The Dark Mare

by MagnetBolt

Deadly Sting: Hanging by a Thread

The Badlands were a dangerous place. They were called such because nothing natural could grow there, leaving it a blasted desert contaminated with magic and dotted with glass spires and craters big enough to cradle cities. Some ponies quietly suggested that it had been created during the Lunar Rebellion, that Celestia and Nightmare Moon had fought some massive battle there and destroyed the land in the process. Scholars knew that it predated even the rise of Nightmare Moon, long enough in the past that it had fauna that existed nowhere else in Equestria, an ecology of predators from top to bottom, each with their own survival strategy in that land where nothing would grow.

Changelings, as an example, survived on love. With just a few captives, hundreds could be fed for months. They didn't really need other food, their digestive systems merely vestigial remnants of what they had been before, and when they did eat, they didn't get any real sustenance from it.

Basilisks were among the top predators in the badlands. They had a somewhat different strategy for survival, in that they could kill with a single efficient bite, and at the same time preserve the prey indefinitely as stone. Their instincts drove them to kill anything they saw, because it wouldn't go to waste, and only a basilisk could eat the petrified meat, keeping scavengers away.

Changelings and basilisks had often met, both seeking caves and other shelter from the harsh sun of the wastes. It never ended well for changelings, dozens dying just to lead them away from their hives. Even an experienced changeling warrior would have problems with an adult basilisk.

Loop D'Loop wasn't an experienced changeling warrior. She was a rogue with a bag of tricks and a giant hat. Bruja wasn't merely an adult basilisk. She was probably the largest in the world, well-fed and strong, and already angry from being stuck in a cage for so long.

In simple terms, Loopy had ten pounds of trouble in a five pound bag.

Bruja loomed over her, seeming to almost fill the hoofball-field sized room. Loopy had no idea how the monster had fit in that steel cage, despite it being as big as a house. The basilisk hissed and slowly started forward. Loopy could see it coiling, readying to strike. She didn't intend to give it a chance. Her cape flared up as she tossed smoke pellets down, the capsules breaking open as clouds of smoke billowed out around her.

Loopy ran to the door. The lock had closed automatically when the basilisk had hit the door with her tail. She scrambled to turn the locking wheel, trying to get it open. If she could get out, she could just leave the monster there and deal with it later. Or let it starve. She couldn't care less, as long as she wasn't being eaten.

The only warning was a hiss and a sudden sense of danger. Loopy threw herself to the side as Bruja lunged through the smoke, smashing into the door with the force of a freight train. The steel bent and twisted, the door wedging into the frame. Loopy cursed, hissing and clicking. She'd never get the hatch open now.

She scrambled to get away, vanishing into the smoke as Bruja shook her head and recovered from slamming face-first into thick steel. The smoke was a two-edged sword. She was well-hidden, but she couldn't see the enemy herself, and she was having problems sensing the basilisk. The beast was all instinct and reptilian cunning, making it almost impossible to sense.

“Maybe the smoke wasn't a great idea after all,” Loopy muttered. She jumped over a crate as it appeared out of the gloom. Seconds later she heard it shatter as the basilisk tracked her. Loopy felt terror give her strength as she started running faster. She couldn't hear it moving at all. Her hooves rapped with every step she took. The huge creature behind her was almost silent. Loopy was at a distinct disadvantage.

Loopy swallowed her fear. She had to get away. There was another way out of the room. There had to be. She glanced up, the smoke hanging near the ground still letting her see the ceiling of the hold, dominated by hanging lights and a huge hatch for cargo. Loopy's eyes widened. That was going to have to be her ticket out of here!

With a roar, the crates behind Loopy exploded into shrapnel, a chunk of stone in the shape of a pony's screaming face clipping her shoulder with enough force to make her stagger. She fell to the ground, instinctively rolling out of the way as the rest of that petrified pony slammed down where she had been with enough force to crush her like the big bug that she was. She glanced at it and got a bad idea, but even a bad idea was the best one she'd had so far.

***

Bruja hissed, the sound not quite loud enough for her prey to hear. She could taste her prey in the air, a delicacy she hadn't had in a long time. If she was a cat, she would have purred at the memory of crisp shells cracking under her fangs, releasing the juice within for a moment before hardening in place. And today, her favorite meal had come to her.

Bruja's tongue flicked out, following the trail, faint as it was through the thick smoke her prey had filled the air with. It was a trick she hadn't seen before, but it wasn't enough. She crept forwards, half-slithering and half walking on her eight stubby legs. Her eye caught movement in the haze, a dim image of a changeling crawling on top of a crate and preparing for an ambush. She felt her hunger growing. Prey that was willing to fight back had its own seasoning.

The basilisk waited a few moments to let her prey relax. Then Bruja struck with lightning speed towards the movement she'd sensed, her fangs closing on the moving form. Her eyes widened as she felt stone in her jaws.

“Gotcha!” Mare Do Well yelled. Bruja looked up, to where the masked mare was clinging to the ceiling like the insect she was. A trio of spheres dropped down, landing on Bruja's snout before exploding into light and sound, blindingly bright. Bruja roared, dropping the statue she'd been holding, the petrified pony breaking into pebbles on the steel deck.

***

All it took was a little illusion and a lot of luck. Loopy flew down to a tower of crates on the other side of the hold as the basilisk thrashed in rage, crushing a dozen more of its victims to powder. Loopy winced. There was a chance to bring them back from being turned to stone, but not if they were reduced to gravel in the process. While she hardly cared much about strangers who were probably frozen too long to even have a chance at rescue, Loopy had lived long enough as a pony that she knew she should feel guilt over it.

“It's probably mercy anyway,” Loopy muttered. She'd heard what it was like from changeling survivors. Frozen in place, trapped in darkness. The worst part was being unable to breathe, like drowning forever without being allowed to die. Too long, and even if the venom hadn't killed them, they'd be completely mad from the sensory deprivation and torture.

Loopy glanced down to where Caballeron was lying. He was an idiot, but she couldn't imagine that he'd be careless enough not to have the antivenin on hoof. It would be nearby, and clearly labeled so that even an idiot could locate it. Maybe if there was enough, she'd be able to save some of his victims.

She hopped down and carefully skirted around the basilisk, searching the walls. As she turned the corner, Bruja crashed out of the smoke and crates like a force of nature. Loopy hissed in surprise, having thought the basilisk was still farther away. The dazzled monster roared and grabbed for her, catching her cape as she tried to dodge and tossing her with a twist of its head. Loopy slammed into a pipe, her exoskeleton cracking.

The changeling coughed up a clot of ichor, stunned for a moment. It was too long. The basilisk grabbed her back leg, one of its fangs punching through her armored skin and into her tender flesh below.

“No!” Loopy screamed, kicking it in the snout with her other hoof to try and establish dominance. The basilisk let go. Loopy could feel her leg starting to change. It meant she had a chance. It had almost been a dry bite. It must have used almost all of its venom petrifying Caballeron. She focused, changing her leg back to normal, green fire rippling across her limb. She could feel the venom fighting back, constantly trying to spread from where she'd been bitten. She couldn't keep up constant shapeshifting for long, even to save her life.

Loopy flew up as the basilisk struck again, this time driving its snout deep into the wall, the metal bending and tearing, blooding the monster's nose.

“I need that antivenin before I turn into a permanent fixture around here!” Loopy cursed. More motivated now, she spotted something, an open crate stuffed with straw and corked bottles. She'd either found Caballeron's stash of booze or more of the alchemical supplies that had been in the other room. She flitted towards it, her stiff leg making her landing awkward, the changeling struggling to skid to a halt before she hit the crate with a shoulder.

“Ow,” Loopy groaned. She shook her leg instinctively, the limb somewhere between numb and burning with pain, only shock and the constant application of magic keeping it from overwhelming her. She grabbed the first bottle she saw.

“Dragon guano. Useless.” Next one. “Sulfur. Saltpetre... where is- aha!” She found it, in a bottle with a bright green label. It was very clearly labeled as Basilisk Antivenin, presumably so the idiot thugs running around could identify it in an emergency.

There was just one problem: there was only one dose. The only one who might know where there might be more was doing an audition for the Canterlot Statue Garden in the middle of the hold. If she took it, any hope of saving the other ponies was down the tubes, and so was whatever information Caballeron might have on El Toro.

Of course if she didn't take the cure, she'd have to pick a nice comfortable pose now, because she'd be stuck like that for a long time.

“Tsk. Guess I'll just have to do something stupid,” Loopy muttered. She popped the cork and poured half of the antidote onto her leg. She felt the squeeze of pain and pressure start to let up, and she cautiously held back some of the magic she was using to keep it from freezing into stone. Loopy was lucky. If the fight had happened a few days ago while she was drained of her stores of energy, she'd have been taken out in seconds.

Loopy stayed low and ran for Caballeron, pouring the rest over his body.

“Hope you're tougher than you look,” she muttered. The stone started to soften, slowly returning to flesh. It was risky. A normal pony like Caballeron might go into shock with such a small dose of antivenin. Or it might fail, leaving him part flesh, part stone, and very dead. Not that he didn't deserve it, Loopy just wanted to make sure she could get information out of him.

Brujah reared up, black blood dripping from her nostrils, looking over the boxes. Loopy looked up at her and ran, the basilisk ignoring the slowly-moving Caballeron in favor of chasing after her. That meant it was good and angry at her. It wasn't quite her plan, but it would do. Loopy had the beginnings of a plan forming in her mind. She'd considered throwing more statues at it, but she had something better to use.

Loopy spotted the crate of alchemical supplies, running into it in her haste, the sturdy wood cracking as she hit it. With a burst of green magic, she flung the lot of it into Bruja's maw, packing hay and all. The vials cracked as she bit down on reflex.

Now, what Loopy didn't know was that dragon guano, sulfur, saltpetre, basilisk venom, and hay all combined to make a potent explosive that left a volatile residue that would burn through flesh and bone. Bruja found it out the hard way, as her mouth erupted in pain, half of her fangs shattering as fire and acid blasted from her maw.

“That looked painful!” Loopy yelled, smirking under her mask. Bruja lashed her tail in pain, her face sizzling as scales crumpled like paper exposed to flame. Loopy grabbed a loop of strong rope she'd been carrying, flying up to the locks on the hatch overhead. There was no time to be fancy. She lifted her mask and spat, thick sticky goop securing one end of the line to the hatch. It'd harden in seconds on exposure to air. She took the other end of the line towards the blinded basilisk. Now for the dangerous part of her plan.

She flew in a loop around the creature's neck, turning her rope into a noose around the thrashing beast. As Bruja tossed her head, it pulled the knot tight, the line going taut. Loopy looked up, hoping the borrowed rope from Jetstream was going to be strong enough. She said it was giant spider silk, but Loopy wasn't sure how that compared to the strength of a raging basilisk.

Bruja roared, trying to get free of the noose but unable to reach it with her stubby legs. She strained at the end of the line, the lock above squealing as the metal tried to hold. There was a sharp crack as a bolt tore free, then a series of pops like a zipper unzipping, amplified a thousand times over as the rest of the rivets holding the lock in place gave way, sending shrapnel ricocheting around the hold. Loopy spun in midair as one tore through her wing, leaving a ragged hole in the membrane.

“Give me a break!” Loopy yelled. Then she saw the stone-filled crates she was falling towards. “Not literally! I take it back!” She flapped harder, wings buzzing. Ichor dripped from her injured wing as she slowed herself enough to hit the crate with all four hooves, latching into it instead of hurting herself.

Bruja snarled, dragging the rope, the remaining bits of the lock trailing her and obliterating any stealth she might have had. Loopy looked up. While unlocked, the doors were still stubbornly closed, and she wasn't strong enough to open them on her own.

Loopy waited for Bruja to get close before flitting away, the basilisk slamming its snout where she'd been perched on the crate a moment ago. Instead of trying to escape, she stood proudly on the wall, letting Bruja see her. The basilisk charged, slamming into the bulkhead as Loopy ducked away at the last moment, coming to a stop on the ceiling, hanging right where the two doors of the hatch met.

Bruja gathered herself and launched upwards at her, putting all of her force and speed into catching the changeling. The image of the changeling flickered as she grew near, revealing itself as just another illusion. She hit the roof, and instead of the solid wall the beast expected, the doors parted, her great strength letting her wedge it open.

The basilisk roared in confusion as she started to fall back down, getting caught between the doors and being trapped between them, her head stuck in the gap. She struggled to get free, but all of her weight was pulling her down and the doors closed around her neck.

“I can't believed that worked,” Loopy said, breathing heavily. The drain on her reserves of love was considerable. She'd never have managed it if it wasn't for her connection to her thrall. To Jetstream. It was going to be hard to let her go, once she figured out how exactly to do that. It wasn't like she could ask another changeling for tips.

Bruja lashed out, and the doors squealed. She had almost no leverage, but she was starting to get free. She was just too strong to be held like that forever, and just wriggling back and forth she'd eventually squirm out of the hold, and into the open. Loopy didn't want to think about how much damage she could do in the city. The ponies would never stop her from eating her fill, and she'd hunt the rest down for sport even once she was sated.

Loopy few for the gap in the doors, zipping out into the air and ignoring the pain in her wing. At least changeling wings healed quickly. The air outside was cool and fresh compared to the lizard stink in the hold, and she felt almost refreshed, though not being trapped in a room with a monster might have had something to do with it.

Loopy looked over the ship. It was a standard cargo carrier, one of the older ones that would still dock here in Liveryburg instead of going up the coast to Manehattan's newer docks. There were a few shipping containers on the deck, and a crane holding three long steel boxes that had been lashed together, swaying in the wind overhead.

Maybe her luck was turning around after all.

She ran for the crane's controls, breaking the lock on the cabin door. Thankfully, it had been designed such that even an idiot could work out how to get it moving. Loopy carefully guided the steel cases over Bruja, lifting them as high as they would go.

“I'd yell a really snappy one-liner right now about dropping in with a surprise if I thought you could understand me,” Loopy muttered. She slammed on the emergency release, and the cable let go, the boxes tipping and falling. Bruja's roar became a keening of pain as they slammed into the doors hard enough that the edge drew blood from her scales, the last crate to fall hitting her squarely on the head and ending her screaming. She collapsed in a twitching heap, eyes rolling.

“Hah!” Loopy yelled, stepping out of the control cab. “That's what happens when you mess around in my town!” She smiled under her mask, her fear fading away to be replaced with the rush of victory. She walked out onto the boom of the crane and looked down. Now that she had a few moments to think, the sea air blowing past her and cooling her down, she realized that the monster wasn't going to be out of it for long.

She reached into her saddlebags and took out a tube with a pull-cord dangling from one end. Holding it carefully, she lifted her mask and yanked the cord with her fangs, wincing as a flare shot up into the sky. Now she'd done her part and let the guards know where she was.

The changeling looked down as she waited for them to arrive. It would be easy to finish the basilisk. Easy was somewhat relative, of course. The point is, it would be easier than trying to kill it while it was conscious. She'd be doing everypony a favor.

Loopy flew down to it, landing off-balance and almost planting her face in the deck. She grabbed a crowbar from where it was lying on the deck and limped over. Even a basilisk would have a hard time surviving cold iron through the temple.

“Loop- I mean, Mare Do Well!” Jetstream yelled, crashing into her. The two rolled along the deck until they hit one of the fallen crates, Loopy's head spinning. Jet ended up on top, straddling the masked changeling.

“You're still supposed to be at the hospital!” Loopy hissed. Jet frowned.

“I couldn't just let you go out alone!” Jet shifted her weight from side to side. “And I could tell you got hurt.” She kept rocking on Loopy. It was getting uncomfortable, not least because changelings valued discretion over almost everything else, and what Jet was doing was definitely starting to verge on things that a pony should not do in public, especially not in enemy territory. Especially not with a basilisk nearby.

“Jetstream,” Loopy said, her tone commanding. “Up.” She stood like a puppet being pulled up by strings. It wasn't far from the truth. Loopy rolled over and stood.

“Sorry,” Jetstream muttered. Loopy sighed.

“It's fine. Just keep your distance. I don't know how long this monster is actually going to stay down and out.” Loopy tapped her hoof against the steel boxes. “I got her pretty good with these, but she's tougher than... than a really tough thing.”

“What's in these boxes, anyway?” Jet prodded one of them, the damaged lock reluctantly opening. Inside were a half-dozen spear-like objects, all of them secured with thick padding. They didn't look like weapons, too fragile and ornate for combat.

“I don't know what these are.” Loopy narrowed her eyes, running a hoof along its surface. The whole thing was metal, and looked like a helix of gold and silver, though the sheen wasn't quite correct. A glass sphere capped one end, filled with a flickering aurora of multicolored light. The other end was a two-pronged fork.

“Think it's magic?” Jet asked, poking one.

“It's glowing, made of strange materials, and covered in tiny carvings. Yes, Jetstream, I'd say there's a pretty good chance it's magic.”

Loopy heard screaming. She ran over to the side of the ship, leaving the mystery for later. What she saw brought a smile to her face, the guard surrounding the thugs trying to flee the ship and taking them out with the same kind of professionalism and skill that Loopy had managed to make a mockery of when she'd been fleeing their grasp.

Loopy flew down to greet them. Brass Shield nodded to her.

“I assume El Toro isn't here, since he hasn't tried to kill us yet for being here,” Brass said.

“No. But there's a basilisk that I could use a hoof wrestling back into her cage before she wakes up.” Loopy glanced up at the deck above. “And maybe an informant, if he isn't dead.”

***

“I wish I was dead,” Caballeron groaned. A lump was already forming on his head. “Did you have to hit me?! I can barely even move!”

“Mister Caballeron, if you want to be dead, that can easily be arranged,” Songbird said, checking his restraints again. “You're lucky I didn't break a few of your limbs after you tried to grope me.”

“It always works when Daring Do needs to escape,” Caballeron mumbled. “And I'm a Doctor!”

“Not since your degree was revoked. Please don't make this more difficult than it has to be, MISTER Caballeron.” Songbird slapped him again for good measure. She loved adding insult to injury, or injury to insult, in this case.

“Keep it down until I'm done,” Brass yelled back. A thin beam of magical heat streamed from his horn to the cage as he fused the door shut, Bruja tied down within.

“I wouldn't bother trying to get much out of him,” Loopy said. “He's clearly not important or else he wouldn't have been left here.”

“You have no idea how Labyrinth works,” Caballeron panted, wincing with pain. The half dose of antivenin had saved his life, but only barely. Parts of his body were still paralyzed, and it'd probably be days or weeks before he recovered.

“Sir!” Lieutenant Hardback yelled, running into the hold. “There's no sign of El Toro. But we found something you should see. Tin is looking at it now, but he could use another set of eyes. It could be bad.”

***

Songbird dragged Caballeron with her as they descended to the bottom deck of the ship. Along the way they passed one room almost entire filled with broken ice, ice picks and hammers lying around as if something had been dug up and then the remainder left in place and the tools abandoned. Another room was filled with silk sheets and a grid of iron bars, like some kind of obstacle course. Jetstream and Mare do Well wandered off to search more of the ship.

“Here it is,” Hardback said, opening the door. Tin Saucier looked back. He was sitting in front of a complex device the size of a wagon, mostly made of thick crystal reservoirs filled with bubbling reagents. A collection of brass and crystal joined them in the center. The rest of the room was packed with steel drums.

“The brass parts are minotaur-made,” Tin said. “These-” he tapped the reservoirs. “These could only have been made in the Crystal Empire. The arcane wiring and glyphs are a custom job. And these...” Tin tapped the side of one of the steel drums. From the sound, it was full of some kind of liquid. “I popped one open to take a look. These are all full of some kind of thickened rock oil.”

“It's a bomb,” Caballeron gasped, looking around. “Why is there a bomb here?!”

“A bomb?!” Songbird took a step back. Tin rubbed his chin and nodded.

“That would explain it,” Tin didn't seem worried. “It's a big one, too.”

“Can you disarm it?” Brass Shield asked.

“Well, it's a strange design,” Tin replied. “It's a lot different from the kind of thing you had me deal with back on the border with the goats. This isn't just a mine made with old mining gear and a pressure plate.”

“Tin, you and I both know you're the only one I've got on hand that knows anything about arcane mechanisms. If you don't feel confident, we can just evacuate the ship and keep away from it.”

“I didn't say that I couldn't do it,” Tin said, defensively. “I just said it's different. I'll need at least an hour or two to work on it.”

“Hey, I found something!” Jetstream yelled, from back in the hallway.

“You keep working on this,” Brass said. Tin nodded.

“Take a look,” Loopy said, as Brass walked into the next room. There was a note pinned to a dirty, circular table by a nasty-looking wave-bladed dagger. Brass trotted up to read it without touching either it or the knife.

To my worthy enemies,

Congratulations on finding this ship. While hardly the jewel of my empire, it was a useful, if obvious, base of operations. I expect that by now you've subdued my more useless employees, as you have time to read this.

No pony may enter or leave this city. If you give up the Mare do Well now, we will be willing to compromise and leave the rest of you alive. Please keep in mind that this offer will continue to be extended for as long as we are here. The sooner we have completed our task, the sooner we leave, and then things may prove to become more pleasant for everyone involved.

- El Toro

The note was signed with a complex glyph. As Brass read it, the glyph pulsed with red light. He heard Tin yell something, and felt his heart jump. There were certain things that could scare a guard, and hearing an explosives expert start to panic? That'd do it every single time.

“The bomb just activated!” Tin yelled. “There's no time. We need to get out of here, and now!”

“It's active?!” Brass yelled. Loopy's eyes went wide.

“Try to keep up, sir!” Tin Saucier yelled, galloping towards the ramp up to the deck. Brass looked back to Loopy and Jetstream.

“You heard him! You may not have to follow my orders but-” The two ran past him.

“The pony working on the bomb said to run! I get it!” Loopy yelled.

“I'm going to go up the ramp on the other side to make sure the rest of the guard gets out. Songbird, tell everyone up top to clear the deck!” Brass ran through a hatch towards the starboard side. Songbird flew past Loopy and Jet.

“Wait! I can't run!” Caballeron panted, trying to speed up, limping and dragging one of his hooves.

“Jet, you get out of here,” Loopy said. “I'll take care of him.” Loopy could feel Jet want to deny the request. She sent a pulse of will through the link they shared, and the pegasus jerked to attention and shot up at high speed, following Songbird. Loopy felt guilty about that. She knew it was wrong to abuse Jet like that. And it really was abuse. Making her a thrall was bad enough, even if it was an accident, but if she fell into the habit of giving her orders, she'd turn into a monster.

Well, more of a monster than she already was.

“Are you going to help or not?” Caballeron demanded. Loopy looked down the corridor. She could see the bomb, the reservoirs of alchemical reagents mixing and bubbling, the colors changing as they combined. It wouldn't be long now.

“I don't know,” Loopy said, honestly. “Just because I saved you once doesn't mean I'm going to bother doing it again. I could just leave you here right now and say I couldn't get you out in time. It's not like El Toro cares, either.”

“He-”

“He left you on a boat with a monster and a bomb. And you didn't even know about the bomb. He intended for me to find you, and to find the bomb, and probably expected me to kill you. And it'd make things easy, wouldn't it? Make sure you never troubled us again.”

“You wouldn't!” Loopy could sense that he believed her, and that he was very, very afraid.

“I have a condition, if you want to live through this. When we leave, you're working for me. Not El Toro, not yourself, and not the guards.”

“Yes! Fine!” Caballeron screamed. “Just get me out of here and I'll do anything you want! I'll polish your cape! Adjust your hat! Comb your damn mane every night! Anything!”

“Glad we could come to an agreement,” Loopy grinned, grabbing him in her hooves and bolting. He was heavy, but she was still drunk on love from Jet being so close. She was finding it difficult to hold back when she had that potent reserve of love to draw from through their link. She put down next to Brass as she spotted him galloping to safety.

“Is everypony out?” She asked. Brass nodded. They joined a group of guards taking shelter behind a shipping crate.

“What are you doing?” Tin yelled. “Keep going!” He was still moving. “It's gonna be big!”

“How big?” Loopy asked.

“Big!” Tin yelled. He stopped talking and kept running. Loopy looked at Brass.

“Move move move!” Brass screamed. The guards bolted after Tin. Loopy followed, dragging Caballeron. They moved another block down the road, taking cover behind a warehouse. Tin was there already, covering his ears with his hooves. Before Loopy could ask why, there was a flash and a wave of heat. A moment later, a wave of pressure shattered the windows of the warehouse, glass raining down around them.

Loopy felt something pressing her down into the dirt, and looked up to see Songbird standing over her, shielding her from the falling glass. She'd expected Jetstream, not the rude guardpony.

The pressure died down, and Loopy's ears were ringing, though they were recovering quickly. A changeling was more delicate than a pony in a lot of ways, but they healed a lot more quickly and easily. Songbird moved and helped her up.

“You okay?” Songbird yelled, obviously still having problems hearing. Loopy nodded. “Good! You don't get to die until you fix whatever it is you did to your friend!”

Loopy swallowed and nodded again. She had to admit she felt the same way. Songbird seemed satisfied. Then again, she could probably see how guilty the changeling felt about that, with her mutated eye.

Loopy walked to the edge of the warehouse and looked back towards the ship. A plume of black, greasy smoke rose up into the sky, the surface of the water burning thanks to the oil floating on it. She could just hear something at this distance, a wailing as the ship sank down into the cold waters, broken almost in half from the force of the blast, like a giant had stepped on it.

It was the basilisk, still alive, trapped in the hold as it filled with water. Loopy shivered. El Toro really didn't care about his people at all, or his pets. Whatever he was planning for Liveryburg next, it was going to be bad.

Very bad.

Author's Note:

Yes, yes. Before you comment, antivenin is the correct medical term. I know antivenom is used more commonly in English. I just prefer to use antivenin here. More of a stylistic choice than anything else.

Next Chapter: Bad things happen to good ponies. Bad things happen to bad ponies. Generally speaking, bad things happen.

Comments

[Ocean Waves]

LOOP SMASH!

[Emptybee]

Yep, as soon as I saw guano, sulfur, and saltpeter I knew where that was going.

[Morphy]

Toro harvested a bunch of the venom so I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of new statues soon.

[Thetntm]

Please continue this story.

[Kilobytes]

So... How dead is this story?

[Luckysweep]

Good to see that Tin is a fan of Burt Gummer.