Two Hearths as One

Two Hearths as One

by Candy Apples

Part Two: Rock Soup, Rock Dolls

Applejack shared a guest room with Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom.  Two bunk beds were set up for them.  Applejack would have preferred to share a bed with Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie had told her before coming that her parents wouldn’t approve of it ‘til they were married.

As they were unpacking their saddlebags, Applejack felt that she'd been silly to worry.  The introductions had gone well.  Her family was settling in, and the Pies had been welcoming.  (Okay, so Limestone Pie was cranky, but she knew from Pinkie Pie's stories that that was just the way she was most of the time.)  And Pinkie Pie seemed to be having a great time so far.  Maybe it hadn't been awesome, growing up on a rock farm, but Pinkie's family really did love her.  How could she not have happy memories of past Hearth's Warming's celebrated here?

Plus, there was the feast to look forward to!

Apple Bloom climbed up to one of the top bunks.  “I can’t wait to eat fresh sweet rolls at supper!” She bounced up and down on the bed, testing out its springiness.  “They’re my favorite Hearth’s Warmin’ Eve dish.”

Granny paused in emptying her trunk to say, “I’m more of a seven-layer bean dip filly myself!”

“That’s delicious, too!  Applejack, do you think their sweet rolls’ll be even tastier than ours?”

“When it comes to Granny’s sweet rolls, those are some mighty big britches to fill,” she said, “but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least."  Yes, she definitely was looking forward to the feast.  "Y’know what a good baker Pinkie Pie is," she added.  "I reckon it runs in the family!”

“Are you excited to eat?  Because guess who is?!”

“You?” Applejack asked.

Pinkie Pie was shocked.  “How’d you get it in one guess?”

Entering the dining room, Pinkie grinned at the sight of the rest of her family gathered around the large table, soup tureen in the center.  It was just like she remembered from when she was a filly, except for the additional bowls set out for the Apples.

She sat down next to Maud and lifted the lid to the soup tureen as Applejack settled herself next to her on the austere wooden bench.  The rest of the Apples sat at the bench on the other side of the table.  Pinkie Pie served AJ first, ladling soup into her bowl.

Applejack looked down at her bowl, which contained a gray lump surrounded by a thin, olive-green liquid.  Pinkie Pie grinned broadly at her.  She couldn’t wait for AJ to taste it!  She loved living in Ponyville, but you sure couldn’t find good rock soup there.  Just think, AJ had probably never tried rock soup in her whole life!  She was excited to introduce all of her future in-laws to this dish from her childhood, too.

To Pinkie’s puzzlement, Applejack’s face seemed to fall.  “This… is it?” she asked.  “What about sweet rolls?  And corn puddin’?” she asked.

Pinkie’s grin started to fade.

“And where’s the seven-layer bean dip?” Granny Smith asked.

Pinkie looked around the table.  Apple Bloom and Big Mac were also frowning at their soup.  The Pies were staring at the Apples.

“There’s rock soup,” Maud said.

Pinkie Pie felt a bubbling feeling starting in her chest; maybe it was panic.  “To-may-to, to-mah-to!” she said, much more confidently than she felt.  “Corn pudding, rock soup… Dinner is dinner!  Am I right, or am I right?”  She looked around the table again, hoping that the tension would break.

To her relief, AJ seemed to compose herself.  “Yeah, um, Pinkie’s right,” she said.  Pinkie Pie felt Applejack shift beside her, and she was pretty sure she’d just kicked Apple Bloom under the table.  “Rock soup!  Just what we were hoping for!  Right, everypony?”  She gave a forced, pleading grin across the table to the rest of her family.

Granny Smith and Big Mac grunted noncommittally.  Apple Bloom just looked at AJ with her mouth open, shocked that her older sister, who represented the element of honesty, could be telling such a blatant lie.

Pinkie Pie looked at Applejack gratefully, as the Pies seemed to accept Applejack’s statement and began eating their soup.  Pinkie felt a twinge of disappointment that AJ had seemed to be expecting something else from this dinner—but Pinkie never let twinges get in the way of her appetite.  She slurped her soup noisily.

Setting her empty bowl down on the table, she looked at AJ.  She hadn’t seemed to have touched hers yet.  “You feeling okay, Applejack?” Pinkie asked.

AJ gave an awkward laugh.  “’Course I am,” she said.  “I’m just being a pokey li’l puppy.”  She seemed to brace herself, and then slurped from her bowl.  She nearly gagged, but swallowed, and then gave a weak grin.

Pinkie looked at her sisters.  Marble looked concerned.  Limestone was sneering.  And Maud… well, Maud’s face was as unreadable as ever.

“More soup, please!” Pinkie said brightly.  She was determined that this weekend would be a success.  And if the Apples were just picking at their rock soup, well, she’d just have to eat thirds and fourths herself so her Ma wouldn’t feel offended that it wasn’t getting eaten.

As Ma ladled more soup into Pinkie's bowl, Pinkie thought that both families looked like they needed some encouragement.  “Eat up, because Hearth’s Warming dolls are next!” she said.

“Now that’s somethin’ well within my ken,” AJ said, with visible relief.

“Time for Hearth’s Warming dolls!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Applejack stared incredulously at the rock that Pinkie was holding up.  This was all wrong.  They should be gathered in the living room with a roaring fire in the grate, not standing around outside in the cold.  She looked around the quarry.  Marble Pie and Limestone Pie had already started chipping at their rocks with their picks.  Ma Pie, Pa Pie, and Maud were examining their rocks from different angles, as if to figure out where to start.  Granny, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom had each been presented with their own rocks and picks, and they looked confused.

After the rock soup, this was almost too much, but she looked back at Pinkie Pie, whose soft curls were framing her smiling face, and knew she had to make an effort.  “Are you sayin’… that rock is a Hearth’s Warmin’ doll?”

“Don’t be a silly goose, you silly goose!” Pinkie said.  Well, that’s good, Applejack thought, though she still didn’t understand what they were doing out here.  Pinkie set down the rock, and then, with just one carefully-placed tap with her pick, split the rock apart.  Small fragments tumbled away, and, in the center, there was what looked like a tiny pony statue carved from the piece of rock.

“This is a Hearth’s Warmin’ doll!” Pinkie said.  “Isn’t that right, Marble Pie?”

Marble looked up from her own crude mini-statue, and blushed when she realized that Pinkie and all of the Apples were looking at her.  “Mm-hmm,” she said, without removing the pick from her mouth.

Applejack saw that all of the Pies were now chipping away at their rocks.  Granny Smith bravely lifted her pick and tried to strike her rock.  It simply rolled over.

“Our dolls are… rocks?” Apple Bloom said dubiously.

Big Mac also tried to strike his rock, but he only succeeded in breaking the handle of his pick.

Applejack didn’t want to let Pinkie down, so she lifted her own pick and tried to strike the rock as Pinkie had done.  “I dunno,” she said.  She felt sad that Pinkie Pie had never experienced the joy of holding a soft doll that your great-great-great-great-grandmother had made, feeling all of the love that had been instilled in it over the many years of Hearth's Warming's past it had been a part of.  “I think I prefer traditional crocheted dolls that’ve been passed down for generations.”

Pinkie came over and peered at AJ’s lumpy piece of rock.  “Aww, you’re just Grumpy McGrumperson because you got a funny-shaped rock,” she said.  Applejack looked down at the lump, and wasn’t sure that it looked any funnier than any of the “dolls” the Pies were sculpting.  How sad, to only have these cold, hard stones instead, each and every year.

“Cheer up!” Pinkie told her, putting a foreleg around Applejack.  “I’m sure you’ll do great at Find-the-Flag!”

Applejack did not find this cheering.  In fact, she felt even more disheartened.  “The whosit whatsit now?”

Pinkie Pie stood in front of Holder’s Boulder and made sure everypony’s eyes were on her.  Okay, so dinner had been less than super-mega-spectacular.  And it turned out that even Granny Smith, who Pinkie had been fairly positive was an expert at absolutely every subject, didn’t know the first thing about sculpting rock dolls.  But Pinkie was determined to show her future in-laws a good time at the Pie Family Homestead.  A little friendly competition was just the thing to cheer Applejack up.  Pinkie knew that Granny, Big Mac, and especially Apple Bloom all shared AJ’s competitive spirit.

“Limestone Pie, you’ll be the referee,” Pinkie said.  She headbutted Marble towards Big Mac.  “Big Mac, Marble Pie, you’re Team One!” she told them.  Both ponies looked at each other, and then looked shyly away.  They really had a lot in common with each other, Pinkie thought.

“Apple Bloom and Maud, you’re Team B!” Pinkie continued.  Apple Bloom and Maud already knew each other, so they’d be fine.  This was a chance for them to get to know each other better.  Pinkie was starting to feel fairly confident that this was going to work.

“Ma, Pa,” she said to her parents, “you’re gonna be on a team with Granny Smith.”  She considered the three older ponies.  “You can be Team Gray.”

Then she trotted over to AJ and nuzzled her.  “And of course, me and Applejack are a team.”

AJ didn’t return Pinkie’s nuzzle.  Nor did she seem to be as happy as Pinkie had hoped.  “So now that the teams’re settled, mind lettin’ us in on what we’re doin’?” Applejack asked.

Pinkie trotted up to the top of the boulder to announce the rules.  “As everypony knows—”

“Get off Holder’s Boulder!” Limestone Pie yelled.

Pinkie rolled her eyes, but she hopped down nonetheless.  “It’s tradition to raise a flag on Hearth’s Warming to celebrate the three tribes uniting to form Equestria.”

Pinkie saw nods from both Apples and Pies.  She was thrilled to see the families finally agreeing on something.  She continued, “But who gets to put the flag on Holder’s Boulder?”

“You mean on the flagpole?” Applejack asked.

Pinkie Pie laughed.  AJ could be so ridiculous sometimes!  That was part of why she loved her.  “No, silly goose,” she said. “It goes on the highest point!  So who’s the lucky pony?”

Applejack started to object again.  Pinkie was starting to get frustrated.  She’d been sure that the Find-the-Flag game would cheer AJ up, but so far, Applejack seemed to be objecting to it as strongly as she had to rock soup and rock dolls.  “Traditionally, the youngest pony—” Applejack began, but Pinkie Pie cut her off.

“Ready, get set, GO!” she shouted.  Better get this competition underway so that Applejack could start having fun and stop being such a grumpypants.  Pinkie Pie hated seeing Applejack in a bad mood, and never failed to do everything in her power to try and cheer her up.

“Pinkie Pie, will you please inform us what’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked, failing to hide the note of irritation in her voice.

“I’ll fill you in on the way!” Pinkie said cajolingly.  This was not going according to plan.  Desperately, she pulled AJ along the path down towards the mine, while the other teams also began to disperse.