*Starlight’s POV, first-person*
After how I dragged my friends across Equestria more than once since they befriended me, I had to do something for them. Unlike the last time, there would be no mess-ups with spells.
Yesterday, I asked the Cakes for instructions on baking cakes, but also asked them to keep it a secret from Pinkie. I had baked cupcakes with Pinkie before, but I had never baked a cake, or anything, by myself. However, I have come a long way since the time I tried to make toast in a microwave. Did that give Sam a laugh!
To ensure there would be plenty of time, I elected to start on the cake in the morning. Sam was working at the Toy Store.
In our kitchen, everything for the cake -- a carton of eggs, a huge bag of flour, and a bottle of vegetable oil -- plus a bowl and pan, was spread out on a table. I even wore a chef’s hat, thinking it would be fun to wear; maybe my inner Pinkie was showing.
After one last check to ensure I didn’t forget anything, I took a look at a checklist with the directions for the cake. Sam might joke about how Twilight loves them, but they really are useful.
Add 3 cups of flour...3 eggs...¾ cup of vegetable oil...beat for five minutes.
I put in what the list said, and as I beat the flour, eggs, and oil, it gradually melted into a creamy yellow cake batter. I had heard about how foals like to lick spoons that were covered in cake batter. Maybe when I’m back in Sire’s Hollow and my mom wants to bake a cake, I’ll ask her to let me do it for laughs.
With the batter ready, I checked the directions again.
Bake for forty minutes.
I poured the batter into a pan, then carried the pan, with my magic, into the oven. The oven had already preheated, so everything was all set. With nothing else to do at the moment, I went into the living room, jumped on the couch, and read a book about the finer points of kite-building.
So far, so good.
About fifteen or so minutes later, I chose to take a look in the oven. I knew there was still a long way to go, but I always hated waiting, so the urge to at least check on the cake overwhelmed me.
I opened the oven door, but my eyes widened when the middle of the cake sank! What happened?!
“No, no, no! You weren’t supposed to do that!”
I dashed to the table and looked at the checklist with the directions still lying on it. Everything was done right, so what happened?! Maybe Mrs. Cake would know what went wrong, so after I cut the oven off, I hurried to Sugarcube Corner.
Upon reaching Sugarcube Corner, I ran inside and to its front counter. Mrs. Cake was decorating a dozen or so cupcakes in blue-colored icing.
“Mrs. Cake, there’s a problem with the cake I tried to bake. Can you spare a minute?”
She lifted her head to me. “Hi, dearie, and of course. Did your cake not turn out well?”
“Dearie.” I’m surprised my dad didn’t think of that already for a pet name for me.
“You could say that. When I opened the oven to check how the cake was doing, it collapsed in the middle! I followed the directions correctly, so how did it happen?”
She giggled. Wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction.
“What?”
“I’m sorry. I know it’s not nice to laugh, but you’re not supposed to open the oven when cakes are baking.”
“I’m not?”
“No. Once the crust forms and the cake stops rising, it is safer to do so, but if you open the door any sooner, the sudden change in the oven's temperature will cause the cake to fall. I thought you already knew that.”
I facehoofed. Bet I was the only mare in Ponyville to make this kind of mistake. “I guess I have a lot to learn about cooking. Is there any way to fix the cake?”
She, unfortunately, shook her head. “I’m afraid not. You can let it finish baking and it’s still cake, just...fallen.”
That wasn’t an option. My friends deserved a MUCH better cake than that thing. “No, this cake is for too special a reason, so I’ll just bake another one. I have more than enough flour and eggs.”
“Okay, if you say so. If you have trouble again, feel free to come back.”
I left Sugarcube Corner and headed home to try again. Since it couldn’t be fixed, I was going to throw out that fallen cake after I got back.
Back in the kitchen, I had whipped up another batch of cake batter and had it baking. This time, I waited until forty-five minutes before even daring to open that oven door. The sweet aroma that I was already smelling had to be a good sign.
When I opened the oven, the cake looked ready. It had a nice, crispy crust and the smell grew more mouth-watering. It was tempting to just eat that thing then and there, but it wasn’t for me.
It would need to cool before I covered it with icing. So, I levitated the pan out of the oven, laid the cake on a large plate, set it in the refrigerator, and waited while listening to CDs.
An hour later, I took the cake out of the refrigerator and laid it on the table. Once I cover it with icing, chocolate icing, it would be good to go!
Using a butter knife, I began spreading icing on the cake. I did one half, but it looked just a bit uneven near one of the edges. “Oops, put too much there. I’ll move a little over here...good. Wait, now the part beside it has too little icing! Uh, I’ll just cover the whole thing first, then go from there.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have cared so much about having it be just right, but Twilight likes for things to be perfect. I had to make this cake perfect for her.
I had just enough icing to cover the entire cake, but it was still uneven, especially at the edges and middle. This wouldn’t do.
“Maybe I can smooth things out.”
With my butter knife, I slid some of the icing to parts of the cake that had too little. Every time I “fixed” a spot, another spot became uneven!
“Come on, Starlight! Get it right!”
I kept sliding icing from one spot to another. If I didn’t know better, I was making things worse.
After ten minutes, give or take, I groaned and gave up. This cake would never be good enough for Twilight. Still, this wasn’t over, so I would bake another cake. Third time’s the charm, they say.
After I placed the cake in the refrigerator, I left for the store to buy more icing. To earn some money of my own, I opened a kite stand in Ponyville four days ago, and ponies were actually willing to buy some of my kites! I was far from becoming rich, but at least Sam didn’t have to pay for everything for me.
Once I was back home, I baked another cake. After it cooled, it was time to give the “cover cake with icing” part another go.
“Let's put some here...now there...wait, too much. Now here...”
I used up all the icing to cover the whole cake, but again, I couldn’t get it perfect! Parts were still a little uneven, but if there was a silver lining, this cake looked a tad better than the first one. Even so, Twilight wouldn't be satisfied, and there wasn’t enough time to bake a fourth cake. Maybe I could fix it with a spell?
No. Not again. I even slapped my cheek to scold myself. “Don’t go there, Starlight. Maybe if I--”
The front door creaked open.
“Eep!” My body jumped in the air on its own, heart pumping hard. I never could lose that habit of jumping when I’m surprised enough.
“Starlight, I'm home! Are you here?”
“Oh, I-I'm here! I’m in the kitchen.” I picked up the cake, shoved it in the oven, and levitated the bag of flour still on the table into a cabinet. I couldn’t let him see that cake. Not until I could fix it.
I got it in that oven not a moment too soon: he peeked into the kitchen and I spun around, staying in front of the oven like a guard.
“So, how was work at the Toy Store?”
“Tiring.” He strolled to the sink, picked up a cup, filled it with water, and took sips from it. I could have used some water myself at this point. “We had a huge shipment come in, and some of the unicorns were at home sick, so it took longer to put up everything.”
“Really?” I took a quick look behind me and at the oven. Why did I do that?
“Yeah. I didn’t even know some illnesses can only affect certain tribes of ponies. You’re a unicorn too, so you should be careful not to catch whatever’s going around.”
“Oh, I will.”
“Good.” He snapped his fingers. That motion always sounded like it hurt, even though it apparently didn’t. “Oh, I need to...go check out something. Are you going to stay in the house?”
I bobbed my head, quickly. “Y-Yes, I-I was going to stay here for a while.”
“Good. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Sam ran out of the kitchen and left the house. I was lucky he didn’t go to the refrigerator and saw the second, worse-looking cake. I really wasn’t sure why I felt the need to hide the cake from him, but I still suffered from a bad habit of sometimes acting before thinking, unfortunately. It’s not as bad as it used to be, at least.
I went into the living room, jumped on the couch, and tried to think of a way to get the whole gang together. Despite the cake not being perfect, if I wrote “Thank you!!” on the cake, Twilight might forgive how it wasn’t just right. Mrs. Cake could help with that.
A half-hour or so later, I was still lying on the couch, searching my mind for ideas on how to gather the whole gang together. Couldn’t come up with anything good. The CD player was off, and I considered turning it on and see if listening to songs again could help.
Sam came through the front door, almost making me jump again.
“Glad you’re still here. Are you busy?”
“No, not really.”
“Good. I was thinking of going to Twilight’s castle and see what she and Spike were up to. If I’m right, the rest of our pals are there too. You wanna come?”
That was perfect. Even without trying to, Sam was still helping me.
“Oh, yes, I’ll love to come!”
“Wow, didn’t expect you to sound so happy about it,” he remarked with a laugh. “If you’re ready, let’s go!”
I hopped off the couch and followed Sam out of the house. Finally, I was catching a break.
When we got to Twilight’s castle, once in front of its doors, I gasped and said, “Oh, I forgot about something. Uh, you go in, and I’ll be right back.”
“What did you forget?”
Another small gasp came from me -- unlike the earlier one, this was a real gasp -- and I looked back toward the direction of our house. What do I say? I planned to make up something to get away, but I didn’t think of what I’d say! “Oh, uh, I...didn’t put up one of your books.”
He chuckled, playfully shaking his head. “Book? That’s something I thought Twilight might worry about, not you, and I didn’t remember seeing any books out of place anyhow.”
Why that obvious fact wasn’t already apparent to me, I will never know. Scraping the ground with a forehoof wouldn’t do anything, but nervousness coaxed me into performing that habit anyway. “Oh, I-I guess you didn’t look at where the book was, but it won’t take long. I’ll be right back, but tell the others to stay together.”
He stared at me and rubbed his brow. My big “please don’t see I’m lying” smile grew wider.
“Well, if you say so. We will all be in the dining room.”
“Okay, and tell the others I’ll be in as soon as I can.”
I dashed back to the house, got the cake, and took it to Sugarcube Corner. I was so worried Sam would have been suspicious, but he didn’t seem to be.
As I thought, Mrs. Cake was happy to help spell the letters on the cake. It spelled, “Thank you!!”
With my cake ready, I went back to Twilight’s castle. I walked, not ran, due to I was not going to risk anything by running or even teleporting. I felt a bit bad about lying to Sam, but it really was for a good reason.
After I made it to the castle, I wandered down its hallways. I used to always get lost if I went down the hallways alone, but now it wasn’t a problem. I still don’t know why Twilight has such a huge castle, since only she and Spike live in it. Pinkie did once say it “grew from the ground” or something, so maybe it wasn’t even Twilight’s idea for it to be so massive.
Finally, I came across the door to the dining hall and opened it with my magic. I almost wanted to yell “Surprise!”
“SURPRISE!!” my friends all yelled as soon as they saw me.
“Eep!” I jumped in the air and almost dropped my cake! But nerves aside, what was going on?! Confetti rained down and my friends were all standing beside each other in a line. There was a cake with pink icing on the table. It couldn’t be a birthday party for me, because it wasn’t my birthday.
“Oops, guess we overdid it,” Rainbow muttered with a hoof over her mouth.
“Sorry. We didn’t mean to scare you,” Fluttershy said, also with her mouth covered.
“W-What’s going on?”
“We wanted to celebrate you reuniting with your parents last week,” Twilight answered with a smile, pointing at the cake.
Applejack motioned a hoof to Sam. “It was Sam’s idea, so he deserves most of the credit for this.”
I walked to the cake. Letters on top of it spelled, “We are proud of you, Starlight!” and the icing was completely even. This was a perfect cake. I didn’t deserve this, even if they would try to tell me otherwise. “Wow. You really did this just for me? That cake looks a lot better than the one I baked to surprise you with.”
Fluttershy squinted her eyes and seemed to stare at my -- or their -- cake I baked for them. “Oh, yes, you have a cake too. It says, ‘Thank you!!’ but who is it for? Us?”
“Yep! It’s to thank you all for being there for me so much,” I answered with a proud smile, even if I was upstaged. “Unlike the last time I tried to thank you for being great friends, I didn’t use magic, so there’s no chance of my cake brainwashing you or something. This is even the third one I baked.”
“You baked three cakes?” Sam asked. “Oh, that’s why I smelt something sweet when I got home. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.”
“Yeah.” I tapped the floor with a hoof. It felt embarrassing to admit, but surely my friends wouldn’t judge me for needing to bake so many cakes. “I ruined the first one by opening the oven too soon, so it fell. I messed up on the icing on the second one and it’s even still in the refrigerator. This cake is better, but I still couldn’t get the icing right. I didn’t have enough time to bake a fourth one.”
“Really? It looks good to me,” Sam said. As I expected, he didn’t care about the...imperfection.
“Maybe, but look here.” I set the cake on the table and pointed at an uneven side. “This side has just a bit too much icing, but the part right beside it has too little, and here--”
The whole gang snickered, even Twilight.
Spike asked with a teasing smile, “Starlight, have you been spending too much time with Twilight?”
“I love for things to look fabulous, sure, but not even I would care about something this trivial. Your cake is wonderful, darling.”
Pinkie hopped in place and said, “Yeah, and getting cakes just right is a lot harder than it looks. It took me 256 tries before I did it for the first time.”
“Well, I know most of you wouldn’t, but Twilight likes everything to be perfect, so I--”
Twilight giggled and stepped beside me. It was relieving to see that she stayed in a good mood and didn’t look disappointed. “Starlight, I know I can be...nit-picky, but not so much that I’d want you to stress yourself out over me. This was baked with love, and that’s what truly makes it perfect!” She stared at the uneven side of the cake I had pointed out. “Even if this part is uneven like you said...and the top here is a bit higher than the section around--”
Applejack said sternly, “Twilight, not now.”
She tapped her head. Some things will never change, but at least Twilight did sound sincere about how it was the love in the cake that made it perfect. “Sorry, I’m sorry. But seriously, Starlight, it’s okay. Although if you were that worried that I might not like it, you could have just asked me to help.”
“Well, I wanted this to be a surprise, so telling you would have...spoiled the surprise.” With a little smirk, I added, “Besides, if I did, it would have defeated the purpose. This cake is to thank you for helping me so much.”
“Hehe, fair enough.”
Sam walked to me, got on a knee, and rubbed my mane. I still love it when he does that. “Sometimes, it’s hard to believe you weren’t always so nice and happy. Are you really the same pony that refused to speak to me?”
“Hee hee, I could say the same about you and friendship speeches. I didn’t think you would ever ‘lay on the corn’ until you gave me a speech when--”
I covered my mouth. I teased him that I might, but I really wasn’t planning to tell the others about the one he gave me months ago! Oops!
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! YOU gave her a friendship speech, Sam?” Rainbow asked with a big grin. What have I done?
Rarity tittered with a hoof over her mouth. “I thought you said Twilight’s speeches were ‘corny’!”
“Ain’t this a kick in the head? Yer as bad as any of us,” Applejack said with her own smile.
Sam turned his head to directly face Twilight, who was already beside us. Her face had possibly the biggest “knowing” grin I had ever seen. No words left her mouth, but I had a feeling she was going to remember this moment the most.
Poor Sam sighed in defeat. “You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?”
Twilight slowly shook her head, still with that grin.
He looked back at me again. Fortunately for me, he was actually smiling. “Starlight, you’re lucky that you’re so cute.”
“Sorry, BF. It slipped.”
After we had a laugh, Pinkie cheered, “Enough about speeches and picking on Sam. Let’s get to celebrating! Whoo-hoo!”
Pinkie didn’t have to tell me, or any of us, twice. It wasn’t like a birthday party with a ton of games or presents, but we still had a good time. As I thought, the cake my friends, or Pinkie, baked was much better than mine, but mine wasn’t bad--Pinkie’s was just tastier. They tried to say my cake was just as good, but I knew better.
The good news is that I didn’t screw-up trying to do something for my friends. The bad news is that I still screwed up by spilling the beans about Sam’s friendship speech to me. Guess I’d have to think of something to make up for that. Then again, that little teasing had been a part of Sam and Twilight’s friendship, so this might have actually made them a little closer.
I could barely believe it’s been a year since I made peace with my parents. It felt like it went so fast.
Not too much has changed. I made a new friend, a unicorn named Trixie Lulamoon, or should I say “The Great and Powerful Trixie”, but I was still the closest with Sam.
Sunburst finally made peace with his mom, and they now get along much better than they used to. His mom still had moments, but she generally agreed to let Sunburst make his own decisions. She will only step in if he really needed her help or he asked for it.
At this moment, I had just got done spending some time with Spike and was on the way home. When I got close to the house, I spotted something weird.
Sam was on the ground, lying on his stomach. He had never done that before.
“Sam? What are you doing? Trying to check for ants?” I asked with a little laugh.
He stayed quiet.
“Sam? Did you hear me?” I asked, this time with no laugh.
No answer. Maybe he was just taking a nap, but my heart was starting to race. It was like my stomach didn’t just sink: it collapsed.
I ran to him and shook him with my hooves. “Sam? What’s wrong?”
He still didn’t move. I shook him harder and harder while yelling, “Sam?! Wake up! Speak to me! Please!!”
Nothing!
I just kept shaking him, screaming for him to say something, my eyes leaking tears. This couldn’t be. What was wrong with my best friend?! What could I do?!