On Our Own

by kwr2k13


Chapter Two: Time to Make the Muffins!

Chapter Two: 

Time to Make the Muffins!

        Little Horn trotted into the kitchen after her cousin, Harmony. The tan unicorn filly was really excited about making muffins with her big cousin.  

“So, what kind of muffins do you want us to make, Harmony? I like blueberry, myself,”  Little Horn asked eagerly as she looked around kitchen.

The kitchen in and of itself was not all that big, with the back wall dominated by the kitchen bench and the fridge. The fridge was located to the far left, with the rest of the wall taken up by the bench. The kitchen sink and the drying rack was located on the opposite side of the the fridge at the far right end of the bench. In the middle, which was mostly empty space, occupied by the toaster, the kettle, the knife-rack and a wooden chopping board. Beneath the bench was the customary cupboards for things like plates, bowls, cups, and miscellaneous things like that.

The right side of the wall was where the main food cupboard was located, just a few steps from the kitchen sink. It easily extended up to the roof, and the inside was lined from top to bottom with numerous shelves, each with all sorts of different things up for grabs that you’d typically find in someone’s pantry, such as pasta, sauces, sandwich spreads, spices, and so on.

She found the cookbook leaning against the wall next to the fridge and began to levitate the cookbook towards Harmony, surrounding the book in a blue magical aura. “See, here’s the cookbook!”

“Alrighty then, blueberry it is!” Harmony smiled cheerfully, opening up the book to the appropriate page with her own magic, which was coloured sky-blue. “Here, why don’t you help me find the ingredients?”

Little Horn nodded, “Okay. Let’s see, we need flour, sugar, milk, eggs, what else?” Little Horn began to open the refrigerator to look for the eggs and milk. “How many eggs do we need?”

“We shouldn’t need more than one,” Harmony replied, glancing at the recipe and adjusting her glasses.

Little Horn nodded, and opened the egg carton to reveal the dozen eggs that usually came with it.  

“One egg; this shouldn’t be that hard.” The young filly breathed and focused on the one egg her cousin needed to complete the recipe. The egg floated up from the carton and meandered towards the mixing bowl.

“Easy does it...” Harmony watched with interest as the egg floated across the kitchen, “That’s it... Nice and gentle...”

Little Horn continued to move the egg closer to the bowl. “I have this; I’m a big pony!” the filly exclaimed. The egg wobbled in the air over the edge of the mixing bowl, and gently tapped the edge, breaking the shell.  The yolk and the albumen, or egg white, spilled into the mixing bowl.
 

“I did it! I did it!” Little Horn grinned gleefully, and turned to look for a breaking egg Cutie Mark, but after a few moments, her flank still stubbornly remained bare.

“Aww, no Cutie Mark!” she pouted.  

“Ah, not to worry! You don’t need a Cutie Mark to tell you that your magic is coming along quite nicely,” Harmony encouraged the filly, “Besides, a Cutie Mark in egg-breaking probably isn’t something to get all fired up about anyway. You deserve better than that. Now, the next thing we need to do, and probably the first thing we SHOULD have done, is fire up the oven!”

Harmony glanced across at the oven as her horn lit up, flicking the ignition and setting the temperature to one hundred and ninety degrees Centigrade.

“That will take a short while to warm up, so we still have plenty of time to put this batch together,” She glanced back at the book, “Right, now we need two and a half cups of self-raising flour, a tablespoon of caster sugar, and three quarters of a cup of brown sugar.”

She flicked open the cupboard and scrimmaged about for the correct ingredients, placing them on the bench.

“L-H, can you find the measuring cups for me, please?” she asked.

Little Horn blushed at cousin’s shortening of her give name,and then nodded.  “Okay, Harmony.  One three-quarters cup,” the filly began to levitate the correct measuring cup to her cousin, grabbing it in her blue aura, “one half-cup for the flour, and a tablespoon. Is that the big spoon or the little spoon?” Little Horn levitated the utensils to her cousin, “How many muffins are we making, anyway?”

“Well, the recipe makes enough for twelve muffins, which means six for each of us. That said, they’re only bite-sized, so if we still have time and ingredients, we might be able to cook up a second batch,” Harmony paused what she was doing as she replied, “The tablespoons are the big ones. The little ones are called ‘teaspoons’”.

        Little Horn nodded as her cousin explained the differences of the various measuring cups. “Oh, I think I can remember tablespoon and teaspoon.  Wow, you sure know how to cook!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty easy when you have the instructions list right in front of you,” Harmony smirked as she held up the bag of raising flour to her left in her magical grip, and a measuring cup to her right. With some concentration, she gingerly poured the flour into the cup until it reached the right level.

She held it for her smaller cousin to see, “Does that look about right to you?”

Little Horn examined the cup’s contents, “Yep! You got it! I really enjoy helping you make food. Mother was right in asking you to supervise my magic training! Besides, Mother also said I needed a positive female role model in my life. Whatever that means.”

That means that we don’t let you anywhere near Vinyl Scratch, Berry Punch, or Screwball,’ Harmony smirked inwardly.

“Not a problem, L-H. Anything for family,” she said aloud with a smile, pouring the flour into the mixing bowl. “Right, now for the sugar”.

Picking up the tablespoon with her magic, she scooped up the fine white caster sugar and delicately tipped it into the bowl.

“Now we want three quarters of a cup of brown sugar,” she offered the measuring cup and the appropriate sugar bag to the filly, “Think you can handle that for us?”

Little Horn smiled as her cousin prompted her to help with the brown sugar, “I got this.”  She knew Harmony was counting on her to measure out the brown sugar for the muffins, so she better get this right! The filly levitated the measuring cup into the brown sugar, looking up to her cousin for approval, “Like this, Harmony?”

“That’s the way,” the older cousin gave an encouraging smile, “Now, just pour it in the bowl like so...”

Little Horn attempted to pour the brown sugar into the mixing bowl as her cousin observed. “Whew! Am I getting better at this or what?!”

“Without a doubt,” Harmony grinned, “Your mom would be proud, that’s for sure. Now, next on the to-do list is to add three quarters of a cup of milk, half a cup of vegetable oil, and a teaspoon of vanilla”.

Little Horn smiled, “I really miss my mom and dad.  I bet you miss yours too.”  

The filly’s thoughts drifted back to earlier that day, when Harmony mentioned her parents had passed away long before Shimmer had announced she was with foal.

“But enough about that; we have muffins to make!” Little Horn shook her head and grabbed the rest of the ingredients, while Harmony supervised her cousin.  What responsible mare would ever leave a filly unsupervised in a kitchen?  

Harmony’s cheery smile faltered for a brief moment. She blinked and shook her head, “...Right. Muffins”.

She held up a fresh measuring cup in front of her as she poured in the milk, her sky-blue coloured magic working with practised precision and accuracy. No sooner had she poured the milk in, she already had a teaspoon in her grip and glancing about for the vegetable oil. Wrapping it up in her magic, she narrowed her eyes as she let the oil drip onto the teaspoon, before tipping the spoon into the bowl as well.

“There you go L-H,” she gestured her cousin towards the wooden spoon, “Have a shot at mixing it all up for us”.  

As Little Horn eagerly got to work, Harmony smiled to herself as she set about putting the leftover ingredients away. Perhaps looking after this filly in the long run wasn’t going to be all that difficult.

Little Horn gripped the wooden spoon in her blue aura, emulating her cousin’s technique.  She began to stir the muffin mixture slowly, and then gradually, the muffin batter began to take on a brown, gooey appearance.  

“Does this look okay to you, Harmony?  I want these muffins to be so good; like Sugar Cube Corner good!  So good, in fact, that Miss Pinkie Pie would want the recipe!”  Little Horn was so proud of being able to help her cousin with baking.  Too bad there was not a Cutie Mark for baking already on her flank.  

“I guess I won’t be getting a Cutie Mark in baking.”  The young filly sadly stated.

Harmony ruffled her cousin’s brown mane, “You’ll get your Cutie Mark when you discover your special talent, L-H. There’s no rush.”

She then checked on the batter’s consistency, “You still have more lumps in the batter; keep stirring!  Otherwise, you’re getting better at this.”

Little Horn smiled as she received a good report, “I think you should write to Mother tonight and let her know how I am doing.”  The little filly said as she continued to stir the batter with her telekinetic spell.  The blue aura around her horn shimmered as the spoon was held in its grip.  “Can we add in the blueberries?  I want to do that, please, Harmony?”  

Harmony sighed, “Okay, and I will be putting the muffins in the oven.  I don’t want you to get burned on the stove.  I am not sure if we have Pony insurance.”  Harmony quipped as she looked at the batter again.

“Very good!  Now, add in the blueberries, L-H, while I go check on the oven.”  Harmony went to the oven door and checked on the preheating.  The oven indicated that it was ready to bake the muffins.

“Okay, put enough blueberries in the muffin batter for the both of us.  We are making one dozen mini-muffins.”  Harmony waited to see if Little Horn could remember her math.

Little Horn counted the muffin pan where the muffin batter would be poured into each one using her magic and the stirring spoon.  

“We need about forty-eight blueberries, with four in each one.  Twelve muffins with four blueberries in each.”  The filly began to count up the blueberries and add all forty-eight into the batter, then stirred up the mixture until all the blueberries were blended into the batter.

Time to put the muffins into the pan so Harmony can put them into the stove.   The filly said to herself as she finished all the muffins.  

        Harmony took the full muffin pan after the muffin batter was distributed into each muffin cup.  

“These muffins are going to look really good; I bet they’re gonna be simply delicious as well!” the white unicorn grinned as she opened the oven door with her magic, allowing for the hot air to escape.  

“Alright, I’m setting the kitchen timer to twenty minutes. When it goes off, the muffins will be done,”  Harmony finished. Her mouth watered, “Mmmmm...muffins...”  

        Little Horn waved her hoof in front of her cousin’s face.  “Harmony?  You zoned out...again.”  The little filly was concerned for her cousin’s welfare.

        Harmony blinked, “Huh? Oh, right.”

        Little Horn shook her head and rolled her eyes, “You were about to put the muffins into the oven and wait twenty-to-twenty-five minutes. That’s what it says in the recipe book.”

The unicorn filly pointed a hoof towards the cookbook’s recommended time to bake on the section about blueberry muffins, “It also says you can make other fruit-based muffins.  Wow!  I didn’t know there were so many muffin choices!”

Harmony placed the muffins into the oven, and closed the door with her magical sky blue aura.  She took the kitchen timer and turned the dial to the desired amount of time.  “Okay, now we can hang out in the living room, watch some television, or do whatever you want.”  Harmony suggested.

Little Horn and her cousin Harmony watched some news.  They heard the kitchen timer go off, and Harmony trotted over to the oven, opening the door with her magic.  Little Horn licked her lips in anticipation of the delicious treats.  

The blueberry muffins were completely done.  The smell from the delicious mini-treats made them irresistible enough for Little Horn to attempt to take one of the muffins with her magic.  

Harmony pulled the muffin back from the anxious filly, “Hey! Settle down there. They’re still hot! The last thing I need is to have you burn your mouth on one of these things. They have to cool off, first.”  Harmony placed the delicious muffins on the kitchen table.

Little Horn nodded, “Sorry, Harmony.  I just wanted to see if they tasted the same as the last time Mother made them.  I’m sure she used that cookbook for the recipe.”

The cookbook Harmony referenced for the recipe looked familiar to Little Horn.  

Harmony nods, “This one was a gift from Aunt Shimmer when I took on the responsibility to care for you.  Your mom figured that you would need to start eating healthier. There are lots of great recipes in here; all of them have no meat products, though.”  Harmony turned the cookbook over to allow Little Horn to read the title.

Little Horn squinted to read the title, The Vegetarian Cookbook. 

“How original. I bet they have recipes for different types of salads, like the pecan salad or the raspberry salad.”  

Harmony skimmed through the pages, briefly glancing the different salads listed. All of the types from the Caesar salad to the ones her cousin mentioned looked very appetizing.

“Since we probably won’t be going out much, unless it is to the grocery store, I will have to plan out our meals so we can keep up our energy for magic training, which by the way, you did really well. Let’s call it a night and eat our muffins. Tomorrow’s a new day, after all. I have your bed moved to my room, unless you think you can handle being by yourself.”  Harmony teased.

Little Horn looked around, sheepishly, “I think I want my bed in your room for the time being, if it is okay with you, Harmony.”

Harmony nodded, “Very well.  Come along, L-H! Those muffins aren’t going to eat themselves!”  

The muffins had finally cooled off as the cousins began to divide the tasty treats between them.

Little Horn started with the first muffin, “One for me, and one for you.”  She placed the muffin for her cousin on her plate with her magic.

Harmony returned the favor, levitating the next muffin over to her cousin’s plate, “And for my little cousin, a muffin.  If you want another, just ask, and I’ll get it for you.  Take your time and enjoy the fruits of your labor.”  

The cousins ate their muffins and washed them down with some milk.  Little Horn polished off at least 5 of the mini-muffins, while her cousin ate 4.  “Wow, you must have been hungry.  You got tired of the hospital food?”  Harmony teased.

Little Horn frowned, “Yeah, I did.  These muffins are so delicious!  We need to write to Mother and let her know we appreciate sending the cookbook.”  

Harmony got out a pen and some paper with her magic, and began to compose a letter to her aunt.  

Dear Aunt Shimmer,
        Little Horn has finally settled in nicely. She is a great help around the kitchen and enjoys learning magic. The cookbook you sent with me has helped her feel more at home. The muffins were delicious, and I plan on sending you a batch in the near future.
Enclosed is a picture of myself and Little Horn with the muffins we made!  Come by anytime when you and Uncle Big Horn can get a chance to visit.



Sincerely,
Harmony Trebleheart.

P.S. Little Horn says hello!

The letter was placed in an envelope as was the picture of Little Horn and her cousin mixing the muffins.  The picture showed Harmony consulting the cookbook while Little Horn breaking an egg with her magic to put it in the mixing bowl.  

        Harmony sealed the letter and the picture, wrote the address she was given where Shimmer and Big Horn was staying, and placed a stamp on it.  She was not sure how the post office handled mail delivered from ponies to ponies on Earth, but she hoped it was something similar to the mail system in Ponyville.  

        Little Horn grabbed the last muffin when her cousin was busy finding a stamp for the letter, and ate it.  When Harmony returned to place the letter in a location where she could remember to mail it, she noticed the muffins were gone.

“Oi! Where’d all the muffins go?” Harmony looked over at Little Horn, who audibly swallowed, looking as innocent as possible..
        
        Little Horn smiled, “What muffins?  They’re all gone!” Little Horn let out a burp, and covered her mouth with a hoof.  “Oops!  Excuse me!”

        Harmony shook her head and ruffled her cousin’s mane with a smirk,  “Cheeky rascal.”

        Little Horn yawned and felt sleepy.  “I’ve had a real tiring day today, Harmony.  I think I’ll sleep on the couch.  Can you wake me up when it’s morning?”  The sleepy filly flopped in a heap on the couch.

        Harmony glanced down, “Nah, I have a better idea than that”.

The older mare telekinetically carried her younger cousin to the bedroom. Two beds, one single and the other a queen-sized double, were set up on either side of the room.  

“There you go,”  She gently tucked her sleepy cousin under the covers, then fluffed a pillow to place under the filly’s head.  

“Good night, L-H!”  Harmony whispered, as the little filly rolled over and opened her eyes.

“See you in the morning, Harmony.”  Little Horn said, yawning again.  The young filly was out like a light as Harmony stroked her cousin’s brown mane with her hoof in a loving gesture.  After placing a kiss on the filly’s forehead, Harmony went to her bed, and prepared for the evening.

Both cousins went to bed, anticipating what the next day would bring.