/sun/ /completed/ Celestia and pizza


                                            >The sun smiled from the sky as its celestial sovereign and her entourage walked between the green hedges of the Royal Garden.

                                            >The plants around radiated cheerful happiness in the presence of the one who basically fed them and ensured their survival.

                                            >Birds inhabiting the hedges, were going for their business singing and chirping cheerfully, their spirits also elevated by the sight of radiant mistress of the garden.

                                            >Celestia, striding through the tall grass, resplendent, regal, calm and full of confidence, smiled as well, her smile directed seemingly at the whole world simultaneously.

                                            >Her telekinesis swiftly and subtly relocated an occasional slime from the path back into the hedge, to prevent a small stampede that followed her from harming it.

                                            >A herd of unicorn foals pattered after her, trying their best to match the royal gait.

                                            >The whole class of the School for Gifted Unicorns.

                                            >Celestia lead them long way through the maze, past the ancient marble statues towards the secluded far away clearing.

                                            "Here we are, my little ponies. Please, settle down."

                                            >There was a brief confusion, while the foals decided who should sit with whom and what spot on the grass is the best.

                                            >But after some time they calmed down and took a seat each, looking at their regal mentor with their large sparkling eyes full of fascination.

                                            >Celestia nodded.

                                            "Alright, my dears. Look here, please."

                                            >She beckoned with her nose, pointing at a strange construction standing in the middle of the clearing.

                                            >Foals turned their heads to looked at the thing they would have dismissed as dull and uninteresting otherwise.

                                            >It was a wide and low dome made out of red bricks, standing on a pedestal of opaque dark stone.

                                            "How do you think, what is it?"

                                            >The foals looked at each other, not sure about what's going on.

                                            >"It's... a stove?"

                                            >Tenatively asked one of them, white and pink unicorn with three heraldic lilies on her flank.

                                            >She was noticeably larger and more lean than the others, probably one of her parents was a Saddle Arabian pony.

                                            "That's right, little Fleur. This is a stove, indeed. A Neighpolitan stove."

                                            >Foals began to whisper among each other.

                                            >"Why do we need a stove, Princess Celestia? We will do alchemical experiments?"

                                            >Asked another filly, yellow and blue.

                                            "No, Lemonhearts. It won't be a lesson, it will be a lunch break. A lunch break picnic, even."

                                            >Upon hearing that it won't be a lesson, a lavender filly at the front row visibly sulked.

                                            >Celestia, who somehow always kept track of everything and everyone around, chuckled at that.

                                            >In a blink of her eye a large table came to be near the stove, teleported from somewhere, loaded with kitchen utensils and various food items.

                                            >Among other things there was a large wheel of cheese, ripe red tomatoes, some green herbs and a big saucepan loosely covered with a lid, under which some dark mass peeked ominously.

                                            >The stove became loaded with firewood.

                                            >Celestia merely squinted at it and the fire burst out of the firewood, bluish first, qucikly becoming bright yellow.

                                            "While the stove heatens," Celestia said, "let me ask you, who of you ever heard about the origins of pizza?"

                                            >Foals fell silent. Except the lavender filly.

                                            >"Is it a thing like a very large flat donut without a hole?"

                                            "That's right Twilight!" Celestia smiled, "Have you tasted it?"

                                            >"Yes, Princess. My big brother's friends often bring it home when they play their silly figurine games together."

                                            "Do you like it?"

                                            >Twilight Sparkle twitched her ears, pondering on the question.

                                            >"I suppose, yes. It can be nice. But mom says it's not very healthy to eat a lot of it and I like donuts more anyway."

                                            >Celestia nodded.

                                            "Yes, once upon a time certain other unicorns thought it to be the lowly unhealthy dish, not worthy of their table.

                                            "It was, and still is, a hearty dish invented by the common earth ponies, who needed a lot of energy to work in the fields and wanted something more varied than plain barley or fodder grass every day."

                                            >While telling all this, Celestia lifted a ladle full of water and stuck into the furnace.

                                            >Shortly after, when the water began to boil, she took it out and doused tomatoes with hot water, having put a dozen or so of them aside first.

                                            "But once upon a time a unicorn king of the city-state of Neighpoli liked physical sports very much and was often hungry as a result, as the high unicorn cuisine favored the nutrition for the mind and not the body at those times--

                                            "By the way, where is the Neighpoli situated, my little foals?"

                                            >"On the Applenine peninsula!" answered the gifted unicorns in unison.

                                            >Celestia granted them a warm, approving gaze.

                                            "With his councilor, who also was his friend since foalhood, they undertook a covert sortie into the lower parts of the city, where the poor craftsponies lived."

                                            >She continued.

                                            "Strolling down the street they smelled an exquisite aroma from one of the taverns. They entered it and asked what it was. They were served this exact dish, the pizza."

                                            >Celestia looked away from foals and at the pot with scalded tomatoes. They immediately somehow lost their rind and turned into mush.

                                            >She kept looking at them and they heated up without even being near a flame, the mush became a paste.

                                            >The edges of the pot became slightly red from the conjured heat.

                                            >Celestia exhaled a brief gust of the chilling air, and the pot returned to normal.

                                            >"Um... The metal would suffer from the heat difference..." whispered Lemonhearts quietly, not being able to contain her young alchemist self.

                                            >The august ear of the Princess turned to her.

                                            "It is alright, dear. This pot is made from an alloy, appropriate for this type of strain."

                                            >Lemonhearts yelped and covered her mouth with her hoof. Twilight gave her a condemnatory glance full of ire, for daring to question her personal idol.

                                            >Meanwhile Celestia kept dealing with the vegetables.

                                            >Regular, non-scalded tomatoes divided themselves into neat circles, the garlic imploded and fell into the tomato paste along with some herbs.

                                            "The king and his councilor were enamored with the dish-- By the way, "king" is a common ponish word. Who knows how the king would be in the Old Unicornian?"

                                            >"Rex!" blurted out Twilight Sparkle before anypony managed even open their mouth.

                                            >Celestia nodded and smiled, stirring the sauce with her raw telekinesis.

                                            "They returned to the castle and the king proclaimed that the pizza from now on would be welcome on the royal table."

                                            >She continued the tale.

                                            "But the queen and the daughters didn't even want to hear that they would touch the peasant's dish. They were furious.

                                            "Thus, the Neighpolitan king had to sneak out of the castle every time, to be able to eat to his heart's content.

                                            "While his queen and little princess kept to turn up their noses and going on and on about how bakery is bad for their figures."

                                            >There was some little bit if contempt evident in Celestia's tone.

                                            >Little Fleur de Lis shifted her ears uneasily at this. Minuette, Lemonhearts and Twinkleshie giggled with a mirth, stealing glances at her.

                                            "There is no harm from treating yourself from time to time." Celestia reassured.

                                            "Although, you should approach this critically and remember that everything can be wrong if dosage is undue."

                                            >The Princess set the tomato sauce aside and opened the lid on the largest saucepan.

                                            >Out there came a huge ball of dough, shiny and yellowish. It hovered in the air above the table, slowly rotating clockwise.

                                            >Celestia blinked, looking at the furnace.

                                            "I think the temperature is right."

                                            >She focused back on the dough. It began to rotate faster and faster, accelerating.

                                            >Celestia poked it in its south pole with her power and the dough out of the ball became a wide fast rotating disk, wider and thinner by the moment.

                                            >The Princess slowed it and put into the furnace.

                                            "We need it to become a bit toasty first."

                                            >She explained.

                                            >"Princess, but what happened then with the king? And why pizza is now being sold everywhere?"

                                            >Asked one of the foals.

                                            "Seven hundred years ago, about three hundred after the time of that king, I visited Neighpoli to convince them to join Equestria.. From my carriage I sought a large prosperous tavern, strangely enough, with a royal coat of arms crudely scratched out on the wall.

                                            "I asked to stop the cortege and entered the tavern. The owner told me that story, about the king. I proceeded to taste the pizza myself...

                                            >Celestia made a dramatic pause.

                                            >Foals leaned towards her, ears forward.

                                            "...And found it to be delightful! Since then, no unicorn noble ever dared to say out loud that pizza is uncouth."

                                            >She winked at them.

                                            >Foals broke into the happy fit of laughter.

                                            >Celestia smirked and took the half-baked dough out of the furnace.

                                            >Tomato paste distributed itself all over it.

                                            >Half of the wheel of cheese turned into the thin straws and covered the sauce.

                                            >Tomato circles completed the culinary ensemble, along with leaves of basil.

                                            >Celestia returned the pizza back into the oven.

                                            "It's almost ready." she commented.

                                            >Suddenly a whole swarm of glasses full of filtered apple juice teleported in, and the drinks settled themselves before the gawking foals.

                                            >After a short while the Princess took the thoroughly cooked pizza out once more.

                                            "Here it is."

                                            >The huge pizza looked delicious, golden steaming dough with light brown corners, covered with whitish molten cheese, decorated with soft red circles of tomatoes and dark green basil leaves.

                                            >Celestia twirled her horn and the pizza divided itself into an ideal triangular slices.

                                            >They hovered around the Princess like a fleet of miniature airships.

                                            >The foals looked hopefully at this whole magical gastronomic show.

                                            >The alicorn looked at them with mischief in the corner of her eyes.

                                            "But first, what a square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to?"

                                            >"The sum of squares of the legs!" a chorus of little shouts answered her.

                                            >Celestia noted, up to a fraction of a second, who answered first, who hesitated and who just echoed others.

                                            >She made mental notes to arrange additional courses for some of the foals.

                                            >Except Twilight. A little lavender filly was already too cunning and sometimes deliberately lagged behind with an answer, hoping Celestia would make her study more.

                                            >The Princess treated each of the little unicorns with a slice.

                                            >They dug in right away.

                                            >Celestia brought her own slice up yo her snout. Licked hanging strand of the molten cheese.

                                            >She gently sucked the nib of the slice, sucking in the hot tomato sauce then took a delicate bite.

                                            >She squinted in delight, rolling the dish between her molars.

                                            >"Princess Celestia, did ancient unicorn nobles understood how wrong they were after they tasted it?" asked Fleur de Lis.

                                            >Celestia laughed, without opening her mouth.

                                            "No, my dear, not right away. At least for a century they consoled each other that the pizza is acceptable for a noble table, because they can eat it with their superior telekinesis, keeping their snouts clean, unlike earth ponies and pegasi."

                                            >And thus everyone spent another couple of hours there, at the lawn, eating pizza and listening to Celestia's stories mixed with quizzes, having tons of fun.