//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Finding My Place // by Firestar463 //------------------------------// “So… this is what we have to work with?” I asked as I scanned the small clearing in the camp that the Ponies had designated as the kitchen. My head turned towards my companions - a pair of Earth Ponies, one an orange male and the other a pale pink female. Orchard and Blossom, I think they’d called themselves. “Yup,” Orchard replied, a noticeable drawl to his voice. “Ain’t much, but we gotta make do.” It certainly wasn’t much. Sure, there were a dozen crates of fish over on the left side of the clearing, and more were being gathered from the lakes, but aside from that there were only a seven other crates to occupy the open space, all unopened. True, they were decent-sized crates, but still… only seven. That left the rest of the clearing barren. A good amount of room to work with, but as expected, not a lot of stuff to work with. Well, I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up to cook. Time to see what else this place had to offer. “Alright. Do either of you know how to cook a fish?” Both shook their heads in response. “Alright, well you’re about to learn how. Blossom, take that crowbar over there,” I pointed towards the crooked piece of metal lying near the crates of fish, “and go pry open those crates over there,” I continued, pointing now towards the unopened crates on the other side of the clearing. “Let’s see what else we have to work with. Orchard, if you can find us a couple of shovels, I’d like for us to get a fire pit dug out. Blossom, come help us once you finish with the crates.” The two Ponies nodded and set off in opposite directions - Blossom towards the crowbar, and Orchard off towards the far end of the clearing, where a number of shovels could be seen. He grabbed three of them and made his way back just as Blossom managed to pry the top off of the first crate. She stood on the tips of her hooves and peered inside before sticking her hand inside the crate, pulling it back out and withdrawing a round, red object. “Apples!” She called out, with the same southern accent as Orchard. “Apples,” I repeated. Sure, apples and fish weren’t two flavors that exactly sprang to mind as compliments, but at this point, I wasn’t going to be turning it down. “Alright. Get the other ones open and let’s see what else we have.” At that moment, Orchard tapped my hand with the handle of one of the shovels. “Here,” he said, handing the shovel over. “How big should this pit be?” “Well, we’re going to be grilling the fish,” I explained. I shoved my shovel into the dirt at the spot where I was planning for the pit to go, closer to one end of the clearing than the other but equidistant in the other direction. “So first we need to know how big the grill that we’re going to be using is. Otherwise, we’ll either dig it too big and have to fill some of it back in, or too small and have to expand the pit.” The sound of wood being pried loose echoed through the clearing, followed by a loud clatter as the lid of the second crate was removed and tossed aside. There was a brief silence. “Tools!” Blossom called out. She pulled on the top of the crate and carefully tipped it over, revealing the contents. “A couple of grill grates, to start,” she continued as she pulled the pieces of metal out of the box. “And a few bottles of vegetable oil.” “Convenient timing,” I chuckled as I strode over to the crate. The two grates that had been pulled out were decent sized, each able to hold about a dozen fish fillets, and while a couple more would have been nice, it was a good place to start. The one downside to that was that now we only had a half-dozen crates of non-fish food, at most. “Alright, so we’ll want a pit big enough to fit these two grills over. So nothing too massive.” “Got it.” Orchard took one of the grill grates in his hand and eyed it up and down for a moment. “Tell ya what. I reckon I can get this pit dug myself in a couple of minutes. You take one of them shovels and help Blossom open the rest of them crates.” I raised an eyebrow. True, the pit wasn’t going to be massive, but it was still going to be a decent size - larger than your typical campfire pit, by a decent amount, and dug into the ground. I’d guessed that it would have taken the two of us 10 or 15 minutes at least to dig it out. But Orchard sounded certain, so I merely shrugged. “Alright then, if you’re up for it “I am.” “Alright, go for it.” I watched as Orchard strolled over to where I had planted my shovel and pulled it out of the ground. He tossed it in my direction before shoving his own shovel into the ground, and I snatched it out of the air. I then turned my attention towards the four remaining crates. Blossom was already moving away from her third crate and on to the forth as I headed in her direction. “Plates, knives, and forks,” she said, pointing back at the crate she had just opened. I nodded and moved down to the end of the line to begin working on the last crate. It wasn’t too difficult to pry the lid open. It had been nailed shut, but with only one nail in each corner. By wedging the blade of the shovel under the edge and pulling down on the handle I was easily able to pop the nails free of the crate and send the lid crashing to the ground below. I peered inside to see a number of glass containers, each corked and filled with a white liquid. I pulled out one of the jars and popped the cork open. I wafted my hand over the jar, bringing the scent up to my nose. Just as I had suspected. “Milk!” I called out. “Bread!” Blossom replied a moment later. Milk and bread. Well now I could vary things up one day and do some kind of breadcrumb coating on the fish. Things were beginning to get a little more interesting. “Alright, last two,” I muttered as I jammed the blade of my shovel under the lid of the next crate The second one was a little harder to pop off - maybe they’d used better nails or something. At any rate, by the time I managed to get mine open, Blossom was already standing next to me, having opened hers. “More bread,” she said as she watched me struggle with the crate. I only grunted in response as I gave another harsh tug on the shovel. I was rewarded for my latest effort with the sound of wood being torn loose, and the lid all but flew off of the crate. Not expecting the sudden opening, I fell forwards, barely avoiding hitting my head on the shovel as it flipped around me and landed on my back. Almost immediately, I felt the shovel being moved from my back by Blossom. “You alright there?” She asked. “I’m fine,” I nodded, pushing myself back into a sitting position. I took a deep breath, noting the new scent that filled the air. It was different than what I had been expecting, yet somehow familiar. “What’s in there?” I asked. Blossom poked her head over the side of the crate. Almost immediately, I saw her snout wrinkled up in disgust. “Just some weeds,” She snorted. “Dunno why they’re storin’ that stuff away.” I picked myself up off of the ground and peered over the side of the crate as well. The new aroma was even stronger now that I was staring at the source - a number of thick, green, veiny leaves. I closed my eyes for a moment, wracking my brain to try and identify the smell. It only took a moment. My eyes snapped open, and I grinned. “Basil!” I exclaimed. True, it wasn’t going to be adding anything much to any meal in the way of nutrition, but a little garnish might help the Ponies stomach the fish that they were so unaccustomed to. It didn’t hurt that it was an herb my family used all the time. A little bit of home flavor added to the meal. “That’s it,” Blossom nodded. “Might as well dump it out and -” “Are you crazy?” I interrupted. “Throw it out? This stuff’s great!” Now it was Blossom’s turn to look confused. “You’re tellin’ me that your kind actually eats this stuff?” She asked. “Even when the flavor’s that strong?” It took me a moment before I realized what she meant. Being herbivores (for the most part), a lot of their diet had to consist of salad and such. A salad of mostly basil… “Oh! On its own, no, we don’t really eat Basil alone. But in small quantities, it’s a great herb to add on top of a meal. A garnish.” Blossom raised her eyebrow once more. “You sure are a strange creature…” She sighed. “Alright, we’ll keep the basil if you’re thinkin’ of usin’ it.” “I am,” I nodded. “So, that’s all the crates open. One of tools, one of tableware, one of basil, one of milk, one of apples, two of bread, and a dozen of fish.” All in all, it was a bit better of a variety than I had been expecting, though not as high a quantity as I would have liked. “Well, it’ll do,” I finally sighed. “Let’s see how Orchard’s coming on with the pit.” Blossom and I made our way around to the other side of the line of crates. My eyes shot wide open at the sight before me. Already, a large, shallow hole in the ground had been dug, and as I watched, Orchard hurled another large scoop from the center out towards the outer edge. The pit was almost perfectly rectangular, about five feet long and seven wide, with the outer edges being shallower than the center, which was about two feet deep. A large pile of dirt next to the pit was testament to the speed at which Orchard was digging. “Good lord…” I muttered under my breath. Seems that I had underestimated the increased Earth Pony strength that Serenity had mentioned. “Alright Orchard, that should be good!” I called out. I got a thumbs up in response, and a moment later the red Pony was dragging himself out of the pit. “Find anythin’ else good in the crates? He asked as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “Bread and milk,” I replied. “And a bunch of basil. Blossom tells me you all think it’s too strong to eat -” I got a nod of confirmation in response, “- but I’ve used small quantities in a number of recipes back home. Just so long as we’re not serving it as a salad, I think it should be useful.” “If you say so.” Orchard dropped the now-dirty shovel to the ground and strode over towards the crates. A moment later, he was returning with the two grill grates tucked under his arm. “I’ll get these situated over the pit. Blossom, see if you can’t find us a hammer and some stakes. Preferably metal,” he added quickly. “Wooden stakes’ll catch fire too quick.” “And I’ll go check out what kind of fish we’re working with,” I finished. Orchard and Blossom were already walking away towards their respective tasks, so I turned away and headed towards the opposite side of the clearing. The dozen crates stood waiting all in a row, each one as big as the ones Blossom and I had been working on. Even from here, I could smell the distinct odor of raw fish. Not too strong, not entirely unpleasant, but certainly noticeable. Each crate, I noted as I drew near, had already been opened. The first two I peered into were filled with fillets of some kind of white fish. Cod or whitefish, perhaps. I wasn’t really an expert on fish, so I wasn’t sure what the differences were, and without Google to help me, I’d have to just wing it. Next up were two crates of fish fillets with orange-pink flesh with curved white lines of fat spaced throughout the flesh - easily recognizable as salmon. The fifth and sixth crates crate were a little harder to identify. In these crates, the fish still had silver-grey scales on them, though the heads tails and fins had been removed. I groaned internally as I realized the extra work that would have to be put into scaling and gutting these two crates. I picked up one of the fish, shivering a little at the cold, unfamiliar texture. I reached down to my belt and drew my knife, cutting a small section of the scales off of the fish. The flesh underneath was a very similar color to the salmon, but I noted that the lines of fat were far smaller on this fish than on the salmon. I finally settled on calling it trout, sheathed my knife once more, and moved on. The next two crates were far easier. Both contained fillets of fish with deep red flesh, almost rose red. Almost instantly, I recognized it as tuna. A perfect fish for working with. Unfortunately, unless we were close to the sea (And judging by Serenity’s mentioning of fishing from lakes and not a beach, we weren’t), the supplies of tuna would dwindle and eventually run out. Same with the white fish fillets in the first two crates, assuming I’d correctly identified them as cod or whitefish. Opening up the last four crates, I found that they weren’t new types, at least as far as I could tell - two more of salmon, two more of tuna. So I had a decent selection of fish to work with, though half of the supply was more than likely nonrenewable in the short term. Salmon and trout, though, I knew were freshwater fish, at least partially, and so were more likely to be found in the nearby lakes and rivers. I saw Blossom returning out of the corner of my eye, a small box clutched in her hands. She set it down next to the pit, where Orchard was making a few small adjustments in the ground with his shovel. She reached into the box and pulled out a pair of hammers, as well as a dozen metal stakes, and began to hammer one of them into the ground to anchor the first grill down. Those two seemed to have everything handled over there, so I made my way back over towards the other side of the clearing, towards the crate with the tools in it. The crate was still laying on its side, so I carefully began to rummage through the contents. The grill grates had already been removed, and I withdrew the half dozen bottles of vegetable oil that were lying on their sides. Thankfully, none had leaked, so I set them back upright on the ground next to the crate. I next pulled out a set of knives of all different lengths and thicknesses. Most I could identify their uses for, thanks to that one summer job I had gotten the year before selling kitchen knives. There was a butcher’s knife, a paring knife, a longer and bigger knife intended for chopping vegetables, a couple of serrated blades that could prove useful for cutting through the fish, and even a boning knife. None of the blades, I noted, were as sharp or well-maintained as the one I had clipped at my belt. Setting the knives aside as well, I pulled a few more tools out of the crate. There were two pairs of long, metal tongs, as well as a metal spatula with a long handle and a brush for spreading a marinade or oil over something. I also pulled out two jars filled with a black powder and white crystals, respectively. I assumed, given that they were with some cooking supplies, that they were jars of salt and pepper, an assumption that I quickly verified. There were also a number of white cloths tucked amongst the rest of the supplies. Finally, I pulled out a set of a half-dozen wooden cutting boards of various sizes. I heard the sound of grass being stepped on just before a voice from behind me spoke up. “Find anythin' else in there?” Blossom asked. “Salt, pepper, knives, cutting boards… a few things that could be useful,” I replied. “We should be able to make this work, for a while at least.” “Orchard’s off tryin' to find a few tables for us to use.” “Gotcha. So what should we do here?” “I dunno. You tell me.” I took another look around the clearing. The grills were in place over the pit, and both were held firmly to the ground with metal stakes. The fish had been identified, so I knew what we were working with on that end. Same with the other crates. Tables to prepare the food on were being fetched by Orchard. “I guess we should get some wood for the grill,” I finally suggested. It was the only thing left that I could think of that we’d need to do before we actually began preparing the fish. “Wood will be coming in later,” Blossom shook her head. “They’re stil cutting it up into logs on the other side of camp. It should be here by the time we need it.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone to quickly check the time. 5:11 PM. “Well if we want to have anything ready by the time people start showing up for dinner, we’ll need to have that wood soon,” I warned. “It’ll be here.” “Alright.” I still wasn’t fully convinced, but I forced myself to trust that the wood would be there on time. “In that case, I don’t think there’s much left for us to do besides actually prepare the fish and cook it.” I took another look around the clearing, planning out the rest of the space that we had to work with. As I had planned beforehand, the fire pit was closer towards one end of the rectangular clearing than the other, and situated almost perfectly between the crates of fish and the crates of other food. There was an area between the fire pit and the shorter edge of the rectangle that was still open, a space I planned to use for preparing the food. That left roughly ⅔ of the clearing open for the Ponies to wait in line or sit down and eat. It wasn’t long before Orchard returned, along with a half-dozen other Earth Ponies, hauling a number of rectangular tables. While each of the other tables had two Ponies moving them, Orchard seemed to have no trouble moving his on his own. I directed the movers on where to place the tables, and a few moments later our work area was set up. Three of the tables were set up behind the grill, while the longest one was set up beside it. That would be the table where the cooked fish would go, along with stacks of plates and utensils. “Thanks for the help,” I said to the other movers as they set the last of the tables down. Several of them seemed to not hear me, or at least not acknowledge me, but I got a couple of nods in my direction as the movers headed back into the sea of tents. “Alright,” I sighed as I looked back and forth between Orchard and Blossom. “So... I think we’re just about ready to get started.” I paused for a moment as I considered which fish to start out with. It was only a moment before I settled on the salmon. “How many Ponies are we going to be feeding?” “There’s a hundred and fifty, maybe two hundred in the camp?” Orchard shrugged. “It ain’t exactly a big city.” “Well at least we won’t be  burning through the food too fast,” I murmured. “Alright, let’s get one of those crates of fish over here.” I led the two Ponies over towards one of the crates filled with salmon, and together we moved it closer to the tables where we’d be working at. We set it down a little bit off to the side, but close enough where we’d have easy access. We next grabbed a few of the items from the two supply crates - the set of knives, a few cutting boards, the tongs and spatula, the salt and pepper, the vegetable oil, and a few forks and plates. Finally, I set out a few plates on the long table next to the grill for us to set the fish on, and stacked the rest up on one end for the Ponies to use, along with the rest of the knives and forks. “Now you’re sure you can cook these things?” Orchard asked as I made my way over to the work area. “Fish is a staple in the human diet, at least around where I’m from,” I replied. “I’ve helped to prepare more than one fish. This here is salmon, one of the more common fish that Humans eat. We’ve also got trout, some kind of white fish that I can’t quite put a name to, and tuna to work with, but we’ll worry about those for another day. Now, I’m guessing a single fillet is good for one serving for a Pony, correct?” I received a pair of nods in return. “Good. And it looks like the fish has already been boned. That'll mean a lot less work for us. What we really need now is the wood for that fire. That grill will need to be screaming hot before we can even think about actually cooking. Until then, I don’t think there’s really much else that we can do.” “I saw them loading some logs up into carts while I was fetchin’ the tables,” Orchard said as he nodded in the general direction he had come from. “Might be headed our way.” “Well while we’re waitin’, let’s take a bit of a break,” Blossom suggested. “I’m guessin’ we ain’t gonna get much rest once we actually get to cookin’.” It was a fair suggestion, so I flopped down onto the ground. Orchard and Blossom sat as well, side by side and facing me. “Now, we’ve not had much of a chance to talk,” Orchard began. “But we’ve heard a few rumors flyin’ ‘round the camp about you. They’re sayin’ you saved the princesses and the queen from a Minotaur.” It was clearly a question. “I did, yeah,” I nodded. “The three of them stumbled into the same cave I’d gotten lost in. The Minotaur got the jump on them while they were resting, and I got a chance to sneak up behind it.” Blossom and Orchard exchanged a quick glance. “And they’re sayin’...” Blossom began. “Well… they’re sayin’ you ain’t from Gaia.” “Gaia?” “The planet,” Orchard explained. “Our world. They’re sayin’ you’re an alien.” I hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah… Yeah I think I am…” I said slowly. I mean, sure, this place seemed close enough to Earth in terms of climate and such, but there was no way, NO WAY that we’d have missed Minotaurs and humanoid-horse creatures running about. Being on a different planet seemed like the only logical explanation. “So how’d you get here?” Blososm asked. “Well... I was out hiking with my buddies, Evan and Carlos,” I began. “And I it was really muddy, so I lost my footing and fell off of cliff into a lake. And I woke up in some pool in the caves where I found Queen Serenity and the princesses.” “What’s your world like?” “Same kind of look and feel as this one,” I shrugged. “I’ll be honest, when the Queen and the princesses and I popped out of the caves, it was so similar to home I thought I was still on Earth.” “Earth?” “My homeworld.” “So your people named your world after one of the elements?” Orchard raised an eyebrow. “That’s… a bit odd.” I shrugged again. True, it was a little odd, maybe even a little arrogant if you thought about it too hard, but I’d never had the want, need, or opportunity to think about it too hard before. Still, while I was here, maybe it would be a good idea to refer to Earth as something other than Earth. “Call it Terra, then,” I finally said, drawing upon the old Latin name for the planet. At least that would cause less confusion when talking to Ponies about my homeworld. And so it continued. Orchard and Blossom continued to ask me questions about myself, about Earth - or Terra, as I had to keep reminding myself to call it - and about Humanity in general. In return I asked numerous questions about Ponies and this planet Gaia that they lived on. Turns out, the Ponies were even more like Earthen (Terran?) horses than I’d believed. Their diets, for example, were nearly identical, including a shared toxic reaction to tomatoes. I learned that this camp, Outpost Marshall, was only a few miles north-west of the capital city of Everfree, and was kept concealed by numerous magical wards on the hedge-wall that surrounded the camp - anyone trying to enter while the wards were still up would apparently simply wind up on the other side of the hedge and forget why they’d tried to climb into the bush in the first place. “One last question,” I said as I saw an Earth Pony walk into the clearing with a cart of logs towing behind him. “On the way here, I saw this big… something to the north-east. It was behind the mountains, but clearly taller than them.” Orchard looked confused as we rose to our feet. Blossom did for a moment as well before she raised an eyebrow. “You mean Canterlot Mountain?” She asked. “I dunno,” I shrugged. “That’s why I’m asking.” “It probably was,” Blossom nodded. “The tallest mountain in all of Equestria. I don’t think anypony’s actually made it to the top. They say that Dragons make their homes in the caves near the summit.” I froze. “Did.. did you say… Dragons?” Blossom raised her eyebrow again. “Yes. Dragons.” “As in… big… fire-breathing… flying lizards?” “Yes…” “Oh hell no,” I laughed uneasily. “Oh HELL no.” “What?” Orchard seemed unfazed by my nervous laughter, though Blossom had taken a small step backwards. “Don’t you all have Dragons on Terra?” “Yeah, but only in stories!” I exclaimed. “In myths and legends! But they’re not real! “Well, they are on Gaia,” Orchard shrugged. “Don’t worry about it too much. They tend to keep to themselves. So long as nopony goes near them…” “...and they don’t decide that our camp has enough gold and treasure to be worth pillaging…” I added darkly. There was a brief silence. “True,” Orchard chuckled. “But I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that. Besides, the wards should hold even against a Dragon. Chances are, they don’t even know that we’re here. And again, so long as we don’t make one angry, they won’t bother us.” “I’m not entirely convinced of our safety here,” I deadpanned. “Good,” Orchard replied matter-of-factly. “You shouldn’t be. We’re at war, remember? We’re never really safe.” “Not to interrupt, but I think we’d better get started,” Blossom interrupted. “Our wood is here, and it looks like a few Ponies are already getting hungry.” Sure enough, I looked over to see that a large piled of wood had been deposited next to the pit, and that two or three Ponies had wandered into the clearing and were now chatting amongst themselves. “Right. So you two go ahead and start piling wood into the pit, and I’ll get it lit.” I watched for a moment as Blossom and Orchard slid some of the wood underneath the grates through an opening Orchard had dug into the side earlier, and waited until they had a decent layer of logs spread out. “Alright, that’ll do,” I called out as they slid the last of the logs into place. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a couple of items that I had fetched from my bag before coming to the clearing - a matchbook and a small spiral notepad. “What are you doing?” Blossom asked as I tore a dozen or so pages from the spiral notepad. “Starting a fire,” I replied. I crumpled the torn sheets into individual balls and squeezed them through the spaces in the grill so that they were spread out fairly evenly throughout the layer of logs. “I’ll get the flint and steel,” Orchard called out. I quickly held out a hand to stop him. “No need,” I chuckled. “Humans have developed technology to move us beyond that. This,” - I held out the matchbook for him to see - “Will start a fire much faster than your flint and steel.” To prove my point, I drew a match and struck it against the side of the cover. The match instantly burst into flame, and Orchard’s eyes shot wide open. I couldn’t help but grin as I lowered the match and dropped it through the grill, where it caught the paper on fire. I repeat the process with each of the other pieces of paper, and by the time I’d finished the last one, the flames from the first match had caught the surrounding logs on fire. It wouldn’t be long before we had a roaring fire going. “That’s amazing!” Orchard exclaimed. “What are those little sticks that strike up a fire so quickly?!” “Matches,” I explained. “We’ve also developed technology that allows us to produce a continuous flame using only a spark and a small amount of flammable gas, able to be struck up with a single hand. Shame that Evan had our lighter, or I’d show you.” Blossom simply shook her head. “Only Unicorns have been able to create flames without a flint and steel, by using their magic.” “Well, there’s a famous quote on Terra,” I laughed. “Can’t tell you who said it off the top of my head, but whatever. Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I’m sure a lot of the stuff that we have on Terra would sound nothing short of magical to you all.” “Such as?” I shook my head. “Later. Right now, we’ve got hungry mouths to feed, and more coming by the minute.” Sure enough, another group of three Ponies wandered into the clearing as I finished speaking, bringing the number of waiting Ponies up to half a dozen. I motioned for Blossom and Orchard to join me at one of the preparation tables. “Alright, so while we’re waiting for the grill to heat up, we need to start getting some of the fish ready,” I began. I picked up a bottle of vegetable oil and handed them each one, taking a third one for myself. I also pulled one of the salmon fillets onto the plate in front of me. “Grab yourself a brush. We don’t want the fish to stick to the grill, so we’re going to put a thin layer of oil over the fillet to prevent that. Not too much, though,” I warned. “Too much will create a greasy fish, something we don’t want. About this much.” I poured a small amount of the vegetable oil onto the fish and carefully spread it out over the fillet. It wouldn’t be as good as actually oiling the grill itself, but in my mind, applying oil to a hot grill is just asking for trouble. I watched carefully as Blossom and Orchard repeated my motions. “Just a little bit less on the next one,” I said to Orchard as I noticed a small amount drip off of the fish and onto the plate. He nodded to indicate that he’d heard me. “Alright, so now that your first one is oiled up, put it on the cutting board off to the side and start on another. The grill isn’t hot enough yet to put them on. Speaking of…” I turned my head to check on the fire. Sure enough, the logs were burning nicely now, with a plume of smoke rising  and blowing eastward with the wind. In the back of my mind, I found myself praying that the wards concealing the camp would also hide the smoke, but I forced myself not to worry about it. The flames were rising high, but not high enough to actually touch the metal. Just as well. I wouldn’t have to worry about the fish catching fire. I turned my attention back to the Ponies working the fish. Both had finished their second ones and were working on the third. I noted that Orchard had used a bit less oil this time, as I had asked. I joined the two in oiling up the fish, placing them in a row down the cutting board. I checked the grill again once I’d finished my seventh fish. By now, a dozen more Ponies had come into the clearing. Many of them were talking amongst themselves, though I saw a number of them stealing glances at me across the grill. I chose to ignore their stares and instead turned my attention back to the fire. The fire was roaring strongly at this point, crackling and popping nicely. By now, I was sure that the grill had to be hot enough. “Alright, that’s good for now,” I called over my shoulder. Blossom set her eighth fish onto the cutting board, while Orchard set his seventh aside. “The grill should be hot enough. Now, here’s where things really get fun. Bring those fish over here. I waited until all three cutting boards of fish were over by the fire. “Alright, so you take these,” - I held up the long-handled tongs - “And just put the fish on the grill. Oiled side down,” I added as I picked one of the fish up. I carefully set it down on the grill, and was rewarded with a loud hiss as the oil instantly began to sizzle. I picked up the second fish and began to lay the rest out as I talked. “Now, the trick with grilling fish is that it’s not ready until you can get it off easily.” My uncle had told me that once, several years ago. I prayed he was right. “If you have to scrape and try hard to get it off of the grill, it’s not ready. Once it is ready, flip it over, give it another minute or two, and then it’s ready to serve.” Both Orchard and Blossom looked uncertain, apprehensive even. It became quickly apparent that I’d be the one that would have to watch the fish. “Alright, I’ll watch the grill,” I sighed as I set down the last fish, making for an even two dozen on the grill. “You two just oil up some more fish. Not too many!” I added quickly as they turned to leave. “Once you have another twenty-four, bring them over!” With Orchard and Blossom gone, I was left alone. Alone with the sound of fire crackling and the smell of fish cooking. It almost felt as though I were back on Earth. Back on Earth, at the campsite with Evan and Carlos. I could almost hear them now. Evan would be complaining that we hadn’t brought the stuff to make fish tacos, and Carlos would be stuffing his face with the first fish while I was watching the grill. As usual. And then Evan would start doing something stupid, and I’d be the one trying to stop him from getting himself killed. And there would be Carlos, yelling at me that the fish were about to burn. I could almost hear him now. “Chris? Chris?!” “Chris!” I jolted upright as my name pierced through the haze that surrounded me. Carlos and Evan were gone. The campfire was a roaring inferno. The half-dozen fish had quadrupled in number. Earth was gone. I was back on Gaia. “Are you feeling well, Chris?” My head jerked towards the voice that had said my name. There was Serenity, standing only a couple of feet away and looking down at me as I sat on the ground. “Yeah. Yeah I’m alright,” I replied, nodding my head. “Just… just spaced out for a minute there.” “It seems that you and your fellow chefs have managed to make do with what we have,” Serenity continued. I nodded again. “It’s not gonna be anything amazing, but it should fill a few bellies up.” “We can ask for nothing more.” Serenity glanced across the grill and over the clearing. “It seems most of the camp has agreed that it’s time for dinner. How close are you all to being ready?” “It won’t be long before the first few are ready,” I replied. Sure enough, as I checked the fish with the spatula, the first one popped off of the grill quite easily. The underside of the fish now bore dark grill marks where it had been touching the metal. I quickly flipped the fish over and began to check the other fish, flipping them as well. By the time I’d finished, Serenity was long gone. For the best, anyway. By that point, it was time for the first fish to come off the grill. I took a quick moment to inspect my handywork. The salmon was no longer a raw, pink fillet, but instead was now a nice orange-yellow color, with the grill marks now covering both sides. I gingerly touched it with one of the forks, and noted that it was still moist and juicy, and just beginning to flake. “Perfect,” I grinned. Honestly, I had been hoping and praying up to that point that everything would fall together, and it seemed like, for now, it had. I set the fish aside on the largest plate that we had found, which we would be serving the fish from, and began to remove the rest of the fish. I had just set the large plate onto the serving table and returned when Blossom and Orchard walked over, bearing three cutting boards with eight oiled fish each. They said nothing, merely handing me the fish and walking back to the tables. I said nothing either, instead focusing on putting the fish back onto the grill. And so it continued throughout the rest of the late afternoon. For what must have been over an hour, we simply exchanged the cutting boards back and forth, moving fish about, grilling them, setting them out, and watching as hungry Ponies came and grabbed their share. Every now and then, I’d have to pause and wet one of the cloths, attach it to the long prongs and scrape the grill off to prevent the fish from sticking to the leftover residue from previous batches. And once or twice, I added a few logs to the fire to keep it burning. Other than that, it was just moving fish around. Hot, sweaty work, but not exactly difficult. After a while, the flow of Ponies began to subside, and as I checked over the grill, I noted through the smoke that most of the Ponies were no longer standing in line, but were sat down in the grass eating, or else walking away into the camp. “Alright, I think that’s it!” I called over to Blossom and Orchard. I watched as they finished the last couple of fish they were working on and brought them over to me. I added the last batch to the grill, waited for it to finish cooking, and added the last of the evening's meal to the serving plate. I then grabbed three plates, three forks, and three knives, filled each plate with a fish, and brought the food over to Orchard and Blossom. The three of us sat down in the grass and began to eat our meal. I quickly found that there was no need for a knife - the fork cut through the flesh easily enough. It had a nice smokey flavor to it, as was to be expected from cooking over what essentially was a giant campfire. The fish was just beginning to flake, and was still moist and flavorful. Nothing too fancy, but it was certainly edible. My companions seemed to agree, judging by how quickly they finished their plates. “I’ve only had fish a couple of times before,” Blossom commented as she set her empty plate aside. “When I was vistin’ family near the coast. This is easily the best fish I’ve ever had.” “Not bad,” Orchard added. “Not bad at all.” “Glad to hear it,” I sighed. “Now, we just have to clean all this crap up…” “No, we don’t,” Blossom smiled. “Queen Serenity told us that another team would be takin’ care of the cleanup. We just have to prepare the food and make sure it’s out on time.” “Sweet,” I grinned. “And now that we’ve got everything set up how we need it, it should be a lot faster from now on,” I sighed. “Maybe we could use some of that basil tomorrow…” “Maybe…” Orchard didn’t sound too thrilled with the prospect of using the basil. Still, I was determined to at least try my best to change their opinions on the herb. I was certain that, in the right quantity, they’d find it added a lot to a meal. “So what do we do now?” “Well, Queen Serenity wanted me to tell you that she wants to speak with you in the commander’s tent once we’re done here,” Blossom replied, nodding towards me. “And unless I’m mistaken, we are.” “Alright. Well, it was nice working with you two,” I half-grunted as I stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow. A little bit before sunrise sound about right?” Blossom and Orchard nodded in response. “Alright. Well I’ll see you then.” “Good night, Chris,” Orchard called out as I walked away, and I glanced over shoulder to see Blossom waving. I smiled a little as I turned my head to face forward again. Those were good Ponies. Simple folk, but good people. I knew that not everyone in the camp would be as quick to warm up to me as they had been, but it was still nice to see that not everyone would look at me with suspicion or distrust. So, my first day as an army chef was done. And now, the Queen wanted to see me. I quickened my pace as I made my way towards the edge of camp, where I knew the commander’s tent. Queen Serenity was waiting on me. Best not keep her waiting too long.