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Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky

by David Silver

Chapter 17: 17 - The Second Episode, or, Clothes Make the Mare

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It was a fine day in Ponyville. How couldn't it be? With little excited giggles, Cherry slowly pulled a lever out of place with a little shred of metal in her mouth she was using as a tiny pry bar.

Pinkie leaned over her shoulder as she worked. "I don't think it'll work like that..."

"Of course not." Cherry set her tool aside. "Breaking it is part of understanding it." She ran a hoof gently along the massive clock. "Look at how it tries to work now."

Pinkie tilted her head slowly. "It doesn't look like it's working at all now."

"That's where you're wrong!" Cherry pointed into the exposed guts of the grandfather clock. "See, right here. It's trying to turn. If you listen, you can even hear it going tick tick tick."

Pinkie frowned a moment before the expression faded into a smile. "Oh I can hear it! Shouldn't it go tick-tock, not tick-tick?"

Cherry pushed the piece back into place, and the great weight began to swing properly again, the device restored. "I'm still learning how it all works, but I love it. I love every little piece!" She swatted the clock and something fell. Cherry's eyes went wide with horror. "Oh no!" She dove for the ground, flopping as she began searching for the missing piece. "Please tell me you can see it!"

Pinkie picked up a small gear from the ground. "Is it this?"

Cherry sprang up to her hooves, living and metal. She leaned towards the little gear and bobbed her head. "Perfect! You're the best assistant ever." She accepted the gear from the giggling Pinkie and carefully put it where it belonged, her tongue stuck out just a little with concentration until it slipped back into place. "Phew. That's enough clockwork for one day."

"Good! Wanna get a snack?" Pinkie smiled brightly. "I still owe you a cake, and today's the day we fix that, riiiight?"

Cherry carefully shut the front and back panels of her clock. "Let me get wet and I'll meet you in front of the castle, alright?"

They parted ways, only for Cherry to emerge from Twilight's castle, glistening with water, but much more pleased about it than most ponies would be. "Have you seen my room, Pinkie?"

Pinkie tilted her head. "I saw the top of it, but I haven't been in your room."

"You should! You can swim, right?"

"Course I can! I can skate too, but I bet you don't want your room frozen." Pinkie stuck out her tongue a moment.

Cherry was baffled. "Skate?"

Pinkie led the way towards the town of Ponyville. "When water gets really cold, it turns into ice, like magic. Then you can skate on it, because ice is all hard, and slick."

As they wandered through the town and the generally cheerful inhabitants, Cherry veered off towards a familiar face. "Good morning, Applejack!"

"Well howdy there, Cherry, Pinkie. What're you two upta?" She was manning the apple stand that day, with many fresh apples waiting for a good home. "Come t' get some apples?"

Cherry licked her lips. "Maybe one..." She offered a bit and received an apple, even if she could have claimed more than one at the price. She seemed happy to crunch into it as Pinkie approached.

"Hey Applejack. I was about to show Cherry the magic that is cake!" Pinkie clopped her forehooves together excitedly. "I can't wait to see her joyful expression on the first bite."

Applejack laughed at that. "Ah reckon ya would be pleased as punch fer the opportunity. Ah confess Ah felt much the same when she had her first apple. You go on and have a good time, y'hear? Tell me how it goes later."

"Will do!" Pinkie saluted before they departed, heading for the sweet emporium that was Sugarcube Corner.

There were some ponies lingering nearby, nibbling on tasty treats. They looked at Cherry curiously and some offered friendly waves. She was a novel sight, but not an unwelcome one. Pinkie returned the wave, but was focused on getting Cherry inside, and soon they had entered the secret lair of sweets, which wasn't so terribly secret.

One of the ponies behind the bar gave a smile. He was a stallion, dry sort, of course. He seemed a touch skinnier than most of the others. "Well hello there, Pinkie, who've you got with you there?"

"Hello hello, Mr. Cake. Meet Cherry." She gestured between the two. "Cherry, this is Mr. Cake. This whole bakery belongs to him and Mrs. Cake. I just work here."

Mr. Cake offered a hoof. "She says that, but she's an invaluable part of the team, practically part of the family. Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, Cherry. That pronunciation, it reminds me a bit of Prench."

Cherry tilted her head at that even as she offered a hoof, meeting his with a soft clop before she guided her fins to make her metal legs begin walking to take in the sights of the place. Everything was bright and colorful, to say nothing of smelling so sweet. "This is a very nice... um..."

Pinkie quickly supplied, "Bakery."

"Ah, yes, Bakery." Cherry frowned a little. "What's that?"

Mr. Cake's curiosity would go unfulfilled, but Cherry's naked ignorance and curiosity distracted him nicely. "A bakery is where ponies bake. It's how we make all these treats." He waved a hoof over their counter where cookies, muffins, and cupcakes were on proud display.

Cherry approached the glass case and leaned forward, bumping her nose as she misjudged the gait of her metal backlegs just one precious inch. Rubbing her nose with a hoof, she eyed the bonanza of delicacies. "You eat a lot of different things. Whatever they are, they smell good!"

Mr. Cake smiled gently at the new guest. "Funny thing about that, most of what you see is made with the same basic ingredients, prepared in different ways and with different additives mixed or sprinkled in."

Pinkie bobbed her head in swift agreement. "Like those are vanilla dough, but the rainbow sprinkles make all the difference in the world, believe me! But we're not here for cupcakes today, nuh uh. Mr. Cake, permission to make some of your namesake?"

Mr. Cake blinked, at first not getting it before it clicked. "Oh! Of course. Clean up after you're done."

"Roger wilco!" Pinkie trotted past Mr. Cake into the kitchen, looking quite eager to get to work.

Cherry followed along and settled to the ground to watch Pinkie hurriedly get to baking. The entire process was fascinating, but baffling. The idea of cooking that way was foreign to her. How could one cook that way in the water? It was a uniquely dry way to make food. Even the heat it made seemed drier around the ovens than elsewhere. It was the pure power of dry itself that made things happen. "We'll have a drink with this, I hope?" asked Cherry a little worriedly.

"Milk goes great with baked stuff." Pinkie bobbed her head as she pulled open a closed place and retrieved a bottle of white fluid. Was that really milk?

Cherry squinted at the bottle. "That isn't how you use milk normally, and I'm not a foal. Why do you even have that?"

Pinkie blinked with confusion. "It's tasty? You don't have to be a foal to enjoy milk, silly."

Cherry shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you do. Nopony I know drinks milk after they're weaned."

A new mare entered, round and matronly in appearance. Like the stallion up front, she was an earth pony with no wings or horn. "Pinkie, dear, she may be lactose intolerant."

"Lact-what in-what?" Pinkie looked increasingly baffled. "Does that mean she can't have a nice glass of milk?"

"That is exactly what that means." The larger and older mare took the bottle from Pinkie's sad hooves and placed it back in the cold place. "What would you like, sweetie?"

Cherry smiled. The older mare seemed kind and she decided she liked her. "Water's good. Do dry ponies have lots of different things to drink like that?"

"Oh my, yes." She nodded. "An almost countless variety of drinks to wet the whistle, as they say. I don't think we've met." She offered a hoof. "I'm Mrs. Cake. Have you met my husband already?"

Cherry met the hoof of Mrs. Cake. "Nice to meet you. I'm Cherry and yep! He's in front." She pointed the way. "That's pretty amazing. It's so dry that you separate out the kinds of water you like."

Mrs. Cake fetched a glass of water and gave it to Cherry. "Here you are, dear. Let me go check in with Mr. Cake. Pinkie, be mindful of our guest. She's not a normal pony and may react differently to the things we like."

While they had been talking, Pinkie had returned to the process of creating three small discs that smelled great, and only got better when she added some kind of smooth topping to each that hid the original discs beneath. "It's time! I hope your tastebuds are ready, because I'm about to blow your socks off."

"Socks?" Cherry shook her head. The dry ponies had so many new words for so many new things. "Will it work if I don't have whatever those are?"

"Don't be silly! Besides, nopony around here wears socks hardly at all anyway." Pinkie waved it off. "Go on, try some!" She picked up a sharp bit of metal in her mouth and cut out a piece of the first disc. "This one's vanilla with strawberry frosting and topped with kiwi."

Cherry blinked softly at the assault of new nouns, but decided to simply trust Pinkie and reached for the slice provided. Her hoof got dirty instantly with the sticky stuff covering it, but that didn't stop her from taking a big bite of it, her snout also becoming messy with the stuff.

Mmm... Cherry chewed softly, trying to digest the flavor itself a moment before she took a second bite, licking her lips clean as she went.

"Do ya like it?" Pinkie was practically vibrating with excitement. "Best thing or best thing?"

"It tastes weird," confessed Cherry as Pinkie deflated in place. "But I think I like it." Pinkie perked right back up and began to giggle happily. "What's the next one?" asked Cherry as she put down the slice she started with, mostly devoured.

The taste testing proved to be a success. The sea pony palette was unaccustomed to such things, but Cherry liked each flavor enough to eventually finish her share. "Thank you, Pinkie."

"Best part," Pinkie exclaimed as she pointed to the three partially-devoured cakes. "The insides were mostly made of the same thing."

Cherry couldn't believe it. Each had tasted completely different. "You're fibbing. That's not nice."

"I'm telling the truth. Look, I'll show you what I baked with." Pinkie showed off her ingredients, and they ended up making a fourth cake with things Cherry wanted to try. It was... new, Pinkie gave it that, but likely not being added to Sugarcube Corner's regular menu.

Author's Notes:

And so begins our grand, likely not so adventurous, adventure into the workings of The Dry.

Next Chapter: 18 - Darling, You're an Absolute Mess! Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 36 Minutes
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