Since the beginning of the construction of the new restaurant in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle had been dying to find out what it was going to be, and what was going to be served there. Then, when she found out it was going to be a place where they'd serve something called pizza, she had to do research on what a pizza is, or was. Not an easy job, since information on pizzas was limited, at least in Ponyville.

Twilight had sent to cities across Equestria to find any information she could on this strange new food that'd be served in the new restaurant, with little success. At one point in her research, she learned that humans, when they existed, used to eat pizza, that it was invented by them. So, knowing that Lyra was interested in humans, and had done a lot of research on them, Twilight turned to the pale-green unicorn for information. Unfortunately, it turned out that Lyra had as much information on pizzas as Twilight had.

Then, the purple alicorn got a delivery from the Griffon nation, which contained a booklet about pizzas, their history, their composition, and how to make them. From this book Twilight learned that some of the many ingredients that went into making pizzas were meats, but she figured that, since these pizzas were going to be served to herbivores, whatever meat might be in the pizzas would be replaced with something else, although she wasn't sure what that was going to be.

When the restaurant, known as The Pegasa's Pizzeria, opened, Twilight was among the first to get an invitation to the opening, which she eagerly accepted. Upon arriving, when she asked what kind of meat substitute was going to be in the pizzas, the pegasa at the cash register told her that it was going to be tofu. It sounded reasonable to her; after all, she had heard about it. From her understanding, it wasn't going to be the same as meat, which she figured was going to be all for the better.

So, there she was, surrounded by her friends, waiting to get her first taste of pizza.

As she looked around, she noticed a stage, on which she saw a lone bear, which seemed oddly familiar to her. In fact, she was sure it was one of Fluttershy's friends. So, why wasn't it moving? Had she trained it that well? And, why did it look so … ugly? If Twilight didn't know better, she'd say it was dead.

Then the pizza arrived, and Twilight and her friends started pulling the large, topping-covered pastry apart to get their first taste of it.

Twilight's first bite of her slice of pizza included what looked and smelled very much like the muscle of some type of animal, although she couldn't place it; and the taste was strange to her. She remembered something about tofu having a smooth texture to it, and this sphere in her mouth didn't seem smooth. In fact, it was disgustingly coarse. There was something about it that just wasn't right to her. But, not wanting to complain, she chose to continue eating; and, none of the other element bearers seemed bothered by it either. In fact, thanks to Pinkie Pie, everypony seemed to be having fun.

Twilight decided it was time to leave the restaurant when she started feeling sick. But, she attributed it to being nervous about that one bear that was on the stage, and hadn't done anything the whole time she or her friends were there. She'd begun to wonder if it was just a display item. But, if that was the case, then why did it seem so real? Why did it seem like it was going to come to life?

As Twilight made her way back to the library, she started feeling worse and worse, until, when she finally got inside, she collapsed on the floor and started moaning.

Spike, from the kitchen, came in and started asking, “So, Twilight, how did things go at—?” He cut himself off when he saw Twilight lying on the floor. Running to her, he asked, “Twilight, what's wrong?”

The purple alicorn opened her mouth to speak, but emitted a loud belch instead. Then, feeling the contents of her stomach ready to make an escape, she covered her mouth with one front hoof, then used the rest of her legs to gallop as fast as she could to her bathroom upstairs. She barely made it to the toilet before emptying the contents of her stomach into it.

The pizza tasted worse coming out than it did when she ate it.

Looking at the strange, multi-colored soup in the basin, Twilight began to think of other questions. Were the other element bearers feeling, reacting, the same way she had? If so, then the best time to talk about this would be tomorrow, maybe in the morning, when everypony else was feeling well enough to talk about it. But, what could possibly be in that pizza that would've treated her this badly?

Before Twilight could think of any other questions, she heard her assistant behind her asking worriedly, “Twilight, are you alright?”

The purple alicorn reached out a shaky forelimb to push the lever to allow the toilet to remove the disgusting scene from her view, then turned to her assistant and said, “Until further notice, I don't want you going anywhere near that pizzeria. I don't know what's wrong with that place; but until I find out, I think it's best that nopony go there anymore.”

As Twilight went to the sink to rinse her mouth out, Spike asked, “Was the food that bad?”

Twilight turned on the cold water, then lapped up some of it, swished it around in her mouth, and spit it out, then, not bothering to turn to her assistant this time, answered, “I don't like to pass judgment the first time I attend a new place, but I also don't like what that pizza did to me. Tomorrow, I'm going to get my friends together, and we're going to discuss the situation.” At this point, she turned to her assistant and dropped away from the sink as she added, “I didn't think I'd ever hear myself say this, but I'm hoping the other five had the same experience I had. If my experience isn't an isolated incident, then that pizzeria needs to be investigated.” Then, remembering she'd forgotten to turn off the water tap, she used her magic to do so. Then, realizing what she'd managed to do, she thought to herself that at least she was feeling better. But, perhaps that was a symptom of a more particular problem with the food served at that pizzeria.

Spike nodded, then asked, “So, what do you wanna do in the mean time?”

Twilight opened her mouth and then yawned. She then realized just how much her experience with the pizza had taken out of her. She said, “For right now, let's just go to bed. I'm tired. We can figure out what to do next tomorrow.” And, with that, she headed for her bedroom and crawled into bed.

As Spike watched, for all intents and purposes, his mother head for bed without making any plans, he became worried. Whatever that pizza had done to her, it had go so far as to rid her of her desire to make plans. She wasn't even moving the covers so she could crawl under them. Spike didn't know what he could do, but he knew he had to do something. To get his Twilight back, if for no other reason.