Fluttershy spreads her wings as far as she can, straining to keep any of the Crusaders from staring into the cockatrice’s beady red eyes. The scratch of talon on dirt mere feet away startles Fluttershy into opening one eye, staring through the mane at the slithering green monster. He is rearing up like a cobra, claws capable of slivering stone waving just in front of her. Fluttershy grimaces, chancing a glance behind her.
The three fillies nervously paw at the dirt, clenching their eyes shut, ready to dash away at the slightest provocation. A light whine emanates from each of them, shaking as they huddle against Fluttershy’s legs.
“Look,” Fluttershy says, straining to keep the terror from her voice. “We aren’t looking for any trouble, okay? We just want to get our friends, and go home.” At the cockatrice’s angry cluck Fluttershy continues, “Yes, that would be the pony. And, um, the dragon.” She glances back to the tree where Spike’s body still rests, leaning up against the tree and peering into the clearing.
The cockatrice scrabbles against the ground, growling menacingly.
“And, um, you really shouldn’t be petrifying ponies. In fact, that’s probably the worst thing you can do. But, I’m willing to look past this if you just restore my friend Twilight, and promise me that you will never do this again.”
An angry roar from above flattens Fluttershy’s ears against her head, pushing her mane away from her downcast eyes. She buckles back a step, twisting her head away.
The fillies scream in terror, a high pitched wail that goes on and on, bolting away from Fluttershy with eyes closed. They scurry away, blindly running into trees and shrubs as they stumble around the path.
Fluttershy grits her teeth, yelling “GIRLS!!” before she rounds on the cockatrice, fury incarnate.
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” Fluttershy’s eye’s narrow as she stares the cockatrice down. The cockatrice bawks in surprise, momentarily taken aback. “I have half a mind to find your mother and tell her about what you’ve done!” Fluttershy stamps a hoof on the ground, giving the cockatrice a moment to consider his options.
The cockatrice regains his composure, baring his beak at Fluttershy. He roars, red eyes shining brightly. Bits of pieces of stone begin coalescing at the end of Fluttershy’s tail and hind hooves, gradually making their way across her body.
The fillies stop screaming as they watch, cowering down and unable to turn their eyes away from the dueling creatures. Their eyes shimmer with tears at the thought of losing not one, but two of their aunts. How would they even explain what happened here? If they even get out of here?
Fluttershy can feel her hind legs getting numb. She courageously bellows, “Oh, is that what you have to say for yourself? I don’t think so!” Her Malevolent Stare focuses on the cockatrice, eyes wide as she bears down on top of him. “Now you go over there! And you turn my friend Spike and Twilight back to normal!”
The cockatrice cowers down slightly before he springs back up, redoubling his efforts to petrify Fluttershy, turning her into his next meal. His beady little eyes glare forwards, the stone creeping along to Fluttershy’s dock and the base of her barrel.
Fluttershy grits her teeth, amping up her own Stare just as much. “Now, listen here! You stop this right now! And don’t ever let me catch you doing something like this again!”
The stone around Fluttershy shatters, dropping to the mud in little chunks and pieces that splash tiny droplets in every direction.
The cockatrice yelps in surprise, eyes wandering madly from one chunk of stone to the yellow pegasus in front of him. His vision drifts to the fillies, tiny black eyebrows narrowing. The cockatrice darts forward, fixating each of them with his stare. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo try to break her gaze but cannot, stone fully encasing their hind legs.
Fluttershy leaps in between, her own eyes wider than the cockatrice’s entire body. “OH NO YOU DON’T!” she shouts at the top of her lungs, her Malevolence rocketing up to six.
The cockatrice lets loose a single ‘bukaw?’ as the light fades from his eyes, now a dull stare at nothing in particular, his body slumping down.
Fluttershy calmly states, “Now, I’m sorry I had to do that, but I would feel just awful if I had to tell the others that this happened. So, we’re just going to restore Twilight and Spike and the trio here back to normal, okay? Okay.” She raises a hoof, petting the cockatrice on the head.
The cockatrice limply falls over, a short ‘bakaw’ all the response they get.
Fluttershy sighs to herself, a short glance to the fillies. “Are you three all right?”
Apple Bloom nods, “Loads better!”
Sweetie Belle offers her a small smile, “Tanks to that stare of yours!”
Scootaloo shakes her head, “I’m still a little stoned over here.”
Fluttershy meekly smiles, “Oh. Right.” She grabs the cockatrice in her forelegs, dragging the unresponsive creature. She props his head up to face Scootaloo, the filly trying to shy away but still trapped in stone. Her Stare returns as she commands, “Okay, mister. Turn her back to normal!”
The cockatrice’s eyes briefly shine, the stone around Scootaloo pulsing before breaking into chunks. Scootaloo leaps away, a smile on her muzzle. “Thanks, Fluttershy! You’re like the queen of stares!”
“The Gaze Guru!”
“The Glare Governor!”
“The Looker Lord!”
“Okay, girls, I think that’s enough,” Fluttershy says with a smile as she breaks Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom free. “Besides, we still need to help our friends, right?”
“Aww,” Apple Bloom says. “But Ah thought we were on a roll.”
“You were,” Fluttershy reassure her, “But I would really like to get out of the Everfree Forest. Okay?”
“Okay,” the three fillies chorus merrily.
“Okay.” Fluttershy walks a few steps to Spike’s body, dragging the cockatrice to stare at him. Her Malevolence flares again as she commands the cockatrice, “Okay, two more to release and then I can let you sleep.”
The cockatrice garbles something unintelligible. “There, there,” Fluttershy reassures the half snake, half chicken.
Spike raises a claw to his head, woozily looking around. “What ha- Ahh!” Spike shouts at the cockatrice’s head loosely bobbing inches away from him. “It’s… it’s… Ah!”
“Oh, this little guy?” Fluttershy says, giving him a hug and a smile. “He’s nothing to worry about. Now, let’s go free Twilight, shall we?”
A guttural gurgle comes from the cockatrice.
“Oh, you don’t have much time left, do you?” Fluttershy says, a twinge of worry. “Let’s just do this right quick, okay?” She flutters her wings, quickly bringing her to Twilight’s stone form. Her Stare flares again, “Bring Her Back!”
Spiderweb cracks appear in the stone around Twilight, quickly growing more and more plentiful. Finally Twilight breaks free, her eyes shining white as shards of stone explode away from her. Everypony shields their face from the sharp projectiles, whimpers of pain as they cut into forelegs and coats.
“Kindness!” the purple unicorn bellows, charging Fluttershy. The pegasus shrieks as she drops the cockatrice, her eyes still wide with the Stare. The unicorn bowls her over, muzzle to muzzle as she traps Fluttershy on the ground.
“Mm,” the purple unicorn says greedily, her horn resting on the pegasus’ head. “Not as good, but Malevolence will work, too.”
Fluttershy gasps as she feels the power of her stare slowly fade, faint wisps of ethereal energy flowing into the purple unicorn. “Tw… Twilight?” The purple unicorn slowly stops, gradually backing off. She blinks several times, the white disappearing from her eyes.
Twilight glances down, her eyebrows narrowing quizzically. “Fluttershy? What are you doing here?” She glances around at the Crusaders and Spike, asking, “What happened?”
The four youngsters run forward, hugging Fluttershy and Twilight. They all yell, “Twilight! You’re safe!”
“Yes!” Twilight says, a sharp intake of breath as she spots the limp cockatrice. She rolls off of Fluttershy as she asks, “Is… is that?”
Fluttershy nods, a heavy sigh. “Yes. A cockatrice. It, um… it found you. And-”
“And then Fluttershy saved the day!” Scootaloo exclaims.
Sweetie Belle adds, “She used her Stare and the cockatrice was all, like, ‘oh no you don’t!’”
Apple Bloom nods, “And then Fluttershy was like, ‘oh no you don’t!’ and then the cockatrice, um…” She squats down. “What did you do?”
Fluttershy nervously paws the ground as she gets up, “Um, I might have gone a little overboard with my stare.” She drops down to the convulsing cockatrice, whispering, “Shh. It’s okay. You can go to sleep now.” The cockatrice shudders once before going still.
“Well, that just happened,” Twilight says, a bit of a glare at the fallen cockatrice.
Spike motions to Twilight, “Hey, Twilight, it looks like three of the stars on your cutie mark are glowing.”
Twilight glances back, her horn lighting up the area. “Huh.” The large six pointed pink star in the middle looks unchanged, along with the white six pointed star underneath, but three of the five small white stars are slightly brighter than before.
“That’s odd.” Twilight sighs, “I wonder what did that? I never noticed anything weird before.”
Fluttershy stares at Twilight for a few seconds before shrugging. “Me neither.”
Twilight shrugs as well, a bit of a frown as Fluttershy hefts the cockatrice onto her back. “Um, you aren’t going to keep that, are you? Isn’t it, like, really dangerous?”
“Oh, him?” Fluttershy glancing back to the cockatrice as she winds the bulk around her barrel. “Oh, no. He’s, um, he’s never waking up again. I just didn’t want his last memories to be of us yelling at him.” She starts walking back out along the path.
Twilight stares blankly at Fluttershy as the rest of the group follows the pegasus. “What?”
Fluttershy nods. “Um, I might have gone just a teensy bit overboard with my Stare on him when he attacked the fillies despite my pleading with him not to.” Fluttershy chuckles nervously, “Funny thing about chickens, they can function pretty well even when they’re missing a good chunk of their brain!” She shifts around, a hoof supporting the cockatrice as gravity tries to pull the limp coils off of her.
Twilight then motions to the stone manticore as they depart the clearing, “And what about him? Are we just going to, I don’t know, leave him here like this?”
Fluttershy glances up at the manticore, a bit of a shrug. She motions to the cockatrice on her back, “I mean, this guy’s babies need to eat too. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they are out and about here somewhere close. Or he’ll break out of the stone in a day or so, and as long as he doesn’t move around much he’ll be fine.” Fluttershy shakes her head, “I’m definitely not breaking him out now. I mean, he was dueling the cockatrice over who got to eat me and the fillies. And you, if the manticore won and you later broke free.”
Twilight gulps. “And here I thought you might be worried about some baby creatures.”
“Of course I am!” Fluttershy says, motioning to the Crusaders. “I’m very worried about their safety. And Doug’s, should he ever encounter a cockatrice.”
“We’re not foals anymore!” Scootaloo pouts.
“Yes,” Fluttershy agrees, “and big fillies should know better than to play in the Everfree Forest, or to stay there longer than they need to.” The Crusaders pout at this, but none dare to challenge her.
Twilight groans, “Aww, I never did get that tea from Zecora’s. And, why are you keeping the body?”
“To make soup!” Fluttershy says with a cheeky grin. “I’m hoping it has some special property, like preventing petrification from a cockatrice.”
Twilight grumbles, “Well, that would have been helpful for me to have, now wouldn’t it?”
“Why?” Fluttershy responds innocuously. “You’re turned to stone. How would you drink it?”
“Um. Hmm.” Twilight murmurs for a second. “Pouring it on them wouldn’t work?”
Fluttershy shakes her head, “No. It’s a potion, not a salve. I mean, normally we might be able to just wait for the petrification to wear off, as your innate magic fights against it. Assuming, of course, that you’re still in one piece.”
“What about Doug?” Twilight asks, a touch of fear in her voice. “What would happen to him?”
“That’s why I’m making him this soup!” Fluttershy says with a smile. “It will be especially good for him, since he doesn’t have innate magic that would eventually break him out. We would need to find a Loyalty specialist, probably with a cutie mark related to restoring ailments like this. I’ve also heard eating the eyes works, but that’s more of a cure if you’re half petrified. Do you think he’d prefer one way or the other? I mean, we could always try both.” She grins at the thought, “I bet it’s delicious.”
Twilight gags a little, two of the three fillies sharing her sentiment. “Yeah, um, best let him make that decision.”