Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest


Prompt #554: Cake-pocalyspe

Twilight Sparkle woke up to a world bathed in white outside of her bedroom window in her new castle. Dark clouds floated overhead, but the whole scene that she saw seemed quite tranquil. But there was something tingling at the edge of Twilight’s senses, a lingering sense that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

What that was became apparent soon enough. Normally, Twilight could see straight down the main street of Ponyville from her window. And technically, she still could, but half of the building were in various states of disrepair, and most of those had fallen down. Not a single pony was out in the streets. Given that Ponyville still more or less rose with the sun, it being primarily an Earth Pony town, this only enhanced the feeling currently sending shivers down to the tips of Twilight’s wings.

Twilight didn’t even bother with her usual morning routine. She hurried downstairs, and out of the front door of her castle, and out into the white-coated ground. Her first stop was, quite naturally, Sugarcube Corner. If anypony had any idea of where everypony was, or what had happened, it would be Pinkie Pie.

But Sugarcube Corner was no longer there. The only thing that remained of the ginger-bread style shop was a blackened crater and few standing struts, also blackened. It was then that Twilight became aware of the smells in the air. Normally, Ponyville smelt like dirt, fresh grass and the ever so subtle scent of burning sugar, though that was mostly around Sugarcube corner. Btu today, those smells were all overpowered by a single, very familiar smell.

The smoky scent of things that had been burning, and burning long and hard. Twilight Sparkle looked around with new eyes. The buildings weren’t crumbling from age, their structure had been damaged by a blast of some kind. There was still small spot fires here and there, still chewing on what fuel they had left. And Twilight realized that it wasn’t snow she was standing on; it was ash. A lot of ash. She took to the air to survey the damage.

Up high above her home town, Twilight could see the blast pattern more clearly. Sugarcube Corner had been the origin of whatever the blast had been.

Suddenly a burst of movement caught Twilight’s eye, and she dove down, hoping to get some answers for what had happened here. And, as luck would have it, it was the exact pony who she needed to talk to: Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie?” asked Twilight Sparkle, her hooves carving grooves in the ash drifts as she landed, “What in Equestria happened here?”

Pinkie blushed, and looked down.

“Well, you know I was trying to bake the ultimate hotsauce cake, right?”

Twilight nodded, and then her mind leapt to a conclusion.

“Pinkie Pie, please don’t tell me that you mixed liquid rainbow into a hotsauce cake, and it blew up Ponyville.”

Pinkie Pie smiled a bashful smile, and Twilight dropped her face into her hooves with a groan.