//------------------------------// // The Cake Pit and the Cheese Pendulum // Story: Here Comes the Sun // by JapaneseTeeth //------------------------------// Twilight approached Sugarcube Corner with trepidation. She half expected that upon opening the door, what was left of the cake would spontaneously combust. Assuming, of course, that the bakery didn’t just collapse before she reached it.  And then there would probably be an earthquake, and a gigantic crevice would open and swallow the town whole. Although at least at that point she wouldn’t have to worry about the Summer Sun Celebration anymore. “It wasn’t that bad,” Spike said. “The Town Hall steps didn’t collapse, and once they dislodge the cheese from the stage-” Twilight stopped just long enough to turn her head and glare at him with a twitchy eye. “Just saying. It’ll be fine.” “I certainly hope so.” Twilight took a deep breath before opening the door. To her surprise, the interior of Sugarcube Corner was not a disaster zone. At least, not more of one than it usually was. Both of the cakes, or at least what was left of them, sat in the kitchen. “There you are!” Pinkie poked her head out from behind the cake. “We were wondering when you would get here!” Twilight blinked. “You actually got the cake here?” “Yup! No problem at all!” Applejack said with a satisfied nod. “It wobbled a bit when the cart hit a pothole, but Fluttershy and Dash managed to keep it from tippin’ too much.” “No problem!” Rainbow Dash patted the cake lightly. Fluttershy stepped carefully between them, taking care not to touch anything. “So how did things go with the, uh, the cheese?” Twilight twitched. “That bad, huh?” Applejack asked. “Yeah, about that… Would you mind heading over there? There was some… minor damage to the stage that needs to be repaired. I wouldn’t think it would take you too long.” “I guess I might as well. I dunno if I’d be able to really help y’all with the cake that much anyway.” “What about the decorations?” Rarity grabbed Twilight and gave her a shake. “What about my decorations!?” “The decorations are fine!” Twilight managed to blurt out as she shoved Rarity back. “The ribbons at the front of the stage got knocked around a bit, but everything else is fine!” “I’ll be the judge of that!” Rarity said with a snort. “I spent all morning on those decorations and I must make sure that they are pristine when the festival begins. Unless of course, it is imperative that I am here.” Twilight turned to Pinkie. “Are we going to need her help?” Pinkie thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Nah, we should be fine!” “In that case, I must be on my way! I will return as soon as I can!” She trotted out the door. Applejack followed, with somewhat less enthusiasm. “I guess I better get a move on too,” she said. “Good luck with gettin’ those cakes fixed up.” “Twilight is not here,” Luna stated bluntly as she emerged from the library. “Neither is the cheese. It appears that she has already transported it elsewhere.” “Are you certain that she brought the cheese here?” Celestia asked. “She could have simply brought it elsewhere.” “No, she specifically stated that she would bring the cheese here while preparations were taking place.” Luna carefully shut the door. “Not to mention that I could smell it. The cheese wheel was definitely here.” “Tell me,” Celestia said. “How did you deliver the cheese wheel to her home?” “The guards brought it on a cart. Why?” “Because there is a long indentation in the ground leading to her door that appears to be about the same size that a cheese wheel might leave if one rolled it along the ground.” She pointed.  Sure enough, a depression ran through the dirt, down the road toward Town Hall. “If we follow it, we’ll probably find the cheese. It looks like it’s going in the same direction we were going anyway.” “Brilliant! Let us go!”  Luna marched dramatically along the path left by the cheese. Celestia chuckled to herself and followed after her with considerably less formality. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Rainbow Dash said as she no-so-carefully trimmed damaged bits of cake from the top tier. “The new Daring Do movie is going to be awesome! How could it not be!?” “Because there’s no way that they could possibly fit the entire story into a two hour movie!” Twilight retorted.  She was engaged on cleaning up the bottom half the cake. “Do you know how much stuff they’re going to have to cut out?” “They’ve gotta take out some stuff. You should know that.” “Well, yes, but they’re taking out all of the wrong things! There’s no sign of the entire library sequence anywhere!” “That’s because the library thing was boring.” Rainbow Dash trimmed off a long ribbon of fondant and rolled it into a ball. “There’s a reason none of the other books have scenes like that. Nobody goes to the movies to see somepony do research.” She lobbed the ball over Twilight’s head toward the nearby bowl where they were placing all of the miscellaneous bits of cake. Pinkie intercepted the throw with her mouth. “I admit that it might’ve been a bit slow, but it was vital to the plot! It was when she figured out the location of the Sapphire Statue!” Twilight carved angrily at one of the damaged sections of cake. “Yeah, because they couldn’t totally do that without actually showing her in there. Why couldn’t they just go right to the bit with the ship and have her be like ‘Yeah, I discovered the location of the statue after almost boring myself to death yesterday’ or something.” “That would go entirely against her characterization! Her whole character arc is about her progression from being a normal researcher to actually being an adventurer in the field!” Twilight wrinkled her nose as she glared at Rainbow Dash. “That was the entire point of the book!” “I thought the point was to find the Sapphire Statue. It’s right there in the title!” “That’s the plot, but the theme of the book was Daring Do’s growth from from a scholar who never did anything with her knowledge to somepony who was able to put all of her studies to use! If they skip over that it completely misses what the story’s about!” “How’s the cake coming!?” Pinkie bounced between the two of them, breaking the angry stares they had been giving each other. “Or the half-cake, I guess.” “Huh?” They turned to look at the cake. Miraculously enough, given the lack of attention that they had been paying towards it, their section of the cake was pristine. The damaged sections had been completely pared away, and what was left had been carved to very nearly exactly half of what it had originally been. “Great job!” Pinkie said, nodding in satisfaction. “Fluttershy should be just about done with our half!” She spun around. “How’s it going?” “Just about there...done!” Fluttershy sliced off a final bit of damaged confection and tossed it towards the bowl. Pinkie lunged into the air and caught it on her tongue. She chewed for a few second before her tongue forces itself back out of her mouth, bearing the lump of frosting. “Bleeeaaaaaaghhhh! It tastes like rotten eggs and sadness!” She spit it into the garbage. “Well, it did get blown up with fireworks,” Twilight said. “You really should’ve known better.” “Yeah,” Pinkie grumbled as she wiped off her tongue. “So now we’re going to put the two cakes together?” Fluttershy hovered in a slow circle around the cakes, being careful not to disturb them. “That’s the plan, yes,” Twilight answered. “This is the first Summer Sun Celebration in a millennium to have both Princesses present, so it makes perfect sense to have a cake that symbolizes their reunion!” Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and snorted derisively. “That’s… pretty much the cheesiest thing ever.” “Do you have any better ideas?” “What’s wrong with cheese?” Pinkie said as she cartwheeled around the two cake halves. “It’s totally thematically appropriate because it’s what the moon is made of and I just realized that Luna’s cake should’ve been a cheesecake! How did I not think of that bef—” Distracted by her train of thought, Pinkie barreled into a cabinet, sending up a cloud of flour. “Um, so what do we do now?” Fluttershy asked as she watched Pinkie shake the flour off. “We’ve got the cakes ready to go. Do we just push them together and frost over the seam?” “I… guess?” Twilight shrugged. “Pinkie is in charge of that.” “What she said!” Pinkie said, her voice muffled by the flour sack over her head. Twilight nodded. “We’d better get started, then. We’ve only got...uh… not very long before we need to get this cake done, and to town hall!” “Um…” Fluttershy raised a hoof like a nervous student waiting to ask a question. “Before we do that…” “What?” Twilight asked. “I don’t want to rush, but we really do need to get going.” “I was just thinking, since we had all of these problems because we couldn’t fit the cakes out the door… Uh. If we put the two half cakes together, wouldn’t they also be too big to fit out the door?” Twilight stared blankly ahead for a moment, while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other. “Gaaah!” Twilight sat down with a thump. “We dodged a bullet, there! Thanks, Fluttershy. We almost had the exact same problem again.” She turned to Pinkie. “Could we move the cake outside before we start to frost the sides together?” Pinkie nodded. “Sure! As long as it doesn’t rain!” Rainbow Dash glared at her. “Just how lazy do you think I am?” “I don’t know why you insisted on comin’ along,” Applejack grumbled as she trotted down the road toward the Town Hall. “It’s gonna be mostly construction work on the stage. Once we’re done I think we can stick a few ribbons or whatever back up on there.” “It’s much more than just a few ribbons!” Rarity snorted in response. “Well, not literally, of course. But placing such things properly is absolutely essential in making sure that the room comes together!” “Yeah, when the curtain opens and the Princesses’ walk out, I’m sure everypony’s gonna be lookin’ at the wall.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “I just wanna make sure there’s a stage for ‘em to walk out on. Once I get that done, you can go decorate however you want.” “Applejack, hosting such an event is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!  I would be remiss if I did not ensure perfection!” “Rarity, the Summer Sun Celebration was here last year too, and you had the exact same set of duties. So you’ve had that ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity twice. Which means it ain’t once-in-a-lifetime.” “If you want to be literal, I suppose you’re right,” Rarity grumbled. “But even so, last year’s… incident really just postponed the celebration more than anything else.  We never had the chance to truly prove ourselves capable of putting on such an event.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and savin’ Equestria from Nightmare Moon and reunitin’ Celestia and Luna didn’t count for anything, I guess.” “Well, saving Equestria is all well and good, but doing that hardly demonstrates that we are capable of hosting a major event.” Applejack mulled it over for a moment. “You actually think that throwin’ a big fancy party is as important as savin’ Equestria, don’t you?” She never got an answer. “My decorations!” Rarity rushed into the Town Hall, following the trail of destruction left by the cheese. “Oh, thank Celestia, there wasn’t much damage!” “What the hay are you talkin’ about?” Applejack groaned as she surveyed the aftermath of the cheese wheel. The Town Hall steps had mostly survived, though a few of them would need to be replaced and there was a noticeable dent in the floor where the cheese had landed after ramping off the stairs.  But the stage had taken the brunt of the dairy product’s rampage. The cheese was embedded in it, having taken little damage from the collision. The stage, on the other hand, now had a massive hole right in the center. “This place is a disaster area!” “Oh, the stage, yes,” Rarity muttered, nodding. “But it doesn’t seem to have hit any tables.  It appears to have rattled a few of them, but nothing some straightening won’t fix! And as for the stage, all that must be done is to rehang some garlands.” “Yeah, after we move the cheese, fix the supports, rewire the lighting, and replace all the planks.”  Applejack sighed. “As if we didn’t have enough to worry about already.” Rarity didn’t hear her. She was too busy scurrying between tables, nudging the centerpieces back into alignment. Applejack shook her head and looked at the cheese. “How the hay am I gonna move this thing?” “...I must say, I never before had considered the destructive potential of an aged dairy product.” Luna said as she noticed the damage to the Town Hall steps. “I would think anything could be destructive if it were big enough,” Celestia said with a shrug. “I must say, I wonder why Twilight would go to the trouble of bringing it here. I would’ve thought she would’ve taken it to the food preparation area.” “I wonder what Twilight intends to use it for,” Luna said. She walked carefully up the steps, not wanting to cause any addition damage. “I’m sure that she’s found something to use it for,” Celestia answered as she followed Luna into the hall. “Perhaps they’re planning to serve it during the” —she froze as she saw the cheese, which dangled precariously from a rope from somewhere above the stage— “presentation. That is a very odd place to put it.” “Is it good now?” Applejack’s voice rang from above the cheese. “It’s gettin’ there.” Apple Bloom stood in front of the stage, exactly at center, squinting up at the suspended dairy. “I think you gotta move it a bit to the left.” Applejack grunted, and the cheese slowly swung like a massive pendulum as it made its way to the side. “No, the other way! I meant stage left!” “Really? Why couldn’t you just point and say ‘that way’?” “Well, we’re workin’ on a stage, and that’s what they call it!” “Why do theatre ponies gotta have their own words for everything? Isn’t just regular old ‘left’ and ‘right’ good enough for ‘em?” “I dunno, that’s just how it is!” Apple Bloom snorted. “Okay, that looks pretty good.” The cheese wheel drifted lazily back and forth, slightly offcenter of the stage. “You got any idea why they wanted it strung up like that?” Applejack asked as she climbed down from the rafters. “I dunno. Spike just told me to....” Apple Bloom froze as she saw the two Princesses and then bowed. Neither one of them noticed her. Their gazes were transfixed on the cheese. “Apple Bloom, what are you doin’ down on the- oh!” Applejack let herself drop to the stage, where she prostrated herself. “Welcome to Ponyville, your majesties! Er, forgive the mess. We had a bit of a… problem. We’ll have the stage all fixed up right as rain by the time we gotta get the show on the road.” “Huh?” Celestia blinked, and noticed that everypony was bowing. “Oh, thank you. It is wonderful to be back in Ponyville. I have no doubt that you will be able to make your repairs. We were simply curious about what Twilight had done with the cheese wheel.” “To tell the truth I’m not exactly sure what she’s doin’ with it either,” Applejack said, regarding the airborne dairy product. “She just told me to get it hoisted up there so it’ll be out of the way while we fix up the stage.” “Yes, the… mishap with the stage is unfortunate,” Luna said. “Though perhaps it could’ve been avoided” —she gave her sister a pointed look— “if we had been properly informed of the proper procedure regarding customary gifts.” “Luna, it was just a misunderstanding!” “And while we are on the subject, some explanation of modern fashion might have prevented us from having to spend so long getting the dress modified.” Celestia rolled her eyes. “I offered to have a tailor drop by to fix things up for you.” “Yes. In the middle of the afternoon! You know that I must sleep during the day due to my duties!” “You could have had the secretary schedule a nighttime visit.” “I would have if I had known such a thing was necessary,” Luna snorted. “As it is, I was forced to drag her away from her work!” She waved at Rarity, who was posed differentially next to the table she had been straightening. “Oh it was no trouble at all,” she said. “It was an honor. In fact,” —she turned to Celestia— “if you require any repairs or modifications to your wardrobe, I would be more than happy to assist.” “Thank you. I do not believe that will be necessary, but if something arises, you will be the first pony I come to.” “Are you certain?” Luna asked. “It has been quite a while since your last formal occasion, and I recall that there you have judged a few baking competitions since then…” “Oh, quite,” Celestia said. “Cake doesn’t go to the flanks in quite the way grilled cheese does.” The sisters shared an irritated glare. “Uh, we gotta get started on fixin’ the stage,” Applejack said quickly. “There’s gonna be all sorts of glue and wood and sawdust and such, and I’d hate for either of you to get dirty.” “Yes!” Rarity grinned nervously. “Why don’t I show you to your dressing rooms so that you can begin your preparations?” “That sounds like a great idea,” Celestia said. “Come on, Luna. We’d better go.” “Very well.” “Everypony out of the way! Cake coming through!” Scootaloo lowered the megaphone. “How was that?” “Perfect!” Rainbow Dash gave a gesture approximating a thumbs-up. “I knew we could count on you.” “It’s certainly loud enough,” Twilight said, rubbing her ears. “Is the cake ready to go?” “Just about!” Pinkie answered. She dangled from Fluttershy’s hooves next to the top of the cake. Fluttershy was breathing hard, trying to hold steady and make sure that Pinkie didn’t slip out of her grip. “So why aren’t you holding Pinkie up?” Scootaloo asked. “I bet you could hold like a dozen Pinkies up without breaking a sweat!” “A dozen Pinkies…” Twilight shuddered at the thought. “Yeah, it would be pretty easy,” Rainbow Dash said. “Too easy! I thought it would be better if I went and found somepony to help us escort the cake to Town Hall!  I totally knew you’d be able to help us!” “I thought it was because you couldn’t hold still long enough for Pinkie to get any frosting done,” Twilight said. “So here’s what you’ve gotta do,” Rainbow Dash continued. “We just need you to circle the cake as we move it down the road and make sure that everypony stays back!” “Got it!” “Wide circles. Slowly,” Twilight added. “The last thing we want is to have you accidentally smash into the cake while trying to protect it.” “But not too slowly,” Rainbow Dash said. “We don’t want anypony to slip by. Me and Fluttershy will be up top making sure nothing hits the cake from above.” “What would hit the cake from above?” Scootaloo asked. “Honestly, the way this day has been going? Pegasi, fireworks, flock of pigeons, lightning bolt, griffons, a meteor… pretty much anything, really. And that’s assuming we don’t have any more magical mishaps.” “It was an accident!” Twilight protested. “Besides, that’s the whole reason we’re taking the cake on a cart rather than trying to teleport it again. We’re not even going to risk it.  Also, if anypony sees Trixie, protect the cake at all costs.” “Why would Trixie try to destroy the cake?” Scootaloo glanced curiously at Twilight. “Whether or not she’s trying to destroy the cake doesn’t matter. Last time she came near a cake, it ended up exploding!” “The cake exploded?!” Scootaloo asked. “Is that what that big bang was before?” “You can’t blame Trixie for that!” Rainbow Dash said. “Or well, I guess you can, but not entirely. Should we keep you away from the cake too? You’re the one who got both of them all messed up!” “Twilight blew up a cake?” Scootaloo asked with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. “I did not blow up a cake! I didn’t even damage either of them! You’re the one who flew right into it! It practically had a pegasus-shaped hole!” “Wait, you messed up a cake, too?” Scootaloo cocked her head. “Has anypony here not ruined a cake?” “I haven’t!” Pinkie declared proudly. Beside her, Fluttershy silently raised her hoof. “I only flew into it because she teleported it right in front of me!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “It’s like those cakes are just bad luck or something.” Scootaloo’s eyes darted to the cake, to Rainbow Dash, to the smoke rising in the distance from the smoldering remains of Trixie’s wagon. “You know, I don’t think you really need me to help escort the cake.” “You’ll be fine!” Rainbow Dash patted her on the back. “The whole reason we need you is to make sure that the cake doesn’t attract any more...uh…you know.” “I’m not sure I do,” Twilight muttered. “I wouldn’t trust anypony else with this job,” Rainbow Dash said. “We might’ve had some trouble with the cake before, but now that we’ve got you on watch, that’s totally not gonna be a problem.” “You sure?” “Sure I’m sure!” Rainbow Dash ruffled Scootaloo’s mane. “We’ve got nothing to worry about!” “Alright! When do we go?” “As soon as they’re done with the frosting,” Twilight said, then turned to face the cake. “How’s it going?” “We’re done!” Pinkie declared, tossing the half-empty frosting bag over her shoulder. “Look at that! Nopony could even tell that it used to be two cakes!” “Um, I hate to say it, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s two cakes,” Fluttershy said as she set Pinkie down. “The two sides are completely different colors and decorated in different styles.” “Okay, but it looks like it’s supposed to be that way, right?” Pinkie said. “Oh yes. If I hadn’t seen the original two cakes, I never would’ve been able to tell.” “It looks great, Pinkie,” Twilight said. She wanted to sigh in relief, but was too preoccupied calculating the odds of the cake making it to its destination safely. “Looks like we’ve got” —she glanced at the clock tower— “just enough time to get it to Town Hall before things are supposed to start. Come on, we’d better get a move on. The less we have to rush, the better.” Rainbow Dash gave Scootaloo a final headpat before taking to the air. “Alright, Scoots! You’re up!” “I’m sorry, but I’m not gonna build your speakers into the stage.” Applejack pointedly continued nailing the board into place.  “I’m just here to fix up the stage, not make any major renovations to it.” The blue-maned unicorn remained undeterred. “But think of how great it would be for the acoustics! You’d have sound coming from another direction! If your bones had ears, they’d be able to hear it!” “My bones don’t have ears, and frankly I’m pretty glad, because that would just be weird. I wouldn’t want to be able to hear music with my bones.” “That’s because you’ve never heard music with your bones before! Once you have, you’ll never listen to music the same way again!” “I think I’ll stick to listenin’ with my ears, thank you very much.  If you need an extra hoof to move your gear in, I can help as soon as I’m finished with this, but anything else and you’re gonna have to find somepony else to help you.” “Vinyl! Quit bothering everypony and start helping to move all of your electronics. I’m certainly not going to do it all for you!” A gray earth pony with an elegantly coiffed mane trotted up beside the unicorn and made a shooing motion with her hoof. “Go on. You do this every time!” “I’m telling you, Tavi, if we could get the bass speakers embedded in the architecture, it would totally revolutionize my sound!” “You aren’t here to revolutionize your sound, you are here to provide appropriate background music during the afterparty. This isn’t one of your gigs.” She turned to Applejack. “I apologize for my friend. She’s quite an excellent musician in her own way, but she… gets carried away easily.” “It’s no problem at all,” Applejack said, glad to be talking to somepony with some sense. “I know plenty of ponies like that, so I’m used to dealin’ with that kinda thing.  The whole reason I’m fixin’ the stage in the first place is because a giant cheese wheel got crashed into it.” “I told you!” Vinyl poked her head back through the door. “You owe me ten bits!” “I most certainly do not!” “But we had a bet!” “You had a bet. I never agreed to anything. And I thought you were supposed to be setting your equipment up outside.  The afterparty certainly isn’t going to be held here.” “As long as it’s loud enough, it doesn’t matter.” “If you have your speakers in here loud enough that you could hear it outside, I’m pretty sure you’d knock down the Town Hall,” Applejack said. “And I’d rather not have to rebuild it.” Vinyl shrugged. “Alright, I get it. I’ll get set up outside. And don’t worry, I’ll face the subwoofers away from this building.” She turned and headed outside. Applejack sighed in relief and turned back to Octavia, who was studying her face. “Uh, is there something I can help you with?” “It’s nothing. You just looked a bit familiar for a moment there.” Applejack gulped as she remembered the events of the Grand Galloping Gala.  Sure, she hadn’t really been responsible for most of the trouble, and Celestia had officially pardoned them, but she still felt a little guilty by association. “Uh, I don’t believe we’ve, er, ever met,” she said. It wasn’t a lie; Octavia had definitely been playing the Grand Galloping Gala, but they had never been formally introduced. And it would probably be for the best not to mention the fact that she and her friends had been responsible for the… incidents that had played out. She decided to attempt a diversion.  “Have you ever been to Ponyville before?” “Oh yes, several times. I believe the last time was when Vinyl was performing at a fashion show. You probably would’ve known her as DJ-PON3. I must say, that show was quite a…” she blinked. “That’s where I’ve seen you! You were in the fashion show!” “Er.” “It was that one with the rather… unorthodox designs! I believe you were wearing some form of bowler hat.” “Ugh, don’t remind me of that. I’m not real big on fashion.” “I honestly didn’t think it was that bad,” Octavia continued. “It was certainly different, but that’s not always bad.” “Sometimes it is,” Applejack answered. The floor suddenly began to vibrate. “What the hay is that?” “Oh, that’s probably just Vinyl testing her subwoofers.” The shaking abated.  Rarity appeared out of the back rooms, scowling furiously. “What was that?! Now I have to go make sure that everything is lined up properly!” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Of course. You mind tellin’ her to turn it down a mite? Pretty sure it doesn’t need to be that loud.” “Believe me, I have tried. Perhaps if we-” “Incoming cake!” shouted an excited voice from outside. “Everypony out of the way!” Applejack grimaced. “How many times does she usually test her speakers?” “Generally several. She’s very… picky.” Applejack sighed deeply. “Go figure. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She turned and galloped out the door.