“WHOOP WHOOOOP!” came an enthusiastic shout from the hallway. There was an immediate slight shuffling of everypony in the room, and, pulling out of the final cell, Mr. Officer said ‘at ease’.

Everypony immediately sat on their chairs, and I followed suit.

“Mr Flame,” the officer called from behind his desk, having sat down.

“Sir?” a red and yellow colt at D12 responded. He was a little porky, but not in the bad way. He had body markings that looked like flames in his fur, something I don't quite see often. I wondered if he was from around this area or not, as I’d never seen him before.

“Grab thirteen trays, if you would,” Mr. Officer instructed.

“Yes sir!” the colt said, getting up and going to a gray cart sitting in front of the door. Grabbing the handle of it in his mouth, he back trotted out of the door, pulling the cart with him. Outside through the windows I saw a zebra in a khaki officer shirt and harness bringing a large metal box he was pulling to a stop. Mr. Flame and the zebra conversed as they both pulled out some brown boxes and sat them onto the gray cart. I had only ever seen Zecora before, I didn't even know there were other zebras in Ponyville. Opening the door, the Khaki'd zebra waltzed into the pod with a broad smile as Flame continued loading.

"Breakfast time! Hot and steamy!" He said with a big grin, and many colts 'woop'ed in response.

"I bet you already had two trays," Mr. Officer joked, a smirk on his face as he looked at the zebra.

"Nah, you know how it is, gotta save these for the fine gents of this here center!" Mr. Khaki retorted, walking up to the colt at D11 and ruffling his short hair playfully. "Gotta give these growin colts their fill!" All of this brought a bit of a smile to my face, and I felt a little warmth in my chest. He was so positive, and that just made me happy.

"Oh well now, look at this... You are quite the beautiful young filly!" Mr. Khaki said, ripping my attention away from my thoughts. The warmth within me suddenly turned into a cold rock as I realized just who he was talking about. "This is the one who came in last night?" He asked Mr. Officer, yet kept his eyes on me.

"Yessir, at around 4 am," The zebra just sighed and, shaking his head, turned back to the rest of the group.

"Well you boys have a blessed day, ya hear? I got trays to deliver. Gotta feed Cluster Four sometime!" And, with that, he walked out. My mind was left unsure of what to think, but held onto one small detail: the falter of his smile.

As he went, the colt who loaded the cart pulled the door open and pushed it inside. The smell of the food now was making my mouth water, though I couldn't place what it actually was. After sitting, the officer stood, looked around the room, and then...

“Mr Twirl, would you like to bless the meal?” he said, his gaze falling on a silver pony. The colt immediately spoke up with a scratchy voice,

“Sir! God, thank you for this food and the blessings of this day. We ask you to nourish us and lead us in your way,” Twirl said, and several responded ‘amen’. I, too, said ‘amen’. I believed in God like my parents, though I didn't know that ponies who believed prayed before meals.

The officer then called up the first pony to get a tray, starting with room one. Simply, when one pony sat down, the next got up. What I had thought were boxes had actually been plastic trays, and each pony grabbed them in their mouths with a little lift-up handle in the very center.

Finally, the colt next to me… uh, ‘Shine’ I think, sat, and I stood. At first, being a bit timid, I walked slowly, but then quickened the pace as my stomach growled yet again, the colt I passed letting out a small laugh. That immediately turned my face red, and I quickly picked the tray up in my mouth, using my tongue to flip up the handle. It tasted a bit like soap, which was nasty, but I’m glad they washed it.

Sitting, I looked around and already saw the ponies before me chowing down, so I went ahead…

“Rice?” I asked aloud. I suddenly cringed, hoping I didn't step out of line with my speech, but then I noticed the other colts were talking to each other as well. Even the officer had a tray and was chowing down on it.

“Sweet rice!” the colt next to me said, his mouth greedily enjoying the gray paste, “My fave!”

Seeing everypony enjoying it so much, I decided to take a bite. Lifting a bit up to my mouth with my spork, I sniffed it. Smelling no horrors of cooking beyond my imagination, I chomped down.

“Mmm! Thish ish good!” I said, immediately scarfing it all down. And it was pretty good! It wasn't much like anything I’d had before. It wasn't even like the consistency of rice either, but was more like a super thick, lumpy oatmeal, and had a uniquely sweet flavoring to it that just covered the entire mouth in sugary goodness.

That was the main course, but there were other items of culinary goodness too. First, in a small square of the tray, was a fruit salad in sugary juice. I had had that before in school, but this had little cherry bits in them! It didn't taste as sweet as regular cherries, probably from sitting in the juice so long, but it wasn't unwelcome either.

Next to that was a small thing of scrambled eggs. Honestly, it had been so long since I had scrambled eggs, and they were just delicious. The next small compartment had a… frozen juice cup?

“Hey, uhm,” I started to ask the pony next to me. Darn! What was his name again? “What am I supposed to do with… this?” I settled on asking, holding the cold cup in my hoof. It was plastic and had a foil peel-off top on it.

“Oh, that’s orange juice,” he responded… Then proceeded to peel the top of his, drink a little bit of juice, mash up the frozen remains, and then eat that with the spork.

I turned back to my own cup, peeling the top off. Sure enough, there was a big lump of frozen stuff in the middle, and a bit of orange juice around it. It must have meant to thaw out.

Looking around, I saw everypony else doing exactly what my neighbor was. Thus, as they did, so did I.

Author's Note

The last of the completed chapters for now, more to come in due time!

Whoop whoop!