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// Chapter Four: A Simple Rock Farm 
// Story: An Elder Power 
// by Twogunkid 
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The train slid to a slow stop in a bleak lifeless town.  The trees were bare and lifeless. The buildings in the town were grey, with ponies to match. The really exciting Ponies were brown. Bluebell with the flamboyant Philomena on one shoulder and a purple dragon on top her normal blue self, felt like she stood out like a sore hoof, or she would have if the train wasn’t swarming with ponies carrying shovels, pickaxes, and other digging equipment all rushing out of the station towards the outskirts of what appeared to be a simple Ghost town. Bluebell looked to Murphy and Spike who shrugged their shoulders, and then to Legion who again seemed un-phased.  Philomena spread her wings and began flying after the crowd letting out a squawk  indicating the ponies should follow her. The bird soared at a fairly quick pace, the ponies kept up as it let them past a sign which though faded the words “Family Farm” were still fairly visible. 
They arrived at the edge of the so called family farm, where Philomena perched on a fence. There were lots of ponies pulling carts. The carts overflowed with gemstones, gold, silver, and other precious metals. 
“Those look delicious.” Spike began drooling as he stared at the carts full of gemstones.
“Focus Dragon. They have nothing to do with our mission.” Legion commanded to the dragon.
“Sheesh your parents not love you as a foal or something?” Murphy responded
“Murphy that wasn’t very nice. Honestly I’m surrounded by…” Bluebell caught herself “It doesn’t matter what I’m surrounded by. We have a job to do.” The male ponies and Spike looked at Bluebell with slightly frustrated expressions.  The group saw a great line leading into a large farmhouse. They saw a grey mare with an extraordinarily straight mane and a geode cutie mark overseeing the large groups of workhorses.  
“She’s probably in charge. Come on.” Bluebell barked to the group.
“Yes, Bluebell” the group responded in a despondent unison, Legion muttering something about it being a waste of time. Bluebell approached the grey pony.
“Excuse me?” Bluebell asked
“Look if you need something enquire within the house. I’m overseeing the hired help.”
“But we-”
“Inside. The House.” The Pony continued to bark commands at her subordinates.
“Fine. Legion Murphy you two stay here. I’ll go talk to them” Bluebell ordered.
“Wait for me!” Spike tagged along and the colorful phoenix decided to nap in the bare tree.
“Why? Why me?” Bluebell thought to herself as she trotted towards the house, the small dragon right behind her.
Legion and Murphy stood there in an awkward silence. Murphy looking at Legion, and Legion remaining as stoic as ever was far from Murphy’s idea of a riveting conversation. Rather than push Legion on his past and what he had discovered in his saddlebags, he decided that mare over there could use a little attention.  Murphy walked over to the grey mare who brushed her bangs out of her face to stare down a pony who had taken a break.  The pony quickly resumed moving the cart. Almost tripping over his own hooves to move faster. 
“Hey” Murphy said as he trotted alongside the mare.
“Take your problems inside the house. I’m busy”
“A beautiful Mare like you should be out having fun, not locked away on some rock farm.” Murphy said his voice filled with as much charm as he could muster trying to make eye contact. The mare looked away trying to ignore Murphy. Legion raised an eyebrow at Murphy and flashed what seemed to Murphy to be a triumphant smile. Raising his hoof to his face Murphy signaled to Legion to watch.   Murphy again tried to make eye contact, but the mare continued looking away. Murphy finally tapped her on the shoulder, and she reluctantly looked at him with an annoyed expression.
“You know I think I understand your cutie mark. You appear rough on the outside like that geode, yet  beneath that flinty exterior you are beautiful.” Murphy said with a wink.
“No I work on a rock farm. It’s a rock. Now go away.” The Pony turned and resumed directing the workers. Murphy walked back over to Legion with a puzzled expression on his face. 
“What we were supposed to be watching?” Legion asked in his usual monotone.
“Just you wait Legion she’ll come around.” Murphy looked back to the mare “They always do.” 
The workponies and the mare disappeared over the hill carrying their precious cargo with them following recent but deep wheel ruts.  Legion watched them disappear over the horizon, noted the position of the sun and craned his neck back to his saddlebag and produced a vial of red potion. He placed both hooves on the side and pulled the stopper out with his mouth. He then picked the vial up with his mouth and downed the whole thing in one gulp. He replaced the stopper and placed the empty vial back in his bag. Legion again turned his attention to his comrade.
“Why are you so certain she will come around?” Legion asked
“Quite the irrelevant question there eh Legion? I’m confident I read her correctly. It’s my special talent. You see this mirror cutie mark?” Murphy asked turning his flank so Legion could see it. Legion nodded. 
“I can see what people are really about. I can tell when they’re hiding something, I can tell them what they want to hear.  That’s why I did the interrogating back in Staliongrad. That’s why I’m so interested in how you think. I can’t read you. It’s like you brain is going in a thousand different directions at once. Why? What is going on in your head?” Murphy had gone from composed to a slightly frantic tone as he finished.
“That information is not necessary for you to know.” Legion responded stoically.
“Then why did you let me go on like that?” Murphy asked slightly panting.
“We desired to understand you.” Legion responded
“You are despicable.” Murphy said as he stomped his hooves in frustration. 
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The farmhouse was fairly simple. It was a normal wooden two-story building, with a slightly peeling coat of light brown paint.  Bluebell and Spike approached the main door, and saw a grey Pegasus with a bubbles cutie mark and a brown satchel with a letter on it trying to shove a package into the mail slot. Bluebell shot a quizzical look at the mare, but Spike ran up along side her, and took the package and set it to the ground.
“Ditzy what are you doing here?” Spike asked with a big smile on his face.
“Delivery!” Ditzy said as she turned revealing her googly eyes making Bluebell release a barely audible gasp. She then pointed to the package with “4 Rocky Road” scribbled in many colors of crayon. Spike looked at the package something about that handwriting seemed familiar. He looked over the package before noticing the return address “2 Sugar Cube Corner” also scrolled in multi colored crayon.  Upon seeing it Spike’s face lit up.
“Ditzy is this from Pinkie Pie?” Spike said looking at the package.
“Uh-huh!” Ditzy affirmed as she opened the mail slot and stuffed a handful of other letters through it. Spike stopping her before she could try and stuff the package through. Spike noticed the package still had postage due, and though Ditzy was good at delivering the mail, she tended to forget to check things like that. Spike took a few bits and slipped them into her mailbag to cover Pinkie Pie’s forgetfulness.  
“Why don’t you knock on the door Ditzy?” Spike suggested trying to save the package from any further damage.  Ditzy rapped the door with her hoof. Bluebell had walked up to Spike and leaned in to whisper to him.
“Spike, why are we stopping to help this Pony? We need to find out what in the hay is going on here, so we can find which dragon was imprisoned and where.” Bluebell said as  the three of them stood outside the house.
“Gee Bluebell don’t you ever worry about other ponies? Ditzy has a hard enough time as it is, what with her condition and other ponies making fun and trying to bully her.” Spike responded still in a whisper.
“It won’t matter if anypony’s feelings are hurt if the Elder Dragons get loose. Think Spike” She knocked his three times in short succession with her hoof. Spike grumbled but shut up when the door opened to reveal a bluish purple pony with a light grey mane very similar to the one who had been barking orders outside and a gold ingot as a cutie mark.
“Delivery!” a very excited Ditzy Doo said as she shoved the package through the barely open door before flying off. The pony prepared to shut the door, but Bluebell stuck her hoof in, the purplish pony did not even let Bluebell speak before issuing a warning
“If you’re here with the church of magicology just leave. Just because you’ve fooled Brad Pony doesn’t mean you’re right.” Bluebell looked stunned for a second before she responded.
“No I am Princess Celestia’s student, and I am here on a mission of great importance.” Bluebell said with a self-righteous air.
“Don’t look anything like the drawings my sister sent of you Twilight Sparkle. How do I know you’re not trying to pull the wool over my eyes?” The Pony said shutting the door a little harder on Bluebell’s hoof.
“She isn’t Twilight Sparkle! She’s another one of the Princess’ students.” Spike said popping his head through the door. “Maybe you’ll recognize me I’m-”
“Spike the Dragon! Come right in!” The Pony had immediately warmed up and opened the door. Bluebell looked sadly at her throbbing hoof, but resigned herself to it and followed them inside.
“Mom! Pa! One of Pinkie’s friends came to visit! I’ll bring them into the living room.”
“Pinkie mentioned your names before, but which one are you Inky or Blinky?”
“Blinky. Spike this is my mother” Blinky  gestured to an old mare with her mane in a bun half asleep in a rocking chair. “and my father Clyde” the wrinkly brown earth pony with long grey side burns extending from his short mane and comically tiny half-moon reading glasses perched precariously on the end of his nose placed his pencil down and looked up from his pile of papers. He got up slowly with a faint groan and ambled his way towards Spike, Blinky, and Bluebell. Bluebell thought the stallion smelled of day old oatmeal. He came to a complete halt before addressing Spike.
“It’s nice to meet one of Pinkamena’s friends” Clyde said slightly smacking his lips as he spoke. “She writes so many letters about you and those ponies” Clyde craned his head beckoning for them to follow them. He lead them into the next room and gestured towards a cork board filed with many letters and crude crayon drawings. Spike began admiring the drawings of him, Pinkie had added some embellishments making him much bigger and breathing lots more fire.
“Look this all very maudlin, but we need to talk!” Bluebell interrupted absolutely sick of all the chit-chat going on. “The Princess sent us on an important mission, and we believe what we are searching for is located somewhere on your rock farm. Have you seen anything unusual lately? Why are you living in such a rundown old house if you’re brining wagons full of gold everyday?” Bluebell had worked herself into a frenzy made more comical by the tea kettle coming to a loud squeal.  The noise had caused Mrs. Pie to awaken and amble over. Clyde, Blinky, and Spike stared at Bluebell for a moment. Blinky finally broke the awkward silence “Why don’t you sit down for tea? I’ll explain it then.” Bluebell sighed but she made her way back to the living room. 
Mrs. Pie returned with a tray laden with sugar, tea cakes, and five tea cups. She placed straws in each took hers and resumed her position in an old creaky rocking chair. Clyde set aside his papers into a large orange folder. Inky brushed her bangs from her face before starting. 
“We were rotating the rocks from the South field to the East field, when my sister Inky and I noticed something odd. We’ve lived on this farm our entire lives so we know every inch of it. We spotted a cave. There were never any caves on the Pie family rock farm before this. We stopped what we were doing and walked in. It was a cold day, but the cave seemed warm and inviting.  The cave started as a narrow passage, but it eventually widened as we came to a large clearing with many different passages. We looked above each passage, and there were words carved into the rock above. “Follow my instructions for wealth beyond your wildest dreams.” Nearby there was a giant stone map. It detailed several veins of valuable minerals and gems. We’ve been working on extracting them ever since. Would you like to see the map?”
“Yes, Inky I think it may be important. I hate to ask this, but could you call of the excavation till I have a look at the map?”
“I don’t see any need to the map is right here in the house. Come I’ll show you. Stay here Dad this won’t take long.” Blinky motioned to the next room, and Bluebell and Spike followed her in. The room had no furniture and was filled with many digging tools, the only objects of interest were the giant stone map, and an un-carved boulder. Bluebell looked at the map. The lines seemed natural, yet were far too bold to be from any normal process of erosion. There were several mineral veins crisscrossing under one spot on the map.
“Blinky, where was the cave? Show me on the map.” Blinky obeyed and pointed a hoof right over the spot where all the deposits seemed to cross. Bluebell’s heart sank. “And how many of these have you excavated?”
“Most of them by now, we should be on the last two by the end of the week.” Blinky said with great pride.
“Ohnononononononononono… Do you mind if I use this boulder?” Before Blinky could even answer Bluebell had begun levitating the boulder and was carving it while looking at the map. Rock shards flew everywhere as Bluebell  chipped away at the rock. Eventually it looked like the map in three dimensions. The cave was located in a rather tall mountain. “Watch.” Bluebell instructed. She began removing slivers of rock where the veins were. One by one they were removed until all were gone and the mountain collapsed.  Blinky and Spike’s jaws dropped. “I need you to take us to the cave now!” Bluebell ordered.  Blinky turned and ordered them to follow her. They rushed out and encountered Inky, Legion, and Murphy.  Blinky quickly explained the situation towards her sister, and then motioned to Legion and Murphy to follow her. They galloped towards the North, and off to the cave.