Half-Blooded Harmony: The Lightning Thief

by SonicSpeedster97

So Much for the Bus...

It didn’t take the girls long to pack; they didn’t have much with them at camp to begin with, so they only really packed the essentials… though Applejack still had to have a fairly serious discussion with Rarity about what that meant in this case, since she was insisting on bringing an entire wardrobe rack with her when she only really needed one or two changes of clothes like Percy had packed. That took up at least two hours, and they ended up late to meet the others at the camp store, where they were each loaned one hundred dollars in mortal cash and twenty gold drachma.

And these coins were huge; the size of cookies with various gods on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. Chiron had told them that the ancients had used silver, but the Olympians never used less than pure gold, and that they might be handy in non-mortal transactions… whatever that meant. They also received canteens full of nectar and small bags filled with ambrosia squares; demigod food, only to be used in serious emergencies if they were badly hurt, since too much was apparently fatal, even to demigods.

Annabeth was bringing her magic invisibility hat and a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife she hid up her shirt sleeve… and which Percy was sure to bust them at the first metal detector they passed through.

Grover was wearing his fake feet and pants to pass as human, as well as a green rasta-style cap since anyone could easily make out stubby horn-tips if his hair was flattened. He was carrying a backpack full of apples and scrap metal to snack on and a set of reed-pipes carved by his father in his pocket… even though he only knew two songs, both of which sounded really bad on the pipes.

Either way, they bid their goodbyes for now to the other campers and made their way up the hill to the massive pine that had at one point been Thalia. Twilight couldn’t help but feel more than a bit sad for the girl who might still be trapped within that wood, but she knew there was nothing they could do for her as she looked to Chiron in his wheelchair… and a large man in a chauffer’s uniform with eyes all over his head, neck, and hands

“This is Argus,” Chiron introduced. “He will drive you into the city and, er, well, keep an eye on things.”

Pinkie couldn’t help but giggle at the joke as Rainbow saw the eye on the back of Argus’s left-hand wink at her, which seriously wigged her out. It was then that they heard footsteps coming up the hill. The group looked and saw Luke running up the hill with a pair of basketball shoes in his hand, along with a tall African boy with a large bundle on his back. “Hey. Glad we caught you.” Luke panted.

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around, but Rainbow was a bit too confused as to why he was here to taunt her. “Just wanted to say good luck,” Luke said. “And I thought, um… maybe you could use these.” He handed Percy the shoes, which looked fairly normal… and smelled normal.

“Uh… thanks?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

“Maia!” Luke whispered… prompting white bird-wings to sprout from the heels, startling Percy so much that he accidentally dropped the shoes, which fluttered around on the ground for a moment before the wings furled and dropped to the ground.

“Okay, that was pretty awesome,” Rainbow remarked.

“Yeah, they served me well when I was on my quest.” Luke shrugged. “Gift from Dad. Of course, I don’t use them much these days…” He sounded a bit sad at that.

“Hey man, thanks.” Percy smiled, but Luke still looked uncomfortable.

Pinkie decided she couldn’t have that and reached into her hair, pulling out a perfectly good cupcake with metallic bronze frosting which she handed to him. It definitely made him look like he felt better as he smiled at the girl. “Thanks, Pinkie.” he smiled, looking at the group. “Listen guys, a lot of hopes are riding on you. So just… kill some monsters for me, okay?”

“You got it, bro.” Rainbow smiled and bumped fists with the young man as each of them said their goodbyes in their own way… though Percy definitely noticed Annabeth looked ready to pass out after he hugged her.

“You’re hyperventilating,” he remarked.

“Am not.” That answer came out a bit too fast to sound entirely genuine.

“You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn’t you?”

“Oh… Why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?!” Annabeth yelled as she stomped down the hill toward a white SUV, Argus following her with car keys jingling in his hand.

“I believe your exact words were ‘Athena is no friend of Poseidon, but if you’re going to save the world, I’m the best person to keep you from messing up’,” Rarity called after her.

“Ugh. No wonder Aphrodite claimed you.” Annabeth growled as she climbed into the car.

“Was I just insulted?” Rarity remarked.

“And judged, yeah.” the boy from Hephaestus nodded. “Sorry, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced; Charles Beckendorf.”

“Glad to meet ya, Charlie.” Applejack smiled, shaking his hand.

“Uh, if you don’t mind, I prefer to go by my last name,” he remarked.

“Oh sure, I gotcha.” Applejack nodded before she gestured to the bundle on his back. “Those fer us?”

“Yeah, I figured you’d need ‘em if you’re going to go out slaying monsters.” Beckendorf nodded as he set the bundle down and unrolled it, revealing an assortment of bronze weapons. “Fresh from the forges. Take your pick.”

The girls were a bit unsure about being handed blades, but they knew Beckendorf was right; if they were going to the Underworld – more than likely through any number of terrifying monsters – they would need to be armed, so they knelt down to take their choices. Applejack was the first to choose, and she picked a large round mace that felt heavy in her hands. She nearly made that her only choice until her eyes locked onto something else; a rope that glimmered bronze, which she easily picked up. “Ah, nice choice.” Beckendorf smiled. “That’s a Thracian lariat; fireproof and malleable as spider-silk, but still strong as any armor. Might be useful.”

“Ah hope so.” Applejack smiled as she latched it to her hip, though she wasn’t sure what to do with the mace.

She decided to figure it out later as she saw the others go for their own weapons; Rarity chose a long blade with a crown-like hilt – identified by Beckendorf as a Minoan rapier – while Rainbow chose two small shortswords, Twilight chose a short spear, Fluttershy chose a bow and small quiver of arrows along with a knife barely as long as her pinkie finger, and Pinkie chose a large sledgehammer. “Thank you, Beckendorf. Something tells me these will come in very handy.” Twilight smiled.

“Thanks, Twilight. And Luke’s right; a lot’s riding on you guys. Good luck.” he nodded and made his way down the hill toward camp.

Percy smiled weakly as he picked up the shoes Luke had given him before he turned to Chiron. “I’m not gonna be able to use these, am I?” he asked seriously.

The old centaur just shook his head. “Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air… that would not be wise for you.”

Percy nodded in disappointment, but then he had an idea. “Hey Grover, you want a magic item?”

Grover’s face instantly lit up. “Me?”

“Yeah man, it’s not like I’m gonna be using them.” Percy shrugged. It didn’t take long to get the shoes laced onto Grover’s fake feet and the world’s first flying goat boy was about to launch. “Maia!” And launch he did… sideways, his backpack dragging through the grass as the shoes bucked like broncos.

“Practice!” Chiron called after him. “You just need practice!”

That didn’t help as Grover started flying toward them. “Duck!” Rainbow called and dropped with the others.

“Where?!” Pinkie asked and looked around… before Grover’s backpack slammed into her face and sent her sprawling on the hill as he went down toward the SUV like a possessed lawnmower. “Oh, that kind of duck.”

Percy just rolled his eyes as he was about to make his way after Grover, but Chiron grabbed his arm before he could move. “I should have trained you better, Percy. All of you,” he said, looking at the girls. “Hercules, Jason… They all got more training.”

“That’s okay. I just wish-” Percy stopped; he didn’t sound like a brat, but Applejack knew what he was going to say.

“That yer dad gave ya a tool like the others?” she asked, earning a nod from Percy.

Chiron facepalmed at this. “What am I thinking?” he asked himself as he dug into his jacket. “I can’t let you get away without this.” With that, he pulled a pen from his pocket and handed it to Percy.

Percy looked at it in confusion as he looked back at the old man. “This is a pen,” he said seriously. “This is a pen.”

“Percy, that’s a gift from your father.” Chiron corrected. “I’ve kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one.”

Rainbow’s eyes popped as she remembered something. “Wait a minute… Percy, remember the last time Chiron gave you a pen?” she asked.

Percy apparently remembered it perfectly as he took the cap off the pen… which immediately grew into a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt covered in rivets; indeed the same sword Percy had used to destroy Mrs. Dodds at the museum… and the only sword that really felt balanced in his hands. “The sword has a long and tragic history we need not go into,” Chiron informed. “Its name is Anaklusmos.”

“Riptide.” Percy translated, surprised the Greek came to him so easily.

“Cool name,” Rainbow remarked… before she realized something. “Wait a second… If his sword can do that, can our weapons change into things too?”

“Only one way to find out.” Twilight shrugged as she looked over her spear where she found a small dial at the back. Giving it a small twist, her spear shrank down into a bronze-colored pencil that easily fit into her hand. The others looked over their weapons and found similar mechanisms; Rarity saw a small button on the hilt of her sword unlocking a hinge on the blade that allowed her to fold it down into a compact mirror, Rainbow slapped the flats of her shortswords against her wrists where they turned into metallic red, yellow, and blue slap-bracelets, Fluttershy’s archer’s kit and knife each compressed into small pins that she clipped onto her shirt at the push of a button, Applejack’s mace shrank into a bronze paperweight when she twisted the head to the right, and Pinkie’s hammer turned into a comically small one almost like a keychain when she pulled on the bottom that she hooked onto one of the belt loops on her pants.

“Use these weapons only in emergencies,” Chiron warned. “And only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but they wouldn’t harm them anyway.”

“You sure?” Rainbow asked, pulling her left bracelet off her wrist at which point it turned back into a shortsword. “Because this seems pretty freaking harmful.”

“They are all made from Celestial Bronze.” Chiron explained. “Forged by Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. The metal is lethal to monsters, to any creature of the Underworld, provided they don’t kill you first. But the blades will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply aren’t important enough for the weapons to kill. And I should warn you; as demigods, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable.”

“Wait, is that what those cuts on our hands were about?” asked Twilight, remembering that she and each of the other girls had had small cuts on their hands when they first woke up at camp. They had since healed by now, but their presence had still confused them.

“Yes, that was to ensure that your trip here had indeed made you demigods.” Chiron nodded. “If you were mortal, the blades would have passed through you. But since they did not, we know you are demigods.”

“Good to know.” Percy and Rainbow jinxed.

“Now recap your pen, Percy,” Chiron ordered.

Percy did just that; touching the pen-cap to the tip of the blade and it instantly shrank back into a pen as Rainbow replaced her sword on her wrist. Percy put the pen in his pocket, but seemed nervous. Twilight knew why; he was infamous at Yancy for losing pens. “You can’t,” Chiron said unprompted.

“Can’t what?” asked Percy.

“Lose the pen,” he replied. “It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it.”

Percy was less than sure about this, but did it anyway, tossing the pen down the hill as hard as he could as he watched it disappear in the grass. “It may take a moment,” Chiron assured. “Now check your pocket.”

Percy didn’t seem sure, but when he checked, he did indeed find the pen right there. “Okay, that is extremely cool.” he admitted.

“Agreed,” Twilight remarked, holding up her own pencil. “But won’t the mortals see us whipping out giant bronze weapons?”

Chiron just smiled. “Mist is a powerful thing, young ones.”

“‘Mist’?” asked Rainbow.

“Yes. Read The Iliad; it’s full of references to the stuff.” Chiron explained. “Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being half-bloods, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their vision of reality.”

Percy slipped Riptide back into his pocket as the girls all looked out over the hill down to their ride. For the first time, their quest seemed real; they were leaving Half-Blood Hill for the west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, and not even any means of communication (Chiron had told the group that electrical devices like cell phones were traceable by monsters; if they used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare), and no weapons stronger than heavy bronze blades and bludgeons to fight off monsters and reach the Underworld. Rainbow Dash would later admit that the gravity of the situation made a pit form in her stomach, but she did her best to hide it. “Chiron…” she asked. “I was just thinking; if the gods are immortal… well, there was a time before them, right?”

“Four ages before them, to be exact.” Chiron assured. “The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age.”

“Now if that ain’t a misnomer…” Applejack remarked.

“Indeed. This however – the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus – is the Fifth Age.” Chiron explained.

“So what was it like before the gods?” asked Rainbow.

Chiron pursed his lips as he thought. “Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was an age of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because man lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But this was mere propaganda. The Titan King cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall.” That lesson Rainbow remembered; it wasn’t exactly easy to forget the graphic description of Prometheus’s punishment. “Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born.”

“But the gods can’t die now, right?” asked Percy. “I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they’re alive. So… even if we fail, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?”

Chiron smiled in a melancholy sense. “No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny.”

“Our destiny… assuming we know what that is,” Percy said nervously.

“Relax.” Chiron soothed. “Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history.”

“No pressure,” Rainbow remarked as she led the others down to the car. They looked back up at Thalia’s tree, where they saw Chiron standing on his own four hooves holding his bow high in salute. “Yep. Just your typical summer camp sendoff.”

---

Argus drove the group out of the countryside and into the western area of Long Island. The girls found button-up overshirts colored like their coats in the backseat which they pulled on over their camp t-shirts, making them feel a bit more at ease, though Percy felt weird being back on a highway after all his time at camp with the girls, especially with Grover and Annabeth with them as well. The mortal world outside camp felt like a fantasy to the young man as he watched out the window. “So far so good,” he remarked. “Ten miles and not a single monster.”

“Try not to jinx it.” Rainbow brought up jokingly.

Annabeth just glared over at Percy. “She’s right; it’s bad luck to talk like that.”

Twilight stepped in here. “Okay, that’s it; what is your problem? Why do you hate Percy so much?”

“I don’t hate him.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Percy remarked.

Annabeth just folded her hat. “Look… we’re just not supposed to get along, okay? Our parents are rivals.”

“Why?”

Annabeth sighed in annoyance. “How many reasons do you want? One time, my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena’s temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her.”

“They must really like olives.” Pinkie remarked with a smile.

“Oh, forget it.” Annabeth groaned.

“Now, if she’d invented pizza; that I could understand,” Percy noted.

“I said forget it!” Annabeth snapped.

“Okay, jeez!” Percy said as he leaned back into his seat… seeing one blue eye on the back of Argus’ neck wink at him. Traffic slowed the ride down, and by the time they reached the city, it was already sunset and starting to rain. Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from Percy’s apartment… and taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with Percy’s picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

Quickly he tore it down and threw it aside before anyone could see it as Argus unloaded the team’s bags, making sure they all had their bus tickets before he drove away, winking at the group with the eye in the back of his hand.

Twilight saw Percy looking up the street possibly in a sense of nostalgia considering how close to his old apartment he was. “You wanna know why she married him, Percy?” Grover asked, confusing the group.

Percy stared at him in confusion. “Were you reading my mind or something?”

Pinkie gasped as she slipped over to Grover. “Can you do that?”

“Not minds, just emotions.” Grover shrugged. “Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that.” He turned back to Percy. “You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?” Percy nodded, though Twilight was sure he was wondering the same thing as him; what else had Grover forgotten to mention? “Your mom married Gabe for you. You call him ‘Smelly’, but you’ve got no idea. The guy has this aura… yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven’t been near him for a week.”

“Thanks. Where’s the nearest shower?” Percy asked bitterly.

“You should be grateful, Percy,” Grover assured. “Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn’t lived with him every summer, you probably would’ve been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady; she must’ve loved you a lot to put up with that guy – if that makes you feel any better.”

Pinkie could tell it didn’t; the smile Percy showed was forced. And the girls all knew that wasn’t the only thing about this quest he was lying about, like the real reason he accepted; he didn’t care about the Master Bolt, or saving the world, or helping Poseidon. All he cared about was his mother, and getting her back from Hades. All the same, the last two lines of the prophecy weighed heavily on their minds; You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. You will fail to save what matters in the end. They tried to figure out what they meant and what they had to do with the quest but were worried they wouldn’t like the answer.

Eventually, the group got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play hacky sack with one of Grover’s apples, bouncing it around between them… until Percy bounced it a little too close to Grover’s mouth, allowing him to swallow it whole in a single massive bite. Grover tried to apologize but the others were too busy cracking up. Eventually, their bus arrived and as they stood in line to board, Twilight noticed Grover was sniffing the air as if he was trying to smell something out. “Is something wrong?”

“I’m don’t know,” he said tensely. “Maybe it’s nothing.” The others weren’t convinced, and all started looking over their shoulder. They were more than a bit relieved when they finally boarded and found seats in the back of the bus.

The group stowed their bags as Annabeth slapped her hat against her leg anxiously. And as the last passengers boarded, she stopped and grabbed Percy’s knee. Hard. “Percy,” she whispered.

The group looked and saw why Annabeth seemed to be panicking; an old lady had just boarded, wearing a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and shapeless, orange-knit hat covering her face carrying a big paisley purse. When she looked up, her black eyes glistened and everyone felt their hearts in their throats. It was Mrs. Dodds, older and more withered but definitely still her. The group had to try and scrunch down in their seats to try and avoid being seen… but then two more ladies came aboard, wearing different colored hats but otherwise completely identical to Mrs. Dodds. They sat at the front of the bus right behind the driver, the two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, blocking it. It seemed casual, but the message was clear; nobody leaves. "I hate it when you're right, Pinkie." Rainbow whispered.

The bus started out of the station through the streets of Manhattan. “She didn’t stay dead long,” Percy whispered, trying not to let anyone hear his voice quiver. “I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime.”

“I said if you’re lucky.” Annabeth returned. “You’re obviously not.”

“All three of them.” Grover whimpered. “Di immortales!”

“What’re we gonna do?” asked Applejack.

“It’s okay,” Annabeth assured, obviously already coming up with something. “The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem, no problem. We’ll just slip out the windows.”

“They’re locked.” Grover moaned.

“A back exit?”

“There isn’t one.” Twilight pointed out, pointing to the back wall of the bus.

“Even if there was, it wouldn’t help,” Rainbow remarked. “We’re almost to a tunnel.”

“They won’t attack us with witnesses around, will they?” asked Percy.

“Mortals don’t have good eyes.” Annabeth reminded. “Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist.”

“They’ll see three old ladies killing us, won’t they?” asked Rainbow.

“Hard to say.” Annabeth shrugged. “But we can’t count on them for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof…?” The bus entered the tunnel and went dark, aside from the running lights down the aisle.

“Any more bright ideas?” asked Rarity, frightened by how quiet it was without the sound of rain.

Then as if she’d rehearsed it, Mrs. Dodds got up. “I need to use the restroom.”

“So do I.” her sisters jinxed as they all made their way to the back.

“Something tells me we’re going to need a restroom in a minute.” Pinkie joked in concern.

“I’ve got it,” Annabeth noted. “Percy, take my hat.”

“What?”

“You’re the one they want,” Annabeth explained. “Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away.”

“But you guys-”

“There’s an outside chance they might not notice us,” Annabeth said.

“Are you kidding? Seven demigods in one place and you think they won’t notice us because of one in another place?” asked Twilight.

“Percy’s a son of the Big Three. His smell might be overpowering.” Annabeth reminded.

“I can’t just leave you,” Percy argued.

“Don’t worry about us; go,” Grover ordered.

Percy felt like a coward, but he took the hat anyway and put it on, disappearing into thin air. The girls were amazed, but had to stay quiet. Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffed the air, and looked a specific direction – presumably directly at Percy – but apparently, she didn’t sense anything as she and her sisters kept moving right to the back. When they made it, they started cruelly wailing as they transformed – their bodies shriveled into leather brown hag bodies with bat’s wings and hands and feet like gargoyle’s claws, their handbags turning into fiery whips, which they lashed as they surrounded the girls. “Where is it? Where?!”

The other people on the bus started screaming; who knows what they saw but it was definitely terrifying. “He’s not here! He’s gone!” Annabeth yelled. The Furies raised their whips as if the answer didn’t satisfy them.

“Okay, I guess we’re doin’ this now.” Applejack shrugged as she grabbed her bronze paperweight, quickly switching it back into a mace as the others raised their weapons and Grover grabbed a can from his bag.

“I suppose it’s ‘En Garde' then.” Rarity smirked as she raised her rapier… just before the bus swerved violently to the left. Everyone on the bus was tossed to the right as the Furies smashed against the windows.

“Hey! Hey- whoa!” the driver yelled as he apparently wrestled with the wheel against some invisible force.

“Percy, are you nuts?!” asked Twilight, though her question was answered as the bus smashed against the sides of the tunnel until they shot out the end into the rain, barreling through traffic lights as they roared down a rural road as the driver appeared to be veering toward the river. Then Percy apparently did something else stupid; he hit the emergency brake.

The bus did a full spin and crashed into a large tree on the side of the road. The emergency lights came on and the doors flew open, prompting the driver and everyone else to barrel overboard and into the wilderness.

The Furies weren’t among those who got off as they regained their balance and lashed at the girls. Twilight swung her spear to catch the whips and toss them aside as Rarity stabbed at them with her rapier and Annabeth waved her knife yelling in Ancient Greek, Grover tossing cans.

Twilight was certain Percy had run for his own safety until she saw him remove the cap at the front. “Hey!” The Furies all turned to him and scowled, snarling angrily.

“Perseus Jackson.” Mrs. Dodds snarled in a very far southern accent. “You have offended the gods. You shall die.”

“I liked you better as a math teacher.” Percy taunted.

Mrs. Dodds snarled… right before Twilight’s spear flew through her right wing and embedded itself in the floor in front of her. “So did I,” she smirked as she zipped around to grab up her spear.

The others all looked around in the back for an opening as Percy uncapped Riptide, the blade growing in his hand. The Furies seemed to hesitate, and Percy and the girls couldn’t blame them; Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide’s blade once before, and she obviously didn’t like seeing it again. “Submit now.” she snarled. “And you will not suffer eternal torment.”

“Doesn’t know how to negotiate, this lady,” Rainbow smirked as she drew her shortswords.

“That’s about as negotiative as a Fury is likely to get,” Annabeth assured before she looked. “Percy, look out!” Too late; Mrs. Dodds lashed Percy’s sword hand with her whip while the other two lunged at him and Twilight.

Percy cried in pain from the whip but he managed to get in a good bash against the Fury on the left with the pommel of his sword while Twilight impaled the one on the right with her spear, catching her and holding her up for Percy to get in an easy slash, causing her to scream in pain and explode into dust. Applejack and Annabeth both grabbed Mrs. Dodds in a half-nelson on either side, pulling her backward as Grover grabbed the whip from her hands. “Ow-ow!” he yelled. “Hot-hot!”

The other Fury got up and jumped at Percy again, only to suddenly fall to a bronze-tipped arrow right in the back of the head fired from Fluttershy’s bow. Mrs. Dodds tried to struggle against Annabeth and Applejack, but they held her down well as Grover tied her legs with her own whip. Finally, she was shoved to the back of the bus as the others jumped over the seats to the front of the bus. “Whoo! Man, nice workout, guys.” Rainbow smiled as she slapped her swords back onto her wrists.

Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn’t have enough room to spread her wings so she kept falling. “Zeus will destroy you!” she promised. “Hades will have your souls!”

“Baccas meas vescimini!” Percy yelled.

“Whoa, that wasn’t Greek; that was Latin,” Twilight remarked. “Where did that come from?”

“No idea. I think it means-” Percy didn’t finish as thunder shook the bus and the hairs on the backs of everyone’s necks stood on end.

“Off the bus! Now!” Annabeth yelled as everyone jumped off, finding the other passengers screaming about how doomed they were, one guy snapping a picture before the group could hide their weapons.

“Our bags!” Grover realized. “We left our-” Too late; a massive bolt of lightning struck the bus and blasted it into nonexistence, prompting the people to run.

An angry wail from Mrs. Dodds in the wreckage scared the others into similar action. “She’s calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!”

“Don’t gotta tell us twice! Run!” Twilight ordered as the whole team raced into the forest, leaving the smoldering wreckage of the bus behind them and nothing but darkness up ahead.

Comments

[Heartdrop]

Forgot to ask by the way is this based on the book or the movie?

[SonicSpeedster97]

11178543
Almost entirely the book (the movie was hot steaming Hollywood garbage), but as you've no doubt figured out by now, I'm including songs from the musical every now and then.