//------------------------------// // Amethyst Star the Hired Help // Story: Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This // by MagicS //------------------------------// Wheatie’s Bakery was in need of an assistant. And Amethyst Star was there to help. She already knew that most of the jobs she would end up doing were going to be for ordinary things so she took working at a bakery in stride. It wouldn’t have been her first choice but beggars can’t be choosers and you never know when some creature is gonna step through the front door attempting to rob the place only to be stopped by a certain heroic unicorn. Not like she was holding out for that though. If anything she was still certain to make a number of connections and see quite a few people while she helped out here for the day. Which in the future could be useful or lead to some kind of real adventure or quest, Amethyst Star was positive there was all kinds of intrigue and stuff going on in this city. Something big that she could get herself involved with would show itself eventually. A city this big and this diverse, in more ways than one, was a cornucopia of adventure just waiting to be discovered. She just had no idea where to start first and that’s why she ended up at this job for the moment. The specific reason Wheatie’s Bakery needed help for today was that they were having a special 10-year Anniversary sale and party celebrating their grand opening and their sous chef called in sick the night before with the flu. Out of desperation they had to turn to Guru’s Internship since no one else could fill in at the last minute. Wheatie was a light blue pegasus with a snowy white mane and bright yellow eyes who operated the dream bakery with his pegasus wife, Doughey, and had made it one of the most popular destinations for sweets and desserts in the entire city. So this event was a really big deal to them and nothing could go wrong or their reputation might be ruined. They needed the extra help for all the customers they were going to have today and that was that. It was something of a gamble to temporarily hire someone who wasn’t a dedicated baker/chef but they figured Guru’s Internship wouldn’t have sent Amethyst Star over if she wasn’t capable of helping them. It was certainly a logical thing to assume. Wheatie had stuck her in the back kitchen and told her she’d be spending most of her time back there and to acquaint herself with everything before the doors opened right at noon for their lunchtime party. Doughey would be working the register while Wheatie had the job of expediting and chatting up all the important guests and customers that were coming today. Doughey was a wintry purple pegasus with her yellow mane done in a tight bun that (as her name implied) preferred being able to sit down and not have to run around the bakery’s floor bringing food to customers. The good news for Amethyst Star was that most desserts had already been made and were held in the bakery’s freezer or display cases at the moment, anything she needed to make from scratch or mostly from scratch had simple instructions for her. And Wheatie assured her he’d be doing a lot of cooking as well. Amethyst Star didn’t envy how busy he was making his day. “And don’t be afraid to ask if you need to know where anything is,” Wheatie said to Amethyst Star as he stood her in front of the largest stove. “You got it,” she saluted him. “Great,” he gave her a nervous grin. “I’m sure things will be fine but this anniversary is a very big deal to us. Keep going through the kitchen and make yourself as familiar with it as if it was your own kitchen at home. I have to set some things up out front.” He turned to walk through the swinging doors that separated the kitchen from the rest of the bakery but looked over his shoulder at her right before they swung back shut. “And try and memorize the menu and recipe list as best you can!” Then she was left alone in the kitchen for the first time while the proprietors prepared things out front. According to them they still needed to pretty things up and give everything a once over before they were ready to open the doors. “Okay,” Amethyst Star said to herself as she stared down at the stove. To her sides sat a number of bowls, utensils, ingredients, and a cookbook. “What do I know about cooking?” She levitated the cookbook in front of her face and looked at the first recipe, one for chocolate cupcakes. “What’s tsp? Tbsp? Probably going to need to figure that out.” There were many other things she was oblivious to as well but time wasn’t on her side to learn all of the kitchen lingo and how everything worked. It was already getting close to doors open. For the most part she would just have to garnish or start things and let Wheatie finish them. Didn’t sound like the most intensive thing at first but if he wanted her to know the recipes and everything he probably expected that she would be on her own for a lot of the cooking too. And there were going to be a lot of ovens she would have to keep running at once, all of them likely at different times and maybe even levels of heat too. She was just doing the busy work but that hardly meant it was easy work. There was a lot she had to pay attention to. As Amethyst Star was inspecting each of the little ingredients on the counter next to the stove Wheatie stuck his head back through the doors to the kitchen. “Ten minutes!” He anxiously shouted to her. “We’ve got a lot of stuff ready but just in case I want you to start getting a few strawberry shortcakes ready, they’re our most popular item. Just follow the recipe, thank you!” And he immediately ducked back out, Amethyst Star could hear him pacing across the hardwood floor in the dining area. She wondered if they had the blinds or whatever closed up there or something so customers couldn’t see in yet. The way Wheatie and Doughey were acting there had to be a ton of people lined up already. Not like Amethyst Star would interact with any of them though. “Strawberry shortcake,” Amethyst Star repeated to herself and then grabbed the cookbook, flipping through its pages to get to the correct dessert. The picture certainly made it look delicious, she even subconsciously licked her lips upon seeing it. It didn’t seem like the most complicated dessert to make either, the list of ingredients was relatively short compared to some others she had seen and the cake was a pretty simple few layers to put together. However she still had no experience when it came to baking or making what should be a fancy dessert like this. Even if she got the ingredients right that didn’t mean she would know how to make it pretty or do things just right. “He said to just get started though… so should I just keep going until he comes back? Or do the first couple of steps for one cake and then move onto the next?” Amethyst Star wasn’t entirely sure. But she had to start somewhere. Grabbing the nearest mixing bowl, Amethyst Star began pouring the necessary ingredients inside to make the base cake. It only took her a couple of minutes of looking over the measuring spoons and beakers to figure out the right amount of things to put in and she was confident that she had at the very least gotten everything into the bowl that needed to be there. Hopefully after she mixed it up it would turn out looking how it was supposed to. That would be the test, wouldn’t it. Amethyst Star was using one of the rubber spatulas to thoroughly mix the stuff. “Okay, okay, this is going alright so far. Where are the cake pans?” She had to search through a couple of cabinets before she found the right one but in a minute she had poured her batter into the right pan, now the only thing left was to get it in the oven. Amethyst Star wondered if she was supposed to put it on a tray or anything before just sliding it in onto the top oven rack. Did it matter if she placed the cake near the top or the bottom of the oven? Whatever. A quick turn of the knob too and the fire sprouted up to begin cooking the cake. Oh wait. Wasn’t she supposed to heat the oven up and get it to the correct temp before putting the cake in and not letting it sit there? Oh well, she was sure that was fine. Looking in through the little window at her first cake baking in the oven, Amethyst Star was quite pleased with herself. “I’m awesome! Let’s get started on cake number two.” Amethyst Star grabbed her mixing bowl again and got started on the next batch of cake batter. Well on her way before Wheatie came back into the kitchen to check up on her. “How are you doing? Are the shortcakes coming along well?” “Already got one in the oven,” Amethyst Star proudly stated. “Great,” he said as he walked up to her to inspect what she was doing now. Her station was slightly messy but since she hadn’t broken anything she didn’t think he’d have a problem. His sharp pegasus eyes still searched over each and every thing. "Have you been following the recipe exactly?” “Yep!” She nodded. Amethyst Star knew he was just being a good chef and a concerned businesspony but it was still a little annoying to be asked that. Who couldn’t follow a simple recipe? “And you’re tasting things as you go along?” He asked as he dipped a small spoon into her batter. “Uhh...” Wheatie stuck the spoon in his mouth and ate up the batter, chewing on it as his eyes looked up at the roof to mull over the taste. In an instant he stopped as if struck and his pupils shrank, the pegasus stuck his tongue out in displeasure at whatever he just tasted. “Did you mix up the sugar and the salt?!” Amethyst Star paused her mixing, a nervous grimace working its way onto her face. “But the recipe says to use both sugar and salt...” “But not in the same amounts!” Wheatie walked around her and reached for the salt and sugar containers. “It tastes like you mixed up the measurements for the salt and the sugar, is the other cake in the oven going to be like that too?” “Possibly… ehehe,” Amethyst Star chuckled nervously. Wheatie didn’t see the humor in the situation. “Just—Just go out to the front. We’ve got a couple of strawberry shortcakes in the display case, take those to table 7. I’ll fix things here and call you back in a minute...” The pegasus rubbed his forehead in an attempt to fight off the coming migraine. “S-Sorry…” Amethyst Star put down her bowl and walked past him, head hung low. Okay, that didn’t go the best. But I won’t make the same mistake next time! Amethyst Star thought to herself as she exited the kitchen. She had to walk right past Doughey at the register (while there was a decent line of waiting ponies and creatures) and explain that she was being temporarily relegated to bringing some customers their food, which was a little embarrassing, to get into the front counter’s display case that naturally could only be accessed from behind the register. Already there were only a couple strawberry shortcakes left, maybe Wheatie had an extra or two hidden away but she definitely understood now why he had her prepare some new ones. Amethyst Star grabbed them in her magic and levitated the desserts and their plates in the air, getting up and out from behind the register as she made her way to table 7. Gotta remember to smile too. Amethyst Star made sure she looked good for the customers and was polite as she laid their dessert on the table. “Two strawberry shortcakes, I hope you enjoy!” The ponies at the table thanked her for her service and Amethyst Star temporarily stepped back to stand beside the kitchen door, out of the way of everyone trying to get to a table or look at the various display cases full of delicious sweets. It was busy in here and they had just started, if things kept increasing then Wheatie’s Bakery would be like a madhouse later in the day. “Missy? Can you take this group to table 5 and get them the black forest cake from the chilled display case on the wall?” Doughey asked her after she just finished taking the money from a group of mules, “Right away!” Amethyst Star saluted and did as she was commanded. She had never had a “black forest cake” before but it looked good. Everything in here looked good, she was a little bit envious of all the customers who got to chow down on this stuff. Wheatie then came out of the kitchen at a fast pace, seeing Amethyst Star and beckoning her to come over to him quickly. She trotted on over and he took her back into the kitchen while Doughey temporarily handled everything out front on her own again. Amethyst Star looked around the kitchen and in the short time she had been gone Wheatie looked to have started about ten different things. He ran around to the big stove Amethyst Star had been working on and pushed a large bowl full of flour and other ingredients to her while he began beating another bowl full of egg yolks. “Put a tablespoon of cocoa powder in that bowl and then give it back to me,” Wheatie told her. “It’s gonna be chocolate cupcakes. Once I’ve got those cooking in the oven I’m gonna head out front again and let you take over in here. All you’ve gotta do is add the finishing touches to some things and take them out of the oven, okay? I even prepared a list right here of what’s cooking and what to follow.” He pointed next to the stove top at a piece of paper her had scribbled on. “In a minute a big party is coming that expects those chocolate cupcakes so they have to be ready soon.” “Cocoa powder, got it,” Amethyst Star decided to take one thing at a time and went into the pantry where all that stuff like cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and of course, cocoa powder, was held. “Cocoa, cocoa...” Her eyes searched up and down the shelves before she spotted the reddish-brown container and grabbed it, running back out and unscrewing the lid, pouring a heaping dash of it into the mixing bowl. Amethyst Star set the cocoa powder down on the counter and slid the bowl back over to Wheatie. The pegasus automatically started mixing it with a rubber spatula held in one of his wings, the experienced pastry chef working on multiple things at once. “Thank you!” He said to her. With nothing else to do she watched as he finished mixing the cupcake batter and poured it into its special tray so a dozen delicious chocolate cupcakes would come out once it was done cooking in the oven. Right after Wheatie slid the tray in he set a cooking timer and stepped out of the kitchen for a second to check on Doughey and told Amethyst Star to watch the cupcakes. Well that was easy enough to do. She just had to stare at them through the little window, didn’t she? She even started whistling a bit to herself while she watched the cupcakes rise. Glancing up at the counter she saw a bowl full of chocolate frosting that Wheatie had already made too. It was all quite tempting. “I’m gonna see if I can have some leftovers when this day is over,” Amethyst Star licked her lips. Wheatie came back into the kitchen with a pleased smile on his face, skipping over to Amethyst Star. “The party is here and they’re looking forward to their cupcakes! How are things in there?” “Looking great,” Amethyst Star replied. The pegasus bent over and looked in, nodding in agreement with her. “Perfect. Once those are done I’ll put the frosting on them and take them out to our customers. You just follow the list I left you after that, in five minutes you’ve got a souffle to pull out of oven 4 in the back.” Wheatie pointed to the row of ovens that lined the back wall, all of them helpfully numbered. That was easy enough too. “Got it.” A second later and the kitchen timer that Wheatie had set for the cupcakes ringed, the shrill sound signaling the pegasus to pull out the cupcakes. The little chocolate cakes looked absolutely perfect and it filled both Amethyst Star and Wheatie with ease. Setting the hot tray down on the stove, Wheatie grabbed his bowl of frosting and began scooping it into a pastry bag before expertly piping it onto each cupcake. Amethyst Star was impressed as he made a perfect series of swirls with a generous amount of frosting on all of them. Like everything else here she was tempted to eat one of them after seeing it completed. Without a word Wheatie popped them all out of their little pits in the tray and put them on a large serving dish, carrying them out to the party. Amethyst Star watched him leave the swinging kitchen doors behind him and walked to the side of the stove to levitate the list he left her with her magic. “Alright, let’s see what else I have to do on here?” It was mostly “sprinkle this” or “mix that” or “take that out”. Which annoyed her. She knew the busy work was important but this seemed like it was on a different tier of hoofholding and lack of confidence. Was one mistake really enough to make Wheatie think she could only do the most menial of tasks? Come on! She was supposed to be proving how awesome and special she was out here, even if it was just bakery work. Amethyst Star could do anything and if a mare could do anything then clearly she should be doing something bigger than sprinkling grated up chocolate over the top of a cake! The sound of a plate falling on the floor and shattering from out front reached her ears. Followed quickly by retching and coughing. Amethyst Star stood still for a moment as her brain processed that. “Please let this be something that isn’t my fault.” The unicorn ran from the kitchen into the dining room to see a chaotic sight. Ponies, griffons, and donkeys gathered around one of the tables were all waving their hooves or claws in front of their red hot mouths, trying to cool them off while tears streamed down their cheeks. And sitting on that table was a tray of half-eaten chocolate cupcakes that had just come from the kitchen. Wheatie was trying to calm his customers down but it wasn’t going too well. “My mouth is on fire! What was in those cupcakes?!” One of the ponies asked the proprietor. “I-I-I-” Wheatie was at a loss for words, Doughey too. The event was becoming a spectacle that all the other customers were intently watching as well. Wheatie eventually saw Amethyst Star standing there, his eyes boring into her with an unspoken question of what had she done. Amethyst Star ran back into the kitchen, going over to the counter where she had put down the cocoa powder (she vaguely smelled something strange in the kitchen but didn’t bother to think about that right now). She saw the container sitting right where she left it and grabbed it in her magic, this was the only thing she had contributed to the cupcakes. Was there something wrong with it? Did cocoa powder expire? Was there too much? Did she- Oh. “Oh, this says chili powder. Oops,” Amethyst Star gulped. “Well at least I know what the problem is.” She ran back into the dining area at lightning speed to tell Wheatie. The pegasus was trying to placate the pained eaters when Amethyst Star snuck up beside him to whisper in his ear. “I may have accidentally put chili powder in the cupcakes instead of cocoa powder. Sorry.” “You what?!” His response was a noticeable octave or two above her whisper. “Sorry!” She winced away from him. “Let’s just get them some water...” “Ughhh...” Wheatie desperately massaged his temples. “Just—Just get a bowl and bring it to the sink and fill it with water, then we-” he paused, nose curling as he started sniffing the air. “Do you smell something?” She did. And by the looks of all the other customers so did they. Wheatie’s face soon constricted from confusion to outright horror. “It smells like—oh no.” The pegasus ran from the dining area into the kitchen, Amethyst Star hot on his heels. The two ponies ran into the kitchen and instantly saw where the smell was coming from. All the smoke. It was billowing out from one of the back ovens and had nearly completely covered the ceiling, the particular oven that the smoke was coming from was itself on fire. Unicorn and pegasus stared in shock at the burning flames surging from it threatening to consume the other ovens and much, much more of Wheatie’s Bakery. There was no question that in just a minute the entire anniversary would be ruined as every customer would start screaming and running in terror out of the on fire establishment. Not to mention all of the other problems that were gonna be had. Amethyst Star awkwardly shuffled about and rubbed the back of her neck while Wheatie was frozen like an ice cube by the disaster. “I uh, may have also forgotten to take the souffle out of the oven. Could you not tell my boss about all this?” Amethyst Star pleaded. “Eheh...”