Pinkie bounced forward as light breeze tickled the back of her neck. Grass crunched underneath her hooves as she landed, and it rose steadily once her weight lifted off. She sprang forward again and again, under a cloudless sky, quickly approaching a series of monolithic stones.
They grew from tiny specks on the horizon to several large — nay, massive — rocks. Pinkie didn’t slow her bounce, but did take a moment to marvel at the sight. Before her, an assortment of rocks had all been arranged, some standing and looking suspiciously like dominos, while others laid overtop them, taking away from the domino-esque appearance. Next to one, stood the pony she was looking for, her gray coat and teal frock almost blending her in with the stones.
“Hiya, Maud!” Pinkie exclaimed, stopping in front of her sister. “I was wondering where you skedaddled off to.”
Maud did not reply, her eyes locked on the stone before her.
“So what’s this?” she asked, gesturing to the somewhat ring of rocks.
Maud did not answer.
“Looks like a bunch of rocks,” Pinkie commented. She bounced over to one and tapped in, just in case it turned out to be hollow, or made of marshmallows. “Yep, they’re rocks all right!”
Maud still said nothing.
“Well I’ve got some fantastical news!” Pinkie declared. She paused, holding her sister in suspense for a moment. Maud blinked, her gaze never wavering from the stones. Pinkie couldn’t hold it in any longer and blurted it out. “I finally convinced that pesky portal to open back up!”
Maud’s reaction to this was far more noticeable than her previous ones. Her head turned to face Pinkie.
“We have to go home now?” The faintest hint of disappointment could be heard through the monotone.
“Yupperoni!” Pinkie’s head bobbed for a moment, then jutted to a stop. “Well, I suppose we don’t have to have to. Mr. Portal wasn’t too specific on when he’d close again.”
Maud’s head rotated back to the rock in front of her. “Then we can stay?”
Pinkie tapped her chin. “I guess we can, but I don’t think that would be too fair to Mr. Portal. He seemed kinda impatient.”
Maud turned her focus back to Pinkie. “Just a few more minutes?” Her pupils dilated ever so slightly —probably not more than a millimeter — and her bottom lip slowly curled out.
Pinkie sighed, having never been able to resist Maud’s puppy dog face for long. “Okay, we can stay for a little while.”
The corners of Maud’s lips twitched up. “Thank you, Pinkie.”
“Aww, no problemo, ya big softie.” Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around Maud and squeezed. Without hesitation, Maud brought her own foreleg around Pinkie, and nuzzled her forehead.
After a few seconds, Pinkie retracted, knowing her sister would want to spend their last few minutes on whatever world they’d landed in studying whatever rock-thingie was in front of them. Maud thanked her with a tiny nod of her head, and her eyes locked onto the rock before her.
For a few moments, the only sound was Pinkie breathing.
“Sooooo... “ she said, only a little bored. “Big rock.”
“Indeed,” Maud replied.
Pinkie tilted her neck back, staring at the top edge of the stone as sunlight bled over it. “It’s so… large.”
“Quite.”
“And rectangular-y”
“Yes.”
“And… gray-ish.”
“Most certainly.”
Pinkie stopped adding commentary, noting the fact that Maud’s voice had risen one-quarter of a twelfth of an octave, meaning she was almost irritated.
Maud blinked, thanking her for the silence. Her hoof outstretch tentatively, and touched the rough surface of the stone. She ran her hoof up slowly, reached a comfortable apex, and then ran it down the same length, eventually pulling away with a thin layer of gravel on her hoof.
“Sandstone,” she commented. Maud suddenly inhaled, savoring the aroma of the stone before her.
Pinkie fidgeted her hooves. She knew her sister was enjoying herself, but the experience was becoming a little too… stand-stillery for her. She pranced in place, but stopped as Maud turned to face her again.
“I have composed a poem about these rocks.” She blinked. “Would you like to hear it?”
Pinkie nodded, whipping her poofy mane up and down.
Maud turned back to the stone and cleared her throat.
“Rocks.
You are very large, and very many in number.
You are almost in a circle.
But you are not.
I believe somepony wanted to make you into a large circle.
But they failed.
Because you are only almost a circle.
Why?”
Maud turned to Pinkie. “I have titled it: Almost-Circle of Rocks.”
Pinkie fervently clapped her hooves together. “Bravo, Maud.” She persisted with the applause for several more seconds, stopping only when the rest of her imaginary fellow-applausers died down. “That was great!”
“Thank you.”
Maud sniffed the rock again, leaning in deeper.
Pinkie shifted left and right. “Okay… ready to go?”
Maud did not reply, but her gaze shifted to the ground and back to the rock quickly, telling Pinkie enough.
She grinned. “You wanna taste it, don’tcha?”
The tiniest pinpricks of pink appeared at the base of Mauds gray cheeks. “Yes.”
Pinkie giggled at her sister’s massive embarrassment, but not for too long because that would be rude.
Despite her constant ensuring that Maud’s fondness for rock eating was a “perfectly normal hobby for rock-ologists such as yourself”, they both knew that not even cragodiles ate rocks with the frequency that Maud did. Once, Pinkie had even attempt to eat a rock to make Maud feel better about it, but after breaking three and a half of her teeth she stopped. Her tongue gently caressed the one tooth that was still slightly chipped at the memory.
“You can go ahead, Maud. You know that I, as your best sister-friend, would never judge you for it.”
Maud blinked.
Pinkie smiled. “Do you want me to cover my eyes anyway?”
“...Yes.”
“Okay, but I’m only giving you three seconds.” Soon her vision was obscured into darkness as both of her forehooves popped up and covered her eyes.
Two seconds later a thunderous crunch hit her eardrums. She lowered her hooves just in time to catch Maud’s bulged cheeks as she chewed the stone. Behind her head, the gigantic rock had a chunk missing, and Maud’s incisors marks.
Maud chewed silently, her teeth crushing the stone to gravel, and swallowed.
Pinkie kept her grin plastered on her face as Maud turned around. “Well?”
It one motion, Maud wiped her mouth and glanced up. “Well.”
Her eyebrows arched, and Pinkie tilted her head. “That’s it? You aren’t going to tell me what it tastes like?”
“You can find out for yourself if you want,” Maud said, voice dripping with monotone. She indicated the rock.
Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Oh no, not after last time. I— hey…” She caught the twitch of Maud’s lips as she smirked. “Sarcasm?”
“Sarcasm.”
She giggled. “I shoulda known. So, now are you ready to go home?”
Maud rotated her head back to the structure. Her gaze sharpened at the sight of the many other rocks around them with longing to explore just a little longer. Reason eventually won out, as she turned back to Pinkie, with a blink to concede to go home.
“Hooray!” Pinkie leaped with joy.
Maud walked around to the other side of the stone, bent over, and picked up something small. “Okay Boulder,” she said, staring at her pet. “It’s time to stop playing with your new friends. We have to go home now.”
“Yeah Boulder!” Pinkie called as she bounced away. “Don’t be a slowpoke!”
Maud slipped Boulder into the front pocket of her frock and followed her sister. She only glanced back once.
