Marble sat in their farmhouse, glancing out at the front porch where Limestone sat, watching the path to their farm like a hawk. Marble thought back on her life so far. She was happy, but goodness if the pairing stone didn't get off its butt she was going to just... Go tip it over! Ok, she'd never do that. Not only would that produce a mob out for her head it wasn't the stone's fault she hadn't met the right mare or stallion yet. But she would really appreciate it if something happened. Maud got paired with Mudbriar. And Pinkie, though she had chosen for herself, had a marefriend named Zecora in Ponyville. But Marble knew she had to wait for the pairing stone's guidance before she could do anything...
Marble had always done her best to emulate her father and take on his values of the way of rock. Rocks were simple and did not seek fame and fortune. Rocks were calm and detached, not running after whatever new shiny thing caught their eye. Rocks were hard and defiant in the face of adversity. Rocks were unchanging and stalwart in the face of changing times. Rocks were mighty and a symbol of strength, a reminder that a good days work was its own reward. And just as the rocks obeyed the laws of nature so too must ponies obey the will of the community and the pairing stone.
Marble had gotten most of them. She worked hard, she obeyed her parents, she was happy with the simple, quiet, happy on the rock farm life. The only major shortcoming she had was her obsession with new things. It had taken her family a while to notice if since Marble was so naturally reserved but they had noticed when they caught Marble holding hooves with a pegasus colt that had been visiting the farm with his parents. His parents were doing some ariel surveys for hers and she, like so many other times had taken a shine to the new exotic visitor. Igneous Rock Pie had been furious Marble knew, though he never raised his voice, that wasn’t his way. He had insisted that their humble home was not a suitable place for the visiting pegasi and set them up at the inn in town.
Then Igneous Rock Pie sat down with his daughter to explain the importance of not doing relationship things when they hadn’t been approved by the pairing stone. He once again told her the story of the founding of their great town, far less great back then. The reason it suffered was there had been much fighting for mates. There was one extremely beautiful mare and one extremely handsome stallion. There had been not just arguments, but outright fights. The town was destroying itself and despite the best efforts of the elders they were barely able to keep it together. They appealed to a passing unicorn since they felt like they had no other option. The unicorn was Starswirl the Clean Shaven! Later to become Starswirl the Bearded.
He enchanted a large stone to seek out and find the best pairing for any given pony in the area, be it stallion or mare. Despite their misgivings, the elders thanked him for his assistance. They brought it to the town who all mocked the elder's council as the pairing stone started to display paired cutie marks. Most of the town people went back to their scheming and fighting. However, four of the paired townsfolks so fed up with the fighting were willing to take a chance. One of them being the beautiful mare, she was so very tired of all the unwelcome attention and not being able to trust other ponies. The two couples decided that if it could bring peace to the village it was well worth trusting the stone, and if not, well they could always leave. They'd get made fun of for trusting a stone but that was about it.
After a few months, the two couples (as well as a few others) were the only peaceful families in the town, and everyone started to take notice. Though there was a lot of hemming and hawing, over the next few months people came to accept that the pairing stone was not only good at its task, but it seriously cut down on strife within the town. So for the good of the community people started to accept its decisions. There were, and still are outliers, but most accept it willingly, for the good of the community, as well as their own. The handsome stallion never accepted it and left town, a lesson that vanity was the truest enemy of all.
Ignatius Rock Pie had then taken his daughter up to her room to think on the lessons that he had imparted. It was from that day forward that Marble vowed not to act on any of her urges until the pairing stone set her up with another pony. She made the vow in good faith, and she did her best to upkeep the vow, causing the previously reserved pony to become outright timid for concern of stepping out of line. Marble knew that this had not been her father's intention but that was the path she had chosen. He did not wish any of his beloved daughters to be unhappy, when Pinkie had completely gone against tradition he assured her she'd always have a home and let her find her own path in life. But that path wasn't for Marble, she'd do her best to not go against the will of the pairing stone.
The family, mainly her father and Limestone had watched her over the years. Limestone to protect her little sister from herself, and her father to help her stay on the right path. She loved her father for that, he was doing what he thought was best for her. Despite that it could chafe her a little, she was still fairly certain she agreed with her father. Trusting the pairing stone would be best. The pairing stone had served their town well for generations, it put mother and father together. The problem for Marble was her obsession with new things, her crushes made her want things she shouldn't have! Like when Pinkie first introduced her to cupcakes, she had gorged herself until she was sick. Then her father banned cupcakes until Marble could control herself, she know enjoyed a single cupcake or piece of cake on celebration days, no more.
Marble smirked to herself, over the years she had a few close calls when she had jumped over the line of propriety a time or two... With that pretty mare from the next farm over, they had held hooves too! And then the colt of that traveling merchant, he had had some very high quality picks father had been interested in. The colt had called her pretty and she thought he was very handsome. They had stolen a quick cuddle in the back of his father's cart. Marble had been mortified when she thought her mother had seen them. But she hadn't done anything about it or brought it up, so Marble guessed the surprised gasp had to be at the quality of the picks and other items in the cart. That had been the only two times that she had tiptoed over the line, then that pretty blue unicorn showed up...