“Oh look! Check this out!” Twilight pointed in her book. “It says here that snakes, spiders, and olive trees are all symbolic of the goddess Athena. But the owl is her sacred animal, because it represents wisdom.”
“Great,” Spike muttered. “But any chance there’s a dog who is a sacred animal?”
Before Twilight can answer, the sound of screaming was heard.
"What's going on out there?" Twilight asked.
Earlier
"Well, first off," Sunset began. "By chance, are you familiar with Athena?" She asked to the gorgon, who looked up with piqued interests.
“Athena?” Medusa muttered uneasily. “What do you know of Athena?”
“Only from some stories about you,” Sunset replied. “They say that you were cursed by her because of some.....” Sunset was searching for the right words, but hesitated when she noticed how unnerving Maddie looked. “Anyway, I just thought I should talk to you about this first, because I was thinking we could go to her temple later, and ask for her help. That is, if you’re okay with it.”
Medusa looked up at Sunset Shimmer, with her transparent, yet reflective, third eyelids closed to contain her petrifying stares, "I don't know," She muttered, turning her head to look away, "If the sssstoriessss say that Athena wassssss the one who curssssed me to be thisssss way, then I think ssssseeking an audiencccce with her would not be ssssssuch a wisssssse thing."
"But we have to at least try something," Sunset replied. "I mean, if Athena didn't cursed you, then who did?"
"I...I....No!" Medusa hyperventilated, as her unpleasant traumas flashed before her eyes, with the unpleasant feelings of guilt and regrets resurfacing. “No please! No!” The gorgon pleaded, to which Sunset backed away, while Fluttershy wearily woke up from the commotion. “Don’t make me relive that day! Don't make me relive that day!”
"Huh? Goodness, what's going on?" Fluttershy asked, wiping the sleeps from her eyes.
"No!" Medusa hissed, as she and her snakes both thrashed about in increasing anxiety in their coils.
"Medusa, calm down. Stop! Please calm down!" Sunset said, as she struggled to get the gorgon under control. "Calm down! You're going to-"
"Hey quiet in there!" Someone in the next room shouted.
"Sorry!" Sunset apologized, before turning her attention to Medusa, just in time to see Fluttershy coaxing and calming the gorgon in a hug, with a few gentle strokes.
"There, there, it's alright," Fluttershy cooed. "Shhhhh. You're safe now."
With a hiss, and after a series of short and heavy breathings, Medusa composed herself, while Sunset touched her geode and walked up, putting her hand on Medusa's shoulder, once again diving into her memories. Again, Sunset sees herself through Medusa's eyes, pleading for mercy and forgiveness, before the woman who had cursed her life. It must be the goddess Athena. But once again, the source and the event behind her wrath remains unclear.
Sunset could only watch and empathize with Medusa's intensifying fear as the goddess, Athena, held her hand up, casting her spell onto Medusa in a flash of light. From there, Sunset knew the rest.
"C'mon! There's got to be more to this!" Sunset said mentally with frustration. "Please, Maddie. Work with me. Tell me what went wrong!" Before Sunset could find the answer she was looking for, she was pulled back to reality, when she was startled by what sounded to be an earsplitting, bloodcurdling screech of a bird, thus breaking Sunset's concentration on her power.
"AH!!" Fluttershy yelped, two having been startled by the sound.
Both girls and Medusa looked off into the distance, out of the window, curious to what the commotion was, "What was that?"
Sunset Shimmer stepped out of the balcony to observe from the deck, "Huh, there's nothing out-" Sunset's nose twitched, to a foul odor. "Ew, what's that-AH!!!" The fiery girl screamed, when a pair of talons suddenly grabbed her and snatched her off floor.
"SUNSET!!" Fluttershy and Maddie shouted, watching as their friend was carried away, into the air, screaming.
"SUNSET!!!" Fluttershy called out desperately, right when Applejack and Rainbow Dash came into the room, with the others.
"Fluttershy? What-What's goin' on?" Applejack asked.
"It's Sunset!" Fluttershy said frantically. "She's been taken!"
"What? Taken?" Rainbow asked. "Taken where? By who?"
"Harpy!" Medusa hissed in horror. "The creature that made off with SSSSSSunsssset isssss a curssssed harpy!"
"A harpy?" Fluttershy whimpered. "What's a harpy?"
"A harpy is another creature originated from Greek Mythology," Twilight lectured, while opening up her Encyclopedia on Greek Mythologies. "A harpy has the wings and talons of a vulture, but the body of a woman. They're often referred to as storm spirits, and are said to be the cause of mysterious disappearances in Ancient Greece. According to legends, they're used by the gods to capture and punish the guilty."
"Well, maybe somebody ought to tell them that our dear friend was pardon for her past misdeeds then?" Rarity commented.
Meanwhile, Medusa had a look of dread on her face, "Or maybe, it'sssss me they want!" She hissed in dread.
"No, no, Medusa, don't start that song again," Rainbow Dash shook her head.
"But Twilight hassss read the truth!" The gorgon continued. "The harpiessss have come for me. I've doomed usssss all. The godssss musssst've known I have esssscaped my island, are now sssssending the harpiessss for me, and anyone who getsssss in their way!"
"Maddie..."
"Look, we'll worry about what those buzzards want later," Applejack said, getting everyone back on topic. "Right now, we gotta get out there and rescue our friend!"
Then, faster than Rainbow Dash could run, an idea perked up in Pinkie Pie's head, "This looks like a job for...." Reaching into her hair, Pinkie got a bag of sprinkles, which she threw down to the ground, creating a bright cloud of pink smokes, before she disappears and reappears in a superhero costume. "Pink-Spider!" She declared dramatically.
Everyone in the room all stared at their eccentric friend, in disbelief, "Pink-Spider?" Rainbow Dash began.
"That's MISS Pink-Spider to you!" Pinkie pointed her finger at the athlete.
"Miss Pink-Spider?" Fluttershy inquired. "You mean like Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends?"
"No!"
"I think she's trying to be a parody of Spider-Man," Rainbow Dash explained.
"I AM SPIDER-MAN!" Pinkie Pie said angrily.
"You're a spider and a man?" Medusa asked in bewilderment.
"No! I mean, yes. I mean, oh this is so embarrassingly out-of-context," Pinkie Pie groaned. "Alright, let's do this one last time," She began, as she narrates. "My name is Pinkamena Diana Pie. But my friends call me Pinkie Pie. I was born on a Tuesday on a rock farm, when I was bitten by a radioactive spider. And for my whole life, I am secretly the one and only Miss Pink-Spider! Eh, it's a working title. But anyway, I've thrown lots of parties, baked cakes, throw parties again, bake even more cakes, and I've saved the world now and then with my friends, AND I THROW A LOT MORE PARTIES! Oh, and I even did this!"
"But we don't talk about it. Look, I'm a TV Star. Kids loved me! I'm also an action figure, a doll, a comic book, wrote some songs, and threw a lot of parties, and I have a HUGE fanbase. They even wrote a theme song about me!"
"NO, NO! Not that one! Not that one! That one was awful! THIS ONE!"
Pinkie's Theme Song by the Phony Brony
"It's a catchy tune. But hey, after everything, I still love being Pink-Spider! I mean, who wouldn't? So no matter how many times people would want to pop my balloons, or how much time I have left until the end of G4 to G5, or the odds of G5 being another terrible reboot of the thing we all know and love growing up, I'm always going to be the one and only, Pinkie Pie! Because for what it's worth, friendship is magic!"
"And scene!" Pinkie Pie concluded, much to her friend's bewilderment and disbelief.
"Whoa," Rainbow Dash commented. "You've been a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, uh I mean, Spider-Girl this whole time? And you didn't even tell us until now?"
"Actually, I told it to Sunset Shimmer," Pink-Spider confirmed. "Y'know, after we became friends. She's my Stan Lee. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got an author and friend to save!" With a flick of her hand, Pink-Spider shot a string of pink web fluids from her wrist, and with a leap of faith, she was on her way.
"CANNELLONI–CANNOLI!" She hollered, as she disappears into the night. Not too far off, a loud crash echoed, in which a loud cat yowling was heard.
Meanwhile, the girls and Spike were getting over their shock at what just happened, "Did that really just happened?" Spike asked.
"I don't know," Rainbow replied, before an excited grin appeared on her face. "But I ain't gonna let Pinkie have all the fun! C'mon! Sunset Shimmer's our friend too, and she needs our help! Who's with me?"
"Indubitably!" Rarity joined in.
"Affirmative!" Twilight confirmed.
"Yee-haw!" Applejack added.
"Yay," Fluttershy said.
"Yeah!" Spike barked.
"Pizza!" Everyone all looked at Maddie, weirdly. "I wasssss thinking of having sssssome more pizza after thissss."
Getting back on track, Rainbow Dash leads the girls and dog to raise their hands, paws, and claws to the air, "EXCELSIOR!"
Uh OH!
Now they're in for it!
Prepare yourselves people!
If that was Athena in Medusa's memory, I suspect things are about to get pretty nasty!
Pinkie Pie is sure full of surprises!
Where to next I wonder? Obviously not the Parthenon
Well... 'That' just happened.
But all 'Spider-Man' references aside, at least for this particular canon, that Harpy could have decided to kidnap Medusa but instead it took Sunset Shimmer. Perhaps because the Harpies are more magical than we thought, that it possibly sensed Sunset was attempting to dive 'too deep' into Medusa's memories to know if Athena was truly responsible or not. Or 'maybe' in order to lure Medusa back to the island for leaving the sanctity of her home, the Harpy merely took Sunset Shimmer as 'bait' in hopes of leading the cursed beauty and her new friends into a 'trap'. Predictable at best, but it's a popular story trope and an excuse to know if the Goddess is truly a villain (Which is rare given that it's Athena and all).
Either way, there is definitely some big mystery that the higher forces do not wish to be solved and regardless if Medusa feels responsible, if she doesn't go forth to rescue her new friend then it would be an insult to the girls who have up to this point been nothing but nice to her. If anything, I am curious to see how Pinkie Pie would look in 'Spider-Man' form unless there has been previous images around. Proving 'Filly Second' isn't her 'only' superhero persona. Though as for what theme song was 'censored' for comedic purposes...
I'm not sure if I 'want' to know what that is.
Anyways... R.I.P. Stan Lee and thanks for bringing us Spider-Man.
Awesome job, and Happy Spider-Man day
Do you think that what Medusa Is about to be put through right now Could be part of a secret test That will lead to her salvation?
What if Athena could be trying to see whether or not Medusa is learning anything important from the girls and, in the end, she does a selfless deed (sacrificing herself perhaps) that leads to Athena deciding to remove her curse permanently?
Maybe those harpies could also be Medusa’s sisters cursed as well
Ha ha.. Pinkie with her crazy things
I thought of some names for her, if you like: "Spider-Pie" or just "Spider-Pink" (the last I just inverted the names)
But now. SUNSET WAS KIDNAPPED BY A HARPY!!!
9761398
According to some research on Medusa's sisters, Stheno and Euryale were also turned into Gorgons although there also seemed to be a bit of a misconception. The research also implies that while the sisters are immortal, a source said that Medusa is actually mortal (Although I could be wrong given how she's lived to see the modern era). So they couldn't have 'possibly' turned into Harpies, unless the canon of the story makes it so.
Of the three sisters, Stheno was known to be the most independent and ferocious, having killed more men than both of her sisters combined. Whereas for Euryale, in many stories, Euryale is noted for her bellowing cries, particularly in the tale of Medusa's death at Perseus' hands. Course based on how this story is written, Euryale may go all 'Blue Diamond' before the readers 'assuming' that their sister had died (Due to all the stories saying so) and had been mourning for an immeasurable amount of time. And all because it seemed that Athena bearing no emotion and finding no fault in Poseidon, who raped Medusa in the first place, was furious with Medusa and even punished her sisters as well just because they stood up for her.
And yet... In later versions of the story, Athena, being the Goddess of Reason understands what has happened and taking pity on Medusa, changed her into a terrible monster, along with her sisters Stheno and Euryale so that no God could ever harm them again. Even if the stories of Perseus killing Medusa wasn't true and regardless of what happened to separate the subject in question from the rest of her family, the isolation and misery Medusa had for being the way she is still led to some negative consequences. Now with one of her only friends in trouble, if she wasn't hesitant about seeing Athena as if there still remained some bitterness in her heart and she thinks the goddess is responsible... She's going to be REAL pissed if 'that' part is true.
9762360
We will soon see
9762494
Yes indeed, we shall see.
9762500
Imagine if this had been an actual movie though before "My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic" ever came out. This was obviously before Equestria Girls too.
Imagine if Ms. Faust had been able to work out all the difficulties she ran into story-wise
I've got a feeling that this version of Medusa will be a happier ending for her (as well as the girls) than most, but if Faust had managed to figure things out in the first place, it probably would have been much different than this.
9762543
Oh sure, of course it would have. Take away the elements of 'Equestria Girls' or anything MLP related at all, replacing them entirely with other 'supporting' characters to aid in Medusa's endeavors to not only adjust to modern society, proving she is more than just the monster of legend, while also discovering if it's 'possible' to cure her condition, I'd say this would 'still' have made for a promising movie. And 'even' under the circumstance if a movie is still never going to happen, at the very least it would make for a rather promising book.
9762360
You’re actually right about that. Medusa is indeed mortal. But how was she able to live long enough to present time? Well, I’m sure a lot of us have wondered how long she can live if she’s never fought Perseus before.
9762543
9762561
And yes, it would make for a promising movie to watch, and an interesting story to read. It’ll be an interesting story to see Medusa as the main protagonist, and how much of a person she is/was.
And from what Faust has told us, “Her(Medusa) resulting popularity ticks off the wrong Goddess who turns her into the snake-haired monster we all know and fear.” But whether the Goddess is Athena, we do not know. But needless to say, “Medusa sets out on a quest to reverse this curse with the help of a goofy team of oddball and misfit mythological creatures,” (Cartoonbrew.com).
What kind of oddball and misfit creatures are we expecting from Lauren Faust? Well, we don’t know, and I’m afraid we never will. So why not team Medusa up with the Equestria girls and Spike? They’re odd enough for the outdated gorgon, they’ve battled loose Equestrian Magic’s before, Pinkie’s a goofball, and Sunset Shimmer has experience and actual sympathy from being turned into a demon sorceress before and then some.
Sunset had wondered about going to Athena's temple before the Harpy took her
I assume she meant the Parthenon?
9762706
I'm sure I can think of a few ideas. Throw me a couple Greek Mythos references as far as beasties are concerned, I can dabble into some research on what is known by them, and I'm sure I can think of something. But until then, as fillers for this rendition of the story, the Equestria Girls and Spike are decent fill-ins. Course if I were Faust, the number I'd think for the Misfits might be 'significantly' smaller but why split hairs?
For all we know, the misfits could be a representative of each of the races that we've seen in 'The Pastoral Symphony' if we're trying to avoid MLP references (Else fans would've thought Faust was just using the success of MLP even with the different clan species).
Medusa, I think, is going to have to face her past eventually. She doesn't want to talk about as she has shown in the previous chapters.
I wonder if one of the girls should say the same thing Rafiki said to Simba
Well...that was...something.
9764435
It's true. Sooner or later, Medusa will have to confront her own past instead of hiding away in the shadows for gosh knows how many more years (She may have to confront the issue anyway given one of her friends just got kidnapped). We've all grown up knowing that the past doesn't define who a person is, rather the person we want to be in the present makes for a promising future. Yet Medusa acted as if any mistake she made caused her to feel she deserves this curse yet she refuses to talk about how frustrating the matter is or whether if all the stories of Athena being responsible are true. There's this one thing I know for certain about the truth:
If the truth about how Medusa became the way she is eventually gets revealed and she didn't make the effort to tell about how her life came to be, not only will it forever destroy this poor soul but it may alienate her from all the friends who made all this effort to make her feel special.
9768657
Too right mate.
It’s like she is numbing the pain of her past, which will continue to get worse unless she does something
Hopefully the upcoming chapters will show the situation getting resolved (at least in part) by Medusa working up the courage to tell the girls what happened
I say “in part” because, as we have seen in the chapters so far, she doesn’t quite remember why she was cursed
9768926
That's the thing: You can numb the pain as much as you want, but that's not going to make your troubles go away. The initial story in general is just begging for a resolution that doesn't involve Medusa being beheaded yet she won't get there unless she can figure out why she's a victim of circumstance. But then, when I think about what you wrote down, it reminds me of how all the Crystal Ponies felt when they couldn't remember how they got back or what happened to cause their kingdom to disappear because the time when they were enslaved by the wicked King Sombra was such a traumatizing experience that they refused to give anything that relates to him. The same thing may be happening to Medusa, depending on if the Goddess we assume to be responsible is who we think she is.
9769822
I hadn’t thought of that
We’ll see.
9769900
True. Hopefully we get something to follow-up in about a week or two... Maybe a month, I don't know.
9769920
You know what they say
"patience is virtue"
Look forward to the next chapter
Do you think sunset shimmer’s “let it rain” could be used in this story somehow?
9804119
It's not a bad idea actually. We have to admit it's a rather beautiful song and the moral behind the lyrics would fit in with Medusa's dilemma. Sure she can try to hold in her thoughts as much as she wants and sure things didn't go the way she planned out up until the curse. But if she takes the time to just let it go, to admit that she truly feels there's more to be upset about than being a monster, even if at means remembering 'how' she became a monster in the first place, perhaps that's just the therapeutic technique that would be most helpful for Medusa. If she truly wants to be 'human again' then she needs to 'feel' human, even if that means those scenes where she's crying her eyes out... Sometimes while singing (Like 'Pearl').