- Story by Christina Rice, Art by Jay P. Fosgitt
Twilight and Pinkie are invited to Canterlot, by request of Princess Celestia. Once there, they learn that Princess Luna's birthday is coming up, and Celestia wants Twilight to give a toast speech for her sister, while Pinkie is to help bake a cake for Luna. Pinkie offers several suggestions, but Celestia asks her to come up with something both grand and fun at the same time, and gives her run of the royal kitchen to create something with help of her head chef Chase Palomino. Pinkie takes to the task with gusto, but when Celestia starts taking a keen interest in how she's doing, Pinkie starts panicking that her creations won't live up to Celestia's expectations.
When Celestia checks up on her again, she finds Pinkie has started talking to her imaginary friends. Celestia quickly helps to talk Pinkie back to normal, and explains why this cake is so important to her: that she still feels guilt over banishing her sister to the moon a thousand years in the past, and really wants to make sure this celebration goes well. Pinkie realizes what Celestia is looking for, and is inspired for a new cake design, offering Celestia to help out. At the birthday party, Luna is initially dismissive of the cake, but when she realizes that it is how Celestia shows her love for her, she knows how much it meant to her and gratefully hugs her sister, while Twilight congratulates Pinkie on a job well done.
This issue provides examples of:
- Continuity Nod: The stress of baking the perfect cake for Celestia causes Pinkie to drop into Pinkamena mode and bring out Mr. Turnip and Madame LeFlour.
- Shout-Out: One cake that Pinkie tries to bake include both allusions to Robert Crumb's "Keep on Truckin'", and to Yellow Submarine; the cake is appropriately discarded as "Too psychedelic".
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Celestia seems to get this expression when she remembers her banishment of Nightmare Moon, but then again it really was the most traumatic event of her life.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: Pinkie is afraid Celestia is turning out to be this, which is an interesting departure from the times when Rarity usually gets into this kind of situation.
