//------------------------------// // Limestone Pie Finds a Husband // Story: Stone and Sky // by Visiden Visidane //------------------------------// Another day, another cycle of toil in the Pie Rock farm. Out in fields, great rocks, nurturing their bounties of ore, gem, and building stone, grew through magic only earth ponies cultivated. In the quarries, laborers hurled their backs into furious pounding. The farm was approaching peak rock growth season, and they had to keep up. Deep in the mines, more digging filled the maze-like network of tunnels, the endless picks striking stone creating a tune in harmony with the ceaseless rolling of carts on their tracks. At the center of all this organized chaos was the Foremare, Limestone Pie, directing it all with swift precision. Her eyes, green like her namesake, though harder, searched for ineffiencies and potential problems. Her light gray mane was short and practical, cut straight and swept to the side, all the better to stay out of work's way. Her lips were tight, nearly humorless save for a small smile. This year was a good year after all. Rock growth was at a record high, as was quarry and mine production. Her father had worked hard to put Pie Rock Farm on the map. It fell upon her to take it beyond that. All around her were the fruits of her efforts already. For one thing, she came upon the idea of hiring laborers. It used to be that her father did most of the work with the help of only his young daughters. Work was in earnest, but slow and inefficient. And, as they all aged, that system just didn't work out. Their father found it more and more difficult to deal with all the physical stresses of rock farming. Maud buried her head in Rock Theory, then went off to college, Pinkamena just wandered off to Ponyville one day and didn't come back, not that she was much help to begin with. Marble...well, she was mildly helpful, Maud graduating early this year inspired her to go to college as well. Marble's first letter from Canterlot University came just a few days ago. Apparently, she was taking this course called Gender Studies. Limestone doubted that it was even remotely useful for the farm. It sounded insane. It probably was. With Maud deciding to go off on even more Rock Theory expeditions, which just translated to not helping out, that left Limestone to deal with the farm. As hard a worker as she was, even she had to admit that more ponies were needed to keep the farm going. Inspiration had struck earlier when that wandering unicorn magician showed up trying to steal food. Limestone was debating pressing versus the stocks with her father when a bizzare and new idea struck her: make the unicorn work as punishment. The unicorn was lazy, stubborn, and mostly incompetent, but, even then, there was a big difference in work done. At one point, they even paid Trixie, as this unicorn introduced herself, for her work. With Marble gone, Limestone decided to put that inspiration to action. After Trixie left, there came a gang of Diamond Dogs that tried raiding the farm for gems. After their bones healed up, they worked out a deal. Then, there was the disgraced celebrity agent, Svengallop. After that, some pony from Las Pegasus who got run out of town for being a fraud. After him were the Flim Flam brothers, who also got run out of Las Pegasus for being frauds. At that point, Limestone started to suspect that the dregs of Equestria had a peculiar way of ending up in her beloved Rock Farm. It wasn't that bad. She got to pay them on the cheap. With workers, the farm flourished. Her parents were impressed and grew confident enough to completely stand back and let her manage everything. "Miss Limestone!" one of the Diamond Dogs, the smallest among them, called out. His name was Rend, if Limestone recalled correctly. "Big trouble in the coal mine! Very big trouble!" "Again?" Limestone snapped. She broke into a gallop with the dog leading the way. "Did you idiots dig up another balor? I told you to watch out for the smell of Sulfur!" "No balor, Miss Limestone!" Rend yelped. "Big cave in inside new tunnel! Poor diamond dogs trapped!" The coal mine was the latest addition to the farm, so the tunnels weren't that complicated yet. Igneous had discovered the vein a long time ago, but never did find the time to work on it with the shortage of labor. Limestone had it up and running quickly, and profits rolled in like a tidal wave of money. They came upon the collapsed section. A single look at the nearby walls and all the pick and claw marks told Limestone enough. "What did I tell you about your digging speed and the support beams?" she asked. Rend twiddled his fingers. "Diamond dogs were hoping to finish quota early. Have nice big pile of coal for Miss Limestone." Limestone snorted. "You mean you wanted your gems early, you liar." She struck the biggest boulder in the blockage, reducing it to pebbles. Behind the blockage, the trapped workers cheered and whined. "No slacking!" she shouted at them. "Clear up this rubble, get the support beams up, and keep digging at the pace I told you!" They nodded their heads rapidly and tripped all over each other in their haste to appease her. With a curt nod, she walked out. The coal mine was a new venture, and, as new ventures tended to experience, it had its fair share of obstacles. When she first got the mine running, Princess Luna slammed her with hard regulations, whining that all the smoke produced by ponies using coal blocked her beautiful moon at night. Fortunately, Princess Celestia, wiser as older siblings tended to be, lifted them. Limestone never thought that the farm could ever reach the attention of the princesses themselves, but she was happy for the challenge. Royal attention only proved that the Pie Rock Farm was a big player in Equestria now. She was lucky that Princess Celestia dug coal. With prosperity looking pretty good, though, Limestone had the chance to mull over another Pie Family issue. For a while now, Limestone had taken to carrying around a small pouch. Inside that pouch was a heart-shaped, gray rock, perfectly smooth, symmetrical, and outright ancient. It was the Choosing Stone, the same stone that brought her parents together. Cloudy Quartz had wordlessly given it to her one day with a wistful, almost apologetic smile. The message was clear nonetheless. She pulled the stone out and stared at it, a move that was basically a daily ritual at this point. Limestone let out a mixture of a sigh and a snort. As the eldest, she was meant to inherit the Rock Farm, but it also primarily fell onto her to ensure that the family business would have an heir, and her parents would have grandchildren. She thought back to her sisters. In truth, heirdom could fall onto one of her future children or that of her sisters'. However, Pinkamena's last letter gushed about a new marefriend. One of her best friends apparently. Limestone had always suspected that Pinkamena was a dyke. To be fair, she suspected a lot of things simply on the basis that Pinkamena was weird. Maud's last letter was all about a new best friend. Limestone just assumed she was a dyke too. As for Marble...no. Just plain unreliable. Besides, she was attending college. Limestone wouldn't be surprised if she came out of there a dyke. No, there was no relying on those three for heirs anymore than there was any relying on them for help with the farm. Limestone frowned at the stone. How to do this, though? She would have to leave the farm in search of a suitable stallion. She wasn't sure she could trust any of her workers not to screw up, let alone manage the place. And what was she supposed to do if she found that stallion? She wasn't exactly an oil painting, or...nice. The ritual of the Choosing Stone also wasn't a widespread tradition. "Stop whining," Limestone told herself. "You sound like Pinkamena. Of course this will be hard work. A husband doesn't just drop out of---" A series of alarmed yells from the workers tore Limestone out of her reverie. Furious, she trotted towards them. "What's all this racket?" she demanded. The quarry laborers had gathered around a rising cloud of dust. The farthest from the sight, Flim, looked to Limestone, then tapped his brother urgently on the shoulder. "We were just surprised when this pony fell out of the sky, Miss Limestone," he said. "Get back to work, lazybones," Limestone growled. She surveyed all the laborers. "That goes for all of you." He swallowed hard, then picked up his sledgehammer. The rest of them scamperd back to their places as well. Limestone waved away the dust. Before she could look, her gaze fell upon the stone she still held in a foreleg. The Choosing Stone pulsed with a faint light. Limestone fumbled with the thing and nearly dropped it. Her heart pounding in sync with the light, she stared at the stone for a while. This was ridiculously convenient. How did this happen? Was the Choosing Stone actually some form of lodestone that attracted mates? Breathless, she walked closer to the source of the dust. A dozen scenarios ran in her mind. Does she make the first move? Tell him about the stone? Her eyes fell upon the strong muscles along the side of a stallion, then the wings of a pega-- Limestone stopped. Then, she looked back to the Choosing Stone. "That's a feather-back," she mumbled. The stone pulsed softly on. "That's a--" Limestone paused, then tried to swallow the rising outrage. "Look, stone," she whispered through grit teeth. "I've always been respectful of all Pie Family traditions. I've always lived up to what was expected of me. The least you can do is point me to a strong, handsome, well-to-do, earth pony stallion. The stone pulsed softly on. Limestone looked back to the fallen pegasus, her initial awe and elation turning to overcritical sulleness. He was unconscious and injured to some degree. One of his forelegs had crumpled badly under him, and his right wing was bent at an unnatural angle. He had a dark blue mane, seemingly wild and unkempt at first, but a closer inspection revealed styling gel used to achieve that effect. His coat, what little of it that could be seen, was light blue. He was wearing a blue...clown suit of some sort, marked with fancy yellow lightning bolts, and torn in several places thanks to his tumble. The tears exposed gashes all around. "Great," Limestone muttered. "Probably some nancy boy performer from Cloudsdale. Not even a good one with this crash. I'm such a lucky mare. Are you serious?" The stone pulsed softly on. Limestone raised a hoof to throw the offending stone towards the horizon before dumping it back to her pouch with a trembling sigh of frustration. "Fine!" she shouted skyward. "I'll make this work!" The laborers looked to her in a panic before resuming their pounding. Limestone placed the fallen pegasus on her back, and headed for the family house. Some alabaster chunks to swiftly mend the broken bones, bloodstones to stop any internal and external bleeding, some quartz for any infection due to the scrapes and lacerations. Limestone carefully arranged the rocks across the pegasus' bandaged injuries in accordance to traditional Pie family healing. She had placed him on her bed, having first removed the clown suit. He wasn't a bad looking fellow. He had a look of anguish on his face though. Even unconscious, he was clearly troubled. Fortunately, both Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz had gone on a trip for their vacation. That left the family house entirely in Limestone's care. She set a kettle to boil for some tea, and rummaged for some snacks. No stone food for now. Even earth ponies outside the family could barely manage the stuff. A city-born feather-back certainly wouldn't. Luckily there was some carrots around, and some apples from their supposed "cousins" from Ponyville. Limestone pulled up a chair and waited. Setting the plate of sliced fruits and vegetables on her bedside desk. She supposed this was something she should practice as an attentive wife. She pulled out the stone with a frown, and stared at it again. "What did you just throw my way, you stupid rock?" she asked. The stone pulsed softly on.