When one entered the kitchen intended for the Canterlot High cooking club, they were often taken aback by very powerful and alluring smells. The smells of cakes, pies, and many other assorted goodies that caused their mouths to water from just the tiniest whiff. Today was by no means an exception, as the six youths were hard at work on the new cake recipe they planned to carry out. Flash, Derpy, Pinkie, Sandalwood and Velvet were, in their own respective corner of the kitchen, each carefully preparing the ingredients necessary to get their cake in order. And last, but certainly not least, was Rainbow Dash. In contrast to the rest of the group, however, the young athlete was not preparing any ingredients, but rather simply standing to one side and staring at an open cook book. Specifically, it was the page that held the recipe they were using today, and she squinted hard at every step needed for it. Eventually, and after a long silence, she let out a sigh, turning to her half-brother.

"You know...I'm really not that great a cook, Flash."

The boy, who was right in the middle of kneading his dough, looked to her, letting out a brief chuckle.

"Yeah, I know. I remember how long it took to clean that pan up after the last thing you tried to bake here."

Embarrassment crossed Rainbow's face, and she scratched the back of her head slightly before replying to that.

"Well...maybe it'd be best if I wasn't actually, you know...here?"

To that, Flash halted, and looked to her with uncharacteristic sternness.

"Rainbow...cooking, no matter what form it may take, is an important skill that everybody should have some handle on in their lives. I learned it, Scootaloo learned it, and you’re gonna learn it too."

Rainbow grunted.

"Ugh! But it's so boooooring!"

Flash rolled his eyes.

"It is not! It's fun! Putting all the ingredients together, seeing it all turned into a delicious meal, it can be truly engaging."

The, he raised an eyebrow to her.

"Besides, I'll not have this be something you took part in just so you could beat Applejack at having the most clubs under your belt. If you're gonna be part of this, you're gonna be part of this!"

Folding her arms, Rainbow grumbled under her breath.

"Of all the brothers in the world, why did I have to get the responsible one?!"

Giggling, Pinkie turned from her own work to face her friend.

"Cheer up, Dashie! Flash is right, this is fun!"

Looking to her, Rainbow raised an eyebrow of her own.

"Pinkie, you once baked the Mona Lisa into a friggin' cake! But me? The first thing I tried baking here turned into a charred pile of ash!"

Pinkie snorted to that.

"Pfft! You were just rushing it! You missed out a whole bunch of ingredients, you didn't mix them up right, you put the temperature way too high..."

"Er, if you were trying to give me a pep talk, feel free to start saying nice things anytime now," Rainbow interrupted.

Pinkie frowned, then smiled again.

"Anyway, my point was that you'd be really good at this if you didn't just treat this as part of some silly contest."

Derpy looked over to the party-loving girl, adding her own voice to the mix.

"Pinkie, this is Rainbow we're talking about. Everything is a contest to her."

Rainbow looked to the blonde girl, slightly taken aback by those words.

"What?! No! Not everything!"

Derpy gave her a silent look of incredulity, prompting Rainbow to suddenly look a touch embarrassed.

"Okay...maybe everything."

Pinkie nodded to that sentiment.

"Well, if you took your time, you'd probably be just as good as the rest of us."

This time, it was Rainbow's turn to look incredulous.

"What, bake-Mona-Lisa-into-cake good?"

Again, Pinkie snorted.

"Pfft! Obviously not that good!"

Rainbow slapped her forehead after that, which elicited a chuckle from another of her club-mates, Sandalwood.

"You just gotta throw yourself into it, Rainbow. You know what they say. There's nothing sweeter than the taste of something you made yourself."

Walking over to him, and seeing the various raisins and cherries he was preparing, Rainbow considered that.

"Yeha...my Mom says the same thing every now and again."

Velvet, another of their club, looked to her with some interest.

"And you never tried cooking or baking at home?"

Rainbow shook her head.

"Well...no, not really. I guess...it all came down to me being worried about..."

A dry chortle escaped her.

"...well...you all saw the last monstrosity I baked here."

A shiver went through the others at the thought of that, but Flash, who had been silent for some time, merely let out a deep exhale before turning to Pinkie.

“Pinkie...show her what needs to be done.”

To that, Pinkie gave a salute.

“Aye-aye, Captain!”

With the command given, Pinkie, to Rainbow’s great shock, suddenly took her hand and yanked her halfway across the kitchen, placing her right in front of a wooden chopping board. Looking down to it, Rainbow saw that it already had a thin layer of flour upon it, prompting her to turn to Pinkie with some confusion.

“Er...what do I do now?”

In response to that, Pinkie unceremoniously slapped a big blob of dough right onto the flour, taking Rainbow aback slightly.

“What you need to do now, Dashie...is knead!”

Blinking slightly, Rainbow knew that her bed had been made for her, so now there was little choice but to lie in it. So, sighing, she placed her hands upon the dough, pressing it down gently. However, as Pinkie watched this, she shook her head.

“No, no, no! You've gotta be more fierce with it! Here...”

Walking behind her, Pinkie reached around and took hold of Rainbow’s hands, and so used them to knead the dough more vigorously. Rainbow, though unsure of this, nevertheless stayed quiet as her friend gave her demonstration. After a minute or two of this, Pinkie eventually let go, and Rainbow, to her credit, began to carry on exactly as she’d been shown.

“Like this?” she asked.

Putting her hands upon her hips, Pinkie nodded with enthusiasm.

“Yep! Keep doing that for a bit, and then we’ll move onto the next part!”

Cracking a small smile, Rainbow did indeed carry on with this, and for a time, the whole club simply carried on in silence with whatever work they were getting on with. However, Derpy soon looked over to Rainbow, speaking up in a reassuring tone.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow. None of us were very good at this when we first started. But, we all eventually learned to enjoy it.”

Rainbow, still kneading, turned to her.

“Do you do this a lot, Derpy? At home?”

Derpy nodded, smiling to herself.

“I do. Nothing gives me more joy than giving some small piece of cake that I baked to my little sweetheart and seeing her smile at it.”

Rainbow chuckled.

“Oh yeah? Dinky likes it?”

Again, Derpy nodded.

“She does. Can’t have it too much of course, but it’s still nice to know I make stuff good enough for her.”

Flash, looking over to the two, gained a smile of his own.

“I know the feeling. I remember when my Mom first taught me how to boil an egg. I swear, no egg ever tasted as good as that first one I prepared for myself.”

Pausing briefly, he then looked to his sister.

“Getting involved yourself always makes the food better, Rainbow, no matter how good or how bad a cook you are.”

Rainbow chuckled to that.

“Well...I guess I could stand to add one more thing to the list of stuff I'm great at.”

Naturally, the rest of the club rolled their eyes to such a remark, albeit in good humour. Soon afterwards, however, Rainbow looked to her still-kneaded dough, before speaking up again.

“Say, Pinkie...what do we do next?”

Looking to her, Pinkie giggled, then walked over and, with Sandalwood’s blessing, took his prepared fruits, before walking back to her friend.

“What happens now...is we make this cake the fruitiest thing Canterlot High has ever seen!”

Watching her and her enthusiasm, Rainbow’s smile widened.

“Wow...guess I never noticed how much you love this kinda stuff.”

Leaning over to her, Velvet whispered in her ear.

“You should see what she’s like on her less-restrained days.”

Hearing that, Rainbow took in that information, before promptly looking to her friend, seeing her eye slightly twitching as she regarded all the cake ingredients.

“Okay...kinda worried now.”