Step Two: Encourage Growth
"You came back."
Cadance furrowed her brows. "You told me to come back."
Limestone frowned at the princess through the screen door. "Yeah, but…" She scratched her temple with one hoof. "I dunno. I thought you'd give up, I guess."
She reached down to pick up her saddlebags and pushed through the screen door once more. Cadance stepped carefully out of the way.
"Okay. Where'd we leave off yesterday?" Limestone asked, trotting down the steps once more.
Cadance followed quickly. "I mean, we'd barely started when you practically chased me off the property," she said, forcing a taut laugh
"And yet you came back!" Limestone exclaimed. "Shows resilience. It'll make you a good earth pony."
"These can't possibly all be earth pony things," Cadance grumbled.
Limestone scoffed. "Shows what you know, Princess. Never said they were just earth pony things. So what if we're good at lots of things?"
Cadance opened her mouth to reply, but Limestone quickly cut her off.
"Anyway, what more do you wanna know?" she asked. "You put the stone in the ground, it makes more stone. I showed you everything."
"But how?" Cadance pressed.
Limestone arched a brow in her direction. "Oh. You want, like, that academic stuff," said muttered. "Too bad Maud isn't here. Finally put that rocktorate to good use."
Cadance didn't know how to respond to that.
Limestone to that same sharp turn into the field, but Cadance predicted it this time, hot on her heels.
"I'unno," Limestone said with a shrug. "What do I look like, a scientist?"
"But how can you teach me if you don't know?" Cadance stomped her hoof in the dirt.
Limestone's eyes narrowed as she stared up at Cadance. Her eyes had a peculiar quality to them; when she squinted, the color of the irises almost seemed to shift more towards yellow, as if the very act made them catch the light in a whole new way.
She scoffed. "You really don't listen, do you, Princess?" She laughed to herself, a harsh and cackling sound. "Just because I don't know all that geology garbage doesn't mean I don't know how it works. What, you think all farmers are botanists? You think all metalworkers are chemists? All doctors are biologists?"
Cadance blinked. "Well. I don't quite know about that last one, but--"
"You know what I mean," Limestone grumbled, waving a dismissive hoof. "I'm a craftsmare, okay? Not an academic."
She dropped her saddlebags on the ground, and a plume of dust rose up from the earth underneath them.
Cadance sneezed.
“Gesundheit,” Limestone barked.
“Don’t you know even a little bit about how it works?” Cadance asked. “I feel like it would help me understand.”
Limestone rolled her eyes. “I disagree.”
Cadance didn’t get an opportunity to argue with that before Limestone flipped open her saddlebag, revealing an array of pouches made from a variety of colors and fabrics. She started to root through the pouches, muttering to herself as she did so, and completely cutting off any chance for Cadance to get a word in edgewise.
“Here,” she said at last, tossing a pouch onto the ground in front of Cadance’s hooves. “You’re on rose quartz. ‘Cause you’re pink.”
Cadance looked down at the pouch. Using her magic, she raised it to eye-level, uncinched it, and peeked inside. Inside there was only a mound of fine, grey dust which smelled faintly of metal.
“What’s this?” she asked. “Potting soil?”
Limestone threw her head back and moaned. “It’s powdered berlinite. Try to keep up.”
“But you haven’t told me--”
“Just sprinkle it in the holes, okay?” Limestone ordered. “Only that first row, though. It’ll make the quartz turn pink. And don’t overdo it.”
Cadance looked down into the bag, eyeing the powder suspiciously. She was by no means an expert in geology herself, though she felt strongly that there was more to it than… sprinkling dust in a hole.
“You aren’t just pulling my leg, are you?’ Cadance asked. “You’re not… say, sneaking out here at night to switch out the little crystals for big crystals?”
Limestones looked up at Cadance, an eyebrow arched almost all the way into her choppy bangs. “You make a lot of assumptions about the amount of time I have on my hooves.”
Cadance sighed. “Isn’t there anything you can tell me about the process? Just to-- I don’t know, to reassure me that this isn’t a waste of my time?” she asked sweetly. “Please?”
Limestone’s cheeks tightened as she glared at Cadance. Her eyes flashed with that unfamiliar yellow-green color as she did so, a near perfect reflection of the sunlight’s hue through the dust clouds over the farm.
At long last, Limestone sighed. “Look. The seed is like… it’s like if you were trying to teach a foal how to read, right?”
Cadance furrowed her brows. “Um… is it?”
“You have a foal, right?” Limestone said, getting to her hooves and stretching out her joints. “How are you gonna teach your foal to read?”
“Read to her, of course,” Cadance said. “How else?”
“Right,” Limestone said. “The seed is the book, and we’re the parent reading the book, and the rest of the dirt is the foal we’re reading to. Make sense?”
Cadance cocked her head, looking out at the sea of tiny holes in the dirt. “So… we’re teaching the dirt how to turn into crystals?”
“And marble, granite, limestone, slate… whatever ponies are buying,” Limestone said. “It’s kinda like teaching somepony to read in different languages, though. You need different books, different grammar rules, different tutors. Those are in the bag.”
“Huh.” Cadance scooped out a hoofful of the dust in her pouch. “That would make this powder the dialect, I guess.”
“Sure. Whatever. Just don’t breathe it in, okay?” Limestone advised. “That stuff’s a little… highly toxic. Only if it gets in your mouth, lungs, or ears, though.”
Cadance dumped the powder bag into the pouch and quickly cinched it shut once more.
“Sorry. Shoulda led with that, probably,” Limestone muttered, pulling out a few more pouches of dust and dropping them on the ground in a pile. “You’ll be fine. I think.”
Cadance coughed gently into her hoof, discreetly checked for blood, then turned her attention to the pile of pouches on the ground. “What’s in those?” she asked.
Limestone looked down at the pile. “Uh… iron, tourmaline, aluminum, phosphorus-- you can make every color of the rainbow with this stuff. Plus a little heat,” she said, smirking a little at the mention of fire. “But you just focus on pink.”
Cadance looked back down at the bag.
Then at the holes in the ground.
Then back at Limestone.
Limestone wasn’t paying attention. She had given Cadance her task, and thus saw no reason to foalsit her. She had already set off on her own task, pouring powder in with her line of stones, making stranges motions with her hoof against the soil, sniffing at the air, examining the dirt, tasting it--
Tasting it?
Cadance looked back at her pouch.
She could do that, she thought. All that nonsense with the dirt. Maybe Limestone was right; maybe all she had to do was follow the steps.
The tasting might have to wait until later, though.
“So, wait-- explain to me all of the learning to read stuff, again?” Shining Armor scratched aimlessly at his temple. “This isn’t like all those ponies who sng to their plants and stuff, is it? ‘Cause, honestly, I always thought that stuff was kinda--”
“No, Shiny. I promise, I’m not reading to plants,” Cadance said with a giggle. “It’s just a metaphor.”
“Okay. I mean-- yeah. That’s what I thought,” Shining said, forcing a little chuckle of his own. “Just… checking.”
Cadance giggled again and nuzzled her husband lovingly. “Thanks for walking me out here. I’m glad Sunburst was around to watch Flurry Heart.”
“Uh-huh. Is it hot out here, or is it just me?” Shining fanned himself with one hoof, looking up at the sky for any sign of the sun. “How can it be hot when there’s no sun?!”
“I think you’re just a bit of a snow-goer by now, honey.” Cadance smiled sidelong at her husband.
“Yeah… I guess living in the Crystal Empire will do that to you…” he muttered. “Still. It’s like a desert out here.”
Cadance sighed wearily. “You’re not wrong.”
Shining looked down at her. “Tell me again why you’re doing this?” he said softly.
Cadance bit her lip. “Um… I’m just trying to learn. About earth pony magic. I am an alicorn, after all-- I supposedly have some of it.”
“Uh-huh. Sure”
Shining reached over and brushed away a lock of pink hair from his wife’s face.
Cadance looked over at him. She did her best not to look like she was telling a lie, but she guessed the effort alone gave her away.
“This is because Twilight won’t stop talking about Applejack, isn’t it?” Shining asked, a little smile already forming on his lips.
“No, no! I mean-- well maybe she gave me the idea, but I…” Cadance let out a long sigh and hung her head. “Yes.”
Shining chuckled, a full and deep sound. “Listen: if anypony knows what a sibling rivalry is like, it’s me,” he said with a sneer. “Twilight can be a real hoofful… especially when she thinks she’s right about something. Or good at something. Or has a chance at being the best at something.”
Cadance moaned softly into her hooves. “Maybe a little bit…”
“No, it’s a lot,” Shining said. “You know that. You were her foalsitter.”
“I know…”
Shining leaned over to give his wife a soft and tender kiss on the cheek. “Hey. Do what you need to do. I’m glad you’re getting a bit of a vacation from the palace.”
Cadance pressed into Shining Armor’s side for an extra moment before pulling away. “It’s stupid.”
“Not any stupider than the Sibling Supreme.”
Cadance laughed. “Touche.”
“Cute,” came another voice, and Shining and cadance were pulled out of their private moment.
Limestone was hanging on the fence at the edge of the farm, watching with mischievous glee and the condescension of sergeant in the royal guard. She clapped her hooves a few times, causing Shining to blush profusely as Cadance merely rolled her eyes.
Then, in the blink of an eye, her face went stony and humorless. “Let’s go. Lots of work to do today.”
Shining seemed baffled by the interaction, and watched in shock as Limestone turned and trotted away.
Cadance gave Shining a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks again for taking me over. I’ll be home tonight.”
“Sure…” Shining shook his head to clear it. “That’s really Pinkie’s sister?”
Cadance only laughed, giving her husband an affectionate squeeze before leaping over the rock farm’s gate and trotting out onto the dirt.
She caught up to Limestone quickly. She had already learned the path she took through the farm to reach the quartz fields, and could follow it easily-- nothing so unexpected about the turns anymore. No quick changes or wrong turns.
“More color training today,” Limestone instructed. “Plus some form stuff. We want the crystals to grow in specific shapes. Hearts have been popular lately. And spheres-- the old standby. I’ll show ya how we try to encourage useful shapes for that sorta thing.”
Cadance nodded. “Right.”
Limestone looked back over her shoulder at Cadance, a glint of surprise in her eyes. Happy surprise.
She didn’t say anything, just flashed that look of almost-pride at Cadance and kept trotting along down the dirt path between the fields.
It made Cadance suddenly think very hard about the way she was trotting. Limestone had this perfect, tight gait-- somehow both serious and roguish at once. She wanted to trot in the same way, but she couldn’t seem to make herself do it.
Perhaps it was because Limestone was so much smaller than she was.
“You should stay for lunch today,” Limestone said. “I made some carrot stew. Old family recipe. Not to brag, but I think I can finally make it as good as Marble.”
Cadance cocked her head. “How many sisters do you have, Limestone?” she asked. “It feels like you’re always mentioning somepony new.”
“There’s four of us. Me, Maud, Pinkie, and Marble,” Limestone said. “And Ma and Pa. But they’ve retired to Los Pegasus, if you can believe it.” She laughed to herself, though Cadance didn’t quite get the joke.
“And… what about Maud and Marble?” Cadance asked. “I know this isn’t exactly Pinkie’s, uh… you know.”
“Maud’s in academia, now,” Limestone explained, taking that familiar sharp left into the quartz field. “She’s a geologist. Marble actually moved out to Ponyville, too. The whole rock farm thing wasn’t really for her, either.”
“So… it’s just you?” Cadance asked softly.
That gave Limestone pause, if only a moment of it. A blink-and-you-miss-it second of sadness. “Yep,” she said. “Only really need one pony to work the farm, anyway. Especially if that pony knows rock farming as well as I do.”
Cadance smiled gently. “Right.”
There was another moment of pause, there. Gone before Cadance could say anything about it.
“Anyway,” Limestone said, waving off Cadance's more personal remarks. “Let’s talk about forming, huh? I think it’s a safe bet that pink hearts will be a big seller. I mean, I’m not an expert, but still…”
She trotted off across the field, over to where Cadance's row of rose quartz was planted in the ground.
“Huh.” She moved her hooves over the surface in those same improvised swirls, as if she were trying to seismically read the stones buried inside it. “These feel… weird.”
Cadance hurried to her side. “Good-weird, or bad-weird?”
Limestone made a face, still pressing her hooves into the dirt and feeling around for some unknown cue. “Just… weird,” she said. “Here, you feel.”
She reached out and grabbed Cadance's hoof.
Now, that felt weird.
Cadance allowed herself to be tugged along with Limestone’s will. She did her best to focus on the feeling of the hot, sandy earth beneath her hooves as Limestone pushed and pulled them around, but there was something else entirely flowing through her in that moment.
A remarkable, electric feeling which coursed through not her horn, not her wings, but her very bones. It wasn’t quite as overwhelming as she would have expected it to be; rather, it reminded her of her first time truly taking flight. Or her first time casting an effective spell. A feeling of understanding, of… for lack of a better word, rightness.
She looked over to Limestone, whose face was only contorted into a mixture of disappointment and concentration.
“You feel how it’s sort of… clumpy?” she asked. “It means the impurities are uneven. You’re gonna have blotchy crystals.”
Cadance could hardly speak, but she managed a breathless “oh?”
Limestone grumbled something to herself and sat back on her haunches. “Yeah. Good thing we caught it early. It is fixable if you catch it early,” she explained, dumping her saddlebags on the ground and rooting through an interior pocket. “We’ll have to add some re-bonding agent. This’ll be a good lesson for you, actually.”
The feeling dissipated when Limestone released her hooves, and a weight on her chest replaced it.
For a moment, there, she could have sworn she was doing it. Seeing, or feeling, or whatever earth pony magic is-- she thought she was doing it!
But it was only Limestone.
Surely that was why she felt as if she'd been punched in the sternum, right?
"Here." Limestone placed a vial of silvery liquid down in front of Cadance. "This is what we call re-bonder. It forces the crystal to break itself down and rebuild. Gives it a chance to work through the clumps."
Clearly, Cadance did not react appropriately, though it had little to do with her understanding of Limestone's explanation.
Limestone heaved a sigh. "Right, you like metaphors. I forgot," she muttered. "It's, uh… it's like reheating your oatmeal so you can stir in some more brown sugar. It doesn't work 'til it's hot again, and you can't eat it 'til it cools down. Got it?"
Cadance blinked firmly. "Uh-huh."
"Good." Limestone eyed Cadance carefully for another moment before taking back the vial. "I'll be adding the re-bonder. You're gonna keep an eye on it, okay? Tell me how it's looking?"
"Me?" Cadance repeated, a hoof to her chest.
Limestone scoffed. "No, the other princess in my quartz field. Yeah, you!" She laughed, loud and filled with snorts. "Don't worry: if you screw up, it's only quartz. You have no idea how cheap it is to grow this stuff. Any idiot could do it."
This only tightened the belt around Cadance's chest. Professional that she was, she still placed her hooves on the ground beside the hold, fighting through her nervousness.
"Uh-- course, what I meant to say was that, uh." She scratched her temple. "Y'know, any rock farmer worth her salt can grow some good-looking quartz. I-it's okay if you mess up."
It wasn't very convincing, to say the least. Cadance bit down hard on her lower lip and looked nervously at the dirt.
Limestone sighed. Not an annoyed sigh, like it usually was-- a sad sigh. A tired sigh, perhaps.
A sympathetic sigh.
She took hold of Cadance's hooves once more and pressed them down into the dirt. "I promise. Just try."
The feeling flowed through her again. Pure energy.
She couldn't tell whether it was coming from the earth below her or from Limestone's hooves on her own.
Limestone looked her right in the eye. "Concentrate, okay?" she said.
"Mm-hm." Cadance nodded once, firm as she could.
Limestone slowly withdrew her hooves.
As she pulled away, the feeling went with it. For a moment, Cadance panicked-- Limestone hadn't even begun her task, and Cadance was already behind.
She tried to force her hooves into the ground, twisting them against the dirt and concentrating as hard as she could on the way that felt. The grit, the temperature, the way it packed down… she tried to project it. To see beyond what she could feel.
Cadance made a small sound and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, deepening her focus as far as she could muster.
Nothing.
Limestone gave her an odd look as she shook up the silvery goop. It sloshed about like honey inside that tiny vial.
She didn't say anything. Just looked.
Now willing to break her concentration, Cadance only cast Limestone a quick glance out of the corner of her eye. Out of nervousness. Out of fear that she was being watched and judged.
Limestone looked back.
And, just like that, she felt it.
Like an extension of herself pushing further, deeper into the earth. For a moment she thought she was sinking into it like quicksand, but the ground held firm.
It felt as if energy was pouring out of her and down into the dirt, like thick tentacles of magic that could feel all they encompassed. Her hooves slid forward in surprise, and she felt the energy eat away at more of the earth, seeing more, feeling more--
She gasped softly.
Limestone smiled. "What do you feel, Princess?" she asked. "Tell me."
"Um… I feel…" Cadance slid her hooves about a little more, angling them just right so that their energies would cross through the quartz pebble buried in the ground. "I feel the quartz."
Limestone made a little sound, almost a laugh but… kind. "Okay, good start," she said. "What does it feel like?"
Cadance furrowed her brows and fought even harder, forcing out more energy, trying to understand the sensations therein. "It feels… ordered?" she said. "Smooth, sort of."
Limestone nodded. "Crystals are organized molecules. They're gonna feel a lot less chaotic compared to the dirt and even other stones," she explained. "What else? You might have to close your eyes."
Cadance twisted her hooves deeper into the soil and allowed her eyes to flutter shut. She made another gentle, low sound of concentration as she tried to project herself into the tendrils of magic that flowed through the earth beneath her.
There were smooth parts and rough parts. She thought she caught sight of a few other small pebbles, which were rough but also very… tight? Heavy? Close? It was a feeling that was very hard to describe.
Harder still with the sensation of color. It was a bit like eating movie candy in the dark, where each piece is almost the same, but you catch a hold of distinct bursts of lemon, sour apple, or cherry. The soil itself was, for lack of a better word, flavorless-- but the hunk of smooth crystal has a swirl of flavors in it.
Or… No. Chunks. Like rocky road ice cream.
"Ch-chunky?" Cadance said, Limestone's original question long gone from her mind. "It feels chunky."
"Yup, that's it," Limestone said, at last popping open the vial. "I'm gonna pour this in. You're gonna stir it up 'til it's all smooth. Got it?"
"Stir? Wait, I--"
But Limestone wasn't waiting.
She poured the silvery contents of the vial down into the dirt at a slow trickle.
Cadance braced herself, expecting pain or heat-- but she only felt its liquidity. It wasn't smooth or chaotic, it only flowed along with her magic, impressing that ability upon all that it touched.
By some instinct she couldn't quite understand, Cadance began to swirl her hooves through the dirt, mingling her energy with that of the liquid.
And she felt it begin to move.
To shape.
To organize itself. To draw from the earth around it. To grow.
"See?" Limestone said, calling the vial and dropping it back into her bag. "Lots of ponies--especially pegasi--are afraid to work with stone because they think it's… y'know, stubborn."
Cadance looked up at Limestone, barely disguising her foal-like glee at having conquered this challenge. She tried to say something through her breathless smile, but couldn't quite make the words come out.
"But it's not," Limestone said. "You just need to know how to make it move. Everything moves with the right push."
"You really need to stop getting up earlier than me," Limestone said, marching down the stairs with purpose.
Cadance giggled. "Why's that? Am I horning in on your territory or something?"
Limestone rolled her eyes, giving Cadance a light-hearted bump on the shoulder as she passed her. "Ha. Horn. I get it," she muttered. "Alicorn jokes."
Cadance started off at a trot beside Limestone, but rapidly overtook the rock farmer with her much longer strides.
"Huh. I like your mane like that," Limestone mumbled.
A hoof flew up to the bun at the back of Cadance's head, and she laughed breathlessly. "Oh, I just-- y'know, I thought it was… practical."
"Looks nice," Limestone said.
Cadance flushed a dark pink. "Thank you."
The pair continued on down the dirt path, taking the sharp left turn into the quartz field as always. Cadance, practically on autopilot after these past few weeks, nearly plowed right over the unexpected pony in her path.
"Oh!" Cadance did her best to skid to a halt, but unfortunately not before she sprayed some dirt onto the front of the pony standing before her. "I'm sorry, I--"
"Don't worry about it," the pony said, her voice a low and even monotone. "Believe me. I'm never not covered in dirt."
She looked remarkably like Limestone in the face-- she had the same round eyes, the same small mouth and plump cheeks, even the same very round jaw that Limestone did her very best to hide. Her mane, however, hung straight and heavy, without any of the choppiness of Limestone's lighter hairs. And her eyes, despite their similarity in shape, were lacking in Limestone's signature sparkle of mischievous yellow.
"That's right, I forgot to tell you," Limestone said, coming to stand beside this strange pony and leaning against her in a friendly embrace. "Maud was in the area, and she decided to stop by. She's gonna check out your work."
"Maud… your sister?" Cadance ask, though she knew it was a fairly stupid question.
"Yes. I'm her sister," Maud said, without a hint of comedic intent.
Or… perhaps that was sarcasm?
Cadance brushed her hoof off on her chest and held it out for a hoofshake. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Princess Cadance, I'm here learning about earth pony magic from your sister."
Maud stared at her hoof, but made no move to shake it.
Cadance smiled awkwardly.
Maud blinked once, very slowly. "Pinkie's friend's sister-in-law?" she asked.
How was that the only way anypony knew her?
"Um… yes?" Cadance said, her head cocked to one side. After another moment she withdrew her hoof. "Limestone's told me so much about you."
Maud looked over at her sister. "All good things, I hope" she said, devoid of any manner of tone or second meaning.
Cadance furrowed her brows.
Limestone, however, broke into a bout of tittering laughter and gave her sister a noogie. "Ah, sis. I can always count on you for a laugh."
Cadance frowned. "So… should we get started?" she asked.
Limestone pulled away from her sister and came back to Cadance's side. "Sure. Check shape and color. You know what to do."
She and Limestone peeled away, moving to a corner of the field to begin their sweep.
Maud watched as the pair of them walked side by side, the row of quartz between them, dragging their forehooves along the dirt as means of checking the stones within. Though Cadance had had quite a bit of practice with this process by now, the feeling of her own unfamiliar magic blending with Limestone's was always a strange experience.
The crystals felt good. Predictable pulses of perfect pink. Smaller stones (runts, Limestone called them) were given a gentle tug to expand. Lumpy or off-color stones were adjusted with the gifts from Limestone's saddlebags.
They did this quietly. Only the occasional word or look was needed.
"How's Flurry Heart doing?" Limestone asked. "With the horn thing?"
Cadance sighed. "She's alright. We're getting better at dealing with the magic-- it's the crying," she explained. "I just hate to see her in pain."
Limestone nodded. "Can't imagine if my sister's had been unicorns. They were more than enough trouble, eh?" she said, nudging Cadance in the ribs.
Cadance chuckled.
Then she bumped into Maud.
"Oh!" Cadance stumbled back a few steps. "Gosh, you just keep popping up, don't you?"
"I'd like to take a look at your crystals," Maud said.
Cadance took another step backwards. "Okay…" she murmured. "Where would you like to--"
"Here, Maud. Come take a look at this one." Limestone guided her sister towards a nearby mound. "Rose quartz. Cady, here, has been workin' these all by herself the past few days."
Maud didn't say anything, but approached the mound.
Cadance did her best to stand up tall and think royal thoughts.
"Hm." Maud laid one hoof atop the mound for a moment, considering it without much care. "Interesting. Is this a--"
"Sphere. Figured heart-shaped was gonna be a little much for her first go," Limestone finished.
Maud silently pulled a canvas roll out from her frock, unfurling it on the dirt beside the mound. It was filled with a wide variety of strange tools for which Cadance could hardly even guess the purpose.
She withdrew some sort of wobbly, pointy instrument and pushed it into the ground.
"Good clarity," Maud said, flicking the instrument with her hoof a few times. "Not perfect, but I'm not surprised. Lots of reshaping going on."
Limestone looked over at Cadance and wiggled her eyebrows expectantly.
"Um… thank you?"
Maud withdrew the instrument from the ground, selected a second, and drove this into the same small hole. "Are you aware there's a small iron deposit nearby?" She pointed to some nearby, otherwise unremarkable area. "That could be problematic when it comes to the color. What are you treating with?"
"Berilite," Limestone answered. "But I was thinking about going heavier on--"
"Phosphorus?" Maud suggested. "That could be reactive with the--"
"Iron deposit, sure," Limestone said. "You think I should use some more--"
"Aluminum," Maud finished. "Just make sure the iron doesn't--"
"Oxidize." Limestone nodded.
"Exactly," the pair said in unison.
Limestone chuckled again, that strange tittering sound like an evil little hyena. "That's why my sister's the best!" she exclaimed, clapping Maud in the shoulder with one hoof.
Maud weathered the blow, only pausing to dust off her frock. "My sister's a bit of an exaggerator. I'm really only in the top eight percent of local geologists as far as finding goes."
"That's what I said. Best of the best." Limestone locked eyes with Cadance long enough to roll hers.
It made Cadance's stomach drop.
"Well, whaddya say, Cady?" Limestone hooked her foreleg around Maud's shoulders. "Wanna check out some of the granite fields with Maud? Could learn a thing or two."
Cadance bit her lip, and looked between the two sisters.
They looked so much alike.
They were so close.
That was nice, right?
"Um… actually, I should really get back to Flurry Heart," she said carefully. "It seems like you two have some catching up to do. I wouldn't want to get in the way of that."
Limestone's brows knit together. "Huh? We were--"
"Thank you, Princess Cadance," Maud said, though her face was still as unmoving as a block of stone.
"Sure," Cadance offered, forcing a polite smile.
There was a word for this feeling, she thought.
But she couldn't say it.
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God, I'm loving the dynamic between Cadance and Limestone, and the way it's changed over the course of this chapter does a really great job of making the passage of time feel tangible.
Ah, I see part of the issue.
I'm quite enjoying the descriptions of rock farming here. And Maud's being very herself! (Glad to see it's not just Pinkie who can read her moods, too.)
A few grammatical errors, but this is a solid chapter. Some of the questions I had form the start are explained, and again, Cadence and Limestone's interactions only keep getting better. Surprised to see Maud appear, but it gave a nice twist to the situation.
Also the twist with Shining and Cadence being already at the farm was funny.
Let's see how it all ends.
Really loved this line, and your illustration of earthpony culture in general. Makes me want to tear out the guts of my worldbuilding just to incorporate it.
And yes, the perfect level of absurdist magical realism for an extension of the canon show. Also, a mention of Maud! I love her.
It is interesting that if anything this illustrates Cadance and Twilight are more similar than Cadance would like to admit! Really adds another layer to their exchange in the first chapter. This pleases me greatly.
Yes, she is pink, isn't she?
Again, the worldbuilding just feels so lived-in, complete with its own idiosyncratic metaphors for how it works. Especially little flourishes like:
How many times am I going to use the words "lived-in"? I don't know, man. Just great stuff.
Agh, a typo! But a great line and interaction between these two relationships of Cadance. I'm thinking a word to myself here that I won't repeat, but again, status relative to context! Just great characterization.
Absolutely delightful. I love to see it.
AAAAAA
This buildup with LImestone is so beautiful and makes me want to rip to pieces every romantic sequence I have ever planned on writing. It is of course very thematic and Literature that for Cadance this is happening at the same time as discovery of a new facet of the world, but wow, just the depth and richness and thoroughness with which you illustrate the idea of rock farming. I loved it so much. It says a lot that I can't tell which part I loved more.
I can't let this pass without telling you how much I loved it. I love stuff like this so much.
That is what is so wonderful about Maud. I love her.
Yes, how technical conversation feels to an outsider!
And yes. Ugh. I love it.
I love this piece of worldbuilding. It makes so much sense! I love what you're doing with earthpony magic here. This chapter's great overall. Again - I'm impressed by the thought you put behind the magic here. Rock-farming suddenly doesn't sound so ridiculous. As a matter of fact, it's perfectly organic, going by their association with the earth beneath.
Bravo.