Scootaloo frowned and silently repeated the word as she strolled around the kitchen at the Carousel Boutique. Finally she shook her head and asked:
- What we do?
"Paella," Apple Bloom repeated.
- And that's not fruit?
Sweetie Belle shook her head.
- It's papaya.
Scootaloo shrugged her wings.
- If you say so. So what is this pa-eggs from?
- Paella. Aunt Apple Empanada says you can give whatever you want there! Apple Bloom beamed. - It seems to me that if we use all the ingredients we think about, we will definitely get stamps for cooking.
"And Rarity has the best stocked kitchen in Ponyville!" Sweetie Belle added.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
- Rather, it is the best-stocked kitchen we still have access to.
Apple Bloom scowled at her.
- And what was left behind your wing?
Scootaloo sat down and crossed her front hooves.
- Cooking is poor.
- You only say that because Rainbow Dash is not cooking.
- Because it doesn't have to! Besides, where would she put the oven? At the house?
- Girls! Sweetie Belle called. "Arguments won't get us anywhere, and Rarity won't be in a spa, you know how much."
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged one last glance, then made up.
"You're right," Scootaloo said. - So where do we start?
"Well," said Apple Bloom, taking the recipe out of her bag, "you have to start any paella with rice."
- Rice? Sweetie smirked. - Em, there might be a problem with that.
Both her friends gave her irritated glances.
"What happened to Ponyville's best-equipped kitchen?" Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie grimaced and lit the corner.
"Rarity has a lot of things!" A lime-colored aura encircled successive cupboards that swung open. Sweetie wiped her sweaty brow. - You see? Only rice isn't there.
Scootaloo went limp.
- Well, that's the thread. Or maybe we'll try swallowing swords? My dad has ...
- Wait a second. Apple Bloom stepped back and scanned the kitchen. - Maybe something will come of it after all.
"But you said the pandora must be with the rice."
- Paella. And yes, she should - Bloom smiled - but we can get past that. We just have to be creative.
Scootaloo looked at Sweetie.
- Does that make sense to you? Because I don't think AB knows what he's saying anymore.
- I'm here.
Scootaloo shrugged her wings.
- Such…?
Apple Bloom shook her head.
"Look, I'm trying to say that we can still do something that will have a little bit of everything." It just won't be paella. We have flour, sugar, tons of spices, syrups and stuff ... Sweetie, are there eggs in the fridge?
Sweetie nodded.
- Definitely. I checked before you came.
Bloom sat up, smiling at the great stamp future.
- Ligo? We will bake a cake.
- What cake exactly?
- What? Apple Bloom shook her head off and scowled at Sweetie Belle. - No matter what cake!
Sweetie started spinning the wheels with her hoof.
- I'm just saying that if we don't have the recipe ...
- Pfff. Who needs the recipe? Scootaloo began rummaging through Rarity's pots and pans. - We just mix what might taste good, throw it in the oven and boom! We have stamps.
Apple Bloom smiled.
- I think you said the cooking was poor.
Scootaloo didn't answer right away, as her mouth was busy helping the hoofs pull out the largest sheet metal she found in the pile. When she pulled it out (along with all the utensils that were on it), she said:
- I'd rather have a weak badge than not have one. Besides, my talent may be to make cooking something great.
- There's only one way to find out.
*
Scootaloo looked from one box to another.
- Hey, do you put baking soda or baking powder in the dough?
Apple Bloom shrugged.
- I do not know. Upload both.
- Of course.
*
After contemplating a moment by the spice shelf, Scootaloo grabbed a container full of reddish threads.
- Hey, Sweetie, what's this?
"Oh, I didn't know Rarity still had some saffron."
- Are we posting?
Sweetie nodded from side to side.
- Well, she probably won't mind. I don't think he even likes it; he hardly adds it anywhere.
- Cool. Then I'll throw it all in.
*
Sweetie's eyes widened at what Apple Bloom had brought back in the cart.
- Potions? Want to add potions to your dough?
Bloom raised an eyebrow.
- Well, I was going to cook rice in them.
"Er ..." Sweetie cleared her throat. - But isn't it dangerous?
- No, I have brewed them many times. Absolutely safe.
- That gave me an idea. Scootaloo jumped off one of the pots they used to reach the table top. The buzzing of her wings quickly flew away from the boutique.
- What do you think she's up to? Apple Bloom asked.
Sweetie shivered.
- I'm almost afraid to think ...
The buzzing returned and the Scootaloo galloped back into the kitchen, trying to catch her breath and balancing the half-full jar on her head.
The others looked at him.
-Liquid rainbow? Sweetie took a step back, eyes wide.
- Are you crazy !? Apple Bloom shouted.
Scootaloo snorted.
- Relax, I didn't add a cloud or feathers to it.
- You don't eat that!
- Right, if it's straight from the weather factory. Rainbow Dash uses it at home herself and tells me it doesn't even sting my eyes. It is completely safe.
Before either could reply, Scootaloo poured the contents of the jar into the baking tray. The colors blended seamlessly with the dough.
Once it was clear there was no sign of an explosion or resin, Sweetie gave a relief.
- It could be really bad. I mean, what are you guys even thinking !?
- What? Apple Bloom blinked, holding an empty potion bottle in her hooves. - I told you they were safe.
- But with the rainbow ...
- Cool! Scootaloo called, looking at the cake. - Now the stripes change colors!
Sweetie waited a few moments, biting her lip. The colors changed, but nothing else happened.
"Well, I think if they're safe separately, they should be fine together."
- You think the oven is warm?
All three turned to the device.
"Well, it glows red," Scootaloo said. - I think that's a good sign.
Sweetie telekinetically opened the oven. A wave of hot air enveloped her.
"I guess you're right," she said. - Now we have to put it in there.
She pulled away and wrinkled her face, and the aura from her horn grew brighter. The baking tray barely moved.
- Come on, Sweetie!
- Just a little more!
Sweetie groaned, focusing as much magic as she could on the baking tray. For her horn it was much heavier than for the hooves. Still, she managed to lift it a few centimeters so that Scootaloo and Apple Bloom could press their mouths under her and carry her the rest of the way. They both unsteadily moved towards the stove. The weight of the plate kept changing as Sweetie tried to fight it.
When they were just outside the door, Scootaloo said:
- On three.
- Three! Three! Sweetie shouted.
Her horn began to sparkle.
- Three!
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom nodded, throwing a baking tray. Sweetie pushed her magic in the same direction, knocking the pan into the oven with a clang and a splash.
Apple Bloom closed the door and Sweetie Belle fell.
"Ow ..." groaned the unicorn, grabbing his head with his hooves.
Scootaloo sat down next to it.
- You did great, Sweetie.
- I can not talk. I'm dying.
Apple Bloom's eyes widened.
"She ... she's not really dying, is she?"
Scootaloo swallowed.
- Er, I don't think we had that in biology yet.
Sweetie groaned long and loud.
- We should come over and check.
"What about ... oh, who cares about the cake?" It sounded a bit like a zombie movie. Scootaloo stood on her hind legs, lifting Sweetie Belle. - Uh, help me put her in the stroller. We can ask the first unicorn we meet if it is serious.
Apple Bloom knelt down in front of them.
- And what to do, if there is.
- Right.
Scootaloo translated Sweetie so her chin hung over Apple Bloom's torso, then slid under the unicorn's limp limbs.
Together, they managed to put her in a pram. The Scootaloo ran as smoothly as she could, and Apple Bloom kept Sweetie company.
"Take it easy, Sweetie," she said. - Everything will be alright.
Then the boutique exploded behind their backs.
*
Ponyville was gone. In its place was a writhing, shapeless mass that gurgled and rippled. It was flecked with many colors that shouldn't even exist. It spread like mold, taking up more and more of the village. Residents were evacuated. The three princesses weren't so lucky.
Hovering over the ruins, the last alicorn and only draconequus devised a plan of action.
"Well, we just proved my powers can't change that," Discord said, "and the sparkling bursts of energy are not my style."
Twilight narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.
"If you use a lot of chaos magic at the same time I'm casting a spell, maybe it can be stopped."
Discord made a grunt.
- I usually like uncertainty, but I'm not sure if we should rely on 'maybe' in this situation. Can't you and the girls use your Rainbow Power on this?
- We already tried. Twilight pointed with her hoof at several crystalline branches sticking out of the slime.
- Ah. Well. Discord craned his neck until his bones snapped. It took a few seconds for everything to be overwhelmed. - Well, it's huzia on Józia, or whatever we call it.
Twilight closed her eyes.
- On my mark. - Her corner lit up, brightening quickly. As light began to leak through her eyelids, and her horn encircled a pillar of magic higher than hers, she screamed, "NOW!"
Discord was still waiting. Not because he hesitated, but to give the ray time to reach the spot. As soon as the Twilight spell brushed against its target, he clapped his paws.
The beam touched e with slime in which the light swirled like in a kaleidoscope. There was a deafening, shocking groan, like a scream from reality itself.
Twilight staggered in the air and climbed the cloud. She sank halfway into her before her body said she had solid ground beneath it.
- It worked? She choked out.
Discord sat down next to her, admiring the view and getting rid of the cramps on his wrists. The light returned to normal and huge bubbles formed across the width of the mass. They all ripped apart at once and no longer closed. The gas was escaping with a sound like the wind blowing by a dozen dragons.
- Congratulations, Twilight! Discord raised his voice over the noise, almost shouting, "We made the world's largest fart pillow!"
A few more seconds and all the air was gone from the thing that threatened to eat Ponyville. He was as limp as a raw pizza thrown over the city. Twilight leaned over the edge of the cloud, watching it all.
- Managed to. And I wasn't sure about it at all.
Discord nodded, frowning.
- He's dead then?
- I'm not sure if he was ever alive.
- That's OK then. I hate killing things, especially interesting ones.
Twilight glared at him.
"It could take over all of Equestria."
Discord smiled back.
- That's interesting. I understand this would be problematic for the pony population, but oh well.
Twilight just grunted and rested her chin on the cloud.
- Anyway, what did you finally do to him?
- Nothing, because that wouldn't work. But I made pi equal five for a fraction of a second in his space pi. Discord grimaced as he waved his lion paw from side to side. "It's not easy, not even for me, but you didn't tell me what a huge influx you needed."
- Well, it worked. Can you get the rest of the princesses out of there?
Discord leaned against the cloud, closed his eyes, and folded his paws behind his head.
- In a few minutes. They'll be fine. Even the sideboard doesn't actually need air.
- Discord ...
- Because I don't. One eye opened. - How did it actually happen? I wasn't here from the very beginning.
Twilight sighed.
- It was supposed to be a cake.
Discord chuckled.
"I understand now why Spike usually prepares food."
- I didn't make them. This is the work of the Marks League.
- Ah, yes, that makes sense. Discord blinked and widened his eyes in greater terror than ever during the fight. He ripped off his mouth (bloodless, as Trixie once did with Pinkie Pie) and tossed it into the bin marked with an eight-pointed star superimposed over the biohazard symbol. Both items are gone and Discord said through his newly grown mouth, "What are you ponies doing with me?"
Twilight couldn't help but smile.
- Come on. End of the break. We still have a lot of work to do before we can give everyone the good news.
*
In one of the tents of the evacuation camp, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack glared menacingly at the fillies with the still smooth sides.
- What have you learned today, girls? Rarity asked.
"If you are not sure what the recipe is about," Sweetie Belle replied immediately, "don't add everything that is in the kitchen."
- And? Applejack said.
"Don't add any potions, especially just to see what happens," added Apple Bloom.
Dash leaned over them.
- And?
"Liquid rainbow is not a toy," Scootaloo said.
Spike, standing outside next to the tent, punched out a scroll. He grabbed it and hastily unrolled it, nearly tearing it open.
"We did it," he read. - They did it!
All the ponies nearby cheered. Several of them ran through the camp spreading news. Only Pinkie Pie, still crying on Fluttershy's shoulder, did not join the celebration.
"It's okay, Pinkie," Fluttershy said, stroking her friend's mane. - They'll clean everything up before you know it.
- It tasted terrible, Fluttershy. It tasted terrible!