//------------------------------// // Chrysalis X Golden Harvest // Story: Wheel Of Femships // by Crimson Enjoyer //------------------------------// Chrysalis (or Crackle Cosette, as she went by in this form) internally fumed as she walked into the Ponyville market place. I’m by far the smartest, most ruthless, and most fit to be a leader out of us three, and what do they have me do? Use my shape-shifting powers to… go shopping. What a sick joke. Despite her unhappiness with her current role in the “Triad of Evil” as Cozy Glow called it, Chrysalis couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia from it. She thought back to the olden days, when her hive was just her and a small handful of grubs, and many times she alone would have to venture into the wilderness to scavenge for food. She remembered her first few children fondly. They had all passed on of old age by this point, they had never betrayed her and sided with the enemy. The enemy who, at this very moment, she was being tasked with purchasing food from. Grumbling, Crackle Cosette trotted towards the first stand that caught her eye. It was a carrot stand. Don’t think I’ve eaten a carrot before, come to think of it. The mare running the stand, a rather pretty mare with a curly orange mane and a yellowish white coat, smiled brightly when she saw her approaching. “Hi! Are you new in town?” “Yes. I’m… visiting from Canterlot for the week,” Crackle replied, with a smile that definitely seemed real. “Oh, really? I’ve always wanted to go to Canterlot myself,” said the mare at the stand with a smile of her own. Chrysalis cursed herself internally, now this mare would start talking her ear off, asking her all about Canterlot and- “So, how many carrots would you like?” Crackle blinked. It seemed this pony wasn’t as annoyingly chatty as the others she had met (and in a few cases, been forced to live with). “…six. Yeah, six carrots. Please.” “Coming right up,” the mare exclaimed, beaming. She disappeared underneath the stand for a few seconds, before coming back up with six carrots held in her forelegs. Crackle levitated her small brown bag towards her, and she deposited the vegetables inside. “That’ll be 2 bits, please.” “Right,” Crackle said as she pulled a small sack of bits from behind her, and floated the specified amount towards the stand. The mare continued to smile at her. “It was nice to meet you, miss…” “Crackle Cosette.” “Golden Harvest,” the mare said, properly introducing herself. “Hope to see you again, tomorrow!” “Sure thing,” Crackle nodded at Golden Harvest, and turned around to see what else the market had to offer. It was then she realized she still had a smile on her face, but it wasn’t one she had put on as part of her act, nor was it the smile of a devious mastermind like herself. It was a genuine happy smile. That’s weird. Later, in the cave of evil… “Ha! Poker!” Tirek groaned. “You don’t yell ‘Poker’ when you win at Poker.” “Maybe you don’t,” said Cozy glow as she horded the bits towards herself. “Besides, what would you know? This game was invented while you were still in Tartarus.” Before the Minotaur could offer a retort, a bag full of assorted food items was dropped unto the table. “I’m back with the food,” said a visibly disgruntled Chrysalis. The other two villains quickly went to inspect the contents of the bag, Tirek grinning as he pulled out a large red chili. Considering her work done, Chrysalis headed towards her personal chambers, but was stopped in her tracks by a small Pegasus suddenly appearing right in her face. “Aren’t you gonna eat something?” Cozy asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not hungry,” Chrysalis replied, swatting her away. “You look like you could use a good meal,” Cozy countered, flying in front of her again. “You’re getting’ kinda skinny.” “My figure is just fine, thank you very much,” Chrysalis responded with a huff, and swatted her away again. “You have holes in your legs,” added Tirek. “I’d hardly call that ‘just fine’.” Chrysalis, in response, shape-shifted into a monkey and flipped him off. Tirek simply snickered. She turned her attention back to Cozy. “What do you care, anyway? Last I checked, we were all supposed to only tolerate each other at best.” “I-I don’t- it’s… Look will you just F@#!ing eat something already?” Cozy snapped before flying away. Chrysalis blinked, and then turned to Tirek. “What’s with her?” “Don’t know, don’t care.” She groaned, and walked towards the table. She inspected the various fruits, vegetables, and singular loaf of bread she had spent the last half-hour acquiring. Her eyes landed on the carrots. Eh, why not. She took hold of one carrot, looked it over from all angles, and inched the top part towards her open mouth. “Wrong side,” said Tirek. Chrysalis rolled her eyes, and rotated the carrot so the pointy bit faced her maw. Finally, she took a bite. Her eyes widened. …This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. She began greedily munching down on the vegetable, until all that remained was the green lettuce-like thing on the top. She grabbed the five remaining carrots, and scurried off to her chambers. Tirek simply sat there, chomping down on his chili, and wondering how long it would take for Chrysalis to realize she was still a monkey. The Next Day… Crackle cantered around the market place, trying to remember where the carrot stand was. Why didn’t I ever make a map of this town like I did for Celestia’s castle? Growing desperate, she turned to a stallion who happened to be waking by and put on her best ‘lost tourist’ voice. “Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the… carrot stand?” “Oh, sure,” the stallion said happily, and pointed a hoof to a location behind Crackle. “It’s right over there!” She looked to where he was pointing, and low and behold, there was Golden Harvest, smiling as she waved off her most recent customer. Yes! There she is! …I mean, it is. The carrot stand. Where the carrots are. The carrots that I came here to buy. That carrot stand. Crackle trotted forwards, and was quickly noticed by Golden Harvest. “Oh, hello again! Come to buy more carrots?” She nodded. “Yes, I had never actually eaten a carrot before yesterday. I’ve grown a bit of a taste for them.” Golden Harvest’s eye twitched. “Ne-never, eaten a… carrot… before,” she said in a shaky voice. Oh dear. I probably shouldn’t have said that… now she’ll berate me with questions about how I could have gone all my life without- “Well, I guess… that happens sometimes,” Golden Harvest said, looking a bit nervous. “So… how many for today?” Oh. Right. I almost forgot how to the point this mare was. Crackle asked for six carrots just as she did yesterday. Golden Harvest cheerfully waved goodbye to her when she left, and this time, she waved goodbye back. For the next week, things continued on like this. Crackle would come to Golden Harvest’s carrot stand and ask for six carrots. Their interactions were always brief, but with each day, both learned something new about each other. For instance, Crackle learned that Goldie (that’s what she said her friends called her) ran a carrot farm that often competed against Sweet Apple Acres, an apple farm ran in part by none other than one of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, Applejack. In turn, Goldie learned that Crackle had dated Shining Armour at one point. It’s technically true, from a certain perspective. Chrysalis wouldn’t admit it to anyone, not even herself, but her visits to Goldie’s carrot stand had become the highlight of her day over the course of that week. Not that she would need to admit anything, as far as her two associates were aware, she had just developed a somewhat unhealthy obsession with carrots. There was one minor problem she had realized though. When I first went there, I told her I was visiting Ponyville for a week. She might not suspect anything on an eight day, or even a ninth, but beyond that... Oh, stop worrying yourself. She probably doesn’t even remember what I said, and if she does, I could easily think up a new lie. Improv has always been a talent of mine. Lie… for some reason, that word made her wince. More specifically, the idea of lying to Goldie. She had no idea why, she had more or less been lying to her this entire time. That thought didn’t make her feel better. Sitting alone on her chair, Chrysalis chowed down thoughtlessly on a carrot, contemplating her strange new feelings about the concept of deceit. In no time at all, the carrot was completely devoured, and Chrysalis reached down to the table mindlessly, only to realize she had already eaten all six of them. “Ate all of the carrots again?” Cozy said from behind, causing Chrysalis to jump out of her seat with a shriek. When she came to her senses, she glared at the small Pegasus, who smiled cockily at her. “Ya know, the way you’ve been going about this carrot thing is kinda weird." Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?” “Listen,” Cozy started as she flew down and landed on the table. “I don’t know where this carrot addiction of yours suddenly came from. What I do know, is that you’ve been buying six carrots every day and then eating them all at once.” “Just get to the point,” Chrysalis growled. “What I’m saying is, why eat them all in one sitting? And if you really need six of them a day, why not just buy a whole bunch of them all at once instead of going back to Ponyville every single day. Heck, you could probably just buy like 30 and have a six-pack for each day of the week… Just like Tirek!” “….” “Get it? Cause he has a six-pack-“ “Yeah, I get it.” Staring off into space, Chrysalis thought over the filly’s words. Why had she been going back there for the whole week? And surely she could survive not eating six carrots a day. Why hadn’t she been saving them? Every question she had inevitably seemed to lead to the same answer. Goldie. Now matter how much she tried to deny it to herself, the former queen could think of nothing else. She wasn’t heading to Ponyville every day for carrots, she was doing to see Golden Harvest. It didn’t help that every time she thought of the carrot farmer, she felt a little light headed, and a tiny bit warm in the chest. Surely I can’t have grown to actually… like a pony, right? But the more she thought of Goldie, the less ‘like’ seemed like an adequate descriptor. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about her pretty mane, or her lovely voice, or how friendly yet to the point she was, or her gorgeous eyes- “Chrysalis?” Cozy’s voice startled her out of her own mind, and she furrowed her brow. “I… have to go to my chambers.” She bolted out of the room, leaving behind a thoroughly confused Cozy Glow. The Day After That…. Golden Harvest sat patiently at her carrot stand. She had been a little distracted all day, mainly because she was waiting for a very specific pony to show up, one who she wasn’t sure actually would be arriving today. It had been eight days since Crackle Cosette had first come by her little stand, and on that day, the unicorn had said she was visiting Ponyville for a week. She didn’t say anything about going back home yesterday… I even told her “see you tomorrow” and she nodded. Still, it was very much possible Crackle had gone back home without a goodbye. The thought made Golden Harvest droop a bit. She really thought they had something nice going. Her fears were put to rest however when she a bright green unicorn mare with an orange-y red mane trotting towards her. “Hey there,” she exclaimed happily. “I almost thought you weren’t gonna be here today.” “Well,” Crackle began with a pleased smile, “There’s been a change in plans, shall we say, and it looks I’m gonna be in Ponyville for another week.” Golden Harvest resisted the urge to jump for joy. “That’s great,” she said, calmly. “So, the usual?” “You bet. Although, I also wanted to ask you something.” Huh. This is different. “What is it?” Crackle stepped closer, and brushed a few loose strands of her off her face. “Would you like to go out sometime?”