The pale moonlight lightly falls on the pavement of already worn out paths. Celestia’s royal garden- carefully crafted to her majesty’s care. But it wasn’t private, of course. The princess always shares with her loyal citizens. Countless ponies of Canterlot would often visit the garden, for their own peace and quiet. But nopony visits the garden in this hour. Nopony, except for three, just tonight.
“Did we really have to go here in THIS hour?? It’s… spooky…” a young stallion’s voice slightly echoed in the garden. He seemed rather… annoyed to be there.
“Y’know, you didn’t have to come.” a young mare, presumably his age, responded. “Especially if you were gonna whine about it the whole time.” she rolled her eyes.
“I did have to come. Mom told me to watch over you, since the *INCIDENT* last time.” he hissed.
“Oh god, it was one time! And my hoof healed you know!”
“And it wasn’t even the first time you broke it.”
“Hey now-“
“Guys…” a mare their age interrupted; and if she hadn’t they probably would have gotten into an argument. “We’re here…”
A once dim light now grew into a larger one, showing each of their faces. In the back were the stallion and the mare, unicorn twins, both with a purple coat and charcoal black hair slightly swirling around itself, similar to how shadows move. (even though it wasn’t really noticeable in such darkness); Their only difference- their eyes. The mare had light blue eyes, that broke the darkness around them; Whilst the stallion had blood red eyes, fading into said darkness.
The figure in front of them was the mare that interrupted earlier. An alicorn. She was visibly larger than both of them (from the alicorn growth spurt), but still as young as they were. Her purple-blue curls reminded of cotton candy swirling around her long horn, which was encapsulated in magic. She looked determined, but in fear…
“Oh my Celestia…” the mare in the back muttered.
The light shone against another fixture. A statue, and a large one at that.
It was chiselled in a white, rough-to-the-touch stone. It was circled in different types of flora, showing it hasn’t been handled with or moved in a while. But that was the least terrifying part.
On it’s hard surface there were three figures. All shown in intense emotions. Horror, disbelief, rage- they felt oddly… real. Like they weren’t just ‘some statues’. They’ve been real. In the ALIVE sense. It was horrifying.
One of the figures in particular caught the group’s eye- especially the alicorn’s. She was a mare than couldn’t have been any younger than they were, and her emotion was… pure shock and terror. Complete and utter fear, but also surprise and confusion. The alicorn glanced at her eyes carefully. She had always been an empath, it seemed she had gotten it from her mother.
The mare behind her caught her staring. She looked back hesitantly, but eventually walked up to the alicorn in the quiet of the night.
“Flurry…” the mare mumbled, revealing the alicorn’s name. “I’m not sure about this… we- we don’t know who they are, and if they were turned to stone then it may have been for a reason… Maybe we shouldn’t do this ourselves… maybe… maybe someone else could…” The mare had gone quiet. She was nervous about what might happen, but it seemed like she cared more about the alicorn’s safety than her own.
Flurry looked back at the mare softly, her teal blue eyes breaking through the darkness. “I know you’re afraid. None of us know who they were or what happened to them. But think about that for a second… we don’t know why they were petrified. Who knows if it was done for a good reason or not. Maybe they were turned to stone for something silly, or…” she looked back at the young mare, and the horror in her eyes. After a short period of silence, Flurry spoke again.
“Look at her. She couldn’t have been younger than any of us. She looks terrified. I have no idea what she’s done or if she even deserved it- but I can’t let any life- let alone possibly innocent- go to waste.” She then looked back at the mare and her face brightened up again in a soft smile. “Dawn, you are my closest friend. I know to listen to you, since you usually make a better point than mine” they both lightly giggled after that sentence. “But you must understand what I’m doing. And I don’t think you could change my mind.” Her face froze cold again. Dawn looked down with a somewhat bittersweet expression.
The silence was deafening.
“Just- don’t use too much magic, okay?” Dawn finally spoke. “I know how you get when you work yourself out too much.” Flurry let out a chuckle and they embraced in a sweet hug. Dawn’s grip got tighter, but she soon let go.
Dawn stepped back and stood next to her brother, slightly bickering but mostly ignoring each other. Their little teases were stopped once they noticed what Flurry was doing.
Her magic started to get stronger, although she was visibly struggling. It was escalating to the point where the entire garden was lit up like it was just noon. She was shaking, which let to Dawn wanting to stop her, but her brother held her back.
Finally, a burst of light filled the garden and maybe the entirety of Canterlot. Let’s hope they didn’t make a scene, or worse- woke up the princesses.
Not only was the statue breaking apart but also was the ground, and the paths that connected the garden were now unrecognisable, filled with cracks.
The light finally dimmed down, and the ground stopped shaking. Flurry fell to the floor and Dawn ran to her. But they couldn’t say anything, from what- or should I say WHO- they were looking at.
In front of them laid a lifeless body of the once petrified statue, and now well alive mare. she had a pink coat, blue curled hair of an older style, wrapped in a yellow ribbon, and a chess piece cutie mark.
Her name was Cozy Glow. And she was back.
