Pinkie Pie bounced throughout the streets of Canterlot, looking at the various cafes, restaurants, and stores throughout the city. She grinned, having visited the city three times that week thanks to Twilight getting prepared for her coronation. There were ponies of all kinds, smiling and waving, trying to converse with Pinkie. And Pinkie waved back and said hi, but just about everypony knew that she rarely slowed down, especially here in Canterlot. But then, in the middle of two restaurants, was a hot pink building with a big cupcake symbol labeled Cake Up Call. Pinkie stopped in her tracks, frowning as she stared at the establishment.
“I don’t remember a…” Pinkie shook her head. “Nevermind that! They. Have. Cupcakes!”
Pinkie screeched as she barreled towards the bakery, opening the doors and seeing the rosy pink walls with cream yellow counters and tables inside. Each table had a bouquet of flowers inside a vase, and Pinkie found herself taking mental notes of the bakery’s setup. Glancing over at the glass display of cupcakes underneath the cash register, Pinkie’s jaw dropped as she stared at the colorful variety of cupcakes. There were pink cupcakes with mixed berries on top, bright blue cupcakes with blueberries, forest green cupcakes with orange slices on top, and a dozen more different flavors of cupcake. As she stared at them all, she heard a gentle cough above her.
“See anything you like, sugarplum?” the deep yet feminine voice asked her.
Pinkie looked up, and saw a tall red dragoness with pink eyes and horns that went backwards like that of a bighorn sheep. She was nearly as tall as Celestia, and wore a rainbow dress with a necklace that had several hearts on it.
“Oh this?” The dragoness placed her claws underneath the jewelry on her body. “This here represents a…few lovers of mine back home.”
“Back home?” Pinkie repeated.
“Well, sure,” the dragoness shrugged. “These damn portals keep dropping me and my cupcake shop off in the wrong dimension, one of these days I’ll get back to them. Nothing wrong with finding myself a little until then.”
“Finding yourself?” Pinkie pointed out.
“Oh my goodness, girl! You sure do have a lot of questions,” the dragoness beamed as she let go of her necklace, reaching her claw out towards Pinkie Pie. “My name is Myernaan, and what is your name?”
She doesn’t know who I am?
“Uh, my name is Pinkie Pie,” Pinkie reached out and shook Myernaan’s claw briefly. “So, which of these flavors would you recommend?”
“Do you understand the beauty of love? What it means to suffer? To hope?” Myernaan asked.
“Wait, what does that have to do with cupcake flav-”
“Follow me now, sweetheart,” Myernaan opened the back door behind the counter, beckoning the pink pony with her long tail. “I have a feeling that you’re searching for something, no, crying out for something.”
“I…am?” Pinkie frowned, following the tall dragon lady to the kitchen and stopping in her tracks. The kitchen’s steel gray surfaces were completely clean. Not a single bowl, bag of flour, or container of frosting was out. Only one glittery golden yellow and sea green cupcake was out on the nearest counter with a pink heart resting on the top. As Pinkie walked towards it and looked at it from different angles, she saw that the colors shifted to pink and purple at one angle, and then red and blue at another. It encapsulated every color known to her, and when she leaned in, she took a generous sniff. Feeling the indescribable scent rushing through her veins, Pinkie’s pupils shrank as she suddenly felt a pang of longing.
“This cupcake flavor I call Transcendent,” Myernaan placed her claw on Pinkie’s shoulder as they both stared at the cupcake. “It was after I’d won third place at a cupcake eating contest that I rested in the glow of the carnival’s events, seeing creatures of every kind being part of it, but not experiencing it.”
“I’d failed my lovers time and time again, and it was going to the Witchlight Carnival that opened my eyes to what I needed to do,” Myernaan explained. “After many years of running this bakery, I think I’ve finally created the physical encapsulation of my epiphany. And you, my pink little pony, are free to take it for yourself.”
Pinkie looked at Myernaan, her eyes still wide as her jaw was hanging open like a fish’s mouth.
“Or don’t,” Myernaan shrugged. “Believe me, I’d gone a very long time resisting it myself. But I promise you, once you’ve properly tasted what I’ve felt, you’ll never be satisfied with anything less.”
Pinkie gulped, stepping forward. Making up her mind, Pinkie lifted the cupcake into her hooves and threw it into her mouth in Pinkie fashion, chewing it a few times before swallowing it all. Suddenly, all of her judgments melted away as she looked at Myernaan. She saw her lovers, bunny-like creatures and other dragonborn with their paws and claws hiding their faces as Myernaan stormed and screamed in a fit of rage. She saw one of the bunnies, a golden one, actively crying out to her. Then, she felt it, Myernaan’s heart crying out for love. But there was Myernaan, still rejecting her lover.
Then the most vivid image of Cheese Sandwich appeared in Pinkie’s mind, followed by all of her friends, her family, in a maelstrom of sadness and warmth swirling around faster than Pinkie could handle. But there was love, screaming above everything else.
“Don’t make the same mistakes I did,” Myernaan begged as Pinkie’s vision faded to black…
“Darling! Are you alright?!”
“Er, what happened?” Pinkie felt herself waking up on the sidewalk, Rarity shaking her.
“I don’t know dear, I just found you here,” Rarity frowned. “Let’s take you to the doctor dear, you feel like you’re burning up.”
“Let me go say bye to-” Pinkie stopped mid-sentence, looking at the two restaurants side by side, with no bakery in sight.