//------------------------------// // Chapter I - The Market // Story: Deep Seated Romance // by Tranquility //------------------------------// The sun was in full view of Ponyville. Foals were running around at speeds that the mares and stallions had to make spaces for them to race through. The shops and stands housing food and accessories were booming with business, the apple stand included. Ponies of all kinds, pegasi, earth, and unicorns, were standing in impatient lines, beholding the trades that were up for sale. Farther down the road, the carousel boutique was being ransacked by wave after tidal wave of ponies trying to acquire the latest styles from Rarity herself. Each pony got what they wanted and left at a suitable pace while others with more importance, and, to be more exact, more bits, went back with her to be fitted for a meeting or a ball in some distant town. Rarity couldn't have been happier with sales, except for the fact that at the pace she was selling clothing, she would run out in no time, but she didn't care at the moment. Over to the east of the boutique was the humble abode of Fluttershy. Since she had no business with any pet owners coming in and asking her to patch up their animals or check for disease and didn't have any plans so far, she just stayed in her cottage, tending to the matter of her own critters. Inside the cottage, Fluttershy was softly encouraging Angel to take a few or more bites of his midday snack, a simple carrot, yet, to no accomplishment. "Come on Angel," Fluttershy said in her natural soothing voice, "you want to grow up to be a big bunny, don't you?" Angel shook his head nonchalantly, just as he always did to irritate his owner. "But why ever not?" Angel then did his signature pose, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. Fluttershy knew this pose quite well, for he did that whenever he didn't want something or got annoyed by Fluttershy's repetitive begging. "Oh, please Angel? Do it for mommy?" she pleaded again, bringing out the puppy dog face that would melt a stallion's heart. Still, to her dismay, Angel steeled himself and looked away from her. Fluttershy knew she could not cope any longer with Angel's resistance, so she did what she occasionally does at this point. "Okay Angel. I guess if you don't want dessert, that's fine by me." Angel, the word dessert haven hit his eardrums, glanced up to her with curiosity, breaching the first wall of his resistant nature toward his food. "That's right, dessert," Fluttershy restated as if Angel had spoken to her, "and it's your favorite." Angel uncrossed his arms and felt himself drool, but kept his guard up, even though his dessert was on the bargain table, a metaphorically and a bit literal. Fluttershy smiled warmly because she knew she had finally gotten to him. Now for the final blow. "Your favorite was that dessert called...oh, what was it, again?" she asked herself in a mocking amnesia, but one look on the poor bunny's face told her that he was just about to gnaw on the floorboard in anticipation. "Oh I remember now! It was lemon crepes with sweetened ricotta, but too bad you can't get any because of your resistance to eat your carrot. I guess you're full," she tempted him, beginning to walk away. As quick as a flash, Angel picked up the carrot and started furiously eating it, taking in a huge chunk and swallowing while only taking a few bites. Fluttershy managed to see this out of the corner of her eye and instantly became distressed. She whipped around to tell him to slow down, but to slow down on what? The carrot, which was in the small paws of Angel was now in the stomach of Angel. He opened his mouth to her to indicate that the remains of the plant were in his esophagus on the way down to be digested. Fluttershy was a bit shocked at the speed of his eating. Never before had she seen him this influenced by dessert! It must be that he's growing and he needs more food. So, Fluttershy decided to make two sets of the lemon crepes. She went into the kitchen and searched the room until she had found the ingredients for the dish: milk, three eggs, flour, butter, a special brand of salt she had gotten to make his di- wait, weren't there suppose to be four eggs instead of three? She looked in the special cabinet where all her stuff that needed to be frozen was put and moved things and searched frantically for the last egg, but she couldn't find it anywhere! Oh no! Unless I get that egg, Angel's dessert will be ruined! I can't let him know about it, not until I go to the market. She went out through the kitchen and made her way towards the door. "Okay, Angel Bunny. I've got to go to the market for some supplies for...uhhh..things. I'll be back in a minute. You be good now, okay?" With that said, she quickly raced out the door and went to the market. The market was still hustling with ponies going from place to place, but not as much as it was earlier. There was still a line in front of the apple stand, but it was only about six ponies that made the line. Roseluck's flower shop had some costumers but were walking away after their purchase, with nopony to replace them. Fluttershy saw all this while weaving through the moderately thick crowd of ponies, trying to get to a food stand. It wasn't long, though, when she managed to peek over the wave to see a vacant egg stand. Apparently whoever owned the stand was tending to his or her own needs, the bathroom as a suspicion. Fluttershy came up to the stand and skimmed over the eggs. Most of them were in pretty good shape. A few others weren't so lucky. Some had visible cracks while others were nearly destroyed. Fluttershy had learned two things when it came to selling eggs. One was that they were pretty much baby chickens, which made her tear up whenever she thought of that. The other thing was that if you couldn't see a crack on the egg, it was probably on the bottom. All that was taught by her mother who had to beg Fluttershy to come out of her room for an hour straight after she mentioned the baby chicken thing. After checking the bottoms of the eggs, Fluttershy decided to take the egg that had passed her evaluation. It was an egg that had the white hue of the moon and had only minor cracks that couldn't be seen far off. Smiling at her accomplishment, she started her walk back home. Unfortunately, she was so happy with her find that she didn't hear the rushing hoof steps of a group of rowdy foals coming towards her direction, so the inevitable was about to happen, and it did. The foals came like a cannonball at her feet which made her drop the basket with the egg and fall down on the Earth. Only, she didn't fall on the Earth, she fell on a furry, fairly built body that had anticipated her fall and made the action. She was lifted back on her feet by, who else, Big Macintosh. Fluttershy started to wobble as she entered a surprised daze and was about to fall again, but Big Mac wouldn't let that happen. "Whoa, thar," he said in his deep southern accent as he helped her stabilize herself. She shook her head to rid the daze and looked up at him. He had just gotten done working in the fields to bring in more apples to sell so he was a bit sweaty from his work, which only made Fluttershy blush. Sadly for poor Fluttershy, everyone in eye range saw what had happened and was looking straight at her, save for the few adults scolding the young foals. She saw their gazes of confusion of her well being pierce her, only making her more and more disconcerted. "T-t-th-thank y-you," she managed to stutter before beginning to walk slowly through the crowd back to her house. "Flutters, you alright?" Big Mac asked gently, for he knew how fragile the poor mare could be. Too choked up with embarrassment, she managed to get out a simple "Y-yes" before quickly racing towards her house, tears slowly streaming from her eyes.