MLP: The Stone in our Hearts

by legendary_Jelly

Coal Mining's a Good Job Mate!

“Sapphirrrrreeeee!!!” calls out through the bunk house.

The sound reverberated across the black stone walls. Empty bunk beds populate the walls all the way down the long, corridor like, quarters, all of them perfectly put together, fit for a bit to bounce on the sheets of thin and scraggly blankets. Although ponies might have slept on them not hours before, you would have never had know, based on what was left. The metal frames supporting the bed were smooth and clean, properly put together.

All of the beds were proper. Except for one, the very last one at the end of the room, where a blue skined keeper lay messily on her back, hooves up in the air, snoring deeply. Her blanket hung on the side of the bed, no where close to providing warmth.

The red warden stallion who had shouted across the expanse, had made it to the bunk where she lay, his face contorted into an incomprehensible rage at the pure insubordination of this trouble making, no good, lazy, small, mare that has never shown any respect to authority.

He took a huge breath through his nose and said ‘calmly’:

SAPPHIRE!!

Sapphire, who was enjoying a nice dream about stonuts, was rudely ripped from her slumber and bound up in surprise. Only to hit the bed above her leaving a small dent in the metal frame... Right next to countless other dents.

That bump woke her up. She now looks around to make heads or tails of her surroundings.

The red stallion allowed her to realize the mistake she had made before grilling her. After a few moments a look of destitute painted itself on her face. Her eyes focused on the rows of empty beds.

Nopony woke me up. _again.

Sapphire has always tried to be nice to all of her coworkers. Gave them gifts, did special things for them, and helped them. But they never seem to appreciate her. All of them know, everypony wakes up together, works together, and sleeps together. It’s the ‘code’ for coal miners. Yet here she was.

Whether or not she was forgotten or ignored, the feelings of loneliness hurt.

The red stallion, who had done this same routine multiple times in recent history, stared red hot lances into the green hopeless eyes of Sapphire, who was now, after looking around, looking into the eyes of her superior.

“How many times." He was practically palpitating in his boots " How many times am I going to have to tell you, no, to POUND into your dense, thick, skull.

He grabs the mare off her bed and throws her to the center aisle.

“YOU”

He kicks the mare down the corridor as she tries to get up

“ARE INDENTURED”

Another kick sent into the stumbling mare.

”TO US”

One final push brought the mare to the ground with thick clatter.

“now go out there and don’t come back until you bring back 16 tons of the number nine coal!!!

Sapphire scrabbles up to her hooves to trot to the door.

”NOW”

With that, the mare ran down the rows of beds and burst through the door to the outside, where once she was out of sight from the red stallion, she immediately slows down to shake herself off.

“What got into his pants?” Sapphire said with a light bubbly voice. She sighed as she trotted off to the equipment shed.

She usually wakes up in time for roll call, with the others, why didn’t she wake up this time? And the better question, why did the others not wake her?

She knew why. Nobody liked her.

With her head down, she walks to her now long day ahead of her.

Over her shoulder she hears a few snickers followed by a jab “Oh look who decided to wake up, its sleeping beauty.”

Sapphire looks over to see three ponies laughing at her. She knew these ponies. Ignoring their jabs, she turned to greet them with a smile on her face.

“Oh hello there Senet, Jade, Garnet. How are the mines for you today?”

“Sixteen tons lighter” Jade said with added flout. The other two chuckle.

With a innocent smile on Sapphires face she said “your welcome! I’m glad I could help you; I would do anything for a friend!”

The three mares, annoyed that their fun was being taken for ‘granite’, all shot looks of disgust, and Senet spoke up and said “Uhh, Sapphire?”

“Yes, Senet?”

“We’re not friends.”

Sapphire knew that if she let their cold in it would never leave, so she stuffed her frown deep into her heart, put up a fake smile, and said “If you say so! Anyway, I’ve got a long job ahead of me, so I better get started, see you soon!” she added a friendly wave as she spoke. Then with a fraudulent skip in her step, she turns to head to her workstation, forgetting to go to the shed to get her supplies.

She ignored the ensuing slander the girls said, purposely loud enough for her to hear.

*****

The familiar sounds of pickaxes on stone echo through the tunnels of Coals Gate, makeshift explosions bring thumps of air pressure every now and then. Rickety minecarts creak and shift through the long rock halls.

Sapphire is hooked up to a large, two-ton wagon. With her small frame and weak body, she can barely tote the heavy load, but she still keeps a smile on her face.

Every dirt-stricken cheek, looked upon that smile with distain. Sapphire knew, she didn’t care. All she needed to know was that she gave a smile.

All she ever hoped was that she got a smile back. She never did.

She hauled her cart through the twists and turns of the tunnels, each inch memorized, her goal: The Depository. The trip takes a while, the cumbersome load's weight, more noticeable with each step. But she gets there all the same.

“Hello again Beetle!” Sapphire said weakly as she waved to the creaky old mare behind the collection booth.

The old mare looks at the tired young Sapphire with stone faced pity as she dumps the load into the weighted scales, next to the booth, Beetle looks at the instruments in her booth then looks to a clipboard to mark a few tallies, she looks up to say in a wispy, shaky voice, “That brings you up to 9 tons”. Beetle sighs, “7 more” she softens her expression to ask, “why do you stay here, Sapphire, you do nothing but work and work, and you get treated like trash for it.”

Beetle had lived a very long time, and for the better part of her life she has sat in this booth, counting ton after ton. Her Cutie mark was that of a checklist on a clipboard. She was here when coals gate was founded from the dust, and she vow to be here when she herself returns to dust.

Beetle had seen many ponies come and go. Ponies looking for money found in the black rock that is the name sake of Coals Gate. Most realizing the high paycheck comes with high risk. Too high of risk for the smart ones, so they quit. The weak ones carry on because they can’t afford not to. The strong one carry on because they can.

Beetle has seen many ponies so full of life, and vigor, brought lower than the stone, by the coal. Many ponies walk into the mines and not come out unchanged, some never come out.

But Sapphire was one that never lost her spirit. Beetle could never figure out why. Sapphire was so happy to break her body over and over again for others, that body being one of a keeper, the weakest of the four pony breeds. Even now Beetle could see new cracks in Sapphire’s skin.

Sapphire knew exactly why she did what she did, but she hated thinking about her reasoning. She had been all throughout the tunnels, looking for a place that she could belong to bring happiness. Many, many, harvests were spent trying her best to please other ponies, trying to belong to a place, ponies to laugh with. But she would never find what she was looking for. Or rather she would be shunned and kicked out, or just plain ignored. Or worst of all, laughed at.

One time not too long ago, she snapped. She could bear no more. If she couldn’t belong, she didn’t need to exists. She gave up on trying to live a life for ponies, but she couldn’t bring herself to be selfish. In some crazy way of thinking, she convinced herself, the best thing for her was to work herself to death. The best of both worlds, the others wouldn’t see her anymore, and she would help others as much as she physically could.

She saw it as a win-win.

She never feared death anyways.

"Sapphire, you ok?"

Sapphire snapped back to reality "Oh sorry Beetle, guess I zoned out." She intoned with a sheepish grin.

"Honey, you were standing there for 3 minutes with a Two forsaken look on your face."

"Oh... uh" she was taken aback before timidly offering "power nap?"

Beetle just shook her head

"Well I guess I'll be off then, 7 more tons to go and all...." She trailed off as she turned the cart around to head into the tunnels once more. Before remembering that she hadn't said goodbye.

"OH, uh, bye Beetle!" beetle could only see her head poking out from behind the cart as she called back

Beetle turned back to her work with a frown. "That mares going to get herself hurt." She said to herself.

*****

At the end of the work period, (or more accurately, sapphire's work period, as everypony has already retired) Sapphire trudges through the doors to the sleeping quarters to see everypony sound asleep, all perfectly tucked into their beds, not a hair out of place. As carefully as she can, she walks to her bed in the very back. Her eye lids drooped low, and her movement sluggish, but she manages all the same.

But before she can get to her bed to pass out, a green, smooth and uncracked, hoof shoots out Infront of her from the right of her vision. Following the hoof up, Sapphire saw Jade, and her glaring silver eyes, and slight smirk.

Before sapphire could say anything, she felt another hoof slide around her withers and rest on her shoulder. A red hoof. She looks left to see Senet's red glaring eyes and even more pronounced smirk.

As Sapphire tries to say something, Senet brings a hoof up to her mouth in a 'shush' motion before leading Sapphire back out the doors. Away from Sapphires bed, much to her chagrin.

They took Sapphire out behind the crew quarters, in a secluded place so no wandering eye would be able to see them. The wall behind was rocky and uneven in contrast to the smooth and sharp corners of the bunk house opposite of it. Back here light was sparce, only a few dim glow rocks sat behind the bunk house, which meant far too many dark shadows for a pony that cared about their safety at this hour, but almost in comedic juxtaposition, not once did running away or getting out of there crossed Sapphires mind. She was too tired to care what they wanted.

She would regret that.

"Well, well, well. would you look at the menagerie." From the shadows a voice calls out from a particularly dark shadow to the group just arriving

Sapphire looked towards the call to see that even her eyes, that were attuned to the naturally dark caves, could not penetrate the darkness that surround the supposed source of the vocalization.

The darkness started to move, as if it was some sort of fluid caught in a whirlpool , the darkness then proceeded to condense into its center, a gem that so happens to be on the forehead of a familiar face.

Senet speaks up from behind Sapphire, "Garnet. You had absolutely no reason to be that dramatic."

Garnet scoffs as the last of her darkness is absorbed into the speckled gemstone on her head, before tilting her head up to say: "One must never underestimate a good fear inducing entrance." Much to Senet's distain.

Jade then pipes in to say, while pointing to a sleeping Sapphire, "ummmm, looks like it's not too effective" she then follows it up with a poke into Sapphires side to wake her, to no effect.

"Uugh, are you kidding me!" Garnet starts, as she starts to stomps over to Sapphire, she continues to mumble on her way "I do all that work to make her fear me even just a LITTLE bit, and she goes and nods off on me in the middle of my moment of victory." She finishes her rant right Infront of Sapphire. She then smacks sapphire with a loud frustrated "WAKE UP you dolt!".

Sapphire's head is smacked aside only to lazily revert to its original position with her eyes still closed.

Garnet prepares to hit her again when instead she sees Sapphire's eyes sluggishly open.

When Sapphire wakes, she sees Garnet In front of her. Sapphire, who had forgotten what happened prior to her nap, says "OH, hey Garnet! Thanks for waking me. It's been a long haul." she puts a hoof up to her cheek must have hit my head again, "What did you want?"

Garnet face hoofs. She take a moment to collect herself before she put on an obviously fake friendly smile. She then goes to Sapphire's side and wraps a hoof around her.

"Alright Sapp'h, here's what I'm going to do." She squeezes a little harder "I'm going to ask a question and you aren't leaving until I get the right answer," She tightens her grip and her anger breaks through her faux when she says "Got it?"

"Ok! wow you sure are strong garnet, if you keep that up you'll dust me" Sapphire gives a weak laugh.

"Good" Garnet spits

"So, what do you wana know?"

"What am I to you?"

That caught Sapphire off guard. And for the first time, a bit of fear sparked in Sapphire.

"You're my friend?" Sapphire gives weakly.

Garnet's mouth widens into a sickly grin. "Wrong answer."

Garnet then proceeds to raise the hoof not around Sapphires withers and slams the hoof into the chest of the blue mare. Sapphire shrieks as chips of hardened skin fly off the point of contact

"Now," Garnet says in a crazed tone. "lets try that again"

Sapphire's mine races as Garnet asks again "What am I to you"

What dose she want from me Sapphire thinks. Her option for escape ended when Garnet grappled her.

"HUH?" garnet pushes.

"_{Your.. a frien-}"

Sapphire was cut off as another hoof was smashed into her weak chest. She screams as the wound starts to bleed through the fractures in her skin.

"What am I." She spits.

Through tears and sobs Sapphire mumbles "A fr-"

"Nope" Garnet pounds her again but this time she keeps her hoof imbedded into Sapphires chest and grinds her own skin into the wound, driving the mare into the ground and pinning her there. With her hoof still in Sapphire chest she positioned her self over Sapphire and looked into her eyes.

"Let me get this straight. I am a hard working mare who wants nothing to do with you and your niceness. YOU,[i/] are a good for nothing D.U.F.F., who should do nothing but keep to your self, and leave mares like me, and my actual friends, alone." With each sentence she puts a little more pressure onto her hoof to emphasize her points. "So here's what I want yo- LOOK AT ME!" Garnet screams as Sapphire loses focus to pain "I want you to never speak to me or my friend again, and your going to keep your stupid 'positivity' to your self. I'm sick of your horse apples" Garnet the goes to release the pressure before putting it back on to say "And never, call me your friend, again." she then releases the pressure and walks away, her friends in tow.

Jade hesitates to look at Sapphire with a confused expression before she goes out of sight from the broken, sobbing mare on the the ground

Never had Sapphire felt more alone then she did now, curled up in a small pile and puddle of her own skin and blood.

I give up, I cant do this anymore. was her final thoughts as she fainted from the pain.

Author's Note:

DONT LEAVE, IT GETS BETTER I PROMISE.

ok i lied Sapphire will go through worse in the next chapter BUT STAY WITH ME HERE I HAVE A PLAN. A FREINDSHIP IS MAGIC PLAN!
note, She dose have a cutiemark, purposefully not mentioned to make another scene more potent.