Another evening in Ponyville’s market, another stack of bits to cart home. Sure, Carrot Tops’ profit was fairly modest. Sure, it was just maybe enough to barely break even. Sure, maybe it wasn't enough to pay off her crippling debt. And sure-... Oh who was she kidding? Her profits today were pitiful; more so than usual. Worse yet this seemed to be a continuous trend that just got worse every time she came to market. Each time she opened a shop her sales were down by nearly a quarter from last time.
Another day, another portinable dent in her savings; she was never getting that vacation… The emotionally frazzled and exhausted mare ran her hoof through her puffed up mane as she wagoned her overstock of carrots and “profits” back home. A singular question running through her head. Well several actually, but the most notable of which being just what was going wrong?
The second and more pressing thought however aimed to try and solve the first. How was she supposed to compete? The Apples had the cat’s share of arable land, they had numbers, they had the backing of The Princess of Friendship, and a hefty stack of bits due to a grant received directly from THE Princess themselves! If not for the fact that Carrot Top’s family had lived on this small plot of land for generations, well and the fact she didn't exactly have the bits to move, she would have long since skipped town for a more favorable location.
This wasn't to say she had anything against the Apples. On the contrary they were nice enough from the few interactions she had with them. She evenly briefly flirted with Big Mac for a time before he went jumping from mare to mare. It was just, they had a monopoly on Ponyville. Outside of Fluttershy buying carrots for Angel and the occasional pony looking to diversify their normal diet, she rarely saw business. Let alone profits. Most days in the market were bland uneventful blurs of time in which she tried to get ponies attention. Most of whom seemed uninterested in her sales or ignored her outright. Maybe Ponyville was just growing tired of her beloved vegetables. Even the wind seemed uninterested in her goods anymore, as it frequently seemed to make a purposeful route around her stall if possible.
It was enough to drive a mare mad, or glum in this case. Over the past few months, particularly, she could feel the energy slowly being sapped from her. She no longer had a spring in her stride. Her smile no longer beamed hues of golden back at the ponies she passed. Her mane's normal pompf had slowly begun to deflate like a balloon despite her best efforts. Things didn’t even seem nearly as lively as they once had.
On the contrary, her steps were now longer, slower, like they were made of stone. Her smile felt heavier as if weights were constantly trying to pull it down till even her crystalline teeth no longer even broke through. The once lustful shine of her prized mane had seemingly begun to fade. The crisp orange hues once of nearly golden had become dull like stone. Even Pinkies' normal shenanigans and whimsical tunes seemed to have lost their spark.
She wasn't sure why she felt so particularly glum these past few harvest. It wasn't like they were much worse than usual. So why was no creature buying? There couldn't be that far of a gap between her and the apples, could there? She didn't feel like the gap was growing. Her whole life had been spent playing second fiddle to the Apples, and the Pears for that matter, after all. It wasn't like any pony was trying something new. She didn't use any new fertilizer. The Apples didn't introduce new help and she didn't think the whole town had suddenly become allergic to carrots through some strange magical mishap. So if nothing was new and it wasn't the Apples stealing the spotlight what was it?
Even her normally prized carrots these past few cycles seemed to suffer from the strange phenomenon. As if the other ponies’ neglect had also pushed them into a state of depression. Their normal vibrant hues of orange no longer radiated the same sheen of health. They instead seemed to slouch to one side seemingly in a gesture of sympathy to their favored farmer. All the while the normal welcoming ground seemed callus to these events; growing hard as if not to be infected with her sorrow like her beloved tap roots. As a result plowing it had become harder and less productive. Dust storms seemed to frequently spur up out of nowhere. Making the whole farm seem more like a grave yard of weeds than a farm. A grave yard might have been quite apt too, given nothing seemed to visit it but her anymore. Even the birds had seemingly lost their appetite for her carrots.
Was it Discord? Did he bewitch her to a terrible fate? Fluttershy insisted he would never and the Draqonquese also stated he had done no such thing. He was “reformed after all” and “what fun would [he] gain from just making a farm wither away? Making the Carrot leaves pull out rabbits instead, now that would be funny.” While she wanted to say her gut didn't believe him… His track record did seem to support his claim; this kind of misery wasn't his modus operandi. That left her with zero guesses and a dozen questions. Her whole life felt like it was sinking into a sink hole, and she had no way out.
The whole ordeal felt like an anchor tied tightly around her neck, causing her head to lower until it nearly touched the very dirt road she walked. Her fluffy mane hung overhead, blocking her view from the path ahead. Though that hardly mattered given she was moving slow enough, any pony could have cleared her way before she ran into them. Plus she knew the path home on muscle memory alone. So she didn't bother to even try and pick her heavy head back up this time. Instead she let out a long sigh she had let build up for a while now; closing her eyes in pondering thought.
Unfortunately, muscle memory would work against her today. As only a few minutes later, as she took another long heavy step forward, she failed to notice there was no path ahead of her. Instead a large empty hole rested in front of the ginger mare. A hole her hoof would soon have the misfortune of stumbling into. Having failed to notice it she brought all her weight forward, causing the mare to suddenly lurch forward and fall head first in. She let out a shrill yelp as the sudden shift in momentum sent her, rather light, cart flying forward like a catapult; flinging the carrots into the air. Only for them to plummet into the ground around her like a hail of arrows. The cart let out a loud crashing sound as it hit the side of the hole, causing its wheel to fly off into a nearby bush, taking out a park bench in the process, while the cart itself was flung into a lamp post. The end result being a crushed lamp post and the cart breaking into dozens of splintered pieces. Carrots landed everywhere, some in trees, one in a window, a couple on the nearby roof and even one inside an unfortunate chimney. The whole scene looked like a warzone by the time all the pieces had settled.
All the while the orange haired mare was hurled into the depth of the abnormal hole. A hole that seemed to go much deeper than it would have appeared from the outside, but not long enough to give the mare time to react. Swiftly thereafter Carrot Top’s face became fairly intimate with the ground as her muzzle was plunged into its soft, wet depths; soon followed by the rest of her body crashing on top of that. Thankfully nothing was hurt but her pride, and her wallet given the state of the cart…
With a sharp tug she pulled her face out of the dirt, not unlike an ostrich pulling its head out of the sand, while she tried to rearrange herself into a proper sitting position. All the while spitting the grainy dirt out of her mouth like some sort of pony, dirt, water fountain thing. While Carrot Top didn't care for dirt in her mouth, over the years she had become accustomed to its taste due to her particular profession of choice, but this moist earth in the depths of the hole had a particularly bad tang to it/ So much so it caused her to stick out her tongue in disgust as she tried to wipe it off with her hooves. After letting out an audible gag of disgust and a quick brush to clean her mane; she looked up to see just how far she'd fallen.
Unfortunately, it was a pretty deep rut, several ponies deep at least. Least that's what it looked like from the bottom, though the faded light of the evening made the edge of the hole blur together with the sky, so it was hard to tell for sure. For all she knew that length could have been double her guess or half it.
Her lips shifted to one side and arched down in frustration. She gave herself a sarcastic, congratulatory congratulations for the blunder before attempting to dig her hoof into the walls to try and climb out. Unfortunately the soil was much like that of her home. Cold, callus and herded. Her hoof did little more than lightly chip off specs of dust off its surface. It felt more like rock than proper soil.
She lightly grimaced at this, but like her mother taught her, nothing in life is ever easy. With a renewed set of determination from the practical life advice the mare practically punched her hoof into the wall to try and pull herself out. To her credit this seemingly worked, for all of five moments anyway. After taking a moment to push all of her hooves firmly into the wall; then taking her first hoof out to push it back in higher up, the ground gave way under her weight. With a loud crunch of sorts the dirt under her hooves came loose, sending her tumbling back down like a tumbleweed in the breeze. The mare was not so easily dismayed though, no hole could keep her contained. Sadly, this seemed to be no simple hole. As the hole, much like the creatures of Ponyville, seemed to ignore her efforts. Not caring how hard she worked. Leaving her best efforts fruitless. Each attempt having diminishing returns as her body only grew tired and heavy. This futile cycle of trying to get out became more pitiful with each attempt continuing on for an hour or so till finally the mare was left a painting mess. She was a Carrot farmer not a mountain goat and that showed here.
Well climbing wasn't an option but maybe she could dig her way out?... Celestia, she was going to be the rest of her life if she went with an idea like that with how hard the dirt was and no tool to clear it… A frustrated bemoan of disapproval escaped Carrot Top as her head tilted back. This wasn't how she was planning to spend her evening! Now she was going to be behind tomorrow's crop rotation! Maybe some creature would turn up? She was on the outskirts of Ponyville at dark so it was unlikely any pony would be out this way. It wasn't usual however for Starlight’s students to often roam the town after class but before curfew. An odd hole surrounded by carrots and a destroyed wagon also seemed to be the kind of thing that would attract them like moths to a flame too. With that in mind she rubbed her cheek and sat back in thought. Seeing as sitting was about the only thing she could do, she let her mind drift and wander while she awaited help. Had the mare been in the right frame of mind this wasn't a problem, but in her current state, this would only make her situation worse. Least without falling into the downward spiral of stress.