Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

Chapter 20: A Chaotic Playground

Stella groaned in pain, a massive aching sensation assaulting her head and sides from the horrific impact. Her vision was blurry, though it was becoming clear again.

“Hey! Are you okay?” Shouted a young voice.

Stella groaned again and forced herself into a sitting position, her sword clattering next to her as her wings fell limp.

“I think my wings are broken… and my ribs are bruised, but at least they are not broken...” She sighed despondently, picking up her sword with her mouth as she shakily rose up to all fours.

“But, anyway, who are you?” Asked the young voice, and it was then Stella saw a dark orange filly running towards her--the same one from the crowd. The filly looked at the mare, seeing that she was quite roughed up by the landing.

Stella looked at the filly before raising a hoof...only to find herself falling down in an embarrassing kneeling position.

“I may not be a doctor, but…. clearly you need to rest…” The filly sighed, gently tugging the sword from Stella’s mouth with her hooves.

“I...won’t rest….until this entire mess...is sorted out!” Stella barked, trying to rise up once more and fall onto her side embarrassingly.

“This is just so creepy….” The filly said before helping the wounded pegasus onto her wobbly hooves.

“I dare not make a comment…” Stella sighed, the pain becoming more unbearable with each passing second.

“Can you walk, miss?” The filly asked, distraught at the sight of massive holes neatly dotting the mare’s body. Stella attempted to move her legs, only to fall over yet again rather clumsily.

It was then that, for some unknown reason, a soft white aura bathed the pegasus. She winced in pain at first, but eventually relaxed at the bruises went away. Then, the puncture wounds closed and the bleeding stopped.

“Oooh that light is pretty ,” Commented the filly, who watched in awe as the wings spread as if receiving some kind of special attention. Some feathers were carefully plucked out and new ones grew in their place.

On short notice, the aura ended. Stella groaned before forcing herself into a sitting position, and her ears immediately perked up. She blinked with wide eyes and quickly scanned her surroundings, making sure to not panic in the process. In one particular alley, she could’ve sworn she had seen something shift in the shadows, as if moving out of sight.

“I feel...much better.” Stella said at last before returning her sight to the filly. “So, uh...you asked me who I was, right?”

The filly nodded. “My name’s Babs Seed.”

“I’m Stella Lecarde. Pleasure to meet you….though not as much thereof, considering the circumstances in which we met…” The pegasus replied, returning her sword in her hooves.

“I agree… I just hope my cousin Applebloom is okay…”

“She is alright. Just being babysat, that’s all.” Stella sighed, still remembering when the earth pony asked one of her friends how reproduction works or something of the sort.

“Whew. I’m glad she’s alright.” Babs said, smiling.

Stella took another glance at the immediate surroundings. “Let’s just get the flying hell out of here. I’m already roughed up as is, and I’m pretty sure you can’t hold your own in a fight.” She commented dryly before standing on her hind legs. It felt really awkward in the equine form she was stuck with, and had to revert to all fours and the hilt of a weapon in her mouth.

“Ummm, perhaps I can help…. I found out some of the zombies are weak to holy salt and…. I made some ammo?” Babs stated, though rather nervously, as she pulled out a Y-shaped piece of wood with a thick, lengthy rubber band tied between the prongs with her hooves from a saddlebag she had.

Stella arched an eyebrow at the rather inferior weapon, but soon shrugged it off. Perhaps Babs could prove her wrong with that flimsy thing.

“Stella, there’s a zombie at ten o’clock behind you!” Babs cried, rising onto her own hind legs and loading a simple rock into the rubber. She pulled it back with her mouth, then let go. The pegasus turned around just in time to see half a zombie pony’s face literally fly off of its head from the impact of the rock that was fired.

The pegasus blinked in surprise as the zombie still lurched its way towards her before the other side of its head was sent rocketing off in the opposite direction thanks to another rock. Only then did the abomination land pitifully on its side, even more body parts splaying out in all sorts of wonky directions from the impact.

“Ick.” Babs sighed, putting her weapon in her maw before reverting to all fours. Stella nodded in agreement before both noticed a part of a building flying overhead them. It crashed into another building and toppled it in mere moments.

Flying away from that new wreckage and towards the two ponies was a brown shape that soon landed right where the zombie was. It looked like a chest with the cover torn off, and splayed within were several bottles of varying sizes that all contained a strange, blue liquid within.

“What are those blue things….? They look like… the stuff adults drink at hospitals.” Babs wondered aloud, trotting over to the anomaly after putting away her slingshot.

Stella sheathed her sword in her wing. “Healing medicine. May as well take the whole chest. If we find any injured ponies they will be needing some.” The pegasus remarked before loading all of the bottles into Babs’ saddlebag, careful to select the bigger bottles first.

“Why are some of them smaller?” Babs asked, frowning a bit.

“Well, different ponies require different dosages of this...er, drug. It can heal wounds both great and small, but I once had too much and…that wasn’t very fun.” Stella answered, feeling a bit of pain returning in her sword-carrying wing. She took a small bottle and drank its contents in two seconds.

Babs’ jaw dropped open as more of Stella’s injured flesh began to rapidly recover, though not quite that of when that mysterious aura bathed her earlier.

“See what I mean?” The pegasus asked as she put the bottle in the saddlebag.

“What happens if anypony drinks too much?” Babs asked worriedly.

“Whole list of nasties. Let’s see, you cannot move for a while, most of your body drops numb, you see things that aren’t there, and your senses become so slurred it takes three weeks to remember what happened. In the case of a young pony like yourself, death or a coma. Don’t do what I did--drink three huge bottles of the stuff in one seating.” The pegasus answered grimly, tensing up at the thought.

“Yikes…. thats scary so how much is safe then?” Babs questioned.

“A small bottle to a medium-small glass at best, depending on what it was that had transpired.” The pegasus replied, now frowning.

“But what about the huge ones?”

“Those are to be used solely for immediate emergency...if only I had a bottle of the stuff for one of my friends earlier…” Stella sighed before she and Babs witnessed a giant, long shape fly overhead whilst emitting the most horrible hissing sounds she ever heard.

“It’s that big monster again!” Babs wailed upon seeing the shape coil around a building.

“Oh great, it’s Medusa again…. but I don’t recall her having a horn….?” Stella commented, scratching her head with a hoof. Only now did she see the snake-mare’s horn, and it was visibly crackling with some strange aura.

Medusa hissed once more, flinging huge chunks of buildings in the sky with her tail as if at random. But when Babs and Stella saw a green blur flinging giant shards of ice in response as it dodged the oversized debris, they knew that a different story was taking place before them.

Medusa brought her hooves to her face, then flung them downward as her eyes opened to reveal blood red voids glimmering like rubies.

“DON’T LOOK AT HER!” Stella wailed, shielding both herself and Babs with her wings, making sure to cover both sets of eyes thoroughly.

“PETRIFY, YOU HIDEOUS WORM!!” Medusa cried as her eyes shot a translucent, sparkling grey beam that lasted for two seconds. Her eyes swiftly closed back to a complacent, almost serene look as her snake-mane writhed as if acting very much like her eyes.

“Excuse you?!” Cried another feminine voice that sounded rather annoyed by the gorgon’s comment, “Just who are you calling a worm?!”

Medusa grinned before bursting out in a fit of laughter that revealed sharp fangs caked in glistening blood. She then lunged at the owner of the voice quick as a whip and both forelegs bearing fanged heads. Stella closed her wings and looked up. Babs looked up as well, and both saw a giant blade of ice slice away the gorgon’s horn clean off the forehead.

Medusa shrieked and threw her body against more buildings before falling onto the ground, writhing pitifully in pain. It was then that a green form with a purple tail descended onto the ruined walkway.

Babs hid behind Stella in fear. “T-that mare scares me!” She cried frantically.

“I can see why.” Stella replied, her tone a little sad, “But she’s still my younger sister. I’m willing to bet it’s the equine hormones and instincts taking effect.”

“She’s your sister?” Babs asked, eyes widening in shock.

“Mhm. To be blunt, we are twins.” Stella nodded, trotting over to the green form who turned around.

‘Hmmm, I guess it’s true. They have the same mane color…’ Babs thought, ears twitching. ‘From what I heard, there is a unicorn filly and pegasus colt that are also twins...’

“You’re alright!” Loretta cried, rushing in and almost jumping on her sister as the two embraced in a hug.

“Of course I am. I’m tougher than I look.” Stella replied, breaking the hug with a nervous grin on her face.

Loretta put her hooves to her head and scrunched her eyes shut. She groaned in pain and began shaking a little bit. “Ngh…..I should’ve been aware of how much I strained myself earlier…” She complained, now gritting her teeth.

A loud rumbling sound was heard as Medusa once again rose up as if to fight again, but not without serious wounds visible. A strange liquid poured from where her horn was, and it was glowing a soft teal.

“Is that…” Medusa stopped, coughing up a little bit of blood before continuing, “All you… ugh, got, you…” She coughed again, this time expelling more blood, “worthless whore?”

The sisters turned to the gorgon. Babs did as well.

“Ugh… I can’t use anymore magic… I used the last of my strength there…” Loretta hissed, once more rubbing her head with a hoof. “But if that has ended you, which it should’ve by now, then I am amazed you are still ready to fight.”

“Hey, would any of those blue potion thingies we found earlier help her?” Babs asked Stella worriedly, looking at her saddlebag.

“No. We need a red variant; the blue ones would only serve to heal her flesh wounds.” Stella replied before noticing something very off about Medusa: namely, her bangles were now a dull silver in color.

“Gwahahahaha! I will always come back with my Master. One day, I will best you in--what is this?!” Medusa wailed, her eyelids scrunched worse than they usually were. Her mane of snakes turned grey and cracked as if becoming stone.

“Well… well, well… I see you do have impressive magic… but for some odd reason, I can’t steal it. Though, in this case, I may as well kill you using the power I just stole from the stupid vessel I’m inside of at the moment. She honestly thought eating me would kill me…. the fool I slowly steal the life force from. It results in my restoration by summoning and creating a new body.” Said a deep, male voice whose owner seemed to have possess the gorgon.

Then, Medusa began flailing about once more, though she didn’t cause as much damage this time around considering the fact that she was weakened from the fall. “You will not control me!” She hissed, the tip of her lengthy tail already turning to stone.

“Oh no!” Cried a female voice as Sunset Shimmer arrived in a mad gallop, skidding to a halt next to Babs. “Tirek lives!”

“Pitiful fool. If only you had more magic than what you have now!” Boomed the male voice that once more possessed Medusa briefly.

“YOU WILL NOT--AAAAAAUAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!” Medusa shrieked, throwing her entire torso upwards as her body rapidly turned to stone which soon crumbled and turned to dust under it’s own weight.

“Oh my goodness, that was the worst death of any living being I’ve seen yet!” Cried another female voice, which caused the eyes of the mares and filly to turn to an alleyway. Galloping towards them with a bottle that housed red liquid which was levitating alongside her was Rarity, and she looked absolutely aghast at the sheer sight of the dust that was once Medusa. “Are you alright?!”

“Better than being dead, yes, but not in the most perfect condition.” Stella answered, noticing that the mare had been breathing hard as if she had been running for some time.

“I was told to hand this to Loretta.” Rarity sighed, now sitting on her haunches as her magic carried the bottle to the green unicorn who soon drank its contents greedily.

“Who was it that informed you of our whereabouts?” Stella questioned, trying to comprehend why Rarity would bring her sister a potion.

“It was--” Rarity started, only to look up and gape in utter terror. Stella, Loretta, and Babs turned around and soon found what it was that the white unicorn had been so terrified of.

The creature had a whole horse-like body that was jet-black with a grey mane and hooves. Instead of a head, there was a bulky upper body decorated in black armor that concealed blood red skin. Arms that had more muscle than one hundred stallions bore silver bangles and ended in five human-like digits.

The face was like that of a monkey’s, and a grey beard and mane was present. The eyes were golden irises and black sclera, and there were demonic horns on the head which were curved, shot upwards, and ended at a tapered point.

“So, my little ponies,” Asked the beast, a scarlet aura morphing into a ball between his horns as he glared at the group, “Who is it that I shall have the honor of killing first?”