Rainbow Dash soared through the skies above Ponyville. The sun was shining, and thanks to her amazing weather skills, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. All in all, it was a perfect afternoon... to show off.

Tucking in her wings, Rainbow Dash went into a dive. She fell faster and faster, the wind stinging her eyes until the world was nothing more than a watery blur. Then, at the last possible moment, she came out of her dive and began to spin and turn and loop. Only quick glances were allowed as she made split second changes in her course to avoid crashing. Gasps of surprise and awe surrounded her instead of yelling and complaining, so she must have been doing something cool.

With her momentum finally exhausted, Rainbow Dash stopped in midair, did a triple back-flip, and landed, being sure to strike a cool pose with her wings flared. All around her a small crowd of ponies stomped the ground in applause before going back about their business.

When Rainbow Dash was sure nopony was looking, she shook her head to try and get the world to stop spinning, then began to walk towards Sugarcube Corner, only stumbling once along the way.

She easily spotted Sugarcube Corner in the distance. The gingerbread house architecture, while being helpful in explaining what the shop sold, did have the tendency to make it stick out. Likely a clever marketing ploy and the reason it was such a popular confectionery store. A new sign out front read ‘Taffy Sale! Today only! Buy two pieces and get the third free!’

As Rainbow Dash approached the store, a thought returned to her. She had once jokingly asked Pinkie Pie if Sugarcube Corner’s roof was actually made from real gingerbread. Pinkie had laughed and told her to take a bite to find out. Rainbow Dash stared at the roof as some ponies walked past her and into the store.

No. Not today. She caught the door before it closed and stepped inside.

The storeroom of Sugarcube Corner was packed with ponies. The shelves were stocked with colorful candies of all shapes and sizes; the most numerous of which was taffy. Rainbow Dash slowly made her way around the shelves and shoppers towards Mrs. Cake, who was behind the sales counter and looking flustered.

“That will be three bits,” Mrs. Cake said to the young filly across from her.

The filly placed the money on the counter and scooped up the bag of taffy. “Thanks, Mrs. Cake!” she said before trotting off to enjoy her treat.

Mrs. Cake placed the money in a box and sighed wearily. She looked up at Rainbow Dash walking over and gave her a smile. “Welcome, Rainbow Dash. Are you here for the taffy sale too?”

“What? Oh! No, maybe later,” Rainbow Dash said. “Actually, I’m here to see Pinkie. She was supposed to help me with my training this afternoon.”

“Sorry, dearie, but she’s still at Daisy’s birthday party,” Mrs. Cake said as she glanced at the clock on the wall. “She should be just about finished. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you waited for her in her room. Just do try to be quiet. Mr. Cake was up all night running the taffy pull.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Cake. Will do.”

Rainbow Dash walked up the stairs behind Mrs. Cake and kept going until she reached the loft that served as Pinkie’s bedroom. It was then that she spotted trouble. There, standing in the middle of the room, was Gummy: the toothless alligator. Gummy always playfully bit those around him, but Rainbow Dash was convinced that she must taste better than the average pony, or at least her wings did. The last time she was alone with Gummy, he had clamped onto one of her wings and refused to let go. It took the combined magic of Twilight and Rarity to pry his jaw open. Sometimes Rainbow Dash could still feel the gnawing sensation in her wing.

Gummy quickly turned his head towards her, gave a happy squeak, and began racing forwards. Rainbow Dash cringed, took a step back, but then stopped. Gummy would just follow her back downstairs. She had to come up with a plan.

Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and spun out of Gummy’s path as the little alligator snapped his jaws, barely missing a feather. He tried to turn around, but his momentum sent him tripping over his little legs and slamming into the wall.

Rainbow Dash used her aerial view to scan the room and knew what she’d have to do. She landed on the opposite side of the bedroom, spread out her right wing, and slowly fanned it up and down.

“You want a piece of this?” Rainbow dash taunted.

Gummy recovered and began to charge again. Rainbow Dash continued to fan her wing, making sure Gummy’s attention was focused on it. At the last possible moment, she turned and lifted her wing up high. Gummy raced past her and into the open closet. Before he could act, Rainbow Dash shut the door.

“Yes! See you later, alligator!”

The closet door’s handle slowly began to turn. Rainbow Dash threw her hooves around the knob and held on tight.

“No way! Pinkie taught you how to open doors?”

Rainbow Dash held on to Pinkie’s closet door, trying to decide what to do next. She could head over to Daisy’s party and look for Pinkie there, but if the party had just ended, then Pinkie should be back soon. Rainbow Dash knew she was making too much noise and ran the risk of waking up Mr. Cake eventually. Plus it just felt weird standing there holding a door knob. A scratching sound began coming from low down on the other side of the door. Having made up her mind, Rainbow Dash headed back down stairs and hoped Gummy would forget about her if he couldn’t see her.

Sugarcube Corner’s store room was somehow even more packed than when Rainbow Dash had left it. A pair of pegasus ponies hovered above the crowd, dangling a rope ladder and lifting stranded ponies to safety. Thankfully, the stairs were close to the sales counter, so Rainbow Dash didn’t have to wade through the ever-increasing crowd.

Mrs. Cake finished helping a few waiting customers before turning towards Rainbow Dash. “Something wrong, dearie?”

“No, it’s just...” Rainbow Dash said, then hesitated. “Gummy is up there, and...”

“Oh! Right. Sorry about that. I completely forgot about what happened last time.” Mrs. Cake looked at her store room that was quickly approaching critical mass. “I don’t think waiting in here is a good idea. I know. You could always wait in the kitchen.”

“The kitchen?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Cake said, then chuckled. “Maybe you could even try your hoof at baking while in there.”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “You do know I’m Equestria’s worst baker, right?”

“Oh, you mustn't be so hard on yourself.”

Rainbow Dash blinked. “N-no... you don’t understand. I literally am Equestria’s worst baker. I have a trophy to prove it. Two of them in fact.”

“Oh?” Mrs. Cake was suddenly wary of her offer.

“Haven’t you heard of the WBEs?”

“The what?”

“The WBEs! The Worst Baker in Equestria Competition! They’re next week! Haven’t you seen the posters? Or the giant stadium that is being flown in piece by piece outside of Ponyville?”

Mrs. Cake gave Rainbow Dash a nervous grin.

“You really need to get out more, Mrs. Cake. Still, I guess it’d be cool to look around at where all my favorite treats are made. Thanks!”

“You’re welcome,” Mrs. Cake said, a hint of anxiety in her voice. “Just be sure to call for me if you run into any trouble.”

“Trouble? Hah! I’ll be fine. It’s this crazy taffy sale you should be worried about.”

Mrs. Cake sighed and looked at the chaos of her store room. Another set of pegasi had appeared and was currently trying to rescue the first. Rainbow Dash walked through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen.

Rainbow Dash stared in wonder at the kitchen around her. She had been in here before, but this time something was different. It was clean; very clean. She wouldn’t use the word ‘immaculate,’ mostly because she never used words like ‘immaculate,’ but this was definitely the cleanest she had ever seen Sugarcube Corner’s kitchen. Everything was in its place and even labeled. Flour, sugar, salt, spoons, bowls. Anypony could become familiar with this kitchen and be ready to bake within a minute. The only thing that was out of place was a recipe book opened on the counter.

Rainbow Dash looked at the page the recipe book was opened to. There was a picture of a plate of cookies with the words Triple Fudge Pecan Crunch Cookies written above it. Rainbow Dash instantly recognized the cookies. Those were the cookies that Pinkie had made for somepony-or-another’s party last week. The sheer amount of chocolate in each bite. The pecans adding the perfect amount of crunch. Rainbow Dash’s mouth began to water just thinking about them. She had to have some more! Maybe Pinkie could make her some when she got back?

Where was Pinkie anyway? It didn’t take this long to walk back from Daisy’s house. Maybe Pinkie had returned already and was trying to get through the crowd? Rainbow Dash’s stomach growled. It looked like waiting on Pinkie wasn’t an option. If she wanted those cookies, she’d have to make them herself, and that was a scary thought.

Rainbow Dash looked at the instructions for the recipe. Maybe it would be super easy like:

Step 1.) Take pre-made cookies from the cookie jar.

Step 2.) Eat cookies.
However, it was a real recipe with an ingredient list, two pages of instructions, and cooking times. Rainbow Dash sighed. Being one of the worst bakers in Equestria meant it was almost impossible to bake something well. She had some weird bad luck aura that kicked in anytime she tried to bake.

Rainbow Dash remembered back to the WBE competition three years ago. Her first competition; the one she had lost. After it was over, the champion had congratulated her, told her that she had a natural talent, and offered to give her some pointers for next time. Something about retiring and wanting the new generation to be just as good. Rainbow Dash had just wanted to go home and try to forget about the shame of losing, but the champion had offered a free dinner.

The champion had talked. A lot. Rainbow Dash had tried to listen, but it was just so boring. The bad luck had a name. Started with an ‘I’, or was it an ‘E’? Some vowel. The interesting thing about it was that it could be controlled with enough practice. It could be blocked off to a point where it was actually possible to bake something decent. Rainbow Dash hadn’t really listened to those instructions. She had only cared about the other part. The way to boost it and make the bad luck do absolutely crazy things.

Now would have been a good time to remember how to block it off. She seemed to recall it having something to do with a mental exercise. Beyond that, her mind was drawing a blank.

Rainbow Dash stared at the recipe. She could hear the cookies calling to her. Surely, the awesomeness of these cookies could overpower any bad luck aura. If she was really careful and did everything exactly by the book, couldn’t the cookies still turn out edible?

Mrs. Cake’s eyes brimmed on the verge of tears. The taffy sale had sounded like such a good idea at the start. But now? Now, the entire store room was a tangled mass of ponies piled half-way up to the ceiling, unable to move. Perhaps the taffy was priced too low or tasted too good? She had heard that the Mayor had called in the fire department, and that they were slowly untangling one pony at a time. It didn’t help that some ponies had spilled their taffy, getting everyone around them stuck in tighter. It was only a matter of time before some official pony came in through the back door and began asking difficult questions like, ‘How did this happen?’ At least Rainbow Dash was being quiet in the kitchen. Mrs. Cake’s eyes opened wide. Too quiet! She looked over her counter to a pony upside down on the floor with her face buried in a bag of taffy.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” Mrs. Cake asked.

The pony stopped her chewing, thought a bit, then shook her head ‘no.’

“Okay then. I’ll be back in just a minute. Ring the bell if you need anything.”

Mrs. Cake tried not to show her panic as she walked quickly towards the kitchen. “Rainbow Dash?” she called as she passed through the doors. “Is everything all—good gravy!”

Her kitchen! Her nice clean kitchen! Her nice formally clean now covered in flour, eggs, chocolate, and Celestia-only-knew-what-else kitchen! Mrs. Cake resisted the urge to faint right there. She pulled her eyes from the stains on her drapes and focused on the pegasus at the counter. Rainbow Dash stood next to a mixing bowl whose contents were currently on fire. Mrs. Cake gasped, opened a cabinet, grabbed a baking sheet, rushed to the mixing bowl, and set the sheet on top, snuffing out the flames. Mrs. Cake lifted the sheet and looked at the blackened remains of whatever had been in the mixing bowl.

“What happened?” Mrs. Cake asked, feeling a monster of a headache beginning.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “Wait… you mean it wasn’t supposed to do that?”

“No! Why in the world would you set it on fire? What happened to my kitchen?”

“It’s not like I was trying to set it on fire. I just followed the recipe. I combined everything in a big bowl and stirred it with a wooden spoon.”

“Just stirred it with a wooden spoon?”

“Yes.”

“How fast were you stirring it?”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to answer and then paused. “How fast was I supposed to stir it?”

“Slowly!”

“Oh! Then I was definitely stirring it faster than slowly.” Rainbow Dash looked around at the kitchen. “Wow, did I do all that? The bag of flour exploded earlier, happens to me all the time. I could probably use a splatter guard for the bowl too. But no problem! Now that I know what I did wrong, I can make the next batch perfectly.” Rainbow Dash grabbed the bowl and began to dump its contents into the trash.

“N-next batch?” Mrs. Cake felt her eye begin to twitch.

“Yep. I never give up! No way am I letting some dumb cookies get the better of me!”

The service bell in the store room rang. Mrs. Cake was unsure if that was a good or bad sign. “I need to go back up front,” she said. “Please, please! If you have any questions, ask me!”

“That won’t be necessary, Mrs. Cake. I know how busy you are. Trust me when I say I have this all under control.”

Mrs. Cake walked back to the kitchen door and took a deep breath to calm herself. “Please hurry back, Pinkie Pie,” she prayed quietly as she passed through the doors.

Rainbow Dash went back to her baking with determination. She carefully measured, poured, and stirred. Pinkie made this look so easy. She would bounce around the kitchen with her endless supply of energy, combining ingredients without even looking at the recipe. She also used made up measuring directions like ‘a pinch’ or ‘a smidgen,’ and yet somehow that was the right amount. And she sang while doing it! Rainbow Dash took her mouth off the spoon and wondered if she should sing too. The recipe said nothing about singing, so that was probably improvising. Best to stick with what’s written.

The dough looked mixed enough, so Rainbow Dash checked on the next step. Using a clean flat surface and rolling pin, flatten dough until it is no more than half an inch thick. Now that sounded fun and easy. None of that lame slow mixing. She turned the dough out onto the counter, found the rolling pin, and got to work. The chunks of chocolate and pecan pieces made the dough a bit more difficult to roll out than Rainbow Dash had expected, but a little more force fixed that. Not too much force, though. She wasn’t going to set the dough on fire again.

With the dough rolled as flat as it was going to get, Rainbow Dash looked at the next step. Using a cookie cutter, cut dough into desired shapes, then move cut out pieces to a baking sheet.

Rainbow Dash stared at the recipe, then said, “Cookie cutter? Don’t I just put lumps of dough on the baking sheet? What the hay is a cookie cutter?”

Mrs. Cake would know, but she was so busy with her taffy sale. A cookie cutter was probably something really obvious, and then Rainbow Dash would feel dumb having had to ask. She scanned the room for something she could use. A smile came to her lips. There. In that wooden block on the corner counter. That would work perfectly. These cookies were going to be so awesome.

A ghost of a smile came to Mrs. Cake’s lips. The fireponies had succeeded in getting everypony unstuck and were able to hose off all the taffy. The Mayor had seemed a tad upset that she now had to write out a town ordinance on the proper conduction of taffy sales, but there were no hard feelings, even among those that had been stuck. A lone police officer now stood outside Sugarcube Corner, only admitting five ponies at a time. It worked out well, and sales completed briskly.

“That will be five bits,” Mrs. Cake said, tallying up her latest sale.

The pony turned to get money from his bag when something caught his eye. “Oh! Are those jawbreakers up there?”

Mrs. Cake looked to the shelf above her. “Why yes. Would you like some?”

“Oh yeah! I love jawbreakers!”

Mrs. Cake moved the rolling ladder, climbed up it, and picked up some tongs in her mouth. “How many did you want?” she asked.

“One please. Wait! Better make it two.”

“Of course!” Mrs. Cake lowered the tongs and grabbed two jawbreakers. As she lifted them from the jar, she heard a sound from the kitchen.

Thunk

Mrs. Cake’s jaw clenched, sending the two jawbreakers to the floor below.

Thunk... Thunk

“Is... ah... Is everything all right up there?” the pony below called.

Thunk... Thunk... Thunk!

Mrs. Cake grabbed the jar, scurried down the ladder, and shoved the jar at the pony. “Here! Free of charge!” she said, smiling extra big and feeling her twitch coming back.

“Are you sure? I couldn’t ju—”

“Take them!”

“Well... okay...” The pony put the bag of taffy and jar of jawbreakers into his bag while Mrs. Cake went under the counter and pulled out a ‘Be back in 5 minutes’ sign.

Rainbow Dash grumbled again. The cookie cutting had started so easily, but then she had gotten carried away. As usual. Now she had a cleaver handle in her mouth, and no matter how hard she pulled, the cleaver would not come out of the countertop.

“Stupid—urgh—cleaver! Come—err—out!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Mrs. Cake yelled. “What are you doing?”

Rainbow Dash let go of the cleaver. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m cutting cookies.”

“Why aren’t you using a cookie cutter?”

“Uh, this is a cookie cutter.”

“Noooo...” Mrs. Cake opened a drawer. “These are cookie cutters.”

Rainbow Dash looked at the assorted metal cutters in all shapes and sizes then back at the cleaver. “Oh...”

“Really, Rainbow Dash. I said if you had any questions to ask me.”

“I know! But... you were so busy, I didn’t want to interrupt, and... well... I would have felt stupid having to ask. But... now I feel stupid that I didn’t ask.”

Seeing the dejected Rainbow Dash, Mrs. Cake couldn’t stay mad anymore. “Oh... there, there, dearie. It’s alright. I can’t expect you to know these things. You are a self-admitted bad baker after all.”

“The Worst Baker in Equestria,” Rainbow Dash said, brightening up.

“The Worst Baker in Equestria,” Mrs. Cake agreed. “Do you need any help with the rest of the recipe?”

“No, I think I got it. I use these cookie cutters to cut out circles, move the cut outs to that baking sheet, put the baking sheet in the oven at the correct temperature for the correct amount of time, take the sheet out, let the cookies cool, then eat them!”

“That’s it! Just be sure to preheat the oven first.”

“Got it! Thanks, Mrs. Cake.”

“You’re welcome. Now I better get back up front and make sure the taffy sale is still under control,” Mrs. Cake said, then left the kitchen.

Rainbow Dash walked to the oven and turned the knob to the correct temperature. She then went back to her dough and began cutting it with the circular cookie cutter. She left the cleaver where it was. Some things were worth dealing with later. After cutting out as many cookies as she could, Rainbow Dash gathered up the remaining dough, rolled it out once more and cut out a few more cookies to get the maximum amount. A proper baker didn’t waste food, especially cookies. The baking sheet was completely loaded with cookies, but the recipe did say to leave very little space between them. Rainbow Dash opened the oven and slid the tray in. She shut the oven’s door and smiled at her work. A couple of missteps here and there, but it could have been much worse. Rainbow Dash shivered at thinking of some of the things she baked in the past.

Rainbow Dash set the oven timer to ten minutes. She hated having to wait for so long. She supposed she could double the temperature and get the cookies done in five minutes, but that sounded like trouble waiting to happen. Besides, the numbers on the dial didn’t go up to nine hundred degrees.

For the first seven minutes of baking, Rainbow Dash felt proud of herself; then the smoke began to rise from the oven. She quickly bit into a mouth mitt and opened the oven’s door. Smoke poured out, but Rainbow Dash was able to grab onto the baking sheet and move it on top of the oven before she started coughing. Standing on her hind legs, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to blow the smoke out the opened window. Once out of the heat, the cookies finally stopped burning. At least they weren’t on fire anymore, but they had been reduced to blackened bricks.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth. What. The. Hay. This wasn’t her fault! She followed the recipe exactly! This stupid bad luck aura was getting in the way of the best cookies ever! She went back to the recipe book and tried to find what had gone wrong. Ingredients? No. Mixing? Not this time. Baking? She had set the oven for four-hundred-and-fifty degrees and baked for ten minutes just like the recipe had said.

Noticing something off about the shape of the four, Rainbow Dash scrapped her hoof across the baking temperature. It looked like some flour had gotten stuck to the page. Looking at the now clean page, Rainbow Dash fell back on her haunches. Three-hundred-and-fifty degrees. Not four-hundred-and-fifty. She sighed. Maybe it was time to give up?

No.

Rainbow Dash never gave up. These stupid cookies were taunting her. She turned the oven down to the correct temperature, grabbed the baking sheet, and dumped the burnt cookies into the trash. No screw ups this time! Everything by the book, checked and double checked before and after each step. The next batch of cookies would be perfect.

Mrs. Cake smiled brightly. The sale had gotten a bit out of control for a while, but it had all turned out right in the end. With all the money the sale had brought in, the state of her kitchen wasn’t even bothering her anymore. The amount of customers was steadily declining as most everypony in town who wanted some taffy had gotten some.

Pinkie still hadn’t returned, and that was a little worrisome, but that mare knew how to take care of herself. Hopefully, she hadn’t forgotten about meeting up with her friend. Mrs. Cake had checked in on Rainbow Dash a little while ago. The pegasus seemed hard at work on another batch of cookies, so Mrs. Cake didn’t bother her. Something must have gone wrong with the last batch. That poor pony just couldn’t catch a break today.

When the last customer in the store left, Mrs. Cake decided to see how Rainbow Dash was doing. She entered the kitchen to find Rainbow Dash staring at a sheet of cookies with a spatula in her mouth. Mrs. Cake’s eyes were briefly drawn to the floury hoof prints on the ceiling before she decided she didn’t want to know.

“Mrs. Cake!” Rainbow Dash said before lifting a cookie and moving it to a plate. She set the spatula down. “How would you like to be the first to try one of Rainbow Dash’s Super Awesome Triple Fudge Pecan Crunch Cookies?”

“I’d love to! I’m so glad everything worked out in the end. I guess it just goes to show you that hard work and persistence pays off.”

“Does it ever! Now try it and tell me how awesome it is!”

Mrs. Cake took a bite from the cookie. “Oh, Rainbow Dash! This is...” she started to say, but then she began to taste the cookie. She wanted to swallow the bite to be polite. Rainbow Dash had worked so hard on these cookies. Probably much harder than anypony ever had or should have worked on cookies, but still; she had to swallow. For Rainbow Dash.

In the end, Mrs. Cake’s will to survive was too strong, and she spat the cookie out on the plate. Rainbow Dash stood quietly with her jaw dropped. Finally, she spoke, “Y-you’re kidding. Please tell me this is a joke.”

“I’m sorry, dearie, but...” Mrs. Cake hated to say this after Rainbow Dash had worked so hard. “I think you mistook the salt for sugar... and maybe added a few things you shouldn’t have.”

“Oh no I didn’t! No, no, no! You see this jar?” Rainbow Dash pointed at a jar that was labeled ‘sugar.’ “This is sugar. I used a lot of this. And that jar?” Rainbow Dash pointed at a jar labeled ‘salt.’ “That’s salt. I only used a little of it. Everything was by the book. The cookies are perfect. I’ll prove it!”

Rainbow Dash stuck the spatula under a cookie and hit it with her hoof; launching the cookie into the air.

“Wait, Rainbow Dash! Don’t—” Mrs. Cake reached out, but it was too late.

Rainbow Dash snapped the cookie out of the air and swallowed it in one gulp. “You see?” she said. “Delicious.”

Mrs. Cake could only stare at Rainbow Dash.

After a minute Rainbow Dash said quietly, “Mrs. Cake? Can I use your bathroom? I’m about to throw up.”

-----

Rainbow Dash groaned as she sipped some more of the tea Mrs. Cake had made for her. It was dark out now, and there was still no sign of Pinkie. Mr. Cake had woken up and listened to both of their stories from the day. He laughed at the trouble they both had and then laughed harder when he saw the state of the kitchen. Rainbow Dash and Mrs. Cake tried to get mad at him but ended up laughing too.

“Feeling better?” Mrs. Cake asked Rainbow Dash.

“Somewhat,” Rainbow Dash said. The tea was helping to calm her stomach.

“I checked the sugar and salt jars. It seems that somepony pulled a prank and switched their labels.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Oh, Pinkie Pie. You got me good.”

“Speaking of Pinkie Pie,” Mr. Cake said, “I hope she’s alright. She isn’t one to miss dinner.”

“You’re right,” Mrs. Cake said. “I better go start dinner. If she isn’t back by when I’m done, we’ll have to start looking for her.”

“Mrs. Cake?” Rainbow Dash said. “Before you start cooking, can I try making those cookies one more time?”

Mrs. Cake broke eye contact. “Oh, um, Rainbow Dash... do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“No, Mrs. Cake. I don’t think it’s a good idea. But I do think it’s something I have to do.”

Mrs. Cake sighed. “Okay. I’ve already checked the ingredients, and everything is in its correct container. You show those cookies who’s the boss, you hear?”

“Oh, I will. You can count on that.”

Rainbow Dash baked like she never baked before and certainly not like the past three times she had baked today. She followed the book exactly. She checked, double checked, and triple checked each step. At random times she tasted the salt and sugar to make sure they hadn’t switched places. Nothing was going to go wrong this time. She mixed. She rolled. She cut. She baked. Finally done, Rainbow Dash surrendered the kitchen to Mrs. Cake and waited for the cookies to be ready to come out of the oven.

“Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie yelled as she bounded into the kitchen. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry I’m late. I was hosting Daisy’s birthday party, and it was super-duper-mega fun with the dancing and the cake and the pin the tail on the pony. We had so much fun, but we made a big mess! Like, way bigger than any mess ever has or ever will be. It was so big! And I couldn’t just leave Daisy to clean it because I helped make it, well, so did other ponies, but I made most of it! So I got everypony at the party to help clean up and even some ponies that weren’t at the party and before you know it, our party mess cleanup became a mess-cleanup party! It was an even bigger party than the last with an even bigger mess, which I didn’t think was possible, but apparently it was! And some ponies brought taffy! The party got so big that even ponies that didn’t want to be at the party became part of the party as the party grew around them, and then somepony called the cops! It was really super embarrassing, and Daisy was upset, but I told her I’d throw her an I’m-glad-you-didn’t-get-taken-to-jail party just as soon as I helped clean up this party’s mess. But everypony was all, ‘No! We’ll clean the mess up. You can just go home now.’ And I felt bad because it was such a really, really big mess and—are you baking?”

Rainbow Dash blinked then said, “Uh... yeah, I had to get some training in today after all.”

“This was training?” Mrs. Cake asked.

“This last batch was. If I can’t even get these dumb cookies to turn out right after trying this hard, then this year’s trophy is in the bag.”

“I admit your previous attempts were less than desired, but I watched you this time, and you did everything right. There’s no way those cookies won’t be perfect this time.”

“I wish that were true, but you are severely underestimating just how bad of a baker I am.”

The oven timer dinged, letting everypony know that ten minutes were up. Rainbow Dash bit into the mouth mitt, took the baking sheet out of the oven, and placed it on the counter. She gave Mrs. Cake an apologetic smile.

Mrs. Cake’s mouth hung open as she tried to find the words. “I... I don’t understand! I watched you! Start to finish! There’s no way that—this is impossible!”

On the baking sheet was row after row of blueberry muffins.

“I wouldn’t eat them if I were you,” Rainbow Dash said as she sniffed the muffins. “They smell a little rancid.”

“But... there were no blueberries! I watched! Chocolate and pecans! I... I...” Mrs. Cake’s mind had decided that this was enough stress for one day, and she finally passed out.

Pinkie looked at Mrs. Cake who was snoring softly. “I think you broke her,” she said. “Chocolate and pecans? Oh! Were you trying to make Triple Fudge Pecan Crunch Cookies?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “I knew I could never pull it off, but I just wanted some so bad.”

“Well why didn’t you say so? I made a ton of those last night for Daisy’s party! There’s plenty left in the cookie jar!”

“Really? Awesome! Looks like I’ll get my cookies after all.”

“Uh-huh. Did you know that those are Gummy’s favorite cookies too?”

Upon hearing his name, Gummy popped his head out of Pinkie’s mane, looked at Rainbow Dash, squeaked happily, and leapt.