Statues

by TypewriterError

Part 5: Statues

It was a cloudy night in the garden. Majesty knew the path well enough to keep walking, even though she could see little. Celestia’s white form loomed from the darkness as she approached the statue of Discord. Majesty trotted to her and gave her a tight hug which Celestia returned.

The funeral had been good for her. Even if she couldn’t understand why her cousin had died...she had said good-bye and trusted Cherry Blossom was in a happy eternity. Yes, she had cried her eyes out multiple times along with her mother and knowing how to comfort her aunt was practically impossible, but at least they had been there. Majesty stepped back from Celestia after the hug and noticed a familiar sadness in her eyes.

“Celestia?”

“Thank you for coming, Majesty. I see you brought the shield with you again.” she said, giving it a fond glance.

“Yup...” she said before she could stop the speech of her mother’s side of the family from leaking out, “What did you want to show me?”

Celestia allowed a sigh to escape her. She looked up at Discord’s statue and shook her head with a bitter laugh.

“I’ve had months and then an extra week to think of how to tell you...and still I can’t think of the best way...no... I’ve had years to think of how to explain this to you. But every year it grows harder for me to think of having to tell you...Majesty...remember the night I told you the truth behind Discord and his statue here?”

“Yes...it still boggles my mind. He’s right...here.”

“I can hear him...” Majesty stared at Celestia, unable to speak, “I can hear him. He talks to me and though I doubt I can ever agree with his point of view...I've realized that it truly wasn't his fault...Astrophel's death.” she added, softly.

“How are you able to hear him?” Majesty asked in wonder. Celestia closed her eyes for a moment and took her crown off her head by magic.

“This...as long as I have this on my head I can hear...their voices.” Majesty took a step back.

“‘Their voices?' What do you mean ‘their voices'?” Majesty said over the deafening throb of blood rushing through her ears. For an answer, Celestia floated her own crown in front of Majesty. Majesty had never felt a desire to run away from the Princess before. It was a sickening sensation that gave her a headache to go with the heavy lump in her stomach. She didn't even know why she had this urge to run. She gulped and slowly ducked her head under the crown.

You’re next, you know...

What are you supposed to be? The Pet?

Bravery? That's a joke! She can't even tell her family that she doesn't want to follow their plans!

She can't even decide for herself what she wants!

You never guessed I was the one calling to you... telling you that you are the next one...

Oh dear... I think somepony is being disappointed.

Let’s cry with her... IF WE HAD TEARS!

If we could cry!

Celestia has stopped that now hasn’t she?

GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!

She imprisoned us and she intends to do the same to you!

Oh, and I suppose you thought she was your friend? How sweet... AND RIDICULOUS!

Take off the crown and run away from her!

You’ll be stuck in stone and those you love will die without you! I saw them grow old!

I can see why Nightmare Moon wanted to overthrow her...

I’ve seen her plans for you! They’re not very nice....

I was their only son! They loved me and she took that away!

I CAN'T MOVE!

Majesty hit herself in the face trying to knock the crown off. Celestia stared at it where it fell on the path as Majesty trembled and panted.

“They’re...they’re all ponies...They’re all ponies turned to stone!” Majesty gasped, shaking as her back legs collapsed. Celestia stepped forward and Majesty shrunk back but the Princess had only moved to retrieve her crown. She placed it on her head again and Majesty softened slightly at a realization:

“Celestia...you choose to keep hearing them?”

“Yes, Majesty Song. I do. I imprisoned them in stone. All they have left now are their insults for me. I would not deprive them of all they have left...when I took so much...” She had no idea how Celestia could think straight with the constant stream of voices attacking her.

“How could you have done this? Why? What reason is there to turn ponies into stone?” Majesty begged. Celestia looked up at Discord again.

“Because one day, Equestria will face a threat that will be too great for me or even the Elements of Harmony to handle. I have chosen the best ponies in Equestria...to be set in reserve as soldiers."

“Nightmare Moon... I read that one day she can come back...”

“Luna and I began this garden. We petrified Discord and Luna got the idea to petrify other ponies so we could have an army that no other enemy knew about.”

“But...he knows!” Majesty exclaimed, indicating the statue they stood in front of.

“Yes, he does. But...I believe that he will not be able to break out... the Elements are indescribably powerful and if they’ve kept him this long I’m certain they will keep him until the end of our world. Until it won't matter if he is released or not.”

"So you use the Elements of Harmony to freeze...your own ponies?"

"I use a different spell. I haven't used all of the Elements by myself since I banished Nightmare Moon."

“Celestia...” Majesty said, her heart squeezing her throat closed, “They said I was next...please tell me it doesn’t mean what I think it means...” Celestia closed her eyes, and hung her head.

“I’m afraid it does...I was intending to one day turn you into a statue soldier in the Garden.”

“I trusted you. You were my friend! Now you want to turn me to stone?” Majesty's voice was rising with the heat in her neck and face. She was stepping back from the Princess, her muscles ready to bolt.

“I want to protect Equestria! My dearest friend, I don’t want to turn you into stone but I have to! To turn you into stone now would be to allow Equestria to die out peacefully rather than to die in the coming...possibility I have seen!” Majesty stared at the Princess. Celestia was begging. She implored with her gaze in such desperation that Majesty felt sorry for her...almost

“I...I can’t believe this. You’ve been friends with me...only because you wanted a soldier?”

“No...I became friends with you...because I wanted a...a...” she said, her large, pink eyes building a ridge of water on her lower eyelid.

"If you say 'a friend' I'm running out of this garden right now."

"Well, all right I admit I was first drawn to you because the statues told me to search you out. But it changed as I got to know you!"

"How could you care anything about my friendship? I'm - who knows how many years - younger than you!"

"But I could talk to you! Majesty please..."

"You could talk to me? Well, find a guard to talk to or are they unqualified unless you intend to make them into a decoration?"

"Majesty! Listen to me..."

"Is that a requirement of being one of your statues? I have to listen to you now without a choice? Well, I've been listening for years and you never told me you were going to turn me into a lawn ornament!"

"LOOK AT ME!" Celestia suddenly exploded. Majesty jumped and her heartbeat deafened her again. Tears were flowing, full force, down the royal's face. The depths of anguish and misery were open now in the alicorn's wide eyes, tring bloodshot from tears. Majesty stepped back, unsure of what to do.

"I'm...I'm looking at you." Majesty said while her voice shook.

"You're the only one I've ever allowed to do this...to look at me when I cry...for over nine hundred years...I never allowed anyone...no one believed that I could cry. No one wanted to believe I could cry. I refused to cry! I...I miss them so much and something about you...your willingness to see me as a friend...your cousin's death...you broke me...broke me so...so I could at least talk about it...about losing Astrophel...about missing Luna...

"You...you shared yourself with me and wanted me to share myself with you without any personal gain on your part. No pony else has been able to do that for centuries. Not since Luna...when Astrophel...was killed...when his own horn was crushed back into his skull...I had Luna to comfort me until she turned on me. She turn on me. She turned into Nightmare Moon and tried to throw the world into darkness. She was the only other pony who saw him die...I trusted her...and then she changed on me...I depended on her...

"You didn't wait for me to be dependent on you. You let me see you cry and you...you gave me a chance to cry for somepony else...to feel sorry for somepony else...to care about somepony else. How could I not think of you as a friend after all of that? After you trusted me not just because I'm your ruler...at least...I believed you trusted me...as a friend." Celestia turned her face away and finally closed her eyes again.

“I don’t know what to think about this... I can't think right now this is just too much for me to believe... I need time—”

“Please, Majesty," the Princess implored, opened her eyes again and lowering her head to be level with Majesty's, "I can only spare you a week to figure this out. Time is running out. The spell is most powerful and will keep you in the best of condition during the waning moon towards the end of your 21st year. Next week you turn 22. Please decide before then...and please forgive me...”

Majesty backed away and didn’t say goodnight to the Princess. She galloped out of the Statue Garden and ran home, quietly coming in the front door and closing it behind her. She was in her home now. This was her front door. This was her family. This was her house. This was where she belonged. She tiphoofed up the worn wooden stairs and to her room, closing her door to her room behind her. She magically unbuckled the shield from her back and threw it onto the bed.

One week...her cousin was dead and she had one week to see if she could decide to disappear herself. To cause her parents more pain...to leave her family. To force her mother and father to cry again over a child's...loss. She had just learned to appreciate the family she had, and now she had to leave them?

“It’s not fair.” she gasped, her voice shaking. It was wrong to turn ponies into stone like that. How many of them wanted to do that or knew what they were doing? None of them sounded happy. How long had some of them been in there?

Majesty looked at her black trunk. Would she have time to get it sorted? For years she had thrown stuff in there to avoid dealing with it... All the things she was pushed to be...her family’s hopes...plans...ideas for her. They were things she had avoided by hiding in hopes that nopony would bother her about them...

The shield commanded her attention again. That was the one gift she had ever truly appreciated. It fit her even when it was too big...it was loved more than any other possession. She walked over to it and placed a hoof on its surface. Celestia had called her a soldier when she first saw her shield cutie mark. Her parents had never been so proud. But, was this what she wanted? To wait for a battle? To watch her parents grow old without her and die? To take away their only child? She wouldn’t be able to comfort either of them if the other died. Shouldn’t she hold her responsibility, to love her family and be there for them, as more important than the future of Equestria? Yes, she had no plans for a future now but didn't she still have time to decide? Didn't she had a right to be with her family?

Or...should she give up her right to a family...so that future families would be allowed to die peacefully? She was one pony deciding if she would rather live her life being pushed to do one thing or another by her family, wondering if Celestia would find somepony else to replace her as a soldier...or if she would rather choose this one path, and only be allowed to stay on that one path, and find out for herself if Celestia gathered enough ponies to fight the coming battle. Was this her path? Or was she even needed? How could she leave her parents? But, how could she fail Celestia?... her friend?

She looked back at the trunk. Perhaps she needed to start working on it now after putting it off for so long.

Comments

[Dusty Sage]

A rock and a hard place, indeed.

Being given a choice like that would have scared the wits out of me at twenty-one. (Truth be told, it scares me now, nearly four of our decades later.)

[moguera]

Um...yeah......I can see a minor hitch in this plan. It apparently hinges on Celestia having a secret army to fight against some kind of unspecified future threat, an army she apparently decided to make by turning unwilling ponies to stone (seriously, they do not sound happy about this). Not to be a downer or anything but.....when they are unstoned, as it were, what's to stop them from just telling Celestia to buck off. I don't really think she's thought things through all the way.

[War brony]

A pony Semper fi?!?!?! Holy shit that's pritty deep hole.
But you know what... In a world that happy, there must be a sacrifc... To be onest, if it where me in that position... I would do it. That's what Semper fi means. Always do the right thing. Regardless of the cost.

[TypewriterError]

833880 Yep. It's Sempre fi to the extreme.

[M1Garand8]

But wouldn't this be counter-productive? They don't sound like they're in any mental condition to fight whatever it is whenever that is coming. Shouldn't they be at least be in some sort of mental stasis so they don't lose their before that time comes?

[Kenseirabbit]

I really need to pay more attention... I completely phased out the fact you wrote 2 chapters. Two!..... I am going to think on the story and get to you in a little bit.

[IagoLemming]

833796

That's what I was thinking too.

Despite that one hitch, Type, this story is really starting to get good. Everything is coming together, and I definitely see where the issues have been resolved. Now we get to the gripping tension and conflict that was so powerful, so prevalent, so tangible in your first story. I see you still have it. ;3

[Csquared08]

Well, I was right on the what: Majesty becomes a statue (or, well, the option is there). However, until this chapter, the why eluded me. I couldn't figure out why Celestia would turn a pony who seemed to be her friend into a statue. But this chapter gave me the why, and I now look forward to more.

[Diamond Sparkle]

When she unstones them, they might a) be insane b) turn on her c) both.