The pencils were dancing above the huge sheet of paper like laborious bees, like cranes in a spring sky.
Dashing hither and thither, commanded by a light blue aura that held them airborne, they left behind thoroughly calculated lines of color, strokes of shade that had been assembling into an equine silhouette, and then covering it with an image of an elegant new hypothetical garment.
Rarity tossed her head, her luxurious permed mane moving away from her face, and looked at the drawing, squinting critically.
The pencils stood still, hanging in the air, obeying their mistress, waiting patiently to further manifest her will and creative design.
The unicorn mare levitated the sheet of paper up and made it float through her studio towards a ponnequin, standing near a huge mirror.
Humming a melodic tune, Rarity looked to and fro between them, wondering as she superimposed the scheme onto the ponnequin.
“Yes, I think that would be enough complexity for the time being,” she said out loud at last, “wouldn’t it, Opal?”
Opalescence, comfortably nested among the squares of cloth, perked her ears at the sound of her name and glanced towards the unicorn. Seeing no personal benefit going her way, she didn’t bother to answer.
Rarity nodded.
“Sure, I agree.”
She shifted the scheme slightly, looked at it some more and then returned the sheet back to the table.
“This is the hardest thing, Opal — to not go overboard with the details."
“Everypony’s beauty has its own voice. Get overly zealous — and the clothes you have made will turn into a gag, muffling it…”
She paused.
“By the way, that makes me wonder why it’s been so quiet around the house. Has Sweetie Belle gone to meet her friends?”
Opalescence raised her head, much quicker this time, and sniffed the air. She sprung to her feet, alarmed, and leaped onto the floor, dashing for an open window.
A moment later Rarity felt it as well. Her nostrils flared at the faint acrid smell. She turned towards the door in one swift motion, horrified, then broke into a full gallop, rushing towards the kitchen.
Pencils, left without the attention of the will that animated them, dropped to the floor like a bunch of fumigated flies.
A few moments and several dozens loud hoofbeats later, Rarity barged into the kitchen with an urgency highly uncharacteristic of her elegant and refined usual self.
Accompanying her was a huge floating sphere of water, held in her telekinetic grasp.
“Sweetie! Sweetie!!” Rarity bellowed, frantically looking around. “Are you alright?”
The whole kitchen in front of her was covered in a layer of black soot. In the center of this scene of apocalyptic desolation stood Sweetie Belle. Her white coat had turned dark gray, her normally multi-colored mane and tail now monochromatic.
Rarity stopped on her tracks and quickly looked around.
Thankfully, there wasn’t any flame in sight.
The older sister snorted loudly in irritation and stomped her front hoof onto the floor. She opened her mouth, but at that exact moment Sweetie Belle turned around and looked at her.
The filly’s eyes were full of so much sorrow that the words of harsh rebuke froze on Rarity’s lips, her pinned ears slowly relaxed and stood up.
Rarity’s magic opened the kitchen window wide and carefully led the sphere of water out towards a tree growing in the back yard.
The spell collapsed and the water crashed down, exploding into a miniature tide wave as it impacted the ground.
Sweetie sniffed.
“Sweetie Belle, what—” Rarity started to say, but immediately paused to take a deep breath and get ahold of herself, “—what did you want to make this time, dear?” she continued, her tone slightly less annoyed now.
Sweetie shook her head. “Doesn’t matter anymore,” she answered quietly.
Rarity walked up to Sweetie and lowered her head, almost having nuzzling her, but stopped herself in time.
“I think you would benefit from a good bath, darling,” she said in a sympathetic tone, looking with regret at her little sister’s messy appearance.
“Let’s go, I’ll help you.”
Some time later, Rarity again stood in the center of her kitchen. Sweetie Belle, her coat and hair restored to normal, stayed in the hall, peeking in through the open door.
The older unicorn looked around and sighed.
“This is going to be a tough matter...” she whispered to herself.
Rarity focused her gaze on the area immediately in front of her and lit up her horn. For a few moments everything remained unchanged.
But several more seconds later, gradually, the layer of soot on the floor and the wall visibly rippled and began to lift like an ominous dark veil, exposing a relatively clean original surface underneath.
Once up in the air, the cloud of black powder assembled itself, becoming denser and denser and finally turned into a large ball. Rarity directed it to the trash bin and dropped it in.
She stood motionless for a couple of minutes, breathing heavily, her face wet from sweat.
After mustering enough strength she turned to another area of the kitchen, that was still covered in the offending grime, and focused on it.
Sweetie watched her older sister with her mouth agape, without even trying to hide her awe. She was silent though, knowing better than to break the fellow unicorn’s concentration.
Half an hour later, the environs looked mostly clean, almost like it was before Sweetie’s disastrous attempts at cooking.
Rarity staggered out of the kitchen, walked unsteadily to the nearest sofa and slumped onto it.
“Sweetie, be a dear, get me some water, please. I’m parched.” she asked in a hoarse voice.
Sweetie Belle run to check the kettle. She took off the lid and peeked into it, to make sure the water is clean. Then, having found it satisfactory, poured a big glass of water which she promptly brought back to Rarity.
Sweetie wanted to levitate it straight to her sisters mouth, but Rarity intercepted the glass with her own aura.
“Thank you, darling. I will take it from there.”
She greedily drank the water and lowered the glass onto the floor.
Sweetie Belle nuzzled up to her, glad that this time she didn’t receive a reprimand for her destructive activity. The older unicorn answered in kind, slightly brushing her little sister’s face with her upper lip.
“I wish I was as powerful as you, Rarity!” young filly confessed.
“It’s not as much about power as about precision, darling.” Rarity answered, with a tired smile, “Do not worry, as you will get older your psyche will get more mature and developed and you will be able to control your magic as well as that, if not better."
“Still, that was totally awesome, as Scootaloo would have said.” Sweetie giggled.
“Well, I have a decent amount of experience in controlling a multitude of small objects simultaneously.
“Although, that was indeed much harder than what I’m used to doing on a daily basis.” Rarity added, with a tinge of reproach.
“I’m sorry. I really am sorry.” Sweetie dropped her gaze.
“Nevertheless, what were you trying to cook?”
“An Iced Lemon Loaf.”
“Oh, mother’s favorite,” Rarity nodded.
“Yeah. So, me and the girls were talking the other day, and Apple Bloom bragged about their ‘ye olde Earth pony home cooking’.” Sweetie made an irritated grimace. “She was awfully smug about it as well, so I told her we have a few tricks of our own… one thing let to another, and… well, she dared me.”
“So I see…” Rarity’s tone was thoughtful and serious, but her eyes shone with amusement. She raised from the sofa onto her hooves and adjusted her mane.
“Well, Sweetie, I suggest we go out, to have some emergency refreshments. A cafe would do. After that we can bake it together.”
With that Rarity began to walk towards the front door, Sweetie Belle eagerly followed.
When the sisters were exiting the boutique, they noticed Opalescence sitting in a tree, looking at them with an immense condemnation in her slitted eyes.
“Are you alright, my dear Opal? Want me to take you back to the house?” Rarity called.
Opal let out a singular proud ‘mew’ and made a facade of being completely comfortable on the tree branch.
The cooking book gently landed onto the table and opened itself to a page marked with a gilded bookmark.
Opalescence, who had gone down while the two unicorns were on their gastronomical endeavor, pinned her ears and leaped out of the window, heading back to the salvatory tree, when she saw Sweetie Belle step over the kitchen doorstep once again.
“Let us staaaart!” Rarity singsonged enthusiastically, as she always did when hit by inspiration.
She levitated firewood and some kindling into the stove’s burner and ignited it with matches.
“I tried that in the morning,” Sweetie remarked in a sad tone, “it kept going out, so I tried to blow it up and… well, you know the rest.”
“Patience, my dear, is oftentimes the key to the quality.” answered Rarity in a didactic manner.
Her horn was glowing nonstop. Around the kitchen, as if having the will of their own, various cooking utensils and ingredients leaped into the air from their storage locations, ready to implement the beautiful white unicorn’s intent.
A cup, half filled with already thawed butter, flew to a large bowl and emptied itself into it, followed by a cup of sugar.
“Sweetie, can you please beat it together?”
Sweetie Belle, eager to help, caught the whisk soaring in the air near the bowl and begin to work it vigorously, making the mix lighter and fluffier by the moment.
“Now, the eggs,” Rarity threw a glance at the cookbook, “we need three of them. Can you do that, my dear?”
The filly focused on the large basket lined with hay, and three large brownish eggs tentatively came out of it. Their flight towards the table was unsteady and slow.
Sweetie grated her teeth, struggling to keep concentration, but nevertheless managed to lead the three eggs up to the bowl unharmed.
A gentle smile touched Rarity’s lips, while she was looking intently at the filly’s efforts.
“One by one, Sweetie, one by one.” She reminded.
Sweetie Belle smashed the first egg against the rim of the bowl, violently fracturing the egg’s shell, causing its gooey contents to flop into the would be batter.
“Careful,” warned Rarity, taking the splinters of the shell out of the mix, “remember what I have told you about precision versus power.”
Sweetie smiled sheepishly and dealt with the other two eggs with much more care. She send the cracked shells flying into the trash and returned to the whisking the butter-sugar-egg mix.
Rarity, meanwhile, was carefully grating a large lemon against a grater, enough to peel it’s zest off but not to damage the pulp.
Having collected approximately two table spoons worth of zest, Rarity levitated the skinned lemon above a cup. She squinted her eyes at it and a moment later the lemon savagely imploded, pouring its juice into the prepared vessel.
“Why didn’t you use the squeezer?” asked Sweetie.
“It’s funnier that way, dear,” giggled Rarity, while lining a loaf pan with oily cooking paper. “Here, add the lemon.”
Sweetie picked up the lemon zest and dropped it into.
“How much juice?” she asked.
“A tablespoon should be enough, darling.”
Sweetie’s aura dropped the whisk and picked up a tablespoon. She stuck it into the juice, filled it, and levitated it back to the bowl, dispensing the juice over the mix.
“What about the rest, Rarity?”
“We will need it to make the glaze later, my dear.”
Sweetie nodded and returned to whisking the mixture.
A pack of vanilla sugar flew up to Sweetie, guided by Rarity’s aura. A teaspoon dived into it, scooped the fragrant white powder and unloaded it into the bowl two times in a row.
“Almost forgot the vanilla.” remarked the older sister.
Sweetie, meanwhile, looked into the cookbook.
“I think now we need to add flour and everything else.”
“I agree.” Rarity nodded, “If you please, darling?”
Sweetie picked up a cup, made it dive into the pack of flour, filling it to the brim and was about to tip it over into the mix, when Rarity quickly levitated another, empty bowl up to her.
“No, no, my dear. It is better to mix dry ingredients separately.”
Sweetie relocated the cup of flour and dumped it into the offered bowl, before Rarity could stop her. Cloud of flour dust instantly arouse above it. Sweetie Belle yelped and instantly coughed, inhaling the flour. Thankfully, she recoiled from the bowl, so her cough didn’t send the rest of the flour flying up.
“Be careful, please.” Rarity reproached her. “Here, add half a cup more, slowly this time.”
Sweetie complied, pouring the flour much slowly this time. Rarity nodded her approval and added the next batch of ingredients — a quarter of a teaspoon of both soda and baking powder, as well as salt — herself. Sweetie mixed everything carefully with a tablespoon.
“Now, can you add this into the mix, please?” Rarity asked her.
“I’ll try.”
Under Rarity's scrutinizing gaze, Sweetie took the second bowl with her magic and tried to cautiously unload it into her mix, while simultaneously operating the whisk and a tablespoon.
She winced and the bowl took a dangerous dive towards the floor. Rarity intercepted it. Sweetie Belle sighed, looking apologetically at the older unicorn.
“It’s alright, dear,” Rarity smiled reassuringly. “Eventually you will learn multitasking with your mind and will be able to master anything a unicorn can do, be it cooking, construction, decoration, combat or dress making. For the time being, however, it seems we better focus on one thing at a time.”
Having said that, she began to carefully add the dry mix to Sweetie’s bowl. At the same time, a jug of sour cream flew up to them from somewhere and poured some of its load into the batter mix.
“I think one third of a cup would be enough...” Rarity mused.
Sweetie Belle didn’t stop the vigorous whisking for a second and soon the batter was ready.
She carefully filled the loaf pan, prepared beforehoof, with a thick yellowish mixture and shook it down a bit.
Rarity opened the oven, levitated the pan inside and closed the shutter.
“Alright, it ought to be ready in a hour.”
Sweetie Belle nodded and turned over the hourglass, standing on the shelves.
“Should I go fetch Opal from the tree meanwhile?” she asked Rarity.
“I don’t think that would be possible. Poor Opalescence wouldn’t go down until we leave the kitchen alone. Better help me clean some leftovers of your reckless morning actions.”
Sweetie’s expression soured, but she didn’t object.
The next hour went with them tidying the kitchen and cleaning some soot left in the hard to reach places, using more conventional methods like rags and duster this time.
At last, the sand in the hourglass showed that the loaf in the oven should be ready.
Rarity took the pan out and inserted a toothpick into the loaf’s light brown surface. The toothpick came out clean.
“Splendid!” Rarity set the pan aside to let the loaf cool a bit before taking it out. “Now, we should prepare the glaze.”
She took a can of powdered sugar from the shelves and filled half a cup with it, then took the cup with the leftover juice and carefully poured it into the sugar, thoroughly mixing it with a spoon.
“Sweetie, please, take out our final product from the pan.”
Sweetie Belle briefly ran a knife blade along the sides of the pan and gently pulled the baking paper, together with the loaf, out.
She set it onto the large plate.
Rarity approached the table and sniffed the result of her and Sweetie’s creativity, making sure it had cooled enough.
“Should be good.” She remarked and pored the glaze over the loaf, making sure to spread it evenly.
Both unicorns stepped away a bit and admired the newly made confection.
“Charming!” Rarity finally laid out her verdict, “No worse than what mother usually bakes.”
“Agreed.” Sweetie Belle smiled at Rarity. “Well, since we can leave the kitchen alone now, maybe I’ll go bring Opal back?”
“We still have cookware to wash, darling. After that, I’ll tend to Opal myself.”
Sweetie Belle sighed, disappointed her plan to escape the maintenance duties was foiled again.
“Wow, it looks totally awesome!” Exclaimed Scootaloo, her ears perked.
The three Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting at the table in their tree clubhouse. Before them was a plate loaded with a light golden slices of lemon loaf, dipped with a tender white glaze, that looked like a fresh clean snow.
“Well, that looks mighty fine, I’m not gonna argue,” commented Apple Bloom, “but I bet half a bit Rarity was helping ya with it a good deal.”
Sweetie Belle snorted with a facade of deeply offended dignity and stuck her muzzle up in the air.
“Of course not! I let you know that I made this all by myself!”
“Eh?! Why then Mrs. Cake was saying at the market that she saw a trail of smoke going from yer home?”
“If Rarity would had helped me, there wouldn’t have been any smoke at all, dummy!” Quickly retorted the unicorn filly.
“Oh yeah?! But— but… oh, yeah… ”Apple Bloom blinked, confused and pinned her ears, calculating a retort of her own.
“Aw, c’mon!” whined Scootaloo, “Let’s eat! I don’t care how Sweetie made this, all I care about whether it’s tasty or not!”
She immediately demonstrated her point by chomping a slice from the plate and chewing it.
Sweetie followed her example.
Apple Bloom huffed and took her own slice. The more she has been tasting it, the merrier her expression was getting.
“Oh, shucks! Yummy!” she said. “Good job, Sweetie, no matter how.”
Sweetie Belle smiled triumphantly and took another slice.