Now that part 4 of the first ep is out, it’s time to meet our antagonist, Maredusa!
 
Over a thousand years ago, there lived a beautiful, powerful unicorn called Maredusa. She was kind, gracious and exceptionally talented in her magic. She would use her skills to restore the health of the other ponies who lived in her village and cure whatever ailments they came to her with. She was loved and adored throughout her village, and word soon spread of the mystical unicorn with magic so strong, she could almost perform miracles. Ponies started to come to her with their requests from far and wide, but she became worn out from constantly draining her power, and began to notice her magic fading as she grew weaker. In order to keep up with her new demands, she sought to transform herself into an even more powerful being with magic strong enough to cure every and any pony that came to her. She knew the strongest pony would have to be an Alicorn but no matter what she tried, she couldn’t successfully perform the spell to turn herself into one. As more sick ponies lined up at her doorstep, she grew desperate, and turned to dark magic. A forbidden spell to gain power amplified her magic and gave her wings, but turned her heart venomous and transformed her mane into a bed of snakes. Instead of wanting to cure ailments, she now sought to cause them, and traversed the land undoing all the good she had done.  
Many famous sorcerers around the world tried to defeat her, but she was too powerful for them. Then one day, a brave young unicorn named Flashfire stepped up to face her. Amplified by the magic from a passing comet, Flashfire was able to almost completely revoke Maredusa’s magic, cursing her so the only spell she could cast would be turning beings into stone. Maredusa tried to retaliate and strike Flashfire, but she countered her with her own magic and the spell bounced back; turning Maredusa into stone.
 
Now, years later, Maredusa has returned, equipped with the legendary Phoenix Amulet that can perform any spell her horn previously could. She’s searching for a pure-born Alicorn, which has led her to the newest Alicorn in Equestria, Princess Flurry Heart.
 
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Finally here’s our first two-parter episode’s villain, MAREDUSA!  
Obviously a twist on the Medusa myth, with many changes to fit this universe. In the spirit of MLP’s animation (and how Medusa is typically portrayed in cartoon), her mane of snakes isn’t all too detailed. I don’t even wanna THINK about theoretically having to animate heavily detailed snakes for each shot she’d be in.