The Broken Statue

II
Mutual Misunderstandings

It sat in a cold, dark room, uncertain of how it had arrived. Flamelight trickled in under the threshold of the massive doors, giving it a dim view of its surroundings. It saw smooth stone walls that met at obtuse angles, giving the interior of the room an octagonal shape. A inlaid frieze ran in a ring around the top of the room, portraying a variety of quadrupedal animals it didn't recognize. Though they appeared similar in overall shape, some had wings or horns, some both, some neither.

A representation of the creatures that built this room?

It surmised that this space seemed to serve only as storage for a plethora of artifacts. Weapons, armor, and some designs for which it couldn't imagine a purpose. And itself.

The other objects it recognized, from before. The blue-skinned bipeds had hoarded them, for whatever reason. It had never seen them use the weapons or armor, just heap them up in the center of one cave or another to rust and collect dust.

Where were those beasts now? They had seemed more savage than intelligent to it, and likely incapable of the architecture used in creating its new surroundings, let alone of the relief patterns carved into its walls. Perhaps he had seen the last of them, finally?

It looked again at the carvings in the walls, and a memory began to surface. Barely awake, it had seen one of these quadrupeds approach it in the caves. Inspect it. Had they driven away the Blue-skins, and brought it here, claiming it as some prize?

Other details floated into its memory. The quadruped had donned shining armor, which had circular insignias of some sort, though it knew not what the insignias were meant to represent. Its memories of the armor gave it pause … these creatures, though intelligent and civilized, might be hostile and militaristic all the same.

Again, its eye tiredly swept across the other contents of the storage space. It had been left alone, unwatched, in this room, with all of this material.

Best not to let this opportunity go to waste.

***

Sadness and anger swirled chaotically within Princess Celestia, though one would not know it from her well-practiced, neutral expression.

A messenger pony had earlier flown unannounced into her Day Court, a scrolled parchment clutched between his teeth: a battle report, from the Captain deployed to deal with the threat of the Trolls.

Celestia had opened the report with fearful anticipation, and as her eyes quickly scanned the words therein, a knot began to form in the pit of her stomach. As Swiftwing's report detailed, by the end of that cursed day, four ponies had died on the fields of battle, two had succumbed later to grievous injuries, and a score more rested now in hospital beds. Even this number didn't include the loss of life in Stonehaven, before the guards had even arrived.

She and Luna had both underestimated the beasts, it seemed, and their folly had cost lives. Should she have sent a stronger force? Should she have gone personally to subdue the beasts, and damn the political consequences? She knew better than to chide herself like this, but did anyway.

The funerals had been dreadful affairs. She had stood before mourning ponies, her little ponies, their heads buried in their hooves as tears streaked down like rainwater, all because of her mistakes. She couldn't even remember what she had said during the ceremonies; not that it mattered, since her words had failed to comfort or sooth the pain of the dead soldiers' loved ones.

As she walked back through the palace, her head felt numb, and her eyes for awhile stared off into nothingness, and at nothing, as she struggled to cope with her latest failure. Luna had also attended the funerals, but considering the time of day, returned to sleep at the ceremonies' conclusion. Celestia envied her sister for this, and longed to also let sleep and the passage of Time help numb her pain, if only a little while.

Ironically, even though the Equestrians set their clocks by the passage of the Sun, Time wouldn't stop for the one pony who controlled its movements, to allow even the briefest rest. Celestia had her duties to perform.

One such duty, the inspection of the treasures and trinkets that Swiftwing and his platoon had recovered from the Trolls' den, had at least managed to stoke her curiosity some. A good deal of the gold and silver items could likely be melted down and minted into coin. Perhaps she could give some of the new coin as compensation to the fallen soldiers' families, she thought.

At any rate, Celestia reckoned, having something to distract her at this time would be a welcome change of pace.

She ran into Swiftwing personally on her way down to the storehouses. A twinge of worry lurked behind her eyes when she saw the bandage across his forehead, though she hid this well. Well enough for most ponies, of course, but not well enough to escape the eye of a familiar guardspony. He felt embarrassed and a little ashamed when he thought he detected her worry.

As the Princess and the Captain continued and then concluded their journey to the storehouses, Swiftwing talked animatedly of the statue he had found. “Certainly,” he said, “I've never in my life seen such a creature, even if it is just a statue, certainly.”

“Describe it to me again, please, if it is not too much trouble.”

“Certainly,” the Captain responded, before repeating his observations detailed in the earlier report. Celestia frowned to herself as she began wondering at the severity of the head wound concealed in the Captain's bandages, and decided she would speak later that week with the medical staff. The two arrived at the storehouse, and Celestia used her magic to swing open the massive doors at the entrance, a feat usually requiring the combined efforts of four able-bodied ponies.

Specks of dust danced in the light from the hallway torches that streamed into the dark storehouse interior, revealing mounds of crumpled sheets in seeming disarray, but no objects to be seen. Celestia knitted her eyebrows, and her horn lit up as she she threw more light into the massive storeroom; but this increased illumination served only to confirm that her eyes had not been tricked by the darkness. She had read of shining gold treasures in the Captain's report, so many that she should have been tripping over them already.

Celestia puzzled at the situation, and asked the Captain if they had arrived correctly. After all, she reminded the Captain (while again glancing at the bandages across his head), there were dozens of storerooms spread throughout the palace, and under the palace, and even one above the palace, formed of clouds.

The Captain, also puzzled, affirmed that they had certainly arrived at the correct place.

Just then, a skittering from within the darkened recesses of the room caught their attention; the pair shared a surprised glance, and pressed forward to investigate. Celestia's muscles tensed, and her eyes went wide, as she noticed a hulking form hiding in the darkness. She cast the light from her horn at whatever lay before them.

The Whatever in the darkness, for its part, seemed not to notice its new company, or at the very least to not care so much. The Captain inhaled sharply as he recognized a familiar shape, though somewhat different, and not appearing so broken as he remembered.

Before Celestia and the Captain stood the same statue as the latter had detailed in his report, standing on its four thin, angular legs. Its form, previously a mess of sad rust, now brilliantly reflected the Princess's cast sunbeams, its skin a mixture of silver, gold, and iron.

The Captain inhaled sharply again, filling his lungs to capacity, as the statue began acting very much unlike a statue: the ground sounded with a tak-tak-tak as the statue rapidly moved its sharp legs about, and began walking towards some previously unseen objects on the floor. A pale sky-blue light glowed from the protrusion in front of its torso as it looked around.

As the Captain stared at the creature, he noticed two new dangling shapes below the glowing blue 'eye' that had not been there before: tiny arms that ended in two long fingers and one opposing thumb, usable for manipulating or grasping small objects, he reckoned.

For the first time, other differences finally registered in the Captain's mind: two thin protrusions coming out from the back of its torso that bulged out into wide cylindrical shapes, and again tapered off to sharp points at the ends. These shapes rhythmically bobbed back and forth, reminding the Captain of wings of a sort, though these appendages looked completely incapable of flight.

The Captain stepped forward to demand that the creature identify itself, but Celestia laid a hoof across his chest, slightly shaking her head from side to side.

The blue light of its eye could be seen moving across the floor, much like the focused light beam of the specialized crystals the Captain had sometimes used in various search and rescue missions. It came to rest upon an iron weapon: a long, ancient-looking halberd. The patterns along the staff looked to resemble Griffon war markings, and must have been forged by their talons centuries ago.

In a corner of her mind, Celestia remembered that soldier Griffons specialized in the use of such weapons, being able to grip the long body of the weapon in their talons and thrust the blade forward. Some larger Griffons of yesteryear would have been capable of wielding the cumbersome weapons, but by and large Griffon warriors these days much preferred lighter-weight and more efficient spears. A Griffon halberd such as this proved a rare sight – an antique – and at the very least belonged in a museum or the Griffon embassy.

The cylindrical protrusions coming from the creature's back section began to hum, and a soft blue glow emanated from them, which matched perfectly the light from the creature's eye. Ever so slowly, a translucent, blue cloud began to seep out of from here, and then move towards the blade. The cloud was awash with tiny particles that danced back and forth; in appearance, similar to the dust in sunbeams, but in movement they reminded Celestia of a swarm of insects.

The cloud extended forth from the creature, and enveloped the blade. The latter began giving off a clanking sound as the cloud seemed to hoist it up into the air, where it then slowly spun about in place.

Celestia inhaled sharply. A soft glow, levitating and manipulating objects in the air ... Celestia and Luna had this ability, as did most unicorn ponies. Did this creature use magic, too?

Seeing the Unknown creature twirl the weapon around in its magical mist reminded Celestia of the funerals she had attended earlier in the day, and she remembered the sorrow and the tears.

She clenched her teeth and moved forward, shielding the Captain with her body. She attempted with a motion of her head to wordlessly command the Captain to retreat, though he seemed not to take notice. He stood petrified in fear or wonder, or both, and made no moves.

The creature itself also made no moves. Indeed, Celestia remarked, it had still seemed not to have noticed them approaching it from behind.

All of which could prove to be a cunning tactical ploy, Celestia thought. The Princess's mind raced as she sized up her Unknown opponent, predicting possible moves it might make and thinking of counter-moves: should it turn and lunge with the blade, an upwards push of her magic would propel it into the ceiling, opening it to further attacks; should it stab downwards at her, she could quickly fly into the air and land on the halberd's handle with her feet, immobilizing it; should it tarry too long, she could simply push forward with a large burst of magic, hopefully wrenching the weapon from its grasp.

She did not, however, want to bring her own magic into direct contact with the Unknown's. Its ominous glow sent a chill down her spine.

But the creature did not lunge, nor did it stab downwards. Instead, the halberd began twitching back and forth in the blue cloud. But no attack came.

Celestia looked on in astonishment as tiny pockmarks appeared in the form of the weapon. The weapon began corroding, right before their eyes, and broke down into hundreds of fragments. Fearing a barrage, Celestia flared up her own magic, quickly and quietly casting a large domed shield around both herself at the Captain.

Still, no attack came. Instead, the hundred fragments broke down into a thousand smaller fragments. Then, after a moment, the thousand fragments vanished into thin air as they became smaller still, as if the halberd had never even existed. The cloud slowly receded back to within the creature.

The pair of ponies watched amazed, the Captain's mouth hanging slightly open, as another two limbs then began to sprout out from the top of the torso – though, Celestia thought to herself, the process resembled more the scaffolded construction of a new building than a sapling stretching out towards the sunlight.

Iron bones morphed from nothing, and sinew of silver and gold wrapped itself around as joints audibly popped into existence, giving form to a pair of curving limbs that terminated in long, sharp-looking blades. The ponies grimaced at seeing the full length and reach of the limbs as the creature stretched the new members for the first time.

“What,” the Princess wondered aloud, “are you?” She took a few steps back.

The creature almost jumped, seemingly startled at hearing the voice of the Princess behind it. It turned around slowly to face them – tak-tak-tak – and stared into Celestia's eyes. Celestia couldn't be sure, but she had the feeling that the Unknown was seriously pondering her question.

The creature's corrosive cloud quietly buzzed in the air around it. Celestia's brow furrowed as she tried to understand what happened next: lights began to rhythmically flare up and die down within the cloud. The spectacle reminded her of reflected but unseen lightening within a storm cloud.

And then, words sprang forth into the still air. A mixture of low and high voices of different pitches sounded off, like discordant instruments in an untrained orchestra, as they called out words she couldn't understand.

Celestia tried to fumble a reply as she stared at the Unknown. “I … I'm sorry, I don't...” The Unknown stared at her for a few moments in mutual misunderstanding. It called forth a few more unrecognizable words in vain.

Then, the blue cloud, which had not but a few moments before broken an iron halberd down to vapors, rushed forth and enveloped Celestia's head.