//------------------------------// // Poison // Story: My Little Pirates: Luffy's Adventures in Equestria // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// “Get away!” A guard yelled as he sped away from Luffy and Magellan. “The Warden is gonna fight!” A wave of panic washed over guards and similar calls for retreat sounded throughout their ranks. Scales rubbed against one another, tails slashed through the air, and claws raked at anything in around them to allow the guards as much distance as possible from the battle. A few unfortunate ones were pushed over the edge in the stampede. Only Luffy, Bon, and Magellan remained. “Aw, I was getting closer to the good smell,” Luffy weezed. “Mugi-chan! We need to run!” Bon screamed at the top of his lungs. His wings went out and nervously twitched at his sides. “That’s Magellan! His venom-venom powers are unstoppable!” “This break-in of yours...” Magellan grunted and took a step forward, causing the ground to slightly tremble. “... is sullying my reputation. You will not reach Portgaz D. Ace, but you will tell me how you got in here.” “No way!” Luffy huffed. “Luffy...” Twilight’s voice whispered through the stone. “This guy sounds really dangerous and with the way you’re breathing, it’s not a good idea to fight.” “Don’t think you can escape,” Magellan bellowed. “I’ve posted the remaining jailer beasts at the Level Five stairway and guards at all the other exits. You have nowhere to run!” Globs of poison dripped off of Magellan. They sizzled against the floor and left tiny holes in the stone. Poison continued to fall off of Magellan, but it also coated his body at the same time. It spread over his wings and enlarged them with venomous enhancements. His tail flicked up and a sheath of poison extended from it and solidified with a sharp tip at the end of it. “Manticore!” Magellan’s improvised scorpion tail shot out at blurring speeds. Luffy barely dodged it, but part of his vest was engulfed by the attack and disintegrated instantly. The tail blazed past him and struck a few of the straggling guards. They gave a scream and then collapsed to the ground, coated in poison. “I missed,” Magellan growled. His poison bubbled and split into three pieces. Their tips morphed and grew sinister fangs and sharp eyes. “Hydra!” The heads zoned in on Luffy and gave chase. He glanced back and saw them looming over him. His eyes went to the boiling lake at his sides and an idea came to his head. He extended out his forelegs and grasped a large steel girder that hung above the lake. He swung under it and clenched his teeth as the flames licked at his flank. The hydra’s heads followed. One of them got too close to the lake and silently melted into it. Luffy looped around the girder and landed on top of it. He blew on his reddened hooves and smiled when they cooled down. “Ha! I got a hea—” An explosion from below silenced Luffy. It rocked the girder and would have sent Luffy into the lake blew had he not jumped up and onto a nearby ledge. Vapor spilled out of the blast zone and spread throughout the floor. “Chloroball,” Magellan muttered. “Atchoo!” Luffy sneezed. Mucus gushed from his nose and tears freely spilled from his eyes. “What is this?” “He’s weaponized an allergen,” Twilight gasped, half in scientific amazement and half in terror. “Luffy! You need to get out of there now!” Below, one the hydra heads lengthened itself up to Luffy’s position. It couldn’t strike him, but that was no longer its purpose. Magellan bent his legs and then shot up through his creation. “Venom Road!” He popped up in front of Luffy, fully coated with his manticore attack. His scorpion tail lashed out and melted straight through the floor at Luffy’s hooves. Before Luffy could recover, Magellan lunged forward and jabbed at him with one of his horns. Luffy ducked to the left and the horn gouged a hole in the wall that quickly distorted and liquified due to the poison. Luffy glared at Magellan and sent up kick up to the horn in the wall. There was a sharp crack and the horn splintered into pieces, revealing a tassel of hair underneath. “It’s fake?” “Die!” Magellan slammed a hoof down to the ground. Poison bubbled up and it cracked and fizzled. There was a shudder and then it fell down into the lake along with Luffy. Bon peaked his head out from behind a nearby pillar. He watched Luffy fall and kick away from the boiling lake only to skid across the burning ground. Magellan followed in pursuit and Bon couldn’t bear to watch anymore. He spread out his wings and buzzed off to another part of Level Four. His trail of tears evaporated instantly against the hot stone ground. Mugi-chan! I’m sorry! Magellan slammed into the ground and looked down with a cold stare. Luffy writhed on the floor, coughing and sneezing. Parts of his coat were singed and the flesh beneath was red and blistered in a few areas. “Give up.” Luffy clenched his teeth and struggled to his hooves. “I’m gonna rescue Ace!” “Ya stubborn idiot! Run!” Applejack’s voice rang from the stone. “I’m not gonna let them execute Ace!” Luffy ignored the stone and pressed his hooves into the ground. Steam funneled off of his body and mixed with Level Four’s smoke. He glared up at Magellan and sent his forelegs back and then forward at dizzying speeds. “Jet Bazooka!” The air escaped out of Magellan as Luffy’s hooves pressed into his torso. He grunted from the attack and fell to his knees. Luffy’s hooves retracted back, dripping with poison and giving off a sizzling noise. “Ahhh!” Luffy cried out in pain. “No one... has ever been foolish enough to directly hit me. Two hooves filled with poison is enough to kill you... eventually,” Magellan huffed. The poison that cloaked his body shifted color and took on an azure tint. “You have my condolences.” Luffy ignored Magellan’s words and sent his hooves forward once more. “Twin Jet Pistol!” Luffy’s hooves smashed into Magellan and he gave another grunt, but the hooves didn’t retract. They went limp as did Luffy’s extended legs and fell to the ground in stringy heaps. “W-what?” Luffy weezed. “Poison Joke,” Twilight and Magellan said at the same time. “Inconvenient at best, but devastating in a fight,” Magellan continued. He advanced over to Luffy with slow steps. Luffy tried to lift up and retract his legs, but they only flailed against the ground like uncontrollable fire hoses. “The results are unpredictable, but for you, it seems to have neutralized your devil fruit pow—” One of Luffy’s hind legs shot out and skimmed past Magellan’s face and into a wall. It destroyed a few stones from a pillar, but then flopped the ground, as useless as his forelegs. The new imbalance made Luffy wobble, which quickly turned into a fall. He hit the ground hard and sucked in his breath as the floor burned more of his side. “Your vision is fading, three of your limbs are useless, and your nervous system is shutting down from the poison. It’s painful to watch such strong determination stuck in a useless body,” Magellan lamented. Luffy’s only workable leg lifted off the ground and flailed through the air unstretched but unable to hit or even get near Magellan. The poison around Magellan went back to purple and bubbled upwards to produce a single hydra head. “Time administer your punishment.” “No!” Luna and everypony else cried out before everything went purple and then black. Back in Canterlot, all the ponies assembled looked at the scrying stone but saw and heard nothing. Twilight jerked her head over to Luna. “What happened?” “The stone...” Luna muttered, “... can only work as long as both its users are conscious.” “We gotta do something then!” Applejack said in a harsh tone. Luna stared at Applejack and took a deep breath. “There is nothing we can do. Any intrusion into Tartarus by us would jeopardize Equestria’s peace.” “We can’t ju—” A pink hoof went over Applejack’s muzzle and silenced her. “Princess Luna’s right,” Pinkie said in an uncharacteristically calm tone. She turned her attention to Luna and smiled. “Luffy’s super strong though. I’m sure he’ll be okay.” Luna turned her head down and thought for a moment. “I pray you’re correct.” ~~~ Luffy’s limbs were sprawled out all across the Level Four’s floor. They curled in some spots like misshapen rope bundles. His main body was also on the ground, silent save for the occasional moan that escaped from it. It was almost indistinguishable under a mass of poison. His face could still be made out though and the horrific way it was contorted in pain with a gaping mouth and listless white eyes. “Too many poisons for an antidote,” Magellan sighed. “Twenty-four hours of suffering and then you’ll go to Hell.” He glanced away from Luffy and noticed some guards peering from behind columns and a few brave ones inching over to him. “Throw him in Level Five!” “Ace...” Luffy sickeningly choked.