Castlevania: Portrait of Chaos

Chapter Three: Well, That Went Well (Not!)

“Do you have any meat? My crow needs to be fed.” Charlotte asked, holding the red bird in her forelegs. It had tried attacking Fluttershy’s animals and she had no choice but to intervene.

Fluttershy responded with, “Well….Mister Bear does enjoy fish every so often, so I always keep a few fish on hoof for him, would that suffice, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Pretty much any meat would do. Crows are natural scavengers.” Charlotte replied with a smile, still clutching the crow tightly.

Jonathan sat on the couch and yawned. He felt rather sleepy, though he did try his hardest to stay awake. Jonathan bent over and fell over the couch before landed on his rump with a thud. He quickly scrambled onto his hooves and shook his head, grunting in annoyance.

Rainbow began laughing at the poor stallion, pointing one hoof at him and hitting the other on the floor repeatedly.

“Oh, ha, ha. Very funny.” Jonathan snorted, ears flat as he glared at the mare. “Wait till your wings get broken, and then we’ll see who has the last laugh.”

Fluttershy had returned with a basket of small trout. She set it down and took the crow from Charlotte’s hooves. It was perched on the basket. It’s beak opened and it pecked hungrily at the fish, tearing bits of flesh off as it used its claws to hold the meal in place.

“Well, he sure seems happy.” Fluttershy said, turning away from the crow and back to Charlotte.

“Yeah. After this meal he’ll probably be asleep.” Charlotte replied, a cheeky grin on her face.

Rainbow trotted over to Jonathan, who began tripping over his hooves.

“You, me, sky race.” She said tauntingly.

“Race you in the sky? How about no?” Jonathan replied, standing up and shooting the rainbow-maned egotistical pony another glare.

“No wonder Charlotte didn’t date you. You’re a wimp.” Rainbow chimed, a grin quickly widening on her muzzle.

Upon hearing that, Charlotte blushed and her eyes went wide. “E-excuse me?” She stammered, trying to pretend she had absolutely not paid any attention to the derogatory remark.

“If I’m a wimp, then you prey on the weak.” Jonathan said, staring right into Rainbow’s soul with the glare he cast. “And to prey on the weak was never in your agenda, right?” He asked, about two seconds and another word from giving her a broken nose.

Again, Rainbow was yanked away by Twilight, who was getting more irritated by the second. And this time, a zipper appeared in place of the cocky pegasus’s mouth, thus sealing it for once.

“Halle-freaking-lujah!” Charlotte exclaimed, pointing the accusing hoof at Rainbow. “‘Bout time she shut up!”

Rainbow cast a glare at the unicorn. She tried speaking, but because of the zipper, her words were muffled gibberish.

“Rainbow, quit the holier-than-thou act.” Twilight scorned, still holding the pegasus in a tight magical grip.

The crow finished eating three whole trout and yawned. It flew over to Charlotte’s head, perched on it, and promptly went to sleep.

“Apparently, I am now a walking nesting ground.” Charlotte said, looking upwards and cross-eyed at the same time so she could see the crow.

“Do you want us to show you around the nearby town?” Twilight asked, sighing.

“It’s a really nice place called Ponyville.” Fluttershy added, a smile on her face.

“Sure, why not? At any rate, it’s better than sitting around all day doing nothing but argue and talk.” Jonathan said, stretching his wings.

“And besides, we need to get used to our new bodies anyway. The more the merrier, as even I couldn’t care less.” Charlotte chimed, beaming with a smile.

“Before we go, Fluttershy, could you get our guests a saddlebag each?” Twilight asked, turning to the yellow pegasus.

The pegasus nodded, and quickly trotted into another room. The sounds of things being shuffled through sounded soon after. It wasn’t long until the mare returned, and she put the saddlebags on the guests herself, who promptly loaded cross and book into their respective one.

“Thanks, Fluttershy.” Said the duo with wide, friendly grins.

“You’re welcome.” Fluttershy replied. She, Twilight, and Rainbow went out the door, followed by the two strange ponies.

The walk wasn’t that long, only lasting about ten minutes at best. Jonathan had finally gotten the bare ropes of how ponies walked (after tripping over his own hooves a total of fifteen times, and an extra five because of rocks along the way) and was able to keep up.

The band of five had stopped at a gathering crowd that was whispering worriedly. They were murmuring incomprehensibly, though Charlotte did manage to catch the words ‘stallion with a bottle and book for a cutie mark’ or something like that.

“Everypony, could you please let us through?” Twilight shouted, taking to the skies and causing the gathering to disperse a little with haste.

“But this stallion fell from the sky and he’s hurt!” Shouted one mare, trying not to cry.

“I’ll take care of it! Please, go about your daily business!” Twilight answered quickly, soaring down and landing in the middle of where the crowd was.

The crowd had began to disperse even further. Some went north, some south, some east and hardly any to the west.

And there, in front of the alicorn was indeed a stallion. He laid on his side, still fidgeting a bit in pain. His coat was a darkened tan, and his mane--which, mind you, made him look like he was wearing a mushroom made out of hair on his head--was a dulled, dark brown that was beginning to show subtle hints of aging. He had a bit of a beard stubble on his chin. His cutie mark was a bible and a small pint-sized bottle of holy water.

“Vincent…?” Jonathan and Charlotte asked simultaneously as their jaws physically dropped open.

Charlotte felt another headache--no, a magic surge--arriving once more. The injured pony was bathed in a soft, white aura and, much to the shock of Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rainbow, the bruises he’d sustained went away in a matter of seconds.

The stallion opened his eyes, which were the color of the earth. He looked up and saw that he was surrounded by precisely five strange beings, two of which had horns on their heads and one of the horned beings having a bird perched on its head.

Instantly, his eyes widened, and he glanced at the being with a bird on its head and the red being.

“Oh my goodness! You two are safe!” He exclaimed, shifting his forelegs so that he could hoist himself up off of the ground. He raised his hooves and pulled Jonathan and Charlotte into a hug. “You’re safe! Everyone was so worried about you two!” At this point, he might as well have been crying tears of joy.

The duo returned the hug.

“Vincent, you know we can hold our own in a fight. You really shouldn’t be that worried about us.” Jonathan said with a sigh.

“Oh, Vincent. It’s gotten all sorts of crazy here. With you here, I can say it makes it a little more tolerable.” Charlotte added, smiling.

They broke the hug, and Vincent could now see exactly what Charlotte had meant with that statement.

“Everyone is a bunch of horses, you two included?” He asked, slack-jawed.

“PONIES.” Everyone quickly corrected at once.

“Ah. Well, both families are related.” Vincent was quick to point out, a smile overcoming his shocked look. “Besides, I never could tell the difference anyway.”

“He seems to be fine now.” Twilight sighed, sitting on her haunches.

“As long as he’s alright, I’m happy.” Jonathan said, patting his fellow stallion on the back with a hoof.

Charlotte walked to Jonathan and nudged him with a hoof before pointing said hoof to the other three mares present. “Ahem.” She pseudo-coughed.

“Oh. Right.” Jonathan sighed. He pointed a hoof at the three mares, causing Vincent to look at them. “You see those three mares?” He asked.

Vincent nodded quickly. He saw them clear as day.

“Well, the yellow one is Fluttershy. She found us in a forest we landed in.” Jonathan said.

“U-um, hello.” Fluttershy said, nodding.

Vincent promptly waved.

“The one with the rainbow mane is Rainbow Dash. She and I had a bit of a fight, so if she starts running her mouth and I end up snapping at her, you know why.”

Rainbow was trying to remove the damn zipper on her lips with her hooves. She was failing horribly at it.

Now, the hoof was pointing at the purple horned pony. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle. She says she’s an alicorn princess, but, to be blunt, she really doesn’t look the part aside from that small crown on her head.”

“Does she rule with an iron hoof?” Vincent asked, sounding worried.

“No, she doesn’t. Now, I’m only going by what I heard here, so pardon me for any misunderstandings. I heard that there are three other princesses, two of which raise the sun and moon. The third is basically somewhere else with her husband and…..yeah, I think I’ll shut up now.”

“It’s more or less a democracy around here, with four princesses acting as the head honchos of the government.” Charlotte said, grinning. “And we happen to be looking at one of them right over there. And don’t be Rainbow Dash.” She warned with a nod.

Vincent began rambling on and on about being saved from his vampirism. It would’ve drawn quite the crowd had Charlotte not clamped both of her hooves onto his muzzle and gave him the “shut up, for crying out loud” glare. The stallion quickly complied.

At hearing the word vampirism, Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

“He rambles just like you do, Rainbow. Heed him no mind.” Charlotte said with a frantic nod. She let go of his muzzle.

All of a sudden, a loud sound was heard. It was best described as another cacophony of screams, this time coming from three young voices, most likely girls.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, ABORT MISSION! WE’RE GONNA CRASH INTO THAT MARE!”

Charlotte felt another surge. A pony’s head with a mane of living snakes appeared in front of her and its reptilian eyes stared straight into those of Vincent. Just like that, he became nothing short of stone.

And then three small ponies crashed straight into Charlotte’s backside, forcing her face into the ground. This caused the crow to wake up and hastily fly to Jonathan’s head, cawing the entire time in the process.

“Oh no, Charlotte! You accidentally summoned a Medusa head!!!” Jonathan shrieked, eyes wide and ears flat. Fluttershy was wondering what a Medusa head was. Twilight currently was studying the magic of the Medusa head in the book that flew out of Charlotte’s saddlebag. “It turns anything who looks into its eyes into a solid rock.” Twilight then asked Jonathan, “Where did Charlotte get a spell like that?!” She gasped, her horn lighting up as she sifted through the pages for a cure.

“She finds all sorts of weird spells! I won’t answer because I swear she tied me up once!” He replied, wings spread wide. While this happened, Rainbow Dash finally got the zipper off and started beating the flank of the Medusa head, which soon dissipated in a cloud of dust.

The small ponies got off of the unicorn mare, who stood up and cast them a scornful glare.

Rainbow, however, got into Charlotte’s muzzle and demanded to know what the buck that thing was.

The unicorn pushed her away with a hoof. “No time for that. We deal with this current problem.” She scorned, pointing to three fillies. One was yellow with gold eyes and a red mane that had a pink bow in it, the second was white with green eyes, a horn, and a dual-toned mane of light purple and pink that was curled. The third was orange with a magenta mane and irises to match, and she had wings.

Rainbow turned to the fillies. “Are you saying that it’s their fault that you summoned that thing?”

“No, I’m saying it’s their fault my face was in the ground, rendering me unable to fix Vincent’s condition.” Charlotte hissed, shaking some dirt off of her face.

Twilight’s horn flared up, and the petrified stallion was bathed in a soft purple glow. Bits of stone began breaking off, revealing that tan pelt beneath. After a little bit, the stone broke off, and Vincent breathed a sigh of utter relief.

“What just happened?” He asked, taking notice of Charlotte approaching three fillies who were backing away from her.

The mare was pulled away with an aura of purple surrounding her body. Twilight quickly saw the fillies and scoffed.

“Oh. I see. Carry on.” She said, putting Charlotte down to let her punish the fillies.

Her horn began glowing again, indicating that another magic surge was about to happen.

“I. Am. Going. To. Make. You. Pay.” Charlotte hissed. “All be still!” She cried as her horn released its surge, and this time, everything else had stopped. No movement.

Charlotte, of course, was the only one unaffected by this. She grabbed the three fillies by their manes and quickly set to work.

The unicorn filly’s mane became much like that of Twilight’s own, the wingless and hornless one had a mane similar to that of the pegasus filly, and said pegasus filly’s mane was messed up to hell and back as if birds made a nest in it.

Time resumed. Charlotte crossed her forelegs and grinned, waiting for the naughty foals to notice her foul handiwork.

They looked at each other and screamed nothing short of pitiful wails fueled by horror.

“What just happened...again?” Vincent asked, noticing the fillies’ new hairstyles.

“You used the Time Stop spell that Eric gave you, didn’t you?” Jonathan asked, trying not to sound too harsh on the mare.

Charlotte nodded, a wicked grin plastered all over her muzzle.

“You need to teach me some of your magic!” Twilight exclaimed in awe.

“Jonathan, Charlotte?” Vincent asked.

Both ponies looked at him, and Charlotte’s demonic smile faded into a frown. “Yes?”

“I’m wondering if you two have yet to get together as boyfriend and girlfriend.” Vincent said, somehow keeping a straight face as he spoke those words.