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I freed myself from the roots that entangled my legs. Flakes of dirt cracked and fell as I moved. Once I was mobile, I looked around - this was recognizably where I'd just been, with the same large rocks and dip, but it was more eroded. And all the plants were different.

Okay, so it seems I was frozen in time somehow. What was that I saw, anyway? I thought back. I'd only seen it for a moment, its chicken-lizard body and terrible eyes... Cockatrice. I'm lucky to be alive at all.

Since I'd heard a scream before being petrified myself, I figured Polly or Digory must have been petrified as well. I searched about for either of them for several minutes, but found neither.

I returned to the ruins to get my bearings, and found a large hole just south of the large rock south of the ruins. Shit. I'm late... The hole was freshly dug - the heap of removed dirt was still damp on top. But not terribly late. They might still be nearby!

I called out, "Rainbow Dash? Fluttershy?"

Not receiving a response, I headed to the top of the ruins to reorient myself, and set out for Ponyville.

After one heck of a hiking experience including a rickety rope bridge, swimming across a stream sidestroke with my clothes held over my head, and a narrow cliffside path, I got close enough to Ponyville that I needed to think about running in to zombies. Or rather, I should have already been worrying about it, since one swooped down from the sky at me. I dodged to the side; she wheeled around for a second pass and got her head stuck in the crook of a tree. She was light blue - for a moment I was worried she was Rainbow Dash, but the purple tail proved otherwise. Flying zombies. Shit. At least they're too fast for their own good.

I ran, but she freed herself and soon we were weaving among the trees. I screamed for help.

And then, the pursuit stopped. I waited behind a tree, listening carefully, trying to quiet my breathing.

"That was really good, Mr. Cockatrice. Did you like that? I thought you would."

Fluttershy?

Covering my eyes, I stepped out from behind the tree. "Fluttershy!"

"Oh! Omar! You're back!"

"Yeah. Is it safe to look? I was just at the ruins to drop off the elements, and I got turned to stone, and then it was today, and I wasn't stone anymore."

Fluttershy turned to the basket. "Oh. Ooh. Now, Mr. Cockatrice, did you do that? I see. Well, thank you very much for freeing him today. Yes, that was just perfect. Better than I hoped for. Yes!"

I tentatively glanced at the source of her voice. She was carrying the cockatrice in a large basket. His eyes were kind of ugly, but didn't turn me to stone.

A call filtered through the woods - Rainbow Dash? "Fluttershy! Got another one over here!"

She swooped off, and I followed. Following the sounds of voices, I came upon the gang circled around another two now-petrified zombie ponies.

Fluttershy was just saying, "Now that she's safe, I just wanted to say, I found Omar."

Twilight Sparkle asked, "And Nightmare Moon?"

"Didn't see her."

I coughed, and they turned. Twilight Sparkle ran up eagerly. "You made it after all!"

I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out the elements. "Yeah. So, here you go."

She looked at them. "These are the elements of harmony? What happened to them?"

Misremembering, I said, "Evil sorceress queen."

"And what happened to Nightmare Moon?"

"Evil sorceress queen."

"Oh. Well, where is this queen now?"

"No clue. Last I saw her was millions of years ago."

"So, not urgent. Now, let's see if we can use these things."

The other five each claimed their chosen element, and they stood in a circle. Twilight looked to each and said, "We've come a long way together. At first, I was just following instructions, then I was trying to save Equestria. But over the past few days, when we were struggling to keep our heads above water, and there were no elements for us to hope for, I found myself looking to you more and more anyway. If this doesn't work, I'm just going to tell you - it really must be my doing the magic totally wrong, because you all are my friends, and the best friends I've ever seen anyone have." With a deep breath, she added, "Here goes."

She drew in magic, and the stones began glowing lavender, then white. And a bright light shone from her eyes - which was pretty startling - and then they were all wearing personalized gemmed necklaces - and on Twilight Sparkle's head, a tiara formed from nothing.

Rainbow Dash hopped in the air. "Now that's more like it!"

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath. "Now... what can we do with this? The only thing we know it's done is to bind Nightmare Moon."

I observed, "That doesn't seem particularly close to its nature of friendship."

"Right. So it can probably do more... benign things. But I'm not going to risk it. We continue with the petrification until this situation is all under control. Find Discord, bind him, bind Macidexia, then see what still needs to be done."

We worked our way towards Ponyville, finding a few more zombies - but once we hit the town proper, it seemed everyone was on the street. A wave of stoning passed through the town with us on our way to the hospital.

It was a cacophony of moans, and the entrance and windows were barricaded. Twilight Sparkle ripped the door open with magic and cleared the path. "Doctor?"

Rarity whispered to me, "Doctor Draymore has very good reflexes. He hasn't been bitten yet despite treating them from the first patient!"

This suddenly struck me as suspicious. Was Discord working through him?

He called out, "In here..."

Applejack, further ahead, rushed into a side room. "Who tied you up?"

"I did. I haven't been bitten, but I'm feeling the early symptoms. It's not just through saliva. Did you get the blood samples to Canterlot?"

Applejack said, "Yeah, Rainbow Dash did that yesterday. You don't remember?" Meanwhile, Twiight Sparkle and Rarity formed bubbles around us to ward off airborne infection.

"Oh. Right... Get away from me, then. Don't risk yourselves."

Twilight Sparkle quietly said, "We have a cockatrice. Is there anyone who you'd say is better off being petrified while waiting for the cure?"

The doctor thought for a moment - "Petrified? I... can you undo that?"

"Yes. It's... very unpleasant, but not injurious."

"Then, at least the worst - Cheerilee and Sweetie Belle - and... you're sure it works?"

Twilight Sparkle nodded.

"Do all of us. Then fumigate the whole hospital from the air. It's the only way to be sure."

Keeping close together, we swept through the hospital, leaving statues in our wake. Every zombie was tied down or locked in a room - including another doctor and four nurses, all zombies.

Then we came upon granny Smith. She snarled pathetically, straining at the packing twine holding her back.

Twilight Sparkle put up a hoof, stopping Fluttershy. "I did have a serious fright. What might it do to her?"

Applejack swallowed. "Are you saying it's not so safe?"

"For the ponies we've encountered so far, sure. And I've been thinking about the elements. We can focus on healing and being gentle, with not a touch of anger. It might be ineffective, but it's not going to hurt her. And if it works, we've found a better solution."

Applejack locked eyes with her, and nodded. "All right. Let's try."

The six focused, and the elements began humming. I stuck my head out into the hallway, making sure no pony was about, going to take our rear.

After a minute, Twilight Sparkle said, "That's as far as we can go. Let's back off, slowly."

After a few more seconds, granny Smith cleared her throat and said, "Well, how did I get in here?"

I slipped in to get a look as Applejack rushed in to give her a gentle hug. "Granny, it's good to have you back."

"Didn't know I was gone!"

Then the others crowded around and it was a wonderful scene of pure happiness until granny Smith bit Twilight Sparkle on the leg.