//------------------------------// // Chapter 4- The Restaurant Experience as an Alicorn // Story: Apple Bloom's Weird New Life // by Princess Cadenza //------------------------------// The Cutie Marked Crusaders went to a fancy restaurant for dinner. The restaurant's name was Dining Dinners. The three sat at a fancy table with a vase in the center. The vase had a rose. The three read through the restaurant menus. The waiter, a light gray unicorn colt with chocolate-brown hair trotted over to the three's table. "Welcome to Dining Dinners. May I take your order?" asked the waiter. "An Alicorn..." he mumbled. "Yes, of course," said Apple Bloom. "I'd like the Monday appetizer, and the daisy-and-hay sandwich." "Yes," said the waiter as he levitated a pen from his suit pocket and scribbled down Bloom's order on his notepad. "Anything for you two?" "Um, yes," said Sweetie Belle. "I'd like the steak dish, spaghetti and meatball dish, and mashed potatoes and gravy dish, please." "You must be hungry tonight," whispered Apple Bloom to Sweetie. "You just ordered three big dishes!!!" "I know," Sweetie whispered back. "And I'll have the hamburger and fries," said Scootaloo. The waiter scribbled Sweetie and Scootaloo's orders down. "And drinks?" asked the waiter. "Ah, let's see..." Apple Bloom said while looking through the menu. "I will have some island tropical punch, please." The waiter wrote down Apple Bloom's order. "And you, white mare?" "Let's see..." said Sweetie, flipping through the menu. "I'll have the island tropical punch." "Alright." The waiter scribbled down Sweetie's order. "And how about you, orange pegasus?" "I will have the island tropical punch," replied Scootaloo. "Alrighty. Your order will be done soon." The colt took one last glimpse of Apple Bloom before trotting back to the kitchen. "Did you notice how he was looking at you the whole time?" Sweetie told Apple Bloom. "It's like, 'A special treatment for a special Alicorn', except without the treatment yet." "Yes," said Scootaloo. "The treatment part is probably coming after." "Ya think?" Bloom asked. "Well, who wouldn't treat royalty the way royalty is treated? Special treatment," Scootaloo replied. "Well, I suppose." "Who doesn't treat royalty nice?" Sweetie Belle said. "Oh, look, our food is ready!" The colt waiter trotted over to Apple Bloom's table and levitated a tray with their meals on it. He levitated a few empty glasses onto the tray, too, and levitated a pitcher of island tropical punch from the tray. He then poured the punch into the glasses. "Will that be anything else, madame?" the colt asked Apple Bloom. "No need," replied the Alicorn. The waiter levitated the pitcher from the tray and trotted to the next table to refill a couple of glasses. "I wonder if the super fast food was a special treatment for you, Bloom," Scootaloo said. "That's it?" Princess Bloom replied. "Fast food?" "Well, at least we didn't have to wait fifteen minutes, like we usually do," Sweetie added to Scootaloo's comment. "I mean, I guess their establishment does not ever meet royalty. I bet you're the first Alicorn customer they've ever had, and darn it, they've been running for 10 years!" "I have to agree," Scootaloo replied. "Well, I suppose that was really nice of them," said Apple Bloom. "This time we only waited about a minute! Instead of FIFTEEN minutes." The three ate in silence for a couple of minutes, before the conversation started back up again. "I wonder if we'll get a free dessert tonight," said Sweetie. "I mean, you're an Alicorn and all. They treated us nice." "I hope they do," said Scootaloo. "I'm hungry for ice cream tonight!" "Sweetie," said Bloom, "I'm not sure that me being an Alicorn gets me whatever I want. I mean, I'm just a unicorn with wings, right?" "Apple Bloom, you're a princess. A princess..." Sweetie replied. "And you being an Alicorn, you have ancient and powerful magic. Some of the best around." "And you... Um... Yea, what she said!" Scootaloo added needlessly. "So, what?" Apple Bloom said strongly. She was starting to have second thoughts about accepting the fact she was an Alicorn. She just hated how it just turned everything around! "Well, Bloom, I just don't know how to put this..." Sweetie said. "But... It seems that everypony thinks if they treat you badly, you'll bring down your wrath upon them. You know, you having special powers and all." "What?!" Apple Bloom was furious to hear this. "So ponies are afraid of me because I am an Alicorn? Even my best friends?!" "No, no, no!" Sweetie chuckled nervously. "Not us. We know you'd never do something that bad. That would be abusing your powers, right?" Apple Bloom calmed down a little bit. "Well, I suppose. Not everypony thinks that, you mean?" "Nope." "Good." After the three ate, the waiter came over and asked, "Are you mares done?" "We're good, waiter," said Sweetie. "Good. Because I have a surprise for you three." The three gasped. "A-- A surprise?" Scootaloo asked. "Yes." The waiter levitated the three's tray off of the table. "I'll be right back." The waiter trotted to the kitchen, put the tray away, and came back to the three's table with a tray with cake on it. "A special treat for a special Alicorn and her friends." He put the tray on the table with the cake on it. "Enjoy! It's all on me, no pay." "Thank you!" Apple Bloom called after the waiter as he trotted back to the kitchen. "We told you, AB!" Scootaloo said. "Of course you did." "Come on, guys! Apple Bloom, start slicing that cake!" Sweetie ordered.