Group Precipitation

by FanOfMostEverything

Family Recipe, by FoME

Before the accident, cooking was something that happened to other people, and Sunny Flare just got to eat the results. After the accident, she'd learned some basics, but still opted for others' cooking over her own, especially considering that Crystal Prep's cafeteria was as high-quality as the rest of their facilities. She'd never really thought about food preparation as anything more than necessary labor.

Then Lemon Zest invited Sunny to have the Harvest Feast at her house.

Zesty Gourmand's kitchen would have taken up half of Sunny's apartment. Every surface was marble, granite, or sleek stainless steel. Ingredients and utensils that Sunny was only vaguely aware of lay in abundance. She'd looked in the refrigerator once, then spent two hours on the Internet to familiarize herself with the contents.

"Your mother seems awfully thin for a food critic," Sunny had said when she'd first met Mrs. Gourmand.

"Mom only swallows if the food is worthy of her," Lemon had answered.

Zesty herself had made no comment on Sunny's inclusion until she'd offered to help prepare the meal. Then the woman had looked her over, shrugged, and said, "I suppose we can find something for you to do."

Now the woman stood before a stove, watching three different pots saute, simmer, or some other S word that escaped Sunny. Whatever the case, it reminded her of her own actions during the last event of the Friendship Games.

"Lemon," Zesty said, hefting a bag of the girl's namesake fruit in her magic and tossing it in her general direction. "Zest four, juice three."

"Yes, chef," Lemon said as she caught the bag. And that was all she said before attacking the first lemon with a device that Sunny knew was normally used on feet. ("Best zester there is," Lemon had assured her.)

"Sunny, do you think you can chop?"

"Yes, ma— chef." She'd quickly learned that rule. In the kitchen, Zesty was Chef, and thus outranked Sunset Shimmer.

"Excellent." Magic tossed a plastic bag full of celery at her, then delicately brought a knife to her hand. "Two ribs, half an inch or so thickness on each. Be sure to rinse them after you snap them off of the stalk. Don't obsess over getting every piece perfect, so long as they're small enough to cook through."

"You mean why you could never work with Aunt Abby?" said Lemon, who was already well into zesting her third lemon.

"More talk like that and I'll crush the Glitz myself."

"Sorry, chef."

Sunny was able to see the thin smile form on Zesty's lips. "Save it for next year, after the wound's had time to heal. And as her sister, I get the first shot."

After the first stalk—rib?—got a good rinsing, Sunny made her first hesitant slice, then mentally smacked herself and started going a little faster. It wasn't like she could cut her fingers. "Glitz?" she asked. "As in the crackers?"

"Trust me on this, Flare Bear," said Lemon, now well into her juicing, "you have not lived until you have tried my mom's Glitz cracker stuffing."

"Subtlety of flavor is one sign of culinary mastery," said Zesty, moving one pot off the burner just in time for the oven timer to go off. As she rotated muffin tins full of something involving spinach and feta cheese, she said, "Another is taking seemingly mundane ingredients and elevating them to something sublime."

"Also Uncle John dared her to make it work back in the day."

"And I did," Zesty said with no small amount of pride. "On that note, be prepared for him to make countless comments about you dating your mother."

Lemon's hand slipped. A nearly exhausted half of a lemon went flying until Sunny caught it in her own telekinesis. "Mom!"

"A dozen sleeves of Glitz, Lemon. Crush them and we'll see how many more we'll need. Sunny, you can join her when you're through."

The two girls shared a look that spoke volumes, and adamantly ignored what such silent communication might imply. As one, they answered.

"Yes, chef."

Author's Note:

Dedicated to my father, the reason why I haven't been on Fimfiction much this week. Not nearly as much of a taskmaster as Zesty Gourmand would likely be, but still king of Thanksgiving. Zesty Gourmand insisting on her family calling her Chef stems from the works of MustLoveFrogs.

Comments

[LEGION55]

9313847
Your welcome.

[Bugsydor]

9313849
But what can you say, besides "you're welcome"?

[JetstreamGW]

Doesn't make sense. Zesty Gourmand doesn't like good food :P

[Darkstarling]

9313956
It's Ratatouille

[Eroraf86]

I don't LIKE food, I LOVE it. If I DON'T love it, I don't SWALLOW.

[FanOfMostEverything]

9313956
Pony Zesty never had Discord as a brother-in-law. It was an eye-opening experience for both of them.

[Bugsydor]

9313881
I suspected as much.

And thanks for the aspects, Speckle! I do like me some good HamSteak.

[LEGION55]

9313899
?

[Bugsydor]

9314109
Sorry, Moana reference.

[LEGION55]

9314284
Ah haven't seen it.

[Prawo Jazdy]

9314129
...The baby? Who's only related through her father?
I'm sorry, I don't even know what about Flurry Heart you're expecting me to look at. Over 300 chapters in, I kinda need something clearer than "look at."

[Alaborn]

Forget Glitz cracker stuffing. You need to make the classic Glitz cracker mock apple pie.

Just don't tell the Apples.

[B_Munro]

I continue to love the way the fandom takes one-note throw away characters and turns them into complicated, interesting people ponies individuals.

[BenRG]

I do like the idea of Zesty having once been a cordon bleu chef before turning her hand to food criticism for the upper-end press. Because she had a particular style and a particular idea of what was 'good' or 'bad', everything has to basically be what she crafted in the day or it's worthless.

[Snowdrifter]

9314313
Males in the Sparkle line have an inverted expression of the phenotype; they are always just smart enough to play Watson to a female relative Holmes. They are the straight man in the comedy that is their life. Because magic, this occures whether they are born or married into the Family. It's contagious.

[SomefrogMillionaire]

More Zesty > Less Zesty

[UrsaMajor]

I don't get the "comments about dating your mother" bit.

[FanOfMostEverything]

11728810
Zesty Gourmand and Sunny Flare have a number of similarities. Mr. Discord is hardly one to let such low-hanging fruit go unplucked.