//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Maud Couple // Story: Rock Solid Sisters // by Wolftamer54 //------------------------------// The sun rose majestically, bathing its light over the land, and signalling the start of the day. Simultaneously, the crow of a rooster sounded across at one particular farm, far from Ponyville. Rather than lush greens, the fields were filled with dull grey rocks. Yet there was still a windmill, silo, and farmhouse all the same. Inside said farmhouse, a pink pony, mane poofier than cotton candy, rose to start the day.  “Good morning!” Pinkie Pie beams, sitting upright with her usual vigour. “Oh wait, bad morning. Uggh.” she lamented, remembering the reason for her presence on the farm in the first place, grabbing a pillow and groaning into it.  “I wonder what’s got Pinkie in a bunch,” Limestone thought to herself outside the door. “Eh, she’ll probably tell us later. Right now we’ve got work to do, no time for pampering and nice words.” Putting her trademark scowl back on her face she opened the door and started barking orders in a gravely tone.  “Get out of bed sis, If you’re gonna be here, you gotta work.”   “Oohh,” Pinkie replied, poking out from under the sheets.  “I guess that’s the best I’m gonna get”, Limestone thought, turning back out the door and trotting away.  *Clink* *Clink* The pickaxe steadily chipped away at the rock, Limestone looking at it with a determined, angry look on her face.  “You’re probably wondering why I came back to the family farm in the middle of the night,” Pinkie ventured.  “It had crossed my mind,” Limestone thought snarkily.  “Mhmm,” Marble Pie nodded, looking concerned. Or at least it might have been a look of concern, it was often hard to tell with the ultra shy pony.  “Well that’s an understatement,” Limestone thought, by this point completely nonplussed by her sister’s odd behaviour.  “Well, it all started when-” Pinkie began.  “Less talking, more farming!” Limestone commanded, dropping the pickaxe from her mouth and turning to glare back at her talkative sister. “I swear I’m the only reason anything ever gets done around here.”  “It’s just… Maud has a boyfriend.” Pinkie confessed, looking more depressed than ever.  Even Marble had an unusually strong glare on her face.  “What?! I mean, uh-” Limestone’s eyes went wide with shock.  “I’m not jealous! Who said anything about jealous?!” she accidentally spouted.  “Well that didn’t sound suspicious at all,” she thought sardonically.  “Don’t be! He’s super-duper weird! And somehow, he tricked Maud into liking him. And now I’ll never get to see her again!”, Pinkie sighed and sat on her haunches dejectedly, before looking around at her sisters.  “I came home because you two know her better than anypony. What am I missing? What does she see in him?” She grabbed her sisters in her whooves as the waterworks started to form, “What does he have that I don’t?” and burst into tears, sobbing all over Marble and Limestone.  “Sweet Celestia, Pinkie! I thought I was the miserable one, and you always cheer up everypony. Guess the roles have been reversed,” Limestone thought.  “Buck up Pinkie Pie, you look as miserable as I feel all the time,” she said aloud.  Pinkie sniffed briefly, before falling face first into a puddle of her own tears.  “It’s just that I love Maud, and I want to love Mudbriar, but I can’t see anything to like about him!”  Marble and Limestone exchanged a look, the younger Pie sister gesturing with her head.  “Ugh, fine! We’re taking a work break. Come on!”  “I hate metaphors.” Limestone and Pinkie trotted over to where Marble was standing, pickaxe at the ready, over a seemingly random clump of rocks.  “I’m looking at a sparkling blue and white rock. See it?”  “You mean that lumpy grey one?” Pinkie asked, visible confusion on her face and singling out a rock in the middle of the pile.  “No, the beautiful blue and white one. Right there,” Limestone said, pointing to the same rock.  Pinkie leaned closer and scrunched up her nose, scrutinizing the rock. “I would not describe that as beautiful, blue, or white, but… heh heh, okay”.  Limestone turned to Marble, “Show her.”  Marble nodded, and delivered a single strike with the pickaxe, splitting the rock right down the middle. It split open, revealing the magnificent, sparkling, gems inside. “It’s a geode! The outside looks like a regular rock, but the inside is filled with beautiful gems,” Limestone said, picking up one half in her hoof.  Pinkie seemed to contemplate this, and said “So you’re saying I should crack open Mudbriar like a rock!”  “No! Don’t let this be like the time somepony asked you to make cupcakes with them, and you literally tried to put them in the cupcakes!” Limestone thought, terrified for a brief moment.  “It all makes sense! No, wait. No it doesn’t,” Pinkie exclaimed in excitement before becoming crestfallen again just as fast.  “Thank Celestia.” “It’s a metaphor Pinkie! You see Mudbriar as a rock, but Maud sees him as a gem. Even if you never see past his dullness, you can see how happy he makes Maud. And to a sister, that’s all that matters.”  “Mhmm”, Marble added.  Pinkie lifted the two halves and regarded them, before giving a huge, silly, teary, smile and saying “Oh Limestone, Marble, thank you! I don’t know what I’d do without you two! Pie pile!” and she proceeded to jump on her sisters and engulf them in the eponymous pile.  “Love Pinkie Pie, but must not show emotion other than anger… “ Even Marble seemed a little less than pleased.  “Okay, okay! You’re crushing me to gravel Pinkie!”  “I really owe Mudbriar an apology,” Pinkie said before she let out a resounding gasp, “And I owe Maud a party! I just hope I’m not too late!” She leapt off of her sisters, and galloped away at a speed that would put Rainbow Dash to shame, and a pinch of reality bending that would make Discord proud.  “Well that happened,” Limestone shook her head and stood back up. Marble likewise seemed confused by their sister’s sudden departure.  “Come on, we’ve got to get back to work, no moping about”.  “Mhmm.”  But as both ponies returned to their chores, each was occupied by their own thoughts of what they had just learned.