Luna yawned. Alicorns did not normally yawn. She found that funny.

“Welcome bad baking fans to the finals!” Spike said.

Luna did not want to be here. She wanted to be in bed. Her nice bed made of the softest materials in Equestria.

“I’m so excited!” Pinkie said. “It’s Morning Dew and Rainbow Dash. Which pony will make it to the end? Who will take home the gold… -en colored trophy?”

Rainbow Dash was going to win. Luna would make sure of it.

“It’s really any pony’s game at this point. Morning Dew’s previous performance was a bit of a letdown after Royal Blue quit in the middle of the match.”

Not Luna’s proudest moment. She hoped Royal Blue would be alright. Maybe he could start a new line of ink for bunnies.

“But Dashie did an amazing job! Even though Trixie ended up making something good and being disqualified. And boy was it good! I’m sorry I didn’t save you a slice, Spike.”

Luna was just going to add flour to the bowl, then cause it to fly up and knock her in the head. Sweet, sweet unconsciousness would follow. She would worry about her concussion after she woke up next. Whenever that would be.

“Not a problem, Pinkie. Now then, we’ve had speed baking and team baking, and I bet everypony is wondering what’s next. Well, the theme for the final round is a big fan favorite: baking good!”

...What?

“Baking good? But, Spike. Isn’t that the opposite of what this competition is about?”

“It sure is, and a normally impossible task for these bad bakers. That’s why they’ll be assisted by the one, the only, null-stone!”

A cheer went up from the audience. Luna looked around for something to bang her head on.

“Oh, I get it! With the null-stone, all the bad baking auras do nothing. They’ll be forced to bake like normal ponies, such as me!”

“Uh... that might not be the best example.”

“And then, once the baked good is in the oven, the null-stone will be turned off and whoosh! The bad baking aura will come back like a tidal wave.”

“Will our competitors ride that wave to victory, or will they wipe out? Find out in the finals!”

“Good luck,” Rainbow Dash said.

Luna blinked her eyes to try and get the swirling images of Rainbow Dash to reform into one pony. “Thanks, you too,” Luna said and gave up blinking. If Rainbow Dash wanted to be three separate ponies, that was her business.

“Are you feeling alright? You look like you haven’t slept in a month.”

Luna couldn’t keep herself from giggling madly.

“You, uh... you better start moving, it’s your turn first.”

“Huh? Oh! Right.”

Luna slowly walked forward and stepped from the waiting booth. She placed one hoof in front of the other until she reached the stage. She didn’t trust the little steps that led up the stage so she just jumped. She then crawled the rest of the way and got to her hooves.

“It... looks like Morning Dew is ready now,” Spike said.

“She seems tired,” Pinkie said. She took a deep breath and shouted “Wake up, Morning Dew!”

The audience winced against the feedback coming from the speaker system. Luna now had ringing ears in addition to blurry vision. She silently thanked Pinkie Pie. There was no way she could win now.

One of the judges slowly removed her hooves from her ears and, once she was sure the screeching was over, spoke to Luna. “We have selected a recipe for you to follow. You will find it on the countertop. You will be awarded up to five points based on how well you follow the recipe, and another five points based on your outcome once the null-stone is removed. There will be no taste testing, so feel free to go all out.”

Luna looked at the young unicorn levitating the null-stone, who was looking incredibly giddy. Probably some fan who had won a contest to be here. Luna really hoped this unicorn knew what she was doing.

“Activate the null-stone,” the judge said.

The unicorn stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. Luna tried to touch the bad baking magic, but there seemed to be a wall around it now. She decided on a new plan: follow the recipe and, once the bad baking magic was released, only use a small amount. Rainbow Dash would do something amazing and win. Luna would return to the palace and sleep. Everypony got what they wanted.

“Morning Dew, are you ready?” the judge asked.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Go!”

Luna looked at the recipe and couldn’t understand it. It looked like it was written upside down. She laughed to herself and flipped the paper around. She was then disappointed to learn that the paper had already been right-side up. She flipped the paper back and sighed. This was going to be a long round.

Luna had no idea what she had made or what it was supposed to have been. It was dough. It was on a baking sheet. It was in the oven. She didn’t care anymore. “Done,” she said.

The judges looked confused as they spoke to one another quietly. The judge from before asked Luna, “Miss Morning Dew, are you ready for the null-stone to be removed?”

“Hit me with it,” Luna said and quickly came to regret her choice of words.

A tidal wave was an accurate enough description for the oncoming rush of magic. What was inaccurate, though, was the scale. Luna had a better chance stopping a literal tidal wave using only her body.

The magic rushed past her, into her, through her. Luna felt herself being shocked awake as the magic sought its release into the physical world. She tried to only let a small amount pass like planned, but that was an impossible task. The magic flowed through her as she fought to force it back.

Luna’s oven did a back flip off of the stage. It bounced around the field before falling over. The door opened up, and the dough shot into the air. The dough burst into thousands of little balls that began bouncing around the stadium. The audience cheered in wonder as the air was filled with dough bouncing every which way.

Spike laughed. “And the dough has gone wild! Careful, everypony, you probably don’t want to get any in your mouth. A very interesting use of the rubber ball technique.”

Pinkie hung halfway out of the announcer’s booth. She quickly turned her head back and forth as she watched the dough bounce. She then drew back and snapped out, catching one of the dough balls in her mouth.

Spike stared at her in disgust. “Pinkie, what did I just say?”

Pinkie held up a hoof and started chewing. She then took a deep breath and blew air into the dough. It quickly inflated then floated to the ceiling once she let go. “It’s not rubber, Spike. It’s gum! Really nasty tasting gum, blech.”

Luna gritted her teeth and tapped into her magic. She had had enough of this. She was going to lose, and that was final. She formed a magical wall around herself to block the bad baking magic. The wall began to leak, so Luna formed another. And another. Finally, the bad baking magic could no longer reach her. The dough stopped moving and hung in the air. After a few seconds, it all fell and splattered against whatever, or whoever, was underneath it. The cheering was mixed depending on where the ponies were sitting.

“Thank you, Morning Dew,” the judge said as she wiped dough from her mane. “You may return to the waiting booth.”

Luna panted as she made her way across the field. She was feeling very awake now, for what it was worth. Rainbow Dash was heading her way.

“Not bad,” Rainbow Dash said. “Though, I think you screwed up your recipe.”

“Yeah,” Luna said. “It wasn’t by best performance.”

“The ending was entertaining, at least, but...”