Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

Chapter Eleven: Confrontation

Rainbow Dash was flying over Ponyville when an odd sight struck her below: three ponies fighting off a hoard of small monsters with an additional two mares standing aside. She flew down and took cover behind a bush to wait and see if she was needed.That was when she noticed one of the three ponies taking part in the fight wore a familiar purple cape and hat...and, from what she could recall, only one pony she knew would wear that tacky thing.

Charlotte was watching a blue mare with some purple getup fight off a hoard of snake-maned pony heads. For a unicorn with pathetically weak magic, she was in fact doing a good job of defending herself.

Well, the mare had two fellow unicorns helping her (but they weren’t too helpful, taking into account one was already petrified), so it was more or less reasonable that she’d do a good job with them in tow.

The mare in the purple getup wound up having to resort using her hooves to fend off the wave of attackers. Since she and her helpers had barely got away from some creepy stallion who trapped ponies inside paintings, it was pure luck that they were still living.

Eventually, the snake-maned pony heads lost their footing in the ground, mainly because Charlotte said ‘screw this’ and ended up having to intervene. She freed the unicorn turned to stone, seeing as she simply couldn’t stand by the sidelines any further.

One snake-maned pony held a strange scroll in its mouth, and it was picked up by the mare in the getup. Charlotte saw the scroll and thought to herself, “Oh no, don’t do it…..”She studied it a bit and tried it out, resulting in another snake-maned pony appearing and petrifying the orange, lanky unicorn AGAIN.

The snake-maned head then used its snakes as a means to hug the blue mare in the strange outfit. It even purred like a cat. It then said in a cute voice, “Mamma?”

All the cape-wearing mare could say was “...... What the heck?”

Charlotte sighed, rolled her eyes, and shook her head sadly as she tapped the stone statue of the lanky pony with her hoof. The stone crumbled away, revealing him to be perfectly alive and well. The lanky unicorn said, “Did we win a million bits…?”

The stout unicorn with a deformed head answered, “No, you idiot.”

The magenta-eyed unicorn eyed her fellow pony curiously for a moment or two. She then said, “The Great and Powerful Trixie wishes to challenge you to a magic duel.”

Charlotte’s ears perked in disbelief. “Wait a second...are you the same mare Stella and Loretta….”

Trixie raised a brow at that half-finished remark. Charlotte pointed a hoof to a pair of mares, one with a bonnet and the other with a strange hairdo. Then the cape-wearing freak began to blow steam out of her ears once she turned around and saw them.

Stella began laughing away at the sight. She was laughing so hard she was soon crying. Ponies young and old alike were quickly drawn to the spectacle of the mare who had seemed to have a rather bad case of hysteria.

A green-coated pony who was certainly elderly stood next to Applejack, supported by a walking frame. “I haven’t heard laughter like that since Pinkie Pie’s fit.” She commented, smiling warmly. She fell asleep a second later, seemingly at the drop of a hat.

Charlotte began to sweat a little bit at that same moment.

“Trixie said she challenges you to a magic duel!”

“Stop going in third person, it’s annoying.” Charlotte said in a snarky tone of voice. The moon was slowly rising from the north.

“Trixie, I thought you stopped being like this,” retorted Twilight, who stood in between the sisters.

“Habits are hard to change.” Trixie counter-retorted, her own tone of voice getting snarkier with each passing second.

“Been there, done that.” Charlotte agreed heartily, raising a hoof in the air. A red pegasus who’d been lying on the ground next to Loretta began stirring, and he groaned in pain.

“Luna, could you not raise the moon tonight, please? Or at least cover it with clouds?” Twilight asked, looking at the night-blue alicorn.

“Why would I do either?” Luna stated, raising a brow.

“Okay, why are your eyes gold? Weren’t they blue a minute ago?” Trixie asked, confused as she looked at Charlotte. She was right, her eyes were indeed gold now. “Oh no, here we go again…” Loretta commented, ears flattening and her voice filled with dread.

Jonathan also saw the spectacle unfolding. “You can say that again.”

While Charlotte was starting to change, Twilight had an idea, perhaps she could use that purification spell she memorized in her spell book.

Charlotte’s hooves grew wolf-like digits on their frames. Her nose changed to a canid shape.

Trixie looked up and saw the rising full moon. She starting shaking and sputtered “Is-is….she...?”

The transforming unicorn opened her mouth, revealing many sharp daggers for teeth. She quickly closed it and trotted around the cape-wearing freak, as if she had lost interest in her.

Twilight yelled out, “STAND BACK EVERYPONY! I WANT TO TRY SOMETHING OUT!”

Charlotte stopped right in her tracks and yelped in surprise.

“And it doesn’t involve silver.” Twilight added, sighing. Charlotte had a sigh of relief and resumed walking to her group of friends.

“Thou is a werepony?!” Luna bellowed, seemingly very upset by the sight the world had to give her.

“Leave her alone. She isn’t killing things. Besides, we never got around to explaining anything anyway.” Stella snapped, and her wings unfurled.

Charlotte sat in front of Luna and let off a frightened whimper.

“She’s…?!” Trixie stammered, approaching the lycanthrope with shaky movements.

A loud clanking was heard as a suit of armour with a pegasus obviously inside was throwing a rather sharp axe at Scootaloo, who was running away from it and trying to fly on her small wings.

“Rainbow Dash! Help us!” Scootaloo shrieked as she failed to take flight. Running alongside her were Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, both of whom were also panicking.

The cyan mare lept from the bush she was hiding in and tackled the armored pegasus pony. The pegasus dropped its axe and spread its wings in surprise.

All eyes, including that of Trixie’s new Medusa Head, were now on the spectacle that rapidly unfolded into a fight. Rainbow, while having speed on her side, lacked power in her hooves. The armored pegasus had more strength and was able to shove the new obstacle off with ease. It then flapped its wings trying to fly after her as she ascended at lightning speed.

The poor armored pegasus failed to fly an inch above the ground. Even worse, it couldn’t move fast enough to dodge a cyan hoof that was brought down onto its plated face from the moonlit heavens above.

Twilight flipped pages in the Book of Spirits and found a page detailing the armored pegasus. It bore the name ‘Axe Armor’ just below the pony’s picture.

“Charlotte, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Jonathan asked, eyes wide and blinking.

The werepony turned her head to him and nodded once before glancing back at the fight.

Rainbow flew up again and brought down her hoof in less than five seconds. The helmet breaking in three pieces and the undead face beneath caving in with a sickening crunch had more than confirmed that the fight was over.

Scootaloo looked at the face under the armor and she screamed because it was the face was rotten beyond compare. The fact that it was caved in didn’t do much good. Rainbow Dash, as well as Princess Luna, glared at the dead, armored zombie-pony...before shifting their gazes onto the only werepony in town.

“Hopefully your story won’t be waylaid again.” Celestia commented, not making eye contact with anypony present.

“And we have an audience to boot…” Loretta sighed, chuckling nervously as she looked at the crowded town filled with Ponyville commoners and snarky Canterlot nobles who made crude remarks in faint whispers.

“Princess Celestia, you should take a look at this book first, it may prove helpful. “ Twilight said, lightly tapping her mentor with a hoof to get her attention.

Celestia glanced at the purple alicorn and then the book she held. She levitated it to her face with her magic, then opened it and flipped through the pages like she were a mathematician. The book detailed creatures that she believed were nothing but myth. Zombie ponies, mummies, chimeras...all sorts of things that, quite simply, didn’t belong in Equestria at all.

Which said something considering one page detailed a minotaur who had stone breath. Another was a headless giant stallion, whose head flew around its armorclad body.

Rainbow trotted to Jonathan and stuck her nose in his face.

“Looks like you’re gonna HAVE to explain, bozo. And not just to the Princesses either.” She said, her tone of voice snarky.