//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: The Stone Queen 
// by albedoequals1 
//------------------------------//


Six Hundred Years Later


With only one mage in the city, it was no mystery what had happened.  When the ponies of Elpída learned that their beloved queen had been murdered, an angry mob seized Theristis and beat him to death.  He tried to defend himself, but that only stoked their rage.  But it was too late for Inferno and her friends.  The statues were placed in public locations around Elpída as an attempt to remember those they had lost.

With all their leaders gone, the city descended into near anarchy, and it wasn’t long before the city was conquered, almost without a fight.

The city was razed, and a new one built in its place.  The invaders took a fancy to the incredibly life-like statues, and saved them to place in the new city of Canterlot.

Centuries passed, until one day a traveling wizard happened to notice that the statues were not simple marble.  He sensed a strong aura of transmutation on the statues, and on a whim, cast a come-to-life spell on the cold marble.  The animated statues served as a curiosity for the rare pony that tried talking to them, but in the years that followed, many of the awakened statues gave in to despair as they realized their hopeless condition.  Despair gave way to insanity, and most of the statues forgot who they had been and what they had done.  Some even forgot that they had ever been anything besides a magic statue.

But Inferno remembered.  She still had someone to live for.  Day after day, when nopony was watching, she dedicated her stone mind to stretching the limits of the come-to-life spell.  She learned to move, and then to talk.  The statue with the ruby eyes had been placed in a wealthy area of the city, and the maintenance ponies cut her off of her stand for cleaning, cementing her back in place when they were done.  As soon as they were gone, she pulled her hooves loose before the cement could dry.  Finally, she could walk again.  So when a young arcanist came to her with a problem, she was ready to help.

A new emergency had arisen, and though Inferno knew these were not her ponies, she could not sit idle when there was work to be done.  The stone warrior threw herself recklessly into battle until her body was shattered by the enemy’s weapons, leaving her holding her own head in her hooves.  The enchanted stone was not so easily disenchanted though, and her false life continued.  Her new friends reattached her head and used magic to make her whole again.  Inferno’s curse had left her afraid of magic, but she was persuaded to let her friends attempt a cure.

After days of careful experimentation, an arcanist standing on a ley line was able to restore Inferno to living flesh once again, but her time as queen was past.  She had a foal to bring into the world, but maybe there was still more she could do for her ponies…


The End