Under a bright moon and a cloudy sky, Carrot Top slowly approached a nondescript tree atop a grassy knoll just outside the southern border of Ponyville. She had an orange bag with a fastening lock in the shape of her cutie mark, three fresh carrots.
“Mr. Seed?” she called out. “Are you there? My friend Daisy told me to come meet you here. She said you helped her with her garden problems.”
“A smidge late, there, don’cha think?” said an old stallion behind the tree, sitting with his back leaning against it and chewing on a stalk of straw. He wore a worn burlap hat, and his voice had a tranquility that sent a chill down Carrot Top’s spine.
He did not turn to face Carrot Top, but instead, smiled as he watched clouds ride the evening breeze and lazily drift across the moon in the night sky. Carrot Top could only see his profile in the dark.
“S-sorry, Mr. Seed,” said Carrot Top. She shrank back and rubbed one foreleg against another, looking at the ground beneath her hooves. “I had a little business to take care of back at the house. My housemate, had to go out with her daughter.” She gave an uneasy chuckle. “You see, her daughter’s sick and—”
“And?” interrupted the old stallion, calm and unmoving.
“Yes, Mr. Seed?” asked Carrot Top attentively.
“You know I don’t like t’ be kept waitin’.”
Carrot Top bowed her head down, keeping her head down low, her eyes still on the stallion. “Sorry, Mr. Seed.”
The stallion chuckled, his eyes on the moon. “Ain’t it beautiful?” he said. “It’s just a giant rock. Floatin’ ’round with unicorn magic and lets us see at night sometimes, but not much else.” He chewed a couple times on his straw. “And even then, it pulls the tides, and... Well, I ain’t one for philosophy, but it’s just beautiful. I mean, look at it.”
She looked up at the moon, and sure enough, it was the moon.
“It is indeed the moon, Mr. Seed.”
The stallion got up to his hooves. His coat was a dull brown, like dirt, and his mane was a leafy, grassy green. Beneath his chin was a scruffy, unkempt beard. He had a hoofful of seeds for a cutie mark. “That it is. Now, there’s only one reason you would come to me,” he said, turning towards her with a cheery smile, bordering on saccharine.
“I-is there?” Carrot Top looked around, as if to check if anyone had followed her. “I-I mean, yes.” She smiled. “I heard that you could help me with my, uh...” Her eyes darted about the ground. “...situation.”
“Situation?” He beamed. “Could ya be a lil more specific?”
“Yeah, uh, you know how I own a farm on the edge of town?”
Mr. Seed moved his straw from one corner of his mouth to the other. “Given what I do, I think that’s a safe assumption t’ make.”
“Right, sorry.” Carrot Top bit her lip, then continued. “I’ve been having... bunny problems.”
He raised a brow, then gave a wheezy chuckle. “Bunny problems, eh?”
Carrot Top forced herself to chuckle along. Together, their laughter grew louder and heartier.
“Yeah, bunny problems,” she said. “It sounds pretty silly, but they kind of ate my entire crop this season, and now, I have no seeds left to grow more. Every supplier in Ponyville is out of stock.”
The stallion slowed his chuckling, ending it with a drawn out sigh. “Ah, Ms. Top, I can tell ya: Bunnies’re no laughin’ matter.” One more chuckle slipped out of his mouth. “Not sure why yer laughin’.”
Carrot Top cut off her laugh.
“Those things’re vicious. You were lucky your carrots were all they ate.”
“So you’ll help me, then?”
The stallion maintained his demure smile. “Of course! What kinda gentlecolt would I be if I didn’t help out a lady like yerself?” He looked up to the moon again and scratched at his beard with a hoof. “Not a gentlecolt at all, I s’pose.” He wheezed out a chuckle again. “Ah, but first,” he continued, “how’s about you tell me a little... more ’bout yer situation?”
Carrot Top shuffled her hooves about. “Well, uh, I own a farm, and so does Garden Green. We both grow carrots, and we’re kind of competing for business here in Ponyville. If my farm goes under, she monopolizes the local carrot industry, so she was reluctant to sell me any seeds.” Carrot Top bowed her neck. “She’s the reason why Ponyville is out of carrot seeds. She bought them all to shut me down. Now, I have to struggle to put food on my plate. At this rate, I might have to sell the farm. If this goes on, then my housemates and I will have to move away.”
Mr. Seed took off his hat and held it over his chest, bowing his head. “I feel for ya, miss.” Then, he beamed and showed his teeth in a syrupy smile, still holding the hat. “I think I got a great deal for you, then! You’ll get to keep the farm and keep business up with that Garden Green!”
Carrot Top looked up, eyes and smile wide. “You will?!” she said, almost too excitedly.
“Yup!” After he spit out the draw in his mouth, he held a hoof under his hat, then shook the hat. A fresh carrot stick fell out into his hoof, and he took a large bite out of it.
Carrot Top’s smile slowly faded. “What... What is that?” she asked.
“Wha’, this?” said Mr. Seed with a mouth full of carrot as he placed his hat back onto his head, looking at the carrot. “Wha’sit look like? It’s a carrot.” He pointed the carrot with its tip replaced with a dull bite mark at the moon. “Y’know, like how that’s the moon.”
“No, no,” she replied. “That color of leaf. The hue and sheen on the carrot. That distinct crunch. That’s not just any carrot!” she shrieked. “That’s my carrot!”
Mr. Seed took another bite out of the carrot. “Werl,” he said nonchalantly as he chewed, “I guess now’s a goo’ time to intr’duce mah business associate. Lacey? Come out ’ere!”
A small bunny rabbit jumped out from behind the tree, carrying a sizable cube-shaped box. It waddled through the grass and stopped next to Mr. Seed, whereupon he gave it the rest of the carrot to nibble on.
“Lacey’s not alone, of course.”
Carrot Top’s jaw dropped. “That—then—you—it—I—”
He began to pace a circle around Carrot Top. “Let me tell ya how it’s gonna work. First, I give you the seeds for now. That should be enough for this season, and just this season, ’cause these carrots won’t make seeds of their own.” He picked the box up and planted it on Carrot Top’s head. “Y’get that?”
Carrot Top silently nodded, keeping her eyes on him.
“Good! Next, yer gonna go to this Garden Green after she has a little...” He looked down at the bunny finishing up on the carrot. “Bunny problem. You’re going to tell her that I can help her out.”
She nodded again.
“And after that, yer gonna go about yer business like you normally would. Sell yer carrots at the market, to shops, to other carrot sellers or whatever.”
Carrot Top smiled uneasily. “So I get my crop back?”
Mr. Seed threw his head back and laughed heartily. “Well of course you get your crop back! If I’m gonna take seventy-five percent of your profits, I’m going to need you to make all the money you can!”
“...Seventy-five?”
“Seventy-five percent, Miss Top. That’s a seven, followed by a five, followed by two circles with a line between them. Y’know what they say, Miss Top: ‘Reap what you sow.’ I thought, that’s a great idea! And look at us now. I’m reapin’ what yer sowin’. ’Course,” he continued, “if y’get any funny ideas or don’t do what I say, my business associate”—he looked down at the bunny—“will have to do a little... repossessin’.” He laughed again.
Carrot Top blinked, shocked by his joviality. “S-s-seventy-five?”
“Ah, there’s that stammer again. You’ve been stammerin’ since y’got here, y’know?”
She remained silent, aghast.
“Seventy-five of all profits and no less. I gotta eat too, y’know! It’s just that I have, let’s say, fancier tastes. And this’ll happen every harvest season ’til the sun goes out.” He looked at the moon again. “Or moon. Sweet Celestia, that thing is beautiful. I’ll be leavin’ now. Gonna check this Garden Green pony out.”
As the stallion turned to walk away, Carrot Top shouted, “Wait! How am I supposed to live off a quarter of what I make now?!”
Without turning around, he whimsically said, “Y’got yer carrots to eat now, don’cha? Those things are delicious!”
The stallion and bunny walked out of sight. Carrot Top sank to her haunches and looked at the moon, bright and round, exactly where it was when they began their conversation.
“Reap what you sow, huh?” She picked the box up off her head, then opened it. There were indeed enough seeds to last her another season.
She closed the box and put it into her bag. “I guess I will.” She sighed. “I got what I came for. I think I’ll pay Fluttershy a visit tomorrow.”
