It had been a month or two since the fateful encounter between Twilight Sparkle's parents, and princess Celestia. Her brother had finally finished his prolonged tour of latrine duty, but was still on KP duty for the foreseeable future. Twilight had decided to give her brother a happy surprise. It may be punishment, she reasoned, but that didn't mean that the two of them weren't supposed to enjoy it. Smarty Pants had agreed with her, and thus was seated in a place of honor on her back.
Twilight gently pushed open the door to the back room of the Guard Kitchen, and slinked forward on her belly, edging her way towards the pony working there. She opened her mouth to shout boo, when suddenly the pony whirled around and shouted "BOO!" at her.
Twilight squealed, her front legs sproinging outwards, sending her tumbling backwards head over heels while the other pony wiped at his face while laughing "I can... hehehe... I can always hear you coming, Twi!" he extolled.
Twilight gave him the same sort of look a cat gives its owner after it falls from a chair. "Hmph." She said, waving her nose in the air. She paused a moment, watching him out of the corner of her eye.
The other pony laughed harder, now clutching her belly. Twilight started to smile, then started laughing herself. Soon the two of them were laughing together. "How did you know I was coming?" Twilight asked.
"I read your checklist for today." The other pony said, offhandedly, ear flicking casually.
"... You WHAT?!" Twilight gnashed her teeth, then charged the larger pony. Chuckling he lead her on a merry chase through the storeroom behind the kitchen, when suddenly a large male pony with a soup ladle on his hoof burst through the doors "Do I hear a recruit on punishment duty having FUN behind my back?" he demanded with scalding voice.
Twilight and the other pony froze in a tableau, Twilight's teeth just about to bite the tip of the other pony's tail.
The other pony was the first to speak, straightening his back and pulling off a textbook salut. "Guardspony Trainee Shining Armour, Sir! I was performing my ordinary duties when I discovered what I believed to be an enemy infiltrator in the back room of the kitchen with me, Sir! On inspection, the unidentified contact was revealed to be my sister, Sir! I attempted to report to you, but she intercepted me, and we played a merry game of cat and mouse through the storeroom, Sir!" Twilight moved her mouth away from the swishy tail, trying to look small.
The larger pony looked at the two of them, then chuckled gently. "At ease, Guardspony Trainee Shining Armour."
The other pony relaxed. Following his cue, Twilight relaxed as well.
The larger pony leaned forward to inspect Twilight, at which point her tiny belly rumbled. He chuckled. "Guardspony Trainee Shining Armour, you are hereby granted use of the stoves. Your assigned mission is to make your hungry little sister some food. Git you, spend some time with your sister." He playfully whacked the other pony on the rump with the ladle as he passed. "Soon enough she'll be all growed up, and you'll kick yourself for missing it if you don't." Now his voice sounded somewhat wistful. The cook gave one last look around the storeroom, and resecured the store room's exterior door, before returning to the kitchens himself.
Shining was preparing Twilight several of his precious Morning Glory pancakes. Carrots, Dates, Barley, Oats, Banana, Walnuts, and Flax seed, saffron, topped with plenty of butter and molasses. The thing that Twilight loved most about the golden pancakes were that they tasted of sunshine, happiness, and love.
"So, Twi, how are your studies going?" He asked as he used his magic to flip another cake in the skillet.
"Mmph, Celemstria stargit..." Twilight began, spraying pancake all over the filly sized table that Shiny had carried into the kitchen for her.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Twilight. Chew. There you go. Swallow. Now milk. Good." Shining said with a soft sigh. She was always so eager to talk about classes, he really should have remembered. One time she had almost choked herself. "Now... How are your studies?"
Twilight took a deep breath "Well, Celestia finally started teaching me magic, she taught me how to teleport so I'll never be late again, she said that she didn't mean to teach me that, and that I shouldn't ever teleport 'blind' nor do it without supervision, but why would she have teleported in front of me if she hand't intended for me to learn how, and if I teleport to her, that's with supervision right, because I can totally use her as a fixed reference point when I teleport by combining my pony finding spell with the teleport spell and it should be sooo awesome so I can't wait to try it out." Twilight was very high pitched from low air when she finished her incredibly unbroken sentence.
Shining armour was staring at his little sister with his mouth open in shock, a flapjack blackening on the stove. "Wait, hold up there Twi, you can teleport? You're just a foal! I can't even teleport yet."
"It's really easy when you get the feel for it you just twist your magic perpendicular to everything else like this..." And then Twilight was standing on the stove next to the pan, using her magic to rescue the pancake, "aand you're done."
"Oh. That is simpler than I had thought," Shining said thoughtfully, eyes half lidded in focus, "But it's not very elegant. If you do that too often, you're going to be very tired and hungry. I think I'd better make you a few extra pancakes to go."
The door to the kitchen from the dining room opened, and another guardspony stuck her head through the door. It was Cpl Battleax. "The boys outside are getting kinda rowdy" she said "They say they can smell something delicious, and are getting tired of waiting for it to come out to them. You'd better start making them some of whatever you're making, or we're going to have a riot on our hands."
Shining nodded, eyes wide, and wrapped a some pancakes in some wax paper for later, with a small pot of butter and another of molasses. "You'd better get going, Twi. I'm going to be really busy pretty soon. Be care..."
"O.K," Twilight said and disappeared in a purple pop.
"...ful." Shining blinked. He worried a moment, then shook his head. She'd probably be alright.
Celestia was having tea while waiting on her student. She sipped gently at the warm sun berry tea. It was a lovely day. There was a soft *pop* sound. A little bit later there was a clattering sound. It sounded almost like it was coming from somewhere near the table. Celestia ducked her head down to glance under the table, checking if Twilight had teleported under it. "Please! Help! Let me out!" a little voice echoed out of the spout of her teapot.
Celestia blinked, then cautiously removed the lid from the teapot. A familiar little filly was inside, treading tea. Celestia snorted. "Twilight, whatever are you doing in there?" she giggled as she lit up her horn, beginning to fish the familiar filly from her flowery teapot. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she felt Celestia's magic wrap around her and stand her on end, before lifting her out the lid. Smarty Pants soon followed, wrapped in Twilight's magic. Celestia then set Twilight on the table, and lifted the pot to tip the remainder of the now filly flavored tea into a flowerpot. Twilight set Smarty on the table, propped up against a flower pot.
"I was practicing teleport magic," Twilight said, sheepishly, ears submissively straddling her head.
"Are you alri.." Celestia leaned forwards to nuzzle the dripping filly, checking to see if Twilight was alright. She sniffed at Twilight then wrinkled her nose. "What is that remarkable smell?"
"I snuck up on my brother in the kitchen and he gave me some pancakes," Twilight said cheerfully, opening her wet totebag to show Celestia the wax-wrapped pancakes.
Celestia gave a quick glance inside the saddlebags to see the contents miraculously dry. Given how often the filly in front of her managed to get herself sopping wet, she supposed it wasn't a surprise that the bag was either enchanted, or just lined with an oilskin to keep the contents dry. Probably both.
Celestia then leaned forwards to sniff the pancakes, her pupils narrowing to points. "My, these smell divine," she whispered to herself. "Twilight, may we share a pancake together?"
"Of course!" Twilight said "Mom says that sharing is the best thing any ponies can do with each other!" She grinned, grabbing one of Celestia's fine china plates in her magic and indelicately slamming it to the table, then flopping a pancake on, and drizzling melted butter and thick molasses over it. She picked up a fork and knife, only to feel them wrenched out of her magic by Celestia.
"I'll do the honors of cutting it," Celestia said, privately fretting about the possibility of Twilight cutting through her plate.
The golden flavored pancakes were heavenly, and Celestia sighed in contentment as she sipped at her cream filled tea. The only portion that was unfinished was the small tidbit placed in front of little miss Pants.
"This is another example of what I was teaching you," Celestia said to Twilight, waving a fork philosophically in the air.
"Oh?" Twilight asked, a scrap of parchment and a pen appearing from her bag.
"Yes, remember how I told you to identify ponies by their personality traits? Well, I doubt any other pony makes pancakes exactly like your brother's," Celestia said, with a contented sigh.
Twilight nodded with wide eyes as this tidbit was added to her list.
"Kitchen clean up, Kitchen clean up" Shining half sang to himself with a sigh, as he washed the massive mound of dishes produced by the constant demands for pancakes he had filled. It felt like every single gardspony within commuting distance of the castle had decided to visit him.
"Kid, you're not done yet. Keep working," The head chef said, as he put more plates next to Shining, "Consider this your punishment for playing with your sister."
Celestia watched Twilight amble out the door, Smarty in tow, personal lessons complete for the day. The rest of Twilight's lessons would be with the other ponies and teachers in the school. She rested a moment, than clicked her tongue to request an attendant.
"Yes, my lady?" A maid said.
"Go fetch the the Captain of the Trainees. We need to discuss and further refine the punishment detail for Shining Armour."