//------------------------------// // vii - The Forest of Medusa // Story: The Path of Absolution - Punishment // by Morningstar1337 //------------------------------// The poison-joke-addled Cutie Mark Crusaders trekked along their path. The three Crusaders thought of their lives. “Hey, do you remember when we first met?” Apple Bloom said. “At Diamond Tiara’s cuteceañera?” Scooaloo said. Sweetie Belle stopped her giggling. “Yeah,” she said. “And that time we tried to enter the talent contest?” Scootaloo said. “I still can’t believe our talent wasn’t comedy,” Apple Bloom said. “And then there was that time where we asked everypony how they got their cutie marks!” Sweetie Belle said. “Yeah,” Apple Bloom sighed. “Htseo were the yads.” Scootaloo scratched herself again. She saw a scythe, a set of scales, and a sword in a sheath nearby. “Hey,” Scootaloo pointed to the items. “Look at this.” “That’s strange,” Sweetie Belle said. “I wonder who left them here in the first place.” “Nduon,” Apple Bloom took the sword and sheath. “But I ebt that they’ll be lusefu ofr teghignar.” Sweetie Belle took the scales while Scootaloo took the scythe. The Crusaders examined the items but couldn't find anything unusual other than their mere presence. Sweetie Belle began laughing again. Apple Bloom took the sword out of the sheath and looked at the blade. She saw the blade was crimson with the blood of many. She thought about what kind of terrible things would have happened to stain the blade. She then thought about the terrible things she wrote as Gabby Gums, and the strife it caused. She wondered again if things in Equestria would be better off without her. Scootaloo looked at the pale scythe. She could still see nothing wrong with it. She suddenly thought of the concept of death. She thought about the lives she ruined, and wondered if dying would be an improvement over her current situation. Sweetie Belle stopped laughing and looked at the black set of scales, and saw that its cups were not on the same level. She tried to balance it, but one of the cups was still weighed down. She saw the words “Life” marked on the lower cup, and the word “Death” on the other cup. She wondered about the meaning of those two words, and then wondered about the meaning of her own existence, but her train of thought was interrupted by sudden giggles and laughter. The three smelled another nasty smell, but hadn't paid much attention and moved ahead. Back in Ponyville, Diamond Tiara was leaving the schoolhouse. She was alone, since the other foals have already gone home. “You want glory, don’t you?” Diamond Tiara heard a voice. “Who's there?” She shivered and looked around the empty room, but saw no one there. “Are you a ghost?” “In some ways, yes. But do not be alarmed, I’m not here to hurt you.” “What do you want?” Diamond Tiara asked. She could not see the specter. She gazed at the chalkboard. “Who are you?” “Think of me as a benefactor of sorts. I know that you are destined not to be a lowly editor.” “And what makes you think that’s not my destiny?” Diamond Tiara said. “I happen to like my job.” “But I know you want more, Diamond Dazzle Tiara. If your destiny was to be the leader of a tabloid, then why is your cutie mark a tiara?” She looked at the empty desks. “I just happened to like tiaras is all,” she said. “I know cutie marks are more than meets the eye. They reflect not just one’s talent, they reflect one’s personality and ultimately one’s destiny. They are like eyes themselves, windows to the soul. And I can see that you want to be famed throughout Equestria.” Diamond Tiara was shocked. She knew that she wanted to be famed throughout the land. But at the same time she didn’t know what to do, she was just a filly and deep down and she resented that. She wondered what her destiny might be “Alright then, what is my destiny?” “Why, to be queen of course,” the spirit said. “Queen? But Equestria only is led by princesses,” Diamond Tiara said. “Come to the Unicorn Range and I’ll tell you more, and give you the power to become queen.” “But why won’t you tell me now?” Diamond Tiara was getting impatient. “Alas, my time is limited,” the spirit said. “I can’t stay here longer. But I can leave you a parting gift to lead you to our destination.” A ball of energy appeared in front of Diamond Tiara, and embedded itself into the largest diamond on her tiara. She wanted to know what fate had in store for her. She knew what she had to do. In the Everfree Forest, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle were at a cliff. The ponies were looking over the edge. “Are you even sure they are even here?” Rainbow Dash said. “No,” Applejack said “I’m sure that they were here. No timberwolf would go even half that fast.” “Do you think that they were” --Fluttershy gulped-- “eaten?” “I hope not,” Applejack said. “Well, we can’t find them here,” Twilight said. “Don’t you have any tracking spells?” Pinkie Pie said. “Apart from searching for gems? No,” Twilight said. Rarity thought, ‘But what if Sweetie Belle’s down there?’ “Twilight, can you bring us down the cliff?” she said. “I can try, but why?” Twilight said. “Call it a sister’s intuition.” Rarity said. Twilight looked for something to use for a platform. She saw a tree that looked like it had been dead for a few weeks. She checked her book for a spell for uprooting or cutting the tree. Eventually she found the spell she was looking for and cast it. Her horn glowed as pink as Pinkie and the tree was levitated and brought down in front of the edge. “Get on the tree and don’t let go,” Twilight said. The other ponies were confused, but they went on top of the dead tree. Twilight then followed. Rainbow Dash decided to just fly down. Twilight levitated the tree again. Fluttershy was tightly grasping the tree as Twilight gently moved it. “Wow, I've never been on a tree ride before. Have any of you saw a tree ride before? I bet it must be super dup--” “Pinkie,” Twilight said with a strained voice. “I need focus!” “Oops, sorry,” Pinkie said. Twilight’s tree platform was halfway down the cliff face. So far so good. Fluttershy was still holding on to the tree as tightly as she could, until she saw a spider move. Sweat was running down from her pores and the arachnid moved towards her. The spider then went away from her. “Phew,” she whispered silently. Twilight still had a ways to go before it would be safe to jump off, but she was confident that she would finish the spell. “SPIIIDDDDEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!” Rarity exclaimed at the top of her lungs. Twilight’s focus was broken, and the spell with it. The tree fell and crashed into the ground. Rainbow Dash flew down and went towards the group. “Everypony okay?” “Yeah, we’re alright,” Twilight said in a daze. Everypony then looked at Rarity who was stomping the spider. “Icky, icky, beast. Die,” Rarity said. She saw everypony looking at her and the now destroyed tree. “Sorry.” Fluttershy was a little horrified. Applejack and Rainbow Dash rolled their eyes. “Come on, everypony,” Applejack said. “They can’t be too far ahead now.” The ponies resumed their search for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Several yards away the Crusaders stopped and sat on a rock. Scootaloo used its surface to satisfy her itch. All three were thinking back to the day before yesterday. Back to the mob and their hurtful words. “Do you think that everypony will ever forgive us?” Apple Bloom said. “I doubt it,” Scootaloo said. “Everypony hates us.” Sweetie Belle was chuckling again. “I mean, It’s not just Gabby Gums. We also freed Discord, nearly brought a plague to Ponyville, and almost killed somepony with a bowling ball,” Apple Bloom said. She sulked some more. Sweetie Belle stopped laughing. “And then we tried to get cutie marks in surviving the Everfree Forest,” Sweetie Belle said. “but instead, we got poison joke and a timberwolf after us.” “I just swhi ttah this merintagh would den redlayla!” Apple Bloom said. The three Crusaders sighed. Apple Bloom looked at her sword and wondered what she would do with it. She inferred that the sword would be able to cut through skin and fur just from looking at the scarlet blood on the blade. She once again wondered if she and the others were just unable to get their cutie marks, and that even if they did, it wouldn't make a difference. Sweetie Belle fiddled around with her scales with a chuckle. A chuckle forced upon her by the poison joke. She looked at the ”Life” cup and wondered what it could mean. She wondered if it was telling her something. ‘Is it telling me that our lives are imbalanced?’ she thought. Scootaloo just looked at her scythe. She wondered what she could do with this pale scythe. The thought of death seemed comforting to her somehow. Death, the eternal rest. She thought about those that ran her and her friends out of town and doubted if their lives ever had any meaning. They heard some rustling in the nearby foliage. A chicken head popped out of a nearby bush. “A cockatrice?” Scootaloo said, resisting the urge to scratch. There was a thought in the back of each of the Crusaders’ minds telling them to gallop away as fast as possible as the cockatrice moved closer to the fillies. Its purple body glistened in the dim moonlight. The Crusaders thought about the town. They wondered how mad the town might be if they returned. They wondered if getting their cutie marks was worth causing the town more trouble. They knew that they caused grief to the townsponies with the paper. They knew that the townsponies hated them for it. They marched towards the cockatrice. “We’re sorry,” Sweetie Belle said. “We just can’t do it,” Scootaloo said. “It’s better off this way,” Apple Bloom said. “I’m just lucky to have good friends like you.” “Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “Cutie Mark Crusaders forever?” Sweetie Belle said. “Yeah,” the other two fillies said. The purple cockatrice opened its eyes and gave a glare to its victims. The scales were slowly balancing themselves as the Crusaders were slowly turned to stone. When they were fully petrified, the amethyst cockatrice let out a loud caw in triumph as it left the fillies behind to accept their fate. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie went along the path. “Over there,” Applejack said. “I think I heard something.” She went ahead and the others followed her. They made their way through several yards of underbrush to find the source of the sounds. Applejack stopped in her tracks. “Oh no,” she whispered. The other ponies stopped soon after. They saw statues in the pale light of Luna’s moon. Statues that looked too much like the Crusaders to be mere coincidence.