A cheerful whistling melody rose through the doors at Sugar Cube Corner, greeting ponies as they passed. The day was in full gear, and so was the bakery. Inside a delicious mix of aromas filled the air, sugary of course, but mixed with the smell of baking; rising bread and muffins and rolls. The mix was perfect, not overpowering or cloying but gently hanging in the air, a cheerful invitation from the hundreds of delicious treats arranged on display under glass, waiting to be devoured.

The friendly melody was flowing from a bright pink pony behind the counter, happily whistling as she applied frosting to two trays of fresh, hot cupcakes, one with a frosting tube in her front hoof and one, for some reason, with another held in her back left. Every few seconds she would turn with a little jump in time with the song, reversing back and front to do opposite trays. Despite this odd strategy, the frosting was going on perfectly, swirling in neat cones until the pony cut it of with a practiced twist. The whole manuver was all the more impressive because the pink baker seemed more focused on the song than her task: the perfectly laid frosting was either muscle memory or instinct.

The bell over the door gave a friendly ring as a customer entered. “Hey there!” The pink pony called out in a voice as bouncy and friendly as her hair, waving to the unicorn stepping through the door. “Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner! Anything I can get for you? We've got cupcakes and cakes and pies and cupcakes and some strudels, no noodles though I wish we had noodles 'cause that would be fun to say, noodles and strudels noodles and strudles noodles and strudles-saaaay-” She stopped abruptly, giving the brown unicorn a suddenly suspicious look. “Are you new?”

The unicorn smiled. “Just arrived yesterday. Still learning my way around.” He extended a hoof. “Haze.”

The baker seemed to glow at this information. In an instant she was somehow suddenly over the counter and shaking the unicorn's hand VERY enthusiastically. “Pin-Kee Pie at your service! Except you don't have to say it like that, Pinkie Pie is fine or Pinkie or Pie or 'Hey you!' but that could get confusing if you said it in a crowd and everyone would turn because they thought you meant them but you didn't.” Sudden gasp of air.

“Anyway, you picked the right place to arrive!” She continued, thankfully a little slower now, releasing his hoof to gesture at the store's stock. “And the right place in the right place! Sugar Cube Corner has the tastiest treats in the whole town! And I know this town like the back of my hoof, so if you need anything or anypony just let me know and I'll let them know that I know that you want to know. Ya know?”

The unicorn gave a smile and a nod.

Noticing that a few cupcakes were still bare, the pink pony jumped back behind the counter, grasping the frosting in her mouth as she continued.

“Shoow whha brrins yu tuuh puhnnvuh ahehay?”

Haze watched the pink pony with amusement, another smile spreading over his muzzle. “There's something I want. Something I've been looking for a very long time.” His gaze fell to Pinkie's eyes, still focused on the cupcake. Hovered there. “And I think I'll find it here.”

Pinkie set down the frosting again. “Ooo, mysterious! Anything I can do to help? I'm pretty good at mysteries you know. Twilight doesn't think so, but I just need a second chance. That hat and pipe were defective!”

The unicorn gave an appreciative nod, smiling. “I'll let you know.”

“Great!”

“For now, I think I'll just take a look around. I have a feeling there's something in this shop I'll enjoy.” His smile curled up menacingly for a moment. “While I do, why don't you tell me more about some of the ponies here? I do have a lot to catch up on.”

Pinkie glowed again. “Of course! Well should I start alphabetically or reverse alphabetically or by age although I'm not completely 100% on all of those so maybe-” As the pony talked, Haze glanced through the display case, pretending to examine an elaborate fondant-covered cake as his hoof idly rose to the glass, knocking against it in a soft rhythm. Clack clack, clickity-clack.

“The Cakes live here, they've had the place for ages I used to come here when I was young and I looooved the cupcakes and so one day Mr. Cake said-”

Clack clack, clickity-clack-

“And I've been working here ever since. And that's how I met Noteworthy for the first time I was finishing a cake right here and he came in and he was wearing these huuuge sunglasses-”

Clack clack, clickity-clack-

“So I said 'bees are great but what about the waterslide?' and they all looked at me like I was crazy! Me! But then-”

Clack clack, clickity-clack-

“And that was how we put out the fire at the mill! Carmel really has some hidden talents but I suppose everyone does when they really get a chance, you've just got to be at the right place at the right time or the right place a little earlier so you can wait and then it'll BE the right time, like this one time-”

Clickity-clickity, clickity-clack-

“I didn't even know cows could DO that, but Applejack said-”

“Say Pinkie?”

“Mmm?” The pony turned toward Haze's voice with a cheerful smile.

CLACK!

The unicorn's hooves came together hard, right in front of the earth pony's face. She blinked, twitched, and then-

“Ooooohohoho!” In an instant the pony's eyes glazed, and as her VERY happy voice faded away with a dazed laugh, her body gave out, melting into a limp, smiling puddle on the floor.

Calmly, Haze stepped to the front door, turning the sign hanging from the glass to “Sorry, we're closed!” and locking it. A gentle tug of his magic brought the shades on the front windows down, and once they were secure he turned, stepping back to the limp, dazed baker on the floor.

“Can you hear me Pinkie?”

“Mmmhmm.” The pony gave a nod against the floor.

“How do you feel?”

The earth pony gave an intoxicated giggle against the floorboards. “Reeealy ghoood...”

Haze grinned. “Good. Sit up.”

With a happy moan, the earth pony tried to pick herself off the floor, collapsed, and tried again. After several attempts she managed to prop herself up weakly in a precarious sitting position, eyes still blank, mouth pulled in a big, sloppy smile.

Haze stepped up to the pink pony, circling her like a hungry predator, savoring those blank, oblivious eyes as he ran a hoof down her springy mane, circling down to tease the underside of her chin. “This is a good look for you Pinkie. Limp, open and quiet.” Pressing against her back, he stroked a hoof over her flank, another running slowly down her belly and in-between her legs. “Even so-” He whispered into her ear- “I can't wait to hear how you squeal.”

Eager to start, Haze reached out with his magic, slipping open his saddle bag and pulling out the book. Opening it to a fresh page, he brought it in front of the dazed pony's gaze, its sinister maze swirling and twisting on the page. “Watch the book Pinkie. Get a good look.” Haze grinned as he saw the pink pony's eyes focus on the page, beginning to trace the lines. This was easier than he had expected.

And then, slowly, she raised a hoof, pressing it to the book and beginning to move it, slowly at first, then faster, faster...

Haze blinked. “Pinkie, what are you doing?”

Her voice came back a happy, dazed murmur. “Solving the maze.”

“Solving...the maze?”

“Mmmhmm.”

Her hoof traced faster and faster until it was a blur moving back and forth over the paper. Haze felt a strange tingle of fear, mind beginning to race. But before the unicorn had a chance to react, Pinkie's hoof came to a dead stop at the center.

“Aaand done!” The earth pony punctuated the last word with a firm tap on the page. The maze froze, no longer swirling over the paper, and as Haze's eyes widened the pattern started to collapse in toward the center. In an instant, the page was bare. Pinkie looked up, locking eyes with the unicorn. Her eyes were different now, still distant but full of swirling toxic black, the shade that nightmares lived in.

“FINISHED.” The word wasn't loud in the air, but roared with magical energy, enough to make the whole room shake. Haze felt it hit him, felt it run through his mind like a hurricane, tearing every thought out of him like leaves off a tree. He had just enough time to panic, then feel himself twitch, then...

Pinkie blinked groggily. The world felt vague and floaty around her, as if her mind couldn't quite decide what it or any of the things around it were. But slowly, things started to come back into focus visually and mentally, the blur of colors correcting itself into actual things. A thing. A wall.

“Hi wall!”

Pinkie waved, then blinked as she heard herself. The words sounded a little less cheerful than she had meant, but she decided that was OK. The wall would understand. Her eyes darted around, quickly taking in the wall's surroundings. Sugar Cube Corner. That was a good place to be. She couldn't remember exactly what she had been doing, but that was OK. It was probably something great!

But what HAD she been doing? She paced in front of the counter, grabbing a cupcake to help her think. Cupcake, frosting, ring-ding-ding-

“Oh right!” The unicorn! “Haze? Haaaaze? Haaa-oh!”

There he was. Standing right next to the wall she had met earlier. She bounced forward, holding out a hoof. “Sorry about that I was goooone for a moment. That happens sometimes I'll be here and then not here and then somewhere else. But I always come back, so it's fine! Sorry to leave ya hanging though, anything look good?”

No response.

“Haze? Mysterious Unicorn Guy?” Nothing. A little worried, the pink pony stepped closer, giving the unmoving unicorn a nudge. “Hey can you hear me?”

“Yes.” The word was blank and emotionless, and Pinkie shivered a little at the sound. For the first time, she noticed his eyes: blank and unfocused, staring into the empty space behind her. Her eyes widened as recognition dawned over the pink pony's face. This looked exactly like-

“Trance! You're in a trance! Oh my gosh that must have been what you were looking for when you said you were looking for something! Somepony cursed you and you're trying to uncurse yourself but now you're stuck!”

In a pink blur she was at his side, squeezing the vacantly-staring unicorn very, very hard. “Don't worry, help is on the way! Or really we're on the way, on the way to Twilight's! I don't always understand her, or pay attention to her, or take her advice and between you and me I think she likes books just a liiitle too much but she's a good friend and she's really smart and if anyone can fix you up she'll know!”

The pink pony attempted to drag Haze toward the door, but quickly discovered just how hard it was to move an unresponsive unicorn two hands taller than her and switched strategies.

“Don't worry, just stay right there unicorn guy. I'll bring Twilight to you! She isn't cursed so she can just walk!” The earth pony eagerly bounced toward the door. But as her hoof reached for the knob it stopped, hovered a moment, and dropped. She turned, looking back at Haze a moment, as if something was pulling her back. And as her eyes roamed over oblivious unicorn, still standing where she had left him, still staring into nothingness, a strange feeling crept into the back of her mind.

“Although, I suppose it couldn't hurt to check,” She said slowly, stepping back to Haze. “Just to be sure it really is a trance.” The earth pony thought a moment, then- “Lift your hoof.”

The unicorn stiffly raised his right hoof. “And put it down.” Again, Haze obeyed. Well, that was that, time got get Twilight and get all this fixed and whoooaha, there was that feeling again! For some reason, she really, really wanted to try another test. Like-

The earth pony motioned in front of the 'cursed' unicorn's face. “Walk in in a circle, in the center of the shop.” Haze slowly rose, began to walk forward and did as commanded, staring ahead into nothing as he slowly circled the floor. Pinkie trembled a little. There it was again, unmistakable. She did want to do this. Because doing it, because telling the unicorn what to do and seeing him obey felt...good?REALLY good actually. Like the smell of the best hot pastry ever coming out of the oven and the scent of sugar hitting her face, filling her nose, rushing into her brain.

What the heck was going on? The earth pony gasped suddenly, slapping a hoof to her head in embarrassment. Of course, it was a curse! The curse was spreading! She had to get Twilight fast, who knew where this was going to end up!

Yup, time to get Twilight. Pinkie watched the unicorn mindlessly trace his path around the store, blank, helpless, obedient. Time to get Twilight. Time. To. Go.

Pinkie stayed right where she was.

She couldn't take her eyes off the unicorn, still mindlessly circling. Couldn't stop thinking about helpless he was, how completely obedient to any command. Couldn't stop thinking about the commands she could give him. Better commands. She realized the feeling running through her wasn't like pastry at all. It was like the end of a really good prank, the look of surprise and dismay on the victim's face. That feeling of power and control. That spark of joy from watching another pony suffer. Always in fun, always just a little. But now...Now so much more!

On his next circuit the pink pony intercepted Haze with a hoof out. “Stop!” The unicorn immediately froze. Pinkie hesitated a moment, then “Bow.”

The unicorn immediately complied, lowering his head toward the ground, front legs stretched out in front of him. Pinkie trembled again, much more noticeably now. Mmmm, perfect. “Haze, look at me...” The unicorn's head tilted up, and as his eyes met hers, so blank and helpless, so vulnerable, the earth pony felt her the last shreds of her hesitation melt like an ice cube on a frying pan. Slowly, she extended her hoof to him, until it was up against his nose. She paused, the moment hanging in the air for a long, long few moment, then-

“Lick.”

The unicorn's tongue was out almost before Pinkie realized it. The moment it slid across Pinkie's hoof she gave a quiet moan. OoooohCelestiayeeeess! She tilted and turned the hoof, raised and lowered it, watching in fascination as the obedient unicorn followed its every move. Good unicorn. Lick it. Lick it clean! She stepped back and he followed. She pressed forward and he retreated. She tried to hold him back and he struggled to reach the hoof. Simply, obediently following the lead.

Like a good little puppet.

Another tremble. Her whole body was high on the rush of it now, the joy of watching the helpless unicorn dance for her. As her free hoof came to the back of the unicorn's head to guide him, tracing briefly over his horn, a cruel thought formed in Pinkie's mind. The fact that he was a unicorn made all this even better. She had never had any resentment toward unicorns in the past, but suddenly it felt very good to put one in his place. All that magic, all the schooling and money and fame that they had. So high and mighty and special. That magic's doing ya a lot of good now, isn't it hoof cleaner?

Pinkie blinked. Where was this coming from? Why was she so mean all of a sudden? Why did it feel so good to be mean? Hadn't she been about to do something important? But then another stroke of the unicorn's tongue rolled over the frog of her hoof and all the pesky questions melted away with a contented moan. It didn't matter, it didn't matter at all. More of this! More! MORE!

With a cruel grin the earth pony held her hoof out in front of the helpless unicorn like a carrot, guiding him to the counter. Then up and half over it, until he was laying on his stomach, legs resting limp against the floor. “That's enough, no more licking.” Haze drew his tongue back and waited, laying still across the counter. Pinkie disappeared into the back of the shop a moment, then was back, holding a long, thick wooden mixing spoon. The unusually long handle and narrow end made it look almost like a riding crop.

“Raise your tail Haze-” Pinkie ordered, a cruel sparkle in her eyes now to match her grin as she circled behind the unicorn, softly tracing his rear with the spoon a moment, then bringing it up and back. “Let's find out what sound a unicorn makes!”

There was a loud swish as the spoon cut the air, a nice, fleshy SMACK as it hit Haze's flank and then, to Pinkie's disappointment, nothing else. The earth pony blinked. Oh, right. He wasn't going to react unless she told him to. Such a good unicorn!

The earth pony leaned down, whispering to Haze. “The next time that spoon comes down...” She savored the moment for a beat- “squeal like a bitch. Got it?” The unicorn nodded roboticly.

Pinkie pulled her self back up, wound up the spoon again, and gave another swing.

Swish!

SMACK!

The unicorn gave a long, agonized yelp. Pinkie moaned happily at the sound. Perfect.

The next few minutes were a blur. The earth pony laid in hard to Haze, the sound of the spoon connecting with pony flesh again and again echoing through the shop, perfectly mixed with the unicorn's pathetic bleats of pain. Pinkie was panting now, and she could feel the pleasure inside her building to a peak. The pink pony was a runaway train now, and she wasn't going to stop until she jumped the tracks, hurtled off the trestle and exploded in the ravine below. SMACK! SMACK! Any moment now, any moment, any-

“AAAAahaahaaaahaa!” Oooooh yes, there it was. The earth pony's eyes rolled back in bliss, spoon tumbling from her hoof as she collapsed onto the counter beside the unicorn, twitching in delight.

“Wow, that was great!” The earth pony murmured happily against the counter. Her mouth slipped slipped back into the sinister grin. “I wonder if-”

Pinkie froze mid-sentence, giving a little grunt as she felt something inside her mind shift, like something heavy snapping into place. She blinked, then shook her head, dismissing it and trying to remember what she had be plotting next.

She only had a moment to feel the next sensation. It was very subtle, just a little tug at the back of her mind. And then, just as she was starting to react, a much firmer one, and everything rushed away, away and out, the whole world slipping away. Pinkie tried to focus, but there was nothing to grab on to. In an instant a disintegrating chain of thoughts flashed through her mind.

Why was she trying to focus?

What was focus?

Who was she?

Everything was so light and floaty...

Light and floaty...

lightandfloaty...

...

Haze gave a load groan. His head felt like somepony had run it into a wall and...god, his ass! What on earth?! He tried to move, but his body felt heavy and sore, and it took several attempts before his front hooves started taking orders again. As he clumsily scrambled to right himself he began to take stock of where he was. Was he...laying over the counter? What?

With more struggling he managed to push himself off the counter, only to slide on to the floor with a painful THUD. With some muttered obscenities the unicorn finally pulled himself up and looked around the shop, finally noticing Pinkie laying limply across the counter as he had been a moment ago. There were suddenly many, many questions to be answered, but one quickly came to the front, and Haze's eyes raced across the shop, finally finding the book, discarded on the floor a few feet away. Rushing to it, he flipped through, past the cutie marks of the animal lover, the farmer, the seamstress. He let out a relieved sigh at the following page. The tangled lines of the maze had returned, and deep in their heart the baker's three balloons were firmly etched. Well, there was that at least.

Rubbing a hoof over his aching rear, Haze limped back to Pinkie. With a hard shove he rolled her over to lay on her back, then stepped behind the counter, lowering his head to hers, his voice dripping with malice.

“What happened after the maze Pinkie?”

Haze shook his head as the earth pony finished his last question. She was even stranger than he had read. He should have expected something like this, bringing two things like her and the book together. But the worried look soon melted back to the familiar cruel smile. In the end, the book had been just a bit stranger, and now he had a helpless pink pony waiting for him. Waiting for some payback for his poor flank. Drawing the book to him and opening to the earth pony's page again, he pulled out a quill and started to write. Time to make some revisions.

The changes were simple, and a moment later the unicorn was done, blowing over the ink to be sure it had dried into the page before he closed the book. Haze looked up at the vacant pony with an unsettling smile.

“Now then-”

The bell over the door at Sugar Cube Corner gave a friendly ring as a customer entered. “Hey there!” Pinkie called out in a voice as bouncy and friendly as her hair, waving to the unicorn stepping through the door. “Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner! Anything I can get for you? I've got some amaaaaazing cookies coming in just a few minutes, hot and fresh! Or if you like-” Before Pinkie could finish the sentence, Haze gave a short, two-note whistle.

The earth pony froze. Every inch of her body perfectly still, hoof still hovering in the gesture she had been making, cheerful face now gazing unseeing out into the space where Haze had been a moment ago. He had stepped closer now, right up against the baker, and he pressed his nose to her hair, taking in the scent and slowly running his tongue over the helpless pony's neck.

“You don't taste nearly as sweet as I expected.” He whispered into Pinkie's ear. The earth pony just kept smiling dumbly into open space. Haze reached out with his magic, pulling a familiar wooden spoon off the counter. Another bit of magical aura brushed Pinkie's tail up and to the side, leaving her rear bare and open. “Since you seem to like this so much-” The spoon came down on her ass with a hard SMACK that echoed through the shop. Glancing back, Haze noted with satisfaction that he had left a nice red mark. Setting the spoon back on the counter and stepping back to his former position in front of the frozen pony, the unicorn gave the same two-note whistle, and Pinkie sprang to life again.

“-I could-aaIIIIII!” Haze gave a pleased grin as the baker gave a painful yelp of surprise, jumping a good two feet into the air. Pinkie quickly looked behind her, trying to sooth her rear with one hoof while her mind struggled to process what had just happened.

“Something wrong Pinkie?”

“I uh, nope, everything is fine-” The pony laughed nervously, looking a little confused. “I just, just now there was a-” She looked back again at the spoon lying on the counter. “Hmmm. Say, how do you know my name? We haven't met yet, or we're just meeting now I mean, and I usually remember that kind of thing.”

“Oh I know a lot of things Pinkie. I wouldn't worry about it.”

She laughed. “Boy, you gotta work on that, it sounds really sinister.” He smiled, sinisterly of course. “I'll keep that in mind. Say Pinkie?”

“Mmm?”

“Can you say 'Aaaaa?'” The unicorn opened his mouth wide for effect. Pinkie giggled at this. “What? Well of course I can silly. AaAaa-”

Whistle.

The baker froze again, mouth wide open and smiling, tongue out just a bit. Haze chuckled as he stepped up to the earth pony. “Enthusiastic aren't you? Well then-” He circled around behind her, one hoof on her back knees, the other on her rear, gently pressing down. Pinkie's body followed the pressure, easily coming to a sitting position. Stepping back in front of his new toy, the unicorn held a hoof to her forehead, pressing down until her face was level with his chest. She was sitting just in front of the counter now, and when Haze rested his front hooves on the counter it brought him into exactly the position he was looking for, the growing length between his legs hovering just in front of Pinkie's helpless, wide open mouth.

Reaching back with one hoof he raised the growing member, resting its wide, warm tip on the earth pony's outstretched tongue and gasping in appreciation at the warm, wet sensation. Slowly he pressed his hips forward, grunting happily as he felt himself sink into the welcoming tightness of the earth pony's mouth. Just as his medial ring started to approach her lips, the unicorn pulled back, all the way until his tip was on her tongue, then rolled his hips forward again, starting to fuck the frozen pony with a slow, gliding rhythm.

Before long he was at full length, and the unicorn grinned as he felt pre drool out onto the pink pony's tongue. He had only gone as far her mouth, but now he started to tease the back of her throat his thick, warm head, deeper, deeper, and then pushed past it, into her throat. Pinkie gave a muffled gagging sound, but didn't move, and Haze began to roll his hips in earnest again, moaning happily each time his head buried itself in her throat, deeper and deeper with each thrust until at last he felt his balls press against her chin. All the way in.

The unicorn ground against Pinkie a moment, then left his length where it was. The earth pony started to gag again, and Haze groaned in pleasure as her tight throat twitched and squeezed around him, the rest of her body starting to jerk a little beneath him in involuntary rejection. Her mind was blank, but the pink pony's body clearly still wanted him gone, and its feeble attempts to clear her throat felt fantastic. For a brief instant Haze considered keeping his length where it was until she stopped twitching for good, but he quickly discarded the idea. As much as he was enjoying this, and as good as it was to hear and feel the babbling pink pony gagging on him, she was far too valuable to kill, at least for now. They all were.
At last he pulled back, and Pinkie's body gasped, dragging in the air it so desperately needed. He gave it just enough time to quiet down, then pressed in again. The unicorn could feel himself getting close. Time to finish this.

He began to roll his hips again, but the motion was faster this time, rougher and less restrained. Each thrust pushed just past the back of Pinkie's throat, then back to the front of her mouth, then in again. Faster, harder! Haze moaned, louder now, half from the pleasure and half from the wonderful, wet sounds of mouth fucking coming from under him. Harder, harder! As his hips moved in a blur he felt the climax coming. His eyes pressed shut, muzzle twisting in tension, hooves gripping the counter tight as his whole body tensed in anticipation of the coming release. One thrust, two three-And Haze cried out, almost snarling as the climax hit and he felt his length throb deep inside the frozen pony beneath him.

The first and second pulse went straight down her throat. The second, third and fourth came inside her mouth, quickly filling it and dripping past her lips and down her chin. By the fifth and sixth he had pulled out, and the last bursts splashed sloppily across her face.

Haze gasped, taking a moment to come down from the pleasure rolling through him, then slowly lowered himself from the counter, stepping back to enjoy his handiwork. He couldn't stop himself from breaking into a laugh at the sight that greeted him. The earth pony looked so wonderfully stupid and pathetic, face plastered and dripping with seed, tongue marinating in it inside her mouth, and still happily gazing ahead at nothing, so utterly oblivious.

He couldn't resist.

Whistle.

A very strange set of sounds followed as Pinkie unfroze, tried to continue speaking and coughed on what was in her mouth. Finally clearing her throat, the pony raised a hoof to her cheek in confusion, pulling it away and examining the warm mess that stuck to it. “Huh? What the heck is this? Did one of the frosting tubes explode again?”

Haze suppressed a laugh. “You could say that.”

“Hey, wait-” the pink pony's eye's started to narrow. “This tastes really familiar...”

Whistle.

Haze stepped up to the mare, frozen in skeptical examination of her hoof, and ran his own hoof down her neck. “Does it now? I wonder just how familiar you are with it Pinkie.” He eyed her rear, feeling his length stiffening again between his legs.

Pinkie lay on the floor in a tangled heap, legs splayed in strange directions like a forgotten toy. Her face was still frozen in a blank smile, cloudy white filth splattered across her cheeks, dripping from her open mouth. Her mane was a matted mess, pulled and tugged out of shape, and also dripping here and there.
The other end was worse. The twisted angle of her legs hid the area from direct view, but the juices splattered across her flank were clear enough, slowly running down her pink rear to pool beneath her.

The unicorn stood over her, savoring the moment. Then, stepping up to the earth pony he grabbed her around the chest, lifting her front and slowly dragging her stiff body behind the counter. Slowly, his hooves worked over her body, raising her into a sitting position, angling her head, nudging her arms and hooves up and over, until she was in position, waving to a non-existent customer in front of her.

The unicorn reached down, searching the shelves and drawers under the counter until his hoof returned with a rag. Wetting it in a near-by sink, he began to carefully clean the earth pony, leaving traces here and there, but removing all the most obvious stains and gently pushing her hair...roughly back into place.

Stepping back to the other side of the counter, Haze ran the rag over the mess on the floor, then stepped back, appraising Pinkie. Rough, but workable. From a distance at least, the pink pony now just looked like she'd had a very hectic day.

Stepping up to the counter, Haze reached out with his magic, pulling something from one of the nearby shelves. With a gentle tug he pulled Pinkie's waving hoof down, turning it until it was held out, palm up, and set the object he had retrieved in her waiting hoof.

Then, stepping back, he gave a whistle with notes he hadn't used before. Pinkie gave a slight twitch, but remained in place. Haze stepped to the door, unlocking it and looking back at the pink pony one last time. Then he opened the door, and as he stepped out onto the street his lips pressed together, giving the familiar whistle just before the door closed behind him.

Pinkie blinked. What had she been doing? Her mind felt vague and fuzzy as she tried to remember.

As the world reformed around her, the baker noticed she was holding something and looked down. In her hoof was a cupcake, freshly frosted, with a large bite taken from one side.