Outside the door of Sugarcube Corner run by Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Rainbow, Tank, and the Wonder Pugs stepped inside the very sweets shop that Pinkie Pie resided and paid for her own room and board. Here was hoping that she would be more cooperative than Twilight. As Rainbow knew, Pinkie was an expert on having fun. How could she even resist playing with four little pug puppies?
By the time the group of six entered the building, however, it was completely deserted. There were just baked goods—cakes, cookies, biscuits, pies, candy, cupcakes, muffins, coffee beans, and doughnuts—all across the stacks, desk, and display windows. Not a pony was to be found, except Rainbow. She guessed that the Cakes themselves were out for a walk. But where was Pinkie, she asked herself.
Cautiously, Rainbow looked around before she inquired "Um… Is there anypony home?"
Suddenly, from behind the desk, Pinkie Pie popped her head and shouted "Hi, Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow shrieked and flew right on top of the chandelier. This was one of the many times Pinkie would surprise her. And she hated those times.
"Uh, why are you sitting on top of the chandelier, Rainbow Dash?" asked Pinkie, innocently.
"Pinkie Pie," seethed Rainbow, hopping herself off into the air and back onto the floor, "don't you scare me like that."
"I scared you?"
Rainbow gave a heavy sigh. There was no use reasoning with Pinkie.
Fleetfoot gave a yip, drawing Pinkie's attention to the Wonder Pugs.
Pinkie gasped. She rushed over to the puppies and looked at them intensely in the eye, babbled "Oh! What fantastically, fluffolicious, furry little friends you have there, Rainbow!" She giggled as Fleetfoot gave her a lick on the cheek. "And quite kissy, too."
"Yeah… I noticed." The last time Pinkie used that phrase, Rainbow remembered, it was "fantastically, fluffolicious, feathery little friend" and that was when they and the other ponies—Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy—met Owlowiscious. How much more trivial could it possibly get?
"Where'd you get them?" asked Pinkie, not keeping her eyes off the puppies. "It's not every day you find such sweet little angels with curly tails, flattened faces, and teeny weeny paws."
"Yeah, they're really s-s-s-s-s-s-swell," Rainbow responded, nearly choking on the other word that began with an "S" and a "W." That was a close call for her.
"Tank and I found these little guys in a bag," she continued. "They've got no home. So, I thought that, well, maybe you look after them?"
Pinkie popped her eyes out in surprise. "What?" she squeaked, turning to Rainbow.
Uh-oh, thought Rainbow, a sheepish smile showing on her face. That doesn't sound good.
And it didn't.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Pinkie rapidly put in, shaking her head. "I got other responsibilities to worry about! Planning parties, baking the sweets, babysitting Pound and Pumpkin Cake…"
"Oh yeah, the twins," chuckled Rainbow, a mental slap hitting her across the head. "I forgot them."
"But more to the point, there are a number of reasons why I can't keep puppies in the house. Number one is…"
Pinkie was rudely interrupted when she and Rainbow heard a sort of munching sound. They looked to their left to find a little pug puppy sinking his head into a vanilla cake with pink icing on the window display.
"Rapidfire!" shouted Rainbow.
Pinkie rushed over and pulled the puppy out before he could make a tunnel in the cake. "How dare you eat the cake!" she roared, looking at Rapidfire face-to-face.
Rapidfire licked on the pieces of cake that covered his face, swallowed, belched, and panted.
"Sorry about that, Pinkie," said Rainbow as she walked over. "I had no idea how hungry the puppies were… So that's reason number one, right, about puppies being bad for business?"
Pinkie gave Rainbow an ominous glare after putting Rapidfire down and slowly walked up to her, causing her to step back towards the wall. "I've dedicated my life for the Cakes, Rainbow," she growled. "This shop, the very existence of this business depends on the goodliness of these goods. And your little doggy…" She softly laughed a little before she slowly burst out with a demonic voice and fiery eyes "… almost destroyed it!"
"I get it!" Rainbow exclaimed hastily, her back against the wall. "I get it! You eat it, you buy it!"
"See that you remember to pay for the cake," warned Pinkie, her mood relaxing a bit. "I'll be waiting."
Rainbow gulped. Moments of Pinkie being scary were rare. This moment, however, was the scariest yet.
"Now," continued Pinkie, back to her characteristically cheerful self, "onto reason number two…"
But before she could even begin with the verification of that reason, both ponies heard the whirring noise of a mixer. They looked behind them and could see two curly tails poking out of the bowl that swirled around.
Worried, Rainbow ran over, stopped the mixer, and picked up the two puppies from the bowl. "Spitfire!" she chastised. "Fleetfoot! This is a mixer, not a merry-go-round!"
Undaunted, the puppies were placed back to the floor and resumed their playing.
"So, Pinkie," said Rainbow. "You were talking about reason number two?"
"Oh, yeah!" remembered Pinkie. "If you have a baby or two in your house, you'd have to take care not to let a dog scratch and get flees on them or have any barking wake them up. And, unfortunately, I'm not fit to be responsible for either of those precautions. As for reason number three…"
Once again, she never got to finish that sentence. She caught eye of another puppy and he was chewing on something that wasn't a baked product. It was green, scaly, purple-eyed, and had no teeth at all.
"Gummy!" cried Pinkie as she ran over to her tiny pet alligator, whose tail the puppy's mouth was on.
"Uh, Pinkie Pie," said Rainbow, unsure, "I don't think Gummy's complaining."
She was right. Gummy was just standing there, not the least bit disturbed by the puppy's actions. But then, he was never much a lively little alligator at all, except when he was attaching his mouth to Pinkie multiple times a day.
Ignoring Rainbow's remark, Pinkie succeeded with minimum effort to dislodge the little puppy from Gummy's tail and looked at him in the eye. "Okay, mister," she spoke severely, "Gummy is not a chew toy. You may think you're acting like the alligator he is, but deep down inside, you're a pug." She paused for a second before repeating emphatically, "A pug."
The puppy said nothing. He just smiled and wagged his tail.
"Sorry about that, Pinkie," said Rainbow while taking the puppy away from Pinkie. "Soarin' didn't know any better, that's all."
"Huh? Soarin?'" Pinkie was almost speechless for a moment before she started getting sentimental. "Aw, Dashie," she sighed, giving Rainbow the rarely-used affectionate nickname. "You named this little guy after your boyfriend?"
Rainbow's eyes widened. Her eyeballs shrank. Her heart stopped beating for a few seconds before pumping a lot harder. Her face flushed redder than it did this morning at Fluttershy's house.
"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" she yelled after coming within close proximity of Pinkie's face. Then, suddenly restraining herself and looking up toward the ceiling, she whispered "The babies aren't upstairs, are they?"
"Nope," Pinkie replied cheerfully. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake took them on a picnic half-an-hour ago."
"Phew." Rainbow mopped her face, relieved. "So what was reason number three again?"
"Well," began Pinkie, "since these little puppies are pugs, I can't afford to even sleep with them. They snort a lot. It'll keep anypony close to them up all night… unless you're used to it; which I'm not."
Just then, they heard a snorting from Fleetfoot, another from Rapidfire, the next from Soarin', and the last from Spitfire as they all played along together. The snorts may have sounded loud, but they were as soft and tiny as the six-inch Wonder Pugs themselves.
"See what I mean?" smiled Pinkie. "By the way, when you have animal trouble, go see Fluttershy."
Rainbow looked away in disgust. "For Pete's sake, Pinkie Pie," she groaned, "not you, too!"
Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"Never mind, I can take a hint." Rainbow turned to her tortoise and said, "Come on, Tank. Let's gather the Wonder Pugs and head out."
"Okey dokey lokey!" chimed Pinkie. "Come again soon, Rainbow!"
After leaving Sugarcube Corner – and the right enough amount of money for the cake on the counter – Rainbow couldn't help but feel frustrated. She stomped her hoofs on the ground hard.
In just one day, the Wonder Pugs had been turned down a home by two of the Pegasus' best friends for very good reasons. It was their advice that ticked her off.
"First Twilight," she complained, "now Pinkie Pie! Don't they know Fluttershy's busy enough as she is? Well, guys," she said to the Wonder Pugs, calmly, "looks like we'll have to find somepony else to give you a home. But who could…?" She stopped herself as another idea popped into her head. There was only one pony she knew who would be more than generous to give four pug puppies a home: "Rarity!"