Magic on the Rocks

by Violet CLM

Valley

Marble prescribed Trixie a few days of rest to get her strength back before they tried her out on the fields, and Limestone agreed after only the briefest flicker of annoyance. It did make sense; the unicorn was extremely thin. So she spent her first full day in bed and joined the Pie family for dinner, and they stayed up late while Trixie told tales of her travels across Equestria and all the strange things she’d seen and done. Limestone remained skeptical of some of Trixie’s more outlandish claims of her accomplishments, but Marble looked fascinated, and Limestone didn’t want to disappoint her sister by disputing anything. Eventually even Ma and Pa entered the conversation to ask Trixie if she had ever met this pony or that whom Limestone and Marble had never even heard of, and sometimes Trixie said that she had, and they traded stories of mysterious figures from Limestone’s parents’ youth until everyone was falling asleep at the table.

The second night, as Limestone’s hooves and back recovered from a long day of pushing over rocks and hauling cartloads to and from the silo, Trixie came outside to treat the whole family to a fireworks show. They had all seen fireworks before during some of Pinkie’s visits, but those, while impressive, had still been mechanical devices. Trixie’s, at least the ones she showed them that night, were pure magic. Sparkling clouds of blue and pink and white light burst apart in the heavens overhead, punctuated by loud explosion sounds that seemed to shake the very rocks beneath their hooves, and Limestone lay back sometimes watching the sky and sometimes watching her little sister, who herself sometimes watched the sky and sometimes watched Trixie. Marble looked very happy, and that was enough to give Limestone an easy sleep that night.

And as they eased Trixie out into field work and taught her the details of rock farming, everypony agreed that she did surprisingly well. Trixie did not know anything about how rocks were farmed, but her studies and travels had furnished her with a keen eye for details, and they—or mostly Marble—were able to help her see the details she needed to look for to know when a rock needed turning, or harvesting, or manual erosion, or anything else. They left her at the farm the first couple of weeks during market day, not wanting to make her pull the cart or walk the long road there and back, and on those days Ma or Pa taught her about the giant mill instead.

In the meantime, Marble did the farming work of three ponies while Limestone continued to develop her skills as a jewelry maker. The sales on their second trip to market were not quite as dramatic as the first day when they had brought back Trixie along with all their money, but they still managed to sell their entire stock, only not quite as quickly. The third trip went similarly to the second, except that Limestone saw some of the ponies at market wearing earrings or necklaces she had sold them in previous weeks, and tears of happiness came to her eyes.

Halfway through the next week, as Limestone hunched over her worktable, she was surprised to see the light surrounding her grow stronger. She looked up and found the candle had been encased in a shimmering white sphere that somehow enhanced the light burning from it. Trixie stood behind the candle, looking appropriately smug as a magic glow faded from around her horn.

“I thought you were out on the fields,” said Limestone.

“Needed a water break,” said Trixie, gesturing toward the kitchen. “And you were going to wear out your eyes staring at the table like that.”

“Heh. You sound like Ma… which is no way to court my little sister.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Trixie, and she withdrew to the kitchen for more water. When she returned, she tapped Limestone on one shoulder. “Anyway, Trixie made your light stronger, Limestone Pie. Thanks would be appropriate.”

Limestone sighed. “You’re right. Thank you, Trixie. Sorry, Trixie. I’m just distracted.”

“What are you doing, anyway?”

Limestone shifted to the side, making room for Trixie to stand beside her at the table and look at her work. “I’m making us money. Ponies have been buying my jewelry so far, but I want to keep getting better. One thing is that sometimes somepony will see something I’ve already sold and will want a copy for themselves, but I’m not good enough yet to make reliable reproductions.”

Trixie looked over her work with a critical—but not, Limestone realized, malicious—eye. “Some of these look like magic charms,” she said eventually. “That diamond shape, for instance. And the one made like a crescent moon. Crescents are very powerful magic symbols.” She grinned and nudged Limestone with her wand-and-moon cutie mark.

Limestone glanced across the table again, wondering if she knew enough about unicorn magic to say whether Trixie was telling the truth. She almost certainly did not. “Magic comes in charms?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound too curious.

“Sometimes. In fact, Trixie was searching for a very powerful charm, called the Alicorn Amulet, but I can’t raise enough money for that.” She grimaced. “But I wonder if I could enchant any of these.”

“You want to enchant my jewelry?”

“No, I want to offer to enchant your jewelry.” Trixie sniffed. “Enchanting without asking first would be very rude, and Trixie is always empathetic.”

“What would they do afterwards?”

“I’m not sure yet.” A completed necklace lifted up from Limestone’s worktable and hovered in the air before Trixie’s face, surrounded by her identifiable magic glow. “I don’t know what sorts of enchantments might work on charms worn by non-unicorns, and I don’t have much experience with enchantments anyway. But it would be an interesting challenge.”

Limestone watched her carefully. There was still nothing malicious in Trixie’s expression or anything she had said. She’d been living at the farm with them for over two weeks and had yet to do anything particularly worthy of suspicion, and now she even seemed to be looking for ways to help out using her own talents. Everypony else on the farm had been giving her a fair chance—Limestone supposed she should do the same. “I guess,” she said thoughtfully, “for that matter, I don’t have much experience with jewelry. But my family still let me try.”

“You will let Trixie try?”

“Sure. But stick to that one necklace until you figure this out, okay? I don’t want to lose my whole week’s stock if you make a mistake.”

But Trixie did not make any mistakes, and by the end of the week Limestone found herself equipped with a tray of fifteen charmed trinkets (as well as three totally unmagic horn rings) with such minor enchantments as increased hearing or warmth above natural wells. Limestone ended up keeping an earring enchanted to vibrate in the presence of counterfeit bits, both because it sounded useful and because they didn’t actually have any to try it on, and she wasn’t willing to sell a charm that she couldn’t test out beforehand. She did idly wonder why Trixie had experience with counterfeit money to begin with, but supposed she could have been on either side of transactions in her many travels.

Marble asked if Trixie wanted to accompany them to market that day, since she was a unicorn and would therefore make a more believable peddler of magical goods, but Trixie somehow turned down the chance to show off. She explained that too many ponies at the market might recognize the world-famous Great and Powerful Trixie and she would not want to inconvenience the sisters’ sales with her current pariah status. Marble was very touched by this, and even Limestone had to admit she had a good point. They left Pa in charge of Trixie and walked the long road to market, where they charged more for the charmed jewelry than normal pieces yet still found plenty of buyers before the day was over.

When they returned that evening, happy and wealthy, Trixie was lying in the living room and looked exhausted. “Your father,” she said in tortured tones, “made Trixie break apart a mountain of rocks. A mountain! With one tiny hammer!”

Pa leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, his usually stern expression betraying a faint smile. “Thou didst yet manage, and before sundown besides.”

“Yes, eventually! But my heeeeeeead hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrts.”

This, inevitably, was Marble’s cue to hurry to Trixie’s side and ask if there was anything she needed: water, blankets, rocks? And Trixie managed to grin resiliently and say that having Marble there to talk to her was good enough, and how did they do at market today? And Limestone rolled her eyes and brushed past Pa to see if Ma needed any help in the kitchen, not that she was much of a cook but it beat hanging around Marble in loving caretaker mode.

But Ma had no respite for her that day. She peered at Limestone over the soup pot while Limestone chopped carrots and said, “Thy sister is much besotted with yon vagabond unicorn, methinks.”

“Oh, she sure is.”

“And what thinkest thou?”

Limestone sighed and chopped one carrot too hard, sending its tip flying off the counter and underneath a rock. “I keep feeling like I shouldn’t trust her. But she never does anything to deserve it. Maybe I’m just paranoid.”

“Mayhap,” said Ma. “But in the end, only the Pairing Stone hath the right to tell thy sister yea or nay. In the meantime… we can all extend her the comfort of our homestead with trusting hearts.”

“Yeah,” said Limestone. “Yeah. I know. I’ll try. But… I’m still going to ask that pegasus from market if she knows anything more about why the rest of the world thinks Trixie is so evil.”

The pegasus—who introduced herself as Sugar Grape—admitted she didn’t know much of the story, only that Trixie’s encounter with the monster had happened somewhere called Ponyville. “Ponyville!” repeated Limestone, startled. “One of my sisters lives there! I could write to her and ask if she knows anything!” There still was no reliable mail service at the rock farm, but Sugar Grape agreed that she could mail a letter if Limestone brought one for her, and they did that the next week, with Sugar Grape promising to give her Pinkie’s reply letter as soon as one arrived.

There was no rushing the mail, though, so Limestone simply stepped back from worrying about Marble’s love life and allowed herself to enjoy life as the rock farm changed around her. In future years she would always remember that season as one of the happiest she had ever known, with Trixie continuing to help out with everything—turning rocks with Marble, enchanting Limestone’s jewelry, and increasingly earning Ma and Pa’s trust in the more complex duties around the farm. She’d seen far more of Equestria than any of the Pies had or expected to, and although Limestone remained unsure if every one of her stories from distant lands and tales of ancient heroes was true, eventually she decided maybe that didn’t matter. Trixie was an entertainer, and if nothing else, her stories kept them entertained.

And none of them were more entertained than Marble, who, despite already being the gayest and most talkative remaining member of the family, gained a whole new spring in her step with Trixie around. She took to singing in the mornings as she went around waking everypony up, and after the first week of this treatment Limestone even gave up growling at her. She also started wearing her baby-blue dress at home, not just at market, and when Limestone noticed Trixie watching Marble as she walked by, she felt only pride, not suspicion. It was about time the world had sent somepony to make Marble happy.

Not that she knew the details. She didn’t feel right questioning Trixie, knowing it would just make her out to be the overprotective older sister, and asking Marble anything just seemed like it’d be embarrassing. For at least one party involved. Still, there was at least one question she wanted to know the answer to, so one day when they were both out breaking boulders and Trixie had gone inside to fetch lunch, Limestone very subtly sidled over to her sister and whispered a greeting.

Marble was less interested in subtlety. “Hi Limestone! Thanks for coming out with us today!”

“Anytime. Marble, can I ask you something?”

“Of course!”

“So… you and Trixie. I’m sure there’s stuff going on that I don’t see, and that’s fine, but… do you know if she likes you back?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes, she told me weeks ago! We’re trying not to be too annoying about it, but she did give me a bouquet of rocks and everything! It was so sweet.”

“Great,” said Limestone, and she meant it. Marble falling in love was fine, but she would have hated for it to be one-sided. And if Trixie had figured out she should build her bouquet out of rocks, not to mention figured out how to do so, then that spoke volumes about how accustomed she’d gotten to life on the farm, and Limestone couldn’t ask for more than that.

They worked on in silence for several minutes before Limestone’s curiosity got the best of her. “So, uh… have you two… y’know?”

Marble blinked at her, smiling in a way that Limestone couldn’t quite convince herself was innocent rather than teasing. “What do you mean, sister?”

“Well, uh…” Limestone moved her front hooves vaguely around between them, suddenly acutely aware she was not at all clear what physical acts she was trying to illustrate. “Done… the thing. You know?”

“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies!” Marble giggled and leant in to kiss Limestone on the cheek, but she seemed to think better of her answer as she withdrew, and leant back to whisper into Limestone’s ear. “But… no, we haven’t yet. I still want the Pairing Stone’s permission first. But you’re a dear for trying to take care of me.”

Limestone, somewhat relieved, smiled and nuzzled her. “I barely need to. I trust you. And I think I may trust Trixie too.”

That same possibility of trust, five days later, led Limestone to stand quietly in Granny Pie’s old room, which had been converted to Trixie’s shortly after her arrival. Trixie was sideways on the bed, snoring in a way not all befitting her usual aggrieved elegance, and the house was dark around them. Limestone had waited until she was sure everypony else was fast asleep before she made her move. Slowly, testing each floorboard for sudden creeks, she crept forwards and put a hoof across Trixie’s lips.

Trixie stirred and groaned. “Errrgh… Marble?”

“Should I be worried you’re expecting my sister in the middle of the night?” Limestone said the words quietly, but there was no anger behind them. She trusted her sister.

“Oh… Limestone? Hmmph, no, Trixie was only dreaming.” Trixie sat up in bed, yawning hugely, and Limestone politely looked away until she’d closed her mouth again. “What time is it? Is this some horrible rock ritual for the middle of the night?”

“Our rituals aren’t horrible!” To this Trixie only stuck her tongue out at her, and Limestone sighed, realizing she was being made fun of. “Sorry. No, I need your help.”

“My help? What, did one of my enchantments wear off?”

“No, it’s…” Limestone stood there awkwardly, realizing she was approaching the point of no return on her mad idea. “I’ve got a plan. For the farm. But I can’t do it myself, and Pa doesn’t want to put in the time and money to try… but you might be able to do it alone with your magic.”

“Trixie is very good at magic,” said Trixie, sounding almost automatic, but then she frowned. “Your father has been kind to me. You all have. I don’t want to break his trust, even to help you…”

“It’s not like that, or at least I don’t think it is. It’s just that he thinks it would be too much work. But look, I promise if we do get in any trouble for this, I’ll take all the blame. You’re just our poor unicorn guest who I coerced into doing my dirty work.”

Trixie narrowed her eyes. “You promise?”

“I swear on Holder’s Boulder. Will you help me?”

“Hmm. Trixie will… take a look, but cannot say more without more information.” She groaned again and climbed out of bed, shivering slightly in the night air. “I can enchant our hooves so we don’t make any sound, if you’d like.”

“Do I want to know why you learned that kind of spell?”

“Absolutely not.”

Carefully, surrounded by a sound-cancelling red bubble of magic that followed their every step, the two ponies made their way out of the house and into the night. Limestone grabbed and lit a candle from beside the front door as they left, and she used that to light their way down into the vast rock quarry a little way from the farmhouse, where she and Maud had once done their surveying for her school projects. There was nothing special-looking about the rocky quarry wall that greeted them, but Limestone had visited the spot every time she’d gotten particularly frustrated with her parents since then, so she knew they were in the right place.

“I don’t see anything,” said Trixie.

“Not yet, no. But behind this wall… there’s this huge cavern full of crystals. I’m sure of it. I just can’t get in.”

“Crystals…? Here?” Trixie’s eyebrows rose up high, and she walked toward the wall, letting the red bubble of silence fall away from them as she walked. A thin trail of purple magic grew out of her horn, snaking into the rocks before them and pouring through cracks far too small for pony hooves. Trixie stood quietly, face deep in concentration, for several long seconds before she turned away and faced Limestone with a small smile. “I think you’re right. You want to mine this place? For the farm?”

“Exactly. We’d need to expand the whole quarry to get in the normal way, but if you could blast open an entrance somehow… we’d be able to use them to light the house, instead of all those candles, and I’d bet we could sell them for a lot of money at market…”

“You most certainly could. Crystals have many uses to the discerning magician.” Trixie stared thoughtfully at the wall for a while. “Explosions are not as simple as you might think… otherwise, battles with unicorns would be very dangerous. You need to know a lot about your circumstances, your surroundings, and so on, especially for a precise job like this.”

“Oh.” Limestone hesitated, shoulders slumping a little. “So you’re saying…”

“Fortunately, these days Trixie knows quite a great deal about rocks. Move out of the way, Limestone Pie.”

Trixie spent several minutes longer staring at the wall from different angles, even after Limestone had walked halfway up the surrounding slopes of the quarry. Several times more she sent thin trails of purple magic into the wall, testing it for factors Limestone, as an earth pony, knew nothing about. Finally she saw Trixie nod in the light of the candle, step back, and enclose herself in a thick purple shield. Magic poured from her horn, surrounding the rock wall until it blazed almost white in the night air, and just when Limestone felt she had to look away, there was a loud noise and the rocks flew apart, bouncing off of Trixie’s shield and landing all over the quarry floor. It would take the family hours to catalogue all the debris, but Limestone didn’t care about any of that, because where there had been rocks there was now a wonderful pinkish glow emanating from the hole in the quarry’s wall. She ran down the circular path to join Trixie at the entrance, and together they made their way inside.

The cavern, as she and Maud had decided during their initial survey, was enormous. Limestone had no way to guess how far back it stretched under the ground, and neither she nor Trixie had any interest in finding out. The floor was gray and mottled, as was normal for the region, but there was no reason to look at the floor. Everywhere else were huge pink crystals, perfectly cut and eternally glowing, poking in every direction from the floor and walls and even the roof. Even Trixie had nothing to say for a long time, and instead the two ponies walked silently through the first area of the cave, running respectful hooves down the perfectly smooth crystal faces and marveling in the natural light.

It was Limestone who broke the silence. “We’re going to be rich.”

Trixie laughed out loud, and even after she had finished the echoes of her laughter still bounced off the innumerable crystal faces for a long time after. “Ha! Oh, eventually. I can show you how to cut these from the earth, but it’ll take practice. And the entrance is still unstable… you’ll want to pay for some wooden beams, at the very least, to make it safe. Have patience, Limestone.”

“Oh, I can be patient.” Limestone laughed too, and suddenly realized how odd the sounds felt in her throat. “Trixie…” She turned to face the unicorn, who looked at her curiously from behind a particularly stunning pink crystal. “I… not too long ago, I was miserable here. Really. All we ever did was try to sell boring rocks and nopony ever wanted them. But selling magical charms has been so much better, and now this amazing cavern, and all your stories, and the fireworks, and…” She stopped, trying to swallow down a sudden lump in her throat. “You’re making Marble so happy. And I’m happy too, like I don’t think I’ve ever been before. I actually want to stay on the farm now! I just… thank you, Trixie. For everything.”

When Trixie spoke, it was hesitant, lacking all the confidence Limestone had learned to expect from her. “Trixie has… never had a family before,” she said, staring into her reflection in the crystal. “Not like this. Trixie had—I had a dream once, a dream of revenge, but it was too expensive. Ridiculously so. And when you say that… and everypony has been so kind… maybe it’s worth giving up.”

“You shouldn’t have to give up your dreams! You just… get new ones, that’s all.” Limestone waved a hoof around them, suddenly determined that nopony would feel unhappy ever again. “You find what you want, and you go out and do it, and then, and you…”

“Limestone Pie, what hast thou done?!”

Limestone felt her body freeze up for a moment before she turned around to face the cavern’s entrance. There, illuminated in the light of the countless crystals, stood her family: her sister in the back, looking amazed; Ma next to her with an unreadable expression; and in the front, Pa, quivering with rage under his big black hat. In an instant, all the confidence and experience of Limestone’s years, as well as all the unexpected happiness of their time with Trixie, fled her body, and she was a little foal again, terrified of her father as he lectured her for breaking a vase or being late for dinner or miscategorizing a rock.

“Did I not make clear that this place, thou wert not to disturb? To tamper with these… crystals?”

Limestone looked to Marble for help, but her sister was silent, the amazement on her face replaced with fear as she too stared at their father. She was on her own. “Pa,” said Limestone weakly, “crystals… they’re still rocks…”

“It is not that they are rocks… it is that they are the wrong rocks.” Pa waved a single hoof in front of him, somehow managing in one gesture to encompass every crystal in the vast cavern and prove that they were all worthless. “They glow with magic. Ours is a humble, simple farmstead, Limestone, one thou disrespectest with this impurity.”

“You let me… let Trixie enchant my jewelry, and that’s…”

“Yet those are plain rocks, as we have farmed and ever shall farm. If another shall enchant the work of our hooves, so be it, but we do not raise our hooves above our humble station and tamper with such forces. We keep the great stone of our ancestor, Holder Cobblestone, and with it his traditions, and…”

“Your great stone,” said a furious voice from Limestone’s side, “is a dragon’s egg.”

Everypony turned to see Trixie standing there, sheathed in a pillar of white light with her eyes brimming with pure malice. “You!” she shouted, pointing at Pa, and Pa flinched away. “How dare you speak to your daughter that way? Do you know, Igneous Rock Pie, what your precious traditions brought to this farm? Misery! Misery and poverty! Of you all, only Limestone Pie had the sense to do something with her life and change the path she thought she was trapped on. You’d punish her for that?!

“Your amazing ancestor? I’ll have you know that Trixie has heard of him too on her travels. Holder Cobblestone was a hero, not a farmer. He ventured into the lands of the great dragons and he, a simple earth pony, carried away an entire nest of eggs. A nest! The dragons demanded their return, and Holder traded them back—all but one—for the secrets to the natural magics of the earth. Holder Cobblestone discovered crystals for all ponykind.

“Trixie did not believe this legend for a long time. Several of Trixie’s stories are, admittedly, fabricated.” Limestone admitted herself a small smile in the middle of the chaos. “But she has heard that Holder’s last quest was to find the greatest natural source of crystals in all Equestria, and in the search, he disappeared. Now Trixie knows where he went. He must have been so close when he died. And you and your whole idiotic Pie family, for all these years after him, kept running this farm and never even looked for the crystals. Until Limestone finally did, and you yelled at her.

“Trixie has… been alone. For a very long time. But two ponies gave her a chance, against every pony in the world warning them not to, and they gave Trixie confidence again. They gave her love. And if you, Igneous Rock Pie, want to tear Marble and Limestone down for their goodness, then know this: the Great and Powerful Trixie shall always be your enemy.”

Nopony dared speak, and slowly the pillar of light around Trixie faded away until there were only five ordinary ponies there, standing in a huge cave and watching each other. Finally Igneous Rock stepped forwards, removed his hat, and bowed.

“Limestone… I apologize. In mine age, I fear I have grown too confident in mine own poor wisdom. Thy friend—thy sister’s paramour—speaks well. Truly hast thou ever striven to build our farm, and I have but stood in thy way in thine endeavors. I beg thy forgiveness—and yea, pledge my support as thou carriest us forwards.” Slowly he stood again, replacing his hat and looking solemnly around the cavern. “Of you both—of all three of you—I am most proud.”

The Pie family came together in a hug, and after a moment, Marble and Limestone both reached out to pull Trixie in to join them. “Thank you,” Limestone whispered to Trixie as quietly as she could manage, “I’ve wanted to shout at him for years, but I didn’t think it would solve anything.”

“Sometimes,” said Trixie, just as quiet, “that is how you gain ponies’ respect.”

Dear Limey Wimey old Timey,

Oh my gosh!!! How did you guys run into Trixie all the way out there???? I guess she really is a wandering magician!

So what happened is Trixie came to Ponyville a while back, and Twilight—I’ve written to you about Twilight, right? She’s a unicorn! And she’s super fun!—thought she was pretty cool, because she could do magic and stuff, but Dashie and Applejack were all like ‘no way!’ and ‘we can do cool stuff too!!’ and Trixie was like ‘anything you can do I can do better!’ and they had a big argument and there was some magic and it was kind of cool but also kind of sad??

Okay but one of the things Trixie said she could do was she’d beaten this big old monster bear thing called the Ursa Major, okay? And then a couple of foals in Ponyville decided to bring the Ursa Major back again so she could beat it again (but HUGE SPOILERS--------it wasn’t the Ursa Major at all!! It was just a baby!!!!!!!) but she totally didn’t, even though she totally said she did! Instead Twilight had to put it to sleep and give it milk and stuff, and Trixie did some smoke or something and ran away!

Also I think we learned a friendship lesson about bragging?? I didn’t really do much but I think it was important

Also Rarity’s hair turned green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREEN! Can you believe it?

Also also we get a lot of travelers in Ponyville, and sometimes they do talk about running into Trixie and how she’s been totally sad and stuff! But also mad??? Apparently she wants REVENGE and that’s all that’s keeping her going, and that’s really really sad, because if something’s keeping you going it should be something that makes you HAPPY??????

Okay I think something’s on fire so I have to go now! But big Pinkie love to everypony (??? maybe not to Trixie???? YOU TELL ME) and I promise I’ll write again soon! P.S. It’s really super cool that you’re making more money over there now, but if you do need some from me again, just let me know and I can totally send some over! Oh no oh gosh I figured out what’s on fire and I definitely need to go, byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

“Good news from home?”

“Huh?” Limestone looked up from the heart-covered letter and noticed she was smiling. That phenomenon had become alarmingly common in her life of late. “Oh, uh, just Pinkie being Pinkie. Thanks, Sugar Grape. No return letter today, I think.”

“Sure. Good luck with your rock farm.”

Sugar Grape returned to her post at the market entrance, and Limestone stared at the letter. It wasn’t like anything Trixie had told her was exactly wrong, assuming Pinkie could be trusted, which—minus some difficulty understanding exactly what her sister meant at times—Limestone took as a given. But Trixie had definitely never mentioned to the Pies that she’d claimed to have defeated the very monster that drove her from Ponyville. Had their positions been reversed in the hot spring on that first day, Limestone thought she might well have done the same and padded the truth a little so that the simple farmers would take her in. But Trixie had lived with them for a long time since then, and she’d never clarified that one point in her backstory.

Did she not trust them enough? Surely she should trust Marble at least. Maybe she had told Marble, and Marble hadn’t told Limestone about it? Ugh, there were too many questions to answer while she was still at market. She wouldn’t be back for another six, seven hours, which was probably time enough for her to completely lose her mind and suspect Trixie of every possible evil. This was not going to be a fun day.

“Hello, Limestone dear! Is it only you today?”

“Huh? Oh, good day Mrs. Plumsweet.” Limestone tucked the letter away and tried to look businessmarelike. “Marble’s at home tending to our hired help. We were setting up a mine cart last night, to make it easier to get our new crystals out of the cave, but the cart came loose and rolled over her. Now she’s in bed ranting about wheels while Marble rotates warm rocks against her back.” And tries not to laugh at her, Limestone thought, unless she’s too in love to see the humor in it. Oh well.

“Oh my, how dreadful!” The older pony shook her head sympathetically. “I wanted to get here early today, dear, before somepony bought your entire stock. I was hoping to get one more little crystal for the kitchen, so if I get hungry in the middle of the night I don’t bump into anything.”

Limestone smiled again. “Of course, Mrs. Plumsweet. Will this one do?”

“That looks perfect. They don’t come in any other colors, do they, dear? Or are all your crystals pink?”

“I don’t know… we’ve still only explored the very first areas of the cavern. I’ll let you know if we find anything interesting.”

Soon Mrs. Plumsweet had paid for her crystal and moved on, and Limestone returned to the letter. She supposed that Trixie had never made it much of a secret that some—most?—of her stories were made up. Maybe Trixie had assumed that the Pies would assume that she’d embellished her origins a little. Or maybe she’d never even thought about it. There were a variety of possibilities… but none, Limestone thought, that would make simply asking Trixie about it later a bad idea. Either she would get a good answer, and everything would be fine, or she’d get a bad answer, and then it would be good that she at least knew about it.

She was more worried about this “REVENGE” thing Pinkie had been so emphatic about. Trixie had mentioned wanting revenge before. Who would that be against? The two foals that had summoned some sort of bear monster to fight her? The Twilight girl that Pinkie wrote about sometimes? All three? Hmm. And she’d made other references to an abandoned plan too, ones that Limestone had never really made the effort to keep track of, other than noticing that they seemed to require a lot of money. Well, didn’t everything.

Limestone sighed and put down the letter again. She hadn’t wanted to receive this letter. Yes, of course it was always nice to hear from either of her far off sisters, and Marble and Ma and Pa would be happy to hear that Pinkie had sent love. But she didn’t want to distrust Trixie anymore. Everything was going so well at the rock farm. Market day stock now included glowing crystals, enchanted charms, regular jewelry (when Trixie didn’t have the time to work enchantments, such as last night after being run over by the mine cart), and even the occasional plain rock for variety. They had regular customers besides Mrs. Plumsweet, and Limestone’s attitude had improved enough that she was even starting to make some friends at the market. They were building the mine that Limestone had dreamed of for years. They were making enough money that Pinkie could live for herself a bit more. Her baby sister was giddy and in love. And all it had taken—besides the jewelry, which had been all her, though they’d needed it in order to have the money to afford another mouth at all—was a self-important blue unicorn with a long history and a willingness to experiment. Why did Pinkie’s letter have to come now?

But the answer to her troubles remained the same: talk to Trixie. She’ll tell you everything and you can all laugh together about how it wasn’t such a big deal. Just get through one market day, selling crystals and things, and everything will be fine.

Limestone desperately hoped that would be true.

Her last sale, an hour or so before the market closed, couldn’t come fast enough, and Limestone got the booth transformed into a cart again as quickly as possible and headed for home. She’d finally remembered a few weeks ago to ask Trixie about the cart, since that had been the original thing she’d offered to do for the Pies, and Trixie had implemented a quite ingenious automatic system for turning it to a booth and back again without all the manual hammering and awning hanging and so on. They’d even brought Pa and Ma out to look at the refurbished cart and be impressed.

When Limestone reached the farm, still early for dinnertime, she saw her parents working at the mill. She shrugged off the cart harness and went inside. She could sneak into Trixie’s room again that night if she really needed to, in order to talk to her alone, but she thought she might as well check if Trixie was free right then instead. Maybe Marble had gone off to do some actual farm work, or was taking a nap, or whatever. She climbed up the stairs and halted by the open door.

“Heeheehee! Ooooh, Trixie…”

“Mmmmmmmm…”

“Oh! Trixie, you big jerk…”

“Jerk? But I thought you liked it when I…”

“Mmmm! Okay, you may be right. Ooooh…”

A blush spread across Limestone’s face, and she very hurriedly peaked around the corner of the door to check what was going on. The two ponies were in bed together, a small set of hot stones for Trixie’s back lying discarded in one side of the room, but as far as Limestone could tell they were only kissing. And cuddling, of course, but nothing that Limestone would have had trouble identifying, which presumably meant they were just fine. Not that she especially cared what the two were or weren’t doing, but Marble had been firm about waiting for the Pairing Stone, and Limestone wouldn’t have wanted her to throw away her resolve.

“Ahhhh… oh, Marble…”

Limestone began her stealthy retreat away from the door. She would not have been entirely against Marble being present when she asked Trixie about Pinkie’s letter—her sister had every right to know too—but this felt like the absolute worst possible time to burst in on them. Trixie had been injured, admittedly in a pretty funny way, and if she and her marefriend wanted to have a bit of fun while she got better, Limestone wasn’t going to object. Anything else could wait until…

“Mmm… hey, Trixie, can I ask you something?”

Limestone stopped by the head of the stairs. Marble had sounded a little more serious than she’d expected. Perhaps just a little bit of spying would be okay, in case something bad was about to happen.

“Of course! Unless it is how Trixie maintains her amazing hairstyle, which is a secret you are not ready for yet.”

“You’re silly!”

“You laugh at Trixie’s jokes. Really that makes it your fault.”

“I don’t see why not. Okay, but… Trixie, you’ve lived here for a while now, right? Even if you only count after we started kissing and stuff?”

“Is this where Trixie says there would no point in counting the time before then?”

“Shhhhh. Do you… do you ever wonder about how much longer you want to keep on living here?”

There was a silence to which Limestone dared not contribute a sound, knowing she shouldn’t be listening to this but unable to back out now. When Trixie’s voice came, it was uncharacteristically small. “Are you trying to kick me out?”

“No! Oh, Celestia, no. Well, maybe sort of, but not like that, no!”

“Trixie is getting mixed messages. Marble, honey pie, what are you trying to ask here?”

“Right. Right. Um, so, do you… do you want to get married?”

“Ohhhh.”

“Yeah.”

“That… is not a question I ever thought anypony would ask me.”

“Awww, Trixie. So, um, does that mean you need more time, or…”

“More time?” Limestone could hear the covers shifting on the bed, and willed herself not to go back and look. She had gotten this far. “Marble Pie, you and your whole family—even your father—have been so wonderful to me. All of them. But you, you have given Trixie so much love, everything I could ever have asked for… Marble, if you’re sure about this”—Limestone heard her sister make a tiny mm-hmm noise—“I doubt I physically can do anything but marry you. Yes, yes, of course I will.”

“Oh, Trixie!” Marble screeched, and Limestone very carefully made her way down the stairs, knowing that soon enough she would need to be ready to act incredibly surprised.

Author's Note:

Sugar Grape is likewise a toy pony name. I think she's appeared in the IDW comics once or twice in Ponyville, but I'm ignoring those, and anyway she could have been visiting.

Comments

[Emperor]

It really is kind of a tragedy, knowing exactly how this story will end though, with Trixie leaving to go buy the Alicorn Amulet and get revenge on Ponyville and Twilight Sparkle in particular. At least now we see why Trixie doesn't trust wheels.

Limestone's thoughts after she gets her letter from Pinkie Pie are a little bit disingenuous though with this line:

But Trixie had definitely never mentioned to the Pies that she’d claimed to have defeated the very monster that drove her from Ponyville.

Limestone thinks as much both in the first chapter, Trixie admits it at the scene in the caves, and Limestone even thinks about it from a different angle after that Trixie does embellish her stories, it's just a part of her career path. It's not so much that Trixie neglects to mention she claimed to beat an Ursa Major, it's more that she doesn't even think about it, given that nobody grown-up and with even the slightest rational perspective should actually have expected her to be one hundred percent truthful.

[Walabio]

6814929

I agree. Only the 2 idiots Snips & Snails would take such a ridiculous story literally. Lime Stone reacts irrationally.