Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

Chapter Nine: Gathering

“So, besides you and the other three you mentioned, Twilight, how many princesses are there again?” Charlotte inquired, raising a brow in the process.

“There are no other princesses. We’re literally the only four around, so to speak.” Twilight answered with a sigh.

“How are we going to get to Canterlot again?” Jonathan asked, crossing his forelegs.

As if on cue, Stella looked up and saw a flying chariot pulled by snow-white pegasi in golden armor. “I’d say by riding that,” she commented, pointing a hoof at it. Jonathan’s hoof connected with his face, and he grumbled something incomprehensible.

Charlotte, catching a glimpse of something sitting in the front seat, then asked, “Who is that pony in the grand chariot?”

The chariot wheeled in the sky a few times above the small gathering of ponies before landing gracefully in front of the library. The armored pegasi stopped flapping their wings as from the seats of the ornate method of transport rose a night-blue alicorn with eyes of turquoise and an ethereal, transparent blue mane dotted with stars.

She approached the group of ponies, who then noticed she wore grey-blue armor; the chestplate being adorned with a single crescent moon. The foreigners exchanged brief glances.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Started the alicorn, “I have seen two mares fall from the sky on one of my nightly rounds. It seems those two are safe and sound.”

The twins noticed the blue alicorn was looking straight at them and they found themselves at some kind of unease. They gulped hard and began having a bit of a cold sweat.

“S-s-sister, do you th-think she m-means...umm, us?” Loretta stuttered, unable to keep her legs from shaking.

Stella laughed nervously. She nodded her head up and down, her jaw working up and down but unable to form words beyond that of gibberish.

“Yeah. They teleported into my library reporting some sort of stallion-related mishap in Manehattan.” Twilight said, giving Stella a quick glance. “She was just defending herself from crazed stallions, and I won’t hold her responsible for it.”

The blue alicorn nodded. “Those stallions are in the dungeon now. Hopefully we needn’t fret about them anymore.” She said, her voice calm.

Stella breathed a sigh of utter relief, wiping sweat off of her forehead with a hoof.

The alicorn looked at the red pegasus whose green eyes were averting left and right. “Is he alright?” She asked, raising a brow.

“Mares in heat make him nervous--with good reason. He’s shown a considerable amount of restraint for himself.” Twilight commented, patting the pegasus on his back with a hoof.

Jonathan’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as a blush overcame his face. “Q-quit bringing that up!” He said, his voice shaking like a leaf.

The blue alicorn sighed. “All six of you, get on the chariot please.” She said. Twilight trotted inside the library and quickly returned with a basket of midget-sized ponies before boarding the pony-managed vehicle as the rest of the ponies complied. The blue alicorn raised an eyebrow at the midget-sized ponies. Twilight also brought Jonathan and Charlotte’s saddlebags because she knew they’d forgotten all about them.

“To Canterlot Castle!” Bellowed the blue alicorn as she took the front seat. The armored pegasi nodded and unfurled their wings before breaking off into a starting gallop. The chariot soon lifted high into the sky, gaving the ponies onboard a damn fine view of Equestria in all of its equine glory.

“This is amazing…!” Charlotte commented, her mane billowing in the breeze created by the vehicle’s movement.

“Oh my goodness! You’re right--this is FANTASTIC!” Vincent stated, looking behind the chariot in sheer awe.

“So this is what it’s like to fly high in the sky.” Jonathan said, unfurling his wings and letting the wind caress them. “Except I’m on a flying carriage, which is kind of a let-down, but that’s only a small detail.” He added, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling.

The blue alicorn turned her back on the pegasi pulling the carriage forward and her face to the group. She smiled, seeing that they were in fact enjoying themselves quite well despite falling from the sky days earlier.

Loretta put a hoof on her bonnet to ensure it would stay on her head.  “I feel as if I’m lacking something. Then again, don’t we all?” She mumbled to herself, a small grin on her face.

Stella opened her wings as well. She hummed a tune to herself and swayed her body a little bit.

“S-s-sister, I wonder what father would say if he saw this place; it’s so full of magic…” Loretta said, poking her sister with a hoof to get her attention.

Stella glanced at her sibling. “That, I really cannot say. If anything, he’d be rendered speechless at best.” She replied before going back to humming her tune.

A loud snore broke the silence as Vincent fell asleep and landed onto the floor of the chariot. He rolled onto his stomach and Twilight covered him with a secure blanket.

The blue alicorn got a glance at his cutie mark before it was covered up by the blanket. “Ah, is he a priest of some kind?” She asked, raising a brow.

Jonathan looked at the rather tall mare. “It’s safe to say that he’s a missionary.” He answered with a nod.

The alicorn nodded. “Oh, I forgot to introduce myself to you. My name is Luna.” She said swiftly before turning around. The ponies saw a castle quite literally embedded into a mountainside, very close to its peak in fact.

“I sense something….do you have some kind of strange magic on you?” Luna asked, turning back around and glancing at Jonathan. The pegasus stuck a hoof under his left wing and a pained look came on his face as he was somehow able to produce a metallic whip from the feathered mass.

As the whip was tugged free, it tore some red feathers loose. Once out of the appendage, he began plucking it clean until no more red feathers remained embedded into its shiny frame.

“You mean this?” He asked, coiling the whip around the crook of his foreleg. Its handle was brown and leathery, and the end of the whip ended in a rounded, larger sphere than the rest of its companions who made the weapon what it was. Each sphere and the handle itself gave off some sort of eerily calm vibe.

“Yes, that is what I sensed. What is it?” Luna asked again, raising a brow.

Jonathan sighed, “It’s complicated as all hell. Let’s just wait until we see the... “As soon as he about to say another word, a cream pie came out from under the same wing, soaking its feathers and a good deal of his side in sweetened cheese in the process.

“Oh come on!” He complained, frantically trying to rub the newly-created mess off of him and smearing a great deal of his pelt in the process. Twilight took the strange whip and placed it into his saddlebag.

“I sense something dark in that...which is no longer edible.” Luna commented, eyes wide as she watched the hapless pegasus desperately attempt to clean himself.

Charlotte turned to her companion and all she did was shake her head sadly.

Everypony, save Luna and Twilight, found themselves meeting with the chariot’s floor face-first as said pony-driven vehicle came to an abrupt halt. Vincent rolled onto his stomach, and even he returned to his hooves with a drawn-out yawn.

The abrupt halt caused Charlotte to cast a spell by accident and she wound up creating a pony skeleton that appeared from flat-out nowhere, and it had a horn of its own. This one wore a purple, old cloak and carried an abused musket in its magical grip.

“Is that even safe?” Twilight asked, eyes wide.

Jonathan found himself suddenly drenched in stinging cold water. While it did get that cumbersome mess off of him, it sent a jolt of ice throughout his body and he yelped as a result.

Charlotte sighed, shaking her head again. She couldn’t answer Twilight’s question, so she simply cast another spell that made the skeleton unicorn disappear the same way it had came.

Twilight’s wings unfurled and she asked Charlotte, “Where did you get that spell anyway?”

“Put it like this: I hijacked it from one of Death’s minions and he’s still mad at me to this day.” Answered the unicorn, sighing and shaking her head for a third time.

“So basically, you’re saying you’d killed one of those whatchamacallits and it dropped the spell then?” Twilight asked, raising a brow. The unicorn only nodded, albeit a bit frantically.

Stella folded her wings as they ached for some reason. She glanced at Luna, who levitated an empty bucket next to her.

Loretta re-adjusted her bonnet. Some pieces of her mane were out of place.

“Save the chit-chat for my sister. Please follow me and explain her...forbidden magic to us.” Luna ordered, catching the attention of the five ponies who immediately looked at her. She was looking straight into Charlotte’s soul with her current expression, and the unicorn found herself choking on words again.

The ponies obliged, following the alicorn into the massive castle and down a very long hallway that seemed to take three hours to cross but, in reality, only took a good twenty-five minutes at best. Along the way, Loretta murmured something along the lines of, “It’s going to be hell, I just know it,” under her breath.

The group stopped before a set of doors that were pried open with magic. They trudged inside and found an entire gathering lined up single file on either side of a massive red carpet that lead to precisely four thrones, in one of which sat a white alicorn mare with armor of gold and embedded with amethyst. Her ethereal mane, much longer than that of Luna’s, was light blue, purple, green, and pink in color.

Eyes of light magenta stared at the group of ponies approaching her. The ponies looked amongst the divided crowd and the purple pegasus could’ve sworn she saw a familiar face among the fray of noble Canterlot unicorns.

“Dearest sister,” Luna started, causing the foreigners to tense in fear as she spoke. “I have found all five ponies that mysteriously fell from the sky; one of whom has mastery in forbidden, dark magics.”

Upon hearing the words ‘dark magics’ used in that conjunction, some of the nobles began shaking and some started clamoring in utmost confusion.

“Order in the royal court!” Bellowed the white alicorn mare, causing all others to fall silent without so much as another hoof shuffling so lightly it would’ve gone otherwise unnoticed. “Continue, Luna.” She added calmly.

“She was able to summon a pony from beyond the grave; a skeleton if you will. I witnessed this with my own eyes.” Luna said, her comment once more causing another brief clamoring from the crowd that was quicker to silence itself without the aid of the white alicorn.

“Ne….She committed necromancy?!” Asked the white alicorn mare, her face washed over in shock.

Luna nodded. “I sense forbidden magic in her very blood, but from what is something she herself is to testify about in her own words.”

Jonathan found himself looking at Charlotte, an expression of sadness and worry overcoming him. Charlotte looked back, her own face expressed in much the same way. She soon looked at the white alicorn and gulped before walking to her. Her hoofsteps were the only thing that dared to break the piercing silence of the court as she drew closer to that fearsome gaze those light magenta eyes had to offer.

The white alicorn seemed to cast a dark glare at the blue unicorn, who was quick to sit on her haunches and hang her head in shame.

“Well, I’m not sure if it is necromancy after I beat a monster called a skeleton gunman, it dropped a spell scroll that summons another one…” Charlotte murmured, scrunching her eyes shut and fearing the worst that could come. Her ears fell flat as she said this.

The white alicorn raised a brow before spreading her magnificent and surprisingly oversized wings. She rose to all fours, and Luna took a step back.

Loretta fell onto her haunches, trying her best to hold the tears back. She moved her hoof onto her muzzle to keep the sobs at bay.

The white alicorn stepped forward, and the crowd immediately gasped.

“That mare will be banished…” Whispered one pony.

“To the moon or to the sun?” Asked another.

“Maybe she’ll be jailed?” Stated a third.

The alicorn took another step forward.

Twilight turned to Jonathan with a worried expression on her face. “Why aren’t you doing anything to defend your friend?” She whispered.

“I’m afraid that, if I do, I’d end up dying before I said even one word. You said that the mare named Celestia is all-powerful and her judgements are obsolete, right?” Jonathan retorted, keeping his voice high enough that Twilight could hear, but low enough that the crowd couldn’t.

Luna was thinking to herself, ‘Did she really gain the spell from a monster? It seems unlikely to me...’

The white alicorn took another step forward, and her lengthy shadow loomed over the unicorn. Charlotte looked up, expecting a royal scowl of some kind and had instead received the complete opposite: a surprisingly happy look on the alicorn’s face.

“You...you contain dark magic, but...I also sense other magics that negate that. While necromancy is indeed forbidden here, I cannot help but notice you have magical talent comparable to that of my pupil, Twilight Sparkle. Plus, I can sense a sort of a very high level purification spell you possess.” The white alicorn said, closing her wings.

The crowd began babbling on again. They silenced themselves in a split second.

“Not many unicorns possess what you seem to be able to do on a sheer whim. Tell us, young mare, exactly where you acquired these magics and be sincerely truthful about it.” Said the white alicorn, her voice calm.

Charlotte gulped, turning around briefly and motioning for the others to come to her with a hoof. They obliged, all taking their places in front of the regal alicorn.

“It’s a bit of a really long story, and I wasn't the only one involved…” Charlotte said, turning back to the alicorn mare who still looked at her.

Suddenly, a pink pony emerged from behind the white alicorn. She had wings whose tips were lavender and a horn as well, and her mane was made in distinct curls of pink, lavender, and yellow.

“I sense that you and the red pegasus are in love somehow.” She commented, her horn glowing a light blue as she looked at Charlotte.

Jonathan’s eyes widened. “And who are you to dictate who I fall in love with?” He asked, his jaw dropping. “Why would I date a mare who is along the lines of my kid sister?” He added, his eyes narrowing very low in a scowl.