A Love as Steady as Stone

A Love as Steady as Stone

A Marble and Limestone in the Vogonverse Story

Chapter 3 ‘Our Town’

Limestone studied the patched and repaired roof of the Hotel. The rain, hard as it was, had finally moved on, and they had finished the repairs they could with the supplies they had. She looked at the other buildings, several of which would need more attention than the Hotel did, and let out a groan. She wasn’t upset, not really. Aaron was being nice enough to give them a place to stay, and for the most part he was just asking for a little help to get the town into shape.

She heard him talking about the water pumps being something they’d have to look at today, and she wondered exactly what could be wrong with some pumps? She’d installed the old pump at their rock farm, and while it had to be oiled every so often it worked fine as long as somepony was willing to stand out there and pump it a few times. She walked toward the side of the roof, finding the ladder, and began to climb down.

When she was on the deck for one of the second story rooms she stepped back and looked into the room itself. With the Hotel fixed, and the rooms in far better shape, they had rearranged a little. Marble was still sharing a room with her, but the two of them had took a slightly bigger room than they had first chosen.

“Daughter, art thou going to help the young master?” her father asked.

“Yes, I was heading that way right now.”

He nodded, watched as she left, and headed down stairs. Like his daughter he too would be helping the stallion that was letting them stay here. Once more the stallion had gotten up before them, prepared the early meal, and once more his Cloudy Quartz had insisted that she help him. Right now, he could see her, washing dishes, leaning over the sink and working with the large buckets of water the stallion had brought with him.

Her tail swished slightly as she stood there, and a grin crossed his face. He walked toward her, catching her tail, watching her stiffen up, and then gave her tail a small tug. There was a soft moan, one that he was happy to know he could still cause in his beloved wife. She looked over her shoulder at him. It wasn’t a hard look, but instead it was a mix between playful and stern.

“Igneous Rock Pie, thou art attempting to start that which thou shalt have no time in finishing. T’is best to start such things only when thou can provide what thou has promised.”

“Mine Beloved, that which I have promised shall I provide, and this promise,” he said as he pulled her tail again gently, “is one which shalt be given unto thee at a time past the darkening hour. Perhaps thou and I shalt work together on another young foal. For the pleasure of providing a young one unto thee shalt be mine to give and grant.”

Cloudy Quartz rolled her eyes as she kissed her husband. She watched him as he walked out, heading toward where the young master had went to go and work. There was still quite a bit of daylight left, and she knew that while there was light it would be the best idea to keep working. She looked at the dwindling pile of dishes. In many ways what she was doing here wasn’t too different from what she had done in their home.

She would have been cleaning dishes, with Marbles help, preparing breakfast, and perhaps helping with the mine as the day progressed. It was kind of the young master to prepare breakfast for them, again, but it did make her feel as if she was taking advantage of him. It was silly to think so, and she realized it, but she had long since been the matriarch of her family, and she she ensured that they always had meals, rest, and warm beds.

She let out a small sigh as she finished the small pile of dishes. This place wasn’t so different from home, not really, and she didn’t mind the young master wanting to treat them with hospitality, but perhaps she could try to get up before him and treat him with the same. Deciding that it was worth a shot she stretched, feeling her back pop, and then her eyes turned on the room itself.

This old hotel was nice enough, and through Igneous and Limestone’s assistance it was certainly turning into a more inviting place, but it lacked the touches that one needed to make a place a home. Surely nopony would care if she decorated it a bit.

Marble watched her mother as she began to clean and move around the kitchen. She had helped earlier, but her mother wanted to do the dishes on her on today. There was so much that could be done, but at the moment she wasn’t sure where to begin. Her hobby, what she loved to do back home, was find a piece of white or gray marble, and sculpt it down into little figurines. It had been something she’d done for calming her nerves, and occasionally to help make a few decorations for the farm.

Sure, there wasn’t a whole lot of need for decorations, or at least not a lot of them, but still, it was something she enjoyed, and something she felt that she could do to repay the young stallion that was letting them stay here. She looked around, trying to see if there was any marble, and then she saw it. An old broken vanity. Its entire length was made of a polished white marble. She looked at it, noticing how wobbly it was, how broken down, it was, and slowly she began to move the marble top.

It popped loose, with very little effort, and she stood it on its side. It was finely made, the entire sheet had been polished on both sides, and while time had certainly dulled some of it, she could see the potential in the sheet before her. The marble called to her, begging to be shaped, to be changed, and slowly her hands began to feel it. Like Maud and Limestone she was more than strong enough to crush the rock with her hands, but she didn’t want to crush it. Instead she leaned the sheet of marble against the wall, walked toward the storage room where the supplies had been, and found a small chisel and a hammer. Walking back into the room with the sheet she began to shape it. She worked, letting curves, deep lines, and soft lines form. It started simply, and as she worked she smiled, feeling as if she was going to create something that would help to brighten up their new home.

She continued to carve, chisel, and work with the marble in front of her. For a moment she looked out the window, wondering what her sister was doing. At that moment Limestone was looking at machine that was, according to Aaron, supposed to be able to pump massive amounts of water into a home, or a few homes.

“We’ll have to get the pumps going, and then we can see how much damage has been done to the water lines.”

She watched as he worked on wiring, checked the pump, hit the side of the pump twice with his hammer, and then flipped on a switch. When he did the pump made a dry crackling noise before she could hear it filling with fluid.

“Good, good, so us adding some water to it was a good idea. Alright, I’ve got to think that the buried lines should be okay, but we need to check the lines in the houses, especially the hotel.”

Together she walked with Aaron into one of the nearby houses and watched as he turned on a faucet. It sputtered for a moment, but then water began to pour out of it. He looked around, and together they heard water running in one of the rooms. She watched as he walked toward it, and while he stepped away she put her hands into the flowing water. She let it run in her hands, lifted it up to her face, and washed her face with it. It felt good, really good, to wash the grime off.

“The toilet is ruined, but that’s kind of to be expected.”

“Are we going to check all of these houses?”

He looked at her and nodded, “Yeah, I think it’d be a good idea. We can check them over, make sure that everything is set in them, and later if folks want to move in they can.”

That was something she hadn’t considered. More ponies moving around them. Not that she’d mind exactly, but back on the Rock Farm it was mainly just them. Sure, there was a few ponies that lived a few miles away, but they didn’t really have close neighbors. In a few ways she liked that. It tended to be peaceful, and she was able to concentrate on the farm itself.

“You want neighbors?”

He looked at her, and a grin crossed his lips, “It wouldn’t be terrible. I think that I wouldn’t mind to have some people living here, but I’d hope that it would be people who knew a trade.”

There was a certain logic to that. Having ponies around that knew how to do things, like a seamstress, would certainly be a plus. But then again it would be one more pony, if not more, that she’d have to warn about disturbing things on the farm. She felt a hand, looked at him, and noticed that he was touching her shoulder.

“We’ve done good today. We’ll check a few more, check the hotel, and then we’ll at least have some running water.”

She nodded, and for some reason she wasn’t getting angry that he was touching her. Instead, she didn’t mind it so bad. He seemed like a good sort. She felt a blush creeping up on her cheeks, and she turned away from him. Good sort or not, she wasn’t going to let him see her blushing.