”Time’s up, Mr. and Ms. Cake. You failed to pay me back in time, so you know what that means…”
“N-no please! We'll get the money! I swear… !”
“I’m afraid I cannot give you anymore chances. I’'ll have to ask you to hand over your d-”
“Not so fast!”
Pinkie burst through the door holding a jar filled with fifty thousand bits. The representative took it, counted it, and sighed. He took the jar into his hooves and made for the door, grumbling something about how they wouldn’t be so fortunate next time. The Cakes grab Pinkie and toss her into the air chanting her name.
“Pinkie! Pinkie! Pinkie!”
I was in the middle of a wonderful dream when I was awoken to the soft voice of Mrs. Cake while she was shaking me awake. “Pinkie! Pinkie!”
“Mm… five more minutes…” I tried to say but it just came out as a yawn and incoherent mumbles. Eventually, Mrs. Cake pulled the covers off of me which roused me from my sleep. Celestia hasn’t raised the sun yet so I looked at the clock to discover it was three in the morning.
“Okie dokie! We can talk now but couldn’t it have waited until the sun came up?” I asked with a tired yawn but Mrs. Cake was having none of it.
“It’s urgent Pinkie dear… it’s about the future of Sugarcube Corner.” I knew where this was going and I didn't like it one bit. Sliding out of bed, I made my way downstairs with another tired yawn. Mrs. Cake already set up a few chairs around one of the few tables that remained in the main seating area. It took my brain a minute to catch on, but when it finally clicked I couldn’t help but gasp.
“What happened down here Mr. and Mrs. Cake?” I asked as Mrs. Cake patted a seat next to her.
“Take a seat Pinkie dear…,” She said as I galloped up to a chair and hefted it into my hooves.
“Alrighty tightie! Where do you want me to take it?” I asked in a bubbly tone of voice as Mrs. Cake facehooved.
“Nono, dear… I mean, sit down next to me.” When she said that, I let out a nervous laugh and simply sat down in the chair as Mrs. Cake cleared her throat. “Now… I’m sure you noticed the new… layout of the place by now, yes?” She asks as I nodded my head vehemently to show I understood, “Well… you see Pinkie… you remember what we said before you started this personal mission of yours?”
“... That you… won’t be able to pay it upfront…?” I offered tentatively as Mrs. Cake stared directly into my eyes.
“... Yes, that. I’m afraid that I wasn’t being entirely truthful with you, Pinkie dear,” Mrs. Cake said as she averted her gaze and started to explain, “You see, when we said that… we forgot that taxes were due this month. In our haste to set aside any and all of our remaining finances to help you… we forgot that we still had taxes to pay on our personal property…”
“Okay… ?” I said with a raised eyebrow, “... What does that have to do with what we were talking about before?”
“W-well, you see… when our first bill came, we didn’t think it would have been that big of a deal. I mean, since we didn’t use nearly as much electricity or water that we did the last month… it would’ve been manageable, right?”
“So… what happened?” I asked while completely engrossed in Mrs. Cake’s story.
A pregnant pause hung in the air for several moments before Mrs. Cake took a deep breath and continued, “... We were wrong. Oh by Celestia… we were so wrong. We didn’t take into account that they were averaging the use of our utilities...” Mrs. Cake said as she voice started to become more frantic.
“It’s okay Mrs. Cake… I’m here. What happened next?” I gently pressed however it took Mrs. Cake a full minute to calm herself down enough to continue speaking.
“Mr. Cake said that we would have to sell some stuff in order to make ends meet… but I told him that we couldn’t do that for how would anypony be able to sit down and enjoy our treats…,” She said as her voice began to hitch. “I said we would be able to put it off for a week and still be able to use the water and turn on the lights but no bits have been coming in and… and…,” Mrs Cake said before burying her face in her hooves, “Oh… I’m not fooling anypony! We’re going to lose the Corner! We’re going to lose the Corner…,” Mrs. Cake wailed as she noticeably deflated and slumped her shoulders with tears running down her cheeks, “All of our hard work for nothing… I knew I should’ve been the one to hand out the cupcakes…” Mrs. Cake mumbled the last portion of her sentence as tears threatened to stain her fur and the exposed wooden paneling of the floor.
“It’s okay… just let it all out...” I said as I pulled her over to me and wrapped my forelegs around her in a hug while I rubbed a foreleg along her back. Mrs. Cake simply cried into my shoulder as Mr. Cake came downstairs when he heard the ruckus. He wanted to speak but the sight of my foreleg pressed against my lips told him that he shouldn’t intervene.
The room was dead quiet with the exception of her crying.
Several minutes later Mrs. Cake lifted her head from my shoulder, “Thank you Pinkie… I feel a little better now,” Mrs. Cake said as a strained smile found its way onto her face.
“Yup yup! My pleasure Mrs. Cake!” I said as I subtly waved Mr. Cake over to the table, "Don't you worry any longer Mrs. Cake! How about you two come on over to the patisserie and spend some time over there? I wouldn't mind company and I'm super-duper-scooper sure that you could find something to do! What do you say?" I asked as the Cakes looked at each other and exchanged knowing glances.
"That sounds good to us, Pinkie dear," Mrs Cake said as Mr. Cake nods, "We just need to do a few things and we'll be right over." Hearing this, I smiled and bounced over to the door.
"Okie dokie loki! I'll see you in a few hours!" I exclaimed giddily as I made my way over to my patisserie to prepare for the day.
It was business as usual today as I swooped in and out of the kitchen. As midday neared and the crowd thinned out, Mr. and Mrs. Cake came in through the front door. In their hooves they carried only the essentials for baking and nothing more.
"Pinkie dear? We're here…," Mrs. Cake said as she entered the kitchen followed by Mr. Cake.
"We came Pinkie... like you suggested." Mr. Cake chimed in as he extended a foreleg to me that held the baking implements he carried with him, “I also came prepared! We didn’t want to come over empty hooved so I brought some pots, a bowl or two, and out trusty mixer!” He said as Mrs Cake sighed.
“This is nice of you, Pinkie dear… and we do appreciate it… yes we do, but…,” Mrs. Cake said grimly, “... but we still have to find a way to save the corner Pinkie. Time is running out… I hope you do realize that.” Mrs. Cake said in an urgent yet calm voice as she looked over at her husband.
“What honeybuns is trying to say here is that we see a lot of progress on your end… yet none of that progress seems to be going in our direction. So… do you think you could try and help us out? Maybe a smidge?” Mr. Cake asked as I rubbed my chin with a hoofsie in thought. Soon thoughts started bouncing around in my head like me when I had too much sugar before I turned and looked straight ahead with a vacant expression.
“Ooh, ooh, ooh! I just got a great idea~!” I said in sing song as I bounced in place. Before Mr. and Mrs. Cake could ask I shoved a hoof into their mouths, “Nuh uh! It’s a surprise~! I’ll let you know exactly what it is exactly when I need to say it!” I said as I pranced in place clearly ecstatic about the idea I just had. The Cakes exchanged worried looks before they looked back at Pinkie.
“Um… w-well then… alright Pinkie dear. We trust your judgment.” Mrs. Cake said as she set down the bowls, pots, and the mixer on the counter. Mr. Cake peeked out into the main seating area to see a few ponies sitting around before the bell rang to signal a new customer.
“Ooh! I’ll get it!” I said as I swooshed out into the main seating area to take care of the new ponies arriving. “Okie dokie! So that’s one dozen of my banana muffins?” I asked one of the ponies before they nodded. I returned to the back with a smile on my face. “Alright! Let’s get baking!” I announced exuberantly and my forearms splayed for dramatic effect.
The Cakes nodded and the best bakers in Ponyville were reunited once again… if only for one day. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were too busy helping Pinkie that they seemed to forget their worries and just enjoyed the act of baking again. Watching them like this I was too ashamed to admit that I did not actually have an idea like I claimed to have. At one point I decided to rectify that problem by visiting the one pony that I knew could help me out.
“Excuse me Mr. and Mrs. Cake… I have to step out for a little while! I assume you’ll be able to take care of things back here while I do?” I asked as I twiddled my forehooves together.
“Yes of course, Pinkie dear… this is simply too much fun for us to simply want to stop!” Mrs. Cake replied cheerfully as her husband simply hummed in response while mixing up the batter in a bowl in front of him.
“Alrighty! I’ll be back in a flash!” I said as I darted out of the kitchen and made my way to the edge of town.
“I just hope she’s at home right now!”
At this time Maud Pie was just returning from Ghastly Gorge pulling a wagon that contained dug up rocks to add to her collection. She set down the wagon outside a small gem cave on the outskirts of Ponyville to which she furnished with a few basic amenities. She sat down in her rock chair to relax after the long walk from the Gorge. Unfortunately for her, that period of relaxation would be short lived.
"Maud!" I said as I skidded to a stop next to the table. Maud just stared at me with her usual blank expression as I continued, "Boy am I glad to see you! I got in way over my head and now I need some help and I don't know who to turn to…," I said as I paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "... and I was hoping you were here becaus-" I suddenly found myself unable to speak as Maud shoved her hoof onto my mouth.
"Calm down Pinkie…," Maud intoned in her usual monotone voice, "Now when I remove my hoof you are going to explain to me what’s going on… and at a pace I can follow. Okay?" Maud asked as I simply nodded which prompted her to remove her hoof. “Good. Now… what happened?”
“Well, you see Maud… I kind of made an itsy bitsy teeny weeny promise to the Cakes and I’m kinda... a little over my head,” I remarked in an awkward tone of voice while Maud sat there and listened to me, “Long story short I kinda… maybe… sorta… got the Cakes in trouble with the Equestrian Better Business Bureau and kind of had a teensy fine levied onto their business.” I blurted out as Maud remained silent waiting for me to finish.
I could never tell what Maud was thinking when I talked to her… her facial expression was always the same, which made reading her basically impossible. Ever since I was a little filly I could always count on Maud to give good advice. Her neutral stance really helped to sell that image to me when I was younger and she never turned down my requests for help unless she was super-duper busy or just didn’t know the answer. Right now, I was really hopeful that neither of those two scenarios were true.
“So I opened my own business across from the corner in order to help drum up some bits to help them but… it’s not going too well on their end and…”
“Well, your first mistake was opening the business across from Sugarcube Corner,” Maud interrupted with her normal dry tone. Before she continued, her expression changed ever so slightly to one that was more displeased than angry, “Why you thought that was a good idea is beyond me. However… sometimes the simplest answers are the most complex… like a river rock floating downstream. It doesn’t know its destination, but at the same time it also doesn’t care where the current takes it. It’s just floating along without a care in the world until something steps in its path. It might take the extra time to decide if it wants to move along, but it does so at its own pace. Do you see what I’m getting at here, Pinkie?”
“So… I should think long and hard about my current situation but don’t rush into things because I don’t have to make a decision immediately?” I asked as the corners of Maud’s mouth upturned slightly in what appeared to be one of her many attempts at a smile. I just wish she was a little more liberal with her emotions but I know that I can’t force everypony to be happy all the time… even if I really did enjoy seeing everypony happy.
“Good… I’m glad to hear that you were following along Pinkie. Just remember… even the heaviest rock can be made to budge. It just takes time and effort… but the reward usually pays off.” She explained as she lowered her ear to Boulder who was sitting on the table, “Boulder says that you should follow your gut instincts and everything should fall into place from there.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Maud carried that rock wherever she went and at first I thought it was just silly for her to name and be talking to a rock. However, when I discovered that Maud saw it as more than just a rock I began to understand why she was so emotionally attached to it. At this point I rushed over to give my sister a big hug. Maud didn’t complain or try to break away; I secretly think she really likes my hugs but doesn’t want to admit it. “Thank you so much, Maud! You’re the best older sister that a pony could ask for!” I said gleefully as Maud wrapped a single leg around my barrel and squeezed as lightly as she could. Even though Maud was squeezing lightly it still felt like somepony punched me in the gut and forcibly expelled the air from my lungs.
“Now go Pinkie… and remember: Channel your inner river rock and everything will fall into place.” Nodding I bade Maud farewell and made the return trip to Ponyville to see how the Cakes were doing in my patisserie.
By the time I returned to Ponyville it was already early afternoon. The streets were alive with ponies heading to and from the various locals in town. I stopped and waved to the ones who waved at me but I didn’t stop to talk long knowing my destination was predetermined. Arriving at the patisserie, the line out the door stretched down the sidewalk with eager ponies that were somehow still able to wait for their turn. When I made my way inside I saw the Cakes really adapting to their new location; it was practically business as usual.
‘Should I tell them now? Nah… not yet. There’s still some things that I have to do first!’ I thought as I bounced behind the counter and into the kitchen. Inside, Mrs. Cake was busy baking their classic treats they were so well-known for. “Hiya Mrs. Cake! I have something to tell you and Mr. Cake later, okie dokie?” I asked as Mrs. Cake looked over at me, smiled and nodded, then went back to doing what she was doing previously. After telling Mr. Cake the same thing I told his wife, the rest of the day flew by. Nearing closing time, the Cakes turned to me as I cleaned up.
“Should we wait for you outside Pinkie dear? Or should we head back to the Corner?” Mrs. Cake asked as she started cleaning up the counter of crumbs and loose sprinkles.
“I think we should head back to the Corner, honeybuns. I’m sure Pinkie would like to tell us when she’s finished so she doesn’t have to multitask.” Mr. Cake said, to which I nodded. Thankfully, Mr. Cake seemed to be the voice of reason and I could not have been happier. I started to clean the sitting area as Mr. and Mrs. Cake left for Sugarcube Corner.
In a few minutes, the entire situation was about to be turned on its head. Whether it was for our benefit or not was uncertain. I locked the door and made for Sugarcube Corner ever hopeful that my news goes over as well as I intend it to. Otherwise, I will be out of options.
By Celestia, I really hope that doesn’t happen.
I slowly pushed open the door to find the Cakes sitting at one of the few tables remaining in the Corner. Taking a deep breath I strode inside and stopped in front of the table with the most serious look I could muster before sitting down and smiling at the Cakes.
“Okie dokie loki! Are you two ready for what I want to say? Don’t stand up because you’ll just want to sit right back down again after I say this because it’s a doozy-woozy of an idea!” The Cakes both leaned forward in their seats slightly as if everything was riding on what I was about to say. I took a deep breath, then began to reveal my plan for the future of the Corner. “So! I’ve been thinking about this whole situation. You know that big ol’ meany pants inspector? The one that I kinda… well, you know the whole situation so I won’t bother with that part.”
“Yes, we know dear. What is your idea? I simply must know!” Mrs. Cake said with barely contained enthusiasm as Mr. Cake crossed his forelegs on the table and quietly listened.
“Well, I was thinking that ma~ybe we could possibly… merge my patisserie and the bottom floor of the Corner together?” When I said that I noticed the Cakes giving each other unsure glances as I rubbed the back of my neck self-consciously, “...W-was it something I said?”
“Nono, Pinkie… we were just… unsure if you wanted to work with us again. You’re doing rather well for yourself… so much so that you could just let us up and disappear and… and everything would be just fine for you.” Mrs. Cake choked back tears and thankfully Mr. Cake was on the ball to pick up the slack.
“What honeybuns is trying to say here is that… well… we were watching your business yesterday and it seems like you were really drawing a crowd. A crowd that… we would normally be drawing in.” Mr. Cake paused to rub his forelegs together in a sheepish motion before he continued, “So, when we saw that, we figured that we were… no longer needed. We would just get in your way… just be deadweight now. Honeybuns and I aren’t exactly getting any… younger you see… and maybe this is just our cue to retire. It might be for the best, seeing how your patisserie is doing as well as, if not better than, ours has ever been. Maybe it’s time to…”
“Aw horseapples, Mr. Cake!” I exclaimed with a stomp of a forehoof, derailing Mr. Cake’s train of thought. This caught both of the Cakes off guard, if both of them reeling back in their seats were any indication of this, and their attention was fully upon me once again. “I would never tell you two to retire! You two are the best bakers in Equestria! I only got this good because I learned under you both! I would never trade this situation for anything and you both know it. I know you do, don’t even try to deny it! Besides, if we change the Corner into a living space instead of a bakery he won’t be able to collect the debt that you owe him! All you have to do is file for bankruptcy and refile for a residency deed! So… what do you think?”
The Cakes looked at each other as a pregnant pause hung in the air. Fortunately, it didn’t drag out for too long as the Cakes began conversing between each other before turning to Pinkie. “Do you think we could talk about this and tell you in the morning, dear? This is… a lot to process at once and we don’t want to make any hasty decisions…” Mrs. Cake mentions as Mr. Cake simply nods.
“Honeybuns is right, Pinkie. This is a big decision we have to make. We’ll be basically giving up a cornerstone that was a big part of our lives for the entirety of our time here in Ponyville. Do you think we could sleep on it, discuss it a bit more, then tell you in the morning?”
“Hmm… that sounds reasonable to me!” I exclaimed as I pronked around the room, “Well, then we should get some sleep huh? Ideas aren’t going to form themselves now are they?” I asked cheekily as the Cakes simply rolled their eyes amusedly. “Nighty night Mr. and Mrs. Cake!” I said as I climbed the stairs to head off to bed. The last thing I remember is seeing the Cakes conversing among themselves.
I silently hoped that I did the right thing and that the Cakes will realize that what I am doing is for their own benefit.