The Chef's apprentice

by vincent789

Cooking lessons Part 1

Twilight wakes up and immediately goes to the bathroom. She looks around and sees the bathroom is clean and untouched. She smells herself and decides to go bathing. She locks the door and starts to fill the bath with hot water. While she does that, she looks outside through a window next to the shower.

It looks like it's raining outside. She looks at the schedule next to the mirror and sees that the rain was predicted. The rain, Twilight always did enjoy the rain. It allowed her to stay inside without being disturbed, as she watches the rain from inside. She looks at her bath and sees that it's half full. She stops the faucet from filling the bath up any further.

She opens the window and then enters the bath. The sound of rain fills the bathroom as she lays silently in the bathtub. The water was warm, not hot, just warm. She looks at the window and thinks about the last few days. They were very eventful, she just hopes that for the next few days things would calm down.

Thinking on her incoming lesson for today, she looks at the schedule. Thinking about it, she hopes that Royal won't be too hard on her. As she calms down, she thought of the future. She envision herself as a head chef of her own restaurant. It made her think of Becky. Becky had quite a nice establishment, However Royal's restaurant was much more mainstream.

"The Royal Star" however was a bit too hard of a goal to reach. Thinking about the events in there. she thought about Clear Music. Being a waitress was important for a large restaurant. But it is also important for a small business like Becky's restaurant.

Then you had a sous chef like Sundown for a large kitchen who were just as important. They controlled different parts of the kitchen. Not to mention the guests like Pride Keeper and his clumsy guard, they were the reason the kitchen had work.

Or critics like Blueblood and Cadence. They would create challenges for a business. And VIP's like Celestia and Vermouth Roux would also be hard to please.

Splashing some more water over herself. Then you have the backbone of the kitchen. Suppliers like Carrot Top and Moondancer. They would produce and supply the kitchen with goodies to keep it running. Or the chefs that work long days to make the good food for everyone. like how she soon could be.

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Sighing, she washed her head with some water. Then placing some soap in her hair. After that she splashed some more water over her, cleaning the soap out of it. Being done she cleans her body then leaves the bath to dry out. She then adds some hair conditioner, something of which she had never been done before.

She looks at her hair. It looks shiny and beautiful. She then combs her hair into place. Now looking a lot more professional than usually. She after that brushes her teeth in front of the mirror making it look just as shiny. When done, she walks out of the bathroom to go downstairs.

On the way to the stairs she bumps into her mother. Velvet looks at Twilight and noticed her shiny hair.

"Did you use conditioner on your hair?" Velvet asked confused.

"Yep. Today I am going to be taught by Royal. I want to look at my best" Twilight said excited.

Velvet looks closer at Twilight's handiwork and says "Well, it's not bad for a beginner. That is for certain. However I suggest putting less conditioner in your hair next time."

"Okay. Maybe you can teach me how to look at my best for important meetings or something." Twilight suggest

Velvet smiles at Twilight "That is something I can do. I will also teach you manners when you are ready to learn them from me." Velvet says.

Twilight nods before going downstairs to the living room. Once downstairs she looks at the kitchen uncertain. and shouts "Mom! I am going to make some breakfast. Is that okay?!"

"Sure!" Velvet shouts back.

Twilight then enters the kitchen and looks around. She looks at the bowl of fruit, as an idea came to mind. 'Let's make an fruit salad.' she thought.

She proceeded to grab every fruit in the bowl on both the counter top as well as the one on the dinner table placing them on the counter top. She then grabs an cutting board and a big chef's knife, chopping up every fruit into cubes.

Now with 4 bowls of chopped fruit, she grabs some lettuce, some tomatoes and some cucumber from the fridge. mincing the lettuce into small strips. the cucumber into thin slices and the tomatoes into thin halves. she then mixes the vegetables with the fruit. adding some salt and pepper to it.

She now had 4 bowls of fruit salad ready to serve. However she added one final ingredient. Which was a mistake. She added honey/mustard sauce over it. Tasting it caused her to nearly throw up.

"Uh, oops." Twilight said just as Velvet entered the kitchen.

Velvet looks at the fruit salad and also tasted it. Nearly throwing it up she said "Well, mistakes are backbone of success. Good try, Twilight."

Twilight looks at her saddened "I am sorry for wasting so many ingredients." Twilight said

Velvet smiles at her "Twilight. It's alright. Everyone makes mistakes. I too make mistakes, same can be said about Royal." Velvet explains. "I will just task Night to go to the bakery, to get us is something nice."

Twilight nodded and asked "Can he please get me a croissant?"

Velvet nods she then ran back upstairs to wake her husband up. While Twilight cleans her mess up. 'Perhaps I am not quite a chef yet' Twilight thought sheepishly.

As Night woke up and quickly left to go to the bakery. Twilight sat on lazily on the sofa when the bell rang. She quickly sat back up and moved to the front door, opening the front door. She sees Royal on the other side.

"Hey Royal, please come in. I hope the trip wasn't too wet." Twilight said beaconing him inside.

Royal looked Twilight "It was quite wet. However I can dry out inside." Royal said

"By the way have you had breakfast?" Royal asked.

"Not yet. My father is getting us something from the bakery. After I made some mistakes in the kitchen." Twilight explained saddened

"What happened?" Royal asked.

"I added honey/mustard sauce to a fruit salad" Twilight said. Royal flinched at the weird combination. Twilight noticed it and looked sheepish at Royal.

"Well. A good chef makes mistakes and learns from them. I hope you understand this, Twilight." Royal explained.

Twilight nodded just as Night returned with the bread while Shining and Velvet came downstairs around the same time.

"Royal, This is my mother Twilight Velvet and the one holding the bread is my father Night Light." Twilight introduced "Mom, dad, this is Royal. He will be my cooking teacher for the next few months."

Royal shook his hoof with Velvet and then with Night. "And I am Twilight's brother Shining Armor." Shining said afterwards.

Shining too, shook his hoof with Royal. "It's a pleasure meeting you all. I suggest we will start the lesson after you guys had breakfast." Royal suggest "In the meantime I am going take a look at your kitchen. I want to know how many tools you guys have."

Velvet nodded and allowed Royal into the kitchen. Twilight meanwhile ate her croissant.

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After Royal inspected the kitchen he came back to see, that Twilight was done with her breakfast.

"Well Twilight, Today I will teach about every pan and their usage to you. So grab your notebook and pencil." Royal explained.

Twilight nodded and grabbed her notebook. She grabs a pencil and starts listening.
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"Following first four pans are basic pans."

"This is a stock pot. It's designed for soups and for liquids. The reason being that it's very deep. Perfect for making large servings of soup. This is a skillet. It's design is small and mostly used for eggs and meat. The reason being that it cooks things very fast. This is a saúte pan. It's designed with a lid and used to saúte things in them. Perfect for meats that need to be cooked in liquids. Or for a basic form of frying things. This is a sauce pan. This pan is ideal for everything in between. from small servings of a soup to sauces. You name it. This thing can do it. It's an ultra versatile pan."

"These five other pans are more advanced then the previous once"

"This is a braiser pan. It's primarily designed to slow-cook foods. This pan can cook this well, when placed in an oven. instead of a stove. This is a griddle. Perfect for pancakes as the pan itself is totally flat. However you also have a version with a ridged surface. In which that version is perfect for grilling meats. This is a wok. It's perfect for stir frying and steaming foods. I recommend it when making a rice product. This is a pressure cooker. It's the best pan to use when you want to steam something. For it's pressure can be perfectly adjusted and the heat is perfectly controlled. I don't recommend usage of it until you have learned advanced cooking. This is a Roasting pan. It's perfect for oven/pan type dishes. Like whole Roast chicken and such."

Royal explained showing each pan off.
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Twilight wrote everything down. Then proceeded to look at every pan.

Royal happy with Twilight's response "Well that was today's lesson. Tomorrow you will learn the other tools" Royal said

Twilight nodded and waved him goodbye as he left the house by himself.

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As the next day rolls around Twilight woke up. she went to the bathroom and then ate breakfast as Royal once again entered the house.

"Today you are going to learn about knives." Royal said straight to the point. Twilight grabbed her notebook and listened to Royals explanation.

"Okay, so before I begin. Please don't touch the knives. They are sharp and dangerous." Royal said as Twilight nodded.

"First the basic knives."

"This is a chef's knife. It's used to chop and dice vegetables. Because it's thicker than some knives. It's very useful for chopping potatoes or unions."
"This is a utility knife. It's used to chop smaller foods like shallots."
"This is a paring knife. It's used for delicate jobs as it's smaller then the other two knives."
"Then you have a bread knife. Like the name suggest it's for bread."

"Hmm. You guys don't have knives for meat or fish prep work. Or specialized knives for vegetables." Royal said

"I guess I will teach you about them when we come across them" Royal said, causing Twilight to nod.

"Next time I will teach about small kitchen appliances." Royal explained.

Twilight nods as Royal once leaves the house in a hurry.

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In day three. Twilight's routine was the same and Royal arrives around the same time as last time.

"Okay let's start" Royal said as Twilight once again grabs her notebook.

"This is a blender. As the name suggest it blends this together. For example to make smoothie.
This is a microwave. It's an smaller version to the oven and is designed to reheat things in a kitchen.
This is a kettle. It's used to make thee. It heats whatever water you put in it.
This is a coffee machine. As the name implies it makes coffee. Using coffee beans.
This is a food processor. Unlike the blender, this application chops the ingredients fine. Or how ever fine you let it becomes.
This is a mixer. It helps mix things together."

"This is a stove. It heats products in pans.
This is an oven. It produces more heat and is bigger then the microwave.
And as last this is a toaster oven. It's speeds up the process in making toast." Royal said finally

"Tomorrow we will learn about cooking utensils. Or some of them anyways." Royal said as Twilight nodded.

Royal once again left in a hurry. As Twilight finishes for the day.

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Day four. Her routine didn't change.

Royal entered and said "Today will be the last talking day. Tomorrow we will go to the chef's market in Ponyville."

Twilight nodded as she grabbed her notebook and pencil.

"This is an egg slicer. It always the egg to be cut in perfect slices. This is an egg piercer. It creates an small hole in the egg allowing it to hard boil eggs to perfection."

"This is an cutting board. It allows for safe cutting.
This is an bottle opener. It helps open bottles for you."

"There is many more utensils but those are the most important right now." Royal said "Sadly I don't have more time today Twilight. I recently got a massive order of salads in the restaurant."

"I understand. So tomorrow we go Ponyville then?" Twilight asks

"Correct. I have to go now tho. I see you tomorrow at 5 O'clock at the train station" Royal said before quickly leaving.

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Day five, This morning however was very early. It was 4 O'clock as Twilight left her bed. Going to the bathroom is washed her face with some ice cold water and brushed her teeth. She looked outside to see the birds being fed by a yellow pegasus filly.

Twilight has been seeing her a lot for some reason. She then also spots a familiar blue filly. The blue filly had wings and flew nearby the yellow one. She too already had a cutie mark. It was a cutie mark with a rainbow on the side of a cloud in the the form of a lightning strike.

Twilight was quite jealous that they already had a cutie mark while Twilight didn't. But she said nothing as she walked towards the living room.

Once downstairs, she grabs a slice of bread and puts it into the toast oven. turning it on. She then grabbed the pot of jam from a cupboard. "Ting" said the toast oven. She grabs the toast from it and puts some jam on it.

As she takes a bite she looks at the clock. It's 4:30 on the clock. Realizing the distance from her house to the train station is 15 minutes, she rushes out the door towards the train station. she then passes the two fillies in her hurry.

Once at the train station, Twilight realized she was 15 minutes too early. Looking around she noticed those two fillies followed her. But decides to ignore it, when she sees Royal approach her.

"Good morning." Twilight said to Royal.

"Good morning to you too Twilight. Ready to go to the chef's market?" Royal asked.

"Yup. I hope Carrot Top is there." Twilight said.

"You know Carrot Top?" said the shy yellow filly behind her.

Twilight looked at her a bit closer before answering "Yup. She supplies me high quality carrots."

"I see, Do you know Applejack?" the yellow filly asked.

"I do, but I don't do business with her. I have someone else for that." Twilight answered.

"I see. By the way my name Fluttershy. What is yours?" Fluttershy asked.

"Twilight Sparkle, just call me Twilight. Nice to meet you." Twilight said holding her hoof carefully forwards.

Fluttershy took her hoof to shake on her. "So why are you going to Ponyville?" Fluttershy asks.

"For the chef's market. Most likely to experience it." Twilight said.

Fluttershy nodded as she was about to ask something else when the blue filly interrupted her. "Are you going to stay there?" the blue filly asks

Twilight looked annoyed at her and said "No, just for the market."

"My name is-" she was about to begin when Fluttershy put her hoof into her mouth.

"Thank you, fluttershy." Twilight said politely "I would love to know who you are. But the train has arrived we have to go in before it leaves."

The blue filly nods then enters the train carriage with Twilight, Fluttershy and Royal.

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Once inside the train. Twilight looked at the interior of the train. The floor, walls and ceiling were made from oak planks. The seats were also from oak planks. the cushions were made from cloth filled with cotton, making it really fluffy. Above the chairs were some iron bars sticking out from the wall with the occasional bag in them.

Twilight looks at Royal and notice a big window next to him. Feeling the train starting to move Twilight looked back at fluttershy and the blue filly. Looking at the blue filly she sees that her mane is rainbow colored. The filly notice Twilight looking in her direction.

"By the way, The name is Rainbow Dash" Dash said.

"My name is Royal" Royal cut in.

Rainbow and Fluttershy looked at him. "I am Twilight's cooking teacher." Royal said without a beat.

"Ah. So you two are going for an excursion?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight and Royal nods in sync "Twilight needs to get more outside connections" Royal said, causing Twilight to raise her eyebrow at him.

Twilight ignoring Royal's comment asks "So what about you two?"

"Well I am going home from my trip to Canterlot. I live in my cottage near the everfree forest." Fluttershy explained.

"Well, I got recalled by the weather team in Ponyville. I was on vacation in Canterlot." Rainbow explained.

"Do you know why?" Royal asked.

"They say that someone let it rain twice on the wrong day in Ponyville. I have a feeling it's Ditzy." Rainbow groaned.

"No, that can't be right. Ditzy works at the post office. She hasn't been part of the weather team since a few years back." Twilight said.

Royal and Rainbow raised their eyebrow. "You know Ditzy?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight smiled waving her hoof around " I know a bunch of ponies. I just met Ditzy by chance a few years back." Twilight said.

"How many ponies do you know, that live in Ponyville?" Fluttershy asked, Royal nodding at the question.

Twilight smiled even bigger "Too many. I also may have given Ditzy her addiction to muffins. By accident of course." Twilight said.

Rainbow sitting in his chair suddenly jumped when she asked "Do you know the wonderbolts? In person?"

Twilight looked at Rainbow. "No, atleast I don't remember that much. I was practically a baby when I met Ditzy." Twilight said shaking her head.

Rainbow sank into his chair, while Fluttershy brushed her mane. Royal looked at Twilight and said "We are here." Twilight nods and looks outside.

As they left the train, Ditzy crashed into Twilight. Twilight brushing Ditzy of her smiled "Hey, Ditzy!" She said.

Ditzy looked up to see Twilight. She smiled and said "Muffin code?"

"Blueberry muffin with ginger, cacao and of course mini marshmallows." Twilight said without missing a beat.

Ditzy smiled wider and hugs Twilight "It's been so long! Why are you in Ponyville?" She asked.

"For that." Twilight said pointing at the chefs market.

"Of course! How could I forget, you always go to this market. So who's your friend?" Ditzy asked.

"This is Royal Keeper. He is my cooking teacher and is the head chef for "The Royal Star" and also the head chef for the public canteen." Twilight introduced.

"OH! So you have a big shot teacher. Very nice Twilight, you always did make friends with big shots somehow." Ditzy said.

Twilight blushed at the comment while Royal looked closer at Ditzy. "Nice to meet you." Royal said.

"Same, Thank you. The name is Ditzy doo, but you can call me derpy." Ditzy said.

"Well nice meeting you derpy. We have to get going to the market or we will be out of time." Royal said.

"Sure. Oh Twilight should I tell 'him' that you are here?" Ditzy asked.

Twilight nodded as Ditzy quickly entered the market.

"Him?" Royal asked.

"It's a secret. You will meet 'Him' soon." Twilight said mischievously.

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Twilight and Royal entered the market. Twilight once inside looked around. The market stall are bigger than normally and nearly everyone of them had a chef of some kind in them. Above the road you these orange paper candles as there were suspended on ropes that go on for miles. Not only that, but also the road was decorated with lots of water colors.

Twilight approaches Ditzy's mother stall. "Could I get a blueberry muffin, secret menu 16?" Twilight asked.

This caused Ditzy's mother to look down at her "You know that one is awful, right?" she asked.

Twilight smiled "You must be confusing it with secret menu 16, as that one is indeed is awful." Twilight said.

The mother looked into her book and only showed her secret menu 16. Twilight then moved the pages forwards to show a another secret menu 16 with blueberry in front of it. The mother raised her eyebrow at it then read it. The mothers eyes widen and quickly went to work to make that one.

"Here you go. that would be 5 bits." The mother askes. Twilight giving the bits, grabbed the muffin with her magic as she ate them.

Twilight then rejoined Royal as he points towards the stall they are going to see. Twilight smiled when she knows what is going to happen.

Royal the shouts "Hey boss!"

High Chef looks at Royal. "Hey son, how are you holding up?"

"I am here to show my student around the market." Royal said pointing at Twilight.

High then laughed loudly "You showing her around the market? It should be her showing you around the market." High said.

"What do you mean?" Royal asked seriously.

"She is the reason this market even became a thing!" High said, "When Twilight was even younger then now. She gave the winning vote that allowed the chef's market to even become a thing."

Royal's eye widen then looked towards Twilight. Twilight looked sheepish at him and asked High "So how is the market? I hope you solved issues 5."

"Of course I did. All thanks to you of course. And Ditzy." he said in a after thought. "Anyways take these free tickets. They allow you to buy anything for free."

"Thank you High. I will use them when I could." Twilight said.

Royal looked at Twilight "Looks like I wasted my time then." he said disappointed.

"Of course not. This market changes every time. It seems the theme this time is "Twilight" which is surprisingly fitting." Twilight said.

"That is correct." High said still behind them "After all it's your birthday."

"Happy birthday!" Everyone behind the stalls on the market shouted.

Twilight teared up as High spoke "Today you are our valuable guest and VIP for today. We might get some more VIPs, but you are the most important one."

Suddenly music started playing everywhere. As the market suddenly became much more jolly and party-like. High together with Royal suddenly sang the happy birthday song, while everyone passing by joined them.

"Is there a wish for today market? Twilight?" High asked.

Twilight practically crying at this point said "10% off on everything. I don't want the only one to be happy today." between her sniffs.

High smiled as he nods his assistant. His assistant used the bellow suddenly behind her. As every booth grabbed their 10% off piece of paper. placing them in front of them.

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The rest of the evening was filled with food contests and lots of food type activities. A disco was also placed out of nowhere as ponies danced on the beats made by DJ pon3. Twilight who was still sniffing from the sudden birthday present, sat on her VIP throne above High's booth.

She watched hundreds of ponies filling the market. She also saw Cadence and Celestia in the background.

"By the way, Twilight. We made this the biggest market in a thousand years. On your signal we shall open the rest of the market along side a fireworks display. So how about it?" High asked

"Are they all ready then? The shopkeepers? The security? The fireworks?" Twilight asked.

"They have been for a few hours." High said.

Twilight stood back up and shouted "Open the rest of the market!"

High nodded as Cadence noticed Twilight where she was.

High then shouted in a speech format "Since the beginnings, markets were always a staple. They create a place to shop at for past hundred years. Today however we chose to break Luna's record for the biggest market! Today, we make history! Today we open this market with a the size ten times bigger then her record! Today's market will be the size of Canterlot! Hurrey!"

"HURREY!" The market shouted as fireworks open in the background. The doors to the rest of the market open when thousands of ponies joined the market festivities. Music, activities, foods, shops, drinks, everywhere there was something to do. Twilight looked towards Cadence as she beaconed them to come closer.

Cadence approaching Twilight "Congratulations, Twilight. For your seventh birthday." Cadence nuzzled Twilight

"Thanks, altho this birthday gift the market gave me is a bit big." Twilight joked.

Cadence laughed and said "I will bring you back home after this."

"Thank you Cadence." Twilight simply said.

Author's Note:

This chapter took me an arm and a leg.
I had to scrap the previous version of this chapter and the planning was horrible.
In the end I am happy about the result.
However I extended the chapter longer then I would have liked.
Next chapter will be less chatting and more story stuff.

-Vincent789

Comments

[Comickook]

Excellent job on this latest chapter/start of the next arc. Absolutely loved the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-ups in all the right places. I especially loved Twilight's reflections on all the roles that are important to a restaurant, Velvet and Royal BOTH reassuring Twilight about how mistakes are a good learning tool, the reflections on the assorted lessons involved in cooking as well as kitchens in general, Twilight's first OFFICIAL meeting with both Fluttershy AND Rainbow (yeah, Twi befriending at least a few of the rest of the Mane Six YEARS sooner than in canon is ALWAYS a good thing) and that rather big market scene that coincided with Twi's seventh birthday.

All in all, great work and I'm definitely looking forward to more of this.

[Mighty C]

K I L L

M E

P L E A S E

[Aiwhisper]

A bit confused by the timeline but loving the story so far.