Chapters A bright spring day, normal as usual, expected to be really warm today by the grace of Celestia. It's a shame, however, I must spend the whole day in my home office. Stuck in the rut of my daily routine, nothing new, just boring as ever. Managing my sales, calculating the price of each species of gems, relating them to the values of the Equestrian Market, setting my sale price, and putting them on the market to be sold either downstairs or in my newer shop recently opened in Manehattan. I run the business with my brother SteelPick, and my friend Saphire.
My brother and I are twin earth ponies, each having a light brown coat and blue eyes. The only differences are our mains and our cutie marks (naturally). My mane is a dark, nearly black, brown color with a sleek style while SteelPick's is scruffled and blonde. My cutie mark is of a gray mountain tip with an octagonal diamond in the center, symbolizing prospecting while my brother's is of a pick axe mining a large stone symbolizing mining (if you couldn't figure that one out). Saphire is a young mare with a dark purple coat and mint green eyes. Her mane is platinum blonde and half swirled around her neck. Her cutie mark is a rhombus shaped saphire with a parchmant banner wrapping around it saying edification, therefore symbolizing her imense jewl crafting skills. We all run our private owned jeweler business. We do everything from the prospecting and mining, to the refining and selling.
My brother and I usually do the scaling of the neighboring mountains, which frankly I don't enjoy for my fear of heights, so that we may extract the beautiful gems. Saphire then refines the Jewels and crafts them into different articles of jeweled accessories such as necklaces, bracelets, rings, tiaras, etc. On an average day we may receive about 5-15 customers a day, mostly passerbys visiting town or local high end class ponies. Though the number of our daily customers is small, the profits are made up by the value of our products. Not much variation through the days, however, everything always seems to repeat itself to me, Paramount. I will admit, though, that I am always arused by the wonderous beauty of the gems and how they will become even greater with crafting care, grinding away the jagged edges, literally.
So as today goes on, since we are about midway through, so far we have had about 6 customers and sold three rings, one bracelet, and a broach. The sixth customer was only a window shopper. Despite the one that got away, we are having a good sales day so far. Another star cut emerald is produced from the refinery workshop in the back just as ordered. The timing could not have been more impeccable for Twilight had just entered to pick it up for Spike. It is his birthday after all.
"Thankyou so much, it came out better than I could've dreamed, it's absolutely amazing." said the lavender unicorn. In reply I say, "Thankyou Ms. Sparkle I really appreciate your compliment I'll be sure to let Saphire know." "Please do, so how much will that be now?" Twilight asks. After running the numbers on my sales record scrolls I respond, "That will be about 195 bits, but with the gift discount, it comes out to 170 bits Ms. Sparkle." Answering my set bargain she says,"On a normal surcumstance I would complain, but for such quality, I'll take it." "Thanks again." I say in a dulling voice from my boredome. As I proceed up three stairs the purple mare beckons to me, "You know, I have a frriend that is always looking for gems to fit her gown deigns on a regular basis, and I'm sure that she would be more than happy to do business with you." "That sounds nice." I hollowly respond back to her as I continue on up again.
As I return to my desk, it finally occurs to me that gaining a regular would be great business for me. It's too late since this dawned upon my brain now, all I know is that I'm a bit retarded for not thinking of it then and perhaps building upon it. This possibly could've led to even further expansion of our business to ahe stores all over Equestria. I can see it now: billboards showing pictures of fine jewels and a text in longated script saying StoneWell & Shine Jewlers . Yet, it is just another dream lost in the river of unforeseeable hopes. Back to the numbers.
An Uncovered Gem in My Life
The evening now draws near as the late sky is now glowing vibrantly with a sharp orange. Since Twilight had left, we have sold three more necklaces, two of which had a centered ruby surrounded by opals for the circular amulet and the lace made of a silver ring chain. This is one of our own trademark designs. The third was a custom necklace designed by Photofinish. A platinum twine styled lace and an isosceles triangle shaped turquoise stone amulet as to complement her new sun dressed on her model. Right now, I'm just finishing the last sheet of my duplicate document of today's sales. I always like to keep everything on file in case of any price fluctuations of certain gems which ca be resold or if there are any malfunctions with any accessory. After this, I will start to lock up, clean, take a shower, then go to bed.
I start to head downstairs. I think to myself, "First things first." I head over to the open/close sign and turn so that the closed open had faced me on the inside of the store and all thought that we were closed. Thinking that it would never happen again, it did. The only exception is is that it was vice versa. In the middle of the night, there was knocking on my door. It became more and more violent as time progressed and I was getting a bit nervous. When I come downstairs I find Derpy knocking on my front door. Despite the fact that all my gems were away let alone the door was locked in the middle of the night, she could not figure out that the store was closed because the sign in her view said open. Celestia knows why she was even out that night, but hey, you can never expect what's going to happen next with that pegasus.
Anyway, after I switch the sign, I then proceed to the window view showcase to remove the jewels. Realizing I had forgotten my keys, I make way to the workshop in the back. As I enter the shop I see that Saphire had swept earlier than usual for the floor is miraculously clean. As I tilt my head up to look ahead of me, there she is, the elegant unicorn. Her horn glows with a light hue of a mint green color. A various assortment of tools orbit around her as she concentrates on what goes where. One by one do the chisels, snips, and hammers fly away towards their correct spots. As I call her name, she cringes; as do her tools as they stop their whimsical dance and stay still in the air. As she turns around in astonishment, mer wonderful mane whips sharply through the air and yet returns with soft grace around her neck, reposing her to her original beauty.
She finally responds saying, "You really have to stop sneaking up on me like that, you'll give somepony a heart attack one day." I chuckle a bit before I retort, "Yes we'll, I came back here to borrow your keys if you don't mind. I seem to had lost them." "Again!? I swear, you would lose your cutie mark if it wasn't a part of you." I put a bit of a pensive expression for I had just lied. I knew exactly where my keys were. They were under the Newspaper on the bottom right hand corner of my desk adjacent to my quill and inkwell. This was not, however, the only reason for my deep expression. After she had given me the key, I kept on thinking repeatedly in my head, "Bucking idiot just ask her already. Are you doing anything tonight. Are you doing anything after you leave Saphire."
"Okay, I guess I'll see you on Monday." says the purple mare. It is then that I break out of my deep trance and return to the realms of reality. Once again, another opportunity shot. I really am a bucking idiot aren't I? Well it is what it is isn't it. Just another day at the grinding stone. Well now that the workshop is cleaned now, I head back to the showcases to remove the jewelry. I put everything in the cellar for storage one at a time through the hidden trapdoor with my brother. I double lock the counter cases and empty today's earnings from the cash register into the safe behind the portrait of my grandfather, Battlemound. After I finally lock up the shop, I proceed to mop the tile floors while 'Pick is washing the counter tops and windows. Finally, after about an hour, I'm done with today. Now to get some rest for tomorrows mining expedition.
The sun now rises. Its light now shines though the windows of everyponies' homes. As the dawn hours pass slowly, so does the light; creeping across the floor and eventually making its way up Twilight's bed. Spike is really lucky, however, for his little bed is on the guarding side of Twilight's bed, completely protected by the off-given shade. Outside, you can hear the faint sound of Fluttershy's son birds chirping away at their morning tunes of such sweet melodies. Suddenly, the birds all fly to the outer window sill of Twilight's window which was then openned by the tender, loving, yellow coated pegasus. She softly lands next to Twilight's bed. She gently knuges the purple pony and softly whispers into her ear, "Twilight, if it's still okay with you, if you won't get mad at me, I'm here to wake you up, if that would be alright." Slowly, the mare awakens not perturbed at all by the gentle wake up call.
"Perfect Futtershy, that couldn't have gone greater. You were right, If you could wake up the innocent soft spirit of the hummingbird or the harsh brash dangerous instinct of a ravenous badger without disturbing either, you can really wake up a pony without them being startled." says the unicorn in a soft whisper. "Thankyou. I bought the birds like you had asked of me." returns Fluttershy's in a soft whisper as well, bu that's natural for her. "Where are the others?" asks Tilight. Amswering her question, Fluttershy responds, "I saw them on the way here, they were passing by sugar cube corner so they shouldn't be long." "Okay good, wait by the door to let them in while I get the cake." says twilight as her horn begins to glow as they proceed downstairs.
As Fluttershy stands her post at the front door, Twilight returs to the living room with a 3 level cake made by pinkie pie yesterday. She sets it. On the table then continues back upstairs to check on Spike. Suddenly, an envelope protrudes the home under the door near Fluttershy. It is. Sealed with a yellow smiley face candle wax assignia. As she opens it up it reads, "Fluttershy, it's me Pinkie Pie! Me and the rest of us areo outside right now! Open the door. Signed with balloons and giggles, Pinkamena D. Pie III As Fluttershy puts away the random letter, she opens the door to let everyone in. They all enter, Pinkie and AJ look fully awake and ready to attack the day, while Rainbow and Rarity just aren't used to being up at this hour like the others are, mainly because AJ works these kind of hours on a farm and the cotton candy smelling mare is just hyper.
A Pinkie is the last to enter, Fluttershy tells her, "I never knew you were third mare in your family to be named Pinkie Diane." "That's because I'm not!" she says with a giggle, "When I write a letter, I wanna sound as professional as possible. Or at least I've been that way since Princess Celestia has had us write her letters about what we learned. I mean, were talking about the Princess here. You just can't sound like the average joe when writing to her!
"Okay everypony he's still asleep, were it he clear." says Twilight. "Okay, so if I remember correctly, Pinkie gets the decorations up, Rarity prepares the tuxedo, Fluttershy assembles her birds, you'll bring down spike, and AppleJack will bring in the presents and i'll light the cake." says Rainbow Dash. "Yup." says Twilight. "Sure as the tux is fabulous." Pinkie Pie then pulls out her legendary party cannon and aims towards the center of the ceiling. Tilight seeing the big contraption screams, "PINKIE, NO!" Alas it was to late, for she had just pulled the firing string and out came a fountain of confertie, streamers and banners, ricocheting off the ceiling and on to the walls. She then pulls out her record player and then at least a dozen board games, an assortment of snacks, and two punch bowls.
"Well that was faster than a fish looking for water!" says AppleJack. "That's great, now everyone get into position." says the lavender unicorn. Fluttershy then Simons her birds to settle on the podium in front of her. AppleJack stands next to the pile of presents getting ready to lift. Rarity then stands eagerly next to the staircase with the small sized tux hanging from her mouth, smiling away in excitement. And Rainbow Dash hovers with the match in her mouth ready to light. Twilight then compliments the ponies by saying, "Perfect, I'll be right back." She then proceeds upstairs. She quickly returns with spike floating in his bed and glowing with a purple aura, then settling in the middle of the room. Pinkie and Twilight now stand next to the baby dragon ready to awaken him.
"Are you easy guys?" ask Fluttershy. In return, the robbins, jays, and pheasants all nod simotaniously yes. She then turns her head to her friends and nod the same telling them their ready. AppleJack then instructs, "Okay everypony, on the count of three. One, two, three!" "SURPRISE!" scream the ponies. Spike then awakens in shock to Oswego everyone around him, still half asleep and confused as a light blue glowing tuxedo comes on him as his crush draws nearer. "Wait, what!?" says the innocent dragon as he's then showered upon with boxes wrapped up so elegantly as his gifts. All as the birds sing the most popularly known tune ans the ponies sing, "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Spi-ike! Happy birthday to you. YAY!" and on the last line, Spike's head pops out from his mountain of gifts only to see the adventurous cyan colored Pegasus lighting the candles on the cake.
"Aw thanks guys, this is great, you're all the best a dragon could ask for." "Thanks," says Pinkie Pie, "now let's have some cake and open some presents" Everypony then takes their slice of cake only after Spike makes the first cut. It came to everyone's surprise that it was a remake of the M.M.M.M. After everyone had eaten their cake, everyone gathered around the sharply dressed dragon to see what they had all gotten him. The first present he opened was from Rarity; it was a pocketwatch and a top hat to go along with his new suit. The second gift was the one from pinkie pie. When it was opened, an explosion do candy had popped out of it spreading all over the place. The third was from Fluttershy, which was a pan flute carved from the wood of an elder tree in the everfree forest. The fourth was from AppleJack, it was the barrel ring that AppleBloom had once played with that Spike had been envious of. Then there was Rainbow Dash's. Her gift was a self-teaching course booklet that thought you had to fly. "Twilight said that dragons at this age tend to sprout their wings, and I figured getting a head start wouldn't hurt." encouraged the rainbow maned pony.
Then there was the last gift. Twilight Sparkle's. Spike was yet again expecting just another book as usual. He begins to unwrap it slowly knowing there was nothing to be surprised at. That was until he saw what he had just revealed. As held it up, every ones jaw dropped an awe as they all chanted in sync, "OoooooOoooOoooh." "Well I say there Spike, you got yourself a mighty fine lookin' stone. I'd sy you should be mighty tankful for that hunk of jewel." says the orange earth pony. "Twilight. I, I just don't now what to say other than thank you. I literally can't express in mere words how greatful I am for this." says the dragon with a slight tear of joy in his eye. In reply, Twilight says, "Aw spike you don't have to. It's your birthday after all." Spike still overwhelmed with joy and thanks, he comes over to Twilight and hugs her, and all the other ponies follow.
About an hour passes by and the party stills lives on, festive as ever. As Pinkie, Rainbow, and Spike get it down on the dance floor, Rarity approaches Twilight by the punch bowl and asks, "Twilight my dear, where ever did you obtain such a beautiful gem? In all my years of digging through the dirt seeking gems with my horn, I've never seen such perfection." With a bit of a slight smirk, Twilight responds by saying, "That's because I didn't find it in the ground, I bought it from this jewler yesterday and I had it crafted into this style cut." "A Jewler!?" asks rarity, "A jewler here in Ponyville!?" "Oh dear Celestia!" exclaims the purple unicorn to the white, "I can't believe that I had almost forgotten to tell you about them. Yea, they're 5 blocks south of your boutique. I've never noticed them there before until recently. I always thought that is was a residential area." "So did I! I mean how could we have missed this for so many years?" "Well, I gues thats just how it is in life, finding new things in the least expected of places. Not only that but, the stallion in there I think looked kind of cute." says Twilight. "Really. Twilight, could you have possibly found the one suited for you?" implies rarity with a small chuckle. "Oh no. But I would think that now you know about this new jewler, it might be good business for you. You dont have to go searching for gems anymore let alone taking hours upon hours of attempting to craft them and make errors." responds Twilight in a bit of a heated tone. "Well perhaps I'll stop by some time during the week." says rarity, "I like this song, want to dance?"
Sunday morning. Yet it's still dark out. I force myself to get up despite the fact I really want to return to my serene slumber. A stallions gotta work though to make ends meat. I walk over to my brother's room. I see that he is still asleep (as usual) and I go to wake him up. "Hey Pick... Pick wake up... Pick..." I kept on repeating until I unfortunately I had to resort to a more drastic approach. "PICK!" I yell as to finally wake him. I do unfortunately startle him and cause him to roll out of his bed. He falls to the floor with a mighty thump causing the glass of water he keeps at night to fall and shatter on the rug. As he collects himself, he yells at me, "Why in the hay did you do that for!? Have you bucking gone mad!?" "Well you weren't getting up any sooner on your own now were you." I retort, "You need to learn to get up earlier if you want to keep business going, and keep yourself alive with a roof over your head, and food on the table." We both pause with nothing else to say, only just to stand there and exchange looks of anger.
The silence was then broken by SteelPick saying, "Another wonderful morning we've started off with, eh, brother?" I then look at him with a stiff face at first. I then relieve my tensions and say, " Just the cranky morning mood I suppose. It is what it is, now come on, let's have breakfast. I'll make us scrambled petals." he then relieves a sigh and follows me down the stairs to the residential part of the house. As I start preparing breakfast, Pick prepares our equipment for the mountains. In the background I hear the clanking of clips, the rustling of harnesses, the bonking of hard hats, and other various sounds. I turn on the stove and lay the pan on top of the flame. I then take some petals from the jars of lillies, tulips, and some lavender buds. I butter the pan and mash the petals together into a thick paste. I pour it into the pan and mix as I let it cook. I look behind me and I see that Pick has prepared everything for the day.
I serve us our breakfast hot and steamy with with some water. "Looks real good today Paramount." complemented my brother. "Thanks I guess." I say in reply. The mood is quite silent for we still feel tired and a bit unsure of what to think about earlier. Again we remain in silence just eating our breakfasts. I hate it when this happens. I despise silence; I find it to be such a torturous realm. Even when I'm alone I usually leave the television on and not even watch it. A friend of mine, Dr. Bill Shrink, told me that it's called pressure of speech. It's not just that it's ominous, but it's awkward especially between two ponies. So I break out in yelling, "So where in the mountains are covering?" Pick looks at me with a startled expression clearly showing his discomfort in how I just yelled.
"Are you okay Para?" asks the mirrored stallion sitting across from me. "I'm sorry. I'm probably just nervous for today's expedition I guess." I reply. "You better not get drowsy from the heights again Para. Remember last year? It took me an hour to get you out of that spot, and I am not going through that nonsense again." he explains. "I know, I know. Don't worry. I don't know why but today is really offsetting for me. I'm Sure that I'll get over it though." I assure him. Yet he still asks in concern, "What do you mean by offsetting?"
I answer, "Something just feels out of place, like when you have a gut feeling that something's wrong. Plus I had a strange dream before. I actually woke up from it not too long after I went to bed. I dreamed that I was falling, but I wasn't in the sky. I was in a, sort of, uh-, I'm actually not sure how to explain this but, imagine some sort of a purple background."
"Well I'm not sure what it means specifically either I can tell you that much, but I do know one thing Para." says my brother.
"And what's that pick?"
"I know that you're not going to fall from the mountain because were going to the peridot mines, no the amethyst ones." answers Pick.
I give him a stern confused face as we stand frim the table to gear up and head out asking, "And what in all of Euestria does that have to do with anything Pick?" He then begins to explain, "Well the amethyst is purple right? So since we're not going to the amethyst mines there wont be this purple background you said." This gives me a little bit of comfort actually. The logic is clear and actually makes sense. Yet I still wonder why we're going to the peridot mines this time of year. So again I ask, but this time I inquire, "Okay that makes feel better, but why the peridot mines? Their not supposed to be prospected and harvested until July and it's early may." He shrugs away slightly and tilts his face towards my way with a coy look about him saying, "Well I ran into Saphire on the way home, so we talked a bit and she said that she wants to do birthstone bracelets for the next month starting with august and we need to build up inventory. I thought that it was a pretty good idea."
Hmmm. Birthstone bracelets. I think that it would be cutting it close for that especially for this time of year. I'm not so sure if we could stock up and manufacture in time. Especially since the seasons for the peridot stones to form completely and pure arent until next month. It would be a shot in the dark at most and SteelPick knows it too. On the other hoof though, it was Saphire's idea. She always wants to contribute to the business. She always wants to feel imprtant in the decisions. It would be a great deal to her if I pulled this off for her. And who am I to stand in the way of her vision. I would do anything to make her happy. Perhaps it can be done. Sure as hay it'll require much more effort but we'll pull it off.
"You know what? It's actually not a bad idea. Sunds like the customers would love it. So to the eastern mountains if my memory serves me correctly." I say to Pick as we walk through the dark streets of Ponyville. "Yes. Do you remember that new vein we found last year?" asks my twin. "How could I not, we found at least 50 25 karat chunks at 2 pounds each." I say excitedly rememberring the great emotions of joy that year. "Well I've done some research of he mountain's history and looked at our maps. I think that at 354' altitude a quater around counter-clockwise from the vein, there's another branch that it reaches through the inside of the mountain." says Pick with insane joy. "You have to be insane if you're serious about that. There's barely any stepping room in that region." I say back to his suggestion. "Maybe so, but it will be worth the trouble if we get the entire vein."
I worry about what I may have just gotten myself into. I just have to keep in mind that this is for Saphire, that's all. Still I worry. I may have a fear f heights but I'm completely fine if I have hoof room to step on, making sure that I'm well founded. But there. How in the name of Celestia are we going to even prospect without any way of getting let alone staying steady there? I pray that I'm just over reacting. By the grace of Celestia and Luna I'll be alright, and my brother for that matter.
Next thing I know while deep in my thoughts, I find myself at the base of the mountain with Pick beside me. He looks at me with an excited look.
"Well, here we go. Just gotta climb the first ledge."
"Right. Now we still have that bin elevator up there right? Or did we take that down?" I ask.
"It's still there don't worry. The thing is though, is that we have first have to carry the collected gems from the extraction site down to the top of the elevator because we're gonna be higher than we usually are."
"Dont remind me. So after the this we can just take the elevator up to the highest point and then just continue on from there."
"That sounds about the best way, yes," replies Pick.
So we then proceed climbing the first ledge. I half almost lost my footing once or twice. Nonetheless we got up unscathed. Afterwords, we proceeded to the elevator. We rode to the top of its capability and continued on from there. We had a pretty wide path from what we made of it last year. We head into a cave mine that we had also constructed last year. A few feet in, we relit the torches we had placed. As we lit the 5th torch, we simotaniously feasted our eyes on the beauty that was probably the largest peridot gem we both have seen in our lives.
"Brother, tell me, are or were we blind as to miss such a treasure as this last year? Or are we hallucinating what we are hoping for?" I ask.
"Perhaps it's one of the runts we left last year Paramount."
"If so, then I can't wait to see the rest of what we have ahead."
Both of us just stand eagerly and stare at the light green gem. SteelPick begins to raise his pickaxe and begins the sway of his arms for the first swing. But before he could continue I immediately intercept him with my arm with a loud shout, "NO!" We stand there in shock for second looking precariously above us.
"I'm sorry but we haven't even tested the gem yet."
"Okay yea sure, that's fine its perfectly worth killing us!" SteelPick screams in a whisper
"I know, I'm sorry but we have to make sure it's good."
I reach into my satchel and pull out a magnifying monacle. I examine the gem thoroughly to see if there are any rough abrasions, scratches, or any internal chasms or bubbles. To my own amazement, there is none. This is remarkably miraculous considering the time of year. Yet there was still one more test. I pull out a tuning fork and gently strike it against the gem. I listen carefully making sure that it's at the right pitch of noise so that its structurally sound and stable so it won't shatter easily.
"Oh dear Celestia, it's perfect! I can't believe it!" I shout in a joyous whisper.
"Shall I have the honor of taking the first swing brother?"
"Why you certainly may."
And so begins the plentiful harvest of the light green beauties bound to bring me riches. Not of bits and cents, but instead, the golden heart of sweet Saphire.