I look around, and see Ditzy smiling up at me, one eye pointing in another direction. Then, one of the ponies looks to my left, and freezes. Wait, no, they’ve just been petrified!

I hear Ditzy, Myrna, and one of the other ponies shout in fear, and I watch as Ditzy begins scanning around in all directions.

“Crap! G- get me one of those charms! I need to be able to fight this thing!”

Ditzy immediately begins rummaging in the saddlebags that Thunderlane is carrying, the nervous stallion glancing in all directions. She pulls out some pieces of glass with a snowflake design in the middle of each, all of them a part of an otherwise boring necklace. She hands them out to each of us, and I put mine on.

“Okay, until we know what just caused that, let’s keep these charms on! Thunderlane, what did you see?” Ditzy’s voice held a thorough a commanding tone with only one possible source: motherhood.

The spooked stallion glanced in every direction once more. “Flitter just went to look over there, and she must’ve left her charm off, ‘cuz then she’s stone!” I look at the stone pegasus. It looks as though she’s been carved out of a bluish soapstone.

“Okay, this is bad. What can we do?” I think for a moment. “Okay, I have a plan for now. This isn’t good being in the forest, because we’re in it’s territory. It has the field advantage. We need to get all our statue’d friends and get out of here!”

I see, out of the corner of my eye, someone who I assume is Myrna pick up Rarity and Rainbow Dash under an arm each. Ditzy has already splashed Flitter with the potion, and is pulling the stumbling pegasus along.

All of us dash quickly, and the pegasus on my back flies up, acting as guide through the forest.

After about ten minutes of frenzied running, we exit the forest, Twilight is already there, along with a small contingent of guards with shiny, mirrored inserts where they’d normally have the mask open.

“Hey, we’re gonna need some help here, Twi.” I gesture to the statues. “We’ve decided that it isn’t a cockatrice, or a basilisk. We’ve got no clues other than that.”

Twilight nodded, then looked up at Myrna, who actually towered above me by quite a bit. “Wh- what is- ?” Twilight’s eyes are wide at the sight of her.

“Twilight, this is Myrna. She’s a naga. She was the first to find me in the forest.”

“W- what’s a naga?” Twilight asked, as the two petrified ponies were carried by magic behind the guard’s line, potion being administered as needed. The guards were already moving their line forward, in case something came out of the Everfree.

“A naga is something from human mythology. It’s a mix of human and snake, a strange mix of mammalian and reptilian species. They aren’t supposed to exist, but something happened and Myrna here became one when she came here.”

“Uh, wait... then why does she have snakes on her head?”

“What!?” I turn around to look at her and as soon as I realize she does have snake hair, the mythological part of my mind takes over and I cover my eyes. “Shit! That’s the problem!”

“What? Why is that a problem?” Twilight asks, and Myrna asks the same.

“Myrna, you aren’t a Naga, you’re a Gorgon!” I tentatively lower my arms. “A Gorgon’s gaze has petrification effects. If you look one in the eyes directly, you’re turned to stone. That’s what’s been happening!”

“Wait, so you mean I’ve been turning everything to stone?” Myrna sounds hurt.

“Obviously not intentionally. It’s not something that can be turned off, it’s a natural effect. You’d need some kind of eye-cover before it’s safe to have you around a populated area.”

“I- o-oh...” She sounds really sad. Risking a peek from between my fingers, I get a better look at her. She’s physically much larger than me, with the start of her snake portion and thereby her hips being about half again as wide as my own. She’s also looking really downcast, with her hands in the pockets of a dark hoodie, which is now drawn up and over her face.

“That’s either a good thing or a really bad thing. On the upside, you can stop pretty much anything dangerous. On the downside, you can’t prevent it from affecting friends either unless there’s some form of protection.”

“Wait, Anthony, are you saying that her looking somepony in the eyes would make them turn to stone?” Twilight asked.

“That’s what the mythological information on them says. Given that she claims that she’s never seen any living creatures, only statues, I’d say they’re all true. However, her stone manipulation is another power entirely her own.”

“That makes no sense, though!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Twilight, I’m a baby star now! You think-”

“No, I’m saying that’s impossible, because she looked me in the eye! I’m not wearing a charm, I was about to cast a ward on myself when you all showed up!”

“What? But... Then I have no idea how it happens, but all the clues point to Myrna.”

“Hmm...” Twilight put her hoof to her chin, and put on what I can only describe as a ‘thinking-full’ expression. “Myrna, how would you say you felt when you first got here?”

The Gorgon tilts her head up for a moment, then back down when she realized what she was doing. “I, uh, I was really scared. I ended up here when the demons smashed my neighborhood, and I didn’t evacuate in time.”

“Demons!?” I shout. “But... those aren’t real, not in the human world! You said you were human before you got here, right?”

“Yeah, from Earth? I lived in Olympia, but about two years ago, demons started popping up through these big, fiery gates. Lots of people say it’s the apocalypse... How could you have not heard about this? There’s only a few places on earth they haven’t been.”

“Uh- Uh- Olympia!?” This is way too much right now. “Ooooooh boy, I’m gonna have to sit down for this. And I have a feeling only Twilight will understand what I’m saying...”

“Uhm... sorry... anyways, did that answer your question, Twilight?”

“Yes... I have a couple more. When you first saw Anthony, here, what did you feel then?”

“Well, I was really shocked, I hadn’t seen another human in several weeks. Heck, I hadn’t even seen anything but plants for a week!”

Twilight nodded. “Alright, last question, when you saw me and the guards, leaving the forest?”

“I was relieved. Anthony said you’re good people, if often really easy to spook.”

Twilight nodded. “I think I have it.” Her smile brightened.

“It’s triggered by her emotional reaction, specifically if she’s scared or surprised.” I finish for her and turn to Myrna. “As for why I wasn’t completely petrified, I guess I’d have to thank my powers for that.”

Myrna looks up at me, looking hopeful. I get a look at her brilliant, jade-green eyes. “So... I’m not a danger?”

“You are about as dangerous as I am, which mean no, but you have the potential to cause extreme havoc. It’s all on how you compose yourself. If you stay calm, you’re not a problem.”

Myrna nods, smiling widely. Strangely, this actually doesn’t help me feel better, because all of her teeth are sharp and pointy.

“As for where you came from... well, first, what year was it when you ‘left’ Olympia?”

“Well, actually, I wasn’t living there when I was sent here, but the last day I remember was in late April, twenty-sixteen. Right after around sixteen thousand people disappeared, all on the same night, April twenty-fifth. Most people think it was a sign, that they all got to go to heaven as part of the Rapture, before the apocalypse.”

“2016... that’s two years after I got here.” I turn to Twilight. “You think there’s a connection, or just coincidence?”

“Well... if something was able to throw you physically across an aether strand - which, by the way, has never been done before - it’s possible that it took two years until it could do it again. But you mentioned, Myrna, that sixteen thousand other humans disappeared at the same time?”

“Y- yeah... d’you think it’s something someone was doing to save us?”

I scoff. “If any higher beings felt pity for us, they would have done something a lot sooner if you ask me. And what the heck is an aether strand?”

“Oh, it’s what ties universes together. It’s pretty common knowledge that different universes converge at certain points, but there’s no way to force universes that don’t converge to connect. Aether strands are basically spots where the universes ‘touch’ but don’t actually converge, and they happen naturally. It take millions of strands just to send sound or images across, so sending something through physically? Well, I think you can understand the problems with trying that artificially.”

“So we just so happen to be having shitty, or fantastic depending on your view, luck. Oh, and demons are attacking.”

“Well, yeah. You mentioned them before, though. If you didn’t see them on earth, when did you see them?” Myrna asked.

“Here in Ponyville a while back. Remember? I punched one and it blew up? Yeah, it just came out of nowhere, seemed to be previously human, and was killing and burning for kicks.”

“Well, that sounds like a demon ascendant. They’re humans who get allowed to try to become a demon by acting like them.” Myrna said. She sniffs, and looks sad again. “My brother turned into one.”

“Huh. So I guess we should ask more practical questions for now. First off, where’s she gonna sleep? I suggested the branches of the library.”

“Well, I suppose she could. I’m sure Princess Celestia would like to meet her, though.” Twilight says. “And probably Luna, too.”

Myrna nods. “Can I... er, never mind.”

“Oh goddamnit, seriously, why is pretty much everyone I meet afraid to speak their mind? Just spit it out!”

“Because then we’d all end up as rude as you are.” Twilight admonished.

“No way! It takes practice to be as big of a jerk as I am. But seriously Myrna, just say it.”

“Well, before the demons, I was wanting to become a painter... c- could I maybe do that here?”

“I don’t know, the only I job I’ve held is as a coal shoveler, but that ended a while ago.”

Rarity, now un-petrified, wobbled over. “Darling, if you’d like to be a painter, then don’t let any- whoo!” Rarity toppled sideways as her legs gave out, having to be caught by Twilight. “sorry, dears. Don’t let anypony tell you that you can’t. Now if you don’t mind, I’m very hungry, and I must make sure Sweetie hasn’t eaten all the cookies and ice cream. It’ll give her such a stomach ache if she did.”

“She did.” I give my flat reply. “Last I saw, she was coming off her sugar rush so I put her to bed.”

“Oh dear, I suppose I can just write off those sheets then.” Rarity remarked as she wobbled for home.

“So anyway Myrna, I suppose we should get you to meet the ponies.” Next Chapter: The chapter where nothing sexual happens Estimated time remaining: 25 Hours, 47 Minutes