It was another brilliant day in Ponyville, everypony now getting ready for yet another festival. An entirely new one, which was created and organized by Princess Twilight and Pinkie Pie. The park was already decorated for the event, leaving the ponies with the simple task of waiting in anticipation for it the very next day. This included Flash and Heart, who were both on patrol while flying over town. However, that quickly came to an end when Flash directed them to land in front of one of Heart's normally favorite spots: Mr Domino's Pizzeria.
Now Heart was usually big on pizza, but he didn't have the stomach for it. "Flash...we just had lunch." Flash turned to give him a look that yelled, 'hardly.'
"Oh please. That hay-burger?" He asked, shaking his head and waving his hoof. "Barely a snack. An extra large Domino pizza, that's lunch." He trotted up to the building while Heart held his stomach. "You don't have to have any if you're full."
"If I had known we were coming here, I wouldn't have had the extra large."
With that, they entered the pizzeria, soon seeing two ponies at the counter. The first was a cream colored unicorn with a black mane and tail, along with a curly moustache. He was wearing the traditional pizza maker clothing of a white coat and red bandanna, which a chef's heat on his head. His cutie mark was that of a pizza with a section cut out of it. His name was Mr. Domino, the best pizza maker in Equestria. And beside him was the inventor known as Time Turner, who was fiddling with some kind of remote.
"Ah, my best customer!" Domino spoke with an Italian accent, "Flash Sentry." Flash smiled back as he grabbed a slice from a pizza that a waiter was walking with. "Benvenuto! And ciao Fire Heart. The two of you are just in time to see the future of pizza making!"
"Don't tell me," Flash replied, "A hay-ball stuffed with pizza. Or, a pizza stuffed with a whole other pizza. You could call it a pa-pizza."
"It isn't a food that's the future," Turner responded as he held up the remote. "It's my latest invention, which Mr. Domino asked me to look into." He hit the button, making something fly up from behind the counter. It was a type of drone, which used the same helicopter tech as Rainbow's turtle Tank. It also had a pair of arms that had buzz-saws on the ends that the pegasi assumed were meant to be pizza slicers. "My remote controlled pizza cutter."
"It's gonna revolutionise the pizza making industry," Domino added as he placed one on the counter. The drone turned to the pizza, is camera staring at the food. It then used its saws to cut through the pastry, creating eight perfectly even slices before it flew off to do the same with the other pizzas around the room. "Eight perfect slices, every time."
"Bravo you two," Heart cheered, "And just in time for the pizza pi party."
"Ah, sì." Domino chuckled, "Such a wonderful idea that Miss Pinkie and her highness had."
"Leave it to those two to create an event celebrating two of my most favorite things," Turner laughed, "How did they come up with it?"
Flash rolled his eyes at this, "Twilight saw my sister's report card and realized she was having trouble. She asked Cheerilee and apparently, a lot of her students were having difficulty with that subject."
"Most of her students," Heart corrected, "I'm actually good at math."
"And you struggle with everything else." Heart growled back at the knight, Flash patting his head in response, "Anyways, she wanted to find a way to help the kids and thought about doing a study session to help. And when Pinkie heard about it, she had the idea of evolving it into a town wide event. And here we are. A festival with pizza and math based events."
"Like the pizza baking contest," Turner responded, "And I've managed to cook up something special for that event." The others raised an eyebrow at this, only to see Turner tap his nose and tell them to wait as see.
But as he did this, the pizza cutter flew over to one of the tables as a waiter was about to refill a customer's drink order, only to fly right under the water jug as it was tipped. This caused water to pour down on the machine, resulting it start sparking.
This caught the four's attention, turning to see it flying all over the place before slamming into a wall. As it did, it's systems caught up and it spun around to the pictures on the wall. Then, it slashed at the picture four times and carved it into eight triangular shapes.
"Uh...doc?" Flash said as the earth pony was now fiddling with the remote.
"Great whickering stallions!" He cried as the drone continued to fly around, "The receiver for the remote must have shorted out!"
"Mamma mia!" Domino added as the customers began to duck and cover, "My cutter's cut loose!"
Flash and Heart got into a battle stance as the machine turned to them, both getting the strange impression it was angry. Flash grabbed a metal dish as Heart leapt behind the counter, holding it up only for the machine to cut it into pizza slices, then going to a nearby table and hitting a table, knocking a pizza upward.
Heart saw the pizza fly up, several slices landing on Flash. He then watched the drone move over to a circular table and cut it up, making it fall apart and reveal the couple hiding underneath it. The fire pegasus then grabbed a baguette from behind the counter and threw it, hitting the drone, making it spin around before slicing the bread apart and coincidentally filling a bread basket that had been knocked to the floor.
"We gotta do something, before this thing starts cutting us to pieces!" he yelled to Flash.
He then heard a cough from Domino, "Eight even pieces."
Heart rolled his eyes while Flash spun around and saw Iron walking outside the store. "Hey!" He called out, catching the machine's attention as he moved over to the doorway. The drone flew after him as Flash pushed the door open before jumping to the side. "IRON!"
The outcry caught the earth pony's attention, making him turn to see the buzz-saw wielding machine. He instantly pulled out Piecemaker, "Iron Lance Strike!" He shot a single projectile off the weapon, hitting the machine right in the camera lens.
This caused the machine to finally go kaput, flopping over. Heart, Turner and Domino came out next, seeing the drone let out one last mechanical cry. They all sighed in relief, Turner letting out a chuckle. "Oh well," he turned to the others. "Still not as much damage as the self-twirling spaghetti fork."
As he said that, the bell of the store's door made them turn to see Flash stepping out...and still covered in pizza. That didn't last long as he pulled a slice off his shoulder...then ate it. "Yum. Mushroom...."
"Flash..." Heart groaned.
"Heart, I'm training for tomorrow's pizza eating contest. If you can't push through a little shoulder fur, don't even bother entering." He took another bite before offering the remaining slice to his squire, "Want some?" Heart's reply was to walk away while shaking his head in disbelief.
Meanwhile...
At that moment, Grand had just arrived at the castle to talk security with Twilight for tomorrow's event. But when he walked through the doorway, he found the hallway was filled with boxes of stuff.
"What the-" He muttered out as he started skirting around the boxes, finding Soul, Diamond, Silver and the CMC sitting on the floor with masses of books surrounding them. "What's going on in here?" The girls turned to him, "Are you all having a garage sale after the party tomorrow?"
"What's a garage?" Soul asked, "And why would we sell it?"
"I meant...never mind. What are you up too?"
"Swatting up," Scootaloo replied, "We heard what some of the prizes for some of the math events are gonna be, and we really wanna win them."
"Couldn't Twilight have picked an easier event to have the coolest prizes?" Soul sighed before hearing a chuckle come from the stairs, the seven looking up to see Twilight, Pinkie and Starlight coming down.
"That's the whole reason I gave the math events the coolest prizes," Twilight responded, "To give you a reason to start taking this subject seriously."
"We are taking it seriously," Sweetie replied.
"We just wish it didn't have to be so hard," Diamond moaned.
"What I don't get is the name," Silver Spoon added, "Why is it called the Pizza Pie Party when there won't be any pie there? Shouldn't the name have something to do with math in it?"
"It does," Twilight laughed before she grabbed one of the math books and opened it to a certain page. "See this? Pi is a number."
"A number?"
Grand nodded at this, "Its used in math to figure out the size of circles."
"It's a constant throughout the universe," Pinkie giggled, "Even on Cybertron."
"Cyber-what?" Starlight asked.
"Never mind. Forget I said anything."
Twilight laughed as she put the book down, "Since pizzas are circles, it makes perfect sense to have those two words together in the title of the festival."
"Oh...I get it," Apple Bloom added. "So it's pi, the measurement, and pizza pie is the food."
"Yeparooni!" Pinkie cheered, "I can't wait! This is gonna be so much fun!"
"Well, just wait," Scootaloo pointed at them. "I'll win one of those math events for sure and get that cool new scooter."
Grand chuckled at this, "And I'll be entering the cook off. Iron and Lightning are on patrol duty, so I'll get to enjoy a day of fun. That and be at the festival just in case something goes wrong. By the way," he turned to Starlight. "The mayor still hasn't found somepony to judge the cook off. Think you can handle it?"
"Me?!" Starlight gasped, "Why me?!"
"Why not you?" Twilight asked with a shining smile. "It could be a great experience for you. And it could help you with one of your friendship lessons. Not giving your friends preferential treatment in contest settings."
Starlight blinked at this, only to nod, "Alright, that sounds good. I'll do it. Could be fun." The others smiled at this, only for their grins to disappear when a beeping sound caught their attention, all turning to the hallway leading to the kitchen, where smoke was now coming out of.
"Fire!" Grand yelled as he ran toward the smoke, the others following as Pinkie pulled a fire extinguisher out of her mane. They then reached the kitchen and Grand grabbed the door, Pinkie aiming the nozzle and firing as soon as the door was open.
She sprayed the whole room, only to hear someone cry out. And as she stopped spraying, the smoke began to die down, revealing a familiar pegasus. Rainbow Dash let out a cough as she flew out of the room, holding a cooking tray in her hooves that was covered in a pile of black ash.
"Rainbow?!" Twilight yelped, "What are you doing in my kitchen?!"
"Sorry Twi," Rainbow coughed again as she landed. "I was practicing for the pizza cooking contest tomorrow and my oven at home wasn't big enough to cook the monster I'm gonna make." She then looked down at the tray. "But I think It might be a little overdone."
"I'll be the judge of that," Starlight giggled, "Let me see." She stared at the remains of the pizza. "Nice dark coloring. Burnt evenly throughout. Strong smoky aroma. Was charcoal the secret ingredient?"
"I think it's the only ingredient," Grand quipped as Rainbow growled at him, "Maybe you should focus on another event. Like the eating contest."
"I can't," Rainbow sighed, "Soarin's coming to the party and we both agreed to win a trophy each, so we flipped a bit and he's in the eating contest."
"Then maybe you should stick to the math side of tomorrow's event," Twilight suggested as Soul offered her a math book.
"No way!" Rainbow yelled, "I'm winning the cook off." She then poked Grand in the stomach, "Just you wait. Don't get too scared."
"The only thing I'm scared of is whatever Time Turner's working on," Grand replied, "That's the only thing we can't plan for."
"Ha! I'm not scared!" Rainbow smirked while holding up her destroyed pizza. "With my recipe, tomorrow's gonna be easy as pie." As she said that, the smoke from the charred remains floated over to the others, making them cough.
"Though perhaps not as edible," Scootaloo whispered so he sister didn't hear. The others nodded while Pinkie put on a fire-fighter's mask.
As the evening sun set, everypony in the castle was preparing to go to bed. Fluttershy and Iron had joined the inhabitants for the night, due to an incident at Fluttershy's cottage involving a skunk friend and a large bowl of sprouts. As such, everypony was in the dining room, all getting a last minute drink or snack before bed.
Spike was there, enjoying a bowl of cereal while Springer strolled into the room, only to have to be careful stepping through it due to the place being covered in boxes and loose toys. However, he failed to spot a skateboard, making him slip on it, "WHOA!" He yelped, crashing into the floor before letting out a groan. He then looked up to see the items on the floor, hissing as he got up and pointed at the dragon, "Spike! Why is your stuff all over the dining room?!"
"And in the hallway," Soul moaned as she and Mira entered. She was holding a bag in her magic and threw it away, flying over the mess while also carrying Mira so they didn't trip over the junk. "Shouldn't this all be in your room?"
At the same time, Flash, Twilight, Fluttershy and Iron trotted in from another door. "Okay, who left their dirty laundry on the stairs?" Flash held up a smelly sock, "I mean, come on. Where am I supposed to put mine?"
Spike let out a sigh. "I had to clear off a shelf for the pizza eating trophy I'm gonna win tomorrow," the little dragon chuckled, "And there's nowhere to put everything." He swallowed another spoonful of cereal before speaking again, "I need a bigger room. Or maybe an extra one." He slowly turned to smile at Twilight, who rolled her eyes.
"No."
"Oh, come on!" He cried out, "This place is huge and it's half empty! You can spare one room."
"It's not a matter of room," Twilight sighed as she sat down and poured herself some tea. "It's a matter of principle. Giving you another room means you'll have more reason to want more stuff. And it wont be long until you're asking for a third room and then a fourth. You remember what happened to last time you got greedy, don't you?" Spike grumbled at this, "Exactly. And I'm not singling you out. Everypony gets one room and nothing more."
Spike let out a long extended sigh, "Then I don't know what to do except keep my stuff spread out around the castle."
Fluttershy giggled at this, "You know, I remember my packrat of a brother had the same problem when he was your age."
She then sat down while Iron sat opposite her, the defender asking, "So how did you fix that for him?"
Fluttershy chuckled as Twilight poured her a cup of tea. "I traded him my bigger room." Everypony went wide-eyed at this, only to see a big smirk on the pegasi's face, "And as soon as he realized more space meant more cleaning, he begged me for his small room back. And suddenly, he made everything fit."
The others laughed as Twilight turned to Spike, "Maybe you don't need more space. Just...less stuff." She looked around the room while Flash poked a pile with a fork. "You've outgrown a lot of this stuff."
"Like these," they turned to see Flash holding some blue shorts with the fork.
"But those are my lucky swimming trunks!" Spike yelped, "Thanks to those bad-boys, I've never drowned when I've gone swimming."
"I don't think that has anything to do with the shorts," Mira told him despite the dragon not understanding.
"Well, what about this?" Springer held up a piece of cardboard, which had a macaroni pony face on it.
Spike gasped at this, "I can't get ride of Mr. Macaroni! It was the first thing I made all by myself!"
He then felt Twilight place a hoof on his shoulder. "Spike, I know your things are important to you, but it's just as important that we find a place to put them."
This made Spike sigh, mumbling as he looked away, "Fine....but can it wait until after the party so we can be sure there's room for my trophy?"
This was met with a laugh from Flash as he grabbed the nearby milk carton and opened it up. "Not gonna be an issue squirt." With that, he started gulping the milk down while the others stared at him in disgust, Twilight sighing and shaking her head at the sight.
"How did I ever fall for a meathead like you?"
Flash leaned up and patted her with his wing, "Eh, you know you love me." This was followed by a smack to the head from Twilight's wing, "Ow!"
The next day...
The Pizza Pi Party was in full swing, the park completely brimming with almost everypony in Ponyville as they played games, bought food or whatever else Pinkie and Twilight had managed to come up with. Everything before noon would be math events, with the pizza part of the party happening after lunch. Currently, Heart and Soul and their jakhowls were at a kind of ring toss booth that Applejack, Rarity, Mac and Rogue were at while Cranky Doodle ran the booth.
"You ready?" He asked Rarity as she grabbed a trio of rings. The kids flew up, seeing several cups on the table with different numbers on them. Cranky took out a random card from a deck holster and read off of it. "One hundred and fifty-two, divided by eight?"
Rarity did the math and smiled when she spotted a cup with the number nineteen on it. She then threw a ring, getting it right on the cup.
"Nineteen," Cranky checked the answer. "That is correct." He put the card away and pulled out another, "That's ten points. For twenty points-" Heart looked up and see several stuffed toys hanging from the top of the booth, each with either a ten, twenty or thirty attached to it.
As he was looking the prizes over, Rarity managed to get another two answers right. "That makes thirty points," Cranky responded, "What do you want to spend them on?"
Rarity hummed at this, "I'll have the ten point teddy bear and the twenty point dolphin."
Cranky grabbed the toys as Rogue commented, "Didn't think you were in-ta having cuddly toys."
"Oh, it's for my store. Several of my customers have been bringing their children to their fittings. Nothing destroys creativity like a bored foal." She filled a bag with the toys, "Anypony hungry?" They all nodded back before heading off to the food court. As they did this, they passed the main stage and found a trio of ponies dressed as cheerleaders doing a routine.
"Co sign, chord and tangent sign. Three point one four one five nine. Go PI!"
At the same time, Rainbow and Soarin were making their way over to them. Soarin was doing his best to keep himself from eating anything for the contest, but Rainbow wanted to be fully fueled for hers. However, when they arrived at the booth, they saw somepony getting three slices loaded onto his plate. "You're buying food?" Rainbow asked Flash as he turned to them. "Doesn't the pizza eating contest start soon?"
"Yeah," Flash took a bite of his first slice, "I have to warm up. Any pro will tell ya that ya can't eat on an empty stomach."
"Huh..." Soarin turned to the pizzas being placed on pony's plates and licked his lips.
"Maybe one slice won't hurt," he muttered before grabbing his own plate. "Just enough so I don't pass out before the contest starts."
"Whatever works for you dude," Flash chuckled before flying over to Twilight, the princess now judging the mathlete competition. To everypony's surprise, Scootaloo had actually managed to make her way to the final round.
"Round five of the mathlete competition," Twilight announced before gesturing over to the prize. "Whoever wins this wins the scooter." The flightless filly was almost drooling at the sight of it, but quickly shook her head. At that moment, Twilight flipped the whiteboard around to reveal a formula. "Solve for X."
With that, the contestants began writing in a flurry of movement. "Go Scoots!" Flash yelled while trying not to break her concentration.
"Check!" She raised her answer into the air, Twilight levitating it over before nodding.
"That's correct!" Everypony around her clapped, "First place goes to Scootaloo!"
"YAHOO!" Scootaloo cheered, jumping up a good five feet before running over. Twilight levitated her prize, Scootaloo now looking like she was about to cry, but gave her thanks to the princess before trying it out.
"Good for her," Flash chuckled as he saw her rush off to show her friends. "Though now I'm out of ideas for a Heartswarming Present."
"I'm sure you'll think of something," Twilight giggled, "Though I have to say, I can't believe how well this is going."
"Well don't celebrate to soon," Flash replied, "It's not over yet."
As he said that, the overhead speaker system beeped before Mayor Mare's voice called out, "Would all chefs and judges please make their way towards the Pizza Pi Party cook off area?"
At this announcement, almost everypony in the park began to make their way over, most wanting to see who was competing and what the secret ingredient Time Tuner had developed. It was here they found Starlight, the unicorn taking a several deep breaths, "This is it." She then spun around, her eyes twitching as she asked her friends, "How's my mane look?" The group flinched at the worried expression on her face, making Starlight gulp, "Oh no...maybe this wasn't such a good idea."
"You'll be fine," Rainbow responded as she walked up and patted her back, "And when they give out that trophy, just remember who lent you that book on judging." That had been a surprise, Twilight more than anypony when she found out such a book existed without her knowledge.
"I'm confident Starlight will not play favorites," Twilight added, "And that she will rank the chefs solely on merit."
"But that's hard..." Starlight moaned. "And so...judgy."
"That's kinda the point, isn't it?" Flash asked with a raised eyebrow, Starlight sighing and nodding. They then headed over to the stage, spotting a long table with a ton of cooking equipment and ingredients along with chefs Grand, Domino, Thunderlane and even Derpy. Rainbow flew down to the table at this, looking the equipment over.
"Measure, mix, GO!" The cheerleaders cheered as Pinkie and Time Turner arrived on stage, Pinkie now balancing a bowl on her head that had a metal dome covering it.
"And now, Time Turner will explain the secret ingredient the chefs must use in order to win the contest." The mayor walked off of the podium as Turner stepped up and Pinkie placed the bowl on a table next to it.
"Thank you Mayor Mare," he then looked out at the crowd, "Our contestants should have no problem rising to the occasion," some of the ponies groaned at this pun as he continued, "Because the surprise you'll be using is this."
Pinkie removed the dome covering the bowl, allowing everypony to see what it was. And they all raised eyebrows at it.
"Sand?" Rainbow asked as she stared at the grain filling the bowl and piling above it. She then had a smile on her face. "Yes, I totally practiced that one."
The ponies all stared at her for a second before Spike spoke up, "Wait...is that yeast?"
"A brand new magically created super yeast," Turner corrected. "Specially designed for places that have a hard time growing food. This will be its first use outside of tests. It only takes a teaspoon of this to turn the amount of dough used for one pizza into enough for ten."
This statement made everypony gasp, Twilight commenting, "Incredible. This could change the world. Places like Dodge Junction and Appaloosa would never have to worry about food again."
"Imagine how many cupcakes Pinkie could make with that," Heart licked his lips while Soul rolled her eyes.
"Cupcakes use baking powder, not yeast."
"What's the difference?"
"This'll certainly make this tricky," Grand added as he filled a water jug while Rainbow mixed her dough. "Use too little and the pizza won't rise properly. Use too much and it could balloon up and explode."
"Scared?" Rainbow asked as she shook some salt into her dough and put it next to the jug, Grand shooting her a look that said 'please.'
"Alright, let's begin the contest." Turner responded as he motioned to the chefs. "You should already have some yeast, so get to cooking!"
A round of cheers rang out, the chefs all continuing to start the cooking process. And as the competition started, the cheerleaders started another routine. "Pi R squared the ancients found, but we prefer our pizzas round!" As they said that, one of the cheerleaders leapt up and landed on the other two's shoulders. But as they did this, their balance went off, causing the tower to topple over, making the top one fall onto the table holding the yeast.
Unfortunately, the table had wheels for easy transport. So when they landed on it, it was sent flying along the stage while the yeast bowl fell over the side, colliding with Rainbow's bowl and Grand's jug. Flash quickly took to the air, reaching the stage in order to stop the table before it went off the edge.
"Oh no." Flash muttered as he saw the liquid sink into the bowl. "That's not good, is it?"
The damage was now done. The yeast, dough and water had combined, causing the dough to start bubbling as the chemical reaction occurred.
"Great whickering stallions!" Turner cried, "That's enough yeast for...hundreds of pizzas!" And just like that, the dough began to expand. Within seconds it was the size of a pony, absorbing the bowl and jug in the process.
Rainbow quickly grabbed a rolling pin and leapt over the table to start hitting the dough...but it did nothing. "Hurry!" Grand yelled to everypony, "Run!" The citizens didn't need to be told twice, the dough turning into a mountain of yeast, soon getting to the size of an elephant.
As this happened, the pony Octavia was nearby, tripping on the ground before the dough reached her. Sticking to her hooves, she screamed, "No! Get it off me! I'm gluten free!" And as this happened, Applejack and Rogue grabbed her hooves, pulling her out of the dough with one mighty yank.
"Everypony out of the park now!" Twilight yelled, now seeing the town's pegasi grabbing the closest pony and shooting into the air. At the same time, Flash drew his sword and slashed at the dough. But as he took a chunk out, the yeast grew it back instantly.
Springer took the more direct approach and tried punching the dough, only for his paw to get stuck. "Uh oh." He commented before trying to pull away. The goop began to latch on at this, starting to grow up his arm. But as this happened, a blast of fire struck the dough, making it go hard and allowing him to break free. He then turned to Heart, the colt now in his fire form, and gave him his thanks.
"This isn't good." Flash added as he fired a Flash Cutter. "Twilight-"
"Give me a second!" Twilight barked as she created a magic barrier, trying to push the dough back as more ponies ran past her, "I'll think of something...I hope."
Meanwhile...
Iron and Lightning had just completed their patrol of the town. However, nothing was going on, making them both sigh.
"Okay...you're right." Iron grumbled. "This is really boring today. Maybe we should just go over to the party and see if they need any help."
"Maybe..." Lightning replied, "But with nopony around, it would be the perfect time for a criminal to strike."
"You're right...which makes this more boring ironically." Iron growled before turning to the park, only to raise an eyebrow, "Hey Blitz?"
"Yeah?
"Was that on the party schedule?" Lightning looked to where Iron was now pointing, both now seeing a dough mountain rise above the trees and houses.
"What the heck?!"
Back at the park...
The Defenders, Mane Seven and a few others were still making sure the citizens were able to evacuate. As Lyra and Bon Bon got to safety, Springer took this moment to clap his hands together, sending out a wave of aura. And with a deep breath, he shut his eyes before turning to Flash, "The park's clear. Nopony left behind."
"Then it's time for us to clear out too," Flash told everypony. Twilight teleported the non-flyers out of the park while Rogue and the pegasi took to the air. Once they were high enough, they saw just how bad things were. The dough's weight had prevented it from growing tall, but that just meant it had more room to grow wider and was soon oozing out of the park toward the closest houses.
"Pizza dough gone rogue," Soarin spoke up. "That's a new one, even for this town."
"How do things look from up there?" Twilight asked after Springer had connected all their auras so they could speak over the distance.
"Sticky," Rainbow replied, "It won't be long until the dough starts engulfing houses."
"This is getting worse by the second," Grand added.
"Yeah. I'm used to eating lunch, not running from it." Flash chimed in, "Any idea how we're supposed to stop that dough, Twi?"
The princess hummed at this, "Well, what we're witnessing is a chemical reaction. The super yeast is fermenting, causing the dough to expand at a fast rate."
"So we need to end the fermentation process," Pinkie spoke up, her years of baking coming into her head, "Or at least slow it down until we can."
"How?" Wild asked.
Starlight spoke up at this, "What if we add salt?" the others turned to her. "It won't stop the dough, but it might slow it down enough to give us some breathing room."
This made Twilight smile. "Great idea Starlight. Salt is just what we need to end the fermentation and halt the dough, for a little while."
"Err...yeah," Flash commented, "The only word I understood there was dough. Which if you haven't noticed, is heading straight for us!" Everypony glanced back, now seeing the dough continue to expand down the street, Grand quickly using Springer's connection to speak to his grandson.
"Lightning, you and Iron meet us at the town supply shelter. There's a mountain of road salt left from last winter and Iron's Piecemaker is just what we need to shuffle it."
"Got it," Lightning nodded as the connection went dead. "Sounds like we didn't miss the party after all."
"Sounds like we are the party," Iron laughed before Lightning grabbed him and sparked his horn. In a flash, the two disappeared.
The ground forces were also heading toward the warehouse, Twilight sighing in relief, "Good thing somepony thought to store that extra salt nearby."
Spike chuckled at this, "See? You never know when your unused stuff could come in handy. Hint hint."
Twilight rolled her eyes before glancing back at Spike. "You're not getting another room."
This made Spike sigh and sit back with crossed arms, "Maybe I can move into the salt shelter when we're done."
"Oh! Maybe you can move into my party cave. I've got lots of space." She then gave him a glare, "But remote privileges are earned."
Spike just waved a claw, "Thanks, but that seems like kind of a trek from there to the castle every day. Unless I install something like an underground go-kart to ferry me."
Twilight let out a long sigh, "Spike, you don't need half of what you have. Give the kiddie stuff away. You'll feel better."
"Really?" Spike asked in a sarcastic tone, "Would you feel better if you gave away your Smartypants doll?"
"What?!" Twilight yelped, "Well...no. But that's different."
Soul, who had been flying beside her, spoke up, "How?"
"I...I don't know. It...it just is." The princess let out a groan, "Look, can we just concentrate on making sure a giant thing of dough doesn't eat the town?!"
The ponies chose to remain quiet until they arrived at the salt shelter, the pegasi landing down before they opened the doors to reveal a large pile of salt sitting on the floor. Twilight conjured up some carts, sacks and shovels that she handed out, everypony getting to work. Fluttershy grew as large as she could while Twilight made a larger bag for her, Iron turning his spear into a shovel that grew as large as he could make it, then started filling Fluttershy's bag.
"We'd better get going," Springer told everypony as he leapt up onto the roof and saw the dough getting closer. "That deep dish crust is getting deeper."
"Does anypony actually know what we're gonna do once we've slowed this thing down?" Heart asked next.
"One problem at a time," Grand replied, "Right now, we just need to focus on slowing it down."
"Alright everypony," Rainbow said as she grabbed two bags and lifted them up. "Pass the salt." They all nodded and began their trek back to the dough. Flash led the air team with the larger Fluttershy at the back, while Applejack led the ground team as they raced through the streets while pulling their salt filled carts before splitting up.
Iron and Grand arrived at one street that was half buried in the dough, both ponies unhooking from their carts and beginning to shovel the salt on top of it. As they did this, the cheerleaders from before suddenly appeared, "Sodium chloride, stop that yeast! S A L T save our feast!"
The two turned to them for a second, blinking at the sight before returning to their task.
Up above, the flyers were also spreading out and started tipping their bags, the salt spreading everywhere. "Look out below!" Rainbow called out.
"Bombs away!" Soarin yelled.
Springer, Twilight, and the younger members of their group were salting another area, Ace letting out a groan, "This is exhausting."
"Not as exhausting as it'll be to clean the entire town of dough if we don't stop it here," Springer responded while throwing another bucket of salt into the blob. As he did this, the cheerleaders appeared again.
"Go team go! Slow that dough! Tell that pastry, we say no!"
"I gotta admit, their positive spirit is kinda inspiring." Springer waved at them, "Thank you, oh leaders of the cheer." The cheerleaders smiled until Springer heard Flash speak up and quickly channeled it to the others.
"I think it's working," he commented after doing a quick once over of the town. The mixture seemed to have come to a complete stop, though he knew it was still growing. "Way to slow the dough."
"Wait!" Soul turned to Twilight, "We've only salted one part of it. Isn't it also growing on the other side of the park?"
"I'm afraid so," Twilight nodded. "Fortunately, there aren't any homes in that direction."
It was then that Pinkie let out a gasp, "TWILIGHT!" She turned to her frantic friend, "There's a meadow behind the park and I just remembered Mr. and Mrs. Cake were planning on having a picnic there with the twins."
A sudden wave of terror washed over the group before Springer turned to that direction, closing his eyes as he began to sense aura past the dough. He then let out a yelp as he picked up the unmistakable signature of the two bakers and their children. "Oh no....they're still there and it doesn't look like they know about the dough!"
"Or the pizza party it seems," Flash added, "I mean, why have a picnic when you've got pizza as an option?!"
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake aren't big fans of pizza," Pinkie replied, making Flash, Heart, Soarin and a few others to go wide-eyed.
"Really?!"
"Can we focus?!" Twilight spoke up.
"We gotta save 'em," Applejack chimed in while the others nodded.
"Flash, Rainbow and Soarin," Grand pointed to the pegasi. "Get over their and get them to safety. The rest of us will grab as much salt as we can and be there as soon as possible." The three nodded and quickly took to the sky, shooting over the dough.
The meadow was between the park and the Everfree Forest, but the forest was atop a ten meter cliff face that overshadowed the rest of the canyon. Usually, this was a good thing because it meant nothing from the forest could get into the meadow, but this would be an exception due to the dough now about to trap the family of four.
"There they are!" Rainbow called out as she saw them pinned up against the wall of the cliff, "Hurry!" She flew straight down with the boys following after her, "Sorry, trail closed due to hazardous food conditions." She took the twins and flew them up onto the cliff while Flash and Soarin both lifted Mrs. Cake before flying down to grab Mr. Cake.
But as Mr. Cake was lifted, the dough finally reached them, Soarin accidently landing in it. And when he tried to shoot up, the athlete pulled a trail of dough up with him. It then reached full tightness, springing back like an elastic band. "WHOA!" He yelped as he yanked back, letting go of Mr. Cake and forcing Flash to take the full weight of the earth pony. Luckily, they had been close to the top, so Rainbow was able to reach out and grab the stallion before Flash dropped him. They flew him the rest of the way, only to look back down to see Soarin was till stuck.
"Now I know why they say to avoid carbs," Soarin groaned as he pulled at the dough, but it refused to give. "I'm stuck like a pizza topping."
"Armorize!" Flash yelled as he leapt off the cliff, a burst of light equipping him in his Shining Guardian armor. He quickly flew down, grabbing Soarin around the wings. "Somepony order take out?" He joked as his wings opened up, unleashing a burst of Sacred Light, propelling them both straight up with enough force to finally snap the dough string.
The pair quickly reached the cliff and shot past it as Twilight and the others arrived, the earth ponies and unicorns beginning the shovel salt down onto the dough while Fluttershy lead the flyers as they poured their salt out of bags. As this happened, Pinkie ran over to the Cakes, happy to find they were unharmed.
And as the last few piles of salt was added to the dough, the mixture began to slow to crawl. They were now no longer in danger of instant dough-pocalypse, instead now having to worry about a slow conquest from the ever expanding blob.
"Good work team," Grand said as he turned to the group, "But now that we've slowed this runaway recipe down-"
"We have to figure out a way to stop it completely," Lightning added.
"Before Ponyville become one big bread blob," Soul finished while shivering.
Rarity turned to Twilight at this, "Can't we just teleport it someplace where it won't do any harm?"
Twilight shook her head, "I can't teleport something that big. It'd take a giant rune circle, and even if we could make it, the dough would likely grow bigger than the circle before it was completed."
"Besides, where would we teleport it to?" Spike chimed in, "Unless you know of any active volcanoes anywhere near here, we'd just be shifting the problem someplace else." The ponies and jakhowls that had fallen victim to his mess all gave him a glare, the tiny tooth crossing his arms and looking away. "Shut up."
Iron let out a groan, "Out of control baked goods aren't exactly part of our Royal Knight training."
Pinkie let out a gasp at this, "Ooh ooh!" She jumped up and down, "But it is part of my training." She turned to Twilight, "What if we baked the dough?"
Twilight clapped her hooves at this, "That's a great idea Pinkie!" She turned to the others. "High temperatures stop yeast from rising. It's the entire principal behind bread making. Pinkie, you're a genius."
"Aw, no need to praise me. Just doing my job." Pinkie blushed, "Though I'll happily take some if you're offering."
"Oh sure," Flash added with crossed hooves, "We'll just put the dough onto that giant sized pan we have and pop it into our mile long oven."
"I can do it," everypony turned to Heart as he lit his hoof on fire. "Earlier, I was able to free Springer from the dough using my fire to make it hard. If I go all out, I'm sure I'll be able to bake the dough no problem."
Everypony nodded at this, Spike chiming in, "And I could help as well."
The drake spat out a tiny fireball. But as this happened, Twilight's horn shined before summoning a whiteboard she had used earlier. Everypony watched as she did some quick calculations, humming as she worked. "My estimates state that even at full firepower, you'd need to continuously heat the dough for...about six days and seven hours."
Starlight let out a sigh, "That's about six more days than we have."
"I don't think I could keep my fire up that long," Heart gulped before turning to Spike, "Think Ember would be willing to spare a few dragons to come help us out?"
Spike shrugged at this, Soul then speaking up, "But doesn't pizza cook a lot faster then bread?"
Twilight blinked at this, rubbing her chin for a second before going back to the board. Doing a few new calculations, she said, "She's right. We need to make the dough thin, like a pizza crust, rolling it out the way Mr. Domino does."
Everypony nodded at this, only for Iron to raise a hoof, "Hold on there. We can't even get near that stuff without sticking to it. How are we supposed to roll that stuff?" Everypony turned to Pinkie for an answer, the expert baker smiling back before pulling out her Sherclop Pones hat and bubble pipe.
"Elementary, my dear Iron Core." She gave the defenders a look that told them they wouldn't like this, everypony else just blinking at her.
One hour later...
Everypony was now standing outside Sugarcube Corner. At the moment, they were all staring at Flash, Springer, Iron, Lightning, Grand, Soarin, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rogue. The ten were now completely white, having been covered in bags and bags of flour.
"There," Twilight said as she poured the last bag of flour onto Flash. "This flour coating should prevent you from sticking to the dough."
Scootaloo then let out a laugh. "And you're all ready for breading and frying." She and the others laughed while Iron let out a sigh, Mira and Ace looking Springer over.
"Is this what they mean by the term Flower Power?" Mira asked as Springer chuckled.
"I really hope Skybreaker doesn't surprise us with a visit today." Iron grumbled, Fluttershy laughing as Twilight stepped up to her.
"Will this be enough for you? I'm still not clear about what grows with you when you go big." Fluttershy began to grow at this, soon hitting her max. And when she got there, she found she was still completely covered in flour.
"Yay," she softly said before she breathing in, "Ahh...ahh...ACHOO!" She let out a massive sneeze, accidently beating her wings and creating a strong gust of wind. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the wind had blown the excess flour onto the rest of the ponies. "Sorry."
Grand chuckled before turning to Heart and Spike, the two scarfing down as much food as they could stomach. "Make sure those two are well fed by the time we're done. They're gonna need all the energy they can get." The two stopped eating, turning to him while their faces were stuffed, both giving salutes before going back to eating. "Alright gang," he turned to everypony. "Time to commence operation thin crust."
They all nodded as Flash walked up and pointed to the squishy mountain. "Time to roll out the dough." With that, the floured up ponies headed off in different directions, all soon encircling the dough. Once there, they began pushing at the dough.
Thanks to the flour, they didn't get stuck, and were able to put their whole bodies into moving the giant confectionery back toward the park. The unicorns helped out with that magic, grabbing the largest pieces they could connect to and folding it over.
"That's it," Twilight told Soul as the two lifted up the dough they were flying above. "You're doing great Soul."
"Thanks," she replied while wincing, "But this is heavy."
"Just take it slow and you shouldn't have a problem."
Her advice was correct, taking it slow as they managed to get a large section folded back into the center. At the same time, the others were getting closer to the park as well. And with Fluttershy's large size, she was able to roll the dough into the giant ball.
Once that was done, Flash, Soarin, and Rainbow flew up and divebombed the ball. This caused the center of it to flatten while the sides remained bubbled up, the three beginning to slam the dough down. The earth ponies soon followed this, jumping into the center to do the same, the group acting like they were on a bouncy castle or playing in the snow as they jumped up and down and even made a few dough angels.
Twilight also summoned some large pipes that she dropped on the dough before Applejack, Iron and Grand leapt up onto them, rolling them like they were lumberjacks on a log. This flattened the dough out even more, making Flash gasp, "Hey!" he called out, "Don't make it to thin! I like deep dish better."
"No way," Rainbow flew up to him. "Thin crust beats thick any day."
"In competition, yes thin crust goes down quicker. But chilling out with a slice and a soda, Shire-cago style all the way."
Rainbow crossed her hooves. "You know, it's scary that you've actually put this much thought into it. Impressive, but scary." They both laughed before getting back to work, the dough eventually being formed into a large circle that filled the entire park and could fit every pony in town on it.
"I think that should do it," Grand sighed, wiping his brow, "Are the ovens ready to burn?"
"Ready and able," he heard Heart say as he flew up while Soul was carrying Spike in her hooves. Heart morphed into his fire form and the three got to work, the twins flying over the giant pizza as Heart and Spike unleashing a burst of fire at the dough.
Everypony watched as the flattened mixture turned from a creamy white to a toasty brown color. They were amazed at the sight, seeing the insane plan was actually working, Pinkie sniffing the air. "Yum! Smells delicious!"
"Add this to the list of things I never thought I'd do when I was a filly," Starlight commented as Heart and Spike finished their work. The entire thing was complete cooked, the yeast within it no longer able to rise.
The crowd cheered over their victory against baked goods, Heart, Soul and Spike landing in front of them. "So what do we do now?" Spike asked, "Sure, it's not gonna grow any more, but its still here. What are we gonna do with it?"
"Funny. I remember us having a similar conversation yesterday, about all your stuff." Iron added.
"Yeah. Maybe we should make you keep this in your room." Flash chuckled, Spike glaring back at him.
"Oh yeah. That reminds me." Twilight chimed in before suddenly teleporting away. A second later, she came back with a book that some of them recognized as a family photo album. "Here," she floated the book over and opened it to a page, "Take a look at this. You're right Spike, I didn't want to give up Smartypants. But I did give up all of the other ones." The picture showed a much younger Twilight, probably before Spike even hatched, holding Smartypants while standing in front of a large pile of cuddly toys.
"Wow," Spike gasped.
"Gave them to charity," Twilight elbowed him. "Hint hint."
"Spike's query is still unanswered," Rarity chimed in, "What do we do with this gargantuan crust?"
Flash let out a laugh, "What else? Let's eat it!"
"Oh! I'm with Flash on this one!" Grand chuckled while licking his lips, "Let's spread the word that the Pizza Pi Party is back on, with an all new event to cap off the day."
Everypony cheered at this, quickly spreading out to inform the masses. Within an hour, everypony in town was back at the park, only now they had brought any pizza making supplies they had at home with them, including cans of sauce, cheese and whatever toppings they wanted on the mega-sized pizza.
"Cheese to the left, sauce to the right please." Springer said as she directed the ponies, the townsponies filling large barrels with the sauce before Twilight, Starlight, Soul and any other unicorn picked them up to pour onto the base. Soon enough, the pizza was like a giant swimming pool with red water.
This now done, Fluttershy grew larger and started spreading the cheese on top of the sauce, her aerial perspective allowing her to make sure it was evenly distributed. "Laa laa laa laa, laa laa laa laa, laa laa laa laa laa laaaaaaaaaa."
Once the cheese was placed, everypony started adding their toppings to the mix. Every few degrees of the pizza was topped with a different topping combo, be it mushroom and onion, pineapple and daisy, bell-pepper and tomato, and even baby spinach and olives. And as the preparations were completed, Heart, Soul and Spike repeated their previous cooking maneuver, but this time stayed far enough away so the heat of their flames touched the pizza but not the flames themselves. As the cheese melted and the ingredients cooked, everypony around the edge took a whiff of it before letting out moans of approval.
It was now fully cooked, Iron having a rope tied around his waist before Flash and Soarin lifted him into the air. He was pulled along and used Piecemaker to slice the pizza into multiple evenly sized pieces. Once cut, they were still big enough to feed a family of four for a week.
With the pizza finally completed, Starlight stepped up to the finished product and looked it over. "A golden brown, toothsome crust. Cheese toasty yet sumptuous." Everypony licked their lips and some rubbed their hooves together as they listened to her. "Tangy sauce and splashes of colorful aromatics." She turned to the rest of the townsponies and smiled, "I judge this pizza to be delicious-looking and ready!" This was met with a great round of applause.
"Yeah!" Flash yelled as he ran forward to take the first bite.
"Flash, wait! It's still hot!" Grand yelped, Twilight rolling her eyes at the sight.
She then felt Spike tap her side, turning to him, "You know...maybe you were right."
"OW!" They heard Flash yell as he burned his tongue.
"Maybe it's time I start getting rid of some of the things I don't use." Twilight smiled at this until Spike held up a claw and pointed at her, "But I'm keeping the lucky swim-shorts."
Twilight laughed at this, "Okay then. I guess we all got a reminder today that more isn't always better." In that moment, the townsponies picked up large slices of the pizza and took a bite out of them. But as soon as they did, they all got sickly looks on their faces and spat it back out with moans of disgust.
"Or better tasting," Grand groaned.
"Ugh..." Domino moaned as he dropped his slice, "This crust is horrible. Whose recipe was this?"
Everypony blinked at this, now remembering what bowl the super yeast fell into. They all turned to Rainbow, the mare giving them a wave before racing off. "I guess Pi isn't the only universal constant," Pinkie giggled as everypony began to walk off.
This only left a single pony who was still eating the pizza, a certain goofy smiling defender. "Ha!" Flash laughed before taking another bite, "I guess that means I win the pizza eating contest." He swallowed another one before holding out a hoof. "I will take my trophy, and the rest of this, to go."
Everypony just rolled their eyes as Flash continued eating. It wasn't long till they left, the group coming back with less pizza like meals. As for Flash, he continued to gorge himself as Twilight munched on a light salad.
"Flash." The defender turned to the princess, "You are not bringing that thing home."
"Challenge accepted," Flash guffawed before munching down on another piece. Twilight let out a long sigh while everypony else either giggled or rolled their eyes. It had been an interesting day for sure, one which nopony would likely ever forget. With such a memorable first Pizza Pi Party, next year's would have a lot to live up too. Until then, the ponies would look back on this day and remember to always have a bag of salt at the in case of approaching dough-ageddon