Rough Around the Edges

Man...  That was some crazy ride back there.  Where...  Where am I anyway?  I kind of blacked out from getting too dizzy.  I can somewhat remember a cliff and...  Ah!  Yes.  Now that I've jogged my memory, I remember rolling down a hill.  I also remember crashing into the-  Oh.  Right.  The shabby farm house.  I sure did a number on that, didn't I?  Demolished it real good.  Thankfully nobody was inside, far as I know.  I don't think I'd be able to live with the guilt killing someone inadvertently.

Now someone here is going to correct me saying that "rocks are inanimate therefore they cannot feel guilt."  They'd be half-wrong.  I am fully capable of expressing emotions.  I'm just incapable of displaying them because, hello, no face.

But enough chit-chat.  I need to get a clue of where I'm at.

I come to with a hit of vertigo, followed by a hazy vision, almost making it impossible to declare my surroundings.  I let good ol time do its job and within short minutes my vision becomes more clearer.  Huh.  That's odd.  When I look down I see the blue sky, but when I look up there's the ground...  Either the whole world's topsy turvy or I could very well be balancing on my head.  I think we all know the answer to that one.  After deducting the circumstances, I start to feel the ground rumbling beneath me.

This also begs the question on how a boulder can see or feel.  Or hear for that matter.  It's for the best that we roll with it - questioning it will only induce headaches.

My pseudo eyes scan the area for whatever's responsible for the trembling.  Part of me assumes it's a giant dragon.  The other part of me highly assumes it's an earthquake.  Neither of those assumptions are correct; the intensity of the trembling starts growing, as if something is building up, and I look at the distance ahead to see a pillar of water bursting right out of the soil.  To the right another fountain of water sprays forth subsequently.  Then another, and then another.

I get the heavy suspicion that I'm in a mine field of geysers...  And to make matters worse, I happen to be on top of one.  One that's building up a huge amount of pressure.

Have you ever taken a whole package of mentos and dropped them in a big bottle of diet soda and then cork the lid?  Well, let's apply that to my situation: I'm the cork, and the geyser is the bottle of diet soda with mentos.  I can see cracks forming on the ground around me as the faint rumbling gradually grows potentially violent.  My whole world starts shaking, and I dread to imagine the explosive result.  I sigh despondently.

Cosmos.  Why do you hate me so?  What is it in my previous life that I've done to deserve this?  Is it because I peed on that dude's expensive shoes at bandcamp that one time?  Well the jerk had it comin'; he snuck some laundry soap in my tuba!  He got his just desserts.  But now I guess I'm getting my just desserts.  Karma.  It bites you in the rear sooner or later.

The geyser's water erupts with unbridled force, lifting me high into the cloudy sky.  Whenever and wherever I'm going to land, I'll be anticipating some destruction that'll follow.  There better well be some coyote to break my fall...

After the tragic loss of their home, the Pie family have no other choice but to ask Pinkie Pie if they could stay at the bakery until the house gets rebuilt.  Of course they'll have to consult some ponies who can get the job done, and they'll have to know the cost for them to do it.

Igneous still mourns over the tragedy.  It was practically one of his treasures, a treasure he built with his own two hooves.  A treasure that has become a pile of scrap with him having no knowledge of what caused it all.

Perhaps the beams needed more support?  Perhaps the wood was too old?  Igneous asks himself, thinking it was his fault for neglecting his responsibility as a home owner.

But bless Princess Celestia that him and his family weren't around when it occurred.  His family are his greatest of treasures, house coming second.

The glum farmer eyes the seat he sat on the last time he was on this train as if the seat has his name labelled on it.  He trots over to it and sits down on his hindquarters, leaning towards the window next to him, watching the other ponies board the train in a single file.  'I should take a nap, maybe that'll help relieve the stress,' is what Igneous suggests in thought.

Igneous slowly closes his eyelids, and already he feels his troubles slowly drifting away.  This, however, becomes short lived when his wife takes the seat next to him.  He’s taken notice of this but remains glancing out the window.

"Igneous?" Cloudy begins, tone and voice dripping with concern.  The farmer stays quiet, pretending to be oblivious of her presence.  "You know it's not your fault, Igneous.  Things like this just... happen."  Cloudy reaches to his shoulder and rubs it with a comforting hoof.  "I understand how much that house meant to you, but we should count ourselves lucky we weren't there when it happened."

Igneous sighs as his response.  "You know, my father once told me when we lost our home to a hurricane, 'We can replace homes, but we can never replace families'."

Igneous turns to look deep in his wife's eyes, a small smile creases his lips.  "Your father's a very wise stallion, dear," he says, putting his hoof on her's.  "I'm sorry about earlier.  I'm just a little upset about losing the house, is all."

Cloudy smiles back.  "Well once we get to Ponyville, we'll just make do with what we have until everything's back to normal," Cloudy says comfortingly.  The farmer's wife rests her head on his shoulders, drifting off into a blissful nap.

"Yes," Igneous murmurs, looking out the window, "Back to normal."

Meanwhile...

So I'm practically hurtling above the clouds through the sky, having no accurate prediction of where I'm heading.  How is it that I, a harmless boulder, cause so much damage without even trying?  It's not like what I'm doing is intentional but it's like how can one little mishap lead to another?  For once can I have some peace?  I think I've done more than enough.

Gravity takes claim as I finally begin my descent towards the earth.  I poke a hole through a patch of dark clouds and have the hawk's eye view of a forest down below.  Instead of healthy green, the massive group of trees look dark green, the type of green that spells 'gloomy' all over it.  The gap between me and the ground is closing in at an alarming rate, and I'm very certain that this won't be the death of me.  The universe would find that too easy, and it's far from being done with me.

I make first contact by smashing through thin and thick branches of the trees.  Suddenly time appears to be going in slow-motion.  With a fast hand, Lady Luck grabs the black dice and rattles them in her cupped hands, chanting whispering prayers under her breath while the Reaper sitting at the opposite end of the table stares at her with a sinister grin on his skeletal face, bony fingers tapping on the wooden shaft of his scythe expectantly.  Lady Luck gulps and reluctantly throws the dice onto the universe's game board.  The dice roll, and Lady Luck couldn't bare to look as she covers her eyes.

The sparkling cubes stop to a rest, and Lady Luck peeks through the slit between her fingers to see the results.  First she sees the Reaper literally glaring death at her with a defeated frown on his face.  Lady Luck's sight floats down to the game board and, to her shocking surprise, sees a pair of three and four on the table.  Trepidation quickly replaced by joy, Lady Luck yelps "Yes!" with a fist raised in the air.  Grumbling, the Reaper withdraws a piece of paper with my name on it from his robe and slams it down on the table, giving Lady Luck the 'I'm watching you' gesture before vanishing into the shadows.

A net of wet vines catches my fall.  The vines snap piece by piece, the ground just barely within arms reach.  As several more vines break, I land with a hard thud on the soil.  I never had any doubt Lady Luck would break through.  But there's still one incy wincy, itty bitty problem...  With the light shining down from the hole I made I can clearly make out that I'm at the top of a steep slope with just one vine preventing me from rolling down.

Plink!

That's when I hear the dreaded sound of fibres snapping.

Plink-plink!

If only I had a face, everybody would see how impassive I am right now...

Plinkplinkplink-...

There it is, the sound of the last fibre straining.  Here it comes...

Snap!

And there I go, my whole being tilting downward as I prepare to brace myself for yet another rolling journey to wherever the path takes me.