The Rise of Passion

The Canterlot gardens were a beautiful place. All day, citizens could be granted a pass from the head gardener to look around, smell the flora, discuss botany and learn. That last one was an addition from Princess Twilight, herself. Several classes had come here since her coronation, whether to study arrangements, biology, or masonry. But the two figures stepping into the hedge maze this evening were not interested in learning how to best care for their tulips or what kind of chisel would keep them from damaging their marble. They were after something else.

"Are you sure nopony's going to know about this?" asked Gallus. "Seems awfully risky..."

Starlight stopped and turned around. "Let me tell you something about risk, Gallus. If you were to turn around right now and head back inside, the guard would ask you if you found your library book. Since you don't have one to show him, he'd let you go and come out here himself and find me. You would immediately be under suspicion, especially because a whole team of guards would scour the gardens looking for your little lost book, which we all know is made up. You can fold now if you wish, but all of your chips are already on the table. You will lose everything."

Gallus scratched the back of his neck. "It's just, we're right under the princesses' collective noses. Shouldn't we, you know, try to move the statue somewhere else first?"

Starlight shook her head. "That's too suspicious. They'll start asking why, and if we can keep our cards close to our chest, we can hold out until the river."

"Enough with the poker references!" grunted Gallus. "I will fly right up to Luna's balcony and tell her what you're doing."

"Princess Luna is not here. That's why I told you to come out here tonight."

Their destination was deep in the center of the hedge maze, inside of a locked glass dome. Gallus, having performed his tasks of being a model student, had taken some elective classes in the field of personal security, meaning it was not at all odd when he started looking into lock design. Unfortunately, knowing how to make a lock work made it all too easy to figure out how to make it not work, and Gallus was a clever student. It was no trouble at all to pick his way through with a hardened paper clip and an aluminum can, once he knew how.

The door swung open and the two walked in. Many beautiful statues lined the path, many the works of aspiring students and others the work of great masters. But neither Starlight nor Gallus cared about any of them. There was something far more important at the center of the building.

"I'd almost forgotten what she looked like," said Gallus, running his claw along the statue's cheek.

"That one's Tirek, dumbass," spat Starlight. "We're not here for him." Her horn lit up, lightly illuminating the stone trio. It had been a dark blob in the shadow of the structural beams, but now it was clearly marked who was who.

"Okay, we found them," nodded Gallus. "Now what?"

"Now? We hope that the spell I learned from Twilight works."

"Hope? Shouldn't you know already? This is all too far along for just a hope. What testing have you done?"

"I tested it on a rabbit once. Not as good a field test as I was hoping for, and this is a far different mechanism, so I hope that this is enough to do what we need. Now shush, I need to concentrate."

As Starlight's horn began to charge with different magicks, Gallus sat down on the plinth between Chrysalis's outstretched legs. "Where'd you even learn that spell? Wouldn't the princesses keep a spell like that under tight scrutiny?"

"Normally, yes," agreed Starlight. "I actually don't know if this will work, because it's a homebrew from a lesser spell that's meant to do the same thing."

"Wait, really?"

Starlight stopped. "Are you going to keep distracting me? I need to concentrate."

Gallus folded his arms. "This is a spell that can free the greatest threats to Equestria. With it, you can free Tirek, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and previously, Discord. It just seems really odd to me that something that has such potential to damage the world so completely would be something you can just make up."

A tiny bolt fired from Starlight's horn and turned Gallus's beak to stone. "That's because it's not, Gallus. Not for the normal pony, of course. I have unique means and will." Her horn fired again, and the beak turned back. "Now it's been tested on both bunny and birdie."

"Just tell me how, and I'll stop asking."

Starlight nodded. "Two years ago, Fluttershy was having trouble with a cockatrice. She wanted Twilight's help, but thankfully, she was busy. So, I volunteered. Twilight was happy to teach me a spell to turn cockatrice victims back from stone."

Gallus scowled. "That's it?"

"Not at all. It was merely a template. Don't ever forget that I'm one of the cleverest, most versatile mages in all of Equestria. It was a challenge putting this spell together backwards, but I did it. I've had it in my back pocket for quite some time, too, but I can't just ask Celestia and Luna to start turning ponies to stone so I can figure out how to break them out."

"Then how come no one else ever figured it out?"

"Somepony probably could," agreed Starlight, "but they didn't want to use it that way. Think of it this way. If Applejack wanted to, she has all of the components required to build an explosive powerful enough to cause a landslide that would wipe Canterlot off the side of this mountain. Why doesn't she blow it up? Hm?"

Gallus slowly nodded. "Good point."

Starlight's horn began to glow again as she filtered her will through it. "Here goes nothing," she said as the bolt launched from her horn into Cozy's frozen chest.

For a minute, the room was still. "I guess that really was nothing," teased Gallus. "Oh, well. It was wo--"

He was cut off as Cozy began to glow. Her stony hide rumbled and cracked, finally shattering away in a small explosion, leaving bits of broken stone shell everywhere. At the center of it all, Cozy lay unconscious.

"Perfect," smiled Starlight giddily. She turned to Gallus and gave him a hammer. "Smash some of the statues," she commanded as she hoisted Cozy onto her back. "Make sure you break your own."

"Are you crazy?" he growled. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to carve that?"

"Be a victim, and you can avoid blame," answered Starlight. "That's something I learned from Cozy Glow. Draw attention away from us, and onto somepony else. Somepony who might be trying to move ahead, if you know one who's just begging for attention."

"Why don't you do it?"

Starlight chuckled. "I have to take her somewhere safe. I'll be back soon with further instructions, just smashy smashy."

With a flash, she was gone, and Gallus was left holding a hammer. With a deep breath and a sigh, he began to break apart the stone creations. He wasn't that mad about it, as the statue he was carving wasn't going to win an award, anyway, but if it was destroyed, maybe he' be given a consolation B instead of the D he was expecting.