//------------------------------// // What is it? // Story: The Cupcake Files // by InkFathom //------------------------------// It was the strangest thing she had ever seen. Pinkie Pie had been walking along the dirt road, minding her own business and thinking about whether she should have more balloons or more cake or both at her parties to make them even more fun, when she came across a rather odd treat just sitting in the middle of the street. It was a small, dark brown, sweet smelling confectionary item about the size of her hoof. It looked like a chocolate cupcake, but with much less icing on top. It was topped by some sort of dark fudge with a white icing curly-Q squiggle across the middle. It smelled strongly of sugar. Pinkie was flabbergasted. She’d never seen anything like it. Was it a cupcake? It was much more monotonous in color, and had a bigger difference in cake-to-icing ratio than a normal cupcake. The pink earth pony tentatively nudged it. It was moist to the touch, and left a smudge of chocolate on the tip of her hoof. She licked her hoof, wondering what it would taste like. A sweet, sugary sensation stimulated her taste buds, causing her to salivate. It was definitely made of chocolate, but the pure richness of the treat had been so sweet, her molars began to form cavities. Pinkie smacked her lips. It tasted so good! The maybe-cupcake had given her a slight sugar rush, just from the taste! It must’ve been at least ninety percent sugar, ten percent chocolate! The pure sweet taste of the treat had left her throat dry and suddenly begging for a refreshing beverage. Milk! She needed milk to wash down the pure taste of chocolate from the treat! Pinkie sped towards a nearby meadow. She came up to the nearest cow. “Miss Cow, can I please have some milk? Pretty please? With a cupcake on top?” Her thirst heightened as she mentioned the bakery item. The cow Pinkie was pleading to looked at the pony with amusement. “Why of course, Dearie!” she mooed. “And my name is Bessie.” Pinkie beamed. “ThankyouthankyouthankyouTHANKYOU!” She whipped out a glass from nowhere in particular, and in an afterthought said, “And my name is Pinkie Pie!” Gulping down the generously given milk, the pink earth pony felt her burning thirst being relieved. She threw away her used cup and grinned at Bessie. “Thanks again!” she sang, and sped off back towards the mystery treat, leaving the cow to continue her grazing. Back with the weird cupcake-thing, Pinkie sat down and began to wonder what it was, where it came from, and why it was sitting in the middle of the street. The only cupcakes she had ever worked with were covered in icing and certainly not as sugary sweet as whatever she had just tasted. It usually took her at least five cupcakes to get this kind of sugar daze. Whatever it was, it was not anything she knew of. This was shocking, because she thought she knew EVERY confectionary item imaginable! Pinkie needed answers, and she knew exactly where to get them. ************ Pinkie knocked excitedly on Twilight Sparkle’s door. She had brought the maybe-not-but-maybe-so-cupcake from where she first found it. Lacking magic or any other means of carrying it, the pink earth pony picked it up gently with the edge of her teeth, discovering a sweet-as-sugar-everything cream filling as the delicate surface broke partially along the bottom. When Twilight opened the door, a befuddled expression on her face, Pinkie spoke muffled words, the treat still in her jaw. “Do ya’ ha’e a’y ‘ilk?” The lavender unicorn translated this as a request for milk and replied, “Sure. Come on in.” Once the two had sat down inside, Pinkie having put down the item she was carrying and gratefully chugging down her beverage, Twilight asked the question that had been buzzing through her mind since she opened the door. “So, Pinkie. Why did you come over? You know, other than for milk.” The pink earth pony gulped the rest of her drink and looked the unicorn straight in the eyes. “I want to know what this is.” She pointed to the sugary cupcake-like-thing. Twilight stared at the treat. “What do you know about it?” she questioned. “Well…” Pinkie began. “I found it in the middle of the street. You know the one over by the Everfree Forest? I was over there because I was asking Zecora if she had any cool recipes from her homeland that I could try out at Sugarcube Corner and I thought that she would maybe have some cool potion that would make my taffy extra chewy or some seeds that would make my brownies taste like cotton candy or something, but she didn’t really have anything so I figured I could go ask Dash if I could use rainbow juice in one of my recipes for spicy stuff or something.” As Pinkie took a breath, Twilight interrupted. “Pinkie, focus. You need to tell me about this…” She motioned towards the object. “…thing.” The earth pony shook her head. “Right. So I found it on the ground and I thought it looked a lot like a cupcake, except with less icing and less colors. It was so weird! I mean, what kind of cupcake doesn’t have pastel icing? Anyway, I touched it. Some of it came off on my hoof so I tasted it. It was the most delicious yummy-nummy sugary sweet treat I have ever tasted in my whole entire LIFE! But then I got really thirsty and drank some milk. I decided that I wanted to know what kind of treat was so sweet so I carried it over here.” Twilight, who was scribbling down the earth pony’s rambling, prompted, “Anything else?” Pinkie thought for a moment. “Ooh! It also has the creamiest cream filling in the center!” Looking over her notes, Twilight concluded, “Well, it seems like this… whatever it is, is either a strange version of a cupcake or a completely new recipe. It might’ve been invented by somepony, but since you found it on the street, we have no way of knowing for sure.” She frowned apologetically at Pinkie. “Sorry.” The pink party pony didn’t respond. She furrowed her brow, deep in thought, and slowly walked out the door, leaving Twilight with the mystery cupcake. Twilight stared after her friend. For what seemed to be the millionth time, she wondered what the enthusiastic pony was thinking. She looked at the confectionary treat. Was it really as sweet as Pinkie made it out to be? Overcome with curiosity, Twilight took the tiniest bite from the cupcake. Her left eye twitched as she gulped down the small bite of the treat. She wasn’t used to eating a lot of sweets, and she got a major sugar rush from the rich chocolate. “S-SW-SW-SWEEEET!”