A/N: Before reading this chapter, I advise familiarizing yourself with the song "The Gospel Truth" from Disney's Hercules. Including both reprises.
47. The Gospel Truth
THE SPACE BETWEEN
The letter arrived.
The six had been waiting anxiously for it; none of them could deny that. At first, each scrambled to take hold of the parchment, but as if through a telepathic agreement, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie stepped back and let Twilight read the letter out loud.
Twilight cleared her throat, ready to give the verdict.
"My dearest students:
"I regret to inform you that I have not been entirely honest with you. It is not easy for me to admit, but I have wronged you by omitting this information. You are, indeed, ageless."
Twilight paused for a moment. The six just stood in place, processing.
"Well," Applejack said at last, "read the rest."
Twilight began again.
"The bearers of the Elements of Harmony are ageless once they become adults. It has always been this way and always will be. If you have ever held one of the Elements, you will be ageless. That is why Luna and I have lived so long. We shall continue to live on unless an accident should befall us.
"You are still in great danger of mortal means. You can be killed by bullets, blades, poisons, and anything else besides old age. Given what I have read in your most recent account, I'm sure that you, excluding Rainbow Dash, would also be killed if your Soul Gems were shattered.
"That reminds me. I'm glad you figured out on your own how to counteract the Incubator transformation. Luna and I have saved quite a few witches that way, though many more have been lost.
"Returning to the subject, I kept this a secret from you because I didn't know how to say it. I was afraid. Most regard it as a curse, at least at first. But honestly, it was wrong of me to hide this secret. I did it out of my own cowardice, and for that I am sorry.
"I should have told you myself. I am sorry you had to find out like this. If it's any consolation, Luna and I are actually quite glad of our status now. The bad news is, you will outlive those you know now. But the good news is, if you're careful and lucky, you will have an eternity to experience new things and meet new friends. And you will have each other in this fate as Luna and I have each other.
"I wish I could tell you that this is all I have hidden about the Elements, but the truth is that there are many more things I could tell you. It is difficult for me to know when to reveal them, or how to say them. However, I am certain that you now know everything about the Elements that directly affects you and your lives. You may ask for whatever else you wish to hear at any time.
"I apologize, and I hope you can forgive me, though I will understand if you cannot.
"Sincerely,
"Princess Celestia."
"So it's true," Applejack reiterated. "We ain't agin'."
"COOL!" Pinkie cried. "Do you girls know what this MEANS? We have forever and ever to have adventures!"
"NOT cool," Applejack countered. "You know what this means to me? It means that I…that I gotta watch Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom get older and older until finally they…" She swallowed hard.
"I'm sorry," Fluttershy said in sympathy.
"But we have the power of time on our side," Twilight reminded the others. "We can go back and visit the ones we love whenever we want. The Starlight can actually move through time, remember? Phineas Black RECOGNIZED us. And we were on the vase in the Demigod Hall."
"What do you think about this?" Rainbow Dash asked Rarity.
"Well," Rarity said, "I have to admit…it is a little comforting to know that my beauty will never fade. What? That's what I think!"
"Nopony judges you for thinkin' it," Applejack said, cracking a smile. "We gotta look on the bright side."
"But this whole thing IS a bright side!" Pinkie insisted. "We have ETERNITY! That's like never being able to really waste time! And we are all together!"
"That's right," Fluttershy emphasized. "We're all together in this. We'll have each other."
"What if we have some kind of fight or falling-out?" Twilight asked worriedly.
"There are six of us," Fluttershy pointed out. "I'd like to think that would never happen, but if it does, I don't see us all fighting each other at the same time. And we'd have eternity to forgive each other if we wanted. Just like how Celestia waited a thousand years to make up with Luna."
"Not to mention we'll also have Celestia and Luna along with us," Rainbow Dash pointed out.
"And I suppose if we really wanted to, we COULD choose when to die," Rarity said, "though the thought of that just disgusts me."
"Me too," Applejack admitted. "I didn't like the sound of bein' ageless, but I do like bein' alive. And I sure would miss ya if any of y'all decided you wanted to go."
"I doubt any of us want to be dead anytime soon," Twilight said. "Am I right?"
She was answered with five "Yes"s.
"Then we'll look at this as a good thing," Twilight resolved. "Everypony agree?"
"YEAH!" Pinkie squealed.
"Of course!" Rarity added.
"I could get used to it," Rainbow Dash chimed in.
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy said. "The more time I have to help others out, the better."
"Heck, even I could get used to this," Applejack admitted. "It's just a little hard to hear first time around."
"I feel bad for Celestia," Fluttershy added. "She must be feeling really guilty."
"I understand why she never told us," Twilight admitted. "I mean, I wish she had, but if I were her, I wouldn't know how to say it or when to say it."
"Me either," Applejack chimed in.
"If we're all in agreement on that," Rarity said, "we should write her a letter immediately saying we don't blame her."
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed.
"She shouldn't have to feel bad any longer!" Pinkie chirped.
"Is it okay if I add that she doesn't have to tell us anything else about the Elements yet?" Twilight asked, finding parchment and a quill. "I get this really weird feeling that she's…afraid to. And not for the same reason she was afraid to say anything about the agelessness."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, "but ONLY if she's sure that's the LAST thing that applies to us here and now."
"I'm sure she was honest about that," Twilight said, beginning to write the letter.
She wrote a short page telling Celestia not to worry, that nopony onboard the Starlight blamed her for keeping the secret, and then she mailed it away through the fireplace.
"So how long until we hit another world?" Rainbow Dash asked, changing the subject.
As though her approach to the subject had shifted the very fabric of the universe, an alert bell sounded through the ship. The six turned to the monitor to see the ship approaching a new territory.
"I guess right now," Twilight answered.
THE FORBIDDEN MOUNTAINS, THE ENCHANTED DOMINION
"So what are you thinking we do now?" Hades asked Maleficent. "I mean, from the looks of things, we're kinda short on numbers."
"There are several routes to pursue at this point," Maleficent informed him. The pair once again met with Jafar and Gothel in one of the sitting rooms. "I have been meaning to get in touch with our old ally Ursula, of course. In the meantime, I have my sights set on yet another potential for our group. I suppose the proper course of action would be to test him. You will, of course, allow me to bring both to the realm of the living."
"Babe, you've got an all access pass to the soul bank," Hades reminded her. "So who is this new guy you're thinking about, anyway?"
"A disgraced soldier," Maleficent clarified. "One who has lost everything. It would only be generous of us to offer him a way to earn it all back."
"I thought generosity was our enemy," Gothel said, confused.
"It is," Jafar told her. "This is merely the style of Maleficent's humor. Though it's safe to say that we all find much more amusement in action. Making the worlds bend to us."
A pig-snouted goblin rushed into the room. "Your grace!" he announced.
"What is it?" Maleficent spat.
"We've got word from Grimhilde that she's taken the Changeling back to her castle," the goblin stated.
Maleficent smiled. "Excellent. You are dismissed." She turned to present company. "Exactly as planned."
"Now, I'm aware we're playing it cool until the time comes for the big whoop-de-do," Hades said, "but in the meantime, I need something from you. A little consultation, if you will."
"State your request." Maleficent seemed almost bemused.
"I'm looking for a way to kill time in the interim," Hades said. "And I don't mean playing checkers with the minions. I'm talking conquest, destruction, anything I can get in advance before we make the big strike we've been talking about. See, the closer I can get to the throne of Olympus and the SOONER I can get there, the better. Problem is, we had the whole big prophecy, I let out the Titans, that got foiled, Zeus' brat kicked me out of the Olympic gates, I took a swim in the Styx, I crawled OUT of the Styx, I abused the minions, lost lover girl to Jerkules, picked up the blood knight and the shadow man, and that brings us to today. Eighteen years of work, down the tubes. I am currently Titan-less and prophecy-less. You see my conundrum."
Maleficent nodded. "That I do. Rest assured, Hades, when the time comes, you shall have me on your side, and what I shall contribute will more than make up for the loss of the Titans…though were I you, I would not forget them. They are, after all, the Old Ones, and only four of them were destroyed."
"And a Cyclops," Hades added. "Though he was useful."
"But why was a Cyclops among Titans?" Jafar inquired.
"Eh, back in the day, we had this whole big Titanomachy type deal," Hades explained. "Zeus made war on the Titans, and the Titans were enemies with the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants, and, well, the enemy of my enemy. But every war has its traitors. One Cyclops ended up going rogue, and he got tossed in with the Titans. One hundred-hander joined up with him, and HE was actually put to a USEFUL job. The guy stands as a living prison for blood oath breakers right now. Not a pretty sight, lemme tell ya. There's your short answer." He turned back to Maleficent. "So I get what you're saying. We're working toward a cosmos WITH Titans. But that still leaves the question of what I am supposed to do…NOW."
"If you cannot take the throne of Olympus," Maleficent suggested, "send the Olympians a clear message that you are not to be taken lightly. You needn't challenge Zeus directly to get what you want. Might I also suggest calling in on old connections? If I recall correctly, you were not the only deity who felt disappointment when your reign was crushed by Hercules."
"Hmm." Hades thought it over. "Rekindle old alliances…find damage that can be done without even touching Bolt Boy…take juuuuust enough to make a name for myself again…Maleficent. Babe. You ALWAYS know just what to say."
"I have not gained the state of power I currently possess," Maleficent replied, "without obtaining a mind for these matters. I trust that you will, of course, know what to do when the time comes. You are no small threat to Olympus."
"Heheh, you got that right, baby! Of course, when I do make it to the top, you'll get your due."
"I am not afraid you will go back on your word, Hades."
Gothel watched this conversation intently, a question forming in her mind.
A column of darkness then appeared in the room; the sign of someone apparating at the speed of darkness. The shadows cleared to reveal a figure that Hades found familiar.
"WHO is this intruder?" Maleficent asked angrily, causing the newcomer to flinch.
"Hey, hey, whoa, cool your jets!" Hades replied. "This is my guy. I gave him these coordinates. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the good doctor himself: Anton Facilier."
Facilier, no longer intimidated by Maleficent, grinned at her before whipping off his hat and bowing gracefully. "Enchanté," he greeted, though there seemed to be a hint of venom in his voice. "So you're the infamous Maleficent, I take it."
"And you are Hades' new right-hand in the Underworld," Maleficent replied. "From what I have heard, you intrigue me."
"Trust me," Hades said, "the shadow man is Overtaker material. You give us time to shine, I see us all forming a happy little alliance. Anyway, Facilier. What've you got for me?"
"Not good news," Facilier stated. "There was, to put it lightly, an incident in the Underworld."
For a moment, Hades' fire flared bright orange. It returned to calming blue as Hades asked, "What…KIND…of incident?"
"One of the Old Ones broke in and stole the mortality serum," Facilier stated. "He managed to take out Pain, Panic, Dan, and myself."
"Whoa, whoa…whoa," Hades replied. "ALL of you? I mean, the imps, they couldn't hold their own against a housecat, but ALL FOUR of you?"
"Not at once, but he didn't exactly give us a chance to mobilize."
"And this Old One," Hades went on. "Did you catch a name?"
"Discord."
"Huh." Hades turned to Maleficent. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was YOUR guy."
Maleficent's brow furrowed. "The draconequus made a strike against those who granted him freedom. He chooses to walk a treacherous path."
"NO ONE," Hades said, glowing orange again, "steals from me and gets away with it."
"Except Discord," Facilier pointed out, "did."
"Yeah, well not for long," Hades growled. "First thing when we get back, I'm putting up patrols. My palace is going on LOCKDOWN. Old One or no Old One, that draconequus puts another toe in MY Underworld, he joins the general populace. Understood?"
"Crystal clear," Facilier confirmed.
Hades turned back to Maleficent. "You still have faith in the guy?"
"As a means to our end, he is still useful," Maleficent stated. "But in personal matters, this strike should not be ignored. Do not kill him…but do not let him go unpunished."
"I think I got that covered," Hades said with a nod. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a LOT of business to attend to. Facilier, we're out of here."
"As you wish," Facilier replied.
"Later, babe," Hades told Maleficent, and Facilier scowled in response. Then Facilier and Hades disappeared simultaneously in pillars of shadow.
"You still trust Discord as a means to our end?" Jafar reiterated.
Maleficent nodded. "I should have known that chaos would not ally with us. But this does not change our plans. No matter what, Discord will find himself working towards our goal…for it is the same as his." Maleficent turned to the door. "I must send word to Grimhilde that we have received her message, as well as tend to the matters of which were spoken earlier." She left the room, impossibly gracefully.
"So I've got a question," Gothel said. "Maleficent and Hades. Are the two of them…involved?"
"So it seems," Jafar replied, "though it is not a matter to be spoken of. Their connection is…unusual. It certainly isn't something Maleficent would admit to, given our current climate."
"Love is weakness, I get it, I get it," Gothel interrupted. "So they're together, but they're not in love, and they don't want anyone to think they're in love."
"Precisely. Though there is more information you would find…perhaps…amusing."
"Oh? Do tell."
"There is a child."
"A child!" Gothel gasped. "The two of them?" A sly smile spread across her face. "Oh. That IS amusing."
"Though no one has seen this child in years," Jafar pointed out. "I suppose it best I say no more. I would not want the others to think that I had little better to do than engage in idle gossip." His smile, of course, said otherwise.
"I guess," Gothel replied, "though it was worth knowing, all the same."
CHRYSE, OLYMPIC GREECE
"We're sailing into someplace called 'Olympic Greece,'" Rarity observed.
"I know this place!" Twilight said. "This world has a kind of connection with Mount Olympus and the Underworld. We could be in proximity with all the Olympian gods!"
"How did you know that?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Well, I…" Twilight shuffled her hooves. "Mozenrath…might have told me about it…"
"We're still Kentaurides," Rarity noticed. "We haven't changed. I'm guessing that means there are centaurs and Kentaurides on this world."
"But still no talkin' ponies, I guess," Applejack added.
"So are we doing the usual plan?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I help drop anchor, and Rarity goes out and gets us designs for what to wear?"
"I'm hoping we aren't forced to wear plain uniforms again…" Rarity almost sounded weak, as though the very prospect of wearing something as plain as Hogwarts robes made her want to faint.
"Sounds like a plan," Twilight said.
"I'm so excited!" Pinkie cried, bounding up and down. "I wonder what new adventures are out there waiting?"
As a matter of fact, the ship was pulling into the waters outside of the shores of an island called Chryse – a very significant island to Olympic Greece, for it was the residence of –
"Oh, are you serious?" the Muse Thalia interrupted. "Ladies, are you reading this? This is drier than Bob's narration."
"Sorry, everyone," the Muse Clio added, "but if you're going to read this story about what went on in Olympic Greece, you've got a lot to catch up on. The legendary hero Hercules saved Olympus from the Titans, but that doesn't mean he was done!"
"And he isn't even the only hero we need to talk about," Melpomene chimed in.
"We can't just take control of the whole story!" Terpsichore argued.
"Of course not," Calliope – often considered the leader of the Muses, as she was the guardian of epic stories, from which other genres and art forms sprang – surmised. "But we can give this chapter a little helping hand."
"Just sit back and enjoy the show, readers!" Melpomene advised.
"Will somebody give us a beat?" Thalia called out, and a jazzy piano tune began.
Calliope sang:
"By now you know the tale,
How Hercules earned laurels to rest.
But history goes onward,
And it wasn't over yet!"
Melpomene took over:
"Herc did the rightful thing!
He put to use his fortune and fame!
And he and Meg helped Philoctetes
Find new heroes to train!"
The five chorused:
"THAT'S WHERE THE SIX COME IN!"
"Elements of Harmony!" sang Clio.
"YOU KNOW!" the Muses chorused.
"The sixfold company!" sang Melpomene.
"THERE THEY GO!" the Muses chorused,
"AND THEIR GREEK DRAMA WILL UNFOLD!
AND THAT'S THE GOSPEL TRUTH,
OUR WORD IS GOOD AS MIDAS' GOLD!"
"That brings us to today!" sang Thalia,
"Phil's still the same – a trainer uncouth!"
"And although it may seem impossible,
That's the Gospel truth!" the Muses chorused,
"Phil waited on new clients, and
Six turned up, sailing smooth!
With Herc and Meg there as apostles!
THAT'S THE GOSPEL TRUTH!"
It had been far too long, in Phil's opinion, since he'd gotten to use any of the training equipment on his island. The satyr paced the training arena, letting out dramatic sighs as he dusted off everything from the vaulting horse to the barbells.
A pair of humans – one mortal, one demigod – watched him. "I'm thinking we should get his mind off it," the mortal, a thin woman with a long chestnut ponytail and clad in a soft pink peplos, whispered to the demigod, a tall young man with carrot-colored hair, a very muscular frame, and an outfit consisting of bronze armor and a blue cape. "Before he drives himself…more insane than he is."
"C'mon, Phil," the man suggested. "We should do something fun! Sail to Athens! Take in a drama! No one's going to turn up if you just wait around!"
"You'd think," Phil ranted, "that once you got the gods to put a picture of your guy in the night sky, the clients would just come rolling in. I had it all pictured! I'd be Phil, trainer of heroes! Agent for the finest names in Greece! And what have I been doing since they put up your constellation? Gathering…dust."
"Heroes don't just come falling out of the sky," the woman pointed out. "You've gotta give 'em time. Eventually, some wannabe's going to come crawling up to your door out of destiny or divine inspiration. You know the deal. And that's when you turn 'em from a wannabe into a yes-I-am. But they've gotta have a reason to want to find you first."
"I bet Chiron doesn't have slow days," Phil muttered. "People are probably lined up for MILES around his door."
"Give yourself more credit!" the man insisted. "So it's a slow decade! Phil, if you just stand around here and wait for another hero to take on, no one's going to turn up at all! But if you forget about it, they'll come flocking to you! I don't know if you noticed, but the Fates kinda like to play tricks like that."
"Ehhhh…maybe you're right," Phil resigned, turning to face the pair. "Besides. You two flew all the way in here to see me, and probably not just to watch me mope around the stadium. We'll go do something. But as soon as you two go back home, I get to mope all I want. Deal?"
"Deal," the woman said with a smile.
"Okay," the man agreed, also smiling.
"Now," Phil said, "what were you two sayin' about Athens – "
A loud bell clanged. The attention of all three was turned to the sound.
"The security alarm!" the man cried.
"Sounds like SOMEBODY tried to get too close to the arena!" Phil clarified. "Nobody pulls one over on my watch! Probably some petty bandits thinking they can make easy money off official merch from THE arena that trained Hercules."
"Or it could be a wild pig," the woman suggested. "But sure. Let's go with bandits cashing in on your popularity."
Phil stormed out of the arena, his friends in tow. They entered the wilderness of the island – a thick tangle of vines and trees interspersed with mist and broken statuary.
"I know exactly the type that would try to break in on my turf," Phil grumbled. "Big, unshaven dolts with more muscle than brains, the kind of guy you know is scum just by lookin' at…whoa whoa WHOA."
Phil halted before the net trap that had activated the bell. His two companions stopped beside him. The net – previously carefully strewn across the ground and covered in leaves – had taken up into its tree Rarity, wearing her stealth suit and trying to chip at the ropes that held her with a crystal arrow. "WHY," she growled, "DID. MY. WEAPON. HAVE. TO BE. ARROWS!"
Phil, taken aback by the beautiful Kentauride before him, licked his fingers and smoothed back what little hair he had on his head. "Well, hel-lo beautiful," he said. "What brings a lovely centaur like you to a place like – "
"Phil!" the orange-haired man chided. The brunette woman shot him a disapproving look.
"And now I've been spotted!" Rarity wailed. "This was all just a disa-a-a-sterrrrr! I just wanted to find out what you were wea-ea-ariiiing!"
"Hey…" the orange-haired man said, attempting to be soothing. "Don't…don't cry…um, everything's going to be okay, we just – "
"You want us to get you down from there?" the woman asked.
"YE-E-E-ESSSSS!" Rarity moaned.
The woman approached the tether rope, letting it down, and Rarity crashed to the ground with the net.
"So…why were you trying to figure out what we were wearing?" the woman asked.
"Well…it's quite a strange story, you see," Rarity babbled, nervous to come up with an excuse. "My friends and I, well, we're heroes – "
Phil's attention was caught.
" – from another…er, country," Rarity went on. "And clothing customs aren't quite the same as they are here. We've been traveling, and customarily, I find out what the citizenry wears in wherever we land and I make us matching outfits."
"Well, there's just us three here," the man said. "Four, I guess, if you count Pegasus…"
"There are pegasi here?" Rarity asked.
"Just…the one," the man said.
"Well, this is close enough," the woman said, picking at the fabric of her peplos. "You need guys' clothes too?"
"Just women's," Rarity answered. "I really MUST thank you for bearing with me through this…EMBARRASSING incident. Usually the stealth suit keeps me from being seen…this is altogether EXTREMELY awkward."
"Hey, no sweat," the man replied. "We get it. You want to blend in."
"Hang on," Phil broke in. "You said you were heroes. What did you mean by that?"
"Well…" Rarity thought how best to answer. "We protect people and fight away evil. Though we're still learning the ropes, to be perfectly frank."
"Miss," Phil said, "have I ever got a proposition for you! You heard of Philoctetes?"
"Er…no."
"Well, that's me. Most famous trainer of heroes in the world, thanks to this guy!" He motioned to his male companion. "The one and only…Hercules! You have heard of Hercules, haven't ya?"
"Er…still no," Rarity admitted.
"That's…my name," Hercules said shyly, with a wave.
"On the subject, name's Megara," the woman added. "Friends call me Meg. You?"
"Rarity."
"Rarity," Phil repeated. "A beautiful name for a beautiful – "
"PHIL!" Meg and Hercules chided.
" – hero in training," Phil concluded. "Anyway, you and your friends need to hone your skills? I'd be glad to show you the ropes."
"Erm…" Rarity looked at Phil with confusion and a little disgust.
"Don't worry," Hercules reassured her. "Phil's the real deal. He trained me from a clumsy nobody into a real hero! Not to brag, but my picture IS a constellation now."
"Hmm." Rarity thought it over. "Well, I suppose there's no harm in introducing you to my friends. We could consider your offer. But why are you so eager to train us?"
"Because after Wonder Boy here made headlines in the Greekly World News," Meg explained, "business went dead over here. Not that it was booming before."
"Well, I suppose there's no harm," Rarity said. "It has been a pleasure to meet you. And we'd love a tour of this…well…wherever we are."
"Isle of Chryse," Phil corrected. "It ain't much, but it's home."
"We'd love to show you around!" Hercules confirmed.
"Then I'll bring my friends out straightaway," Rarity said. "But first, I do have to rectify the clothing situation. You don't mind?"
"Not at all!" Hercules said, and Phil and Meg gave nods and smiles of approval.
"Then I'll be back," Rarity said before galloping back toward the ship.
BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD
"While our heroes were getting acquainted in the mortal world of Olympic Greece," Calliope explained, "plans of a different kind were being made down in the Underworld. Hades had another scheme brewing."
"But you have to feel bad for him," Terpsichore argued.
"Say what?" Thalia challenged. "He's responsible for most everything that goes wrong up in Olympic Greece! He's joined up with the Overtakers, and if I had a drachma for every heartless deed they did, well, honey, I'd be able to buy Croesus' mansion right out from under him!"
"Hades ruins a lot of lives and makes them a living Tartarus," Terpsichore clarified. "But it isn't like he never lost something he loved."
"I remember that story," Clio said. "Persephone."
Melpomene took a deep breath and sang, rather mournfully: "There was an incident…
A tragedy that rocked all the gods.
An evil scheme, a warrior's rage,
And Persephone was lost!"
"The man that was to blame," Clio added,
"The Ghost of Sparta, Kratos by name,
Back when Athena taught him,
Before he rebelled in rage!"
"The goddess' death was just," Thalia concluded,
"But circumstances demand others' ruth.
It left a hole in Hades' heart,
And that's the gospel truth."
"The…gospel…truth," the others chorused.
Persephone's old fortress was sizeable. Facilier often wondered how just one goddess could have handled all that space. There were still rooms of it he hadn't seen. Granted, he spent most of his time going back and forth between there and Hades' palace, but given that Persephone and Hades had in fact been married, she had probably done the same.
So Facilier found himself walking the halls, looking for things he hadn't yet discovered in the building. He'd just happened upon a room containing a tall marble statue of a female figure when he heard a voice from behind him:
"Did you tell him?"
"Yes I did, Dan," Facilier answered without turning to face the soldier.
Dark Danny took his place beside Facilier, his eyes absently staring at the statue. "How did he take it?"
"Better than I thought," Facilier answered.
"And still, I'm going to have to say it could have gone a LOT better," a third voice broke in.
Facilier and Dark Danny turned to see their employer standing in the doorway. "How ya doin'," Hades said by way of greeting. "Oh, hey, you found that old thing."
"What's our next move?" Facilier inquired.
"I'm calling in a few favors," Hades explained. "I'm thinking…we are probably going to want to move outside just having the usual group. I've got a couple resurrections to pull off and a blood oath to cash in, but before all that, I've got a contact I'm waiting on to deliver."
"Who's that?" Dark Danny asked.
"None of your business," Hades replied. "She's going to want complete and total anonymity, and that's what she's going to get. Let's just say that she and I have been doing business together for quite a while. We go way, WAY back. You fellas just show up and look pretty when she turns up on the palace doorstep."
"While we're waiting," Facilier said, gesturing broadly towards the statue, "if you don't mind…who was she? After all, I'm fillin' her shoes…I'd think I deserve to know."
"Heh." Hades moved toward the statue. Upon paying closer attention, Facilier and Dark Danny could make out the details. The woman had long hair with flowers braided in it, and she wore a gown that was low-cut in both the front and the back, the skirt draping low enough to cover her feet. Upon her face was a look of strange wistfulness, as though the artist couldn't decide what emotion to really give her – anguish or joy.
"Good ol' Seph," Hades said, putting a hand on the statue. "First wife. Technically, only wife. Y'know, this whole thing with trying to unseat Zeus and become king of the gods isn't a new deal. It was in the works ever since he stuck me with this gods-forsaken wasteland. Seph was right there with me and the plan. I guess you could use the term 'partners in crime,' but, well, there was a bit of a complication.
"You see, our marriage was a bit of an arranged one. Aphrodite and Seph got into a tiff, Aphrodite cast a spell on me to become uncontrollably attracted to her, not that it would have made a difference anyway because LOOK at this woman, seriously, LOOK at her, and bada boom…we're eloping in Elysium. Well, Seph was a little torn about it at first. She liked the idea of being queen of the dead, I mean, who wouldn't, despite it being an eternity of desolation and dead guys, and she used to say I was a nice enough guy, but she maaaay have been a little tiny bit less into the 'love' factor. So maybe I 'kidnapped' her, technically. It's not like I forced her into actually doing anything in this marriage she didn't want to besides coming to live down here. She wanted her own place at first. So I had this built. Nice piece of work, right? Particularly good crown molding.
"Eventually, there's this whole fiasco, she eats a pomegranate that grew down here, there's that whole rule about eating the food of the dead and not being able to actually leave, we work out a split custody thing between having her down here and letting her go upstairs to be with Demeter, it puts the seasons out of whack, then back INTO whack, eventually Demeter gets over it and lets Seph start controlling the seasons on her own. And, eventually, Seph and I, well, we got close. She did finally fall in love with me after that immensely awkward time being basically weird roommates.
"I mean, it's not like either of us was perfect. We talked it out, we let each other have our share of mortal lovers. She had this one guy she was particularly attached to. You heard of the Boogeyman? And I'm not talking any old Boogeyman, I mean THE Boogeyman."
"Pitch Black," Dark Danny supplied.
"That's the one," Hades answered. "Used to go by 'Kozmotis Pitchiner' before this whole insanity deal. Trust me, he was a lot more fun of a guy after he became the Boogeyman. Seph was kinda into him. And hey, he was a cool guy, we sat down, had a few drinks, a few laughs, soon I'm lettin' him stay here whenever he wants. He and Seph were lovers. Seph and I were lovers. Just kinda how things worked. Life, or as close as you can get to life down here, was pretty good.
"Anyway, the thing with Seph was, when she was happy, the room almost literally lit up with how gods-darn happy she was. But when she was moody, well, when it rained, it poured. Now, I'm smart enough to know that she really was in love with me. But I'm also smart enough to know that she wasn't all the time. Sometimes the whole arranged marriage thing caught up with her. Basically, I deceived her by dragging her down here and not even warning her about the pomegranate. That was her argument, and I'm not gonna say she was wrong. She would go on and on about that, and then one day, it would just be like, 'I'm sorry I thought such things, I really don't know what I would do without you, you have become my world.' Yeah. She used to talk like that. All fancy and…flowery. Pun intended.
"So she and I got this plan. We were talking about releasing Titans LONG before the whole Hercules deal. Got Pitch on board with this too. If Seph and I got ahold of the thrones at Olympus, Pitch would be elevated to as godlike of a status as you can give a guy who's immortal but not a god. Our first try was with Atlas. Our idea was to spring him from Tartarus and have him hammer away at the foundations of Olympus and Olympic Greece until it all fell down. Seemed pretty foolproof. Payoff was gonna be big for Atlas, too.
"Now…maybe what happened was my fault. Not gonna lie. Maybe it was. Because around that time, Seph started getting in one of her moods again. Wondering about what could have been if she wasn't queen of the Underworld. Wondering about a life full-time on the surface where she didn't have to be in charge of the corpses. She said it to me very clearly. Hated that she'd been 'tricked' into this. That? My fault. Well, you COULD pin a lot of it on Aphrodite. Seph wanted to know what life was like on Olympus. I say we're going to find out when we take it by storm. She says she wishes she could find out without having to resort to that. She starts saying she wants Olympus down as revenge for getting her stuck down here. So I say, Seph, babe, you're wishing we were never married? She gets all kinda confused then. Says losing me is the price she'd have to pay for a life up there, and she's not really sure how to chalk that one up, Pitch notwithstanding.
"Well, we let loose Atlas, and wouldn't you know it, Athena has this little over-muscled BRAT she's been training. Not a hero, mind you. This guy. Oy. Piece of work. Ares and Athena took turns basically molding him into some super-soldier killing machine. Which is good for business down here, he racks up a lot of souls for the tally, but he also has this REAL nasty habit of just sticking his nose where it does. Not. Belong. So Seph and I spring Atlas and hijack the sun chariot so we can pin the operation on Morpheus when Athena's little brat, wouldn't you know it, WALTZES INTO MY UNDERWORLD, FULLY MORTAL, and claims to be looking for his daughter. Seph says she can handle it and takes him off into the gardens, and then…well…that's where things get weird.
"Basically, long story short, she spilled the beans about the Atlas operation, and he killed her before he put Atlas in his place holding up Olympic Greece. Now I know what you're thinking: 'But I thought Olympian gods couldn't die!' And you would be WRONG, sir! Olympian gods can, in fact, die. They're just…not supposed to stay dead."
Upon saying this, Hades paused, looking toward the statue with what could have been mistaken for regret. "Ninety-nine percent of cases, Olympian gods respawn. Death is kinda just like a long nap for us. So I waited. And…she never came back. I thought maybe she didn't want to. Maybe she made her choice, and she gave me up to have a life on the surface. Which wouldn't have been so bad if that had actually happened. I mean, yeah, might have, y'know, hurt to find that out, but it's a Tartarus of a lot better than what I got. No sign of her. Anywhere. Just gone. Poof. Vanished. Can't even find a soul in all the Underworld that matches her description. So what happened to her? Nobody knows.
"Well, after that, Pitch is a good buddy and all, but without Seph, he's really got no reason to stick around, so he goes back to being the Boogeyman of the cosmos and I go back to sorting stiffs and we kinda just fall out of touch. I get the Fates to come around and tell me the whole prophecy about the four elemental Titans and the rebel Cyclops and how they can succeed where Atlas failed. That, by the way, is where I started working with our contact from today. And that pretty much gets you up to speed. Yes, the cold and heartless Hades used to be in love, once. But now? I don't actually care anymore. Not one iota. The past is the past, and have I got my eye on one Tartarus of a future. And you guys happen to have nice cushy thrones in this future."
"And after Persephone," Facilier asked, "was there anyone else?"
"Geez, you think I'd make the mistake of falling in love again?" Hades replied.
"Or lust," Facilier accused, his tone taking on a sudden edge. "There seems to be something between you and Maleficent."
"Hey, a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," Hades stated, "and before you launch any arguments, neither does an Overtaker."
"LORD HADES!" Panic practically tripped over his own feet, skidding into the room. Pain came traipsing after.
"This…had better be good," Hades snarled, pressing a finger to his brow in exasperation.
"Your mysterious goddess contact is here!" Pain announced.
Hades grinned. "Perfect! Right on time! For once, you two managed to do something right. Let's not keep the lovely lady waiting, eh?"
Facilier, Dark Danny, Pain, and Panic couldn't tell how lovely the lady actually was. When they gathered in Hades' throne room, the goddess wore a thick cloak that looked like it was woven of shadows, and probably was. The hood was pulled up, and it draped low over her brow, but as an added measure to conceal her identity, the goddess had enchanted the hood so that a dark fog filled it and nothing was visible in the area of her face. Her hands were tucked beneath the cloak's fabric. All anyone could tell was that she was tall, but all goddesses were, relatively.
"Welcome back, babe," Hades greeted; Facilier, Dark Danny, Pain, and Panic each wondered for a second if even he knew who she was. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Can we offer you a drink? I have a Dionysus vintage that's just been waiting for the right occasion for…come to think of it, going on 500 years."
"I need nothing," the goddess said, and her voice proved at least that she was female. "So you think it's time to start again."
"Babe, it is DEFINITELY time to start again," Hades affirmed, "and as usual, you'll get your promised cut. Right now, we're looking at starting by sending a message. You know, a 'force to be reckoned with' kind of statement. I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve as usual, but I wanted to pick your brain a little. After all, you do have a sort of a knack for this."
"I have what you need to put all of Olympic Greece into turmoil," the goddess said, removing a hand from beneath the cloak; it gripped the handle of a basket with long, graceful fingers that could have belonged to any goddess, as their color aura was dimmed. "If this doesn't send a message to Zeus that he is not secure on his throne, nothing will."
The basket was laden with golden apples, somehow sparkling despite the lack of lights in the throne room. Instinctively, Facilier and Dark Danny each took a step toward the basket before Hades put up a hand: "Ah-ah-ah-ah, look, but DON'T touch." Pain and Panic backed off. They knew about the apples and all that would come with them.
Hades grasped the handle of the basket. "As usual," he said with a grin, "you are an absolute genius."
"I thank you," the goddess said, tucking her hand back under her cloak of shadows. "But I must also warn you. The Fates will not be so willing to work with you this time."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Hades said with a wave of the hand, "I can deal. There's more than one way to divine a future. These are MORE than good enough for a starting point."
"I'm glad to hear that," the goddess said. "Perhaps now, we can finally both get what we want."
She stepped backward three paces, then vanished without giving any further notice.
Hades hoisted the basket into the air. "Get a good look, fellas," he said, "'cause tomorrow, these babies are gonna be scattered throughout all of Olympic Greece!"
CHRYSE, OLYMPIC GREECE
The six disembarked from the ship, treading through the tangled forest and thick mists to reach the area where Rarity had been caught up in the security trap. Rarity had just finished designing for each a new set of clothing in the Greek style. Twilight wore a blue peplos with long sleeves and silver accents, the skirt front draping down between her equine forelegs but otherwise leaving her pony half uncovered. Applejack's peplos was brown with green accents, Fluttershy's green and gold, and Pinkie Pie's a soft pink with blue; they all had shorter, straplike sleeves holding their garments up. Rarity had only gone with one shorter sleeve, leaving the other shoulder bare, for her white and gold dress. Rainbow Dash had insisted on a simple, short tunic that didn't drape past her humanoid waist in order to make up for the "frilly" things she claimed Rarity had been "stuffing her in" lately, and so said tunic was just a plain white.
Phil was dumbstruck. He had never before seen six attractive female Kentaurides all in one place. He merely stared, speechless; Meg shot him a dirty look and lightly kicked his ankle to bring his focus back to important matters.
Phil, Meg, and Hercules were joined by one more entity, a white winged horse with a short-cropped blue mane. Hercules stepped to the front of the group and waved. "Hi! So you're the new heroes?"
"You could say that," Rainbow Dash replied with a grin. "I mean, we've been around the heroic circuit a few times."
"And you train heroes?" Twilight asked.
"You've come to the best place in the business!" Phil insisted. "No matter WHAT Chiron says. The man lies."
Twilight remembered where she'd heard that name last, from Nearly Headless Nick. She wondered what exactly Phil had against Chiron. Perhaps it was only friendly competition.
"You want proof?" Phil continued. "You know the Hercules constellation in the sky?" He pointed to Hercules. "This guy. Absolutely outstanding in the field."
"Phil…" Hercules seemed to blush slightly.
"And I taught the kid everything he knows," Phil insisted.
"And after that, Phil nearly got bored out of his mind waiting for someone else to come along," Meg added.
"So you're interested in training?" Phil asked.
"Of course!" Applejack answered. "I mean, we know some things, but it never hurts to learn more."
"NEVER," Twilight emphasized.
"Great!" Hercules cried. "I'll be glad to help! Welcome to the – "
"Ah-ah-ah!" Phil interrupted. "Before Herc just throws you onto the team, I'm gonna need to hear your résumé first. What's your experience level?"
"Well…" Twilight thought over how best to phrase it. "We've kind of worked in…distant lands. So you wouldn't really have heard of what we did. But – "
"First, back in our home country, we stopped an evil nightmare queen from taking over the daylight and making everything into darkness forever!" Pinkie Pie began. "Then there was a guy who had control over chaos, and he was turning everything upside down, so we turned him into a statue! After that, we stopped a shape-shifter from crashing a royal wedding, and after THAT came the time we saved an entire empire from an ancient evil tyrant locked in the ice! Then we let the chaos guy back out, but some things happened, and we had to put him back, but he broke out AGAIN, and we're still tracking him down right now! Anyway, we got on our ship and we started sailing, and we came to this land where we chased an evil wizard around and liberated a ton of kingdoms from his rule! Five of us got stranded in the Netherworld after that, and we fought off all these dead people who were trying to make US dead, and when we were all together again, we teamed up with a bunch of armies to take down a huge and powerful djinni! And THEN the shape shifter came back and we had to chase her off! We followed her aaaaaall the way to another royal wedding and stopped her there, and we also found that evil wizard, but the princess of that country stopped him that time. Then a dark faerie showed up, but we couldn't handle her, so we had to go learn more and study magic. And while we were studying magic, we ended up fighting a whole ARMY of evil wizards and saving a castle, and only two people died, but we still really miss them. Then one of us turned into a monster because of this spell that's on us, but the rest of us managed to change her back! And then we came here!"
"Huh," Phil said, rather stunned. "So you're saying you've managed wizards, djinni, shape-shifters, AND the undead?"
"Mmhmm!" Pinkie nodded furiously.
"Well…we didn't entirely manage them," Twilight corrected. "We had help pretty much every time. We're a little underpowered."
"Well, you've come to the right place!" Hercules assured the six.
"What he said," Phil agreed. "You six? You're hired."
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash cried.
"So, you already know that I'm Hercules, and this is Philoctetes, though he prefers 'Phil,'" Hercules introduced.
"And the name's Megara," Meg reasserted. "Meg, for short."
"And this is Pegasus," Hercules said, gesturing to the winged horse.
Twilight gasped. "That's…THE Pegasus?"
"The only Pegasus I know of," Hercules admitted. "Made by my dad out of the clouds. Oh, yeah…my dad's Zeus, by the way."
"YOUR FATHER IS ZEUS?" Twilight's jaw nearly hit the ground.
"Yeah," Hercules admitted. "And my mom's Hera."
"How…how did you end up down here in the mortal world?" Twilight asked.
"Well, it's kind of a long story," Hercules said. "We can talk about it on the way to the arena."
"I wanna see what the six of you can do with a weapon," Phil said, already turning to walk in that direction. "C'mon."
"Let's go!" Hercules added, and the group of ten moved towards the arena.
"You can start your story in just a second," Twilight said. "First, I need to discuss something with my friends."
The six Equestrians dropped to the back of the group, and Twilight whispered, "That's Pegasus. The horse from which all pegasi are descended!"
"I'm descended from him?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Yes!" Twilight insisted. "After thousands of generations!"
"Lemme go talk to him!" Rainbow Dash trotted up to Pegasus' side. "Hi! I'm Rainbow Dash, and I – "
Pegasus whinnied and licked her face.
Rainbow Dash fell back in alongside Twilight. "No."
"Sentience and language skills take a while to evolve," Twilight pointed out. "Anyway, Zeus is a famous god of the sky, and Hera is a goddess of marriage. They're god ROYALTY. I can't believe we're actually walking with one of their sons!"
"You know," Meg called back, "you never told us your names."
"Sorry!" Twilight apologized, stepping forward. "I'm Twilight Sparkle."
The others introduced themselves in turn:
"Name's Applejack."
"Rainbow Dash."
"Pinkie Pie!"
"I'm Rarity!"
"Fluttershy…"
"Nice to meet you," Meg said with an odd little grin, one that suggested she was happy, but not TOO overly happy.
"Never seen Kentaurides with WINGS before," Phil pointed out.
"Did I mention we're from really far away?" Twilight reiterated. "Hercules, weren't you going to tell us how you got down here to the mortal plane?"
"Oh, yeah!" Hercules began his story. "Well, way back when I was born, Hades, the lord of the Underworld, kind of had a grudge…"
THE PARADISE GARDEN
"While our heroes and our villains were making plans and alliances," Calliope narrated, "the disappearance of the golden apples didn't go unnoted. You see, they didn't just come from any old garden."
"That garden's Hera's pride," Terpsichore sang jauntily,
"Although it crosses more than her world,
"And at the center, the most
"Very sacred tree unfurled!"
"You can't take apples down!" Thalia picked up.
"Unless you wanna get tailed by a sleuth!
"One gal's about to pick up the trail,
"And that's the gospel truth!"
The garden itself was seemingly neverending, spreading into the twilit horizons. Over its lush beauty, the sky was always in a state of twilight, shining brilliant reds and soft purples. It seemed every sort of plant imaginable bloomed there, and in abundance, with gigantic leaves, sweet-scented petals of all colors, and vines that curled across the ground in such a way that careless mortals might trip. Various animals also crawled among the leaves and trunks of the flora, from multicolored insects to chirping birds to even prowling big cats. Even something scalier and far more sinister was known to crawl about there.
No humans were native there – anyone who came never stayed long – but certain humanoids called it home: the nymphs known as the Hesperides. They built no shelters, but instead lived among the wild, communing with the animals and plants.
The Hesperides most often gathered around the tree at the garden's center. It was an old tree…perhaps one of the oldest living things in existence, barring anything that had survived from the first Chaos. And it was a significant tree. The elder Hesperides knew all its stories, all its secrets, what it truly was, what lay at the top of its outstretching branches that were so high, no one could even see where they ended by merely looking, and there was a reason for this. They knew how far down the roots went. They knew what sort of fruit it bore. The younger Hesperides didn't know it all yet, but they would learn in time, they knew, and they already had suspicions that the tree was a greater force than they could comprehend.
Despite its seeming boundlessness, the garden did, in fact, have borders. It had many gates, which opened upon many realms. One such gate opened into Hera's domain on Mount Olympus, and it was through this gate that Hera herself walked at a fast clip, with a sense of urgency.
Her golden hair was stacked upon her head and braided through an intricate crown. She wore a gown of shimmering pink, a deep shade that offset the lighter pink glow given off by her skin. She walked directly toward the great tree, beneath the shade of its canopy that seemed to melt into the sky itself, and looked up at the lower branches.
The Hesperides noticed her presence, gathering around the tree. The four eldest moved towards the base of the trunk while the four youngest, who had frolicked in the lower branches of the tree, simply dropped down onto the lowest tier and sat there, ankles and bare feet dangling. Though all had the same pigmentation – dark brown skin, raven hair, piercing black eyes – and wore the same garment – a loose white shift – they all looked as distinct from each other as could be.
"What is the matter, Hera?" Arethusa, an elder, asked.
Hera gestured to the tree dramatically. "I had thought I felt the passing of a strange force through Olympus!" she moaned. "Look there! Where the golden apples of chaos once had grown!"
Eight pairs of eyes followed Hera's broad gesture to the empty branches. Eight gasps were heard.
"It can't be!" Lipara, a younger, wailed. "You don't think…they were taken to the MORTAL world, do you?"
"I do not know what other fate could have become of them," Hera answered mournfully. "They are not on Olympus, to my knowledge. Perhaps I am wrong. But I fear the worst…that someone has stolen them and brought them to the mortal world below Olympus."
"Why would anyone want such a thing?" the elder Hesperia asked. "The only thing these apples will bring to mortals is temptation and resulting chaos. If they have not left Olympus, they will bring chaos to the gods themselves."
"I do not know," Hera said, "but there are many for whom chaos serves its own purpose."
"Are you sure they were brought out to your world?" the younger Chrysothemis asked. "What if they were brought out to one of the others instead? What if they never left the garden?"
"They could have gone to Jötunheim," the younger Asterope suggested.
"Pray not," the elder Aegle replied.
"The apples cannot pass me completely unnoticed," Hera stated. "It was a condition given to me by Gaia when she granted me the gate. That is the reason that I do not accuse any of you of the crime." Her voice became icy at that. The Hesperides gave a collective shudder. Hera had set up certain security features to make sure none of them would steal fruit from the sacred tree…and it was not as though the thought had never crossed any of their minds. "I fear for what is to come. I do not know who has done this, or what will happen because of it."
"So why do we not find out?" The youngest Hesperide, though she was still several centuries old, chimed in as she dropped from the branches onto the ground. Young Zoë stared directly up into Hera's eyes. "Why do we not track down the thief and stop him or her before anything horrible happens? Art thou afraid?"
"I am not AFRAID!" Hera growled, throwing her arms into the air. "Would you LEAVE the garden? Would you have ME leave Olympus and abandon my duty in order to chase after one whose identity we do not even know?"
"If thou carest about the mortal world below Olympus, and about Olympus itself!" Zoë challenged.
The others were silent, staring. They couldn't believe Zoë had the insolence to challenge Hera herself.
"I will admit," Hera said at last, "something must be done. This may in fact touch Olympus."
"I will go," Zoë volunteered. "I shall leave the garden so that thou needest not and so that my sisters needest not. I shall discover the identity of the thief and undo whatever the thief has wrought on the mortal world below!"
"You go with my blessing," Hera said.
"Then I leave at once." Zoë began to walk toward Hera's gate.
"Sister!" Hesperia called out.
Zoë turned to face her. "Sister."
"Be careful in the mortal world," Hesperia said coldly. "Do not lose yourself. And do not give into mortal temptation. Do not do anything that would give us cause to exile you from the garden evermore."
"I shalt not," Zoë promised. "I shall only do what is needed to protect order and balance so that Olympus and the garden do not suffer."
"Then you have our blessing as well," Hesperia swore.
"I thank thee." Zoë then continued her journey toward the gate to Olympus.
THE CLOUDS AROUND OLYMPUS
"Well, this story's got more threads in it than the Tapestry of Fate!" Thalia complained. "I don't even see how the regular narrator can work under these conditions!"
"Well, we aren't done introducing our heroes yet," Melpomene informed her.
"Really?" Thalia groaned. "Oh, come on!"
"A couple years before," Calliope sang,
"Apollo's daughter suffered in pain.
"But in flew Pit, and Orcos
"And Medusa were good as slain!"
"Pit was a hero made!" Clio continued.
"But by mistake fell from the sky's roof!
"And there he stayed till now,
"And that's the gospel truth!"
Palutena, a minor deity of light and daughter of Apollo and Acantha, searched the clouds. She had been searching for a while; there were so many, an abyss of white fluff. She passed through, a vision of gold glow, clothed in a white toga, her grass-green hair flowing in the wind.
At last, she found what she sought. A young boy in a white chiton, his hair brown and somewhat spiky and framed in gold laurels, picking at the surface of the clouds idly with one of the twin golden knives he carried. From his back sprouted the stumps of wings, though the feathers were all gone.
"Oh, Pit," Palutena said with pity. "I had wondered where you got off to. What happened?"
"It's so stupid," Pit growled. "You wouldn't believe it."
"Tell me anyway."
Pit sighed. "After I saved your temple from Medusa and Orcos and you awarded me the honors, I…flew too close to the sun. And then I made kind of a crash landing, and now I'm stuck here."
Palutena giggled.
"Don't laugh!" Pit said resentfully.
"I apologize," Palutena replied sweetly. "But you really do live up to that nickname they gave you, don't you? The 'Kid Icarus.'"
"Yeah," Pit grumbled, "though I kind of wanted to be remembered for being as AWESOME as he was. Not for making his same crash landing."
"I know you must be embarrassed," Palutena said, "but I want to help you."
"Palutena, I don't know if I can ever show my face around Olympus again after this!"
"Yes, you can," Palutena said with a smile. "I can restore your wings, you know."
She approached Pit, who stepped closer to her automatically. Palutena placed her hands over the stumps of his wings. In a flash of light, they were repaired, as full of shining white feathers as they'd been before the accident.
"Good as new," Palutena said, stepping back.
"YEAH!" Pit leapt into the air and flew in a succession of loop-de-loops.
"I'm glad you're happy," Palutena commented. "What do you want to do now?"
"Ugh. I still don't really feel like figuring out what the Olympians think of me," Pit sighed. "Is it cool with you if I go down and chill on the mortal world for a while?"
"You can go wherever you want!" Palutena insisted.
"I'll be back as soon as I feel less stupid about the whole thing," Pit promised.
"Take as long as you need," Palutena replied. "Now that I know you're all right, it doesn't matter to me what you do!"
"Thanks, Palutena!" Pit said. "No, really, thanks for EVERYTHING. You're cool."
"Why, thank you!"
"I'll catch you later!" Pit flew in one more loop before making a dive toward the mortal world of Olympic Greece far below.
Palutena watched him leave, smiling proudly. Then she made her way back to her domain on Olympus.
BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD
"Are we almost done?" Thalia groaned.
"Almost," Calliope said.
"While Zoë was on guard for the thief of the golden apples, and somewhere in the backs of their minds, Meg and Hercules knew that Hades would probably be up to something someday as soon as he could get his bearings," Terpsichore explained, "there was actually another threat brewing that no one even suspected."
In the most sinister tone of all, Calliope sang:
"The goddess Hecate…
"Opposed them all right from the get-go.
"And in her hate of Hades,
"Had a plan all of her own!
"It was a force to be reckoned with!
"And that's the gospel…truth!"
On the banks of the Aornis river, a tributary to the Styx, there rose a crystal palace. Within resided another of the Underworld's residents, the oft-forgotten goddess Hecate, deity of magic.
Like most of the other Chthonic deities over whom Hades exerted his iron fist, she hated Hades with passion. She, like him, sought power and dominion in the Underworld, in Olympic Greece, and on Olympus, and she wasn't opposed to turning her sights to broader targets. But if Hades wasn't holding her back, there was always some hero on the surface – usually Hercules or someone associated with him – ready to tear her down. And if she could bypass mortal heroes, Zeus would strike her down immediately, and she would be relegated back to her limited control over magic from her crystal palace on the banks of the Aornis.
She hadn't had a good opportunity to make a power play in years. Not only that, but she felt the distinct sting of being forgotten. Fewer mortals were paying tribute to her. Perhaps they thought that they could just rely on Hades or Athena for everything she could give. Whatever the reason, her support network was dwindling.
In frustration, Hecate finally gave in and did the best she could think to do: she held a tea party.
In other pantheons, there were other gods who shared her interests, who she considered her friends, at least on a casual level. They too had recently complained of a loss of tribute and support from mortals – well, one had. The other had never really had it to begin with. These two sat at Hecate's table in the palace tearoom: a raven-haired and pale-skinned goddess in a red and black cloak, and an obsidian-haired and coffee-skinned god in a red tunic and matching pants.
Hecate herself wore a bright blue peplos. She had removed her blue headdress, as she was in the company of friends, and revealed all three of her faces set around her head beneath her flowing blue hair – a feature she often concealed during surface business or dealings with the Olympians, as most found it unnerving to speak to a figure with three faces.
"Well, it's happened," all three mouths moaned at once in the same sultry female voice. "I'm…a washout!"
"Don't say that," the cloaked goddess said. "You still have a great many followers. Probably more than I." She sighed. "It seems I only ever get attention if there's a good war raging. Perhaps I should start one."
"You have it easy, Morrigan," the other god complained. "At least as the goddess of war and sovereignty, SOME mortals take that as a positive thing. Me? Ever since I declared war on that goody-goody Mithras and he sacrificed himself for humanity, no one's EVER wanted to side with me! I could count my followers on one hand! Everyone's all so concerned with making sure Mithras keeps dominance over me so that GOOD can win in the multiverse. Doesn't anyone want any good old-fashioned EVIL anymore? That's what I want! Darkness! Carnage! Tears!" He sighed wistfully. "It's music to my ears. Not that anyone ELSE agrees."
"Would that I could give you a multiverse full of that, Ahriman," Hecate moaned.
"Don't you have some kind of scheme on your plate?" Ahriman inquired.
"No," Hecate grumbled.
"But you're Hecate!" the Morrigan said, nearly dropping her crystal teacup. "You always have a scheme!"
"Not anymore, I don't," Hecate spat. "I haven't got anything left that will get past Hades, the mortal do-gooders, AND Zeus. Every Olympian is onto the whole power-leeching crystal gambit, and making a super-soldier isn't all it's cracked up to be."
"I thought Ares and Athena did a good job with that Kratos fellow," Ahriman posed.
"THEY GOT LUCKY," Hecate hissed, all three faces scowling as she slammed her teacup on the table. She took a triple deep breath to calm herself. "I've thought about taking in my own mortal disciple to mold, but what do I have to work with?" She brought up a scrying sphere with a wave of her hand, showing Ahriman and the Morrigan an illustration of her point. "I've been looking for someone up above with some good evil ambition. Someone who knows their way around Olympian territory. But these are my pickings!"
The scrying sphere depicted a tanned king in resplendent robes, golden hair cascading over his smirking face as he sat upon his throne. "Adonis," Hecate explained. "Mean and petty as they come, but what's the catch? No…scope…whatsoever. He's happy just to sit there on THAT THRONE and order HIS OWN SUBJECTS around. Put him in the heat of a REAL battle and he's nothing but a coward!"
The scene changed to a well-muscled man dressed in a blue cape. "Agent Epsilon," Hecate sighed. "He has the strength! He has the skill! He has the ruthlessness! But he GAVE UP trying for a power play when his boss Midas went soft!"
The scene changed to a rather hourglass-shaped witch, with tan skin and luxurious dark hair, clothed in a red dress. "Circe," Hecate groaned. "She could have gone far, with all that magic and all that rage…IF SHE CARED ABOUT ANYTHING MORE THAN COLLECTING MEN!" Hecate waved the scrying circle away angrily. "And everyone else worth their salt is under contract with Hades!"
"Ahriman!" the Morrigan gasped. "Are you thinking…" She began to cackle.
"Yes," Ahriman said in revelation, "they DID remind me of…" He chortled.
"WHAT?" Hecate barked. "What are you two LAUGHING about? My FAILURES?"
"No," the Morrigan said calmly. "Simply that we've thought of someone that would interest you greatly, if you want mean and petty…"
"Skilled and ruthless…" Ahriman added.
"Magical and angry," the Morrigan concluded.
"It's a little joke the Morrigan and I have had," Ahriman explained. "We seem to have a shared follower. Strange, I know, that I even have a follower, let alone one that knows about the Morrigan."
"He's an eclectic collector of legends," the Morrigan went on. "Technically, Ahriman is the one native to his territory, but he found out about me and has been paying me respect. His familiar is even identical to one of my rarer forms. It's flattering, really."
"Strangely enough, he WANTS me to triumph over Mithras," Ahriman stated. "Though it makes sense. He's a conqueror in the making, and he'd get NOWHERE in a multiverse with Mithras and without me. On the other hand, a multiverse with me and not Mithras would suit him just fine. I'd let him take over and destroy all he wanted."
"So you're saying you have an eccentric follower who knows his way around legends, is a champion of evil, and has magical powers?" Hecate raised three left eyebrows. "Go on."
"You'd like him," the Morrigan said. "He's got a fascination with magic, after all. He'd probably like you."
"Show me," Hecate said.
"Well, this is old news from a while back," Ahriman began. "He's not a native to Olympic Greece. A completely different world, actually. But he found a portal that connects his world to ours and made a power play against Circe herself."
The scrying sphere reappeared. The scene was in the palace of the floating island of Aeaea, Circe's domain. A young man sat across the table from Circe, and the two appeared in heated conversation.
"…and you're my ticket to dominating Aeaea," he said. "I know, it may seem like a SMALL conquest, but while I'm on unfamiliar ground, I prefer to walk before I can run. The only thing standing in my way is you. But I can take care of that…easily."
"You USED me!" Circe cried.
A plasma bolt was thrown; Circe ducked it narrowly, a lock of hair catching the heat and vaporizing. She took up her staff, flinging out a bolt of energy that would have turned her opponent into an animal of her choosing had he not dodged her throw, readying another.
"Fast forward…" Ahriman muttered, waving a hand; about thirty minutes' worth of fighting passed in the span of five. Eventually, Circe's opponent retreated when she had him cornered, but she was considerably weakened, and once alone, staggered to find a seat, propping herself up on her staff. The palace dining room was covered in scorch marks from the battle.
"I realize he lost," the Morrigan said, "but – "
"No," Hecate said, "it takes a lot of power to do THAT to Circe. Keep going."
"I don't even think he knows how much potential he has to harness dark magic," the Morrigan said with a smile.
"Give me an idea," Hecate cajoled.
The Morrigan leaned forward and whispered into one of Hecate's many ears. Hecate's six eyes widened. The Morrigan took her seat.
"I take it you're interested?" Ahriman said.
"Very interested," Hecate confirmed. "Where is he now?"
"Let's see." Ahriman called up another scrying sphere to view a large, spherical crystal rocketing through the space between worlds. He panned the view around to find the destination. When his eyes alit upon the target world, he muttered, "I don't believe it…"
The Morrigan was also shocked, but only for a moment. "I suppose it makes sense," she said. "He wants to try for Aeaea again."
Hecate grinned with all three mouths as she watched the crystal sphere hurtle toward Olympic Greece. "Then it's settled," she said. "He's mine."
"Good luck," Ahriman said. "And do me a favor…don't steal his loyalty to me completely."
"He needs to be loyal to me," Hecate said as she put on her blue headdress; only one face was visible now, and only one voice rang out. "But not exclusively. You two can keep him. It's the least I can do after you showed me exactly what I need!"
"Glad to help," the Morrigan said. She rose from the table. "Ahriman. We must go. We have work to do, and from the looks of it, so does Hecate."
"Evil never rests," Ahriman agreed.
"And there are wars to start," the Morrigan added. The two strode from the tearoom, on their way out of the crystal palace.
Hecate took a different route out. For the first time in years, opportunity had come to her door, and she wasn't about to let it escape.
"All right," Terpsichore concluded, "you can have your story back now."
"Good luck," Thalia practically harrumphed. "Keepin' track of all those characters, I mean."
As the Muses left, I have to admit I couldn't have said what they did much better myself.
Chapter 47:
· I needed to start out by reassuring that the relationship between Celestia and the Mane Six is okay. I didn't want any unnecessary bad blood there. And I didn't feel like taking up space with gripes about the agelessness when there's STUFF to get to.
· I don't feel like I need to explain how Hades came back. If a deity controls the Underworld in your pantheon, he can't literally be trapped in the Styx forever. He needs to get back to his JOB.
· Yep, my weird retconning for why there's a Cyclops among Titans emerges. As does a reference to Aegaeon the Hecatonchires from God of War: Ascension, which is a little foreshadowing. (If anyone wants to know what I thought of GoW: I watched LPs of Ascension and Chains of Olympus, because the timeline right now is currently between CoO and GoW 1. I'll deal with the rest later and retcon in anything I have to. I also have looked up and will be looking up footage of various gods in GoW, especially 3, for characterization as I go along. Hades, for the most part, I've left alone because his Disney incarnation is so memorable and just TOO good – the most he'll get from GoW is an outfit if anything. Anyway, despite GoW having pretty much everything in it that people say is bad about video games – rampant sex and violence – I really did enjoy what I saw. I mean, the premise is "let's beat up everything in Greek mythology.")
· "Anton" as Facilier's first name is actually the idea of YouTube users 73windman and Manwhoooo, with whom I am friends. I liked it, and they've let others use it, so I'm taking it, but not without credit to them.
· The idea of Maleficent and Hades having a child – and the particular child I'm going to make that person – originally belonged to GAvillain, who gave me permission to use it because it's awesome. Of course, I'm going to modify it a bit from his version…
· Chryse is the island most closely affiliated with the mythological Philoctetes.
· As I was watching the Hercules animated series (hereafter HTAS) as reference, I noted how the Muses got a lot of musical numbers, and I debated giving them one. At the last minute, I had the idea of them doing The Gospel Truth for the entire first chapter. The first time is to the tune/pace of the first time they sing it in the film. Also, Bob is the canon name of the Hercules narrator.
· Funnily enough, I was going to assign the Muses my own identities until I found out Disney HAD canonized them, and their Calliope and Thalia were EXACTLY who I was going to peg as Calliope and Thalia.
· You might as well know now: I'm calling some HTAS episodes canon (Spring of Canathus will be particularly important) and some discontinuity (Twilight of the Gods, for reasons that will become obvious later on). I'll let you know which are and aren't as they come up in prose when I can and in author's notes when prose is inconvenient.
· It's not a Hercules fanfic until Phil has creeped on the ladies at least a little bit. (Don't worry. If he went any further, Meg would knock his lights out.)
· The Persephone backstory. Probably my favorite thing about this chapter, and something that doesn't end with this chapter. It's going to come back to HAUNT. Basically, it's most convenient for me if Olympians can die, but not permanently. The reason I even thought of using GoW was because its prequel has Persephone die, which is what I planned all along as a Hades motivator. (And I'm lucky, because GoW had a LOT of material I want/need to use.) I had to walk that fine line of "tearing a hole in Hades' heart" and making him three-dimensional as a character while preserving his villainous integrity. I also had to walk the line of having Persephone love him (which is important to the story) and resent her life (which is important to why things went as they did in GoW CoO).
· The Pitch-Persephone-Hades polyamory is just something I plain LIKE and was consensual all around. Some of you may already have guessed why Pitch/Persephone.
· Don't you love how my Hades is cool with killing, wifenapping, and general destruction, but just draws the line at rape? I don't want to deal with rape in this storylet (you'll see me dance around a famous mythical instance of it NEXT chapter). And also, I do want to emphasize a realistic romantic bond between Hades and Persephone. As bonus points, it lets me explain why Persephone has her own fortress (GoW canon – the place is really elaborate, so I had to let it be). TL;DR just don't want to have rapists, don't want to deal with it, don't want to make readers deal with it.
· And you can tell my Persephone has the physical body of the Spring Sprite from Fantasia 2000 (ever my headcanon for a Disney Persephone) and the clothing of GoW Persephone. COMPOSITE CHARACTERIZATION!
· The golden apples are just a favorite plot device of mine to trot out whenever I talk Greek mythology. They're practically universal! Though in this timeline, the Trojan War hasn't happened yet! So no one knows about THAT.
· Who's the hooded goddess? You get to guess! I won't tell. And I'm hoping I can pull off some good suspense with this. Maybe it's obvious, but I'm hushing it up anyway.
· Pegasus SHOULD be the original Pegasus from whom all pegasi descend…but does Rainbow Dash have a point that he seems a bit too animalistic for her and her family to come from? Hmmmm…
· Of course Twilight knows about Greek gods. I mean…"It's About Time." Her and Cerberus. SHE KNOWS. IT'S CANON.
· So Hercules is just basically explaining the plot of the movie in the time they take to get to the stadium. This entire chapter covers about HALF A DAY total. Next chapter? The other half of the day.
· Why doesn't the Paradise Garden get a world listing? Because I'm going to ATTEMPT something about it. I have this idea that involves binding three different mythologies. And that means I can't set it on any one world. Just…just wait for it. It'll make sense. Hopefully.
· Mythical Hesperides should come in a set of three; the seven names provided for them (Erytheia is the only one I didn't give dialogue to) should rotate around three. But as deep as fluid concepts are, it's just easier for me to write it if they're all separate people.
· Zoë, otherwise known in a couple millennia as Zoë Nightshade…the only Percy Jackson-original character to be alive in this time period! (If anyone was brought up in that spinoff series about Jason Grace, I don't care. That is NOT CANON to me.) Yes, I'm going to be doing a chronicle of Zoë's backstory. Yes, I'm going to alter it a little, but only a little. Yes, your stomach should have dropped about a mile when you realized that Zoë and Hercules are going to interact, because you know how well THAT ends.
· Hera here has her Disney design, but I'm using the GoW personality because I like it better. Which I'm hoping could have been picked up on by the arm flailing (which looks RIDICULOUS but I love how melodramatic and anguished she is). She's in pink instead of GoW blue now because…it's prettier and I'm shallow.
· I hope I wasn't too heavy-handed when I made fun of myself and how many plot threads I try to shove into one thing.
· Yes, there's Kid Icarus in this too. Pit's not an "angel" here, but something similar enough. Palutena, I have made a daughter of Apollo so she fits in the pantheon. (Her mother Acantha was chosen because Palutena is a light goddess and Acantha in mythology was changed into a sun-loving plant. Acantha is also a nymph, meaning Palutena isn't of mortal blood at all and can be on Olympus by what I'm hoping is an acceptable loophole.)
· Timeline: after the original Kid Icarus and before Kid Icarus: Uprising. I've combined the original KI and the Of Myths and Monsters remake by saying that Orcos and Medusa led the invasion of Palutena's domain TOGETHER. (And if you remember Orcos' role in GoW…) Also, the ending of him flying into the sun is from Of Myths and Monsters exclusively.
· Decided to have "Kid Icarus" as Pit's nickname. How is this going to connect to when we meet actual Icarus? Ohhh, I have a plan. (And if that actually is his nickname in Uprising, which I haven't researched yet, I apologize for claiming it's my idea. If it isn't, then it's still my idea.)
· Pit does seem a little too happy to be embarrassed about losing his wings, but I need an excuse for him to go to the mortal realm.
· So…who is Hecate's protégé? Here are your hints: he's someone Circe, Epsilon, and Adonis all remind me of in certain respects. He's someone I chose the Morrigan and Ahriman SPECIFICALLY for because of his connections to them (try and figure out which of the Morrigan's animal forms could be his familiar, and think about where Ahriman was a thing). And finally, IT'S GODDAMN OBVIOUS. But I'm still going to act like we don't all know who it is until he shows up. (It's been far too long.)
· I'm not basing the Morrigan or Ahriman on any pop culture descriptions. The Ahriman is just my general picture of him and the Morrigan is based on some drawings I've seen of her, but that's it. If I do find them in pop culture that I like, I'll retcon or something.
· I gave Hecate her three faces because it's closer to original mythology and also explains that big headpiece. She's pretty much just the HTAS design, though. She's one of my favorite HTAS characters (tied with Nemesis and Medusa) and I NEEDED to give her some role now that Hercules is grown up, things are heating up with Hades, and stuff's just getting real! She lives in the Underworld because that's actually a common depiction (as far as I know) and it's a crystal palace as an homage to her love of crystals in the HTAS episode "Underworld Takeover."