//------------------------------// // The Chapter // Story: S'mores // by Quill and Brush //------------------------------// “You know that this isn’t helping anything, right?” “Oh, you and your words!” Blizzard shook her head. She walked down the cobblestone street with Chocolate Factory at her side. “You know, Cocoa, if you really wanted to promote the Factory, then we could get weather teams to skywrite advertisements for us, or put up posters, or something!” “But pelting random ponies with chocolate is so much more fun!” Chocolate shook his hips, rattling the chocolate bars in his saddlebags. “That may be true, but most ponies don’t like it when you pelt them with chocolate.” “Oh, look! There’s one now!” His horn lit up a chocolate brown color with swirls of dark red and light blue. Several pieces of chocolate from his bag became surrounded with the same light before they floated out and shot towards a white pegasus that was calmly walking down the street away from them. Blizzard sighed. “I just hope he has a sense of humor.” Chocolate prepared to dash away. Right before the chocolate hit the pegasus, Chocolate yelled out “Free samples from Chocolate Factory’s Chocolate Factory!” And he turned and sprinted as fast as his unexercised unicorn legs could carry him. “Come on, Icy!” He turned his head back towards where Blizzard was just standing, but she was nowhere to be seen. He just shrugged and turned back to running. Thirty seconds earlier… Speedster was searching for someone to hang out with, but he wasn’t in much of a hurry, so he walked at a slow leisurely pace, glancing around every so often in his search. He heard some unfamiliar voices from behind him, but he didn’t feel like making new acquaintances at the moment, so he just kept walking. Suddenly, he heard one of the voices from behind him shout something. His mind hadn’t registered what was said, when something hit the back of his head, followed quickly by several more objects hitting his back. He whirled around to find his assailant galloping away. “Oh, no you don’t!” He took off after the brown pony, but he shortly ended up on his face. “What the- Where did that patch of ice come from? It’s the middle of June!” He shook his head before rapidly regaining his hoofing and taking off after his assailant once more. Fifteen seconds earlier… Blizzard sighed. “I just hope he has a sense of humor.” She then shook her head and unfurled her wings. Having been through this several times in the past several minutes, she already knew what chocolate was about to do. She positioned herself so that Chocolate would pass by and flapped her wings a few times, rapidly cooling the area underneath her. The cobblestone underneath her quickly froze over to an extent that she was content with, and she took off. She hovered silently roughly 10 meters off the ground to watch what was about to unfold. She heard Chocolate shout, but couldn’t make out the words from where she was, but she already knew what he had said. She watched him sprint away and thought she saw him look back over his shoulder, but she wasn’t sure. The white pegasus began to chase Chocolate, but slipped on the little patch of ice that Blizzard created. “Bull’s-eye!” She heard the pegasus yell something about June and chuckled. The pegasus quickly took off again, tailing Chocolate. “Guess I better go make sure Cocoa doesn’t get killed.” And she floated after them. On the ground… Speedster was running, chasing after the brown unicorn who had assaulted him. He was catching up, but not as quickly as he would like to. “Waaaiiittt, why am I running if I have wings?” Without breaking stride, he unfurled his wings and took off, speeding along close to the ground. He quickly approached the unicorn, who still appeared to be running as fast as he could. Speedster pulled up next to the unicorn. The unicorn glanced up at the sound of Speedster’s wings just in time to get tackled to the ground. Speedster sat on top of the unicorn’s chest and stared down into his eyes. “What in the world was that for?!?” The unicorn stared back up at Speedster with a face of pure innocence. “What was what for?” Speedster’s rage failed for a second as confusion took over. “Buh-whu-huh? Didn’t you just throw stuff at me?” The unicorn still had a look of innocence on his face. “I don’t think I did. What was it that hit you?” “I… I’m not sure. I didn’t actually look. I just saw you running away and figured that it was you.” Speedster stood up and offered the unicorn a hoof. The unicorn accepted the proffered hoof and pulled himself to his hooves. “Sorry about that.” “Don’t worry about it. My name’s Chocolate Factory.” He extended a hoof towards Speedster in greeting. “My name’s Speedster. Nice to meet you.” He accepted Chocolate’s extended hoof. “Sooo… Would you like some chocolate?” “Sure, why not?” Chocolate’s horn lit up in the same multicolored aura, which also emanated from his saddlebags until two chocolate bars rose out of them surrounded in this aura. One floated over towards Speedster and the other floated in front of Chocolate. “Here!” Chocolate began to unwrap his using his magic. Speedster eyed the delectable deliciousness for a few seconds before tearing into it. As Chocolate was about to eat his chocolate, a blue streak roared past removing the chocolate from Chocolate’s magical grasp. Chocolate chuckled and pulled another bar out of his saddlebags. Speedster cocked an eyebrow. “What was that?” Chocolate chuckled again. “Oh, ignore her. She’s just jealous. You know, I just noticed that your mane’s on fire.” This time, Speedster chuckled. “Actually, it is fire. But it’s not hot.” “Are you sure? Cause I just had the best idea!” Speedster rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I might be able to make it flare up a bit. Why?” Chocolate’s horn lit up once more and brought out a box of graham crackers and a bag of marshmallows. “S’MORES!” “Hell yeah! S’MORES!” “Did ya hear that, Icy? S’MORES!” The blue streak flew down out of the clouds and landed next to Chocolate. “S’mores? Where?” Speedster chuckled and Chocolate grinned and said, “The s’mores have yet to be assembled.” Speedster then made a strained face and his mane flared up a bit. Chocolate floated the marshmallows into the ethereal blaze. The marshmallows melted quickly, and they floated back to the already assembled chocolate-on-crackers. The floating molten marshmallow puddles settled on the chocolate and melted it quickly. A second graham cracker came down on top of the marshmallow. And s’mores were enjoyed by all.