Spencer

I swung Celestial upwards, slicing the vine in half right before it hit my face. It fell to the ground and began to writhe, eventually growing still. I then turned my attention to the seven or so vines that were wrapping up Marceline.

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" she yelled, as a vine wrapped itself around her legs. The vines hoisted her up, leaving her dangling upside-down above the treetops.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, scratching my head.

"Watch out behind you!" she cried. The vine I had cut was back, now acting as two separate vines. I sliced them in half quickly, then watched in horror as they grew back and attacked again.

"What do we do about this?" I asked, slicing at vine after vine.

"First, you should cut me down!" she said, angrily brandishing Lunar at her captor.

"Have you considered shooting yourself down?" I asked.

BOOM!

A thundering shot rang in my ears, the sound of a powerful pistol going off, followed by a yelp of pain.

"Ow! The recoil on this is way more than I thought!" she said. "I dropped it and I think my arm might need to be popped back into the socket."

"It's all up to me then." I said, cutting at another vine. "What are these plants anyway?"

"These? These are Hydra Trees." said Discord. "Only found in the deepest, most dangerous parts of the Everfree Forest."

"Hydra Trees?" I said, cutting another vine. "That's an odd name."

"Is it really?" asked Discord. "Makes perfect sense to me."

"Hydra!" shouted Marcy, vines now wrapped around her ankles, wrists and neck. "Like the creature!"

"What do I know about hydras?" I said. "Many heads, every time one is severed, two more grow in it's place, only way to behead it permanently is… Fire!"

"What?"

"Fire! We have to burn them!" I said. "Did we happen to have a lighter in the supply bags?"

"That's about the only thing that wasn't in them!"

"Fire, fire, fire!" I said, lowering my sword in thought. "Where do I get fire?"

"Spence, look out!" cried my sister.

THUNK!

A vine bounced off of my chest, broken and bent. My suit had turned into thick, metal armor, invulnerable to something as frail as this vegetation.

"Thank goodness for Chameleon Armor." I said. "Unfortunately, that doesn't get us any closer to the solution."

"Spence… Help… Me!" gasped my sister, the vine around her neck tightening. She was suffocating and I became very scared.

"Fire! Fire! Where do I find fire?" I asked panickedly, ignoring the heat that was growing in my right hand, my sword hand. Another vine shot at my eye, lightning fast. I instinctively dodged it, although not as fast as I should have. It scraped my cheek, cutting me with one of its thorns. I swung Celestial upwards, expecting to slice the plant in half. Instead, when the sword touched the vine, it caught fire. The vine fell to the ground, burning as I dropped the sword in fear. The blade had become a plume of fire, the same length, width, and shape of the original sword. I grabbed it off the floor and rushed to save my sister.

"Hang on, Marceline! I got you!" I said, transforming into a pegasus. I flapped my wings and took off into the air. I flew up to Marcy and began to slice at the vines binding her.

"Wait a minute!" she said as I ripped the vine from her neck.

"What?" I asked, burning the ones holding her wrists.

"How am I going to get down, you idiot?!" she asked. As she said that, I cut the last vine, sending her to plummet towards the ground. Whoops.

"Oh no!" I cried, flying down to catch her. Turns out, she didn't need me. She transformed into pegasus form in mid-air and caught herself.

"Way to go." she said sarcastically, fluttering down to the ground, left arm hanging limp. "I don't know what I would do without you."

"Probably suffocate." I said, hooves touching ground. I gave my teeth a quick lick, stretched out my legs and looked around for Discord. "Where is he?"

"He must've ran away in the confusion." said Marceline, grabbing Lunar from the ground. "Look, Spencer, I'm sorry. I've been acting really rude lately. I didn't even properly thank you for saving my life."

"It's not too late, you know?" I joked. I didn't know what to do with the sword, so I just threw it to the ground.

"Thank you." she said, awkwardly hugging me with her dislocated arm. "Thank you so much."

"It's fine." I said, hugging her back. She never hugged me. Ever. "Are you okay?"

"I'm really emotional right now." she said. "I'm sort of freaking out."

"Over what?"

"What if we fail? What if Mom dies thinking I hate her?" she asked.

"Well, we better not fail then." I said, pushing her off. "And you can tell Mom why you keep acting like that."

"Like I said, there's no reason. I just feel this way and I don't know why."

"And like I said, there is a reason, you're just hiding it. Hiding it from me, maybe even hiding it from yourself. You buried it deep in your psyche, and you don't even realise why you act like this, but I do."

"Okay, Dr. Phil. Enlighten me; Why do I feel this way towards Mom?"

"I'm not telling you. That's something you have to figure out on your own." I said sluggishly. "Maybe after you talk to her more about what happened before we were born."

"You okay? You seem a little dazed." she said.

"I dunno. I do feel a little weird." I said. I started to sweat, my vision blurred slightly and I was about ready to lose my lunch. "I'm fine. We should focus on finding Discord."

"Are you sure? You look like you're about to pass out."

"I'll be fine." I said, dropping to the ground.

"What happened?" she asked from far away.

"I got cut. Where Hydras poisonous?"

"Clearly!"

"Uh-oh." I said, closing my eyes.

---

Marceline

"No!" I cried. "No! We've been on this adventure for about ten minutes and you're already about to die?" I rushed over to the duffel bags and dug around with my good hand, the right, for the antidote bottles. I pulled out a bunch, each labeled differently.

"Antidotes for Arsenic, Cyanide, Pit Viper venom, Hemlock, even Puffer Fish poison, but nothing for Hydra Trees!" I said frustratedly. I dug back into the bag and pulled out a book, Remedies for Natural Toxins. I flipped through it frantically. When I got to the passage about Hydra Trees, I scanned through it quickly. It said that victims of the Hydra Tree poison had about 13 minutes before their brain shuts down completely. Yikes! Still no antidote! I read further and came to a very useful little passage.

"The poison of the Hydra Tree can be combated with superheated Pit Viper antivenom." I read aloud. I grabbed the Pit Viper bottle and held it over the still flaming sword. After a moment, it began to pop and bubble. I uncorked it as quickly as I could with one arm and poured half of it into Spencer's mouth and the other half directly onto the wound. I had no clue how to administer the cure, but whatever I did worked, because Spencer blinked his eyes hard and returned to the world.

"What?" he asked, sitting up. "What happened?"

"You were poisoned, ya ding-dong!" I said, relieved that he was okay. "Thank goodness that antivenom worked."

"Huh? Were you worried about me?" he teased.

"No, I just didn't want to have to tell Mom that I let you get poisoned." I lied. I helped him up when he took notice of my dislocated arm.

"Need help with that?" he asked.

"You know how to do it?" I asked.

"Do I know how to do it?" he mocked. "Of course I know how to do it."

"Alright. Fine. What do I do?"

"I'm going to take off my shirt really quick." he said, unzipping his suit. He pulled the T-shirt beneath it off and wadded it up.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pretty scared.

"Bite down on this." he said, pushing the shirt in my mouth. I did as he said, slightly confused. "I'm going to count to three, okay?"

"Mh-hm!" I said through a mouth of fabric.

"3.. 2...1" he said. Nothing. I spit the shirt out and caught in my right hand.

"I thought you were going to- Ow!" I began, before he jammed my shoulder back into place with his palm. I rotated my arm, getting a feeling in it besides pain.

"I said I would count to three. You shouldn't have assumed that I would do it when I got there."

"You are the biggest jerk I've ever met!" I said, rubbing my left arm.

"Hey, if you were expecting it, it would've hurt a whole lot more." he said, grabbing Celestial, his still flaming sword. He closed his eyes and the fire began to die down. The fire extinguished itself, leaving the blade just as normal.

"Cool little power." I said. "How'd you do that?"

"Same way you did the teleport thing. We're just awesome."

"Sure are." I chuckled. "What do we do now?"

"It's getting pretty late. I'd say we have about two and a half hours before the sun goes down. We should go gather wood for a fire." he said. We ran into the brush, pulling dead branches from the floor and trees. After we gathered enough, we returned to the clearing. I made a little pile of wood, surrounded by little stones. Spencer pulled out Celestial and placed the tip against the wood. A second later, the sword and the wood was on fire.

"Enjoy." I said, tossing Spencer a dish if magically preserved carrots. We could be in the woods for years and those things would still be perfectly fresh.

"Thanks." he said, popping the lid. "Did you figure it out yet?"

"Figure what out?"

"Why you're so mad at Mom."

"No, Spencer, I did not. I do not know why, but I'm guessing you already knew that. So stop being a pretentious prick and help me!" I said angrily.

"Am I being pretentious? That wasn't my intention. I'm just trying to get you to learn this on your own. If you can figure it out on your own, it'll have much more weight and significance." he said.

"But I can't do it on my own!" I said, turning away to hide my tears. "I don't know why I'm so angry at her, and I feel terrible for it, but I can't do anything about it because I don't know the issue!" He stayed silent, apparently taken aback by how angry I was. I was being unfair to him. He was trying to do a good thing for me and I yelled at him. How typical of me, just jump at people's throats.

"Spence, I'm sorry I got so upset with you. You're just trying to get me to learn something on my own, and I'm being a jerk for no reason. I know I try to act all tough and cool, but you and I both know how much of a wimp I am." He remained silent, which was starting to piss me off.

"I know I'm being sorta bratty here, but the least you can do is acknowledge the fact that I'm trying to apologize! I'm not perfect, I'll be the first to admit that, but at least I'm making an effort! Instead of ignoring me, maybe you could help me figure out what's going on with me!" I shouted, turning around to face him. It turns out his silence was not his fault. His skin, eyes, everything had become cold, grey stone. Next to him was a creature that looked like the spawn of a very confused dragon and rooster. A cockatrice. I turned my eyes away in fear. Mom used to tell me that one look would turn you to stone, such as what happened to Spencer.

"Oh my gosh!" I said, squeezing my eyes shut. "Spencer! Oh man, what do I do?" I felt a claw touch my arm, and I opened my eyes. I don't know why, but I got an impulse, a gut feeling, to stare at the thing attached to the claw. The cockatrice looked at me with slight confusion, apparently amazed that I would do something so dumb. Our eyes met, and slowly I lost feeling in my hooves. It moved up my ankles, all the way to my thigh, before I did it. The Stare.

"Listen here, chicky!" I said. I took on a look of sheer ferocity, determination. I felt a strange sort of power go through me as I yelled at the cockatrice. "You know that colt you turned to stone? Well, that's my brother and I'm pissed that he's a statue! So turn him back!" The cockatrice looked confused and slightly annoyed as it opened it's eyes even wider, increasing the strength of his magic. The lack of feeling travelled all the way up to my ribs.

"Don't mess with me! I'm something you don't screw with! I'm in a staring contest with a cockatrice, and I'm winning! Fix my brother! Now!" I screamed, Staring even harder. "If you don't, I'll have no choice but to call my mom! Do you know who my mother is? My mom runs this forest! Ever here of Fluttershy?" The cockatrice, upon hearing my mom's name, jumped back in fear. Apparently, he did know her.

"You're scared now, ain't ya? Turn my Spencer back or I'll be get her down here!" I shouted. Quickly, the cockatrice stared at Spencer. He began to chip and crumble away, revealing his normal black coat. The layer of stone surrounding Spencer fell of, leaving him dazed and gasping for breath.

"Marcy! There's… a… cockatrice!" he wheezed.

"I'm dealing with it." I said, as the cockatrice removed the stone from my body. I shook off the stone fragments, relieved that Spencer was okay. I kicked the cockatrice in the tail, sending him running into the woods.

"How…?" asked Spencer.

"I used it!" I said excitedly. "I used The Stare!"

"What? Mom said we wouldn't be able to, that it was a freak accident that she could use it. She said it shouldn't exist and that nopony else would ever be able to pull it off."

"She also said that since we're part human, we're magic! The 'Laws of Normal' don't exactly apply to us." I said. "We're awesome! We can do things that nopony could even dream about!"

"I'm glad you discovered something cool about yourself." he said. "Are you as exhausted as I am?"

"Probably more. What Mom neglected to tell us is that The Stare is a strain on the body. I feel like I could sleep for two weeks."

"Please don't." he said, digging into the bags. He pulled out a tent and dropped it to the ground. "Help me set up?" We staked the tent in about ten minutes, then crawled inside, exhausted.

"Should we take shifts?" he yawned.

"I don't think we'll have to. That cockatrice is in no hurry to come back, and I'm sure he told all his demon-spawn friends." I said, lying on my back. "I doubt we have to worry."

"If you say so. At least I can say I'm a light sleeper." he said, taking a spot to my left.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, knowing full well what he meant.

"I mean that you sleep heavier than a sack of rocks."

"I do not." I lied.

"Marceline, once you slept through Pinkie Pie's cannon exploding your bedroom."

"Huh? I don't remember that." I said, confused. I wasn't joking. I really didn't remember.

"Of course you don't, you were asleep. It was on Mom and Dad's anniversary. Pinkie came by with her Party Cannon to celebrate. It backfired and exploded."

"Did it really?"

"It destroyed the entire second floor! We had to call in Conjure to fix it."

"In any case, we'll be fine, thanks to you, Mister 'Sleep-with-one-eye-open'. Good night."

"Good night, Stare Master."

"Don't ever call me that again." I said, closing my eyes. Me saying that pretty much guaranteed that he would be calling me that every chance he got. Excellent. I really liked the name.