As Chéz and his mother made their way to Sugarcube Corner they took in the sights and sounds of Ponyville. It was a lazy Sunday morning in the residential district that soon met a bustling downtown core. Colts and fillies could be seen running to and fro playing in the town square amidst the autumn weather. The leaves on the trees in Whitetail woods could be seen in the distance and had begun to change and shone in radiant oranges and reds, The Running of the Leaves would be happening soon. Upon reaching Sugarcube Corner they made their way inside and quickly found a table by the window.
The waitress trotted up and introduced herself as “Ms. Cake one of the owners of Sugarcube Corner" while she passed out the menus and asked what they would like to drink. “Two coffees and two waters.” It had always been the same for years this being one of the many things Chéz had in common with his mother. As their drinks came they quickly ordered the pancakes and apple syrup that was famous in Ponyville. While they waited for their food to come they got in some catching up and Chéz soon realised how long it had been since he had been to see his mother. They talked about Chéz’s moves in cooking and why he had left Manehattan. ‘Staffing Issues’ was all Chéz had to say and his mother knew that he had gotten over stressed and blown up. He always had problems with his temper.
“So what have you been up to these past couple years mom?” Chéz asked curious as to how his mother had managed to keep busy in her retirement.
“Well …” she thought aloud. “There is the garden that keeps me busy for about 9 months, and I have been helping old Cherilee, the teacher at Ponyville Elementary, I don’t know how she keeps going. I have also been spending plenty of time at the library helping the Librarian; OH she is such a sweet unicorn filly. You should meet her you might like her.” His mother always was trying to get him to find a marefriend and settle down; but his response had always been; “I want to get my career settled before I do”
“Of course you would think that mom, but don’t worry I may have found someone already” He didn’t want to give too much yet, in case things didn’t work out.
The food arrived shortly after and they dug right in. It was always amazing how quickly they would stop talking and eat until it was done and pick up the conversation where it left off. The pancakes were massive and filling, but Chéz could not get enough of the syrup and didn’t want to stop eating against his bloated stomachs wishes. They finished up, paid and decided to take a stroll around town while the food digested.
Leaving Sugarcube Corner they headed down Main Street towards to a giant tree that Chéz was surprised to see near the middle of the downtown core. Trotting at a very leisurely pace they went from shop to shop with Chéz’s mother giving a grand tour that Chéz had not had the chance to do yet. As they stopped into a little shop that surprisingly was named “Quills and Sofas”, presumably for what they sold, a chipper old mare trotted up.
“Merlot it’s so nice to see you out and about, and who is this sharp looking stallion accompanying you today?” It was Cherilee the old teacher at the school house.
“Ah Cherilee how nice to see you today; this here is my colt Chéz he just moved to Ponyville and is the Executive Chef of Toss. You know the new fancy place that just opened up.” She said proudly almost boasting.
“Oh that is so wonderful to hear, I may have to stop in there some night.” Cherilee remarked.
“That would be wonderful ma’am; I would be pleased to have you anytime.” Chéz chimed in.
Cherilee and Merlot chatted for just a little longer while Chéz looked around and talked to the shop keeper about getting a couple quills for work. He soon learned that they were all out of quills, it seemed curious to Chéz, for a place that only sold two items and to be out of one was odd.
As Chéz and his mother left the shop they continued down stopping at a couple of vendor stalls to see what the ponies had to offer. When they finally made it down to the end of the shops they were right in front of the now massive tree that Chéz had spotted at the beginning of their trip. As he examined it further he saw it had windows and a door on the front and a balcony protruding from the right further up. He peered inside and was shocked to see it was hollowed out and furnished with bookshelves filled with thousands upon thousands of books.
“Wha… What is this!?” Chéz was stunned he had never seen anything like it before. He had lived in big cities for most of his life and had never come upon something so bizarre.
“This” his mother replied “is the Ponyville Library. I had the same reaction when I first came upon it. It still boggles my mind how they did it but with proper training a unicorn can do just about anything. Which brings me to the librarian, she is a… well-read pony she studies constantly and is always reading something, she‘s also Celestia’s personal student.” She paused for a moment to let Chéz take it all in. “Well shall we? I’m sure she will be so glad to meet you.” Chéz was about to enter when he stopped to think about what his mother had just said.
“Mom … Have you been telling stories of me again?” Chéz asked quizzically. All his mother could do was beam at him in response. Chéz sighed to himself, Merlot always told stories of his life and his screw ups. It was almost like his life was an open book for the entire world to read. Sometimes it was funny but there were times when it got embarrassing. He knew it was just that his mother was proud of him.
“… Maybe” Merlot replied in a sing-song voice. “She is such a sweet girl so we get talking and you happen to come up… A lot.”
Chéz face hoofed and let out a small groan “Alright then let’s get inside its starting to get cold just standing here.”
They trotted up to the door and knocked on the purple door. As soon as Merlots last knock hit the door it flung open to reveal a small purple dragon standing in the door way.
“Hi Merlot!” the dragon exclaimed, a big grin appearing on his face. “Who’s this you brought today?”
“Hello Spike, this is my colt Chéz he is the new Head Chef of Toss just off main street. Is Twilight in?”
“Hello Chéz… Oh wait you’re the one that Twilight was talking about this morning” Spike replied
Chéz was a little taken aback ‘Had he already met this mare?’ He thought to himself. He knew that he had drank a bit more than he should have but he didn’t remember leaving Oculus’s side all night.’ As the purple mare walked up it dawned on him who Twilight was.
“Well hello Chef. I didn’t expect to see you in my library so soon.” Twilight said motioning Chéz. “Merlot it is so nice to see you again as well. Do you know Chéz?”
“Okay what is going on here?” Chéz’s mother asked quizzically. “How do you two know each other?”
“Well Rarity, you remember her I wrote about her being a regular back in Canterlot, well her, Miss Sparkle and their friends were kind enough to grace us with their presence last night at Toss. I had only known Rarity and decided to thank them for coming out I bought a bottle of wine for their table.”
“Actually Merlot he left out a little detail… He bought our entire meal.” Twilight got in to get the record straight.
Merlot was shocked and quickly asked Twilight “Were all the girls there last night?”
“Oh yes there was Rarity and I, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, even Lyra and BonBon came out.”
“Wow… um okay then.” Merlot replied turning to Chéz “Do you realize who you bought dinner for last night?”
“Oh Merlot … Let’s not dwell on that right now I’m sure you two have other things to be doing than gossip.” Twilight quickly interjected trying to hide something. This piqued Chéz interest he would have to ask his mom where she was going with that point later.
“Well, Twilight, I had brought Chéz here to introduce him to you but since that seems to have been done last night I guess we will be back on out tour of Ponyville.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you properly Miss Sparkle” Chéz chimed in.
“It was nice to meet you in better lighting and finally see what Rarity– never mind, and please call me Twilight.”
“Very well then I will see you soon Twilight,” Merlot said “hopefully we can get a bit more work done tonight.”
“Be seeing you!” Twilight called as she closed the door.
As they walked away they heard a girlish giggle from behind the door but made nothing of it as Chez and his mom made their way around town once more. As they walked they talked about the past again, it wasn’t the brightest of subjects but it was one of the more emotional topics. They talked of his father and his past career.
~~~
Chéz had just walked in the door of Pepper’s Appleoosa Grill. He made his way over to the bar and had sat down since has still had a half hour before his shift started. He made small talk with the bartender and had a quick burger.
“Chéz! There you are why are you just sitting there?” It was one of his managers. “You’re a half hour late for your shift.”
“WHAT?!” Chéz replied shocked. “Okay sorry I’ll get up there now I thought I still had enough time when I got here a while ago.” He was apologizing the entire way to the kitchen. Even the bartender backed him up that he had been there for almost thirty minutes. The manager fairly understood once she heard what was going on and all seemed fine as Chéz walked onto the line to start the night.
“Hi guys sorry I miss read the schedule.” He announced to his team.
“Why are you so late!?” another one of his managers came flying out of the back obviously pissed he was late.
“I already explained to Jade what happened it’s all good no need to get excited.” He replied with a fair amount of sarcasm in his voice.
“Well you can cut the attitude and just get to work, I’m also writing you up for this.”
“Why need to fill your quota for the month?” getting excited himself he knew he was on the edge and all it took was one more line from her and he would over and angry.
“Well we don’t need your horrible attitude around here every day so just get to work.”
“HA BUCK YOU!” He bellowed ensuring that the entire team knew what was going to happen. Almost like he wanted to degrade her even more since this was going to have a crowd. “IF YOU DON’T WANT MY HORRIBLE ATTITUDE, THEN I GUESS YOU DON’T NEED ME!” and with that stormed out of the kitchen grabbed his bag and threw his jacket at the office door. As he left out the back door he made sure to give it a forceful slam and headed for home.
He had made it home just after his mother and knew there was going to be questions as to why he was home already and what he was going to do next. The conversation went on for just over an hour and thankfully his mother saw most of his side. They were cut short by a phone call.
*RING* *RING*
Chéz picked up “Hello.”
“Chéz it’s Iron” ‘Great’ Chéz thought ‘here it comes’ Iron was the General Manager of Pepper’s
“Yeah Iron I was expecting your call”
“Can you come in tomorrow, I believe we need to talk” he said flatly.
“Yeah I suppose I could, but I think both of us know where it’s going to go”
“Alright I just want to talk to you face to face come in at two tomorrow afternoon”
“Okay I guess I will”
With that Chéz hung up not even wanting to keep that conversation going any longer.
“Well… Guess I have a meeting with Iron Arrow tomorrow” he said as he turned to his mother. She just smiled and nodded.
“I’ll drive you there what time do you need to be there?”
“Two… But I need to get to bed I am way to angry to think straight right now” he headed to bed not even waiting for a response.
That night Chéz had one of the most relaxing sleeps he had had in months working at Pepper’s he had no priorities and no extra jobs to worry about. In the recent months of work he would get maybe 4-5 hours of sleep a night. It wasn’t healthy and usually made him sick every few weeks.
The next morning he woke fully rested around ten. He made his way out to the kitchen and grabbed a quick breakfast. He wasn’t in any sort of rush but he did want to wander the shops before having to go to Pepper’s. After showering and freshening up he headed out to Main Street to see if there was anything new in the shops worth buying. After a few hours he decided he didn’t need anything and that he should get going to Pepper’s.
Chéz made his way down the streets deciding that if he was going to face the looming meeting he would need to be relaxed. Pulling a cigarette and lighter from his saddle bags he paused for a couple minutes outside of Pepper’s to finish his smoke. ‘Alright … here goes something.’ He thought to himself as he entered the door.
Inside the usual bartender Bateo was serving a couple customers but spotted Chéz and gave him a friendly wave. Chéz returned the gesture and headed upstairs towards the kitchen and the upcoming meeting. Chéz chuckled to himself as he passed the manager, that he had walked out on, on the stairs all she could do was give him a dirty look.
“Chéz you’re a little early.” Iron was at the top of the stairs and didn’t look happy.
“Yeah a couple of minutes I suppose, I can wait at the bar if you want.” Chéz suggested
“No, no let’s get this over with.”
The two made their way over to a small table by the window. Iron sat down and started going through some paperwork strewn about.
“Alright Chéz … what happened?” Iron asked with a hint of sympathy.
“Well I came in for what I thought was a later shift, sat down …” Chéz told him the entire story right up to the point of Iron’s call the other night. Chéz even admitted he was in the wrong for what he said to the manager.
“Okay … You know you bucked up pretty hard yesterday that’s good. But I can’t let this slide… what do you think I should do? I don’t want to have to fire you.” Iron was sounding more sympathetic than usual. He and Chéz had a good work relationship and had gotten along well over the past couple years.
“For what I did … I shouldn’t be treated different from any other employee. But Iron I made the choice last night when I walked out that I wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon.”
“That’s what I thought you would say … alright then … I guess this is good luck. I’m sure we will see you around in the future?”
“Iron you couldn’t get rid of me even if you tried.”
As Chéz got up they shook hooves and he quickly headed to the kitchen to thank the cooks working for everything over the past year and to say good bye. It was a little emotional but all understood that it was for the best.
~~~
“So Mom what were you going to say about Twilight before she cut you off?”
“Well you know the stories of Nightmare Moon and Discord that you learned back in school and at camp?” Merlot replied “Well those are actually true. Well one is no longer true… Twilight and her friends are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony and close friends with Princess Celestia. Chéz they are VERY important ponies… and you bought them dinner” She finished with a squeal of excitement. Chéz could only chuckle finally realising that he had served and bought dinner for the most influential ponies in Equestria.
‘Hmmm this job could really be paying off’ Chéz smiled as he looked at the large clock tower in the middle of town.
“SHIT!” Chéz said partially under his breath “Mom I got to get going I have to work tonight I promise I meet up with you later.”
“Okay I’ll bring the girls by in the next few nights!”
With that they shared a quick hug and parted ways.