Dinky looked at the golden cup as if it was an ancient, mystical totem. "Do you want to try it?" she asked.

"Sure!" chirped Sweetie Belle. "She said 'anything,' right?"

Dinky nodded slowly. "I'm just worried we'll get in trouble..."

"My sister says it's rude to not take advantage of hospitality," said Sweetie Belle. She tried to hop up onto the large chair, catching it with her forelegs and eventually pulling her dangling legs up behind her. "Besides, we'll probably never be back here. We should make the most of it!"

Dinky smiled and hopped up after Sweetie Belle. She also struggled with the large chair, but Sweetie Belle helped pull her up. From there, they made their way to the table and the golden cup. Dinky reverently picked it up and pressed her face against it, but then she paused. "Hmm..."

The old mare with the purple coat and faded yellow hair, the one that her Momma and Trixie and Rarity had bowed down to and called 'vicereine,' had said that her mansion had something called 'room service'. This meant that, if Dinky or Sweetie or anypony else spoke into the cup and asked for food, somepony would cook it and bring it to them. Dinky had asked what kind of food, and the old mare had said that any kind would be fine. "If you want a cherimoya, or a fresh white truffle salad, or a dragonfruit grown with actual dragon magic, or any other type of food in Equestria, you need only ask. You're my guest." And she had smiled when she'd said it, although Dinky had thought her smile had looked weird. Dinky hadn't felt like an 'honored guest,' which was what the mare had called all the Ponyville ponies who were staying with her, but instead like some kind of pet or toy that was being pampered for its owner's amusement.

Sweetie Belle poked Dinky's nose. "Come on! Ask for something!"

"I'm thinking!" She tapped the cup like the mare had showed her. "Hello?"

"This is the kitchen," came the response.

Dinky wasn't sure how the cup system worked. It was based on tin-can telephones, like the ones that she and Scootaloo played with sometimes, but they ran all over the mansion and they had much better sound than the tin cans. Nonetheless, that probably wasn't important at the moment. "Um, my friend and I are hungry! Can we have a snack?"

"What would you like?"

Dinky paused again.

Sweetie Belle said, "Just ask for the one food you always wanted to try! Or your favorite food!"

"Uh... can we have a really big muffin, please?"

If the pony at the other end of the line was surprised by the request, she didn't say anything. "What flavor of muffin, miss?"

"Banana nut." And, because the situation seemed to call for something more dramatic than a regular old muffin that she could get from the Sugar Cube Corner, she added, "And can it be really, really big? Like, bigger than us?"

"How big are you?"

Dinky hadn't been expecting that, but Sweetie Belle jumped in. "We're foal sized!" she chirped. "And my horn's a little big for my age, just so you know."

Dinky frowned. "It is not."

"It is too!"

"Will there be anything else?" asked the other pony.

"Vanilla icing on top!" added Sweetie Belle.

"And chocolate sprinkles!" said Dinky. "And, and..."

"A really big cherry!" finished Sweetie Belle.

"Very good," said the pony at the other end.

Dinky wasn't sure what to do next, but Sweetie took the cup. "Thank you. Goodbye!" She put the cup down and grinned. "Oh wow! I'm so excited!" Her voice began to squeak. "We're going to have the biggest muffin in history!"

"We should have gotten two," realized Dinky. "I bet Momma would want one."

"We can order another," said Sweetie Belle. "But the adults won't be back for a while. Let's try ours first, make sure it's good."

That made sense to Dinky. "Okay!"

Fifteen minutes later, the foals were looking at the games that the vicereine had told them were in the cabinets.

"This one looks even older!" Sweetie Belle looked at the box with the ancient, stylized text. "Wow!"

Dinky nodded. The pictures on the box showed pieces wearing funny outfits. "I wonder when it's from."

"I saw clothes like those in one of my sister's books, but it was about ancient fashions. Like, three hundred years ago fashions!"

"So this game was made then?" Dinky blinked. "But it doesn't look opened. She never played it."

"Maybe she just likes to look at the box?"

"But it's in the dark cabinet, and--"

Further investigations of this nature were cut off by a sharp knock on the door. The two foals looked at each other, realized what this meant, and tumbled off the chair in their efforts to race to the door.

"I win!" said Sweetie Belle, bonking into the door horn-first. She quickly opened it. "Hi!"

The unicorn was dressed in a sharp black-and-white butler uniform. He had a cart behind him, and on it was...

The largest muffin imaginable.

Dinky's eyes widened. The muffin was as wide as the door, and almost as tall. It was easily bigger than Sweetie Belle and her combined. It had a magnificent golden-brown color, with the scent of bananas and fresh nuts wafting from it and filling the room. The icing on top looked so delicious that Dinky wanted to climb up one of the bookshelves and jump into it. The sprinkles were as numerous as sand on a beech. Even the cherry on top was bigger and looked better -- redder, sweeter, fresher -- than normal.

"That looks great!"

Sweetie Belle was more blunt. "YAY!"

The butler wheeled the muffin inside, set it down with telekinesis, bowed, and left. Sweetie and Dinky could only stare at the big, beautiful muffin.

"Well," said Dinky, "We should taste it!"

They couldn't quite get up to the frosting, since it towered above them, so they began at the base. Dinky realized within a few bites how incredible the find was. "This is fantastic!"

"My sister says that the vicereine has the finest ingredients money can by!" Sweetie Belle licked her lips. "I think she's right!"

They continued to eagerly eat through the base of the muffin, which slowly began to tilt over.

Dinky realized their predicament a few seconds before Sweetie Belle. "Uh oh."

Sweetie Belle looked up just before the largest dessert imaginable collapsed on top of her.

"I'm just worried for you," said Trixie.

"Darling, please. I can take care of myself." Rarity was practically hovering, so giddy was she. "And besides, this is the greatest opportunity I could ever have."

"But the fee--"

"Is incredible!" Rarity's eyes shone. "A hundred thousand bit commission base, and another hundred thousand if she likes the result! Plus, I'll become Vicereine Puissance's preferred clothier! Do you have any idea what that means?"

Ditzy smiled. "It means that you'll be able to accomplish your dreams."

"The Vicereine meets with ambassadors, foreign princes and generals, not to mention Luna. My clothes would be seen by emperors and princesses! Not to mention that fashion in this province -- Equestria's richest -- and at least three major cities follows the Vicereine; I'd become a household name! Add in the other nobles who follow her, and she said she could get me shops in Manehattan, Los Pegasus, Canterlot..." Rarity smiled dreamily. "In a year, I could be the pre-eminent clothier in Equestria. Not 'up and coming,' not 'one of the best.' The first and greatest."

"Rarity, she's manipulating you! She knows what you want, and she's offering it to you so that you do something for her!"

"That's business. She told me not to tell anypony what I'm working on, and darling, I can't break a client's confidentiality--"

"Rarity, nothing you sell is worth a fraction of what she's paying you. There's obviously something wrong here!"

Ditzy sighed. She liked Trixie, and she liked Rarity (more or less), but the two... didn't get along well. "Trixie, I'm sure that Rarity will be able to handle her own business affairs... and Rarity, I'm sure you know that you can come to us if you have any problems. We're not afraid of the Vicereine."

They had reached the room where they'd left the foals. Ditzy began to open the door. "In fact, Rarity, I--"

She stopped, staring. So did the other two adults.

A large muffin was on its side in the room. This by itself would be unusual, but it seemed to be wiggling, like something was stuck inside and struggling to get out.

Ditzy cautiously approached it. "Is this a present?"

The muffin wiggled harder, and then a little, purple nose poked out from the top side. A few moments later, Dinky pushed her horn and the rest of her head through. She gasped for air. "Sweetie Belle, we're close!"

A few seconds later, Sweetie Belle also broke through. "Made it!" She sighed with relief. "We beat the muffin! Yay!"

Ditzy smiled as Dinky turned to focus on her. "Enjoying yourself, muffin?"

"Uh huh! Did you have a good day?"

"It was pretty good," said Ditzy. "I missed you, of course."

Dinky smiled. "Well, um... we could have dinner together, but..."

Ditzy thought about the length of the path Dinky had apparently needed to chew to escape from the giant muffin. She wouldn't have an appetite. Still, she could hardly blame her daughter for trying out a few luxuries now that she had the chance. "How about instead I read you a long story before bed tonight?"

"Okay!"

Rarity was staring blankly. "Why is there a huge muffin on the floor?"

Ditzy smiled and began cutting large pieces for herself, Rarity, and Trixie. "Does it matter?"

"Hey," Trixie protested, weakly. "I wasn't done arguing."

"You are now," instructed Ditzy. "It's muffin time. You can't argue when you're eating a muffin."

Trixie seemed about to object, but apparently the muffin was too delicious, because she just began eating it instead. "You win this round," she said, around a mouth full of dessert.

Ditzy smiled warmly as Dinky ran to give her a hug.