Heart of stone

by Ferrus Caballio

Chapter One

Awareness was a surprise, after not feeling anything for, how long was it now? Feeling a sense of self would be the last thing you expected and yet she was aware of herself, aware in a way she hadn’t been for a long time. It was when she realised that this surprised her that she recognized the emotions flowing back to her, they all seemed new to her, it was then that she realised she had a sense of novelty. Hang on her thought processes began to work in earnest if I got a sense of self-awareness, then emotions, that means- . It was at this point that a flood of memories crashed into her head, good ones, bad ones and the worst ones, they came on, unrelenting, crushing her under their weight, threatening her newfound sense of reason.

And just as quickly, they stopped, leaving her with what could only be described as a headache, despite the fact she had no discernible anatomy to speak of.

What a great way to discover that I can feel pain. She then thought about this for a moment. Awesome! I have sarcasm!

She began to feel the reason why she had, quite literally, been pulled back together, something was calling her forward, she had a choice, she could easily ignore the call and go back to the nothing she’d been in or she could answer it.

Well, having sentient thought is kind of exciting

With that she rushed forwards all at once, into what she didn’t know.

Her first impression was one of weight, the only real way she could think of to describe was that she felt, solid, ruminating on this for a while numerous things came to her, for one she could hear, and feel the floor under the hooves she now apparently had, the subtle smells which hung in the air were painfully apparent to her having come from a place that had none, she didn’t have a chance to test her sense of taste, though, before she was asking herself why she couldn’t see in an almost indignant manner.

Because you haven’t opened your eyes yet, obviously

That thought made her feel a little stupid, of course she couldn’t see if she didn’t bother to open her eyes! Hey! Gimme a break! I’ve only had eyes for less than a minute now! Having indulged herself enough with this internal conversation she opened her eyes for the first time in… she really would have to find out how long it had been. In a day, night? Whatever, of surprises she was treated to another one when the first thing she saw was a huge pair of expectant eyes looking right into her own, causing her to reel back in surprise and crash into something, there were numerous small impacts all over her body and she looked around in confusion to find herself covered in books, why books?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight could feel her heartbeat speed up as the construct’s eyes opened, what she didn’t expect though was for it to reel backwards as if in fright and crash straight into the stored books, bringing them crashing down around it.

‘‘Ooh, that wasn’t supposed to happen.’’ It really was terribly frustrating, but at the same time it might give her a chance to test its dexterity, but she couldn’t really bring herself to trust it with books just yet, especially after what just happened. The construct was looking about itself in apparent confusion, she hadn’t expected it to display such odd behaviour, she’d thought it would be a lot more stoic and, well, rock-like, oddly enough. She nearly jumped out of her skin when it reached for a book and started flicking through the pages, before long it had parked itself on the floor and was apparently enraptured by whatever it was it was reading. It took about ten minutes for Twilight to come out of her stupor.

‘‘Excuse me.’’ She couldn’t keep the irritated edge from her voice and the construct glanced up with innocent surprise scrawled across its features.

‘‘Oh! Sorry, I must have gotten distracted! I’ve not read a book in… I really should find out how long it’s been!’’ Twilight stood there in shocked awe, her jaw working uselessly before she turned tail and bolted upstairs.

‘‘This can’t be happening! What have I done?’’ She put every kind of lock she could think of on the door to her basement along with several magical wards and even more pieces of furniture, topping it all off with the bust of some important pony from history before frantically looking around for the book she’d found the spell in, certain that there must be an answer within it somewhere. It was with a certain sense of dread (you know, the one where it feels like your heart momentarily stops) that she realised she had left it in the basement.

Heavy footsteps made their way up the stairs as the construct head for the door.

Its coming for vengeance! It knows what I did to it and now it will come and step on me, or turn me into stone to see how I like it, or make me be its slave, and then Celestia will find out what I’ve done and she’ll banish me, and then lock me up in the place she banishes me to, and then lock the construct in there with me to exact retribution, and oh dear sweet Celestia what if she banishes me to magic kindergarten and then locks me up with the construct? The children will have to watch my messy demise! Won’t anyone think of the foals and fillies? And then I’ll be punished for scarring the minds of children, I won’t get a burial! They’ll tie me to the construct and throw me in the sea! Just to teach me a lesson! And then-!

There was a knock on the door from the basement ‘‘Excuse me?’’

Twilight screamed. Later she would claim it was to buy her time in order to enact a tactical retreat, but the fact of the matter was, it was just a scream.

Five mares who had been talking to a certain worried assistant clearly heard it and burst into the library, Applejack was the first to fathom what was going on (ish) ‘‘Twilight, what in tarnation is in your basement?’’

Twilight’s voice barely broke what could be called a whimper ‘‘A construct.’’

Pinkie Pie bounced excitedly ‘‘Well that’s what you wanted isn’t it? Can we meet them?’’

‘‘No!’’

‘‘Twilight, what’s wrong?’’

‘‘It spoke!’’

‘‘Ooh, scary!’’ Rainbow Dash could not resist the urge to poke fun

‘‘It shouldn’t be able to speak! It started reading a book!’’

‘‘So let me get this straight.’’ Rarity decided to bring some clarity to the matter ‘‘You created a construct? And you ‘bought it to life’ for want of a better phrase? Then it started reading a book? And then it spoke to you? And this made you barricade it in the basement?’’

Twilight nodded ferociously throughout this.

‘‘Not being funny, sugarcube, but don’t you think that’s overreacting?’’

‘‘AJ! A construct such as that should not be capable of anything like what it’s just done! Who knows what it’ll do next!’’

As it turned out, what it did next was turn around head back down the stairs and start reading again, after all, it really was a good book.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘‘What’re we gonna do? What’re we gonna do? What’re we gonna do?’’ Twilight was jogging on the spot, unable to contain her nervous energy.

‘‘Oh forget this!’’ Rainbow Dash shot over to the impromptu barricade, which hadn’t been tested in the slightest and hauled it out of the way before beginning work on the door, this, however held tight due to Twilight’s earlier actions ‘‘Twilight! Open this door up now!’’

‘‘I can’t do that! We don’t know what might happen if we let it out!’’

‘‘I’m not talking about letting it out, we should go down there and confront it.’’

‘‘But-.’’

‘‘Twilight, darling, think about it, you just told us you created a pony out of stone, if really wanted to do something awful to you, do you not think it would be battering on the door right now?’’ It was hard to deny Rarity’s logic.

‘‘But-.’’

‘‘Yeah, Twilight, you’re always saying that everypony deserves a chance, besides you always insist on confirming the effects of your spells before we record them, so in a way we’ve gotta go see what’s down there.’’ That was just plain unfair, Spike using her own habits against her.

‘‘But-.’’

‘‘Besides you can’t just keep your basement locked up forever, sugarcube, mostly ‘cos ah know you wouldn’t be able to resist those books.’’ Applejack must have known Twilight hated the idea of leaving all the poor, innocent, books behind.

‘‘But-.’’

‘‘Ooh! Maybe it’s friendly after all, and then we can have a party! I can make rock cakes.’’ There was a pause ‘‘You know, because it’s made out of rock.’’ Pinkie’s random factor nearly threw Twilight off completely, nevertheless, she had one more go.

‘‘But-.’’

‘‘Anyway, even if it is evil, you’ll have me there, I can show any hunk of rock who’s boss.’’ Before being flattened by Rainbow Dash.

‘‘Unless it falls on you, then you’ll have to get Tank to save you.’’

‘‘Yes, thank you, Pinkie.’’

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at Pinkie’s comment, even if it was at Dash’s expense ‘‘Fine, I get what you mean, we need to tackle this problem before it gets out of proportion.’’

Twilight’s horn flared and the locks both magical and physical fell from the door as she yanked it open. There was a resounding crash as everything in the library jumped into the air about an inch before settling back down. It appeared that the construct had fallen straight through the open door, it was all the group could do to stare at it in shock, unable to find their voices.

The construct stood, its eyes glowing with a cold blue light as it looked about itself, eventually they stopped, focussing on what was most intriguing. Pinkie Pie was pulling faces and giggling at the reflection she could see in the construct’s body.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She eventually finished the book, it had not been very long, merely a short and somewhat fanciful tale, though it did make her smile, she heard raised voices from upstairs and decided that that now warranted her attention. As she stood she felt a little giddy, look at her making decisions!

Yes, you’re such a grown up little filly now!

She huffed a little in irritation, being sarcastic was fun and all but she decided she needed somepony else to use it on, otherwise she’d just end up continually undermining herself, and that wasn’t exactly a good way to use sentient thought processes now that she, well, thought about it. Putting that to the side for now she pushed an ear up against the door, just in time for it to be pulled away from her, allowing her to fall to the floor in an undignified heap. There was a moment of silence before she quickly righted herself and looked at the mares assembled before her until she noticed one of them pulling faces at her, or, more accurately, at her flank.

Before she said excuse me, she remembered how well that had gone down last time, so for no apparent reason she decided to respond in kind, well, except for the flank staring part. That was just weird.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was to everyone’s’ (except Pinkie Pie’s) great confusion when the huge stone mare turned to her and stuck out her stone tongue, while the blue orbs that were its eyes moved slightly. Everyone was speechless, though Pinkie Pie was only so because she was giggling too hard.

‘‘Y-y-you looked so silly!’’

‘‘And you did not? Why were you pulling faces anyway?’’ Despite the tone of the words there was a ghost of a smile on the construct’s face.

‘‘Because my reflection looked so silly.’’

‘‘Your reflection…?’’ The construct looked back in confusion at its own flank ‘‘Ah, I see. Why exactly am I reflective?’’

‘‘Um, I can explain?’’ Twilight squeaked.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Several undoubtedly boring minutes of getting tea and so on later)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The six ponies, one dragon and one construct were all seated around the central table in the library, Twilight, considering this to be her responsibility, choose to speak first.

‘‘Well, I guess we should start with introductions, I am Twilight Sparkle.’’

‘‘Applejack.’’

‘‘Rainbow Dash!’’

‘‘Rarity.’’

‘‘Pinkie Pie!’’

''Fluttershy.''

‘‘What was that?’’

‘‘Fluttershy.’’

‘‘One more time?’’

Twilight jumped in ‘‘Her name is Fluttershy, don’t mind it, she’s just a little… shy.’’ Clearly the name was far from being an oxymoron. ‘‘And finally this is Spike!’’

‘‘Hey! How come I didn’t get to do my own introduction?’’

‘‘Not now, Spike.’’

‘‘Well, it is a pleasure to meet you all, my name is Petra.’’

The silence was deafening, no, more than that, the silence made your eardrums want to retire, spend two years getting drunk and then declare themselves useless before hurling themselves off a skyscraper.

Petra was beginning to look a little worried. ‘‘Well, I know it’s not a great name* but it isn’t that bad, is it?’’

‘‘Well, no, but I didn’t expect you to have a name.’’

‘‘Why not?’’

‘‘Well................................................................because..............................................................................................because, YOU’REASTONECONSTRUCTTHATIMADETOHELPDOSOMEWORKANDTHENIANIMATEDYOUBUTI’MREALLYSORRYABOUTITPLEASEDON’TKILLME!’’

Petra burst out laughing, to Everyone’s surprise.

‘‘You’re ridiculous, you know that? Why would I kill you?’’

‘‘I-I don’t know, it just seems, silly, now that I say it to your face.’’

‘‘Exactly.’’

Rarity chipped in ‘‘You see darling, all you had to do was stay calm.’’

‘‘Of course, everything worked out fine, didn’t it?’’

‘‘Certainly did for me!’’ Petra replied, cheerfully, ‘‘Now that I’m back I realize how boring being dead was.’’

Everyone’s jaw hit the table with the most resounding of metaphorical thumps. It was Applejack who found her voice first.

‘‘Hang on, now, y’all are saying that before Twilight made this body and animated it you were dead, as in a dead pony?’’

‘‘No, I mean I was a dead mongoose, yes a dead pony, what else would I be?’’ Oh yes! Managed to fire off some sarcasm!

‘‘But, that wasn’t supposed to happen.’’

‘‘Really? Well, I guess we got lucky, or, at least I did.’’

‘‘So, when were you last, well, alive? Before now, I mean.’’

‘‘How long’s it been since Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon?’’

‘‘Just over a thousand.’’

‘‘As in relatively just over a thousand or literally just over a thousand?’’

‘‘About two years over a thousand.’’

‘‘Oh, so about a thousand and two years then.’’

Twilight’s eyes were on the verge of popping out of her head, she had been expecting the strange mare to use the defeat of Nightmare Moon as a reference point, not that she was going to say she died in that time period. Her curiosity was piqued.

‘‘So, hang on, you were actually around when Nightmare Moon was trying to take over?’’

‘‘Trying? She was succeeding. But, yes, I was there, and I’d really rather not talk about it.’’

‘‘Well, of course, darling, we can all understand that.’’ Rarity was giving Petra a rather appraising look.

‘‘Hang on.’’ Pinkie was glaring at Petra ‘‘If you’re from like, over a thousand years ago, how come you don’t talk all old-times-y like Princess Luna?’’

Twilight was astonished, once again Pinkie had overcome common expectation to ask a question that was surprisingly relevant, why didn’t this mare speak in a manner more similar to old Equestrian? Petra, however, had other thoughts on her mind.

‘‘Wait, Princess Luna? As in THE Princess Luna, not Nightmare Moon?’’

‘‘Yep.’’ Applejack grinned at her expression, such as it was, the eyes were still hard to understand, but the rest of her face acted just like a normal ponies’.

‘‘You have got to tell me all about this.’’

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That evening, after having told Petra the story of Nightmare Moon’s return and defeat, and having dealt with the questions she had afterward (not to mention the excited bouncing that nearly ruined the library). Twilight finally got to sit down to write a letter to the princess about the events of the day.

Dear Princess Celestia

The other day I found a book in the libraries storage containing some kinds of magic I had never seen before, one type in particular that I decided to try my hoof at, the reason I am writing to you now is that it didn’t turn out quite how I was expecting.

The magic in question was that required for the creation and animation of a construct, in this case one made out of stone, I thought the idea was fascinating, so I gathered the necessary materials and so on. Everything was going according to plan until it became apparent that I had not created an automaton but a sentient being. In fact it is even more shocking than that, it appears that I have bound the soul of a dead pony into a stone body!

As I write this she is asleep in the basement, or at least that’s what she told me she was doing, I’m not sure if she can sleep, to be honest, further research is required. She appears to be amiable and in fact quite interesting.

She tells us she died just over a thousand years ago, during the time of Nightmare Moon, at first I thought she was going to use that time frame as a reference but then she implied that she had died at the same time as the first defeat of Nightmare Moon, I cannot be absolutely certain as to whether or not this is true. Maybe there’s a record somewhere, she states that she doesn’t want to talk about it, you can’t blame a pony for not wanting to talk about her own death, though.

At the moment, we only know three things about her:

-She died just over a thousand years ago.
-She’s a mare. (I know that’s obvious, but I just included it for completeness)
-Her name is Petra.

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle

*Actually it is one of the laziest names I have ever used and I should feel ashamed. Not to mention the fact that it took me over 3,000 words just to say the name of the main character.