Make me your mare!

by MidnightFMare

Chapter three: a day in the life

I walk towards town, miffed at Big Mac "He could've told me that the brakes were on... then again, I did keep interrupting him..."

"What's the matter?" somepony asks, startling me.

I look towards the source, heart hammering in my chest "Who? Oh... hi Cheerilee."

The magenta earth pony grins at me "Well? I don't mean to pry, but you look like somepony annoyed you."

I nod "Yeah, I forgot to take the brake off and I spent a few minutes struggling to move the cart. It's my fault anyways, I wasn't listening to Big Mac."

Her face brightens "Oh? You work for the Apples?"

"Sorta... I'm a friend of Big Macs and I wanted to help with his chores so..." I motion to the cart.

"Hmm... but why are you doing that? It can't be easy for a little mare like you... not that there's anything wrong with being little."

I shrug "I'm comfortable with my stature. And as for why, I just wanted to see the town and Big Mac is a workaholic so it was this or follow him around with a bucket of water and a winch on his yoke and I'm sure there aren't any of those around Ponyville."

She stares at me curiously "What? Why would you do that?"

I walk towards town "He tends to work without stopping, you have no idea how many times he gets heat stroke or dehydration. I have to get to market so have a nice day Cheerilee!"

She waves back slowly, a confused frown on her face Wonder why she lit up when I talked about Big Mac...

I wipe the sweat from my forehead, the invigorating burn of work stinging my muscles This is life... if only I could read while doin' this.

I hear hoofsteps from behind me, the smell of raspberries smothering the smell of apples and work. Mostly of the apples.

"Good morning Big Mac!" Cheerilee says, walking up next to me.

"Mhmm... how can ah help you?"

She grins "Well I was on my way here to ask if you wanted to go get brunch later when I met this most... odd mare. She was pulling a cart of your apples and being a good friend, I asked what she was doing. She said she was helping you but... I thought only Apples were allowed to sell?"

I nod "Ah trust her. She's a good pony."

Her face darkens for a split second but disappears "Oh? I've never seen her around before... is she a relative?"

No, I hide her from other ponies, so that's why you never see her. "Eenope, just an old friend."

She shrugs "Okay, I was just curious. So, brunch?"

"Ah'll still be workin', sorry."

Again, her face darkens for a split second but returns to her smile "Okay then. How's tomorrow?"

I shrug "Maybe."

"Okay, I'll come by tomorrow and ask then, okay?" without waiting for my reply, she trots away.

Wonder why she looked so peeved when I mentioned Smarty...

I shrug and look over my shoulder, the feeling of being watched washing over me.

"Weird"

This was a horrible idea.

I look up from behind the stand and several ponies look around for whoever is supposed to be manning the stall.

Curse my doll-esque stature! I need a stool or something... I sneak around behind one of the other produce stands and grab an empty wooden box and place it behind the stand, hopping on top of it "Sorry folks, How can I help you today?"

One pony who I recognize as Golden Harvest AKA: "Carrot Top" speaks up "Who are you?"

"I'm Smarty Patch, and due to division of labor, I'm the one who is the proprietor today." I smile calmly "Now, The usual selections of products are here today with a price cut by a half bit on Gala."

Soon after, everypony is buying and making chit-chat with me, mostly about why my eyes are different colors Maybe I should see if I can't buy a single contact lens for when I go out... nah, I have pretty eyes.

The usual morning rush abates and I reach into my saddlebags and pull out a nicked box of dry grits and a heat crystal (Amazing what you can find when digging in frustration.)

I walk over to the earthenware and supplies stalls and the pony working the former glares at me "What do you want?"

I fight back the urge to retort and smile "Well, I was wondering if I could purchase a heating bowl."

The pony's demeanor changes and introduces himself "Sorry, I haven't had many customers today... I'm Clay Pot."

I roll my eyes internally and buy one, flicking my tail at him when I turn.

Soon my lunch is hot, and I start to eat, watching the ponies pass by Hm... I've sat near and watched but... being noticeable and life-sized is... better somehow. I sigh I wonder if this is why they say that the simple things in life are the most precious. I can't complain...

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a very familiar pony, Trixie Lulamoon Wonder if she's coming to buy some new earthenware, she does that a lot... must be a chemist or magical thing... Twilight broke a lot of bowls practicing potions... and explosives. SO MANY explosions.

Instead she walks up to me, confusion obvious on her face "You aren't one of the Apple ponies... nevertheless, I wish to purchase some gala, do you have any left?"

I nod and set my half-eaten lunch on the heating crystal "Yup, right there in front, two and a half bits for a bushel, four if you buy two bushels."

She smiles and pulls five bits from her bag and levitates the apples into her saddlebags, and sets the bits in front of me.

I smile and reach to give her fifth back but she's already gone without a trace "Huh... that was nice."

I lay on my stomach, watching nature.

"Hey there Big Blue..." a sleepy, relaxed voice says from behind me before the familiar smell of pines, ash, and gum tree hits me.

Tree Hugger.

I turned and she lays on her back, a long robe of silk covering her whole body save her head "Macintosh" I correct, but mostly out of habit, because while I've known her since we were foals, she's never called me by anything except "Big Blue" or "Blue Mountain"

Synesthesia is a peculiar thing.

"No, you're blue, like... blue Blue..." she pauses "I'm not arctic-you-lating that right, am I?"

"'Articulating' and no, ya ain't."

She shrugs and cocks her head "Blue, you got some... pinkish violet... right here." she pokes my chest, right where my heart is "Like, a crabgrass cluster took root... and is getting... thick an... wild."

I ponder this and shrug "Dunno. How was th' meetin'?"

She smiles "'Convent', and awesome. All the spirits were chill and... they told me that I was doing my vocal-elation rightish... said that Shy is a good envoy of The Red. And I'm the most... most..." she blinks several times and scratches her mane "Huh, that's not cool..."

"What?"

She stands and looks around "All the animals split... like a predator or something is messing with the flow..."

I look around as well and the entire meadow is deathly silent, not even the gentle wind was blowing "Odd..."

She walks up to a willow and puts her hoof on its branches touching the ground "... - - - - -"

I shiver, whenever she starts "Talking" to the flora, my magic quakes, especially since Apples have higher magical capacity than most earth ponies.

She steps away and shakes the branches in a hoofshake "Thanks sister..."

I cock my head "What is it?"

"Nothing much, pegasi accidentally shifted the air pressure a smidge. spooked the animals and nixed the wind."

I nod and she sits back down, her eyes closing and she starts whistling into the grass, filling the clearing with her holistic music.

I listen intently, my mind's eye filling with swirling green vines weaving in the wind, the smell of crisp mint and clover carried by the breeze, and I envision myself on a grassy knoll, Smarty Patch and Tree Hugger at my sides, all three of us silent and content, letting the wind carry our minds to the heavens above.

Perfect harmony.

The song tapers off, and I open my eyes slowly, memorizing the image "Big waves there Blue, right in your core... blood... thing."

"'Heart'?"

She nods, and a scrub jay lands in her mane.

"It's hard to take ya seriously when ya have a bird on your head." I say, amused at her obliviousness.

She shrugs "'S cool. Anyways... what were we talking about?"

"... Ah can't remember."

"Awesome. So... why are you going violet on me Blue? Got a pretty something now?"

I laugh and the bird gives me a glare "Nah, it's just... a friend. Ah made a new, old friend."

She nods "Righteous. Always make friends, no matter if they can be seen or heard by only you and Mother Nature... though I'm pretty sure Father Time is deaf..." she shrugs "What shall be, can be, and it's up to us to feel it at our leisure or as it comes. Or... something like that, being illiterate sucks sometimes."

I snort "Yup, guess it would."

She sighs "You know what I wish I could do? I wish I could let anypony see the way I do. I think it'd be nice to talk to somepony who sees the swirling of light and textures of air..." she yawns, her jaw popping "It seems to me that... there is so much more to the world that the average eye can see. I've been given a gift that lets me see beyond the surface, to watch all of those tiny, beautiful things swirl and mesh and come together and pass in turn to a music only I can hear. It's... so incomprehsively beautiful, and nopony but me can see it..." she sniffs, tears springing to her eyes "By the world tree, am I sleepy..."

I stare at her "Ya almost had me thinkin' that you were cryin' from sadness."

She laughs "Nah, I cry when a soul is extinguished for no reason, or when I stub my hoof on a rock, but that's mostly a reactive thing." she yawns "I'm gonna see if purply-green princess is sleeping..." her neck goes limp and lays againt my shoulder, breathing leveling out.

I shrug and lay my head on my arms, dozing off as well.

I yawn, my bowl licked clean of food "So... bored..."

I look around me and several stall owners are reading books, drawing, or flying around.

I'd wish for something exciting, but then that might end up with me in the middle of a crusade or a terrible plight... 'May you have an interesting life' as the neighponesse say.

I'm about to doze off when somepony clears their throat "Huh? Yes?"

Standing in front of the stall is a very dapper looking stallion, a shining suit and a pair of glasses on his nose glisten in the sunlight "Hello, I was wondering if you worked for or were related to the Apple family."

"I'm more of a 'Friend volunteering' than a 'Paid worker'" I say, something in the back of my mind saying not to trust him.

He smiles slightly, but the rest of his body radiates stillness "Well, I wish to ask the Apples to allow me to improve the quality of their harvesting."

I blink and walk out from behind the stall, and look him over "You're... a pegasus, who want's to improve the work of earth ponies. Unless your employer or thinkers are unicorns..." his eyes narrow, a glint of worry shining through "This is a scheme. Sorry, but you can try to rip somepony else off."

He grits his teeth "I assure you that I am acting in complete honesty and benevolence-"

"Benevolence denotes superiority; are you saying that you or your company are superior to several hundred strong, trained, and agriculturally inclined individuals? Or is it because you think we're 'Mud Ponies'?"

Several stall owners look over at us, but the stallion doesn't notice "You want to throw this opportunity away because of syntax?"

I grin "Syntax is how the rich stay rich, and the poorer taking from the rich because they never read the lines between the lines in small print." I grin slyly "You haven't any idea who you're trying to swindle, or maybe you do, because the smell of 'Flim Flam cologne: green sprite' is unique in it's pungent odour."

The stallion stutters out something, but the spell is shattered and the stallion is revealed as Flim in disguise, another pony on the other end of the market gulps and beats a hasty retreat.

Right into Applejack's extended hoof, clotheslining the stallion who morphs into Flam, his eyes unfocused.

I clap my hooves "Woo! Earth pony power!"

Flim looks both ways and his horn lights up but an uppercut lands under his chin, launching him into graceless mid-air cartwheels.

"YEAH!" Bulk Biceps says, dropping a bag of bits on the stall's table.

I mimic his pose "YEAH!"

I reach under the table and pull out the apples he bought and he gallops away without a sound into the sunset.

"There goes a stallion of few words..." I say, saluting his retreating figure and pause "Wow, I can't believe that I didn't see him come up..."

Applejack gallops towards me, worry in her eyes "Are ya okay?"

I nod and point to the dazed and bruised form of Flim "Fine, him? not so much..."

Life is weird.