I sat at the head of the table in conference room five, waiting for everyone to show up, except for Twilight and Spike. They were sitting at the other end of the table, clearly relaxing and glad to have the chance to do so. I hadn’t actually invited Spike to the meeting, but I was fine with him being here.

While they relaxed, I fidgeted with my papers again. I was getting a case of nerves. I’d had it all day, actually. It might also have something to do with the fact that I wasn’t out running, as had become normal. Every time I thought about going out to run a bit, the sight of the storm being built overhead dissuaded that idea. I was also back in my white t-shirt and black jeans, since I wouldn’t be able to focus on the meeting very well with an athletic outfit on.

The first to show up was Fancy Pants, along with a small crew of ponies. “Good afternoon, Miss Xiao Long. Do you have a place you would prefer I sit at?”

“If you don’t mind sitting on my left, that would be good. The rest of your team can have that side of the table.”

Fancy took his seat and his team sat down too, comfortably filling the whole side of the table. They talked among themselves about construction stuff while Fancy quietly waited for everyone else.

The next to arrive some minutes later was Gilda, who flew in through the open balcony doors and set a large travel bag down in the corner of the room. “Hey Yang.”

“Hey Gilda. Sorry you had to be intercepted and turned around.”

“I’m taking a bit of a risk being here. By the time I get back home, I’ll have been gone longer than I had planned.”

“Well, if this all works out, you won’t have to worry about going back.”

Applejack was the next to arrive. She didn’t say anything, but rather just took the seat next to Twilight and Spike. She didn’t look entirely comfortable being here, but there she was.

Rainbow’s arrival would be best described as speedy. She flew in through the balcony doors, turned around, and quickly closed them only seconds before an onslaught of rain started. “Now that was a close one.”

“I hope Pinkie’s alright if she’s out there” I said. Applejack smirked a bit when I mentioned Pinkie.

“I wouldn’t worry.” Rainbow took a seat next to Gilda and hoofbumped her fist. “I’ll pull out a seat for her.”

Immediately after pulling out the chair, Pinkie sprung up from it, complete with a spring sound effect. The Canterlot group, Gilda, and I all recoiled a bit from her rather. . . unorthodox entry method. “Hi everyone!”

“Uh, hi, Pinkie” I said. “How did you do that?”

“I’m Pinkie Pie.”

“Uh huh.”

“Don’t question it” Twilight suggested. “Only pain awaits you down that path of investigation. Trust me.”

“Right. Well, it seems everyone’s here, so, welcome to this meeting, everyone, and thank you for coming. As you’re all aware, I want to build a restaurant, and Gilda here is my comastermind, or whatever the term would be. We decided to make this restaurant one with omnivorous options, and we’re calling it the Carne Den. For those who don’t know, that means we’ll be serving meat products.”

The ones who reacted the most were the ponies that had come in with Fancy. They seemed a bit shaken by the reveal, but managed to keep their composure. The only local pony that really reacted was Applejack, and that was more one more of surprise. Twilight looked like she was cursing herself for forgetting about something I had reminded her of. Pinkie didn’t seem to react at all to the reveal.

I continued. “I believe that all of us can make this happen. Fancy, who did you bring with you?”

Fancy cleared his throat before beginning. “To my left are Silver Pipe, he’s a master plumber, Yellow Wire, she’s an expert thaumelectritian, and Straight Nail, he’s the best carpenter in Canterlot. All of them have their own workforce that they can bring in to help. We’ll also work with a local construction company to speed things up.”

“Applejack, do you have the list of materials I asked for?”

“Right here.” Applejack reached up into her hat, pulled out a rolled up piece of paper, and put it on the table.

Straight Nail was the first of Fancy’s ponies to look it over. “If I may ask, why do you have so much of these materials?”

“They’re leftovers from when Yang helped us build a barn.”

“It must have been a big barn if these were the leftovers.”

“Nah, we got it built on the first try for once. It usually takes three or four tries to get it built.”

Straight Nail was quiet for a bit as he took a breath. “Regardless of that, this will help us. What’s your asking price for all this?”

“As long as y’all need it, it’s free. Ah’m more concerned about clearing it out of the barn so we can actually use it for an upcoming harvest. Ah’ll even bring it to the site for free.”

“That sounds good. When we start, I’ll also have some ponies come to help move it. Many hooves makes the load lighter.”

“Sounds good. Unfortunately, there’s nothing here for the plumbing or thaumelectric lines, so we’re still going to have to get those. Still, this saves us a lot of money. Thank you.”

Silver Pipe spoke next. “As good as having those are, we still need to look at the site and blueprints before we can make a final cost estimate.”

“Yeah, I don’t exactly have either of those” I sheepishly admitted. “Rainbow, how long is this storm supposed to last?”

“Eight hours” Rainbow said. “It’s going to start waning around the six hour mark, but will remain this intense until then.”

“Well, that sounds like plenty of time to come up with a blueprint” Yellow Wire said. She sounded rather energetic. “Are there any maps around here?”

“I’ve got one in the throne room” Twilight said. “Since court is closed today, we can use it to figure out what we’ll need to do.”

“Is it a big map?”

“It’s a whole table. And I can switch it between map and blueprint modes with ease, along with a whole lot of other modes.”

“Sounds useful” I said. “Fancy, if I may ask, how much are you willing to invest in the Carne Den?”

“25,000 bits” Fancy said. “That should enough to get all the remaining materials we may need, along with payment for labor. With most, if not all of the lumber and nails taken care of, there might be enough in there to buy catered lunches for all the workers regularly.” 25,000 for the whole thing didn’t sound like much to me, but having regularly heard of things costing hundreds of thousands of dollars at the least back on earth, it was kind of hard for me to comprehend such a small estimate. Maybe the bit could go further than the dollar? I had no idea.

“Speaking of workers, we’re going to have to start hiring employees pretty quickly.”

Gilda interjected. “Hey, Fancy. When you get back to Canterlot, put the word out that we’re hiring. When I get back to Griffonstone, I can do the same thing.”

“That’s a good idea” Fancy said. “Of course, I will be putting the fact that you’ll be serving meat in the ad. It’ll help weed out those who can’t deal with it.”

“Sounds good” I said. I looked at my notes and saw something relevant. “One idea I heard was to build a house on top of the Carne Den. It’s apparently not uncommon to do that around here.”

“I did some research into that some time ago” Twilight said. “It started just over 700 hundred years ago, when carpentry was really taking off. Somepony noticed that Princess Celestia both lived and worked in the castle and decided to mimic that pattern with their own business and house. Others saw how efficient the design was and started doing it themselves.”

“Wait, does that mean I’d have to house all the employees?”

“Oh, no, not at all. In fact, if you look around, there’s a lot more houses than businesses. A normal house is still cheaper than a business with a house on top, and not everypony can be a business owner. Some ponies still do some business from their house, but that’s more of a side job.”

Thank goodness. “Good. Hey, how would sanitation work in the kitchen with quadrupeds anyways?”

Yellow Wire answered. “The newest method uses special thaumelectric tiles that sanitize anything up to four inches above it without hurting anything. As long as the tiles are cleaned regularly, they will last a long time, even under heavy traffic.”

“That’s awesome.”

“However, and I say this a lot, while they do sanitize, they don’t actually clean anything off. If you put a muddy hoof on the tile, it will sanitize it, leaving you with a sanitized muddy hoof. It’s no substitute for actual washing, just an enhancement.”

“Do ponies make that mistake often?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t entirely surprised. “Alright. Hey, Fancy, how much would it cost to build just the restaurant itself without a house on top?”

“No more than, oh, 15,000 bits” Fancy said.

“Hm. What if we build the Carne Den by itself first, then add the house on top later? That would free up lots of money that could be put into the restaurant itself.”

“And any leftover bits from the construction budget could be set aside for the house addition later” Gilda added. “By then, we could have enough extra bits to make that part really nice too.”

“I have no objections to that” Fancy said.

“Alright” I said. “We can continue this topic over the blueprints. Pinkie, what are we going to need that you know about?”

“Any restaurant worth its salt and pepper has food in it” Pinkie said. “During my break at Sugarcube Corner yesterday, I came up with a few ideas, first of which are beverages of the adult variety. Berry Punch makes a variety of such drinks, she’s local, and she’s willing to provide them. She also said she’d help set up a tap for the drinks.”

“Alcohol?” Applejack asked. “Well, if you’re going to have that, consider me for that too. Local quality apple cider. You should try some, Yang.”

“Alright, I like the idea” I said. “We just need a bar. The Carne Den will be a bar and grill. What do you think, Gilda?”

“I like it” Gilda answered. “What better way to end a stressful day at work than a good drink?”

“What else do you have, Pinkie?”

“Well, I talked with the Cakes, and they’d be interested in providing things, too” Pinkie reported. “Aside from basic bread products, they’d also be willing to provide desserts like cakes, pies, and cookies in a variety of flavors. I also talked with Bon-Bon, and she’d also like to provide desserts. She said it was both as a way to make some money and a way to apologize for Lyra’s over enthusiastic reaction to seeing you a couple weeks ago.”

“Do any of them have grass in them?”

“Nope. Grass is not a good dessert ingredient. Continuing my report, I’ve also talked to a number of small farmers around Ponyville and they’d be willing to provide you with ingredients. I’ve got a list of them, if you’d like it.”

I had barely finished saying “sure” when Pinkie reached into her mane, pulled out a scroll, and tossed it my way. I caught it with a bit of a fumble and set it with my notes. “Anything else, Pinkie?”

“Party room?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“Does anyone else have any ideas?”

“How about an outdoor area?” Rainbow suggested.

“I’ve already thought of that, Rainbow. Sorry.”

“Eh, alright.”

“Anything else?”

“There is something you should be aware of, Yang” Twilight said. I had a bit of dread at what she might say. “Taxes.” Yep. “For the first three months of your restaurant being open, you will not be taxed. The next three months are taxed at half the normal rate, and after that, you will be taxed normally. It’s a system designed to let new businesses ease into the taxes. It also lets them build up extra money for whatever they may immediately need more easily.”

That’s a benevolent tax system, if ever there was one. There was probably more to it, but that wasn’t the discussion topic. “That’s good to know.”

“Hey, how will y’all make it look inside?” Applejack asked.

“Well, if it’s going to be a den, it’s going to be a tad dark inside” Gilda said. “That’s how griffon dens are, anyways. They’re places to be comfortable and relax. Besides, it’s hard to relax in bright light.”

"Ah can’t really argue against that.”

“Hey, Rainbow?” I asked. “How long is the ground going to be muddy after this storm?”

“It should be dry by noon tomorrow” Rainbow reported. “I guess you don’t want to get your feet muddy?”

“I would like my shoes to stay clean, yes. The ones I have on are not waterproof, so my socks would get wet and that would not feel good.”

“Didn’t Rarity have you try some waterproof shoes between the last chapter and this one?” Pinkie asked.

“What? Chapters? Pinkie, what are you talking about?”

“Ignore the bit about chapters, Yang” Twilight said. “That’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.”

Riiight. “Okay then. Well, I did try them on, but they weren’t comfortable and actually started to fall apart pretty quickly. Hey, how about we go to the table Twilight mentioned and start drawing up the actual plans?” Most of those at the table agreed with me, but there were a couple of dissenting voices.

“Ah’d love to, but Ah’m done here” Applejack said. “Ah got more than Ah came here for, and aside from delivering the supplies, mah part in the construction is done. Ah’ll leave the planning and drawing to y’all to do. Ah’m going to go home and tell everypony the news.”

“As much as I’d like to see how it might look, I actually have to get back up over the clouds” Rainbow said. “The lightning delivery for this storm was delayed for some reason, and I have to be the one to sign and confirm it was delivered before setting it in place and setting it off. It’s going to be loud out there.”

“Fair enough” I conceded. “Just don’t start a parade, or it might get rained on.” Multiple hooves met their owners’ faces at that statement. “Alright, everyone who doesn’t have to leave, let’s go. Twilight, lead the way, please.” Everyone got up and went towards the door, except Rainbow, who stood by the balcony door. As we went out into the hall, Rainbow quickly opened the balcony door, dashed out, closed it, and took off. Seeing how much water came in from her just opening the door for a brief period really spoke of the volume of water that was coming down.

Applejack went with us downstairs simply because it was along her route. On the way, she offered me an invitation to try some Apple family desserts on Saturday, most of which involved apples. I couldn’t exactly refuse, since the offer was basically free dessert, and if they were going to provide food for the Carne Den, I’d have to sample at least some of the goods offered to make sure they were good.

Twilight, Pinkie, Gilda, Fancy, Silver Pipe, Yellow Wire, Straight Nail, and I gathered around the table Twilight lead us to in the throne room. Applejack walked past us, bid us a good day, and left. I could only hope that she made it home well, considering the rain outside.

“So, let’s talk locations” I said. Twilight took that as her cue to work a bit of magic on the table and bring up a 3D projection of Ponyville on the table. That was awesome. “Twilight, what do you think the best location would be?”

“Well, if you’re still going to be living with Rarity, there’s a good spot only a mile from her boutique that’s got plenty of space to build” Twilight reported as she lit the area up on the map. “There’s also a good area closer to the center of town, but would require a bit of landscaping and creative planning. Finally, there’s a spot near the train station that could work after removing a few big trees. Preparing it would be a bit of a hassle and is a bit farther from the farmers, but anything you’d need delivered by train would get there pretty quickly.”

“What’s the hoof traffic like in each area?” Fancy asked.

“The first spot has low traffic, but it’s also between a couple of filled residential areas, so it would be able to easily draw in locals from that area. The second spot would have the most traffic, but also face the most competition with the other eateries in town. The last spot is a prime area to catch the attention of travelers and, like the first spot, is also in a low competition area near a residential area, though that one still has a lot of empty houses.”

I thought the descriptions over. “Let’s take a closer look at that third spot, Twilight.” The map zoomed in on the third spot and a half mile radius around it. “Hmm. Hey, what if we take the thickest tree here and incorporate it into the design of the building? Maybe we can make it the middle of the dining area?”

“You’ll need an arborist to help with that” Straight Nail said. “I can build around any level of any tree, but to make sure that the tree grows the way you want it, you’ll need somepony else.”

“Hey, what if you take that tree down and carve out a bar from it?” Yellow Wire suggested. “You could take the branches from it to decorate the place as well.”

“That would make the place feel like a big nest” Gilda said. “I like it.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course, we can’t really decorate the whole place that way” I said. “We’ll figure out the rest of the interior design later. For now, let’s figure out the layout, and maybe getting a house built on top for me.”

Out in the middle of the Everfree Forest sat a strange gray monolith, undiscovered since its creation well over 1000 years ago. Occasionally, it would glow, but nothing would happen. A stray storm cloud, packed to the brim with lightning and broken away from the main storm raging over Ponyville, floated towards the rock. It's amazing path led it through the foliage without touching any of it before settling in a bowl formation in the top.

“Soon, I’ll be free again. . .”

As the nine of us at the table continued working on the plans, with good ideas from everyone at some point, we eventually got hungry. “Who wants to take a break?” I saw six hooves, a set of talons, and a set of claws rise at the question. “Twilight, Spike, how about you two go get something delivered down here?”

“There’s only one cook right now, so it’ll take a bit to get something for all of us” Twilight said.

“Hey, can he work with meat?” Gilda asked.

“He has to be ready to in case someone who eats meat visits. Unfortunately, we don’t store any of it here. You want him to make a dish with meat in it?”

“Duh. How do burgers sound, Yang? I’ve got some ground beef patties in the pack.”

“Make mine a double burger with bacon, cheese, and lettuce on it” I quickly said. “And some fries with ketchup on the side.”

“Potato fries, right?” Twilight asked.

“Of course. What other kind of fries would there be?”

“Hay fries.”

Oh. “Well then, potato it is. As long as grass is not used in my food’s preparation, it’s good.”

“I think I’ll try that myself” Spike said. “Single though. I don’t want to waste too much of Gilda’s meat.”

“A young dragon who’s yet to eat meat” Gilda said. “Have you been living on pony food and gems your whole life?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Spike, I have to step in and say that you will not have a burger like mine” I said. I was feeling a bit dramatic. “We will start you off with something simpler: a steak with bacon on the side. You should try those first. They are the greatest of meats, and if you can’t handle those, how can you handle meat with other ingredients in the same bite?”

“What makes steak and bacon so special?”

Gilda answered first. I think she liked going dramatic with me. “Steaks are food for the strong. Tearing into a whole one with your teeth shows just how tough you are, while cutting into one shows how much you appreciate it. After a hard and successful day of work, nothing beats a good steak.”

I continued with the other side of Spike’s answer. “As for bacon, that is a whole food group in and of itself. The mere smell and the sound of bacon cooking is enough to wake the sleeping from their slumber. Its flavor is divine, and it makes anything it’s on better. There is nothing, Nothing, that bacon can’t make better, even if it’s not food that’s being improved.”

“How about a financial meeting?” Spike thought he had me there.

“Then that becomes bacon with a financial meeting. Everyone, feel free to rest your minds a bit. I actually need to use the restroom.”

Twilight pointed out a cleverly hidden restroom behind her throne that she used during breaks in court. As I approached the door, it opened and Pinkie walked out, allowing me in.

The inside of the restroom was fairly compact, and the door sounded like it locked on its own. When I put my hand on the knob, it sounded like it unlocked itself. Nifty. Still, I had regular business in here to take care of.

After finishing up and washing my hands, I felt something odd and fuzzy in my chest. No, not in my chest, it was in my cleavage. I couldn’t look in there because of my shirt completely covering it up, so I turned away from the mirror and took my shirt off.

“Hey, Yang, I have an important question for you!” That was all Pinkie quickly said between the moment she somehow popped out of my cleavage and the moment I screamed and slapped her face, knocking her head into the wall with enough force to leave some small cracks in the structure before she slumped to the ground.

“Pinkie!” I quickly put my shirt back on before sitting down and checking on her prone form. The most obvious thing I saw was a red mark on her muzzle where I had reflexively slapped her. She had a distant look to her face, her breathing was ragged, and just looked like she had seen something horrifying. Aside from the occasional twitch and her breathing, nothing was happening below her head.

She was alive, but I didn’t know how well she was. I pulled her rather awkwardly onto my lap and held her close, stroking her mane the whole time. I could feel myself crying as I prayed that she would be alright and that the look on her face was just from the surprise of my reaction to her appearance.

I may not like Pinkie, and she might weird me out more often than not, but she never really did anything wrong. She may have deserved the slap for appearing from where she did, but not the wall. And certainly not the amount of power I had used. I don’t know what prompted her to appear like that though.

Some minutes later, Pinkie began moving on her own and slowly returned the hug I had her in. “I’m sorry, Yang. I don’t know how I could have broken a Pinkie Promise like that.”

“What is it you say about breaking those?”

“That it’s the fastest and worst way to lose a friend forever.”

“I think I see why you might have been able to break it. I haven’t been thinking of you as a friend, so there wasn’t really a friendship to break.”

“Are we friends now?”

“No, because you’re still too weird for me. Just don’t do that again, alright?”

“Can do. You know, if we stay in here long enough, ponies might begin talking.”

“Does anyone know you. . . somehow got back in here with a locked door in the way, along with no windows to go through?”

“No. Well, I guess if nopony knows, nopony will talk. Or maybe nopony will even care.”

“More importantly, how’s your head?”

“Still a little bit shaken, certainly not stirred, but otherwise okay.” She caught my gaze towards the cracks where she hit the wall. “Earth ponies are way tough. It’s going to take more than an overpowered slap into a solid crystal wall to brain my damage.”

Riiight. “Well, we should get back out there. We’ve got food coming.”

“You’re right. And if Twilight asks about those cracks in the wall, we will be honest about it. Unless they fix themselves and she doesn’t even know about it then.”

“Well, if you’re good to go, then let’s go.” I stood up, let Pinkie down onto her hooves, and we left the bathroom. Nobody seemed to care or even notice that we left the bathroom together. Fancy raised an eyebrow, but I think that was more because Pinkie left the bathroom twice after going in only once.

I still felt bad about what happened with Pinkie when the food arrived. The main thing keeping me from feeling worse was seeing that she was acting as normal as she usually did, and the red mark from my hand was gone pretty quickly.

Twilight and the cook levitated some food out for everybody. The smell of my burger drew my attention away from feeling bad, along with just how much meat was on it. A single patty on this would have been enough for me. With this one burger and the fries with it, I might not need much breakfast, if I was even hungry at all. At least if I didn’t finish it, I could make it my breakfast.

Spike had opted to join Gilda and me with our meat plates. “So, should I have the steak or bacon first?”

“Steak” Gilda and I said at the same time.

“And that one is?”

“The large one” Gilda pointed out.

“Is there a particular way to cut it?” Spike really didn’t know how to go about this.

“If you’ve ever cut something with a fork and knife, it’s the same thing, just a bit tougher” I said. I looked at my burger and took the bottom patty off. Even if my jaw was strong and my teeth were amazing, they don’t mean much if I can’t get the food in my mouth, and these patties were thick. “Just cut off a bite size piece and eat it.”

Spike still looked a bit uncertain, but he went about cutting it like a moderately experienced person would. After cutting off a piece, he held it up to inspect. “Well, here goes nothing.” He ate the bite that was on the fork and slowly chewed on it. His expression shifted from extremely cautious to a smile as he chewed it. “It’s really good!”

“Of course it is.” I turned to the cook, who was still in the room with us for some reason, probably to clean up when we were done. “Hey, would you like to work at the Carne Den as a cook?”

“You’ll have to ask my employer” the cook said as he looked at Twilight.

Twilight picked up on the conversation. “You can have him train your cooks, but that’s it.”

“Eh, good enough” Gilda said. “We’re not really the best for training cooks anyways.”

“Woah” Spike said. A look at his plate showed that his steak was already half gone and he had a piece of bacon in his grasp. “This stuff tastes beautiful. Bacon is amazing. Hey, Twilight, can I work at the Carne Den?”

“And what would you do there?” Twilight asked. “You’re still not tall enough to reach standard height cooking surfaces, or the tables, and there’s probably not enough room in their plans to have a dedicated cashier or cleaner.”

“Aww.”

“Hey, maybe we’ll figure something out” I assured the dragon. “And I just remembered something.”

“What is it?” Gilda asked.

“I have no idea how we’re going to make the payments work. Back on Earth, we had paper money and cards we could easily slip into these small folders that also had the check in them, but all I’ve ever seen here are these thick coins without any value other than one bit. On the bright side, that means nobody’s going to have to count out change, but every bit has to be counted out one by one.”

“There is something out there to help with that” Twilight said. “It’s called the 100 bit prism. It’s ten clear tubes arranged in a triangle, equilateral, of course, and each tube holds ten bits. It can be used to easily figure out, say, an 86 bit payment. Lots of places in bigger cities often have one at their registers, and some even use a lot of them as bit storage. The same ponies that make them also sell individual tubes that hold ten bits. The reason you don’t see many of them around Ponyville is because most of the transactions here aren’t big enough for them.”

“How much does each one cost?”

“The tubes are two bits each and the prisms are 25 bits each.”

“We could probably do with a prism and a few tubes.”

“Pardon me, Yang, but I have a question for you” Fancy interjected. Seeing his half eaten flower sandwich reminded me of my forgotten burger. I needed to get on that.

“Yeah?”

“Do you intend to oversee the whole project?”

“Well, I probably will, since you have other places to be, Gilda’s probably going to go back to her home really soon, and nobody else is really in on the vision for this project. Why do you ask?”

“I can find you an accountant to help manage the money for this project. I saw your reaction to the proposed 25,000 bits, and it was one that looked like my offer, calculated as it was, wouldn’t be enough. Knowing you as I do, it’s more likely you didn’t think it was enough to actually finish the construction.”

“That’s. . . actually a pretty good idea. And you hit the nail on the head with that last part about the construction.” A few hooves met their owners’ faces. “I’m just used to hearing bigger numbers in the cost of these things.”

“I see. Well, enjoy your meal.”

“I will.” I finally took a bite out of my bacon cheeseburger. It tasted really good, and even though the meats were juicy, they somehow lacked the dripping juices. I wasn’t going to complain about that. The buns had a bit of a crunch to them, like the inside had been lightly buttered and put on the grill. I liked it.

I was able to finish my burger with no problem, though I didn’t have much room left for the fries. I wound up sharing them with Gilda and Spike. I also let Spike have my leftover patty since he wanted to try it. After all the food he ate, I was surprised he was able to walk like normal.

After Pinkie gave everyone dessert, where she got it without leaving the room, I don’t know, we got back to the drawing board. We kept working at the design of the Carne Den until we all started nodding off. Twilight offered lodging for the night since the weather was so bad, an offer that went without refuse.

Author's Notes:

Props to Void Runner for being overanalytical of I Burn. He has been a big help as of late.

OC submissions are still open, and here are a few questions that should be answered outside of basic bio stuff.
-Why do they want to work at the Carne Den? Reasons can be serious, normal, or even silly.
-What kind of reaction do they have to meat? This is a question more for pony OCs.
-What kind of position do you want them to have? I suggest having multiple positions in mind in case your first pick doesn't work out.