Haut Pietra is a magnificent example of Convergent Evolution. While changelings and ponies share a common ancestry, Haut Pietra’s species, the Colossus, are so distantly related to ponies that their shared form is astonishing.

The Colossus are living creatures of stone, silicate organisms, which can grow to immense proportions at the cost of requiring huge amounts of sleep. As in, more sleep than dragons. Her mother, who makes up a large portion of the northern border mountain range of Equestria, is well over eight thousand years old, and ponies didn’t even know that she was there until she awoke for the brief birth of her only daughter before returning to her nigh-eternal slumber.

That was some fifty years ago, and nopony knows how many other mountain ranges or other pieces of geological interest could be Colossus. Very few spend their time awake, with Pietra being one of these few.

She lives out in the Whitetail Woods in an underground home of reinforced stone. The roof is supported by stone pillars which are a metre in diameter, and is lit by the same power source as Ponyville, provided to her by the wonders of underground pipes hidden beneath the Whitetail Wood trail used for the Running of the Leaves. There is a large quarry underneath her home (though not literally beneath her home, that could be dangerous,) where she digs up stone and gems for consumption. She has been known to order rocks from the Pie Rock Farm for special occasions. (According to her, these things are to die for!)

She’s a sluggish and slow-reacting individual, though that’s not to say that she is simple. No, she’s impressively intelligent, and has fifty years of knowledge and experience at her disposal. She’s also immovable. No, really, she cannot be moved. She weighs almost four tonnes which is, for her kind, rather petite; but it is more than enough for her to be confident in the fact that if she doesn’t want to move, she won’t.

After her birth, the Equestrian Guard was on high alert for any Colossus sighting, yet she managed to slip the net for some eleven years before being discovered in Ponyville after an event at the town’s nearby gem quarry. Apparently a pack of Diamond Dogs thought that her horn would make a nice trophy, and tried to take it from her. As it is a growth of solid yellow topaz that acts the same as a Unicorn’s horn, she was most reluctant to surrender it. The discovery of several Diamond Dog corpses just outside the Quarry shows how she managed to dissuade them. The ‘armour’ which adorns her body is actually a natural formation of her own body, and is made of living stone like the rest of her.

She’s an avid fan of bonsai trees and has a well-kept and thriving garden of her own, the pride of which is over thirty years old. She’s not, however, a fan of Pinkie Pie’s frantic and hyperactive nature, and her tolerance for her has worn extremely thin on a few occasions leading to Ponyville needing to re-pave a few of their roads after she stormed out, her hoof-prints being left behind on the pavers in her anger.

And before you ask, no, she doesn’t smell. After all, a clean hide is a healthy hide; moss growth is well and good for endearing yourself to the landscape, but smelling like a garbage skip does little to earn the hearts and trust of Ponyville’s population.