The Rock Farmer's Daughters

by Sketcha-Holic

5. Night of Settlin', Day of Work

The room was small and simple. There was a bed in the corner, with an old quilt laid over it, and a nightstand within hoof's reach of it, where an oil lamp stood. A small dresser stood against the wall opposite of the bed, a few books resting on top of it. The wooden planks making up the floor were smooth, and a single window graced the wall beside the bed. He could see the nearby forest from that window, which lay beyond several yards of gray and brown dust.

Cheese set his glasses case on the nightstand, sat on the bed, and idly glanced at each of the bare walls. Cloudy Quartz was standing at the door, giving him a minute to take in his surroundings. It wasn't much, but the Pie family at least made an effort to make it comfortable for guests.

Cheese took a deep whiff of the room. "It smells like woodchips in here."

"The room's made of wood," Cloudy said. "Did you expect it to smell like daisies?"

"Well, no, I just—sorry, but I really… um, I like that smell," Cheese stammered. "Uh, yeah, I like the smell of wood…"

"Good. You're sleeping in here."

"Yeah, I kinda got that idea when you brought me in here." Cheese glanced at the bed, and stroked the quilt he was sitting on. "This is a lovely quilt."

Cloudy tilted her head, surprised by the sudden comment. "My mother made it."

"Well, she's talented. It's beautiful and looks really comfortable."

Cloudy blinked, unsure of what to make of Cheese's compliment. Clearing her throat, she said, "Well… I'm sure she would've been flattered to hear that."

Cheese looked up and smiled warmly. As tempting as it was to respond to the smile, Cloudy couldn't let herself get sidetracked, and so kept a straight face as she said, "Get yourself settled in, Mr. Sandwich. I'm getting supper ready."

With that, she turned and walked out. Cheese stared out of the door for a few moments, and then turned his attention back to the quilt. The edges were lined with a tan fabric, and patches of muted blue, violet, pink, and white were sewn in an intricate flower pattern, providing color to a silvery background.

It had been a while since he had slept in a bed, and he was happy that he was to sleep on one under such a nice quilt.

---

Supper had been quiet. Quieter than he expected.

Nobody in the family seemed interested in the stories he could tell.

Usually he was given a barrage of questions about his travels and what kind of adventures he had. Usually they'd be asking how long he'd been doing this, and why he was so awkward compared to travelers in stories. And usually he was overwhelmed with the assumptions his employers and co-workers had of him, due to traveling around a lot. They always assumed that he had committed murder, or that he had wooed mares all over Equestria, though Cheese knew he couldn't kill someone or get romantically involved even if he tried. Igneous had made the latter assumption about him earlier, but it won't take long for him to see that none of his daughters would find Cheese attractive in any way.

Still, the lack of conversation unnerved him slightly. The family had simply sat at the table and ate their hay rolls and rock cakes, not speaking a word. Not even Pinkamena, who at least had an interesting event happen that day. Then again, she could have told her family about it earlier.

Then there was the fact that every time Pinkamena had looked at him, it was a glare. It bothered him greatly. Cheese had no idea what he did to warrant those glares, and it was hard to ignore those pretty eyes of hers.

Maud had ignored him the whole time, while Marble and Limestone had been curious about the new face at the table. They seemed like they wanted to ask questions, but they held their tongues. They just ate like the rest of the family.

Cheese himself had opted to break the silence, but he realized that it would have been awkward. He didn't know where to start for one thing. Another thing was that he felt it would be rude. He was also partially afraid that Pinkamena would have some sort of snide comment to whatever he said. So, he too held his tongue.

Night had fallen, and he lucked out on starting out on work right after being hired. Cheese expected to start the next morning, and he was already dreading the work ahead. He was hoping that his time on the rock farm would be worth the bits he needed.

In his room, he was laying on the floor, under the light of the lamp, flipping through the few books that had been on the dresser. Having discovered that they were all about rocks and minerals, he figured a little rock research would be a bit of help in rock farming. So far, he had discovered the use of rock farming: the harvesting of gems and ores that would be used for businesses, as well as collecting rocks for researchers, for construction, or to be sold as souvenirs. He had also discovered that rock farms are usually located in rock fields where magical energy was strong and seeping into the stones. It was strangely fascinating.

"Why are you stalking me?"

Cheese jerked his head up, finding Pinkamena standing in the doorway. Leaning against the door frame, she stared at him with her dry scowl, flicking her mane out of her face. He was drawn to her eyes again, pondering how their azure irises, which would fit perfectly with an innocent, curious soul, were part of such a stern mare.

"Well?" Pinkamena said.

Realizing that he stared again, he stood up and answered, "I, uh, didn't mean to imply that…"

"You implied it, all right."

"Ehehe… sorry…" Cheese rubbed his hooves and looked away. "Consider this my payment for those veggies you lost… and well, a little extension of my gratitude for driving those greasy thugs away from me…"

"Glad I didn't insult your stallion pride," Pinkamena deadpanned.

"What stallion pride?" Cheese retorted, laying back onto the floor and resuming his reading.

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow. Here before her laid the most pathetic pony she had ever met. No wonder her father pitied him.

Cheese sighed. "Look, Pinkamena, I'm sorry if I'm rubbing you the wrong way. I promised your father that I'm not up to any shenanigans involving you or your sisters… if you know what I mean."

"We wouldn't let you do anything like that."

"Something tells me you'll crush me if I even tried."

"Uh-huh."

"Don't worry. I'm just your temporary brother."

"Yeah… sure…"

Cheese groaned. He rubbed his eye and yawned, and then asked, "Say, didn't you say earlier that you didn't care whether or not I worked here? You seem to care an awful lot."

"I didn't think I'd see you again," Pinkamena answered. "Turns out I did. At least you bathed." She watched as Cheese's eye rubbing made his glasses slip off and fall on the book. "Shut the book and get into bed. We wake up early."

Pinkamena turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind her. Cheese put his glasses back on, and finished the page he was on before closing the book. He was in bed before long.

---

After he was given a rude awakening and eating a bland breakfast, Cheese Sandwich was not a happy pony. Pinkamena had warned him that the family woke up early, but that didn't really change anything. He figured it was going to be a long day.

He was sorting the rocks with Cloudy Quartz, while Igneous and the girls collected them from around the field. The piles were sorted by what their uses would be and if they were ready. A pile off to the side indicated that the rocks were not ready for harvesting, while a few other piles were for those that were. There were the rocks that contained ore to be extracted, the rocks that contained gems and had to be cracked open, the rocks for the souvenir shop, rocks for gravel, and rocks for building materials.

Cloudy sorted them with relative ease. Cheese, however, thought all the rocks looked the same. He couldn't tell which ones were "ripe", and which ones had to be taken back to the fields. He tried smelling the so-called ripeness, like Cloudy was doing, but he could not detect any smell from the rocks. Taking careful bites on the rocks didn't do anything for him either, except receive a scolding from Cloudy. Tapping the rock and trying to hear whatever he needed to hear was a moot point.

Cheese had been trying to sort his rock for an hour, trying everything he could, including a brief round of hacky sack with the small stone. The repeated bouncing of the rock with his hind leg earned an odd look from the matriarch of the Pie family.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Cheese stopped his little game, dropping the rock. "Um… hacky sack?"

"Hacky-what?"

"Hacky sack. Where you take a little soft ball and keep it off the ground by repeatedly kicking it?"

Cloudy shook her head slowly, raising an eyebrow at this strange game. "It looks like tomfoolery to me. Don't do that with your rock, you'll hurt yourself. Sit back down and help me sort the rest."

Cheese sighed, picked his rock back up, and sat near the piles. He glared at the little stone, tempted to throw it out of sight and continue with the sorting. Of course, he'll run into the same problem with the next rock.

"Cloudy…" he pleaded. "Help!"

Cloudy glanced at him, and said, "That rock's going back to the field. It's not ready for anything, so we can't tell what its use is."

Cheese froze when he heard that, his eye twitching. He had wasted an hour, trying to solve the mystery of his rock, just to be told that it wasn't "ripe." His cheeks inflated, suppressing the scream that was raging within and trying to claw its way out of his mouth. His face was becoming redder and redder by the second.

"Oh, for the love of… BREATHE!" Cloudy said.

Out came the most embarrassing sound he had ever made. Neither he nor Cloudy could properly describe it, only that it was very strange, drawn out and loud. It was a sound no pony should ever naturally make, and it could not ever be duplicated. Time seemed to stand still as the sound came out of Cheese's mouth, and Cloudy had no idea what to make of it.

By the end of the strange loud sound, Cheese's face was red for a completely different reason. He bashfully looked at the stunned Cloudy and grinned sheepishly.

"I'm terribly sorry about that…" he squeaked.

Cloudy's stunned face fell into a dull stare. "Perhaps just collecting the rocks with Igneous would be better."

---

"So, that weird noise… it was you?" Marble drawled.

Cheese's face was still red from what had transpired between him and Cloudy. He was just glad to have swapped places with Pinkamena to avoid another hour of frustration caused by a rock. He had been told that with time, he might be able to tell what the rocks should each be used for, but Cheese had his doubts.

"Remind me never to make him angry," Limestone muttered.

"Ugh… you better not make that noise again, you colt," Igneous grumbled.

Cheese looked away and mumbled, "I most likely can't do it again."

Igneous was pulling the cart while his daughters and Cheese were picking up rocks and throwing them in. Marble and Limestone were expressing a significant amount of disbelief that a pony could make such a strange noise, Igenous was annoyed, and Maud didn't seem to care. She just did her job, though she stared at each rock she picked up and brushed dirt off of them before putting them in the cart.

Cheese smelled each rock, trying to detect some sort of difference between them. He had no luck so far, and continued following the Pies as they gathered each rock that was found in the field. From the smallest pebble to rocks nearly the size of a pony's head, they were gathering rocks left and right.

Then they came across a boulder, which towered over them and cast a great shadow for a good distance. The five stared at it for a grand total of five seconds before Maud said, "I got it."

She stepped forward, and scanned the rock top to bottom and left to right. She circled it once, in her slow and steady pace. Her father and sisters were patient, watching her study the rock. Cheese was bemused at what Maud was doing, and could only scratch his head as she made an orbit around the boulder.

Maud completed her circle, and with one swift movement, punched the rock with a loud pow sound. She stepped back, and the cracks from the punch spread all over the boulder. The others backed up as well, sensing danger should they stay too close.

The cracks had spread inward, and soon the boulder began to crumble. Pebbles fell from the top and the bottom, and rolled down the hill of rubble that was forming. The loud rumbling of the dismantling rock was great, but only Cheese reacted to it. The mini-avalanche spread some pebbles near the hooves of the ponies, stopping short of hitting them. And then, as surely as it began, the little rockslide had stopped, and the boulder was no more. The Pies remained stoic, while Cheese gaped at the sight, his jaw having dropped.

He turned to Maud. "H-how… how did—how did you do that?!"

Maud blinked and answered, "I punched it."

Cheese looked at the stocky legs of the Pies, and then at his own lanky legs. They started aching at the thought of him punching a rock, and failing to even make a mark on what he punched. Given that they've been doing this for years, it shouldn't be a surprise that they were so strong. That still didn't keep him from being so shocked to see said strength in action.

He shuddered at the thought of what Pinkamena could have done to that stallion gang, but chose not to. All she had done was kick one of them, and that scared them off. There was no need to go further.

"Cheese, stop daydreaming," Igneous growled. "We still have work to do."

Cheese shook his head, and murmured, "R-right."

As he walked with the others, the conversation he had with Pinkamena the night before came to mind. He could remember a single thing that Pinkamena had said.

"Glad I didn't insult your stallion pride."

With a sigh, he mumbled, "What stallion pride?"

Author's Note:

Baw, first day on the job, and Cheesy's already feeling down. Quick, one of you ponies give him a hug!

I have a few misadventures planned, but I'm trying to decide what order I should put them in. *scratches head*

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Well, if you have an event when cheese discovers how to work with rocks I say that comes first, or have an adventure with Limestone and Marble. Good chapter. I can't wait for the next one.

[DILLYbOd]

nice

[daniboyi]

Damn... I feel bad for Cheese...

[Yildun]

*gives Cheese lots of hugs to cheer him up*

You have me in suspense. Gaahh. Gonna be so slow and so good. I'm chomping at the bit though... He's so sweet and she's so not enthused...

[Diespitris]

Yay! Update!

I love this story.

[Zephyr]

Darn, I read the first chapter but forgot to add to my favorites!
At least I had 5 chapters to read!
Anyway, the story is developing well, I like everything in it.
I can also sense how things might happen between Mr. Sticks and Pinkamena.
So, go on, keep publishing chapters!

-Zeph

[WitlessTheSmall]

Just a question. Does this story have a planned ending? If so do they find their true selves or remain rock farmers? Or do I have to wait and see XD

[Jordan179]

They always assumed that he had committed murder, or that he had wooed mares all over Equestria, though Cheese knew he couldn't kill someone or get romantically involved even if he tried. Igneous had made the latter assumption about him earlier, but it won't take long for him to see that none of his daughters would find Cheese attractive in any way.

Actually, I think part of the reason Igneous hired Cheese is that he seemed totally and completely harmless.

[Limedog]

He turned to Maud. "H-how… how did—how did you do that?!"
Maud blinked and answered, "I punched it."

Well, if nothing else, you have Maud down perfectly!

[Fluffy-Boi]

He turned to Maud. "H-how… how did—how did you do that?!"
Maud blinked and answered, "I punched it."

Brick? Is that you?

[Super57]

*Hugz Cheese*

Never make yourself feel bad :(

[TwibraFlattercordlover]

Good thing these are ponies 'cause man pride sounds weird..

[Godslittleprincess]

"Hugs Cheese"