The Royal Statue Garden had been built by Queen Sunbeam a few years after my mother was born. It was a large area full of winding paths and surrounded by a wall of tall hedges. Statues were laid in the miniature gardens planted all along the paths and by the walls. The statues were of famous war generals standing proud and tall, queens in different regal poses, and heroes of El Turnia wielding spears or striking down enemies. The were even a few of my mother and father standing together and smiling and strangely enough there was one of Time Warper that seemed to be in the middle of striding around in his aloof way, it also perfectly depicted his stupid face with 100% accuracy. But in the middle of the garden was the strangest statue I had ever seen.

"So... are you telling me that is Lunacy?" I said pointing my hoof towards the statue.

It was of Lunacy, of course. She had her arms outstretched, her claws unsheathed, and her forked tongue visible between her long fangs. Her long figure was completely encased in stone giving her the resemblance of well.... a statue. Christilia nodded.

"Yes." she replied. "The Tokens encased her in stone, I don't know how, though."

Four unicorn guards had been stationed in around the middle of the garden and had created a shimmering blue force field that contained the stone dragonequus. They were standing still but I could see they would fidget nervously every now and then as if the expected Lunacy to burst out and kill them at any second.

I shivered as a cold breeze swept over the garden, rustling the hedges. It had stopped snowing as we left the hospital and now it was just plain cold. I winced slightly as the freezing breeze touched my neck. A few days ago the nurses had let me take my bandages off and I had finally seen what Lunacy had done. Most of the skin had grown back but my white coat would never grow there again, so I was left with five long scars on the back of my neck.

It's not too bad, at least I'm not half blind...

I glanced over at Christilia and felt a pang of sympathy. I wanted to wrap my hoof around her comfortingly, but I wasn't really sure how she would react to that. As I stared nervously at the statue a new thought hit me like a bolt of lightning. A very, very absolutely terrifying bolt of lightning.

What if she escapes?

I trusted the Tokens of Peace and all but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was bound to be able to break out of that stone prison in no time.

"Are you sure this is the safest way to keep her in 'locked up' ?" I asked Christilia.

"Well the Tokens trapped her in stone and I'm not exactly open to the idea of breaking that stone even for a second just to put her somewhere else that may or may not be safer." she replied with alarming calmness in her voice as if she wasn't at the least worried about it.

Well maybe I'm just paranoid then....

I rustled my wings anxiously and stared down at my hooves.

This place creeps me out. I really don't know why we have statues, their just still and silent and.... weird.

I shuffled my hooves stirring up the gravel path and watched the dust swirl away into the grey winter sky. I shot a glance at Christilia but she was staring vaguely off into nothingness.

"Sooo... should we head back inside?" I said braking the silence. "I need to get... uh ready to be queen again right...?"

She didn't respond. But I could see different emotions flit across her face annoyed, angry, sad, understanding, and then back to annoyed again.

What is going on with her? It's like she's talking to someone in her head. Weird.....

"Christilia?" I whispered, leaning my head forwards to look at her.

She gave a start and blinked several times. She shook her head rustling her mane and turned to me.

"Mmm wha?"

She sounded as if she had just woken up from a sudden nap. I sighed.

"Should we go back inside?"

"Oh.... yeah right.... inside." she said. "Let's go."

She spun around and headed back towards the large oak doors at the end of the path. I trotted after her. She opened the doors, didn't remember to keep them open and accidentally slammed them into my face.

"Hey! Watch it!" I growled.

I swung the doors back open again and was greeted by a very drafty set of stone castle steps that spiraled up into.... I didn't actually know what and I hadn't bothered to look at up at I was entering earlier. I spotted Christilia's tail flick out of sight at the first bend and followed. The steps were cold and small and went on for a very long time. It was pretty dark inside what I guessed was a tower of some sort.

It's probably evening already....

The air was very thin down here and it was growing quite stuffy and equally uncomfortable.

"Christilia!" I shouted.

But all I could her was the echo of my voice bouncing back to me off the grey walls.

Where did she go!?

"UP HERE!" she suddenly shouted from somewhere above.

I groaned and kept walking up the flight of steps. A few heartbeats later I bonked my head on something hard and yelped.

"What the?" I growled.

I'd reached the top the staircase.

Finally!

Above me there was a stone ceiling and in the middle of that, a wooden trapdoor.

Ok then...

I pushed on the wood. The door suddenly swung down revealing a little patch of grey sky. Christilia's face popped into view.

"There you are." she said cooly. "I thought you'd never make it. Come on, fly up."

I obliged and spread my wings. I lifted up through the door squeezing my wing in a bit when it got tight and scrambled on the stone surface above. I lay there and panted. I pulled myself up and took in the view. We were at the top of a tower that overlooked the palace courtyard to east and to the west with the little statue garden with the guarded stone Lunacy. Then beyond the castle walls there was the rolling fields and the mountains with their border of forests and the distant cities and the whole kingdom of El Turnia! Even in winter with the browning grass, the leafless skeletal trees, and the piles of white snow.... it was beautiful. I inhaled the sharp winter air and managed a smile. I turned to Christilia she stood elegantly poised looking out the distant sunset. I followed her gaze and watched the sun sink below the far away shimmering sea. Christilia gave a little smile and closed her eyes. Her violet horn began to glow blue as she planted her hooves on the stone floor. I watched in awe as little white stars began to pop up all along the dark blue sky. They twinkled and seemed to say "Isn't it a wonderful night? Everything is perfect!" in their little sparkly way. I pale glow started to spread across the ground and a white shape began to rise slowly and steadily.

Oh! She's rising the moon!

Christilia gritted her teeth, the moon rose higher until it was floating in the starry sky. Christilia gasped as her horn went dark and she breathed a sigh of relief. I knew how she felt. Levitating a cup so you may drink from it is one thing rising the moon— a giant hunk of glowing rock—was another. I remembered when I was young I didn't understand why we had to rise the sun and moon even though my father had tried to tell me.

"Can I ask you's a question?" I had asked him one night sixteen years ago as I watched him raise the moon.

"Sure." he replied turning his gaze from the sky to me.

"Will I have to raise that?" I said and pointed my hoof at the moon.

"Maybe. But you will most likely raise the sun, like you mother does." he said smiling.

He always smiled when he talked about my mom.

"That's even harderer!" I exclaimed. "The suns too big... and hot! It would probably burned my horn off!"

He laughed. I frowned up at him.

"But whyyyyyyyyyyy??" I whined.

"But why what?"

"Why do we have to raise the sun aaaaaaand the moon!" I said grumpily.

"To keep our world in balance," he replied. "That's why the gods gave us our powers."

He glanced gratefully up at his light blue horn.

"Ok that makes sense." I lied.

At the time I hadn't really believed in "The Eliantians". The concept of our ancestors dying and their souls rising up into the stars where they became great powerful entities sounded pretty dumb to four year old me. And what about all the villains like Time Warper or Lamia? If there were dead did they become gods and get whatever 'mystical' powers came with being an Eliantian? Or was there some sort of dark maniacal underworld specifically for 'ponies' like them?