//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Tug-of-war. // Story: Planet Of The Serpents. // by Neutral Boy //------------------------------// Inside somewhere in the center of the Everfree forest, a lone lamia anthro unicorn pony with a color of silver & red wrapped around a tree is seen crying in her sleep. She had recently got a divorce a few weeks ago and hasn't been feeling better since then. You see, several years ago, she has thought to have found her true male mate who's from Canterlot. Things were going great for her, until she felt something off when her mate disappears sometimes behind her back. Turns out later on, she caught her mate cheating on her with two of the royal guards. Things weren't going so well and she felt in her heart that it was the right thing to divorce him. Now she's feeling sadden that she lost a good mate a long time and didn't get a chance to become a big family. She thought she couldn't find someone out there that would truly love her and not break her heart. The lamia mare's sleep was interrupted when she sniffed a strange aroma smell. Something that looks delicious, but also smells like a possible male stallion's strong candidate to be her new mate and love. At first she tries to resist and ignores it, but the aroma felt more stronger like a stallion is sweating from a good workout exercise. Thinking this might be her second chance calling out, the lamia mare proceeds to untangle out of her hiding tree place, grab a few things, and slithers off fast to the location. Some time later, she arrives at Ponyville to hide from all the locals. She slithers quietly around to not getting spotted. She follows the aroma scent and it's slowly getting warmer and warmer, nearly nervous of lust and wetting herself of seeing the stallion mate up close. The lamia mare scoots along the walls and peeks. Her snaky pony purple eyes looks around until she spots the aroma scent coming from a male human slave who's sweating all over and catching his breath. Her mind froze for a moment, trying to process on the whole thing. Was her scent playing her or is this the one true soul mate to be with? So many questions to answer. 'Well, I guess I can at least take things slow with this human.' Her mind says and licking her lips. 'Besides, I really like to see if he'll be worthy of a love challenge for me.' Silently giggling to herself, she uses her silver & red tail to slowly slither over to the human. Her tail moves in close and circles him three times. Within the grabbing range, her tails clutches the mate target. Clapping her hands in excitements with a happy grin, she retreats her tail catch and opens up arms wide to hug and welcome her new mate. Her own tail draws in closer until it shockingly appears that it's a cheap pot. "Huh?" The mare says in confusion. She peeks her head out to see another lamia mare holding a human slave in her coils slithering away. The rainbow maned mare looks back at her and sticks her snake tongue snickering before nuzzling the tired human. The red maned lamia grits her teeth and tightens her coils, breaking the cheap pot. "So that's how it is. Fine then, I accept your challenge you stealing mare horse!" A few minutes ago, Rainbow Dash is slithering along the streets to find some interesting things for her workout routine and to also impress her favorite Wonderbolts team who'll be back in about a month. However, her routine would be put on hold when she hears some commotion. She slithers forward and her ears notice a familiar voice coming from Twilight's tree library. She peeks at a window to see that Rarity has somehow gone crazy from the look in her eyes and finding the human Pinkie bought. Thinking it might not be good idea to disturb Rarity and let her cool off, Rainbow sneaks off and goes in search of the human. Hopefully he hasn't run off that far. "This can't be good, I thought that Pinkie or Twilight was guarding the human. I better find him first, hide him in a good place, and then go talk with my friends about Rarity's strange behavior." Rainbow mutters. Eventually, she stops and spots the male human behind a big container box. She sees that he's sweating and catching his breath, probably from trying to get away from her friend. Her eyes widen when she spots a lamia tail sneaking toward him as he didn't notice. Rainbow grits her teeth in a surprised anger, thinking that an unknown would steal the sold human away from them to somewhere else. Probably for unknown purposes or wanting to devour him in her stomach. "Not on my watch." Rainbow darkly says. So she stealth-fully slithers to the container, making sure to not get spotted. Her head pops up to see a silver & red tail circling around the human to catch him. Thinking fast, she picks up the male human with her tail and picks the cheap pot up with her hands to switch with the human's hiding spot as the pot was gripped tightly by the unknown lamia's tail. Grinning with success, she turns around and slithers off with her human in her coils. She glances behind her and sticks her snake tongue out then snickers before nuzzling the tired human. "Don't you worry, I know the perfect place to hide from Rarity and those other stalking mares. Maybe a nice spot to have some alone time for us before Pinkie or Twilight comes to pick you up." Rainbow then licks the human's cheek and thinks of a few kinky ideas she picked up from one of her friends. Meanwhile in Canterlot. . . A train is proceeding to take off after some passengers went inside to take their seats. On the left side of the passenger seat, a brown hair lamia human girl is watching out the window in a tired state. She yawns and sighs, pondering in her thoughts on what kind of jobs she'll look for with some good balanced bits and a new house. 'Let's see, finding a new home first, then getting a job. . .' The lamia girl's mind said. While not thinking too much, her nose picks up a tiny aroma smell. She smells it and imagines in her mind of her favorite meals to eat and floating on an endless meal. 'Mmmmmm, bacon, eggs, and pancakes.' Yawning again, she stretches her arms and takes a nap until she arrives at her destination. Unbeknownst to the sleeping lamia girl, a couple of shadowy figures several seat behind her have smelt the tiny aroma. They licked their lips and patiently wait for the train to stop before they slither off to their tasty target.