What happens to Golly?

by Golly4Ever

Reach Out and Touch Somepony

It was a warm, sunny day in Canterlot where Ms. Cheerilee was with her class on their annual field trip to the castle’s prison-statue garden, discussing the various inhabitants and the arbitrary meanings assigned to them. It was time for the group to move on when Astral, a curious young blank-flank unicorn, hung back and got a little too close to the infamous statue of Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow. While most ponies viewed the statue as a whole, Astral couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Cozy and her story as told by Cheerilee. There was sadness in the old mare’s voice as she discussed the statue's history. Astral was unable to see the villainy in the scared little filly at the top of the monument. She gazed into its wide, fearful, and unblinking eyes as they stared out at those who had cast her fate so many years ago.

‘This statue…’ thought the small purple filly. It was once a living being. Everything in the garden used to live, possibly love; used to feel. The longer she stared, the closer of a connection she felt. ‘She’s just as old as me.’

Astral was saddened. Her first instinct was to cry out from an indescribable pang coming from deep inside her very core. She could hear it. It was a faint voice, lost, looking for a way out. It was in her head. The longer she stared at the statue before her, the clearer she could hear it call.

Astral shook her head, blinking her eyes. It was then that she discovered she had unconsciously approached the statue and even put her hooves up on it. ‘No.’ It wasn’t in her head. It was coming from outside; from the statue itself! She could sense it. It was calling out, not to her, but to anypony who could hear and possibly even answer; anypony who would listen. Astral used her magic to spark a tiny link with the young voice she could telepathically hear crying from within the statue.

Anger, loneliness, fear, sadness. Dark. Cold. Regret, lost, confusion. One at a time, one after another, all at once… The torrent of emotions that had flooded into Astral was a shocking surprise and almost too much to take in. Feeling dizzy and momentarily dazed, Astral jumped back, breaking her link with the statue. She shook her head clear and looked up at the frozen filly's face from her newfound perspective.

"What was that?" she asked herself in a whisper. The statue didn't answer. Astral didn't notice that nopony else was around. The class had left her behind, again. The fur of her coat stood on end as a chill ran down her back. Whatever it was, she had to have more. She demanded it.

Astral stepped back in and closed her eyes, concentrating harder. Not just any unicorn could do what she could. She had only ever pulled off a deliberate telepathic connection to another pony just a few times before, and never had it been anything more than mostly an overall insight into what the pony was feeling. This was new territory for her, but she just had to know. The tip of her horn lit up and the link was made once again.

"Um, hello?" Astral’s telepathic voice was a glimmer of light in the darkness of a stone prison, a beacon of hope, far off in the distance, seemingly just out of reach.

The crying abruptly stopped with a gasp, settling into a much softer sob. "H-Hello? Is somepony out there? What's happening? Where are you? Who are you?” It was the voice of the statue. It was Cozy Glow. Astral was sure of it. “Where am I?” asked Cozy, the voice of her thoughts filled with panic.

Astral replied with her own set of questions. "Cozy Glow? Is that you? Is it true what they say about you? Did you really do all those bad things years ago? Why?"

Cozy took a moment to calm herself down and settled a little bit, but sounding angry tried to shift the blame. Her thoughts had shifted from a suspicious sad and sorrowful tone to sharp and spiteful."It's all Chrysalis and Tirek's fault. I wanted to make friends but they forced me to be bad. It was-"

Astral interrupted. "No. I can feel it when you lie to me. I see... your intentions. But you're not a bad pony, I can feel that too.” A great deal of effort had to be put into not being distracted by the fascination of such a clear connection; it was like a new drug, and Astral needed her fix. The outside world had been completely tuned out. It was just her and Cozy now, together in the infinite, cold darkness of the stone prison. There was no light, no color, and no form, just pure thought, and emotion.

The two sat in telepathic silence for a moment before Cozy’s sobbing returned, this time with a more sincere feeling of only sadness and regret.

Keep talking.

“My name’s Astral Bell, but everypony just calls me Astral. Why’d you do all those bad things?” Her mental voice remained calm and curious.

The sobbing quieted down and slowed to a stop.

"Cozy?" asked Astral.

"Because, friendship... is power," said Cozy, slowly.

"But why would you need pow-" Astral was interrupted by the feeling of a small rock striking her side and an outside voice calling to her.

"Astral? Astral! Hey Blank Flank! Are you going to pray to that statue all day? Ms. Cheerilee says it's lunchtime. C'mon, hurry up already! We’re gonna leave you behind again and I'll eat your lunch!" said a classmate.

The link was broken. Astral took one last look up at Cozy Glow before trotting off to rejoin the group. It would not be the last time she made the connection to the only pony that would willingly talk to her.

Cozy was left with Astral’s question. "Why do you need power?" she thought to herself. It echoed in her mind for days, weeks, possibly moons, or even years on the outside. In stone, the concept of time tended to fade after a while. Every moment alone became an eternity. Somepony was out there, though. It was a warm voice in the cold of the never-ending darkness of her stone prison; a kind voice. She yearned to hear it once more.

Author's Note:

[special thanks to Kumi Yi for the in-story artwork, go check her out on Instagram!]

Alright, this is it, everyone. The fanfic that started it all for me, writing-wise*. It was originally a small green in the /golly/ thread ending at: "Um... Hello?"

Readers wanted more, so I gave them more, then suddenly I had an actual little story going and one thing led to another until I had something completed and later even added an epilogue.

Then came the process of de>greening it, cleaning it up and fleshing it out. Astral and Cozy's story didn't end there, though. I went on to write much more, which I am now working on finally getting posted to here on Fimfiction, one chapter at a time.

If you've already read it all before, it may be worth reading one more time as I am working hard to make one final pass at the story, bringing its contents up to par with my current standard, having taken in all the comments, complaints and suggestions received in the time since its original posting.

As always, I read and greatly appreciate anything and everything you might have to say, so please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Thanks again!
Golly4Ever

Comments

[Wild Stallion]

Sweet. Kind of rushed, but sweet. The plot is decent, the characterization is pretty good. It's sparse, but well developed for what is there. I really enjoyed the concept and I think you could do a lot of fun stuff with it. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Ciphers]

‘ No. ’ It wasn’t in her head. It was coming from outside her head; from the statue itself! She could sense it. It was calling out; not to her, but to anypony who could hear and possibly even answer; anypony who would listen. Astral used her magic to spark a tiny link with the young voice she could telepathically hear crying from within the statue.

‘ No. ’ It wasn’t in her head. It was coming from outside her head; from the statue itself! She could sense it. It was calling out; not to her, but to anypony who could hear and possibly even answer; anypony who would listen. Astral used her magic to spark a tiny link with the young voice she could telepathically hear crying from within the statue.

interesting,a filly capable of using conplex spell and detect Cozy lies despire being a blankflanl,Astral is not what she seems

[Golly4Ever]

11087716
Interesting indeed! Astral will get her very own story eventually. I'd say at this point, she's halfway through earning her cutie mark. She's aware of her special talent by now; that it is something special that no other pony around can do. To other unicorns, it may be a complex spell, but for Astral, it's something that she just does, but has yet to gain the ability to fully control it at will without having to concentrate so hard on it, and of course, hasn't realized just how important it will be to her for the rest of her life.

That brings an interesting point, though: Telepathy being a complex spell. I like to view magic use as learnable and trainable spells for most unicorns that are willing to put in the work to learn them; the difficulty varying from pony to pony and how in tune they are with their natural energy and capability to harness and channel it. --That is, unless it happens to be your natural talent. Most ponies would have to learn to teleport efficiently and safely- not to displace living matter in the space they're teleporting to, how to detect magic resistance objects so they don't slam themselves into a wall or worse, become part of one. But if teleportation is your natural talent, you would just know this stuff intuitively. You might not be good at it at first, but the initial steps to pull it off would come naturally (and awkwardly, like magic puberty [teleporting without your clothes, or mane and tail, not maintaining your spatial orientation at the destination site, bringing parts of your previous environment with you, etc]). I can't speak for Pumpkin Cake, though. Maybe unicorn infants come with varying degrees of "wild magic" passed down from their parents, just like their initial immune system, and once it wears off, the infant becomes relatively inert until their own traits begin to develop and take place. Flurryheart is a whole other can of beans, though that I'd rather not explore here.

Thanks for reading! I hope you stick around for the rest of it.

[Golly4Ever]

11087382
Strap in, 'cause we're just getting started! Many adventures (and misadventures!) await Cozy and Astral (though mostly Cozy) once we get through this initial story, setting us up for the long run!

[asdtroi8895]

That poor filly. Good thing that Astral at least sees how what they did to her was so fundamentally wrong.

[MorinoHisashi]

Bro how is Astral Bell a blankflank with this telepathy of hers? Is telepathy such a common skill in equestria that no single pony can have it as their Magic Talent?? She needs to have her Cutie Mark by now with how aware she is of her Telepathy!!

[Golly4Ever]

11848919
Good question!
"Blank Flank" is really a holdover from the very first iteration of the story where she didn't even have a name. I decided to keep it that way for a little bit of flavor. Her powers are really starting to manifest at this point though, and she is no doubt very close to getting her mark. She'll get her own "coming of age" story eventually, that covers all the time leading up to to this point through to the end of this story.