//------------------------------// // A Day With Her Friends (Part 2) // Story: Suddenly, a Filly! // by Pomfiance //------------------------------// *~~~~~* Rainbow Dash woke up the next day to a small tugging in her wing. Opening her eyes, she slowly shifted her head to look down at her torso and couldn’t help but smile. Twilight was curled up under her wing, using it as a blanket while holding her own tail like a pillow. Rainbow Dash watched her for a short while until a soft click broke her thoughts. She looked up to see Fluttershy lying on the couch with a breakfast tray beside her, staring at the pair with a grin. “F-Fluttershy, when did you get here?” Rainbow whispered her face turning beet red. “Oh, it was just a few minutes ago,” she said with a wave of her hoof. “I came in with some food, because I knew you’d be hungry when you woke up, but since you two looked SO adorable, I just couldn’t bring myself to wake you,” she said giggling while inconspicuously putting something under her wing. “I’ll just leave it here for you.” Keeping her wing tightly furled, she slipped off the couch and made her way upstairs. Rainbow sighed and looked over to the sleeping filly that hadn’t moved and started nuzzling her. “Hey Twi, wake up, Fluttershy made us some food.” Twilight muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘don’t wanna’, and rolled into Rainbow’s stomach, burying her face into the soft fur. Rainbow rolled her eyes and furled her wing, exposing Twilight to the sun that was flittering through the windows. “Rise and shine,” she said, grinning while watching Twilight fight a losing battle as she scrunched up her face at the bright light. “Fine, I’m up.” She grumbled, pushing herself into a sitting position, trying to rub the sleepiness from her eyes. Before she could complain about being woken up, the smell of fresh pancakes hit her like a bucket of water and all of her exhaustion vanished. Stomach growling, she spun around, searching for the source wildly before she spotted the spongy goodness on the couch and pounced, aiming to kill, only to be stopped midair by a pair of hooves around her midsection. “Whoa, whoa, hold on!” Rainbow chuckled, putting the squirming Twilight down. “It’s not going anywhere.” Twilight smiled sheepishly before Rainbow’s own stomach started to growl. Laughing, they both trotted over and demolished the breakfast and made their way outside to where Fluttershy was finishing up her morning chores. “Good morning girls! Did you sleep well?” Fluttershy asked, smiling knowingly at Rainbow. Rainbow turned her head and avoided her gaze while Twilight answered, “the best I’ve slept all week!” Before Fluttershy could say anything else, Rainbow bent down and started to nudge Twilight along. “C’mon, let’s not keep Pinkie waiting; you know how she can get.” She turned back to Fluttershy to say a farewell, but she was already gone. Shrugging, she caught up to Twilight, who had kept walking without her, both failing to notice the small clicking noise from behind. *~~~~~* Halfway to Sugarcube Corner, they saw Pinkie lying down on the side of the road, crying an unnatural amount of tears. After watching her for a few seconds in confusion, Rainbow muttered, “I’ll let you handle this,” and flew off, leaving her signature rainbow trail in her wake. “Wait!” Twilight called before looking back to Pinkie nervously. She slowly inched closer before sitting down beside her. “What’s wrong Pinkie?” she asked with a frown. Pinkie looked up with a watery smile before pouncing on the small filly, knocking her off her hoofs. “You’re here!” She shouted, all traces of tears vanishing. “I got here a few hours ago, but you weren’t here so I waited, but then you still didn’t show up, so I got worried because you’re usually never late, and so I started thinking, ‘why isn’t Twilight here yet?’ and then I thought ‘she must have a good reason’, and then that got me thinking, ‘why wouldn’t Twilight show up?’ and then I thought, ‘she must not want me to take care of her’ and that made me sad, but then you showed up, and that made me happy, so are you ready to go?” she finished with a giant grin. Before Twilight could even nod, Pinkie suddenly grabbed her hoof, swung her across her back, and galloped into town with Twilight holding on for dear life. Twilight shut her eyes for only a moment from the speed and then the next moment, it was over. They were inside the kitchen of Sugarcube corner and Twilight was lying on the floor with Pinkie lying next to her. Getting up slowly and a bit hesitantly, Twilight turned to Pinkie. “What are we going to be doing?” Pinkie looked at her with a vacant expression. “Doing?” Twilight stared at her incredulously. “You don’t have anything planned?” “Weeeell…” Pinkie looked around. “Oh, oh, I know!” Pinkie burst out excitedly. “Let’s bake!” “Bake?” Twilight chuckled nervously. “Pinkie, I don’t think that’s the best idea.” Pinkie looked at her quizzically. “Why not? It’s the best thing to do when I have nothing planned. Plus, it’s fun!” Twilight fiddled her hooves. “Well, I’ve never had to actually make anything more complex than a sandwich.” She sighed, and looked down. “After the incident where I cracked a metal pot and melted my stove, Spike hasn’t let me even attempt to cook.” She sighed again. “He only lets me neatly assemble food, or politely order food when we eat out.” Pinkie stared at her for a few seconds before breaking into a wide grin. “Well what better time to learn than now!” Twilight still seemed unsure. “B-but, what if I mess up your kitchen? You and the Cakes wouldn’t be able to make your confections, and then you’d all be out of a job, and it would be all my fault, and-” Pinkie Pie put a hoof over the panicking filly. “Twilight, it’ll fine. Besides, I’ll be helping you.” “Y-you sure?” Pinkie straightened up. “I Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Twilight still looked apprehensive, but couldn’t deny that Pinkie would never break her promise. Taking a deep breath, she said “Ok, what will I learn first then?” Pinkie immediately shouted, ‘cupcakes!’ from behind, making her jump. Why does everypony like doing that? Turning around she asked, “Cupcakes? Are you sure?” “Yup!” Pinkie smiled. “It’s easy!” ♪ All you’ve got to do is take a cup of flour, ♪ ♪ Add it to the mix! ♪ ♪ Now just take a little something sweet, not sour, ♪ ♪ A bit of salt, just a pinch! ♪ ♪ Baking these treats is such a cinch, ♪ ♪Add a teaspoon of vanilla! ♪ ♪ Add a little more, and you count to four, ♪ ♪ And you never get your fill-a! ♪ ♪ Cupcakes! So sweet and tasty! ♪ ♪ Cupcakes! Don’t be too hasty! ♪ ♪ Cupcakes! Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes! ♪ She turned back to Twilight who had just moved off to the side while she sung. “Now your turn!” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Just like that? No other instructions?” Pinkie shook her head. “If you say so.” She walked over to the ingredients, listing them off under her breath. It was her first time, and she was going to do it right! 10 Minutes Later… Beeeeeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeep! The smoke alarm forced Twilight to turn away from the icing she was carefully making and look towards the oven, where a millimeter width of smoke was slowly trailing away. She quickly leapt over the bowl of batter she had meant to clean, skirted around a puddle of vanilla, and dashed to the oven, grabbing a pair of oven mitts from the counter on her way. Opening the oven, she quickly extracted the confections and put them down next to her while she fanned the remaining smoke from the oven. “Oh no, I ruined everything!” she said in between fans. “I’m so sorry Pinkie, it’s all my fault, I just don’t know what went wrong-” “Twilight its fine! Look,” she started to eat the slightly burnt cupcakes. “See? They taste fine! You’re just overreacting,” she said with a smile. “But they’re burnt!” Twilight looked at Pinkie like she was crazy. “So?” Pinkie shrugged. “You just have to always look on the bright side of life!” “Like?” Twilight prodded. “What’s worse than burning cupcakes while the ‘Queen of Cupcakes’ is watching?” Pinkie thought for a moment. “You could have made ‘baked bads’ while the ‘Queen of Cupcakes’ was helping you.” Twilight looked for a way to argue, but came up short so Pinkie continued. “Besides, you can just try again! Isn’t that what you do with your magic spells?” “I guess, but-” Twilight started only to get another hoof to the mouth. “No more arguing! I’ll help you this time!” 20 Minutes Later… Twilight couldn't believe her eyes! There, sitting in front of her were a batch of perfectly made cupcakes. There were no sirens, no fires. There wasn't even a smoke alarm going off this time. “Pinkie I did it!” Twilight exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly, pointing at the cupcakes. “Look Pinkie! Look!” Pinkie just smiled and nodded every time Twilight pointed out each of her cupcakes. Around the ninth cupcake, a tiny flash of light from the window caught her attention. Before she could investigate, Twilight asked if she wanted to try one, which drowned out any thoughts of the flash faster than the cupcakes Twilight had just made. *~~~~~* I wonder what I’ll do with Rarity, Twilight thought as she left Sugarcube corner the next day. She was too busy thinking of the different scenarios that she didn’t notice the soft, fuchsia-colored wall until she hit it. “Why hello, I’ve never seen you before! Who might you be?” asked the wall. Walls aren’t supposed to talk. She looked up to see Cheerilee smiling down at her. Uh oh. Eyes widening, she scrambled backwards, trying to distance herself from the schoolteacher. “O-oh, sorry about that. I’m Twilight Twinkle. I’m here from Canterlot visiting my sister.” Twilight glanced back to the Carousel Boutique before looking back to Cheerilee. “I need to get going, so I’ll just get out of your way. Sorry for bumping into you.” Cheerilee frowned. “But why aren’t you getting ready for school?” Twilight looked taken aback. “S-school? B-but I've already finished Magic Kindergarten!” Cheerilee stared at her for a moment before shaking her head and laughing. “No, nothing like that! It’s more or less only the basics!” She put her hoof on her chin and thought for a moment. “If you’ve already been to Magic Kindergarten, then I guess you wouldn’t need to come to a lower level class. Unless…” She looked back to Twilight. “Would you like to be my assistant?” “An assistant?” Twilight was ecstatic. “Really? I can help teach?” Cheerilee laughed again. “Of course! I’m sure you’re very bright, and I could use some help on the last week of school.” Twilight was nearly bouncing on the spot. “Ok!” They both trotted away, chatting about lesson plans and behavior issues, leaving The Carousel Boutique all but forgotten in the distance.