The Perfect Baker

by Harmonator

The Rainbow

Part One

His name was Igneous Rock. A young, strong, healthy stallion with integrity, persistence, and confidence. It was because of these many unique characteristics that this youthful colt would even dare to attempt at such a ridiculous lifestyle. There were many earth ponies in this particular stallion's life that would have him believe that living on a rock farm, was probably not the best-suited location for raising a family, but for Igneous Rock, it was probably the best piece of land you could ever live on. Igneous Rock was not one to surrender when it came to difficult challenges, and certainly, rock farming, at least in his eyes, was a worthy contester for his skills. When he first laid eyes upon the land that would one day become his future home, for both him and his family, he loved everything about it. A great majority of the land was nothing but wide open fields that occasionally had a few dead trees here and there, and prickly tumbleweeds that slowly made their way across the dry ground. The sun rarely, if ever, shined down on the dark and dreary landscape. Even though it was practically always cloudy there, it never really rained much, and due to this, there was not much vegetation growing all around either, but it was because of these many reasons, that Igneous Rock loved it so much because there was only one thing that this kind of land could be used for: rock farming.

As soon as the ambitious Igneous Rock had found his perfect settling place for farmland, he finally decided what he wanted to do with his life. He would meet a pretty young mare to fall in love with, maybe have some children, and live off the land. Now Igneous Rock had purchased the property in his early adulthood and planned on starting a family there, but the only problem with his new home was that it was quite far away from the nearest form of civilization. Now that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, that's exactly what he wanted, but it certainly did make it inconvenient for him when it came to dealing with his loneliness. However, Igneous Rock knew that was the price one had to pay when living out in the deep, rugged, country. Nevertheless, he managed to solve this problem by traveling long distances in order for him to make it to local towns and villages, but once he was there, he could become very sociable.

Now one day, while Igneous Rock was visiting in town purchasing supplies for his farm, he just happened to meet, what he thought to believe, the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria. Her name was Cloudy Quartz, and many ponies claimed that she would steal the hearts of all the stallions that just happened to catch a glimpse of her. Cloudy Quartz was what you would call a "city pony", she used to live in Manehatten with her family, until she turned old enough to move out. Ever since she was a little filly she always wanted to travel Equestria and to see many places that she had never heard nor seen of before. She just happened to be in the local town where Igneous Rock was visiting. They met in line at a vegetable stand, which may have been an odd place for two ponies destined to fall in love to meet, but it happened just like that. Cloudy Quartz just happened to drop some of her vegetables and Igneous Rock helped her pick them back up, and ever since then, they became inseparable. Cloudy Quartz was drawn to Igneous Rock by his great interest in living on a rock farm and living out in the country, she found it very interesting, and while she found the idea of living on a rock farm unpleasant at first, the more time she spent with Igneous Rock, the more she began to like the idea.

So each time they would meet, they grew to like each other more and more. They both shared their likes and dislikes, and how they each grew up, and the kinds of dreams they had, but over time Cloudy Quartz's dream of wanting to travel Equestria, began to fade away and her new dream was to marry Igneous Rock and live on the rock farm with him. So, of course in no time, they were married and they began to start a new life together on Igneous Rock's perfect land.

Now at first, working on the rock farm was fun for the young couple, but as time went on, the constant work of farm life began to weigh on them and they figured out very quickly that rock farming was not all it was cracked up to be. Igneous Rock grew adjusted to his new life quickly, he didn't figure it would be this hard, but he didn't mind too much, but the poor Cloudy Quartz, born in a rich family in Manehatten where you were served day and night, had a hard time going from a "city pony" to a "hard-working farm pony". Carrying rocks everyday on the farm began to put a strain on her back, and she began to ache all over her body, and this concerned Igneous Rock because he realized that his wife would not have enough strength to carry heavy rocks. So, the married couple created a little routine, where Igneous Rock would carry the heaviest rocks, and Cloudy Quartz would carry the little rocks, and they used this working strategy for many years.

When the two ponies married, they knew that they would one day have children, but they never knew when or how many children they would have. Igneous Rock liked the idea of having several sons that would help him with his farm work, and after many years he would eventually leave all the work for his sons, and one day they would take over the farm, so that they could have children of their own, and the property could be passed down from generation to generation. Cloudy Quartz on the other hand wanted some daughters that she could call her own, hoping that they could grow up and find their own true loves and go on to live happy lives. In one way or another, the two did want to have children, so that they could make their family grow.

It was around Spring time when their first child was born. It was a mare. She had an opalish gray mane with a bluish gray coat, and light apple green eyes. They decided to name her Limestone, Limestone Pie. Even though Igneous Rock never said it, he was a little disappointed that it wasn't a colt, but they planned to have more children after Limestone. So before long, Cloudy Quartz once again gave birth to two more fillies, both mares, again. They called them both Maud Pie and Marble Pie.

After Cloudy Quartz had two more daughters, she told her husband that she didn't want to have anymore children, but Igneous Rock insisted that they have another child, just to see if this one would be a colt. Even though Cloudy Quartz didn't want to go through childbirth for a fourth time, she did it to satisfy her husband. After a while, during a hot Summer's day, the child came. To Igneous Rock's dismay, it was not a colt, it was another mare, but she was very different compared to her sisters. She had a light pink coat with a dark pink mane, and baby blue eyes. Seeing as how she looked very different than her other children, Cloudy Quartz wanted to call her Pinkamena Diane Pie. She tried to ask her husband if that was a good name, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Igneous Rock was just staring out the window.

Many years passed by, and the four children, grew to be strong little fillies. They got strong because of all the hard work they did of carrying rocks from field to field over the years. Limestone, Maud, and Marble didn't have much trouble carrying rocks on their backs over the years, but their younger sister, Pinkie Pie, just didn't have the back strength to carry such heavy rocks, even the little ones. So she had to push each rock one by one with her snout, while her sisters carried several rocks on their backs. It certainly made Pinkie feel as if she wasn't capable of impressing her parents by not being able to do this kind of work, but regardless, the young filly tried as hard as she could to build her strength by trying to lift rocks with her back, but it was all to no avail.

Their father, Igneous Rock, was starting to feel the weight of his advancing age, but of course he would try to ignore the pain every time he would lift a heavy boulder, but some days he would be so tired that he didn't want to do any farm work at all, which is why his daughters had to do most of the work. Igneous Rock wanted some strong stallions for sons to take care of the farm, instead he got four daughters. And thus decided to treat his daughters as if they were young colts, by making them do all of the back-breaking labor, while he would sit on the front porch and watch them.

Even though Igneous Rock desired colts for offsprings, he still loved his daughters very much, but most of his attention was directed towards his favorite daughter, Limestone. Limestone Pie most of the time loved to work with rocks and enjoyed living on the rock farm and was dedicated to getting all of the attention that she could possibly get from her father, which she began to gain much pleasure out of doing so. While Limestone was probably one of the best rock farmers there was, she didn't treat her other sisters very well. Most of the time, she boasted to her other sisters about how their father loved her more than he loved them, but this teasing didn't bother Maud or Marble, because they knew better than to take everything their older sister said seriously, but sadly their younger sister didn't quite take it the same way.

Pinkie Pie began to hate the awful things that her older sister would say, and because Limestone's harsh words didn't affect Maud or Marble, most of the teasing was directed at Pinkie, and it was because of this, that Pinkie and Limestone most of the time never got along with each other. Igneous Rock never noticed Limestone teasing Pinkie, and even if he did, he didn't mind because Limestone was, of course, his favorite daughter, and that would sometimes get in the way of trying to show support for Pinkie. Cloudy Quartz, of course, noticed the way Limestone was treating her younger sister and would constantly scold her about it, but this was all to no avail, because Limestone always knew that she could always run to Daddy for support. This whole conflict about Limestone's behavior towards Pinkie, is what sparked a strain in Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz's relationship. Cloudy Quartz complained that Limestone needed to be punished for bullying her younger sister, but Igneous Rock never wanted to hear it, and just wanted to believe that his favorite hard-working daughter could do no wrong. So, it was because of these many problems that tension began to grow in the Pie family, and poor Pinkie Pie was stuck in the middle of it all.

On this one particular day, it was cloudy, just like every day. Pinkie Pie and her sisters were preparing to roll the rocks from the South field to the East field, and of course, her sisters had already carried all of their rocks to the East field before her. Pinkie watched her three older sisters as they walked inside the house to be greeted by their father as he would pat them on the head and congratulate them on their hard work. As Pinkie watched her father, she saw him glimpse at her for just a few seconds, he frowned, and then turned around to walk inside and shut the door behind him. Pinkie wished that she could feel the fatherly love that her sisters got, and she never really understood why her father never praised her after she was done working. She would walk in the room and say "I finished my work Dad." and he would just glance up at her and say "That's good." and just go back to whatever he was doing, as if she had never said anything at all. This would eat away at Pinkie's mind, trying to figure out what she could do to impress her father.

So, Pinkie's mind wandered as she pushed each rock one by one until they each made it to the East field. She couldn't help but get distracted from her work, as she heard the noise going on in the house. It was her mother and father arguing again, and from what she could hear, it was pretty heated. She figured that they were arguing about her, it was almost always about her, if it wasn't, it was probably about Limestone's behavior towards her. Pinkie Pie wished that she could somehow make everything...better.

Pinkie Pie let out a deep sigh, when the sound of an explosion startled the young filly, and a huge gust of wind blew in her face that made her mane and tail frizzle up, all tangled and curly. Different from the hair she was born with, which was very straight. After the gust of wind, the explosion blew all of the dark clouds away and Pinkie Pie could see the blueness of the sky, and when looking up at it, she saw a beautiful batch of colors. It was a rainbow, but Pinkie Pie had no idea what it was or where it came from, all she knew was that it brought her complete joy, and for the first time in a very long while, she was happy. Pinkie Pie suddenly got an idea that she could share this joy with the rest of her family. So she shut herself up all nightlong, planning to surprise her family with something very special.

The next morning came, and the whole family woke up early to be ready to work again. They then heard muffled music coming from the storehouse. The family hadn't seen her all night, and they assumed that she was in there.

"Pinkamena Diane Pie! Is that you?" her mother called to the storehouse. Pinkie Pie swung open the door to the storehouse with great excitement and enthusiasm.

"Mom, I need you and Dad and the sisters to come in here quick!" and with that, she shut the door behind her. Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz gave a look of concern at each other and then went inside the storehouse. The room was decorated with all kinds of party favors, streamers hung from the walls, balloons tied to tables and chairs, with all sorts of different kinds of snacks and beverages laid out. Pinkie Pie then jumped out from behind a table.

"Surprise! You like it? It's called a 'party.'" Pinkie said with a bright smile on her face. Her sisters took delight out of seeing the balloons and other party favors everywhere, even Limestone was somewhat impressed. Her mother let out a small giggle seeing her daughter so happy for once, but her father on the other hand, was not smiling.

"So this is what you've been doing all this time, instead of working?" Her father said as he walked toward her with an angry expression on his face.

"Well, I thought it would be nice, I wanted to make you guys happy." Pinkie said as her smile began to fade away from her face, and she could feel her hair starting to deflate back to being straight.

"Did you ever finish taking your rocks to the East field?"

"W-well...no." Pinkie said, trying to find the right words to say. "You see, there was this beautiful batch of colors that appeared in the sky, and...and it made me feel happy, and I...well..."

"Now you listen to me young lady, when your father asks you to do something, you're supposed to do it! And I asked you to move your share of rocks to the East field, and you didn't! Instead you came in here and did all this nonsense!" after these harsh words, the little pink filly became ashamed of herself, and then hid under the table, so her family wouldn't see her cry. Igneous Rock let out a deep sigh of aggravation and looked at his family that was staring at him.

And without another word, he breathed hard through his nostrils and stomped towards the door and left. Cloudy Quartz became engulfed with anger, and rushed out the door to give Igneous Rock an earful. Limestone gave a stern look at her two other sisters, and looked at the table Pinkie was hiding under. She could hear her youngest sister crying softly and her look of sternness then morphed into an expression of disgust. In a fit of anger she dashed toward the door and was gone in a matter of seconds. It was now just Maud and Marble standing in the room, with their younger sister crying under the table. Maud was the first one to walk over to the table, and she lifted up the table cloth to see Pinkie Pie all curled up.

"Hey, it's okay Pinkie, we liked what you did for us." Maud then poked her head out from under the table, and gave a little head tilt towards the table, gesturing for Marble to speak.

"Yeah Pink, I really liked the decorations." she said as she walked towards the table to peek under the table cloth.

"I just wanted to make everypony happy, that's all." Pinkie said as she wiped away a tear. Maud and Marble looked at each other.

"Well, you made us happy." Maud said. Pinkie's head perked up.

"Yeah, we never had a party before, it looks like a lot of fun." Marble said, trying to cheer her up.

"We could still have our own little, personal party." Maud said with a caring smile. Pinkie crawled out from under the table.

"Okay." she said, as her two sisters hugged her tight.

So the three sisters spent that afternoon in the storehouse having their party. They ate delicious desserts and drank punch. Pinkie made her two sisters smile and laugh, and managed to make them feel happy, and that in return, made Pinkie feel happy. This special piece of happiness that Pinkie felt, caused her to get her cutie mark, but Pinkie was so lost in her joy that she didn't even take notice.

Comments

[XtremeDarkLord]

I like this story. The story is awesome because it reminded me of a movie. I can't put my hand on it...

[Fireflower]

I, too, like this story as well; hope you can keep up the good work by then...