Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

Chapter Nineteen: A Victorian Fear

A white glow appeared in a street of a large city whose streets were seemingly-abandoned. When if vanished, two ponies had been standing in front of a painting. The sisters scanned the landscape carefully and found many stowaway carts and buggies dotting various areas of the streets. The place was far too quiet for comfort, and most certainly not how Stella remembered it.

The silence was broken with a young voice screaming something along the lines of “HELP MEEEEEEEE! I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!!” in unison with a myriad of others.

Stella and Loretta exchanged a quick glance before both began flying around the alleyways, distancing themselves from one another in the process since it was hard to tell from exactly where the dreadful chorus was coming from.

A loud thumping sound was heard…. as a golem that was collecting the flesh of dead ponies was lumbering through the town--from what Loretta was seeing, at any rate. The golem had armor made from the very concrete of the city streets, a thick armor of sorts that she couldn’t break through.

The unicorn turned tail and flew away from the lumbering behemoth when that dreadful chorus of innocents screaming for mercy hit her ears again. Once more, she wasn’t sure where it was coming from and took a sharp left.

There, in front of a pile of rubble, she saw her sister defending a group of ponies from another group of what looked like bandits made of of animated clay or something of the sort. But these bandits had a disturbingly familiar air about them. Why that was had been something she wished she hadn’t found out as she descended and looked at them more closely.

“Well, well. Lookie at what we have here--our rather feisty set of whores.” Spat one of the bandits accusingly, giving Stella a glare that could very well match that of King Sombra himself.

“Hey, boss, I think that one wants to rumble. Should we slice her head off like a dandelion, or should we have our way with her first?” Hissed another, looking at Stella as well.

Loretta sighed through her nostrils and grunted, shaking her head disapprovingly. “We are not whores.” She said quickly.

All of a sudden, a loud crashing was heard as the golem from before now shambled between the two groups of ponies. It said with a deafening roar, “I smell ponies! More flesh for me! Body need more pony flesh!”

“Impeccable timing, for a load of rotting horseapples!” Stella hissed, stomping her hoof in sheer annoyance as she looked at the sight.

The golem swayed its head side to side, as if trying to figure out where the ponies on literally either side of him were. He then grunted and trudged away, it’s lumbering form crushing another lifeless body in the process and revealing the groups to one another once more.

“........ Sister…. I think that golem is literally blind...and mostly deaf, perhaps?” Loretta commented worriedly, turning her gaze to the snail-paced monster as it moved out of sight.

“Perhaps, but even so, we currently have bigger fish to fry.” Stella agreed, nodding as she drew forth her sword and spread her wings wide whilst looking at the group of dirty ponies. “These...miserable cretins need to be put in their place.”

The group of dirt-colored stallions, which totaled a good fifteen or so, burst out laughing at the remark of the purple pegasus.

One stallion with particularly large wings approached the sisters and he chuckled menacingly. “Pitiful sluts, you know not of I, Saurva the Lawless?”

Loretta raised an eyebrow. “Come again?” She asked, blinking a few times.

Saurva laughed again, spreading his wings wide enough to reveal glimmering embers in its mass, though they were very faint. Then, a horn appeared on his forehead as he took flight, “Once I’m finished with you two, I can have all the freedom I want!”

Stella took that as an immediate threat as she took to the skies as well. Loretta followed suit, a small purple void levitating next to her.

Saurva launched himself at the pegasus, expecting an easy adversary. Stella rushed above and then behind him, her blade now in her front hooves and glittering with a green glow.

The dirt-covered stallion turned around just in time to see a purple feather fall down to the ground, and a strange, crescent-moon-shaped aura hovering in the air. It radiated a sinister wavy energy in the bow of this moon. He turned around once more and found another crescent hovering frighteningly close to his muzzle. He then glanced at his sides, and found two more.

He was surrounded, but only from four sides. The things didn’t move at all, and then he looked up--

“Hurricane!” Stella cried, suddenly appearing above Saurva and slashing the air before her with her sword. A green energy shot forth and suddenly rushed at the alicorn, hitting him square in the face and sending him tumbling a ways down.

He landed onto his hooves, albeit awkwardly. He felt a warm substance trickle down his muzzle and dripping off his chin. He opened one eye--

“Crescent moon!” Stella shrieked once more, and only then did the still-hovering energies respond. They began spinning rapidly as if they were boomerangs and, one by one, lunged at him with haste. He dodged the first three, only for the fourth to slice off the bare tip of his horn.

“A pegasus who can teleport? Impossible!” Saurva hissed accusingly as he rose into the air again. The aura emanating from his wings changed from a soft, faint fire to a faint, grey mist.

Stella spat, “When has the lack of a horn stopped me?”

“And for my lack of wings?” Loretta added, appearing behind the alicorn with her horn aglow. Saurva turned, scowling at the green mare who was levitating herself with her own magic. His own horn came to life, a white glow emanating around it.

He fired the bolt of energy at the mare, only for it to be met with a shield of ice that shattered upon impact. He growled and rushed at Loretta. Right when his hoof would’ve met with her face to wipe that smug smile off of her muzzle, she vanished into thin air, re-appearing next to her sister.

Before the siblings was a large, dark purple void. And coming from it was a head whose muzzle was like a dragon, but it had the mane of a lion.

The entire thing was made of ice.

Saurva fired another magic bolt at the beast, and it shattered into a million or so pieces before another quickly took its place. He fired another bolt of energy, and the same exact thing happened. Now, he was getting irritated.

“An alicorn who knows the lowest level of all magic…” Stella sighed before bursting out laughing, “I’ve seen skeletons do better than you!”

“There are none better than I!” Saurva protested as he slayed another ice creature and found that replaced in two seconds flat.

“Mmm, perhaps in the thug department. Sadly, that’s about it!” Loretta chimed in, also joining her sister in the laughter fest.

Saurva was getting even more irritated. “You know nothing, you disease-ridden, bastardized bitch!”

In that very instant Loretta was right up in his face, her eyes blood red and glimmering with hate. “Say what?” She hissed, her body shaking from the anger she was undergoing.

Loretta’s front hooves grabbed Saurva by the face, “SAY THAT AGAIN?” She hissed even louder now, her muzzle inches from his.

Stella flew up and stopped behind the stallion, grabbing his horn with one front hoof. Her sword was very carefully moved to the very base of the appendage.

Saurva opened his mouth to protest, only to scream in pain as his horn was sliced off of his forehead and quickly jammed into his throat. At first, it was coherent and deafening, but after a few seconds, all that could escape his throat were horrendous gurgling sounds as blood pooled into his mouth.

A voice faintly, oh so faintly, muttered “Oh, this idiot just made a huge error…”

The body of Saurva went limp, and Stella skewered it onto her sword and motioned for Loretta to let go. The green unicorn complied, watching her sister wheel above in the sky for a little bit before the body rocketed off her blade and was sent into a building, shattering a window in the process.

The sisters then descended, their hooves once more touching the ground as they stared at the remaining bandits. The group of wingless, hornless stallions stared at them in a mixture of hate and horror, and they dashed away into an alley before their screams echoed from a short distance.

“I’m not helping those bastards.” Stella commented, shaking her head.

“Let’s let bygones be bygones.” Loretta agreed, her eyes returning to their normal hue. They then turned to what it was the bandits had cornered: around ten ponies--two unicorns, one pegasus, and the rest earthlings--huddled in utter fear, clearly trying to get away from the maniacs that stood before them.

The sisters exchanged glances again, and Stella sheathed her weapon securely under her wing.

“M-minions of Tirek…” Murmured one of the earth ponies, a young dark orange filly with freckles and a straight, streaked magenta mane.

Loretta’s ears twitched. “Who is Tirek?” She asked, blinking a few times.

A mysterious voice then replied, “Tirek is a demon-like being from Equestria’s ancient past and he has the ability to drain pony magic and add it to his own. Pegasi cannot fly, unicorns cannot use magic, and earth ponies cannot till the land.”

Loretta turned around, seeing another unicorn mare looking at her. She had a light orange coat with a streaked mane of fiery red and shimmering yellow, but her eyes were grey and she lacked a cutie mark.

Stella also turned around to see the strange unicorn. “And who might you be?”

“My name is Sunset Shimmer.” Replied the mare, no discernable expression on her face. “I still wonder how you can fly and use magic…” She added, glancing between the sisters.

“You mentioned Tirek being able to drain ponies of their magic? Well, the short answer is we simply have yet to run into him.” Stella commented, blinking a few times.

“Yes. He can even wield alicorn magic, should he get his hands on it…” Sunset replied, stoic as ever.

“Hands…? HE HAS HANDS?” Loretta asked, shaking her head in disbelief before letting her jaw drop.

“Now that I think about it, I want my fingers back…..” Stella scowled, eyes narrowing low again.

“Wait a second did you two go through the mirror as well?!” Sunset asked, eyes wide as bewilderment took over.

“More like a magic portrait. Twilight told us of her experience…” Stella answered, ears flat against her skull.

“Same effect nonetheless…” Loretta added, her ears twitching.”

“Just wondering, did you have to deal with what we had to? …I never want to see a medusa head again…” Stella asked, looking at Sunset.

The unicorn shook her head. “ I have never heard of those until recently… and most certainly not in the human realm.” She then rose a hoof to point at the sky, and the sisters looked up to see small, flying shapes hovering in a zig-zag pattern. “If those flying heads up there are what you speak of, I suggest not flying too high…”

“Father has told us a theory of how they came to be…. according to him, Leon Belmont killed Medusa and the heads are tiny pieces of the Medusa…” Loretta murmured before returning her attention to Sunset.

Sunset raised an eyebrow and said,  “Leon Belmont, I have not heard of him before…. can you explain?”

The ground began to shake as a giant, green serpent with red eyes fly into the air before landing head-first in the concrete. It then emerged between Sunset and the sisters before coiling up. The snake head then morphed into the shape of a mare’s upper body, with snakes in place of a mane. A horn was on her forehead, and golden bangles decorated her front legs. She was looking at the sisters, though her eyes were closed.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the two annoying daughters of Eric Lecarde…. Master Dracula always hated your line due to the ties to the Belmont clan…. “ She chuckled, her voice having a serious demonic undertone to it as she spoke, “now I can actually kill you two children of vampire hunters!” She then laughed evilly before retracting one foreleg back. That foreleg morphed into a serpentine head, mouth wide open and revealing four sharp daggers for teeth.

She then lunged at Loretta with frightening haste. The unicorn teleported out of the way, only to find a most terrible sight: the snake clamped down on Stella’s midsection, an audible cracking present as the pegasus shrieked in pain. She was then hoisted in the air, thrown upwards, grabbed by the tail, spun around like a lasso a few times, and then sent careening off quite a ways to another part of the city.

“Just what the hay is that thing?! You explain!” Sunset shrieked, motioning for her fellow ponies to flee for cover.

“As much as I hate to admit it, that was….Medusa…” Loretta answered, pausing briefly before continuing, “Apparently, from what I can tell from her energy, the vampire Brauner brought her back to life…”

Medusa turned around in a second, her muzzle and snake-mane inches away from Loretta’s body. Loretta calmly stared down the beast for mere seconds before her eyes went blood red once more.

“I sense anger boiling in your wretched blood.” Medusa hissed, chuckling a little bit. “No matter--I can take care of your worthless slut of a sister later.”

“.... WHAT DID YOU SAY? YOU….YOU ARE….” Loretta heaved, gritting her teeth as she charged another spell. Her body trembled and her hooves moved upwards until they were above her head. Bits of ice began collecting into a single point before expanding into a much more sinister shape.

A gargantuan sword.

“What the heck? Even before Tirek drained me…. I could have never casted something like that!!!” Sunset protested as she and the other ponies watched the monster and unicorn.

“You are weak, little slut. As weak as your father and his stupid magic…. though I doubt he was able to teach you a spell only he could muster.” Medusa taunted, a grin plastered on her muzzle.

“I promised my sister I would be strong...and I will carry out that promise!….. As for the spell you are talking about….. was it his time stop spell?!” Loretta almost cried before she brought her sword down onto the monster, who dodged with ease. The ice shattered onto the walkway, scattering into a million or so pieces.

Medusa put her hooves to her face, almost as if she were sobbing. Instead, she laughed and from her mane emerged more medusa heads, all of which were the color of gold. They came out of the mane at an alarming rate, about one hundred or so per second.

The newly-formed heads soon danced in the air like fireflies before making a drilling formation that homed right onto the green unicorn, who had another purple void before her.

The drill formation had been met with a sudden cold flurry of snow and ice that seemed to have been wrought by some kind of demon. As the snowflakes left the portal, they became larger and sharper, spinning almost as if they were crosses while they sliced, diced, and impaled the medusa heads without warning.

“I’ve never seen magic like that!”  Said a unicorn stallion who was watching the battle unfold into sheer chaos.

Medusa removed her hooves from her face and began swirling around the buildings as if she had wings, her massive lower quarters following in perfect sync. She circled three buildings before going into the skies once more, hoping to crash into Loretta and smear her into the ground like a rotten tomato. Loretta teleported out of the way once more before giving chase as the snake-mare rose up and circled more buildings.

This time, however, she coiled her body around one building and squeezed it until it snapped in two. She then moved over to another building, dragging with her the massive chunk she recently created. Her tail moved up and around, letting go of the pile of rubble and letting it crash into Loretta, which knocked her clean out of the air and into some more jagged concrete.

The green unicorn winced and teleported out from under the rubble, only to find Medusa hurling another chunk of the city at her.