//------------------------------//
// Pools of bitter honey 
// Story: Convictions set in Stone 
// by Gustav Gynt 
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Twilight Sparkle was walking through the main street of Ponyville, directed towards her hay burger restaurant. Compiling letter after letter of friendship advice could become tiresome and she needed a break. On her way there, she was intercepted (or, better yet, straight up tackled) by a pink lightning.
"Twilight! Twilight! My little sister Marble Pie is coming to visit Ponyville tomorrow! Isn't this exciting???"
Twilight remembered how... exciting it was the last time one of Pinkie's sisters came to visit. She politely smiled and replied, "Uuh... sure Pinkie! I'm glad for you..."
"Ooooooh! You girls are going to love her! She will be the sweetest thing you've ever seen! I'm actually kinda surprised that she decided to come out of the farm, being shy as she is, but oh well, I guess she couldn't stay another week without her just-a-few-minutes-older sister and that also mean that she's going to meet all of my friends, not just Applejack and her family, which just makes me wanna..."
"Yes Pinkie, I get the picture. And, as I said, I'm happy for you. I'm... looking forward to meeting another one of your sisters, last time it was... charming."
"I've got to bring the news to the other girls immediately! It's going to be so great!"
And, just as fast as she had appeared, she vanished in a pink blur.
Twilight did remember that, in the end, Maud's visit hadn't been a total disaster, but she also remembered that it hadn't been the most comfortable of experiences either: it had actually gotten quite awkward a couple of times. She really hoped that it would be different this time around, but, knowing that Pinkie's family came from a rock farm, she kinda doubted. She sighed and added to her mental checklist to be prepared for another geology education session.

Marble was walking slowly towards the town hall. There had to be a catch, there just had to be: in order to go to Ponyville, she had to get the train ticket and the railroad office was in the town hall. She had to meet Clerk Sandstone: it wasn't exactly compulsory to have a conversation with her if you wanted to go temporarily out of the community, but, well, it would have been out of the norm not to.
The building, although not excessively big, towered over her menacingly, as if part of Sandstone's intimidating presence had somehow rubbed off on it. She closed her eyes, exhaled, and then opened the door. It was weird, for her, to go in there when there was almost nopony inside: only a couple of Sandstone's employees were visible in the room, which Marble was used to only see during the meetings.
She went towards the counter on her left, where a middle-aged grey mare was reading a book with a bored expression. Marble waited to be acknowledged, but the employee didn't respond in any way. She waited politely for a few minutes, in which nothing of substance happened, then decided that she needed to try something to get the other's attention. It wouldn't be easy: like the building itself, without being really any bigger than her, the bored employee towered over her, making her feel small and insignificant.
"Uuhm..."
She said with barely any voice at all. No reaction.
"Excuse me, I uuuh... I need to get a train ticket and... I need to... talk to Clerk Sandstone if possible..."
Without even so much as raising her eyes, the mare on the other side of the counter said, with a gruff voice, "Second floor, last door on the left. Wait a few minutes and then knock. Away with you."
Marble's lips spelled the words "okay thanks", but no sound came out, as she took her leave.
After walking up a dim lighted set of stairs, Marble found herself facing a long corridor with numerous doors, all looking the same and being equally distant from one another. She slowly walked through it, keeping her head down and fearfully glancing at the doors as she passed them, as if they could judge her. Soon, but not soon enough for her, she was in front of the last door on the left, which didn't look any different from the others.
She sat and began to wait, as she had been told. While waiting, she thought back at the short exchange with the employee downstairs: she thought at how she must have looked to the unknown mare, all scared as she was, and how rude it was to not give a proper answer when she was given the information she needed. She cringed as she considered just how much of a fool she had made of herself. The scene kept on replaying in her mind, becoming more and more shameful every time.
After a few interminable minutes, Marble worked up the courage to raise her hoof towards the closed wooden door.
She gave a light knock and a loud voice answered immediately. "Come in."
Marble swallowed and opened the door. The office inside was mostly bare, with grim colours and a few very old closets. On the other side of a full but organised desk there was a mare with a greyish yellow coat, matched by eyes of the same colour that looked like pools of old and bitter honey. The white mane was kept in a bun, in such a way to make it the very last thing you see about the pony sporting it. Clerk Sandstone was sitting there, seeking and keeping eye contact with Marble Pie.
"Why, if it isn't the youngest of the Pie family. Please, do come in and take a seat."
Even when she used words of courtesy, Sandstone sounded like she was giving direct orders. Marble obeyed, taking the small wooden chair on the side of the room and placing it in front of the busy desk. After sitting, she forced herself to watch the clerk in the eyes, knowing that she didn't tolerate ponies avoiding her gaze. The yellow mare asked in her dry voice, "What is the reason for you to come here?"
Marble, surprising herself in the process, managed to immediately answer in an audible voice, "I need to get a ticket f... a ticket for the train to Ponyville that will leave tomorrow."
The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Why do you want to go to Ponyville?"
"Uhm... when my sister Pinkie..."
"Pinkamena Diane Pie."
"... yes, her... came to visit the family, I didn't get to spend time with her and... uh... since right now I am not really needed at the farm, I... uhm... I thought that maybe it would be okay to go and see her, yes..."
Sandstone intervened immediately. "You're not telling me everything, are you? Also, it has been a while since we had a conversation, me and you, and that is hardly a positive thing, don't you agree?"
Marble was afraid that Sandstone would say something like that: in order to have a better community, as she would usually say, the one who's in charge needs to know what the other members think, when they are in doubt or struggling, when something out of the norm happens, so that something can be done to solve problems. Sandstone believed that speaking personally, privately and, possibly, often, with all the ponies of her community was the best way to achieve a positive environment. It had been a while since the last time Marble had met with her in private.
"I... uh... I guess I also hope that I might meet again the Apple family, that was here for Hea..."
"For Hearth's Warming Eve, yes."
"Ye... yeah, exactly... they seemed nice to me, so it could also be nice to maybe... uh... see them... see them again. But my main reason is to see my sister, perhaps even to see where she works."
"Wanting to see your sister is good, even though Pinkamena isn't what I would call a positive member of the community, having left it years ago. Seeing other ponies is also mostly alright, but you shouldn't pay too much attention to the outside: what is really important is our community. Don't you ever forget it. Do you think you are capable of keeping my words well into you head?"
"I... I guess so.
"You don't sound very convinced. Perhaps it isn't such a good idea after all..."
"No! I'll always remember what you said."
"What is it that you'll remember?"
"I will... I won't pay too much attention on the outside and I'll keep in mind that my sister isn't a positive member of the community."
"Very well. An appropriate length for this deviation would be one day and one night: I expect that you will be coming back to your family's farm by the day after tomorrow at noon. You may buy your ticket in Iron Ore's office, third floor, fifth door on the right. Don't forget to close the door as you get out."
As she closed the door, like she was told, she felt like she had just been through a real ordeal for hours, though it had been hardly a couple of minutes.

Walking down the road towards home, Marble considered just how much speaking with Sandstone affected her: up until then, only thinking about Hearth's Warming Eve and the Apple family (and Big Mac) would send her heart a flutter, now she almost felt guilty of the feelings she had had. Even though she had in her saddlebag the ticket she wanted, she felt like she didn't deserve it and that she shouldn't have wished to go see the outside. Maybe the best thing to do was to throw away the ticket, apologise to Pinkie for not coming after all and forget all about it.
When she arrived at home, her gaze stopped just for a moment over the Hearth's Warming dolls that were still sitting on the shelf over the hood: the ones made by the Apples were still there. She remembered when Big Mac had initially tried to make his own, breaking the mallet and the memory made her giggle. She realised that she had never really wanted to throw away the ticket, that she was only affected by her conversation with Sandstone: the feelings she had before were somewhat tainted by that one event, but they were still there, she could tell. Marble went quickly up the stairs and into her room, with the intention of preparing her luggage.

That evening, when it was already time to go to bed, Marble was looking out the window, staring at Princess Luna's moon.
She was so excited for the day after that she couldn't bring herself to go to sleep just yet. She picked up the imperfect little block of marble, right next to her new pebble, and watched it silently. The little crack on the corner did not bother her: her expert eye could tell that it didn't go very deep and, while carving the marble, removing that particular corner wouldn't  affect the end result. When she had to come back home, she would craft a new little sculpture with it, she knew it. The only thing she didn't already know was what would be the subject, but she figured that her upcoming travel would give her plenty of choice.
She put back the little block and watched the already finished figurines that stood amongst the rest of her collection, wondering what would become the first of her carving not inspired by her home or her family. Afterwards, she decided it would be better if she just blew out the candle and went to sleep, since she would have to leave early in the morning.
As she laid down on her bed, she couldn't keep herself from wondering what she would see the day after: she envisioned her sister and the Apple family welcoming her at the train station and toyed with the idea of meeting again with Big Mac... in the darkness it was impossible to see, but the thought made her blush through her smile.