Ya know, the night sky is an extremely beautiful thing. The stars twinkle playfully, the moon soars majestically over the shadow-covered land, and everything feels so... peaceful.
Thinking back, I kinda regret not taking time to study the sky... I mean I did occasionally look at the stars, but I never took the time to truly study them. Though if I can remember correctly, you really couldn't see much of the night sky where I lived because of light pollution. Here in this garden there is nothing to block the view of the sky and... it is just breathtaking. Figuratively speaking of course.
I have started playing a game of connect the dots with the stars to see if I could make my own constellations. Those stars over there connect to make a picture of a sheep. Those one over there make a tree. I think that star is a planet... not sure but it seems to flicker differently than the rest of the stars. Their flicker proves if it is a planet or not, right?
Oh! And the moon! I have been attempting to find the proverbial man on the moon, but I don't see any major craters to make that image. This moon is a solid pale silver that illuminates the garden giving it a beautiful romantic feel. Not a bad spot to bring a date, if you get my meaning. Not that I have much of a reason to be looking for a date at the moment. I’ve recently had a problem with giving people the cold shoulder...
Get it?
I am made of rock...
...
Alright! My jokes are still a little rough, but I am sure I will find the proverbial jewel of one someday. And when that day comes, everyone will marble at its awesomeness!
...
God my jokes are lame...
Hmm? Is that clopping I hear in the distance... is it already that time of the week?
I get a visitor once a week you see. She seems to be a very sweet girl, even if she is thinking I am someone else. I’m assuming she thinks I am the creature who trapped me here, but I’m not positive. I really can't complain though, at least she is talking to me.
Is it her? Yes it is! I wonder what she is planning on talking about today? I remember the first day she visited me...
I must have been screaming for hours inside my prison. I didn't know what was happening to me... What's going on, this can't be real...
*clip clop, clip clop*
What was that sound? It sounded like a horse was coming this way... Wait! A horse! Horses mean civilization, and that means people!
*clip clop, clip clop*
They can get me out of here!
I gazed down the path, waiting for my savior. Soon enough I could see a horse in the corner of my vision. I screamed out for help, but they didn't seem to hear me. I started to cry out louder to catch their attention. I kept calling out for help until they came fully into my line of sight.
And my cries for help were immediately silenced when I gazed upon...
A unicorn.
I was looking at a unicorn...
A real life unicorn...
Oh my god! unicorns are real!!!
It stopped right in front of me and... wow... look at its beautiful dark blue mane. There was a strip of pink and purple running through said blue mane, as well as a sleek coat of purple covering its body... It gazed at me with large shining eyes of purple. Ok, she was very purple. I am not an artist so don't expect any fancy kind of color names! But it truly was a magnificent creature... no wonder there are so many myths and legends abou-
"Hey Discord..." the unicorn whispered in a feminine voice.
...
Unicorns can talk? UNICORNS CAN TALK!!!
It is now official. I am either dreaming or I am dead...
"I just want to say I am sorry..." she said.
Sorry about what? Is my subconscious feeling guilty about something?
"I thought that using the Elements, we could have saved you like we saved Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon... but all it did was imprison you again..." She pawed the ground with her hoof guiltily. "You might have done a bunch of bad things, but I don't think you deserve to be imprisoned like this..."
Ok, I understand now... I am dead and this is purgatory, right? Or am I in a coma? That would explain why I can't move.
"It must be horrible to be locked away in stone..."
Yep, sure is! But don't worry imaginary unicorn, things could be worse. I could be getting lectured by my mother-in-law instead of you.
"Listen... I..."
...I'm listening?
"I know I probably sound crazy, talking to a statue and all, but I think you were just lonely. Maybe if you had a friend you wouldn't have been so mean. So... if you want, I would like to try and be your friend."
Friends with a mythical creature? Doesn't sound too bad. Sure, let's be friends. Just get me out of here and we can go and do... friendship stuff... frolic through the meadows of heaven, dance around rings of fire, whatever you want!
"Well I feel better getting that off my chest." She walked a few paces back and looked up at my face again. "I will visit again soon." She smiled and a light surrounded her. When it faded away, she was gone.
Wait! Come back!!! You can't leave me like this! I don't want to be a statue in a garden in nowhere! Friends don't let friends stay stoned!!!
... Nope, not purgatory... I am in hell...
That was almost half a year ago if I have tracked time correctly. She tends to visit me at least once a week and tells me stories of what's happened to her during the week, or about some problem that has been bugging her. Most of it flies over my head, but just hearing her talk is soothing.
The few bits that I do understand are quite informative. I seem to be in a land called Equestria which is ruled by tyrant Queen Sisters. These sisters claim to raise the sun and moon in order to keep their subjects in line, and this unicorn is the personal student to the Sun Queen. It makes me very glad that I am now a piece of lawn furniture... I can't imagine how horrible it must be to live out there... Especially after learning how they punish criminals. Someone had a nightmare about overthrowing the Queens, so the sun queen banished her to the moon... harsh...
"Good evening Discord." She says when she got closer.
Good evening Miss Twilight. What misadventures have you and your friends had this week?
"You won't believe what happened this week." she starts, "A few days ago, it was the annual dragon migration, and Spike wanted to learn what is was to be a 'real' dragon." She let out a giggle. "You see, he got a little upset when my friends and I-"
And here we go again. I wonder how how long she is going to talk this time.
I gaze into the sky to check the sun’s location. It looks to be near three o'clock...
I listen to her story of how she followed her pet dragon Spike to the dragon migration grounds, and how they 'subtly' assisted him to look good for the other adolescent dragons. At the end, I laughed hearing how they ran to get away from the angry dragon bullies and saved the phoenix egg. I do admit... even though I am not a big fantasy fan, I have always had a fascination with phoenixes... Such powerful and graceful creatures of nature, with the power of flame and practically immortal... I would give almost anything to see one in person.
"-and that is when Spike sent his letter to Princess Celestia. I guess we all learned that even though someone might be of a different species, it does not mean they can't be family."
"That is a mighty fine lesson ya learned there Miss Sparkle," says a chuckling crackly voice.
I shift my gaze to stare at the old gardener. He stands by a bunch of bushes leaning on his hoe and was chewing a piece of straw. His beat up straw hangs off his ear as his body silently shook, as if he was laughing at a secret joke.
Twilight shifts on her hooves nervously. "Um... Thank you Mr... um."
"Name’s Scruffy, I'm the gardener." the gardener states.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Scruffy." Twilight says nervously. "Um... How much did you hear?"
"I heard the end of yer story. Gotta say it was entertaining," he points at me. "And I can promise ya that he enjoyed it as well."
"Do... do you really think Discord enjoys my stories?"
Heck yeah I do! Your visits are one of the few breaks I get from the monotony of this garden! You are much better company than that old geezer, anyway...
"Discord, eh?" Scruffy asks with a raised eyebrow as his gaze moves up to study me. "Didn't think ya were the serpent type..."
"Oh! No no no..." Twilight stammers, her face blushing. "I just want to be his friend, nothing else. He really isn't my type anyway..." She starts to look around the garden. I can tell she was trying to gaze at anything but my majestic beauty... Can't blame her, my figure is rather intimidating.
"Never said ya were," Scruffy laughs. "Just an observation here. This one seems to be more talkative than other stones here in the garden, and this old retired stone farmer has met a lot of stones," he chuckled with a wink.
Wait? You mean you can hear me?
"That is sweet Mr. Scruffy." Twilight laughs. She looks to me, "I am sorry to cut this short tonight Discord, but I have to get home. We have a baby phoenix running around the library, and I need to make sure the place does not burn down." She took a few steps back and said "See you next week!"
In a flash, she disappeared.
Bye Miss Twilight! I am looking forward to your stories next week!
"Yup... It is always sad to see such pretty ones go, eh?" Scruffy laughs as he looks up at me.
You really can hear me then?
"Sorry sonny, but I didn't catch that." the gardener sighs, "I don't know exactly what ya are saying. I can’t hear the words, I can only feel your emotions as ya are saying it."
Well this sucks... you can hear me, but you can't hear me hear me!
"I understand how frustrated ya must be, but I really can't help ya." Scruffy chuckles. "Whelp, I have a job to get back to. See ya around," he picks up his hoe and wanders out of my line of vision.
I look up at the sky. If my estimation is correct, it seems to be near five o'clock now... Only two hours... short visit this week...
I sigh... looks like I am back to only my thoughts again... how to keep myself entertained until the next visit...
I wonder how long it will take me to count to ten thousand again...
1... 2... 3...
...... is he gonna get out in this story? At least answer me that.
395510 I won't give away if he gets out or not, but I will say he will learn how to 'communicate' with the other characters later.
Write more please. Very good original story
I'm very impressed this guy's sanity hasn't gone down the drain after so long. Or maybe it has...
Wow. Such a well written story you've got here. I've got no complaints.
Although, thinking about the entire idea of someone being trapped in stone for the rest of eternity even though he did nothing wrong to deserve it makes me kinda sad.
...He did do nothing wrong, didn't he?
396188 Sanity is completely relative to one's state of mind. He might see everypony else as crazy for willingly submitting to a 'tyrant'. But I guess we will have to see how things play out later to make an accurate guess.
396396 I don't see him as a bad guy, but as an average joe who got caught up in a bad situation at the wrong time. Hopefully things turn out ok for him later... but we will have to see.
396526 That's... a surprisingly well-thought out argument. I'm impressed. Though that he managed to keep his thoughts from devolving into blabbers, and isn't obsessively attached to Twilight, tells me he is at least relatively normal regarding his mental health.
396566 Counter Argument: He appears to have an imaginary audience in his head listening to his running commentary.
Love the reference to Scruffy from Futurama. Or could just be a coincidence. Whatever.
How long to you wanna bet before he goes completely insane?
And by insane I mean he thinks himself to be a chipmunk turned into a statue untill the moon comes back from grocery shoping... or something like that...
"Someone had a nightmare about overthrowing the Queens, so the sun queen banished her to the moon"
Epic Misinterpretation!
"Names Scruffy, I'm the gardener." Futurama?
"Wait! Come back!!! You can't leave me like this! I don't want to be a statue in a garden in nowhere! Friends don't let friends stay stoned!!!"
Not my friends, but then again they're stoners.
That Scruffy thing has popped up in this story and another I been readin' recently. Fuckin' funny.
1093926
Consarn it! I was going to make that joke!
Now I'll have to use this one:
wink, wink
It shales in comparison though
Mmmhmm.
img822.imageshack.us/img822/5659/scruffyx.png
"Name’s Scruffy, I'm the gardener." the gardener states.
I bet he actually owns 51% of the government bonds, too.
1093078 nope, in Furturama, he's a janitor.
2799527 You don't bucking say? Hey, do me a favor, go get a dictionary, and look up the word, 'reference'.
It was a reference to futurama. That being said, it DOESN'T have to be 100% to the thing it is referencing. References usually have a creative spin on them. Do you understand references now? Good, I'll be quizzing you on it later today.
1302742 You're so full of schist.
Discord really is a bastard, poor hummie.
Yes they do. Unfortunately I know from experience. They normally videotape it and save it for blackmail. Although on later thought I'm realizing that was the wrong stoned...
4486499
[REFERENCE INTENSIFIES]
It would be cool if the gardener was Discord in disguise
6575219
HAHAHAHAHA