//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 The Slab of Stone // Story: Super Stallion // by PioneerofImagination //------------------------------// Super Stallion found the gates of Tartarus were wide open and as a result many monsters that were locked were on their way out ready to once again wreck havoc. But Super Stallion had restrained several of them and was just warming up. "Well If I can take down some of the foulest creatures in Equestria without even breaking a sweat then I've gotten even stronger than I thought." "I'll break more than your sweat," a tiger head from a chimera called out. But when she charged right at Super Stallion she was hit dead on by Super Stallion's stun spell which he made quite the habit of using. But he didn't have time to mock the chimera as an all too familiar bugbear jumped down.  "I remember you," Super Stallion said as the bugbear charged at him. “And I guess you remember me.” Super Stallion then forced the bugbear almost right back into Tartarus with a single punch. "But I guess you didn't remember how badly outmatched you were." Super Stallion then got to the rest of the monsters that didn't want to fight and simply ran off.  "So much for getting back to the fire swamp," the snake head of the chimera said.  "We probably could have gotten there if we just ran for it," the goat head of the chimera said. "But no you wanted to get "that pony over there for a snack along the way." and it just happened to be Super Stallion of all ponies." "All right I get your point, get off of my back already!" "Some days I wish I could." "And here I was worried at first that this was going to be a problem like that time that Tirek-" Super Stallion stopped himself as he remembered that the very fellow he was talking about was nowhere in sight. "What's going on?" The snakehead asked. "Why did Super Stallion stop talking all of a sudden?" Super Stallion then flew straight into Tartarus as he also wondered where Cerberus was and he found him bound by powerful magic rings. Super Stallion broke Cerberus free and they got the monsters back into their cells but neither of them were able to find Tirek.  "Where did he go? Where could he have gone?" On his way out with all but 1 of the prisoners locked up again and Cerberus back in his guardian position Super Stallion got to closing the gates but saw some strange crystal that was placed inside the gate. "This has Mad Alicorn written all over it another one of her evil plans: she must have freed Tirek and escaped with him with the portal thing she does over and over again. And we still have no idea where she's hiding." *** "All right you rogues gather round," Mad Alicorn announced. "Meet the newest member of our group, Tirek." "That's Lord Tirek," Tirek who was in his 2nd form as Mad Alicorn gave him a little of her magic to help him move faster. "And it's nice to be near several ponies who from what I can tell have quite a lot of abnormally powerful magic." Suddenly Tirek received a swift but not too hard smack to the back of his head.  "Don't even think about it, “Lord Tirek." You won't be taking the power of your teammates here," Mad Alicorn ordered. "That's the least you can do for the alicorn that got you free. Stick with us and you'll find other ponies to feed on soon enough."  "Fine," Tirek reluctantly said with his arms crossed. "He new fire pony or new copy pony?" Wacko asked as he flew right in Tirek's face and Tirek had to really fight the urge to absorb his magic.   "I believe he's asking if this guy is replacing Inferno or Mimicry," Scar Flank corrected Wacko so that the others could understand.  "Who?" Tirek asked.  "Members of our group that quit," Scar Flank answered. "Oh really why is that?"  "Who cares?" Weather Warper replied. "If they're just gonna give up for whatever reason then who needs them?" "Yes," Mad Alicorn replied. "That's where you come in. We lost 2 members but now we gained 1 and we'll be getting another before too long." Suddenly Mad Alicorn opened a portal. "But before I get to that I need to get my hooves on a certain object that will also prove to be very useful to us." Mad Alicorn then went through the portal and disappeared leaving the other rogues to themselves.  "Wanna play seek and hide?" Wacko asked Tirek. "No," Tirek replied. *** "Good morning Thorax," Starlight said shortly after waking up. "Oh good morning Starlight," Thorax replied as he suddenly noticed that Starlight was having trouble keeping her eyes open as well as keeping her head up. "Rough night?" "Yeah." "The nightmares again?" "Yeah," Starlight said with a shiver. "They're getting worse, this time I could feel her breathing right on me I could just feel the murderous intent coming off her. But even after all that, the worst are still those eyes. Those cold blank soulless eyes." Starlight then shivered once again and this time nearly fell over but Thorax was able to fly over and catch her.  "Maybe you could try to take a nap that might help. This sleep problem is getting really serious it's really starting to affect you, it's even starting to affect your cutie mark." "Huh?" "See for yourself." Starlight then looked at her own flank and saw that her cutie mark was glowing. "Oh Thorax, that's not the result of a sleep problem." "It's not then what does it mean?" "It means I need to pay Twilight another visit.” After a nap and some breakfast Starlight made her way to Ponyville. "Twilight my cutie mark is-" "I know, I am the one with the map after all Starlight."  "Well where does it want me to go?"  "See for yourself." Starlight then went to the map and her jaw nearly dropped when she saw the map wanted her to go to none other than Canterlot Castle. "I know," Twilight said, sensing how shocked Starlight was. "I was quite shocked myself when I first saw it." "Wow, my first map mission and I'm supposed to go there of all places." "Yes but if the map thinks you can handle it then-" "Can you come with me?" Starlight asked which puzzled Twilight quite a bit. "Excuse me?" "Come with me. So you can help me out and make sure that I do it right." "Uh Starlight if the map wanted me to come with you then my cutie mark would be up there on it with yours." Starlight then got down on her back legs and in a pleading position once again puzzling Twilight.  "Please Twilight please come with me. I want to make absolutely sure that I don't screw this up especially if I have to help the royal sisters." "Starlight." Starlight then gave Twilight the puppy dog look and Twilight agreed to go.  "Really Twilight!"  "If you want me to go that badly I'll go but I'm only going to help you out a little." "Thank you Twilight." After leaving Spike in charge of the castle who would just locked it up once Twilight and Starlight left and go over to spend time with Rarity the 2 made it to Canterlot and said hello to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and well as their husbands Prince Squeaky Clean and Prince Swift Sweep.  "It's so nice to see you again Twilight," Celestia said as she surprised Twilight with not just a hug but a very strong hug that almost squeezed her. "I care about you so much Twilight I hope you know that.” "I can't breathe," Twilight said with her muzzle right in Celestia's chest. Celestia let go of Twilight who collapsed and Celestia helped her back up while she gasped for air.  "I'm so sorry Twilight I didn't mean to cut off your oxygen supply. I would never want to do anything to hurt you. You know that, right?" Celestia asked as she was going to pull Twilight into another hug but Twilight got away fearing the 2nd hug would be even worse than the 1st. Squeaky then went over to Celestia who had teared up a bit and separated her from Twilight. "I'm so sorry about that Twilight, Celestia has been so emotional lately, don't know why."  "Yes Twilight but I meant it when I said how much I care about you." Celestia then started to get closer to Twilight who ran all the way to where Princess Luna and Prince Swift Sweep were.  "I'm just gonna sit here with these 2 for a while."  "If that's the case would you like some of Luna's chocolate cake?" Swift Sweep asked as Twilight noticed that she was eating a whole cake by herself. "She's been eating a lot like that lately, don’t have a clue as to why."  "So good," Luna said with her muzzle full of the best chocolate cake she could find in Canterlot.  I think she got more of it on her than in her, Twilight thought to herself. "So anyway, the map sent Starlight here on a friendship mission." "It did?" Celestia asked.  "Yes princess," Starlight answered as she gave a bow. "Well there's nothing wrong here, is there Squeaky?" "Besides you working on a death grip I suppose not."  "Right sister?" "No everything's perfect as usual sister," Luna answered while still eating her chocolate cake. While Luna said that everything was fine the others even Swift Sweep could tell that she didn't quite mean it. After the royal sisters left to deal with royal duties Squeaky, Swift, Twilight, and Starlight got together to talk about it.  "As much as I hoped this wouldn't be the case I think the ones that have the friendship problem are Celestia and Luna," Twilight said.  "I know," Starlight said. "Can you say passive aggressive?" "Passive Aggressive," Swift Sweep said right away. "That was nothing here's a real hard one, grandma Moses makes munchie meatloaf most Monday mornings." "Uh, anyway maybe we can talk to them about this at some point while we're here." "Well Starlight I'm sure you can talk about them like that." "Or, we can each talk to them on our own," Starlight suggested as she gave her former teacher a big smile.  "Starlight I know you're nervous but it can't be that hard to just talk to them over the things that are upsetting them." "I guess you're right," Starlight answered. The next morning Princess Celestia made several pancake breakfasts and Squeaky helped out while he wasn't exactly a master chef; pancakes were always his specialty. They made 1 for each other, 1 for Twilight, 1 for Starlight, 1 for Swift Sweep, and 1 for Luna. "This is really good Princess Celestia thank you," Starlight said. "Oh I can't take all the credit, Squeaky helped and besides it's just my way of showing that I care." Suddenly Princess Luna came in and didn't even touch her beautiful pancake breakfast and simply took a pineapple and walked off. Swift Sweep would later come and take the pancake breakfast to her after finishing his but Celestia still wished she sat down and ate with her and the others.  Later that night Princess Luna who was more awake put some very nice flowers across the halls but Celestia was so busy talking with several ponies to even notice them. "Those flowers you placed are really nice Luna," Swift Sweep said as he was cleaning the hallway that she was walking by. "Thank you Swift Sweep, it's nice to know that somepony around here appreciates what I do to make these halls prettier." "She actually does this every night you know," Swift Sweep whispered to Starlight.  "Wow that's really nice of you Princess Luna." Starlight then figured out the things the royal pony sisters needed to talk about. So the next day Starlight waited for Luna to show up at the breakfast table and had her and Celestia talk about how they were unknowingly hurting the others feelings but things quickly got out of hoof. "Excuse me for not noticing how you put faces on pancakes. You may be a morning pony but I'm half asleep. Swift Sweep brings me those pancakes of yours when I'm more awake isn't that enough?"  "My pancakes are an act of love," Celestia said as she started to tear up a bit. "I'm sorry it's not a bunch of pretty pretty flowers you put in the hallways." "Those flowers help ponies when they sleep because of their scent and are a great decoration for those hallways. If you cared to simply look up you'd know that! Or are you just too busy looking down on everypony?" "Was that a tall joke?!" "Why did it go over your head? I doubt it, that was a tall joke." "You know you're abnormally tall too Luna!" "Not as much as you, is that why you don't see the great things I do? You think just because I'm only 1/2 your height that I only deserve 1/2 of your respect?" "I treat everypony with the respect that they deserve and I listen to the needs of all ponies!"  "Is that why Twilight stormed off after the changelings were fought off or why you 2 fought all day after you sent her to stop Sombra?"  "How dare you!" Celestia said, ready to rip Luna's head off. "And Twilight and I did not argue all day!" "You had to postpone all the meetings you had scheduled for that day and you scheduled a lot of meetings that day!" "You knew about that?" "Everypony in Canterlot knows about that!"  "Uh Twilight this is getting serious maybe we should separate them and have them talk to each other when they've calmed, Twilight?" Starlight had turned around and saw that not only was Twilight gone but Swift Sweep and Squeaky Clean were as well.  Twilight left because she saw that Celestia was getting emotional and might pull her into another death hug. Squeaky left a little before they started fighting, feeling it was about time Super Stallion went to see if he could catch any more rogues. And Swift Sweep left right when the sisters started arguing because as much as he loved Luna his father left him with a great wisdom besides his head is not battering ram, always stand by your wife but never get in the middle when mares are arguing.  "You think it's easy being me! I've made mistakes!" "Oh poor Celestia getting adored by ponies all over Equestria while I'm forced to simply work in the shadows." "Oh yes Luna you have it so hard giving ponies lovely dreams. Too bad you can't bring that loveliness with you when you wake up long enough to have breakfast with me."  "ENOUGH!" Starlight then cast a spell and Luna and Celestia were shocked to see that their cutie marks had been switched. The royal pony sisters were not happy 1 bit with Starlight. "Heh heh, they say you don't understand a pony until you walk a mile in their hooves so I figured, well you know." ***  "YOU DID WHAT?!" Twilight asked. "Look Twilight I know it seems like a bad idea but this will help the princesses see things from the other's point of view. I mean in the long run this was a good idea wasn't it?" Starlight gave Twilight a big smile who in return simply gave her a stare. "You're going to hit me on the head again aren't you?"  BONK Twilight summoned a mallet with her chaos magic that gave Starlight a rather nasty headache. "Yes I am." "Wait a minute Twilight that's it!" Starlight said excitedly. "Your chaos magic you can use that to reverse my spell." "I could, but I'm not going to." "What?"  "Time and time again I've told you that you can't solve all your problems with magic and time and time again you ignore me. If you're going to continue to repeat the same mistake over and over like an arrogant filly then you need to accept the responsibility that comes with all that. If this comes back to bite you on the rump, that's your mess to clean up."  "But Twilight-" Twilight then teleported away before Starlight could finish leaving her alone with her thoughts. "I'm sorry Twilight."  Twilight after teleporting away walked over to a balcony to clear her head. "Oh that Starlight sometimes," Twilight said to herself as she rubbed her head.  "Is everything okay Twilight?" Squeaky asked who had recently returned and Twilight filled him in on everything that happened with Starlight and the royal pony sisters. "Wow, a lot can happen in such a short time around here." Any luck finding the rogues?" "Mad Alicorn attacked a museum right here in Canterlot." "What!?" Twilight asked to go see the museum and Squeaky took her there.  "This is where most of the fighting took place," Squeaky said when they went into the museum "I tried to stop the museum from getting hit but you know Mad Alicorn."  "This is so horrible I remember going on tour after tour when I was a filly. The ponies that worked here started to know me by name." "I actually got my first job as a janitor here, my older sister set it up for me too. But all things considered it wasn't all that bad she only took 1 thing then escaped through that portal of hers for the umpteenth time." Twilight then walked over to the casing that Mad Alicorn broke into earlier.  "The Slab of Stone," Twilight said. "The Slab of Stone? Did that replace the round sphere or something? Or maybe the politician that lies." "A long time ago a pony mage corrupted by her longing for power created an artifact that would copy the ability of a cockatrice and turn ponies blasted by its magic into stone. She then named the artifact she created the Slab of Stone, she wasn't very creative. Star Swirl the Bearded caught wind of this and defeated her easily. As well as remove the artifact's magic and eventually it found its way here. "If it doesn't have its power anymore then what's even the point of taking it? Do you think she's gonna try to bring the magic back to the artifact." "I'd say you hit the nail right on the head but that would be rather difficult so hopefully we have some time on our hooves." "Well I think it's time that Super Stallion took another shot at rogue hunting." Squeaky Clean would soon excuse himself out of the museum and change into Super Stallion once he found a good hiding spot.  *** Deep in the Undiscovered West Mad Alicorn had brought back the Slab of Stone and informed the others of what she took. "So I'm guessing you already figured out how to get that slab's magic back?" Tirek asked.  "Yes, a master plan is in motion," Mad Alicorn answered. "Super Stallion has defeated us time and time again but that will be coming to an end very soon. And it starts with this and continues when the next one to join us." "So is this pony anyway?" Weather Warper asked. "Does he like playing seek and hide?"  "You'll find out soon enough and no." "Does this pony want to make some sort of grand entrance to this little party of ours?" Tirek asked.  "Something like that," Mad Alicorn answered.  "By the way something that's been bugging me for a bit," Scar Flank said. "We're still hiding in the Undiscovered West." "I think the rest of us already knew that," Weather Warper added. "What I mean is since we started hiding here we've lost 4 members but none of them have ratted out our hiding place." "I guess that they still respected us enough not to rat us out." Before Scar Flank could question that Mad Alicorn flew off to continue her master plan to defeat Super Stallion once and for all. After she left Wacko flew over to where Tirek was.  "You wanna seek and hide?" "I don't want to seek and hide," Tirek answered angrily. "What is it with you and that stupid game? And it's called hide and seek!" "Oh, you want to play that instead?" "No!"  *** Back at the castle while Starlight's idea was off to a bad start, it helped the royal pony sisters see things from each other's point of view as well as the challenges that each other faces on a daily or nightly basis. After they made up and their marks switched back, Starlight caught up with Twilight. "Well Twilight it may have been off to a bad start but I guess going with my gut worked out in the long run huh?" "That still doesn't change the fact that it was still an insanely risky move that could just have easily backfired." "Well whatever it worked didn't it?!" Starlight said angrily but also clearly rather defensive. "Besides this was my mission the map sent me and me alone, who even said that you should come here?!" "You did," Twilight answered, leaving Starlight utterly embarrassed. "You have a lot of talent, Starlight but you're too reckless for your own good. You can do great things with your magic if you think. Things. Through." Starlight then went back into the castle deciding to keep her mouth shut for a while before she said something really stupid. After Starlight left Twilight saw that Squeaky Clean had returned. "Any luck this time?" "No," Squeaky answered but then suddenly a portal opened in the sky not too far away from the castle and Mad Alicorn came out of it holding the Slab of Stone in her forelegs. "I mean yes.” Squeaky left to change while the Mad Alicorn flew towards Twilight. "I got a new toy,” Mad Alicorn said as she made the slab fire a beam that Twilight dodged. "Getting turned to stone once is more than enough for me thank you very much." "What?"  "Don't go into the Everfree Forest by yourself in the middle of the night." "What?" "It's a long story." Suddenly Super Stallion appeared ready to rumble and Mad Alicorn flew into the castle and Super Stallion, while surprised, gave chase right away. While Super Stallion was faster, Mad Alicorn attacked the castle as well as the ponies in there. "What the heck is that crazy pony planning this time?" Super Stallion asked as he got ponies out of danger. Before long the royal pony sisters became aware of the rogue that was attacking the castle and Starlight and Twilight were not too far behind.  "There you are!" Mad Alicorn yelled out as she aimed the Slab of Stone right at Princess Luna and fired another beam of magic straight at her. Starlight saw the beam coming right at Luna and pushed her out of the way but as a result she was hit by the beam. "STARLIGHT NO!"  "I could have just teleported Luna out of the line of fire with a spell," Starlight said as she was becoming stone. "You were right Twilight, I'm too careless for my own good." Starlight was then completely turned into stone and Mad Alicorn escaped via her portal spell.  “Why would she leave after hitting 1 pony?” Super Stallion asked.  Twilight stared at Starlight as Celestia came by and put her hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry Twilight, we'll find some way to free her," Celestia said.  "I just feel like there was something I could have done to prevent it."  "I understand but no good is going to come from dwelling on what you could have done. Believe me, I know.” Soon after Starlight’s statue was out somewhere safe while Celestia and Luna thought they should tell the changelings about Starlight’s condition.  They didn’t take it well. “Oh poor Starlight,” Thorax said. He and the other changelings grew rather fond of Starlight. “I feel sick," Celestia said.  "I know this is horrible."  "No I, I gotta go." Celestia then teleported to her private chambers to go put her head in her toilet as she had been dealing with a rather upset stomach. Something that Celestia had been dealing with for about a month now usually in the form of morning sickness.  It would be another month before Celestia learned she was pregnant.