The Blackheart Forest

by Sabre_Cat

The Poison Compendium

You walk over to the bookshelf and pull out the book on poison. Strange that, when in need of comfort, you’d turn to liquids that eat you from the inside out. But then again, based on the way you treat your body everyday, you might as well have been taking daily doses after all these years. You pop open the book at the center--no, near the end--and read whatever your eyes first fix to.

---

“A Venomous Poison”

Oh my friends, how this author does indeed despise the commoner’s pedestrian confusion between venoms and poisons. Such a simple topic, you’d think, but no--it seems the simpletons of this world can’t even earn their namesake.

Nonetheless, I shall not tarry. The only ponies who’d find their hooves on a book like this are not simpletons too simple for the title--they are toxicologists! Physicians! And mages! They are great minds that shall shape the world of tomorrow, and as such, I need not irritate myself any further (though I inevitably will).

For the sake of documentation, let it be known that poisons are absorbed or ingested. Poisonous animals deliver their chemicals if touched or consumed. Venom, on the other hoof, is always injected. Think scary, spear-like stingers or fangs.

Some of the Venomous Fauna in Equestria:

• Bugbears
• Flash Bees
• Manticores

Some of the Poisonous Fauna in Equestria:

• Certain breeds of parasprite, surprisingly
• Twittermites (not surprising given their relations to parasprites)
• Quarray Eels

Now that we’re on the same page, it’s time to deviously break the rules. Poison and venom are different things that the body will take in through different methods, but what if, my dear friend, I were to inform of a certain… criss-cross… so to speak? What if I were to inform you that there were a way to introduce our meager little victims to poison and venom at the same time with the very same brew? My friends, what I speak of is fact--not fiction!

The recipe is as follows:

“The Serpentsting” (a most prestigious name, if I might add)

• A snake’s shedded skin
• That which is vile in this world
• (1) Night Lily

The turnout? What could all of these wonderful ingredients ever combine to make? Why, the most spectacular display you’ll have ever seen, my friend! Upon indigestion or adsorption, the victim will immediately succumb only to a minor fate: fatigue. As time passes, the fatigue escalates, and in the victim’s stomach spawns a trio of spectral, venomous serpents. Serpents who bite and bite and bite--piercing with their unholy fangs, right into the victim’s helpless organ. Neigh shall they cease ‘til thine victim falls flat on the floor, paralyzed by their puncturing kisses and unable to move. Only after the victim stops resisting will these snakes fade--back to Etherium from whence they came. The victim will not bleed given that fangs are those of a phantom creature, thus biting more into the soul than the physical body, but the end result is still half a minute of paralysis.

Makes you wonder whether poison or venom is superior, no?

---

You shut the book, mind now boggling with all the ways the ponies of Equestria can be tricked, then tortured with mere liquid and the magic of Etherium alone. You shake your head, trying to rid yourself of the thoughts of their suffering. These books sure were starting to seem like a really “good influence”. You set The Poison Compendium back where you found it and hear the thunder roar on again, but you’re not intimidated like before. There were many things worth wasting your time being scared of in this world, and thunder was definitely not one of them--not anymore.

You scan up and down, across and around the shelf for a new book that’ll fit your knowledge-craving tastes. There was no fiction to be had on these shelves, and rightfully so. Fiction never served a higher purpose, now did it? Only informatives passed inspection here.

You take notice to one book. One in particular. A black book with an old and murky cover.

A black book which you’re all too familiar with.

>Read the black book.