//------------------------------//
// And a Hard Place 
// Story: Between a Rock 
// by SilverStar7 
//------------------------------//

By the time that the Nirik had made it to the rocky outcrop beyond town, she had finally cooled off enough to let herself change back. With a deep breath, a pillar of pink and blue flames rose from around her, and Autumn Blaze emerged as a regular Kirin. She looked back towards Ponyville, and was pleased to see that there was no visible damage to anything along her path. However, she couldn't quite see the town from here, and that was what she was really concerned about.

Her mind's eye pictured the scene vividly, envisioning the destruction her anger had likely wrought upon the poor ponies who had so warmly welcomed her into their community. And the guilt at what she had done began to build in her chest. The anger she felt toward herself was almost enough to let her transform again.

While she didn't entirely transform, she did allow herself a strong yell, and flames rose from various places along her form. After that outburst, she was a touch calmer, but no less upset with herself.

"At least here, I can't hurt anypony else..." she said, noting the slight singe marks on some of the ground around her, but glad to see that there was truly nothing flammable here.

But to her surprise, she thought she might have heard someone else talking.

"Who's there?" she said, looking around at the dirt, gravel, and rocks that surrounded her.

After a moment, her eyes landed on a bluish gray rock that stood out sharply against the tan gravel around it. The rock was looking up at her, and the two shared looks of strong confusion.

"You can talk?" said Autumn. She was quite familiar with talking to inanimate objects, but she had never encountered one outside of her homeland.

The rock acknowledged his speaking ability and apologized if he'd forgotten the Kirin's name; he didn't remember meeting her before.

"Oh, we haven't met before. I'm not from around here."

Clearly curious, the rock inquired about where she came from.

"Originally, I'm from the Peaks of Peril. I'm actually visiting some ponies in Ponyville. Well, not right this moment, of course, because I'm well outside of Ponyville now, and there are no ponies around. But that's what I'd been doing today and I felt like I needed some... uh... time alone. So I came out here."

The rock asked why she had specifically come to this place rather than someplace else outside of the town.

"Well, you see, I'm a Kirin, and we Kirin can sometimes turn into flame-engulfed creatures called Niriks—you see, it's Kirin spelled backwards, cool right?—and so I came out here into this rocky outcrop to make sure that I don't potentially set fire to anything important, like plants or fallen logs... or buildings..." She glanced over her shoulder towards Ponyville, then looked back to the rock.

The rock, however, was not looking at her, but was instead looking at her shadow. Autumn was confused for a moment, but then realized her mistake.

"Oh, sorry, where are my manners? This is Silhouette Gloom of the Sundown Lands," said Autumn, gesturing towards her shadow on the ground. 

Those two then exchanged pleasantries, but of course, the conversation quickly came back to the pair's reason for being here, and after Silhouette and the rock talked for a bit, the rock turned his attention back to Autumn. His question was now much more pointed.

Autumn shook her head. She knew she should've reigned in Silhouette once the conversation got going. The shadow had never been good at keeping secrets. Not that Silhouette had said anything particularly bad; it was probably more in the way the shadow had talked rather than the words themselves. Regardless, it was clearly clear to the rock that Autumn hadn't been entirely honest, so she decided to just tell the truth.

"Okay, fine. My reasons for coming here are not entirely pure. I'm... I'm on the run from the law."

Of course, this surprised the rock, although his reaction was far from the utter shock that Autumn had been expecting. And his follow-up question was quite level, and truly without any judgement.

"What did I do? Well, it's hard to explain. Not hard in the way you might think. I just literally don't know the right word for it. Long story short, I was socially isolated for quite some time recently and a lot of uncommon words aren't exactly easy for me to recall on a moment's notice."

Again, to Autumn's surprise, the rock was totally understanding. He explained that, like most rocks, he was quite patient, and certainly he wasn't going anywhere.

Autumn chuckled a bit. "Okay, I'll work it out." She paced back and forth a bit as she considered what word she was searching for. "I'm pretty sure it starts with an 'r...' No, an 'a.' Ah... Air... Are... Arson! That's what I did wrong: arson!"

She beamed at the realization of what the right word was, but when she looked down, she found that the rock was understandably shocked at the thought. He asked why she would want to purposefully burn down a town.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It wasn't on purpose," she said. "See, on my visit, I encountered another pony who... let's say she wasn't nearly as patient as you. Whenever I was struggling to find a word, she would start trying to guess the word I wanted to use. And it wasn't helpful.

"Some of her guesses were completely ridiculous! At first, I just brushed it off, but she just kept doing it over and over and over and over again. It finally got to the point where I was so frustrated that I transformed into a Nirik. Unfortunately, I was indoors at the time. I was at that one building in town where they sell sugary stuff. I don't know if you've ever been there?"

The rock nodded as best he could. He had been there before. True, he couldn't remember the name either, but he knew it was some kind of a factory that produced cupcakes and other foodstuffs for the ponies.

"Right, that's the place," Autumn said. "And what was even worse was that the pony who had been annoying me had set up tons of streamers and a big welcome banner for me. That was just easy kindling. And when I saw that half the decorations had lit on fire, I knew I needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Once I was in the street, I heard ponies shouting from inside the building, telling me to come back. And at that point, I realized that I was a criminal, and that my only choice was to run..."

The rock was silent, taking all of this information in. 

In that quiet, Silhouette herself piped up, and pointed out something important: The crime of arson required intent, which was why the rock had been so surprised to hear her admit to it earlier.

That was a good point that Autumn hadn't considered. Was it truly arson if it was an accident? Maybe she wasn't really a criminal after all? But then, why would they be shouting for her to come back if not to bring her to justice?

Finally, the rock spoke again. This time, with his own tale.

That morning had been rough for the rock, too. And "rough" was saying something considering he himself was made out of magnesium-rich basalt.

He had a friend who he went everywhere with, and she had set him on the ground while she was looking at some rocks. This was normal behavior for her. She liked rocks, which was part of why the two of them got along so well. She would often set him aside as she investigated minerals or gathered rock samples. The rock had waited patiently for her to finish—again, not a difficult task for a rock—but today, inexplicably, his friend gathered up some rock samples and then continued on her way.

She had left him behind.

Autumn and Silhouette both gasped. "How could your friend just abandon you like that?" Autumn asked, saddened and made indignant by the rock's tale.

However, the rock admonished her for that reaction. Autumn was confused, but then the rock explained himself.

There was no need to believe he had been abandoned. That was only one possible explanation for what had happened to him, and it was the worst possible interpretation of those events.

What was more likely? That after years spent together, for no apparent reason, his friend decided to leave him behind on purpose, with no warning? Or that she simply forgot she had placed him there? Or that she had gotten side tracked by a vein of moolooite? Or had realized that she left the stove on and needed to rush to turn it off?

"So what you're saying..." said Autumn, "is that I shouldn't have assumed that my new friends would instantly turn against me and throw me in prison for the rest of my life for a semi-involuntary bodily function that may or may not have done permanent damage to their property?"

The rock did his best to nod again, and he also did his best to smile.

"You know, I must say, you are very wise."

The rock stated that, in two thousand years, anyone could acquire that much wisdom. And Autumn admired his humility in that.

At that moment, the three heard a voice calling out Autumn's name. Autumn looked over and saw the orange earth pony emerge from behind a rock.

"There ya are, Autumn!" the visitor said, galloping toward them.

With a solemn nod, Autumn Blaze looked back to her new friend. "Well little buddy, it's time I stop running from my problems."

"We've been lookin' everywhere fer ya."

"I figured you would," She stood up tall and faced the Earth pony with her head held high. "Applejack, I'm sorry for what happened. It was wrong of me to run off. I will stand trial and accept my punishment for burning down the cupcake factory."

Applejack blinked in confusion. "What in tarnation? You didn't burn down Sugarcube Corner. We had the fire out in just a few seconds."

"Really? That's so great to hear! I was terrified that I'd laid waste to your home just like my people did before we silenced all emotion."

"Not at all." Applejack shook her head. "Everypony and everthin' is fine. At least, it was until I saw you were gone. I tried callin' out fer ya, but ya ran off. I figured ya left to cool off, but I got worried, so I organized a search party. The only thing we've been worried about is makin' sure you were okay."

Autumn beamed and rushed forward to give Applejack a hug. 

When they broke apart, she said, "I'm sorry I assumed the worst, both about the town burning down and believing that you were mad at me. I shouldn't have been so quick to jump to bad conclusions, and I should have trusted you more."





Several hours after the pony and Kirin had left, which was no time at all for the rock, a gray Earth pony wearing a blue outfit came around the corner. The mare was walking backwards, looking down at the ground the whole way. Even though she wasn't looking where she was going, her steps were deliberate, and she made her way directly towards the rock on the ground. Before long, one of her hooves bumped against it.

The mare stopped and turned around, staring at the rock below. "There you are Boulder," she said. "Pinkie told me retracing my steps was the right thing to do." The mare spoke in a total deadpan with only the slightest hint of emotion. 

However, the rock recognized her genuine concern from all of their time spent together.

The pony reached down and picked up the rock. "I was worried I'd lost you forever. I cannot believe I forgot about you earlier today. I hope you can find it in your minerals to forgive me."

Of course, Boulder forgave her at once. He was truly thrilled to see her again, and he was sure, from the admittedly subtle look on her face, that she was thrilled to see him, too.