Make Each Meal a Special Treat

[Cadpig]

(ooc: September 9th. Lunchtime. Open to all.)

Well. This wasn't a problem in the slightest.

Cadpig should have gotten used to the fact that she was tiny as hell and would have a hard time ordering food, but she was hungry. Hunger was overriding logic by that point and she was doing everything in her power to actually get up to make an order. Tiny dalmatian had resorted to bouncing in place in an effort to get up, but to no avail. By the time she was brought down by gravity the next time, her paws slipped against her overly long tie and she landed face down on the floor. A yelp followed, and Cadpig just laid there for a few moments.

"Oh, come on! Couldn't someone have made this place a little more runt friendly?" Cadpig asked. She rubbed her head and got to her paws again, only to glance down and see that her tie knot had successfully been tightened beyond the point of comfort. A low groan followed and Cadpig began to do everything she could to fix it. Some day this had turned out to be. She'd seemed to have invited bad luck to follow her and didn't have anyone to ask to assist her in getting food... At least for the moment. For all she knew, someone could have been watching her efforts and willing to step in and help.

"I think I sprained my aura with that fall. What did I do to throw the universe off balance today?" she whined. "All I want is to get some lunch."

[Skippy Squirrel]

Skippy walked into the Cafeteria. He was quite small as well. But, he was bigger than Cadpig. He really felt for her. After all he was often bullied in school for not being too big either. "Do you want me to help you? Maybe we can work together first maybe you'd like me to help you with your tie. Than maybe I can help you order some food for lunch. I know what it's like to be small. I was the smallest squirrel in my class back home. Name's Skippy , You can call me Skip or Skippy" Skippy said happily with a smile.

He adjusted his Dark Blue tie. He didn't think he'd ever get used to wearing ties and vests.

[Fluttershy]

"Oh, my! Do you need some help, little one?"

The yellow pegasus hoped against hope that Cadpig would say yes. So far, she'd been trying her best to befriend the animals here; but they all seemed so preoccupied, and she was still all around nervous about the fights; and as the two didn't really put her in top form, Fluttershy found herself still without any animal friends here. And for the pegasus to whom caring for animals was her special talent, this was a particularly disconcerting state of affairs. So when she had crept into the dining hall - even four days after she had first ventured out of her dorm, keeping as low to the ground as possible avoid unwanted notice - and had noticed the tiny little puppy having trouble reaching the food, Fluttershy had dared to hope this might be a turning point.

And so she flitted closer, daring to use her wings for the first time since arrival, and came to rest gently beside Cadpig as she made her enquiry. Her pink mane sweeping the floor, the shy pegasus crouched low to put herself at the runty pup's level and smiled gently. The dog looked like such a sweet little thing, Fluttershy could hardly imagine Cadpig not wanting to befriend her; she hoped that, in this case, first impressions weren't wrong.

As well as with the food, the spotted animal also seemed to have had some trouble with her tie; but even if the canine's tie seemed to be a little uncomfortable, it didn't look like it was being choking her or anything dangerous, so Fluttershy decided that tackling the more important of the dalmatian's problems would be her priority.

"Should I pass something down to you? Or do you want me to lift you up to see what's there yourself?"


(ooc: didn't see Skippy's post before I wrote this; maybe just assume they arrived at exactly the same moment, okay? ^^")

[Cadpig]

With her big ears, it would have been laughable for her to have missed Skippy's question. Cadpig looked up and saw the squirrel there, and after a moment she nodded in acceptance of his help. The fact that he wanted to help with her tie made things a lot better, too. Her little claws were too blunt to really do anything with, and after several attempts at undoing it herself she could use all the help she could get.

"Well, thank you! I was beginning to think that it was a good day for everyone to be rude. Maybe I did do something wrong... Got up on the wrong side of the bed or something," Cadpig said. She felt her tail whipping back and forth as Skippy helped fix her tie, only to realize moments later that she hadn't yet introduced herself. He'd been kind enough to state his name without her asking, too. Good to know. Skippy was quite the friendly fellow and Cadpig didn't even mind that he was a big ol' squirrel. Other dogs might have tried to chase him, but she was far smaller than him. It would have been hilarious for her to even attempt chasing him.

"I'm Cadpig. Now, if you could just give me a hand in seeing what we've got to choose from today, that'd be stupendous," she said. Her frustrations were being pointed toward the idea of asking someone in charge to give her a portable ladder or something. Then maybe she would have the chance to really see what was up above whenever she couldn't get to something. So far, though, Cadpig was just having problems with that. That much was to be expected, though. It didn't need to be said that she was the smallest dalmatian in the school.

Not only was Skippy there, but also there was a pegasus there too! Maybe she was a friend of Rainbow Dash's? Cadpig could only guess that that was the case. Fluttershy's offer was definitely a good one, too.

"My, you two are sure helpful. That would be great if you could bring something down here," she said in answer to Fluttershy's question.

(ooc: Whoops, didn't see your post there Fluttershy. xD Fixed!)

[Skippy Squirrel]

"WOW, a Pegasus, You don't see many of those around here. HI, there I'm Skippy, we could work together, you help Cadpig here get some food, while I try my luck with this little pup's tie. " Skippy said beginning to work on Cadpig's tie. "It's awfully nice to meet you Cadpig, " Skippy said finally fixing Cadpig's tie. "There we go, good as new, these ties are really a pain in the butt, aren't they? It took me a few days to actually perfect it. For the first few days, I was either nearly choking myself, or it was so loose, it came undone every ten minutes or so" Skippy said to Cadpig, hoping to make his first friend here at school.

[Fluttershy]

Oh! And the most adorable little squirrel was present too; Fluttershy had been so preoccupid with Cadpig's issue that she hadn't even noticed the other animal until he had begun offering the small pup a paw with her tie. One thing less for her to worry about, Fluttershy knew, should have been a good thing; but she couldn't help but feel a little as though, if animals could help each other with their own problems here, what use would she even be? Was her special talent so useless here?

And then Cadpig accepted her offer of help. Fluttershy's face stretched into a radiant beam as she forgot absolutely everything else but the two little animals in front of her. "I'd be only too happy to," she replied, her voice growing stronger by the minute. Where around other ponies and around the human creatures, the pegasus was as shy as could be, around animals of any form, there was absolutely no sign of that at all. With a flap of her wings, Fluttershy flittered up to the counter and cast her eyes across the food. A moment later, she was back down at ground level again.

"Oh, well, I don't really know what you'd want. Maybe I could lift you up so you could choose something?" It wasn't just to give her an excuse to hold the adorable little puppy, though that would certainly be welcome too; while back home, the pegasus always knew what food to get for every animal, she wasn't altogether sure if talking animals ate by the same standards as Equestrian animals. And also, she suspected Cadpig would want meat of some form; something that with most ponies being vegetarian, Fluttershy really didn't have the experience of.

"I don't really mind the ties that much," she added softly, catching the tail end of Skippy's comment as she held her hooves out for Cadpig to climb into. Then again, Fluttershy was used to wearing clothes on and off, Rarity's dresses for formal occasions being the obvious example, so she supposed even the tie wasn't much more hassle than that; for an animal, however, it must have seemed like a lot more of a bother. "But I think that the both of you look quite adorable in them."

[Cadpig]

That was a fair enough argument, Cadpig realized. She hadn't exactly specified what it was she wanted, so going up with Fluttershy would be just fine by her. She'd already adjusted to the flying when she'd helped out Rainbow Dash with finding a book the other day. This would have been no problem for the tiny dalmatian. So, she nodded in response to the suggestion.

"Okay! That works, too," she said. Thankfully, Skippy had finished tying up her tie problems by that point, and she was ever grateful to him for the help. Her tail whipped back and forth with glee and the smile on her face only seemed to grow a bit bigger. Having Fluttershy and Skippy around to help with this apparently bad day was making her smile go on for miles. That much may have been silly to hear out loud, but who cared? Cadpig sure didn't. It was just the sort of thing she would have said anyway. But moving right along, she had to thank Skippy for his help.

"Thanks, Skippy. I guess even I have to admit that having this long of a tie doesn't really help me out much. But it was the shortest one they had, apparently, so I had to take it," Cadpig said. Fluttershy's compliment on how cute she and Skippy looked with them made her feel even better. Her tail whipped back and forth a bit faster just moments later.

"Thanks! I wasn't really sure how it looked, and it kinda drags on the ground since it's so long on me, but I'm glad someone likes how it looks on me," she said. All that remained was for Fluttershy to take hold of her, which Cadpig made the tiniest bit easier to have happen by moving closer, and to see what was available. Silently, she hoped that maybe Kanine Krunchies were a possibility. If not, she supposed she would have to go with some other food. Not that she was complaining, though. She was fairly hungry by that point and was willing to accept just about anything.

[Rainbow Dash]

Skippy smiled at the Pegasus pony . This Pegasus sure seemed to love animals quite a bit. Seeing as this was a school with students that had to fight on a daily basis, Skippy could only guess, that there would be a bunch of problems still that this Pegasus could fix.

Skippy adjusted his own tie for like the fifth time that day because it was beginning to choke him. Skippy blushes just a tiny bit, and kicked his paw on the ground rather shyly. "Thank you miss" skippy said realizing he had never even heard her name yet.

It wasn't until further inspection when he noticed Fluttershy's and Cadpig's tie color. He had looked down at his own. He gaped!

Could this be? Could the 3 of them be in the same circle. To say Skippy was sort of happy would be an understatement. He grabbed a tray and waited behind Fluttershy and Cadpig.

[Fluttershy]

"Oh! Thank-you!" Before Cadpig had chance to blink, Fluttershy had snatched her up between her forelegs and was cuddling the tiny dalmatian to her chest. Not forgotten was her current task - again, the pegasus flittered higher to give Cadpig a view of the wide varieties of food spread out before them - but Fluttershy didn't think she could just hold Cadpig without hugging the miniscule animal as close as possible. She was just about the cutest dog that the yellow mare had ever seen, and the fact that she was capable of speech only made her even more fascinating to the pony.

"Well, you know, you could always tuck the end of your tie into your skirt. That way it wouldn't get beneath your paws so much," Fluttershy suggested gently as Cadpig mentioned her tie troubles. She wasn't sure how the thought would be taken; she had an idea that to have the tie tip tucked into the waistband as such tended to be taken as quite a dorkish look. Still, the pegasus genuinely wanted to help; and if Cadpig didn't take exception to the idea, it would make the uniform a lot more practical for the little animal. "We don't want you to keep on tripping on it now, do we? You could hurt yourself."

She hovered in the air where she was, letting Cadpig get a good look at the varieties of food spread out before them. The pegasus' long pink tail still touched against the floor; if Skippy so desired, he could have climbed up it and onto her back to get a better view of the counter for himself. Actually, Fluttershy almost hoped he would; the squirrel seemed a sweet little thing, and Fluttershy liked nothing better than being completely surrounded by animals on all sides. She looked down at him, gave her tail a little twitch.

"You're welcome to come up too if you want, little friend," she encouraged him with a gentle smile. While she waited for Skippy to scramble up her tail, Fluttershy turned her attention back to Cadpig.

"Do you see anything up here that you'd like?"

[Skippy Squirrel]

The offer from Fluttershy seemed tempting. I mean he was bigger than Cadpig but , not by that much. If he stood on his tippy toes he could just barely see what was on the counter. Skippy thought for a couple moments and than nodded with a smile. "Sure, you know since you're offering and all"skippy said climbing up Fluttershy's tail so he could see what was on the counter a bit better.

[Cadpig]

That... Actually was a good suggestion. For as smart as Cadpig was, she didn't always see answers that could have been right in front of her. Sticking her tie in her skirt might have looked silly, but Fluttershy was right. It would be much safer that way and Cadpig wouldn't get hurt.

"You are so right! I can't believe I didn't think of that myself," she said. She would have gone about sticking the tie in her skirt right then and there, but the food had inticed her once again. Her nose was working at about a mile a minute and her tail was back to whipping back and forth behind her. Fluttershy probably could have felt that much for herself, since she was holding her. Blue eyes darted from one food item to the next, and internally she was disappointed. There wasn't a single bowl of kibble to be found. What was she going to have to do to get some Kanine Krunchies? Do a little dance and beg the chef to purchase some? Oh well... It wasn't that big of a deal. Cadpig could cope with something else.

"Let's see... What looks good?" Cadpig wondered out loud. Meat seemed like a go to answer for a dog, but Cadpig didn't fancy anything that was laid out at present. The soup, however, did seem to finally catch her attention. That would do.

"Oh! That soup looks pretty good. I think I'm gonna have that," she said at last.

[Fluttershy]

Fluttershy smiled as she felt the pull on her tail that told her Skippy had indeed taken up her offer - within moments, he was sitting on her back - and smiled again as Cadpig applauded her suggestion of how to handle her tie troubles. In contrast to her fear and nervousness of the previous days, Fluttershy was now completely in her element; there was nothing the winged mare liked better than helping animals who were having problems, and she had to wonder if she'd found a niche for herself here after all. With so any small creatures around, someone surely had to keep an eye on them and make sure they were all managing okay - what if that someone was to be her? It would be a wonderful way to keep her mind of the horror of the fights.

She nodded as Cadpig stated her choice. "It does look like very nice soup. I think I'll have the same." After fluttering closer to the floor to set Cadpig down - she didn't really want to, but the pegasus needed her hooves free - Fluttershy collected a tray in her mouth; placing it upon the counter, she carefully lifted one bowl of soup at a time onto the tray. Tomato and herb, she thought it was; at any rate, it smelled quite delicious. With that done, she turned her head to regard the squirrel again. Her gently beating wings were probably putting him in a bit of a draft where he was, she realised; but as long as he didn't seem to mind, Fluttershy didn't think there was any real harm to that.

"And what do you want, Skippy?" she asked, turning her body slightly to give him the best view possible.

[Skippy Squirrel]

Skippy smiled happily as he looked around . There was so much to choose from. Those Chocolate Chip Cookies at the end of the counter, was something Skippy knew he wanted. Maybe something with nuts for his Entree. His eyes went from food to food looking for something he really wanted. And than his eyes met a deliciou looking Walnut Casserole type of thing. "Oh, that Walnut Casserole right there looks good, and maybe a few Chocolate Chip Cookies." Skippy said feeling very pleased with his choice. He would have to thank Fluttershy once she set him down by perhaps giving her a hug if she wanted. After all it was very nice for Fluttershy to allow him to climb up on her to begin with. "And maybe some milk, to go along with it." This was a very "Healthy" meal considering, most of his meals came from candy bars, cakes, soda, donuts, and other fattening foods. "Thank You so much, for letting me sit on your back and choose what I wanted to eat. I could have managed, but, not very easily if it weren't for you. SO, thanks a lot it, really is nice of you" Skippy said, always being a kid with really good manners.

[Lucky]

"Man, I'm starving!" Lucky protested loudly, not caring who heard. He'd just ventured into the lunchroom himself. By now he'd sort of gotten used to the uniform, although his shirt still looked disheveled and wrinkled, and his tie was not very neat at all. Lucky had fiddled so much with the thing he'd really stopped caring about looking "cool" at this point. He'd settled for "good enough" this morning.. hopefully, whoever was in charge wouldn't mind him not wearing pants because he wasn't about to. It was too difficult and for Thunderbolt's sake he was a DOG.

His manner of dress was the last thing on Lucky's mind though. He wanted food. Like Cadpig, he'd been hoping for Kanine Krunchies, even though none had been on the menu for the past week or so. Still, one dared to hope. As he padded over to the food bar, he stopped as he caught sight of Cadpig struggling to reach it. For a moment or two, he'd watched her struggle, contemplating on helping her, but before he could open his mouth to say a word, a cutesy little squirrel and horse had come to her aid. Well, that settled that.

Lucky would've slipped his head under her and lifted her up, but now it wasn't necessary. "Hey Cadpig, are there any Kanine Krunchies?" It didn't look like it from his vantage point, but he thought he'd ask just to make sure.

[Cadpig]

Once she was on the floor once more, Cadpig watched as Fluttershy set about her current task. Never before would she have thought that a pegasus would be helping her, but at this school just about anything was possible. Colorful horses and everything should have been normal enough to her by that point. Fluttershy's help was definitely appreciated regardless of that fact. Her tail continued to whip back and forth gleefully as the exchange occurred between Skippy and Fluttershy. It sounded to her as though the squirrel was hungry! Not that she blamed him, though. Broadening one's mind did lead to students getting hungry.

As she began to try and tuck her tie into her skirt the way Fluttershy had suggested, Lucky's voice reached her. She looked his way and nodded once to acknowledge that she'd seen and heard him. His question, unfortunately, didn't have a nod for the answer.

"I'm afraid not. There's plenty of food Roger and Anita would enjoy, but no Kanine Krunchies to be found. We are in a Krunchie-less paradise of education, it seems," Cadpig said. How would Fluttershy react to her brother's presence? The only way to find out was to wait for Fluttershy to see him, she supposed. If it had been anything like how she'd reacted when she'd seen Cadpig and her tie troubles, though, it probably couldn't have been a bad thing. At the very least, Lucky hadn't had tie difficulties like she did.

"I'm really going to have to have a word with that chef at some point. This food's all very good, but come on. It wouldn't kill them to have some dog food here."