Half-Blooded Harmony: The Lightning Thief

by SonicSpeedster97

Socks of Death

The strangeness only persisted for the next few weeks after the incident at the museum; for the entire rest of the semester until summer, the whole school seemed to be playing some sort of crazy prank on Percy and the girls, acting completely and totally convinced that a perky blonde named Mrs. Kerr who had gotten on the bus at the end of the trip had been the pre-algebra teacher since the holidays. Every now and then, Percy or one of the girls would make some veiled reference to Mrs. Dodds just to try and trip somebody up, only to get looks as if they were insane.

They would’ve believed it themselves if it weren’t for each other… and Grover; that guy couldn’t lie to save his life. Whenever Percy mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she never existed. Everyone knew something was going on, but they didn’t know what; all they knew was they had to find out quickly. Twilight predicted to her friends that this must’ve all been part of the story the book had sent them into; no better call to action than finding out a teacher was a monster in disguise that tried to kill you. And it seemed Percy unknowingly agreed; every night for a good long while, dreams of Mrs. Dodds’ monstrous form would wake him up in a cold sweat.

The freak weather didn’t help much; it only made their moods worse. A thunderstorm blew out Percy’s dorm windows, a massive tornado in the Hudson Valley about fifty miles from the school, and an unusual amount of small aircraft going down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic Ocean. Percy had been irritable most of the time; his grades slipped, he got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends, and was sent into the hall in almost every class. The girls were worried about him; it was obvious that Mrs. Dodds had been targeting him for some reason, but none of them knew why.

Then a week after Percy snapped at the English teacher and called him an old sot (Rainbow didn’t really know what that meant, but she doubted it was flattering), the news was made official; Percy Jackson would not be invited back to Yancy Academy next year.

“We’re sorry to see you go, Percy,” Twilight reassured him at lunch one day.

“It’s alright; I’m homesick anyway.” The girls knew that was just an excuse, even if it was a fairly good one; Percy missed his mother and wanted to be with her in their little apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City, even if it meant he had to go to public schools and put up with his ludicrous stepfather.

And yet somehow, they also knew Percy would miss a few things about Yancy; the view from the dorms, the river in the distance, the smell of pine… and Grover. Strange or not, he’d been a good friend. To all of them; they weren’t sure how he would survive the next year without Percy. Mr. Brunner too; his tournament days were amazing and they knew Percy admired how much faith the old teacher had in him.

The evening before the Latin exam, the girls were in the hallway near the boys’ dorm studying for it as best they could when Percy walked down the stairs. “Hey, where ya goin’?” Rainbow asked.

“Brunner’s. I am in desperate need of help for tomorrow. If nothing else, I can apologize for flunking tomorrow.” he shrugged. “I don’t wanna leave with him thinking I haven’t tried.”

“Hey, I’m sure he knows you’re trying, Percy,” Twilight assured.

“I hope you’re right.” Percy shrugged as the group walked together, seeing Mr. Brunner’s office door open just a crack, the light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

Rainbow was about three seconds from calling inside when the group heard Mr. Brunner say something, to which a voice which definitely belonged to Grover responded “…worried about Percy, sir.”

The group froze; they all knew what to do and stacked in on either side of the door, listening hard to the conversation. “…alone this summer.” Grover was saying. “I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-”

“We would only make matters worse by rushing him.” Mr. Brunner interrupted. “We need the boy to mature more.”

“But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline-”

“Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.”

“Sir, he saw her…”

“His imagination. The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.”

“And what about those other girls? They saw too.”

Twilight glanced around at her friends, knowing Grover was talking about them. “Yes, that is something of a conundrum; seven with Clear Sight all in the same school as him. I knew their arrival wasn’t a coincidence, but we must do what we can to convince them as well. But I must admit, that smell of dog from Ms. Sparkle’s bag has me somewhat… alarmed.” Twilight knew he was talking about Spike, but why would he alarm Mr. Brunner?

“Sir, I… I can’t fail in my duties again.” Grover reminded, his voice choked with emotion. “You know what that would mean.”

“You haven’t failed, Grover.” Mr. Brunner assured kindly. “I should have seen her for what she was. Now let’s just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-”

A loud thud resounded through the halls, terrifying the girls as the voices stopped. They looked and saw Percy had dropped his mythology book. Adrenaline ran through the veins of everyone outside that office as Percy scrambled to pick up his book and they all backed down the hall as a shadow crossed the window of the office door. A shadow shaped like an archer’s bow.

“In here,” Rainbow whispered to the others as they all quickly slipped into an empty classroom. A few seconds later, they heard a slow clop-clop-clop in the hall that stunned Twilight.

“Are those… hooves?” she mouthed in confusion to the girls. Pinkie peeked through the window in the classroom door as best she could without getting caught and saw Mr. Brunner outside sniffing the air… much taller than she remembered.

“Did Mr. B have a growth spurt when we weren’t looking?” she whispered quietly. Mr. Brunner stopped sniffing and appeared ready to glance in the direction of the door, which forced Pinkie to duck back out of sight with the others as he looked. But then he moved on which relieved the girls like nobody’s business.

“Nothing.” the teacher murmured outside. “My nerves haven’t been right since the winter solstice.”

“Mine neither.” Grover nodded. “But I could have sworn…”

“Go back to the dorm.” Mr. Brunner told him. “You’ve got a long day of exams tomorrow.”

“Don’t remind me.” The forms disappeared from the hallway. Rainbow peered cautiously out from the classroom and saw the lights in Mr. Brunner’s office go out. They waited there for what seemed like an eternity until they finally left the classroom and went their separate ways.

In the girls’ dorm, they started talking. “Okay, what was that all about?” Rainbow asked seriously. “‘Summer solstice deadline’? I can’t be the only one getting Nightmare Moon flashbacks because of that, right?”

“Never mind that; ‘Kindly One’? ‘The Mist’?” Applejack reminded. “What was that supposed to mean?”

“Not to mention those hoof-sounds.” Twilight agreed. “And why was Mr. Brunner so worried about Spike?”

“And when did he get so tall?” added Pinkie.

“And what did he mean by ‘keeping Percy alive’?” asked Fluttershy.

“I think we can all agree that whatever’s happening here, it’s not likely to stay isolated here.” Rarity remarked. “Not once Percy leaves anyway.”

“Which means we have to follow him when he does.” Rainbow agreed. “Right now, he’s our only lead to what might be happening in this world. And probably our only ticket back to Equestria.”

“Rainbow Dash is right; we follow Percy when he leaves and if anything happens, we note it and see what there is we can do about it.” Twilight agreed.

The next afternoon, as the girls were scribbling their way through the last of the three-hour Latin exam, they watched Percy stand up bleary-eyed at all the names he’d probably misspelled and hand in his exam before he moved to the door. “Mr. Jackson? A moment, please?” Mr. Brunner asked.

Twilight could see the fear welling in Percy’s eyes as he moved back to his teacher’s desk and leaned across it as if he was just as worried as her that the teacher had found out about their eavesdropping last night. She strained herself to listen to Mr. Brunner’s whispering. “Percy, don’t be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It’s… it’s for the best.”

Twilight could practically feel Percy’s embarrassment; she didn’t need to strain herself as hard as she thought. Even whispering, Mr. Brunner’s voice carried to the rest of the class as she saw Nancy Bobofit give sarcastic little kissing motions at Percy. Oh, how Twilight wished she could use her magic in this world, if for no other reason than to make a live fish spontaneously appear and slap Nancy across the face just to shut her up.

“Okay, sir,” Percy mumbled.

“I mean…” Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, almost like his version of pacing as he tried to find the right words. “This isn’t the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.”

Rainbow sucked through her teeth quietly when she heard that. “Ouch,” she whispered, knowing exactly how much that must’ve hurt. Mr. Brunner was Percy’s favorite teacher, and here he was telling the kid he couldn’t handle it in front of the entire class. After saying he believed in Percy all year, now he was saying that it was his destiny to get the boot.

“Right.” Percy trembled.

“No-no- Oh, confound it all.” Mr. Brunner grumbled. “What I’m trying to say… you’re not normal, Percy. That’s nothing to be-”

“Thanks.” Percy blurted. “Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.” He walked to the door, a look of quiet anger on his face.

“Percy-” Too late; he was already gone.

The girls couldn’t help but scowl at the teacher as they each handed in their exams. Even kind Fluttershy and happy Pinkie Pie were looking at him like he’d fouled up. Spike wanted to growl at him from his hiding place in Twilight’s bag, but he knew that would blow his cover.

Finally, the term was over; the girls made their way to the Greyhound bus depot near the school, trying their best to avoid most of the annoying rich students grabbing about their plans for summer vacation. They saw Percy trudge in with his bags, a sad look on his face. “Said your goodbyes?” asked Twilight.

“To everyone who’d listen to them.” Percy shrugged. “Frankly, I think a lot of the guys at that school were happy to see me leave.”

“I know what you mean.” Rainbow nodded. “If I never see Nancy Bobofit again, it’ll be too soon.”

“Amen to that.” Applejack agreed with a smile on her face. “So where ya headed?”

“Home. If you can call it that.” Percy shrugged. “Not overly happy to see Gabe again, and even less excited to say goodbye to Grover and you girls.”

“You don’t have to.” Grover smiled as he limped over. “I’m headed into town on the 5:25.”

“Hey, so are we,” Twilight noted at their bus tickets.

“We’re all on the same bus? How crazy is that?” asked Percy.

“Probably not as crazy as some of us think,” Rainbow remarked offhandedly, glancing at Grover out the corner of her eye. She knew she and the other girls had to follow Percy to find a way back to Equestria, but what was Grover’s excuse?

They found out on the bus as they saw Grover glancing out the window and around the bus, watching the passengers. The girls knew that Grover had always acted like this when they left Yancy as if he was expecting something to happen. Before, they would’ve assumed it was because he was worried about getting picked on. But there was no one to pick on him on the bus.

Finally, Percy couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut anymore. “Looking for Kindly Ones?”

Grover almost jumped out of his seat at that. “Wha- What do you mean?” Rainbow stepped in and told him about how the gang had eavesdropped on him and Mr. Brunner before the exam, and his eye twitched. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough.” Rainbow shrugged. “That summer solstice deadline, for example; what’s it for?”

He winced. “Look, guys… I was just worried about you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…”

“Grover-” Percy tried to interject.

“And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something…”

“Grover…”

“Because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and…”

“Grover!” Percy yelled respectfully, driving Grover from his rambling. Percy smirked when he finally got his friend’s attention. “You’re a really, really bad liar.” The girls couldn’t help but smirk at that.

Grover’s ears turned pink in embarrassment and anger as he pulled a grubby business card out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Percy. “Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.”

The card was in some sort of fancy script – murder on the group’s dyslexic eyes – but they managed to make it out; “Grover Underwood; Keeper. Half-Blood Hill, Long Island, New York. [phone].”

“What’s Half-”

“Don’t say it aloud!” Grover yelped, interrupting Rainbow.

“Yikes, okay,” she said defensively as she looked back at the card. “But seriously what is this place?”

“It’s my, um… summer address,” Grover explained quickly, and Twilight could feel Percy’s heart sink. It had never occurred to the group that Grover’s family might’ve been rich enough to afford a summer home.

“Okay,” Percy said glumly. “So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion.”

“Or… or if you need me.” Grover nodded.

“Why would I need you?” That probably came out harsher than Percy meant it to.

“Wow. Real nice, dude.” Rainbow remarked as she saw Grover blush all the way down to his neck.

“Look Percy, the truth is, I- I kind of have to protect you,” Grover explained.

Rarity couldn’t help but scoff. “You have to protect him? Darling, how many times has Percy gotten in fights and lost sleep worrying about you this year?”

“I’ve lost count.” Percy shrugged to answer Rarity’s question but looked back at his friend. “Grover, what exactly are you protecting me from?”

Grover looked like he didn’t want to answer, but before Rainbow could force something from him, there was a massive grinding noise from under their feet. Black smoke poured from the bus’s dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. “Ugh! Blech! Ooh, that’s nasty!” Pinkie remarked. The driver seemed as unhappy as the others as he limped the bus off to the side of the highway.

He clanked around in the engine compartment for a few minutes before he announced everyone had to get off, so they did; flooding the side of the road with pedestrians. They had stopped on a stretch of country road; no place anyone would notice if they didn’t break down there. On the bus’s side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat and thrumming with traffic, was a fruit-stand that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the market in Ponyville, including what they were selling; apples, cherries, walnuts, apricots, and cider.

It wasn’t busy, but Rainbow smirked when she saw who was tending it. “Whoa. Hey, who do you think those are for?”

The other girls looked and saw three old ladies in rocking chairs under a maple tree knitting literally the biggest pair of socks any of them had ever seen; they were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The ladies on either side knitted while the one in the middle held the massive basket of electric blue yarn.

The women looked ancient with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair sticking out of white bandana-ties and bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. And the weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right past the girls and straight at Percy.

Percy noticed and was about to say something to Grover when the group saw that all the color had drained from his face and his nose was twitching like mad. “Grover? Hey, man-”

“Tell me they’re not looking at you,” Grover asked seriously. “They are, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?” Pinkie couldn’t help but giggle a bit at this, but the grim look on Grover’s face remained.

“Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.” Grover assured grimly. The old lady in the middle pulled out a massive pair of scissors – gold and silver, long-bladed like shears. Grover caught his breath in fear. “We’re getting on the bus. Come on.”

“Are you kidding? It’s like a thousand degrees in there.” Rainbow countered.

“Come on!” Grover insisted as he pried the doors open and climbed into the bus. The others stayed back and watched. Across the road, the old ladies still appeared to have their eyes locked onto Percy as the middle one snipped a length of yarn. The girls weren’t sure how, but somehow, they had heard the snip across four lanes of traffic and it sent a shiver down their spines as the ladies balled up the socks.

The group was driven from their surprise when they heard the driver wrench a large chunk of smoking metal out of the engine, before the bus shuddered back to life to the joy of the other passengers. “Darn right!” the driver yelled and slapped the bus with his hat. “Everybody back on board!”

When the group boarded, they couldn’t help but feel feverish, almost like they had all suddenly taken ill. Grover didn’t look much better; shivering like a leaf with chattering teeth. “Grover?” Percy asked.

“Yeah?”

“What are you not telling us?”

Grover dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. “Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?”

“You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man?” Percy asked. “They’re not like… Mrs. Dodds, are they?”

Grover’s expression became hard to read, but Twilight figured it out from the context. “They’re worse, aren’t they?”

“Just tell me what you saw,” Grover ordered.

“The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.” Grover did something interesting here; he closed his eyes and dragged three fingers across his heart before he pushed the palm of his hand outward. The girls weren’t sure what it meant, but Twilight’s best guess was that it was some sort of warding ritual.

“You saw her snip the cord.”

“Yeah. So?” Even as Percy said it, he and the girls knew it was a big deal.

“This is not happening,” Grover mumbled, chewing on his thumb. “I don’t want this to be like last time.”

“What last time? What are you talking about?” asked Rainbow.

“Always sixth grade. They never make it past sixth.”

Now it was Rarity’s turn to chime into the conversation. “Grover? You’re scaring us, darling,” she said in fear. “What are you talking about?”

Grover looked past her and toward Percy. “Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.”

Percy was confused but promised… though Applejack could almost feel that he’d crossed his fingers in his mind. She couldn’t say she blamed him. “Is this like a superstition or something?” The lack of an answer scared the girls further.

Twilight leaned toward him in concern. “Grover… that snipping of the yarn…” she asked. “Does it mean someone is going to die?” Grover looked around at Percy and each of the girls mournfully, as if he was already picking out the kind of flowers they’d each like best on their coffins. And that terrified them more than anything else he’d said.

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Past, Present, and of course, Future

Death