Twilight stirred from her unconscious state, the sweet scent of breakfast filling her nostrils. Her eyes fluttered open, looking around to see where she was. The room was easily identified as the cabin’s living room, which meant that she was on the couch. She couldn’t recall how she had gotten there though. The last thing she could remember was that snake, shuddering at the terrifying recollection.
Trying to push the memory out of her head, she looked into the kitchen. She saw me standing over the stove, but she couldn’t see the stove itself on account of the fridge blocking her view. However, she concluded thatever I was fixing smelled delicious.
About this time, I flipped the last two pancakes onto the serving plate and spread butter over them. Setting the plate to the side, I reached past the foldable griddle to unplug it. Gathering up the utensils, I piled them into the empty batter bowl, and I put them all in the sink before filling the bowl with warm water. I’d have to let the griddle’s cooking-plates cool before washing them, so I moved on to put the tub of butter back in the fridge.
As I closed the refrigerator door, I turned around to see how Twilight was doing. She was laying there with her legs folded beneath her and her head held upright, looking at me in a sort of blank expression. To know she was awake and presumably well brought a smile to my face, though my stomach turned a bit as I recalled how foolish I had been earlier. Trying to focus on more positive thoughts, I stepped back into the kitchen and grabbed the plate of pancakes.
“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey,” I said light heartedly as I stepped into the room. Her eyes instantly focused on the plate piled with three stacks of four pancakes. I grinned again at the surprised look on her face.
“I didn’t know what kind you liked, so I went ahead and made them all regular, or ‘classic’, as I prefer.” I set the plate on the small eating table, which was pushed into the corner to the right of the couch.
“You eat pancakes, right?” I asked. After all, I honestly had no idea what she ate. We had not yet reached that topic in our earlier conversation before things went pear-shaped.
Twilight nodded, looking from the pancakes to me. “Y-yes, of course. They smell delicious… thank you.”
“No, thank you,” I said politely as I nodded my head a bit. I turned and headed back to the kitchen to get the rest of the food, as well as the utensils. “What about eggs? You eat scrambled eggs?”
“Sometimes, but not that often. Why, did you make some?”
“Yeah, I made a few,” I said clearly so that she could hear me from the kitchen. I lifted out a couple of plates from the cabinet and set them on the counter. “…Don’t suppose you eat bacon though.” I grabbed two sets of silverware and set them on the plates.
“What’s bacon?” Twilight asked plainly.
I grinned as I picked up the serving plate with eggs and bacon in one hand, and the eating plates in the other. “Oh, it’s only the second half of what is considered an average breakfast,” I said as I walked back into the living room and set the plates on the table. “Though, if you’re looking for specifics, it’s fried strips of pig meat.”
Twilight’s curious expression shifted drastically to one of horror, her pupils shrinking and her jaw dropping. Guess she was a vegetarian, just like the ponies here were.
“Now, before you go jumping to conclusions, allow me to explain,” I said abruptly in hopes she was still open to listening to reason. “Humans, as a species, are omnivores, meaning we eat plants and animals. But don’t fret, because we have considerably picky tastes when it comes to our meats. In this region the most preferred meats are cow, also known as beef, pigs, aka pork, chicken, aka… chicken, and turkey.” I took a step toward Twilight, however she recoiled her head slightly at my advancement. “So don’t worry. We don’t eat horses or ponies. …and yes, there are ponies here, though they hardly share any resemblance to you aside from having hooves,” I concluded with a shrug.
Twilight closed her mouth and broke eye contact, looking down in contemplation. I grabbed a strip of bacon and folded it into my mouth, chewing on the savory strip of meat. My actions caught Twilight’s attention. She looked back up to me with a concerned look on her face. An awkward silence fell over the two of us.
My chewing slowed to a stop before I rolled my eyes. “Look, I’m not going to eat you, okay? That is literally never going to happen. So do you wanna take a seat and have some pancakes before they get cold, or would you prefer sitting there staring at me for a while longer?” I said in a playful tone.
An audible gurgling noise came from Twilight’s stomach. “…Yeah, okay,” she said, looking down to her tummy. “I really am hungry now that I think about it.”
I set a plate with silverware at her place on the table before pulling the seat out and motioning to it formally. “Then by all means, please, be seated.”
Twilight carefully got down from the couch and walked over to the chair, hopping up on it. She sat on her rump with her forehooves in-between her legs. I heard a comment in the back of my head at how cute she lookedwhen sitting like that as I pushed the chair back to the table, making sure to leave her enough room. However, seeing that neither the chair nor the table were made ponies, the table was considerably tall for her.
“I could get a pillow for you to sit on, if you want,” I asked her.
She looked up to me with a small smile just noticeable on her face. “I’d appreciate it.”
I reached over to the couch and grabbed a thick, firm pillow from beside the arm rest. “Here,” I said, pulling the chair back out. I placed the pillow on the seat once Twilight had hopped down. I helped her back up on the pillow and pushed the chair back to the table.
“How’s that?” I inquired.
“Much better, thanks,” Twilight said sweetly.
I tipped an invisible hat politely in response before moving to the chair adjacent to hers and taking a seat. As I reached my fork out to snag a couple of pancakes, I heard a clatter as Twilight winced. My hand froze as I turned to Twilight, who was rubbing her bandage. A rather dismayed look was on her face as she looked down to the fork, which was laying half way between her plate and the pancakes.
“…Something the matter?” I asked, genuinely concerned.
“Ugh, I can’t even levitate anything!” She looked up to me, blinking at the perplexed look on my face. “…Levitation is one of the most basic spells of magic,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Right… so, you need a hand?” I asked, looking down to the fork.
“I can’t make a hand without my magic, remember?”
“No, no,” I said, grinning at her misunderstanding. “If someone ‘needs a hand’ then they are in need of help.”
“Oh, you mean like lending someone a hoof?”
“Well, I guess that makes sense for ponies…” I zoned out for a second, wondering how many more ponified puns there must be where she comes from. …Would ‘ponified’ even count as one?
Anyways, I pushed the pony-pun-conundrum to the back of my head for later. Using my fork I skewered a couple of pancakes and gingerly moved them to her plate, after which I put my fork down and moved hers back beside the plate. I retracted my hands and smiled hopefully.
“Is that enough pancakes for you, or you want some more?” I inquired.
“That’s enough for now, thank you,” she replied kindly.
“Okie dokie then. Would you like some eggs? Maybe some ba-” I stopped myself, remembering who I was talking to. “Oh… right.”
Twilight’s nose scrunched a bit. “Yeah, no… thanks,” She said, trying to turn down the awkward offer.
“Yeah…” I reached over as subtly as I could and turned the plate so that the bacon was facing me. Picking up my fork again, I stabbed a stack of four pancakes and brought them to my plate. I looked across the table for the syrup, only to mentally slap myself and sigh.
“Derp-it-all, I forgot the syrup,” I said as I stood up from my seat. As I turned I looked down to Twilight, sitting there looking at her pancakes. Her forehooves rested against the side of the table. Again, I slapped myself as another realization hit me.
“Hooves, you fool! How is she to eat without hands?” I thought to myself agitatedly. I stood there a second to ponder the question before sighing and heading towards the kitchen. I just hoped that she wouldn’t eat by shoving her… face, I guess, into the food and snarfing it down. Of course, I had already pegged her to be more civilized than that… then again it was still technically an animal.
“Gah, I don’t know,” I concluded, rolling my eyes. “I just hope she doesn’t make a mess.”
I opened the cabinet and grabbed the nearest open syrup bottle, eyeing it for a brief second to make sure it had enough for the number of pancakes I had fixed. I closed the cabinet and turned to head back to the living room, but froze. I thought I could see Twilight using the utensils. Not just flailing around with them either, oh no. She was clearly holding one in each hoof.
As I got closer to the table, I was sure I wasn’t just seeing stuff. I stood by my place at the table, my face exhibiting a stupefied expression as I watched her cut her pancakes.
“Uhh…” I uttered unintentionally.
Twilight looked up to me, raising a brow. “What…?”
“What, um…” I paused, rubbing my chin scruff as I tried to piece together how I was going to ask this question. “Well, if… if you don’t mind my asking, how are you holding that without hands?” I finally spoke up, pointing to the silverware.
“Oh, well you see, there are a series of neurocells that run through the inner-most circle of our hooves that allow us to…” Her expression flattened slightly when she noticed the extremely confused look on my face.
“…Because magic,” she said bluntly.
I nodded slowly. “Riiight… you want syrup, right?” I asked, trying not to think of her freaky hoof powers.
“Yes please,” She replied.
I drizzled the syrup across her cut-up pancakes before taking a seat and drizzling syrup across my un-cut pancakes. She began eating almost as soon as I had poured the syrup, however I sat there quietly to let my pancakes absorb the syrup. Sitting there also gave me a few moments to go over my thoughts and make sure that what I was about to do went well. After a minute or two of staring at my pancakes on contemplation, I looked up to my guest.
“Hey, Twilight?” I asked politely.
Twilight swallowed her mouthful of syrupy pancake mush and looked to me. “Yes?”
“I… I’d like to apologize for earlier this morning.” I looked down to the table and rubbed my brow as I continued. “I know it was early, but I don’t usually go nutsy like that… Also, I’m sorry about all that with Brain. He really is harmless, but looking back I know that wasn’t exactly the best way to show it. Especially considering your phobia.”
The uncomfortable rumblies in my tummy inclined me to pause a moment to see how Twilight would react. Her gaze seemed to look distant for a moment, deep in thought.
“…It’s okay,” she said plainly. “As I said before, I had expected much worse, considering the foreign nature of this place. For all I knew, the first person I met could try to kill me. In any case, I was most certainly not expecting a hearty pancake breakfast.” She let out a single, somewhat nervous chuckle.
“Speaking of which,” she continued, “These are very good.”
I smiled meekly. “Thank you. I do like to think that if I was good at anything, it would be making pancakes.”
“Well that you certainly are,” Twilight said, stuffing another couple of pancake chunks into her mouth.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
My smile faded as I worked up the nerve to continue. Twilight looked at me, obviously taking notice of the concerned look on my face. Her chewing slowed almost to a stop before she swallowed.
“…What is it?” she asked slowly.
I. Looking back, I always have been a bundle of nerves when confronting someone about something that I feared would bring them displeasure. I’m not quite sure why, but it certainly didn’t help me in situations like this.
“Twilight, you need to know,” I began, in a calm tone of voice. “Last night, when you arrived… I hit you with my car.” I paused for a quick moment, figuring out what to say next. “Now, I know how it sounds right off the bat, but trust me. It was a complete accident. I mean, you literally teleported directly in front of my car. I didn’t even know I had hit something- er… you, until I stopped and looked behind me.” I held my hands up defensively. “It was a total accident for which I did, and do, feel bad for, and I truly am sorry for hurting you like I did.”
I crossed my arms, looking around the table in nervous anticipation of Twilight’s reply to the newfound information. After what felt like half an hour, to me at least, I was met with a response.
“…That’s alright,” Twilight said plainly.
I turned to her and cocked an eyebrow, my mouth hanging open slightly in a stupor. “Y-you sure?”
“Well, yeah.” She shrugged. “I mean, you honestly don’t seem like the kind of guy who’d do something like that intentionally. And even if you somehow were, you still took the time to doctor my wounds, and even make a hearty breakfast for me. So, considering the circumstances, I understand that it was an accident, and I appreciate all that you’ve done for me.” A genuine smile spread on her face.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at how well she had taken it. It certainly did relieve any worry of some enraged freak-out. I looked back down to my pancakes and grinned, enjoying the refreshed feeling of letting something off my chest without the situation devolving into some inflamed argument or rant.
I cut a slice out of my stack of syrup-soaked pancakes and stuffed it in my mouth, feeling like I was able to truly savor the sweetness of it. I chewed slowly to make it last before eventually swallowing. As I did, I couldn’t help but feel like it was going to be a good day.