Chapter 16: Vignettes
The grey mailmare greeted Cup Cake, the eyes of the pegasus wobbling around as she passed her the letter.
As the pegasus pony winged away, Cup Cake let her gaze fall across an unfamiliar name that sat in the return address.
She opened it gingerly and laid it before her on the floor in the sunlight. As she sat and began to read, the words became large in her perception.
"Dear Mrs. Cake," it read, "I am writing to console you on the passing of your father, Quarry, these ten months ago. I am sorry to reach you on this matter so late after his death, but it has taken me so long to come to terms with it myself."
Cup Cake felt emotions rising up in her as she read this letter, as this complete stranger explained how her father had played a part in his life… how they had been partners, how he had lied to her father…
… how her father had reacted in the typical fashion of his younger days.
"I still walk with a limp," the letter continued, "and for most of my life I have lived both in fear of your father, in anger at his act that shattered my body, and in shame for what I did to him that set us upon that path."
Cup Cake felt herself wavering on her hooves as she dealt with the conflicting emotions that the letter was bringing forth. It only got worse as it continued.
"My son informed me more than a year ago that your father wished to make amends, had asked him to say 'Hello' in a genuine fashion," the letter went on, "and for months I was staggered by that fact. That your father was extending an olive branch went against everything that I knew of the stallion, or more accurately, everything that I had convinced myself was true."
Cup Cake's hoof went to her mouth.
"In the end I wished very much to write him, but I could find no words. That he would want to, I hoped, ask for forgiveness and offer it, that was more than I could comprehend. I had made my life by using ponies to my advantage. When we had our altercation that worldview was shaken. It had forced me to rely on others. In many ways his thrashing me about was perhaps the best thing to happen to me… and what I took as his attempt to rectify the gap between us seemed to complete the act."
Her eyes went moist as she continued to read.
"The pony who sat down to write you this letter is not the same one who your father detested, but is instead one that I can only hope deserved the forgiveness that he seemed to be offering, and that I would certainly have given. I am only saddened that my hesitancy cost me the chance to present this letter to him. I instead deliver it into the hooves of somepony he undoubtedly loved very much."
"Most Sincerely," the letter concluded, "Penny Pincher…"
Cup Cake gave a little huff of emotion as she lifted the letter and took it to the office. There she studied it again, ran her eyes over the words and tried to begin writing a reply.
Instead she found herself once more trotting back out into the showcase room, making long elliptical orbits of a display of macaroons before sitting once more in the sunlight that came in through the window.
Ten months after his death her father's life was reverberating, the strings of causality still pulling at ponies he had encountered across his decades.
"… somepony he undoubtedly loved very much," she repeated to herself.
At once a memory lifted through Cup Cake, Quarry lifting her in a vast hug as she presented him the cupcakes that had revealed her mark. The memory of his forelegs around her as he had scooped up his Little Cupcake, that feeling washed through her as the tears began.
She sat there sniffling in the sunlight and wishing very much for Carrot to return home from his errands, very much wanting to bury her head in her husband's chest and let him embrace her.
Although not as intimate, a figure that was also dear to her presented itself as Pinkie Pie bounced out from the kitchen. The mare seemed to screech to a halt as she saw Cup Cake sitting in the light and heard small sobs rising from her.
"Mrs. Cake!" called Pinkie, trotting to her at once and nuzzling beneath her chin, laying her head to that of the older mare. "What's wrong, what's wrong, what's wrong?"
"Oh, Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry, I'm… I'm just missing my daddy again, got a little letter about him, dont'cha know?" she said as she leaned into the puffy pink mane and let her head rest to the smaller mare as she offered her embrace.
Together they sat there, sharing little remembrances of the departed stallion as ponies went by the window. Pinkie recalled how he had always given her and her sisters cookies or candies when the family had come by the house or the office.
"I'm sorry, Pinkie," said Cup Cake, trying to smile as the tears still ran down her face, "I'm still weepy, don't quite know why…"
"That's okay," said Pinkie as she recalled something her own mother had said a long time ago, "it's okay to cry! It really, really, really is okay to cry. He was a great guy, and he earned every tear… but, he is happy now, I'm sure of it. I'm super-duper absolutely sure of it, Mrs. Cake…"
Cup Cake gave a small sigh and looked down to Pinkie. As she did, Pinkie smiled back up to her and touched her nose to the other mare gently. With that the two sat until Carrot returned, the stallion staring happily as two of the most important mares in his life greeted him at the door.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pinkie Pie came bounding through the humid kitchen, mop and bucket at the ready.
As the pink mare went spinning and galloping through the space, she quickly worked to clear away any standing water. As she went, she explained her situation, explained how she had begun to take a bath but then realized that Gummy needed a bath before she left and that she did not want to leave dirty bed sheets behind over the holiday so she had tried to do all at once and on and on and on…
They could only smile at her as she stopped in mid-step, looked at them quizzically as they stood over the gingerbread house with their umbrellas.
Life with Pinkie Pie, it was a daring adventure, one that had added so much to their journey together…
…one that they would not have missed out on for all of the world.
As she ran her mop across everything, she sped off again, leaving them free to lower the umbrellas, certain that she would soon have the matter cleared up.
She had grown here in this bakery. She was stronger now, notwithstanding all that had happened in her own life. In fact all of the challenges that she and her friends had faced only seemed to strengthen her, a growth that they saw with relief and joy.
They watched her go with smiles across their faces, proud of the mare whose adult life had begun here under their watch, who they were stronger for having helped and guided.
Cup Cake looked up to her husband once more, still saw the white dollop of frosting sitting across his nose, and once more it found a place in her thoughts.
As they prepared to box up the gingerbread house, her happiness once more showed on her face as she wondered what exactly the fate of the spoonful of frosting would be…
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once upon a hard metal examination table, a beautiful mare had sat using tissue after tissue, her tears running down her hospital gown. As she waited for her body to stop throbbing in pain, many different thoughts ran through her head.
One of the thoughts was, if they were truly denied ever having foals of their own, what would their lives look like?
Nearly a decade later, she knew the answer to that question, knew that having Pinkie Pie in the bakery with them had provided them with somepony to fill that space. As Pinkie's network of friends grew, somehow they too were drawn into the world of the Cakes.
Not foals of their own, yet reasonable facsimiles on many levels. New faces came into their lives, ranging from the humble and meek to ponies whose powers they could hardly even ponder.
As she stood in the kitchen drying dishes, she could not know that the first such entrance was happening just on the other side of the swinging doors.
Carrot winced as he saw the deliver ponies attempt to bring the crate in through the front door.
As they did, it chipped the paint off of the frame and scuffed the wooden floor. As the unfolding tragedy revealed itself, the crate came to a sudden stop right in the middle of the showcase room of Sugar Cube Corner, much to his frustration and the bemusement of the few customers that were walking about.
"Hooray! It came, it came, it came!" called a Pinkie Pie who bounded joyfully around the crate, ending with her hooves held high above her. At once she looked to Carrot and fixed him in an inquiring stare. "What is it?"
He checked the packaging label to be sure. When he was certain, he called out to Cup Cake. "Honey Bun!" he spoke, his enthusiasm garnering her attention as she trotted out from the kitchen.
Pinkie Pie's enthusiasm was already evident. Even as Cup Cake approached, she was already pulling at the boards, seemed even to gnaw at them.
He pulled her away by her tail; making her drop the crowbar with which she had been about to assault the crate.
As was often the case, their lifelong friends they had made in the swamp upon their honeymoon had sent them another gift. As the smells of citrus rose from the crate, once more filling Sugar Cube Corner with the scent of things remembered.
They used some of the fruit in their own recipes, but the understanding of course was that some would be sold in the shop.
In reply went supplies of fine fabrics and goods not so easily found in Southern Equestria, the train speeding the well wishes between the distant friends who had always seemed as close as any they had ever made.
The only difference this time was that the crate was so vast!
Carrot took up the crowbar and used it in a much more gentle fashion than it seemed that Pinkie had been determined to use.
As he pulled away the boards, the reason for the vastness of the crate was revealed. Inside it stood a series of boxes rather than the traditional one or two, each one marked with what it contained.
"It kinda smells like the time that I worked on the kumquat farm," began Pinkie, bouncing around and trying to peer within, "and I remember the smell because I would always smell the kumquats when I woke up and when I went to sleep and I like to say kumquat..."
"Oh my!" interrupted Cup Cake as she looked over Carrot's shoulder while Pinkie bounced around behind them in an attempt to get a better view. "It must have been a good growing year!"
"Would you look at that!" began Carrot. "We have oranges, and nectarines, and lemons, limes and… "
He only had a split second to stare into the eyes of his assailant before it was upon him.
"… waaahaaggghhh!" cried Carrot, spinning wildly as something bit down upon him.
As Cup Cake and Pinkie looked on, Carrot went around and around the room with his voice high in alarm as something dangled from his nose, something that stared back at him with big purple eyes.
Slowly he began to calm, realizing that whatever it was it did not seem to be doing much. In truth it just sort of dangled there with a moist presence.
Eventually Carrot came to a standstill in front of Cup Cake and Pinkie Pie, emitting a low kind of whine of trepidation as his eyes went up to the mares and back to the creature that stood affixed to his muzzle.
"Why, it's a little alligator!" said Cup Cake, looking her husband over as her fear was washed away and was replaced by something more like pleasant surprise.
"Kin yew ghet im hoof mah nohds?" asked a dubious Carrot, tilting his head back and forth and staring cross-eyed at the little creature that still grasped at him. It stared back at him with purple eyes that seemed to blink in a manner that seemed out of synch with one another.
Gently Cup Cake and Pinkie pulled the alligator off of him, making reassuring noises as it somehow seemed to croak and chirp back at them.
To their surprise Pinkie coaxed it off and gathered it into her hooves, rubbed at its shoulders and along its stomach.
The little alligator made a croaking, chirping sound in reply. As she placed it on the floor, it simply stood there looking at them with its purple eyes.
"The poor little thing must be thirsty… oh, the boxes weren't even open, it must be famished too, don'tcha know!" said Cup Cake as she led Pinkie towards the kitchen.
Carrot Cake was once again left alone in the showcase room, the few customers having fled screaming out into the streets at the mention of the word "alligator."
Carrot crossed his eyes to study his nose. He was surprised that there were no scratches… could the little creature have no…
He leaned closer to where it sat in the middle of the floor and blinked. "Hey there!" he said in a quiet tone as he approached the little creature. "Say there, you aren't so bad, now are…"
As it hissed at him, he danced his hooves in place. He looked back to the kitchen as the mares returned.
"Oh, he's just scared and hungry and thirsty and he just needs somepony to look after him and take care of him and throw him parties and make him little outfits…"
As the Cakes watched, Pinkie Pie followed the creature around the room, her hooves seeming to be full of energy and her smile only getting wider.
"I… I honestly, don't think it has any teeth," said Carrot while he watched Cup Cake lay a few pieces of food around the creature.
"You've got no teeth, oh ain't that funny? You've got no teeth, you're all gummy!" sang Pinkie Pie, picking up the hatchling and spinning it around and around the room. As the Cakes looked on with their eyebrows arching, the little creature slipped her grasp and began biting her all over in an act that seemed like an imperfect mix of excitement, affection, and predation.
With that Pinkie deposited the creature in a punch bowl, only its eyes and tail visible as it floated among the contents.
"Look, it likes it! The gummy little alligator likes it and he's all gummy 'cause he doesn't have any teeth so I'm gonna call him Gummy! Can I keep him?" she said with unrestrained enthusiasm.
Pinkie spun to a stop directly in front of them with a wide smile. With that she lifted the bowl to them as the reptile within stared back at them with the unnerving eyes that once more lost their synchronization.
"Well," said Carrot, regarding his assailant skeptically and watching as Pinkie lifted it from the punch bowl to deposit it among the small snacks, "it's hardly a typical pet…and you know, in time…"
In an instant he felt a familiar hoof on his foreleg. He followed Cup Cake's gaze to where Pinkie was sitting with the alligator. She already seemed so occupied with it, concerned over it… responsible for it.
"She could learn so much," Cup Cake whispered in his ear.
One part of Carrot simply wanted to call Animal Control and be done with it. He communicated this to his wife through his eyes. Her reassuring ones met his. The Cakes regarded the scene a bit longer and then gave their consent.
Pinkie Pie grabbed up the hatchling once more and spun around happily as it clamped its jaws shut around her tail. With that she hugged them both and trotted upstairs to fill the tub, giving it someplace to rest as she completed her chores.
The Cakes watched her go, once more amazed by something that the pink mare had brought into their lives.
"There's an alligator living in our bakery, Ginger Snap," said Carrot in a singsong voice.
Cup Cake giggled, placed her forelegs across his back and nibbled at his ears in the way she knew he adored.
"And you wanted kids!" she scolded as she slid beside him, running her body the length of his as her playful tone announced the smirk that was buried in the statement.
"I still do," he said with his voice above a whisper.
She looked up, saw him smiling back to her. With that she ran her body the length of his again, ending beneath his chin with a long series of nuzzles.
"Oh, I do too," she said as she rubbed her head beneath his all the way down to his chest and up again.
With the act she let him know that her heart was still open to that far away place, even if the magic seemed to keep it beyond the horizon.
Life with Pinkie Pie… it was never boring. To their surprise it was also rather… well, profitable.
The pink mare was a well of energy, seemingly unable to expend it all, and she was constantly trying to meet every customer… seeming to try to get to know everypony in Ponyville.
As Pinkie grew to know more and more ponies, the more ponies would come to Sugar Cube Corner to meet her and spend time with her… and spend a few bits as they did.
Before long, Carrot had to place a few tables outside the shop, and Cup Cake found herself recreating her days as a caterer as she saw to the ponies eating outside, those who had made friends with Pinkie's other friends.
It was far more than just the money, as Pinkie did have a propensity to almost eat a day's earnings in a few monstrous bites, apparently fueling her endless energy.
No, it was also the way she was increasing their social circle. It was the way she was filling their bakery with laughter and music. It was the way that they would sit together and eat their meals. Almost like… family.
It was the way she would have quiet talks with Cup Cake about little things, the way she learned from the older mare.
It was the way she had huddled behind Carrot upon seeing a bat in the attic as she prepared another party.
When she would ask them to giggle at certain ghosties, ones that were the most persistent and sometimes metaphorical, and they would come and help her.
It was the way that they were learning from her… growing because she was a part of their lives. This. then, is what invoked the word "family" and made it seem so very real.
Carrot and Cup Cake had never really done much on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration.
They respected the sovereign as much as anypony, but the thought of spending the early morning hours among throngs of ponies was not nearly as appealing as spending them together. Their wish was to spend it sitting in their little parlor, or at most at the big house where Cheesecake and Wishing Well gathered Cup Cake's extended family.
On this Pinkie differed. As the day drew on, Cup Cake wondered how her young apprentice would be passing that night… wondered what type of night the pink mare would have unfold before her.
She could hardly guess.
As Cup Cake sat behind the counter, she found her attention being pulled to the cash register drawer. She wondered if it had ever been cleaned at all. She carefully pulled out the trays and lifted the liner.
To her surprise two pamphlets lay there, ones dated nearly a decade earlier.
Foster care, adoption.
Her eyes lingered over them for a great long while. He had obviously brought them home with him at some point. The dates upon them were not that long after they had learned that the magic was not answering them.
She began to lift her voice to call to him when a ball of energy burst into the room…
"Mrs. Cake, Mrs. Cake!" called Pinkie Pie, zooming about and gathering up supplies in a blur of motion. "I just met a new pony and she's a unicorn and she's got a dragon! I was all like 'Oh my Gosh, I've never seen her before!' so she must be a new pony! And if she's a new pony in Ponyville that must mean that she doesn't know anypony yet!"
Cup Cake watched as Pinkie continued to zoom about. As she did, a small pile of party supplies grew in the showcase room.
"So I thought that if she doesn't know anypony she must not have any friends and if she doesn't have any friends she must be lonely! And that made me sad, and since that made me sad I thought it must make her sad and I don't like that so I thought about ways she could meet ponies and of course there's a best way and that's to throw a party!"
Cup Cake still stared at Pinkie Pie as a small mountain of supplies seemed to fit within a suspiciously small saddlebag. Only her party cannon seeming to be absent from the stack that disappeared within. With that Pinkie seemed to go up the stairs, yet emerged from the basement door.
"So now I'm gonna go to the library and set up and then I'll bring everypony there and we'll have a great big ginormous super duper spectacular welcome party for her and then we'll all go to city hall for the Summer Sun Celebration and I hope you two have a really, really, really, good night, bye!"
Inside an instant Cup Cake felt herself wrapped up in one of Pinkie's marvelous hugs, the mare appearing beside her from out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly.
"Oh, that sounds nice! Have fun now!" she called after her, watching as the smiling face bounced out the door.
Silence hung over the bakery once again.
Cup Cake looked down and saw that, despite all that had just happened, her hoof was still holding up the liner, revealing the two pamphlets to the light.
She smiled over them. With that she lowered the liner once more. Despite his good intentions, their lives had not moved in that direction… the life of a young mare had been planted among theirs for whatever reason and she was happy for it.
With that she let the pamphlets rest once more and slid the drawer back within the register.
The Cakes sat up together long into the night and deep into the morning. They did all the small things that they always wished to do together that they rarely had time for. They read poetry, listened to music, looked through albums, and wrote letters.
This is how they passed the shortest night of the year, just as they had for nearly a decade apart from those years at the big house where the noise of teenagers and awkward conversation with Cup Cake's brothers nearly drove Carrot mad.
Together they took their coffees, the caffeine fueling them, and sat in front of the large picture window of the bakery and awaited the dawning of the Summer Sun.
Yet the sun did not come.
"Oh, my," said Cup Cake as the minutes passed, "you-you don't think that coming down here to Ponyville threw the princess off a touch, do you?"
"I-I don't know, Sugar Plum," spoke Carrot, taking her hoof in his. "You wouldn't think so, would you?"
Together they continued to stare out into the pre-dawn darkness, pondering what could be going on in the city hall whose spire and flags were just visible in the darkness over the nearby buildings.
Their eyes went wide as ponies began running through the streets.
They looked to one another as they saw the fear painted across the eyes of those who ran by.
Carrot opened the door with Cup Cake at his side as they tried to make sense of what was happening.
"Nightmare Moon!" called a pony that pelted past, one of their usual customers apparently seeing the confusion upon their faces. "The Mare in the Moon!"
It was a name that should not exist, one that lived only in fairy stories. Together they looked to the moon and saw that it had indeed changed. Despite every part of their logical minds telling them that it could not be happening, they knew… they believed…
"Pinkie," Cup Cake breathed as she looked up to her husband.
Inside an instant the Cakes were struggling forward past the crowd, trying to head towards city hall as ponies streamed in the other direction in the darkness.
As they did, Carrot tried to pick out familiar faces in the crowd, catch the eyes of customers he knew.
"Hey, Big Macintosh, have you seen Pinkie Pie? Drinking Gourd, do you know where Pinkie is? Sparkler, Sparkler did you see Pinkie, the mare who works at my bakery?" he said as ponies slid past them.
As each apologized, he moved on to the next, keeping himself close to Cup Cake as they approached city hall.
"Can you help us, please?" she asked the crowd at large, some ponies stopping to look to her before being swept away. "Oh! Can somepony please help us?" she said as they came upon the steps of the circular structure. "We can't find our Pinkie Pie, have you seen her? Has anyone seen our Pinkie? Have you seen our daught… daughter…"
Carrot spun to her as soon as he had heard the word. He looked upon her just in time to see her bounce through the last utterance of it, to see the word shake through her.
Cup Cake looked up to him. Her eyes were already misting over, the shine of the rose highlighted even in the purple of the undying night.
He sat before her. In an instant she was back in the one place in the world where she felt safest, pressed to his chest as his forelegs ran across her, wrapped her closer to him.
"Carrot! Cuppy!" called a familiar voice. As Ivory Script called out orders to those few ponies who had maintained their senses, she trotted down to them, looked upon her best friends with worry.
"Ivory," said Carrot, "do you know where Pinkie Pie is, did she come here? What happened?"
As Ivory explained what had transpired, Cup Cake lifted her head and listened intently.
Pinkie had gone off with a group of other mares, led it seemed by a young unicorn who Ivory believed to have some sort of grasp on the situation. The news brought Cup Cake no comfort. As the square around city hall began to vacate, the two sat there together, Cup Cake still finding reassurance in his embrace.
They walked together through the city streets to the bakery wordlessly.
They sat there in the picture window together, looking out into the streets and comforting one another with their presence for long hours.
When the sun did erupt into the sky, it found them lying across one another, the bleary faces coming awake, looking perhaps more like worried parents than they knew.
When Pinkie Pie came trotting back into the bakery, her detailed account of what had transpired was instantly muffled beneath a massive hug, one that she returned gladly as two ponies rocked her and cried over her.
Strings of causality… they are the very fabric of fate. They stretch and twist, snarl and get caught and snagged.
They also lie beside one another, are woven and knit. One can only tie, many though bind, and hundreds clothe.
If a beloved stallion now departed from his mortal life had not gone grumbling through the streets, then Pinkie Pie would never have found a place of refuge with these two ponies.
If Cup Cake and Carrot Cake had not fought so hard to forge their lives together, then Cheesecake would never have entered Pinkie's life, never helped her truly understand who she was.
If the Cakes had not opened their lives to her and accepted her so fully, then she would never have become the bright, shining Pinkie Pie that all who knew her loved and cherished.
If she never had become that Pinkie Pie, then there would not have been a place for the Element of Laughter to hang so lightly…
… and Equestria would have been damned to an eternity of night under the cold gaze of a mare of darkness.
Love makes the strings, pulls them tighter, pulled her into their lives… and helped Pinkie share hers with them.
Soon her friends, these six and the dragon whelp, they became as frequent a set of visitors to Sugar Cube Corner as any other. In fact they seemed at times to be a part of the very life of the place.
It was the strings that kept pulling them together. They helped them through the hard times… times when parasprites had flown around and attempted to devour all that they had worked for. Only Pinkie's randomness that they had taken as part of their lives had saved all.
The string pulled them in the times of laughter, when they too played their parts in the little games and jokes her friends had learned to play under her guidance… times when they had joined in the pranks, had made themselves part of a farce about accursed cookies and enchanted alligators.
The strings guided them through the happy times… the times when their family had come together and had celebrated their tenth anniversary in a celebration that Pinkie had planned, as they had danced together like they had at the dancehall long ago when their touch first met the other.
And the strings continued to bring ponies into their lives…
Twilight Sparkle had been a meticulous planner.
She had selected the downstairs rather than the attic so that there could be free movement around Sugar Cube Corner, making it easier for the guest of honor to be served directly from the kitchen.
The Cakes had simply listened as the unicorn had planned everything from the seating arrangements to the menu, watching as her dragon whelp walked behind her and copied down her words as she paced back and forth.
When the day arrived, Carrot found a new face in his kitchen. As he gave simple instructions, he found the dragon whelp, Spike, excited to play his part. The Cakes even produced a little chef's uniform for him, one he immediately adored and wore proudly.
As he trotted back out into the showcase room and the side rooms, he saw all of the happy faces that had assembled.
"How's everypony doing?" he asked, his smile only getting larger as he neared his wife and the guest who sat in their humble bakery. "Good? Good!"
"Is there anything else we can get for you, Dearie?" asked Cup Cake, jumping a touch at her choice of word. "Oh, I mean-mean esteemed guest?"
"Everything is fine, mister and misses Cake," replied the immortal sitting behind their table, looking up to them from across the best teacup they had.
Together they looked out over the crowd. They watched as the guests strolled beneath the colorful decorations that only Pinkie could have set in place, taxing even Twilight's abilities to control.
They circulated around the bakery, Cup Cake bringing trays of treats around to the assembled guests. It was a small gathering, casual as it could be for having the very living embodiment of deep magic using her grandmother's old teacup and having guards posted at the doors.
Cup Cake tried to remember that fact as she dealt with the foibles of the afternoon. Pinkie's friend Rarity seemed to have a breakdown at the thought of staining her dress. Pinkie herself apparently snatched a cupcake out of the very magic of their seemingly divine guest of honor.
As Cup Cake quickly dragged Pinkie away and gave a quick lesson on interaction with divinities, Carrot brought Celestia another cup of tea and a new cupcake.
As her teacup was emptied, he heard his wife shout across the showcase room, her decisiveness at the fore. "Empty teacup at four o'clock!" she called, gesturing with her hoof.
"I see it, Honey Bun!" he called back, leaping into action, quickly pouring another cup for the alicorn.
"Oh! Ummm… thank you!" answered the immortal.
"Not at all, Your Highness," answered Carrot with a bow. In an instant she had emptied the cup, the larger frame of the sovereign simply taking larger sips than those who surrounded her.
At once Cup Cake had filled her cup, racing from the other side of the room and beginning a chain of filling and emptying.
A look of small concern flashed across Celestia's face as she looked down over her children, these two earth ponies. They were only trying to please her…
…she wished they would not try so hard. They had already done so much on her behalf.
A look of playful cunning swept her, and with one more motion she tricked Carrot into pouring her a new cup… one that fell into a cup that was already full.
"Gotcha!"
As a sheepish look went across Carrot's face, Celestia smiled down to them, Cup Cake sharing in the smile of her sovereign, realizing what she had done.
After a moment, Carrot recovered too. Soon he understood, saw that there was something buried there… something that fell from the alicorn softly as she looked across them and across all of the ponies in the room.
Carrot looked upon the two smiling figures, the alicorn and earth pony mares. A memory hit him, one of Cup Cake dressed as the alicorn that now sat near them on a Nightmare Night long ago. As the radiant beauty fell from the princess, he could certainly see it reflected in the mare he loved, and in that instant he was very thankful for both of the divine creatures that sat in his sight.
Outside, Ivory Script paced back and forth, important issues on her mind.
The thought of interrupting this party troubled her, knew that it was something that was big and important and that her two best friends were hosting...
... yet, friendship or not, she had a duty to perform.
"Forgive me, Cuppy, Carrot..." she breathed in a whisper. With that she advanced to the guards. As they eyed her, she kept her head level.
"Please inform her majesty that Ivory Script, the mayor of Ponyville," she said, slowly moving her eyes between them, "has an urgent issue she must discuss at her earliest convenience."
The two Royal Guardsponies looked at one another, and with that one went off to whisper the matter to the princess.
A half of an hour or so later, the party had been cleared away and the sound of dishes being washed chimed across the kitchen. The sound of crockery full of leftovers finding its way into the icebox and the single resonate notes of the teacups being placed back in their cupboard joined them in a small chorus.
The bell above the door rang out, adding its own sound to the refrain that was sounding through the bakery.
"Could you see to whoever that is, Honey Bun? My hooves are full," said Carrot nervously wobbling along with his forelegs full of china.
"Oh, righty!" she answered. She trotted out of the kitchen and into the showcase room.
With that she once more entered the presence of Procer Celestia Invictus, the alicorn having returned to their humble bakery.
"Oh, hello again, Dearie! Oh, I mean, Your Majesty!" she said as she made a little bow. "What is it that that brings you back to us?"
"I do wish to thank you for hosting this get-together," said the sovereign while her mane shifted around on magic unseen, "Twilight had been planning it for so long…"
"Oh, it was no problem at all! Twilight was a delight to work with, Dearie, and… I mean Majesty!" she exclaimed with a smile, trying again to recover from her use of the word.
No sense of impropriety seemed to fall from the alicorn, no disgust seemed follow her use of such a common name.
Instead the opposite seemed true, as though the princess seemed to grow happier as the two smiled to one another.
"I was wondering if perhaps you have seen my pet bird?" asked Celestia as she lifted her hoof and pointed to where the stand had once stood. "I have not seen her since the party…"
"Oh, oh no… no I haven't, Majesty," Cup Cake said, her hoof coming to her mouth, "let… let me ask Carrot if he's heard or seen-"
"Oh," interrupted Celestia, still smiling over the mare that stood before her. "That is quite alright. She has a propensity to get into all sorts of trouble… I am sure she will show up."
The two mares stood there in the afternoon light, blinking to one another in the sunlight that the alicorn had raised over her domain.
"I was also wondering if I might purchase some pastries? The court loves to try some from all over Equestria, and I should like to display some of yours," added the sovereign as she looked upon the wares of Sugar Cube Corner.
"Why, of course! We'd be honored, Dear…Majesty!" added Cup Cake as her smile grew wider.
"I am very glad," spoke the alicorn as she gracefully turned to look upon Cup Cake, "I shall have my chamberlain send for them, send your stipend and a courier."
At once her smile dropped.
Celestia's expression became one of sympathy as Cup Cake's face fell down into reflection, the face of the sovereign tilting as she mused over the questions that were now filling her child.
Inside Cup Cake thousands of unanswered Invokes flew around, the pain of ten years of trying to no avail swept up inside her.
Before her stood perhaps the only living being in Equestria that could answer her questions, offer some solace. With a rush of emotion she moved to ask her sovereign if it was possible that the journey might still bring them to that place.
"Majesty, Princess…" she began, trembling a little as she ventured her thoughts, "I-I'm sorry to be so bold, ya' know, but-but I have to ask… ummm, you-you see Carrot and I have wanted, wanted to…been trying to…"
The fall of the hooves of the alicorn sounded out across the wooden floors.
With a single gentle motion Celestia lowered her head to that of Cup Cake. She kissed her forehead once and then ran her face along Cup Cake's tenderly.
Cup Cake felt the power that lay there. Inside her mind, pastel colors shifted about and darted through a cloudscape.
She felt a powerful and deep magic shift around her as though it were being examined, questioned…
Beyond her a well opened up in more colors, ones that seemed to waft around her and cradle her. Inside it two golden spheres wafted on silver clouds, darting about and flying to her, orbiting her in what seemed like peals of laughter.
After a moment her sovereign's head lifted to her ear. The vision fell out of Cup Cake's eyes and mind as the gentle voice filled her.
"They are going to be beautiful, Cup Cake," whispered the alicorn, the words falling lightly over the earth pony.
With that Celestia brushed a stray waft of her radiant mane out of her face. She smiled over a confused Cup Cake once more and then departed Sugar Cube Corner in search of her wayward phoenix.