The hour was late, and most ponies had already stopped their search for princess Twilight for the day and returned to their homes. Twilight's five closest friends were about the only ponies that were still busy scouring the land in search of Equestria's newest princess. It was at this very hour that nurse Redheart rolled a cart into the main operating room.
"What's that?" nurse Tenderheart asked as she began inspecting the pony-shaped figure lying on the cart, covered by a white sheet.
"I don't know," Redheart replied in a troubled voice. "I was on my way out and I just found it near the entrance."
The other nurse could only furrow her brows after hearing such an explanation. "This has got to be some kind of prank..." she said in a sulky tone while approaching the cart. "I swear to Celestia, if somepony jumps out screaming "Surprise!" I'm going to--" As she grabbed the sheet and pulled it off of the mysterious figure, both she and her colleague gasped and lost their voices for a moment. The two nurses stared at the sight with their hooves covering their already surgical mask-covered faces.
"Is... is that..." nurse Redheart quietly uttered.
"I... I don't know..." Tenderheart replied and shook her head. "The body itself looks nothing like her, but that cutie mark..." She paused with her eyes locked on the patient's flank. The image on it was unmistakable. "I'd recognize it anywhere."
"We have to tell the others," Redheart declared with conviction and started trotting back towards the exit. "They'll know what to do."
***
Not long after leaving the scene, nurse Redheart was already back on her way to the operation room, accompanied by all five of Twilight's best friends.
"Soo... what exactly was so important that you had to call all of us here at this hour?" Rainbow Dash inquired with her eyebrow raised.
"I'm not sure describing it will have much point..." the nurse explained. "This is something you have to see for yourself."
Not willing to argue after having already come this far, the ponies had little choice but to follow. Even before entering the room, all of the ponies began hearing the heart monitor beeping at a steady pace, and as they entered, they witnessed a sight that wasn't exactly uncommon, but unpleasant, nevertheless. The pale-white pony strapped to the heart monitor wasn't moving at all. Apart from the nurses, all of the other ponies stopped near the entrance and stared at the pony from a distance, only moving closer when urged to do so by one of the nurses.
"My apologies, Miss Redheart, but are you certain that all of us need to see this?" Rarity asked in a skeptical tone. After a short pause, the nurse responded with a solid nod.
With uneasy looks on their faces, the five ponies walked closer to the patient. From a distance, the only thing strange about the pony was its dullness... It wasn't even clear if the pony was male or female. Its body was as white as the moon, and it didn't even have a mane or a tail. It wasn't moving at all. If it weren't for the heart monitor, the ponies would have surely thought that it has never even been alive to begin with.
As they got closer, they instantly noticed just what was so special about this pony that all of them had to be called here just to see it... As if the fact that the pony appeared to have no face wasn't enough, there was also its cutie mark which was an exact replica of the cutie mark of the missing princess. The reaction of the ponies witnessing the sight was barely any different from the reaction the nurses had upon first seeing it. Both their eyes and their mouths popped wide open and they could not breathe a word for quite some time.
"What is this thing?" having regained her sentience, Rainbow Dash immediately asked.
"We don't know," nurse Tenderheart regrettably informed. "We were hoping that you would know more."
"Us?" Rainbow Dash furrowed her eyebrows. "How could we possibly know anything about this... this..." She pressed her hoof against the body on the bed. "Are you sure this thing is even alive?"
"I admit, it's hard to deny. While it may have the body of a common equine and appears to have a beating heart, it still lacks everything else that makes a pony..." The nurse paused for a moment as Rainbow Dash kept glaring at her. "But the five of you know that cutie mark better than anypony."
"So, what?" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Any moron could paint a cutie mark on a mannequin."
"This isn't a mannequin!" the nurse retorted and stomped her hoof on the ground. "Does this feel like wood to you?" she asked while holding one of the body's forelegs. "And how would you explain the heartbeat?" She scowled back at Rainbow Dash.
"I, uhh..." the mortified pegasus avoided the nurse's eyes and started rubbing the back of her neck.
"Look, I don't know what this is or where it came from," nurse Tenderheart explained after calming her voice. "All I'm saying is that princess Twilight disappearing and this thing appearing on the very same day seems a bit too uncanny to be a coincidence."
"Tenderheart is right, y'all," Applejack interjected, drawing the attention of the rest of the room towards herself. "I'm not sure what to make of all this, but maybe we should at least keep this thing safe while we continue our search."
"I agree," Rarity added. "Whatever this is, there's certainly some form of magic at work here."
Fluttershy gulped nervously. "D-do you think there might be somepony trapped in there?"
"I fear to even imagine such a fate..." Rarity quietly answered and slightly lowered her head. "All I can say is that I've worked with my fair share of mannequins during my career, and while they may look exactly like this one, they certainly do not have beating hearts inside their chests."
"Maybe one of Twilight's books has something about this kind of magic?"
"Good thinking, Fluttershy," Applejack approved. "We should search Twilight's castle, first thing tomorrow morning."
"Hm hm hm hm..." an anonymous voice chuckled as its owner witnessed the peculiar scene reflecting itself inside a large cauldron. "Search all you like," the creature whispered as it started stirring the brew inside the cauldron. "The spell you seek will not be recorded in any known book."
"Can we leave it here with you for the night?" Applejack asked the nurses.
"Of course," Redheart answered. Tenderheart also nodded in approval. "We'll keep it safe."
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" the creature near the cauldron laughed. "Excellent... This diversion should keep them occupied long enough for me to fully finish my incantation!" he said out loud and gazed at the cage to his right with a wicked grin on his face. The cage was full of a set of mannequins that looked exactly like the one that the ponies had recently discovered. Only they did not have any cutie marks on them. "Oh, dear brother... what a fool you were to think that you could take them on with sheer, brute force," he said to himself while gazing inside the cauldron. The image inside of it had faded away, leaving only a thick, green substance behind.
"I guess I should be thanking you... you helped me see their strengths, as well as their weaknesses... Without their leader to guide them, the former bearers of the elements are powerless." He smiled deviously and looked to his left. The unconscious, purple alicorn princess strapped to the wall immediately caught his attention and made him walk closer. "Oh, don't look so grim, Twilight." He gently pat her on her cheek a few times. "Don't worry... your friends will be joining you soon enough."
***
Just as Twilight's friends had agreed, all of them had gathered near her castle early on the next morning... Well, all except one.
"Uugh!" Rainbow Dash facehoofed herself. "Where is she?"
"Maybe she got delayed?" Fluttershy suggested.
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash answered in a sulky tone and crossed her forelegs. "By a decision of which dress to wear for the occasion."
"Now, Rainbow," Applejack began lecturing her. "We all know that Rarity can get a bit carried away when it comes to deciding what to wear, but she would never be late for something this important because of something like that."
"You'll see..." Rainbow Dash quickly replied and landed on the ground near Applejack. "If she arrives without some fancy scarf or obtrusive hat, I'll harvest your entire orchard by myself next applebuck season."
Applejack laughed. "Well, now, what I wouldn't give to see that... You're on!"
"Umm... guys?" Pinkie drew everyone's attention towards herself before the two ponies could bump their hooves together over a settled deal. "I thought you said we were waiting for Rarity."
"Uhm..." Applejack got a bit confused by the sentence. "We did..."
"Then how come nurse Redheart is coming in her place?" Pinkie asked and pointed at the trotting mare approaching them.
"Huh?" the other three ponies uttered and stared at the panting nurse.
"This can't be good..." Rainbow Dash muttered.
"Miss Redheart! What's wrong?" Applejack inquired as soon as the nurse got closer.
Still trying to catch her breath, Redheart tried to explain herself as quickly as she could. "You... have to... come... at once..."
"This has something to do with that mannequin, doesn't it?" Rainbow Dash asked, her expression worried about the likely answer she was about to hear.
"Not exactly," the nurse answered and took a long breath, finally letting her breathing normalize. "We found another one."
All four ponies gasped upon hearing those words. Applejack gulped loudly before asking, "Please don't tell me it has three blue gems as a cutie mark..." she nervously inquired. Her friends also stared at the nurse with troubled looks on their faces.
The nurse hung her head before answering, "I'm afraid so..."
Dazed from the sudden discovery, the four ponies let silence claim the air for a good while before regaining their fighting spirit.
"This can't be a coincidence!" Applejack shouted in a confident voice and stomped her hoof on the ground. "Two days, two missing ponies, two strange mannequins with their cutie marks just appearing outta nowhere... If we don't do something about this quick, I reckon we'll be seeing a third one before the end of this day!"
The thought sent a shiver down Rainbow's spine. "I don't want to become a mannequin..." she quietly muttered. "There's no time to lose! We need to get to Twilight's castle and--" Before Rainbow Dash could say another word, her attention got drawn by her own cutie mark flashing brightly. "Huh?" she uttered and looked at her friends, whose cutie marks were also emitting a bright light.
"The cutie map!" Applejack exclaimed. "It must be trying to tell us how to solve this!"
"Then what are we waiting for!?" Rainbow Dash hollered and bolted towards the castle door. Her friends didn't hesitate to follow her.
"Right behind ya, partner!"
***
As soon as they reached the throne room of Twilight's castle, they immediately noticed all of their cutie marks hovering above the table, just slightly past its edges.
"Huh?" Applejack uttered. "That can't be right..."
The four ponies slowly approached the map to make sure their eyes weren't deceiving them.
"Is it just me or is this map broken?" Rainbow Dash asked while staring at the table with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't think it's broken," Applejack replied. "But I sure as hay don't know what's it trying to tell us."
"I wish Twilight was here," Fluttershy quietly added. "She'd know what to do." She hung her head in sorrow, just as the rest of her friends.
Not knowing what to make of the situation, the ponies spent some time just sadly gazing at the sight that they simply couldn't decipher.
"We'll just have to make do with what we have!" Applejack suddenly declared and began moving away from the map. Her expression was as confident as ever. "Maybe the map just doesn't cover the location that we need... Either way, I'm not about to just sit around and wait to be turned into some creepy dummy."
"I hear ya." Rainbow Dash nodded in approval and joined her side. "It's not too far from the border of the map. If we keep going in a straight line, we should be able to find what we're looking for."
"Sounds good to me."
Ready to face any challenge, the four friends set out to follow the call of the cutie map.
***
The journey was long and tiresome, but none of the ponies felt like taking a rest along the way. If another one of them would suddenly just turn into a mannequin, it would not only hinder their chances of succeeding in this ordeal, it would also mean that they would most likely have to drag their friend with them for the rest of the way, since leaving somepony in the middle of some field so far away from civilization would be downright cruel.
"We should be getting close now," Rainbow Dash declared. "I think we just past the border where the cutie map ends."
"Keep your eyes peeled, everypony," Applejack shouted out as they kept running.
"Umm... What exactly are we looking for?" Fluttershy politely inquired.
"Well, I don't know!" Applejack blurted out. "Something unusual. Something that seems... out-of-place."
"That seems pretty out-of-place." Pinkie Pie pointed at a very unusual-looking structure.
"What in the hay?" Applejack muttered and stopped running. The rest of her friends also stopped and all began walking towards the said out-of-place building.
"What is that thing?" Rainbow Dash curiously asked as soon as they got closer to what appeared to be a horribly-misshapen tree.
"Whatever it is, I could bet my cutie mark that it's what the map was trying to show us." Deciding to not prolong their inspection of the strange structure, Applejack began trotting towards its entrance. "Come on!"
Meanwhile...
"Hmmhmm... Hmmhmm..." the creature near the cauldron was humming quietly to itself while stirring the brew with a long ladle. "Two down, four more to go," he told himself before lifting up the ladle to his mouth and sampling some of the brew he was making. "Perfect!" He dropped the ladle back into the cauldron and clapped his claws in delight. Still humming the quiet song, he went over to a shelf to pick up a small vial and used the ladle in the cauldron to pour it full of the brew. "Now then, which one should I pick next... hmm..." He rubbed his chin while thinking. "Aah, yes, of course!" He snapped his fingers. "It should definitely be that pesky pegasus, Rainbow Dash. She is, without a doubt, the most bothersome one out of the four that are left... Now, where did I put that--"
Before he could find whatever he was looking for, the door to his home got busted open, and the four remaining elements of harmony came through it.
"All right, buster!" Rainbow Dash instantly jumped ahead of the pack with an expression ready for combat. "You've got to the count of three to--"
"Three," the creature interrupted and tossed a blue feather into the vial. The concoction immediately turned to the same color as the feather. Not waiting another second, he simply sprayed the contents of the vial on one of the mannequins in the cage. Just as he did so, Rainbow's cutie mark appeared on its flank, and Rainbow Dash herself gasped loudly before collapsing to the ground.
"Rainbow Dash!" her friends exclaimed and rushed closer to the unconscious pegasus.
"No..." Applejack whispered with teary eyes as she placed her hoof on Rainbow's chest... She couldn't feel her heart beating anymore.
"Yes!" the creature shouted with a wicked grin on its face. He stared in delight as the three still-conscious ponies wept over the friend they had just lost. "Oh, come now," he said in a calm tone as he walked closer to pick up the stunned pegasus.
"Don't touch her!" Applejack growled at him.
"What?" The creature seemed surprised. "I just want her to be alongside the rest of her friends." He gently carried the pony over to the wall with the other two unconscious ponies and chained her to it the same way the other two were chained.
"What have you done to them!?" Applejack shouted at the creature with her eyes full of rage, as well as sorrow.
"I'm just making sure they can't get in anyone's way anymore," he calmly replied and went back to stirring the brew in his cauldron. "No need to worry. I will allow you to join your friends, soon enough."
"Over my dead body!" Applejack exclaimed and jumped up to her hooves in a desperate attempt to assault the creature that was more than three times her size. Unsurprisingly, before she could do anything, the monster simply smacked the pony during her jump, sending her flying across the room and smashing into a wall.
"Applejack!" her friends shouted and ran closer to her.
"That can be arranged," the creature slyly replied and turned his attention back towards the cauldron.
Applejack grunted while getting up from the floor. "Why are you doing this!?" Despite her furious yelling, there was no reply from the creature other than some humming. "Who are you anyways?" Still not too eager to engage in a conversation, the creature took the ladle out of the cauldron and took a small sip. He seemed rather pleased with its taste.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Pinkie Pie stepped in. "Somepony asked you a question! Two of them, actually. You can't just suddenly go trying out some punch while somepony's expecting some answers! The least you could do is share!" she shouted and kept glaring at the creature.
"Oh, do be quiet, would you?" having said that, the creature sprayed a pink colored substance onto another one of the mannequin's. Just as three colorful balloons appeared on its flank, Pinkie Pie raised her hoof, ready to say something, only to suddenly find herself fainting.
"Pinkie Pie!" her friends exclaimed and caught her before she could collapse.
"No..." Applejack quietly uttered, her eyes so full of tears she could barely even see. "You monster!"
"Being rude isn't going to get you anywhere," the creature replied impassively as he made his way towards the ponies. Just as he had begun to reach for the unconscious one, the other two locked their forelegs around her tightly and drew her closer to themselves, all while still scowling at him with their eyes half-shut and soaked with tears. "Fine, fine..." He held his claws up as if imitating a surrendering position and backed away from them. "I'll have to place you all up on that wall sooner or later, so I can't really see why would you bother." Completely devoid of any feelings for the wailing mares, the creature simply returned to the cauldron that he was so fond of.
"Why..." Fluttershy cried out. "What did we ever do to you?"
"Well, you did imprison my brother in Tartarus, but that's not really the reason why you must be removed from this world."
The ponies instantly perked up their ears upon hearing the creature mentioning his brother being a prisoner in Tartarus... There was only one creature that could possibly fit the description.
"You're... You're Scorpan!" Applejack exclaimed while pointing at the creature.
"Took you long enough..." he muttered. "As if there are a lot of gargoyles that dwell in these lands."
"But... why?" Applejack inquired, her tone being as sad as it was surprised. "Celestia said that you came to appreciate the ways of Equestria! You were the one who sold Tirek out in the first place!"
Scorpan laughed hysterically after hearing such a statement. "Appreciate... your ways?" he repeated in a mocking tone. "I simply saw that your kind possessed magic that could have thwarted our efforts. I tried to warn my brother, but that fool didn't listen! I thought that spending a few centuries trapped in Tartarus would give him enough time to realize this, but apparently, I was wrong," he finished his sentence in a quiet and apathetic tone. "Once a fool, always a fool... I suppose I was the one who really needed to learn a lesson there," he spoke his monologue without stopping the stirring of the brew for so much as a split second.
"But... you're not even stealing our magic!" Applejack pointed out. "Isn't that why you came to Equestria in the first place?"
"Enought talk!" Scorpan retorted and reached for another empty vial. "I've had just about enough of your... honesty." He poured some brew into the vial and added some ingredients, instantly turning the potion from green to orange.
"No!" Fluttershy yelped. "Please, don't!" She burst into tears and embraced her only remaining friend in a tight hug.
"It's all right, sugarcube," Applejack told her in the most cordial tone she could and patted her on the back a few times, after which she disengaged from the hug and stared deeply into her heartbroken eyes. "Everything's going to be fine." She smiled at her while doing her best to not give into tears. "Trust me, I--"
"Oopsie!" Scorpan blurted out just as the orange farm pony fainted in Fluttershy's embrace.
"Applejack! No!"
"Well, whaddya know. I guess she's not all that honest, after all." He laughed while watching the only remaining conscious pony crying her very heart out and burying her face in her friend's coat. The sight only made his laugh even more enjoyable. "Hmm... Doesn't seem like I'll even have to bother with you..." he told himself while rubbing his chin and went back to his beloved cauldron. "No point wasting any more resources on an already completed mission. You're about as much a threat to me now as my own shadow..." He engaged in a small conversation with himself. "Perhaps I should take care of the other princesses now. Hmm, yes. Definitely. With them out of the way, there will be no one left that could possibly--" He suddenly cut his sentence and turned towards the crying pegasus with an infuriated look on his face. "Would you stop crying already!?" he screamed and readied his paws to claw at her.
His outburst seemed to have no effect. Fluttershy simply kept crying and gently cradling her comatose friend without even lifting her head to so much as peek at the monster in front of her. "Grr!" Scorpan growled as he walked closer to the one guilty of ruining his silence and picked her up. "Stop that, right now!" he yelled at her and directed an angry gaze towards her closed eyes that were still emitting a waterfall of tears. "Do your friends only keep you around for moral support or something!?" he kept shouting with absolutely no regard for her sorrow. "So weak! So pathetic! So helpless! So--"
Before Scorpan could utter another word, Fluttershy shot her eyes open and stared at him with an overpowering gaze. It was a stare that saw right through his face, and straight into his soul.
"Such a... fierce gaze..." Scorpan muttered. The words he just mentioned triggered an old memory in his mind.
The memory was vague, but some of the images he saw flashing by his eyes shined bright enough to be recognized. Above every other part of the memory, two images depicted themselves more evidently than the others -- The voice of a crying girl, and a furious centaur yelling at her.
"Aaaaaagh!" Scorpan yowled at the top of his lungs and released his hold of the pegasus. "Tirek!" He threw himself across the room and grabbed the edges of the large cauldron in the middle of the room. "How dare you send her away!?" he shouted furiously and unleashed his anger upon the cauldron, spilling its contents across the floor. Just as he did so, every one of the unconscious ponies suddenly awoke and gasped for air. "She was just a helpless girl with a fierce gaze she could not control! She never meant to hurt anyone!" Completely dazed by their surroundings, the ponies could only widen their eyes and mouths as they witnessed the massive, enraged gargoyle prince storming out of the building.
"Little sister..." Scorpan whispered to himself as he flew on. "I will find you..."
Refusing to release her hold on Applejack, Fluttershy kept cradling her as her tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright!"
Applejack grunted as she struggled to get some air into her lungs. "I'm glad to see you safe too, sugarcube." She grunted again.
After releasing her friend, Fluttershy apologized with an embarrassed smile on her face, "Sorry."
"Don't sweat it," Applejack quickly replied and embraced Fluttershy with a much softer hug.
"Wee!" Pinkie Pie uttered a sound of delight and joined in on the hug.
"Somepony care to explain what's going on?" Twilight stared at the three ponies with a baffled expression.
After a short, heartfelt laugh, her friends responded and went over to free their chained friends. "It's a long story," Applejack replied. "To be honest, I'm not even entirely sure what's going on myself..."
***
Deciding to not stay in the strange lands any longer, the ponies that had been awake longer than the others started retelling the whole story as they made their way back to Ponyville.
"And that's when he tipped over the cauldron and all of you woke up," Fluttershy finished the tale just as the company reached their hometown.
"Wait... that's it?" Rainbow Dash asked, frustrated by the story. "What was up with that last part?" She stopped walking for a moment. "Why would he just suddenly break the spell and fly away like that?"
"I don't know..." Fluttershy admitted. "I guess it must have had something to do with my stare."
"Well, yeah, but..." Rainbow Dash paused for a moment while recalling the times she's seen Fluttershy using the stare. "All it ever does is just paralyze the one you're staring at... why would Scorpan just suddenly lose it?"
"Maybe she stared too hard?" Pinkie Pie suggested. All of the ponies giggled at such a response.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
The loud cry of a terrified mare interrupted their enjoyable moment. They responded immediately and started running in the direction of the noise to investigate. As they reached the scene, they gasped loudly as they saw some townsfolk gathered around a stone statue of a screaming pony.
"What happened?" Twilight inquired as soon as they got closer.
"Oh! It was horrible! Horrible!" the panicking mare near the statue grabbed her head and shouted. "Some hideous creature just walked right up to her and turned her into stone!"
"What!?" Fluttershy exclaimed. "But... but cockatrices don't normally come this close to the town!"
"A cockatrice?" the pony repeated. "Is that what you call that huge, hideous creature that had snakes instead of hair!?"
"Huh?" Fluttershy uttered. "But... that doesn't sound like--"
"Mara!" an anonymous voice exclaimed. Before the ponies could even realize who it was, Scorpan landed near them and grabbed the mare that had just described the perpetrator. "Where did she go!?" he interrogated her. He held her by her throat so fiercely that she couldn't even answer. She simply pointed her hoof towards the Everfree forest. "Mara!" Scorpan instantly released the pony and bolted towards the direction she had just pointed in.
Apart from the coughing of the mare that was still trying to regain her breath, not a single sound could be heard from the utterly bewildered company of ponies staring at the trail Scorpan had left behind himself.
"What just happened?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I don't know..." Twilight replied while shaking her head. "But I think we'd better go find out."
Somewhere within the Everfree forest...
The cries of a young maiden could be heard echoing through the thick woods. Many horrid creatures heard her cries, but none dared approach her, for she was far more fearsome than anything that the forest had ever seen. With the lower body of a massive snake and the torso of a female humanoid, the creature cried in its palms as the snakes in its hair hissed at anything that dared to come even remotely close to her.
"Mara?" a voice called out to her.
"Huh?" the medusa uttered and turned around. "Scorpan?" she whispered and wiped away some of her tears, still retaining her state of complete sorrow.
"Mara!" Scorpan flew closer to her and embraced her in a sincere hug. "Little sister... I've missed you so much," he whispered in her ear as tears of joy started running down his cheeks.
"Scorpan... It really is you..." Mara answered, her sorrow quickly turning into the most heartfelt smile.
"What were you doing here?" the big brother asked after disengaging from the hug.
"Your spell... I... I just wanted to warn them..." she whispered, her face suddenly filling up with uncertainty. "I... I felt it... it was just like all those years ago, when father tried to--"
"Shh," Scorpan hushed her and re-established the hug he had just broken. "Lets not talk about that."
"Oh..." Mara bit her tongue as her eyes started leaking again. Her expression was painful to even look at. "I still can't get that image out of my head..."
"Hush, now," Scorpan tried to calm her. "Everything is going to be all right."
"No, it's not!" his sister retorted. "It was all my fault!"
"Hush! Don't say that! It wasn't--"
"I will never forget their faces..." Mara interrupted and turned her head away from her brother to hide her tears. "I just wanted to try and talk them out of it, but then they started shouting at me, and then I... I..."
Not waiting for her to finish, Scorpan pulled his sister closer to himself again and kissed her on her forehead. The snake's on Mara's head didn't seem to mind.
"Tirek was right to send me away..."
"Don't say that!" Scorpan raised his voice. "None of this was your fault! The mistake was theirs!"
"Then how come you're trying to repeat that mistake?"
"I..." The gargoyle prince lost his voice for a moment. He let out a sigh of regret before continuing, "I just wanted you to never have to be afraid of hurting anyone again..." he whispered and gently placed his paws on Mara's shoulders while gazing into her tear-filled eyes. "I wanted to make a land just for you."
"And how many would have to die before that could happen!?" Mara snapped back at him. "Did you really mean to extinguish an entire race just for the sake of one monster!?"
"I wasn't going to do it to all of them!" Scorpan retorted and shook his sister's shoulders. "Only the ones that could be a threat... The rest would just have to leave..." He stared into Mara's eyes with a warm smile, while she could only scowl back at him. "You're not a monster."
Crossing her arms and disengaging from the bond between their eyes, Mara replied in a grumpy tone, "Tell that to all of those I've turned to stone."
"Mara, that's enough."
"You can't just deprive an entire race of their homes just for me!"
"I can," Scorpan replied and grabbed his little sister by her hand. "And I will." He began dragging her away by her hand.
"Scorpan, stop!" Mara protested and tried to free herself from his grip.
"I've lost you once already, little sister... I'm not about to let that happen again."
"Scorpan! This isn't right!"
"You deserve better than this!"
"Scorpan! Enough!" She struggled to break free as hard as she could. "I won't let you do this!"
"You can't stop me!" Scorpan retorted. He released her hand and turned around to grab her by her shoulders. He held her tightly, refusing to let go no matter how hard she struggled. "I don't care how many races I have to eradicate! We will be a family again! I won't stop until I've--"
"Gaaah!" As her eyes suddenly flashed with a golden color, Mara let out a demonic shriek and directed her fierce gaze right at her older brother. "S-S-Scorpan?" she whispered as she placed her palm on the cheek of the statue in front of her. Her eyes were widen open from shock. "No..." she whispered and closed her eyes as another set of tears started raining from her heartbroken face.
"Raaaaaagh!" a loud scream of pure hatred and agony echoed through the forest, sending more than just birds flying away from its place of origin. The entire forest was in turmoil for a short moment.
"What in Equestria..." Applejack exclaimed.
The ponies stopped for a moment as a massive pack of frightened woodland creatures of all sizes went stampeding past them, leaving them dazed and robbing them of their courage. The ruckus scared Fluttershy into jumping towards Rainbow Dash and holding on to her while trembling from fear.
"Anyone else feel like heading back?" Rainbow Dash asked in nervous tone. The scared-to-death pony she was holding nodded in approval.
"I have to admit, I'm not sure what could possibly scare a manticore into tucking its tail and running," Twilight replied, also troubled about the odd event. "But we can't go back now."
"She's right, y'all," Applejack added. "Whatever the cause of all this fuss, we have to get to the bottom of it."
Mustering what was left of their bravery, the ponies pressed on. Still trembling and rapidly clattering her teeth, Fluttershy seemed completely oblivious about what was going on while her friend carried her forward.
***
Before even seeing the cause of the turmoil, the ponies could hear loud cries coming from its direction. They slowed down but didn't stop. Upon reaching their destination, they couldn't help but gasp at the wicked sight they bore witness to.
They saw Scorpan on his knees, crying without stop, and in his claws he was holding a stone statue of a medusa by its palm. The expression on the maiden was that of absolute agony and was a sight that nopony could gaze upon without feeling uneasy themselves. What was even stranger about it was that the statue was holding a mirror right up to its face.
"Everything I ever did, I did for her..." Scorpan cried out as the ponies got closer to him.
"Is that..." Applejack quietly uttered, bemused by the event.
"I think so," Twilight replied and hung her head. The rest of her friends also bowed their heads in grief for the creature's loss. Even if Scorpan was still their enemy, his devastated state made it impossible to hold any anger against him.
"Come back to me, little sister..." Scorpan whispered as he pressed his forehead against the statue's hand, letting it absorb all of his tears as its grey color began to temporarily darken. "Come back to me..."
