Twilight and her friends walked into the old castle of the pony sisters for what felt like the millionth time. Everypony went to their favorite sections. Rainbow Dash zipped straight to the adventure section, for example, while Fluttershy went to the section filled with guides to rare and exotic creatures. It was all very routine, Twilight noted, as she scanned the history section for a new book to read. A dusty, old book caught her eye. Sure, they were all dusty and old, but this one was... Different somehow. Using her magic, she pulled it off the shelf and carried it a a cushion, where she sat down and opened it to the first page. "The Crest Ponies? What are those?" She said, looking at the title and cocked her head.
"What?" Said Pinkie. "Hey guys! Twilight found something she knows nothing about!" The pink pony called throughout the library, elicicting a sigh from Twilight. Everypony else in the library immediately came to check out this shocking event. Settling in around Twilight, they looked at her, eyes showing their eagerness to hear all about this new and obscure topic.
After a few seconds of staring, Rainbow Dash yawned. "Twilight, are you going to keep us waiting, or are you going to do your egghead thing and read what's in the book to us?" Everypony laughed. "What?" Said Rainbow, causing everypony to laugh even harder.
"Alright, if you all really want to know about this, we can read it together." Twilight said, turning the page. Clearing her throat, she began to read; "The crest ponies were a group of nine that embodied positive qualities of the ponies of Equestria. The group contained three ponies of each common pony race. The three unicorns were knowledge, hope, and purity or light; the pegasi were kindness--"
"Kindness? Like Fluttershy?"
"I guess so, Pinkie, but if I'm going to read to you, I'd like to do it without interruptions."
"Oops, sorry. Carry on."
"The pegasi were kindness, courage, and friendship; and the earth ponies were reliability, sincerity, and love. Before the elements of harmony, these nine ponies guarded Equestria from threats. However, they disappeared during Discord's rise to power. It is unknown whether their disappearance is link to the sudden appearance of a ring of statues nearby the palace."
"Let's go check out this ring of statues, Twilight!"
"Rainbow Dash! I thought you wanted me to read!"
"Well, I changed my mind. Let's go! Come on!"
"Yeah! Let's go Twilight!"
"Pinkie Pie? You too?"
"Yup! These statues sound interesting! Besides if they are the crest ponies, and we can revive them, I'll be able to throw a nine pony Welcome-to-Ponyville party!"
"Do you all want to stop here and go check these statues out?" Twilight looked emploringly at the three other ponies. Applejack and Rarity were nodding, and Fluttershy looked between them.
"Well, I guess if everypony else wants to go so much, I don't mind."
Giving in to the inevitable, Twilight sighed and closed the book, returning it to it's shelf. "Very well." She said. "Let's go."
Eventually, the ponies found the ring of statues. As they walked towards the center, they looked around at the erily still and realistic stone. Standing in the center, they looked down to discover a large star with nine points, each point resting at the base of a statue, or rather, from the end of each point sprouted a pedestal displaying a strange symbol and bearing a statue.
"Okay." Said Rainbow. "This has just officially gone from 'cool' to 'creepy'."
"I agree with Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy stated quietly, looking around for somewhere to hide. She ducked under Rarity as they heard voices coming into range.
"The castle is totally safe, guys! Applejack and the others go there all the time!" The familiar voice of Applebloom said.
"That's not what I'm worried about." Came Sweetie Belle's voice. "I'm worried we lost our way and that the castle is in another direction."
"Don't be ridiculous! Applebloom is great at navigating!" Scootaloo said, confirming that all three crusaders were wandering where they shouldn't. Not that two would go and leave the third behind, of course. The three entered the clearing and stopped, staring at the six ponies already there.
"Oops." Said Applebloom. "I guess that road didn't lead to the castle."
"You're darn tootin' right it didn't! What they hay are you doin' out here?"
"No, Applejack, this is perfect! Look! Nine statues, nine ponies! We might be able to revive the statues and talk to ponies that lived over 1000 years ago! We just have to get everypony standing in the right place! It's perfect!"
Everypony stared at Twilight.
"Alright. I've got nothing to do this evening." Rainbow Dash finally said, leading a chorus of agreement from the others. "Let's do this."
Chapter One: Living Stone
Fluttershy watched the others as they, under Twilights direction, tried to figure out what the symbols meant. Fluttershy wanted to help, but she couldn't see how to decipher them, with the exception of the book that had been left at the library. She wasn't in the middle, exactly. Just kind of near it. She began walking in a circle around the middle, looking for some clue as to say what meant what, when suddenly one of the points lit up as she walked over it. "Aack!" She cried, diving under Twilight.
"That's it! Fluttershy, you're a genius!" Twilight cried. "Stand back on that point! I have an idea!" Fluttershy tentatively returned to the point, which lit up again with a soft, pink color. Twilight, starting on the point to Fluttershy's left as everypony watched, started to traverse the circle. Her point lit up a pale purple after only two ended up being the wrong one. Scootaloo, impatient as ever, jumped onto the point directly to Fluttershy's left, which lit up orange. Applejack and Applebloom both started to search for their points, ending up with Applebloom's lighting up a light brown with a gap of one from Fluttershy, and Applejack's lighting up light green immediately beyond. Rarity found one that lit up red on Twilights immediate right, and Sweetie Belle a white-pink one between Applebloom and Fluttershy. Rainbow found one that lit up an ironic grey color next to Rarity. Pinkie Pie was the last to find her point, standing between Twilight and Scootaloo and giggling as she looked at her dark blue light. The symbols on the pedestals began to glow.
"Hold your ground, everypony!" Rainbow and Scootaloo called. Fluttershy didn't notice; she was shaking and covering her face with her hooves. The statues began to crack, each fracture glowing with the point in front of it. Then there was a bright light, and the ponies on the points collapsed.
"What happened?" Rainbow woke up to hear an unfamiliar voice saying. She lay still, barely opening one of her eyes. "Who are these ponies? What is this place?" The new ponies, which were standing in place of the statues, were all very odd. The one closest to her, which wasn't the questioner, had slate stripes running accross his brown body. At least his short, blue mane made some sort of sense. That wasn't really helpful. Everything was still confusing.
"Take it easy." Came a laid back voice. "You worry too much, Data Stream. The important thing is we aren't made out of stone anymore. Now we can stop Discord and save Equestria!"
"It's quite possible that, in our absence, somepony else saved Equestria." The original voice said. "That would certainly explain the lack of cotton candy clouds." The sound of somepony jumping off a pedestal and landing on the ground sounded from somewhere near Twilight. "It would also explain the fact that we seem to have a new princess, or at least a new alicorn, which is practically the same thing."
"That sounds about right." Said the pony on the pedestal closest to Rainbow Dash.
"We should probably make sure these ponies are okay." Came a voice from near Fluttershy. "They look exhausted, and they're probably the ones that freed us."
"You're right, Gentle Breeze. We should help these ponies." A soft, female voice came from near Sweetie Belle. Rainbow Dash decided it was time to stop pretending to be out.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." She said getting up, startling the ponies and causing the closest to shout and fall back. Rainbow turned and looked at him. "You can get up, I'm not going to attack you." He carefully got up and walked around the pedestal.
"I'm Worry Wart." He said, fighting the quaver in his tone. He certainly looked like one to Dashie.
"How long were you awake?" Said and orange maned blue pony with purple stripes on his coat in much the same pattern as Worry. Rainbow recognized his voice as the one that had been called Data Stream. "And what year is it? When we were turned to stone, it was 342 A.E.D."
Rainbow stepped back. "A.E.D? What does that even stand for? It's 1002 A.L, for pony's sake!" Data Stream sat back on his haunches.
"A.L, huh?" He muttered. "What does that stand for?"
"I'll answer your question when you answer mine! I asked first."
"Yes, yes, you're right. A.E.D stands for 'After Equestria's Discovery'. And A.L stands for..?"
"After Luna, or rather after she was bannished to the moon."
"Princess Luna is banished to the moon?" Panic laced through the weird ponies around her. They all had those weird stripes... "Whatever for?"
"Was. Not is. She's back now. She got all angsty, turned into a pony named Nightmare Moon, tried to make eternal night, all that sort of stuff. Twilight can explain it better." The weird ponies were mostly investigating the ponies in front of their pedestals, with the exception of Data Stream, who though unconscious Twilight was boring in favor of a conscious pony, and Worry Wart, who was investigating Twilight in his place as Rainbow Dash was up and occupied. One by one, modern day ponies awoke, until everypony was finally up and about.
"As much as I'd love to stick around, I'm sure my friends and I have to get going." Twilight eventually said. "We are good in the Everfree Forest at night, you see, and we have homes to get back to." The old time ponies looked around at each other.
"We'll come with you." Said their apparent leader, Pyro Sun. "We know the forest is dangerous at night, too." Twilight nodded.
"Let's go." She said, and everypony started the trek back to Ponyville.
