//------------------------------// // The Statue Got Me High // Story: Mare-y Stories to Tell in the Dark. // by BillytheBrony //------------------------------// The Statue Got Me High “Now Ah heard this story up in Canterlot during mah brief stint with Cherry Jubilee.” Started the farm pony as she adjusted her hat. She settled down on her sleeping bag. “Oh my, how is Miss Jubilee lately?” asked Fluttershy timidly. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “This is so not the time for that kinda’ talk, Fluttershy,” complained the pegasus. Fluttershy flinched slightly and gave a nervous smile. She nodded to what Rainbow Dash said. Twilight frowned disapprovingly, “No need to be rude, Rainbow Dash.” “Indeed, Fluttershy was just trying to be polite.” Said Rarity with a affirming nod to back up Twilight’s comment. “Ahem, may Ah tell mah story now?” AJ asked as she eyed the ponies who were busy having a conversation. They all nodded almost in unison with sheepish looks on their faces. “Anyway,” She continued, “Ah learned about getting too caught up in work that time Big Macintosh injured himself. So ah guess this story kinda reminds me of that time.” Discord had been soundly defeated. Peace had been returned to Equestria. But all was not well. There were concerns that if the mere squabbling of children could unleash Discord then steps must be taken. He could not just be allowed to remain on display like that. To this end, the Canterlot Royal Magicians Society distributed one of their top unicorns to gather as much data as he could on the statue. His goal was to see if there was any way to either predict when he would break out once more, or possibly find some way to make sure he would never emerge again. “Oh yes, this is -just- what I had planned for my day.” The light blue stallion grumbled under his breath. His horn ignited as an azure glow surrounded his glasses, levitating them off of his nose so a handkerchief could rise up and clean them. He set his glasses back on his nose. “Professor of Petrification Research, oh why did I bother taking such a specialty?” He glanced over at his flank, which showed of all things, a cockatrice. The stallion sighed deeply. “Oh well, Rocky Road, you’re a smart stallion so something like this should be easy enough.” He said with a smile. He normally talked to himself; he was such an eccentric egghead that most ponies had as little to do with him as possible. His talent was petrification magic. Due to his research, most victims of a cockatrice were curable. His horn started to glow an azure color as he slowly circled the statue of Discord. He probed the statue with his magic to see what sort of reaction he could get, being very cautious due to the nature of his subject. He didn’t want to accidentally free him again after all. “Now let’s see. He seems like a normal enough statue. Granite from the feel of it.” He muttered under his breath to himself as he circled the statue. Mentally, he took notes. “I don’t feel any living thing. It’s like he is just a regular statue.” He frowned at that. That couldn’t be right. Surely he should be able to sense something from the statue, no matter how repressed Discord’s life signs might be. He wasn’t dead, after all. His mind wandered back to his earlier meeting with the Princess and the words she gave to him. ~Do not assume that because Discord is a statue that he is any less dangerous than when he was out wreaking havoc across Equestria. If you take a false step in the wrong direction, you might find an answer to more than what you set out to discover.~ The unicorn snorted slightly. He was a scholar and a professional. There was nothing that this, this statue could possibly do to him. Rocky couldn’t even -detect- this so called ‘God of Chaos’ inside the statue. “I’d even say he was an old ponies tale were it not for my colleague suddenly sprouting rabbit ears and tap-dancing out of the lab on the day in question.” He said to himself with a shake of his head. It had been a solid week. Rocky had set up various magical instruments around the statue in order to get some kind of reading. The lack of response so far was irritating him. He was focusing his horn for one last final scan, closing his eyes tightly as sweat started to form on his brow. Then, finally, finally he got something. An echo of magic from within the statue. His eyes snapped open as he exclaimed triumphantly, “Yes! I knew there was something!” His voice was weary from lack of sleep. “Now to move onto the next level!” He said as he trotted away, not catching the tuning fork he had left tucked under one of the statue’s feet. He had been using it to bounce signals through the statue and had forgotten it was there. The next several months were intense, long, and boring. He tried using his magic to scan the texture of the rock. Then he tried the density. Then he tried some obscure trick he read in some magazine somewhere to try and draw magic -out- of the statue. Nothing ever worked. He stared at the instrument hooked up to the statue with frustration. During this time, he had dislodged the tuning fork without realizing it. Desperation filled his mind He was convinced that Discord was actively hiding from him now. “I know you’re in there!” He shouted at the statue. ~Oh really? Am I ever really anywhere?~ Came a quiet voice in his mind. His eyes widened. “I, you. You, uh.” He reached up and pushed his hoof against his temple. He had such a headache. “I knew it. You -are- in there! I knew that wasn’t a fluke!” ~Oh no, no fluke at all. I am here, Rocky. I’ll always be here.~ Later at the college cafeteria, his old research partner, Straight A, was looking at him with some worry. “You do not appear to be doing well, Rocky.” He said as he sipped on an apple juice box. It was true, Rocky had spent several sleepless nights trying to think up -some- way to get any kind of conclusive result. “Nonsense. I know he’s in there. I just can’t find proof of him. He’s there, taunting me.” Rocky said as his eye twitched, looking this way and that. “It cannot just be a simple statue! I refuse to believe it! I’ve heard him!” He said in a hoarse voice. “Rocky, I and the others are really worried about you. They say you haven’t been attending the meetings like you’re supposed to, and the Committee have not received any reports from you about the matter. Maybe there isn’t anything to report? Maybe he is just a statue?” Straight said with a hoof placed on his friend’s shoulder in concern. Rocky shoved his friend’s hoof off of his shoulder. “That’s preposterous! That’s ridiculous. That’s, that’s, INCONCEIVABLE!” He said as he stood up suddenly. His eyes were wild and shifting constantly, as if looking for danger inside the cafeteria of all places. Ponies were staring at him and starting to gossip. The unicorn snorted harshly and just turned to leave. He had to get back, back to where he was meant to be. ~So I see you have returned to have another little game with me.~ “Sh, shut up, Discord.” He said as he stared at the statue. His horn was not even glowing now. He just -stared- at it. “I know what you’re up to.” ~Really then? What am I up to, pray tell?~ “You’re just trying to make me crazy, to make my friends lose faith in me. But I know you’re there. I can hear you, in my head!” His voice was uneven and wavering here and there. ~Oh do come on now, you yourself cannot detect me through your magic. You only started hearing me a week ago. You have found no proof that I am even here. You are -already- crazy.~ The bodiless voice taunted. “Shut up! I’m going to find out where you are. By force if I have to.” He opened up a bag at his hooves and levitated out a hammer and chisel. He started to laugh, the laugh building in intensity as he set the chisel against the foot of the statue and raised the hammer high. All he knew then was a blinding brightness followed by the dark. He was found an hour later by a guard on his way to another patrol, huddled at the foot of the statue with the hammer and chisel laying nearby amid all his equipment, the chisel itself was cracked in half. Rocky lay inside the shadow of the statue, his eyes unfocused and constantly shifting this way and that. The pony’s mane and tail were uncombed and wild and his body was covered with dirt and dust from weeks of self-neglect. He was muttering incoherently under his breath about the statue and how Discord had already escaped. The Medical ponies carefully put him in a stretcher and slowly wheeled it away as Princess Celestia observed with a sad look in her eyes, having been alerted the second the guard had found the professor. “So what, that’s it?” Rainbow Dash said as she cocked her head to one side. Pinkie scratched the side of her head. “I don’t get it, what happened?” Applejack grinned smugly. “Ya ain’t figured it out? He-” “He obviously overworked himself to the point where he thought he was hearing Discord inside of the statue even when his magic clearly was telling him nothing was amiss. He was so afraid of failure that he invented a reason to keep looking, thus he went crazy in his own self-delusion.” Twilight said in proper schoolfilly form. AJ grumbled something about stealing her thunder. Pinkie bounced up. “It was great! And it totally reminded me of this one story I heard while I was visiting my sisters on the rock farm that I grew up in remember it was the rock farm where I saw the Son-Mmmf!” Once again Rainbow Dash to save the day with hoof to mouth syndrome. The hoof was spat out. “It’s my turn next! I have a great super special awesome story!” The party pony said as she bounced in place.