The Nature of a Demigod

Unusual Reinforcements

A new blast of horns shattered the night. The air shimmered. In a blur of movement, an entire cavalry appeared as if dropping out of light speed. "Yeah, baby!" a voice wailed. "PARTY!"

A shower of arrows arced over our heads and slammed into the enemy, vaporizing hundreds of demons. But these weren't regular arrows. They made whizzy sounds as they flew, like, WHEEEE!

Some had pinwheels attached to them. Others had boxing gloves rather than points. "Centaurs!" Annabeth yelled.

The Party Pony army exploded into our midst in a riot of colors: tie-dyed shirts, rainbow Afro wigs, oversize sunglasses, and war-painted faces. Some had slogans scrawled across their flanks like HORSEZ PWN or KRONOS SUX.

Hundreds of them filled the entire block. My brain couldn't process everything I saw, but I knew if I were the enemy, I'd be running. "Percy!" Chiron shouted across the sea of wild centaurs. He was dressed in armor from the waist up, his bow in his hand, and he was grinning in satisfaction.

"Sorry we're late!"

"DUDE!" Another centaur yelled. "Talk later. WASTE MONSTERS NOW!"

He locked and loaded a double-barrel paint gun and blasted an enemy hellhound bright pink. The paint must've been mixed with Celestial bronze dust or something, because as soon as it splattered the hellhound, the monster yelped and dissolved into a pink-and-black puddle.

"PARTY PONIES.'" a centaur yelled. "SOUTH FLORIDA!" Somewhere across the battlefield, a twangy voice yelled back, "HEART OF TEXAS CHAPTER!"

"HAWAII OWNS YOUR FACES!" a third one shouted. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The entire Titan army turned and fled, pushed back by a flood of paintballs, arrows, swords, and NERF baseball bats. The centaurs trampled everything in their path.

"Stop running, you fools!" Kronos yelled. "Stand and- ACKK!" That last part was because Y/N dove off the Pegasus and tackled Kronos out of the chariot. He stumbled to his feet and stood over the lord of time, glaring down at him with more disgust than I think I'd ever seen him manage.

Suddenly, a panicked Hyperborean giant stumbled backward and sat on top of the lord of time. Y/N dove out of the way as Kronos disappeared under a giant blue butt. We pushed them for several blocks until Chiron yelled, "HOLD! On your promise, HOLD!"

It wasn't easy, but eventually the order got relayed up and down the ranks of centaurs, and they started to pull back, letting the enemy flee. "Chiron's smart," Annabeth said, wiping the sweat off her face. "If we pursue, we'll get too spread out. We need to regroup."

"But the enemy-"

"They're not defeated," she agreed. "But the dawn is coming. At least we've bought some time." I didn't like pulling back, but I knew she was right. I watched as the last of the telekhines scuttled toward the East River. Then reluctantly I turned and headed back toward the Empire State Building.

[Y/N's POV]

Zoe and I finally returned to the others. As a unit, we set up a two block perimeter, with the command tent at the Empire state building, obviously. Chiron informed us that the Party Ponies had sent chapters from almost every state in the Union: forty from California, two from Rhode Island, thirty from Illinois.

Roughly five hundred total had answered his call, but even with that many, we couldn't defend more than a few blocks. "Dude," said a centaur named Larry. His T-shirt identified him as BIG CHIEF UBER GUY, NEW MEXICO CHAPTER. "That was more fun than our last convention in Vegas!"