“I don’t know, Pink,” Aria said as she pulled on her vest. “I’m not sure if I’m ready for this or not.”
I bounced over, wrapping her in a hug from behind. “Oh, come on, Ari!” I whispered in her ear. “You’ve already met Maud and she loved you!”
She turned a smile at me. It had been growing steadily bigger in the weeks we had been dating, but it really had only blossomed after everything with that freaky-deaky Harpy guy. All three of the Sirens had been in better moods, and Sonata and I had started a small catering business. She almost bakes as well as I do.
Almost.
“Pinkie, how can you know that?” she said. “Maud is rather, well, deadpan.”
“She was smiling on the inside,” I said, stepping away to pull on a pair of shoes. “I can tell with my sisters.” I had a thought. “Though Limey might be a bit of trial.”
“How so?” Aria asked.
“Limestone is gearing up to take the farm over from Mom and Dad,” I said. “She’s kinda…” I searched for a word. “Intense.”
Aria gave me a fierce grin. “I think I can handle that,” she said, flipping her hair out from under her vest. She had recently cut it to shoulder length, and while it looked nice, I do miss the longer tresses. “I did live with Adagio for a long time.”
I giggled as I laced my other shoe. “Well, then, I guess we’re ready!”
I saw Marble sitting in the corner of the cafe, trying hard to shrink away. I’m sure she and Fluttershy would get along well, but I could never get her to come into town aside from school.
“Hey girls!” I said, bouncing over to the table and reaching out to hug all three of them at once. Maud and Marble accepted it with stoicism and a sheepish smile, respectively.
Limestone, on the other hand, reacted the way she normally did.
“Geez, Pinkie,” she growled. “Get offa me!”
I stood and gestured at Aria. “Girls, this is Aria,” I said. “Aria, you and maud have already met.” I nodded at my younger older sister, dressed in another of her simple dresses. “But this is my baby sister Marble, and my older older sister, Limestone.”
Limestone leaned back and gave Ari the up and down. Her shirt slid down one shoulder and I was mildly amazed she made it out of the house in it. Mom had a thing for policing our clothes at times.
“So what's your angle?” she growled.
“Excuse me?” Aria said as we slid into the booth.
“You heard me,” my sister continued as Marble shrank towards Maud to put some distance from limestone. “What do you want with my sister?”
“Oh, come on, Limey!” I said. “She’s not like that, and I had asked her out.”
“Shut it, Pinkie,” she came back. “I’m just looking out for you, and after hearing what they did at the school, I’ve got right to be suspicious.”
“Oh, please,” Aria said, some of her old grump coming back to the front. “What am I going to do, try and steal your family’s quarry business? That’s ridiculous.”
“HEY!” Limestone barked, standing up and planting her hands on the table. “I take our family business seriously. We have a long tradition of being a family run operation!”
I sighed and put my face in my hands. I was starting to think this may not have been the best venue. I felt a hand on my shoulder as the two belligerent women continued to go at it.
I looked up to see Maud patting me.
“I’m sorry about this,” she said. “But it’s just how Limestone is, you know.”
Marble nodded. She looked a little guilty about something, and a memory sparked deep inside, causing me to gasp.
“Wait a minute here,” I said, causing both my special someone and my eldest sister in mid-sentence. I looked at Limestone. “How did you find out about what Aria and her sisters did?”
“I have a reliable source,” she said, eye’s flicking to the side almost too fast to see. I followed the look straight to Marble, who shrank back a bit.
“Recognized the name?” I asked.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Looked up the event?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Pulled up a picture?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Talked to Maud?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Tell Limestone?”
“Mm-mmn.”
I reached over and ruffled her hair, looking at Limestone to see the slight blush on her face. I narrowed my eyes at her.
“Spying on your sisters, eh?” I said, reaching over and taking Ari’s hand, pulling her back into the seat.
“I gotta make sure you don’t get in trouble, Pinkie!” she finally said. “You don’t take anything seriously. It’s bad enough you don’t even try to go and get a spot at the quarry, but then you go and help one of them get a job and start dating another? If Mom or Pop knew what these girls had done…”
“What?” Aria said, calmly. “That your sister had shown us kindness? Helped us when we were down on our luck?” She leaned forward. “You’re looking after your sister, I understand that. I have two myself, one a lot like Pinks.”
She glanced at me. “They may not put everything in as serious a manner as things may warrant,” she continued. “But they have good, decent hearts. Something I’ve come to understand now.”
She glanced at me before continuing. “I’ve had a long and dark life, and it made me cynical, overly argumentative. But your sister,” she took my hand, holding it. “She gives me reasons to smile. Sometimes it’s not a good reason, but it’s still a reason. She makes me happy, Limestone. I just hope I do the same.”
I pulled her into a hug as Marble smiled and cooed. Maud took a sip of her drink, looking at Limestone.
“Limey,” she said. “I know Pinkie is the not what you think of as the most responsible, but she is managing to hold down a job, meet for band practices, kept a 3.9 GPA, and start her own business. Her responsibility is underneath the topsoil of cheerfulness that she has, like much of our granite.”
Limestone scowled.
“Limey,” I said. “Can’t you be happy that I’m happy, at least? Take the chance to get to know Aria.”
Aria gave one of her newfound smiles. “A chance is all I ask.”
Lunch went along with only a few oppsies, but it wasn’t too different from when us four would meet up anyway. Marble slowly broke out of her shell to speak to Aria directly and Maud had even asked her about her plans.
On the way back to Aria’s apartment, she blew out a loud sigh, running her hand through her recently shortened hair.
“That could have gone better,” she grumped.
I glanced over after I put the Jeep in park. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” she mumbled. “I managed to get into a screaming match with your older sister in the middle of a busy restaurant, for starters.”
“Silly filly,” I giggled as we went up the stairs to her door. “That’s kind of how introducing anyone to Limey goes.”
“Seriously?” Aria asked as she unlocked the door.
“Really really,” I replied, pulling my shoes off and bouncing over to the couch. “But I think everything went ok.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” I said as I pulled her down for a quick kiss. “Besides, Limey was smiling at the end.”
“I didn't see a smile all lunchtime, Pinks,” she said, leaning back.
“Trust me, Ari,” she said. “She was, on the inside.”
