I sat by Holders Boulder by myself one night after polishing it to near perfection. I could feel the rough surface of Holders Boulder against my back and neck.
It was always a treat for me to spend time here. Though I was here everyday I rarely spent more than a few minutes at the boulder contemplating the day. You could say it was my 'thinking spot'. Today was like any other day. I worked the fields, I had lunch with the family, and then I worked again until dusk. Then at the closing hour, I would retreat to Holders Boulder and polish the surface or just sit there and think. Today I polished the boulder and now rested by its side watching the sunset. Relaxing as it was, little did I know that today would be very different.
As I rested against the boulder I could feel the winter cool air brush against my fur. After a long day's work the cool air was always welcoming, but the sound of approaching hoof steps put me on edge. I didn't mind if anypony got near Holders Boulder but I hated it when ponies touched it. I was about to yell out to the pony who was approaching when a familiar voice called my name.
"Limestone? Are you here?" A flat mare's voice called to me.
I turned to see Maud standing by me. Her flat violet mane flowed in the wind like cloth. She stared down at me with her usual blank expression. While it put most ponies off I was use to it. Having grown up seeing her usual stone face look it made it easier.
"Hey Maud."
My older sister knelt down beside me. She pressed her warm nose against my cheek, still keeping her flat expression.
"Why are you still out here?" She asked me, with a flick of her tail.
"I enjoy the sunset." I replied casually trying to play it cool.
One thing I loved was talking with Maud, arguably almost as much as I loved spending time at holders Boulder.
"What's going on with you?" I asked my older sister, not bothering to look away from the beautiful sunset before me.
She was most likely looking at me with her usual flat expression. Maud wasn't a very emotional pony, and her speech habits showed.
"Father wanted me to tell you diner is ready, and that a snow storms coming soon," Maud told me.
I nodded absentmindedly, once again I didn't bother to look. A few moments of silence passed where nothing was said. The only sounds were from the dust flying around and the wind whistling past the boulder I lay upon as it pushed past my ears. After about ten seconds I could hear Maud's hoofsteps walking away, thus leaving me to my thoughts.
The sun was just above the horizon seething the land with its warm radiant light. It was a truly beautiful sight, but dark clouds covered the horizon to my right. I had spoiled myself rotten with this spot. I remembered the first time I watched the sunset wasn’t too long ago. I kept my head low so my mane would protect my eyes from the direct sunlight. After waiting a good three minutes I sighed, clumsily getting to my hooves I dusted myself off.
As I did I heard the sound of approaching hoofsteps again. Probably Maud, I thought. Annoyed I spun around like a well trained soldier to face the approaching pony only to stop dead in my tracks at who stood before me. My good mood was gone in an instant as I looked down at a mare who I hadn't seen in awhile. I could feel the vein throbbing in my head as I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth together as I strained out one, miserable word.
"Trixie."
The azure mare looked up at me pathetically. She very ragged looking by her standards. She was thins and her mane and fur were a mangled mess and covered in dirt and grime. She spoke weakly while rustling her hoof in the dirt below her hoof.
"Limestone. I have returned."
"You got some nerve coming back after what you pulled." I took a threatening step forward.
I was surprised to see her back away. Her tail tucked between her legs and she back against Holders Boulder, effectively pinning herself between me and it. I felt my anger come to a boil at her for making physical contact with the large boulder. I huffed and gave a mighty shove pushing her to the ground. Trixie hit the ground with a whimper not daring to look up at me. She knew I was the one in charge.
"DON'T TOUCH THE BOULDER!" I bellowed at her, my voice echoed into the large quarry below us.
Trixie stood up to face me with her ears folded down. She did a very good job putting on her brave face, but I could see her visibly shaking at her knees. In all my years of dealing with Maud, I had become quite adept at telling when ponies were faking emotions. Trixie was as easy to read as an open book to me by comparison to my older sister.
I growled at Trixie and slowly circled around her like a predator stalking its prey. "You got a lot of nerve coming back here after you abandoned us," I said with nothing but venom in my tone.
Trixie gave me a defeated sigh. She brushed her mane to the side allowing her eyes to look into mine as I came face to face with her. Inspecting her, I could see she was very thin. Why she was practically skin and bones.
"Trixie... I have been thinking about my life choices that have lead me to this moment," She said softly to me not breaking eye contact. “I wish to return to the rock farm.”
I glared down at her pressing my nose against hers. “Why should I let you back in our lives? You clearly don’t care about us.”
The stupid mare looked up at me defiantly. I hated it when she was defiant almost as much as I hate to see her stupid smug look. Almost.
She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Trixie does care.”
I honestly thought that was a bunch of bull. I scoffed at Trixie with a shrug. I thought of several sarcastic remarks that would put this dumb blue bimbo in her place, yet deep down I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I just stood there dumbly while she stared at me, holding to her look of defiance. I thought, how can she care after everything she’d done to us?
“You don’t care,” I said shoving past her, clipping her shoulder with mine. “If you did care you would have stayed.” I lowered my head stomping the ground, inspecting the hoof sized imprint I made. “If you cared you would have said good bye.”
Behind me I could hear the desperation in Trixie’s voice as she attempted to reach for me with her hoof. “Limestone, please. Trixie’s sorry. Give her a chance.” The sad melodious tone of her voice tugged at my heart strings. No matter how cold I acted I knew deep down I was a softie. Bu t right now I was so mad I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing.
I spun around and struck her across the face with a powerful backhoof. I watched her hit the dirt ground and roll twice before coming to an abrupt halt at the edge of the cliff to the quarry. I felt my heart skip a beat as she laid there at the edge. I wanted to rough her up but if she fell from this height she’d most likely break something, or worse. I hated her, but even I didn’t want anything bad to befall Trixie.
I walked over to her and offered a hoof. She glanced up at me with a confused look, and I looked away giving her an annoyed scoff. I felt her hoof take mine and lifted her up.I took note that she was surprisingly light compared to before.
“You’ve lost weight.” I said casually looking her over.
Trixie blushed looking away from my gaze hiding behind her mane. “Trixie hasn’t eaten well for the last few weeks,” She replied to me. “Trixie has had a few problems since…”
She trailed off leaving the sentence open ended. It was clear she didn’t want to talk about what she’d been up too, not that it mattered. Word of her takeover in Ponyville had already reached here, thanks in no small part to PinkiePie. *I swear that little sister of mine…* I shook my head at the thought, Trixie gave a curious tilt of her head as I looked back at her, and once again she averted her gaze to not meet my eyes.
Now I was really annoyed.
“Why do you keep doing that?!” I yelled at her.
She responded in such a soft tone I barely heard her. “Trixie is...”
“Dang it speak up! I can’t hear you!”
“Stop yelling at Trixie!”
The blue unicorn pushed me, sending me back a step or two because I wasn’t expecting it. She really shouldn’t had done that. It took but a second for her to realize her folly with me. She was turning to bolt when I swung my hoof with a hard right hook punch to her shoulder and sent her over the edge of the cliff.
Trixie let out a high pitched scream as she fell head first into the quarry. In my angered state it took a few seconds for me to realize what I had just done. I felt my heart drop as panic started to take root in me. I ran around Holders Boulder to find one of the narrow winding paths to the quarry below and took the closest one.
“Dang it Trixie! Why’d you have to do that?!”
I knew it was my fault but it didn’t stop me from calling out to her. I wished I kept better control of myself. I berated myself until I made my way down the quarry and spotted a small blue spot among the grey earth tones of stone and dirt.
I ran to the blue spot to find Trixie huddled near a minecart full of dirt she landed on. She was sobbing loudly holding onto her back left leg which was twisted in an unnatural way. I cringed at the sight trying not to lose my lunch as I attempted to help her.
“Trixie! Are you alright?” I asked reaching for her.
My generosity was rejected when she swatted my hoof away. Trixie tried to crawl away from me clearly trying not to cry as she did from the pain she must have be suffering due to her leg injury. I ran past her and cut her off as she attempted to crawled to one of the mineshafts. She sobbed covering her face as if I was going to rain down pain on her.
I sighed at her reaction and reached down to lift her up. Trixie cried out in pain as I adjusted her to carry her on my back, her bent leg was now facing forward like I had a lance strapped to my side. *That must hurt a lot.* I thought making a run for home.
Trixie's crying pulled at my heart strings making me feel like utter trash. I hated it when she use to guilt trip me into doing her chores, always playing the damsel in distress from the evil tyrant, my father, and his evil uncaring mistress, my mother. Yet, in spite of all her complaining Trixie was a hard worker but the farm life wasn’t hers.
As I ran her crying continued and she spouted nonsensical.
“Don’t worry Trixie. You’ll be fine.”
The sobbing continued, but stopped just long enough for Trixie to choke out, “Trixie hates you.”
The cold tone nearly made me tumble as I ran up the winding path out of the quarry. She never said she hated me before, and granted I never said it to her either. Hearing it though, it made me reconsider what I had done thus far.
Perhaps I needed to change. I always hurt others because of my temper, and today with Trixie was no different. I looked back at her and tried to give her a reassuring smile.
“Don’t be that way, Trix,” I panted out. “Look we have our differences but I don’t hate you and I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m sorry.”
“...”
“...”
Neither of us said a word after that until I reached Holder’s Boulder when Trixie decided to finally replied to my statement.
“Trixie’s sorry too.”
I gasped feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I set Trixie down leaning her against the boulder letting her legs stick outright. I inspected her twisted leg assessing the damage.I wasn’t a mare of many skills but I was capable with first aid. From what I could tell by the location of the twisted point on Trixie’s leg it wouldn’t be an easy fix.
Trixie looked worried as I silently inspected her leg. I ran my hoof along the inner part of her leg, making her squeak from the contact. Even though I hated her guts I still cared for her deep down, and I still wanted to help her. Guess in the end we’re all good ponies at heart. Mother always told us only cruel ponies didn’t care about their fellow ponies. Finally after a good three minutes of inspecting the leg, I came to the realization I couldn’t fix this,and it was a lot worse than I initially thought, as her leg began to change color, a sign of internal bleeding. I knew I had to get Trixie to the hospital and quick.
“Hang on Trix, we need to get you to the hospital.” I said lifting her up on my back again.
She gave me a worried look as she settled on my back.
“What’s going on, Citrus?”
I barked at the old nickname of mine. “Hah! You still call me that?”
Trixie scowled at me gently nudging my side. “Don’t change the subject! What’s wrong with Trixie?” She demanded of me.
Galloping down the dirt road towards town, I ran as fast as my legs would allow me to go. I felt worried. Afraid. There was this feeling, something in the back of my mind nagging at me as a chilling wind blew over me. A fearsome omen indeed.
“Don’t worry Trixie,” I ran around a large rock heading for town as clouds started to darken my skies above us. “I’ll get you to the hospital and you’ll be just fine. I promise.”
A moment of silence passed and I felt Trixie nuzzle my cheek.
“Trixie is sorry for running away,” she leaned into my ear. “My beautiful, little citrus.”
I gave her a genuine happy smile. “Thanks. My Sparkling Lime”
I ran feeling renewed after the intimate exchange. I ran faster with more determination than before. I could see the town off in the distance drawing nearer and nearer as my hooves carried me with a feeling of weightlessness.
The clouds were now completely covering the sky, the storm Maud had warned me about had come sooner than I hoped. Snow began to fall along the chilling breeze and Trixie whimpered shivering from the cold.
I heard her voice weakly by my ear say, “Limey, I-I’m s-s-so c-c-old.”
“Don’t worry we’re almost there, just hang on!”
I was now completely blinded by a torrent of snow and wind as I struggled to keep my pace against the frigid winds. The snow and clouds made it all but impossible for me to see. The town was just there! I had seen it but after I struggled onward and there was no town to be seen I stopped to get my bearings.
Trixie yelled at me over the whistling winds, “LImestone, wh-wha-t is go-g-g-going on?”
I shook as the cold began to have an affect on me. Sure i was born in this frozen north but even I had my limit in a maelstrom such as this. Worried I was lost I turned left and continued on hoping to find a building, street post, or some indicator of the town.
“I-I can’t see!” I yelled over the wind to Trixie. “Just hang on!”
Onward I marched through the maelstrom the wind cutting the snow against my face felt like thousands of tiny daggers without proper protection. For what felt like an eternity I walked through the storm finding no trace of the town or its residents. Somehow I must have gotten turned around and went in the wrong direction.
I cursed myself for getting lost. I cursed this storm. I cursed my own foolishness to go out into the storm without preparing for it.
On my back, Trixie remained still, so still I thought for sure she’d passed during the travel. Her voice barely managed to pierce the shearing winds telling me she was still among the living in this frozen waste.
“L-l-lime?”
I stopped feeling tired and numb from the cold. I rolled over and let her and myself onto the piling snow. I gave her my best smile I could muster given our situation.
“Wh-what -s-s-is it?”
“It’s t-t-t-to co-cold,” Trixie chattered out.
Feeling bad I reached for her and pulled her closer to me. I could barely feel anything from the cold, but I could feel her heart beat along with mine. I pet her mane trying my best to comfort her in this ever growing hostile environment. My body shook violently as did Trixie’s as we cuddled together, ever hoping that our bodies would keep their warmth long enough for help to arrive.
The numbing cold began turning into a warmer feeling. I knew that was a bad sign.
There wasn’t much time left. I knew it. This was most likely it for us. I pulled Trixie’s head to my shoulder and stroked her mane gently as I could.
“I’m s-s-sorry Trixie,” My teeth clattered together as I shivered. “Seems like my, emotions go the bett-t-ter of me again.”
Trixie shook her head smiling back at me. She then gently reached for my face with a her hooves and placed them on my cheeks. Even while shivering under the intense winds and snow piling up on us, i could feel my heart skip a beat as she touched me.
I gave her a smile thinking about the day we met and how different things were then. How different I was. The cold was starting to fade and I could feel a warmth coming over me and I began to feel my eyes getting heavy. I tried my best to stay awake by having some talk with Trixie hoping to keep us both conscious.
“Hey, do you remember when we met?” I asked her with clattering teeth.
Trixie nodded in my shoulder wrapping herself around me as though trying to blanket me from the cold winds. “Yeah, Trixie remembers. You were a very angry pony then.”
“Heh, funny coming from you.” I replied sarcastically.
We shared a laugh as the storm picked up again reaching its zenith.
“Yeah, we were pretty messed up weren’t we?” I asked her with a stiff laugh.
Trixie gave a small nod in response. She then pressed her head against my chin rubbing against it like a cat showing affection to its master. In her case it probably was that, Trixie always was rather submissive to me. She liked it when I took charge.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Trixie, listen. I’m sorry about his. I really messed up.” I said.
Trixie gave me a pathetic look. “No, it was Trixie’s fault. She shouldn’t have run away from you.”
I thought back to that moment in our lives. It was the day Trixie left. We had been dating for over two months by then and she was well integrated into our lives and farm. I was so proud to call her my mare. I was happy, she was happy, but that happiness didn’t last long.
One the end of our first two months together I got jealous at Trixie who had become obsessed with another mare named twilight Sparkle. The name sounded familiar to me at the time, little did I know she was one of Pinkie’s best friends.
Trixie’s obsession with Twilight became so intense that I was sure she was secretly writing to her behind my back. I took it upon myself to end this obsession in the only way I knew how. I yelled at her.
“Trixie remember when we last spoke?”
“Mhmm. You yelled at Trixie,” she whispered in my ear nibbling the edge of it. “You said Trixie was obsessed with Twilight, and that it wasn’t fair how she spent more time thinking about her rather than her own marefriend.”
I giggled at her response. “That was poorly worded Trixie.”
“...Grammar Nazi.”
We both smiled not saying a word. We just looked into each other's eyes as the snow piled on us covering the majority of our bodies. It was then I looked up to see the edge of a cliff. I must have over shot the town and reached the edge of Ghastly Gorge. The mammoth of all chasms in Equestria. Maud would love to see it were she not busy with other things.
I looked back to see Trixie’s eyes closed and became motionless under me. I felt my smile fade as once more fear took hold of me. I shook her gently trying to wake her up.
“Trixie, hey come on! Wake up stupid!” I shook her harder after getting no response. Trixie just felt limp. “Come on Trixie… I’m not kidding around. Wake up…”
“Limestone.”
Her voice was so weak I scarcely thought I heard her mutter my name. I knew her life was fading and soon I would too. With what little strength I had left I lifted her up, and wrapped her around my neck, dragging her along As I back tracked away from the chasm. Hoping to buy more time I tried talking to her again to keep her awake as I walked along the snow.
“Trixie, I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry I got us in this mess,” I pulled her up after she slipped from my grasp falling into the snow. “I shouldn’t have been so mad before. I’m sorry I… I’m sorry I drove you away.”
I felt my hoof hit some ice and slipped from underneath me. Both Trixie and I fell forward into the soft snow. I landed face first and Trixie fell just out of arm's reach beside me. I reached out for her but was only met with her cold gaze as the wind and snow covered her up. Feeling the cold no more I allowed myself to rest a moment before I felt a heaviness in my eyes. The last thing i remembered was two large grey collom come into my vision before I fell into oblivion.
“Trixie… I love you.”