Pinkie Pie smiled happily as she trotted down the gravel road that led to her family's rock farm, pulling a sled loaded with stuff behind herself. It had started snowing just as she'd arrived at the train station, and she was more than excited by the presence of the downy blanket of white that had begun to coat the typically grey landscape. She was enthused! Ecstatic! Electric! And lots of other 'e' words that were happy and bright and everything she felt. She always felt exuberant—oh, that was a good one!—but today it was especially special, because she was visiting her two most-favoritest sisters. Not that she had a least favorite sister, she loved all her sisters with equal enthusiasm, but Limestone and Marble were her particular focus on this fine day. She'd been at home in Ponyville, baking up a storm, when Maud had arrived to see her.
"Pinkie, I've received correspondence from our parents. They're coming here for Hearth's Warming, to see my new home," Maud had said, and Pinkie Pie could tell that Maud was so nervouscited about their mom and dad coming to see her that she could barely contain herself. Of course, nopony else noticed this, but it took a special kind of pony to see Maud's moods. Pinkie had been so elated—another perfect word!—that she'd swooped Maud up into a hug. Maud, however, informed her that Limestone and Marble would not be coming with their parents. They were staying on the rock farm, to look after the rocks. Limestone had promised to keep the farm running while their parents were out, and she intended to take that charge seriously... not that she never took anything any way other than seriously. Limestone was so serious.
Pinkie giggled, shaking some snowflakes off of her poofy mane as she crested the ridge overlooking her family's rock farm. Her family home was right there in the snowy valley before her. They'd put up some lights, as per usual, and a festive wreath hung on Holder's Boulder—a gift from Applejack and her family when they'd visited—and Pinkie pronked in place, leaving pretty patterns in the permafrost. Alliteration! She was so happy to see her old home, and she dashed down the hill and into the valley. She arrived quickly at the door, leapt out of the sleigh harness, and knocked on the front door with a cheery series of taps. Within a few moments, the door was flung open, releasing a wash of warm air and the smell of stone soup. Pinkie squealed as Marble Pie, sporting a warm-looking scarf, peered cautiously from around the door frame, and she launched herself into maximum hug mode. She grabbed her slightly younger twin around the shoulders and picked her up in a fierce hug, eliciting a squeak from Marble. "Marbie! How's my little sister? Are you happy to see me?!"
"Mm-hm," Marble hummed, letting out another squeak as Pinkie's hug grew even tighter. "P-pinkie, please," she said softly, her voice cracking a bit.
"Eee! I'm sorry, I'm just so happy to spend Hearths' Warming with you girls!" Pinkie cried, releasing her sister from the extra-squeezy hug. Without missing a beat, she reached into a saddlebag and pulled a little holly sprig from her pack, and tucked it behind Marble's ear. Marble blinked, glancing up at the little decoration she was now sporting, and smiled. Pinkie skipped past her twin sister and into the kitchen, and spotted Limestone Pie giving a big pot of stone soup a stir. "Limey!"
"No hugs!" Limestone said quickly, but was just the slightest bit too slow as her younger sister launched onto her side and gave her a fluffy snuggle and a nuzzle on the cheek. "Ugh. Hello, Pinkie."
"Hiya, Limey. I'm gonna bring my stuff inside the house! I brought all kinds of goodies and things!" Pinkie said brightly, her tail and ears quivering with excitement, and she reached into her saddlebag and plopped a beret sporting fake reindeer antlers with a little string of lights hanging between them atop of Limestone's head. Before Limestone could complain, she dashed back outside and began unloading the sleigh.
"Hmpf." Limestone rolled her eyes, but didn't take the festive little hair piece off, and she went back to finishing the soup.
Marble helped Pinkie unload with the quiet focus that she always did everything with, stacking her parcels and packages neatly beside the door. Pinkie and Marble quickly finished the work, and she giggled and gave her younger twin a nuzzle. "Thank you, Marbie-warbie."
"Of course," Marble said, smiling gently at Pinkie Pie.
"You're so talkative! I think Applejack and her family thought you were a mute when they visited last Hearth's Warming!" Pinkie said, giggling and nudging the grey earth pony.
"O-oh," Marble murmured, her ears drooping a bit.
"Its okay! They had a great time! I know you made a big impression on Big Mac!" Pinkie said with a wink, grinning as her sister blushed.
"He was... nice. It was good to know that I'm not the only quiet one in the extended family," Marble said, smiling.
"Yep! Best cousins ever!" Pinkie Pie crowed, closing the door to keep the warmth inside the house. Marble and Pinkie trotted into the kitchen and sat down at the dining table, and Pinkie scooted her chair nearer to where Limestone was cooking.
Limestone shot Pinkie Pie a look, and smirked. "So, are you up for some stone soup, or have all the secular sweets you make finally ruined your taste for traditional cooking?"
"Sister," Pinkie said, grinning, "I could eat Holder's Boulder right now, I'm so hungry for some rockin' good food!"
"Ugh. Puns. I remember why mom and dad let you leave the farm, now," Limestone said, rolling her eyes, but Pinkie Pie caught the hint of a smirk on her face as she looked towards the bubbling soup pot.
Pinkie giggled and snorted, shaking her head at her aggressive older sister. "So, Limestone, when did mom teach you the secrets of making her stone soup recipe?"
"After last year, when she realized that our traditions should be shared with other ponies, she wanted me to know how to make her special soup. It was," Limestone rolled her eyes, and said with an exasperated sigh, "so my 'future husband' could enjoy the recipe."
"Wuh-oh! Is mom asking for grandfoals, now?" Pinkie Pie said, laughing as Marble and Limestone both blushed. "Oh, gosh! Well, that's mom for you. She was always the forward one!"
"Mm-hm," Marble hummed, giggling as well.
"Yeah, well, it ain't happening any time soon," Limestone said, puffing out her cheeks and blowing a raspberry. She tapped the edge of the pot with a spoon, getting excess soup off of the utensil, and then reached up for a stack of bowls on a shelf. "The soup's done. I made extra rock dumplings, so we can have as many as we like."
"Oh! I missed rock dumplings!" Pinkie Pie smiled, scooting forward and helping Limestone dish up the soup. "I tried to get the cakes to sell them at Sugarcube Corner, but they just never were a big hit with many ponies."
"Not everypony has teeth like us Pies," Limestone said, smirking. Pinkie Pie playfully gnashed her teeth at her older sister, eliciting a smile that was quickly hidden by a scowl. "Cut it out, Pinkie," Limestone said, handing her two full bowls of soup.
Pinkie carried the bowls over to the table and set one in front of Marble. "Thank you," Marble said, giving her sister a gentle smile.
"Oh, Marbie, you're so cute! You should come back to Ponyville with me after Hearth's Warming! I've got a friend that I think you'd get along with really well! Her name is Fluttershy. She likes tea and knitting and critters, and she's very quiet!"
"She sounds nice," Marble said, casting a smile towards Limestone. "Thank you for cooking the meal."
"Oh, yeah! Thanks, Limey! You're the bestest!" Pinkie cheered, giving Limestone a big hug that nearly upended the earth pony's soup bowl she was carrying.
"Uhg, Pinhie, no huhhs!" Limestone mumbled around the bowl in her mouth, and she carefully set it in the table. Pinkie Pie persisted in her pesky hugs until Limestone finally squirmed her way to freedom and sat down at the table. Pinkie giggled and leapt into her seat, and smiled down at the delicious-smelling food. The recipe for stone soup with rock dumplings was one of her childhood favorites, made with lentils and peas and spinach to give it its classic green color. The salty, savory soup was delicious, in her opinion, but the rock dumplings were what made the soup the best. Rock dumplings were just simple black rice flour dough balls that were twice-baked to give them a super-crunchy texture that softened in the soup as it soaked the flavorful broth. Salt and sugar crystals were cooked into the dough, and added to the crunch and gave a tasty surprise as you bit into the grey, rocky-looking lumps of deliciousness. Some ponies probably found it all too salty for their tastes, but the Pie family had a high tolerance for mineral flavors.
"All right! And I brought a special treat for after the soup!" Pinkie declared, gesturing to a confectionery box she'd set on one of the kitchen counters.
"Oh, is it a surprise?" Marble asked, peering at the pink box with interest, her ears twitching forward and her nose trying to smell what could hide within the mysterious package.
"Yupperooni!" Pinkie said, winking and bopping Marble gently on the nose. Marble's eyes crossed briefly and she shrank back, blushing.
"Well, let's eat," Limestone declared, dropping one of the rock dumplings into her soup. The dumpling sank like its namesake, disappearing almost completely into the liquid, only one bit of the dumpling showing. Pinkie and Marble followed suit, plopping the dumplings into the soup and eating with relish.
Pinkie hummed in delight, the salty flavor making her nose burn. "Limestone! This is extra-salty, just how I like it!"
Limestone glanced up briefly and shrugged. "W-well, I figured it wasn't every day that you came home, so I wanted to..." she trailed off and grumbled something under her breath.
"Aww, Limey! I love you too!" Pinkie giggled. She scooped out her rock dumpling and took a bite of it, the hard outer crust crunching crisply and flooding her palette with flavor. "The dumplings are super-duper good, too!" Pinkie said between bites.
"Thanks," Limestone said brusquely, slurping down her own bowl of soup and letting out a satisfied sigh. Her eyes drifted towards the package on the counter, one ear flipping up and betraying her curiosity.
"Dessert time!" Pinkie cried, sliding her mostly finished soup to the side and grabbing the confectionery box and placing it on the table. She glanced between Marble and Limestone as they both leaned forward, shooting them a sly smirk. "I made something extra-special for my sisters sitting at home while everypony else got to go to see Maud, because I didn't want you gals to feel left out!" With a flourish, she pulled the lid off the box, revealing the interior. Inside sat... rocks. Or, rather, they looked like rocks. The sweet scent of chocolate belied their true nature, though, and Pinkie Pie picked up one of the orb-shaped chunks of "rock". "They're chocolate geodes! Just grab one and crack it open! You'll see!"
Limestone and Marble shared a glance, and both picked up one of the chocolate balls. Pinkie grinned and snagged a few clean bowls from the kitchen and set them out, and then nodded to her sisters. Limestone rolled her eyes and tapped the chocolate ball against the rim of her bowl like she was cracking an egg, and much to her surprise it did crack. She yelped as a bit of syrup leaked from inside the chocolate ball, and she quickly tilted it to prevent any more of the sweet-smelling liquid from spilling out. She pulled apart the chocolate at the crack, peeling it into two halves, and her jaw dropped. Inside the chocolate ball was an almost perfect looking crystal formation of amethyst hue, shining with a surprising beauty that touched the mineral-inclined mare in a way that she didn't expect. In between the clusters of crystals filling the inside of the chocolate ball floated a sugary-smelling syrup that flowed with viscous colors and hues. Limestone slowly looked up at her sister, her eyes wide with wonder. "Pinkie, you... made a sugar crystal geode inside a chocolate shell?"
"Yeah! It's super tasty and crunchy, and the liquid in the middle is what's left of the crystal formation process, so it's also sweet and delicious!" Pinkie cracked a chocolate geode in half in demonstration, slurping the syrup out of the middle before taking a bite of the sugar-crystal goodness.
"This is amazing," Marble murmured, looking at her own cracked geode full of pink sugar crystals. She tilted her nose down and took a sniff of the inside, and smiled. "Is this one strawberry flavored?"
"Yep! And the purple ones are grape, and the yellow ones are lemon!" Pinkie explained.
Marble took a bite of her own, getting strawberry syrup on her muzzle. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she let out a little sigh of satisfaction. "Oh... these are really good."
"So sweet!" Limestone said, crunching the geode in her jaw and shivering as the flavor of grape and chocolate filled her mouth. "It's almost too much," she said.
"Well, after the salty soup, I figured we could use a big shift in the flavor department!" Pinkie Pie said, grinning and bouncing in her seat with excitement. "So, you like them?"
"They're... like art," Limestone said, cracking open another chocolate ball and staring at the crystal formations inside with intense scrutiny. "Food mimicking the natural beauty of rock." She looked up at Pinkie Pie and frowned. "You did good, I guess."
Pinkie Pie squealed happily and leapt across the table to hug her sister. "No—ugh." Limestone grimaced as she got a face full of Pinkie Pie's poofy mane, and she rolled her eyes and accepted the fluffy embrace.
Pinkie bounced away after a moment, beaming at her sisters as she made for the living room. "Come on! I brought games, and other fun stuff to do tonight! We're gonna have some fun!"
"Pinkie, I don't like games," Limestone grumbled.
"Oh, but have you ever played 'Rocktionary' or 'The Game Of Rock Life'?" Pinkie Pie asked, revealing two board games from one of her bags.
"...No." Limestone said, her ears perking up with interest.
Marble giggled. "Come on, Limey!"
Limestone glared at Marble. "Oh, gosh. Now you're calling me 'Limey', too." She let out a long-suffering sigh, and followed her sisters into the other room to play some games.
It was much later at night, and Pinkie Pie sat on the couch downstairs, holding a mug of cocoa in her hooves. The fire in the hearth had dwindled as the evening had gone on, and Limestone and Marble were sitting on either side of her. They were content to be silent together. Marble had retrieved a book and was reading quietly, pausing occasionally to sip at her own mug of cocoa, and Limestone was working on a notepad of figures for rock rotations she wanted to implement over the next few days. Pinkie sat in uncharacteristic stillness. She'd been so animated over the last few hours, but in that moment she was happy to simply exist in the moment. She never got to spend a lot of time with Limestone and Marble since she'd moved, and it was one of her few regrets. She glanced over at Marble and marvled at her twin sister's quiet beauty and gentle nature. She just wanted to reach over and smother her in a hug and tell her how happy she was that she'd grown up into such an awesome mare. And Limestone! Pinkie's attention shifted to her other sister as she muttered under her breath and scribbled notes on her pad. Limestone was incredible, too. She was such a hard worker, and so focused. She gave everything of herself to the farm, and she never asked for anything in return that she, too, wouldn't be willing to give up. Hard work had formed her into an unshakable pillar of the family that her aging parents relied upon. She was amazing, too! She had such amazing sisters! She was so lucky, and she missed them a lot, even though she loved Ponyville and her friends and family there. She hated to have to choose, but this time she'd chosen to be with her real family rather than the family of ponies she loved at home.
If she was being honest, she wouldn't change her choice for anything, tonight. Not even all the candy and chocolate in the world.
Pinkie sighed, curling into the couch's back and relaxing, allowing her typical manic energy to bleed away and leave herself in a feeling of warm contentment and familial comfort. Marble glanced up from her book and peered at Pinkie's relaxed posture with interest, and cast her a small smile. She shifted and leaned against her sister, nestling into Pinkie's side and sighing happily. She picked back up her book and resumed reading. Pinkie smiled happily and sighed as well. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Marble," she said softly.
"Happy Hearth's Warming, Pinkie," Marble whispered, smiling happily at her sister.
Limestone noticed the movement and glanced over. She frowned, her eyes resting on Pinkie's expression of bliss and Marble's closeness, and she slowly shifted until her back rested against Pinkie's other side. Pinkie's eyes widened, and she looked over at her older sister, her eyes nearly brimming with tears. Limestone ignored her sister, working on the notepad, but Pinkie caught the corners of her typical scowl curling upward a bit. Pinkie's smile grew a bit wider, her surprised expression softening, and she leaned back, her two sisters resting against her. Marble may have been the pillar of the Pie family, but tonight, Pinkie felt like she was the heart, and it made her extremely, supremely happy. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Limestone," she murmured.
Limestone's ear flicked, and she blushed slightly, but she didn't look at Pinkie Pie. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Pinkamina."
With a content feeling warming her soul, and her two sisters warming her sides, Pinkie Pie closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep.
Author's Note
Hearth's Warming Apples : Follow the link for another sweet Hearth's Warming story.
