//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Same Mistake // by The Wizard of Words //------------------------------// History was a mystery, no matter how deep you looked. Those were the first words any student was told when they entered the Archeological Department of Canterlot University. It was a field that was guaranteed to never run out of areas for research, for questions to answer. That was a draw for many ponies, of all races and from all corners of Equestria. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi alike all enjoyed the idea of answering questions asked hundreds to thousands of years ago. The only difficult part in the process of finding those answers was finding where to look. Was the secret hidden an ancient text? Was it buried beneath the rubble of mountains? Or was it simply forgotten, waiting for the restoration of an old monument? You could never be sure. For some, that was the draw of the field. Searching more than researching. The idea that there was always somewhere new to look was as exhilarating a feeling as watching a meteor shower dance through the sky. It was the reason why two ponies now stood high above the Ghastly Gorge, the Everfree Forest against their back. Two ponies, far different from one another in all ways but one. One was a mare, the other a stallion. One was a professor, the other a student. One was a unicorn, the other an earth pony. One was looking down the sheer drop of the gorge with a critical and analytical eye, made through years of training and practice. The other was losing his patience. “Professor, I don’t believe there is anything here.” It was far from the first time the young stallion had spoken his opinions, but it was just as many times that the professor he spoke to ignored the words. “I mean, we’ve been through here at least half a dozen times now and we still don’t have anything.” “If things always went right the first time, there’d be no trial or error,” the mare shot back, her eyes looking away from the stallion. Specifically, she had her sights set down the canyon walls they stood on. It was a decent drop, hardly the highest they’ve ever been, but enough to make the average pony woozy on their legs. It was probably with good benefit that the wall wasn’t sheer. The mare looked down and upon the canyon, searching for something she couldn’t describe. “Look, Professor, I know this area showed a lot of promise, but maybe it’s time we look somewhere else.” The stallion insisted again. He lifted his leg higher than usual as he took a step forward, avoiding a troublesome root. With the tree line of the Everfree behind them, it was hard to tell which of the tall evergreens was responsible. “The Crystal Empire has a lot to look into, and most of the geologists who specialized in the area are going back for a second look.” “It precisely for that reason that we are not going back!” There was much more venom in the mare’s words now, complete with a turn of her head. It let the stallion look at her angry graze. It wasn’t a sight he enjoyed. The professor nicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, twisting her head to gaze back down the gorge. The silence between them was broken only by the occasional echoes of the nature that surrounded them. If not the winds of the canyon whistling beneath them, then the sound of life from the forest permeating behind them. “Iron, you’re young. Younger than most ponies in this field,” the mare finally relented to speak. “It may seem to make sense to follow the rest of the crowd, but in geology, the best rewards are found in the most desolate of places. You don’t expect to see many ponies digging for finds in Canterlot, now do you?” “Well, no,” Iron conceded uneasily, “But that doesn’t mean that this place is any more likely to have them. I mean, I hear pegasi use this as a race course all the time! If there was something here, I’m sure somepony would have probably seen it.” “Yes, because pegasi flying as fast as they can through a canyon are going to notice the abnormalities that we spent half a decade learning about.” The sarcasm in the mare’s voice was thicker than tree sap. Iron would have found it funny if it weren’t for the intimidating ledge they now stood on. “But we haven’t seen anything either!” The stallion finally raised his voice, stomping his hoof on the grass in agitation. “No crevices, no unearthed caverns, no isolated caves, not even a small pocket of air beneath all the rubble! We’ve both looked so long and hard that we’ve nearly passed out and we’ve still found nothing!” A tired sigh left the stallion as he finished, grumbling with the pacing air. The professor simply chose to ignore him. She had known Iron Wit since he joined the Archeology wing of Canterlot almost six years ago. Nervous, always unsure, but wishing almost every night to find his claim to fame. It was an ambition she enjoyed to nurture, but she tended to forget the consequence of having such an ambition. He was quick to move on. “If it was so easy to find these lost sites of history, Iron, our field would have become unneeded decades, maybe centuries ago.” The professor kept her tone ominously neutral as she spoke. “There are many things you have to learn, but if there is ever one lesson you should know outside the library, it’s this.” The Professor turned towards the stallion, gaze as calm as her voice. “Patience rewards the careful, not the eager.” With those simple words, the mare turned her gaze back down Ghastly Gorge, staring at the odd rocks with inquisitive and trained eyes. Iron remained quiet and complacent behind her, letting only the sounds of the forest behind them keep silence at bay. The minutes trickled by, slowly pooling into hours, the sun above tracking the passage of time. The pair had moved down the ravine, looking for new sections to study, new areas to inspect, but never speaking a word to another, aside from the occasional grunt or motion. The Professor flicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, knowing that time was running short of the day. She knew Iron would likely request a departure after her little speech to him, even if just to cool his head. It was disappointing, to be sure, but inevitable as an empty return from a search. Her eyes scanned over another rocky wall, marked with small marks of chalk and fallen rocks. It was a common combination of sediment in gorges, especially near lively places of development. It was a common mineral to build up following industry… “Iron Wit,” the professor spoke her student’s name for the first time in an hour. He responded only by trotting closer to her. She motioned with her horn towards the wall she was examining. “What do you see there?” The stallion stared at the wall as intently as his professor had, still dedicated to his work even when emotions weren’t optimal. It was another good quality to have. His tongue traced the edges of his lips, wetting them, before he responded to the older mare. “It looks like a collection of chalk deposits. That’s fairly common around this area, especially following the departure from the Castle of the Two Sisters.” He concluded with a scholarly tone. Rightly so, as it was his training being put to the test. That was about when his face began to twist in confusion. “But the depth of the build up isn’t consistent with what you’d expect over a thousand years, even considering a change in climate conditions.” “Exactly,” the professor agreed with a nod of her head. She turned to offer a coy smile to her student before she spoke on. “That means we just may have found something.” Iron Wit was caught uncomfortably between bashfully looking away and eagerly gazing forwards. “So, we should go and get the tools, right?” Iron Wit ventured. “Maybe recruit a few other post-doctorates and graduate students to help us?” “Not just yet,” the Professor spoke back, gaze glued to the chalky stone. “We have to promise them something first, at least for the board to approve of the digging, not forgetting the reservists who don’t want to see the Gorge dug up or closed off.” An unfortunate part of the job, but a necessary one to consider. Checks and balances for all things. “Okay, alright,” Iron Wit agreed, wary of being shut down only a moment prior. “Then what do we do? Start digging?” “Almost,” the mare said, nodding her head slightly. “We just have to look for a more clear sign that there is something here. Sediment is a good start; it always has been, but if we can find an anomaly, an object at best, we could really bring in the funding for an excavation.” Even as she spoke, the Professor had lit her horn, letting her greenish aura wrap around a few choice blocks. They weren’t large or clearly used for support, but such stones could be hiding anything. “That makes sense,” Iron Wit agreed. “But… should I start digging with my hooves then? I mean, I don’t exactly have magic…” “You’re an earth pony, Iron,” the professor replied in a droll tone, one she couldn’t help given the statement she found necessary to point out. “Feel the earth like I can’t. I’m sure it’s the reason you became an archaeologist.” The stallion only nodded before placing his hooves against the wall of the cavern, grateful he had worn his less-presentable clothes. He felt the harshness of the rocks immediately, sharp edges digging into the sensitive soles of his hooves. Iron Wit adjusted them, shimmying along the edges until he found a forgivingly even section of the wall. The relief was immediate. Iron’s hooves readjusted with his movements, pushing in a circular pattern against the hard rock, feeling the terrain in ways only earth ponies could. He could feel the hollow cracks between the rocks, likely there because of the freezing winters. He could feel the minute differences in bumpiness, a clear sign that there was more than chalk, granite, and sedimentary stone. He could also feel something else. “Professor,” he spoke his superior’s title with strength, earning her attention. She had a sizeable boulder in her ethereal grasp, floating in the air just beside her. “I think… I think there’s something hollow here.” Raising a brow, the professor trotted over to him, setting down the stone as she did. “What do you mean?” She questioned. “As in a small pocket of space or an anomaly in the stone?” Iron Wit shook his head. “No, I mean…” he spoke, unclear and unsure of himself. “I mean… I think there’s a very large hollow space here, behind the stone.” That made the mare’s eyes widen. She placed her own hoof against the stone, knowing full well that she would not feel what Iron felt. She was trained in a different form of magic than he was, with only a similar goal in common. “How deep is it?” She questioned after a moment’s thought. “Can you tell the size? Shape? Anything else?” “It’s... there’s probably foot of rock between us and it,” Iron Wit responded after adjusting his hooves some more, taking measurements in a way paper couldn’t describe. “But there isn’t an end, not that I can feel.” Despite the ease with which he spoke the words, there was awe in his voice. The older mare wasn’t used to hearing that. Even in the grand halls of Canterlot, the most novice of Earth Ponies could at least tell where the smooth stone of the castle ended and the rough edges of the mountain began. For a room to be beyond his abilities to judge meant it was massive. And a massive room, buried beneath rock, suggested a discovery worth a lifetime of research. The Professor was beaming. “Move out of the way,” the mare ordered, albeit gently with her hoof on the stallion’s shoulder. Iron Wit obliged, settling back to four hooves on the ground before backing away. The Professor faced the wall, grinning at it with excitement. Iron imagined briefly it was how he must have looked when his thesis defense was successful. Iron Wit watched as his Professor’s horn lit, a bit brighter than it had before. A small light of near-equal brightness appeared on the rock wall, nothing more than a dot. Slowly then, like moving with a scalpel, his Professor began to twist her head, rotating it in a slow arc. The light on the stones mimicked her motions, tracing the stone up and around, forming a near perfect circle. It took little time for the Professor’s head to return to its original position, bowed with her horn aimed at the wall. The wall itself looked the same as well, except for one crucial difference. The light the Professor had traced around the wall had formed a complete circle, shining like a beacon of magical flares against the stone. Iron Wit looked to his Professor, seeing her smile the same as before. “A simple spell I learned in my early years,” she answered the unspoken question. “It cuts through stone and glass smoothly. It’s mostly meant for sculpting or designing blocks for building, but it has its purposes elsewhere.” She flashed a coy smile to her student. “Just like sensing the earth for gaps instead of plants.” “Right, that makes sense,” Iron Wit agreed only half-heartedly. The Professor turned her gaze back to the outline section of the gorge wall. Lighting her horn again, she enveloped the circular cut with her magical aura. With a small tug of her head, she grinned ecstatically as she found the section of rock yield, pulling out from the wall. It was smoothly cut, flawless even, showing layers of sediment and deposit centuries in the making. Carefully, knowing the value in the rock itself, the Professor set it down behind her and her student. With her attention back on the wall, she saw just what Iron Wit said he felt. Before them was an opening. The two shared a look towards one another, the mare filled with excitement and the stallion with stunned astonishment. There was little to see in the hole itself. So little light from outside was able to creep through the rocks, it left the hollow interior nothing but a seemingly black hole. “Come on,” the Professor spoke to Iron before trotting forwards. “Let’s take a look at this.” She was already through the stone wall before the stallion was able to collect his thoughts. “W-Wait!” Iron Wit stumbled over his hooves and words. “Shouldn’t we get some tools with us before conducting a preliminary analysis! At least some more ponies to help us out?” “Nonsense,” the mare easily brushed aside, her forward trot not slowing in the least. “We have to at least survey the sight. If we come back and find nothing but a hollow room, it will only damage our respective reputations.” Though nothing she said was inaccurate, Iron could easily sense that her excitement was more fixed on the incentive to continue forward. It took little time for the two to be surrounded in darkness, eyes strained and only a small allotment of light to show the gray rock beneath their hooves. Iron shuffled uneasily, not fond of the idea of feeling his way through a seemingly ancient cavern. Thankfully, the Professor was a hoof ahead, never missing a beat. Her horn began to glow again, lighting with another brilliant green aura. Its gentle glow was able to show her eyes shut, head hunched in concentration. Iron watched soundlessly. At the tip of her horn, a small ball of white light began to glow. It was bright enough that the stallion had to look away, or else be blinded. Iron heard his professor give a small grunt of force, then he felt the brightness of the light begin to fade. Risking a peak, he saw the light rise and ascend in the cavern, drifting higher and higher, far beyond what either of them expected. When it finally did stop, the light it gave off illuminated far more than what either student or professor could have hoped for. In front of the pair stretched a cavern of immense size. The top of the rocky dome was hardly seen, even with the light of the unicorn’s magic raised high above them. The far wall was out of sight, if there even existed any. All the student and professor could see were the walls that wrapped around them, disappearing into the darkness where the professor’s light couldn’t reach. What the light did reach, however, was astonishing. Like grids on a map, sections of a city, an entire island opened up beneath the professors light, enclosed by the walls of the cavern. Not just an island of rock or debris, but an almost carefully preserved mass of land, complete with buildings, monuments, and structures that no amount of time passed could have hoped to build and preserve. It was incredible. Near the Canterlot student and his professor resided a chunk of the past, a few hundred years at least. The entire spectacle was astonishing, complete with buildings made of cobblestone and thatched roofs. There were only a dozen buildings at most, spread apart like a town square, but enough to establish a clear community. Beyond the cobblestone homes, far off to the right, lay a large house, easily the size of the square itself. Unlike the houses made of hay and stone, this was made of wood, or so the faint light of the professor allowed the two to see. It was built oddly, rising up roof after roof after roof, as if each floor had its own roof to go with it. Then to the left, apart from the almost house-like buildings, there was an island. At least, the professor assumed it was one at one point. What few buildings there were sat on a raised section of land, a bridge crossing the gap between it and the rest of the many other parts of the cavernous lair. Boats even sat, crookedly and misshapen around its edge. Then at the center, like a great monolith, sat the most impressive structure of them all: a castle of gray stone. It appeared more ancient than the castle of the two sisters, sections fallen off or decayed, but others were still gleaming, shining almost under the faux light of the professor. It was like a monument of some long forgotten past, now more legend than history. The rest was indescribable. “This… this is amazing!” The professor shouted, face lit with joy. “I-It’s wonderful! Magnificent! Impossible, even!” She laughed, genuinely laughed, at the thought of it all. “This was all just hiding beneath the Everfree Forest? Heck, this place looks to be the size of the forest, maybe even larger!” The professor trotted into the ruins, her blissfulness brighter than her magic. “Pro… Professor, wait!” Iron Wit followed behind his mentor, forcing himself out of his shock to follow in suit. She didn’t seem to allow something as simple as shock to quell her discovery. “This place is marvelous!” The professor continued as they quickly approached the almost town-like area below. “It has characteristics unlike any period of history recorded thus far! The doorways stand at least four times the height of even the tallest ponies, the roofs are held by tile and thatched hay, even the ground is made out of cut and cemented concrete!” She laughed as she finished her analysis, caught believing she was living a dream. “Professor!” Iron Wit tried collecting his superior’s attention again, but he found it was for naught. Truthfully, he was terrified. Ignoring the dark shadows the Professor’s light strung light seemed to create, ignoring the ominous and seemingly vacant space the cavern hung above the two like an empty night sky, even ignoring the absence of sound that seemed to deafen his ears, Iron Wit could not ignore the permeating feeling that they were... trespassing. “And not to mention the sheer size!” The Professor let out again. Normally, she would have expected her voice to echo in a cavern, a cave, or any underground structure. However, the magnitude of the cavern made it impossible. “I mean, look at this!” She let out again, the two promptly marching into the first town in the cavern. “There couldn’t be any more than a dozen buildings here, and even accounting for size, it’s hard to say a community larger than a few families would be able to live here!” The Professor practically jumped and skipped around what appeared to be the square, staring at each building like it was a lost artifact to time. In fairness, they likely were. That did nothing to quell Iron Wit’s nerves, however, as she put her nose only a breath’s distance away from one of the ancient buildings. Her eyes lit up with a whole new light as she spotted something else. “Look at this!” the Professor exclaimed with barely-contained excitement. “It’s all been preserved with magic lacing!” It was not a declaration that overrode the shock still welling in the young Iron Wit. “A-A lot of past archeological sites have been that way…” He meekly let out, not wanting to placate or exasperate the Professor in the midst of her apparent intellectual high. Iron very well imagined he would find every emotion the Professor was experiencing would wash over him in a short amount of time. The shock and awe was merely keeping it all at bay. At least, he hoped that’s what it was. “But parts of it are fading. Fading!” It would have taken a lot to get the stallion’s attention, but that did it. “W-What?” It was Iron Wit dumbly replied. “Look!” The Professor addressed with her hoof pointing towards a section of the building. “This is supposed to last an eternity, yet it has clearly eroded away in areas around the structures. But then!” Her hoof pointed towards another one of the many spotted sections of the lands, lacking no sign of time or decay. “Others look as if they were sculpted only yesterday!” “But… w-what does that mean?” Iron Wit, despite being in what was possibly the find of the century, was still stuck in the stupor of surprise. His professor, however, more than made up the excitement between the two of them. “It means this place is so old that the magic cast on it has had time to wear off!” It was such an obvious conjecture, but as all professors knew, the most complicated of knowledge stemmed from the most hardened of facts. “That means that even the princesses casting their magic a thousand years ago have not seen the effects of magical decay. This predates anything recorded history has even written, possibly ponies themselves! Not only that, it could even have something to do with the unusual growth of the Everfree forest!” The professor began to laugh again, leaving Iron Wit wondering just how happy that should make him. He elected to simply ask the most obvious question of all. “But… what is this place?” It was almost whispered off of his voice, hardly enough to be called even a mumble, but it was just loud enough for the Professor to hear him, and it was just wise enough a question to quell her near manic laughter. Even with the faint light above, it was clear she was still smiling, upon her lips and within her eyes, but not she too was thinking of that obvious question, and somehow impossible to find answer. What was this place? What was this to a civilization they couldn’t even name, to a people they couldn’t imagine? Why was it here? Why was it buried? But then above all of that, what was it called? “I... haven’t a clue,” the Professor admitted, though still smiling coyly at him. Iron wit was more than a bit unnerved by the shadows casted upon her face, the fault of the solitary light high above them. “But that answer can be found with some skilled geology; making a picture out of the pieces of the past.” Iron Wit couldn’t argue with her on that. In fact, the idea made him smile a bit himself. He always had enjoyed puzzles. The professor waved a hoof before continuing. “But come on, there is so much more to discover here, so much left un-” The mare’s voice dropped off and fell, stopped as a sudden and shocked gasp forced its way into her. It was hard not to react when the light above them was suddenly snuffed out. Iron Wit found himself still as a stunned possum, solid enough to rival the walls around him. They were, however, impossible to see in the impenetrable darkness. “P-P-P-Prooofffff….” Iron Wit meekly and horrifically failed to call for his professor, leading to him caught with his lips between his teeth, staring wide eyes at utter darkness. “I’m here,” the Professor replied, lacking any of the joy she had earlier but clearly full of caution. “I apologize for the sudden darkness, but my magic was meant to last in the least another few hours. I can’t imagine why it would fail suddenly like this.” Iron’s jaw worked uselessly to try and demand she cast the spell again, succeeding only as far as getting his lips unlogged and jaw gyrating in a slow circle. He could hear his professor trotting in front of him, looking for something he couldn’t see. Then again, he doubted she could either. “It… It seems like my magic isn’t working.” Horsefeathers. “What?!” the Stallion only succeeded in getting out the breath of air, all of his terror expelled outward in the syllable. “Don’t worry your mane off,” the Professor spoke in her classical tone, far from the jovial words she was yelling earlier. “It’s probably just a lack of an ability to concentrate, probably my own fault, I’ll admit. But we are perfectly safe in here, just as these buildings have been for who knows how many years.” It was a logical point, a clear point, one that Iron Wit shouldn’t have to argue with. Yet, he couldn’t help but think the professor was the one in the wrong here. He wanted to leave, immediately. But there was another problem about that. He couldn’t see the way out. Whether it was blocked by one of the buildings they stood around or if a boulder had unfortunately clogged the path again, the light from the entrance was nowhere to be seen. For as many times as Iron Wit was telling himself not to panic, he could think of an equal number of reasons to do exactly that. “Iron Wit,” his professor spoke to him again, just to his left. “Just calm down, I can practically hear your heart beating through your chest.” He mewled at the words, leading to the professor to let out an exasperated sigh. It was made only worse when he heard her giggle. “I’m…. I-I-I’m…” His jaw kept locking up as he attempted to apologize, unable to finish. All he got in return were a few more jovial laughs, deepening his blush. They came from his right, hidden just as well in the dark as everything else… Something was wrong. The professor was… to his left… Not his right. Iron Wit started to sweat bullets out of his skin. It turned into a scream as a torch sprung to life just beside him. It was a childish scream, one with more estrogen than testosterone, but it was high, shrill, and loud enough to echo even in the vast cavern. Iron fell to his knees, curling into a ball in fright. He hid his eyes from the flames that licked above him, waiting for whatever horrific creature was beside him to end him quickly. “Iron. Iron!” He heard his professor cry, but he couldn’t care. She was going to be dead soon too, just like him. They both were. Whatever had lit the torch was going to- “Iron look at me!” Iron felt his hooves pulled away, leaving him staring into his professors angry gaze. It was almost enough to make him forget about the monster that was just beside them, torch above them. “Iron there’s nothing there!” She forced his hooves down, making him look up at her. He could see the torch then, held on the end of a wooden pole and hovering above them. It may as well have been the candle signifying his life. He felt the tears begin to pour down his face. “It’s just a statue!” And indeed, it was a statue. Iron looked up at it, staring at it like a terrified foal. Only his gut on the cold ground, he saw the statue standing above him, torch in hand and its other folded behind its back. But that was one of the curious parts about the statue already. It wasn’t a pony or dragon, not a donkey or mule, not a cow, a buffalo, griffon, or anything else that could have possibly come close to creating the vast structures of the cavern. In fact, Iron Wit wasn’t quite sure what it was. It stood on two legs, and extremely tall at that. It was straight as a board, reaching nearly the height of two ponies standing on the backs of one another. The clothes edged into its body were long and simple; a white short, orange pants, and a long orange-red coat. All appeared to be just as well preserved as the parts of the grand cavern that were still laced with magic. Except its right eye. Though its face was different than that of a pony. Too smooth, too free of any protrusions, and too plain for most tastes, its right eye was gray as stone, carved and edged with what was likely a knife, unclean and unrefined. “It’s just a statue,” The Professor repeated. “I don’t know how it got there. I don’t want to find out how it did, not yet.” She was sounding surprisingly breathless despite not having moved more than a few feet herself. “We… we should leave.” Iron Wit couldn’t agree more. “Deary me, leaving so soon?” The voice made the two ponies freeze, the blood in their veins cold as ice. “And here I did the kindly thing to bring you a bit of light. I thought you might’ve appreciated it.” It was impossible, even in the realm of magic, even in the realm of impossible! It wasn’t cool, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t anything that could be remotely accepted as good in even the most generous of lights. The statue was speaking to them. “What would you two happen to be?” It was too much for the young stallion, simply too much for his frail heart and courage, or lack thereof. He was shocked silent by the find of the cavern, shocked still by the sight of the island, and shocked frozen by the vanishing of the light. But this, the very appearance of a talking statue, smiling almost coldly down to the, was the final straw. Iron Wit fell to the ground with an unceremonial thud. “Oh, is he going to be alright?” The statue looked at the professor with a ripe smile on its face. The professor didn’t answer, not immediately. “Is there a problem? I promise I don’t bite. My teeth aren’t even real, see?” To emphasise the point, the statue pulled back its stone lips, revealing nothing but the outlines of what were likely supposed to be teeth, though as it said, there were none. Only what looked like chalk lines above its stony and painted surface. “Chalk…” the Professor repeated, seemingly a state of near catatonic shock herself. The statue didn’t seem to mind. “It has been some time since I was able to skip around quite like this. I’m not sure precisesly how long, though.” It twisted its body as if stretching, bending over as it was twisted around. It made for an eerie and unsettling position of it looking into the sky, or at least the direction. “Would it happen to be night right now? It’d be troubling if I couldn’t see the stars at night.” “Night…” the mare repeated. “No… no, no, you’re in a… cavern.” It took her far longer than usual to piece the words together, though she still found the fact that she was talking to a statue near-incomprehensible. It righted itself as it looked back at her, smiling as it stood well above her head. “A cavern? Really? It must have taken some effort to move the island into a cave.” It giggled at that, for what reason the Professor couldn’t tell. “Well, I do say you look to be a knowledgeable creature. Would you be able to tell me where we are?” “We… We’re located under the Everfree Forest, approximately a three miles from Ponyville and one hundred twenty-five from Canterlot. We are also near 400 feet below sea level and located outside the Ghastly Gorge.” Rather than stop her, as the Professor expected it would, the statue merely nodded at her words, memorizing them like an attentive student. The grin on the statue’s face, however, scrambled the image in her mind. It was only when she saw its other hand that she realized it was the same color as its eye: gray and cracked as if made from ancient stone. It very likely was. “Good to know. It is such trouble to be lost. I thank you for righting me in that regard.” It gave an elaborate bow, bending at the waist with straight legs, stopping only when its upper body was parallel with the floor. The Professor took a step back, wariness rising. “It is… quite alright.” The statue stood up quickly at her words, waving a finger dismissively. “No, no, no,” it responded. “We can’t have that. It is proper to pay back what one owes. That’s extremely important.” Its hand came to rest on its chin again, looking up to the cavern ceiling it couldn’t see. The crackling flames on the torch gave his plain face an eerie shadow. “Ah,” it let out as if seeing a light bulb flicker in its head. “I know just how to repay you!” “And…” the Professor began slowly, gulping down an empty ball in her throat that. “That is ho-” She got no further. The statue had its hand about her throat. A moment later, she was dangling above the ground. The statue’s cheerful eyes stared deeply at her, illuminated by the torch. “By helping you along in your own journey.” It spoke with the same tone as it had before, as if it wasn’t slowly strangling her, as if not currently murdering her. “After all, you living things have go to the same place one way or another, don't you?” It giggled at its own words, dropping the torch to the ground. The wood clattered, rolling along the floor. It went out, and the cave was draped in darkness. “Ah, it feels good to be out of that place.” The statue spoke aloud, stretching its stone back with widespread arms as it walked in the long-awaited sunshine. “And just look! We can see the sky again.” It pointed upwards, marveling at the endless blue and puffs of white. “Now, let’s see, that colorful creature said we were close to a place called... Ponyville.” The statue put a hand to its chin again, concealing its smile as it thought. “Trouble she didn’t mention which way, huh Arma?” The statue focused its attention behind it, staring at a boulder sticking out from the rock wall. On it sat a black bird, pecking at one of its feathers. ‘Black,’ however, didn’t nearly seem to fully describe it: there were black talons with black feathers complete with a black beak all attached to a black body. Even the night itself would be jealous of the darkness this small bird seemed to possess. Aside from the red eyes that stared back at the statue. “Well, we can’t stand around here forever. We’ve done enough of that for a while, haven’t we?” The statue giggled at the words, lightly closing its painted eyes. The bird took the time to jump and fly over, landing on its shoulder soundlessly. The statue only reacted by turning its attention to the dark avian creature. “So, what should we do, then?” He asked the bird again. “Search the high forest, or risk a direction for this so-called Ponyville?” The black bird sitting on its shoulder twisted its head, silently regarding the statue beneath its talons. The silence lasted for only a moment longer before the statue began to cackle, leaning over himself with the force of his laughter. “Ah ha ha ha! Yes! Of course, Arma!” The statue congratulated its pet, grinning at it with the same smile had worn before. “That’s a brilliant idea. I can always count on you for such devious plans.” The bird didn’t react to the excessive movements, not even the jubilant laughter. It merely sat on the statue’s shoulder, looking at the gray eye that looked back at it. “I suppose we are off then, gone to explore this strange new world.” It sighed as it finished, a needless act for one that didn’t possess breath. “But we have to be careful now, so much more than before. Painfully so.” It looked at the bird, only slightly losing the smile etched upon its stone face. “We can’t make that mistake again, can we?” The statue statue walked off through the gorge, whistling to itself as it did. The cave behind it was covered by a boulder once more.