A guy meets a bum at a bus stop. The bum offered to turn him into whatever he dreamed to be at a small price. The man didn't believe him and jokingly said Zeus. Now, in modern times, the man rules the world, and things seem like a Percy Jackson book.
Dreams are a wonderful thing. They can inspire change or influence creativity.
An office worker by the name of Daniel finds himself returning home during a particularly strong downpour. He meets a strange bum sleeping on a bench beneath a covered bus stop. They have a stranger conversation and the bum offers to make a dream of his come true for a small price. Daniel laughingly accepts his offer, thinking it nothing more than the odd ramblings of a homeless man. He asks the bum to turn him into Zeus. Next thing he knows he was struck by lightning and sent to another world inside the womb of Rhea as she was ready to give birth.
Now it has been a few thousand years since all the myths and legends of Greek Mythology. Now, things have started to seem like a book series Daniel, now known as Zeus, always found to be a guilty pleasure. Percy Jackson.
Rainbow Dash & the Olympians - The Parliament of Athena: Chapters 3 - ??
A lonesome man fast walked down the empty sidewalk of his home city’s downtown streets, he felt the heavy pitter-patter of rain fall down on his umbrella. His destination was lit up by a street lamp, the dull glow from the light created something like a spotlight down on the simple covered and likely dry bus stop. His swift walk turned into a light jog when the thought of finally having some better cover over his head from this god forsaken rain came over him. As he jogged down the sidewalk he mistakenly stepped into a large puddle, the resulting splash soaked his right pant leg. The man cursed but kept going, no sense in fretting over something that was going to be washed when he got back home anyway.
The man felt immense relief flood over him as he finally stepped under the bus stop’s roof. He felt lucky, despite the fact he was caught by surprise from the sudden and heavy downpour, that at least the rain was falling in the opposite direction of the open end of the stop. The man sighed and folded his umbrella back up, there was no sense in shaking it out, it would only get wet later anyway. He heard a small noise from his right and turned his head to see what it was, when he looked over he honestly wasn’t surprised to see a homeless man sleeping on the bench. These were tough times, and not everyone would get out of it unscathed. And some had it worse than him.
He felt pity for the homeless man before him. The man himself had a well enough paying job working at an office building. A simple cubical farm with rows upon rows of others just like him, all grinding the day away with little in the way of fulfilling dreams. A depressing reality it was, and it was thanks to that reality that he felt the need to tune out the world and just think about what it would be like to live out his many childhood dreams.
“You a dreamer?”
The office worker jumped at the sudden inquiry coming from what he supposed was the sleeping man. He looked down at the man on the bench, who had now rolled over on his back and cracked open a single tired eye, he was covered in dirty clothes that had rips, tears, and an odd stain here and there. The office worker didn’t answer as he studied the homeless man before him. He had a sleepy expression on a face that could be considered very handsome, and looked oddly dry considering the downpour around them.
“You a dreamer?” The homeless man asked again, this time with the barest hint of annoyance at having to repeat himself.
The office worker blinked at the question, it was an odd one in his mind. He answered the man back, “Yeah, I suppose you could say that. I mean, everyone dreams right?” Well that was not strictly true, there are those out in the world who don’t dream at all, but they are a rarity.
“Those are one kind of dreams, but I wasn’t asking about those.” Yawned the homeless man.
The office worker considered his statement, if he was not asking about the kind of dreams you’d have when you fall asleep at night, then he could be asking a more philosophical question. Did he have dreams? For all intents and purposes he did and always will. From the time of his early childhood when he dreamed of being some heroic firefighter, to his teenage years of some of his favorite superheroes, movie stars and characters, and… more private ones of his favorite actresses, the list went on. Even now in his adult years he would still lay in bed, or stand in the shower, and just dream of what his life could’ve been like had he chose to go down any other paths.
With an answer in mind the office worker nodded at the homeless man, “Yeah, you could call me a dreamer.”
The homeless man hummed in thought and the office worker thought that was the end of the conversation. An odd conversation coming from a sleepy homeless man at a bus stop, but the office worker paid little mind to that fact. Instead he opted to try and shaking some water off of his soaked leg. It was to little effort as the continuing rain managed to make a sizable puddle in front of the bus stop.
The air was quiet between the office worker and the homeless man for a few minutes as one waited for the bus to come. Eventually the homeless man spoke up once more, “We’re all dreamers to some extent. But many people out there never get to realize their dreams. Sad don’t you think?”
The other man couldn’t help but agree, he muttered his agreement as he thought about what he said. There was still silence choking the atmosphere, and so the office worker decided to ask the homeless man a question. “My name is Daniel, what’s yours?”
The ghost of a smile adorned the homeless man’s face as Daniel looked down at the prone form. “I don’t really have a name, but for now just call me ‘The Dreamer’.”
Daniel rose an eyebrow, it was an odd ‘name’ to call someone. Odder still was the fact that in this day and age, or really any day and age, someone didn’t have a name. Even a homeless man would have a name, but Daniel simply shrugged and brushed it off. For all he knew it could just be some odd quirk the man before him had.
Daniel figured that was the end of their conversation, but ‘The Dreamer’ didn’t seem to think so.
“Off the top of your head, what dream of yours would you like to be turned into reality? I can make it come true, at the small cost of taking you from this world and placing you into another.” Said The Dreamer.
Daniel snorted. There were many dreams Daniel would’ve wanted realized into his reality. But he knew nothing could come of this, placing someone into a different world was unheard of. Magic and such things like that didn’t exist beyond fantasy and great feats of science like that belonged to Sci-Fi. So Daniel went for one of the more ‘off the rails’ kind of answer as he replied, “In all honesty? I’d love to be Zeus, King of the Gods. Greek mythology, or just mythology of any kind, has always been a favorite pastime of mine.”
The homeless man chuckled, “Zeus then huh?”
Daniel smirked back at him. “Yeah, kinda childish eh?”
The Dreamer shook his head, “Not at all. I think it’s natural for anyone of any age to want to be someone or something else. Especially if it’s being a higher power.” He paused to let what he said sink in, the storm raged onward growing increasingly in power. “So, how about it? Want to be Zeus?”
Daniel laughed as the rain grew even heavier, nearly encasing the street in complete darkness despite the lamps, “Yeah. I’d love to be Zeus. Whisk me away.”
The Dreamer smiled at him, “As you wish.”
A particularly loud clap of thunder shook the small bus stop, lightning flashed in the sky and illuminated the surroundings. Daniel looked into the sleepy eyes of The Dreamer in that instant, they almost looked to be glowing a soft blue. Daniel didn’t get a chance to think much of that as lightning flashed once more, shooting down from the sky in an impossible arc. The lightning dodged around the roof of the bus stop, coming in through the opening and striking Daniel in the chest. He knew no more.
“And so, Zeus fed his father a mixture of mustard and wine, which caused him to gorge up his siblings. After that-”, Mr Doodle was interrupted mid sentence as the final bell of the day rang. High-schoolers rushed to shove things into their backpacks and finally head back home after a long day of school, the fact that it was a Friday made the chaotic frenzy messier.
Mr Doodle raised a finger into the air and called out to the mass of students trying to force themselves out the door, “Don’t forget to study for the quiz next Monday! It’ll be over all we talked about today!”
Sunset Shimmer idly noticed her teacher sit back at his desk and finish a few papers as she slowly packed her backpack. She was not in any sort of rush, she was going to meet her friends in the music room and get together before heading to Sugarcube Corner anyway.
“Hurry up Sunset! We’re gonna be late!” Urged Rainbow Dash as she stood by the door.
Sunset rolled her eyes as she stuffed the last of her school supplies into her bag before getting out of her seat and walking to her friend, “Late for what? We’re just getting together before going to eat sweets. What’s the rush anyway?”
“Sugarcube corner has their yearly Zap Apple smoothies going on right now! I don’t want to miss out on them! They get out of stock really quickly!” Rainbow was practically jogging in place just outside the classroom door as Sunset finally crossed the threshold.
“They can’t be that good.” Sunset remarked as the two walked down the slowly diminishing crowd of students.
“Trust me, once you have one you’ll never want another smoothie again.” Rainbow said as they turned a corner. They were forced to stop short as Rainbow bumped into the assistant gym teacher.
“Oof!” Rainbow grunted. She looked up at the large red man as he glared down at her. “Sorry Mr Tirek.”
He didn’t say anything as he continued to stare at Rainbow, narrowing his eyes as he seemingly, from Sunset’s perspective at least, gave her a critical once over. After a moment he simply gave Rainbow the evil eye and continued his trek down the school’s corridor. Sunset and Rainbow stared at the man before looking back at each other.
Sunset pointed a thumb in his general direction. “What’s up with him?”
Rainbow just shrugged and looked nonchalant, or at least tried to, “No idea. Now c'mon, we gotta hurry!” She quickly ran down the hall to the music room area just on the opposite side of the school, occasionally waving frantically at Sunset, as if it would make her move all that much quicker.
Sunset looked at the multicolor haired girl curiously as she slowly disappeared from sight, she rubbed her chin with a finger as she thought over what just happened. As far as she knew Mr Tirek, or as some of the students call him, Mr T-Rex, was just another teacher here at school. He never showed any kind of hostile interest like that before.
“Weird,” Sunset softly said outloud, finger still on her chin.
Sunset hurried down the hallway to where she knew the other girls were at, perhaps not as fast as Rainbow but she was quick enough to get there in a respectable time-frame. She stopped just outside the door when she heard an interesting conversation coming from the room. Sunset pressed her ear against the door and listened in, curiosity piqued, “It’s Mr T-Rex. He’s the one.” Said the voice that was unmistakably Rainbow Dash, she sounded completely sure of herself but for what Sunset didn’t know.
“Are you absolutely sure darling?” That voice was certainly Rarity.
“Yeah! He gave me this really intense look when I bumped into him by accident.” Replied Rainbow.
“Well, it could just be the fact ya bumped into him Dash.” Said Applejack.
“I said I was sorry!” Rainbow said, sounding mildly annoyed now. She groaned and after a moment said, “Look, just trust me on this one. The way he looked at me… it was evil, like he knew exactly what I was, what we are. He can probably smell all of our scents! For all we know he could be grabbing some buddies!”
“‘What we are? Smelling scents? Just what on Earth is going on?” Sunset thought.
“Buddies don’t sound very good…” Mumbled Fluttershy.
“Exactly! I say we just take him out right here and now!” Yelled Rainbow.
“Now wait just a second! We can’t just rush in without knowing what we’re dealing with!” Exclaimed Rarity.
“What?! Take him out?! Is she planning on… and Rarity isn’t going against that?!” Sunset Shimmer didn’t get to continue her horrified thought process as the door swung open and she fell face first down on the floor. Sunset looked up and saw the face of a surprised Rainbow Dash. She looked forward to see the same expression matched on each of her friends.
After a few moments of silence Applejack swallowed and asked, “Uh, sugarcube. How much did you hear?”
Sunset felt indignant over this whole situation. How much did she hear? What did that matter?! Sunset felt appalled that Applejack of all people would ask her something like that after just having a conversation about killing someone. Her displeasure was likely easy to read on her face right now, Sunset wasn’t doing anything to hide it.
“How much did I hear?! What difference does that make?!” The other five girls flinched at her angered tone, Sunset furrowed her brow and sneered. “How can you girls be comfortable at all about just casually mentioning kill-!”
Sunset didn’t get to finished as Rainbow clamped a hand around her mouth, shushing her loudly, a single blue finger at her lips. Sunset struggled to get out of her grip but the athletic girl had a clear advantage over her in strength. Rainbow looked both ways down the hall before pulling herself and Sunset back into the music room, shutting the door closed behind her.
At this point Rainbow’s grip on Sunset was weak enough for her to yank herself away from the multi-hued girl and back up a few feet away. She glared at her blue friend while wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand. Rainbow sighed and looked at Sunset, “Look, I know this whole thing seems really, really bad from your perspective right now.”
“Ya think?!” Came the unamused reply.
“But look, we have an explanation for all this! So please keep your voice down!” Rainbow said, trying to ease an unconvinced Sunset down as she glared at the other girls in the room.
“Indeed, and to be quite honest it’s something that is a very big deal.” Said Rarity as she put away a small pocket mirror. “We meant to tell you a while ago, but between those Equestrian Sirens showing up and the whole Friendship Games fiasco we just ended up forgetting.”
“And because we had to get permission to tell you!” Came a cheerful voice interjecting into the conversation. Pinkie Pie appeared at Rarity’s side, squeezing her into a tight one armed side hug, making the hugee in question wince both from the mild pain and the fact her hair was now slightly messed up.
Sunset crossed her arms, “So what you’re saying is that some big conspiracy is just hanging over everyone’s heads. With nobody knowing? And you five just so happen to be a part of it? Give me a break, that kind of stuff only happens in the movies.”
“It’s the honest truth Sunset. We ain't lyin’.” Said Applejack, she was sitting on one of the big amps lying next to a piano, the neck of her bass guitar resting in the crook of her arm.
Sunset scoffed, “Alright, fine then, what’s this big conspiracy?” Sunset waved her arms sarcastically at her last two words.
The five girls looked at each other, as if silently arguing over who should tell Sunset. As if on cue, four of them simultaneously turned their heads to Rainbow Dash who groaned in annoyance. Slapping a hand to her face Rainbow muttered, “Ah geeze, why do I always have to do these things?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow and watched as Rainbow pivoted on her heels and looked at Sunset. The two looked at each other for just a moment before Rainbow said something that left Sunset speechless. Her mouth dropped and she said, “What did you say?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and repeated herself, “I said, the greek gods are real, so are the monsters, Mr T-Rex is one of them, and we are demigods. Except you of course.”
Sunset looked at her for one final moment before bursting into laughter. This was obviously not what Rainbow expected her to do, she gave an uncomfortable look in the direction of the other four girls who just shrugged and didn’t offer anything helpful. Sunset was doubled over on the top of the piano now, smacking the surface with a hand. She calmed down after a good minute and wiped a tear from her eye, still getting a few last chuckles out.
“Ah, alright I get it now.” She said.
Rainbow perked up and smiled, “You do?!”
The fiery haired girl nodded, a smile still on her face after her laughing session, “Yeah. This whole thing was a setup wasn’t it?” Rainbow perked back down and sighed. “Running off after bumping into Mr Tirek, making some sort of ridiculous plot, and trying to get me to believe in some big conspiracy that included ancient myths to be real. That was a good prank, you had me going for a while there.”
Rainbow groaned, smacking a hand to her face. Rarity and Applejack followed suite, while Pinkie just kept smiling and Fluttershy tried calming down the bunny in her backpack that got scared from Sunset’s loud laughter.
“No darling, what Rainbow said is true. Though she could’ve gone with a little more tact and finesse in explaining everything.” Rarity said. “We, that means us five, are all children of the greek gods.”
Sunset just shook her head, “Look, monsters I can believe, there are tons of them in Equestria, but actual living gods? No way!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Well we can do stuff that no regular human can do.”
“Yeah, that stuff is thanks to the Equestrian magic that’s now here. You know, the stuff you used to beat me, the stuff we used to beat the Dazzlings, even when I went all supernova during the Games? It’s all magic.”
Rainbow crossed her arms, “That's not what I meant. And besides, you believe in magic, are gods really too ridiculous for you?”
Sunset rose an eyebrow, “I was born in Equestria and used magic all my life. It’s as common as science and grass on the other side of the portal.”
Rainbow looked sheepish and rubbed her head, “Oh. Right. Hehe.”
“Look sugarcube, I know it sounds mighty impossible to someone who has never had any interaction with them before but it’s all true. The gods are real, we being demigods is real, and the fact that Mr Tirek is a monster is real. Honest.”
Sunset looked at Applejack, searching her face for any sign of untruth, but she gave up when she saw her friend’s face bearing no signs of misleading her. Besides, Applejack couldn’t lie to save her life anyway. Sunset eventually sighed in defeat, “Alright. I believe you.”
The relief shown on all of the other girl’s face was an understatement to how they really felt.
“So, you’re demigods then?” Sunset rhetorically asked after taking in a few moments to absorbed the new reality she needed to face.
“Yuperooni!” Said Pinkie, not getting it was a question that didn’t need an answer.
“So, who’s a child of who then?”
The girls looked at each other, eventually shrugging. Applejack decided to go first, “Well sugarcube, mah mother is Demeter. And before ya ask, mah brother is a mortal and Applebloom is the same as me. Mac’s mother died in childbirth you see and mah daddy fell in love with mah mother sometime later.”
“My mother is Aphrodite, fitting wouldn’t you say?” Said Rarity, now trying to desperately fix her hair.
Sunset snorted, “Yeah, I can see that. How about you Fluttershy?” Sunset turned to the girl in question.
“Oh! Um, I’m also a uh, daughter of Demeter.” Said Fluttershy.
Sunset blinked, “So, you two are sisters?”
Applejack tipped her hat and said, “Yup! We’re family and ah’m proud of it.” Fluttershy smiled, a small blush on her cheeks.
Sunset smiled herself, it was always nice to see things like family being together. She was broken out of her thoughts on that by a pink blur in front of her face. “Oh! Pick me! Pick me!” Said an extremely excited Pinkie Pie as she raised her hand in the air like they were still in class.
Sunset pointed at Pinkie, “Alright then, who's your godparent Pinkie?”
Pinkie smiled and jumped back, she threw her hands out to her sides, confetti shooting out into the air behind her, “The god of parties of course!”
Sunset thought for a moment before snapping her fingers, “Dionysus right?”
“Yup yup!” Pinkie said before bouncing over to the window.
“I guess that just leaves you Rainbow.” Sunset said.
“Heh, saving the best for last!” Rainbow gloated. She ran over and jumped on top of an amp next to Applejack, nearly knocking her over in the process. Rainbow put her hands on her hips and nearly seemed to glow with pride. “My dad is the one and only-!”
“Oh look! Some students have Zap Apple smoothies!” Pinkie loudly interrupted Rainbow, drool pouring out of her mouth at the thought of inhaling the rare smoothie treat.
“What?!” Rainbow shouted, her eyes wide as she snapped her head in Pinkie’s direction, completely forgetting about her previous bravado. She ran over to the window and pressed her face against the glass, she gasped when she saw two students walking past the school with smoothies in their hands. Rainbow pulled at her hair and did some sort of odd jig as she yelled out, “Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, omigosh! I completely forgot about those! We need to go!”
With that Rainbow stormed out of the music room, leaving the others in her dust.
Rarity sighed and picked up Rainbow’s forgotten backpack and eyed the beaten up bag with apprehension, “The least she could do is remember we have a loose monster amidst the school. And a friend we’re trying to convince that we aren’t murdering psychopaths.”
Sunset smiled apologetically, “Yeah, look. I’m sorry about all of that.”
Rarity waved a hand at her, “Oh pish posh, no need to fret over it. All water under the bridge and all that.” Rarity smiled at Sunset and she and the others quickly left the music room, “Now, I do believe we have to find Rainbow Dash before she does something reckless. You’d think being the daughter of Zeus would mean she has some capacity of forethought, but sadly she’s always been quite the opposite. Hopefully she doesn’t shock some poor mortal to get to the front of the line... again.”
Sunset hummed in thought as she walked beside her friends, “Daughter of Zeus huh?” She paused for a moment, still lost in thought, before the exact meaning of those words came back at her in full force. Sunset sputtered out, “Rainbow is the daughter of Zeus?!”
The four friends were jogging down the sidewalk on one of Canterlot City’s many streets. Sugarcube Corner was just starting to come into sight and the girls could already see a long line formed just outside its place of business.
“Anyone see Rainbow?” Asked Sunset, who put a hand over her eyes to block out the sun.
“No, ah don't see her anywhere.” Applejack commented, also trying to scan the crowd.
“You'd think with that hair of hers that she'd be easy to spot…” Muttered Rarity.
“Um, girls?” Fluttershy softly said.
The other girls looked at Fluttershy, who grew a bit nervous when she realized their undivided attention was being focused on her. She quickly got her nerves back when she remembered that she was with friends and pointed down the alley she stood in front of.
“I um, I think I hear Rainbow Dash down there.”
The other girls listened for anything coming from the alley, sure enough they could hear Rainbow’s voice echo softly. Her voice sounded angry and started to get progressively louder as time moved on, a fact that had the girls more than a little worried.
The five girls looked at each other and nodded, they slowly walked down the alleyway while taking care to try and spot any hidden dangers. Rarity pulled her pocket mirror out.
“Is this really the time to check your makeup?” Sunset hissed quietly at her friend.
Rarity simply gave a soft musical laugh, “Oh, it's not just a mirror darling.” With that said she pressed a tiny button inside the hollow casing. The mirror transformed into a long bronze dagger, the weapon seemed to have some sort of glow to it.
Sunset’s mouth dropped, “What the?”
“It's a celestial bronze dagger darling, it makes killing monsters much easier. It can't harm mortals, only monsters, gods, and demigods.” Rarity explained.
“I see…” Sunset said, eyeing the dagger curiously. She looked at the others and saw that they too have similar weapons. Applejack had a standard shield and sword, Fluttershy had a dagger, and Pinkie had a bow. “So magical weapons that can hide as ordinary, everyday items?”
“Yup! And for Rainbow it's her wrist bands!” Pinkie said. “She's got a spear and shield!”
Sunset didn't comment further as the gang quickly moved through the alley to catch up on lost time. They made a left and stopped before entering a small courtyard in the middle of a section of buildings. They leaned a head forward to peek around the side of the wall they ended up against.
The girls saw Rainbow glaring at the assistant gym teacher and two other beefy looking guys wearing the same white jackets. Mr Tirek was now wearing a black muscle shirt, he was also wearing a white jacket just like the other two, though his was open to the air. All three had a large wooden club in hand, though club could be an understatement as they might've well been tree trunks considering how thick they were.
“Can we eat her now boss?” Asked the guy to the left of Tirek.
“Yeah, it's been awhile since I've last eaten a demigod. My new workout regime needs the protein you see.” Said the other guy to the right of Tirek.
“Patience boys,” said Tirek. “Why bother with one when you can have five? If we use her as bait then the others will surely come.”
The other two seemed to think it over, they nodded as they heeded their boss’s plan. Rainbow wasn't going to have any of it though, “What? You think I'm just going to lay back and let you hold me hostage?! As if!”
Rainbow’s wristbands transformed into her weapons, a shield on her left arm and a spear in her right hand. Rainbow put her shield in front of her and pointed the spear at Tirek. “Come on then freaks, I bet that even will all that muscle you can't even fight!”
The left man growled at Rainbow, “Watch it god spawn, we’re the strongest gang in Canterlot City. You ain't got a chance against us, especially when you're outnumbered.”
Rainbow grinned at him, “Hah! You couldn't beat me even if there were a hundred of you!”
Rarity sighed and muttered softly, “Why must she be so reckless? Wait for backup for gods sake.”
Tirek rolled his eyes, “Empty bravado daughter of Zeus. I'd wager you might be able to take one of us out, and that's being generous, but you'd be overwhelmed eventually.” He shrugged, “But enough talk. It's time for the Bloody Centaur Gang to take what's theirs.”
With that Tirek lifted his club in the air and swung down at Rainbow. She jumped back in time, the oversized club cracking the pavement. Tirek’s lackeys charged Rainbow from either side of her swinging their trunks like baseball bats.
Rainbow rolled forward at Tirek, the two clubs smack each other with a resounding crack. Rainbow stabbed her spear forward at her opponent's heart but Tirek dodged to his right. He wasn't left completely unscathed however, Rainbow’s spear caught him in his arm, leaving a deep scratch that looked to be bleeding some sort of dust.
Tirek screamed in rage, he randomly swung his club, missing Rainbow by a mile but in the process struck her spear. Rainbows spear broke from the contact and she cursed in Greek. Tirek dropped his club and grabbed his cut open arm. Rainbow backed away from her three opponents, shield still up and broken spear discarded, as she watched her attackers morph into their real forms. They were revealed as Cyclops, and none of them looked amused.
Tirek grabbed his club, his eyes full of renewed hatred for the girl in front of him. The three Cyclops roared a war cry and charged the young demigod. Then an arrow suddenly pierced the eye of one of Tirek’s lackeys, the leftmost Cyclops dropped to the ground, slowly turning into dust.
The two monsters and one demigod looked at where the arrow came from. Rainbow’s eyes widened when she saw her friends standing a good distance from the nearby alleyway they came in from. “Girls?!” Rainbow shouted confused and happy at the same time.
Pinkie waved energetically at Rainbow with the hand that wasn't holding her bow, acting nothing like a girl that just bulls eyed a Cyclops. “Hiya Rainbow!”
“Hey…” Rainbow trailed off as Tirek and his buddy started to charge at the newcomers. Applejack stood in front of her friends, and Fluttershy worked her demigod powers to bind the legs of the Cyclops with vines. It was enough to stop them for the briefest of moments, sadly that wasn't enough.
The two monsters tore free from their impromptu confines and charged the newcomers. Pinkie, Sunset, and Fluttershy ran to the left, leading the lackey Cyclops away from his leader. Neither seemed to care now that their friend had been sent back to Tartarus. Applejack and Rarity lead Tirek himself in the opposite direction.
Tirek swung his club in an upwards arc at the running demigods, missing, but knocking a bench from its bolted down position in the concrete. The bench soared up and over a small building, likely crashing either on top of the building or out in the streets. The two demigods paid no heed to the flight incapable object, instead Applejack opted to duck under his club arm and take a swing with her sword.
Tirek dodged the attack, and swiped down at Rarity as she tried to sneak behind him. She moved out of the way and Tirek's weapon struck the ground, sending bits of concrete to batter against Rarity with the likelihood of bruises appearing where she was struck. Applejack tried another swing at him but Tirek managed to keep her back as well. The three combatants were stuck in a stalemate, no side able to hit the other.
On the other side of the small courtyard two demigods and a mortal were being chased by an enraged Cyclops. Fluttershy looked completely terrified, as well as Sunset. Pinkie was taking potshots at their adversary, sadly she was never able to get a good shot as the Cyclops was using his large club to block her arrows.
“How do we stop this thing?!” Sunset frantically asked as she swerved to the left to avoid a brick the monster somehow had gotten ahold of.
“Weeell, Cyclops just need celestial bronze to take down. My arrows are made of that stuff, but that silly willy won't let me shoot him!” Pinkie pouted as she took another shot at the Cyclops, a clunk was heard and the three knew it was the monster once again blocking with his club.
“Can't imagine why.” Sunset drawled out.
“I know right?!”
“Um girls,” Sunset and Pinkie looked over at Fluttershy. “The Cyclops stopped chasing us.”
The three girls stopped and looked back, the Cyclops in question had dropped his club and was trying to desperately reach something that was on his back.
“Gah! Git off of me!” Screamed the Cyclops in rage.
Then rainbow hair popped over his head and the others immediately knew it was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow raised her shield over her head and smacked the Cyclops on the crown of his head. The monster grunted in pain and staggered erratically around.
Rainbow was about to slam him again when an arrow streaked out and struck the Cyclops in the eye. Two more followed, though they were unnecessary, one struck him in the heart and the other below the belt. The Cyclops had just enough time to scream in primal pain before he exploded in a shower of monster dust.
Rainbow fell back to the ground with a grunt, sneezing and coughing as she got back up. She tried to no avail to wave the still floating dust away from her as she glared at Pinkie. “Really?” She asked.
Pinkie put on an innocent look, “Really what?”
Rainbow just narrowed her eyes before rolling them and stormed off to where Applejack and Rarity were holding if Tirek. The others followed her example.
Tirek swung his club frantically at the dodging daughter of Demeter. “Why! Won't! You! Diiieee?!” He punctuated each word with a heavy swing.
While he wasn't able to get a direct hit on the girl, Applejack was still far from unscathed. Her shield had been bent toward her on its bottom, nearly making the shield into a right angle and making it virtually useless. She also had a few cuts and scraps from sliding on the concrete. Rarity wasn't much better but she didn't have anything that wasn't superficial at the worst.
Applejack smirked at him, “Well, maybe ah just don't feel like it.” Tirek just growled at her as she continued, “Besides, ah think you have more things to worry about than me not dyin’.”
Applejack motioned to all around them and Tirek cautiously looked around. He was now surrounded by the six girls and looked nervous when he saw the other pile of dust on the opposite side of the concrete courtyard.
Rainbow smirked at him, her shield back on her arm and put her hand on her hip, “Well, guess this just isn't your day.”
Tirek, now wisely understanding he was outmatched in terms of combat decided to try the diplomatic approach. “Well, it really isn't. So how about I go and we never speak of this again?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “No, you wanted to eat me and my friends. You're not going anywhere.”
“Well, I tried.” Grunted the Cyclops leader. He charged Rainbow with his club raised over his head as she was the only one besides the mortal without a weapon.
Lightning flashed overhead and Tirek stopped mid charge, looking up into the sky. He looked back at Rainbow and muttered, “Oh, right. Daughter of Zeus.” Rainbow raised her free hand to the sky and swung it down, lightning arched from the clouds and struck the monster. The lightning exploded on contact, the monster followed suite and showered everyone in dust. Rainbow rested herself on her knees briefly, looking a little winded after that.
“My hair! My clothes!” Rarity screeched.
Rainbow brushed some of the dust off her face, stood up straight again and asked, “What's the big deal? Just wash it out.”
“What's the big deal?!” She shouted, sounding very much annoyed. “Do you know how hard it is to wash monster dust out of clothes?! It’s nearly impossible!”
The girls just watched her wail about having to get more Olympian grade stain remover. Rarity’s complaining and the silence between the others was broken when Rainbow gasped.
“Oh Styx! I forgot! The smoothies!” And she immediately bolted out of the courtyard and down the alley the other girls came in through. The girls simply watched her go.
Sunset looked at her discarded spear and pointed, “Doesn't she need that?”
Applejack tucked away whatever she used to summon her equipment and replied, “Naw, it'll just return to her as her wrist band. She'll have to get it repaired by the Hephaestus cabin though.”
Sunset looked at the spear dubiously, the shaft was decimated. “I don't think you can repair that.”
“Also, Hephaestus cabin?” Sunset thought.
Applejack shrugged, “Ah think the enchantment is in the celestial bronze. So they'll just give her a new shaft ah guess. Ah really don’t know. They always manage to fix these things so ah never questioned it myself.”
Sunset nodded, then sat down on one of the benches. She rubbed her temple, “Wow this day turned in an odd direction pretty quickly. And this is your life? Like everyday?”
Rarity, who had now calmed, replied, “Well, not everyday, that would be ridiculous. Just a lot of them.”
“Though it's not all bad.” Fluttershy said. “There is camp after all.”
“Camp?” Sunset looked quizzically at Fluttershy.
“Oh! Um, I forgot you don’t know.” Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment. She smiled at Sunset and said, “It’s a place where demigods can go to be safe from any monsters trying to hurt them. It’s very nice, a lot of nature surrounding it too.”
Sunset smiled, “It sounds lovely.”
Sunset felt someone pat her roughly on the shoulder, “It really is sugarcube. And we are suppose to bring you there this summer.”
Sunset looked confused, “Huh? But it’s suppose to be for demigods right? I’m clearly not a demigod.”
“Well, from what Chiron told us, Rainbow’s father wants to talk to you. For what we haven’t the slightest clue though.” Rarity said as she tried her best to clean herself up. “You’ll likely wait for a few days to a week in camp before we bring you up to Olympus.”
Sunset felt worried, as it was not everyday that a god summoned your presence. Much less the King of the Gods himself, the only thing she really wanted to know was why. But she would not get the luxury of knowing what Zeus wanted until school was over and they went to this demigod camp of theirs.
Then something sparked in her head and she turned to Rarity and asked, “Wait. Olympus? Like the mountain in Greece?”
Rarity coughed, “Well… not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well… the gods move with western civilization. Or more accurately with the biggest western superpower. And they couldn’t just move a mountain around without causing some real questions.” Rarity shrugged, “So they simply moved the godly peak of it around, floating over some important building. Right now it’s over the Empire State Building in Manhattan, you take the elevator up to it using a special card that activates the sixth hundredth floor button.”
“Oh, so nobody notices a floating mountain top over the city?” Sunset asked.
“It’s the Mist’s doing, it hides godly things from mortals, monsters included. It's why they looked human before morphing into a Cyclops. They must've been uncommonly good at using the Mist if they could hide their true selves from us and someone as clear-sighted as you.” Said Applejack. “Now enough with all the talkin’ and sittin’ around, we’ll explain things to ya on the way to Sugarcube Corner. Dash is probably already tearin’ up the place as we speak.”
With that Sunset and the girls headed out, with Applejack and Rarity talking animatly with Sunset as she asked questions she felt she desperately needed answers for. Fluttershy and Pinkie were just happily playing with one of Fluttershy’s bunnies.
The other girls eventually caught up to Rainbow, who was happily sucking up a rainbow colored smoothie. Mrs Cake, one of the owners of Sugarcube Corner, saved one just for her since she knew how much Rainbow liked them. Rainbow took one long gulp of the drink, gave a happy sigh, and said, “Mrs Cake is awesome.”
Rarity was still eyeing her ruined clothes in distaste, “Well, I’m glad one of us is happy about this turn of events.”
Rainbow held her cup out to Sunset, “Here, try some. You probably won’t get a chance later if they run out again this early every day. It’ll only last a week.”
Sunset graciously took the offer cup and took a sip. She smacked her lips and hummed in delight as she gave the cup back to her friend, “Wow, you weren’t kidding. This is good!”
“I know right?!”
The six friends continued to chat in the bakery, eating sweets and having fun. Soon they had to return to school, the remaining months flying by without further incidents. No one was bothered by the lack of monstrous attempts on their lives, the demigods told their mortal friend that they each had a special charm to hide their scents. It wasn’t foolproof and didn’t always work, but it gave them big enough of a chance to hide from any monster that might’ve caught their scent and followed them. Sadly they couldn’t keep them, the charms were only distributed to demigods that needed it, like ones that had special long term missions. They were always given back to the camp after their mission was finished. The charms were hard to make before, nearly impossible now since the recipe to make them was destroyed many years ago.
The final day of the school year came to a close, the demigod girls were hanging out around a white van that had a picture of a strawberry and the words “Delphi Strawberry Service” written across the sides. Sunset watched as Applejack threw the last of her stuff into the back with all of the others. She couldn’t help but feel nervous, she was about to travel across the country to a camp somewhere near Manhattan that was full of others like her friends. Strangers aside, she still didn’t know what the gods wanted with her either, even with months of thinking on it.
Sunset supposed it could’ve been about the events that happened earlier in the school year, but it seemed like it was awfully late to question her about those events. She sighed, thinking too much about it would give her a headache, and that was the last thing she needed right now.
“We’re ready Sunset!” Pinkie yelled excitedly as she waved to her before skipping to the driver’s side of the van.
Sunset hurried over to the van, getting in back with Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Rarity was seated in the passenger's side, idly filing her nails. Once everyone was buckled in Pinkie turned onto the road, on course for camp.
“Hey,” Sunset started after a moment. “Whose van is this anyway?”
“The camp’s.” Rainbow said. “It’s the camp’s business name. The Demeter cabin, Dionysus cabin, and the Satyrs all help grow the strawberries to sell to the mortals in Manhattan and to Olympus.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize the camp would even need funds considering it’s for you know, godly things.” Sunset seemed confused.
Rainbow just shrugged, she didn’t have an answer for her. The other girls didn’t either. The van was once again bathed in silence as each girl did their own thing, a silence Sunset decided she didn’t really like. “So, you girls got any cool adventures under your belt? We kinda have a lot of time to spare.” She said.
Rainbow looked at the others as they all shared some of their adventures with Sunset. She couldn’t help but get a bit lost in her own memories too, like her first ever adventure. She was barely twelve when she first learnt she was a demigod…
My name is Rainbow Dash.
I just turned twelve during my last semester ever here at Cloudsdale’s Middle School for Enlightened Youths. Yeah, the name is a mouthful, I know. But I couldn’t say the school was bad, it was rather nice actually. The only thing I could say was that nobody in the school was actually “enlightened”. Despite what the name might suggest, the school is actually a place for kids who couldn’t go anywhere else, all of the troubled kids one might say.
I like to think that I was not a troubled kid. In fact, if I had it my way, I’d be well behaved enough so that I can actually do the things I love. Most of them being sports related, like soccer or basketball. But what I want usually doesn’t happen, weird things tend to happen to me at school that eventually get me expelled one way or another.
Like that time where me and my class were on a field trip to a fire station. This place had one of those large handled switches to control the lights and I was asked to flip it on. Well, when I did, some sort of electrical discharge came out of nowhere and zapped the switch, causing some sort of huge fire, probably along the wires of the building. No one believed me when I told them that, everyone just assumed I had some sort of lighter on hand and pyromania in my mind.
Most of these things tended to happen around the middle of the school year, sometimes even before. But I was well past that point right now, it was the end of the year, last day of school, and while I had been in a few fights with bullies, those were nothing really noteworthy or unusual. I tried desperately to stay positive but I was actually a nervous wreck. My nerves didn’t help my grades either, I was already dyslexic with ADHD. I tried to not show it in front of my friends, keeping up a calm and cocky image like I didn’t really care wasn’t always easy. At this point I was practically expecting the school to blow up.
Oh, right, I should mention my friends.
Fluttershy was this really sweet and pretty girl. She had soft yellow skin that was accented by her wavy pink hair. She looked like she could be a supermodel when she grew up. Truthfully I don’t understand why she was even in this school. She didn’t exactly fit the image of a troubled kid, she was far too shy and soft spoken for that. She, like my other friend that I’ll mention in a second, was really into nature stuff. She even hides small animals like bunnies in her backpack and brings them to school with her. On a side note, I found it strange she too was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD.
My only other friend in school was Wild Brush, he was a crippled guy that had some sort of leg disease, it prevented him from walking right and he needed crutches to get around. He was permanently excused from PE, which I think sucks because his attitude would’ve been great when playing on the field or court. He had light tan skin, green eyes, long messy green hair, and was really lanky. To be honest, he looks like a walking palm tree. But don’t mention that to him, he’d smack you with his crutches and chase you around the school with them. Despite his inability to walk right without his crutches, he could really run when needed.
Right now I was in a dead end hallway lined with lockers, in between Fluttershy and the biggest jerk in school, Cobalt, who was unusually big for a middle schooler. My best guess was that he was too stupid to make it past sixth grade.
“How about you move outta the way Lamebow,” Cobalt said, smirking at me while showing off his teeth. It didn’t look cool, it just made his gross yellow teeth clearly visible to everyone else’s unfortunate fate. “I just wanna borrow your little girlfriend for a while. I hear her daddy gave her extra lunch money.”
I heard his dumb self laugh at some stupid joke he probably had forced himself to come up with in his head, Cobalt wasn’t that smart to begin with.
I rose my hand and put a fist between us before snarling at him, “How about you back away from my friend and I don’t shove this up your nose!”
He just crossed his arms, “I’d like to see you try.” He leaned forward, nearly making me gag with the foul breath spewing from his rotten mouth, “You’re just a girl.”
“And this ‘girl’ can still kick your teeth in buddy!” I shouted. I was going to say more when a soft voice spoke behind me.
“Rainbow, um, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Fluttershy was trying to hide behind her hair as she spoke. “I can just give him the money, I’m not that hungry anyway. Honest.”
Cobalt grinned, “Now how about that! Just listen to your girlfriend Lamebow.”
I grunted, “Like that’ll happen! Listen ‘Shy, I’m not the one who's gonna get hurt here. Besides, I know this guy has done this to you before. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Fluttershy looked down and I got into a fighting stance. “Bring it jerk, I ain’t backin’ down!”
Cobalt kept his smug grin up and cracked his knuckles, “Very well, bring it!”
He lunged at me with a huge fist, I ducked under it and jabbed hard at his side with my left fist. Strangely it didn’t even seem to faze him as much as it did me, I grabbed my left wrist and massaged it as he just laughed.
“You hit like a girl!”
At this point I was livid, he was trying to bully my friend and kept mocking me. I clenched my fists hard and gritted my teeth together, for some reason I smelt ozone.
Before I could continue my attack the lights above us popped like someone doused it with water, bathing us in sudden shadow. As quick as lightning, Vice Principal Saffron darted around the corner just behind the bully. She was a wrinkly hag with more bad attitude than the wrinkles on her face. She eyed my still in place fists and the annoying bully across from me. “Just what is going on here?!”
Before I could say anything in my defense Cobalt spoke up and pointed a finger at me and Fluttershy, “Those two are bullying me ma’am!”
The Vice Principal adjusted her glasses and fixed us with a glare hot enough to insta-melt steel. “I see. Ms. Dash, Fluttershy, in my office after the rally. We need to have a talk. Cobalt come with me now.”
Cobalt stuck his tongue out at us as he followed the Vice Principal. It wasn’t a fair ruling, this lady has had it out for me specifically ever since she joined the school after replacing the last Vice Principal who went missing the first month. Every time I would defend either myself or someone else from bullies she would never see reason. She always took the bullies side, no matter how many people testified against. The Principal himself didn’t do anything, the short, scrawny guy just nodded along with whatever the Vice Principal said.
I relaxed myself and looked over at one of my best friends. “You ok, Fluttershy?”
She nodded and wiped her eye to rid herself of a few tears, she tends to do that when she gets really scared. I sighed and patted her on the back before smiling at her, “Come on, it’s almost time for the school’s last pep rally. Might as well have a small moment of fun before being chewed out by the Vice Principal right?”
“Ok,” She softly said, smiling back at me.
The pep rally wasn’t anything new or exciting. If you think typical school rally then you had a good grasp on what went on during this one. Nearly no one paid any attention to what was going on in the middle of the gym. It was the last day of school and everyone wanted out, not sitting in a bleacher watching band members and other various school related clubs do their thing.
To be honest I myself wondered why the school did this anyway. It was a peculiar line of judgement honestly. Any other school would’ve had a half day and call it that. I just sighed and leaned against the railing, luckily the rally thing was almost done. Fluttershy was busy petting a kitten she brought with her. I looked to my left when I heard a small thud on the bleacher and saw my other friend Wild now sitting next to us.
“Heard you got in trouble with the Vice Principal.” He said as he leaned against the railing with me.
I grunted, “Yeah. Apparently she’ll believe that I would bully someone and Fluttershy would join me. Fluttershy.” I emphasized my friends name with a roll of my eyes at the Vice Principal’s lack of perception. “That woman is a monster.”
Wild grunted, “You got that right.” We sat in silence as we watched the rally go by, after a while he asked, “Anything else happen with the VP?”
That was an odd question, I opened my mouth to mention the ozone and light thing right before she showed up but the band down in the gym’s court went into a frenzy of loud music as they reached the end. I waited for them to calm down, once they finished everyone immediately bolted from their seats and ran out the gym doors. Despite nearly being trampled I almost felt free.
“We gotta run, the Vice Principal wanted to see us after the rally.” I said to Wild. He looked nervous for some reason but eventually nodded his head.
“Alright, I’ll meet you afterwards then right?” He said.
I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Yeah, come by my house. I think my mom is making her awesome brownies.”
He grinned at the mention of my mother’s homemade brownies, Fluttershy and I left him in the bleachers. We made our way down the hallways of the school to the administration area, it was right next to the main entrance. Oddly enough there didn’t seem to be anyone here, even if everyone rushed out the building there would still be stragglers lingering. But it was eerily empty, but empty schools were always eery looking anyway.
We were stopped as we took all this in, Fluttershy had her teeth chattering. Something felt off about this whole thing. I put a hand on her shoulder and motioned for us to move forward, the sooner this was over with the better. She nodded and we took our first step towards the administration building. It was as far as we got.
The heavily tinted door to the administration area opened, revealing the Vice Principal alongside Cobalt.
“What’s this?” I ask.
The Vice Principal ignored my question and looked us over, “I knew I had smelled something good. It has been a long time since he had one of his half breeds, I hear that from all the others they make for the most nutritious meals.”
Cobalt had started drooling at this point. He reached behind himself and pulled out a… bib? Before putting it on around his neck. If it wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t growing and looking a bit scarier now, I’d have laughed in his face. Fluttershy seemed to have the same opinion as I did, she was standing completely still out of fear now.
“Oh, where are my manners.” Suddenly the VP’s body starting shifting. Her head and body stayed mostly the same, but her arms changed into a mixture of a bird’s and human’s. She grew talons on her feet and a tail. “My name is Saffron, and this is Cobalt, my husband.”
Cobalt had finished with his growing and stood at least eight feet tall, he was hugely muscular with tattoos littering his arms. His teeth stayed the same color but were now sharp, a point emphasized when he grinned widely, as if showcasing them. My mouth was dry now, I put an arm around Fluttershy and slowly started backing up from them.
“There’s no running from us Ms. Dash. We have your scent now, and what a truly wondrous scent it is!” Saffron-Harpy licked her lips.
The giant man in front of us took a step forward, we took another step back.
I was understandably scared right now, it was one thing to face a bully, another to face a real life monster. The giant in front of us looked to be about to charge when we heard the strangest sound. It was like someone was trying to play ‘Hey Jealousy’ on pipes. I looked to my left and saw Wild with some reed pipes to his lips.
Vines sprouted from the ground under the two monsters feet. The harpy yelped and tried to fly away, but there wasn’t much room and a thick vine grabbed her by the talon and dragged her back to the ground. The giant tried fighting the vines and was met with much more success and I could see the vines slowly being ripped from his body.
“Rainbow!” I turned my head to Wild, wide eyed and panicking. “Here! Use this!”
He tossed me something, it looked like a bronze baseball bat. I caught it using a reflex I didn’t know I had, but once the handle hit my hand it morphed into a three foot long sword. I almost dropped it out of surprise.
“You gotta use it on the giant! Only that can hurt it, the vines won’t work for long!”
As if on cue the giant broke free of his confines and charged me like a football player. He roared and stuck his hands in front of him, I could see the bloodlust in his eyes. So, I did what I thought was best for me and for Fluttershy behind me.
Swing.
I almost closed my eyes as the sword slashed through the giant man, it struck him in the elbow and cut through him like hot butter. With a hiss he exploded in a cloud of sandy dust, his scream of pain echoing in the halls of the school. I nearly threw up from all of the ‘excitement’ but I held myself together and looked at the other monster, putting myself between her and Fluttershy just in case.
She managed to mostly free herself by using her talons to cut the vines sprouting from the tiled floor. She was looking at the slowly dissipating cloud of dust and screamed, “No! You killed him you murderous spawn of the gods!” She started thrashing wildly at her bindings now. “I will eat you alive!”
“That’s enough out of you.” Wild said as he played another tune on his reed pipe. More vines sprouted from the floor and wrapped around the still thrashing harpy. Once she was completely covered up the vines seemed to tighten around the harpy’s form, dust escaped from the cracks of the vines like blood.
I looked back at Wild, and I just noticed he wasn’t using his crutches. He looked over at me and smiled. “I know this has been a bit of a rough experience for you, but there are things you need to know about. How about we go back to your house, with Fluttershy of course, and I’ll explain everything.”
Cloudsdale has always been in between of being a small town and a medium sized one. It isn’t so small that everyone knows everyone else, but you wouldn’t have any trouble recognizing a few familiar faces wherever you go. It’s also easy to get around, not like the time my mother took me to New York City down the Hudson River. With all the traffic and the unfamiliar layout of the city I quickly found out I was not that much of a big city girl. Not that I didn’t like it, it was just not someplace I’d like to live in.
The walk to my house didn’t take long, I didn’t live far from the school anyway. Nonetheless Wild made sure we were all but running there, he picked up his crutches on the way and started using them before we got out in public. He didn’t say why, and I didn’t ask even if I did want to know why he was using them if he could move just fine without them.
I looked over at Fluttershy as we got about a block away from my house. She had been silent and looking down the whole time and I could only assume it was about what had just happened back at school.
I honestly couldn’t blame her, I was still freaked out too.
My house finally came into sight. It was a rather simple one story home, small if compared to other fancy houses but more than enough for my mother and I.
Speaking of my mother, her name is Verdant Dash and she is as cool and nice as they come. She owns the only sporting goods store further in the town, she would sometimes brings me to work with her in the summer if Fluttershy was too busy. Normally other kids would complain about being brought to their parents place of work, but I loved it. Her store is what got me into sports.
Apparently before she opened the store she wanted to go into professional soccer, but that was before she met my dad. I never met him, and my mom didn’t want to say much, but she said he was someone very famous and important. Which made me a bit mad, if he was someone so famous and important then the least he could do was send a child support check or even just say hi every now and then.
Instead he forgets about some woman he had a kid with. Probably thinks that having a child out of wedlock would tarnish his so called importance.
When we got to the front door I fumbled with my key, I still had a bit of adrenaline from before and Wild’s constant “Hurry up!” wasn’t helping. I finally got the key into the hole and swung the door open a bit harder than I should have. It made a light bang against the wall as Wild practically shoved us into the house.
“Honey? Is that you?” My mother’s voice rang out from the kitchen, “The brownies are cooling right now so you better wait.”
“Yeah mom, it’s me. I’ve also brought friends.” I called back.
My mother stuck her head out of the kitchen entryway with a smile on her face. It dropped a bit when she took our state in, “Oh? Did something happen?”
For the briefest moment in time I saw fear flash across her face, but when I blinked it was gone. I brushed it out of my head and mumbled out, “Yeah… you could say that.”
Wild set his crutches against the wall and stood up straight, a feat I wouldn’t have believed possible if it wasn’t for the fact that I saw it earlier. He looked serious and businesslike as he stared at my mother, “Ms Dash, we need to talk.”
We found ourselves around the dining room table, my mother held her head in her hands as she sighed. “I knew this day would come, he warned me it would. I just didn’t want to accept it,” she muttered.
“It’s necessary ma’am, for your sake and hers,” Wild replied.
It was at this point that I had had enough. I slammed the palm of my hand on the table and shot up in my seat, “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?! What day is coming?! Who warned you?! What really happened back at school?!”
I was breathing heavily after that little bit of shouting. Fluttershy looked startled at my outburst, Wild looked like he simply expected it, and my mother just looked at me with sad, tearful eyes.
“It’s about your father sweetie,” my mother replied.
My father? That confused me enough to drop back into my seat.
Wild looked over at Fluttershy, “It’s about your mother too ‘Shy.”
“My mother? What about her?” the soft spoken girl asked.
I watched Wild and Fluttershy talk, not really hearing anything. I felt a weight on my right shoulder and guessed that my mom was hugging me. I looked at her and asked, “My dad hasn’t even been in our lives. What could he possibly warn you about?”
My mother bit her lip and looked over at Wild, “He would be better able to explain it. I was only told when everything might happen and where you need to go.”
Oh. So even if this whole thing was some big life changing event my father didn’t even spill the whole deal? What’s up with that?
“So, what now?” I asked her.
“Now, we need to get both of you to camp,” said Wild. “The quicker the better, both of you have started to realize who you truly are and that is a dangerous thing for the unprepared. It’s even worse with you two. I’ll explain when we are moving, we need to hurry.”
After that my mother said to pack up like I was going on a long trip, she said it was only for the summer but I should bring a lot just in case. Whatever that meant. As far as I know I was just being sent off to some camp for the summer, for my own safety or so my mother and Wild say. After shoving my things in the trunk of my mother’s Lexus Sedan in our garage I looked over at Wild and did a double take.
“Dude, did you change your pants into shag carpeting?” I asked him.
“Blah-ha-ha! It is not shag carpeting! It’s my fur!” He clutched at his supposed fur looking offended at the comparison. Even if it was apt in my opinion.
I took another look and sure enough the longer I stared the more his shag carpet pants looked like actual fur from an animal. He didn’t even have feet, just cloven hooves. “So… you’re part animal? How?”
“I’m a satyr. We’re part goat from the waist down,” he explained.
I looked down in thought. Satyr, I’d heard that word before. It was from the greek mythology course my mother had me take this year. And now that I had the chance to think about it, the vice principal turned into the description of another myth. A harpy.
I looked back up at Wild, “Satyrs are from greek myths. And the vice principal turned into a harpy right? So are you trying to say that the greek myths are somehow real?”
Wild looked nervous, “Rainbow, you should really wait until we are all on the road out of town.”
“Are you?” I pushed.
Wild licked his lips and defeatedly sighed, “Yeah. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
I looked back at my mother’s car and stared at my reflection in the tinted window. This was a whole new kind of revelation to take in. It was impossible, but everything that I’ve seen so far just proves that it’s true.
The door to the garage opened and my mother and Fluttershy walked into the small, stuffy room, carrying brown paper bags.
“Food for the road, I even brought the brownies,” my mother held up the bag full of brownies.
Wild stared at the bag intensely, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. I didn’t think a satyr's stare could burn a hole in anything, but he was certainly trying.
“Wild, you sit up front with me. I’m going to need you for directions.”
“Yes ma’am,” Wild said.
My mother looked at Fluttershy and I, “We’ll stop by Fluttershy’s house and grab her things. Is your dad home?”
Fluttershy shook her head and softly said, “No, he’s out of state right now.”
My mother nodded her head, “Alright then. I’ll just have to explain what happened when he gets back then. Hop in everyone, it’s time to go.”
With that we all got into the car, my mother opened the garage hatch, and we sped off down the road.
I found myself standing in some sort of arena. Like the one where you’d see gladiators fighting each other in the movies. Sand was everywhere and the place looked empty and void of an audience. I looked around just to be sure, but found nothing.
Then I heard a roaring “Squee!”, too deep and deafening to belong to any sort of normal pig, come from behind me. I whipped myself around fast enough that I thought I’d break my spine. There was a large, hellish looking black boar with blood stains on its hide and bits of flesh stuck on it’s massive tusks roaring up at an elegant and pristine looking owl. Off to the side was a large majestic eagle sitting on the back of one of the chairs in the arena audience cawing loudly at the two other animals.
The two animals ignored the other bird. The owl dive bombed the boar, trying to claw its eyes out. The boar retaliated by backing up and trying to goar the bird with one of its humongous tusks. The owl dodged the attack and started circling the boar, waiting for another attack.
Meanwhile the eagle was constantly trying to fly off its seat in an attempt to stop the fighting animals, but a tremendous gust of air kept it from taking flight. It dejectedly landed back on the chair, cawing once more at the other two animals. The owl's flying didn’t look affected by the random air current and tried attacking the boar once again.
I somehow knew I needed to stop the animals from fighting. I tried moving, but the same gust of air that kept the eagle from flying also kept me from moving forward. I couldn’t even say a word, every attempt at speaking was lost in the strong wind. The last thing I saw was the sky shaking.
I gasped as I woke up, sweat lining my face as I remembered the crazy and strange dream i just had. I looked out the window of my mother’s car, we seemed to have traveled a good distance while I slept.
“Rainbow? You alright?” the worried voice of my mother rang out in the small car.
I looked to the front of the car and could see my mother casting worried glances in the rearview mirror. Wild and Fluttershy were also looking at me in concern. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and gave them a smile, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a weird dream.”
I was only asleep in the car for about two hours, so I didn’t miss a whole lot going on. Wild explained to us that we are the daughters of a greek god, or goddess in Fluttershy’s case, and that a ton of nasty stuff wanted us dead just for that reason. That was why we had to go to this camp place, to learn how to survive and fight the monsters out in the world. Because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t live very long.
It was a rather depressing revelation really.
I had asked Wild if he knew who my father was, getting a look from my mother in the process that I sheepishly looked away from, he said he had his suspicions but it wasn’t his place to say anything. Apparently if he told me he could possibly offend the god and get himself smited. While I was a bit ticked that I still couldn’t get to know anything about my father, I didn’t really want one of my friends blasted to crispy goat chunks because of my curiosity.
The rest of the drive was mostly spent in silence and flooding the car with the radio. The biggest thing of note as we passed through New York on the George Washington bridge was the weird weather that nobody seemed to notice. I could hear and feel the thunder rumbling in the clouds, even through the rock and roll music in the car.
I was not the only one looking up at the sky in curiosity, Wild seemed to be eyeing the thunderous clouds in apprehension as we drove through the city. I didn’t ask about them right away, instead I just kept staring up into the sky. Curiously it didn’t seem to be raining, and the longer I stared up at the rolling mass of black clouds the more it seemed to be growing.
The rest of the drive through the city was kinda boring, disregarding the occasional swearing of the road-rage drivers in the heavy traffic. That made me laugh. Soon enough the imposing and tall buildings and skyscrapers made way for various smaller and more familiar types of buildings. Not to mention the occasional farm or stretch of forest. I looked out the window and boredly stared at a small pasture of cows grazing.
“It’s not too far from here Ms Dash,” Wild said, pointing out a spot on a map for my mother to see. I couldn’t help the sigh of relief from escaping my mouth.
My mother chuckled, “I know you’re getting restless dear. Just try to have a little more patience.”
Easy for her to say, she’s being kept busy with driving. I’m been sitting in the back without anything to do. I didn’t want to go back to sleep, the strange dream I had a few hours ago was still ever present in my mind. I looked over to Fluttershy and she seemed to be enjoying herself enough, poor girl never got to travel much so all the new sights were keeping her occupied.
I was distracted from my thoughts about Fluttershy by something colorful flashing in the corner of my eye. I turned my head away from my friend to look back out the window. A long, colorful feather was stuck in the crevice where the window rolls down into.
“Is that a peacock feather?” I couldn’t help but ask.
I thought Wild’s head would do a three sixty with how fast he whipped it around to stare at me. My mother looked at Wild, concern evident on her face, “Should we worry?”
“Oh yeah. Big time,” was his ever hopeful and upbringing reply. “Hurry plea- look out!” Wild stopped himself short in order to bellow out the warning, pointing a finger forward dramatically.
My mother slammed on the brakes without hesitation even as she was starting to look back at the road. The car’s tires screamed in protest as my mother swerved around something that was blocking the road. Even as I slammed into the car door, I caught what was blocking the road.
A freaking cow.
Now, I might not be the scholarly type. And I might just take things as they come and not think too much into them. But even I knew that something was messing heavily with my life and the lives of everyone else in the car with me right now, and that was something big.
Something godly.
I actually paid attention in my greek studies class, it was, ironic now that I think about it, the only class that managed to keep my interest long enough to truly glean information from. So guess which god has peacocks and cows as their thing?
Well, it’s actually a goddess not a god, but if you guessed Hera anyway then congratulations, you’re a winner!
But you might be thinking, ‘But Rainbow! What if this was just a big coincidence! Peacock feathers getting stuck in car windows and cows blocking the road are super common!’. Well I would just like to point out that in the short time I have been introduced to this world of greek mythology, two of its monsters have already tried to kill me, a friend of mine for the past year is half goat, and Fluttershy and I are, apparently, half god. Coincidences might not be as common as I have been led to believe all my life.
And besides, despite not being the scholarly type, and preferring sports to books, I’m not dumb. I know that big witchhunt Hera had against Heracles (and that she really dedicated herself to ruining his life) and anyone else that offended her. That only begs the question of why she would want anyone in this car dead or just have their life generally ruined. Somehow I doubted she would want a random satyr dead, unless he has some secret past he hasn’t told us of yet, so that leaves things between Fluttershy... and me.
It hasn’t even been a full day and everything in this new, magical world wants one or the both of us dead. Forgive me if I don’t quiver in excitement at these turn of events.
Anyway, as much as I wanted it to at the time, the car didn’t actually hit the cow. Instead, we veered off the side of the road, crushing some unfortunate road sign in the process, and skidded a dusty trail into the dirt before coming to a full and violent stop into a ditch. I groaned from my spot in the back seat and pushed myself into a more comfortable position.
“Are you three alright?” my mother asked us.
“Just peachy,” I replied, massaging my neck.
Fluttershy mumbled that she was fine and Wild gave a shaky thumbs up with his free hand, his other hand was grabbing his nose to try and stop his newly acquired bloody nose. My best guess was that he managed to smack himself in the face sometime during our little crash and not-burn.
“Ah’m Fwine,” he nasally replied, muffled slightly by his hand.
“Good,” my mother popped the trunk open with the clutch under her seat. She looked back at Fluttershy and I, “Grab your things and follow Wild you two. Getting to camp is a priority.”
“But what about you?” I asked. A perfectly logical question as we were just part of a godly assassination attempt.
“I’ll be fine. I’m just a mortal, they won’t bother me. Besides, I’m unable to enter the camp anyway. Don’t worry sweetie, you just need to be safe, that’s all that matters to me.” She gave me a motherly smile and I couldn’t help but blush in embarrassment.
I mumbled an ok, despite wanting to argue more, and we all got out of the car, thankfully we didn’t end up on the side but there was no way my mom was going to be able to get the car out of that ditch without help. She said she would call a tow truck to help lift it out so I didn’t worry. Once we had all of our stuff my mother gave me a kiss goodbye, placed the brownies in my hands so that Wild wouldn’t eat them all (much to his protest), and sent us on our way after making sure Wild had his nose plugged up.
I eyed the cow warily as we walked down the road away from the pasture. This time the trip was uneventful as we just walked down a road with trees everywhere you looked. Wild and Fluttershy seemed to enjoy it, I just wanted to finally see civilization. We passed our time eating the brownies in the bag and listening to Wild nasally tell us even more about the camp. It’s beautiful landscape, the forests, the view of Long Island Sound you could get from “The Big House” and all of the many activities and buildings there.
I personally didn’t really believe that they had a huge rock climbing wall that shook and spewed lava from its top, at least not until I see it for myself. But an armory full of tons of wicked weapons and armor sounded pretty cool in my opinion.
“Oh, I hope I can make friends with any of the animals there. Camp sounds so lovely with all the nature,” Fluttershy wistfully said.
Wild grinned, “Oh yeah, they’ll love you Fluttershy.” He leaned in and nudged her arm, “I’ll even put in a good word for you with the chipmunks. One of my best friends is one.”
I didn’t bother asking how he could be friends with a chipmunk, I just want to finally be able to have a break for once. Everything that has happened so far is starting to catch up to me and I’m feeling tired. A nap would be wonderful right about now.
We finally reached a boring hill with some tall grass, the evening sun shining down on it.
“This is it,” Wild said. “Just over this hill is Camp Half-Blood, your new home this summer.” Wild waved his hand in the air dramatically, the sun shining over his head in a way that might've made him look cool but the bloody nose plugged up with napkins ruined the image.
“Finally, let’s go!” I admit I was a bit enthused to finally be able to see the camp Wild has been raving on for the past hour.
We jogged up the incline of the hill. As we reached the apex of our climb I couldn’t help but notice the plume of smoke slowly getting bigger the closer we got. The three of us exchanged worried glances at each other and we sped up our jog until we were all but sprinting. The last bit of climb disappeared and we took in the state of the camp Wild has been going on about.
“Oh no…” Wild whispered, a haunted, horror filled look slowly inching its way across his face. Fluttershy didn’t look too good herself, I was just staring at the scene before us dumbstruck.
Oh no is right. One of the buildings, a cabin if the group of odd buildings surrounding the new makeshift bonfire Wild told us about was correct, was caught on fire. Many kids were running around trying to put it out. I couldn’t say what the burning cabin looked like, we were too far and it was covered in heavy flames and smoke, but I could hear the yelling and screams of campers down in the cabin area. If my eyes could be trusted, two groups in particular looked to be heavily armed and were the cause of most of the shouting.
“It’s already escalated this quickly? But Chiron said that…” Wild cut himself off, unable to continue speaking.
I stopped looking at the arguing campers and the burning building to stare at Wild and ask, “What Wild? What’s going on? What’s escalated?!”
Wild’s haunted look turned towards Fluttershy and I and said, “I don’t know the full details myself so don't take my word for it, but it seems Ares and Athena are having another one of their arguments up in Olympus again. It's become extremely heated so far and it looks like their fight has spilled towards their children...”
I looked back to the camp as I heard battle cries, it looked like war was about to happen down there any second. It seemed the situation was getting even hotter than the burning building.
After staring at the not too distant battle for another couple of seconds, we decided in some collective mindset to sprint down the hill and head towards the group of people about to duke it out. I was glad for all the soccer I played, I was barely winded when we finally stopped at the edge of the crowd. It seemed I had mistaken battle cries for roars of approval and jeers, someone had probably gotten more burned than the building that was on fire.
Wild’s teeth were chattering in fear as he kept jerking his head around, as if looking for someone, and Fluttershy had a hand over her mouth. I was focused more on the yelling teenagers. I spied some lanky guy a few feet away and tapped him on the shoulder.
“What?” He rudely asked as he turned around, clearly annoyed at having his attention divided.
“What the heck is going on with these guys?” I asked.
“Oh, you’re new huh? I don’t recognize you.” He seemed less aggressive now. He cleared his throat and said, “The Athena cabin is the one on fire, you know about the gods right?” I nodded my head. “Good, so they are blaming the Ares cabin for setting it on fire. That’s them.” He pointed to one of the groups of yelling kids, they looked mean and not too friendly.
“And they’re denying it, saying they would rather fight them head on than resort to cheap tricks. I gotta say, they do make a good point there.” He gestured to the two people in the middle, “The two more vocal ones of the group are the head counselors of their respective cabins.”
“I see, thanks dude,” he nodded his head and returned to watching the two cabins yell and insult each other. I was hearing things like “Porkface!” and “Owl head!” being thrown around, so you know these guys meant business.
I strained my ears to hear the two counselors over the noise of the crowd.
“Don’t lie to my face Bulky! The Ares cabin has had it out for the Athena cabin for the past few months! You can’t say you wouldn’t want to do this!” The guy standing in front of what I assumed to be the Athena cabin yelled at another guy standing in front of the mean looking kids.
“Yeah! You Ares kids are destructive enough to do it!” Shouted another Athena kid.
“Yeah!” Was the collective response of many others joining in.
“Shut up! You little mathletes don’t know anything about us!” The other guy barked at the opposite crowd. He held out a fist and shook it in the other guy’s face, “I would love to have done this! But only after I kicked your butt from camp, to Tartarus, and back! Spoils of war you owl faced loser! The Ares cabin had nothing to do with this, so how about you go back to shoving your nose in a book you nerdy wimp!” He shoved the Athena guy away.
“I would go read a book but you meatheads burned them all! Unlike you idiots we actually think and learn!” The Athena guy retorted, shoving the Ares guy back, as if to make a point.
The other guy looked so mad, his face got red enough it looked like fire was going to spew out his ears like geysers at any second. I could already see the smoke starting to pour out. He cocked his fist back to punch his antagonist in the face and swung, the head of the Athena cabin ducked under the swing and retaliated with his own. That seemed to spark something between the two groups and they held up their weapons and unleashed actual battle cries this time.
Just as the armies of teens took the first running step, some sort of ball bounced in the middle of the two groups and landed right in front of the faces of the two fighting counselors. Their debate had moved to the ground in a violent wrestling match. They looked at the object in confusion before their eyes widened and the ball exploded with a surprisingly tremendous amount of gas.
It wasn’t tear gas, that would’ve sucked bad, but the smell alone almost made me wish it was. Imagine a landfill, full of some of the most disgusting refuse created by humankind, put it in a blender and top it off with raw, unrefined sewage. If you could create that in your head then you only scratched the surface of what that small, unassuming stink bomb unleashed.
I coughed and spat off to the side in disgust, accidentally hitting some pretty girl in the shoe with it. Thankfully she was too busy coughing and hacking up a hairball to notice. Luckily we were in the outermost edge of the crowd so we didn’t get the full brunt of the attack.
Recovering from the smell I straightened up to see who caused this, it seemed Wild did as well as I heard him sigh in relief. I was quickly struck dumb by my first ever sight of a centaur. He looked middle-aged, had a bushy brown beard and thinning brown hair, and the horse half of his body was pure white. Considering what Wild said up on the hill, I could only guess this to be the Chiron.
“That is enough campers, we do not need to be fighting amongst ourselves right now,” Chiron said, his voice offering no other alternative.
“But Chiron...” the Athena counselor wheezed out before returning to violent coughing fits. His hair was blown completely back by the blast of the stink bomb, sticking out all spikey like, like he belonged in some anime.
“No, Mr. Maverick, there is no ‘but’, you and your cabin can sleep in the big house for now. We will attend to rebuilding your cabin tomorrow, as it stands I will have the harpies move the burnt wreckage while we all rest. I will speak with you and your cabin later.” He turned to the rest of us, eyeing Fluttershy and I in particular before addressing the crowd, “Return to your cabins until it’s dinner time everyone. After that it’s a mandatory early lights out, anyone caught by the harpy patrols will be put on lava dish duty for the rest of summer. Athena cabin head to the Big House, Ares stay here. You too, newcomers.”
The rest of the campers slowly disappeared into their respective cabins, giving Fluttershy, Wild, and I some interested looks. Well it was more to me and Flutts, they mostly just nodded their greetings to Wild. I didn’t trust the elfy looking ones too much, they had a sneaky look between them and their eyes lingered a bit too long for my liking around my pockets.
Chiron talked with the Ares cabin, likely trying to get their side of the story. After getting what he wanted, and punishing them with no dessert for a week for fighting outside the arena or any sanctioned match, he sent them on their way back to their cabin. He gave a heavy sigh and rubbed his temple, “Why must Olympian arguments spill down here?”
“Maybe their argument dam isn’t quite high enough?” I helpfully supplied, getting a roll of the eyes from Wild and the softest giggle from Fluttershy.
Chiron seemed amused and slowly made his way closer to us, he put his hands behind his back and said, “While Wild has messaged me about his potential finding of two new campers, how about we get to know each other first hand?” He bowed slightly, “My name is Chiron, and yes, I am indeed the same Chiron from all the myths. Now, who are you?”
“My name is Rainbow Dash,” I replied.
Fluttershy tapped her fingers together nervously, she was always shy around new people, even ones who looked like they were kind people, like Chiron, “I’m, uh, I’m Fluttershy.”
Chiron smiled at us, “Well, how about we get you two settled before dinner time? Have you been claimed yet?”
I didn’t know what that was, neither did Fluttershy.
“It means that your godly parent put a shiny sign above your head with a symbol that represents them, letting others know who you’re the daughters of,” Wild helpfully supplied as he leaned in to whisper at us.
“Uh, no, can’t say we have, right?” I looked at Fluttershy questionally. She shook her head, “Then nope, we haven’t been claimed yet.”
Chiron nodded, “I see, that’s too bad. Well, we can put you in the Hermes cabin for now. As the god of travelers, thieves, and anyone who uses the road, he welcomes all under his roof.” Chiron waved his hand forward and we walked down the rows of cabins to a rather beat up and dingy looking cabin. It was a tad wider than the other cabins though.
“So…” I began as we came to a stop in front of the cabin’s door. I looked up at his face from my spot next to him and asked, “How long does it take for someone to get uh, ‘claimed’?”
Chiron rubbed his chin, “Well, that depends. Sometimes it could take a day or two, sometimes a week, or…,” he sighed, “even years.”
I blinked in astonishment. Years? How could anyone leave someone in the dark about this if it’s that important?
Chiron, as if he was reading my mind, said, “The gods are rather forgetful sometimes. Immortality does that to you when decades seem like seconds. There is also the fact that not every god has a cabin here, as much as there are petitions in Olympus about getting some. Hermes regularly complains in Olympian meetings that his children often pray to him about the cramped conditions in his cabin.”
Chiron shrugged, “The point is, is that there is no set time when being claimed. Do not fret too much about it, it will happen in time. You just need to be patient.”
That didn’t leave me feeling too reassured to be honest, I didn’t want to wait years to figure out who my godly parent was. But I didn’t say anything in the end as he opened the cabin door. What we were met with was, to put it bluntly, chaos. There was playful wrestling between two older kids, pillows being thrown in a makeshift war, and a general mess when you stick a bunch of hyperactive teens under one roof. I could also spy the same elfy kids that were eying my pockets.
Chiron loudly cleared his throat and the noise and clatter practically stopped that very instant. Chiron put a hand on my shoulder and said, “This is Rainbow Dash and,” he gestured to Fluttershy trying to unsuccessfully hide behind him, “this is Fluttershy. They are new campers here and I would like for you to give them a warm camp welcome. They will be here for an undetermined amount of time.”
The way he emphasized ‘undetermined’ made me think there was more to that word than the way it was put into that sentence. The groans of the other campers solidified my theory but they all gave varying kinds of greetings. Chiron looked down at us, “This is where we must part ways for now. If, say, you need any additional information we can offer the orientation film to help you. Dinner time will be in thirty minutes.”
I got the feeling we might not need it, so I replied, “Alright, thanks dude. I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Also, we do have a minor dress code. Nothing much, you just need to wear the orange ‘Camp Half-blood’ shirt while you are here. Or if you are sent on a quest. It’s to make any special operatives out in the country be able to instantly recognize you. A few pairs will be given to you tomorrow, as of now you don’t need to worry about it.”
I wasn’t too fond of a dress code, but as least it was only a shirt.
Chiron gently pried Fluttershy off his horsey backside and galloped off to the large house in the distance. It was at this point Wild spoke up, “I need to go too. The Council of Cloven Elders will want to speak with me. See you at dinner?”
“Yeah, sounds good,” was my reply. I watched him hurry off towards part of the forest surrounding the place.
With him gone Fluttershy and I turned to look at all the new people we will have to deal with, they had already gone back to what they were doing and basically ignored us. That was fine by me. Fluttershy was nearly frozen in place so I had to all but push her through the door. I found that all the beds were taken by the actual Hermes cabin members, makes sense, and that the guests all had to sleep on sleeping bags on the floor. Finding an empty spot to fit the both of us was difficult, but in the end we found one by the far wall.
At least now I’m grateful my mother made us pack a sleeping bag.
I propped my back against the wall next to Fluttershy, “Well, here we are. Our new home for the summer.”
“Yeah,” Fluttershy softly replied, seeming to shrink into herself. “I just hope things will settle down before someone gets hurt.”
I wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her into a side hug, “Heh, don’t you worry Flutts. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
We spent the next half hour just relaxing from the most intense and longest day of our life. I think I might’ve fallen asleep again because at one point I was sitting upright against the wall and the next I was being shaken by Fluttershy with my head propped against my travel bag.
“A horn just blew, one of the campers said that’s the conch horn that signals when food is ready to be served.”
I just grunted and forced myself up.
“Alright people it’s time for dinner! Line up single file and let’s go! Newbies!” A tall, skinny but fit, and older looking guy with dusty brown hair loudly announced. I guessed that this guy was the counselor for the Hermes cabin and I personally didn’t think his dramatic point was entirely necessary. “You get to be at the end of the line since you’re new!”
After everyone finished scrambling to get in line we marched across the camp to a large pavilion that was open to the elements. It made me wonder what they did when it started raining, but since the sky looked clear enough I didn’t ask anyone about it.
We all took our seats, each cabin having it’s own table. To be honest they were kinda plain in comparison to their respective cabins. Just slabs of marble on stilts with a white table cloth that had a small fringe of purple on it, whereas each cabin was it’s own work of art. Fortunately anyone who could not fit on the marble seats on each side of the table was given a metal, foldable chair and got to eat on the ends of the table.
Considering how uncomfortable those stone seats looked, and the envious faces we garnered only reinforced that, these were an improvement. A bunch of elf-like girls melted, yes I mean melted, out of trees and other foresty things. They came around serving food, I honestly couldn’t help staring at them. A few of my new cabin mates snickered at my obvious staring.
I just glared at the ones who were being too obvious about it. Excuse me for finding things in this magical world that don’t want to kill me fascinating. One of the elf-girls, I later find out they were in fact called dryads, set down an incredibly delicious looking plate of barbecue in front of me. She winked at me and went back to do more rounds.
Once all the food was set down I stabbed some meat with a fork and started to dig in. A hand placed itself on my wrist before I could take a bite and I looked up to see Wild. He shook his head and pointed to one of the cabins getting up and heading over to a bonfire, it had a small girl tending to it. “Before you start a meal, it is customary to sacrifice a portion of your food to the gods, generally the best portions of it is best if you don’t want to make them angry. They apparently like the smell. Usually you do it for your parent, but in this case I’d make a wide range.”
Burning your food? I know that the greeks used to sacrifice animals and other things like that in the temples, but I suppose that live animal sacrificing to the gods had fallen out of practice in this day and age. Nevertheless I put my stomach on hold and waited until it was the Hermes cabin’s turn to dump part of their food into the fire.
Fluttershy and I waited in line for a couple of minutes. Once it was her turn Fluttershy dutifully scraped some of her food into the fire and whispered a prayer so quiet I was sure that, goddess or not, her mother wouldn’t even be able to hear her.
Once she finished and made her way back to the table it was my turn. I pushed some food around on my plate until it was all at the edge and flung it into the flames.
“Dad, I don’t know anything about this world and I’ve nearly died twice in the same day already. At least give a sign you know I’m here and won’t make me wait years until I’m claimed,” I said. A breeze with the scent of fresh rain rolled heavily through the pavilion, making the table cloths flap in the wind.
The campers all cried out in shock at the random act of weather. I swallowed nervously as I walked back to my seat. I got my sign, just like I wanted. So why, as I ignored the stares I received from the other campers as they put two and two together, did I feel nervous about things to come?
The lean-cut steak didn’t offer any answers for me.
The following week after that windy dinner went by slowly. I attributed that mostly to the fact that Fluttershy was claimed by her mother two days after our first dinner here. It was during the Hermes cabin’s turn to help haul the strawberries off to storage, much to the grumbling of everyone in the cabin. But Holly, one of the members of the Demeter cabin, is one heck of a nagger.
“We put our hard efforts into making them grow, the least you could do is help move them!” she growled at one of the slackers in our group. Unable to bear the nag anymore, the poor Hermes kid scampered off to help move another crate of strawberries.
I was just returning from storage when I saw everyone not working, instead they were crowded around something. I saw a strange greenish light floating above everyone’s head and quickly ran up to see what was going on.
“What’s going on?” I asked to nobody in particular.
“That new girl is being claimed!” said one of the undetermined campers.
As far as I knew there were only two new girls here at camp. And I didn’t remember having any strange symbol appear over my head. I shoved my way through the campers, much to their protest, and stopped at the innermost edge of the crowd. I saw Fluttershy standing in the middle of the group looking like she’d rather be anywhere else than here, being glomped by Holly and a couple of the other Demeter cabin kids.
“I’m so glad I have another sister!” Holly shouted, squeezing Fluttershy just a little tighter.
Holly let go of her, much to her gasping relief, and clapped her hands. “Oh, we simply must celebrate!” She looked at the rest of us and made a shooing motion, “You guys have the rest of this activity period off, shoo!”
The Demeter kids hauled Fluttershy off with them, heading to their cabin. I stood in the middle of the strawberry field looking lost. On one hand I was happy that Fluttershy would be able to find people who share more similar interests, and that she finally knows who her mother is. On the other, I was now alone in the Hermes cabin. Besides Fluttershy and Wild, I didn’t know anyone here. Fluttershy was a sweet girl, she’d be able to make friends quickly.
But I’ll admit… I felt just a tad jealous of her.
The next few days after that was mostly filled with beginner’s combat practice against each other or another cabin that joined us, something I actually looked forward to each time. We were partnered with the Ares cabin on Thursday and none of our cabin looked all too thrilled about that. I understood why, Ares was suppose to be the god of war so his children would be really good fighters. There was also the fact that none of them were nice, a few of them even eye me with funny looks. Luckily, since I was the newest of the new, I was spared being put up against one of the Ares cabin members. Instead the Hermes counselor Swift was my instructor.
The head of the two cabins, as the most experienced campers in the group, demonstrated basic sword techniques to us both slowed down and in normal time. After that we were separated into pairs to work on what we were showed until they felt it was time to move on.
“That’s it, but keep your stance a little wider Rainbow,” Swift said, swatting my thigh with the flat of his sword. I wouldn’t have minded that as much if I was actually able to even lay a hit on him during our session.
“You won’t be instantly good at this, it takes years of practice,” he punctuated this by knocking my sword aside with the greatest of ease. “I was as bad as you when I started.”
This guy really knew how to motivate someone, we were barely into our session and I wanted to wipe that smug grin off his face. I grumbled something along the lines of getting better than him within the summer, to which he grinned infuriatingly at me and made the spar all the harder. When the sword sparring was finished I was gasping and leaning my body on my knees. Most of the others weren’t much better, though the two counselors and the older campers were barely breaking a sweat. I suspected that was because of the sun beating down on all of us and not because we put up too much of a fight.
After a quick water break we moved on to spears and practiced those on dummies instead of each other. I enjoyed this kind of weapon far more than the sword, and it was apparent in my much more enthusiastic practicing. I later learned that while learning this stuff is important to surviving out in the world, it is also so that you can do better in a capture the flag game the camp plays every Friday night. I’ll admit I was skeptical about how sword play would be useful in a children’s game.
But it turns out that this place takes the game to a whole different level. As explained by Swift during our spear practice you were decked out in full combat gear and placed on opposite sides of a creek out in the forest. Typically the Ares and Athena cabins lead the two teams, which worried Swift. I mirrored his view on that and wondered what Chiron was thinking letting the two cabins play this game.
Nevertheless, tomorrow night we will be playing a much more risky game of capture the flag and Swift wanted to make sure I would not die a horrible death on that night. Which is why he wanted to be my partner.
The rest of the day was a free day, to spend doing less strenuous things to let our bodies rest. I found myself trying the arts and crafts area and quickly found out that I was not all that great at it when I accidentally flung a hammer onto a Apollo kid’s foot. It slipped out my hand when I raised it to hammer in a nail on my own project. He ended up hopping around in pain and accidentally knock over the projects of the other campers. After he was looked at by his other siblings I was quickly escorted out of the arts and crafts area and asked to not be in the area while they were.
That was fine, the birdhouse I was trying to make looked like it was about to fall apart at any moment anyway.
As I had nothing to do for the rest of the day I decided to walk around the camp commons area in between the cabins. It was actually a nice looking spot, filled with marble statues, flower beds, fountains, and benches. There were even basketball hoops and a stone ringed fire pit that had a fire burning at this very moment.
“Hey! New kid!” A gruff voice shouted from behind me.
Sadly my walk didn’t get to last long, I turned around and spied two of the Ares kids that keep giving me those weird looks. I doubted they wanted to have a serious discussion about important matters, they didn’t look like the brainy type. Then again, neither did I.
“What?” I asked, it came off as a bit rude but I wasn’t up for being nice right now.
The Ares kid smirked at me. “Got a bit of attitude in ya, I like that.” He folded his arms and his friend slowly started circling around behind me. “But this camp has a bit of an... initiation ceremony so to speak.”
I didn’t let either of these guys out of my sight for long, moving myself in ever so slight ways. “Initiation ceremony huh? Sounds more like posturing to make yourselves feel better because of any certain… inadequacies.”
These guys weren’t as dumb as they looked, they clearly got the hidden insult if the cherry red color their heads were rocking was any indication.
“Well newbie, you just earned yourself two ceremonies. Consider yourself lucky,” he lunged at me, trying to get me into a grapple.
I backpedaled as fast as I could, almost tripping over a marble bench in the process. I caught myself in time to keep myself from falling on my butt, but I was unable to dodge the other kid’s grab. I fought valiantly, but this guy refused to let go as he got me into a full nelson. My kicking and jerking came to a halt as the first guy jabbed me in the stomach.
As I coughed and tried to get my breath back he towered over me with a condescending grin on his face. “If you just gave in, this wouldn’t have to be so hard ya know.”
“Bite me,” I wheezed out.
His annoying grin stayed right where it was even as his friend sniggered behind me, “After we’re done with you your little newbie friend is next. Just because she’s been claimed doesn’t mean she gets to walk off easy.”
That sentence made something snap in my head as my thrashing stopped. There are many things I hate, and my friends getting hurt or worse when I could’ve done something about it was one of them. I refused to sit back and watch Fluttershy get hurt or humiliated by these thugs.
The big jerk in front of me noticed my lack of movement and took it as a sign of acceptance.
“Ah, see. Now you should’ve done this from the start. Too bad though, you and your friend will be drinking toilet water by the end of the day.”
“No,” I muttered, so softly I doubt he even heard it. A pungent stench of ozone filled my nostrils.
“What?” He asked, leaning in with a large, ugly ear facing me.
“Uh, dude. You smell that?” His friend asked him, his grip relaxing ever so slightly.
“No!” I screamed. Time seemed to slow for me as I jabbed my elbow into the guy who was holding me square in the kidney. He grunted in surprise as I ducked out of his grasp, quickly slamming a fist into the first guy’s cheek, ever so conveniently placed in front of me. He went tumbling down as his friend recovered from my elbow jab.
He tried swinging a meaty fist at me but I leaned back and let it sail past my nose as he over extended the strike, obviously not expecting a newbie like me to be able to dodge it. With his guard out of whack I let loose my best and strongest forward kick, a kick that managed to win several soccer games in the past, right into his exposed crotch. He went down with a hoarse and pitiful scream, cupping his soccer balls.
My original assailant had gotten back up and glowered at me for hurting his friend. My back was mostly turned away from him so I was forced to roll to the side to avoid his attack. Campers had started to trickle in, likely attracted by the other Ares kid’s scream.
“Oh, it is so on kid! When I’m finished with you there won’t be even a smear left!” He screamed at me.
I didn’t bother with a retort and as he charged me I felt a slight pull in my center as I thought about what he had planned for me, what he had planned for Fluttershy. I couldn’t let that happen. Once more I smelt ozone in the air and clenched my hands in rage.
When he was only a few feet away I did the thing that felt natural at the time, I pushed at the charging enemy.
The second my hands connected with his chest a deafening boom rocked the common area and the Ares kid was sent flying back the way he came. His orange camp shirt was now sporting two smoking holes the size of my palms as he lay on the ground unconscious.
I was breathing heavily as I continued to glare at the fallen guy, and I could swear I could hear some of the onlooking campers mutter amongst themselves.
“Did you see that?”
“It looked like lightning!”
“But that’s impossible!”
“Wait! Look! She’s sparking!”
I didn’t hear much more as Chiron came rushing in, depositing an Apollo camper off his back who rushed off to look at the fallen kid. It was likely that he was in his master’s archery course not too long ago. After making sure the Ares kid wasn’t dead he slowly made his way over to me. He didn’t look angry, or disappointed, he just stared somewhere over my head.
“It wasn’t my fault,” I hurriedly began, pointing at the two downed campers. “They-”
Chiron held up a hand, “Do not fret child.” He then pointed at something above my head, “Look.”
I looked. And what I saw was a bright blue, glowing, lightning bolt shaped hologram thing that was spinning ever so slowly above my head. I stood there in the middle of the common area staring at the symbol like a moron, not truly getting what I was seeing.
It was Chiron speaking and the other campers kneeling that brought me back to the present.
“It has been determined. Your father is Zeus, King of Olympus, god of justice, honor, rain, wielder of lightning. Hail Rainbow Dash, daughter of the Sky God.” With that oddly formal thing out of the way Chiron himself kneeled along with the rest of the campers.
For some strange reason, I doubted I’d be able to play my first game of capture the flag tomorrow night.
I was proven right, the very next day when I was called to the Big House, Chiron wanted to discuss something with me. At the time, I had no idea what I was about to get myself into and honestly, I almost wished I hadn’t gone through with it. But I can’t change the past, so no crying and no spilled milk right?
It was the early afternoon, right after lunch, when one of the nymphs came by to get me. I was busy exploring my new cabin, trying to get a feel of it. I should’ve done it yesterday, but the way everyone suddenly started acting around me got on my nerves. They tiptoed around me like I was some sort of active minefield that was only a second away from blowing up in their faces. That night I threw myself down on my bed in a huff, like some sort of drama queen, without even looking at my cabin and fell asleep not long after that.
Honestly, despite the dreary emptiness of it, the cabin itself was actually kind of nice. Sure it could use some posters here and there, and some instruments to liven the place up, but all in all I liked it. Except for the loneliness, that sucked. The large bronze doors even had holographic lightning patterns on it and no matter where you stood, you could always see them straight at you. But the statue, of who I could only guess was my father, that stood right in front of the entrance of the cabin was a tad tacky. The eyes almost seemed like they were following you, and that wasn’t as cool as the doors, just creepy.
But anyway, the nymph led me from my cabin to the big blue house, telling me that Chiron’s office was the third door on the right in the hallway. I said my thanks to her and watched as she skipped down to the volleyball net to play with a bunch of older kids. I turned my head to the house in front of me and stepped up the stairs, pushing the front door in and clicking it closed behind me.
I silently walked down the hallway, trying my best to not barf at the terrible music being softly played by a cd player in the living room. I eventually made it to the door the nymph told me about, I was about to knock until I heard voices coming from the room. One was Chiron’s and the other was someone new. I admit I felt a little guilty at eavesdropping, but my curiosity won me over.
“-the current situation. Right now things have settled down, but it won’t be long before they are back at each other’s throats,” the new voice said.
I could barely hear Chiron’s sigh, it must’ve been soft, “That is grave news my Lord. Is there really nothing you can do? To be sent on a quest so young and inexperienced, I fear for poor Rainbow’s sake.”
Now that got my attention, nothing like someone having a secret conversation about you with someone you don’t even know behind your back. I leaned in, my ear squashed flat against the door.
I didn’t know what the other guy did, but from the tone of his voice I could guess he might have shook his head no, “I’m afraid not. I can buy some time at most, but if something isn’t done quickly then war between the gods will break out.”
“Very well, I’ll-” Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ringtone of a phone going off. “Oh! My apologies my Lord, may I?”
“Go ahead, I think I know who that is.”
“Hello? Ah, Sweet Juice, I was just about to call you,” He paused, likely the other person on the phone. “I see, I’d say good timing but I’m sure there are other forces that are bringing you here today,” Another pause. “Good good, the borders are always open to you. See you shortly. Sorry about that my Lord.”
I could hear the other guy mumbling to someone else, but couldn’t hear what he was saying. Judging by the raise in his voice he seemed to address Chiron now, “I can give you a week before the infighting becomes real. After that I don’t know if completing the quest will guarantee peace.”
Chiron sighed, much more audible now, “I see, very well. Thank you for buying time at the very least.”
“Before Rainbow heads off on her quest, try to help her choose some good companions. My daughter will need all the protection she can get.”
Wait, what?
“Of course,” Chiron said. Just as he was saying those words I burst through the door, Chiron, who had his horse half inside some sort of wheelchair, looked at me stunned as his hand waved through some rainbowy mist. I caught the barest glimpse of what I could guess was my father’s face. Black hair that reached his shoulders, a trimmed beard, and electric blue eyes that seemed to dance with lighting staring at me as the image slowly dissolved before my own eyes.
“Just how long have you been there child? And how much did you hear?” Chiron sternly asked in a way that felt like I was about to be punished by a teacher at school.
I straightened up, looking off to the side, anywhere but at his face. “Not much, nothing really,” I said, lying through my teeth.
Chiron sighed and rolled himself in front of me, “When someone looks off to the side and refuses to look into the eyes of the person they are speaking to, they are usually lying. Rainbow, please tell me the truth.”
He stared at me, almost like he could look through my soul. But I knew that wasn’t possible, he was just a centaur. I gave up trying to avoid any punishment from eavesdropping and told Chiron all that I heard. It wasn’t much, I just got here.
Chiron nodded, finding everything satisfactory. “While not the best way of breaking the news to you, we must work with what we have.” He gestured to a chair and rolled himself in front of it, taking the hint I sat down in the offered seat. Chiron rubbed his bearded jaw and continued, “Your father wants you to be the one to lead a quest.”
“A quest?” I echoed.
Chiron nodded, “Indeed, although I must ask if you are going to accept it before I tell you the details surrounding its nature.”
“Why’s that? Shouldn’t I take all the information before deciding?” I questioned Chiron, he shook his head.
“I’m afraid not, the situation will weigh too heavily on your decision. It is better to accept it now and learn later,” Chiron replied.
That kinda annoyed me, but in some weird way it almost made sense. Didn’t mean I had to like it. “But why did… my father, ask for me specifically? Why not all the other campers, who’ve spent more than a week here at camp!”
He shrugged, “I’m afraid I can’t answer that as I do not have access to Zeus’s mind. But there has to be some reason he asked for you, after all, children of the Big Three are very powerful individuals. Many makeup history’s greatest people, perhaps he thinks you are one of them.”
I briefly entertained the thought that he was trying to butter me up, but the look in his eyes told me a different story. He was being serious. I grunted in acknowledgment, “Fine, I’ll accept the quest.”
Chiron smiled at me and leaned back in his wheelchair, “Wonderful, then it is time you learned of the situation going on while we wait for the Oracle to arrive at camp.”
“The Oracle? Is that that Sweet Juice person?” I asked.
Chiron smiled at me, like he was proud I pieced that together, “Indeed, she is the current maiden that has been imbued with the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi. In fact, she has been the bearer of that title for the past sixty years. Strange that the time to pass it on to someone younger hasn’t arrived yet, but I’m certain that time will come.”
I couldn’t imagine what having some sort of spirit possessing me would be like. But I ignored those thoughts and listened to Chiron speak, “But as I was saying, the situation up in Olympus is less than desirable. A sacred parliament of Athena has been slaughtered and two of its remaining owls were stolen, bound in golden rope and carted off Olympus without anyone the wiser. Until the tape taken by the security cameras Hephaestus put up were brought out.”
Didn’t realise the gods used modern technology up in their magic kingdom in the sky, but something else bothered me. “How did someone managed to sneak into a place that has tons of actual gods there, kill a bunch of owls, and steal a few without being caught by someone other than cameras?”
Chiron pointed a finger at me, “Quite the question isn’t it. Another question is why would the assailant use a favorite sword owned by Ares, one of Athena’s rivals, and leave it in the crime scene, stuck into the body of one of Athena’s owls?” Chiron placed his hands in his fake lap, “Tempers are very easy to explode in Olympus. Athena took this as Ares insulting her and blamed him for the misdeed, saying he must have used an accomplice because he is too much of a coward to do anything himself.”
“I take it Ares didn’t take that too well?” I guess.
Chiron nodded, “Indeed. He called her a few names that I shan't repeat in public, and then the whole thing devolved into mindless quarreling. A first it was just arguing over who did it and who did not, after that other gods started to slowly take sides and bring their own opinions into it. And that’s never a good thing, Poseidon himself hates Athena and was one of the first to side with Ares. Zeus has tried to maintain order, keep things from progressing to all out warfare, but he has had little luck recently. If things are not settled within the week’s timeframe that has been given, war between the gods will happen.”
“And that is massively bad,” I stated, Chiron only giving me a grave nod as an answer. That didn’t lift my spirits.
Our depressing conversation ended with a pleasant double beep of a car’s horn just outside the Big House.
“Ah, that would be Sweet Juice,” he started wheeling himself out of the room. “Come Rainbow, no time to waste. You need to hurry. We can pick your two companions for the quest and pack up once you receive your prophecy.”
I followed Chiron out of the building, once outside I stood on the porch next to him. An old blue camaro was parked in front of the building, and stepping out of it was an old woman with her hair tied up in a grey bun and large comical sunglasses were on her face.
She grinned widely when she saw Chiron, holding her arms widely to the sides like she was about to hug the air in front of her as she denied her age and practically sprinted to us. “Chiron you old centaur! It has been too long.” And she did hug Chiron as she got near, Chiron returning the hug with a smile.
Chiron chuckled, “A good six months can seem like forever in this kind of life. How have you been Sweet?”
Sweet released the hug and winked at him, “Absolutely grand, still feel like I’m in my twenties.” She seemed to finally notice me, “And who is this pretty thing?”
I blushed as she inspected me, dipping her glasses down her nose.
She ran a finger through my hair, “And such lovely hair too. I bet all the boys are all over you.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes, as Chiron decided to interrupt, “While I don’t want to interrupt, I’m afraid we don’t have much time. Rainbow here needs a quest.”
Sweet straightened up, her serious demeanor a contrast to her previous easygoing self, “Right, I had a feeling I needed to be here today. Dropped everything and came here as quickly as I could. Just let me have a seat,” she looked at me after sitting in one of the porch chairs. “Ask away.”
I looked at Chiron nervously, he smiled gently and waved me forward. Gulping, I steeled myself and walked up to Sweet, “What do I need to do?”
I was not prepared for her eyes to brightly glow green, she lurched back as the green glowed even brighter before her mouth moved and she spoke in an ancient and echoey voice.
“Your journey is south and west, To release what’s stolen is your test, In the Meadow City reunion is key, Return what was stolen to let disputes be.”
Sweet gasped and lurched forward as the prophecy came to its conclusion. “Still not used to that,” she muttered as she cracked her neck.
“So, that’s it?” I asked, looking at Chiron.
“Not quite. Now you must choose two companions for your quest, three is a sacred number and anything more or less can potentially spell disaster for heroes. I can find two people who I believe can aid you greatly if you wish.” At my nod, as I didn’t really know anyone else good enough to judge well, he continued, “I will also give you some money from the camp store and some drachmas for any kind of godly transaction. For now, try and pack up any essentials you might need. We can work on where to go once you are ready.”
I didn’t know what kind of godly transaction I could do, but I nodded along with what he was saying. Chiron lifted himself out of his wheelchair, and it was a little freaky seeing him whole horse body come out of that tiny chair. After making sure Sweet was fine, and she herself waving him off and shooing him away, he hurriedly trotted off to some section of the camp. I simply said my goodbyes to the old woman and jogged over to my cabin and pushed the doors in.
I sighed when I felt the cool air of my cabin, ignoring the staring statue of my father, I didn’t even know where to begin or what to do. I didn’t even own an actual weapon that wasn’t a camp stock item. I made my way over to my bed, but something was different. I looked down and saw two colorful wrist bands on my pillow, along with a small tan paper package and a note.
I picked up the note and read:
The left wristband is your shield, the right is your spear. Just snap them against your wrist and they will appear in your hands. The package is there if you really need it, I don’t recommend you open it unless you really do. I hope these gifts serve you well daughter.
With love, -Zeus
I set the note down, stunned that I received a gift from my father. I licked my lips as I picked up the shield wristband, experimentally putting it on my wrist. It felt good to have on, like really good. I snapped it against my wrist and sure enough a large, round, bronze shield morphed onto my arm from the colorful band. After I finished inspecting it I quickly shoved the other wristband on my right wrist and snapped it. A spear morphed into placed in the palm of my hand, the bronze tip gleamed brightly as it reflected the light in the cabin.
I couldn’t help but grin, both the shield and the spear felt perfect in my hands. Like they were built specifically for me, and they probably were. At least I know my father hasn’t forgotten about me.
“Thanks dad,” I muttered to the statue in front of the doors, suddenly I didn’t feel so creeped out by it.
It was midafternoon when I started walking over to the hill to see my new quest mates, I just finished packing some of what few things I came here with. I gave myself a quick change of clothes that basically consisted of a fresh camp shirt, a pair of blue track pants, my tennis shoes, and my new wristbands. My duffle bag just had a spare change of clothes just in case, some mortal money Chiron lent me, a few drachmas, some toothpaste to keep my breath minty fresh, and a toothbrush.
Oh, and also some god food known as ambrosia and nectar. The ambrosia looked like brownies with a small goldish tint and was given to me in a little plastic ziploc bag, the nectar was stored inside a canteen but I assumed that it was gold or amber colored. Chiron said the food and drink of the gods can heal a demigod, but too much of it can kill us just like any other mortal that consumes it.
It was just a tad depressing when I really think about what I brought with me, I didn’t have much in the way of personal items so the actual act of packing was done so quickly all I had left was time to think. Though I can’t say having a lot of my things with me would have a been a good thing really, since I was about to head off on a dangerous quest across the country.
As I started to approach the hill I decided to jog the rest of the way up, the large body of Chiron was one of the first things that greeted me when I finally reached the top. The other things that greeted me, or I guess I should say who, was a blonde haired man with a startling amount of blue eyes on his body, another blonde haired girl that was sporting a cowboy hat and boots, and an elfish looking, purple haired boy staring off into the distance. Both of whom I assume are my new quest mates are about my age.
“Ah, glad you made it, Rainbow,” Chiron said as he uncrossed his arms from behind his back, smiling as I stopped in front of the others.
“Yeah,” I replied. I nodded at the others, “What’s up? I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“Applejack,” the blonde haired girl said, smiling at me as she tipped her hat.
“Nimble Gust, call me Nimble,” said the boy as he shifted the duffle bag hanging on his shoulder around.
Chiron clasped a hand over my shoulder and addressed the others, “Rainbow here will be your quest leader. Are you two ready to hear the prophecy now?”
The girl and guy agreed, Chiron reciting the lines of the prophecy to them. While he was doing that, I was busy feeling just a tad too nervous for my liking. Sure, I liked to consider myself a people person, but I’ve never thought I’d actually be in a leadership position with real lives on the line. That usually takes a type of dedication that I felt I did not have.
When Chiron finished telling the others about our quest and Applejack spoke up, a country twang to her voice that I didn’t notice before, “Well, that there quest don’t sound too difficult. But what’s this about a ‘Meadow City’ and all?”
The other guy nodded, Applejack asked the important question. One I had neglected to ask Chiron when I first got the quest. Chiron merely smiled at Applejack and replied, “I gave myself a little bit of time to think the quest through and I believe that I have found the answer. I am certain that your quest will lead you down to Texas. Dallas, more specifically.”
I looked up at Chiron, “What? Why Dallas?”
“Tell me, Rainbow, do you know what Dallas is called?”
I thought it over, “Uh, not really? Isn’t it just called Dallas?”
Chiron just shook his head, “No, Dallas was once called “Place by the Meadow”, there is history to that name but I shan’t bore you with it. There is also the added part about reunion being the key, Dallas has an observation tower in the city called Reunion Tower. A tourist attraction where I am positive that you’ll find your end goal.”
I had no idea that the names of places had more than one meaning, but at least we have ourselves a destination. Heeding Chiron’s advice, he was older than me by a lot, I decided that Dallas was where we were going to go.
“Argus here will take you as far as the train station in the camp van,” Chiron waved a hand over to the blonde haired guy and a white van with a stylized strawberry on its side and the words “Delphi Strawberry Service” over the fruit. “But no further, he is a part of the camp’s security after all and having more than three members of your quest could jeopardize it.”
I shook myself out of my staring at the van and looked at Chiron oddly, “What? Why a train? Can’t we take a plane?” Although I don’t know how we could get our weapons on board with the metal detectors.
Chiron shook his head no, “I’m afraid that the airport has had too much suspicious monster activity around it. Likely put there by our unknown perpetrator in order to slow us down long enough for war to break out. Sadly, what with mortal security getting ever tighter around airports, any disturbance caused by a monster would delay you even longer than simply taking an alternate route.”
I tsked and looked down, not wanting to let the others know that not flying by plane disappointed me. I never got to fly in one after all, our town couldn’t really support an airport, and my mother simply drove us anytime we wanted to take a trip. New York wasn’t that far away from our town and was the only place worth going within driving distance.
“Ah, don’t worry about it sugarcube,” Applejack interjected. “Besides, your father don’t really like other half-bloods flyin’ around in his domain anyhow.”
Nimble snorted and muttered, “That’s putting it lightly.”
Chiron cleared his throat, “Yes, well, the Lord of the Sky’s temperamental attitude towards half-bloods not of his own aside, you should best be moving now. You three only have a week to complete this quest, you must return to Olympus in that timeframe and bring the two missing owls back to Athena.”
Or else we are all doomed, was the last, unspoken part of his sentence. But no pressure right? I mean we were just three kids being sent off to face somebody able to sneak around the place of the gods and steal back some magic birds they took. All this taking place in a week and if we return too late then the kiddy gloves are off, and the gods go to war against each other.
Once again, no pressure.
“Now, off you three go, and don’t forget to watch yourselves out there. You don’t know what may lurk in the dark, be ever vigilant and you probably won’t die,” with that positive and uplifting comment he waved his hands forward in a shooing motion and we hurried to stick our bags inside the van.
We were almost done moving everything around so that the bags don’t move around when we heard a voice. “Wait!” the voice screamed from down the hill, dragging the ‘a’ for a good couple of seconds longer than necessary.
I looked back the way I came and saw Wild and Fluttershy sprinting up the hill. I guessed that Wild was the one that screamed for us to wait, male voice aside I just could not see Fluttershy screaming like that. The two finally caught up to us, Wild sliding on his hooves as he came to a stop, looking only slightly winded as I’m sure he had a lot of practice running around. Poor Fluttershy, however, looked like she was about to fall over, she came to a stumbling stop and nearly fell over as she put her hands on her knees and gasped for air.
“W-wait, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said between breaths.
I came up to my longtime friend and rubbed her back as she got her energy back. She seemed to finally catch her breath after a little while and slowly stood pulled herself up straight, only a tiny amount of shakiness left. She had to have really pushed herself to get to me before I left.
“W-we wanted to say, um, good luck on your quest, Rainbow,” she softly spoke. She softly toed the ground with a boot, “If that’s alright with you of course.”
I grinned at my best friend and pulled her into a quick side hug, she squeaked in surprise as I said, “Of course it is, Flutts! Glad you two could make it before we left.”
Admittedly I was glad to see my friends before I left. I really should have at least visited them before I came up here and I felt really bad that wasn’t the first thing I did. But they didn’t seem bothered by it at all as they stood there supporting me with smiles on their faces. I really did have some good friends and I couldn’t be prouder of that fact. I just wished I wasn’t leaving them behind to go off on a potentially deadly quest.
Wild grinned back and held his arms out for a hug of his own, I rolled my eyes and obliged as he said, “Sorry I couldn’t come with you, Rainbow, but I was given a mission from the Council before you got your quest. I’ll be leaving tomorrow with a couple of other satyrs.”
I just shook my head, “It’s cool, don’t worry about it. What’s your mission?” I really was curious, Wild just back back from a mission, me, and he was so quickly being shipped off to another. It had to be pretty important.
Wild just shrugged, “No idea to be honest. The Council did some woodland magic around the time we came to camp and got some strange feelings from the few Wild parts of America left. Took them this long to make a decision because they were too busy arguing with themselves, a bit like the gods actually.” Thunder rolled across the sky, Wild looked up and with a nervous chuckled he replied, “No offense intended of course.”
When the thunder stopped he shook his head and looked back at me, “We’re just going to investigate what’s going on, I’ll tell you when we get back if it’s anything interesting.”
I held a fist up and he grinned and bumped it back with his own, “Hey, I’ll hold you to that.”
“I’m sure you will,” he mirthfully said back.
We walked back to the van, chatting aimlessly about our time so far in camp and just generally catching up, Nimble was already sitting in the back waiting for the rest of us to join him. I had the feeling he wasn’t much of a people guy if his silence was anything to go by, then again he could just not have anything to say. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was talking with Applejack. The two were sisters, a fact that I learned while they spoke to each other. Not all that hard to guess when they talk about making plants grow with their demigod powers and a bunch of other nature things.
Once we finished with our goodbyes Applejack and I finally got inside the van, I gave one final farewell wave to my two friends and closed the back of the van. Once I had taken my seat and buckled my seatbelt, safety is important, Argus keyed the ignition and drove down the hill. He turned onto the lonely road and sped off to the nearest train station going out of Manhattan with three demigods in the back seat on a quest to save the world.
