Author's note: Hi there! I've never written a story for this category before, but all the fun I've had on Harvest Moon DS lately made me want to write this. I hope you enjoy it!

By the way, if 'K' stands for 'Korobos', what the heck does 'G' stand for? XD

EDIT: Duh. 'Gold'. Just how stupid am I?

I also realised that I'd used the wrong name for 'Jack'. Apparently, his name's Pete. Go figure. So I've gone back and changed it.

And Doctor's real name is Trent. Again, go figure.

Marlin took another sip of his Morning Mist before placing it back on the counter. Life was so dull these days; it made him wonder what on Earth he was living for. After all that had happened over the years, did he really have anything to work towards anymore?

He scowled as Murrey gulped down another Sweet Dreams next to him, no doubt paid for by stealing someone's money. He hated that drink. He always avoided it, not because of what it tasted like, but what it represented. It constantly mocked him by being the end product of a happy marriage. Another one of these end products, small with blonde hair, green eyes and a stripy outfit, was running around the bar and giggling. He found him just as irritating.

Many years ago, when his older sister, Vesta, had first hired Celia to work on the same farm as him, he'd considered himself blessed to be working alongside such a beautiful and sweet-tempered girl. As time passed, he'd found himself falling harder and harder for her, reaching the point where he'd considered proposing to her one day. Then came the day that Pete had arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley.

He slumped on the counter, still scowling, as the memories flooded through him. He'd been able to tell the first time that Pete had visited Vesta's farm that the guy had been smitten with Celia. The farm boy's eyes had lit up and twinkled the moment that he'd laid eyes on the girl. After that, for three straight years, Pete had come by every day, whether morning, afternoon or evening, and given Celia whatever flowers had been growing that month. He'd also often gone excavating, giving half of the jewellery that he'd found to her and selling the rest to Van. When Gotz had finally upgraded his house and he'd bought a kitchen to place inside it, he'd started bringing her various curries, curry bread and the occasional cake. He'd spoiled the girl rotten.

Marlin had honestly thought that he'd stood a chance with Celia, despite all that. He'd lived in the same house with her, worked alongside her and gotten along very well with her. They'd bonded over the most trivial of things and he'd honestly thought that it would be enough.

It hadn't been, of course. The day that the two of them had announced their engagement, rage had overwhelmed him. He'd been both jealous and protective at the same time, wanting to marry her himself, yet also concerned that Pete wouldn't be good enough for her. In the end, however, it was her happiness that had been most important and she'd seemed so happy with Pete. He'd attended the wedding, his teeth clenched throughout the entire ceremony, and forced himself to watch them tie the knot.

He'd lost the only girl that he'd ever loved, despite the fact that he'd known her longer than Pete had. Farm boy had stolen her heart away from him by constantly showering her with attention. She'd even moved in with him, kicking Marlin further into despair.

Now, many years later, Pete and Celia were still happily married and had a pre-teen son, born with a head of Celia's dark brown hair. The three of them were running a very successful farm, even having earned enough money to buy their own island and spend half of their time living on it. Marlin accepted all of this as it was, but, honestly, he couldn't be more jealous of the guy.

He'd never been interested in anyone but Celia, but the most depressing thing was that he didn't even have the option of marrying someone else. Every eligible girl that he'd come to know was already married, some with children and some without. Even the Mineral Town girls were all married and, every time any of them visited Forget-Me-Not Valley, he'd feel like this was being rubbed in his face.

Muffy had Griffin, Lumina had Rock, Nami had Gustafa, Flora had Carter, Ann had Cliff, Mary had Gray, Popuri had Kai, Elli had Trent and Karen had Rick. It just wasn't fair. He had nobody and had resorted to drinking in the Blue Bar every other night to keep himself from sulking. Of course, the drinks usually made it worse, but he was past caring.

He pushed his pint glass around the counter as his thoughts lingered on Lumina. It was funny, really; she and Rock fell out all the time over Rock being unable to stop flirting with other girls, but, whenever someone suggested divorcing him to her, she'd blatantly refuse to. If only he could find a girl who was willing to stick by him forever like that.

"Feh..." he grumbled.

Griffin turned to look at him over the counter. "You alright there, Marlin?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah..."

Marlin knew very well that Griffin had gotten quite used to his behaviour over the years. His routine was to come in every other night, get as drunk as possible, scowl at everything and everyone, grumble to himself, then go home, ignore Vesta and go to bed.

Vesta. He took a couple more sips of his Morning Mist as he thought about what the woman had said to him once. She'd actually suggested that he think about marrying one of the 'special' girls in town instead. He'd scoffed at the notion and still did today. None of them interested him the way that Celia had and still did. Besides, they were all way out of his league and most of them required far too much work to win over. He certainly wasn't the healthiest of men, so the hard work probably wouldn't be good for him.

Marrying the Harvest Goddess was such a ridiculous notion that it was laughable. She was the goddess of harvest, the being that everyone in town worshipped. Marrying her may well be considered blasphemy. As for the Witch Princess, nobody liked her or approved of her. Plus, he'd heard rumours that a guy would have to kill his own animals, litter and pass out from exhaustion just to get her to like him. Leia was a mermaid and he honestly couldn't see how that would work. He'd be married to an entirely different species and, besides that, she'd have nowhere to live on Vesta's farm. It was highly impractical. He'd also heard rumours of a mute princess named Keira, who lived on the two hundred and fifty-fifth floor of the third mine. Pete had apparently met her once and said that her preferred choice of items were either rather expensive or hard to come by. Marlin wasn't about to travel down a mine to court a princess with gifts that he either couldn't afford or couldn't get hold of.

"One Fresh Breeze for you!" Muffy said cheerfully as she handed the filled pint glass to Patrick.

"And one Fall Colors for you," Griffin added as he handed another filled pint glass to Kassey.

"Thanks!" both twin brothers said at once. They turned to each other. "Cheers!" They tapped their glasses together before swigging down their alcohol.

Sighing, Marlin drained his Morning Mist and turned to Griffin. "Hey, Griffin," he said.

Griffin turned to him and smiled. "Yeah?" he asked.

"One Summer Heat, please."

Griffin nodded. "Coming right up. That'll be three hundred gold."

Handing the money over, Marlin waited as Griffin moved away to pour his drink. It was at that moment that the front door opened and someone walked over to stand next to him. He glanced disinterestedly at the person, only to pause when he noticed that it was a rather pretty girl that he'd never seen before. She had brown hair styled up on top of her head and purple eyes.

"Hi there!" Muffy said cheerfully as she came over to the girl. "I've not seen you in town before!"

The girl chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not from this town," she replied. "I just came to visit someone."

"Oh, how nice. Well, what can I get you?"

"Um..." The girl scanned the menu on the counter. "I think I'll try... a Winter Blast, please."

Muffy giggled. "Good choice. That'll be three hundred and fifty gold."

The girl handed over the money and Muffy moved away to pour the drink. Marlin studied the girl for a moment, idly wondering who she was, where she'd come from and who it was that she'd come to visit.

She turned to him and smiled. "Hey there," she said.

He started for a moment, then relaxed. "Hey," he replied.

"My name's Pony. What's yours?"

"Marlin."

"Really? That's a nice name."

"Thanks, I guess. Yours too."

She beamed at him. "Thank you!"

Two hours later, Marlin was slightly more drunk than before and Pony had become quite tipsy. Up until that point, the two of them had been chatting and laughing together and Marlin couldn't remember the last time he'd enjoyed himself so much.

"So, what's your story, anyway?" he asked. "You still haven't told me who you are or where you came from. Who did you come to visit?"

Pony laughed. "Alright, slow down," she replied. "Okay, well, first off, I came here to visit my twin brother. He runs a farm in this town. His name's Pete. Have you heard of him?"

Marlin stared at her, not quite believing what he'd just heard. "Pete?" To think that this angel was the twin sister of farm boy. His face darkened. "Yeah, I know him."

"Hmm? You don't look too happy. Don't you like my brother?"

"... We... had some problems... though I do respect him as a farmer."

Pony smiled, though it looked somewhat false. "Oh? Well, that's good." She stared at her empty pint glass and rolled it around in her hands.

"What's wrong?"

She looked up at him. "Hmm?" She paused. "Oh... well..." She glanced away. "I guess I can tell you." She paused again, then looked back at him. "See, back in my home town, my dad and uncle ran this huge company together... but the two of them were getting on in years... and wanted one or more of their children to take over for them. My dad had two kids, me and Pete... and my uncle had one daughter. Her name was Claire."

"Okay."

"The original plan was for all three of us to run the company together... but Claire discovered at some point that she had a passion for farming. Wanting to follow her dream, instead of running our dads' company, she moved to Mineral Town and started a farm there."

"I see."

"Pete and I were irritated, but were willing to run the company as a pair... but then he went to visit her in Mineral Town one day. When he came back, he looked so excited... and he told us right then that he wanted to run a farm too."

Marlin frowned, irritated that farm boy had chosen to abandon his angel sister in her time of need. If he ever did that to Celia, he'd be sure to kill him.

"Right..."

"So, as you've probably guessed, he soon moved away to Forget-Me-Not Valley and I was left with no choice but to run the company by myself." She stared at him, blinked at his expression, then chuckled. "It was kind of irritating, sure, but I really didn't mind it at first." Marlin relaxed his frown. "It gave me freedom and kind of made me feel like I was running my own little world."

"... But?"

Her smile faded. "But life dragged on. I spent so much of my time running the company that I never had time for anything else. No boyfriends, no life... The freedom I used to feel slowly disappeared. I kind of felt trapped in those four office walls."

Marlin tightened his fists, annoyed that Pete could do such a thing. He'd abandoned his twin sister, only to come to Forget-Me-Not Valley and steal away Celia. He was unforgivable.

"Pony..."

Pony seemed to cheer up slightly. "Anyway, my cousin, Claire, got married in Mineral Town. I went to see her the other day. I knew she was married to some guy called Skye, but I had no idea he was so good-looking."

Marlin anger disappeared at this comment and his fists fell slack. "Hmm?"

Pony cheered up even more as she began explaining. "Oh yeah, he had long silver hair and, my gosh, you should have heard him talk. Such a smooth operator." She paused for thought. "Claire told me that he used to be a famous thief, though."

Marlin blinked in surprise. "... Really?"

"Yeah. I found that odd... but, my gosh, he was handsome!"

"Uh..."

"Anyway, they had a teenage daughter with red hair!" She giggled. "I'm not sure how that worked, since Claire has blonde hair and Skye has silver hair, but hey... she was so cute!"

"Right..."

"Then, today, I came to visit Pete, since I'd heard so much about his wife, Celia, and their teenage son..." Marlin's stomach tightened. "They looked so happy together... and I was really impressed with how well he'd managed to do on the farm. Just as well as Claire, I think." She paused, then looked rather sad. "I'm so jealous of them both. They've managed to achieve everything they've ever wanted in life. I've always wanted to be married with kids... and, now..."

"What?"

"... I've realised that I wanna start a farm too."

Marlin paused, then smiled at her. "Well, why don't you?"

She gave a sad smile. "Because I put my life into running that company. I can't just walk away from it. My dad and uncle trust me to do a good job."

For the first time since Pete and Celia's marriage, Marlin actually felt sorry for someone other than himself. He relaxed his smile and got serious. "Well, if you want to leave so badly, then you shouldn't feel tied down. It's obvious you're unhappy with the way things are."

"Yeah..."

Marlin paused for a few minutes, pondering a solution. It wasn't easy, since his brain was riddled with alcohol, which was making his thoughts a bit hazy. Eventually, though, he had an idea. "Well, ever since Celia left to go live with Pete, there's been an empty space on my sister's farm. If you want, you could start working there." Pony stared at him, not saying anything. "I mean, everything of Celia's is still there. She used to have her own room, but it never gets used anymore. Plus, I'm sure Vesta could do with another pair of hands on the farm."

Pony stared at him for a few moments longer, then giggled. "Wow. That's an interesting idea you've got there." She paused for thought. "Hmm... well, I could take a vacation from the company and spend it working on the farm..." She beamed at him. "Maybe, if I like it enough, I can quit my job and stay forever!"

Marlin grinned at her. "Yeah, you could."

Pony suddenly looked sheepish. "Won't I be intruding, though? What if your sister doesn't like me?"

Marlin chuckled. "Of course she'll like you. Even she agrees that things haven't been the same since Celia left. She'll be glad to have someone take her place."

Pony beamed again. "Okay! Then it's settled! I'll spend a couple of weeks at her farm and see what I think of farm life. Ooh, I'm so excited! I hope I can be as good as Pete and Claire!"

"I'm sure you will be."

"Okay! Well, I guess I'll head over to Pete's. I'm sleeping over at his house tonight, then I'll let my company know that I'm taking a two-week vacation!"

"... Wait. Sleeping over? But doesn't Pete only have three beds? One double and one single?"

"Well, yeah, but I brought a sleeping bag. It's at his house right now."

Marlin shook his head. "No, no, that won't do." He smiled at her. "How about you sleep over at Vesta's farm? You can use the spare bed... so you won't have to sleep on the floor!"

Pony paused for thought. "Hmm." She beamed. "Okay! It'll be the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to Vesta!" She giggled.

"Yeah." Marlin drained the rest of his Spring Time and pushed the empty pint glass across the counter. "So, what do you say we go there now? I've had enough alcohol for one night."

Pony giggled again, draining her Bodiaid and pushing the empty pint glass away. "Okay, sure!" She fell against his arm and leaned on him, now looking very drunk. Marlin found this oddly amusing, as the girl clearly couldn't handle her alcohol. He was more drunk than her, yet he was standing up straight. "Lead the way!"

He chuckled. "Right. Let's go!" He then led her out the front door and towards Vesta's farm.