Chapter 1: The Deep Fryer

Carrot Cake woke up groggy and alone, his sheets strewn about from his late night tossing and turning. He was sure he was having the strangest dream, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was. As his eyes became used to the early morning sunlight, his ears picked up the sound of a running shower coming from the bathroom. This all but confirmed where Cup Cake was, so he figured while he was waiting to use the shower he would try to catch a few more winks of sleep.

Just as he was closing his eyes, however, the shower turned off. It wouldn't be long before a properly toweled off Cup Cake would be returning to the bedroom. Carrot Cake spent the time waiting for this trying to recall what the dream had been about. He still had not gotten anywhere with this by the time Cup Cake had entered the room.

"Good morning, honey," Carrot Cake said, greeting his wife with a kind smile. She just glared at him and turned her head aside.

"How long have you been up?" Cup Cake asked.

"Only about five minutes," Carrot Cake said. "You were in the shower, so I figured I'd just wait until you were done before getting ready for the day." Cup Cake shook her head and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. Carrot Cake stared at his wife, confused.

"What's wrong, honey?" he asked.

"Huh?" Cup Cake said, turning to face him. "Nothing, nothing…I'll just go open up the shop." Carrot Cake watched her walk out of the bedroom, muttering to herself. He was concerned, but he wasn't curious enough to breach the subject any further. He entered the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Carrot Cake was far more curious about what that dream had been about. He seemed to remember a bit of excitement, which made him more dismayed with his inability to remember anything else. His thoughts wandered while he went through the repetitive motions of washing his fur and mane.

When he decided he could make no headway on this dream, he returned to wondering why Cup Cake had been upset with him. The only clue he had was her question of how long he had been awake. What does that matter? Carrot Cake asked himself. All Cup Cake had been doing was taking a shower. He didn't see a need for him to wake up any earlier than he had.

With both inquiries leading nowhere, Carrot Cake stepped out of the shower and toweled himself off. He looked into the bathroom mirror as he was doing so and noticed the bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept well in weeks, and lately he had to admit that with the stress of running the shop, taking care of the twins, and containing the ever excitable Pinkie Pie, he had not been able to properly rest in quite a while.

However, now wasn't the time to dwell on that. He could hear the twins crying in the nursery, so since Cup Cake had said she would open the shop, he figured that he would tend to the babies. A black thought crossed his mind concerning the twins, but he chose to set it aside without even acknowledging it. He went into the kitchen and poured some baby formula into two bottles. Capping them both he carried them into the nursery and saw the two crying twins in their crib. When the twins saw him, though, they stopped crying and instead reached for the bottles.

"I guess you little guys were hungry, huh?" Carrot Cake said as he gave the babies their bottles. Pound Cake held the oversized bottle in his hooves, while Pumpkin Cake used her magic to levitate the bottle in front of her. Carrot Cake was always impressed when she performed feats of magic like that. He didn't know too much about the growth of unicorns, but he was pretty sure most unicorns that age did not have a mastery of levitation. Maybe Twilight would know more about that, Carrot Cake thought.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a pony galloping through the hallway. Carrot Cake turned around and saw Pinkie Pie rush into the room.

"Uh, Mr. Cake," Pinkie Pie said, "you might want to head downstairs. Something's wrong with the deep fryer and the doughnuts don't look so good…" Knowing Cup Cake didn't have a clue about repairing the machinery in the bakery's kitchen, Carrot Cake resigned himself to taking a look at it himself.

"Can you keep an eye on the twins while I take a look at that, Pinkie Pie?" Carrot Cake asked.

"Absolutely!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, giving Carrot Cake an exaggerated salute. The excitement in her voice stirred something in his memory, but he couldn't place what. He shrugged it off as unimportant.

"At ease, soldier," Carrot Cake said with a warm smile before rushing off to handle the issues with the deep fryer.

When he went downstairs he found a slew of customers waiting in line, wondering why none of the doughnuts were being made. They were starting to stir, and one pony left in a fit, tired of waiting and late for work. When Carrot Cake came into view, the ponies began to start asking him what was taking so long for the doughnuts to be made.

"I'm getting right on that," Carrot Cake said repeatedly before ducking into the kitchen. Cup Cake was there, pacing and fretting.

"There you are!" she cried when she saw him. "What took you so long?"

"I came down as soon as Pinkie Pie told me what happened," Carrot Cake said.

"Well, I've got an angry line of customers waiting in the shop for some doughnuts, and we need to deliver, so I need you to figure out what's wrong with this thing," Cup Cake said.

"All right, dear," Carrot Cake said, moving past his wife to look at the deep fryer. Nothing immediately struck him as broken, so he went in for a closer look. He looked into the vat of oil and saw the doughnuts looking lumpy and uncooked. Shaking his head, he fiddled with some of the knobs to see if the machine would respond. The machine did nothing.

"I think something internal has gone wrong with this thing," Carrot Cake said. "I don't know how to fix this."

"You what?" Cup Cake asked.

"I said I can't fix it. I don't know how to fix a deep fryer if its inner mechanisms have gone haywire. We're going to have to call the manufacturer in Canterlot to send a repair pony."

"But what will we do about the doughnuts?" Cup Cake asked.

"Tell the customers that the machine is broken and there won't be any doughnuts today," Carrot Cake said.

"I don't believe this," Cup Cake said. "You are useless!"

"Hey, don't look at me! I didn't break the thing."

"No, but you have no idea how to fix it either. You're impotent."

"Whoa, getting a little fancy with your language, are we?"

"You know what I mean," Cup Cake said.

"Now, look," Carrot Cake said sternly. "Somepony's going to have to tell the customers we can't sell any doughnuts."

"Well, I certainly don't want to do it," Cup Cake said.

"Well, if you don't want to tell them, then I will," Carrot Cake said. He returned to the counter of the shop and addressed the line of waiting customers.

"I'm sorry to say that something's gone wrong with our deep fryer. We won't be selling doughnuts again anytime soon. However, we have plenty of other treats for breakfast, like scones and freshly baked bagels." Despite the pitch, most of the crowd left, grumbling to themselves. Carrot Cake knew exactly why; Sugarcube Corner's doughnuts were considered the best in the area, and they were a staple of many ponies from all around Ponyville and the surrounding villages. Carrot Cake hated to send customers away like that, but there was nothing he could do. With no customers in sight, he returned to the kitchen, where his wife still looked displeased.

"How many of them left?" she asked.

"A lot," Carrot Cake said. "Look, I know this looks bad, but we'll find a way to fix this. I'll call for the repair pony and we'll see what he says."

"You do realize this is cutting into our already slim earnings this month," Cup Cake said. "It's going to be hard to keep Sugarcube Corner in the black if we're spending this kind of money to fix broken machinery."

"Yeah, but I thought we had an emergency fund set up for equipment malfunction," Carrot Cake said. "Is that money not there anymore?" Cup Cake suddenly tensed up, glancing nervously around. What is that all about? Carrot Cake thought.

"Well…we didn't save enough for a brand new machine, now, did we? Money's tight right now."

"Well then, don't blame me for the machine breaking down when you didn't bother to save enough bits to fix it!"

"You're trying to make this my fault? Some nerve you have!"

"Look, there's no point in arguing over it now. Let's just see what the repair pony says. Can we just do that?" Cup Cake turned away.

"I guess…" Carrot Cake placed a hoof on her shoulder.

"We'll pull through, somehow," he said.

"All right. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"I'm sorry, too."

As time went on, more and more of Sugarcube Corner's machinery started to malfunction. The oven overheated about a week after the incident with the deep fryer, and this set them back for three days before Carrot Cake was able to fix the problem. For those three days, they couldn't sell any baked goods, so they had had to ride on their confectionary sales to make up the difference. That hadn't worked too well.

Then when the repair pony arrived to look at the deep fryer, he dove into the inner workings of the machine before coming out with a grim expression on his face.

"With the kind of repairs this thing needs," he told the Cakes, "you're better off just buying a new deep fryer."

"Well, it has to be done," Carrot Cake said. "Doughnuts are our primary seller during the breakfast hours. We can't afford to go any longer without selling them. About how much would a new fryer be?"

"I'm not the pony to ask," the repair pony said, "but I'd say you're looking at a grand, maybe more."

"That would definitely cut into our earnings," Cup Cake said.

Right, Carrot Cake thought, because for some reason we don't have enough emergency funds. I swore we had at least a grand in there... Carrot Cake sighed.

"I know," he said. "I get it. Look, I know this is stressing you out, so I'll go out to Canterlot to purchase a new one."

"No need," the repair pony said. "We now run a catalog, so you can just mail in your order and it'll come within five business days. Although for an order from Ponyville, I say it shouldn't take more than three business days to get here."

"Thank you," Carrot Cake said, "that's actually very helpful."

"And convenient," Cup Cake added, but her tone suggested dismay.

"Look, you've been very helpful," Carrot Cake said. "Thanks for at least taking a look."

"Don't mention it," the repair pony said, "it's my job. Take care, you two." With that, the repair pony left the shop.

At that point, Pinkie Pie came bouncing into the kitchen.

"I just put the babies down for a nap," she said upon entering. "I figured you could use my help down here."

"Can you man the counter for us?" Cup Cake asked.

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie Pie said, before bouncing back out to the counter.

"Do you have things covered back here, honey?" Cup Cake asked.

"Um…I guess," Carrot Cake said. "Why?"

"I need a break," Cup Cake said. Carrot Cake said it was okay, but looked with ire when his wife walked away. No doubt she'll be fretting over the bill. Worrying about it is useless! It has to be done, or we don't sell doughnuts. But I can't be thinking about this now…

Maybe tonight will be the night, he thought. Every morning since he'd first had the dream, he had been struggling to remember the contents of it. Something told him that it was the same dream, because he was starting to recall vague patterns and they all seemed to be similar. He wasn't sure why this dream was confusing him, though, as there was no need for it to be doing so. But something about that dream was calling to him, and something told him he needed to find out what it was.

As it turned out, tomorrow morning, he would finally remember the dream with vivid clarity. And when he did, it would begin to haunt him wherever he went.