//------------------------------//
// 56 - Made of Firmest Stone// Story: Ponyfinder: Roots of Stone// by David Silver//------------------------------//

Maud walked slowly. There had been something she was looking for, but she couldn't put her mind on it, and it ultimately wasn't that important. She walked through the close forest, just to hear a soft voice coming from her pocket. She drew out Boulder, her pet rock, and tilted her head at him.

"Maud," spoke Boulder. "Your sisters miss you."

Maud nodded at Boulder. "I miss them."

"Why are you out doing things for your new friends instead of looking for a way home?"

"I have to."

"No, you don't," insisted Boulder with a firm voice that had a hint of stone on stone.

"Yes I do. I promised." Maud shook her head. "You should understand, Boulder."

"I understand you made promises before these. You're breaking them. When strangers come for Marble, you won't be there to keep her safe."

The branches grew thick a moment and Maud struggled forward step by slow step until she pushed free into what looked somewhat like the side of her farmhouse. Marble was there, shrinking back as several ponies with malicious sneers approached her.

"Hey there, pretty thing," called one. "Don't be scared of us. We just wanna be friends."

"Yeah, we just like playing games." He glanced at his friends and waggled his brow. "Games that get way better when a pretty mare is involved."

Maud surged forward, bringing a hoof into the closest without delay, but she fell through him, collapsing to the ground gracelessly in surprise. They continued on, not even noticing her presence.

Marble quivered in abject terror, her voice barely a whispered stammer. "P-please, go away. I d-don't want to play a-anything."

The stallions spread out, hedging her in against the barnside as they closed in on their prey. "Oh, you'll like it, promise..."

Marble's cry brought everything to darkness.

"You should have been there to save her."

Maud rose to her hooves, trembling. "That already happened?" She pulled Boulder free again and stared at him. "Did that already happen?"

"But here you are, trying to save strangers instead of your family."

Maud shook Boulder roughly. "Did that happen or not?"

"Liar."

Maud threw Boulder to the ground with an alarmed gasp. It was a claim she certainly didn't expect to come from one of her most dependable friends. "You don't mean that."

"Liar."

Maud shrank back, her facade twitching. Her defenses starting to crumble against the insidious assault. "I'm not a liar."

Marble's cry echoed through the darkness, along with the cheering laughter of the stallions.

"I'm not a liar!" She stomped a hoof on the ground. "If you know so much, take me to her."

"How will you help her now?" asked Boulder. "You weren't there when she needed you must. You promised."

Something wasn't right. Maud frowned, showing emotions she wasn't accustomed to in the process. "Where's the rest of my family? They wouldn't let her be hurt." For a moment, relief welled in here. Surely the vision was false. Limestone would surely mount a defense, if not her parents.

"You promised them you would be there too, but you weren't." The trees cleared, showing the family working quietly with pick axes on large rocks, doing their daily work, until a large boulder rolled unexpectedly, crushing Limestone's hind leg with an audible crunch. Her parents tried to help her, but weren't strong enough to heave it off of her, at least not quickly. They rolled it to and fro, each time with a new shout of pain from Limestone.

By the time they got the rock free, Limestone was unconscious with pain, and they hauled her away into the farm house.

Maud felt she could move suddenly and rushed to the rock. She picked it up easily.

"If you were there..."

Maud dropped the large stone to the ground, where it made no noise. 

"Do you believe me now? Without you, your family suffered. You said you'd be there for them, but you're not."

"I'm not a liar," Maud harshly whispered, mostly to herself.

"You lied."

Maud took several slow steps back. "What about Pinkie?"

"What about her?" asked Boulder. "You weren't there for her either."

"She's strong, and cheerful. She shouldn't need me... She doesn't need me." It hurt to say it, to confess it, but Maud advanced on Boulder. "She's powerful, a hero, and independant from me."

Boulder didn't move. Boulder couldn't move. Rocks don't move. But he was very talkative that day. "She needed you, and you were gone. Look and see."

Maud's vision swept up and saw Pinkie speaking with one of her friends, Applesomething, the one she thinks might be related to the Pies. Their words got heated, and they turned away from one another. Pinkie skulked away angrily at first, but that turned quickly to doubt, then overwhelming sadness. Her hair went straight and limp, and she moped around a bit her house, looking for something. She found it, a picture of her home, and she nodded to herself. The vision-Pinkie rushed to board a train, and she went home.

She was still sad, but knowing she'd be home soon seemed enough to get a little smile on her face, and some bounce in her mane. But she was shocked to find the yard empty of ponies. "Maud? Marble? Limey?" She began peeking under rocks as if they were hiding under them. "Where is everypony? Dad? Ma?"

Ma emerged with a severe face, but that was common enough for her that Pinkie saw nothing wrong with it and was quick to greet her. "Ma! Super glad to see you!" She rushed to hug, but was gently rebuffed. "Afraid your sisters are mighty hurt, both of them. Father's run himself ragged trying to care for them."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Wait, I have three sisters."

Ma looked away. "No, you have two. Of this we can be most certain."

The vision ended with Pinkie approaching the house that became swallowed by darkness. "Maud?"

Boulder somehow glared at her from where he lay on the ground. "Your absence was felt by your entire family."

Maud sank to the ground. "I wasn't that important..."

"You saw it. You protected them. You were their strength."

Maud shook her head violently, little tears staring to leak from her despite her desire to keep them at bay. "I'm not that strong..."

"You were strong enough, then you lied."

"I didn't mean to!" Maud reached out towards Boulder, lacking the will to rise and walk closer. "I didn't want to hurt any of them. I want to... Help me..."

"Why should I help a liar?" From her lower viewpoint of being flopped on her side, Boulder seemed larger, looming over her. "You destroyed your family, and you ask me for help? When did my opinion matter?"

Maud closed her eyes, and went still. If not for her breathing, some might think she were dead.

"Is that it, are you giving up?"

Maud said nothing, and did nothing.

"Are you ready to break another promise?" When silence was the answer, Boulder continued, "Are your new friends going to see you for the liar you are? Will that strength abandon them as well? How many families will you dash?"

Maud rolled to her belly slowly, eyes still closed. "I am... not a liar."

"Prove it."

Maud rose to her hooves. "I will help them, then I will go home, and help my family, no matter how much I hurt them... I didn't mean to, and it doesn't matter. I will help them however I can." She stomped the ground. "I will do what I can."

"A Pie never breaks an oath."

Maud approached Boulder and picked him up in a hoof. "A Pie always fixes their mistakes."

"A Pie is as good as their word."

"Their word is as good as their faith." She tucked boulder into a pocket of her frock, then advanced forward to see Fast Shadow sharpening her lance's tip carefully.

With a faint smile, Maud rushed to her side. "Fast, is everything alright? Is everyone else okay?"

Fast looked up from her work to meet Maud's face. "It took you a while in there. Where were you?"

Maud tilted her head. "I saw things."

"Things, right, me too... Hours ago... We were attacked soon after getting out." She forced herself to her hooves. "It looks like it's just you and me."

Maud took a half-step back. "What? Where's Tree Hugger?" She looked around, her facade shattering. "She was annoying, but she looked up... I was her sister. Where is she?"

Fast put the whetstone in her saddlebag. "I just said, it's the two of us. Don't worry, I at least buried them properly." She fixed her eyes with Maud. "It was the least a friend could do."

Maud trembled. Had she failed another family? "W-where?"

"We've spent enough time. I thought I'd be going it alone, but at least you're with me now."

"Where!?" Maud felt the tears returning despite her attempts to hold them back. "Let me see them..."

Fast pointed off. "If you must... It won't help..."

Maud turned where Fast pointed and rushed off into the woods to find three simple markers of stone piles to mark where each friend had fallen. She somehow knew which one belonged to Tree Hugger and collapsed before it. "I thought I could protect you..." Could she protect anyone? What good was she?

"Their word is as good as their faith," called Boulder from her pocket.

Did she have any faith left? She felt like she was running dry.

Fast's sudden yelp of surprise brought Maud out of her stupor. She bounded to her hooves and rushed through the branches, ignoring the stinging barbs and pulls. Fast was in the jaws of some great and terrible beast when Maud got close enough to see it, then it closed. With barely a sound, Fast was gone, devoured.

Maud charged with a deafening sound. It took a moment for her to even realize the noise was her own shouting of fury and disbelief.

The beast didn't stay to fight. It turned tail and bounded off through the trees unhindered, gone from sight almost instantly and leaving Maud to slow down and stop, heaving and alone. "Fast..."

She saw something on the ground. It was Fast's crown. Maud carefully picked it up. "I can still do this one promise."

"Why?"

"A Pie is as good as their word." Maud set the crown on her head and began trotting forward. "I will do what Fast wanted. I am not a liar."

"Their word is as good as their faith," noted Boulder.

"I won't give up." Despite it all, Maud held to some small shred of that faith. 

She would not surrender.