Author's Note: hey everyone, sorry i'm late some things came up. I hope you enjoy this short chapter, I can't wait to read your comments! -BlueHibiscus
Fluttershy waited before telling the nurses Seb was awake again. Seb hadn’t screamed again yet and was simply staring off into space. Fluttershy stayed quiet as she sat beside him. Seb absentmindedly began running his fingers through her soft pink mane. She tensed at first, but then let Seb continue petting her. She looked up and watched him as he stared at the wall. She saw a tear run down his cheek and her heart ached. Seb was lost in his thoughts, trying desperately to figure out what to do about Nathan. Before he could come up with something, a pair of royal guards came bursting into the room. Fluttershy backed away silently but Seb didn’t seem to care, or even notice really, that the guards had entered. He didn’t even put up a fight as they dragged him out of the bed and cuffed his hands behind his back, undoing any healing his shoulder might have done. Fluttershy shivered with anxiety as they took Seb away. They had said nothing to her, and nothing to Seb. When they left, she ran out to find Twilight. She ran out of the hospital and into the city of Canterlot. She rushed through the streets, having lost track of Seb, and called out Twilight, even as her voice was muffled not just by usually quiet voice but also by the rumble of a crowd near the Canterlot Town Square. She galloped towards it and found Twilight standing at the back of crowd along with Spike, Rarity who had found Twilight on her way out of the hospital, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack. She panted and walked up to Twilight.
“Twilight...” Fluttershy panted, “They’ve... taken... Seb.” She huffed, taking in deep breaths.
“I know Fluttershy. They’re preparing to bring him here, so the princess can sentence him in front of everyone.” Twilight said. She was obviously worried for the safety of her friend.
“I think it serves him right.” Rainbow dash exclaimed furiously. She was floating in the air above all of them.
“Rainbow!” Applejack snapped. The crowd burst into a mix of cheers, boos and screams as Seb was pushed onto a stage in the middle of the square. Princess Celestia and Luna stood on the stage as well.
“He looks so weak.” Fluttershy whimpered. Seb could barely stand on the stage as Celestia stepped forward. The crowd grew silent.
“I have chosen to conduct this trial in public, because my subjects deserve the right to know who you are and what you have done.” Celestia began, “You are accused of terrorism, and theft. How do you plead?” Seb remained quiet. He was lost in his mind and thinking about days long ago.
“Look at the wound on his face.” A pony whispered.
“His face? What about the other wounds?” Another asked.
“Does he even know he’s being tried?”
“Did the guards beat him?”
“What a terrible creature.” Someone in the middle spoke up.
“I wonder what the princess will say.”
“Do you think she’ll kill him?”
“The princess? No way, she’d never kill anypony.”
“He isn’t a pony.” One pony pointed out astutely.
“That’s right, he isn’t one of us.”
Fluttershy tried to drown out the chatter and listen to the trial, but it wasn’t working in the slightest. Celestia cleared her throat and closed her eyes, spreading her wings wide for all to see.
“Then, I have no other choice. For the good of Equestria, I, Princess Celestia, cast you in stone forever.” Celestia said simply and bowed her head, her horn aimed at the defenseless human’s chest.
Her horn glowed and Seb’s body slowly turned to stone. Seb hardly noticed, he felt it of course, but he didn’t seem phased at all. As the spell reached Seb’s neck he tilted his head slightly. He could see Fluttershy, flying next to Rainbow Dash, her hooves covering her mouth and tears streaming down her face.
“Don’t cry...” Seb whispered to her, despite the distance between them. The spell covered his lips right after and the rest of his body.
He had completely turned into a statue. Celestia sighed and turned to her subjects. Her legs wobbled a bit, but she kept her stance. The ponies in the crowd cheered and reared up happily as guards took Seb’s statue away. Fluttershy cried out and flew off towards the edge of the city. Her friends watched her leave while Celestia finished her speech behind them. Twilight looked to her friends and sighed.
“I don’t know girls. This doesn’t seem right.” Twilight admitted, turning her head to the ground.
Twilight and the others found Fluttershy at the train station, holding back tears as she waited for the next train. Rainbow Dash was the first to fly up to her and start talking.
“What is with you? He just turned to stone.” She groaned. Fluttershy turned her head away from her. “Listen, Fluttershy, he was just a bad guy that’s all there is to it.”
“That does it!” Applejack snapped. “I am tired of your attitude Rainbow Dash. You’ve done nothing but bad mouth Seb since he got here. I know he ain’t perfect, but who is?”
“I’m pretty perfect.” Rainbow Dash replied proudly.
“Your pride will get the best of you one day Rainbow Dash.” Rarity warned coldly.
“And your vanity won’t?” Rainbow Dash shot back.
“How dare you!” Rarity gasped.
“Girls, stop it!” Twilight snapped angrily. She walked over to Fluttershy and sat beside her. “Why are you here anyway?” She asked.
“I promised Seb, if anything happened to him, I would get as far away from here as possible.” Fluttershy replied, her voice lost to depression.
“Seb needs you here Fluttershy, he needs all of us.” Twilight replied. She nudged Fluttershy to the group and smiled.
Before they could start walking away, the train began to roll into the station. They watched it for a moment as it pulled up then began making their way back to the city. They had all only taken a few steps before there was a loud explosion. The force pushed the group down to the ground and fire spread out. Their ears rang from the sound, the air reverberating around them. Twilight looked up from the shock wave and saw the train on fire and in a heap of twisted metal. At first, Twilight couldn’t hear anything, just a buzzing and a beeping but her hearing slowly came back and the buzzing was replaced with screaming. Survivors of the explosion were running away from the train while mares called out for their foals and stallions called out for their families. Rainbow Dash helped Pinkie Pie and Rarity up as they were slowly gaining their hearing back as well. Applejack helped Fluttershy up and they both turned to the carnage. It was chaos, Discord would have been proud in his own messed up kind of way. The girls stood and watched for a moment then began helping ponies find each other or just relax until help arrived. They had no way of knowing what had happened or why, all they could do was help as much as they could.
When help finally did arrive, Twilight and her friends made their way back to Canterlot Tower where the Princess was fussing over documents and orders that were flooding in because of the train station. Twilight entered the throne room.
“I’m sorry I can’t speak with you right now Twilight Sparkle, I have much to go over.” Celestia said in a hurry, her voice teeming with stress.
“Princess Celestia, I have to talk to you about Seb.”
“My sentence is final.” Celestia replied.
“We need him.” Twilight exclaimed. Celestia stamped a hoof down, making Twilight flinch.
“I did what is best for my subjects Twilight Sparkle, whether or not it was fair. I have to think about Equestria’s safety and well being, not the fate of a creature that has wronged us.” Celestia boomed.
“But he can help us.” Twilight pleaded.
“I asked his help once before, and he betrayed me.” Celestia replied in a sterner voice. It made sense now, why Celestia was so angry. She was more upset about Seb’s sentence than anyone else. Seb had betrayed her and she was angry, if not hurt, by it. Twilight sighed and walked out of the room in defeat.
She made her way towards the palace labyrinth where they had taken Seb’s statue. They had placed it next to the statue of Discord, which disturbed Twilight. When she arrived, Fluttershy was already there, looking into the stone eyes.
“You’re right Twilight.” Fluttershy said as Twilight approached. “He needs our help, and so does Equestria.”
Twilight waited for the explosions at the edge of the city to stop before speaking.
“Come on Fluttershy, we better get somewhere safe.” Twilight said and nudged her. She nodded and followed.
In the two weeks that followed Seb’s sentence, bombings were a constant in Canterlot. The humans continuously threw grenades and planted explosives everywhere. It was their way of invading without losing any men in the process. The explosives were new to the ponies and didn’t understand how to avoid or counteract them. By the end of the first week, the humans had taken over the lower half of town. Most of the citizens had either fled the city, joined the army, or barricaded themselves in their homes. Twilight and her friends had been invited to stay in the palace. Rainbow Dash had joined the army almost instantly. At first, Shining Armor didn’t like it, but when she beat one of his best soldiers in a duel, he let her in. Applejack wanted to fight but she and Pinkie Pie felt more comfortable in the kitchens, keeping the citizens of Canterlot fed. Twilight, of course, poured over books on warfare, battles, magic, anything and everything she could get her hooves on to help in the war, but she couldn’t find anything the humans didn’t counteract. Rarity and Fluttershy helped out in the hospitals. None of the six friends really talked to one another, there was either not enough time to, or nothing happy to talk about. Rainbow Dash hadn’t been seen in days and they all feared something terrible had happened. Even Pinkie Pie couldn’t make anyone smile. Yes, she would get the odd smile from people who just thought she must be crazy to be happy in such a crisis, but it was something. It did help them forget, even for a moment. Twilight stepped out of the Canterlot Library and looked around. Homes and buildings were boarded up and or abandoned.
“Ponies shouldn’t live like this...” Twilight said to herself.
Coupled with the human’s ability to convert the unicorn magic and their war methods, the humans were becoming harder and harder to fight back and had begun working their way into the east side of the city. The humans had also made it impossible for anyone outside Canterlot to come to their aid; they had every road and railroad blocked and protected. Air raids seemed to be their only weakness; with no air force of their own there was nothing they could do to defend themselves from the air. This created another problem however, Unicorns and Earth ponies alike were angry that it appeared the Pegasi would be their only hope and that many Pegasi were gloating. The war wasn’t just tearing the earth apart, they were tearing the bonds the ponies had with each other apart as well. Twilight made her way to the palace where Celestia was pouring over documents and trying to appease those who were clamoring for her attention. Twilight patiently waited while she attended to everyone. Finally, it was just them. Celestia sighed.
“Nice to see a friendly face.” She said softly as she approached Twilight. Twilight bowed quickly then looked her princess in the eyes.
“Princess, I need to talk to you.” Twilight said, she didn’t wait for Celestia to answer. “It’s terrible outside, and we’re on our last legs. We need Seb.”
Celestia said nothing at first. She looked out the windows and saw a fire being started and another explosion. She then sighed and nodded. She turned around to a guard and nodded to him.
“Get the human statue.” She said simply. Twilight smiled happily,
It took a few hours for the guards to carry Seb back in, they had to avoid bombs traps and attacks along the way and it wasn’t easy. Finally, they made it to the throne room, where Twilight had the majority of her friends there. She had gone out when they did to find them and bring them there. The only one missing, was Rainbow Dash. They surrounded Seb, with Celestia aiming her horn at the statue. Slowly, the spell melted away and Seb’s natural body emerged from the stone. He opened his eyes, and smirked.