Twilight and her friends were being chased by a flock of cockatrices. They ran throughout the forest being careful not to look back into their eyes. Pinkie saw a cave and led her friends into it. The mares hid in the shadows of the walls until the flock stopped and looked around for the ponies. Eventually the flock went away.
Applejack saw that among those leaving was a purple cockatrice. The other ponies noticed the coloration.
“Well, we found it.” Applejack said. “Now we need to separate it from the rest of ‘em.”
Twilight had an idea.
“Fluttershy,” she said, “Do you have any idea what they eat?”
Fluttershy began to think. She had never really gotten close enough to a cockatrice to know their eating habits. She took a look at Applejack’s saddlebags with some plan.
Applejack said, “Oh no. I ain’t gonna use my apples to lure these birds here!”
“Oh come on, Applejack,” Pinkie Pie said. “I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
“Nope, I ain’t gonna bait them with apples and that’s final.”
Later, Applejack placed a trail of apples on the ground and hid inside a bush.
“I can’t believe y’all talked me into doing this,” she whispered.
“Well,” Rainbow Dash said. “We didn’t have any other options.”
Twilight took out a book on barrier spells and began searching the pages.
“Aha,” she said. “Right next to the elemental barriers.” She began casting a spell, Six blindfolds made of magic suddenly poofed into existence in front of the ponies.
“These blindfolds should stop the cockatrice’s gaze from petrifying us,” Twilight said.
She put the blindfolds on and the other mares did the same. Then she cast a spell to allow one-way sight.
“So how long do these spells last,” Rarity said.
“Magical construct spells like the blindfolds would last around 24 hours before disappearing.”
“So what do we do if it takes the a bait?” Fluttershy said.
“I don’t know yet,” Twilight said. “I’ve read that their venom can be used to cure the petrification, but I don’t know if it has to be the same one or not.”
Fluttershy was a little worried. She knew the dangers of the reptilian birds very well. As did Twilight, having been petrified by one.
After 12 hours, the ponies heard some sounds and checked the apples. They saw a flock of cockatrices eating the fruit including the amethyst cockatrice.
“It worked,” Rainbow Dash said. There was a foul odor in the air. “Hey do you guys smell something?”
Pinkie Pie smelled around. “Hey you’re right I smell something fowl.” She laughed at her joke while the other ponies rolled their blindfolded eyes.
“Speaking of fowl.” Rarity pointed to the cockatrices. “Look.”
The cockatrices were fleeing the area.
Twilight and Applejack thought the air smelled familiar. They saw a pack of five timberwolves chasing the cockatrices.
“Figures it’d be too easy,” Applejack gathered up some small stones and placed them in her saddlebag. “Come on!”
The ponies went after the timberwolves.
Six hours later, the pack of timberwolves was still chasing the cockatrices. Most of the reptilian birds were able to hide from the wolves, but a few still remained at the wolves mercy.
The ponies were able to catch up to the timber wolves and began to pelt them with the stones. One of the timberwolves was hit with a rock and ran into another, destroying both of them.
Two of the remaining three timberwolves were still in pursuit of their prey, but one of them stayed behind to stop the ponies. The timberwolf tried to flatten Applejack with it’s paws but missed. Applejack tried kicking the stones but the wolf dodged the assault. Rainbow Dash tried a more direct approach but was pushed back by the timberwolf’s attack.
Fluttershy tried to pass the timberwolf, but she was blocked by the paws of the beast. She ran in fear of the beast. Twilight tried blasting it with her magic but for some reason it wasn’t affected, there wasn’t even a scratch on it.
Pinkie Pie bounced around the beast, dodging the attacks like a ballerina in a laboratory. The beast was baffled by her erratic movements. Rarity used the distraction to levitate some nearby rocks and launched them at the beast, Rainbow Dash and Applejack deflected the wayward shots with kicks.
The barrage of rocks destroyed the legs of the timberwolf. It fell and was destroyed by the gravity.
Twilight and Fluttershy went after the other two timberwolves. Rainbow Dash followed them. Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity were about to follow but the foliage around them began to levitate. The trees and branches were gravitating towards where the timberwolf fell and began to form into a new timberwolf. One with three times the strength and size of the last three.
The three ponies were blocked by the gargantuan beast. They had to defeat it to aid their friends.
Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash found the flock of cockatrices cornered at a waterfall by the two timberwolves. Fluttershy whistled for the beasts’ attention.
The timberwolves heard the sound and turned to the ponies.
Fluttershy glared as she began to call out the beasts. “You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves! How could you even bring yourselves to hurt something as small as they are? you two--”
“Um Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t think they’re listening.”
The two timberwolves are now focused on the three ponies instead of the cockatrices, and Fluttershy was growing more scared as soon as she realized what they'd gotten themselves into. The timberwolves were the first to strike. One of them took their paws and tried to flatten Twilight, but she teleported out of the way.
Rainbow Dash took the opportunity to fly through the paw, but the other timberwolf intercepted that and grabbed Dash. It then flung her to the waterfall.
Dash was soaking wet. She arranged her blindfold and remembered that the cockatrices could petrify their predators. She took hold of the amethyst cockatrice and flew to the face of one of the timberwolves.
“Hey bark-breath,” Dash said. “Eat this!” She held up the purple cockatrice as it opened it eyes. It gave a glare as the beast’s wooden flesh began to petrify. Its eyes began to turn purple from the petrification. The beast began to crumble as wood turned to stone and it toppled over the other timberwolf, leaving rubble and foliage in it’s wake.
Twilight looked at the pile. “Well that was...anticlimactic.”
Fluttershy began to ask the amethyst cockatrice for its help. “Um I’m sorry but we kinda need you venom for a cure. See there’s these fillies you petrified and” --The cockatrice tried to petrify Fluttershy but the blindfold blocked its gaze.-- “We need your help in curing them. Would you please help us.”
The cocktrice tried again, but it’s purple eyes were strained in the futile attempt. Eventually it gave up and decided to follow Fluttershy. By this point the other cockatrices had already fled.
The rubble and foliage began to levitate. Twilight noticed this and said, “We have to go now!” The three ponies and one cocktrice began to flee the area.
Meanwhile, the large timberwolf was battling Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. The three ponies were unable to make a dent in the beast. The stones and physical attacks did nothing.
“Something’s wrong here,” Applejack said. “This timberwolf should have timbered by now.”
Rarity dodged the beast’s swipes. “Didn’t the one Spike stopped choked on a rock?”
“On it,” Pinkie said.
She took a rock and began to climb the beast. Applejack and Rarity followed Pinkie’s plan. The large timberwolf tried to shake off the ponies. The beast tried to flick Applejack off but she kicked the paw away and it hit Rarity instead. She fell off the blow and glared at Applejack.
Applejack climbed the knees and looked back.
“Sorry,” she said.
Pinkie climbed to the shoulders of the beast and threw the stone. It hit its eye. the beast began to howl in agony as it covered its eye. The blinded timberwolf flicked Pinkie Pie off.
The beast began to howl as it began to knock Applejack off its body. She she saw a window of opportunity and kicked the rock upwards. The beast saw the large stone and closed its mouth. Applejack climbed down and kicked one of the beast’s legs, Rarity tried to kick the other leg. They both continued kicking the legs until the beast fell. It’s mouth opened in disbelief and it swallowed the rock.
The timberwolf was choking on the small stone. it tried to take it out of its system but it couldn’t, and eventually it exploded into lumber and branches. The ponies were tired and Pinkie and Applejack were wounded during the battle.
They heard a noise and saw Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash galloping past them. The cockatrice they were looking for riding on Fluttershy’s back.
“Run!” Twilight shouted.
The foliage began levitating and moving toward where the ponies were fleeing from. Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie were too tired to fight another timberwolf. They followed their friends and fled as fast as they could.