Barrier and Verdant had arrived outside the room on the community center’s third floor. Beside the door was a whiteboard that read, “Cooking classes by Tablier Bleu - Every Tuesday and Thursday”. Even by the door, the two could hear the chatter of the others within.
“Well,” Verdant glanced up to the taller stallion. “Ready to proceed, sir?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be I suppose,” Barrier said. “Let’s go.” He stepped ahead and opened the door, where he saw several ponies in pairs at the tables that had been set up, each table had a variety of bowls, trays, dishes, spoons and measuring cups on top them, along with a portable stove top. Off to the side wall, he spotted several ovens that had been set up, along with a rather large fridge and some cabinets. Verdant came up to his side and gave him a gentle nudge, trying to grab his attention.
“What is it, Verdant?”
Verdant pointed towards one of the tables with a foreleg. Barrier’s eyes followed it to see that at the table was a griffin hen with a reddish brown coat.
“Hmm. I see.” Barrier looked back towards Verdant. “I assume there’s something you intend to do about her?”
“Aye, sir. Since it seems nearly everyone else appears to have a partner, I assume our lessons will require one. Also, since you did say our nations have been at peace for centuries, I believe there would be no harm in trying to make a griffin friend.”
The green stallion’s response brought a small smile to Barrier’s face.
“Good.” Barrier gave Verdant a small pat on the back. “Glad to see you’re doing this. It’s a big step, Verdant. Now go on.” He then scanned across the room, finding a unicorn who also didn’t seem to have a partner. “I’ll go take care of things on my end.”
Verdant gave a quick nod before departing from Barrier’s side. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Barrier retorted as he approached his potential partner. If there was one word he would use to describe this mare, it would be “gray”.
Her coat was a light gray, her short mane and tail were off-white with a black hairband and even her eyes were a dark gray. The only bit of color on her whole body seemed to come from her cutie mark, a paintbrush with a rainbow of different colored paint droplets.
“Hello,” he called out to her, grabbing her attention. “Do you need a partner for this class?”
“As a matter of fact, I do since my roommate never showed up,” she answered as she looked him over before extending a hoof out to him. “The name’s Color Splash.”
“Color Splash?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose at what the gray mare had said, drawing a chuckle from her.
“Would you prefer if I looked like...” Her horn lit up with a white light that seemed to wash over her body. As the magic spread across her figure, her colors changed. Her coat became an electric pink and her eyes a chocolate brown. Her mane became a very bright red, orange, yellow and lime green while her tail had turned forest green, blue, indigo and violet. “This?” She finished her sentence with a wink.
A bemused snort came from Barrier. “Gods no. It’s nice to see a pony with a color palette that doesn’t make my eyes want to bleed for a change.” He then extended his foreleg and shook hers. “At any rate, my name’s Barrier. Magic Barrier.”
“Nice to meet you, Barrier.” Her horn lit once more, the white light washing over her reverted her colors to their default appearance. “I think I remember you from that party at the mansion that some crazy pink mare pulled me into.”
Barrier nodded, though he didn’t recall everypony there due to the sheer number of guests Pinkie had brought in.
“So, guessin’ you’re pretty new in town, right?” Color Splash leaned against the table, tossing a plain look at Barrier with a modest amount of interest.
“Aye,” he said as he glanced over towards Verdant, who seemed to be in a pleasant conversation with the griffin hen. “I’ve only been in Vanhoover for about a month and a half, give or take.”
Color Splash was about to ask more when a blue unicorn mare took her place at the front of the room and cleared her throat. She stood by a table which hosted a few bowls.
“Bonjour, my students. I am very happy to see that we seem to have some new students here today.” Her eyes traveled across the room.
“For those of you that are new, my name is Tablier Bleu, and I’ll be helping you all learn about the joy of cooking today. I see that all of you have divided up into pairs, so that’s one less step I need to cover today.” Her statements drew some small chuckles from the gathered crowd.
“Now, for those of you who weren’t here last time, I asked for suggestions for what we will be making today, and thanks to Fiesta Flair,” she pointed towards a yellow earth pony mare with a pink mane in towards the back who was happily hopping in place, “we shall be making some bean burritos today. Before we start, do any of you have any questions you may like to ask?” As she finished finished asking, a tall and scrawny yellow unicorn stallion raised his hoof up.
“Um… Ma’am, I’m new here and I didn’t bring anything with me. Did I mess up?” he sheepishly said as he lowered his hoof, causing the red mare beside him to smack a hoof against her face.
“Not to worry, my student,” Bleu answered while trying to suppress a giggle. After a brief moment to compose herself, she trotted over to the fridge and lit her horn.
The blue light from the horn appeared on dials attached to the ovens, turning them on to preheat. “I’ve provided all the ingredients you’ll need for today’s lesson. I’ve already cooked all the rice you’ll need. Now,” opening the fridge, she waved the class over, “come and gather all you’ll need. You’ll need a sandwich baggy that I’ve filled with rice and a package of shredded cheese. In the cabinets, you’ll each take a can of refried beans, a jar of salsa and packages of tortillas. Any other questions before we start?”
She was met with silence, a clear indication of her students confidence to which she gave a happy nod. “Good. Now, let’s get down to cooking, shall we?”
The pairs quickly went through the cabinets and fridge, gathering the various ingredients that they were told they’d need. Returning to their table, Barrier saw Color Splash licking her lips. “I see you’re really looking forward to this.”
“After having to live in house with nothing but plain instant oatmeal and ramen for over two weeks, I’d take anything for some flavor variety,” she answered as set the ingredients down before looking up towards Barrier. “So, out of curiosity, what made you decide to come to Vanhoover?”
Before he could give her an answer, Tablier called out to the class once more. “Alright. Our first step in making these burritos is to stir together the beans, rice, one cup of salsa and one cup of shredded cheese in one of the bowls you have before you. Remember to try and get into a good consistent blend.”
“Right,” Barrier responded as he lit his horn to open the bags of rice and cheese, while Color Splash opened up the can of refried beans.
“To answer your question,” Barrier paused, carefully considering his words, not wishing to draw too much attention with his story. “I needed to find a place for my family that was rather peaceful and… someone I trust and care for dearly recommend Vanhoover to me. My family and I could really use a fresh start here.” He measured out the amount of salsa needed before passing it towards his partner.
“Yeah, I know that feeling,” Splash retorted as she dumped the ingredients into a large bowl and began to stir them all together.
“And what do you mean by that, Miss Splash?” Barrier asked as he took a glance at the ingredients listed on the salsa jar, and was relieved to read that the ingredients lacked ruby reaper peppers.
“Well,” she quickly glanced around before speaking in a hushed tone, “I’ve only recently got out of jail. I used to use my color changing magic for some pretty bad stuff.”
“Such as?” the perplexed stallion inquired, unsure what sort of crimes could be committed by making things change colors.
“Well, I disguised myself as another mare to sneak into a museum and swap one of the paintings with a forgery I made.” She let out a sigh. “The arresting officer was certain I was the one that had committed such crimes that had happened at several other museums across Equestria, but due to a lack of evidence, I was only tried for the one instance. I was sentenced to three years, but I got let out early due to good behaviour.”
“Did you do those other crimes?” Barrier asked with a raised eyebrow at the stirring mare who smirked in response.
“I’ll get back to you on that once I’ve read up more on the statute of limitations.” Splash chuckled before turning to face Barrier. “Still, I did some other bad stuff with my talents, like using disguises to exploit stores offering free samples or coupons. While maybe I could argue I did that sort of stuff to survive, I used to use it when I was younger to pin the blame for stuff I did on others.”
Before Barrier could ask for some examples, Tablier Bleu called out to the class once more. “I’m certain you have all finished stirring by now, so we’ll move onto the next step. Take out your tortillas and use your spoons to put a third of a cup’s worth of the filling you’ve been stirring off-center on each tortilla. Once that’s done, fold the sides and ends over the filling and roll it up. I expect all of you to use all twelve of your tortillas.”
Barrier quickly got to work, lighting his horn to fill and wrap the tortillas. “Could you give me some examples of the stuff you did back then?” he asked Splash, who was surprised by how quickly he was preparing the food.
“Well there’s several examples, but I know the one example that comes to mind pretty quickly.” Her horn glowed once more and a white light washed over her. Her coat was now lavender, her mane and tail were indigo with pink and violet streaks in them while her eyes were now a sparkling amethyst.
Barrier kept his focus on the dish being prepared rather than Splash’s disguised form. He did not see that she had colored over her cutie mark. The paintbrush and droplets were now replaced by a familiar set of pink and white stars.
“I made myself look like this other filly I spotted on a walk around Canterlot once and went to an ice cream shop. I tried out get a free sample from stallion running it, but he refused to give out samples of the flavor I wanted to try out, so I went to the bathroom and…” She paused to consider what she was saying before dispelling her guise, “Well, let’s just say that if the filly I was imitating didn’t get banned from that place for life, I’d be shocked.”
“I see.” Barrier nodded as he wrapped up the last of the tortillas. Why does this story seem so familiar? This is gonna bug me all day.
“Still,” Splash started, breaking Barrier from his thoughts. “I’m trying to go straight now. I run a little kiosk that sells custom t-shirts and I can give just about anything a custom paint job.”
“Well if I ever find myself in need of something painted, I’ll be sure to try and find you, Splash.” He smiled before looking up at the teacher as she called out once more.
“Now that the tortillas are filled and wrapped, take one of the non-stick baking dishes and place them in there. Then, if you wish, you can take a cup of shredded cheese and sprinkle it on top of the burritos for a nice topping.”
Quickly and carefully placing the food into a dish that Color Splash brought over to them, Barrier glanced at the bag of shredded cheese. “Would you like to have the extra cheese?”
“Hay yeah!” Splash grabbed a fair amount of cheese from the bag and spread it atop the burritos. “I need as much flavor as I can after everything I’ve gone through.”
“And now we should all be ready to move on to the final step for today’s recipe!” Bleu exclaimed, returning the class’s gaze to her. “We shall place the burritos in the ovens that I’ve set to 375 degrees fahrenheit for twenty-five minutes. Once you’ve all loaded your dishes into the ovens, I’ll start a timer for them. While you’re all waiting for you food, feel free to go around and mingle with your classmates.”
“Think we’re ready to load this thing in, Barrier?” Splash looked up towards Barrier as he tried to evaluate the dish.
“Yes, but could you please load it in for me? My doctor told me to go easy on lifting things with my magic for the next week and this dish looks a bit on the heavy side.” He asked as he gave the dish a slight nudge with his hoof.
“Sure thing.” Splash happily took the dish in her magical aura and carried it with her to one of the ovens before placing it in. She then turned and trotted back towards him, a question quickly forming in her mind, “So, what should we do to kill the time?”
Barrier placed a hoof to his chin in pondering before his eyes fell upon Verdant and the hen once more. “Is it alright if we check up on my s… friend? He’s just right over there and brought me here.”
She nodded and looked over to the aforementioned pony. “Sure thing, always nice to have someone new to shoot the breeze with.” She waited until Barrier moved, then together they headed towards the two who seemed to be in deep conversation.
“Those darn things would put even a Hollow Shades Phantom Pepper to shame…” Verdant informed the griffin before spotting Barrier approaching from the corner of his eyes. The grassy earth pony smiled and waved him over.“Hello, sir. May I introduce you to my new friend, Erica Sorae?”
The griffin turned to face him as well, her cyan eyes meeting his icy blues before she extended an arm out to him with open talons, “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Barrier. Verdant’s told me quite a bit about you.”
Barrier gave a smile before he placed a hoof in her talons and gave her a shake, “And I’m pleased to meet you, Ms. Sorae.”
“Oh please,” she chuckled as she ran her other arm through the sky blue tipped feathers on her head, “just call me Erica.”
***
“Well, I’d say today went really well. Wouldn’t you agree, sir?” Verdant asked as he trotted beside Barrier, a bag of leftover burritos around his neck.
“I agree, but I still think I’ll stick to books for my future cooking lessons. Everypony else was so much younger than me, I just felt out of place,” Barrier replied as they reached the front gate of their house. “Still, it was nice meeting Color Splash and Erica,” he continued as he nosed the gate open.
“Aye.” Verdant pushed the gate behind him back with a light kick. “It was great to meet them, and we have a delicious tasting meal to share with everypony at home.”
“Indeed, and even if they don’t like the burritos, I feel more confident at making a nice home cooked dinner for them tonight.” Barrier glanced over his shoulder at Verdant, who seemed to have spotted something.
“I think so too, sir. Still, it looks like somepony left us a letter.”
Verdant’s statement drew Barrier’s attention to the house’s front door, where he spotted that a note that had been taped to it. With a quick flaring of his horn, Barrier grabbed to letter in his glow and drew it over to them before reading it aloud.
“Dear Captain Magic Barrier. Winter Gem and Iron Forge caused an explosion that damaged the oven and made a grand mess in the kitchen while trying to make a “Sue Flay”. Professor Do has sent me to get a meal from The Four D’s while she, Sgt. Fleetfeather and Wind Whistler go to Blockbuster's to rent some “Move-Ease”. Hat Trick has gone to find Short Circuit to see if he can repair the oven while Forge and Gem clean up their mess. Signed, Private slash Viscountess Swiftsword of the Falchion clan.” Finishing the letter, Barrier let out a sigh.
“Well… at least we’ll have burritos for when they get back… Besides, how bad could the mess be?” Verdant nervously chuckled as Barrier pushed the door open.
“We’ll soon see,” Barrier said as he headed into the the house. When he arrived in the kitchen, his reaction to the mess was the same as the janitor who had to clean up the room Barrier used at the doctor’s.
“OH FAUST, IT’S EVERYWHERE!”