//------------------------------//
// A Mile in her Horseshoes 
// Story: What happens to Golly? 
// by Golly4Ever 
//------------------------------//

It was night time. Astral had left Canterlot on a mission. After a brief stop by her home in Ponyville, she traveled deep within the Everfree forest. Beams of light from the full moon shone through gaps in the thick cover of twisted and tangled branches overhead creating a pattern of bright spots on the snow covered ground. The owls hooted while timberwolves howled in the distance.

Astral spoke out loud to herself for company as she searched around. "Come on, there's got to be one around here somewhere. Maybe it's just not the season for them." Normally, the Everfree didn't experience seasons with the rest of Equestria. It functioned with a force all its own, commanding its own system of weather, that is, until a pony-ton of snow was dumped on it thanks to the bountiful surplus available this year. It wasn't until after the fact that mild concern for the self-sustaining micro-environment was raised, and then later dismissed.

She kept her nose to the ground studying the different tracks as she came across them. "Mouse, bunny, me-- shoot, I'm going in circles!” she said as she came across her own tracks.

She stopped to look around, spotting a new direction she hadn't yet explored. "I'm almost close to the castle of the two sisters. If it weren't for the trees, I could probably see it from here. Maybe I'll find what I'm looking for there. I'll need someplace to ride the night out until the train to Canterlot runs again in the morning, anyway," she said to herself, her breath visible in the cold night air. Home was an option, but it was all the way on the other side of town. While not normally open for touring or business, the castle restoration had long since been completed. One would just have to safely and successfully navigate its enormous dangerous and foreboding front yard to see it.

The search continued late into the chill of night. Astral stood in the middle of a clearing, about ready to give up when a sudden rustling in a nearby bush attracted her attention. "Hello? is somepony there? Or... Some, creature?" she said as she cautiously moved in to investigate. 'It's right here,' she thought to herself. 'Careful, gently... Yes. There it is,' she was stiff with excitement. Careful not to startle it, she spoke to it telepathically, "Hi there, buddy..."

It turned around as she grabbed it, its eyes glowing red. It had the body of a snake with the head of a chicken. The excitement of the discovery was enough to warm her heart and body. She couldn’t even feel the cold snow under her hooves anymore. Rather, she couldn’t even feel the ground under her hooves anymore. There was only a numb static between her and the ground. That wasn’t right. Was she stiff with excitement? No. Her stiffness was far worse than she feared to acknowledge.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot!" she said to herself before concentrating a strong glare on the creature. "No you don't! Not me, not tonight! Stop it. Now!" she commanded. Her body was slowly turning to stone. Her body began to feel so very heavy as the stone slowly crept up from her hooves to her legs on up. As the petrification progressed, a different kind of cold began to seep in. 'This... This is what she must have meant,' Astral thought to herself, before returning to glare harder at the creature. "Undo this, now!" she demanded. “I’m not here to hurt you. Or eat you. I want to be your friend. Let's go somewhere warm. I have food for you,” she said, trying to comfort it and gain its trust while tightly holding onto it. “Let’s help, each, other,” she uttered with the last of her strength before turning completely to stone.

An unsettling silence hung in the air. The cockatrice was held firmly within the grasp of a freshly stoned pony. The moon slowly crept across the sky towards the horizon as the cockatrice periodically struggled to break free from Astral’s frozen grasp to no avail.

'I can’t see. I can’t feel. What happened to me?' asked Astral to herself. The cold was an all-consuming empty void of darkness. 'No. This wasn’t supposed to happen.' Astral began to panic. “Hello?!” she called out, but there was only silence. 'Get it together, Astral,' she said to herself. 'Maybe somepony will come along. In a million years. Will I crumble? No. Stay positive. What am I going to do?' "Cozy? Cozy Glow, are you there? Can you hear me? I think I’m in trouble!" 'It’s no use. I can’t use my magic from inside here. I’m stuck, forever.' Even if she did have her magic, deep down, she knew she didn't have anywhere near that kind of range; no pony she knew or ever heard of did.

Regret. Astral had felt it slowly building up in Cozy as their time together grew. She could now feel it rapidly building up within herself as well. 'This was such a stupid idea, what was I thinking? Right, I wasn't.' She was left isolated within her stone imprisonment. Time was already beginning to slip and fade. She was surprised at how fast its onset was. It was truly terrifying. So many thoughts and feelings began to overtake her all at once. She couldn't imagine how a little filly was able to handle it at all. It was overwhelming. She wanted to scream, but couldn't. She wanted to cry, but couldn't. She needed to breathe, but couldn't. Her mind begged for her body to obey and do something, but the disconnect was incomprehensible. She was without form.

“I’m sorry, Cozy. I thought I knew, what it was like; how you felt. Twilight… I won’t be able to make it back to class on time. Mom, dad? I’m so sorry. Somepony, anypony, please find me!” Astral was already beginning to mentally break. If anything, she hoped that somepony would find her and at least put her somewhere nice, perhaps in her own backyard. No. She couldn't think of that. She couldn't accept her fate. There had to be some way out of this. There wasn't, though. Cozy would have found it by now. But Cozy was a pegasus, not a unicorn. Crysalis had magical powers though, right? So did Tirek. Irrelevant; magic doesn't work in stone anyway.

There was nothing for her to see but an endless black darkness extending in all directions, if there were any directions at all. There was no light or shadow. She couldn’t even be sure if she had any kind of sight, or if it was all in her imagination. There was no sound, just figments. Figments and numbness... Was the numbness even real, though? All of her senses were shut off, leaving her consciousness to fill in the gaps a lifetime of stimuli left empty. She realized just how much she took for granted her very existence.

Astral searched the void for anything she could cling to. She began to feel a faint presence slowly emerge from within the emptiness. She had tried calling out and reaching out to anything and everything she saw floating by. Each time, she came to the sad realization that it was all a product of her mind trying to fill the void and make sense of it all. This, however, felt different. She could focus on it. She knew it was there. It grew stronger as it surrounded her. It was just as real as she was. She could ignore it, lose track of it and unlike anything else she detected, it would still be right where she left it.

'What?' asked Astral, to herself as she gained the feeling that she might not be alone. 'That’s not real. Is it real?' "Hello?” she called out. “Hello? Who are you? What are you?” she called out once again. "Are you here to take me home? Can you help me? Please, say something! I'm begging you. I can't be here all alone. I can't take it. This wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not supposed to be here!"

There was no answer, only darkness. It felt cold, wrong. But at least it was something she could feel. The longer it stayed, the more unease Astral felt creeping inside her. Still, it was better than nothing, or was it? Astral could feel fear beginning to overtake her. She couldn't quite pinpoint what the fear was. It wasn't the fear of non-existence; she was already becoming quite familiar with that as it was. This was something else. It was a mix of other, existing fears. They would briefly come into focus and then fade back into obscurity as quickly as they had surfaced. It was almost as if they were being searched. Astral was remembering things she had long since forgotten she feared. Some seemed quite silly while others were still quite terrifying and rightly suppressed.

'Color?', Astral thought to herself. She was sure she wasn't imagining it. She could see it before her. There was no turning or escape from it. A pair of menacing eyes, softly glowing and lime green and purple of dark magic in its foggy existence. Faint as it was, she could not unsee it, peering into her very soul. It was definitely there, and it terrified her more than anything else. Astral yearned to welcome the empty darkness once again.

An eternity of a moment passed before the presence faded, leaving Astral relieved, alone in isolation once more. She wished she had a breath to stop holding and catch. 'What was that?' She made a note to ask Cozy if she knew anything about it, if she ever got the chance to talk to her again. There was a lot that she was going to do if she ever had the chance to do any of it again. She would start by never ever going into the Everfree forest ever again. She would go home more often. She would study harder. She would finally get around to all the things she had been putting off.

Daylight began to creep into Astral's vision as the sun slowly made its way above the horizon. She passed it off as yet another fleeting thought. It wasn’t until she could feel the light’s warmth that she realized she wasn’t just making it up. The empty darkness began to fade away as the snow-covered Everfree came into focus. She was cold. She could feel that she was cold. Her body had weight to it. She could look down at herself. Cradled tightly in her arms, she saw a cockatrice, calm and docile. She looked at her flank and legs to see the last of the stone dissolve away back into flesh and fur. She was free! It was morning. Astral had spent the better part of the night trapped alone with her thoughts. Was this a dream? Can you even dream while stone? Does Cozy dream? She had never thought to ask. Cozy's whole existence was essentially a sleep state as far as anypony could guess.

The cold sent a chill through Astral's body. This had to be real. Even if it wasn't, she decided to believe it was. "Th- Thanks?” said Astral, to the cockatrice while petting it gently. "Friends?" She asked it. She wasn't sure of its response, so she slowly and carefully lowered it to the ground, releasing it, but ready to reach out for it again should it try to run. "Stay, please," she commanded, telepathically. She was sure to be gentle with the snakebird in fear of it turning her back to stone.

Keeping an eye on it, she telekinetically reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a snack she had brought with her, breaking it into pieces and placing it on the ground in front of the cockatrice. She watched as it happily pecked at it, eating it one piece at a time. "Friends!" she said to it. "There's plenty more where that came from. And shelter. I'll take you someplace warm!" she offered. Astral shared the rest of her snacks which the cockatrice was more than happy to finish off. “I just need you to do that one more time for me, for a friend, if you don’t mind." Astral wasn't quite sure if the snakebird was paying attention or not, but she wanted to believe that it did acknowledge her request, at least. It didn't run off, after all, even after the snacks ran out, and she wasn't made of stone anymore. That was a good start.


* * *


Later that day, Astral was back at the statue, pacing with excitement. She paused every now and then to look up at it as she carried on her conversation with Cozy.

"You wouldn't believe the kind of night I had, Cozy," said Astral.

"Yeah?" asked Cozy.

"Yeah! Actually, you’re probably the only pony that would believe the kind of night I had. It's part of your surprise! Not the night I had. What I went out and got, and brought back!" said Astral.

"Ooh! Tell me!" said Cozy.

"Not yet! Tonight. you'll finally be able to see," said Astral.

"How do you mean?" asked Cozy.

"You'll see! It'll be the best Hearth’s Warming Eve ever!" said Astral, sounding ever more excited. She had already forgotten all about the evil presence that had terrified her so.

"I never had my own Hearth’s Warming before," said Cozy.

"Never? That's so sad,” sympathized Astral. “What did you do while everypony else was with their friends and families?" she asked.

"Plot. Scheme. The usual," said Cozy.

"Oh. Well, we're not doing that tonight. Ok?" asked Astral.

"Ok," agreed Cozy.

"...Really? No friends? At all?" asked Astral, curiously.

"Well, I was doing real good, until I hurt them all. And that's when I went to Tartarus," said Cozy.

"Oh, right. Twilight says that's not how you really make friends, or why. I don't really have any either. You're the only pony that ever really talks to me," said Astral. “I have a roommate, but she doesn’t count. She talks to everypony.”

"Same. You're the only pony I've talked to ever since-- since I..." said Cozy, stopping abruptly.

"I know,” understood Astral. “Hopefully that will change soon.” Astral had slowed her pacing to a stop. “Hey Cozy?"

"Yeah?" asked Cozy.

"Would you do it again? If you were free, would you be bad again?" asked Astral.

"I never thought about that. I'll never be free again," said Cozy.

"But what if you could be. Would you?" persisted Astral.

"Would I?" asked Cozy. It was a question directed to herself more than to Astral.

There was a moment of silence as Cozy and Astral each considered. Astral didn’t want to go in to find out for herself, she needed Cozy to decide and tell her on her own. There was a certain commitment in outwardly expressing your own thoughts rather than just thinking them.

"I.. I don't know. What do you think?" asked Cozy.

"Whatever you think. I know you're being honest. I guess that's all I can ask for, really," said Astral. She decided to go in just a little bit.

"That's still creepy when you do that, you know," said Cozy.

It was a tingle of sorts. Astral had learned to be stealthier about it over time, but Cozy had learned to recognize it for what it was. Even then, with the right distraction, it was becoming something to easily overlook.

"Promise me," said Astral.

"Promise what?" asked Cozy.

"Promise me you won't do bad again," said Astral.

"I don't know if I can. You've taught me a lot since we've been talking. I think about it all the time. Whenever you're not here. There's nothing else to do, really. But Twilight, the others. What if they never understand? I was really mean to them, to everypony," worried Cozy. “They would never believe me again. No pony would ever trust me again. Not after what I did. Not when all the books and teachers remind everypony.”

"We'll show them. We'll make them see. Do you promise?" insisted Astral.

"I... Promise I will not do bad again, to you," said Cozy.

"To everypony, Cozy," said Astral. She knew Cozy was trying to make a promise she could get out of without breaking.

"I promise I won't hurt you on purpose," tried Cozy.

"Cozy!" said Astral, sternly.

"I promise," said Cozy, with a sigh.

That still wasn’t good enough for Astral. She had to be sure. "...Promise what?"

Why was Astral being so pushy over this suddenly? Cozy thought they were past this already. Did it really matter what she said? What difference was it going to make whether she would or not? She knew she was never going to get the chance to do anything again anyway. It was a joke, one mean, heartless joke. Cozy knew it. She spent plenty of time being heartless. This wasn't new territory to her. It was some sort of trap and she spotted it a mile away. Promises were important. Even a filly like Cozy used to do her best not to break them. She had made it her policy not to make them in the first place. Why was this so important, though? Is this what their friendship hinged on? "What does it matter? I'm going to be here forever! Forever! Fillies like me don't come back to show anypony anything. Why are you even teasing me with this? Just go away!" she said, her anger getting the best of her. It was another regret to add to the list, but it was too late. She ruined everything. Astral surely must hate her, now. Even Cozy hated herself, now. Lost was all the progress she had made. Never again was she going to have a chance at another friend like Astral. Rightly so, this is what she deserved. She wanted to cry, but even if she could, that was one thing she knew she didn't deserve.

"Cozy... I" reasoned Astral, before being interrupted.

"Leave me alone!" said Cozy, agitated.

"But Cozy, the surpr-"

"Go away! ...Just go! Go," demanded Cozy.

The telepathic link slowly dissolved. Dejected and feeling lonely, Astral made her way out of the garden, stopping once to look back before making her way back to her dorm.

'Stupid!' thought Astral to herself. 'I did it again!' She kept her head down as she moped down the pathways, and into the dormitory's front doors. There was no pony to greet her. The halls were quiet, rooms void of activity. 'I'm pushing her away! I gotta be more careful. She probably hates me, now. I'm so stupid!' She slowly worked her way up the stairs and down the hall to her room. 'I can fix this. I know I can. Tonight. I'm just tired right now. I'll get some rest, and then I can fix everything.'