Of Night and Stone
By Kirb
Chapter Four
Promises
Brooklyn stared helplessly at the rockslide heading towards him. He gasped.
Welp, this is one way to go… he thought. I thought I would go fighting off Xanatos or something, but a rockslide is pretty good too.
He closed his eyes and waited. The noise got closer… he waited for the moment of impact… it never came.
Brooklyn opened his eyes again. “Huh?”
When he looked up, the spectacle he saw was incredible. Maud was above him, moving at what could have been the speed of sound. Her hooves were hitting the huge falling rocks and pummeling them to pieces. The boulders were practically turning to dust when smashed by her hooves. All Brooklyn could do was watch in awe. What sort of physical strength this mare must have to destroy solid stone like that!
Finally, the avalanche was nearly over, and Maud grabbed Brooklyn and pulled him away, closer to the park. He was still shocked, but she managed to snap him out of it.
“Brooklyn,” she spoke, “what were you thinking?”
The young gargoyle noticed that her voice sounded more concerned than its normal monotone self.
“I-I’m sorry…” He shook his head. “I guess I should’ve been looking where I was going…”
“You guess?” Maud grabbed him with her hooves and hugged him tightly, her voice returning to normal. “Brooklyn, I realize now that you’re not into me, and I can understand that. But promise me this: don’t put yourself in danger like that ever again. I… I will stop pursuing you. It is a moot cause.”
She released him with a sigh. “Goodbye, Brooklyn.”
She turned around and began walking away. Brooklyn was speechless for a few seconds until he was finally able to comprehend it all. Brooklyn, what are you doing? This pony just saved your life! At least throw her a bone!
“Wait, Maud!” he called to her, quickly running to catch up.
The pony turned her head. “What?”
Brooklyn finally caught up with her. “I, um…” He didn’t know what to say, so he just blurted out the first thing that came to his head. “How the heck did you do that?”
“What?”
“You know, with the rocks… and your speed… your hooves just crushing right through them! I mean, how?!”
“Years of working on a rock farm,” answered Maud.
“Oh.”
That would explain it. Wait… a rock farm? What do they do on a rock farm?! He noticed then that Maud was again walking off.
“Wait, Maud!” he called, running up to walk alongside the little pony. “Can’t I just… walk alongside you?”
Maud didn’t say anything. Brooklyn spoke again. “I-I’m sorry for what I said about you…”
“No, I’m sorry,” interrupted Maud. “I realize that I don’t act quite in the same way other ponies do, and that makes you feel awkward…”
“Maud!” He looked directly into her eyes now. “You just saved my life. I feel like I owe it to you. Besides, I’m sure you’re quite interesting! I want to get to know you better, as a friend. What do you think?”
She looked up to him. “Sure.”
Brooklyn rolled his eyes. Well, of course she’d be so straightforward… Then he had an idea.
“Say, Maud,” he said to her. “Would you be interested in seeing Ponyville from a new perspective?”
Maud looked up at him. “Okay.”
Smiling, Brooklyn grabbed her underneath the forelegs and pulled her up to him. “Grab on.”
Maud wrapped her hooves around his neck. “What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
He walked up to a tall tree nearby and stuck his claws into its bark. He then began climbing up its trunk, with Maud hanging onto him, until he finally made it to the upper branches of it. He looked down from it until he felt a breeze.
“Here we go.”
He held Maud tightly and took off.
…
All the lights were off at Twilight’s library. She hadn’t been planning on staying out late; however, a huge flash of light now began filling the library--specifically the main area--which was not caused by any bulb. Finally, it stopped, and Twilight and Lex were standing there.
“We’re here!” Twilight said cheerily. She ran over to a light switch and turned the lights on. When she looked back at Lex, she saw his skin was charred and smoking.
“Ugh…” Lex shook his head, putting his face into his palm. “What was that?”
Twilight blushed. “Sorry. First teleportation?”
“You know it…” Lex brushed off some of the blackened parts. “I didn’t even know ponies could teleport.”
“Well, as I said, basic unicorn knowledge. The other species don’t know how to do this.”
“You mean the stronger earth ponies and flying pegasuses, right?”
“That’s correct! Though they’re actually called pegasi. There’re also the alicorns, but there are only a few of them, and they’re all princesses.”
“I see. And that star on your butt there… that represents your special talent or something?”
Twilight giggled at his description. “That’s my cutie mark, yes. My talent is magic.”
“I get it.” Lex sat down on a nearby couch and stretched out. “So, you said you wanted to find out more about me, right?”
Twilight sat down next to him. “Oh, yes. Tell me more about how you got here! Elisa told me some of it, but I’d like to know more.”
“Alright, well.” Lexington cleared his throat. “There’s this billionaire, David Xanatos. He awakened us after a thousand years under a spell--”
“Elisa told me that part,” Twilight interrupted.
“Did she tell you about Demona, Goliath’s former mate who now seeks to get revenge on all the humans?”
“Huh?” Twilight was interested. “Tell me more!” She levitated a roll of paper and a pen over to her, and began writing down Lexington’s story.
“Okay, well this most recent incident started a few nights ago. We got word that Xanatos was planning something, and we were ready to stop him. We hadn’t heard anything about him for a few months and figured now would be the perfect time for him to strike. So we flew to his skyscraper, the Eyrie Building, to check out was going on.”
“…Eyrie Building. Got it.” Twilight finished writing that paragraph. “Now continue.”
“Well, when we got there, we found Xanatos was there… but so was Demona! Apparently, she’d been informed of ‘a world free of humans’ and showed up at the same place. I was afraid a fight would break out!”
“Slow down! Slow down! This is amazing!” Twilight was writing furiously.
“But then we saw the whole situation was constructed by the trickster Puck as one of his games!”
“Who’s Puck?”
“Puck? Oh, he’s an immortal being who likes going around spreading chaos.”
“I see. Sort of like Discord?”
“Discord?”
“Oh. He was an immortal being who liked spreading chaos, but we turned him into a stone statue last year. He hasn’t come out and we have no plans on setting him free unless Celestia requests it, but she wouldn’t do that because that would be stupid.”
“Yeah, that sounds similar to Puck, only this situation is more complicated.”
“I see. Go on?”
“Oh! Yes. Anyway, Puck said some words or whatever, and a weird portal in the center of the room opened up. Xanatos went through the portal first, then Demona, and finally all of us got sucked in. We arrived on the other side, and here we are!”
Twilight finished writing this down. “I see. Thanks for telling me! This should give Princess Celestia much more to work from.”
“Princess Celestia?” Lex cocked his head. “Who’s she?”
“Oh!” Twilight grinned. “She’s the ruler of this land, along with her sister Princess Luna. I’m her personal student.”
“Oh yeah, I think Elisa told me about that. Just couldn’t remember her name.” Lex leaned back. “Anyway, I told you all about how we got here. Anything else you want to know?”
“Oh. Oh yeah!” A smile grew on Twilight’s face. “I’d like to know more about your species. Come follow me downstairs!”
The unicorn jumped to her feet and ran to a doorway. Lex followed her to see there was a stairway leading to a lower floor in the library.
“Um, sure. What do you want to know?”
Twilight led the young gargoyle to the basement. When Lex finally made it down, he saw there was a large machine there, a measuring instrument of sorts with two large metallic pipes sticking out from the top, another one with five disks around it hooked up to a large, bubbling, lime green tank, plugged into a gray-green machine that looked like an oscilloscope, hooked up to a printer. In the center of the room was a smaller machine, gray-green in color, with metallic clasps and a helmet with blinking lights. Lex gawked at the sight of all of the strange devices.
“Wow! Is this all yours?”
“Huh?” Twilight turned back to Lex. “Oh, yes, it’s all mine!”
“Boy. This must have taken a while to set up!” Lex remarked.
Twilight could tell that Lex was into machines. She giggled and blushed at this. “Here, sit down here and put your claws in here,” she said, pointing to the metallic clasps.
“Alright.” Lex had to squat in front of the machine, as it was designed for smaller ponies rather than gargoyles, though Lex was the shortest of his clan. Twilight locked the clasps around his wrists and put the helmet on his head. Lex looked up at Twilight, confused. “Uh, Twilight, what’s all this for?” he asked with concern.
“Just relax,” Twilight requested as she turned on the machine. “That’s the only way it will work!”
“Okay…”
With a whirr and other noises, the machine came to life and began reading Lex’s frequencies and wavelengths. Gosh, I wonder why this is all necessary, Lex thought.
“Now Lex,” Twilight began, grabbing another sheet of paper and a pen, “tell me some things about gargoyles.”
“Well, during the daytime we turn to stone, frozen in whatever position we’re in when the sun comes up.” Lex tried to think of some other things. “These, uh, wings that we all have allow us to glide on the wind.”
“And would you consider yourself a normal male gargoyle specimen?”
“Yeah, I’d say so.”
“I noticed that your wings are different from the others,” Twilight commented.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the other gargoyles’ wings are on their back. Yours are connected to your arms.” Twilight poked at Lex’ left wing when she said this.
“Well, it’s a genetic thing I guess. Some have their wings one way, others the other way.”
“I see.” Twilight looked at the frequencies read by the larger machine, the red lines moving up and down. “Hm. Well, the machine isn’t really reading anything abnormal as far as sentient life goes.” She stood next to Lex, her head close to his. “So, is there, um, anything else you would like to tell me?”
At around that time, however, a voice was heard from upstairs. “Twilight! Twilight, are ya awake?”
The unicorn immediately recognized the voice as Applejack’s. “I’m here, Applejack! What is it?”
A clop-clopping of hooves was heard descending the stairs, as well as Applejack’s voice getting closer. “Twi, you’re never gonna believe this!” she called down.
“On a night like tonight? I’d believe anything!” Twilight and Lex chuckled.
“Well, it turns out I was right! Elisa does have t’ do with the strange goings-on around town!” Applejack finally came into view, walking down the stairway towards Twilight and Lex, but not looking at either of them. “We caught a monster back at th’ farm, an’ he mentioned Elisa’s name when we asked him!” As Applejack arrived at the bottom of the stairs, she wore a smug smile on her face as she told Twilight, who was trying not to laugh. “Ya see?” Applejack opened her eyes. “I told you that Elisa wasn’t to be trust--eh?”
Her mouth fell open when she saw Lex standing next to Twilight, both of them grinning widely. The earth pony backed away, almost too shocked to talk.
“Am… am I seein’ this right, Twi?” asked Applejack finally.
“You are, Applejack.” Twilight smiled and pointed to Lex. “You were right about Elisa being connected to these guys.”
“Hi! I’m Lexington!” Lex introduced himself. He tried to wave, but the wrist clamps stopped him.
Applejack couldn’t believe her eyes. “So ya.. ya know about ’em, Twi?”
“Elisa told me about them,” Twilight explained. “These gargoyles can seem big and scary, but they’re really quite friendly.”
Applejack shook her head. “Wha… but how do you know?”
Twilight’s face gave Applejack the ‘Seriously?’ expression. “AJ, didn’t we already talk about this?” she asked. “Back when we first met Zecora. All of you were scared of her because she was different. Remember? And she turned out to be just like you and me, and we since grew to accept her.”
“Well, that’s different!”
“How so?”
“Well… um… did Zecora ever buck you all th’ way across th’ room?”
“No…?”
“Ha! Th’ gargoyle we captured back at th’ farm did! Sent Big Mac flyin’ across th’…”
Suddenly, Lex interrupted. “You captured one of us?” His expression grew angry.
“Lex, calm down!” Twilight said to the young gargoyle. “I’m sure this was just a misunderstanding!”
This seemed to settle Lex. Then Twilight turned back to Applejack. “AJ, did you say or do anything to upset him?”
“Well, I sorta… threatened to go after Elisa.” Applejack’s face held a sheepish expression as she said this.
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, there’s your problem. These gargoyles, from what I can tell, are very protective of Elisa, since she’s one of their few human friends.”
“Oh. Well, I’m still not sure we can trust ’em! An’ I got Apple Bloom stayin’ back home, watchin’ over th’ one we caught…” At that moment, Applejack gasped and her eyes widened. “Oh no! What was I thinkin’, lettin’ such a young filly as Apple Bloom guard over such a dangerous creature? She could be hurt by now, or… or worse!”
At this point, Lex chimed in again. “We wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone, especially not a little girl, Ms.… Applejack, was it?”
“I ain’t talkin’ to you!” Applejack said to Lex, who rolled his eyes.
“Look, Applejack,” Twilight said, grabbing her friend, “tell you what. You go back home and see if Apple Bloom is alright. If the gargoyle hasn’t hurt her, I think it’s safe to say we can trust them.”
“Al..alright.” Applejack moved away from Twilight and began galloping back up the stairs. “But if she’s hurt, don’t say I didn’t tell ya so!”
…
When Applejack returned to the barn, she was expecting to open the door and find Broadway holding Apple Bloom by the neck, having broken out of the lasso and now angry for revenge. So the mare was ready and prepared to fight him.
But when she opened up, she was surprised to not only find Broadway lying on the ground in the same way he had been lying when she tied him up, but Apple Bloom was also lying on the ground by the door, curled up fast asleep.
“Huh? But.. what?”
Broadway looked up at Applejack. “Oh, you’re back.”
“Um…” Applejack snapped out of it. “Yeh, I talked to Twilight and she told me about y’all. She was doin’ something with one of y’all, the small one?”
“That would be Lexington.” Broadway grinned.
“Right… Okay, what the hay happened?”
Broadway was confused by the nature of this question. “What do you mean? I talked to Apple Bloom for a while, then she fell asleep at some point and then you got back.”
“And ya didn’t try to break away?”
“Well, these ropes are still tied, so…”
Applejack sighed. “Well, I guess y’all didn’t try to escape none, so I can let you go now.”
“Allow me.” Broadway summoned all his inner strength, and with a SNAP, his wrists broke away from their rope bindings. Applejack just gasped again.
“So wait… you could have broken away whenever you wanted to? Well, why didn’t you do that earlier?”
“Simple.” Broadway stood up. “I wanted to keep my promise to you.”
Applejack struggled to comprehend this. “I.. wow. Guess y’all aren’t so bad after all.” Broadway wiped himself off. Applejack spoke again. “I’m mighty sorry for tyin’ y’all up like that, um… what was it?”
“Broadway. And it’s okay, you were just doing what you thought was best.”
Applejack reached out a hoof to shake Broadway’s hand. “We okay now?”
Broadway smiled. “Sure, why not?”
He shook Applejack’s hoof with his own clawed hand, then walked outside. As Applejack watched him fly off, she smiled.
“Guess Twilight was right,” she muttered. “Shouldn’t judge anypony so quick.”
Then she turned to Apple Bloom, who was still lying near the door, asleep. “Well, reckon I’d better get this filly off to bed.”
…
The sky was beginning to get brighter, gradually changing from black, to dark blue, to a deeper shade of red, as Brooklyn landed on top of Town Hall. Maud was still holding onto him, as both she and Brooklyn had flown over the town. Brooklyn set the little pony down.
“What did you think of the view?” he asked her.
Maud looked back up at him. “It looked like a town.”
Brooklyn chuckled. He was beginning to get used to Maud’s straightforward nature. “So it did, Maud. So it did.”
The door opened up and the other gargoyles stepped out onto the roof. Twilight followed Lex, talking to him. “So, we’ll talk again tomorrow night?”
“Sure!” Lex responded with a grin. At about this time, Broadway landed next to him.
“Sorry I’m late, you guys,” Broadway said. “I got a little held up.”
“I heard,” Lex responded.
Finally, Goliath stepped out, followed by Elisa. Goliath looked around.
“This new world will take some getting used to, Elisa,” he commented.
“For all of us,” the human responded. “But so far, I think you’re all doing a pretty good job.” She looked back at Brooklyn upon saying this, as he was still talking to Maud.
“This was nice,” said Brooklyn. “We should do this again. What do you say..?”
“Tomorrow night, 10:30, at the park,” Maud answered in her flat tone of voice. “And don’t crash into anything…” Then she added. “…Brookie.”
Brooklyn reacted to this with surprise. “Brookie?”
At that moment, the sun ascended above the horizon and lit up the sky. Within two seconds, all the gargoyles transformed into stone. Brooklyn was still frozen in that position of surprise. Maud retained her blank gaze.
Twilight smiled. “I’ll have a lot to tell my friends!”
Elisa glanced at Maud, and then back at Brooklyn. Her mind made the connection and she raised an eyebrow.
“Yes… a lot indeed.”
…
“…and then ’e growled an’ bucked my brother to the other side o’ the barn!”
In a treehouse on the far side of town, Apple Bloom was talking to two other fillies. One of them was a unicorn with light gray coat, nearly white, gray mulberry mane and tail with pale rose streaks, and pale green eyes. The other filly was a pegasus with orange coat, red-purple mane and tail, grayish purple eyes, and small, stubby wings. Neither of the two other fillies had cutie marks.
“Whoa!” the pegasus filly interjected.
“And then ’e grabbed up my sister like this…” Apple Bloom stood up on her hindlegs now and held out her right foreleg in front of her. “…an’ said, ‘Don’t you lay a hoof on her! When you mess with my partner, you mess with me!’” Apple Bloom spoke these last few lines in a tone trying to imitate Broadway’s voice.
“Wow, that’s so cool!” the pegasus spoke again. She then turned to the unicorn. “Isn’t it, Sweetie Belle?”
The unicorn filly nodded. “It sounds like it, Scootaloo. So did you finally catch him, Apple Bloom?”
“Well, Big Mac came back and bucked ’im to th’ ground, so Applejack could tie ’im up, but it sure was a challenge.”
“It sounded like one.” Sweetie Belle said. “And how big was this thing again?”
“Well, several feet taller than any of us!” Apple Bloom spoke again. “Whadaya think, Scootaloo?”
Scootaloo’s face, however, turned from one of awe, to thoughtful, to a big smile. “Girls,” she began, “do you know what this means?”
It took a few seconds for the other two fillies to piece it together, but when they did, huge grins formed on all their faces. Then the three of them shouted in unison:
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER GARGOYLE CATCHERS! YAY!”