I was nervous. I was excited. It was almost grand opening time, and there was a crowd of ponies and a few griffons outside the front door. The mayor herself was delivering a short speech. It sounded like a speech praising me more than anything. I didn’t care for it, but I wasn’t about to stop her.

“-and here to say a few words is Yang herself.” The mayor cued me by starting a mild round of applause.

“Let’s go” I said to Gilda. Both of us had our uniforms on and we looked good.

“Right behind you” Gilda shakily whispered. Everyone who was working today gave both of us encouraging signs.

Gilda and I stepped out of the Carne Den and stood in front of the doors. The mayor didn’t seem to be expecting Gilda, but didn’t say anything. I had to deliver a small speech before we opened the doors to everyone. I wanted to do the speech with Gilda saying some stuff too, but she apparently has a mild case of very intense stage fright. “Hello, everyone” I began. “Welcome to the grand opening of the Carne Den. One month ago, I met Gilda and found out that I’d somehow forgotten that meat was something I ate. After a bit of a rough first meeting, we decided to make this restaurant. With the help of Sir Fancy Pants, we got the money we needed to build the Carne Den. With Gilda’s help, we got some new griffons in town who are looking to become residents.” I could swear I heard a party popper somewhere. “We’d also like to extend our thanks to the construction ponies who put this dream of ours together in the most literal of senses.

“We here at the Carne Den open our doors to all who wish to dine here, be they herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores. Now then, it’s almost three P.M., and I’m sure you’ve been saving up your appetites for this moment. At three on the dot, Mayor Mare will officially open our doors to the public. Once again, thank you very much.” I gave a slight bow before walking back inside with Gilda.

Gilda’s composure fell apart once we were back inside and the doors were closed. “That was almost too much for me out there.” She was breathing hard and her legs were shaking a bit.

“Deep breaths, Gilda. Deep breaths. You did good out there.”

“But I didn’t even say anything.”

“I couldn’t take all the credit for the Carne Den, and I wanted to make sure you were there so everyone knew it. Now go get some water and recover.”

“Right, right.” Gilda walked off towards the bar to get some water Aegir had already poured for her. In the time I’ve known the changeling, I’ve regularly thought of him more as a minotaur.

Gilda managed to recover her composure and I got my hair into a ponytail just before the doors opened, part of the crowd outside becoming a crowd inside. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, but the wait staff were already at work doing their thing.

Most of the questions I overheard were about the menus at the table, specifically why one had a red border and the other a green border. It was an easy way to tell the meat and meat-free menus apart. One pony actually looked a bit sick when the difference was explained and he ran out of the restaurant without even ordering a drink. It didn’t take long for his spot to be claimed.

Silver approached me after the runaway pony’s spot was filled. He still had the white armband on and was still washing dishes, but in the time we’d been practicing, he’d made progress in his meat tolerance, no longer looking green in the face when he was around the stuff. “Yang, we need you in the kitchen.”

“What for?” I asked. I hoped it wasn’t a dispute.

“The cooks need some help with the food prep so they can get to all their orders. I’d do it, but I don’t think I can bring myself touch raw meat yet.”

I knew he’d get there in time. “I’ll be right there.” Before going to the kitchen, I went to the restroom to wash my hands and the Ember Celica’s gloves. Sanitation is important, and I did my best to drive that into everyone’s minds, from the cooks to the wait staff.

I quickly found the head chef, a griffon named Gavan. “I heard you need my help.”

“Prepping and organizing the ingredients” he immediately clarified. “We need ten medium sized steaks and some salad vegetables right now.”

“Which salad vegetables?” I went to the cold storage, kept just a few degrees above freezing, to get the steaks first. I didn’t like going in the cold storage for some reason, so my trips there were brief. At least I had long sleeves on and the uniform’s fabric was fairly thick.

“All of them and some tomatoes.”

“Right.” I set the steaks down on the side of the central counter designated for meat, ran my hands over some vertically placed sanitation tiles, then went to the cool storage where the vegetables were and began making the multiple trips I’d need to get some of every salad vegetable and the tomatoes.

During the practice runs, I’d found myself in the kitchen more often than Gilda, while she found herself out in the dining area more often than me. The best reason I could come up with for that was that my heat immunity made me better suited to the kitchen and Gilda was better at making bolder statements around customers. That, and I had my aura to protect my hands from the knives.

Once I got the details of what was needed, I began prepping the steaks, cutting three of them up into small pieces and setting them aside for use in steak fries. One cook took one to go right on the grill and swapped it for a well done one, to be cut into strips for a salad. The remaining six simply needed to be scored a few times on both sides and set in a marinade for a few minutes.

While the meat was soaking, I quickly washed my hands, ran them over the sanitation tiles again, and started prepping the vegetables on the other side. Most of them got cut into slices, others got shredded, and some simply got pulled apart.

My prep help extended beyond what I was called in for, as they were quickly replaced by more orders that I was able to help prepare. For three hours, I was stuck in the tornado of activity that was the kitchen. If I wasn’t helping prepare the food, I was cleaning the counters in preparation for preparing more food.

Around seven, the end of the mass of customers was in sight and I was able to leave the kitchen. Every spot inside was filled and there was no line at all. It didn’t take long for me to find Gilda. I had a question for her. “What’s everyone saying about the Den?”

“Reception’s been good” Gilda said. “I’ve been helping Ají a lot though.”

“Is it because she’s small?”

“No, it’s not that” Sylvia said as she joined us. “She just seems to be getting all the really big orders. There was a griffon and unicorn duo that ordered five different things on top of the three different drinks they got between them, and that was just the smallest order she needed help with.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, you tend to miss stuff when you’re in the kitchen” Gilda pointed out. “How are they holding up in there, by the way?”

“Pretty good, though the rush really wore them down. They’re not stopping though.”

“I think the situation in the Griffon Empire is part of why they’re working as hard as they are.”

“What is it like in the Griffon Empire?” Sylvia asked as she joined us.

“Honestly? Pretty bad. Most businesses there are just scraping by and the farms are only slightly better off. You ask a random griffon in Griffonstone if they have a job and you’re just as likely to get a ‘no’ as a ‘yes’. Long story short, it’s bad. On top of that, it’s been bad for years, even before Nightmare Moon’s return.”

“That does sound bad.”

“It was. I was lucky enough to have a job that payed enough for me to save a bit of money regularly, but this is an even better job than what I had back in the Empire.”

“Is it the pay or what the job is?”

“Both, and by far.”

“Well, it’s been a fun chat, but we have customers to take care of. I’m going to take stock of our desserts. I’ve heard they’ve been flying off the shelf.” I went to the dessert display and saw that it was well stocked with apple pie, bowls of bon-bons, cheesecake slices, and brownies. I checked the dessert storage area and saw that it was already close to one third depleted, the pies having the largest bite taken out of them. I’d flagged and cut two of the pies in storage so everyone who worked today could have a slice, and both of them were still there. Considering how busy we’ve been, there’s nobody who hasn’t earned a slice. I told everyone at opening that they could have a slice, and I would make sure to tell everyone who closed that they could have a slice too.

I closed the cool cabinet and went towards the office. All of the bits we were making were being put in there, and as a security measure, I’d asked Twilight to work a bit of her magic on the door so that only those with a matching enchantment in their uniform could open it.

I was just about to go inside to check the bit pile when I saw a large group of fifteen walk in. I recognized twelve of them immediately, though the other three were unknown to me.

“Hello, Yang” Luna said. “Is it too late for us to come here on official business matters?”

“With me?” I asked.

“No, just within our group” Celestia said before walking over to me. She whispered “we’re using the term ‘official’ kind of loosely here.”

I whispered back “you just wanted to have an excuse to come here.”

“We might decide to use this venue for diplomatic meetings in the future with omnivorous and carnivorous races, so we must know what it’s like.”

I shrugged at her answer. “Sounds official enough for me.”

“So, do you have any spots available?”

“Right now, no. And our policy of treating every customer equally means that you’ll have to wait for a enough spots to open up. Same with Rarity and her friends.

“So, who are these three I’ve never seen before?”

Celestia stepped aside and let the three walk up to me. The reddish white alicorn spoke “I’ve heard a bit about you, Yang. I am Princess Cadence, this is my husband, the big brother of Twilight, Shining Armor, and this little filly is Flurry Heart.”

“Shining Armor, huh? I think Twilight mentioned you at some point.”

“Did she say anything about me?”

“That you live in the Crystal Empire and are her brother.”

“. . . That’s it?”

“That’s all I can remember her telling me. I think she turned to another topic after that. I don’t remember anything about an alicorn filly though.” I was no expert on equine biology, but her horn and wings seemed a bit big for her.

“I’m Flurry Heart” she said. “I’m four years old and I’m almost done with first grade!”

“Hm. Congratulations.” In my experience with four year olds, they tended to be a bit obnoxious and loud most of the time, or glued to their parent’s phone. Every time I saw a four year old with a smartphone, I sighed at the waste of potentially lifesaving battery. “Anyways, like I said, you’ll have to wait for the spaces to open up. Sylvia and Gilda have probably noticed you by now, so they’ll be able to help you when your turn comes.”

“If I may ask a question, Yang” Celestia stated. “Does your equal customer treatment policy have any exceptions?”

“Nobody gets preferential treatment, regardless of anything. The only exception to that is anyone who repeatedly and actively causes trouble here. Anyways, I have business things to do.” Before Celestia or anyone could say anything, I went into the office. There was a big pile of bits there in a big chest enchanted to stack them in rows of 25. I was skeptical of it at first, but that enchantment was working like a charm. I could even reach in, grab a bunch, drop them, and it would put them back in place pretty quickly.

There was a placard inside the lid of the chest that showed how many bits were in it, and it was showing a big number. Specifically, 2,534. A number of bits came in through the chute for them and brought the total up to 2,555. The chest had a 10,000 bit capacity, and if business kept up like it has, then it would be close to full when we closed, if not overflowing.

Well, we were making quite a bit of money. While I was glad none of it would be taxed for now, I also knew a lot of it would be spent pretty quickly, mostly on restocking our food and drink, then Friday would come and that was payday for everyone, including me.

I looked over our expense scroll and took a deep breath. I didn’t even have to add anything up to know that we needed more to cover everything, but I wasn’t worried. I knew we’d be fine.

I put the scroll back in its place, watched the chest’s total go up to 2,560, and went back out. I saw a group of four ponies head out, all of them looking satisfied, if a bit tipsy. They didn’t seem to either notice or care that they were walking past what were probably some of the most important ponies in Equestria, probably even the world. I went out to the dining area and saw Ají at work cleaning a table, probably from the group that just left. Gilda came in, got the dishes, quickly told her something, and went to the kitchen.

Everything seemed to be in order, so I went over to the big group of royalty and important ponies. “So, while you’re waiting and we’re kind of calm, is there anything you want to talk to me about?”

“If I may be honest and speak my mind for a moment?” Rarity asked. Nobody objected, so she continued. “I’m coming here without a positive mindset. All I can think about is that you’re serving meat here, and I find that stuff revolting. But, you are my friend, Yang, and I remember the incident with the Chineighse food. I should have seen it coming.”

I interjected. “If you’re thinking about eating meat here to make yourself feel better about that and to equalize some imbalance that isn’t there, don’t. We do have menus for those who don’t eat meat. Just use the menu with the green border.”

“How did you know that’s what I was going to do?”

“It’s what a dramatic type would do. Besides, I’ve lived with you for a couple months. Tell you what: if you really want to make it up to me, just cover a spa trip, okay?”

“I can do that.”

“Thanks.” That’s one thing sorted out. “Any other questions?”

“How’ve the pies been selling?” Apple Bloom asked.

“We’ve already gone through a third of them. It’s our most popular dessert right now.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Anyways, I’ll go do some stuff to prepare for your group.” I left the fourteen ponies and one dragon to go into the kitchen. “Hey, Gavan.”

“Need something?” Gavan asked.

“Yeah. I just need to tell you something: we’ve got a group of fifteen waiting for enough space for all of them. It looks like everyone out there’s got their food, so take the time to let everyone take a breather and grab a bite. Since we’ve made so much today, I’m upping today’s meal allowance cost from 10 to 12 bits for everyone.” Happy mutterings went around among the cooks. I also started to feel a bit hungry myself. “I’ll talk with everyone else and see what they want for dinner. Since these are staff orders, there’s less priority on them, so no real rush.” It didn’t take long for me to get everyone’s orders, though figuring out what I wanted did prove to be a bit of a problem. I wound up settling on a bacon cheeseburger with a scrambled egg on it.

As everyone’s meals were made, I took them to the break room. It was a very nice break room. Everyone had a flag with their name on it so their food could be identified at a glance, which came in handy tonight since Ají’s burger looked like mine, except hers had a whole pepper in the middle of the patty. I still needed her to make something spicy for me at some point. For science, of course.

The first one to come into the break room wasn’t anyone who was here for the grand opening. “You’re early, Fuzz.” She was also already dressed for work. In a land where clothing isn’t often worn, I give points for that. Not many, though.

“It’s good to be early” she said. “How was the grand opening? Also, why do we have royalty waiting for open seats?”

“We were swamped for a few hours. And they’re waiting because nobody gets preferential treatment here, not even royalty, nobility, friends, or family. They’re also part of a group of fifteen, so we need enough spaces for all of them.”

“Is that the biggest group so far?”

“Yep. And knowing how things have been so far, Ají is probably going to be the one to take their orders. She’s been getting all the big orders for some reason.” After I mentioned the little mare, she walked into the break room and went to her food. “Hi Ají.”

“Hi Yang” Ají returned.

“Hey Ají” Fuzz greeted. Upon hearing Fuzz’s voice, Ají froze up. Fuzz sighed. “Well, at least she’s not running away from me anymore.”

“How long until your shift starts?” I asked Fuzz.

“About thirty minutes, I believe. How long until Ají’s ends?”

“About an hour, unless she gets caught as the waitress for the royal group. How about you go wait upstairs so Ají can relax a bit?”

“Isn’t that basically your house?”

“Yeah. Still, I don’t need an Ajísicle and there’s a pepper in her burger waiting for her. Get upstairs.”

“Okay, okay.” Once Fuzz left and went up the stairs by the door, Ají slumped a bit before regaining her posture.

“Why didn’t you say you hired a dragon when you interviewed me?” Ají asked yet again as she started on her food. Seeing a pony eat meat was a bit strange. “You know I’m scared of dragons.”

“I forgot I’d hired her when you were being interviewed” I answered yet again. “At least you won’t have to work with her for too long during the shift overlap.”

“And she’ll be staying at the bar.”

Silver lining for her. “Well then, enjoy your burger.” I took a bite of mine before heading back out to check on everything. Sylvia was already at work cleaning up some tables and Aegir was making notes, probably for Fuzz when she took over the bar area.

Sylvia did not turn down the assistance I gave in cleaning the tables she was working on by taking the dishes to the kitchen for her, nor did Silver object when I helped him wash the pile of dishes he had. Once the pile of dirty dishes was down to a less scary size, I went back out and saw that Ají was taking orders for the royal group of fifteen, who already had their drinks and that she kept herself almost on the opposite side of the table from Spike. I also saw Aegir and Fuzz talking with each other behind the bar.

Even if she wasn’t so small, Ají would be in over her head serving this group if she took it on. It would also take a while to prepare all their food, and I still had a bacon, egg, and cheese burger to finish. I made sure everyone was doing alright before going back to the break room, sitting down, and picking up where I left off on my food.

Note to self: get this burger with a bit of barbecue sauce next time.

I finished and left the break room to go check on Celestia and her group. “How’s everything so far?”

“The atmosphere is quite relaxing” Luna said. “It’s a soothing amount of darkness, but it’s also not dark enough to induce drowsiness. It is an excellent use of black, which is rarely seen like this in Equestria. You get my full approval.”

“Speaking of the relaxing atmosphere, I’d like to make you an offer, Yang” Celestia said. “There’s going to be a financial meeting soon, and I was wondering if you would be so willing as to let us use the Carne Den for the meeting. You would be paid quite well for this.”

Hmm. “What would you be willing to pay?”

“10,000 bits.”

Now that was a good offer. “Let me think it over. I’ll get back to you before you leave.”

“It’s not a decision to make lightly. Consider it carefully.”

I left the group and found Gilda. Something this big was not a decision to be made alone. Unless I was the sole owner, but I wasn’t. I brought her into the office. “Hey, Gilda. Celestia made an offer to us.”

“An offer from her on opening day?” Gilda certainly looked interested. “What does she want?”

“She wants to rent out the whole restaurant. There’s a financial meeting coming up soon, and she wants to hold it here. Her offer is 10,000 bits.”

“For the whole day?”

“Or at least the duration of the meeting.”

Gilda put a talon to her beak in thought. “We could get a bit more out of this.”

“What are you thinking?”

“If anyone gets anything, we charge appropriately. They get a salad? We charge them the same rate we would for anyone else and put that onto the 10,000 bit bill.”

“I don’t like that idea. I’ve actually met the thirty ponies that make up the financial meeting group. Most of them are snobs and one actually tried to shuffle me into the military. There are two good ones though. I actually got to head one of their meetings and I wrecked their bills. Except for two of them. Anyways, what we can do is still serve them, but we’ll charge them individually, or however they decide to pay the tickets.”

“What’s the point of that?”

“You’ll understand when you see their faces. It’s not that they won’t be able to pay, but that they have to pay that will get the reactions.” I could feel a dark and playful smile on my face. “Trust me, their reactions when something they don’t expect comes up is to live for.”

“What about the two good ones you mentioned?”

“Fancy Pants and Fleur Dee Lis.”

“Those are the ones who helped fund us, right?”

“That’s right. As much as I’d like to give them preferential treatment, we can’t do that. The best we can do towards that is serve them first. That would also irritate the other 28, so there’s a little bonus there.”

“Are you sure you’re not going evil?”

“Maybe a little. The fun and harmless kind of evil. Anyways, do we agree that we’ll rent out the restaurant for the financial meeting for 10,000 bits and charge everyone who gets something appropriately?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I’ll tell her the terms then.” I left the office and made my way over to Celestia. I told her the terms Gilda and I had come to and she liked them.

Eventually, the time came to help Ají bring out the food. Honey Suckle and Cloverleaf had arrived while I was in the office with Gilda and they was able to help. Applejack kept giving Honey an odd look, like there was something she didn’t like about the pegasus. I figured they may have met each other before and not left on good terms. Still, it wasn’t my problem, and it didn’t look like there would be a problem either, so I let it go.

I kept myself available to help with the royal group for the multiple hours they were there. Celestia and Luna did leave the table to lower the sun and raise the moon, but they came back. Flurry Heart seemed to really like me, though I had no idea why.

They dined well. Some of them even ordered meat products, which did surprise some of us. At the end, their bill came to over 200 bits. Celestia covered it by herself, and even gave an extra 50 bits. I wound up making a few trips with the bit prism to the chest, especially since she paid with two groups of 75 bits. She insisted on the 50 extra bits being there, so I didn’t say no. If the customer wanted to pay extra, that was fine. Luna pitched in too, leaving a 15 bit tip for each of us who helped serve them, including me.

After the royal group left, the shift overlap was done and the night crew was in place. Sylvia, Gavan, and Gilda were still here though, since they had more responsibilities while I was still here because I lived right upstairs. The number of guests, while still strong, was also on a steady decline. Ponyville wasn’t a big town, and some of the late customers had already been in earlier. Not even day two and already there were repeat customers.

We closed the kitchen at midnight, an hour before closing. Gilda and Sylvia left at 11, along with the wait staff. I helped the cooks clean up the kitchen while Gavan took stock of what food was left.

With the surprising amount of meat we went through, we’d probably have to order more really soon. Or it might already be on its way if it was an anytime rate that hadn’t been sent yet.

The only customers we had after midnight were a few looking for something to drink. The apple cider proved to be popular, but the other drinks went pretty well. One thing that came up a few times was salt blocks, which we didn’t have. Apparently, those things are like a stronger version of alcohol for ponies. I think that might explain why there’s very little salt in Equestrian cuisine.

Eventually, 1 AM came about and it was time to close. The last customer had left five minutes prior, so all we had to do was lock up the doors. Fuzz cleaned the bar and I took a look at our income for the day before going to help her. “So, what did we make today?” Fuzz asked.

“Over 6000 bits” I said. “And I’m beat.”

“Need a drink?”

“No, I’m fine. Thanks for the offer though.”

“You sure? I could mix up some fireball whiskey.”

“It’s alright. It’s not like I have a long way to go to get home now.”

“Fair enough. Have a good evening.”

“You too.” I waved to Fuzz as she left into the dark outside, which was actually quite safe in Ponyville. Once she was gone, I made some preparations for the next day, went upstairs, took care of my hygiene, changed into my robe, wished I had a proper bed to flop onto, then slipped into my sleeping bag.

I needed a bed the same size as the one I used at Rarity’s, but beds that size are expensive. I could go ahead and get my portion of the day’s earnings, but that wouldn’t be fair to everyone else who had to wait until Friday. Fortunately, the bed was the only thing I had left to get for my house.

I thought about that for a bit. I really had my very own house now. I also had my very own business that was both profitable and a good front for me to get a steady supply of meat. I’ve come a long way from where I was back on Earth. I still miss my friends back there, but I’ve been making lots of new ones here.

I wonder what my parents would think of what’s happened to me?

Author's Notes:

It's still July 4th in Hawaii!

More stuff planned, plenty of off time to write it. Or play Borderlands.