Once the train stopped, the ponies got off and made their way to the Pie Family Rock Farm. Twilight made sure to grab a schedule of the trains before leaving. "Ok, looks like it would take even longer but I think I have the train schedule mapped out."
"So how long before we can catch the next train?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Um...it's gonna take a while, we may not arrive at Appaloosa until very late," Twilight said. That caused another collective groan, much to Twilight's annoyance. "Hey come on, at least we have a place to stay at," Twilight said.
Rumble spoke up, "Yeah, we get to meet Pinkie Pie's family! That should be fun!"
"And it's not too far, come on everypony!" Pinkie said.
They continued on until the Rock Farm came into view. They looked around and saw the rocks, many in piles or sorted out in some way. They even noticed the giant boulder near the edge of a cliff.
The ponies looked around with some interest. While Applejack, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh have been here before, they still enjoyed the sight. The Rock farm was pretty well decorated as usual. Trixie however couldn't stand this place, the sooner she could leave the better.
Pinkie stopped and eagerly pointed, "There's my sisters, let's go!" Pinkie started leading her friends to her three sisters.
Not too far off, was Maud Pie checking on the rocks and sorting them by name.
"Sedimentary...granite...sandstone..."
Her sister Limestone Pie was moving a few rocks on a wagon, "Hurry up over there Maud! We gotta finish these piles soon!" She then called out to her other sister Marble Pie. "You almost done there Marble!?"
Marble, who was loading a few rocks onto a cart, turned around to answer her older sister. "Mmhmm!"
While she worked she heard a familiar voice call out to the sisters.
"Marble! Limestone! Maud!"
Limestone turned to see her 3rd sister Pinkie Pie approach them. "Is that...Pinkie Pie? This is a surprise."
The other sisters themselves were curious as to why Pinkie was here. Not that they mind, they loved having their sister around.
Pinkie approached them and took a moment to catch her breath. "My sisters!" She grabbed each of them into a big hug, much to the discomfort of Marble and the annoyance of Limestone. Maud didn't really change her expression, she was pretty much ok with the hug though.
"Pinkie, what brings you here? Didn't get any letters about you coming by," Limestone said.
"I came here by accident. You see Applejack needed to go meet her cousin, so she took a train but took the wrong one, now we're stuck here until we can find a train to Appaloosa," Pinkie explained.
"So is Applejack here too?" Limestone asked.
"Not just Applejack, all my friends are here. Maud you remember them right?" Pinkie asked.
"Yeah...I've seen them," Maud answered.
"And it's not just them, others are here too, like Apple Bloom and her friends, Rainbow Dash's coltfriend and Twilight's ex-coltfriend Thunderlane is also here with his friends, plus some others," Pinkie said.
Limestone raised her eyebrow, "How many ponies are here Pinkie?"
"Um...let's see, there's six elements, three crusaders, the four pegasi, two overconfident ponies, a big brother and a dragon, so thats sixteen ponies and a dragon," Pinkie explained.
"Uh Pinkie, that's a lot of ponies. I don't think I want them all on the farm, they might mess something up," Limestone said.
"Don't worry, I'll tell them not to touch anything, or go into the mines," Pinkie reassured.
"And don't forget about Hold-"
Pinkie groaned, "Yeah, yeah Limey, I'll tell them that too". Pinkie loves her sisters equally but Limestone can be a real pain sometimes.
"Still, that's a lot of ponies, we don't live in a big house after all," Limestone said.
"It's only for a few hours, we'll be gone before you know it," Pinkie reassured.
Limestone thought about it a moment, then turned to her other sisters, "You think they should come on the farm?"
Maud nodded, "Pinkie's friends are very nice. Having them on the farm shouldn't cause any problems."
Limestone still looked a bit unsure, then turned to Marble, "Your opinion Marble?"
Marble looked down and fidgeted her hooves, unsure what to think. Pinkie then hopped to her, "You'd like it Marble. Remember Big Macintosh? He's gonna be there, plus some other nice ponies for you to make friends with."
Marble still looked unsure but gave in to Pinkie, "Mmhmm."
Pinkie beamed a big smile, "Great! I'll go get them!" She dashed off to find her friends.
Limestone turned her attention to Maud, "You sure this is a good idea?"
"We barely have ponies come here. Sometimes we need a change of scenery", Maud explained in her usual emotionless tone.
Limestone grumbled a bit, she hoped this wouldn't turn out chaotic.
Pinkie led her friends onto the farm so her sisters can meet them. "There's my sisters everypony!"
Limestone looked unsure about the amount of ponies coming, Marble looked nervous due to her not being used to interacting with ponies, Maud just stood there as she saw her sister's friends make their way towards the farm.
Pinkie eagerly gestured for her friends to keep following her.
"Over here! Quick!" Pinkie said and led her friends to her three sisters. "Everypony meet my sisters!"
The three sisters looked through the group of ponies. Marble looked a bit nervous and started backing away a little. Limestone had a judgmental look on her face, she just wants to see who could potentially be a troublemaker. Maud just had the same expression throughout though one thing actually gave her a rare sense of concern.
"Let me introduce you all!" She went to Maud, "You all remember Maud right?"
The ponies waved to Maud, though Trixie had a look of concern on her face at the sight of the normally expressionless pony.
Pinkie then approached Limestone. "This is Limestone Pie, she runs the whole farm!"
"That's right, I run this place, if any of you mess anything up around here, you'll hear it from me!" Limestone warned.
Most of the ponies looked a bit taken back from that, except Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust and The Apple Family. While the Apples expected Limestone to say that, Rainbow and Lightning looked displeased at her tone of voice. They weren't gonna take too kindly to threats like that.
She approached her younger sister, "Then there's my baby sister Marble Pie, the cutest of the bunch", she started squishing her cheeks, "Who's a cute little Pie, you are, yes you are!"
Most of the ponies raised their eyebrows at the sight of Pinkie baby talking her sister. Marble wasn't exactly thrilled but she knows that Pinkie means well and knows that Pinkie is just really caring. It's actually a bit reassuring for her to have a pony that loves her that much and seems to really care for her. Limestone and Maud aren't exactly known for showing affection so Marble can appreciate Pinkie's affection.
"Wow, and I though Rarity babied her little sister," Cloudchaser said.
That earned a look of disapproval from Rarity and Sweetie Belle.
Pinkie turned to the others, "You'll all love Marble, she's really nice and sweet and I'm sure she's happy to see you, right Marble?"
Marble looked to the group of ponies, feeling nervous at their gazing eyes. With a gulp she simply responded with an, "Mmhmm".
Fluttershy awed at the sight of Marble. She was a cute pony, and so shy too. Fluttershy finally has a pony she can relate to, not that Flitter is a bad friend, but it's nice to see another pony who isn't too different from her.
"Come on everypony, make friends with my sisters!"
All the extra ponies approached the Pie sisters with friendly faces, though it proved to be for naught. Limestone's glare made the ponies too uncomfortable to be near her and Marble ran away when they got too close.
Maud was still there, though she herself backed away a little, not wanting the others to sense her discomfort. This surprised the ponies, especially the rest of the Elements, seeing Maud somewhat concerned about something.
Pinkie noticed this and felt concerned herself, "This isn't working, gotta work some magic." Pinkie approached the Apple Family, "Think you can help them make friends with my sisters? I want this to work."
Applejack nodded, "Don't worry, ah can handle this, just leave it to-"
"Hey wait a minute!" they heard Limestone say. They turned saw Limestone approach Trixie with a judgmental glare, "What is she doing here!?"
Trixie backed away a little while Lightning stepped between them.
"You got a problem with my marefriend?" Lightning asked.
Limestone looked surprised on hearing that, "Wait, marefriend? So she moved on?"
Lightning looked curious, "What do you mean 'moved on'?"
Before Limestone can explain, Trixie started shoving Lightning away, "Ignore her, she's just being a pain again. I used to work near her and I can say that she's not the nicest pony to deal with," Trixie glared at Limestone, "She talks a lot of crap."
"Hey, you're full of crap!" Limestone angrily said.
Lightning turned around like she wanted to hurt Limestone but Applejack ran between the two, "Come on y'all, let's not let this turn bad".
Limestone and Lightning exchanged glares a bit before backing away from each other.
Apple Bloom turned to Rumble, "Ah might need yer help. Limestone's really nice despite how she's acting, we just need to get on her good side, and ah believe you can help with that."
Rumble raised his eyebrow, "How so?"
"You have a magic touch with mares. Ah mean considering managed to help mah sister tolerate you, Thunderlane and yer friends, plus you got Trixie and Lightning Dust to reform, in fact you even got Rainbow Dash to be a total softie with you. You can work wonders with mares," Apple Bloom said.
"To be honest, not all mares really like me much, I know Derpy and Amethyst really didn't like me, plus Scootaloo once thought I was a pain," Rumble said.
"Come on, Derpy loves you now don't she? And Amethyst says yer a nice colt and thinks yer cute, she don't dislike you no more. Also Scootaloo loves you now at least", Apple Bloom said.
Rumble sighed, "Alright, I'll trust you".
Apple Bloom kissed him, "That's mah colt, come on let's get the others to help."
With Fluttershy, she started to approach Marble but Marble backed away a little.
"Oh, please don't feel shy, I know what it feels like but I think we can work through that," Fluttershy said. Marble continued to back away and eventually ran off, leaving Fluttershy disappointed, "Poor dear, this is gonna take a while."
Twilight approached Maud, "Hi Maud, how have you been?"
Maud snapped out of her concern and noticed Twilight, "Huh? Oh, I've been good. I've been doing a lot of study on rocks."
Twilight noticed that whatever was bothering Maud had faded, she was back to her expressionless tone, not that she minded, in fact it seemed weird without it.
"That's great, I like a good hard worker," Twilight said.
"Yeah, I know you like to study. I remember your library, you had a lot of books," Maud said.
"Yeah, I remember you read some poems to me", Twilight said, remembering the thousands of poems, all of which were about rocks.
"I have some more if you want to hear some," Maud offered.
Twilight felt a bit of uncertainty. She wasn't too eager to listen to more of those poems though, she wouldn't want to go through all that again.
"I'd love to but I need to keep an eye out for the train, we really need to get to Appaloosa," Twilight insisted.
Maud nodded, "That's fine, I can help if you'd like. I use this train quite often so I can help you figure the schedules out."
Twilight seemed pretty relieved to know that Maud would be willing to help, "That could save me some time, thank you Maud".
Twilight walked off with Maud to figure the schedules out.
Later on in the Pie Family home, Pinkie had explained the situation to her parents, they were just fine with the guests, especially considering that they were good friends of Pinkie, plus they were associated with Royalty. To deny them hospitality, temporary as it may be, would be dishonorable.
Twilight and Maud were looking through the schedules, hoping to find the soonest and quickest route to Appaloosa.
Though curiously while looking through the schedules, Maud sent a few glances towards Trixie. Trixie was talking a little with Lightning, explaining some details about the farm. Trixie herself found herself glancing to Maud at occasion but the two would do their best not to glances too long, or maintain eye contact.
Twilight wondered what was happening, why is Maud so awkward around Trixie? It's weird for Twilight to see Maud show any type of emotion, so it's very concerning to see that Maud looks visibly concerned at the sight of Trixie.
Lightning was also curious about this, though she was more agitated than concerned. It seems like Trixie isn't too liked here and that upsets Lightning. If she hates one thing is seeing anypony being rude to her marefriend.
The others were just minding their own business. Applejack is talking with Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane and Cloudchaser about the rock farm, Flitter is talking to Big Macintosh and Pinkie Pie is talking with Spike and Rarity. Marble is just watching from nearby, too shy to interact with anypony.
Fluttershy noticed her and started to approach her in hopes of befriending the fellow shy mare but Marble instead chose to once again run away. Fluttershy huffed a bit in agitation and procceded to follow Marble outside.
As the two mares went outside with Marble running and Fluttershy following, the Crusaders themselves are also outside, exploring the rock farm.
"Sometimes I wish we hadn't gotten our Cutie Marks, it would give us an excuse to go Crusading," Scootaloo said.
"We don't need marks to explore, let's just do it for fun," Sweetie Belle said.
"What's there to explore, everything's boring, and if it's not boring, then Limestone doesn't want us near it," Scootaloo said.
"Limestone means well, it's hard running a farm so she can get a little...cranky about it," Apple Bloom said. "Though ah did hope that Rumble could try to get her to lighten up, you know, use his charm that fillies find attractive," Apple Bloom said.
Rumble shook his head, "Come on, my charm isn't that impressive, I'm sure I'm not even that cute."
"Huh? Of course you are, look at yer face, it's adorable, especially yer eyes," Apple Bloom said, getting a blush from Rumble.
"Plus your mane, it's totally awesome," Scootaloo said, getting another blush and a somewhat confident smile.
"Don't forget his butt," Sweetie Belle said, getting a confused glare from her friends and a bigger blush from Rumble. "What? He's got a cute butt."
Rumble nervously chuckled, "Thanks...yours is cute too".
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo exchanged awkward glances at each other while Sweetie Belle beamed a confident smile.
"Anyway..." Scootaloo said, trying to end the awkwardness, "Let's see what fun things we can do on this farm."
"Oh no you don't!" They heard an angry voice say.
They all turned to see Limestone approach them, her usual angry look in her eyes.
"Uh howdy there Limestone, good to see ya again," Apple Bloom said, in a hopeful effort to keep things friendly.
"Yeah, yeah, what are you fillies up to?" Limestone asked.
Rumble raised his eyebrow, "Um, I'm a colt, not a filly".
Limestone looked closer at Rumble, making observational noises. "Yeah I guess so".
Rumble had a bewildered look on his face, "You guess? I'm a colt! I'm not a filly! Why do ponies think I'm a filly!?"
"You have a filly face and you sound like a filly, easy mistake to make", Limestone rudely pointed out. "Doesn't matter, what are you all doing out here anyway?"
"We wanna explore this place a bit, see if there's anything fun around here," Scootaloo explained.
Limestone raised her eyebrow, "Really? And how do you plan on doing that?"
Scootaloo tapped her chin, "Not sure, figuring it out is the fun part".
Limestone gave a half hearted smile while maintaining her serious nature, "That's fine and dandy, however I do have a few rules".
Limestone pointed to the quarry, "Number 1, don't go to the Quarry and mess anything up. Number 2, don't go in the mines," she looked them right in the eyes for the last one, "Number 3, DON'T touch Holder's Boulder". Limestone pointed to the boulder in question, the huge boulder standing near the cliff over the Quarry. "Do you all understand what I said?" Limestone asked. The foals nodded as Limestone gave a confident smile, "Good, now behave yourselves", she then reverted to her angry face, "And DON'T get on my bad side". Limestone then went into Rumble's face, "Especially you".
Rumble gulped, "Me?"
"Yeah you, Pinkie told me in one of her letters that you've been quite a troublemaker, if I find out you did anything, you're gonna leave here with a black eye," Limestone threatened.
Sweetie Belle got in Limestone's face, "Don't you threaten him!"
Limestone growled at Sweetie Belle, causing her to scurry away as the Pie sister let out a satisfied chuckle and trotted away.
Rumble looked pretty nervous, "Not only is she scary, she knows about me and what I once did, but how much does she know?"
"We'll have to ask Pinkie a bit later," Apple Bloom said.
Scootaloo still looked surprised, "Damn, and Apple Bloom said she was nice too."
"Like ah said, she ain't always nice, but she's not that bad, you just need to get on her good side, like ah did...sorta", Apple Bloom said.
Rumble sighed, "I'm gonna need some help with this".
The foals nodded and went on their way, figuring out which crusades they should try next. At least any crusades they're sure won't earn Limestone's wrath.