Summoned

by BlackWing

Iron Chef (11)

Breakfast was tense, to say the least. Ladle was fuming, while Flay was just standing there, flipping a very large knife into the air, over and over, using her hoof instead of magic for some reason.

"Eh, any reason why you two are so miffed this morning?" Alex asked.

"Somepony broke into the kitchen last night!" Ladle was mad.

"And?"

"They made food. Whoever this 'food fairy' is, as soon as I find them, I'll make them wish they never set hoof in my kitchen." Her face turned red, and a very tiny amount of steam left her ears.

"What makes you think it was someone with hooves?" Alex asked.

"Eh?" Flay who had been silent the whole time piped up. Celestia and Luna giggled.

"Oh for goodness sake it was me! What's wrong? Didn't like the soup?" He said annoyed. He suddenly pulled his hand back as one of the knives Flay had was jutting out of the table. The table was made of thick ironwood, so you can tell how mad she was.

"Are you crazy? Someone could have gotten hurt! Nice knives by the way. How can they cut that easy? This has to count at kitchen tool mistreatment. Look! You went and chipped the blade! Poor little knife. What did it ever do to you?" He said, looking sullen at the now useless blade.

"Funny are you? Well, you won't think it's so funny when you're on kitchen duty!" Ladle barked.

"Kay. When do I start?"

"Right NOW!" She said, dragging Alex to the kitchen by his collar, levitated magically. He just shrugged and went along with it, thankfully able to convince her he wasn't going to run away before she dragged him down the stairs.

"Okay, so breakfast is over, what's on the menu for lunch?"

"You have a lot of nerve asking questions in my kitchen." Ladle was still very mad.

"Oh alright then, I guess I'll just prepare meals willy nilly, without at all taking into regard what the one who's eating it wants, and without knowing what we have supplied." Sarcasm is ever useful in this kind of situation. Flay threw a knife at him, which he narrowly dodged.

"Oh give it up with the knife throwing already! You'll make a mess of the kitchen. Blood stains are NOT sanitary, especially when the diet is vegetarian. I swear, we don't even need boilers, just put the pan on your forehead!" He mocked, picking up a frying pan and using it to knock away another knife.

"How many of those do you carry?"

"17."

"I count 18. You were hoping to throw all but one and then catch me off guard. You really ought to treat your knives better, now we have to have a funeral for the broken ones." He walked around, picking up the shattered kitchen equipment.

"How?" Flay asked.

"I have a keen eye, nose and tongue. Kind of needed with what I do." He explained, she just looked strangely at him.

"Alright, so not that Flay is done her little tantrum, we should prepare lunch. What are we making?" He asked.

"Oh, we aren't making anything. You are." Ladle pulled the two pots out, still full. "Since you're the 'food fairy' perhaps you can use your magic to keep up with the lunch rush all on your own, but not before we test what you have made."

"Very well! I shall make a grand feast!" He said, being over dramatic. "But you can't just put that back on the oven, you'll burn the soup. I forgot that ponies don't have microwaves."

"Microwaves?" Ladle asked quizzically.

"Yeah, it's kind of like a box, and you can use it to reheat food without cooking it any further. Means you'll never burn anything you put in it. Humans use them a lot for reheating leftovers so they don't turn black from overcooking. I kind of forgot that you don't have them when I put the soup in the fridge. I have no idea how they work either, so it's not like I could have Widget make one." Alex explained. The idea of being able to reheat food got the pair thinking what it might be like.

"Seems a shame to have it go to waste, but you really can't eat it unless it's hot. I'll make a fresh batch for you, then you can decide whether it's good or if I'll give everyone food poisoning."

He proceeded to remake the same soup from the previous night, but kept the noodles, as they were still good. After serving the two cooks, they cautiously sampled it, as if it were an unknown poison.

"It is, satisfactory." Ladle said.

"Coming from you, that's high praise. How many we serving? I need to know how much of the ingredients I'll need."

"200." Flay said in a dead tone, trying to stop her voice from betraying how good the soup was. Her face however, being used to rage fits, was very poor at hiding emotion, and gave it away.

"200, that's quite a lot for one person. No, I CAN do it. Believe it!"

'If only Naruto could see me now. Since there are multiple universes, I wonder if his is real as well.' Alex thought as he gathered what he needed.

"Okay, so lunch is 20 minutes away, got all the ingredients. I can just prepare the soups and let them simmer, but I'll be frantic making these noodles especially since it's not something that can be rushed. A number of the other cooks came in, looking at the spectacle before them.

"Well, since no chef is without a sous chef, I think it's only fair that I have 1 pony help me, my choice." He reasoned.

"Very well, one pony. Choose." Ladle said a little annoyed.

"Flay." She was about to argue, but Ladle just shook her head, the raging mare just went with it.

"Alright, start the soups. The ingredients are all measured out and lined up. Put the first two in on the first minute, and the last two in on the fourth minute. Once that's going, come over here, mix the dough, and then take out your frustrations on it by beating it to a pulp before passing it to me." Alex instructed. Ladle watched scornfully, almost hoping he'd mess up. Flay did as he asked while he spun an already made batch of dough into noodles while humming a little tune. Once the noodles were ready, he did a little dance over to the other wall, where a row of pots with just plain water in them stood, barely boiling, dumping them into the pot. He then headed back to the counter for the next batch of dough.

"Is he, dancing?" One of the cooks whispered to another.

"I take it he just really likes to cook?" The second one responded before they both got a sharp look from the head chef. Flay looked strangely at the human visitor, who appeared to be having the time of his life.

"Oi! Flay, you're getting distracted! Get your act in gear!" He reprimanded her, catching the dough she threw at him and beginning to twist it into noodles.

"Well, at least it's not a knife." He said, throwing the second set into the pot, pulling the first.

"Only one pony for cooking, the rest of you, quit twiddling your hooves and start putting it in bowls! Noodles first, then soup. We have hungry ponies to feed!" He laughed as one of them lifted a pot of soup over to another counter, along with several bowls, and began preparing it.

"They're here! Lunch has begun, and the princesses are with! Widget, Suds, Fiddlestick, Serenity, Griswold, Stonechip, and even Prince Blueblood! The princesses know, but the rest aren't aware who's making it!" One of the waiters called into the kitchen.

"Good, first two batches are ready! Move your flanks! I swear, if you were this slow on earth they'd put you in a deep fryer! Go!" They weren't actually being slow, but Alex figured he might as well have fun with them as well. Pots of soup and noodles flung around the kitchen magically, prompting Alex to keep his head down as they were brought around, emptied of their contents, then refilled by Alex and Flay for the next batch. This chaos continued for about an hour, until all had been fed, except Alex, Flay, and Ladle. They each grabbed themselves a bowl, then headed out into the dining hall. Both princesses, the prince, and all the staff heads were there, eating. You can only imagine Blueblood's surprise when Alex came out wearing an apron.

"You mean to tell me HE cooked this?" The prince spat, pushing the food he had been so greedily devouring before away as if it was toxic sludge. Everypony else simply continued eating.

"Ah, well, if you don't like it fine by me. Ain't gonna force you to eat it. Shame it goes to waste then." Alex said, taking the bowl away. The prince suddenly looked distraught, but didn't say anything. It was obvious he liked it, but his stubborn pride wouldn't have it. He got up and left in a huff, while the rest enjoyed their meal.

"Well, you said cooking was your passion, but I never expected this. It is quite good." Luna said.

"Yeah! Sure is great!" Widget said, covering the bowl she held in her hooves with grease.

"How can you eat like that?" Suds looked disgusted.

Flay approached Alex slowly, clearly nervous by the way she was tapping her hoof on the ground.

"Um, I'm sorry for throwing those knives....." She said wincing.

"Between you and me, I could tell that you weren't actually trying to hit me. Sure makes you come off scary though. How are you ever supposed to get a boyfri... coltfriend if you go scaring everyone away? I don't know about here, but where I'm from, being able to cook is a huge plus in a relationship." He replied, causing her to blush.

"You think, maybe you could give me and Ladle some recipes? Everypony seemed to like it." What she asked was in dangerous territory, as most chefs wouldn't just give their secrets to one another.

"Sure. Why not? After all, I'm not the castle chef, and if I go making food without permission, Ladle will yell so, yeah. Better to have everyone be able to have it." After writing down a number of recipes on various sticky notes and passing them to the unicorn sous chef, she skipped merrily back to Ladle in the kitchen, where they began going over them.

"Well, now that kitchen duty is out of the way, I gotta work double time with Suds to clean up." Alex said a little sullen that he was behind on his work.

"Do you want me to...." Celestia began to ask.

"Nah, I'll be fine unbound. I've been here a while already and nothing catastrophic happened. I trust myself to not get killed." He replied.

"Whew, all that's left is the third floor south wing. Aren't they doing renovations there?" Alex asked Suds.

"Yeah, I know Stone Chip doesn't like it when we get in the way there, but they spilled a load of mortar and they need us to take care of it." He replied.

"Alright, well, let's get going."

Arriving at the sight, Alex saw Blueblood, butting in. He was scolding the ponies working there for something or other, yammering on about things he knew nothing about, making a general ass of himself.

"Out of my way you peasant! Oh, and look, the filthy ape is here too. Come to roll around in the dirt?" He scoffed.

"You gonna put up with that monkey?" Suds whispered, using his nickname for Alex.

"Meh, I'm over it." Alex said with a shrug. Blueblood walked right up to him, and although the human was taller, the prince brought himself up high and looked straight into his eyes.

"That's right. Because I'm Prince Blueblood. There is nothing you can do to me. You have to put up with it, you don't have a choice." He snarled, making a complete idiot of himself.

"As I said once before my liege, I'm over it. A little saying, sticks and stone may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Especially if they come from someone I couldn't care less about. Listen and listen well, I've tried avoiding you, I've tried being pleasant, I don't know what your problem with me is, but I suggest you deal with it. The sooner we get over this issue, the better, as acting like this is most unbecoming of both of us. We're both civilized, but we're acting like animals who're intruding on each other's territory."

"Hmmph." Blueblood stuck his nose up.

"Fine, be that way. Soon as you feel like getting over yourself, come and talk to me. If something about me is getting on your nerves, then SAY something." Alex turned away. All the worker ponies, Stone Chip, and Suds were just staring at him after the prince had left.

"What?"

"Nopony's ever stood up to the prince before. He just canters around, treating everypony like dirt." They replied.

"I guess since I'm not on payroll, I can't really get fired now can I? Even if I was, it's not like I have bills to pay. I'm living here on royal request. There's nothing he can do to me either. As long as I don't clobber him or sling insults, I'm fine. And I don't see that happening any time soon. I've dealt with people like him before. I know just how to get under his skin. That being said, I'm not gonna go around looking for trouble, I'll just hold my ground when it comes looking for me."