Boulder's Chapter; The Only Chapter

“Hey Boulder, your cousin sent you a letter,” Maude said, digging around inside her bag. She set her pile of mail on the desk, then separated the twenty-odd letters from Pinkie Pie (all marked with the exact same date, each clearly written ten or so minutes apart.) She wasn’t a fast pony by any means, so if she read them now she’d miss her class on granite. That class was way intense.

Picking up the letter addressed to Boulder, she carefully, painstakingly slowly ripped it open. Unfolding it, she picked the small rock up and set him on top of the opened letter. She would’ve let Boulder do it himself, but he was a rock. Rocks don’t have hooves.

“No wild parties while I’m gone,” she told him, patting the small rock, cracking a tiny affectionate smile. With that, she left the rock to it, leaving him be in the dorm room.

Shocker! The room was blandly decorated. The desk was tidy with naught but a few books on rocks. The rubbish bin was empty. The bed was neatly made in gray and beige sheets. To spice up the room and give it a funky fancy touch, there were carefully lined up posters of rocks and their dictionary entires. It was her way of visual rebellion and self expression.

Boulder, however, could not careless about the decorations of the room. They weren’t wild or anything, but it was homey and warm, better than a dripping gray cavern, swarming with parasites.

The pocket sized rock turned his attention to the letter, taking in the note with a hidden smile. Mostly due to the fact rocks lack mouths and therefore the inability to smile, but you get what I mean, right?

“Dear cousin Boulder!” the letter began. “You wouldn’t believe the week I’ve had! Things have gone from bad to worse to ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! I made one new friend and then his friend became my friend and the next thing I new I was practically one of the family! I’ve got a house and everything! It’s so shiny here, and the sky is beautiful and everyone is so nice! I mean, some people are still kind of awkward or avoid me, but can you blame them?”

Well, wasn’t someone enthusiastic! Last he’d heard, his poor cousin had been having such a hard time of it. No where warm to stay, nothing to eat, but he’d been so hesitant to come stay with Boulder and Maude.

Boulder understood, really. Most people found Maude, well, strange. He still remembered they day she first picked him up and tried to identify his rock type, staring with that blank discomforting gaze. His cousin had never really realized how close the two had become, how happy they were living together. No matter how much Boulder had insisted, his cousin just didn’t feel easy with the idea of coming to live with them. Not everyone was comfortable with rockdom, of course. But to be truthful, it was a relief to hear he’d found somewhere happy to call his own.

“Anyway, you’ve got to come visit some time. My house—it’s an apartment, really, it’s on the third floor, and it’s got a great view of the mountains. My friend had to go back where he lives, but we promised to write each other. He’s so cool! He’s a dragon! Point is, I’ve missed you a bunch, but I’m really glad I ended up here. Thanks to my friend I never go hungry and I’m always in good company. Can’t wait to see you for the holidays! Thorax.”

The holidays? Usually Boulder spent them with Maude, and often her sister Pinkie Pie. The idea of changing plans, doing something outside the usual... He hated breaking routine. Which usually meant sitting still and motionless, with the occasional game of camouflage.

Boulder was the king of camouflage.

Still, he didn’t hear Thorax happy so often. It wouldn’t hurt to take a little trip, would it? He could drag himself to do it, for his cousin’s sake. Plus, he had been a little bit antsy lately. Rock college wasn’t really his thing, and Maude was at her classes a lot lately.

Was she seeing another rock? No, no, that was ridiculous. She’d told him many times before he was the only solid mineral material formed of the earth and other similar celestial bodies that she was close friends with.

Well, he ought to write a letter back. Checking to ensure Maude had left the blinds shut, he grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper, and began penning a letter.

And remarkably, he did this all as a rock, with no limbs, nor mind, nor thoughts. Obviously.

“My dear cousin Thorax,” he began.

“I’m so very excited for you, and more than a little relieved you won’t be going hungry. When Maude hears the good news I’m sure she’ll be so happy she might even smile a little. Things have been doing fine here at rock college. I’ve been getting a couple cramps from being a rock so long, but I don’t believe I’m quite ready to take the next step. Spending the holidays together sounds—”

Awesome? Fantastic? Wonderful? Boulder hated the idea of lying, but as much as he wanted to see his cousin, he hated leaving home.

“—like something to brace myself for,” he finally decided. “And when I come you can tell me all about your new friends. Best of love, Boulder.”

There. A carefully penned letter, written and signed. Now all he needed was Maude to take it out to the mailbox for him. He could go himself, but even just opening a window was much too risky for comfort. What would a pony think should they see a lone rock out to deliver a letter?

The blinds were closed, though. And the cramps he’d mentioned in his letter would only get worse if he didn’t stretch. The last thing he wanted was to damage himself. Taking a nervous deep breath in, Boulder steadied himself.

Then he went up in a flare of green fire.

The small black changeling on the desk stretched, flexing like a cat who’d woken from a nap, rolling his neck carefully. Now that he was in his usual form, Boulder realized just how bad his cramps had been getting. He really needed to stretch more often.

The door swung open.

“Hey Boulder, I forgot my book,” Maude said as she lifted her head to look at her rock. Of course, he wasn’t on the desk anymore. And he wasn’t a rock anymore either. Instead he was a changeling, black and velveteen, standing in the middle of her room, frozen in terror.

He’d been found out. This was the end, wasn’t it? Maude would chase him out and he’d lose the only real friend he’d ever had. No more long nights studying for classes, no more shady afternoons full of poetry, no more expeditions looking for rare stones. No more Maude. He’d have to leave the city entirely, maybe go live with Thorax and—

“That’s a nice look for you,” Maude said pointedly, giving him a tiny smile, a faint hint of mischief in her vividly hued eyes. “In fact, you almost look more like a rock than you usually do.”

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