//------------------------------//
// Level Two: Beasts in Candlelight  
// Story: My Little Pirates: Luffy's Adventures in Equestria 
// by Fullmetal Pony 
//------------------------------//

        A few tiny beads of sweat trickled down Domino’s face. Celestia’s eyes drifted away from her and over to Hannyabal and Momonga. Momonga’s face was tinted red and the tips of his uniform were dampened with sweat. His face was still stern and unwavering and his eyes were sharply focused on the grate that separated the group from the elevator shaft. 

        Hannyabal was a different story. Despite having nothing on save for his hat, he was dripping with sweat. He constantly raised a hoof to his brow to keep the sweat from getting into his eyes. When Celestia’s attention went to him, he clopped his hooves together and stood at attention. “My apologies for the heat, Princess! Unfortunately, my— I mean, the Warden’s office is located on Level Four, the Blazing Hell, so it gets a little warm.”

        “A little heat is no issue to me,” Celestia replied with the most innocent smile she could conjure up. Hannyabal visibly reddened a bit more and turned his attention back to the grate. 

        A few minutes later, the enormous chain holding up the elevator gave a rattle and the elevator came to a halt. The grate creaked open and Hannyabal and Domino stepped forward to lead the group. Celestia followed with Momonga behind her. 

        The room they stepped out into was minimally furnished, but still far more decorated than what would normally be found in a prison. A soft beige carpet concealed the hard stone floor and a large wooden desk was to Celestia’s right. The desk was covered in stacks and stacks of paperwork and multiple den-den mushis, three of which were ringing. Celestia blinked and turned her head over to Domino. “The Warden appears to be quite busy, but where is he?”

        “The Warden has some digestive issues, so he spends ten hours a day in the bathroom and requires eight hours for sleep, plus time for meals, leaving him with four hours to do work,” Domino explained.

        Celestia raised an eyebrow. “He’s able to manage this entire prison with such little time?”

        “He’s the warden we need when the time calls on him,” Domino replied. A flush emanated from a door at the back of the room. All eyes went over to the door as it opened.

        Out of the bathroom lumbered a giant of a pony. His head barely missed scraping the ceiling, but his horns didn’t. Black fur covered his body all the way down from his hairy bush of beard to his shaggy fetlocks. Leathery wings draped his sides, partially obscuring his cutie mark, a melting purple skull with fumes rising out of it. The only pony he didn’t loom over was Celestia and he made up for that with his immense musculature. “Oh, you must be Warlord Celestia. Greetings, I’m Magellan, the warden of this prison.”

        Celestia took a step forward and gave Magellan a bow with her head. “Greetings Warden. I must admit, I’m impressed you can keep order in this prison with such a constricting schedule.”

“What an honor to receive such praise.” Magellan gave a hearty laugh and then turned his attention over to the ringing den-den mushis at his desk. “Ugh, those things have been ringing for the past few minutes and it’s giving me a headache.”

        Magellan let out a deep sigh and a thick purple vapor drifted out of his mouth. Domino lit her horn up and multiple gas masks flew out of her saddle bag. “Please put these on, the Warden’s breath is poisonous.”

        Celestia pushed the mask away and pointed up at her horn, which was glowing. “Forgive me, I saw the vapors and shielded myself.” She glared over at Magellan. “I know about your abilities with poison, but I expected a little better control from you.”

        Magellan hastily raised a hoof and flicked it back and forth. “I apologize! It was probably that poison soup I ate.”

        “No, that’s why you were in the bathroom,” Hannyabal muttered. “I’ll change things when I’m the ward—”

        Hannyabal collapsed to the ground. He coughed and flailed his hooves at his face to try and cover his muzzle. Domino sighed and used her magic to wrap a gas mask around Hannyabal’s face. “You’ll die before you become warden.”

        “Serves you right,” Magellan said with a devious grin. His attention then went back over to Celestia. “You wished to visit Fire Fist Ace, correct?”

        “Yes,” Celestia replied.

        Magellan pushed past the group and over to the elevator. “Then let us be off. No sense in confining another warlord to this place.” He stopped before stepping into the elevator. “One thing, please use the gas mask Domino provided. We’ve observed some of the prisoners on Level Six acting odd around magic users.”

        “Certainly.” Celestia canceled her shield spell and strapped the gas mask around her face. She made her way into the elevator along with the rest of the group. Nopony among them noticed that the warden’s office had gone quiet.

        The oddity hadn’t gotten past the guard station in Level One. A pony at one of monitors slammed a hoof down hard. “Damn it! Why isn’t the Warden picking up?” He glanced over at a fresh printout with a smiling man in a straw hat on it. “If the reports are true, Straw Hat Luffy has snuck into Impel Down!”


~~~


        “Ugh.” Buggy blearily opened his eyes. He was met with darkness, but his eyes slowly adjusted. A nearby torch burned and shedded some light onto the area Buggy found himself in. He shook his head around and got up. He felt his body rise, a little sore from the fall, but his head remained on the ground. He peaked down and saw that his head was still detached from his body. He grunted and floated into the air. “Er, where is it?”

        It only took a few second of twisting his head around for Buggy to find his body. It had fallen a few feet away from his head. It was standing up and only had a few bumps to show for the fall. A roar stopped Buggy’s head from floating over to his body. “Great, I wound up in Level Two.” He glanced down and saw that his body still had the seeing stone. He couldn’t help but grin at that. “At least I still have Straw Hat’s treasure.”

        Buggy continued floating over to his body and was just about to reconnect his head to his neck when a scream rang out above him. He glanced up and saw a blue blur falling straight at him. Trixie slammed into Buggy’s body, knocking the wind out of him.

        A cloud of smoke cropped up due to Trixie’s fall. Both Trixie and Buggy coughed at the dust and the injuries they had sustained. Trixie untangled herself from Buggy’s body and dusted herself off. “Darn it! Trixie was so close to escape! Now she is even worse off than before!”

        “Shut up you stupid horse!” Buggy screamed, pushing his face into Trixie. “Now be quiet! If the tales I’ve heard are true, the beasts here will swallow us up in one bite!”

        “You are screaming too!” Trixie yelled back.

        “You two are really loud,” Luffy complained. Trixie and Buggy paused and stared over to Luffy. He was standing right by them with a smile on his face. “Thanks for coming down here though. It’ll be easier to find Ace with three of us!”

        Buggy scowled and reattached his head to his body. He rushed over to Luffy and grabbed him on the shoulders. “I don’t care Straw Hat! I have the treasure and that’s all tha— ow!”

The treasure in question had turned crimson on the edges and white in the middle. Buggy flung it off of his hoof and onto the floor. The floor blackened around the area where the stone had fallen. Luna’s voice, dark and reverberating, emerged from the stone. “This stone is Straw Hats until his brother is saved! I was content to leave it in his hooves or whoever he lent it to, but you are clearly not meant to have it!”

“I still get the stone after we get out of here!” Buggy complained.

The stone stopped burning and returned to its original color. “Yes, about that... you said this was a level filled with beasts?” 

“Yeah, but I don’t know too much about...” Buggy paused and looked down one of the paths the corridor broke into. His ears perked up.

“Is something wrong?” Luna asked.

“Quiet!” Buggy hissed.

Everypony present kept silent. Slowly, a sound filled the corridor. It was soft, but the noise vibrated among the air. It was sound of tiny wings. Buggy, Trixie, and Luffy got into position to face whatever it was. 

A blur darted out from a corner and rushed over to the group. It zoomed up and straight at Luffy’s head. He raised up a hoof and swatted the blur to the ground. All three ponies trotted over to the creature and looked down at it. It had a spherical body with four tiny pipe-cleaner legs sticking out of it. Four clear transparent wings were attached to its body as well. A thin line of a mouth rested below two large but dazed green eyes. 

Buggy prodded the creature with a hoof. “What the hell is it?”

“A parasprite,” came a voice from the seeing stone. All three ponies looked over to it and saw that the stone had gone from deep purple to creamy yellow. Fluttershy’s voice continued, “Oh, the poor thing. It probably just wanted to eat Mr. Luffy’s hat.”

“What?” Luffy shouted. He pressed his hat further onto his head. “No way am I letting it eat my hat!”

“So are these things dangerous?” asked Buggy.

“Oh no,” Fluttershy replied. “Parasprites are bad when in large groups and they might try to eat your stuff, but they won’t actually hurt you. They’re actually really cute when they’re not causing trouble.”

“Heh,” Buggy smirked. He lifted back his leg and kicked the parasprite away. “So much for the horror of Level Two. Those are the things everyone else was scared about? What a joke!”

Luffy and Trixie remained silent and kept their eyes on Buggy’s torso. Buggy noticed the odd looks he was getting and looked back. The middle section of his body had vanished and in its place was a blue parasprite. “Huh?”

“It...” Trixie’s whole body shook while she spoke, “it ate him!”
“Eh?” Buggy looked back and forth at the parasprite, Luffy, and Trixie. “Straw Hat, is this idiot being honest? This little thing ate me?”

“Yeah.” Luff gestured over to the parasprite, which was contently floating around in the air with a large smile on its face. “Its mouth got huge and it just chomped on you.”

“Then why isn’t it big now?” Buggy jabbed hoof at the parasprite. The parasprite’s entire body distorted until it resembled a crescent moon taller than a pony than a small sphere. Its gaping maw was a black void, but within it, Luffy and Buggy could make out the missing piece of Buggy’s body for a brief second. The parasprite’s jaw closed down on Buggy’s hoof, leaving only a stump behind. “Hey! Give me back my body!”

The parasprite responded by trying to bite off another piece of Buggy. Buggy stepped back and avoided the attack, but a section of his right hind leg still disappeared. A yellow parasprite buzzed in the spot where Buggy’s leg had been.

“T-t-they’re c-c-carnivorous,” Fluttershy stuttered. “How... I can’t...” 

Luffy ignored the soft cries that came out of the stone and smacked his hooves into one of the parasprites. It crashed into the ground and spit up Buggy’s body upon impact. Buggy glared at the other parasprite and grinned at it. “You should chew your food.”

A side of the parasprite stretched and the outline of a hoof appeared under its skin. It violently coughed and fell to ground. It gagged and Buggy’s missing leg popped up out of its mouth. The dismembered hoof reared back and kicked the parasprite down the corridor. It then reconnected back to Buggy’s body. “Ha! Serves you right!”

“Um... everypony?” Trixie pointed a shaking hoof down the corridor the first parasprite had come from. Buggy and Luffy looked down it and heard a buzzing. It was a noise produced by hundreds of wings. “We might have a problem.”

A swarm of parasprites of every color zoomed down a hallway and straight at the group. A few of them at the front of the swarm opened their mouths, showing off their voids. 

Trixie screamed and sprinted in the opposite direction of the swarm. Luffy and Buggy followed with the parasprites nipping at their tails.

“Oi!” Luffy shouted down at the seeing stone. “Is there any way to take care of these things?”

“I-I-I don’t know!” Fluttershy squeaked back. “P-parasprites aren’t s-supposed to e-eat...” 

The stone went to purple and then pink. Pinkie’s voice now came through the stone. “Sing! You gotta sing! Make music!”

“How the hell is singing going to help?” Buggy rounded a corner right before A parasprite bit down on the space he’d been in and took a chunk out of the corner’s wall.

“Just do it! It’ll calm them down!” Pinkie shouted back.

“Fine!” Trixie sucked in her breath. “Trixie can’t believe she is doing this again. Ohhh...”

“Bawkaw!” 

The buzzing behind the group came to a sudden halt. Luffy looked back and saw the parasprites flying off in all directions. The corridor became deathly quiet save for the group’s breathing. 

Trixie watched the last of the parasprites disappear into the nooks and crannies of Level Two. Her attention went over to Luffy and Buggy. “Trixie is confused.”

“Bawkaw!”

        “What is that?” Buggy looked around and tried to pinpoint the noise, but the prison’s layout caused the sound to echo all around them. 

        The stone on Luffy’s leg shifted back to yellow. Fluttershy’s voice returned, small and quivering. “Run.” 

        “From what? A chicken?” Trixie blew up a stray strand of her mane. She closed her eyes and allowed herself a small chuckle. Piercing red eyes met her when she opened her eyes again. The red eyes were attached to a chicken. At least, its head and legs were a chicken. The rest of it was covered in rough green scales. Sharp wings protruded out of its side. It had reached Trixie’s eye level by balancing on its long serpent-like tail.

        A scream caught in Trixie throat and stayed there. The tip of her muzzled turned grey, followed by the rest of her body. Trixie stood unmoving, her face twisted in terror. The chicken-beast turned its attention away from Trixie and over to Luffy and Buggy. “Bawkaw!”

        “RUN!” Fluttershy yelled at the top of her voice. Luffy and Buggy didn’t hesitate and darted off away from the monster. The monster in turn flapped its wings and took the air after Buggy and Luffy. Trixie was left as a decorative statue in the otherwise bleak hall. 

        “What the hell is that?” Luffy shouted.

        “A cockatrice! It will turn you to stone if you look at it!” Fluttershy hastily explained. Her breathing was rapid and shallow and her voice quivered with each word. “Oh, if only I was there, I could stare it down!”

        “So what do we do?” Buggy frantically asked.

        “I-I don’t know!” Fluttershy stuttered.

        “I’ve got a plan!” Luffy skidded to a halt, closed his eyes and turned around. The cockatrice squaked again and rushed at Luffy. Luffy raised up his front right hoof and bit into it. “Gear Third!”

        Buggy’s mouth dropped when Luffy’s leg swelled up. Luffy swung his giant hoof back, crashing it into a few cells, and then hurled it at the cockatrice. “Gum-Gum Giant Pistol!”

        The giant hoof smashed into the cockatrice and then into a wall. The wall caved in and sent stones tumbling into the room Luffy’s attack had revealed. The inside of the room had an identical layout to guard room from Level One save for a few differences in maps and some whistles and flutes on the walls. Unconscious guards were sprawled out everywhere. 

        Luffy retracted his hoof and exhaled a large breath. He form deflated but he still smiled down at the seeing stone. “There, I think I got it!”

        “Straw Hat!” Buggy’s head twisted over to the large hole in the wall and at Luffy. Luffy returned to his normal size while Buggy rushed over to him. “What was that? Why’d your leg get huge? Why were you small?”

        Buggy’s questioning was interrupted by a loud congregation of cheers. Ponies suddenly darted out of the cells and ran up to Luffy and Buggy. The ponies grabbed Luffy and Buggy and threw them high into the air.

“You defeated the cockatrice!”

“Thank you!” 

“Get the keys!

“The keys!”

“Over there!”

Buggy noticed that a good number ponies were pointing over to the guard room. He got back onto the ground and trotted over to where they were pointing. Amongst the rubble was a ring of metal keys right next to the unconscious cockatrice. A shiver went up Buggy’s spine before he disconnected one of his hooves and floated it over to the keys. He caught the keys on the edge of his hoof and flew it high above his head. More cheers greeted him.

“Our savior!” came a hundred unified shouts.

A grin spread across Buggy’s face. Maybe falling down here wasn’t so bad after all. If I can cause enough chaos here, who would notice one prisoner escaping?

“Gyhahaha!” Buggy swung the keys around and chucked them at the prisoners. “Accept this as a gift! All I ask in return is that you follow me, the Great Captain Buggy!”

The prisoners stopped shuffling the keys to each other and stared at Buggy. They all raised their hooves and yelled, “All hail Captain Buggy!”

“Oi! Does anypony know how to get down from here?” Luffy asked the prisoners.

All the prisoners paused for a second and then laughed. 

“Down? I’m going up!”

“Only an idiot would go further into this hell!”

“Go die if you want! I’m getting out!”

A deafening noise resonated above the laughter. The floor and walls shook and a few stones dislodged in Luffy’s attack came loose and shattered against the ground. The roar lasted for a few second and when it was done, nopony was laughing anymore.

Instead, all the prisoners fled back to their cells and shut the doors tight behind them. Luffy tilted his head at their actions. “What’s up with them?”

“They’re afraid,” came a voice from behind Luffy. Both he and Buggy turned around and were met with a yellow-green pony. The pony smirked at them and pushed up a pair of glasses with one broken lense. “It’s been a long time, Straw Hat.”

Luffy corked his head at the pony. “Who are you?”

The pony chuckled. He lifted up a hoof and propped up his mane, revealing the three it was styled into. “I can’t blame you for not recognizing me.”

“Oh!” Luffy stomped a hoof to the ground in realization. “Now I remember! You’re San!”

“It’s Mr. 3!” yelled Mr. 3. He took a breath and slumped down. “Anyway, I do have to thank you for the keys. Shall I offer you some assistance?”

Two flames came to life utop the candles on Mr. 3 flanks. His body gained an unnatural sheen as well. He raised up a hoof and a dough grey substance dripped down his hoof onto the floor. “My skills could be quite useful.”

“Oh yeah, you can make wax.” Luffy smiled at Mr. 3. “It might get dark later so some candles would definitely help!”

“I can make more than just candles!” Mr. 3 yelled. Another roar shook the corridor. “Great, sounds like the boss is angry.”

“The boss?” asked Luffy.

Mr. 3 lowered his head and stared at the ground. His whole form shaked. “The monsters on Level Two are vicious, but they’re nothing compared to the boss. Unfortunately, it guards the stairwell, so we’ll have to sne...” Mr. 3 raised his head and noticed that only Buggy was listening. “Where is Straw Hat?”

“Oh, he ran off to that boss monster,” Buggy sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “What an idiot.”

“An idiot we can use though.” Mr. 3 slid over to Buggy gave him a sly grin. “Straw Hat is tough, right? Even he can’t beat the boss, but he’ll give it enough of a distraction.”

Buggy smirked back at Mr. 3. “I think you might be the first smart thing I’ve met in this hell. Well, don’t want to waste our distraction. Lets go after Straw Hat!”

Buggy and Mr. 3 departed the cells and headed off in the direction Luffy had gone. The other prisoners remained in their cells and looked at each other.

“Idiots.”

“No one gets past the boss.”

“They did take out the cocktrice though.”

“Doesn’t matter if they can’t take out the boss.”

Further down the corridor, Luffy twisted around corners in the direction he’d heard the roar come from. Another noise filled the air, but this time it was a high-pitched scream. 

Luffy followed the scream around another corner and was met with a pile of gold. In front of him were stacks upon stacks of gold coins. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds were spread amongst the gold as well. Luffy’s attention on the treasure was broken by a gust of sweltering air. He glanced up at the dark shape that sat atop the treasure trove. “Whoa.”

Buggy and Mr. 3 chased after Luffy. They’d just caught sight of him when he rounded another corner and disappeared. They raced forward and went around the same corner and smacked right into Luffy.

Buggy rubbed his nosed and glared at Luffy. “Damnit Straw Hat! Don’t just...” Buggy’s eyes caught the glint of gold and went wide. “Treasure!” 

Buggy dove at the mound and crashed into it. His hooves raked over the gold and jewels and spread them over his body. His smile went from ear to ear. “Treasure, so much treasure!”

“No!” Mr. 3 yelled. Sweat puddled at his hooves, far more than even the current heat warranted. “You fool! That’s the most basic trap in Level Two! Don’t you know? Never mess with a—” 

A roar, louder than any that had come before, came from above the group. They all looked up and a jet of flame fell upon them. They all jumped out of the way of the fire, but the part of the treasure Buggy had been on was consumed in flames. Gold, jewels, and stone all melted together, leaving only a white hot lump. 

In the firelight, the shadows receded just enough to show off the features of the shape that sat atop the treasure. Deep green scales, far rougher and sharper than the cocktrice’s, covered the creature’s exterior. Whether in light or darkness, its teeth, larger than a pony, shimmered. Its long form curled around the treasure trove. Smoke billowed out of its mouth and nostrils. Its slitted eyes were filled with flames as it glared down at the group.

Everypony could only stare at the beast that loomed over them. The firelight also showed that the creature’s tail was curled around a blue pony that had been silenced by the creature’s use of fire. A tiny voice came out of the yellow stone on Luffy’s leg. Fluttershy’s voice didn’t quiver like before. She only said one word, but it was on everypony’s tongue. “Dragon.”