//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Romancing The Stone // by AlwaysDressesInStyle //------------------------------// I always stared at the statue when I was in the Canterlot Gardens. When I was still a foal, I was terrified of the snarling changeling, Chrysalis. It took me longer than I really wish to remember to be able to look at the statue without covering my eyes with my hooves or wings. The centaur, Tirek, always mystified me. I’d never seen another centaur, and I still haven’t. His expression was one of resignation. It was as if he’d just given up on the world like an elderly widow in a nursing home who sees her family once in a blue moon. From what I learned in history class, I suppose he really didn’t have anything left there at the end. None of them did. His power was gone, and he’d long since turned his back on his family. And then there was the terrified pegasus filly. Back when I thought this was just another statue, I always wondered why the sculptor had given her such a sad, scared expression. I thought that maybe she was scared of the changeling. I know I would’ve been! It was only after I found out that the statue was comprised of formerly living beings that I learned she was an evil mastermind. Cozy Glow was a liar who’d say or do anything to get ponies to like her, so she could use them to her own ends. These days, whenever I came to the garden I focused on the filly. She was my age, just barely old enough to have a cutie mark. I’d finally gotten mine a few weeks earlier and was still randomly turning around and staring at it. I often wondered what hers was. The history books never showed her behind, just her face. Maybe history would be less boring if they started showing pictures of butts instead of portraits. I giggled at the absurdity of that notion, knowing darned well it would’ve kept my attention better. Mom and Auntie Twilight never talk about her. I’ve asked questions, and they just shrug it off and say they’ll explain it when I’m older. I’m older now! I’ve got my cutie mark and everything! I should ask again. I know they worry when I’m out here in the garden for hours on end. But I need to understand. Someday maybe they’ll explain what happened and then I’ll know. But until then, I just sat and fantasized scenarios that could’ve led to their stony imprisonment. Maybe they didn’t eat all their vegetables before having dessert. That seemed like a thing Auntie Twilight would punish. She doesn’t like it when I hide the icky, slimy tomatoes instead of eating them. But she’d never do that to me, because I’m her favorite niece! I’m also her only niece, but that’s beside the point! She gets uptight like that sometimes. Were they pirates? Sailing the seas looking for booty. I snickered. Booty! I shook my hindquarters, content in the knowledge there were no other ponies around to see my silly display. Shake, shake, shake…shake, shake, shake, shake your cutie! Shake your cutie! I flopped in the grass giggling like the schoolfilly I was. I couldn’t imagine spending my childhood locked up in a statue. Maybe they were zombies, come back from the dead to eat ponies’ brains! Ewwww! Run away! Every mare and filly for herself! I darted around the enclosure, pretending they were shuffling after me. Tirek was old and slow, hence easily avoided. The changeling’s lunges were predictable and easy to dodge. She had one move, and that was to attack. It was the filly who was always sneaking up on her silent little wings. Ahhhhh! She’s got me! She’s got me! Don’t eat my brains, Cozy Glow! Blood! Blood! Blood! Death! “Flurry Heart!” Uh-oh, it’s Auntie Twilight. I better hightail it out of here before she catches me by the statue again. I frowned. She doesn’t like it when I hang out here. But they’re just rocks – they can’t possibly hurt me. She worries too much. Sometimes I think she worries more than Daddy does. “I knew I’d find you out here.” Busted. Teleporting is so totally cheating! Why didn’t I think to do that? I gave Aunt Twilight my best sheepish smile. “I like it here. It’s always peaceful and quiet. Nopony else goes near this statue. All the other ponies are spooked by it.” Twilight massaged the bridge of her snout. “With good reason, Flurry. These are the worst villains Equestria’s ever faced.” She sighed. “All right, you’ve been pestering me to tell you about these three ever since you learned to speak. Chrysalis, the changeling queen. She replaced your mother, kept your father under a trance, and then led an army of changelings against Canterlot during what was supposed to be your parents’ wedding. Tirek, the centaur who can steal the magic from any creature he encounters, leaving them all drained husks unable to move.” “And Cozy Glow?” “A bigoted manipulator with a silver tongue. I know she looks cute and innocent, but she’s evil. She tried to turn the three tribes against one another. She tried to suck all the magic out of Equestria. And scarily enough, she almost succeeded. She was probably closer to success than the other two.” I looked back towards the statue. “So not pirates then?” Twilight looked from me to the statue and back again. “Some of my friends are pirates.” I looked at her expectantly, and she sat down and told me about another evil invader by the name of the Storm King, and how she’d been helped by her friends, including Captain Celaeno and her band of parrot pirates. Auntie Twilight is so lucky to have gone on so many cool adventures. I bet she didn’t spend her childhood cooped up doing schoolwork. So lucky. I turned my back on the statue to follow Twilight back to the castle. “I guess I never realized that some creatures, and even some ponies, are completely evil with no good inside whatsoever.” Auntie Twilight paused in front of me and I almost smacked into her flank. “That’s just it. I don’t think they’re completely evil inside.” I cocked my head and looked at Auntie Twilight expectantly. “You saved Discord and Starlight and Sunset and so many others. Why couldn’t you save them too?” “They didn’t want to be saved.” A lone tear trickled down Twilight’s cheek. “But neither did the others,” I argued. “The Elements of Harmony forcibly removed Nightmare Moon from Princess Luna. Discord had to be tricked into befriending Fluttershy. Starlight Glimmer almost killed every living thing on the planet and only reformed when she realized there was no other choice...” “Chrysalis refused the olive branch Starlight extended her, Tirek drains magic and is too dangerous to attempt to reform, and Cozy Glow was a student of mine at the School of Friendship at the time she launched her first scheme, and if she couldn’t learn friendship there, then there’s no hope for her.” I turned back to look at the statue one last time. “How sad. A life without friends seems hardly worth living.” Auntie Twilight smiled at my comment.