//------------------------------//
// Sedimentary, My Dear Pinkie 
// Story: Sedimentary, My Dear Pinkie 
// by WritingSpirit 
//------------------------------//

	She could've sworn it was there a moment ago...

Pinkie Pie scrunched her lips, glancing around the wasteland that is her room, tossed and turned with sheets draped on every piece of furniture. Her wardrobe doors were open, swinging with a creak from a slight breeze coming through the open window. The drawers of her nightstand were on the floor, with such objects like streamers, marbles, a blueprint for a cannon of sorts and flaccid balloons spilled out among a flood of her rock collection. Even the blanket of her bed was crumpled, having already slid halfway down on the right side of her bed. The only thing that wasn't misplaced (in her sole opinion) was a bright pink book resting on her nightstand, the cover dotted with pink polka-dotted hearts and clasped shut and tight by a golden latch with a heart-shaped keyhole embedded in its center.
It was her most cherished possession, as well as her current source of frustration. She had the greatest idea to open it half an hour ago to note something down after a moment of contemplation and deep thinking when her worst nightmare manifested into reality. It had terrified her every time she recalled that nightmare which left her tossing and turning in anxiety, but for it to come true... what are the odds, her head cried. What. Are. The. Odds?

The secret key was gone.


"No, no, no, no..." she muttered frantically and repeatedly, her puffy mane already looking frazzled with a few loose hairs sticking out from the cotton candy bunch. Her parents always told her about keeping the secret key in a secret and safe place as much times as they told her to keep the room clean or to stop her bad habit of chewing her mane. Doing all three at once... she was going to get grounded for sure.

But grounded or not, the secret key would still be gone.

"Come on, Pinkie!" she yelled at herself, slumping.
"Think! What to do, what to do... oh wait! What if I... no, no... o-or what if I use balloons and... that wouldn't work either... but there must be some way..."

Granny Pie once told her about something like that: when there's a will, there's a way. She didn't know what the first half meant -- her teacher just taught her in school that 'will' is some weird thingamabob called an 'auxiliary verb', not an object -- but the second half did give a little bit of hope. There's a way, she muttered to herself. There's always a way.
"Ooh, if I don't have the key, then I can't plan our birthdays!" she exclaimed to herself.
"There's Mom's birthday, then Inkie's. After that is Blinkie's, then Dad's, then there's--"

Pinkie stopped.

Her eyes widened, before a bright smile grew on her face.

"That's it!!" she said, or technically screamed.
"There is a way!!"

There is a way alright.

It comes in the form of her big sister.













"Rock, you are a rock."

First verse. Perfect.

"You're gray and hard... what rhymes with hard?"

Scrap.

With a sigh, Maud Pie crumpled up what seemed to be the eighth paper of the day, tossing it aside absentmindedly before getting a new one from her desk. She soon clambered up to her bed, poked her head out of the open window and gazed down at the barren field of rocks. Sure, it wasn't a colorful sight, but the dullness of it all... it seeps with inspiration somehow. Papa did tell her about the strange gases that comes out from the ground sometimes and messes with ponies' heads, though she didn't mind. Slowly, Maud inhaled the dry air, a rare smile forming on her face when she did so.
"Rock," she began, closing her eyes.
"You're gray and--"

"MAUD!!!"

"Huh. That does rhyme with hard. I think. Hmm..."

"Maud, Maud, Maud, Maud, MAUD!!" came the muffled shrieking and wailing of her little sister from the room right beside hers.
"M-M-M-Maud~!! Maudie-Moo!! Maudster!! Mayor Maud!!"

"I can hear you, Pinkie," she raised her voice a little, looking over her shoulder and out at the empty doorway. Funny, she thought to herself: she expected the silly filly to be there already.
"What happened? What did you do?"

"I lost something!!"

"Uh-huh... and can you tell me what is this thing you lost?"

"I would love to, but it's a secret!!"

"Pinkie, we're sisters. There's nothing we need to hide from each other."

"But you said your poem was a secret, and you made me Pinkie Promise not to take a peek!"

"Oh," Maud muttered to herself, remembering her first poem that she wrote three days ago. She felt quite proud of it for writing it, even wanting to share it with all three of her sisters, though she held back at the last minute. Ever since then, she had been hastily thinking up her second poem every day after school, just to get her creative juices flowing, though she didn't exactly had any luck. She did feel a little lucky today, at least, until the untimely interruption from her sister, who still was nowhere to be seen.
"That was... work in progress," she replied with a rare stammer.
"It doesn't count."

"Yes, it does!"

"If you're not going to tell me, then I'll just get back to my poem."

"Ooh, wait!! How about guessing it through a guessing game? Genius!!"

A blink. "Go on."

"What does a monk and a donk have in common?!"

A long pause.

"What's a donk?"

"I don't know! I was hoping you could tell me!!"

"Skip."

"Ooh, but you need to know what you're looking for and the only way you would know what you're looking for is by answering the question! So if you don't answer the question, then... then... then you wouldn't know what you're looking for, and if you don't know what you're looking for, then I can never find my secret key... FOREVER!!!"

The second smile of the day grew on Maud's face.
"So it was the key after all."

"W-What?! How did you--!! Wait... YOU FOUND IT?!!"
A loud gasp rang throughout the hallways, with Maud's ears picking up what seemed to be a whoosh of wind before a shadow flew over her, prompting her to catch a little glimpse of Pinkie doing a somersault in the air before landing right in front of her with a thump. Her sister's eager face stayed there long after the landing, but after a shake of her head, the pink mare just slumped her shoulders, the gathering excitement washed out in a tidal wave.
"Aw phooey..." Pinkie grumbled, crossing her hooves.
"I let my secret out, didn't I?"

"I'll eventually know about it anyway."

"Secret or not, it's gone now... maybe... maybe I'll never get it back after all..."
With a feverish sigh, Pinkie just let the pent-up frustration pull her head towards the ground. That was when Maud heard the sound; that one sound that struck her like a bell other than the crack of a rock. It wasn't the badly-hidden sniffles that her sister was making, nor the single tear dripping onto the wooden floor. No, it was the strange sound of Pinkie's mane deflating, with a rubbery despondency and a choked, distressed squeak of air, that shook her from her calm state.

"Don't cry, Pinkie," Maud muttered, putting a hoof around her little sister.
"Alright. I'll help."

"R-Really?" Pinkie gasped, her mane re-inflating almost immediately, much to the other mare's relief.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!"

"So we're looking for something lost... hmm... that's something that Fetlock Holmes would do."

"Fetlock whojamalit?"

"Fetlock Holmes," Maud repeated.
"He's a detective who finds out what went wrong and which pony did it. Then there's his friend, Doctor John Trotson."

"Doctor who?"

"Doctor John Trotson," Maud repeated.
"He's Fetlock's partner and best friend that helps him out in any way he can. Together, the two of them always make things right again in the end, including finding lost things."

"Ooh~! So how do they start finding out who did-done-dood it?"

"First they go back to where it all happened."

"Ohhhhh..." Pinkie stopped to think.
"Ooh! Ooh! I have the greatest, most superrific idea ever!! Why not we make this a super-duper game of pretend while we look for my key? You'll be the great Fetlock Holmes and I'll be... the other pony!"

"John Trotson."

"John Trotvolta. Got it."

"It's John Trotson," Maud corrected.
"Alright... let's start from your room. You lost the key there, right?"

"Yuppiddy do, Maudie-Moo!! I-I mean Fetlock!"

Maud just nodded, gesturing her sister outside with only a small thought in her head.

This was going to be a long day.













"You messed up your room."

"Mm-hmm!"

Maud opened her mouth, before stopping, before opening her mouth again.
"You... messed up your room..."

"Yippie yup!" Pinkie said, puffing her chest proudly with a squeal of delight.
"I was looking for the key before I asked for your help! Y'know, just in case I can find it. That way, I can do my party planning and yee-ou can do your rock poems!!"

"You know Mom's going to ground you for this, right?"

"I know," the pink filly muttered, tone suddenly despondent.
"But hey! At least I tried something!"

"At least..." Maud muttered. She didn't mind how messy the room was. What she did mind, however, was what she believed Fetlock would've minded as well: a tampered crime scene, this time with Pinkie 'John Trotson' Pie being the unknowing culprit. At any rate, Fetlock would've been panicking and scouring the place for more answers, though Maud didn't need to do that, of course; Pinkie had something John Trotson didn't have.
"Do you... remember how the room was like?"

"Um... uh..."

"What is it?" the older mare asked.
"What's wrong?"

"I... can't."

"Why not?"

"Because Johnny Trotty can't remember stuff like I can!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Maud cocked her head to the side. "Huh?"

"I'm pretending to be John Trotson, aren't I?" her sister asked, to which she gave a nod.
"Well, then I'm John Trotson! And when I'm John Trotson, I can't exactly remember things as well, right? Right?"

Maud just shrugged.
"I still need you to remember how the room was like before you mess it up."

"But.. b-b-b-but..."

"Remember, Pinkie--"

"Neigh!! Thy name is John Trotson, Fetlock!!"

"John," Maud rephrased quickly before her sister can explode into a fit of confetti. Yes, you read that right. Confetti.
"No matter who you may become or how... low you think yourself as, you're still my sister, Pinkie Pie. You're the one pony that holds parties for everypony in the whole of Equestria, the smartest filly I ever met and the only one that can remember everything she sees. We all love you for who you are. Mom, Dad, Inkie, Blinkie and I... we all love you."

"Aw..." Pinkie sniffled, rubbing her watering eyes.
"That's so... so... I never had anypony tell me that before..."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just..." she stopped to blow her nose into her hoof; a habit she has that Maud... tolerated, per say, unlike their parents.
"S-So where do we start?"

"Try to picture your room before you searched for you key," Maud said.
"Okay, close your eyes."

"Eyes closey-do~zey!!"

"Now, remember how the room looked like."

"Uh... um... I'm trying... hang on, it'll take a minute..."
With a shrug, Maud settled herself down onto the bed. While she doesn't show it, she was always slightly envious of her sister. It wasn't her aficionado of parties that get to her; she wasn't surprised when she came back from school to see her whole family partying on the day Pinkie got her Cutie Mark. It was the astounding memory that she has which Maud wanted. With such a memory, she found it surprising that her sister still needs a notebook for prepping all her parties.
"I remember something..." Pinkie said after a literal minute.
"I think... I think I see the key!"

"What else do you see?"

"I was playing with a balloon," she murmured.
"Then... then I had the bestest idea of throwing a party. It would have the best name ever! I was just so hippity-happy about the party that I jumped straight out of the bed! Do you know what's the party for?"

With a squeak of a grin, Pinkie let out a chuckle when her sister gave a feeble shrug.
"It's so easy!" she declared.
"Why, it's for your birthday, of course!"

Maud just stared at her.
"Oh."

"Exciting, isn't it?"

"Sure it is."

"I knew you would say that!" Pinkie said with a nudge at Maud's withers. Chuckling mirthfully, the younger filly hopped up onto her bed, doing a pirouette before falling onto the mattress. Maud just cantered towards the bedside, looking on as Pinkie snuggled in her blanket, giggling happily like the pony she was.
"So anyways, I thought of a perfect way to celebrate your birthday. I knew it can't be a surprise, since you don't really work well with surprises, so I thought maybe if we have a rock party..."

Pinkie stop with a gleeful smile, eyes closed in the moment, before letting out a dreamy sigh.
"Uh-huh~? You know what that means, don't you? So I was so excited that I jumped out of the bed just so I could start right away! That was when I wanna write down what I need and... well..."

"Hmm... so the key was?"

"On the bed!"

"That could've only mean it fell down onto the floor."

"But I've searched the floor and there's nothing there!"

Maud pulled herself up the bed, looking around the room as she settled down on her haunches with one hoof resting at the tip of her chin. Pinkie, being Pinkie, huddled right next to her in her cocoon of a blanket fluttering her eyes as she eagerly waited for an answer. Two stark contrasts, sitting on the bed where strangers can mistake them for friends... it always reminded Maud of what a quirky family she was in, with many thanks to Pinkie Pie.
"Well?" the younger one said, jumping up and down on the bed which made them wobble about like jello.
"Got any hints?"

"Not yet."
This was a tough cookie to crack. For such a small key, it could've been anywhere in this room. Maud pictured it once more: key was on the bed, Pinkie jumped out of the bed, key flew off the bed... and probably landed anywhere. She had never done this much thinking before, at least, not on a topic aside from rocks.
She glanced about the room, looking for something, anything, that could help out with their search. There's the overturned bedsheets, the rummaged cupboard and the tossed drawers to begin with. If they can't, then they have the cracks between the floorboards, which would be a bigger hassle to deal with. They could always ask the rest of the family to help, but that would force them to wait, which Maud knew her sister wouldn't like.

"Are you done yet?"

"Still thinking," she muttered, glancing out the open window. Without further ado, Pinkie once again bounced up and down on the bed, leaving Maud to bob violently up and down like a buoy in a storm. She knew her other sisters would already snap at her for doing so, though she herself didn't mind. What would one expect from Pinkie Pie?

Then it hit her.

"Pinkie," Maud asked, stopping all the fervent bouncing.
"Was the window open when you jumped out of the bed?"

"Come to think of it, yeah it was!"

"You jumped out of the bed... and the key was on the bed."
The chances of such a thing happening was enough to make Maud almost scrap the theory. Still, it could happen. After all, it was just a search around the rock farm. No harm done, right?
"Pinkie," Maud began confidently.

"I think I know where your key went."













"Are you sure it's out here?"

"No," Maud admitted, still unfazed.
"But we have to try."

"So the key bounced off my bouncy-wouncy bed... and flew out the window and into the rocks."

"That's what I think."

"Ohhhh... but how are we going to find it?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Maud answered, glancing around the field of rocks. If she were Fetlock, she could probably estimate where it landed from the window, but she and Pinkie had stopped pretending ages ago. It was a 'needle in a haystack' situation they were in, if the key was here in the first place.
Their search began from the porch, where Maud kept her gaze stuck to the floor, scanning the rock-covered field carefully without missing an inch. Pinkie bounced happily right behind, but as time languidly passes, she stooped down to a skip, to a canter, to just a small trot, stopping only when Maud turned to her.

"I don't want to say this, but I don't know if we might ever find it."

"Oh... okay..."

Silence.

"You alright, Pinkie?"

"Yeah, I'm just... we were so close, weren't we?"

"I'm sorry I can't find it for you," Maud muttered, watching her sister's mane wilting once more. She felt something strange; a weird tingle within the depths of her heart. Pinkie was sniffling right beside her, trying in vain to hide it. She was always the kind of filly which strove to conceal whatever drop of sadness she has to herself. Then again, Maud was like her as well.
"Are you... angry at me?"

"W-Why?" Pinkie's throat lurched a moment, one hoof wiping a few restrained tears away.
"Why would I be angry at you, Maud?"

"I really thought we could find the key, Pinkie... but all I did was disappoint you..."

"You didn't disappoint me, silly!"
Maud looked up when her sister said that, feeling a hoof on her shoulder.
"Even though I didn't find my key," Pinkie said with a soft smile.
"At least I got to spend the day with the bestest big sister in the whole wide world. The key might be really, really super important to me, but Maud, you are more super-duper important to me than a key!"

"But... but your key..."

"I can always get another one. I'll just have to ask Papa."

"You're going to get grounded if you do."

"I know! But if I get to spend another day with you like this, I would lose every little key in the world~!"

"Aw..." Maud said, chuckling happily as she and Pinkie hugged each other.
"Thanks... sis..."

"You laughed!"

"Mm-hmm."

"You... Y-You... laughed!!"

Another chuckle. "Yes I did, Pinkie."

"Wowzie! That's a doozy, and a BIG doozy it was!!"
Maud held her smile, a little surprised at all the emotions going through her head. So this was what it's like to smile. No wonder Pinkie loved to make others smile all the time, with all her cheerful parties and optimistic view of life. She never did understand her little sister back then, but now? All she could do was smile.
"Maud Pie is smiling~! Maud Pie is smiling~!" Pinkie sang teasingly.
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Inkie and Blinkie would not believe this! I've never seen you this excited before in my life!!"

"I love you, Pinkie."

Pinkie glanced up when she said that, before smiling with tears in her eyes. Tears of joy.
"I love you too, Maudie-Moo."

"Come on, Pinkie," Maud said, earning a giggle from her sister.
"Let's go home."

"Wait!!"

"What is it?"

"There!!" Pinkie chattered giddily, pointing across the field while hopping in place.
"There, there, there, there, THERE!! It's shiny-whiny!!"

Maud glanced across the field where Pinkie was pointing, looking for the 'shiny-whiny' thing she was talking about. A small glint soon caught her attention, the two fillies quickly galloping, heart pounding with excitement even though Pinkie was the only one showing it, as well as the only one who gasped when they found out what it was.
"My key!!" she exclaimed happily, clapping her hooves.
"I can't believe it! It is here!!"

"So it is."

"Oh, thank you so MUCH, Maud!!" Pinkie shrieked, hugging her sister yet again.
"If it weren't for you, it would've been lost... FOREVERRRRR~!!"

Maud would've agreed, but what caught her interest was the key, or rather, what the key seemed to have landed on. Breaking from the hug, she knelt down to pick the key up, handing it to Pinkie before examining whatever that it was perched on. Pinkie, of course, joined in.
"Ooh~!" she said with a chirp.
"What is that?"

"Sedimentary."

"Huh?"

"Sedimentary, my dear Pinkie," Maud repeated with a knowing grin.
"It's a sedimentary rock."

"Wow... so the key landed on the rock..."
Pinkie stopped to think for a moment, for there can be only one reason as to why it did.
"That means... this rock is a special rock!!"

"It's a sedimentary rock."

"But it helped me find my key!!"

"It doesn't help ponies. It's a rock," Maud stated, glancing down at the small pebble.
"He looks kinda small, though."

"He?"

"It's a he," she affirmed, picking it up.
"I wonder why the key landed on him though..."

"Because, Maudie-Moo, it's a special rock!" Pinkie repeated once again.
"Hey, I got a great idea! Why not we keep him?"

"Keep him?"

"Yeah! He can be a pet rock! I have so many back in my room!"

"Mom would ground you if she found out."

"That's why I never told anypony! It's called thinking ahead," Pinkie declared proudly, puffing her chest.
"Keep him! Give him a name, like how I gave my rock some names! The most special of the specialest pet rocks I have is this round one that's green with purple spots on it! It looks like the gummy treats Granny always gets us when she comes by, so I called it Gummy!"

Maud blinked for a second. A green rock with purple spots?
"Pinkie, I don't think Gummy's a rock."

"Like I said, it's a special rock!" Pinkie proclaimed, before narrowing her eyes down at the rock in Maud's hoof.
"What about this special rock? Give him a name, like... Boulder! Yeah! Boulder's a good name!!"

Silently, Maud just gazed down at the rock, then back up at Pinkie's bright cheery smile, before a small grin grew on hers as well. She never considered having pets, thanks to her parents' strictness and their sensitivity about them running around and making noises everywhere, but they probably wouldn't mind a pet rock now, wouldn't they? It doesn't move, it's always silent and it's easy to care for! It's seems like the perfect pet!
"Boulder..." she mumbled.

"I like it."













"And that's how Equestria was made!"

"Huh?" Sweetie Belle said, cocking her head with her fellow crusaders. They were sitting at the edge of their seats in Sugarcube Corner, their milkshakes forgotten halfway along the story being told by their favorite baker and party planner, who was still mixing a batch of dough with a wooden spoon.
"But I thought you were telling us about--"

"Oh yeah!" Pinkie exclaimed, suddenly struck by the brightest idea ever.
"Wait 'till I tell you about how I became assistant to the greatest, stupendous, most awesome detective in the whole wide world of Equestria! It'll be the best story ever!"

"But..." Apple Bloom tried to cut in.
"Didn'tcha just tell us--"

"No I didn't, silly filly!"

"Yes you did!" Scootaloo proclaimed.
"You said you would tell us, and you did tell us!"

"Did I? Oh well."
With a shrug, Pinkie settled the bowl down, stretching her tired hooves as the three Crusaders looked on.
"Well, detective story or not," she began, earning their utmost attention.
"What matters is that you gotta love your brothers and sisters for who they are! They might be really, really different from you, but they're still family! You can learn a lot from them, as much as they can learn a lot from you."

"That's... kinda deep..."

"Oh, it is! Trust me!" the pink mare replied, making the trio giggle. That was when Pinkie stopped to smile, remembering that zany adventure that brought both Maud and her closer not only as sisters, but as friends. If it weren't for the key, they probably might not be sending each other rock candy necklaces today. Funny, how one problem can lead to such a big change in her life.
"Now then!" she began once again, snapping out from her reverie.
"Wanna hear another story?"

The three fillies cried out in unison: "Yes!!"

"Alrighty then!" Pinkie said, happily giggling.
"Now this is the story in which the Great Maud Pie and her assistant, Pinkie Pie, figures out whodunit in a very special case that I call 'The Missing Boulder'."

"Ooh..." the Crusaders said, intrigued.

"Indeedy doody! It all began in a small rock farm a train ride away from Ponyville..."