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"Five cross buns, a loaf of white sliced, and a dozen chocolate muffins." Paper repeated the list to himself as he walked down the street to Sweet Bread's bakery. "Five cross buns, a loaf of white sliced, and a dozen chocolate muffins, Five cross buns, a loaf of white sliced, and a dozen chocolate muffins, Five cross buns, a loaf of white sliced, and a dozen chocolate muffins."

Arriving at the shop, he pushed open the door and announced in his most confident voice. "Five loafs of white sliced, a chocolate muffin, and a dozen crossed buns please!"

He paused. "No..WAIT!"

Aww..his mother had called ahead with her order. Paper was both annoyed that she didn't think he could do it, but relieved that she thought ahead to account for his slight air headedness.

"Yes Ma'am Miss Sweet Bread, you've got it right..." Paper got onto his hind legs and emptied out the cost of his mother's order out of the small ankle bag onto the counter. As he did so, his nose caught a whiff of something semi familiar. He sniffed a couple more times.

"Is that..." sniff "That smells like..." sniff sniff ".....curry bread...?"

It also smelled slightly burnt and a little off but it was almost certainly curry bread.

"Well..yes I suppose I d...." Paper watched as Sweet Bread vanished and re-appeared with a tray full of breads. His tummy rumbled a bit, he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. It couldn't hurt to sample Miss Sweet Breads' new products.

He started with the Melonpan. The outside looked super well done, and he said so. With a small bow and a "Itadakimasu!" he lifted the melonpan to his mouth and took a huge bite.

It took a lot of effort to not spit the bread right back out. The bread tasted like an over sweetened cantaloupe. The flavor was so sweet it was turning tart on his tongue. He swallowed the mouthful he had and opened his mouth to explain the reason Melonpan was called such was because it resembled a melon, not tasted like one, but the comment died in the first breath. Sweet Bread was looking at him so excitedly and with so much anticipation he couldn't say anything negative. Oh well, there would have to be SOME PHONY out there who'd like the sweetness. "Well..you most certinly got the melon part down Miss Sweet Bread." he said, setting the remains of the bun back on the tray.

Alright, no problem. It would be understandable that someone not familiar with the cuisine would think that something called Melonpan would taste like a melon. He reached for the Anpan. Anpan was a fairly simple bread, surely this will be better. He took a deep breath and took a big n** out of the bread.

Mmphh...mmphh...what flavor is this.....?? Mmph...Pinto Beans? Did she think she could just substitute any kind of bean for the filling? Swallowing, he cast his mind around for something positive to say. "The texture on the bean paste was really well done!" Well that wasn't a lie. The bean might have been wrong but the paste portion was done well.

Paper eyed the Curry Bread warily. It seemed a little burnt on the outside and the smell coming from it was making his nose tickle. But the two breads before it had looked perfect and tasted terrible, so maybe, just maybe....

He grabbed the last bun and took a bite.

His eyes watered and he started to cough hard. This bread wasn't made with curry! It'd been made with fire! Powdered fire!

"W..water...water!"

Paper downed the glass of water in a single breath. The burning feeling was still on the tip of his tongue but the worst of it had been washed away.

"Yes, I think that would vastly improve if you toned down the heat.." he managed to wheeze out, and coughed. "Thank you for the water. This..is your first time cooking them right..?"

Paper looked at Sweet Bread through his watery eyes. The inside of his head was screaming "NO NO NO DON'T SELL THESE ARE YOU KIDDING!?!" but a smaller part of his brain piped up. "She prolly won't sell many of these at all, surely the market here for Japanese breads is very small, even if the other customers don't like it, she'll just chalk it up to no interest and move on." The colt thought that sounded logical and reasonable, and besides, he just couldn't tell Sweet Bread right out her bread was TERRIBLE, it'd hurt her feelings and..could you even SAY such things to an adult?

"I think so yes.." he nodded. "Notch the hotness on that last one down about...98% and you've got it." he smiled at the mare, and then asked tenatively. "Are..there any others I need to try..?" Please say no, please say no...

Paper flitted by, having gotten some practice from his wings and was finally able to fly like a normal flutter phony instead of stops and starts and crashes. Passing by Sweet Bread's bakery, he spotted the adult throwing a bunch of bread away. A large round of what looked like Melon Pan fell from the bag and Paper darted over, catching it, and hefting it into the garbage where the rest of them seemed to be going.

"Good Afternoon Miss Sweet Bread.." Paper said softly, seeing the mare was upset.

Paper perked up a little. "Yes ma'am, but sometimes the getting down is hard still.." he looks sheepish. "Sometimes mom or Mooncake have to pull me back to the floor because just..stopping flying to land is scary.."

The colt paused and ran a hoof through his hair. He knew Sweet Bread was upset but he didn't want to seem invasive. "A..are you ok Miss Sweet Bread..?"

Paper's hooves shuffled and he looked at the sidewalk. It'd gnawed on him a bit that he'd not been honest with Sweet Bread about the Japanese breads and now to see her upset and throwing a lot of stuff away, it really began to bother him. His mother was a business mare too and throwing away that much product couldn't be good.

"I..uhm...Miss Sweet Bread...can..can I tell you something..?"

Hesitantly, not really able to look at the mare, Paper explained to her about how he'd lied about her initial try on the Japanese breads. How he wasn't sure he was allowed to tell her they were bad because she was the adult and how he really didn't want her feelings to get hurt over it. He shuffled his hooves as his admission ended, unable to look up.

"I'm really..really sorry Miss Sweet Bread..."