Forgotten in Manehattan

Chapters

Chapter 2: Caramel's New Friend
Chapter 3: Abandoned and Defended
Chapter 4: Disaster on Bridleway
Chapter 5: Hitting the Highway
Chapter 7: Sweet Apple Salvation
Chapter 8: Forget Me Not, Dear Applejack
Chapter 9: Winter Mess-Up!
Chapter 10: Mission Accomplished
Chapter 11: Nothing More Than Feelings
Chapter 12: A Lucky Survivor
Chapter 13: Blast from the Past
Chapter 14: A Guilt Trip for Applejack
Chapter 15: Confessions
Epilogue
Chapter 1: Misfortune
Chapter 6: The Lull before the Snowstorm

Chapter 2: Caramel's New Friend

Nearly an hour had passed, and the sky was now ablaze with a mixture of blue, orange and yellow as the sun slowly dipped towards the horizon, ready to make way for the moon. One by one, many of the local creatures were tiredly returning to their setts, burrows, nests and warrens for the night, and the only sounds to be heard for miles around were the gentle rustling of leaves in the autumn breeze, accompanied by a soft, soothing chirping sound of a lonely cricket; but even this did little to comfort the tan-furred Earth pony trudging aimlessly through the countless groves of apple trees, head hanging with guilt and sorrow.

Not for the first time in his life, Caramel felt utterly worthless. He had tried his level best for the Apple Family, just as he had always done, but he had only succeeded in spilling a whole basketful of apples, wrecking the cart in which he was supposed to be transporting them, and generally causing an even greater headache for his employers. Just by bothering to exist at all, he had lost a vital piece of farm equipment and caused delay, and to cap it all, he had injured himself to the point where he was unable to make up for his mishaps.

But why, he lamented? Why did everything he said or did end up in broken fences, bruised apples or damaged farm equipment? Why couldn't he complete even a simple task such as apple sorting without a slip-up of some kind? Why did he have to be such a burden on the Apple Family? And far more importantly, why were they still bothering to employ some clumsy, dimwitted buffoon such as him? They had provided him with a home, a secure job, a steady income – they had provided him with almost everything he needed, and yet he kept failing them. So why were they looking past his faults as if nothing had happened?

“Who am I kidding?” he thought aloud. “That Discovery guy's right; I'm nothing but a walking disaster. Why should anypony want me around?”

Gingerly, so as not to hurt his sprained knee, he lay himself down in the midst of one of the groves and buried his face in his right foreleg, sobbing quietly to himself as he let loose the tears that had been building up in his eyes over the last hour or so. As he lay there in the soft, lush grass, he thought back to all the other mishaps that he had caused since he had first arrived here, and how much annoyance they had caused for Granny Smith, for Big Macintosh, for Applejack...

Applejack – that name had always stuck with Caramel since before he had even begun working here. He had known the orange-furred mare a lot longer than he had known the rest of the family, and to this day, he still greatly admired her charm, her good looks, her honest, humble demeanour, but most of all her strong work ethic. She wasn't like most of the mares and fillies he had seen in his youth; they were usually more interested in the latest clothing fashions and their own appearances, and the very idea of putting themselves to good use on such a vast, muddy, yet very important workplace as an orchard would have been enough to make them recoil in disgust. But how ironic it was to think that Applejack's attitude had once been more or less the same...

Caramel's life in Manehattan had always been difficult for him, even before that fateful turn of events that would eventually lead him to a fresh start in Ponyville. The tan-coated colt had come from a wealthy background; his mother was a well-respected socialite and local benefactress, and his father worked as an Equestrian ambassador over in the faraway kingdom of Saddle Arabia. And yet, even though he had that going for him, Caramel always seemed to fail completely at making friends, though for what reason, he could never seem to understand.

Was it to do with his overall personality? Was there something about him that other ponies didn't appreciate? Or was it simply that he came across as a complete loser? He knew it couldn't possibly be anything to do with the way he spoke; busy though her schedule was, his mother cared about him a great deal, and always set some time aside so that she could teach him the language and manners of a true gentlecolt. So how was it that, despite being so polite and considerate, that so many other fillies and colts avoided him like the pony pox?

No matter how hard he tried to find the answer to these questions – nay, mysteries – they always seemed to evade him along with all those other fillies and colts. Even though his mother was always there to lend him a sympathetic ear, he felt like nopony truly cared for him; it was almost as if fate had intended for him to lead a lonely, empty life.

But one day, when he was about eight years old, that was all about to change, even if only for a short while. That morning, he and his mother had gone out for a stroll in Central Park, and as usual, Caramel was getting no end of grief from every other filly or colt who happened to be passing by. Whenever he caught sight of anypony else looking in his direction, he would nod politely back to them; but no matter what he did, they just sniffed and held their heads up high, sometimes muttering something vulgar to themselves about being far out of his league.

Needless to say, Caramel felt deeply hurt. “I don't understand,” he sighed unhappily. “Why does everypony I meet seem to treat me like an outcast? And after all I've done to try and live up to Manehattanite standards?”

“Cheer up, son,” soothed his mother, gently nuzzling against the side of his head in a bid to reassure him. “I'm sure there will be somepony out there who appreciates you for who you are.”

“I wish I could believe that,” muttered Caramel pathetically.

“No, really, Caramel,” insisted his mother, “just because so many other fillies and colts around here are so shallow and vain doesn't mean that nopony will ever like you. Look at me, for example; I've been looking after you ever since you were born, but have you ever heard me complaining?”

Caramel didn't reply. He knew his mother had a point, but after all those other failed attempts at making friends, he still couldn't see anypony else appreciating him at all, let alone to the same extent as she did.

Eventually, the two ponies came to a small lake in the middle of the park, at which point his mother decided to sit down for a while and read through her favourite magazine. Caramel, meanwhile, chose to take a quick trot around the lake and maybe pick up a hot-dog from a nearby stall; but just as he was about halfway round, he noticed a flash of orange against an otherwise green and dull grey background out of the corner of his eye.

Puzzled, he stopped in his tracks and looked over in the direction of whatever it was that had caught his attention. When at last he found it, he could only stare in awe, for there, wandering aimlessly among some nearby trees, was a filly of about a year or so older than him whom he had never seen before. She was orange in colour with a blonde mane and tail, the former of which appeared to have been done in a somewhat ill-fitting “beehive” style, and she had a soft, humble, innocent glint in her leaf-green eyes, which seemed to glance up at the trees every so often as if she expected something to suddenly appear on them. Overall, Caramel found this newcomer rather attractive.

As he watched from afar, the orange filly eventually shook her head resignedly and plodded back towards the lake, muttering incoherently to herself. Maybe now would be a good opportunity to...wait a minute, he interrupted himself, what was he doing? Plenty of other fillies and colts had rejected him the moment he had introduced himself – why should this one be any different? For a moment or two, he could do little more than dither nervously on the spot, trying to make up his mind until he noticed that the filly was walking in his direction. Only then did he manage to make up his mind; if this filly really did want to talk to him, then he was darned if he was going to let the opportunity pass.

“Um...hello,” he stammered shyly.

The filly looked up at him with a small, polite smile. “Good morning to you,” she replied graciously. “Lovely weather we're having, wouldn't you say, dear?”

Caramel opened his mouth to reply, but so taken aback was he that the words just stuck in his throat. Nopony outside of his family had ever spoken so politely to him before; but what really surprised him was that the tone with which the filly had just spoken didn't sound very convincing for a Manehattanite. There was a very awkward silence as he stared at her in confusion, causing the newcomer to raise an eyebrow.

“Is anything the matter?” questioned the filly at last.

Caramel paused again, a hint of unease creeping into his expression. “I, uh...I don't mean to be rude or anything,” he stuttered, “but...that accent of yours...it...well, with all due respect, I...”

“My what now?”

“The tone with which you just spoke,” Caramel clarified. “I hope you'll forgive me for saying this, but...well, you kinda sounded like you were faking it.”

The filly blinked, her expression changing to one of mild dismay. “Did I really?”

“Um...to be frank, yes, you did,” admitted Caramel. Right now, he was beginning to regret what he had just said; that was probably yet another potential friendship out of the window, he thought.

To his utter disbelief, however, the filly looked down at her front hooves with a sigh of defeat. “Ah'm awful sorry, y'all,” she apologised profusely. “Yo' right; Ah was fakin' that 'accent' or whatever ya call it, an' that's 'cause Ah ain't from around these parts.”

If Caramel had been surprised earlier, he was now truly flabbergasted. Just like that, the filly's tone had changed from a poor attempt at a well-spoken Manehattan accent to a thick Southern drawl. “A-aren't you?” he blurted out, stunned.

“Nope – Ah only just moved up 'ere from Ponyville a couple o' days ago,” explained the filly. “Ah used ta live on an orchard with mah parents, mah older brother an' mah Granny Smith, but Ah wanted to try mah hoof at bein' a high society filly, so Ah decided ta move in with mah Aunt Seville Orange an' mah Uncle Moseley Orange. Only thing is,” she went on ruefully, “this city life is sure takin' a lot o' gettin' used to; it's a lot noisier out 'ere than it was at home fo' a start, an' this Manehattanite voice Ah'm havin' ta speak with just don't sound right.”

“Then why are you even bothering with it?”

“So Ah can fit in is all,” said the filly. “Mah aunt an' uncle seem ta think mah normal tone's a tad too quaint fo' them posh ponies.”

At this point, Caramel could only smile faintly at this Ponyville interloper. Knowing as he did what it was like to be judged by one's looks, manners and language alone, he felt rather sorry for her. “I don't,” he countered at last. “I actually think it's...well, kinda cute.”

“Cute?” The filly looked as though she could hardly believe her ears. “Ya mean...ya don't mind me talkin' la'k this?”

Caramel laughed heartily. “Mind? I think I rather prefer that kind of accent to some boring, hoity-toity Manehattanite any day,” he smirked.

Only then did the smile return to the flattered filly's face. “Well, Ah...Ah'm glad ta hear ya think so,” she replied, blushing slightly. Then, in a somewhat shy tone, she uttered the words that Caramel had been longing to hear for years on end; “You, er...wanna be friends?”

Caramel's face lit up. “Really?” he gushed. “Aw, you bet I do, Miss, um...what's your name?”

“Ah'm Applejack.”

“My name's Caramel,” the tan-coated colt responded in kind. “Nice to meet you, Applejack.”

After that, Caramel's life seemed to improve tenfold. Far from feeling lonely and isolated, he began to feel a lot brighter now that he actually had somepony else in his life apart from his own mother, and would spend as much time with Applejack as either one could fit in, especially whenever both were invited to the same social event. Every time they attended a dinner party, they would sit side by side with their hooves intertwined beneath the table, and on occasion, one would come round to hang out at the other's home.

But most of the time, they were to be found frolicking playfully around Central Park, not too far from the very lake where they had first met. Even when they weren't playing tag or having a race, Caramel would listen intently as Applejack told him what her life had been like in Ponyville. As time went on, however, she became rather distant, and her enthusiasm seemed to wane. Caramel noticed this, and naturally was rather worried. As they rested in the shade of an old sycamore tree one afternoon, he decided to ask what was bothering her.

Applejack heaved a deep, longing sigh. “Ah'll be honest with y'all, Caramel; Ah'm startin' ta doubt whether the city life really is the right life fo' me after all,” she replied glumly. “Ah kinda miss bein' among a' them groves of apple trees back where Ah used ta live; out 'ere, there don't seem ta be a single apple tree fo' miles.”

Caramel smiled weakly in an attempt to reassure the orange-coated filly. Even though he had never been away from Manehattan in all his life, and therefore didn't know what it was like to be homesick, it was clear to him that Applejack was going through that exact same phase, and once again, he felt sorry for her. “Aw, never mind, Applejack,” he soothed. “You never know there could be an orchard on the outskirts of Manehattan; if there was, you and I could probably go and take a look around sometime. How's that sound?”

“If there is such a place,” murmured Applejack wistfully.

“There could be,” said Caramel brightly. At that precise moment, an idea flew into his head; “Tell you what, how about...we go see a movie or something? I bet that'd make a nice change from all those dinners and play-dates.”

Applejack paused for a moment to consider this. “Um...yeah, sounds la'k a plan, Ah guess.”

“Okay then. Shall we say...ten o'clock tomorrow morning?”

“Suits me,” conceded Applejack; and with that, the two foals trotted cheerfully back to Caramel's house.

Chapter 3: Abandoned and Defended

Author's Note

Minor note about Brooklyn Dodger: try to imagine him talking in the same voice as Lampwick from the Disney film "Pinnochio", but with a Brooklyn accent.

Chapter 3: Abandoned and Defended

Caramel was up bright and early the following morning. Having finished his breakfast, he quickly explained to his mother about his and Applejack's plans for the day before galloping eagerly off to the nearest cinema. Hopefully, he told himself, there would be something good on that both he and Applejack might like.

The moment he arrived outside the cinema, he wasted no time checking the film posters either side of the entrance. Eventually, he fixed upon one that sported an image of a determined-looking stallion in a cowpony outfit, with an angry herd of buffalo relentlessly chasing after him. At the top of the poster were the words “FROM THE MAKERS OF 'INSPECTOR HORSE' AND 'THE STALLION WHO WOULD BE KING' – 'PONY EXPRESS'.”

“Perfect! That's just the sort of film Applejack might like,” Caramel thought aloud. “Now what time is it on?”

He quickly browsed through the film programme underneath the poster; 08:40, 10:25, 12:15, 14:00...okay, so there were was definitely a screening at about the time he intended to arrive back here with Applejack, and if by some chance they happened to miss it, then there was always another chance at around midday. With that in mind, he cantered briskly back to the penthouse where the Oranges lived, humming a little tune to himself as he thought about all the fun that he and Applejack would be having that day. That lasted until just a few moments after he had knocked on their front door, only to be answered by a surprised Seville Orange.

“Why, Caramel!” she remarked. “I must say, this is a pleasant surprise.”

“Good morning, Mrs Orange,” said Caramel politely. “You know if Applejack's up yet?”

But for some reason, Seville seemed rather reluctant to answer. “Well...about that,” she said gravely, “I'm terribly sorry, my dear, but...well, I'm afraid Applejack won't be able to make it – ever.”

Caramel's eagerness regarding his day's activities swiftly vanished as he began to fear the worst for his friend. “W...what are you talking about?” he exclaimed.

“She left before Moseley and I had awoken,” explained Seville. “We found her bedroom empty, and there was a note on her bed saying that she had decided to go back to Ponyville.”

The sound of Caramel's heart shattering as he took in Seville's words was almost audible. For a whole month, Applejack had given him something that other ponies took very much for granted, something that, at one time, he could only ever wish for. Just by being part of his life, she had given him the gift of friendship, and he was truly grateful for it. And yet, after all they meant to each other, she had turned tail and abandoned what little life she had had here. She had abandoned the Oranges, abandoned Manehattan – abandoned him......but even worse than that, he had lost the only pony he could ever have been able to call a friend. It was as if he was once again being left to live a life of isolation for the rest of his days.

Without even bothering to thank Seville or bid her farewell, he turned and ran back down the steps and onto the street, tears spilling out of his eyes like waterfalls and causing his vision to blur; but even then, he didn't stop until he had reached his own house across the park. Ignoring his startled mother as he barged through the half-open front door, he bolted up the stairs, charged into his bedroom and flung himself across his bed, burying his face in his forelegs as he cried his heart and soul out.

As that final recollection drew to its climax, Caramel gazed tearfully up at the slowly darkening sky, silently wondering whether there was anything that he could have said or done before...no, that wouldn't have done any good. If she had been so eager to get home, then nothing would have dissuaded her, not even for a single day; no matter what he did, he would still have been doomed to spend the next few years of his life at least with no friends and only one family member.

But considering how much he kept messing up at Sweet Apple Acres, he probably deserved it anyhow. Maybe, then, all those other ponies in Manehattan were quite right to avoid him – maybe even victimise him to the point of beating him up. Even so, he still could remember one particular colt who knew better than to hurt the feelings of an unfortunate, heartbroken young soul...

The years rolled slowly by, but still Caramel couldn't get over Applejack's unexpected departure from Manehattan, and gradually descended into a deep, deep depression. He hardly ever left the house, and for the most part remained locked away in his room with the blinds drawn, leaving himself trapped in a gloomy and very dimly lit atmosphere. But he didn't care; now that the one other pony who cared for him aside from his mother had gone, all he wanted was for his life to end.

His mother did everything she could to try and boost his morale, but nothing seemed to work, and eventually she had no alternative but to take him to see their local psychiatrist. The upshot of that little appointment was a rather distressing one; because the tan-furred colt was so far gone, he was forced to take medication for his depression until it had subsided.

By this time, Caramel had passed his final elementary grade and was now attending high school, but predictably things were no better there than they had been earlier. At the very least, he wasn't being avoided anymore; but somehow it felt far more welcoming than the way he was being treated now. Most of the students would make all sorts of horrid remarks about him, and some even deliberately tripped him up when he was making his way along the corridor.

It was made even worse by the fact that he hadn't yet gained his Cutie Mark, though for what reason he couldn't seem to understand. In any event, he quickly became the least popular colt in the whole school, despite being one of the richest. One particular day, he was gathering up his textbooks, notepads and other belongings from his locker, ready to return home – and as seemed to be the norm, other students were obnoxiously hovering over him, making all sorts of rude remarks.

“Hey, blank-flank,” called a gruff blue colt with dark green dreadlocks for a mane, “how long are ya gonna be? I got stuff I wanna get from my locker, and I don't want it contaminated by some loser like you!”

“Leave him be,” sneered a magenta filly with magnolia mane and tail and a face so heavily made up that it would have caused most other ponies to recoil in disgust. “He's just a kid – what he's doing in a place like this, I dunno, but you never know what he'd do to pay us back – if he can do anything, that is!”

“Face it, redneck,” droned another colt, dark grey in colour with a faded red mane and tail, “you're just a waste of space! Go throw yourself under a cab or something – there's no room in a place like this for some wannabe hick like you!”

Caramel gritted his teeth as the three teenagers laughed horridly at him. If only they would just get tired of it and leave him alone...

“Oh yeah?” cut in another voice, much more nasal by comparison. “Well, by that logic, neither is there any room for brainless bullies such as you guys! Now lay off, will ya?!”

This took Caramel quite aback. He looked over his shoulder to see a buff-coated colt of about twelve years old standing just next to him, leering harshly at the three other ponies that had been bullying him just now.

“Well, isn't that just predictable!” huffed the filly sarcastically. “First you encourage that nopony of a mule that he has something going for him, and now you're sticking up for a blank-flank who sides with a hick? Honestly, Brooklyn, what is it with you?”

“Me?!” the buff-coated colt spat indignantly. “What's with you?! You slap that hideous muck all over your face, make it look like a rotten pile of garbage, and you seriously think you're better than him?”

The filly directed a threatening leer at him. “Say that again! I dare you!” she growled aggressively.

“C'mon, Brooklyn,” snorted the blue colt, “he's just a blank-flank...”

“Then why are you doing this to him?!” bellowed Brooklyn fiercely. “Why are you making this pony's life a living Tartarus?! What has he ever done to you guys?!?”

The grey one laughed horridly at him. “Aw, is little Brooklyn Dodger goin' all soft in the head?” he asked mockingly.

“And what difference does it make if I am?!” countered Brooklyn sharply. “At least I have the guts to stand up for others – you cowards don't even have the strength to slap anypony round the haunches!”

“Cowards?!” the blue one burst out in fury. “Nopony calls me a coward and gets away with it!” and before Caramel could stop him, he threw a vicious punch in Brooklyn's direction.

But the buff-coated youth was more than ready for him. Only a split second before the hoof was about to strike, he swiftly sidestepped it and watched with a triumphant smirk as the unfortunate thug ended up punching an ugly hole in one of the other lockers.

“Now who's a loser?” he taunted.

The blue colt didn't reply. He could only grimace in pain and shock as he tried to pull his hoof clear of the hole in the locker – but to add to his alarm, he found that it was stuck fast, and he couldn't move it without causing severe bleeding. That was more than enough for the buff-coated colt to claim victory.

“And let that be a lesson to the rest of you!” he ordered firmly. “Anypony who wants to offend this guy has to get through me first – if you can actually make it without the same results as your idiot fashion disaster of a pal!”

The other two ponies backed away nervously, but immediately stopped when they bumped into something soft. Slowly turning around, they were even more horrified to see a teacher standing just behind them, glaring disapprovingly at the damage they had done.

The teacher looked daggers at the three bullies. “So this is how I find you treating the newbies, is it?!” she scolded. “I'm absolutely ashamed of you three – I would have expected you to know better!”

“But miss,” protested the filly pathetically, “it was that Brooks! He was the one...”

“Don't give me all those lame excuses!” interrupted the teacher severely. “I saw you with my own eyes! You're in detention for the next two weeks – and if I catch you doing this again, I will have no choice but to expel you! Do I make myself clear?!”

Neither of the two ponies had the strength to reply. They just looked guiltily at their front hooves. At that moment, Brooklyn's smirk faded as he remembered why he was here in the first place, and he edged slowly up to the tan-coated youngster he had been defending just now.

“You okay, kid?” he asked gently.

Needless to say, Caramel was so stunned by the whole turn of events that he could only stare in awe at the colt who had come to his rescue. Nopony had ever stood up for him before. “I...but...what...how did you do that?!” he blurted out.

The buff-coated colt chuckled. “They don't call me Brooklyn Dodger for nothin',” he explained simply. “Besides, I could hardly leave somepony like you to suffer at the hooves of those punks.”

Only then did Caramel manage a small smile – and for the first time in years, it was for real rather than just an act for the sake of looking sociable. “Thanks,” he said softly.

“Ah, don't sweat it, kid,” answered Brooklyn modestly. “Just glad I could help. Tell ya what, how about you 'n' me go get a cup o' Joe? There's a real swell doughnut shop I know of near here.”

“Um...sure – that'd be great,” agreed Caramel. He had never been to a doughnut shop before, and neither did he have any idea what “Joe” was aside from it apparently being some sort of drink; but somehow, he felt there was something really special about this Brooklyn Dodger fellow. It was almost as if part of what he had lost in Applejack was slowly being reinstated in the form of another pony.

And quite right he was too. Though to some he may have come across as being brash and sometimes rather abrasive, Brooklyn (whom Caramel later learned was often known simply as Brooks) turned out to be very streetwise and very sympathetic towards outcasts. Even though he enjoyed a good joke every so often, it never came at other ponies' expenses, and he refused to stand for any kind of discrimination, even against non-pony species. The two ponies became fast friends, and the other fillies and colts in Caramel's school quickly learned that bullying him was a big mistake now that he had Brooklyn as his defender.

At first, Caramel's mother was rather uneasy about her son having a commoner such as Brooklyn for a friend, but when she learned how loyal and considerate he had been towards Caramel when they first met, she gradually warmed to him, even going so far as to let him visit their house every so often. Brooklyn's father, on the other hoof, had no reservations against him buddying with an upper-class colt, especially when Caramel came to visit their flat for the first time and impressed him with his polite, charming manners.

“Any friend of yours is a friend of mine,” he had said to Brooklyn.

But in spite of his change of fortune, Caramel still missed Applejack dreadfully, and would often talk longingly with Brooklyn about the short time he had spent with the orange-coated filly. Somehow, his buff-coated friend seemed to understand exactly what he was going through, and as was not unusual, he was quick to try and reassure him.

“That's way too bad that this Applejack gal had to leave ya like this,” he sympathised as they were hanging out in his favourite doughnut shop one afternoon. “She must have meant an awful lot to ya.”

Caramel nodded glumly in reply. “She was the only friend I had before you came along. I just wish she had at least told me what she was doing and where she was going before she left.”

“Yeah, I know how that feels,” mused Brooklyn softly, resting a comforting hoof on Caramel's shoulder as he took another bite out of the ring doughnut he had just bought. “I had a real nice friend named Pearl Diver who used to live 'ere up until about a year before you started at high school, but she had to move to Neighagara City 'cause of a new job her Pop had taken up.” His hoof slowly slipped off his friend's shoulder, and his arm drooped downwards to hang limply by his side. “I really miss that gal,” he sighed.

Caramel's eyes widened. In all the time he had known Brooklyn, he had never known that he had had to go through the exact same pain as he did all those years ago. “Brooks...I'm so sorry...” he began.

“Hey, don't sweat it, Caramel – so maybe we don't get to see them, but it ain't the end o' the wild,” smiled Brooklyn, quickly perking up. He meant to say “world”, but his trademark accent often prevented him from pronouncing the “er” part properly, thus causing it to come out as an “eye” sound. “Besides, I'm sure you'll meet again someday.”

With a deep sigh of his own, Caramel gazed longingly out of the window in the general direction of Ponyville. “Yeah...someday......”

Chapter 4: Disaster on Bridleway

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 5: Hitting the Highway

Many lives had been lost to the collapse of the two walkways, and it took several hours to extricate the survivors from their remains. Several of the accident victims were so badly shaken and injured that it would take years of counselling and physical rehabilitation to help them recover; but for some, the inside of a hospital ward or indeed the lobby of the mall itself was the last thing they would ever see.

Indeed, such was the stress of the rescue operation that even the rescue workers themselves needed counselling, and by the time their gruesome task had been completed, the horrible tragedy that had befallen the mall on that fateful day in August had left its mark, not just on Manehattan, but on the whole of Equestria. Where it had once been a highly acclaimed status symbol throughout the nation, the mere mention of it now invoked feelings of grief and dread among its inhabitants.

But for Caramel, the shopping mall disaster was just the start of his problems. It was late in the evening, and he was now sitting outside one of the intensive care units in an uptown Manehattan hospital, anxiously awaiting news regarding his mother's condition. He didn't know how long exactly he had been waiting, but neither did he care – all he wanted to know was whether his mother was going to be alright.

Eventually, after what felt like decades, the door slowly opened, and one of the doctors stepped out into the hallway. Caramel immediately leaped to his hooves; “Well, doctor?” he asked hopefully. “How is she?”

The doctor heaved a deep, sombre sigh. “Not good, I'm afraid,” he confessed. “Your mother will live, that much is for certain, but she has sustained pretty severe brain damage.”

To say Caramel was dismayed would have been a drastic understatement. “What?!” he burst out in horror. “But...but I can't afford to lose her! You've gotta do something!”

“I'm sorry, Caramel,” apologised the doctor, shaking his head sadly, “but her condition's as good as permanent. There's nothing we can do for her except to put her in a care home.”

This was far too much for poor Caramel. Without another word, he turned and ran out of the hospital, tears of anger, grief, distress, and most of all guilt raining from his eyes as he galloped down the still bustling streets of Manehattan towards home. This had to be the worst day of his entire life, even worse than when Applejack had unexpectedly left him; not only had he lost another friend, but he had lost him through such tragic circumstances that, unless by some miracle he were to return from the dead, he would never be able to regain him as a friend ever again – and worst of all, he had lost his mother. Maybe not in a tangible sense, but from the blow she had received to her head, she might as well have been killed along with Brooklyn Dodger.

But why, he kept asking himself? Why did this have to happen? How was it that if anypony got close to him, something would happen to remove them from his life in one way or another? Was he really destined never to have any friends? Was there any point in carrying on with his life anymore? All those questions and a great many more seemed to strike him from all directions, like a salvo of explosive shells into an old blockhouse.

By the time he reached home, his distress had given way to rage, and as soon as he entered his room, he began lashing out at practically everything in sight. For almost a quarter of an hour, he could do nothing but kick every bit of furniture in the room, hollering in anguish and even cursing Celestia for what had happened to his mother and his best friend; but eventually, his strength gave out altogether, and he collapsed onto the remains of his bed, bawling loudly into his pillows.

In fact, so devastated was Caramel that he didn't stop crying until it was almost daybreak. Once again, grief and guilt dominated his thoughts; but this time, a new emotion seemed to hold sway over everything else – fear. Specifically, fear of what might happen to him now that his mother was no longer able to look after him. Would he have to get himself a job? Would his home have to be repossessed because he couldn't keep up with the rent? Would his father come back and take care of him in his mother's place? Frankly, he wasn't sure he could depend on his father; that stallion only ever came back to visit his family every once in a while, so he probably barely knew his own son. It would be like the city mayor looking after some random street urchin – something that he might as well have become himself, what with his mother's condition.

But how would he manage to survive out on the streets, all alone with nopony to at least show him the way? This was Manehattan, after all; plenty of other ponies, far poorer than him by all accounts, would be more than happy to attack somepony as vulnerable as him just so that they could afford their own meals. Maybe, then, Manehattan was no longer the right place for him. Maybe he was better off abandoning the city life for good and pursuing a whole new path far away. In the end, he came to a firm decision; if Manehattan didn't want anything to do with him, then neither did he want anything to do with Manehattan.

With that in mind, he packed some of his most treasured possessions into a pair of saddlebags along with a few essentials, and after leaving a solemn farewell note on the dining room table, he turned and made his way out of the house for the very last time. Ignoring the crowds of passing ponies, he swiftly headed towards the western outskirts of the big city, past the lake where he and Applejack had first seen eye to eye, through the cemetery where the ashes of Brooklyn Dodger lay to rest, until finally he was out in open countryside, far away from the hustle and bustle that had dominated his life for so long. With a small tear in his eye, he cast a final, distant glance upon his old home before plodding sadly away from Manehattan, his mother, the remains of his best friend, and the many citizens who could have befriended him, but had constantly turned their backs on him throughout the nineteen years or so that he had lived there.

Following his heavy-hearted departure from Manehattan, Caramel spent the next few months of his life as a mere tramp, drifting through the vast Equestrian countryside with no destination in particular. Incredibly, he found life on the highway to be far easier than his time in the city; he could play by his own rules, he had nopony to boss him around, and because he was living off the country, the old saying about there being “no such thing as a free lunch” no longer seemed to apply to him.

If he was hungry, he could stop anywhere he wanted and feed on fresh grass and wild flowers, and if he was thirsty, all he needed to do was find a stream and take a drink from there. Even when night fell, he would pitch up a makeshift tent consisting of fallen branches and a blanket he had brought along with him, with an extra pair of sheets and a small pillow as his bed. It wasn't much, but in this warm weather it was more than adequate – and if that didn't get him off to sleep, he at least had the one photograph he had managed to capture of himself and Applejack before she had left for home to dispel any feelings of sorrow that were keeping him awake.

But even though Applejack was still with him in spirit, there was no way of knowing where she was, what she was doing with her life – whether she was alive and well, even! Still, Caramel kept telling himself, what use was there in speculating? There was no way he would ever be able to gain another lifelong friend without something tragic happening to them. It would be far better if he kept his distance from anypony and everypony who tried to befriend him; that way he wouldn't suffer the same pain that he had after that shopping mall disaster, and nopony would end up losing their lives because of him.

His resolution didn't last very long, however. About two weeks after he had left Manehattan, thick black clouds were starting to gather overhead, indicating that heavy rains were due over......wherever he was right this moment. Up ahead, he could see a lonely farm nestled deep in the valley through which he was travelling, so he decided to go there in the hopes of finding a barn where he could take shelter for the night. But his trek across the fields didn't appear to have gone unnoticed; just as he was approaching the edge of one, he heard a voice from somewhere behind him – “Well, well, well, not often that I get visitors 'ere.”

Caramel spun around, startled – standing just behind him was an old, grey-coated stallion with a straw-yellow mane and tail and a rather stubbly muzzle. He wore a rather tattered cloth cap, and was gazing inquisitively at this unexpected interloper. Judging by his hill-billy appearance, this had to be the farmer who owned the land.

“Oh, uh......sorry to have trespassed on your property, mister,” the tan-coated young stallion apologised profusely. “I didn't realise...that is...I, uh......I'll just be on my way then,” and he hastily retreated, trying to avoid what he thought would be an annoyed retribution from the grey-coated pony.

“Hang on, son,” objected the farmer, “where are you off to in such a hurry?”

Caramel paused, trying to think of an excuse. Eventually, he simply replied with the first thing that came into his head; “Uh......Ponyville?”

The farmer shook his head disbelievingly. “Not in this kinda weather you ain't,” he retorted firmly. “With all this rain what's scheduled to come this way, you'll catch your death of cold before you even reach Neighagara Falls! Besides, how ya gonna get by without food or water?”

“W...what do you mean, 'without food or water'?” protested Caramel uneasily. “I've got plenty to eat out here – and besides, surely there's got to be a waterhole somewhere?”

“So you're livin' on grass and stream water, huh?” Once again, the farmer shook his head. “Not good enough, sonny boy. C'mon back to the farmhouse an' have a bite to eat.”

“Uh...no thanks,” stammered Caramel. “I don't want to, er...intrude.”

The farmer laughed incredulously. “Don't be silly, son,” he insisted. “We've got plenty of food back where we live.”

Caramel tried his best to resist, but the farmer simply took it in his stride, and eventually the tan-furred stallion was forced to admit defeat. Once they had arrived at the farmhouse, however, he couldn't be any more grateful for the farmer's hospitality; not only was this his first square meal since he had left home, but the farmer, who introduced himself as Barley Mow, allowed him to spend the night in the spare bedroom.

“My son moved outta here just a few short months ago, so it's only a guest room now,” he had explained as Caramel settled in.

Even the farmer's wife, Blink Bonny, turned out to be rather friendly in her own right – a little senile, yes, but still friendly. She had fond memories of her own time in Manehattan many years ago, and was most sympathetic when Caramel confided in the two about his difficult foalhood, and how the collapsed walkways had resulted in the loss of his mother's memory and his friend Brooklyn Dodger's life.

As he lay in the warm, cosy guest bedroom, Caramel took a moment to reflect on his fortune that day. Just twelve hours ago, he had been dodging aimlessly through the countryside with only grass, daisies and other wild flowers to eat, and little more shelter than a blanket and whatever he could find to support it; but now, after a much more nourishing meal of turnip soup and corn bread, he had a good firm roof over his head, and more importantly, he was able to enjoy the welcoming comforts of a proper bed as opposed to a blanket laid out over uneven ground. Barley Mow and Blink Bonny had been really kind to put him up for the night – kinder than he deserved, he thought – and he felt like he owed them a great deal in return.

He didn't need to think very hard about how he would repay them though. This was a farm, after all; surely an extra set of hooves would be a great help to these two ponies, wouldn't it? If he was really lucky, it might even earn him his Cutie Mark – purely on the off-chance, of course, but if by some miracle he did manage to gain one, then so much the better...

As the early morning sun cleared the horizon and slowly began to gain altitude, a much refreshed Caramel stepped out of the farmhouse to find Barley Mow preparing for yet another long, hard day's work out in the fields. A large cart stood just outside the house loaded with various pieces of farming equipment, and Barley Mow himself was packing his saddlebag with what looked like some small seed packets.

The tan-coated stallion allowed himself a small, resolute grin; now was his chance to repay Barley Mow and Blink Bonny for putting him up for the night. “Morning, Mr Mow,” he called cheerfully.

The old farm stallion turned to face his lodger with an equally cheerful smile. “Mornin', young Caramel,” he said. “How ya feelin'?”

“I'm very well, thank you,” Caramel responded cordially. “What are you up to, then?”

“Ah, just off to prepare them fields for crop plantation,” explained Barley Mow. “Broccoli an' onions mainly, but I'll be planting a few carrots an' lettuces an' such too.”

“I see.” Caramel eyed the cart, trying to work out what he could do to help. But when he saw the cargo Barley Mow had loaded onto it, he could only stare in disbelief; not only were there plenty of hoes and spades and other smallish farming tools, but there were a few large, heavy-looking items that Caramel had never seen before. Surely the old stallion didn't intend to pull all that in one go?

“That sure looks like a lot of stuff for one pony to be pulling alone,” he remarked. “Are you sure you can manage?”

Barley Mow chuckled ruefully. “Yeah, pretty tough, I know,” he mused, “but I don't normally have much of a choice; Bonny an' I pretty much live in the middle o' nowhere, so extra farm workers are few an' far between.”

“Do you...want some help then?” offered Caramel hopefully.

The old farm stallion stared at him, visibly surprised. “You're not seriously suggestin'...are ya?”

“Well, why not? It's the least I can do to repay you for putting me up for the night.”

“Ah, don't go on, son,” chuckled Barley Mow, “you don't need to worry about repaying us.”

“Don't need to worry? Over my dead body!” retorted Caramel. “I would have spent the night getting soaked but for you two. I owe you big time for that.”

“Course ya don't, Caramel. It was our pleasure.”

But for the first time in his life, Caramel refused to back down. “I'm sorry, Mr Mow, but I'm going to have to be quite adamant here,” he stated firmly. “I'm helping you both until I feel I've repaid my debt, and I refuse to take no for an answer.”

Barley Mow was stunned, but grateful for the help nevertheless. “Well...okay then, young 'un,” he replied. “If ya really feel ya need to, then by all means, be my guest. I just hope you know what you're doing.”

Caramel hesitated. He hadn't been expecting that kind of question to be posed to him, and he could already see what Barley Mow was getting at. But he had already made his decision, so he was going to stick to it no matter what. “Not exactly, sir,” he said bravely, “but I'm willing to learn at least.”

“Very well then,” answered Barley Mow. “In that case, you'd better get hitched up to them traces on that there cart. We've got a lot to do today, so the sooner we get going, the better.”

“Right you are, Mr Mow,” and Caramel set about harnessing himself to the cart.

Chapter 7: Sweet Apple Salvation

The wind was still blowing fiercely across Ponyville as Applejack made her way back towards Sweet Apple Acres. She had been visiting a friend of hers on the other side of town to discuss this year's Winter Wrap-Up operations, but the weather outside had been so fierce that she had been forced to stay a little longer until it had subsided. Luckily, after nearly two hours, the heavy snowfall had temporarily receded, allowing the orange-furred farm pony a window of opportunity to hurry home before another deluge of snow came pouring down.

At long last, she spotted the farmhouse up ahead. Not too long now before she could relax in front of a good warm fire in the living room, she thought – but just as she approached the farm gate, she noticed an unusually smallish mound of snow immediately next to it.

“What in tarnation...?” wondered Applejack, staring in confusion as she moseyed up to the mound. True, the snow had been unusually heavy over the last two hours, but surely there was no way it could create such a small heap with only the wind to assist it – no, there had to be something buried underneath it...or somepony......but then, who in the right mind would allow themselves to be snowed under like this?

Regardless, the orange-coated mare carefully brushed some of the snow away from the mound – but as she did so, her hoof came into contact with something cold and furry beneath. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she began to dig away at the snow with somewhat frantic vigour, until at last she had uncovered the unfortunate creature lying within that cold, icy tomb. It was a pony alright – a tan-coated, brown-maned Earth stallion, with a Cutie Mark of three blue horseshoes on each flank and a pair of saddlebags draped over his back. His eyes were closed, his breathing shallow, and his snow-covered fur felt colder than an iceberg.

“Land sakes!” gasped Applejack in horror. “Ah gotta get this guy undercover quick!” Immediately, but very carefully, she draped the unconscious stallion across her back and raced back to the farmhouse as fast as she dared, imploring all the while for her passenger to hang on...

Granny Smith furrowed her brow with concern as she gazed up at the clock for what seemed like the billionth time. It was almost quarter past three, and Applejack should have arrived home just under two and a half hours ago – but no matter how many times she and her grandchildren peered out of the window across the snow-coated fields, they still couldn't make out so much as a single trace of the orange-coated mare.

The elderly green mare frowned, shaking her head. “Ah don't la'k this,” she muttered grimly. “It's not la'k Applejack to be this late gettin' back, 'specially with all them snowstorms comin' our way.”

“Nope,” agreed Big Macintosh absent-mindedly, staring out of the window again with a look of concern plastered onto his face.

Little Apple Bloom was equally worried, but tried to lighten the mood nonetheless. “She could just be out helpin' somepony clear the snow off of their front garden or something,” she suggested helpfully.

“Hmm...probably,” mused Granny Smith, unconvinced. “Still, Ah'll be glad when she does get back; fo' all we know, she could'a been caught in that there blizzard.”

“What, Applejack?” retorted Apple Bloom disbelievingly. “Ah fin' that highly...” but at that very moment, she was distracted by a flash of two-tone orange against the white backdrop on the other side of the window. Puzzled, the yellow-furred filly squinted to try and get a closer look, and was bewildered to see her older sister cantering towards the farmhouse with a tan-coated, snow-festooned young stallion draped limply across her back and an expression of worry on her face.

Big Macintosh had noticed them too, and from the look of the stallion whom Applejack was carrying, he could tell that something wasn't right. Without a single word to his youngest sister or his grandmother, he tore himself away from the window and dashed out of the house to find out what was going on, calling out her name as he came close.

By now, Applejack was growing rather breathless from having to run and carry another pony at the same time, so she was relieved when she saw her red-furred older brother approaching. “Boy...am Ah glad...y'all...turned up...,” she remarked, panting heavily from the effort.

“What happened, A.J.?” asked Big Macintosh. “Where'd ya fin' this guy?”

“Unconscious...outside...farm gate – gotta get 'im...indoors...before he...freezes to death,” replied Applejack urgently.

Big Macintosh acknowledged with a succinct nod, accompanied by a grave “Eeyup”, and carefully manoeuvred the almost lifeless stallion onto his own back before galloping back towards the farmhouse with his sister close behind. As soon as they had re-entered the house, the two Apple family siblings immediately made for Applejack's bedroom, ignoring the looks of confusion on Apple Bloom and Granny Smith's faces as they passed them.

“Applejack?” exclaimed Granny Smith. “What the hay's goin' on?”

“No time to explain!” barked Applejack from the top of the staircase. “Hot water bottles – extra blankets – mah room – stat!”

“But Applejack,” began Apple Bloom, “where did...”

“JUST DO IT!!!” The tone of urgency in Applejack's voice left precious little room for argument. In an instant, Granny Smith was at the stove heating up as many kettles and saucepans as she could fit onto the hobs, and Apple Bloom was rummaging through the closet in search of the thickest blankets she could find.

Having reached Applejack's room, Big Macintosh, with his sister's help, gently slipped the unconscious stallion off his back and lowered him onto her bed. Then, while Applejack tucked the stallion underneath the covers, the red-coated draft pony carefully checked his vital signs.

“Eeyup – just as Ah thought,” he mused at last.

“What is it, big brother? Is he okay?”

“Seems this guy's gone down with pretty severe hypothermia.” replied Big Macintosh gravely. “He's still alive, but only just.”

Applejack placed a hoof against the unnamed stallion's forehead, only to recoil in discomfort when she felt how cold it was. “Shucks, yo' right there, Mac – poor guy feels colder than the Crystal Mountains do round this time o' year. We better get a doctor.”

“Ah'm on it, sis,” and Big Macintosh trotted quickly out of the room, just as Apple Bloom and Granny Smith entered with the blankets and the hot water bottles.

Granny Smith examined the new arrival closely. “Don't remember seein' this young fella 'round these parts,” she commented. “Any idea where he came from, Applejack?”

The orange-coated farm pony shook her head gravely. “None at all, Granny,” she admitted. “Ah don' even know if he's gonna live - all Ah know is that Ah found 'im under a pile of snow near the farm entrance.”

“What was he doin' there?” inquired Apple Bloom, perplexed.

“Dunno,” mused Applejack, “but he wasn't wearin' much mo' than a hat an' scarf when Ah found him. Probably passed out from the cold.”

Granny Smith's eyes widened with shock; “Great feathers on the goat! No wonder y'all were in such a rush when y'all arrived back here!” She placed a hoof against the stallion's fetlock, and was taken even further aback when she felt a weak pulse from beneath his snow-chilled skin. “Ah tell ya what, though, he's lucky ta still be alive.”

Applejack nodded in solemn agreement as she pulled another blanket over the unfortunate stallion.

“Is there anythin' else we can do fo' this guy?” asked Apple Bloom anxiously.

“Not until Big Mac comes back with that doctor,” replied Applejack. “Y'all best get back to whatever it was y'all were doin' earlier; Ah'll keep an eye on this guy an' make sure he's okay.”

“Well...okay, Applejack; but give us a shout if anythin' goes wrong,” advised Granny Smith; and with that, she and Apple Bloom headed back downstairs, leaving Applejack to look after the unknown stallion alone.

As the latch of her bedroom door gently clicked back into place, the orange-furred farm pony couldn't help but gaze upon her impromptu patient with a somewhat puzzled expression of worry as numerous questions echoed persistently in her head. Who was this stallion she had just rescued? Why wasn't he properly protected against the cold, fearsome winds or the icy, razor-sharp snowflakes? Why were there two saddlebags on his back? Where had he come from?

He certainly didn't look like anypony she knew from Ponyville or the surrounding area, that much was obvious to Applejack; indeed, it would probably go a long way towards explaining the saddlebags and the lack of winter cladding too. So how was it, she kept asking herself, that this mysterious stallion seemed so hauntingly familiar to her? Why did his appearance alone seem to remind her of somepony from her foalhood?

She looked over to the saddlebags, which Big Macintosh had laid out to dry next to her chest of drawers. Maybe their contents might give her a lead regarding his identity, she thought; but on the other hoof, the idea of rummaging through his personal belongings without him knowing seemed a little too nosy and dishonest, and representing as she did the Element of Honesty, she didn't much like the notion of having to pretend not to know about some embarrassing secret of his that she might inevitably stumble upon either. In the end, however, curiosity got the better of Applejack.

“Sorry about this, partner,” she whispered ruefully, and crept furtively over to the saddlebags, trying her best not to disturb him.

It turned out that the larger of the two saddlebags contained little more than blankets and a pillow, all of which were now soaking wet from the melted snow. Making a mental note to give them a proper wash when the stallion came to, Applejack closed it up again and turned her attention to the other saddlebag – but the moment she opened it, she was startled to find that, among other items, it contained a photograph depicting an exact likeness of her when she had been but a mere filly of nine years old.

“Huh?!” she exclaimed, staring in confusion. “What the hay am Ah doin' in somepony else's photo?”

But as she scrutinised the photograph, she noticed something highly significant; it showed her in that rather exaggerated hairstyle which she had worn while attending dinner parties and other social engagements with her Aunt and Uncle Orange. Plainly, then, it had been taken during her stay in Manehattan – but while it answered the question about where the stallion had come from, many others had started to come up in its place. If he was from such a cosmopolitan area, then what was he doing in such a rural setting as Ponyville? Where had he got that photograph from? Why did he even have it in the first place?

But no sooner had that last query gone through her head than she noticed that she wasn't the only one in the picture. Right next to her, smiling fondly with one hoof wrapped around her shoulders, was a smart, handsome young colt whose finely brushed brown mane and tan coat seemed to match the description of the stallion she had found. Only then did she realise... “Caramel?” she gasped, staring at the stallion in disbelief.

No, that couldn't possibly be true, she thought – surely this had to be some crazy dream. Yet here, lying unconscious on her bed, was a stallion who looked so uncannily similar to her foalhood friend from Manehattan that she could very nearly have been gazing upon his eight-year-old form. Slowly, she placed the photograph back into its saddlebag and quietly returned to the side of her bed, gazing upon him in dismay.

“Oh, Caramel,” she murmured unhappily, “why did ya have ta do this to yourself?”

It wasn't long before Big Macintosh returned with the doctor. He had already outlined what he thought was wrong with the stallion and where Applejack had found him as they made their way through the snow towards Sweet Apple Acres, and as soon as they arrived, the doctor wasted no time in examining his unconscious patient.

To say Applejack was no longer anxious by this time would be wholly untrue – she didn't know how long Caramel had been out, but it must have been a horrifically long time if he had let himself be buried underneath all that snow, so for all she knew, he probably didn't have much longer to go. All the same, she could do little more than stand by and watch as the doctor carefully probed his chest with a stethoscope, biting her hoof and hoping to goodness that her foalhood friend would be alright.

At last, the doctor withdrew his stethoscope and turned to face the two Earth pony siblings. “Seems you were right all along, Big Macintosh,” he remarked. “It's hypothermia alright – and pretty severe too, I might add; too much longer out there, and this stallion wouldn't have stood a chance of survival.”

Applejack looked away in discomfort. This wasn't something she wanted to think about.

“Will he be okay, doc?” asked Big Macintosh hopefully.

“He'll be out for about...twenty-four hours at least, but he should survive,” replied the doctor with a small smile. “Just make sure to keep him warm and dry and get plenty of fluids into him when he comes to.”

Applejack, deeply thankful that Caramel would still pull through despite his frosty predicament, heaved a huge sigh of relief.

“Will do, doc,” said Big Macintosh. “Thanks fo' comin' at such short notice.”

The doctor smiled again; “No problem, Big Mac – better safe than sorry, I always say. Anything else you need to talk to me about, then?”

“Nope.”

“Right, well in that case, I guess I'll take my leave,” said the doctor, returning the stethoscope to his bag. Big Macintosh simply nodded in reply as he led him to the front door, leaving his orange-furred sister alone with her thoughts once again – but only for a little while. Shortly after the doctor had left, the red-coated draft stallion returned to Applejack's room to see how she was doing.

Applejack barely seemed to notice Big Macintosh as he re-entered. She was back by Caramel's side, an anxious, longing and somewhat uneasy look on her face – sure, she was glad that Caramel would almost certainly survive the night, but countless other emotions seemed to be stirring up inside her, none of which she could place her hoof on. It had been over eleven years since the two ponies had last seen each other, so naturally, part of her wanted so badly to ask what he had been doing with his life and why he was here of all places; but on the other hoof, what if he didn't recognise her? What if the slightest hint of a past friendship might freak him out so much that he would land himself in the same life-threatening situation as he had done just a few hours ago? What if...what if he didn't survive this time? Even her own conscience seemed undecided as to whether to risk all and tell him, or to betray her element and make out like they had never known each other in the first place.

Naturally, Big Macintosh was equally concerned when he noticed the expression on his sister's face and realised the emotional turmoil she seemed to be going through; but what he couldn't understand was what seemed to be bothering her and why. Could it have something to do with the unknown stallion, he wondered? Or was it something else that happened to have sprung to mind while the doctor had been diagnosing him?

“Somethin' on yo' mind, A.J.?” he asked softly.

The orange-furred mare was so distracted that she didn't even bother to look at him. “Ah'm fine, thanks, big brother,” she muttered absent-mindedly. “Don't y'all worry none.”

But Big Macintosh did worry. He had never known Applejack to be so distracted before. All the same, he wisely decided against challenging her about it; if she wanted to talk about...whatever it was that seemed to be bugging her, he decided, then that was her choice alone.

“Well......if ya say so,” he replied uncertainly, trying his best to sound casual. “Anyway, Ah'd best go cut some mo' firewood out in the backyard; we're gonna need it with this weather.”

“Yeah, you go ahead, Mac,” mumbled Applejack, who wasn't really listening. With a slight shrug, Big Macintosh resignedly turned and left the room, still wondering why his sister was acting so out of character...

Chapter 8: Forget Me Not, Dear Applejack

For the rest of the day, and throughout the next, Applejack stayed firmly by Caramel's side to ensure he made a complete recovery. She only ever left him once or twice to refill his hot water bottles if they ever felt anything but, or if she needed to use the toilet; the rest of the time, she just sat and stared anxiously upon him from beside her bed, almost as if she expected him to pass away the moment she turned her back. Even at mealtimes she refused to join the others for fear of what might happen if the ailing stallion was left unattended, and not even Granny Smith seemed able to persuade her otherwise. In the end, the elderly green-furred mare decided against pressurising her granddaughter any further, and left her with a tray of food on her bedside table before rejoining Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh in the dining room.

Needless to say, Big Macintosh was rather worried by his sister's behaviour, and so, understandably, was Apple Bloom. Stubborn though she may have been, Applejack wasn't usually the sort of pony to let anything worry her so easily, even when challenged by her multicoloured Pegasus friend Rainbow Dash – and yet, having rescued a complete stranger whose name they had yet to learn, all she ever seemed to do of late was to hover over him like a mare possessed, with an expression of deep concern plastered onto her face. Even when morning broke, Big Macintosh noted, her eyes looked so dark and baggy that he could have been forgiven for thinking she hadn't slept a wink all night.

Despite her obvious fatigue, Applejack remained firmly resolved not to leave her foalhood friend for very long, and though the rest of her family offered to take over from her, she never once accepted. But by the end of the second day, tiredness had finally caught up with her, and after many long hours of waiting for him to rise from his coma, she collapsed wearily onto her bedside rug and allowed herself to drift off to sleep...

Several hours later, as the orange-coated mare lay slumbering peacefully on the rug, a muffled groan from the occupant in her bed caused her to stir slightly and crack an eye open. Suppressing a tired yawn, she closed it again and gently brushed a forehoof against her face like a dreaming kitten – but at that moment, her eyes snapped open once more as she suddenly remembered why she had allowed herself to lose so much sleep in the first place. Mentally berating herself for having dozed off, Applejack quickly manoeuvred herself into a more upright position to see how Caramel was doing.

The tan-furred young stallion's eyes flickered, slowly adjusting to what little light had begun to invade the room. His head felt like it had been in a vice for the best part of a week, and everything around him seemed green and fuzzy, the only exception being an orange blur which hovered just next to him. With another groan, he lifted a hoof to his forehead in an attempt to rub the pain away.

“W...where am I?” he wondered out loud. “What happened?”

“You okay, partner?”

Puzzled, Caramel glanced towards where he thought the voice had just come from. It was rather faint, so he couldn't quite pinpoint its source, but at least he now had the sense to realise that he wasn't alone in that room. Slowly, his surroundings came further and further into focus, until he could see that the “blur” was actually an orange-furred Earth pony mare with blonde mane and tail, each of which were bound at the ends by a red hair-band. Her Cutie Mark consisted of three apples on each flank, and her leaf-green eyes bore an expression of gentle concern. She somehow seemed to remind him of somepony he had met in Manehattan many years ago – but why, he wondered? Why did she look so uncannily familiar?

“Who......who are you?” he asked weakly. “What is this place?”

“Sweet Apple Acres, just outside o' Ponyville,” the mare explained. “Ah found y'all buried under a heap o' snow just outside o' the farm entrance; y'all were mighty close to death by the time Ah dug ya out, so Ah brought ya back to the farmhouse.”

Caramel frowned with shame as he remembered being caught in that horrible, merciless blizzard just......wait, hang on a minute – how long ago exactly? Looking out of the window, he noticed that the sky was now a dull greyish blue in colour, and neither sun nor moon hung above the vast groves of trees that surrounded the Apple Family homestead. “How long have I been out?” he ventured, turning his attention back to the mare by his bedside.

“'Bout two days, give or take,” replied the mare.

“Wow – that long, huh?” Caramel rubbed his temples gingerly. “Heck, no wonder I feel so woozy then.”

The mare nodded in solemn understanding. “Ah figured as much – the doctor did say ta make sure ya got plenty o' fluids, after all,” she observed. “Ya want me ta go get ya somethin' then?”

“Uh...yeah,” replied Caramel. “I'd quite like that, Miss...um...” He broke off, remembering that the mare still hadn't properly introduced herself yet. Somehow, he had a hunch that he knew the identity of this pony already; but he wanted to be sure, so cautiously he asked, “...what's your name?”

“Applejack,” said the mare with a soft smile.

Upon hearing this, the tan-coated stallion's eyes widened, and he felt a sudden pang of euphoria sweeping right the way through him. Three months of aimless travelling, and he had finally reunited with the one living pony from his foalhood who had even bothered to befriend him – it was almost too good to be true!

“What's yours, then?”

All at once, Caramel's untold delight seemed to collapse around his ears. Where his heart had previously been aflutter with joy, it now seemed to ache horribly – could it really be that his foalhood friend didn't recognise him? “You...you mean you don't remember me?” he stammered.

Applejack paused pathetically. “Well, uh...even if Ah did, then...probably not that well.” That was true enough, she decided; for even though she remembered the stallion himself as a colt, there was probably plenty she had forgotten about him since leaving Manehattan.

“So...does the name of Caramel not mean anything to you?”

“Um...well, we do make some pretty good caramel apples here on Sweet Apple Acres, but......Ah ain't heard o' nopony from around 'ere who answers to that name,” replied Applejack, with a somewhat awkward grin on her face.

Caramel's heart sank. So she didn't recognise him after all. “Oh......okay then,” he muttered sadly. “I, er......I just thought you reminded me of somepony.”

Applejack didn't answer, but tactfully gave him a look of meek apology before heading downstairs. The moment Caramel was sure she was out of earshot, he slapped a hoof to his face in frustration and disbelief. First his mother had lost her memory, then his next best friend had been killed by falling debris – and now this! He had regained contact with the one remaining link to his foalhood at long last, only to find that she didn't remember him!

How could she possibly forget all about the only Manehattanite friend she had ever made? Was he really so forgettable? Or had he not been a good enough friend for her? Somehow, and with deep regret, he assumed that the latter might be the more likely theory; after all, she hadn't even bothered to slip a note through his letterbox before returning home, and he hadn't even realised that she had decided to leave Manehattan for good until after she had gone. And no wonder, after all the times he had tried to make new friends, only to fail miserably – anypony who did want to be friends with him would probably have been far more desperate than he could ever know.

But then he thought back to Brooklyn Dodger, and how the buff-coated colt had defended his honour against those three bullies during their high school years. If most of the other students were anything to go by, he probably had every reason to look down on Caramel just like the rest of the students – but no; instead, he had looked a lot closer at him than other ponies could even be bothered to do, and rather than the social leper that most would have seen in him, he had detected an injured, lonesome young soul who had been horribly mistreated by all except his own parents. He had shown sympathy where others would have shown disdain, and more importantly, he had given the tan-furred young stallion something that several other ponies all across Equestria tended to take for granted, something that he himself could only wish for – friendship.

Why, then, did Lady Luck have to punish Brooklyn in such a harsh manner just for making friends with him – for providing him with a conscience, even? Why couldn't she spare him from being crushed beneath the wreckage of two fallen walkways? And why, for that matter, did his own mother have to be so horribly injured that she would never be able to remember her own son ever again? He rolled over and buried his face in his arms, silently shedding tears as he recalled the gruesome aftermath of the collapse – the bodies trapped under mounds of twisted steel, shattered glass and smashed concrete; the screams of pain and horror from onlookers and survivors alike; the smattering of blood over certain parts of the rubble......

Suddenly, he felt what he thought must be a few chunks of rubble against his back, causing him to raise his head with a start. But when he finally gathered his awareness, he found that the “rubble” was actually Applejack's hoof – having returned with what looked like a wooden pint-mug, she had been tapping him gently on the shoulder to try and attract his attention. With a hoof against his chest to try and ease the pounding of his heart, Caramel lowered his guard with a deep, thankful sigh of relief.

Applejack, on the other hoof, seemed a little worried. “Is anythin' wrong, Caramel?” she asked anxiously. “Ya seemed a li'l jumpy just now.”

“Did I?” Caramel frowned ruefully as he realised how erratic he seemed to have acted at that moment. “Sorry about that, Applejack – I guess I just got a bit...um...distracted is all.”

The orange-coated mare furrowed her brow, deeply concerned. “Care ta tell me why?”

Caramel hung his head in sorrow, trying not to show the tears he could feel welling up in his eyes again. “Well......the fact that nopony wanted to make friends with me back in Manehattan for a start,” he began. “I don't know why, but...”

“Manehattan?!” repeated Applejack. “But...but what are ya doin' a' the way out here in Ponyville – an' livin' la'k a hobo too?”

“Something terrible happened to my mother and my only real friend,” explained Caramel glumly. “It's...well, pretty gruesome...but......” he broke off mid-sentence as he felt the flimsy emotional barrier he had tried to erect around his fear, grief and inner loneliness starting to crumble. At the same time, a solitary tear managed to escape from his eye, and trickled down his face towards the end of his muzzle. “I – I don't want to talk about it,” he faltered, burying his face in his arms again.

Applejack gazed upon the sobbing form of Caramel in utter dismay, barely able to hold back tears herself. Of all the ponies who could have befriended him, only one had ever had the heart to do so – and now that pony had been removed from Caramel's life along with his mother? “Whoa, Nelly,” she remarked softly, placing a hoof against her chest as she felt her heart go out to the distraught young stallion. “That must 'ave been real awful fo' ya.”

“You've no idea,” lamented Caramel, his voice muffled by the pillows and his own forelegs.

With a sad smile on her lips, Applejack leaned forward and rested her hoof between his shoulders in an attempt to offer him some comfort. “Well...Ah kinda do, actually,” she replied in a gentle, soothing tone. “Ah lost both mah parents a long time ago, so Ah know what it's la'k to lose a loved one.”

Caramel raised his head again, startled. “What?! As in...” but so baffled was the tan-coated stallion that he couldn't find the right words to finish his sentence without potentially hurting Applejack's feelings.

“Dead – both of 'em,” explained Applejack solemnly. “They were out harvestin' apples about six months after mah li'l sister Apple Bloom was born, an' Pop bucked one o' the trees so hard that it came down right on top o' them. The impact killed 'im instantly, an' Ma was so badly hurt that they had to put 'er in intensive care at the local hospital.” She paused, letting loose a small tear. “She din' make it, though; about a week later, she......she just passed away in the night.”

“Oh, Applejack,” gasped Caramel in dismay. “That's terrible.”

“Yeah – Ah'll say it was,” agreed Applejack with a wistful sigh. “It took me a heck of a long time to move on from a' that. Still,” she added, wiping her eyes and smiling faintly, “no point in dwellin' on the past – if it happens, it happens.”

“Yeah – I suppose so,” murmured Caramel. Deep down, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to agree; but he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Anyway,” went on Applejack, tactfully changing the subject, “Ah've got y'all a li'l somethin' that might help warm ya up.” As she spoke, she handed the tan-furred Manehattanite the mug she had brought with her.

With a small, grateful smile, Caramel manoeuvred himself round so that he was sitting upright and gingerly accepted the mug. As he looked inside it, he noticed that it contained a deep amber liquid that gave off a strong but not unpleasant smell. “What is that stuff?” he wondered out loud. “Smells like apple pie.”

“It should do,” beamed Applejack proudly. “It's our very own recipe of mulled apple cider.”

“Uh...what's cider?” quizzed Caramel, perplexed.

Applejack could only smirk in amusement at Caramel's query. Just like a Manehattanite to not know what cider was! “It's kinda la'k beer, but it's made from fruit juice rather than malt,” she explained simply.

But this explanation somehow seemed rather disconcerting to the tan-coated young stallion. He looked doubtfully into his mug, and then back to Applejack; “Are you sure it's a good idea for me to be taking alcohol in my state?”

“Don't y'all worry none, Caramel – Ah already took the precaution o' boilin' off the alcohol before Ah added the spices.”

“Oh – well...down the hatch, then,” and Caramel raised the mug to his lips, allowing the cider to flow gently into his mouth. As it did so, his eyes widened in amazement.

“You la'k it?” asked Applejack hopefully.

“Like it?!” repeated Caramel emphatically. “This...mulled cider or whatever you call it is the best thing I've had since leaving Manehattan – most I usually had while on my travels was stream water and wild grass and such.”

“So Ah figured,” mused Applejack with a smile. “That must've taken a hay of a lot o' gut, after all the caviar an' fine wines...” but she quickly broke off as the glimmer of an idea began to sparkle in her head. “Say, how would ya la'k to put some o' them guts into a job?” she offered.

Caramel's eyes widened once again, this time in delight. “You really mean it? Me work for Sweet Apple Acres?”

“If ya want the job, that is,” replied Applejack, whose demeanour had become rather bashful all of a sudden. “We don't normally hire other ponies to work here – but Ah reckon Ah can make an exception.”

Caramel beamed with joy for the first time in months. “I'd consider it a real honour, Applejack – it's the least I can do to thank you for saving my life.”

Applejack grinned modestly. “Well...if ya say so,” she chuckled. “Anyway, Ah'm gonna go an' cook up some breakfast fo' me an' everypony else. Gimme a shout if ya need anything.”

“Will do,” conceded Caramel as Applejack started to leave the room. “Oh, and Applejack...”

The orange-coated mare stopped a few inches short of the doorway, turning her head back to face him.

“Thank you – for everything,” smiled Caramel gratefully. Applejack gave a friendly nod in response, kindly returning the smile as she stepped into the hallway and made her way to the kitchen.

As soon as she had gone, Caramel sat back and sipped blissfully at his mulled cider, silently marvelling at his change of fortune. So what if Applejack no longer recognised him, he decided – not only had he been miraculously reunited with his foalhood friend, but she had allowed him to work alongside her on one of the biggest orchards in Equestria. And he couldn't be more grateful for it...

Chapter 9: Winter Mess-Up!

“...it may not 'ave seemed la'k it at the time, but...it really made mah heart bleed, seein' y'all in such a sorry state.” Applejack paused, hanging her head with shame as she allowed a small tear trickle out of her eye. “But hidin' the truth from y'all......Ah just felt la'k such a cad!”

Caramel chuckled lightly. “I wouldn't say that. Sure, you may have twisted the truth a bit; but if that actually counts as lying, then that'd make the Flim Flam Brothers no better than a pair of serial killers – which they might as well have been, considering what nearly happened the last time they were here!”

Applejack shuddered again. “Tell me about it!” she agreed darkly. “It was bad enough that they managed ta trick me an' the rest of mah family with that stupid Miracle Curative Tonic fraud o' theirs, but if Ah hadn't found 'em out at the last minute...” she tailed off, her eyes narrowed and her teeth clenched with dread, guilt and anger, as the memory of how she had nearly lost Granny Smith flashed before her eyes.

Seeing the untold hurt in the farm pony's expression, Caramel gingerly lifted his injured foreleg out of its sling and rested it on her shoulder. “Take it easy, Applejack,” he soothed. “It's hardly your fault they were able to con you so easily, Element of Honesty or not. Those two charlatans pretty much had us all fooled until Silver Shill owned up to their trickery.”

“Ah know,” sighed Applejack unhappily, the tension fading slightly from her shoulders. “Ah just hate it when Ah come across as dishonest.”

“Well...nopony tells the truth all the time,” Caramel pointed out reasonably. “Mother once told me, for example, that fiction writers generally have to make up a few...sort of 'false truths' for every book they write; but it's what makes a good storyline, so we readers tend to just accept it and suspend our disbelief.”

Applejack looked thoughtfully up at the stars. “Ah never really thought about it la'k that,” she mused.

“Anyway,” went on Caramel, his face falling again, “if you really had been so dishonest that day, I probably wasn't much better myself when I started working for you guys.” He looked down at the grass as Discovery's unintentional insults played on his mind once again, accompanied by visions of spilt apples, broken fences, overturned carts and smashed barrels. “My first few days were okay, I guess – but then I was mainly dealing with snow-clearing and other odd jobs. When I was sent to help gather firewood for the homestead...well, that was a completely different story...”

Shortly after Hearth's Warming Day, Ponyville was caught in yet another blizzard, much heavier than the last. When morning came, the Apple Family awoke to discover that not only had a fresh layer of snow been added to the already thick blanket that had been smothering Equestria, but also that the fierce winds had uprooted a few trees just outside the perimeter of the top orchard.

Applejack was most annoyed at having to lose some of their crop, but knowing that the weather team probably had a good reason behind this unscheduled change in the weather, she grudgingly withheld her complaint and sent Caramel and Big Macintosh to see what they could so about the uprooted trees. The two stallions duly obliged, and set off to the top orchard with an empty cart and some tools.

As soon as they arrived, Big Macintosh carefully inspected the damage. “Just as Ah thought,” he said at last, shaking his head. “Them trees are way too far gone fo' us to replant.”

“Well that tears it,” sighed Caramel unhappily. “What'll we do now?”

“Only one thing we can do,” replied Big Macintosh simply, procuring a saw from his toolbox. Caramel didn't even bother to question him any further – he knew exactly what the red-furred draft pony was talking about.

Throughout that day, the two stallions were kept busy processing the remains of the fallen trees into firewood for the farmhouse. While Big Macintosh dealt with the job of cutting the trees into more manageable chunks of wood, Caramel would shuttle them back to the house before returning to the top orchard for a fresh load.

For Big Macintosh, it was a fairly routine activity despite apple harvesting and other crops holding sway over the task of woodcutting; but for some strange reason, Caramel didn't seem to be doing as well here as he had at previous farms. Whether it was eagerness or just frayed nerves as a result of frostbite, he had no idea – all he knew was that things were going embarrassingly wrong. Firstly, as he was loading the cart, he threw one of the logs aboard in such a way that it caused several others to spill out. Then he forgot to secure the tailgate properly before he made his first trip back to the farmhouse, and as he was making his way across the fields, it was forced open when one of his cart wheels bumped over a rock, and half his cargo was once again upset onto the snow-covered ground.

By the time evening drew in, both Caramel and his own pride had taken enough bruising to last him a lifetime. Not only had he made an absolute fool of himself, but he and Big Macintosh had been left with such a backlog that the rest of the woodcutting had to wait until the following morning.

“Some farm worker I turn out to be,” he muttered bitterly.

Big Macintosh gave the tan-coated stallion a wry smile. “Ah, don't y'all worry none, Caramel,” he said. “It's still early days yet.”

“I know, Mr Macintosh, but...”

“An' feel free to call me Big Mac, by the way.”

Caramel nodded absent-mindedly before continuing; “What beats me is that I've actually worked on several farms before coming here and never screwed up this badly. It's like I've just...lost my touch in a matter of a few hours.” He paused, gazing down at his hooves with shame. “Maybe working for you guys wasn't such a sensible idea after all.”

“Don't go so hard on yourself, Caramel,” soothed Big Macintosh. “Y'all actually did pretty good fo' a firs'-timer. 'Sides, we gonna need a' the help we can get here at Sweet Apple Acres; Granny Smith's gettin' a bit old fo' apple-buckin' nowadays, an' Apple Bloom's still way too young – not ta mention she has school work to be dealin' with – so normally it's just me an' Applejack runnin' the farm.” A small frown gradually leaked onto his face as he spoke. “Ah probably shouldn't say this,” he went on, “but there was one time a few months back when Ah had mah back injured by a fallen tree branch an' couldn't help with the apple harvest, which meant that A.J. had twice as much work on her hooves as she normally did.”

Caramel was so surprised that he nearly tripped over his own hooves. “What, all on her own?! But surely somepony else must have been around to help!”

“Oh...there were plenty of other ponies who could'a lent a hoof,” replied Big Macintosh gravely, “but Applejack can be a bit...well, stubborn sometimes. Even when Ah tried to point out that she'd need help gatherin' a' them apples, she refused to listen ta reason, an' nearly killed herself from exhaustion tryin' to harvest the whole lot single-hoofed. It was only thanks to a new friend o' hers – name of Twilight Sparkle, Ah think – that she managed to set 'er pride aside an' let anypony else help 'er with the harvest, an' even then it took a hay of a lot o' persuasion to bring 'er round.”

“Wow,” murmured Caramel feelingly. “Talk about a heavy burden!”

“Yo' tellin' me,” agreed Big Macintosh. “But that's the thing about mah sister – sometimes she just bites way more off of the apple than she can chew.”

The tan-furred young stallion nodded thoughtfully as he let the information sink in. Never in all his life had he realised that Applejack could be so headstrong even when the going became tough; but somehow, from what little he had picked up on her mannerisms while in Manehattan, it hardly seemed surprising. In any event, even though his work had been unusually sloppy that day, he found it reassuring to know he was still doing the Apple family a good turn.

But as the days trundled slowly by, Caramel soon found that his misfortune that day was by no means a one-off. Where most of his work on previous farms had been completed with the utmost efficiency, he no longer seemed able to make it through a complete working day without a mishap of some form; sometimes he would forget to bring along certain tools, while at other times he would inadvertently end up overturning his cart, breaking a fence or damaging an item of farming equipment. Understandably, Applejack found this most frustrating, and even though she tried not to go too hard on the tan-coated young stallion, he could easily see the annoyance in her expression whenever she spoke of his day's misadventures.

This served to dishearten him even further, and he would often lie awake on the couch in the living room until it was almost midnight, brooding over his seemingly endless misfortunes. How was it, he kept asking himself, that he had become so embarrassingly incompetent all of a sudden? Why did he no longer seem to exhibit the same dexterity and work ethic that he had done on so many other farms in the past? Was he really losing his touch – or was there another, far deeper reason behind his inexplicable clumsiness? No matter what the question or how long he spent pondering over it, the answer never came to him, and in the end he would simply doze off, leaving his mental self-inquest unsolved for yet another night.

During the winter months, various items of farming and other equipment were always gathered in the barn next to the farmhouse, ready for crop plantation during and after Winter Wrap-Up. Since there was barely any room left for the seed packets at ground level, Applejack and Big Macintosh would store them in the hay loft for the duration. Three months after his arrival at Sweet Apple Acres, Caramel was going through their supplies of seeds in readiness for crop plantation (and trying once again to work out a few answers to the drop in his competence) while Applejack inspected the many ploughs, sprinklers and other equipment awaiting deployment.

“How many packets o' carrot seeds is that so far, Caramel?” called Applejack from the floor of the barn.

Caramel furrowed his brow, trying to remember how many packets he had counted. “Uh...well over three thousand, I make it – and still counting,” he replied at last.

Applejack nodded, a smile of satisfaction on her face. “That ought ta do. Ya better make a start on the grass seeds.”

“Okay then,” conceded Caramel, turning to face the hay-bale on which he had left them.

As the young stallion began counting the packets containing the grass seeds, he couldn't help thinking about how big a change this new lease of life was turning out to be. In his youth, Winter Wrap-Up had always been a simple case of rallying the city's unicorn population together to melt the snow and ice, clear the skies and plant any required crops. Here in Ponyville, a far more rural town founded by Earth ponies, it had become a sacred tradition for its inhabitants to change seasons without directly using magic, a concept that would have met with strong disapproval if introduced into Manehattan.

But strenuous and time-consuming though this method seemed, Caramel thought it more of a blessing than a burden. Up until this point, none of his work on Sweet Apple Acres had been all that significant aside from the trees that he and Big Macintosh had had to cut up; but if he could do a good enough job on Winter Wrap-Up Day, that would more than show the Apple Family his true worth, and might even bring Applejack that little bit closer to remembering who he was. Heck, if he was really lucky, then maybe – just maybe...

“Caramel, what in tarnation are y'all doin'?!”

Caramel snapped abruptly out of his reverie, and was most dismayed by what he saw. Because he had been so distracted, he had accidentally knocked some of the seed packets over while counting them, with the result that their contents had spilt out and become embedded in the hay. From the barn floor, Applejack was glaring at him with an expression of disapproval stamped on her face.

“At what point, might Ah ask, did Ah say it was okay to hide them seeds in the hay?!” she demanded crossly.

The tan-furred stallion groaned and slapped an embarrassed hoof to his face. “Sorry, Applejack,” he apologised meekly. “I guess I just wasn't concentrating properly.”

Applejack rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. “Well, just make sure it don't happen again,” she replied firmly. “We've enough trouble as it is without havin' ta put up with lost crops.”

Caramel nodded meekly and went back to counting the grass seeds without another word. Secretly, he was a little confused; the way Applejack and the rest of the family had been talking earlier, it was as if they usually managed to clear winter away without a single fault, and now she was insinuating that they would be experiencing some sort of trouble? Was it something to do with the townsponies who would be pitching in on the whole Winter Wrap-Up business? Or was it all down to the maintenance of the farming equipment? He didn't know, but one thing was for sure – the job of clearing winter away in exchange for spring would clearly be a lot more daunting than he had bargained for...

Mercifully, everypony else's minds were focussed more on Winter Wrap-Up itself than whether they were missing any of the required tools and other commodities, so nothing more was said about Caramel's mishap with the grass seeds. All the same, Caramel was so ashamed of himself that he remained respectfully silent for the rest of the day.

A few days later, however, the tan-furred stallion's woes were quickly swept aside with the rising of the sun as Winter Wrap-Up dawned over Equestria. With a broad, eager smile and a growing sense of optimism, Caramel set about preparing himself for the big day; now, after so many months of dodging across the countryside, and spending the whole winter in Sweet Apple Acres, he would finally be able to show what an invaluable asset he could be to the orchard.

Before long, he was out of the farmhouse and making his way across town to join Applejack and Big Macintosh, who had already assigned him to work alongside them on the Plant Team. By this time, the other Wrap-Up teams were already out and about, clearing clouds from the sky, making new nests for the birds, sprucing up the setts, burrows and warrens in which other animals had spent the last three months peacefully slumbering away – even scoring the ice that covered lakes and ponds so as to allow it to melt more easily. As the young stallion trotted cheerfully through the snow-coated streets, he could hear the melodic, upbeat sounds of the other participants singing;

“Three months of winter coolness
And awesome holidays."

“We've kept our hoovesies warm at home.
Time off from work to play."

“But the food we've stored is runnin' out,
An' we can't grow in this cold.”

“And even though I love my boots,
This fashion's getting old...”

Caramel quickly caught the tune, and as the fourth line drew to a close, he merrily chipped in with a few lyrics of his own;

"The time has come to welcome spring,
And all things warm and green.
But it's also time to say goodbye;
It's winter we must clean.
And now's my chance to prove my worth;
Then Applejack will see,
That though I'm just a city pony,
A hard worker I can be..."

Some other ponies on the Plant Team were hard at work clearing snow from the fields, and others were making last-minute checks on the ploughs and sprinklers in readiness for crop plantation. As soon as Caramel arrived at the Town Square, he was instructed by Applejack to go and help two other stallions plant some of the grass seeds around Chevalier's Bluff, on the western side of town. With a broad, eager grin and an obedient nod, he gathered a few seed packets into one of his saddlebags and followed the other two ponies out to the bluff. Predictably, given how much snow they had had, the snowplough teams were still hard at work by the time the three stallions arrived; but luckily, there were a few extra snowploughs going spare, so Caramel and his two team-mates took a snowplough each and went to help the others clear the fields.

It was hard work, but the young stallion refused to let the heavy drifts hold him back; if he could handle an ordinary plough on other farms, he kept telling himself, then a snowplough shouldn't be any different. But in spite of his resolve, after only an hour's worth of hard graft, it came as a deep disappointment when he found out that he had only cleared about a tenth of the snow away.

“Good grief!” he panted. “I never thought snowploughing could be this demanding.” He gazed down at his front hooves, thoroughly disheartened. “Who am I kidding? This is way more than I can handle. I might as well have just been assigned to something more menial, like nest-making or...” but then he heard Applejack cheering him and everypony else on, and remembered his resolution.

“Come on, Caramel, you stupid!” he growled, slapping himself on the fetlock. “What good are you gonna do by just standing here feeling sorry for yourself?! Now get that snowplough going, you spineless prawn!!!” and with an almighty heave, he forced his snowplough back into motion. Little did he or any of the others realise, however, that their work was about to become horribly undone.

Caramel was just approaching the middle of the field when he heard a frantic yell from nearby. Startled, he turned his attention to the source of the shout, and was taken even further aback by what he saw – one of the other snowploughs seemed to have come to life, and the lavender-coated unicorn mare who should have been operating it was desperately fighting for control. But no matter how hard she tried, the snowplough refused to slow down.

“RUNAWAY SNOWPLOUGH!!!” yelled one of the other stallions, and the rest of the team brought their own snowploughs to an abrupt halt as the renegade careered right past them, just missing Caramel. The tan-furred young stallion could only stand and stare in disbelief as the scene unfolded before his eyes, further shouts emanating from a huge snowball that had formed in front of the snowplough – but then his confusion turned to horror as he realised that it was headed straight for the bluff.

With a loud, splintering crash, the snowplough crashed right into the bluff, sending up a plume of powdered snow and water vapour as the snowball disintegrated. Then, suddenly, there was a deep rumbling sound as the impact shook more snow loose, triggering a huge avalanche. Panic-stricken, Caramel leaped clear from his snowplough and ran as far away as he could manage, never once looking back at the mass of snow that was chasing after him. Several team-mates followed, desperately trying to get out of harm's way before the avalanche caught up and buried them.

Luckily, it didn't. After only a quarter of a minute, the rumbling noise slowly died down until the only sounds that could be heard was a soft breeze. Cautiously, Caramel glanced over his shoulder – sure enough, the avalanche had stopped just a few yards short of him and his team-mates. He breathed a huge sigh of relief; “That was a close call.”

“Everypony alright?” Big Macintosh came sprinting onto the scene from across the fields. He had been supervising another snowplough team at a nearby meadow, and had seen everything.

“We're okay, Mac,” replied a two-tone grey stallion, whose Cutie Mark consisted of three four-leaf clovers. “A few bruises, but at least nopony's been buried, that's the main thing.”

Big Macintosh frowned as he surveyed the huge snow-bank that had built up during the avalanche. Clearly it would take a long time to clear that lot away and extricate the buried snowploughs. “Hmm,” he mused. “Seems we gonna run late again unless we get them snowploughs out. Better git a move on, y'all.”

“Will do,” said a brown, blond-maned stallion; and with that, the team set to work clearing the snow away from their ploughs.

Caramel rolled his eyes crossly. “Well that's just great!” he muttered. “First I find I'm not as fit as I was when I first started working on farms, and now I'm going to be late sowing these dratted grass seeds, all because of some...” but he never finished. Looking back towards his saddlebags, he noticed that the one on his left, into which he had placed his seeds after the briefing, had somehow been torn wide open in his rush to escape the avalanche. The young stallion immediately forgot about the snow and began digging frantically through the saddlebag, hoping to goodness that he hadn't lost anything.

But horror of horrors, he quickly came to discover that he had. The single most important thing he should have had on him, and it had gone. For a few moments, he could do nothing but sit and stare in disbelief as this damning realisation struck him like a runaway train, until at last it came out in a piercing yell of despair; “WHERE ARE MY GRASS SEEDS?!?”

The remainder of the snowplough team abruptly stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at Caramel in alarm. Big Macintosh trotted over, a worried look on his face; “What's wrong, Caramel?”

“My grass seeds have gone!” wailed Caramel. “I had them in my saddlebag a few minutes ago, but I must have ripped it open somehow when I abandoned snowplough!”

The red-furred draft pony's eyes widened. “Ya sure ya put 'em in the one y'all 'ave been lookin' through just now?”

“Positive!” insisted Caramel, almost in hysterics as a result of his blunder. “I put them in there immediately after the briefing!”

“Okay, Caramel, just calm down,” soothed Big Macintosh patiently. “Where exactly were you at the time o' the avalanche?”

Caramel paused, trying to remember his exact position prior to the other snowplough crashing into the bluff. “Uh...about twenty yards away from the bluff, I think,” he replied at last.

“An' what exactly did y'all do when the snow started slippin' down the slopes?”

“Just leapt clear and ran for it,” answered Caramel simply, hanging his head in shame. “I never realised for one moment that I might catch my saddlebag on anything sharp – but it looks like I might well have done.”

“I see,” said Big Macintosh gravely. “Well, Ah don' really see much hope in tryin' ta dig 'em out – them grass seeds are as good as gone. We're just gonna have ta go find Applejack an' ask 'er fo' some more.”

Caramel recoiled nervously. “Are you sure about this, Mac?” he asked uneasily. “She was pretty annoyed with me the first time I lost them; what if she gets all angry at me for dropping them a second time? She might fire me for all I know!”

“Well, we ain't gonna get anywhere by just standin' 'ere frettin' about what mah sister might say,” replied Big Macintosh reasonably. “We don't get fresh seeds, then that field might as well be left fallow – an' we can't allow that, can we?”

With an unhappy sigh, Caramel accepted his defeat with a gloomy nod. “Alright then, Mac,” he murmured. “If you say so...”

Chapter 10: Mission Accomplished

It took ages for Caramel and Big Macintosh to find Applejack, and by then, it was getting rather late in the day. To add to Caramel's unease, the orange-coated mare was hotly arguing with two Pegasus mares in the town square over how quickly they should melt the snow.

“Uh......maybe we should come back later?” the tan-coated young stallion suggested, trying his best to sound helpful.

But Big Macintosh wasn't buying it; “Nope,” he stated firmly. “The longer we spend waiting on Applejack, the less chance we have of wrapping up winter on time.”

Even so, Applejack was so busy arguing that it was difficult for either stallion to get a word in edgeways. Such was their verbal jousting that the three mares quickly caught the attention of the mayor, who quickly stepped in to break it up.

“What in Equestria are all of you arguing about?!” she demanded. “This sort of silliness is why we were late for spring last year, and the year before that – and the year before that!”

Secretly, Caramel was stunned. Had Ponyville really had a history of late springs? Was that the reason Applejack had been so edgy about him losing some of the other grass seeds just a few days ago?

“I was hoping my amazingly inspirational speech would urge everyone to do better than last year,” continued the mayor crossly, “but now it looks like we're going to be later than ever. I mean, just look at this catastrophe; the ice scorers have made the ice chunks too big to melt! The nest designer is horrendously behind – we need several hundred, and she's only made one – and don't get me started on all the clouds in the sky, the icicles on the trees......this isn't good – not at all!”

“An' it's gonna be all to pieces disastrous if we can't get our seeds all planted!” cut in Applejack sharply.

Caramel cringed at the mention of the seeds. It was all very well trying to melt the snow more quickly so as to plant the seeds, but there was little point in trying anything of the sort when so many of them had been buried under a massive snowdrift – and all because he had been so hasty in trying to avoid a repeat of his first day in Ponyville.

At last, Big Macintosh stepped in; “Uh, AJ?” he ventured.

Applejack gritted her teeth in frustration when she heard her brother trying to grab her attention. Somehow, it didn't take more than a wild guess to work out what he was here for; “Good gravy!” she burst out angrily. “Caramel lost the grass seeds again, didn't he?!”

“Eeyup,” affirmed Big Macintosh gravely. Caramel, on the other hoof, hung his head with shame and didn't say anything; all he wanted at this point was for the earth to suddenly open up beneath him and swallow him whole. So much for trying to prove himself on Winter Wrap-Up, he thought as a fresh argument broke out. Once again, the mayor tried her best to appease the townsponies, but nopony paid her any heed.

“STOP!!!”

Immediately, everypony stopped arguing and turned to face the source of the voice – and the almost continuous tweeting that accompanied it – trying to grab their attention. In front of them stood the same unicorn mare whom Caramel had seen struggling with the maverick snowplough earlier. After murmuring a quick word of apology to the bird she had enchanted as a makeshift “klaxon”, she immediately addressed the crowd;

“I know you all want to complete your jobs on time, but arguing is no way to go about it. What you need is organisation – and I'm just the pony for the job...”

The lavender-coated mare was as good as her word. Soon the Winter Wrap-Up teams were hard at work once again; but this time, they performed their tasks with greater precision and efficiency than they had done previously.

Instead of starting from various different angles, the snowplough teams and ice scorers all started from the same side of their fields and lakes, and worked their way across as a complete unit. This not only sped up the clearing of the snow and the breaking of the ice, but also allowed more ponies to focus their efforts into other areas; those on the Weather Team could now spare more ponies to clear snow from the rooftops and fly south to escort the birds back to Ponyville, and since the Plant Team required fewer snowploughs to clear the fields, Applejack and Big Macintosh could now reassign others to plant the crops in the snowplough teams' wake. In this way, they managed to clear the winter weather away three times quicker than they had ever done before.

By the time dawn broke over Ponyville, the last of the snow and ice had been melted, the various creatures that lived in and around the area were out and about once again, and the trees and meadows were blossoming with flowers. With their important work finally over, the citizens of Ponyville returned to their homes feeling a great sense of accomplishment – against all the odds, Winter Wrap-Up had been completed right on schedule for the first time in several years.

But where other ponies felt proud of their achievement, Caramel still felt rather disappointed in himself for having nearly jeopardised the whole operation. If only he'd been a bit more careful with his saddlebags, he might not have lost a whole field's worth of grass seeds; then that would have been one less issue for the Plant Team to worry about. He sat alone in the hay loft of the Apple Family barn, brooding over what an absolute nuisance he had been, and quietly wishing there was some way in which he could have made up for his mistake.

“Caramel? What are ya doin' 'ere of a' places?”

The tan-furred stallion peered over the edge of the loft to see Applejack gazing up at him with an expression of deep concern. He looked away, trying to hide his expression of shame. “Ah, nothing much – just staying where I know I won't be a burden on you guys,” he sighed glumly.

“Burden?” repeated Applejack, noticeably taken aback. “Why in the hay would y'all think that o' yourself?”

“As if I needed to explain myself in the first place!” replied Caramel bitterly. “I've let everypony down big-time – twice lost enough grass seeds for a whole field, couldn't save a snowplough from being buried if my life depended on it...let's face it, this place would have been a whole lot better off without some idiot like me messing things up,” and he buried his face in his arms, too ashamed to even think about what Applejack's reply might be.

The orange mare continued to stare upon him with an expression of deep dismay. How in the world could Caramel be so pessimistic and self-deprecating over such a tiny......well, not exactly a tiny incident, but still – was there any need for him to put himself down like this? More to the point, what was it that had caused such negative emotions inside the young stallion – was it merely the stress of Winter Wrap-Up? Or was it something to do with his past? Somehow, she was convinced that it had to be the latter; but even now she was still afraid of bringing it up for fear of Caramel turning tail on her for all time, so she decided, rather unwisely, not to say anything about it. Instead, she climbed up into the loft and rested a gentle hoof on her foalhood friend's withers.

“Who says you've let us down, Caramel?” she soothed. “Y'all actually did pretty well, considerin' how differently we handle Winter Wrap-Up around 'ere – okay, so perhaps ya lost a snowplough an' several grass seeds...”

“Perhaps?!” repeated Caramel, frustrated. “I nearly caused a whole town to run late letting spring arrive! How can anypony look back on such buffoonery and not be angry with the idiot who was responsible for the whole thing?!”

If Applejack was surprised earlier, she was now utterly shocked. This clearly wasn't the Caramel she knew. “You – an idiot?!” she burst out. “How can y'all look back on a successful day's work an' put yourself down so strongly just fo' not gettin' it right firs' time?!”

“Because,” replied Caramel bluntly, and shifted himself round so that he wouldn't have to look at Applejack. But the orange mare wasn't going to let him drop the subject that easily; almost before the young stallion had stopped moving, she carefully stepped over him and lay down by his side. Caramel, of course, was in no mood to be lectured, and at first he had a good mind to turn his back again so as to avoid being chewed out – but then Applejack gave him a soft, understanding yet slightly hurt smile, and he grudgingly relented.

“Caramel, Ah can see yo' disappointed in yourself fo' not doin' as well as y'all 'ad hoped – ta be honest with y'all, Ah'd 'ave probably felt the same way if Ah were in yo' horseshoes – but there's no need to beat yourself up about it. This sort'a thing happens to the best of us, an' not just at Winter Wrap-Up either. Ah take it Big Mac told ya about last apple-buckin' season?”

Caramel nodded weakly; but even though he knew what Applejack was talking about, he still didn't feel any better about himself. “But...the way you were talking yesterday, it sounded like you expected me to get it right first time,” he said unhappily.

Now it was Applejack's turn to look ashamed. “Oh...that,” she murmured, her smile fading as she remembered how cross she had been at hearing about the lost grass seeds. No wonder Caramel was in such a low mood right now. “Ah'm awful sorry, Caramel. Ah was just so stressed about the whole Wrap-Up business that Ah ended up takin' it out on...well, pretty much anypony who happened ta be nearby.”

Caramel stayed silent.

“We'd never managed to complete a single Winter Wrap-Up on time fo' mo' than a century,” continued Applejack meekly. “Ah was kinda worried about bein' late again if we din' work fast enough – an' that's what was gettin' me so agitated, la'k.” She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. “If y'all hadn't slipped up, what with me tryin' ta rush things forward an' all, some other pony would've done, an' Ah'd 'ave still lost mah temper. It's only thanks to Twilight an' her organisational skills that nopony else has.”

“So...you're not mad at me for losing the grass seeds?”

“Well...maybe a li'l annoyed,” admitted Applejack sheepishly, “but there were plenty mo' where they came from. Ah'm just glad yo' safe an' well; if y'all had been buried under that avalanche, there'd 'ave been no way Ah could'a found another one of y'all.”

Before Caramel could reply, the orange-coated mare gently wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled fondly against the side of his head. As she did so, he felt his heart to skip a beat, while a strange tingling feeling coursed its way down his spine – it was as if somepony was transmitting a strong electric current through his body, except that it felt strangely pleasant. The young stallion froze, unsure of what to make of this new sensation; though he had been given the occasional comforting hug from his mother, something he missed dreadfully, it had never had such an effect on him as this.

All the same, he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it – if anything, it seemed to melt away his shame and self-pity altogether. Instead of brooding any further over why he was feeling this way or how he could have done better with Winter Wrap-Up, he returned the embrace with a hearty smile. “Thanks, Applejack,” he whispered. “I guess I needed that after such a hard day's work.”

“No problem, Caramel,” answered Applejack. “La'k Ah said, y'all did very well fo' a firs-timer, an' Ah'm plum grateful fo' yo' help.” She paused, glancing out of the barn doors. “Anyways, what say we move on from the whole thing an' go join the others at the Spring Has Sprung Celebration?”

Caramel smiled again. “Yeah, why not?” he agreed, and cheerfully followed Applejack out of the barn and back towards Ponyville...

Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, that must've been pretty awkward fo' ya, Caramel,” she mused. “Still, at least ya made it through Winter Wrap-Up without a repeat of what happened when ya first arrived here.” Her smile faded; “Ah don't think Ah could've lived with mahself if Ah'd lost you again.”

“Yeah, but if I'd been a bit more careful about getting clear of the snowplough, we wouldn't have had to worry about the grass seeds,” added Caramel unhappily.

“Never mind, Caramel,” soothed Applejack. “The important thing is that y'all managed to avoid bein' buried. 'Sides, y'all know what they say – no use cryin' over spilt milk...or seeds, in this case.”

At this point, Caramel could only smile. “Yeah, I suppose so,” he agreed. “But you know what bugs me about that hug you gave me back then?”

“What?”

“That should have been my 'moment of realisation', so to speak,” explained Caramel, mildly annoyed with himself. “But how do I react to these feelings I've been...well, feeling? Try and make advances towards you as I should have done? No, sir – I just had to take it in completely the wrong way!” and he slapped a hoof to his face with an exasperated sigh.

Applejack looked perplexed. “What do ya mean?”

“Basically I took it to mean I was a sort of 'lonely heart', if you like – that it was time I started looking for a marefriend.” Caramel sighed again and rested his right temple against his hoof. “I never realised for one second that I had the mare of my dreams right there by my side at that very moment – that would have saved me a lot of heartache and embarrassment if I had.”

Only then did the orange-coated farm pony catch onto what Caramel was talking about. “An' there Ah thought ya might've lost interest in me!” she teased.

Deep down, Caramel failed to see the funny side of it, but he tactfully kept his opinions to himself. “Well, even if I had, none of the other mares in Ponyville would have grabbed it quite so easily,” he observed. “I must have gone out with about a dozen or so, but I never really felt a chemistry with any of them, so eventually I decided to just let them go.”

He paused for a while, blushing awkwardly as he thought back to all the mares he had dated after Winter Wrap-Up. Perhaps it was a mercy that while some of them had been less than impressed with his decisions against pursuing a relationship with them – many had retaliated by describing him as a jerk, and one or two had even rejected him with a harsh slap to his face – others had been far more understanding, and respected his wishes without the slightest hint of dudgeon. One in particular, a Pegasus sky-dancer named Sassaflash whom he had dated on Hearts and Hooves Day and for three days afterwards, had not only accepted that maybe she wasn't the right mare for him, but had also agreed to remain on friendly terms with him.

Applejack smiled softly. “Yeah, but y'all ain't exactly the only one to 'ave gone through that kinda phase,” she observed. “Look at Rarity, fo' example; she'd been tryin' fo' Celestia knows how long to find who she thought would be her perfect stallion, but none of 'em ever seemed ta fit the bill. Even Trenderhoof was way mo' interested in me than her!”

Caramel could only cringe as he remembered what Applejack had told him about Trenderhoof hitting on her prior to the Ponyville Days Festival.

“In fact, it was only about a year ago that she realised that the one whose heart she really belonged to was Spike,” finished Applejack with another smirk.

“Yeah, but the big difference is that she actually managed to work that out of her own accord,” Caramel pointed out. “It took another good friend to help me come to a similar conclusion myself – something you could literally describe as 'Lucky', I might add...”

Chapter 11: Nothing More Than Feelings

The arrival of spring meant that Caramel had a lot more to keep him occupied at Sweet Apple Acres, and he quickly grew used to performing odd jobs around the farm from dawn till dinnertime. Sometimes he would assist with tree grafting and crop plantation, while at others he would carry out repairs on fences, ploughs, chicken coops and carts amongst other things. There were times, of course, when his clumsy streak got the better of him, but he gradually learned to take it in his stride instead of brooding over any mishaps that had cruelly decided to plague his working day.

Similarly, the Apple Family came to value his presence more than ever, and after a month, they even started paying him a small weekly wage. But despite their generosity, Caramel felt rather unworthy of such a gesture; if anything, it made him feel like he was free-loading off their hospitality, and eventually he decided that maybe he should move out of Sweet Apple Acres and get a place of his own. That way, he hoped, he would be a lot less of a burden on Applejack, her siblings and their grandmother.

Over the next few weeks, the tan-coated young stallion took every opportunity he got to find himself a nice, small, affordable residence that he could claim as his own. This turned out to be far easier said than done, however; the small fortune he had built up since working for Barley Mow and Blink Bonny certainly wasn't enough to buy him a bungalow, let alone a house, and while a flat would have been a lot cheaper, there weren't that many in Ponyville. Only towards the end of the third week did he finally manage to secure himself an apartment near the Carousel Boutique, less than a quarter of an hour's walk from Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack was secretly rather saddened when she heard of Caramel's decision to move out, but tried her best to remain supportive nonetheless. After all, she reasoned, it wasn't as if he would be leaving Ponyville for good – indeed, the young stallion himself had pointed out while packing what few belongings he possessed that, after all she and her family had done for him, there was no way he would wish to turn his back on them forever. All the same, he was very sorry when it was time for him to head out to his new home; so perhaps he didn't wish to intrude on his own employers any longer, but he still felt as though his life wouldn't quite be the same without them.

As darkness descended over Ponyville, Caramel finally arrived at the apartment building where he would be living for the next few years of his life at least. In common with some of the other buildings in the area, including Carousel Boutique itself, it was done up in a rather fanciful style, almost like a fairground marquee – a far cry indeed from the sort of buildings that a cosmopolitan city such as Manehattan boasted, thought a somewhat amused Caramel as he approached. Even though he had already seen the block up close and even from the inside when looking around his new flat, he still couldn't seem to get used to its colourful, cheery design.

The flat he had bought was located on the top floor of the building, five storeys up from ground level, and Caramel had to make a rather long climb in order to reach it. This didn't seem to bother him at first, not least because of how little he was carrying; but what he hadn't reckoned with was that his workload that day had been particularly heavy, which meant that he was short of energy before he had even reached the building. By the time he was halfway up the final flight of stairs, he was out of breath and his legs were stiff and sore from all the extra effort.

“Come on, Caramel you old goat!” he scolded himself, panting heavily from the exertion. “You're not gonna get anywhere by collapsing halfway up the stairs – now get a move on!!”

Unfortunately for him, his weary limbs seemed to think otherwise. Just when he was nearly at the top, his right hind leg suddenly missed its footing, and with a startled yelp he flopped down onto his barrel, landing with a hard thud against the stairs, while his saddlebags burst open and upset his belongings all around him.

The tan-furred stallion groaned in pain and frustration, slapping a forehoof to his face. “I am not having a good night!” he growled.

“You alright, stranger?”

Caramel looked up to see a vaguely familiar stallion standing just in front of him, an expression of concern stamped onto his face as he looked the newcomer over for any injuries. He was a sort of cadet-grey colour with a charcoal-coloured mane and tail, and his Cutie Mark consisted of three shamrock-green four-leaf clovers.

“I...yeah, I guess so,” he grunted after a few seconds. “Must have tripped on the stairs while I was making my way up.”

The other stallion recoiled slightly, inhaling sharply through clenched teeth. “Ooh, that sounds pretty painful,” he mused. “You want some help, pal?”

The tan-coated young stallion paused, surveying his spilt luggage. “I could do with it, actually.”

The grey stallion acknowledged with a nod, and helped the interloper to his hooves before helping him gather up his belongings. Before long, both of Caramel's saddlebags were reloaded, and he could finally make his way over to his new apartment.

“Thanks for the help, mister,” he said with a small smile as he inserted the key into the lock.

“Hey, no problem,” chuckled the grey stallion. “It's what I'm here for, after all. Out of interest,” he added curiously, “were you visiting relatives, or have you just moved into Ponyville?”

“Well, technically I moved here about...four or five months ago,” replied Caramel matter-of-factly. “It's only fairly recently that I managed to get enough money to afford a place like this.”

The grey stallion was taken aback. “So you've been living here without a good firm roof over your head for more than four months?! Crikey, what a way to live!” he exclaimed. “How in Celestia's name did you manage to get by so easily – and in such cold weather too?!”

Caramel paused again. “Um...it's a long story,” he said at last. “Some other time, perhaps?”

At first, the other stallion could only stand and stare in disbelief; but after a while, his expression softened a little, and he gave Caramel an understanding smile. Clearly this newcomer must have been through a great deal, but he was absolutely right – there was no point in keeping him up half the night on such a sensitive subject. “Okay then, buddy,” he replied, “I won't press you any further. But if ever you do have anything you want to talk about with somepony, I'll be more than happy to hear you out. My flat's just across the hall from yours.”

This coming from the two-tone grey stallion who had just seconds ago been helping him with his luggage filled Caramel with a deep sense of gratitude. For the first time since Brooklyn Dodger's untimely death several months ago, he truly felt like he had somepony to whom he could turn in times of strife or despair. “Thanks,” he responded softly. “I might just take you up on that offer.”

“That's okay,” smiled the stallion. “My name's Lucky Clover, by the way, but feel free to call me Lucky for short if you so wish.”

“I'm Caramel. Glad to know you.”

“Me too. Anyway, I better not detain you any longer,” said Lucky, turning to head back to his own flat. “See you round, Caramel – I hope you have a good sleep.”

“You too, Lucky. Goodnight,” and Caramel stepped into his apartment with a warm smile on his face. Things were definitely looking up for him right now, he thought.

Caramel settled in well at his new home, and quickly became firm friends with Lucky. The older stallion seemed to inherit a number of qualities from Brooklyn Dodger; he was genial and friendly by nature with a good sense of humour, but also refused to take any bullying, whether to himself or to anypony close to him. If ever anypony did get on the wrong side of him, he was quick to put them in their place.

Where he differed from Caramel's deceased Manehattan friend was by how much he influenced the tan-coated young stallion's social life. Brooklyn had been an extremely good friend, that much was true, but he had always gone easy on Caramel – even when it came to making new friends. As a result, any other friendships he might have made were regrettably short-lived. Lucky, on the other hoof, knew that friends were a vital part of anypony's lives, and over time, he gradually helped the young stallion to open up to other ponies.

Caramel was hesitant at first, not least because of what had happened the last time he had made a new friend, but Lucky was most insistent, and eventually the tan-furred young stallion gave in. Once he was out and about, however, he couldn't have been more grateful – within a month or so, he found himself with a far greater circle of friends than he could ever have predicted. One of the first was a somewhat mysterious chestnut-brown Earth pony with an hourglass Cutie Mark who referred to himself simply as “the Doctor”, while others included a golden, blue-maned stallion named Golden Grape; a light brown pony with black mane and tail named Cherry Fizzy, who, as his name suggested, made fizzy drinks for a local juice bar along with his marefriend Berry Punch; and a local unicorn artist named Claude Ponet.

But for some strange reason, even though his social life had improved immensely, Caramel still felt horribly incomplete. Why, he couldn't place his hoof on for the life of him, especially given all the good fortune that had come his way after leaving Manehattan – he was reunited with a foalhood friend of his, had somewhere to live, he had managed to secure a job for himself, and above all, he had made so many new friends that the loneliness he had so often experienced was now but a mere shadow of what it once was. So why did he feel like there was something missing from his life? Why did he keep experiencing a burning sensation in his chest every so often?

It couldn't possibly be homesickness, he told himself, otherwise he wouldn't have hesitated to try and move back to Manehattan. But could it still be that the city itself missed him? Could something – or somepony – within that city have been silently weeping over his departure, imploring for him to come back? The only pony Caramel could think of was his own mother, and even if he did come back, she probably wouldn't remember him if he showed her a photograph of the two of them together. After all, how would a brain-damaged mare be able to remember so much as a single detail of her daily life, let alone her own son? No – the only living soul who would have had the slightest chance of remembering him from the Big Apple was Applejack, and she didn't even live there!

Applejack – the mere thought of the name seemed to intensify the soreness in the young stallion's chest. But why, he asked himself? Why did his heart seem to ache every time she came into his head? They were both in the same place now, and more importantly, that was where he intended to stay, so why did he still feel an empty space whenever he thought about her or was in the same place as her? All these mysteries and many more played on his mind again and again, day after day; and by the time summer had rolled in, his astray state of mind had even begun to affect his work at Sweet Apple Acres, making him clumsier than ever. Where the worst he had done previously was to knock over the baskets and spill their contents, he soon found himself damaging fences and farming equipment, and at one time he even managed to kick one of the trees so hard that, just as the apples were falling out, it came loose from its roots and toppled over. Luckily it had fallen away from Caramel, thus sparing him any injury, but he was most ashamed and embarrassed, particularly when Applejack spoke sternly to him about it later on.

Late one September evening, about a week after his humiliation with the uprooted tree, Caramel arrived back at his apartment feeling utterly exhausted. It had been a long, hard day; the west orchard had recently been invaded by fruit bats, and he had been left to deal with much of the apple crop alone while Applejack and Big Macintosh tried to get rid of the bats and rescue what few apples they could. Because of this, they were left with such a heavy backlog that all three had to work overtime in order to make up for it, which led to even more mishaps on Caramel's part as he tried to rush the apples back to the barn.

“What a day,” groaned the young stallion as he plodded wearily into the living room and collapsed onto the couch. “As if all the extra mishaps I get into aren't enough, now I have to get a whole load more dumped on me by some pesky bats! I don't know how Applejack manages to put up with what I keep doing to her crops – especially after a day like that.”

He sighed heavily, reaching for a magazine sitting on his coffee table; but after only half a second he let his arm go limp again. “I just don't get it. Why does that mare make me feel all weird inside whenever I think about her? Why does my...” but he was promptly interrupted by a knock at his door. Without looking up, he called out, “It's not locked; come on in.”

Right on cue, the door opened to reveal Lucky. “Hullo, Caramel,” he said cheerfully. “Just thought I'd drop in and see how you were doing. You're back pretty late, aren't you?”

Caramel didn't say anything. He just nodded faintly.

“You okay, buddy?” asked Lucky, visibly perplexed and concerned. “You don't exactly seem with it at the moment.”

“No, I'm not,” murmured Caramel unhappily. “We've been having a few problems over at Sweet Apple Acres with an invasion of fruit bats, hence why I was so late getting back home. Certainly didn't help that I was getting the same feelings that I'd been experiencing since...well, since a little while after I moved into Ponyville.”

Lucky gazed curiously at him. “Do you want to talk about it? I mean, I understand if you don't, but it might still help to get it off your chest if it's really bugging you – which I assume it is.”

“You assume right, Lucky,” replied Caramel, and proceeded to explain; “I've been getting a really weird ache in my chest every so often, and when I'm with Applejack, I...or even thinking about her, for that matter, I keep feeling all nervous and such. Even when I'm in bed at night, I find myself dreaming I'm sharing it with a mare – I can never work out whom, but whenever I try to lock lips with her, I...well...” he blushed madly, “...I keep waking up to find I've kissed my own pillow!”

“I see,” mused Lucky thoughtfully.

“Yeah, last time I felt anything like it was just after Winter Wrap-Up,” continued Caramel. “I thought maybe it was a sign I needed to start trying to find a marefriend; but what beats me is that none of them seemed quite right fo...” but he suddenly broke off in mid-sentence. Much to his surprise, Lucky had broken down into a fit of laughter, and was clutching his chest with one hoof as he nearly guffawed himself to the point of coughing.

Caramel stared incredulously at the grey-coated stallion. “I don't see anything funny about this,” he stated bluntly.

“Yeah, well...obviously you don't see where you've been going wrong either,” spluttered Lucky, trying his best to pull himself together. “You've been looking everywhere for a marefriend, but you've never once realised that you have one right within striking distance whenever you're at Sweet Apple Acres!”

“What are you talking about?” exclaimed Caramel. “There's nopony on the farm who can even begin to catch my interest – apart from Applejack, perhaps – but...”

“Exactly!” interrupted Lucky triumphantly. “All these emotions you've been feeling are you getting a crush on Applejack!”

“But I...how can you be so sure?”

Lucky chortled. “By a number of means,” he replied with a grin. “One: you mentioned yourself that you keep getting a weird ache in your chest every so often – and that you get all 'nervous', as you so naively put it, when you so much as think about her. Am I right in thinking that they both occur at the same time?”

“Uh...yes.”

“Well there you go – that's not actual nervousness as much as your heart aching for that pony. Two: you keep dreaming of getting into bed with some random mare, right?”

“Right,” affirmed Caramel, still uncertain.

“That mare you keep dreaming of represents Applejack, and your cuddling and kissing is your crush 'venting', so to speak. Deep down, you probably want to hold and touch and kiss her, but while you're doing your best to suppress that urge, you can't do that while your body's all relaxed and your subconscious has taken over – parasomnia, my Dad calls it. And three: in case you've forgotten, I actually have a marefriend myself whom I go and see every evening after work,” finished Lucky, “so having been there before, I know exactly what I'm talking about.”

Caramel paused, thinking the whole thing over. Could it really be true that he had developed feelings for Applejack? Was that why he had been so distraught when she left Manehattan without even telling him? The more he thought about it, the more he realised that Lucky was absolutely right – he had fallen for the orange-coated farm pony, and he had fallen hard. “Wow, Lucky,” he remarked at last, “seems you might have a point there.” But then his face fell too; “I can't believe I let myself grow so close to me.”

Lucky's hearty smile changed back to a frown of concern. “What's wrong with that? I'd have thought you'd be over the moon.”

“You wouldn't be 'over the moon' if the only two ponies who ever came as close to you as I suspect Applejack is getting were removed from your life by a pair of collapsing walkways,” retorted Caramel glumly.

“Walkways?!” exclaimed Lucky, his eyes widening in sudden realisation. “You mean......that Bridleway shopping mall?”

“Correct again. That's why I moved out of Manehattan; I didn't want to experience that kind of pain ever again, and neither did I want anypony else to suffer just by way of me being there,” Caramel clarified sadly. He then looked down at his hooves, visibly ashamed. “Besides, it's not as if anypony would forgive me for that accident – I don't think there's been a single survivor who hasn't sustained some kind of life-changing injury.”

“Well, you say that,” replied Lucky sagely, “but there are actually a fair few who haven't.” He paused dramatically, as if he was holding back a dark secret waiting to be revealed. “In fact, and I don't mean to alarm you when I say this, you're actually looking at one such survivor right now.”

Chapter 12: A Lucky Survivor

Caramel goggled in shock. “You...but...I...hang on just a second – you were involved in that accident too?!?” he blurted out. “But...why did you never tell me?!”

“You never asked,” said Lucky simply. “Yes, I would have mentioned it myself – and in retrospect, I probably should have done in the first place – but when you told me you were from Manehattan a few weeks ago, I decided against it in case I struck a nerve with you.”

“But how did you manage to make it out unscathed? Surely those two walkways would have flattened anypony caught beneath them!”

Lucky shook his head in reply. “Not necessarily. I may have been severely injured, but it wasn't permanent, and it certainly wasn't fatal.”

A long, awkward silence ensued as Caramel took in the grey stallion's words. It seemed almost impossible for him to believe that Lucky Clover of all ponies had been involved in such an horrific accident – he had no visible scars or amputated limbs, he sounded perfectly normal, he never seemed to limp when walking...it was almost as if he was making it up. And yet, when he looked into the older pony's eyes, he could see a grave seriousness in them, which told him quite clearly that this was no joke.

“So...what happened?” he stammered at last.

“Well, it was like this,” began Lucky; “an uncle of mine who actually works in Manehattan as a playwright at Bridleway was due to put on a musical that August based on the life and times of Princess Luna, and me being his favourite nephew and all, he invited me personally to come and see the performance. He even went as far as to send me a free ticket. Of course I was more than happy to come and join him, so three weeks later, I headed up to Manehattan on the overnight train from Canterlot, arriving at around midday the following day. My aunt and uncle usually came down to see me in Ponyville rather than the other way round, so apart from Bridleway, I didn't really know Manehattan all that well. On the way to my uncle's penthouse, right on the other side of town from the station, I stopped at the new mall to get myself a snack and some coffee and to ask for directions.

“But just as I had left the café and was passing underneath the walkways, I heard a loud popping noise from above. It was so startling that I just stopped in my tracks and looked up, wondering what in the hay could have happened just then – but it never dawned on me for one moment that it was the walkways. If it had, I would have made a run for it; but instead I just stood there, confused and alarmed, looking all around me for the source of the noise. Then somepony shouted a warning from nearby. I turned to look at him, and the next thing I knew, there was a loud crashing noise as the walkways fell down right on top of me and several other ponies. I think some of the rubble must have struck me on the head, because everything suddenly went blank at that point, and I immediately lost consciousness.”

Caramel could only recoil in horror as he imagined what Lucky might have seen and heard at the time. And there he had thought it had been bad enough just to witness the collapse! “So...what then? How did you escape?”

“I didn't,” answered Lucky gravely. “When I regained my senses, I found that part of the lower walkway had pretty much pinned me down to the floor. Both my hind legs had been torn free from their sockets and were bent right against my sides, so as you can imagine, I was in a great deal of agony.”

“Yeah, not something I really want to be thinking about,” replied Caramel, visibly disturbed.

“As if that wasn't enough, the water pipes had burst, and water was pouring into the lobby at an alarming rate. Within......I dunno, something like half an hour, 45 minutes, it had flooded the lobby to such an extent that I could barely keep my muzzle above the level of the water. All the while, I had been desperately shouting for help in the hopes that somepony would be able to get me out of there; but I must have been buried a bit too deep for anypony to hear me clearly, because nopony answered,” went on Lucky. “But just as I was about to become submerged, I heard a faint shattering noise from outside. You can imagine how relieved I was when I noticed the water levels starting to drop; a few minutes too many, and I might have drowned.

“The hours passed, and still nopony responded to my calls. All I could do was lie there for what seemed like decades, trying to breathe as gently as I could for fear of inhaling dust from all the rubble around me, and all the while wondering if I'd ever make it alive.”

“But obviously you did, didn't you?” asked Caramel anxiously.

“Obviously,” affirmed Lucky, “but it was a pretty close call, I can tell you that much.”

“Why? What happened?”

“It was probably sometime around ten o'clock that I heard banging noises above me,” continued Lucky. “I couldn't quite work out what it was all about at first, but after a few seconds, I suddenly realised that somepony must be using a jack-hammer on the debris under which I was trapped. I began yelling out for help once again, this time a lot more frantically, but that jack-hammer was making such a noise that once again, nopony heard me. Eventually, the noise became a lot louder, and as I looked back, I could see the blade piercing through the rubble, just a few inches above my back. I was absolutely terrified at this point – any minute now, they would go at the rubble again, and then I'd be so horribly injured that I'd never see the light of day again.

“I braced myself for the immense pain of death I would inevitably feel – but once again, I more than managed to live up to my name. Just as they were preparing for another run, I yelled out for the umpteenth time, and then somepony shouted, 'Stop! There's somepony alive under there!' At that point, the jack-hammer stopped altogether, and the pony who had been operating it called down to me, asking if I was okay.

“Aside from my dislocated legs, my back had been broken, and both my kidneys were in a bad state, so as soon as I had been freed, they wasted no time rushing me to the nearest hospital. Apparently the doctors weren't sure I would survive the night, but they did everything they could for me all the same. Thankfully, of course, it all paid off – I just managed to make it through my emergency surgery, and was in a stable condition after only a few weeks in the intensive care unit. I needed a lot of physical therapy before I was able to go home,” the grey-coated stallion finished with a wry smile, “but by the time it was all over and done with three months later, I had made a complete recovery, so nopony would have ever known that I'd been so badly injured if it hadn't been for me telling them.”

By the time Lucky had come to the end of the story, Caramel could only gaze at him in amazement. Even now he could scarcely believe that anypony could make it out of such an horrific disaster as this without so much as a scar to remind them of their harrowing and thoroughly traumatic experience. And yet, having lost his mother to a nursing home and his best friend to the throes of death, here he was reunited with a survivor of the very same disaster – and despite having suffered a broken back and two dislocated hind legs all at the same time, he had miraculously recovered to the point where he didn't have a single injury left over. “Wow,” he admired. “You really are Lucky, aren't you?”

“Yeah, I suppose you could say that,” agreed Lucky modestly. “Still, it was just as well that I called out at the right moment, otherwise I might have been killed. As it was, I was an absolute physical wreck by the time they lifted me out.”

“I can imagine that,” sympathised Caramel. “If it had been me, I would have had enough nightmares to last me a lifetime.”

Lucky nodded solemnly. “I think anypony would have done,” he mused. “Matter of fact, I myself couldn't get those images out of my head for weeks on end, and for a while, I couldn't help feeling a sense of grief for all the two hundred and seventy-four ponies less fortunate than I. It's kind of like...'Why isn't it me dying instead of spending all this time recovering in a hospital bed?' - that sort of thing.”

The younger stallion sighed unhappily. “I know how that feels.”

“Big difference with me is that I moved on from all that,” Lucky pointed out. “After a few weeks in the intensive care unit, I came to realise that the best thing one can really do in such a scenario is to just let it go. If other ponies are dead, they're dead, and there's not really a lot we can do about that. Anyway,” he added, “after a further few days of contemplation, I decided then and there that it was high time I just accepted that this was how it was meant to be and put the past behind me.”

“Like I did, huh?” asked Caramel.

“No, Caramel,” retorted Lucky firmly, “not like you did. You actually took the whole 'put the past behind you' thing a little too far and tried to run away from it altogether. You can't keep doing that, you know – no matter where you go or how you get there, it's always going to catch up with you, just like it is now.”

“I......I don't understand.”

“Well, let me give it to you straight, pal; you're taking a liking to a foalhood friend of yours – heck, you may even be falling in love with her, the way you'd been talking just then...”

Caramel blushed madly. Could his feelings really be running that deep?

“...but you're letting the memories of that disaster control your every emotion. Not only are you afraid of something similar happening to her – you're trying to go down a route which you think might make things better for everypony when in fact it's bound to break a few hearts,” concluded Lucky. “It's okay for you to try and forget about anything bad that's happened to you, but you need to try and learn from it as well, otherwise you'll be spending the rest of your days as a loner and a miser with not a single bit of love and care in your heart.”

Only then did Caramel finally realise how selfish he had been. Here he had a huge circle of friends who looked out for him on a daily basis, who would probably have been most dismayed or angered to see his feelings hurt in any way, and yet, before Lucky had regaled him with his own experience of that terrible shopping mall tragedy on Bridleway, he had been thinking of turning his back on what he had always known to be the best thing that had ever happened to him so far. But what really stung was that he had probably had a similar effect on at least one pony back home; for while he had virtually been long forgotten in Manehattan, his father, a pony who had rarely ever taken part in his own son's life, was probably a broken stallion by now, constantly sitting alone in his living room, silently crying for the loss of not one, but two members of his family. As the cruel, horrifying truth bore in on him, the young stallion felt tears starting to flood his eyes. What had he been thinking, abandoning what little family he had left as if they were of no importance to him?

Seeing the look of hurt, shame and guilt on his friend's face, Lucky softened his expression and rested a hoof on Caramel's withers. “I know how much it hurts to see somepony taken away from you like that,” he said gently, “but that's life, unfortunately. Life is full of meetings and partings. Whether or not you do decide to make friends with anypony, the time will come when you have to say goodbye to them for good. Doesn't matter whether it's me, or Applejack – or even the Doctor, for that matter – there always comes a time when we have to leave the land of the living.”

Caramel stayed silent.

“Like I said, Caramel, it's not good to run away from your past, but it's not good to dwell on it either. So perhaps you may have lost two ponies who were very close to you, but how do you think they'd feel if you lived anything but a full and happy life? How would they feel if you were permanently lumbered with guilt at not having confessed your feelings to the mare of your dreams?” Lucky paused to let Caramel take in his every word. “I know you're scared of losing Applejack, but if you don't get it off your chest, you'll have it stuck in there forever.”

“I know,” sighed Caramel, brushing his tears aside. “I just wish I'd realised it sooner – then I wouldn't have experienced such grief when she left Manehattan. Brooklyn Dodger once assured me I'd see her again someday, but...”

“And you are, Caramel,” interrupted Lucky softly. “You're seeing her every day, dawn till dusk, so you've plenty of opportunity to reveal all to her. But like I said, it has to be done, or else it'll haunt you for the rest of your days. Besides, I'm sure this is what this Brooklyn Dodger would have wanted – wouldn't you agree?”

Caramel paused again. In his head, he could hear the voices of Brooklyn and his mother softly willing him on;

“Go after her, Caramel. You know you love her.”

“C'mon, Caramel old buddy – you can do this.”

“It's what you came all this way for, my son.”

“Go get 'em, pal, show this gal how much ya care for her.”

Finally, the tan-furred stallion nodded bravely. “You're right, Lucky,” he conceded. “I've let my past control me for way too long. It's time for me to pony up and face my fears – starting with how I feel for Applejack.”

Lucky smiled and patted Caramel on his shoulder. “That's the spirit!” he encouraged heartily.

Author's Note

Lucky Clover's account of the Manehattan shopping mall disaster is based on the story of Kansas City property valuer and Hyatt Regency disaster survivor Mark Williams, who spent more than nine hours pinned beneath the collapsed walkways before being rescued.

Chapter 13: Blast from the Past

Caramel awoke the following morning with a strong sense of confident resolve. Today, he told himself, would be the day he revealed all to Applejack; not only would he reveal his feelings for her, but he would also reveal that they had been friends – sweethearts, even – since foalhood.

“Let her forget who I am!” he thought aloud, a palpable tone of determination evident in his voice. “Whether she remembers me or not, I'm going to win that mare's heart, and I'm going to win it good!”

With that, he marched boldly out of his flat and on towards Sweet Apple Acres.

But when he arrived, the young stallion's resolution quickly began to falter. Not only was he having trouble working out how to broach the subject, but to his dismay, Applejack had descended into a bad mood, and was grumbling dreadfully as she loaded the apple baskets into the carts that she and Caramel were to take out to one of the lower orchards.

“Darn them pesky fruit bats!” she griped angrily. “How are we supposed ta provide fo' the whole of Equestria if them varmints keep nabbin' our apples whenever they feel la'k it?! Can't they just leave us be for once?!”

“Nope,” murmured Big Macintosh bluntly.

Applejack scowled at her older brother. “Yo' not helpin', Big Mac!” she hissed sharply.

Caramel stood and listened as Applejack continued to complain. He had never met a fruit bat before, but the way the orange-coated mare was talking made them sound so bothersome that he silently hoped he'd never have to. Of more immediate concern to him was how sour and abrasive she had become as a result of having to deal with these pests; somehow he couldn't shake the feeling that, with an attitude like that, any attempt to reveal how he felt would only serve to worsen her temper. If that happened, then he would probably live to regret it. Indeed, such was his unease that he found it almost impossible to say anything as they headed out towards the orchard.

Things were no better when they arrived at their designated grove and began harvesting the apples, for Applejack was so frustrated by the fruit bat fiasco that she took her frustrations out on the trees. From the other side of the grove, Caramel watched with growing concern as she worked her way from tree to tree, almost seeming to kick the living daylights out of them. Maybe now wasn't such a good time to make his move after all, he thought – not only that, but the way Applejack was behaving, he'd soon have a lot more to worry about than confessing his feelings.

The tan-coated stallion tried his best to ignore Applejack and carry on, but needless to say it wasn't easy. Apple-bucking had never been his strong point; he usually needed to go at each tree at least twice in order to shake all the apples loose, whereas Applejack and Big Macintosh were more than dexterous enough to bring the whole lot down with only a single kick. But today, so distracted was Caramel that, even after his second kick, he kept looking up to find that there were still plenty of apples left on the tree.

“Get a grip of yourself, you moron!” he scolded himself after a while. “You'll get your chance later – now for Celestia's sake, stop worrying and get on with it!”

As chance would have it, Big Macintosh was approaching with another cartload of empty baskets, and happened to overhear what the frustrated younger stallion was saying. “You okay, Caramel?” he asked as he pulled up alongside.

At this point, Caramel lost his temper for one of the few times in his life. “No, Mac, I'm not alright!” he burst out angrily. “I'm in a right muddle at the moment, and all because of...well, 'feelings' that I've been getting but don't know what to do with!”

The red-coated draft pony eyed the loaded apple baskets, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Ya look fairly well organised ta me.”

“No, I mean emotionally,” objected Caramel. He paused for a few seconds before continuing in a lower tone, though no less frustrated; “I'm just feeling a little lost at the moment because I've got this really deep crush on somepony, but I'm a little scared of admitting it to her.”

Once again, Big Macintosh raised his eyebrow – but this time, it was accompanied by a broad smirk as if he knew more than he was letting on. “An' Ah presume that by 'somepony', ya mean Applejack?”

Caramel was so stunned he could hardly believe what he had just heard. “How in the hay did you find that out?!” he exclaimed.

“It's been written a' over yo' face since Winter Wrap-Up,” Big Macintosh clarified. “'Sides that, the way ya keep starin' at her ever' time ya think nopony's lookin', it's fairly obvious how ya feel fo' her.”

The tan-furred stallion looked down at his hooves, deeply ashamed and embarrassed at having blown his cover before he had even completed his mission. He should have had just a few hurdles to overcome before he reached the finishing line, but now another, much more difficult one had been placed in his path, barring his way to victory. “Am I really that easy to read?” he thought aloud.

“Eeyup,” affirmed Big Macintosh. He then smiled kindly upon the humiliated younger stallion; “Hey, no need ta gimme that look, Caramel. Ah think it's quite cute that y'all feel so strongly fo' mah sis.”

“But you don't understand...” began Caramel, almost letting a few tears loose he was in such turmoil.

“Yes, Ah do,” interrupted Big Macintosh. “Ah've actually been through a similar phase mahself with a mare named Fluttershy. See, when A.J. went to Manehattan back when Ah was about thirteen, Ah felt kinda lonely an' depressed without her, an' one day, Ah ended up gettin' lost in the woods above the north orchard. Ah was a li'l scared at first, but then this cute li'l Pegasus filly comes an' helps me fin' mah way back home. Ah was real grateful fo' her help, an' even happier when she moved down to Ponyville many years later; but it was only a few months after that move that Ah realised mah feelings fo' her ran far deeper than gratitude.

“Matter o' fact, that's why Ah was so upset about that Hearts an' Hooves Day fiasco with Miss Cheerilee; Ah wanted to go out an' tell Fluttershy exactly how Ah felt fo' her that day – maybe even ask 'er out ta dinner or somethin' – but then Apple Bloom an' 'er two friends pretty much ruined it fo' me with that love poison malarkey. It a' turned out okay in the end, though,” he finished. “A few days after that, the three of 'em tried ta make it up by arrangin' a li'l picnic date, an' even though Apple Bloom nearly drowned herself in a nearby ditch, they pretty much succeeded. Fluttershy an' Ah 'ave been datin' ever since.”

Caramel gazed admiringly at the red-coated draft pony. He had never known Big Macintosh to be so...romantic before, and yet, just like Lucky Clover, Brooklyn Dodger and Applejack before him, he was revealing something about himself that clearly showed how much he understood what the young stallion was going through. With Applejack, it was an inability to befriend anypony within the big city, and later the loss of her parents; with Brooklyn, it was having to part with the love of his life for what would turn out to be the rest of his days; and with Lucky, it was his own involvement in the walkway tragedy, and how he had coped with it afterwards. And now, Big Macintosh of all ponies was telling him that he too had been having mare troubles at one point in his life, just as he himself was doing right now.

“Do you......really think I have a chance with Applejack then?” he ventured at last.

“Only one way to find out,” replied Big Macintosh. “Ah'll handle the apple-buckin'; y'all better go over there an' tell her.”

“What?! Right now?”

“Eeyup – no time la'k the present, after all,” and before Caramel could answer, Big Macintosh delivered a hard kick to one of the trees as if to make himself clear.

Caramel sighed heavily. Big Macintosh really wasn't going to let him off that lightly, was he? “Alright then,” he muttered, “but don't blame me if she gives me an earful for playing truant.”

“Don't worry, Caramel,” grinned Big Macintosh. “That moody li'l sister o' mine gives y'all a hard time, Ah'll gladly set it straight mahself. By the way,” he added, “if it makes y'all feel any better, ya mo' than have mah blessings.”

“Wait – really?” asked Caramel, perking up a bit.

Big Macintosh smiled again, and affirmed his statement with a simple “Eeyup.” Almost immediately, Caramel began to feel a whole lot better about himself, and with a light spring in his step, he trotted briskly up the hill to where Applejack was working. Predictably, the orange-coated mare was still being rough with the trees, so she failed to notice Caramel approaching her until he was only a few yards away.

“Um...Applejack...” he began cautiously.

Applejack lowered her hind legs and turned to face the tan-furred stallion. “Caramel!” she snapped, still noticeably annoyed. “What do ya mean by bunkin' off work la'k this?!”

Caramel flinched slightly. For a fleeting moment, he nearly forgot about his resolution from earlier that day, and was ready to slink off back to the other grove. But no, he told himself – he couldn't turn back now that he had gotten this far. “Actually, I wasn't,” he replied, trying to sound calm. “Big Mac seemed to think I was having trouble with the apple-bucking, so he said to take over from me while I came over to talk to you about something.”

“What sort'a somethin'?” demanded Applejack.

“Well...” Caramel paused pathetically, “...it's a bit...I'm not really sure where to start – but it's still pretty important.”

Applejack sighed. “Alright – but make it brief, y'all.”

“Okay,” conceded Caramel, a slight stutter in his voice. “Anyway, it's like this; obviously we've known each other for...well, months, but there's something I've only just...” but he never finished. Looking up, he could see that a branch on one of the trees had become so loose that the slightest vibration could cause it to break free. He stared at it for a few seconds, wondering if maybe he should point it out to Applejack before he continued – but any such decision was suddenly stalled as the landscape around him seemed to change rapidly.

In an instant, the tan-furred young stallion's vision went blood-red, and he found himself standing in the same shopping mall in which his mother had lost her memory and Brooklyn Dodger had been killed. In the place of the tree branch, he could see the two ill-fated walkways hanging high above the lobby, threatening to plummet onto any helpless ponies that happened to be passing underneath. He stood and gazed upon them in terror, unable to utter a single word.

At last, Applejack lost patience. “Actually, ya know what, Caramel,” she said, perhaps a little rudely, “yo' just gonna have ta wait. Ah can't waste time listenin' to yo' silly babblin',” and with that, she continued to buck the apple trees, unaware that one of them posed a serious hazard.

It took a while for the orange-coated farm pony's words to register in Caramel's mind and snap him out of his trance. As he came to his senses, his first thought was the loose branch – if Applejack didn't spot it soon enough, she might soon become a completely different kind of crush. “Um...actually, Applejack...”

“WHAT?!”

“Uh...I think you might want to be careful where you kick,” advised Caramel nervously. “One of those...”

“Look, can't it wait?” ordered Applejack sharply, and moved over to the next tree – the very same tree that bore the loose branch. Without even bothering to look up and identify the danger that Caramel was referring to, she positioned herself right beneath the defective branch and raised her hind legs at the ready.

“WAIT!!!” yelled Caramel in alarm, raising a hoof as if to try and stop her. But he was too late; with a hard thump, Applejack's hooves slammed hard into the trunk, shaking the apples loose and causing the branch to sag down towards her before breaking away altogether.

In Caramel's mind, he could see the two walkways breaking free from their suspension rods and plunging towards the lobby floor. Now, just as they had claimed Brooklyn and his mother, they were about to claim Applejack as well – and if he didn't act fast, he would lose her forever. With a terrified shriek, he leaped towards the orange-coated mare, forcing her out of harm's way with only a split second to spare; the next moment, the branch fell right on top of him with a splintering thud, and he felt a huge pain in his back as if somepony had stabbed him in several different places all at the same time.

Applejack was sent into a short barrel roll down the slope, but escaped without any form of injury. Still dazed by what had just hit her, she picked herself up and began dusting herself down with an angry grunt. “Okay, Caramel,” she began, looking back towards the tree she had been trying to buck, “what in the hay was...” but what she saw came as such a bombshell that she completely forgot to be bad-tempered. Caramel was pinned down by a branch that she hadn't realised up till now had worked itself loose, and his face was contorted with agony.

“OH MAH STARS – CARAMEL!!!” she screamed in horror, and frantically ran back up the hill towards the stricken stallion. He was still conscious, but his back appeared to be bleeding heavily, and his breathing was starting to falter. In spite of the excruciating pain, he nevertheless managed to crack his eyes open and gaze into the orange-coated mare's eyes with an expression of deep remorse.

“I'm sorry...Applejack...” he wheezed. “I don't...I can't make it...”

“Don't talk la'k that, Caramel!” pleaded Applejack despairingly. “Yo' gonna be okay. Honest you will!”

“Applejack,” gasped Caramel weakly, “if I...don't live......I...”

Applejack waited anxiously for what he had to say next, but it never came. Overwhelmed by the unbearable pain in his back, his eyes closed again and his head slumped against the ground.

“No!” wailed Applejack, white-hot tears stinging her eyes and blurring her vision as she tried to bring him round again. “Wake up, Caramel, please! Ya can't just up an' leave! Please speak to me!”

But no amount of shaking and yelling would make the wounded young stallion regain consciousness. He just lay motionless beneath the fallen branch, his breathing now shallow and inaudible.

“What's up, A.J.?” called a voice from nearby. Applejack looked up to see her brother cantering anxiously towards her.

“Caramel's hurt,” choked Applejack, barely able to speak. “Please help me.”

Big Macintosh took one look at the almost lifeless form of Caramel, and swiftly lifted the branch off his back. The unconscious younger stallion having been freed, the red-coated draft pony turned back to his younger sister; “Keep an eye on 'im, A.J.,” he instructed tersely. “Ah'll go get help,” and he galloped away before Applejack could answer. All the distraught orange mare could do was watch over her foalhood friend, unable to control her sobbing for one of the few times in her life.

“Oh, Caramel,” she whimpered feverishly, burying her face in his chest fur and holding him tightly. “I'm sorry...this is a' mah fault...Ah should never 'ave been......Ah'm so sorry...please be okay...please forgive me...”

Chapter 14: A Guilt Trip for Applejack

How long had she been sitting there? What was happening with Caramel right now? How much longer did he have to live? Applejack couldn't answer a single one of those – all she knew was that she was currently waiting outside the operating room at Ponyville Hospital with only her brother for company. Apart from the occasional announcement over the intercom and the odd nurse or doctor trotting past, everything was excruciatingly quiet and still as they sat and fretted over their wounded farm-hoof.

It hadn't taken very long for Big Macintosh to return with his cart and a team of paramedics, but Caramel had lost a lot of blood along the way, and was barely alive by the time they reached the hospital. Not only that, but it also turned out that his back had been broken when the branch had struck him, necessitating an emergency surgery. Even though it had only been half an hour since they had arrived, Applejack felt as though she had been spending the best part of a millennium waiting for the operation to finish; and all the while, she kept staring down at her front hooves with a look of guilt and fear in her eyes, praying to Celestia for her foalhood friend to be alright.

At last, the red light above the door went out, and the door itself slowly swung open. Applejack immediately jumped from her seat; “How is he, Doc?” she asked almost desperately.

The surgeon who had just emerged from the operating room removed his mask and gave the orange-coated mare a grave frown. “Well, the good news is that he's survived,” he replied solemnly, “but the bad news is that he's currently paralysed from his lower back down.”

Applejack's heart skipped a beat. “What?!” she gasped. “But...but Doctor, ya can't just leave him la'k this! Ya gotta help him, please!”

“I'm sorry, Miss Applejack,” said the doctor. “We've done all we can for him, but we need to let him recover in his own time. Sad to say, the chances are that he might never be able to walk again.”

Any further protest that Applejack had to make was quickly lost in a despairing whimper as she broke down into tears again. The doctor was about to offer his condolences at this point, but upon seeing her distraught, he decided that he could only do a whole lot worse by saying anything to her. Instead, he tactfully turned and walked away down the corridor.

Big Macintosh, on the other hoof, was so dismayed by his sister's heartbreak that he could only gaze upon her in sorrow. “Applejack...” he breathed, at which point the orange-furred mare suddenly flung her arms around his withers and bawled into his shoulder. Such was her hysteria by then that she had begun to convulse repeatedly with every sob, almost to the point of throwing up. The red-coated draft pony gently wrapped his own front hooves around her, shedding a small tear of his own as the two siblings embraced; he didn't quite know what had gotten his sister into such a tizzy, but seeing her in such an inconsolable state made his heart bleed heavily.

“It's mah fault,” wept Applejack, her face still buried in her brother's fur. “It's a' mah fault.”

“What is?” asked Big Macintosh softly.

There was a long silence before Applejack finally managed to confess to her misjudgement; “Ah 'member 'im, Big Mac,” she whimpered. “It was him who Ah met in Manehattan...the one Ah left behind...”

Only then did Big Macintosh catch onto what had gotten his sister in such a state of guilt; “Are y'all tryin' ta tell me...you lied to him?!”

“Well...not quite,” muttered Applejack meekly. “Ah just...kinda twisted the truth.” Her hard sobbing suddenly resumed; “But that's besides the point! Ah've betrayed mah element! Ah've gone an' hurt mah friend, an' all because Ah was dishonest with him!”

The red-furred draft stallion couldn't believe what he had just heard. His own sister, the most honest pony he and anypony else in Ponyville knew of, had tried to hide the truth from somepony – and from a dear family friend too! How could she? And more to the point, how in Tartarus was it that Caramel had actually bought it? “Why?” was all he could say.

Applejack looked up at him with an expression of deep remorse. “Ah...Ah din' want him to leave...Ah couldn't......” but for the umpteenth time, her emotions became so overwhelming that she nearly broke down again. In the end, Big Macintosh decided that he had heard enough, and returned to hugging her closely until her tears had almost completely dried up...

The days rolled slowly by, and still there was no word about Caramel's recovery. Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom all tried their best to carry on regardless, but life at Sweet Apple Acres now seemed strangely quiet without the tan-furred young stallion working alongside them, and even Big Macintosh found that he missed having to clear up after his every spill!

But even more noticeable was how drastically Applejack seemed to have changed since the accident – and all of it for worse, it seemed, for no longer did she display the strong work ethic that everypony around her had come to accept as part of her nature. In fact, she didn't display anything of herself at all; she never once left the farmhouse, she never invited any of her friends over to see her...she never even came down to breakfast, lunch or dinner. Instead she would lie on her bed with the curtains half drawn, day and night, mourning for her foalhood friend and harshly berating herself for everything bad that had happened to him in his entire life.

After a whole week had passed, Big Macintosh finally decided that enough was enough – it was high time somepony sorted things out once and for all. Having finished his day's work, he went straight upstairs to speak with his sister.

Applejack was still in an emotionally fragile state by this time, and barely seemed to notice her brother entering her room. Even though she was by no means as fussy about her appearance as certain other ponies he could mention, the red-coated stallion was still rather shocked when he saw how dishevelled she had become. Her mane and tail, normally bound together at the ends, were now messy and riddled with knots and tangles; her eyes looked sore and baggy, and she generally looked as though she had barely eaten anything for days.

“What in the hay?!” he exclaimed, recoiling slightly.

Applejack looked up at him, startled – and promptly turned the other way. “Leave me alone, Big Mac,” she mumbled miserably.

But the tone of her voice served only to dismay Big Macintosh even further. It sounded somewhat strained and gravelly, quite possibly from all that crying he suspected she had been doing – only natural, really, considering her reaction to the notion that Caramel would almost certainly leave the hospital with a permanent disability. If, Celestia forbid, he did walk out on her as he had been told to do, this would only continue, and if they weren't careful, she might make herself horribly ill. Hanged if he was going to allow that to happen, he told himself.

“Nope,” he stated resolutely. “We need to talk, A.J., an' we need to talk now.”

“Ah ain't got nothin' ta say.”

“Well, if y'all don't, then Ah certainly do,” replied her brother bluntly. “Ah know ya feel bad about Caramel, but ya can't keep beatin' yourself up about it; none of us knew 'bout that loose branch until it was too late.” He paused for a moment to allow Applejack to take in his words, then continued in a softer tone, “'Sides, how do ya think he'd feel if y'all 'ad ruined your own health 'cause you wouldn't stop cryin' over 'im?”

“Might as well 'ave wished it on me after all Ah'd done,” sobbed Applejack morosely. “He never had a friend in the world other than me, an' Ah just abandoned him. He's got every right to hate me fo' all that!”

Big Macintosh rolled his eyes dramatically. “C'mon, Applejack, that's nothin' but a load o' horse-feathers,” he retorted, never once allowing his distressed sister get a pessimistic word in edgeways. “If he hated y'all, would he have continued workin' fo' us after ya got all edgy on Winter Wrap-Up Day? Would he have even bothered to take up the job in the first place?”

Applejack remained silent, mulling over what her brother had just told her. The more she thought about it, the more she realised just how valid a point Big Macintosh had just made – throughout the last few months, the tan-furred stallion had been given many excuses not to associate himself with the Apple Family, from her turning her back on him in Manehattan to the various mishaps he had gotten into during his time at Sweet Apple Acres. And yet, even though she might have lost her temper with him a few times, he had never seriously considered walking out of her life just as she had done to him during their foalhood. Could it really be that he cared for her as much as the red-coated draft pony had been implying?

But before either pony could say anything else, the silence was promptly broken by a knock at the front door. Knowing full well that Granny Smith would have dozed off by now, Big Macintosh turned and trotted downstairs to see who it was, leaving Applejack alone with her thoughts once again – but not for long.

Quite shortly, the red-coated stallion returned with a look of relief on his face. “That was one o' the doctors from Ponyville Hospital,” he explained. “He says Caramel's outta his coma now...”

“What?!” Applejack sat bolt upright, startled. “When?”

“A few hours ago,” Big Macintosh answered. “An' that ain't all neither – 'is back ain't as bad as they first thought, so it seems that pony's all set fo' a complete recovery.”

To this day, Applejack has never been able to find the right words to describe the euphoria she felt upon hearing this news. It was as if Mother Nature had managed to perform a miracle on Caramel that the likes of neither Celestia nor Luna could ever match. Without so much as a nuzzle of gratitude or a gasp of joy, she leaped off her bed and bolted out of her room, straight down the stairs, through the living room and out of the front door. Having recovered from the initial shock, Big Macintosh walked over to the window and watched with a broad smile as his sister darted across the orchard like a professional racehorse.

Applejack arrived at the hospital less than twenty minutes later, a deep sense of anxiety digging into the pit of her stomach as she entered the lobby. Even after that heart-to-heart talk with Big Macintosh, she still feared somehow that Caramel might not be all that pleased to see her – for all she knew, he might have decided to forsake the Apple Family and move on to a completely different town, where she would never see or hear from him again. She could only hope it wasn't too late for her to reveal the truth, just as she should have done in the first place.

Taking a deep breath in a bid to calm herself down, the orange-coated mare steeled herself for her inevitable fate and trotted over to the reception desk. “Pardon me, miss,” she inquired, “any idea where Ah can find a stallion named Caramel?”

“Ah yes, I think I know the one,” replied the receptionist, levitating a red folder off the shelf behind her. “Bear with me just a moment.” She then began to leaf through the folder, murmuring indistinctly to herself as she read through what Applejack could only assume were patients' names.

At last, the pink mare looked up from the list. “He's in the Post-Anaesthesia Recovery Unit, Ward B; that's in the east wing of the hospital,” she affirmed.

“How's he doin'?”

“Still a little disoriented according to the matron, but otherwise he's in pretty good health. All I would advise is that you don't stay in there for longer than half an hour.”

“Okay then,” said Applejack with a faint smile of gratitude, and trotted off towards the main corridor. The receptionist merely nodded in reply before returning the folder to its appropriate shelf.

As the orange-coated mare made her way past door after door, all the while trying to seek out the ward in which Caramel would be resting, she couldn't help thinking back to how her parents had been struck down by that fallen tree all those years ago, and how her mother had died in this very hospital after just six days in the intensive care unit, even though the doctors had done everything they could to save her. To say it had been a crushing blow to the whole family, Applejack in particular, would have been putting it rather mildly, but what made these grim memories all the more harrowing were the uncanny similarities with Caramel's own accident; not only had trees been involved in one way or another, but her mother had suffered similar injuries to the ones inflicted on the tan-furred young stallion. It was almost as if her past had come back to punish the still emotionally fragile farm pony for being so dishonest with him.

But surely his injuries couldn't be fatal, could they? No, of course they weren't, she tried to reassure herself – if Caramel really was mortally wounded, Celestia forbid, then the informant from the hospital would have said so. Besides, the damage that her mother had sustained would probably have made his injuries look as harmless as a paper cut. All the same, Applejack still couldn't stop worrying, though whether because of Caramel's condition or how he might react to seeing her again, she couldn't quite fathom.

The corridor that led to the post-anaesthesia ward was only a few hundred yards long, but it seemed to go on for light-years on end, so that by the time Applejack reached the right door, she felt as though she had gone halfway round the globe. But even now that the orange-coated pony had reached her final destination, her conscience seemed to be barraging her with horrifying notions of what might happen if she dared to enter the ward. What if Caramel didn't want to see her again? What if his injuries were far worse than the doctors had made them out to be? What if...what if she came in and found a motionless body completely covered by the sheet under which he had been trying in vain to recover? That last question was too much for her to bear, and for a brief, tense moment, she was tempted to turn and run – away from the hospital, away from Caramel, away from everypony and everything had come to mean so much to her...

But no – that was far too selfish! Even if her foalhood friend had died of his injuries, there was no way that abandoning her life, her past, her family, would make things better for herself or for anypony else. Besides, Caramel wouldn't have wanted that, would he now? No, of course he darn well wouldn't. So with a deep breath, Applejack raised a shaky hoof to the door handle, turned it, and gently nudged the door enough to let it slowly swing open of its own accord. What she saw on the other side filled her with such an indescribable feeling of euphoria that, at first, she could only stand and stare in disbelief – for there, lying on the first bed to her left, was a brown-maned, tan-coated stallion of twenty years old. He was securely strapped down to the mattress and couldn't move very much, but it didn't stop him from turning his head towards the doorway with a warm, soft, slightly drowsy smile on his lips.

“Hullo, Applejack.”

Chapter 15: Confessions

Upon hearing that simple, heartfelt greeting, Applejack could no longer hold herself back. Almost at once, she practically leaped across to Caramel's bed and flung her forelegs around him, wailing joyfully into his shoulder as tears began to overflow from her eyes. Caramel let out a half-stifled grunt of pain as the relieved mare hugged him tightly, the soreness in his back still not having diminished since he had regained consciousness; but even though Applejack was being a little rougher with him than she realised, he couldn't care less if it felt like he was being run through with a lance – to be in her hearty embrace gave him a feeling of warmth far deeper than he had ever felt in all his life. Without a single word, he wrapped his own hooves around her barrel and nuzzled softly against the side of her head.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity – a very warm and touching one at that – Applejack slowly resurfaced, still choking back tears as she gazed into the tan-furred stallion's eyes with an expression of deep guilt and remorse. At first, Caramel wasn't sure how to react; but before he could ask what was wrong, the orange-coated mare immediately lost control of herself and cut him off with a hard slap against his chops, causing him to flinch slightly.

“Don't ever do that to me again, Caramel!” she burst out hysterically. “Do ya realise how scared Ah was when that tree branch fell on top o' y'all?! Or how much it broke mah heart when Ah heard ya might never make it back onto yo' own four hooves again?!” She paused for a few moments, shakily drawing deep breaths to try and calm herself, though plainly without success. “Ah couldn't go anywhere near any o' them apple trees 'cause Ah was so terrified fo' ya! Ah kept gettin' nightmares ever' time Ah fell asleep! Ah couldn't even eat very much – an' all because Ah feared Ah was gonna lose y'all!” and she collapsed into helpless sobbing once again.

Caramel's heart sank as he thought back to the accident with the fallen branch. Had he really hurt Applejack that badly? For a brief moment, he couldn't help wondering if maybe he could have done things a little differently that day, so that neither pony would have had to suffer the consequences. But no matter how hard he tried to find an answer, he could only draw a complete blank.

“Yes, I do realise that,” he replied at last, “and I'm really, really sorry. It's just that...well, if I hadn't let myself get struck by that branch, you would have done so yourself, and I just couldn't bear the thought of losing you. I'd already been through that once before when my best friend died and my mother lost her memory.” He paused pathetically. “I know you probably won't understand where I'm coming from with this, but you've actually meant a lot to me since...well, since long before I moved to Ponyville.”

Applejack was stunned. “Ah have?!”

Caramel looked away, embarrassed. “Yes,” he affirmed meekly, a small tear of his own welling up in one eye. He felt certain now that he had ruined his friendship with the orange-coated farm pony, and whatever response she was about to make, he wasn't looking forward to it. “Please don't hate me for this.”

“Hate y'all?! Caramel, that's just ridiculous!” exclaimed Applejack, noticeably dismayed. “How could Ah possibly hate y'all fo' savin' mah life?!”

This threw Caramel for a loop. He abruptly jolted his head round to look at her again, his mouth agape. “What...?”

“That branch was meant fo' me! It's as y'all said – if y'all hadn't pushed me aside at the last minute, Ah'd be long dead by now!” The orange-furred mare's face then took on a mask of shame, and in a quiet, sad, guilty tone, she added, “'Sides, Ah'm in no position to be beatin' you up over the whole thing – not after how dishonest Ah've been.”

“What do you mean, 'dishonest'?” objected Caramel, visibly perplexed. “I thought you said you represented the Element of Honesty.”

“Ah do,” said Applejack, looking away, “but Ah never said that meant Ah couldn't twist the truth. Matter o' fact, that's exactly what Ah did when y'all first arrived on Sweet Apple Acres.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what she should have told him several months ago. “Caramel...Ah 'member y'all from mah foalhood.”

Caramel's eyes widened, and he could do little more than stare upon Applejack in almost speechless disbelief. “You...but...I...why didn't you tell me so in the first place?!” he blurted out.

“Because Ah was scared, Caramel,” explained Applejack glumly. “Ah knew y'all were the colt Ah befriended in Manehattan 'cause Ah...well, 'happened' to stumble across a photo of us when Ah was just a filly; but Ah was afraid that y'all might not remember me. Even if ya did, ya might 'ave been mad at me fo' leavin' y'all behind when Ah returned back 'ere ta Ponyville, an' either way, ya might have just turned yo' back on me just as Ah'd done to y'all.”

So that was why she had been so ambiguous as to whether or not she remembered him! But something still didn't quite add up in Caramel's mind; Applejack had confessed to having deliberately left him in the dark, and that she had done so out of fear rather than spite, but there was still one query she hadn't answered. “But why did you leave me?” he asked. “If it's because I was a bad friend, I'm...”

“No, Caramel, it wasn't,” interrupted Applejack. “Y'all were a wonderful friend – heck, ya could be forgiven fo' thinkin y'all were even mo' than that...”

Caramel blinked, and a light blush spread across his face. Was this really happening to him?

“...it's just that...when Ah woke up that mornin', Ah noticed this rainbow pointin' me back towards home, an' that was when Ah realised that mah destiny was at Sweet Apple Acres. Ah never even stopped ta think about what Ah'd be leavin' behind until about halfway back, but by then it was a bit late fo' me to come runnin' back to Manehattan an' tell y'all where Ah was headed.” Applejack's eyes were slowly starting to fill with tears again, but she still managed to finish her story; “Ah felt la'k such a moron fo' havin' left y'all alone, Caramel, an' Ah never stopped thinkin' about you even after Ah got home. Some nights, Ah'd gaze up at the stars an'...just wish that y'all would come back to me; but then Ah kept thinkin' that...ya might still hold a grudge against me.” She didn't say any more, but the look of shame in her eyes and the accompanying spillage of tears spoke volumes for her sorrow.

By now, Caramel's head was swimming in such a vast sea of emotions that he didn't know what to think or feel. Even now that Applejack had poured her heart out and confessed everything to him, he still couldn't get to grips with the fact that she had effectively betrayed her element by acting as if she didn't recognise him, even though she hadn't openly stated anything of the sort. Only when he noticed the remorse in her disgraced expression did he manage any kind of response – but when he did, it wasn't what Applejack had been expecting.

“Me, hold a grudge against you?” he retorted with a wry grin. “No way would I want to do that, Applejack – especially not after how you provided me with warmth, food, drink and shelter last winter. Heck, if I'd decided to walk out on you immediately I woke up, I wouldn't have lasted five minutes in that blizzard!”

Applejack didn't seem very convinced, however. “But...how do Ah know y'all weren't just doin' this because ya felt ya had to?”

“Well, it's partly that, I suppose – but that's besides the point,” insisted Caramel, taking hold of one of her front hooves in his own. “Up until you came into my life, Applejack, I didn't have anypony who cared for me other than my own mother. You were the first real friend I'd ever had – you'd given me something that's generally taken for granted by ponies more fortunate than I was back then, and I'm forever grateful for it.” His smile faded, and he took a deep breath. “In fact, that's partly why I wanted to talk to you before that accident.”

“How come?”

“Well...I'd been thinking lately about...how long we've been friends, and...well...” Caramel paused again, suppressing a nervous gulp. “...I've kinda realised that you mean a lot more to me than that.”

Now it was Applejack's turn to freeze over in disbelief. Her heartbeat began to increase, and her cheeks went a deep shade of red. Was he really implying what she thought he was?

“I......I've fallen in love with you,” confessed Caramel, his own face reddening again. “I think it must have started just after Winter Wrap-Up, but I didn't recognise it as being love at the time, hence why I went out on all those dates with...”

“Hang on a second, partner,” cut in Applejack, finally breaking her stunned silence, “you...after all Ah said an' did, you actually...” but her voice trailed away before she could finish.

“None of those mares I went out with had quite the same effect on me as you do. Besides, if 'all Ah said an' did' isn't reason enough for me to feel the way I do, I don't know what is.”

Applejack gazed into his eyes, the corners of her mouth slowly starting to turn upwards as she detected an aura of warmth and sincerity that seemed to surround his expression. “So......y'all forgive me?”

“Already had done many years ago, Applejack,” affirmed Caramel with a soft smile.

At last, Applejack managed to bring herself to smile in return. “You wanna know somethin' Caramel?” she said softly. “Ah feel the same about y'all as you do me.”

“Wait – really?” gasped Caramel, his face brightening up.

“Ah sure do. Must 'ave been that near miss with the fallen branch that made me see the light – but yeah, friendship don't even begin to describe how Ah feel fo' ya.”

Applejack's face inched closer and closer to that of her lover as she spoke until, by the time she had finished, there was only a tiny gap between the two Earth ponies' lips. They both remained still for a few seconds, enjoying the smell of each other's breath brushing against their noses; Caramel savouring the aroma of freshly harvested apples while Applejack heartily took in a minty scent. Then, in an instant, both felt their hearts practically leap for joy as their lips met, eliciting deep moans of pleasure as their first kiss deepened further and further. But even when they finally pulled apart for air, Caramel still wasn't finished.

“Well, Applejack,” he said in a seductive tone, “looks like I've only one problem left.”

“What would that be?”

The tan-furred young stallion smiled warmly and wrapped his hooves around the orange-coated mare. “Nothing serious,” he reassured her. “It's just that...well, now that I've got my arms around you, I'm going to hug you, and kiss you, and never let go...”

“...an' ya never have, Caramel,” finished Applejack fondly, back in the present day. “Ya never have.”

Caramel smiled warmly in reply, and gave his foalhood friend turned lover an affectionate nuzzle. No more did he feel ashamed of himself for being such an accident-prone moron, or guilty for having lost two very important ponies in his life through no fault of his own – all he cared about at this very moment was that he was reunited, and had even found love, with a dear old friend of his, and equally importantly, his whole life had improved hundredfold from the lonely, unappreciated social leper he used to be. “I sure haven't,” he mused softly. “And you know what – I couldn't be more grateful for it.”

“Nor could Ah,” agreed Applejack, gently pecking him on the cheek. “Ah'm so glad ya came back to me after all those years – Ah dunno how Ah would'a gotten by without y'all in mah life.”

“I know,” murmured Caramel. “I missed you too – more than you could even begin to realise,” and he gave Applejack a soft kiss on the lips.

By now, the moon had risen and was glowing a beautiful milky white against the now deep blue blanket of sky that hung above the orchard, while stars twinkled softly all around it, making for a romantic, picturesque scene. Once again, silence reigned over the two ponies as they sat side by side among the apple trees, peacefully enjoying each other and the stillness around them. For what felt like the first time in a long while, Caramel felt deeply contented with the way his life was going, and as Applejack wrapped an arm around him and nuzzled fondly against his neck, he could only smile gratefully up at the stars.

But after a few minutes of pure bliss, a thought occurred to him that rang a discordant tone with his otherwise thorough peace of mind – a tone that sounded very much like the one remaining pony in his life who, just like he himself had been for many years, had probably been terribly alone and forgotten in Manehattan. With this in mind, he gently straightened himself up and turned to face his marefriend. “Applejack,” he spoke up quietly, “I know I said I'd never leave you or the rest of the Apple Family ever again, but...” He paused impressively. “...there's one more loose end that I need to tie before I can truly move on from all this.”

“What'd that be, Caramel?” asked Applejack, slowly waking herself from having dozed off on Caramel's shoulder.

“My father,” explained Caramel simply. “When I ran away, I pretty much left him behind in the same way as you did to me. I need to go back to Manehattan for a week or so and see if I can reconcile with him...if that's okay with you, that is. I promise I'll come back to you immediately after I'm done.”

Applejack smiled encouragingly. “Course it's okay with me,” she conceded. “Ah think that's mighty sensible of y'all, sugarcube.”

Caramel returned the smile in kind. “Thanks, Applejack. That means an awful lot to me.” He then stood up, stretching out his arms in front of him; “Ah well, back to the farmhouse, I guess.”

“Eeyup – an' the most ridiculous story about Discovery you'll ever hear,” put in Applejack with a smirk.

The tan-furred stallion raised an eyebrow in his confusion. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Ain't ya heard? Discovery went an' backed up his apple cart a li'l too far when he were tryin' to unload 'em into the cellar,” chortled Applejack, visibly amused.

“Ooh dear, I hope he's...” but before Caramel could finish, he too saw the funny side of Discovery's mishap and started laughing with Applejack as the two Earth ponies made their way back to the farmhouse. And to think that, just a few hours ago, he had been mocking the tan-coated Manehattanite for being so accident-prone! Boy, was Caramel going to have fun winding him up that night...

Epilogue

A few days later, Caramel was making his way down the Bridleway towards the penthouse on the edge of Central Park where he had lived for nearly two whole decades, and where he hoped his father would be awaiting his return, however brief it would turn out to be. It had been a long time since he had last found himself caught in the hustle and bustle of Manehattan, but even though he had been living in more rural settings for the best part of five years, it still felt strangely familiar to him.

As he neared the turn-off he was supposed to take, an equally familiar yet slightly different sight caught his eye; specifically, the sight of the very shopping mall in which he had lost Brooklyn Dodger and his mother to the defective walkways. Nothing now remained of these, but in their place were three new walkways spanning the lobby, one for each level, with sturdy marble columns supporting them instead of hanger rods. The sight of these newer, safer walkways filled Caramel with a deep feeling of comfort and relief for all the lessons that had been learned from the earlier tragedy – now, the mall had virtually been restored to very near its original magnificence, and this time, there wasn't a single flaw in the walkways' design to endanger anypony who dared to enter. With a faint, grateful smile, he turned and continued along the Bridleway.

Before long, he found himself standing in front of the very place he used to call home. With a deep breath, he braced himself for his inevitable fate and made his way up to the front door, promptly raising a hoof as he approached and pushing the small button that activated the doorbell. Seconds later, the door opened to reveal a well-groomed, smartly-dressed Earth stallion, who promptly froze the moment he saw who was standing just outside.

“Is that who I think it is?” he asked in disbelief.

Caramel placed his right hoof against the back of his head with an awkward grin. “Well......depends on who you're thinking of,” he replied wryly. “Does the name 'Caramel' ring any bells to you?”

The stallion blinked in amazement. “Why...so it does!” he gasped. “My word, Master Caramel, it's been an awfully long time since I last saw you!”

“Five years, I make it, Mr Jarvis,” affirmed Caramel. “I see my father still hasn't let go of his faithful old butler after all this time.”

Jarvis smiled momentarily, but then his expression turned sombre; “About the only pony he ever did retain in his life after you left here,” he said gravely. “You wouldn't believe how distraught he was from having lost his family – he even gave up his job in the embassy.”

Caramel smiled back apologetically. “Yeah, about that...” he began.

“But never mind all that, Master Caramel,” interrupted Jarvis soothingly. “I'm sure he'll be more than happy to see your face again, so by all means, do come inside.”

The tan-coated stallion felt a lot better for hearing that, and willingly followed Jarvis into the house. Both ponies stopped outside the first door they came to, which Caramel knew by instinct led to the lounge. After gesturing for him to wait outside for a moment, Jarvis opened the door just wide enough to poke his head inside the room.

“Pardon me, sir,” he announced, “there's somepony here who wants to see you.”

“Can't they come back some other time, Jarvis?” replied a mournful, sombre voice from within the room. “I'm in no fit state for visitors right now.”

“Well, you say that now, sir,” Jarvis pointed out knowingly, “but I rather think you will be when you see him.”

“I don't see it, Jarvis. I've tried everything and everypony to get my spirits up – nothing seems to work anymore.”

“Not even a pony who you might know and love almost as much as your wife?”

There was a long silence. Caramel pawed nervously at the carpet as he awaited the other stallion's response, hoping to goodness that he could still find it in his heart to forgive him.

“Alright – let him in.”

Jarvis withdrew his head from the doorway with a smile. “Go right ahead, Master Caramel,” he encouraged.

“Will do, Mr Jarvis,” and Caramel cautiously entered the room. Sure enough, he could just make out a chocolate-brown stallion with a lighter brown mane sitting in an armchair on the far side of the lounge, facing away from the door towards the window.

As the tan-furred stallion drew closer, the older pony slowly turned towards him. “So,” he began, “I understand you c...” but he suddenly broke off mid-sentence and stared in amazement at the interloper whom he had previously assumed had merely come to intrude on his privacy – except that now, as he looked the pony over, it seemed as though he had perfectly good reason to do so. He looked so immediately familiar that at first he couldn't believe his eyes. “C...Caramel?”

“Hullo, Dad,” said Caramel softly.

The brown stallion rubbed his eyes, wondering if perhaps he was dreaming. “I don't believe it!” he gasped. “Is...is that really you?”

Caramel smiled wryly. “Well, I can't think of anypony else who looks even remotely like me – yet,” he replied.

In an instant, the older stallion was up on his hooves and hugging his long-lost son feverishly. “Oh, Caramel,” he sobbed joyously, “am I ever happy you came back! I thought I'd never see you again.”

“I'm sorry, Dad,” apologised Caramel, letting loose a small tear of his own. “You and I were in pretty much the same boat after what happened to Mom, and I...I just abandoned ship and left you to struggle on alone. I should never have run away like that.”

His father pulled back with a warm smile. “It's okay, Caramel,” he answered. “You were in too emotional a state to think otherwise. Besides, I was no better myself for wanting to murder the guy who put those walkways up in the first place – frankly, I'm surprised the lawyers didn't put out a restraining order on me as soon as they found that out!” and he laughed heartily in spite of himself.

“But they did sort it out in the end, didn't they?” asked Caramel anxiously.

“They sure did, son,” chuckled his father. “Turned out that neither the designer nor the construction team actually checked the final design before the walkways went up. Both have lost their engineering licenses now.”

“And quite right too,” agreed Caramel feelingly. “I can't believe they had to let such a deadly design flaw slip through their hooves!”

“Neither can I – still, at least there's no chance of that ever happening again. But anyway, enough about those damned walkways; you and I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm sure that Cutie Mark I've never seen before has a heck of a lot of stories to tell.”

“It sure does, Dad,” smiled Caramel, and pulled up an armchair of his own so that he could tell his father all about what had happened in his life after leaving Manehattan, how he had discovered his talent in farming, his long-awaited reunion with Applejack, and how a blast from the past had brought their friendship to the next level.

As the two of them chatted away till late that night, Caramel felt a deep sense of fulfilment – he had a loving, caring marefriend whom he had known since foalhood, he had somewhere he could call home, he had far more friends than Manehattan had ever allowed him to have, and to cap it all, he had managed to reconcile with his father despite having deserted him for years on end. Yes, the two of them may have suffered a great deal from having lost loved ones, and all to a shocking and thoroughly scandalous disaster that could easily have been prevented, but even though their lives had been turned upside down and back to front by the tragedy, both ponies could finally put the past behind them and move on for the better. And just as well too, he told himself, for although he had been through a great deal in the last five years, such heartbreaking moments as had been the case with his mother and a close friend of his, however historically significant they may have been, were probably best forgotten.

Chapter 1: Misfortune

Autumn was slowly drawing to a close, but for Sweet Apple Acres, the apple-bucking season was still far from over. The apple harvest had been unusually heavy that year, and Applejack and her siblings were so behind in their work that even by the time Nightmare Night had been and gone, there were still several trees that had yet to be bucked.

Luckily for them, two cousins of theirs – a mild-mannered, soft spoken young stallion named Ashmead Kernel, along with his jocular but somewhat tactless older brother Discovery – had come to visit from the Wild West town of Mustangia two days earlier, along with the latter's new wife Fuji. When they heard of the backlog with which their Ponyville relatives were having to cope, they offered to assist with the harvest until it was time for them to go home. That was why, one cool, quiet afternoon, the three ponies were helping Applejack and Big Macintosh gather apples near the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse.

As Discovery lowered his hind legs after bucking yet another tree, he looked back at the literal fruits of his cousins' labour, and smiled with satisfaction as he watched them fall squarely into the baskets they had left at its base. “An' that,” he proclaimed proudly, “is what we call gettin' 'er done!”

“Eeyup,” agreed Big Macintosh in his usual, laid back tone.

“Sure was good o' y'all ta help us out la'k this,” observed Applejack as she began to hoist the loaded baskets into her waiting cart.

Ashmead smiled modestly. “Ah, nothin' really, cousin Applejack,” he replied. “It's what we Apples do best, after all. Even Fuji's doin' a pretty good job – an' yet she comes from a different background to us? What's with that?”

“Yeah? Well just because she's Japaneighse don't mean she can't cope with this sort'a job,” Discovery pointed out. “If anything, she's probably better than us, what with all her judo and karate skills.”

As if to prove his point, they heard an exuberant “HAI-YAH!” from close by as Fuji, an attractive but powerfully built young mare, delivered a well-placed kick against the trunk of one of the other trees. She was only using one hind leg, but that alone sent such a powerful vibration through the tree that it shook the apples loose almost as easily as Applejack and Big Macintosh would have done with both.

Applejack was most impressed. She hadn't known Fuji for very long, but clearly the Japaneighse mare was more than proving her worth at apple-bucking. “Great work, Fuji!” she praised as the latter came trotting over. “You got the makings of a true Apple right there.”

Fuji chuckled appreciatively. “That's very kind of you to say so, Appurujakku,” she smiled. “I guess all these martial arts skills of mine really do pay dividends when it comes to apple-bucking.”

“Y'all said it, Fuji,” beamed Discovery, fondly nuzzling his wife. “Ah always knew there was a reason Ah married y'all.”

“Really?” smirked Fuji, batting her eyelids flirtatiously. “I only ever thought it was because you couldn't resist my feminine charm.”

Discovery turned his head away in a vain attempt to hide his blush. “Well...that too,” he murmured.

Applejack could only shake her head in amusement at Discovery's shy behaviour as she gently lowered the last of the apple baskets onto her cart. That Fuji sure was a tease, she thought.

“Anyway,” she announced, tactfully changing the subject, “Ah'd better get this lot back to the barn. Keep up the good work, y'all; Caramel should be here soon with some more empty baskets.” And with that, she harnessed herself to the cart and set off back towards home.

Fuji raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Caramel?” she repeated. “I didn't know you had a Caramel working for this place.”

“Yeah, Ah thought she had an orchard of 'er own up in Hollow Shades,” put in Discovery.

“Nope – yo' thinkin' o' Caramel Apple,” replied Big Macintosh. “The Caramel mah sis was talkin' 'bout is an tan-coated pony with three horseshoes fo'...”

“Oh yeah!!” interrupted Ashmead. “Ah 'member now – he's that stallion from Manehattan that Applejack introduced us to a few reunions ago.”

But before Big Macintosh could answer, the four ponies were startled by a loud thud from nearby. Looking back over his shoulder, the red-furred draft pony could only shake his head in dismay as he noticed an overturned cart lying at the bottom of the hill, with a tan-coated, brown-maned Earth pony stallion hanging limply from its traces.

“Hey there, Mac,” he said meekly. “Uh...little help, please?”

With a heavy sigh, Big Macintosh resignedly trotted down the hill towards the unfortunate stallion, leaving the other three ponies to carry on with their work.

“So that's Caramel, is it?” remarked Fuji, her eyebrow still arched in her surprise.

“Yeah, that's him,” affirmed Ashmead. “He ain't exactly related to the Apple family, but he's a pretty good friend o' theirs, so Big Mac told me. Came down from Manehattan about five years ago, an' 'as been workin' 'ere ever since.”

“I see,” mused Fuji, watching with interest as Big Macintosh set about helping Caramel out of his harness. “Has he...always been known to get into accidents like this?”

“Accidents?!” joked Discovery. “The way he's goin', ya can hardly call 'em 'accidents' – that pony's a walkin' disaster, an' no mistake!”

He was only teasing, of course; but it didn't seem to sit well with his younger brother. With an annoyed look on his face, Ashmead marched up to Discovery and looked him crossly in the eye. “Now just a minute, bro,” he chided sternly, “was there any need fo' that? You know perfectly well Caramel don't mean ta cause all these accidents; least y'all could do is show a bit o' sympathy.”

“Ah, lay off, Ash,” scoffed Discovery, brushing him off with a wave of his hoof, “Ah was only kiddin'. 'Sides, ya know Ah don't always mean what Ah say.”

“No,” said Ashmead pointedly, “but Caramel don't know that, no more than he knows how many trees there are in our own orchard. Ah mean, what's to stop him from thinkin' y'all are just windin' him up fo' the heck of it?”

“Ashmead's right, Discovery kun,” agreed Fuji firmly. “If I hadn't been so understanding when we first met, would you have gotten away with that joke of yours about us Japaneighse ponies depending on sushi all the time?”

Discovery simply scoffed in reply as he thumped his rear hooves against yet another tree. Some ponies just couldn't take a joke, he thought.

Meanwhile, further down the hill, Big Macintosh had managed to set Caramel free and push the cart upright again and was now looking it all over to check for any damage. Having affirmed that there wasn't any, he turned back to the tan-coated stallion. “Y'all okay then, Caramel?” he asked.

“I think so,” answered Caramel, who had been checking himself for injuries all the while. “Guess I must have bumped over a tree root or something.”

“Don't worry about it, pal; no harm done.”

“Oh,” remarked Caramel thankfully. “Oh, well that's a mercy.” He still felt rather silly for what he had just done, but simply harnessed himself to the cart and continued up the hill without another word. Big Macintosh followed close behind, wisely checking for any breakages that he may have missed.

Having reached the top, Caramel wasted no time distributing the empty baskets beneath whichever trees still hadn't been bucked before making a start on the loaded ones. While he was doing this, Fuji decided to take a quick lull in her work so that she could assist if need be. “Need any help, Caramel san?” she offered, trotting over to the tan-furred stallion.

“Not at the moment,” replied Caramel, his voice muffled somewhat by the handle of the basket he was about to pick up, “but thanks anyway, Miss Fuji.”

“Well...okay then,” conceded Fuji, “but give us a shout if you do,” and she headed over to her next tree, leaving Caramel to deal with the loaded baskets.

But just as the Japaneighse mare had begun to lift one of her hind legs to kick against its trunk, she and the others were suddenly interrupted by a yell of agony. Startled, they looked over in Caramel's direction just in time to see him drop the apple basket and stumble backwards towards the cart, his face contorted with pain and shock.

“LOOK OUT!!” yelled Ashmead in horror; but he was too late. Before Caramel could gather his awareness, he slammed hard into the empty cart, knocking it over once again with a splintering crash. As soon as the dust had settled, all four ponies immediately cantered over to assess the damage and help him back to his hooves.

Fuji, who was more concerned about Caramel than the cart, shook her head in dismay as they approached him. “Okay......I know I said 'give us a shout', but I wasn't expecting this,” she remarked.

Ashmead nodded in silent agreement. “You okay, Caramel?” he asked anxiously, holding out a hoof.

Still grimacing in pain, Caramel took hold of Ashmead's hoof and staggered to his feet. “Not quite,” he groaned, clutching his front left leg in discomfort. “I think I might have gone and sprained my knee.”

“Ooh, heck, that don't sound good!” exclaimed Ashmead. “How bad is it?”

“Need you ask?” Caramel removed his right hoof from his leg so that Ashmead could see his wound, causing the green-furred stallion to recoil in shock. His knee was badly bruised, and appeared to have been bent a little to one side.

Big Macintosh sighed unhappily as he surveyed the wreckage. “Well, that's a nuisance,” he grunted. “Seems y'all done totalled that cart, Caramel. Darn that leg o' yours – now we're gonna have ta send back to the farmhouse fo' another one!”

“I...I-I'm sorry, Mac,” stammered Caramel nervously, his ears drooping against the sides of his head. “I didn't mean for this to happen...I just couldn't control myself...”

But Big Macintosh didn't seem to be listening. “Honestly, Caramel,” he muttered, more to himself than anypony else, “what are we gonna do with y'all?”

Discovery winked broadly at his wife. “What did Ah tell ya?” he quipped cheekily. “Clumsy as hay, that Caramel – it's a wonder he ain't wound up killin' nopony!” and he chortled heartily at his own wit.

But Caramel didn't find Discovery's joke the least bit funny – instead, it seemed to strike such a sensitive nerve within the tan-furred stallion that he couldn't think of anything to say, think or even feel. He stood where he was, staring at Discovery with a mortified expression on his face, as if he had just this moment learned that he had lost somepony close to his heart.

Fuji, Ashmead and Big Macintosh weren't amused either. They all turned and glared disapprovingly at Discovery, Fuji muttering something in her native language. The russet-coloured stallion stared back at them with a raised eyebrow; “What ya lookin' at me la'k that fo'?” he protested.

“An' y'all can shut up too!” ordered Big Macintosh severely. He then turned on his fetlock and escorted the injured Caramel back to the farmhouse, leaving Fuji and Ashmead still glowering at Discovery as if he were a complete idiot. A long, awkward pause ensued.

Predictably, it was Discovery who broke the silence first; “Was it somethin' Ah said?” he asked blankly.

A little later on, Big Macintosh arrived back at the Apple Family homestead with Caramel and explained to Granny Smith about the accident with the cart. The elderly mare wasted no time seeing to the wounded stallion; after holding an ice-pack against his knee to relieve the pain, she wrapped it up in a bandage and made up a sling into which he could rest it until it had healed.

“There ya go, Caramel,” she said as she gently lowered his arm onto the sling. “How's that feel?”

In spite of all the pain he was feeling, both physically and emotionally, Caramel still managed a small, grateful smile. “A bit better, I guess,” he replied. “Thanks for fixing me up, Mrs Smith.”

“Ah, that's okay, young 'un; just take care not ta put any weight on that there arm o' yours,” advised Granny Smith. “That means no work fo' the rest o' the day, ya hear – no repair work, no haulin', an' certainly no apple-buckin'.”

Caramel was most dismayed. “So...not even...sorting through apples down in the cellar?” he stammered.

“Good grief, no!” objected Granny Smith. “Y'all need ta look after yourself, Caramel; we can't have ya hurtin' yourself on the job, not with yo' knee in such a state. 'Sides, how ya gonna sort so many apples with just one hoof?”

“But...how are the rest of this family going to...”

“Ah'm not takin' 'no' fo' an answer, Caramel,” insisted Granny Smith firmly. “Yo' off work fo' the rest of today, an' that's the bottom line, ya hear?”

Caramel sighed and looked at the floor, scuffing a hoof against it in defeat. “Okay, Mrs Smith,” he muttered unhappily, “you win. But I'm at least taking a walk around the orchard – keep myself occupied.”

“Good – Ah thought you'd see it mah way,” answered Granny Smith, a look of satisfaction on her face. “Now y'all take it easy, okay?”

Caramel nodded wearily as he turned to leave the living room; but Big Macintosh couldn't help noticing a look of deep distress on his face. “Um...are ya sure yo' gonna be okay, Caramel?” he asked gently. “Ah wouldn't mind comin' with ya if ya need a bit o' company.”

“No thanks, Mac,” muttered Caramel sadly. “I've caused enough trouble on this farm as it is; don't let me hold you guys back any further.” Without even bothering to look back at either of the other two ponies, he limped sadly out of the house.

Big Macintosh could only watch in dismay as the tan-coated stallion gloomily took his leave. Caramel had always been like a little brother to him ever since he had started working at Sweet Apple Acres, so naturally he hated seeing him in such a low mood; but this, he felt, was far worse. In spite of his obvious distress, Caramel was choosing to suffer in silence.

Even Granny Smith couldn't help worrying. “Ah don' la'k this, Big Mac,” she murmured solemnly. “Caramel just doesn't seem la'k his usual self today.”

The only response she got from her grandson was a subdued “Nope.”

Chapter 6: The Lull before the Snowstorm

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......