Ch10 - 1 - Petrified

Just a quick warning here. This whole chapter arc will assume knowledge of the season 5 final episodes.

"A cockatrice feather? Really?" Fluttershy was wandering around in the Everfree, Zecora and Tree Hugger with her.

"The next thing on my list must assuredly be this." Zecora held up the scroll of parchment, pointing at the only thing not crossed off so far.

"It's like, totally cool stripy sister. Flutters has had dealings with…" Tree Hugger cut off, she saw movement behind a tree. "Speaking of, I think our goose is like, over there, man." Tree pointed with a hoof as the small, terrified head of the cockatrice pulled back into cover.

Fluttershy stepped toward the tree. "Come out, we won't hurt you, I promise not to stare at you again." The pegasus extended a wing toward the tree and a chicken head poked out, looking at the mare. "There, see, nopony here is going to hurt you, I am sorry about last time, but I really needed my friend back to normal."

The thing's red comb brushed up into her wing and she began to pet it, getting a few happy clucks and a hiss.

"You are so in tune with animals." The voice of the green-furred mare startled the cockatrice and it suddenly glared at her. There was a moment when Fluttershy was worried, and Tree Hugger looked about as surprised as she ever had in her life, which was not really much at all. "Oh, hay there." She trotted closer to the confused creature. "My name's Tree Hugger, I don't think your stare is going to work very well on me, being part-plant is totally radical."

It was, apparently, a confusing day to be a cockatrice. Not only was the Master of Beasts stalking the forest, but they had brought an odd pony that it couldn't affect! It gave an indignant cluck and looked around. Coiling its tail, the cockatrice noticed the Ghost of the Forest. If a beak could grin, it certainly would have been. Leveling its stare at the striped pony, it let its power flow out.

"Zecora, look away!" Fluttershy had spoken as fast and as loud as she possibly could, which was neither.

"Well this day I am feeling a bit strange, a cure I need before I-" Zecora felt extremely strange, as she had said, the worst part was her mouth couldn't form the last word of her rhyme! She felt lethargic, slow, both in body and mind. The feeling was spreading from her head down and she had to fight it, at least mentally. It was a magical curse, she knew, the cockatrice fed off the slight aura a petrified creature put off.

"Change her back right-" Fluttershy clopped a hoof down but saw how quickly the creature raced over and coiled around one of the gray and hard forelegs of Zecora. "Oh, you were starving?" The cockatrice turned and looked at her, giving a sad little cluck and a nod. "Well, I know it doesn't hurt, but you have to promise one thing. You have to give Zecora one of your feathers when you turn her back."

Zecora was shocked at this. She had been meditating to withstand the mental lock down that should have happened and, even as she felt the change flowing down her midsection, she realized that she was keeping hold of herself. The feel of the cockatrice on her leg was strange, there was a slight chill that she realized was its feeding from her.

"Whoa, can she still hear us? Is she awake in there?" Tree Hugger stepped up to Zecora, waving a hoof before her face. "Hold on a second stripy sister, I will try to focus on you."

Tree Hugger sat down on the forest floor, just before the zebra. Crossing her back legs over, she began to chant softly. Zecora felt a touch, a very strange touch, but it still was one. Her flank was starting to go cold as the stone flowed down to there.

"Yup, she is in there, awake and little scaly bro, she understands. She can feel you feeding and isn't mad." Tree reached out a hoof to brush down the long scaly body of the cockatrice. "But it does mean we can have some fun with our party sister."

"What are you doing, Tree?" Fluttershy was a little shocked at the turn of events, wondering what her friend was up to.

Zecora couldn't look anywhere but straight ahead, but she felt as the odd pony pushed her tail up, higher and higher. "Now we hold you there while I…" Tree Hugger's words heralded the most filling sensation that Zecora had ever felt. Zebra were bigger than most ponies, but when she had a foreleg being worked deep into her, when she felt the mare's chest press to her plot, Zecora just wanted to scream in pleasure. "Got it!"

Fluttershy was blushing about as hard as a pony possibly could. "Tree! What are you doing to her?"

"Preparing her. She is going to spend some time, like, frozen, but she can feel what we do, like, really feel." Tree was pulling her leg free of the mare's now-frozen vulva.

Unable to move an inch, Zecora could indeed feel as that long limb was withdrawn, her tail now locked in that hiked-up pose.

"Hay, come on little dude, I made you a new home." Tree Hugger was beckoning the cockatrice.

It was very confusing to be around ponies that it couldn't affect, it was even stranger to not be feared and run from. But to be called, twice in one day, was the last straw. The cockatrice gave a cluck of confusion and slithered toward the back end of its new food source.

"Up here, look, a nice deep hole for you to put your tail in, it is like a little cave and all around you will be food." Tree was patting Zecora's plot now, the zebra hearing the words and guessing what the naughty mare was planning. "Up here, scaly bro."

If Zecora could moan she would have, the cockatrice's tail started to work down into her petrified depths. Each scale, each snake-like muscle that worked down into her stimulated her in her trapped prison of stone. She was stuck like this and, despite how very strange it was to feel the cockatrice nesting in her vagina, she loved every second of it.

"That is adorable… see how happy he looks?" Fluttershy was, despite the odd situation, quite delighted. The cockatrice certainly seemed much happier. "But Tree, how are we going to get them back to your house?"

Twilight was gliding along, her big wings spread and catching the much slower breeze that was pushing them across the ocean. They had left Ember to her reign with the promise that if she needed pony friends, she only needed to fly to Ponyville.

Each of the ponies was a little melancholy about leaving. Gel had assured Ember that her wing, while it likely would never heal, would work so long as he lived.

Rainbow Dash had gained quite a following of dragons, who had been suitably impressed with her flying skills but had all wanted to race. The mare had discovered a whole race as ego-maniacal as she was.

Muffins had, for the first time, gotten to be part of Twilight's little group of heroes, rather than just a pony working in the background. It was quite the blast for her.

In all, the slow flight back was cathartic, each of the ponies trapped to their own thoughts for the day it would take. Except Dash, who needed help to complete the extended trip.

"Spike!" Twilight flew in to land outside her castle, spotting her number one assistant and his stallion-friend. "Cloud, it is great to see you both!" She hugged the unicorn tightly, getting a blush from him.

"Report, Cloud." Rainbow Dash seemed to appear from nowhere and drop before Cloud Chaser.

"Weather is on schedule. Sunny day for the next four cycles then scattered clouds and afternoon rain. A light blow will remove those and more sunshine. Ma'am!" Cloud saluted, giving his report to a giggling Rainbow Dash.

"Now who takes their job too seriously? Cloud, you need to lighten up. Which is cool, because now I am back you can have a break, maybe go for a little holiday with a certain stallion?" Dash felt a wing curl around her own withers and leaned over into Muffins. Then she realized that, apart from the morning with the pancakes, she hadn't shown public affection for her new partner. In the most typical of 'Rainbow Dash' style, she leaned over and kissed the grinning alicorn on the lips.

Cloud took it all in stride, part of him immensely glad that his boss had finally gotten some apparently regular tail. "Might just do that, but you know what would be even better? A commendation."

"Done!" Dash grinned. "Stormwalker is on duty today?" When the blue pegasus got a nod from Cloud Chaser, she beamed. "Then you certainly don't need me around!"

Dash spread her wings and flew, finding Muffins right beside her. The pair winged their way up and out of sight, on their way to a comfy bed where quite a bit of cuddling was, apparently, the plan.

"Anything happen while we were gone?" Twilight stepped up to the castle door, drawing it open with her magic and entering.

"Nah. Lyra and Sweetie came over, did a run through the dungeon. They were lousy and I think they took one of your monsters with them… little plant thing about this big?" Spike gestured to Gel and then the height that Nuzzles was.

Gel lifted a hoof and clopped his forehead. "Okay, but they were okay, right? Didn't get hurt?" He stepped into the castle, letting Twilight go first into her own home.

"Tired was the only complaint, I think. They both… well, seemed quite excited." Spike blushed a touch, mares were good friends, but he really didn't think of them as much beyond that… except for Stormwalker… but she was pretty cool. "Oh, and Twilight, I think there was a visitor for you, she has been staying in the castle."

"Oh, a visitor?" Twilight perked up and trotted in, hearing Starry talking in the dining room. It was about lunch time so she figured best to meet her mysterious friend. Opening the door and trotting in, she froze. "Starlight Glimmer?"

Starlight froze too. This wasn't how it was meant to go down! She grabbed for a napkin and wiped her mouth and blinked before she could say a word. Appearing in the map room, she reclined on the biggest of the chairs. "Hello, Twilight."

Meeting Applejack in the alternate timeline had been strange, but not as strange as seeing most of her friends, dressed like savages!

"Wait, we're not changelings! I'm a pony and he's a… okay, he is a pony too!" Twilight didn't like the way there were spears leveled at her and Spike. This was not right at all, the changelings got beaten at Canterlot!

The worst bit was when Zecora smeared them with the green goop, Twilight had shone with a silvery light, but Spike… a huge aura of a dragon burned and coiled around him.

Despite the oddness, the zebra listened to their story and shared her own. The world was messed up because she and her friends hadn't been able to stop the changeling invasion of Canterlot at her brother's wedding.

The attack, seeing the dark changeling queen, was quite the shock to Twilight. Her first instinct was to try to broker peace, and if it wasn't for her second meeting with Chrysalis, she might have suggested it.

"… stop Starlight and put the whole world back on track!" Zecora's determination swelled as she turned back to the insectile queen.

Twilight turned and bolted, Spike falling in beside her. Together they blasted a path back to the map and were just about to reach it when a familiar voice spoke. "Another alicorn? Mother told me they were all captured, I guess I still have a job to do."

The touch of Gel to her body surprised Twilight, so much so she tripped and fell, giving the changeling time to flow quickly over her. He shoved up into her, taking her roughly, showing none of the restraint the pony she loved normally did. As he pulled over her face, he blacked out her vision, pushed into her mouth and began to slowly stroke her horn. "Tasty, tasty alicorns. Mother made me to hunt your kind and, as the fourth I have found, I must say you are by far the easiest."

The constant squeezing was hard to think past and with the massage to her horn Twilight couldn't focus enough to bring a spell into being. She panted and coughed as goo worked down her throat and windpipe. Her breathing slowed and became regulated. He was in full control of her.

"Good little pony, relax, let me work you to pleasure, let me drink from you. I hope you ate recently, it will be the last thing you ever consume." Gel started to feel the mixed pleasure-panic that all his victims felt but there was something different in there, something the drone had only felt but once before.

It was delicious.

Author's Note

Wait, this wasn't in the script! Gel, wat r u doin? Gel? STAHP!

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