//------------------------------// // A New Resident in Town // Story: Rose and Sam // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// Rose and Sam Chapter 4: A New Resident in Town Admiral Biscuit Working for Ginger Gold brought about a change, although nopony realized it right away. Sam worked for the miller, and there were reports of a strange creature in town visiting the windmill and a blurry picture that didn’t really do her justice. Then she was spotted visiting the hospital but nopony got a picture of that, and there was more speculation especially since Nurse Tenderheart refused to comment. And then she kind of became a fixture in town, just like Spike had. It wasn’t an all of a sudden thing, but there was a day where I was in line at Sugarcube Corner and she was in front of me. She got a cup of coffee and a doughnut, and she didn’t sit down but carried it away to wherever she was going. Ponies gossiped that they’d seen her going to Carousel Boutique, and the ‘why does she want clothes’ versus the ‘she has terrible taste in clothes’ ponies had plenty to say about the subject.  Aside from some of the more reactionary ponies, there wasn’t much gossip anymore. Ponies had gotten used to seeing her around, and even if she was still an unusual sight, nopony had enough energy to get worked up--it was the height of spring planting season, and aside from market days, nearly everypony who could work was out in the fields. Even Lily and I took our turns in the fields while Daisy minded the flowers. She was too small to be of much use in harness, and the bits we got helped carry us through the last of the winter flowers, hothouse flowers, and into the first spring flowers blooming.  Sometimes the roads were really bad in spring; the ground didn’t thaw all at once and the grass wasn’t always well-established yet, and there was a lot of traffic with wagons and farm implements being taken from field to field. Everypony was so busy that bad spots rarely got fixed quickly, and neither of us were paying attention as we stepped in the mud. In hindsight, we should have backed out when only our hooves and fetlocks were muddy, but we thought we could pull the wagon through. Instead, it got stuck, and as the two of us were trying to pull it free, Sam came along. Lily shied back against the doubletree, but she couldn’t really go anywhere. Neither of us could. “Do you need a push?” I nodded, even though I didn’t think she was big enough to help much. It was either try that or unstrap and see what we could do to free it ourselves, maybe round up some other ponies to help get it unstuck. That wasn’t too embarrassing; everypony got their wagons stuck in the spring, but I was eager to get home. I felt her shove against the back of the wagon and yelled at Lily to start pulling, and after a few hoof-slips we dug through the mud into the harder ground underneath where we could get more traction. The wagon finally jerked forward and came out of the mud with a wet squelching sound. “Thank you, Sam,” I said. “You’re welcome.” Lily was quiet for the next block, her ears and head down. Finally, she sighed, and said, “It smells weird.” “She’s stronger than she looks.” “Anypony who walked by and saw us stuck would have helped push.” I nodded, because that was true. “So that means that Sam is somepony.” And not a monster. “I . . . Maybe she is.” ••• It didn’t seem long at all before she was a familiar sight, and there was another tizzy when she rented a house on the outskirts of town, and then that died down too, except for some complaints that the flowerbeds were growing nothing but weeds. They weren’t all weeds; the previous tenant had planted some flowers. It wasn’t really my place to do so, but one day I picked a few of the worst weeds out of her beds, and as I was making my way through town afterwards I kind of wondered if she actually liked those plants. Some ponies liked feral hardiness, and plants that didn’t smell nice or couldn’t be eaten, and maybe she did, too.  I never heard a complaint. One day when I was tacking a help wanted flier to the community board, she came along and I got nervous and left it at an angle. I didn’t think she'd do anything, but I was all alone in the square.  I glanced back as I was leaving and she was looking at it. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if she showed up and wanted to weed our beds. I know that Lily would panic and lock herself away. Maybe peer through a crack in the shutters and complain about how it had all been done wrong. Just because she’d gotten past calling Sam a monster didn’t make her any more accepting or willing to be close to her if it was avoidable. Sam rejected my ad and picked another one instead and as I walked back to our house I couldn’t decide if I should be grateful or upset. We could have used the help. Rumors swirled around. She bathed in the creek, she never went without her shorts. She was royalty, she didn’t have a cutie mark. A pony heard from another pony who’d seen firsthoof. I didn’t always know what was true and what was made-up, but I thought about her working in the woodlot or helping to push our wagon free, and I thought about how most ponies tended to shy away from her when she was in town. I thought about a mare trying to fit in, I thought about Daisy using her TK or not depending on who she was around and how paranoid Lily was being. It didn’t come all at once but I heard other supportive voices about her, how clever she was with her paws and that she didn’t require much instruction at all when it came to new tasks. She got new clothes from Rarity and wore them proudly. That was weird, she was trying to cover something up, or maybe she was pretending to be something she wasn’t. Even when she was working at the mill, I heard she wore her clothes as she pushed around barrels and moved sacks of flour. I’d never seen her without them, and that bothered me, even as she became a fixture in town. There was no sense in being rude to her or shunning her, she was in town and she obviously intended to stay. I could see how some ponies tried to keep away from her, but I could also see how some ponies had gotten used to her, got along with her. Some of them were certainly her co-workers or employers. The first time I’d seen her at the market, she was with Einkorn and Teff, a pair of stallions who also worked part-time for the miller. I didn’t know them all that well, they lived out on a farm and never bought flowers. I resolved that if she came by our booth, I was going to be polite and learn more about her if I could. Lily decided that she was going to go back to the house until Sam was gone, leaving me alone at the booth. She said it was because we were slow and Daisy could use the help preparing the beds, but I knew why she was leaving: she didn’t want to see Sam. I watched her as she walked around, flanked by the two stallions, and wondered if she’d come my way. I could tell her that I’d weeded some of her flowerbeds and maybe I could find out what flowers she liked and plant some for her. I didn’t get my chance; they never came over to our corner of the market. The next week, though, it was Daisy and I at the booth, and when I saw Sam with the stallions, I told Daisy I was going to wander and buy some food that we needed. Daisy wasn’t fooled, she knew I was curious. “You and Lily are both obsessed in different ways,” Daisy said. “Don’t you trust what other ponies are saying about her?” “Would you?” “What if she wants to be left to herself, doesn’t want to be an object of curiosity?” “If she really wanted to be by herself, she wouldn’t have come to market with Teff and Einkorn, and she should know that ponies can’t help but be curious about her.” “I like Teff, he’s cute.” Daisy let out a happy sigh. “I wish—” “Is that why you’re the one who always buys the flour?” Daisy blushed. “He just loads the barrels and pulls the wagon, so it’s not like I’d get a chance to flirt with him unless he was outside and in harness already.” She turned her head and bumped me with her muzzle. “Go ahead, I’ll be fine by myself. There’s lots of ponies, it should be easy to get close. It was easy to get close. Even though most ponies seemed to be tolerating her presence at market—especially in the company of Einkorn and Teff—nopony wanted to be all that close to her. I lost sight of her as I got into the crowd of ponies nearer the food stalls but found her again without much trouble—Sam stood taller than practically everypony so she was easy to find. She had little saddlebags on the sides of her pants, which was where she kept her bits, and a small canvas bag that she carried to put her purchases in. Mostly fruits and vegetables, although she did buy some chocolates as well. She looked better than she had when I’d first seen her at Ginger Gold’s. Most of the scrapes on her skin were gone. I guess with no fur there was nothing to protect her from branches and bark, maybe that was why she’d had a shirt when she was chopping wood. Although I hadn’t seen her put it on. I was still a little nervous around her, especially since I didn’t have Daisy to back me up, but since we were at the market and there were a lot of ponies around, I knew she wouldn’t try anything and got bolder. I tried not to eavesdrop on her conversations with the stallions and the merchants because that’s rude, but I couldn’t help but overhear them talking. Mostly about food, what she was going to buy. She was also curious about visiting other towns but didn’t think it was a good idea; she said that even with all the work she’d done in town ponies were still really wary around her. My ears fell when she said that. Teff offered to take her on the train, that nopony would think it was odd that she wanted to see where the flour was going, and she said that she was worried that if she did, the baker who bought the flour might think she was going to spoil it somehow or might not want to buy it if they thought she’d helped to make it. She was right, Daisy and I had had that very same conversation. Sam wasn’t as furless as I’d thought, I hadn’t really noticed when we were at the woodlot but now that I was close to her, I could see very fine pale hair, nearly invisible and certainly not a proper coat. Since I’d accidentally overheard her talking about what kind of food she was going to buy, I’d guessed where she was going to go next, and was caught totally off-guard when she suddenly turned and nearly crashed into me. “Oh, sorry.” Before I could even reply, she side-stepped and went over to the soapmaker’s booth. Einkorn grinned at me, and then followed behind her. ••• “So?” Daisy didn’t even wait before I got around our booth to start asking questions. Not that it mattered, we didn’t have any customers lined up at the moment, and had our roles been reversed, I would have been just as curious. “What kind of food does a monster buy?” “Apples, carrots, turnips, peppers, soap, cucumbers, and celery.” “Is that what you got, too?” “No soap, we’ve got plenty, and I didn’t get any apples.” “What kind of soap?” “I didn’t see for sure, and you know how Salsola likes mixing scents. It smelled like peppermint and lavender and something else.” “Hmm.” Daisy scraped her hoof on the ground, then we both perked up as Jubileena arrived at our booth and began examining our flowers. On the way home, once we’d packed up and loaded our cart, I told her about what I’d seen and what I’d overheard. Teff’s offer to take her on the train, and how she worried about ponies not accepting her, which we both thought was true and a very un-monstery thing to think. I also told her about the fine downy hair she had and the pockets she had on her pants to keep her bits in. Daisy considered that. “You don’t suppose she’s being . . . show-offy? Wearing clothes all the time, and carrying around bits?” ”She certainly doesn’t act rich. Her house isn’t very nice, it needs to be painted. And why would she be working so many odd jobs if she was rich?” “Some rich ponies are eccentric,” Daisy said. “I met a bunch in Manehattan.” “I think she has to carry her bits around, maybe ponies don’t trust her enough to give her credit. You’re not going to tell Lily I followed her around at the market, are you?” “No.” Daisy shook her head. “If I do, she’ll probably insist you throw away all the food you just bought, just in case Sam touched it.”