Twilight Velvet took a deep breath. "False alarm, boys," she said. "Go back to the man cave."
"Aww," Shining Armor whined. "You said special nachos..."
"For the cooking contest," Twilight Sparkle clarified. "Mom's gonna share the recipe so we can put it on our menu."
Shining Armor and Night Light exchanged a glance. "But...you'll need to learn how to make them, right?" Night Light said. "Vel's gonna have to teach you."
"And you'll need taste-testers," Shining Armor supplied quickly, an eager gleam in his eyes.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "I'm sure the girls would be happy to have your...input," she said.
Sunset blinked. "Okay, you guys are way too excited about some nachos."
Shining Armor snorted. "These aren't just 'some nachos'," he said.
"Yeah, they're nacho ordinary nachos," Night Light agreed with a chuckle.
Twilight whapped Night Light upside the head with a rolled-up magazine. "We talked about those dad jokes..."
"So, err...what exactly makes these 'special' nachos so...special?" Rarity asked.
"When you eat them you die," Shining Armor said. "And then you come back to life just so you can taste them all over again."
Twilight groaned. "Ignore my embarrassing brother," she said. She smiled. "But they are the best nachos you'll ever eat. Just...I'd rather not spoil it."
"Food spoilers? Really? We're doing that now?" Sunset asked.
"Why don't we get an early start on this tomorrow?" Velvet suggested, clapping her hands together. "For now, I need to clean up the kitchen so you all can work tomorrow, and you girls need to settle in and have a fun sleepover."
* * * * *
After a night of sleepover activities, the girls woke up early to a light but hearty breakfast spread consisting of fluffy scrambled eggs, hash browns, and waffles. "I didn't make any bacon or sausage because you'll all be getting more than enough meat later on today," Velvet said.
"I think this girl's had enough bacon anyway," Shining Armor said from behind Sunset, grabbing a lock of her hair and holding it up.
Sunset rolled her eyes and reached up, flicking him in the nose without looking. "Turd," she said. Turning to Velvet, she asked, "Do you need me to make a run to the store? For tortilla chips, cheese, that kind of thing?"
"We make our own tortilla chips for the special nachos," Velvet said. "But we do need to get a few things from the store. Don't worry about it, I'll go. Twilight, dear, you'll go with me, won't you?"
"Of course," Twilight said. "Sunset, Rarity, I'll have to walk you through the ingredients list when we're buying this stuff for the contest. For now, it'd be better if Mom and I just make a quick trip for what we need."
"Alright," Rarity said.
"We'll be back in a bit," Velvet said as she grabbed her car keys off the pegboard by the kitchen door.
"Be sure to get some cerveza!" Night Light called.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Sure, why not," she muttered.
Once the two Twilights were gone, Sunset turned to Rarity. "They make their own tortilla chips?"
"I guess these nachos are rather special, if they start with fresh homemade chips," she said.
"These nachos? You've never had anything like them before," Night Light said. "Once you've tasted them, well...they ruin stadium nachos for you forever."
"Well, I don't know if I'd go that far," Shining Armor said. "I mean, chips and queso have their place, and sometimes you just need a quick nacho fix. But yeah, there isn't a nacho in the world that stacks up to this."
"So where'd this legendary nacho recipe come from?" Sunset asked.
Night Light shrugged. "I dunno. As far as I know, Vel came up with it herself. The first time she ever made them was just after we bought this house. Our parents and all our friends came over, we had a big party, Vel busted out these nachos." He smiled. "Man, that was a special night." He furrowed his brow. "Actually, I'm pretty sure we conceived Twiley that night."
"Too much information, darling," Rarity said, turning faintly green.
"Yeah, Dad! What the hell?" Shining Armor agreed, his nose wrinkling. "Anyway, we'd better clean up the kitchen before Mom and Twiley get back."
"Yeah, yeah," Night Light said, standing up with a grunt. "You girls go watch some TV or something."
"Couldn't we help?"
"Nah, part of the bargain is we clean up the kitchen before and after if we want the special nachos," Shining Armor said. "Well, it's not so much a bargain as it is a tradition."
"Yeah, especially the 'after' part," Night Light said. "Vel uses about half the pots and pans in the whole kitchen for this."
Sunset and Rarity exchanged an uneasy glance. "For nachos?" Sunset asked.
"You'll see."
* * * * *
It was an hour and a half before the Twilights returned. Rarity and Sunset helped them unload the car and unbag the groceries. Sunset extracted a package of flour tortillas from a bag. "Flour tortillas?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "I thought we were making nachos, not burritos!"
"The first secret to the special nachos is that we use flour tortilla chips," Velvet explained. "But since those are a little hard to come by bagged, we make our own fresh at home."
"So that's why you make your own chips," Rarity said with a look of dawning comprehension.
"Oh, that does sound good," Sunset said. "I've had that taco salad with the flour tortilla shell, I love it!"
"This is essentially the same idea, just as nachos, and...well, we put a lot more work into it."
By the time everything was unbagged and spread out in the kitchen, the girls had two pounds of ground beef, two cans of black beans, a large sweet yellow onion, two large, ripe tomatoes, a small bag of fresh jalapeños, a single lime, a brick of cheddar cheese, a brick of jack cheese, a small bottle of Southwest Sriracha Sauce, a medium-sized bottle of mild taco sauce, a pint of sour cream, two packages of flour tortillas, and a few assorted bottles of spices, including one containing whole dried roasted red peppers. There were also two six-packs of cerveza.
Night Light examined the cerveza as the girls finished up. "Zorrillo and Asqueroso?"
"It's what they had," Velvet said with a shrug.
"Eh. I guess Zorrillo works with nachos." Night Light wandered off to the den, where Shining Armor was already watching some movie.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Better put that in the fridge," she said.
Rarity did so with a distasteful grimace. "He doesn't, err...indulge frequently, does he?"
"Nah, Dad only drinks a couple of beers with a really special meal," Twilight said. "Shining Armor might have one, too. They're not heavy drinkers, it's more of a..." She made a vague hand gesture. "Complementary thing."
"Well...I suppose I can understand that," Rarity said doubtfully. "I guess it's like wine, except...less elegant..."
Velvet clapped her hands. "Right! Let's get to work. Sunset, Rarity, would you girls please start to work on chopping the vegetables? Just quarter the onion, I'll be dicing it in the food processor. The tomatoes and jalapeños need to be done by hand."
"Dice the tomatoes and slice the jalapeños, am I right?" Rarity asked. At Velvet's nod, Rarity took up a knife and cutting board. "Say no more!"
"I'll do the onion," Sunset said, moving to another counter.
"I'll start on the cheese," Twilight said.
"Be sure to explain the process as you work," Velvet said as she pulled out a skillet and began breaking up the meat into it. "I'll have to write down which spices to add to your meat and what amount of each," she added as she began seasoning the meat. "Oh, and Sunset, I'll need that onion as quickly as possible, it has to go into the meat."
"On it," Sunset said. She glanced at Twilight, who was preparing a double boiler. "So, what're we doing with the cheese?"
Twilight produced a third cutting board and another large knife, then unwrapped the cheddar. "We cube the cheese and melt it in a double boiler," she explained. "Cheddar and jack, and we add about a third of a bottle of that Sriracha sauce when the cheese starts to get smooth."
After several minutes of work, Sunset had diced the onion in the food processor and handed it off to Velvet, who added it to the browning meat along with the drained black beans. Rarity, meanwhile, had produced a bowl full of diced tomatoes and sliced jalapeños, while Twilight was tending a double boiler full of slowly melting cheese cubes. "Now, Rarity," Velvet said without looking up from the meat, "I need you to get that small bowl there and crush two of those dried roasted red peppers in it, then mix in a couple tablespoons of salt and about a tablespoon of parmesan cheese from the refrigerator."
Rarity nodded and set to work. "What's that for?" Sunset asked.
"We'll use it to season the chips after we fry them," Velvet explained.
Sunset looked at everything else they'd already started preparing and frowned. "Isn't that overkill?"
Velvet shook her head. "We need to season the chips too," she said. "Even though they'll be mostly buried under the toppings, the key to good nachos is that the chips themselves are seasoned just right."
"That makes sense," Sunset said. "But red peppers and parmesan? I mean, parmesan for nachos?"
Velvet shrugged. "Normally I'd use powdered blue cheese, but I have to special order it online and it's a bit expensive for what you girls are doing anyway. Parmesan will work in a pinch." She set out a rack on the counter and placed the skillet full of ground meat and beans on it, then took out another skillet and poured oil into it, placing it on the still-hot burner. "Okay, girls, now we cut up the tortillas." She passed out a pair of kitchen shears to each girl, then put a big plastic mixing bowl on the counter. "Grab a tortilla, cut it into about six pieces, throw 'em in the bowl."
"This is a far more complicated recipe than I was expecting," Rarity commented as she cut up tortillas.
"Yeah, but if we can pull this off for the contest, we're bound to impress the judges," Sunset said. "I mean, I don't know about you girls, but I feel like I just spent the morning working in a Mexican restaurant!"
Twilight giggled. "It does kinda feel that way when you're making these," she said. "And it's actually gone a lot faster with two extra pairs of hands in the kitchen."
"It certainly has," Velvet said. "Usually, making these things wipes me out so much I barely have the energy to enjoy them."
"How many people does this recipe serve?" Sunset asked.
Velvet shrugged. "It varies based on how much I make. I think I got enough to serve six, we can find some good movies or something on TV and have a little party. I've made them for up to ten people before."
The girls watched as Velvet expertly fried one batch of flour tortilla chips at a time, with Twilight lightly seasoning each batch as they came out of the fryer and went onto a cooking sheet with paper towels spread over it. Sunset looked over the enormous mess they'd made; with the cooking sheet on one counter, the bowl of tomatoes and jalapeños on another, the skillet of meat and beans on yet another, and the covered double boiler full of melted cheese on a back burner, the spacious kitchen was extremely crowded. "Wow, I hope we'll have enough work space to do this at the contest," she muttered.
"It does kinda take over the kitchen," Twilight agreed as she seasoned another batch of fresh chips.
"Those chips smell rather heavenly," Rarity said. "I don't believe I've ever had flour tortilla chips before."
"You're in for a real treat," Twilight said.
Velvet finished frying the last of the chips and turned off the stove with a sigh. "Alright," she said. "Now for the final step...which we have to do at the kitchen table, because there's no room left in here." She leaned out of the kitchen. "Boys?" she yelled. "Can you set up some tray tables in the living room, please? Also, start finding a movie we can all enjoy."
"Okay Mom!" Shining Armor called back.
As Shining Armor and Night Light bustled around in the living room, Twilight pulled a large serving platter out of the cabinet beneath the counter and took it to the kitchen table. "Girls, start bringing everything over here," she called.
Sunset grabbed the chips and carried them over; Rarity carried the skillet of meat, while Velvet followed with the bowl of tomatoes and jalapeños and the double boiler. Twilight doubled back for the taco sauce and sour cream; Velvet directed Sunset to carry sturdy paper plates, plastic forks, and napkins to the living room.
Once everything was in place, the girls gathered around the kitchen table. "Now, watch carefully," Velvet said. She spread half the chips on the serving platter, squirted some lime juice haphazardly across them, then spread half the meat mixture on top of them. Once that was done, she poured half the taco sauce over the meat, then spooned half the tomatoes and jalapeños over it. She ladled half the cheese sauce on top, then added two large spoonfuls of sour cream. She then spread the remaining chips on top, then repeated the layering. Once it was done, she stepped back. "Voila," she said.
Sunset and Rarity oohed appreciatively. "Okay...those are some pretty special nachos," Sunset said.
"They're an absolute work of art!" Rarity breathed, her gaze starry. "And I'm not even that fond of nachos!"
"You'll love these," Twilight said. "Shining Armor? Can you come bring this to the coffee table, please?"
"They're ready?" Shining Armor asked excitedly as he bounced into the room. Spying the finished nachos, he rubbed his hands together eagerly and reached for the edge of a chip...
Velvet smacked his hand. "We don't take directly from the platter, remember?" she chided. "Carry it to the table, I've got the spatulas ready."
Once everyone had taken a seat in the living room, Velvet used the spatula to plate a portion of nachos on a paper plate for each person, passing them around with plastic forks and napkins. Sunset looked down at the mass of meat, beans, cheese, tomato, sauce, and flour tortilla chips before her, selected a chip, and lifted it out with a generous portion of toppings. She took a bite...
Her eyes widened.
"Oh my gosh, girls! We are so making it to the finals!"