//------------------------------// // Third Letter (1/2) // Story: Breakfast is Served // by Belgian Waffle //------------------------------// Dear Brother, I received your letter. It’s good to be hearing from you for once! Thank you for reminding me about the annual City Founding Celebration in Fillydelphia. I totally forgot about it! It ends in three days and I have to attend this year. I know it seems odd for me to drop my work to go to a celebration in a different city, but I can’t resist. This year, they’ve introduced the Equestrian food market section, where ponies from all over Equestria will gather to sell and trade their recipes. Think of the many recipes I could bring back to the shop here in Ponyville. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something that everypony here would love to try. I wish we could have set-up a booth at the market, but I guess we were late to the party. Maybe we could consider joining next year’s festival. I’m sure we have some recipes we could sell. Anyways, I’m packing my things as I write this letter. I will be departing on the train Wednesday morning at 7:25 a.m. and will arrive late in the afternoon, same-day. Hopefully this letter arrived at an early enough date for you to get ready for my arrival. Oh, and if you’re wondering about Rainbow Dash and Spike and the others who are preparing for the competition, I made sure they got enough batter to last a good training session or three. They need to step-up their game now to get first place, so I supplied enough for them to not run out before I return. Pinkie said she will pay me back when I return. I can’t wait to see you all! Your eager brother, -Belgian Waffle Within the kitchen of the wooden house at Sweet Apple Acres, a unique aroma of cooked batter and a hint of sweet maple wafted through the air instead of the usual smell of apples. An added hissing noise echoing down the hallways from the kitchen altogether signified somepony was cooking breakfast. Inside the kitchen, a cotton-candy mane pony was at the stove carefully and professionally flipping many flapjacks from multiple cooking pans. The pink pony was sporting a white apron hung from her neck, a comically oversized toque on her head, and three spatulas to help expedite the cooking; one Velcro-ed to each fore-hoof, and one maneuvered via her mouth. With each pancake Pinkie thought was cooked long enough, she flipped them off the pan behind her for it to be caught by Spike. She would then pour more batter onto the vacant pan (spitting out the spatula before chomping on the mixing bowl). Every launched pancake that landed on a plate held by the baby dragon was served to two pony friends who were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were scarfing down the contents of each new plate given to them in heavier-than-normal doses. Their main goal on training now was not only to win the competition, but also beat Equestria’s 6 time watermelon eating, 9 time milk chugging, 14 time culinary cooking champion, Chow Down. The extended list of food and drink related awards listed in books found in Twilight’s library showed them that this stallion was no joke in this situation. The girls trained harder because of how they learned of the new competitor’s seriousness on beating everypony at Equestria’s first pancake eating competition. Neither wanted to be shown up by some pony from out of town, again. So Pinkie Pie, Spike, AJ, and RD planned to train every morning for the competition with as much batter Belgian Waffle could provide while he was out of town. Both ponies at the kitchen table continued finishing off the stacks on each new plate served to them; all while never seeming to take their eyes off of each other. Even though they were training hard for the upcoming competition, they were currently fixed on trying to out-do each other in eating the most amount of food. It all started when Applejack joked on how she was so hungry she could clear a large amount of apples from a few apple trees. Rainbow Dash then stated how she was so hungry she could clear an entire field of apples. Applejack then recalled how Rainbow Dash couldn’t even finish off all of the pancakes in a little dare back at the restaurant. Both went back and forward until the conversation transitioned into more of an argument. By the time the first plate of pancakes was served, they drilled into them in an effort to prove what they said about how hungry they were to be true. The feeding frenzy continued between the two ponies, and Spike was able to notice their consumption rate increasing as empty plates were returned back to him more and more frequently. These, plus having to catch the flying flapjacks, made his job unnecessarily difficult. In an attempt to calm the situation, Spike asks, “Uhh, don’t you two think you’re taking this a little too seriously? I mean, I wouldn’t want a guy like that to beat me in a competition either, but--” “Less talk, more pancakes!” Rainbow interrupted Spike, while giving him yet another empty plate. Spike simply grumbled, then frantically positioned himself to catch another hotcake that was sent into the air by the pink culinary chef pony. “What’sa matter, afraid to lose?” mocked the orange country earth pony, before returning to gobbling up her meal. Rainbow gave some time to masticate the rest of the food in her mouth before swallowing and responding, “Ha, you wish! I’m totally finishing off more plates than you.” Pinkie continued to pour, flip, and eject as many pancakes as her three spatulas could muster. “Shpike,” she asked with a spatula still in her mouth. “We need more pancaksh. Shink you can grab a bag and mix ano-er batch?” (Translation: “Spike, we need more pancakes. Think you can grab a bag and mix another batch?”) “I’m on it!” Spike responded while saluting. He then made his way past the ravenous pair to the location of the bags of batter Belgian left for them to use. Spike stopped halfway once he saw that a huge heap of empty bags stacked on top of each other replaced what used to be an entire wall lined with large bags. We couldn’t have used them all up that fast… could we? After staring a few seconds more, Spike bolted straight for the pile, uncovering layer upon layer of flat empty bags of what used to be stuffed with batter that should have lasted a minimum of at least three days. He hoped there was still some bags left under here, there just had to be. Back at the table: “That ain’t true. Look, I already finished off mah pile.” Applejack pointed to the stack of now-empty plates for the still chewing Rainbow Dash to observe. Rainbow didn’t glance until she had finished off her mouthful. She painfully swallowed the large morsel to attempt to finish quickly. “So did I,” she replied, waving her hoof to her collection of empty plates on her side of the table. “Stop acting like you’re gonna win the competition. Just because you eat, sleep, and breathe apples everyday doesn’t mean you’ll be ready to take on more pancakes than everypony else.” “Sure it does,” Applejack retorted. “All those years of apples gave me plenty of room to eat every pancake given to me so far, and still have plenty of room for more.” Given the amount they both have already consumed and the slight fullness starting to settle in, Rainbow felt a little intimidated. Still she kept her poker face. She figures AJ is bluffing, but doesn’t know for sure. Running out of comebacks to throw, Rainbow went for insults. “Well, I’m sure you gained more than just room from eating all those apples.” “… I beg your pardon?” Spike’s iris shrunk slightly when he finally reached the bottom of the pile, to the white dusted floor beneath the mess. He couldn’t fathom how they had finished off every bag this quickly. He also wonders how he’s going to break the news to the others. Rainbow continued. “I mean, for a pony who’s taste tested so many different apple flavored recipes, you’ve probably gained plenty of ‘stuff’ to be able to beat every other pony.” Applejack narrowed her eyes at the blue Pegasus sitting across from her. “Are you implying somethin?” Rainbow ignored and pressed dangerously further. “Being able to beat somepony like Chow Down would be quite interesting to see,” she stated. She looked as if she were pondering her thoughts. “Think of how much ‘stuff’ he has. How much weight do you think all that ‘stuff’ adds up to?” Coming to a realization with what ‘stuff’ Rainbow might be talking about, a small fuse connected to Applejack’s cerebellum just ignited. The farm pony narrowed her eyes and said gently, “I’d stop that if I were you.” Pinkie, who has been waiting for Spike to return with another batch of batter to be poured, began to get impatient. “Spike, what’s taking ya?” She asked, with the spatula finally out of her mouth. Spike made his way back to Pinkie. “Uhh, Pinkie, when did Belgian drop those bags off?” “Yesterday, why?” “Well... umm...” Spike fiddled with his claws to try and figure out a way to tell Pinkie. Back at the table: “What? A few days ago you said you could beat everypony at the competition without even trying. Not everypony could do something like that so easily… or at least, not somepony without the ‘stuff’ to handle it.” “Did ya hear me? I said quit it before somepony gets hurt.” Applejack looked on the verge of sending the pegasus to the ER if she didn’t stop making comments about, what she assumed to be, her weight. Pinkie raised an eyebrow at the purple dragon, before realizing what he may be trying to tell her. She trotted over to the other side of the room where the bags laid scattered all across the kitchen floor. “Oh... I see.” “Oh, so now you’re not so sure you can win it?” “Ah never said that, ah just asked for you to shut yer trap before I do it for you.” “Ok, ok, I’ll stop.” “Thank ya.” Pinkie and Spike looked at each other, and then back at the pile, not knowing what to do now that they didn’t have any more batter. At least they were able to think more clearly of what to plan now that the farm and pegasus ponies were done arguing. “So, what are we going to do?” Spike asked Pinkie. “I’m not sure,” Pinkie responded. “Maybe we’ll just have to wait for Belgian to get back.” “Well, why don’t we try something while he’s gone. I’m sure we can do something.” Spike rubbed his chin in thought of what to do next. “Don’t you have batter at Sugarcube Corner?” “The batter there are for cakes and cupcakes, and I don’t think there would be enough for us to train with anyways; especially with how fast we seem to be going through them.” “We could find a place within Ponyville that makes or sells batter. I’m sure Belgian’s restaurant isn’t the only place that makes pancake batter, right?” Both could hear Rainbow starting to talk to Applejack again, but ignored her to continue their conversation. Pinkie gave it a thought before she replied. “You know what, you’re right! And I know a few places that might have som-” “THAT’S IT!” Pinkie was cut off by Applejack, who had finally snapped. Both Pinkie and Spike turned quickly to see an orange blur leap across the table and knock a startled Rainbow Dash out of her chair. --- Today was much cooler in comparison to yesterday. The cloud factory kicked back into operation overnight and the factory workers pumped out extra clouds today to make up for the amount of sun everypony received yesterday. The clouds hovering over Ponyville covered about 50% of the sky, causing cloud shadows to linger for long periods and allowing certain areas in town to become 20% cooler. There was even a certain gust of wind blowing through the town throughout the day. “If the factory continues at this rate, I’m sure there will be rain by tomorrow,” Spike said, noticing the drastic weather change compared to the days before. He was walking through town in the opposite direction from one of his previous locations of that day, Sweet Apple Acres. The location of which he assisted in serving pancakes. The location of which he first saw Pinkie use more than two spatulas at once. The location of which everypony used up all bags of batter too fast. The location of where Applejack injured Rainbow Dash’s wing, grounding her for the rest of the day. The fight and injury left the cyan pegasus in a crabby mood for a while, but she soon acted like it was normal and continued her day like it never even happened. She was used to injuries to certain parts of her body, like her wings, due to stunts she would often pull off while flying, but having them end up not working out as planned. Another sprained wing, another bandage wrapped around it, and another send-off from Nurse Redheart with an added “just keep off of it for a while.” Pinkie had followed along with Spike and Rainbow Dash for the entire journey from Sweet Apple Acres, to Ponyville Hospital, to the next destination the trio planned to hit, which was the Clover Café. Soon the green building with a three-leaf clover painted on a hanging sign outside appeared in view. A few ponies were seen outside the café sitting on small bundles of hay stacks placed around round tables. They were eating and conversing with each other. A waiter with shiny navy blue mane and tail and a cream color coat is seen moving from table to table, serving the ponies at the restaurant. The three made it to the front of the shop, and Pinkie tried to flag down the itinerant waiter. “Excuse me sir?” she said to him as he walked passed them, and kept going until he reached a table with two ponies occupying them. After a few minutes, he turned around to make another pass in front of the group. Pinkie tried getting his attention again. “Excusemesirweneedyour… help.” She couldn’t get it out fast enough. He just continued toward another table to take their orders. “Let me try,” Rainbow said, taking a few steps forward of Pinkie and Spike. After the server finished with their order, he turned around to go into the café and ring up the orders, which also involved walking past the group that had waited long enough to get his attention. Right as he was passing, Rainbow tried her best to get his attention. “HEY, CAPTAIN OBLIVIOUS! OVER HERE!” Many heads in and around the restaurant had turned to face the small group. One of those heads included the waiter, who seemed to notice them for the first time. “Oh! Many apologies,” apologized the waiter. “Please be seated and I will assist you momentarily.” The three took a seat at the nearest table to them. After a few beats, the waiter emerged out of the restaurant and went directly to their table. The stallion’s mane was shiny to the point that one could almost see their own reflection out of it. He also wore a pencil moustache, and spoke in a very strong ‘fancy’ accent. (Spoken in ‘fancy’ accent) “Welcome to zé Clover Café. My name is Horte Cuisine, and I will be your waite’u for zis’ evening. Would you like to start with zé appetize’u?” “No thanks,” Pinkie said. “We’re actually here to see if you serve any pancakes. We’re training for a competition that’s coming in a few days.” “I’m sorry, but we don’t serve breakfast afte’u ten-theu’ty a.m.” “Oh. Well then, can we borrow any batches of batter you may have in the kitchen so we can make some?” Horte raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “Oh come on,” Rainbow said. “You’ve got to have some back there.” “We are low on batte’uh until tomorrow morning, and we cannot simply serve batte’uh to clientèle.” “Why not? I don’t see why you can’t. Belgian got a huge amount of batter for us from his shop to use.” “You mean Belgian of ze Coffee and Waffles restaurant? His restaurant serves breakfast all day everyday, which means he has a larg’eu supply of batte’uh.” “Um, do you think you could speak normally?” Pinkie asked. “It’s getting harder to read your accent.” Spike and Rainbow Dash joined the waiter in raising an eyebrow at Pinkie. “Excusez-moi?” “Uh, just ignore her, she’s just being Pinkie.” Rainbow waved a dismissive hoof towards Pinkie. “And you know what, forget about your batter. We’ll just find another place that serves batter.” The waiter shrugged and said, “Suit yourselves,” before leaving to attend to another new group of ponies who had seated themselves at a table not too far from the three. “So, now what?” Spike asked. “Will we have to wait until Belgian comes back until we can train again?” “I guess so,” Pinkie answered. “Seeing that Rainbow and Applejack can go through two days worth of batter in a few hours would mean that we would deprive this place of all their batter in just a few minutes; which, might I add, is very impressive Rainbow!” “Thanks!” Rainbow said as she gave a confident smile. “I do my best to stay the best!” Another voice then entered the conversation. “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but hear that you were training for an upcoming food competition?” All three heads turned to look at the source of the new voice. Standing next to their table was a large male earth pony; not large in height, but in width. He had a pine green colored coat and a dark grey mane. He was quite pudgy around his chest area and cheeks, and he had a dinner plate that adorned his flank. Spike remembers this pony. “Hey, you’re Chow Down. I remember when you came to me a few days ago about wanting to be in the pancake eating competition.” “Ah, yes, I remember. You’re that kid I bumped into handing out the flyers.” “Hey, I’m no kid!” Spike puffed out his chest and placed a fist on it in an attempt to exaggerate his manliness. Rainbow and Pinkie rolled their eyes. Chow Down continued. “Right... So, I hear you’ll be competing in the competition as well.” Pinkie answered. “We sure are! Well, I mean, I’m not. But she is!” She pointed a hoof at Rainbow. Rainbow studied how much ‘stuff’ this pony had in him. He sure did look like somepony who could finish three complete meals in one sitting, which means he could be a good challenge for the blue pegasus. “Sure am. I’ve heard a lot about you. You sure do sound like somepony who could compete and win in anything food related.” “I always do,” He said matter-of-factly while polishing a hoof on his chest. “I’ve never lost to any food related competition I’ve entered. That includes any eating, drinking, culinary cooking, and judging competitions.” Pinkie gave a confused look. “Judging? There’s a competition on ponies who can judge food?” “Yes. You sample the food, rate them, and try to taste what ingredients were used in the recipes. City fairs couldn’t even keep me from guessing correctly in what secret ingredient they put in their deep-fried foods.” “What do they use?” “I don’t think you’re ready to know that yet.” Rainbow then asked Chow a question before the current conversation made her forget. “Hey Chow, would you know of any place around Ponyville that makes a lot of pancakes? I need to keep training so I’m ready to win.” “Well, well. You seem to be a pony with plenty of confidence in herself.” Chow gave a confident smirk. “But I’m afraid I don’t think you really know what you’re up against.” Rainbow felt the intimidation kick in by that last sentence. “Oh yeah? What makes a pony with more ‘stuff’ than I do think that they’ll win? I don’t think you know what you’re up against.” Rainbow pointed at the large pony when she said “you.” “Well, then we’ll all see when the competition comes, now won’t we?” “We sure will. I can’t wait to rub it in everypony’s face once I win!” “Then may the best pony win.” Chow turned to walk away, but then stopped to say something. “Oh, and one more thing. You should consider training with other foods instead of just pancakes.” Rainbow looked at him as he trotted away, confused as to why her main competitor gave her advice on how to train. “Huh, never thought of that,” Pinkie said. “What kind of food do you think we could train with?” “It would have to be a food that Ponyville is in abundance of so we can use as much as we can before Belgian gets back.” Just then, an idea of what kind of food Rainbow could use popped in her head. But she dreaded having to talk to the pony that has them. “Uhh, I think I know.” “You do? what?” Pinkie asked. Rainbow gave it a thought on if she should really be talking with the food’s caretaker after the ordeal they had with her earlier. Then she continued anyways. “Apples.”