Celestia opened her eyes, her alarm clock had awoken her, signalling that in a little over 30 minutes she had to rise the sun, marking the beginning of another day in Equestria.
Celestia, like any other living creature that is suddenly awaked, wasn’t ready to leave the bed yet, however, just like any other creature Celestia had responsibilities, meaning that she had to get out of bed regardless of her wishes.
After rubbing her eyes with her hooves, the princess changed her position from laying on the bed to sitting on it, and began to stretch her legs, wings and neck, yawning while she stretched.
After finishing with her small stretching session, the princess got off her bed, turn off the alarm clock and walk to her bathroom for a quick bath with cold water, that was incredibly uncomfortable for her, but she knew that it was the only way to make sure she woke up completely, finally after finisher her bath, Celestia emerge from her bathroom, with all her ornament on, fresh and without a single sign revealing that she had just woke up a few minutes ago.
Now, feeling ready to raise the sun, curious to see if Arceus was awake, and with her stomach protesting for breakfast, the princess opened the door of her room.
The guard, a mare bat-pony from Luna’s night-guard, named Night Star, was standing at the left of her room’s doors turned around to see and saluted her. “Good morning princess," the bat-pony greeted the princess with the same tone she had used since she had offered to take that position during the Hearth’s Warming season, although Celestia knew that Night Star and the other guard taking care of her door during the day shift (Golden Spear) were starting a relationship, something unusual as he was a normal white unicorn, and bat ponies didn’t tend to find unicorns, or any other kind of pony, or creature for that matter, attractive.
“Good morning Night Star,” Celestia answer with a cheerful tone, before turning her head to the right and realising that Golden Spear wasn't there, “excused me Nightlight, but, where is Golden Spear?” Celestia asked.
“Oh, your guest, Lord Arceus, woke up earlier and asked if he could be guided to the kitchen, Golden Spear offered to do it while I stayed here,” the bat pony answered, with an emotionless tone that characterized both the night and day royal guard.
“Thank you Night Star,” Celestia said, before asking the guard, “do you want to come with me for breakfast?”
Contrary to what one will believe, Night Start didn’t act surprised, after all, she had been one of the few guards staying in the castle during the Hearth’s Warming season, meaning that Celestia and Luna were making sure that they fell like at home in the castle, so this was not the first time that Celestia had invited her, “no thank you, princess, I just had breakfast and even though an early lunch would be nice, I'm also trying to keep an eye on my weight..." the bat-pony began to scratch the back of her head, adding with a low tone, "let's just say that last year I got a little excited with the foo, and well, when I returned to my duties after the end of the holidays, I had spent some extra time in the gym".
Celestia held down a chuckle as she heard Night Star explanation, although to be fair with the bat-pony, that wasn't a problem exclusive to her, or the royal-guard, as it was normal to gain a little of weight during the Hearth's Warming season, even Celestia and Luna themselves tended to have a rounder belly after the holidays.
"Well, in that case, I will recommend you to go and prepare your and Golden's thing, remember that today we are going to visit Twilight," Celestia answer, with a little, smiled caused by the memory of Luna's comment about how gaining weight was an unofficial tradition of Hearth's Warming.
"Yes, princess," Night Star answer with a nod, before giving the princess and military salute, turning around and walking towards the guards quarters.
Celestia did the same, although she made her way in the opposite direction, and after walking through some hallways, with only 10 minutes to rise the sun, Celestia arrived at the kitchen; she was expecting to find Arceus eating breakfast and Golden Spear guarding the door, instead, when she opened the door, she found Arceus reading a recipe book on the kitchen table, in front of the book there were 3 plates, knives of different sizes and 3 forks, at the left of the recipe book, there were some bowls with different ingredients, however at the right of the book, there were 20 bowls of 3 different sizes, full of ingredients Celestia wasn’t completely able to recognise, although they were kind of familiar.
The biggest bowl had what appeared to be 5 red apples, but these apples were almost as big as a melon; 5 other bowls of a middle size, were full of berries of different colours, each bowl containing berries of the same colour; as for the smallest ones they had what appeared to be gummies, and just like the berries, every bowl had gummies of the same colour, adding up to 18 deferent colours of gummies, as for Golden Spear, he was sitting on one of the kitchen chairs, happily eating one of those melon-size apples.
Arceus, hearing the door open, look up from the book and greeted Celestia with his usually calm and collective tone, “good morning Celestia, how are you today?”
Celestia was about to answer Arceus greeting, when, Golden Spear, realising that the princess had entered the kitchen, quickly drop the apple and jump off the chair to salute Celestia with a tone more similar to a battle cry and not a normal salute,“good morning princess!”
Now, due to Golden Spear actions been executed so quickly, he managed to startle both Celestia and Arceus, causing them to rise one of their frontal legs, close their eyes and, in the case of Celestia, open her wings, who after the literal jumpscare turned to see Golden Spear.
“Good morning Golden,” Celestia said, before closing her wings, “please don’t do that again I’m not deaf, I can hear you perfectly,” she added while rubbing one of her ears with her hoof.
“Sorry princess,” Golden Spear said while looking at the floor.
“Is Ok, but no guard should be looking at the floor on the presence of his princess,” Celestia answer, with a joking tone to cheer up the young guard.
This made Golden Spear look up to see the princess, Celestia smile at him, and he returned the smile, “now, take your apple and go to your quarters, Night Star is already waiting for you,” Celestia said with a joking tone while using his magic to levitate the apple next to Golden Spear, the guard, who was now blushing, took the apple, saluted the princess and made his way to the guard’s barracks with the ‘apple’ on his back.
After Golden Spear left the kitchen, Celestia turned to see Arceus and finally return his greeting, “good morning Arceus, and I’m fine, thanks for asking, what about you? Are you enjoying your stay in the castle?”
“I’m quite fine, and so far I will say that the place has been lovely,” Arceus answer before turning his attention back to the recipe book.
“What are you doing?” Celestia asked while getting next to Arceus, to see what recipe Arceus was reading.
“I’m making breakfast, for you, Luna and me,” Arceus answer while moving to the side, allowing Celestia to see the book.
“Oh, that’s very nice of your part,” Celestia answer, she then turned to see the unknown ingredients and added, “what are duos by the way?”
“Oh, well, this is food from my world” Arceus answer.
“Really?” Celestia asked, looking closer to the bowls with the mysterious food.
“Yes, I made a quick visit to my world to bring them,” Arceus them raised his right leg and began to point at the different bowls and talking about their content, “these are perfect apples-”.
Before Arceus was able to continue, Celestia interrupted him, “sorry, but what do you mean with perfect apples? Are you trying to tell me that these melons are apples!?”
“Indeed, these ‘melons’ are in fact apples,” Arceus answer with a giggle as he found the comparison to be quite funny, he then began to explain more about the apples to Celestia, “look, most apples in my world have the same size that apples from your world, however, there are variants of apples that are a lot bigger than usual, this variant is not only one of the biggest ones, but is also consider to be the ones with the best flavor”.
Celestia stared to the apple before asking, “can I take a piece?”
“Of course,” Arceus answer, before cutting a piece of one of the apples and giving it to Celestia.
Celestia took the piece with her telekinesis and with hesitation she bit it, her hesitations immediacy disappear after tasting the small bite, as she quickly began to eat the whole piece, a small moan of pleasure escaped her mouth as she ate the apple. “This is delicious!” Celestia said after swallowing the piece of apple.
“I knew you will like it,” Arceus said, he then turned back to the table and restarted his explanation, pointing at every bowl respectably. “Now these are berries, the blue ones are call: Oran, they are incredibly good for your health and recovering your energy, Sitrus berries also have the same effect, just a little bit stronger; this are Rawst berries, they are useful to treating burns; Cheri berries are good to treating injuries related to electricity, and finally, what I think will be the most useful berries to you, Pecha berries, they are basically a strong antidote that can counter any kind of poison, or at least any kind of poison from my world.”
“Really!?” Celestia asked while taking one of the Pecha berries and looking at it.
“Yes, in fact, I’m going to give you a few berry trees as a Hearth's Warming gifts, I thinking they will be useful to your world, due to the effects of the berries, as well as the fact that all the trees grow berries during the whole year, independently of the weather, and, at least from my point of view, the trees are quite nice looking,” Arceus answer.
“Wait, Hearth's Warming gifts?” Celestia turned to see Arceus, “Arceus thank you, but, you don’t have to give me any kind of gift; I appreciated but is not necessary.”
“But I want to give you a gift,” Arceus answer, he then added, “and Faust told me that: 'If I want to know Equestria, I need to participate in our festivities, and there’s no better festivity to do that, that Hearths Warming'.”
“I can agree with that suggestion, and I will accept the trees, but I will need to also give you a gift, and before you protest, I WANT to give you a gift, giving and receiving gifts is a part of Hearth's Warming, a small part as the idea of this festivity is to past time with your family, but a part of the ‘experience’ non de least,” Celestia answered.
“Well, if it’s part of the experience, I’m willing to take the gift, I’m quite curious to see what are you going to give me,” Arceus answer, with genuine curiosity to see what Celestia is going to give him, “now, back to the ingredients!” He added with a cheerful almost childish tone.
“Can I ask you something before we go back to the ingredients?” Celestia asked Arceus.
“Sure” Arceus answer.
“Who is Faust?” Celestia asked, showing a face of confusion for that name.
That question made Arceus’s blood go cold, he had just realised that he had said Faust real name, instead of her fake name, Golden Feather, knowing that Faust had trusted Arceus with keeping her real identity as the god creator of the world of Equestria as a secret, Arceus quickly thinked of an excuse, he tried to deliver it in his characteristic calm tone, however, it appears that Celestia is also affecting his 'ability to lie', as his delivered of the excuse was done with a nervous tone, “Faust, well, i-it’s the nickname Mew give to Golden Feather, I know it’s a weird nick name, but you knew how kids are, they have a lot of imagination”.
Now, as anyone who has watched the show knows, ponies, with the exception of Apple Jack and other ponies (the latter only applying for plot convenience or to make meme faces) are terribly at detecting lies, even when the lie is painfully obvious; and well as the fact that, despise been under Celestia ‘influence’, Arceus lying tone was more convincing than most other ponies.
Celestia believed the lie, and responded. “Yes, small kids tend to have a lot of imagination that sometimes doesn’t make sense, besides, that’s not the weirdest nickname that I have ever hear, that will be ‘rainbowy-marshmallowy”, that’s how Blueblood used to call me when he was little; and, for some reason that nickname... for some reason, it kind of fits her a lot more than Golden Feather”.
“WOW! Faust didn’t lie, all of her creations are so innocent, that, not only aren’t able to lie; they aren’t even able to realise when someone is lying to them,” Arceus thought after Celestia had finished talking.
Arceus stop thinking on the situation and what Faust had told him and answer, “anyway, can I go back to my explanation?”
“Of course.” Celestia answer with a smile.
Arceus return the smile and turn his head back to the table, he rose his right leg and pointed and the bows containing the gummies, and began to talk, “now the gummies, they have two particularities, the first one: it increased intelligence after consumption; as for the second one, depending on the type of the pokemon, she/he/it will prefer one type of gummy, as for the preference, they are the following: dark type pokemon love black gummies, for fire type-“
“I’m sorry Arceus, but unless I ended up been a fire type pokemon, I think I will skip this explanation.” Celestia thought while Arceus explain her what type of pokemon prefer what type of gummy; her thoughts concentrated in the food and their particularities. “This food is amazing, the berries alone will probably change potion-making forever, I really hope Pecha berries work, I will need to send some example to the royal laboratory for testing, I need to make sure that Twilight gets some examples later, knowing her, she probably went insane for the festivities and needs a break. I wonder what perfect apples will do to the apple stock market; I hope they don’t collapse it as zap-apples did-”
Celestia’s thoughts were interrupted when she realised that Arceus was using his telekinesis to hold a plate with small pieces of every berry, as well as one gummy of every type, in front of her, “now, in order to make your breakfast, I need to know which ingredients you like and which you don’t; so if you don’t mind,” Arceus said, to Celestia, while putting out a small notebook and a pencil; his expression changed to the one of a predator, ready to attack his prey at any moment; Celestia smile at this, she was finding Arceus to be incredibly considerate with her, one will think she was his guest and not the other way around.
Going back to the ingredients, Celestia tried the berries first, she found Sitrus berries to be the best ones, follow by Oran, Rawst and Pecha berries; she found Cheri berries to be very mediocre in taste. As for the gummies, she found Gold, White and Red gummies to be the best ones; follow by Grass, Sky and Water gummies; as for the rest, she found them to be mediocre at best and nauseating at worse.
After Celestia had finished with her tasting session, Arceus turn his attention back to the recipe book, constantly looking back at his notes; Celestia followed his movements for a few seconds before asking, “its everything alright?”
Arceus simply sighed, “it’s just that, well, combining ingredients from 2 worlds in just one worlds recipe is a little bit more difficult than what I expected,” Arceus answer.
“Do you need help? I’m relatively good at cooking, maybe we can figure out something together,” Celestia said while looking at the recipe book, realising that Arceus had changed the page, now the book showed a picture of a much more complex salad in comparison to the one Arceus was originally planning to make.
Arceus close the recipe book and turn to see the princess, “thank you Celestia, but as I said before, I’m making breakfast for you, you are not supposed to help me, besides-“ Arceus entire body began to shine, it was a light shine so Celestia didn’t need to close her eyes, a third part of the content of every bowl at the left of the table, started to float in the air, the same happen with the ingredients from Arceus world, but only the ones Celestia liked, the knives, one of the plates and one of the forks also began to float; without any kind of signal, the knives launch to cut every ingredient at the same time; while all the ingredients were been cut, Arceus concluded his sentence, “-I’m don’t want to show off, but as you can see, I’m very good at creating things.”
When Arceus finish talking, the plate, now with a salad that was a perfect replica of the picture in the recipe book, with the exception that it had perfectly cut pieces of Sitrus, Oran, Rawst and Pecha berries, and was decorated with Gold, White and Red gummies, and the fork gently floated in front of Celestia's face, “there you go Celestia, an exotic salad prepared with food from both worlds, much better than those balls of colourful wheat your recipe books call cakes, anyway ‘bon appétit’.
Celestia was too impressed by what she just saw to take immediate offence in Arceus criticism of her favourite food; she looked at Arceus and answer with a smile, “nice prench, and that was quite impressive, show off.” Arceus simply return the smile. Celestia then used her magic to grab the fork and used it to take a piece of the salad to her mouth, just like before, a small moan of pleasure escaped her mouth, the salad was probably the best one she had ever had in all her life.
Celestia was about to complement Arceus cooking ability, after all, he had just put to shame more than 1000 years of cooking in just a few seconds, however, she remembered what Arceus had said about her favourite food, so she decided to tease him, “is good, but is nothing in comparison to nature's most perfect food: cake!” Celestia almost started to laugh after saying that.
Arceus responded to her comment with a small chuckle, he then answered with a similar joking tone, “Celestia, I can make you such a good cake that you will be begging me on your knees to stay here and cook for you.”
Celestia decided to keep the joking tone and answer, with an exaggerated face of indignation, “contrary to popular belief, you need more than just cake to please me”.
Arceus smile and said, with a tone that involuntary sounded more seductive that joking, “believe me Celestia; I can please you beyond what you will think possible”.
Celestia expression change to one of surprise, Arceus was flirting with her, and judging by his expression, even he was surprised by what he had just said.
Celestia and Arceus weren’t sure how to answer, Arceus was about to apologise when suddenly the other door of the kitchen, the one that led to the table were Celesta and Luna usually eat, as well as their favourite balcony to rise the sun and moon, violently open, revealing a worried princess Luna.
“Sister!” Luna said while running to Celestia, “where have thou been!? The sun was supposed to be out over 15 minutes ago!”.
Hearing that, Celestia face when pallid, her magic crib on the plate and fork disappear, luckily, Arceus manage to catch both before they hit the floor; Celestia then sprinted out of the kitchen while repeatedly saying. “Oh no!”.
Arceus turn to see Luna and lower his head. “Sorry, I’m responsible for your sister not rising the sun in time”.
Luna simply answered with an emotionless tone. “We art not the princess thou have to apologise with”.
Arceus simply sight and turn around to see Celestia, who was raising the sun as fast as she was able. “I know”.