Taken for Granite

"I don't understand, why would ma and pa keep all this chemical crap under the house?" Limestone looked around the dusty basement, the door to which was always locked until today. "Pa prided himself on manual labor, I prided myself on manual labor! It's not like him."

Maud looked over her shoulder as she checked through a large surplus of old, rusty barrels. "There are a lot of things you don't know about Pa. Both of you." She continued to dig, eventually rolling out a barrel about her size with a large diamond sticker on the front; CORRISIVE it read. "He bought into the chemical mining craze when we lost business to the Crystal Empire, before Fluttershy talked him out of it."

"Who's Fluttershy?," Marble asked in a meek voice.

"One of Pinkie's friends." The middle sibling lowered her head and began to shove the barrel towards the stairs on her own, Limestone too dazed from the day's events to be of any help. "We should move this upstairs. That way we can keep an eye on them and release any gases once they start dissolving." For such a grim situation, Maud kept stoic as usual. Something about that unnerved both Limestone and Marble, though sparked a glimmer of inspiration in the youngest sibling.

"You really think this'll work, Maud? We just committed murder, I-I think we should go to the police about this," the eldest sister grumbled, pawing at the stone tiles below her. "We tell them it's an accident, that should clear it up. They take care of the bodies, we have a funeral, and we're done."

Maud paused for a moment, never lifting her head from the barrel as she responded. "We can't do that."

"Why not?!"

"We don't technically own the mountain we were harvesting from. It was abandoned when Pinkie pressured Applejack and her family to move here. She lost the deed months ago and the property was reclaimed. We could be arrested for theft and trespassing. I don't know about you two, but I think it's easier to blame a Quarray Eel."

"Quarray Eels don't live this far out Maud, nobody's going to buy--"

"Do you have a better fucking idea, Lime?!"

The house was stunned into silence as Maud raised her voice, breaking her composure for a brief moment before clearing her throat and pushing the barrel. "That's what I thought. Now help me get this up the stairs. Our best option is a ramp. Find something long and flat to cover the stairs." The remaining two sisters went about the all but abandoned basement, gathering large planks of wood and old slabs of stone carved in Old Ponish which rest on the stairs in a hurry. Maud stood by the barrel and watched the two work, slowly blinking as she waited for the make-shift ramp.

As the barrel was rolled up the stairs and into the living room, Marble stayed behind in the basement to hunt around for old family heirlooms and any clues as to what Maud meant about not knowing her own father. She scavenged through crates and old suitcases, gently moving various letters and rock samples aside while keeping some of the more interesting items in the corner closest to the stairs. They were mostly novelty items, a carved jadeite rooster from Saddle Arabia, a sepia-toned photograph of her parents' wedding in front of the Pairing Stone, things like that fascinated Marble and- who knows- they could serve as great decorations for a potential funeral.

Rummaging about in an ancient trunk she paused upon discovering a large scroll wrapped in twine. Most important documents in Rockville were carved into tough stones like obsidian or large slabs of corundum, so finding a scroll this old was quite the discovery for young Marble. Abandoning the rest of her treasures she took the scroll in her teeth and started upstairs, hoping to creep around the horrific display going on in the next room and avoid the argument she walked into.

"I'm not dragging them inside, we don't even know how to move the boulder yet! What if they can't be dragged?!"

"You're overreacting, Limestone. You need to calm down before we do this-"

"Calm? You want me to be calm?! Our parents are dead, Maud! If you weren't my sister I'd clock you in the jaw!"

"If we move the barrel outside, there's a chance that the rocks may dissolve as well. That was its intended purpose after all... Hm-" Maud pause for a moment and rubbed her chin in thought. "-Maybe that's a better idea. It would leave less to clean... We should do this outside."

Over the course of the next several hours, Maud and Limestone worked to retrieve the crushed corpses of their mother and father and reluctantly shove them into the barrel of acid while Marble read over the scroll. Once the elder siblings finished the dirty work they returned to the house and sat behind their unsuspecting sister.

"What'cha got there, Marble?"

Hearing Maud's voice the youngest let out a small squeak of fear, falling backwards off her haunches and kicking up the end of the immense scroll. Limestone took the opportunity to tug it away from her, briefly reading it over before throwing up her brows.

The scroll contained an ornate Pie family tree, including members before and after Holder Cobblestone. Marble and Pinkie were notably absent, though several names were unfamiliar to the eldest sibling. "I haven't heard of half of these ponies... Where'd you find this Marble?"

Marble paused, padding at the ground for a moment before glancing to the basement stairs.

"Uh-huh. Like that'll do us any good now that Ma and Pa are gone. Put that back when you're done reminiscing Marble, we still have work to do."

"Actually, this can be helpful. We still have a funeral to plan, it's only right we invite everypony we can. It's what they would want." Maud mulled over the list before rolling it up with a swift flick and tying the twine around it again. "I'll ask Pinkie if her friends can watch the farm for a few days while we're gone."

"Whoa whoa, back up. We? We aren't going anywhere, I run this farm and we still have orders to fill! With Ma and Pa gone we're short-staffed, we need all hooves on deck if we want to keep this place up and running!"

"You're welcome to stay and work if you like. When the police catch wind of what happened, you'll be the ones taking the fall for it though. Dead bodies in a crater filled with corrosive chemicals is anything but a natural cause, at that rate they won't buy our Quarray Eel story." Maud cocked her head to the side and took the scroll in her teeth, excusing herself without another word.

Marble and Limestone looked to each other for a short while as if communicating via telepathy. The farm remained silent for several minutes as they separately contemplated their options, Marble trying to rationalize her guilt and Limestone pondering the business portion of the ordeal. They would lose orders, but that could be a good thing. They were all horribly overworked, a vacation could be nice! Even if it wasn't exactly the relaxing kind... "Damn it. Maud has a good point. Come on Marble."