Waking Eyes

Flare couldn't help but to smile as he continued through Ponyville. He explored the marketplace, but just to sight-see. He wondered if the other stories were true. Maybe there was a pegasus that could perform the sonic rainboom. He couldn't even imagine what one of those looked like, but for some reason, he didn't believe he really had family here.

His mother was extremely lucky to live here for more than a week. Flare's family never had enough bits to feed all of them; meals had to be skipped mostly to survive. Flare himself was constantly hungry, but it never held him back. He never blamed his family for the cause of hunger, he mostly blamed himself. He cost them so much, including their lives...

Flare's thought were interrupted by a loud crash. He looked in the direction to see the library. He walked to the door and began to peek in.

"Sorry, Twilight." said a grey pegasus with a lazy eye. "I just don't know what went wrong."

"It's okay, Derpy. I just need to rearrange all of these books... again." The unicorn began to sort the books, until she stopped, and looked at Flare. "Can I help you?" she asked politely.

Flare didn't realize the door slowly opened to expose him. "You look like you need it more than I do." Flare said, looking at the amount of books on the floor. "May I help?" he asked.

"Do you know how books are arranged?" Twilight asked. She then glanced at the gray pegasus named Derpy, trying to put a book on the shelf. It was in the wrong spot, and as she turned around to grab another book she knocked several more down. "Derpy, you can go home, this pegasus here will help me clean up."

"Oh..." Derpy became earthbound, and slowly walked towards the door. Flare instantly picked up on Derpy's feelings. Flare stopped her as she began to walk past. He whispered into her ear.

"Hey now, it’s okay, we all have made mistakes. This one is less than minor; Twi and I will have this cleaned up in minutes." Flare looked at the mess taking an estimate at how long they would truly take. "Just go home, enjoy yourself, have some fun."

"Thank you." Derpy whispered back, before taking flight in a way Flare had not seen before. She took off in a way that could be funny, if it was a joke. Flare didn't understand why, but he already looked up to her. Before he could get lost in thought, Twilight interrupted him.

"Hey, you do know how to arrange books, right?" She asked him while using magic to sort through books.

"Of course." Flare lied and began putting books where he believed they should be.

After about ten minutes of book rearranging, they were done. "Thanks for your help." Twilight said happily "Umm, I'm sorry I don't know your name."

"Flare," he hesitated, but then continued "I just walked into Ponyville today. No doubt you know the pony named Pinkie Pie. She said hello in quite a unusual way."

"That's just Pinkie Pie," Twilight was interrupted by a growling noise. She looked at Flare, who was looking at his stomach and holding it tight. "Are you hungry?" she asked, with a hidden scent of worry. Flare knew he was; this was the second day of no food. If you consider eating dirt, grass, and tree bark as food. It was terrible tasting, but he was going to die if he didn't eat it.

"Well, I haven't had breakfast." Flare said, but thought to not add long ago he had breakfast last. Flare decided his personal problems didn’t concern the ponies of Ponyville. At that moment, he thought of his mother, she once said the same to his father.

-

"No pony needs to know we are this hungry," the flashback started. "We tell Flare that we’re okay, but we know that we are not. But we still can't get any pony involved." Flare's mother said to his father. "Flare gets most of our food, so he doesn't suffer, he shouldn't know how hungry we are." Flare now had looked into his parent's room; he had heard the rest from the hallway. He was hungry, so he awoke and was going to sneak a snack. His mother then hugged his father, "We will not concern any pony about our problems, and we must put hunger aside and take care of Flare."

Flare then ran into his room crying. He was the reason his parents were suffering. He ate at all meals, his parents didn't seem to mind, or at least they hid it too well. Flare knew that he got up to eat, and cried even harder for that. He was taking something the family barely had and was greedily having most of it for his self. He tried to be a good foal, but everything he did was really hurting his mother and father...

-

"Flare" Twilight said, breaking the flashback "Are you okay?" That is when Flare realized his eyes were watering, on the brink of crying. "How long ago did you eat last?" Twilight demanded to know.

Flare gave in, knowing lying was going to make everything worse. "Two days," Flare knew he was going to have a worried pony in front of him. "But I'll be fine." Flare knew what question came next. "I know I'm fine, this is usual for me." Flare then planned his next move; get out of there. Twilight, however, saw this and stopped him.

"Two days of no food and that is usual? That’s ridiculous! You need to eat, follow me." Twilight opened the door, wrote a note and put it on the table. Flare watched as she then grabbed her saddle bags and started walking out the door. Flare then had to follow.

Flare didn't have a clue where they were headed. Flare didn't mind that he was following some pony that he met about ten minutes ago to an unknown location. He laughed when he put it that way, he was sure Twilight didn't think of it like that. If he was murdered it was his own fault, but he was sure he could escape any trouble.

After a little ways of walking, they were at the entrance to an apple farm, called Sweet Apple Acres. Flare looked at the hundreds of apple trees. He had a guess about what he was going to eat. He knew already Twilight was going to force him to eat.

The two walked into Sweet Apple Acres and an orange pony appeared from inside the barn. She wore a cowpony hat, and her mane was yellow. Her mark was three red apples, Flare wasn’t surprised. Twilight approached her, as Flare decided to lag back a bit.

"Howdy, partner. Who’s this with ya?" She asked Twilight.

"My name is Flare, I'm new to Ponyville." Flare said, "Twilight led me here." He glanced at Twilight, then realizing this was the first he had met formally, he put his hoof out to shake.

"My name's Applejack." AJ taking his hoof and shaking it. For a pony, she sure had a firm grip.

"Applejack, can I talk to you for a moment?" Twilight asked nudging her away from Flare. They went to go have their little private chat that left Flare just sitting there. He could hear them talking but couldn't make out what they were saying. He gave up after a few seconds; he was probably going to hear it in a few minutes anyway. The duo returned a minute later.

"So, you looking for some good food here in Ponyville?" AJ asked, trying to act like it was a normal question.

"Nope," Flare replied "I'm looking more for work, so I can buy the food to survive. I believe that’s what I'm looking for." Flare smirked; there was no way he was being fed for free, that happened to him enough as a foal. He waited to see if they took the hint that he would help around the farm for some food.

"Well either way, we got that here at the farm," AJ said pointing outward. "How bout this? You help me buck some apples, and I'll give you some bits and ya can be on yer way?"

Flare figured it was a good deal, afterward he could visit Sugarcube Corner to try some sweets and maybe see Pinkie. It was funny how at first Pinkie was a little annoying, but now that he thought of it, he enjoyed the conversation he had with her, even if most of it was one-sided.

Twilight said her goodbye and reminded Flare that if he needed a book he just needed to ask. AJ then lead Flare to the apple tree orchard. Flare then realized how many apple trees there actually were.

"Quite a nice orchard you guys have here," Flare commented, "but one question before we begin. How will I be paid, by how many apples I bring in?" Flare asked trying not to sound rude, but he knew it totally was.

"Sure, how bout..." AJ had to think for a moment. "One bit for a hundred apples." AJ seemed to want Flare to really work to earn his bits. He grinned as he put his mind to think about how much he would need for something at Sugarcube Corner.

"Okay, I lied." Flare confessed, AJ looked over at him. "Do you know how expensive things are to eat down at Sugarcube Corner?" He lied when he had told her he only had one question, which had been his second.

"Sugarcube Corner, ay" AJ said with a smile "Have you met Pinkie yet?" AJ just knew the answer already, but she wanted to see Flare's reaction and input.

"Indeed I have, “ Flare chuckled. "When I walked into Ponyville, I didn't expect to be crushed by a bouncing bundle of pure happiness." After a second he added, "Not like I minded it either, I really enjoyed talking to her." Flare had begun to replay his mother's story about Pinkie Pie in his mind. This forced Flare to smile and laugh a little more.

AJ laughed with him "Yep, ya have defiantly met Pinkie Pie.” AJ then remembered Flare's question. "Yea Sugarcube Corner ain't that expensive. Ya'll need to buck, oh, at least eight hundred apples off these trees here." AJ finally answered his question and pointed to the vast ocean of trees.

"When do I start?" Flare said with a smirk, but he knew he would be stuck here for a little while. He tried to calculate about how many apples he could do in an hour. Flare decided to wait till he started bucking to take an estimate.

"When yer heart desires," AJ said "It's simple, buck the apples in these buckets" AJ then set a couple buckets on his back, just like saddlebags, but more wood. "Then, simply put them in that there wagon." AJ pointed to the large wagon. "When you’re done, come get me from the barn and I'll count your apples." After that, AJ returned to the barn.

Flare nodded and walked towards a tree. He looked up and set the buckets on where most of the apples would fall. Then he bucked it as hard as he could, and buckets mostly filled up with apples. As he watched the rest of the apples fall after his buck, one struck him in the head. He picked it up.

"Well, maybe one apple wouldn't hurt…" Flare said as he thought out loud again. He looked in the farm's direction; AJ was nowhere in sight. Flare took a bite from the apple, and it tasted wonderful. This apple was a dream to him; after all, he’d been eating anything to survive, stuff that no normal pony, colt, or even filly would eat. He savored every bite of that apple; he didn't realize that he’d fallen in love until the final bite, where he had to say goodbye to his lover with a tear in his eye. "I'll miss you..." Flare said just to try to be funny even though no pony was listening.

Flare then picked up the buckets and dropped the apples into the wagon. He repeated this process till he felt he had near eight hundred apples. He then took the full wagon and pulled it to the front of the barn and knocked. AJ had appeared behind him instead.

"Well, I see ya be quite eager to get to Sugarcube Corner." AJ said, Flare just turned around his mane and coat now a mess. AJ’s voice didn't surprise him either; he had learned to hear hoof steps a while ago, after his parent’s death. He found it a useful tactic for survival, and spent a lot of time specializing in it. Hoof steps were easy to hear for him; anything else was fair game.

"I really want to try their sweets." Flare replied, knowing that sweets were not fully what he was after. He knew he just wanted to talk to Pinkie Pie again. She makes every pony happy and the pain somewhat forgotten when Flare talked to her. The memory of his mother's pain was covered with his mother's story memories instead. Flare on the outside smiled and grinned all the time trying not to attract any attention. He knew if he acted sad all the time, that every pony would take notice. Pinkie Pie, however, forced a true smile on his face, something that no pony had ever done before.

"Well then, let's get counting." AJ simply stated as she opened the door to the barn. Flare wanted to help her count, but if he messed up the count he would feel bad knowing he lied for a few extra bits he didn't earn.

After thirty minutes, that true apple count came out. "What?" Flare gasped "One thousand one hundred eighty-seven apples! That is ridiculous!" At what rate he worked himself to get that many, Flare thought to his self.

AJ didn't expect that in two hours of bucking. "Well, Ah never expected ya to buck so many." AJ said opening a bag and pulling out a number of bits. She put them in a tiny sack, knowing he didn't have any way of carrying them. She then gave the bag to Flare.

"Thanks," Flare said "If you ever need some help bucking apples you can come find me, I'll gladly help" AJ nodded, as Flare waved goodbye and headed back towards Ponyville.

As he got closer to Sugarcube Corner a very serious question hit him. What was he going to buy? Flare had to sit and think for a moment. "I like cupcakes." Flare said with a satisfied smile, but then changed to a frown "Maybe I should get a muffin instead." His mother sometimes made muffins and they were fantastic. Flare was hoping maybe he could remember the better times then worse ones, when he finally made his choice.

Flare then started his way towards Sugarcube Corner again.