For the next half hour my household sat in the garden with Marble Vein and her friends in my Equestria dreamscape.

Marble like many of the ponies who Scratch had either hired or invited to Silver Mirror Estate was a fascinating pony to talk to. If a bit eccentric in her ways.

Soon the sound of the great dinner gong could be heard ringing out from from the main dining hall, and my household left to enjoy our evening meal. I wanted to talk further with Marble but luck conspired against it. Marble and her friends were actually dining down in Ft. Trotterdale that evening, and then they were visiting one of the clubs on the boardwalk. However as we left her little cadre of friends I saw Petina lean over and whisper something in her ear and then joined us. I asked the white unicorn what she’d said to Marble, but Petina just smiled and said she had told Marble that she wanted to discuss something with her later. I was unable to coax further information out of her for the rest of the night.

Carousel and I woke the next morning to find that Petina had apparently gotten up before sunrise and left. This was unusual since the unicorn was not a morning pony. Figuring she’d gotten up to find herself some breakfast, Carousel and I just went about getting ourselves ready for the day.

However Carousel and I found that the main dining was devoid of Petina. Searching the drawing room, library, main hall, and music room also failed to produce the mare. Eventually we gave up and got ourselves some breakfast and then started our day.

As we stepped out the main house we immediately noticed a large gathering of ponies in the main garden. A small temporary pavilion had been erected amongst the hedges and flower beds. Everypony there seemed to be looking at some new art installation. Curious Carousel and I decided to investigate. Making our way through the crowd we found Marble Vein and Brilliant Flower sitting on lounges under the pavilion. In front of them on a low marble base was the focus of their’s and every other ponies attention.

It was a life-size, brilliant white, marble statue of Petina.

Marble Vein was talking to statue and quickly jotting down notes. It was like watching a someone have a discussion on the phone where you can only hear their side of the conversation.

“Yes! Yes very good! That’s correct.” She paused and then levitated a pot of blue flowers up to what would be the eye level of the statue. “Now. Are these flowers red?” Marble closed her eyes and was silent for a second or two. Then she opened them smiled sweetly. “Yes you’re correct. They’re blue. Good. Your color vision seems to be still intact.”

Noticing our arrival Marble looked at us and then back to the statue. “Petina. There are 2 ponies here. Are they Sky Brush and Carousel?” Once again she closed her eyes and focused. After a moment beamed proudly at statue. “Yes. Very good.” She then jotted down some more notes.

With that accomplished Marble looked back at us. “Good morning.” She smiled at us. “Sorry for not greeting you immediately. I’m just helping my new test subject adjust to the test regime.”

“Is turning our roommate, partner, friend, and lover into a lawn ornament part of the test regime?” I arched an eyebrow at the unicorn.

Marble pursed her lips. “I prefer to call her in this case a short-term, outdoor, art installation.”

Carousel stepped forward and looked at immobile, stony face of Petina. “So. Um, she volunteered to do this?” Her face had mixture of excitement, fear, and curiosity. Not too surprising since I’d learn from experience that in spite of her sweet, bouncy personality Carousel was a huge fan of horror stories, ghost tales, haunted houses, and the macabre in general.

“Oh yes!” Brilliant Flower spoke up. “She approached Marble last night! What Marble is doing right now is determining her current state of mental and sensory awareness. Also she’s trying to confirm what level of communication she has with the test subject.”

“That is correct.” Marble said as she jotted down some further notes. “I’ve not yet been able to develop a method of direct communication with a test subject when they are in this state. However when the test subjects thinks there’s a fluctuation in the emission field of the spell that their identity is now bound and connected to. By noting these fluctuations I can indirectly determine what the test subject is thinking. However each test subject has a slightly different pattern to the fluctuations of their emission field. So it takes repeated observations to develop a wide and accurate library of possible responses from the test subject. So to simplify the process I’m looking for only yes or no answers right now.”

The dove grey unicorn glanced over at earth pony friend. “In Brilliant’s case I’ve worked with her enough times and her mental facility remain active enough in this state that over time I’ve developed the ability to recognize more subtle patterns of fluctuations in her emission field. This has allowed us to have much more nuanced communication when she’s in a similar state.”

The yellow earth pony blushed at the compliment. “Well. You have worked with me the most so I guess that’s to be expected.”

This was interesting but I had a more pressing thought in my head. “Okay. This sounds very interesting, but how long will she be like this?”

Marble was busy setting up her next set of tests so it took a few seconds for her to respond to my questions. “She’ll be back to normal for dinner tonight.” She gave sidelong glance and smiled. “So fear not. Your bedtime companion will be with you tonight.”

“So, you’ll turn her back to normal tonight?” Carousel was slowly walking around the statue.

Marble shook her head. “No. I will not turn her back tonight. The spell has as a fundamental component of its formula which is a time-set, auto-termination function. Even if I was to in the next instant to be struck by lightning and killed she’d revert back tonight. I consider this to be an absolutely necessary element of this spell.”

She looked up at Petina’s stony face. “Trust is utterly essential in this type of research. There must be an understanding with test subject that they will be safe.” She glanced over at me. “After all she’s literally put her life on the line. That’s why another component of the spell is a protection ward that assures the test subject is safe from physical damage while in this state.”

“Can I touch her?” Carousel was once again standing in front of her.

“Yes you may.” Marble was looking intently at Carousel. “However understand that she has no sense of touch in this state. Nor does she have any sense of smell or taste. She can see and hear, but as is typical for test subjects in this state it is a bit muted. However like Brilliant Flower she’s kept her color vision.”

Carousel slowly extended a front hoof and stroked one Petina’s frozen legs. “She’s smooth.” The earth pony said to herself. She then glanced at one her now stone haunches. “Hey! Her cutie mark is gone?”

Marble smiled. “Yes. It has. Remember a cutie mark is a symbol of what makes a pony special. At this moment Petina is not a pony. She’s an inanimate object that is shaped like a pony. She has no life signs or distinctive internal structure. She’s a piece of solid stone. In fact unless you knew what to look for most unicorn’s who did a scan of her would assume the fluctuations emitting from her was just a byproduct of the protection component of spell.”

“I’m not a unicorn.” I was now slowly pacing around the statue.“But this sounds like a very powerful spell you’ve cast Marble.”

The unicorn shook her head. “In terms of raw power. No it’s not. Instead it’s a very sophisticated and multi-layered spell. This is not like the magic the Elements of Harmony used to imprison Discord again. That was a rather brute force way to get the desired results. Remember my goal is to develop a spell that many unicorns working in the medical profession can cast quickly in case of an emergency. Believe or not most unicorns working in that field don’t have great amounts of raw magical power. They put a much greater emphasis on precision, speed, accuracy, and subtle manipulation and control. So I’ve designed the spell accordingly.”

She stared at the statue. “Also I’m very aware of how this spell could be horribly abused. Therefore I want this to be a spell that only highly trained, qualified ponies can use. While I find ponies in this state to be quite beautiful I am not so naive to think that other ponies wouldn’t use it to harm others.”

Carousel was still stroking one of Petina’s marble legs. “She is quite beautiful.”

Marble smiled. “Yes she is.”

To be continued.