A love triangle is made!
"So, where are we moving to again?" Derpy-Doo asked Carrot Top, eagerly looking out the window of the train, watching the scenery pass.
"For the seventh time, Appleloosa," Carrot Top answered her wall-eyed friend, her own eyes tired from the non-stop train trip and motion sickness.
"I knew that," Derpy spat out defensively, weakly denying any ignorance, "I just wanted to make sure you knew that."
Carrot Top's left eye twitched as she glared disapprovingly at Derpy. She had had years to get used to Derpy’s infinite idiosyncrasies, but still found herself constantly exasperated by her antics.
"I-I mean… thanks," Derpy quickly correcting herself, hoping to soften Carrot Top's scrutinizing face. "You know how I can be," she joked, shrugging away her fault.
Carrot Top let out a deep breath, resting her head on the train bench. "I know, I'm just really anxious." She tried to ignore the growing feeling of motion sickness, pushing out of her mind the rapidly changing scenery. "Why does Appleloosa have to be so far?" she groaned.
"Because the settler ponies built it far away," Derpy answered her, prompting another exasperated sigh from her friend.
Carrot Top buried her face between her forelegs. "It’s going to be a whole year out in the middle of Celestia-knows-where, and my job is, for the most part, to look at dirt all day." Carrot Top continued to complain about the situation. When she had gotten the order from her boss at Agrivolution Inc. to go down to Appleloosa, she feared she would be going alone, not knowing a single pony. "You know, you didn't have to come," she muttered, still face deep in her forelegs.
"It's not a problem at all," Derpy replied softly to Carrot Top, extending a hoof to pat her back. When Carrot Top told her about being relocated for a job assignment, she didn’t hesitate to say she would come with her. It took a long time for Derpy to convince her daughter, Dinky-Doo, but she knew Carrot Top would feel alone out in Appleloosa.
"Thanks," Carrot Top sighed, raising her head and looking back out the window.All she could see was the brown dirt of the frontier lands. She wasn't in Ponyville anymore, and she would have to begin a new life on the frontier. With a sigh, she buried her face back in her forelegs.
The train whistled and began to slow down. "We're here," Carrot Top sighed with a hint of resignation. "Stuck here for a year to trudge in the boiling sun. Life, I give up!" She waved her forehooves in the air melodramatically, looking like a complete foal.
"Would you quit complaining?" Dinky-Doo yawned through her grogginess. She had managed to sleep through the entire trip, much to her own surprise.
"Muffin," Derpy squealed, "you're awake!"
"Would you stop calling me that," Dinky hissed, still trying to shake off her weariness. "I'm a growing, maturing filly," the immature Dinky replied, "and as such, you need to treat me like one. Ergo, calling me by my actual name." Dinky punctuated the sentence by crossing her forelegs and holding her snout upwards.
"Ergo?" Derpy thought over the word for a moment before realizing something very important, and tackled her daughter. "My filly is the smartest filly in the world!" she announced, hugging Dinky tightly to her chest with the force of a vice grip.
"M-mom," Dinky cried out, "you’re messing up my mane!" Her pleas were entirely ignored as Derpy continued to pony-handle her.
Carrot Top smiled as she watched the antics of the Doo family. While Derpy continuously drove her crazy on more occasions than she wished to count, the love between Derpy and Dinky was one of the purest, most genuine she'd ever seen. It made her question if choosing career over love and family was the right choice. Instead, all she could do was resign herself to her fate; a house filled with a brain-numbing mail-mare and her once-sweet but now-temperamental filly. This isn't so bad, Carrot Top thought to herself.
The train whistled again, signaling the passengers to exit into the station. Carrot Top grabbed her saddlebags and threw them over her back, trotting off in a wobbly fashion from sitting for so long. "Let's go," she called to Derpy and Dinky.
Derpy flew up and grabbed both her and her daughter’s bags. She dove down, gracefully grabbing a squirming Dinky, and gliding to the train doors. "All aboard the mommy express!" she announced, swinging Dinky onto her back.
"Do you still have to do that," Dinky sighed, attempting to hide behind her mother's mane as her lips curled into a embarrassed grin.
Carrot Top disembarked from the train, taking in the western scenery. This was it, her new home if only for a year. "You can do this, Carrot Top." She tried to give herself a pep talk, mentally preparing herself for the days to come, but her thoughts were interrupted by the most annoying sound she she had ever heard in her life.
"Welcome! To Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappleloosa!"
Little Strongheart was stampeding ahead of nearly her whole tribe, taking a spot at the front, right next to Chief Thunderhooves. "Little Strongheart, you are filled with so much enthusiasm. It brings my heart joy to see such energy in the next generation and not mindless apathy," Chief Thunderhooves complimented Little Strongheart.
"I am just glad to be going home," Little Strongheart replied with a grin, but knew this was only half true. While away from Appleloosa for a long year, she had spent every night with a stallion in her dreams: Braeburn, the pony she met in Appleloosa who was sensitive to the cause of the buffalo.
At first she found it amusing, the idea of feeling something other than friendship for him. She held him with respect for what he tried to do, but, as time went on, she had found that she had fallen for him. How did that happen? She had asked herself that question numerous time. She didn’t know how to handle these feelings, and she doubted she could handle feelings for another buffalo any better, but then at least it would be within the same species. He was a pony, she was a buffalo, and things could only go wrong from there; still, she found solace in the idea of just striking up a friendship with him. Surely, if Braeburn would at least look at her as a friend, she could find contentment in that. She hoped anyway. Hope is a powerful thing.
In the horizon, Little Strongheart could see Appleloosa coming into view. "Chief, I’m going to make a detour to Appleloosa first to pick up some apples. Do you want anything?"
"Some apple pie would be very nice after a nice and long stampede." Chief Thunderhooves licked his lips, his mind wandered back to the fateful pie that landed in his face so long ago. "Yes, that sounds nice. Give my best to the ponies as well. You always seemed to do better at communicating with them."
"It’s nothing, really." Little Strongheart turned to Appleloosa. She was growing anxious, slowing down with each step she made. While she and Braeburn didn’t dislike each other, their time together was so brief. How did that time come to mean so much to her? She shook her head, not wanting to think about it. She found thinking never solved anything, acting did. She picked up her pace, finally reaching Appleloosa.
Her treatment in the town wasn’t perfect. Not everyone was ready, maybe even willing, to let the near destruction of their town by stampeding buffalo go, but that only made sense. She expected a lot more scorn from her appearance than she actually got, but some ponies were just willing to let bygones be bygones. It warmed her a little and she was happy for it. She even smiled to one and waved her hoof. "Greetings," she said to the pony.
The pony responded by sticking his tongue out at her.
"That… was just bad luck," Little Strongheart told herself.
She searched the town for Braeburn, and found him by the train station, giving a loud, heart-felt greeting to the tourists: Two mares, one with a foal, one without.
Carrot Top did not believe in destiny. A mind honed by science had killed all of her childlike beliefs of the notion, but she had found happiness in understanding. If the world proposed to her a problem, she would solve it with science, but no science had prepared her for the most handsome stallion to ever place himself before her unworthy eyes.
"You must be Miss Top?" the stallion asked, offering his hoof to her. His voice, now, was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. A voice that would bring a hundred winged unicorns to weep if that many existed. "Uh, you are Miss Top, right?"
Carrot Top realized she had been gawking at the stallion for a good five minutes. "Y-yes," she fumbled, "I am Miss Top, like you said. It's Carrot Top for full. That’s my full name and all. Carrot. Then Top," she giggled nervously, fumbling her words with a level of social awkwardness that beget a filly with a school yard crush.
"I'm Derpy Doo!" Derpy boisterously stepped in. "And this cute little filly is my daughter, Dinky Doo."
"Call me cute and I'll bite you," Dinky growled.
"A pleasure to meet all of you! My name's Braeburn," he introduced himself, bowing formally. "Your company, Agrivo-whatsit, is paying me to show you to your paid for house and where you’ll be doing all that sciencey stuff. I’m no good at science personally, but hay that’s what you’re here for!" He smiled as he jumped up on his hind legs and came back down with the exuberance of a colt; a colt in the body of a dangerously handsome stallion. No lonely mare as old as Carrot Top stood a chance against such a dangerous combination.
Carrot Top continued to gawk, her jaw hanging in the air, unable to form a decent response back to Braeburn.
"Is she okay?" Braeburn asked Derpy-Doo, motioning to the paralyzed mare in front of him.
"Maybe? I’ve never seen her like this." Derpy stared at her friend, a little worried that she might be broken. "Maybe if we hit her? That always works with the toaster," Derpy suggested.
"It’s against my policies to raise my hoof to a mare," Braeburn protested. "Miss Top, are you okay?" Braeburn asked as his face got dangerously close to Carrot Top’s.
Little Strongheart broke out into a panicking sweat. She couldn’t see anything from her vantage point, but the literal stallion of her dreams was getting closer and closer to this new mare who she had never met before. "What do I do?" she whispered to herself, growing anxious. "I... I do not know how to deal with this."
Braeburn inched closer to the new mare, coaxing more panic out of Little Strongheart. "Calm down," she told herself, turning away from the scene. "It could just be a misunderstanding… right?" She straightened her posture and cleared her mind. She turned back to Braeburn and the new mare. He had just pecked the new mare on the cheek.
Carrot Top collapsed to the floor, or more accurately, like a breeze would topple over a broom.
"Oh wow, Mr. Braeburn. I don't think that worked," Derpy commented, Dinky struggling not to fall off her mother's back as she contained her laughter.
"Odd, always worked with my lil' sister," Braeburn responded, examining Carrot Top's face closely. "She's as red as a beet! I didn't think she would get heat stroke already!" Braeburn started to fan Carrot Top's face. "Miss Top! Miss Top! Are you okay?"
Carrot Top smiled back stupidly, as she gazed into Braeburn's eyes: a stunning green.
"This is going nowhere," Dinky sighed. "Why don't you go grab a carriage while leaving Carrot Top to us."
"That's a good idea lil' filly. I'll be back in two shakes." Braeburn turned and galloped off. Once he was far enough, Carrot Top shot back to life, babbling inanely.
"H-he k-k-kissed me!" Carrot Top, her mane bobbing up and down as she shook with giddyness.
"Yep, said something about working on fillies in school who acted like that to him and his sister."
"That stallion... he’s the most handsome stallion I have ever seen," Carrot Top swooned, losng balance and landing on her back. "No one told me Appleloosa had stallions like… like that!"
"I don’t know. He looks like he’s missing something." Derpy's eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Not all of us solely fancy unicorns," Carrot Top sang as she gazed off in the direction Braeburn took off in.
"T-there's a filly with us!" Derpy shot back, covering her daughters ears, who only snickered at her mother's embarrassment.
Little Strongheart had died and gone to the great stampeding trail in the sky the moment she saw Braeburn kiss the mare. Her body had stayed behind on earth, trapped in a limbo of unfulfilled wishes, a hollow buffalo with no life left.
"Well goooooooood morning, Lil' Strongheart," Braeburn called to her, prompting Little Strongheart's soul to stampede out of the afterlife and straight back into the realm of earthly desires. "I haven’t seen you since your tribe stampeded off so long ago."
"H-hi!" she stuttered, embarrassed. "Oh! Hey, Braeburn. Yeah, haven’t seen you since then… either." In her mind, she was berating herself for having trouble forming a sentence. She had never had trouble just talking before. "Uh, nice fillyfriend? I didn’t know you had one." She prayed to every father before her that somehow, someway, he and the mare he kissed had nothing between them.
"Fillyfriend?" Braeburn looked confused for a moment before letting out a quick giggle. "Oh, silly! You mean Miss Carrot Top. She and I ain't anythin' like that." Her forefathers answered back, causing Little Strongheart to quietly rejoice. "I just met her today. She’s here on official-like business."
"Really," Little Strongheart almost yelled out, "that’s all?"
"Well, her business firm or somethin' is paying me to kinda chaperon her around town since she’s new here and all. So I’ll be with her for awhile. Least until she’s got the lay of the land. So what brings you here?" he asked.
"Apples!" Little Strongheart blurted. "You know. Apples. Can you… grab me some?" she squeaked. "I don’t really know my way around town, either," she lied, but no one knew that
"No problem," Braeburn answered back with superfluous exuberance, "but I need to grab a carriage for Miss Top first. I’m afraid she’s getting heat stroke and has gone and blanked out." Braeburn expressed some worry for the mare. "City-ponies sure are sensitive."
"Oh, let me help." It was her perfect chance to get some time with him. "It will go faster, and then you can grab me those apples." It seemed like the perfect plan to spend time with him to Little Strongheart, albeit it was to help the mare that she was, moments ago, afraid was too close to Braeburn.
"Why thank you, Little Strongheart." Braeburn smiled back at her, causing Little Strongheart to feel a little weak kneed.
"It is no problem," she replied. "Just lead the way." She had decided then that she would have no reservations about her feelings for Braeburn. She liked him, and she hoped that was more than enough.
"I have decided," Carrot Top announced to the Doos, standing proudly with a look of purpose in her eyes, "that I am going to win Braeburn!"
"Speaking of which, I think I see him on his way back." Derpy motioned to the approaching figures: a pony, a buffalo, and a carriage. "Go and get him!" She pushed Carrot Top foward, trying to be encouraging for her friend who once again began to fall apart.
"W-what? No, I'm not ready he's almost here and how’s my mane!?" Carrot Top rambled on as she started messing with her mane, hoping to smooth some of the messier curls and split ends. "Oh, Celestia, help me."
"Miss Top! You’re up again!" Braeburn whinnied as he pulled the carriage up to them. " Why, that’s great." Behind Braeburn, and awkward looking buffalo cow stared at Carrot Top almost menacingly.
"Y-yeah," Carrot Top stuttered as she tried to ignore the buffalo, "I am... quite fine, and this is?" she asked Braeburn, mind stirring with animosity for the buffalo that was glaring at her.
"Oh," Braeburn motioned to the buffalo, "this is-"
"Greetings," Little Strongheart interrupted Braeburn, determined to introduce herself to the somewhat rude mare, "I am Little Strongheart of the buffalo tribe." Little Strongheart held out a hoof to exchange indignantly with the mare. "Braeburn and I go quite a ways back," she not-so-subtly bragged. This was, to an extent, true.
Carrot Top’s mind snapped right back into action. "Is that so?" She shook the hoof with some indignation of her own. "Well, I'll be spending quite a bit of time with Mr. Braeburn over the coming year," Carrot Top obviously bragged, still shaking the hoof. "I’m in town on official business and Braeburn was hired to be my chaperon till I get a sense of the area." Which won’t be happening any time soon, Carrot Top thought to herself.
The two stared at each other, moments passing by and a white hot intensity surging between the two. Little Strongheart and Carrot Top had an immediate understanding of the other; competition for Braeburn, but he, on the other hand, didn’t suspect a thing.
"So, shall I show you to your new place, Miss Top and Miss Doo?" Braeburn asked innocently.
"Oh, that would be great!" Derpy replied. "I could go for a nap, and maybe something to eat."
"I-I suppose that would be a good idea." Carrot Top looked behind her to the pile of delicate boxes filled with scientific instruments that she brought with her. She needed to get them all unpacked and sorted right away if she wanted to be ready to tackle her job the next day.
"Well, that’s great!" Little Strongheart interrupted Carrot Top’s train of thought. "Is this your stuff over here?" Little Strongheart was already beside the precious cargo. "Here, let me get that for you."
"Wait! No! Stop!" Carrot Top cried as she noticed Little Strongheart back up a few feet.
Little Strongheart charged forward and successfully head-butted the cargo right onto the top of the carriage. Carrot Top could hear every little glass fracture from within the cases, slowly killing her from the inside out.
"Incredible, Lil' Strongheart!" Braeburn whinnied with impressed fervor. "That was amazing!"
"Oh, you know, nothing for somebuffalo like me." Little Strongheart patted her chest with bravado, proud for the feat of strength she displayed and happier that she managed to impress Braeburn.
"My tools!" Carrot Top howled in anguish. "My precious tools!"
"Tools?" Little Strongheart questioned.
"Yes!" Carrot Top turned back to Little Strongheart, seething. "My microscopes are in those boxes and they are extremely delicate and you just went and did that! Are you insane!?"
"Uh, oops." Little Strongheart was taken aback by the suddenly angry mare. "Sorry?"
"Oops! What if that was loaded with a deadly virus that could wipe out half of all life on the planet!?" Carrot Top screamed. Everyone began to look at her worryingly, not making a single sound.
"Is it?" Derpy asked, finally breaking the silence.
"No, Derpy-Doo… no it isn’t," Carrot Top answered, annoyed it was Derpy who had to ask.
"Then there isn’t a problem," Little Strongheart retorted, turning away from the flustered mare.
"That doesn't change that you could have broken everything! You can’t just go around head butting other pony’s valuables!" Carrot Top screamed at the top of her lungs.
"You can’t?" Little Strongheart asked worryingly, afraid she had made a cultural faux pas.
"She has a point, Lil' Strongheart. You can’t," Braeburn told her. Just the fact that he told her made it all the more worse.
"I-I’ll be more careful from now on," Little Strongheart quickly replied defensively.
"You should!" Carrot Top yelled back, causing Little Strongheart to back up a little.
"Miss Top, it was an accident." Braeburn stepped up next to Little Strongheart. "No need to cause a scene now."
Carrot Top, Derpy and Dinky were eventually loaded into the carriage. Carrot Top was still steaming from the encounter with the buffalo and ranting about it. "Who does she think she is, just waltzing in and then making me angry and looking bad in front of… in front of Mr. Braeburn."
"I think she’s called Little Strongheart," Derpy answered.
"Thank you for stating the obvious," Carrot Top sighed.
"No problem!" Derpy took a moment to register the insult. "Hey! That’s pretty rude you know."
"I’m sorry, but that buffalo just got me so riled up," Carrot Top ranted. "Those tools are delicate and without them my job will be so much harder!"
"So why don’t you ask Braeburn to help you find replacements," Dinky piped up.
"I doubt this old time town has the tools I need," Carrot Top dismissed the filly.
"Yeah, but does he know that?"
"Well of course he doesn’t." Carrot Top's eyes suddenly lit up. "He doesn’t! I can have him running errands for me all day since he was hired by my firm. I can make him get this and that and he’ll have no choice but to spend time with me! Oh, Dinky you’re a genius!"
"Somepony here has to be." Dinky smirked.
"My filly is the cutest, smartest filly in the world!" Dinky’s attempts at looking cool and grown up were tragically destroyed by her mother’s insatiable need to hug the filly at every turn. It was as if she planned it.
Outside the carriage, Little Strongheart and Braeburn were making their way to Carrot Top’s temporary estate, pulling the carriage for her as a one-time town courtesy. Little Strongheart kept searching her mind for a conversation to start up with Braeburn, who took no notice of her slight uneasiness as he whistled a happy tune; the same tune that a pink mare sang way back when she first met him. "Is that the 'you gotta care' song?" she asked.
"Yep!" Braeburn happily replied, smiling back to her.
"Isn’t it, kinda… terrible? I mean it drove my tribe to try and…" she wished she could take back the statement.
"Well, it may not be the next Sapphire Shores single, but I never really cared much for modern music anyway, and that mare was right. You gotta share and you gotta care. We don’t get anywhere being all mean to one another. Plus, I think it’s kinda catchy," he proudly stated, no sense of shame at all. He was quite proud of his liking of the song.
Out of the mouth of that pink mare, Little Strongheart thought the words seemed like empty and idealistic fluff, but coming from Braeburn, it sounded like the words of a saint. Although, I am quite biased, she mused to herself. "I guess you are right, Braeburn."
"Oh?" Braeburn turned to Little Strongheart, sporting a cheesy grin. "Then want to sing the chorus with me?" he asked, his smile and genuine exuberance making it difficult for Little Strongheart to say no.
She asked herself is she was ready to publicly humiliate herself for him? As it turns out, yes, she was. She searched her memories, trying to remember any part of the song. "You got to share?" she started.
"You gotta care!" Braeburn sang. "It’s the right thing to do!"
"You got to share!" Little Strongheart could feel herself getting more and more into the embarrassing song.
"You gotta care! And they’ll always be a way through!" The two of them started to laugh as Braeburn finished the chorus. "All right. It is mighty cheesy," he admitted, "but I still like it."
"It fits you," Little Strongheart commented, staring dreamily at him before she caught herself and turned away. "It fits you... really well."
Back inside the carriage, Carrot Top giddy planned out the ways she would get Braeburn to spend time and make him fall in love with her in a scientifically mad and methodical manner. "By this time next week I'll have him kissing my hooves."
"Uh, Carrot Top, don't you think you're being a little too..." Derpy paused for a moment, trying to find the right world to use for the orange pony, "neurotic about all this? If you like the colt, shouldn't you just ask him on a date?"
"What!?" Carrot Top shouted, nearly falling off her seat. "I-I can't date. No, no, no, no. I can't date!"
"Why?" Derpy asked, curiously and innocently.
"Well… I, I mean look at me." Carrot Top motioned to herself, confusing Derpy further.was at a loss for words. "I’m hopeless!" she finally cried out, tossing her forelegs into the air. "I have nothing. I-I’ve never flirted before. I spent my whole life looking at dirt! Dirt! What can I talk to him about? How PH values affect crop growth! He doesn’t care about that! He wants a young mare with a tight plot and legs as long as the princess!" she cried. "I’m fat and stumpy!"
"No, no you’re not that!" Derpy tried to calm down Carrot Top who was in the midst of an emotional breakdown. "Well, I mean you could stand for a little more exercise," she said, doing little for the situation, "but, what I mean to say is that you have plenty going on in the looks department."
"I do?" Carrot Top turned to Derpy, eyes wide and full of hope.
"Yeah, your curls!" Derpy ran her hooves through Carrot Top's mane. "Nopony in Ponyville had a mane this nice! Why, just touch it up and you'll be beating the colts away with a stick"
"Do you really think so?" Derpy nodded. "Okay then. I’ll just have to wow him with my sense of style," Carrot Top proclaimed with confidence, feeling on top of the world, before remembering something crucial. "I just have no style," Carrot Top muttered in defeat, losing all of her new-found confidence.
"That's why you pay ponies with style to do it for you." Derpy placed a hoof on her back and smiled to try and comfort her friend. "One trip to one of them fancy salons and you'll have styles for miles. Braeburn won't know what hit him."
"Thank you, Derpy. I mean it." Carrot Top was thankful to have at least one friend in her life.
"You have one secret weapon that's sure to grab any stallion's mind: the hot scientist angle," Derpy blurted.
"What is that?" Carrot Top asked, thankful to have Derpy as a personal love guru.
"Well, you take a pair of glasses and bite down on them and-"
"We’re here," Braeburn’s voice erupted from outside. The door to the carriage flung open, and behind Braeburn stood a tiny and broken-down shack with dirty windows and rotting wood. It looked as if the slightest force could bring it tumbling down. "So, what do you think?" he asked enthusiastically.
"It’s…" Carrot Top didn’t want to make herself look worse by saying the shack looked horrible.
"It’s horrible," Dinky blurted for her.
"Well, it just needs a little fixin' up," Braeburn replied, trying to salvage the cozy shack's pride. "Here, I’ll give you the grand tour!" Braeburn merely touched the door and it fell over, letting out a torrent of mice, scurying off to plague other houses. "Uhh... nothing a few screws can’t fix, and an exterminar."
"Or a flamethrower can't fix," Dinky added.
The inside of the shack looked no better. Cobwebs littered every corner and the windows were so dirty that only magic could clean them. "This here is the living room, and kitchen, and dining room. Mighty efficient don’cha think?" Braeburn smiled.
"Yes, very." Carrot Top struggled to remain positive about her living accommodations.
Little Strongheart laughed quietly to herself, finding Carrot Top's over-sensitivity to the rough and tumble frontier habitat. "If you don’t like it, you could move back," Little Strongheart replied, earning a spiteful glare from Carrot Top.
"Over here is your room," Braeburn motioned to one a small room with a single cot before motioning to an even smaller room next to it, "and that’s the guest room which I assume will be occupied by Miss Doo and Lil ’Doo." Braeburn continued the tour.
"I’m not little," Dinky-Doo adamantly stated.
"Well of course you ain’t, Big Doo," Braeburn commented, pleasing Dinky-Doo's bratty ego. "And that’s the tour!" He finished.
"Uhm, Braeburn," Carrot top got Braeburn's attention, "I think you forgot something." She began to turn red with embarrassment. "The lavatory?"
"Laboratory?" Braeburn failed to repeat.
"Bathroom," Carrot Top finally said.
"Oh! We don’t have those," Braeburn replied, still smiling. "You’ll find the outhouse outside." He opened the back door of the house, revealing a little wooden closet sitting out a mile away from the house.
"What!" Carrot Top yelled, mortified. A year. Out in the middle of nowhere. Without a proper bathroom. I'll can't survive like this. "Is there no plumbing?" she asked, feeling her will breaking.
"If you need water we got a well at the center of town." Braeburn took Carrot Top's forehooves, causing her to blush. "I do hope you come to enjoy our quaint lil’ town, Miss Top. I figure it will be hard for you to adapt and all, but, if you need anythin', just let me know. I promise I'll help you."
"W-why thank you, Mr. Braeburn." Carrot Top felt her face growing hotter, to the point that she would have been afraid of passing out, but she welcomed the chance of being caught by Braeburn. "Th-thank you..." she leaned forward, ready to let gravity do the rest.
"Oh! That reminds me!" Braeburn turned around, letting go of Carrot Top and unknowingly dropping her onto the floor. "Huh? Miss Top, are you okay?"
"Peachy," Carrot Top sighed.
"Miss Top can you accompany me somewhere right quick?" he asked, helping her back onto her hooves.
"Uh, o-of course! I would love to." Carrot Top couldn’t have been more ecstatic, completely forgetting her sore face.
"Psst! Hot scientist. Get your glasses," Derpy whispered in her ear.
"Oh, right! Excuse me Mr. Braeburn." Carrot Top quickly ran outside to search her luggage for a pair of glasses, leaving in the shack a confused Braeburn.
"Think she’ll last long?" Little Strongheart asked him. "She’s a citypony through and through."
"Oh I’m sure she’ll be all fine-like after a week. I promised I’d help her after all." Little Strongheart found her comment backfiring.
"That’s awfully nice of you, Braeburn, but, I mean, don’t you have other obligations to the town?" she asked.
"I’ll just finish them all up," he answered with his boyish exuberance. "You gotta care after all. Right, Lil' Strongheart?"
"Yeah. I guess you do." Little Strongheart peeked outside, watching Carrot Top wander between her broken luggage cases with a pang of guilt.
Carrot Top was rustling through many broken luggage cases, a pile of broken tools piled behind her. She finally found the pair of glasses she was looking for: thick, black, angular, horn rimmed glasses. Hardly the alluring kind, but she didn't know that. She donned that specs and rushed back inside. "I’m ready!" she replied in the sultriest voice she could muster.
"Got a frog in your throat, Miss Top?" Braeburn asked, worried.
"What? No. I’m… ready…" Carrot Top replied, blushing, embarrassed, and dejected. Carrot Top of followed Braeburn out of the broken-down house, her legs stiff and face portraying nervousness.
Little Strongheart's eyes fell as she watched Braeburn and Carrot Top leave. It was bad enough that she was now feeling guilty about breaking her luggage. What do I do? she asked herself.
"You like Braeburn, don’t you?" Dinky piped up, grabbing the buffalo's attention and displaying an all-knowing a smug grin. "It's pretty obvious."
"I-I have no idea what you’re talking about," Little Strongheart stuttered, trying to deny Dinky any sense of satisfaction before giving in with a chuckle. She hung her head in defeat and said,
"You are observant for a little one."
"About time somepony, well buffalo, realized. Honestly, it’s as if everypony expects me to just stand around and look cute." Dinky stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"My filly is the most observant, cutest, smartest filly in the world!" Derpy commented as she scooped Dinky into the air, grinning from ear to ear.
"You see what I have to deal with!?"
Carrot Top grew nervous as Braeburn continued to lead her. Where is he taking me? she wondeered. Not a hotel? Would he? Does Appleloosa have a hotel? Do I want to go with him to a hotel? Isn't it too soon? Am I being too prudish? What should I… do!?
"We’re here!" Braeburn called to her, breaking Carrot Top out of her stupor.
Carrot Top looked up at the building with surprise; It was just a clothing store. "We're going shopping?" Carrot Top asked innocently enough, Braeburn responding by opening the door for her. "T-thank you!" she hollered as she galloped into the store. The walls around her were lined with various cowpony clothes and accessories. On the wall next to her she noticed a show-girl outfit complete with fish net socks. Is this what cowponies are into? She blushed just at the thought of wearing something so provocative. "Uh, Mr. Braeburn?"
"Over here!" Braeburn called to her from the opposite wall, much to Carrot Top's relief. "I've got something you need right here."
Be strong, Carrot Top. This is it! She walked over the Braeburn, trying to put on a playful and catty smile. "Now, whatever do I need from you, Mr. Braeburn?" She placed the glasses in her teeth, attempting to look coy.
"A hat!"
A large cowpony hat was placed on her head, nearly covering her whole mane. The one thing she had going for her, and Braeburn didn’t like it. She trembled a little, the glasses falling out of her mouth.
"Hm... Miss Top, is something wrong." Braeburn asked.
"N-no, o-of course not. Why would anything be wrong?" She stared at the glasses now sitting on the floor. She felt silly. Here she was, crushing over a pony she'd never met before, but he liked nothing about her. She couldn’t flirt. She didn't look good. She couldn’t do anything. She was believing in a lie.
"Now, Miss Top," Braeburn’s voice broke into her, "I don’t want to see a cute mare like you being all down and damper. Where’s that smile you had earlier?"
What did he say? He called me cute? He called me cute! Carrot Top gazed upwards, straight into the emerald eyes she fell for not too long ago, her own eyes wide and full of hope. "You think I’m cute?"
Braeburn felt himself turn a little red now, shifting awkwardly at the words that came out of his own mouth. "Well, yeah, I’d be surprised to find anypony who would say otherwise."
"So why are you giving me a hat?" she asked, getting unconsciously closer to Braeburn to the point where their faces almost touched.
"Miss Top, you’ll be working outside in the sun all day. Now, in the city you have them pegasi ponies to help with the weather and all, but out here the pegasi come maybe once every couple of months. We got the sun all to ourselves kinda, filled with warm love. Thing is, warm love gets to you after awhile, so I thought I would get you a hat before you go and get yourself cooked out there."
Carrot Top felt touched by how thoughtful he was. "Thank you, Mr. Braeburn."
"Oh, you can just call me Braeburn."
"Thank you, Braeburn." Carrot Top smiled to herself, hiding behind one of the many curls of her mane.
"No problem. Now why don’t I go pay for that, you pick up your specs, and then we go out for some dinner. I swear, I think you started to eat them specs."
Carrot Top blushed, remembering why she brought them in the first place. Maybe Braeburn was just too down-to-earth for that kind of thing.
"Oh, and pick out a couple of hats for Miss Doo and Lil’ Doo. Don’t tell her I called her that now," he joked. "We can't having them get all cooked either."
Back at the shack, Little Strongheart and Derpy were busy unpacking the carriage. Little Strongheart was doing her best to be gentle, even if it wasn’t in her nature, but she was glad to find she hadn’t destroyed everything. "I think that’s the last of it," she told Derpy.
"Thanks for the help," Derpy replied as she set the last box on the floor and sat on it. "I know Carrot Top will appreciate this."
"It’s no problem, really," Little Strongheart sighed. "It’s the least I can do after my behavior from this morning." As she finished the line, Braeburn and Carrot Top came in through the still-broken doorway.
"We’re back!" Carrot Top called. "And we've got hats."
"Hats!" Derpy exclaimed ecstatically, swooping down and grabbing one with her teeth.
"Yep. I have one here for you too, Dinky." Carrot Top hung the hat at the end of a foreleg to pass it to her. Dinky responded by levitating the hat onto her head with her magic. "You’ve gotten better."
"I’m growing up and maturing into a fine unicorn mare," Dinky explained with her nose raised high into the air, prompting Derpy to barrel at her, lifting her into the air in a strange combination of a pounce and a hug.
"My filly is-"
"Yeah, yeah! The most magical, most observant, cutest, smartest, most mature filly in the world," Dinky interrupted, causing Carrot Top to burst into laughter.
"You snuck one in there." Derpy eyed her daughter inquisitively. "What have I told you about lying?"
"It wasn't a lie." Dinky tried to face away from her mother to hide her prideful smile. "It's all true."
Calming down, Carrot Top surveyed the room, and much to her delight and surprise, everything was unpacked. "Derpy, did you do all this?" she asked.
"Yep, and Little Strongheart helped," Derpy told her, motioning to the buffalo in the room.
"Y-yeah. Sorry again about, well, breaking things. I guess this doesn’t quite make it up, but please accept my apology," Little Strongheart apologized, her head hung low.
"Apology accepted." Carrot Top extended an apologetic hoof of her own. She knew that she wasn't the only one acting out of line. "On one condition."
"What?"
"No hard feelings," Carrot Top told her, winking. Little Strongheart giggled and returned the hoof with her own and a battle-ready look on her face.
"Yeah, no hard feelings," Little Strongheart replied, shaking Carrot Top's hoof. She looked at them all. She had made a friend, a rival, and a crush all in one day. She scratched her head, feeling somewhat left out of the hat phenomenon.
"You want one too Lil' Strongheart?" Braeburn asked, trotting closer to her.
"That would be nice." Little Strongheart liked the idea of receiving a hat, or anything for that matter, from Braeburn, so it delighted her when Braeburn took his hat and placed it on her head.
"Hope you don’t mind if it’s a lil' used."
"Oh! No, I don't mind at all. This is perfect." Little Strongheart couldn’t have asked for a better hat. She turned back to Carrot Top. "No hard feelings?" Little Strongheart chuckled.
Carrot Top readjusted her mouth, clenched her teeth for a moment, and smiled genuinely. "No hard feelings."
"Well if we’re all done with hard feelings why don’t we all eat together! It’s a lot funner than just the one or two of any of us!" Braeburn shouted, bucking open the non-existent door in a moment of vigor. "Uh, I'll fix that later, bur right now the Salt Block is having a special on its soup and sandwich combo."
"Sounds delightful," Carrot Top commented, smiling pleasently.
"I guess I could try some pony food. Oh, I don’t have any bits, and I need a pie to take back to the elder. I'm afraid I'll have to pass," she sighed dejectedly.
"It's all right," Carrot Top replied, putting a hoof around Little Strongheart, who jumped a little. "I'll cover you."
"I hope they have muffins!" Derpy flew up just thinking about her favorite treat.
"I want to order from the adult menu!" Dinky piped up. "I’m a growing mare."
"Well all right everypony and everybuffalo. Let’s go!" Braeburn whinnied, eager to lead his new friends to one of his favorite places to eat. It looked like life was going to become a lot more fun.