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// Prompt #370: Not For Her 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
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Maud Pie shut the door to the room, and stared down at her three younger sisters. Limestone, hanging off the edge of the bed, making a sound that reminded Maud of her father cutting wood. Marble, curled tight up against the wall, needing to have something solid on one side, a physical barrier on one side at all times, making no sound at all. And in the middle, Pinkie. Precious, sweet, joyful, Pinkie. She was buried under the covers, only the top of her absurdly fluffy mane poking out of the thin sheets and blanket, but Maud could hear her soft snoring.

For a moment, Maud considered if she was really doing the right thing. But then Pinkie whimpered something inaudible into her pillow and curled up tighter, but Maud had never needed words to understand her sisters. Limestone and Marble would cope-they were just as stubborn as the rocks they farmed. But Maud could see what her mother refused to acknowledge. Pinkie Pie was different. ‘Too much like that crazy mother on your father’s side,’ her mother was fond of saying. Maud wondered if that was really a bad thing.

Because though she, Marble and Limestone were just as hard and unbreakable as the rocks they studied and farmed, it was common for them to joke among themselves when their mother wasn’t looking that Pinkie Pie got all of their feelings. It wasn’t that far from the truth. Maud had seen what Pinkie was like before that first party-she had been miserable, and only part of it was coming from her surroundings and lack of a cutie mark. And Maud knew that Pinkie wouldn’t, couldn’t grow into the mare she could be on the rock farm. It was not a good place for her, as difficult as that may have been to admit for her, as it still was Maud’s home. It was still her family.

So Maud gently wrapped her smallest sister up in her blanket cocoon, and lifted her onto her back. A single rope made sure that Pinkie wouldn’t fall off, and then, just as softly as she’d entered, Maud Pie left the room, leaving only a letter to her remaining sisters to explain. She crept past her parents’ bedroom, dodged the creaky floorboards, and was nearly out the front door when her father spoke.

“You leavin’ for your studies?” said Igneous Rock.

“Yes,” said Maud.

“Were you planning on saying goodbye?” he asked.

“No,” replied Maud, “it’s easier this way.”

“That it is. That it is,” mumbled Igneous, his eyes flicking to the youngest Pie, sleeping soundly on Maud’s back.

“You know she isn’t going to be happy,” said Igneous.

“Her happiness is not my concern. Pinkie’s is. This place is not right for her, father. She would not last under mother’s hoof.”

“I know,” sighed her father, before hoofing over a letter to Maud, “There’s an old family friend in Ponyville. They’ve agreed to take Pinkie in, let her explore the world outside this place. Just make sure she’s happy, Maud.”

Maud Pie nodded. It may have been a little underhoofed to go behind her mother’s back like this, but Pinkie deserved better. She didn’t deserve to be treated as something different, unnatural, like she knew her mother would treat Pinkie.

In Maud’s opinion, the quicker Pinkie Pie was away from the rock farm, the better it would be for everypony. She nodded once at her father, and strode off into the night.

*****

Igneous Rock stared at his eldest daughter as she vanished into the darkness. Since the day that his youngest had been born a bright pink, he knew that this day would come. There was something about Pinkamena Diane Pie that was different. She would never have the talent or the temperament for rock farming, no matter how much his wife insisted otherwise.

It was better if Pinkie was not on the rock farm. It would be best if she never came back for any long period of time, or at all.