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// Chapter 7: Pies in Las Pegasus 
// Story: Search For The Lost Race 
// by ClockWorkCleo 
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As the ships pulled off Pinkie went about talking to every single guard and staff member on the ship, obviously needing their birthdays or anything they liked to put into her messy filing cabinets. Eventually Golden Victory convinced Pinkie that the guards had some work to do before going to bed for the night, they didn’t, he was just trying to give them a break. But he has also noticed young Amethyst following the princess around like a lost puppy. 


“Princess before I send the guards off to their duties might I suggest something?” He asked quietly not wanting to make Amethyst feel bad. Pinkie was about to shout but he quickly interrupted her. “Please do not shout, this is meant to be a surprise” Pinkies eyes quickly widened, and she nodded. “I think you might take young Amethyst there and spend some time with him just the two of you, he seems a little overwhelmed, maybe go bake? He seemed to be interested in the baked goods you were throwing off the ship at the crowds” He tried not to roll his eyes, that was a waste of perfectly good food. 


“That sounds like a great idea!” Pinkie said very loudly, slightly startling Amethyst. Pinkie pat Golden on the head “Thanks Goldie!” before turning to Amethyst “Common Amethyst let’s go!” she said scooping her brother along in her wing as he scooted along the floor looking confused.


“Where are we going?” He asked, looking back at Golden who just waved at him with a small smile before turning to his guard to give them their orders. 


“To the kitchen silly! We’re gonna get our bake on!” Pinkie yelled still dragging Amethyst along. When they got to the kitchen Pinkie levitated a whole bunch of ingredients out of the cabinets and onto the counter. Pinkie had got the hang of quite a lot of basic magic in a short period of time, she had learned a lot of ways to use her pegasi magic without wings, so she didn’t overload and get sick, such as her pinkie sense which manifested as a direct result of pegasi’s usual magic that helps them sense and control wind currents around them. Learning practical magic wasn’t too different than that and it helped her with pranks! Although the more complicated a spell got the harder it was for her. She didn’t understand the rhymes and the carefully crafted poems required. Her mind to chaotic to makes sense of it.


Amethyst watched his older sister levitate the baking ingredients and stepped up next to her quietly, stepping up on a stool Pinkie had gotten for him. He had never had sweets like this till he met Pinkie. Pa had always forbidden any of those things on the farm, even on birthdays he always had a ‘rock cake’, Maud always tried to find the prettiest looking rock and Marble would try to decorate it sometimes, but Pa would get mad at her when she did. Marble got a lot of Pa’s anger, since her and Pinkie were twins, so him and Marble had been the closest.


“So, what are we making? I’ve never done this before” the purple colt asked looking at his sister with a little more spark in his eye than Pinkie had seen the whole time she had known him, which was only 8 days. 


“Well, your colors kinda remind me of wild berry pie, and you seemed to like the pie from earlier, and it’s our name! So were making wild berry pie! It’s a mix of a bunch of different berries and it makes the most yummy in your tummy pie ever!” Pinkie laid out the various berries which included blackberries, raspberries, black mulberries, huckleberries, and strawberries. “But before we mess with the berries though we gotta make the pie crust!” 


Pinkie took out a bowl and poured flour, sugar, and salt together and floated it over to Amethyst. “Mix those until their all mishmashed together.” While Amethyst mixed the flour mixture Pinkie started cubing butter to mix into the bowl. Pinkie dumped about half of the butter in and showed Amethyst how to mash it together without heating up the cold butter too much. After all the butter was added Pinkie added in cold water, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough held together. Then it got dumped out onto the counter and the two kneaded the dough Pinkie humming a tune loudly that Amethyst vaguely recognized. Granny used to hum something kind of like that, Pa had made them stop seeing Granny though, now that he thought about it, she had probably found out what had happened to Pinkie, Marble told him Granny and Pinkie had been close.


The crust went in the fridge while the berries went in a bowl with sugar, and cornstarch.


“Why aren’t we mashing the berries all the way?” Amethyst asked confused as Pinkie squeezed some lemon juice into the berry mixture.


“If the berries were all mushed up then it would make the entire pie mushy and wet and that would be super duper yucky.” Pinkie said sticking her tongue out, Amethyst quickly nodded his head in agreement that would be nasty. Amethyst got the dough out of the fridge and Pinkie showed him how to roll it out and then form it into the pan. The berries got poured in and more dough was laid on top and an x was cut through it. Pinkie saw Amethyst open his mouth to ask a question.


“You have to cut into the top part so that way air doesn’t get trapped underneath and make the entire pie go BOOM!” Pinkie explained throwing her dark brown legs and hot pink hooves into the air and waving them around. Amethyst giggled at this and watched as Pinkie floated the pie into the oven. The siblings cleaned the kitchen up and then took the pie out of the oven and into the fridge. Pinkie was too impatient in the moment to let the pie cool out in the air as it usually would. Once it was cooled enough, she cut up some pieces for them and the two sat for long into the night eating pie and Pinkie telling stories of the many parties she’s thrown, and villains defeated. Amethyst ate most of the pie himself surprisingly. He didn’t think he had this much of a good time, ever really.


The next morning, they hit Las Pegasus and Pinkie rushed out excitedly looking around at all the rollercoasters and rides she would be going on, she didn’t think she was going to find an alicorn here necessarily, but she wanted to show her brother how to have a good time. She could see he had been repressed by Igneous in the same way she had before she had left entirely. Going to a fun filled place like Las Pegasus full of games and rides might open up her brother a little and get him to realize he doesn’t need to be so quiet all the time. Maud had told her he was a very excitable toddler just like she had been but that it had stopped quickly as he got yelled at all the time. She felt guilty she hadn’t been there to protect him, and Marble. They had drifted since Pinkie had left.


Pinkie dragged Amethyst out to a tamer looking rollercoaster, she didn’t want to scare him out of getting on the bigger ones by going to them right away. Golden Victory was with them looking rather annoyed. They were supposed to be on a mission, not that he knew the full details of what that mission even was, he was, however, sure it was not to have a rollercoaster day. 


“Stop being such a grumpy face Goldie, we could end up finding what we’re looking for just about anywhere, and that includes a tourist attraction that will cheer my brother up.” Pinkie said rubbing a hoof into Golden’s hair, he wasn’t in his full guard uniform so his hair much to pinkies delight was easy to tossel. Golden just snorted at this looking very, very annoyed.


Amethyst was watching the coaster go by with screaming ponies on it and felt excitement and then anxiety bubble up in his chest quickly after. He looked over at his sister who just gave him a giant grin before dragging him towards a line and sitting down.


“Princess Pinkie! Please take my spot no need for you to wait in line!” A stallion in front of the trio said trying to usher them ahead.


“Oh no, everypony needs to wait in line, just because I have wings and a horn doesn’t mean I should get to cut. I’ll wait just like I did before. I probably would have taken you up on it before.” Pinkie said with a giggle. The stallion blushed slightly before giving her a nod and turning back to his group. After a while of waiting, they finally got up to the front. Amethyst anxiously looked at the seats, he was about to tell Pinkie he wasn’t so sure about this and that maybe she should just get on without him but as if reading his mind Pinkie grabbed him, pushing him into a seat on the cart and plopping in next to him before strapping them both in. As they slowly left the loading station Amethyst took deep breaths trying to keep himself calm, feeling very overwhelmed as they climbed to the top. That was until they started falling and he heard his sister’s screech of delight and the following laughter, as well as the happy screams of those around them. He grinned wide and stuck his hooves in the air as it rushed around him pulling his face back.


“Wooooooo!” Amethyst and Pinkie yelled together as they went through the rest of the coaster. And as they got off Amethyst was bouncing from hoof to hoof.


“OK what next? Let’s go get on another one!” he said excitedly. It seemed like his hair had gotten slightly more poofy than it had been before to Golden, but no one else seemed to notice it. 


“This is going to be a very long trip” the scarred stallion sighed with a smile as he followed the two siblings as they rushed off to get onto another ride. He did, however, notice a pony in the shadows watching. He stepped towards the cloaked figure. It looked like the pony was wearing a hat with a large brim as well as a poncho, there was some weird floppy thing on their back that Golden couldn’t quite make out.


“Hey!” he called as he continued forward, another pony walked directly in front of him blocking his path to the mysterious stranger. By the time he was able to see into the alley again the pony was gone. Golden was on guard after this, but the rest of the day went off without a hitch. He didn’t think Pinkie was trying very hard to find whatever they were looking for or even casting the spell, but it was unlikely any would be here anyway. Pinkie, however, had been casting the spell. She had gotten a hit on the stranger in the alley. However, it seemed for now that they did not want to be found and Pinkie was not going to force it. Not yet at least, she had a feeling she would meet them again.


Amethyst and Pinkie eventually collapsed on the deck of the ship after a long day of having fun. Golden had also noticed some weird lights and sounds, apart from the normal weird lights and sounds, coming from Applewood below. He wondered what Ivory Fire and Princess Rarity were getting up to down there but unless they asked him directly for help that wasn’t much of his business. They pulled out from Las Pegasus to start heading to Cloudsdale, Pinkie insisted on throwing Princess Rainbow Dash a birthday party even when they were all on tour. They were going to end up there a day or two before to start setting up. As Golden trotted off to bed what he didn’t notice was a pony in a hat and a poncho following them on some sort of flying machine through the dark.


Pinkie flipped on her mirror and waited for the others to as well, they had agreed to do nightly check ins. Everyone But Rarity so far has flipped on their mirrors.


“I don’t think Rarity is going to be on for a while, from up here it looks like Applewood is having the biggest party that I have ever seen.” Pinkie said with a giggle pointing her mirror down towards the glowing city below. Before anyone could react to this fact Rarity’s mirror flipped onto everyone’s screen.


“Girls, you are never going to believe who I found.” Rarity slurred out. No one was quite sure if she was drunk or just exhausted, but she shoved Sapphire Shores into frame next to her and the both of them fell backwards into a fit of giggles. The rest of the mane six just looked on confused waiting for the retelling of whatever story this was.