• Published 12th Oct 2014
  • 20,627 Views, 1,660 Comments

You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter - Tatsurou



The Ghost of Sparta has his hands full raising the Element of Laughter.

  • ...
28
 1,660
 20,627

Changes

As Kratos took his new throne on Olympus, Fluffy and Leonidas curled up on either side of the throne, panting happily. Calliope walked around, examining the new surroundings. After a time, Pinkie bounced up happily. Glancing around, her eyes suddenly popped. "Sis!" she said happily. "I think I can keep my promise to you now!"

Calliope turned to her. "Promise?" she asked, confused. With everything that had happened, the conversation Pinkie was referring to had slipped her mind.

"To get you a flesh and blood body!" Pinkie said happily. "Can I try, Zeusy? Please?" She gave Zeus her cutest begging pout.

Zeus struggled not to laugh. "While I would happily give permission for the attempt, matters of life and death are my brother Hades' domain. It is up to him."

"Hadey-wadey!" Pinkie called out happily. "Can I? Please?"

A somewhat wicked sounding laugh echoed. "Oh, let's talk about that, shall we?" Black smoke pooled on the ground, and an unfamiliar figure rose out of it.

His hair gradiated from dark red to palest green. His skin was blue, crisscrossed with red lines. His eyes were black pools with red dots in the center. His garb seemed to be made of a blue liquid which - like his skin - seemed to be in a state of flux between dissolving and reforming. Claws tipped each finger and toe. A rather creepy grin adorned his face.

"Mmm, so what was it you needed again, Pinkie?" he asked, his voice echoing.

Gods and mortals alike stared at the apparition before them. Kratos was the first to speak. "I take it Persephone has awakened?"

"Oh yes, Kratos," Hades replied happily. "You were right about dear Sephy having her own opinions about my look and attitude, and I must say I just love her tastes." He shivered happily all over. "So dramatic and wicked! Oh, and when she gets excited...well, maybe I shouldn't talk about that in front of your daughters. They're still mortal, after all...as far as we know."

Zeus finally spoke up. "Brother, your new look is the second creepiest thing I've ever seen."

"Only the second?" Hades complained. "What could possibly be-"

"Pinkie Pie in her rampage," Zeus interrupted.

"Oh, yes, that would be hard to top, wouldn't it?" Hades admitted. "Well, you can't win them all." He turned to Pinkie. "So you want to give Calliope a flesh and blood body again?"

"Yeppers!" Pinkie said happily, having decided that - as creepy as he looked now - Hades was still a friend. "So can I? Please?"

Hades' grin widened. "With a few provisos, I don't see the problem."

Pinkie tilted her head. "Provisos?" she asked, confused.

"Just a couple of little somethings Sephy and I would like in return," he promised. "That's fair, right?"

"Sure!" Pinkie agreed. "What would you like?"

"Oh, we both would oh so love to finally have a taste of your warm, moist, delicious cupcake," Hades purred, licking his lips.

Pinkie backed away a little nervously. "I-I need an adult," she stammered.

Hades laughed. "Oh dear, sweet Pinkie...I am an adult. But why would you need one?"

Aphrodite, sitting nearby, facepalmed. "Pinkie," she spoke up, "as naughty as that request sounded, I don't think it was innuendo. Have Hades or Persephone had any of your cupcakes yet?"

Pinkie scratched her chin, then gasped. "Ooooh!" she said as realization struck her. "Why didn't you just say so?" Pulling out two cupcakes, she handed them to the God of the Dead. "By the way, how's the Overworld home coming?" she asked.

"I hired the Pathos family to build it, once Persephone was awake to tell them what to build," Hades admitted. "Architecture isn't exactly my area of expertise." He put one cupcake away in the folds of his robes, taking a bite of the other. He then let out a rather creepy moan of pleasure. "Oh, I so see what you mean, Artemis! I think I just did, too!" Artemis turned bright red, turning her face away. This only made Hades chuckle wickedly. "Oh, dear Sephy was so right. Making the rest of you squirm uncomfortably is so much fun! A much better revenge."

"Revenge?" Zeus asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, just because Sephy's happy with me now doesn't mean she doesn't still want to get back at the rest of you for making her stay with me," Hades explained. "Just because she's happy doesn't mean she's logical."

As Hades was speaking to the other gods, Pinkie had gotten to work. Pulling an ancient, rune inscribed tome from her mane, she had been reading through it as she drew a circle on the floor. Occasionally she mumbled something about "bad translations" or "missing ingredients". After a time, she finished drawing the circle. "Daddy!" she called out. "I need your blood!"

That got everyone's attention. Kratos, however, had learned long ago not to question Pinkie. Stepping up to the circle, he drew one of the Blades of Athena as he held out his other arm.

"Not too much!" Pinkie called out. "I'm gonna need to match however much you put in with an equal amount of mine!"

Nodding, Kratos cut his hand only, letting a trickle of blood into the center of the circle.

Pinkie cut her hoof, letting an equal amount of her own blood into the circle. The blood mixed and shaped a runic circle within the runic circle. "Okay sis! Stand in the center circle!"

Confused, Calliope clanked into the center of the circle. Alchemic energy surged, and the circle exploded.

"Don't worry!" Pinkie called out. "That was supposed to happen!"

As the smoke cleared, Calliope stood there, her body once more flesh and blood. Kratos could only stare. The same hair, the same eyes, the same smile...his daughter had returned!

There were a few unexpected things. For one thing, her body shape showed she had plainly passed through puberty, and had apparently gotten good genes from Kratos. This was only enhanced by the fact she was only clad in the top half of a plate mail, an armored loincloth, and armored boots. For another, the Blades of Chaos - now drawing power from Kratos - were strapped to her back, their chains wrapped around her arms, although there was no sign of burned flesh.

She also had pony ears and a tail.

"That was unexpected," Pinkie pointed out, glancing from Calliope's new ears to her new tail.

"I like them," Calliope admitted, rubbing her new ear.

"Quite fetching indeed," Hades replied. "Though it looks like your armored nature carried over." Raising a hand, he launched a ball of kinetic force at her.

Calliope instinctively raised her arm. The ball of force hit her arm, pushing her back slightly before dissipating. "I...barely felt that," Calliope pointed out.

"So she's Achilles but without the heel weakness?" Pinkie asked. "Wow, I totally didn't expect that!"

"Where did you get that book?" Zeus asked, staring at it in concern.

Pinkie glanced at the book. "...not sure..."


"Alright Alphonse," the young blonde boy said as he finished drawing the circle. "What does the book say next?"

The younger boy checked the book. He briefly noticed it looked different, but he was too focused on the task at hand. "It says...add sprinkles."

"...what?"

"That's what it says, Edward," Alphonse replied.

Edward shrugged. "...alright..." He added some sprinkles.

Shortly afterward, Edward was missing an arm and a leg, Alphonse' soul was bound to a suit of armor, and their mother - successfully revived - was giving them a stern lecture about messing with forces beyond their understanding. Later, she joined them on their quest for a philosopher's stone to restore their bodies.


Pinkie then jumped over to Hephaestus. "Oh, can I have some chain blades, too? Daddy's got some, Sis has got some...I want some, too!"

The smith god laughed. "Alright. What did you have in mind?"

"One for each hoof!" she cried happily.

Zeus, meanwhile, left to consult with certain entities about these latest developments.


In the Temple of the Fates, Lahkesis smiled as Zeus entered the halls. "Welcome, Zeus," she said, floating up to him. "What brings you to our hallowed halls?"

Zeus nodded courteously. "I come regarding the warning you gave me about my son, Kratos. I...do not see, given the current situation, how he might bring about the downfall of Olympus. Might I see the weave and how this will come to pass?"

Lahkesis frowned. "Something has changed, we know not what," she admitted. "Some force beyond our ability to manipulate has seized hold of the threads of Kratos and those closest to him, dragging them into new patterns. It even distorts the powers of the Oracles."

Zeus blinked. "Can that pink one have so much power?" he wondered in amazement.

Lahkesis rounded on him. "...what pink one?"