After breakfast, Spike and Twilight collect the dishes as the other ponies have conversations with themselves. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were apparently planning on going to Fluttershy's cottage so the mare could perform an examination on Rainbow's pet tortoise Tank. Rarity was talking with Amber about having her possibly come by some day and allow her to make some articles of clothing with the thestral ponies in mind; there were apparently some small populations of the ponies in other cities that Rarity wanted to draw in business from. Applejack was talking to Starlight about doing some activities later, which the lilac unicorn seemed more than happy to agree to.
As for myself, I simply sat there and tried to think of how I was going to resist all of the positivity and love that was I was practically going to be swimming in while I was with Pinkie and Amber. My time in the Crystal Empire had done a great deal to help me gain better control of my instincts, but I would still have an occasional lapse and scare some poor pony when I hadn't meant to. While those incidents were becoming more and more infrequent, the common denominator in all of them was a massive outpouring of love, which is why I often excused myself from large gatherings such as the last Crystal Faire.
I was disappointed that I couldn't enjoy the festivities that the other ponies did, but I didn't want my failure to control myself to ruin what should be a rather joyous time.
"What's the matter, Thorax?"
I jump a little at the voice of concern, lost in my thoughts and not paying attention to my senses. Amber was sitting beside me, a look of concern on her face.
"Sorry" I say in response. "I was just... thinking."
Amber cocks an eyebrow. "What about?"
"Well..."
I have a difficult time trying to explain what I'm feeling to Amber. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Vigilant was more than happy to explain.
"Thorax is afraid he'll revert to a changeling's tendency to hiss when exposed to too much love."
I turn around and give him a glare. "I could've told them myself" I say in my head as the stallion smirks and rolls his eyes simultaneously.
Amber looks at me in surprise. "Really? I thought the princess said you don't do that anymore?"
"Not as often as I used to" I explain to Amber. "When I first arrived in the Crystal Empire, I had went for so long without love that I was practically starving. Any time I was even close to a tiny bit of positivity, I was hissing like a snake about to strike. It's what usually happens before a changeling feeds."
"Since then, however, I've learned to control myself more. Of course, it really helped when some of the ponies started sharing their love with me, and I started to feel more accepted, but I still have an episode of hissing when I am exposed to a lot of love in one place."
"Like this breakfast?" Amber asks as she gestures to the table full of ponies.
"Well, yes and no" I answer. "A group like this could cause me to have a response, but with the love-infused food that Princess Twilight and Spike have given me, I don't feel the urge as strongly. I can control myself better."
Amber processes what I've told her, and appears to be thinking of something.
"You guys draw on love from ponies, right?" she asks me.
"Well, yeah" I answer. "Pretty much any creature that can feel love."
"But you don't like doing that because you think of it as stealing?"
"Yeah" I admit to her. "I've seen what it's like to have it taken from some creature by force, and I've personally felt it too. It's not pleasant, and I swore to myself I would never take any love that wasn't meant for me."
"So what's the problem?"
I look at Amber after she asks that question.
"I mean, you, Pinkie and I are gonna be spending a day together doing something so you can grow closer as friends. Any love you would take from either of us would be meant for you. Is it really stealing if the love is meant for you?"
I intended to rebut her statement, but I was stopped in my tracks.
"She had a point" I thought to myself. "Pinkie liked me as a friend, and so did Amber. Even though they haven't known me for a super long period of time, they do both care about me, and they wouldn't want to see me go without. That would mean that if I needed love, they would share it with me, and if they were sharing it with me intentionally, then it was being given to me and I wasn't stealing it from them."
"I guess" I finally answer.
Amber gave me a hoof slap on the back. "You're overthinking it, Thorax" she tells me. "Me and Pinkie like you and wanna spend a day with you, so if you get a bit peckish and feel a tad hissy, let us top off your glass."
The mare went back to her salad, while I sat in awe of the pony beside me. If I had these kinds of friends in the first week after I left the hive, I would've never made it to the Crystal Empire and ran into Spike. Who knows what my life would be like now.
All I know is that I have these ponies now, and they care about me, and knowing that made me smiling the biggest since I'd first been accepted by Princess Cadance and Captain Shining Armor.
For the first time in a while, I felt truly content.
After Twilight and Spike returned, we said our goodbyes and went about our days. Applejack returned to work on her farm, Rainbow Dash went to set up the weather schedule for the following week, Fluttershy had her animals to tend to, Rarity had dresses and other clothing to make, and both Twilight and Starlight had some studying they each wanted to get done.
Twilight wanted to improve her alchemy in an effort to perfect the love potion she had made for me, and Starlight wanting to read up on thestrals, as meeting Amber and hearing about the population living in Ponyville had piqued her interest in the somewhat reclusive tribe of ponies.
Amber, Pinkie and I all made our way out of the castle and headed into town, Vigilant following not far behind. The stallion was wearing a lighter set of armor that the guards normally wore in more arid conditions; he was originally a member of the EUP guards, but moved to the Crystal Empire to serve under Captain Shining Armor. One of his previous assignments had been to Appleloosa, which wasn't far from Dodge Junction and the hive.
As we walked, I continued to contemplate what Amber proposed to me at breakfast a little bit ago. A part of me could agree with her point, but another part couldn't. Perhaps it was just plain and simple guilt that had built up in me since my days in the hive just after the wedding when I began to realize what it was I wanted and what I felt, but I couldn't be completely sure.
"You okay Thorax?"
The question shakes me out of my thoughts as I look at Amber and Pinkie.
"Huh?" I ask, only aware they said something to me and not what was actually said.
Pinkie smiles at me. "Were you waxing your filly sock sickle?"
...what?
"What?" I say in confusion.
"I think what Pinkie meant to say was you were waxing philosophical," Amber chimes in, "which I can safely assume you aren't. More than likely, you're still thinking about the conversation we had this morning, am I right?"
The thestral was perceptive.
"Yeah" I admit to her. "It's just... I still feel like feeding on anypony is wrong."
Amber places a hoof on my withers and looks me straight in the eye, and proceeds to go over it to me again.
"Like I said before Thorax, you don't need to feel guilty. You're not stealing love from us. We care about you, and want to support you. We want to share love with you. You can't steal something that's being shared with you. Okay?"
Amber never breaks eye contact the whole time she speaks to me. I feel like she's looking into my very soul, and it makes me unsure of how I should feel. Ultimately, I nod my agreement.
"Good" she says with a smile. "Now, let's get to that bakery and make those cupcakes!"
Her infectiously positive attitude takes me over. "Okay!" I say with much more enthusiasm as we both begin trotting off towards town.
"HEY!" Pinkie calls out to the two of us. "Wait for me and Viggie!"
The four of us finally found our way to our destination, which had me standing with mouth and eyes both wide open. The building looked like a giant gingerbread house like I had seen decorating some of the tables in the Crystal Palace during Hearth's Warming. Every decoration I could think of was there: sprinkles, frosting, gum drops, lollipops, candy canes and little bits of chocolate. I was tempted to take a bit, but Pinkie Pie stopped me before I could even get a lick in.
"It's not real, silly!" she told me as she stepped in front and faced Amber, Vigilant and myself. "Everything you see is plaster, wood and paint. It's not edible, but it's supposed to look like it is. Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner!"
I oohed at the building before me, as did Vigilant, though his reaction was a bit more subdued than mine. Amber rolled her eyes with a smirk and trotted right along behind Pinkie, who practically zipped into the door and straight through it.
Everypony headed inside and we were greeted with a large room that had plenty of chairs and tables for customers to sit, as well as a glass display case full of all kinds of delicious goodies.
"Follow me, everypony!" Pinkie said as she trotted back into a room behind the display case. We all followed and ended up in a kitchen area, with several ovens against one wall, a pantry on the opposite side, and a large refrigerator between the two. Across from the fridge was a large counter with a large sink and drying rack beside it. Completing the kitchen was a large island in the center, with some pots and bowls beneath it and some pans hanging above it.
"This is where the magic happens," she told us, "and is going to happen now. Everypony go wash up and put on an apron, because we're about to whip up some really delicious cupcakes!"
Amber's eyes went wide and her fanged grin went ear to ear as she clopped her hooves. In all honesty, I'm surprised her wings didn't shoot straight up like sometimes happened with pegasi.
"Maybe it only happens to pegasi?" I thought to myself as I washed my hooves in the sink and procured an apron from a nearby hook on a wall. Once properly attired, according to Pinkie, we all looked to the mare, who had brought out what looked to be our ingredients.
There was a large sack of flour, along with a sack of sugar, a box of baking powder, a dozen eggs, a tall glass bottle with milk inside, a dish with some butter, and a small glass dish with what looked like chocolate chips inside it.
"This is what we're gonna use to make the cupcakes" Pinkie told us, then looked at me while pointing a hoof at the shelf below the island. "Thorax, would you get us the big pink bowl from under this counter?"
"Sure" I respond as I focus my magic and pull out a bowl that's actually white but has some pink stripes running around it.
"Thank you Thank you!" she says as she takes the bowl and places it on the counter. "Now, we'll need measuring cups and spoons."
Pinkie looks to our thestral friend and points to a cupboard behind her. "Amber, can you get the measuring cups out of that cabinet there?"'
"Certainly" Amber replies with a smile, then turns around and opens the cupboard, pulling out three cups with markings on the side. According to the writing, the cups can hold 1 cup, 3 cups, and 5 cups respectively.
"Perfect" Pinkie says before looking at Vigilant. "Can you get the spoons from that drawer there?" she asks him while pointing to a set of drawers below the drying rack.
Vigilant nods and turns, but Pinkie then adds , "Oh! And grab the two spatulas in there too please?"
The stallion gives a nod and opens the drawer. He produces a set of spoons in varying sizes that are all held together by a piece of string. After those, he pulls out a pair of spatulas; one with a long handle and the other having a shorter handle.
"Alrighty!" Pinkie says with excitement. "Now I just need to go get us our whisk and beaters and we can get going!"
Pinkie zips over to another cabinet and produces a whisk and a contraption I remember seeing before. It had two mixers on one end, and a handle with a crank on the other. By working the crank, you got the mixers to spin, and you could combine ingredients with it.
I looked at the mixer with confusion as my eyes spotted another mixer on a counter on the other side of the room. That one was a new electric mixer that didn't require cranking.
"Why can't we use that mixer?" I ask while pointing with my hoof.
Pinkie looks at the mixer and then blushes, her pink cheeks darkening to a nearly red. "W-Well," she stutters out, "Mr. and Mrs. Cake let me use it a few times, but I ended up making a really big mess, so they told me that I could only do the hoof mixing from now on."
I blink as I look back at the mixer on the counter. At first glance, it didn't look very complicated. Put the ingredients into the bowl and use the switch on the side. Depending on where you set the switch, the mixer either spun slow or fast. How could somepony mess up something like that?
Then I turned back around and saw the amount of ingredients that Pinkie was dumping into the mixing bowl.
"Okay, I can see how she would probably make a mess" I thought to myself as I waited for the mare to measure out and add the ingredients. After a few moments, she had added everything, and to what was apparently the correct proportions.
"Now," Pinkie says as she wipes her hooves off on a nearby towel, "it's time to mix it all up. Would you like to do the honors, Amber?"
Amber made a "SQUEE!" noise and stepped up to the mixer that Pinkie had stuck into the bowl. Taking the handle and crank, the thestral mare began whipping up the ingredients into a large brown paste.
"Really good!" Pinkie said as she admired Amber's work.
The bat pony smiled as she continued mixing the ingredients together. "I've always wanted to make these!" she says as she picks up the pace a bit.
"How come you never did?" I ask her.
Amber slows down a bit and looks a little sad. "I don't know. I guess it never occurred to me to try and make the time before. That and I never looked up a recipe before."
Pinkie pats Amber on the back. "Don't be sad" she tells the bat pony. "I'll make sure you have a really good recipe. Then you can make cupcakes whenever you want."
Amber smiles as she looks at Pinkie. "Thanks" she says to her. "I'm glad I decided to spend the day here making cupcakes and stuff with you, and you too Thorax and Vigilant."
I smile at the acknowledgment, and can feel the appreciation from Vigilant too.
Pinkie decides the ingredients are mixed enough and takes the beaters from Amber.
"Now Viggie," Pinkie says to the guard, "would you please get the cupcake pans from that cabinet there?"
She points to a cupboard to Vigilant's right. The stallion nods, but I sense a little frustration from him; I guess he's not a fan of Pinkie's nickname for him.
Returning with the cupcake pans, Pinkie reaches into another cupboard and pulls out some paper cups and starts placing them in the pans.
"Now Thorax," she turns to address me, "I need you to hold the bowl so I can get this batter into the cupcake pans. There's a good bit here so I need you to hold it steady for a good minute or so. Can you do that?"
I give Pinkie a nod and levitate the bowl with my magic. I strain a little on account of it being more weight than what I regularly lift with my magic, but I give her a nod that I'm okay as I move it over one of the pans.
Pinkie makes sure I'm lined up and gives me the okay. I then pour some of the batter into the paper cup in the first tray. Pinkie eyeballs it and holds up a hoof, telling me to stop pouring. I move onto the next empty cup and pour more of the batter out, getting another signal to stop. This pattern continues until all of the cupcake sheets are full.
"Good job, Thorax!" Pinkie tells me with a hug and quick kiss on the cheek. I stand there for a few seconds, shocked by the affectionate gesture and the love coming from it being directed straight at me.
Even after all these months in the Crystal Empire, I'm still rather surprised as the sensation of freely given love. It does seem to help that this love tastes almost like cotton candy.
"Now that Thorax has had a little snack," Pinkie says with a grin, "we'll get these cupcakes in the oven and set up for decorating!"
Pinkie walks over to the ovens on the wall and fiddles with some switches and knobs. Soon enough, I hear a fire ignite inside each one and see a thermometer on the front of each one start to climb up. The pink mare then turned and grabbed a pan of cupcakes in her mouth and returned to the first oven, which was now at the correct temperature for baking. We then each grabbed a pan and placed them in the other ovens. Once all the pans were in place, Pinkie set a timer to tell us when the cupcakes were done baking.
"Now comes another really fun part" Pinkie says as she retrieves another bowl and a fresh batch of ingredients. "Making the frosting!"
Amber again got excited, giggling and clopping her hooves together. I looked at Vigilant in time to see him roll his eyes; I got the impression either the cupcakes or mares were not particularly amusing to him.
Pinkie proceeded to dump a bottle of milk into a bowl, but this time, she put the whisk in and began stirring it very quickly. After a few minutes of this fast stirring, I noticed that the milk was starting to look... firmer?
"And now to add the sugar so it gets nice and sweet" Pinkie says as she adds a cup of powdery sugar. She whisks the milk and sugar mixture until it gets so firm that when the whisk is pulled out, parts of the mix stick to the whisk and break off, forming little peaks in the concoction.
"Looks good" Pinkie says after examining the results of her whisking. "Now I'll get some food color to make this frosting nice and pink like me!"
The pony proceeds to disappear in a flash, returning a moment later with a small bottle of a red liquid. I almost question Pinkie, as the dark red liquid almost looks like blood, but then she puts a few drops into the mix and begins whipping it again. As the liquid is incorporated, the color changes from white to pink.
"Okay Dokey" Pinkie says as she pulls the whisk from the frosting and sets it in the sink. "The frosting's done and the cupcakes are getting close to ready, so I'm gonna go get the bag we use to put the frosting on. You guys hang out here and I'll be back in a jiffy!"
With that, the pink mare zipped off to somewhere in the shop to retrieve the item she said she was looking for. Amber sat on her flanks as we waited, a slight frown on her face.
"I thought making cupcakes would be a lot more hooves on," she said, "but Pinkie's done most of the work so far. I mean, I'm excited I get to learn how to do this, but I thought I was gonna be doing more than watching and grabbing this and that."
I put a hoof on her withers, which makes her look at me. I then try to give her some encouragement.
"If it's anything like the cake decorating I've seen done in the Crystal Palace kitchens, then she's saving the most fun part for the rest of us."
Amber looks at me for a moment and smiles. "You know, you're probably right" she concedes as she then gives me a hug.
"Aww!"
We separate and look to see Pinkie has returned, and in her hooves is a bag-like object with a star shaped nozzle on the end.
"This bad boy is what we decorate all the cupcakes with" Pinkie explains as she heads over to the bowl of frosting. "Just scoop up a bunch and load it in the back, then give it a nice, gentle squeeze to get the frosting to come out."
She demonstrates by taking a large glob of frosting on a spatula and scraping it off into the bag. She grabs a second on and does the same, then places the spatula to the side and ushers Vigilant over.
"Hold out your hoof" she tells the stallion, who complies with a confused look.
The pink mare holds the bag over his hoof and squeezes out a large glob of the frosting she's made.
"You're the taster!" she declares, then asks, "How did I do?"
Vigilant looks at the frosting in his hoof and gives it a tentative lick. After the first one, though, the frosting disappears in the blink of an eye and some pink spots decorate the stallion's muzzle.
Pinkie giggles at the guard's reaction. "I think that's an A+ if I ever saw one," she remarks, "and I got plenty of those in my school lessons too!"
I look at the mare in amazement; I had a hard time seeing the pink mare sitting still in a school house as the teacher goes over boring subjects like math and history. Despite his best efforts, there were times Sunburst could put a rabid maulwurf to sleep, and I know that from experience.
A dinging noise catches our attention, but it's not the ovens. We hear a door open and turn to see a new mare enter the kitchen. She was a pale blue color with a mane that looked sort of like the frosting Pinkie had just made, even being the same color.
The first thing I noticed about her was her... size. She was the first pony I've ever really seen that was what one would call fat. Of course, I did not voice this fact, as Sunburst had taught me enough about what things one should and shouldn't say in polite company.
Coming in behind her was a stallion. He had long legs for a pony and was a lemon yellow color. Both his mane and tail were orange. On his head was a red and white brimless hat.
And atop his back sat two foals, a pegasus colt and a unicorn filly.
Well, that certainly explains the rotund mare that preceded him, if those foals belonged to the two ponies.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie explains as she zips over to the two. "There are my new friends! They've come here to make cupcakes with me."
The mare and stallion give her a smile. "Hello dear, and hello..."
Their greeting trails off and smiles falter a bit as their eyes meet mine. I give a sheepish smile and a small wave.
"You remember Twilight asking you about the nice changeling, right?" Pinkie asks the two ponies, who look at her and nod slowly.
"Well, here he is!"
They look back at and me, and again, I smile and wave.
Pinkie then smacks her face with her hoof. "Silly me!" she says in realization before pointing back to me. "You guys weren't here for the meeting yesterday."
"Twilight introduced Thorax to Ponyville and even had him answer a few questions to put the town at ease. He's even got a guard with him to make everypony feel safer yet."
At the mention of himself, Vigilant stepped forward.
"Vigilant Strider, sir and ma'am" he introduced himself while giving a salute. "I was sent with Thorax to make sure his stay in Ponyville went as smoothly as possible."
Mr. and Mrs. Cake regard Vigilant and I for a few more moments before the two give each other a look. Before they can respond, Pinkie suddenly blurts out "BE RIGHT BACK!!!" and disappears from the bakery in a blur. Everypony is silent for a few moments before there's a sudden pink flash out front and the door to the bakery chimes to alert all creatures inside of somepony entering.
The new pony is non other than Twilight, who looks at Pinkie with a bit of annoyance.
"You know, you could've just told them to come see me, Pinkie" the alicorn tells her energetic friend. "I'm quite sure they would've found the time to do so."
"But then they'd all be suspicious of Thorax and then not wanna let him in the bakery" Pinkie protested.
Twilight shakes her head at her friend before looking at Mr. and Mrs. Cake.
"Pinkie just told me what happened," she explains, "and I'm here to assure you that not only is Thorax here with a member of the Crystal Guard hoof selected by my brother to keep an eye on him, but he also wishes to have peaceful relations with ponies here in Equestria as well."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Cake look at each other before smiling again.
"Okay Princess Twilight," Mrs. Cake says to the alicorn, "we trust your judgment."
Mr. Cake nods his agreement.
"Good" Twilight remarks, satisfied that the incident hasn't led to me being given the angry mob treatment. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"
"Oh, no you don't!" the pink party mare suddenly says while putting a hoof to Twilight's chest. "We got cupcakes almost done and you're gonna stay and have some."
"Pinkie!" Twilight says to her in annoyance. "I was in the middle of something before you pulled me away!"
"...Please?" Pinkie asks with large puppy dog eyes.
Despite her best efforts, Twilight lets out a sigh. "I suppose pausing to have a cupcake or two wouldn't be so bad."
"Yay!" Pinkie shouts as she throws confetti she got from... somewhere.
Mr. and Mrs. Cake both chuckle, as do their infants. The parents nuzzle their children in a show of affection.
The sight immediately has an effect on me as my fear comes to life. I immediately fight to repress my urges to hiss at the display of love before me.
Before I lose control and give in to my baser instincts, a pair of leathery wings suddenly wraps around me, and I feel much warmer.
"You're loved," Amber says to me as her hooves join her wings, "and you're loved for who you are. Nothing will ever change that, Thorax."
I hear her words and both my fear and my instincts calm down. I smile as I wrap my hooves around Amber, returning the hug and love she'd given me. We stayed like that for a few moments but eventually broke away from each other.
"Better now?" Amber asks me after we separate.
"Yeah" I tell her. "Thank you."
She smiles, her fangs making her look almost predatory. "Hey, what are friends for?"
"What indeed" I thought as I returned the smile.
A giggling returned our attention to the other ponies in the room. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were standing with Princess Twilight, while Pinkie was holding their two foals.
"Come meet the family!" the pink mare said as she gestured for Thorax to come over with a free hoof.
I reluctantly did so, and soon had two sets of eyes trained on me. Both the little pegasus and unicorn were curious about the shiny black pony in the room, and their little hooves reached out to touch me.
"Aww, they like you" Pinkie remarked as she watched the two foals running their hooves over my chitin. The two foals coo a bit as their hooves glide over the places where holes pock mark my legs. The unicorn prods her hoof through one, then looks at her own legs, a bit confused by the difference between mine and hers.
The pegasus does much the same, but he then attempts to prod at my wings, clearly interested by the appendages. I give them a little buzz, and the little colt jumps back a bit, but then giggles and attempts to do the same with his own wings.
"Seems like we'll have a little flyer on our hooves before we know it" Mrs. Cake comments as she watches her son attempt to mimic my wing movements, only getting them to go so fast on account of the anatomy differences between our wings and his still to properly develop flight muscles.
"Yeah," Mr. Cake agreed, "and then we'll have to hope one of the other pegasi in the village will help us keep hold of him as his wings get stronger."
Everypony chuckles a bit, but that's quickly ended by a series of dings.
Pinkie jumps in excitement. "Cupcakes are done!" she proclaims as she zips over to the ovens and pulls out the pans and places them on the counter.
I look at them and see steam still coming off of them from the cooking. Pinkie zips over and sticks what looks like a miniature skewer into the cupcakes, pulling them up and looking at the end stuck into the cupcake. A few small crumbs cling to the wooden stick in her hoof.
"Perfect!" she beams with a smile. "Now we just gotta let them cool a bit and we can put frosting and stuff on them!"
We spend the time waiting for the cupcakes to cool by telling my story to the cakes, and having them tell their story to me.
Mr. Cake didn't have much of a story to tell. He grew up in a baking family and started the business after coming to Ponyville.
Mrs. Cake, however, had a bit more of an interesting story.
For instance, her real name was Chiffon Swirl, and she only discovered her talents for baking because of her foalhood friend Pear Butter. The mare looked a bit sad about mentioning her, so I didn't prod any further. If past history was anything to go by, her feelings were tied to not so good memories of a very particular kind.
Pinkie announced that the cupcakes were ready, and we set about decorating them. Vigilant added the frosting, but then smoothed them over so the top was flat and smooth. When asked why, he said it reminded him of the snack cakes he used to like getting from mess hall during his guard training.
Pinkie taught Amber how to swirl the frosting like the cupcakes in the display case out front. She topped hers off with cherries, a favorite food of the thestral mare.
Pinkie decorated hers in the blink of an eye, each having a perfect swirl and plenty of colorful sprinkles. Everypony's mouth watered at the delicious looking treats, including me; I did say I ate pony food from time to time because I liked how some of it tasted.
As for my cupcakes?
Well, I wasn't sure how to decorate them. When I asked Pinkie about it, she just gave me the frosting bag and told me to let inspiration guide my hoof. I looked back at the cupcakes and shrugged, using gentle pressure to force the frosting through the metal tip. I carefully moved the frosting around until I had formed a peak at the end.
"Not bad," Pinkie commented, "but maybe try to use just a bit more pressure?"
I take her advice and find that the decorating goes faster. I eventually finish putting frosting on all the cupcakes in the pan.
"So, what else do you want to add?" the pink mare asks as she studies my work.
I think on it for a moment before a thought occurs to me. "Do you guys have toffee?"
Pinkie looks at me for a moment before her eyes go huge. "That's a great idea!"
She again disappears and reappears with a candy bar made of the aforementioned toffee, along with...
BANG!
The pink mare smashes the bar on the counter with a large wooden mallet. She repeats the action until the candy bar is sitting in little pieces on the counter.
"Go ahead and scoop it up!" Pinkie tells me with an encouraging hoof. "Just sprinkle it over the cupcakes."
I follow her suggestion and gather the pieces of toffee in my magic, then depositing them onto the tops of the cupcakes as evenly as I can. Once I finish, I look up to see Pinkie whispering into Twilight's ear.
The purple alicorn huffs a bit but appears to go along with whatever Pinkie has suggested.
"Since this is everypony's first time decorating cupcakes," she begins, "Pinkie has asked me to judge who has done the best job out of all of you, so I'm going to sample one of each of yours and see who did the best."
Twilight's horn lights up as she takes one of each cupcake from our pans and places it before herself. Pinkie gives her a glass of milk that Twilight gives her thanks for. Pinkie steps back beside me and we all watch as she samples our cupcakes.
She tries Vigilant first, and comments on how she likes the "minimalist" approach he's taken to decorating. I sense amusement in the stallion as he snorts lightly.
Next is Amber, who Twilight remarks did a wonderful job swirling the frosting, and finding the cherry on top to be a nice touch. Amber beams at the praise given to her by a princess.
After Amber is Pinkie, who Twilight says "has done as good a job with decorating as she always does".
Lastly are my cupcakes, which Twilight looks over closely.
"This looks very nice, Thorax" she comments on my work. "The frosting is swirled just right and the bits of toffee you added give it a visual distinctiveness from the other three."
After a moment of looking over the cupcakes, Twilight shrugs her withers. "They're all so good in their own ways. I think you all did very well."
Twilight goes to give back our cupcakes, but Pinkie stops her. "Those are yours" she informs Twilight, pointing at the glass of milk on the counter. The alicorn shakes her head but complies, sampling each of the cupcakes once, but then making them disappear as quickly as Vigilant did the frosting.
Whatever Pinkie did with the cupcakes must've been some kind of amazing. Everypony else joined in and made short work of the cupcakes, taking one from each other's trays. I tried some as well, enjoying the one Amber had done with the cherry on top; the fruit went nicely with the frosting.
"Your cupcakes are really good, Thorax" Amber said after swallowing a mouthful. "That toffee on top is a really nice touch."
"I like your cherry topped ones too" I told her as I tried the one that Pinkie had done. It was incredibly sweet, but not sickeningly so, to my surprise. It made me wish that changelings could get their nourishment only from sugar.
Amber beamed at my praise as she tried Pinkie's cupcake as well, making quick work of the pink mare's treat. After a few short minutes, the cupcakes were gone, and everypony had their fill of sweets.
"I hope everypony enjoyed themselves" Pinkie says as she gives Amber a paper. "Here's the recipe for the cupcakes, Amber. I made sure the portions are for a smaller batch so you don't make more than you can eat."
"Thanks Pinkie" Amber says as she takes the paper from her. "I'm sure my family is gonna enjoy these once I whip up a batch."
Pinkie giggled. "I'm sure once they try those, they're gonna want you to make only those from now on."
The two mares hugged and then separated. Pinkie then turned and faced me. "Do you enjoy making cupcakes with us?"
I give a nod. "It was fun doing the decorating" I tell her.
"That's always the fun part" Pinkie replies. "Just imagine how much fun you can have with a full size cake."
I chuckle at her remark. Pinkie clearly likes her job here making all kinds of baked goods.
Amber approaches me with a tired looking smile.
"It was great to spend the day with you, Thorax," she says to me, "but I really need to go home and get some shut eye. I'm too much of a night pony to spend the whole day awake and away from my family."
I give her a smile back. "I understand. Thank you for spending all this time with me."
"Thanks for spending it with me" she says, and the two of us embrace in a hug.
After we separate, she says goodbye to the Cakes, Pinkie, Twilight and Vigilant and heads out the door. Twilight excuses herself so she can get back to whatever she had been doing before Pinkie had pulled her away. The Cakes then proceeded to apologize for their earlier behavior and told me I was welcome to come back to the shop whenever I wished to do so, a sentiment that their foals seemed to agree with.
Pinkie said her goodbyes as well, shoving into my hooves a box that had been filled with some special cupcakes that she had made for me. To my surprise, they were almost completely black, with frosting colored to perfectly match my eyes, and also infused with the love potion Twilight had concocted.
Needless to say, as soon as I walked outside with Vigilant and back towards the castle, the contents of the box disappeared, and I was licking turquoise frosting from across my muzzle and fangs.