Her dreams came quickly, though she would sooner call them nightmares. Arranged marriages to stallions who didn’t care about art and Pa being disappointed when she tried to run away. In her dreams she would try to run and hide, but Pa would always come find her to have a ‘talk’, and she would have to keep running.
She awoke with a start, jolting up to a sitting position. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and looked around her room. Pa wasn’t here. The sun was streaming in, which meant morning. She shuffled on careful hooves to the window and looked outside. The sky was clear and blue, with only a few clouds. There didn’t appear to be much in the way of smoke floating by, so the fire had been snuffed out. That meant Pa was probably back home.
Marble grimaced and crept to the door to her room. She pressed her ear against the wood and listened for Pa’s voice. She didn’t hear him, so she cracked open the door. She could hear somepony cooking, which was probably Ma, and nothing else.
With a sigh of relief, Marble stepped out of her room, walked over to the bathroom and freshened up for the day. When she was done, she walked downstairs to greet Ma and help with breakfast preparations.
“Pa went to have a short nap since he’s been up all night, but I’ll wake him up soon. He said he wanted to speak with you this morning,” Ma said.
Marble fumbled the cutlery she was holding and dropped them on the floor with a clatter. She looked at her Ma with panic in her eyes and shook her head back and forth.
Ma chuckled and gave a small sigh. “I know, I know. You can’t put it off forever, you know.”
Marble nodded but gave her mother a pleading look.
“Alright, fine. Not today. Pa shan’t argue much since he is exhausted, but you can’t be here when he’s awake. Take your breakfast and see to some business outside until late afternoon.”
Marble smiled wide and gave her mother a hug. She stole some cheese and fruit from the pile Ma had cut, grabbed her saddlebags, and disappeared out the front door.
Safe from the intense scrutiny of Pa, Marble walked casually away from the farmhouse. She had responsibilities, so she thought she would get some of them started in the time before Pa came back out. With him so exhausted, he might not even wake up until nine!
Marble went to the quarry they were currently working in. Her job was to check tools for wear and note quality and functionality, as well as helping Limestone check the mine itself for structural problems before excavation. The tools were a quick and easy chore, so she chose to do that before she would skip off elsewhere to avoid encounters with pa. She
She finished quickly, and trotted out of the quarry. She saw there was still a thin plume of smoke coming from the remains of the fire, but Pa might go there to help with clean-up, so she turned away. She couldn’t go to her sculpting portion of the yard, as Pa would check there for sure. That left several hiding places on the farm Pa and the rest of the family never went to.
That reminded her of the strange little seed she had seen last night. If it actually was a seed. Marble broke into a trot and went to her miniature canyon. Nopony else in the family liked it, so Marble felt safe there. It was unlikely Pa would discover her, and she could check on the little thing. No matter what, she could just hide and work on some smaller carvings while she waited for afternoon to come.
Marble entered the little tunnel and was immediately struck by the faint glow inside. She could see that the thing from last night was still ‘alive’, as it were. There on the ground, or rather, sprouting from the ground, was a tiny little seedling poking up out of the hard soil. It was orange, and glowed softly, pulsing in time like a flaming heartbeat.
Marble lowered herself to the ground and moved closer to it. It was a tiny stem with a little bud on the end. Its little leaves struggled upward, just like any other plant would. Marble reached out to touch it again, and it was still hot. Colours swirled on its surface of various shades of red, yellow, and orange, giving it the appearance of solid flame. Which, as far as Marble could tell, it very well could be.
“Magic?” Marble mused. She had lived on the rock farm her whole life, and had only encountered unicorns in passing. Most of the neighbors were earth ponies, with a pegasus living some distance away from them. Unicorns were tough to find working the land out where they lived, so they were a rare sight.
This little plant had to be some form of natural magic, though. It was growing out of the soil like a plant, but she couldn’t touch it because it was too hot. Fire usually tried to burn plants, and her family used rock and soil to smother flames, so how could a plant made of fire be growing out of the soil? She hadn’t done anything other than blow on it the night before, but if that was enough to get it growing, how could she abandon it now? Then again, it might be dangerous to allow it to grow.
That gave Marble an idea. She opened her bag and pulled a piece of paper from her sketchbook she kept for concept sketches, and tore off a tiny piece. She held it out to the little bud and gingerly tapped it to the closed leaves. She jumped as it caught on fire, even though she was expecting it. The flame that sprouted on the paper burned like normal fire would, but the flame bent toward the bud and was sucked into it as it burned. That was not normal.
Marble released the slip of paper, and it burned to ash. The last of the fire disappeared into the bud, which grew bulbous and round. The stem stretched upward a few centimeters and the bud split open, revealing four leaves growing out of a small, golden-yellow flame in the center. The flame swayed gently back and forth in its position, performing a mesmerizing and adorable little dance in the shaded tunnel.
“You are so cute!” Marble gushed. She meant it, too. Before seeing this, Fire had always been a tool or a danger. It was used to heat the home and cook food, but it was always kept inside the stove or the fireplace. At the quarry it was used to heat rocks and smelt metals, and like yesterday, it was considered a danger to the safety of the community. This time, though, the fire was beautiful.
Marble watched, enraptured, as the little flame spun slowly in place. The flame pulsed softly and the tip waved gently, as if it were greeting her. Marble waved back, though it made no response. She took another small piece of paper and held it out to the flame-flower. The sprout in the center bent into the fuel and consumed it, sucking in more fire as her paper was devoured. It grew the barest bit from the pitiful meal, but the golden-yellow flame was bigger and more beautiful than before. She could see whorls of deeper red hidden within its center, swirling about within it.
“I think I’m going to keep you,” Marble said. The flame didn’t respond. It just kept slowly spinning in place. “Well I’m glad you approve.”
Marble pulled out her carving tools and some small stones and began carving next to the little flame flower. It was slow work, carving stone, and you could not afford to mess up when doing it, but it was rewarding, and very tactile. She appreciated the feeling of control she had over the rock and its appearance. It was cathartic for her.
Marble kept an eye on the flame as she worked, and as the hours passed, the flame flower stayed as steady as ever. She, however, heard her stomach grumbling at her and realized it was probably late into the afternoon by now. Pa would be awake and done his work by now, and he would want to have the talk. She couldn’t avoid it forever, like Ma said. She had to come home to eat eventually, and that time was swift approaching.
Marble sighed and began packing up her things. Her carving was becoming a coarse facsimile of the little flame flower. Stone could not truly do its smooth shape justice, but she had to try. Something as beautiful as that needed to be properly appreciated, and that was why she did art to begin with: So that somepony could appreciate her visions for what they were. Her Pa certainly didn’t. He and Limestone were all business and no pleasure. Or that was how it seemed, anyway.
Marble stood up and prepared to go, but spared one last look at the little flame. She smiled down at it and pulled the rest of the sheet of paper from her bag. She looked at the flower, then at the paper, but crumpled it back into her bag.
“I want to see you grow and have the time to appreciate it,” she said to it. “Besides, I haven’t finished my carving of your shape, yet. I will come see you tomorrow, okay?” The flame did not respond, of course, but she smiled anyway, and trotted out of the tunnel toward home.
By the time she reached the farmhouse, her smile had disappeared, and her head was hanging low. Her Pa was standing on the front porch, his face seemingly expressionless, but Marble had grown up seeing that face, and she knew this one expressed sincere disapproval. Dinner would be quiet, but afterward would be ‘the talk’. She was not looking forward to it.
Marble disappeared up to her room with only a furtive glance at Pa. He looked at her as she approached the farmhouse, chewing silently on a stalk of hay. His disapproval was not voiced, but for Marble his eyes spoke volumes. She didn’t want to hear any of it until after supper, so she rushed past, and stumbled up to her room. Ma caught her eye with an; “I told you so” look, and she turned away from that look as well. She could hear Limestone in the shower, but she knew she’d get no sympathy there, either.
Marble shut the door to her room and dropped her saddlebags to the floor. She kicked her bed, which barely shifted, and made a strangled, frustrated noise. She crawled onto her mattress and lay there, sprawled out, stewing in her frustration.
When she was called down to dinner, Marble waited until she heard Limestone come out of her room to come out herself. She followed behind Limestone down to the dinner table, and sat at her chair, avoiding Pa’s gaze. Everypony was quiet, which wasn’t unusual without Pinkie Pie, but this time, the silence was focused intently on Marble. Although everypony knew it, Limestone was the only pony who seemed willing to speak up about it.
“So, Marble, when are you going to visit the Pairing Stone?” Limestone said.
Marble spat out some of her food and whined in protest.
“Oh, come on, we all know that’s the plan. Pinkie works in Ponyville, Maud has her rocktorate, and I’m taking over the farm. Since you’re not going to school or getting a job, the best thing is for you to get married and help increase the Pie family farmland.”
Ma said nothing, but Pa spoke up. “Limestone’s right, Marble. You can’t continue living like this. You need some way to take care of yourself when Ma and I are gone. Limestone’s hooves are full with the farm, and you haven’t yet been to the Pairing Stone or gone to University.”
Marble mumbled a response.
“Art isn’t a job, Marble,” Pa said. “Carving is all well and good for a hobby, I used to engage in carving myself when I was younger, but it doesn’t pay enough to live on.”
Marble clenched her teeth but said nothing.
“Now I was going to have this conversation in private after dinner, but since Limestone brought it up, I want you to pick a day this week to go to the Pairing Stone,” Pa said. “You too, Limestone.”
Limestone’s smug grin disappeared. “What? Why do I have to go?”
“Because you can’t manage a rock farm all alone, no matter how tough you think you are. Sometimes you’ll get sick, and you’ll need somepony to help you.”
“Well…” Limestone was looking for an excuse, and suddenly decided to take Marble’s side. “Then why not leave Marble here?”
“Because you can’t both stay single your entire lives. You need foals or how will anypony inherit the rock farm?”
“I’ll just sell it when I get old!”
“Why would you sell something our family has worked so hard to build up?” Pa yelled.
It quickly became a shouting match between Pa and Limestone, like it had many times before. Ma sat and quietly ate, but Marble wasn’t going to stay down there and listen to everypony sell her future without her consent. She left the remainder of her food on her plate and walked away upstairs. Pa and Limestone didn’t seem to notice her leave, but Ma caught her eye and nodded sternly. She hadn’t forgotten the purpose of the conversation and she wasn’t going to let Marble forget it either.
Marble shut her down to muffle the voices from downstairs and crawled into bed. She pulled the blankets up to her chin and squinched her eyes shut. Despite the attempt at refraining from seeing anything, her mind’s eye brought up Pa’s stern glare, and Ma’s unwavering look. Sleep was hard to reach, but she made it there eventually.