//------------------------------//
// 4 - Liquid Swords 
// Story: Velvet Underground 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

“What did you do to my father?” Velvet demanded, peeking out of the cover she was sharing with Night Light to look at the pooka. The marble floor was hissing and bubbling, discolored from the slime spread over it.
“He served my hunger,” the monster said. Every word seemed to bubble up its throat and through its browned teeth. “You ponies haven’t changed at all in a thousand years.”
“It’s a pooka,” Night Light whispered. “It’s a kind of chaos spirit. It’s what I was trying to warn your father about!”
“Maybe you should have mentioned there’d be a monster!” Velvet hissed.
“Would you have believed me if you hadn’t seen it yourself?”
“We have to get it away from my father,” Velvet said, dodging the question. “You’re the monster expert. What do we do?”
“Monster expert? Me?”
“You’re the only one who knows anything, that makes you the expert!” Velvet shot him a smile.
Night Light blushed and coughed. “Well, ah, okay, it’s a chaos spirit. It was trapped in stone by Princess Celestia. I think the Temple of the Sun’s Heart was a kind of prison for them. According to the legend, the spell Celestia used turned them to stone as long as Her sun shone down on them, and the Sun’s Heart was forged to keep them in constant sunlight.”
“That must be why it hasn’t left the museum,” Velvet said. “It’s the middle of the day!”
“What we’ll do is, I’ll distract it, you grab your father, and we’ll run outside,” Night Light said. “On three. One, two--”
Velvet had a sudden moment of insight, but before she could even start to warn Night Light, he fired a bolt of magic at the monster. The streak of silver light hit the creature dead on, a perfect shot that was worse than useless.
The pooka’s skin crawled, the magic simply sinking in like a stone landing in quicksand, and started sucking Night Light’s magic in, his aura flickering as the pooka pulled at the connection he’d inadvertently made.
“I can’t stop it!” Night Light yelled.
Twilight Velvet swore under her breath and pushed her head next to Night Light’s so the tips of their horns just barely touched, crossing her magic stream with his. The connection between him and the pooka snapped, and the blue stallion fell onto his haunches, looking drained.
“What was that?” the pooka asked. It curled its lips, disgusted. “It almost tasted like the Sun Pony’s magic.”
Velvet had no idea what it was talking about, but she knew she needed to get Night Light on his hooves and chatting would buy her time.
“I know a few tricks,” she said. “If you let my father go, we can walk away. You go your way, I go mine.”
“Amusing. If you had any real way to defeat me, you’d have done it already.”
“I don’t even know who you are,” she pointed out. “I don’t like to fight somepony before I’ve even been properly introduced.”
“Oh, is that so? How polite. I am Mudhoney, spirit of Ooze. And you’re one of the Sun Pony’s little servants. Don’t bother telling me your name, unlike you I don’t particularly care.” It smiled a crooked smile, the edges of its lips dripping, its whole body looking like it was barely even staying solid.
“If we don’t stop it, it’s going to eat everypony in Canterlot,” Night Light hissed.
“Just your magic,” Mudhoney corrected. “There’s nothing quite like melting down that little heart of magic you ponies have inside you. All I needed was two hapless little pastel horses to break that curse the Sun Pony put on me.”
“You killed Amber Rose,” Velvet said. It wasn’t a question.
“You ponies don’t last long with my magic replacing yours,” Mudhoney said. “It’s that beautiful conversion from harmony to chaos that sustains me, but it tends to, well, just look at this.” The monster nudged Velvet’s father. The older stallion’s skin was breaking out in boils, his hair falling out in clumps.
Velvet felt her heart seize. He looked half dead already.
“You’ll see what I mean soon enough,” Mudhoney promised. Its skin started to ripple, and Velvet was ready this time, her premonition already up and running. Night Light ducked behind the empty plinth, and she took his hoof, running for the entrance to the hall. A wave of sickly green hit the stone they’d been using as cover and went around it, splashing in a wide arc that was burning through the marble.
“What do we do?” Night Light asked.
“So much for my monster expert,” Velvet muttered. “That thing can dissolve stone! We can’t even hide from it!”
“Wait, I’ve got an idea!” Night Light pointed at a security box. “We’ll call the Guard!”
“No, that’s just going to--” Velvet wasn’t able to stop him in time. 
He grabbed the lever and pulled it. Sirens blared, and less than fifty feet away, right between them and freedom, a steel security grate dropped into place.
“--trigger a lockdown,” she finished, through clenched teeth. “What’s the point of seeing disaster if other ponies don’t bloody listen?!”
“Sorry,” Night Light said, weakly.
“We can’t use magic,” Velvet said. Her eyes fixed on the steel spikes and poison darts tastefully arranged in glass cases. “You grab the spikes!”
Night Light nodded, and they bucked cases open, glass spilling around their hooves.
“This is almost amusing,” Mudhoney called out, a laugh bubbling from its lips. “I’d tell you it would be less painful to surrender, but it would be a lie.”
Night Light took aim and threw a spike, the sharp point going right through the pooka’s neck. It had about as much effect as if he’d blown a kiss at the monster, the steel hissing and slumping, discoloring as it turned into a slurry.
“It can dissolve metal, too!” Night Light said. “I don’t think the darts are going to work.”
“We can’t just give up,” Velvet retorted, throwing them anyway. Her magic pulsed painfully, her headache starting to return. The pooka tossed its head, catching one of the darts while her aura was still wrapped around it.
“Careless,” it chided. The monster pulled at her magic, and she could feel it creeping back inside her like a burning stain, until another pulse surged through her, and the pooka recoiled, losing its grip on her magic.
“Ow!” Velvet hissed, rubbing her temples.
“Annoying,” the pooka growled. “I’m not going to bother eating your magic. You taste too much like the Sun Pony.”
It reared up, and Velvet saw in her mind’s eye a rush of acid strong enough to dissolve metal. Night Light started to bolt, and she grabbed his hoof.
“Wait,” she hissed, her head still pounding.
“Wait? But--”
Velvet shook her head, holding him. “Trust me.”
Night Light held his ground. A deadly wave rushed towards them.
“Now!” A pink aura surrounded him, Velvet’s aura helping pull him to safety at the last moment, the acid surging past them and into the steel security grate, hitting the panels and hissing, noxious gas bubbling as the barrier dissolved.
“A way out!”
“It was the only way we were getting out of here,” Velvet explained. “Don’t touch the edges!”
The two ran out ahead of the monster and into the hallway, the alarms still going off.
“We can get to the guards!” Night Light yelled. “Even if we just get outside we’ll be safe!”
“We won’t make it out. There are more security doors over all the entrances!” Velvet skidded to a halt, looking at the entrance to the bathrooms.
Night Light groaned. “I’m about to make a mess too, but no matter how scared you are this is a bad time to use the little filly’s room!”
“Shut up! I’ve got an idea.” She ran inside.
“What am I supposed to do?” Night Light asked, hesitating at the doorway.
“You’ll figure something out!” Velvet said.
Night Light groaned. “Figure something out,” he repeated, looking around. A bright red box caught his eye, and he pulled it open, revealing a firehose. “It’s not going to be able to melt water!”
Mudhoney lurched through the molten grate, the floor hissing and cracking with the snail trail it left in the wake of its cloven hooves. Night Light grabbed the nozzle and twisted the valve, struggling with the hose, the pressure making it writhe in his grasp like a huge burlap snake. His trembling, weak limbs could barely hold it, still feeling like something had been scooped out of his heart.
“What do you think you’re--” Mudhoney started, just as Night Light wrestled the spray into its face. The chaos spirit sputtered and stepped back, splatters of filthy gel falling to the floor around it like it was being washed away.
“It’s working!” Night Light stepped forward, trying to press the monster back.
Mudhoney roared like a geyser’s rumble, a spray of acid missing the stallion.
“That’s not going to work,” Night Light said. “You can’t do anything about water!”
The stream sputtered and trailed off. Night Light frowned and shook the hose. He yanked at it in frustration, and it tore apart in his hooves, the edges hissing and burning from where Mudhoney’s acid spray had eaten through the canvas.
“Oh. I guess there was something you could do,” Night Light whispered.
“Do you know how much it hurts to be dissolved?” Mudhoney growled.
“Why don’t you tell us?!” Velvet yelled. A blue plastic jug smacked into the pooka, splashing something amber-colored and as thick as syrup over the monster. It started reacting almost instantly, foaming and hissing and letting off grey vapors.
“What is that stuff?” Night Light asked. The pooka screamed in pain, layers of slime peeling away like the thick skin on a pudding sloughing off.
“Drain cleaner,” Velvet said. She held up two more jugs. “I knew they had to have some in the cleaning closet. It’s a really strong base, and since the pooka is acid, they react and neutralize each other, like vinegar and baking soda.”
“I’m going to tear you apart!” Mudhoney roared. Half its body was discolored, pale white and pulsing with bright green veins.
“I just don’t see that happening,” Velvet retorted. She threw another of the jugs.
This time, the pooka was aware of the danger, smacking it away with a long, lizard-like tail instead of dissolving the container. It splattered against the wall, the pooka keeping its distance.
“The same trick won’t work twice,” it said, voice distorted, only able to speak out of half its face.
“I know,” Velvet agreed, throwing something else.
The pooka’s tail lashed out again on instinct. It saw its mistake at the same time Night Light did. Velvet hadn’t thrown one of the plastic jugs of drain cleaner. Instead, she’d tossed a bright red fire extinguisher, and when the tail hit it, it exploded in a plume of fire retardant and shrapnel.
“You insolent little--” the pooka thrashed, trying to clear its eyes, the cold slowing it as it thickened like molasses in winter.
Before it could finish its threat, Velvet upended the jug of drain cleaner on it.
At the same time, the security door popped open. Gold-armored guards poured in. Naturally, Sergeant Sky was leading them.
“What in Celestia’s name is going on?” he demanded.
Mudhoney stumbled toward them, a skeletal horror nearly as tall as Princess Celestia, the flesh melting away as it crumbled.
“What is that?!” Sergeant Sky demanded
“Stay back!” Velvet warned. “Don’t use magic or let it touch you!”
The guards kept their distance, watching in horror as the monster thrashed and fell in a heap, what little was left of it turning into stone, like its bones had fossilized while it was alive.
“Miss Velvet, you’d better have an explanation for all this,” Sky said.
“Talk to this guy, he’s the monster expert,” she said, pushing Night Light towards the Royal Guards. “I need to check on my father!”
She ran, Night Light stuttering out an explanation as she picked her way through the ruin and back into the Temple exhibition. Her father was curled up in a heap on the floor, and she slowed as she neared him, unsure what to do until he started coughing, hacking up a huge spurt of mucous.
“Dad!” She ran the rest of the way to his side, kneeling down and cradling him. “Don’t try to move. The Guard is here. We took care of the monster.”
“I’m so proud of you, honey,” he whispered. His skin was blistered and discolored, entirely bald in some places. “You remind me so much of your mother…”
“You just hang on,” she said, squeezing his cracked hoof. “I don’t want to lose you, too.”
“Just promise me… promise me you won’t let this happen to anypony else,” he said. “I should have listened to Night Light when he came the first time…”
“I promise,” Velvet whispered.
Her father nodded and smiled. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d rather like to go to the hospital. I know I look on top of things, but I feel terrible.”
Velvet laughed and hugged him.