The Path Of Glory (Annabeth Chase x Male Reader)

39. The Party Ponies Invade

He rolled as Luke's sword slashed a deck chair in half next to him. But before he could stand up again, he felt hot, white pain flashing from his calf through his whole body. He yelled and collapsed.

"Y/N!" Ethan bleated.

Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse, Ares had said a year ago. Why had it to be so now?

Y/N tried to crawl away, but Luke put a foot on his back, setting a blood-reddened Backbiter against his jaw.

"There's something I'd like you to watch before you die, Y/N." Luke looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was still holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appétit."

"No!" Y/N shouted.

"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted Annabeth and Grover and bared his teeth. That's when all Hades broke loose.

Splash!

Percy jumped into the swimming pool. He created a funnel cloud, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face.

Whish!

A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he crumpled to the deck.

"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Beach.

For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins' bodies dissolve into smoke.

Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

Y/N's mind had trouble processing everything he saw. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number 1. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.

They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned. Y/N couldn't tell whether they had come to celebrate or attack.

Apparently both. As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.

His warriors scattered. You couldn't blame them. Facing hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.

"Come get some!" one of the party ponies yelled.

They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall.

Chiron galloped toward Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back.

Y/N tried to get up, but his wounded leg felt like it was pain itself.