Sugar cube Corner was, on most days, a fairly hectic place. Being as popular as it was, barely a day went by when there wasn’t some big group of people coming in to try out some of the store’s famous cakes or milkshakes. And its owners, Mr and Mrs Cakes, had always made it so that each and every one of their customers left with smiles on their faces and a feeling of contentment. Today, however, things seemed relatively calm, with only one or two local students partaking of the place, sitting quietly together in their booths and chatting to one another. As such, things behind the scenes in the store were less active than they usually were. Mr and Mrs Cakes were busy taking stock of a lot of the food they had on display by the counter, and given the more relaxed feel of the day, they went at it at a more leisurely pace than they’d normally do.

However, it was in the back rooms where the real activity was taking place. There, Pinkie Pie, who often worked part-time in this place, was hard at work, standing by a mixing bowl and doing exactly that, mixing. With her usual massive smile plastered on her face, it would have been clear to anyone who saw her that she was loving this, adding milk and sugar wherever it was needed, and never seeming like she was bored with it. Before long, she looked at the nearby clock on the wall, seeing the time and giving a brief nod. Turning, she poured her mixture into a nearby container, ready to get it in the already-heated oven nearby. As soon as it was in, she wiped the sweat from her brow before turning around once more.

“I’m glad you could be here, Twilight. It’s always fun having friends here for this.”

As she said, Twilight Sparkle, noted student of Crystal Prep, was indeed there, smiling sweetly at Pinkie, clasping her hands together as she walked around the kitchen.

“Thank you, Pinkie. In truth, I’m happy you invited me. I suppose I’ve always wanted to see what goes on back in places like this.”

Still smiling, Pinkie walked up to her and placed a hand upon her shoulder.

“It’s great! Mr and Mrs Cakes have always been super-duper nice to me whenever I’ve worked here! And seeing the looks on everyone’s faces when they like what I bake? It’s one of the best feelings out there!”

Twilight nodded, turning to the cake ingredients that had been left on the side.

“You have so much energy for this sort of thing. If I'd have been doing this, I’d probably still only be halfway done.”

Hearing that, Pinkie giggled slightly.

“Silly! All you’d need to do is ask for help! I’m sure Mr and Mrs Cakes would be more than willing to lend a hand if you were having trouble.”

Looking to her, Twilight smiled again.

“Well…it’s nice to know.”

Giggling again, Pinkie turned to the cake in the oven, letting out a sigh.

“The only bad thing is that it takes so loooooooong! It’ll be, like, a whole hour before it's ready!”

Looking to the oven herself, Twilight folded her arms and knelt down slightly to get a better look at the still-flat cake within.

“I never asked…is that for a customer?”

Turning to her companion, Pinkie regained her smile before shaking her head.

“Nope! It’s for a special birthday party I’m setting up! My next door neighbour, Cheese, it’s his fifteenth tomorrow, and I just knew I had to celebrate!”

Smiling herself, Twilight chuckled slightly as she adjusted her glasses.

“You really like parties, don’t you? Like back at that gathering of our schools before the Games? We were from a rival school and you just wanted a party for all of us.”

Pinkie nodded at that.

“Yep! Sure did! All that our-school-versus-your-school stuff doesn’t mean we can’t have a good romp in the meantime, right?”

Considering that, Twilight let out a sigh as she nodded.

“Yeah…guess so.”

Before the spectacled girl could react, however, Pinkie then embraced her in a tight hug.

“That's the spirit! A good party always makes people feel better!”

Although she’d been taken aback by this, Twilight soon composed herself, smiling again before returning the hug herself. In time though, the two girls parted, and Pinkie looked at Twilight with a degree of curiosity.

“I never asked…what kinds of parties do you like?”

Twilight looked a little unsure of that, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

“Well…um…I don’t really know. I’ve never really had all that many parties before.”

To that, Pinkie let out a loud gasp, looking as if she’d been told the most horrific news in the world.

“No parties?! But that’s just terrible!”

But, Twilight shook her head to that, looking to Pinkie with a reassuring expression.

“Oh, don’t worry! I’ve been fine with it. I mean…my family, well, my brother mostly, always offered to throw some kind of party on my birthday, but…well…I kinda always said no.”

That piqued Pinkie’s interest, though she looked no less mortified from it all.

“You said no?! Why?”

Twilight considered that for a moment before giving her answer.

“Well…it’s not that I didn’t appreciate the gesture. It’s just…I never really felt like it. I always had other things to do.”

To that, Pinkie put on a frown for the first time in this entire visit, placing her hands on her hips and looking to Twilight in an almost accusatory manner.

“And what, exactly, could be more important than a party?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Well, for one thing, I had a lot of work from school to be getting on with. I had a few theoretical studies to perform, I had to get in contact with schools that I might have wanted to go to after Crystal Prep. There was just loads of stuff for me to do!”

Pinkie rolled her eyes slightly.

“Twilight, you need to learn to have a little excitement every once in a while! Stop putting yourself away in a stuff old lab and learn to just be…be…unexpected! You know…something fun?”

Twilight looked left, then right, then right back at Pinkie again.

“But…those other things…I do think they’re fun.”

At that, Pinkie took on a brief look of triumph.

“There you go! Nothing’s more fun than…wait…what?”

Twilight nodded, adjusting her glasses a little before continuing.

“I meant it, Pinkie. I do consider those things fun. Science. Mathematics. Theories written by the best minds in the country. I just…that's the kind of stuff that thrills me.”

Pinkie looked to her as if she’d just said that someone had just turned into a frog or something.

“S…seriously?”

Twilight nodded.

“It’s true. I mean…I know most people wouldn’t consider that kind of thing to be exciting…or even very interesting. But to me…it just is. And I’ve always been happy doing it, even if it means I skipped out on a party here or there.”

Pinkie looked away from her, looking far more silent and thoughtful than Twilight could remember ever seeing her be. For a moment, the spectacled girl actually felt worried that she might have come across as perhaps the most boring person in the world. But, after a long an awkward few moments where nobody said or did anything, Pinkie turned back to face her, breaking out into yet another smile.

“Okay then.”

Yet another silence followed, during which Twilight looked very confused.

“Um…what?”

Smiling widely, Pinkie began to explain.

“Geez, Twilight, you should have told me from the start that that’s what you liked! If you say you find that stuff fun, then you just stick to it!”

In that moment, Twilight looked more than a little taken aback.

“R…really?”

Placing a hand over where her heart was, Pinkie’s smile became more sincere than before.

“I Pinkie promise, Twilight! Nobody should tell you what you can and can’t like. That’s just mean!”

After a long pause, Twilight broke out into a smile of her own, looking quite touched by what Pinkie had just said to her.

“Thank…thank you, Pinkie. That…that means a lot to me.”

Still smiling, Pinkie gave a nod.

“No problem. We’re friends, remember? Although…”

For a moment, Pinkie looked away, looking quite ponderous.

“I still feel kinda bad that you don’t have enough parties in your life.”

Twilight said nothing as Pinkie got her thoughts together. Then, before she could say anything, the other girl let out another gasp, turning to her with an even wider smile than before.

“I’ve got it! Your transfer from Crystal Prep to Canterlot High! Once that’s official, we can celebrate it! We can invite everyone! Sunset, Indigo, Rainbow, everyone!”

As before, Twilight had been taken aback by the sheer energy of her companion, but quickly regained her composure, thinking over what she’d just heard.

“Well…sure, I guess we can do that. But I don’t want you to go to all that trouble just so…”

But, she was stopped form saying anything further, as Pinkie placed a single finger upon her lips.

“Ah! None of that! We’re throwing you a party, Twilight! And I promise it’ll be the most super, fun, spectacular, festival of fun you’ve ever seen!”

To that, Twilight looked somewhat terrified.

“Oh! Well…thanks for the offer, but…can’t we just keep it smaller than that? You know, just you me and the other girls?”

Pinkie, almost immediately, nodded at that, looking no less enthusiastic.

“Sure!”

Twilight raised another eyebrow.

“Really?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Pinkie nodded.

“Of course! Like I said, to each their own, right?”