Her apron wrapped tightly around her barrel, Pinkie laid out the weapons she would be wielding on this particular battlefield. The whisk would be her mighty sword, with which she would cut through the Chocolate Rain batter in the bowl. The cookbook laid on the counter, with the recipe open. Mrs. Cake hadn't exaggerated. Some of these ingredients were really, really strange. However, if what Discord said was true, Pinkie had just as much access to Chaos magic as he did.
She'd always known there was something different about her. When she was young, she'd always wondered why it was that she was bright pink when the rest of her family were different shades of grey. Her Granny Pie, though, was the exception. She was pink as well, like Pinkie Pie, but she'd been a Pegasus. It was why she bounced around everywhere. Pegasus blood. Even still, Granny Pie, who possessed a special sense of her own, said that Pinkie was even more special than her. She had a stronger sense, making her almost omniscient in certain circumstances, and her ability to not only pull random objects from out of her mane or even from some form of negative space, but to also be able to seemingly break the laws of reality. Granny Pie hadn't disclosed much to her parents, but from what Pinkie could tell, most of those powers seemed to be possessed by Granny's Mother, Pinkie's Great-Grandmother. She'd never met them, but Granny had said that her Mom was an incredible being.
"Am I gonna meet them at the end of the story?" Pinkie asked. Spoilers, Pinkie. I can't tell you that. "Aww. Party pooper."
Taking a quick look at the top of the page, Pinkie read out the description of the Chocolate Rain and Stars cake.
Any normal being can make an ordinary chocolate cake, but the Chocolate Rain and Stars cake is a testament to a baker's skills. Only the most gifted can properly prepare this gift from the heavens, and the result is a confection unlike any other. No one is sure where this cake was first created, from what layer of the Chaos Realm it came from, or from WHOM it could have been created by. Legend says, however, that a chosen baker who undertakes the creation of this dessert, will be gifted with the knowledge of the cake's origin.
The party pony's blue eyes widened with every word. She loved puzzles, and for a puzzle to be attached to a baked good? That was perfect for Pinkie.
"This is gonna be so fun. Okay, let's see what the ingredients list is," Pinkie giggled, jogging in place before laying out a number of bowls on the counter, half for the dry ingredients and half for the wet. That done, she returned to the cookbook to glance at the ingredients and proper measurements.
6 cups of all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons of sugar
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3 cups of baking powder
3 cups of baking soda
5 tablespoons of salt
4 cups of milk
2 cups of butter
4 eggs
4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Boiling water
1 cup of stardust from the stream of the Palomino comet
3 tablespoons of the feeling of laughter and joy
Marshmallows
Shortening
1 cup of Cotton Candy cloud puffs
"Huh. Mrs. Cake wasn't kidding. Some of these ingredients are really weird. Okay, better get started with the ingredients I'm familiar with, then I'll tackle the more obscure ones after," the pink pony said to herself, trotting over to the cupboards and pulling out the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda, salt, marshmallows and shortening, putting them all on the table close to the counter. Then, balancing the butter and vanilla on her tail, she began separating all the dry ingredients into the individual bowls. Sliding the butter and vanilla further back on the table, she grabbed the measuring cups and spoons with her tail, and began to pour the flour and sugar into them and dumping them into a large bowl. She did the same with the baking power, baking soda and salt, then grabbed her whisk and cranked like there was no tomorrow, before it was all properly mixed together as the recipe stated.
Glancing back at the book, Pinkie saw an addendum below the first step.
Addendum: Before moving on to add the wet ingredients into the mixture, the selected bowl must be passed through a rainbow spectrum, and the rainbow dust filtered and mixed in.
"Rainbow dust? Really? Well, that's gonna be hard," Pinkie said, placing the bowl and whisk on the counter again, as her mind began to race as to how she could get that rainbow dust. She could use her Pinkie-Copter, of course, but it'd be hard to keep the bowl balanced while she pedaled. There was always her party balloons, that was how she got onto Cloudsdale so many other times, but she wasn't sure how she'd get into the factory to get the spectrum.
"Pinkie Pie! What's up?!" Rainbow Dash asked, zooming into the Corner through one of the windows. Pinkie smiled, bounding over to her friend!
"Dashie! Hi!" Pinkie giggled, hugging the blue pegasus.
"What're you up to?"
"Baking a cake."
"Nice. Need any help?" Dash asked with a smirk, eyeing all the ingredients on the counter.
"Actually, yeah, I do. The recipe I'm using calls for filtered dust from a rainbow spectrum, and well, I could definitely get UP to Cloudsdale, but my worry is how to get into the factory to get the dust, since I know only Pegasi are allowed in there," the pink mare said.
"Ha! Don't worry, Pinkie, I can get up to the factory and have that dust filtered into your bowl in ten seconds flat," Rainbow Dash boasted with a grin. Pinkie squeed in response, rushing over to grab the bowl, before placing a mesh lining over the top. "What's that for?"
"It's the filter, Dashie," Pinkie said, securing the mesh lining with a rubber band around the rim of the bowl. "Here you go."
"No worries, Pinks, that dust is as good as gotten," she said with a grin as Pinkie hoofed her the bowl. Then, eyeing it with a wary eye, she took a deep breath. "Um...out of curiosity, how am I supposed to GET the dust?"
Pinkie shrugged. "I don't know. All the recipe says is that the bowl needs to be 'passed through the spectrum' so that the rainbow dust can be filtered through and mixed in with the rest of the dry ingredients."
"On it! Go ahead and time me!" Dash called, before blasting out of Sugar Cube Corner from the same window she'd come through, the bowl clutched tight in her hooves.
Pinkie giggled, trotting back over to the counter while slowly counting. "1. 2. 3," she said, popping open the vanilla extract and scooping the butter into the measuring cup. "4. 5. 6," she continued, wiping some of the excess flour and sugar that had fallen on the counter away. "7. 8. 9," she carried on, grabbing the eggs. "10."
Just as the number fell out of her mouth, Rainbow Dash zoomed back into the Corner, the bowl clutched under her foreleg. "Well? What'd I tell ya?" she grinned.
"You were right, Dashie. 10 seconds flat," Pinkie giggled, as Rainbow hoofed the bowl back to her, placing it on the counter again. "Thanks for the help," she said with a smile, peeling the mesh lining off the top of the bowl. The lining was covered in the traces of the multi-colored spectrum, and within the bowl, Pinkie could see the shining rainbow dust within the previous dried ingredients. "Hey, did you mix this in?" she asked.
Dash nodded, turning her head to relieve the crick in her neck. "Yeah. I thought, since I already had the bowl, might as well mix it in for you. I'm fast enough, after all. Just a simple 360 spin and it was perfectly mixed."
"Thanks, Dashie. You were such a big help."
"No problem, Pinks. Hey, what kind of cake is this gonna be anyway? I never heard of a cake that needed rainbow spectrum dust in it."
Pinkie giggled. "A baker never reveals their secrets, Rainbow," she said.
"Fine, be secretive. Just make sure you save me a slice, okay? It's gonna be a chocolate cake, right? I can't resist chocolate cake."
"Hehe. I know. You'll get a slice, Dashie, I promise."
"Thanks, Pinkie. I guess I'll get going, since you're busy with the cake. Let me know when that bad boy's done. See ya," Rainbow Dash called, before zooming out of the sweet shop again.
"Typical Rainbow Dash," Pinkie said, shaking her head with a giggle as she turned back to the cookbook. "Okay, so wet ingredients next, right?"
Once the spectrum dust is properly mixed into the dry ingredients, let the mixture rest in a sunbeam for precisely 30 minutes to properly absorb the spectrum's magic.
"Aww. More waiting?" Pinkie whined, looking from the book to the bowl. 30 minutes was a good amount of time for her to get the frosting bag and crack the eggs into a separate bowl, ready to add it to the dry ingredients with the butter and the vanilla extract. So, with a flourish and a spin of the bowl on her frogs, she brought it over to the sunbeam hitting the table, and placed it right in the middle.
Step 1 complete. Step 2, about to begin.