51. Team Strategist

THE ROADS OF OLYMPIC GREECE

Somewhere along the journey, Pinkie Pie's incessant question of "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" changed into "So do you have a plan yet? Do you have a plan yet?" directed at Twilight, who was thinking her hardest.

"I'm trying," Twilight muttered. "Hang on…what about the apple tree? Shouldn't we do something about that?"

"I say we cut it down!" Pit suggested.

"NO!" Fluttershy insisted. "I will not have you hurt an innocent tree that can't defend itself!"

"How was that tree INNOCENT?" Pit asked in exasperation.

"I agree with Fluttershy," Zoë said. "That tree belongs to the eternal garden of paradise. It should not be destroyed. If it has only had one night to grow, it should yet be a sapling. Thou shouldst keep moving towards Sparta to beat the Athenian invasion. I shall depart to contain the tree and meet you there."

"You are coming back, right?" Pinkie asked. "You can't leave now that things are getting good!"

"Pinkie," Applejack cautioned, "we just met her. She can leave if she wants…"

"No, I shall return," Zoë confirmed. "You all…intrigue me." She smiled warmly.

"Good luck," Hercules said. Then, as Zoë vaulted one leg out of the moving wagon, he added, "…Pretty One."

Everyone else in the wagon chuckled. "Humorous," Zoë said, bemused, before leaping out of the wagon, hitting the ground, and beginning her own path.

"So…plan?" Pinkie asked Twilight.

"Still working on it," Twilight grunted.


SPARTA, OLYMPIC GREECE

The city of Ares was surrounded by a circular wall, and most of the stone that made it up seemed to be of a reddish hue. As the gates of Sparta were parted to admit the wagon, braziers full of fire were visible lighting every corner, contributing to the red effect.

The wagon rolled through the streets into the main square, and every civilian the wagon passed stopped to glare at it. Finally, the wagon was halted by a throng of people. "Why are YOU here?" someone asked.

"The Kentaurides are probably here to run a raid!" another cried. "What idiot let them in the gate?"

As in the amphitheater at Athens, hidden blades were drawn a hundredfold.

"Hang on!" Rainbow Dash raised her hands. "We're not raiders!"

"She is right!" a gruff voice bellowed from a side street. Everyone turned to see Kratos, along with a company of soldiers.

"THANK you," Rainbow Dash sighed. "Actually, we're – "

"THEY are the ones that humiliated Sparta in the Athens invasion!" Kratos roared, pointing at the wagon.

Fluttershy shrieked and ducked out of sight as the Spartan soldiers rushed the wagon, pointing spears at those inside.

"Hey, we can explain!" Hercules defended. "I swear!"

"This ain't lookin' good," Phil said.

"I'm not going down without a fight!" Pit drew both his blades.

"PIT, NO!" Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack cried as one.

"HOLD ON!" another voice cried, and a slim, blonde female figure clothed in an elaborate purple gown with blue accents pushed her way through the crowd. "Excuse me! Pardon me!"

"Queen Helen!" several soldiers whispered, standing aside to let Helen through.

"Sorry, everyone," Helen said, "but there seems to be a little misunderstanding. These are my friends! Hercules, Icarus, and Cassandra!" She looked up at the wagon. "And a few more."

"But they forced us to give up Athens!" a soldier protested.

"Well, I'm sure they had very good reasons for that," Helen said. She turned and looked up to Hercules. "You did have good reasons, right?"

"YES!" Hercules cried. "Sparta and Athens are BOTH under the influence of the golden apples of discord!"

There was no reaction from the crowd until someone said, "The what?"

"They're some kind of force of chaos," Meg picked up.

"Pretty much your doom," Cassandra added.

"They make everypony act all irrational and everything go wrong," Applejack continued. "You guys only invaded Athens in the first place because of them!"

"We did that of our own free will!" a soldier argued. "Right, Kratos?"

Kratos said nothing, and suspicion began to permeate the crowd.

"He gets his orders from Ares," Helen explained.

"And Ares would have wanted to take those apples!" Rainbow Dash confirmed. "Even the gods are going nuts over them! Athena wants them now, and she's sending an invasion right back at you!"

"Why would you betray Athens to help us?" Kratos asked in disgust. "How do we know that you are not traitors?"

"We only have your best interests in mind!" Rarity announced. "We don't want anyone in Greece to be hurt, you see!"

"That's why Twilight's last attack, the one that forced all y'all outta Athens, didn't actually hurt any of y'all," Applejack said. "Right, Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight was jerked out of concentration. "Sorry. Still thinking of a plan."

"We want to protect Sparta just as much as we protected Athens!" Rainbow Dash insisted.

"Well, we did notice that our soldiers did come home with minimal injuries, and there were no casualties…" Helen thought out loud. "Several of them were strangely fatigued, but that wore off."

"Look, we're just trying to keep people dying to a minimum," Meg stated. "We know how the Athenians are going to try to invade."

"How do you know that?" Helen asked.

Cassandra raised her hand. "Right here."

"Oh! Right. The whole 'seer' thing," Helen remembered.

"Our strategist is workin' on a counter-plan," Phil continued.

"Wait," Twilight said, again brought out of her reverie. "I'm the what?"

"You strategized the Athenian defense, didn't ya?" Phil asked her.

"Well…yeah," Twilight admitted.

"Congrats," Phil said. "You're promoted to strategist. Now strategize us a plan."

"I'M TRYING," Twilight growled.

"Do you believe their lies?" Kratos growled.

"They're not liars!" Helen argued. "I trust them! I know my friends have good hearts. They'd want to protect Sparta AND Athens! Now, as queen of Sparta, I order you all to put away your weapons and welcome them into the city!"

Grumbling, the citizens sheathed their knives and the soldiers lowered their spears. Kratos rolled his eyes in disgust at the whole display.

"Don't worry," Helen said. "You all know Hercules, don't you? He doesn't take sides! And if everyone else here is with him, they must be all right!"

"But more importantly…" Icarus leapt down from the wagon, standing tall. "ICARUS IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!" He snapped his fingers, pointing to Pinkie Pie with both hands. "HIT IT!"

Pinkie Pie leapt down from the wagon, standing beside Icarus and singing:

"Who soars like an eagle in flight?

ICARUS!

Who fights for the right with his mi-ight?

ICARUS!

Who thwarts any threat without breaking a sweat?

And looks pretty good in his tights?

That's him!

Icarus, Icarus, ICARUUUUUS!"

Icarus bowed when Pinkie was finished, and Pit applauded heartily. Cassandra merely placed her hand over her eyes. "He taught her THAT SONG. When did he even have time to teach her that song?"

"Well, we should probably move somewhere…less crowded," Helen suggested with a nervous smile. "Why don't you all follow me to the palace? We can talk there."

"The palace!" Pinkie Pie squealed. "Royalriffic!"

"Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash sighed, "we've already seen TONS of palaces and castles. It's not gonna be that special."

"But none of the ones we've seen were the SPARTAN palace!" Pinkie pointed out as the group got down from the wagon and followed Helen down the streets.

"You can come too, Horsefeathers," Meg told Pegasus, who gladly trotted along.

As the group moved out of the square, none could ignore the way Kratos stared them all down as though with murderous intent. "Helen, your highness," he said as the queen passed. "Is this really necessary? The Spartan military is more than equipped to destroy the Athenians!"

"Well," Helen said, "they are the Athenians, though. Our guests have a point when they say that the Athenian military probably has schemes in place. Brute force isn't going to be enough."

"It MIGHT be," Pit muttered. "If they'd just let me get a few arrows in at them – "

"Pit!" Hercules chided. "We're trying to get out of this with MINIMAL damage!"

"If Little Miss Strategist would actually give us something to work with," Phil grunted.

"HEY!" Twilight snapped. "You were the one who appointed me strategist! And I've almost got it! I just…need to put some pieces together!"

"This is madness," Kratos muttered.

"And this is Sparta," Helen countered. "As the Spartan queen, I demand the right to hear our guests out and consider their plan! You can go off duty until I say otherwise."

Kratos silently turned and moved down the street; Helen took the group in an opposite direction.

"Is it just me," Icarus said, "or is that guy…bad news?"

"Don't mind Kratos," Helen said. "He's…very troubled. He is the best general our army has ever had, though, and he's a protégé of Ares himself!"

"So I might not exactly be what you call…'in the loop' about everything that's happened in Greece since we all grew up," Icarus admitted. "Please! PLEASE tell me the king of this place isn't that terrible Adonis!"

"Who's Adonis?" Pinkie asked.

"Back when we were growing up," Hercules explained, "he was a bully and a ladies' man. He thought of himself as Mr. Perfect. He and Helen were a bit of an item."

"Adonis was perfect," Helen confirmed. "Perfectly AWFUL. I would never have married him! He inherited the throne of Thrace, and as far as I know, he doesn't have a wife yet. I'm not sure what woman with an ounce of good sense would want him!"

"Sooooo?" Rarity asked. "Who IS the lucky man, then?"

"Oh, I'm married to King Menelaus," Helen said cheerfully. "He's everything I could have asked for. He isn't like Adonis at all. He's kind and respectful and intelligent. He's incredibly loyal to me and to Sparta." As she went on, it began to sound more like a prepared monologue.

"Things okay in paradise?" Meg asked.

"Oh, why wouldn't they be?" Helen replied. "What more…could I possibly ask for?" Her face fell.

"I dunno," Meg answered. "Love."

"Oh, of course I love Menelaus," Helen said quickly.

"All right," Meg said. "Just makin' sure." She slowed her pace, tapping Rarity on the shoulder; the two walked at the back of the group. "You pick up on romance vibes pretty well," Meg whispered. "Am I the only one getting a sense that there's something wrong with this?"

"Well," Rarity whispered in return, "not that I'm one to gossip, but something does seem rather odd about this. Now, I've no doubt Helen is telling the truth."

"And the catch is…?"

"Well, there's quite a difference, you see, between loving someone and being IN love with someone. She could very well admire Menelaus for his good qualities, but perhaps her heart isn't in it. After all, it does seem to be a political marriage, and those can get messy. But this is just between us, you understand?"

"Crystal clear."

They reached the gates of the Spartan palace, a low, reddish building. The doors were opened, and Helen led the group inside; the doors were shut behind them to give them all privacy.

"Helen!" A muscular, fair-haired man dressed in a red chiton embellished with gold entered the room.

"Menelaus!" Helen replied, and the pair embraced, then kissed. "If you'll forgive me. A group of traveling heroes including some of my old friends has come to Sparta to warn us of an Athenian invasion as retaliation to the one we just launched. I hope you don't mind…they did help the Athenians ward our armies off, but they're merely concerned with making sure no one gets hurt at all. Oh, you do remember Hercules, don't you?"

"The hero of the Olympian invasion?" Menelaus said, stepping towards Hercules to shake his hand. "Pleasure to meet you!"

"So you're not mad that we kinda humiliated your army?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Menelaus scowled, briefly. "I was not happy with the outcome at Athens. However, our army did come back without major injuries or casualties. And I suppose if Helen believes you're trustworthy…"

"There're extenuating circumstances," Phil pointed out. "Golden apples of discord and all."

"I've heard of those in legend." Menelaus turned to Helen. "Have they suggested…"

"That these conflicts are being spurred by the apples," Helen confirmed.

"Can we prove that it's true?" Menelaus asked.

"No, not really," Helen said, "but I know Hercules, Icarus, and Cassandra well, and none of them would purposely attack a city full of innocents in the name of vengeance. And I know they care about all the polises, not just Athens. The worst that any of them would do is Cassandra seeing a vision of destruction and not informing anyone of it."

"Sometimes I gotta prioritize," Cassandra said with a shrug.

"And…of the…" Menelaus lowered his voice. "Kentaurides?"

"Oh, I don't think they've come with ill intent," Helen said.

"But, Helen – "

"But nothing, Menelaus! They didn't do us any harm, and I do not believe they are going to!"

"Well, then." Menelaus turned to the group at large. "Welcome to Sparta. Now, what do you have to say about this Athenian invasion?"

"They're gonna come in dressed as Spartans," Applejack said. "Probably with the military helmets on, so you're gonna mistake them for your soldiers and you can't see their faces. And then they're gonna try and storm the palace to capture Helen."

"Don't they know that would be suicide?" Menelaus asked. "At Helen's and my engagement, Odysseus decided that those suitors who Helen did not choose should forge a pact that if anyone harmed Helen, the other suitors would ally with me to take revenge."

"Suicide, revenge, violence, that's what all this is leading up to!" Rainbow Dash asserted. "It's all about those apples of discord! They just kinda make everything go wrong! And they were either put there by somepony who loves seeing everything go crazy or somepony who wants everypony else to die!"

"The strategist is coming up with a plan," Helen said.

"Um, Twilight?" Hercules asked in a hushed voice. "If you have anything, now's the time…"

"Okay, I've gotten this far," Twilight said. "We have to mark the real Spartan soldiers in some way so we can tell them apart from the Athenians. And Helen's going to have to hide somewhere. But beyond that…and then there's the fact that it was a vision of the future. It might have to come true no matter what. But how can I work around it if the Athenians ACTUALLY capture Helen? Anyway, that's what I have so far. Maybe you could mark the Spartan military on their hands so they could check everypony with a handshake and see who's an invader! And, Helen, you're going to have to find somewhere safe in the city to hide. Someplace no one would suspect, like a random civilian's house."

"That is a good start," Helen said with a nod. "What is your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle."

"Twilight Sparkle! I trust you'll be able to come up with something."

"And if she doesn't," Pit asked, "THEN can we just switch to arrows?"

"Now, now!" Icarus said. "Obviously, this is too great of a mental challenge for the lesser minded."

"Twilight would be offended if she weren't deep in thought," Rarity snapped.

"Huh?" Twilight said, distracted.

"IN THE ABSENCE OF A LEGITIMATE PLAN FROM THE STRATEGIST, FEAR NOT!" Icarus yelled. "FOR I, ICARUS, HAVE A PLAN!"

"Oh, no," Cassandra sighed, placing her hand back over her face.

"We begin by building a catapult," Icarus said. "No! NO! A HUNDRED CATAPULTS! And THEN! WE FIRE THE CATAPULTS AT THE ATHENIANS!"

"Can the catapults be loaded with cake?" Pinkie asked.

"WE FIRE A HUNDRED CAKES AT THE ATHENIANS FROM THE CATAPULTS!" Icarus amended.

"I like this plan!" Pinkie approved.

"Pinkie Pie…" Rainbow Dash sighed. "Really? REALLY?"

"It's…very creative," Fluttershy offered.

Pit made a face of disgust.

"Icarus," Phil groaned, "can you just stick to the wax wings and not try with the whole 'plan' thing?"

"WAX WINGS!" Twilight cried suddenly. "That's IT! Cassandra! How did you know that the Athenian soldiers captured Helen?"

"I…saw it in a vision?" Cassandra reiterated. "You saw me see it."

"But did you literally SEE it?" Twilight asked. "Or do your visions let you know for sure who the identity of the person is?"

"It's generally a visual thing," Cassandra admitted.

"PERFECT!" Twilight cried. "I think you actually SAW our plan working! Icarus! Can you build ANYTHING out of wax?"

"YOU BETCHA, BABY!" Icarus cried.

"How about other contraptions?" Twilight asked. "I think you just mentioned something about catapults."

"I picked up a few tricks here and there from my Dad-alus!" Icarus bragged.

"Then you're actually the key to thwarting the invasion," Twilight said.

"I should've known!" Pit cried. "Icarus, that whole 'cake catapult' thing was just a joke you were making until this happened, right?"

"Oh…right!" Icarus replied. "All part of the plan!"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Anyway, I'm going to need your help designing and building some machines in a short amount of time. Speaking of which, Helen, Menelaus, you should go mark the hands of the Spartan military NOW. Helen, get to somewhere safe. And actually, after we get done putting this together, we should hide too. If any of the Athenians recognize any of us, it will be a tip-off. That's why I'm going to need a little extra help from everypony here with wings."

"I know this will work!" Helen said joyfully as she grasped Menelaus' hand. "We do have to go!"

"We'll make you safe," Menelaus promised. "No matter what." He looked back at the group. "I hope you won't find me rude if I insist you continue making your plans outside the palace if it's going to be without our supervision."

"No problem," Hercules said. "You two just get somewhere you'll be okay."

The group spilled out of the palace; Menelaus and Helen set off running as the heroes huddled in a space near the palace gates. "Now," Twilight said, "I'm going to need Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pit to help me out with…"


The Athenian approached the gates with trepidation. Of all the troops, he'd been chosen to move through the front entry; the others had all snuck in through side routes, vaulting over the circular wall.

He slipped through the gates discreetly. His head was covered with a helmet, the sort the Spartan soldiers always wore, so he was mostly confident he wouldn't be discovered. Part of him was still paranoid that someone would find him out. Then again, the Spartans probably wouldn't be able to recognize him as an Athenian from face alone, which was a bonus.

Another helmeted soldier approached him from the opposite direction: a real Spartan, he assumed, though for all the Athenian knew, it COULD have been another Athenian. The other soldier put out his right hand for a shake. "Comrade!" he greeted gruffly. "There is a meeting to take place in the square. They say Helen has discovered an Athenian plot to invade."

The Spartan – for he was indeed a Spartan – stole a glance at the back of the newcomer's right hand. It was blank where the Spartan had an "omega" drawn on the back of his own hand. The Spartan soldiers had been relentlessly shaking each others' hands all day to find those who did not have the chosen mark. So far, no Athenians had noticed.

"Then we must prepare," the Athenian said, oblivious to the examination he'd been put under.

"Follow me," said the Spartan.

The two men walked down the main street until the Athenian's gaze was caught by something fleeting in his upper peripheral vision. He looked up into the sky. "What was that?"

"I see nothing," the Spartan said, also looking up.

"I must be hallucinating from the heat," the Athenian muttered, and the two men walked on.


"Did he see us?" Twilight asked.

She lay upon a fishing net suspended in the sky. Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pit each held up a corner of it.

"Nope," Pit said, craning his neck to look over the rooftops they'd dipped low to hide behind. "They're walking again."

"Good," Twilight said softly. "Now we need to get lower and as close as we can without being seen so I can keep the spell running."


A crowd of helmeted, armed soldiers gathered in the square, looking toward the steps of the palace, upon which Helen stood. The Athenian and his Spartan companion took their places at the back.

"Excuse me!" Helen said, raising an arm. "Now, I know this isn't something you want to hear, but…" She lowered her arm. "Unfortunately, word has reached us that Athens is planning an attack on Sparta as revenge for the invasion we made on them. Now, the Athenians are clever, but not quite as clever as they think they are. We should be able to repel them if we rely on our military might."

The Athenian nearly snickered to himself. He didn't notice the Spartan backing slowly away from him until he'd left the square.

"Still," Helen said, "it would be best if we had a counter-strategy planned. In order to avoid our plans falling upon Athenian ears, I'm going to have to ask you to come inside the palace."

How dumb, the Athenian thought, were the Spartans? Here the Athenians were planning on sneaking into the palace to abduct Helen, and she was inviting them right in!

"Come along now," Helen said, moving inside the palace. The hidden Athenians followed.

And only the hidden Athenians. The Spartans bowed out and walked away.


"Okay, they're in," Pit said.

"That means they're behind the walls," Twilight pointed out. "The spell's out of range. We better move NOW."


The Athenians closed the palace gates once all were inside. It was then that they noticed their number was small enough that it could only be them. One took off his helmet. The others did the same. They recognized each other.

"BAR THE DOOR!" one yelled; furniture was moved to keep the doors shut so Helen could not escape.

"You've fallen right into our trap, Helen of Sparta!" another bragged. "For all your talk of an Athenian invasion, you've failed to notice when one walked right into your own palace gates! What do you have to say to THAT?"

Helen didn't respond. She didn't speak. She didn't even move.

"We're TALKING to you!" another Athenian growled, closing the distance between himself and Helen and seizing the woman's arm. Then he cried out and let go as though she'd burned him. "It's WAX!"

"What?" The other Athenians gathered around the thing they'd thought was Helen. They then realized they hadn't seen the face move at all. It was a wax figure, molded to look like the queen, dressed in her robes.

Someone knocked it over. The wax split open, revealing a network of wooden joints molded into the limbs to make it mobile.

"But how?" one asked. "She moved! She talked!"

"Unless she was animated by witchcraft," another suggested. "Like what scared the Spartans away…"

Three Athenian men then pried all the furniture away from the doors, feeling it would be smart to escape as quickly as possible. Fruitless tries to open the door only revealed that it had been blocked from the other end.


Twilight, Pit, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pegasus finished moving the last of the heavy crates before the doors, which they'd also barred and chained for good measure.

"We've got 'em!" Rainbow Dash cried, and out of hiding crept the Spartan army, Helen and Menelaus dressed in rags, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Hercules, Meg, Cassandra, Icarus, and Phil.

"Nice job with the animation spell," Hercules complimented.

Twilight gave a short bow. "Thanks. I was afraid they'd figure out that it was my voice coming out of the wax puppet and not Helen's."

"Ya did good, team strategist," Phil replied.

"Now," Rainbow Dash said, "to add the finishing touch with that little EXTRA something we put together in the time we had left. Pinkie Pie, Icarus…you wanna help us do the honors?"

"YES!" Pinkie squealed. "YES, YES, YES!"

"YEAH, BABY!" Icarus screamed.

The group of heroes moved to where ropes lay around the immediate area. They all grasped the ropes, pulling first on those that would open wide the windows of the Spartan palace, giving a view into the atrium where the Athenians were trapped, then on those ropes that jerked the canvas coverings off the miniature catapults they'd built, and then on those ropes that activated the catapults, sending several expertly baked cakes through the windows to pelt the Athenians.

"WE SURRENDER!" one Athenian soldier cried out once he was completely covered in icing. "WE SURRENDER!"


The Athenians were stripped of their weapons and forced to turn in the Spartan armor, given plain chitons to return home in. None of them put up a fight after being thoroughly outfoxed.

"I think we humiliated them by beating them at their own game," Hercules pointed out.

"Awesome," Rainbow Dash and Pit chorused.

"I suppose I owe you my life," Helen said. "Or at least the fact that I'm not being held captive at all. How can we repay you?"

"Oh, we're not taking payment," Hercules said quickly. "We're just – "

"Actually, there is ONE thing," Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"WHAT?" Twilight snapped. "Rainbow Dash!"

"It's not big!" Rainbow Dash insisted. "It's something little! Something I need! Please?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Okaaaaay…"

"It isn't becoming to ask for a reward for our generosity," Rarity pointed out.

"Are you saying that because I beat you to asking for a payment in jewelry?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No comment," Rarity grumbled.


The statue of Ares came to life as Kratos exited the Spartan brothel, where he had spent ever more of his time and his money temporarily forgetting the memory called Lysandra that still murmured in the back of his mind between blood oaths and bloodstains.

"Do you have any idea what just happened?" Ares asked, gruffly and obviously rhetorically.

Even though he hadn't witnessed it, Kratos knew the answer. "The Kentaurides defeated the Athenian invasion in a humiliating way. The name of the Spartan military was sullied."

"The worst part is," Ares said, "they don't even know. They think it's a GOOD thing that they've outwitted Athens! At the very least, my sister won't have her revenge or control of the tree."

"Did you come here just to tell me what I already know?"

"Actually, I came here to give you fair warning," Ares replied. "The golden apples of discord don't fall to the mortal realm on their own. Conflict is coming to Olympus, and when it does, you had better be ready to fight on my side."

"You know I would rather be chained to the mountain where Prometheus was and suffer the same fate. But my word stands. I will put up a better fight for you than Sparta has today," Kratos vowed.

"You had better!" Ares snapped before leaving the statue.


The smith finished cooling the bronze breastplate. He took one good look at the finished product – a shine that was almost reflective, with a lightning bolt, strangely similar to the symbol of Zeus, carved into it. Then he handed it to its recipient.

Rainbow Dash eagerly strapped it on over her tunic. "Thanks," she said. "That's all I wanted."

"Well, it is practical," Hercules pointed out.

The group of heroes left the smithy only to see Zoë walking toward them at a fast clip. "There thou art," she snapped. "I sought thee over the whole polis. The citizenry informed me that thou hadst claimed a piece of armor as thy reward. I take it thou wert successful."

"As a matter of fact, we were!" Rarity boasted. "Well, all thanks to Twilight, really, but…well, we can discuss it on the road. How did things go with the tree?"

"Not well," Zoë answered. "It is worse than I expected. I need thy help."

"What happened?" Hercules asked with concern.

"Come with me," Zoë said before turning and leading the way out of the city.

"She doesn't tell us what's wrong, and we have to just follow her and see for ourselves," Cassandra muttered. "You don't have to be an Oracle to know THAT'S bad…"


BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD

Moonlight filtered into the crystal hall. Of course, the actual moon was nowhere to be found in the Underworld; its light had been diverted in from the mortal realm. It formed a diagonal beam across the hallway, and it was on this beam of light that Mozenrath stood, suspended in air.

"I don't see the point of this," he sighed. "I could just levitate anywhere I wanted."

"Walking on moonlight is one of the darkest powers," Hecate replied. "Anyone can LEVITATE. It's about control."

"Control?"

"If you don't have a handle on dark powers, they'll get the better of you. Make them submit to you in the small ways first and they'll be your friends in the long run. Now get down from there."

Mozenrath landed gracefully on the floor, and Hecate dismissed the moonlight.

"Shiny gone," Xerxes bemoaned.

"So what's the next form of torture I have to endure for my studies?" Mozenrath asked.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Hecate replied, arms crossed. "You're going to learn animal transfiguration."

"That's…dark."

"If you find the Beast Within," Hecate clarified. "Find your darkest animal instinct and let it out. Now, you're just beginning, so you may not actually know your true form yet, but a panther seems to work out for everyone all around, so focus on that until you know better."

"You're saying eventually, I'll find an animal that represents me completely."

"Yes. And it had better not be an eel."

"What wrong with eel?" Xerxes asked dejectedly.

Mozenrath thought it over. He already had an idea of the animal that he would want to represent him, but the very concept just didn't seem like the sort of thing that Hecate was looking for in a warrior of darkness. He decided not to bring up to Hecate his conversation with Twilight, in which he'd heard of an equine creature that bore both wings and the horn of a unicorn. Even thinking about it, Mozenrath thought about how wings would suit him, and about how he already felt a sort of predilection for having hooves instead of claws. But it was a panther Hecate wanted, so a panther Hecate would get.

"So how does this work?" he asked.

"Find that instinct in you that wants what it wants," Hecate said. "Fuel that into a shapeshift. And take it from there."

"Doesn't sound too hard." Mozenrath closed his eyes, wanting to be in darkness while he searched his soul for his deepest instincts. He initiated the transformation.

He felt free for a moment. And angry. He lashed out with his claws, hissing. He then got the feeling that his mind had emptied, and he was forgetting many things. What were they?

As soon as he consciously recalled everything that had left when his mind went blank, he was human again, and only then did it register with him that for a few moments, he had not been. "Panther?" Mozenrath asked.

"Yes!" Hecate cried proudly. "Though…you're obviously not happy with me for this training."

"Are your feelings hurt?"

"No. It's just an observation. Now, most sorcerers have a backup form. Something that flies."

It crossed Mozenrath's mind again that an alicorn could fly, but he kept silent.

"Try a bird now," Hecate suggested. "Eagle, raven…your choice."

Mozenrath shut his eyes once more. This time, instead of anger, he was filled with a sort of giddiness. The sort that comes with being airborne and very light. He soared toward the ceiling, doing a loop before remembering that there were other thoughts he'd had in his head. When he landed, he was human.

"How was that?" he asked Hecate, still irrationally happy from the high of having flown.

Hecate scowled, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" Mozenrath asked in exasperation.

"A PELICAN?" Hecate cried.

"It…was the first thing I thought of, all right?"

"What kind of magical bird is a PELICAN?"

"All right, I'll work on another bird!" Mozenrath sighed, then shut his eyes again. He knew Hecate wouldn't let him sleep until he'd perfected both transformations and learned to keep his mind blank during them.


THE ROADS OF OLYMPIC GREECE

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Hercules, Meg, Cassandra, Icarus, Pit, Phil, Pegasus, and Zoë looked up at the thick-trunked, many-branched tree that bore golden apples on its various branches.

"As thou seest," Zoë said, "it is not a sapling."

"I see your problem," Phil said. "You sure you don't wanna just destroy it?"

"DON'T HURT IT," Fluttershy practically growled.

"All right, all right, we won't hurt the tree!" Phil said quickly. "Team strategist. Ideas?"

"I'm thinking…" Twilight stated.

"Why don't we just use the Elements of Harmony on it?" Pinkie asked. "I mean, they're apples of discord, right? And our Elements work against the personification of Discord!"

"That's GENIUS!" Twilight cried.

"I think we're all curious to see what these Elements of yours do, anyway," Meg pointed out.

"Well, let's get to it," Applejack said. "Everypony huddle!"

The six Kentaurides moved into position. The sphere of light formed around them as their amulets glowed.

"Holy Hera…" Phil muttered.

"WHOA!" Pit flinched.

"Divine magic?" Zoë wondered.

The great rainbow plunged downward from the sphere, connecting to the roots of the tree. The colors were seen in flashes under the bark, traveling up to the very top of the tree, out to every branch until they enveloped the apples. When the shine subsided and the Kentaurides' hooves touched ground, the light of the Elements fading, the apples were no longer golden, but instead bore a skin that was striped in the colors of the rainbow.

"They're…zap-apples?" Applejack said in confusion.

"Huh?" Hercules replied.

Applejack turned around, bucking the tree with her hind legs. A rainbow apple fell into her outstretched hand. "A kinda apple that grows back home," she explained. "Just a really sweet kind."

"It is no longer an apple of discord," Zoë confirmed. "It is safe."

"Well, ain't no use in wastin' a good zap-apple," Applejack said, taking the apple with her as the group walked back to the wagon.

"Of course, this gets me no closer to knowing who planted the tree," Zoë said, "though I have my suspicions."

"I am still convinced this is Hades," Hercules replied immediately.

"The Lord of the Dead?" Zoë asked. "Why dost thou sayest that?"

"Because where there's chaos, there's probably accidental death," Hercules pointed out. "Or…not so accidental death. Hades would love it."

"And I'm still sure it's Discord," Applejack said. "He's a kinda chaotic god-type who – "

"I am well aware of who Discord is," Zoë said.

"But how?" Rarity asked.

"The tree from whence these apples came is quite old," Zoë said. "There has not been activity from Discord in a while, but if thou hast reason to suspect him, I cannot discard it. I myself was considering the Olympian goddess of discord, Eris. I knowest not how she would enter the garden, but of the Olympians, until I considered Hades, she had the most motive."

"There's a goddess of discord?" Pinkie asked.

"Eris takes pleasure in chaos," Zoë said. "Her favorite form of entertainment is to watch mortals struggle with important or nonsensical events. She has done awful things in that name."

"It sounds like she and Discord would get on especially well," Rarity observed.

"I have not heard of the two interacting," Zoë stated, "but I would not doubt it all the same."

"Hang on…" Something arose in Twilight's memory. "What does Eris look like?"

"Her favorite way to appear is as a woman with blue-violet skin and raven hair," Zoë answered. "She tends to like to wear the color purple."

"And is she kinda…floaty?" Twilight asked.

Rarity gasped, realizing what Twilight was talking about.

"I suppose thou couldst say…'floaty,'" Zoë confirmed. "Why?" She was suddenly alert, suspicious. "Didst thou see her?"

"Perhaps," Rarity replied. "When Twilight and I were doing our best to hold off the Spartan invasion from the rooftops, we caught a glimpse of someone of that description. She caught our attention and then simply disappeared. But that distracted us long enough to let even more Spartan soldiers into the square! Had you and Pit not shown up to stave them off, why, I don't know what would have happened!"

"Suspect number three in the Case of the Golden Apples," Icarus said dramatically. "ERIS."

"I love mysteries," Pinkie Pie broke in, "but I can't be a detective without my deerstalker hat!"

"That does pose a problem," Icarus agreed.

"There are two of them now and my life is Tartarus," Cassandra muttered, resting her forehead on Meg's shoulder in exasperation.

"At least it beats Pinkie askin' if we're there yet," Phil grumbled.

"Oh, you silly!" Pinkie Pie told him. "I haven't asked yet because we don't know where we're even going!"

The group fell into a silence as everyone collectively realized they hadn't scouted the next destination.

"All right, I'll do the thing." Cassandra uncorked the bottle of the Mists of Delphi. Her eyes shifted into deep green. "The kingdom of Thrace is in terror. The three Gorgon sisters turn people into stone at random." Her eyes reverted. "Okay, please tell me I didn't say THRACE."

"What's wrong with Thrace?" Rarity asked.

"Remember that Adonis guy that Helen said was awful…?" Hercules asked.

"Yes," Rarity said.

"Guess what he's the king of," Hercules told her.

"Oh, dear…" Rarity muttered. "If there's one thing that gets on my nerves, it's stuck-up princes, especially if they become stuck-up kings!"

"At least we finally get to put a smackdown on Medusa!" Pit said excitedly.

"I don't get it…" Hercules murmured. "Medusa ISN'T EVIL."

"She's totally evil!" Pit asserted.

"There has to be something more to this," Hercules stated.

"Another mystery?" Pinkie asked.

"I'm sure there's a rational explanation," Fluttershy said as the wagon pulled around to make way for Thrace. "We'll figure out what happened. I hope Hercules is right. At the very least, even if Medusa is evil, she might remember how she was his friend, and that could change things."

"And if not?" Pit challenged.

"Then…I don't know," Fluttershy admitted.


Chapter 51

· Twilight's frustration with the plan can be directly translated to me lying awake at night going "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE PLAN IS FOR SPARTA." If the plan sucks, that's why. Deal with it.

· I WAS considering cutting down the trees as they come across them, but the way I'm having them deal with the trees now is actually going to become a Chekhov's Gun for later.

· Helen is another character from HTAS I was excited to see "two years later." I thought I would hate her because she's depicted as the "shallow popular girl," but actually, over the course of the series, she's proven to actually be just naïve and really rather pleasant. She's not a really strong character, but she is likeable.

· The Icarus song is totally HTAS canon and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

· Pinkie's comment on palaces is actually my justification for how they're not going to get tired of seeing all the fictional palaces they're going to be shown. Because a lot of fandomworthy pieces of media have at least one palace/castle/fortress/whatnot.

· To clarify: there's no abuse or anything happening with Helen and Menelaus. They're just kind of stuck in the loop of "We're good for each other, we're married, we're content…is this all there is?" At least on Helen's side. This is setup for, again, the Trojan War, which I will again remind you has not happened yet. Because Helen/Paris is one of my favorite mythical pairings and I love the idea that she went with him willingly, even if that wasn't the original intent. Also, gossiping about Helen's love life helped me solidify some Meg-Rarity friendship.

· This Menelaus is pretty much my OC. Partly inspired by the Margaret George version of him in her novel "Helen of Troy." Partly, anyway.

· I felt bad that Pegasus didn't get to do much in Athens, so he gets to carry Twilight around while she animates the wax Helen here.

· I wanted Kratos absent for this chapter because he would just ruin the plan like a bull in a china shop. He'll be more important later, as I foreshadow here.

· GoW has so much ridiculous random sex in it that I kinda started laughing at it. It never made sense to me why he gets with so many random women if he's acting out of memory of his dead wife. But then I wondered…not that I'm excusing the random sex in GoW…but what if instead of being incongruous to Kratos' memory of Lysandra, it's RELATED?

· I meant to give RD that breastplate back on Chryse.

· Let's play a game called "spot the parts where Dark magic is stolen directly from Bayonetta." If you answered "walking on moonlight," "transforming into the Beast Within," and "everything," you're right!

· The Beast Within was a tough concept to differentiate from animal transfiguration. And it's going to be even tougher once I get even deeper into what can be done during it so that I can actually use it as a plot device in later storylets. The "primal instinct" thing is going to be both focused on and subverted. Also, the alicorn as Moz's spirit animal is almost completely accidental foreshadowing. I literally couldn't think of anything better for him.

· The pelican? That's based on a joke I have with a fan community I'm in (including several readers of this fic) about the Spellican from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and how ridiculous it is. One thing led to another, and now we all think the Spellican is a badly transformed Mozenrath. Of course, literally transforming him into the Spellican would have NOT WORKED on fifty different levels.

· So yes, the woman on the rooftops was Eris from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. No, the world of Sinbad is not part of this (I tried…things got more complicated). It's a separate world. But there's only one version of each Olympian. She hops worlds to do what she wants. Thankfully, neither HTAS nor GoW has an Eris, so she just slipped right in! Now, how much is she responsible for this, and how far is she involved with Hades…?