Sins of the Mother

“What is Tartarus is going on out here? Nobody better have touched Holder’s Boulder!” A rather pissed off dull purple mare demanded, galloping hard out of the farm house. I remained safely at the blue box while Whooves dealt with her.

“Relax, no one has touched your boulder.” Whooves smiled, trying to calm the mare down. I wasn’t sure if that would be possible or not.

“You!” the mare screamed, glaring directly at the Doctor. I set a hoof back inside the box if we needed to make a hasty retreat. “You dare show your muzzle around here, after what happened last time?”

“Yeah, I’m not planning on staying very long.” The Doctor grinned nervously, scratching the back of his head with a hoof.

“No. You’re not.” The mare growled. “I don’t care what you’re doing here, but you’re not welcome!”

“Ooh, and here I was going to finally cache in on that favour your family owes me.” The Doctor remarked as he turned back towards me. Giving me a slight wink, I had to watch him warily for any stunts he may pull next.

“I couldn’t give a damn about your stupid favours! You nearly destroyed my farm!” the mare’s attitude really didn’t have me in a frame of mind that desired to stay much longer.

“Keyword, nearly.” The Doctor held a hoof up pointedly. “As I hear, you had a recent visit from a sister and a cousin right? I believe they did more damage to your farm than I ever did.”

“How did you hear about that?” The mare appeared before the stallion, getting right up in his face with her unending scowl. “No matter, we will have no business with you!”

“Oh don’t mistake me, my dear Limestone.” The Doctor tempted fate by patting the seething mare on her head. “My favour won’t be cached by me. It’ll be cached in by him.” the Doctor swung his hoof back and pointed at me, my head the only portion of me poking out of the doorway into the impossible room. “And trust me, it would be wise for your family to get along with him.”

“And why is that?” The mare nearly bit Whooves’ head off with each word.

“Because he’s an alicorn.” the stallion replied with a smile. Her eyes switched over to me and I swear, the hate coming from her eyes was palpable. “He’s the first male alicorn in over a millennium and he’s not royalty. Yet.”

“I don’t believe you.” Limestone growled. I sighed and stepped out again, leaving my cloak and packs behind to show off my horn and wings. “So? He could just be a pegasus with a horn grafted onto his forehead!”

I rolled my eyes and fired up my horn, teleporting myself directly next to me. Releasing my wings, I had to subtly use my magic to move them around in their state of disability in order to show them off as well.

“Okay, so he’s an alicorn! What do you want from me?” Limestone demanded, backing away and actually calmed down as she sat back on her rump.

“I want you to give him a job. Maybe pair him up with your sister for a while, have him work with her to… I don’t know what you ponies do on this farm, thinking about it now.” The Doctor replied thoughtfully. I dropped my wings and jaw at the same time.

“You want me to work for her?” I demanded, pointing directly at the mare.

“Yes, I want you to work for her. She can provide you work, let you earn a proper living so that you can afford your next ticket out of here.” the Doctor explained. I had to admit, he had a point there.

“Ugh, fine. I’ll stick around and work here if she’ll have me.” I groaned.

“Hang on a second!” Limestone growled. “Don’t I have any say in the matter?”

“Not particularly. I’m more or less dumping him on you now! Allons-y!” The Doctor grinned and ran back to his box to deposit my items on the ground before the door slammed shut and the box faded away.

This left me with a rather furious mare and no other option besides walk off the farm and hitchhike.

“Bastard Doctor, not even a real Doctor…” Limestone grumbled under her breath. Turning back to me, “Well, grab your shit, let’s get a move on! I’ll show you your living space while you’re here!”

“‘Kay…” I muttered, floating my items to me as I chased after the unpleasant mare.

~~~

This is where you’re staying, this is where you’re sleeping, breakfast is at 0500 hours, lunch is at 1200 hours, dinner at 1830 hours and after that is freetime. All the rest of the time you’re working with my sister.” Limestone Pie explained, showing me around the room i’d be staying in. “If you last long enough, you’ll be paid every two weeks.”

“‘Kay…” I mumbled again, dropping my stuff next to my assigned bed to tighten the belt on my wings. I’d have loved to have kept that exoskeleton but I suppose it would’ve been too much to ask for judging by it being his only prototype.

“Come on, Marble’s already out in the quarry. You’ll shadow her around for the remainder of the day. Don’t talk to my parents, don’t talk to her beyond work, don’t bother me what so fucking ever, and we’ll be golden.” Limestone demanded, getting up in my face just as before.

“‘Kay.” I replied, resisting the urge to drag my tongue across her face. The urge passed as Limestone Pie nearly dragged me back out of the house and towards a rather huge hole in the ground, the sound of something striking rock echoing from within.

“Just follow this path down, then when you reach the bottom follow the noise. Should lead you right to her. Tell her I sent you down.” Limestone ordered before giving me a swift kick in the backside to get me moving.

“Damn, ever tried common decency?” I mumbled under my breath once out of earshot. With a sigh I held my wings open and leapt off the edge, letting myself glide down silently.

“I’ll be damned, he’s actually an alicorn…” I barely heard Limestone mutter from above me as I shook my head in reply and continued down. Landing softly, I tucked my wings back into the belt and let my ears try and pinpoint the source of the knocking.

Following the sound I entered into a well lit cave lined with crystals and gemstones of all shapes and sizes. Singled out among the seemingly luminescent crystals around her stood a single mare with a tiny pick in her mouth, beating away at a rock in the shape of a rearing pony.

“Excuse me?” I coughed, startling the mare entirely. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. My name is Eclissi and I was sent down here to work alongside you by Limestone.” I explained, slowly approaching the mare.

The poor mare seemed to only recede deeper into herself and the stone surfaces around her with each step I took. Realising this, I stopped and sat down. This seemed to slightly relieve the pony despite the still burning red in her otherwise grey coat.

“You don’t say much, do you?” I inquired after a minute of silence and awkward staring at everything but each other.

“Mm-mmm.” Marble shook her head in reply.

“Okay, so then…” I sighed and scratched at my neck. I looked up and caught Marble staring at me, or more precisely my horn. Having noticed this, she diverted her gaze away again, back to her project in shame. “What? Don’t have much exposure to magic?”

“Mm-mmm.” Marble shook her head shyly again, though at least her eyes returned to me.

“Have you seen much magic performed then?” I began to smile, having finally reached a topic that she seemed to be interested in.

“Mm-mmm.” Marble shook her head again, staring at my horn again.

“Wanna see a cool trick?” I offered, remaining planted where I sat as I began searching for a loose gem.

“Mm-hmm.” the mare let a smile poke through her lips as she all but turned to face me as I telekinetically retrieved a dark purple stone -likely an amethyst judging by it’s colour and apparent magical conduciveness- before my horn began to fire up a second, underlying spell.

“Let me ask, and I apologize if this makes you nervous, but are you afraid of the dark at night?” I inquired as I mostly focused on the spell being performed within the stone before me.

“Mm… Mm-hmm…” Marble nodded shamefully.

“That’s quite alright, thank you for your answer. I used to be afraid of the dark as well, but my mother… well let’s not get into that just yet.” I remarked with a sigh as the spellstone activated and began to cast a strong purple light all around me, the light from within refracting with the structure of the gem.

I heard Marble gasp in surprise as I let a wind sweep through the cavern, dousing all the torches lit to plunge us into darkness, save for the luminescent amethyst in my possession. Slowly turning the crystal cast spectacular lights onto the ground, walls and ceiling. Marble seemed to forget that she was currently in a dark cavern as she watched the colour dancing all around her, a huge smile on her face.

“I can enchant each stone to give off a different colour of light. I used to do it with moonstone back home all the time before my mother forbade me from doing so. Said it was like creating new stars in her skies or something…” I explained, setting the glowing stone down before me to slide it across the ground to the Pie sister.

“Her… Skies?” Marble whispered as she got down close to the stone to examine it in greater detail.

“Yeah, you may have noticed that I also have wings. I’m the first male alicorn born to a Princess in over one thousand years.” I explained, magically lighting the torches again. The stone reacted by dimming it’s light to a dull pulsing, indicating an idle state of magic.

“Which…” Marble began to ask, seemingly having warmed up to me upon receiving my gift.

“Luna, actually. Though I was born to her when she was banished on the moon as Nightmare Moon…” I shrugged.

“Mmm…” Marble sighed as she shook her head clear of the stone and turned back to her work. Her actual work, not the project she’d been working on. Raising her hoof to point, my gaze was directed at a set of four pickaxes, the same small size as the one in her mouth before she then pointed to a set of geodes nearby.

“‘Kay.” I replied, having understood her directions. Lifting all four magically, I trotted over to my assigned workstation and began chipping away at four growths all at once.

A clearing of the female throat had me turn to see Marble with a rather perfectly cut Peridot in her mouth.

“Magic… please?” Marble asked timidly, setting the stone down before me before backing away.

“‘Kay.” I replied, lowering my horn and started up the illumination spell again and inscribed it into the stone. “Good choice for stone, by the way.” I smiled as the spell was set and the stone began to pulse to life in the brightly lit cave. “Both stones will brighten up in darker areas.” I explained as I carefully tossed the stone back to Marble before returning to my job.

“‘Kay.” Marble echoed me, taking the stone and dropped it next to the amethyst before picking her pick up again and took a position nearer to me.

“Are bigger stones better?” I asked as I worked at clearing the stone away from a chunk of rose quartz as large as I was.

“Mm-hmm.” Marble grinned, seeing my progress and the size of gem I was currently working on. With a shrug I placed the tips of each pick in relatively precise places before bringing them all down on their marks in one motion.

A loud crack echoed throughout the cavern as the rose quartz chunk fell from the wall and rolled a bit before settling on a couple of spires.

“What. The. Fuck. Are you doing to my farm!” Limestone’s voice echoed from outside the cave. A minute later and the mare slid to a hard stop, panting heavily. “Marble, are you okay? What happened?” she demanded, searching frantically for signs of distress.

“Mm-hmm.” Marble smiled and pointed to the Quartz. Limestone’s jaw dropped at the sight of the thing. My own jaw dropped as well, but I was staring into the hole where the quartz had previous sat.

“Holy… shit.” I mumbled, drawing the attention of the mares.

“What’d you do no...w… Holy shit-snacks!” Limestone glared at me before getting a peek at what I was looking at. “Is that…”

“Let me dig it out and we’ll find out!” I remarked, stepping into the hole with only two picks. Mining out a sure line around the stone itself, I placed both picks in place and brought the heads of the second two down on the first two, cracking the stone along its lines to let it pop out of the wall.

“Well? Is it?” Limestone demanded anxiously. Marble disappeared a moment before reappearing with the enchanted Peridot, using it’s light to illuminate the hole in the wall. “What the?” Limestone wondered, staring at the stone before turning back to me.

“Let me test it and we’ll see.” I whispered and fired up my horn with a simple illumination spell, casting white light in the hole around me. I focused the light into the stone and all three of us grinned as the light turned red, the stone in my grasp lighting up light a Ruby. “Ladies, this is a Red Diamond.”

“Oh…” Marble gasped, dropping the peridot and let it roll off.

“You’re sure? You’re not just making this up because you have no idea what you’re talking about?” Limestone demanded, snatching the stone away to stare into it with her naked eye.

“Limestone, I’ve studied the structure of every gemstone on this planet in detail. I had a lot of free time and a lot of books. I’m like… ninety-seven percent sure it’s a Red Diamond.” I replied bemusedly. Limestone instantly galloped out of the cave with the diamond in her teeth with Marble hot on her tail.

Figuring I’d not be left out, I chased after the pair and skidded to a halt at the farmhouse with everypony dancing about gleefully.

“Huzzah! Thou hast bequeathed unto us the perfect stone! We shall present unto the Princesses this stone as a gift in hopes of further funding for our humble farm!” The father announced, holding the stone up for all to see. “And it shant been possible without you, my boy!” He announced as the mother wrapped her hooves around my neck in appreciation.

“It’s not really worth all the hugging…” I muttered as the mother released me and returned to dancing with her husband.

“No, you don’t understand.” Limestone announced, stepping up to me without a hint of anger. “You’ve just saved our farm with this!” she added, actually wrapping her hooves around my neck as well. “We’d never let our sisters Maud or Pinkamena know, but we were on the verge of losing everything because production was slowing to a crawl.” Limestone explained, pulling back from me with honest appreciation in her eyes.

“With this gift, we shall be back in business again!” The father exclaimed with tears of joy. Real tears of joy.

“Well damn…” I muttered. Sitting back in moderate disbelief, I found myself next to Marble, our bodies lightly brushing against each other for a moment before she too hugged me for a moment then returned to her sister, completely embarrassed for her behaviour. “No worries Marble, I’ve got my own special somepony too. I won’t say a thing.”

“Mm-hmm.” Marble nodded appreciatively.

“I dare say, this calls for a celebration!” the mother exclaimed. “If only Pinkamena were here, she’d throw something spectacular together.”

“Well, she isn’t so we’ll just have to make do.” Limestone remarked. “I’ll get started on the rock cake!”

“Not that I don’t enjoy a good party as much as the next stallion but,” I looked out the window. “If you don’t mind, i’ve had a long day and I’d like to get some rest. You all can feel free to celebrate in my absence.”

“‘Kay!” Marble squeaked up to me as I ascended the stairs for the remainder of the night.