Calcite
Maud knocked on the door to her parents’ bedroom.
“Who is it?” It was the voice of Maud’s father.
“Maud, sir,” she said through the closed door. “I believe I have been Called to a Higher Purpose.”
The door swung upon, and Igneous Rock Pie looked down upon his daughter with a calculating expression. “Are you certain?” he asked. There would be consequences if one of his daughters was trying to make light of a Calling.
“Yes,” she answered, projecting both her certainty and her commitment into her voice.
Her father sighed and looked over his shoulder at his wife, who was standing just behind him. “And your mother was so sure it would be Pinkamena. Come on in, child.”
“I wasn’t sure how accurate to keep my parents’ speech patterns,” Maud interjected. “Ponies sometimes think I’m making fun of them when I quote them too exactly.”
Maud briefly explained her predicament, followed by what she had learned from Pinkamena. “Do you believe me?” she asked when she was finished.
“We have been blessed with an obedient family,” said Cloudy Quartz Pie, “and as a result, you have had no reason to learn all of our tricks for catching disobedient oath-breaking fillies. Suffice it to say that I was up late Monday night, and I felt you disappear from the house at the stroke of midnight. We decided not to say anything, until such time as you did something to further erode our trust or if we thought you might be in danger. So yes, we believe you. However, there is little that you can do tonight. I advise you to learn everything that you can from the safety of the farm. When you are ready, come to me first thing in the morning, and tell me this.” And she whispered a nonsense phrase into Maud’s ear. “And I will believe you regardless of proof. At that time I will give you what you need for your journey. Now go to bed, and be sure not to tell your father of your problem in the future—you can see how much of a nervous wreck he is already.”
Indeed, Igneous Quartz had been pacing circles around the room the entire time, muttering under his breath of all of the evils of the world that would surely destroy his poor innocent daughter the moment she set hoof on the road without his personal protection.
“That’s it? This is an awful short chapter.”
“I couldn’t think of anything else.”