Roots

Grass Roots awoke to the birds chirping, and the sun shining in his face. His eyes opened slowly, and he made his way out of his bed to get ready for the day. It was Friday, which meant tonight was Guy’s Night, meaning a night of fun for him and his pals. He smiled at the thought of that night before freshening up, and leaving for his booth.

Walking down the streets of Ponyville, he thought about how much this town had been through. It was about six years ago when Twilight Sparkle came and shook things up, changing Ponyville and creating memories for the citizens. He thought about all the crazy things that happened, smiling at the randomness of it all.

Speaking of randomness, a pink blur sped down Main Street towards the Everfree Forest. He chuckled, Pinkie Pie was up early today. The Elements were all very nice and gracious ponies. They were always helping folks out, and were generally appreciated by everypony.

Of course, when he thought of the Elements, he thought of Applejack, the mare who had stolen his heart. He knew she’d never know who he was, but he still appreciated her and was in awe of her presence whenever she was at market.

As he thought about everything, Grass Roots entered the market, seeing his fellow vendors setting up for the day. He did the same, cleaning his various fruits and deciding what today’s discount was. He decided on pineapple, and opened for the day.

For the first hour or so, the market was quiet with just a few customers. By mid morning, everything was in full swing. He had sold some fruit, made some bits, and was still thinking, when all of the sudden a loud voice called from seemingly nowhere.

“EVERYPONY LOOK OUT!”

Grass Roots was turned around washing some peaches, not knowing what was going on, until he finally looked forward.

There was a cart, the Apple Family cart, speeding down the hill, nopony controlling it. Everypony at the market hid, all except for two. Grass Roots, who was still confused, and a filly licking a lollipop, just enjoying her day.

Time sped fast, and soon the cart was getting close to the filly. Grass Roots leaped from his stand and sprinted. Luckily, she was close to his stand, and gently nudged her out of the way. Unluckily, he was now in the way of the speeding cart. The last thing he saw was a close view of the cart, and then blackness took him.

———————————————————————

When he woke up, Grass Roots was in a lot of pain. He also noticed he was in a bed, but not his own. Slowly, he realized he was in a hospital. He wasn’t sure what happened, and tried to think back to what could’ve caused this.

In the midst of his thinking, the door clicked and her turned to find a mare in a coat with a clipboard.

“Good morning, sleepyhead”, the mare said gently ”, Glad to see that you’re awake. That was some hit you took”.

He was confused, and his face showed it:

“You don’t remember?”, she asked.

He shook his head slowly, not wanting to move too much due to pain.

“Well you were manning your stand, and a wild cart came rolling very fast. You saved a fillies life, but got yourself pretty banged up”, the mare said.

It all came to him, and he had some questions.

“Ma’am? Can I ask you a few questions?”, he asked faintly.

“Of course you can, dear”, she said”, By the way, my name is Nurse Healing Heart, and please don’t call me ma’am, it makes me feel old”.

She giggled at that, but quickly quieted down so he could ask.

“I will Nurse, but I have to ask, who brought me to the hospital?”, Grass Roots asked.

“That would be Ms. Applejack, dear. Well, not technically her. As soon as the dust settled on your little accident, she quickly rushed here, told us of the situation, and then our paramedics stretchered you here”, Healing Heart said as she checked his injury chart.

“Oh dear”, she said gravely ,”You seem to have small sprains all over your body. The biggest injury you have is your right arm, you fell on it as the cart hit you and broke it”.

He tried to move his arm, and sure enough there was little movement, and soon he saw the cast. Them his mind caught up to him, and his eyes slightly widened.

“Wait”, he sputtered out, “WHO went and got the medics?”.

“Applejack, dear”, Healing Heart repeated

His heart began to beat slightly faster, and Nurse Healing Heart saw he’d changed slightly.

“Are you alright?”, she asked with concern.

“N-No, I’m fine. It’s just, uh, nothing. I don’t really like hospitals”, Grass Roots tried to lie.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear. We’re going to do everything we can to help you heal fast. Anyway, I’m going to get some painkillers, you wait here”, Healing Heart said before trotting off.

He was left to his thoughts once more, and his heart was racing. Applejack has gotten him help, which meant that she’d noticed him. There was a lot on his mind when Healing Heart came back in a few minutes later.

“Alright dear, let’s get these in you”, she said.

He took the pills and settled back into his bed. As he sat and thought, another nurse came in and whispered something into Healing Heart’s ear.

“Well it seems you have a visitor, Grass Roots. They’ll be here in a moment”, she said to him.

A minute later, Applejack came into the room. She had a look on her face that made him hurt a bit. Instead of the smile he’d seen all the time, there was a look of guilt and sadness on her face.

“Uh, hi there mister”, Applejack said slowly, “Ah’m really sorry that this happened. Big Macintosh startled one of our cattle, and it latched itself to our cart. Well, about halfway to town, the cow broke free and sent our cart comin’ towards the market, and....Ah’m real sorry about what happened”.

Grass Roots was a bit awestruck at her presence. The mare who’d never noticed him was here, speaking to him. To be fair, it was because her cart had injured him, but it was still big to him.

“Uh, you ok there?”, Applejack asked worriedly.

He shook himself from his daze, meeting her gaze.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine. It’s, uh, no big deal. It was an accident. I hope you don’t feel bad”, he said sincerely.

“Ah do feel bad, sugarcube. Your booth got destroyed, and your all banged up. Ah saw how you saved that filly, that was mighty heroic of ya’ to do that”, she said perking up slightly at the end.

“That means a lot coming from you, Ms. Applejack”, he said with a small smile.

“Now, aren’t you polite? Ya’ don’t have to call me that, not after what happened”, She said while blushing slightly.

Soon, the door opened to reveal Healing Heart, carrying an I.V.

“Hello there Applejack, seeing our hero here?”, she said to the farmer.

“Ah am, nurse. Ah just feel plum awful at all that’s happened. It’s not just his injuries, his booth was destroyed. Ah feel super bad for that”, Applejack said sadly.

“Applejack, it wasn’t your fault. Don’t beat yourself up over it, ok?”, said Grass Roots.

“Ok, sugarcube, I won’t. Anyway, Ah need to ask you something”, the farmer asked.

“Sure, ask away”, he said back.

“Ah hope Ah’m not sounding’ rude, but ah don’t actually...Well...Know your name”, Applejack asked with a embarrassed blush.

Though it made him slightly sad, he wasn’t offended.

“Oh, well my name is Grass Roots. I sell fruit”, he said.

“Well, it’s nice to me ya Grass Roots. This may be the first time Ah’ve met ya, but Ah can tell that your a brave stallion. I’ll visit tomorrow, and we can talk more then, Ah’ve got some work ah need to get done. Take care, Grass Roots”, Applejack said, tipping her hat as she left.

He was still in a daze as she strode off, and Healing Heart noticed.

“I’d say that you think very highly of her, don’t you dear?”, she asked with a grin.

He nodded, his shy demeanor telling her more than his words could.

“Thought so”, she started, “I was once like this too, and she ended up being my wife. I know that you think highly of her, and from what it looks like, this is the first time you two have spoken. I think that from an accident, may bring a great purpose”, she said and then began to exit the room, “I’m going to let you rest, dear. Have a good night”.

He said goodbye, and she turned out the light, leaving the stallion alone with the moon and himself. He drifted into slumber with a smile, there had been a change after all.