55: Children of Thebes

BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD

Hades stood on the bank of the Styx to conference with Echidna, as she was far too large for the throne room to accommodate. "I'm counting on you to give me the best show yet," he said, plucking honeyed figs off a platter that he'd ordered the still hypnotized Adonis to bring out to him. "With your family working together, our little heroes will FINALLY meet their matches!"

"I'm just so glad to have the chance for a family reunion!" Echidna gushed, clapping her hands together. She cut a fearsome figure indeed, large and lumbering, built like a blubbery dragon with leathery wings and a horned head, all the off-putting green of a swamp. "After all, the family that slays together stays together! And Ladon is just SO excited that he's able to play with the big boys, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah," Hades said. "I have kids. I know how it works. You leave them with their mortal parent, they grow up, they start only praying at your altar when they want spare cash, pretty soon they stop leaving burnt offerings…anyway. Go knock 'em dead. And I mean that as literally as possible."

Echidna turned and lumbered away. As she did, Facilier approached Hades. "There you are. I've been looking for you all over. I've got good news and bad news."

"Oy…" Hades sighed. "Let's get this over with. Hit me with the bad news."

"Yesterday, I found a malfunction in every single device that recorded soul collections, losses, and transfers," Facilier explained. "I had the entire staff collect manual reports, and what I found wasn't at all reassuring."

"Don't tell me…" Hades rubbed his temples. "Okay, tell me. What happened?"

"There's a large amount of souls that've been unaccounted for," Facilier stated. "Everyone's best guess is unauthorized resurrections."

"That's ridiculous," Hades snapped. "A resurrection happens, we KNOW about it. The ritual it takes to bring somebody out of here always leaves a trace. You could even track the ones Maleficent took."

"I'm aware of that," Facilier went on. "I was thinking about how it didn't make any sense. And there's the key."

Hades flamed bright orange. "DON'T. Tell me. DISCORD."

"It looks like we ain't done with him yet," Facilier confirmed. "He's been takin' more from us than just a little potion. And the reports of the missing souls are all criminals, sorcerers, evildoers in general. Not a single one that wouldn't contribute to some sort of chaos. All signs point to Discord."

"GAAAAAAHHHH!" A column of orange flame shot straight up into the air, then vanished as Hades tried to regain emotional control. "When I get my hands on that little TWERP, I'm going to make him think that Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Ixion all got off LUCKY!" He took a few ragged breaths as his color faded back to blue. "Tell me. That's all."

"That's all the bad news."

"And the good news? And it had better be REALLY good news."

"I thought this might cheer you up." Facilier grinned. "The latest from Olympus is that Athena dispatched Nemesis to attack Ares as a continuation of the conflict we helped engineer between Athens and Sparta."

"Huh?" Hades was honestly stunned. "Did Nemesis talk her into it or something?"

"That's the thing. It was Athena's idea. All Nemesis had to report was that she'd gotten ahold of some of the apples before those Kentaurides had the chance to ruin whatever tree she raided. Hades, we've infected Olympus, and it's comin' apart at the seams!"

"YYYYYYYES!" Hades pumped his fists, blue fire engulfing him. "The more they fight each OTHER, the less organized they'll be when WE get to them in the final act! It couldn't have gone better if we'd actually planned it! Hey, that did cheer me up. A lot. Thanks for the news, Shadow Man."

"No problem." Facilier gave a tip of his hat and left. After all, he was a busy man, and Hades knew this.

"Okay, princey," Hades told Adonis. "I'm going back to the throne room to work on plans and figure out what to do about our little…Discord situation. Run along and get me some ambrosia, would ya?"

"Of course, my liege!" Adonis replied cheerfully, and he rushed to the kitchens as Hades made his way back to the palace to plan.

THEBES, OLYMPIC GREECE

When the wagon arrived, there were no monsters. The group was, of course, greeted with the usual chaos of the riots, but no monsters.

"Looks like we beat them," Twilight muttered.

"Huh?" everyone replied.

"I SAID," Twilight repeated over the sound of breaking glass from various items being thrown into the streets, "WE BEAT ECHIDNA'S CHILDREN HERE!"

"Is there anywhere we can go that's gonna be a little safer until they show up?" Applejack asked.

"My parents' house is here," Hercules answered. "I mean my mortal parents. Amphitryon and Alcmene. They moved in here after I had my big break!"

"I would like to meet them," Zoë said; her tone was just suspect enough that Twilight and Pit looked toward her with curiosity. But she did not elaborate.

"I'll get us there," Hercules said before giving directions to Pegasus.

Amphitryon and Alcmene's home was a far cry from the country shack they'd made most of their lives together in. Hercules had paid for them to move into an elaborate manor of white marble at the edge of Thebes. The wagon rolled down a rather long driveway to reach it.

"MOM!" Hercules called out. "DAD!"

A thin man with sun-tanned skin, clad in a canvas tunic and a wide-brimmed straw hat, looked up from where he'd been tending the lawn. "Hercules!" he cried, running toward the wagon.

Hercules leapt down from the wagon and rushed to meet the man, sweeping him up into a hug that looked quite forceful but was actually very gentle; the man returned the embrace in kind. When they parted, Hercules said, "Everyone, this is my dad, Amphitryon! Dad, you remember Icarus and Cassandra. We've also made some…well…some new friends."

"Are you all right?" Amphitryon asked in concern. "Things are rather rough in the streets."

"We're fine," Twilight said.

"Though…if you're offering someplace to stay out of the chaos for a while, we wouldn't refuse," Rarity added.

Amphitryon flinched. "Hercules…you do know that those friends of yours are…"

"Kentaurides," Hercules finished. "Yeah, I know. Trust me, they're NOT here to pillage ANYTHING."

"Unless you happen to have a Laestrygonian that your harbor depends on – OOF!" Phil was interrupted from his accusation when Rainbow Dash elbowed him in the stomach.

"They've actually helped me save most of the other polises around Greece," Hercules said. "It's a long story."

"Well, then, by all means, come in, all of you," Amphitryon invited. "The other horses can be hitched up in the stable around back. Alcmene will be glad to see so many houseguests!"

The group left the wagon, and Cassandra took the two horses from Delphi around to the stable; Pegasus was invited inside the house. As Amphitryon led the crowd in, Pinkie Pie asked, "So how come you're not going crazy trying to get the golden apples?"

"Alcmene and I never really understood what was so special about them," Amphitryon said. "Everyone says they're worth millions, but we already have everything we need. I also hear that they grant divine knowledge, but we don't need that either. We learn whatever we need to know from living our lives. There's nothing those apples could give us that we don't already have or don't need."

The atrium of the house was a high-ceilinged white marble hall. "Alcmene!" Amphitryon called out. "We've got company, and I think you'll like who it is."

A plump, gray-haired woman wearing a simple peplos ran down a curved stairway into the hall. "Hercules!" she gushed, embracing her son and kissing both his cheeks. "What brings you here?"

"Well, we're sort of on hero business," Hercules said. "But that doesn't mean I didn't want to visit my parents."

"Oh, who are all your friends?" Alcmene asked. Her gaze wavered over the Kentaurides; her expression soured.

"They're also heroes," Amphitryon said, reading Alcmene's mind. "Hercules trusts them."

"Any friends of his are friends of ours," Alcmene resolved, the sourness gone. "Come into the kitchen. I'll make tea."

"I'm glad this giant table is finally of some use," Alcmene remarked in the dining room; all were seated around it. "It was really Hercules' idea that we should have a giant table. He said we deserved that kind of luxury."

"This entire house is exquisite!" Rarity complimented. "I don't see at all why you aren't more proud of it!"

"We lived most of our lives in the country," Alcmene explained. "We never needed luxuries."

"So why did you move here?" Twilight asked.

"To be closer to our son, for one," Amphitryon said.

"And admittedly, living in the city has benefits," Alcmene added. "It isn't a day's walk to the agora any longer."

"So tell us about this quest you're on," Amphitryon said.

"Well, first things first, we're here to fix those golden apples," Twilight stated. "Any idea where the tree is?"

Alcmene and Amphitryon exchanged glances of confusion. "For all I've heard about it," Alcmene admitted, "I don't actually know where it is."

"And Thebes is even bigger and more twisted than Corinth," Phil sighed. "Looks like we got our work cut out for us."

"Yeah, well, the tree's the least of our problems," Cassandra groaned. "Apparently Echidna and her children are going to come into town and start stomping on things."

"Where did you hear that?" Alcmene cried in horror, nearly dropping her teacup.

"I saw it in a vision," Cassandra said casually.

"Don't you worry none," Applejack said. "We're gonna protect this city best we can."

"Dost thou even have a plan of attack?" Zoë asked.

"Team strategist?" Phil turned to Twilight.

"Uhhh…" Twilight's hands shook, and her tea spilled. "I…hadn't gotten that far."

"Well, I've got one," Rainbow Dash said. "But nopony's gonna like it. How many monsters does Echidna have for kids?"

"Tons," Cassandra said.

"Probably around ten," Hercules estimated.

"Nine to be exact, if thou countest by bodies," Zoë stated. "Many more by heads."

"There are fourteen of us," Rainbow Dash said, "and that's if we count Pegasus, who I doubt can hold a fight on his own – "

Pegasus snorted in displeasure.

" – Phil, who's more of an advisor than a fighter; Cassandra, who just sees visions; Meg, our field medic; and Icarus, who has a negative victory record," Rainbow Dash finished. "Bringing us down to nine fighters."

"One per monster!" Twilight realized. "Wait. No. That's just Echidna's children. What about Echidna herself? That's ten."

"Can I PLEASE be counted with the fighters?" Icarus begged. "Please please PLEASE?"

Rainbow Dash sighed. "Okay, fine, we have ten fighters. Basically, we split up. We each get a monster, and when we finish with our first fight, we go on and help whoever else needs it until all of them are gone."

"That…does sound like the best plan we have," Twilight said.

"I think I'd better team up with Icarus," Meg suggested. "I mean…you're sending ICARUS out to fight a monster on his own. That calls for a field medic."

"Can I join up with you two?" Cassandra asked.

"You want to see my daring deeds of bravery?" Icarus guessed.

"No," Cassandra sighed.

"You're afraid for my safety?"

"No."

"You're certain I'll die and you want it to be in your arms, with your beautiful face the last sight I have during my mortal lifetime?"

"I really just wanna see you get your butt kicked by one of Echidna's kids," Cassandra admitted.

"Pegasus is with me," Hercules said. "We're kind of an unstoppable team."

Pegasus whinnied in delight.

Pit coughed, though the words "Except against Orcos" were audible in between his fits.

"Hey, I'm not just gonna sit on the sidelines," Phil said. "This is a chance to evaluate how you've been doin'. Let's see…Flutters, you held up against Nemesis. Safe to say you're done with that coward phase. Rarity, you actually had decent arrow speed in Athens. Pie…I don't wanna know. Dash, you're good. That leaves Sparkle and AJ."

"You should come with me," Applejack suggested hastily; she looked toward Twilight, who let out a sigh of relief. Applejack knew quite well that Twilight's anxiety of being evaluated would compromise her ability to fight. "I can show ya that rope trick again. This time, I won't get tangled up in it."

"Just concentrate on tangling the monster in it," Phil ordered.

"Can do!"

"This is a little exciting," Alcmene admitted. "Our house is the headquarters for the plan!"

"You two should stay here," Hercules said sternly. "I mean it. I don't want either of you going out there and getting…well…hurt."

"You're letting your wife go," Amphitryon pointed out.

Without missing a beat, Hercules said "She's tough" as Meg said "I'm tough."

"Well…if you insist," Alcmene said.

"So…thou art the mortal parents of Hercules," Zoë stated. "I admit I see how your upbringing affected him. Though in light of recent events, I have a question."

"What is it?" Alcmene asked, curious.

"Were the circumstances of Hercules' birth strange in any way?" Zoë asked. "Did he merely fall into your arms?"

"He did arrive wearing the medallion with the symbol of the gods," Amphitryon recalled, "and he fought off two snakes with his bare hands."

Zoë nodded; she'd expected all this. "Zeus labeled him, and he fought off Hades' demons. But was there nothing else?"

"Nothing at all," Alcmene said.

"Were there children in this family before him?" Zoë asked.

"N-no," Alcmene stammered. "We tried for many years, but we were unable…"

"Art thou sure?" Zoë asked. "Was there never a case where – "

"ZOE!" Applejack snapped. "Will ya DROP IT?"

Alcmene looked thoroughly disturbed; the subject of her childlessness before Hercules was obviously painful. Amphitryon glared at the Hesperide with disapproval out of the desire to protect his wife.

"I apologize," Zoë said. "I spoke out of line. I was merely curious, given recent events. I wished to investigate a claim of Nemesis'. I see now…I am on the wrong track. I am sorry."

That was when the ground shook. Tea spilled from every cup.

"Three guesses who showed up," Phil groaned, "and the first two don't count."

On the shoreline, Echidna stood in the waters, looking in at the bustling city of Thebes. Those who'd already spotted her and the lineup beside her ran in a panic. She regarded this casually. To her left stood those known as Orthos, Cerberus, the Hydra (of only one head), and the Nemean Lion. To her right stood those known as the Chimaera, Ladon, Gegeines, and Geryon. Some ways back in the ocean, Cetus floated below the surface of the waves.

A familiar wisp of blue and purple materialized over Echidna's shoulder. Echidna brightened upon seeing her. "I still can't thank you enough for being my backup nanny for the kids, Eris," she gushed. "You're the only one they haven't been able to eat up."

"It was no trouble!" Eris laughed. "Your children are FUN. Especially when I taught them all I knew about chaos."

"I'm bored," the Nemean Lion yawned. "Can we just attack the city already?"

"I just wanted to take some time to savor the moment," Echidna replied. "Now…show 'em what you've got!"

The horde charged into the city, splitting up to attack its many corners and centers. The one exception was Cetus, who, being a creature of the water, remained in the harbor, lashing out to break apart ships.

Eris flew down to the ground, striding along the dock until she saw two familiar faces row a boat up to the shore. "I was afraid you two were going to miss the show," she told Pain and Panic, who wore their human disguises.

"Not for the world!" Pain replied.

"Then let's get the party started," Eris said.

"Sorry to drink tea and run," Hercules told his parents, "but – "

"Don't worry about it," Alcmene said. "The safety of civilians comes first."

"Go do us proud, son," Amphitryon added.

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Phil, Hercules, Pegasus, Zoë, Pit, Icarus, Cassandra, and Meg ran back through the atrium of the house, bursting out through the door. "You know the plan!" Twilight barked. "Everypony, split up! Let's GO!"

Hercules leapt onto Pegasus' back. Phil kept pace with Applejack. Icarus, Meg, and Cassandra stayed close together. Beyond those small alliances, the group separated completely, each member getting lost within the streets of Thebes.

Cetus resembled a squid, with a great bulbous head and ten thick tentacles. Two yellow eyes, only able to be called "beady" by proportion, stared out from the midsection of his head. He was twice as big as the biggest ship in the Thebes harbor, and could easily crush the midsized ships with one or two tentacles alone. And it was this that he set to doing. He reached out, crushing any boat that happened to be sailing by, whether it was attempting to reach Thebes or simply to escape the monstrosity in the waters. Even those ships already docked weren't safe; Cetus didn't discriminate.

It was upon this scene that Twilight galloped, into the harbor at top speed. "Great," she muttered. "It HAD to be the water monster I found first!"

In a flash, she changed into her Mahou Shoujo clothing. She knew she would need the upgrade in power, though she hoped against hope that she wouldn't have to use the Elemental Finale. She wasn't sure she had it in her to perform that one more than once, and she had a sinking feeling that Cetus wasn't going to be her only battle.

Casting her staff out before her, she forged a bridge of ice across the sea that expanded in front of her hooves as she galloped down it. She twirled her staff in the air, and a great ball of crackling pink energy built there; it slammed down onto Cetus' head as Twilight neared where the monster was submerged.

Cetus was dazed, but not nearly as dazed as Twilight could have hoped for. He spied Twilight running toward him on the bridge of ice, and with one swipe of a tentacle, he destroyed the bridge behind her.

Twilight cried out in fear. The seawater splashed her, nearly knocking her over. Another tentacle rose up to attack her, and out of fear, she leapt.

She landed on top of Cetus' tentacle, running down the length of it toward his head. She cast several bursts of Verdimillious, which Cetus raised tentacles to deflect. Its individual tentacles were obviously a little worse for wear after Verdimillious worked its magic, but Cetus was still quite awake and ready for more. Another tentacle swiped at Twilight, and she ended up leaping atop this one.

In a burst of inspiration, Twilight called up a cyclone of wind to lift her into the air, above Cetus; he raised five tentacles to slap her out of the air. She avoided each one narrowly before casting Holy.

Cetus dove; he was down into the depths of the sea by the time the spell's white light struck the surface. Twilight cast an air bubble around her head and dove after him, following him down and down.

When the next tentacle swiped at her, she cast Glacius, and then it was immobilized in the ice that surrounded it. The breakthrough; she knew what to do. A combination of the cyclone and a manipulation of the current (what a toll this must have been taking on the amulet's gem, but that was something to worry about later) propelled Twilight on a circular path around the monster. She pointed her staff toward him, and a wall of ice formed, catching his skin at the edges, trapping him partially in ice. She moved to a position above him, casting more ice until the behemoth of the seas was encased in a great mass of it. His eyes flicked about, indicating he was alive and well below the layer of ice. That was somewhat of a relief. Twilight wasn't about to relinquish her standards for this foe.

When she cast Holy, it hit the mark. The ice shattered. Cetus went unconscious, falling away into the depths of the ocean in sleep.

"And I'll freeze you again if you come back," Twilight snapped before heading for the surface.

A triad of barks echoed against the Thebes sky. Cerberus, the giant hellhound with pitch black fur and three heads, including three sets of fanged and saliva-dripping jaws, snapped at the people in the streets. He'd been given time off from guarding the Underworld in order to join his siblings in attack.

The people were perhaps more afraid of him than they were of any other of Echidna's brood. They knew him from the Underworld; they knew him as a harbinger of death. As they ran away from him, they could barely comprehend why one woman walked directly toward him.

Zoë faced Cerberus directly. At first, even the hound was confused – why wasn't she running? Then he saw her load a bow with a light arrow and fire it directly at him.

The central head caught the arrow with a snap, and it dissipated, though it gave off a jolt that caused said head to reel slightly. Zoë loaded up another arrow; at the same time, Cerberus inhaled deeply in all three mouths and exhaled a volley of fireballs at Zoë.

She ran, firing her arrows as she did so; they lodged in Cerberus' hide, and she could see him flinch. The fire was hot on her heels – he kept on shooting it – and she was well aware that the buildings around her were catching flame. But there was no time to mourn the destruction around her, she felt. She had to keep her focus on the hound or else all was lost.

Cerberus eventually figured out that he wasn't going to be able to catch Zoë with mere fire. He inhaled again, and all three heads plunged toward the ground, breathing a mass of darkness into the street, where it was absorbed.

Zoë barely had time to wonder before it went off like a minefield. Pockets of dark magic exploded up from the street at random; one explosion barely grazed her. She knew the ground wasn't safe. She had to get up to safety, and there was only one place for that.

She charged directly at Cerberus, leaping with supernatural strength, and she landed gracefully on his back. Cerberus, however, had one more trick up his hypothetical sleeve. The skin on his back rippled, and snakes burst from it – hundreds of snakes, hissing and dripping venom.

Zoë fired into the crowd of snakes. The light arrow blasted a patch of snakes into golden dust; she leapt into the cleared area, making her way toward Cerberus' shoulder blades, careful to step where she was out of the reach of the snakes' snapping mouths. Another arrow cleared another place to stand. And then another, and she was on the shoulder blades, right behind the three heads.

"It is time for thee to return to the Underworld, where thou belongest," Zoë stated, loading up the bow with three arrows and turning it sideways. She let the arrows of light fly.

They hit their targets at the same time: the backs of all three heads. Cerberus gave a cry of pain; then the heads dissolved into golden dust, and the entire body followed, gradually dissolving from there down. Zoë tumbled through the air, but her landing was not too hard, especially since dissolving Cerberus had undone the darkness he'd infused the ground with.

She got up and dusted herself off; glimmering remnants of the hellhound made clouds from her garment. The arrows of light worked the same way as a Celestial Bronze blade when it came to monsters. Cerberus was sent back to the Underworld; not dead forever, but instead to do time there until Hades saw fit to send him back out again.

The wind carried away the last of the dust. Zoë walked out through the flames in search of her next target.

The Nemean Lion was one of Echidna's children blessed with the power of speech. Well, to him, it was a blessing. To others, it was a curse. He was only slightly smaller than Cerberus, golden as the sun, and incredibly talkative.

"Yeah," he remarked, knocking down a house. "Yeah, this is more like it! Oh, c'mon, why do you mortals always get worked up whenever there's good destruction going on? You're a bunch of ingrates. All of you."

"HEEEEEY YOU! YEAH! YOU KNOCKING THE BUILDINGS DOWN!"

The Nemean Lion turned to see who was screeching at him. He beheld the sight of Pinkie Pie, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "You cut that out RIGHT NOW before I do something drastic!" she demanded.

"Really?" the Nemean Lion snorted. "You want to do something drastic? Okay. Fine." Not believing a tiny pink Kentauride could have much to offer in the way of defeating him, he reached out and punched another building casually.

"THAT DOES IT!" In a flash, Pinkie became a Mahou Shoujo. She fired her pistols at the Nemean Lion, again and again and again, bursts of glitter. Then came the finale; the shoulder-mounted launcher and its volley of energy and confetti, three times over.

When the confetti and glitter cleared, Pinkie had reverted back from her Mahou Shoujo state. The Nemean Lion was completely unaffected and unfazed.

"Okay, so, maybe no one explained this to you," he said, "but my skin is completely resistant to physical and magical attacks. I mean, that was a nice light show and all, but you kinda just made yourself look stupid."

"Oh…" Pinkie Pie's eyes widened in shock.

"I'm just gonna go back to destroying things now." The Nemean Lion did an about face.

And Pinkie was standing in front of him again. "HEY!" he barked. "How'd you do that?"

"Please don't knock over another building!" Pinkie pleaded. "You'll hurt people!"

"That's what I'm trying to do," the Lion said. He slammed a paw down onto Pinkie, or at least he thought he did – it felt strangely like he'd just swiped it through thin air. She must have gotten out of his grasp at the last second. He turned around again.

And there she was. "It is really cool that you're invincible, though!" she continued. "I mean, how many monsters can say that? Now, are you invincible to gods, or just to mortals?"

"Shut up!" The Lion turned away again, but there she was, on a rooftop.

"Actually, I wanna know more about you. Do you get along with Echidna's other children? Is Echidna a good mommy? How many heads DO you and your brothers and sisters have total? I hear it's a lot!"

"GO AWAY!"

No matter where he turned, there she was: "Actually, Cerberus got into Ponyville once! But he wasn't trying to attack anything. At least, we don't think. I had a spare rubber ball and we used that to distract him, and he REALLY wanted to play…"

"…I LOVE playing with dogs, actually! But my favorite is alligators! That's why I have my pet alligator named Gummy! But he doesn't have any teeth. That's why he's called Gummy! Do you have any pets? Or does your mom not let you keep them around…"

"…OH NO DON'T DESTROY THAT! Awwww, that was a perfectly nice…whatever that was! I wonder what it was. Do you think that was a doctor's office? Or a post office? Or another kind of office? Or maybe it was a bakery! Back home, I work in a bakery. I'm especially good at making cupcakes! I even wrote a song about it! All you gotta do is take a cup of flour, add it to the…"

No matter how the Lion tried to dress it up afterward, all eyewitness reports agreed: he'd run as fast as he could out of Thebes, of his own will, screaming, "MAKE IT STOP! JUST MAKE IT STOP!"

"Okay," Fluttershy said to herself as she galloped down the street. "A lot of these monsters sound big and scary, but they're probably not. One of them was a chimaera! And chimaeras ARE scary, but they're not very big! They're about the size of a lion! I can face something that's the size of a lion. Maybe the others are small too! I could…"

She entered the square in which the Chimaera, for if you speak of the devil he will most certainly come, was doing its work. Fluttershy was right. Chimaeras, in the traditional sense, were small. But this was the Chimaera, the king of chimaeras, the first and original, daughter of Echidna.

She was bigger than a house.

Her body was lion from the midsection forward and goat from the midsection back. A goat's head was situated on the midpoint of her body where the two halves joined. Her tail was a snake with its own hissing, fanged head.

Fluttershy screamed in terror. Then she steeled herself, drawing her katana and charging.

The snake tail spotted her first and struck. She leapt over it, spreading her wings and going airborne. The goat's head reared back, shooting a column of flame directly upward at Fluttershy and causing her to backpedal with her wings. She attempted to fly toward the front end of the Chimaera and slash at its chest with her katana, but the Chimaera turned again and again, the goat's head keeping Fluttershy in focus and breathing fire at her.

Fluttershy was forced to land on the ground. "I don't suppose you want to just talk this over?" she said.

The snake hissed, the goat bleated, and the lion roared. All signs pointed to "No."

Fluttershy struck at the snake head with the katana, dazing it. She then leapt, pumping her wings twice, onto the Chimaera's back, making her way to the goat head.

The snake head shook itself, getting her bearings, trying to see Fluttershy through the haze. Then she struck.

Fluttershy screamed – but the snake had missed. Her fangs sunk into the base of the goat head.

The goat looked stunned. The lion let out a mournful howl. Fluttershy knew that the Chimaera had accidentally poisoned itself, and she suddenly felt great pity for it.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed, close to tears. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean this to happen!"

She glided down to the street, landing on the stone. "You should go get help right now!" she insisted. "Do you know where you can find help?"

Now the Chimaera turned so the lion face looked directly at Fluttershy. She made eye contact and nodded.

"Then go!" Fluttershy begged. "Please!"

The Chimaera took off running.

"She's saved us all from the Chimaera!" a civilian cried, but Fluttershy took no notice.

"The poor thing!" Fluttershy moaned sincerely. "I hope the Chimaera makes it out okay! I really didn't mean for that to happen!"

"But weren't you trying to save us?" the civilian asked. "You had your sword drawn and – "

"This sword wouldn't have really hurt it," Fluttershy explained. "The Chimaera has feelings too!"

Before the stunned civilian could argue, several men and women carrying buckets of water came barreling by. "Cerberus set the upper district on fire!" one cried. "Make way for the fire brigade! NOW!"

"I have to help!" Fluttershy cried. She followed the fire brigade closely. Somewhere along the line, someone gave her a bucket, and she had enough time to stop at one of the public fountains and fill it so she could help to quench the flames that Cerberus had set.

Orthos was a bi-clops. He had only one eye per head, but two heads atop his teal-skinned body. He wasn't as big as your average Cyclops – his eye level at about the height of some of the taller rooftops – but his reputation was nonetheless terrifying.

He walked the narrower streets, swinging a club at the houses lined up in rows. "I just wonder if the club presents the best image," the left head, ever the thinker, said. "Cyclopes, giants, ogres, everyone expects them to use the club. It makes us look absolutely barbaric."

"But the club is better for SMASHING!" the right head argued; he had control of the hand with the weapon, and was swinging it wildly, with joy.

"Do you hear galloping hooves?" the left head asked.

"Should it matter?"

"Only in that they're distinct footsteps coming toward us from behind instead of running away, meaning someone is probably about to – "

Sure enough, Orthos felt the thud of an energy arrow in his back. He turned to see Rarity eyeing up her next shot.

"You're dead meat!" the right head called out, swinging the club at her. She had to abandon the act of loading the arrow in order to leap over it before it could smash her flat against the nearby wall.

"Excuse me!" Rarity griped. "Not even a greeting with some kind of banter? How rude!"

She had to duck another swipe from the club; the left hand adjusted the scrunchie that held the left head's topknot of hair in place.

"AH - !" Rarity clutched at her hair. The club passing overhead had grazed it, doing no harm other than putting the curls out of sorts. That, however, was unforgivable. "YOU! WILL! PAY! FOR THAT!"

She tried to raise her bow, but Orthos was quicker with the club, and Rarity found herself running from it, screaming. On the run, she fired an arrow; it hit Orthos' left shoulder, stopping his arm temporarily in the act of adjusting the topknot again, and her next attempt was batted away from the club. She bemoaned the conditions in which she had to load the arrows; she constantly was either ducking, jumping, or just running from the club.

She was surprised she hadn't noticed it earlier, the way Orthos kept fiddling with that topknot. "Might I say that is a fabulous hair accessory you have," she said as she ducked the club again and sidestepped the shrapnel that exploded from the wall it hit.

"Thank you," the left head said casually. "What's the point of destroying cities if you can't do it in style?"

"My sentiments exactly!" Rarity agreed. "Though right now, this makes things work far more in my favor."

"How so?" the left head asked.

The next arrow shot directly through the scrunchie, tearing it in two and letting Orthos' short hair fall over his left head. He dropped the club; both hands reached up to feel where the simple hairstyle had been undone. "MY SCRUNCHIE!" the left head moaned.

When the right head finally got it into his head to pick the club back up, he looked at Rarity and said, "Uh-oh."

"What is it, brother?" the left head asked before seeing for himself. "Oh."

Rarity, in full Mahou Shoujo garb, was surrounded by crystal arrows in the air. She drew back her bowstring, and all the arrows shifted back. Orthos couldn't even think of a good parting remark before they all slammed into him simultaneously.

He teetered, then fell backward into the street, knocking himself unconscious in both heads. "QUICKLY!" Rarity cried out. "EVERYPONY! TIE HIM DOWN! DON'T TELL ME NONE OF YOU HAVE A ROPE AROUND!"

The civilians reacted to her call, bringing ropes to bind the unconscious Orthos. "Now bring him somewhere he can be kept safely to think about what he's done," Rarity ordered, and when enough carts were strung together to carry his body, Orthos was taken to just such a prison.

Looking at her target from around the corner, Applejack asked Phil, "So, uh…what's his schtick?"

"That's Gegeines," Phil explained to describe the great white-furred ape that sat in the empty square. "Famous for luring sailors to his lair with the help of nymphs, and then eating them. The sailors, not the nymphs. Though he probably ate a few of the nymphs too."

"And…why's he just sittin' there doin' nothin'?"

"If I had to guess?" Phil replied. "Doin' nothing's what he's best at. He's used to people coming to him, not having to go after people."

"That don't make a real intimidatin' monster."

"Well…it makes more sense in context. You know, with the island and the nymphs."

"I bet." Applejack grinned. "Watch me take this one down in record time."

She galloped into the empty square. "Hey, Gegeines!"

Gegeines had just been thinking about what a mistake he'd made, trying to make a public display like his siblings. He really didn't like actively chasing people down – it was too tiring. He should have staked out a hideout away from Thebes, he thought, and hired a few nymphs to bring those who fled the scene to him. It wasn't as though prey was about to approach him. However, when he saw Applejack, he thought his luck was about to change. He rose to full height. "Finally," he grumbled.

Applejack shifted into her Mahou Shoujo form, twirling her rope whip. "Catch me if ya can!" she dared, twirling the rope into a giant loop.

Gegeines lurched forward, swiping out at her, but all he managed to do was walk into the loop of rope. Applejack also jumped through before tightening the loop, twisting it, binding Gegeines' arms to his sides. The rope lengthened, and she formed a second loop, leaping through it before winding it around Gegeines.

"This isn't fair!" Gegeines moaned as he became hopelessly tangled. "I didn't even get a chance to attack anything!"

"Ya snooze, ya lose!" Applejack gave the whip a crack; the rope broke off, leaving Gegeines bound in the multitude of loops. Then she bowed. Turning to Phil, she bragged, "Told ya I could do that trick without gettin' tangled."

"Yeah, well…" Phil replied. "Don't let it go to your head. Now let's focus on gettin' this guy locked up."

Cassandra and Meg were hot on Icarus' heels as he ran through the streets. "Okay," Meg said as she ran, "not that I'm doubting you or anything, but do you actually have a plan?"

"I'm just gonna wing it," Icarus replied. "HA! WING it! Because I make wings – "

"We get it," Cassandra sighed.

"I think we're getting close to something," Meg pointed out, hearing a scuffle ahead. "We should probably slow down and look at it."

She and Cassandra halted; they had to grab the back of Icarus' collar to get him to stop running. They made their way to the edge of the street, peering into the open square at the monster they were about to face.

Meg smirked. "I can't believe fate actually went that easy on us."

Twice as big as an ordinary man, Geryon, he of three torsos and three blonde heads all attached to a single lower body, swung three enormous blades through the air, obviously something forged just for him, causing civilians to run in terror.

"What?" Icarus asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't see how obvious it is, airhead?" Cassandra asked. "It's Geryon."

"Yeah, and he does not look happy," Icarus replied. "Sooooo…what's the big plan?"

"You really don't see it," Cassandra sighed. "Three heads? Three bodies? THREE OF US?"

"Yeah…he could totally take us!" Icarus moaned. "I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE MIS – "

Cassandra clamped her hand over his mouth before his loud moaning could give away their position.

"I'll spell it out," Meg said. "Cassandra, I want you to get to that alley." She pointed across the way. "Icarus, I want you there." She pointed out another location. "When you get there…"

Geryon's attention was caught when he heard a voice call out, "Yo, Geryon." All three heads turned to see Cassandra. "I had a vision of exactly what you're going to do and how you can be beaten," she said. "And I'm gonna tell everyone I can find about it who can wield a weapon."

"She knows how we can be defeated!" one head cried.

"Let's GET HER!" another roared, and Geryon's one set of legs began to charge in that direction.

"HEEEEEEY SIX-EYES!" a new voice called; Geryon turned to see Icarus. "It is I! LEGENDARY HERO ICARUS, WHO FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN!"

"I thought that guy was dead," the second head said. "Better get rid of him all the same!"

"Geryon," Meg called out, stepping into view. "Remember me? Maybe you do. I am married to the most powerful hero in the world. But if you don't, it might be worth reminding you that I'm also the one who betrayed Hades during the Titan invasion."

"HER!" the third head screamed. "SHE HAS TO GO DOWN FIRST!"

"NO, THE SEER!" the first cried.

"NO, ICARUS!" the second yelled.

Geryon stumbled as each head fought for his priority of hero to challenge. He spun around in circles a few times, getting very dizzy.

Then there was a great explosion of confetti, and Geryon hit the ground, unconscious.

"WHOA!" Icarus cried. "Nice job, Meg! I didn't even know you planned that!"
"I didn't," Meg said, stunned, as she, Icarus, and Cassandra converged.

"I did!" Pinkie Pie cried, wheeling the recently fired party cannon toward them. "I finished up with the Nemean Lion, so I came to find you! Except it was really weird because I was just talking with him and I didn't even figure out a way to get past his invincibility, and all of a sudden, during our nice conversation about what it was like to be one of Echidna's children and whether or not he'd just destroyed a bakery like the one I work in back home, he just took off and I don't know why!"

"Yeah…real big mystery," Cassandra snorted.

"Well, thanks," Meg told Pinkie with a smile. "Now let's get this guy locked up where he can't hurt anyone."

"Okie-dokie-Loki!" Pinkie chirped.

There was a valley at the edge of Thebes, formed in such a way that it created a natural amphitheater in the earth. Here, Pit remembered as he flew over it, was the site where Hercules had first beaten the Lernaean Hydra, earning him his reputation. He had a feeling that here was where something would turn up.

It slithered into view, a gargantuan purple reptile with forelegs but no back legs, plum-colored spines from its head to the tip of its whipping tail, one hinge-jawed head at the end of a long and writhing neck.

"Oh, come on," Pit groaned when he saw the Lernaean Hydra in the same place it had been beaten previously. "At least be a little original!"

He swooped down to attack the beast. When the Hydra spotted him, it struck out at him with a roar, intending to swallow him, but he flew faster than it could maneuver. He flew down along the base of its neck, readying his golden blades edged in Celestial Bronze. With a spin of the conjoined blades, the Hydra's neck was severed at the base.

Pit knew what would happen next and so altered his trajectory to go straight up and out of reach. From the bloodied stump of a neck, three more heads grew, emerging from a sac of skin. Now the Hydra was three times as strong as before. Pit had to fly above one to avoid its jaws, around another, and below the third before he got another chance to slash at the necks. Down went all three heads.

Nine heads grew, and Pit smiled to himself. This was the decisive moment. He had to plot his aerial course carefully – he found himself, at one moment, within one of the mouths, and barely managed to escape before it clamped down. But then he hovered some distance away, looking at the Hydra from the side, clamping his blades together into one double-edged weapon, and then he threw the blades so that they spun, a deadly wheel. Just as he'd planned, the course of the blades took them through all the necks at once, and nine Hydra heads hit the ground.

Pit flew after the blades to retrieve them. As he did so, he spotted a familiar figure galloping into the valley. "Twilight!" he called out.

"Pit!" she cried back. "I took care of a sea monster in the harbor. Was that a Lernaean Hydra?"

"Yeah," Pit said, "but I got it covered."

"You sure? I mean, you went for the heads, and everypony knows – "

"Everyone knows that Hydras only grow nine heads, and that's the limit," Pit stated proudly, picking up his fallen weapon. "Honestly, I don't see how Hercules had that much trouble with…Twilight? Twilight, stop kidding around. You're kidding, right?"

Twilight was trembling, pointing behind Pit.

"Seriously," Pit said, "there had BETTER not be something horrifying behind me…"

So he turned. And he saw all twenty-seven of the Hydra's heads poised to strike downward at him.

He was paralyzed with fear. Twilight surged forward, grabbing him around the waist and carrying him out of the way as twenty-seven sets of jaws snapped at the ground, biting empty air.

Twilight dragged Pit into the gaping mouth of a nearby cave – the Hydra's old den. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" she roared.

"I thought it was done after nine heads!" Pit wailed. "I didn't know this one had MORE! Everybody always says it's nine!"

"Well, it looks like this is the week when Pit finds out that all the rumors he hears aren't true," Twilight grumbled. "Shouldn't your Celestial Bronze blades send it back to the Underworld?"

"Only if I deal a kill shot with them!"

"And it didn't raise any flags when you cut off nine heads AND THE BODY DIDN'T DISAPPEAR? Okay, never mind. The light arrows work the same way, right? All you need to do is get above it and shoot it in the heart."

"Uhhh…yeah, about that," Pit said. "I don't have my light arrows."

"Why don't you have your light arrows?"

"Because I gave my bow to Zoë."

"Why did you give your bow to Zoë?"

"Because she doesn't have her sword?"

"AND WHY DOESN'T SHE HAVE HER SWORD?"

"Because she gave it to Hercules…"

Twilight needed a moment to process that information. "Okay," she muttered, "it's going to be okay…it's going to be fine…Zoë can handle a bow, she can take care of herself, and we can handle things here…" She took in a deep breath, then exhaled. "Okay. I can weaken the Hydra for you. Do you think you can handle it if I drain its energy a little bit?"

"Hey, any bit helps at this point."

"Just making sure, it won't actually kill…"

"Just send it back to Bardo. Kinda like teleportation. One-way ticket to Hades!"

The Hydra, by that point, had located its quarry. She charged, full speed, toward the cavern; Twilight and Pit rushed out in order to avoid being cornered and split up, making their way to opposite directions. The Hydra decided to pursue Twilight.

"NonononoNONONONO!" Twilight cried as she ran at full speed. "PIT! I NEED YOU TO DISTRACT IT!"

"COMING UP!" Pit yelled. He charged the Hydra from behind, ripping into more necks. More heads sprouted. A small price to pay. "Come and get me!" he taunted.

The Hydra turned its attention toward Pit, and every head went for him at once. He found himself in a labyrinth of snaking necks, flying around every set of jaws.

"Get out of there," Twilight muttered as she halted her run. She wasn't about to unleash her attack while Pit was in the way.

At last she saw him burst from the tangle of Hydra heads, straight up into the air. Then he veered left, getting out of the target area. Twilight raised her staff before any more time was lost.

The bursts of pure magic fell from the sky, pummeling the confused Hydra and her many heads. She roared in disdain, but when the rain was over, she was completely dazed, staggering.

Pit detached the blades from each other, drawing one back in his hand before launching it directly at the Hydra's back; he threw it with such force that it pierced straight through her body, into her heart.

The Hydra dissolved into a great mass of dust, including those heads already cut off and lying on the ground, and Pit's blade landed with a "puff" sound upon the dust pile. Twilight wiped her brow, feeling probably as drained as the Hydra had been before she unleashed her attack. Pit flew down toward her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "That just took a lot of power. You?"

"Beat the Hydra. Can't complain."

"We have to keep going," Twilight said, attempting to run but feeling woozy. "There are still other monsters…"

"You wanna take it easy?" Pit suggested.

"I CAN'T TAKE IT EASY!" Twilight snapped. "THEBES IS STILL IN TROUBLE!"

"Yeah, but you don't look so…"

"What? I don't look so WHAT?"

"Never mind."

Twilight ended up having to walk, but she still pressed on into the city in search of Echidna's children. Pit hovered overhead in worry.

Hercules thought he was prepared for anything. Especially Ladon. Ladon was a baby, the last he'd seen the thing…a pudgy little pig-like reptile, a shade of pink, with this constant expression of stupidity on its piggish face.

When he arrived at the edge of the city, where Ladon had begun to attack from the outside and work his way in, Hercules realized that while there was no doubt at all that he was looking at Ladon, the creature was not the same one he'd seen before.

Over the span of just a couple years, Ladon had grown into a lean, magenta-colored dragon, the size of Cerberus. He had grown six extra heads, all of which breathed blasts of ice upon the territory before him.

It only then sank in that Zoë was right about underestimating the monster. Still, Hercules had to try and defeat it for the good of Thebes. He gripped his sword tightly, then bid Pegasus to fly toward Ladon at full speed.

When one of the heads spotted him, it looked almost amused. First it breathed a cyclone of wind, knocking Hercules from Pegasus, separating steed from rider. It then spat a patch of pure coldness at the ground, and Hercules found himself slipping on ice, sliding across the smooth, frozen ground. Three of Ladon's heads reared back to attack him; the other four kept on beleaguering the city.

Hercules raised the Celestial Bronze blade, ready to strike, but it occurred to him that he couldn't take down three heads at once. Then he realized they were adjusting their trajectory for where he was sliding on the ice. He drove the sword into the ground, gripping the hilt tightly as an anchor point.

Ladon's three attacking heads smacked into the ice. Hercules struggled to his feet, wrenching the sword out of the ice-covered ground, and leapt to the side, sliding to the edge of the patch of ice and ending up standing near Ladon's spiked tail. Ladon whipped the tail, and Hercules was knocked over, hitting the ground hard.

Ladon spun around, all seven heads looking at their attacker. Hercules quickly leapt back to a standing position, brandishing Anaklusmos; the seven heads ignored the gesture and inhaled deeply before seven jets of ice rocketed at Hercules. They solidified in midair, becoming great spikes of ice, sharp as knives and thick as the columns that supported many a Greek building.

Hercules slashed through two of the columns with Anaklusmos, reducing them to shards; this gave him enough room to avoid the other five, which planted in the ground.

Ladon's tail whipped again and this time Hercules was sent flying, hitting the patch of ice upon which he'd slid earlier quite hard. He felt the ice crack beneath him. When he got his bearings, he noticed seven more ice missiles headed toward him.

Another force slid across the ice, colliding with him, knocking him out of the way. When he hit ground that was not icy, Hercules stood, looking at who'd saved him; Zoë had thrown herself across the frozen ground at him to get him out of the way of the ice missiles, which all planted harmlessly into the ice layer.

Zoë took Hercules' arm and ran; he could have held back and broken her grip quite easily, but he chose to follow. She took him into the forest at the edge of Thebes, running faster and faster, getting them lost among the trees.

"What did I tell thee?" she growled.

"Yeah…Ladon," Hercules chuckled nervously. "Kind of a big deal. Hey, shouldn't we be running TOWARD Ladon? He's going to go back to attacking the city!"

"He will be pursuing us," Zoë assured Hercules, slowing down. "He will not want us, as prey, to have bested him. We have bought ourselves time to plan."

"How do we plan for this?"

"Either my arrows must strike Ladon in a critical place, or Anaklusmos must," Zoë thought out loud. "My arrows would actually be best spent as a diversion, or even a counter to Ladon's icy breath. I will hold him as best as I can with the arrows, but it must be thou who strikest him."

"I…think I can do that," Hercules said.

A great crashing was heard – trees being knocked over. Zoë and Hercules looked up; through the tree canopy, Ladon's towering heads were visible. "HE IS HERE!" Zoë cried.

Ladon swiped at the trees, bringing them down so that he had an unobstructed view of his quarry. Zoë immediately fired light arrows. Ladon's heads twisted about, avoiding them all, before shooting seven ice missiles.

Hercules ran at Ladon at full speed while Zoë shot seven light arrows in rapid succession, destroying the missiles one by one; they exploded in shimmering bursts of icy dust.

Hercules made his way around Ladon's body to the tail that had whipped him so many times. Prepared now, he gripped the tail, careful to avoid spines, and yanked it.

Ladon was flipped up, over, onto his back. He landed hard, crushing several trees; the earth shook. Hercules leapt onto Ladon's stomach, raising Anaklusmos before driving the sword down hard.

He fell into a shower of gold dust as Ladon vanished. It took him a few moments to register what he'd done.

"Art thou all right?" Zoë asked concernedly.

"Yeah," Hercules said, dusting himself off. "I'm fine."

He and Zoë crossed the distance between them; Zoë's skin seemed to undergo a rise in temperature and her heart thundered. "Thanks," Hercules said with a smile – what a smile, what beauty! "You really saved me."

"It was nothing," Zoë replied. "There…are other monsters to face."

"Right!" Hercules said. "Let's go!"

The pair raced back to the city. Hercules thought out loud, "Wait until Phil hears that I took down LADON!"

Zoë was happy for him; she truly was. But she had done more than simply provide the diversion. Anaklusmos was her blade. It was almost entirely her victory.

In the very center of the city, Echidna stomped the ground, bringing down buildings of all sorts. The people fled her en masse. She laughed; a deep, throaty laugh of absolute joy.

"HEY!" a voice called out. "I DON'T KNOW WHICH OF ECHIDNA'S KIDS YOU ARE, BUT YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE TAKEN DOWN BIG TIME!"

Echidna laughed as she turned to see who had spoken. A Kentauride, one blessed with wings, who was flying at Echidna's eye level in order to spout insults. Rainbow Dash was in full witch mode, brandishing her sword.

"I'm not one of Echidna's children," Echidna corrected. "I AM Echidna! Mother of all monsters!"

"Oh…" Rainbow Dash was suddenly stricken with fear. She shook it off. "Well, you're goin' down anyway!"

"Try me," Echidna dared.

Rainbow Dash took off, flying round and round Echidna, surrounding her with rainbow trails. When she had enough momentum, Rainbow Dash gave that final push forward with her wings, breaking the barrier. A Sonic Rainboom echoed through the air, its shockwave passing through Echidna. At that point, Rainbow Dash stopped to admire her work.

Echidna wasn't even fazed. "You're boring me," she yawned.

Rainbow Dash didn't have time to plan her next move. She was swept up by Echidna's hand, struggling, unable to move. Luckily, her sword was pressed to her side by the flat – Echidna could very well have squeezed in such a way that the blade would have cut its master right in half.

"This was anticlimactic," Echidna admitted. "And you don't look very filling. Then again, you will make a nice appetizer."

Rainbow Dash looked at the gaping maw before her. And, certain that she was about to meet doom, she thought about screaming. But instead, the voice she heard that broke through –

"NOOOOOOOO!"

It was Rarity's.

"GET! YOUR! HANDS! OFF! HER!" Rarity fired five arrows in succession at Echidna's hand. That stunned her enough to let Rainbow Dash go.

"And HERE'S so ya don't try that one again!" Applejack galloped toward Echidna, leaping into the air, cracking the rope whip. Its final attack activated, it tangled around Echidna, binding her arms to her sides.

"Thank youuuuu Applejack and Rarity!" Rainbow Dash remarked with relief. "As for you, Echidna, I never did see exactly what my big attack does. Wanna help me find out?"

"No!" Echidna grunted. "NOOOOO!"

Rainbow Dash raised her sword into the air, bidding the weather to it. And the weather came. Skies darkened. Clouds whirled above Rainbow Dash in a vortex. Lightning and waterspouts poured down from the clouds, all aimed at the blade; the metal simply ate it up. Rainbow Dash twirled the sword in her hand twice before swinging it at Echidna with all her might.

It sent out a rainbow shockwave upon which rode a tidal wave of water and a burst of electricity. Echidna herself was frightened to see such power moving toward her.

Then it hit.

Rarity and Applejack winced. Phil, who had caught up to Applejack by that time, muttered, "Whoa…didn't know the kid could do that."

When it was over, the clouds parted; the skies lightened. "You…have won…for now," Echidna muttered before turning to stagger away. "But one of my children will eat you sooner or later!"

Rainbow Dash readied to follow Echidna, but Phil yelled, "KID! STOP!"

Her attention caught, Rainbow Dash dove down to land before Phil. "Why won't you let me go after her?"

"She's beaten, kid! She's leavin' the city!"

And indeed, as fast as she could go, Echidna was leaving.

"We just beat Echidna," Rainbow Dash realized. "I just beat Echidna! I am SO AWESOME!" She looked to Rarity, then Applejack. "WE are awesome. Thanks for havin' my back!"

"No trouble!" Applejack gave a slight bow.

"Actually, I sort of stumbled upon you by accident," Rarity admitted. "I was heading toward one of the other districts. There are reports of a fire there!"

"A fire?" Rainbow Dash repeated. "Looks like a job for a weather witch! C'mon!"

The fire Cerberus started had spread, but it was being kept at bay. First there had been the brigades with their buckets. They assaulted the flames again and again with the water from the fountains.

Then had come Twilight and Pit, and Twilight cast massive bursts of Glacius to freeze the flames.

Then had come Pinkie, Cassandra, Icarus, and Meg; the former three joined the brigade, tag teaming Fluttershy, and Meg and Fluttershy set about bandaging and comforting the wounded.

Into this scene came Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Phil. "Don't worry, everypony!" Rainbow Dash called. She raised her sword into the air. "C'mon, rain! Let's have some rain!"

Where there had been clear skies marked only by the softest cirrus clouds, great gray rain clouds began to gather and puff up. They released their downpour, dousing the final flames.

Pegasus then flew in, depositing Zoë and Hercules. "I apologize," Zoë said immediately. "The fire was set during my battle with Cerberus, but I knew not how to contain it, and there were other matters at hand."

"Hey, nobody blames you," Pit reassured her. "The other monsters were priority. Hey, wait. We're all here now. Did we get all of them?"

The group of heroes gathered in the street; Rainbow Dash called off the clouds and let the weather return to its sunny state. They compared stories. Zoë ticked off the children of Echidna in a list. It was soon apparent that all were accounted for.

"We did it," Hercules stated. "We stopped the invasion!"

"Things aren't over quite yet," Twilight said. "Does anypony know where the tree is?"

There was silence. They'd covered the whole city and not found it at all.

BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD

Along the banks of the Styx, Echidna hustled back and forth between her children. "Are you okay, sweeties? Did they hurt you?"

She'd already administered the antivenom provided by Hades to the Chimaera. As far as she could tell, Cerberus, Ladon, and the Hydra had all suffered blows from divine weaponry, and none of them were too keen on going back outside Bardo for a while. The Nemean Lion was undamaged, but his pride seemed hurt – "You don't get it; she was REALLY annoying!"

Echidna took notice of the fact that Orthos, Gegeines, Geryon, and Cetus had not returned. When Hades approached her, she raged at him. "HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO MY CHILDREN?" she roared. "FOR ALL I KNOW, THEY'RE DEAD!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hades put up his hands. "First of all, you knew what you were entering into when you signed the contract. Second, they're not dead. If they were, I would know. They're fine. They probably just got captured by the enemy."

"I blame you for this," Echidna growled.

"What did I do?" Hades asked, perplexed.

"You should have released TYPHON!" Echidna wailed. "My beloved husband! He would have turned the tide of the battle!"

"Listen, Echidna. I know how much Typhon would've helped. But honestly, I didn't think we'd need him yet, and I'm kind of saving him for when he can make a bigger impact," Hades explained. "He's a big card to play, you know."

"Is this nothing but a GAME to you?" Echidna moaned. "Is my family just PIECES FOR YOU TO PLAY WITH?"

"Maybe you didn't get the memo," Hades said, "but I'm not the sentimental type. You're either useful to me, or you're not. And if ANYone's playing a game around here, it's that no-good draconequus…" He clenched his fists; for a moment flashed orange.

He wasn't startled when Eris materialized next to him. "Don't worry, Echidna," she said. "Cetus is frozen at the bottom of the sea, but he's alive. And Orthos, Gegeines, and Geryon are all in custody of the Theban citizens. We can break them out at any time. I'll personally see them get back to you."

"Thank you, Eris," Echidna said, her eyes watering. "Finally, someone around here who cares…"

"Of course I care about your children," Eris stated with a smirk that Hades found unsettling. "I helped raise them, after all, didn't I?"

"You two can have a girl's night on your own time," Hades muttered, turning to march back to the palace. "Right now, I've got bigger things to deal with."

THEBES, OLYMPIC GREECE

The group of heroes set out on the quest to find the tree of the golden apples in the highways and byways of Thebes. The city stood before them like a great monster in itself, keeping the tree hidden somewhere in its bowels.

"We could search for forever and never find it," Twilight moaned.

"Forever and ever and ever and ever?" Pinkie Pie wailed.

"SAY IT AIN'T SO!" Icarus cried.

"Not literally forever," Twilight corrected. "But unless we get some kind of help, we won't find that tree. Not without some kind of miracle – "

"CASSANDRA!"

All heads turned to see "Thanatocrates" running at the party at full speed.

"Y'know, usually, when someone says we need a miracle, a miracle shows up," Icarus muttered. "Not a blonde creep who can't take a hint."

"Hey, Thanatocrates!" Cassandra ran toward Panic. Even she was surprised when the instinct overcame her. When she reached him, she embraced him.

His heart nearly beat out of his chest.

Cassandra let go, a little embarrassed. "Okay, so I don't know where THAT came from."

"It's okay." Panic blushed deeply. "I just wanted to let you know I found the tree with the golden apples. You were looking for that, right?"

Pain had been bribed with the reassignment of yet more chores to tell Hades that Pit had been the first one to spot the tree.

"See?" Pinkie told Icarus. "He IS our miracle! That kind of poetic justice still works!"

"Were we EVER looking for it," Twilight sighed.

"It's right this way!" Panic took the lead of the crowd.

"You know, you've helped us out a lot," Hercules told him. "Are you sure you don't wanna join up with – "

Meg cleared her throat loudly.

"What?" Hercules asked.

"Just thinking you might wanna give him and Cassandra some time to talk," she said with a wink.

Hercules understood. He fell back in line as Cassandra and Panic moved on.

"So was that a monster attack or was that a monster attack?" Panic gushed. "Echidna almost NEVER has family reunions, but when she does, it's a real sight!"

"She did some damage," Cassandra admitted. "Even some I didn't see coming. I mean, I only did see a little bit of it ahead of time. I had no idea the fire would happen."

"Yeah…that Cerberus. He's crazy. Can you imagine what it's like to have to take HIM for walkies?"

"Whoever does THAT has to be the absolute bravest person in existence."

Though he knew that Cassandra had no idea she was referring to him, Panic was flattered.

The group progressed this way until they found the glimmering tree. The six Equestrians worked their magic, and the apples lost their luster, taking on the rainbow stripes.

"Another one down," Twilight stated.

"Do you mind if we go back to my parents' house before we go to the next place?" Hercules asked. "I kinda wanna say goodbye."

"No problem!" Applejack answered.

The group began to maneuver that way. Twilight tapped Rarity on the shoulder, calling her aside. "Rarity?" she whispered.

"What is it, Twilight?" Rarity whispered back.

"I used my powers a lot today," Twilight said hushedly. "I'm a little afraid to look at how my amulet is. Is it bad?"

Rarity looked down to the gem at Twilight's neck. "Why, not at all! True, it's quite cloudy indeed, but a lot better than I was expecting. You won't have to worry about it for a long time."

"Thanks, Rarity," Twilight answered, relieved. "I was starting to be really afraid."

Perhaps, Rarity thought, Twilight should have asked Applejack, who bore honesty itself around her neck. But she stood by her decision. If Twilight had been given reason to worry, she might have risked the sort of despair that would poison the amulet even more.

It was almost black.

BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD

The winged wolves chuckled as Mozenrath entered the crystal hall. "Is something funny?" he asked them.

"Nothing much," Lukos answered.

"Just that you're in for a nasty surprise with today's lesson," Aetos continued.

"Maybe you WON'T go insane from the pain," Lukos added.

"And maybe you won't suffer well-deserved vengeance at my right hand," Mozenrath replied, smirking, adjusting the edge of his gauntlet.

"Enough!" Hecate snapped, and Mozenrath continued to walk toward her. Xerxes snarled at Lukos and Aetos along the way.

"Today, you're going to learn how to Apparate at the speed of darkness," Hecate announced. "I know you know how to Apparate within the boundaries of a world. But to go cross-dimensional or over longer distances, you'll need to use the darkness. Now, there are three basic ways to travel the space between worlds. There's dark matter, which you're familiar with. There's stardust, which is unpredictable and takes you where it wants to go. And there are the Mists of Avalon, which always take you exactly where you need to be…but it's almost impossible to harness. If you're familiar enough with the darkness, though…you won't need ANY of it."

"And the catch is?" Mozenrath asked.

"For one, if your magic was predominantly light oriented, you would end up anywhere from swallowed up by nothingness to badly injured. Or you just wouldn't be able to initiate Apparition at all. But you don't have to worry about that. Your magic is almost…pitch…black."

She grinned toothily. Mozenrath shivered involuntarily. Why did she choose THOSE words?

"The other thing is, it stings a little on your first time through," Hecate continued. "Whenever you're ready…"

"I'm ready now," Mozenrath asserted.

"Then let's begin," Hecate said. "Inside of you, inside your soul, there is a citadel. It contains your emotions. Your memories. Your being. Find it. It helps to close your eyes."

Mozenrath shut his eyes, unsure how to begin searching his soul. It was easier than he thought. His mind's eye was soon looking at it, a citadel not unlike that of the Black Sands, filled with that which was purely Mozenrath.

"See the front door?" Hecate asked.

And he did. It was hard to make out at first, but then the outline of the door shimmered into view.

"Think of where you want to go," Hecate said. "Pick someplace far away. Another world, if you can manage it."

The light shining through the cracks of the door vanished. Mozenrath felt a wind (but how? It was impossible to feel wind coming from a construct of the imagination, was it not?) blowing from the fortress, and it carried a slight texture of grit – there was black sand on the wind. He knew what lay beyond the door exactly.

"I know where I want to go," he said. It was as if he was calling out from an abyss; it was difficult to remember that Hecate was standing not three feet away.

"Then open the door," Hecate said, "and go through."

Mozenrath had oft heard people speak of the mind's eye. He discovered that it seemed to be attached to a mind's hand, and mind's feet, because within himself completely, he was able to open the door. He looked at the portal. Beyond lay the desert expanse of the Black Sands, the real citadel visible in the distance. Home. He naïvely bolted through the passage toward it.

Then the pain struck him. Squeezing, burning, stabbing every part of his body. He thought at first he'd made a mistake, that he'd walked into a pit of fire. Venom ran through his veins. He was certain his heart would fail, or his lungs collapse.

His mind's eye went dark. His physical eyes opened –

THE LAND OF THE BLACK SANDS, THE SEVEN DESERTS

- Mozenrath beheld for real the sight he'd seen in the citadel of his soul. He'd done it; he'd made it across the worlds through a simple Apparition. He stood out in the sands outside the city, looking up at the citadel.

Then he collapsed into the sands; a cloud of black was kicked up. He curled into a fetal position, possessed by the nearly unbearable hurt. His skin still seemed on fire; his joints seemed each pierced by a rusty knife.

No one was around. He let himself scream and he let his eyes water. He didn't have to worry about the humiliation when he was alone. Though for a brief moment, he wished he had –

Hecate?

Twilight?

- Xerxes to keep him company until the pain subsided.

At last, it all abated enough that he could stand, at least, and admire what he'd done. The agony had been a small price to pay for the ability to walk between worlds unaided by dark matter or other materials. The bigger price was probably the toll the gauntlet had extracted from his life force in order to accomplish such a feat, but he put it out of his mind to count that cost; if he spent his time doing that, he wouldn't be using any power at all out of blind fear.

It occurred to him that he had to go back. He could, he thought, just give in and go home. Home was right there, within sight. It would spare him the torture of going back. But at the same time, he'd not only left his trusted familiar stranded a world away, but he'd left an impatient Olympian mentor.

He remembered then – how had it taken him that long? – that the two worlds of the Seven Deserts and Olympic Greece were connected by a natural portal. He could just find traditional means of transportation to get to Greece, then find the entrance to the Underworld there and…

Drag himself on foot to Hecate like a pathetic failure too frightened to accept her teachings. He decided that wasn't going to happen.

He had to force himself to go back into his soul, to see the citadel again, to see the outline of the door; blue light now shone around the cracks, refracted from crystal, he knew. He just had to get it over with quickly, that was the key. He gasped in a breath, he plunged through the open door –

BARDO, THE UNDERWORLD

Mozenrath reappeared before Hecate, biting his lip hard to suppress a scream. His knees trembled as he struggled to stay standing. This time there would be no collapsing, no crying, not with Hecate and Lukos and Aetos around to berate him.

Still, Hecate noticed that he trembled, and that sweat gathered across his bloodless brow. "I honestly wasn't sure if you'd come back," she admitted. "A lot of first-timers give up when they feel what it's like to travel that way. I admire your courage."

"I'm – " It took him a moment to form the second word, because for a moment he thought he would vomit if he opened his mouth again – "stronger than that," Mozenrath finished, plastering on a smirk.

"Don't worry," Hecate told him. "It gets easier with practice. And side-alongs don't feel it at all. Just the initiator. So if someone takes you along, you'll feel nothing. Whereas if you take someone else along, you'll have to put up with them feeling nothing while you take the worst of it. But after the first fifty times, it doesn't feel like anything anymore."

He was almost pitiable when he looked like that. "Go take a break," Hecate told him.

"Why?" Mozenrath snapped. "Do you think it's too MUCH for me?"

She did, but all the same, she'd humor him. "No. I just didn't plan this far ahead. I need time to think about what I'm going to have you do next."

"Well," Mozenrath said. Then he calmly strode away, toward his quarters. Xerxes, worried half to death, followed.

"Do you have a soft spot for him?" Lukos teased.

"I can't remember the last time I had a real protégé," Hecate admitted. "It's nice to be appreciated."

"So you do," Aetos taunted.

"Is there any shame in wanting the best for my student?" Hecate asked calmly.

That deprived Lukos and Aetos of all their fodder, and they were silent.

THEBES, OLYMPIC GREECE

Panic had departed from the group before they reached Amphitryon and Alcmene's manor proper; he suddenly declared that he had errands to run ("I have to…drop my laundry off at the bank!") and departed. Cassandra was momentarily noticeably disappointed, but soon was over it.

Alcmene and Amphitryon invited the entire group to one last dinner before they moved on. During the meal, Zoë rose to excuse herself and wash a spill out of her clothing.

When she left the washroom, she found Amphitryon in the hall, waiting for her. "It's…Zoë, right?"

"Yes," Zoë said.

"I…wanted to talk to you about earlier," Amphitryon said. "When you were asking Alcmene and me about children."

"I received my answer."

"It wasn't the true one," Amphitryon admitted. "There's a reason Alcmene doesn't like to talk about it. I don't know how much this will help you, but…something tells me that you need your question answered."

Zoë blinked in surprise.

"The truth is," Amphitryon said, "we had a child. Iphicles. He died after only one day. We never knew what he died of. It breaks Alcmene's heart to think about."

"Thou…" Zoë shook her head. She had to get her thoughts in order. "I am sorry for thy loss, truly."

"You don't need to be. Hercules was a blessing for us."

"Amphitryon, thou may not thinkest thy words are important to me," Zoë said quickly, "but truly, that information IS important. It confirms something I have been thinking ever since – "

She stopped. She could hear her name being called on the wind. "Zoë…"

"I am being called," Zoë told Amphitryon.

"Really?" Amphitryon was perplexed. "I don't hear anything…"

"It is a call for me and me alone," Zoë sighed, knowing full well the implications of such a thing. "I thank thee for thy honesty, and I do not blame thy wife for hiding such things out of pain. Once again, I am sorry. Now, I must answer the call."

She walked briskly toward the source.

Hesperia stood in the back yard of the manor; when Zoë approached her, the two were alone. "Hesperia," Zoë greeted. "Sister."

"Do not call me sister," Hesperia snapped. "I come to deliver a message from the Garden. I am certain thou knowest what it is."

Zoë hung her head.

"Thou hast given thy weapon away to a mortal," Hesperia accused. "Thou hast interfered with his affairs, fighting his battles for him. And there is talk that thou hast given him thy heart as well."

"It is true that I have given him my weapon and my victory," Zoë admitted.

"Such acts are not our place," Hesperia stated. "Thou hast interfered in matters best left alone. Your actions have made it quite clear that thou hast chosen the mortal world over our own."

Zoë wanted to argue that wasn't true, that she cared about both worlds but only called one home. But the argument would carry no weight. The ruling of the Hespirides was ironclad.

"Thou shalt not return to the Garden," Hesperia told Zoë. "Though thou shalt remain in thy ageless body, thou shalt not call thyself 'Hesperide.' Thou art not our sister. Thou art among mortals now, and that is how thou shalt make thy life, Zoë. That is thy destiny. And it shall never be otherwise."

"I understand." Zoë nodded. Stoic as she was, she couldn't stop a single tear from escaping.

Hesperia pretended not to notice Zoë's tears. "Hast thou at least come closer to discovering who stole our apples?"

"Perhaps Eris," Zoë said. "Perhaps Hades. Or perhaps Discord."

"Then thou knowest nothing. Thou hast wasted thy time, Zoë. With that, I bid thee farewell." Hesperia's expression softened slightly. "I wish thee luck with thy new life."

"I thank thee, sis…Hesperia."

In a shimmer of light, Hesperia was gone, leaving Zoë with herself. She knew she should have seen it coming, ever since she decided to give Anaklusmos to Hercules, but still she was devastated.

She made her way back to the manor, back to the dining room, hoping to borrow some cheer from the others.

When Zoë re-entered, she found the entirety of the room staring at her. "What?" she snapped.

"I used the Mists and had the next vision," Cassandra stated. "You're the only one who missed it."

"I apologize. What did thou seest?"

"I saw a man…no, not a man," Cassandra corrected. "He definitely looked dead. "I saw a ghost attacking, devastating everything."

"But how could a mere ghost…?"

"I dunno." Cassandra shrugged. "But that's not even the weird bit. Guess where we're going next."

"Marathon?"

"Amazon," Hercules corrected, still sounding stunned himself.

"We're going to have to leave the mainland and get out to the island," Twilight added, though Zoë knew that full well.

"Which means another BOAT RIDE!" Pinkie Pie squealed.

"Can't wait," Phil sighed sarcastically as Pinkie and Icarus high-fived over his head.

"We're going out to the Thebes harbor as soon as everyone's ready," Meg announced. "You ready, Zoë?"

"I am ready," Zoë answered.

She knew she would eventually have to tell them all about her disgrace from the Garden. But that was a story that could wait for the naval trip to the island of Amazon.

Chapter 55

· I do have a weakness for getting my characters into battles. This is kind of the "battle royale" chapter…or one of them, anyway. As for Echidna's children, I used the official list as given on the Wikipedia page relating to Hercules characters, meaning actually more than were actually stated in the actual canon media to be her kids. The only ones stated that I didn't use were Furies, since I want Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera to be unrelated and I want the rest of the Furies to be…just a little bit different. That gave me a LOT of monsters and foes to use!

· The "nanny" thing is an HTAS gag. We only ever see Ladon as a little baby during the show, and Echidna complains that it's difficult to find a nanny who he won't eat. It's also a call back to how Eris uses Cetus as a minion in Sinbad.

· No, you are not allowed to ask why some of Echidna's children are sentient and others are animals.

· The Cetus design I used is the Sinbad design, since it's the most badass Cetus design anyone has EVER made. I kind of kicked the HTAS version to the curb (that one was actually called "Ceto").

· Cerberus got some power upgrades. The fire breath and the darkness mines were both Kingdom Hearts-inspired (those darkness mines made him simultaneously one of my favorite and least favorite bosses to battle). The snakes come from some ancient art depictions that draw him covered in snakes. I actually think he's the second most powerful of Echidna's brood because of this (the only reason he's not the most powerful is because I SPECIFICALLY wanted Ladon to be more of a badass).

· I want to apologize YET AGAIN if my Ye Olde English is off.

· I debated as to whether divine weaponry (Celestial Bronze and the like) smiting monsters to the Underworld counts as "killing." Ophira and I came to the conclusion that it's just an interdimensional transport/banishment and not a true death. This made it more convenient for me to exploit loopholes in the Mane Six's "no killing" philosophy, and also let me keep the monsters if I need them later.

· The Nemean Lion is impervious to magic because I said. The battle would have been boring otherwise. This way, I got to end it with the running gag that you can weaponize Pinkie's ability to annoy others.

· The HTAS Chimaera doesn't have the goat's head. I added that. However, HTAS did give me the idea to make the Chimaera large as opposed to lion-sized.

· Orthos being overly attached to his hair scrunchie? CANON. It's in that ep of HTAS with the poem. I forget the name. But a harpy steals it and he gets pissed.

· I thought it would be rather funny to portray Gegeines as lazy as I did, since his whole schtick is that he has nymphs lead victims TO him.

· You can tell Geryon is the HTAS incarnation because the traditional one is three full bodies to one head. But that wouldn't have allowed me to confuse him three ways.

· Most incarnations of the Lernaean Hydra refer to it as having nine heads. The Disney version, IMO, is far more badass for being able to have that many more. And thus was born the joke/plot device of Pit thinking nine was the limit.

· Ladon's adult design is pretty much completely my own. However, the idea of seven heads is from classic mythology, and the idea of him having ice breath came from Lotan, which was basically the mythological rough draft of Ladon. Lotan represents destruction by floods and blizzards.

· "HE IS HERE!" = another piece of that scene I ripped from The Titan's Curse and pulled out of context. Also, you'll note that Hercules took credit for Zoë's victory, which should also be relevant to Percy Jackson readers.

· That moment when I realize I never gave Rainbow Dash a final attack move. And realize I can make it AWESOME.

· "Why not release Typhon?" was a question I struggled with from the beginning. It just didn't seem right. It felt like doing that would make Echidna's side TOO overpowered. So…I hope the BS I made up for that was convincing.

· The process of Apparating at the speed of darkness I actually took from one of my favorite obscure trashy fantasy novels: "Shadow City" by Diana Pharaoh Francis. That method is how the protagonist Max finds the way to travel between worlds. And it's agonizingly painful. The line from Shadow City that I kept wanting to pull but knew I couldn't was "It was like pulling a house through the eye of a needle."

· I am a little creeped out at how well I can get into Mozenrath's head right about now. Just sayin'.

· I worry that I was offensive in my portrayal of "Alcmene had a baby. But he died." But it's plot relevant, I freaking swear. Also, the name "Iphicles" is taken from Hercules' twin brother in the original myth.

· You all know who the next disaster is. I don't know why I bothered not mentioning his name.

· Most incarnations of the myth of the Amazons actually say they weren't on an island. But I was taught in high school that they lived on an island. And HTAS puts them on an island. And I want them to be on an island. SO BE IT.