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// Population Problems 
// Story: A Pie's Mind's Eye 
// by DroshinNote 
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PinkiePie sighed, letting her body fall back on her bed. Today had been a long one, even for a professional party goer such as herself. A few years ago two parties in a day wouldn’t have really been this big an issue! Sure she would've definitely slept hard that night, but the amount of effort she was putting into her parties seemed to double over the years. She had often wondered if this was the work of her growing in age, or maybe because she wanted to make each party better than the last and her efforts were finally catching up to her. I mean how many things can top the 3 story cake she had baked for their now Ex-princess Celestia to enjoy with the rest of the ponies at silver shoals? She giggled at the memory of all the older ponies hyped up by eating their weight in sugar. It really was a good day, one she was sure she would try and repeat it one day. But after a few moments of though she was sure that none of that was the cause. Sure they were contributing factors but she new exactly why her workload had doubled. It had only been 3 or 4 years since Twilight had taken over Equestria, and her reign and her humble beginnings had made Ponyville famous.  This meant that creatures of all races, Ponies, Griffons, Zebras, Kirin, Even Dragons had come to call Ponyville home. It was a population boom for the small town.

Pinkie pulled her blanket up to her shoulders, curling up on her side as she looked over to gummy who was napping on the window seal. How he got up there she never knew. “Oh sir gummy, you are such a scaly enigma” she sighed with a small giggle. She glanced out the window that he was sleeping by, and in the distance she could see the very top of the building that was another root cause of this population boom. Though she wasn’t mad at this building, or the ponies who helped make it what it is today. In fact She herself had a hoof in that building's beginnings.

The school of Friendship was a large institution run by her friend, Starlight Glimmer. Pinkie used to teach classes there herself, teaching young creatures how to laugh with each other and not at each other. Though after Starlight took over Pinkie and her friends decided to leave the school in her hoofs. They knew Starlight could do it, and BOY did she do it. PInkie could tell when new semesters were starting without even looking at the calendar. Many different creatures, be it Dragon, Kirin, Griffon, or any other race willing would send their young ones to this school.  It also seemed that had developed among the nobles of the nearby nations. They would often send their children to Twilight's school for a year or to, as Twilight put it, to “help diplomatic relations and strengthen political bonds between the young nobles of different regions and Countries.” Pinkie doubted that the young ones getting off those trains cared about diplomatic bonds. Most just seemed happy to be away from home and on their own, even if it was for only a few short years. Pinkie understood the feeling and excitement of leaving home. Long ago she had left the rock farm while she was only a filly herself to become a  apprentice to the Cakes. Going somewhere new is exciting for most creatures. Sure you had the occasional shy creature, but they usually warmed up to the town after a few weeks. Kinda hard not to make friends in a school of friendship afterall.

Though the influx of different races didn’t mean that new ponies didn’t show up to attend the school as well. The school of friendship, thanks to twilight, offered scholarships towards higher education for their pony students and even to other species like Griffins or Hippogriffs who's civilizations value a college degree. Basically said creature or pony would enroll after they finish their basic education, then attends a year or two at the school, and if they do well, their next few years of schooling are paid for. Given that they keep their grades up afterwards of course.

Because of this though, Ponyville had much more ponies and creatures arriving and moving in then the town had seen in years. There were so many that at some point over the last few years that Pinkie had given up on individual parties around those points in the year and just decided to throw a huge welcome to Ponyville party around the time the new semesters start, and a few Hey-you-got-here-late-but-welcome-anyway Parties for transfers and late arrivals.

The small town of Ponyville was now the BIG town of Ponyville. There were a lot more ponies and critters at each party. Her usual house parties had become block parties, and some of her private events seemed more like raves. Another effect of the school of friendship, more friends means more guests. One party now felt like she was throwing multiple parties at once and Pinkie was feeling the strain.

Her routine was still pretty normal though. Wake up, help the cakes bake the days goods, go over her plans for the day, run whatever errands she had planned for, which was really dependent on the day. Her usual errands included anything from prepping a party to grabbing a cart full of ingredients for Sugarcube Corner. Then she would head back on busier days to help with the lunch rush to help the cakes. Many mornings she also got up extra early to help the cakes prepare for the morning rush, baking various forms breakfest-y baked goods. Once she was done with her day-dependent list, she was free for the rest of the day. Well... unless she had planned a party or agreed to cater some ponies event. Of course there were plenty of days she would stray from this schedule, spend all day with a friend, or go to the Canterlot to see twilight and spike and the rest of her best friends for their friendship council. Or as Pinkie called it, the war council of friendship. Though she didn't have to wait for the council to see her friends. In fact Pinkie went to Twilight’s dusk court every two weeks or so just to tell her how nice her mane was now that it was getting really magically wavy. Pinkie didn’t know why the princesses got such cool looking hair, but she would find out, and she, one day, swore to gain those wavy locks. A sentiment that she shared with Rarity. She glanced past gummy and out the window at the moon as it hung in the sky, nodding her head to it, as if making a promise to the glowing celestial orb. 

Pinke rolled over and cuddled into her thick blanket. And as she let her body relax in her bed, her hair started to un-fluff itself. Now if anypony saw her hair like this they would assume that she was down in the dumps, maybe even down right depressed. This wasn’t really the case though. She usually “let her hair down” as rarity would say, once she was alone. Though it didn’t happen too often, mainly anytime she was truly exhausted. 

Thinking back Pinke remembered Twilight calling her an extrovert once. In her boundless curiosity she had looked up the term later that day and she wholeheartedly agreed with the statement. She loved being around others, seeing their smiles. It gave her almost a bottomless pit of energy, a source of sugary bounciness that could not be tamed. Though that was only while she was surrounding herself with others. If other ponies were her batteries, then what happens when there were no other ponies around? An energy crash, short and simple.

With these last few ponderings, the pink mare with a deflated mane drifting to sleep. Even the ever so excited Pinkie Pie had limits. And those limits were telling her to sleep.     

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Pinkie was always a bit hard to wake up in the mornings. Hard enough that she had 3 separate alarm clocks set up to start ringing within a 10 minute span around 6 AM. This meant that pinkie usually woke up with a mixture of sound spewing from the differing alarm clocks. The first few times she tried this, she was woken up by the second alarm with a slight headache. Now though she slept a little past the third alarm and felt fairly fine as she awoke. Today though the alarms did their job and Pinkie was up as the third alarm sounded.

Groggily she shrugged the blanket off and stepped out of her bed, walking to the mirror in her room, switching the alarms clocks off in the process. With a few quick shakes of her head her mane returned to its usual bouncy nature. “A little more cotton candy then head cloud today buuuuuut....” she inspected her mane one last time before nodding her approval. “I suppose it will... hair-do” she snorted at her own pun before looking over towards gummy. “Oh come on, that was comedy gold. And I mean the edible gold, the tasty kind that makes food WAY too expensive” Gummy turned his head toward pinkie and gave her a slow blink before looking back out the window. “Maybe you're right. Puns seem so last season. Huh, maybe they’ll make a comeback?!?!” she questioned the alligator loudly. After a few moments of contemplation she shrugged and made her way downstairs. 

“MOURNING” She called loudly as she stepped off the stairs. She was greeted by the bright good mornings of the two youngest cakes of the house. Pound cake and pumpkin cake, though Pumpkin preferred to just be called Pumpkin. According to her it sounded cuter.

“Mourning Pinkie” Pound cake replied, his eyes barley open.

“Good morning!” Pumpkin said, a bit more awake looking then her brother.

Pinkie smiled to the young ponies, missing the days where she would come down to find the two in highchairs. She had always enjoyed helping them eat back them. The two of them had grown so much in the last few years. They were about ten years old now, and height wise were growing faster than Pinkie expected. The  two of them were now just below her shoulders. “Where are Mr. and Mrs. cake?” she questioned before sitting down to join the two at the breakfast table. Piles of pancakes already towering over the foals. Such a battle of edible proportions was to much to be handled alone by the two young ponies. Pinkie was eager to help them wage war on the floppy enemies. This was obviously Mrs. Cakes doing.

“Moms in the kitchen starting today's baking” Pumpkin replied, grabbing a few pancakes with a fork but not making much of a dent to the mountain in front of them.

“And Dad is taking a delivery of pancakes to the mayor's house. She said she has family over or something?” Pound cake stated, already working on his small mound of pancakes.

“Three cousins and an Aunt I think. I Said hello to them as they got off the train yesterday, though the Mayor said she didn’t want a party for them. Her loss really. It would have had streamers, balloons, a tub of pudding, and some tapioca since it looked like her Aunt was a little on the older side. OH maybe I could still bring them some anyway? I think we have the ingredients in the kitchen. Maybe?” Pinkie then shoved two or three pancakes into her mouth as she considered the idea. “Nah, the mayor can be a bit grouchy in the mornings, plus she doesn’t like surprises that much. Which if you ask me is absurd, who doesn’t like a good surprise?! Well, I mean except fluttershy, though there was that one time I surprised her with a room filled with cupcakes, and she seeeeemed to like that. I think...” 

After another few minutes of Idle chit-chat Pinke watched as the two foals left the table, and with a few short goodbyes and the retrieval of backpacks, left for school. PInkie gave a small sigh and trotted off towards the kitchen. She loved watching those two grow, but it was a little sad seeing them grow so fast. Felt like yesterday that she agreed to babysit them for the first time and now they were going to school? She wondered if this was how Applejack and Rarity felt watching their sisters grow up?

“Those two never stop growing.” Pinkie stated as she entered the kitchen.

“No they don’t” Mrs. cake sighed almost sadly. Though Pinkie couldn't tell since the mare was facing the counter as she worked. “How were the pancakes? Not too much blueberry in them?” After a quick description of the pancakes blueberry perfection from Pinkie, Mrs. Cake nodded her head, satisfied with her work. “Good. Then go ahead and grab the pancakes that none of you touched and box them up in pairs. The morning rush is sure to come soon. I swear adding morning specials and discounts for friendship students has made our mornings busier than ever.”

“I’ll say. I'm pretty sure I saw wingdra, that new griffon girl, eyeing my mane like it was some kind of fluffy treat the other morning! Though to be fair my mane is probably pretty tasty.” Pinkie took a moment to resist the urge to try and taste her own mane before doing as she was told, returning to the pancake mountains. After a few minutes of boxing up the pancakes that was done she walked back over to Mrs. Cake for her next assignment. It only took the two mares about two hours to finish the morning batch of goods and set up the front of the store, stocking the shelves with fresh baked pastries, and moving the leftovers from last night over to the discount shelf. 

Once everything was set up Pinkie unlocked the door and rushed back to the kitchen. Behind her she could hear the crowd of hungry patrons marching in. She could have sworn that the ponies and other creatures storming the bakery were chanting for coffee, donuts, and pancakes. Thankfully Mrs. cake would handle the counters this morning while Pinkie started baking the backups for the day.

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 	After another hour and a half of work pushed forward with a few original songs Pinkie was finally finishing up her morning work. She often sang as she worked, it helped her focus on the task at hand so her mind didn’t wonder. That and too much silence just made her feel stir-crazy.

 Pinkie stepped back to look at the trays of baked goods littering the counter. A few years ago it would have taken her at least three hours, maybe four, to bake this much. Why had the process been accelerated so? Pinkie looked lovingly at the two new ovens the cakes had installed a little over a year ago. Top of the line, stainless steel, both smelling of cake and muffins. Pinkie was sure if those ovens were ponies that she would have wed them both a week into their stay at Sugarcube Corner.  

Pinkie quickly wiped the sweat off her forehead and poked her head out to see how Mrs. Cake was doing. Turns out that apparently Mr. Cake had gotten back from his delivery in time to help his wife with crowd control. Thankfully after that first large rush the crowd had died down into a handful of ponies and a small dragon. Each had their own orders already as well as warm cups of either coffee or hot chocolate settled at the tables they were situated at. The two cakes were happily discussing today's sales and taking stock of the half full counters. Today had been a good day for muffins and the special discount pancakes were gone completely. There was also a sizable dent in the donuts. 

Mr. Cake looked over the happy customers with a content sigh. “Good job Honey. I’m sure I can take the counter for a few minutes. Go ahead and take a break.” Mrs. Cake coaxed his wife away from the register and back towards the kitchen. Pinkie backed up and let Mrs. cake through the double doors.

Pinkie knew how stressful the morning rush could be at times but Mrs. Cake looked like today had been extra hard. “That bad huh? I kinda zoned out into the baking I was doing so I didn't really listen to the shark tank out there... huh. You think installing a shark tank in the front would help distract the crowds? Or maybe a dolphin tank? Dolphins are nice” Pinkie joked, hoping to ease some of the stress Mrs. Cake had to endure. Pinkie found when she was young that this off the track kind of ranting proved to be a good distraction for most ponies. Made them backtrack in what they were doing to ponder whatever just came out of her mouth. Though sometimes it was just fun to throw some confusing lines out randomly. 

Mrs. Cake gave a small chuckle at the idea, letting Pinkie know that her little distraction had worked. “It was definitely a stressful morning. Though I’m glad to see that all the baking for the mornings done. I swear Pinkie, if I hadn't already seen your baking process in action, I would have thought you were ordering half of this and pawning it off as your own. How you do this much...” Pinkie smiled with pride at the praise, as well as the idea of her little kitchen of chaos being a process, though she had to admit it was much more organized then it seemed. “Wait... Pinkie why are they three batches of gem cupcakes? We usually only need one at the most.” 

Pinkie gave a small shrug. “My eyelid twitched while I was baking them, and my Pinkie sense never lies!” she said with a small pout, noticing the suspicion on Mrs. Cakes face.

Mrs. cake eyed the cupcakes before looking over at the calendar. “Lets see... Ah! That’s why! We have a few new students arriving from the Dragonlands today! I almost forgot about that. These cupcakes should get gobbled up quite nicely during their tour of the town. Trixie does like to bribe- I mean encourage the newer students with sweets so that they behave during the tour.”

“Glad to be of survice. Though now that you mention it I think I promised last week to help Trixie show them around. Guess that means I should get over to the school soon. Will you be fine from here? I can come back a little early to help restock after the lunch rush.” 

Mrs. Cake gave Pinkie a soft smile and put a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder.. “Pinkie dear, you’ve been working so hard lately. Take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow you're heading to Canterlot to visit Twilight, right? Use tonight to pack up and make sure you have everything.” 

Pinkie gave Mrs. Cake a tight hug. “You’re always so nice to me Mrs. Cake. When I get back I’ll take the Morning counter shift for a few days. I’ll work super hard since you’ve been super nice” Pinkie said as she let go. Mrs. Cake nodded and shoo’d Pinkie towards the door, to which Pinkie took as her clue to leave and go find Trixie. Looks like the rest of the day was hers to take.