Rock Breaker Lands.
Rock Farm/Pie Clan Home.

After some deliberation, it was decided that Limestone would keep watch over the unconscious ponies while I ran back to the farm and informed our father of what happened.

"...and that's what happened." Finishing my recounting of the events I had to hold back a smile at my father's baffled face.

While I could sympathize with him, -after all, I was surprised by their sheer stupidity as well- I couldn't help but find it amusing for my normally stoic father to be making such an expression.

Thankfully before I could show any of it on my face his expression shifted into an angry one and he stomped out of the room.

As I followed him he turned his head towards me and spoke. "Octavio, stay, and look after your mother."

At his words, I nodded and watched as once we reached the ground floor he had a short conversation with mother before heading out.

As he closed the front door behind him I headed into the kitchen to see if she needed any help.

All the while thinking about how much the Quartz had messed up.

A week later.

Father hadn't gone easy on the Quartz.

Loss of business, monetary compensation, and overall loss of face and respect, the little they had of it at least. Of course, all of this came after Father and Limestone gave them the beating of their lives.

Ponies wouldn't be at fault for believing that in a society where ponies tend to choose violence to solve almost everything, the clans wouldn't see something like stealing to be a serious crime, and they would be wrong.

Something ninety percent of all Rock Breaker Clansmen take very seriously is tradition, and stealing another clan's resources is one of the worst taboos a rock pony could commit, not only that but it also makes the pony in question seem pathetic, after all, if they had to resort to stealing then it means they were too weak and cowardly to challenge the owners for them.

So, now, the Quartz clan is in a lower than ever before position.

Mother, despite being a Quartz herself, didn't have a shred of sympathy for them and in fact, completely agreed with their punishment. Some good news was that the Quartz situation served as a good lesson for the Saphire Clan so, at the very least we didn't have to deal with them as well.

Now, a clan full of ponies I wish I wasn't related to aside, I had to finish my preparations for my journey to Canterlot. The Pie clan, despite our small numbers and the fact that our "territory" is only our house, our mine, and the surrounding land, had always been somewhere at the upper ranks when it came to our riches, that was thanks to the sheer quality and quantity of gems, ores, and stone that our mine provided us with, which we then sold to the towns and cities closer to the Rock Breaker Lands.

But, once when I was younger I had found myself rather bored and was sitting with Marble in our living room, absentmindedly chipping away at a chunk of emerald with an old chisel I had found on our shed, a small flash of light and my sister's gasp and excited pointing had bought my attention to not only the almost professionally carved emerald sitting on my hoof but also to the image that had suddenly appeared on my flanks.

A piece of coal cracked open in the middle to reveal a shining diamond.

At the start I thought my special talent was carving, but, as I grew older I quickly realized what my real talent was, from carving to cooking to painting, my special talent was Creating Beauty.

When I turned thirteen it had been surprisingly easy to convince my father to let me start my little business, of course with the drawback being having to take his place any time he was required to head to Canterlot, despite our very "disconnected" relationship with Equestria the Pie clan was still considered a noble house, even if we were only barons, and thus were obligated to attend any major events or meetings at the capital.

Father liked to say it would be a good learning experience for me but we both knew he was just tired of dealing with the Canterlot nobles and I was the only one of my siblings that could take his place, he would have an easier time putting a tutu on Limestone than convincing her to go, Maud would unintentionally insult at least half the ponies she met, Marble would get eaten alive, and the less we speak of Pinkamena the best.

But now, some years later, my business was booming and I had grown used to the monotony of Canterlot parties, I had even made a couple of acquaintances I got along with fairly well, I would even go as far as to call them friends.

I had been able to set up a small shop in the middle of Canterlot City, close to the upper ring, it had quickly gained fame but after a month I had gotten myself a trusted pony to man it and returned home, after I only did a single trip to Canterlot each month, not only to restock our wares but also to offer custom work to any clients that paid for it, by my third trip I had gained quite a number of clients which, in turn, earned me even more money.

This time I was heading out a little earlier than normal since my services had been requested by one of my above-mentioned friends, they had been given the duty of preparing Celestia's arch for the Summer Sun Celebration, and they wanted it to be perfect so they had sent me a message asking for my help.

So now I was headed towards Canterlot to not only restock my shop but also to join him so that we could travel together to the site of the festival, Ponyville. The fairly big wagon I tended to use when I needed to transport my goods was filled with a variety of perfectly cut gems and jewelry, the only thing besides that was marble I had personally mined along with some paints I had made and my satchel had only some bits and my custom tools on it.

I made a final check to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything before I placed myself on the harness and despite the heavy load I quickly started trotting towards my destination.

CHAPTER END

Author's Note

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay, I hope to update Child Of Grogar next,

so... good news is, my computer is working, in fact I wrote this chapter on it.

bad news is, im writing this on my computer and I don't have something like grammarly on it so please point out any grammar mistakes so that I may fix them.