The Elements of Stone

by Slender Dash

The Weight of the Situation

Twilight woke again in the morning, tired but determined. She wanted to know what was going on. She had to know, or it would drive her crazy. The voice in her head repeated the dream's message over and over in her ears: Come. Come. Come. Come to a place, though you may not know where. Come to a place of safety or danger. Come all the same.

Twilight couldn't get that constant reminder out of her head. She knew it would drive her to insanity. She slammed a pillow over her ears and across her face and screamed at the voice, telling it to go away. It wouldn't. Twilight tried her best to tune it out, to just ignore it, but its tedious rhythm poked through her defenses.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted, and Spike came running through her bedroom door a moment later. He saw a lavender pony scrunched up under the covers, her hair still frazzled and her body shaking. A look of concerned surprise crossed his face before he settled down on the end of her bed.

"What is it, Twilight? Are you feeling okay?" Spike questioned. He started babbling about how he would write to the Princess saying you couldn't do friendship letters for awhile, and anythings he could do to make her feel better before he got a hoof in the mouth.

"Spike, I..I had a nightmare. The same one as before. But this time, someone, a unicorn, turned me to stone. And then I heard a voice say,'Come.' What does it mean?" Twilight had grabbed a hold of her tail and was slowly rocking back and forth, staring at the patterns of stars on her bedspread. Spike laid a hand on her forehead to make sure she wasn't feverish, and then thought for a moment.

"Maybe it doesn't mean anything," he suggested, only to get a mouthful from Twilight telling him to take this seriously. He sat through the criticism for a moment before interrupting her. "Twilight, like you always tell me, I'm still a baby dragon! I have no idea what it means! The only thing I can think of is that it wants you to go who knows where, but you've already figured that out!" Spike exclaimed in exasperation.

Twilight's gaze fell to the floor guiltily, and she looked back up with the makings of tears rimming her eyes. "I'm sorry, Spike," she choked, "I'm just so confused."

Now it was Spike's turn to feel guilty. So, he thought some more, and finally came up with an idea. "Well, maybe every pony is going somewhere," he said thoughtfully, "so you're supposed to join them there."

"The only place I can think of is Canterlot," Twilight said, moving a hoof up to her chin while thinking. "Every one of my friends is there now." Twilight gasped as the idea hit her, and her eyes widened. Before Spike could even say,"What are you planning?" Twilight was packed up and out the door, sprinting to the train station.

She arrived just as a train was starting to leave. She snatched up a ticket with her magic and threw her coins into the ticket booth before making a mad dash onto the locomotive right as they shut the doors.

She sat down, panting heavily from the sprints, with several ponies glaring grumpily at her. She blushed and gave an embarrassed chuckle, and she settled into a seat as the train started. It sped along, and Twilight reached Canterlot the next day.

Twilight stepped carefully off of the train, and she winced as the train jolted off again. Twilight had a feeling something was wrong here in Canterlot. You wouldn't see it if you looked around, but you had to feel it deep indie. To Twilight, it felt like this place was the core of her nightmares, the place these horrible dreams came from and the place for her to finally get some answers.

Twilight looked around, wondering exactly where to start. She soon gave up as her stomach poked its way into her thoughts, and it forced her to buy a bite to eat. Twenty minutes later, she stood up again and paced through Canterlot. She was without direction. She had no idea where to start. Canterlot was a maze of streets and pavement, and she was stuck in the middle of it.

So, she trotted aimlessly along, confused and discouraged, until she stepped into the part of the city closest to the Palace. Suddenly he felt something, light a soft tugging at her thoughts and heart. It lead her down the roads, through the city. She had a feeling this is what she needed to follow. As she continued on its path, the sensation grew stronger until she thought it might pull her soul out of her body.

She finally came to the doors of the Canterlot Palace. She stopped for a moment, despite the pulling in her chest. Do I go in there? Twilight thought. As if answering, the sensation changed, pulling her along in a different direction. Not a long time afterwards, she showed up at the Canterlot Gardens. Which was surprisingly swarming with guards. None were inside of the entrance though- they all milled about directly outside the wall of hedges.

When Twilight approached, two guards came to meet her. One was a tough looking grey pegasus with a scar on his chin, but missing quite a bit of muscle that's usually required by the Royal Guard. The other was a white earth pony with much more bulk to him, and his coat was marred by nothing except for a spot of dirt on his shoulder. The pegasus' wing blocked her path, while the earth pony stared down menacingly.

"The Princess has forbid anyone from entering the gardens," the white pony said gruffly. He now stared straight ahead at something in the distance, not focusing on Twilight.

"I am the Princess' most prized student, and the Element of Magic. I think she would allow me to be in there."
Twilight said, a little more sarcastic sounding than she meant. The pegasus tensed uncomfortably, and he looked to his fellow soldier, who looked back. The pegasus nodded, and the white guard gave a confused look.One of them was obviously more informed than the other. The pegasus coughed, and then spoke.

"Being the Element of Magic Bearer, I must place you under arrest," the pegasus said, and he made a move to grab Twilight. Twilight couldn't move for a moment because of shock, but he was snapped out of it when the pony grabbed her shoulder.

"Get off me!" Twilight yelled. She ducked down and swung around, then brought her legs up in a buck. It met with the soldier's stomach, forcing him to let go for a split second. Twilight took this opportunity to sprint away from the gardens, the confused earth pony just starting to give chase. Soon the pegasus was up in the air, and he was diving swiftly down to stop Twilight in her tracks.

Twilight stopped and squeezed her eyes shut. She smirked as she felt the hum of her magic spark to life, flowing from deep within her to the tip of her horn. It started building up, gaining power at her horn, and she felt the wind from the pegasus' wings right before she released it, and left the pegasus standing there dumbfounded as to where th pony he had seen a sec on before had disappeared before his eyes.

Twilight reappeared in the garden, past all of the guards. She ducked her head down so she wouldn't be spotted, and started moving towards the end of the garden with less guards around it. As she walked along, she realized that at one point the guards stopped abruptly. No air patrols or ground soldiers. Celestia must not trust them enough to be here. So, after Twilight crossed the point where the guards stopped and had walked around a bend, she lifted her head and walked normally. This was the deeper part of the garden, where little statues stood and almost no pony visited. She kept walking though because the tugging at her heart had picked up again, and now it was pulling frantically as if saying, "You're almost there! You're so close! DO NOT STOP!"

Twilight rounded another bend and saw a little circle of hedges. There were openings in the sides, and there were several layers of bushes all getting bigger as they went out. It looked like a spiral with bits cut out.

Twilight stepped into one of the openings. The grass was softer and springier here. It was bigger than she thought. There were several statues in-between the rings, not in the center where the paths led. Twilight looked at them, and a frown started tugging at her face as she continued to look. Suspicion like she had never felt before started leaking into her heart, and it slowly started tightening in her chest.

Is...is that...Dr. Whooves? Twilight's eyes widened as she recognized the trapped pony, staring at her with waving hooves. The statue made it look as if he were angry, but when she looked beyond it, she felt a pleading gaze lock onto her. IT felt ominous too, like it was calling, "Get out of here! Or you will have the same fate."

Twilight started a quicker, nervous trot down the pathways, coming across pony after pony that she already knew. Derpy Hooves...Bon Bon...Lyra... Twilight choked down the scream that was threatening to leave her throat, and she started galloping around the spiral at full speed. Suddenly, she ran through an exit into the center of the circle.

Twilight gasped and let the tears flow freely as she saw her five friends in a circle, all trapped in stone as they were seen during their last attempt at escape. And in the center of them all, standing regally with a look of hate and disgust, but with a single tear encased in stone, was Princess Luna.

Comments

[ShadowBrony]

crap... this is getting intense