The Good, The Bad, and...The Ponies?

As Applejack and I walked down the path to Sweet Apple Acres, I was taking mental notes of my new surroundings.  For instance: the Equestrian moon is either larger or much closer to the planet than Earths', night was a time was more quiet than where I lived albeit the chirps and croaks provided by the crickets and frogs, and the weather is not predicted, it is scheduled.  Which was why the stars were shining brightly with their wonderful luminescence.  But the most awe-inspiring observation made was that there were no modes of transportation such as cars, motorcyles, planes, trains, etc. that I have seen as of yet.

Everypony relied on either walking or flight.  For me, this is a whole new life style.  So in other words, I'll just have to *puts on sunglasses* deal with it.  When I was back in Oregon, I used to be able to drive wherever I wanted.  Well...within my parents reasonable distances of course, which basically meant within the city limits and be home before 1 AM unless I'm staying the night at a friends house.  But now, I don't have a car, any sense of where anything is, no curfew, no homework, no school, no need to worry about college...on second thought, I think I'm gonna like it here a lot.

We reached a sign at where the path split in two.  The sign was very old and had been obviously used as a target for whomever threw the samll stones that lay about by the base of it.  It had two arrows that pointed in different directions, each with its own destination.  On the left arrow it said 'Sweet Apple Acres' and on the right it said 'Fluttershy's Cottage / Everfree Forrest'.  As we took the left path passing the sign I asked Applejack, "Hey, do you know anything about the Everfree Forrest?"

"Yeah ah do.  That place is known fer not bein' the most safe or freindly of places.  There are monsters that live there that are both known and *gulp* unknown.  Why d'ya ask?"  She turned her head towards me, but then immediately turned back away and started to chortle.

I looked at her with a confused expression.  "What's so funny?"

She looked back at me with a small tear in her eye, "Nothin', nothin' at all.  It's just wierd that you're wearing sunglasses at night."  I could see that she was really trying not to bust a gut laughing.

"What is she talking about?"  I thought to myself, "I'm not wearing any sunglasses."  Hesitant at first, I reached up and felt where the sunglasses should be located.  Lo and behold,  there resting on the bridge on my nose was what she was laughing at; a pair of Aviator sunglasses.  The discovery was shocking enough to stop me in my tracks and reel back in surprise.  I ripped them off my face and inspected them.  I turned to get Applejacks' reaction to this, only to see what I had already expected.  She was rolling on the ground laughing so hard that she was crying.  As nice as the Aviators looked, I had no real use for them.  I tossed it into a bush causing Applejack to calm down a bit.

"Aww, why'd you go 'n throw that away for?"  She asked wiping tears from her eyes.

I looked at her with a deadpan expression and said while pointing up to my eyepatch, "Ohh, I don't know.  Maybe because of this."

I walked over and helped her stand up.  "Oh...uh, right."

We were just about to be off when I heard a small rustling sound eminating from the same bushes that I threw the sunglasses in.  "Wait up Applejack!"  I warned, "Don't...move."  I slowly approached the rustling bush expecting just about anything to jump out and attack.

"What's wrong Kiyo?"  I brought my index finger up to my lips and shushed her while quietly moving towards the bush.

I was reaching out to it getting closer and closer.  I could feel my heart beating faster than normal.  It felt like it would burst out of my chest at any given moment.  Sweat was starting to form on my brow from the anticipation of what I would find.  I began to think of the possibilities.  "Is it something that I should fear or is it something I could dropkick into the next...town?...country?... screw it, I'll just call them cities."  Things like that were rushing through my mind very quickly.

My hand was mere inches from the bush when a chickens head poked out.  I stared at the small creature with a great amount of hatred.  "Really!? A chicken!?  This was what I was getting all worked up for!?"  Letting out a sigh I turned back to Applejack.  "It's okay Applejack, it's just a chicken."  I was walking away from the bush toward Applejack when I saw her trembling with fear.  "*sigh* I thought that we went over this already.  I told you that you don't have to be afraid of me remember?  I'm a friend."

She started to vigorously shake her head side-to-side, "It's not you, IT'S THAT!"  She shot a shakey hoof up pointing behind me where I heard a chicken's call.

I looked down and closed my eyes to gather my thoughts, only able to come up with one conclusion.  "I'll never understand these ponies."  Kneeling in front of her I looked back up and asked, "So...you're meaning to tell me that you're afraid of...chickens?"  She shook her head once more, this time sweat beading down her face from the prominent fear that was taking over her progressively..  "Then what is it that you're panicking about?"

She placed her hooves on my face and forced me to turn around.  "THE COCKATRICE!!!"  Hovering in the bright moons' light was none other than the cockatrice.  I remember Twilight going into detail about what the cockatrice looked like.  Its features were very distinct now that I could see its' whole body.

Honestly, it looked like the strange, deformed love-child of a chicken and some sort of lizard (EWWWW!).  Its' head and legs were that of a chicken, but the body and wings looked reptilian, almost draconic.  Releasing a single loud "BU'GAWK" it landed and moved at us baring it's fangs.

By the looks of this thing, and the amount of drool it was producing, it was hungry and desperate for a meal.  I saw it heading towards Applejack, seeing that she as a more viable target than me.  I grabbed her shoulders, looked at her straight in the eyes and said, "I know you're scared, but I need you to be brave get away from here as quickly as you can.  Don't turn back and look, just run."

"But...what about you?  What are ya gonna do?"  The fear was now void from her eyes. Now all that I could see from her was pure worry and concern for my well being.

I gave her a quick hug before standing up.  "I'm gonna stall it so you can get away."

She sat there in shock.  She looked up to me with tears in her eyes and said, "No! If you do that then-"

I raised a hand to her signaling her to stop talking.  "Don't worry Applejack. It'll be okay."  I turned to face the cockatrice for the first and possibly last time of my life.  Looking over my shoulder, I put on a soft smile and gave her a thumbs up.  "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you."

"But..."

"Just go."  Those were my last words to her before I heard her galloping away to safety.  I swear I could've just heard her say "Thank you" before leaving.  I turned back to the cockatrice only to see it start to pursue Applejack with haste.  "Oh no you don't!"  I ran as fast as the new equestrian gravity would allow me to, and tackled the creature.

Authors Side Note:

See, I'm not sure any of you readers have ever been form tackled by a 6ft, 230 lb lineman on the Varsity team.  But I can tell you for one thing or another; IT HURTS A LOT!  The closest thing I could possibly compare it to, would be if you were to stand in the middle of a street and have a car drive into you going about 30 miles per hour.  Sorry to pull you away from the story now back to the action!

..............................

When I made contact, I could feel how course it's scales really were.  The closest thing that could possibly equivocate to it, would have to be alligator scales.  Sure an alligator is much bigger and stronger than the cockatrice, but this thing was putting up a good fight to get out of my grip.  Managing to turn itself around, it started to claw and scratch at my face in a desperate attempt to attain its freedom.  After a few seconds of it clawing my face, I threw it away to stop any further damage.

Standing up I could see how much anger this thing now had for me.  Not only had I managed to let its meal get away from it, but I also had attacked it.  As it was slowly stalking its' way toward me Twilight's lesson on it began to replay itself through my head, "The one thing you must always remember if you ever come into contact with a cockatrice, never look into it's eyes.  It has the ability to turn its' prey into stone just by looking into it's eyes."  Thinking that I could only do one thing from that point, I closed my eye and drew my boken.  "I never thought I would have to resort to using this as a weapon."

The only way to beat this thing would have to be without sight.  "Heh, easier said than done."  I poured all of my focus to my other senses; hearing, touch, and smell.  I've only heard stories that people could defeat a whole group of enemies without even looking at them.  I stood there patiently waiting to hear the sound of it approaching me, only to hear the sound of nothingness.  Slowly opening my eye I searched for the cockatrice.  Oh boy did I find it.  It was standing mere feet in front of me staring at me in the eye just waiting for me to look.  I began to close my eye again, but it was already to late.

I could feel a cold numbness slowly crawl up my leg.  I looked down in horror to see that I was turning to stone.  It was an odd sensation, it felt like my body was slowly falling asleep starting from my feet and progressively working it's way up.  I tried to move my feet only to discover, to my dismay, that they were firmly planted to the ground.

I began to search for any way out of this mess I had gotten into.  While looking around, my covered eye began to throb painfully.  "Great, just great!  Not only am I going to be turned to stone by a chicken-lizard-thingy, but the last thing that I'm gonna feel is this stupid throbing in my eye."

At that moment I heard something of a faint whisper, "Take off your eyepatch."

"Oh great!  Now I'm also going crazy and am hearing voices!  Just when my life couldn't get any worse!"  I quickly began cursing at my sudden streak of bad luck.

"You're not crazy,"  The voice replied.  "I'm communicating to you telepathically.  Now, if you want to live, I would suggest taking off your eyepatch right now."  Who was this new person...pony?

"Who are you?  How do I know that I can trust you?"  Honestly, I can be a very skeptical guy at the worst times.

"Well, from where I stand, you have two options.  One, don't listen to me and become this things next chicken feed.  Or two, listen to me and save your sorry ass."  Both of these were very valid points.  Die, or trust someone who I don't know and can't see, and live.  "You had better make up your mind quickly, you don't have much time left."  This was true, the petrification process was already passing my hips and was making its' way toward my stomach.

AUGH!  Who cares!  "Alright.  I'll do it your way."  Reaching up to my eyepatch was a harder task than I had originally thought.  When I began to reach for my eyepatch, the process was going past my chest... right where my heart was.  I could feel the beating in my chest slowing down.  If I didn't hurry, I would die before I could even try anything.  My hand was starting to shake from the difficulty of getting to my eyepatch.

Glancing at the cockatrice, I could see the look of victory in its evil, monstrous face.  "Heh, don't be so sure...that you've won...just yet."  With one final push, I grabbed and removed the eyepatch opening my other eye.  I noticed a few things that occured to me as strange, the throbingin my eye instantly stopped after I opened it, and the cockatrice seemed to look afraid.  The weirdest part though, was the fact that the effects of the petrification were reversing and I was changing back to my original state.  I could feel the warmth returning back to my legs and eventually I could move again.  Feeling happier, I looked up from examining myself to see the cockatrice freaking out.  Looking down at it's feet I could see that itself was turing to stone.  Panicing, it began to squawk and flap it's wings in a desperate attempt to fly away.  Thinking it was over and that I had won, I turned, tied my boken back on and began to walk away.

I had managed to take three step before I heard a heavy thud come from behind me. "Oh crap!  Is it back for more already?"  Cautiously turning around, I brought my gaze to where the sound came from.  What I saw blew my mind.  On the ground about thirteen feet away from me, lay the statue corpse of the once threatening cockatrice.

Looking at the statue only brought up questions in my mind, but I managed to utter one of them.  "Did I...do this?"

"What? Are you surprised at your own power?"  The voice returned mockingly, "And here I thought that you knew everything about yourself.  Tsk tsk, that just won't do."

I began to furiously scan the area for movement, "Reveal yourself!  Tell me who you are!"

There was a momentary pause before it responded.  "In due time I will.  But until then, just know that you have a friend looking out for you."

Whoever that thing is, was starting to piss me off.  "Answer me dammit!  Who are you!"  There was no response to my questioning.  Only the sound of chirps and croaks of the wildlife filled my ears.  "Whatever.  I'll meet the asshole when I do."  With that in mind I began my sprint to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack was surely waiting for my arrival.

AN:  Sorry about the REALLY late chapter.  It took me a really long time to come up with a plot line, but by jove I think I've got it!  I really look forward to future chapters!  Who knows, maybe I'll add a certain turn of events that'll change Kiyo's life in Equestria into something for better or for worse.  ANYWAYS, I hope you enjoyed this new chapter!