Cream Puff is where she usually is: working in the kitchen. Anypony who knows her would say she seems a bit less energetic than usual, and they’d be right. She’s still feeling a bit sulky about needing to be the mature pony instead of getting what she wants.
Into the kitchen comes Praetorian, looking a little bit
too pleased with himself. “Come on, Cream Puff, we want to have you out for dinner.” His horn starts glowing, and Cream Puff feels a little tug on her.
“We? Wait, what?” She sets her knife down and tries to fight the tug.
“Come on, Cream Puff, there isn’t much time to waste. We can’t have you working in the kitchen all day when you’re unhappy like this, so come on out,” says the stallion, repeating the tug.
“But... but dinner’s in the oven!”
“Cream Puff, you never take enough time out for yourself.” He sighs. “How much longer will it take?”
Puff looks uncomfortable, but answers. “30 minutes? But the salad still needs to be composed!”
“Cream Puff! It can wait! I’m sure ponies won’t mind if they have to make their own salad today. It’ll remind them of how good they have it with you. Now come on, we don’t have much time to waste. We’ve got somepony who wants to talk with you.”
She looks confused and still uneasy, but doesn’t fight the pull any more. “Talk with me? Who?”
“Come on, you’ll like him,” says Praetorian.
Meanwhile, Temperance is sitting quietly at the north end of Duskfields, just at the defensive trench. He’s staring off into the plains that extend out as far as the eye can see. Everything was calm today. He sighs and takes a sip from a jug of juice he’d brought with him, trying to decide if he should keep sitting there or get back to work.
Crosshair landed next to him, giving him a quick salute. “Sir? You’ve got to come with me.” She said urgently.
Concern forms on his face as he stands. “What is it?” Please don’t be more discordant ponies...
“No, not discordant ponies sir. Not as bad as that, but, please. Just follow me, there’s somepony that you need to talk to.” Crosshair continued to urge him.
“Alright,” he says, still looking gravely concerned. Was anypony hurt? Or upset? He follows after her, and asks, “Who is it? What’s the matter?”
Crosshair then beamed up into a smile when he begins to follow her “It’s nothing serious, sir. But please, just follow me. You’ll see soon enough.”
He looks a little less alarmed at that. “Alright,” he says, following her quietly to wherever she decides to lead him.
Crosshair eventually lead him to the incomplete hospital shell, the place set up perfectly for the blind date. He looks around the interior, quite confused at what he finds. An ominous feeling was beginning to set in, like he should leave
right now.
“It’s a Blind date, sir!” Crosshair chirped.
Temperance’s eye go wide and he stammers something incoherent at her. Who in the world could she have roped into this?
Why? “I, uh... a
what?” he finally splutters.
Waiting for him are Cream Puff and Praetorian, Praetorian smiling like Crosshair. “Ah, Cream Puff, your date is here.”
That feeling of needing to bolt doesn’t really abate much for Temperance as he realizes just what was going on. “Date? W-wait a second now!”
“Don’t worry, sir,” says Praetorian in a soothing tone, as he walks over to him. “Just...have a good time. You two both deserve a chance at that, if anypony does.”
Temperance locks eyes with Cream Puff briefly, wondering how
she felt about all of this. Maybe he wouldn’t have to protest too much...
Cream Puff looks pretty uncertain, but also resigned to her fate. “Heya Temperance. I don’t think running is an option with these two.”
“I, uh, suppose not,” he says, clearly nervous.
She gestures at the seat across from her. “Have a seat. I don’t bite.”
He does as asked, taking a seat and tapping his forehooves together from the nerves. What were you supposed to do on these dates again? It had been close to a decade since he last tried this! “So, um, did they get you to cook too?” he says in a joking tone, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
Puff chuckles a bit. “Not really. Tor dragged me out of the kitchen before I could do much more than get the bread in the oven. How about you? Did Cross have to drag you away from the paperwork?”
“Surprisingly, no, actually,” he says, glancing at the pegasus as she left alongside Praetorian. “I was taking a break at the time. So... I guess now is as good a time as any,” he says with a small chuckle.
Puff looks a bit surprised at that. “You take breaks?” she asks with a wink.
“Every once in a while. I try to take one every month or so,” he jokes. After a short pause he asks, “So, we haven’t really spoken much lately. How have things been?”
Puff shrugs. “Pretty good. Having a real kitchen makes life so much easier, and I’ve been able to make real food instead of sammiches all day every day, heh. I’ve even been talking with Serenity to get my anger under control, so hopefully I won’t go nuts the next time parasprites show up. How about you?”
“That’s good to hear. I’m sure you’ve found things a bit easier working in here than with what we had thrown together.” He intentionally sidesteps the anger issue. “I’ve been pretty well. Busy as always,” he says with a smile. She’d no doubt caught on long ago how much time he spent sequestered away in his office.
“You really should see about delegating some of that, Temperance. ‘All work’ and all that.”
He nods slowly and looks aside. “If we had anypony to spare, I’d love to. But, everypony is stretched pretty thin as it is,” he says with a shrug. “Twenty five of us doesn’t leave a whole lot of slack. I’m sure you’d love to have some help in the kitchen too, for that matter.”
Puff nods. “Yeah, I’m going to definitely need a sous chef or two real soon, especially if we keep growing like this.”
“Well, I don’t think we’ll have too many more show up in the immediate future. I sent a letter home with the caravan asking Coupledye to hold back a bit for now, since we’re still taking so long to get sleeping accommodations for everypony.” He chuckles. “I hardly believed it when my sister said it would take so long to build everything, but she was right.”
Puff giggles. “Still, things are going up surprisingly quickly when you consider how few ponies are here to do everything.”
“True enough, I suppose.” A brief but awkward silence falls as Temperance runs out of ideas for idle chit-chat. He hoped the food was already done... otherwise he was going to be boring poor Cream Puff to tears.
Puff has no idea what to say either, so she looks around at the decorations Crosshair and Praetorian set up.
As Temperance does the same, something finally comes to him. “The two of them seem to have gone through an awful lot of trouble for this. I bet you didn’t think you’d be here right now, did you?” He certainly didn’t. He had no idea why they were doing this either, or why they picked him anyway.
She turns back to him and chuckles. “Heh, nope! I expected to be busy serving food right about now.”
As if on cue, the door opens, and in comes a large plate, with a salad bowl on it. In it was a salad with romaine and spinach lettuce, red cabbage, green and black olives, cheddar, swiss and fresh mozzarella, cucumber and strips of red and yellow bell pepper, with a red wine vinegar and olive oil infused with basil, onion, garlic, and black pepper dressing. On the side are a few fresh greens, including celery, broccoli, cauliflower and peeled carrots served with a dip of some sort. Praetorian is carrying the plate in his magic.
Temperance’s eyes go wide as he sees and smells the food approaching. “Well, that smells
amazing.”
Puff looks surprised as well. “Fire him. Kick him out of the military. I want him as my sous chef.”
Temperance chuckles and shakes his head. She’d have a time convincing Flamberge of that, although if Praetorian or Crosshair could cook like this, they certainly seemed to have taken up the wrong career.
“This isn’t really
my creation. Not so much. One of my friends suggested it,” says Praetorian. “He says it’s quite good.”
“You might not have invented it, but this looks like a fairly lengthy recipe.” Puff eyes her friend. “You sure you wouldn’t rather cook?”
“It smells heavenly, so it must taste it too. Whether it was your idea or not, it couldn’t have been simple to make.” Temperance continues to examine the food, salivating at the expectation of the flavor.
Praetorian doesn’t make a reply, and instead lays the plate down between them, before making his exit.
Temperance was certainly getting hungry now. “Uh, well, shall we?” he asks, motioning for Puff to take some of the salad. You were supposed to hold doors for fillyfriends, right? What about food? Was there a priority there?
Puff can’t help but giggle at him again before she takes his plate and portions out half the salad to him. She then sees to her own plate and inhales the pleasant aroma. “Mmm... definitely going to need to pester him for this one.”
“Thank you,” Temperance says with a smile. He didn’t mean to make her serve him, but it was a bit late to stop that. He samples the salad, finding it taste every bit as delicious as it smells. After he swallows the first mouthful, he says, “Yes, I think you should.
Somepony is going to have to make more of this.”
Puff takes a bite and nods. “I’m telling you: fire him. He belongs in the kitchen if he can make this.”
He chuckles again in response, but says nothing as he downs a bit more of the salad. As he takes a few pieces of carrot to dip, he says, “So, you know, it never really occurred to me that we haven’t really sat down and had a long chat. I’m not sure I ever even caught the reason you decided to join us out here at Duskfields. Or where you learned to cook.”
“I was apprenticed to Soufflé, and was ready to start my journeyponyship. An expedition seemed like the perfect opportunity. Fresh ingredients are so hard to get back in Coupledye, you know?” Puff chats between bites, looking rather comfortable.
He nods and chews on the carrots thoughtfully. “That’s for sure. Maize and Morning Dew certainly are doing a fantastic job with the crops. I’m not sure I’ve ever had better food back in Coupledye than out here.”
Puff smiles and even blushes slightly. Having ponies she knows well compliment her food is one thing, having the stallion in charge echo them is another. “Thanks, Temperance! Only thing we really need to put Duskfields on the culinary map is a few cows. Sheep’s milk is all well and good, but doesn’t make very good cream.”
“I know what you mean,” he says, slowing his eating a hair. “I wish I’d have had a chance to talk with the liaison. The caravan brought hardly a thing, and there’s quite a bit we really need out here. A few more farm animals is definitely on the list.”
“What else is on the list?” Puff looks genuinely curious as she asks. She had never really thought about what all Temperance actually does. She knows he’s a busy stallion, but never realized how many things he has to keep track of.
He shrugs and stirs his salad a bit. “Well, mostly some metal and stone. It’s been a bit embarrassing to have a few ponies with a knack for working it and none to speak of.” He takes a bite and stirs his food a bit more. “Smoothblock says that the ground is saturated with water not far down, which is great for the crops but means we can’t really dig a mine of any kind.” He shakes his head. “I never thought I’d hear it was
hard to find stone.”
Puff nods. “I’ve talked with SmoothBlock about the difficulties, but I don’t know any specifics about why it’s so hard to get past all that water. She mentioned something about pumps and making walls, though. Sounds like we’d need pumps first, heh.”
“Yep, all stuff I know almost nothing about. I trust she knows what she’s talking about though. We can probably spare the ponypower to run a few pumps, but first the carpenters would have to take some time away from building more bedrooms.” He dips another carrot. “Sleeping arrangements for everypony seem a bit more important to me right now, but I would feel a lot better if the soldiers had better armor and weapons...”
“Yeah, it’d be nice to see them protected by more than hopes and prayers. Do you know if there’s any metal under the soaked soil?”
“No idea,” he answers truthfully. “We’re actually not
that far from an old survey site where they considered setting up a mining outpost. Some unicorns could detect metal underground there, but I guess the aquifer discouraged them from setting up there.” He recalls the discordant pony attack and adds, “And maybe the locals.”
“Or the weather. Those clouds are bad news.”
He sighs. “They certainly look that way. I wish I knew what they were exactly. I get the feeling they’re not just dust clouds, but I’m no unicorn, so all I can do is look at them and wonder.” Watching them really gave him the creeps, but this was drifting away from pleasant dinner conversation. “But, anyway, I’ve been doing a little planning with the farmers, and they’re going to be planting a few more crops this coming year. Some pumpkins and watermelons for sure. Probably some tomatoes too.” He gives her a small smile. “Think you can work with those?”
Puff smiles in return. “Definitely! Tomatoes have a million uses, and who doesn’t like watermelon?”
Temperance makes a small laugh. “I certainly like both. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with them. And perhaps Praetorian.” He finishes the last bit of salad on his plate. “Maybe the next time the caravan rolls through they’ll bring us seeds for some new crops too.”
“I know Maize would love that!” Puff finishes her meal and leans back slightly in contentment. “And I would, too. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.”
“Absolutely,” he echoes, sitting back himself. So... what now? He taps a forehoof against a hindleg as he thinks. Perhaps they should go for a walk or something? Not that there was really all that much to explore, especially in private.
So Praetorian comes back in to check how things are going, capisce? He comes in, maybe to have a word to Temperance, and maybe if he don’t like the response, say the same word, maybe a little louder; or maybe do a little community work. Maybe help quite a lot of old mares over quite a lot of roads, you get me? Maybe give him the gout, in the hoof!
“Are you finished, Temperance, Cream Puff?” he asks.
Puff nods at him. “Yep! That was a good meal, Tor.”
“It was, thank you very much,” Temperance adds with a smile.
“That’s good to hear. I’ll take these dishes, and leave you two alone to talk, if you wish.”
“Do you two have any other surprises for us?” Puff gives him a friendly smile as she asks. She was unsure about this at first, but it hasn’t developed into the disaster she expected.
“I am afraid not. I am sure Crosshair, at least, will want to know the result of this first date, but until you wish to tell her, I’m sure I can calm her curiosity.”
The ‘date’ was going better than Temperance had expected too, but he really had no idea what to do now. He didn’t really know Cream Puff that well, so he wasn’t sure what to talk about. He smiles and nods Praetorian off and says, “Perhaps you should do that then.”
He then looks back to Cream Puff, and after a few moments he asks, “So, we’ve established that I’m a bit too much of a workaholic, but what do you do in your down time?”
Puff shrugs. “I’m a bit of a workaholic too. Seems like I’m always in the kitchen. Still, I manage to find time to hang out with my friends. Tor, Maize, Crosshair of course, Flamberge. Should I see about adding you to that list, Temperance?”
“Well, I could certainly use somepony to drag me out of my office on occasion,” he says with a chuckle. That was more serious than he’d like to admit. “How are the four of them, by the way? I haven’t really spoken with any of them that much recently either.”
“Crosshair and Tor are doing well enough to set us up on this date, heh. Flamberge and her are doing pretty well together. Maize is still pretty shy, but she’s opening up more and more, and her and Praetorian make such a cute couple!” Puff wisely decides not to mention the effect the clouds have on Maize and Crosshair, or her longing for Flamberge.
“That’s good to hear. I was really worried about Maize, actually. I wasn’t sure if she was alright, but it’s good to know she’s opening up to a few of us at least.”
The two continue the chit chat for a while, maybe half an hour or so.. They talk a bit about how things are going, where Duskfields was headed, and a few odds and ends here and there. As time wears on, they start to run out of things to discuss, so they decide to call it a night and part ways. They kept the mood light and friendly, and as they each decide to head home, Temperance feels that’s how things would probably stay.
He appreciates the effort that Crosshair and Praetorian went through to set up the little date, and while he’s glad he had a chance to catch up with Cream Puff and looks forward to talking with her again in the future, he doesn’t think they’re too likely to have any more particularly private get togethers.
Love was a strange thing, and not something he could predict though. Who could say what would eventually happen?
Author
Topic: Duskfields (My Little Fortress) (Read 52026 times)