Half an hour later, Barley Mow and Caramel arrived outside the field where they were meant to be working that day. Looking upon the umpteen acres of land on which they were to sow the seeds, Caramel couldn't help feeling sorry for it; for the whole field looked rather overgrown and untidy, almost as if it had just lain neglected for many, many years.
“Goodness,” he remarked softly. “That sure looks a sorry sight.”
“Ha, you're tellin' me,” chortled Barley Mow. “Still, it's good for the soil – that's the important thing in a place like this.”
Caramel stared disbelievingly at his temporary employer. “What, when it's all covered in weeds?!”
“Oh yes. See, when we farmers grow crops in a certain field, we have to grow different ones for different seasons and sometimes leave it to rest and regain the right nutrients for crop plantation,” explained Barley Mow sagely. “If we keep growing one crop in the same field over and over again, we end up with the soil being blighted, and then we can't grow anything.”
“Ah – I see. So what now?”
“Well, first job is to take out all the weeds and stuff, and then we can begin ploughing up the soil. Reckon you're up to the job?”
“I'll give it my best shot,” replied Caramel gamely, taking a shovel from the cart.
Barley Mow grinned broadly. This young Manehattanite may yet have been a novice, but he could already see that he was going to go far. “Then let's get to it!” he announced.
And so, Caramel and Barley Mow spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon working on the plantation of the first crops. Having pulled out the weeds and cleared away any stones they happened to find, they unloaded the plough they had brought with them and set to work tilling the soil in readiness for the seeds to go down. It turned out to be far more difficult than Caramel had imagined; but he was determined to see it through nonetheless, so he simply gritted his teeth and struggled on until at last they were finished.
The seeding process, however, was far easier. Under Barley Mow's careful guidance, Caramel plied back and forth across the field several times, hauling a special piece of equipment that the old farm stallion called a “seeder”. As he went along, this sprinkled the seeds over the freshly ploughed soil in his wake. Every so often, they would have to stop so that Barley Mow could load fresh seeds into the machine; but by teatime, they had finally reached the end of the field and were ready to return to the farmhouse.
“Thanks much, Caramel,” smiled Barley Mow, wiping a bit of sweat off his brow. “Sure was good of you to help me out like this.”
“That's okay, Mr Mow,” chuckled Caramel. “I'm just glad I could make myself useful for a change.”
Barley Mow laughed heartily. “More than 'useful' in my book,” he observed, pointing towards Caramel's right flank. “The way you handled all that, I'd say you're a born farmer!”
“What...” began Caramel, looking back; but when he saw what Barley Mow was talking about, all words suddenly failed him, and his breath seemed to catch in his throat he was so amazed. Where they had formerly been devoid of any markings, his flanks were now graced with a set three blue horseshoes for each one. After so many years of having to suffer from the humiliation of being a blank-flank, he had finally gained his long-awaited Cutie Mark!
This opened the floodgates for the tan-coated young stallion. For a whole week he stayed on at the farm to offer his services to Barley Mow, ploughing the fields, threshing wheat and other grains, hauling logs and crops back to the farmhouse, and even helping to repaint an old tool shed. He and the two older ponies became good friends, and would spend the evenings sat around the fire, with Caramel talking about his time in Manehattan while Barley Mow and Blink Bonny told him what life on the farm was like among other topics.
Thanks to Caramel's help, the crop plantation had finally been completed by the end of the week, and with no further work requiring his assistance, the tan-furred stallion decided in good faith that it was time for him to move on. Barley Mow and Blink Bonny were sad to see him go, but they remained strong all the same, and wished him the best of luck; and so, after a final, poignant farewell, with several hundred bits' worth of cash in his saddlebag as a generous token of gratitude from the two ponies, along with an even greater appreciation of their hospitality, Caramel solemnly left the farm and returned to the open road. Where he was going and what he would do, he neither knew nor cared; but what he did know was that he would never forget about Barley Mow or Blink Bonny.
Applejack heaved a deep sigh as she too remembered hearing about that horrible accident in the new Manehattan mall. “Caramel,” she said gently, “Ah get that y'all were upset about what 'ad happened to yo' Ma an' that Brooklyn Dodger pony, but that don't mean ya had ta distance yourself from ever' other pony ya saw. Just because y'all were involved in one li'l accident doesn't make it yo' fault, ya know.”
“I know,” murmured Caramel sadly. “I realise that – but I was too afraid of what would happen to them if they made friends with a jinx such as myself.”
“Y'all ain't a jinx, Caramel,” soothed Applejack, resting a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “If it weren't fo' y'all, Ah wouldn't 'ave had anypony around me who would understand how Ah felt durin' mah own time in Manehattan – does that count as bein' a jinx?”
Caramel paused. “No – I guess it doesn't,” he mused at last, a somewhat sheepish look on his face.
“Besides, ya may have lost Brooklyn, but at least ya found me again, didn't ya?” Applejack pointed out.
“Yeah,” remarked Caramel thoughtfully. “Yeah, I remember that. Kind of ironic, isn't it – how I managed to find my way back to you just when I was moments away from joining Brooklyn instead.” He chuckled lightly in spite of himself. “Still, I can safely say that that near miss was my own fault – no question about it.”
“Yeah...none at all,” mumbled Applejack, shuddering delicately at how she had come across her long lost Manehattan friend...
For months afterwards, Caramel carried on in the same way, living mainly on grass, wild flowers and stream water, sleeping rough in the middle of nowhere, and only stopping once or twice to buy himself food and clothing. Occasionally he would come across another farm, where he would break his journey in the hope of earning some more money, and while not all of them welcomed his assistance, many greatly appreciated it nonetheless. But his seemingly endless travels had to come to an end sooner or later – and almost three months to the day after he had left Manehattan, that was precisely what they did...
It was nearly the start of winter, and Caramel was getting ready to leave yet another lonely hillside dwelling. The temperature outside had been steadily dropping even before he had arrived, and even though he had bought himself a scarf and a woolly hat in the last village he had come to, he was understandably feeling the effects of the cold weather. The inhabitants of the cottage where he had been staying had fed him well, but even so, they were deeply worried when they saw the thick clouds gathering overhead.
“Are you sure you'll be okay in this weather, mister?” asked a little filly of about six years old.
Caramel rolled his eyes. He had intruded on this family long enough, he thought, and he wanted to get going as soon as he could. “I'll be fine,” he assured her. “I've been through much worse than this before.”
Well, emotionally, yes – but this was different. The local weather Pegasi had apparently scheduled a heavy snowfall, and deep down, he wasn't so sure of himself as he would have liked. Even the father of the little filly seemed uneasy.
“It's gonna be pretty treacherous out there, pal,” he warned. “If what Rainbow Dash has been saying is true, you won't be able to see your hoof in front of your face out there once that snow starts falling.”
“You're perfectly welcome to stay another night if you want,” added the mother.
“No thanks,” replied Caramel stubbornly. “I'm going out there, and I'm not stopping until I reach the nearest guest house – end of story.”
The father sighed in defeat. “Well......okay then,” he decided at last. “Just be careful, okay?”
“Don't worry about me, sir, I'll manage.” And with that, Caramel bid the family farewell and headed out of the door.
The wind was already picking up by this time, and Caramel could feel it blowing hard against him as he picked his way through the open countryside. This was definitely going to be one heck of a gale, he thought to himself; if he was to avoid being caught in the snowfall that would inevitably be coming his way, then he would have to get a move on in order to reach...well, any other dwellings, let alone a guest house.
But the weather only worsened the further he went. Within half an hour, the snow began to fall thick and fast, and before he knew it, he was in the midst of a raging blizzard. The wind howled menacingly all around him like a pack of timberwolves as it seemed to gnaw away at him from all directions, and the flakes of snow blurred his vision further and further until he could barely see anything.
Caramel checked all around for any visible landmarks, gritting his teeth from the cold, but also in anger – anger at himself for getting into this fix in the first place. His one hope of avoiding such a bitter, chilling storm as this, and he had simply brushed it to one side in favour of battling his way through a cold, vicious environment that he knew he wouldn't be able to survive. How he wished he had stayed with that family instead of putting himself in mortal danger like this – but there was no turning back now; he had to find somewhere safe and warm to spend the night, or it would be game over for him.
Slowly, however, his anger gave way to terror as he realised that there was nothing to tell him where he was. He was hopelessly lost in a huge white wilderness that was literally piling up around him, sapping his energy and gradually chilling him into submission......but then, for a fleeting moment, a somewhat blurry gap seemed to open up between the razor-sharp dots of white that were dancing in front of his eyes. For a few brief seconds, he could just about make out a sign ahead:
SWEET APPLE ACRES ORCHARD, PONYVILLE
HOME TO THE FINEST APPLES IN EQUESTRIA
EST. 1937
Sweet Apple Acres – Ponyville – those words echoed in Caramel's mind. The memories of when Applejack had briefly come to live in Manehattan came flooding back thick and fast, and at that very moment, he was struck hard in the head by a sudden realisation – after nearly three months of travelling through Equestria, with no particular destination in mind, he had wound up in the very town where she said she lived. It was as if fate had guided him here to reunite with the only other living pony with whom he had been friends during his foalhood.
Bravely, Caramel summoned what little strength he had left and started towards the sign. If he could just get to the homestead of the family who ran this place, he would finally be safe from the blizzard; and with any luck, Applejack would be there too, having waited years on end for him to finally rejoin her. But unfortunately for him, that strength wasn't enough – barely had he taken just a few slow, measured steps when suddenly he began to feel alarmingly drowsy, and his weakened legs began to quiver. He shook his head violently in a desperate bid to keep himself awake, but to no avail; his vision blurred even further, and the deluge of white in front of him darkened into a grey haze, and then into a thick fog.
Finally, without warning, his whole world went pitch black as his knees failed him altogether, causing him to collapse onto the thick, bitter, icy carpet of snow beneath him. The last thing he could remember hearing or feeling was the howling of the wind along with the horrible stinging sensation against his skin as the falling snow continued to assault him relentlessly, piling up higher and higher around him until he was completely buried beneath an ever-thickening blanket of white......