//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Between a Rock and a Diamond // Story: Words to say // by Mindscape //------------------------------// “Pinkie darling, are you… certain this is the right place?” “Yeparoonie. Welcome to the Choosing Stone!” Under normal circumstances, Rarity would be hesitant to believe in such things as finding her true love with the help of some magical rock. But after Pinkie’s insistence and a number of failed attempts at finding love on her own, she couldn’t help but feel there was nothing to lose. Rarity could certainly turn heads and knew how to attract attention, but keeping it for something more worthwhile and meaningful, or at least a stallion that was worth it, was proving a task of Rockhoofian proportions. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting when Pinkie Pie told her about the Choosing Stone that could apparently lead a pony to their special somepony, but it certainly hadn’t been this. Pinkie had simply described it as “the biggest and bestest thing ever” when questioned. Of course, Pinkie Pie often described anything she liked that way. And the pink party pony liked practically everything under the sun and moon. When they had stopped briefly at the Pie family rock farm on their trip, Rarity had asked Pinkie’s parents about the Choosing Stone in case she could get any additional information, but they had seemed a bit more… traditional. And their stories concerning the rock in question were much the same in their simplicity. Apparently, it told them “thou shalt love one another” and so the two of them got married shortly thereafter. When she asked if there was any more to their story, they had looked at her strangely, as if being told by a rock they should get hitched was more than enough reason for anypony. By the time she and Pinkie left to go visit the stone, Rarity had been left wondering if somehow Pinkie Pie had accidentally been swapped at birth. She had met Maude Pie previously, which initially had left her wondering if Pinkie had absorbed all the excitement for the two of them, but now she wondered if Pinkie had managed do the same to her entire family, considering how largely silent they were in comparison. Pinkie had been accurate that the Choosing Stone was big at the very least. It was positively enormous. It was likely this single boulder was as large as her boutique back in Ponyville. But its size wasn’t the most unusual aspect of the rock. The clay coloured stone was veined all over with strange symbols and carvings, painted in deep curious colours. And nopony had even mentioned the veritable temple that it was housed in. Everything here looked ancient and like it belonged to some long-lost civilization. Nothing about this rock seemed to indicate it had anything to do with love or romance in the slightest. There was surely a chance it was used for something, ritualistic perhaps? But Rarity wouldn’t have the first idea what. If Twilight ever found out about this thing, she may very well drop everything to study it and whatever mysteries it held. Rarity on the other hand was beginning to question coming here in the first place. “Weeeeelll?” Pinkie asked, sidling up beside Rarity with a beaming grin. “Aren’t ya going to ask it something?” “Um… well” Rarity looked around at the room before her. The pictures and murals that made no sense. The writing on the walls that she couldn’t understand. The expectant, carefree look on Pinkie Pie’s face. “I… I don’t’ know what to do. Perhaps this was a mistake. I shouldn’t need some mystical rock to help me find my special somepony” she said, trying to laugh off the day long trip and walk that brought them here. “Don’t be silly, silly-billy” Pinkie laughed as she pushed Rarity closer to the towering object. “Just be honest and ask nicely.” Ask what though? She cleared her throat, giving her a moment to analyse her thoughts. “Um… hello?” she ventured curiously. The stone remained silent. “I… don’t mean to interrupt…” This was so silly. “But I’ve heard you could… help me find the stallion of my dreams?” Nothing. She sighed. Well if it was ridiculous, she may as well get it over with. “I don’t need much. Just a stallion of a noteworthy position. Somepony refined, and with taste. Oh! And he must dress well and have a good fashion sense, that is simply essential.” Rarity found it easier as she just imagined her perfect pony and started to forget how silly the whole situation felt. “He must have his own independence, perhaps a business pony like myself, but be able to pamper me when…” “Rarity!” She flinched as Pinkie complained loudly, pulling her back to reality. “You’re doing it wrong!” Rarity frowned at her pink friend. “Well what am I supposed to do? You haven’t explained anything.” “Ohhhh” Pinkie rolled her head to the side. “My bad. But you can’t just ask for a bunch of stuff. Ponies aren’t stuff. Do you only love stuff?” Rarity felt a bit targeted for a moment. She had to admit, from time to time she could be a tad focused on more… material components. “Well, no. But…” “And you have to ask with love to get love.” “That sounds very sweet Darling, but I still don’t know what you mean.” “Okay then. It sounds like I’ll have to step up to the pitch and help you out” she said, putting on a serious face and rolling up the fur from her forelegs as if they were sleeves. Rarity would have been worried if it had been anypony else, but she had known Pinkie Pie long enough not to question such things. Pinkie pie vanished in a blur that would make Rainbow Dash jealous, and appeared on top of the Choosing Stone. “Hi there, remember me?” she asked the stone, looking down at it. “You did sooooo well last time, thank you so much! But now we’ve got an even bigger problem, Rarity!” Pinkie zipped down and grabbed Rarity in a violent one-sided hug. “Here she is! She needs to find her special somepony too, but she’s actually been trying and still nothing! She’s absolutely terrible at this.” “I-It isn’t that bad!” Rarity complained in surprise. The earthpony ignored her and zipped to another side of the stone, messing up Rarity’s hair in the wake of her vortex-creating speed. “She’s so hopeless on her own, she once followed this guy around all day and pretended to be like a farmer just to try and impress a pony that had no interest in her at all!” “I’m not that hopeless” She complained, embarrassed at the reminder. “And I got over him quickly enough.” Again, Pinkie appeared on top of the stone, this time wrapping her hooves around the top as if she were trying to hug the giant rock. “But Rarity is just so awesome! She gives so much to everypony around her. Time, effort, heart and love. She really deserves somepony to love her back. Like really real love. After everything she’s given, don’t you think it’s time that she gets something back? So please? Just once more. She’s one of my bestest friends in the whole world, and she deserves to find somepony that makes her happy. “Oh, Pinkie” Rarity smiled, touched by the words. “Choosing Stone, please find the bestest pony out there for my friend! The one that’ll be best for Rarity!” For a moment, silence filled the air. Rarity opened her mouth to thank her friend for trying, but before she could get the words out, there was a rumble that shook the ground. Rarity’s heart leapt into her throat as a loud hum reverberated around the room. Was this supposed to happen? A snap of magic echoed from somewhere, and a pair of colours started snaking up either side the Choosing Stone, following the rivulets and symbols as if water was impossibly running upstream. A line of purple swirled through various patterns, as a line of blue zigzagged across the other side. The two colours made their way to the front of the stone, and where they collided, they erupted into a flash of blinding prismatic light, forcing Rarity to shield her eyes. When the light subsided and her vision returned, Rarity realized that the rumbling had stopped. Looking up, the giant boulder was silent once again and the light had vanished. Other than her dangerously elevated heart rate, there was no proof that anything at all had transpired. “What… what just happened Pinkie” She asked, trying to calm down and stop her heart beating a million beats per minute. Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, I’ve seen better.” “What?!” “But that just let’s you know that it worked!” she said, excited once more and bounding over to Rarity, almost tackling her to the ground with a hug. “Isn’t this exciting Rarity? You’re going to find true love! And not the type where you think it’s true love until you realize that somepony you were really into because they’re really good looking or rich or have a cool voice, but when you meet them it turns out they’re a total poopy pants and super-duper meanie mc’meanie face and they mess up your dress while you’re spending all this time trying to impress them until their meanieness gets too much so you blow up and yell at them and splash cake on them because they totally deserved it, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore because” Pinkie finally took a deep breath and kept going without pause. “Because you’re going to find real love, and are you excited? I know I’m excited, Ahhhh!” She punctuated the end of her thought with an excited squeal. “Honestly Darling, it’s difficult to be excited when I don’t know what just happened. And those things you said, although very touching, it was so vague.” “Pah-shaw” she said, waving a hoof dismissively. “You don’t want to be too specific, or maybe you would’ve been with the bestest of the bestest special somepony, but you asked for somepony that had to like pickles and they didn’t like pickles so you got stuck with the next best candidate who did like pickles and missing out on the bestest of the bestest just because they don’t like pickles seems like a really shallow reason to miss out on…” “But Pinkie!” Rarity interrupted, quite finished hearing her friend wax on about vinegar soaked cucumbers. “You didn’t specify anything!” “I know! Isn’t it great? You’re going to get the bestest special somepony ever with no strings attached. Unless they work in a string factory, then there might be a few stray strands when they come home after work. Ooh! Or a streamer factory! Wait, do streamer’s count as string?” Rarity pulled back from the smothering hug. “But literally the only thing you specified was ‘pony.’ How will I know how to find him?” Pinkie gasped, the type of long and tall gasp she made when meeting somepony new and realized she hadn’t given them a welcome party. “Oh no!” Finally, it seemed Pinkie was starting to think seriously about this. “Do you suppose we could get…” “I DID specify pony! What if there was a gryphon or a breezy that was just perfect for you but now I’ve locked them out by my specific specifications?” Oh. “Pinkie Pie, that’s not what I…” Pinkie gasped again, stretching herself even taller with the motion. “What about Spike!” Rarity blinked. “That’s not… Spiky is adorable, but he’s just a child. He’ll find a dragon he can connect to someday and forget all about his little crush.” “But he’ll grow up someday and maybe have a really masculine chin and be really handsome and then the age gap won’t be so weird and you’d only have to wait maybe ten or twenty years before it stops being creepy or…” “Pinkie!” Rarity snapped, stopping that train of thought before it got too much. Pinkie gasped even deeper. “What about Tom!” It took her a moment to realize, but when she did, Rarity scowled. “How many times do I have to tell everypony to never to speak of that again?” She would have preferred to forget that whole incident forever. Pinkie pie had rolled into a ball and was rolling on the spot “Oh no. what have I done? I’m a horrible friend, I’ve ruined your one chance at true love and doomed you to a second-rate relationship with somepony that HAS to be a pony.” Part of Rarity was impressed Pinkie had restricted herself to only rolling about in one spot, but the rest of her was concerned with how to stop Pinkie from ‘reasoning’ herself into a pit of despair. “It… it’s not that bad Pinkie” she said, placing a hoof on her shoulder trying to comfort her (at least she guessed it was her shoulder, it was hard to tell while Pinkie was completely spheroid). “I’m sure the… Choosing Stone knew what you were talking about. You just wanted what was best for me. I’m sure it’s not going to be so choosy as to hold to your exact phrasing.” “You mean it?” Pinkie said, extracting her head from the tightly knit ball to look at her. “Of course Darling” she said, smiling sincerely. You’re one of my best friends, and one little slip of the tongue could never change that.” Pinkie sprang back to her regular shape and enthusiasm, engulfing Rarity in another aggressive hug of friendship. “Oh thank you Rarity! You’re one of my very best friends in all of Equestria too!” Rarity couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s speedy recovery. Everything was at its extreme when dealing with Pinkie Pie. Always at one end of the scale to the other, no in-between. And frankly, Rarity would have it no other way. “All that said however, now what?” Rarity wondered out loud. “Now that I know my special somepony… or some whatever, is out there, how in Equestria do I go about finding him? I know nothing about this pony.” “Oh that’s easy” Pinkie beamed. “I think the Choosing Stone just puts the two of you in the right place at the right time. All you have to do is just do what you were going to do anyway and you’ll meet up with them eventually.” “But what if I do meet him and don’t realize it so he’s gone forever?” “Then they weren’t your special somepony?” Pinkie replied, as if trying to understand the constant questions. “So, I should keep looking anyway? And just hope to find him?” Pinkie shrugged. “Probably? That could be the way you’re supposed to meet. You’re gonna have to put some effort into this. They’re not just going to fall into your lap. You can’t just put all the pressure on them.” Rarity stood there in silence for a moment, trying to parse out everything that had happened and what it all seemed to mean. She put a hoof to her forehead and sighed. “So, I simply have to go on with my life as normal, and one day I may or may not find my special somepony, but I won’t know who he is, so I just have to keep my eye out for anypony that I may fall in love with?” “Yep” she nodded vigorously. “That sounds about right.” Rarity sighed one more time. “Pinkie? How is that any different from everyday life?” With that in mind, just what had been the point in all this? “Well at least this time you know they’ll be there someday.” Well it was something, but it didn’t seem worth all the hours of travel and the miles of walking to this remote location, only to be told that some vague day in the future, somepony would appear that would make everything better. It wasn’t enough to justify it all. Rarity would make it worth it. She stepped closer to the Choosing Stone and took a closer look. Once she dispelled the eerie feeling this place gave her, she found she could admire the aesthetics. Somepony had put a lot of effort into this place and she was starting to see the beauty in it. She examined the rolling curves and intricate patters on the stone, and admired how the colours bled into each other, thinking back on the way the light glimmered in the grooves. Rarity’s eyes sparked as inspiration struck. “Idea!” Rarity reached into her saddlebags with her magic and pulled out a quill and parchment. She scribbled furiously as Pinkie came over to look. “Whatcha doin?” “I am inspired! I must get this down before the feeling leaves me.” “Huh, I thought Twilight was the only one who would take pen and paper everywhere. Are you making a checklist too?” “… Not quite Darling. One must always be prepared for inspiration can strike at a moment’s notice” Rarity stated, finishing her quick sketch. “Tada!” she exclaimed, revealing the sketch of a new dress. She was inspired by the lines of colour with both the curves and the straight lines, coming together in a beautiful mix of inspiration and possibility. It would certainly take more work at her drafting table back in Ponyville, but it was a wonderful start. “I call it, Romantic Desire.” “Ooh, pretty.” Rarity hadn’t used any of the actual symbols from the stone as she didn’t want to accidentally invoke whatever magic they could possess, but she used the overall style to come up with her own. She could see it in her mind how the dress would sparkle, and the curves and lines would accentuate the important parts of any mare who wore it. Rarity couldn’t wait to get back to her sewing machine and bring her vision to life. “Welp, I know all this excitement has made me hungry” Pinkie said turning to leave. It’ll be dinner time by the time we get back, and Mum’s making soup tonight. I’m sure she’d be more than happy for us to join in.” “That sounds wonderful Pinkie. Lead the way” Rarity said, following Pinkie who was already bouncing back outside. She took one last look at the Choosing Stone as she passed under the doorway to the outside. It sat silent and imposing within the temple. “Those three words I wish to hear” she pondered to herself. “I will hear them someday. And have somepony to say them to as well.” Rarity smiled, feeling content, and hurried to catch up to Pinkie Pie.