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// Stone Siphon Potion 
// Story: Going Rogue 
// by MidnightBlaze 
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Rogue was running along the path as fast as his hooves could carry him, also using his wings for a further boost of speed, and was beginning to tire. He had been going at full speed for about ten minutes already and there hadn't been a single sign of anypony. Or zebra. "I thought she said the hut was supposed to be just a few minutes ahead! Apparently judging distance isn't one of her strong points."

There was a sharp bend to the right in the path a few hundred feet ahead. As he rounded the corner at full speed he narrowly avoided running into a strange oversized mask that was sticking out of the ground, and instead skidded straight into what seemed like a door... in the front of a tree? "What in Equestria?"

A voice came from somewhere inside the tree hut. "Who is knocking on my door at this hour? Come in, come in, don't stay outside and cower."

Rogue had to think for a second before realizing who the voice might belong to. "Zecora?"

The voice from inside answered, but it seemed closer than before. "Yes, that is my name. But from merely your voice, your identity is not plain."

"She lives in a tree? Uh, I'm a... friend... of Twilight's. She sent me to get you cuz she was mostly turned to stone by a cockatrice, and she said you might have a potion that would cure her."

The door flew open in Rogue's face and he was suddenly face to face with a hooded Zecora. "Then there is no time to waste. If Twilight is in trouble, we must make... haste?" When Zecora saw Rogue she took a moment to look him over.

"I know this looks bad, but I'm telling the truth. Twilight's in trouble, and she said that you might be able to help. Ah, what else did she say? Oh, yeah! She said that she thought you tried to eat AppleBloom or something."

At this Zecora did the one ting that Rogue didn't expect. She laughed! "Twilight's imagination caused her to see what was fake, and I know that she did not circulate this past mistake."

Rogue stared confused at the strange laughing zebra for a few seconds before speaking again. "So... you trust me?"

Zecora stopped laughing and looked up at Rogue. "You can not simply ask to gain my trust, but on the chance this is the truth, then follow you I must."

Rogue was caught completely off guard by her seeming acceptance of him. "Oh, ok then. Follow me! She's in a clearing about ten minutes down the path." He turned to run down the path again, but Zecora stepped out in front of him and halted his progress.

Zecora's face was calm but her voice was as cold as ice. "I will give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you are lying then hear me out. If you have harmed Twilight in any way, then upon my word, I will make you pay."

The sharp tone of Zecora's voice showed Rogue that she was serious about her threat, and was perfectly able to carry it out. He smiled nervously. "Heh, noted."

As suddenly as it had appeared, her dangerous demeanor dissapeared. Replaced by her earlier calmness. "Now lead the way and I'll be right behind. If we hurry we should make it in time."

At that, Rogue and Zecora ran down the path towards the clearing where Twilight was waiting. Zecora was surprisingly quick, being able to keep up with Rogue going at full speed even with his advantage of wings. By the time they arrived at the clearing Rogue was tired out, but Zecora was barely even breathing hard.

Rogue ignored the imprisoned cockatrice, who had given up its fruitless struggle and was currently occupied in glaring daggers in Twilight's general direction, and immediately ran up to Twilight. "Twilight, we're here!"

Twilight was annoyed that Rogue had taken so long. "Well it's about time!"

Rogue was taken aback by Twilight's attitude. "Well somepony's impatient!"

Twilight started to retort before catching herself. "Sorry, Ive just had an itch on my side ever since you left. I can't reach it and it's been driving me crazy!"

The thought of Twilight struggling to scratch her side while mostly petrified sent Rogue into a fit of laughter.

Twilight was not amused. "It's not funny!"

While Rogue was busy laughing and Twilight was busy rebuking him for laughing, Zecora was busy ignoring them both and had been going through her saddle bags, which she had apparently concealled under her oversized cloak. She had already set out an assortment of different sized bottles of strange colored liquids and sacks of various exotic herbs and had begun mixing them together with a mortar and pestle while talking to herself. "If only I had a rock thistle bud, without it my potion will be a dud."

Zecora's comment reminded Twilight of her entire reason for coming into the Everfree Forest. "I have some!"

Zecora looks up from digging in her bags. "You do?"

"Yeah, they're in my saddle bags, I dropped them when the cockatrice attacked me. I think it's somewhere behind me, but I can't see for sure." Twilight attempted to look behind her, unsuccesfully.

Rogue, finally over his lauging fit, walked over to where Twilight seemed to be trying to look. "Yeah, it's here."

Zecora left her bags and went over to look in Twilight's. Rogue stepped aside as Zecora came over. Seeing as the two rock thistle blossoms were the only things in the bag, Zecora found them right away. "You spoke true." She took a small section out of the middle of the blossom which was still in the bud phase. "With just one of these buds mixed in with my potion, it will gain potency and apply like lotion." She walked back over to her bags and added the bud to her mix.

Curious, Rogue went over to watch her prepare the potion. "So how will that un-petrify Twilight?"

Zecora continued working while she explained. "When I apply the Stone Siphon Potion to Twilight's skin, it will draw out the Petrification Spell from within. To dissolve and eat away the stone, leaving only flesh and bone."

Twilight was more than a little worried about the prospect of having what was basically a stone eating acid put on her skin. "Will it hurt?"

Zecora had already began to rub the white potion on Twilight's affected areas with one hoof that was wrapped in a cloth. "Yes, and there is one side effect, but do not dispair. The acid in the potion will also eat your hair." By now Zecora had completely finished applying the potion.

The idea of being mostly bald did not excite Twilight at all. "What!?!"

The potion started to bubble as the reaction to the Petrification Spell began and small tendrils of white smoke arose whenever one of the bubbles popped. While Twilight was being freed from her stone prison Zecora had pulled out a towell from her bags and poured a bottle of water on it, thoroughly soaking it. She then took it over to Twilight and as soon as Twilight could move she began to rub off off the remnants of the potion with the towell.

Twilight's first act after being freed was to flop down on the ground, cast a Levatation Spell on a nearby stick, and proceeded to use it to scratch her right side. Which, like her entire back half and part of her forlegs, was completely bald. "Ahhh. Finally!" Twilight's behaviour, coupled with the facts that she was mostly bald, had no tail, and the top part of her mane was now gone, made a very comical sight.

Zecora attempted to hide a smile, but Rogue didn't even try to contain his laughter. "Well, that's a great first impression."

After Twilight conquered her foe, aka the itch, she realized how ridiculous she must look. Embarrassed, she stood up and released her Levatation Spell. "Heh heh, sorry."

Upon seeing it's would be prey now free, the trapped cockatrice went into a fit of rage, grunting and struggling furiously against its unyielding stone prison. And yet again Zecora did the last thing anypony expected, she walked right up to the cockatrice and stared it straight in the eyes. Meanwhile Twilight and Rogue just watched in awe of Zecora's seeming invulnerability to the cockatrice's Petrification Spell.

Zecora just stood there in what looked like a staring contest with the imprisoned cockatrice. She didn't even look away when she spoke, "How this prison was made I don't know how, but I require it to be removed now."

There was just something about Zecora that made Rogue know that he should obey her immediately. He thought for a second before he stomped one hoof down, which sent a small, green tinged shockwave along the ground. When it reached the cockatrice the ground that had held it in place just fell back down where it had come from.

After being freed both Twilight and Rogue half expected that the cockatrice would either attack again or run away into the Everfree Forest. But intead it just stood in the exact same place that it had been held, caught in Zecora's stare. The words that Zecora spoke were so deathly quiet that only herself and the cockatrice heard them. "Leave."

Then the most bizarre thing happened, the cockatrice turned and slowly half walked, half slithered back into the Everfree Forest.

Before Twilight or Rogue could even comprehend what had just happened, Zecora turned to them with her usual casual mood once again in play. "I need you two to follow me home, I must speak to both of you alone."

With that Zecora led the way down the path, leaving Twilight and Rogue with little choice. They looked at each other before following Zecora down the path to her hut.