Dirt sprinkled down across her snout as she tunneled with swings of her pickaxe, burrowing deeper into the earth, one precious foot at a time. Maud took a moment to shake out flecks of the dust that had gathered on her and sighed as she grabbed the pickaxe anew.
With a firm swing, dirt pulverising beneath the impact as the pickaxe struck, light glinting in a bright, if brief, spark as she reached something worth pausing for. It was a root studded with mineral flecks. Maud leaned in to study the curious little glittering--
The root suddenly vanished, yanked up with only the rushing sound of it brushing the dirt along the way, allowing more of that dirt to fall down on her.
Maud sank to her haunches, breathing the stuffy mine air of the tunnel she'd been burrowing through. That hole the root had vanished into brought a new scent, fresh and clean. It was nothing like the deep scent of the earth, which made breaking into another pocket of the cave impossible.
Maud stood up and pressed her face into the hole. Turning it in place, dirt falling and rubbing into her along the way as she forced the earth around her to conform with her motions until she could get an eye aligned with that hole and get a look through.
Up above, Mudbriar sat in the tall grass, turning the stick around slowly. "Nice." He had said it only for himself, but he was sure of it, looking it over penetratingly.
His hooves brushed away the dirt and ignored the gems that had become stuck to it. They weren't what he was interested in.
"That's mine."
The voice was soft and distant. Mudbriar wasn't even sure he'd heard it at first, but it repeated itself.
He looked around, but saw no ponies there in that flowered clearing. The butterflies surely didn't call to him.
"The hole."
Mudbriar went to the hole when summoned and peeked inside, finding another eye looking right back at him some distance away. "What are you doing down there?"
"I'm digging." Maud reached a hoof, not that Mudbriar could see it with only her eye visible. "I found those rocks, can I have it back?"
"Technically." Mudbriar sat with a soft nod. "You're not digging."
"I was." Maud vanished from sight with a rush of flowing dirt as she pulled herself back into her tunnel.
Mudbriar went back to examining the stick. "Ooo..." Something about it had his attention entirely.
Maud took a slow breath and attacked the wall, pounding on the dirt and stone. With each strike of her powerful hooves, she liberated huge chunks to fall around her. It was far faster than her pickaxe, in the end, almost swimming forward and upwards.
Mudbriar jumped when Maud broke the surface in a fresh spray. "Oh, it's you."
The statement wasn't accusatory, just a matter of fact.
"Yes." Maud approached, shaking herself free of the dirt she had collected on the way. "I want the stones back."
"I don't have any stones." Mudbriar shrugged. "But I did find a very rare stick."
He held up the stick he had found. "It's partially fossilized, but it was on the surface. That doesn't happen very often at all."
"It's just a stick." Maud examined the stick, but her vision kept wandering towards the gems.
"Just a stick!" Mudbiar exclaimed, springing to his hooves. "I just told you! It's very rare. Look!" He shoved the stick against her, as if mashing it into her fur would make her understand. "The patterns of petri--"
Maud casually shoved him back so hard he landed on his rump a few feet away. Several birds gave startled cries, taking rapid flight away. Mudbriar rubbed at his spinning head. "Ow... That was rude."
"You were being rude." Maud frowned faintly, but it passed. "I just want the rocks. You can keep the stick."
Mudbriar was silent a moment, turning the stick in his hooves. "The pattern." He paused, spotting a subtle tension, a bulging of a vein. Most would have missed it.
Maud pointed at the stick. "What about the pattern?"
Mudbriar smiled. "So glad you asked. The pattern implies it was part of a vein that has a wealth of treasures."
"Go on." There were no emotions betrayed in Maud's voice.
Maud's vision swayed to Mudbriar's bottom and the stick displayed there. "Your specialty is sticks. Why would you know about underground treasures?"
"Because." Mudbriar brought a hoof to his chest. "Sticks that are underground are still sticks."
"Until they're rocks."
Mudbriar stared at Maud, but she was quite good at staring. There was no winning that match. "Still sticks," he mumbled out. "You're good at digging."
"I am."
Mudbriar curled an arm, pointing downwards. "Then you can assist. It is in our shared benefit."
Maud considered with a faint incline of her head. "Okay, but it will be tight."
"Tight?" His complaint died into a squeak as Maud jumped on his back and wrapped her powerful limbs around him.
She swam forward, or more accurately, straight down into the dirt. "Which way?" she asked easily despite the great noise and smell of the bashed stones she was mashing with her great hooves.
It was terrifying. It was unasked for. It was... also kind of great? The feel of her incredibly powerful limbs as they worked to punch through the dirt and propel them forward was intoxicating. She could break him in half, like a twig, but she wouldn't. He felt certain of that. "That way."
She veered, directing them as he pointed, carring them closer to their goal and bursting free into a small chamber in the dirt.
She fell to her hooves. He sprawled out in a less graceful landing.
Mudbriar sat up with a slow blink. "I think... we're close?" He looked around slowly, just to gape. His jaw hung with no strength in it. "I don't say this often... but wow..."
"What do you..." Maud circled to see what he was looking at. "Oh." She smiled faintly, an ecstatic expression. "You weren't lying."
"I detest inaccurate words." Mudbriar scowled at the very idea. "You should mean what you say exactly, or you should be quiet. The, uh, fossils look like they're tangled with more lustrous gemstones."
"My gemstones are tangled in your sticks," retorted Maud, perhaps in jest, but her tone wasn't giving it away.
Mudbriar shook his head slowly. "The fossils are more delicate than your gems. Allow me." He attacked with a brush and a bag, gently dusting free his collection of new tree fossil prizes. "You can have the gems."
"Okay." Maud watched him work quietly for some time, just the noise of the soft brushing to keep them company.
The air grew stale around them. It was a familiar scent, mine air. With the surface so far away, there was little avoiding it. She could also smell the stones around them. Shale, granite, the gems she wanted to grab... So many things to look at, to consider... "Have you ever thought about the rocks that your sticks grow in?"
"Hm?" Mudbriar got one fossil free into his bag. "This batch is free." He directed a hoof at the collection of glitters. "I confess, no. Aside of some trees and plants that have strong preferences for certain turf."
Maud took up position as Mudbriar moved down the line. She mined the gems far more delicately than her wild earth swimming. Gemstones needed that extra care if you wanted them to come out looking good and working properly. "Plants can and often do have strong preferences for different stones. Many farmers are not aware of this."
Mudbriar perked an ear. "Farm plants?"
"Farm plants." Maud worked in the quiet that settled around them. "Many plants of all kinds," she said, breaking the quiet."
She glanced aside at him and moved down to new gems. "Sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" He gave a colorful pony curse as he snapped a fossil in half. "Ugh, now I'm sorry too. I doubt it's for the same reason... What are you sorry about?"
"For pushing you." Maud pulled a brilliant little ruby free, turning it slowly in the dim light. "I shouldn't have done that."
"No, you shouldn't have." Mudbriar brushed diligently at the next. "But I accept your apology. What had you so agitated?"
Maud tucked her gem away, working on the next in the line. "Thank you for reminding me. I still need the gems on the bottom of your stick. They're very rare."
She aborted the thought of the gem in the wall, facing Mudbriar instead. "I found it first."
"You'll find I found it first." Mudbriar sounded quite certain of this fact. "And I can prove it."
He drew the stick free and held it up. "I have it, and you do not. If you were there first, you'd have it."
Maud looked up at the stick and down at Mudbriar. "I saw the gems before you pulled it up."
"Seeing doesn't count."
Maud inclined her head. "What does?"
Mudbriar waved the stick lightly. "Holding it. But... You were a good assistant today." He turned the stick and tried to chop off the roots at the end. It looked very cool in his mind, but it failed entirely.
Maud leaned in and grabbed the roots in her teeth. "Should I pull?" He did try to pull, but his gangly limbs were not doing it.
She didn't need his help for that. She kept her eyes on his as she sank her teeth down, severing the roots easily. The roots and gems felt into her waiting hoof. "Thank you."
"Thank you," he echoed, falling back to all fours. "That was..."
Maud paused. "Strange?"
"I was going to say exciting, amazing, or breathtaking. I just wasn't sure which." Mudbriar inclined an ear at her. "But all three of those words apply to the rest of you equally."
Maud colored faintly, easy to miss. "I appreciate a pony with a deep knowledge."
Mudbriar hummed. "Even if it's of a narrow topic?"
"Especially then." Maud turned for the wall, resuming her gentle mining of the gems. "Too many ponies gush about the lot they know nothing about."
"Ugh, finally!" He threw up his hooves. "Somepony who speaks the truth!" But Maud wasn't reacting powerfully. She was just mining. "Um, did I... offend?"
"No?" Maud glanced aside at him. "I'm not good at... emotions." She worked free a green garnet. "I have them... I don't share them. It's... strange..."
"N-no!" Mudbriar inclined his head. "I mean, technically, it is strange.... But not in any negative fashion. Ma'am, um, what is your name? I'm Mudbriar."
"Maud." She popped the garnet free with a faint smile.
"A pleasure to make your aquaintence... So..." He pointed to the fossils. "Do you know what kind of rocks these plants would grow in?"
"Hm?" Maud tucked her gem away to come have a look. "Hm. Hmmm... Ah, I know this one." So she told him, including the moisture and PH level.
"You really do know your rocks," Mudbriar admitted breathlessly.
Maud hiked a brow. "You knew the answer."
Mudbriar wilted. "Caught... Um, yes. I did..."
"You were testing me."
"I was." Mudbriar tucked the fossil away. "Very astute, on both counts... I wanted to ask a question, would you like to meet, in the future? Tomorrow, perhaps, when we're not engrossed in our preferred hobbies."
Maud flipped out her diploma. "It's not a hobby."
Mudbriar leaned in for a look. "Technically correct," he got out in almost a gasp. "I confess, mine is a hobby, but one I take great pleasure in. Do you wish to have that meeting?"
Maud shook her head. "I decline your meeting." She saw his face fall. "I accept your invitation to a date."
"Oh, good, wait. I didn't ask you on a date."
Maud smiled faintly. "Then I will ask you." So she did just that.
Appreciating ponies saying what they meant, he was powerless to decline her.
Author's Note
Done with a lot of badgering on #writing-help. Oh god, so much. I only got about halfway through with the deluge of writing tips they were raining down on me.
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