//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - The Rich Boy // Story: The Love Quest of Stuffed Croissant // by TheBrownUnicorn //------------------------------// Some ponies achieve for power, some others achieve for true love… but our protagonist here cares for none of those things, as he has money, and money gives you pretty much all those things anyways. However, he still wished for happiness. He looked at himself on the mirror, wearing his elegant suit that he despised with all his might, but that his family forced him to wear since he was a resident of Canterlot, where the looks you give are more important than what you really are on the inside. Sometimes he missed the old life that he used to have, when he wasn’t as rich as he was now, but… well, he had to get used to it. Maybe something interesting will happen today. He went out of his home, which was a gigantic mansion, compared to the houses from Ponyville, or the outskirts of Canterlot, where most poor ponies use to live, but was really small compared to places like the Canterlot Castle, home of princess Celestia and Luna. He really thinks that what happened at that Royal Wedding could’ve gone better, and he would’ve wished he didn’t have to hide from those Changelings that day, as it was really dangerous to even go outside alone for the next couple of days. On his way to the Central Square, he ended up in an empty street of Canterlot, or well, a barely empty street, since there were two ponies talking. Our protagonist, whose name was Pure Gold, decided to see what was happening between those two, however, when he got close enough, all he could hear was that the unicorn didn’t want to buy the other pony’s stuff. He decided to take a peek at what she was offering. It seemed like she was selling pastries. “Wow, that didn’t look so well,” he mentioned. The pony on front of him, which was an earth pony, unlike him who was a unicorn, turned around and stared at him. He decided to back away from the pony. To say the truth, she didn’t look so bad, if you ignore the fact that she didn’t have any kind of formal clothes, or looked rich at all. Definitely, she was a different pony than him. “Excuse me, but, who gave you the permission to be behind me? Were you planning to steal one of my pastries? Because if that was the case, I’m afraid I’ll have to either hit you on the face, or ask you nicely for it,” she spoke, with a weird, French accent. Pure Gold stopped, not sure about if he should calm down and talk to this pony, or run away. He decided to stay with her, and explain to her what he was doing, if she takes it badly, he can just run away. “Umm…” he mumbled. His voice reflected the little fear he felt when looking at her, since he actually threatened him. “Can I ask for a muffin, please? I think I can afford it,” he added, as he walked towards the front of the stand. The girl in front of him seemed to take her time thinking about the question. “I’ll give it to you for 5 bits, if you promise me two things.” Pure Gold was confused, as he tried to think what these two promises were. He decided to nod, as it couldn’t be that bad. “First of all, promise me that if you like it, you’ll never tell anyone about the discount, and you’ll buy another one.” He got even more confused, since a discount like that was really good to not tell everypony else. “Sure, I mean, if it’s worth it,” he agreed. “Second, promise me you’ll stay here for a bit more, while you finish your muffin,” she added, with a smile on her face. Pure Gold just wondered if this mare was hitting on him for some reason, but then avoided thinking about it and just nodded, giving her 5 bits, and receiving a muffin. “Why do you need me here?” he asked, as he looked at his muffin, trying to figure out why did it originally cost so much, or why did she gave it to him for such a low price. He didn’t find an answer for neither of his questions. “Do you really want to know if I’ll like the muffin or not?” “Yes, I would also like a little company around here, too,” she commented, still smiling. “Besides, you don’t seem like the rest of ponies who walk by here, hoping to see extremely decorated cakes, or mildly sweet muffins,” she joked. Pure Gold understood what she was talking about, since he was living with a rich family, and he hated the ponies that acted like that, too. After looking at the muffin for some more seconds, Pure Gold bit the muffin. The flavor of the muffin was on his mouth. It was a complicated flavor, if he had to put it in such a way. He guessed it was cherry, but maybe it was something else. The consistence of the pastry was so soft that it melted in his toungue. The delicate baking determined how cooked the muffin itself was, and it was perfect in that way. After all of this in just a taste, just one thing could escape from his mouth: ““Whoa. What’s the flavor of the muffin?” “I really would like to know, I think it was cherry,” she answered, raising an eyebrow at his reaction. “Why? Don’t tell me you’re allergic to cherry, because if that’s the case, I don’t have any money right now and I’m extremely so-“ “No, stop your worries,” he interrupted her, feeling that she was going to enter a state of extreme nervousness if he did not talk. “This muffin is really great! Are you sure this costs 5 bits?” “10, remember I gave you a discount,” she reminded him. “Whatever, I want to buy three of them right now, full price.” He was risking a lot here, but he still insisted. The mare looked surprised, and happy, however, she did not move at all. “You there?” he asked, worrying. “Umm… right now!” she woke up from her trance, as she brought all the muffins outside, for some reason. Pure Gold finished his muffin, took three more muffins, and then paid the mare. After all of this, he just began eating another muffin. He wasn’t hungry, but he wanted to keep eating those things. “Wait, are you going to eat all of them?” she asked. “Of course. I mean, they’re really good, and I don’t really get the opportunity to eat things such as these from where I come from,” he revealed. The mare stared at him, looking really confused. “You mean your parents don’t let you eat these things?” Pure Gold realized what he just said, and luckily, the mare didn’t really think about such thing. “Umm… yes, that!” he said, nervously. “Oh well, I think I should go back home,” he lied, as he turned around and decided to head home. He wasn’t going to risk revealing more about him after that. “Wait!” a voice spoke, stopping him and making him turn around. “Before you go, what’s your name?” “Oh, it’s Pure Gold.” He mentally let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she didn’t ask something else other than his name. “I know it’s a typical name for someone from Canterlot but…” He stood there, silent, for two seconds, with nothing else to complete the sentence. Hoping that the mare didn’t notice, he changed subject. “Are you always here, by the way?” That seemed to work. “Uh, yea, I’m always around these parts,” she began. Pure Gold felt happy to know that she was going to be there next time he needed a muffin. “Just try looking for me, you’ll find the blue mare with the big stand. My name is Stuffed Croissant, if you’d like to know.” “Oh, that’s a really nice name, are you from Canterlot?” Pure Gold asked, as such name wasn’t really Canterlot-ish. “I mean, I know it’s the name of a baker, probably but-“ He was interrupted by her. “Yes, it’s my name,” she said, smiling. “Shouldn’t you be getting home?” Pure Gold mentally facehoofed. “You seemed to be really in a hurry a while ago, but you just kept on talking to me.” “If you really want me to go I’ll go,” he joked, trying to look as confident as possible. “Au revoir, then, Stuffed Croissant!” He chuckled after saying that, hoping that he didn’t insult her in any way, as he trotted towards home. “Hey!” she yelled to him, giggling. “Are you making fun of me? I’ll put dirt in the next muffin you but from me!” she joked. Pure Gold just kept trotting. He could hear something else, but he didn’t really pay attention to it. He just kept eating his muffins. When he finally finished his muffins, Pure Gold realized he was already home, with his mother welcoming him at the door. He ignored her and headed upstairs, to his room. When he got there, he took off all his clothes, and lied in bed. He didn’t really know what he wanted to do outside, however, he was still really bored, and he already decided to not talk to the girl again, since it was dangerous after what he already said to her. He could maybe sleep, and when he wakes up, enough time would’ve happened for her to forget what he had said, and he could go back and keep talking to her. He didn’t know why he wanted to talk to her so badly, but did however knew that they had shared thoughts about Canterlot residents, and that was enough for him to like someone. And so, he closed his eyes, and as he tried to sleep, he was suddenly woken up by a yelling, coming from the kitchen, indicating that it was already time for lunch. He didn’t know that time passed so quickly, or that it was already time for lunch, but he couldn’t stay in his room, so he quickly headed towards the kitchen. Upon getting there, he just sat down, and his mother levitated a plate containing plenty of food enough to feed an adult stallion twice, or so it seemed for Pure Gold, because he was somehow full after eating four muffins. He found himself staring at the food, not even levitating the fork or trying to eat even just one part of what was just in front of him. His mother, of course, noticed this. “Pure Gold, what’s wrong? You haven’t even touched your food, or your fork, not even your drink. Pure Gold didn’t even know that there was a full glass of lemonade just next to his plate. He decided to not say anything, and try eating, really slowly. “Pure Gold, answer my question.” “I’m alright, mom. I’m just not hungry,” he answered. “Can you save this for dinner?” His mother shook her head. “Wait, why not?” “Because you probably ate something outside, and it’s unhealthy for you,” she said, disappointed. Pure Gold had to admit that his mother was right. “Now tell me what you did when you went outside.” “Uh…” Pure Gold felt like he was blushing, though he didn’t know why he was blushing. “I talked to a girl and she gave me muffins.” His mother raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Wait, you mean you talked to a girl and she gave you free muffins?” she frowned. “No, I mean… how do I put it? I talked to a girl who sells muffins, I bought some muffins and then we talked for a bit more.” His mother let out a sigh of relief. “I thought that you actually accepted something free. Free things always have something wrong with them, remember that.” Pure Gold nodded, even if he didn’t agree to what his mother was saying. “And was it a cute mare?” “Mom!” he yelled, angrily. “You know I’ll never get a girl like this!” He got up, and then headed to his room, locking it as he closed the door behind him. As he finally got away from his mother, he sighed, unhappy with what he had to do to avoid such conversation. Faking anger was not hard at all, he just, for some reason, felt bad when he did so. Pure Gold lied in bed, and tried to sleep, just to find out that he couldn’t sleep anymore. He sat on his bed, thinking about what was wrong, but to no avail, as he couldn’t even think of something that was wrong with his life. He went to the window and looked outside. There, he saw a lot of rich unicorns walking down the street. With a growl, he shoot a small spark to one of them, startling the unicorn and making him walk faster. Pure Gold chuckled, this was fun, but he couldn’t do it all the time, no matter how fun it is, because eventually one of them will look up and notice that the unicorn from the mansion in front of them is the culprit of what he suddenly felt. He sighed, and then lied on bed again, decided to wait until enough time had passed for him to visit the funny accent girl. For now, he will just stare at the ceiling, thinking about his past life, and what has changed about it. And of course, we will not reveal such kind of information at the moment.