Chapters 2000 years ago
The pony slumped forwards, exhausted. The spell he had just attempted had drained him of virtually all his strength, and even had the indignity of failing to boot! He walked away from his station towards his bed, intent on sleeping off his fatigue. He decided that in the morning he would go back and reassure his sisters; they were busy with their own studies but must surely have noted his absence, after all, a week away was unusual, even for him. They would surely be worried sick about and it was his duty as their sibling to assuage their fears and worries.
He was just about to lie down when he heard a highly unexpected sound; he could swear it sounded like… crystals forming? But how could that be, even as far down as he was, and even with his magic’s effects on the surrounding rock and dirt, there was no chance of a crystal deposit forming in the walls. He had chosen this area specifically so as to not be worried about being disrupted by the natural processes of the land. He decided that even if it was true, he was in no fit state to deal with it at the moment.
He once again went to lie down but discovered that he could not move his left front leg; it was almost as if it was weighted down by something very dense. He looked down, expecting to find that some kind of stone he had overlooked had somehow pinned his hoof. What he saw horrified him and rendered him near-catatonic. His wings sprung open in shock as his brain could not comprehend what was happening. A single thought ran through his mind, “How is this possible?”
Present day
“Let’s get this over with,” thought Princess Celestia to herself. It had been yet another long, arduous day filled with all the necessary intrinsics that plagued royalty. Today, her time had almost entirely been consumed by countless appointments with countless ponies that all seemed to be drearier and more uninteresting than those who preceded them.
Celestia was at least grateful that Luna had decided to sit in with her. The court proceedings were almost invariably livened up by her presence, how could they not be? After all, she was seemingly adept with the art of making fun of the decidedly dull ponies who often claimed the stage, and all of them seemed to be blissfully unaware of her humour; Luna was a master at using her wit and excellent grasp of tact to playfully insult the varied citizenry of Canterlot without them even realising what she was doing. Indeed, it appeared that only Celestia and Luna herself understood how her sister could almost make Celestia burst out laughing by using a combination of analogies, sweeping generalisations and personally ribbing the Canterlot elite. How Luna managed to pull off this incredible feat without any but her and her sister clueing in was a great mystery to Equestria’s ruler.
Her mind briefly flicked back to an ancient memory but she quickly dismissed the thought, knowing from past experience that thinking on matters such as those, this one in particular, would only lead to revitalised feelings of grief and sadness.
“…indeed, my colleagues and I are of the firm opinion that the tax should be lowered to allow for ‘special circumstances’ such as our own…” the current noble droned on. This particular brand of nobility was more commonplace than either princess would prefer. The type who would gladly sell what soul they had left for a few more bits to line their pockets. Admittedly, they had always existed, and always would, but notwithstanding they were particularly intolerable and Celestia did not enjoy dealing with their incessant prattling about how they believed they should get special treatment from the laws that governed Equestria.
“If I may interject,” Celestia interrupted, knowing full well she had every right to, “allowing anyone to be exempt from the sales tax, or indeed even be given leniency, would greatly upset those who still needed to obey it in full; even if those who were allowed favour in the eyes of the taxpony were of outstanding class and character.” Celestia knew from great experience that the best way to handle these buffoons was to simply pander to their egos, and their fears “It would certainly inspire civil unrest, and may even spark a full uprising. And of course, the first target of the disillusioned ponies would be those who they believed (rightly so in Celestia’s opinion) to be receiving special treatment from the rulers.” Celestia knew that his demands, weak as they were through personal greed, would be unable to stand up to the time-tested might of obvious facts.
She knew that to allow the rich to become richer would be allow hate and anger to fester within the populace, and that such a thing would be dangerous, to say the very least. First and foremost in her royal duties was that of preserving harmony; isolating herself from the masses and providing immunity from the law to the nobility would be tantamount to breaking the oath her and Luna swore so many years ago to always put the needs of the many before the wants of the few.
This momentary flashback provoked the resurfacing of painful memories, and to her credit, Luna noticed almost immediately and took over the court, dismissing the noble whose entire case had just been sent crumbling and then tending to her sister, who Luna knew to be suppressing the pain that even now threatened to break her otherwise calm mask. The court empty, Luna asked a simple question of her sister, “What’s wrong?”
Given the immense age of the pair, and the great many memories associated with such age, there were many painful memories that could be troubling Celestia. She answered her sister with but a single word, “Him”.
Luna knew what her sister spoke of, a loss suffered far in the past, grief that had never been reconciled and compounded by the lack of knowledge around it. They had both sworn to each other to bury those memories deep, so as to be spared the emotions stirred up by them. It would seem, however, that Celestia’s grip on the memory of those times was slipping. Neither had yet to fully deal with the grief their mutual loss, long forgotten by history, but never by the two regal siblings. They both knew that forgetting such an event would be impossible, and both also knew that to forget would be to desecrate to memory of one who was so close to them, so dear to their hearts.
Their short period of reflection was cut short by the arrival of a messenger. Whilst Celestia’s protégé Twilight Sparkle was fortunate enough to be able to simply send scrolls magically and instantaneously direct to the princess, the majority of messages arrived via a courier such as the one who had just been admitted to the court.
“Your majesties,” the messenger began “A message has arrived for you both, I was told it was an invitation.” With a polite nod of her head, Celestia acknowledged it and the messenger delivered the scroll. Bowing, he left the room.
“Well, let’s see which high-society event demands our immediate attention, shall we Luna?” Celestia said with a slight grin on her face, her earlier emotions put aside. Opening the letter, Celestia quickly read through it; ‘Esteemed Princesses, you are cordially invited to the Canterlot Museum of Ancient History for the unveiling of the new addition to its collection. A stunningly well-crafted, well-preserved and detailed statue dating over two thousand years old; the piece was discovered deep within the ground by...’
The letter suddenly dropped as Celestia’s magic faltered and it slipped from her now nerveless grasp. She seemed to freeze still, her jaw dropping open and her eyes staring vacantly into space.
“What is it?” Luna asked, fear and worry evident on her face.
As she took the letter from the ground and read through it herself, she too copied her sister’s expression, jaw hanging loosely open in shock and eyes glassy with disbelief as the letter once more fell the polished floor.
At the bottom of the letter was a picture. A picture of the statue proudly displayed amongst the museum’s other treasures.
A.N. Just letting everyone know that further installments will be coming, however infrequently. I honestly did not think that writing something fun like this would be so difficult.
2000 Years Ago
The stallion's mind could scarcely comprehend the sight which his eyes beheld. He felt the beginnings of panic as the scene displayed before him came into its full, horrifying spectacle.
What he saw was this: his hoof, only moments earlier a normal hoof in every manner, was now crystal.
He would have laughed at the absurdity of it all if not for the fact that it was undeniably true. He quickly glanced at his other hooves and could have collapsed from horror. The mere seconds it took to come to terms with an unimaginable sight was all that was necessary for his remaining hooves to suffer the same fate as the first. He watched with growing fear as the crystallisation moved up his legs.
Where there was once a beautiful coat of speckled grey and black, like volcanic rock; now there was only hard, dense cobalt crystal, not dissimilar from the darkest of nights, when even the moon dared not show its face. And to think, all this was caused by a spell, a simple spell intended only to create a gift for his sister.
As the change spread past his knees, the only thought going through his head was that he would never see his sisters again. Worse, they would never know what had happened to him.
Present Day
The days since the letter had passed by in a blurry, easily-forgettable haze. The regular court proceedings, mind-numbingly boring during normal times, now became unrecognisable. Each individual case could not be recalled by either Luna nor Celestia, being on autopilot as they were.
Indeed the only thing that seemed to occupying the minds of the two was the thought of the upcoming exhibition;. It weighed heavily upon both their minds at all times, keeping them distracted, although their excellent tact prevented it from showing in public. The date kept the pair up for hours at a time before finally slipping into uneasy slumber.
At long last, the day had finally arrived. Neither regal sister would have missed it for the world, even though such a relatively mundane occasion as a new exhibit in a fairly small museum would only call for one to be merely present; the particulars of said exhibit would not have been missed by either ruler for anything else in the world.
Despite the general air of partial interest surrounding the majority of the audience; two were almost boiling over with scarcely contained anticipation. Celestia seemed to be managing admirably, more than a thousand years of regency had bestowed upon her a poker face many would kill for, but it was all Luna could do to not scream out to get the new exhibit unveiled sooner. After what seemed like an eternity, the curtain was finally dropped behind the announcer and the new exhibit on prehistoric pony culture was revealed, with the flawless statue taking pride of place.
It took all of Luna's restraint to not gasp; a quick glance over to Celestia confirmed that she too was taken aback, albeit only moments passed before her previous stoic expression returned. Luna quickly composed herself, with a look around revealing that all the other ponies (excluding the Royal Guard) were far too enraptured with the statue to notice the change in expression on either sister.
The statue itself was that of an alicorn, but not Celestia or her sister; no, this statue was of a male, one even larger in stature than Celestia. The detail, in particular the mane, eyes and wings was impeccable; indeed, it was shockingly lifelike. There was not hair out of place in the mane, which seemed to have frozen whilst swaying in a breeze. The eyes were such that you could vividly imagine them swivelling, drinking in the world whilst holding it in place with their powerful gaze. Each feather in the flared wings had incredible detail, not a single one out of place and with every aspect of the plumage plain to see. The muzzle and face were carved with exquisite skill, it was caught in an expression that combined surprise, fear and worry, with an undertone of compassion and kindess that seemed to be permanently infused into his visage.
In short, the statue was so well made that it could have passed as real. The only thing that gave it away was the material it was made from; an unknown type of crystal, one that was almost translucent, yet swirled with such colour that it itself almost seemed alive. The crystal was not dissimilar from diamond, yet appeared to be infused with some sort of power that seemed to make the statue throb, as though it were alive and watching its audience as they themselves stared at it.
All these were absorbed by Celestia and Luna, they observed the body shape, the muzzle, and especially the cutie mark; a globe of the world, complete with mountains and valleys, and forests and plains.
With that, all doubt in her mind was dispelled; this statue was her brother.
Luna could barely contain herself, it was everything she could not to rush forward and hug him. Even then, she would likely have failed were it not for Celestia's wing gently holding her, comforting her, sharing their revitalised grief.
Throughout the ceremony, all Luna could think of was her brother. She knew in her heart that no statue could be this detailed, no sculptor that talented. She now realised why her brother had never returned; something had happened to him and changed him into this... object . She knew that her sister was doubtless going through the same, but she managed to hold those potent emotions back better than Luna, going so far as to shift the burden of leadership onto herself by taking all conversations, chatter and gossip herself rather than bother Luna when she was clearly going through near-unbearable emotional turmoil.
At long last, the ceremony came to a close, and the only ones left were Luna and Celestia. Their guards were still everpresent but they were guarding the entrance rather that being inside. Finally alone, the sisters stood silent in front of their long-lost sibling's image. The silence was suddenly broken by Luna; "It's him, isn't it? It's really him. It's really Terra." Her voice was wavering, as though she was on the brink of collapsing into tears.
Celestia nodded gravely; she could only imagine what Luna was going through at the moment, but if it was anything like her own feelings, it must be hellish torment. "Yes, it is. Somehow, this statue really is him." She managed to speak calmy, depite being anything but.
Luna burst into tears, her withheld sorrow finally overwhelming her self-restraint. Celestia wrapped her wing around her younger sister in a comforting gesture, as much for Luna's sake as her own.
"He said he'd always be there for us, he said he'd never leave us." Luna ran forward, and began beating the statue with her hooves in futile rage "You said you'd always be there for us! You said you'd never abandon me! You promised! YOU PROMISED!" Luna collapsed, sobbing uncontrollably, shaking with grief. The feeling of loss, abandonment and grief had entirely overwhelmed her.
Celestia watched this display, barely holding back her own emotions. She let Luna release her sorrow and anguish by sobbing until finally she spoke again. "You said that you'd never let me and Tia be alone again. Now, you're gone forever. And I've never felt more alone." Her voice was barely audible, little more than a whisper that was the only sound in the empty hall.
Celestia finally broke her silence. "Luna, there's nothing we can do here. It's time to go." She didn't want to sound harsh to her emotionally wrecked sister, but they both had responsibilities that they could not shirk, even for personal emotion.
Luna turned away from her now-eternally silent brother, speaking one final thing before she left forever. "Goodbye Terra, I love you." As she turned to leave, she heard something.
"Luna?" The sound was faint, almost inaudible. She looked around, but Celestia was already outside and nopony else was present.
"Luna?" There it was again, a whisper, just heard. But who could be speaking? It was only her in the building, unless...
She turned around, hoping against hope that her suspicion was wrong; she did not feel she could handle any more stress today. She leaned in close to her brother's sculpture. "Luna." Luna recoiled in disbelief, it couldn't be! No, it must be a trick, played on her by her own mind.
Then, she saw that the eyes had somehow, through some way, moved to look directly into her own. She must be hallucinating, these things did not happen! It, it must be false. It could not be true!
Then all her doubts were cast away and her heart plummetted as the final piece of evidence coalesced.
"Help me..."
A.N. Well, cliffhanger ahoy! I'm kidding, I hate cliffhangers as much as the next pony, but there wasn't any real way to end this chapter without one. At least my OC has finally been named. What does his cutie mark mean? How will Luna react to this revelation? Will I ever end these incessant Author's Notes!? All these and more will be revealed, next time. This is ConDec, signing off and peace out.
2000 Years Ago
So far, the entirety of his legs had succumbed to, whatever this was, and it had spread across most of his torso. He knew that most of his organs including his heart and lungs were now nothing but crystal, if even that; but strangely he hardly noticed their absence, the only noticable change was no longer needing to breathe. That was... disconcerting, but he currently had a more pressing issue.
He was too exhausted to stop the transformation, if such a thing were even possible, and he knew that his mind would soon follow his body.
The change spread to his mane and tail; halting their ethereal breeze, as had never been done before. His wings had also succumbed to the alteration, each feather now a work of art. The strangest thing was that the crystallisation was not painful, it was more like... an anaesthetic that moved up his body.; it didn't hurt, it just, stopped being.
Now his neck had changed, with his muzzle doubtless soon to follow. The most peculiar thing was, despite his impending doom, his greatest urge was to record this in his journal. Ah well, a wasted oppurtunity. Nothing more could be done than wait for the inevitable.
As it spread across his eyes, something occured to him. It would seem that fate had a sense of humour, his spell HAD worked, he DID now have the crystal he had strived so hard to create. The bitter irony was that it was going to be HIM. He would have laughed, had his mouth not been frozen.
As his horn was consumed, he thought about the black humour of it all. To think, the perfect gift for his sister, a life-size, realistic crystal statue of himself.
The last part of his horn turned from dull grey to a dark blue as all his thoughts ended, and he began what would best be described as hibernation.
Present Day
The museum had handed over the statue the day following its unveiling. Admittedly the curator had been, less than eager, but he had quickly changed his mind. Luna had that way with ponies when she was like she was now, a conflicted mess of emotions that could barely understand what 'rational action' was, let alone practice it. After all, her Royal Canterlot Voice was intimidating at the best of times; when she was as she was currently, it could cow any pony and was proven to bring even the strongest, most stoic of guards to their knees at 100 paces.
With that, plus some more... controlled intervention by Celestia, the statue had been moved from the museum into the palace. It was now stored in a subterranean room, one that was designated as 'storage' but as the castle was so large, it had yet to have anything stored in it besides dust. It was in this room that Luna had devoted every moment she could spare to finding out if she truly wasn't mad, that she really hadn't imagined it.
The infuriating thing was that so far, all her efforts to inspire communication had failed. Come-to-life? Nothing. Empathy? Zip. Telepathy? Nothing had worked, and she was steadily losing faith in her own sanity. Celestia had gently asked her if she wasn't overreacting, if she was grasping at straws. But Luna knew that this couldn't be a coincidence, the statue was far too well crafted to have been made by any pony she had ever heard of, and that was saying a lot. Besides that, Terra was literally NOT in history books; he had never entered recorded history and thus there would be no image to base it off, that meant that if it HAD been sculpted, it would have had to have been done with him actually posing as a model. And Luna knew in her heart that her brother would never be so self centred to actually commission or even agree to a statue being made of himself, and even if he had, he would never have kept it from his sisters.
Luna knew Celestia was worried about her; if their roles were reversed she would most certainly be worried about Tia, but right now she didn't really care. She had a chance of getting her brother back, and nothing was going to stop her from pursuing it.
Luna couldn't figure out why she had heard him before, all attempts to allow conversation since had failed. Then, she realised something. She had been so preoccupied with finding a spell that she had skipped what could be the most important step: scanning the damn thing. She almost facehoofed at her own negligence and oversight.
The spell was a simple one, requiring little effort or skill. She prepared to cast it, internally laughing at her own ignorance and hopeful that this would reveal the secrets she sought.
Luna could honestly say that she was not expecting what happened.
Celestia came down to the chamber, she had not seen her sister in a good many hours and had decided that she should come down personally to remind her to pace herself; she could not blame Luna, her sister had still not come fully to terms with the loss of Terra, and being locked away with only herself for company on the moon for a thousand years had most assuredly not helped the matter. She didn't blame Luna, but she was worried that she was becoming a bit... obsessed.
When she entered the chamber, it was completely dark. That was very strange, since the torches were powered by a simple spell, or failing that by simple flint and tinder. As she lit some of the torch sconces, a very disconcerting sight met her eyes.
Luna was apparently doing a perfect imitation of the statue, completely still and staring vacantly into space.
"Luna? Are you alright?" Celestia asked, worry clearly evident in her tone. When Luna didn't respond or even give any reaction, it only stoked the fire of her fear. Celestia walked over to where her sister was standing in absolute silence.
As she got closer, she saw that Luna's eyes had become glassy, as though she was focusing on a point beyond physical comprehension. What was even more worrying than that however, was that her younger sibling was making absolutely no movement or sound whatsoever. She was barely breathing, her heart rate had slowed, she wasn't blinking either. These things were not overly dangerous to an alicorn, their inherent magical abilities enabled them to exist without such, well, 'mortal trappings'; if only for a time.
Her worry increasing exponentially, Celestia had to resist the urge to violently shake her sister, instead sating her panic by firmly nudging Luna. That is to say, she sharply struck her sister with her shoulder.
Much to Celestia's relief, Luna immediately snapped out of her trance at the physical touch. She looked around, apparently somewhat bewildered as to how long she had been there and where Celestia had come from.
"Celestia!? W-What happened? I was just scanning him then..." Her eyes shot open as she remembered what she had experienced. "Tia! Quickly, scan him!"
"Luna, what are you going on ab-" That was as far as Celestia got before her sister started to push her towards the statue.
"I'm sure this time sister! Just trust me on this!" Luna's voice was quickly growing even more excited at the prospect of... whatever she had gone through being seen by Celestia.
Celestia sighed. She knew that when Luna got like this it was just much simpler to go along with whatever she was so worked up about.
Luna, sensing her sister's resignation, redoubled her efforts and quickly pushed her close to the statue.
Soon enough, they were once again right in front of it. Celestia could really now see that it was, oddly enough, larger than her. Significantly larger even; it stood almost three inches higher even without a pedastal. In fact, now that she thought about it, it hadn't been on one in the museum either. How very odd for such an old statue, surely the carver must have been even a bit concerned about it falling?
But then, all thoughts of that kind were banished, along with any higher thinking when Luna suddenly yelled in her ear, "You need to scan him!"
Sparing a moment to glare at her sibling, she decided she might as well; after all, what was the harm?
As she cast the spell, Celestia thought about Luna's recent obsessive behaviour. But then, she wasn't really to blame. It had been two thousand years since they last saw Terra, and though Celestia had been able to at least somewhat come to terms with the loss thanks to the constant distraction from being Equestria's ruler; Luna had been locked away on the moon for a thousand years. That kind of time alone tends to bring up things better left forgotten, such as the sudden disappearance of one of the ponies she loved most (not forgetting that Luna was doubtless rather... angry, to put it mildly, at Celestia for trapping her there), so seeing as near-perfect recreation of him would be difficult to handle. Celestia herself was having trouble coping, so this must be hellish torment for Luna.
Regardless, the spell was now ready, so she cast it, wondering just what could have Luna so excited.
She quickly discovered the reason why.
A.N. I think I'm getting into a bad habit with these cliffhangers; regardless, I am continuing to work on this, and I will not cease until it is complete, or some disaster befalls me and renders me incapable of continuing.
Expect semi-frequent updates, and as always, Peace out.
CD