Chapter 22
Pizza Wars

As a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Solana wanted to help her best friends Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo get their cutie marks anyway she could. During one afternoon in Ponyville, at the CMC tree house, Solana came up with an idea. What if they opened up a stand that makes and sells pizza? They could try to get their pizza-maker cutie marks. Right away, Apple Bloom and the others agreed to the idea. Soon after, they split-up and went to get the supplies. Apple Bloom got a small oven, Scootaloo got the wood, Sweetie Belle would got the paint, and Solana got the ingredients. Their plan was to make the pizzas in advance and then after the customer ordered it, they could just give the pizza to them without the wait. After they had set everything up, including the pizzas, it didn't take long before they were getting customers. Unfortunately, the fun didn't last as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came walking up to them.

"Well, well...if it isn't Solana and the blank-blank crew," Diamond Tiara said, "What are you losers doing anyway?" She then backed up and looked at the sigh above. "CMC Pizza? What...are you trying to get your make-everyone-barf cutie marks?"

"No...we're trying to get our pizza-maker cutie marks," Apple Bloom replied.

"Yeah! So why don't you go bother someone else!" Scootaloo exclaimed, "You're scaring our customers away!"

"Whatever," Diamond Tiara replied as she turned her back to them, "Come on Silver Spoon. Let's leave these Cutie Mark Failures to bother with their pointless nonsense." As they turned around and walked away with their heads held high, Scootaloo stuck out her tongue at them and blew raspberries.

"Ignore them," Solana said, "We need to get your cutie marks!" As everyone nodded their heads in agreement, they quickly got back to work. Later on, Solana and the others were completely fatigued as they had worked hard the entire day. All in all, they sold 38 pizzas.

"Did you girls get your cutie marks yet?" Solana muttered as she turned her head on the table to her tried friends. They slowly looked at their flanks, but saw nothing there.

"Nope," Sweetie Belle replied.

"Maybe we need to sell 100 pizzas," Scootaloo said as she yawned, "If that doesn't work...then I guess pizza-making isn't our talent after all." Soon after, they closed the stand, and went back home to go sleep finally ending a very long and exhausting day. The following morning, they returned to their pizza stand, however, they were in for a nasty surprise. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had opened their own pizza stand directly across from their own called 'Pizza Perfection.' Their stand was very well-built and extravagant looking, but considering how rich Diamond Tiara's family was, it wasn't that much of a surprise.

"Hey! Diamond Tiara!" Apple Bloom yelled as they quickly ran over to her stand, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"What's wrong?" a smug Diamond Tiara replied, "Afraid to handle a little competition?"

"Oh please...we're going to easily beat you to 100 pizzas sold!" Scootaloo exclaimed. She then turned to her friends. "Come on girls! Let's show these two how it's really done!" Right away, they returned to their stand to open it up for business. It was now a pizza war between CMC Pizza and Pizza Perfection. The Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't going to let themselves lose to Diamond Tiara, no matter what. However, they soon realized that ponies were more inclined to go to Pizza Perfection because of how elegant Diamond Tiara's stand was, and compared to their own, it wasn't even close.

"I have an idea," Solana said as she picked up the sign showing the price of their pizza. She then scribbled out what was written there and instead wrote down a cheaper price. Soon after, more ponies started to visit them, rather than Pizza Perfection. However, Diamond Tiara quickly figured out their plan, and lowered the price of her pizza more. Right away, each stand continued to lower their prices in response to the other, until both stands were selling their pizza for free. Unfortunately, it now turned to whose stand was better looking, and it was obvious that Pizza Perfection was far superior in that category than CMC Pizza.

"Wait here! I'm go to my big sister's house to get some decorations for our stand!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she quickly headed for Carousel Boutique. A couple of minutes later, she returned with a cart full of decorating supplies. Right away, Sweetie Belle got to work improving their stand's appearance. Soon after, thanks to Sweetie Belle's amazing decorating skills, she managed to make their stand just as elegant as Diamond Tiara's. Since both stands were now equal in the price of their pizza and appearance, it now came down to whose pizza tasted better. As it stood, CMC Pizza has now sold 68 pizzas compared to Pizza Perfections 65. It was still anyone's game to win to reach 100 total. However, it was now getting late, so both stands decided to close for the day and continue their competition tomorrow. The next day, both the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Diamond Tiara got work to trying to outdo the other. Right away, they both constantly altered the ingredients in their pizza to make it taste better. Later on, both stands managed to make it to 100 pizzas sold, but since it happened at the same time, it was a tie.

"We did it girls! We sold 100 pizzas!" Solana exclaimed as they high-hoofed each other, "So...did you get you cutie marks?" Right away, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo quickly turned to look at their flanks. Unfortunately, they didn't receive their cutie marks. "I'm sorry," Solana said as she looked down disappointed that her idea wasn't a success. Apple Bloom softly put her right hoof on Solana's shoulder.

"Don't worry about it," Apple Bloom replied, "Even though we didn't get out cutie marks, I still had making pizzas with you." Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded their heads in agreement. At that moment, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walked over to them.

"It's not over yet!" Diamond Tiara exclaimed, "The first one to 200 pizzas sold wins!"

"Sorry Diamond Tiara, but we're closing up CMC Pizza for good. You can keep going on if you want to," Solana replied as she was helping her friends take down their stand. In response, Diamond Tiara yelled as she quickly ran to her stand and furiously tore it down.

"You four are such losers!" Diamond Tiara yelled as she stomped away angrily and was soon followed by Silver Spoon. Solana and the others simply laughed at Diamond Tiara's response of being told they didn't want to compete against her anymore. In the end, even though Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo didn't get their cutie marks, they still enjoyed hanging out with Solana, and had fun making pizzas in the process. However, since both CMC Pizza and Pizza Perfection had constantly changed the ingredients in their pizza, it turns out along the way they accidently put the wrong type of ingredients together, and caused everyone who ate their pizzas to get very sick, including Flareon, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. It may have been a good thing after all that both stands closed when they did.