, "See?"

"It's from trying to catch the..."

"I've heard enough," replied Celestia, "I already know you don't like mud.Not to mention that the rest of this story..."

Blueblood shuddered.  He glanced back and forth between the two mares aligned against him.  A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as he stood in judgment.  "You don't... believe me? You don't believe... me...."  It was at that moment that Blueblood lunged at his Aunt and shoved his hooves in her face, "Then lick them and taste the truth! Taste that it's not chocolate and nothing more than common watery dirt!"





After a stern lecture about being honest and a ban on any desserts for the next two weeks Blueblood parted ways with his cousin and aunt.  He watched as Cadence gleefully trotted down the hall for a moment before he grumbled to himself about the punishment and stomped off in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long before he saw a familiar pink alicorn trotting his way.  It was Cadence.  The sour look on Blueblood's face only intensified when the paint spattered alicorn stopped in front of him.

"Hey Blueblood, why do you look so angry?  What did Aunt Celestia want?  Was it serious?  It looks like it was if..."

Blueblood leaned in closely to Cadence and stared her up and down. The alicorn took a half step back.  Blueblood snorted and muttered, "You're not the bug girl.  Not that it matters," before he stomped past Cadence and left her thoroughly confused as to what had just transpired.