//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Limestone and Marble 
// Story: Best of Friends? 
// by Wonderbolt Writer 
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"W-What..." Discord was amazed he could get that much out. 

He was laying down in an oh so wonderfully comfy bed, swaddled up in several warm blankets. That much he knew. The details of how it all happened were, like his vision, a bit hazy. All he could remember of the journey was Pinkie and Maud both standing over him, pointing back and forth between two sheets of paper, one of which was Pinkie's list and the other was a map of Equestria. 

'Here Discord, get us here.' That was what they said, he was kinda sure of that. Maybe. After all, he couldn't have been more out of it at that particular moment in time. With a little effort he managed to teleport them all somewhere. But upon arriving he had drifted back to sleepy land and now had just now been welcomed back to the land of the living.

Pinkie bounced up on top of him, barely able to contain her budding joy. "Weeelcome to the Rock Farm, sleepyhead!" She gently tip-hooved her way off his body. "And here you go, eat this!" 

She placed semi rock hard cupcake into his paw. Given that fact there was no telling just how old it was. But without thinking he downed the sucker like he was told. Immediately he found his face being sucked inward as if a vortex had just appeared on his tongue. Inch by excruciating inch the entirety of his form was being swallowed up into the void. His lips, chin, eyes, arms and feet were all sucked into his mouth hole until there was nothing left and he was gone.

But a milli-second later he popped back into his regular form coughing and hacking up what was left of that horrendous cupcake. "Were you t-trying to kill me!"

"I'm sorry." Pinkie eyeballed her fallen sweet treat, saddened a bit by it's demise. "I was just trying to wake you up! And nothing does that better than one of my super special sweet but mostly sour cupcakes!"

"Is he going to be okay?" Maud asked, walking up behind her younger sister.

Pinkie smiled. "Aww, that's so sweet. Maud, all worried about you and stuff."

"Yeah," came a gruff and not to mention sarcastic sounding voice right behind Discord's head. "that's reeaaal sweet. So...what? Is he like Maud's special somepony or something?!

Discord's eyes twitched slightly. Whoever this new pony was, she didn't sound too friendly.

"Now, Limestone." Pinkie began. "Take it easy, he is not her special somepony." 

She then kicked it up a notch, slightly speeding up her words in that lovingly energetic way of her's. 

"Yes, they have recently been spending a lot of time together. Plus they do both like and care for each other while occasionally exchanging romantically suggestive witty banter between themselves. Not to mention the seven and a half times they have lovingly locked eyes since they first meet. So to the lay-pony I suppose they may seem to be more than just friends. But I can assure you dear older sister that it is all just in good clean fun."

"So..." Limestone Pie paused to process her thoughts. "from what I'm hearing it sounds like...they're a sinking ship?"

"Sorta." Pinkie said. "They're more like a nearly finished ship that sits unused and is gazed upon in awe by ponies passing by who really  just wanna see it finally blossom and set sail."

"Enough with the babble!" Discord hopped out of bed, flinging his covers off and into the corner of the room. "Do you ponies even speak a coherent language?"

"Yeah." Limestone responded, crabby as ever. "Do you?"

Pinkie promptly stepped in between the two, trying to avoid a fight. "Alright that's enough. Don't you think you two should be properly introduced before beginning an argument?"

"No!" Came the simultaneous answer from them both.

"Okee-dokee..." Pinkie locked together Discord's talon hand with Lime's right hoof. "Discord this is Limestone Pie, my older sister. And Limey, this is Discord!"

Limestone immediately retracted her hoof, giving Pinkie a light poke across her chest. "I told you never to call me that!" Suddenly she shot a dreaded stink eye toward Discord. "Wait a sec...did you say Discord? As in the self-proclaimed 'Lord of Chaos' Discord?"

"Why?" Discord smirked. "Heard of me have you? 'Limey'..."

Limestone flung a blind-fold over to Pinkie. "That's it! Cover your eyes cause' he's about to go down!"

Maud clamped her teeth down onto Limestone's tail, holding back her flailing older sister. "Lemme go, Maud! He's no good! Nothing but pure chaos incarnate! He betrayed Equestria to Tirek and also once tried to turn it all into his own personal happy-land!"

"Happy-land?!" Discord protested. "Maybe Mayhem-land or Cuckoo-ville but I would never choose such a name as 'happy-land'." He shuddered at the very thought.

"See," Limestone continued. "he even admits it! If there's one thing MY rock farm doesn't need, it's disorder! He'll ruin us!"

"Everypony stop!" Pinkie cried out. "No more fighting, can't you see how upset you're all making Marble?"

Limestone stopped her outrage, still breathing heavily. Discord walked forward, gently pulling the end of Limestone's tail from Maud's mouth. "And just who in the blazes is Marble?"

Pinkie pointed over to the corner of the room where Discord had earlier dispatched his bed sheets to. "Why she's my baby Sister of course, who else?"

Discord narrowed his eyes. "So, which blanket exactly...is Marble?" This did not surprise him one bit. What with them having 'pet' rocks, growing up in near isolation and her family's rather eccentric behavior it wasn't that far of a stretch for them to have an imaginary sibling. One that was warm, cuddly and made of a one-thousand thread count cotton/wool blend.

Pinkie laughed. "Not the blankets, silly. The Pony under them! She was standing over there and got buried when you threw em'." 

"And she hasn't come out from under there in all this time?" asked Discord.

"Nope, she's kinda shy sometimes." Pinkie zipped over fast as lightning to join Maud who had slowly walked over during the conversation to coax Marble out of hiding. 

Maud extended her hoof while Pinkie took care of all the talking. "It's alright, he isn't going to hurt you. He's friendly now...mostly."

"I know he won't." Marble spoke in a low voice so only her family could hear her. "But Pinkie, he has something else."

"Oh that..." Maud said. "He only had a little of Tirek's energy still clinging onto him from back then. He didn't even know. But Pinkie took care of it and what little is left is fading away, you're in  no danger now."

Pinkie nodded heartily in agreement. "Yep, but you should've seen what it did to boulder. It's all good now though."

With that, Marble tentatively latched onto Maud's hoof and was pulled out of her cozy safe zone.

With both sisters at her side Marble walked over to meet Discord. "Umm, hi...I'm the blanket." She smiled at her own little joke.  "But you can just call me Marble." She stretched out her hoof in greeting.

Discord's smile widened, his eyes sparkled as he let out an inner squeak of joy. For one reason or another she reminded him very much of somepony else he knew in his life. Though he couldn't quite put his claw on exactly who. Maybe it was Rainbow Dash?

He quickly picked her up, squeezing her in his arms. "Marble was it? It's very nice to meet you and-" he stopped mid-sentence upon realizing something. "Wait, I thought you only said adorable things like 'Mm-hmm' and such? What gives?I feel cheated."

Marble was blushing far too hard now to give an answer. Many thoughts raced around in her head. 

So Pinkie stepped in. "Yeah well, sometimes she only says things like that and with some ponies she just plain talks to them. Eh, go figure..."

"Good enough for me." Discord put Marble back down. "But remind me again. Why are we here at the rock farm?"

"Well..." Pinkie unfurled her to-do list. "Ever since you brought it up I just kept thinking about it and so I put it on the list as the next thing for you and Maud to do!"

"And that is?" he asked.

"Attend a superrific sleepover with me, Pinkie Pie! ...Also with Limestone and Marble."

Marble still sat there, a light blush still painted on her cheeks. Limestone on the other hoof took to a more active response. "Ma and Pa go out on important business and you thought it'd be okay to just bring this chaos-doofus here for a sleep-over?"

Discord didn't say one word. But by his crossed arms and scowl it wasn't hard to see he was definitely upset at her comment.

"But the best part is..." Pinkie brought her party cannon out from within her mane. "is that our folks said yes!" 

Several blasts shot out of her cannon, decorating the room with multi-colored confetti, streamers and animal balloons.

With the room properly glitterized she popped the cannon back in her hair for later use. "Now everypony get to partying while I go and whip up some sweet party treats!" Pinkie bounded off toward the kitchen, bouncing the whole way.

And instantly all the glittering specks of happiness left the room. At least that is what the now awkward silence filling the area felt like.

Discord loudly cleared his throat, almost appearing to choke and gag in the process. "S-So, if this is supposed to be a sleepover I guess I'll just have to take it upon myself to provide us with some proper supplies." With a snap of his paw he changed everyone into bright red and yellow plaid pj's, each brandished with a right shoulder patch bearing his ugly mug, smiling and giving a wink. 

"What the?!" Limestone commented about her new attire. "Hey, who said you could change me? Only I  get to change me, got it?" Limestone ripped off the sleep-wear and started rapidly stomping it into a nearby pot like a hot headed grape juice making pony would.

Pinkie followed up with a loud gasp from the kitchen. "Hey, Discord! Thanks for the Pj's! I'm loooving it!"

"Well..." He said. "At least somepony has some actually taste. What do you think Marble, do you like them?"

The blush on her face from earlier, now almost gone, returned in full force. She grew even more quiet, if that was even possible for somepony to do who had already been sitting there in pure silence. 

"You like them, yes?" He asked again. 

She gulped audibly. "Mm-hmm..."

"Well I was going for a more verbal answer...but I'll take it."

Maud poked him on the back. "Boulder likes them too." She opened up the winking eye on the patch which doubled as a pocket, revealing her pet 'napping' inside. "Oh...and I don't mind them either."

Hopping over to Limestone the Lord of Chaos became the Lord of the Dance, shaking his tail and flaunting his sick break-dancing skills before her whilst praising himself. "Uh-huh, go Discord! It's your birthday, It's your birthday!"

Needless to say, Limestone was less than impressed by his boogie fever showcase.

But on he went. "Everypony loves my pajamas but yooouuu! Discord - one, Limey - zero!!"

In a move that was a surprise to absolutely nopony, Limestone ripped off Discord's own pair of pjs and started shoving them down his throat with even more gusto than she had shown with dumping her own pair into the pot earlier. 

He teleported himself behind Maud, leaving behind the frayed remnants of his bed wear where he once stood. "What's going on?! Keep her away from me, she's a mad pony!"

Pinkie Pie popped up behind him. "Happy Birthday Discord! I heard you earlier when you were dancing!" she gave him a huge smile and placed a three-layer chocolate, strawberry and orange flavored cake into his arms. Then, like magic, she was gone again.

A devilish grin was plastered across Limestone's face as she inched closer to him. "I hope you like cake as much as you do pajamas, Discord!"

"Enough..." Maud said. "I think you've punished him enough. He's sorry."

Lime stopped in her tracks, her eye slightly twitching. "Funny, I didn't hear him say sorry."

Eyes closed and still frozen in place by fear, Discord found himself being pushed out toward Limestone by the Maud-shaped pony he was cowering behind. His cake hit the floor.

"Alright!" he broke his silence. "I'm...I'm s-sorry!" He opened one eye to scope out the unfolding situation only to find Limestone rolling around on the ground before him in a fit of laughter.

"Hahahhaaha!" From all her laughter she found it hard to speak, let alone breathe. "You should see the look on your face!" she got up and came over. He flinched slightly as she patted him heartily on the back. Limestone sighed as she wiped a tear out from her eye. "You're alright by me, Discord. You are alright..."

He took several steps back, arching a brow. "What just happened?"

"It isn't obvious?" Maud answered. "You were acting like a jerk and Limestone reacted. Not in the way she should have, but still in the way we knew she would. What did you expect to happen?"

"Am I dreaming?" Discord pinched himself. "No, I'm not. Luna's grasp doesn't have me today." He stretched and contorted his limbs in every odd way and fashion he could conceive of. "So I haven't lost my powers or my mind. What I don't understand is...how it happened?"

All three of the ponies before him exchanged looks as he continued. "I was supposed to just gobble her and my pjs up in one fell swoop. But instead I found myself choking on them. Care to explain? 

Maud eyed her rowdy sister for several seconds. "Should I tell him? Or do you want to?"

"I can, if you want!" Pinkie said, coming into the room holding a tray of fresh rock-cakes. "That is...if we all want to."

Pinkie's sisters all nodded their seals of approval. 

"So, Discord." Pinkie began, in an unusually serious tone. "This is what you wanted, to talk about my 'magic'? All of our's?"

He had verified it wasn't a dream but it all seemed so surreal. He nearly had to grip his head and force himself to nod.

Pinkie placed down her tray and looked to Limestone. "So that's part of why I brought you here. See, the reason you weren't able to do your magic is because...Limestone can nullify magic."

"I'll take it from here." said Maud. "And as for Pinkie, here, she has her 'Pinkie sense'. Which means sometimes stray bits of magic, if you can call it that, find their way to her." 

Limestone took a step closer to him, picking up where Maud had left off. "Yeah, it's weird and all. Like if you're looking for a specific page, from a particular book out of messed up pile of them, Pinkie would be the one for that job. And sometimes she just know things. She thinks it could all come from an alternate Pinkie Pie from another dimension or even just her future self." She shrugged. "But like Maud said, it's pretty random stuff. Kinda explains her personality a bit more if ya ask me."

"Mm-hmm." Marble nodded and slowly raised up her sleeve covered hoof, calling attention to herself. Discord would have probably died from the cuteness overload he just received had he not been so intrigued. 

The youngest Pie began to tell her view on things. "Maud can do pretty much the same things as Pinkie. And I...I-I can see things that other ponies can not." She then waved her hoof in a broad sweep through the air at her siblings.  "They all can too of course, but not always right away or as tuned in as me."

For all the talking that had just taken place, a quiet had fallen over the room. As if waiting to be judged they all sat in silence, staring at him. But he just couldn't find the words. It was understandable given all the information he had just received. 

Though he knew he would have to say something. "Is...is all of this true? You're not just messing with me are you?"

Still they said nothing.

"Well, uh..." he said. "Okaaay, I have some questions."

"Then ask." was all that Maud said. 

"Alright," he began. "so first off, how did you all get these gifts of your's? Were you born with them?"

"No." Maud answered plainly. It appeared as if she would be the one doing all of the talking for the group now. "We were young fillies. Far too young to know that what this rock farm held within it's mines were more that just mere rainbow-colored crystals. We touched them and they gave us superpowers...the end."

Discord's jaw dropped. "Gimme a break! That can't possibly be the end!"

Maud casually trotted over and picked out one of Pinkie's rock-cakes. "Well, long story short is that there were some magic crystals that are now all destroyed. Happy?"

No way, no how would ever be satisfied with that answer. But it looked like he would have to be as it didn't look like anypony else was jumping at the opportunity to tell the tale.

"Okay, well skip over that part...for now." he watched as she popped the unappetizing cupcake into her mouth like it was nothing.  "I get the feeling that you sisters haven't told many ponies about this. Why? I mean, is this really all that big of a deal?"

For once, Maud didn't answer. In fact it seemed as if everypony just clammed up. He had hoped that the tense atmosphere would have calmed by now. He wasn't attacking them or yelling at them after all.

Limestone, perhaps because she was the oldest, cleared her throat. "After that some rotten, no good ponies found out about us." she stopped there, anger coming to her eyes. He found it hard to believe how difficult this seemed for her to explain given the rash, go get em' attitude from her he had seen earlier. 

Limestone pressed on. "So they decided to take us.... Away from the farm, away from Ma and Pa. They thought they could use us for there own gain, but they were wrong!" Tears lightly watered the edges of her eyes.

"Limestone..." Pinkie said. "You know it's not good for you to get all upset like this."

"What how am I supposed to feel?" Limestone yelled at Pinkie, immediately regretting the act. "I'm sorry. Pinkie, I shouldn't have yelled. You didn't deserve any of that." She knew from the many conversations  she had had with her sister on the subject, that Pinkie was just reminding her to let it go and learn to forgive the past. 

"Oh, don't feel bad Limey!" Pinkie said, sounding a bit more like her cheerful self. "If you feel sad, I'll start to feel sad too."

"I told you not to call me that." Limestone let out a giggle as Pinkie practically tried to glomp her sis back into happiness.

Marble smiled, trying to look brave. "I-It isn't a very good memory for us....We're okay now though, as you can see. After it happened we all swore, to each other and to our parents to keep our powers a secret. Just so nothing like that could ever happen again." Suddenly she looked concerned, for him. "Discord, are you alright?"

Discord wiped his eyes and blew into a hankie monogrammed with Celestia's name. "Oh me? I-I'm fine! Just thinking about how hard it must've been on little Marble her to experience that hardship. That poor little, super-powered pony."

Limestone tossed him a piece of cake and laughed. "Here, eat it ya sad sap, it'll make you feel better. Honestly we didn't even cover the good stuff and you're already sobbing like a weenie." Her voice was friendly though and after all that she still had watery eyes herself.

He was kind of relieved, that they didn't recount the kidnapping in vivid detail. Just bringing it up stirred up enough emotions in them. While he was a chaos lover, he didn't relish in the suffering of others. Not at all anymore, at least. He figured it'd be best to just leave that subject alone for now.

He took a bite out of the hard confectionery and guessed from all the loud crunching and cracking he heard that he was probably breaking several of his teeth just trying to chew it up. He didn't really care, being able to grow them back granted him that luxury.

He would take a small bite, chew and swallow it, then repeat. When he was finished he had one more query. "So for my last question. Why did you decide to tell me of all creatures, about this?"

Pinkie sprang up off of Limestone and glomped all over him. "Kinda cause' your the only one we all agreed on, to tell. I've really wanted to get it off my chest for a while now, it feels sooo good. So thanks to you, kooky Grandpa!"

"Pony-pile on Discord!" Marble shouted.

Everypony piled on, drowning his chaotic soul with love. It was all too much for him to handle. The fluffiness, the cuddling and the laughter.

Discord shrieked like a little filly, holding up his talon hand toward the sky as he was sucked down into the Pie family pony-pile. And all the while, those sinister lovey lil' ponies just laughed and laughed.

All except Maud. But she was laughing on the inside.