Author's Note

Well, here's the first chapter NineTailBeastBall and I wrote, if you find any errors, I welcome the constructive critisism so feel free to leave a comment in the section below, anyways thank you for your patience and support and remember to stay tuned and keep bronying on

The Start Of A New Cooking Life

A Tasty Surprise

Written by Israel Yabuki

Edited and co-written by NineTailBeastBall

Art is expressed in many ways in your society. It’s expressed in drawings, paintings, music, sculpting and even engineering. But for you, art spoke to you through cooking. Your dream was to one day purchase your very own restaurant, but money was always a problem, especially when you had no family whatsoever to help you.

Your mother was in prison for murdering another woman in cold blood when she found out she was sleeping with your dad. Speaking of dad, you never saw him all that much because he was always on the road, working as a truck driver. And you didn’t have any brothers or sisters to turn to, so you were on your own.

You spent the majority of your years honing your skills as a chef. The other cooks at your job would sometimes grow jealous of the way your food looked and tasted. You kept on explaining that they can pull it off, too. It just takes time, practice and a whole lot of love. But the other cooks, however, begged to differ. They think that cooking up the finest ingredients are what matters as a chef.

Not once in your life did you ever waste your food and always made sure to finish what was on your plate. In fact, you couldn’t help getting angry when you see someone refusing to finish their meals. With your parents away, you had to teach yourself good manners and try to act sociable towards other people

When people eat your food, they think they’re dining on S-class food. Most of the time when they say that, they actually mean it when the proof lies in the empty plates when they return to the kitchen, ready to be cleaned. By the end of the day, when you come home, you have to deal with the dishes as well. The kitchen was the only part of the house that’d ever get messy.

The owner of the restaurant gave you a pretty good paycheck, but half of that money was always used for groceries, the electric bill and the house rent, leaving you with about $350 or even $385. You’d be lucky to to have $510 if you ever had to cover for someone else or even work the night shift.

Right now, you had just arrived at your house, exhausted as ever from yet another hard day at work and another day of having those other cooks giving you a nasty look on their faces. You had nothing better to do other than just sit down and watch some TV. Most of the time, you would watch the cooking channel to check out some brand new recipes you would want to try to make later on.

Your ideas of what you can cook seemed to never run out. Your curiosity peaked when you thought about cooking up veggie-style enchiladas. You got up from your couch and bolted into the kitchen pantry to see if you had any sauce, sadly, you didn’t have any.

You reached into your pocket and took out your wallet. You checked to see about $297 left. More than enough to grab some ingredients from the store. But first, you had to check the fridge to see if you had any corn tortillas. There was only half a bag left, so as a precaution, you made sure to add it to your list.

Even though your body was tired, your mind was active and ready to try a new recipe.You grabbed your coat and keys and headed out of the house, locking the door.

You had plenty of stamina from all that walking and all the vitamins you ate. About halfway on your way to the grocery store, you noticed a family of four people and a dog walking on the other side of the road, chatting and smiling and having a good time. At least some people in this town were lucky enough to be a family.

Just then, the family’s dog, which was a Boston terrier ran out in the middle of the street chasing after this bird that landed there. You jumped when you see a truck driver coming in pretty fast. Without even thinking, you bolted in the middle of the street towards the dog.

“NOO, TROOPER!!!” the little boy called out.

Luckily, for the dog, you were just in time to scoop him up and throw him into the direction of the family where the father caught the dog. But you were unfortunate to get caught in the truck’s path and soon, your mind went blank when the truck collided with your body heavily. The only thing you could hear was the sound of screaming and crying before silence filled the dark void.

The next thing you know you were lying down on cold concrete and people chattering in these uptight English tones in their voices. Your head was still aching from that accident you had with the truck. You’re glad the family’s dog is safe, but you were still wondering how you were able to survive the impact. No ordinary human could survive that. As your vision cleared up, you realized it wasn’t exactly people who were talking.

All around you, you were surrounded by a bunch of anthropomorphic horses in high society clothing, but they’re hardly considered “good mannered” to you.

The moment you were about to stand on your feet, your headache kicked in again. You gripped your head, grunting painfully. “Damn it! Where’s an aspirin when you need it the most. God this headache sucks!” you said as you forced yourself to stand.

Looking around you saw it was quite a large city with a beautiful castle in the distance. There was also a couple of horses who wore golden armor and carried spears. A few of the guards have wings and the others have horns. They sure didn’t look like they mess around. You even felt your knees shaking. It makes you wonder if the leader was of this place was a more intimidating horse as well.

However your attention was turned away as you smelled something delicious. You followed the amazing smell of whatever it was that was cooking, ignoring the so-called nobles who were judging you.

“My word, another disgusting human? They’re like cockroaches, I tell you.” one snobby pony said to another.

“I don’t see how the princess can live with these disgusting creatures.” said another pony.

“Honestly, have you ponies no manners? You didn’t see me treating a human like garbage and I’m happily married to one.” a female pony said.

You stopped immediately when you heard someone say they were married to a human. You turned your attention to a female horse who wore a sky blue summer outfit with a matching hat. She had snow white fur and purple eyes with long, silky pink hair and had a horn and a small girl holding her hand. You realized because of the horn she was a unicorn.

She notices you looking at her and she waves at you. “Hello there, sir.” she calls out to you. You look in every direction to see if she wasn’t talking to someone else. You look back at her and point to yourself.

“Are you talking to me?” you asked.

She giggled, “Of course, I am. You must be new around here. My name’s Fleur De Lis.” she introduces herself. She walks over to you, with her daughter still holding her hand. “This lovely little young lady is my darling daughter, Graceful Charity.”

The girl gave a small wave before retreating behind her mother. You smiled, as you always had a soft spot for children. Graceful Charity has her mother’s long, silky pink hair, but shared some of her father’s features. Mostly the light tan color and brown eyes.

“U-Uh, it’s nice to meet you both,” you stuttered. “Sorry, I’ve never exactly talked to an anthropomorphic umm... “ you could get the right words out, mostly because you didn’t want to offend her.

“Anthropomorphic pony?” Fleur asked, stifling her laughter. “I understand, you’re new here and you don’t know anypony around here. Well, I’m not sure if there’s anypony in this city that’s kind enough to help you. This city’s mostly known for its stuck-up nobles.”

“In all honesty, I don’t think all of the nobles around here are stuck-up. I can easily tell you’re a lot more well-mannered than the others.” you say, scanning the city and turning your attention back to Fleur.

Fleur giggled, “Why thank you. Even my husband thinks I’m more respectful than most of the ponies here. Perhaps one of these days when you’re not so busy, I can introduce you to him. In the meantime, it might be best if I show you where you can find employment. Are they any special talents you have?”

“Ever since I was young, I’ve had a love and a talent for cooking. Do you know any good restaurants that I can apply to around here?”

“Canterlot is full of restaurants, however my favorite is this one restaurant that’s held up in this local alleyway. You’re more than welcome to take a look at the other restaurants, but I highly recommend the one I mentioned to you. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you smell their delicious food.”

Following Fleur’s advice, you walk down alleyway, following the scent of delicious food. The smell leads you to this Indian-style restaurant. You read the sign that said “The Tasty Treat.”

Hearing a noise coming from inside the restaurant you opened the door to see what was going on. Inside, the place had an amazing Indian-style decor and lots lots of these anthro horses stuffing themselves with their tasty food. Well almost all of them.

“What exactly is this rubbish supposed to be?!” You turned to see a stallion with a horn yelling at another pony. This one was a mare with orange fur and purple hair, you presumed she was either the waitress or the cook.

“Please try it sir, I assure you the taste is amazing,” she urged. She had an accent that was Indian style.

“Excuse me, but I came to dine on fine cuisine, not this commoner slop!”

“How about you stop being an ungrateful bastard and just eat it!” you finally spoke up, getting the attention of both of them.

“Excuse me?!”

“You have no idea how valuable food is or how much effort is put into cooking you snobbish fool!” you snarled. “C-class or S-class, food is still food, no matter what and I can already tell from the smell that this food was cooked up by a talented chef,” you say, looking at what appears to be a bowl of soup.

“Well, if you think it’s so scrumptious, then why don’t you eat it?” he asked.

That was an offer you wouldn’t tear down. Good food should never be wasted. As the orange mare told the stallion to leave you took his chair and began to eat the unfinished meal.

“This is delicious,” you said to the waitress before taking another sip of the soup. The spiciness blended perfectly and the soup was amazing, too. As you ate the food at a steady pace, the mare decided to take a seat and looked at you curiously.

“I’ve never seen you before,” she said, studying your features. Swallowing the food and wiping your mouth, you introduced yourself.

“Well my name is Saffron Masala, I’m the chef here at the Tasty Treat. We have the most exotic cuisine here in Canterlot,” she said proudly.

‘Canterlot?’ you thought, “Is that the name of this city?” you asked.

Saffron nodded. “Why yes. My father and I moved here to Canterlot years ago to share the food I make with all the ponies here. We didn’t do so well at first because our restaurant wasn’t rated by Zesty Gourmand, who was once known as the queen of cuisine. But in recent years, she lost her job and her credibility.”

“So how did your restaurant start bringing in crowds like it has now?” you asked, watching all the other ponies stuff themselves happily.

“It was all thanks to Pinkie Pie and Rarity for helping our restaurant become a success. Father and I have been working harder than ever before and it brings me so much joy to see ponies enjoy our food. You seem to have a great appreciation for food as well do you cook?”

Saffron was quite perceptive. “Why, yes I am. At my old job, I worked at this family restaurant, which mostly served simple foods like pastas, different kinds of meat and even different varieties of fruits and vegetables. However, with a little time and practice, the people who ate there said the food I made felt more S-class than anything else. The proof lied in the empty plates that made it back into the kitchen.” you explained.

“That explains why you became so angry just now,” Saffron said

“Yeah, well that’s not the only thing that pisses me off. Back at my old job, the other cooks got jealous and felt like they were gonna get canned if I kept making food the way I still do. They all had different means of being a chef. They all thought that using only the finest ingredients are what matters when cooking. How terribly wasteful they all are.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry to hear that. You know, before our restaurant was getting recognized, everypony would always go to the other restaurants where the food was tasteless, just like how Zesty thought it was supposed to be.”

With that Saffron stood up from her chair. “Well I have to get back to work. It was such a joy talking to you and don’t worry about having to pay. It’s on me this time.”

You smiled as Saffron disappeared behind the curtains and went back to finishing your food. As soon as you finished, you stood up and walked towards the exit, only to catch sight of a little table with a stack of job applications.

As you walked over to the applications, you feel someone tap your shoulder. You turned to see a rather husky looking pony, like Saffron he too had a horn. His fur was a lighter shade of orange and he had a brown mane and mustache.

“My daughter has told me how much you appreciate her cooking and how you’re also a pretty amazing chef yourself. I am her father, Coriander Cumin,” he said.
Like Saffron, Coriander also had an Indian accent.

He stuck out his hand for a handshake, which you accepted without hesitation before introducing yourself to him. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Coriander. Tell me, do you help out with some of the amazing cuisines here?”

He chuckled, “You’d be surprised how often I get that question. No, my daughter does the cooking, I’m the host. I’m just so proud of how hard she tries. I get worried about her sometimes since she’s the only one cooking in this restaurant. So, I’ve taken the liberty of putting out a few applications for anypony who might be interested in working full-time, but so far, no pony’s ever applied.”

“Well, if you’re looking for someone to help out in the kitchen, I think I can lend you and Saffron helping hand,” you offered.

Coriander twirled his mustache as he gave it some thought. “Well, if you want to get the job, you’ll have to demonstrate your skills in the kitchen first.”

You smiled. “I don’t have a problem with that. Just tell me what dish you want me to make and I’ll get it done.”

Coriander chuckled, “No, no, no, the dish that you’ll be making has to be something that not on the menu. I’ve already purchased a few groceries because we’re recently trying to come up with a brand new dish. This’ll be your test to see if you’re qualified to work here at The Tasty Treat.”

You nodded and followed Coriander to the kitchen. Just as any good chef would, you made sure to wash your hands before touching any of the food. Afterwards, Saffron and Coriander took out some ingredients from the fridge, cabinets and cupboards and laid them down on the counter.

One look at the ingredients was all it took give you the idea on what to make. You got out a glass tray, big enough to fit a veggie-style enchilada. Since you hate wasting food, you carefully made sure each ingredient had a purpose so you wouldn’t have to throw anything away. Coriander and Saffron were curious of what you have in mind to make, but would rather not have the surprise spoiled.

They watched as you were coating about 18 tortillas in olive oil and sauce and laid 6 of them into the glass tray times 3. The stove was getting a little messy, but it wasn’t going to be too much of a hassle to clean up afterwards.

On each layer, you put different varieties of chopped and cut vegetables and shredded cheese onto the tortillas. On the very top layer, you poured the leftover sauce onto the enchiladas. You then preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

The delicious smell flowed from the kitchen and you weren’t even done cooking yet. A few minutes later, the oven was all nice and heated up. Soon, you opened up the oven and put the enchiladas inside it and closed it up. You set the timer for 15 minutes and waited patiently. Now that the dish was cooking, you took the time to clean up the stove of all the excess olive oil and enchilada sauce.

“My boy, that looked so scrumptious, what do you call that dish?” Coriander asked.

“It’s a new recipe I wanted to try out called a Vegetable-Style Enchilada. I’ve been a vegetarian all my life and it’s not all that bad.” you said. You know all too well that ponies don’t eat meat so you have even more of a reason not to use it in your cooking.

Saffron put her hands together “I cannot wait to taste it myself. If it smells and tastes good, I could definitely put this thing on the menu!” she said, excitedly.

After the 15 minute timer went off, you put on some oven mitts and opened up the oven, taking out the enchiladas and setting them down on the stove. The smell made its way to the dining room area.

“Hey, what’s that smell?” one pony asked.

“I don’t know, but it smells good!” another pony exclaimed.

“Good? No way, that smells amazing!” pony #3 said.

The praises from the dining room area put a smile on your face. You waited for the enchiladas to cool off a bit and then grabbed a knife, cutting the enchiladas into slices and served them on a plate to Coriander and Saffron. You served yourself a little portion of your food since you were still full from that meal.

You, Coriander and Saffron all took one bite and instantly...

“T-This is delicious!” Coriander stuttered.

“Never in my life have I tasted something so good!” Saffron added.

“Thank you,” you said.

“Hey, what’s that smell, are you cooking up something in there? I want to see for myself!” one pony called out.

Saffron and Coriander looked at you, unsure if you were okay with it.

“If they want to taste my dish, give ‘em a sample or even a few plates full,” you confirmed.

Saffron nodded as you cut up a few more pieces of your veggie-enchiladas, big enough to fill up the ponies who were still a little hungry, while Saffron got out a few plates. You served each of your sliced enchiladas on each plate and helped Saffron carry half of the plates out into the dining area.

You and Saffron served the customers and watched as they all took a bite out of your food. Each and every pony had a big smile on their faces. They obviously loved your enchiladas.

“Oh yeah, this is pretty good. I’m definitely coming back here tomorrow for another helping.” said one of the ponies.

“I should bring the wife and kids here, they’ll love this!” another pony said.

“My boy, I’ve never seen so many of our customers so happy before, you’ve got some real talent as a cook. Consider yourself an official employee at the Tasty Treat. So congratulations, you’ve got the job!”

Saffron ran up to you and gave you a hug and the customers who have tasted your enchilada began clapping for your employment.

That soup you had earlier wasn’t exactly enough to fill you up. Seeing how there was plenty of enchilada left, you fixed yourself a plate.

‘I know I’m going to like this new world,’ you thought as you began to eat your dish, marveled by the flavor.

Now that you were an employee, the next difficult part was finding a place to stay, and you weren’t sure if the cash in your wallet was going to cut it for you. What you didn’t know was that one of these days, there might come a time when you have to step up your A-game and might have to cover for Saffron. Though, you didn’t know it would happen later on, you were still ready for anything.