Bantam Tales

by Chris

It's Either That in the Cart, or a "Slightly-Used" Crocodile

"Heya, Missus Top!" cried Lucky, cheerfully dragging his cart up the street. "Care to buy a bushel of clover?"

Carrot Top could already feel a headache coming on.

"Lucky, what have I told you every single time you've dragged that wagon full of clover into town?"

Lucky scratched his chin as he considered the question.

Carrot Top waited patiently.

Lucky's eyes traced the sky. He "hmm"ed to himself thoughtfully.

Carrot Top continued to wait.

Finally, his eyes lit up. "Was it—"

"I told you," she interrupted, "That clover is a weed. Do you know what farmers do with weeds, Lucky?"

"...Buy them in bulk for greater savings?"

"We weed them, Lucky. Hence the name." Carrot Top sighed. "I spent all Thursday afternoon pulling clover out of my garden. If, for some unfathomable reason, I wanted some, I would have kept that clover, instead of throwing it on my compost heap." She cast a dubious eye over the wilted pile of greens in Lucky's cart. "And in any case, it'd be fresher that way. Where did you even get these? They look like you picked them and then left them out in the sun for a week."

Lucky straightened. "Actually, I grabbed these from a magic pile of clover that suddenly appeared right next to your house a few days... ago..." He trailed off, slicking back his hair unconsciously as the gear inside his head churned. "...Which I'm starting to suspect wasn't really a magic clover pile after all..."

"'Magic clover pile,'" Carrot Top repeated, her nested quotation marks clearly audible.

Lucky brightened. "You know what that means, right? These are just as fresh as the ones from your garden!" He grabbed a hoofful. "Sure you don't want to buy some?"

His only answer was a sigh.

Author's Note:

Originally written in the comment section of my blog in Spring 2016. Inspired by the screenshot from Newbie Dash which is at the top of the page, and with additional inspiration (and title!) coming from SV.

If you don't follow my blog, by the way, you should know that I make a habit of creating scenelettes out of all of Carrot Top's cameos, even (especially) when, as is the case here, she's literally just a handful pixels in size. It's tough, being a background pony... point is, if this tickled your fancy, try clicking around my site under the "Well hello there Carrot Top" tag.

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

Amazing. XD

[Lancerlot]

We know Equestrian ponies eat hay, so they probably eat clover too. It wouldn't be a very valuable sort of commodity, but it wouldn't be trash.

[Horse Voice]

I've been binge-reading these and loving most of them ("The Play's the Thing" in particular was a hoot) but I feel I must mention that gears turn, not churn.

If you're ever inspired to write more of these, you'll have at least one keen reader.