//------------------------------// // Old and New // Story: Stay // by Wintergreen Diaries //------------------------------// Pinkie wasn’t positive on the technicalities of the term “irony,” but what she did know made the word seem unfortunately applicable the following morning. Her father wasn’t one to exaggerate, there wasn’t any humor to be found in playing up her sister’s foul mood, and if anything, he hadn’t played it up enough. The last time she had been home, she had been the stubborn mess of sullen indifference, and her sisters had been tasked with responsibility of trying, and failing, to cheer her up. Now it was Limestone with the milk-curdling scowl of perpetual wrath, and Pinkie could hardly believe that her sisters had put up with her as long as they had. She had hardly coaxed anything from her sister, and the few exchanges that had occurred were anything but friendly, making the conclusion of breakfast and the start of her day in the rock fields a blessing rather than a chore. She needed time to think, and repetitive manual labor presented a golden opportunity to do so. “Or a gray one,” she said to herself, cantering to a slow halt and slipping out of the cart’s harness. “Alright, atteeeen-shun! Look alive, everypebble, we have work to do!” Snapping to attention at the sound of her commanding voice, the myriad of rocks strewn across the field promptly sat idle, awaiting collection while Pinkie Pie drilled them over the Limestone dilemma. Talking to rocks had been a habit of hers since she was young. She had never been so lacking in awareness as not to recognize that it was “weird,” but it helped her clear her head and organize her scattered thoughts. “Here’s the situation!” she belted out, beginning to separate and gather all of the stones that were the proper size to make cobblestone. “As some of you may or may not have heard, my sister Limestone seems to have caught a terrible case of the grumps. What we need to figure out is how she got infected so I can devise the perfect vaccine. Any suggestions? How about you?” Hefting a somewhat rounded chunk of granite, she held to her ears in silence for a moment before shaking her head. “No such luck, I’m afraid. If it were as simple as throwing a party, then I’d already be gathering the streamers,” Pinkie explained officiously before tossing the crestfallen cadet over her shoulder into the cart. “Anyone else? How about you, gabbro?” Silence. “Well, you do have a point,” she conceded, “but I don’t think it will be that simple. I mean, have you tried talking to my sister lately?” No sooner had she tossed the stone into the cart with the other than she snapped her head to the right, bearing down on the unfortunate diorite with her finest sergeant glare. “Would you like to repeat that, cadet?!” she practically bellowed, snatching up the rock and holding it at eye level. “This is my sister we’re talking about, here! If I hear one more word out of you that doesn’t pertain to making her feel better, so help me, I will send you to the tumbler! Now,” she continued, her voice dropping to a dangerous calm, “would anyone else like to call my sister names? Hm?” Silence. “Hmph. That’s what I thought.” Confident that she had left the offender thoroughly cowed, she added it to her slowly growing collection and continued loading the cart. Knowing in the back of her head that she had several loads to gather and unload that morning, her chatter gradually petered out as she got into the swing of work. The rocks didn’t seem to have anything particularly helpful to offer that morning, and after an hour or two she resigned herself to go about her chores quietly. Her hooves moved of their own accord while her mind stayed far removed from her allotted task, and before long she had heaped the cart high, full of prime candidates for becoming cobblestone. “Huh, some good you are,” she muttered, slipping into the harness. “What a disgraceful lot.” Planting her hooves and straining against the yoke, Pinkie got the cart rolling and made her way through the fields towards the river that bordered their property. Flowing from the Foal Mountain range north of the Ridge, the river was relatively calm when it first entered the Pie family territory, but as it winded down around the eastern edge, the stream became a frothing rapid that led to a waterfall. Making cobblestone was as simple as tossing some rocks into the river and letting the current smooth them out, eventually carrying them to the basin at the base of the falls. Carting them up the winding path hadn’t gotten any easier in the time that Pinkie had spent away from the rock farm, though, and she arrived panting for breath. “And you call yourselves boulders? Hah!” she mocked them, coughing a little. “You’re nothing but pebbles, the whole lot of you! Making me do all the work…” Dragging the cart over to the bank, she made sure that it was stable and wouldn’t slip down the bank before easing herself out of the harness and throwing open the back. Hopping onto the mound, she deftly began herding the rocks out of the cart into several small piles. Dropping all of the rocks in one place would only succeed in damming the river, so Pinkie had to space them out manually, which took more time than most ponies would suspect. After finishing all but a small stack of stones, Pinkie gratefully sat down and let her hooves dangle in the stream. “Mmm, this is nice…” There was something soothing about the sound of the stream. She and her sisters had come to that very spot many times to play when she was young, and she soon found herself swept away in nostalgia with a warm smile of simple contentment lighting her features. “I miss those days,” she thought to herself, giggling quietly as she splashed about. “Poor Marble was too frightened to get anywhere near the water for the longest time, while Limestone just about drowned herself looking for funny shaped rocks.” Her ears drooped as she recalled the bitterness in Limestone’s words earlier that morning, leaving her longing for the days when they had all been inseparable. Moving to Ponyville had filled her heart with laughter, and she couldn’t bring herself to regret that decision, but that didn’t stop her from feeling the pangs of guilt for leaving her family behind, and she was starting to understand that, perhaps, that was why she hadn’t ever worked up the strength to return. “I had only had my cutie mark for a year before I moved. All four of us girls were really close, and then, just like that, I just… left.” It had been the only time that Pinkie had ever seen Maud moved to tears, and it made her stomach churn thinking of how it must have been for her other two sisters. “And then, for me to come back after all that time and push them away… why wouldn’t Limestone be upset? She probably should be, but then… why is this just coming out now?” Limestone had been more caring and compassionate than Pinkie felt she deserved, but the moment she had started feeling better, that was when the anger had started. “Why is being a grown up so confusing?” she pouted, standing reluctantly. While she had learned a thing or two about herself, her primary question had yet to be answered. With the sun rising in the sky and the heat growing by the hour, she couldn’t afford to dawdle. Hooking herself up to the cart, she starting back down the winding trail towards the flats. She still didn’t have much of a plan, but she still had three more loads to work before she had to think about confronting Limestone. About halfway through unloading the third, however, was when she realized that a confrontation wasn’t what was needed. “That’s it!” Pinkie exclaimed to the barren landscape, stopping cold. “Gosh, that’s so simple, though. Could that really work?” Succeed or fail, it was the best shot Pinkie felt she had at getting Limestone to open up, and she set about her work with renewed vigor. Panting and feeling pretty well spent by the time she spread the fourth load throughout the stream, she called upon her hidden reserves of vitality and made for home. Hurriedly stowing the cart in the stable, Pinkie bounded towards the farmhouse and nearly toppled over Marble, who had just been stepping out when Pinkie swung open the door. “... My bad,” she murmured, her demure tone not much more than a whisper. “No it isn’t, silly,” Pinkie assured her with an encouraging squeeze. “I know things have been scary, what with Limestone being all down in the dumps, but I think I might have just the thing to snap her out of it.” “Oh… I hope it works,” she replied, though she sounded far from convinced. Pinkie couldn’t begrudge her that, though, given the circumstances. “It’s totally going to work, but I’m going to need your help.” “W-What?” Marble stammered, wriggling out of Pinkie’s embrace and shrinking away. “N-no, I don’t think th-that’s a good idea… Limestone doesn’t want me around, a-and I would just get in the way…” “Well, that’s a load of nonsense if I ever heard one, and trust me,” she said with a wink, “I’m an expert at nonsense. It’ll be fine!” “B-but I…” “Marble, all I want is for you to be there.” Hesitant violet eyes peered out from behind the hair that fell across Marble’s face. “You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to. I just want the three of us to be together again. I won’t make you come, but I’d really like it if you did.” “... O-okay,” she said, nodding weakly. ”Where are we going?” “The usual place.” Marble’s eyes grew wide. “You mean…” “Uh huh!” Pinkie beamed. “I want to have a little bit of time to talk to her alone, so could you meet us there in, like… twenty minutes?” “Yeah, okay,” Marble replied, brightening at the thought. “I’ll be there.” “Great! Thanks, Inkie. I’ll see ya there.” Parting ways, Pinkie made her way up the stairs and paused outside Limestone’s room, taking a deep breath to steel her nerves. She had gotten ahead of herself, she realized, asking Marble to join them when Pinkie couldn’t be sure there would even be a “them” to join. Prying Limestone out of her room would likely be like pulling teeth, a sentiment that was reinforced as Pinkie knocked on the door. “No.” Flat, commanding, and thoroughly devoid of humor came the response from the other side. “Limestone? It’s me, Pinkie.” “Clearly.” “May I come in?” “Take a guess.” “Yes?” “No.” “No?” “Yes.” “You said yes!” Before Limestone could utter any dire warnings of bodily harm should her personal space be invaded, Pinkie had bounded through the door and stood in the center of the room. “... You have three seconds to explain why you’re here,” Limestone warned, fixing Pinkie in her death glare. “Limestone why are you-” “One.” “Wait, you can’t expect me to-” “Two.” “Ijustwantedtogoplayinthestreamtogetherlikeweusedto!” They both stared at one another. “... What did you say?” Limestone asked slowly. “I said that the reason I came here was because I wanted you to come play with me down by the stream like we would always do when we were little,” Pinkie explained again, watching Limestone’s expression for any sign of softening. “We haven’t done played in the water in ages! I thought it would be fun to spend some time together, and-” “Get… out.” Pinkie couldn’t recall ever hearing so much venom in two simple words. Limestone hadn’t spoken loudly, but Pinkie found her ears knocked flat by the overwhelming wrath laden in her sister’s voice, and she took a step back as Limestone’s countenance shifted from annoyed to seething. “B-but I thought that maybe-” “You thought wrong!” Limestone hissed, leaping off the bed and thrusting her face just a hair from Pinkie’s. “I don’t want anything to do with you. You’re an undependable nuisance that doesn’t care about anything but having fun, and you know what? That isn’t fun for anyone else.” Snorting unsympathetically as her sister’s eyes began to water, Limestone turned away and returned to her bed. “I’ve had enough of your selfishness, Pinkie,” she muttered, rolling onto her side, facing the wall. “Get out of my room.” Devastated in the wake, Pinkie stood with her hooves rooted to the floor. She had thought that she could bear the brunt of whatever Limestone would throw at her, but she hadn’t expected to have been broadsided by the truth. The accusations hurt more than ever because Pinkie actually agreed that she had been selfish, and not just in regards to her family, but overall throughout her life. Her cheerful nature and eagerness to make others laugh had masked her flaws well enough that even her closest friends had overlooked them for the longest time, but she knew her sister’s weaknesses as well as they knew hers. It was the risk that came with closeness, and rather than try as she might have before to shrug off the blow, Pinkie lifted her head and sniffed back the tears. “... You’re right,” she said quietly, fighting to keep her composure. “I haven’t been there for you like I should have, Limestone. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’d take them all back if I could, but…” Choking back the tears was becoming too much, and she bit her lip as they spilled down her cheeks. Apart from the slight twitch of her ears, Limestone gave no sign that she was listening to anything that Pinkie had said, and her spirits sank further as she fought the feelings of abandonment that had already begun to twist her stomach into knots. “I’m trying to change,” she whispered, turning away and hiding her face. “I’ll be the sister you deserve one day, but I guess today just… isn’t that day.” Quietly letting herself out, Pinkie closed the door behind her and shakily made her way down the steps. She could feel her parents’ sorrowful gaze watching her as left the house, but she couldn’t bring herself to look them in the eyes. They had been more than gracious with her over the years, welcoming her home at the drop of a hat, but she knew that they probably had missed her just as much as the sisters she had left behind. For the second time that day, she nearly collided with Marble, having been walking with her eyes locked on the ground. “She’s not coming, is she?” Marble asked rhetorically, drawing up beside Pinkie as much for her comfort as her own. Pinkie could only shake her head. “I thought so…” Timidly reaching over, Marble wrapped her hoof around Pinkie’s shoulders in a side hug. “Um, Pinkie? We don’t have to go to the river today if you don’t want to…” “Where else would I go?” she sniffled, scuffing at the dirt. “U-um, well,” she stammered awkwardly. Forming friendships was difficult when you were nervous just being outside of the house, and that’s to say nothing of how flustering the idea of romance was for Marble. “I j-just thought that maybe you’d go and see that nice stallion you met…” “Merry?” She had barely had time to think about him with everything else going on that day, but just the thought of spending time with him seemed to calm her her nerves. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but is fun what I should be thinking about right now?” she pondered, looking back towards the house. “I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d rather be than with Merry right now, which is really super weird because I know any of my Ponyville friends would be there for me if I needed them, but I can’t just leave…” The choice was there, and it wasn’t an easy one to make, but she knew what she should do. Cramming down the yearning in her heart, she wiped her eyes on the back of her hoof and regarded Marble with a frail smile. “You know, Marble? I would like to go see Merry,” she began, “but right here with you is where I belong. Come on, let’s go down to the river.” “R-really?” Marble asked, looking lost. “But… but you looked really happy when I mentioned him just now.” “That’s because he makes me really happy,” Pinkie replied with a quiet giggle, “but I’ve spent too much time away from you and Limestone, and that’s something that I wanna fix. C’mon, sis, let’s go have some fun.” Sometimes, it’s not always clear if the decision made was the right one, but Pinkie knew that she had chosen well as a wondrous smile overtook Marble’s hesitation. The mare all but threw herself at Pinkie in a manner completely uncharacteristic of such a shy mare, and it made the bearhug that much more meaningful. After they extricated themselves, the pair eagerly made their way towards the river. Though Pinkie could still feel the quiet nag of desire in the back of her mind, she found it difficult to hear over the sound of Marble’s animated chatter. She wasn’t the kind of mare to talk up a storm, but apparently Marble wasn’t the only one that had missed having Pinkie around. It was almost as if some kind of dam had been holding back her excitement, and with one simple choice, Pinkie had let it free. Their laughter reached the river long before their hooves did, though their mirth fizzled a little as they reached the banks. “Do you think that Limestone will come later, maybe?” Marble asked, looking earnestly at Pinkie Pie. “It just isn’t the same without her.” “I hope so,” Pinkie said, staring out over the water. “But even if she doesn’t come back today, we can always ask again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. You two didn’t give up on me, and we won’t give up on her.” “Right!” Marble affirmed with conviction. “Oh, I know! Why don’t we-” “-look for funny rocks?” they finished in unison. “That’s a great idea, Inkie! But… are you sure you’ll be okay?” Pinkie asked, glancing between her and the river. “I didn’t say that I’d be looking in the water,” Marble chuckled. “Yes, Pinkie, I’ll be okay. I’ll stick to the shallow places.” “Hehe, okay! Let’s find something awesome for Blinkie!” Over the course of the next few hours, the mares let the current carry away their worries as they hunted and splashed. More than a few epic paddle battles ended in a stalemate and left them both drenched head to hoof in the cool mountain water. There were a couple of times that Marble lost her balance, but Pinkie was right there to keep her from getting spooked. Once they had gotten that out of their system, they began the task of scouring the river, and they both returned with treasures to be proud of. Pinkie had found a chunk of morion quartz that bore a striking resemblance to an owl, while Marble had returned with some marbled onyx that would work perfectly as a candle holder. “Do you think she’ll like them?” Pinkie wondered aloud. “I’m sure she will,” Marble said confidently, standing tall. “Limestone hates being mad. I don’t think she’ll be able to keep going like she has been for much longer.” “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she agreed, glancing up at the sky. The blue had just barely started to show hints of gold, which would mean that they would have to be leaving soon. “Hey, Inkie? Wanna skip some stones?” “Hehe, only if you don’t get upset when I win,” Marble countered, winking playfully. Win or not, Pinkie couldn’t have cared less; she just wanted to spend a little more time with her sister away, from everything that awaited them at home. Marble had always had a knack for finding the perfect skipping stones, and there weren’t very many times that Pinkie could remember that she had been bested, though Maud often tied her. That wasn’t to say that Pinkie didn’t have a few tricks of her own, however. “One, two, three, four… seven!” Marble exclaimed. “Your turn, Pinkie. See if you can beat that!” Stepping boldly to the bank, Pinkie lugged over the most improbably hunk of rock to ever be skipped, spun around a few times, then hurled the small boulder across the surface. It skipped a whopping one time before dropping into the water with a tremendous splash and a resounding spelunk. “Hah! Ten,” Pinkie said calmly as Marble stood with her mouth agape. Knowing that Marble would most certainly “beat” her “high score,” Pinkie swiveled to find her next challenge, though the one she found waiting for her wasn’t that of skipping an awkwardly shaped stone. Watching wordlessly, Limestone stood at a distance like a sentinel. Pinkie had no idea how long she had been there, and she couldn’t help the anxiety that welled in her chest as their eyes met. “...nine, ten, eleven- twelve!” Marble cheered behind her. “Alright Pinkie, it’s your tu- oh…” Seeing her other sister, Marble immediately withdrew and fell quiet, hiding behind her mane. Pinkie felt like she could stand to do the same, and the tension hanging in the air made her want to turn tail and run, just like she had when she fled from Ponyville. “No, I’m not going to be like that again,” she told herself, wrenching her thoughts back. “This is something that I need to confront. I don’t care if it isn’t fun…” There was a battle inside between the old mare she was and the one she was striving to become, and she was determined to move forward, one faltering step at a time. Stooping down to collect the gift that she had pulled from the river, Pinkie recalled the words of her friends and family to give her strength, and the courage of a stranger to meet the storm head on. “I’m glad that you could make it,” Pinkie began, cantering slowly to a stop. “It hasn’t been the same without you. Here, I got you this.” Limestone’s expression remained unreadable as she stared at the small lump of morion in Pinkie’s hoof for an uncomfortably long period of time before she finally accepted it. “... What is it?” she asked. “Do you remember when we were little? Whenever we came here, you would always go diving for interesting rocks,” Pinkie explained, looking hopeful. “Marble and I decided that even if you didn’t come along, we wanted to bring you something back to cheer you up. Do you like it?” “Do I…” Limestone started to say, but fell quiet as her gaze darkened. “What I remember is you leaving.” Her words stung, but there was something about Limestone’s manner that was different than earlier that afternoon, and Pinkie stood her ground as her sister stared hard at the bauble in her hooves. “One day, we were playing like normal, and the next, you’re shipping out to Ponyville. I told myself that it wouldn’t be for long, that we mattered enough for you to come back, but you didn’t!” Pinkie flinched as the mare threw the statuette onto the ground and drove her hoof into it with tears trickling down her chin. “I waited and waited, and when you finally did come back, it was over a decade later!” she shouted, stamping her hoof down again. “I had thought that I had put the past behind me, that I had let go of how much I had missed you, but then you showed up and it all came rushing back. I was- I was happy,” she conceded, beginning to shake. “I wanted so badly to make you smile the way that you had taught me to do, but no matter what I tried, it was never good enough. You just kept pushing me away! And then… then…” Pinkie could feel the tremor in the sands as she brought her hoof down a third time before jerking her tear-stained muzzle upright and glaring back at Pinkie. “Why him?” she cried, quaking uncontrollably as years of pent up emotions poured from her eyes. “Why weren’t we ever good enough? You came back, and we dropped everything to pick you up, but you refused our help! You pushed us back and let a complete stranger in instead!” Overcome by her own frustration, Limestone lifted a hoof to strike Pinkie, but she immediately lost her balance and fell heavily into Pinkie’s embrace as she caught the falling mare. “I wanted to be the one to to make you smile!” she sobbed, pounding Pinkie’s chest. “I wanted to be the one, because I thought that I… I thought… I thought that it would make you want to stay…” “What can I say?” Pinkie wondered, tightening her hold as her sister buried her face into her chest and wept. She had never imagined that her presence had meant so much to her sister, especially when she had spent much of the time before finding her talent in a perpetual state of melancholy. “I didn’t know, but that doesn’t make it right. I didn’t mean to make her feel this way, but that doesn’t change the fact that I did, and ‘I’m sorry’ just isn’t enough…” It was then that the faintest of glints caught the corner of her eye, and she looked over with bleary eyes to find that her offering hadn’t been completely buried. Carefully reaching over, she dug around the morion owl until she could scoop it up. “... Limestone, do you know why I came back home?” Pinkie murmured, peering down at the owl. “N-no, I don’t,” she grit out. “How could I when you wouldn’t tell me?” “It’s true that I pushed you and Marble away, but that was because you both mattered too much to me for me to feel right burdening you with my problems when I didn’t even want to deal with them myself. I’ve learned now, though, that it was wrong of me to do that.” Bringing her hoof over, Pinkie handed the trinket back to Limestone who sat peering up at Pinkie. She could see the desperation in her sister’s eyes, so she reached over and placed her hoof over her sister’s as she held the stone to her chest. “The reason I came back home is because it was the one place that I knew I could feel safe,” Pinkie pressed, looking intently into her sister’s eyes. “I came back because of you.” “And me?” Marble asked, approaching with a sniffle. “And you,” Pinkie said warmly, welcoming her into the hug and holding them both. “I’m going to do better, I promise.” That was enough for Limestone. She had exhausted her ammunition only to find that she was fighting a battle that didn’t need to be fought. Relinquishing what remained of her misgivings, the mare curled up closer to Pinkie as the sun continued to set, painting the sky in streaks of vivid gold and pastel pink. Limestone had stepped up to be strong for Marble after Pinkie left, and there, for the first time in decades, she found herself feeling safe in her weakness, held by the sister she had wanted to stay. When the last of the tears fell and the three of them started for home, they did so with a closeness that had Limestone feeling like she had been made brand new.