Marble Pie curled up in front of the fireplace, hot cocoa within hoof’s reach. The rain pounded on the roof of the farmhouse, creating a relaxing ambience when combined with the crackling of the fire. Her lifelong home every so often gently creaked in the winds.
To Marble, it was a nearly perfect moment of contentedness.
A crash was heard from the kitchen, the sound of somepony frantically jumping up and out of the way. A quick shout of pain, followed by an angry airing of grievance came from the room, yet Marble stayed in her place. She closed her eyes and took a slow sip of the cocoa. An exasperated grumbling emerged from the kitchen, growing louder as until it stood directly next to her. Limestone laid down next to her sister with a thump, placing her head down grumpily without ending her grumbles. Marble reopened her eyes and passed her mug over with a slight smile; It was taken with a mumbled ‘thanks’. Limestone took a long sip before closing her eyes and leaning into her Sister, sighing to herself. Marble understood, taking it as sincere of a thank you she could’ve gotten, and replied with a happy hum.
Now it was a perfect moment of contentedness.
The two sat in vocal silence, simply enjoying each other’s presence and the warmth of the fire. The occasional rumble of thunder made Marble’s body tense but each time she was put at ease; by her sister leaning into her just a little bit more, passing the hot cocoa over or an exaggerated breath out that was mimicked by the more anxious of the two. From years of experience, the two knew how the other one ticked and how to calm them down.
“Hey Marble.”
“Mmmhm?”
Limestone angled her head to look at her sister, who in turn gave her full attention. She looked both unsure and serious.
“You’re okay right?”
“Mmmh-”
“Not right now. Well, right now but not as in specifically in this moment. Like, metaphorically? Wait no that’s not right…”
Marble raised her eyebrow while Limestone looked away to formulate her words. She took a minute, mumbling to herself, before looking back at Marble with a newfound conviction and face of seriousness.
“I mean like… here. On the farm. With me. With the situation. It’s just…” Breathing out, her face relaxed. She glanced away once again for a second before turning back to Marble’s eyes with a look of concern.
“It’s been a while since Ma and Pa passed, a while of just us on the farm. I know Pinkie and Maud were here for a bit, but that was only just after they left and…” Limestone took a deep breath. “I don’t want to trap you here. I love Ma & Pa, always will, but they never seemed to give options to you. Pinkie wanted to go make people laugh, Maud wanted to go study the world of rocks, I wanted to run the farm… What I’m trying to get at is, what do you want to do Marble? Where do you want to be?”
Marble opened her mouth to speak, but Limestone continued talking.
“And just so you know, I’ve done the math. If you wanted to go, I could find room in the budget to hire somepony to help around here.
Marble blinked, then looked around in thought. She had traveled plenty before, at the very least to both Ponyville and Canterlot for events related to her twin sister. However, neither of those places had something that caught her eye. On top of that, they had something that caught her twin’s eye, something she didn’t much care for; large numbers of ponies. While not nearly the anxious mess that needed homeschooling because she was terrified of how strangers thought of her, she still didn’t like strangers. Or crowds. Or extremely tall buildings and large bodies of water, but that was a separate, mostly Manehattan-related matter.
It wasn’t as if she had any reason to leave anyway. Her special talent was rocks. Arranging rocks, more specifically (but still very general). There weren’t too many places other than rock farm that such a talent would be of use, if any.
Aquariums maybe. But that might be made difficult by the fear of large bodies of water thing. And unfortunately, she didn’t get her special talent for arranging rock ballads.
Glancing back at Limestone, who appeared to be picking something from her teeth, she noted another thing. She liked her sister. Granted, she liked her other sisters as well but this one had been there her entire life. Not that she blamed the others, but a twin sister moving away then drifting from her followed by getting much closer to another sister that moved away hurt a little.
Limestone noticed that she was being stared at and went from boredly picking at old food to looking at Marble with concern.
Marble smiled, nuzzling her sister who tried to act too cool for it.
“I’m happy being with you.”
The rain outside picked up.
Author's Note
I tried indenting paragraphs but it didn't work for some reason? rip
The smallest, unrelated things can have the biggest impacts. A dog’s bark taking someone’s attention away, leaving them unaware of a large, dangerous thing careening towards them at a faster-than-survivable speed. A single drop of water in a circuit that shorts it, starting a fire that consumes a whole home.
Or a firefly.
Star Chaser mindlessly flew towards their home in the dark of night. The desert plains that they flew over were home to only a few sparsely placed buildings whose residents had retired at an earlier, more reasonable hour leaving only the glow of a gibbous moon to light their long flight to Cloudsdale from the coast of the South Luna Ocean. Star rarely shifted their focus on these regular flights, opting to concentrate on getting home as quickly as possible to avoid becoming too tired to fly. In contrast, they were a naturally inquisitive pony who found enjoyment from the little things in life, however a day job foal flight instruction followed by a second job of teaching night-time flight basics left the pegasus deflated who only wanted to find the enjoyment of a comfy cloud bed.
But then they saw a firefly.
A small flicker floated passed Star, forcing them to stop and turn to follow it. The insect’s glow led their eyes to the south before disappearing, forcing them to focus on what was behind the bug; in the distance floated a massive storm-cloud that loomed over the landscape. Within the cloud, flashes of light shined as streaks of electricity leapt from cloud to cloud gradienting from a shadow to a heavenly glow. Star was tired, but they floated to the ground to sit and watch the phenomenon in awe.
The lightning-bug left.
