The day dawned through every shade of topaz--red to yellow to pale, watery blue overhead.  Igneous Rock Pie's eyes roved across the horizon, comparing the official weather schedule against his own reckoning, and his chin dipped microscopically in grim satisfaction.  'Twould surely be a fine day for it, if it had to be any day at all.

[hr]

The sun was at its zenith, and the family was gathered where the south and west fields met, behind the house.  In a small, fenced off plot, simple stone markers were neatly planted in tidy, tight rows, each ones bearing a name and a pair of dates.  Igneous' family had always used this spot, for as long as there had been a Pie Rock Farm.  High noon was also traditional, but dawn and dusk happened sometimes, too, for the right ponies.

Igneous sat himself behind the newest marker, face carefully blank, and the rest of his family sat facing him, two by two with an aisle between them.  His wife, Cloudy Quartz, sat in front on his right, with Limestone beside her, Maud behind her, and their youngest, yet un-marked daughter, Maurina Alice, filling out the square.

He thought it best not to keep anypony waiting, and cleared his throat.

“In the midst of life, we are stopped in passing.  Of whom may we ask for surety as one among us passes from one life into the next, but of the bones of the earth which embrace us all?”  Igneous paused to place one hoof on the marker in front of him before continuing, “And though--” after a moment’s hesitation, he cleared his throat again, swallowed thickly, and continued, “And though I may today lose a daughter, my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoiceth for her.”  

He took a deep breath of the silence of the farm before finishing, “In sure and certain hope of a long life well lived, we commend to the earth the name Pinkamina Diane Pie; rock to rock,”--his hoof tapped heavily on the marker--”gravel to gravel,” Igneous paused, and Cloudy leaned forward, spreading a small mound of aggregate from the west quarry in a line below the marker, left to right, “dust to dust.”  

Limestone did the same as her mother with a lump of dirt from the floor of the silo, right to left, and then everypony turned to face the back door of the house.  It banged open abruptly to reveal a grinning, pink filly with a wild poof of curls instead of a mane.  Igneous fancied he could see her vibrating in place.

Igneous watched her new cutie mark as she marched across the yard to join the rest of her family.  It shone brilliantly in the noon-day sun, even though it had to compete with the searing pink of her coat, and he wondered how often he would see it after today.

She brought herself to a stop between her mother and her older sister, looking up to meet Igneous’ eyes.  He found that it had been no fancy--she [i]was[/i] vibrating in place, and her grin was wider than any Igneous had ever seen.  He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and leaned down to her level.

“Now and henceforth… who art thou?”

She took a deep breath, ballooning her tiny chest before announcing, “My name is Pinkie.  Pinkie Pie!”

Igneous’ let out his breath and his flat mouth broke into a smile.  He felt the tension flow from his shoulders for the first time since Pinka--[i]Pinkie’s[/i] first party.  “Then the earth bless thee, Pinkie Pie, and keep thee in peace.”