It was growing darker on the rock farm. The shadow that Holder’s Boulder casted stretched far. The work for the day had ceased for two key reasons. The obvious was because Celestia’s sun was finally setting, granting Luna’s moon to rise in the east. The other reason was because there was a special celebration being held by the family.
“Are we ready to begin?” the matriarch of the family asked as she popped her head into the main room of the house. She saw three of her daughters seated around her husband.
“Not yet, Cloudy Quartz, not yet” the patriarch of the family softly spoke. He settled himself more into his seat as he looked at three of his children before him; Limestone Pie seated next to her youngest sibling Marble on the couch and Maud seated on a stool next to the couch. There was an empty place on the couch, seemingly reserved. His black hat rested lightly on top of his aged, grey mane.
A rough voice broke out, “Pa, you know as well as I do that she is not showing up!” Limestone was very vocal and animated with her statement.
“Limestone Pie, you will hold your tongue and not speak that way about your younger sister,” her father calmly spoke.
Cloudy Quartz slowly trotted over toward her husband’s seat, the grey bun on top of her head bouncing lightly with each step, “I do believe our daughter has a point, Igneous. We do not know when, or even if, Pinkamena will arrive.”
His expression was steadfast, “We shall not begin until she arrives.”
“Father….” a meek voice broke forward. It was the timid and soft-spoken Marble, “Perhaps we can start now….and Pinkie can join in when she arrives….” Marble was shaking as she spoke, almost afraid of any repercussion for her opinion.
“We shall not begin until Pinkamena arrives,” Igneous repeated. The blinking of his tired yellow eyes were the only other movement that he gave.
A frustrated Limestone growled aloud. With an annoyed sigh, she turned to look at the eldest sister, “Maud, what do you think we should do? Should we wait for Pinkie or just start already?”
The grey mare on the stool looked at her other siblings and then to her parents. Her expression was as it had ever been, blank and expressionless. Nevertheless, she spoke her thoughts, “Boulder would like to eat soon, and as would I.” Her voice was in the same tone that every single member of her family had known.
“See? Even Maud agrees we should start!” Limestone proclaimed in a boom voice.
Maud corrected her, “I did not say that.”
All of the Pie family turned to look at Maud. Limestone’s anger had disappeared, but did have some puzzlement, “What? Don’t you wanna get this going?”
Maud blinked, rephrasing what she had meant, “Boulder and I would like to eat, but we both would like to wait for Pinkie.”
Limestone groaned, “But she’s taking forever!”
Marble agreed with both a nod and a slight vocal confirmation, “Mm-hmm….”
“But if we start without her,” Maud continued, “Pinkie would be sad.”
Cloudy Quartz looked at her husband quietly. He was firm and unyielding in both his expression and his movement. “I believe your father would like to wait for Pinkamena as well. It is his day, after all.”
With a sigh, Limestone slouched, “Fine, but I will not be happy if the rock soup gets cold.”
“Limestone, the soup can always be reheated if we need to,” Cloudy Quartz stated.
“But….Limestone does have a point….” Marble quietly pointed out, “Pinkie has always been known to be late to things….like on Hearth’s Warming Eve….and now on Pa’s special day….”
“Marble! I would expect this type of behavior from Limestone, but not you! You shouldn’t speak of your sister in such a way!” Cloudy Quartz raised her voice in surprise.
Quickly, Marble raised her hooves over her face in an attempt to hide herself. She continued, “But it’s true! Even….um….even when she was still living here, she would get….get lost out on the farm….”
“See, even Marble agrees!” Limestone shouted, “Pinkie is just too unreliable! We could barely count on her around the farm!”
“I will not even listen to such disrespect to your own flesh and blood! That is your sister!” Cloudy Quartz raised her voice as the exchange between her oldest daughter escalated.
“The same sister who once told all of us that she had detailed plans about running off to join the circus and being a juggler!”
“Pinkie is just a little different than the rest of us, that is all!” The elderly matriarch moved closer to her daughter as they argued
“But isn’t that even more of a reason to just get started!”
“I shall not hear anymore of this! This is your father’s special day and we will adhere to his wishes!”
“But Pinkie isn’t showing up!”
Maud interjected during the argument, “Boulder is getting more hungry.”
A booming voice erupted, “Silence!”
There was just that; a silence filled the entire rock farm. All of the eyes in the room were looking at the elderly stallion in his seat. The faces of the rest of the family were a mixture of family were stunned, surprise, and shock. Except for Maud; the only difference was that her eyes were more open than normal.
“I have stated this numerous times already, we will not start until Pinkamena arrives. End of discussion.” Igneous looked around at his family. “Is that clear?”
Both Maud and Marble nodded. The former gave a single nod of her head while the latter nervously shook her head up and down.
Limestone nodded as well, adding to it, “Crystal, sir.”
He nodded and then added, “Limestone, apologize for raising your voice to your mother.”
She quickly nodded and looked at Cloudy Quartz, “Sorry, Ma.”
With that, he settled himself back into his seat.
Cloudy Quartz was soft with her words as she leaned down to speak into his ear, “Igneous, I believe that was a bit too much.” He didn’t respond.
“Pa, if I may ask, why do you wanna wait for Pinkie so badly?” Limestone asked. Her voice was devoid of any of the fury and burning passion she had earlier. Rather, it was more of a little filly asking their parent why the sky was blue.
The stallion didn’t answer right away. Instead, Igneous took a deep breath and looked at the three daughters that were seated before him. “I want to wait because I want to enjoy Father’s Day with all of my daughters. Celebrating the day without just a single daughter is just not proper.”
Limestone looked toward Marble. While it seemed the two only blinked and made slight head movements for a mere moment, there was a lot of information between the two. The oldest spoke again, “But she has always been so late to so much. Remember when she was late to Hearth’s Warming Eve?”
“Aye, I do,” Igneous nodded.
“And to the first day of the rock harvest?” Marble added.
“Aye, I remember,” he nodded again.
“My birthday,” Limestone added.
“Aye,” he nodded yet again.
“Her own birthday,” Maud contributed.
“I understand what you are all saying, but it does not change my belief. We will start when she arrives,” Igneous stated.
Limestone started to rub her forehead with her hooves, as if it would help rid of the pain in her head. “Running the entire rock farm doesn’t give me as much of a headache as Pinkie does….” She mumbled to herself.
“Daughters, would you all like to begin without Pinkamena?” Igneous asked.
Limestone simply nodded. Marble looked too afraid to admit that she did. She nervously nodded like her oldest sister. As for Maud, she simply shrugged her shoulders.
“I see,” Igneous stated. He looked over to Cloudy Quartz who was still standing just next to his chair. He gave a small, warm smile to her. She returned the smile back. “Very well, we can begin without her on one condition. Do you understand why I wish to wait for your sister?”
Marble and Limestone looked at each other. With their special unspoken language of blinks and nods, they both were unable to find an answer together. Both shook their head no. Maud simply blinked.
Igneous gave a small laugh to himself. He then looked at the three daughters before him. “To me, Father’s Day is meant to be celebrated with one’s family. I’m lucky enough to have had four fantastic daughters, and I believe I should spend it with each and every one of them. Without you girls, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this day. And I personally believe Pinkamena herself knows this and is trying her hardest to be here this moment.”
The three daughters were in silence as they watched their father explain himself.
“I….never thought of it that way,” Limestone’s jaw dropped after she listened to her father.
Marble raised her hooves up to shyly cover her mouth, “Oh, Pa….”
“I would like to do is spend this Father’s Day with my lovely wife and my wonderful daughters. Something simple for a simple stallion like myself,” Igneous had a tender smile on his face, directed at his family.
Suddenly, the front door of the home busted open and flooded the air with celebratory explosions and confetti. Every single family member was covered from head to hoof with little scraps of festive paper. At the source of the commotion, there was a pink earth mare with a frazzled mane that looked as if was styled by a hurricane. “Hello family! I hope I wasn’t keeping you all!”
Igneous smiled as he brushed some of the confetti off of his tan coat, “I also have to admit I enjoy seeing that party canon in action.”
Cloudy Quartz was the first pony to greet the pink pony, “Oh, Pinkie Pie! There you are! We were worried about you!”
Pinkie entered the house, towing the party canon behind her. “Oh, you don’t have to worry, I’m here now! But there were some serious stuff going on! When I woke up this morning, Twilight Sparkle, my friend Twilight Sparkle. You know, the Princess of Friendship? She was super worried about this big monster that was attacking Ponyville! It was like WHOOSH!” Pinkie made a motion with her whole body, trying to simulate the creature. “And it was like RAWR! And then me and all of my friends had to use our special magic thingy that we all have and-“ The pink mare paused in mid-sentence as her eyes met with her father’s gaze. She then redirected her speech, “But all of that story can wait, because today is Daddy’s Day!” She quickly trotted over to her father and gave him a big hug. “Happy Daddy’s Day!”
“Thank you, Pinkie,” Igneous hugged his daughter back.
After breaking the hug, Pinkie looked over to see her sisters all smiling at her, “And I’m super happy that I get to be here with my whole family! So what’s new? Did I miss anything?”
Limestone and Marble exchanged glances to each other, blinking and nodding in their own unspoken language. Both seemed to be happy that they waited for their sister to arrive.
Maud spoke up, holding her pet rock in one hoof, “Boulder missed you.”
“And I missed Boulder!” Pinkie rushed over to see Boulder in Maud’s hoof, “I bet he’s hungry!”
“We all are,” Limestone gave a small chuckle, “What you say, Pa? Shall we start Father’s Day?”
Igneous had a smile on his face, showing where Pinkie gotten it. He nodded, “Now we can begin our perfect day.”
“Come now, let’s reheat that rock soup!” Cloudy Quartz said as she led the family into the kitchen.
As they all followed the matriarch, Pinkie helped her father to her hooves and trotted with him to the dinner table, “Oh, I just have got to tell you about what happened today!”
“I can’t wait to hear all about it, Pinkamena.”
END