A Jeweler in the Rough, A Legends of Equestria Story (Working Title)

Platinum Band lay in bed, her mane of sunrise yellow and gold fanned underneath her save for the lone pink stripe which cascaded down her face to her chest floof, the color stark against the light periwinkle blue of her coat as her wings lay splayed out. She clutched her valedictorian diploma as dreams of her future danced behind her closed eyes. Band smiles wide, full of pride at what the combination of her hard work and natural talent had achieved with a hoof straying to her cutie mark, a diamond ring with a twinkling shine. However her joyous respite was cut short as she noticed that the sounds of celebration from downstairs had gone silent, an eerie air of foreboding creeping from where not ten minutes earlier her adoptive family had been making merry.

Nervous, Band opens her soft gold eyes and sighs, after braiding her hair in the only piece of her previous life she had been able to keep, a long band of rose petals that were magically preserved, and a quick glance at her packed bags she headed down.

Stopping at the bottom she saw her father, Shining Gem. His rather everystallion coat of toffee cream and well kept soft brown mane and tail gave a comfort to the room even as a somber look played upon his face. Casting a glance over her shoulder through the front window she sees the white and sliver blur of her younger brother playing with blue and gold of her younger sister through the frosted window, meaning whatever he needed to talk to her about was serious. Hanging her head she trudged into the study, wondering what trouble she was in or what lecture she was about to get.

Entering she saw Dazzling Song, her adoptive mother, a Crystal Pegasus mare with an aquamarine gray coat, with a two-tone mane/tail of dark and gray indigo, sitting on the couch with an envelope beside her, a look of apprehension in her blue opal eyes as Band’s caution turns to worry. She patted the couch for Band to sit, a command she almost numbly obeys.

“First of all, Band, you are not in trouble. We promise you that. Second, since you have completed your courses and are now twenty years of age we think it’s time we had a very important and serious talk.”, Dazzling says her voice quivering, “You have known for ages you were adopted, but you don’t remember or know the full story of how you came to us. When you were five and a half we took you in after you were treated for a horrible disease called the Wasting Sickness, it was eating your body from the inside out. Your family never came to see you even once; until you were saved by Dr Gentle Wing you had not one visitor. The only thing you had with you was a band of rose petals you stitched together. After you were healthy enough to be moved, we started taking care of you. Now for the big news…you know you are a child of the Noble Family House Platinum and we know you might want to go and find them, but we beg you caution. Not only did they leave you to die, but Platinum Chalice is suspected of being part of the Sharpened Horn. We know you are planning on leaving tomorrow, just please Band, be careful.”

Band plays with the rose band a little a faint memory of a pony who visited her at the window every day since the doctor said she was infectious dances through her mind, “You are right Mom, I am going. Somepony in that city loved me enough to place a rose petal on the window seal every day. I want to find them; I want to know that part of my life. I feel like if I never have this question answered I will never have any kind of peace with my past. I vaguely remember my family, mom, dad, Pen, and Spear, I remember soon after I blossomed an early cutie mark I fell ill…….. Not that I don’t think of you as my mother.” Band quickly adds afraid she hurt Dazzling.

“Don’t worry I know what you meant, you have so many questions, and a burning desire to have them answered. I can help, if you promise me, with all your heart you will be careful,” she says, as motherly worry creeps into her voice.

“I will mother I promise.” Band nods.

“This has the address of your family, well your birth family,” she says awkwardly, giving the envelope to Band.

“Mom, no matter what happens I will always be one of your daughters, this journey just means I find out if I have one family or two.” Band says hugging her mother as the tears flowed freely.

“I love you so much my little diamond.” Dazzling wept in return.

Shining let them have a moment before clearing his throat, choking back his own tears. “Now like we said be careful, take a day or two to settle into the city before looking for them, and by the Sisters try your mother last.”

“Ok Dad, I promise.” she nods, hugging him as well. “Now I am not leaving until tomorrow, so we can have another family dinner before I go, I want that moment to remember each of you so vividly.”

He smiles, “I think we would all like that, now go upstairs and finish getting ready for dinner and your trip we will call you in a little bit.”

“Alright Dad, be down soon.” She says, attending to her matters.

As the smell of baked squash floats up Band finishes all she needs to do, looking around her room she debates on how long it will be before she sees these familiar walls or even her Crystal Kingdom family again. As she took a deep, calming breath she headed downstairs where a grumpy Bright waited.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” he asks, a mixed tone of anger and sorrow flowing off each word.

“Yes I am, but I promise I’ll be back.” Band assures him.

“What did I do wrong? I even got into the same school as you.” Bright asks, trying to sound calm, though the quiver in his voice betrayed his emotions.

“You did nothing, and I am proud of you. Bright, you are my brother, I held you as a foal, I watched you grow, no matter how many miles separate us you will be family,” she says giving the upset colt a comforting hug.

“I’m going to miss you sooooo much.” he sniffles.

“Same, you silly little pony,” Band smiles at her younger sibling, remembering all the times he would follow her around, learning whatever he could.

“You will be back before I graduate won’t you?” Bright asks

“Of course, after all, I expect you to shine as your name suggests.” She hums, kissing his forehead.

A moment later everypony is sitting around the table, laughing, smiling, and enjoying this family moment, each one at the table treasuring this time before stepping into the unknown. After the dinner, they all retire to the study to go over family photos until late into the night. As the moon creeps ever higher Rain carries a sleepy Bright off to bed, leaving Band alone with those that raised her, a stack of memories between the two.

The silence fills the room with an oppressive weight before Band gets up and starts walking off until Shining stops her.

“Come back to us, ok? Cantermore plays by its own rules far different than the Crystal Kingdom.” he remarks.

“I will, I promise.” Band says, not even looking at him, avoiding showing the stallion that taught her to be strong to see her tears.

As morning rises Band showers, grabs all she is taking with her, and leaves before breakfast, not wanting a tear-filled farewell. Flying south towards the former capital of Cantermore, she thinks back on the memories she did have, two brothers Platinum Pen and Spear, her mother Chalice, and her father Shimmering Staff. Fleeting wisps of a past that barely have any form. Steeling herself the skyline of Equestria’s largest city begins to dominate the horizon as she takes note of how the air traffic flows. Before long she is in the city proper and lands, preferring walking so she can gather a mental map of the immense city’s most notable areas.

After a day of walking and hitting a few diners that smelled good from the street, she decided to check into the hotel she reserved for this trip, though she didn’t expect to be gift-wrapped the address of the Platinum home. Flopping onto the bed her mind raced, at the busyness of Cantermore, knowing her blood family is here, the sheer energy it takes to walk around and navigate through this place, and more. Forgoing a shower she drifted off right there, with hopes, fears, nightmares, and dreams dancing in her head.

For three days she put off doing anything with her blood family, spending the time getting used to this radically different city, but before long she knew the plunge had to be made. Asking around she discovered that Pen had a shop in town, and seeing as he was the one she remembered most that would be her first stop.

So off to the Merchant District, she went until she stood before a simple but well-kept two-story business painted in a deep blue with a white door, the name Platinum Pen’s Pages out front. For a moment her nerves got to her, heart racing and breathing shallow until she swallowed hard, calmed herself, and went in.

Immediately the smell of books, old books hit her as a memory did, Pen sitting with her reading original copies of fairy tales to her as she drifted off to sleep, steeling herself she walked up to the counter and rang the small bell there.

“One moment!” A voice, one from her past, drifts from the back. A few moments later what looked to be a pony of over sixty years of age walked around the corner, though with the step of one much younger. His faded blue coat and grey hair detracted not from his life-filled emerald green eyes. As he looks upon his customer he stumbles, eyes blinking in disbelief until he clears his throat and straightens himself. “I’m terribly sorry for that, you look…..never mind, may I help you, ma’am?”

“Pen…..do you really not remember me?” Band asks, her voice quivering.

“Ma’am, you do look familiar but in a way that I could not know you now.” He says, his voice cold and even, hiding some dark fire brewing within.

“Pen, Platinum Quivering Pen, look at me and tell me you don’t know me.” The mare demands.

“Ma’am, you do look like a pony of my past, a pony that is currently resting in the Cantermore Noble Graveyard, so you cannot be her,” Pen says an echo of pain in his voice.

“What if that pony lived and the funeral was false?” Band asks.

“Look ma’am, you look like my sister, but she is dead, long dead. So please, leave I need to close the store and think,” he says, walking past the Pegasus, and opening the door to show her out.

“Pen please,” she pleads.

“LEAVE!” he roars.

“You are the one who left the rose petals aren’t you PP?” Band asks as the air instantly shifts. Where the unicorn was on the verge of rage now a deep and troubled stillness reigns.

For the longest moment, Pen stood there, Band’s words ringing true deep within him, but his heart and mind warred, one wanted it to be true because that meant she was alive, one wanted it to be false because if she was alive that meant he failed her. As he turned around and took in the sight before him she did look like an adult Band, down to that one streak in her hair. Then he notices it, the band of rose petals, not just any rose, Royal Reds, the same ones he set on her windowsill when he was told no visitors would be allowed. He placed a single petal every day so she knew there was somepony out there that cared, that visited, that waited for her.

Walking as if through a fog Pen approached the mare and held out a hoof, which Band grabbed with her own. She felt real, she was real, she was here, and she was alive!

“BAND!” he yells, tears of countless thoughts and emotions running down his face as he hugs his sister, the endless questions knocked away only caring about the fact he was hugging one he thought was long dead.

“Pen. Pen! PEN! YOU’RE SQUSHING ME!” Band exclaims as he lets go, embarrassed he got that carried away.

“Sorry, it’s just……I have so many questions…..I’ve missed you…..your death it ………” he fumbles, his normally ordered and analytical mind tossed into disarray by her appearance.

Band, with happy tears streaming down her face and hope swelling in her heart walks up to Pen, “It’s fine I know, I think I’d be shocked too, Tartarus I am kind of shocked myself as I heard rumors the family was part of the Sharpened Horn.”

And with that, clouds rolled in on Pen’s bright smile and shining eyes, as if a curtain had been drawn on his merriment. Looking away he simply says, “They are, that and your death are why I left.”

“Oh.” Was all Band could say, digesting the fact that her blood family was part of that oppressive unicorn supremacy group.

A few seconds ticked by as the pregnant silence matured.

“Anyway, so um, care to tell me what happened, say over lunch?” Pen asks breaking the gloom as best he can; trying not to fall to pieces as he feels Band would follow if he did.

“Sure,” Band smiles.

“I know a place, follow me.” he says leading her out of the store, locking up, and putting the ‘Out to Lunch’ sign up.

Pen takes Band to a small diner on the corner of two busy streets, the tables intimate enough to hold a conversation while the background noise drowns out anything past a few feet of the table. They sit and talk for hours. How Band came to be with her adopted parents, Pen leaving the House as soon as he could and opening his business. Tears were shed; smiles were worn, and by the end of it all there were two physically, mentally, and emotionally spent ponies who were happy to find each other again.

“So Band, have a place to stay?” Pen asks.

“Yeah I have a hotel room, unless you have a better idea,” she replies.

“I mean I do have a guest room you can use, just need to move some books and it will be right as rain as they say.” he smiles. “Try and come in the morning.”

“Sure Pen, I promise.” Band nods, heading off the rest.

As she returned to her room a cascade of thoughts and feelings rolled around in her. So far the one she found was a true piece of family yet it seems at the moment the rest were beyond her grasp. Taking a deep breath she set herself to take things one day at a time.