The Princess Apprentice (PM for invite)

[Bramble Rose]

Purple Haze pressed her lips together as her face started turning a bit red at Carrot's words. She made a visible effort not to blow up in front of the princess, and instead gritted her teeth in a forced smile. "Quite all right, Big Brae. Oi'm sure ye jes' dinnae think tae look fer me in th' kitchen..." She had made sure to prep a lot - her bestie Sunrise had often talked about how much Twilight was eating, though looking at the slim mare, Purple was sure Sunrise had to be exaggerating...

​

Rainbow Dash grinned at Twilight with a smirk, and stuck her tongue out playfully at the playful jibes. Seemed she'd teach Twilight some proper pegasus humor yet! "I think I could find a bit of room for some of your food, Purple! And don't worry, Carrot just made plenty of room in his stomach to enjoy your lunch!" She leaned a bit closer and mock-whispered, so all could hear, "He tried eating his own cooking!"

Inside, the spread took up most of the table, with the good china brought out to set the places. Dash sprawled into one of the seats, reaching out right away to grab several garlic-roasted carrot sticks and toss them in her mouth. "Wow!" she said around the food in her mouth, "You sure pulled out the stops, kiddo! Got some big event coming up that you're practicing for? Sure looks fancy!"

​

[SteelEagle]

Twilight was always greatly excited to meet the family of friends, especially if they cooked with such an alluring aroma. Not long ago Twilight was taste and smell deaf to spices and cooking oils of any sort. She had the palate of any equivalent academy student, soaked in the obvious and unrefined even with her upbringing in high society providing for her every opportunity to grow it. Instead sh had grown her academic palete and the tastes she experienced as a result were part of a philosophical instead. She didn't mind that, but her life had changed in so many ways since she became an alicorn in ways both big and small and she could smell the spices and differentiate from them in such a manner that learning their nuances by referencing the cookbooks of professionals using their description of smell was an incredibly effective strategy.

“Oh, I can still eat something. My daily caloric intake is over twelve thousand and I'm only at....six thousand four hundred and ninety so I should be more than ready. Ooh, this smells quite nice, Purple. Chesnok Red garlic roasted carrots sound delightful,” Twilight said as she levitated some over. The aromas were absolutely wonderful. No doubt she had more than a passing fancy for her craft as this was bordering on an inborn gift molded by some dedication. It would take a real food critic to dictate the terms of her probable grading but Twilight was more than happy to indulge in her over informationalized sense of cooking. “So, what else did you have lined up? Judging by what I can smell it seems you've been awfully busy. Do you cook often?”

[brianblackberry]

Carrot Fields didn't want to admit he really didn't bother looking for his sister when the trio decided to go out for lunch, after all what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, and the green filly never expressed interest in hanging out with him and Dash before anytime the two of then were hanging out in the workshop and then decided to go someplace. That and he didn't want her to make a big deal about Princess Twilight's visit, it was awkward enough for him alone to have royalty suddenly appear at his doorstep without his sister making a big fuss over her. He gave his sister an apologetic, if abet awkward hug, "Aam sure we coods still use ah few snacks at leest." Well maybe Dash and Twilight could, he still wasn't up to eating anything but the most light of foods.

Fortunately both mares appeared interested in the results of Purple Haze's effort, probably saving Carrot's flank from a long night of complaints from his sister. "Ah dornt hink she was practicin' fur anythin', fur Purple, thes is jist guttin' th' most it ay 'er special talent. Aam sure she'll be a famoos cuik someday suin, ance she is aw groon up." He gave a playful rub to his sister's mane, smiling, even blushing slightly, given the day's events.

Turned out that the princess had quite the appetite, one she calculated her intake for precisely and the number was shockingly huge. Carrot just stood there with a stunned expression on his face. Was this an alicorn thing? It must of been. Just he never heard a pony needing such a vast amount of calories on a daily basis before. Whoever the farmers were who supplied Canterlot, they must be raking in the bits! Carrot had no idea how many calories he needed, he just ate when he was hungry, which was fairly often given his age and busy, physical lifestyle. He was curious to ask why Twilight needed so much, but couldn't, it felt like such a personal and prying question to ask of anypony, let alone royalty!

The fact Dash and Twilight were so taken by Purple's bountiful display gave Carrot the moment he needed to rush over to his workshop and tidy it up a little before Her Highness came back inside. He would have taken down the posters and hid the Daring Do Harem set if Twilight hadn't already seen the former and was told about the latter. Still he could at least make the place a little less messy, "Umm, weel hae as much as ye guys loch, it woods make mah wee sister happy; i'll, um, be reit back!"

[Bramble Rose]

Purple's eyes lit up in excitement as the princess was able to identify exactly what garlic she'd used! Obviously a foodie! "Oh! Aye! Oi was usin' th' Chesnok Red! Th' Purple Stripe garlics are allays th' best fer cookin', an' Oi'm nae jes' sayin' 'at cause o mah name! Oi usually use Metechi fer mah cookin', on account ah mah family loves it, but when Oi'm cookin' fer guests Oi swap to th' Chesnok Red, on account ah Oi'm ne'er sure how well other ponies take t'heat ah Metechi ... oi've been tol' th' Metechi is a bit much for most. aye? Oi'd have used Celestes fer ye, on account ah ye're Royalty an' all, an' it's such a fancy sort a garlic, but Oi dinnae have any Celeste available jes' now, do Oi. What Oi really want is tae try some Rocambole, but they're nae all that good growin' roun' here, an' it costs so much t'import... "

Purple babbled away happily as she led the Princess to the table and started serving up the dishes in her best 'fancy' fashion - only a little food in the center of each plate and some sauce drizzled randomly across it. She didn't quite have the artistic eye to arrange it right, but this was her best copy-cat of how fancypants chefs did things.

​

Rainbow Dash let out a small giggle, floating up into the air further as she watched Purple and the purple alicorn head off to eat. "I'm not all that hungry *just* yet," Dash said, "And looks like Purple found herself a new best friend. I'll just follow you along a bit..."

One of the hardest things for Rainbow Dash was to keep her mind in check. It was always racing everywhere at breakneak speed - it took the slightest thing to distract it. The only two things she'd really found that could keep her focused was flying and Daring Do - flying because it required so much attention and to keep track of so many different things at once that every part of her mind was occupied at once, and Daring Do because it was just so exciting! On the way here from the cafe, her mind had raced over a hundred different possibilities as to what had happened back there. It had been so far beyond her expectations ... she'd never have expected Carrot to act that way! Part of her was worrying that it was more of his playful joking, like back at the convention, or possibly some prank or dare ... That almost seemed more likely than him actually being interested in her that way ... not like she hadn't endured tons of those sort of pranks and jokes before, right? The number of times she'd been the butt of these sort of pranks in Flight Academy... 'who'd want to crash and burn with Rainbow Crash?' they laughed. She and Burnout had been the butt of that particular joke, but she'd shown them! Who was the best flyer now? Almost part of the Wonderbolts proper, right?

As they went towards the workshop, Dash, heart in her throat, started talking, and as usual without stopping to think first. "Look, for this date thing - if this is a joke or a Hard Rock dared you or something like that, you don't have to go through with it, I'd understand, I mean, no biggie, right? I know I'm so awesome and everything and who wouldn't want to date me, right? But I know you've hardly shown signs of being interested before so it's probably just some prank or something and if so, hey, good prank, nice job! I just want you to have this chance to bow out now before ... uh..." As they slipped in through the door into the workshop, her babbling voice got lost, as all the different possible ways he could tell her it wasn't really happening raced through her mind, and the panic locked up even her rapid nervous chatter and left her awkwardly and frantically searching for words, biting at her lower lip as she tried to tell herself she was way too cool to be worried about something stupid like a date.

​

[SteelEagle]

 

Twilight was not a foodie in any sense of the word if she was going to be truthful. Her senses had grown and evolved to the point where she could tell the difference between one type of ingredient and the next, but she considered a foodie somepony who had a willing knowledge of the subject as a passion or interest of some sort. She just knew a lot by the nature of her abilities. Of course, she had willingly read over seventeen volumes of royal cooking recipes and thoughts and how they related to her royal duties while flying to Saddle Arabia with nary a turnip in sight to calm the rage in her stomach, so maybe she was a foodie after all. Hard to tell where that began and where eating through mental osmosis began when you lived in a magical world! Twilight followed Purple's excited if jumping discussion about different garlics easily enough, always pleased to indulge somepony in their passions.

 

Then she mentioned Celestes and how rare they were. This was very true. Celestes were exceedingly rare and expensive outside of the royal stockpile. They were among a subsection of produce made nearly exclusively for royalty that satisfied them more than any other. They were staple elements of an alicorn diet as a result, ensuring that royalty got what they needed without twelve or so meals a day and with a near-constant craving. Twilight had a few of these items but was due to get more- and if she could ever convince Applejack to plant them then they'd have a local supplier. Come to think of it, why not share the wealth? When she saw Carrot next she'dtalk to him about it. The effort didn't require a great deal of space and the Royal treasury paid a pretty bit for it. Good exposure too! Win for everypony involved. Oooh, today was a really successful one when all was tallied up. And here she had been worried that it was going to turn out to be a net loss. Those treaties could wait!

 

“You know, I likely have a few Celestes along with some other specialty ingredients and produce. If you would like it, I could get some delivered to you free of charge...but you must do me a favor in return,” Twilight said, getting lower and whispering. They had secret filly sister discussion topic to discuss.

[brianblackberry]

Carrot walked to the workshop, surprised that Dash was following after him.  He'd hoped to have a little quick time alone to get everything together, but he supposed he didn't mind if she wanted to tag along too.

"Aye," he responded to Dash, "Oi jes' hope she dinnae talk th' Princess' ear off.  She kin get carried away talkin' bout food.  Ah usually jes' gloss over an' nod a lot."  He was still feeling a bit nervous about everything, and his mouth started running.  "Oi'm glad ye dinnae mind bout my posters an' figurines an' stuff-" he started, but then Dash started running her mouth with a similar nervousness to it.

He admitted, he felt a bit out of his league with Dash.  Here she was - soon-to-be famous Wonderbolt, element of harmony, and Champion of Equestria, a genuine hero.  And here he was, just some no-name farmer pony who only dreamed of Wonderbolts, and could never imagine being as important as her.  And yet, she sounded just as nervous about all of this as he did.

It had taken all of his courage to put himself out there, back at the cafe, and all his will to go through with that crazy kiss without backing out.  While he was still horribly nervous, it seemed that it got easier the second time, because once they were both inside and the door closed behind them, he turned around and reached up to grab her by one hoof before she could float up to the roof of the two-story area.  He hauled her down, cupped his forehooves round her cheeks, and drew the hovering pegasus pony's face down closer so that he could deliver yet another surprise kiss, stopping her stream of nervous chatter.

Then, after a long, lingering kiss, he drew back a little and said, "Oi'm nae kiddin', so ye kin jes' ferget all that stuff ye jes' said."

[Bramble Rose]

Purple Haze's jaw dropped at the idea of getting princess-delivered celeste garlic!  Oh, the experiments she could do with that!  And what an honor!  But ... what could a little filly like her possibly do for a Princess?  Was it going to be an adventure, like the storybooks?

She straightened up and did the best snappy salute she knew how to do.  The Princess seemed to want to be quiet about it, so she whispered back, "Sure'n Oi'll nae need tae be bribed wi' celestes tae do yer will, yer Highness!  Jes' tell em what ye'd loik!"

Sent on some strange quest to a tower far away?  She'd have to take at least three food items, and make sure to share them with strangers on the road who would end up helping her at the end...

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Rainbow Dash let out a muffled noise into the sudden kiss, once again surprised at Carrot's brazenness.  She'd never seen him like this before!  She hoped it wasn't like, some sort of Changeling trick or love poison or something.  It was way too nice to be something like that!

But the kissing didn't seem to last all that long, just like last time.  The main difference, though, was that THIS time, there were no ponies around to make fun of her when she pounced him right back, tumbling him into a pile of tools so that handles clattered to the ground around them, and this time her lips were seeking out his in an excited, energetic, and eager kiss.  Until the shovel bounced off her head, and she got knocked away, rubbing ruefully at her head.  "Ow... sorry.  *^_^*  Not for... I mean, for ... not the kiss sorry.  *^_^*  But obviously I need better aim!"

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[SteelEagle]

 

She was willing. Good. This was a task of such high importance that Twilight couldn't imagine giving it to a pony who was anything less than fully committed. It involved mass intrigue, baking, and a quick eye for a learned filly to process. Oh, and it would require a bit of lying if it came down to it, but Twilight was prepared to call it off if she felt uncomfortable. Knowing how her friends would react to this with laughter however, she was less worried about a possible negative reaction. Twilight nodded and stepped backed, levitating more of the food over. She was trying to copy the fine dining etiquette of high society ponies and did an admirable job for a once-over, but Twilight had no room in her life for small portions of such well cookedfood. “Before I tell you, let's get a little bit more on our plates. It smells delicious! Maybe one day you can become a famous chef. Always looking for talented ponies like yourself- maybe try to see if you can get some more training by one of my castle chefs?" Twilight offered in a genial fashion, letting the moment become filled with a pregnant pause.

“What I need you to do-” Twilight began before taking her first bite and beaming, winking at her friend, “-this is really good-” she gulped, “is find out if he has fallen in love with a certain pony,” Twilight whispered. Yeah, she knew he was likely in love but it would be good to see if this was a flash in the pan day to day emotional surge or something more and, more importantly, if he'd share something like that with his sister. If he did, that showed a level of trust and companionship that Twilight valued in friends, “and if he has, to make sure that he treats her just right and she treats him just right. Since you're so mature I know you can handle this, but if you can't and you need my help, I can turn them into toads,” Twilight offered as plain-faced and gravely as she could. It was just a fancy way of making sure that everypony was treating everypony else well.

She would turn somepony into a pile of dust for Rainbow and she would certainly consider it for Carrot. Plus she needed a way to make sure she earned her special ingredients! Twilight ignored the sounds emanating from the room with the pair of loveponies. She hadn't expected them to get to that level of affection this fast! Well, maybe Rainbow since she was all or nothing but it was abit socking for Carrot. Maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought. Regardless, she had to distract the filly from investigation- there were some things young eyes were joyfully blind to! “So, how did you train yourself to cook this well?”

[brianblackberry]

Carrot Field couldn’t believe what he just did, what was it about Dash that made him suddenly so assertive as to answer all her doubts with a unsolicited kiss? One look at that adorable face was enough to answer that question.  For the first time he felt confident, when it came to a mare that he liked, even one as famous and accomplished as the rainbow maned pegasus floating before him.

 

He wasn’t sure of what her reaction would be when he was finished but Carrot was sure there was no forehoof to the muzzle coming this time.   Even he wasn’t so dense as to not realize that yeah, she liked him too, although he certainly wasn’t sure why somepony like her would, but he just wasn’t going to question the reality it, not now.

 

Dash made her feelings clear when she jumped him with such force one wouldn’t believe it can from such a petite pegasus!  What should have been a passionate embrace was more of a circus comedy act as the pair tumbled into his shelves causing various tools to fall to the floor; he didn’t care, not at that moment, now that they both finally felt comfortable enough to openly express their pent up feelings to each other.

 

That is until his shovel had other ideas and interrupted thing by bonking Dash on the noggin.   She was good natured about it, and the situation was one of humorously perfect bad timing that he just had a goofy grin on his face before he started to playfully laugh along with her at the situation, who couldn’t?  He rubbed the messy long mane along the back of his neck with his forehoof, “Ah guess Ah shoods hae secured 'at shovel mair, but Ah admit, i’d ne'er planned fur anythin' loch thes tae happen in th' shop!”

 

Still smirking, Carrot stood up on all fours, his long ruddy mane now a wavy mess draping over his face, and walked over to Dash and winked, “Ah hink yer aeem was pretty spot oan, jist thes place is a bit cluttered, nae loch th' open sky yoo’re used tae.”  He looked about at the mess for a moment and chuckled before offering his forehoof to Dash, “Guess Ah shoods clean up afair Princess Twilecht comes knockin', yit again Purple will likely keep 'er occupied fur a while, sae umm.”, he blushed like a silly colt as he smiled, “Ah can tak' mah time”.

[Bramble Rose]

Purple Haze was more than willing to refill Princess Twilight's plate before she was even done.  She never had really understood why 'small portions' equaled 'fancy', but Princess Twilight's rejection of the tiny portions confirmed for the little filly that she was definitely one of the 'good princesses'.  She piled the goodies high, especially the garlic-roasted carrot sticks, which she was more than willing to skimp on her own portion to make sure the Princess had enough.  Or more likely, skimp on her big brae's portion...

But then Princess Twilight was revealing the super-duper top-secret your-eyes-only mission!  Which was ... spying?  On a colt?  Why would Princess Twilight want to find out if some colt liked somepony?  Did she have a crush on him?  Was she going to turn 'them' into toads if he liked somepony other than her?  Purple was about to ask who this 'he' was, when it hit her.  She was talking about her big brae, Carrot.  Her jaw dropped.

Now, the ancient Pegasus Lords of Fet Loch had settled the area away from the combined tribes of the three pony types, and had been among those that hadn't wanted to join Equestria.  They hadn't wanted to betray their leader, Commander Hurricane, but they had built a stronghold for themselves where they could maintain their way of life AWAY from the other races.  In the years following, they had begrudgingly welcomed the earth ponies which had provided the much-needed agricultural hoof for the burgeoning society, though both sides still eyed each other and the occasional traveling unicorn distrustfully.  The two pony types had made up the core of the community for centuries, their cultures merging and the familiarity finally melting away the distrust between their two races.

It was thousands of years later now, and the calls for independence had long since dwindled to a few crazy nutjobs, but even so, the earth ponies and pegasus ponies alike had inherited a certain distrust for the government.  The Pegasus Lords of Fet Loch never put on airs except with foreigners, and were more likely to get in a brawl with somepony calling them names than to sic the police on them.  Common ponies, who just happened to be in charge.  Not like those foreign nobles.  Love the Princesses, not the government, as the saying went.  

Twilight's request for Purple to spy on her own brother triggered every one of those ancient anti-government anti-hoity-toity anti-unicorn reflexes.  It was more shock and disorientation than anything else that kept her from blurting out a hotblooded condemnation of the princess right there, but the emotions playing across the young filly's face were rather telling.  Those few seconds, however, bought her the time to gain that second realization.  Carrot?  And a Mare?  In LOVE?!  Wouldn't that require Carrot to actually ADMIT he liked a mare?  Of course he liked a mare, he fell in love with mares like three or four times a day!  Then, of course, there was his long-time twitterpation with the neighbor farmer filly, Applejack, which made sense to Purple, and the goofy egghead thing he had going with his fellow egghead, Rainbow Dash, which did not make sense to Purple at all.  And Twilight had just spent the morning watching Carrot and Dash.  Twilight thought Carrot and Dash were a couple.

Her jaw dropped and she nodded dumbly at the princess.  There was very little that could distract Purple from these shocking requests and revelations.

Luckily, Princess Twilight had hit on the one thing that would do so.

"Oh, Oi'd LOVE proper trainin'!  It'd be jes' th' best!  Oi learned from me ma, an' she's a roit talent at cookin', but oi've been practicin' an' comin' up wi' me own recipes, too!  They're nae all winners, but ye gotta find out what dinnae work afore ye kin find out what does!"

​

Rainbow Dash was SO embarrassed by all of this.  She quickly helped Carrot clean up the mess, stacking up all the shovels and hoes and whatnot with wholly unnecessary spins and flourishes.  Not to mention the reminder that Twilight and Purple were right outside, brought Dash back to her senses.  "Roit!  I mean, right!  I mean, yeah, we should head back out there!"  She squeezed Carrot's hoof and gave him a quick, shy little nuzzle, then took her hoof back and cleared her throat.  "Yeah, time to just play it cool.  We got all the time in the world!  I can do patience!  I can be patient faster than anypony else!"

With that, she strode out of the workshop again, heading back towards the kitchen.  After a few seconds, she flared her wings and lifted up off the ground, drifting left and right, back and forth, as she grinned happily. She wasn't especially hungry - though with how much energy she burned up flying all the time, she could always eat - and she came back into the kitchen to hear Purple babbling about - big surprise - food!

"Smells awesome as usual, Purple!" she said cheerfully, snagging up some of the garlic-roasted carrot sticks.  "Carrot was just worried about his shop, like we hadn't just seen it a little while ago."  She rubbed her noggin ruefully.  "I guess it took a bit to hit me just what he was worried about."

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[SteelEagle]

 

For all of Purple's excitement at Twilight's offer, she hadn't seemed to give the request any sort of answer. Had she overstepped her boundaries? Twilight had meant it in a pleasant way. Keep an eye, make sure everypony was happy. But perhaps she was in the wrong, asking so much of a little filly. Then again maybe she was just reeling from the revelation and was planning on doing it or would do it anyway. In that case Twilight was simply overreacting which was not out of the realm of possibility, as she was still getting used to dealing with this filly. She was very adorable when she was excited and Twilight couldn't help but be excited along with her, the possibilities endless in the dominion of culinary distinction with her natural gifts and the training and teaching only certain academies could offer. Or in this case, one of her chefs. “Well, I think you're doing so very well by yourself. I don't think I've seen somepony your age cook anywhere near this well before! Come to the castle this weekend and we'll see what my chefs can teach you. Sound like a plan?” Twilight offered as she ever so gently continued to scarf it all down.

Rainbow Dash returned from her private sourjourn with Carrot on a ferreting expedition to find, repair, or see just about anything and everything that could be said anything other than what they likely were doing in there. Yeah, what he was worried about indeed...Twilight would let it die there. She knew that they knew that she knew and that was all the knowing that was needed. She motioned to Purple. “She is really a master chef, or could be at least. Don't think I've seen somepony her age cook so well. Is Carrot doing well?” Twilight asked nonchalantly. Hopefully Rainbow's force wouldn't blow him over. That would be a bad end. Of course maybe he was secretly far more powerful and forceful than she had expected. If that was the case, they'd cancel each other out. That's how this worked, right?  

[brianblackberry]

Carrot Fields blushed as Dash nuzzled him, but the ruddy maned stallion wasn’t so obtuse as to not nuzzle back.  It was small and quick, but none the less important as it felt the start of something real.  He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, the infatuation and attraction was certainly there, but if any relationship was going to succeed, he’d have to work at it, he had to earn being a special part of her life, and he had to remember that her BFFs were always first.

 

Carrot tided up the workshop, both of its original mess and the one he and Dash just created.  There was temptation to take down the posters but since the princess had already seen them, and Dash never appeared to mind them, why do so?  He started to feel he was overdoing it already, Twilight sure was down to earth for a princess, in fact she really didn’t act like one at all, just some librarian who just happened to be an alicorn.

 

A minute or so after Dash returned to the house, Carrot followed suit, no surprise Purple Haze had been talking the princess’ ear off about food, no doubt for the entire duration he and Dash were in the workshop.  “Ah hope Purple hasn’t bin tay much trooble fur ye Princess Twilecht, when it comes tae cookin', she coods speak fer days!  Glad ye still hae yer ears!” Carrot looked down at his empty plate, suddenly remembering he did have an appetite after all, before looking at the now empty pan with a dejected expression, “hey, where’s mine..”

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash let out a snort at Twilight's question.  "Oh, *Carrot's* fine."  She was the one who got bonked on the head with a falling shovel, after all.  She looked down at her plate - one tiny little bit of carrot something-or-other.  What, did someone just drip food there on the way to Twilight's plate?  She grabbed up the ladle to scope all the food out of the platter and pile her plate high.

"So, Twilight, I don't know much about all this magic-y stuff ... I know you've got that cloudwalk spell that you can do, but how hard would it be to, like, make that into magic horseshoes or something?  Like you put together that rotor for Tank?  Just ... y'know.  Out of curiosity.  In case you're busy when the Wonderbolt show is coming up.  No need to mention them to him."

Then, without waiting for an answer, she dug in hungrily, letting out a pleased noise towards Purple in recognition.

​

Purple Haze was giddy with excitement.  Her!  With professional, ROYAL instruction in cooking!  Her mind raced forward in time, picturing herself slaving over hot stoves, having to crawl inside ovens to scrape at encrusted ash and burn to clean them out, having to work for months, even years, before being trusted enough to be taught the Royal Recipe Secrets... late night sessions with old, crusty chefs, poring over ancient manuscripts detailing the secret ways of preparing cast-iron cookware to get *just* that right extra tang to the food.  And then, the ceremony, kneeling before the princesses while they put the silk cook's hat on her head and touch her shoulders with the royal ladle.  And then!  Her own chain of five-star restaurants, with her big sister as her financial manager!  And paying for her big brae to go to proper college and get himself an astronomy degree so he could stare at stars all night long and get paid for it!

Then her big brae had to come in and be all teasing and interrupt her fantasy!  She stuck her tongue out at him.  "Oi'll have ye know we've bot' been talkin', an' her Highness appreciates mah food!  An' Oi thought YE were more interested in cleanin' th' workshop than eatin'!"

As she was talking, she was pulling out the third course from the oven - the carrot crepes with cinnamon cottage cheese, topped with a brown sugar laced raisin-and-nut toppings!  Mmm, mmm, good!  And so fancy!  enough for everypony!  Plates were set down before all the ponies, and instead of her fantasies of the future, Purple was satisfied with being able to feed a large group, and watch all their faces light up.  Today was a good day.

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