Author's Note

The Pie family was rather difficult but fun to do. I enjoyed it.

I hope you guys like it too!

5. The Pie Family

Cloudy Quartz knew the value of hard work.

She had no qualms with getting up before dawn to cook for her husband and four girls. She never had an issue with being both a mother and a farm mare. Balancing them was a challenge, but for her, it was an exciting one, because harder work in both areas meant a greater reward would be reaped later on. You reap what you sow, as her mother had once said to her. And Cloudy Quartz fully intended to cultivate greatness in both areas. Great daughters, and great harvests. What more could she ask for?

She was a modest woman, certainly. But she was not above wanting to raise a great family and be a good farm mare. Modesty did not mean throwing aspirations and goals to the wayside- it simply meant not bragging about them. She was a modest woman, but she was still proud of her accomplishments, and considered her four daughters her greatest ones. Pinkamena, Limestone, Marble, and Maud were the greatest things she had done with her life, and she never once regretted having them.

Rising before dawn was nothing new for the farm mare. She’d done it ever since she and Igneous had married, and doing it now was a blessing. With four foals on her hooves, being able to wake before dawn and not feel as though she was hit by a rock cart was a beautiful thing indeed. So, today, as with every day, she got up, and began her chores.

Some days she could manage to get breakfast with her husband. Others, she was not so lucky. Today happened to be the second one. She’d finished making bowls of granite for herself and her husband- though it wasn’t hearty in any respect, It was likely what they would have to go on for the day for the sake of time. Just as she and Igneous sat down to eat, the sound of crying reached her ears, and though it wasn’t civil, she let out a sigh.

“Best to go see the children, Mother.” Igneous said.

Cloudy nodded. “Aye.”

So, Cloudy went to the nurseries. They’d made them at the top floor of the homestead. Four cribs, all in a row. They didn’t paint it. They couldn’t afford such luxuries. The cost of diapers alone was enough to barely ensure them breaking even financially. Cloudy had quilted all the blankets herself while she was pregnant. In shades of grays and blacks and purples and whites. They were masterpieces of sewing, intricate crafts and weaves, that she was proud of, not for the craftsmanship, but for the love and effort that went into them.

Limestone was the one wailing- honestly Cloudy shouldn’t have been surprised. The girl could find reason to fuss for the smallest reasons. Too hot, too cold, her blanket swaddling her too tightly- anything. Maud and Marble were so much less low-maintenance. And Pinkamena… Well, she didn’t cry much, but she wasn’t necessarily low-maintenance with how much she tended to bounce around. Maud and Marble didn’t seem to be awake yet, but Pinkie was. She wasn’t fussing, She was just watching- Curious, not quite bouncy as of yet, but awake.

Limestone was, this time, not fussing for a petty reason. Her diaper was certainly well used, and Cloudy immediately went to change her. She was well used to unsavory tasks such as these, and they didn’t phase her in the least. Limestone, ever stubborn, still wasn’t happy afterward. So, Cloudy began to nurse her, and sure enough, she latched on immediately. As Limestone nursed, Cloudy went to Pinkamena, and picked her up too.

Pinkie latched onto her, and a faint smile traced Cloudy’s features. She always was a good eater. Cloudy had never had to worry about her meeting weight milestones in her development. At six months old, she was perfectly healthy, as she should have been. All of her girls were growing up on track, and it was comforting to know that someday there would be four more ponies working their farm.

But not for a long while, unfortunately.

Limestone and Pinkamena finished nursing around the same time, And she expertly and efficiently burped them both. Limestone calmed, apparently having her needs met. Pinkamena, meanwhile, needed a change. So Cloudy set Limestone down, and went to change her other daughter. Pinkie- for it was the nickname Cloudy gave her- squirmed throughout the entire change. It seemed to Cloudy that the girl always had so much energy in the morning. Much more so than at night, so it always made the first change of the day difficult. But, as it were, Pinkie seemed relatively calmer this morning. Thank goodness for that. That change done, she set to work on Marble and Maud. She nursed and changed them, and then called for Igneous to carry two of them downstairs so that she could feed them. It was the only chore she asked of him to help her with in the mornings and, thankfully, one he was happy to agree to. Though he spent most of the time in the fields, Igneous was an excellent father.

The two of them carried their girls downstairs, and settled them in the old wooden highchairs that had been passed down generationally in the family. Igneous touched foreheads with his wife, and nuzzled his daughters affectionately (as he did believe kissing should have been reserved for husbands and wives and certainly confined to private) before he set to work in the fields. Cloudy, in the meantime, set to work feeding their girls with the bowls of gravel she’d set for them. Babies, of course, needed things that were easy to eat. Gravel was as good a way to start as any.

She fed her girls, going down the line of high chairs one by one so they could eat. Each one was shown tenderness in her way. Her enjoyment of the task was rooted in the happiness she felt in being with her daughters. She knew that intermittently throughout her day she would have to go out to the farm to trade places with Igneous for the polishing that needed to be done. It made her feel… worried to be away from her girls. There was a constant sense of fear in going to work in the fields, an incredible pressure of time going by too fast. She worried there would be some incredible moment she’d miss. Sitting up, or walking, or a first word.

But that was ridiculous. Her girls weren’t even old enough to sit up by themselves… Right?