"Spike... Are you sure?" Twilight asked her number one assistant.
"Pretty sure Twi, I checked it at least five times." Said Spike as he ran through the list one more time.
"But... We haven't been able to finish the weekly bonus checklist sense we moved to Ponyville. In fact, usually we can barely pull of the weekly checklist." Twilight stated in an amazed tone.
"That's because something always goes wrong and you guy have to fix it," said the dragon as he walked over to a desk to put the checklist away.
It was true. During the previous week, the residents had quite an uneventful time(to their relief). This had allowed Twilight and Spike to finish their mandatory "weekly checklist" and move on to their optional "weekly bonus checklist" which had contained deeds like "file taxes" and "repair squeaky cupboard". With both of those out of the way they felt somewhat accomplished.
"How about we celebrate this occasion at Sugar Cube Corner?" Suggested Twilight with a small grin on her face.
"You better not be pulling my tail Twi," said Spike making sure this was a genuine offer.
"Of course not, Spike. We got a lot done and we haven't been their in a while," Said Twilight.
"Well yeah, that's because Pinkie's been out of town to her parents farm"
"Didn't I tell you this once already. Today is the day she said she was coming back."
"Well in that case, I'll have a topaz cupcake with sapphire frosting," declared the dragon as he hopped onto Twilight's back. But as soon as the started towards the door, it was opened by a certain somepony coming in. It was Mrs. Cake, a light blue coated earth pony with a yellow mane, and she looked quite serious.
"Oh! Hello Mrs. Cake. We where just about to come over," said Twilight looking slightly concerned.
"Well, I hope it wasn't to greet Pinkie back to Ponyville," said Mrs. Cake, "because Instead of getting her back, we got this letter." She then pulled a letter from her apron and gave it to Twilight. _______________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cake,
I'm sorry but I can't come back to work yet. Some things have come up and my family needs me to stay a bit longer. I'm not sure how much longer in staying, that all depends on how long it takes to fix this problem. Tell pumpkin and pound that aunt Pinkie is gonna try to get home soon.
With lots of smiles,
Pinkamina Diane Pie
P.S. The letter attached is for Twilight. Pinkie promise me you will only let her read it. I need her help.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"And here is the letter mentioned," said Mrs. Cake taking a smaller grey envelope out and putting it in Spike's outstretched claw. "Whatever she needs, please help her. She might not be our daughter, but she's like and older sister to pound and pumpkin and they miss her."
"Of course Mrs. Cake," said Twilight with a caring smile, "Spike and I will do what ever we can to help her."
"...wait. So does that means we can't get cupcakes?" Asked Spike, earning himself a smack on the back of the head with a levitating book. "Ouch!"
Mrs. Cake just giggled before leaving and said "No, me and my husband are perfectly capable of making your gemstone cupcakes without Pinkie... but, you better see what she wants before making plans."
"Okay Mrs. Cake, we'll let you know what we can tell you." said Twilight waving her goodbye. "Now about this letter..."
________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Twilight,
I have some explaining to do and I can't do it all in writing. I will try my best.
So, I have this pen pal and we've been friends ever sense we could talk, because our parents would read and write the letters for us because, they new each other very well because, they moved on to a neighboring rock farm after my friend was was born, because he broke things on accident all the time, because of a problem that I need your help to fix. This problem is even more complicated than the situation and I defiantly can't explain it in writing.
I know this is a lot to ask you and there really isn't much notice, but that's because he just showed up and I can't leave him here without trying to help. So could you come out to the rock farm for just a few days because this problem is in your area of expertise.
With lots of smiles,
Pinkamina Diane Pie
P.S. The name of the farm is Gravel Pie Rock Emporium, just one mile past the gem fields.
P.P.S. Spike can come too, Ruble would love to meet him.
________________________________________________________________________________________
"Who's Ruble?" asked the dragon standing on Twilight's back, reading over her shoulder.
"Spike! That was a private letter," scolded Twilight, "you shouldn't read over anotherpony's shoulder."
"Well...yeah, but it had my name in it," said Spike, "so that means its okay that I read it."
"No, it means that you got lucky." She muttered before speaking directly to him. "Anyway, it looks like we are going to be out of town for an unforeseeable amount of time. Make a list of-"
"Done."
"What? Done, I haven't even told you what the list is for."
"It's on the bonus weekly checklist. Right above 'stock the emergency pantry'."
"Oh! Right, so first thing on the list is..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour and a half later, Twilight and Spike were walking along a path in the gem fields. Twilight had two sets of saddle bags (filled with instruments of various kinds), a map that lead to Gravel Pie Rock Emporium, a box with a bakers dozen assorted cupcakes, and a half frosted dragon.
"Seriously Spike, you had to eat all six cupcakes at once," sighed Twilight, "you didn't save a single one to have when we get there."
"Oh, come on Twi. You know that topaz tastes best when it's warm. Well, maybe you wouldn't know because you don't eat gems, but it's good trust me." Said Spike.
Unfortunately, Twilight was use to Spikes dragon greed, which made the incident at the bakery even worse. She ordered six of his favorite cupcakes in hopes of him actually saving one, and wasn't disappointed(much) when he didn't. But in his heritage induced greed he spotted the bowl of left over sapphire frosting... and promptly nose dived into it. This made their five minute spot on the way out of town a twenty minute one. Twilight was worried that they might not make it by dark, having started so late in the day.
"I'm just glad you calmed down when I yelled at you. The last thing I want is for you to go full bezerk on me." Said Twilight, "and before you start apologizing(again), I sensed the magical growth in you body so it was not your fault."
"Thanks for understanding, Twi." Said the slightly ashamed dragon before looking up, "Is this the place?"
Just turning around a steep foothill, they find a large, quaint house with a huge front yard filled with rocks and stone of all different sizes and a sign that almost didn't fit the seen. It said "Gravel Pie Rock Emporium - Strongest Stones in Equestria". It was defiantly the place.
"So this is what rock farms look like." Stated Twilight in an intrigued tone. "Fascinating!"
"You won't say that after thirteen years of it. It gets soooooooooo boooooring. Thats why I moved to Ponyville. Wait, that makes me sound like a jerk. Don't get me wrong I love my family and they love me too, so that's why I moved to Ponyville. Wait, that makes this place look bad. I moved because I wasn't cut out for rock farming and Ponyville is closest. So, I can have a my own life, and not be far from the farm... Yeah that sound way better." Ramble a certain pink earth pony(I'll give you three guesses).
"Wut?" Mumbled a cross eyed Spike.
"I think she's trying to say rock farming is boring." Whisper Twilight into spikes ear.
"Oh!... So Pinkie, how come I've never heard of this place before. I mean, we've lived in Ponyville for what almost three years and this is the first time I've heard of 'Gravel Pie Rock Emporium'."said Spike trying to get a normal conversation going with Pinkie(good luck with that) while they walked up the steps to the Pie's residence.
"Maybe I should ask that why after all these years of tracking her down I wasn't told the princesses protege had a pet dragon?" The voice was dripping with sarcasm and came from stallion standing in between the others and the door. He had a dark orange mane that was hanging very low, and a coat of a lighter brownish grey. His facial exasperation at the moment was slightly of setting, because of the intensity at which he was furrowing his brow. That plus the small grin he had didn't make him the friendliest of faces.
Then a slight glow appeared from under his bangs and a large bang was heard as the step Spike, Twilight, and Pinkie where on suddenly flipped into the air and made The worlds of all three go blank.
"Darn it"
"It's okay, Ruble. You didn't mean it."
"You know that, I know that, but they don't know that!"
It was at this point that Twilight started to regain consciousness. What she saw was a deflated looking Pinkie sitting in a chair with one hoof holding an ice pack to her head. The other hoof was on the shoulder of the stallion that they meet on the porch. They seemed to be in the dinning room of the Pie's residence. The look on the stallions face seemed to be one of either pain or quiet anger, until he noticed Twilight was awake. Then it changed into an almost sympathetic/concerned look.
"Your Awake!" Said the young stallion. At this point, Pinkie looked over at Twilight and grinned slightly while using one hoof to wave.
"Celestia, this is the by far the worst first impression I have ever had, and that's saying something." The stallion continued. "Except maybe the time I meet Dr. Test-Tube... But that's a tale for another time, and I'm getting off track. Lets see if we can start again." *Deep breath* "Hi, I'm Ruble and that previous incident was an accident."
The strange thing about this was the fact that the entire time he talked his eyes never changed shape. His eyebrows were constantly angled downward. Twilight had noticed this and was staring at his bang-covered forehead for just enough time to make it awkward before she realized what she was doing.
"Umm... Yes. Hello Ruble nice to meet you." She said with a nervous grin. "Sorry for staring at umm... your forehead?"
"That's okay. I should get this all out of the way anyway." He said while moving his mane out of the way, showing her a large bone-like disk with a spiral etched into it. "I have what they call the Shield Horn syndrome. This usually causes miscarriages or death shortly after birth. That's because the shortness of the horn causes all the magic in their bodies to leak out rapidly, and no magic means no life. That didn't happen to me, obviously. That's because my inner magic is that of a earth pony, apparently. So, I'm half unicorn and half earth pony. You following me so far?" Twilight slowly nodded. "Good, because I can't keep living like this. My unicorn half needs to let off magic, but my inner magic can't be controlled like a unicorn's can."
"So you need my help to control your unique type of magic?" Asked Twilight.
"Well... Yeah. Kinda? It's just the fact that not many unicorns have literally 'magic' as their special talent." Said Ruble. Then he remembered the fist thing she heard him say. "Oh! And about that whole tracking you down thing, I was looking for help wherever I could find it, so I wasn't stalking you or anything. I'm also kind of a fanboy when it comes to dragons, so I tried to play it all cool but my magic acted up and well..."
This reminded Twilight of a certain dragon that had been missing the entire time. "Wait, where's Spike?"
"Oh, he's in the kitchen with Pappy Pie," said Pinkamina(you guys can tell the difference, right?), "he was the first one of us to wake up."
"Wait. What is he 'doing' in the kitchen?" Said Twilight as she searched for the box of cupcakes. She didn't find them.
"Spike!"
"Yes, Twilight?" Said the dragon that didn't know there was still frosting in the corner of his mouth, as he looked around the corner.
"You let the others have some of those cupcakes to, right?" Twilight said as she stared daggers at him.
"Well, yeah. Of course I let the others at them first. I'm not in my greed rage... Am I?" Everypony shook there heads. "Good! In that case there is two left for you, one for Inky, and... You sure you don't want one Ruble?"
"I told you, Spike. You can have mine. One, I'm not allowed in the kitchen; and two, I like waffles better." He said with a grin.
"Oh! I know since you can't go into the kitchen, I'll go in there and make your favorite banana nut waffles with whipped cream!" Said Pinkie popping back to life.
"Pinkie, you made me those for breakfast. And I think there is still some left."
"Well, then I'll go warm them up for you!" Said the mare as she rushed out of the room, and Spike followed before attention was brought back to him. This left Twilight and Ruble alone. She just looked at him and shook her head with a small grin.
"What?" Said Ruble.
"If your trying to impress Spike, could you find a way to do it that won't force him into a sugar coma?"
"Wait, you think I did that to impress him? No no no, I'm just trying to get on his good side. I don't like angry dragons." He said with a small shudder.
"You don't have to do that. I raised him myself, he is as understanding as anypony. In fact, I think he considers himself more of a pony than a dragon." She said with a distant but happy look.
"Well that explains the look he gave when I offered to jump of the roof as payment for hurting you guys"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fifteen minutes later, Twilight and Ruble walked into the kitchen(stopping at the doorway in Rubles case) to join the others. They hadn't talked much except to see if Twilight needed more ice for her head. In the kitchen they saw three earth ponies and a small dragon.
"Inkarella, I said no." Said the old stallion that Twilight assumed was Pinkie's father.
"Dad, we need the money. You just gave all your savings to Mom and Blinkie for her collage classes." Replied the dull haired pony that was Inkie. "Besides its just a few shots for a hoodie advertisement."
"Your sister said she would pay us back after she got a job as an ocular- errr... eye doctor. Besides if the picture were for the hoodies then they should at least let you wear some pants for some of those picture angles." Her father mumbled.
"We don't usually wear pants Dad."
"We don't usually have a camera aimed at our plots either."
It was at this moment that they noticed the two other ponies standing in the doorway. Inkie took this moment of awkwardness to leave. "Whatever, I'm heading to my room."
As Inkie walked passed Twilight and Ruble, the old stallion got up to greet them offering Twilight a hoof. "Hello, I'm Igneous Clydesdale Pie, you can call me Clyde."
"Yeah you only make the mistake of calling him Iggy once." Said Ruble before getting smacked upside the head by CLYDE.
"Here's your waffles Ruble, and your cupcakes Twi, and we should get Ruble out of the kitchen," said Pinkie.
"Come on, I blew up the toaster yesterday so I'm good for at least three days," said Ruble pointing at a lump of charred metal and plastic... As his forehead light up as the lump caught fire again. "Or not. I'll just leave."
"I'll put the fire out, Pinkie. You show our guests were they're going to sleep," said Clyde with a sigh.
"Okie dokie lokie Pappy Pie," said Pinkie with gusto. "So, Twi, you can share Blinkie's room with me, Spike can share Ruble's room with Ruble, Inkie will be in her room by herself, and Pappy will be in his and Ma's room. Any questions?"
"Yes, actually. Who's room is who's, because its very late and I want to turn in as soon as we finish eating?" Asked Twilight.
"Well,on the right you have the metal, dented door that is Ruble's and the door with the warning labels that is Inkies; and on the left is my door with the ballons and the plain door is Pappy's." she explained pointing to a hallway on the other side of the living room. "Bathroom is at the end if the hall."
"Um, why is Rubles door made of metal?" Asked Spike with the proper amount of concern.
"I dunno. It was his idea."
"Good to know."
They sat down at the table in the living room next to Ruble, who was half way through his waffles. Pinkie sat down cutie mark to cutie mark next to Ruble, bumping into his side making him pause in finishing his waffles. Twilight and Spike sat down on the other side so Spike was straight across from Ruble. Twilight started to eat her cupcakes when she noticed Spike staring at Ruble's cutie mark.
"Spike, stop staring. It's rude." She hissed quietly, but in the silence of the room everypony could hear her.
"Ha, said the mare that starred at my forehead for five minutes," Said Ruble with a smirk.
"Hey, I apologized, and I had good reason to, your horn was the main reason I had to come here. Besides there is no reason to stare at the side of your plot." She retorted.
At this point Spike had a claw up trying to make a break in the conversation to tell his piece, but was ignored and waited to see what would develop.
"I'm plenty used to ponies starring at me. Though I must admit its usually directed at my forehead, only one pony I know stares at me differently." Ruble stated this fact while looking at an area in the space in front of him.
"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" said Pinkie blushing. "And stop brining that up. That was, like, four years ago, and Blinkie and Inkie were staring at you a lot too, and it was only because we just became 'of age' and you were the only colt for miles, and you know it."
"Then why are you blushing"
"I, uh, um, well, it's because, um- just answer Spike's question about your cutie mark and tell them how you got it, alright!" Pinkie practically shouted.
"Wait how did you-" started Spike.
"Pinkie Pie." Stated Twilight
"Oh yeah. Anyway, how did you get your cutie mark, Ruble. It looks almost... Familiar." Spike finished while continuing to stare at his cutie mark.
"That's probably because its a picture of the dragon nest I cracked in half."
"...What?" Exclaimed Twilight. "It takes years for a female dragon to carve a nest out of a boulder, and you just cracked it in HALF!"
"What, you think I did it on purpose?" Said Ruble holding his hooves up in innocence. "Let me tell you what happened before you yell at me. Okay, let's see it happened a few months after I left the rock farm. It got kinda boring after the pinkster left. So, I went looking for dragons. Well the migration wasn't going to happen for a few years so I went to this mountain. I heard that a dragon nested there a few times. Well, I heard right because after camping on the mountain for two weeks a dragon flew into a cave that was hidden behind some vines. Her name was Veraseen. She didn't out right torch me thankfully. I told her I went away because I was dangerous to ponies. She said that she was there to lay her seventh clutch, and probably her last."
"Seventh?! How old was she?" asked Twilight. "Dragons only lay eggs every ten to fifteen years and they don't mature until they're about thirty. That's a huge dragon."
"She was nice at first. She let me sleep in her cave, we talked, and kept each other company. My horn went off a few times, but it usually just slammed a stone or two into the side of the cave. Then about, I dunno, three months later, the eggs hatched." Ruble turned somber towards the end before taking a short break. His sadden look was emphasized by his unique facial structure.
"That was the day I got my cutie mark. We had been so eager to see the hatchlings." He stopped talking to look at Spike for a bit. "Do you remember the day you hatched?"
"No," said Spike, "but Twi might."
"He,he....yeah," Twilight laughed nervously. "Um, well the second Spike hatched my magic burst almost fully aged him almost instantly, so he never had instinctual urges as a hatchling."
Spike looked in shock at her. "Wait, so I grew up differently that I was suppose to?"
"Spike," said Twilight with care, "Celestia helped me raise you to be the best you could be, whether you acted draconic or equine."
"I-I understand Twilight," said Spike, planing on thinking it over later.
"Then you guys lucked out," said Rumble. "I can tell you exactly which instincts act up first. One, recognition, they recognized Veraseen immediately. Two, curiosity, all four of them looked at me and stared for I don't know how long. Three, what can I burn, because they tried to set me on fire! Needless to say, I freaked. And so did my horn. That's when it cracked the nest. Veraseen didn't like that. HER instincts kicked in and saw me as a threat. She was nice enough to shout 'get out' before liquifying the cave entrance."
"Did you survive?" asked Pinkie, waiting for her answer with fear on her face.
There was a round of facehoofs.
"No, Pinkie," sighed Rumble. "I died. Of course I survived, Pinkie. You've heard me tell this story a hundred times and I'm sitting right here."
"Oh, right!" Pinkie shouted with a grin.
"As I was saying, I ran before that happen. I didn't stop running for the rest of the day. I found out that my cutie mark the next morning. I came back to the farm after that." Ruble finished.
*Yawn* "Well, that was a nice little story, but the sun set three hours ago. So, that being said, everypony and a certain dragon need to go to bed." Said Twilight getting up after finishing her cupcakes.
"Okie dokie lokie, Twi," agreed Pinkie hopping towards her room, "I'll show you where you'll be sleeping"
Spike looked over to Ruble for a second.
"I don't have a spare bed at the moment, but I have a basket and a large assortment of pillows and blankets. Sorry" explained Ruble.
"Just like home," said Spike. "By the way, why is your door made of medal?"