In the First Year of Princess Luna Returned, the newly reinstated Sovereign of the Night celebrated her birthday on the night of the winter solstice. Tradition had placed Princess Celestia’s birthday on the summer solstice, to coincide with the Summer Sun Celebration; whether their birthdays actually fell on those days had long been a matter of debate, about which the Princesses never cared to weigh in. But in a show of solidarity, Princess Celestia decreed in the Second Year of Princess Luna Returned that they should observe their birthdays when day and night stood equal. However, the vernal equinox interfered with Winter Wrap Up, and the autumnal equinox with the harvest. As the latter required less personal involvement from the Princesses, they settled on that date.

Each municipality across Equestria sent representatives to bestow gifts upon the Princesses to mark the occasion, but their unprecedented shows of ostentation only served to dishearten the Princesses. Should they keep up that level of extravagance every year, it would cause significant and pointless hardship for the populace. The Princesses would have abolished the practice altogether, but their subjects pleaded for an opportunity to pay homage. And so in compromise, after that year’s celebration, the Princesses further decreed that such an event should only occur every fifth year henceforth.

---

Mayor Mare unfurled her scroll, cleared her throat, and tapped a hoof on the podium’s microphone to settle the crowd assembled in Ponyville’s town square. “Attention!” she called out, then cast a disapproving glare over the townsponies until the murmurs had died away. “As you all know, the Princesses’ birthday celebration will soon arrive, and only the second one to include both of our revered rulers. They have protested in the past that they prefer only small, symbolic tokens, but we know better.”

The mayor paused to watch the ripple of nods pass over her audience. “We can’t compete with the brute force of the larger cities’ economies, so we must find another way to outdo them. I will not—” she pounded a hoof on the lectern “—have Ponyville get lost in the shuffle; we have been near and dear to the Princesses’ hearts ever since our founding, and we need to represent our town accordingly.”

A little self-satisfied smile wriggled its way across her features, and the crowd leaned forward, balanced on the tips of their hooves, to hear what wonderful gift the mayor had devised that would stand out above all the rest Equestria had to offer. “My reasoning is thus: Princess Celestia is known to like cake. Furthermore, in the National Dessert Competitions for the last several years, who were the top contenders? Gustave le Grande, for one, and the Gryphon Kingdom has no use for participating in any tribute to the Equestrian Princesses. The second, Pony Joe, resides in Canterlot. As the seat of our government, Canterlot is expressly forbidden from giving a gift, in the name of remaining neutral. That leaves but one: our own Mr. and Mrs. Cake!”

The mayor extended a hoof, and the assembly parted, leaving the Cakes standing in the open, all to raucous applause. Mrs. Cake, for one, simply couldn’t form any words for the occasion, but faced with the prospect of standing there speechless indefinitely, choked out a few. “Oh,” she managed, holding a hoof to her mouth. “I-I suppose I could…”

“Nonsense!” said the mayor. “We have complete faith in you. Our success is guaranteed! I’d volunteer to help, but I have to administer the repair fund for Ponyville tower, coordinate the transfer of water from our reservoir to Cloudsdale for this winter’s snowflake production, organize the Running of the Leaves… Well, you understand. But it’s cake… Who else would do it?”

And the mayor was right. Who else could do it? Mrs. Cake had no choice but to nod. She had no choice but to let Ponyville’s reputation rest on her.

---

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do!” Mrs. Cake wailed. Mr. Cake and Pinkie Pie stood on either side of her in Sugarcube Corner’s kitchen and watched the tears stream down her face. Each tried to pat a shoulder or offer a hug, but the inconsolable mare only sank further toward the floor each time.

“It’s two weeks away! Two weeks! How am I supposed to come up with an innovative, never-been-seen-before, eye-catching, palate-pleasing cake in only two weeks?” She sank to the floor, against the oven, and a sob-induced spasm set the metal ladles and spoons hanging from its hood to jangling. “I have three weddings, a retirement, a baby shower, and a cuteceanera to cater. Not to mention four other birthdays! How will I even figure out what to do in time?”

Pinkie Pie sucked in a breath and held it until her face reddened, then before she could think better of it, she squeaked out, “I’ll do it.”

Mrs. Cake perked up and gaped, her mouth working like a goldfish out of its bowl. Pinkie had always served admirably as an assistant in any and all aspects of the catering business, and was second to none as a party planner. But in this case, the party needed no planning; Canterlot Castle’s own event staff had already wrought their finest fêting, hors d’oeuvres, decorations, and music, no doubt. Only the matter of gifts remained, but what a matter! And Pinkie had never shepherded a project through on her own before.

Not to mention that with her impulsive decision, Pinkie surely had no idea of the magnitude of the task which she had accepted. It began to dawn on her as she left the room, however. The party refreshments would already doubtless include a cake. What possible purpose would having another one serve? Inciting the ire of the Canterlot Castle kitchen staff through direct competition was a no-win scenario, of course. Either her cake would outdo theirs on their own turf and earn their resentment, a career-threatening move. Or it would pale in comparison to the food, much less the other gifts—a fool’s errand, if ever she’d undertaken one.

Mrs. Cake mumbled some thanks from her place on the floor, and even Mr. Cake abandoned his post for a moment to catch up to Pinkie. “Are you sure?” he hissed. “These are some of the most knock-down, drag-out, fierce competitions I’ve ever seen, and for what? Giving the Princesses something they could have had anyway? And risking having everypony in town angry at you if they think you made the town look bad? I know I’m doing a great job of talking this up to you, but…”

He directed a pensive stare at the floor, then back toward his wife, who finally took some deep, cleansing breaths and rubbed her temples. “Please ask for help if you need it. Don’t feel like you have to do this on your own.”

She considered his words and already saw the possibilities branching out into the future, a spider web fanning out with her at the center, and each decision leading to more and more dead ends. But somehow, she couldn’t envision any way of accomplishing her task except by doing it alone. She had to trust everypony else to trust her.

Pinkie Pie grabbed a pad and pencil on her way up to her room, the old pine boards creaking on her way up the stairs. Her cake would need to be art more than food for it to stand out enough. She had an awful lot of planning to do, and never before had she taken more than five minutes to feel the seed of an idea sprout in her head, grow firm roots, and reach toward the sky. Her mind remained agonizingly blank. She would find the perfect gift for two ponies who needed few things and wanted even fewer, even if it drove her mad.

Closing the door behind her, Pinkie felt two more curls of mane straighten. She lugged the leaden weight of her soul across the floor and fell onto her bed. She slept not a single minute that night.

---

Already a week into her preparations, Pinkie Pie had nothing to show for her efforts, save a few waste bins full of discarded cake parts and a steadily declining supply of curl in her mane. By day eight, the bags under her eyes had become pronounced, and she continually found herself nodding off or staring out the window, her mind idling. She’d also worn her pencil down to a stub scribbling out idea after idea through the first notepad and half of a second, every one of them eventually discarded and relegated to its fate in the trash alongside hunks of stale confections.

A constant fog of flour swirled around her and the thirty-some pans of batter in various states of disrepair. Along one counter lay dozens of crumbled gingerbread pieces, and strewn across another sat chunks of crushed bundt cake. The central table supported an impressive array of mixing bowls, covering a full spectrum of fudges and meringues, in different thicknesses as well as colors. And rising far above a tea cart beside the stove was an enormous framework of graham crackers and marshmallow, standing a good ten hooves overhead. Whatever it had supported now lay scattered across the floor.

Only Twilight Sparkle watched. Early on, many faces had pressed together to see through the Dutch door at the back of the kitchen. Everypony wanted to witness what magnificent creation Pinkie might invent, but with failure after failure, the crowd had dwindled until just one remained.

“Pinkie, are you sure I can’t help?” Twilight said. She leaned over the door and cast glances this way and that, seeing no signs of progress.

“No. Maybe. I don’t know,” Pinkie answered, her head losing a little more against the battle with gravity. “Angel food cake just can’t take the tensile stress I need, pound cake”—a coo sounded from further inside as the Cakes’ son heard his name—“doesn’t have a good enough strength-to-weight ratio, fudge has too much thermal creep to hold up for long, and biscotti’s fracture toughness wouldn’t survive the trip to Canterlot!” She pounded a hoof on the cart, and a few more tiers of graham bracing tumbled to the ground.

Twilight smiled grimly, opened the door, and strolled past the open copy of Structural Mechanics for Foals on the counter. She place a hoof on Pinkie’s trembling shoulder and met her gaze. “Pinkie, don’t make any more out of this than you have to. It’s not worth your mental health.”

“But they’re the Princesses!” she shouted, probably louder than she meant to. “Super-duper-important bigwigs! Well, not really. Not like Cranky Doodle’s wig—er, toupee. But you know what I mean.”

“Pinkie, listen to me,” Twilight replied. “The Princesses wouldn’t want you to go to this much trouble. Do you know how bad they’d feel if they could see you now?”

“But they do so much for us, Twi-Twi.” Pinkie smiled for the first time in days, and a speck of vitality returned to her eyes. “I want to do something for them too.”

“They appreciate the sentiment, Pinkie, but honestly, the sentiment is enough. You shouldn’t kill yourself trying to give them something that’ll knock their horseshoes off,” Twilight said, flailing a foreleg toward Canterlot.

“I don’t know. I think they’d do the same for me,” Pinkie said, her stare wandering off to the wall clock, where a little mechanical sun and moon danced slowly in rounds day after day. “I just want to show them what all of Ponyville thinks of them. The Princesses are so super fantastic bombastic, and they’ve always been so sweet to us. So a sweet thing in return… Only it’s not working.”

Twilight held a hoof to her chin, and the corners of her mouth sank toward Pinkie’s mood. “Well, why does it have to be a cake?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Pinkie chirped, her ears pricking toward Twilight. “You weren’t here for the mayor’s speech. It was a good one! You see, of all the best bakers in Equestria, only the Cakes would be available, and they live right here, so it only makes sense to go with what we do best, but Mrs. Cake got all saddy-waddy about it, since she had way too much on her plate—not a cake plate, of course, because that comes later—and I can’t have Mrs. Cake all saddy-waddy, so I said I’d do it, and it all makes so much sense, and that’s all I got!” Pinkie panted in the silence while Twilight navigated the linguistic maze until she’d discovered the exit.

“And Princess Celestia likes cake,” Pinkie added.

“Okay… Still, why does it have to be a cake? As long as you have the right attitude, I don’t think it matters.”

“But…” Pinkie said, one eyebrow raised. “What else would I get the Princesses? They rule all of Equestria. They can have anything they want. What do you get somepony who has everything?”

Twilight shook her head and watched her hooves, as if they might answer. She’d gotten Celestia personal gifts in the past, but nothing that might represent an entire town.

“You’re a Princess!” Pinkie pressed. “What would you want?”

“I-I don’t know, Pinkie,” Twilight answered, taking a step back. “I don’t think I can answer that. What I can tell you is that as long as you give from the heart, the Princesses will like whatever you decide. Even if your heart told you not to give them anything, they would respect your decision, and I’m sure it wouldn’t anger them.”

“Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! I-I wouldn’t ever be a no-gift sourpuss!” Pinkie glared at Twilight as if she’d spoken some incomprehensible foreign language.

“I know, Pinkie. The point is: Ponyville trusts you, and so do the Princesses.” Twilight added a warm smile and hugged her friend. The added weight on Pinkie’s shoulders made her feel like she was floating up among the clouds, where nothing else could reach her. She had a few new ideas already, and she could feel her hair curling.

“Everypony trusts you, Pinkie,” Twilight repeated. “Just let them.”

---

Twilight Sparkle received the delegation from Ponyville at Canterlot’s train station. She peered at Pinkie’s flat mane when she walked past, but Pinkie never looked up, nor did she reply to Twilight’s salutation. One by one, the rest of the party disembarked, but they had no cargo in tow. “Where…?” Twilight began, but Mrs. Cake shook her head.

“She must have sent it ahead,” Mrs. Cake whispered. “She didn’t bring anything with her.”

Twilight gaped after Pinkie, then trotted to catch up to her, past the Cakes, Mayor Mare, and the other Elements. Once beside her pink friend, she adopted the same stiff-legged gait as the rest, all eyes on Pinkie Pie and her low-hung head, practically shoveling her nose through the dust.

Turning back to Pinkie’s entourage again, she hissed, “Has she been like this all week?”

“Last few days, at least,” Mr. Cake murmured with a shrug and a tight-lipped smile.

As they made their way onward, more and more tributaries of ponies merged with them into the main stream, their combined voices all growing to a dull roar by the time they reached the throne room’s antechamber, where they all rolled into eddies of private conversation, stagnated in the corners, or surged through the open channels: massive bronzed doors flanked by impassive pegasus guards. Through the gates the current swept Pinkie Pie; she had no inkling of where to go, but she felt the occasional nudge this way and that, and eventually, Twilight had corralled her to the front of the crowd.

A hush fell over the room, and Pinkie jolted her mind back into the moment; she stood a bit forward of the throng of ponies, in the shadow of a pillar, and all around her, nobleponies and representatives of the far-flung cities of Equestria flaunted their finery. Pinkie wore nothing.

When Twilight and Cadance had taken their places beside the royal dais, Princess Celestia spoke. “Thank you all for attending. We welcome all to our birthday celebration and hope you will enjoy the fine entertainment and food we have ordered prepared. It is our privilege and our pleasure to host our dear subjects from every corner of our fair land. And now, according to tradition, we will proceed with the presentations”—if Pinkie wasn’t mistaken, the corners of Princess Celestia’s mouth turned down, however briefly—“through the drawing of lots.”

Princess Celestia levitated a bowl of onyx marbles onto the floor in front of her and picked one out, taking her time to examine the flowing gold script across its mirror-like sheen. “First shall be… Ponyville!”

Pinkie flinched and let out an involuntary grunt. All townships dreamed of having the right of first presentation. After all, only so many art forms existed. Inevitably, several cities would offer a painting, sculpture, or other work of art. The early positions had the benefit of seeming at least somewhat original, while the rest of the pack had little hope of appearing as anything but pretenders.

She took a half-step from the shadows, her nose edging into the chandeliers’ illumination. “I-if you don’t mind, Y-Your Highness, I would—I would prefer to go last.” She bowed her head and dared not look.

“Very well, Pinkie,” Princess Celestia said, the raised eyebrows evident in her voice. Another rattle of marbles sounded, and then she proclaimed, “Baltimare. Step forward, if you please.”

Pinkie returned to her shadow and glanced behind her; the Ponyvillian delegation stared open-mouthed at her and whispered amongst themselves. “Did she even bring anything?” she saw Mayor Mare say to the Cakes; they merely shrugged and fidgeted with their clothing.

“My lieges,” said the unicorn who took the floor, “the fine city of Baltimare presents you with the gift of music. We have commissioned a grand symphony by the renowned composer Hoofvaness for Your Highnesses, in styles spanning over one thousand years to suit tastes both ancient and modern. The Baltimare Symphony Orchestra shall premiere it at our season-opening concert in one month’s time, but of course, if Your Highnesses should prefer, we will naturally make it available for the Canterlot Philharmonic to rehearse and perform at Your Highnesses’ earliest convenience. In the meantime—” he hooked a forehoof into his sash and swept the other across the crowd “—we shall present the manuscript for Your Highnesses to study, should proof of its completion be required.” He lowered his head and awaited judgment.

“That will not be necessary, good sir. We will of course attend the concert, and look forward to enjoying that which the city of Baltimare has bequeathed to us.” Princess Celestia inclined her head toward him, then whispered something to Luna, who nodded and smiled.

Princess Luna levitated the next marble from the bowl. “Fillydelphia. Please step forward and be recognized.”

A portly mare—another unicorn, Pinkie noted—strode onto the purple carpet below the throne and motioned to the canvas-draped object rolling on squeaking wheels behind her. She executed a graceful curtsy. Her horn aglow, she tugged the cloth sheet off, revealing a large statue of both Princesses. The elongated forms stood facing opposite directions—one to the east and the other west—with their bodies arched around each other and cutie marks rendered in sun opal and moonstone.

“A… form like a Taijitu,” Princess Luna said, a thoughtful squint to her eye. “Opposites, constantly in mutual orbit. Clever.”

“Your Highness has a good eye. That is precisely the intended effect,” the mare replied, caressing the sculpture’s iridescent surface. “The work of our city’s own Alexander Halter. It shall stand proudly in our museum as a testament to the greatness of our rulers. We have also provided Your Highnesses with a miniature likeness for placement in Canterlot Castle,” she added as she pulled a smaller box out from under the statue.

“Well done,” Princess Luna said, inclining her head toward the mare. “We shall display it with pride, and we anticipate seeing the full version in its permanent home.”

A smattering of applause sounded, and Princess Celestia turned her attention once more to the bowl of marbles. And so went the entire afternoon, the great cities and towns of Equestria all presenting their gifts to the Princesses, for hours on end. As expected, those spokesponies who went later in the day regarded their precursors through narrowed eyes for having thought of the same ideas and earning credit for originality, due to sheer luck of ordering. And, curiously enough, those spokesponies were all unicorns.

As more and more lavish offerings piled up on the steps below the royal dais, the room’s shadows swiveled like weathervanes with the sun’s motion, and Pinkie crept around the pillar to stay in the gloom. When evening had drawn nigh, and the bowl of gilded onyx marbles had run empty, the Princesses stood to do their duty in exchanging the sun for the moon. The Ponvvillian delegation directed puzzled glances at each other.

One step away from the throne, Princess Celestia stopped. “Oh! Pinkie Pie! I apologize—I forgot that you had deferred your turn.” She glanced around the room and knit her brow. “Pinkie Pie?”

After a moment’s silence, Pinkie emerged from behind her pillar. “Here, Your Majesty.”

The Princesses resumed their seats. “Pray continue, Pinkie Pie,” Celestia said. “I am curious to see what you wanted to save for a big finale. But please speak up. I can barely hear you.”

“Not a big finale,” Pinkie replied. “I-I just…” She hung her head and took a deep breath.

Princess Celestia lit her horn for an instant. “I…” Pinkie began, her voice reverberating throughout the room. She flinched from the sound.

“I was going to make you a super-duper, giganterrific cake, since the best cake makers in Equestria live in Ponyville.” Pinkie gulped and tried to speak more quietly, but the amplification spell countered. The lump in her throat wouldn’t subside, and the last vestige of curl in her tail straightened out. “But I couldn’t get it to work right. It would have been sweeter for the eyes than the tummy, and you were going to have your own chefs’ cakes at the party anyway. So I decided on something else,” she said as she flicked her eyes toward Twilight, who gave her an encouraging nod.

“What do you get for somepony who has everything?”Pinkie asked, a tremor running through her knees. “We’re just giving you back what already belongs to you. Do you want a cake? Tell your staff to make one. Do you want a portrait? Give the order, and it’ll happen, lickety-split.”

“We appreciate the sentiment, Pinkie, but we do not own Equestria any more than you do,” Celestia said. Her ears folded back, she draped her wings across her seat and let her weight settle back into the cushions. “We don’t want you to feel any obligation. In fact—”

Pinkie held up a hoof. “You both do so much for us, and I want to let you know what you mean to everypony, but I don’t know what I could give you that would say it right.”

“Well, you have said it, Pinkie, and very sweetly,” Celestia replied. “We need no token to symbolize the sentiment you have already expressed so eloquently, and we regret the stress it has obviously caused you.”

“No,” Pinkie said, shaking her head. “I did bring you something, but I’m sorry it’s not fancy.” Her friends from Ponyville exchanged another round of glances behind her. She took a few halting steps toward the throne, and with each one, her knees shook harder and her eyes opened wider.

The two guards below the throne took a step of their own forward. One, his jaw set, lowered his spear as well.

“Stay your hoof,” Princess Celestia ordered. “Let her approach.” The soldiers resumed their posts and shouldered their weapons.

Pinkie climbed her way to the throne, all eyes on her, and nearly stumbled at the top. She reached a trembling hoof toward Celestia, whose slow head shake stilled the shifting armor Pinkie heard behind her again. She took a deep breath, held it in, gritted her teeth, and closed her eyes.

She fell forward into Celestia and hugged her tightly. “I love you,” she said, her enhanced voice echoing to every corner of the throne room. A few murmurs started among the gathered ponies.

Her face buried in Celestia’s mane, Pinkie could feel the sun’s warmth on a late spring day, smell the wildflowers in the fields, and see the noonday glow through her eyelids. She could stay there forever, but, she remembered, the moon needed raising. The moon…

Pinkie backed away with a jolt, sniffled, and looked into Celestia’s stunned face with tear-filled eyes. Then she stepped over to Luna and hugged her as well. “I love you, too,” she said amid moonflower scent, the tingle of frost, and the moon’s pale aura. Luna’s tensed neck muscles gradually relaxed, and finally, her own hoof curled around Pinkie. “It’s the one thing you can’t make anypony give you, but I want you to have it.”

She managed to pull herself from the peace of Luna’s mane so that she could see both Princesses. “I love you both, and I’m so sorry I couldn’t find something extra-special to show it better,” she said while Luna directed a vague, dreamy smile and unfocused eyes at her.

Celestia bowed her head to Pinkie and gathered up the only reply she could muster. “Thank you, Pinkie. It’s the perfect gift.”

“No,” said Pinkie, her mane fluffing up little by little. “It’s not just me. It’s not just Ponyville. It’s everypony. We all love you. I can tell you love us, and I want you to feel it back,” Pinkie proclaimed, flinging her forelegs wide apart.

“Is—is this true?” Princess Luna asked.

His brow knit, the stallion representing Baltimare spoke up after a momentary silence. “Well,” he said, shrugging, “to be blunt, yes. We thought Your Highnesses understood that.” More and more words of assent carried from the crowd, and Mrs. Cake began stamping her applause; soon, hundreds of ponies had joined in, their hoofbeats thundering through the castle.

“Leave it to the perfect party-thrower to be the perfect gift-giver too,” Celestia said. She and a speechless Luna both leaned in to nuzzle Pinkie. “I think it may be time for another change to this tradition.”

Twilight Sparkle appeared at Pinkie’s side and nudged her in the ribs. “See? I told you that you could do it. You just needed to trust us to trust you.”

Bending her head low, Celestia spoke into Pinkie’s ear. “You’ve made my sister very happy. Me too, but especially her. She needed to hear that.”

Pinkie giggled, and her cheeks turned a darker shade. “A wise pony told me to give from the heart.”

“Sound advice,” Celestia said with a knowing grin. “Oh, and Pinkie… if I did drop by Sugarcube Corner for a private visit sometime… you’d still make me a cake, right? Just a little one?”

Pinkie’s enormous grin belied her eye roll. “Princesses! Give them a little power, and they…”

Celestia puffed out her lower lip.

“Of course,” Pinkie said with a shake of her head. “But only if you bring Princess Luna too.”

Princess Celestia snapped a nod and licked her lips. “Done. And thank you. From both of us.”

The last bit of Pinkie’s mane poofed back into place, and she hopped up and down until a frown suddenly stole across her face. “But what kind of cake? Oh no, I’ll have to make it super-duper special, and… and…”

“Pinkie,” Twilight said flatly. “Just stop.”

Shrugging, Pinkie let out a guilty smile. She started back down to the floor, but heard Celestia’s voice once more, muted and rushed: “Yellow cake with chocolate frosting would be lovely, thank you.”

If only she’d known that two weeks ago...