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Sous-chef Maize helps her master, Cream Puff, put the finishing touches on the meals, giddy about the surprise double-date she’s set up for herself her husband, Temperance and Morning Dew.
Cream Puff examines the plates and smiles in approval. Tomato bisque appetiser, lasagna and fresh rolls entre, and cannoli for dessert, perfect! “Good work, Maize!”
“I hope so, I’m going to be eating it,” Maize jests, peeking out of the kitchen. “Looks like Prae-Prae’s here, and the other two should be coming soon.” She looks back. “Thanks so much, Cream. I never could have pulled this off without you.”
Puff gives her a warm smile. “Any time, Maize! It’s nice to get to make something fancy once in a while. Now get out there! You’re supposed to be on a date!” Puff gives her a friendly push out of the kitchen.
Maize smiles back toward her friend before walking to the table. “Hey, Prae-Prae.” She gives the stallion a big kiss before sitting down next to him.
“Hello, Maize,” he says, smiling as he sits down next to her. “What’s all this about?”
“You’ll see, don’t worry.” Maize gives him another kiss and looks toward the door of the tavern.
A minute later, the second couple walk in. Temperance is smiling softly, walking close enough to Morning Dew that they were brushing up against each other. They periodically swish tails at each other as they move along. “Well, looks like the others are already here.”
“Hello Temperance,” says Praetorian, standing up.
Maize stands up as well. “Hey, Temperance. Hi, Morning.”
“Hello, you two,” he responds, smiling and nodding at each. “So, what was the plan for tonight?” He had a decent idea already, and he was liking where it was going.
Maize smiles at him. “Just take a seat. We’re going to have a little double-date, if that’s alright.”
Morning Dew smiles at Tempy, and nudges him a little.
“Oh, well then...” he says, returning Dew’s smile and making a grand gesture as he pulls a seat out for her. “After you.” It had been too long since their last night ‘out.’
Morning Dew sits down happily, and waits for Temperance to sit down as well.
Maize sits back down, already having a seat under her from earlier. “Cream Puff’ll have the food out really soon, I helped make it. Hope it’s good.”
Temperance takes his seat next to his wife, and he takes a deep breath. “It smells wonderful, so I’m sure it’ll taste it too.”
Praetorian re-seats himself. “I have no doubts on that front, either.”
With the ponies seated, Puff heads out to serve them their appetisers. “Good evening everypony! What can I get you all to drink?”
Praetorian waits for Maize to decide, while setting her plate down in front of her to aid Puff.
Maize smiles at him. “Thanks, Prae-Prae. I’d like some lemonade, please, Puff. We have some, right?”
“A bit of watermelon juice for me, if you have any?” Temperance asks, then looks to Morning Dew.
Morning Dew hmms for a bit, and then says “Um, water would be fine.”
Praetorian says “I’ll join my wife in the lemonade, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Puff nods at each pony in turn as they request their drinks. “Alright: two lemonades, watermelon juice, and water. I’ll be right back with those.”
Maize takes a sip of the creamy tomato soup. “Mmm, it’s even better than I thought it was going to be.”
Praetorian tastes the soup, and nods. “Indeed it is quite delicious.”
Temperance takes a small gulp. “This is excellent. Every time I taste the food I’m surprised how good it is here.” He smiles. “You two do a great job growing it, and Cream Puff does a great job cooking it.”
Morning Dew nods as she continues to drink the delicious soup, before finally halting and smiling. “Yes, it’s stupendous what you and Cream Puff can do.”
Maize gulps down the entire bowl before lying it down on the table and dabbing her lips with a napkin. “Thank you very much. Cream Puff and I worked hard on this, and it’s good to know it came out so well.”
“Oh, you helped cook tonight?” Temperance asks as he finishes his. “Then my compliments to
both chefs.”
Maize smiles. “She deserves more credit. She mostly told me what to do to help her out. Besides, she was nice enough to play waitress, too.”
Puff returns with their drinks and with the entre, and distributes them all. “Here we go! Lasagna and some fresh rolls for everypony. And your drinks, of course. Enjoy!”
Maize helps Puff out with passing out the plates before taking a sip of her lemonade. “Thank you, Puff!”
“Yes, thank you very much,” Temperance says, helping to get Dew’s food settled before he takes his own. “This smells fantastic.”
Morning Dew leans over to Temperance and gives him a little nuzzle as he settles her food, turning it into a little kiss on his cheek.
Maize slips Praetorian a quick kiss, too, before she starts to dig into her own lasagna.
Puff giggles and heads back to the kitchen, leaving the lovebirds to have their time together.
Temperance breaks away from Dew’s nuzzle and kiss reluctantly before sampling his lasagna. It was still a bit hot, but nothing a bit of blowing couldn’t solve. The tomato sauce was absolutely wonderful, just like every part of it. “Cream Puff keeps asking for some cows for better cheese. I’m not sure this could
be any better.”
Maize stops shoveling food in her mouth and takes a second to swallow. “She wants cow cheese, and I don’t blame her. Imagine this with the rich flavor of cheddar.”
Morning Dew is still a little more like Temperance in her eating habits, but Praetorian is almost as quick as Maize, shoveling in the hot food like there was no tomorrow. Morning Dew smiles at Temperance before taking up her fork, and cutting off a little bit of Temperance’s lasagna, and feeding it to him.
He chuckles despite the food in his mouth, then reciprocates, cutting a small piece of her lasagna off and offering it to her with a smile.
Morning Dew giggles a little and takes the morsel of lasagna.
Maize tries to one-up them, cutting a piece of her lasagna and holding it in her mouth, offering it to Praetorian.
Praetorian laughs a little at the antics, before accepting Maize’s gift, and prepares to reciprocate, not wanting to show a sign of ungallantness, of course.
Maize happily takes the bite, giving Praetorian a short kiss as she does so.
Praetorian would be happy to hold the kiss, but accepts the break.
Temperance meanwhile cannot think of anything to beat that, so he concedes defeat with a small chuckle and shake of his head before returning to his food.
Maize finishes the rest of her lasagna and leans back, resting her head lovingly on Praetorian as she waits for everypony else to finish.
Temperance finds himself surprisingly hungry, and it doesn’t take him long to finish either. The lasagna was so good if he was in private he might be tempted to lick the plate, but certainly not here. He instead sits back contentedly and rubs Morning Dew’s back with a hoof.
Praetorian finishes just before Temperance, and being a unicorn doesn’t have to worry about licking the plate.
Morning Dew finishes last, and leans over on Temperance in a mirror of Maize.
Maize nuzzles her husband’s neck a bit, giving him a few kisses. “Enjoying it so far?”
“Oh, of course I am, Maize. I’m with you; why wouldn’t I be?” he answers, resting a leg around her back.
Maize gives him a bigger kiss and looks to the couple across the table. “How about you two?”
Temperance nuzzles Morning Dew and says, “Good food, my friends and the mare of my life? What’s not to enjoy?”
Morning Dew smiles a little, and says “I don’t know how I could not be enjoying it, spending time with the sweetest stallion who ever was.”
Maize grins as she drinks the last of her lemonade. “I’m glad everypony is enjoying it. I figured it’d be a nice little treat.”
Temperance fails to contain a slight blush at Dew’s comment. “Thank you for arranging for it. We’ve all been so busy lately there hasn’t been much time for us to have a night out to relax like this. I’m guessing you two haven’t really had much chance either.”
“Not for a date, no.” Maize pushes herself up a little to give Praetorian’s cheek a kiss. “Sharing the same room makes nights a lot funner, though.”
Praetorian holds a straight face via a tremendous expenditure of effort.
Temperance coughs nervously but a tiny smile plays across his face. “Yes, well... I’ve been trying to convince myself to not work so late every day, so I can spend a bit more time with Dew. It’s a bit of a bad habit I’ve developed,” he says, trying to change the subject a bit, if possible.
Morning Dew smiles a little bit. “He’s not been the one trying to convince him. That’s been me. Mountain Dew hardly sees you when you’re not at work, dear. It won’t kill you to take a few days off a year!”
He chuckles nervously and nods before leaning into her a bit more. “I know... I’m sorry, I’m trying, honest.”
Maize giggles. “I guess I’ll just have to arrange some play-dates, too then.”
“Speaking of that,” Temperance begins, “I’m sure Mountain Dew would love to have a playmate.” He looks over at the slight bulge forming in Morning Dew’s belly and says, “She’s got one on the way, but you do too, don’t you? About the same time off?”
Maize nods and carefully pats above her stomach. “Yeah. It would be interesting if we had them at the same time, wouldn’t it?”
Morning Dew giggles a little bit. “I wonder who’d be doing the farming then!”
“We’ve got probably close to a year’s worth of food stocked up,” Temperance says with a shrug. “Even if you two had to take off for close to a year, I’m sure Pumpkin Patch can keep things primed, so to speak.”
Maize nods. “I can’t imagine needing much time off, anyway. Morning Dew didn’t take too long to get back out after having Mountain, did you Morning?”
“No, I didn’t. Mountain Dew was a sweet little thing, which probably helped a little,” she says.
Temperance smiles, but inside he feels a pang of guilt about not being there for his wife and daughter during that period. “She is. She gets into everything, but she’s a good little filly.”
Cream Puff returns to the table with the dessert, and refills for the drinks. “How is everything so far?”
“Wonderful,” Maize responds, taking her cannoli and again helping pass out the rest of them.
“It’s been marvelous, Cream Puff,” says Morning Dew with a smile. “Thank you for all that you’ve done.”
“Absolutely, everything has been great,” Temperance agrees, eyeing his dessert.
Praetorian nods. “Quite superb, miss Cream Puff. Thank you for the effort that you’ve put in here.”
Puff beams at the couples and the compliments. “Excellent! I couldn’t have done it without Maize’s help! And it was nice to really get to make something extra special.”
Maize smiles. “I’m sure you could have managed, but I’m glad I helped.” She lifts her cannoli, and begins to bite down on the end.
“Extra special, indeed,” Temperance agrees with Puff. He chuckles and adds, “I’d say we should do this again soon, but I know this had to be a lot of work for the both of you.”
Maize giggles. “I actually made one more copy of the meal in secret so Cream Puff could have some, too. It’s in the back right cupboard, Puff.” She smiles. “Hopefully it’ll be incentive to do it all again.”
Puff giggles at Maize. “I know, I ate it already. How else do you think I knew how long to wait to bring the next course?” She gives her a friendly hug anyway. “Thanks, Maize.”
Maize returns the hug. “I thought I hid it well. Oh, well, at least you got it.” She nuzzles her friend. “So, same time next week?” She jokes.
“Heh, I wouldn’t mind, but I think everypony else would get jealous if only you guys get my best stuff! I’m able to keep quality food going with Pepper’s help, but it’ll take at least two more helpers to be able to give everypony food like this.” Puff waves a wing at the quickly vanishing desserts with a smile.
Maize just looks to Praetorian. “What do you say, Prae-Prae? I hear you can whip up a mean salad. It would almost be like our own little date, just helping Puff make a grand feast for everypony.”
Temperance makes a small grin. “I’d offer to help, but I can burn water, so I’m afraid I’d just get in the way.”
“Hmmm, well, I suppose I can help when I’m not on duty,” says Praetorian.
Maize gives Praetorian a big hug and a bigger kiss. “Sounds fun!”
Puff chuckles at her friends. “Sounds like fun. Speaking of, I’ll leave you all to the rest of your date.” With a smile and wave of a wing, Puff returns to the kitchen. Maize hadn’t been the only one to make some extra, and Puff was planning on enjoying some more cannoli.
Temperance waves her off in turn and snuggles up with Morning Dew. He starts nibbling at his cannoli, savoring it and his wife’s presence. Speaking of which, he knew she
loved things like this. After he finishes half of it, he feigns being full, and sets it back on his plate. “I’m not sure I could eat another bite. Would you like the rest?” he asks her.
Morning Dew giggles and, having only half of her own, says “No, no, I’m full. You should eat it. And the rest of mine, too.”
Maize looks a little disappointed, not being able to join in the flirting since she had literally just swallowed the last bit of hers.
That’s why she pulls out two more cannolis from under the table. “Want ‘em, sweetie?” She asks Praetorian.
Praetorian, who hasn’t touched his yet, smiles and shakes his head. “No, you should have it, and mine as well. I’m already pretty full, and I know you like them.”
“Aww, you should eat yours at least.” She puts an entire cannoli in her mouth and starts chewing. “Therr guud!”
Praetorian has an idea. Waiting for Maize to finish the one she was currently consuming, he picks up his own, half in his mouth, and holds it over for Maize to take the other half.
Maize smiles and reaches out, taking the other half in her mouth and pressing her lips against Praetorian’s, holding the kiss for a lot longer this time.
Praetorian holds the kiss for as long as he can, pulling Maize to him.
Maize keeps it up and offers the last cannoli to Temperance and Morning Dew so they can do the same.
With a small laugh, he takes it and mimics the two, holding it half in his mouth and offering the other half to Dew with a wink.
Morning Dew takes the other half, happily kissing the stallion of all of her dreams.
Maize, during the kiss, sneaks some of the cream filling out of Praetorian’s end of the cannoli before breaking away. “That was fun.”
Temperance finally breaks away himself, revealing that the cannoli has vanished during their kiss. He wipes a tiny little speck of cream from Dew’s nose with a grin. He sighs contentedly and sits back. After a minute, he says, “Well... it’s getting pretty late. Perhaps we should go home and spend a bit of that time together that I owe you?”
Morning Dew giggles, and nods. “That sounds nice, Tempy,” she says happily.
Temperance collects the bits of leftover cannolis and gives her another little nuzzle before helping her up. “Alright then.” He looks back at their company and says, “This was a wonderful night, thanks again.”
Maize waves. “No problem. If you ever want to hang out again, just say something. I’ll see if I can set it up.”
Author
Topic: Duskfields (My Little Fortress) (Read 46794 times)