Jade rolled over and fumbled to get comfortable and fell back asleep, sleeping through the grumbling of his friend that struggled to get him off his chest. “Jade,” Kiwe whispered while pushing and rocking his own body, “get off, can’t breathe.” He managed to shove Jade off with a combination of a shove with his forelegs, a twist of his hips, and pull of his hind legs to his body that let him fall from the bed to the floor with only a future bruise to show for it.
He stood and lit his horn, casting a light into the dark room to find the shades over the window which he opened and blinked at the starry sky. “Must be past midnight, I’ve never had so much sugar before… that’s probably why.”
He looked at his group and noticed it was still the four of them then chose to return to help the baker, if he could. If not he’d have to practice potion making since he hadn’t done so in nearly a week of his trials.
He moved to the door and when it opened the light pierced into the back of his eyes like a lance creating a sharp headache that throbbed in his right temple and radiated out making his magic falter and stop as he stumbled into the hall on three legs, his right foreleg pressed to the side of his head as he wondered why it started and why it was so painful.
He managed to make his way downstairs and past the empty front desk with a note by a small bell and went outside into the cool night. He could see a hot air balloon in the distance, tethered to the ground but aside from a whisper of a song he ignored it and moved down the darkened streets and around the block to the bakery that looked very closed and unused.
He walked to the back, wincing every few steps as his headache spiked pain with random heartbeats.
“Hello?” he asked the back door as he knocked. “Mister Jelly?” He knocked again and waited. The handle clanked and opened outward slowly by a few inches.
“Who’s there? I can’t see in the dark, who’s it?”
“Me!”
Jelly stumbled back into the kitchen then quickly returned to the door, opening it and shedding light into the alley, over the garbage cans and cardboards, and a brown striped colt that grimaced at the light. “Oh, uh, Kiwi, right?”
“Kiwe, sir.”
“Are you here to help?”
“Mm-hm.”
The stallion looked at the colt and slowly smiled. “C’mon in then, it’s chilly out.”
“Thank you, sir.” The door closed behind Kiwe and the scents of flour and other ingredients assaulted him, as well as sugars.
“No need to call me sir, I’m just a pony like you and only a few years older, I’m sure. So, here I am and here you are, do you have any experience?”
“Only with my mother, somewhat.”
“Uh-huh,” was the appraising response Kiwe got, as well as a raised eyebrow. “So, no experience, but a desire is something I can work with. Come, wash your hooves, you do know how, right?”
Kiwe nodded and looked around, finding the sink and moving to it quickly, nearly slipping between tables on flour dust between his hooves and floor. “All washed up.”
“Very well done, now c’mover here and help me knead this dough.”
“Uhm, where is it?”
“Right here,” he pointed to a flour covered ball on one of the tables.
“You need more? That’s a lot already,” Kiwe shrunk back when the words slipped. “I apologize, I will find more.”
Jelly laughed loudly enough to scare the colt. “Boy! You’re too funny; to knead means to roll with your hooves, like this.” He reared and rested his belly on the table edge for balance then pressed the dough several times until it was not flat but even level, then grabbed the far end, pulled it back over itself to repeat the process.
“S-so, you’re just kinda folding it? Like clothes?”
“That’s a way to look at it,” the stallion said and deftly tossed more flour onto the dough as he picked up a quick pace. “You can use magic, so use it to help me out. Here,” he easily broke a piece off and flicked it to Kiwe, “that’s gonna be a dinner roll, well, four by that size. Get to it.”
Kiwe focused his magic and folded the dough once then winced, stopping his magic. “Ouch,” he hissed.
“Headache?”
“Mm-hm, right side, really bad, perhaps a potion-”
“Sugar headache, seen it too many times and had a few myself. Go get some water from the stovetop and drink your fill every hour while you’re here. Outhouse is back to the main street and behind The Block,” he looked pointedly at Kiwe, “don’t go into The Block after sunset. It’s not a place for kids.”
“I’m not a kid, or a foal,” Kiwe frowned and pouted as he lit his horn. “I’ll be fine enough to do this knee thing and show you and everypony I have four working knees and can make one more here!” he brought a foreleg in a full windmill to chop onto the dough ball with little result.
Jelly smirked. “A headache doesn’t make you a foal or a stallion; only a fool to ignore it. Drink and knead as we go. I can’t slow down anymore or I’ll fall behind. Hurry up and I’ll let you put the stuff in the ovens.”
Kiwe’s ears perked up and he glanced at the industrial ovens churning heat around inside of itself, waiting for stuff to go in and bread, cake, pie, donuts, pretzels and other goodies to come out. He turned and carefully moved to the stove and used a ladle to scoop water into his mouth twice, then once more for good measure.
He carefully placed his hooves around into the step marks he’d had made on the way to the stove and stood beside the table again. He took the dough in his magic and folded it, pressed it, folded it, pressed it. A tap to his horn fizzled his magic. “Boy, use your hooves so you know how it feels. Hop up like I am, press your hooves into the dough, then press it out. Feel the texture under your hooves.
“Feel it in your frogs and the way it resists you, make it even and then with a little flour dabbed onto the soles of your hooves, fold it again and repeat.” Jelly was in a trance as he described his process, repeating the phrase as he kneaded. Kiwe followed the stallions motions to much lesser effect, however it still produced results and in a couple minutes Jelly called the task done.
After squaring it flat, he sprinkled sugar and herbs onto the surface before rolling it into a tight cylinder and cutting it into inch long pieces. He deftly brought a baking sheet pan up from under the table by dropping to his hooves and hopping back up in less than two seconds, then placed the circles evenly spaced on the pan and slid it to Kiwe. “Oven!” he shouted.
Kiwe looked at the pan and then the stallion moving quickly to a mixer and pouring in a jug of what seemed to be milk before turning it on with a stomp of his forehoof onto a pressure plate. He turned and moved to another table where his ears perked. “Get that in the oven, boy! Hurry or I’ll have you hung by your tail so blood gets to your brain and you start listening!”
Kiwe scrambled and took the pan in his mouth then scurried to the oven, opening it quickly and yelping as hot air rushed over him making him drop the pan as he moved back and blinked his eyes. “Boy! I swear; if you spilled the dough you’re going to be eating every last one of them for the next week until they’re gone.”
Kiwe looked at the pan and noticed the dough had shifted and a couple were out of place, but still usable. He moved the dough into lines as best he could and picked up the pan again, slid it into the oven, and shut the doors. “They’re fine! I got a couple on the floor-”
“If you put them on the pan not even Luna can save you from the nightmares I’ll give you,” Jelly grumbled loudly. Kiwe gulped and picked them off the floor.
“Th-three, fell, sir.”
“Toss’m and get over here, we’re behind by fifteen minutes. You know how long you’re setting me back?”
Kiwe slid to a stop by bumping his chest into a table and hopping up to grab a mixing bowl, starting to stir. “Fifteen minutes, sir!”
“Half an hour, you slow me by fifteen minutes it means I have to take extra time on each product to make up that time. Adjusting my schedule and having to move faster to get done on time so I can rest before I open those doors to the customers. You want to help, then you’ve gotta learn! You call that stirring?!”
He took the bowl and the whip then in a blur moved as fast as a mixing machine for nearly half a minute. “There, done. That’s how you do it, now get over to that table with the muffin pans and start putting paper in them.”
Kiwe watched with wide eyes, sleep the last thing on his mind as she processed the rush compared to making grilled cheese at the previous kitchen. He moved quickly to the pan. “Kiwi! Kawi, whoever you are; muffin paper, not paper towels,” Kiwe looked back to see the stallion looking flatly as he spoke condescendingly, “not writing paper. Muffin paper that’s just under the table. Can you do that quickly or are you going to have to wash pans all night?”
“No, sir! I’ll get it done.” Kiwe lifted the top of several pans and called his magic to move the paper into the pan.
“No magic, kid!” Kiwe dropped the papers and they fell, scattering across the table, “body only, what if you can’t cast? What if you get a cold or another headache?”
“Then I will be unable to work, sir!”
“Exactly, stir, knead, mix, measure. Do it all with your hooves before you use magic.”
Kiwe nodded with a resolute expression. “Yes, sir!”
…
Kiwe snorted awake, kicking his hind legs while his forelegs backpedaled. He scrambled to his hooves at the sound of voices. Many voices that sent a wave of panic through him as he took in his surroundings. “Where am I? What have I done? What… is that smell?” he almost felt weightless as he followed the scent to a table with sheet pans stacked with bread, taller than him if he set it on the floor.
The night flashed through his mind and he looked at the floors, tables, sink… he barely remembered it all, but he was helping clean then… he facehoofed at the memories flashing back and how he’d fallen asleep several times while cleaning. “I was assistant baker!” he shouted causing a split second of disturbance in conversations from the other side of the wall.
Jelly peeked around the corner. “Hey, kid, it’s past breakfast. You can make yourself a snack out of the raw ingredients if you want-- Yeah! Kid helped out, these’re his cream puffs!”
Resisting the desire to see his baking being eaten he felt two impulses that took precedence. Ten minutes later he’d returned and washed his forehooves throughly, then turned to the ingredients. There wasn’t much he knew to cook, and even a night spent baking wasn’t enough to master the skill of bread making, so he got two eggs and heated a pan.
Jelly came around the corner a minute later and reared up to flick a switch against the wall by the ovens, shooting Kiwe a dirty look as he knocked the pan from the fire and turned the stovetop off. He leaned in close to Kiwe with intensity. “You can’t cook eggs, don’t cook at all.” He stood up tall and pointed to the door as he returned quickly to the registers. “Head on out, I’ll see you tonight if you’re interested in continuing your basic baking training.”
Kiwe stammered but nodded, unseen to the stallion that just left the kitchen to work. Kiwe left through the back door into the alley and noticed that it was certainly clean, just cluttered with old broken wood crates, garbage bins, and a very long pipe that didn’t seem to have a purpose, just lying out of the way.
Before his imagination could bring him into a world of improbability he was picked up into a hug by Bluey. “There you are! Why, I never knew you slept in alleys, but that’s not a very good idea in some places because-”
“Let him down, sugarcubes.” Kiwe knew the voice but it was much calmer and more confident than it should have been. As he was lowered to the ground he looked at Flitter, who was kissing the blue stallion’s cheek and cooing at him like any lovestruck couple at the start of a relationship would do. “Don’t worry about my candycane here,” she patted Bluey on his back and teasingly dragged her hoof down his spine eliciting shudders from the stallion.
“You g-go on back to y-your friends, ‘kay? Trust your pal Bluey when I say they’re worried about you. They’re in the park,” he walked around Flitter but she kept her body pressed against his while she drew small circles on his back. “If you need me-”
“He’ll be with me!”
They both snickered loudly. “If the cloud is a rockin’,” Bluey pulled a dozen of filled balloon from between himself and Flitter and held them as he lifted off the ground, “d-d-d-don’t come a’knockin’!”
The colt just watched, along with about a dozen others, as the duo did slight aerobatics around one another until they were just out of sight, lost behind a cloud.
“Well, that’s one way to save us from his antics.”
“Hear, hear!” “About time.” “I’ve been waiting for this to happen for years. Years!” “Is that a zebra pony?” “Finally, I can take these boots off.” “Forget your boots, I don’t have to pack an emergency parka.” “I’ll take the parka!” “It’s not a giveaway.” “And unicorn!”
“What’s that about a giveaway?” “I think he’s a uni-zebrony!” “Cool.” “Nothing, grampy. Don’t rile him up like that.” “Okay.”
Kiwe shook his head at the joyful townsponies talking with each other then wound his way through them to the park, where he found his three traveling companions.
Jade was the first to see him and charge, not stopping until they were tumbling over one another into the grass and messing their coats, ending with Kiwe on top, laying askew off his body. “Kiwe! Where were you, dolt?!” Jade playfully slapped his shoulder. “We were all worried, even if Mist won’t admit it she woke us all up when you weren’t in the room this morning. You’re yawning, did you sleep last night?” He rolled to his belly with Kiwe and they watched the fillies approach.
“Yeah, but I don’t know how much. Maybe a couple hours.”
“Well, we can’t get on the road if you’re gonna be sleep trotting. So go get some sleep and-”
“Hey! If he didn’t sleep last night he shouldn’t now.”
“Hello, Mist. Always nice to see you when I awaken.”
The pink mare stammered, losing her bravado, thankful her coat hid slight blushes naturally.
“What Mist means is that if you sleep now you won’t sleep tonight and we can’t leave tomorrow. You get it, right, Kiwe?”
Kiwe looked into Violet’s eyes and felt something stir inside himself that he couldn’t explain, but he nodded regardless. “Yes, however it seems I am having a test. The baker said he’d teach me to make breads, but it’s a late night job and I don’t know when I’ll learn about this again from a professional.”
Jade leaned away from Kiwe so he could shove his friend. “Duh, my parents work in a restaurant. We’ll teach you when we get home.” Kiwe leaned down and bit some grass, licking it into his mouth and experimenting with the flavor.
“That is not the same, Jade. I’m here, now, with a master of baking,” Kiwe looked behind him in the direction of the bakery. “I’ve seen your kitchen, it’s just for food. They buy their bread from a baker, like Jelly.”
“Nuh-uh, my parents are the best and make everything themselves.”
Kiwe looked at Jade for a heartbeat. “So, how do you know this to be true? You’ve seen it with your eyes, have you?”
“No, not really. But they’re the best, why would they buy something when then can make it for free?”
That put Kiwe into a moment of thoughtful silence as he fell into step behind the girls. “I will ask tonight when I am cooking breads.”
Mist finally spoke up. “Yeah, you do that. I’m getting breakfast, who’s with me?”
“Oh, I am! I’m your bestie so I gotta, right?” VIolet bumped into Mist.
“I can eat something, too.”
“Yes, I have had little to snack but I am hungry like there is a weight on my back.”
…
THe trio walked into the tavern and ordered a simple breakfast, ate at a fine pace that left their food cold but still tasty, as kids are known to do; Violet paid and they left into the warm morning sun. Kiwe yawned loudly and with Jade’s help stayed standing as they walked to the playground in the park.
“Kiwe, you’re doing okay, right?”
“Mng-hmn,” he yawned with lidded eyes.
“I’m almost out of bits,” Violet mumbled softly.
“What? How?!”
“Don’t yell at me, Mist, please. I only brought what I had in my pygg, it wasn’t that much.”
“Well that’s just great, I’m almost out, too. What’s gonna happen when we run out?”
“I dunno,” Violet looked behind them, “maybe our stallions can help us in our time of need?”
Jade winked at Violet. “One of you I’ll help, the other can graze for all I care, guess who’s who.”
Mist glared back at Jade. “You’re a smelly butt this morning, you got a problem?”
“Yeah, your face.”
“My face is beautiful and you’re just jealous.”
“Beautiful for a mongoose.”
“You smell like a mongoose.”
Violet sighed and slowed, letting the boys catch up with her so she could stand beside Kiwe. “Wanna lean on me? We can talk some.”
KIwe shrugged and looked aside at her lethargically. “So, maybe yeah. I think I am too sleepy,” he stumbled and both Violet and Jade focused on keeping him standing between them.
“Okay, cool colt, you can sleep at the park.”
Kiwe yawned and smiled a little. “...Yay.”
Even Mist shared in the humor, when her eyes met Jade’s both averted their gaze. All hurried and before time could have meaning to Kiwe he was lying in the grass while the others played.
“KIwe?” A soft voice asked as he was nudged. “Kiwe? It’s time for a lunch and you’ve gotta eat, okay?”
“Yes, mommy,” he blinked his eyes open and met Violet’s, he sat up and leaned back. “I apologize! I wasn’t thinking and-”
She put her forehoof to his lips. “Hush, silly, I miss my mommy too. C’mon, we’re eating at the other side of the bushes.”
He smiled, climbing to his hooves and joining the others. “You went to the bakery?”
Jade looked up at him, mouth full of sweets. “Yeah, ifth wrily goof shtoof.”
Mist nodded the same with a donut in her mouth and some red jelly dribbling down her lips to her chin.
“Well, sounds yummy, save some for me, Jade!” Violet cantered to the small picnic and laid between Mist and Jade, taking some bread and a block of cheese in her magic.
WIth the small but filling choices he nearly felt overwhelmed at the options. “Jade, remember what happens when you have too many sweets.”
Jade just shrugged. “It’s future Jadeite’s problem.”
Violet snickered into her hoof to keep crumbs in her mouth. “Well, when you get there you’ll regret it, big time.”
“Why? What happens? Violet, tell me, pleeease.”
Jade shook his head and looked between the two ponies he liked pleadingly. They looked back with smirks. “What’s in it for us if we don’t tell, Jade?”
“My appreciation is all I have right now, but I’ll give you my next candybar if you want.”
“Half a candybar for the two of us? Not enough, buddy.”
“What about all my soda for a week?” Jade offered.
“And get your problem? No thanks, what else?”
“Would somepony tell me what you’re talking about?!” Mist was shushed. “Sheesh, weirdo’s.”
“I am only joking, friend, I won’t tell your secrets.”
“Me, too. I’m not known for my dishonesty, right, cool colt?”
“Thanks, guys.” They shared smiles and looked back when Mist snorted. “The secret is I turn into an ugly old nag that looks just like you.”
Kiwe and Violet groaned, grabbed several snackables in their magic, then left to the shade of another tree. The sun cascaded through the leaves in single beams that danced around them like tiny spotlights while a warm breeze rustled their manes and the grass they chose to lay on. Violet placed a sandwich on her crossed forelegs after she’d settled onto her belly and Kiwe followed her posture, taking a bite first though.
“Kiwe?”
“Hmph?”
“Why do you wanna go on this trip? Is it really just to find your dad?”
He swallowed and nodded. “Yes, in mother’s culture it is common for a stallion to leave on a whim. Start a new family, business, a new life wherever it may take them the wind blows. My papa is a pony; pony parents don’t just go away like that. We are more of a herd than the Zebracan are by far, more civilized as many say. My father loved us,” his eyebrows tightened, “he wouldn’t leave us like this, not mother and I.”
Violet was hesitant to speak but after a few seconds gave in. “Well, maybe it’s all been solved and he’s actually back at home right now, we can take a train back and check.”
He snorted and glared at her. “You may go back home anytime, as can anypony else. I am staying the path until I hear of his wellbeing,” a calming exhale, “however I do enjoy your company and would like you to stay.”
“It’s okay, you’re under a lot of stress with traveling and being up overnight. Would you like to go back to the room and rest on a bed, instead of the grass?” she asked and he shrugged as though to say ‘either way.’ “C’mon then, cool colt,” she snickered at his expression and waved it off. “Let’s go back and let them have their fight.”
“I certainly hope they don’t come to blows, hooves can hurt worse than words sometimes.”
“Mister Jelly, I’m here on time,” Kiwe called as he entered the bakery’s back door and removed his cloak.
“Good deal, kiddo! I’ll be right back, just cleaning some mess from the counter.” A minute later the stallion walked around the partitioning wall with a dirty towel on his back that he bit and tossed into a cloth bag just out of sight from the customer side. “Alright, let’s get started. Mise en place, oui?”
Kiwe blinked.
“That’s Prench, it means ‘everything in its place’. First we set up, then we bake, then we get some sleep. You really need yours, being young still. When I was your age,” he started as he moved around a wall of shelves and collected bowls, whisks, spoons, and other such tools, “I was playing all day and night, never thought I’d - get the eggs and a pot of water boy, standing isn’t allowed for apprentices - never thought I’d be up all night baking as a living, but here I am.”
“Water and eggs, sir!”
“Well done, now separate the eggs between these bowls,” he pushed two across a table where Kiwe moved to and began moving eggs equally into them. “Oh, sweet Celestia that’s cute… but it’s wrong! To separate eggs means that you open them and take they yellow out of the whites.
“Before you make a mess and cost me more than you earn I’ll show you.” He took an egg between this hooves and tapped it against the rim of a bowl. “Just a little to crack it slightly, see? Then you open it carefully so you have two pieces, the bigger one has the whole egg. Next you go over the bowl and carefully pour it all into the empty shell.”
“I see no white only clear, am I mistaken?”
“When you cook the clear stuff it turns white. Now, see the yellow yolk is in the shell but almost all the white is in the bowl? Just do it again and again, back and forth, and ta-da! The yolk goes over in this bowl and the whites stay in this.
“Since you’re new you use this bowl to separate them first, if yellow gets into the whites they’re all ruined. I need twenty eggs separated this way as fast as you can with as little waste as possible. Save the shells, too. I sell them.”
“Yes, sir! I won’t let you down, sir.”
Jelly walked around and spoke calmly. “Just do your best and don’t try to impress me, because when you work to impress is when you start to make mistakes. Mistakes in baking don’t appear until what you’re baking is done, and that’s a lot of time to have to make up, understand?”
Kiwe inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Yes, I am ready.” He took the first egg and broke the entire shell into the bowl, mixing with the yellow and white.
“Oh, boy. Save the broken eggs, you’ll need the energy.”
“Mm-hmm,” he carefully picked up the next and broke it while tapping it, the same for the next two, then he simply broke the entire egg again when a full basket of eggs was set beside him on the floor.
“I had a hunch. I need twenty eggs, if you can’t make it happen in two hours then you’re going to be scooping muffins and washing pans again.”
“Y-yes, sir.” Hours seemed to drag by, but he finally had the proper grip to hold an egg with hooves, his own way to balance them using his lips to help crack them, and finally separate the yolk and whites completely. “Done.”
“Ah, only took twenty minutes, impressive. Time flies when having fun, right?”
“I, didn’t think that was very fun,” Kiwe looked aside.
“You’d be surprised. Now, next more dough!”
…
The door to their room opened just loud enough to get ears perked up, but not enough to rouse the sleeping three. Kiwe placed a bag just inside as he entered and slid out of his cloak then climbed into bed beside Jade and was quickly pulled into the sleeping colt’s embrace, before he could even cover himself completely. He placed a forehoof on Jade’s and closed his eyes as the sounds of soft breathing lulled him asleep.
“Kiwe, wake up, sleepy head! There’s a bunch of treats for us, wake up just a little and eat with us,” Jade poked Kiwe’s back and got a giggle from his friend.
“I am awake now, silly colt,” he sat up and blinked the light of the morning into his eyes. “I slept quite well and,” he grinned, “you’re enjoying my efforts. It is nice to see that you like what I made.”
The girls were sitting against the wall with warm rolls in each hoof and a small jar of jelly between them, giggling softly and whispering. Jade lowered his head and flipped it quickly sending a small pastry into the air that he tried to catch in his mouth. The others in the room snorted into laughter when his missed his mark and got an eye covered with apple compote.
Kiwe excused himself to a couple more hours of sleep, pleased that his baking was getting good results from his friends as well as compliments from Jelly for his quick understanding of techniques and for not using his magic at all. ‘Boy, you’re as good as an earth pony and as fast as a pegasus…’ Jelly had said late last night.
He fell asleep with that on his mind and the sound of his friends tickling his ears.