Possible epilogue for "Daring Do and the Goggles of Shipping" · 6:04am Nov 25th, 2015
There's another week of NaNoWriMo left, but my word count is low enough at this point that success would require quitting my job and abandoning my family to focus on my unpaid writing hobby, and is that really success?
Future Twilight knows my NaNoWriMo doesn't end well
But NaNoWriMo has been far from a total loss. Beyond the obvious Exhibit A (writing The One Where Discord Gets All The Mares and getting it featured), I've produced a couple semi-to-partially-complete chapters of material for various stories. One of them is a possible epilogue for Daring Do and the Goggles of Shipping that would set up for the sequel that some have requested.
I'll present it here in its flagrantly un-edited glory. Be aware that it spoils the crap out of Daring Do and the Goggles of Shipping if you haven't read it already. If there's interest, I might clean it up and post it. But then I'd pretty much have to write a sequel... 
Dr. Caballeron waved his bandaged forelegs at yet another predator that had mistaken him for dead. He groaned, both from the pain and from the sight of his wounded limbs, as the immature timberwolf retreated, growling, back into the line of leafless trees before him. Its eyes glinted in the failing twilight, projecting an unspoken warning about what might await him in the coming darkness.
Caballeron pushed himself over onto the side of his body that hurt less. “Curse you cowards,” Caballeron grunted, thinking of the goons who had deserted him. He planted a forehoof in a futile effort to raise himself. “And curse you, Daring Do.” He gritted his teeth, and forced himself to rise a little, despite the pain that lanced through his legs and chest. “And as for you, Draconequus… I...”
His breathing became labored as he rose to his unsteady hooves. He snarled, and shook a forehoof at the glowing moon.
“I… will have… my reven—”
A sickly green glow split the darkness from behind, casting a vision of his own dark shadow before him. Caballeron startled at the interruption of his rant, and turned his head, wincing at the angry slashes on his chest that had not even begun to scab. He squinted as the light intensified, and raised a foreleg to shield his eyes against it.
“You thirst for revenge?” said a peevish and familiar voice at the center of the light. Caballeron could see the glow was coming from the tall but delicate silhouette of a unicorn mare bathed in a glowing green corona. Though he couldn’t make out many details of her face, he could guess who it might be, given the circumstances.
He cleared his throat and smoothed his mane back, as much out of habit as out of a conscious attempt to proceed carefully with a buyer whose artifact he’d failed to secure. No, whose artifact had been stolen from him by the insufferable Daring Do and her ridiculous—and newly powerless—Draconequus companion. “A fine evening to you, lady Heart Breaker. Come to check on matters, I presume?”
He knew the name was fake, of course. It had been years since reputable collectors had been willing to hire him, and almost as long since he’d known the true identities of the ponies who sent him out to do what he did best.
She answered with a laugh. It was long, intense, and if years of trotting on the seedy side of life hadn’t inured him to dealing with rich ponies’ eccentricities, he might have found it frightening. What did unnerve him, though, is that he began to realize her silhouette was not quite… whole. He swallowed, trying to determine whether his eyes were playing tricks on him, or if Heart Breaker really had large holes running through her body…
Caballeron’s breath caught as the light began to fade. The creature left before him was every bit as feminine as Heart Breaker had been when she’d hired him to bring her the Goggles of Shipping, but she had taken on a sinister, un-pony-like aspect as well. Her horn had become twisted, and at her side were glistening, insectoid wings. She smiled, revealing fangs. She laughed, and lines of spittle dripped from slender, murderous jaws.
“Look down,” Queen Chrysalis beckoned, her horn glowing again. “Tell me what you see.”
Caballeron’s heart raced. He now knew who he was truly dealing with, and could guess at his chances of surviving the encounter. He willed his mind to stop considering why this of all creatures must have wanted the Goggles of Shipping, and how she might regard his failure to obtain it. He swallowed, and set his eyes darting across the rough, twig-laden dirt, desperate to find anything of significance in the horrible green light.
He spotted the faint twinkle of a reflection, and fixated on it. “There,” he said, pointing an injured hoof. “Something… there.”
“Very good, my dear Doctor,” she purred, beginning to walk toward him. “And can you guess what might lie crushed and shining in this cursed place?”
Caballeron’s professional demeanor reasserted itself. He made a vain effort to straighten his ruined cravat. “Madam, if I might beg your indulgence, there were certain… complications with the item’s acquisition.”
She drew uncomfortably close, batting her eyes in a manner that would have been alluring on a less predatory face. “Tut-tut, my dear Doctor. I expected better of you. But I suppose you still might have your uses...”
Caballeron stiffened as she bent and nuzzled at his neck. The gesture was at once both enticing and painful, given his wounds. But she smelled… intoxicating. He felt his breathing deepen despite the very real possibility of death at her hooves. As her spell took hold, he even dared to nuzzle her back.
She nipped his withers. He shivered with delight, and nuzzled harder, reveling in the slick but silky texture of her mane.
Caballeron shrieked at the sensation of another bite. She pulled away, and he raised a hoof to his neck, checking it, seeing that this time she’d drawn blood.
He met her eyes, prepared to protest.
He was forestalled by the sight of a snarling, razor-toothed goddess of rage bearing down on him. “You will get down in the dirt,” Chrysalis spat, all glamor having faded. “You will collect the shards of glass, and reassemble them into their frames.” Her nostrils flared. “And then maybe, just maybe, I will think about letting you live!”
Caballeron dared to blink. “I have... but one request,” he managed to say smoothly.
Chrysalis smiled; it was a rictus-grin, revealing savage fangs. “I am not feeling terribly indulgent toward you right now, my dear Doctor.”
He nodded. “Yes, but I believe it is for something that may… resonate with you, on a personal level.”
“...I’m listening.”
He dared to smile back at her. “When this is over… Daring Do and the Draconequus… they are both mine.”
Her jaws parted. “Fix my goggles, worm. And then, perhaps I will be pleased to let you be the tool of my vengeance upon those who have delayed my ultimate revenge!”
Chrysalis laughed again. It was longer and more baleful than before, and it sent chills down Caballeron’s spine.
Love eaters with the Goggles of Shipping? That's terrifyingly awesome.
Aww, I was hoping for some Caballeron X Doo action from those goggles, but Chrysalis getting in on the fun is always good too.
Wooo... That's a nice sequel hook!
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We shall see if this ends up being the way things go, but it gives me some ideas.
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Thanks guys.
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I've been thinking about those two as well. It does seem like a wasted opportunity not to do more with them. Though I'd rather have any (hate)shipping between them come from genuine feelings rather than compulsion...
3570958 Sometimes that 'ol black magic just jump-starts the real thing, just look at Big Mac and Cheerilee.
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You're not the only one.