> Chef Aria
>  by Draxonos135
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chef Aria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You want me to teach you how to cook?"

Aria twiddled her fingers and looked away, holding a stern expression as she gave a simple nod.

"Okay, spill the beans," Adagio put her hands on her hips. "What's the reason you want me to teach you?"

Aria closed her eyes. "No reason."

"Aria, you, Sonata, and I have been together for several thousand years, and what is basically a decade one this place... I think," Adagio shook off the confusion. "I've known you long enough to know that you wouldn't want to learn about something not explicitly related to music unless you had a reason."

Aria opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "Sonata learned how to bake a cake last week, so that leaves me as the only one of us who doesn't know how to cook."

"Aria, Sonata learned cooking through her friend Pinkie Pie," Adagio calmly pointed out. "Why wouldn't you get her to teach you how to cook?"

"Because not only do I not want to be anywhere near Sonata until I know what I'm doing, but I just can't stand that loudmouthed friend of hers!" Aria rubbed her forehead. "So please, could you teach me how to cook something? It can be anything: boiled eggs, pasta, rice, I don't care, just teach me something!"

Adagio thought about the situation for a second, then got an idea. "Well, I'd like you to properly ask me first."

Aria immediately realized not only what Adagio meant, but just how much of her pride would be wounded if she did it. Unfortunately, she also knew this was her best bet to get Adagio's help.

So, she got down on one knee, lowered her head, and spoke:

"I, Aria, humbly request you to teach me the art of cooking, for my own naive mind is nothing compared to your vast knowledge."

Adagio clapped as she giggled cheerfully. "This reminds me of that time we beat the Sphinx while Somnambula could only watch!"

"Yeah, now that you mention it, she owes us that time!" Aria stated, lifting her head. "Sure, she beat her the first time, but the second time was only because we chose to help her!"

"And she didn't even give us a thanks!" Adagio folded her arms. "She ran to the rest of the pillars and convinced them to attack us! Quite rude, if you ask me."

"She totally owes us an apology!"

"Definitely!"

"Anyway, done, I just threw my pride away to satisfy your ego," Aria growled. "Now, will you teach me how to cook?"

*CLICK!*

Aria looked up to see Adagio had taken a picture of her with her phone. She sported a sly smile as she saved it on her pocket, and answered bluntly:

"No."

Adagio ran away, cackling like a maniac as Aria gave chase.





A little while later, Adagio and Aria stood at the kitchen, the former sporting a set of bandages around her head.

"By unknown factors, I've decided to teach you how to cook!"

Unknown factors my backgills, I caved your face in!

"Now, before we begin," Adagio raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to cook, exactly?"

Aria blinked once. "I don't think I get the question."

"Aria, cooking is a process: you can mash a bunch of stuff together at your leisure, that will be cooking, but what comes afterwards will either be food poison or food proper depending on what you do."

"Alright, okay, I get it," Aria scratched her chin. "Something simple should suffice... How about a cake?"

Adagio lowered her eyelids. "A cake? Really? You think it's easy to bake a cake?"

"It won't have any decorations or frosting!" Aria growled defensively.

"Decorations and frosting aren't the problem, Aria; a cake doesn't just come out of thin air, you need flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and that's not even getting into the process-!"

"Wait, did you mention eggs?"

"I sure did."

"Okay, let's do that instead!" Aria snapped her fingers. "A couple of fried eggs should be a piece of cake."

"Sure, whatever, let me set things up."





"The frying pan's on, I turned on the gas, I already put the oil in it, all you have to do is break The egg over it and wait."

"Great!"

"Before that, though," Aria grunted. "You do know how to crack an egg, right?"

"Don't understimate me, Adagio! I was the one left in charge of the eggs back in Equestria for a reason!"

Adagio rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you were so good at it, there's only three of us left."

"The Pillars are the one at fault!" Aria whined defensively.

"I'm not saying they aren't, I'm saying you're not as good as you think you are," Adagio reached for a pack of eggs and brought them to her side. "Anyway, we're wasting gas, so grab an egg and show me you can crack it."

Aria obliged, and tried breaking the egg by gently tapping it with her finger.

Nothing happened.

She tapped it twice. Still nothing.

She tapped it three times, and the results were the same.

"Dang it, what's going on!? It usually breaks after two taps!"

"Calm down, Aria, freaking out won't help everyone," Adagio reached for the egg. "Here, let me show you how-"

Aria pulled the egg away and smiled. "Wait, I got an idea how to do it!"

Aria channeled some magic into her finger, and tapped the egg.

The house shook as the egg burst in a huge explosion, covering the entire kitchen in yolk... Except the frying pan.

"Okay, I'll admit it," Aria said as she wiped some yolk off her face. "Maybe using magic wasn't the best idea."

"Oh sweet, dumb little Aria," Adagio sighed as she turned off the gas. "If there's anything this world has taught us, is that using magic is never the best option. Anyway, it's back to the cutting board with us."

"Don't you mean drawing board?"

"We're cooking, not wasting our time."





The cooking lesson kept going for a while, at least until nighttime had arrived. And once it did, Adagio fought back the desire to sleep while Aria slept over at the couch.

No matter how I look at it, Aria's a kitchen disaster. Granted, messing with her during the lesson probably had something to do with it.

Adagio stood up and walked to the sleeping Aria.

Then again, I should've seen this coming. Aria was always harder to teach than Sonata.

Adagio sat next to Aria and looked at her sleeping face.


Even then... I guess it was fun...

Adagio's neutral look slowly turned into a sly smile.

But I know something even more fun.

Adagio took out a can of whipped cream, put some of it on Aria's palm, and tickled her nose.

However, instead of Aria hitting her face with a mouthful of whipped cream, Adagio was the one who got a faceful of whipped cream, which was followed by her looking down to see Aria smiling smugly at her, with half-open eyes.

Rather than get angry, Adagio smiled and began laughing out loud, Aria joining in a few seconds later, before the laughter died down and the duo fell asleep for real.