A Love as Steady as Stone

A Love as Steady as Stone

Chapter 7: Family, Love, and an Pickup

Introductions were made, Aaron soon discovered that Limestones younger sister Pinkie Pie was a ball of hyperactive energy. In truth he had no idea how anyone could even hope to keep up with her. She was talking to Cloudy, Limestone, himself, Marble, cuddling with her husband, and mothering her three children, or foals rather, and doing it all almost at the same time. He didn’t have a clue one how she was able to pull it off. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know how she pulled it off. Part of him wondered if perhaps she was actually some kind of elder god, like some of the authors from the early twentieth century wrote about, that just happened to be locked inside of a pony’s body.

He supposed it would have been one thing if it had been just the evening they arrived, but it had been two days already and she still managed to have some insane energy. Not to mention the walls were a little thin in the hotel and he could hear her, and her husband, making their headboard bounce against the wall while she told him to stuff her party cannon. As it was he was sitting up, deciding if he wanted to get out of bed or not, and looking over at Limestone. She was starting to wake up as well, and he wondered if it was because of the smell coming from the kitchen.

There was absolutely not doubt that Cloudy Quartz was an accomplished cook. She did a fantastic job when it came to making breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Aaron could, and would, gladly testify to her abilities when it came to making meals. But Cloudy hadn’t baked any breakfast items either. Aaron wasn’t sure if he was really smelling it or not, but he could swear that he smelled blueberry muffins. Actually he smelled blueberry muffins and coffee, and the two smells together was damn close to heaven.

The two of them got up, dressed, and walked down stairs to see Pinkie fast at work. She was humming, putting what looked like the second dozen blueberry muffins on the table, and he noticed that there was his coffee pot, another another one he had never seen before, both on top of the wood stove full of coffee. Aaron saw Cloudy as she came downstairs, her eyes on her daughter, on the table, and then on the two of them.

“Pinkameana, Thou did not hast to bake for us.”

Pinkie turned toward her, “It’s okay! My little cupcakes like their muffins in the morning, and besides, I haven’t been able to fix breakfast for everypony in a while!”

Cloudy shook her head, took a seat, and looked toward Aaron, “Praytell, what does thine day look like?”

Aaron looked at the muffins, debating if he should take one, or wait, and decided that it would be best to mind his manners and wait until everyone was present.

“We’re going to check the houses, see which ones can be salvaged, which ones need rebuilt. I think that we should be able to start opening the town up again. Igneous said there’s some valuable minerals in the mine still, so I figure that maybe we can make this a mining town again. It might be nice to have some neighbors and the like.”

Cloudy nodded, “Perhaps, although it would be of benefit to ensure that not only miners came. Thou may want to invite farmers, blacksmiths, and the like.”

It was actually something that Aaron had considered before. But it was good to hear someone else agreeing that it would be a good idea to have more than just miners in the town itself. Craftsmen and women, people who knew a trade, farmers, and day laborers, all of them would be useful in creating a decent place to live.

“That’s what I was thinking. I’m sure there’s going to be miners that will come along as well, but I honestly think that we’d do well to have a functioning community. I know that Limestone said you guys ran a rock farm before, but I think that this wouldn’t be that different. Well that, and I think that having a few more people around could really only benefit this place.”

Igneous nodded as he neared the table.

“Thou speaks the truth son. Ponies living around that knoweth a trade would be a boon to this community.”

Shortly Pinkie’s foals, and her husband, made it to the table and she began passing out the muffins. Aaron picked one up, happy to finally be able to eat a muffin and have some coffee at the same time. He scarfed it down, looked at Limestone who was eating her own muffin. She finished, drank her coffee, and then got up and filled a thermos they’d found and cleaned.

“Thanks for breakfast Pinkie.”

“Awww, you’re welcome Captain Grumpy.”

Limestone rolled her eyes, “Unhuh, Well, if we’re going to get this place ready for ponies we better go ahead and get started.”

Aaron got up, stretched, and looked at Igneous who was smiling at his grandfoals.

“I think that Lime and I can handle most of it today if you want to hang back and visit. We’ll head in for lunch a little later.”

Igneous smiled and nodded, “Thank thee. We shall enjoy our grandfoals. If thou needs…”

Aaron shook his head, “It should be fine,” he looked at Pinkie, “Thanks for breakfast. I haven’t had blueberry muffins in about six months.”

She smiled, “I know, glad that you liked them!”

He tried to figure out what she meant, but felt a hand on his arm.

“Trust me, you’re way better off not questioning it.”

He walked out with Limestone and together they headed toward the small town itself. Over the last few weeks they’d made huge strides with a few of the buildings. City Hall was more or less together and could be safely moved through. The library, school, and an old general store had been mostly restored. They were mainly focusing on the houses themselves, and today they walked toward the library. Once they were there Limestone noticed that most of it was boarded up. That wouldn’t be much of a problem, but like Aaron she didn’t want to do more damage than was needed.

So instead she looked around it and noticed a smaller part of it with a larger door. She could recall how a friend that lived at a neighboring farm had a carriage house attached to their home. She could only assume that the same was in place here. She walked toward the large door, lifted, and felt it hesitate for a moment. She pulled a little harder, heard something strain and then give, and then she was gifted with the door raising on up.

She walked into the building and saw something sitting there covered with dust. It was an odd carriage. It seemed to be made of metal, obviously it would be heavy, almost too heavy for somepony to really even consider pulling themselves, and that made her wonder who would want something like this. She heard someone behind her, but she paid them no mind.

Aaron watched as Limestone looked at the cart before her. It was sitting under a thick layer of dust. Her fingers moved some of it, revealing an old faded green paint.

"Wow, I don't think that I've seen one this old still in one piece. I thought most of them had been sold, or stolen, and melted down for the steel."

"Is...Is this a cart?"

He hugged her from behind, and she relaxed in his embrace.

"It's an old pickup, I don't know what year exactly, but I'm guessing certainly mid twentieth century..." he moved some of the dust, "Huh, it's a Ford. You know, if it's all here we might be able to get the engine to turn over. If we had some stout whiskey we might even make it run."

"It runs on liquor?"

He laughed, "Well, it can."

“What can it do?”

There was a ton of answers for that question, but one he thought of straight away. Limestone seemed to prefer for things to have a use. She liked when things had specific uses and weren’t just there to look pretty. He moved forward.

“Well, I guess that you could say they’re something like a cart in that they are able to haul heavy weights over long distances. The difference is that no one has to pull it. There’s an engine inside of it that runs, it’s connected to a transmission that spins one, or more, of the wheels and that makes it go,” he looked at it, “If we could get it to working it would certainly make the prospect of going and getting groceries a little easier.”

She looked at it, then at him, “So let’s get it running.”

He shrugged walked forward, and opened the hood. When it came open he noticed that it looked like the hoses had been removed, the wiring looked okay, and the engine at least was dry. All in all it could be possible to get the truck running. The library most likely had some repair manuals in it, and if they did get it to going then than long trek on foot would be a lot quicker. With that in mind he looked across the street at the library.

“What do you say we see if there’s some manuals that might tell us how to get it running?”

She nodded and two of them walked toward the library itself. Over two hours of searching and what they found was actually a collection of old videos that explained, in basic laymen terms, how to do some simple repairs to automobiles. The solar panels had proven themselves to be effective enough to power most of the buildings in the small community they were putting together here, and once again they were proving themselves as Aaron set up the flatscreen monitor, BluRay player, and plugged them into an outlet. He almost expected it not to work, but instead the monitor flicked on.

Limestone watched as the two stallions on the screen explained each process of what they were doing to the Truck in order to get it to run. Like the one here, their Truck had sat for a fairly long time. She felt Aaron beside her, working along with her, ensuring the engine could turn freely, leaving for a few minutes and then coming back with a few things for them to use.

She didn’t want to ignore Pinkie Pie, or her nieces and nephew, but she did want to get this to working. If it could do what Aaron said it could then it would make life here so much easier. They could make liquor to run it, and they could use it to haul groceries over long distances, maybe even to help with some of the heavy lifting. That was one thing she really wanted. She wasn’t afraid of hard work, and she knew that her father wasn’t, but she also knew that he had worked hard his entire life. Something, anything, that would make his life easier would be most welcomed.

Hours passed, the light had turned to darkness, and she watched as Aaron nodded.

“I think we can see if it will turn over on its own now.”

He had explained that all she had to do was get into the cab, sit down, and turn the key he found for it. She followed what he said, seeing the key sticking out of the dash, and she turned it. Their was a sound for a moment and she let go.

“The engine turns over! Good! We get something strong enough and we might be able to make this thing run!” he walked toward her, “I heard of moonshiners using their cars to deliver their liquor by running it in the tank and then siphoning it out. Maybe we can do the same?”

“What cha doing?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin and turned around to see Pinkie standing there.

“Oooo! It looks like an older version of our Expedition! Except it doesn’t have a cover on the back, and it’s older, but it looks fun!”

“Pinkie, we’re trying to get it to run. It would help out around here.”

She looked at Limestone and grinned, “Why didn’t you say so? Whatcha need?”

Limestone looked at her and then at Aaron, “Didn’t you say moonshine?”

“Ooooo, You know Applejack, Big Mac, and Granny Smith are making White Lightning! Would that work?”

Aaron nodded, “Yeah, that’s about two hundred proof, it’d run about anything.”

“Pinkie Pie, it isn’t going to do any good for it to be there, and not here.”

Limestone watched as Pinkie grinned, walked over toward a cabinet, one she knew was empty, and reached inside of it. A moment later she heard she yelling, and then she saw Pinkie pull a confused Applejack out of the cabinet. The same poor mare had a foal on her right teat, letting it suckle, and her eyes were wide.

“Pinkie Pie! Ah was a feedin’ Candy! What in the fire am Ah a doin’ here?!”

Pinkie grinned, “You mind if we borrow a few gallons of your white lightning?”

She balefully glared at Pinkie, “Ya went an broke the laws of physics ta ask me if’n ya could borrow a couple gallons of hooch? Sure, Ah figure ya can.”