> The Great and Powerful Baker! > by SamRose > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The only chapter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you asked her, Trixie would say there was nothing she couldn’t do. Trixie would claim that she was a master of all skills and all talents, and that if she hadn’t done something yet that it was simply because no one had asked her to do it yet. She was the greatest and most powerful person you would ever know and she was determined to let everyone know it. And so it was that we found Trixie trying to accomplish one of these herculean feats.  “The Great and POWERFUL Trixie demands that you OBEY ME!!” Trixie yelled in her typical boastful and arrogant way, pointing intimidatingly at the inanimate oven before her.  The oven, of course, could not hear her nor could it change its actions based on demands. It simply sat there, cooking whatever was inside of it as it was ordered to do by the pressing of buttons moments earlier.  It certainly made Trixie look quite foolish, but the brash young woman was not one to be deterred. “I said, you shall OBEY Trixie or face the consequences!!” Trixie shouted again, this time putting more emphasis on her intimidation. The oven was unmoved by her attempts and simply began to leak a bit of black smoke from its edges. “No! NO!!! That is the exact OPPOSITE of what Trixie wanted!!” Trixie cried out at the sight of the smoke. Without hesitation Trixie knew the oven had to feel her wrath to know its place in the world, and so she lifted her foot up and gave it a swift and sturdy kick. The clang of metal echoed in the room as her foot immediately took the brunt of the damage. Before she could properly react to the pain in her foot the oven reacted by swinging its hinged door open and blasting the room in a thick, black smoke. Trixie’s shrieks and cries could be heard from a distance as she stumbled away, crashing into the table behind her, knocking it and its contents to the ground. The smoke filled her lungs and burnt her eyes making her erupt in a fit of powerful coughs as she scrambled to escape the putrid smoke. With just enough awareness to get to the door she slammed it open and let out a fitful cough into the clean air. She rubbed at her eyes and grumbled and growled, trying to figure out what had just happened when she was interrupted by a familiar voice. “My goodness! What happened?” Trixie whipped her head up, finding Fluttershy looking at her perplexed and worried. Who wouldn’t be when you were standing by an open door with black smoke billowing out of it? Still, Trixie had to save face. With one last quick cough to clear her throat she stood up in one of her usual boisterous poses. “The great and powerful Trixie was merely conducting an experiment!” She quickly lied, though it was more of a white lie as she really had been trying to get something to work. “Trixie has merely hit a minor setback, nothing for you to worry about.” “An experiment in the home ec room?” Fluttershy asked, confusion in her voice as she tilted to the side, trying to look behind Trixie to see what was going on in there. “Trixie can conduct her experiments in any room she desires!” Trixie bolstered, even though that wasn’t remotely true. For her part, Fluttershy actually considered the truth of that statement, putting a hand to her face as she thought about it. Of course she was still a rational person and came to the conclusion that no, Trixie wasn’t free to do whatever she wanted in any room she wanted, but it still gave her an idea on what was happening. “Were you trying to cook something?” Fluttershy asked with a gentle smile. “I- What- Why would you ask Trixie something like that? If I was cooking something I’d SAY I was cooking something!” Trixie defended herself, a flush on her cheeks. She did NOT want Fluttershy seeing her be so weak and helpless. This, of course, just made Fluttershy feel even more sympathy for the girl and let herself into the room despite Trixie’s attempts to block the door. “Here, let me take a look.” Was all Fluttershy said before peeking her head into the open oven. Inside was the blackened, charred remains of a dish that had once been considered food. Thankfully most of the smoke had escaped at this point and now it was just sitting there like a charred brick. “Oh goodness.” Fluttershy mouthed at seeing the burnt food. She quickly retrieved a pair of oven mitts from the drawer near the oven and pulled the remains of the food out, looking it over quizzically. “I can’t even tell what this was supposed to be.” “It-! Ah-!” Trixie opened her mouth, trying to think of some kind of lie she could say to make it seem like this wasn’t her fault, but when none came to her she just deflated and dropped the egotistical tone to her voice. “It was supposed to be a cake!” “What happened to it?” Fluttershy asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she looked it over. “The recipe said it needed 40 minutes to cook at 350, and Trixie thought ‘Well that’s going to take too long!’, so I set the oven to 700 degrees for it to cook in 20 minutes.” Trixie explained like it was the most logical course of action to take. “...The oven doesn’t even go that high.” Fluttershy said in bewilderment, looking back at the oven. “How did you manage that?” “...Trixie may have added some extra fire to the oven?” Trixie twiddled her fingers as she explained. Fluttershy was at a loss of words, just deciding to drop the burnt cake into the trashcan before walking over to Trixie and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Why do I help you make a cake properly then, hm?” Fluttershy offered with her infinite warmth and kindness. It forced a blush onto Trixie’s face as she looked away, huffing and crossing her arms. “Trixie should be perfectly capable of baking a cake all on her own! I don’t need help from the likes of you!” Trixie explained simply. Fluttershy just giggled at Trixie’s reaction. “We all need help sometimes, Trixie. Here, why don’t we start over and we can make the cake together!”Fluttershy offered with her beaming smile. Trixie glanced over at Fluttershy, taking in that intoxicating smile and the offer of companionship. Her heart beat in her chest and she hated the way Fluttershy always seemed to put butterflies in her belly like this.  Her and her stupid kindness, and her stupid beautiful face, and her stupid gentle voice. How dare she make Trixie feel this way!  “Trixie… Would like that.” Trixie finally admitted, which made Fluttershy happy so it couldn’t be ALL bad to rely on someone else once in a while. Soon the counter was covered in ingredients once again. A full bag of flour, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, and other minor ingredients.  “The key to a perfect cake is balancing the ingredients,” Fluttershy explained as she started mixing things together. “You want everything to do its part and not overpower the other.” “Trixie thinks she can do that.” Trixie said, furrowing her brow as she did her best to keep along. Soon she was following Fluttershy’s instructions carefully and to the letter, adding just the right amount of each ingredient into her bowl and mixing them together before adding them to Fluttershy’s own bowl. With all the wet and dry materials mixed together they actually had a cake batter that already looked infinitely better than what Trixie’s had looked like before. It was wet and thick but perfectly spread out within the pan, where-as Trixie’s had been an overly dry mixture that had had difficulty spreading out smoothly in the pan. “And once everythings mixed together and smoothed out in the lubricated pan, then we put it in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes.” Fluttershy said with a smile as she slipped the pan inside. “Uuughh, does Trixie really HAVE to wait 40 minutes? That’s going to take forever!” Trixie complained, throwing her arms up into the air. “Now, now Trixie, the best things come to those who wait.” Fluttershy chastised her fellow student teasingly. Trixie just grumbled at that but Fluttershy clapped her hands together with a smile. “While we wait, we can work on the icing!” “We’re not going to use the pre-made?” Trixie asked, holding up the store-bought container of icing. “It’ll taste even better homemade, I guarantee it.” Fluttershy said, motioning for Trixie to follow her.  Trixie watched in fascination as Fluttershy filled the next bowl full of sugar, butter, and a little bit of flavoring and milk and just started whipping it constantly. Trixie couldn’t imagine having the patience for it, but Fluttershy made it look so simple. Really, Fluttershy had Pinkie to thank for all the baking tips she’d picked up. Without her baking friend fluttershy wouldn’t be half the baker she is now, but that knowledge was being put to good use as she taught Trixie what she knew. Once the icing was done it was just a matter of waiting for the cake to finish, which still left Trixie bored. Fluttershy, thankfully, had a solution. “Do you want to see what our band has been working on?” She asked Trixie, pulling up a video on her phone. “Would I?” Trixie beamed, already far more interested in a hobby they shared than whatever cake baking was taking place! Several videos later the oven’s timer dinged letting them know the cake was finished, much to Trixie’s surprise. She’d been so focused on keeping up with Fluttershy’s life that she’d completely forgotten about the cake! “Cake’s ready!” Fluttershy chimed happily as she donned her trusty oven mitts once again and pulled out the perfectly cooked cake. “Whoooa, that smells delicious.” Trixie cooked, sniffing the air around the cake. It smelled far better than the burnt abomination Trixie had tried to make earlier. “Baking is all about putting in the time, and love, into whatever it is you’re making.” Fluttershy giggled and she carefully slipped the cake out of its pan and onto a plate. “Now we just wait for it to cool and it’ll be ready!” “How do you do it?” Trixie asked curiously. “Do what?”  “Just… Have the patient for stuff like this?” Trixie looked up at Fluttershy as she asked. “Well… When I was younger I did quite a lot of things on my own.” Fluttershy explained with a slightly sad smile. “You learn to be patient with yourself when you’re the only one doing things, and the end result is almost always better for it.” Trixie was in a bit of awe at Fluttershy, smiling at the girl. She felt her cheeks flush again as she turned to look at the cake. Fluttershy started decorating the cake with the icing and Trixie couldn’t help but watch the beautiful girl do her thing. She had originally been making this cake because she wanted to make something for Fluttershy anyway and here they were making it together. Not that she would ever admit that to Fluttershy, of course! She’d make some excuse about how the cake was for Trixie and Fluttershy could just so HAPPEN to have a slice if she really wanted! Trixie was fully confident there was no way someone like Fluttershy could ever return the feelings of someone as egotistical and boisterous as Trixie, so she would never dare speak them out loud.  “Here, try a piece.” Fluttershy spoke again once the cake was finished, slicing out a piece and placing it before Trixie. “Trixie will happily accept this offering.” She said with her usual boisterous attitude, hiding the blush on her cheeks and the butterflies in her stomach. The beat of her heart swelling at the graciousness of the beautiful girl with whom she was sharing the cake with. The cake tasted as delicious as she knew it would, having been made by the girl so perfect. Oh if only she knew how much Trixie pined for her, wanted to be together with her, and yet Trixie knew she could only only spend this short amount of time together with her. How little Trixie truly knew, how little she realized that Fluttershy harbored sentiments of her own. That perhaps Trixie’s feelings were more reciprocated than she realized… …And yet, that would have to be a tale for another day~