Two chicken-lizards have entered the ring! Both challengers are sporting fabulous white feathers, fashionable green scales, glaring red eyes, funny little red puffs on their heads, and weird red highlights on the ends of their wings and cylindrical nubs along their tails. At a combined weight of probably less than you, and a combined height of definitely less than you, both chicken-lizards are going in as tag-team partners to try and bring the pain against the ring's reigning champion! Who will win?! Who will lose?! Well you'll win and they'll lose why the buck are you asking stupid questions?

Tonight's ring is a patch of dirt in the Everfree Forest. This dirt patch, positioned directly beneath a hole in the tree-canopy lets Luna's moon pour down it's light onto the ring, bringing it's luminescent illumination to light up champion and challengers. The audience that shall bear witness to the Champion's victory? A bunch of plants and stars in the night. A big turnout to see two little chickies get their asses handed to them.

You turn your eyes to look from chicken-lizard to chicken-lizard as they circle around you, skirting the bushes as their scales catch the moonlight. Each is bawking and skittering on their claws, flapping their wings angrily, keeping a few feet away from you the whole time, outside of swipe range.

They're snarling, hissing, and glaring with those creepy red eyes. But not attacking. They're certainly putting up an intimidating front. With those glowing red orbs filled with rage, spitting as they hiss, flapping their wings angrily, growling in their throats. But that's all they're doing. Putting up a front. It seems like they're trying to intimidate you. Odd. You'd think they'd go straight for a double-prong kill from both directions like the Timberwolves. But no, they're hissing and snarling and just making a scene, almost like they're-

A thought occours to me...two cockatrices? They are usually extremely territorial...except during the mating season. This is probably a mated pair that will stay together for the remainder of the season...not the point. When cockatrieces mate, the male will amass as many statues as he can to impress the female. Find the statue garden and you might just find the mare the mirror belongs to...who knows what she'd be willing to do in exchange for her freedom.

... Like they're trying to scare you away. Away from something important. These two chicken-bird things are trying to frighten you away from what matters to them. If you had to guess you'd say that they were a couple, birds mated for life or the like. And if they're coming out, both trying to intimidate you away, then they're going to be willing to fight, and fight hard, for whatever it is they're defending... Maybe you should try to leave.

After all a fight isn't exactly the best idea right now. True you've got a bitchin black crystal sword jutting out of your left hoof, a pair of lightning rods on your back, and are a regenerating Superpony. But it's also true that your muscles are sore as buck, the weight of just lifting your sword is hurting your foreleg, and you don't know how damaged your body actually is. Put that against the fact that both those little chicken-lizards have sharp teeth in their beaks, claws on their feet, and natural scale armor, and you could have a serious problem if this comes to conflict.

And then there are those red markings on their wings and nubs on the tail. While you doubt that they're poison, placement on the wings wouldn't make sense for it and the red nubs on the tail are dull at the top, not conducive to piercing and thus poison delivery, you do know that red is a universal sign of "Danger". And these things live in the Everfree Forest, there's got to be some reason they're still alive here and you might not want to find out what that reason is.

Yes the more you think about it the more you think that you really should-

"BAKAW!!!"

WHACK!

Suddenly a pain shatters your thoughts, along with a ringing in your ears and dizziness in your eyes. You stumble a few steps back blinking, and shaking your head, a weird taste in your mouth as you focus your gaze, and see one of the chicken lizards flapping in front of you, curling it's tail with a smirk.

That... did that damn bird just hit you with it's tail?-

"Bakaw!"

PECK!

"Mother-Bucker!" You shout as you a sudden sharp pain in your left shoulder makes you turn and swing your left foreleg in a wide arch. As you turn your see the other chicken-lizard flapping back out of range, smirking as well, with a green stain on it's beak. You're not sure where that green came from but you think that thing just bucking pecked you! Those damn birds just attacked you during your thoughtful introspective time out! The nerve!

...I see you found the Cockatirces...KILL THEM!!! The blood of a Cockatrice acts as an anti-petrification serum. Taking it into your being will keep your body from being turned to stone by most means. The Elements will be able to imprison you, but the process will be slowed considerably. Lick their blood From your blade and gain there strength. Each enemy you slay will strengthen your powers and change your body in a new way. Also...these changes are becomming quite obvious, I recommend keeping that cloak or mabey getting a trench-coat.

Nomad

One of those chicken/lizard/whatever things you could take fairly easy. Two are a bit more difficult, though. You have to careful to keep them from flanking your flanks- maybe something like a mirror will help? You can use it to keep an eye on the both of these things. And damn, are they ugly little creeps... Heh, maybe they'll run away screaming once they see themselves. That would be really funny! You should try that with one, see the look on its face, hah!

And what's with the red eyes? Are they trying to scare you? Oh HAY NO, not this time! If they think they can stare you down, they've got another thing coming! You're done backing down; time to step up! If one of those things takes a swipe at you you'll swipe right back, and if one thinks it can intimidate you just by looking at you, you'll show it a real glare!

Okay buck it these birds are gonna die.

You turn your head to the lift and spit out onto the grass. Partly to look cool, and partly to get that strange taste out of your mouth. Then you turn your gaze to meet the flapping chicken-lizard in front of you, the one that hit you with it's tail, your right eye twitching slightly your anger. You blink to stop the twitching, then narrow your eyes, matching it's glare as it narrows it's eyes at you... And then opens them wide.

You're hit by the sudden power of it's glare, and suddenly begin to feel a bit more intimidated than when they were just flapping around. You also start to feel strange. You try to move back a bit but for some reason you can't feel your hind legs. Or your rump. You look away from the chicken-lizard to look at your hind-legs and-

OH BUCK! OH BUCK! OH YOUR CELESTIA! OH WHAT THE BUCK!?!?! YOUR RUMP IS STONE MAN!!! YOUR RUMP IS BUCKING STONE!!!

It's true. Your rear and hind legs have been petrified into solid grey stone. And you are freaking the buck out inside but outside all you can seem to manage is a small whimper. You're not gonna lie. You're pretty sure if your wiener wasn't just turned rock hard, slight pun intended, you'd be pissing yourself again. Your heart has just leapt up your throat and is pumping twenty times faster you're sure, and your breathe is coming quick and ragged while sweat is forming all across your coat. Forget all that champion and grandstanding crap you are TERRIFIED. Your lower body is STONE! BUCKING STONE!!!

Breathing quickly, panicking immensely, you quickly turn your head back to the Chicken Lizard. And it is now right in front of you face, flapping it's wings with a smirk, red eyes boring into yours. You want to look away but you can't, that gaze, that all-consuming gaze, it's too much! You can't stop staring even as you feel your body turning, you can feel the stone coming over you, freezing you in place and-

"AHHHHH!" You scream, eyes wide with terror as you thrash forward with your left foreleg and-

SCHLICK!

There are three main ways to defeat a Cockatrice. 1) Stare it down, match wills with it. If you win, they can't turn you to stone. 2) The second method is to use a reflective surface, turn its power against it. 3) The hard way, cut the head off. Any of these methods will be adequete...though you might want to grab that mirror...how did a hoof-mirror get out here? Hey, 1) free mirror and 2) its got a symbol on the back, a wand and some mist...does that seem familiar to you?

You blink. The chicken-lizard blinks. And then it's head pops off of it's shoulders in a spurt of blood and lands on the grass, rolling a little before coming to a stop, eyes black once more and wide open with surprise. Blood spurts from the neck stump again, showering you with red as the chicken lizard's body keeps flapping. The body turns this way and that way, flapping side to side, blood spurting up regularly, the warm red liquid landing all over you and splattering across the grass. Soon the wings falter and the chicken-lizard's body falls to the grass with a-

THUD

The body twitches on the ground, right wing and right leg spasming for several moments, the corpse going through it's death throes before finally it just... stops. And lays there, blood pooling out from the neck into the grass.

You stare at the corpse. Your mouth agape and your eyes wide. Copper on your tongue, the chicken's blood in your mouth, some gone down your throat you're pretty sure. Slowly you turn your gaze over to your black blade, held up in your left hoof. Moonlight is glinting off your blade, both in the black and red. Blood is running down the edges from the middle where it severed the head from the neck. You can see the forest and the body reflected in the blood, and your face, surprised and shocked, reflected in the black. Your obsidian blade thing is reflective... Huh. You didn't notice that before.

You look back to the body. And your eyes open wide as you see a red mist rising out of the neck stump. The red mist rises into the air, curling through over to your blade, and seeping into the black crystal... You feel it moving into your gut, into your blood and... well, honestly you start to feel a bit sick. A bit squeamish. You're not sure if you're sick to your stomach from the blood or just... just... Actually the blood wasn't that bad... kinda yummy even. Maybe you should give it another li-

NO! BUCK NO! WHAT THE BUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU'RE NOT DRINKING BLOOD! WHAT THE BUCK!?

You shake your head thoroughly and let out a low groan of agitation. Recently you're starting to think that there might be something really wrong with you, maybe you need a thera- ... Wait, wasn't there another Chicken-Lizard thing? You blink again, then slowly turn your gaze to the left... The other Chicken Lizard is staring at you, the one with the green on it's beak, beak open in shock and eyes wide. It stares at you. You stare at it.

Suddenly it blinks... then moisture starts to form at the edges of it's eyes as it growls, gritting it's teeth, eyes glowing blood red and it flaps up. It looks you straight in the eyes as it's eyes begin to widen and you feel the power of that stare again. Remembering last time you quickly look away, raising your left forehoof to shield your face as you do so.

THUNK!

... ... ... ... Ummmmmm... ... ... Bakawing? Angry clucking? Pecking? ... No? None of that? ... ... You open your left eye ever-so-slightly, peaking out.

The chicken's down on the ground again. Eyes wide. Mouth agape. Body stone.

You slowly lower your left hoof and as you do so you see your reflection in your black crystal blade again, blood still dripping down the sides. You look to your sword, then to the chicken-lizard again, brows furrowed and mouth opened slightly in disbelief... Did it just... turn itself to stone? ... Wow... That's pretty bucking stupid. What kind of species doesn't develop anti-bodies to it's own attack!? Come on, do snakes get poisoned from biting their damn tongues!? ... ... ... Do they? ... ... You should probably ask Zecora about that...

Thinking of Zecora you bite your lip, and move your front right-hoof to pull some of her cloak around you, looking at the blood splatters on it. You got Zecora's cloak dirty... You ruined her book, cut into her table, and now you've gotten her cloak splattered with blood... Way to repay her kindness.

You sigh, and lower the cloak, hanging your head for a moment. You're the reigning champion... that ruins every bucking thing you touch. Way to go. No!

You look up with blazing eyes. You're better than that! So what you made a few damn mistakes, so what you just killed a couple of chicken-lizards. They tried to turn you into bucking stone! They had it coming, and Zecora will forgive you! She likes you! Damn it you gave her your virginity, you're not going to let this get you down and you know exactly what you need to make it all alright!

I have nothing to add. Nomad's got it all figured out. Also, a trench coat would be fucking BOSS!

A trench coat! A trench coat would be bucking boss! You'd be able to hide yourself and not have to borrow Zecora's cloak, and then you could go into town hiding your extremities. Yeah! A bucking trenchcoat's what you need to-

"Uggggghhhhh...

Your head jerks to the side, ears twitching slightly as you hear a sound. Faint. A voice? Somepony groaning nearby?

You look over to the bushes the chicken-lizards popped up from. You're pretty sure that the voice came from that direction. Could it be somepony that got turned into stone by the birds? Did they have a statue garden of some kind!? Buck! What should you do? You're not exactly the most, ummm... presentable. But you might not want to ignore some other pony lost in the Everfree, after all in your current condition some help might be useful...

MUTATION: Anti-Petri Stomach Growths: The inner lining of your stomach has been altered to sport numerous small growths that release a chemical supplement into the stomach acids, causing an anti-petrification chemical compound to be circled throughout the body with nutrients released into the blood stream. No effect on excretions. The nutrients now saturates the muscles and organs of the body with a long-lasting anti-petrification serum. The serum is very weak, but the cumulative nature allows for heavy resistance to petrification. The more regularly and often meals are eaten the more powerful the resistance, as the serum potency stacks. Degradation of the serum effectiveness occurs at a steady rate, only offshot by reapplication through nutrient distribution. A side-effect of this Mutation is occasional stomach-pains.

Author's Notes:

Long time for a short chapter I know. Wish I could say that I felt confident on this one, but it kicked my rear all over the curb from start to finish. I hope it came out alright.

On to happier things, I found a very interesting character comparison and analysis on YouTube. Considering that this analysis concerns one character that is already in the story and another character that definitely WILL BE in the story, I figured that I'd include it here. Hope you find it interesting.

A Comparison of Trixie and Zecora