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She certainly seemed nice enough, and she got to the task without any further instructions. It put him at ease (a little bit at least), and he allowed himself a happy smile as they worked together.

“Um…” He slid more vegetables over. “W-well, I guess… I can sing okay sometimes… I like music and poetry… and my mama falls asleep all the time... so...” As he mentioned his mother, he looked around to check on her. Yep, still sleeping.

“W-what did you say your name was…? Sorry.”

"The first mate he got drunk, broke in the captain's trunk; the constable had to come and take him awaaaaay!" Moth-Drops was pulling some kind of berry down from a very tall bush and dropping them to Mandrake. The whole concept of the garden was pretty intriguing to her, and she couldn't stop asking questions. "That's so neat! I've never done anything with gardening at all. Mostly I just go to the park to look at plants, and when I'm looking at plants, that tends to mean I'm looking for bugs. How often do you harvest, once a year?" She wrinkled her nose and looked down at Knos inquisitively. "Cannons? What cannons?"

The filly giggled cheerfully, finding Lullaby's mild stutter just absolutely adorable. It was like he was nervous, or jittery! Candy sometimes got jittery when she ate too many sweets. Or on holidays. Or even....

her mind wandered for a second, then snapped back to the conversation. "I like to sing!" she announced, putting the chopped veggies in the pot until some began to stick a bit out of the water. She picked up a large metal spoon and began to stir, talking past the obstruction in her jaw.

"My mame is Candy Mandy. I mean..Vandy..grrr" she let the spoon fall against the side of the pot. "It's Candy Dandy." she finally managed to say, holding out a hoof for him to shake. It's nice to meet you!"

The work went by in varying speeds. When the fillings were done, it was a bit of a dash to get it over to the crusts before too many more cut ingredients piled up. But after that, it was slow as the new batch cooked, needing only a bit of stirring every now and then. All the while, Candy would cautiously glance over at Mandrake, wondering just why she didn't want them to help. The work was getting done faster right? And everyphony would be happy to get some pies! Maybe she just didn't want to share the fun! How rude! Candy glared at her pot of veggies.

“I-it’s to meet you too.” Lullaby gave her a warm smile. “Maybe we can sing together one day.”

As the work continued and the vegetable fillings were done, he got to work on the fruit. There wasn’t much time for talk, especially since the both of them had to use the utensils with their mouth. Lullaby was currently holding a knife, carefully slicing the tops off the strawberries and then moving them across to Candy Dandy.

The strawberry and apple pie was the one he was looking forward to the most.

"Gotcha. Fire away!", the normally taciturn little pegasus cried, laughing. The sun was warm on her wings and even though her friend seemed to be in a bit of a mood, everybody else was very happy. Maybe it would rub off on Mandrake, too.

She tossed several of the larger fruits into the water, splashing the phonies around her. "Sooooooooooo, hoist up the John B's sails! See how the mainsail sets! Call for the captain ashore, let me go home!"

For a long while, Mandrake worked in near silence. She didn't know the words to the song her sister and friend were singing, but she hummed along to the tune as best she could. There was a definite awkwardness that was slowly overtaking her, interrupting her humming and taking it off key until she trailed off and stopped. Everywhere she glanced, phonies were working together and seemed very happy. In fact, they seemed especially happy in completely ignoring her. Occasionally she would look up from pulling out vegetables and catch a nasty stare, which quickly made her look down at the ground.

Her work slowed, ears folded back. With a sigh, she plopped a bundle of carrots toward Moth so she could take them over to Knots for washing. This wasn't right. Everyone was fine with this but her. Out of this many phonies, she couldn't be the only one right -- even her family didn't care! Did that make this work any less special or important? She wanted to say yes, but her heart said otherwise. It didn't matter who was helping or how many phonies were involved, this was still important work and it was still special. If it weren't for her outburst, it probably would be a lot more fun, too!

Digging a hoof tip into the garden dirt, her orange eyes glanced toward the first phony she upset. Mandrake lowered her posture, hanging her head, and lumbered over slowly to Candy Dandy.

"U-uhm... h-hi..." Mandrake didn't dare look her in the eye yet, just twitching her tail awkwardly. "Sorry I yelled earlier... I-I misunderstood what was happening today. I thought it was just gonna be my family. Thank you... for helping." Glancing up, brows upturned pitifully, Mandrake met her eyes, then the eyes of her brother who had given her a dirty look, and any of the other phonies around who had been put off by her outburst. "I appreciate everybody's help..."

Moth-Drops fluttered away from her vegetables and trotted over to Mandrake. She nuzzled her friend, trying to cheer her up. "We're not done yet. Come on, let's take a little break. Let's go over there and get some lemonade from the little filly who's brought drinks, then we can keep working."