//------------------------------// // Carving out Dreams // Story: Equestria's Beacon of Friendship // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// The carving and shaping of the stone, crafting and bending the rock to your will. It's what made the earth pony''s work so special, and made her put every once of her effort into making these carvings beautiful. She loved every aspect of her work, and it was a major aspect of her life.... ... even if it did not seem that way upon first glance. "Gee Ribbon Heart, your sculpture of Princess Celestia is looking really amazing!" Her assistant Pudding Pie exclaimed, watching the master sculptor at work. "All the stuff you make is always so pretty!" "Thanks Pudding, I do try my best!" Ribbon replied with a giggle. "But this extra-special statue is going to sit at the very top of the great Friendship Beacon, so it's gotta look better than anything I've ever done before!" The statue in question was massive, twenty foot carving of Princess Celestia, that was to adorn the very top of the great lighthouse that had just been completed the previous month. The Baltimare ponies wanted the princess of the sun to adorn the top of the lighthouse that was their pride and joy, and Ribbon had been lucky enough to land the job of sculpting the statue. So here the cream colored mare was, in the center of her large work shop, chipping away at a block of marble while her assistant levitated her tools up to her. The way Ribbon saw it, the whole statue was already there, hidden in the marble. It was simply her job to visualize the art, and free it from the stone. Seeing the radiant image of the solar princess in her mind's eye, she first chipped out the horn, ears, and eyes. After the head came the neck, front hooves and upper body. The statue seemed to scream with delight, as she liberated the wings and lower back from the marble prison. And she was just starting to free the tail, when her assistant finally spoke up. "I can't believe how much like the princess your statue is!" Pudding exclaimed, looking the half finished piece. "It almost looks like it's going to get up, and trot away!" "That's the whole point of sculpting, Pudding, making your subject come to life for the observer." Ribbon replied, adjusting the hammer and chisel she held in her front hooves. "To capture a moment in time with your subject, and preserve it for all eternity." "I can understand that, Ribbon, but do you have to make the princess look so gaudy?" Pudding asked, wrinkling her nose at the dramatic pose Ribbon had chosen. "Rearing up on her back hooves like that, with her wings spread?" Ribbon looked down at the white unicorn with the striped white and pink mane, and sighed. A total stranger to the sculptor, Pudding was the assistant the city had assigned to her when she got the sculptor's job; kind of coming as part of a package deal. (Ribbon just assumed she was a relative of the famous harmony bearer of laughter, and used her family connection to get the job.) The mare with the pie slice cutie mark praised the master's work,but was always so critical of her creative choices. "Princess Celestia is a goddess who brings us the dawn, and who rules over us with wisdom and love." Ribbon replied, continuing to chip away, as bits of marble got stuck in her pink-and red streaked mane. "To portray her as anything less than her great grandeur demands would be disrespectful to our divine sovereign." "I dunno... don't you think the princess would want to be portrayed as a more approachable pony, instead of some intimidating deity?" Pudding asked hopefully. "You know, just another one of the mares, somepony you could make friends with?" "The princess would never have time to be friends with lowly ponies like us, Pudding Pie." Ribbon Heart shook her head, as she started on the bottom hooves. "She has too many important things occupying her time." Her assistant merely frowned, and said nothing. Poor Pudding Pie, she just didn't get it. Important and influential ponies didn't just pay attention to you for no good reason, especially not ones with divinity. You had to prove yourself to get the attention of the elite, especially if you didn't come off as a sculptor to other ponies. A ribbon tied into a bow, with a heart in the middle... it didn't seem like the kind of cutie mark that a stone carver would possess. But it was a symbol of her greatest triumph, so long ago... She had been just a earth pony on a rock farm, growing up in touch with the land, the soil and stone. But unlike the rest of her family, she could see figures trapped in the stone, and would use her family's rock cutting tools to free them. Her father, a practical stallion, was not amused with her little sculptures, and would smash and toss away the trinkets his youngest daughter had made. Ribbon would cry, and then get back to work... but that wouldn't stop her from going back, and carving in secret. When she was in elementary school, her teacher discovered her special sculpting talent, and encouraged it behind her father's back. When the day came for an art contest to be held at the school, Ribbon made a carving of the recently-freed Princess Luna for the competition. Nopony paid much attention to her work, until a pair of deep purple eyes set upon it. Princess Celestia herself can come to see the students' artwork, and had been impressed by the sculpture of her sister Ribbon Heart had made. "This is some impressive work you have done here, my little pony." The princess complimented her. "You have a very special talent for sculpting, a talent that should be cultivated." Ribbon Heart won first prize- a ribbon with a heart in the middle that immediately appeared on her flank as her cutie mark. (And eerily matched her name). Her father then had to tolerate her 'waste of time' hobby to save face, and after leaving the farm for the big city, she grew up to be the greatest sculptor in all of Baltimare. But as she put the finishing touches on the statue, Ribbon heart looked back to see the same sad expression on Pudding Pie's face, that she remembered being on a little filly who had just had her art destroyed by am angry father. "Aw, cheer up, Pudding, I didn't mean anything by that remark." Ribbon trotted over, putting a hoof on the other mare's shoulder. "Celestia may be to big and important to be anypony's friend, but I'd be happy to be friends with you!" She looked into Pudding Pie's sad pink eyes. "Hey, we've mostly finished with the sculpture here, why don't we go out somewhere, and celebrate?" "O-okay! That'd be great!" The unicorn's face suddenly perked up again. "Say, I know of a place near here, where we could get a few good hard ciders, and pick up some really cute stallions...." The night that followed, was pure and utter bliss. The two mares went to the bar, and sat and drank and laughed at each others' terrible terrible jokes until they were both horse-er hoarse. Then, totally drunk on hard cider, they each picked up a very cute stallion that they each took back to their respective hotel rooms for a really good time. Having been concentrating on her work far too much, it was the kind of mare's night out that Ribbon had needed for a long time. "Thank you, Pudding, that's exactly what I needed!" Ribbon complimented her friend the next morning, as each mare saw her stallion date from the night before off. "Now I can focus on getting that sculpture done!" "Of course, no problem..." The other mare replied with a forced smile. "After all, that's what friends are for...." A few days later, the two ponies were at the ceremony for the placing of the Celestia statue, each accompanied by the new stallion boyfriend they had met the night before. Sadly, Celestia herself was apparently busy with some royal business up in the crystal empire, but every other important pony was here, admiring and complimenting the glorious work of art. As the crane lifted the three-ton likeness of the solar princess into place atop the mighty spire, Ribbon Heart could only look up in pride. "There it is, a glorious likeness of our goddess of the sun!" Ribbon Heart declared proudly. "A likeness of our great sovereign as she truly is!" Pudding Pie simply shook her head, and said nothing. As the ceremony came to a close, all the ponies present began to disperse. Seeing her friend starting to trot away, Ribbon galloped up to talk to her. "Hey Pudding, wait up!" Ribbon Heart called out. "That was really great back there! Why don't we go and get some hot chocolate to celebrate?" "Sorry, Ribbon, I've got some important business to take care of." Pudding Pie replied in a somber tone, trotting away. "Maybe we could chat again some other time." And as the depressed Pudding Pie walked away, her pink eyes flashed purple for a brief moment, before returning to normal. And so she left Ribbon Heart there alone, to admire her beautiful statue of the unchanging, perfect goddess she was eternally grateful to.