Half-Blooded Harmony: The Lightning Thief

by SonicSpeedster97

Watery Nap

Frankly, none of the kids understood Annabeth’s idea to cram into the nearest Vegas taxi as if they had money, but it was better than nothing. “Los Angeles, please.” she requested quickly.

The cabbie chewed his cigar as he sized the group up in the mirror. “That’s three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay upfront.”

“You accept casino debit cards?” Annabeth asked.

“Some of ‘em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe ‘em through first.” the cabbie shrugged.

With that in mind, Rarity gingerly handed the cabbie her LotusCash card which he eyed suspiciously. “Swipe it.” she invited simply.

He did… and the meter started rattling and flashing until an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar symbol. “Ohhh, dear…” Fluttershy said nervously at the sight of that.

The cabbie just let his cigar drop from his mouth as he looked at the meter in awe, before he glanced back at the group. “Where to in Los Angeles… uh, Your Highness?”

Rarity smirked, clearly enjoying the ‘Your Highness’ bit. “The Santa Monica Pier. Get us there fast and you can keep the change.”

Almost immediately, the driver’s foot was pinned to the floor and the cab tore out of Vegas. “‘Keep the change’?” Annabeth asked.

“I can’t help it, Darling. I’m generous by nature.” Rarity smirked… a purple aura enveloping her body as her hair extended much like Rainbow and Fluttershy’s, and her human ears turned to chalk-white pony ears. Almost in concern, the group checked her forehead for any sign of her unicorn horn but it didn’t form there… though there was a distinct white glowing from her compact, which was undoubtedly her horn ethereally forming around her sword for some reason. Then just like the others, a gold necklace formed around her neck with a purple diamond-shaped gem at her collarbone.

“So I can see. Guessing Generosity is your Element?” asked Annabeth.

“That’s it. But this is still really confusing for me.” Twilight pointed out, more than thankful the cabbie seemed more focused on making sure his cab’s speedometer didn’t get any lower than 95 mph all through the Mojave Desert than on their conversation.

“Ooh! Maybe it’s some sort of gift from the gods.” Pinkie suggested.

“Best idea I can think of.” Percy shrugged. “Speaking of… I had another dream the other night.”

“You mean before we went into the casino?” asked Grover.

“Yeah.” Percy nodded, trying to remember the details of his dream. “It started like one of my usual nightmares; taking a standardized test in a straitjacket.”

“Oh, that sounds like one of my nightmares,” Twilight remarked.

“Yeah, but then it got weird. I- I think there was… another girl there.” Percy remembered. “And… well, call me crazy, but… I think it was Thalia.”

“Wait, seriously?” Twilight asked, her surprised expression mirrored by the others – especially Annabeth and Grover.

“Stormy eyes, punk hair, freckled nose?” Grover asked quickly.

“Yeah, I think so.” Percy nodded.

“Yeah, that’s Thalia, all right.” Grover nodded.

“How could you see someone you’ve never even met before in your dream?” asked Rainbow.

“Well… they are cousins.” Rarity shrugged. “Perhaps it’s some manner of… family telepathy or something?”

“Never heard of anything like that before.” Annabeth shrugged. “Did Thalia say anything?”

“Maybe? I- I can’t remember.” Percy shrugged. “And either way, I ended up in a cave pretty quickly. It was that same voice again – the one we’ve been dreaming about.” He pointed to himself and the girls. “But he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to some servant of his in the shadows; I couldn’t see who it was.”

“Did they sound familiar?” asked Applejack.

“I don’t know. I think they did for a split-second, but… ah, it’s gone.” Percy shrugged. “I swear, that casino scrambled our brains or something.”

“Why is that anyway?” asked Rainbow. “How did we get stuck in that casino for five days when it only felt like an hour?”

Twilight suddenly realized it and slapped her forehead. “The Lotus Eaters. From The Odyssey.”

“Oh, of course. Their lotuses make those who eat them lose all sense of urgency and will.” Annabeth remembered.

“Well, that’s not frightening at all.” Rarity remarked. “Uh… back to your dream, darling.”

“Yeah, uh… this servant…” Percy strained to remember. “They called Hades something other than ‘my lord’… the uh- the… ‘the’ something ‘one’, I think.”

“The Silent One? The Rich One?” Annabeth suggested. “Both of those are nicknames for Hades.”

“Maybe…” Percy shrugged, though Applejack could tell neither of those sounded right to him. “Then… then it changed. I was in a throne room; black marble walls, bronze floors, a throne made of fused human bones…”

“Ugh, remind me to advise Hades to fire his decorator.” Rarity whispered to Applejack.

“Tell me about it.” Applejack nodded.

“Then I saw my mom on the- the… the stairs up to the throne- what’s the word for that?” Percy asked.

“The dais,” Annabeth answered quickly.

“The dais, yeah.” Percy nodded. “Uh… she was like, frozen in gold- I don’t know if she was surrounded in gold or made of gold, but… I don’t know, it was confusing. Then… then skeleton soldiers. They dressed me up in silk robes and a laurel drenched in chimera poison. Then the voice, he said ‘Hail the conquering hero’ or something.”

“That throne room sounds like Hades’.” Grover nodded. “That’s usually how it’s described.”

Percy shook his head. “Something’s wrong. The throne room wasn’t the main part of the dream.” he shrugged. “And that voice from the pit… I don’t know. It just didn’t feel like a god’s voice.” Annabeth’s eyes widened as she heard that. “What?”

“Oh… nothing,” Annabeth said nervously. “I was just-” She stopped herself and shook her head. “No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the Master Bolt, and something went wrong-”

“Like what?” Applejack asked doubtfully.

“I- I don’t know,” Annabeth said quickly, her face quickly paling as she spoke. “But if he stole Zeus’s symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods are hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the Bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That’s what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the Bolt.”

The group wasn’t sure what to think as they saw the color leave Annabeth’s face while she spoke. “But if I’d already retrieved the Bolt, why would I be traveling to the Underworld?” Percy asked seriously.

“To threaten Hades,” Grover suggested. “To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back.”

Percy whistled. “You have evil thoughts for a goat.”

“No kidding,” Twilight remarked in agreement; the only beast she knew of that was even close to resembling a satyr was Lord Tirek’s brother – the gargoyle prince Scorpan, and from what she’d heard from Princess Celestia, he was kind as kind could be – far removed from Grover’s suggestion.

“Why, thank you.” Grover smiled.

“But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items,” Percy remembered. “If the Master Bolt is one, what’s the other?” Grover shook his head, clearly just as mystified as Percy.

Spike chanced a glance across at Annabeth, who was looking at the group as if she knew Percy’s next question before he asked it and was silently willing him not to. “You know who’s in that pit, don’t you?” Spike asked. “You at least have an idea. I mean, if it isn’t Hades?”

“Spike…” Annabeth stammered. “Let’s not talk about it. Because if it isn’t Hades…” She shook her head. “No. It has to be Hades.”

None of the others were convinced of that, but they knew pressing her on it wasn’t going to do them any good. All they could do was watch out the windows as the Mojave hurtled past at 95 miles an hour, all feeling like they were missing one crucial piece of the puzzle, thinking more and more that the closer they got to the Underworld, the more certain they were that confronting Hades wasn’t the real answer – there was more going on. But if they did reach Hades’ domain and find they were wrong, then they were in trouble. The solstice was their last chance to prevent war between the gods and they knew it.

“The answer is in the Underworld,” Annabeth assured. “You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There’s only one place that could be. We’re doing the right thing.”

“I hope you’re right. For all our sakes.” Twilight noted. As they rode, Annabeth tried to boost the team’s morale by devising strategies for getting into the Underworld, but the group wasn’t into it – every gust of wind in the desert valley toward Los Angeles sounded like a lost soul, every hiss of an eighteen-wheeler’s brakes like the reptilian voice of Echidna.

Finally by sundown, the taxi dropped the group at Santa Monica Beach… which looked magnificent in the early evening sun… aside from the occasional homeless person sleeping in the sand. The group did their best to avoid them as they walked down to the edge of the surf. “So what now?” Annabeth asked as the ocean turned gold in the sunset’s light.

The girls couldn’t help but think about how long it had been since they stood with Percy and his mother on the beach at Montauk, on the other side of the country. “Kind of incredible to imagine that this is Percy’s dad’s domain,” Rainbow remarked.

“Makes a certain sense though, doesn’t it?” Rarity pointed out.

“Still… if even half the science classes in this world are true, then this world’s surface is two-thirds water,” Twilight remembered. “Is that how much reach Poseidon has?”

“More than that.” Annabeth reminded. “Remember, Poseidon is also the god of earthquakes. Every disaster on land or sea is his doing; people always just remember him best as the god of the sea.”

“Speaking of the sea…” Applejack pointed to Percy walking into the Pacific as if he was possessed.

“Percy? What are you doing?” Annabeth asked as he kept walking, the water up to his chest now. “You know how polluted that water is? There’re all kinds of toxic things in there!” Percy dropped his head below the surface as if he wasn’t even listening.

“We’ve got to follow him,” Twilight said quickly. “Rarity, remember that water-breathing spell we learned in Seaquestria a few months ago?”

“Vividly, Darling.” Rarity nodded as she drew her sword, its blade now sheer white with darker lines spiraling up to the tip just like her horn. And sure enough, when she focused on the spell Twilight was talking about, her sword glimmered with her bright blue magical aura. With a waving flourish, she swung the blue light at her friends’ necks, the magic forming watery orbs filled with air around their heads.

Once the spell was set, the girls quickly dove into the ocean and found Percy standing there in the shoals… a five-foot-long mako shark hovering in the water next to his leg. Rainbow almost went for her swords to defend him, but Rarity held her own blade in front of her, making her look; the shark was behaving almost like a dog, heeling next to Percy. Tentatively, he touched the shark’s fin and it bucked as if inviting him to take a tighter grip. He did so with both hands and the shark took off through the water, down into the darkness. Quickly the girls swam after him as fast as they could until they reached what they only assumed was the continental shelf – the boundary to the darkness of the open ocean itself, the only light aside from the evening sun on the surface over a hundred feet above coming from Rarity’s magic around her sword.

Then… another glimmer in the darkness. Something glowing bigger and brighter as it rose toward the group. “Percy Jackson.” A woman’s voice, almost like his mother’s, clear as day through the ocean waters.

As she drew closer, her form became clearer and the girls were astounded – it was indeed a woman with long black hair literally flowing in the water, a dress made of sea-green silk, and light flickering around her, her eyes dazzlingly beautiful… and a sea horse undoubtedly twice the size of Big Macintosh between her legs. She dismounted and the sea horse swam off with the shark to play something like tag as she hovered through the water to Percy’s side. “You’ve come far, Percy Jackson. Well done.”

Percy appeared unsure of what to do before he bowed, prompting the girls to do the same. “You’re the woman who spoke to me in the Mississippi River,” Percy said simply.

“Yes, child.” the woman smiled. “I am a nereid, a spirit of the sea. It was not easy to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins, helped sustain my life force. They honor Lord Poseidon, though they do not serve in his court.”

“Unlike yourself, I surmise.” Rarity asked, the spell allowing her to speak under the water just as well as Percy and this nereid.

The nereid appeared a bit surprised by the company – Percy certainly was – but she nodded all the same. “It has been many years since a child of the Sea God has been born. We have watched you with great interest.”

Percy remembered something from his youth – faces in the waves off Montauk Beach when he was young, reflections of smiling women waving at him. Like so many of the odd things in his life before now, he’d never given it a second thought but now… “If my father is so interested in me…” he said almost angrily. “Why isn’t he here? Why doesn’t he speak to me?”

“Percy-” Twilight was interrupted as a cold current rose from the depths.

“Do not judge the Lord of the Sea too harshly.” the nereid warned. “He stands at the brink of an unwanted war. He has much to occupy his time. Besides, he is forbidden to help you directly. The gods may not show such favoritism.”

“Even to their own kin?” Applejack asked.

“Especially to them.” the nereid answered. “The gods can work by indirect influence only. That is why he gave you a warning and a gift.” She held her hand out to Percy and opened it, nine flawless white pearls flashing in her palm.

“My word…” Rarity remarked as she swam to examine them. “These are divine.”

“Literally, I assume,” Twilight smirked.

The nereid chuckled a bit at that joke. “I know you journey to Hades’ realm,” she said. “Few mortals have ever done this and survived: Orpheus, who had great music skills; Hercules, who had great strength; Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do any among you have these talents?”

“Um… no, ma’am.” Percy shrugged, looking at the girls. “At least… not that I’m aware of.”

“Ah, but you have something else, Percy.” the nereid assured. “You have gifts you have only begun to know. The oracles have foretold a great and terrible future for you, should you survive to manhood. Poseidon would not have you die before your time. Therefore take these, and when you are in need, smash a pearl at your feet.”

“And what will happen then?” asked Rarity.

“That depends on the need.” the nereid shrugged as she simply poured the pearls into Percy’s hand. “But remember; what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.”

“And the warning?” Rainbow asked.

The nereid’s eyes flickered with green light as she looked at Percy. “Go with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all. Hades feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if you can, make you mistrust your judgment. Once you are in his realm, he will never willingly let you leave. Keep faith. Good luck, Percy Jackson.” She whistled for her sea horse and rode into the depths as the kids watched.

“Wait!” Percy called. “At the river, you said not to trust the gifts! What gifts?!”

“Goodbye, young hero,” she called back, her voice disappearing into the depths. “You must listen to your heart.” Then as a speck of glowing green, she disappeared into the void.

Applejack could clearly see Percy wanted to follow her – to see his father’s true domain and court – but she set her hand on his shoulder to stop him. “No time for that, Percy.” she pointed out, pointing to the fading light at the surface. “We’ve gotta get to the Underworld before morning.”

Percy knew she was right and started kicking toward the surface, followed by the others as they held onto Rainbow and Fluttershy who flapped their way through the sea with their wings like waterfowl.

Finally when they reached the surface, Percy’s clothes dried and Rarity’s spell dissipated instantly… though she did have to cast a second spell to dry the clothes of herself and her friends. Percy told Grover and Annabeth about what had happened and showed them the pearls. Annabeth grimaced as she examined them. “No gift comes without a price.”

“She didn’t make us pay anything.” Pinkie pointed out with a jovial smile.

“Maybe not now.” Annabeth countered. “‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’. That’s an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait.” On that happy note, the group turned their backs to the sea.

With what little spare change remained in Ares’s backpack, the group hopped on the bus to West Hollywood and Percy showed the driver the Underworld’s address slip from Medusa’s, but he’d apparently never heard of DOA Recording Studios. “You remind me of somebody I saw on TV,” he said to Percy. “You a child actor or something?”

“Uh… I’m a stunt double… for a lot of child actors.” Percy excused nervously.

“Oh! That explains it.” the driver shrugged.

The group thanked him and got off at the next stop, wandering for miles to find DOA but nobody seemed to know where it was and it certainly didn’t appear in the phone book. Twice, the group had to duck into back alleys to avoid the police and Percy froze in front of an appliance store… where the group saw his stepdad getting interviewed by a woman on the news… while he was playing poker in their apartment with a young blonde lady sitting next to him patting his head.

The girls easily tuned out what Gabe was saying and shook their heads. “We’ve already agreed your mother’s too good for him.” Rarity assured Percy.

“Ya think?” Percy asked sarcastically… before a grainy picture came up on the screen of the group talking to Ares outside the diner in Colorado, Rainbow’s wings somehow appearing as an extra-large rucksack, undoubtedly thanks to the Mist.

“C’mon,” Grover said quickly and led the group onward. The girls could clearly see Percy was uncomfortable in the city, and considering where he was really from, it made sense – he was more used to a different big-city vibe than this… and the gangsters on the street didn’t help much.

“Hey, you.” someone called from an alley, and like an idiot, Percy stopped. Then before the group knew it, they were surrounded – six tough-looking white kids in expensive clothes and with mean faces. Almost instinctively, Percy drew Riptide and they backed off. All but their leader, who must have been very brave or very stupid as he kept coming at Percy with a switchblade.

On instinct, Percy swung Riptide at him… and the blade passed harmlessly through his chest like a ghost. “What the…?” he asked.

“They’re mortal,” Fluttershy said breathlessly, knowing they had about three seconds before they attacked again.

“Run!” Percy yelled.

Without even trying, Applejack tackled two of the kids out of the way and the whole group ran down the street as fast as they could, not knowing which way they were going as they turned a sharp corner. “There!” Annabeth shouted, pointing to the only store on the block that looked open, its windows glowing with neon.

“Crusty’s Water-Bed Palace?” Grover asked, translating the dyslexic writing for the demigods.

“Oh, a delightful-sounding place.” Rarity remarked.

“It’s our best shot. Go!” Rainbow yelled and tackled Rarity through the door, the others quickly following them. Once inside, they all immediately dove behind a huge water bed, and a second later, the gang kids ran past outside.

“Whew. I think we lost them.” Grover panted.

“Lost who?” Fluttershy immediately squeaked in fear and went rigid at the voice behind the group, and when they all looked, they saw a man who looked like a wingless dragon in a leisure suit that was probably decades old – nowhere near as old as the clothes worn by the kids Applejack had spoken to at the Lotus Casino, but still plenty old by today’s standards, and countless silver chains around his neck.

He was at least seven feet tall with no hair, leathery gray skin, thick-lidded eyes, and a cold, reptilian smile as he approached slowly, though he could clearly move quickly if he wanted to. “I’m Crusty,” he said with a tartar-yellow smile.

“Yes. Yes, you are.” Rainbow remarked absently, earning her an elbow in the wing from Rarity. “Ow!”

“Ignore her.” Rarity said quickly.

“Sorry to barge in,” Percy added. “We were just, um… browsing.”

“You mean hiding from those no-good kids,” Crusty grumbled.

Applejack tipped her hat up. “S’pose that’s a story you hear a lot.”

“Fraid so; they hang around every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them.” Crusty shrugged. “Say, you wanna look at a waterbed?” Percy clearly wanted to say no thanks, but their new host set his large hand on his shoulder and steered him into the showroom.

“Oh boy. Come on.” Twilight instructed and quickly led the group after them… where they saw every kind of waterbed a person could imagine.

“This is my most popular model.” Crust spread his hands proudly over a bead covered with black satin sheets and built-in lava lamps on the headboard. The mattress vibrated like oil-flavored Jell-O. “Million-hand massage. Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap. I don’t care; no business today anyway.”

“Um, I don’t think-”

“Million-hand massage!” Grover cried and dove in. “Oh, you guys! This is cool.”

“I gotta get in on this,” Rainbow smirked and leaped next to the satyr, her back practically melting into the mattress. “Ohhh yeah, that’s the stuff…” Rarity couldn’t help but join her as it looked incredible… and it felt incredible as well, working out whatever stress knots had developed since Vegas.

“Hmm…” Crusty remarked thoughtfully, stroking his leathery chin. “Almost, almost.”

“Almost what?” Percy asked in concern.

Crusty glanced at Annabeth and the other girls. “Do me a favor and try this one over here, ladies. Might fit.”

“But what-” Crusty interrupted Annabeth as he directed her, Twilight, and the especially cringing Fluttershy to the Safari Deluxe model with leopard-pattern comforters. They didn’t want to lay down so Crusty pushed them down. “Hey!”

He snapped his fingers. “Ergo!” Out of nowhere, ropes shot out from the sides of the bed, lashing the three to the mattress.

“What the-?” Rainbow and Grover tried to get up, but they too were tied down by more spontaneous ropes.

“N-not c-c-cool!” Grover yelled, his voice vibrating from the massage. “N-not c-cool a-at all!”

The giant looked at the three girls then grinned and looked at those remaining: Percy, Applejack, Pinkie, and Spike. “Almost, darn it.”

Quickly they tried to retreat, but Crusty grabbed Percy by his neck and held the girls’ attention whether they liked it or not. “Whoa, kids. Don’t worry. We’ll find you one in a sec.”

“Let our friends go.” Percy croaked.

“Oh, sure I will.” Crusty smiled. “But I gotta make ‘em fit first.”

“What’s that mean?” asked Pinkie.

“All the beds are exactly six feet, see? Your friends are all too short. Gotta make them fit.” Crusty smiled as the others struggled against their binds. “Can’t stand imperfect measurements. Ergo!” More ropes sprung from the mattresses, gripping the prisoners by their ankles and armpits before they tightened, pulling them hard from both ends.

“Ngh! I’m as against poor measurements as anyone but this is hardly the way to achieve perfection.” Rarity grimaced at the pain.

“Don’t worry.” Crusty assured those who were still free. “These are stretching jobs. Maybe three extra inches on their spines. They might even live. Now why don’t we find a bed you all like, huh?”

“Percy!” Grover yelled in pain.

The group’s minds were racing as they tried to come up with a plan, knowing Crusty would snap Percy’s neck if he even thought about going for Riptide. Quickly Applejack had an idea and smirked as she tipped up her hat. “Guessin’ Crusty ain’t your real name, is it?”

“Well, legally it’s Procrustes,” he admitted.

“The Stretcher,” Percy remembered this story, as did the girls; a giant who’d tried to kill Theseus with excess hospitality on his way to Athens.

“Yeah, but who can pronounce ‘Procrustes’ these days?” he asked. “Bad for business. Now ‘Crusty’, anybody can say that.”

“You’re right. Got a good ring to it.” Applejack remarked.

The salesman’s eyes lit up. “You think so?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Percy nodded. “And the workmanship on these beds? Fabulous!”

Procrustes grinned, his grip on Percy’s neck not loosening. “I tell my customers that. Every time. Nobody bothers to look at the workmanship. How many built-in lava lamp headboards have you seen?”

“Not too many.” Percy shrugged.

“That’s right!”

“Percy! What are you doing?!” Annabeth screeched.

“Don’t mind her; she’s impossible,” Percy smirked.

The giant just laughed. “All my customers are. Never six feet exactly. So inconsiderate. And then they complain about the fitting.”

“And what happens if they’re longer than six feet?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, that’s easy.” Procrustes smiled as he let go of Percy, and immediately retrieved a massive brass labrys axe from behind a nearby sales desk. “I just center the subject as best I can and lop off whatever hangs off on either end.”

“Ah.” Percy gulped nervously. “Sensible.”

“And efficient.” Applejack agreed just as nervously.

“I’m so glad to come across some intelligent customers.” Procrustes smiled.

Applejack glanced nervously at her friends who were tied down, all of whom were clearly in agony and greatly annoyed.

“So Crusty…” Percy smiled, trying to keep his voice light as he glanced at the tag on the Valentine-shaped Honeymoon Special. “Does this one really have dynamic stabilizers to stop wave motion?”

“Absolutely. Try it out.” Procrustes invited.

“Yeah, maybe we will.” Pinkie smiled, clearly understanding what Percy was doing. “But would it work even for someone your size? No waves at all?”

“Guaranteed.” the giant assured.

“No way.”

“Way.”

“Show us.”

Procrustes smiled and laid down eagerly, patting the mattress. “No waves. See?”

As soon as he lay down, Percy smirked and snapped his fingers. “Ergo.” Just as before, ropes shot from the bed and flattened Crusty against the mattress.

“Hey!” he bellowed angrily.

“Can’t believe ya fell for that,” Applejack smirked at the giant. “Now let’s just get ya centered right…” The ropes automatically adjusted themselves at her command, holding Procrustes’ whole head off the top of the bed and his feet dangling off the bottom.

“No! Wait! This is just a demo!” he yelled.

Percy just smirked as he drew Riptide, clearly no qualms about what he was about to do. “A few simple adjustments…” None of the others had any qualms either; if Procrustes was human, the sword wouldn’t even faze him, but since they all knew he was a monster of some description, they agreed he deserved to be turned to dust for a while.

“You drive a hard bargain.” the giant begged. “I’ll give you 30% off on selected floor models!”

“What do you say, girls? Start with the top?” Percy asked.

“Only way to start, I’d say,” Pinkie noted as Percy raised his sword.

“No money down! No interest for six months!” Procrustes begged.

“You just went down,” Applejack said bluntly.

“I’m a haggler?” That was the last thing Procrustes said before Percy swung hard, ensuring he stopped making offers.

“Finally. Thought he’d never shut up.” Spike remarked.

“Tell me about it,” Applejack smirked… before her eyes fell on Procrustes’ labrys. “Hm… well, I s’pose this counts as a spoil of war,” she said as she picked up the axe.

“What about your mace?” Percy asked as he started cutting the others free.

“Never hurts to have a backup.” Applejack shrugged as she helped him cut the ropes.

Those who were tied down staggered to their feet, groaning in pain. Percy couldn’t help but smirk as he looked at Annabeth. “You look taller.”

“Very funny.” Annabeth groaned. “Be faster next time.”

“A simple ‘thank you’ would suffice just as well, darling.” Rarity pointed out as she stretched while Percy looked around.

Applejack was having difficulty finding somewhere to hide her new axe – which she’d just found the sheath for behind the desk – until she finally decided to just slide it into her backpack and hope it didn’t cut anything. As soon as she’d slung it back onto her shoulders, Percy looked up. “Come on,” he said as he moved toward the door.

“Give us a minute,” Grover complained. “We were almost stretched to death.”

“Then you’re ready for the Underworld,” Percy smirked as he held up a map he’d taken from the desk. “It’s only a block away from here.”

“Really? Huh. Well, how about that? We were due for some good luck.” Twilight smiled as the group limped out of the store, onward to their quest.

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