As Raindrops left for Twilight’s place, Scootaloo, Dinky, and Sparkler were preparing for their impromptu sleepover. Scootaloo, wrapped in a blanket cocoon, grinned at Dinky, “I can’t believe we finally got another Crusader. Well it won’t be official to tomorrow when we do the initiation, but I wonder why we didn’t notice you ‘till now?”
Dinky shrugged, “I don’t know. I know there are a few others like us in our class, but they’re usually busy doing something or rather. I know my mommy likes to bring me home and I can tell her about my day. But being a Crusader sounds like it’d be fun.”
Scootaloo grinned from ear to ear, “There are more like us?! This is going to be awesome, I can’t wait to tell the girls tomorrow. Do you know any of their names?”
“Well there’s Mango Dash, Pip, and I think Rumble is one too. I know Shady Daze got his in artistic photography a week ago, so that’s a bust… That’s all I can think of at the moment.” Dinky said off the top of her head.
“So what exactly do you do when you go Crusading?” Sparkler asked.
“Well we usually brainstorm ideas, then Apple Bloom draws up some sketches so that we have a good idea down on paper than we go do it. Well that’s how it usually works. Sometimes we have such a good idea that we decide to wing it.” Scoots replied.
“But I don’t have wings!” Dinky replied innocently.
Giving her an incredulous look, “It’s a saying. You don’t need wings.” Scootaloo deadpanned.
“I’ve never heard that term before. Sorry.”
“It’s alright. So I was thinking that since this is a sleep over we could do some Crusading before going to bed.” Scootaloo said with a grin, whipping out a book of untried ideas that she had been cooking up.
“Yay! Time for fun!” Dinky replied while her sister looked at the unfolding scene with a sense of dread. Even though the feeling had no discernable origin she knew that things were not going to end well.
“Are you sure it’s safe to go Crusading this late at night?” Sparker asked.
“Sure! I thought that since it’s Dinky’s first time we’d do something easy like cooking. And since Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle have been teaching me how to cook, it’ll be easy. Who knows, I might just get a cooking Cutie Mark this time.” With that she carried her Crusading Notebook in her mouth while leading the group to the kitchen.
Scootaloo had a page open showing a large batch of arcane diagrams, along with a recipe for a basic cake. As she was gathering the ingredients Sparkler looked over the diagram etched on the paper, “So what exactly is this design? I haven’t seen it before.”
“I don’t know. I saw a bunch of stuff in the spell books for summoning when us Crusaders tried out for our Summoning Cutie Marks, and I just mixed and matched random things that looked cool. I was going to use to make a cake for Rainbow Dash’s Birthday next week. But since Dinky is going to be a Crusader I thought that we could make it together tonight and I could give it to her early. Win, Win in my book.” Scootaloo said pointing out a crude picture of her and Dashie doing a hoof pump at her awesome cake to prove her point.
“But mixing magic is dangerous, what if something bad happens?” Sparkler asked, even more worried now that Scootaloo explained the diagrams etched.
“Hey! You’re starting to sound like Sweetie Belle, there’s nothing to worry about. After all haven’t you heard the term that something taste magical? Well this is truly going to be magical. Now let’s get this party started!” With that Dinky and Scootaloo started to mix everything together.
When it came to add other materials into the mix Dinky and Scootaloo huddled together to discuss what to do next, “Well we made the base, but I think it should use more special ingredients. Let’s look around and see what looks good, what say you Dinky?”
“That sounds alright. I know what I’m going to add!” With that they went their separate ways eventually ending with a jar of Zap Apple Jam, Scootaloo’s tiny jar of Rainbow Hot Sauce, blueberries, and bananas while Sparkler was preheating the oven.
After everything was conformed to Scootaloo’s specifications, the cake was thrown in. Looking around Scootaloo noticed the warzone the kitchen had turned into while they had been preparing the cake. A glimmering rainbow stain from the rainbow hot sauce and zap apple jam mixed with the massacred remains of bananas and blueberries with splashes of dough paste painting the room. All of which Sparkler was cleaning up while Dinky starred in rapt attention to the oven.
It was five minutes when the heat finally started to brown the dough activating the chaotic mass of ritual designs that made up the cakes bases, as well as the runes etched onto it. It glowed with a midnight green flame before a mass of inky black tentacles shot out, distant stars within them reflected underneath its skin. Scootaloo and Dinky screamed as they made a tactical retreat behind Sparkler who was beating the tentacles back into the oven. Smudging the runes accidentally which caused the eldritch space creature to flow back into its extraplanar prison and the spell regurgitated a storm of tacos and muffins into the room. The oven rattling and screaming curses in a thousand tongues.
The storm smudged further the design and runes randomly that caused the story to transform into a rainbow zappleberrie tree which gave vines and shrubbery throughout the kitchen. Which was fought by Sparkler pushing the tree back into the oven. Altering runes a last time infusing the arcanely formed fruit into the cake. The voices dying down and horrors from beyond the pantry successfully sent back to where they belong.
After the timer went off without any further incidents Scootaloo let out a wild whoop ”Success!!!”
“Success! Success! We nearly died? That’s not possible! Nothing about that is possible. What was that?” Sparkler screamed, the adrenalyn catching up to her now that the danger had passed.
“Oh! Please that was nothing. Rainbow Dash summons at least one Eldritch God, or horror that should never be whenever she turns on the oven. I wasn’t scared.” Scootaloo said, the last part preceeded with a nervous shuffling of her right foreleg.
“Then what about the screaming?”
“That was a primal war yell.”
“And the running and hiding?”
“We were doing a tactical retreat, and giving you moral support. You know since you were doing such a good job and all,” Scootaloo replied, “but at least nothing almost died this time. So that’s a success.”
“But I thought you said you were taught to cook?” The Panic starting to give way to an incredulous tone.
“Yeah, and Rainbow Dash always says that it’s because no kitchen can withstand her awesomeness. And the more destruction a kitchen sustains while you cook the better you did. Sweetie Belle is so good she can turn water into ash, as well as almost burns down the house everytime she tries to cook breakfast so that means she must be a good cook.”
“Ok … So let’s see what we have. Since it almost killed us we might as well see if it was worth it.” Sparkler said just as Raindrops walked into the kitchen.
Looking around seeing plants of unknown origins, piles of muffins and tacos flooding the kitchen, and mystery stains covering her kitchen, “Okay… I don’t know if I want to know how you all managed to cook what looks like hundreds of tacos and muffins. But how in the hay did you grow random plants throughout the kitchen?”
Sparkler pointed into the oven which was now glowing with a shifting rainbow like light, “We were cooking cake.” She said lamely.
Raindrops walked over and opened to the now sparkling oven a crack as she did she triggered a lingering spell in the confectionary chaos that the oven had birthed. As it opened a mighty wail left it and a projectile vomit of life changingly delicious rainbow fudge. It hit her with such force that it forcefully lifted and plastered Raindrops and Sparkler to the wall. Hardening around them like a cocoony prison. The indescribably delicious taste of it leaving them in a daze. Scootaloo and Dinky who only got a few gallops on their face tasted it, and were delighted in that it was a flavor that seemed to shift constantly on the tongue mixed with the taste of chocolate.
Scootaloo and Dinky looked at their flanks. Seeing it still blank they let out a twin moan, “Ah! Man! Still no cooking Cutie Marks, but at least Rainbow Dash will like her cake. Let’s check it out.”
Looking inside were four perfectly formed copies of the original cake. Making an arcane pentagram of confectionary proportions. Giving each other a hoof bump, Scoots went over to help a stuck Raindrops and Sparkler from their fudgy prison, “Hey Miss Raindrops! Do you think Rainbow Dash will think this mess would be awesome enough for her cake?”
“Just Raindrops, and sure… Definitely although if I swear that you learned to cook from Rainbow Dash.” She said jokingly, and when Scootaloo confirmed that it was a reality the color drained from her body, “there’s two of you now?”
“Two of what now?” Scootaloo asked with a tilt of her head.
“Well at least it can’t be as bad as when the flying spaghetti monster was temporarily summoned in the company picnic when Dash tried using the grill trying to fry tofu. Then it started yelling ’Red sauce on pasta!’, kicking pegasi off the clouds as it drenched them in tomato sauce. After that we banned Rainbow Dash from anything that requires cooking, or fire.
“So Scoots I think you need to be taught by someone less likely to teach you to end the world from an oven. Like Pinkie Pie. Her kitchen is sane enough not to bend the laws of nature like silly putty. I’m not that bad myself, and I’m pretty sure that my kitchen loves the laws of nature. We’ll talk more about this later. Now everypony go get cleaned off and go to bed. I’ll get all of this fixed up.” She said ruffling Scootaloo’s mane.
With that the highlight of their evening came to a close. Five delicious cakes were cooked, and the kitchen mostly survived. All the while Raindrops wondered if her house could stand the force of chaos that two Cutie Mark Crusaders were going to bring into her house.