“Alright, on the count of three we lift. One… Two… Three!” shouted the burly pegasus as him and two others pulled on their ropes, lifting a massive statue off the ground. With a considerable amount of effort they managed to get the hunk of marble onto the dolly. “And...There…We…Go” the leader said through his exhausted panting. The other two were equally drained from the task.
“Remind me again why we have to move this freaking thing” one of the workers asked.
“No clue, Celestia just told me that she was worried about it breaking or something so we’ve gotta get it somewhere safe.”
“What the hell it the point of it if nobody can see it? It’s a statue!” the other worker chimed in.
“Hey, don’t yell at me. You got a problem, feel free to take it up with the resident SUN GODDESS who gave us the job.”
“Alright, alright, let’s just get the stupid thing in the truck.” And with that the three started pushing the statue towards the ramp of their moving van. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t happen to see the rock that was directly in the way of one of the wheels. That little bump was all it took to send the statue straight to the ground with a sold thump.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit” the leader repeated as he looked down at the fallen statue. “Is it broken? Please don’t be broken.” The trio lifted the statue back onto its base and checked for any damage.
“I think its ok. There don’t seem to be any cracks or anything so we’re good I think.
“Thank Celestia, I would have been on the moon for sure it this thing was broken” the forepony said after a relieved sigh. “Now all we have to do is get it back on.”
After a collective groan from the other two pegesi, they lifted the statue, (again), and wheeled the dolly in without incident. With their cargo loaded they drove away without noticing the little white fang they left sitting in the impression left in the grass.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
The Canterlot sculpture garden was all but empty as a brown unicorn with a mane and a question mark on his flank walked about as a dark red pegasus with a stopwatch mark circled impatiently overhead.
The unicorn took a deep breath and sighed happily. “Are these gardens great or what?”
“I’m gonna have to go with or what on this one man” The Pegasus deadpanned.
“Hey, don’t blame me Crimson; you’re the one who agreed to come with me” the unicorn shot back.
“Yeah, cause all you said was, ‘Wanna come with me over to Canterlot?’ which for nine ponies out of ten, means having a good time. I guess it’s my fault then for thinking that Looking Glass of all ponies would be interested in having fun” Crimson Skies said while still flying around over the statues. “Why didn’t you ask Twilight to come instead? She loves this crap even more than you do.”
“For your information I already did but she was busy.” Looking Glass answered, beginning to get seriously annoyed by his ‘friend’ up above him.
“awww, poor Glassy got rejected again” The Pegasus patronized before bursting into a fit of laughter.
“Ha ha ha, look I’ll tell you what, give me 2 hours to keep looking and we can hit up a bar afterwards, deal?” Glass offered making sure to hide his slight blush.
“45 minutes”
“45 minutes! It takes longer to get back to the damn gate! An hour and a half at least.”
“One hour, any longer and I’ll carry you out myself.”
Glass let out a defeated sigh, he knew that crimson easily out matched him physically and pulling him out would take almost no effort at all. He also knew that crimson never made idle threats. “Fine one hour.” With a brohoof to seal the deal Glass got back to his walk with a more hurried pace thanks to his impatient friend’s time limit.
The hour was drawing to its end as the pair approached some of the last statues. “40 statues in forty minutes, each one less interesting than the last.” Crimson moaned in boredom induced exhaustion.
Looking Glass simply rolled his eyes. “Relax, this next one should be interesting, even to you.”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath on that.”
“Really?” Looking Glass asked as they approached the corner hiding the last statue. “Well feast your eyes on this!” he said while making a show of turning and pointing his hoof to reveal…
“Sweet Celestia, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all day.” Crimson was referring to the completely empty space that looking glass was pointing to.
“What! That doesn’t make sense, it was always here. And they couldn’t have moved it because we saw all the others” Glass said in shock. “We must have missed it. Come on, we just have to back-track a bit.”
“Oh no we won’t. We already went through that bore fest once, we are NOT going again. I was promised some cider and I intend to get it.”
“Alright fine its only one statue anyway I guess. Let’s just go and...” the rest of his sentence will forever remain unknown due to a rather rude interruption from Glass’s face meeting the ground.
“Well done Glassy, very well done. Only you could manage to trip in a completely flat garden” Crimson mocked while sarcastically applauding.
“We’ve been over this,” the fallen unicorn said, “gravity has decided to have a personal vendetta against me.”
“Oh I know exactly how you feel, that cloud over there has been stalking me for months now.” Crimson was just barely able to finish the remark be for laughing hysterically. “Maybe your parents should have gone with Shattered instead of Looking Glass.” Looking Glass simply tuned out Crimson as he slowly started to pick himself up when a small shine caught his eye.
“What’s this?” he thought out loud as he picked it up with magic. Upon close inspection it appeared to be a smooth white rock in the shape of a claw or maybe fang. “I thing part of one of the statues broke off.” Crimson as it is to be expected couldn't have cared less if he had tried.
“And your point is…?” Glass ignored the comment and continued to move the piece of marble in his magic. He could tell what but something just seemed off about it. Acting on impulse the unicorn reached out with a hoof to touch the small fragment.
The moment the two met Looking Glass felt a sudden shot of pain like a lightning bolt speed through his entire body, then he collapsed into darkness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Elsewhere:
Twilight panicked, running all over the library in a confused haste. “Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no…” repeating the two syllables endlessly as he hyperactive pink friend vibrated violently in the middle of the room. “What’s gonna happen this time? Another hydra, return of parasprites, is the Everfree Forest on fire?” in the middle of Twilight’s mental breakdown from stress Pinkie Pie simple stopped. No warning, no aftershocks, she just stopped and that was the end of it.
“All done” the pink mare said with her trademark smile plastered onto her face.
Twilight looked on in disbelief, a flat “What” being the only response she could create.
“All done.” The party pony repeated happily, “Whatever was going to happen must have happened.”
“But, but, but” Twilight repeated as she tried to understand what had happened. “I thought the shaking meant there would be a real dozy of an event.”
“So whatever happened must have been one.”
“But what happened?” the lavender mare asked pleadingly.
“How should I know? I’m not a psychic.”
“But yes you are. Remember you had that crystal ball and said I’d get a really neat birthday present?”
“You’re birthday isn’t for another 126 days, 19 hours, and 53 minutes from now. How could you know about your present already unless… OHMYGOSH! Twilight are you a psychic? Do me! Do me! What am I gonna eat for breakfast next Tuesday?” Pinkie asked excitedly as she bounced ridiculously close to Twilight’s face.
With a firm push out of her personal space Twilight responded, “First off, you always eat cake for breakfast. Secondly…”
Twilight could finish the rest of her though as she gasped loudly and dramatically. “YOU’RE RIGHT! OHMYGOSH Twilight you really are psychic!”
Twilight opened her mouth to respond but decided against it. Logic was no match to Pinkie Pie, no matter how sound, rational, or simple it may be. She simply sighed and decided to drop the subject. Whatever had just happened, it couldn’t have been too important.