Indulgence is the name of the game - OPEN

[onaroll]

Who: Amelie and whoever wants to come
What: WORLD GOURMET TOUR
Where: Equestria

It's taken her the better part of a month to set up the transportation network, but Amelie finally has her hoops in pretty much every major city of Equestria now. She takes a moment to drop a message over the mirrors before finishing her preparations and stepping through a hoop to the center of town.

"Bonjour! This is Amelie; I was wondering if anyone wanted to join me for a little trip? I'll be going to various places using my portal hoops to sample the local cuisine; if anyone wants to join me I'll be in the center of town for the next half hour before I leave!"

Amelie is very much looking forward to spending an entire day traveling and eating, and that excitement is expressed quite clearly in her body language as she waits for anyone to show up.

Comments

[onaroll]

“The only other person in Kalos that even knows how to do it is the man who taught me, who invented it in the first plate.”

She looks very pleased with herself.

[explosions_are_awesome]

"Oh so it's an exclusive art. I can get behind that." said Megumin with a nod. "It must have taken a long time to learn though."

[onaroll]

Amelie pauses, thinking.

“Ah...about an hour to get through the abandoned, haunted hotel he was living in...a dozen duels with his followers, who were mostly teenage delinquents...another fifteen minutes to catch a few ghosts to train...and then, I want to say...forty five minutes to master the Cosmic Flip? Then I just popped an Escape Rope and teleported out. So about two and a half hours?”

[cidery]

Megumin gave her a pony thumbs up which was a upraised hoof in a somewhat salute. "A Plus Effort," declared Megumin with a wide grin.

"She's a determined girl. I love that about her." said Apple.

[onaroll]

Praise from Apple evokes the usual response.

“I’ve just always been good at physical stuff, that’s all...”

Well, anyway, the restaurant is right there, so it’s time to eat now.

[explosions_are_awesome]

"Okay, so what's on the menu next?" asked Megumin as they stepped towards the restaurant. "You said pasta right?"

[onaroll]

Nod nod.

“I understand they do a very nice penne with roasted vegetables here, but you might like the spaghetti instead. I’ll leave it up to you, honestly.”

As they walk inside, a waitress escorts them to a table and waits for them to sit down before taking their order.

“Ah, three orders of the fennel and orange salad and a bottle of the house red? I’ll also have the penne with roasted vegetables - what will you two have?”

[cidery]

"I'll take the spaghetti," said Megumin after consideration. "Apple?"

"Penne. And some extra garlic bread if you have any."

[onaroll]

The waitress nods and trots off, Amelie watching her as she goes. It’s definitely a pattern at this point - Amelie pays more attention to mares that resemble Apple in some way, whether it’s the color of their eyes, the shade of their fur, or the silken shine of their tails.

“Good job on remembering the garlic bread!”

[explosions_are_awesome]

It is, and Megumin notices this. She hides a little smile as she sips her drink. "Garlic bread huh? It must be pretty good to put a savory flavor on fragrant bread."

"It's a staple," replied Apple with a nod.

[onaroll]

...they don’t even have garlic bread there.

Amelie has made her decision.

“Hey Megumin? After...all this is over -“ she waves her hoof in a vague circle, indicating the general area and the fact that they’re all tiny pastel unicorns “- you wanna come live with us? You can bring your friends, too, if you want.”

[explosions_are_awesome]

"Really?" asked Megumin. "That's... that's incredible.... it's a great offer..."

Megumin got a determined look on her face. "The thing is... I'm going to blow up the Demon Lord with Explosion, and I can't leave till that happens. But then we'll be able to live with you!"

[onaroll]

“Really. I’m pretty sure Apple was going to ask you at some point as well, but I’m a lot more impulsive than her.”

Hmm. Amelie looks at Apple with large, pleading eyes. Please give her permission to defeat the demon lord.

[cidery]

"We'll gather a group of friends and help you defeat the demon lord," promised Apple. "And then you and your friends can come and live with us."

"Thanks," said Megumin, blushing. "I didn't expect that to be a thing but thank you."

[onaroll]

Amelie's already thinking of who to recruit, naturally. She doesn't really have time to talk about it, since the waitress is arriving with the salads, wine, and bread, but she already has a list of candidates drawn up.

"Ah! It looks fabulous!"

The striking red color of the oranges, contrasting against the pale whitish-green of the fennel, does indeed look fabulous.

[explosions_are_awesome]

"Oooooooh," said Megumin, licking her lips. "This should be good!"

"Pace yourself," reminded Apple with a giggle. "You don't want a tummy ache."

[onaroll]

"Red wine's suited for dishes with impact, so we'll wait for the pasta before pouring, okay?"

So saying, Amelie takes a bite of the salad, sighing in pleasure.

"I really love the taste of fresh fennel."

[cidery]

"It tastes different than anything I've eaten before," said Megumin, chewing on her salad for a long moment. "I like it!"

"The cook would use it often in dishes back home as well," said Apple. "I hope to get a recipe worked out eventually."

[onaroll]

"Sometimes on my journey, Jeanne would find me some wild fennel - I'm kind of hopeless at foraging so the fact she knew what was safe to eat was really helpful - and I would snack on it while walking. It was really nice, having something to eat other than nutrition bars."

Amelie has a nostalgic smile as she says this.

[explosions_are_awesome]

"Yeah, when I was traveling to the starter town, I was snacking on just about anything I could find," said Megumin. "Had some bad turns sometimes but that's what happens when you eat grass."

"Well, hopefully you won't have to anymore," said Apple sympathetically.

[onaroll]

"Or, rather, don't eat grass in the first place, just drop by and borrow some food from us."

Seriously, no matter what their bodies look like now, you need to keep some kind of dignity as a human being, alright? Grass isn't food.

[cidery]

"I'll make sure to do that. Spike's a good cook but even I get tired of gems in my cereal." said Megumin.

It was all possible she wasn't joking with that.

[onaroll]

There's a long, awkward pause as Amelie's gaze is drawn like a magnet to the pink diamond embedded in her right hoof.

"You're...saying that like he thinks gems are...food."

[explosions_are_awesome]

"He does. He's a dragon, they eat gemstones." said Megumin. She did notice the two gems squirming a little.

"I don't think he'll eat you two obviously."

[onaroll]

"If we take a big enough hit, our bodies dissipate for a while. We look like normal gemstones then."

There's another pause.

"...I'm going to have some wine and not think about this for a while."