I wasn't sure what AJ wanted, but she was coming along now too. I hope it wasn't too important, but if it was she should have just said. Twilight yawned again. It seemed like I gave her plenty of time to sleep but she still seemed tired and wasn't very happy at all when I woke her up. I then looked at the farm it looked as dull and grey as usual, even if Blinkie's shinny new metal barn was at least a little not dull.
"Hmmm, actually if something is shinny it's a lot not dull, isn't it?"
"Ah reckon so Pinkie. That barn is certainly something. Don't look too different from any of mine back at the acres, but it being made all out a well shined steel is a bit odd."
"Yes, the construction of such a thing intrigues me."
I then scoffed. "Man, I know I'm not really one to talk, but Inky and Blinkie have really let the farm go. I mean half the rocks are just rotting in the fields."
They gave me that "are you crazy" look I know so well. Ponies give it to me all the time. The strange thing is they almost never give me the look when I do something really crazy. Then Twilight shook her head and sighed.
"Sorry Pinkie, I know better, even though I still can't figure out how you could tell the difference, though rotting doesn't seem like the right term."
"Twi, what the hay are you talking about? You saying Pinkie's kin really do grow rocks?"
Twilight nodded. "I know it sounds odd but they really do. I assume at least one family must do some mining as well."
I nodded. "Oh yea, father was a really good miner. Well, I guess he still is, but now he's in Mane and I haven't seem him mine lately so he might not be half as good as he was, but he might be and Blinkie's machines are sorta better and…" AJ stuck a hoof in my mouth.
"Ah get it." She then pulled out her hoof. Why do ponies do that? "Ah still don't get this whole rocks going bad thing."
"Well, I mean not literally, duh." I rolled my eyes. "But if you don't move the rocks regularly they don't gain any mass at all, no matter where you leave them. I mean that's just plain laziness."
Twilgiht closed her eyes. "Just to be clear Pinkie, the rocks won't actually go bad if you just leave them alone, correct?"
I nodded.
"And using your logic here you could say all rocks that haven't been moved recently anywhere are rotting?"
"No silly filly." I shook my head. "They're only rotting if they're in a rock farm field, otherwise they're just normal rocks. Duh."
Both ponies sighed. We were right in front of the barn now, so I hopped in front of the eye tickler thing. Twilight looked at it really strangely, and AJ just looked confused.
"Look I know the pies are some sort of farmers but you can't be serious about them growing rocks?"
"I am. Do you remember how Luna opened the sealed vault containing her past works as the Princess Luna memorial library."
"Only because you bring it up at least once every time we talk."
Twilight blushed. "Oh. Anyway, one of her books talks about rock farming. It's really quite fascinating. You see the magical matrices of…"
"Booooring. You roll the rocks around then you leave them alone so they can grow, and then you move them some more when they stop. It's not complicated."
"But how the hay does that work."
"Earth pony magic. Actually according to Luna while earth ponies do have a strong connection to nature, their true element is right in the name."
"So you're saying ah could be growing rocks too?"
"Not if you want to grow anything else. I mean if we could grow anything else around here don't you think we would." I rolled my eyes again
"What does that mean?"
"Rock farming has a detrimental effect on any living things in the area, and the land itself to an extent. It saps all the magic in the area in the process. Essentially rock farming kills off everything else, even some small animals if they don't have the sense to leave."
"Yea, it's why we couldn't have small pets, and we couldn't have anything larger because if we were going to feed anything larger it had to work."
"Winona does plenty of work, you know that. Why didn't your folks…" Then applejack blinked. "There ain't any work for dogs on a rock farm, is there."
"Yeppers, none at all."
"Ah got one more thing to ask. Ya see last time I saw Blinkie she seemed a little off. Clearly we weren't ever the best of friends but our farms always got along well enough."
"Oh yea, she's totally crazy, but don't worry Blinkie's really smart and the things she doesn't intend to explode only rarely do."
"Are you sure you're trying to be comforting with that statement?" asked Twilight
I wasn't sure what she meant by that, so I just put my eye in front of the black box with a shinny black hole I put my eye near. Then there was that light that tickled my eye. It felt so funny. Blinkie makes the best stuff. I am so totally tempted to ask her for more, but she's already so busy I hate to bother her unless I really have to. The doors then slid back into the sides of the metal barn. Inside was a bunch of cool stuff, including something covered by a big brown tarp. The floor was white, and there was some more stuff in a loft on the second level, but mostly the room was pretty boring.
"Wow." Said Twilight. "This is impressive, and I thought the inside would be more colorful. I mean it's nothing but silver, white, black and shades of grey."
I rolled my eyes. "I know, Blinkie gave me such an awesome flying machine like I asked but it was so boring. I had to waste a whole ten minutes to Pinkieize it. I mean she has tons of fun making stuff, and I know she would have more if she bothered to…"
"You don't really know that." Said Twilight
"I do to. I mean I said I know because I know, ya know. She totally had like uber fun when I convinced her she had to make that rolly thing of hers way more colorful, cause otherwise it would be even more boring to watch when ponies drive it around in circles over and over again."
"Pinkie, thar are times where I understand every word ya say, but it still makes not a lick of sense."
I giggled.
"Wait, do you even know what you were just talking about?" asked Twilgiht
"I would guess she has no clue, like always." Said Blinkie
I then grabbed Blinkie and Inky in a great big hug. I then smiled even brighter realizing I was hugging both of them. Inky didn't really change at all since we were young other than a small hairpin clip in her hair that was topped with a flat pink gem shaped like a heart. Well and the hair that partially blocked her eye now blocked it completely. She also had a cutie mark of course, with a great big pink gem with little waves surrounding it.
Blinkie changed more. She still looked the same as last week but different from when we were younger. She was still purple with a grey mane, but now she was always wearing these neat goggles with all these little lenses that could be flipped down or flipped back up. Of course the big difference was her back leg was all machiney. It looked really cool all coppery and stuff. You could see all the pistons and the glowing crystals that made it work. There was a ring of white ones at the top of the metal leg, and some purple gems a few other places, including all around her silver hoof. Her cutie mark was two stone gears with round purple stones in the middle. Both my sisters had big smiles on their faces, but Inky was turning a little purple in the face, and Blinkie more pink. I realized I should let them go.
"That leg is amazing." Said Twilight a huge grin on her face and her eyes all bright and shinny like when it's new book day. "It's magi-tech like that strange mechanism on the door isn't it?"
Blinkie nodded. "Oh yes. Even though most of the ponies in town like to avoid me, the unicorns will help me with most of what I need, and I can send away for the rarer components. I still try to do as much as possible with pure technology."
"Fascinating. It's too bad you have to use such a leg though."
"Well at least this saves me the trouble of explain'in." said AJ
I giggled, but it was like way harder than normal. This isn't really funny. "Yea."
"What do you mean by too bad?" asked Blinke
"I mean the accident that cost you your leg. Though a regeneration spell still seems more practical in my opinion, even if it isn't by any means easy."
"Most see to agree, that is why I had to prove my point somehow. I removed my back left leg as a proof of concept." Then a buzzer sounded. "Oopsie, nearly forgot about that, be right back in a flash."
Twilight looked upset. She just stared as Blinke trotted off toward the thingie beeping in the distance. AJ sighed.
"Ya, this is what Pinkie meant. She seems normal enough most of the time, but every so often just does something that don't make a lick of sense."
"I told you she was crazy." I said
Inky nodded. "She's not dangerous, I mean if she hurts somepony she gets really upset even if it's just an accident. But she is just really weird about some things."
Twilight looked at me. "That sounds sorta familiar."
"Pfftt." I rolled my eyes. "Don't be silly Twilight. Just because I don't always know what I'm doing or why doesn't make me crazy."
Twilight looked like she was going to say something, then sighed and hung her head. I think she also muttered something under her breath but I wasn't sure. Twilight can just be so silly sometimes. The beeping stopped and Blinkie was now coming back over. I then turned to Inky.
"Inky, are you doing all the rock farming yourself now? It looks like Blinkie is really focusing on all her science stuff."
Inky nodded. "Mostly. She helps sometimes, but on the other hoof her inventions turn a much bigger profit than the farm alone ever did. Father would not be pleased of course."
I nodded. "Yea, I mean I thought it was bad enough I didn't know about parties, but then I found out about all the other cool things I was missing."
"I don't think I ever would have got my cutie mark if you didn't bring back that broken record player."
"And I never would have gotten mine if I didn't have to fix it." Added Blinkie
"Oooo, do you still have the secret lab out by the mine?" I hopped up and down "It is so neato, and the three of us made it like super huge."
"It started out very small." Added Inky
Blinkie nodded, smiling. "Oh yes, it's still there. However I mostly use this barn now, and some of the old mined out tunnels I converted for the more dangerous work."
Then I suddenly spun toward the tarp, and hopped even faster. "Ooo, the flying machine is under the tarp isn't it?"
Blinkie nodded. "Yes, but it's a surprise. You can't see it yet.
"Awww."
"Hello. I'm happy to meet you Blinkie." Said Twilight with a smile
"It is mighty good to see you again. Since yer folks left for that community in Mane haven't seen hide nor hair of either of ya."
"So you've always known Pinkie?" said Twilight
"Course. Ponyville ain't that big and the Pies were some of the first settlers in Ponyville after the Smiths. Our families always been friends. Things got a bit stressed when Pinkie's folks took over, but we never turned them away."
I giggled. "It was totally her granny's broken record player."
"Ah always thought granny was a bit against modern technology, but it's nothing like Pinkie's folks. Course I always thought you really grew potatoes or something, so maybe I don't quite got everything lined up as good as I thought."
"Nah, I think you got it." I said
"However I was certain father and mother knew what I was doing in the end, and one reason they decided to leave the care of the farm to Inky and myself."
"Omigosh, is that a…" Twilight began, but then cut herself off. "It is, and that's really the newest model, and I don't even know what that is but it's fascinating."
Twilight had been walking along excited, but now she had stopped. She was looking at a sparkly looking thing in Blinkie's lab near the wall. It looked really familiar. It was a tall pillar with a bunch of flashing lights that kept changing colors. It had a clear ball with a little spark that shot out little bits of electricty at the sides. I ran over to it and pressed my nose to it. All the electricty flipped toward my nose. I love these things so much. I giggled. Then I gasped.
"Oh wow, this is just like the one in your lab Twilight."
"Not quite. It's bigger for one. Almost like…" She then turned to Blinkie. "Wait, is this a full featured industrial arcanometer?"
Blinkie nodded.
"Omigosh, this would be so helpful. We could get several base readings at once."
"Uh didn't you already say something like that. Or was that lace beadings?"
"Lace beadings? What would that even…" Twilight took a deep breath. "I did but when Dash and Spike brought them back from Canterlot I quickly realized that the sample was somewhat useless as it was of course all unicorns. If this sort of research has been conducted before it isn't in Canterlot."
"Hmm, uppity Caterlot unicorns wouldn't know good sense if it smacked em in the snout." Then Applejack went wide eyed, and hung her head. "Mighty sorry about that Twi. But you know how most of them are."
"I suppose. Spike complained enough but honestly I never noticed either way. Though I think mostly that was because I was so focused on my studies I rarely went outside, and when I did never gave anypony else much attention."
Now Twilight and Applejack were all frowny. Can't have that. Twilight doesn't seem mad so maybe if I just cheer her up AJ will cheer up too. Then suddenly I had an idea. I know it was a good idea because it's always a good idea.
"OOO. Oooo. I know. We should throw a party."
"Pinkie, I'm pretty sure that won't solve this here problem." Applejack then blinked. "Er, but maybe I'm wrong?"
"No I don't think a party would help." Said Twilgiht "It would get all the ponies in one place but one scanner could still only get a fairly small number of ponies."
"I do have dozens more." Said Blinkie "They are also built to be able to be linked in an array to scan a large area."
"That could actually work." Twilight got a big smile on her face. Yay. "In fact with a large enough space we could scan all of Ponyville while parting as long as they remained in range long enough."
"So does that mean we can have a party?" I smiled as big as I could
"Yes Pinkie, we just need a venue."
"I can supply that as well. My old secret lab is currently acting as storage space, but it would not be too difficult to clear out."
I stopped suddenly. "Ooo, I just got a great idea. Maybe we can leave some stuff in and make it a theme party. That would be so much fun. Maybe even make it a costume party. I have this really cool…"
"Pinkie." Said Twilgiht. I instantly stopped "That isn't a good idea."
"Any enchanted item might interfere with the scan if too close to a pony."
"Ohh. Hmmm, well the tech thing is a good idea. But the lab is really big. I bet I could get more than just Ponyville in there."
I was trying to figure out the square footage, but it had been so long I wasn't sure. I guess I'd have to go visit it to make sure. Though it was really empty that would mean the big platform in the middle wouldn't have anything on it. Then I gasped. It would be totally perfect for a band, which could be a very big draw.
"Omigosh I just got a great idea."
"That was an interesting face." Said Twilight
AJ laughed. "That was her party planning face. I guess you ain't been around to see it that often. Though most times it don't stick around fer long neither."
"It's just so, serious, and contemplative."
I bounced up real close to Twilight and raised an eyebrow. "And why exactly do you think it shouldn't be huh? Parties are serious business. So Pinkie makes a serious face."
"Oh, uh, yes. I guess so."
I smiled. "Okay, now that that's settled I gotta go look at the lab and…" Then I froze, and even better idea forming. "OOO, I know just the band to invite, and I know she'll totally come. Ooo, and I can get Vinyl to fill the rest of the party. And best of all since it's like right here I can do it all with my sisters helping me."
I then pulled them both in a really big hug, and this time made sure I wasn't hugging them too tight, so they didn't change colors at all. I could see it now. Those cool sparky coils, the big boxes with all the flashing lights, all the other neat stuff Blinkie has, and even the arcawatzits to do the scanning looked cool.
"It will be the best party ever."
Twilight laughed. "Until you outdo yourself the next week."
"I better get started right away. To Canterlot."
Then I hopped off. This was going to be a lot of work, but I still had plenty of hours until tonight. I better hop to it double time. I don't want to make Twilight wait more than she has to and have the party tomorrow.