"Okay, we're here." Twilight said quietly as they reached the entrance to the Canterlot gardens. Twilight looked at the steadily rising moon, judging the time they had to do what they had to do. "There shouldn't be any guards in here, so we don't have to worry that much about being caught. Really, the worst thing that could happen is somepony that recognizes me sees me, then tells the princess that they saw us here."
"But we could just play it off as visiting." Church noted, then glanced at his bags. "Just as long as the book doesn't do anything stupid."
"You'll do something stupid." The Necronomicon mumbled quietly.
"Come on." Twilight grunted, eyes quickly flashing from light blue and tan to their regular, purple color, then changed back to the fragments's tinges. "I think they might be getting stronger."
The three other unicorns nodded at her, and began following her as she lead them through the gardens. The moon shone brightly in the night's sky, giving off a blue-white light on the ground that surrounded them. They slowly swept through the area, checking for any statues that would be suitable to hold the fragments. Rarity let out a gasp and darted towards one of the statues near the center of the garden.
"Rarity..." Twilight whispered, trying to call her friend back to her side.
"Oh my, this is remarkable. Absolutely remarkable!" Rarity said in awe.
"What?" Church asked, hastily making his way to Rarity, believing she had found a good pair of statues. Instead, he found her swooning over a likeness of a female unicorn wearing an extravagantly designed dress.
"Just look at the detail! If they put this much work into the stonework, imagine how well the dress looked!" Rarity said, legs quivering with excitement. Her head snapped to another statue and she gasped. "Oh, and that one!"
"Rarity, please try to concentrate." Twilight begged.
"Oh, but I am concentrating, darling." Rarity retorted.
"I don't mean on the dresses." Twilight groaned, but Rarity had already started towards another group of statues. With a reluctant sigh she walked after Rarity, but looked at Church while she did so. "I'll try to get her mind back on track. You two just keep looking."
Simmons and Church nodded at her, so she smiled and gave chase after Rarity.
"Like a kid at a candy store, huh?" Church muttered as he looked around the gardens, hoping to find a suitable thing for them.
"A little bit. At least now it seems that she is close to being ready, and-" Simmons stopped when he had a small, nagging thought. "Uh, Church?"
"Not now."
"But it's kind of important." Simmons argued quietly, but Church ignored him. "Kind of really important."
"What is it?" Church asked, not really paying attention.
"Won't the guards or the princesses noticed a pair of statues missing out of the garden?"
"Fuck!" Church growled, almost reaching a full scream. "I didn't think of that."
"What are we going to do then? Give up?"
"No, there has to be..." Church trailed off, forming an impromptu idea. "Hang on."
"What?" Simmons asked, but Church waved the question as he pulled the Necronomicon out of the bag.
"Hey, I was just having the most delightful dream." The Necronomicon yawned. "Oh well, perhaps I'll see you arrested soon in real life as well. Are you ready to get this show on the road?"
"Not right now. Listen, Simmons just brought up a good point; two statues missing out of the gardens would be way to obvious and would be suspicious seeing as we were the only ones in here for the night."
"Hm. Didn't think about that." The Necronomicon said simply.
"I know. Neither did I. I was just thinking... do you have any lame ass deus ex machina that could overcome that little obstacle?"
"Uh, I don't know, maybe. Let me think." The Necronomicon mused. "What if I create an illusion spell over where the statues were. This will make it seem like the statues are still there, when in reality they are gone."
"You can do that? Perfe-"
"Of course I can't do it!"
"Then why did you say you could?"
"I just wanted to see if you'd believe anything as long as the explanation is "it's magic". Lo and behold..." The Necronomicon chuckled.
"Fuck you." Church hissed. "I swear, if you weren't immortal, I'd total-"
"Church. Necky. Stop arguing!" Twilight said, galloping at him.
"Let him do it, arguing is the only thing he has going for him." The Necronomicon commented.
"I swear to-"
"Stop! Both of you, please." Twilight said, but this time there was a hint of desperation in her voice.
"What's wrong? You never seemed to have cared that much when we argued before."
"Yeah, but in the library you never risked full blown chaos." Twilight gritted her teeth, pointing her hoof to Church's right.
Church looked to where she was pointing and saw a large, snake like being, standing straight up, face appearing as it was screaming, arms outstretched. It had a horse's head and mane with a pair of mismatched antlers atop it's head, one was a goat's horn while the other was a deers. It also had one large fang, mismatched pupils and a small beard. Instead of regular horse legs, it's right arm was that of a lion, and had an eagle's talon instead of a left hoof, while it's legs seemed to belong to both a goat and a lizard. It also had a bat's wing and a pegasus wing on it's back, and it's tail was that of a dragon with a small patch of white fur at the tip of the tail.
"What? They still haven't put that idiot in the area under the castle?" The Necronomicon snapped. "Another reason Celestia is a fool..."
"What is it?" Church asked.
"That's Discord, the draconequus you read about back a ways." Twilight explained.
"The one that you and the girls beat with the Elements, right?"
"That's the one."
"Necky is right, why the fuck hasn't Celestia put him somewhere not in the open?"
"Church, now is not the time. Chaos is what wakes him from his cage. Arguing weakens the harmonic bond that entraps him." Twilight said as she checked for cracks in the stone, but could not find any. Satisfied, she nodded in the direction she believed Rarity was, then walked that way with Simmons until she saw Church had hung back. "Church, are you coming?"
"Yeah." Church said quietly, walking towards her, eyes still glued onto the being of chaos.
"Is something on your mind?" Twilight asked nervously, thinking that Church was tempted to wake him.
"Must be peaceful in there."
"Huh?"
"Trapped in stone. Nothing to worry about except for birds shitting on you during the day." Church laughed.
"When you put it that way." Twilight said, joining his laugh. "Though it would be kind of lonely, don't you think?"
"I don't know, being trapped in stone from a few years would be a nice vacation from the others."
"I think I found it!" Rarity exclaimed from the other side of the garden.
"What? Your inspiration or the thing we'll put the fragments in?" Simmons asked.
"Both!" Rarity squealed with excitement.
"Great!" Church said quickly, running towards her voice. "I guess Celestia will just have to wonder where the statues went."
The three ponies, and their book accomplice, soon found Rarity standing in front of a statue, smiling brightly at them. Church approached it slowly and began to look it over with a critical eye. After giving it a few once overs, he stepped next to Twilight and narrowed his glare at them.
"Something wrong?" Twilight asked, noticing how heavily he was taking this decision.
"Nothing could be wrong! Just look at their delightful attire." Rarity said.
"Yeah, their clothes really seal the deal." Church said sarcastically, dropping the Necronomicon in front of him. "I don't think we an be too choosey at this point in time, so Celestia will just have to deal with two missing statues. Let's just get this over with and get out."