//------------------------------//
// Day Nine 
// Story: One Of Those Days 
// by AstroStar 
//------------------------------//

Spike was getting restless.  From the position of the moon, he can tell it was well past midnight, and there was still no sign of the two royal sisters.  He had sent a letter hours ago asking for some help fixing Starlight Glimmer’s magical mishap which turned Pinkie Pie & Mr. and Mrs. Cake into babies and Pumpkin and Pound Cake into grown-ups.  He continued to pace back and forth right by the Friendship Castle’s front door.  Thankfully, the sounds of non-stop crying from the new babies had died down moments earlier.  Spike figured that Twilight and the grown-up twins were finally successful in getting the babies to sleep.  That guess was confirmed when he saw a worn out Pound and Pumpkin slowly heading his way.

“They’re finally asleep,” Pound said, not bothering to straighten his mane.

Spike slumped against a nearby wall and sighed.  “Thank goodness for that.  So… How are you two holding up?  You know, considering….”

“We’re fine, all things considered,” Pumpkin smiled.  “I’m just more worried about mom, dad, and Pinkie.”

“Me too,” Spike added.  “But you two got something cool out of this.  How does it feel to be a grown-up, anyway?” Spike asked.  “I bet it feels awesome!”

Pumpkin shrugged.  “Well, it’s not we have much to compare this to.  Yesterday, I was just worried about finding my chew toy.”

“And we may be big, but we don’t have our cutie marks,” Pound continued, making sure to point out their blank flanks to Spike.  “But still, being big is pretty cool!  We can help out mom, dad, and Pinkie all we want now.”  Pound smiled, testing out his wings in the process.

“I bet the Cakes would love that help,” Spike said.  “Too bad you won’t be able to once everypony gets turned back to normal.”

The thought made the two twins pause.  If everything did get fixed, they would be foals once again, unable to help their family.  Even in their infant state, they could tell that the Cakes and Pinkie had been stressed out lately, making them wonder if there was a way to make them feel better.  Now they had the unique opportunity to directly change things, only for things to return to the way it was before they had the chance.  Maybe.  Just maybe…

Any further thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock at the castle doors.

“Finally!”  Spike sighed.  He opened the door to reveal the dual regal forms of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both of whom carrying a saddlebag full of old books.  Spike started to kneel down to show respect to the royal visitors.

“No need for formalities right now, Spike,” Celestia said to the small dragon.  “We gathered all the information from the Canterlot Library’s restricted area.  There should be enough here to correct everything.  How are Pinkie and the Cakes doing?”

Pumpkin stepped forward.  “They’re asleep right now,” she replied.

Luna let out a small gasp as she regarded the two ponies in the hall.  “Oh my.  So you must be Pound and Pumpkin.”

“Don’t worry, little ones,” Celestia told the twins.  “With Twilight’s help, we will change you back to normal soon enough.  Come along, everyone.”

With that, Spike, Celestia, and Luna hurried down the hallways of the castle to meet up with Twilight.  Pumpkin and Pound Cake shared a worried glance before following them.


SEVERAL HOURS LATER...


Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all worked through the night pouring over all of the books and fine-tuning a restoration spell for the three ponies-turned-foals.  It was nearly time for Celestia to raise the sun by the time the spell was ready and set to be cast.  Spike and Twilight carefully placed the sleeping babies on the spell matrix she drew on the floor of the castle’s library.  Celestia and Luna stood on opposite sides of the display, ready to help Twilight fire the magic.  Pumpkin and Pound, meanwhile, stood by the doorway, looking on nervously.

“I sure hope this works,” Twilight gulped.

“At best, it will be a full reversion and Pinkie, Mr. Cake, and Mrs. Cake will be back to normal, no worse for wear,” Luna said.

“And at worse?” Pound asked.

“Granny Smith will have three new members in her crochet club,” Spike half-joked.

“And that is if we’re lucky.” Twilight shuddered at the implications of that thought.

“It will take the complete concentration of all three of us to make sure this spell is reversed correctly,” Celestia told everyone.  “We can’t stress over what may or may not go wrong.”

“Then let us not waste any more time,” Luna announced.

Twilight nodded, which was Spike's cue to join Pumpkin and Pound to take cover from the upcoming magical maelstrom.  Soon, the three Alicorns set themselves in position around the three babies.

“On my mark,” Twilight said.  Everything needed to be timed just right.  “Three.  Two.  One.  NOW!”

At once, three blinding currents of magical energy fired from the horns of Twilight, Celestia, and Luna straight to Pinkie, Mr. and Mrs. Cake.  Pumpkin, Pound, and Spike turned away from the bright magic to protect their eyes from going blind.  The spell took fifteen long agonizing seconds to complete, leaving the three princesses huffing out of magical exhaustion.  

When the magic finally died down, everyone in the room managed to get a good look at what was the eye of the magical storm.  There, laying down fast asleep on the floor, was Pinkie, Mr. Cake, and Mrs. Cake, all returned to their normal ages, albeit still wearing grown-up versions of the diapers they had worn minutes ago as babies.  Pumpkin and Pound started to rush over to hug them, but Spike held them back for a moment to let Twilight ensure that there were no adverse effects of the spell.  Twilight tentatively poked Pinkie’s side, trying to wake her as gently as possible.

It didn’t take long for Pinkie to slowly stir awake.   “Twilight?” she asked groggily.

Twilight smiled.  “Pinkie!  Are you ok?”

Before Pinkie could answer, she felt something odd on her flank.  When she took notice of the oddity, a different question formed in her head.  “Twilight?  Why am I wearing a diaper?”

“Well…” Twilight tried to answer but stopped when she saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake stir awake.  Almost immediately, they noticed the odd garment both of them were sporting.

“Sweetie?  We didn’t drink Applejack’s special Zap Apple Cider again, did we?”  Mr. Cake asked.

“I don’t think so,” Mrs. Cake answered, trying to shake the thing off her.

“I think they’re back to normal!” Twilight giggled.

Without any prompting, Pumpkin and Pound Cake rushed over to hug their parents and their favorite babysitter.

“You’re ok!  You guys are really ok!” Pound shouted.

Pumpkin wiped a tear from her eyes.  “We were so worried about you!”

The three ponies were stumped as to why two random ponies would be hugging them like this.

“Excuse me?  Have we met before?” Pinkie asked.

“Oh, I forgot.  You probably don’t recognize us like this, do you?” Pumpkin said.

“I got an idea!”  Pound shouted.  He then flew out of the library in a flash.  A few seconds later, he came back carrying a sack of flour in his hooves.  “Hope you don’t mind me doing this, but this should jog your memory.”

Pound tore open the sack of flour and unceremoniously dumped its contents right on Pinkie’s head, turning the pink party pony bright white.

“HEY!  What the..?”  Pinkie was ready to explode in anger at the stallion, but then she noticed this stallion’s brown mane looked a bit familiar.  As did the mare’s orange mane.  As did the stallion’s statement that the flour would jog her memory.  But why would flour on her head jog her memory?  The only times she did this anyway was around…

Pinkie gasped.  “PUMPKIN?!?  PONUD?!?”

The twins nodded sheepishly.

It took Mr. and Mrs. Cake a full two minutes before they were able to take their eyes off their grown foals long enough to form semi-coherent words.

“Oh my…” Mr. Cake uttered.

“My babies.  Y-You… you… you’re…” Mrs. Cake stammered.

“All grown up, we know,” Pumpkin finished.

“Although, we’re technically not just yet,” Pound added.  “We still don’t have a cutie mark.”  The twins turned to show their blank flanks to the others.

“Twilight?  What’s going on?” Pinkie asked.

“Long story short, Starlight cast a time spell that turned you and the Cakes into babies and the twins into grown-ups,” Twilight explained.

“She did WHAT?!?” Pinkie shouted.

“Don’t bother getting worked up about Starlight, though” Twilight continued.  “I’ve made sure she’s properly reprimanded.”


**MEANWHILE**


“I will not cast time spells on my friends without permission,” Starlight said out loud, finishing copying another line of the phrase down on a scroll of paper.   Starlight wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and sighed.

“500 down.  4,500 to go.”


****


“The good news is that Celestia, Luna, and I came up with a counterspell to turn everypony back to normal,” Twilight finished explaining.  “And now that we’ve got you three back, we can change the twins back to normal right now!”

“Yeah, about that…” Pound spoke up.  “Twilight?  Is it possible to… you know… not change Pumpkin and me back just yet?”

“What?  But don’t you want to be yourselves again?  I mean, you just skipped over your entire foalhood!” Mr. Cake said.

“We know,” Pound replied.  “And trust us, we want to change back as soon as we can.  But…”

Pumpkin noticed that Pound had trouble explaining, so she took over for him.  “Well, Pound and I were talking while you were trying to fix all this and we realized something.” She turned to address her parents.  “Mom?  Dad?  The store is still backed up with a ton of orders, right?”

The Cakes and Pinkie froze in terror.

“Oh no!!  Matilda’s cake!!!”  Pinkie screamed.  “When was she picking it up?”

“Today!”  Mr. Cake replied In alarm.  “And we still haven’t started with Octavia’s party!  And Minuette’s party!  And Princess Luna’s surprise party!”

“Wait.  Somepony’s throwing me a surprise party?” Luna asked.

“Look what you did, honey!  You ruined the surprise!” Mrs. Cake screamed.

Pound let out a loud whistle to calm everypony down.  “I think that proves our point,” he said.  “Mom?  Dad?  Pinkie?  We’d like to help you try to get things back on track at the store before we change back to normal.”

“But…  you’re still just my precious little foals,” Mrs. Cake said, still barely able to register the sight of her grown-up babies.

The two twins went over and gave their parents a reassuring hug.

“But we’re big now.  And we want to help you.  At least for a few days,” Pound said.

“Then you can change us back and we’ll be your precious little foals again,” Pumpkin added

“No matter how old you are, you’ll always be our precious little foals,” Mr. Cake smiled.

Mrs. Cake couldn’t help stop the tears forming in her eyes.  “My little babies.  All grown up.”

“They sure are,” Pinkie said.  “Although technically, they’re grown up now, but they need to get grown down so they can actually grow up even though they are already grown up now and…” she trailed off as a headache started to form in her head from figuring out the details of the scenario.  “Messing with time makes my brain hurt.”

Celestia nodded in agreement.  “That makes two of us.  At the very least, it looks like our job here is done.”  She took a quick look at the clock on the wall.  It was 6:54 am and sunrise was scheduled at 7:24 on the dot.  “If you’ll excuse us, we must return to Canterlot.  I have to raise the sun in exactly 30 minutes.”

Luna turned to follow her sister out the room, taking a quick glance at Twilight’s wall calendar.  A horrible realization hit her when she saw what day it was.

“Tia?” Luna asked slowly, “What time is the sun supposed to rise today?”

“7:24 am,” Celestia replied taking another look at the clock.  “Why do you ask.”

Luna quickly grabbed the calendar from off the wall and pointed to the day’s date.  “Today is Daylight Savings Time!”

Celestia froze.  “What?” she asked slowly.

Twilight gasped.  “Oh yeah!  I forgot to change my clock trying to fix this age reversal thing.  Hold on a sec…”  Twilight fired up her horn towards the clock and moved the hour hand forward one hour.  “There!  The correct time is 7:54…”  Twilight trailed off as she realized what had happened.

“Sunrise is at 7:24,” Celestia muttered.

“Meaning the sun should have risen 30 minutes ago!” Luna shouted.

Celestia’s breath quickly got shorter as reality sunk in.  She looked out at the clock, then to the calendar, and then out the window and the still darkened skies above Ponyville.  “No.  It can’t be… I’m… I’m…” Her words got caught in her throat as she began to hyperventilate.

“I’m… TARDY!!!” Celestia wailed.

Everypony in the room could only watch as Celestia began to run around the room in a panic.  “How can I let this happen?  I never do this.  I’m never tardy!  What are we going to do now?  We’re doomed!  Equestria will fall into eternal chaos!  Breakfast is ruined forever!  FOREVER!!!!”  The sun princess ran out the door in her panicked state.

“Suddenly, I don’t feel so bad about the Smarty Pants thing,” Twilight said.

Luna groaned.  “Looks like I need to console Tia… again…”  She turned to address Pinkie Pie and the Cakes.  “I understand Sugarcube Corner may be busy, but for the sake of Equestria and its citizens, could you please deliver a five-layer vanilla hazelnut crunch cheesecake to Tia’s bedroom ASAP?”

“Done!” The five Sugarcube Corner ponies said in unison.


~~~~


Despite being behind schedule by about a half hour, the sun did rise to usher in a new day.  The streets of Ponyville was alive with ponies getting ready to start their routines.  However, a slightly different routine was occurring at Sugarcube Corner.  With the twins temporarily grown-up, Sugarcube Corner’s workforce grew from three to five.  Conversations made during the walk back from the castle to the store was centered around figuring out exactly how Pound and Pumpkin would help out the Cakes and Pinkie.  The decision was made where Pound would help out in the kitchen, while Pumpkin would help Pinkie at the register, handing out orders to the customers after Pinkie rang them up.  With the extra set of hooves, Sugarcube Corner opened rather smoothly, a refreshing change of pace as far as Pinkie was concerned.

“Here are your bagels, sir.  Have a nice day!” Pumpkin smiled at the latest customer, watching him exit.  She took a moment to readjust her specialized work apron, which covered her blank flank.  “Wow!  This is easier than I thought!” she told Pinkie.

“Even I have to admit today is going great so far,” Pinkie shrugged.  “Things have been getting kinda weird around here lately.”

“How weird were things around here?” Pumpkin asked.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Pinkie answered.

“I am older,” Pumpkin pointed out.

Before Pinkie could offer a rebuttal, Pound emerged from the kitchen.  “Hey, Pinkie?  How many eggs go into your secret lemon custard recipe?  We couldn’t find it in the cookbook” he asked the pink pony.

“That’s because it’s a secret, silly!” Pinkie laughed.  “I’ll take care of that for you after I’m done at the front.”

An idea popped into Pumpkin’s head.  “Why don’t you go and take care of it right now?  I can look after the register for a bit.”

Pinkie hesitated for a second before replying.  “Are you sure you can handle this by yourself, Pumpkin?”

“I think I can manage,” Pumpkin smiled.  “Besides, if I need help, I’ll call for you.”

“Yeah, but…” Pinkie argued.  “Some of the customers we’ve been getting lately have been kinda….”

Pumpkin responded by nudging Pinkie to the kitchen.  “It’ll be ok.  I’m a grown up now.  I can handle it.  Go ahead and help out everypony in the kitchen.  I got this.”

Pinkie sighed.  “If you insist, Pumpkin.  But call me if you need anything.”

Pinkie followed Pound back to the kitchen, leaving Pumpkin Cake alone by herself.  She couldn’t help giggling a bit.  Just yesterday she was a tiny foal.  Now she was running the shop on her own.  She really was a big pony now, just like Pinkie.  She made this look so easy, and If Pinkie could do it, so could she.

The time to revel in the novelty of the situation was cut short by a black-maned golden-coated bussinessmare entering the store.

“Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!  How may I help you?” Pumpkin greeted the customer.

“I’d like to order three honey-glazed donuts,” the businessmare ordered.

Pumpkin nodded and hit a few buttons on the register.  “Three honey-glazed donuts.  That’ll be six bits, please?”

“What?!?” The businessmare shouted.  “Six bits for three donuts?  That’s outrageous!!”

Pumpkin was taken aback, surprised by the sudden outburst.  “But... that’s the price of the donuts, ma’am,” she insisted.

The businessmare pounded her front hoof in anger.  “That’s it!  I’ve had it!  I’m sick of ponies like you taking advantage of me like this!”

“B-but… I haven’t…” Pumpkin stammered.

The furious businessmare got into Pumpkin’s confused face.  “No!  I will not accept that!  I demand you fix this right now or else I’ll take this up with the newspapers.  I’ll tell them how YOU are mistreating me!  I’ll even go all the way to Princess Celestia herself with this!”

“I… I…” Pumpkin tried to speak.

The businessmare smirked.  “That’s right.  I’ll let all of Equestria know what a horrible place this is.  I will personally make sure this establishment gets shut down forever and it will all be your fault.  What do you think about that?”

Silence hung in the air for a few tense seconds as Pumpkin tried to understand the businessmare’s threats.  Pumpkin felt her eyes water.

Then the floodgates opened.

“WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!  PIIIIIIIINKIEEEEE!!!!”

The sudden outburst made the businessmare’s anger fade into confusion.  Seconds after Pumpkin broke down, Pinkie emerged from the kitchen.

“What happened out here?” Pinkie asked.

“She’s being mean to me!!!” Pumpkin cried, pointing to the businessmare.

The businessmare could read Pinkie’s glare.  She didn’t say anything to her, but she was certain she was telling her ‘You just made a grown mare cry.  I hope you're happy.’  Before she dealt with the customer, Pinkie turned her attention back to Pumpkin, handing her a familiar stuffed turtle.

“Here you go, Pumpkin.  I’ve got your favorite toy.  Why don’t you go back with the Cakes?  I’ll take care of things here.”

Pumpkin nodded, took hold of the toy in her mouth, and began to slowly chew on the toy sadly. “Nom nom nom,” she nibbled.

The businessmare quickly placed six bits on the counter and slowly backed her way out of the store.


~~~~


Once Pumpkin managed to calm back down, the rest of the morning ran incredibly smooth.  It was towards the end of the morning period when a dark green, orange maned pegasus stallion entered the store, accompanied by a yellow-coated pegasus mare with a blue and silver striped mane.  As she began to greet the new customers, Pinkie suddenly recognized the two, particularly the stallion.  He was the customer from last week who nearly forgot to set up his son’s birthday party, which left him fearful of the wrath of the mare currently standing next to him.

“Hey, you two!  Welcome back to Sugarcube Corner! How may I help you?”  Pinkie smiled.

“We’ll take two blueberry muffins and two glasses of orange juice,” the stallion said.

“Sure thing!” Pinkie said.  “Just as long as you don’t set off another Code Blue like last week, huh.”

“Code blue?”  The stallion’s wife asked suspiciously.  “What is a ‘Code Blue’?”

Pinkie saw the stallion quickly shaking his head behind his wife’s back, silently pleading for her not to divulge any embarrassing details from the events of last week’s party emergency.

“Well…” Pinkie found herself saying.  “A Code Blue is our special birthday party code.  Your husband spent a lot of time and effort planning that for your son.”

“I know,” the wife smiled lovingly.  “But our son was nowhere near as surprised as I was.  I never thought my big stud over here could pull something like that off.”

“Well, you know.  I’m just full of surprises,” the stallion laughed nervously.

“You know,” the wife continued, “if he was able to pull that off for our son’s birthday, I can only imagine what he has lined up for our anniversary next week.”

The stallion froze in horror.

“Your anniversary is next week?” Pinkie asked, noticing the color draining from the stallion’s face.

“It’s our twentieth anniversary!” the wife smiled.  “I’ve only talked about this for the past seven months now, haven’t I, dear?”

“Yes!  Yes, you have!” the stallion laughed forcefully.

“Could you believe I kept dropping hints because I was almost certain that this guy would actually forget?” the wife laughed.  “But after what he pulled last week, I just can’t wait to see what he has for an encore.”

“Don’t worry, dear,” the stallion said.  “It’ll be the best anniversary ever.”

The wife gave her husband a big hug.  “I know it will.  I’m so excited that I just can’t wait”

With the wife turned away from Pinkie in the midst of the hug, Pinkie quickly scribbled a note on a piece of paper and showed it to the stallion.

‘Code Red?’ the sign read.

The stallion quickly nodded.

Pinkie made a few extra notes.  There was another party emergency on the horizon for Sugarcube Corner.


~~~~


Lunchtime came and went and Pinkie was pleasantly surprised.  Outside of a couple of issues here and there, the day was going by incredibly well.  Maybe it was the Twins helping out everypony to get Sugarcube Corner back on track, or maybe it was the fact that with one or two exceptions, there was a distinct lack of angry and/or crazy customers today.  Pinkie was beaming.  She wished she had more days like today.

“All right!  Who’s next, please?” Pinkie shouted.

A purple unicorn stallion with a black mane, a large mustache, and wearing a black velvet cape that would make the Great and Powerful Trixie herself jealous, came up to the counter.

“Hello again, Pinkie!  It’s me!” the stallion said.

Pinkie recognized this strange stallion.  “Wait a minute.  Weren’t you that…”

“…Weirdo who kept interrupting your sentences?” he interrupted.

Pinkie facehoofed.  Here it goes again.  “I can’t believe you…”

“…Actually came back here!”

“I was honestly hoping that I’d…”

“… Never see me again?”

“Don’t you know…”

“…How annoying it is to interrupt everypony?”

“Why do you…”

“…Keep doing this anyway?”

“Is it some kind of a…”

“…Weird psychological impulse?”

“Or is it just a…”

“...Desperate attempt to gain an actual personality?”

“What brings you…”

“...Back to Sugarcube Corner, anyway?

“Do you…”

“...Have a huge party I need help to throw?”

“Or are you just…”

“...Taking personal pleasure by annoying you into insanity.”

“You know I can…”

“...Have me thrown out at any moment.”

“But I guess that won’t work since you’d…”

“...Keep showing up anyway out of spite.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes and groaned.  “So I guess you’re just gonna…”

“…Continue doing this repeating thing, then.”

“There must be…”

“...Someway that you can get me to stop.”

“What if I…”

“...Gave me a one-way train ticket to Vanhoover?”

“Would you…”

“…Actually use it?”

“Or would you just…”

“...Trade it for some tinfoil and some used chewing gum.”

“Ok.  Do I even want to know…”

“...Why I’d even want those items?”

“Do you…”

“...Have an oddly specific hobby?”

“Or are you…”

“...Trying to find out if I’m pregnant.”

A full five seconds of awkward silence followed before Pinkie was able to respond.  “Ok, two things.  One…”

“…That is not the way to find out if I’m pregnant.”

“And two…”

“...I’m a stallion!  I can’t get pregnant anyway!”

“Don’t you know…”

“...Anything about basic biology?”

“Did you even…”

“...Have a basic biology class at my old school?”

“Or maybe you just…”

“...Don’t know because I skipped school every day to try to watch Princess Celestia use her bathroom.”  The stallion found himself recoiling at his last statement.  “Wow.  I kinda wish I…”

“...Hadn’t said that?” Pinkie finished.

“I think I may still have…”

“...One or two things I need you need to figure out?”

“I think I’m going to…”

“...Go back home now?”

“If you’ll need me I’ll be…”

“...lying down on the floor of your basement so you can feel like garbage?”

“Bingo!” the stallion smiled.

“Have a nice day!” Pinkie waved, watching the stallion leave the store.


~~~~


Before Pinkie knew it, the day was beginning to get late.  Thanks to everypony’s efforts, many of the backed up orders got filled and Sugarcube Corner was well on its way to being back on track.  Orders had been flying off the shelves all day, with several more orders to go before the day was completely out.  One such order came from Bon Bon, who was just now making her entrance into the store.

“Hiya Bon Bon!”  Pinkie waved, placing the order box on the counter.  “Your order is right here, ready to go!”

Bon Bon took a look at the package and opened it, revealing a dozen freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

“Mmmmm….” Bon Bon sniffed in the fresh baked goodness.  “These are perfect!  Lyra will love this!”

“The whole thing is for Lyra?”

Bon Bon nodded.  “She’s coming home from Canterlot today, and I wanted to surprise her!”

“I forgot to ask.  Why was Lyra in Canterlot anyway?” Pinkie asked.

“Apparently there was a super huge event over there yesterday that she needed to go to...” Bon Bon began to explain.  But before she could finish, a rainbow-colored streak zipped into the store, interrupting her.  Pinkie had to shake her head.  Rainbow Dash has made quick entrances before, but that was incredibly fast, even for her.

“Hi Dashie!   What’s gotten you in a hurry today?”

“Only the most awesome news ever!”  Rainbow Dash smiled.  She reached into her saddlebag and took out a freshly printed book.  “The new Daring Do book came out today!”  Rainbow Dash proudly displayed her copy of the newest book, Daring Do and the Cloudfall Conspiracy, to her friend.

Pinkie gasped.  “That came out today?  I’ve been waiting for that one for weeks!”  While she wasn’t as avid a fan like Rainbow, Pinkie still did enjoy the Daring Do books and was anxious to read the latest edition, which was hyped up to a crescendo in the previous stories. While she was going to set aside some time later that week to buy and read the book, Rainbow Dash was apparently set to plow through the entire novel tonight.  “So what do you think is going to happen?” Pinkie asked Rainbow.

Rainbow quickly closed Pinkie’s muzzle.  “SHHH!!!!  Do NOT say anything!  I don’t want any chance of even the smallest spoiler coming out.”

Bon Bon laughed.  “Don’t worry about me.  I’m not that much of a Daring Do fan myself.”

“And I’m still trying to figure out how that’s possible,” Rainbow shook her head.

“Can’t say the same about Lyra, though,” Bon Bon said.  “She's a huge Daring Do nut.  She even went to last night’s release party in Canterlot to be one of the first ones to get the book.”

“That was the reason Lyra went to Canterlot?” Pinkie asked.

“And I would have been there too if it wasn’t for Wonderbolt practice,” Rainbow grumbled.  “But I have my copy here now!  And as soon as I get home, I'm reading this thing and nopony or nothing’s gonna stop me!”

At that moment, the front door to the store burst open, and a green blur rushed in, settling right in front of Bon Bon.  “There you are Bon Bon!  I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”  Lyra huffed.  The three ponies were a bit shocked at how Lyra was able to match Rainbow Dash’s speed, if only for a moment.  “You'll never believe what happens in the new Daring Do book?”

“Lyra,” Bon Bon said, trying to settle her friend down, “I don’t think now is the best time for…”

Lyra couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore.  She told her.  “In the book, we found out that the Royal Canterlot University got destroyed!”

Everypony fell silent.  Rainbow Dash’s mouth hung open.  “What?” she squeaked.

“I know!  Right?” Lyra smiled at the stunned cyan pegasus, failing to notice her expression.  “Turns out a former coworker’s of Daring Do got fired and wanted revenge so he destroyed the whole office building.”

“WHAT?” Rainbow shouted

“And despite Daring Do’s best efforts to stop the bad guy, she still wasn’t able to save the Masra, the old president of the university,” Lyra continued.

“WHAT?!?” Rainbow screamed.

Lyra nodded.  “Yeah!  Masra was dead this whole time!  That explains why it took Daring Do so long to get back to the University, and why she froze during the climax of Daring Do and the Minotaur’s Maze and…”

It was at this time Lyra noticed the expressions of the other three ponies in the room.  Bon Bon’s head was in her hoof, her head shaking in embarrassment.  Pinkie’s mouth was locked open in stunned surprise.  And Rainbow….

Rainbow’s face had turned deep red in seething anger.  An anger pointed straight towards the green unicorn.

Lyra came to the horrible realization.  “You still haven’t read the book yet, have you?”

Rainbow said nothing.

Lyra laughed nervously.  “Wow... I am really, really sorry, Rainbow.  It’s just… It was so shocking I just had to tell somepony, you know?”

Rainbow said nothing.  Her nostrils flared dangerously.

“I should start running now, should I?” Lyra asked.

“I’ll give you a five second head start,” Rainbow growled.  “Five…”

In a blur, Lyra ran out the door and down the street in fear.

“....FOURTHREETWOONE!!!” Rainbow Dash flew out the store, her eyes set on a mint green target running down the street.

Bon Bon placed her cookies back on the counter.  “On second thought, Pinkie, give these cookies to Rainbow instead.  I think she’s gonna need them more than Lyra.”

Pinkie said nothing.  Her expression still frozen in shock.

Bon Bon waved a hoof in front of Pinkie’s face.  “Hello?  Pinkie?  Are you there?”  She asked.

“Masra was… dead?” Pinkie whispered.  Her mane began to lose its curls as her eyes watered and her lips quivered.

“Uh oh,” Bon Bon cringed.  She could only watch as Pinkie’s floodgates opened.

“MASRA!!!!!” Pinkie wailed.

The sobs prompted Mr. Cake, Mrs. Cake, and the twins to run out of the kitchen.

“Pinkie?  What happened?” Mr. Cake asked.

“Masra,” Pinkie choked out between sobs.  “She… she…”  Pinkie couldn’t say anything else before breaking out into another round of hysterics.

“Masra?  Who’s Masra?” Pumpkin asked.

“I don’t know,” Pound shrugged, “But we need to get Pinkie to calm down.”

“Take her upstairs, I’ll handle the store for now,” Mrs. Cake told the others.

Bon Bon and Mrs. Cake watched as the others led Pinkie back upstairs to her room.

“It’ll be all ok, Pinkie,” they heard Mr. Cake said. “Just calm down now.”

“Masra…  She was just three weeks away from retirement too!” Pinkie sniffed.

Once Mrs. Cake was alone with Bon Bon, she decided to ask her a question.  “Bon Bon?  Who exactly is Masra?”

“I think I have a more important question. Was that a grown-up Pumpkin and Pound Cake I saw with you back there?”

“Oh, you noticed, didn’t you?”  Mrs. Cake smiled weakly.

Bon Bon had a couple hundred follow up questions swimming in her head but ultimately chose to ask none of them.  She simply sighed and walked out the store.  She made a point to stop at Sweet Apple Acres to pick up some extra special cider on the way home.