I opened my eyes with a sharp gasp for air to see a mare looking down at me with an expecting look, she was purple with a seafoam blue crystal mane. Starting from her chest a wide crack in her hide spread across her body, a Keeper.
Then I turned and emitted my stomach contents onto the floor
“Oook, nausea, write that down Varon” she said to somepony somewhere. Her voice reminded me of the voice I heard in the vision “Well, Ledge, how do you feel.” she put her hoof out to steady me on the bed as I sat up.
“I... feel….” I wanted to say horrible, dizzy, stricken with pain, despair, depressed but also joyful, loving, and hopeful. What actually came out was a groan as I dropped back onto the bed drained of all energy.
“Nu...Nuro” I asked weakly.
“Yes?”
“P…Please te..tell me that wasn’t the final product.” “I could feel everything like I was everywhere at once.”
“Was it that vivid? I thought we didn't give it enough. “Varon the next batch needs…” she brought up a hoof to her chin and looked like she was doing math in her head. “20% less corallite” she said resolutely
She helped me onto my hoofs and said, “let's get you to sick bay, then you can give your statement.”
*****
This is my life. The ‘test dummy’ of the Qural. Being the only adult without a cutie mark means I'm the one everypony calls to ‘find my cutie mark’ but in reality, they just need a pony that isn’t important to any job to do something here and there.
My name is Legendary Jelly. A strong and commanding name, at least that is what my mother says, her name is Rare Jam.
This last ‘test’ was focused on the newly found Knowledge Stones. Nuro Nelly, the purple pony, was trying to combine a mental stone (aka coralite) with a host of other magical items to create a stone that could show the user a set ‘vision’. The first prototype is going to be a classic history lesson, a story of The Two, ‘The example to us all’ pffft, as if any of the ponies here follow them.
Here in the Qural, nopony likes any pony, friendship is not necessary to survive, so no pony has friends (or in that matter wants any). We stone ponies have what we need, we are a hardy civilization, and I mean that quite literally, as our hide is hard as stone. As we age our skin slowly cracks. We stick to ourselves and our kin until we crumble away.
“Dust to Dust”
Me? I survive off of the small desk work that requires no specialization or the odd mining job. I didn't have the ‘luck’ to be born as one of the other breeds. What I would do to be able to use the magic in stones like the Keepers, or to have the strength and power of the Wardens, or even shine the light and protection of the Torches.
But no. I am just a stone pony. 23 harvests old with no cutie mark. No talent. No promotion. Somepony who is not needed to survive.
“A Nopony”
But it is a life I am accustomed to
*****
I walk into the door to my mother's house halfway up the Spire, “mom! I'm home.” I say to the house
“Oh good! Just in time. Come into the kitchen!”
With a smile and a sigh, I drop my saddle bag by the door and walk into the kitchen to find my mom in the process of making an unusually large batch of red ruby apple jam.
Her skin is the color of peaches with a brown mane. She had a violet jar of jam as a cutie mark
She has always loved to preserve food, and that was her cutie mark, she is one of the ponies that takes the food from the harvest and makes it last. A very important pony for survival.
“Take the jars out of the oven” she said with one pointed hoof and the other mixing the next batch
I did as I was told and set the ruby red jars on top of the stove.
“So,” she said, holding the bowl and spoon. “What did Nuro want?”
‘Sigh’ “she wanted to test out her new ‘knowledge stone’... it's a long story”
*****
Still feeling drained from the experience, I excused myself to go lay down in my room. I passed by my mirror and took a look at my black with gold striped mane. "ughh" I grunted "Messy".
My eyes drifted to my gray body, when the light hits just right there is a shimmer of gold, 'pearlescence, a rare trait down here' I remember my father saying,
I found myself dreaming before long.
I dreamt of the ‘vision’ that Nuro had me in. I saw flashes of anger and hate, the faces, I saw all the faces, the pain, the suffering, the anguish that was displayed. The ponies being cast out.
I screamed but no sound was heard, only the clops of the ponies leaving. The long journey.
I wanted to leave, to stop, but I couldn't. I was forced to watch, to hear, to feel.
The clops got louder and louder, faster and faster. Harder and firmer
BANG BANG BANG
My view changed with each bang, flashes of caves.
BANG BANG BANG
Before me I saw the fallen star, with each bang I got closer and closer. One of the bangs turned the fallen star into The Risen Love. I could see the ponies, lifeless and frozen.
BANG BANG BANG
*****
My eyes shot open; my heart was racing. I heard a voice at the door.
Knock knock knock
“Legendary, you in there?”
The voice was familiar, but I was too engulfed by what just happened to know who the voice was.
“Yes, I'm here!” I called out exasperated, “Who is it?”
“Oh come on Ledge, we’ve known each other far too long for you to not know my voice.”
Only then did I recognize the voice, his voice was a little low pitched that had a raspy undertone that betrayed a caring nature.
“Oh! Max! Come in”
The door opened and Maximus Gray poked his head in.
“Oh, sorry, did I wake you?”. He had a genuine look of concern attached to the question.
“No… well yes but…, ugh, get in here.”
Then in came Maximus, a warden, as the name suggests he is a gray stallion with a purple mane. On his flank there are two bars of iron with a pickaxe behind them. He got his cutie mark when he joined his father in the mines as a tool and ore crafter.
We grew up together. We first met in kindergarten when someponies were hitting me for being a regular old stone pony with a main and hide that glittered with gold. Max stepped in and took a beating for it, but because he was a warden, he had too thick a hide to be hurt. He never hit anypony but they still had to put some of the bullies in casts because they bucked a stone wall too hard.
We’ve been together ever since. The two of us, the max ledge. He works in the quarry with the majority of the other ponies here.
They mine the earth in search of gems, crystals, and ores for the Qural to progress and grow. They usually go out for a certain amount of time, right now he should be still in the mines.
“Hey, shouldn’t you be working right now?” I asked as I started to get out of bed.
“Yes,” he walked to the corner where there was a sitting pillow on the ground and sat,
He put a hoof to his chin while looking concerned “but, there was a cave-in, a quake or something made the whole mine unstable, so they sent the majority home while the safety crew sures up the main tunnels.”
When he looked up and saw my stance of panic he quickly added “no pony got too hurt, we don't think, but there were a few close calls,” he looked back down and looked like he was remembering these ‘close calls’. “Thank the Two that our wardens and torches were prepared”
I hate his job.
Although accidents are few and far between, they make a few less come back.
Max is my only friend, and to see him go out to the most dangerous job in the stone, with even the slightest chance of not coming back makes me feel… I don’t want to even think about it, to even put myself into the shoes of a possibility makes it too real and reminds me a little of reality.
“Are you ok?” he said probably sensing my conflicted feelings
“Am I ok! What about you!?!?” I said with a little more emotion than I intended.
He shrunk back, he knows what I am feeling, we have had this conversation before. I have made sure my concerns are known,
He also knows what happened to make me hate the mines. The very same mines that took Draco Jelly.
My father.
“Ledge, you know why I do what I do, I know the dangers, but someone has to do it.” He stated “and besides” he lifts a hoof up and taps his head which makes a metal-on-metal sound. Being a warden means he has an iron hide. Natural protection given to us by the Two.
Knowing that the conversation is pointless, I sigh reasoning and said, “fine,” then I sat on the other pillow in the room with a smile, “Humph, did you just come here to wake me up or did you want to go grab a bite”
His defenses drop and I maybe see a little embarrassment in his face, “well actually yeah” his face went blank.
“I made a rare find before we were evacuated.” he reaches into his saddle and brings out a small box.
“ooOOOoo'' I gawked. A rare find plus food means a Gypsy salt, a magically infused salt that unbelievably increases the taste of a meal. There are a few types; six to be exact, common (we use for everything because it's everywhere), stone (works best for stone ponies), gem (keepers), steel (wardens), light (torches), and most rare and best tasting, and just so happens to be the one I see behind the lid of the box, the horizon gypsy salt. Another gift from the Two.
“I’m going to get your mom to use this in a large batch of rainbow applesauce so I can preserve this,” he explained “but first I was thinking something like…” his voice changed, and he became a little skittish “You, me, a restaurant, how about it?”
Another conversation we have had before. To make a long story short, colt meets mare, friends for life, colt realized one day that he more than liked mare, mare didn't have the same feelings (That's my excuse anyway, I've never wanted to face what the truth actually was), colt is sad but still continues his attempts.
But to be honest. The best times I have are with him, so I play along. He does too, half joking, half serious. So, I say.
“Hmm it has been a long while since I’ve had good food, why not” I gave a look that said ‘don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing’
He returned my look with a look of boisterous confidence that just screamed, ‘Who said I was trying to hide it’
A common interaction.
I roll my eyes with a smirk, and he chuckles to himself.
“So where were you thinking?” I speak.
“Stonenut Joe’s” I hear in reply.
I start laughing “hahahahaha, heheee” I look up and I see his smirk “heh, your, hehe, joking right?”
He tilts his head down just a tad and looks right at me, with a smile.
I stop laughing and look back at him. “Ohmygosh you're not” I bring my fore hooves up and point them at him “what?” “You're going to use that on a, ONA STONEUT!?”
“Eyup”
I fall on my back with a big harumph.