Twilight walked through the Royal Gardens, past the many ornate statues of ponies holding scrolls and flags, exquisitely carved. It's as if they were once alive she thought. Then a horrible thought came to her. Discord's mad ranting, before the stone covered his mouth. "I never turned ponies into stone!" Discord-we had to do that to him, as he was immortal, insane, and hugely powerful. It was the only way to control his chaos. But...are these statues...really petrified ponies? No, no, Celestia is kind and sweet and caring, and she would never do that to us. Would she? I know an unpetrification spell, and as it only works on living things and not the dead or inanimate objects, it is perfectly safe to test it upon one of these statues. Which one? That one, over there, the one holding the scroll. She felt her horn warm up and glow as she chanted the words of the spell, and then brushed her head as a speck of dust fell upon it. There was a crackling sound and as she looked up at the statue, she saw to her horror that the face of the statue had turned already into a real, flesh and blood pony,with blue fur and a golden mane, that blinked a few times and looked at her.
No, no, I can't turn you back, whoever you are, or Celestia will find out and be furious at me and she might even turn me into stone forever! As she stopped and reversed the petrification spell, and the stone began to reform again, the pony's face took on a look of sheer horror and it let out a piercing scream. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Then the stone closed up over it's mouth and the rest of it's head and what was left was a statue of a pony with it's mouth open in a silent scream and a look of horror in it's eyes.
What have I done? It's, what Discord said was true, Celestia really does turn ponies...ponies like me, into stone! She'll find out, she heard the scream, I know she has. She'll come here and turn me into stone... She lay there, shaking with fear, until she heard a voice. The very last voice that she wanted to hear right now.
"What are you so scared about, Twilight? And what was that horrible scream?" Princess Celestia saw that the look upon the statue's face had changed and she glared angrily at Twilight. Who noticed that her crown was now different and the Elements of Harmony themselves had been worked into it. "You nearly turned that statue into flesh again, didn't you? Since you now know the secret of the Canterlot Gardens, I may as well tell you everything. But don't you dare tell anypony about it, and I mean anypony, or-or there will soon be a new statue within the gardens, a statue of Twilight Sparkle. I want my ponies to love me, not to fear me. Each one of the statues are fully awake and alert...they cannot move a millimeter, but they can see, they can hear, smell and feel. And of course, they can think. If they get an itch, there is no scratching it. They burn in the sun, they freeze in the snow, they have nothing to do and nowhere to go. Hey, now I'm sounding like Zecora. The real punishment is of course the sheer boredom and knowing that life is going on without them, decade after decade, century after century."
"But that's truly horrible and heartless to do such a thing to those poor little ponies. Can't you let me turn them back...please?"
"No. These ponies are the worst of the very worst. Each of them has committed either a very serious criminal offense, or a very serious political offense. I don't have the time to say what they all did, so I'll just pick the nearest six. This one..." and with her hoof she indicated an earth pony statue with a poofy mane who looked a lot like Pinkie Pie down to the three balloons cutie mark "was a baker and one of the Mane Six two centuries ago. Until ponies started getting cupcakes with..." She screwed up her regal face at the memory of it "with meat in them. I bit into one of said cupcakes."
"That's disgusting," Twilight said.
"It gets worse. By itself, that would mean jail time, but not an eternity in stone. It was found that she had gone insane and kidnapped ponies, tied them up, cut them into little pieces whilst alive and undrugged so they could feel the pain. Amongst those who she did this to was one of Cloudsdale's finest ponies, another of the Mane Six of the time. She then mixed the pies with fruit and sold her...mince pies, to other ponies. Some of which didn't detect the pony meat and...ate it. So that is why the Cupcakes Killer was turned into stone, so she could feel the anguish that she made her victims feel. Would you have me set her loose?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, of course not."
"Then we have the pony with the scroll, the one you very nearly freed from the spell. He, without my permission, was working on a spell. Not just any spell, but a mega-spell, one capable of affecting a whole city at once. And the spell was one of balefire, one capable of burning an entire city the size of Manehatten to the ground, doing radiation damage to those ponies who somehow survived so that they would die slowly in sickness and great pain. He said he had made it for the defense of Equestria but when I ordered the spell destroyed and refused to pay him for the time and trouble he had taken, he very stupidly lost his temper with me. He said that maybe the Griffin Kingdom would be willing to pay for his work. There was no way I could let him sell his balefire spell to the Griffins. If they got hold of it, I would have had to get it too. And if it was ever used we could end up in a Fallout Equestria situation, with the few ponies that survive having to live in underground stables. So for the safety of everybody in Equestria I froze him into stone. Would you have him freed?"
"No, your Majesty, I care about Equestria's future as much as you do."
"The pony flying that flag over there is one of Nightmare Moon's most feared generals. Whilst Equestria has been at peace for centuries, it was not always so. Once ponies slaughtered each other, raped each other, tortured each other, and General Swift Sword was responsible for the burning of many a town. Given a pardon in the interests of peace and reconciliation when Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon, how did he repay me? By plotting to bring her back. As far as I was concerned, that was the last straw and I turned him to stone for High Treason. Equestria is very much better off without him. Don't you agree?"
"Well...yes."
"That alicorn statue over there-the one who looks just like me? She's a Changeling who thought that it would be a great idea to impersonate me to stock up on love. And to put her signature on decrees of her own. I made an example of her as a warning to those who would repeat her offense. Back then the fact that I turned ponies into stone was no secret. Changelings are bad news as you found out at the royal wedding."
Twilight nodded.
"There are also the political offenders who if I set them free might threaten my throne. That bowing Pegasus over there tucked into a corner of the garden is Mighty Quill. He wrote pamphlets against me, trying to make me let my sister come back from the Moon, and led a demonstration against me of many thousands of ponies. There have been no more demonstrations since I turned him into stone. He's been here for five hundred years, seven months and twenty days, and is most likely insane from boredom.I found from trial and error that ponies who have been frozen in stone too long either go catatonic when set free, try and attack me, or else sooner or later repeat their offenses wanting revenge.He will never taste freedom again."
"Princess...your Majesty, aren't you being a bit harsh? What he did was nothing like the others."
"If I was to let you little ponies get away with demonstrating against me, you'd start demanding political reform sooner or later with me as just a royal figurehead, and there is no way in Tartarus that I would ever let that happen."
Seeing another statue, that of a pony that looked very like Twilight, Celestia walked up to it and kissed it's hard granite cheek.
"This one...she's the only one who has done nothing wrong. I loved her...she was my first love, and came down with an illness which in those days was incurable, and rather then let her die I...I turned her into stone. It was only meant to be for a few days or weeks until the Royal Doctors could cure her. I had her in my throne room. I talked to her often, I had my jesters preform in front of her, to keep her amused and sane. But months turned into years and I fell in love with another pony, and..." A tear fell from Celestia's eye. "instead of turning her back to flesh, I moved her to the Canterlot Royal Gardens. By the time the cure was invented for her illness, nine hundred years had passed. For nine centuries she has baked in the summer and frozen in the winter. If I were to bring her back...what would be the point? She must be crazier then Discord by now."
"If indeed she has nothing wrong, then why not bring her back to life? Nurse Redheart could cure her and I could ease her back into living again," Twilight suggested.
"I'll think about it," Celestia said. "For now, I would like to ask you to leave, as I have a private meeting with Filthy Rich today."
Twilight sighed and went up to the statue that looked so much like herself. "Don't worry, I'll see if I can get you changed back. Unlike the others you really don't deserve to be here." What sort of meeting is this, that even I, the Princess's personal student and one of the Mane Six, cannot attend? And why has the Princess had the Elements of Harmony worked into her crown like that? I think I'll pretend to go and then secretly watch what happens. Nopony will ever know that I did it. So she left and then crept back to see what was happening and hopefully eavesdrop as well.
Celestia smiled as she watched Filthy Rich trot up to him, with his daughter Diamond Tiara beside him but it was a smile with no warmth in it. Filthy bowed low to his Princess.
"As everypony knows, Princess Cadence was kidnapped by Queen Chrysalis and her changelings, ruining the Royal Wedding and causing chaos in Canterlot. The thing is...they were only able to do so because they were tipped off by somepony,and only four ponies other then Cadence knew her route. Me, my sister, Shining Armour were the first three. There is no way any of us would have betrayed her-she's the love of Shining Armour's life,and neither me nor Luna would hand our niece into the hooves of the Changelings. Which leaves the fourth pony-you.How many bits were you paid to betray my niece, Filthy?"
"There is no way that I would ever do such a thing! For a start, I'm one of the richest ponies in Equestria,certainly the richest earth pony. I'd have far more to lose then I ever would have to gain from such a thing. I have no need to gain money from selling state secrets; but if you really think that I betrayed your niece, then grant me a formal trial before the Equestrian court system and prove my guilt."
"Such a thing would be embarrassing for me." The elements glowed brightly, and Filthy let out a scream and tried to run, as his legs lost their color and turned into immobile gray stone. "What are you doing to me? I never betrayed your family..."
"Look around you whilst you still can, Filthy. All those statues around you are living, alert ponies encased in stone, unable to move or speak, and you are going to join their number, forever frozen in one position."
Diamond Tiara went up and knelt low by Princess Celestia. "Your Majesty, I beg you, please, please don't do this to my father, it would be a living death for him. I can offer you..."
Princess Celestia sneered and said "What can you possibly offer me, little filly? From the taxes I have all the bits I need to run Equestria."
Diamond made an attempt to look sexy and wiggled. "Bump, bump, sugarlump...rump..." and the Princess kicked her and sent her sprawling. "I'm a millennium old and you are underage. Oh, and if you tell anypony about this, there will soon be a little Diamond Tiara statue in my Garden." She finished the spell and Filthy's protests were cut off as his entire body turned to stone. Diamond Tiara burst into tears, ran up to the statue, hugged it and kissed it's forehead.
I will find a way to free you and every single statue in this garden-even Discord. And then we'll see how well Celestia copes with the chaos I unleash. Celestia, like everypony I worshiped you and thought everything you did for Equestria was right. And in fact you are so cruel and uncaring as to trap my father in stone without even a formal hearing. You will wish you had never done this to my father, I promise. "Your Majesty, at least let me take Daddy home with me where he belongs?" Diamond managed to ask through her tears.
Celestia smirked. "No, he will stay here in the garden, getting cooked or frozen depending upon the season and getting crapped on by the birds as part of his punishment. Do you want to join him? If not, leave now whilst you still can and remember my warning."
"Farewell, Daddy, I'll visit you often if I'm allowed to." Diamond managed to force herself to stop crying. Don't get unhappy, get even. And I think I know what to do. Recently Twilight Sparkle made a cockatrice healing spell public, as such a spell would benefit everypony. I find it, get back here, free my father, then Discord, and then as many ponies as I can. Discord may be fearsome, but surely he would not harm the pony that set him free? Celestia, my goddess no longer, you'll be sorry when your life falls down around your ears. And she set off to the Ponyville library to find the spell, looking around every now and then to make sure she was not being followed by anypony, least of all Celestia. If I try this and fail and get caught, I too will be turned to stone and most likely be left staring forever into my father's eyes whilst I slowly go insane from boredom. But I can't just leave him there.
Finding the spell was easy enough, as was making a note of it, holding the pencil in her mouth. Then she went back to the Canterlot Royal Gardens, expecting Celestia or a posse of Royal Guards to be lying in wait for her. But apparently nopony was there, so she went not to her father first of all, but to the great statue of Discord. From what little I have heard, he's a very dangerous being, a spirit of pure chaos, but he won't harm, me and he will go after Celestia for me. She spoke the spell and the stone began to melt away, revealing skin in it's place. The many limbed creature blinked, stretched, scratched it's belly with a paw, and then focused upon Diamond Tiara.
"Thank you so much, it is wonderful to be able to move and speak again. When I cause chaos, you and your father will be spared from the consequences since you set me free." And he vanished with a light popping sound. Diamond Tiara went from pony to pony setting them free and only then did she cast the spell upon her father and wrap her legs around him, pressing a kiss upon his forehead.
"Thank you for setting me free, but did you really have to free Discord as well? Who knows what he'll do?" Above them the clouds merged together as if pushed together by an entire air wing of pegusai and there was a bolt of lightning, a loud clap of thunder, and it began pouring down chocolate rain. Except on Diamond Tiara and her father; the drops all avoided them, turning aside so not a single drop smeared their coats.
