It was a dark and stormy night. Little did I know that my life was about to change forever...
I was, at the time, sitting in our small family room by the window writing in my poetry journal. I loved the smell of rain on the rocks and still do to this day. The window was cracked a little at the bottom and the raindrops fell on my hooves. My father, mother, grandmother, and siblings were all by the warm fire. Knitting needles clacked together as a rock themed scarf was being made for Limestone. Believe it or not she was the weakest out of all of us, the proverbial Sedimentary in the Igneous field. She was constantly getting sick so my grandpony had to knit many a sweater and pair of mittens for her. Limestone was laying by the fire reading a book while my mother rocked Pinkie and Marble to sleep in the rocking chair, snuggled up in her arms and a woolen blanket.
I was in the middle of writing a poem about the habits of Sedimentary rocks when my father got up out of his chair by the fire and yawned.
"I would think it is time for bed." he said in his gravely voice.
"But dad!" Whined Limestone in her equally gravely voice, "I'm not tired yet. Can I please stay up longer?" then she broke into a fit of coughing. Father went over and picked up the sick filly.
"Not unless you would like to get better little one." he kissed her on the nose and she sighed and rolled her eyes. Igneous turned to look at my mother, "Can you handle putting the other two foals down?" Mother looked at Grandma and she nodded as she handed off Marble to her. They both walked upstairs and my father looked back at me, "You should be getting to bed as well, Maud."
"May I please stay up to finish my poem?" I asked.
Igneous looked at the clock on the wall, it read 7:30, "Yes, but only until eight. Then you must be in bed asleep. You must help us work the upper fields tomorrow."
I nodded, "Yes father."
Igneous trotted up the stairs to put Limestone to bed, her whining fading into the darkness. I was alone with the sound of the pattering rain to keep me company. I got up and lit a candle to provide me some light as I wrote. I sat down again with my quill in hoof and set to writing. It was always peaceful when everyone else was asleep in the house, only me and my thoughts. However, for some reason I would feel a bit lonely at times. It wouldn't happen very often, but all the same I couldn't deny that there was an empty feeling inside me.
I had been writing for a while when suddenly, a bright flash of lightning lit up the room and drowned out the light from my candle. Almost immediately a boom of thunder rolled across me and I heard a cry for help through the driving rain. It wasn't a pony's cry, why would it be when we were the only ponies around for miles? No, it was one of our rocks, and they were in trouble. It was a good thing that everyone in our family had the gift of rock speech. It made us perfect for our trade even if it was difficult most of the time to work with other ponies outside of our family. For some Celestia forsaken reason ponies thought it was weird when we bent down to have a casual conversation with a Metemorphic or complement a river rock on its shine.
At the sound I jumped up from my seat by the window and rushed to grab my cloak. No one else heard the noise I was sure of it. They were all certainly sleeping like rocks up there, I knew I had to do something. I threw on my greyish purple cloak and ran outside. The rain was blowing now and droplets fell into my eyes. I held up a hoof to block the rain and pressed on. A cry pierced through the rain and I located the source of the plea. I ran over to find that the noise was coming from a very small pebble. He was grey in colour with a few specks of darker grey. He seemed to be a Sedimentary rock and he was crying, as much as rocks can cry anyway. I crouched down next to him and stroked his head.
"What is that matter?" I inquired and he looked at me.
"Th-The bright flash, i-it took away mama!" he wailed. I looked around. There were no bigger rocks in sight but then I looked ahead. We were right by the mining chasm, and it looked as if a large boulder had fallen down and shattered into millions of pieces.
"Oh no..." I mumbled and I picked up the little rock and cradled it in my arms, "Shh, shhhhhh," I cooed, "It will be alright. Let me bring you back to the house." he shuddered and sniffled but I took that as a yes and stood up. I ran back to the front door and shut it firmly behind me. I shook out the water from my mane and hung up my cloak and looked down at the helpless little rock in my hoof. He was soaking wet so I took an embroidered rock towel from the kitchen to dry him off.
He sniffled and looked up at me, "Who are y-you?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"Maud." I replied walking back over to my poetry book. I placed the little rock on the cushion my flank was formerly occupying and closed the window the rest of the way. My poetry book was a little damp but it had gone through worse before. I closed up the inkwell and placed it and the quill back on my mother's writing desk, "What is your name?" I asked bringing myself down to his level on the cushion.
"Boulder, because mama said I will be a big rock someday, so I will need a big name to fit!" he said pridefully. Looking at him, I knew that this was just false. There was almost no way for Boulder to get any bigger then he was now, but I wasn't about to tell him that.
"Where is my mama now?" he asked shakily. I sighed, not knowing what to say at first.
"She left." I said at last, "She will be gone for a long time, so she has left you to me. I will take care of you now."
Suddenly, the clock struck eight. The chiming was eerie in the quiet of the house, it echoed around the still house announcing the time. I stood up and gently grabbed Boulder in my hoof, "It is time for bed, you can sleep with me for tonight." I put boulder in the pocket of my blue grey blouse, grabbed the candle with my hoof, and picked up my poetry journal in my mouth and headed upstairs to my bedroom.
I slowly opened the door and it creaked on it's hinges. The candle illuminated the rows of bookshelves holding my poetry journals. I have been writing rock poems since I was a little filly so by that time I had already filled dozens of books. I trotted over and placed both the candle and my current journal on the bedside table. Gently, I pulled Boulder out of my pocket and placed him on my journal.
"I am going to brush my teeth." I told him and trotted down the hallway to the bathroom. I turned on a lamp and leaned over the sink to grab the tooth paste. I sighed thinking about this newfound responsibility I had gotten myself into. Taking care of a baby rock would be hard, but what else was I supposed to do? He had lost his mother and really just needed a friend to watch over him. It was at that moment, brushing my teeth in the bathroom, that I promised myself to always be by Boulder's side. He was my responsibility and he really needed me.
I trotted back down the hall to my room to find Boulder right where I left him, as is the nature of rocks, they are very patient creatures. The storm was still raging on outside and rain splattered against the window. There was a flash of lightning off in the distance and a few moments later thunder rolled across the sky to meet our ears. Boulder shivered and sniffed, obviously still scared because of what happened to his mother. Poor thing, he was in such shock. I picked him up and climbed under the pebble quilt my mother Cloudy Quartz made me a while back. With a quick puff of air the candle's flame went out and I squirmed in under the covers with Boulder by my side.
I hugged him close and slowly but surely his cold smooth surface warmed. Through the silence Boulder's slow breathing reached my ears and I knew he was asleep. I kissed his little head and closed my eyes.
"Goodnight Boulder."
The next morning I woke up to the sound of the breakfast bell ringing. I looked over at the clock on the wall and it read 5:30 am. This was the normal time we would wake up on work days. It gave us thirty minutes to eat breakfast and get dressed for work. I yawned and stretched, my back cracking. I heard Boulder yawn behind me and I looked to see him on my pillow. How he got there I will never know but I stroked him on his little rock head and I could have sworn he was smiling despite not having a mouth.
One of the interesting things about rocks is the way most ponies just seem to over look them. Nopony ever wonders how a pebble in a river might have gotten where it is currently and nopony seems to care. Lucky for me I can ask them, the problem is that maybe they might not want to tell or they might not be sentient rocks. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between them.
My hooves slid into my grey slippers as I slipped out of bed.
"Good morning Boulder." The small rock smiled and I picked him up in my slippered hoof.
"Good morning!" He greeted me and I slipped him into my dress pocket.
"We are going down for breakfast." I told him, "You will get your sun and dirt today though, don't worry."
One of the first things you learn as a rock farmer is how rocks feed. Rocks big and small need sunlight to keep them in good health, they also need to be exposed to soil, even if just for a little while. If the rock does not have access to these key elements they will feel miserable and will not have the chance to grow properly.
We went downstairs to find my father making eggs and my mother feeding Pinkie and Marble foal food. Limestone must have still been sick because she was nowhere in sight.
Looks like it is up to father and I to work the fields today again, I thought. I trotted over to the table, hooves making little muffled clops through my slippers. I kissed my mother on the cheek in greeting and she smiled tiredly over at me. My father looked around and nodded as I brought over my plate for some eggs. They were a bit burnt but when you have to work all day you learn not to complain. I sat across from Pinkie, took out Boulder from my pocket, and placed him on the table by my egg filled plate. Pinkie made some baby noises and pointed at Boulder. She smiled wide and Boulder laughed.
"Hasn't she ever seen a rock before?" he asked amused.
"No," I answered, "She is too young to really leave the house, and she has definitely not worked the fields yet."
Cloudy Quartz looked up from feeding Limestone, "Where did you get that rock dear?" she asked confused, "Rocks stay out in the fields to grow, you can't keep them as pets."
I cleared my throat and put down my fork, thinking of what to say.
"There was an accident in the big storm last night." I settled on saying, "I have to keep this one with me. He is my responsibility."
Mother sighed and looked over at Igneous Rock. He snorted and poured some eggs onto two plates, one for him one for mum. He trotted over and looked sternly at Boulder.
"He has to take care of himself." he said finally, "We can't have work slowed by another thing to look after. Winter is already fast approaching and so the working hours will be cut. It's to risky."
"Father-" I started but he held up his hoof to stop me. I looked over at Cloudy Quartz who then looked at Igneous.
"Igneous, let her speak." she said calmly and father sighed in defeat.
I cleared my throat, "I would like to ask you for a chance, please, just a little while taking care of him so you can see that I can still work while taking care of him."
The table was silent.
After a few minutes where the only sound was the clanking of silverware, Igneous looked up.
"One week," he said with an air of finality, "We will try this out for a week and then make a final decision, does that sound fair, Cloudy?"
Mother nodded and my spirits lifted, this could work! I had to make this work, I had to keep my promise to myself and Boulder.
Right after breakfast, my father and I went and changed into our work clothes. All of my clothes are basically the same, even now, but I like it that way. I enjoy simplicity.
I slipped Boulder into my dress pocket and trotted down the stairs, the old wood creaking on the fourth step as always. As I stepped out the front door I saw my father stroking a particularly smooth marble rock that he likes by Holder's Boulder. He heard me approaching and turned to face me.
"Today we have to look for non-sentients in the North field." he said in his gravely voice, "Then we need to roll all of the Igneous over to the West field."
I nodded and we trotted off in silence to our work.
Most ponies don't understand what the difference is between sentient and non-sentient rocks. Of course, now that I think about it, most ponies can't hear rocks talk either so they wouldn't know the difference. Non-sentient rocks are rocks with no life in them. They are what most ponies believe all rocks to be, still and character-less. They tend to eat up the sun and dirt energy that sentient rocks need to grow big and strong. Sentient rocks however have at least a bit of magic inside of them. They can bring about good feelings through the use of auras and just generally light up an area better then non-sentients. Because of this, we go around weekly to all of the fields to check for them and get rid of them so the other rocks can have the nutrients they need. It's kind of like weeding, if that is any clearer.
Once we reached the North field my father and I parted ways to cover the whole acre of land. Rocks spread out as far as the eye could see. The grey expanse may not have been the most beautiful sight to most ponies, but I thought it was perfect. I trotted over to a dense area and took Boulder out of my pocket.
"This looks like a good place to start." I said placing him next to me on the ground. In this area there were obvious weed rocks. To the untrained eye they look practically the same as any other rock, but since I lived on a rock farm my whole life, it was pretty easy to tell. I stomped on one with my back hooves and it smashed into small pieces.
"You're really good at that Maud!!" said Boulder happily from the ground behind me.
"Thank you, Boulder." I replied, "I guess it comes from being a rock farmer, and the daughter of the 1st prize winning rock smasher in Equestria. My mother might look meek but her hooves can do some real damage."
I turned to a larger rock and ground it to gravel with several hard punches with my front hooves.
"Maud?" came a call from Boulder.
"What?" I replied, smashing a few more rocks.
"Are you always bored?" he asked quite sincerely.
"Huh?" I said confused, "What do you mean?" I crushed another rock.
"Well," he replied, "You never really seem excited about anything. Your voice is so flat, doesn't that mean you're bored, or does that mean that you're sad?"
I had never thought about that before. I had never really left my rock farm before this point and really the only expressive face I had seen came from Pinkie, but even mother didn't pretend that she was different. I just assumed that it was normal to talk like I did.
"No," I answered, "I'm not bored or sad. I guess I'm just not very expressive."
I heard the distinctive yell of a rock and I looked down to see that, in my distraction, I had almost crushed a sentient Metamorphic.
"Hey!" he yelled in a Manehattenite accent, "Watch it, you could'a crushed me!!"
I reeled back in surprise, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean too. I promise it wont happen again."
The rock huffed and I moved on.
At about noon my father and I met in the middle of the field finished weeding out the bad rocks. We were both sweating under the hot sun and our stomachs were calling for food. Father pulled two paper bags out from behind a rock that contained our lunches. I tore into my daisy sandwich and carrot sticks as if hadn't had a decent meal in years. I set Boulder out next to me so he could eat up some of the midday sun. I thought I saw Igneous glare in Boulder's direction but when I looked up he was back to eating his sandwich and Boulder wasn't paying attention so I didn't ask or anything.
The rest of the day was spend rolling Igneous rocks one by one to the next field. This meant that Boulder couldn't hang out in the dirt but I was able to balance him on my back so he could at least get some sun. By the end of the day when the sun was just going down I stopped and looked out at the sunset. My legs ached, but that was normal after having to do a whole day's work usually meant for four ponies with only two. I sighed and looked back at Boulder. He was looking intently at the sun smiling his little rock smile.
"Goodnight sun!!" he called and I found myself smiling a little, "Thank you Celestia for another great day." he laughed and I stroked him on his smooth head.
"Hey, you are smiling!!" he exclaimed with glee, "You must really be having a good time."
I nodded a little and stared at the horizon as the moon started to creep up into the sky.
"Yeah," I said, "I guess I am."
Author's Note
Thank you for reading the second chapter of "A Rocky Road to Travel"!!
Feel free to critique and point out any grammar mistakes I may have made.
