Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her ears, cheeks and eyes were burning with frustration and there would have been a distinct change in color if her fur wasn't so dark. Brows knit tightly, Mandrake stomped her hooves and stood up again, pointing at all of the new babbens that had made their way to the group aside from the one she was already acquainted with and hadn't asked to help out. "I'm saying it to all of you! It's our thing! We're gonna do it!"

Candy perked up when Tangles said that she could help. "I'm Candy Dandy!" she reminded him, rising from her rump and giving Sweet Surrender an encouraging look.

"Go get 'im!" she said, placing a hoof on his shoulder and then bouncing over to Lullaby and gazing closely at the recipes. They didn't seem too difficult, but she knew that sometimes her mamma messed up really easy recipes because she got distracted. After looking over the lists one more time, she waved at her companion in baking.

"You must be Lullaby! It's nice to meet you!"

That loud blue girl... Surrender wanted to tackle her and defend his sister's honor. But he wasn't very good at street fighting either. He just wasn't a brawler. Besides, while he was busy giving her the meanest glare he could, the large green Phony was talking to him about cart duty. Okay! One task at a time. First, wait for pies. Then, deliver pies. Then, vengeance.

Oh, but who was he kidding? Last time he was in a fight, he just rolled over to show his belly right away, and then got kicked in the face a lot. That loud girl looked like she could probably take him.

Sweet Surrender pouted while he waited by his cart.

Mandrake didn't notice the glare she was getting. She was too busy glaring at the innocent vegetables waiting to be picked in front of her. When Moth fluttered by and offered her suggestion, she just gave a shallow shake of her head. "My sister's gonna wash 'em. I'm gonna pick 'em." With that, she leaned forward and took hold of the first carrot stalk between her teeth and pulled, digging a little of the dirt around it with her front hooves at the same time. It struggled against her but she managed to pull it out with only a small tear and bite mark in the leafy stalk which was going to be discarded anyhow.

She didn't quite hear the rest of Moth-Drop's explanation until the last part and, carrot dangling from her mouth, she stared at the other filly in disbelief. "Wha--" the carrot fell, "No, no, you don't gotta go!" Her ears folded back and she plopped her rump in the dirt once more, hanging her head and glancing begrudgingly around the area at all the other intruders.

Why did no one else have a problem with this? Not her dad, not Knots or Lullaby? Her mom had fallen asleep again and didn't seem startled from her yell but was she honestly the only one getting their jimmies rustled at the prospect?! Giving an indignant snort, Mandrake glanced over to her sister who was a few yards away, then back at the fallen carrot, the vegetable field next to her, and Moth-Drops floating near. "I... I guess if you wanna help--" she mumbled a bit bitterly, "--W-would you mind taking some veggies to my sister over there? It'd be faster if I could just pick 'em and she could keep washing and neither of us had to stop."

Knots pushed her captain's cap atop her head and rolled up her imaginary sleeves. She pulled on a large apron and started filling her washtub with buckets of clean water.

"We come on the sloop John B, my grandfather and me~", she sang dumping water into the tub with a bucket, emptying it cheerily before going to fetch more water from the outdoor pump. "Around Nassau town we did roam~!"

"Don't worry, she's always like that," Knots said to Moth-Drops. "Hi, I'm Knots! Sing with me, it'll make this job go faster."

She dropped the bucket under the outdoor pump and pumped with her forelegs as she sang.

"Well I feel so broke up, I wan-na go home! So hoist up the John B's sail~!"

Lullaby had, for the most part, ignored Mandrake’s shrieks. It had been bound to happen over something sooner or later, so he kept his head down and kept peeling vegetables. When the storm had passed, he turned to smile at Candy Dandy. “H-hi. It’s nice to meet you.” He pushed some of the vegetables over for the pink filly. “We have to make sure the pot doesn’t boil too hard or it will ruin the vegetables. A-fter that…” He peered at the recipe. “… then we can do the fruit filling. I-if that’s okay?” He wasn’t used to taking charge and he hoped she wouldn’t mind.

“Oh dear.” Pink Lemonade tutted at Mandrake’s display and then went to find someone to help. Delivery sounded good. That would give her good use of her Phony-skills. With a perky grin she trotted over towards Sweet Surrender and Larry were standing by the cart. “Hi there! I’m Pink Lemonade. I’ll help out with delivery. Oh, I can be the quality check girl as well.”

"That sounds perfectly perfect!" Candy Dandy said, sliding the peeled vegetables over to where she could easily reach them. She began to carefully drop them into the pot, making sure to not splash Lullaby or herself in the process. In truth, she probably could have done the cooking part on her own. Her mom made sure to try and teach all of her phoals how to cook. But Candy Dandy liked having someone to talk to!

The little colt seemed nervous. She noticed that every so often, he stuttered. "So how come your name is Lullaby? Can you sing really well? Or do you put phonies to sleep?" Her questions were innocent in nature. She just wanted him to talk!