Celestia dreamed of the same stormy sea, the island much closer than before. The waves steepened, crashing into her raft as she hung on for dear life. She sputtered and coughed as the water surged against her, filling her lungs with its salt. She barely had enough strength in her hooves as she crested another wave. She squinted between strands of her mane. The island grew ever closer, the docks pitch black in the storm.
Almost there, she thought, a weary anxiety driving through her chest. She checked behind her, and it seemed like the storm had suddenly stopped merely feet away, the calm, sunlit waters beckoning to her. But in those waters held more fear. If she gave up, she wouldn’t forgive herself. Her people would rise against her. Ponies would die.
But whenever she asked herself what she was sailing towards, her mind came up short. She was convinced that there was something or someone to save. But that thing wasn’t concrete enough. All she knew was the fear of turning back.
Another wave burst from the sea in front of her, glowing a dangerous, fiery red. It rose higher than a mountain, threatening to swallow her whole. She braced herself, holding on to the post of the sail as it crashed down on her.
The dream ended abruptly as something squealing outside the window woke her up. A bright yellow light pierced through the curtains, flickering as the smell of smoke filled the air. Celestia coughed, jumping immediately to her hooves, her heart racing. She galloped to Luna’s bed, prodding her in the side. “Fire!” she yelled, running to the window and opening the curtain the rest of the way. It wasn’t her building that was on fire, but one in the distance. The side of the building collapsed inward to reveal a two-floor interior, and through the flames, she saw shelves of books.
Her breath stopped cold in her chest. “The library,” she breathed, turning to Luna, who had already appeared at her side. Dread filled her eyes.
“What do we do?” Luna asked, peering out the window beside her as something caught the corner of Celestia’s eye. She could’ve sworn that a streak of black shot across the floor of the library, and collapsed on the ground was none other than Chipo.
“We need to get her out of there,” Celestia blurted, lighting her horn. Within a second, the two were standing outside of the burning building, the smell of smoke ever stronger. She covered her mouth, looking around. The buildings were cluttered together, so close in fact that another two buildings had set fire to the south of the library where the wind blew.
Celestia glanced at her sister. “Luna, I need you to contain the fire. I’ll go in and get Chipo.”
Luna’s eyes grew ever wider. “No, sister!” she yelped, as stiff as stone. “What if something were to happen to you in there?”
“The same thing would happen to you too, if you came along,” Celestia insisted, planting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. “I’ll be all right. But loads of ponies won’t if we don’t get this fire under control.”
Luna’s jaw visibly clenched. It took her a moment before she slowly began to nod. “Okay,” she mumbled.
Celestia managed a smile through her boiling anxiety. “Good.” She patted her shoulder once more. “Now go!”
With one more nod, the princess of the night flew to the south, lighting her horn. A purplish aura surrounded the fires south of the library, and Celestia’s ears popped as the air pressure suddenly changed. She was creating a vacuum. With a deep breath, Celestia batted her wings and flew in through the open space in the library, the safest place that she could land being the second floor. She lit her horn, her own sky blue aura surrounding her face, acting as an air filter.
She glanced down to the floor and the blood froze in her veins. The streak that she saw before was none other than a giant snake with a human torso. Except she wore no clothing, and her scaly skin flickered in the firelight. She slithered above the unconscious body of Chipo, her braided hair falling on her shoulders as if it were a tangle of snakes.
Heart beating fast, Celestia lit her horn once again, teleporting down to the base floor right in front of the gorgon. She turned instantly and kicked the creature in the chest, sending her sprawling. She lit her horn once again and in a flash of light, Chipo disappeared from her place on the floor to well outside the burning library.
The gorgon whipped out in front of her, her long red nails digging into the palm of her left hand. Her heart jumping, Celestia lit her horn once again, shielding her from the droplets of blood that the gorgon flung. As they made contact with the shield, however, holes burnt through it, and a searing pain burnt at the base of her horn.
Before she could react, the gorgon slithered up to her and whipped her tail beneath her hooves, knocking the princess over. A piercing pain throbbed through her side as she heard glass crack beneath her. She grunted through gritted teeth, forcing herself to roll out of the way of another rain of poison blood. She pulled herself up onto her hooves, feeling the gentle wind lick the wound she was certain was wet with her own blood.
As the gorgon wound up again, Celestia lit her horn once more, an astral chain wrapping around the gorgon’s left wrist. The creature’s eyes widened, trying to yank it away, but to no avail. She cast the spell again on her right wrist, and then around her neck, pulling her down to the floor as she sputtered for air. “Eu… Euryale!” the gorgon cried, her voice a high-pitched soprano.
That was when two more arms wrapped around Celestia’s neck in a choke hold. Unable to breathe, she tried to kick against the new arrival, but she was reared up in such a way that it only put more pressure on her windpipe as she did. With a last effort, she took off her spell on the first gorgon, focusing a spear of energy into the back of the second. The creature screamed, ripping its arms from Celestia’s neck, and she collapsed to the ground gasping for breath. She felt a splatter of blood on her side and she instinctively rolled away.
But before she knew it, a flash of light burst all around her, and she was outside the burning building. She collapsed onto the ground there, Luna standing above her. “Are you okay, sister?” she blurted.
Celestia nodded, but then realized what had just happened. She cranked her head to look at her side, remembering the splatter of blood that hit her…
But nothing was there. No searing holes, not even a single wound. She couldn’t even find the blood spatter, only the soot on her coat from being inside of a burning building.
“Sister…?”
Luna pointed to her other side, jaw agape. Celestia followed her eyes and realized the wound she had on her side was slowly fading away, the blood around it disappearing. Soon enough, it was closed, not so much as a scar left, nor any sign of her white coat being cut through. It was gone without a trace.
Eyes wide, she suddenly felt invigorated. She slowly lifted herself to her hooves and surely enough, her legs were strong underneath her. She felt a strength that she hadn’t felt in days, even weeks.
“What exactly just happened?” Luna’s voice quivered.
Celestia returned her concerned look, her mind dammed with shock. “I… don’t know.”
“Where is she?” an alto voice spat. Luna gestured for her sister to crouch low as she did the same. Celestia followed. They were on a balcony near the library, looking down as the building’s otherwise furious burning faded to smolder. “She needs to pay for what she’s done!”
“She’s gone, Euryale,” another voice soothed. They were the two gorgons she had faced in the library. They were covered in soot from head to tail. The voice came from the one she faced first. She was shorter, and less full-figured than her counterpart. “She was teleported out before we could do anything.”
Her counterpart, Euryale, cursed violently. She shook her fist. “She could have killed you,” she growled.
“But she didn’t,” the other completed, who Celestia assumed was Stheno. She cocked her head sideways. “But she did get you pretty bad.”
Euryale huffed. “I know. What side did she end up getting?”
Euryale turned her back to Stheno, and she slithered gently toward her. She put a hand on her back, as if forming a barrier in the center. “Your right side.”
Euryale cursed once again. “Then I just healed her,” she grumbled, sliding a hand through her serpent-like hair. “If only we had our sister’s powers. Then we’d be able to kill that alicorn so much easier.”
Stheno nodded, digging her nails into her right palm. She massaged her bloody hand on the wound, and Celestia watched again in dismay as the wound and the blood from it cleared up. “It would be nice, yes,” she mumbled, patting her sister’s back as the wound closed up all the way. “There we go, as good as new.”
“We don’t have a choice then,” Euryale said solemnly. “We have to revive Medusa. By ourselves, we’re not enough.” She paced around the front of the smoldering library. “What did that book say again? Her body was in Mane-hat-tan?” She said the name of the town slowly, the word dancing weirdly on her tongue.
Stheno nodded, taking to her sister’s stride. “Yes. It’s to the northeast of here, on the coast.”
Euryale hummed to herself. “You were always the most well-traveled out of all of us.”
“I try my best.”
A light caught the corner of Celestia’s eye. Both she and her sister followed it, and guards in bronze armor galloped toward the library. “The snakes were this way!” The one up front called.
“We can take them,” Euryale growled, slithering toward the guards as they came down the street. But as she did, she slumped over and vomited, wheezing as the contents of her stomach emptied out onto the pavement.
“No, we can’t,” Stheno insisted. “You’ve used too much blood today, sister. We need to retreat for now.”
Face pale, Euryale nodded, slithering back into the smoldering building with her sister at lightning speeds. It was only a second before they disappeared out of view entirely.