• Published 8th May 2019
  • 347 Views, 3 Comments

Pumpkin and Pound - Hopeful_Ink_Hoof



The Cake Twins adventures in Ponyville (based off of the Peg & Corn Episode: "A Sticker Situation" and "When Life Gives You Apples"

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When Life Gives You Apples

Pumpkin Cake leaned in close, her blue eyes narrowing as she re-read the recipe. With a nod of satisfaction, she returned her attention to the bowl on the counter in front of her. With her hoof, she grabbed the spatula and continued stirring. At the same time, her horn lit up with the pale blue glow of her magic, lifting the measuring cup and aiming the spout toward the bowl.

"Hey," Pound Cake called out.

The sound of her twin brother's voice caused Pumpkin to jump slightly. It also caused her to loose her concentration, her telekinesis spell dispersing. The measuring cup hit the counter with a loud thunk! Mercifully, the heavy duty glass did not shatter, but the rice cereal was scattered across the counter.

With a sigh, Pumpkin reached out with her hoof and picked up the measuring cup, giving it a gentle rocking to have the remaining cereal evened out. After checking, she grabbed the box and started refilling the cup.

"Could you clean up the spilled cereal please?" she asked.

"Uh, sure," Pound replied. Grabbing a small trash can, he made his way over to the counter. One wing stretched out as he used it as a brush, sweeping up the spilled cereal and brushing it off the counter, into the trash.

"What are you doing, anyways?"

"I'm trying to make the marshmallow cereal treats," Pumpkin answered, motioning at the book with her head.

Pound stopped sweeping and leaned closer. His own eyes narrowed as he looked at the book.

"Isn't that the Foal-time Fun in the Kitchen cookbook?" he asked.

"Yeah," Pumpkin answered. She picked up the measuring cup and started pouring the cereal in. "I'm trying to learn to cook with it."

"Why?" Pound asked. He spread his free wing, motioning around them. "We live in a bakery. We cook all the time."

"No, we don't," Pumpkin replied. She turned to look at her brother as she stirred the cereal together with the marshmallow and butter. "Mom, Dad, and Pinkie cook. We help them. We assist. They do most of the work, letting us measure something or stir." She held up the spatula she was using, pointing the handle at the cookbook. "With this, I am doing all the work. Good or bad, it's all me."j

She resumed mixing the treats.

"Plus, once I get this right, I can start experimenting with it." She grinned. "Maybe I'll add peanut butter. Or chocolate chips." She looked down. "Maybe I'll try using rainbow mini marshmallows."

She let out a small squee of excitement.

"Uh-huh," Pound Cake said, rolling his eyes. He finished cleaning and turned to put the trash can back. "I'll see about adding 'Pumpkin's Equestria Famous Cereal Treats' to the board."

Pumpkin turned to look at him, her blue eyes narrowing.

"You laugh now," she called out, pointing the sticky end of the spatula at him, "but just you wait. It'll happen, and I'll be getting the last laugh." She then threw her head back and let out the best evil laugh she could manage.

"Now, Pumpkin," her father, Carrot Cake, called out, "what did we tell you about maniacal laughter?"

"Not to unless I'm planning something evil," Pumpkin answered, rolling her own eyes. "Which I'm not allowed to act on until I'm eighteen."

"Good girl." Carrot then gave her a pat on the back.

"Wouldn't her planning something evil make her evil, and so, not a good girl?" Pound asked.

"But she's listening to us now, which means she's still a good girl."

Carrot then stepped back and turned.

"Anyway, once you're done, we have a delivery for you two to make. There's a box of honey oat bars, waiting to be delivered to Sweet Apple Acres."


It was a warm, sunny morning as the two of them made their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Pound walked along the dirt road leading toward the farm, pulling the cart behind him. Pumpkin walked along side, sometimes checking on the bars, and sometimes checking the path ahead. Once they had left town, the road leading to the farm was empty.

They got to have a nice quiet walk along the dirt road.

As they reached the gates to Sweet Apple Acres, the silence was interrupted by the sound of a sheep bleating. They watched as one ran past them, its front half sheared, giving it a sort of weird reverse poodle cut. Not far behind it was a yellow earth pony mare.

"Get back here, you overgrown cotton ball!" she bellowed.

"Apple Bloom?" Pumpkin called out, tilting her head.

The mare, Apple Bloom, came to a stop, hoof skidding in the grass.

"Oh, hey," she said. "What brings y'all here today?"

"We're delivering some honey oat bars," Pumpkin answered.

"Is everything okay?" asked Pound.

One side of Apple Bloom's face twitched as her smile grew wider.

"Okay?" she repeated. "Of course everything's okay! Why wouldn't it be?" She shifted, looking around the farm. "Just because everypony else is gone, busy somewhere else, leavin' me to run the whole farm on my own, which means I have to do all the chores by myself. Plus it's shearin' season. So I have to round up all the sheep and shear them of their wool."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked past the Cakes.

"And y'all ain't allowed to touch those bars 'til after you get sheared! You hear me!"

The Cake twins jumped slightly at the shouting, then turned to look where Apple Bloom was looking. Next to the cart was a sheep, with all its wool on. Its head was halfway down, and mouth wide as it was reaching for one of the bars in the back. Its nearly black eyes shifted between the twins and Apple Bloom.

The sheep lowered its head, mouth opening wider.

"Don't," Apple Bloom warned.

The sheep stopped, looked at her, then lowered its head again.

"Don't!" she repeated.

Pound Cake pulled the cart forward, forcing the sheep to yank its head up and away from the bars, or risk getting smacked by one of the sides. The sheep looked at Pound, let out an annoyed bleat, then turned and walked off indignantly.

Apple Bloom let out a huff, stomping a hoof. Before she could say anything more, a gray and yellow streak shot out of the sky and slammed into the ground, kicking up dirt and grass as it did.

Apple Bloom and the twins slowly approached, as wide as the dust settled.

"I'm okay!" a feminine voice cried out. A gray pegasus mare stood up, brushed herself off, and turned to face them. One eye focused on Apple Bloom as the other drifted off to look... somewhere else.

"Special delivery," Derpy the mailmare called out, pulling an envelope from her mailbag and passing it to Apple Bloom. Once that was done, she took off again.

After watching Derpy leave, Apple Bloom opened the envelope and read the message inside. She dropped the letter and threw her head back, letting out a long, raspy groan.

"Of coouuuurrrrse!" she finally cried out.

"Is something wrong?" Pumpkin asked.

"Yes," Apple Bloom snapped. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

"Sorry," she continued in a calmer tone. "It's kind of a 'good news, bad news' type a' thing." She held up the letter. "Le Petit Fromage is having a special guest chef this evening, and they need five bushels for the dinner special." Her golden eyes narrowed as she glared at the letter. "They are even willing to pay double our usual costs due to the rush order."

The twins glanced at each other.

"So, that's the good news?" Pound asked.

"Eyup. The problem is that we don't have anywhere near that much in stock, and with everything else goin' on, I ain't got time to go out and collect anywhere near that much." Apple Bloom sighed, shaking her head. "This is a great opportunity for us, and I have to pass on it."

Several seconds passed in silence.

"Maybe we can help," offered Pumpkin.

"You can?" asked Apple Bloom.

"We can?" asked Pound Cake.

"Yeah," Pumpkin replied. "I mean, we aren't farmers, but I bet we can harvest enough for the order." She tilted her head, brow furrowing. "But... uhm..." She bit her lip for a second. "One question. How big is a bushel?"

Apple Bloom's lips pursed and eyes narrowed as she looked at the filly. A snort escaped the mare's snout. Then another. The third turned into a snicker, which broke into full on laughter. Reaching out with one leg, she wrapped it around Pumpkin and pulled the filly close, tousling her bright orange mane.

"That's somethin' you should really ask before you offer to help," she said, still chuckling. "Fortunately, it ain't a complicated thing to figure out." She pointed out toward the orchard. "Each basket is made to hold a bushel of apples. So, if y'all just need to fill five baskets, and we'll have five bushels."

"Great," Pumpkin called out, slipping from Apple Bloom's grasp. "Come on, Pound. I bet we can get five buckets filled in no time."

"Right," Pound cried out. Unhitching himself from the cart, he chased after his twin sister.

Leaving Apple Bloom to deal with it.

With a sigh, she walked up to the cart, pressed her head against it, and started pushing it toward the sheep pen.

"Alright, ya varmints!" she called out. "If y'all want these treats, you're gonna have to let me shear ya!"

With a round of bleating, the sheep began to follow.


The young Cakes walked through the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, looking up at the trees. The leaves were thick and lush, creating a nice cool shade, and little dapples of light in the trees and on the ground. Large, juicy apples hung from the branches, in shades of red, green, yellow, and mixes of the three. Empty baskets were scattered all around.

"This looks like a good place to start," Pumpkin Cake decided. "Let's grab some baskets and get started."

The pair then went their separate ways, each grabbing an empty basket, and making their way to their own apple trees. Pound flew up into his, grabbed two that looked good, flew back down, and dropped them into his basket. Pumpkin stood under hers, using her magic to pull off an apple and float it down to the basket, setting it inside before getting another. A simple, if slow, way for the two of them to gather the apples they needed.

The excitement of doing something new and different made the chore fun long enough for each of them to fill one basket. After that, they both began to get bored of it very quickly.

Pound tried carrying an armful, but it was a struggle to keep them all from falling out of his grasp while flying down. Next, he tried tossing the apples into the basket from the branch, but just as many of them missed as made it, and one even bounced up and out despite being perfect. Pound then tried simply dropping the apple straight down, but his hoof-eye coordination was not yet developed enough to do that. For a moment, he considered hanging upside down and dropping the apples, but had no idea how to manipulate his tail to do such a thing.

Then he came up with something he thought was brilliant. Instead of hanging upside down by his tail, he did so by wrapping all of his legs around a branch. Opening his wings wide, he curved them and brought them together, creating a funnel. After taking a deep breath, he used his entire body to shake the branch. The ripe apples came loose, sliding down the inside of his wings and dropping into the bucket below.

As for Pumpkin: when she got tired of picking apples one at a time, she tried picking multiple at one time. Unfortunately, pulling the apples free used too much concentration, and she could not keep the others levitating while she did so. Pumpkin next tried pulling a large number off and lowering them into the basket all at the same time, but not all the apples needed the same amount of pressure to pull off, causing some that came off faster to hit the ground. She then tried levitating the bucket up into the tree, letting it rest on the branches, and putting the apples in from there.

It did not work well. First, while she could levitate the empty basket, it was difficult to find branches to support it on their own. Even then, she had to carefully balance it. This led to the next issue: after putting several apples in, the weight and balance would shift, forcing Pumpkin to stop and re-adjust it. Finally, once it had been filled (which, it turned out was hard to tell since she could not see the top), it was a struggle to lower back to the ground while keeping it even, with all the weight of the apples now inside. She had barely managed to bring it to the ground without dumping all the apples out.

As Pumpkin got another empty basket, she found a long piece of wood that was curved. Almost like a groove. If something round -- or mostly round -- were put in it, that object would roll down to the bottom, not going off the sides.

Like an apple!

With an idea forming in her mind, Pumpkin grabbed the board and took it with her. After placing one end in the bucket, she moved to rest the other end on one of the branches. She plucked an apple, set it in the groove, then released her magical grip.

The apple bumped and rocked, but rolled all the way down until it plunked into the bucket.

"Yes!" Pumpkin Cake cried out, throwing out her forehooves. "Victory!"

Now she could work a lot faster. She could still only pick one apple at a time, but did not have to lower it all the way down, nor stop to adjust the basket in the branches. Instead, she could just plop the apple into the groove, and let it roll down on its own while she grabbed another. Sometimes, she managed to get more than one rolling at a time.

Although she never managed to get more than three.

Time passed quickly as the two worked: filling one bucket, moving it, grabbing an empty one, and starting on another tree.

As Pound came down to move his latest, he stopped, looking around at the others. He held up a hoof and counted.

"One...two... three... four..."

He stopped as he pointed at one more.

Uh-oh.

"Hey, Pumpkin?" he called out. "How many baskets have you collected?"

"Uhm... I haven't really been keeping track," Pumpkin replied. "Hold on. One. Two. Three. Four..."

"Let me guess," Pound said, looking over toward his sister. "Five?"

"Four and a half, technically," his sister responded. "What about you?"

"Five."

"I guess we both go caught up in it and lost count." Pumpkin said, moving closer to him. Her blue eyes glanced around to take in all the baskets of apples around them.

"And now we have nearly ten baskets of apples," Pound added, letting out a huff. "What are we going to do with them?"

"Isn't that up to Apple Bloom?"

Wings fluffing out and eyes going wide, Pound turned to look at Pumpkin.

"You just want to go tell her?"

"...yyeahh?" she replied, raising one eyebrow. "It's her farm? Why wouldn't we?"

"You saw how stressed out she was about everything when we got here," Pound pointed out. "If we tell her that we messed up and picked too many apples, who knows what will happen."

For a moment, the two of them imagined Apple Bloom's reaction. Pound pictured her eyes wide and jaw clenched, entire head turning a bright red before literally exploding. Pumpkin imagined her bursting into tears, solid streams of water spraying from her eyes to create massive puddles, and leaving Apple Bloom so dehydrated, that she shrank down and wrinkled up like a raisin.

They both shook their heads, dismissing the mental pictures.

"So, what should we do?" asked Pumpkin.

Pound let out a hum, tapping at his chin. His dark brown eyes narrowed as he looked around.

"Oh," he cried out. "What if we put them back?"

Several seconds passed in silence as Pumpkin Cake stared at her brother, her expression flat.

"...Put... them... back..." Pumpkin said slowly. "You mean you want to take those apples" -- she pointed at one of the buckets -- "and put them back on the branches" -- she pointed at one of the trees -- "like we never plucked them to begin with?"

"Yeah," Pound replied. He then tilted his head, looking at her curiously. "Don't you have a spell that could reconnect the stems or something?"

In a way, the question was kind of flattering to Pumpkin Cake. It was nice to that her brother thought she could do such a thing, and had so much faith in her and her magical abilities. In another way, it was annoying, and a little frustrating. According to their babysitter and unofficial big sister, Pinkie Pie, Pumpkin had been able to perform all sorts of spells when she was a baby, like phase through their playpen and levitate herself. At some point, though, she had lost whatever it was that had let her do that. As it was, she was able to perform little more than magical telekinesis, and even it had limits in weight or numbers. With the two of them being twins, Pound should know what Pumpkin could and could not do by now.

"No," she said. "I don't have any spells that will allow me to reattach an apple to the tree." One of her ears gave a twitch. "Why would I even have a spell like that in the first place?"

"For situations like this," Pound answered.

"How often do you think we're going to end up in situations like this?" Pumpkin shouted, waving a hoof.

"Well it's already more than I thought, so how in Equestria should I know?" Pound shouted back, flaring his wings.

The twins glared at each other, scowling. Seconds passed in tense silence as energy crackled between the two. Lips pulled tight and ears twitched. Neither blinked.

With a sigh, they both looked away.

"Let's just tell Apple Bloom and let her decide what to do with the extras," Pumpkin repeated.

"Fine," Pound replied. "But if her head explodes, I get to take a bath first!"

Pumpkin rolled her eyes and let out a huff, but did not argue. Instead she followed her brother, the two of them leaving the orchard behind and heading to the front of Sweet Apple Acres. As they walked, they saw multiple sheep, sheared of the wool and happily chewing away on something.

The twins found Apple Bloom in a pen with a sheep. One hoof rested on the creature's back while the other held a pair of shears, clipping away the thick layer of wool. To one side of her was a large burlap sack, filled to near bursting, with more of the wool poking out the top. Once it was completely sheared, Apple Bloom opened the pen's gate, and gave the sheep one of the oat bars.

It took the treat and bounced off, happily munching away.

With a sigh, Apple Bloom took her handkerchief and wiped at her brow. She caught sight of the two of them and smiled, waving.

"Hey," she called out as she walked over. "Thanks to the oat bars, I was able to get all the sheep sheared." She came to a stop. "So, how did the apple harvestin' go?"

Instead of immediately answering, Pumpkin and Pound looked at each other. Pound pointed his muzzle at Pumpkin, then motioned his head toward Apple Bloom. Pumpkin shook her head, then repeated the motion. Her brother's jaw clenched and lips pressed thin. He shook his head and motioned his head with more urgency. Baring her teeth, she shook her head and motioned adamantly. Pound motioned even more adamantly.

So much so, his neck gave a loud POP! His eye bulged out, pupils shrinking to pinpricks. A small squeak of pain escaped his lips as he brought a hoof to the side of his now aching neck.

"If somethin' went wrong," Apple Bloom said calmly, "this'd go a lot faster if somepony just told me."

With her brother currently in a pain, Pumpkin decided it was on her.

"We accidentally got more apples than we were supposed to."

"How many more?"

"Five buckets," Pumpkin replied.

Tension escaped from Apple Bloom as she let out a deep sigh of relief. Straightening back up, she looked at the two and smiled, chuckling a little.

"Is that all?"

Once again, the twins looked at each before returning their full attention to the young farm mare.

"You're not mad?" asked Pound.

"Nah," Apple Bloom replied with a shake of her head, still chuckling. "It just means that I actually have some that I can take to the market to sell tomorrow." She took a step forward and place a hoof on their shoulders. "If anything, y'all've made things a little easier for me."

A tension they did not even know they were carrying left the twins, their bodies relaxing. They were not in trouble, and had even helped out more than they had intended. On top of that, they had tried out something new, and managed to have some fun while doing it.

However, it turned out that they were not quite done yet. With Apple Bloom's help, they collected all the baskets, bringing them to the barn, and setting them outside the doors.

"Now, before we go any further," said Apple Bloom, "how about loading a basket or two into your cart to take home?"

"Really?" asked Pound, raising an eyebrow.

"Really. Think of it as both thank you and pay for helping me out today." Apple Bloom gave a small smirk. "Between eating and cooking, I'm sure they'll more than make up for the bits you earned." She gave a wink.

The Cakes got first choice, each one picking a basket and setting it into their cart to take home. Apple Bloom went through the remaining eight, picking out the five that would be sent to Le Petit Fromage. Once that was done, each of them picked up one of the remaining baskets and placed them into the barn for tomorrow.

Pound hooked himself back up to their cart, he and Pumpkin gave one last goodbye, and left Sweet Apple Acres, making their way back home.

As they walked, Pumpkin's mind was already working on recipes.

Sugarcube Corner was going to have quite a variety of apple treats for the next week or so.

Comments ( 2 )

Love the scene with Pumpkin not being allowed to be evil until she's eighteen. You need to set these kinds of boundaries early with unicorn foals, before the pubescent megalomania hits.

In all, very nice slices of life. Excellent work in both incorporating them into Equestria and livening them up from the incredibly twee source material.

So, when do we get to the multiversal changeling conspiracy? :raritywink:

Great story. Can't wait for more. Kind of reminds me of Pound and Pumpkin Tales by another author.

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