> Garden of Memories
>  by oop
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Harvesting Thoughts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The summer sun of Ponyville was never particularly intense, certainly not enough to cause an issue of health. Ponyville was founded as a farming town because the weather was moderate enough for the apple trees. If apples could survive in Ponyville, then so could carrots…
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that…” the orange maned mare muttered between teeth full of carrot stalk “Maybe you’ll start believing it eventually…”
Golden Harvest was something of a premier in the little town of Ponyville. Unlike her parents, Crimson and Viridian Harvest, she was a carrot farmer. Carrot Top Ranch was the only plot of farmland within a forty mile radius not primarily devoted to the production of apples, and probably one of the least successful. While apples or grapes could be especially sweet, or tart, or sour, vegetables were mostly just vegetables, leaving Golden as a mostly subsistence farmer.
As she stood up, bringing a full orange carrot with her, her mind briefly flashed back to her high school days. Sure she still used some of the math matrixes for planting strategy and just the slightest bit of biology for cross pollination, but by in by she still felt it was a waste of time. The other students all had enormous ambitions, a certain group of six in particular were devoted to music, and she was far from a shoe in. Her greatest accomplishment was pushing past her parents only desire for her to carry on in the apple trade.
She sighed, lifting the now full bucket of carrots up onto her back, looking from side to side at her field, well, hardly a field really, it was more of a garden. Carrots weren’t her only crop of course, there were cabbages and tomatoes and even a little patch of spinach. It was true she didn’t have a particular abundance of customers, but that only reinforced her desire to keep the ones she had satisfied. After all, they were really her only source of spending money.
Golden smiled wryly as she added the carrot bucket to a stack of seven or eight others just like it. Her real subsidence was actually potatoes, which with a little butter provided all the necessary nutrients for a pony to live on,  but she was particularly partial to carrots. It was somewhat confusing to her that no one else considered her favorite treat nearly as succulent as she did, but business was business, and there was no business like carrot business.
Carrot jokes were really very bland, even in her own mind. She had just been around them far too long without a single employee to ease the burden. She just couldn’t afford good help with the standard of living as high as it was in the modern economy. It wasn’t as if one measley carrot farm had the potential to create a large number of jobs for poor Equestrians anyway. She looked up, depressed from the long tiring day and even more tiring thoughts, suddenly greeted by the sight of two pony figures on the horizon, walking in her direction. Naturally her immediate thought was that some pony new in town had gotten themselves lost. As a matter of fact, instructions back to Ponyville were already on her lips when she saw that one of them was running toward her. Running…? Now why might some pony be running out here in the summer sun?
“C. Top!” a voice called out “C. Top! Is that you?” Golden could hardly believe her eyes as the features of the running pony came into focus. A unicorn, but her horn was hidden every few moments by an explosion of a blue mane that blended perfectly against snow white fur. No, it couldn’t be…
“Vinyl…?” she was only able to say the one questioning word before she was brought into a forceful hug by the alabaster unicorn. It was both unexpected and unwelcome as she landed in the fresh tilled soil with the mix of a thud and a splatter.
“Oops, I guess I overdid it,” said Vinyl, laughing as she extricated herself from the disgruntled orange earth pony “What have you been up to? You look like you’ve been working hard!”
“Vinyl, apologize,” came a much more dignified, but equally familiar voice from behind them “I really am terribly sorry Golden Harvest, Vinyl has been somewhat excited to be visiting her old haunts again…”
“Yeah, sorry C. Top,” said Vinyl, helping her out of the dirt with an awkward grin.
“It’s fine…” said Golden, bringing herself into a slightly more dignified standing position “And hello to you too Octavia.” She said, indicating the gray furred earth pony who had stepped forward with her friend “What brings two big shot music ponies like yourselves out to the Ponyville boondox?”
“Oh don’t be so hard on yourself,” said Vinyl “This really isn’t a bad little town! And besides, we all gotta get back to our roots sometimes,” she snickered “Ha, carrot joke…”
Golden gave a very forced laugh “Yes, I suppose…” she said “Would you two like to step inside? I can offer you a fresh salad at the very least.”
“We would be delighted,” said Octavia “That is, assuming Vinyl hasn’t already spoiled her appetite.”
“We stopped at Lyra and Bonbon’s place first…” Vinyl explained as Golden opened the door for them “What can I say? I kind of acted like a kid in a candy store. Did you know they’re a couple now? That completely blew my mind!”
Golden merely shrugged and walked to the fridge. Of course she knew, everyone in Ponyville knew. The idea of two mares dating as they were was one of the most controversial issues that had ever rocked the little town. When the two had moved into the same household nasty rumors had swept through the population like tar through a grate. Not that it stopped anyone from buying Bonbon’s confections, or paying to hear one of Lyra’s harp melodies. It was their talent far more than their lesbian relationship that made them famous.
“Holy Celestia, this looks fantastic!” Vinyl exclaimed as she was presented with a bowl of Gold’s freshest lettuce, tomatoes, and of course carrots, “Did you grow all this yourself?”
“Um, yes, I did,” said Gold as Vinyl shoved her entire face into the bowl “I know it isn’t much but I like to think I do alright.”
“This is delectable, Harvest,” said Octavia, eating the lettuce leaves one at a time in a much more dignified manner “Don’t doubt yourself, it’s brilliant farmers like yourself that Equestria relies on in order to grow and prosper.”
“Thanks…” said Gold dryly as she sat down to her own bowl. It was much earlier than she usually ate lunch, but it would be quite rude not to share the meal with her guests.
“By the way, have you seen Derpy or the Doc around lately?” asked Vinyl “We asked around town but no pony’s seen either of them.”
“No, I haven’t,” said Gold, curious at the fact she hadn’t questioned this before now “Actually I think the last time I saw either of them was the wedding…”
This delivered another sharp stab of nostalgia to Gold. It was true that she wasn’t very deeply involved with Vinyl and Octavia’s friend group, but everyone knew about the strange brown stallion and the blonde wall-eyed pegasus. They were anamolies to the high school social class but were also accepted more than a larger town’s standards might have allowed for. Not quite outcasts, they were Ponyville High’s most famous couple. They had gotten married on the day they finished senior year and then stepped into The Doctor’s strange travelling box and haven’t been seen since.
“That was over a decade ago,” said Gold, trying to rationalize just how long it had been “I remember he said something about ‘The end of the chameleon arc’ but I don’t know anything about that…”
“Well wherever they ended up I’m sure they arrived there together,” said Octavia, dabbing at invisible dirt on her cheeks with a napkin.
“Yeah, even if it’s like, dead or something,” said Vinyl with a shrug.
“I would prefer not considering that one as one of the more likely scenarios,” said Octavia “But yes, even if that blue box of theirs failed I’m sure they’re fine.”
Vinyl and Octavia fell into a sort of mock argument, during which time Gold lapsed into another memory. Colgate had been one of her friends, perhaps her best friend considering there was so little else to use as comparison, but she  could hardly remember what they had even done together. Colgate had moved to Canterlot to become a big shot in dentistry and now only kept in touché via an occasional letter.
“Is something the matter Golden?” asked Octavia, clearly noticing her quiet demeanor.
“No,” said Gold, slightly bored now as she realized that there was almost nothing she had to catch up with these two about. Deciding to throw one more conversational curveball she asked “Have you two found some pony to settle down with yet…?”
Vinyl and Octavia fell into a simultaneous blush and looked away from each other. “No,” they said at the same time.
Gold could have laughed, all too familiar with that expression. It was the exact same look that Lyra and Bonbon had always had when they were confronted. She decided to let the matter drop before things got serious, opting to another conversation starter, maybe a less awkward one, like the long boring speech of what their latest music had been…
In the end Vinyl and Octavia left the farm before two, with a somewhat hasty goodbye and a few hugs exchanged. As they walked off down the rows of carrot sprouts Gold saw their tails entwine. It made her feel somewhat hollow inside, just based on the fact that they had gone so far and done so very little…
She smiled, well of course they had found each other, they didn’t have a farm to keep up with. When she really let it boil down she wouldn’t trade her little carrot plantation for anything in the world. And as she walked out to continue the harvest she couldn’t help but notice a red coat off in the distance on the next door apple farm. She blushed slightly, berating herself for the sort of silly thoughts her mind was giving her, then turned back to her work.