001

Hear...

I wasn't entirely sure how long I'd been trapped in stone. I only really "woke up" when other beings came near. It had been a long time though, that much was certain.

You probably want to know how I got there, what I did to deserve petrification and placement in Princess Celestia's little statue garden. To put it simply, I got in the way. I wasn't on bad terms with Equestria's royalty, back in the day. I was there when Discord turned Equestria into his little playground. Instead of trying to run or hide from the ugly bastard, I fought back. I engaged a god-tier being in combat with everything I had at my disposal to buy time for Celestia and Luna to pull a Deus Ex Machina. When they returned with the fabled Elements of Harmony, I made one last-ditch effort to keep Discord in place long enough for them to use the Elements.

The holy rainbow hit us both and left us imprisoned in stone.

I wasn't angry. I know Celestia and Luna had looked for a way to free me. The number of Royal Mages they sent to examine my still form proved that much. I was never directly told why I couldn't be freed, but if I had to guess I'd say my petrification was tied to Discord's. If he broke loose, so would I and vice versa. Once again, I wasn't angry about my situation. Instead, I was bored out of my skull most of the time I was awake. If it wasn't a boring tour guide come to wake me up, it was one of Celestia's personal students. That sort was a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them dismissed me as just a statue, while others used me as an outlet to talk about the troubles of their lives. The latter category always brought out my full attention. If those fillies and colts were going to pour their hearts out to me, the least I could do was be there to listen. Like that Sunset Shimmer filly. So many troubles, such a desire to grow in power and do her best... but she vanished from the face of Equis and was quickly replaced by Twilight Sparkle.

I shifted my focus from internal mutterings to the outside world. Even if my physical body was covered in rock, the magic of the Elements ensured that I could still see and hear. Oh, another tour group. This one had a purple mare with a smiling daisy for a talent mark at its lead. Another school field trip? I had to wonder which town this one came from. A few of Manehatten's school districts had been in last time and Baltimare's before that. If the teacher bothered mentioning me, or if one of the students noticed my statue, they'd likely get an extremely short introduction without any hint of what my actions had really done for Equestria. I know I told Celestia that I preferred to stay away from large crowds and awards ceremonies, but some recognition would have been nice at least!

"Oh ah know this one!" A young filly's voice piped up, drawing me out of my internal grumbling once more. I tilted my gaze down and found a yellow filly with an apple-red mane nearly bouncing in place as she grinned up at me. The pink bow in her mane was oddly familiar, but that was more likely coincidence than anything else.

"Puh-lease. What would a blank flank like you know about a statue in Canterlot?" This came from a pink filly wearing a jeweled tiara. Her attitude immediately marked her as the class bully, enough to set off my annoyance.

"Diamon Tiara, that is quite enough out of you! One more snide comment like that and you'll be serving detention. Apple Bloom, what can you tell us about this statue?" The teacher proved to be more effective at keeping her students in line than I initially thought.

"This here's Kikiru Kiru! She's the one who brought Chocobos to Equestria!" The yellow filly, Apple Bloom, was trembling in excitement as she introduced me. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting that part of my history to be the key selling point, but it was true. When I first arrived in Equestria, I'd been given a few extra items. Among those were a clutch of chocobo eggs.

"That's right, Apple Bloom. But Kikiru is also known as the Warrior of Light. Legend tells that she was able to draw upon the powers of ancient spirits to battle evil. Unfortunately, she was sealed in stone during the final battle with the next statue, Discord."

Ah, there we go. The whole "drawing upon the ancient spirits" thing was a bit of an exaggeration, but the rest was pretty spot on. I suppose it's time I gave the whole truth and a more proper introduction.

My name is Kikiru Kiru. Lalafell, Adventurer and former Human.

Oh? Did that last bit catch your attention?

The details are a bit fuzzy from a few thousand years or so of separation, but I have the gist of it still. I went to a big gaming convention dressed as a Summoner from Final Fantasy XIV. I wasn't going for any particular race or character scheme beyond the Summoner robes, mainly because I wanted to draw attention to the costume over the one wearing it. I had put my heart and soul into making it, spending weeks learning metalworking just to craft the fittings for the horn and wings. At the convention, I found myself drawn to a shady tent pitched in one of the back corners of the hall. It was well away from where the merchants were supposed to be and I guess that was what drew my curiosity.

Inside the tent was a man dressed up as a rather famous merchant from another video game. He even imitated the speech patterns of the character as I talked to him and browsed the store. All over the tent were replicas of weapons and miscellaneous items from various game series. More than a few Final Fantasy items were included in the inventory, but I looked past them to a crystal bottle with gilded fittings. I only had so much cash for the convention and a novelty drink, or at least the bottle it was in, were much closer to my price range. The merchant really made his sales pitch on it too, selling it as a bottle of Fantasia. For those who don't know, Fantasia is a legendary potion that can change the race, appearance, or even gender of the one who drinks it when they go to sleep after drinking it.

Well, the legends are true. Too, too true. I'd taken a small bet to actually drink the Fantasia just to earn some of the cash back from buying it. I'm not going to lie, it didn't taste that bad and the lack of immediate effects made me believe I was safe.

I awoke the next day in a new world, missing a few key features of my anatomy. Unfortunately, that wasn't all that the Fantasia did. It stole my original name from me, replacing it with a perfectly normal name for a little Lalafell girl.

Switching my focus to the outside again, I saw that the class had finished with Discord's statue and were moving on.

"Hehehehehe..."

I knew that laugh. I knew it all too well. If I was able to hear that laugh, then that meant...

Calling on the flow of Aetheric energies from the world around me, I flexed my magic and felt a grim satisfaction when my ancient prison exploded into shrapnel. I drew more power into myself from the atmosphere, then immediately focused my attention on Discord's prison. I knew I didn't have much time before he broke loose. There were already notable cracks on the white marble that entombed the draconequus. Without delay I pulled the heavy grimoire from my belt, cracking it open and smiling as a little crystal popped up to act as a guide for aiming any spells cast through it. I quickly flipped through the pages of the Grimoire and channeled my gathered magic in ways that the Equestrians could never quite duplicate. The thing to note about Summoners is that while they have a number of minions or pets they can call upon to fight for them, Summoners are a branch of the Arcanist. The big thing Arcanists are known for are their poison spells, which can significantly weaken a target over time if the spells are properly stacked. With Discord as vulnerable as he was, it was an easy matter to hit him with all of the lasting spells in my arsenal. Miasma, Bio, Biora (also called Bio II) and Virus. All of those spells combined would leave Discord heavily weakened when he did break free and buy me some time to speak to the Princesses.

Hopefully they hadn't been sitting idle these last few thousand years.

They had been sitting idle the last few thousand years.

The new Royal Guard was a joke compared to the united army I'd helped establish back in the days where Unicornia, Pegasopolis and Gaea were still separate nations. The new guards' golden armor wasn't even properly enchanted. At best, the guards were a glorified police force. I could only hope that the Adventurer's Guild hadn't fallen to the same fate.

I passed through the halls of Canterlot Castle undetected, following the currents of pony traffic until I at last found my way to the throne room. Making my way through the doors was a little more difficult, but still pretty easy when you didn't even come up to a stallion's chin in height.

When the doors were opened for the next petitioner, I slipped inside, hiding in the blind spot of one of the inner guards. It still amazed me how utterly blind ponies could be if they weren't actually looking for something. I paused in my hiding spot for a bit, staring up at the throne and the pony on it. There sat Princess Celestia, the white Alicorn Mare who I'd traveled the length and breadth of Equestria with, once upon a time. That was back before we properly attempted to unite the three countries, back when she was simply Celestia. Now, she seemed so tired on the throne, clearly forgetting the lessons of delegation I'd tried to teach her back when I set up the Adventurer's Guild. If Celestia's... heftier figure was anything to go by, she'd also forgotten about regular excercise too.

The petitioner's plea was over a small land dispute on the eastern edge of the Everfree Forest. Basically, they needed a final verdict and a small detachment of the Royal Guard to make sure the settlement went over peacefully. Once the petitioner's case had been made, I stepped out from my hiding spot, startling pretty much every pony in the room. Celestia's reaction was a bit odd though... was she glaring at me?

Then, I felt a shift in the Aetheric energies of the room. Of course Celestia would keep Unicorn guards in the throne room. They were the most versatile in close quarters thanks to the variety of spells they could learn. If Celestia was anything like what I remember, she'd have an attacker and a barrier specialist on duty. I turned on my heel, pulling the Veil of Wiyu from my belt and flicking my wrist to open the tome. I frowned as the pair let loose with their spells. The weak bolts of light wouldn't be enough to singe my robes, let alone stun or stop me. Were these really all that Celestia had to offer these days? How did she expect to re-seal Discord without the assistance of her Guard to keep the Lord of Chaos distracted?

"You know, this isn't the warm welcome I expected," I said with a deadpan expression, glancing over my shoulder at Celestia. "This also wasn't the state I expected to find Equestria in once I returned."

I turned fully to face the Princess, barely noticing the Royal Guards that kept flinging spells at my back, even when they were joined by the outer throne room guards. I began to walk down the Princess's fancy red carpet as I made my complaints well known.

"Your security is weak. I was able to enter the castle and make it all the way here without being noticed until I openly revealed myself. The very fact that you run a court like this means that you didn't take a single lesson I taught you about politics to heart. On top of that, you've let the Royal Guards fall from being an elite army to little more than buzzing flies!"

After a brief second to focus, I flung my arm backward indiscriminately, binding all of the Royal Guards in place with the Summoner's trademark "Tri-Disaster" spell. I heard the collapse of all four guards and suppressed a wince. If I could knock them out with Tri-Disaster, especially when I wasn't channeling through the Veil of Wiyu, that meant the Royal Guard was weaker than I'd thought.

"Now," I said, finally arriving at the foot of Celestia's throne. "What do you have to say for yourself, lady?"

"You aren't supposed to be here, Kikiru."

My world froze. I was expecting her to be happy to see me, or at least curious as to why I had finally shown back up. Instead, she had coldly dismissed me. That... that wasn't right. That wasn't the Celestia I remember.

"You're right, Celestia. I'm not. I was supposed to be dead ages ago after growing old and passing on all of my knowledge to the next generation of adventurers. Discord and the Elements of Harmony put a rather big damper on those plans though, in case you forgot," I replied with the same flat tone she'd used on me. I stepped back from the throne and shook my head. "Maybe Luna will be a bit more accommodating, since you seem dead-set on being a cold, unfriendly bi-"

"If you take so much as one step near my sister, I will personally cast you into the sun!" Celestia shouted as her eyes changed color from magenta to gold, the sign that she was a hair off of activating her Solar Wrath form.

It was taking all of my conscious effort not to break down crying at the harsh treatment from one of my oldest friends. I wasn't sure what had changed over the years, but this Celestia wasn't the same pony I'd once fought side by side with. In fact, she seemed dead-set on treating me like another threat to Equestria, but I didn't know why. What had I done to deserve such treatment? I mean, yeah, I'd wrecked her pathetic guards, but we both knew that I wasn't even using a shred of my real power to do so.

There was nothing I could do to change her mind like this, not until I had more information on what could have happened during my time trapped in stone. At the very least, I could still fulfill my original objective.

"Discord's prison has already cracked. I hit him with the usual line of spells to soften him up a bit for you, but that's only a stalling method. If this is how you're going to treat me, then he's your problem to deal with now," I said plainly, trying to contain my emotions until I could properly address them. With a snap of my fingers, I activated Swiftcast. It was an odd ability, technically drawn from another Adventuring Job, but usable and useful for Summoner. Swiftcast nullified any channeling time for the next spell cast. It even worked on Aetherial Teleports, allowing me to instantly travel a fair distance across Equestria in the blink of an eye. I didn't even have time to double-check my destination list, I just used the first one that came to mind.

Upon arrival, I immediately fell to my knees and wept.

I sat before the glowing blue crystal, the only thing in my new surroundings with any sign of life. It was known as an Aetheryte, a magical construct that linked to other crystals of the same type to allow for easy teleportation without straining the user's magic. For some reason, an active Aetheryte was in the ruins of a castle I didn't recognize. It made me wonder just when I'd added this Aetheryte to my personal network and why it hadn't been moved or destroyed when Celestia changed castles.

Celestia... the thought of her filled me with sorrow again. Just what had happened to make her act like this? Not once in my memory had Celestia and I had an argument before then. The castle probably wouldn't have any clues, it was pretty clearly abandoned long ago. If I had to guess, it was the original castle the Princesses had made. The castle had been constructed at the point where all three of the old nations' borders intersected as a sign of unity, a shift from the divided nations to one whole Equestria.

I slowly picked myself up off the floor and began wandering. This was where both Discord and my statues resided originally, even if my memory of those times were still somewhat fuzzy. Slipping through dusty corridors like a lonely ghost, I tried to imagine what the place must have looked like back when ponies lived there.

"Was it worth it, to come back?" I asked aloud. I don't know why I chose to speak, but it felt right, to just let the words and my emotions fade into the silence. "Everyone except the Princesses are dead by now. Celestia's turned on me and I bet Luna's following the trend. I have nothing to work towards! Not the Guild, not my Chocobos... what's the point?!"

Part of me knew that it would be a simple matter to find something new to live for, to make new goals and push myself to new heights of power and skill. Maybe it was time to leave Equestria entirely. There had to be one or two Elder Dragons still alive that might remember me at least. Yet... I couldn't just abandon Equestria. At least, not until I was sure Discord had been re-sealed. Whether I particularly liked it or not, my fate had long been intertwined with the Draconequus.

I took a deep breath and went in search of a mirror. If I was going to face Discord, then at least I'd go into battle looking my best.

It took longer than I liked to find a serviceable piece. I spent a while just staring at my own reflection, wondering once more just when the face staring back had really become my own and not a stranger's. My features were fairly common for a Dunesfolk Lalafell, with a childlike rounded face , long ears that slowly curved into a soft point and a small dusting of freckles across my cheeks. I couldn't help but wince at how dull and dead my normally bright green eyes looked, but I'd always had trouble fully masking my tiredness or emotions. Without further ado, I found a side room and focused my powers inward.

There was a flare of light around my body and I felt shifting weight as objects disappeared and manifested on me. I looked down to make sure that the change had gone to plan, and let out a short sigh of relief when I saw a familiar set of white robes. That was the truth of my abilities, the reason why the schoolteacher claimed I could "draw upon ancient spirits". Over the course of my time in Equestria I had discovered a number of "Soul Crystals", each containing the powers and souls of a specific "Job". When I first arrived in Equestria I had the Summoner Soul Crystal, but managed to find three more through my various adventures. One of the souls belonged to the White Mage, which was primarily a healer but also could manipulate certain elemental forces. Fortunately for me, one of those elements was Water.

I quickly stripped out of the robes and left them in a neat pile nearby, then braced myself for what was to come. Holding the white-winged Thyrus staff in hand, I called upon the Elements to pour a large amount of water over my head.

I was fairly sure my screams could be heard from Canterlot.

When I'd finished my makeshift bath, I used the White Mage's Aero spell to quickly dry myself off, then Job Changed back to Summoner. The White Mage Robes and Thyrus vanished from their resting places and I was immediately dressed and armed again. For one final touch, I pulled my blonde hair up into a messy ponytail, mostly so it wouldn't get all over my face in the middle of combat.

"Okay, Kikiru, you're ready," I said aloud, staring into the mirror one more time.

Discord was undoubtedly free by now and creating as much chaos as possible to make up for lost time. With any luck my spells had weakened him to a manageable level, but Discord had always been a difficult bastard to pin down. A few poisons likely wouldn't make too much of a difference. I could only hope that the Elements of Harmony were close by this time, since I wasn't sure I could handle another drawn-out fight with the Lord of Chaos.

There was only one way to find out. Only one way to end this.

I focused my magic and Teleported.

Author's Notes:

Yeah, it's a Displaced Story. Was it the one I originally intended to write? No. Not by a long shot. For some reason, Kikiru just wanted to be written and here we are. Don't worry, the reasons for Celestia's coldness will be explained in due time.
For anyone who's played FFXIV, Kikiru's effectively level 50 with all of her Jobs and has the bottom tier of her Relic Weapon. She's strong, but not even close to the peak of power.
Useful Terms
Fantasia: A potion that changes the race, appearance, or even gender of the one who drinks it. These are extremely rare and difficult to brew, however.
Summoner: Summoners are a Damage Job and one of the two branches of the Arcanist. Like the Arcanist, they have access to a number of "Damage over Time" spells, but their real power comes from the pets they can summon. Their Relic Weapon is a Grimoire known as the Veil of Wiyu.
White Mage: White Mages are a Healer Job and a direct upgrade to the Conjurer. They maintain the Conjurer's control of Water, Earth and Wind, but can also heal dire wounds or even resurrect recently-fallen allies. Their Relic Weapon is a Staff known as Thyrus.
Chocobo: Chocobos are flightless birds commonly used as beasts of burden and mounts in Eorzea. They were first brought to Equestria by Kikiru and fill a similar role. Chocobos are surprisingly intelligent and easily trained by anyone with a skilled hand... and plenty of snacks.