Before Twilight arrives at the farmers market, she took a good look around her. It was early, the sun was still low on the horizon, yet the amount of ponies out and about were staggering. The Global Farmers market was yet to open as Twilight noticed.
She looks grabs a nearby pamphlet about the market and it says that it would open around 7 O'clock. It also mentioned about pumpkins being the official go-to product this time around.
'Of course it's the go-to product. It's fall after all.' Twilight thought although she was visibly facepalming.
As Twilight stood before the still closed entrance of the market, she decided to wait. She took a quick look around her in the meantime as she sits on a bench next to a pine tree. The pine tree already had christmas lights although they were turned off. Behind the pine tree was a restaurant called 'Noodle' which as the name suggests sold bowl of noodles.
Looking inside through the window, Twilight sees the chef and their assistant prepare some noodles. They were standing in a rather small kitchen with an open setting*1. The bar had a coffee machine, but no alcoholic drinks. And a rather small service area.
Twilight smiled at the thought that, she too, might learn about making noodles herself one day. Before looking at the streets once again.
She then approaches a security officer that most likely belongs to the market. "Sir, What time is it?" Twilight politely asks.
The officer looks down to see Twilight, he smiles and says "It will open in 3 minutes."
"Thank you." Twilight replies politely.
After a few minutes the entrance of the market did open up. Twilight calmly enters the market and looked around. She then decided to visit everything clockwise. Which caused her to look at some trinkets first.
Twilight slightly rushed the first few stalls as trinkets didn't interest her all that much until, she approached the final trinket stall at the end of the row. Looking at the trinkets she sees a odd object. The object was made of stone and was in the form of star, similar to Trixie's cutie mark.
"Does that trinket interest you lad?" The old colt behind the stall asked.
"Kind of. Where did you get this one?" Twilight asks curiously poking the trinket.
"Ah. In the old castle of the two sisters. Do you know what it is?" he asks.
"Yes. It's an ancient artifact that should belong to Princess Celestia." Twilight replied.
He raised his eyebrow, before thinking about Twilight just said. "How do you know about that?" he asks slightly nervous.
"Well. To begin with, it was on private terrain. Second it has this magical energy that I can feel. Plus the form it has is unnatural." Twilight replied while looking at the old colt who was looking very nervous.
"Fine. Take it. Just don't tell the guards okay?" The old colt states suspicious.
"Okay. But I will give you 25 bits for the trouble," Twilight then closed up on him "And to shut you up." she finished.
The old colt nodded rapidly and took the bits. Twilight meanwhile put it in her school bag.
Twilight then proceeded to walk to the next row of stalls, which was in front of Luna's church. Which Twilight decided to skip as they were for the common folk, as noble it's shameful to try to be near those stalls.
Moving on, she enters the circle around the well, which filled with hot and cold prepared food. Near the well was the hot food and on the outside was cold food. She once again skipped this as she was looking for material to use to cook herself.
Entering the street with a river next to. On the side of the river, she saw meat and fish, which was not what she was searching for.
On the side with the building were the fresh vegetables and fruit. Which was exactly what she was searching for. Causing her to approach the row.
The first stall was filled with products only harvested at fall, this included many forms of pumpkin and nuts. the second stall was filled with fresh leaves to use in salads. The third was filled with spring harvests, this included asparagus and broccoli and the like. The fourth was Carrot Tops stall, which has loads of different types of carrot and those that belong to that family. This trend followed with the other stalls.
After searching the many stalls. Twilight decided to buy something from Carrot Top. "Hey Carrot!" Twilight shouted.
Carrot jumped and looked towards Twilight, "Hey Twily! Good to see you. It's been awhile hasn't it?" she said.
"It has. I would love to talk but I need to hurry up and search something from your stall before heading to school," Twilight paused to look at the clock, "Which starts in 30 minutes." she finished.
"I see. hmm, Then let me recommend you this one. It's unusual in Equestria. It's from the south. It's called Black Carrot." Carrot recommends then shows it to her.
Twilight carefully inspects the carrot. She had never seen anything like it. With a dark purple in color and a green top. It was a big carrot.
Twilight nods, "I will take 10 carrots of these size." she says.
Carrot also nods, "That will be 100 bits." she replies.
Twilight hoofs over the bits and stuff the carrots in her school bag.
"Thanks for business, Twilight!" Carrot says smiling.
Twilight nods before running of to school.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
10 agonizing minutes of running later
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's 10 minutes before class starting. Twilight was yet to approach the school. She was sitting about 3 km away from the school. As she is too exhausted to continue.
Her bench however was next to Celestia's castle. As Twilight remember the artifact that she 'bought', she realized that her going to school has to wait for a second.
Twilight then trudges towards the castle and enters it. As she enters it, she sees Celestia coming her direction.
"Good day Twilight. What brings you here?" Celestia asks Twilight.
"I am here to bring you an item that is yours. I found it at the market." Twilight says as she grabs the stone star from her bag.
"But that is!?" Celestia said shocked. She then nods as she takes it from Twilight's hooves. "Thank you very much. I will put it back at the castle." Celestia says pleased.
"It would appear you have some trespassers." Twilight commented.
"So it would seem. Don't worry, I will deal with it." Celestia said with closed eyes and nodding.
"So how is Trixie?" Twilight ask as she changes the subject.
"She is quite talented, as you said. I thank you for bringing her to my attention. I am still sad that I could not convince you however." Celestia said with a hint of disappointment.
Twilight smiles, "Well I won't stay much longer in Canterlot. My stay in Solarium will end soon." she says.
Celestia looks surprised, "Oh? Where are you going next?" she asks.
"Lunarium. I hope to one day start my own business in cooking." Twilight says proudly and hopeful.
Celestia smiles, "I see. I hope to one day eat at your place then." she comments.
Twilight nods. "I would love to stay and chat more. But I am missing class." Twilight said.
"Okay. As thank you let me teleport you." Celestia said as her horn lights up.
"Thank you." Twilight said before getting teleported.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Twilight's classroom,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Twilight is late." Morning comments.
"Well you did send her to the farmers market for some products." Aspic stated.
Morning then remembered the conversation and nodded, "I guess we can wait a few more minutes-" she started when a teleport sound went off outside of class.
The door rapidly open and showed a worried Twilight. "Sorry, that I am late. After the market I bumped into the princess." she rapidly said.
"It's fine, get to your seat Twilight." Morning said calmly.
"Sorry, yes, okay." Twilight said as she quickly got seated.
"Today is a bit special. As you all well and know. Twilight has to go to and internship early winter. Sadly this was pushed up forward as they need Twilight right now." Morning started, "She will go on her internship tomorrow. Which means this is the last day Twilight will be here."
"Aww." the class moaned.
"I know. I don't know why either. Regardless, besides us cooking with what Twilight brought. We will also do a goodbye party. This will be the last day that you guys will see Twilight. After this she is immediately advancing to Lunarium as she already completed and succeeded at the exam." Morning finished.
"What was your score, Twi?" Lulu asks.
"I was in the top three." Twilight revealed.
"Wow!" The class shouted and blinked.
"I heard it was very hard to get into, how did you do it?" Leaf asked.
"Well, knowing each ingredient and having mastered your basic knife work goes a long way. After that you should make lots of different foods from different cultures should do the trick." Twilight explained.
"I see. I guess I will try to go there too then." Leaf and Lulu said at the same time. They look at each other and smiled.
"I can't wait." Twilight finished.
Morning nodded as she sees everyone motivation skyrocketing. "But first. What did you buy?" she asks.
"Black Carrots." Twilight replies as she shows them off.
"How curious." Morning and a few others replied.
"And this is the recipe we are going to make, A spinach salad with pumpkin and chickpeas. We will add our carrots to the recipe."
"Let me read what we need." Morning said
'500 grams pumpkin cubes,
100 grams chickpeas,
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds,
200 grams of fresh spinach,
2 tablespoons of grilled paprika and in cubes,
25 grams of feta,
2.5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar,
olive oil,
salt,
peper,
And added Black carrot.'
"Okay. And this is what we then do," Morning added, "We grill or roast the pumpkin, chickpeas and the paprika. We cut the feta into cubes. And add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl. And done!" Morning finished, Meanwhile Twilight was already heating her oven up.
"Well get to work then!" Morning stated which caused everyone besides Twilight to grab the ingredients.
Twilight meanwhile already added the ingredients in the oven to roast and the feta alongside all the other ingredients were already placed in a bowl. The carrot was also being roasted.
"Ting!" Twilight's timer went off. She then moved the roasted ingredients onto a plate to cool down. She then waited several seconds and moved the roasted ingredients into the mixing bowl and mixed the ingredients together.
Twilight then plated her salad onto a black plate and done. She looked at the others and saw that they were waiting on the oven to get to temperature. Everyone had chosen a different plate, and some had already decorated the plate itself while waiting.
Twilight inspected each plate and noticed that a few ponies stood out from the others. For example most choose a white plate with some balsamico and spices on it. However Kipper added some of his own pickled mini cucumbers. While Mince added some kind of special sauce blend around the plate. Leaf choose to go with a wooden bowl and added some corn to the center of it. Everyone had something original to the dish.
Twilight did not. 'That might make the future harder...' she thought. She was aware that one of the few flaws she has. Is keeping too close to the recipe. Also she lacked creativity when working with a dish.
It was exactly that lack of creativity that costed Twilight first and second place in the exam. Keeping too close to the book may not be a good thing. While deviating from the recipe can also cost you points. It's a difficult balance. It was exactly for that reason that the exams into Lunarium was so difficult.
Twilight however got in through pure luck. Something which she was aware off. Besides snatching third place, she was one of the few ponies during the exam that had some strong experience in the field and a good sense of book knowledge. Not to mention that some deviated from the recipes too much. Which again costed them a lot of points.
However the judges constantly commented on Twilight's lack of improvising. On top of that, she got low overall scores in creativity and kitchen knowledge. However it wasn't all a loss. She got remarkable high scores in knife knowledge and general knowledge. She had average scores in food science and making sauces.
But there was one thing that really sowed doubt in her ability to cook. The thing that every judge said atleast once. The fact that she lacked potential. They were worried in her ability to adapt and improve. They felt that giving Twilight third place was too much, yet none were able to shake her from that position.
Ignoring the memories of the exam, she looked at each dish once again. They were done, while Twilight fretted about her future. Twilight felt her future uncertain and she worried about her wellbeing.
She would need some help getting to terms with it. But that would come when the time comes for her. Not right now.