Remeberance 2

A few days has passed, and Apple Smith could help but, still thinking about that mare. He was angry at her, yet at the same time was fascinated by her. Before he dwell any further he was interrupted by a little black colt.

"Excuse me, Mr. Smith?" the young colt asked. Apple Smith tilted his head downward and spotted the little black pony. This colt's coat was a very dark gray, a total opposite of his very bright golden hair with a few strand of white hair.

"Hey, Gold Mine" the green stallion said as he looked down into the little colt's yellow eyes. "What can I get you?"

"Welllllll my mommy told me to pick up five apples" he said, his voice sounding very energetic.

"Well Gold Mine, each apple here cost two bits each. Can you tell me how much bits you need for five apples?"

The little dark grey colt calculated the math in his head. "Oh oh, I know. Ten bits....for five apples!" he exclaimed.

The green stallion smiled at the little colt. "That's right Gold Mine, good job!" he congratulated him. Gold Mine then took out his pouch containing the bits and slowly counted them.

"Here you go mister." the colt gave the bits to him.

"Hey Gold Mine, do you want to earned another apple?" Smith asked, gaining the little colt's attention. "Don't worry it's pretty easy. All you have to do is stay here and watch over my stand while I go to the washroom. Do this and you'll earned yourself a sixth apple."

Gold Mine smiled and agreed to do it. With that taken care of he can finally use the restroom. A couple of minutes later he returned back to the stand and saw that all the apples are gone.

"Wow!" Smith yelled out, sounding amazed. "Gold Mine did you sold all my apples, while I was gone?" eh questioned the little colt.

"Oh yes I did Mr. Smith." Gold said proudly. "In fact this single lady came and bought all of these apples."

"Amazing, was is it Smelly Wealthy?" he asked about the town's resident rich pony/? "No sir, it was this red mare."

Upon hearing those words, the green stallion felt a sense of dread in his gut. "This red mare wouldn't happened to be named Scarlet Scent would it?" Smith asked the colts, hoping to be wrong.

"Why yes, that's her name!" the colt said cheerfully. "She even payed for all the apples with this gem." Gold Mine showed  Smith a small blue gem. Apple Smith picked up the gem and closely inspect the small shiny rock.

He remembered learning this from his father, when he was just a little colt. What Smith learned from him, was the ability to to tell a difference between a real gem and a fake one. The one in his hoof is definitely a fake.

"Say, Gold Mine. You wouldn't happen to know where Scarlet is, do you?"

"Oh yeah I do," he answered. He then pointed his little hoof into the market place, indicating that she was in the middle of the market place.

"Thanks," he said and left the little black colt b himself.

Apple Smith trotted further into the marketplace, until his eyes were drawn to a large crowd gathering in front of a large machine on stage. The machine itself was strange, it was all made up of metal, covered in rivets, and there was a bunch of tubes and wires hanging around.

However, the strange machine wasn't the only thing on stage, besides it was a certain familiar red mare. Scarlet Scent was sporting a red and white stripe vest, along with a boater hat.

"Ladies and gentlestallions" she shouted out. "Gather here and be amazed by this wonderful contraption!" The more she yelled out, the more ponies gathered in front of the stage. All of them curious of what that machine behind her does.

"Now y'all probably wondering, what this machine behind me does? To answer your question let me ask you something." Scarlet then picked a mug of cider and showed it to the crowd of ponies.

"Now I may be new here but, I've heard that all of you enjoy a nice cool mug of ciders, right?" she rhetorically asked and the crowd murmured in agreement.

"Yes, having a cider would be nice. However, the process of making it, is quite long and exhausting." She then turn and faced the machine. "But with this contraption, you can get yourself some cider in mere seconds."

The crowd of ponies whispered amongst themselves. Many were quite skeptical over the red mare's claims.

Sensing the ponies skepticism, Scarlet decides to give a demonstration. She took a couple of apples and placed them into the machine. After that she pushed a few buttons and pulled a lever. The large machine sprung to life, inside the crowd can hear loud noises. The sound varied from the grinding gears to the sound of steam coming out from the top.

Just as she said, in a couple of seconds a mug appeared in a hatch and cider was poured right in. Scarlet picked up the cider and gave it to the nearest pony. The pony took and drank it. "By gosh, this is really good!" the pony said happily.

"See folks my ciders are genuine!" she stated to large audience of ponies. "Now eveypony, who want some ciders!" After saying those words the crowd yelled out, wanting a cider.

"Alright folks get you bits ready because I'm turning on the machine!" she shouted and poured more apples into the machine. Soon the machine was spewing out cider after cider, each one given to a very happy customer.

Seeing an opening Apple Smith got on stage and made a beeline to the red mare. Scarlet was too busy counting the bits to notice him coming. The green stallion poked the mare with his hoof, gaining her attention.

"Oh well Hi there Smithy," she spoke cheerfully.

It took Smith a second to process the nickname she given him. "It's Smith," he corrected her. "And I'm here for my money."

"Whatever do you mean?" the red mare said. sounding innocent.

"Please, I know you gave Gold Mine a fake gem to pay off all of my apples."

"Oh, and just how do you know it's fake?"

Smith then took out the gem. "Well for starters, this gem's structure is too perfect. Almost like somepony made it like that. Then lastly-" he dropped the gem on the floor and stomped on it. "They break easily," he continued.

"Oh well goodness me." she gasped. "I didn't know that my gem was a fake."

Even with her sincere answer, Apple Smith can still tell that she was lying.

"Look I'm sorry for my mistake. How about I pay you with my bits I earned from this." She pointed to bag of bits that was filling up with bits from her customers.

The agreement sounds fair but, Smith was still mad about her trickery. The day ended when the last pony payed his bits and drank his cider. Scarlet's bag was full of bits, despite the subtraction to pay off the apples from Apple Smith.

The green stallion was about to leave but, was stopped by the red mare. "Hey buddy cheer up," she said in a friendly tone. "Here take this as a sign of my apology for you." She hoofed a mug of cider for him.

Smith was considering whether he should accept it or outright refused it. Deciding to be the better pony, he accepted her gift and drank it all down.

Another couple of days passed again and Smith was once again in the market to sell his crops. This time it was a variety of vegetables: cabbages, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Now most ponies would find it odd that an apple farmer would be growing other crops.

The reason behind this is because Apple Smith is trying out new crops to grow and sell. The apples pay for most of the stuff but, Smith wanted to get some extra money from these crops. Money has been tight lately for Sweet Apple Acres.

With only him working the farm, the workload was almost too much for him to bear. It also doesn't help that he lost some of the crops from viruses and insects. He wished he could hire somepony to help him on his farm but, that will be costly.

Suddenly Smith was interrupted from his trot by a familiar red pony. Scarlet crashed into him, resulting in both ponies to fall down. "Ouch....watch where your going!" she yelled out.

"Watch where I was going?" he yelled back. "Why the hell were you running?"

Scarlet was about to say something , but she heard something and hid in his wagon full of vegetables. "What are you-" before he could finish his sentence, the red mare shushed him and pointed to something behind him.

Apple Smith turned and saw three large stallions galloping on streets, looking for somepony. Smith can tell that these guys are trouble and that Scarlet must have done something to cross these guys.

"Please you gotta get me out of here." she pleaded to the apple farmer. Smith thought about his options, he could simply refuse and kick her out. However, he has seen the stallions looking for her. They look dangerous and he can't imagine what they would do to her if they got her.

Sure she was a thief and a liar but, he doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. So he decided to take outside of the town. The trip lasted for an hour and Smith stopped at a crossroad. He told his passenger that the one to the right leads to another town. She questioned what the other path leads to, but Smith ignored her and told her to leave.

The red mare did as he said and went on the right path. Once she was out far away did Apple Smith moved. He trotted along the left path, which lead him back to his farm. Smith parked his wagon and stored his crops in a barn. Once done he headed for his house and made himself something to eat.

While eating his meal Smith took a look around the tables and noticed just how empty it was. It wasn't the first time the green stallion felt alone in his home. He misses his family, but knows that they can't stay here. His siblings have their own life, so does his parents.

Still it would be nice to have some company on his farm. After finishing his meal, the farmer called it a night and headed to bed. He'll need his energy for workload for tomorrow.