A rocky affair

by FallenLaughter

CH1 - A rocky meeting

Blinkie looked across the gray, barren fields of her family's farm, letting out a small sigh.

Limestone, what did you do to deserve this?. She had worked all morning, moving rocks from one side of the fields to the other, while simultaneously fixing up all the little annoyances that usually befell a farm. And yet, as she let her weary gaze wander around the farm, she could see that she barely had made any progress.

She shook her head, silently lamenting her situation. If only her sister was here, but Inkie had been needed in Manehattan to oversee a shipment for an very important client. It was crucial that everything went right, so Blinkie had have no choice but to take on all the chores alone.

At first she had hated it, but over time she had learned to distract herself by concentrating on the more positive things in her life. Today it was the knowledge that her mother was already preparing dinner and that once she came back home she could enjoy a delicious meal, that kept her from getting too depressed.

With the thought of the delicious food that was waiting for her in her head, she grudgingly strapped herself back into her waiting harness and began to pull the cart she had fetched to transport a few of the bigger rocks towards another patch of land that needed her attention.

As she walked, she did her best to try and distract herself. Unfortunately though, there wasn’t much to grab her attention. The Pie farm was fairly secluded from the outside world, their house was the only one for miles, so all there was to see were rocks, rocks and more rocks.

Only on very few occasions there was something more to behold, for example the occasional bird perching in the half dead trees located all around the farm, or an particular beautiful sunrise, crawling over the mountain ranges that bordered the farm, tinting everything in a deep red glow or sometimes, when she was particularly lucky, she could hear the sound of snoring coming from a nearby pile of rocks.

...?!

”What in the hay?

Blinkie paused, staring at the place the snoring came from. She couldn't tell for sure, but it sounded as if somepony was hiding behind those rocks. But that was impossible. The Pie family were the only ones living in the area for miles, not to mention that, with the relative closeness to the Everfree, the area was not the safest, so there normally weren’t many travelers coming through the area.

And yet, she could not deny that the fact that she was definitely hearing something. Curiosity welled up in her as she listened to the sound. Maybe she should take a peek?

For a while she contemplated it, but in the end her curiosity won out and she decided to take a look. Quickly she slipped out of the harness before she left the path and walked over to where she thought the sound was coming from.

At first, she saw nothing and she was about to dismiss the entire thing as a simple mistake on her part, but then her eyes fell on the form of a sleeping, yellow coated mare, laying beneath a particular large rock, which not only offered her a shadowy place to lay down, but also protection from the elements.

The moment Blinkie saw her, her eyes widened in surprise and quickly she began trotting over to her.

"Hey!" she shouted over to the sleeping form. "What in the hay are you doing here? It’s dangerous out here, you need to leave."

Unfortunately though, it seemed as if the mare hadn't heard her, if her blatant lack of any form of reaction was any indication. Facehoofing, Blinkie sighed, then she walked closer to the sleeping form.

"Hey!" she repeated, louder this time."Did you hear me? Get your flank out of here!"

This time the mare reacted. Giving a big yawn, she sat up and stretched, allowing Blinkie to get a better look of her. She was about as tall as her, but lighter built, which wasn’t very surprising considering Blinkie was rather muscular due to years of working on a rockfarm. The yellow mare also was a unicorn, given the horn that jutted out from under her yellow and brown mane that was so long, it covered most of her face. Only her muzzle was really visible, the rest of her face was hidden behind a curtain of hair.

As Blinkie mustered the mare, she turned around, facing Blinkie directly, who in turn raised an eyebrow expectantly. The mare cocked her head slightly, giving her a rather confused look, then she turned back around, leaving a surprised looking Blinkie to stare at her back.

Did that really just happen?, Blinkie stared at the yellow mare. Hiding the irritation that was starting to well up in her as best as she could, she walked around the strange mare. She opened her mouth to tell her to leave once again, but before she could say anything she was suddenly interrupted.

“Did you see a book laying around?” the mare asked, causing Blinkie to pause.

“Huh? Wha-” Blinkie stammered confused. The question had caught her off guard. In response the mare paused her actions for a moment, and looked back up.

“Did you see a book laying around somewhere?” she repeated.

“No, I haven’t,” Blinkie automatically replied, her confusion momentarily overwriting her better judgement. Only a moment later she realized what she had done.

“Drat,” the yellow mare muttered. “I’m sure I left it somewhere around here.”

She began searching the ground again, once again ignoring Blinkie, who was watching the scene before her in confused silence. It took her a moment, but finally she managed to pull herself out of her stupor.

“Listen here...”

“Sonar,” the yellow mare said without looking up.

“Listen, Sonar.” Blinkie said, tapping her hoof in irritation. “I’m sorry if I was too harsh before, but I have to ask you to leave.”

“Yeah, yeah” Sonar said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Just gimme a sec.”

All the while she continued to rummage around on the ground.

“I think you didn’t hear me,” Blinkie insisted, the intensity in which she taped her hoof growing. “I said it’s dangerous-“

“Found it,” Sonar suddenly shouted, cutting off Blinkie once again. She stood up smiling, a small black book in her hoof.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” she chuckled at the book, as she carefully placed it in a pair of bags resting besides her.

Blinkie waited until she was done, then addressed the mare again “I’m glad you found what you were looking for, but you’ve got to listen to me,” she said and lowered her head so that she was on eye level with Sonar. ”It is dangerous out here! You. Need. To. Leave!”

It didn’t seem to impress Sonar. The mare just smiled and sat back down, waving a hoof at Blinkie.“Relax. I heard you the first time,” she said lazily as she began to rummage through her bags. “Just let me finish up here, then I’m gone in a jiffy.”

“NO!” Blinkie roared. Her patience had run thin, causing her to stamp her hoof against the ground with all her strength. “You’ll leave no-*”

Suddenly, a rumble sounded across the field, causing Blinkie to pause. Slowly she looked down, where she saw that a crack had formed in the ground beneath her hoof. Following the crack with her eyes, she saw that it disappeared somewhere beneath the rock pile they were standing under.

Again a loud rumble sounded through the field, causing Blinkie to wince. With a bad feeling, she glanced up at the rockpile above them, just in time to see the first rock starting to break loose. At once her training kicked in, and she began to turn around to flee; until she saw that Sonar hadn’t moved yet. The yellow mare was just sitting there, still rummaging through her saddle.

“Are you crazy?” Blinkie shouted, dread filling her voice as the first pebbles started to roll down the pile. “Move!”

But Sonar wasn’t budging. It nearly seemed as if she hadn’t seen the danger she was in at all. Blinkie had only a moment to think.

“BUCK!”

Cursing under her breath, she jumped forward and run towards the oblivious mare.

Author's Note:

After re-reading this feel like I've could done better, but if I just keep revising this chapter, I'll never move forward. So here, have a story and have fun reading

Special thanks to DaveKenroy, BluegrassBrooke and NekoThaCat. All three of them helped me to improve myself as a writer, as well as helping me with this story. So, a big thank you to all of you.