A Rocky Road to Travel

by Iguanodoo

Simple Beginings

It was a dark and stormy night. Little did I know that my life was about to change forever...

I was, at the time, sitting in our small family room by the window writing in my poetry journal. I loved the smell of rain on the rocks and still do to this day. The window was cracked a little at the bottom and the raindrops fell on my hooves. My father, mother, grandmother, and siblings were all by the warm fire. Knitting needles clacked together as a rock themed scarf was being made for Limestone. Believe it or not she was the weakest out of all of us, the proverbial Sedimentary in the Igneous field. She was constantly getting sick so my grandpony had to knit many a sweater and pair of mittens for her. Limestone was laying by the fire reading a book while my mother rocked Pinkie and Marble to sleep in the rocking chair, snuggled up in her arms and a woolen blanket.

I was in the middle of writing a poem about the habits of Sedimentary rocks when my father got up out of his chair by the fire and yawned.

"I would think it is time for bed." he said in his gravely voice.

"But dad!" Whined Limestone in her equally gravely voice, "I'm not tired yet. Can I please stay up longer?" then she broke into a fit of coughing. Father went over and picked up the sick filly.

"Not unless you would like to get better little one." he kissed her on the nose and she sighed and rolled her eyes. Igneous turned to look at my mother, "Can you handle putting the other two foals down?" Mother looked at Grandma and she nodded as she handed off Marble to her. They both walked upstairs and my father looked back at me, "You should be getting to bed as well, Maud."

"May I please stay up to finish my poem?" I asked.

Igneous looked at the clock on the wall, it read 7:30, "Yes, but only until eight. Then you must be in bed asleep. You must help us work the upper fields tomorrow."

I nodded, "Yes father."

Igneous trotted up the stairs to put Limestone to bed, her whining fading into the darkness. I was alone with the sound of the pattering rain to keep me company. I got up and lit a candle to provide me some light as I wrote. I sat down again with my quill in hoof and set to writing. It was always peaceful when everyone else was asleep in the house, only me and my thoughts. However, for some reason I would feel a bit lonely at times. It wouldn't happen very often, but all the same I couldn't deny that there was an empty feeling inside me.

I had been writing for a while when suddenly, a bright flash of lightning lit up the room and drowned out the light from my candle. Almost immediately a boom of thunder rolled across me and I heard a cry for help through the driving rain. It wasn't a pony's cry, why would it be when we were the only ponies around for miles? No, it was one of our rocks, and they were in trouble. It was a good thing that everyone in our family had the gift of rock speech. It made us perfect for our trade even if it was difficult most of the time to work with other ponies outside of our family. For some Celestia forsaken reason ponies thought it was weird when we bent down to have a casual conversation with a Metemorphic or complement a river rock on its shine.

At the sound I jumped up from my seat by the window and rushed to grab my cloak. No one else heard the noise I was sure of it. They were all certainly sleeping like rocks up there, I knew I had to do something. I threw on my greyish purple cloak and ran outside. The rain was blowing now and droplets fell into my eyes. I held up a hoof to block the rain and pressed on. A cry pierced through the rain and I located the source of the plea. I ran over to find that the noise was coming from a very small pebble. He was grey in colour with a few specks of darker grey. He seemed to be a Sedimentary rock and he was crying, as much as rocks can cry anyway. I crouched down next to him and stroked his head.

"What is that matter?" I inquired and he looked at me.

"Th-The bright flash, i-it took away mama!" he wailed. I looked around. There were no bigger rocks in sight but then I looked ahead. We were right by the mining chasm, and it looked as if a large boulder had fallen down and shattered into millions of pieces.

"Oh no..." I mumbled and I picked up the little rock and cradled it in my arms, "Shh, shhhhhh," I cooed, "It will be alright. Let me bring you back to the house." he shuddered and sniffled but I took that as a yes and stood up. I ran back to the front door and shut it firmly behind me. I shook out the water from my mane and hung up my cloak and looked down at the helpless little rock in my hoof. He was soaking wet so I took an embroidered rock towel from the kitchen to dry him off.

He sniffled and looked up at me, "Who are y-you?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"Maud." I replied walking back over to my poetry book. I placed the little rock on the cushion my flank was formerly occupying and closed the window the rest of the way. My poetry book was a little damp but it had gone through worse before. I closed up the inkwell and placed it and the quill back on my mother's writing desk, "What is your name?" I asked bringing myself down to his level on the cushion.

"Boulder, because mama said I will be a big rock someday, so I will need a big name to fit!" he said pridefully. Looking at him, I knew that this was just false. There was almost no way for Boulder to get any bigger then he was now, but I wasn't about to tell him that.

"Where is my mama now?" he asked shakily. I sighed, not knowing what to say at first.

"She left." I said at last, "She will be gone for a long time, so she has left you to me. I will take care of you now."

Suddenly, the clock struck eight. The chiming was eerie in the quiet of the house, it echoed around the still house announcing the time. I stood up and gently grabbed Boulder in my hoof, "It is time for bed, you can sleep with me for tonight." I put boulder in the pocket of my blue grey blouse, grabbed the candle with my hoof, and picked up my poetry journal in my mouth and headed upstairs to my bedroom.

I slowly opened the door and it creaked on it's hinges. The candle illuminated the rows of bookshelves holding my poetry journals. I have been writing rock poems since I was a little filly so by that time I had already filled dozens of books. I trotted over and placed both the candle and my current journal on the bedside table. Gently, I pulled Boulder out of my pocket and placed him on my journal.

"I am going to brush my teeth." I told him and trotted down the hallway to the bathroom. I turned on a lamp and leaned over the sink to grab the tooth paste. I sighed thinking about this newfound responsibility I had gotten myself into. Taking care of a baby rock would be hard, but what else was I supposed to do? He had lost his mother and really just needed a friend to watch over him. It was at that moment, brushing my teeth in the bathroom, that I promised myself to always be by Boulder's side. He was my responsibility and he really needed me.

I trotted back down the hall to my room to find Boulder right where I left him, as is the nature of rocks, they are very patient creatures. The storm was still raging on outside and rain splattered against the window. There was a flash of lightning off in the distance and a few moments later thunder rolled across the sky to meet our ears. Boulder shivered and sniffed, obviously still scared because of what happened to his mother. Poor thing, he was in such shock. I picked him up and climbed under the pebble quilt my mother Cloudy Quartz made me a while back. With a quick puff of air the candle's flame went out and I squirmed in under the covers with Boulder by my side.

I hugged him close and slowly but surely his cold smooth surface warmed. Through the silence Boulder's slow breathing reached my ears and I knew he was asleep. I kissed his little head and closed my eyes.

"Goodnight Boulder."

Comments

[Titanium Blade]

A rather interesting start. It had a few grammar issues, but nothing too serious. Toward the end of th chapter, there were no paragraph breaks, but in their place, this: >

Not sure what happened there, it may just be my phone, I don't know.

Good job!

[Iguanodoo]

7290760 Thank you very much!! Could you possibly point out those grammar issues for me to fix them? I will fix those > I was on mobile finishing it and there was no tab button. Thanks again!!