The Boss Lady

"Alright team, we've got a full day ahead of us today." Cupcake's eyes scanned slowly over her baking schedule. "I believe it'd be best to begin with this order of raspberry scones, then work up to the two wedding cakes in the afternoon. Get to your stations, please."

Truffles, Cupcake's faithful baking apprentice, shot to her baking station as fast as her pudgy legs could carry her. She snatched her needed ingredients from the pantries and carefully organized them on the counter into a perfect array, before snapping to attention and awaiting orders from her mentor.

Meanwhile, Chakra Blossom, Cupcake's most recent hire, leaned down to scratch at his ear with his hind hoof, then yawned. His current situation wasn't ideal-he was far more used to others cooking for him than the other way around, but times were tight and he'd needed a bit of spare cash. Groggily (he may have been just a teeny bit hungover), he fumbled for a mixing bowl and wooden spoon. He'd never figured himself as much as a baker, but how hard could it possibly b-

Cupcake slapped the spoon from his hoof, hard. Chakra let out a startled squawk. He clutched at his sore hoof and glared down at the offending mare, but found that Cupcake was moving away to sort through her measuring spoons.

"Truffles." Cupcake said quietly, "Kindly inform our new employee what he has done wrong."

"Class E sanitation violation!" Truffles eyes lit up with blazing indignation, and she flung an accusing hoof at Chakra. "We don't touch our baking equipment until after we've washed our hooves!"

Chakra cocked an eyebrow at the bizarre, hysterical little filly. "...I already washed my hooves, pipsqueak."

"For only sixteen and a half seconds!" Truffles leapt forward as though to grab Chakra by his shoulders, or at least she would have, had she not been only a fraction of his size. Instead she settled for jabbing her tiny hoof into his belly. "Equestrian health standards strongly recommend you wash for at least twenty seconds! Any less and you risk soilin' the equipment and food with all sorts of diseases! I'll have you know that many historians theorize that the deadly Pony Plague of Trottingham was caused by some dumb jerkbutt not washing his hooves for the minimum twenty seconds!"

Chakra worked his jaw for a long moment. "....Miss Cupcake." He turned to his boss, trying for a disarming smile, "She's not serious, is she?"

"Truffles is very passionate about her work." Cupcake took a moment to fondly pat her apprentice's mane. "It'd behoove you to learn a thing or two from her. She's been employee of the month for the five straight months in a row."

"Not too hard to pull off, considering she's been your only employee."

"Yes." Cupcake regarded him with something almost like a smile. "My best and only employee...until now. You've got some stiff competition, Mister Blossom, especially considering that your apron isn't tied tightly enough, you don't have the correct ingredients out and ready at room temperature, and for some odd reason, you're wearing sunglasses indoors." Quickly, before Chakra could blink, she snatched his shades off his face.

"Dark lenses indoors are a safety hazard, you know." She examined the lenses, then, ignoring Chakra's protests, slipped them onto her own muzzle. "You are already in a bakery and wearing a pretty pink apron, Mister Blossom. You needn't worry about looking 'cool' here."

Chakra squinted at her, expression grumpy. ".....Actually, those are prescription."

"Even so." Cupcake shrugged. She moved to rifle through one of her kitchen drawers. "...Here. You may borrow my father's old reading glasses until we find a suitable replacement."

She offered the glasses to Chakra, who slipped them on with a frown. He caught sight of his reflection in a gleaming baking pan and pouted. "....Well, good thing I don't have to worry about looking cool. Now I can see well enough to make your damn scones, but I look like a dork."

"Objectively true." Cupcake nodded sagely. "But the important thing is that you've got the proper visual accommodations to make the scones now." She looked thoughtful. "...And to sift the flour for the cakes, and to whisk the buttercream frosting, and to melt the brown sugar for the caramel glazes, and to wash the cookware, and to take out the trash, and to help Truffles with her math homework..." She peered over her new shades at him, and winked. "All this after you've washed your hooves, of course."

"For the full twenty seconds!" Truffles yipped from the ground. "Beware the Pony Plague!"

Chakra struggled to sort out the enormous workload his boss had just described, and he barely managed to bite back a groan. Instead, he forced a smile. "Goodness me. You sure do know how to work a pony to the bone, Cakepop."

The atmosphere of the room instantly changed. Truffles gulped.

Cupcake's eyes became hidden behind her dark glasses. "....What did you just call me, Mister Blossom?"

"Uh." Chakra tried for a grin to lighten the mood. "...Cakepop? It's a nickname. I, ah, like giving nicknames to ponies I meet..."

Cupcake took a sudden step forward, and Chakra unconsciously took a step back. It was silly of him, he thought, she was such a tiny mare-but she advanced further, and he retreated further, until his back bumped against the bakery wall. Her shades slipped down her nose, and she glared up at him with eyes like coals taken fresh from a fire.

"I am your boss. You are on my payroll. You will address me with respect. I am to be addressed as either 'Miss Cupcake' or 'Ma'am', not by any cutesy, asinine nickname." Cupcake stomped her hoof against the floor tiles, and Chakra flinched at the sound. He opened his mouth to speak, but Cupcake pinned him to the wall with a hoof as strong as solid steel, leaning in to glower at him.

Chakra felt his face heat at the breach of personal space. "Uh..." 

"Rosemary has told me all about you, Chakra Blossom. You think yourself to be quite clever, don't you? Lying and manipulating ponies for your own gain...well, you'll find that a nice smile and some coy words won't get you far in this kitchen. I expect nothing but pure perfection from my staff. You will treat Truffles and myself with respect. You will bake. You will whisk and mix and sift and stir and follow every single Celestia-damned health code regulation, and you will learn to love it, or I will snap you like a twig." She pressed her hoof into his chest, just hard enough to hurt, and whispered low in his ear. "You are my employee now. In this kitchen, there is no law but my own will. Nopony will come to save you. Nopony would dare. You belong to me now, Chakra Blossom."

Oh, holy hell. Chakra was slowly forgetting how to breathe, and struggling to restrain his wings, which had gone curiously stiff, while the feathers along his neck and chest had fluffed up, leaving him looking like a flustered, sputtering pigeon.

"S-so that's why you hired me? T-this is s-s-some sort of punishment?" He squeaked.

"Think of it more like a learning experience." Cupcake smiled. "You were right, Chakra. I do know how to work a pony right down to the bone. And I intend to work you very, very hard."

Chakra lost the fight with his wings. They snapped open in a burst of feathers. "...Y-yes ma'am."

Sweet shit, I'm in love.

"Excellent." Cupcake climbed off of him, as though nothing intense and terrifying had even transpired between them. "You might just give Truffles some competition for her employee of the month plaque after all." She stood and simply trotted away, but not before gently ruffling Truffle's mane.

Chakra lay where he'd been shoved against the wall, still flushed and trembling. Truffles approached him warily, breaking into a warm, if unsure smile.

"Boy howdy, Miss Cupcake sure is something, ain't she, Mister Blossom?"

"Aha..." Chakra drew a deep, shaky breath, trying very hard not to think about stern, piercing pink eyes and strong muscles and that voice like a growl....

He stood to his hooves, and weakly strode over the the kitchen sink to wash his hooves. Truffles bounced next to him, cheerfully counting.

"....Y-yeah, kid. Your boss...uh, our boss....is really-"

Terrifying. Hot. Freakishly strong. Hot. Possibly going to destroy me? Maybe I'm okay with that? Hot. Oh, Celestia, take me now, beautiful strong baker mare.

"She's really.....something."

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my peeps on tumblr were suggesting pandoraverse crackships and chakra blossom x cupcake came up

i thought it was silly at first but i realized that Chakra is really into authority types (like Nocturnus), so Cupcake is actually like 110% his type and I can see him crushing on her pretty hard once she goes all ultra kitchen military dom on him

i like chakra best when he's an out of his element dorko, and cupcake is definitely someone who wouldn't put up with his crap. I see him being pretty "notice me senpai" with her and madly craving her attention and domination

this ain't canon unless you personally want it to be i guess

related:

background borrowed from here: Sugarcube Corner Kitchen

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