Carousel looked at Marble Vein with a confused expression in my Equestria Dreamscape. "Um. If a pony was seriously ill or injured wouldn't turning them into stone just, uh, um, kill them?"

Marble glanced over at the earth pony and smiled. "No. No it wouldn't because they'd be almost instantaneously turned to stone. Once turned to stone they can't be killed. Because they are no longer alive. Understand?"

Carousel stared back at the unicorn with a look that made it abundantly clear that she didn't understand. Brilliant Flower smiled and spoke up.

"I know. I know. It sounds crazy, but trust me. Marble Vein knows what she's doing! She's changed me into stone several times and it's completely safe. It's just a bit disorienting the first time it happens to you!"

"She's transformed you?" Petina raised an eyebrow and looked intently at the bright yellow earth pony. "How could you tell she'd turned you into stone? Didn't you just black out?"

Brilliant Flower shook her head. "Oh! I've been conscious every time she's done it! In fact I could see and hear. Not well, but I could. Everything was a little bit hazy, and sounds were distant. Like listening to a conversation in the next room. Although I cannot smell, taste, or any sense of touch when I'm stone"

"I don't mean to doubt your statements." I stopped preening one of my wings. "Was Marble here able to confirm your claims?"

"Oh yes." The dove grey unicorn took a sip of her iced tea. "I've developed a method to being able to monitor and communicate with individuals who I have transformed. I'm still refining the technique but it works. Now how lucid a pony remains once petrified depends on the individual's mental state. It seems to vary depending on the individual pony, but even if they lose consciousness they revert back safely when the spell expires."

"So Brilliant here isn't your only test subject?" Petina glances over at Feather Hooves and Midnight Whisper. "So has Marble here…"

Feather Hooves laughed and shook her head. "Oh no! no! No! She hasn't turned me inta lawn ornament!" The mare blushed a little. "At least not yet."

Midnight Whisper sighed. "While the results of Marble's experiments have been magnificent to behold. I have so far declined her offers to experience it myself."

Marble glanced over at the deep violet unicorn and smiled. "You'd look marvelous in marble you know?"

The unicorn groomer muttered something and took a drink of her iced tea. Petina looked back and forth at the two unicorns and smiled. "So Marble. How did you invent this spell?"

Marble looked at the 3 of us for a moment. "Are you familiar with the creature called the cockatrice?"

"The half chicken, half snake creature?" I asked

"Yes that one. Although it's origin is more complicated than that. As to how I discovered this less traveled path." She paused for a moment. "Originally I had aspirations of being an artist. I wanted to become a sculptors and still dabble in it, but it was at this time I started reading stories about cockatrices. Do you know why they turn animals, and ponies, to stone?"

"Because they're mean?" Carousel said.

"They're highly territorial and do it to warn others?" Petina chimed in.

"Because they take pleasure in do it?" I replied.

Marble smiled softly. "All of those are popular pony tales. However the main reason they petrify other animals is to store food for later consumption and to impress potential mates that they're good providers."

"Wait. They eat the critter they turn stone?" Petina looked bewildered. "What they do? Shatter them and then eat the gravel?"

Marble Vein laughed. It was a soft soothing sound, like a gentle, summer rain pattering on leaves. After a few seconds it tapered off. "No, no. Cockatrices petrify their prey and will usually drag it back to lair. Then when they wish to eat they magically revert their prey back to flesh and kill them."

"It was one encounter that I read about that set me on my current line of research. A group of foresters ponies up north came across petrified earth pony stallion on a remote forest path. They immediately realized there had to be a cockatrice in area. Knowing that there only realistic chance of rescuing the poor trapped the foresters set up an ambush around paralyzed pony. Their hope was that the cockatrice would return either to feed or to drag its prize away back to its lair."

"The foresters hunch was correct, and soon the cockatrice returned and the ponies sprang their trap and captured and blindfolded it. With the creature secured the ponies started to debate how they would convince the cockatrice to release the stallion. It was at this point one of the foresters noticed a couple of puncture wounds in the neck of the petrified pony."

Marble Vein paused for a moment and then continued with her story. "Now a cockatrice can petrify their victim with just their stare, but that's usually a slow process that can take several seconds depending on their victim. However they can do it from a distance. A faster method is for them to ambush their prey and then peck it. That let's them inject their prey with their venom. At first some of the foresters thought this was what had happened to the pony, but the senior forester recognized wound as being that of a Pearl Eyed Viper. That and facial expression on the petrified pony made it clear that the stallion had been bit by the viper and was in the process of succumbing to the serpent's venom. In his delirious state he'd stumbled through forest and come across cockatrice and had been captured."

"With this information the foresters realized that in a strange way the cockatrice saved the petrified pony from the serpent's venom. So before they coaxed the cockatrice to release the stallion they sent the pony back to town and summoned the town doctor who brought some anti-venom with her."

Marble looked at us. "It was at that moment I realized that if one of the doctors had been able to do what that cockatrice had done to that stallion in the forest they might've been able to save many of the more seriously injured ponies, and maybe my mother." The unicorn closed her eyes. "It was then that my interest in medicine started growing. My parents were of some affluence, and I was an only foal. Plus they'd arranged in their will to assure I would be taken care of. That and some careful investment on my behalf has given me the ability to go to university where I got a degree in alchemy and medicine. After my internship I was able to set up a practice, but I've never stopped my research to develop a spell similar to the cockatrice stare."

The unicorn looked at all of us assembled and smiled. "And I'm on the cusp of making my findings public."

To be continued.