The pan violently sizzled when Chrysalis flicked some water at it with her magic.
With a toss of her head, Chrysalis levitated a pile of diced onions onto the metal surface. Maybe she’d throw in a bit of butter, a bit of cheese, or even an eggplant or two. So many things she could try, so many exotic dishes. Cactus fruit salads, dragon egg soufflés, but despite the options, this was their favorite.
She found it almost pathetic how such a simple dish could make them so happy. However, that didn’t change the results, so she toiled away on this simple affair.
The kitchen she worked in wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t tiny either. Chrysalis had room to turn, spin, and to her great shame, sing without too much worry of knocking anything over.
But it could do with a bit more verticality.
Chrysalis carefully poured a bit of oil onto the pan.
Conquest brought her great joy when she ruled her hive, and when she founds a new hive, conquest will resume its place in her heart.
But she had no soldiers, no spies, or even a kingdom anymore. So what could she conquer? Well, she had always conquered for food before, so why not conquer her food in a new way, make it bend to her will in a fashion she hadn’t tried before?
It was a simple shift, a tiny burst of change that Chrysalis would reverse when she regained power.
Not if but when.
It was an important distinction for her to make as an ex and future hive queen. One that will serve her well.
The door at the far end of the kitchen creaked as it was drawn outwards.
It probably needed to be oiled, but Chrysalis supposed that Tirek would get around to it when it became important.
“I see you two finally managed to find your way back, did you get lost at the one right turn or the one left turn this time, hm?”
Her smug grin was met by Cozy’s eye roll and Tirek’s snort.
The big red oaf dropped a bag on one of the several counters as he strode by. No doubt, he was headed off to his workshop behind the house.
Meanwhile, Cozy Glow eyed Chrysalis before fluttering after him, but taking a turn where Tirek went straight.
As annoying as the manipulative brat could be, she was still diligent in her studies.
Chrysalis cut off a small chunk of butter from the stick and gently laid it on the pan.
At the very least, Chrysalis never heard any complaints from anypony about it, so she assumed that it was Cozy being diligent.
Anything else and all parties would regret Chrysalis’ involvement. It was best this way, fewer worries for her, and fewer bruises for everypony else.
See? She could be reasonable!
All that crazy talk about her being crazy was just that, crazy talk!
With a snort, Chrysalis turned back to the cutting board.
Tirek stomped across the yard, passing a fountain, a small fenced garden, and a flower bed before coming to a stop in front of a large shed.
That arrogant insectile twit always had to belittle them, didn’t she?
She couldn’t keep her mouth shut just one time?
Tirek’s jaw clenched as he balled his hands into meaty fists.
That insignificant ant couldn’t just lay back and appreciate the effort it took to get her that fancy kitchen with all those appliances?
Couldn’t she just leave him alone as he passed through?
Couldn’t she—
Tirek forced himself to take a deep breath
Remember the exercises. In and out. In and out.
After a few moments of forced calm, Tirek pulled a key off of the chain hung around his neck.
He slid it into the lock and twisted, letting the door drift open. He could never quite get the damnable thing level, but it worked well enough.
Tirek stepped through and was greeted by the familiar warmth of his workshop.
Tools hung from hooks on the far wall, various hammers, screw drivers, chisels, etc. all had their place.
Tirek looked around, gauging which job needed doing first.
There was that wagon wheel for the Pansies, it was a quick job, but also not very urgent.
He could take another crack at Bolt’s radio–no, Tirek wanted to fix something, not get frustrated and break it further.
What to do, what to do…
Maybe that chest in the back?
Tirek nodded at the thought.
Yes, old Charcoal wanted it back by the end of the week, and it wasn’t a terribly difficult job.
Tirek strode through the room, careful to step around the places marked for projects. Even if nothing was there at the moment, maintaining a good habit is worthwhile.
With a grunt, he hoisted up the heavy oak chest and carried it on his shoulder over to his work bench.
The table creaked, but otherwise held up fine.
Tirek sighed as he reached for a screwdriver and hammer.
It was just a pair of bent up hinges Tirek had to deal with, neither complicated nor difficult work.
…
…
It took nearly three bucking hours to fix. He had to put off dinner for this nonsense!
The screws for the hinges were put in crooked so it took way too much time pulling them out and since the threads were stripped he needed a damned chisel to get at the things properly.
Then the latches themselves were, of course, made of quality steel of all things. It shouldn’t take bucking magic to bend a hinge, but no, old ponies can’t be reasonable and use iron for such meaningless things.
Lastly, it turned out that the top and bottom of the chest didn’t line up properly. Tirek would have to either screw the hinges in crooked like the previous craftspony did, or sand the damned thing till it fit.
Tirek didn’t half-way a job.
So to say, sanding the lid of a chest was not what Tirek was expecting to do when preparing to fix a pair of bent hinges.
After he put the final tool away, his fists clenched, his forced calm seemed to evaporate beneath a wave of fiery anger.
Can’t anything be easy? Can’t anything just avoid making his life harder for a single damned hour?
Tirek took a deep breath, then another, and on the third, he decided to step out.
His face was even redder than normal, his skin felt hot, and a bubbling rage just refused to leave his head.
Tirek hated getting like this, he hated losing control, he hated hated hated it.
Instead of being an imbecile that wrecks things, he wanted to fix them instead. That was the whole point of doing this work!
He stormed up to his stress tree and glared at its scarred bark. The shallow gouges proved to be a satisfying sight.
Tirek rolled his shoulders and gave his neck a quick pop before twisting into a wood-shuddering punch. One strike after the other, his arm twisting to add torque. Each punch Tirek threw held all of the power he could possibly put into it. Chips of wood and bits of bark flew from the tree as Tirek wailed away on it.
After a solid minute of hitting the tree, Tirek stepped back while trying to regain his breath.
He hated losing control, hated it more than anything else, control of himself was all he had left at times.
Tirek nodded at the old oak tree, and trudged his way back to his shed for his gardening tools.
He and the tree had a deal after all.
It would stand no matter what, and he’d make sure it could.
Cozy groaned as she set her saddlebags down at the desk. Did they really have to repeat that stupid arithmetic so much? Ten tens makes a hundred, five eights makes forty, yadda yadda yadda. It’s just multiplication!
Compound interest, statistics, weighted averages? Maybe not the most complicated but at least they had uses to em!
Cozy pulled a desk drawer out and plucked about ten bits from it. She tossed them into another pair of saddlebags and flew out the window.
No need to pass by that grouchy old hag more than once today. It’s not like she had to carry anything heavy this time around.
Cozy fluttered to the ground and began a quick trot down the street. A left here and a right there and she found herself in front of a produce stand attended by a positively ancient mare.
The wizened green unicorn cracked an eye open before leaning forward. Her voice creaked like a pine tree getting ready to fall over.
“Oh ho, hello young’un. You come by for my oranges or apples this time?”
She was a nice old mare, but Cozy had places to be.
“I just need a box of those absolutely delicious apples ma’am!”
An exaggerated smile, a little bit of flattery, and a carefully curated cutesy look all had a purpose. Right now? Well…
The old mare smiled as she pushed one of the crates forward with a wink.
“Oh, I think I’ll be willing to part with this for about ten bits.”
…Discounts were always nice.
Cozy shot the elderly pony another overly cheerful smile and coughed up the cash. With a short ‘yay’ Cozy sprinted off with the fruit.
She kept the box on her back, making sure it stayed put with her wings, and wove between the streams of ponies.
Normally, she could just skip the traffic by flying, but Cozy couldn’t carry much of anything while in the air, let alone her saddlebags or–stars forbid–the crate.
Some gave her a passing glance, but most ponies just ignored her antics. One of the perks of doing this so often was the sense of normalcy it cultivated.
Eventually, she reached the town square: a bustling center of commerce and business. Normally, selling here would require a license and all sorts of other legal nonsense, but who would hold a little filly to all that?
Cozy held in a chuckle as she pulled a slightly crinkled poorly drawn paper sign before unfolding the tape on its edge and sticking it to her crate.
Two bits per apple for around fifteen apples, and when it got this busy? A filly running a fruit stand selling at half the price of the other merchants, product went quick.
Sure, sometimes a merchant would get a bit peeved about her undercutting them, but an innocent expression and offering to move across the street usually settled them down. Of course, Ol’ Burning Ear might be onto her, but he was just one stallion.
Time flew as Cozy handled buyer after buyer. An old mare might take a bit of extra time contemplating which looked the freshest, or a little colt or filly might gawk at her relative wealth. But it was mostly a quick exchange. After all, everypony had a place to be.
Cozy suppressed yet another grin as she stuffed her hard-earned bits into a curl in her mane before packing up to go.
D—Tirek, the weird guy that he is, would probably want the dumb crate for some far off ‘project’ as well, and gripe about her ‘wastefulness’ if she dumped the thing. So with a heavy heart and a heavier wallet, figuratively, she headed back the way she came.
She didn’t have to do much dodging and weaving this time. The evening sun gave everything an annoyingly orange highlight to everything, but it was better than having to walk into the glare like she might in the mornings.
She was making good progress and would probably be home by six! So much earlier than usual.
But a store sign caught her eye, and Cozy decided to take a short detour. It’s not like a few minutes would cost her that much, right?
The trio of villains sat at the dark wooden table. Chrysalis stared imperiously at the other two as she set out the dishes. Cozy leapt her smile up, trying not to wilt under the disappointed look, and Tirek’s eye twitched.
“I worked for two bucking hours on your meal, and my thanks is this?”
Her sneer did little to break Tirek’s scowl, and Cozy Glow hunched just an inch further. Chrysalis glared for a second longer before sighing.
“I suppose I can forgive this lack of enthusiasm for now. Enjoy.”
Her begrudging invitation dissipated some of the tension, but supper in all its glory was what truly murdered Tirek’s anger and Cozy’s fear. They both piled their plates high as Chrysalis watched, basking in the muted positive emotions that wafted off of them.
As they chewed and munched, Chrysalis drew a pink orb from a bag that hung on the wall. Pink mist ran from it to her mouth in a thick river. When Cozy glanced at it, she shivered, but made no comment.
Chrysalis felt the urge to tease the child over the weakness, but pushed it down. Last time she’d done that, Tirek ‘forgot’ to go grab her lunch for a week straight.
After they finished, Cozy coughed into a hoof.
“So, I know that you guys are generally all business, buuttt I’ve been getting a bit bored, and I saw something on the way home!”
With a smile she dug out a box with colorful illustrations plastered all over it. Swords, mages, wagons, and even strange weapons the other two didn’t recognize surrounded the title: Risk.
The two elders glanced at each other, Chrysalis beginning to edge towards the door. TIrek snorted, saying “Sure, why not. We aren’t doing anything important anyway, right?”
Chrysalis sneered, desperately wishing she knew where he found the love orbs. This sort of blackmail should be impossible with a queen like her! But alas, she must put up with this manure.
“No, I suppose not.”
Cozy beamed at the other two, giggling in excitement as she rushed to set up the board in the next room.
“I don’t understand, Tirek, why do you coddle her?”
Chrysalis’ glare didn’t kill the old centaur, much to the ex-queen’s disappointment.
“Because it feels better. It should anyway.”
Chrysalis snorted, searching for a retort. However, the empty pit in her heart couldn’t dredge up enough venom this time. Just this time, she’d get him back eventually. Brussel sprouts for supper tomorrow, and soggy asparagus the day after!
Yes, she’d get her revenge in time.
“I got it set up, guys! I read the rules and I think we’ll have a great time!”
Neither old villain missed the scheming smirk on the filly’s face. However, it was endearing at this point, so Chrysalis looked the other way and Tirek smiled.
Twilight stumbled back, gasping for air. She shot a glare at DIscord.
“A little warning?”
He shrugged, with that infuriatingly smug smile of his, saying “sorry my dear, but it’s best if you're disoriented. Can’t let you disrupting their dream with your ideas, hmm?”
She scowled at him for a bit, contemplating on serving him with garden gnome duty again. Then sighed, as she did that last week. Too much of that and he’d get used to it, can’t let go of that small advantage over him.
“Well?”
Twilight grimaced before answering, “Fine, you were right, it wasn’t that bad.”
Discord chuckled, “I am most–”
“But letting them live a lie like that isn’t good Discord. When they come out they will find everything they built was worth nothing! That all their hard work was wasted. How do you think that will help them ‘reintegrate’?”
“Simple, it won’t. However, there isn’t really a better option. It’s basically that, or staring out at nothing for a thousand years, and let me tell you, I know which I’d rather live through.”
Twilight leveled another stare at Discord, but she found his expression unchangeable.
“Fine, we’re still telling Fluttershy about this.”
He winced, but nodded without another word.
The pair walked out of the peaceful garden, leaving the petrified evils to their pleasant dream
Author's Note
finally got this out, and for the record, Cozy won that game and the board got set on fire afterward
