“What is wrong with this town?!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed to the clerk in the last store after six hours of searching. “No raspberries, no strawberries, blueberries, nothing?! Aren’t they supposed to be in season?! Scratch that, don’t we have freezers anymore?!”

“It’s just that we’re struggling to get deliveries,” the clerk apologized, “everything else is going fine, but berries are chronically missing.”

“Good riddance,” a voice said airily behind her, and Pinkie looked back to see one of the newcomers in town, a haughty batpony by the name of Lidded Jar. “Berries are overrated nonsense.”

“WHAT?!” Pinkie exclaimed in disbelief. “A-a-are you crazy?! Berries are vital to make a good cake! The balance of fruity and sweet are what makes a good cake what it is!

“If you need fruity, why not use… fruit?” Lidded Jar asked. “Berries don’t provide anything that you can’t get from good fruit except wasted space.”

“I mean… fruit is fine, but it’s not nearly as sweet! Besides, if you have to chop them up, they’ll leak across the cake. You’d have to prepare them, and then why not just use berries instead?” Pinkie was about to have a mental breakdown. What was she talking about? What was this insane notion, this twisted farce?

“Suuure, stay with the foals if you want to, leave the fruits to the adults.”

“That’s it!” Pinkie exclaimed. “We’ll settle this the right way! I challenge you to a bake-off!” she yelled, dramatically pointing at Lidded Jar, whose eyes narrowed.

“You’re on, berry-muncher,” she growled. “Just don’t cry when I prove you wrong.”

“That’s my line,” Pinkie retorted, the two mares glaring each other down.