In "Spice Up Your Life", we were introduced to the food "critic" Zesty Gourmand. Labeling her as a critic, however, is a little misleading. How in Equestria did a critic -- who no one agreed with -- manage to take almost full control of the restaurant industry in a major city? A critic generally gets popularity (and therefore power) when he or she reviews something and people agree with their reviews. When a critic gives reviews that no one agrees with, they are essentially swept under the rug. The exact opposite occurred here. Why? This is easily attributable to bad writing and plot contrivances, but what if there were something else at play behind the scenes?

The Assassin's Creed franchise typically portrays the Knights Templar as very powerful, corrupt, and disagreeable individuals. Their ultimate goal? Total domination over the human race. Zesty would fit into their Order like a glove. Think about it: she has power (somehow) and uses it to force every restaurant in Canterlot to conform to her exact tastes. Even though many ponies disagree with her, they have no choice but to conform because customers refuse to eat anywhere Zesty has not endorsed, and then customers have no choice but to eat at the now-crappy restaurants because that's all they have available to them. Zesty's pretentious speech near the end of the episode where she basically says nopony has the right to eat at restaurants she does not approve of is the kind of attitude the Templars exude all the time. Hell, she even has condescending views of those around her if her dramatic exits were anything to go by.

This leaves one pressing question: how did Zesty Gourmand gain such power? In a realistic scenario, one where the world of criticism is democratic, critics gain a following of people willing to listen to their opinions by giving criticisms that people agree with. This was obviously not the case here, so how did it happen? Possibly, she is not really a critic at all but an official from Equestria's Food and Drug Administration (assuming they have one). That would explain why everypony has to eat at and what she approves of. A more byzantine possibility is that she has the backing of some very powerful ponies (i.e. Abstergo), and when she disagreed with a restaurant and it didn't fall in line, they would, through smear campaigns, lawsuits, or other means, drive the business into the ground. What those powerful ponies would have to gain from backing Zesty, I don't know, but there are a number of things you can do to a population when you control its food supply.

All things considered, Zesty Gourmand is clearly meant to be one of Canterlot's stuck-up, pretentious snobs who believes anyone lower on the social scale to be a lesser being, however there are many aspects of her character that the show's canon simply does not explain. And as we all know, where canon is insufficient, headcanon fills in the gaps. What are your headcanons regarding Zesty Gourmand? Is she a Templar? An Assassin? How do you explain her contrived powerbase?

(Just to be clear, this is not my headcanon, it's just fun to think about.)