...Well, not really sure why the cloak is doing that...let's review our options.

Option 1: Slam the door on it's beaks and pretend it isn't there.

When you've finished shitting yourself, metaphorically speaking, you might want to get around to shutting the door. Just tossing that out there.

A few moments passed by with no noise whatsoever. Moments where you and this strange creature just stared at one another, just you and a plant monster hybrid growing out of a cloak on the front door of your zebra lovebug's hut, face to... faces. And then the six mouths of the plant monster opened wide, showing blue tongues and deep throats, with green sticky saliva dripping down from the roofs of their mouths.

"SKKKKRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

The force of the roar unleashed by the six simultaneous mouths echoed throughout the hut. The gooey green spittle flew from every mouth into your fur, blue tongues wiggling in the air as your mane blew back and you closed your eyes, scrunching up your face as the saliva sprayed across your face.

The plant monster stopped roaring, and you slowly opened your eyes... The vicious red eyes of the plant thing continued to look at you, the beaks grinning, looks of smug satisfaction upon all six faces. You blinked, then slowly brought your right forehoof up to rub across your face. You rubbed it left, then you rubbed it right, then left, then right again, wiping away the slimy green saliva, before lowering your hoof back down to the floor. You blinked, face cleared of sappy spittle, and you once again stared right into the creature's eyes.

"... ... ... Huh." Came your intelligent, rational response to the events of the last twenty or some-odd seconds. And then your brain started working again.

SLAM!

The door slammed shut, courtesy of your hoof, and by the time it had closed you'd risen to your hind legs, whirled around, and thrown yourself back against the door with a-

BANG!

You'd then thrown your forelegs out to either side of the doorway, holding yourself firmly in place and pushing against the floor with your hind legs, putting every ounce of pressure you could muster into keeping the wooden barrier between you and... and whatever the buck was out there, closed and barred!

As your heart thudded like a runaway jackhammer, a layer of sweat built up upon your brow, and deep rapid panting breaths filled your lungs, chest pumping up and down in time with the inhalations, one singular all-consuming question rose to the top of your mind.

What the BUCK was that thing?! No, no WHAT THE BUCK!?!? SERIOUSLY!?!? A damn plant monster grew OUT OF HER CLOAK!?!? With chicken beaks!?!? REALLY EVERFREE?! REALLY!?!?

BANG!

Your heart skipped a beat in your chest as a chill went up your spine. Okay, the thing was ramming the door now. No need to panic. Nope, this was manageable, you could handle this.

BANG!

The second impact almost threw you off of the door, the wood slamming into your back hard enough to bruise. With wide eyes you slammed yourself back against the door as your hind legs scrambled to find a perch against the floor again.

OKAY! THIS WASN'T MANAGEABLE! DEFINITELY A NEED TO PANIC!!! No, no do NOT panic! This is just one more thing, like all the other things, you can deal with this thing! Think brain, think! How can you handle this!?

You gritted your teeth as your wide eyes began to rapidly dart around the room, looking for something to use.

I'd take a fourth option. Distract the creature by throwing Trixie at it, and run away screaming like a little girl while it messily devours her.

Remember; her screams of agony mean the plan is working!

Ah, it feels good to do good, doesn't it? After the stick, the carrot! You're sure Trixie will be grateful once she truly understands you are the guiding hoof she desperately needs. You can help her be as pretty inside as she is outside. And she is quite pretty, isn't she? Also, she was blushing back there—maybe she does feel something for you...

Yeah, don't trust Twilight Sparkle. Like, not even by an inch. If you ever have to meet her then act friendly, nice, but wish dearly that you'll get a chance to stab her in private. I think that's pretty much just my point, here. Don't trust Sparkle. Don't like Sparkle. I mean, just look at what she did to your Pet! Beggared and starved, just like you. Hell, I bet Twilight's just as bad as Celestia, that stuck up bitch. Never cares to look around and see the suffering, fix it, despite all her power. Ignorance is their creed, obviously. Anyway, we'll be having this spiel again when you meet her in person. Just don't trust the lackeys of Celestia.

Your searching eyes settled on the doorway to the bedroom, where Trixie was no doubt still slumbering... and lingered... ... ... Maybe you could throw Trixie at it? Use her as bait? Yeah, she was loud and distracting, you could probably escape out the window while the plant monster was chomping down on-

NO! No. Bad you, BAD. You do NOT feed ponies to crazy mixed-up plant monster things! And she's already suffered enough! What with her being beaten and bested by Twilight Sparkle! The Princess's pet student who got FIRST HAND teaching in magic straight from Celestia! How is THAT a fair match-up!? ... Wow... Twilight Sparkle would have definitely known that before taking on Trixie... maybe she's a bit of a bitch? And also, Trixie was blushing a little, so she might actually feel something for you, and she does have a pretty plot and-

OKAY! Yes penis this is acknowledged! Back to the life or death situation please!

You shook your head then furrowed your brows as you refocused on the matter at hoof, trying to think of a less reprehensible and terrible way of solving the probl-

SLAM!

"GAH!"

The latest blow from the insistent, unnatural, and uninvited guest pounded through the door AND through your meager attempts to barricade it with your body. You were sent tumbling into the hut from the force of the breech, door slamming wide open as you went head over hooves, spiraling across the floor until you hit the eating table with a-

THUD!

Your eyes rolled dizzy in your sockets as your forelegs lay splayed out at either side of your head, flank propped up against the table, your plot and hind legs sticking up in the air. As result of your... awkward positioning, your long unkempt tail fell back across your chest, the tip reaching all the way down to your nose. A few subconscious shifts of your flank, and the hair started to tickle your nostrils, leading to one simple reaction.

"A-a-achoo!" You sneezed, the force knocking the tail away and to the left of your nose. You shook your head, blinked a bit to clear your eyes... and then instantly wished that you hadn't.

An upside-down plant monster was coming at you across the ceiling! And the door was on the ceiling now! ... Oh, right, no, you were upside down. But still! IT WAS COMING!!!

And creepily to. The cloak was shuffling across the floor, blue tendrils creeping out from under the dirty unwashed brown, wiggling like worms and digging into the wood, pulling the cloak forward and the plant mass along with it. Red eyes on tendrils with grinning sharp-toothed beaks... death riding on Zecora's dirty blood-splattered cloth.

I'm not sure if it's WEARING Zecora's cloak, so much as it is GROWING out from it...not sure if it has to die though. If our friend is right, we might just have a case of imprinting on our hands...though the malicious grins are a bit of a red flag.

Nomad

So, if this thing just grew out of the cloak, and it's part Cockatrice, that would make it a "hatchling" for lack of a better term. And what do we know about hatchlings? They imprint. So, CONGRATULATIONS BLANK SLATE! You are now the proud father of a Poijockrath (POIson JOke-coCKatrice-chimeRA-THing)! Try to talk to it, control it. If that fails, beat it with a rolled-up newspaper (aka Mr Stabby). Try not to kill it, even if it does need some discipline, but even so a violent dog that cannot be brought to heel is put down. So don't get to upset if it dies.

Archivist

Oh, gods, that's creepy. But sort of cool, maybe? Who knows, maybe it could even be cute, if it turns out to be loving.

What? Oh, right, plant-monster-thing. Well, you might not quite realize it, but you're part poison Joke yourself, maybe you can bond with it? Either way, if it's hostile, kill the fuck out of it, otherwise try to tread the waters, check if it's benevolent or malignant. If the mares drop by, well, you know what to do. Also, can't believe we forget a fucking poison joke flower in the cloak. Also, I can't fucking believe those things can turn into plant monsters. Freaky. Nevertheless, onwards we go. So, let me just start telling you a few base facts right here, start the indoctrination early, y'know?

Shit, we never did do anything with that poison joke did we? Well, how about you try and befriend it. Everyone treated you as a monster, so you want to be nice to it. Or use it. Poison joke is a very random thing, so keep your sword ready to swing. Keep it hidden away so it doesn't see, but you do have to think of your own safety.

The Chessmaster

Option 2: Try and reason with it, who knows it might listen.

Huh. Composite plant monster on your doorstep. This is quite a day, eh?

Alright, you're already kind of drained today, and fighting is tiring, so you should first try to find out of it's intelligent. Remember, it knocked on the door, waited until you opened, and didn't ambush you right away. Aside from your zebra cuddle pillow, that's pretty much the nicest anything has reacted to you in the Everfreak Forest, including the Rudely Antagonistic Trixie! Plus, it does look kinda familiar, doesn't it? Reminds you of several other things you know. Maybe you attracted it with the music from your legblade? Maybe it reacts to it... Oooh! You could give it a name if you adopt it! How about "Amalgam"?

Nomad

Your hooves began to kick and shake in the air frantically as the smiling plant creature twitched and wriggled across the floor. Your rump shook in the air, and soon you fell onto your right side with a-

BUMP

"Ugh!"

You let out a grunt as you hit the floor and then scrambled up to your hooves. Fortunately, while the natural abomination was able to move because of those creepy worm-like digits wriggling out from under the cloak, it didn't necessarily move quickly. It tugged and jerked itself across the floor rather than gliding steady, so you had time to bring your right forehoof up and-

SCHLINK!

Summon your blade upon the end of your hoof. You stretched your blade forward, pointing it towards the plant monster, holding it between you and the creature... and it stopped moving. The heads of the plant monster turned their gazes towards the sword, eyeing it almost curiously. The two center heads turned from looking at you to each other, each with their right eyebrows raised. Then they started to chuckle.

As one, the six heads began to shake with a low hissing laughter, as their tendrils waved this way and that above the cloak, rubbing against each other and intertwining, like they were leaning on one another for support as they laughed at your expense. You blinked at the display, then audibly gulped down a lump in your throat.

Okkkkkkkaaaaaayyyyy... Well it's showing some form of thought... Granted that form of thought seems to be mainly centered around mocking you... But maybe it can be reasoned with! It looks like it grew out of Zecora's cloak, so maybe you did something to make it grow. Maybe it'll see you as it's Daddy! ... Maybe you'll sprout wings out your butt and get crowned Princess of hot flanks. Still, you really do NOT want to fight this... thing, whatever it is. So you licked your lips, cleared your throat, shifted nervously, and then tentatively began to speak.

"Um, hello?" You started, bringing all six gazes back to you, the plant heads still letting out errant hissing chuckles.

"Uh, hi. So, it looks like you can understand me, and the fact of the matter is, I'm pretty tired. I mean, I practically JUST got back from a harrowing adventure in which I nearly got killed several times over, and my forelegs are REALLY tired today from doing... things." You spoke, smiling a bit as you thought back on the exact "things" that you'd been doing, mainly revolving around Trixie's flank. Getting back on track, you shook your head, and looked back to the monster, clearing your throat again.

" 'Ahem' So, uh, anyways, I was wondering if we could maybe NOT fight, and possibly just, you know, try to talk or something? Communicate? Solve any potential issues diplomatically as opposed to with violence?" You asked, trying your best to put on a sympathy-inducing pretty-please don't kill me half-grimace.

The two heads in the center looked to each other again. The other heads turned to look to one another. Every head met eyes and nodded, then looked to other nearby heads and nodded to them as well. It was a bouncing jamboree of nodding heads on the ends of tendrils sprouting from your zebra's cloak, each seeming to come to an agreement. And for a moment, you started to feel some hope welling up in your heart, before each of them turned to look to you again and-

"SKKKKRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

... Did that. Loudly. You winced as green sticky spittle once again flew into your face. So much for a peaceful arrangement... You did not have time to mope however, as the right-most head out of the set immediately lunged forward after completing it's part in the roar, beak opened wide.

"Agh!"

CHINK!

Came the sound of teeth chomping on black crystal as you desperately raised your blade to intercept the attack. The plant head chomped and drooled on the sword, advance stopped by your instrument of blocking as it growled in frustration and glared at you over the blade with malicious red eyes. You didn't have time to celebrate your martial prowess however, as the closet tendril to your left swung it's head down and around into your side.

WHACK!

CRASH!

The blade was ripped from the first head's mouth, cutting it's teeth to pieces as you went flying through the air and straight into one of Zecora's shelves. Bottles, jars, sacks, and flasks fell around you, along with one particularly big bright red bottle that fell straight down onto your head with a-

CLONK!

You winced, both from the pain pounding in your left side, and from the impact of the bottle on your head. As your head groaned over yet ANOTHER concussion dealt to it in your brief time dwelling within the Everfree, a part of you contemplated the possibility that perhaps Zecora had too many damn bottles in her hut!

Your brain, realizing that you had more pressing matters to worry about than whether or not your zebra love-bug was a hoarder, kicked your adrenaline into high gear. Your eyes snapped wide, and you scrambled to your hooves, turning quickly to look at the plant monster.

Also, brush your teeth, lest they become sapient and detach from your mouth before going on a killing spree. Teeth are evil, like clowns and rapists.

The plant monster's heads were arguing with one another. Apparently, head A didn't take kindly to head B knocking you away while your blade was still in it's mouth, and to the large loss of teeth that came with that. The heads were now hissing angrily at one another, as the other plant heads watched with interest, snickering and hissing with one another.

Fragments of the first head's teeth were lying on the ground nearby, splatters of green saliva sap surrounding them. And then, the teeth began to wiggle, roll, and jump on the ground. You blinked, and furrowed your brows... And then pulled back in alarm as little blue tendrils BURST out of the sharp white chompers! Like writhing worms the tendrils spasmed and twitched, popping out all over the teeth, making them dance and jump on the floor, little-

'click, click, click'

-sounds accompanying them as the teeth hopped and bounced around the floor, tossed about by the tendrils. As you watched this display your right eye began to twitch. This was easily the single creepiest bucking thing you've ever seen in your entire life. And it has had a LOT of competition as of recent... You suddenly have an urge to brush your teeth... and visit the dentist... and then get your molars pulled out and resign yourself to a liquid diet for the rest of your life.

Also, a thought for later. You have been drinking a lot of blood lately. It seems that each time you do so you get more powerful. Doesn't that sound sort of like those creatures you heard some people talking about when you lived behind a book store for a while? What were they called again? I think they started with a "v". Oh yeah! Vamponies! As you said earlier, none of these changes have been bad. All of them have helped you in some way. If drinking blood gets you more powers, wouldn't it be nice if you had fangs like the vamponies had so that you could drink the blood of your enemies easier? But fangs would be rather obvious to "everypony", especially because you wouldn't be able to hide them. Also, ponies are herbivores, so a pony with sharp teeth would scare a lot of ponies. Maybe if they were retractable...

Or get them replaced with fangs. After all, you've been licking up a lot of blood lately, just like a vampony! One of those sparkly bastards from those weird Duskfall books that mares seemed to get all worked up about. Those abstinent buckers who refused to actually drink the blood of ponies, like that Ward Culling vampony who stared at that Bell mare every night as she slept. And for some reason that was supposed to be romantic as opposed to bucking creepy? Yeah... yeah you've never really understood the fascination with that series.

Anyways, fangs might be nice if you're going to go to all the trouble of changing your teeth. They'd need to be retractable though so you wouldn't scare anypony and WHY THE BUCK ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT THIS NOW!?!? PLANT MONSTER! TRYING TO KILL YOU!!!

You shook your head free of distracting thoughts, and refocused on the arguing plant monsters. Apparently their disagreement had escalated, with both the toothless and the side-whacking heads full on 'Skreee'ing at each other. As you watched, taking the time to steady yourself and deep breathe, the head that struck your side turned it's gaze to you and narrowed it's red eyes into a rage filled glare... You gulped down a lump in your throat.

Whirling it's head back to it's toothless accuser, the accused head lunged forward and down, patience at an end, gripping the tendril of it's fellow head with it's teeth at the middle of the tendril. It bit hard, and as it's prey let out a choked scream, the biter wrenched it up out of the cloak, ripping the toothless's tendril from the cloth. Oozy blue gunk spurted up from the newly formed hole in Zecora's cloak, as tiny blue tendrils writhed in the spot, now absent of the plant tendril they'd clung to, green sap spilling out around them and soaking the cloak.

The impatient ripper head, held the end of it's brother tendril in it's mouth, the rest of the head's shrinking away from it, wide-eyed. With an aggravated grunt the now Alpha head turned it's head, and threw the tendril against Zecora's wall, sending it slamming into the wood where it slumped down against the wall, the toothless head with an eternally surprised expression on it's face, as the glow of it's red eyes faded into the dull dim of oblivion...

You watched the display with wide eyes... ... ... Well... ... that was one way to settle an argument. You blinked away your surprise and looked back up to the plant monster, as it 'Skreee'd at the other heads, baring it's teeth and growling, before jerking it's head towards you. As one, the other four heads remaining turned to look at you, eyes narrowing into hate-filled glares... ... Right, no more time to get lost in thought... time for action. Time to do something impressive, incredible, something that will absolutely see you through to victory!

In the spirit of agreeing with Nomad, kill the buck out of it. You are sitting in the middle of an evil forest, and something wearing your LOVER's cloak is on your doorstep. That warrants death.

Option 3: Chop it up with you newly musical sword.

"YAAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!" You cried as you charged forward with wild abandon, swinging your blade in the air as you half-galloped towards the plant monster with three of your four hooves pounding the wood.

CHINK!

One of the five remaining heads to your right grabbed the sword with it's teeth, stopping it mid-flail. It held your blade in it's pretty white chompers, grinning over the blade at you. You blinked, and looked into it's red eyes... And then it's eyes flashed bright.

You felt a familiar numbness on your back legs for a moment, a numbness that you last felt when staring into the eyes of a chicken-lizard... just like the red eyes on the chicken-like face of this monster. You began to panic, your blood running cold in your veins, as you wrenched your eyes away from the creature's and looked back to your flank with trepidation. To your surprise though nothing had happened. Your hinny was still flesh, and the numbness had already faded away. You blinked, happy that you hadn't started turning to stone again, then looked back to the monster and-

CHOMP!

"AAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!"

You began to scream like a little schoolfilly as sharp teeth dug into your left shoulder, another head latched on, blood pooling up and out of your shoulder... Green blood, with tinges of blue, mixing in with it's saliva sap. You did not have time to ponder the oddity, or the implications, of your blood being green. You were too busy screaming in pain as your shoulder burned sharp from the bite. The head of the opportunistic plant latched onto your shoulder grinned at you, with your life blood leaking out around it's lips, red eyes glinting with pleasure.

And then it's eyes widened. It rapidly opened it's mouth and lifted up it's head, before beginning to spit out your green blood onto the floor. It didn't stop spitting though, long after your blood was out it continued to spit and soon it began puking up green saliva, and the same gooey blue substance that had spilled when the toothless head's tendril was pulled from the cloak, the strange plant sap and goop mixing with your blood as it retched. It didn't take long before it appeared to have puked up all of it's internal fluids, and then it just started dry heaving. Finally it wheezed, gasped, SPRUNG up and stood stiff in the air... and then fell limp onto the floor, eyes going dull and tendril wilting, shriveling up and drying out as blue goo dripped from the head's dead mouth...

The strangeness of a plant-chicken-head-thing dying because it bit your shoulder, along with the wonderment as to WHY such a thing would occur were both lost on you. Mainly, because your shoulder BUCKING HURT!!! OW OW OW OW OW!!!

The pain was immense, sharp, hot, and wet. And focusing. Very focusing. Adrenaline was slamming into your veins like a steam-powered train, as opposed to the slower stallion-pulled ones, and the pain began to dull as the entire rest of your world moved into clarity. You'd have to think on that when you were done BUCKING THIS DAMN PLANT UP!!!

Fortunately, the heads had all turned to watch their comrade die, eyes wide, distracted by it's death throes. Including the one holding your blade. It's grip was now loose and holding up at the top third. In one quick motion, you wrenched your blade out from the distracted monster's weak bite and-

SLICE!

DDDUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN...

The head of the tendril that had been holding your sword popped off as you cut through it with your crystal blade, your eyes wide and heart pounding quick in your chest, and the sound vibrating through the air.

You know, it occurs to me that I may have been to hasty in dismissing a musical sword as no practical value. Cockatrice are part snake, so you could try musical charming as well.

Archivist

The sound of lopping the head rang through the hut, and as you pulled back to chop again, you paused, furrowing your brows in confusion. The heads were waving back and forth through the air on the ends of their tendrils, a glazed look in the plants eyes, and goofy smiles on their faces... You blinked a few times, having some trouble comprehending what you were seeing... And then the Alpha head seemed to shake it off, and look to you with a growl.

It lunged forward as the others still waved back and forth in a daze and grabbed your outstretched blade in it's teeth. You barely had time to blink in surprise as it lifted you in the air by your sword, whirled you around, and then threw you over Zecora's cauldron, and into the stacks that Trixie had practically JUST finished cleaning up.

Books, bags, bowls, and a couple of pillows, collapsed onto you as you hit the pile, legs splayed out as the miscellaneous items collapsed on top of you, the top half of the pile bending forward and falling apart, pelting you with objects that Zecora had accrued.

Hmm, I wonder. While I'm playing with my new pet death monster that spawned out of COMPLETELY NOWHERE, maybe you will have to give it a little tough love so that it will obey, like Trixie. If so,and you happen to make a small cut on it, I wonder what would happen if you drank some of what it has for blood. You have already consumed all of its components too some degree, but would something different happen if you drank the blood of this creature, a being made of the remnants of multiple other creatures fused together by chaos magic.

Think carefully if you want any more obvious transformations today. Remember, you've barely dispelled Zecora's concerns regarding your sudden changes. The new horn will be difficult enough to explain; overdo it and she might decide it's not safe to leave you be. She's a doctor (or something like that), they tend to go over their patient's heads if they believe they're being a danger to themselves.

On that note, make sure Plant Thing doesn't get anywhere close to the bowl with Trixie's blood, if you didn't get rid of that yet.

Option 4: Run inside and grab those soap pods and water. It might die if you clean it.

Whatever you decide to do, this needs to be taken care of before Zecora gets home.

You lay beneath a small stack of miscellaneous objects from the collapsed pile, breathing heavily, sweat starting to form on your brow... Your eyes came up angry, looking at the plant monster, the Alpha biting and nibbling at the other heads, trying to rouse them. You coughed out painfully, and lifted your eyes to the blue and green sap and goop combination on your blade... You'd been gaining power from the consumption of various substances, from the blood of your enemies. Vampony... ... maybe... just maybe...

Slowly, your tongue began to extend past your lips, as you began pulling your right forehoof back across the wood with your blade, eyes focused on the goop as you leaned forward and-

THUMP!

Your shift in position caused the items in the pile on your back to shift as well. A pair of books fell, a pillow toppled, and a small straw-woven basket hit you on the head, in the same place that bottle had just clonked you moments before. It ricocheted off of your head, spiraling in the process, and spilling out the strange lime-green soap rocks with scattered blue spots that Zecora had used to bathe you, before ending top-down on the wood.

You blinked slowly, your eyes shifting up from the bloody blue goop on your blade, to the scattered rocks in front of you, to the bowl of semi-bloody water you'd used to clean Trixie's flank-blood, very near... Your eyes flickered back down to the blue goop on your blade... Then you flicked your tongue back into your mouth, gritted your teeth, and got up to your hooves, shrugging off the rest of the accumulated junk.

You weren't particularly sure WHERE the thought came from... Perhaps it was because you now saw the plant-monster as the lowest of filth to be purged with the might of your blade! But it was a damn lot better than ingesting any internal fluids you happened to come across! No, instead of consuming your enemy, you were going to bathe him! And while you had some reservations about using the water that had had Trixie's blood within it, it was the closest source of water to you at the moment you could reasonably use, and Zecora's soap would probably scrub away the traces of Trixie's blood in the water. It was your best chance!

Still running on adrenaline, you reached forward with the tip of your blade and impaled one of the small soapy rocks with the tip of your sword. Sweat formed on your brow, your eyes swam, and quickly you tossed it off of the tip of your blade and over towards the bowl of Trixie's flank-water!... And missed. The soap rock hit next to the bowl, and skipped across the floor, until it bounced against the side of the cauldron with a light-

TING

And remained stationary, away from it's objective.

You gritted your teeth and let out a cry of aggravation, before turning your eyes back towards the plant monster. The Alpha head was using it's weight to hit the other three, snapping them out of their trance, causing them to refocus as it 'Skreee'd and barked at them, getting them back into shape. You gulped down a lump in your throat, and your left leg collapsed beneath you for a moment, before you managed to straighten it out. You were starting to feel tired, woozy, unfocused. It wasn't a good feeling.

With a flash of anger and desperation you speared another soap rock. You hefted it up, stood on your hind legs, took several unsteady steps over, and then fell back down to the floor, stabbing your sword into the bowl as you did so. Your melee attempt worked far better than your ranged efforts earlier, and the soap began to foam up in the midst of the water. As the massive lime green foam began to arise and spill out over the edges of the bowl, you pulled your sword out of it, and then slipped it down beneath the bowl, lifting it up on an unsteady hoof. Light blue soap bubbles rose up from the mounting foam as you, in one motion, turned and threw it towards the plant monster.

The foam bellowed forth, growing far larger as it spilled out with the water, and poured over the plant monster, coating the heads, tendrils, and Zecora's cloak, in the lime-green concoction. And the plant monster before you did not appear immune...

"SKKKKRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

As it spasmed and fell, twitching and writhing back onto the cloak, all four heads shrieking in pain. You smirked, victory on your face. You staggered up against the cauldron, bringing your left foreleg up to wrap over the edge as you began to feel weaker. However nothing could rip the smile from your face as you watched the plant tendrils writhe, and shrink... and shrink... and shrink... Until...

You blinked. The planimal tendrils were now no taller than a foot. They had seemed to shrink on the cloak, which aside from being covered in soap and generally a mess from combat was unaffected, and were now small little flower-sized beasts. It would have been cute, if they hadn't been trying to kill you only moments prior. Now, the four tiny heads were arguing, yapping, and each angrily proclaiming in tiny little 'Skreee's. A kind of fascination overtaking you, you just watched as the three lesser heads turned on their Alpha, apparently blaming the head for their current situation, and lunged inwards to rip it to pieces. The Alpha head's tendril was severed and ripped into bits by the munching heads, snapping the pieces of the Alpha and tossing them every which way, scattering the tiny remains...

Ok, weird Plant-Cockatrice Chimera growing out of Zecora's cloak. You know what? That's down-right normal for this place. Yes a bucking... Animant? Planimal? Go with Planimal. A bucking planimal growing out of an abandoned cloak is your new normal. That's pretty hard-core actually. Well, come on Mr Slate, if you're going to be living here can't be trying to kill everything you come across. Well, ok, you can but it gets tedious, and exhausting, and you could use a pet. No not the Illusionist, a pet pet.

You shook your head, then gritted your teeth, glaring down at the tiny tendrils. Show was over. Time to finish this! You approached the now weak and tiny enemy, leaning against the cauldron for support, slowly moving with sweat on your brow and your breath heavy in your lungs. The heads were still ripping at the remains of their former leader when you got close enough to reach them. You jerked your right forehoof up with your blade, to deliver the final blow! However as you jerked it up unfocused and disoriented, your blade banged against the side of the cauldron, and a loud-

RRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG

Echoed throughout the hut... With a grunt, you shook your head and raised the blade once more... then stopped, blinking, as you saw the heads. Once again they all had a dazed look in their eyes, waving back and forth on the tendrils slowly, happily, goofy grins on their faces, pieces of their former leader still in their mouths... ... Slowly, you lowered your right forehoof, eyes furrowed.

The Everfree was a dangerous place. You'd been in constant danger since arriving and still were... It was safe to assume that there would be more dangers coming your way, at one point or another. Maybe, you could tame this plant creature somehow using your musical prowess... It might pay to have a creature that could adapt itself to the environment, born of the Everfree, to give you support...

Your ears twitched, and your head shot up sharply to look out the open door, eyes wide. No! Not now! No way she was back this quickly!

"Oh no trouble at all darling! I may be a lady, however I am not above a certain degree of manual labor when the situation calls for it! And really, taking measurements is hardly what I'd call a challenging procedure, even in such... unusual circumstances."

Your pupils became pinpricks as the sound reached your ears, and a pair of blurs appeared down the path. She was! Zecora had come back with her friend to take your measurements! Your eyes immediately shot down to the little soap-covered plant heads, still chewing on their former leader. Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

Quick, residual magic in you from experiential medical healing malfunction that can change you. You were kidnapped by a mad scientist who you don't remember hearing his name, but only called him Doctor. He poured spell after spell into you but it never got the desire he wanted. When timberwolves attacked it was only what he did to you that saved you, so you would like to keep it. You don't want to remember your past experiences in life you you decided on a new name. One that describes what the world is to you. A Blank Slate. Blank Slate.

The Chessmaster

Blank, why are you trying to think of a cover story at THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT!?!? We need to focus on the plant/cockatrice/cloak chimera...try saying that five times fast...that is currently looking at you like dinner. If you find this an appropriate time to flash back to your school days when the other foals used to call you "Blank Slate" as a cruel twist on your family name, that is your perogative. Blank Slate...an unmarked tablet, still full of potential with endless possibilities. It was a cruel nickname once, but it does feel appropriate now. Doesn't it?

Nomad

BUCK! They're on their way! Alibi! Excuse! Cover story! Uh, you were kidnapped by a mad pony! You got lost in the Everfree! You were tortured and spelled! And also you were called BLANK! BLANK SLATE!!! And you were, and you were...

You were feeling kind of... tired. Your eyes rolled around in your head, your grip on the cauldron loosened, and you fell onto your side on the wooden floor... Your vision started to fade, and as you felt yourself drifting off into the black, the last thing you heard was-

"Oh my! Zecora, is your door usually left opened like that?"

Before everything became darkness.

Author's Notes:

Ugggh... ... ... I... have been unproductive. As you may have noticed... I hesitate to put this into Hiatus, because I actually am working on it... just, aggravatingly slowly... ... ugh... I am not satisfied with this chapter. It gave me trouble throughout and I still don't know how it turned out. However, it's waited long enough, so... here it is now.

Also, coloring for Rarity. Confusing? Alright? Perfect? I'm going to have to change the coloring of the Host's speech due to the format changes, for my own ease of use, and I'm playing with the idea of using unique colorization for each of the Elements. Good idea? Bad idea? Indifferent idea?

Also, the host is going to lullaby land. The previously recorded and stored questions for the brothers will be addressed next chapter, and new posts will be addressed to them.

Also, happier and better, coming from the same pony who compared Trixie and Zecora is an interesting hypothesis about Celestia and her treatment of Twilight as her student. I'm not sure how much I'll take for truth from it, however I thought it was a very thought-provoking and interesting train of thought, definitely worth considering and thinking over.

An Interesting Idea about Celestia and her faith in Twilight