//------------------------------// // LXVIII : Friends Together VI // Story: The Steadfast Sky // by Greytercakes //------------------------------// The Steadfast Sky : Friends Together VI The Grey Potter http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11495/The-Steadfast-Sky http://cosmicponyfiction.tumblr.com ~Discord~ We rested atop a cloud of water vapor. One of the very few up in the relentlessly endless blue sky. Distant on the northern horizon, I could see the faded peaks of the Unicorn Mountain Range. Without that landmark, we could have been so easily lost on the open sky. Wisps and vapor floated away from my every touch, swirling away into small, cottony streams, lighter and more gossamer than anything created by ponykind. It was almost like arts and crafts in by the world’s most elegant spiders. It was beautiful, and yet, really stupid hard to work with. Trying to grip just made my fingers sink it, and pulling with my fingers made the material wisp and separate. I actually had to do things the pony way, balling my hands into ‘hooves’ and kneading the material slowly into the shape I wanted with my knuckles. Hours passed. The sun rose. I drew the canopy closer. We watched the sky, hidden in shaded cotton, drifting and drifting further from the earlier nightmare. We were alone. Very alone. Eh. I don’t think either of us minded it so much. “You mean to tell me,” Luna said, “That you could walk on clouds all along?!” “What counts as all along?” I asked. “Like, since before I met you?!” I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Theoretically.” Luna made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a squeal. In excitement, her wings sporadically scattered several drifting cloud wisps. But, with a nervous laugh, she struggled and folded the wings back to her sides, wincing as she did it wrong. I had taken off Loyalty and stowed it away. It just didn’t feel like it fit, like it was constantly threatening to slip off. But Luna still wore Honesty. It looked wonderful in her lightly billowing mane, almost making the hairs themselves sparkle. She asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you could do something so awesome?!” “I dunno. I just don’t think about it…?” I tugged at the hair on my chin, pulling it idly between two knuckles. “Okay, confession time. I’ve lived most of my life on the ground.” “Yeah, I figured!” “So really,” I continued, “Why would I want to go sit on some dumb clouds?” “Well I don’t know. Isn’t it just a thing every pony think about?” Luna asked. She grinned up at the cloud roof, hooves mindlessly bouncing off the puffy material. “What sane pony doesn’t look up in the sky and think ‘oh man, those look really soft, I really wish I could sit on a cloud!’” “I don’t know, but, think about it.” I stretched out my claws and pointed down at the rolling black mass beneath us. I said, “Do the clouds look particularly soft and inviting from the ground?” “I guess not. But.” She flopped sideways, nuzzling her nose and limbs under the vapor. “These not-gross clouds are so soft. And they just feel… more clean, more natural, you know? I can fall asleep, here and now…” There was a moment where everything was quiet. Luna shifted and turned quietly on her side, as if she was trying to find the right position for a good catnap. I watched as her hooves dipped into the material, body sinking slightly, wings trying to settle back down… Then she popped back up as if nothing happened, head just barely missing out on bashing my chin. “So!” she said, “I can do this because of my transformation?” I nodded. “Yes. The magic for it is entirely in your wings.” “That doesn’t make any kind of sense!” she gleefully cheered. “Where did it come from? How come the magic only works when it’s in my wings? Man, magic is so weird and random, isn’t it?!” I shrugged again. “Yeah, beats me. Elements did it? So crazy.” Luna stopped. She frowned. “I was being facetious, you know.” I nodded stonily. “Yes. I know.” “So, seriously,” she said, calming down. “You always know about this magic stuff. Why…?” “It’s not a really big answer. That’s just how it works for Pegasus,” I shrugged. “Concentration of petrichor in the wings, which means the magic focuses on flight, and I guess, clouds? Makes Pegasus light enough to fly. So the bones in the rest of their bodies don’t have to sacrifice bone density…” I trailed off. I didn’t think Luna needed to hear the whole list of differences between Pegasi and True Birds. That, and, no matter how comfortable I was with Luna, anatomy lessons were learned with Ruin, and recounting them just brings up a whole slough of foul memories. “I’m sure there’s a more specific reason why it works like it does,” I finally said, “But I can’t get more specific than that.” Luna nodded. “Yeah, okay.” And, after a brief pause. “I still feel weird that I never learned any of this.” I simply replied, “Maybe it’s weird that I did learn this.” “Hm…” And, for a while, things grew quiet. We rested under the wispy canopy, keeping a vague eye out for anything unusual, but mostly trying to make up for lost sleep. The breeze blew us vaguely eastward. Sometimes I encouraged us south, but it seemed almost pointless. We didn’t have a clue where we were without the roads or towns. Yet, despite seeing no griffins, and under the threat of being lost forever, neither of us ever discussed heading back down below the clouds. We had found some sort of empty peace, drifting along. Not a care in the world. Just me and her, alone in the beautiful, sunny sky. But silence couldn’t last forever. And, actually, I was surprised when Luna suddenly started talking. “Sun’s getting low,” she said slowly, flopped lazily on her side. “What time do you think it is? Four? Five?” I shrugged. “Hard to say. I can’t check without burning out my eyes.” She chuckled softly. Then said, “You know, it’s odd.” “Yeah? What is?” “Didn’t get to eat anything all day, and for a while, I kind’ve felt it. Yet…” Her face scrunched up, in a sort of confusion. Or maybe disgust. “Yet… I don’t feel hungry anymore. Just this somewhat… strange empty feeling.” She craned her neck up to look at me. “Do you think, the smooze…?” I stared down at her. “Don’t tell me you’ve never gone a day without eating before.” “Not that I know of?” she replied, frowning. “Yeah, that feeling’s normal,” I said with a shrug, “Nothing to worry about yet. We should be more worried about water, really.” She opened her mouth, then closed it, scrunched expression never leaving her face. With what seemed to be a monumental effort, Luna nudged herself a little closer to me, her wings twitching slightly as she settled by my side. I blushed, but let her be there, trying not to see nervous by her presence. I mean, why would I be? She’s always been by my side, all day long. What does a few more inches make? Firmly, she said, “Maybe it would be safe to dig our way through again.” “Well,” I sighed, “I guess drifty cloud time couldn’t have lasted forever. Well, maybe it could.” A random thought spilled out my mouth, and I didn’t particularly want to stop it. “You know. Since you’re an immortal alicorn. You could probably stay up here forever.” I feel like that might actually be nice. An eternity, drifting, just sitting next to Luna and talking, for all time… And you know, she was right. About what was said yesterday, yet feels like a million years ago. When I try to be comfortable with her… No. I can be comfortable with her, without even trying. I am comfortable. And I don’t ever want to leave. I tuck an arm around her shoulder, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. Yet, she shook her head. “I don’t feel immortal, and we can’t stay.” Oh yeah. There was a sentence I said, that she was replying to. “So um,” I said, peering down at the solid floor of black, swirling doom. “Thinking of tunneling through with another sonic blast?” “Yeah… maybe… Wait!” Her head shot up, suddenly a hundred times more awake. “No, we can’t!” “Huh?” I said, surprised. “Why not?” “What if there’s a town down there?!” she yelps. “A blast like that could do some serious damage!” “Oh. Right. Sorry.” I peer over her head again, gathering my thoughts. “But, to be fair, I feel a bit nervous about just digging our way through that stuff. Is that strange?” “No. After what we saw…” She shook her head. “But we’ve definitely drifted away far enough to get away from whatever that was, right?” “Probably…” “I mean, we havn’t seen a single thing up here!” Luna asserted. “No griffins, no Stallion, not even any rainclouds. That monster cloud, whatever it was that was producing the Smooze, it was something planted there. Specifically, just to get us.” “You know…” I said, absentmindedly. “I did hear a number of wingbeats before that rain started. Had to be the griffins putting it into place, or seeding the clouds, or whatever.” Luna nodded firmly, I guess considering the conversation settled. “So,” she said confidently, “Going back down? It’s not as much of a problem.” I sighed, unable to take my gaze from our destination down below. “Alright,” I said, “We’ll try. But, if there’s any funny business at all, we’re blasting our way back up and thinking of another plan.” She nodded again. “Okay.” I stood up and stretched my wings out. They felt knotted, a little worn out, but with a bit of stretching I easily heaved myself into the air. The cloud canopy, so close around us, started to beat and fray in the little gusts. I ignored it, we didn’t need to keep it together anymore. I placed my hands around Luna’s middle again, tucking my hands under her saddlebags, trying to stay just aloft above her. Her own wings shot sideways, more out of surprise than control. She glanced back over her shoulders, confused. But the moment passed, and with a few deep breaths, she evened out, accepting it. “Discord?” “Uh-huh?” “You going to be okay?” She glanced up at me, horn bouncing off my chin. “I mean, have you recovered your magic? How much do you think you have?” I tightened my grip, unsteady. “Just assume that I’m still out,” I said, “Okay?” “Okay…” She took a deep breath. I could feel her fur shifting between my fingers. New best thing to happen today. I said, “Here we go.” I dug my fingers under her legs. Her wings slapped and flapped awkwardly, catching air only for the grace of the magic in her bones. I heaved my own wings, and we jerked upwards. Clouds pushed against my back, spinning and separating in the gusts. Slowly, I said, “Three… Two…” I heard Luna inhale sharply. Her new limbs wooshed, and we jerked upwards, lifting into the scattered vapor. “One…” Instantly, I tilted downwards. We were off. Luna squealed loudly as we dropped, wind roaring past us. I beat my wings wide, trying to keep us from accelerating too quickly. But the weight I was carrying felt made my wings feel like they were about to be ripped out of their sockets. This was even worse than going up. Trying to slow down was going to rip me apart. I tried to shout over the wind, “Luna!” She froze, wings stuck awkwardly out at her sides. “What?!” she shouted back. “I need you to—!” It didn’t matter. It a moment more, we had hit the clouds. In an instant, the hot, solid clouds rolled over our heads. I felt like I was being uncomfortably squeezed into a strange position. Like a tight, sweaty blanket had suddenly decided to attack me. The stink was unbearable. But I didn’t let go. If Luna fell out of the clouds before I did… The ground was not that far from the sky. What if I couldn’t catch up to her in time? “Weird, gross!” Luna squealed. “Weird, really gross!” Trying to find a foothold in the thick mass, I shouted down, “Just kick your way through it Luna!” “Uhg! These clouds feel even nastier when they’re solid!” Luna moaned, batting at the clouds with all her limbs, new and old. “Just breathing them was bad enough… what is this stuff?” “And you wonder why I don’t like sitting on clouds!” I shouted. “These are not clouds!” Luna moaned, “They’re not fluffy, or light, or Ew! EWEW!” “What?!” I cried, “What is it?!” “It’s colder down here!” she said. “Wet… I think… Discord! I think it’s still raining!” “What?!” I kicked violently, but before the words even got out of my mouth, I felt it too. The clouds were colder than normal. Wet, and greasy. Like lard, rubbed into my skin by sweat-soaked cotton. “Okay,” I declared, “That is nasty.” “I told you so!” she called, “But, oh jeez, you think…” I completed her thought without even thinking. “More smooze? No. Can’t be.” Coan’t I doubt it. Yet, my fingers dug into Luna’s fur. She barely noticed. “We drifted for so long.” “But the rain… OH!” Luna dropped out the other side, and her weight dragged me out as well, into a cold world of steady rain. Bits of the dark fluff stuck to our wings, stubbornly coating them. Ignoring the stuff, I beat my wings a few time and stopped out fall before it started. We soared above the muddy treetops, the faded and washed out ground, hovering over a muted world. The rain was steadily soaking us through, sticking and rolling off the clinging bits of cloud. “It doesn’t feel right,” Luna said, hanging limply from my arms. “What doesn’t?” I asked. “The rain.” I thought about that. For a moment, I stopped flapping my wings, gliding on empty air. I could feel the rain more clearly now, the flow of it across my wingspan. It felt dirty, yes, but somehow, that didn’t seem so strange… “It doesn’t feel like goop either,” I noted, “We’re just so used to the clean rain in Canterlot. This stuff has got… you know.” I glanced up. “Dark clouds in it.” Finally, I spotted a break in the treeline. A simple road wound through the trees, yellow and sandy dirt a clear line in the muddy landscape. I banked towards it, drifting down and down, closer and closer. My wings were growing knotted from holding them out straight, from the weight, but I didn’t need to last much longer. “Next town, let’s find an umbrella,” Luna said. Then, with a small laugh, “I mean, you did keep the money, didn’t you?”  “Why would I throw it away?” I grunted. “How dumb do you think I am?” She laughed again, but beyond that, she gave me no response. Finally, the ground sped up under our feet. I heard Luna sharply inhale, and her legs began kicking at the sandy mud. I let her go. She squealed, and I heard a thud behind me. With a few more aching flaps, I dropped, skipping and hopping from the speed. I dug my toes in. Cold mud engulfed my hands, and splattered up my arms. I stopped. Eventually. But. I shook a paw. Wet mud splattered back onto the ground. Yeah, that’s what I wanted first thing back on the ground. Being cold, wet, and covered in dirt. Great. There was a strangled shout. I snapped around, mud squelching between my toes. “Luna?!” “Sorry!” Luna cried. She was frantically swiping the mud from her shoulder. “It’s nothing! Just the mud felt funny. Thought it might be…” She stopped, and took a deep breath. “You sure this rain doesn’t feel strange to you?” she asked. “No,” I replied. “It’s fine. Just water.” The rain was cold, certainly. But it wasn’t numbing. It didn’t move when hit. The soil felt sticky, sure, but in this rain, it’d be strange if it wasn’t. This was neither the sticky mist, nor the clumpy downpour. This was just slightly dirty-feeling rain. But it nagged at me. And clearly, it nagged at Luna much more. We walked in silence, slowly letting our cloaks soak up the rain. After a little bit of walking, some references to the map, and some time spent making sure we both had eaten, it felt like a time to experiment. Just a little bit. With some hesitancy, I created a simple cup and let it fill as we walked. When I finally felt it was full enough, we both craned our necks over the little receptacle, trying to see what the water was made of. It was clear. Not black, nor muddy. But… perhaps, a little cloudy? With some turning and twisting, I could make out a sort of film on the water, a few specks of black material… “You know...” Luna said, eyes turned up to permanent sky- roof. “I can’t believe I never wondered this. But. What in the world are those clouds made of?” “The Pegasus and griffins put them into place,” I replied emptily, “Maintain them.” “But how? With what?” Luna frowned. “All that time in Canterlot, and we never thought to ask…” Suddenly, her frowned deepened. She turned to me. “And how did you know it was the Pegasus who put them there?” I opened my mouth, then closed it. How did I know? I mean, I know what I know. But was it something I learned in the castle, many, many years ago…? “It just sounds right to me, you know…” I said slowly. “Ruin told me, when I was younger, I think? But I feel like something happened out here too… You know. With that Pegasus.” Luna stared at me, nonplussed. “She had a brand over her cutie mark? The one with the feather bangles?” I pointed over my shoulder. “The ones clipped to her wings?” “Oh!” She stopped, hoof over her mouth. “Oh. Wow. That was such a long time ago… I had nearly forgotten. She didn’t tell us about the clouds, though…” “But she did create some,” I noted. “Did she…?” Luna asked. “When she flew, yeah.” The conversation didn’t go much further. We mumbled a few more ideas, but after such a long, long day of running, hiding, and worrying, we didn’t have the energy anymore to discuss. We had spent plenty of time in the rain by that point, and had seen no other reason to fear. What else was there to do? What really could we do? But after a long, gloomy silence, Luna finally spoke up, quietly staring into the filmy puddles. “We spent way too much time in Canterlot, didn’t we?” She softly asked. “We abandoned so, so very many ponies…” I nodded, “Consider this making up for lost time.” “Yes… Yes, I will.” ~æ~ A week’s travel spent miserable in the rain. The dirt paths, already pushed to the edge of poor maintenance, were reduced to a grainy soup. Ditches beside the road were well on their way to being considered brown rivers or new, very muddy ponds. In all the time we spent travelling, I don’t think I ever saw a not-stuck cart on the road. Even the towns were reduced to bare storefronts and pooling lamplight puddles. Mostly, be it town or outskirts, we were left alone, spending days and without a soul in sight. We eventually did buy ourselves a proper umbrella, because maintaining a constant illusion above our heads can really wear on a guy. But a colored piece of cloth couldn’t save us from the mud, the puddles, or accidentally tripping and sliding into a shallow ditch river. But. After a long week of being ground-bound, soaking wet, and miserably cold. Our warped and water-stained map finally, finally led us true. A tall, white building rose from between the trees, barely visible in the constant pattering rain. The garden was overrun. Lumps of bushes pushed their way over walkways and inched over walls. A cracked fountain slowly spilled water over its sides, creating a water trap of floating leaves and twigs. After seeing Honesty’s tomb abandoned, this location almost seemed to be just as empty, almost forlorn. But there were a few little things that pointed to it being inhabited. There was an occasional lantern-light in the windows, and the dead leaves slicking the walkways seemed stomped-down by the regular passage of hooves. “So this is it,” Luna mumbled, “So. The plan was…” “Sneak in,” I repeated dully, for what felt like the thousandth time. “Since, you know,” Luna said, “they might be the ones reporting to The Shadow Stallion.” “Caution’s best,” I recited. “Yes,” she grunted, nodding. “Should be.” “On the other hand,” I said, “I’m wet and cold and sick of this stupid rain.” Luna loudly moaned. “Oh buh-jeebus, me too.” “So. I vote for trashing the plan. Let’s just go in there and grab us a stupid rock.” “One hundred percent with you there.” I started to make a direct beeline for the front door, reasoning solid as the rock we were after. Dead leaves squelching under our feet, we tromped towards the door with a dead energy, driven by our purpose. Get inside building.  Just… get inside. I snapped the umbrella shut, rain lightly pattering off my cloak. My numb fingers curled around a thick copper handle, and with a yank, the heavy door wobbled open, groans announcing our entrance. Even through my tired haze, I was struck by just how large the place was. Spreading out in front of me, I saw buttloads old tile and varnished wood. From here, it seemed like there was no roof, just floor after floor stacked up and up. Directly in front of the double doors, on the opposite side of the foyer, was a desk manned by a mare, notes floating around her head in a careful, magical order. But, looking down, the space right in front of me was scuffed and muddied from dozens of wet hooves. I could just barely see a stallion absentmindedly circling the muck with a tattered gray mop, splashing and pushing the filth around in almost painterly circles. On second glance, that stallion looked like half of his face had been blown off… Yeah, that looked like a good sign. “Pardon,” I mumbled, heaving myself through the doorway. I tried to leave behind the muck and leaves that were stuck between my fingers. I mean, I’m not going to be the guy to make the mopping stallion’s job harder. I think he noticed my attempts at politeness. He stopped circling his mop, and nodded kindly in my direction. Cool. But as soon as I peeled off my dampened cloak, he froze. Even though he only had one eye, I felt like he was staring. I huffed, a dumbjoke suddenly coming to mind. “What?” I grunted. “Never seen a Draconequus before?” “Er, can’t say I have, sir,” the stallion weakly chuckled back. Luna clomped up beside me, nudging off her own cloak. I wondered why she wasn’t using magic, but as soon as she lowered her head, I noticed I couldn’t see her horn. She must have thought that was easier to hide than her wings, which became readily apparent as soon as she peeled off her cloak. You know what was also readily apparent? Her golden tiara. She didn’t even think to hide it. “Luna,” I whispered. She turned to me. “Huh?” “Your tiara.” She blinked, then raised a hoof to Honesty. “Oh. Um,” she glanced over to the two hallway ponies. “Whoops.” Quickly, she grabbed the jewelry in her ankle, and stuffed it into her bag. But of course they had seen. Why wouldn’t they have? We must have made for the absolute strangest couple they had ever seen. “Welcome to the Sanatorium,” the desk mare finally piped up, almost as an afterthought. “Is there something I can help you with?” “Sanatorium?” I asked. Luna nudged me with her muddy hoof, leaving a small stain in my fur. “A couple of the villagers called this place that, Discord.” “Oh yeah. Anyway… uh…” I shook a little water from the fur in my arm, trying to get the most of it outside and failing. Geez. I could really use a towel right now. “So…” Luna blankly wandered over to the desk pony. Direct and to the point. That’s my Luna. Luna gently reared up, trying to get her forefeet on the desk so she could talk with the mare face to face. Still just a bit too short, I guess. But it seemed like she pushed off the ground a bit too hard. For a moment, her legs and wings flailed wildly, trying to not tumble over. Papers scattered and spun away from her, held in place only because the desk pony scrambled to keep them in her aura. Eventually, her forefeet landed on the desk with a heavy clunk. Luna waited a moment more before speaking, as if she was afraid she’d fall. Her face was a flushed purple under her plastered wet hair. Luna cleared her throat, trying to push her wings back into place. “Okay,” she said, “Here’s the scoop.” “Yes ma’am?” Apparently recovered from the odd display, the desk mare quietly drifted a piece of paper in front of her, pen at the ready. “We’re looking for a rock,” Luna proclaimed. The desk mare’s pen twitched. Retreated. The mare looked up from her page, befuddled. “A rock, you say?” she asked. “Yes. A rock,” Luna continued to assert. “A rock by a statue of an alicorn, if you know what I mean…” Luna would almost sound threatening if she didn’t seem absolutely ridiculous. It was like the beginning of a bad joke. A Pegasus and a Draconequus walk into a hospital… Strange. The desk mare was glancing over at me now. I waved. She hesitantly waved back. “So,” the mare said slowly, “You’re pilgrims?” “Yeah,” I called over, “Sure.” “No offense meant, um, sir and ma’am. Just, the pilgrims we meet tend to be quite a bit older…” She laughed nervously, setting aside her paper and pen. “But yes, the statue. It’s…” she grimaced, and looked behind her. “Oh, I am sorry…” “Yes?” Luna demanded, “What?” “But it’s actually out in the back gardens.” Quietly, she pointed to another door, around the side of the grand staircase. In a light voice, trying to put this as delicately as possible, the desk pony said, “In the rain…” Luna made a loud strangled sound. The desk pony jumped back a little, bouncing off the rear wall. She mumbled some apologies, but Luna had already sunk into her forelegs, mumbling death, destruction, and a dire need for some hot chocolate. “I mean, it doesn’t even have to be hot chocolate,” Luna groaned. We squelched through the rain-soaked back gardens, rain pattering softly on our umbrella. While the front felt spongy from the soaked and crushed grass, the backyard seemed even wilder than the front. The bushes and shrubs, once clearly trimmed hedges, had grown into large, wild forests, with jutting branches waving nearly ten feet in the air. The ground wasn’t just spongy, but neglected and soupy mud, filled with branches, leaves, and earthworms. “I could just really, really, really go for something warm.” Luna continued, “Doesn’t even have to be tasty. It could be oatmeal. Discord. Discord, are you hearing me?” Luna spun around, face contorted into something almost comedically sad. “I hate oatmeal. Hate it. It’s mushy and gucky. But I could so go for a bowl. I could.” I smiled weakly. Despite being exhausted, I clicked my claws. A mug of brown fluid popped in front of her, hovering on a little set of wings, letting off faint wisps of steam. “I wouldn’t make you suffer the horrors of oatmeal, Luna,” I said. “Pfft. Thanks.” Her aura glittered to life, and she drank. “No, no, it’s not the same if it doesn’t warm me from the inside. Sorry, Discord.” I shrugged, “Maybe I’ll work on that next.” “Yeah…” she turned forward again. Yet, she didn’t let go of the mug. I don’t know about her, but it warmed me to see her continuing to drink my not-hot chocolate. “Hey,” Luna said suddenly. “Look.” It was just a pale lump in the rain, almost ghostly in the dark sheets of midday darkness. But, as we approached, it was clearly the sleeping statue of Paleheart. His sides we plastered in chopped bits of grass. A windswept branch had fallen on its back, leaves still fresh and green. Lacking any sort of pedestal, it almost seemed to be sinking into the mud, held aloft only by the thick blanket of plants on all sides. Dully, I said, “This has got to be the saddest state we’ve ever found a statue in.” Nose crinkled over her mug, Luna nodded. “Yeah…” “He’s not even in a mausoleum, or guarded by a bunch of traps, or surrounded by Illuminators,” I continued, “He’s just stuck in a back field, like nobody cared. I mean. They couldn’t have just left him…” Through the sheets of rain, I examined the stonework. But up close it looked so fine, so perfectly crafted into an ultimate expression of quiet peace. And  the hair was just unreal. I could almost see each individual strand, thin as spider webs, standing resiliently against the softly pattering rain. “Okay. It really is him,” I said. “That just makes me mad.” I looked over to Luna, passive over her mug of hot chocolate. “I mean… this guy was their god. How come Paleheart gets nothing but a field? Why was he abandoned?” Luna frowned, mug slowly lowering. She said, “You seem so passionate about this…” “Do I?” I frowned down at myself, “I don’t know why I would be…” Quietly, Luna circled the statue. She lowered the mug to the ground, and I slowly let it fade away. My mind was elsewhere now, thinking quietly, turning my thoughts over and over. Yes, seeing Paleheart here, like this made me mad… But what about Bookends, or even Golden Jubilee? They were abandoned, left in rotting tombs with no one to attend them but monsters… And, retroactively, I almost began to pity them as well. All of them, just abandoned, nobody left to give a shit about them. Like they were used up the moment they transformed. They broke, and were shuffled aside. The respectful burial they received was almost token. Nobody really cared anymore. Nopony existed anymore but the monster. I shivered, rubbing my arm. “Oh, the poor thing…” Luna’s voice drifted over to me, encouraging me back from my thoughts. “Discord, look.” I came around to the other side, and froze. Thick lines seemed to be gouged into his flank, the rain welling in the cracks, leaving black rivers from the gashes. I was suddenly struck with the terrifying image of the wounds bleeding black blood. I winced, and looked away. “Paleheart…” “He looks peaceful at least,” Luna commented. “Looks like he just laid down… went right to sleep. In stone.” Luna glanced up at me, “I mean, compared to the others… The twisted, the screaming, the attacking…” I nodded, wondering. Paleheart must have certainly turned into a Nightmare… But nothing about him seemed nightmarish. And the records I read never mentioned any sort of rampage… “So,” Luna said suddenly, “The Element should be nearby.” I nodded. Thought a moment. Snorted. “Where would it even be hiding? Underground? There’s nowhere to put it.” Luna grinned weakly, “Maybe they stuck it in the bushes.” I snickered, despite myself. “Yeah. Nobody will think to look there. It’s not deep, meaningful, or significant in any way. Best hiding place ever.” We lapsed into a moment of silent thought. I walked back around the statue. If I stayed on this side, my eyes would just stay glued to the rain-bleeding wounds. Where was the Element? Where could it possibly be? In the silence, I heard something. Through the light drumming of rain, I heard the steady, rhythmic squelching of running hooves beating through mud and dead leaves. “Luna,” I asked, “You hear that?” Luna stepped closer, peering around Paleheart’s front. She said, “Someone’s coming from the hospital.” I turned. A white figure with a strangely colored swirl of a mane was picking through the rain, towards us, full tilt. There was a shout, in the distance, maybe directed our way. But it didn’t come from the approaching pony. “Yeah?” I called, “Hello?” The figure stumbled. It’s trot slowed. More of it became distinct through the sheets of dark rain. Her, for it looked like a her, mane was a pick of random colors. Light pink. Light violet. Light blue. But with every step, the mane seemed to shift, like the rain was messing with it, washing them out. She was pale, with a splash of yellow drifting in and out of sight as she walked. She stopped, right along the line of hedgerows. Right before the meadow. Just stopped, and stared. Hesitantly, she raised her voice. “Hello... guys?” It clicked. I froze. The only sound was the drumming of rain, battering our cloaks and plastering her hair to her neck. Standing there, frozen in the rain with a mane a swirl of colors, was, just simply, Celestia.