//------------------------------// // Gluten Intolerance // Story: Pinkie Pie's Special Friends // by smirker //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie was working at Sugarcube Corner and making desserts and confectioneries for the customers, she worked at blinding speeds and got every order done quickly, "Here we go, one super sized double chocolate cake topped with shredded coconuts for you, one pie filled with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries with a graham cracker crust and topped with whipped cream for you, one mega sized neapolitan ice cream with solid chocolate, nuts, and strawberries in a glass floating in root beer for you, and one gigantic vanilla ice cream sundae topped with chocolate spread, sprinkles, extra large powder sugared and glazed doughnuts topped with chocolate and sprinkles, extra large chocolate chip cookies topped with whipped cream, and a big cherry at the very top along with an extra large soda on the side for you." Pinkie Pie said as she gave out the food to the customers. She sighed and watched the satisfied customers eat their desserts while smiling, "Excuse me?" a familiar voice asked, Pinkie Pie looked and saw a teenage earth pony filly coming in, she had a bright yellow coat, a long bright green mane and tail, yellow-green eyes, and her cutie mark was a hand of bananas, "Banana Tree? What are you doing here?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Well, I was busy planting banana trees around here and Ponyville just happened to be close by, so I thought I'd stop by and see how you were doing and hoped you could've came up with new dishes and desserts that I could eat." Banana Tree explained, "To be honest, Banana Tree, you weren't too bad for me in having to find alternatives, but it was a shame I couldn't give you most of my baked goods and stuff made from grains, but you were simple for me when I saw you can still have sugar and fruits." Pinkie Pie replied, "Well, one reason I stopped by is I was hoping you could've found a way for me to try one of your famed cupcakes." Banana Tree spoke, "Sure, let's see if I can do this." Pinkie Pie said, and she got ready. She went through her ingredients and looked at her baking powders, she found one that had no wheat starch in it, she then looked at her flours very carefully and picked a specific one, she then got xanthan gum. She used the replacement ingredients with the other regular ones and made one cupcake and gave it to Banana Tree, she bit it once and chewed it and swallowed it, "Wow, you did it, Pinkie Pie, I can enjoy your stuff now." Banana Tree chirped, "Yes! I'll go ahead and make more and let you choose the toppings." Pinkie Pie stated, "Thanks, Pinkie Pie." Banana Tree responded, and she did and Banana Tree took them, "Thank you, I'll be back later today after tending to the rest of my bananas." Banana Tree stated, "Okay, looking forward to it." Pinkie Pie spoke, and Banana Tree walked out. The day went on peacefully and Banana Tree came back after Sugarcube Corner closed for the day, "Sorry, Banana Tree, but I closed a few hours ago." Pinkie Pie said, "Actually, I was hoping we could look back and catch up." Banana Tree responded, "Oh, sure, I'm always up for that." Pinkie Pie stated, and she and Banana Tree sat beside one another, "Been a while since you and I first met." Banana Tree spoke, "Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday." Pinkie Pie replied, and they began to talk about the past. Pinkie Pie was traveling through Equestria and sold confectioneries and threw parties to make money, she arrived at one place one day and a stallion and mare earth pony couple walked up to her to buy things, the stallion had a yellow coat, long white mane and tail, yellow eyes, and his cutie mark was a banana tree, the mare had a dark yellow coat, long yellow mane and tail, green eyes, and her cutie mark was a banana, they looked at a list and at Pinkie Pie's items carefully, the stallion tried to pick up a cup of bread pudding, "Hold on, Cavendish, if the bread's whole wheat, our daughter won't be able to eat it." the mare stated, "It's not just that, Lady Fingers, I'm seeing quite a lot of cakes, too, our daughter can't have those, either, nor the graham cracker stuff, I guess we don't have much choice on what to buy." Cavendish remarked, "Is something the matter?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "Oh, sorry, it's our daughter, she has a condition that limits her food, we're trying to find something safe for her." Lady Fingers explained, "Allergies?" Pinkie Pie asked, "No, the doctor said it's gluten intolerance, some foods, her body can't digest." Cavendish corrected, "Gluten intolerance? Gluten intolerance?! She can't have anything sweet or with sugar in it?!" Pinkie Pie panicked while her mane and tail got ready to deflate, "No, no, she can, it's mostly wheat and similar she can't have." Lady Fingers responded, Pinkie Pie's mane and tail got puffy again, "Oh, take me to her, I might be able to make something for her." Pinkie Pie requested, "Really? You would do that?" Lady Fingers asked, Pinkie Pie nodded, "Why, thank you, come on, our house is this way." Lady Fingers said, and she and Cavendish led her. Pinkie Pie followed Cavendish and Lady Fingers to their home and arrived at a small town called Synthetic Industries, she saw factories everywhere making synthetic food from a malleable sludge and unicorns injected flavors and nutrients into the sludge while the Pegasi and earth ponies molded the sludge into foods they had the tastes and nutrition of, "Are those... artificial foods?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "Please, understand, our town's soil won't grow anything anymore, we have to do this to survive." Lady Fingers responded, "Can't grow anything?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Yes, our town's soil will not produce any food, we're suffering from a famine, we'll have no food if we don't do this." Cavendish explained, "Oh, I see, well, go ahead and take me to your daughter." Pinkie Pie requested, and they did, she arrived at their home and entered. She saw the house was very clean and there were books on growing and cultivating bananas lying around the house, "Banana Tree, the dessert salespony that arrived recently is here to see you." Cavendish called out, they heard walking on the second floor and a filly walked to them, "This is our daughter, she's the one with the gluten intolerance." Lady Fingers stated, "What? You told her about that?" Banana Tree inquired, "Calm down, Banana Tree, I'm here to help, I need to see what you can and can't handle and rearrange my stuff accordingly for you." Pinkie Pie explained, "Is that true?" Banana Tree inquired, "It is, we tried to pick out something for you that you can eat with no problems, she noticed and asked us, we told her, and she now wants to help." Cavendish answered, "See, there you go, let's head on to the kitchen, Banana Tree, I'm sure I can whip up something tasty for you without um... triggering your condition." Pinkie Pie spoke, "You sound very confident." Banana Tree spoke, "You're not the first pony I've had to alter my stuff for." Pinkie Pie responded, "Oh, so you've encountered gluten intolerance before?" Lady Fingers questioned, "No, the last pony was lactose intolerant." Pinkie Pie replied, "Oh, well, try not to get them mixed up, gluten intolerance is different." Lady Fingers reminded, "Come on, Banana Tree, to the kitchen." Pinkie Pie spoke, and she led her to it. They arrived into the kitchen and Pinkie Pie noticed there were no grains or baked goods in the kitchen, "You only have fruits and vegetables?" Pinkie Pie asked, "No, I got some nuts, peanut butter, legumes, cheese, yogurt, seeds, and hay." Banana Tree responded, "Oh, well, since you have cheese, I'm going to try making something I make regularly." Pinkie Pie said, and she began. She had a pink twirl around her and moved at blinding speeds while Banana Tree's jaw dropped, a pink tornado spun in front of her and Pinkie Pie finished the dish, "Ta-da! Here it is! Cheesecake!" Pinkie Pie announced, Banana Tree examined it carefully and smelled it, she got a spoon and tried a very small amount of the cake and its crust. Banana Tree chewed slowly and swallowed, there were no problems at first but Banana Tree soon clutched her abdomen and groaned while falling over, "What's wrong, Banana Tree?" Pinkie Pie inquired, Banana Tree's abdomen bloated, she groaned while Cavendish and Lady Fingers ran in and got medicine out of a drawer, they gave it to Banana Tree and she took it, her abdomen stopped bloating and she sighed with relief, "What happened?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Something in that cake had gluten in it and triggered her symptoms." Lady Fingers explained, "What? What did I do wrong?" Pinkie Pie questioned while she did a quick spin and made cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, lemon juice, eggs, and a graham cracker crust appear, "Ah, here it is, the crust, graham cracker has gluten in it." Cavendish explained, "The graham cracker? But its flavor is part of why it's popular with others." Pinkie Pie lamented, "Sorry, but you're going to have to replace it with something else." Lady Fingers spoke, Pinkie Pie groaned while looking down, she then took out her other crusts and looked at them, she had a pretzel crust, shortbread crust, chocolate chip cookie crust, and brownie crust, "Here are the alternatives." Pinkie Pie announced, Lady Fingers examined each one, "Banana Tree can't eat any of these?" Lady Fingers reported, "What? I can't make cheesecake then." Pinkie Pie lamented, "It's not the cake itself, it's the ingredients, Banana Tree can have it if the flour to make the crust is gluten free." Lady Fingers explained, "Oh." Pinkie Pie said, and she made her flour packages appear, she looked at their nutritional facts and saw all of them had gluten in them, "Sorry, Banana Tree, but a lot of stuff, I can't make for you." Pinkie Pie stated, "It's fine, I'll take any energy bars with dried fruits and icing on them." Banana Tree stated, and Pinkie Pie made one appear and Cavendish checked it, "This looks fine, I don't see any wheat, barley, or rye in it." Cavendish spoke, and Banana Tree ate it. Pinkie Pie made all of her ingredients appear and looked at each of them to see which ones had gluten in them, she checked the nutrition facts on her ingredients and noticed she had to cut out almost all of her different flour types, she then took out her snacks and desserts and Lady Fingers pointed out her breads, baked goods, and pastries all had gluten in them and had to be cut, Pinkie Pie groaned sadly and removed her cookies, cakes, doughnuts, muffins, and cupcakes, "Alright, I think this might be fine for Banana Tree." Lady Fingers stated, "But it's mostly fruits." Pinkie Pie lamented, "It's still a pretty large selection to choose from." Lady Fingers replied, "I'd still like to try one of those grains and pastry stuff one day, though." Banana Tree stated, "I'll see what I can do, Banana Tree, and if possible, maybe I can make a banana dessert while I'm here." Pinkie Pie stated, "Come with us, we'll show you the factories then." Cavendish replied, and they went outside. They went outside and to the factories, Pinkie Pie saw the artificial bananas get made and then packaged and put into stores, "No, no, no, I meant as in bananas grown from the ground." Pinkie Pie said, "Oh, we're going to have to go out of town for that." Banana Tree spoke, "Let's go then, I'd like to do a taste comparison, too." Pinkie Pie stated, and they left. Cavendish and Lady Fingers led Pinkie Pie and Banana Tree out of town and to several banana trees, "Wow, a lot of trees here." Pinkie Pie commented, "This is sacred ground for our family, we are descended from a family of banana harvesters, we all grow a banana tree here to see if we receive our cutie marks or not." Cavendish explained, "Here's mine right here." Banana Tree boasted as she stood by a small banana tree with a few bananas on it, "Is it okay if I take some to use to make desserts?" Pinkie Pie requested, "Well, our ancestors may frown upon me for this, but you can go ahead and take some from my tree." Cavendish answered, and she took seven bananas from his tree, "Thank you, you all could use these bananas as food, why leave them here?" Pinkie Pie inquired, "Growing a banana tree and our family getting cutie marks from it is a longstanding tradition in our family, if one is successful at growing a tree, we wish to leave them untouched because they're mostly trophies for us and symbols as us passing our family's traditional rite of passage." Lady Fingers explained, "Well, you might as well use them, the bananas will be wasted if you don't." Pinkie Pie spoke, "About that, there's a nutrition in the bananas that my body mistakes for gluten, it makes it hard for me to eat and digest them, so I can only eat small amounts of it at a time." Banana Tree explained, "Oh, I'll try to figure something out." Pinkie Pie stated, "Are you going to get a factory made banana, too?" Banana Tree asked, "Yes, might as well do it now." Pinkie Pie responded, and they went to a store and Pinkie Pie bought of bunch of bananas and went back to the family's house. Pinkie Pie separated the natural bananas and the artificial bananas and then took a tub of vanilla ice cream out, she cut the banana into thin circular slices with her mane's tip and put them on top of the vanilla ice cream in a circle, she put the naturally grown bananas in three bowls and the factory made ones in the other three, the family tried them while Pinkie Pie ate the leftover bananas and realized both of them tasted exactly the same, Banana Tree only took one bite and ate very slowly while Cavendish and Lady Fingers ate their ice creams quickly, "Are you okay, Banana Tree?" Lady Fingers asked, "Yeah, no problems so far." Banana Tree responded, "What do you three think?" Pinkie Pie asked, "They taste exactly the same as one another." Cavendish answered, Lady Fingers and Banana Tree nodded in agreement, "I still don't wish to use factory made fruits for my desserts though." Pinkie Pie spoke, "Well, if you wish, you can always try the other fruits, Pinkie Pie, maybe you'll find something you like." Lady Fingers suggested, "Okay, I guess one try wouldn't hurt." Pinkie Pie stated, and she went outside. She looked around and noticed everybody had fruits for their cutie marks, she looked into the households for any naturally grown food but did not see any, "What are you doing?" an earth pony mare asked, "Sorry, I was wondering if there were any naturally grown foods in this town." Pinkie Pie answered, "No, there isn't, soil can't grow anything, our families were originally farmers that grew fruits, our ancestors immigrated here, grew fruits, and then suddenly before we were born, the soil stopped, so machines were built, we all have to travel out of town to grow our families' respective fruits in suitable soil, some of us have to travel very far, too." an earth pony stallion explained, "How far we talking?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Up to five days one way for some of us." the mare responded, "By hoof? By flying...?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "Flying." a Pegasus mare answered, "Why not bring the fruits here?" Pinkie Pie suggested, "A lot of our stuff are grown in hot environments and spoil before we get back here." another earth pony stallion explained, "Hmm, well, I was a farmer growing up, but a rock farmer, not a fruit one, so I don't know what would be wrong with you guys' soil." Pinkie Pie stated, "Well, if you want fruits, you'll have to buy them from the stores, the factories are magically powered too, so no need to worry about malfunctions." the first earth pony stallion said, "Might as well, I should move my shop into this town, too." Pinkie Pie replied, and she went. She bought the factory made fruits and then went out of town and came back a second later with her shop, the foals came over and began buying stuff, she sold ice cream and the end of the day came, she laid down in her shop's back and slept. Morning arrived and she was woken up by loud foals, she jumped up and screamed loudly when she saw foals running and heard them conversing excitedly, she stood up and saw them running to a school, she looked and saw a unicorn mare teaching the foals about the town's history and how their families came to be, she watched the presentation and the mare explained that the soil in the town was once abundant and it was divided into sections on where to plant specific types of fruits until the soil lost its nutrients suddenly and would no longer grow anything, so factories to make food were made. Pinkie Pie began making desserts and baked goods all morning and began selling to the foals after school ended, she worked very fast and the foals watched with surprise at seeing her as a blur and serve them what they wanted, Banana Tree walked up to her after the others were gone, "Come on, Banana Tree, don't be shy, come on up." Pinkie Pie spoke, and she did, she looked at many of Pinkie Pie's desserts and baked goods and bought mostly fruits while looking down and left. Pinkie Pie baked cupcakes and the foals came the next day at the same time, she handed them out and the foals tried them, they nodded and smiled while Banana Tree dropped hers and fell on the ground while her abdomen bloated, the other adult ponies ran to her and gave her medicine and her abdomen shrunk back to normal size, "Hold on a bit, Banana Tree, I'll see if I can change the ingredients around so you can eat my desserts, too." Pinkie Pie stated, Banana Tree nodded and she stood back up. Pinkie Pie sold her confectioneries to the customers and then headed to the town's store, she looked for alternatives to her regular flour and bought almond flour, coconut flour, and tapioca, she then began baking with them and made very small cupcakes. She tried a sample of them and noticed each one tasted noticeably different from her usual cupcakes, she sold them the next time she was open and the foals did not like their tastes, Banana Tree ate it without any problems but shook her head. Pinkie Pie went back to the store and bought teff flour, she made more cupcakes and gave them out, Banana Tree noticed the nutty taste and shook her head. Pinkie Pie went back to the store but saw Cavendish there, "Go ahead and pick out one, Pinkie Pie, I'll buy it." Cavendish spoke, "Oh, why thank you." Pinkie Pie replied, and she looked around, "Well, I'm not sure if legume flour will work, but I'll try them." Pinkie Pie spoke, and Cavendish bought chickpea flour and fava bean flour for her and she went back to her shop. She began baking again and made small cupcakes, she tasted them and her eyes widened from their completely different tastes, she added extra sugar into them and tasted them again, they still did not taste right, so she added extra salt into them, she served them later and the foals spat them out, they and Banana Tree shook their heads, Pinkie Pie growled and focused more. She began mixing the various non-gluten flours together and tried to produce new flavors, she served them and Banana Tree and the foals spat them out, she sighed and continued trying, she noticed her breads were not fluffy like before, "No, you were supposed to raise higher than that." Pinkie Pie said as she tried to blow air into the baked goods to make them bigger, "Pinkie Pie?" a mare's voice called out from behind, she looked over her shoulder and saw a unicorn, "Is everything going well?" the unicorn mare asked, "Yeah, I'm fine, just trying to get my baked goods bigger." Pinkie Pie spoke, "Here, this might help." the mare stated as she gave her a bag filled with a powder, "What's this?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Xanthan gum, it should help your bread treats rise higher and be bigger, don't be fooled by its name, it has no taste, it's not chewy and you can't blow bubbles with it either. Make sure you use it in moderation, ponies like Banana Tree can't have too much of it." the mare explained, "Okay, thank you." Pinkie Pie said, the mare smiled and walked away. Pinkie Pie put the xanthan gum in her next batch of baked goods and they looked like her normal ones, she served them and the foals had trouble eating, "What did you put in this?" a unicorn filly asked, "I tried mixing the flours together in hopes of producing a new and yummy taste." Pinkie Pie responded, "Well, you're better off using one flour at a time." a Pegasus colt stated, "Yeah, it tastes better that way." an earth pony filly added, "The baked goods look almost normal, how did you do that?" Banana Tree asked, "I put a little ingredient called xanthan gum in it." Pinkie Pie replied, "Wow, I think this is nice, you should use it from now on." a Pegasus filly stated, the foals nodded, Pinkie Pie smiled and the foals bought more of her desserts and baked goods and gave them to their parents. Pinkie Pie baked all morning the next day and experimented with her new ingredients to try to make new flavors and keeping Banana Tree's condition in mind, she tasted all of her newly made baked goods and nodded, she put them on display and the foals came in the afternoon, she sighed with relief when she finished. She decided to take a break and began walking around the town, she looked at the brown ground and the many machines in the town, she watched each one produce a different type of food, she looked down at watching the factory made food be sold in stores while seeing the ponies also had sad expressions. She continued looking around and watched the artificial material get shaped and colored into food and injected with nutrients, "You okay, Pinkie Pie?" Lady Fingers asked as she walked to her, "I can't help but feel sad and disturbed over this town's food being factory made and not grown with love." Pinkie Pie spoke, "We don't like it either, but it's the only way to survive here, the soil doesn't grow food anymore, we still don't know why, the unicorns tried using their magic to grow food and couldn't produce anything." Lady Fingers said, "So, how did you all get these machines made?" Pinkie Pie inquired, "We had help from the unicorns and Pegasi, places outside this town were generous enough to provide us with the parts needed to build them, the sludge that is used to make the food is magically made and filtered to take any toxins and poisons in them out, magic is then used to shape it and fill it with flavor and nutrients and we mold the food into shape and put non-toxic and tasteless paint on them by hoof." Lady Fingers explained, "What was this town called back then?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Fruity Flavors, we changed it to its current name after we began making food in this town with its factories and machines." Lady Fingers answered, "Where did you all get the other food groups?" Pinkie Pie inquired, "Outside the town, our ancestors and relatives used to bring them in when they traveled outside town, once when we got the factories made, we no longer had to do that." Lady Fingers responded, "I think you all would get lonely." Pinkie Pie said, "Not really, we got each other, and we get visitors a bit often, so no, but the old ponies who remember Fruity Flavors do miss it." Lady Fingers responded, "What about you?" Pinkie Pie asked, "I have no memory of it, this place was Synthetic Industries ever since I was a filly, same with my husband, he has no memory of Fruity Flavors either." Lady Fingers answered, "Hmm, I see, so I guess the soil lost its nutrients a while ago." Pinkie Pie remarked, "Yes, before we were born, our parents also explained to us that the fruit machines are placed in the areas they're at because they are the locations where that specific fruit was grown, like the banana making machines close to my home, that's where bananas used to be grown and cultivated in this town." Lady Fingers explained, "Well, I never farmed fruits, only rocks, that didn't require any soil to grow." Pinkie Pie said, "It's okay, Pinkie Pie, I'm sure one visitor one day will be able to figure out what went wrong." Lady Fingers responded, "I hope so, I'd like to see what this town looked like when it did grow fruits." Pinkie Pie spoke, "All of us do, we'd like to see the town return to its former glory one day." Lady Fingers replied, "I hope it does, I have to go back now, I gotta start selling to the foals soon." Pinkie Pie stated, "Okay, good luck." Lady Fingers responded, and Pinkie Pie hopped back. School ended and Pinkie Pie began selling her baked goods and desserts to the foals, they shook their heads and agreed that she should stick to the regular ingredients, she used the special ingredients for Banana Tree's treats and she did not like how they tasted, "I'm at a loss then." Pinkie Pie lamented, "It's okay, Pinkie Pie, I can still eat your fruits and toppings, I just can't have the bread stuff, but I do appreciate you trying to rearrange the stuff so I can enjoy them, too." Banana Tree replied, Pinkie Pie smiled, "Will you be okay without me here?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "Of course, my parents already found alternatives and substitutes, they can make desserts and treats I like back at home." Banana Tree reassured, "But can they make the stuff I make or as good as I can?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "No, they can't, I don't think anypony in this town can." Banana Tree remarked, "Alright then, I'll go ahead and give you all tips and notes, and I'll be going, I'm popular in other places, too." Pinkie Pie stated, and she began writing down her recipes. Pinkie Pie handed out the recipes to the town's ponies and taught them how to make her snacks and desserts, "Well, I wasn't here long, and sorry I couldn't help with you with the soil, but I have to go, other places are demanding me to throw parties for the foals." Pinkie Pie said, "It's alright, Pinkie Pie, our visitors usually don't stay long, but we do appreciate the recipes, I'm sure our kids will enjoy them." Cavendish replied, the foals cheered, "Oh, you all touch my heart, I'll be going now, goodbye, everypony." Pinkie Pie responded, and the foals said bye while she left the town. Pinkie Pie and Banana Tree were sitting at a table in Sugarcube Corner and the sun was setting, "I never forgot about you, Banana Tree, I experimented and experimented in my free time to try to create a gluten free delicious dessert in my free time." Pinkie Pie spoke, "I can see that, and I can say from what you made earlier that you've really improved." Banana Tree stated, Pinkie Pie smiled, "That reminds me, I did find a way to make you eat bananas in large amounts, but it required the bananas to still be green, I don't think you would've liked how they tasted." Pinkie Pie commented, "Yeah, unripe bananas are usually sour, I requested the factory make one for me to try and I didn't like it." Banana Tree replied, "So, how have things been at Synthetic Industries?" Pinkie Pie questioned, "Same as always, we're still making food and drinks with factories and machines, we never found out what was wrong with the soil." Banana Tree responded, "Wait until tomorrow, I think I know a family who can help." Pinkie Pie stated, "Really? That'd be wonderful, and yeah, it's getting late, we should sleep, can I stay here for the night?" Banana Tree asked, "Sure." Pinkie Pie replied, and they slept. Pinkie Pie took Banana Tree to Sweet Apple Acres to meet Apple Bloom, Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith, she explained the town's soil to them and they left with a wagon and Banana Tree led them to the town, Pinkie Pie smiled and went back to work at Sugarcube Corner.