Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

CChapter Seventeen, Part Three: Houston, We Have a Problem

All Charlotte could do was look at the crowd of flying mares and blow a raspberry in sheer annoyance. She was getting more irritated by the passing minute.

“Cadance, you said some of these mares are part of the Night Guard…. do you suppose they could be….ummmm, undercover agents who infiltrated the enemy?” Loretta asked, eyes wide. She was quite clearly nervous.

“Quite possibly…in order to be sure, I will need to cast a spell. If they are on our side, they will glow blue and red if not.” Cadence answered, ears twitching as her horn began glowing a soft purple.

Soon, the crowd of mares found themselves held in place; those highlighted in blue were immediately taken out of said crowd and placed next to the small group, but it was only one or two of them and the rest were all glowing red. The stallion who was still taking his sweet time with his immobile plaything also shared the same red aura.

“Well, I’m glad this means that we had some inside help and those enemies didn’t even know.” Cadence sighed, impressed before her expression curled up to see that the group was, in the literal sense of the word, outnumbered.

“Actually, we might be okay…. most of the mares who are enemies are vampires... and they cannot handle sunlight spells?” Charlotte chuckled in an irritated manner, a contorted smile plastered onto her muzzle. Soon, she broke out into a hysterical giggle fit.

“Well that is a good thing….wait, you have sunlight spells, right?” Jonathan asked, blinking a few times.

“Well I don’t, but Stella has told me Loretta used one or two before in the past.” Charlotte chuckled again, shaking her head in a worrying manner.

“I don’t have a sunlight spell. You’re drunk, woman.” Loretta sighed in defeat, a frown on her muzzle.

“It was more or less a mock sunlight by combining light with your ice magic..  if it at least can blind them, then we might be able to blast them from all corners of the room…?” Stella added before realizing that Charlotte was the only pony present who COMPLETELY lacked the ability to fly unless she rode on Jonathan’s back or something.

“I don’t have a light spell; I specialize in barriers….” Cadence confessed, seeing those around her were feeling very uneasy about their current predicament.

“What if I were to combine my holy water with your barrier--” Jonathan started, only to get cut off by Charlotte, who shrieked like a banshee, “HOLY WATER DOES NOT RADIATE ANY FORM OF LIGHT, YOU DUMBFOUNDED MORON! IT ONLY REFLECTS!”

“Geez, I was thinking since it does damage to undead beings….. perhaps it could change Cadance’s barrier to become a holy barrier that would burn those vampire mares over there…..?” Jonathan squeaked, his jaw hanging wide open as he began experiencing a cold sweat.

“Actually, Charlotte, he may have a point….  holy water is magic blessed water, am I right?” Cadence sighed, her wings shifting in unease.

“You are right about that.” Charlotte heaved, anger still lingering in her voice rather begrudgingly, for she felt kinda dumb at the moment due to forgetting that little property of said water. She hated moments like these.

“Somepony’s cute when she’s angry!” Called a vampire rather tauntingly, coming before the crowd and pointing a hoof at Charlotte.

“Ummm… Princess Cadance? What should I do?” One of the ally batpoines asked, rubbing the back of her head nervously with a hoof.

“Vampire hunters….oh sweet Celestia….” Murmured the other one worriedly, shaking very badly.

“Technically, we aren’t vampires but Thestrals…. there is a difference: those others were not born in Equestria, and besides, we don’t…. kill other ponies…..?” Sighed the first one.

The mare who made the remark about anger rushed towards Charlotte and then something unexpected happened: namely, the blue unicorn produced a broomstick straight out of nowhere and used that to knock the vampire out of the air faster than anyone could blink.

And then she stabbed the mare in the eye, making sure the stick went right through her skull.

“Yep, she’s lost it. We’re gonna die.” Jonathan commented, wings spread wide in shock.

Another mare strayed from the crowd, hollering something along the lines of “The mare with the bonnet is dead sexy” and she got impaled in the face with an icicle.

“Hmmph, she deserved that one for trying to hit on my sister.” Stella hissed, sounding as if she loathed the vampire for her remark.

“Yet another strayed from the group, shouting something incomprehensible (to Spike, it sounded like “something moving”) but this was largely due to a knife having been plunged in her throat.

One of vampire mares was obviously lazy as she was snoring….whilst still being somehow airborne.

“Oh great, Jade fell asleep again!” Shouted another accusingly before half of her body was melted off by a fire lizard that came from nowhere. Said fire lizard proceeded to melt the quite a few others as well, making the crowd shrink a considerable amount.

However, it was not able to melt the sleeping one as, somehow, she was able to dodge while sleeping….still airborne.

“Oookay, I’m not sure what to make of this….” Deadpanned Spike, whose thumbs were being twiddled with.

Charlotte’s horn was glowing, and she was even more furious than ever. She began screaming in anger as the sleeping vampire kept dodging her spells without breaking so much as a sweat.

“Remind me not to get on her bad side,” one of the enemy vampires said, pointing a hoof at the screeching unicorn.

“Kinda too late for that. Jade has obviously pissed her off, and it’s funny how she can’t dodge a ball when awake. But, when she’s asleep, she’s like…. a ninja-pony,” Retorted another before both were roasted alive by lightning bolts fired from the angry unicorn’s horn.

“FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! STAY STILL, DAMMIT!” Charlotte yelled, sending forth a great big, rotten-yellow mass of spiraling energy at the crowd. It was only a small orb, and it disappeared once it moved three feet away from her.

Without warning, the unicorn’s magic gave out and caused her a great headache in the process. She landed on her rump with her hooves on her head, trying to drown out the new pain.

Another vampire saw her chance, and she dove in hastily, knocking Charlotte onto her backside with her hooves. The unicorn tried desperately to shove her away, but she may as well have been trying to shove off a boulder instead.

Stella brandished her sword, placing the hilt in her jaw before spreading her wings and flying at the vampire who was trying to take a bite out of her unicorn friend.

The vampire was caught by surprise, and she had no time to react as her head was sliced cleanly off of her body.

The other vampires, for whatever reason, began to squabble amongst themselves, hissing and biting and shouting at each other.

“Oookay, this I was not expecting…” Murmured another vampony before she froze stiff and fell to the floor quite a ways, shattering on impact like a china doll.

The other vampires suddenly turned into a vast swarm of little bats, screeching and flitting as they fled from the group of ponies who opposed them so easily. Even the sleeping mare went with in haste, as if subconsciously aware of the situation falling in the enemies’ favor. A great staircase appeared soon after, made of pure ruby, and the group ran down it quickly.

At the foot of it, they saw the bat-winged stallion still trying to fondle a crystallized unicorn stallion in regal armor. He looked at the group, his white mane, dual horns, and red eyes being a dead giveaway as to what he was.

“Really? Only one other stallion here that can move? Oh well, I guess I’ll have to make do with what I have.” He sighed rather disappointingly, looking right at Jonathan he frowned a bit.

“No…. that crystallized stallion is--!!!” Cadence started, only to stop short as the bat-winged vampire rushed at Jonathan in an attempt to clamber onto his red frame.

“Not so fast, ugly! No one tries to hurt DADDY!!!” Shouted the baby Gaibon as he rushed forward and bit the intruding pony on the leg. He was kicked off with ease, and had been sent hurdling quite a ways in the vast room.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!?” Jonathan cried, rising up to his hind hooves and delivering the vampire a swift punch in the maw. He followed suit with another punch, and then a rear hoof right between the demon’s rear legs. He yelped in pain, front hooves moving to the hurt area, and he backed off quickly.

“ARRRGH! My JEWELS!!! YOU BASTARD!” The demon shouted, only to find blood pooling in his mouth and trickling from his lips as a sword was plunged clean into his throat. He soon found himself staring into Stella’s quickly-reddening eyes, and she heaved with what had clearly been hatred for this demon’s very kind.

For a moment or two, all froze around them as they stared off. Stella then removed the blade of her sword, allowing the head of the fiend to fall off and roll away from the body before it burned to ashes.

The baby Gaibon quickly got up and ran to the red pegasus that reverted to all fours, clutching his foreleg in a tight hug. “Daddy, are you okay?” He asked worriedly, his voice filled with sadness.

“I’m fine. Just….shocked, that’s all.” Jonathan answered, his tone of voice reassuring as he picked up the little wyvern and put him onto his backside, right between his wings.

Stella cleaned her sword before resheathing it. Her eyes returned to their normal green, but she still had traces of anger present on her face.

The crystallized unicorn began moving, revealing a sparkling coat of white with magenta and gold armor. His mane was blue and his eyes teal, and his cutie mark was a shield adorned with three purple sparkles.

Cadence ran up to him and embraced him in her forelegs. “Oh, Shiney! I missed you!” She said, smiling happily.

“As I recall, you said you married Twilight’s older brother? This is him, isn’t it?” Loretta asked, gently tapping Cadence with a hoof to get her attention.

Cadence let go of the stallion and nodded. “Yes. This is Shining Armor.” She answered, still smiling.

“Who are these ponies?” Shining asked, looking at Stella and Charlotte.

The Thestrals rubbed the back of their heads nervously with their hooves, still sensing some kind of unease in the group.

“As for me and my companion, we are actually two guards of the Lunar Division.” Answered one of them, still nervous. She pointed a hoof at the red pegasus. “He’s a vampire hunter…” She murmured.

Shining raised a brow as he shifted his gaze to Jonathan. The stallion chuckled as if a lewd thought was currently in his mind.

“That’s a good one. I know for a fact that vamponies are fictional.” Shining said sternly.

“Really?” Charlotte asked, raising her own brow as her horn began glowing with what little magic she recovered. The crystalline hue on her frame disappeared, although only briefly, as she morphed into her lycanthropic form. “And what of wereponies? You’re looking right at one.”

Shining recoiled a bit in shock, but not enough to stumble backwards. He looked absolutely dumbfounded at the sight of the short-lived metamorphosis.

“Shiney… I know it’s hard to believe, but..., you see all the dust around us…. they were all vamponies. Nopony can seem to hit that sleeping one that dodged everything. Had it not been for these strange ponies, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Cadence said, softly.

Shining looked back at the werepony, who changed back into her normal form. “Though I dislike being proven wrong, I’ll take your word for it.” He said in the same, stern tone of voice.

“Hey, Shining Armor. It’s good to see that you’re alright… By the way, Twilight told me to tell you come to Ponyville sometime soon.” Spike said, making himself visible to the unicorn stallion by placing himself upon Loretta’s head.

“There is now the equivalent of a bag of cement on my head. Spike, do please get off before my skull cracks.” Loretta sighed, trying hard to keep her head up and failing horribly.

“Oops, I forgot we dragons were rather heavy.” Spike said, a cheeky grin on his face

as he abided by the request. He looked rather nervous.

“Mommy, who is the white pony?” The baby Gaibon asked, jumping onto Charlotte’s back while sucking his thumb claw.

“His name is Shining Armor...I find it funny how his armor and cutie mark match his name.” Charlotte answered, a grin on her face.

“Grr, I don’t find that very funny. Most ponies’ names also reflect his or her cutie mark in some way or another.” Shining remarked, frowning.

“My name doesn’t reflect MY cutie mark, and that’s because I’m not from around these parts.” Charlotte retorted, angling her body to show Shining what it was she was talking about.

“Is that why you are a hairball?” He asked, raising a brow.

“Sort of,” Charlotte answered with another cheeky grin as her eyes beamed a bit.

A dark energy suddenly coalesced above the group, and all looked up in shock as black crystals crackling with energy danced around this blackness. A set of red and green eyes appeared in the mass, and a sinister voice resonated from within.

“Oh, my. What a sight. Two of my worst enemies teaming up with bat ponies and the accursed vampony hunters.”

“To be fair, we are actually part of Luna’s guard and we were disguised, you reject for a pony… I mean, look ya! Ya have a curved horn!” Shouted one of the bat ponies accusingly.

Sombra was starting to get a little irritated and pissed off from the reject pony comment.

“SOMBRA, YOU SNAKE! YOU ARE THE SPAWN OF A DEMON!!” Cadence and Shining cried in unison, their voices filled with loathing for the alicorn pony.

Sombra, even more irritated, revealed his full body to the group with wings of feathers keeping him aloft.

“How did you-- When did you--?!” Shining started, only to be flung against a wall. A crystal structure surrounded him, keeping his body exposed as his legs and horn were bound in dark chains. Cadence quickly followed, and so did Spike and the baby Gaibon.

“Now that we have the formalities out of the way,” Sombra started, pausing a bit as he produced a blue heart with many crystal facets. He soon descended onto the ground in front of the vampony hunters, making sure to add in the bat ponies to the wall.

Stella’s eyes went wide. “The crystal heart! Leave it alone, or I’ll--” She started, only to fall silent as the heart was dropped onto the floor and smashed to pieces with the armored hoof of the tyrannical king.

“You’ll what?” Sombra asked, smiling wickedly. The crystalline form wore off of Cadence, Shining, and the baby Gaibon, but it did not wear off for the hunters.

Sombra kept his wings wide, arching an eyebrow as his horn glowed with a green aura. He looked at Charlotte, who was grunting in pain and recoiling a bit. The unicorn glared at him, one eye scrunched shut.

“Hmmm, strange. I wonder why the crystal form did not leave you four….how shall I say…. strangers? Perhaps death will work then… besides, the one who revived me clearly wanted all of you dead anyways.” Sombra commented, his smile unwavering.

Jonathan pulled a huge sword in the shape of a cross from his wings and loaded it into his front hooves. Stella brandished her sword in her maw, and Loretta’s horn was crackling to life with an aura of coldest air. Charlotte, though still in pain, put her book in a magical grip.

Jonathan lunged at Sombra, only for his attack to go right through him... like he was made of melted butter or something.

“Heh, nice try…. but you only beat my after-image.” Sombra taunted, cackling behind the red stallion who turned around and found himself flying backwards.

“I don’t believe what I saw…. he made his shadow take his place!... Jonathan, be careful! He can create after-images made of shadow magic!” Cadence cried as she saw the stallion land face-first in a wall. He grunted in pain but waved a hoof, signaling that he heard the bit of advice. He soon regained his footing in time to see Loretta get hurled straight to the ceiling.

The unicorn caught herself right as her horn was about to be plunged into the crystal framework. She flew down to Sombra, creating something from ice as she descended to the alicorn.

The alicorn looked up, teleporting out of the way and depositing a crystal statue in his place right as a giant sword crashed onto where the statue was. Both ice and dark crystal broke into a million pieces on impact.

Sombra ended up rushing at the flying annoyance for a unicorn and punched her right in the stomach with a hoof as soon as he was within range. He felt a bone crack as Loretta let off a hideous wail before she tumbled down onto the ground in a harsh landing. She was curled onto her side, clutching her new bruise with her hooves. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing a bit frantically.

Stella’s eyes became red again as she flew into the air, her screams of anger muffled by the hilt of her sword. Sombra saw this and he smiled wickedly. “Foolish whorse! You think you can best me with a simple sword? Did you not witness me destroy the one thing that could kill me only moments ago?” He taunted, whirling around the purple pegasus and grabbing her wings with his hooves with blinding speed.

A series of sickening snaps sounded, and Stella dropped her sword to let off a wail of her own. She was soon tossed unceremoniously onto the floor, and the alicorn saw Jonathan flapping his own wings and rushing towards him whilst letting off a roar of anger.

The twins were placed into their own pods, chains forming on their legs, horn, and wings. Jonathan soon found himself in the same predicament, and Cadence began shrieking something incomprehensible.

Charlotte was beginning to panic, for she was alone, the only one who could fight Sombra at this point. The pain she was feeling had intensified, and her body told her to stop. She looked up at the cruel alicorn with eyes clouded by tears.

King Sombra was glaring right at her with a look that could kill. “And YOU, a mare who is stupid enough to challenge me on the day your child is due to be born, think you can fight me in the decrepit condition in which you stand? True, you do not look the part, but that does NOT excuse your blatant stupidity!” He bellowed, rushing at the unicorn full force. Charlotte barely got out of the way, tripping onto her own hooves and landing inches away from Stella’s sword which had fallen in a way it stabbed the crystal floor.

The unicorn got up, trying to cast a spell. Sadly, the only thing her horn could produce were faint sizzles and sparks. Sombra rushed at her again, this time his horn radiating with a sinister glow like that of his red irises. Charlotte grabbed the hilt of the sword in her jaw and pried it out before she found herself being sent back-first into a wall thanks to an armored hoof that met with her muzzle. Her body rebounded and landed on the floor, all four of her legs splayed wide. She grunted in pain because she landed stomach-first and felt something shift within.

Small droplets of blood fell off of her face from the nostrils. Her vision was blurry. Her breathing was frantic. She rose up, her body wobbling and shaking from the pain she took. A dark brown-grey form rushed at her again, and Charlotte barely got out of the way, thrusting the sword that wasn’t hers forward.

Sombra screamed, the blade having missed mere inches of his heart. Blood poured out of his wound, and much of it was blocked by the blade. He disappeared in a shadowy mist before reappearing behind the unicorn and rearing up on his hind legs.

A sickening crack hit all ears present as Sombra’s front hooves connected with Charlotte’s backside, forcing her onto the floor again. She let the sword drop from her mouth and let off a piercing cry that quickly faded as it got more hoarse.

“CHARLOTTE!” Jonathan cried, struggling fruitlessly against his binds.

Again, Sombra reared up and stomped on the unicorn, causing another series of sickening cracks and deafening cries to sound shortly after. Tears poured from Charlotte’s scrunched eyes as she let off a pained moan like that of a child. The alicorn backed off before trotting to the center of the room as dark crystals encased the wounded unicorn and forced her backside onto the wall. Her horn and hooves were chained, and her head hung low as if in defeat.

He then turned to her, his face blooming in utter fury. His horn radiated a glow the color of a deep purple.

“And now, for your petulance and stupidity, you are the first to be put out of your misery, you wretched slut!” Sombra bellowed, a beam of dark magic energy fired from his horn and rushing right at the injured mare.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!” Charlotte screamed in pain as the beam hit her full-force, unable to move from the sheer pain her body undertook.

The beam suddenly stopped its onslaught as Charlotte’s horn began glowing, breaking its chain in the process. A great, square shield of transparent, dancing rainbows had appeared in front of her, taking the entire beam as though it were nothing.

“What?!” Sombra exclaimed, wings spread wide as he watched the spectacle unfold. Nonetheless, he channelled all of his magic into the beam whilst hoping to take down the shield. Soon, however, his horn sizzled out from depleted magic.

The shield began to glow as it took on a circular shape before the injured mare.

Sombra found himself screaming one last time as his own beam was fired at him full-force, turning all of his body into dark crystals and then to mere shards. The shards then became ash before fading away from the world.

The beam faded from the world, and a scroll fluttered down to where the alicorn once stood. The crystal prisons everyone found themselves in disappeared without so much as a warning, and as a result, Loretta, Stella, and Jonathan found themselves grunting in pain from the landing. Charlotte, however, landed with only a thud. Her eyes were tightly closed, and she did not show movement.

“Charlotte!” Jonathan said, galloping over to the hurt mare and swiftly scooping her up in his forelegs frantically. The others followed suit, with Loretta having a noticeable limp as she hurried over while picking up the scroll in the process.

A white light suddenly flashed from overhead, and it blinded all present. When it faded, Jonathan tried spreading his wings. Much to his shock, they spread painlessly and with ease. Stella found her wings having the same phenomenon about them.

Charlotte opened her eyes, though weakly. She was turned over onto her backside, and she found herself surrounded by her friends, the Threstrals, Cadence, Shining, Spike, and the baby Gaibon. Her breathing was rough and ragged, and a pool of blood had formed around and under her hind legs.

“Charlotte, can you hear me?” Jonathan asked, sounding very much worried. His ears were flat on his head.

The mare only nodded slowly before letting off a hoarse shriek, one rear leg raising up briefly as if to kick away an intruder.

A painting leading back to Ponyville had appeared, and Loretta gripped her weakened friend in an aura of ice. She carefully lifted her up before walking to the painting, her limp no longer present. “What are you standing around for? We must get a move on, at once.” She scorned, looking at the group.

At once, everyone went to the painting. When all were in front of it, Loretta raised a hoof and touched the painting that soon enveloped the group in a white light. When if vanished, none of them were present.