"All right," Mrs. Sugar said as she was filling Violet's bowl. "We have a rule in this house. You are not allowed a second helping until every drop is gone. One vegetable, one spoonfull of broth, or one noodle left in that bowl, and no more soup for you."
"Yes ma'am." Violet said politely as she stared at the dish in front of her. Soup was never served at her house. She only ever had the delight of eating it when her parents dragged her to a dinner or lunch. But at home, providing the meal was simply too much of a workout and a mess for her mother or father.
She watched as Cloudy suddenly dove in. Earth ponies drank soup in a strange way, Violet realized. Normally, she would see ponies levating their spoons with magic and steadily raising the spoons to their mouths. She's even seen some of the other elite use personal feeders, and literatly have the meal spoonfed to them. But here, in the casual and comfortableness of Cloudy's home, things were a lot different. Though Cloudy wasn't particullarly messy, her way of eating would have been considered rude. At the very least, earth ponies and pegasi should use their hooves when they eat. They should raise their bowl or glass to their lips with grace that implied practice and skill.
Here, that didn't happen.
Cloudy's mouth was partially submerged in her bowl. She didn't slurp or blow bubbles, so it was obvious that she wasn't trying to be messy or rude for laughs. In fact, it seemed somewhat normal to Violet. She had always considered stiffness of spines and tiny bites were just things that came with the process of eating, but something about the ordeal wiggled around in her brain. She would read articles in her mother's magazines about the hottest meals in Canterlot, and she always wondered how the pony had the ability to enjoy them while maintaining such a rigid posture and composure. Now, it all made sense.
She gazed at the soup once again. The color of the broth was a deep, fiery red-ish orange. Floating around in a circle like motion were thin strips of green and chucks of a soft white in the shapes of disks and the occasional abstract, formless appearance that reminded Violet of white pebbles. She sniffed the soup cautiously and was struck with the strong scent of tomato and garlic. She watched as small ribbons of steam curled and tangled around themselves in the air above the bowl.
Her mouth watering, she levitated the spoon that Mrs. Sugar had kindly provided for her, and dipped it into the soup, trying to get a little bit of everything. She gently placed it on her tongue and was suddenly assaulted with flavor.
Tomato. Zucchini. Potato. Parsley. Garlic. Onion. Eggplant. Parmesan. Pepper. The flavors seemed to scream and beg for attention. They blended harmoniously inside her mouth. The large amount of flavor didn't overwhelm or freak out her senses. Instead, they made her want more.
"I take it, that face means that you like it?" Mrs. Sugar asked, seeing Violet's reaction. Violet blushed and could only nod in response.
They continued their meal. Violet watched with curiosity as Mrs. Sugar asked about her daughter's day. They both talked about a lot of things. What she learned, what the dinner plans were for the rest of the week, how Violet managed to get locked out of her own house... small stuff.
"Do we have to have roasted eggplant again? We had it last week." Cloudy whined.
"I'm sorry, dear." Her mother said. "I'm afraid it's meals like that for a while... I just don't understand this weather. You would think that the city that the Princess of the Sun would take residence in would have better weather patterns."
Violet's ears perked up. "Oh, that? The rain is because of the Summer Sun Celebration."
Both the mother and daughter looked at her with confusion. "The Summer Sun Celebration?" They chorused.
Violet nodded. "Canterlot is known for having sunny weather all-year round. We don't have farms, or rivers, or creeks that need watering at that scale, so it would be perfectly reasonable for the city to have less rain scheduled."
"But what about that huge waterfall that falls down the side of the city?" Cloudy asked, a small drop of soup trailing down her chin.
"That's fueled by water coming down from the mountains." Violet answered.
"That doesn't explain why there are so many storms at this point in time." Mrs. Sugar added. "If anything, shouldn't the sky be clear for the celebration?"
"That's why they're making it rain now." Violet took another swallow of her soup. "Canterlot can't afford to lose any business over the course of the year, so they need to make it rain during the one time of the ear when every pony is going to be at their homes. Everypony is in their home town, preparing for their own celebration"
"Does that mean that there's not going to be any rain for the rest of the year?" Cloudy sounded heartbrokes n.
"Well, they could've always misscalculated."
"That's interesting..." Mrs. Sugar looked lost in thought. Violet wasn't shocked. Canterlot was strange compared to other towns, and to be a Canterlot pony was an even stranger thing to be.
"Come on, Violet!" Cloudy said as she hopped off of her chair. "Let's go to my room!"
Mrs. Sugar shook the cobwebs from her brain. "Ah, yes. You two have fun! I'll bake some treats for you two later."
The thought of baked goods prepared by Mrs. Sugar's hooves caused Violet's mouth to water again. What was that one thing her mother used to say when she was waiting for her coat to dry? A watched kettle never boils?
She quickly, but cautiously, ran up the stairs to Cloudy's room. Cloudy was sitting in the spot she claimed before on the pillows. Violet joined her with a small smile.
"Alright so..." Cloudy put her hoof up to her chin in thought. "You wanna play truth or dare?"
"Um... I guess." Violet had read about that game... but she had never actually played it.
"Awesome! You go first!"
"O-okay..." Violet swallowed nervously. "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare." Cloudy said, her body trembling with anticipation.
"Um..." Violet looked around the room for an idea. "I dare you to... jump off the bed into the pile of pillows." Violet barely had time to dodge before a blur of peach and sunshine nearly fell on top of her. She shook her head and turned around to see Cloudy giggling on the heap of pillows.
"That was fun." She said through her laughter. "It's your turn... um, truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Um... If you could be completely invisible for one full day, what would you do?" Cloudy's navy blue eyes shined with mischief.
"I would..." Huh, what would she do? "I would sneak into Doughnut Joes, and eat every freshly baked doughnut on display."
Cloudy laughed. "I bet he would think that his shop was haunted!" She snorted. "Okay, okay... now do me."
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Hmmmm, If you could be anypony, or any thing, who or what would you be, and why?" Violet asked. This game was fun.
"I would be... Shimmering Ruby. And I would give away her entire week's allowance to Canterlot's public school."
"That would be so epic!"
"Truth or dare?" Cloudy asked her, after another round of laughter.
"Um... dare."
"Oooo..." The filly of sunshine narrowed her eyes to the challenge. "I dare you to let me read one of your stories."
"I quit the game." Violet said without hesitation.
"You can't do that! You took an oath."
"When?"
"When you sad down on that pillow and said you would play." Cloudy answered. "Now, your story, please?"
Violet grumbled and walked over to her damp saddlebag. Luckily, it was manditory for saddlebags to be made waterproof now, or all of her parchment and quills would have been soaked. She fumbled around, looking for a semi-completed one.
"Here, this one I just finished earlier this morning." She levitated her copy of White Rose, the pony of espionage.
"Yes!" Cloudy quickly grabbed at the parchment. She didn't even give Violet anything to do while she read, so the lavender colored filly was left to stand by her saddlebag and twiddle her hooves.
"This..." Cloudy said after what seemed like forever. Hours with nothing but the sound of parchment turning and hums of a comment that wasn't made. "Is amazing!"
Violet blushed. A lot of thought went into her stories, so it made her happy that somepony would like them. "Thanks."
"Oh my Celestia! Agent Rose is so awesome! Is there more?"
"N-not yet. Like I said, I just finished that this morning." Violet felt her blush spread.
"Well, you need to give me a copy as soon as you finish the next chapter!"
"Chapter...? It was just supposed to be a one type thing. Voilet looked towards her bag at all of the stories that wanted to write, and all of the ones she had yet to finish.
"You should have thought of that before you let me read it!" Cloudy said, scanning over the first page again.
"You made me give... whatever. Sure, I'll write another chapter for you." Violet lowered her head in mock defeat, knowing now that Cloudy was never going to let it go.
"Alright!" Cloudy jumped up in the air. "Now, can you answer some of my questions?"
"Sure. What?"
"What was Mr. Oyal's motivation? I mean, I got that he was in charge of some sort of cartel, but why?"
"Well..." Violet thought about it for a few seconds. "I was planning on having him working in the oil business.-"
"Obviously."
"But I figured that, maybe his oil dried up, causing him to start going to the black market for profit."
"That's so cool!" Cloudy's blue eyes looked like shining sapphires. "Who does Agent Rose work for?"
"I was thinking she couldv'e gone to some sort of finishing school... but ended up going to a spy school instead. Like some sort of recruting thing? She was probably snooping around her neighbors house, got caught scaling the backside of the building, and was sent there to learn manners. Instead she ended up learning how to properly poison champange while looking like a lady." Violet felt her blush deepen as she realized she was starting to babble.
"That sound so cool!" Cloudy was jumping higher. "You should make this, like, the third chapter! You need to flesh out this story! Please! For me!" Cloudy shot her the most intense pout in the history of pouts. Her eyes were the size of saucers and her bottom lip was twice it's normal size.
"Um..." Violet's will wavered, on account of it's cuteness. "Okay."
"Woo Hoo!" Cloudy started picking up the parchemt that fell onto the floor in her excitement. "This is so awesome! I have a friend that writes stories!"