Rainbow Dash woke up early the following morning. She wanted to get in some extra flying practice before she had to go and meet Pinkie Pie that afternoon. She stretched her wings and legs and took off into the morning sky. The sun had just barely risen above the horizon and the air was still somewhat cool. Rainbow relished in the feeling of the wind lapping against her coat and mane. Her wings cried with delight as she sped through the air at near super sonic speeds. It wasn't until the sun was already fairly high in the sky that she returned to the ground for a break. She sat down within the shade of a tall tree and closed her eyes. The air around her was hot but the somewhat cool aura of the shade made it at least habitable.

"Hey Rainbow Dash!" said an extremely excited voice. Rainbow opened her eyes to see a small brown pegasus filly standing a few feet away from her.

"Hey Scootaloo," she breathed.

"I've been watching your moves all morning!"

"You have? Don't you have friends to hang out with or other, more exciting, things to do?"

"No. Not really. Apple Bloom's busy helping Applejack and Big Macintosh around the farm and Sweetie Belle's on a trip to Canterlot with Rarity."

"Huh. I forgot Rarity went to Canterlot for a couple days. How long has it been since she left?"

"Around two days."

"Hmm. I guess the excitement for my sister coming to visit made me forget all about that."

"You have a sister?"

"Yeah. Have I not mentioned her around you?"

"I've never heard you mention a sister."

"Hmm...I guess I don't talk about her as much as I think I do. Her name's Stormflower. She's around six years older than me."

"Stormflower...I think I've heard her name before in class."

"Wouldn't be surprised. She's written several books on gardening. She has a fair amount of fans."

"I remember now. Ms. Cheerilee mentioned us to her once when we were learning about plants."

"That sounds like it was a really interesting lesson."

"Trust me. It wasn't."

The two pegasi laughed and Rainbow sat up a bit.

"Why don't you come out of the sun and come sit next to me for a little bit?"

A huge smile formed on Scootaloo's face and she eagerly ran up next to Rainbow and sat down. They leaned back on the trunk of the tree and sighed.

"Can we spend the whole day together?" asked Scootaloo anxiously.

"Sorry Scoots. I promised Pinkie Pie that I would go and hang out with her at Sugar Cube Corner this afternoon," Rainbow replied. Scootaloo hated the nickname "Scoots" but she didn't mind when Rainbow used it. She simply shrugged it off and sighed happily. "I'm free tomorrow though."

Scootaloo looked up at the elder pegasus, her eyes now glistening with excitement.

"R...really?!"

"Sure. I don't have anything extremely important planned for tomorrow."

"Could...could you teach me how to fly?"

"You don't know how to fly yet?"

Scootaloo looked down at the ground.

"No," she breathed.

"How come?" asked Rainbow.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just worried that I'll screw up."

"You're a pegasus! Flying is your nature! Don't worry, Scoots! I'll have you flying through the sky before you can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

"Where the hay did you get a word like that?"

"I saw it in a book somewhere and liked it."

The two pegasi laughed again and Rainbow patted Scootaloo's head happily. Suddenly the clock tower began ringing. It was noon.

"Damn! I'm late for my meeting with Pinkie Pie! Catch you later, Scoots!" said Rainbow as she stood up.

"See you later then!" said Scootaloo with a smile. Rainbow winked at Scootaloo and took off. She made it to Sugar Cube Corner in less than a minute.

"I wonder what surprise Pinkie has in store for me," said Rainbow as she walked through the front doors. "Maybe she has an awesome prank planned for somepony!" It was just then that she noticed that she was the only pony in the store. The entire place seemed empty. "Hello?! Pinkie Pie! Is anypony here?! She walked into the kitchen to see Pinkie Pie standing by the oven. She was wearing a white apron, a tall chef's hat, and two large oven mitts. "There you are!"

"Oh! Hey Dashie!" said Pinkie as she bounced over to her friend. The pink earth pony gave the pegasus a quick hug and then bounced back to the oven.

"So what's the surprise, Pinkie? Are we going to be pulling pranks on anypony? Or are we going to-"

"We're baking cupcakes!"

Pinkie then presented Rainbow with a giant tray of decorated cupcakes and placed it on a nearby counter.

"Cupcakes? Really? This was your big surprise?" asked a somewhat disappointed Rainbow.

"Well...you could say that it's part of the surprise," replied Pinkie with a sneaky grin.

"So there's more?! What else is there?!"

"You're going to have to wait and see!"

"Come on, Pinkie! You know how I hate surprises!"

"I said that we're making cupcakes! I'll tell you the real surprise once we get past phase one!"

"Okay then."

Rainbow reached for an oven mitt but Pinkie quickly slapped her hoof.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Rainbow snapped.

"Before we make cupcakes, I want you taste one of the cupcakes that I made," Pinkie replied as she pointed at the tray of cupcakes on the counter. It was then that Rainbow noticed that all of the cupcakes had an icing picture on them that looked like that of a cutie mark. The main cupcake was chocolate while the icing was dark blue. Each cupcake had the image of a bronze spatula cutie mark painted on it with icing.

"Those certainly look interesting."

"But don't they look just delicious?!"

"I do admit that I am pretty hungry. I skipped breakfast this morning to get in some extra flying practice."

"Well if you're hungry then eat you silly filly!"

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the nearest cupcake. Sure, a cupcake wasn't exactly the healthiest first thing for somepony to eat during their day but it was definitely better than nothing. It was as Rainbow drew the painted pastry close to her lips that she realized just how hungry she was. Her mouth craved for the delectable taste of the sweet treat and her tongue just begged to be covered in its sugary goodness. Then, in one swift movement, she stuffed the whole pastry into her mouth. It was amazing! One of the best cupcakes Rainbow had eaten in a while. She swallowed the pastry and proceeded to eat another. The second cupcake went down as quickly as the first. Rainbow then reached for a third and prepared to devour it.

"Wow Dashie! You sure were hungry! I actually didn't expect you to eat more than one!" said a surprised Pinkie Pie.

"Why would anypony just eat one of your cupcakes?" asked Rainbow. "They're all so good! So, what do we do now?"

"Now...I prepare to make more cupcakes and you, my little Dashie, take a nap!"

"A nap?"

Rainbow was confused. She didn't feel tired, even after all those hours of flying.

"Pinkie, I don't feel tired. And besides, how does me taking a nap help you make cupcakes? I thought the both of us were going to make cupcakes," said Rainbow.

"Just wait. In a few seconds you'll be sleeping like a dragon!" said Pinkie gleefully. Rainbow was still confused. Then it hit. A strange feeling. Rainbow's eyelids suddenly became heavy, her limbs became weak, and her sight became blurry. The third cupcake fell from her hoof and hit the floor with a soft thud.

"Pi...Pinkie. What...what's...happening?"

"Goodnight, Dashie!"

The world began to spin and Rainbow fell to the ground. The last thing she saw was Pinkie's blurred figure standing over her, then she blacked out.