Spirit started giving lectures later that week. Cheerilee had given him permission to use the Ponyville Schoolhouse and he didn’t waste a minute. They needed extra chairs to accommodate the amount of ponies who came to his first lecture.
When everypony was seated, Spirit trotted to the front of the classroom. “Hello everypony,” he greeted. “Thank you all for coming today. Now, I know most of you are probably expecting me to speak for an hour and a half, prattling on about every minuscule detail concerning Passover.”
He stopped speaking for a moment to listen to the class’s reactions. Some of the older ponies in the room were nodding in agreement, while the younger attendees were looking bored at the thought of a dragged out lesson-slash-speech.
“But that’s not what’s gonna happen today because-“ Spirit levitated some chalk and let it scrawl across the board, “-you will be asking questions and I’ll be answering them!”
The crowd sighed as though a huge weight had been lifted from their shoulders, some ponies even applauding. Thunderlane, Bon Bon, Time Turner and several others leaned on the edge of their seats in anticipation. Twilight bounced up and down in her chair, parchment and quill at the ready for taking notes. Lyra Heartstrings jabbed her hoof into the air, much like a school filly would, clearly eager for what was to come.
“Yes, Lyra?” Spirit addressed the unicorn.
“Spirit, why did the ancient pony sages make the Seder so long?” she asked
“All the stages of the Seder have great significance, Lyra.” As Spirit spoke, the chalk held in his magic aura spun across the chalkboard, writing the names of the fourteen Seder stages. “Each one has its own significance towards our liberation from slavery. For example.” The chalk drew four goblets on the board. “Starting from the very first stage of the Seder, we begin to drink four cups of wine, each one at a different part of the Seder. These four cups symbolize the four expressions the Architect used, promising our freedom: I will bring you out, I will deliver you from their bondage, I will redeem you and I will take you to Me for a herd.”
Happy with the answer, Lyra sat back. Time Turner was next. “What about the Counting of the Omare?” he asked with a raised hoof. “The one that goes on for forty-nine days?”
“Ah, the Omare.” Spirit picked up the eraser and wiped off the four cups, instead drawing a path-like trail leading up to a mountain surrounded by lightning and topped with two tablets. “The forty-nine days between our salvation from slavery and the giving of our oral pony traditions from the Grand Architect of Equestria herself. We count each night, numbering the weeks and days as we go along, until we reach Shavuoat. If you forget to count at night, you can do it again the following morning.”
“Ooh ooh, I’ve got one!”
“Yes, Twist?” Spirit said.
“I always wondered,” the filly began, “why do we celebrate the 33rd day of the Omare with bonfires?”
Spirit’s expression became serious and somber. “That is an important but sad tale. You see Twist, during the period that we count the Omare, two thousand and four hundred of Starswirl the Bearded’s students died, leaving the great unicorn with only five students, one of them being Clover the Clever, who you all know from the Hearth’s Warming story. It was on the 33rd day that Starswirl’s students stopped dying. It was also on this day that Clover the Clever passed away, so we celebrate her memory by lighting bonfires and visiting her burial site in the town of Mareone.”
“Could we go to Mareone this year?” Twist asked hopefully.
The dark-blue unicorn tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Your idea has merit. We should ask Cheerliee.”
“Yay!”
“I’ve got a question,” Colgate said.
"Let's hear it then.”
“It’s about the Seder. We have three matzahs for the Seder, right? Why do we split the middle one in half and hide the bigger piece?”
Spirit leaned on the front desk and rubbed his hooves together. “Oh ho ho, now things are getting interesting.” With another wave of his horn, the board was erased and the chalk drew three round matzahs, one with an uneven line down the middle. “In the fourth stage of the Seder, Yachatz, the pony leading the Seder breaks the middle matzah in half. The bigger half is the afikomen and it represents the Passover Lamb, a blessed young sheep that was present during ancient Seders. A common custom is to hide the afikomen for the foals to find, but getting it back tends to become... problematic. This custom was started as a means to keep them awake ‘til the end of the Seder. See, the Seder can’t be concluded without the afikomen. It’s vital, and the foals know this, so they refuse to relinquish the afikomen until compromises are made.”
The class ponies started to mutter among themselves. The younger ponies were wearing youthful smug faces while some of the adults were looking concerned. “But I haven’t heard of a Seder where the afikomen wasn’t given back,” Spirit declared, “and I don’t think I’ll hear it happening this year either. Just make sure you know the foals well and are prepared to be generous.”
“That’s not a bad thing, though,” Pipsqueak pointed out, although some of the other foals were still grinning.
“No,” Spirit admitted. “At the appropriate time anyway.”
Time Turner got up from his seat. “Well, I dunno about the rest of you, but me and Derpy still have stuff to clean, so if you’ll excuse me…”
“Same here,” Lyra said as the brown stallion left the schoolhouse. “Bon Bon’s gone to bake matzah and I’ve still got to scrub the kitchen.”
“That’s all right everypony,” Spirit said sincerely. “It was almost time to finish anyway. I myself have to get some things for the Seder. Class dismissed.”
All the ponies got up and left, some groaning about all the cleaning they had left to do while others pranced off happily to get the holiday necessities.
*
Fang paced before the line of ponies standing behind Sugarcube Corner. They had all come ready to join the dragon in matzah baking. At least, they hoped they were ready. Fang walked back and forth, his hands behind his back, a helmet pulled low over his eyes.
“All right maggots, listen up!” he bellowed. “You’ve all baked stuff before, and even those of you who haven’t know the gist of it. But all that’s going to be useless here!”
Apple Bloom and Rarity exchanged nervous looks. The dragon continued his briefing. “When you bake, you take your time, adding and mixing at your leisure. But if we want our matzah to be worth anything, they gotta be out of the oven in under eighteen minutes!”
Bon Bon gulped. Pinkie Pie was shaking with excitement, paying attention but ignoring Fang’s menacing tone. “Matzah is straightforward enough,” Fang declared. “You mix flour and water, knead and pound the dough, roll it flat, poke it full of holes, slide it into a fiery oven and BAM – all done.
“BUT,” Fang barked suddenly, cutting short the relived sighs of theCutie Mark Crusaders, “that’s not to say it’ll be simple. Matzah baking is done in stages, all of which have to be done at breakwing speed, so we’ll be assigning all of you to the different stages and then we’ll get to work.”
Fang walked over to a number of tables that were set up. The first one had a sack of flour from the bakery. The second had a large tank of water set up beside it. “One pony will be in charge of measuring out the flour, and another will be responsible for the water. The two ingredients will be put in a bowl, and then a third pony will mix them together. Who wants to do that?”
“I’ll do the mixing!” Pinkie cried out, rushing to the table.
“I’ll do the water,” Bon Bon offered.
“Wheeee!” somepony laughed, and the sack of flour flew into the air in a light cerulean aura.
Several ponies gasped, but Pinkie chuckled. “Not now, Pumpkin,” she chided gently. “We need that flour for making matzah.”
“Aaah,” the baby unicorn gurgled, holding the flour out of Pinkie’s reach.
“Woo!” her twin brother Pumpkin Cake cheered as he bumped the water tank, causing it to spill its contents. The sack burst and the two ingredients combined inevitably in the air and fell towards the matzah bakers. Everypony shrieked as the doughy mass dropped but Fang calmly looked up, took a deep breath and exhaled a plume of dragonfire. The descending dough burned and blackened, deteriorating in the wind. Fang flapped his wings and the smoldering ashes blew down the road.
Everypony stared in awe at the green dragon. Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, both powdered with flour from being too close to the sack when it exploded, galloped around the crowd, giggling childishly. Fang pulled his helmet down further over his eyes. “Pinks,” he addressed the party pony.
Pinkie giggled. “Yes?”
“Take the foals back to the kitchen. Ask Carrot Cake if he’s got some chametz to keep them occupied. Also, see if you can’t get another sack of flour as the twins have-“ He looked over at the two flour-dusted foals. “-helped themselves to our first bag.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie waved Pound and Pumpkin over to the back door and the twins followed her inside.
Fang nodded. “Great.” Then he swung around and faced the other ponies, who were just beginning to calm down from their panic when-
“BACK TO YOUR STATIONS!”
With a number of frightened yelps, Bon Bon rushed back to the water tank and everypony else lined up again. “Neon Light,” the dragon said, pointing at the DJ. “You’ll take the flour. Do it your way, but do it right and do it fast.”
Neon grinned and pulled his glasses down. “You got it.” He stepped over to the flour table just as Pinkie came back with a new sack. Neon poured the flour into a sieve and spun it around like a vinyl record, effectively sifting the flour.
Fang turned towards the other ponies. “That’s our first three chosen. Now we’re going to need somepony to knead the dough with this.” He waved to the third table, where a large metal rod was built over the tabletop. “Only a strong pony will be able to use this device quickly and efficiently. Who’s it gonna be?”
“I’LL DO IT!” Bulk Biceps yelled. He walked over to the third table, where he stood dutifully beside the metal contraption.
“Can’t think of anypony more suitable for the job,” Fang approved.
“YEAH!” Bulk flexed his muscles. “P IS FOR PASSOVER!”
“Sure is.” Fang walked to the fourth table, which held several rolling pins. “We’re going to need a few ponies to work here, where they’ll receive pieces of dough which they will then roll out flat. Remember: the flatter the matzah is, the faster it’ll bake. But don’t make it too thin or they’ll fall apart. Now who wants to roll out the dough?”
“Me!”
“Ah’ll do it!”
“Me too!”
Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo zipped over to stand by the table. Each one grabbed a rolling pin and raised it high. “Cutie Mark Crusader Matzah Bakers! YAY!”
Fang rubbed his ears. “I’ll say.” He looked at the lined-up ponies. “Anypony else?”
The ponies looked at the rolling pins, some thinking whether or not they wanted that particular job. Fluttershy inched back, but Angel gave her a persistent shove and the pegasus tumbled forward. Fang looked down at the shy pony by his feet. He glared at Angel, gave him the ‘I’ve got my eye on you’ gesture, then returned his attention to Fluttershy. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to.”
“No no, it’s fine,” Fluttershy said, accepting Fang’s claw and standing up. “I don’t mind trying new things, even if they’re really fast.”
Fang gave Angel another dirty look, then smirked evilly. The bunny blanched and bounded off. Fang nodded and turned back to the remaining ponies. “Now that we’ve got our rollers, we’re going to need some riddlers.”
“Shouldn’t you be asking Discord if you want riddles?” asked a grey colt, scratching his black-and-green mane.
“Not that kind of riddling, Cyberspace. Riddling as in puncturing.” Fang gestured to the next table, upon which rested several strange tools. They looked like small rolling pins mounted on forks, but covered with small blunt spikes like a pointy steamroller.
“Those are used to poke holes in the matzah, to allow faster baking. It might not seem important, but it speeds things up plenty. You want a go at it, Cyberspace?”
The techy pony grinned confidently. “Certainly.” He took his position by the perforating table.
“Okay, now we need one more.” Fang looked up and down the line of remaining ponies. Some of them were exchanging glances, but none seemed too interested in holing the matzah. Fang was about to ask again when a small earth pony stepped out of the line.
“I-I’ll do the riddling,” she said in a small voice.
Fang bent down on one knee to look the filly in the eye. “What’s your name?”
SMACK
"You dummy, Fang. It's me!"
The dragon rubbed his head under his helmet, right where the little pony had whacked him. "Sorry, Aspear. It was too easy."
The rest of the ponies all chuckled as Fang led Spirit's daughter to the riddling table. “Glad to have you participating, Aspear.”
Aspear gave the dragon a smile and stood opposite Cyberspace, the two ponies sharing a hoof-bump. Fang looked back at the ponies standing at the side, some watching the chosen workers somewhat sadly.
“Don’t worry, everypony,” Fang told the crowd as he walked towards the oven. “You’ll all get a turn to do everything if you want.” He picked up a long wooden pole on the table next to the oven. “What I do need right now is ponies who will sand the poles after I’ve finished using them, to remove any leavened dough left from the previous round. So gather round and prepare yourselves.”
The ponies cheered and each grabbed a piece of sandpaper, dutifully awaiting their chance to do their part. Fang turned to the oven and blew a gout of flame into it, igniting the interior. He slowly walked around the tables, carefully making sure everypony was ready for the next eighteen minutes. He stopped in front of the mixing table, eyeing the three ponies around it. Fang raised a claw and Neon came forward with a cup of flour, which he poured into Pinkie’s bowl. Bon Bon carefully lifted the tank nozzle and watched for the dragon’s signal. For a moment it was silent, everypony waiting with bated breath, then-
“BEGIN!”
Bon Bon switched on the faucet and water gushed into the bowl. Pinkie went to work immediately, mixing the two ingredients together at top speeds. When the dough had collected into a single piece, Fang scooped it up and plopped it down on Bulk Biceps’ table.
“Go, Bulk!”
At the dragon’s words, Bulk Biceps lifted the metal rod up and brought it down on the dough with a hard thunk. The white pegasus repeated this process, Fang collecting the dough into a ball every now and then. Finally, Fang told Bulk to stop and carried the dough to the rolling table.
“You all get a piece,” Fang said, ripping chunks of the dough off and passing them to Fluttershy and the Crusaders. “Now roll ‘em flat!”
The four ponies got right down to it, beating at their pieces with their rolling pins. Apple Bloom had some practice, quickly and efficiently rolling out her dough until it was flat, from the inside outwards. Sweetie Belle was doing her best to keep the piece as even and round as possible. Scootaloo was mashing her dough mercilessly until it was so flat it started to tear. And Flutttershy…
“How do you do that?” Fang asked, deadpanning at the pegasus’s work. Her matzah had come out perfectly round, thinned out to perfection.
Fluttershy looked up unsurely. “What’s wrong?”
Fang gestured with his arms and stuttered. “Nothing. It’s great.” He looked over at the three fillies’ dough. It had taken all of them at least two tries, but their matzah was ready to be riddled. “Okay, take your matzah to the next table, then take another piece and make another. Chop chop!”
Fluttershy and the Crusaders did as they were bid, passing their flattened dough over to Cyberspace and Aspear. The two little ponies picked up their perforators and started poking holes in the matzah. Cyberspace used his magic to do two at once, while Aspear painstakingly did her best not to rip the dough apart while making the holes.
“Here’s one!” Cyberspace called, levitating an unbaked matzah.
Fang picked up a pole and held it out to the unicorn. “Put it on.”
Cyberspace hung the matzah on the end of the pole. Fang pulled it back, slid it into the oven and dropped the matzah onto the burning brick floor.
“Here, somepony sand this,” Fang requested, dropping the pole on one of the two tables near the oven, where it was quickly taken by Carrot Top.
“I’ve got one too!” Aspear said happily, holding up Fluttershy’s circular matzah, now resembling a flat colander. Fang took it on another stick and slotted it into the oven alongside the first matzah.
The seconds ticked by, Fluttershy and the Crusaders rolling out more matzah, Aspear and Cyberspace poking them full of holes, and Fang dropping them into the oven to bake. When the first two matzah were crisp and light brown, Fang stuck a shovel-like polearm into the oven, pulled out the flat bread and plopped them onto the last table. The smell was intoxicating.
“Fresh baked matzah is best baked matzah,” Fang stated. Then he swung around, having heard the sudden silence brought on by everypony stopping what they were doing to goggle at the finished product.
“BACK TO WORK!” the dragon roared, the oven belching out a baked matzah in agreement. “We’ve got five minutes left, do what you can!”
Everypony turned back to their tables, the rollers and the perforators working the hardest to get as much done as they could. Sweetie’s hooves started to hurt from the repeated motions. “Uuuh, are we almost done?” she groaned, stumbling forward with another rolled-out piece.
“I think we’re almost finished,” Cyberspace said comfortingly, patting the filly. “Just going to get this last-“
“STOP! DROP EVERYTHING!”
Fang slammed a table and everypony stopped what they were doing. When he was sure they were all paying attention, Fang continued. “That was very good. Everypony did nicely. We managed to get a lot done.” He waved over to the last table, where a pile of baked matzah stood, crisp and warm.
“Now we’re going to finish whatever dough we have left and put them aside. Those you’ll be allowed to eat when we’re done. Anypony who isn’t a roller or a riddler, please go wash the tools and wipe down the tables for the next round, which will begin shortly after completing the leftovers.”
Some of the sanders went to help Pinkie and the others clean up the utensils and work areas. Apple Bloom looked at the last piece of dough in front of her. “This is kinda fun, ain’t it?” she said, first flattening the ball of dough with her hooves.
“I was starting to feel a little sore near the end,” Fluttershy admitted. “Maybe I’ll go help Fang with the baking part.” She trotted off to the oven, where the green dragon was blowing fire on a perforating utensil to burn the leftover dough off.
“Hey, does that mean I can have a turn rolling dough?” Aspear called over hopefully, dropping another holed matzah onto a stick.
“We’ll put more ponies on both tables next round,” Fang promised. “That way, we may be able to finish the dough before time is up.”
The four foals beamed. “So you’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Aspear said in awe. “The ponies who won the contest in the school for carrying the Ponyville flag in the Equestria Games.”
“Yep, that’s us,” Apple Bloom confirmed.
“So you really get together to come up with ideas on how to get your cutie mark?” Aspear asked, somewhat shyly.
“Yeah, but we haven’t gotten them yet,” Sweetie replied. “Sometimes I think we’ll never get them.”
“Hey, chin up!” Scootaloo insisted. “Rainbow Dash told me that Passover is the holiday of freedom, a time to embrace our true selves. Maybe we’ll be able to get our cutie marks during Passover.”
Apple Bloom perked up. “A cutie mark in house cleaning?”
“Or maybe reciting history?“ Kirby offered.
“Consuming bitter and spicy herbs,” Sweetie mused.
“Or how about getting ready for more matzah baking?”
Fang popped up at the head of the rolling table and the fillies all jumped. “Don’t worry, fuzzballs,” the dragon said, wrapping his arms around them and pulling the four ponies in for a hug. “You’ll get plenty of opportunities to figure out your special talents soon. But right now…” He put them down and popped on his helmet. “IT’S TIME TO BAKE!”
“YEAH!” Bulk shouted in response from beside the metal rod.
“OKAY PONIES, TO YOUR STATIONS!” Fang flew over the site and ponies rushed to and fro, Neon and Bon Bon taking a place by the sanding table, Carrot and Dinky dashing for the first table, Pinkie zipping off to her room, and everypony else to their preferred table.
Fang looked down at the assembly. “All of you who are still on the sanding table, don’t worry. I intend to be baking matzah for a few more hours today and for the next few days too, so you can all have a chance to do everything. And now-“ He flung his helmet onto a tall pole out of the range of the oven’s heat, hooking it perfectly. “-LET’S BAKE SOME MATZAH!”