//------------------------------//
// What? 
// Story: But the Recipe Says... 
// by Sakura 
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"Yo, Soarin! You got the rest of the ingredients?" Rainbow Dash closed the door to her cloud home, leaving the pouring rain outside. Since there was really nothing to do on a rainy day, Rainbow and her coltfriend, Soarin, had agreed to make a pie together.

"Yes, I got them, Rainbow!" Soarin called from the kitchen. Rainbow took off her rain poncho, revealing a saddlebag full of apples. Hanging up the poncho, the blue Pegasus moved into the kitchen were Soarin was waiting for her. He was pulling some ingredients from out of one of the many cupboards in Rainbow's kitchen.

The kitchen itself was set up in a rectangular fashion, with there being an extra little table to place ingredients on. Since Rainbow had left to get the apples, Soarin had pulled out the majority of the ingredients on the table, as well as a cookbook opened to the desired recipe.

Rainbow found an open spot on the table and took some apples out of her saddlebag, placing them on the table. Glancing over to the book, she noticed the book was opened to a glazed apple cream pie recipe. Hence, the apples.

Soarin looked over at his marefriend. "Ready to start, Rainbow?" He gave her a wink. Soarin had know previously that Rainbow wasn't the best baker in Equestria, but hopefully that wouldn't be a problem.

Rainbow nodded back. "Ready when you are, big guy!" Both ponies them proceeded to move over to the recipe.

The first thing Rainbow noticed was amount of milk listed on the recipe. On one column, it read 2 tablespoons of milk, but in the other column,  it read 1 tablespoon of milk.

Rainbow looked over at Soarin, who was still looking over the recipe. "Hey, you noticed this?" she said, pointing to the weird instructions.

Soarin's eyes moved to where Rainbow's blue hoof rested on the book. Indeed, it was strange that a recipe would say something like that. Maybe it was one of those things where the second amount of milk would be added later. Yeah, that must have been it.

"We can figure out that part when it comes." Soarin said, glancing back up at Rainbow Dash, who shrugged. 

"I guess you're right, but let's get started." Rainbow smiled, lifting off and gliding over to the stove. Landing, she press her hoof on the knob to preheat the oven. "Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Check! What's next?"

Soarin grabbed a saucepan in his mouth and flew to the stove. Placing the pan on a burner, the pegasus turned the burner on to medium. "Well, first we need to mix things in this saucepan over the burner." 

Rainbow brought the book over to the counter next to the stove. Her rose colored eyes moved across the pages for a few seconds, then looked up. "We need the butter, sugar, milk, and heavy cream. Put one half cup of everything in except the butter, cause you only put one fourth cup of that in."

Before she had finished speaking, Soarin had gathered the necessary ingredients from the counter except the milk. Opening the fridge, he looked in the shelves for the milk, but couldn't find any. "Hey Rainbow, you have regular white milk, right?"

Rainbow moved over next to him. "I should, why do you ask?"

"I can't seem to find any. All that's here is the chocolate milk" Soarin replied, looking in the fridge again.

That's when Rainbow realized something that she had forgotten earlier. She facehooved. "Oh no! I, uh, ran out of white milk a few days ago, so all I have is the chocolate kind..." Thunder rumbled outside. "We'll just have to use that one, I guess. It shouldn't be that much of a difference." Rainbow reached into the fridge and pulled out the chocolate milk.

Both pegasi returned to the stove where the saucepan was waiting. Getting her measuring cups down, Rainbow spread them all out and picked out the half and fourth cups from the line. "Everything is one half cup except the butter. That should be easy to remember."

After mixing all the ingredients together (including the chocolate milk), put the butter in the saucepan. "Soarin, I'll stir this until the butter melts. Can you do the next thing? Bowls are in the bottom cupboard."

Soarin smiled and nodded. "Of course!" the light blue pegasus said, leaning down to the cupboard. Pulling out a mixing bowl, he set it one the counter next to the cookbook. Glancing at the recipe for reference, Soarin flew over to the other table to get the cornstarch and vanilla. Returning to the bowl, he looked at the recipe again. All the while, Rainbow continued to stir the butter. 

Soarin put the rest of the needed amount of milk into the bowl, as well as the cornstarch and vanilla extract. The butter had melted, so Rainbow helped her coltfriend out the new mixture into the heated one. Rainbow winked at Soarin. "You're turn to stir. Keep stirring until it's thickened. Then you can put it off to the side. I'll start working on the stuff for the crust, or whatever it was. Oh, and the oven is preheated, FYI."

Soarin took the stirring spoon from Rainbow, and then started stirring. Rainbow, on the other hoof, retrieved the pie crust from the ingredients table, and another bowl from the cupboard. She started by chopping up the apples as best she could, then adding them to the bowl. After doing that, she combined the flour and...

"Dangit, I spilled the cinnamon in the bowl!" Rainbow said, a frown forming upon her face. Soarin looked over into the bowl.

"Well, it doesn't look that bad...it'll just be extra cinnamony."

Rainbow shrugged. "If you say so." She removed the cinnamon can from the bowl, not bothering to put anymore in. 

After that little mishap, Rainbow Dash took extra caution pouring the new mixture into the waiting pie crust, this time succeeding in not spilling anything. Soarin, however, was noticing the mixture was looking a little too thick. 

"Is it supposed to look like this, Rainbow?" He asked, trying to make sure he was doing it right. 

Rainbow looked into the bowl. "It's probably just the chocolate milk, cause it's thicker than white milk." 

Saorin nodded. "Alright, then it's done." He said, putting the cover onto the saucepan and pushing it off to the side. "What's next?"

Rainbow read the instructions, her eye getting wider with every passing word. "I did it wrong. We were supposed to put that heated mixture in first, then put the new one on top..." Her head drooped slightly.

Soarin put his hoof around his marefriend. "Oh, that's alright, Rainbow. I'm sure it'll still be the perfect pie."

Rainbow looked into his eyes and giggled a bit. "Well, it'll be our own special recipe. We'll just put one crust on instead of two."

Soarin broke their embrace. "Works for me. What's the next step?"

The blue pegasus mare looked at the cookbook again. "We put the crust on and cut slits in it, then we put it in the oven for about 35 minutes."

After putting the original mixture into the pie crust, the pegasi carefully put the crust on, cut the necessary slits, and put the pie in the preheated oven. Rainbow set the timer for 35 minutes. "Now we have to do another mixture to do, this one goes on top of the pie when's it's all cooked and stuff."

Soarin was already one step ahead of her. Pulling out a third bowl, he was getting the rest of the ingredients off the other table, but he noticed there was something missing. "Uh, we need more butter, Rainbow."

"We do? It's in the fridge, but I'll get it. Can you start working on that mixture?" Rainbow replied gliding over to the fridge. Pulling out another stick of butter, she moved back over to the recipe. She put the butter in a small bowl and put that in the oven to melt the butter.

Soarin, however, was busy mixing the new ingredients. It didn't take that long to mix, since Rainbow had helped him mix all the ingredients. 

Rainbow put the mixture off to the side. "Whew! now we just wait for the pie to finish cooking! While we wait, shall we play some videos games?"





The timer for the oven went off. Rainbow Dash and Soarin put down their controllers and went back into the kitchen. Rainbow grabbed an oven mitt, and Soarin opened the oven. Reaching in, Rainbow pulled the cooked pie put of the oven. Setting the oven mitt down, the two pegasi looked at the baked creation. 

"Are you sure it's supposed to be this...lumpy?" Rainbow asked, poking the pan with her hoof. 

"Relax, Rainbow. I'm sure it's perfectly fine" Soarin said, trying to reassure her. "Can we put the mixture on it now?"

Rainbow nodded. "Yeah, I think so." She reached for the last mixture. "Let's pour it on! After that, it has to cool for about 3 hours, then we can eat it. That brings us right around dinner time, so that's fine."

Pouring the batter over the pie, Rainbow put it in the fridge. "And now, we wait!"





"That was a nice dinner, Soarin!" Rainbow Dash said, cleaning up the last of the dishes. "Now it's pie time!" She moved over the fridge and opened it. Pulling out the now chilled pie, Rainbow set it on the dining room table. Soarin brought over a cutting knife, and cut out two pieces for himself and Rainbow.

Rainbow picked up her fork and cut a piece off of her pie. Lifting it up to her mouth, she prepared herself for the sweet tangy taste of apple glazed pie...

Rainbow almost gagged. While she had expected a sweet flavor, instead she received a salty, cinnamony, and slightly chocolaty flavor. Not to mention, the texture was awful too. "Uh, Soarin? You used sugar instead of salt, right?"