“C’mon Rumble! My house is just around the corner!”
“Hold up Scootaloo!” Rumble pumped his tiny wings as fast as he could to keep up with the little filly. For a foal who couldn’t fly, that scooter made her deceptively fast. He could barely keep her in sight as she deftly navigated the maze of alleys that made up Ponyville’s more secluded areas.
Rumble wasn’t even sure why he was following her. When Apple Bloom and Scootaloo came to his house to invite him over for a playdate, their wide grins made him highly suspicious of a trap. After all, every colt knew that you couldn’t trust a filly as far as you could throw her (it’s the cooties). Still, Thunderlane hounded him until he agreed to go. “Never turn down an invitation from cute fillies to hang out,” Thunderlane said. Rumble fumed internally. It’s not like Scootaloo and her friends were even that pretty! Okay, maybe Sweetie Belle, but she was only a little cute. Okay, maybe REALLY cute, but only her. Scootaloo was kind of off putting with her obsession with that one blue pegasus and Apple Bloom looked pretty silly with her huge bow. Still, it was this or noogies for a week from his brother; Rumble had weighed the two evils and decided to just tough this one out.
Rumble’s thoughts were interrupted by a sudden screeching, and his wings were barely able to stop him from bumping into Scootaloo’s butt.
“We’re here!” Scootaloo yelled as she hopped off her scooter and turned towards her little gray pursuer. “Pretty sweet place, huh?”
Rumble looked at the house. It looked nice, but he thinks his house was just a tiny bit bigger. “It’s okay,” he said.
“Pff, what do you know?” Scootaloo was clearly not amused. “Anyways, come inside, things should be all ready.”
Rumble didn’t particularly like the sound of that, but he followed the orange filly inside regardless. What other choice did he have?
The inside of Scootaloo’s house was comfortable and well furnished. The floor was finely polished wood, with the occasional throw rug adding a bit of color to the drab planks. To his left, Rumble spotted a kitchen that had been clearly recently used; bits of dough spotted the cupboards and counters, and an odd-looking bottle half-filled with some clear substance sat near the kitchen sink. Rumble’s eyes were darting across the walls, examining the many photographs and paintings, when he heard Scootaloo shut the door behind him.
“Come on Rumble, follow me. My room is at the end of the hallway,” Scootaloo said as she skipped merrily down the main corridor. Rumble couldn’t help but notice how good a mood she seemed to be in. This had to mean trouble.
Rumble followed the orange filly down the main hallway. It was long, and several rooms branched out from it; Rumble figured that it had to run down the whole house. As he followed, Rumble thought he could hear a slight giggling coming down the end of the hall. With a heavy heart, he stepped forward, not wanting to face what cruel fate the fillies had in store for him. The possibilities ran through his head. Were they going to tie him up and put makeup on him? Was he going to be the butt of some cruel prank? Would they recruit him into one of their grand schemes to get their cutie marks? What if…what if they wanted to kiss him!?
“Alright, here it is!” Scootaloo said, ducking into an open room. Rumble could hear Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gleefully say hello to their friend. As Rumble himself turned the corner to enter the room, he could see Sweetie Belle sitting on the bed up against the far wall, with Apple Bloom standing at the foot of it. All eyes were creepily focused on him, especially Sweetie Belle’s. She looked…different. Did she style her mane differently? Maybe she finally started using makeup…
Or her entire lower half was replaced by that of a giant white snake. Yeah, that was probably it.
Rumble gaped in silence at the monstrosity that was now Sweetie Belle.
“HI RUMBLE!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom said at once, not taking their eyes off the colt. They looked as though they genuinely felt like there was nothing bizarre about this whole situation at all.
The gray colt just gave a succinct “...Nope.” Whatever this was, Rumble was going to have none of it. This was just too strange, and that was saying a lot when it came to Scootaloo and her friends. He’d deal with whatever his brother would throw at him. Rumble thought that maybe his brother would be more understanding if he told them one of the fillies somehow half-transformed herself into a snake. Then again, maybe not. Rumble once found some REALLY weird books under his brother’s bed while he was away at that Wonderbolt camp.
Rumble did an about-face and began to trot on back through the hallway and back to his house.
“Wait! Don’t go!” Sweetie Belle cried.
He had not even taken a second step when he felt a jerk on his back leg, tripping him and making him fall face first onto the hardwood floor. Looking back over his shoulder he saw that the end of Sweetie Belle’s…uuh…”tail” had wrapped around his fetlock. Rumble was surprised: it had to be wicked fast for it to reach across the room that quickly. His amazement turned to fear as Sweetie began to pull Rumble away from the door and closer to the bed. Rumble, in his desperation, clawed at the floor with his hooves, hoping that they would find a groove or ridge that would save him from his impending fate. Alas, none were to be found, and Rumble gave up, resigning himself to whatever cruel torture that was in store. At the foot of the bed, Rumble felt the tail tug upwards and lift him into the air. His tumultuous journey ended with him dangling upside-down, face to face with his captor.
“Uuuh, hi Sweetie,” Rumble said as his blood started rushing to his head. He did his best to keep a straight face. “You look different.”
Sweetie Belle ran her eyes along the length of her coils before focusing back on Rumble. “Ya think?” she said with a sarcastic look on her face.
“Alright, let’s get this over with, “Rumble said.
“Get what over with?” Sweetie asked back.
“Come on Sweetie, I know you girls want to mess with me or something.”
“Mess with you?” Sweetie Belle gently giggled. “Oh Rumble, we just wanted to hang out with you, that’s all,” Sweetie Belle said as she placed Rumble onto a seat of her coils.
The sensation of sitting on a living seat felt strange to Rumble. It was surprisingly soft, but the scales made it feel like it was a cushion covered in loose plastic. It was dry and smooth, and felt slightly cool against his rump. Above all else, he couldn’t help but marvel how beautiful they looked. The color of the scales matched Sweetie’s brilliant white fur exactly, and he couldn’t spot a single imperfection in the pattern. They even caught the light in some places, giving it a gentle rainbow sheen. Rumble was still a little wary about the whole thing. These fillies were up to something, but he didn’t know what.
“We even made snacks!” Apple Bloom interjected. Rumble looked towards the door to find the young pony skillfully balancing a tray of slightly burnt cookies on her head. She let Sweetie Belle’s waiting tail take it, bringing the tray over to where Rumble was sitting. He could see that the cookies were clearly poorly made, and seemed to have a mish mash of toppings. Rumble could spot chocolate chips, walnuts, raisins, and some weird kind strange crispy-looking vegetable that reminded Rumble of the kind of leaves on the tops of radishes.
“Uh, don’t you want some?” Rumble inquisitively asked. His mother always taught him “fillies first.”
“No thanks, we ate before you got here.” Apple Bloom answered.
“Scootaloo?” Rumble asked again.
“Maybe later. I gotta keep my weight down to go fast on my scooter.”
“…Okay.” Rumble said as he cautiously scooped up a cookie into his mouth. He had skipped his afternoon snack today and was feeling puckish enough to brave the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ experiment. The outside was dry and bitter, yet the inside was actually palatable. It was really buttery, though; Rumble thought that maybe the overuse of butter masked the taste of whatever disgusting ingredients they used. Not that he was complaining, though.
“So,” Rumble said with a mouth full of cookie, “how did this…” he said as he ran his hoof down a length of snake skin, “…happen?” Rumble swallowed and immediately reached for another treat.
Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but let a huge grin overtake her face. “I drank a potion.”
“Hmm, that’s weird.” As Rumble munched, his brain began to put two and two together, and suddenly reached a horrifying conclusion. The weird bottle, the kitchen covered with dough, the fillies not eating any of the cookies…
Rumble immediately stopped chewing, frozen from fear. He almost gagged from the shock. The foolish colt began to feel tears well in his eyes.
“Why?” was the only thing he could mutter through his accursed snack.
“Because!” Sweetie Belle yelled as she threw her hooves up.
Rumble felt a sharp pain in his stomach and spat out the rest of the chewed cookie onto Sweetie Belle’s scales. “Hey!” she yelled, but Rumble couldn’t even hear her right now. Why oh why did he have to take the bait hook, line, and sinker? A massive burst of indescribable energy seemed to erupt from his stomach and flow down, down past his stifles, past his hock, all the way down to the tips of his hooves. But, it didn’t stop there; Rumble could somehow feel it traveling even further down, even outside his body. The colt’s world was spinning, and the last thing he saw before collapsing was Scootaloo and Apple Bloom staring at him with their sadistic grins.
The entire ordeal was over in just 10 seconds, and was utterly exhausting. Rumble lay motionless on Sweetie’s coils, eyes firmly shut as he tried to gather his bearings.
“Is he dead?” he heard Scootaloo say.
“I hope not,” Apple Bloom answered.
Rumble grimaced silently when one of the fillies tapped his head.
“See, he’s alive,” Sweetie Belle said, “he’s just a wimp.”
“I’m not a wimp!” Rumble slowly opened his eyes and gave his head a little shake. Without saying a word, he forced himself to look backwards over his shoulder. He desperately wanted the strange sensation he was feeling to be something like hair loss or another minor, petty prank. No, when he turned his head, Rumble was greeted by the sight of an enormous gray mass that erupted from where his legs and tail should have been. The new snakey appendage sprawled forth over Sweetie’s coils, their gray contrasting with her alabaster white. Rumble immediately likened the mess of muscle to somepony drizzling mustard over ketchup.
He turned to Sweetie Belle.
“How do I change back?” Rumble asked with a glare.
“Oh, it wears off on its own,” Sweetie said, still wearing her naïve smile. “When I last took a swig, it took about two days for it to wear off. I was just crawling around, and POOF, back to normal.”
“TWO DAYS!?” Rumble‘s heart sank even further. His parents would be home by tonight, and how could he face Thunderlane like this? Celestia, this would be so embarrassing. “And what do you mean ‘last time?’ You’ve done this before?” Rumble wondered if this was all just a game to these fillies.
“Chill out, Rumble,” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah Rumble,” Sweetie Belle assured further. “Besides, being half snake is really cool! Slithering is fun, plus you get this really neat magic power. Watch.”
Rumble looked on curiously as Sweetie Belle slowly began leaning out towards Scootaloo. Rumble watched as the poor pegasus recoiled slightly as her friend approached her. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle’s eyes seemed to glow an ethereal light that gently illuminated Scootaloo’s face. Rumble couldn’t quite see Sweetie’s eyes well from his vantage point, but something about that glow seemed absolutely magical and mesmerizing. He sat in marvel for a moment, until he realized the same colors began emanating from Scootaloo’s eyes, far too powerfully to be a mere reflection. The orange foal’s entire body seemed to relax and become droopy, and her lips parted just slightly, as if she was lost in thought.
Sweetie Belle turned back to Rumble, the enchanting glow now completely absent from her eyes. “See Rumble? If you concentrate really hard and look into another pony’s eyes, you can hypnotize them and make them do whatever you want!”
Rumble looked over the dazed Scootaloo, still staring blankly into space. “Um, is that even safe?”
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Maybe not, but we haven’t had problems yet.”
“Besides, Rumble,” Apple Bloom interjected, “it actually feels really nice. It’s like all your troubles are washing away and you feel that you can really have fun. Kinda like that feeling where you slip into a nice steaming tub after a day of chores.” Apple Bloom closed her eyes and seemed to be lost in thought.
Despite Apple Bloom’s reassurance, Rumble could not tear his eyes off of the entranced Scootaloo. “Is she gonna be okay?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, making ponies come out of trance is easy, all you need to do is just tell them to wake up,” Sweetie said as she maneuvered her torso near Scootaloo again. “Scootaloo, I command you to wake up,” Sweetie said, firmly tapping her friend’s snout with her hoof. Almost instantly, the colors vanished from Scootaloo’s eyes, and, with a quick shake of her head, Scootaloo was back to her normal self. Rumble was a bit relived; it was surreal seeing a pony so quickly reduced to that kind of state.
“You know, Sweetie, being hypnotized is nice and all, but next time I’d appreciate a word of warning,” Scootaloo said with just a hint of anger in her voice.
“Alright, fine. I just thought Rumble needed to see it for himself and you were the easiest to hypnotize.” Sweetie Belle replied.
“AM NOT!” Scootaloo growled back.
Rumble was frustrated with this. He just wanted to go home and sleep the spell off. These fillies could play with their freaky hypno-powers until their brains melted for all Rumble cared.
“I’m leaving,” Rumble said.
Rumble tried hopping off the bed, but suddenly jerked midway and ended up falling off with a flop onto the floor. “Ugh!” he cried. This new body would take some getting used to. Rumble heaved with all his might, curling, pushing, pulling his snake body in an effort to just get off the bed. It was no help being so long either; Rumble had to take even greater care to not tie himself up in a knot as he tumbled his way down. Though, the more Rumble moved, the more he seemed to get the hang of his new serpentine form. With each passing moment, more and more gray scales cascaded down to the floor.
“Hee hee, that tickles!” Sweetie said as Rumble’s coils slowly made their way across her own.
Soon Rumble’s mass seemed to pass a critical point, and he could use his own body as leverage to pull the rest off. From there, it was trivial to pull the rest of himself off onto the floor, until at last all that was left of Rumble, his tail, fell off the bed and landed on the floor in a tiny plop. Rumble had to lie down; the entire ordeal was utterly exhausting. There was just so much of his snake body; he had to wonder at what point did the potion’s maker feel that this wasn’t excessive?
“You know, Rumble, it would probably be easier if you crawled on your belly, you ain’t never seen a snake before?” Apple Bloom asked the panting colt before her.
She did have a point, Rumble thought. If he was stuck in the body of a snake for a couple more days, then he had to think like a snake, move like a snake. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Rumble braced himself against the floor and slowly turned his snake body so that each coil twisted to rest the belly scales on the floor. After another breath, Rumble sat himself up and tried moving. It was a bit trickier to imagine himself crawling on his belly, and at first Rumble tried inching along like an inchworm. He slowly settled on a form of locomotion that felt, to him, like pinching the ground and pulling, which was a tad awkward but seemed to get him around. He circled the bedroom a few times, experimenting and getting a feel for slithering.
“Hey Sweetie,” Scootaloo said as she watched the gray colt move about, “I think Rumble is a bit longer than you.”
“WHAT!?” Sweetie yelled. She seemed offended at the very thought of not being the top lamia in town. Sweetie slithered off the bed and circled the room herself, inspecting Rumble’s snake length. Rumble couldn’t help but be impressed; Sweetie Belle moved lighting fast, and just seeing her command her scaly portion with such poise and agility made Rumble appreciate just how immensely powerful her coils were.
She turned to Rumble. “Get in the hallway, I want to see who’s the longest.”
“Sweetie, I just want to go home,” Rumble replied meekly.
“Come on Rumble, please?” Sweetie Belle said, looking at him with a sad, desperate gaze.
Rumble groaned. “Alright, fine.”
“I’ll get the tape measure!” Scootaloo cried as she bolted out of the bedroom and down the hallway.
Sweetie slithered behind her, and Rumble couldn’t help but noticed how weird it was to see Sweetie’s tail grow thinner and thinner until the tip finally disappeared beyond the doorframe. Rumble followed behind her, turning the corner to see her stretched out in a straight line. She was enormous; Sweetie’s snake tail seemed big curled up in a pile, but now he could fully appreciate how long it was. If he was longer, Rumble sure didn’t feel like it. Still, he slithered down the hallway and matched up with the point where the scales erupted forth from Sweetie Belle’s pudgy gut. Behind him, Rumble heard the pitter-patter of Apple Bloom’s gallop as she raced along the scaly monstrosities. From another room, Rumble saw Scootaloo prance out with a roll of measuring tape in her mouth.
“Rumble,” Sweetie Belle said softly.
Rumble turned his head to the side to be met with a stream of incredible color flowing forth from Sweetie Belle’s eyes. Before he could realize what was going on, he was transfixed.
“Rumble,” Sweetie continued, “you don’t want to go home right now. You want to stay and play with us.”
“Want to stay and play with you…” Rumble said, his eyes defocusing as his mind started to go blank.
“You’re right, Scootaloo, Rumble IS longer,” Apple Bloom said from down the hallway.
“What!? By how much?” Sweetie Belle yelled, her concentration breaking as she peered back down the hallway with normal eyes. Rumble’s mind slowly came back to him, and he shook his head to get his bearings once again. Maybe Sweetie was right, maybe he could stay longer…
“Five inches!” Scootaloo yelled back.
The two fillies trotted back down to Sweetie Belle’s torso. She was pouting and had her forelegs crossed over her chest, a bit miffed that she had been out-snaked by a newbie.
“I think he’s a bit thicker, too,” Scootaloo said.
Sweetie Belle shot Apple Bloom a look. “See, I told you I wasn’t fat!” she said.
Scootaloo examined Rumble’s scaly mass, looking back and forth between him and Sweetie. “Yep, definitely thicker,” she said, giving a Rumble a little poke which caused him to twitch a bit.
“Hey, that tickles,” Rumble protested. Scootaloo just looked at him devilishly before hopping on his snake body.
“Hey! Get off!” Rumble yelled at the smarmy pegasus.
“Make me,” she replied with a smug look and began prancing back and forth along Rumble’s snake body.
Sweetie moved herself close to Rumble ear. “You know, you can. Just look into her eyes and think really hard about how you want her to do what you say,” she whispered.
Rumble’s face lit up. Oh yeah, he COULD! His mouth curled into a grin; he was going to wipe the smug right off that little filly’s face! Rumble lifted himself and curled backwards to where Scootaloo was making Rumble’s scales into a living stage. The colt thought himself lucky when he saw that she had her eyes closed as she proudly danced. Slowly, Rumble brought himself in front of Scootaloo’s face. He looked at her intensely, trying to well up from the pit of his heart how much he wanted her off of him. His stare turned into a glare as his feelings intensified. After all, what right had Scootaloo to walk on him? She was the one to get Rumble into this mess. She was the one to lure him right into their trap. The more Rumble thought about it, the more legitimately angry het got. She had betrayed his trust, and now she dared to prance around on him? The nerve! Rumble could almost feel these intense feelings begin to leak out of his eyes, but he didn’t care, all he wanted Scootaloo to do was get down.
Scootaloo took a quick peek to reorient herself, only to find Rumble right in her face, his eyes bursting is an ever-shifting spectrum of color. She flinched initially, but soon her eyes grew wide as she was transfixed by the mesmerizing spell. Her jaw hung open and her whole body sagged, as if every part of her relaxed all at once. The colors overtook her own eyes, this time more dominated by reds and blues than Sweetie Belle’s purples and greens.
“Get off me,” Rumble commanded.
Scootaloo immediately stumbled off, almost tripping as she moved, unable to even glance away from Rumble’s eyes.
“That’s better,” Rumble said, defocusing himself with a self-satisfied nod.
“Woohoo! Go Rumble!” Sweetie Belle cheered, having witnessed the entire spectacle. Rumble took a moment to bask in Sweetie Belle’s cheer, but began to get worried as Scootaloo remained motionless. “I’m proud of you Rumble,” Sweetie Belle said as she slithered up to the gray colt and patted his head.
“Um, I think I broke your friend,” Rumble said timidly
“Oh, she’s fine. Just tell her to wake up.”
“Okay…” Rumble said as he turned towards the blank filly. “Scootaloo, uh, wake up please.”
Immediately the colors vanished. Scootaloo faltered a moment, then picked herself up and gave Rumble a sour look. “Fine, be that way,” she said while turning her head up. Despite her attitude, Rumble was a bit relieved to see Scootaloo back to her normal self.
Apple Bloom giggled. “Scootaloo. It’s funny how easy you are to hypnotize.”
“Oh, and you’re not?” Scootaloo growled.
“Nope, I’m the toughest, no-nonsensest pony this side of Ponyville.”
“And that’s why you just roll over whenever Sweetie hypnotizes you?”
“That’s different. I don’t try to fight back then.”
“Excuses, excuses,” Scootaloo scoffed. “I bet you couldn’t even last a minute up against Rumble.”
“Uuuh…” Rumble tried to interject.
“YOU’RE ON!” Apple Bloom barked. She trotted over to where Rumble hovered listening to the whole exchange. “Do your worst,” she said, sitting down.
“Do I have to?” Rumble groaned.
“Come on Rumble,” Sweetie Belle interjected. “You wanted to stay a while and play, remember?”
Rumble’s eyes defocused for a moment. “Yes…play…” he muttered in a monotone voice as he could feel like a switched flipped in his mind. Sure, hypnotizing Apple Bloom sounded fun, now that he thought about it. Rumble turned to Apple Bloom, a look of defiance plastered on her face. “Alright, here goes nothing.” Rumble said. Taking a deep breath, he looked deep into Apple Bloom’s eyes and once again concentrated on imagining himself in control of the filly. Apple Bloom’s widening eyes and a faint glow on her face assured Rumble that this technique was working well.
“Huh, your hypnosis looks different than Sweetie’s...still good though.” Apple Bloom said as she got a little shaky. The earth filly’s lips parted and her own eyes began to reflect the mesmerizing colors.
“How ya feeling, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked mockingly.
“I-I’m still going…strong,” Apple Bloom said. Everypony could tell that she was rapidly declining, though. Apple Bloom’s head hung low, and her knees began to shake a little. Still, she was doing her best to remain conscious. She wouldn’t let Scootaloo have the last laugh.
“Try wrapping her up, that helps,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Uh, okay,” Rumble said, still maintaining eye contact with Apple Bloom and drilling into her mind with his hypnotic spell. Trying not to break his concentration, Rumble curled the portion of his snake body around Apple Bloom’s sitting rump and legs.
Apple Bloom could barely feel Rumble’s scales pinching her flanks, but almost immediately it seemed to calm her and make her body instinctively relax.
“N-no…f-fair…” Apple Bloom managed to squeak out.
“The bet was a minute against Rumble, no rules,” Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom had a hard time even trying to register what Scootaloo meant.
Rumble continued slowly curling around Apple Bloom, stacking a new coil on top of the first one. Rumble found it strangely easy to move his snake body, even though he had only had it for a short time. Apple Bloom felt warm in his scales, which subconsciously made him want to entomb her deeper within his scaly confines. This new loop curled around her back and then around to her ribs. More and more Rumble felt them support Apple Bloom’s weight, the small earth pony losing even the ability to sit up on her own as she fell deeper and deeper into trance.
“Sti…still…o…o…,” Apple Bloom’s mind hung only on the very fringes of lucidity. Rumble’s eyes were beautiful and fresh; it gave Apple Bloom the same feeling as when she was first hypnotized by Sweetie Belle. Waves of happiness washed through her mind, tempting her to just give in and enjoy the ride deep into dreamland. Apple Bloom could only barely feel a third coil wrapping up around her shoulders and neck. It was almost like a pillow, and soon Apple Bloom was resting her head on the soft scales as she continued to let the beautiful colors wrack her mind. She just felt so weak, so tiny, so helpless. Why fight it, she thought. Apple Bloom couldn’t even remember Scootaloo’s challenge; the bliss that came from trance was the only thing on her mind....
Rumble’s eyes defocused when he saw that Apple Bloom was staring blankly into space, a tiny smile on her lips as she became completely limp in his coils. Rumble felt his cheeks flush a little when he realized that he had trapped a happy filly in his coils. He was surprised at how soft she was, and how her warmth made Rumble’s snake body feel vibrant and invigorated. He remembered hearing somewhere that snakes were cold blooded and depended on other things for heat; perhaps that’s the reason why he felt this gentle happiness fill his body.
“Well Scootaloo, did she last more than a minute?” Rumble asked. “Scootaloo?”
Rumble turned and saw Scootaloo standing on Sweetie Belle’s scales, her eyes racing with colors as Sweetie Belle scratched the bottom of the pegasus’s chin with her hoof.
“Hey! Wasn’t she supposed to be counting?” Rumble growled at Sweetie.
“Yeah, but you two did last more than a minute, and I could tell that Scootaloo was just going to go on and on about it. Besides, seeing you hypnotize Apple Bloom made me want to do a little mesmerizing of my own.” Sweetie said, laying back and letting the mindless Scootaloo stand at attention. “It was fun, wasn’t it?” she asked Rumble.
Rumble grumbled. Sweetie was right, it was a little fun. Plus, Apple Bloom did feel really nice in his coils. “Yeah, I guess.”
Sweetie Belle suddenly sat up. “Hey, you know what would be really fun?”
Rumble dreaded what other things Sweetie Belle had cooking up in her adorable little head of hers. “No, what?”
“Let’s have a hypno-battle!” Sweetie cried as she through her hooves in the air.
“A…what?”
“It’s where we both try to shoot our hypno-beams at each other and try to be the last pony standing.”
Rumble looked at Sweetie Belle inquisitively. “Does it even work like that?” he asked.
Sweetie shrugged, “I dunno, we’ve never messed around with turning another pony into a lamia before. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“A lot of thi-“
Rumble was cut off when Sweetie Belle quickly moved her face directly in front of Rumble’s.
“THREE TWO ONE GO!” Sweetie said as her eyes once more filled with that tantalizing color.
Rumble flinched, but once again triggered his own hypnosis. He wasn’t going to let Sweetie Belle beat him!
The two stared at each other in silence, both intensely concentrated on their spell. Sweetie Belle thought to swing back and forth a little, but immediately stopped when it turned out to be a lot more exhausting than she thought. To withstand a hypnotic assault was tough enough, but to hold out AND try to maintain hypnosis was pushing her to the brink. Rumble didn’t even have the benefit of being experienced with these powers, and was quickly developing a headache.
“Getting tired…yet?” Sweetie Belle said, her mind getting foggier and foggier.
“Not…a…chance!” Rumble squeaked out.
Sweetie Belle took some deep breaths; this was a lot harder than she thought. Rumble was definitely putting up a fight. The more she stared, the more she felt tiredness wash over her. Her eyelids drooped a little, then shot back open. Sweetie Belle redoubled her efforts and tried to concentrate more, but she was fading fast and could only hope that Rumble would fall faster.
Rumble too found himself rapidly approaching the brink of trance. It took all of his mental fortitude to not slip further; every time Rumble faltered and recomposed himself, he felt a little more of his mind slip away. He felt like he was going to lose this fight, when suddenly he noticed that the same reds and blues that filled Apple Bloom’s vision now slowly mixed in with Sweetie’s own colors. Rumble’s confidence skyrocketed and he intensified his efforts. He was so close to winning, he couldn’t let the comforting waves of peace subdue him now. All he needed to do was keep staring…keep staring…keep staring…
Rumble looked at Sweetie Belle’s, her eyes now completely dominated by the reds and blues of Rumble’s hypnosis. He couldn’t think about what he was seeing, though; in his pursuit of victory, he had fallen under Sweetie Belle’s spell. Their contest had ended in a cruel stalemate.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thunderlane was worried. It was dark out, and his parents would be getting home soon. Rumble should have been back by now. Although Thunderlane thought that it was good that he was spending a lot of time with some cute fillies, his parents might not share the same opinion. Thunderlane was ready to just fly over the streets to see if Rumble had gotten lost when he suddenly heard the doorbell ring. Thunderlane’s heart sank; either it was Rumble and his hide was saved, or his parents and his goose was cooked. On shaky legs Thunderlane marched to the front door and peered through the peephole. His fears subsided when he saw his brother’s distinct light grey snout, comically distorted from the fisheye effect of the lens. Thunderlane threw open the door.
“RUMBLE! There you are! Man, I thought I was gonna be…in…so much trouble…”
Thunderlane could not help but stare at Rumble gigantic new “appendage.”
“WOW! Rumble, what happened?” Thunderlane shouted in his brother’s face, utterly dumbfounded at the monstrosity his little Rumble had turned into.
“Sweetie Belle and her dumb friends happened, that’s what! Just let me inside before somepony spots me.” Rumble told Thunderlane.
Thunderlane stepped aside and let Rumble slither inside. Thunderlane couldn’t help but stare at the snakelike portion of his brother, the marvelous scales scattering light in a way that was both dreadful and enchanting at the same time.
“What do you mean spot you? How did you get here without being noticed?” Thunderlane asked.
“Apple Bloom put me in a cart with a drape over me and pulled me here. It was the least she could do,” Rumble answered.
Thunderlane gently shut the door once the tip of Rumble’s tail crossed the threshold.
“Rumble, you need to tell me what happened. Is this why you were out so late?”
“Those fillies tricked me into eating a cookie with potion baked into it so Sweetie Belle could have another snake pony to mess around with.”
“Wait, ANOTHER?” Thunderlane interjected.
“Yeah, apparently Sweetie Belle already got into it and wanted another foal to join her for her sick games.”
Thunderlane sighed. “Jeez, alright, so why didn’t you come home earlier?”
“I was going to, but apparently this potion also gives hypno powers, and we ended up messing around with them to the point where we accidentally hypnotized everyone there, including each other. I would have been out later, but thank Celestia that Scootaloo was able to wake up on her own after a while and splash some water on the rest of us.”
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa…whoa, wait, so you’re telling me that you drank a potion that turned you part snake and gave you mind control powers?” Thunderlane asked.
“Yeah, why?” Rumble asked back.
“Dude…you’ve GOT to get me some of that stuff!”