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// Chapter 2: Rock bottom 
// Story: That time Carrot Top fell into a rut 
// by Hemlock conium 
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At first it was the panic of being stuck inside the hole. Following that came the panic of falling behind on her farming that hit her. Sure, the thought only applied if she ever made it out of this stupid, Celestia forsaken, hole. Seriously, who puts a hole in the middle of a perfectly good road? Then again, she was talking about Ponyville, the town that seemed to practically be a magnet for the abnormal. Maybe it was just a sinkhole? Ponyville wasn't known for them, like at all, but she’d seen pigs fly, when Discord took over that was, so… As such her mind didn't get to wander on that dead end train of thought for long as it quickly drifted back into panic. The thought of having to work nearly twice as hard, if not then more so, just to break even when she got out. The longer, more exhausting hours. The sad thought of her decrepit fields wilting from their increasingly poor maintenance. Work she would have to put in on top of the already increasing work hours to just try and return her wilting carrots back to their former glory. Every thought made her yearn for the now seemingly distant memory of when the golden era of harvest. 
After that came the denial. No, It couldn't really be happening. It was all just one big nightmare from that Tantabus thing again wasn't it? She wasn't really in a hole nor running a diminishing farm, right? I mean what really were the odds every pony just suddenly stopped buying carrots right? It was all just one big farce. One awful nightmare. Though as much as the mare tried to gas light herself, she wasn't so disillusioned that she really believed her own lies. No matter how hard she might wish this waking world were a nightmare she knew she was awake. She knew this was reality.   
Next came the frustration as she realized this. Rather maybe shame might have been a more apt description since that was the overwhelming feeling caused by said frustrations. Even more so than maybe the frustrations itself. As the pieces came into perspective, she only grew more stymied. The more she grew stymied, the more heat rushed to her cheeks for failure to be able to overcome any of this. Like any good farmer Ponyville her pride was interlocked with her self reliance. To fail her harvest was a black mark against her own self worth. To fail to get out of a simple hole HAD to be proof of her incompetence. 
With the embarrassment came the worst case scenarios that only served to fuel this self loathing and self destructive thought. She'd be stuck living off pity grants from the Princess with nothing to show for it if she didn’t get the situation under control. Worst of all every creature would know it too, She panicked. A thought that hit the remaining bit of her pride and self dignity particularly hard. She used to have the nickname of Golden Harvest around town from her diligent care and hard work ethic she put into her harvest by herself. That was a golden era though; an era she hadn't been in for months now and from the looks of it would never return too. What would she be known as when her farm was little more than a weed field and she lived on grants? Probably something dumb like Failed Harvest. The idea made her head shake in both embarrassment and disgust. No pony would want to be friends with a failure. Even her earth pony magic had seemed to abandon her for this very reason. What else could explain her failing harvest. 
Then came the bargaining. Barging with nothing in particular but barging for anything to avoid that horrible fate. She’d even take Zecora’s monkey paw; consequences be damned. She’d live with dealing with a thousand bugbears if it just meant pulling herself out of this cave. She’d put up with Discord’s hijinks all day and for the rest of her life, if it meant she could just go back to the way things were.   
Then finally bitter acceptance. The bitter, biter acceptance. It's cold waters snuffing out the last embers of her fight and pride. Her head drooped like a rock as she came to understand she couldn't escape this hole. This rut. She would forever be stuck in it till the day she died. Forever destined to only sink deeper in.