//------------------------------//
// Take-out (personal) 
// Story: Like Magefire 
// by Archangel of the Silent 
//------------------------------//

	"Twi, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Twilight picked up her checklist one more time. Medical and fire services on standby? Check. Supplies? Check. Shielding spell matrices at the ready? Check. Spike no longer on the premises? Check. Everything was ready.

"Of course I'm sure this is a good idea. Everything's perfect."

"That's what you said the last time, and..."

"I remember what happened last time," Twilight half-jokingly yelled. "And I've been practicing a lot. Have a little faith."

Spitfire sighed as some rather unpleasant memories came to surface. A very large fire, a territorial emergency, twenty straight hours of weather work, and one hell of a party of memories, to be precise. Anniversary dinner wasn't worth the trouble.

"We could go out. I could cook. We could not die."

"I'm not going to kill us! I never even came close!" Now Twilight was starting to become visibly frustrated. It would all be so much simpler if Spitfire would just let her finish.

"I know, but the kitchen is brand new. If you'd let me give you some pointers, I'm sure we could..."

"Absolutely not!" The alicorn swiftly picked Spitfire up in her magic and stuck her outside the door to the kitchens. "I told you I was going to cook you a nice meal, and by Celestia, I'm going to do it!" she screamed before promptly slamming the door in her marefriend's face. Now that there were no distractions, she could finally get to work.

Several minutes passed, leaving Spitfire to her thoughts. It had been a whole year to the day since Twilight had offered to cook for her. That in and of itself worried her greatly. Between herself and Spike cooking for her and restaurant food, the Wonderbolt couldn't help but speculate on how much time of "practice" Twilight actually got in. Then there was the fact that she was sitting on the cold crystal floor on her second anniversary: that upset her greatly, and Twilight was going to have to cook a pretty amazing meal to make up for the lack of time they'd spent together so far.

It's way too quiet in there, she thought to herself after a whole five minutes had passed. Even if nothing had exploded, she should have still been able to hear something. A knife hitting a cutting board, an oven sounding off after its preheating was done. Something. One little peek couldn't hurt, could it? So, she silently pushed open the door and stepped inside.

There, she found a profusely sweating princess focusing a good deal of magical energy into a frying pan. "Hey, Twi," the pegasus began nervously, not wanting to interrupt anything truly important. "What'cha doing?"

Without releasing her magic, the royal turned her head to look at the kitchen's newcomer. "Oh, hey," she started to nervously reply before turning her full attention back to the task at hoof. "Right now? I'm trying to contain this explosion long enough for it to burn itself out."

Spitfire swiftly walked over to the alicorn. "How long should that take?" she questioned, now by Twilight's side.

"Based solely on the sheer amount of energy contained and the finite amount of magic I can put into the shield? Somewhere between ten and twelve minutes."

"You know I love you, right?" Receiving no answer, the pegasus pony sighed again. More drastic measures would need to be taken. She brought a hoof to her mouth and gave it a small lick. "I'm real sorry, Twi, but some of us learn by example." She reached up and touched Twilight's horn, causing a small magical surge and releasing the shield.

The world around both of them went black. Or, rather, the kitchen they happened to be standing in went black. Almost no surface was left untouched, only the faintest blues visible against the char and ash. Both ponies looked ridiculous standing there, their manes blown back, their fur flash-dyed, their eyes open in shock. The force of the explosion took them both by surprise, but did little lasting damage. At least, to them.

"So..." Spitfire finally broke the silence. "Take-out?"