Applejack stood tall before the monstrous leviathan. She turned and glared into Ladon’s cold undulating coils. Out of the corner of her eye, her friends scattered toward opposite ends of Ponyville. She winced. She could see his servants gathering all of the statuesque ponies they had created in a haphazard pile. She watched as ponies she had known most of her life and considered friends and acquaintances were tossed on top of the statues of Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
She took a breath and recomposed herself. “Alright,” her voice was as firm and focused as her eyes, “enough of this.”
Spike tried to cry out, but the fully-grown basilisk positioned one of its large coils over his mouth.
Ladon's massive head surged down in front of her. He pivoted his massive form and surrounded her in a ring of silvery scales. His markings pulsed as he looked her over. “Little earth pony,” he shook his head, “what are you doing? Why did you not run away with your little friends?” The left corner of his mouth turned up in a sick and twisted grin.
Applejack gulped, “Figured some pony’s got to figure out exactly what you want. Just figured, since I was already here, I’d ask.”
His scaly, pulsating body formed another circle around her. His body pulsed in toward her, and out, leaving several meters distance. His grin widened, revealing row after row of fangs dripping with saliva and venom.
Applejack held firm.
He looked away with disinterest into the light breezy clouds up above. He muttered, “I thought I told you already: we seek the one who imprisoned our Queen. She claimed to fight for harmony and peace, yet chose to fight against nature itself. Our race has existed here long before you ponies showed up, yet she thought she could command us.” He leaned in closer to her, his breath blowing her mane back, “We will find her decedents and avenge what she did to our Queen, even if I have to turn all of Equestria into stone.” He returned his attention to her. He tittered lightly to himself, “Wingless fool. At least do me the honor of giving me your name before I add you to her majesty’s collection.”
“Applejack,” she spoke bravely and with as unwavering of a voice as she could manage.
He genuinely looked shocked this time, then a pleased grin broke free one more. “Ssssooo… Perhaps you are a pony that I seek after all. Tell me; are you a member of the Apple family, known for having founded this quiet little hamlet?”
Applejack stood taller, pride swelled in her voice. She knew that the longer she kept him distracted, the better chance her friends had of getting away. “What’s it to ya? Did my kin hurt your Queen as well? Seeing as how she doesn’t mind setting a bunch of scaly monsters out to attack peaceful towns, I don’t right blame them.”
“Your family claimed these lands on the border of my kind’s prison. You got to live in the sun, while we wasted away in the shadows awaiting the return of our Queen.” He sneered at her.
The large basilisk holding Spike was looking down at its charge with a cocked head. Finally, it slithered forth and hissed in his ear.
Ladon’s eyes shone brightly as the basilisk backed away with a bow. “It appears as though my Queen shall be even more pleased with today’s efforts than I previously thought. Not only shall I present her the pony whose family imprisoned her children for the last hundred years, but also one of the legendary ‘Elements of Harmony’.”
She looked up into his maw at that. She ground her teeth together, and scrapped the earth with a grinding hoof. “I ain’t giving up my friends,” she growled through clenched teeth, “We’ll stop you from… whatever it is y’all got planned.”
Ladon jolted back mock shock, “Gasp. Oh no, whatever will we do.” HishHa! His laughter shook the landscape as he tiled Applejack’s head up with the tip of his tail.
North of Ponyville, the peaceful glade gently became shallow hills that grew as they rolled toward the base of a large mountain range. Ladybugs and butterflies flew circles around flowers and rosebushes as gnats zipped across the meadow. Two shadows shot over the meadow causing grasses and daisies to bend over as the gust reached them.
Fluttershy and Twilight landed on the far side of a hill, gasping for breath and their chests rose and fell, unable to pace with their pounding hearts. Twilight briefly looked back at Ponyville in the distance. She cringed and forced herself to look instead toward Canterlot. The most important thing right now was to get their as quick as possible to warn the Princesses about the growing threat. Perhaps, Equestria’s royal guard would be able to remedy the situation and drive the Ladon and his basilisk army back into the Everfree Forest. Although, she suspected, that that would not solve the problem of his “Queen of Serpents”.
“Fluttershy, I’m going to need you to continue on and warn Celestia and Luna.”
Fluttershy looked at her, still struggling to catch her breath. “What are you going to do?”
Twilight once more looked toward their home from where she sat on the hill.
Fluttershy gasped, “You can’t go back? Why would you go back?”
“I need to make sure Pinkie and Applejack got out safely and get a better grasp of the situation.” She tuned back to the shivering pegasus beside her. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I need to get a better grasp of the situation. The more information we can give to the princesses, the better chance we’ll have of stopping Ladon.”
Fluttershy swallowed hard and nodded.
“I won’t stay any longer than I have to, but you need to get to Celestia as soon as possible.” Twilight’s voice tapered off. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she didn’t make it back, but both ponies knew how dire the situation was if they couldn’t spread word of the threat to the rest of Equestria.
Fluttershy embraced Twilight and nuzzled her neck. “Just… just be careful, all right.” She let a tear fall. “I promise that I’ll let Celestia know right way, just promise you’ll be okay.”
“Cross my heart.”
“Hope to fly.”
“Stick a cupcake in my eye.” They whispered together. Their embrace tightened, they released each other and began their flights in opposite directions.
Pinkie hugged the wall of the building as she peered around the corner. The street was just like every other one she had seen: ponies were running toward the edge of town in their vain attempt to outrun the snakes and basilisks chasing after them.
In addition to the hundreds of small, regular snake-sized versions, three or four ginormous basilisks were slithering around. It was hard to keep a good count, as they were moving so fast. Snakes would pounce on helpless ponies, slowing them down. The small basilisks would then take the opportunity to hold them in a semi-petrified state long enough for the more powerful adults to encase them in a stone prison in the form of their former selves. Despite the myriad of cobras and asps, no pony appeared to be inflicted with a venomous bite.
Pinkie scrunched her nose at this and dipped back into the shadows of the alley. Stealthily, she wove her way through the alleyways and backstreets of Ponyville. Like a cat-like ninja cat, she ducked and rolled across a clearing and swan-dove into the shadows once more. She crept along atop the roof of several buildings. She ran and hid in a shrubbery, before darting out into the open and sliding into another.
She was almost to the edge of Ponyville. She licked her lips and looked ahead with bated breath. “Hmm… It’s quiet, too quiet,” she said just above a hushed whisper.
Her eyes shrunk, as she froze in place stiff as a statue. She slowly turned around and stared right into the eyes of two regular, run of the mill, average green snakes. She jumped back, landing on her rear hooves. She raised her forelegs and swatted at the air, shadowboxing. “Why are you helping that Larry character? What about your friend Fluttershy?”
The two snakes paused and looked at each other. They tapped their chins with the tips of their chins. Unable to come up with a valid reason, or perhaps a way of communicating, they shrugged and faced her with mean scowls.
“Okay,” Pinkie smiled. Pinkie did a backflip. Pinkie landed in a cartwheel and grabbed a third snake that had tried to sneak up behind her. She shoved her face into its snout with unblinking eyes. “How do you like that mister meanie?”
She head-butted the reptile and tossed it at the other two. They caught the flying serpent with their necks and fell backward. Just as they were detangling themselves, a pink blur blurred past. It continued blurring until it collided with a thick gray post.
Pinkie fell onto her rump with a thump. Wincing, she rubbed her bruised nose and tried to figure out what she had run into through one half-open eye.
“Since when did the Public Works start installing scaly lamp posts—” She winced again as the “lamppost” let out a short Hiss. “— that hiss? Uh Oh.” Her ears drooped as she looked up into the gaze of the Basilisk. “Welp, at least I didn’t go out covered in trash.”
A flash of light briefly lit the small dark room. As the last sparks of the teleportation spell faded into the ether, Twilight looked around the tight space, regaining her bearings. She bit her lower lip in pensive agitation as she slowly cracked the door. She slowly peered out and looked into the hallway. After she was certain that it was empty, she opened the door further and slipped out of the closet.
She felt her left rear hoof catch on something. She froze in a brief moment of panic, holding as still as possible. Slowly, she lifted her hoof, and leaned the broom against a shelf stacked with rags and cleaners. She exhaled and looked ahead as she closed the door behind her.
When she had first returned to the edge of Ponyville, it was like a ghost town. She hopped against hope that most of the residence had either escaped out into the plains, or else were in hiding. After seeing the massive pile of “pony statues”, she feared otherwise. Three adult basilisks, who were overseeing the construction of a large sled to transport their new trophies, were keeping guard of her castle. Ladon was no longer wrapped around the tree shaped castle. In fact, she did not see any sign of him at all. While she would have loved to have studied the construction and figured out how serpents could build something without limbs or telekinesis, she had a more important mission.
With soft, gentle steps, she continued down the halls of her former castle, carefully rounding corners as she made her way deeper down the passageways. She stopped before a painting of her friends all sitting on clouds as she stood regally in the center. Looking around, and listening for the tiniest of sounds, she made one last check of her surroundings before tilting it askew, revealing a dark narrow passageway. She slinked in as the painting tilted back, sealing her inside.
She followed the secret passageway as it wound its way through the castle walls. The crystalline walls glowed with an internal ethereal energy, lighting her way. While it would have been quicker to follow the main hallways, she did not want to risk being seen. If she learned anything from all of her previous engagements with rogues and villains, it was that you could never be too careful. That, and when things seemed quiet and easy was when the “big bad” or its minions would strike from the shadows.
She jumped and spun around. She looked down the way she just came from, and studied every corner and crevice around her. With a gulp of a heavy lump, she slowly tilted her head up and looked at the ceiling.
See was met with cobwebs and dust.
She exhaled a sigh of relief and continued on her way, turning down one passageway and another, until she came to a wooden bookshelf covered in dust and webs. It looked as though it had been abandoned for centuries. She rolled her eyes. She knew that the secret passageways hidden within castles were always musty and had an eerie feeling in novels, but that did not mean they had to in real life. She knew her friends had each left something extra, but this was ridiculous.
As carefully and quietly as she could manage, she pressed her ear to the back wall and held her breath.
Hiss.
She could make out the sounds of several serpents beyond the false wall. With a shaking hoof, she slid a small panel in the back of the decrepit bookshelf, and tried to see out into the other side. Several basilisks as large as pythons and anacondas slithered throughout the throne room. Three or four had intertwined themselves in the roots of the former Golden Oak library’s roots that hung from her ceiling. No fewer than twenty of the smaller ones were scattered throughout the rest of the room, most congregating on top of the holographic map of Equestria.
She felt a pit in her stomach as she continued to look over the room. Her eyes fell upon the thrones. A disheveled Spike had been tossed into Fluttershy’s, while a “pony statue” rested upside down in hers. She could not get a good enough look from her current position to identify who it was. She strained to try to get a better position. As she pressed her weight higher and forward to get a better view, she heard a scraping and the sound of squeaking hinges.
She froze and backed away from the dusty shelves.
Cautiously, she peered out through the opening, careful not to touch the secret doorway. The serpents were still milling about absentmindedly. With extra caution as to not move the swiveling bookshelf any further, she looked toward Spike and the unknown pony once more.
Spike shifted, his chest heaving. His limbs appeared to have been bound with vines with another wrapped around his head. She stepped back once more and took several long deep breaths, focusing her mind on her objective. She needed to find Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She was sure that they would think to find somewhere to hide. Luck, or perhaps destiny, had given the castle a secret network of “roots” that ran underneath all of Ponyville, linking each of her friend’s homes.
She closed her eyes and concentrated. Slowly, with a purple sheen of magic, her limbs became less opaque. Soon, the purple wave passed over her torso, and rode the length of her tail. When it reached the tip of her horn, a small pulse of magic sparked with a tiny pop.
When she opened her eyes, she was completely transparent. If she stood absolutely still, it was almost as if she was invisible. It was not complete invisibility, but it would be good enough for what she was thinking. She cast another spell; her transparent form briefly shimmered with prismatic light. Gradually, she pushed her head through the bookcase. She paused as a tiny basilisk looked in her direction. It blinked once wearing a bored expression on its limp facial expression. It opened its mouth wide and yawned, before resting its head in the center of its coiled body.
Slowly, with reserved patience, she stepped out of the hidden passage with one hoof. She paused again, looking around, before moving her next forelimb out into the opening. She crept at a tortoise’s pace.
One hoof. Pause. Inch another hoof forward. Wait.
This kept on until she was within leaping distance of the thrones. She crouched down and looked over Spike’s whimpering form before turning her attention to the stone pony in the largest throne. She tilted her head to get a better look at the upside down statue. The thought that this might have been the pony that Ladon had invaded Ponyville to find briefly flew through her mind, until she got a look at her face.
She shoved a forelimb into her mouth to silence a gasping shriek building up inside. Resting on Twilight’s throne at the head of the circle was the petrified form of Applejack. Twilight’s mind was racing several hundred miles an hour and none of the thoughts vying for her attention was asking why Ladon wanted Applejack.
She turned her head, quickly surveying the entire throne room. None of the basilisks noticed anything out of place. Moving quickly, she grabbed Applejack and Spike in her telekinetic grasp and was about to cast a teleportation spell when the map in the center of the thrones exploded from beneath the stone floor.
Rubble and splinters shot out in all directions, scrapping and stabbing into her side and legs as the floor gave way and heaved upward. She fell back, pulling Applejack and a doubly surprised Spike along with her.
Cracks advanced and meandered their way across the entire floor, fracturing it into multiple pieces. Portions lifted and sank like tectonic plates. The walls buckled as the entire structure shook. Dust and debris fell from above as the decorative roots rattled and threatened to give way. The serpents wrapped around it tightened their grasps, as they held on with ever tightening coils. As the echo and roar of the tumult began to settle, the creaking and growing of the structure became more evident.
Twilight looked around in a panic. Applejack had broken free from her grasp and had slid into the shadow of a massive basilisk. It wrapped its gray body around the statue and pulled it back into a corner, hissing violently at her. She felt something stirring in her forelimbs. Spike let out a pained groan as he tried to move his bound arms.
She stroked his head before looking up to assess the situation. Dust and debris was still raining down, covering everything with a fine layer of glowing sediment. The castle shuttered. The glowing apocalyptic scene became darker and grayer as the broken floor began to lose its sheen. In the middle of the room, where the Equestrian map once rested, the massive head and neck of Ladon had broken through.
He cracked his neck joints with a twist of his head. The snapping and crackling traveled down from the base of his skull far into the hole from which he came, like the sound of paper being torn mixed with rocks rolling down a cliff. Without lowering his snout, he glared down at Twilight with a mixture of boredom and amusement. He smiled coyly.
She cringed as she slowly pulled herself up onto her hooves, repositioning Spike onto her back. She grimaced and fought through a stabbing pain in her right foreleg. She tenderly attempted to put weight on it, cringing as the stabbing of the sprain pulsed up and down the length of her leg, from her ankle into her shoulder.
Her entire font right side had taken the brunt of the explosive force. The rock and debris of the castle floor had left her covered with bruised scratches all down her right side. She felt a pang in her chest, but the fact her breathing was not impaired told her that her ribs were more than likely still intact. Her wing socket was starting to turn a dark shade of purple from where a large chunk of crystal had slammed into it.
“I knew you would come back for your little whelp, Princess Twilight.” He looked out a shattered window and slowly flicked his tongue, licking his lips in the process. “We had… quite the conversation.”
Twilight growled and gritted her teeth as she fought through the pain of her sprained leg. “You haven’t won, Ladon. Celestia knows that you’re here, and soon you’ll have to contend with Equestria’s Royal Guard.”
He slowly shook his head, “Tisk. Tisk. Tisk. Poor naïve Twilight; do you really think they’ll get here in time? We’ve already got our prize and we’ll be long gone by the time they get anywhere near this hovel.” He looked down at her with sad eyes, “Granted, it was not the prize I was initially sent to retrieve; however, it should suffice,” His eyes and voice grew colder, “for now.”
Twilight stood her ground. She knew that in her current condition she would not be able to escape by hoof or wing. She felt weak and fatigued. She would have to put everything she had into one last teleportation spell. If she was lucky, she would be able to land her and Spike deep enough that they could stay hidden long enough to escape. She ground her teeth and snarled through the strain as she began to work her magic into her horn.
She needed to, at the very least, try to get away. In a flash of amethyst and lavender, she disappeared from the destroyed throne room, and reappeared deep within the catacombs of the secret passageways beneath the castle. She collapsed and panted for breath, fighting through the pain in her leg and wing joints. Spike rolled off and stopped, trying to sit up with the aid of the passage wall. The vine sealing his mouth shut had fallen loose.
“Twilight, are you okay,” he whispered, looking around frightfully.
She groaned and gritted her teeth as she sat up. “I’ll be fine,” she said, massaging her head. She and Spike froze as a hissing echoed down the dark passageway. The ethereal glow of the walls flickered, and then shorted out completely.