"Miss Cheerilee, what about the one over there?"
The foal pointed her hoof towards a different statue, one separated from the rest. An almost imperceptible shield shimmering slightly as the rest of the foals neared, more than one of them shivering as they got closer. The various runes carved into the ground marked a few clear circles around the base of the statue, the innermost one constantly spinning and rearranging.
Cheerilee hastily pulled one of the foals back from poking the shield as she cleared her throat. "None of you are to go anywhere near that statue, but you are allowed to look as much as you like. Does anypony have an idea as to what this statue represents?"
A few of the foals were a bit downtrodden at being unable to touch the odd statue, except for the three arguing loudly amongst themselves to the back.
"Obviously it's about fear!"
"An' I say it represents the dark!"
"Oh yea, well I think it means sadness!"
The three fillies got roughly bumped on the head as their teacher stood behind the three of them. She glared down at them slightly before turning back to the rest of the class. "In a way you're all right." Cheerilee moved closer to the field around the statue, looking at it almost sadly.
At once the three of them loudly said "Huh?!" as the rest of the class urged their teacher to continue.
In moments Cheerilee's kind smile was back in place while she waved a hoof in the general direction of the statue. "This statue represents Death itself, and serves as a constant reminder to us all that we should cherish each and every day. It teaches us that no matter who we are, pony or not, we must always keep our heads held high and our thoughts in the right place as Death l-"
"But what about the Princessesses?" Squeaked Sweetie Belle, the other two crusaders nodding their heads in agreement.
"Well Sweetie, if you want to know that then you'll have to ask them about that yourself." Cheerilee chuckled to herself as she headed towards the next exhibit, a rhino with five horns. "Come along class, we don't have all day."
The few foals unsatisfied with the answers of their teacher gave a mighty "Aww" as they followed her to the next statue, dragging their tiny hooves along the ground as the rest talked amongst each other.
Scarce few silent seconds passed before the unmistakable click clop of mismatched feet walked along the garden path, even as the rest of the body was making an impressive city out of pebbles and the head floated around the shielded statue.
"Hmm, you are an odd one aren't you? About as colorful as the shadow-man back when he hung out with Charlie Chaplin. Yet for some reason there's a fair bit of color in you. Well whatever, I'm a terrible judge of character and if you don't turn out to be half as bad as you look then you can strip my title of Judy."
Discord's (because honestly who else could it have been?) legs easily bulldozed their way threw the pebble city as his body threw a slight tantrum before reappearing beneath him to stroke his goatee. His legs kept on their forward march as they moved towards the shield, a few of the runes beneath it glowing brightly as the inner circle span faster.
"Well, you can't be half bad if you're out here instead of Tartaurus. Oh don't worry too much,they used to call me 'Cool Hand Dissy' in the old days." He creaked, yes creaked, his joints loudly as he raised a talon up. His mismatched feet easily moved through the shield before being held in place by the runes.
"Bippity~" his talon slowly lowered towards the shield, his hoof seeming to melt as it moved along the runes and slowly circled the statue.
"Boppity~" the point of his talon gently pressed against the bubble, his hoof moving faster as it smeared taffy over the runes. Discords clawed foot, on the other leg, jumped onto the hooved one and held on for dear life.
"Bo-" he barely even got to grin evilly as the shield instantly filled with a dark smoke that corroded against it slowly. Discords legs were visibly thrown against the shield before being shot out at Discord, launching him right out of the garden and far out of reach from the explosion that seemed to rock Canterlot castle.
"Grub's up family!" Applejack yelled out to the house, the sun setting outside the window as she gazed onto her orchard. She had spent her whole life tending and nurturing those trees, she was plenty thankful to her friends for helping her out of that weird mind control stuff Discord was doing. Without the lot of them she was pretty sure she wouldn't have the chance to keep enjoying her simple life.
Of course it was Applebloom who came down first, Granny Smith didn't count since she always stuck around the kitchen if the sun was near the horizon. Cheerfully AB sat down at her usual seat as she gazed at tonight's dinner and eagerly dug into it. She was almost half way through her meal when Big Mac came in, giving a simple nod as he sat down. He had to have at least four times as much food, though AJ didn't mind as it helped her keep up with her cooking skills.
Applejack herself gave a content sigh as she went to join them, only to be interrupted by a light knock at the door. A quick glance at the clock later caused her to quickly run her mind through her friends schedules. "Now I wonder who that could be..." She calmly walked towards the front door, opening it with a slight tension as she thought over the possibilities.
"Mighty late fer visitors dontcha thin-" Her life flashed before her eyes. In a mere instant she remembered everything from her first birthday, to two days ago when her and her friends had defeated Discord. All the way from A to B until she found herself staring under the hood of what she imagined would be her end. Her jaw hit the floor, eyes wide as she stared up at the one to cause her an unbridled amount of fear.
An awkward silence dragged on between them as neither spoke, one too shocked to comprehend who was here and the other thinking on his first words when at once he calmly bent down to her level and spoke with what sounded like many voices.
"Hello, I'd like to work here."