“Maud! Oh Maud! I’m home!”
With Pinkie leading the way, the group took only enough time to hide the remains of the steam engine as best as they could, cover their tracks as best as possible, and then set out into the forest. They only traveled about a half mile before she led them to a pathway that she had obviously used many times before, and after that they wormed their way through the woods for the next eight miles. In spite of Pinkie’s cheery demeanor, everyone was on edge not only for fear of Nighttouched but fear of any Trottinghamites. Fortunately, they ran into neither in the rather rough country, and in spite of being a little tiring on the eldest and youngest individuals, they eventually made it through.
Near the end of the trip the forest opened up dramatically, revealing a bare rocky chasm. Getting a little closer, they realized it wasn’t entirely natural but was actually a quarry, although it was in rather poor repair. Most of the tools and carts lying around were rotting or rusting away, and many of the cutting sites were weathered or overgrown with whatever scraggily weeds had managed to find purchase in the soil. Nevertheless, there were still natural ramps descending to three separate tiers into the quarry, and it winded and turned up ahead to provide a rather spacious and sprawling site.
No sooner had they reached the forest periphery and the ground turned to gravel when Pinkie made her call, bouncing forward and sounding out. It made Starlight wince. “Should we really be shouting loud enough for everyone to know we’re here when we don’t exactly know who all might be around?”
Pinkie turned back around, giggling and waving her hand at her. “Oh, silly! No one but the family ever comes to the quarry! And no one’s at the quarry this time of day except Maud! She spends all her time here! Come on! I’ll introduce you to her! She’s always over here!”
With that, she turned around and began to skip away down the nearest rock ramp. Twilight opened her mouth and nearly reached out to her, but then sighed and lowered it again on seeing her rapidly descending out of sight. She turned back to the others.
“I don’t know what kind of people Pinkie’s family are, but if we all come in at once we might overwhelm them. Plus if what she overheard at Mount Eris is true, there might be Trottinghamites nearby already and we don’t want them cornering half these people. I think for starters it’s best if just the five of us go see her family and explain the situation.”
Shining Armor frowned a little. “I don’t really like the sound of you going by yourselves, but…” He sighed. “Who am I kidding? The six of you would be able to handle anything better than the rest of us put together. I’m not going to help much by healing sprains…”
Twilight gave him an encouraging smile, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder.
“I don’t really like hanging out here much myself,” Starlight added, “but I can see your point. Just be back soon, will you? We don’t want to be out here when the shadows in the woods start getting longer…”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be back as soon as we can.” She turned to the others. “Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy…you ready?”
They all nodded and began to step forward. However, they had barely parted from the others before Sunset Shimmer suddenly picked up the pace and emerged with them. “Hold on a second. I’m coming too.”
Applejack gave her the stink eye while Rainbow Dash rolled hers. “Well who says I want ya’ comin’ along with us? The less I see of your face, the better.”
Twilight was gentler, but still in the same vein. “It’s probably better if you just stay back here with the others, Sunset.”
“Yes,” Rarity spoke a bit brusquely, before muttering slightly. “I can’t imagine the Pies seeing a Trottingham like yourself in our company will instill much confidence in our party…”
“I’m coming anyway,” she retorted. “People like this wouldn’t know my face. Even if they did, I’d still prefer to stick with you than hang out back here.”
Twilight began to open her mouth to protest again, but she shut it soon after. She glanced back at the group behind Sunset, and saw that none of them were looking at her too warmly. Especially the Appleloosans they had recently picked up. Glancing back at Sunset, one could tell from her expression there was a trace of fear in her eyes.
Understanding, she let out a small exhale. “Alright, fine.” This prompted some of the others to look back at her, but she ignored it, turned, and motioned ahead. “Let’s catch up with Pinkie before she gets too far.”
With that, she took off in a jog after Pinkie Pie. The others didn’t hesitate long before resigning themselves to the matter and running after her, with Sunset quickly bringing up the rear. They soon left the others to pull back into the woods while they themselves descended the first rock ramp.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to catch up to Pinkie, especially since her skipping and pink, poofy hair easily made her stand out from the rather gray and bland rock landscape. Once they fell in behind, they were able to keep up with her at a much more reduced pace as she led them around through the quarry. Although the entire area was essentially one contiguous cavity in the ground, all of the various twists and turns and edges that had been carved into it created a more irregular landscape with rock faces and cliffs rising all around them at every turn. It actually didn’t take too long to obscure the path back to the others, and not long after that Twilight actually had a hard time figuring out where they had come from.
“Maud! Oh Maud!”
As Pinkie called out again, she took them around another bend. This one led into one end of the quarry, where there was an old shack on the lowest level and a much larger rock ramp leading out. This one had to have been where wagons had done most of the hauling of the cut and dressed stones, especially since it seemed to lead up to a proper road through the country.
Seated on the second tier near a pile of rocks and some of the foliage that had managed to grow in the barren ground, head bowed, and slowly chipping away at one boulder with a rock hammer, sat a woman with gray hair and hard set green eyes focused entirely on her task. She hadn’t even seemed to hear Pinkie at first, in spite of the fact she was now cheering and waving at her. The more exuberant woman began to approach her regardless and the others followed suit.
While still a ways off, the woman finally looked up from her work. Twilight and the others immediately wondered if this was, in fact, the “Maud” that Pinkie kept referring to considering the fact she looked almost indifferent to see her and was about as cheerful and boisterous in appearance as the rocks around her. She kept staring all the way as Pinkie bounded up to her.
“Pinkie,” she stated when she was finally in earshot, in a quiet, emotionless monotone. “Is that really you? You’re back?”
“Oh Maud!” Pinkie shouted as she immediately ran up to her, wrapped her arms around her, and gave her a hug that pulled her completely off the ground. The woman (Maud, apparently) simply stared forward with an unchanging expression until she was put down and released. “It’s so great to be home! I missed you and the family so much! You have no idea where I’ve been and what I’ve done! It’s been so, so, so incredible! I don’t even know where to start!”
Meanwhile, the others came to a stop at a short distance away. Once there, they stood and watched the exchange between the two for a few moments, but it didn’t take long for them to start looking rather puzzled at the contrast between the two.
“It hasn’t been the same here without you,” Maud continued in her emotionless monotone. “I knew it would be hard to get letters from you, but when we didn’t hear from you in two months and heard about everything that’s been happening around Greater Everfree, we were all worried sick.”
“Really?”
“I found some diabase while I was digging just last week, but I was thinking about you so much that I just didn’t care.”
Pinkie’s jaw dropped. “Whoooooa! I had no idea it was that bad! Aw!” She leaned in and gave her a smaller hug around the shoulders, again which caused no reaction. “You should have known I’d be ok! I had Gaia Everfree looking out for me everywhere I went, and I remembered everything you told me!”
The others stared on a bit more, looking more confused all the time.
“Uh…I don’t know if it’s a ‘Gaitian’ thing,” Dash spoke up at last, “but I thought Pinkie’s older sister would be a little happier to see her.”
“She does seem to be a tad…blasé,” Rarity added.
Pinkie let go of Maud again and looked at the group in surprise. “Are you kidding?” She immediately spun around to go behind Maud, put her hands on her cheeks, and held her face up. “I’ve never seen her look this worked up before! Oh, oh! That reminds me!”
She released, spun back around in front of the woman, and then gestured behind her. “Maud, I want you to meet some people! These are all the new friends I met after I left home! There’s Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy! Oh, also there’s Sunset Shimmer, but she’s not so much a ‘friend’ as former-enemy-hanging-around-with-us-now.”
Sunset groaned, crossing her arms and half-hiding her face behind one hand.
As for Twilight, she looked a little uncertain, but ventured a smile and waved. “Hi Maud. Pinkie’s told us a lot about you. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Um…hello,” Fluttershy added, smiling slightly.
“Howdy, ma’am,” Applejack added with a hat tip.
“What’s up?” Dash threw in.
“Ahem…charmed, dear,” Rarity finished.
Their greetings, friendly as they seemed, prompted a strange reaction. Maud actually stared back at them expressionless for several seconds of silence. Enough to where it began to get just a little awkward.
When she did respond, she raised one eyebrow, as if confused. It was the first facial expression she had shown since they arrived.
“The five of you…see me?”
This caused mutual looks of puzzlement from everyone. They all looked to each other, then back to her. “Um…yes, yes we do,” Twilight answered.
“And you can hear me too?”
Twilight and the others looked even more perplexed. “Uh…yes…?”
Maud said no more. She stared back at them without changing for several moments. However, it was broken when Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out into a laugh.
“Ha-ha-ha! Good one, Maud!” she exclaimed, before looking at the others. “Maud’s always been the clown in the family! You should’ve heard some of the jokes she told me growing up! Oh, oh! Maud, tell me the one you used on Marble’s birthday!”
Maud was quiet for a single second.
“What do you call a deposit of epsomite crossed with a sheep?”
Twilight and the others looked completely perplexed, but Pinkie grinned ear to ear and stifled a snicker for several moments.
“…‘Baa’-salt.”
At once, Pinkie burst out into a laugh and fell to the ground, holding her sides and kicking her feet in the air as she rolled. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both raised their eyebrows and looked to each other. Fluttershy seemed like she didn’t know whether to be nervous or confused. Rarity tried to force a laugh out of politeness but seemed too baffled to know how. Even Sunset looked bewildered.
After a moment, Twilight moistened her lips. “Um…heh-heh…great joke! But, um…Pinkie? Shouldn’t we tell Maud about…why we’re here?”
“Oh, oh! Right!” Instantly, she stopped laughing and rolling and nimbly sprung back up to her feet. “I’d love to catch up more, Maud, but we really need to talk to mom and dad. It’s reeeally important.”
“They’re with Limestone and Marble loading up the next shipment of cut stones,” Maud dully answered. “They should be coming to pick them up within an hour.”
“Oh yeah!” Pinkie wheeled to Twilight, putting a hand to one side of her mouth like she was sharing a secret, but whispering more than loud enough for all to hear. “I may not have mentioned this before, but the Trottingham government has my family mining the quarry for them. Even though we’re really good at that, it hasn’t been much fun since they started paying us in canned food and thin clothes.”
Twilight grimaced slightly. “On that note…” She turned to the older sister. “Um, Maud…I don’t suppose that anyone from the Trottingham government has come by lately, have they? I mean…anyone unusual? Discussing anything?”
“If anyone from the Trottingham government comes by with any news, it’s always a surprise. They don’t give any warning. Why do you ask?”
She caught herself for a moment, looking increasingly uneasy. She looked over to Pinkie, expecting her to give the news. She actually stared back cluelessly for a moment before her memory registered. “Oh, right! Maud, don’t ask me how I know this because it’s a really, really, really long story, but, in short, the Trottingham government could come to the quarry at any moment and relocate us and any other Gaitians living in the area to the middle of the country, and I really don’t think it’s because they’re wanting us to dig in a new quarry.”
Maud blinked once, which the others could only assume was an expression of her surprise. “What?” she said in a scarcely perceptible higher volume.
“I know you ain’t got no reason to trust me, ma’am,” Applejack spoke up, “but she’s tellin’ the truth. She fought her way through the entire Trottingham army in Appleloosa to get here and tell y’all.”
“And considering our past experiences with Trottingham,” Rarity added, “I would advise you that staying here and waiting to see what the government has in mind for you is highly unwise.”
“And the truth is, on top of all that, we could really use your family’s help right now,” Twilight finished. “There’s a lot more than that and it’s going to take a long time to tell, so it would be better if we got all of your family together first. Hopefully before that next pick up happens, because then it might be too late.”
Maud stared back at the group silently. She blinked again. Afterward, she turned to her sister.
“Pinkie, why don’t you run on ahead and tell the family that we have guests. I need to talk to your friends for a moment.”
“Oh, good idea, Maud!” she chirped back, before waving to the others. “I’ll be just up ahead! See you at the house!”
With that, she turned and began to merrily skip along the rock trail down to where Maud had indicated. The others watched her go only until she turned the corner, and then looked back to her older sister. A period of silence followed, during which the group looked rather uncomfortable. Maud herself continued to stare at them as the sounds of Pinkie’s giggles and hopping slowly faded in the distance.
When it was nearly silent again, Twilight looked to one side and cleared her throat. “So, um…actually-”
“Are you really Pinkie’s friends?”
Twilight’s face fell, and she and the others gave a start at Maud’s sudden cut in. However, she simply continued to stare at them with her expressionless face.
“Well…yeah, of course,” Dash finally spoke up. “She’s a little, well…on the odd side. No offense. But she’s helped us out loads of times.”
“We certainly have been though a lot together…” Fluttershy spoke more mildly. “But she’s always been there for us and she’s always cheered us up. And prayed for us as well.”
Maud was quiet for a moment.
“Later tonight, after Pinkie has fallen asleep, come back here. I’ll answer all of your questions.”
With that, she turned to a nearby rock hammer, picked it up, and began to work on the nearby boulder again.
This left the group even more puzzled. They exchanged glances for a moment, then looked back at her. “Um…we don’t really have many questions…”
“You will.”
She said no more as she kept tapping away at the boulder.
After the awkward closing to their meeting with Maud, the ladies eventually made their way after Pinkie Pie. As it turned out, they didn’t have to go much farther than out of earshot of Maud when they saw another crude shack, barely capable of being called a storage shed let alone a home, and a wagon laden down with cut stones. In front of it was a small gathering of people, of which Pinkie was standing in front and talking to them. In spite of having only gotten a little ways ahead of them, she seemed to have been fast enough to already have been chatting for a while.
As the group descended the rock path and approached, Pinkie seemed to wrap up what she was saying and turned around to excitedly hop back over to them. “Come on! Come on! I want you to meet the rest of the family!”
The other individuals didn’t seem quite so exuberant. They simply stood there and waited as Pinkie merrily led Twilight and the others right up to them. Much as they had with Maud, they halted at a short distance away, at which point Pinkie excitedly ran back to the other side.
“Everyone…meet my family!” She began by rushing over to an older couple in the group. The man had long, bushy, gray sideburns, a wide-brimmed black hat, a collared shirt, and a stern face hardened from many days out in the sun. The woman was considerably shorter with her hair tied back in a tight bun and a pair of glasses, although one of the lenses was cracked and apparently was left in a state of disrepair. “This is my mom and dad!”
“I am Igneous Rock Pie, son of Feldspar and Granite Pie,” the older man spoke, his tone gruff and his face remaining stern the entire time. “Welcome and good tidings to thee.”
“I am Cloudy Quartz,” the older woman added, bowing her head in greetings. “Blessings be upon thee for returning Pinkie unto us.”
Twilight blinked twice. “Oh…um…think nothing of it.”
“Oh boy,” Dash muttered under her breath. “These kinds of Gaitians… Guess we can rule out indoor toilets…”
“And here’s my second older sister!” Pinkie chirped, indicating to a woman only a little older than her, but with much flatter hair cut short in the back and a rather aggressive and unfriendly look in her eye. “Li-”
“Limestone Pie,” she cut off, leaning her head in and glaring at the group so hard that Twilight grimaced and nearly took a step back. “So you followed my sister through a war zone all the way home, huh? Even knowing she was a Gaitian? Well, aren’t you helpful. I got my eye on all of you, so don’t try anything funny. Unlike my sister, I can smell out a Trottingham agent a mile away.”
She punctuated this by glancing at Sunset, giving her an especially hard look. At once, she grimaced and tried to look to one side. Fluttershy cringed at Limestone’s “greeting” and let out a smile whine, to which Angel rolled his eyes and smacked his paw over his own face.
Pinkie moved to the last, who had much longer hair hanging over half of her face, and immediately blushed and cringed—looking even more socially inept than Fluttershy. “And here’s my little sister, Marble!” she exclaimed, punctuating by putting her hands on Marble’s shoulders…which only made her shrink down a bit more. “I’m not much older than her, but she’s still my beloved little baby sister! She’s a little quiet, but she’s still the hardest worker in the quarry!” She grasped her by the cheeks and turned her so that she was almost facing her. “Aren’t you, Marble?”
She blushed a little before looking to one side. “Mmmhmm…”
Pinkie sprung off and gestured to the others. “And this here is Applejack, who really helped me break through enemy lines in a hail of bullets and explosions to get here; Rarity, who let me try out all sorts of baking at her house when we weren’t stopping people who went nutty from breaking in; Fluttershy, who’s an amazingly nice person who has her own animal shelter in a hole in the ground to hide from bloodthirsty monsters; Rainbow Dash, who’s a really super cool mercenary who drinks just a teeny, tiny bit too much; Sunset Shimmer, who tried to kill me a couple times but that’s a loooong story; and Twilight Sparkle, who knows all about the special rune thingees that we all have in our hands!”
By the time Pinkie was finished with her “introduction”, everyone was looking rather uneasy or grimacing. Twilight and Sunset most of all, who nervously looked at the Pie family and expected them to yell at them to get off their land any second afterward. And truth be told, they did look a little alarmed on hearing Pinkie’s super-fast recap of their relationships. Limestone’s eyes narrowed a bit more while Marble took an uncertain step backward. However, before things could get any worse, Twilight cleared her throat.
“That’s, uh…kind of the short version about how we met her, but there’s a lot more than that. Mr. and Mrs. Pie, I’m afraid we don’t have a whole lot of time. There’s a lot to tell you and it’s extremely important. We really need to get this settled before anyone from Trottingham comes to take your next load. Could we please come in and speak with you?”
The family hesitated. They did seem to relax slightly…at least, all but Limestone…and they looked to each other for a moment or so as if silently considering the option. Eventually, however, Igneous looked up. He nodded to her, before both he and Cloudy stepped to one side.
“Very well. We bid thee enter and state thy peace.”
“…And so, there we are. Really, based on what Pinkie said, it’s not safe for you or any other Gaitian in Trottingham any longer. But in all honesty, right now we have nothing, and we have a lot of people with us who need to stay here at least long enough for us to come up with a plan to move everyone out. Could you please help us?”
“Please?” Pinkie immediately added for support, clasping her hands together and leaning in. “Pretty please?”
The gathering inside the house was a bit awkward to say the least. For one thing, there was no furniture, and only a single, wooden, uninsulated room that seemed to function also as the kitchen. The group had all taken seats on the floor across from the Pies as they told their tale. Now each one of them had a dented, misshapen tin that seemed to have been once used as common surplus for water for whatever miners had worked in the quarry and sat there silently waiting for an answer from their inadvertent hosts. Fortunately, none of them looked that anxious anymore, although Limestone’s mood never seemed to improve much, but there were a few moments of uneasy silence between the two when all was concluded.
Eventually, Igneous, without showing much change in his own expression, rose from his spot on the floor. Cloudy did much the same. After that, both of them turned and walked toward the back entrance to the house, which didn’t even have a door but rather a canvas cloth, and brushed it aside to step outside.
Twilight looked a little nervous as Limestone and Marble began to rise next. “Um, is that a ‘no thanks’?”
“Mom and dad never make a decision this big without saying a prayer over it first,” Limestone gruffly explained as she stood. “And after that, we’re going to need to sort this out in a family meeting. Come on, Pinkie. That includes you.”
“You bet!” she answered, merrily hopping to her feet. “Be right back, everyone!”
Moments later, she followed behind her sisters as they also brushed past the canvas and headed outside. After a few moments of hearing footsteps (and hops) crunching against the gravel ground, all became quiet again. The six ladies were left sitting on the floor in silence.
Fluttershy looked at her own cup for a moment, before raising it and taking a sip. Instantly, her face scrunched as she made a twisted face. “That…certainly is interesting…um…tea?”
Rarity was studying her own cup, turning it around a little. “Is that…a rock?”
Dash frowned at her own cup before setting it aside. “Her family might be kind of what I expected out of Gaitians, but…” She hesitated. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I thought Pinkie’s family would be a little, uh…well…”
“More like her?” Fluttershy suggested.
“They do seem to be far more…shall we say…balanced?” Rarity offered as she put her own cup aside. “I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but you don’t suppose she might have been adopted, do you?”
“Would make sense,” Applejack spoke quietly with a frown as she sipped her own cup, seemingly oblivious to the flavor. “Gaitians…ain’t exactly had it easy. In Appleloosa, there were a lot of ‘em runnin’ ‘round missing family members. From rumors I heard of Trottingham, here it was only worse.”
Twilight hesitated after hearing that before turning to Sunset, who was staying to one side and staring at her own cup. She seemed to be aware she was being watched but didn’t look up.
“Um, Sunset? I don’t suppose you-”
She cut Twilight off with a sigh. “Gaitians never interested me. That was just basic xenophobia on the part of the government. Everyone in Trottingham and Appleloosa flipped out when Mareland fell and all of the Gaitians ran into their countries. There’s a lot of followers of Harmonium in Trottingham so they really didn’t take it that well. When that mess in Cloudsdale happened it just made everything worse.”
“But why is Trottingham interested in relocating them now? They’ve been using them as second-class citizens for years…”
“Beats me. The government I knew isn’t in power anymore. Now everything’s run by that Storm King and…” She slowed a moment, clearly growing more uncomfortable. “…and…her.”
The way she said this got the attention of the others. “Her who?” Applejack asked. “You talkin’ ‘bout that commodore?”
“Tempest Shadow, right?” Dash threw in. “That’s the name she’s got in the papers.”
Sunset winced a little on hearing the name but said no more. However, that reaction already spoke volumes to Twilight.
“You knew her, didn’t you?”
Sunset pulled her legs up, leaned on them, crossed her arms, and glanced to one side. “We…had a run in before I got kicked out of the Trottingham government, yeah. You could say that. I honestly thought she’d be dead by now…”
“Don’t s’pose you know what she’d want with Appleloosa, would ya’?” Applejack asked, crossing her own arms.
“I haven’t got a clue, but if I had to guess it’s because it’s what the Storm King wants. And I’m sure what he wants is just to take over all of Greater Everfree like every other little dictator that ever sprung up in that part of the world.”
“That actually puzzles me.”
The group, Sunset included, looked up and to Twilight. Her face had grown concerned.
“Sunset…based on what you told me, even if the Storm King hadn’t come to power, the Trottingham government knew about your power and your ability to make magical weapons using what you learned from Canterlot, right?”
She paused but then nodded. “Yeah, so?”
Twilight looked to the ground, growing thoughtful. “Somehow, Griffonstone learned about that too. They had to have. That’s why they’re so eager to get into Equestria and to find more Anima Viris. I don’t know how they learned it, but the important thing is they did. Manehattan knows about it too. That’s why they hired companies like Starlight’s to try to get in and learn all they could from Equestria. And even if Fillydelphia doesn’t know about completely, they know enough to know that’s a source of new power. Everyone’s scrambling for Equestria wanting to be the first person to discover the secrets to the Promethian Sigils and Anima Viris, or at least the power that Nightmare Moon had. Because they know if they do that, they’ll have an advantage over every other country.”
“Yes, darling, that seemed to be the way that Fancy Pants thought the world was heading,” Rarity answered. “And I dare say it’s come true so far. Aside from the more obvious reasons…why is that troubling you?”
“Why would the Storm King try to dispose so quickly of its only individual who knew about Equestria and its secrets? And why not even bother with reclaiming any of Equestria? Why ignore it completely?”
The group was silent. That was a good point, and one that Sunset herself hadn’t considered until now. It left them all thinking for a moment to themselves about why and what that meant.
They were still thinking when the canvas flap went to one side. They looked up just in time to see a cheerful-looking Pinkie Pie happily bounce back into the room, looking rather enthusiastic. The rest of the Pies followed suit fairly quickly behind, one after the other. When they came in, they all remained standing. Seeing that, the others quickly rose to their feet as well and faced them.
“Great news, everybody!” Pinkie grinned. “The whole family’s going to help! We’ve got our own base of operations now!”
The group looked to the Pies. Igneous and Cloudy both gave short, solemn nods to show their approval. Marble offered a weak smile. Limestone, on her part, let out a groaning sigh but was resigned and, perhaps, just a slight bit friendlier.
Twilight smiled back. “Really? You will? Thank you so much!”
“Not like we could have stuck around here much longer anyway…” Limestone grumbled. “Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to carry on as usual until they come to pick up the load from the quarry. If they’re just here for the load, great. If not, Pinkie tells me you and your friends can handle it, but hopefully they’ll just pick up the load. That’ll buy us a couple days to do whatever you have in mind. We’ll move the rest of the people with you down here first and get them situated.”
“Yippee! This’ll be great!” Pinkie squealed excitedly. “Mom and dad, you can start getting one of the empty shafts ready for everyone to hide in! Limestone and Marble, you can finish up with the load and get those people from Trottingham to think everything is okie-dokie! I’ll go tell Maud everything that happened and then we’ll tell everyone else the good news and bring them down once the coast is clear!”
In spite of their more agreeable states, all of the Pies looked a bit more uneasy at Pinkie’s last statement. However, none of them hesitated. Igneous and Cloudy once again nodded to the group before turning around and heading out the way they came. Pinkie spun back to Twilight and the others and gave them a wink and a nod. “You gals just sit tight right here and be ready for anything! I know you’ve got this! Whee! I haven’t been this excited since we were in the Castle of the Two Sisters!”
A moment later, she began to happily skip past them for the front door. As soon as she passed through and began to hop back up the trail, she called out. “Maud! Oh Maud! Great news!”
Everyone left behind continued to hear her echo for a bit before it finally died out. The ladies were left standing in the room across from Limestone and Marble. However, the two remaining Pies were hesitating. Marble was looking to the ground with a regretful expression and rubbed one of her arms. Limestone had her arms crossed and was frowning at a spot on the ground.
Eventually, Twilight moistened her lips and cleared her throat. “So…your sisters Pinkie and Maud are really close, aren’t they?”
Limestone’s lips curled. Marble bit her lip.
Seeing that reaction made Twilight more uneasy. “I…actually want to ask her something when she gets back, although maybe you know. I don’t suppose Maud has any…well…you know…special abilities like Pinkie, does she?”
Marble let out a small noise. Limestone’s teeth began to bare.
“Uh, ok! Ok! Nevermind! I’ll just ask her when she gets here!”
At this, Limestone closed her eyes and let out a long, tired sigh. “Maud’s not coming. She’s not here.” Her voice was quieter now; sounding weary.
Everyone looked confused. “Say what now?” Applejack asked.
“What do you mean, darling?” Rarity added. “Pinkie just ran off to fetch her.”
Marble grasped her arm more tightly. Limestone looked up at them squarely.
“Maud died almost six years ago.”
At once the expressions on everyone’s faces went blank. Several mouths began to hang open. The group was so silent that they thought they could hear Pinkie again for just a moment.
Limestone rolled her eyes and continued. “You probably noticed my sister isn’t…‘all there’. We tried telling her several times, but she always laughs it off and tells us she talks to Maud every day. We eventually just let it go since it’s not bothering anyone. It’s best that you all just roll with it too. Anyway, we’re going to finish up that load now. Come on, Marble.”
With that, both sisters walked past the group for the front door and headed outside as well. Twilight was left standing there silently, eyes still wide and mouth slightly ajar. She turned and looked at the others, but they only shared the same expressions.
The Trottingham government personnel did come by soon after but, fortunately, they didn’t try to relocate anyone. They simply picked up the load and moved out with hardly a word. Shortly thereafter, with the coast clear, Pinkie came hopping back along with the others following behind.
At that point, Twilight and the others approached her and mentioned what Limestone had said to them. However, she simply giggled and waved her hand at them.
“Oh, Twilight… I just talked to Maud when I went to get everyone! She said she’s glad the family is helping but told me to go on ahead. You wouldn’t believe how she gets whenever she’s found an interesting rock. It’s like all she can think of. She almost always skips family meals now for them!”
Twilight looked back at the others. Even Sunset was looking uneasy at this point, but the others far more so. “Um…Pinkie-”
“Oh, one other thing!” she cut off. “Maud said to remember what she told you when you all were talking! I guess it’s a secret because she wouldn’t tell me about it. Oh!” She nearly got into Twilight’s face. “You’d tell me if it was a surprise party, wouldn’t you? Is it a surprise party? Wait, if you tell me, then it won’t be a surprise!”
“It’s, uh…kind of a surprise…” Twilight finally managed to uncertainly mutter.
When Pinkie finally rushed off to help her parents set up, Twilight readily approached the group and, in particular, Starlight Glimmer and Shining Armor. Both of them gave the news that not much had happened other than some of the kids got hungry and bored, and that everyone was getting eager to take a load off. On hearing the news about the Pies agreeing to help, they were quite pleased.
“Great to hear,” Starlight answered before sighing. “Now we just need to come up with some kind of plan that can get all of us plus the Gaitians out of here…”
“By the way,” Twilight interjected, “I don’t suppose, on the way up here, any of you saw Pinkie’s sister, did you? Or anyone alongside the path who was chipping away at a big boulder?”
Starlight shook her head. “I assumed her whole family was already down here. Why?”
“…No reason.”
Once everyone was gathered around, the ladies quieted down about the matter; especially seeing that most of those with them were still very tense about their current dangerous situation and the problems they still had to face. The truth was they needed to concentrate on their next plan of action. Nevertheless, none of them could think that much as they ended up being shown to where they would be staying. Aside from a tool shed, there were no other “houses” to stay in save for the broken down shack that the family lived in, and, frankly, it didn’t look like it would support everyone’s weight. Hence, they would be staying in an older shaft that had been dug out and covered with tarp to keep the interior dry. On verifying the interior was clear of any potential hiding Nighttouched, it was the best they could do. The Pies gathered everything they could use for bedding and set up spaces for everyone, even though it did get a little cramped and on the sparse side.
After that, they went about getting everyone fed before the sun set. Several of the refugees and Apple family members stepped in to assist with getting everyone something to eat, but as the Pies only had enough victuals normally for themselves it was a bit of a stretch to manage even a bad tasting thin stew for everyone. Nevertheless, they also helped with the serving and clean up afterward, and offered to head into the forest to hunt for something better the next day. Although time was of the essence, it was soon mutually agreed upon by everyone that little could be done that night. In the end, Starlight and Twilight settled for starting to gather information about the area, in particular where the other Gaitian families were located, how regularly Trottingham officials and police made the rounds, how good their mobility was, and where the nearest towns were and what sort of amenities were available to them.
All of that lasted until after sundown, and since Trottingham apparently only gave the Pie family enough kerosene to work they were forced to turn in soon after. Considering how excited Pinkie was to be home and with her sisters, the group was initially fearful that she would stay up late. However, the rest of the Pie family seemed to obey a tradition of lying down with the sun and rising with the dawn, and she followed suit. Better yet, she stayed in the main house with her family, so that there was little chance of disturbing her later.
Once she had laid down for an hour, Twilight finally looked up from her own spot in the mine tunnel. Since they were the strongest, she and the others had been put near the front along with Sunset Shimmer, who insisted on sticking close to Twilight rather than being separated from her and surrounded by the refugees. No sooner had she pulled off the strip of tarp that the Pies had given her for a covering when, in the moonlight streaming into the mine, she saw the others readily lean up as well.
“You’re all up?” she whispered.
“I’ve been growing accustomed to lodging on a variety of surfaces, but it will be some time before I can sleep on rocks…” Rarity grumbled.
“And…I’ve been thinking about what Limestone said about Maud…” Fluttershy answered quietly.
“We all have,” Applejack muttered. “And I’ve been waitin’ all day for a chance to get the truth.”
“Frankly, so have I,” Twilight murmured, before beginning to rise up. She almost went for her shoes, when she paused. She noticed that Sunset was getting up as well.
Dash noticed too as she began to rise and frowned. “Y’know, you can probably sit this one out. I don’t think everyone’s pretending to be asleep on the off chance they can kill you in yours.”
“Maybe…but I’m not wanting to take that chance,” she responded quietly. “Besides…I’m honestly curious about this too. Maud is supposed to be Pinkie’s Anima Viri, right? Well, it would make sense that she’s dead then. If that’s the case, though, who were we talking to today?”
“I’m thinking that’s the kind of question that Maud was thinking we would ask…or whoever that person was…” Twilight answered as she put her shoes on.
As everyone slept in their clothes, it didn’t take long for everyone to get ready. After that they made their way out. It was a bit slow going at first as it was impossible not to make noise on the rocky, gravel ground, but they managed to make their way back to the trails around the quarry without waking up anyone in the house or in the mine. Once they were a good distance away, they picked up the pace. It was a clear night with a mostly full moon, so once their eyes adjusted the going was easy.
It didn’t take long to find their way back to the wide pathway where loads went in and out. And from there, it was simply a matter of rounding a corner and looking back the way they had come before.
Seated right there by the same boulder, tapping it with her hammer, examining it for a moment, and then tapping again, was Maud. She looked as if she hadn’t moved the entire time they were gone.
Swallowing, Twilight looked back at the others, exchanging glances for a moment, but then they all began their approach. Maud didn’t seem to notice them at first, but when they got near she put her hammer to one side. When they stopped in front of her, she had her hands down and was looking up at them.
She said nothing and it was silent again. In spite of being the warmer time of year, the quarry was silent. Even the more distant insects in the woods seemed quiet.
“We met with your family,” Twilight finally said.
Maud didn’t change, other than blinking once.
“Your sister…Limestone…she said you died six years ago.”
Still no change.
“Why would she say that if you’re here?”
Maud answered by turning her head and looking down on the ground. The six followed her gaze and saw a pick axe lying there.
“Watch carefully,” she said as she reached down and picked it up. Turning around, she looked at the boulder, hoisted the pick axe high, and swung it down against it.
With a loud crack, a shard of rock snapped right off of the boulder and went flying in the direction of the group; in particular toward Fluttershy. She immediately yelped, cringed, and covered her face as she expected it to hit her. Dash nearly moved forward to get in the way, but it was already too late as it connected…
Yet the moment it reached Fluttershy, the piece of rock seemed to sink into her and oblivion. The others immediately looked confused. It had clearly been headed for the woman, only it didn’t strike her. Neither did it clatter to the ground afterward. Fluttershy, after a moment, lowered her arms, blinked, and looked around, but saw nothing. And as she and the others glanced about, they saw no sign of the rock on the ground either. They eventually looked back to Maud.
The boulder was completely intact. The pick axe was lying on the ground, having not moved in the slightest. Maud sat there staring at them.
Now the group started to look at little nervous. Fluttershy quivered and whimpered a bit, while Rarity cupped her hand to her mouth. Applejack swallowed. “You…you really are…”
“Aside from Pinkie, you’re the first people who have seen me or heard me in a very long time,” Maud cut off. “Six years ago, Pinkie and I took a trip to Cloudsdale. It was the only place where we could still buy tools for rock cutting and the rest of the family was busy working on an order. When we got there, things went wrong. Very wrong. And by the end of it, I was dead.”
She reached down and took up her rock hammer. However, she didn’t start chipping again. She studied it as she continued.
“I don’t really remember much of it, which I suppose makes sense as I didn’t have a brain anymore to remember things. All I know is I remember that I was supposed to go somewhere. I didn’t, though… Someone called me back out of the place where I was. And as I left there, I realized it was Pinkie’s voice. The next thing I knew I was standing next to Pinkie. Even then, I realized I wasn’t alive anymore, but when she saw me she treated me like I had just wandered off for a while and then come back.”
She set the hammer down.
“After talking with her, I realized she didn’t remember anything about what happened the night before. My guess is she didn’t want to remember it, and so she simply made herself forget about it. I didn’t know what to say or do at first so when she started going home I just followed her. No one else could see me or hear me, and I would walk right over pits or through objects if I didn’t watch myself, but I learned soon enough that Pinkie could assume or expect stuff out of me and then her mind or senses would ‘fill in the gaps’, so she never noticed anything I did that was impossible. I tried telling her what had happened to me, but she wouldn’t believe it because she didn’t remember what happened that night. And since she could hear me and see me, she thought I was just playing a joke. So…eventually I stopped trying.”
“So why didn’t you tell her what did happen that night?”
Twilight and the others looked back at Sunset at that. They had hardly expected her to chime in, but she looked genuinely intrigued.
As for Maud, she was quiet again for a moment. Her eyes lowered. “Maybe I should have, but the truth is I don’t want her to remember that night. If my death was the only thing that happened that would have been one thing, but it wasn’t.”
“So…you’re a ghost?” Dash finally asked.
“My faith doesn’t believe in ghosts. To be honest, I think I’m something more than that. I don’t know what exactly.” Her eyes raised again. “But I have a feeling the six of you do. Five of you have the same symbol that my sister has on her hand, after all.”
The six hesitated. Twilight herself raised her hand, looking down to her sigil and her two runes on it. She swished her mouth slightly and looked up again. “I suppose you’re right. Still…she has to know someday. No matter how painful it is for her.”
Maud’s eyes fell again. “I know that, but I’d be lying to myself if I said the only reason I’m keeping this a secret is because I’m trying to spare her feelings. My sister isn’t like other people.”
Twilight grimaced. “I know all about that… Things haven’t exactly been ‘normal’ for us either. Having a Promethian Sigil kind of makes everything more complicated. And things have only gotten weirder for all of us as time has gone by…”
“No.”
The single flat word from Maud was enough to regain everyone’s attention again. She looked up and leveled her gaze at Twilight, looking her straight in the eye.
“You don’t understand.” For the first time, her voice showed the slightest hint of emotion as she spoke very slowly…even grimly.
“My sister is not like other people.”