Canterlot Academy Trials

Later…

Luster Dawn left the bistro with Atomic Nebula after speaking with her mother, Starlight Glimmer a bit more. Neither pony knew the exact nature of the magic she was speaking of…

Or in Nebula’s case, he completely played it off as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

Regardless, the two young adult ponies left the restaurant feeling satisfied with their meal.

“...Man, that place had some good food,” Dawn praised the Bitalian cuisine as she pranced along, “I feel like I can study all night without worrying about my body shutting down.”

“That’s the advantage of natural, but refined ingredients,” Nebula added, “I’m a rather big fan of the pastas as well. Food from my hometown was always had some kinda bread rolled up and mixed with other ingredients. Kinda miss gyros and souvlaki…”

“Sounds tasty,” Dawn replied with a sympathetic smile. “Hm…we should definitely encourage other restaurants to open up around here and express their culture to the masses. Canterlot was built for it.”

“Tch. I wish,” Nebula rolled his eyes, “Nopony around here appreciates the refined taste of a good bite of feta cheese. You know there’s a hard law in place that you can only call it authentic feta cheese if it contains a certain mixture of sheep and goat’s milk from specific ones that live in Thrace?” He spoke passionately of the subject, given that it was relevant to his home.

Such a fact had never actually crossed Dawn’s mind. “...I didn’t know that, actually,” she muttered in awe, “And here I thought feta was just another salad cheese. Turns out there’s a whole lot we can learn from different cultures through food.”

“Yup. You can put feta on everything from gyros to hayburgers. But of course, Canterlot still acts like it’s the 1100s and tries to constantly shut everyone out,” Nebula scoffed at the way the city continued to operate, “Well I’m not gonna stand for it. If there’s some way I can manage to…”

As he continued talking, Nebula’s strong will started to inspire Luster Dawn as she thought to herself. ‘Such tenacity...here I am wallowing in my own self-doubt while he’s actively thinking of ways to solve his problems. I need to be more like him and the other students if I want to change my own fate. And I can start by helping him out with the tools at my disposal.’

…Unfortunately, she had gotten so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t been listening to the guy.

“...and that’s why we need a bakery that sells melomakarono. Don’t you think, Dawn?”

“...Oh, uh!” she was snapped out of her thinking stupor. A trait that she may have gotten from her mother Starlight. “...sorry. What’s that called?”

“Melomakarono--also known as finikia--are little pastries made with honey sold around Hearth’s Warming in Thrace. But man…I wish I could eat ‘em year-round…”

“Well, Hearts and Hooves Day is coming up,” Dawn added, “Maybe I can…”

Nebula didn’t want to get his hopes up. Instead, he simply shrugged it off. “Meh, don’t trouble yourself, Luster. It’s not something you need to worry about. I just want you to focus on what you wanna do with yourself more than anything, alright?”

“...you make a good point,” Dawn replied with a smile, “...I’ll do my best, Nebula. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find someone someday.”

“Hey, if a nerd like me can get a girlfriend, then you shouldn’t have any problems,” he said with a self-jbbing grin. “See ya later, yeah?”

Dawn couldn’t help but giggle along with him, and waved as they both entered the school campus. “See ya.”

Eventually…

About a week passed before any significant changes occurred around Canterlot. Eventually, everyone would awaken to some rather startling news as soon as they left their dorms and went outside.

Among them, Nebula and Blue were headed out for a walk through Canterlot when they started to hear lots of chatter in reference to Zesty Gourmand among the upper echelon of pony society.

“Tch, so it’s true,” a snobbish unicorn stallion muttered as he read the local newspaper, “Zesty Gourmand’s entire philosophy on cuisine has been utter rubbish since the beginning.”

“And to think she was manipulating her child through it all by making her say horrible, untrue things about other restaurants just to fuel her own ego,” a wealthy-looking unicorn mare scoffed, “Such a horrible mare. Her taste in manners is just as bad as her taste in food.”

“What we need is more restaurants like the Tasty Treat,” another stallion chimed in, “An exotic place that serves actual food from ponies who know what they’re doing. Not food recommended by a mare who routinely abused her husband and child.”

“Agreed. Princess Twilight Sparkle needs to be made aware of this,” another mare added, “I refuse to have my meals catered from such places any longer.”

Indeed. The crowd of wealthy, upper-class ponies had completely turned on Zesty. They immediately marched up to, and into the castle to make their demands heard. Which left Blue with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Damn right,” he pumped his fist excitedly, “Looks like those upper-crusty bozos are capable of thinking for themselves after all.”

Nebula let out a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad everypony can start eating better again. Not sure if you noticed, but the ponies around here are kinda…thin, to say the least?”

“Yeah, they need to bulk up. Get some ass on ‘em,” Blue quipped casually, which caused Nebula to sigh and shake his head. “Oh come on,” the dragon added, “You know you love how much trunk Rose has got going on.”

“...that’s--” Nebula’s face turned a bit pink for a moment. “...N-no one asked you. Besides, you looked like you enjoyed yourself after Mei accidentally sat on you,” he jabbed back, causing Blue to stutter.

“H-hey that was accidental!” he hissed as Nebula glared at him with a knowing smile and focused eyes.

But just then, something caught their attention from the corner of their eyes. A certain older stallion was out and about…with a camera?