//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Protein Pancakes // Story: Rainbowtastic // by Piggydash //------------------------------// You slowly wake up from your sleep after you feel a slight nudge to your side, "Morning sleepyhead." Rainbow Dash says. "Morning Dash," you say with a yawn. You rub your eyes, "Is anypony else awake?" you ask as you get up from the couch to meet Rainbow Dash. "Uh, I think not. I haven't seen anypony yet." she answers. "Is it still stormy?" you ask groggily. "Yup, there's still some rain." she replies softly. You hear her stomach grumble a little, "Whoops... Looks like I'm a little hungry." she says with a little chuckle. "Well, I don't know how to cook." you say with a stretch. "So what now?" she asks looking at you with a slightly worried look on her face. "I'm pretty sure Twilight has a cookbook here," you answer her as you look around the giant library. "I'll go look for one then," she says before she trots off to a bookshelf. You trot to a wall of books, you slowly skim through the shelves, like a predator stalking it's prey, you slowly prowl around the shelves passing through each section of books, fiction...sci-fi...fantasy...non-fiction...biographies...spells...you feel like you're about to give up until you find that darned book. Just as you reach to grab it, a cyan blue hoof snatches it! "Heh, gotcha!" the cyan mare exclaims. You give her a dead stare. "Calm down, I didn't know you were that hungry..." she says with emphasis on the 'that'. "Gimme that." you say flatly as you grab the book from her. "Yeesh...calm down will ya?" she grunts loudly. "So, what do you want for breakfast?" you ask her. "Does the recipe book have any type of protein shakes?" she asks as she pulls a chair to the counter top. You chuckle slightly at the question. "What's so funny huh?" she asks. "Well, you're a mare?" you ask her. "Yeah?" she answers with a slightly annoyed tone and a stare that looks like she's about to slap you. "Uh...on the second thought... I might as well not say it then." you say, sensing the anger coming off of her. You try to quickly shift the conversation by asking, "I can make some pancakes." you tell her. "How about protein pancakes?" she asks. You give her one of those 'really?' looks. "Why?" she asks. "Well, hate to burst your bubble...but 'protein pancakes' aren't even real, I wouldn't think that Twi would even have some protein shake mixes in her pantry seeing how she isn't you know... athletic?" you say as you look over to the the cyan mare's cheeks turn red with embarrassment. "It's fine, we all think about things that don't exist sometimes, like I thought humans were real until I was like, 13." you say chuckling. Still no reply comes from the cyan pegasus. "Don't be so down on yourself. Championship flyers are never down on themselves." you tell her, trying to lift her from her state of embarrassment. "Can you grab me so flour?" you ask Rainbow Dash as you open some drawers, scavenging for the items you need. "Okay..." she says as she flies upwards into the pantry closet. She comes back down with a bag of flour. "Thanks Dash." you reply. "Ok, now we need uh... eggs? Right?" Rainbow Dash asks. "Um... I think so, what does it say on the cookbook?" you ask. "Well, yeah, eggs, butter... sugar..." she says as she slowly trails off. "Ok... now, we have everything we need, we have some eggs, butter, sugar, flour, milk, and baking powder right?" you ask the cyan pegasus. "Yup, you ready to get down and dirty?" she asks with a little peppiness. "Let's do this." you solidly reply back. ----------------------------------------------------- After your cooking session with Rainbow Dash, the kitchen looks like a war zone, except the dead soldiers are cracked eggshells. Somehow, the pancake batter exploded when you were mixing it, so there are some globs of batter on the wall too. "Wow, we should've waited for Pinkie." Rainbow Dash says. "You try it first." you say as you hide behind the table. "You want me to try the horrible lab experiment that YOU made?" She asks with a grimace on her face. "Don't forget my dearest friend, you're the one who helped me make this monstrosity that we decided was a pancake." you call from your hiding place. "Why don't we try it together?" she asks. "Why don't you guys try what together?" a voice calls from behind you and the pegasus. You and Rainbow Dash exchange 'we're screwed' looks to each other before finally turning around, to see a shocked purple unicorn and her equally shocked little dragon helper. The looks from Twilight and Spike give you the thought that you're probably gonna live on the streets within the next few hours. "What happened here?!" Spike asks in shock. "Pancakes happened, Spikester." Rainbow Dash says patting Spike on the head. "Here's what happened, mad scientist and I tried to make pancakes, it ended up being looking like my place." she says with a giggle. "Well...aren't you gonna clean it Dash?" you call out from your hiding spot. "You also made it you tard!" she grunts in annoyance. "Here... we'll let the rest of the girls try the pancake, monster thing and if they like it, Spike and I will clean up the mess, if they think it tastes worse than my previous attempts at pancakes, You and Dash will have to clean it up. Deal?" Twilight says trying to calm the tension between you and Rainbow Dash. ------------------------------------------------- The rest of the group is finally awake, and seated at the dining table. "So we're supposed to eat these... pancakes?" Rarity asks, looking disgusted. "I don't think that they'll taste that bad!" Pinkie says. "Um...oh...I'm not really sure if I can eat these..." Fluttershy whispers. "Eh...maybe I can...uh...skip? I don't feel as hungry as awhile ago..." Applejack says sounding worried. "Well... who's gonna start?" Twilight asks. "Applejack should go first! She's the element of honesty!" Rainbow Dash shouts. "Well I suppose..." Applejack carefully inspects the very burnt piece of pancake, slowly, she raises the pancake to her mouth and finally takes a bite...