//------------------------------//
// Nine Of Wands: Resilience (Twilight Sparkle) 
// Story: Draw 
// by TheVulpineHero1 
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Nine Of Wands: Resilience


Keyword: Resilience. Self-confidence, stability and strength. In times of stress the appearance of this reassuring, promising that you have all you need to maintain your position and eventually prosper. Patience is a virtue. Remain vigilant.
Reversed: Obstinancy, a refusal to compromise in any way, an unbending will, fixed and erroneous attitudes.




There are times in life when even the most resourceful pony has to admit that the odds are well and truly against her. Now, in Twilight's opinion, was one of those times.

The problem was that Applejack's birthday was approaching, and preparations for a surprise party were in full swing. However, there were a number of stumbling blocks. Firstly, a birthday in the Apple family was as good as a reunion, so they had to cater to as many of the Apples as showed up, and they had to invite them all, even the ones they hoped wouldn't show up, like Apple Crunch, who was by far the scariest pony any of them had ever seen. At the last family reunion, Rainbow Dash had taken one look at him and pronounced him a murderer. Disbelieving, Twilight had asked other members of the Apple family and was told he wasn't a murderer, he was a habitual murderer, and that just because he'd done terrible, terrible things that nopony should even contemplate, it didn't make him any less family. 

Much more threatening than Apple Crunch, however, was the cake. Because Pinkie Pie was in charge of party preparations, Rarity was in charge of décor and asking Applejack to bake her own birthday cake was just a little bit bold, Twilight had been 'assigned' (read: frog-marched to the kitchen and all but manacled to the stove) their baker. Her first thought was to ask why Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy couldn't do it, but the answers were blindingly obvious. Fluttershy would be afraid of ovens and Rainbow Dash would get bored and let the cake burn, so she was it.

“We don't exactly know how old she is, so just keep adding candles until you smell the ceiling burning,” Rainbow Dash said casually before exiting from the window. That set the tone, really.

The problem with cake was that it didn't seem to be subject to the laws of physics, nature or even magic. It was only subject to the law of cake, and once you put it in the oven it did pretty much whatever it wanted, no matter how implausible. Her first attempt had failed to rise in a truly spectacular manner, and was promptly confiscated by the Equestrian Astrological society to see if there was, in fact, a small black hole in the centre that was pulling the rest of the cake into it. 

It didn't help that her instructions on cake-making came directly from Pinkie Pie. The earth pony had provided a cheat sheet of ten instructions, with the assurance that they would result in a perfect cake. As could be expected, three of the instructions seemed to have been written upside down and the rest simply read 'Add more tambourine!' with varying numbers of exclamation points. 

Five attempts in, and Twilight was toying with the idea of drowning herself in the cake mixture. Her latest cake was not turning out well, although on the upside she was fairly sure she had discovered a colour that did not exist in nature, hidden in the icing. She was tempted to scour her library and see if she couldn't find some serviceable baking instructions- maybe a tome or two of forbidden cake lore dredged from the hoary mists of time. 

However, as she tossed down her apron and grabbed her keys, she heard an almost Lovecraftian squelch. Slowly and carefully, she turned around to watch with horrified curiosity as Pinkie Pie's head emerged slowly from the mixing bowl.

“Did you add more tambourine?” Pinkie whispered softly, eyes furtive. 

Twilight nodded mutely, careful to keep an appeasing smile on her face. Despite Pinkie Pie's entry through the mixing bowl, there was not a single drop of batter on her. 

“Show meeeeeeeeeeee,” Pinkie Pie hissed.

Twilight pointed towards her her previous attempts. Pinkie sniffed deeply, like a bloodhound scenting its mark. 

“Needs even more tambourine,” the earth pony said, before jumping from the mixing bowl, leaving the contents entirely undisturbed. She picked up a wooden spoon and began hitting the failed cakes at random. As opposed to adding more tambourine.

“Embrace the cake, Twilight. The cake is life. The cake is the wooooorrrrld!” Pinkie rasped.

Twilight was then faced with a brief struggle between her rational mind and her very visceral fear of whatever Pinkie was going to do next. Eventually, she settled for trying to make herself look as small as possible in the hopes Pinkie might not notice her.

“Carry on,” Pinkie said after a while, and walked out of the room into what Twilight was fairly sure was a chimney. Twilight made a mental note to lay off the magic, if only to allow the laws of physics time enough to curl up in the foetal position and cry. Then she decided it would probably be a good idea to pour the cake batter away and make a fresh batch. Yes, that would probably be best.

However, Twilight Sparkle knew one thing. Regardless of Pinkie's instructions, the randomness of cake or even the destruction of the world itself, she would keep trying until she got it right. Even if it took her until Applejack's birthday or beyond. And she would take Pinkie's advice, and add more tambourine. Because that was what friendship was all about: believing in your friends no matter how the odds were stacked. That, and making sure Apple Crunch had no excuse to run around murdering people. That was pretty important, too.

But it still felt that there had to be more plausible methods in the great art of cake making. Like there was some sort of trick she wasn't getting. As she took up her spoon once more and assembled her ingredients, she wondered idly if applying a quick lightning spell would cook the cake quicker...



A/N: I make no apologies for the over-the-top lunacy of Pinkie. None whatsoever.