Knox, the janitor at the School of Friendship, had to go through a horrible experience involving the events of "School Daze." Now, he's out for vengeance. What exactly is his plan, and how far is he willing to go to execute it?
This story is an alternate version of The Night Janitor, in which Knox decides to seek his revenge. The time for his vengeance is near, but just how far is he willing to go in order to succeed?
[This story was originally written by me as an entry for the "Villains of Equestria Challenge" on the Equestria Unofficial Fan Club Amino through the Amino app.]
This is the twisted tale of a lonely, charcoal-gray unicorn. He works as the underappreciated janitor at the School of Friendship. He arrives on campus after all the faculty and staff have left every night, and he departs before they return every morning. That's why most of the students simply refer to him as "the night janitor." Tonight, he was once again being tormented by memories of a time just a couple years ago. It was a time when he'd had a friend. Somepony had truly appreciated him. That friend... was named Cozy Glow.
He and Cozy had met after hours one night, and the two of them had become very close. That is, they were close before Cozy tried to take over the school. If that wasn't bad enough, Cozy had been thrown in Tartarus for her crimes. His only friend had been taken away from him. Even worse, Cozy had been freed from Tartarus only to be defeated again and turned to stone.
He never forgave the six students responsible for Cozy's defeat. He most certainly never forgave his nation's new "leader," Twilight Sparkle. In fact, he had been formulating a plan for revenge over the past few months.
The next day, he put his plan into motion. The first step was simple: he came to work early. He made sure he arrived in between class periods. That way, he had less chance of running into one of those six students he loathed with such burning fury. He didn't know what he'd do if he came across them, but he knew it'd be counterproductive to his plan. He checked in with Starlight Glimmer, the new headmare, so that she was aware of his presence. Then, he simply roamed the halls waiting for the right opportunity.
The perfect chance came when he came across Rarity and Pinkie Pie, two of the princess' close friends, in the maze of sprawling corridors. For his plan to work, he needed to make friends with these two, so he quickly approached the duo.
"Hi," he started, "I'm Knox."
"Hello, darling. Rarity," the white unicorn offered a hoof to shake. "A pleasure."
"Hey Knox!" said Pinkie Pie. "Wait... I don't think I've seen you before."
She slowly circled around Knox, as if trying to find proof of her claim.
"You must be Pinkie Pie," said Knox nervously. "I've heard a lot about your... eccentricities."
"Really?" she asked in reply. "Oh, this is horrible! You know all about me, but I know nothing about you!"
She paused for a moment as if contemplating something deeply. After a few seconds, she gasped dramatically and broke out in a large smile.
"I've got an idea! Wanna be friends?"
Knox let out a light chuckle at the absurdity of the dramatic scene he'd just witnessed.
"Sure, Pinkie," he responded. "I'd love to be friends."
'One down,' he thought to himself. 'That was easier than I thought.'
He then turned his attention to Rarity, who had been patiently waiting for a pause in Pinkie's insanity.
"Well," she said, "any friend of Pinkie is a friend of mine."
"Wow..." Knox hadn't expected it to be nearly that easy. "That would be great!"
Over the next few days, he spent some time with Pinkie and Rarity. He made sure they were doing things that the mares would find enjoyable. For instance, he went shopping with Rarity and attended some of Pinkie Pie's parties. Today, though, he'd been tasked with keeping Pinkie from finding out about a party her friends were planning for her. It wasn't her birthday or anything, but Rarity and their other friends had been planning on throwing her a party out of appreciation.
Knox hadn't wanted to except the task, but it was the first favor Rarity had asked of him. If he did it, he'd successfully strengthen their "friendship."
Knox had spent most of the day with Pinkie already, but she'd somehow slipped away from him. He spent at least an hour running around Ponyville, desperately searching for his "friend." After his search, he returned to Sugarcube Corner. That's where they'd been spending the day for the most part.
He was only there for three minutes before Pinkie Pie went barreling past him, crying her eyes out, and ran up the stairs.
"Oh, please don't tell me I have to go cheer her up," he said aloud to nopony in particular. Although nopony told him, he knew he'd have to do it anyways. He hesitantly followed the usually overly happy earth pony up the stairs. When he arrived at Pinkie's loft, he was startled by the lack of pink earth ponies in the room. Pinkie wasn't there. In fact, the only living creature occupying the space was Gummy, Pinkie's pet alligator. Where could she have gone?
"I hope nopony spoiled her surprise," Knox said to himself as he turned to return to the ground floor. However, his flank bumped against Pinkie's cupcake decoration as he was descending. This caused a surprisingly loud noise behind Knox. When he turned around once again, he was shocked to find that the floor had given way in the loft. It was a secret door!
"Why am I not surprised," he mumbled to himself as he jumped down into the opening on the floor. He was quickly sent careening down a slide into the darkness below.
He skid to a halt as he reached the bottom of the slide. The scene he discovered below was not what he’d expected. He had heard from Rarity about Pinkie’s party planning cave, but the room he was now in seemed to emanate a sense of pure dread. The source of this feeling was not the room itself, but instead the figure lying prone in the middle of the room. Rarity had warned Knox of how Pinkie got when she was extremely upset, so he wasn’t entirely surprised by the completely straight mane that was draped over the sides of her face. He was hesitant to cheer her up, but he had to stick to the plan. At least, for now he did.
“Pinkie,” he said as he approached her. “What’s wrong?”
“My friends are what’s wrong,” she stated as she opened her eyes.
Knox saw the fiery rage that was burned into her usually happy gaze. Something happened in that moment that Knox never would’ve expected. He saw that startlingly hate-filled look in her eye, and he was instantly enamored with her. That rage was the same as that which he felt when thinking of his tragic past. At this moment, she was just like him.
Regretfully, he knew it couldn’t last. His plan was the most important thing right now, and he couldn’t put its success in jeopardy for anything… not even love. He spoke in a calming tone, so as not to upset her further.
“What did your friends do?”
“They’ve been avoiding me all day!” she yelled. “And they’ve been lying to me about something! Well, guess what? Two can play that game! I’m gonna start hiding things from them! See how they like it!”
“Pinkie…” he let out an exasperated sigh before continuing. “I know what your friends are hiding from you.”
“You… do?”
“Yes, and all I can tell you is that you’ll find out later today. But nopony can tell you the secret if you’re like this. You’ve gotta calm down. OK?”
She breathed deeply a few times. With each breath, she looked happier, and the rage faded from her eyes.
“OK,” she said once her mane began to return to its natural, poofy state.
“Now, can you tell me what the heck that was?” asked Knox, genuinely curious.
“I don’t really know,” replied Pinkie. “Whenever I get like that, it’s like I’m a completely different pony.”
“Well, do you have some way of knowing when you do it?”
“Nope. I guess it just sort of... happens.”
“How about this. Pinkie is a nickname, right?”
“Yeah, it’s short for Pinkamena.”
“Well, then, how about I call you Pinkamena whenever you get like that. That way, you’ll be able to tell!”
“Hmmm… I like it! Well, I don’t mean I like being Pinkamena. Honestly, it’s like being a completely different pony! She’s everything I’m not! Angry, vengeful, clinically depressed…”
After more conversation about Pinkie’s alter ego, Knox concluded that he had to modify his plan slightly. In fact, the new additions had made his plan even better!
A few days later, he found himself in Carousel Boutique. He was currently being used as a living mannequin for a new suit Rarity was sewing.
“What do you think the world would be like if you could make ponies act like the opposite of who they truly are?” he asked, seemingly out of the blue.
“Well, that’s a fairly odd question, isn’t it?” Rarity said.
“But it’s not. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Asking myself who I would use that ability on. I mean, I could even reform villains with a power like that! Dethrone corrupt rulers! Get rid of school bullies! Robbers beware: you’ll be cops by the break of dawn!”
“Well, while that is true, it would take a very powerful magic to do something like that. I don’t even think Twilight is skilled enough in magic to pull that off. It would probably take some kind of relic.”
‘That’s all I needed to hear,’ he thought to himself before quickly changing the subject.
The next day, he asked Pinkie Pie if she would do him a favor. She eagerly jumped at the chance to help out her friend. Within a matter of hours, the two were searching the library in Canterlot for books on ancient relics. Eventually, they found one of interest. Within the pages of the tome, Knox found information about a relic known as the Talisman of Mirage. According to the book, the talisman could reverse the personality of a pony. Whoever’s personality was to be affected had to be looking at their reflection in the jewel on the talisman. The talisman should then be charged with magical energy, and the reversal will occur. This was perfect! The only problem was that the book didn’t say where to find the changeling artifact!
“The Talisman of Mirage?” questioned Pinkie, who’d been reading over Knox’s shoulder without him knowing. “Isn’t that one of the artifacts Cozy Glow used to absorb all the magic?”
“Wait, what? You mean it’s at the school?” Knox nearly yelled, completely shocked by this new revelation.
“Yeah, it’s in the vault!”
This was only the second step of his plan, but it was working perfectly so far! Now, he just had to keep up his friendship charade for long enough that Pinkie didn’t see his plan coming.
A few weeks later, he finally felt he was good enough friends with Pinkie to work on the next step of his plan. His friendship with Rarity had certainly taken a back seat, for he’d been getting much more useful information out of Pinkie.
“Hey, I’ve been wondering,” he said to his so-called friend. “How did Cozy, Tirek, and Chrysalis try to take over?”
“You don’t know?” Pinkie asked in response. “They used Grogar’s bewitching bell to power themselves up and drain the princesses and Discord of magic.”
Of course, he’d already known this. He simply had to divert suspicion towards his next question.
“So, what happened to the bewitching bell?”
“I’m pretty sure Twilight locked it away in the caves beneath Canterlot. That way, nopony would be able to get to it. At least, not easily, anyways.”
“But where did those villains even hide? How did you not know they’d all returned?”
“Well, you see, they had a secret lair. Twilight and the rest of us searched for it for quite a while, but we never found it.”
This was very interesting information indeed. He’d have to keep that in mind.
Chapter 8: A Heist/Adventure Story (With A Dash Of Math)
Over the past few weeks, he’d been tripping the alarm for the School of Friendship’s vault every night. Eventually, Starlight Glimmer stopped responding to the nightly “glitch” in the security system. Now, after a few days without Starlight Glimmer checking on the vault, Knox simply walked in, grabbed the Talisman of Mirage, and walked out.
He wasn’t ready to use the artifact yet, so he hid it in his closet at home. Then, he set out on a quest to find Grogar’s lair. Using small bits of information he gathered from civilians of different cities, he was able to map out where the villains had been. That way, he could triangulate the position of the lair with ease. It was simple mathematics. Through this process, he narrowed down the location to only a few square miles.
He spent hours searching, but eventually came across the structure he’d been searching for. After a thorough search, the only items of interest that he’d found were a strangely-colored purple log and an instruction manual for the bewitching bell. He took them both back to Ponyville with him. He read through the manual very thoroughly before adding the two items to the slowly growing stash in his closet.
The next step of his plan would be harder. He had to find a way into the caves beneath Canterlot. After asking the members of the royal guards some key questions, he found he was mistaken. This part had actually been very easy. The guards told him where the opening to the caves was, so all he had to do was go down and retrieve the bell. He tied a rope to his leg, and tied the other end to a nearby stalactite. Then, he went spelunking into the caves below. He made his way through the winding tunnels and eventually found what he’d been looking for. He carefully used his magic to pick the lock holding the bell in place. This was his special talent: he was an expert on all things security, and he knew how to disable or trick any security system he came across. That’s how he’d known how to trip the vault’s alarm without putting himself in actual danger of being discovered. A few minutes later, he came walking casually out of the caves with yet another addition to his secret stash.
Once he was home, he looked at the selection of items he’d collected. This was all he needed to finally take action and get revenge on Twilight Sparkle! He grabbed the bewitching bell and the Talisman of Mirage, and he once again set out to enact the next step of his master plan.
It wasn’t long after that when he arrived at the Treehouse. The Treehouse was actually the Tree of Harmony, given new life by the students who’d ruined his. He jumped into the sparkling, crystalline structure through a window. Then, his first step to the Treehouse takeover was underway. He closed his eyes, held out the Talisman of Mirage, and charged it with magical energy as he heard the infuriated squawking of a cockatrice. When the squawking stopped, he slowly opened his eyes. He saw that Edith, the cockatrice he’d heard lived in the treehouse, was now nuzzling itself against Knox’s leg. This would be easier than he’d thought. He’d also heard that the Tree had begun showing itself as a spectral form, but he still jumped in surprise when he saw a shimmering carbon copy of Twilight Sparkle standing behind him.
“What are you doing here?” the figure asked dramatically. “You don’t have pure intentions! You must go!”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” replied Knox ominously. “The thing about giving yourself a pony form… is that ponies have eyes. Now, so do you!”
He held up the Talisman of Mirage once again and used it on the unsuspecting spirit. He watched a grisly scene unfold as the mansion of crystal around him slowly took on a red hue. Jagged spikes formed around the floor, creating twisted pedestals of sorts. Six of them. The spirit of harmony now looked at Knox with a wicked grin.
“What do you need me to do?” it asked.
“Get them here. Pretend you’re in danger.”
“As you wish.”
In just a few short hours, the students who'd’ ruined Knox’s life arrived at the twisted Treehouse. Knox could hear gasps of shock and horror from outside as they gazed upon what had once been their testament to their friendship. The students entered slowly, then split up to cover more ground. Knox leaned down towards Edith and quietly whispered “Everycreature except the changeling.”
Edith flew off into the Treehouse while Knox tried to discern which direction Ocellus had gone.
One by one, Edith found her former friends. Gallus, Smolder, Silverstream, Yona, Sandbar: all of them were now stone.
Edith called out to signal Knox. That’s when his part of the plan began. He carefully worked his way through the Treehouse until he had gathered all of the statues on the pedestals. When he turned towards the main corridor after placing Smolder’s statue, he found himself face-to-face with Ocellus, the changeling.
“Ah, Ocellus! It’s great to see you!”
“What have you done to my friends?” she asked, voice quaking with fear.
“Why, whatever do you mean? I didn’t do anything to them. My allies, on the other hand.” He slowly looked to his left and right. As Ocellus followed his gaze, she was horrified to see Edith and the Treehouse’s spirit standing supportively to either side of Knox.
“I had no use for your friends,” he continued, “but I’m going to give you an offer. I have use for your skills if you join me.”
“And what if I refuse?” she asked, anger rising in her voice.
“Well, it’s really quite simple. If you don’t join me,” he paused dramatically, “I’ll make you join me.”
Ocellus screamed in terror as she ran away from the three menacing figures, but Knox powered up the Talisman of Mirage, which he’d strategically placed in the corridor Ocellus had just run down. Ocellus screeched to a halt as she looked into the talisman’s jewel. She let out a scream of unbridled terror as her entire psyche flipped inside out. She was suddenly overcome with the desire to follow Knox’s orders. As long as it supplied her with love to steal, that is.
Knox was honestly shocked when Ocellus came back through the corridor. He hadn’t expected any physical changes, but here came Ocellus. She looked like a villainous changeling, one that had never metamorphosed.
Chapter 11: Fear Turns To Obedience, Hatred Turns To Love
Overall, things were going well. His next stop, after leaving Edith and the spirit to protect their new lair, was Sugarcube Corner. He’d been extremely excited for this part. He’d almost skipped the Treehouse takeover, but he needed Ocellus’ assistance for this to work. Otherwise, other ponies would realise something was wrong. As he’d expected, Pinkie was in her loft. He had Ocellus wait on the ground floor so that Pinkie wouldn’t see this betrayal coming.
“Hey, Pinkie, check this out,” he said as he arrived in the loft. “I made an exact replica of that talisman we were researching a while back! Check out this detail.”
He held up the Talisman of Mirage for Pinkie to see.
“Wow! That’s pretty cool, Knox!” she said as she looked closely into the jewel. “You know, I’m so glad we’re friends. We always have such interesting conversations!”
“Yeah… about that. We’re not friends. I can’t stand you, and I plan to betray you the first chance I get.”
Pinkie froze with shock at the bluntness of what she’d just heard. Then, she gasped with dawning realization and grabbed the talisman out of the air.
“How could you?” she yelled as she attempted to escape down into her party planning cave.
However, Knox quickly followed, saying “You really think I’d be that obvious in my plans, Pinkie? You think I’d just show you the real Talisman of Mirage?”
Pinkie froze again at the far end of her cave.
“What do you mean? Of course you did! You were gonna use it on me!”
“Now, why would I do that and risk you stealing it from me?” he was speaking in an even tone so as not to give Pinkie any hints as to what he was planning.
“If you don’t believe me,” he continued. “check the jewel. The actual talisman has a perfectly clear jewel, while my fake one has a cloudy gem.”
“Wait, what?” she said in disbelief as she gazed into the perfectly clear and reflective gem on the talisman she held.
Knox seized the moment to empower the talisman with magic.
Pinkie’s coat seemed to darken in color as her hair fell in perfectly straight locks against the sides of her face. She fell to the floor with a pained groan. Knox would’ve simply used the talisman when Pinkie had first looked, but he had to make her hate him first. That way, that would be flipped as well. He slowly approached the dimly colored earth pony and began to stroke her perfectly straight mane soothingly.
Eventually, Pinkamena recovered from her life-changing (literally) experience, and the two of them went to meet Ocellus down in the bakery.
“Ooo…” said Pinkamena in a pleased tone, “You got Ocellus, too, my dear?”
Knox proceeded to give Ocellus a simple order: “Be Pinkie Pie. There’s plenty of love in it for you.”
“Of course, my king,” Ocellus hissed in reply. She then turned into Pinkie Pie as she had once been and went up to her loft. This way, nopony would be suspicious of Pinkie's disappearance.
It was then that the spirit of harmony appeared before them.
Pinkamena accompanied Knox back to the Treehouse, where the Pillars of Equestria were trying to fend off an enraged cockatrice.
“All according to plan” Knox said as he pulled an object out of a nearby bush.
“Is that…” asked Pinkamena, “the bewitching bell?”
“Why, yes, my dear. It is.”
He walked up to the Pillars from behind.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, loud enough for the Pillars to hear.
“Stay back!” yelled Somnambula. “It’s too dangerous for civilians here!”
“Oh, really?” he questioned sarcastically. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m no civilian.”
The pillars looked over at him, very confused. A broad smile spread across his face as that familiar fiery vengeance burned in his eyes.
“I’m the villain.”
He held up the bewitching bell, aimed at the Pillars, and activated it with the spell he’d memorized.
He watched as the powerful magic of the most legendary heroes in Equestria was absorbed into the bell. Rockhoof shrank into a scrawny little pony, Flash Magnus and Somnambula fell from the sky, and even Starswirl fell prone after having all of his magical abilities stripped away from him.
They each looked up at the self-proclaimed villain in utter horror. Their faces turned from horror to surprise as Pinkamena came to Knox’s side and gave him a peck on the cheek.
“Excellent work, my dear,” she said.
“Pinkie Pie?” asked Somnambula, not believing what was unfolding before her eyes.
“Oh!” Pinkamena responded as she approached her former friend. “Somnambula, my dear, how have you been? Oh, it’s been so long. We really must take some time to catch up!”
“If that’s what you want, my dear,” said Knox, taking Pinkamena’s words to heart.
“Pinkie, please!” begged Somnambula. How ironic, the betrayal of one pony had reduced the element of hope to a grovelling mess.
“Edith!” called Knox, getting the attention of the completely subservient cockatrice.
Edith came to his side within moments. Pinkamena looked at the tamed cockatrice, thoroughly impressed with the skill displayed by her lover.
“Everypony except Somnambula,” Knox ordered.
Edith immediately got to work, and before long, Somnambula was the only pillar remaining. Knox began taking the statues inside the treehouse. The spirit of harmony had constructed more pedestals for the extra statues. It had made six more pedestals, so there were a total of two empty pedestals when all the statues were in place. Pinkamena, meanwhile, had been dragging Somnambula forcefully into the Treehouse. After a quick consultation with Knox, she pulled Somnambula onto one of the pedestals. The spirit used its influence to form a crystal cage around the powerless pegasus.
“This way, we’ll get to talk some more,” Pinkamena said with wide eyes and a wicked grin on her face. “Isn’t that great?”
Somnambula’s only response was breaking down crying.
“So…” said Pinkamena as she turned back towards Knox. “What’s next, my love?”
Knox, Pinkamena, and Edith headed to the train station and boarded the Friendship Express. Anypony who questioned them was turned to stone. They forced the conductor to take them to Canterlot, where they walked directly towards the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle. However, before they made it to the castle gates, they suddenly changed course and plunged into the castle labyrinth. It didn’t take long for them to find the statue they sought. Once they arrived, Knox turned the bewitching bell on himself. He powered up his own magic with the strength of the Pillars of Equestria and easily freed Cozy Glow from her stone prison.
Cozy fell to the ground with a startled yelp. When she saw Knox, she said “I knew you had it in you.”
She then looked towards Pinkamena. A look of horror crossed her face as she recognized Twilight’s friend. Pinkamena just smiled.
“Don’t worry,” said Knox. “She’s with us.”
Knox could practically see the gears turning in her little head as she tried to piece together what he’d done.
“The Talisman of Mirage!” she exclaimed as a look of realization crossed her face. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Well, do you wanna know what else you didn’t think of?” he asked.
“As long as I get something out of it,” she replied.
“If we succeed, we three will be the most powerful beings in Equestria.”
“While that sounds well and good,” said an unfamiliar voice from atop the hedge maze wall, “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
Knox already knew who was behind them, so he floated the bewitching bell directly behind where he expected the draconequus to be.
“Well, hello…” he turned towards the figure before continuing, “Discord.”
There he was, the lord of chaos, sitting atop the wall of the hedge maze.
“Now why in the world would somepony free this little brat?” asked Discord as he gestured towards Cozy. Shackles immediately formed around her legs, binding her to the ground.
“I mean, how stupid could you possibly be?” he continued.
“No more stupid,” retorted Knox, “then a draconequus who doesn’t look behind him.”
Before Discord could react, the bewitching bell was already draining his chaos magic in what looked like a very painful process.
The once powerful draconequus fell overtop the statue Cozy had once been a part of.
“Do it,” Knox said to Edith. The statue now had a new addition: a stone sculpture of a once villainous chaos god, draped over the backs of two horrible monsters and trapped in an eternal scream.
The time had come to storm the castle. Only one important step remained.
“Are you ready?” Knox asked as he turned the bewitching bell towards Pinkie.
“Absolutely, my love.”
Knox activated the bell and watched as Discord’s all-powerful chaos magic coursed into Pinkamena.
“You should be able to control it,” he said. “After all…”
Pinkamena interrupted as the unfamiliar magic flooded her body, “What’s more chaotic than a hostile takeover?”
Knox had been careful to not give Pinkamena all of Discord’s chaos magic for fear she’d be overcome by it.
As the power settled within Pinkamena, clouds formed above all of Canterlot. This was something she’d always wanted to do, even back when she was Pinkie Pie: chocolate rain.
The villains worked their way through the castle towards Twilight’s throne room. When they arrived in the main hall, Pinkie’s chaos magic made quick work of the guards. She then entered the throne room unhindered.
“Twilight, my old friend,” she said ominously to the princess.
“Pinkie? What’s wrong?” ask the princess with a worried tone. “I haven’t seen your hair straight since you stopped playing the yovidaphone.”
“Oh, nothing’s wrong, my dear. In fact, I’ve only come before you to ask a simple question.”
“OK.” The princess was obviously very suspicious of Pinkamena’s behavior. “What is it?”
“Who wants a cupcake?” Pinkamena said with a maniacal cackle and a wide, toothy smile.
At that moment, a giant cupcake materialized out of thin air and smashed the princess against the seat of her throne.
Knox then ran into the room and used the bewitching bell to drain the princess of magic. The princess, weak from the experience, eventually worked her way out from under the cupcake. She stood up in a proud pose, wing spread wide, and was about to give one of her famous “friendship always wins” speeches. However, Edith blindsided her and turned her to stone where she stood.
The last step was simple. The bewitching bell was turned towards Cozy Glow, and she was imbued with the alicorn magic of Princess Twilight Sparkle. Pinkamena was drained of some of her chaos magic, but she still had enough to cause chocolate rain from time to time. Then, the three villains proclaimed that they were the new rulers of Equestria.
Ironically, King Knox, Queen Pinkamena, and Princess Cozy were very just and fair rulers. The only evil they’d done was the actions involved in taking over. They even formed a long-standing friendship with the changelings, whose ruler had been overthrown by Ocellus, the new changeling queen. They would be ruling the nation, along with their pet cockatrice, for generations to come. The powerful magic they’d each absorbed kept them from growing old, so they were ruling the nation for centuries before their retirement.
As a display of their power, in order to deter possible rebellions, the public was permitted entry to the Treehouse Museum. The main display at the museum was a large circle of statues in the main room. There was a statue of a griffon cowering in fear trying to cover his eyes. There was a statue of a young yak charging forwards to attack. There was a statue of a young earth pony who seemed to simply be standing there with a blank stare. There was a statue of a dragon, and one of a hippogriff. There was a statue of a small, weak-looking pony lying prone on the ground. There was a statue that appeared to be of an old unicorn hag. Historical figures also had statues here, such as Mage Meadowbrook, Flash Magnus, and Starswirl the Bearded. Directly across from the door, there was a statue of a former leader. She was standing in a proud position with her wings spread wide.
The centerpiece of the display, however, was the most spine-chilling part of the grotesque scene. On a slightly higher pedestal than all the other statues, save the princess at the far end of the room, was a crystal cage containing a weak pegasus. She was kept in fairly healthy condition, and she was even permitted to stretch her legs within the confines of the Treehouse at least twice a week.
Her name was Somnambula, but the visitors often referred to her as “the Teller of Tales,” for her job was to tell the tale of their rulers and all the positive things they’ve done for the nation ever since their rise to power. The job she had chosen for herself, however, was to tell the truth about the evils that led to their rise to power.
Nopony ever believed her. They’d all been told she was imprisoned for crimes against Equestria. She knew she’d never be freed. She would be considered too dangerous. After all, she knew the truth. Eventually, though, she would grow old, and the rulers would have their pet cockatrice turn her to stone. She yearned for the day she would be reunited with her friends in an endless silence.
