Broken

My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie. I live on a rock farm with my two sisters and my parents. It is a long and boring life on the farm. All we do is push rocks out of place and back into place. I am only a little filly right now, and my sisters are only a little bit older than me. I found a rock and hit it with my hammer. It broke and shattered into a bunch of pieces. I found a few tiny gems, and placed them in my bag. Then I walked over to Limestone.

"Sis, I found something." I said. She pushed her mane out of her face and looked at me with her dull lime-green eyes.

"What is it Pinkamena?"

I pulled out the tiny peices of gem and showed them to her. She had to squint her eyes and look closely at them. Then she got a frown on her face an looked blankly at me.

"Really? Are you serious Pinkamena? That is the worst find that i've seen all day." Then she slapped the pieces out of my hoof and trotted away. I stared at the pieces on the ground and felt tears well up in my eyes. My sisters never really appreciated what little things that I found in the rocks. I felt that no pony really cares for me.

After we all finished our chores, Limestone, Igneous and I walked into the house. We greeted Mother and Father and sat down at our places at the table. Mother walked into the kitchen and set down plates in front of us. I looked at what we were eating today. It was some beans and a small amount of hay from the village. We didn't really have much food to go around, so we all had to ration it. Mother and Father sat down and we all began to eat. After dinner, Igneous went to help Mother with the dishes, Limestone went with Father to help him outside, and I went up to my room, all alone. This usually happens to me. Where everyone forgets about me and I end up all alone. I'm always alone.

The next day, I went into the den. My Father was in there, reading the newspaper and smoking tobacco. I walked in and waited quietly until he noticed me.

"Ah, Pinkamena. I want you to go start working in the fields with Igneous. I'll call you in when you finish." He told me. I looked up from the floor at him through dull light blue eyes.

"Yes Father." I said blankly. As I walked out the door, I saw something that caught my eye. It looked like a small peice of paper.

I looked around to make sure nopony was watching me, then walked over to the paper and picked it up. I looked at the faded writing on the paper and tried to read it as best as I could.

"You are never alone, so don't think you are." What the hay did that mean? I didn't know, but I thought the words were inspiring, so I put the paper inside of my saddlebag. I picked up my hammer and pickaxe from besides the door, then got to work smashing rocks and collecting whatever gems I could find. The smallest gems I stuck inside of my bag to keep, since nopony would care about them anyway. The bigger gems I found were placed inside of the wooden crate near the door for things like selling them. I looked over at Igneous, who was busy trying to smash one of the biggest rocks. After a final swing downwards, she managed to split the rock in two.

'Boy, she sure is strong for a mare.' I thought in awe. I decided to practice swinging down like that. At first I tried it on small rocks, scince than was all I could do at this age. The rocks broke easily. Well, of course they would, they were small. I found a couple small gems. I stuck them in my bag. Then I moved onto medium-sized rocks. After 4 or 5 swings, the rock managed to gain a small crack.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I yelled in frustration. I threw down the pickaxe on the rock as hard as I could. The sharp point of the pick hit the rock, and the rock split in two. It revealed a large gem in the middle. My eyes lit up at the amazement of it.'

"OH MY GOSH!!" I screamed. "MA! PA! LIMESTONE! IGNEOUS! COME LOOK!" My family came running out to meet me; well, my find.

"Woah! Pinkamena, did you find this?" Igneous gasped.

"It's so big..." Limestone stuttered.

"Pinkamena, was this your find?" Pa asked gruffly.

"Yes Father." I said proudly. I felt so happy. I finally made my family happy, or, that's at least what I thought. Pa just looked at the gem, took my pickaxe off the ground, and raised it above his head. My pupils dialated as I realized what he was doing.

"NO PA NO!!!" I screamed. I lunged at him, but it was too late. The pickaxe came down on my gem and shattered it. I fell on my stomach and sat there. I looked at my gem, broken into a million shards on the ground. I felt my eyes well up and tears fall down my cheeks.

"Anything she finds; valuable or not, destroy it." Father said blankly. As I sat there, the rest of my family walked off to do chores of their own. I stared at the shards of gem on the ground, unable to do anything. Anything but cry.