𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒¹

𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑠

‧̍̊˙· 𓆝.° ｡˚𓆛˚｡ °.𓆞 ·˙‧̍̊

"ONE ON ONE," Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

Astoria watched the tension grow as both she and everyone else around waited for the next move. Luke seemed pretty guarded, and before he could respond, Agrius burst onto the deck with a very familiar pegasus unwillingly following behind.

It was Blackjack.

"Sir!" Agrius called. "You steed is ready!"

"I told you last summer, Percy," Luke said, ignoring the bear-man. "You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," Percy retorted. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

Luke glanced at his men. They were all waiting for him. Even Astoria could see just how fragile his relationship with his comrades were.

"I'll kill you quickly," he finally decided. Luke lifted Backbiter, grinning wickedly.

"Luke," Annabeth said," at least give him a shield."

Astoria blinked at the request. Wasn't she the one that told her that not every fight will be fair?

"Sorry," Annabeth," he said unapologetically. "You bring your own equipment to this party." Luke lunged at almost killed Percy in one try. Thankfully, the sword just grazed the ribs instead of stabbing the chest.

Percy jumped back, and attempted a counterattack to which Luke simply blocked with his shield.

"My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice."

Astoria wanted to intervene. She really did. But something was telling her that this battle was too important to the plot for her to change. So, she just watched as Percy gradually loses his footing against Luke.

"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." Luke gestured to Oreius, who still held Astoria and Annabeth by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon Appetit."

"Hehe! Hehe!" The creature lifted Annabeth and bared his teeth.

Before Astoria knew it, a red-feathered arrow was lodged into Oreius' mouth. With a shocked face, he crumpled to the ground. The girls crawled away from the body before any other monster could attack them

"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He released the reigns on Blackjack, which allowed the pegasus to kick his head and fly away.

Everyone was frozen in utter shock.

Then there was a growing sound of war cries and thumping hooves. A dozen of Chiron's brethren charged out from below.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried in delight.

It was chaos times one-hundred. They were throwing stuff everywhere and their clothes looked as if a unicorn barfed its rainbow magic on it. Luke tried to overcome the party-attacks, but was instead taken out by a flying boxing glove, resulting in him crashing into the pool.

Without a proper leader, the monsters were all over the place trying to defend themselves and losing.

"Come get some!" one the ponies yelled. They pulled out paintball guns and shot everywhere, splashing bright colors onto their targets.

Chiron heroically galloped over towards, Annabeth, Grover, and Astoria, plucking them off the ground and onto his back.

"This is nuts," Astoria uttered in a mix of awe and confusion.

"Maine would've been a lot nicer," Grover gulped, clutching onto the girl for dear life. "No crazy monster parties or ambushes, very nice weather."

"It's too late for that," Annabeth commented.