Mercury Shine’s mind turns to shock, seeing the extent of the magicks cast upon her by the vexatious artefact before her… from hind hoof up over her rump her soft flesh had been ossified, subsumed beneath a surface of hard, shiny jade- just like the serpent!

She tries quickly to turn herself and get away, but the weight of her rear set in stone was too great for her to do any more than drag herself an inch or two, hind hooves digging into the soft soil, perfectly rigid- a feeling that was spreading. She shivers as her entire spine locks into rigid form as the stone advances over her belly and chest, squeezing her breath with its weight. It felt like a hundred books were stacked upon her, pressing down and from all sides, her breathing laborious and constrained in the stone shell.

The mare reaches a hoof out in another attempt to pull herself out of the shimmering aura of the artefact, but is forced to watch and listen as the dense stony texture spreads down over her forehooves, trapping her entire form beneath her head in a rigid and statuesque form. In a last effort to avert the crisis she channels energies into her horn, perhaps to shatter the serpent and save herself, but her aura falters and fizzes, the tip of her horn had turned to jade, blocking her magic.

There truly seemed no way out…