//------------------------------// // Twilight Meets the Clan // Story: Of Night and Stone // by Kirb //------------------------------// Of Night and Stone By Kirb Chapter Two Twilight Meets the Clan Elisa walked down the streets of Ponyville, now filled with crowds of ponies going about their everyday tasks. Many of them stopped to gasp and stare at her, but most had grown accustomed to her presence in Ponyville by now since she had been there for several days. As she looked around, she noticed a large tree in the middle of the town with a red door and windows on different floors. It appeared to be hollowed out. Elisa turned to walk towards it. “There it is.” She walked up to the door and knocked lightly a few times. Behind the door, she could hear someone squeaking as if it had just inhaled helium. The voice spoke so fast, it sounded like she was doing ten words per second. Elisa could imagine that the high-pitched voice could fray some nerves. Moments later, the door opened and a small, purple dragon with green spikes was standing on the other end. He inspected Elisa before letting her in. Elisa wondered if she had broken some sort of dress code. She knew bouncers at some clubs in New York who were easier on their guests than the purple dragon. “Oh! Hi Elisa! Come on in. Twilight’s talking to Pinkie Pie, but she’ll be done soon.” “Thanks, Spike.” Elisa went inside. It was the new, but familiar, library where she had been residing, complete with shelves and shelves of countless books. Elisa looked around as she entered. She had seen it before, because Twilight had let her stay there for a few days. As she looked around, Elisa saw a violet unicorn walking around while talking to another pony. The unicorn had a pink stripe in her flat, blue mane and tail, and a pink star surrounded by five smaller white stars shone on her flanks. Her horn was glowing with a pink aura with which she appeared to be levitating some books onto the shelves. Her violet eyes bore an expression of slight annoyance as she listened to the other pony. This other mare was something else entirely! She appeared to be an earth pony: light pink coat, and her raspberry mane was curly and flew out all over the place. Her light blue eyes were darting around as she babbled quickly and incomprehensibly. The quick-speaking mare’s flanks bore a mark of two blue balloons and one yellow one. Elisa sat down on a nearby couch and waited for the pink earth pony to finish speaking with the unicorn. In the meantime, she caught a few words of what the pink mare was saying: “…you do remember her, right Twilight? She came by that one time, and you and the rest of our friends tried to become friends with her, but it didn’t work until she saved me from that giant rockslide?” “How could I forget, Pinkie?” the unicorn responded. “Oh.” ‘Pinkie’ paused for a second and then continued. “Anyway, Twilight, she’s supposed to be coming back into town today and… oh no! What time is it?” ‘Twilight’ looked at a clock hanging on the wall. “Um, 9:38. Why?” Pinkie let out a long gasp. “Oh no! I’m late for picking her up from the station! I gotta go, Twilight! See you later!” As Pinkie galloped out the door, she called to Elisa. “Hi, Elisa! Bye, Elisa!” Elisa called out to her, smiling. “Bye, Pinkie Pie!” The woman then turned to face Twilight. “What was that all about?” Twilight shut the door behind Pinkie. “Oh, apparently Pinkie’s sister is coming to town today and she’s extremely excited to meet her.” “I didn’t know Pinkie had a sister,” Elisa replied. “Yeah, Maud. Interesting character.” “A lot of siblings are interesting. I should know, I have two. But does Pinkie always get so excited about everything?” “Oh, don’t mind her.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “That’s just Pinkie Pie. Anyway, how are you doing?” “Ugh, tired.” Elisa rubbed her forehead. “I should be asleep right now since, as a detective, I work the night shift.” “Actually, I wanted to ask you about that. Why didn’t you arrive back until now?” “Uh, I don’t know. Guess I got distracted or something.” This was only half-true. Yes, Elisa was distracted, which was the reason she didn’t arrive back to the library sooner, but she didn’t tell Twilight exactly why she was distracted. As we know, Brooklyn had not returned that morning. Elisa looked throughout the town, but still couldn’t find the young gargoyle. She was beginning to get worried that their arch-nemesis, David Xanatos, had shown up and might have found Brooklyn. Twilight was not entirely convinced by this, but decided to let it go for now. “Okay. Oh, by the way, I contacted Princess Celestia about your problem!” Elisa, who was in the process of removing her jacket, glanced up at that. “Really? What did she say?” “She said that she would look at your problem and try to help, but in the meantime she will assist with providing quarters and accommodations for living in Equestria.” Elisa yawned. “That’s… ahh… great.” Twilight chuckled a bit. “Elisa, do I infer correctly that you want to go to sleep?” “Yes…” The human outstretched her arms in a long, slow yawn. “Go on,” Twilight replied. “You know where the guest bed is.” “Th..thank you, Twilight.” Elisa got up and walked up the stairs. The baby dragon passed her as he headed down the same stairs. “Goodnight, Spike.” “Sleep well, Elisa.” Spike continued back to Twilight. He didn’t realize how lucky he was to be sharing the house with not one, but two babes. Then again, his mind hadn’t fallen into that gutter yet. Plus, he kind of thought of Twilight as an older sister anyway. “A little suspicious…” Twilight muttered. “Suspicious? What do you mean?” Spike asked, making sure to keep his voice down to not disturb Elisa. “Huh?” Twilight replied. “Oh, nothing. It’s just, I don’t think Elisa’s telling me the full truth…” “So what do you want to do about it?” Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof. “Hm. Spike, you know the other day when you wrote down all the details Elisa told us?” “Yeah?” “I’d like you to send it to Celestia. Let’s see if she has the same suspicions we do.” “Right away!” Spike ran off to get the papers. … The gray mare had spent several minutes in the park just standing by Brooklyn, admiring his stone form. She felt his arms. His outer layer was smooth, not as rough and harshly cut as many sculptures she’d seen. She didn’t know why yet, but there was just something different about this statue. Maybe it was that; maybe it was how realistically sculpted he was for a creature that did not exist or had not been found yet… The mare’s train of thought was cut off by a voice. “Maud!” The earth pony turned around and saw Pinkie Pie standing a few feet away from her. She took a few steps towards Pinkie, but the pink pony ran over to her before she could go far. With a leap, she leaped at the gray mare for a hug. “Oh, Maud! Thanks for coming back to visit me!” Maud hugged Pinkie back, though she kept her stoic expression the entire time. “Hi, Pinkie,” Maud replied, showing no enthusiasm in her voice. “Hey, you know I’ll take any opportunity I can to visit my sister.” Although she didn’t show it, Maud was secretly glad to be there. Maud’s work was grueling, and as soon as she was able to get a break, she liked to visit her sister. It was rare when she was able to talk to Pinkie in person--er, in pony. “Aw!” Pinkie responded, then broke the hug. “We have so much to catch up on! How’s the family doing?” “They are doing okay. Marble and Limestone have been helping me out some. Ma’s wondering when you’ll visit.” “Huh. I guess I--hey! What’s that?” Pinkie pointed to Brooklyn. She drew closer. “You haven’t seen that before?” Maud asked, still in her monotone voice. “Nope! When I came here yesterday, this statue wasn’t here!” Pinkie walked around Brooklyn. “Say, Maud, what type of rock is this?” Maud gazed at Brooklyn, then she touched his arm again. “I’m not sure.” “You’re not?” Pinkie was quite surprised by this. “Aren’t you good at this stuff?” “I just can’t tell.” Maud looked down. This was one of the first times this had happened, when she hadn’t been able to identify what type of stone something was. “Huh. Oh well! Maybe we’ll find the sculptor and he’ll tell us! C’mon, Maud!” Pinkie turned around and began bouncing to the town while humming a merry tune. In contrast to her sister, Maud followed almost silently. Although she didn’t say anything, Maud thought of Brooklyn. Why had he left such an impression? … Around 12:30 that afternoon, the library door opened and Twilight and Spike walked out into the streets of Ponyville for lunch. She had exchanged a few letters with Princess Celestia, but they hadn’t gotten anywhere in figuring out what Elisa was hiding. So they decided to take a break. “Twilight, do you really think Elisa is hiding something from you?” Spike asked the unicorn. “I don’t know at this point,” Twilight replied. “I mean, you read what Celestia wrote, but I don’t think she’s trying to work against us. I mean…” “Twilight!” She was suddenly interrupted by a voice with a strong southern accent coming somewhere behind her. Turning around, Twilight saw an orange earth pony mare approaching her. Her yellow mane and tail were fittingly done in a ponytail, and flew behind her as she ran towards Twilight. She also wore a brown Stetson hat. When she stopped in front of Twilight, it was easy to see her cutie mark of three red apples. “Hi, Applejack,” Twilight said to the earth pony. “What’s going on?” “Twilight, I’m glad I found you,” said Applejack. “Is something wrong?” “No! Somepony’s been stealin’ apples from our farm!” “Stealing apples?” Twilight was confused. “Are you sure?” “Trust me, I’d know.” Applejack shook her head. “An’ when we find that apple-thief, Big Macintosh and I are gonna…” “Okay, I get it. I’ll try to help you however I can…” “Ya wanna help? Get rid o’ your roommate!” “What?” Twilight gasped. She knew Applejack was referring to Elisa. “Why?” “Some strange things’ve been happenin’ around here, Twi. I say they started th’ day that Lisa showed up.” “AJ, her name is Elisa, not Lisa,” Twilight replied skeptically. “And you can’t just go around saying that people are evil or suspicious just because somepony stole your apples…” “But that’s not all!” Applejack interrupted. “This mornin’, Fluttershy told me that last night, her animals were spooked an’ wouldn’t go t’ sleep! Dash told me she saw some strange figures flyin’ around in th’ night! No ponies’d dare fly at night ‘cause it’s too dang’rous!” “Alright, AJ, you’ve made your point…” “An’ Rarity heard two voices passin’ by ’er house last night! One of ’em was male, but th’ other one sounded like your friend, Elisa!” “Alright, I get it!” Twilight snapped at Applejack. “But all these are just rumors. Anything or anypony could have scared Fluttershy’s animals! I’m sure many ponies fly at night! And of course Elisa was out last night--she’s an officer who works the night shift, remember?” “I dunno, Twi,” Applejack responded. “I think ya should ask this Elisa a few questions at least.” Twilight was about to say something, but was interrupted by a chattering of teeth. She looked down to see Spike shivering in fear. “Well, great, AJ,” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Now Spike is scared.” “B-but what if it’s true?” Spike said. “Wh-what if Elisa is really… what if she’s working for the villains? L-like Queen Chrysalis, o-or Discord… or worse?!” “Spike, calm down!” Twilight told him. “I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this.” She looked back at Applejack. “Meanwhile, AJ, you calm down too. Nopony’s plotting against us. I’ll question Elisa when she wakes up.” “Alright,” Applejack responded, unconvinced. “But I’ll believe it when I see it.” She turned around and walked back to the farm. “G’bye, Twi!” “Goodbye, Applejack!” Twilight called back to her. She looked down at Spike, who was still shivering. “Oh, get over it!” “I’m sorry!” Spike replied, stopping. “It’s just that the idea that Elisa could be connected to these mysterious events is just…” “Hey, Twilight!” a voice chimed in behind her. Twilight immediately recognized it as Pinkie’s voice and turned around to greet the pink earth pony. “Oh, hi Pinkie Pie!” Twilight greeted her. “Did you find your sister?” “Yep!” Pinkie pointed behind her with a hoof, and Twilight could see that Maud was slowly following her sister. Pinkie called out to her. “Hey, Maud! Do you remember Twilight?” Maud finally reached Pinkie and Twilight. “Yes.” Wow, such a blunt answer, Twilight thought. Then again, I don’t know what I was expecting since it’s coming from Maud here. “So, where did you find her, Pinkie?” the unicorn asked. “Oh!” Pinkie replied. “Maud was in the park! She was staring at that weird statue there!” “Weird statue?” Twilight asked. “Um, excuse me Pinkie Pie, but I don’t remember there being any weird statues in the park.” “There was today, Twilight! And Maud was looking at it, and it was posing like this--RAAAAAH!” Pinkie stood on her hindlegs and stuck out her forelegs to emulate the pose Brooklyn had been in. “And it had pointy teeth, and big batlike wings, and claws and a beak and…” “Pinkie!” Twilight interrupted. “Yes?” “Can you take me to this statue?” … “You see, Twilight? Just as I described it!” “Pinkie, I… Who could’ve done this?” Twilight was surprised that Pinkie wasn’t making this up, and that there actually was a mysterious stone statue in the park. “I don’t know!” replied Pinkie. “That’s just what Maud and I were talking about! I don’t know any sculptors that good! Or ones who’d donate a statue like this for free! Or hay, any sculptors at all!” “I-I have an idea!” Spike commented. Twilight looked down at him. Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say… “What if… what if Elisa did this?” Twilight facehoofed. Aaand you said it. Pinkie gasped. “Oh no! Does that mean Elisa is an evil enchantress?” “No, Pinkie, calm down,” Twilight insisted. “Spike is just all riled up because Applejack told him some conspiracy theory she had about Elisa’s arrival being connected to all these weird things going on.” Maud didn’t know who Elisa was, nor did she care. She glanced blankly back and forth at the ponies talking. “But what if it is?” Spike asked again. “Alright! I’ll get to the bottom of this tonight.” Twilight’s stomach growled. “Meanwhile, if you can’t tell, I’m hungry, so before I do anything I want to get lunch.” … It was about 6:30 PM at the library. Elisa slowly opened her eyes and stretched her arms. She groaned loudly as she awakened, sitting up in Twilight’s guest bed. She had slept well, considering she’d stayed up later than she had planned. She looked out the window to see that the sun was nearing the horizon. “I still can’t get behind the fact that the sun here is controlled by magic…” she remarked. As Elisa rolled out of bed, she noticed how surprisingly quiet the library was. Most of the time, there was at least some noise when she woke up, whether it was from Twilight, or Spike, or if one of Twilight’s friends was over. “Hmm…” Elisa suspected something was up, but at this point she just wanted breakfast, so she pulled on her shoes and proceeded to walk downstairs, where she saw Twilight sitting on the couch, staring straight at Elisa. “Good morning, Twilight!” Elisa greeted the mare. “It’s early evening,” Twilight replied. “I know, I say that anyway because I just woke up, and most people wake up in the morning, so… yeah.” The silence in the room was uncomfortable. “Could… could I get something to…” began Elisa. “What’s going on?” Twilight interrupted. “What do you mean?” “Elisa, there have been some strange things happening in the town, and everypony thinks they’re related to you.” “Wh-what? Wait, what strange things?” “Apples have gone missing, ponies have seen strange things flying around, animals have been frightened, and all of this is happening at night, when you are one of the only ones awake.” Elisa began sweating. “Twilight, this is all just a coincidence. I don’t know about…” “And Applejack also told me that your voice was heard talking to another last night.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “In addition, today Pinkie Pie showed me a mysterious statue that appeared in the park last night. A stone statue of a humanoid creature like you, and it wasn’t there yesterday.” “So that’s where Brooklyn went…” Elisa muttered. “What was that?” Twilight questioned. “Who is Brooklyn? What’s going on?” Elisa shook her head and sighed. “Guess there’s no hiding the truth from you anymore, Twilight.” “Great! So you’ll tell me?” “No, I can’t.” “What? Why not?” “This is something that you’ll have to see for yourself…” … “What? There’s more of them?” Twilight exclaimed as she and Elisa stood on the roof of Town Hall, where all the other gargoyles stayed since last night. Twilight and Elisa had left the door open behind them. Elisa looked around at the gargoyles and smiled. Twilight was utterly shocked. “Yep,” Elisa replied, “my own guardian angels!” “How did these get here?” Twilight asked impatiently. “What does this have to do with the weird things going on? Tell me now!” Elisa just glanced at her watch. “7:48. Any minute now…” “What do you mean by that?” The sun was barely peeking out over the horizon, and was descending fast. Elisa pointed at it. “The sun’s almost set. Enjoy the show.” “Show? What show?” Just as Twilight saw the sun had full set, she heard a cracking noise. Then she spun around to see the gargoyles, specifically Goliath. She could see a crack forming in him, and continuing all the way down his body. Looking at the other gargoyles, Twilight could see similar cracks forming in them. And then, with a crashing noise, the stone exploded off the gargoyles, one by one. Twilight watched Goliath as he raised his arms up in the air, fists clenched, and roared. “RRRAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!!” Twilight gasped and backed away. The other gargoyles were doing the same, roaring or growling in a similar fashion as their outer shells broke away. Their eyes were all glowing brightly in the night as the collective roars rang through Twilight’s ears. Unfortunately, having never seen this before, Twilight’s reaction was less than dignified. “AAAAAAAAA!” Twilight ran past Elisa, knocking her over, and back through the entrance. The gargoyles saw Twilight running away and looked at Elisa with confusion. Elisa rolled her eyes and looked back at them. “Do you really have to do that every time you wake up?” … In another part of Ponyville, another gargoyle awakened as the sun set. Brooklyn, still in the Park, regained consciousness as his outer shell shattered and he broke out, stretching his arms above him and growling, his eyes glowing white. “HHHEEUUUAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!” However, at that moment, Brooklyn heard a voice from behind him. “Whoa.” He turned around almost instantly, prepared to face a potential villain. However, when he looked, all he saw was Maud, standing behind him, and looking completely unfazed at what she had just seen. Brooklyn relaxed a bit. “Um, hi?” he greeted her nervously. Maud didn’t respond, still bearing the blank look on her face. She blinked a few times. This awkward silence continued for a few seconds until she finally spoke. “I’m Maud.”