//------------------------------// // Canterlot Gardens // Story: Two Nymphs, One Pony // by CitreneSkys //------------------------------// Teal eyes fluttered open as Fluttershy yawned. The rays of sunlight filtering in through the open window, casting its warm light on her body. Groggily, she stumbled to her hooves looking around. Where am I- Oh. Right. I’m at Twilight’s place... Rubbing her eyes, she gazed around the room. From the celling hung an orange hammock, slightly swaying in the open air. A purple unicorn was curled up in the hanging fabric, her tail twitching every so often. Soft snores were loud in the quiet room, and Fluttershy rolled her eyes. Steadily, she detangled herself from the navy blanket, stepping onto the carpeted floor. Muffled hoof steps trotted closer, and Fluttershy tapped her friend’s shoulder. Twilight jumped from her sleep, falling face first into the floor. The winged mare winced, helping the unicorn up. “Ow, that hurt.” “Sorry...” “No no, it’s fine,” Twilight rubbed her temples, blinking rapidly as the sun went into her eyes. She laughed. “You wanna get breakfast?” “Sure!” Fluttershy gave a soft smile. “Um...where’s your bathroom? I want to wash up a bit before...” “Next door over,” Twilight yawned, encasing a hairbrush on her desk with her magenta magic. Leaving the unicorn the tidy her hair, Fluttershy stepped out of the room. She found the room rather easily, opening the white scribbled-on door. Pushing her tired hooves towards the pristine sink, she turn the faucet handle. Running water washed against her hoof, the cool water slowly walking her up. Flapping out her wings, she pressed the water to her face. Cleaning out the cobwebs of her mind, she sighed. A yellow hoof ran through her tangled mane, loosely brushing out the knots that had formed over night. Finally turning off the sink, she gave one last yawn. Trotting out the bathroom door, she looked around for a bit. Turning towards the staircase that led downstairs, she descended down it. “Good morning, Fluttershy!” A mare called, and the pegasus looked up. Teal eyes traveled the room until she meet with arctic blue ones. Velvet waved towards her guest, beckoning her towards the table. Simply smiling, she trotted over towards the dinning table. Twilight was already sitting in one of the cushioned seats, already looking a lot more awake the she was. “Would you like pancakes or waffles?” Velvet asked, levitating two plates onto the table. There was crash and clang coming from inside the kitchen, and Fluttershy assumed Night Light was busy with the food. “A waffle is fine,” she replied, crawling into the cushioned seat. The grey mare nodded, preceding to call out to her husband. “Thank you for letting me stay here, Miss Velvet.” “My pleasure!” The older unicorn smiled assuringly, snorting. “Please, you are a friend of my daughter, no need to use ‘miss’ in this house!” Fluttershy quickly obliged, tapping her hooves together. The winged mare couldn’t help but feel out of place on the table, but she didn’t mention anything to the welcoming hosts. “So what are you girls doing today?” Blue eyes turned towards the lavender unicorn. Twilight looked up from her pancakes, the fork still in her mouth. Taking the end of the utensil with her magic, she tapped her chin. “Fluttershy and I are going to see Princess Celestia tomorrow, so I thought I show her around Canterlot today. She’s never been here, so sightseeing and shopping is mostly what we are going to do.” “Ah, I see,” suddenly, Velvets expression became a smirk. “You sure that’s going to be everything?” She winked at her daughter, to which Twilight rolled her eyes. “Mom. Not like that,” she faced hoof. Purple eyes gave Fluttershy an apologetic look, but every word fell on deaf ears. The yellow pegasus tilted her head, the words not processing in her mind. Velvet laughed. “Okay okay, I’ll stop teasing you now.” It due time, Night Light came from the kitchen walls, levitating a plate of waffles. Setting down the serving, Fluttershy shot a grateful look at the stallion unicorn. “Thank you!” She thanked, taking the corner of the freshly made waffle into her mouth. As Velvet’s banter and Twilight’s exasperation continued, she watched contently from the sidelines. “Your dad makes really good food,” the winged mare commented. Her wings flapped with new found energy, the sugar running through her veins. Twilight stifled a laugh. “Seriously! I always ask him for his recipe, but he always gives this cheesy line of ‘a good chef never gives his recipes’, and it drives me crazy.” Giggling, Fluttershy viewed her surroundings. Now that it was mid-morning Canterlot was a lot more crowded, though she could still walk without bumping into anypony. A soft breeze brushed her face as her teal eyes wandered. It was a beautiful city, majority of the buildings were a pearly white, usually topped with a purple and gold spiraled roof. The sheer greenery of cut hedges and blossoming trees gave Fluttershy a warm familiarity amongst the new scenery. “So...I’m thinking we start at the Canterlot Gardens, what do you think?” Twilight pulled a map from her saddlebag, scanning her eyes over the paper. “It’s a pretty place, and it’s a history lesson to boot!” “That’s the place where Princess Celestia said the changeling statue was, right?” The lavender unicorn nodded in confirmation. “Maybe we can see that statue ourselves...” “She did say the Queen Lytic’s statue has disintegrated into dust so I’m not sure how much will be able to get from it. Ooo, this is going to be exciting!” Twilight was practically bouncing on her hooves as she trotted down the street, Fluttershy not far behind. Stifling a giggle, she followed the unicorn, watching the scenery around them as they walked. The sun crept higher into the azure sky, clouds streaking through blue canvas. The streets became narrower as they came closer to the Canterlot Castle, and Twilight stopped halfway through the streets. With a flick of her tail, Twilight stepped towards a spiked gate. It’s paint was slightly chipped at, but otherwise the gate seemed kept it decent condition. Magenta magic opened the gate, and behind was a sign. “‘Welcome to Canterlot Gardens’,” Fluttershy read out loud, poking the sign lightly. Lifting her head she gaze around the hedges. The garden spanned miles wide, a marked path running from where she was standing to the entrance of a walled area. “It’s really pretty.” “Eee!” Twilight squealed, before coughing and regain her composure. “Sorry. I haven’t been here since I was a filly! It hasn’t changed one bit...” Fluttershy laughed. “Well, I guess you are going to have to show me around. Where should we start?” No answer came, but Twilight lit her horn, tugging the feathered mare over to a statue. Fluttershy sighed, but smiled as she was dragged. “That’s Starswirl the Bearded!” Twilight pointed towards the statue. The polished stone loomed over both mares. Eyeless sockets staring back at him. Fluttershy gulped, sweating slightly. The lavender unicorn continued on with a eager voice. “Starswirl was the greatest sorcerer that had ever lived! He made many spells that, intern, helped Equestria for the better, even after his disappearance. He mentored Celestia before she became ruler of the land and-“ “I...think I get the picture,” Fluttershy smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head. Looking around the gardens, she realized that many of them had sculptures of the bearded unicorn, each one in a slightly worse condition then the next. “...I guess he was really popular, huh?” “More than popular,” Twilight grinned. The purple unicorn dragged her friend over towards another statue of the unicorn. “See this one-“ A sinking feeling in her heart told her that they would be here a while. “Twilight, what about this one?” Fluttershy voice became slightly strained, trying to pull her friend’s attention towards a statue that wasn’t Starswirl the Bearded. Her yellow hoof pointed towards a scarily detailed sculpture of some sort of chimera creature. It’s head was similar to a goat’s, with a long snake-like body and a multitude of mismatched limbs. Twilight tore her fangirling gaze from the other statue she was adoring, looking over towards the one Fluttershy had pointed towards. “That depicts chaos and disharmony,” she said flatly, looking up at the proudly posed chimera-creature. “It’s a creature called a draconequus, a creature that spread those qualities and infects other ponies with it. Princess Celestia said it was of the creature she had faced thousands of years ago, but she never went into detail about it.” Gulping, she looked back at the creature. It’s a real thing? She flattened her ears, gazing up at the open mouthed statue. Teeth jutted out from his jaw, making Fluttershy’s wince. Who ever made the carving was really into details... She was about to turn away when a whistle of wind blew through her ears. H̴̲̩͙̻̞̟̦͎͉̬̍ę̶̛̗̲͕͐̈́̅͗́̒́͗͂̓̓͜l̸̡͐̎̓̀̓͊͑̈́̐̓͘l̴̨̫̠̤̙̥̱̃̈̈̀̃̿̉̈́̿ö̸̢͈̠̈́̅̎͌̓́̓̏͘͜͝͠͝.̷̨̛̩̰̜̙͎̜̇̾̍͌͘ͅ.̷̢̛̩̩̞̤̬̖̫̽͋͂̆̈́͂̋͑́͘ͅ.̵̺̹̂̔͂͐́͒̌̚͝͝ “Huh?” She whipped her head around, twitching her wings. Spinning around, she tried to find the source of the voice. “Fluttershy? What’s wrong?” Twilight turned a concerned gaze towards the pegasus. “I thought I heard something...” the pegasus frowned, a nervousness filling her mind and heart. “...maybe it was just the wind...” Shaking her head, she followed after the unicorn. Her eyes lingered on the draconequus statue, biting her lip. It may have been the trick of the light, but somehow the craving seemed more sinister than it had been earlier. “Hey, Fluttershy,” Twilight beckoned the yellow pegasus over. Keeping her head low, she stalked over towards the unicorn, fiddling with her hair nervously. “I think this is the one Princess Celestia mentioned in her letter.” Averting her teal eyes from the paved floor, she looked up. She stared at an empty podium, it’s surface cracked and chipped. It’s was practically falling apart, about to turn to dust at any moment. That’s what happened to the actual statue, so Fluttershy wouldn’t be surprised if the podium did, too. “...seems very spacious...” she noted, eyeing the wide, flat surface. “I’m assuming the statue was pretty big...” As she stepped towards the empty podium her hooves were caught on thorny flowers. Wincing, she pulled her hooves back. The roses- or at least they looked like roses- had spiked thorns running all along the side of the stems. Leaves were twisted along the edges of the white-marble, every few inches was a blooming flower. Each flower had a similar shape to a rose, both with its layered petals and red hue. They were several inches wider than a normal rose should be, along with a fainter smell of lemons and something rotting. She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t think these are roses...” she muttered. “I’ve never seen flowers like this before.” Twilight squinted her eyes, taking a closer look at the rose-look-alike. “Hm...maybe they are new rose species or a different type of flower? Maybe Princess Celestia mistook them for actual roses...” “That’s possible,” she tapped her chin. Gazing around the garden, another question came into her head. “Wait...why did this one disintegrated but the others didn’t? Surely the some of the statues are older than this one, right?” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe it was the material or erosion. I wish my teachers gave lessons on this one, but it was long gone.” The unicorn tapped her chin, taking a closer look at the statue. Momentarily she prodded at the flower’s petals, carefully avoiding the thorns. “Well, I don’t see how we can get any information from this...how about the next one? There’s another Starswirl statue over there!” Sighing, the pegasus kept a smile on her face as she followed the excited mare. Glancing back at the once-was statue, she stopped. A tall, golden changeling stood from the top of the platform. A veil drifted from the side of her head, clipped by one of the rose-like flowers. Slowly, golden eyes turned to stare at her, fangs out as she grinned. The changeling leaped from the podium, launching herself towards the winged mare. In a moment of panic, Fluttershy shut her eyes close, waiting for an impact. When nothing happened she reopened her eyes. The changeling was gone, left behind was a red flower amongst the debris.