Chapter One

“Twi! You have to keep up!”

Applejack ran back to Twilight and pulled her weak body onto her back. They had been at this for hours, and Twilight was not used to this much effort.

Ever since the giant snake, Quetzalcoatl, escaped from his prison, the six friends had been trying to capture her. Rainbow Dash had been able to keep up, but the reptile’s flying and combat skills made it hard for Rainbow to do anything until the others could catch up.

“Twilight!” Applejack yelled again, trying to break through her magically confused haze. “Do you think you can cast the spell?”

“I-I” Twilight stuttered, trying to form the words past the paralysis spell that Quetzalcoatl had cast on her. “Yeah.”

“Well, I hope so…” Applejack mumbled, afraid to let her lack of hope show, and discourage Twilight from fighting her way through the various hexes that the snake had cast on her.

Twilight herself was straining her will to break through the three hexes remaining in her body. The paralysis hex would be her last to deal with, since she could activate the Elements of Harmony without the use of her muscles. The other two were harder, since they had yet to be activated. She could feel their presence, but without knowing their shape, she could not easily pull them out of her inner being. Twilight was sure, especially after the battle against Discord, that those hexes were part of the serpent’s last defense, and would be necessary to remove before the final confrontation.

Meanwhile, Pinkie and Fluttershy were busy preparing the trap that Rainbow Dash was (hopefully) slowly leading the snake towards. Constructed with a series of magic mirrors that Princess Luna had made for them before she was incapacitated, the cage, when sprung, would reflect the dark magic that Quetzalcoatl used back at him. Still, with his enormous strength, it could only hold him for a few minutes, so Twilight and Applejack would have to reach the spot quickly before they lost their last hope for saving Equestria.

Rarity galloped onto the scene with a finely cut jewel held beneath her teeth, glowing a bright yellow. “Eh goth ith!” she mumbled through her crystal-holding teeth.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy said, barely loud enough to hear. “That’s not the focusing crystal! It’s supposed to be clear!”

“Well, yes,” the white unicorn exclaimed proudly. “But I found the most FABULOUS fluorescent topaz and a simple had to have it! I mean, what if I left-”

“Rarity!” Pinkie shouted in frustration!

“Oh, do calm down!” Rarity said, as her horn started glowing, magically carrying the yellow jewel into her saddlebag and raising a clear, star shaped one. “The topaz happened to be on my way back.”

“Rarity!” Pinkie shouted, with joy this time, lunging herself on Rarity and embracing her.

“Uh, yay?” Fluttershy whispered, delicately placing her hoof around Rarity’s shoulder, only to recoil when a loud crash in the tree line caused a shapeless form to come flying into the cliff wall opposite. Fluttershy turned to see the offending object, and saw an injured Applejack wrapped around Twilight, in a manner that Fluttershy instantly knew was protective.

“Twilight!” Rarity shouted, surprised by how stiff the purple unicorn was. “Are you all right?”

Applejack groaned in pain. She was fairly sure a few ribs had cracked, but she couldn’t rest now.

“Get… the cage ready…”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes went wide in anticipation, and rapidly pulled back the necessary levers to prime the trap. She stood by her button as Fluttershy and Rarity stood by theirs, Rarity having magically placed the focusing crystal in the prime location just as Rainbow dragged Quetzalcoatl out from the forest and into the center of the metal frame, which snapped shut around him in a spherical cage. The serpent’s screams reverberated through the forest as he cast spell after spell at the ponies, only to have the harmful hexes reflected back at himself.

Applejack stood up on shaky legs, propping Twilight against her for support.

“A… Ap…” Twilight struggled to complete the name.

“What is it, sugarcube?”

“S-Selena…” Twilight said with great effort through her paralyzed lips. “I… If I can’t.”

Twilight’s face went blank as she allocated her focus to her magic instead of resisting the paralysis. She looked at the giant serpent and instantly found her mind cloudy. Her thoughts felt thick, like jelly, and it felt hard to move from one to the next. Were Twilight able to focus now, she would have recognized this as the second of the three hexes, but Twilight’s thoughts flowed like molasses, and for the time being, she was stuck with her current thought, which was the creation of the third hex.

Twilight looked upon Quetzalcoatl with lust in her mind.

The five friends looked upon their Element necklaces with anticipation, waiting for Twilight to activate it, but the spell in her mind prevented her from feeling anything but the artificial love she felt for the evil serpent.

“He he he,” Quetzalcoatl chuckled. “That’s your last try. In a few minutes, I will be free, and Equestria will be covered in the dense rainforest of my home, forever to be my personal hunting grounds.”

“Twilight?” Applejack looked at her friends, trying to find some sense of recognition of her surroundings, but all she saw was a slight smile below her cloudy eyes.”Twi, wake up! Wake! Up!”

Twilight could only hear a faint whisper among the voices of her thoughts, most of which were urging her to step closer to her love and follow his every command.

It was the voice in her head that didn’t agree that annoyed her.

Somewhere in her head, a voice was screaming against her love, vowing for his defeat. Twilight could only wonder who would do such a thing.

Outside her head, Applejack was attempting to snap her out of her haze, as the final seconds started to tick by.

“It’s another one of his hexes!” Applejack shouted to the rest. “She can’t activate her Element!”

“Quick!” Rarity shouted to Rainbow Dash. “Plan B!”

Rainbow rushed to Rarity and picked her up, flying to Twilight as Rarity began to cast a spell.

Twilight’s eyes shot over to Rarity as Rainbow set her down. Rarity slowly lowered her glowing horn to her friend’s head…

“Twilight,” Rarity whispered. “Take my strength!”

And Twilight screamed…

In Twilight’s head, the voice that annoyed her to no end was joined with another, one strangely familiar. They were so loud that it hurt. Twilight strained against them.

Outside, Rarity’s limp body was being propped up by Rainbow as she transferred her mental faculties to help snap Twilight out of her hex. Only seconds remained before Quetzalcoatl broke free from his prison, and all hope seemed lost, when Applejack finally the significance of what Twilight had told her.

“Celena... If I cant...”

Applejack whispered the name to Rarity, hoping that she was still in control of her senses.

And she was. After repeating the name in her mind in question, Rarity unknowingly let the name slip through for Twilight to hear, and the voice in her head fighting against her, against Quetzalcoatl, grew unbearably loud, and consumed all other thoughts as the hexes were violently torn out of her mind.

Twilight's eyes flashed white as she immediately activated her Element, rising in the air as her friends followed suit. Quetzalcoatl had broken free from his prison, but had not had time to get away, and was trapped within the power that the Element's of Harmony and Twilight herself possessed. Twilight did not show mercy, unlike the previous encounters she had had with monsters like this. Even Discord had not taken her mind away so forcibly.

She would respond in suit.

With a flash, Quetzalcoatl was frozen in place, not like a statue, but fully aware of his surroundings, with full capability of his every sense. He would not ever move again, but he would never age, and he would never be able to stop himself from experiencing his surroundings, even to the point that he could not sleep.

Her friends questioned her friends decision on punishment, but Twilight was in her final phases of the spell, and disrupting it could just set the snake free again.

And, in an instant, it was done, and everything went black for Twilight Sparkle.