> Cruel Mercy
>  by Comrade Bagel Muffin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Statue Maker
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ater Forest was cold and darker than anypony could have imagined. It had take the mare an entire day to get to the heart of this accursed wood, and now only a few hours remained until midnight. When the veil between the realms was at its thinnest. She levitated the two bag into the clearing.
It would be soon so soon, and the wrong that this world had done her would be reconciled. The strongest beams of moon light pierced the forest canopy. It was time for the ritual. Her horn glowed it's natural emerald green for a second before it was engulfed in a mist of purple black haze. It was horrible and cold magic. Full of anger, pain, grief, and hate. She focused on the two bags one of which struggled violently, holding a creature desperately trying to escape. The other remained perfectly still. A crime for which nature would now atone for.
The magic, dark magic, encircled the two burlap bags. The trapped cockatrice began to struggle harder as the unnatural magic began to force it's way into the creature. Tendrils slowly burrowed into the other sack the lifeless form inside began to kick a little. Then suddenly golden lightning appeared out of thin air. It was brighter and purer than even the beams of the sun itself. The flashing lightning smote the black magic that warped around the uncorrupted flesh inside the bag.
It struck the tendrils like an angry lord strikes a wicked servant. They fell back like darkness retreating before the dawn. The lightning however gave chase not giving the black magic a moments respite. It struck at the tendrils which had smothered the cockatrice, and chased them back to their conjurer as well. The black magic rebounded on the one who had summoned it from the void, the pit. The lightning bring with it the wraith of God upon the mare as well.
The Ater Forest was filled with a scream. A scream so absolute in its pain and anguish that even the vultures and worms that feasted on the dead of the forest felt pity for the creature. The scream slowly became a howl as the mare jerked and twisted in pain. Agony contorted her body in ways thought impossible. Suffering forced shut forever her beautiful blue eyes. As the dark magic began to twist a warp her soft green body.
Her hind legs slowly fussed together. They elongated down to a tip. The fur slowly being ripped away. Green scales slowly emerged to cover her soft pink flesh. Her face scrunched up as fur was pealed away to make room for the scales that now appeared on her. From the top of her head she felt a mass of tentacles slithering about. There was an unceasing hissing noise that seemed to be right near her ears. The pain some how doubled and redoubled again. The tendrils of black magic that she had cast on the cockatrice bore their way threw her clenched eyelids, and into her eyes. They forced her to open them.
Her eyes were no long the color of the deep blue ocean as they had been once before they now glowed green, like the fires of Death. Her pupils had become slits in her eyes. They were cold and devoid of any of the equinity that they had possessed just an hour before. It took only a few minutes to turn the unicorn mare into the creature that now lay on the floor of the Ater Forest. The forest remained still and quite, as a new horror now entered the world.
After ten minutes of pained breathing, she finally rose. her movement was slow and clumsy. She pulled herself along the ground. She pulled the still and quite burlap sack up to her chest, and screamed. It wasn't like the screams before; it was more it was soul breaking and silent, and it never ended. After an eternity, she finally began to leave the forest still holding the lifeless sack in her forehooves. She slithered along the ground. It was foreign to her, but she refused to put the sack down, and she could no long levitate it beside her.
What had taken her only a day to do with her legs now took a day and night with her new unfamiliar serpentine tail. But she had carried this weight for eleven months why should twenty more hours make any different. Finally she arrived at her home. Her husband was inside doubtless he was worried about her. Ever since the accident, he had stayed up to comfort her, but she had the knowledge of spells that a Pegasus could only dream of. Where he accepted their horrible fate; she had not.
She did not know if he would take her back like this. It no longer mattered to her, she had lost. Fate and Death had taken all that had mattered from her, and when she tried to take it back. They had scourged her, beaten her down, and warped her image, to this. She would have gladly endured it all a thousand times over if they would have given her what was hers, but no they beat her and kept their loot for themselves. Even this high price was not enough to ransom him from them. What was a lost husband, surely fate would not let her even keep him. She was cursed by the fates twice over, and yet not even the Fates themselves could break her husband's love for her. 
"Nimbus," She called from the front door not daring to go into the house. She laughed at the sound of her own voice she had not imagined that it was still the same soft voice that had sung for joy only a week ago. "Nimbus," she said as a light appeared in the house. "I've felled, and have been cursed to bear the form of a monster." She told the Pegasus on the other side of the door.
"It does not matter what you look like. I will not mourn what form you've been cursed to bear." The bolts baring the door undid themselves. "I love you not your image. My only grief is that we have truly lost our child." She closed her eyes and looked away. Many husbands had promised to be faithful to their wives only to denounce their vows. He gasped. She waited for him to scream to denounce her, yet no other sounds were heard except the constant hissing which came from the writhing mass on the top of her head. Then she felt it. It was soft and gentle, his hoof on her face.
"You won't send me away?" she asked her husband in awe. How could he still love her. She herself no longer found any reason to love her, and yet, Not even the Fates themselves could break the love that her husband Nimbus held for her. She turned to face him and opened her eyes. That she could see this miracle for herself.
It happened in an instant. Nimbus' face was washed in the pale green light of her eyes. Not a second later his body, warm and gentle, became cold, grey, and as lifeless as the foal in the burlap sack that she had carried back in her hooves. Again she screamed. Though now sound could find its way from her gapping maul, she screamed. Though her heart stopped and refused to beat again in her chest, she screamed. Though she stood there as dead as the two pony's she loved most, she screamed.


***


Her scales scratched the floor of the cave. Her green slitted eyes illuminated the dark paths before her. She maneuvered easily around the hundreds of statures that blocked her path. Countless numbers of ponies, earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi. They came in every form imaginable. Many were soldiers of old marked by their armors which spanned the centuries. A few had been peasants or explorers who had lost their way.
Not all of her statues had been ponies there were griffons, all of whom were either bounty hunters or mercenaries who had come for her head. The last bounty had been over a century and a half ago. The griffons surprisingly were always getting better at fighting. There were a couple of mandicors a miniature. They had tried to take her cave as their own. There was even at one point a changeling statue. She how ever had made it a point to grind him into dust. He had tried to persuade her to join in an attack on a place called Equestria the home of the ponies. He must have assumed that the statues were victims.
No that was not so, they had tried to kill her and she fought back. They remained where they stood, however, countless hundreds had been lead out of this place by her hoof. She would help how she could. She came to the final corner, her newest intruder was on just around the bend. Another peasant or explorer, he was making no qualm about remaining silent, but instead seemed to be noisily admiring the carnage of her battles.
The snakes on her head hissed loudly at her annoyance. Explorers had always been the worst. Soldiers had come in knowing that those statues were once ponies. They had respect. Villagers may not have known exactly what they were but they still held some apprehension about the statues. Even she respected the fallen, and they had fallen because they refused to leave her be. Explores however loudly admired the "craftsmareship." There was never any respect for who those ponies had been.
"Ah so you've finally made your way up here," the trespasser said. "You didn't need to hurry. I was just admiring your, what was that word you just used, 'craftsmareship'. It really is quite nice." Her unwelcome guest laughed. It made her blood run cold in her veins. Then he said something that froze her blood entirely. Two words that she thought were lost to the centuries, words that she herself could barely remember. He said her name.
"Who are you?" Three words finally made their way out of her mouth. A single question amidst the thousands that screamed in her head.
"Oh you know just another immortal," the pony, she thought it was a pony she hadn't checked yet, answered. "I was in the area and thought. 'You know I've never stopped to say hello to little Mrs. Slithers.', so here I am. Just come to chat with the little Statue Maker." It was then that she noticed it, his voice. She knew something was off, it wasn't echoing like it should. It seemed to echo a thousand times over but only was heard once. the sensation was beyond what she had ever experienced. "We immortals really do need to keep up with each other don't you agree?"
"I. I wouldn't know." Something was off about this thing. She was now firmly convinced her guest wasn't a pony. "I'm unable to leave this place. I'm too much of a risk, to the lives of others."
"And do you know why that is?" the thing asked, his voice smooth as honey, and yet infinitely twisted and warped. "You know as fun as it playing with you, I couldn't help but notice. That all those soldiers and bounty hunters have left scares haven't they." She reared back how could he see her? He was around a corner of solid stone. "You could have smote the idiots easily, but you have been letting them strike you with their weapons haven't you?" She ran a hoof over her stomach, over dozens of scars which she had accumulated over the centuries. "You've been trying to die haven't you, you naughty thing you?"
"I," she began. She couldn't understand why but for the first time in over five centuries she was terrified. This thing, that had invaded her home was somehow by his very presence feeling her with a sense of dread. "I just-"
"Oh trust me I know. You needn't explain it to me," the thing cut her off. "I understand what it's like to suffer for so long." He laughed it was cold and seemed to echo off of everything. Unlike his voice it was reverberated off of the walls and echoed from even the depths of the cave behind her. "To want nothing more than for justice to finally be served." His voice was falling to a whisper. "And it is to that reason that I've come. I've come to administer justice and mercy."
“What do you mean?”
“There are so few things that can actually kill a gorgony,” the creature said. “Something this poor sod figured out the hard way.” The sound of a statue being tipped over was quickly followed by a heart stopping crash. “Coming here so woefully unprepared. Pathetic.”
“How dare you!” She rounded the corner. Posed of battle. The creature vanished in a moment before she could identify what he was. He reappeared behind her.
“It’s not really my fault.” She turned her head in time to see another statue shattering in to bits on the cave floor. The creature had already vanished in another puff of smoke. “That these idiots came to slay a creature that they knew nothing about.” She whirled around in time to see a creature cloaked in burlap rising from the floor.
“It is your fault that you killed them!” She rushed up to the creature in an unheard speed. Her serpentine body slithering up to him deftly avoiding all obstacles in her path. Her eyes flashed green as the snakes on her head flared out hissing loudly, as her eye made contact with the Geist’s faintly pulsing blue. He laughed as the magic and the green glow waned into nothingness.
“Cute,” the Geist said dryly his eyes glowing red. "Now for my act of mercy." The tip of his arm was a light with a golden flame. “Do you know what can kill a gorgony? There are only four.” She watched in fascination and horror as the flames became a knife. “A blade of alabaster, A black opal that has been thrice enchanted with the runes of Death himself. Magics that have long been lost to time, and.” He swung the knife cutting out her across her eyes. “Her reflection.”
She screamed as she pulled back for just a moment. She put her hooves on her eyes. The damage was insurmountable, and irreversible. Doubtless her eyes had been put out. It took a nearly a minute for the pain to begin to become dull. Allowing her to think onto what the cloaked Geist said. “Are you finally beginning to understand. Welcome to immortality.” She lunged at the creature. Her body became cold as she passes through where he was, and collided with a statue she grabbed the sculpture with her bloodied hooves to hold still, and keep it from falling and shattering on the floor.
“What?” she cried as she leaned on the statue of one of the soldiers from centuries ago who had tried to kill her. “What kind of creature are you?” She tried to rise to her full height, but the pain that assailed her caused her to fall. She groped along the floor looking for the Geist.
“I am a creature far worse than you, despite the fact that not even I was stupid enough to toy with thing that were best left alone.” She was slammed against the wall, as something coiled against her throat. “I am beyond even your years. Statue Maker. Now I represent a certain order and we will be sending a recruiter here for you soon.” She was slammed back against the wall. “And you will accept our invitation when it comes.”
“And why would I join you?” Statue Maker coughed.
“Because, unlike you and I most members of this little order are quite ordinary, and even as kind as you are. We exist to protect the world from a horror beyond even what you have acquainted yourself with. And because deep down you want a people to turn to. And if you don’t accept our offer I’d look like such a monster depriving you of your eyes.” He laughed as he faded away his laughter lingering on the cavern walls of the deep long after he left her.


***


Statue Maker lay on the stones just outside her cave the warm light of the sun warming her body as she enjoyed the smells of the many flowers that had begun to bloom in the accursed woods. Her ears which had doubled and redoubled in their acuteness after the Geist had stolen her eyes from her. They picked out the songs of every bird in the forest. It wasn’t long before they picked up another sound as well the. It was not unwelcome, the sound of grass under four hooves. As members of the Order of Eclipse came and went as they pleased from her lair she wondered which pony was coming to her. From the smell that came from the breeze it was no longer a difficult guess. Only one member ever smelled of marzipan.
“Hello High Paladin Golden Comet, whatever brings you here?” She asked as the unicorn approached. She always enjoyed talking to ponies, though she would entertain any of the Order’s members even the Geist himself after a couple of centuries had past, but she enjoyed hearing news of Equestria, the home of her kind, and only ponies seemed to concern themselves with the tiny details that she hungered for. 
“Hello High Paladin Golden Comet, how are you today.” She asked again as he caught his breath. She did not bother to rise from the warm rock on which she was resting.
“I’m afraid I that I’m bearing bad news.” The slightly elderly unicorn answered. At his answer and the sound of his voice she quickly rose up. The serpents which made up her mane hissing her concern. "SMILE has been making attacks against our people. They've already killed three of our own."
"What who?" She rose up straighter.
"They've already killed Lunar Knight Iron Hide, Solar Knight Mozambique, and," He shook his head as he swallowed. The Statue Maker's mind running through who else could have been targeted. "They got Lunar Squire Leather Wing." High Paladin Golden Comet said looking down. Her heart stopped.
"What?" She straitened and rose to her full height; the snakes on the top of her head becoming instantly agitated. "Who, how could they he was just a colt, a foul! He had not even seen his twelfth summer!" She struck the rock she had been standing on with her hooves shattering a good portion of it into dust. "Which one did this?" 
"I assure you the two that killed him and his family have been dealt with. High Paladin Black Wing tossed them into the Abysmal Abyss and the other high paladin has been personally intercepting SMILE hit squads for the past hour."
"His family," She pulled back in disgust. "They killed his entire family?"
"With Nightmare Moon's return immanent they've been hunting down the bat ponies." Golden Comet stepped onto the stone. "They're letting their fear get the best of them. I thought that you had the right to know about him." She accepted his comforting hoof on her back. "They'll probably be here for you eventually as well."
"Let them come I've dealt with legions far more just and righteous than these." The snakes hissed loudly.
"We will send you aid as soon as we know who is being targeted and who isn't." The tail tell sound of teleportation sounded in the woods. Statue Maker returned to her lair, and waited to see if foes would come. She couldn't believe that they had done it. Ponies killing a colt just because of his race. It wasn't even done her time. When intermarriages were frowned upon. They wiped out his family. She remembered the initiation test. She had been the one to give it, and he had passed it with flying colors. He was so brave and kind, his will was unwavering, and they had snuffed him out.
It was intolerable. How could anyone do that? To actively hunt down someone to kill them. The thought should have been unthinkable; the thought of doing that to an eleven year old colt should never have been even considered. No creature in the Order save the Geist himself took to killing others, and even the Geist did not attack colts and fillies, with the only goal of killing them. He'd always have another end in mind.
Her ears perked up as the sounds of muffled steps echoed from the front of the cave. They weren't from the Order if they were they wouldn't have tried to so hide their presence. Doubtless the owners of these steps were trying to hide. Those that had come for her must have been the best of their class in terms of stealth. She doubted that she would have been able to detect them if she still had her eyes. She however had been relying on her sense of hearing and smell for nearly four hundred years. She could hear every drop form the stalagmites. Ever creature that lived and scurried in the depths of the cave that was her home.
There were three of them. They were moving quietly, thoughtfully, and quickly though the cavern above. She could hear their every step. They had come into her domain and here they would stay. She may have been without her eyes but she still her venom and her shear physical power. She also knew every crevasse of her cave, and she knew where they were. Things they did not know.
She stalked through the cave, moving slowly and quickly, as she could to her prey. She lay and wait in a niche which was hidden from anyone coming from around the corner. She lay and wait channeling all of her hate for these SMILE agents, they weren't even ponies at this point. No they lost that right when they killed Leather Wing. Now she'd pay SMILE back body for body. The first of the three agents had just come around the corner.
She lunged out snakes hissing her righteous fury. The SMILE agent turned just in time to have Statue Maker's fangs fall into her throat. Her fangs finding their way into the vein she needed. It took less than five minutes for the blood to course through the entire body. This SMILE mare however had been bitten on the jugular vein, the potent venom rushing straight to her heart. She only managed a gargled scream before the venom reached her heart throwing her heart into arrest. She would be dead with in seconds.
The next SMILE agent was already rounding the corner as his comrade fell to the ground, already suffering from cardiac arrest. He swung at her with a blade of some kind. She heard the swoosh as it cut through the air. She pulled back from the blade and slithered around as the blade went from a swing to a thrust. Her powerful fore hooves coming down on the sp1ot he had just been occupying.
He was quick to jump around her as her hooves created a crater in the floor of the cave the sound booming though the cave like thunder. She responded quickly her tail swinging around his neck. She was quick about it no taunting, no mocking, no demanding they explain themselves. The sound of the vertebrates twisting in ways they weren't suppose to was quickly followed by a sickening snap.
The last one was around had just leaped out of the corner as his limp body join his already dead comrade on the ground Statue Maker turned ready to strike this new mare down. However she had just finished turning toward the last of her foes, as an alabaster spear was plunged into her chest and pierced her heart.
"No." her hair hissed in defiance to her once long and eagerly awaited death. "Not until the last of you murderers are dead." The mare twisted the spear in the gorgony's chest. Statue Maker screamed as she fell further down on the spear.
"You're the murderer monster."
"Monster. I've not killed foals yet your agency killed a bat pony colt and his parents, and you'd call me a monster." She spat back at the mare.
"SMILE does not kill foals not even bat ponies."
"Liar!" the spear was twisted again. "Leather Wing I'm sorry I'm sorry." She whimpered as she tried pull herself closer to the last SMILE agent. "Leather Wing."
"Who is Leather Wing?" the SMILE agent asked.
"The one you killed!"
"SMILE does not kill foals." The mare said her conviction still firm. "However I will look into this, and if one of our own committed this crime then they will know justice." Statue Maker paused at the SMILE agents promise.
"Why did you say that?" She asked. "Why I'm already dead you needn't to lie, so why?"
"Because I believe in justice and we do not attack foals. and I swear to you if that order was given it will be punished. Now rest in peace."
"What's your name?" She asked as the last of the snakes that comprised her mane fell limp.
"Bon Bon."
"I pray that the Geist does not find you Bon Bon." She lifted her head up as though she were gazing into the sky. "Leather Wing," She gasped. "My baby," Bon Bon barely heard the whisper. "He so handsome." She started to shack, if she were still able to cry she would have shed tears. "He knows...his mother's...name."