A tiny mouse scurried across the dust. Small billows were kicked up as its feet pattered on the ground. Curiosity had overtaken the little rodent as it explored a new place. There was a wide open space full of nothing but dirt and rocks, which left the mouse wide open for any predators. But the mouse was focused on the possibilities of this new place, even if there was not much to it now.
It came across a wall. It looked up, amazed at the sheer height. It didn't look like any tree or rock that it had encountered before, as it was not only tall, but very wide. It gingerly placed a paw on the wall and felt the rough surface. What was this doing here?
It glanced to its left, and there was a hole. The inquisitive mouse approached it cautiously, and stuck its head in. When assured that it was safe, it crawled in and explored inside the wall.
Later, it came back out, and it scurried back to the forest it came from, eager to tell its friends about the wondrous place it had found.
Igneous Rock patted the dirt in place, a satisfied nicker escaping his throat.
It had taken a little over a week, but all the holes had been filled. He was quite thankful that they had made good time with the task, and now things could go back to the normal routine. He turned to the rest of the family and Cheese, who were drinking out of the trough. While they welcomed the break, there was no doubt that they would still have to carry on with the usual chores.
Igneous walked to the trough and drank in big gulps. Once he was finished, he looked up at the rest, and tilted his head toward the field to let them know that it was time to go back to work.
The afternoon dragged on as it always did. They were once again gathering rocks, hauling them, and sorting them. Boulders were busted, embedded rocks were dug out, and the unripe rocks were carefully placed in their spots.
Cheese was handling the placement of the unripe rocks quite well. Taking a bunch of them and holding them all with one of his front legs, he gently placed them onto the ground and nudged them into place. He could stand on two legs just long enough to place one down, and then returned to walking on three legs while one cradled the pile of rocks he carried.
And he had whistled before Igneous got annoyed and told him to stop, to which he meekly complied.
The work went on until suppertime loomed. Igneous hauled the ripe rocks into the barn with Maud, while the others washed up and went in to prepare for supper.
Cheese had set the table quickly, retreating to a corner to read a book. He felt bad for not contributing much to the preparations, but what could he do? He was an awful cook, with beans the only thing he could at least make decent. At this point, all he could do was wait while the mares made dinner.
At least he wasn't the only one. Maud wasn't that great of a cook either, he had been told. Of course, she had never seemed interested in it, so he figured that she never put in the effort to learn like her sisters did.
He scooted to lean against the wall, and his rump came in contact with something cold and hard on the floor. He jumped to his feet, and turned to see what it was. Curiously, it was a small handle to a door that occupied that very corner he was in. He scratched his head, wondering how he had missed the cellar door.
He leaned down and poked the handle, muttering, "What would they keep in a cel—wait. Probably more rocks."
Even so, something in the back of his mind told him that there was the possibility that there was something other than rocks down there. If there was, it probably grains used to bake in bread. He still poked the handle, debating whether or not he should check it out.
"All right, the rocks are clean and I've put them into the pot," Cloudy said. "Pinkamena, get the cheese. Marble, get the vegetables we need. Limestone, give me the salt and pepper."
The three girls nodded, and went to the respective places to gather the ingredients needed for stone soup. Despite the fact that there were stones in it, it was actually quite delicious. It was the meal that Pinkamena, Marble, and Limestone were the most pleased with, and they were definitely pleased that they were having it tonight.
Or so they thought. As Marble opened the cupboard, she gasped, and her eyes widened at what she found inside.
Even worse, what was inside had suddenly come pouring out like a waterfall onto the counter, the floor, and on Marble herself. The cacophony of squeaks drew the attention of her mother and sisters. They jumped at the sight of a tidal wave of mice crashing onto Marble relentlessly, with the pony and all of the mice with panicked looks on their faces.
A shocked Pinkamena turned back to do her job… only to find mice had gotten the cheese as well. She looked between the startled Cloudy and Limestone, the army of mice coming out of every nook and cranny, and Marble, who was going to scream in about three seconds.
As Igneous and Maud locked up the barn, a shriek came from the house. Igneous spun around, and looked at the house in concern, while Maud just simply turned and blinked.
"What the—what's going on in there?" Igenous muttered.
The two went to the house, and threw open the front door. A bunch of mice scurried between their hooves, but that was just a small fraction of the number of mice inside. The rodents practically made an undulating carpet on the floor, and they all squeaked in such a shrill and unorganized manner that an earache was inevitable. In the corner, mice were jumping at Cheese, who kept swatting them away with his book.
"Back off!" Cheese snarled, batting some mice away. "Back off! Just because my name is Cheese doesn't made I'm actually made of cheese!"
"What in blazes is going on here?!" Igneous shouted.
Cheese turned to the older stallion. "Isn't it obvious?! It's a mouse invasion!"
"Where did they all come from?!"
"Kitchen!" Cheese jumped as some of the rodents managed to sink their teeth into him. "YOWCH! Geez, I just said I wasn't made of cheese!"
Are we out of rat poison? Igneous thought. He sighed and walked in, making mice scatter as he took each step. Maud was right behind him, sweeping mice out of her path. She glanced at Cheese, stared at him for a brief moment, and then walked toward him. She plucked the mice off of him, and the two set to work on scaring the army of rodents out the door.
Igneous made his way to the kitchen, where a trembling Marble was curled up on the table, Cloudy was shooing mice with a broom, and Pinkamena and Limestone were wielding frying pans to swat mice like Cheese had been doing with his book. It was a scene that Igneous never thought he would ever see.
"Cloudy! Can you explain this?!"
Cloudy swept some mice out of the kitchen. With the broomstick between her teeth, she answered, "They jumped outta that cupboard onto Marble, and now they're running all over the place!"
"How did they get in there?!"
"We'll figure that out later! We've gotta get rid of these thieving rodents!"
Pinkamena banged her pan on the floor, sending some mice scattering. "So much for our soup!"
"Soup?" Limestone retorted. "So much for anything for dinner!"
Igneous groaned. "Door's open! Chase them out!"
"OUCH!" Cheese shouted from the other room. "Okay, that's it! It's rodent stomping time!"
The very next moment, loud, angry stomping could be heard, as well as an uproar of frightened squeaks. Igneous looked behind him briefly, and looked at the frustrated Cheese, whose curly mane was beginning to bristle, and whose hooves were making mice flee out the door with each step. Maud was just sweeping them out with her tail, and when some would try to scurry back in, she only made a single hard stomp, and the mice just ran back out.
Turning back to the others, Igneous said, "Come on, let's get these darn rodents out of here."
Armed with her broom, Cloudy nodded and continued to sweep, while Pinkamena and Limestone still threatened the mice with their cooking ware. Igneous was ready to take Marble off the table so she could help, but he was stopped when Limestone said, "Don't bother. You know how she gets when she's scared."
Igneous shook his head. She can take on an army of Diamond Dogs without breaking a sweat, and yet she gets paralyzed by mice. He let her be, and did his part in shooing the mice.
Mice were shooed from out of the kitchen, and in turn they were shooed out the door. By broom, pan, and hoof, the Pies and Cheese were fighting this army of tiny critters. Some tried to hide, but it was no use. These ponies were adamant about getting rid of every single one of them.
While some of the mice tried to fight back by biting the ponies, they were easily shaken off and brushed away by the broom. The clanging of the pans and stomping of the hooves sent the rodents into a panic, and they scattered left and right trying to escape the ponies pursuing them. Hiding under furniture was not much help either, for the ponies were strong and could lift it easily. The only way to lose these ponies was to make it out through the open door.
The rodent army had to retreat, for the enemy was far too large, and could easily crush them. Some tails had already been crushed by the skinny orange one, and none wanted to take the risk with the stockier equines. Biting them was only a mild inconvenience, and they had no other methods of fighting. Convinced that the ponies were going to eat them, the retreat was made.
The mice ran out of the door in a river, running faster upon hearing hoofbeats and the clanging of pans. Large and noisy animals the ponies were, and they were surely dangerous. There was no doubt that the mouse community was going to have to lecture the fool who lead them there in the first place. Innocent rodents could have been killed!
The river of mice went down to a stream, and then the stream went down to a trickle. The Pies searched every nook and cranny for any stragglers, shooing them out when they found them. They made sure to search for any mice that were dead as well.
And then Igneous checked the cellar. There was more, and they were all in the bags of grain. Or what was left of the grain. Luckily, the mice were stuck in the bags, so they simply took the bags out, dumped the mice and very little remaining grain out, and then took them back in.
After all was said and done, Igneous and Cheese threw the bags onto the cellar floor. Cheese looked around the cellar, having finally discovered what was down there. And as he guessed, not only was there the grain, there was a rock collection.
Igneous cleared his throat. "Well, boy, it seems we got rid of all of the mice."
Cheese was still looking around. "Mm-hm."
"Now we've got to find the hole they came in and plug it up."
"With a rock?" Cheese asked with a grin.
Igneous stared hard at Cheese, who averted his gaze once his grin fell. After the younger stallion mumbled an apology, Igneous went up the stairs. "Supper's late, and I'm hungry."
"Uh, yeah, me too," Cheese mumbled. His eyes swept the room one last time. There was the rock collection, the empty bags, an old bookshelf with some old books, and a trunk. And he suddenly became very curious about the last two.
"You coming?!"
Cheese jumped at the sound of Igneous' voice, and climbed up the stairs, glancing at the bookshelf and the trunk as he left the cellar.
"Well, that's just our luck," Cloudy grumbled as she looked through the cupboards. "That lot of mice devoured just about everything!"
Limestone groaned and glared at Marble. "By the way, thanks for the help. Your act of cowering on the table really scared off those mice."
Marble glowered back. "Well, excuse me if I got rained on by mice! How would you react to that?!"
"I'd just brush them off and fight them."
"Pfft, yeah, right. You freaked out at that grasshopper, remember?"
"I was five! And hey, it jumped onto my chest!"
"Well, mice raining on you is worse!"
Cloudy put a hoof to her face as her daughters argued. "It's times like these where I wish we had a cat…"
Pinkamena, growing annoyed by the argument of Marble and Limestone, brought her hoof down with a resounding thud and growled, "Enough. Marble helping us wouldn't have changed anything. They got there before we even came inside."
Maud stared at the inside of the cupboard that was currently open. "Looks like there won't be supper tonight."
Just as she had said that, Igneous and Cheese came in, having heard it if the sheer disappointment on Cheese's face was any indication. Igneous gave him a stern look and said, "You can survive. I'm sure you've been short on rations before."
Cheese brushed the floor with his hoof. "I know, I know… that still doesn't soften the blow."
"That wasn't the intention."
"Yeah… hey, didn't the Apples invite us to—"
"No," Pinkamena interjected, walking toward them.
Cheese glared at her. "I wasn't talking to you."
"Well, I'm sure Pa agrees. We can survive until tomorrow when we can buy some food from the market. In any case, I don't want to go to their farm."
"Well, I don't see what the problem is," Cheese said. "They're nice folks, and I don't really see the trouble that could come from one night."
"You haven't met Cortland."
Cortland. Already that name got on his nerves. Why was that? "Well… this could be my chance to meet him. I need to meet him before I form an opinion of him." And I don't want to get all my information about him from you, Pinkamena.
"Oh? Well, you might have a chance tomorrow when we go to the market."
Cheese narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Something tells me you're afraid of him."
"I am not."
"You sure? It's not like he'll propose if we come over."
"Oh, you think that?" Pinkamena leaned forward, not caring that her nose was now touching Cheese's, and not caring for the surprise that flashed in his green eyes. "I bet you five bits that he would."
"Pinkamena," Igneous interrupted. "Get out of his face. Besides, it's my decision."
Pinkamena took a step back from Cheese. She watched him rub his nose, noting that he was scrunching his muzzle and blushing as he did so. He was obviously not used to a mare being that close to him. For a brief moment, she wondered how he'd react to a mare kissing him.
Igneous cleared his throat. "All right, so I have been mulling over the question of dinner at the Apple family's farm. Now that all the holes are filled, I suppose I can consider it. There are a few points of concern: One, there's the issue Pinkamena has with Cortland. Two, there have been rumors floating around about the first concern. And three, we don't know if they've already had their supper."
"Any points that should push us to go?" Cloudy asked.
"Besides the fact that we're hungry? Well, Haralson and I should discuss on how to effectively quash those dang rumors. Our entire family should lay down the law for Cortland to accept Pinkamena's rejection. Maybe Haralson will leave us alone after this. And of course, there's the matter of introducing our hired hoof."
Igneous sighed. "I suppose we could accept this one invitation."
Pinkamena's eyes widened. Was she hearing that right? "Pa, no!"
"Don't worry, he won't harass you when we're around. We won't let him."
"Igneous, are you sure about this?" Cloudy asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. After this, things will go back to normal. We'll restock our food tomorrow, get some rat poison, and we work the farm. Nopony else will come out here to bother us."
Somepony's stomach growled. Whoever it was, they didn't speak up.
"Now… let's see if they have room for seven more."