Home Sweet Home

by Wheller

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“This is the last place I want to be Monty.”

Pinkie Pie sat on a ridge overlooking her childhood home, oh so aptly named “rock farm.” Farming rocks, how stupid an idea that was. What Pinkie Pie’s parents had called rock farming was called prospecting by most. They were looking for gemstones.

The problem was that Pinkie Pies parents were uneducated, and actually believed that gems would grow inside the rocks if they were tended to properly. Pinkie Pie’s childhood had been wasted on pointless manual labour which rarely yielded a profit. Busting up rocks averaged 1 and half gemstones a year. Mind you, the money made from selling off one of those gems made the Pie family enough money to last them a year. Still, most of the time, it was wasted efforts. The Pie family farm was not far from the gemstone rich Splendid Valley, far enough that they had no significant finds, but close enough allowing one or two to be found a year.

“I know, Pinkie Pie. I know,” said the spectral pony sitting next to her. The ghost of Montana Ulhan, her deceased friend, had guided her here on a search for Limestone, something that the Pie family had a lot of. Clyde Pie, her father, was however not educated enough to realise that the Limestone on his property was worth far more in the long run than the occasional gemstone he and his family might find. When Pinkie was a child, Clyde had dismissed the limestone as useless, not realising it was well sought to make concrete and the Pie family had a lot of it.

“Home Sweet Home,” Pinkie Pie said sarcastically, brushing her straightened mane out of her eyes. Pinkie had been kicked off the farm years ago because she wanted to throw parties all the time instead of work. She hadn’t talked to her father, her mother, or either of her sisters, Inkie and Blinkie in several years.

“Don’t worry,” Monty said with a reassuring smile. “Nopony can see me except for you, and I will be with you every step of the way.”

Pinkie gave the spectral pony a shrug, and made her way down the road towards her childhood home. Inkie and Blinkie were loading rocks into a small pull cart to be taken over to the barn for inspection, but both of them stopped working, and watched as their sister approached them.

“Inkie, Blinkie, where’s pa?” Pinkie Pie asked coldly.

The two older Pie sisters pointed towards the house, and Pinkie trotted off without another word. She didn’t want to be here any longer.

Pinkie Pie opened the door to the farm house; her mother and father were looking over papers that looked to have been sent over by the local bank. Pointless, neither of them could read.

“Ma. Pa,” Pinkie Pie said coldly to her parents.

“Pinkie?” Clyde Pie asked in surprise.

“You named me Pinkamena, Pa, the least you can do is use it,” Pinkie Pie said catching her parents off guard with the bitterness in her voice.

“What do ya want?” Clyde asked.

Typical, no “How are you Pinkamena, we only haven’t seen or talked to you in years.”

“Limestone,” Pinkie Pie said simply. “I want all the Limestone on the farm.”

Clyde raised an eyebrow at his daughter in confusion; he thought it was worthless, he didn’t know why his daughter would want it. “Take it,” he said simply.

Oh, and she gladly would. “I’ll need you to sign this,” Pinkie Pie said, producing a small scroll from her saddlebag.

“What is it?” Clyde asked.

“Documentation that gives me the legal right to one hundred per cent of all Limestone found on this property. Sign it,” Pinkie Pie said, practically stuffing the document into Clyde’s face.

Clyde took a pen in his mouth and made a small scribble on the dotted line. It passed as the pony’s signature, and he handed it back to her. Pinkie Pie gave him a sadistic smile. “Thank you so much for signing the farm over to me Pa. It might just be the best thing you ever did for me!”

“Wha? I thought I was givin’ you rights to that useless Limestone!?” Clyde proclaimed.

“Oh. You did. You gave me rights to one hundred percent of the land. There is a lot of Limestone on the land Pa, and it’s not useless,” Pinkie Pie said, grinning sadistically at her father.

“You... you swindled me!” Clyde proclaimed in shock.

“Yep! I sure did... what are you going to do about it? Take me to court? You can’t even read,” Pinkie Pie said coldly, she pushed open the door. “You’ve got forty eight hours to get off my property. Otherwise I’ll be back with the Canterlot Police Service to force you off.”

...

Destroyed tanks smelled bad.

Despite being told to keep away from them. It was what the actual thing keeping the Cutie Mark Crusaders away from them. They didn’t realise the smell had come from the burnt up bodies of their crewmembers.

Scootaloo was mildly disappointed, but only because looking over the burnt out husks revealed nothing that she could find a use for. Though some of the markings on them did look cool. The Crusaders spent most of their day helping Big Macintosh and Braeburn pick up sandbags. They were heavy, but the fillies didn’t complain... much.

They were kids, of course they were going to complain, but it was in good spirit, they complained that the bags were heavy, not because they had to move them. In all actuality, they really didn’t have to help at all, and most of the town ponies weren’t. Derpy Hooves, Big Macintosh, Braeburn, Trixie, Lyra, Bon Bon, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Vinyl Scratch were the only ponies actually helping the kangaroos clean up. Everypony else went on about their business.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Scootaloo asked. “How come nopony else is helping?”

“‘Cause they think if they ignore the kangaroos they’ll go away,” Vinyl said.

“What? Really? That is so stupid! Do they actually think that?” Scootaloo asked in shock.

“Some of them really do,” Vinyl said, she was mostly thinking of Applejack and Rarity, but didn’t point them out specifically.

Applejack and Rarity had started to become a problem. Applejack was getting increasingly aggressive; it was only a matter of time before she actively tried to get the kangaroos out. Rarity had become a passive sycophant, blindly going along with whatever racist nonsense Applejack had begun to spew. Vinyl blamed the influence of the Siblings Nightmare. Whatever they had done, it was working. Applejack was the sort of pony that other ponies listened to, when they were actually on speaking terms, Applejack had pretty much been Twilight Sparkle’s second in command. She had a lot of influence, and her irrational spite towards the kangaroos was going to be nothing but trouble.

Vinyl had put a gun to the earth ponies’ head and told her to back off. She’d hoped it would have been enough, but clearly it wasn’t. Applejack probably had figured that Vinyl didn’t have the guts to have pulled the trigger.

Vinyl didn’t know what was worse, the fact that Applejack had been willing to take that risk, or the fact that Vinyl had been completely willing to pull the trigger.

Vinyl Scratch thought it through, was she really willing to take a life? She’d been in combat with gryphons before, she carried a gun, but she’d never killed anyone, and the way things were going in the world right now, she wouldn’t have the luxury of not having killed anyone for much longer.

But the more she thought about it, she realised that when it really came down to it, if there was a choice between the life of one of her friends, and the life of a gryphon who was trying to hurt them, then the choice was easy. She couldn’t afford to show hesitation at the thought of killing. Because no gryphon was going to show the same hesitation.

Vinyl Scratch looked over at Scootaloo. There was a filly worth fighting for. She and Vinyl had much in common, she wanted the best for the kid, and the best way to ensure that she got the best, was to ensure that she actually had a country to grow up in.

Choices were easy when it really came down to it.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

- Interesting take on Pinkamena's parents; I'd never thought of Mr Pie as being so stupid as to not realize that the limestone quarry he used to own would have made him a millionaire.

- Second, it looks as if Vinyl and Applejack are going to have a talking-to in the near future; somepony's making mock of uniforms that guard her while she sleeps is wearing mighty thin.

[Fallen Knight]

4500

The problem is that Applejack thinks that they wouldnt need them if they didnt get Equestria involved in the first place, and sadly shes right.

Plus for her and Rarity its the influence of the 3 black "ponies"

The ones helping the Kangaroos are the ones who were saved by them at one point,but they were brought in danger because of them in the first place (in the end all blame goes to the Nightmare ponies and Override)

I think of this as it was with America being discovered, the travelers/conquistadors brought with them diseases that the local populace wasn't immune to.

In this case its War that Equestria was shielded from for a long time, i still think that they would have had a standing army with presence at borders at least,how else prevent being taken over or loosing their lands.

They know the concept of War,but that makes it even worse because they don't want to experience it since they didnt have to before.