//------------------------------// // 2. Maud Pine // Story: Fault Lines // by helmet of salvation //------------------------------// The bounding bundle of bright pink was a rare splash of colour among the functional, grey buildings, cobblestone pathways and rock gardens—that is, gardens of rocks—that comprised the Equestrian Institute of Rockology's Manehattan campus. Yet Maud Pie had no complaints about that. It was her sister, after all. "Maud! Maud! Maud!" Pinkie Pie called gleefully in synchronisation with her leaps, which became greater in magnitude the closer she drew. Eventually, she peaked high enough above Maud to unleash a childlike "Wheeeee!" as she descended into a perfectly timed embrace. Her legs wrapped like tentacles around Maud's grey-coated, grey-frocked frame as she nuzzled her elder sister's cheek. "Hey." "Aww, it's great to see you too, big sis." Pinkie released her hold and her warm, affectionate mood snapped into irrepressible exuberance. "So, where we gonna go for lunch? Huh? Huh? Huh? Somewhere on campus, or are we sneaking off to Manehattan's fancy dining drag?" "There's a stone grill by the student union. The decor there is reeeeeally cool." Maud's voice sounded almost trance-like to the untrained ear. "They use stone." Pinkie beamed. "Wow! You love stone." "Yes. That definitely contributes to my appreciation. They have stone walls, stone floors, a stone hearth, stone sculptures——" "Great! Stone sculptures! What are they sculptures of? Ponies? Wagons? Vegetables? Ponies pulling wagons loaded with vegetables?" Maud regarded her sister for a second. "Stones." "Ohhhhhh." "They also have stone tables, stone benches, stone crockery, menus chiseled on stone tablets." "I don't suppose all the food is stone, too?" A trace of a smile danced across Maud's lips, warming Pinkie's heart to the core. "Pinkie, you are soooooo random." "Well that sounds super-duper-looper, and I am famished. Let's go." Pinkie readied herself to bound off, despite not knowing which direction to head. "Wait." Maud's eyes flickered briefly to the ground. "I'm sorry, I got things a little mixed up. I arranged to meet a friend of mine to swap our petrology lecture notes. We'll go to lunch straight after that, I promise. I'm sorry." "No-no-no-no-no. You don't have to apologise. Your course work is——" Pinkie gasped mightily. "You've made a ... friend?" "You don't have to sound so surprised." Pinkie hovered above the ground for two seconds, squealing in excitement, before shooting forward and wrapping Maud in another embrace. "It's not that kind of surprise. I'm just delighted that my super amazingly awesome older sister has found a friend. Somepony she can bond with, talk with, laugh with." "We definitely enjoy laughing together," Maud intoned, her face deadpan. "So don't you worry about a thing. Your studies are important and your friendships are extra important. And even though I'm super excited about our lunch today I don't mind ... waiting ... for ... you ......to........." Pinkie's normally quick speech slowed to a halt, and her blue eyes grew even wider than usual, as she began to notice the stallion approaching the two sisters from behind Maud. He was an earth pony, tall, slim, muscular without being brawny. His coat was the colour of red sandstone. His black mane was cropped short, his tail glinted in the sun. His dark eyes darted in all directions from behind a round-rimmed pince-nez perched on the bridge of his chiseled, slightly elongated muzzle. A pair of black woven saddlebags hung over his back. Seeing Pinkie's reaction, Maud turned around to exchange a lengthy, silent gaze with the newcomer. "Hey," said the stallion at last. "Hey," replied Maud. "This is my little sister, Pinkie Pie. Pinkie, meet Arkose Monolith." The grey pony inwardly braced herself for the greeting Pinkie invariably gave to ponies she met for the first time. Usually it involved a lengthy barrage of excited, rapid-fire talking, accompanied by exuberant pronking, leaning up close from a multitude of directions, and possibly streamers. Yet that did not happen. Instead, Pinkie merely waved a forehoof, smiled and chirped, "Hi Arkose, it's great to meet a friend of my super amazingly awesome older sister," with a demeanour that was somewhat brighter than the average pony but nowhere near her usual level of Pinkitude. Indeed, far from punching holes in Arkose's personal space with her head, Pinkie actually took a step back, as if coy. Maud gazed in wonder at her sister's uncharacteristic display. "Hi," the stallion replied, looking around Pinkie's eyes rather than directly into them. He turned back towards Maud. "Do you have the lecture notes?" Arkose Monolith's question snapped Maud out of her brief, nonplussed reverie. She turned to a satchel by her hooves, pressed a button to release a clasp, then pulled out a bulging grey manila folder with her teeth. Maud passed the folder to Arkose, who took it from her, placed in one of his own saddlebags, and passed a red folder to his classmate. The exchange complete, Arkose turned his not-quite-focused attention back to Maud. "Thanks Maud." "Thank you," Maud insisted. "See you later." "'Bye." Arkose turned to leave but paused, pivoting awkwardly, then turned hesitantly back, as if struck by an afterthought that he had trouble deciding whether to voice. "It's good to meet you, Pinkie Pie. Maud talks a lot about you." Pinkie smiled appreciatively. "Thanks." With that stilted moment out of the way, Arkose turned fully around, revealing the insignia adorning each of his buttocks, denoting his unique destiny. It was a towering, reddish-brown pillar of rock. Maud watched his departure for several seconds before turning back to Pinkie Pie's broad smile. Not her usual winning, enthusiastic beam but a knowing, heavy-lidded smirk. "Stop it." "Maaaauuud?" Pinkie's voice rang with playful reproach. Maud tried to maintain her stony gaze but her eyes flickered momentarily to the ground. "Leave me alone." "So he's your friend, huh?" The connotations that Pinkie's emphasis bore were unmistakable. "Yes," Maud replied mechanically. "Arkose Monolith is my friend. That's it. Nothing more." Pinkie's characteristically keen, cheery demeanour and motor-mouthed speech returned in a flash. "Great! Then I guess you won't mind if I get to know him a little better. B.R.B, K?" She turned into a pink blur as she shot off with blinding speed towards the departing stallion. * * * For about a yard. Somehow, Maud managed to step in front of her sister in time to block her exit. Pinkie smashed face-first into Maud's shoulder as if into the slope of a mesa, coming to a dead halt as Maud's body absorbed the impact without budging a micron. Pinkie's immense inertia propelled her hindquarters forwards so that her body compressed laterally like a concertina. "N.O." Maud watched impassively as her sister's tortilla-thin body—a face on legs—peeled off Maud's hide and settled onto the ground. Pinkie's dazed eyes glistened with tears of pain yet she wore a triumphant grin. "Called it," she gasped. "I never could hide my feelings from you, Pinkie." Maud now understood why Pinkie had acted so subdued (for her) around Arkose. She had been trying to keep out of their way. The grey pony turned with something like wistfulness back to the direction Arkose had been heading. "I only wish Arkose weren't so good at hiding his feelings from me. I don't know whether he likes me or just," she paused briefly before her voice acquired a slightly morose overtone, "likes me." "Well, wishing won't do any good, silly." Pinkie's body had restored to its usual shape and she seemed none the worse for wear. "If you're interested, you have to let him know." "Mom says it isn't the done thing for mares to make the first move. Besides, if I'm too forward I might scare him off." "Sheesh, Maud, I'm not telling you to sling him over your withers and carry him back to your love nest." "Not much chance of that," murmured Maud. "He's so much stronger than me it's scary." Scary is right, thought Pinkie. Maud could pulverise a granite boulder three times her own size, with her forehooves, in a matter of seconds. "I mean you gotta show the guy that you'd welcome him making a move on you. Sit a little closer to him when you're together. Gaze a little longer at him with those smouldering, vulpine eyes of yours." Pinkie briefly transformed her own eyes—wide, expressive, long-lashed—to look like Maud's—languid, half-closed, with lashes that were short yet so tightly packed that they resembled a thick, black stratum underlining each upper eyelid. "Stop it," Maud repeated. "I'm serious. You've got that whole steamy, black-and-white film noir mare-of-mystery look going for you. Work it, girlfriend." "A stallion like Arkose needs more than just looks, Pinkie. He's smart, thoughtful, hard-working, funny ..." "Don't forget tall, lean and handsome," grinned Pinkie. "I didn't forget. I just assumed that went without saying." Maud took another longing look back in Arkose's direction, even though he was well out of sight by then. "You really think Arkose would consider making a mare like me his special somepony?" "Maud, you're my super amazingly awesome older sister and you're gonna make a super amazingly awesome special somepony for some stallion. I think it's time you found out whether Arkose Monolith is said stallion. You've met him, you like him, you know each others' interests. What have you got to lose, huh?" "Face, dignity, self-esteem, the only friend I've made here, the structural integrity of my heart." "Ummm," Pinkie glanced around and shuffled her hooves in anxiety. "Did I mention I was famished? Which way is that stone grill?"