Chapter 15 Hot springs meeting and a festival mess up.

"Thank you for the pleasant time you two. And good luck with your time of having another little one." Naja thanked the couple, who had offered her some breakfast company. They also happened to be pegasus, Dusty Wing, and minotaur, Tauron, who had helped in reclaiming marilith's blades.
Now they had a nice house and few kids too, and where trying for another one.

"Oh we sure do try." Dusty said, while giving Tauron a seductive sideways glance, clearly being the more friskier one of the two. Tauron looked a little bit wary about the tone she used. The kind of tone that hinted about a looooooong night alone, when the three previous kids where staying at their grandparents for a little while.

"Well, have fun with that then. See ya." Naja said politely, and started to slither somewhere else, leaving pegasus to half-forcibly drag her minotaur husband in the house.

Marilith took in the sights of Tanah kahijian, receiving several greetings on the way, finally slithering her way to Heras home, finding her just coming out of the house.
"Ah, miss Naja. I was just about to come and get you. I thought that it would do us good to relax at the hot springs spa, while I also tell you few thing's about the upcoming festival this evening."

"Oh, well that's quite convenient. I was starting to feel a little stiff in my back, and I mean ALL of it. My tail may get plenty of movement, but with six arms... It's gonna feel like murder in there, with all the possible knots."

"Great. I can tell more about the festival while you get your back some massage. Good thing they have sometimes a really big customers there every now and then."

Tanah kahijian, near the council building.

"Wow... This is very fascinating architecture all around here." Twilight gushed, while looking at the buildings around her. Rest of her friends were with her, sans Pinkie and Spike, who had went back at the 'Kirin's Treat's' restaurant to try and attempt getting a rematch against the special there... Spike went mostly to watch just in case something happened.

"Yes Twilight, we can all see that." Rarity commented calmly, while being fascinated by the local fashion.

"Hey, did those folk there just spit on that sectioned off inset on the street?" Rainbow pointed out, making others look as well.

There indeed was an inset on the street, with a small, around ankle height, fence-like structure around it, and locals seemed to all walk or fly around it, many of them spitting in it, with such an attitude like they all collectively hated it for some reason.

"I dunno. But there seems to be a plaque there." Applejack pointed out, noticing a metal plaque at the small fencing.
It did not take long for them to walk for a closer look. The plaque red "Here died the Archbishop Zealous Soul. May he forever burn and suffer for his crimes". Now that they where closer to the inset, they also noticed that it stunk a little, like the spot was not cleaned of all the spit for a long time if ever for some reason.

"Wow... Whoever that bishop guy was, he sure was hated I bet, if he died here and everyone just spits on the grave." Rainbow said. And after a moment of thinking, she hacked up a bit and proceeded to spit in there too.

"No worries about being offensive about that spot. That Archbishop was a total racist, pony-supremacy nutcase, who was eventually barely even missed, if even that." a passing griffin commented, apparently having heard their exchange, before spitting at the inset as well.

"So... Is his body somewhere else then?" Twilight tried asking, trying to understand a bit. She did somewhat understand the hate towards the pony in question, and think'd it got transferred to the dying too.

"Nope. He died on that spot, crushed to death and remains pretty much flash-burned to ashes on that spot. So basically, we're all taking a spit on his soul, if he even had one..."

"Oh, Ah think the feller was mentioned in that book I red. And he certainly seemed like a complete looney, who abused his power and family." AJ mentioned. Twilight did not have a counter for that point.
"I might have to read that book you keep mentioning AJ. Sounds like a rather rare one."

"Oh, it is. It's just Granny keeps it well hidden, due to it being 'controversial' or somthing."

"Well we can talk about that later when-" Twilight started while walking, without looking where she was heading. This resulted her hooves hitting the small fencing around the spit filled inset, causing her a rather clumsy tripping... Faceplanting right in the inset, getting plenty of spit all over her fur and mane.

Needles to say, she soon screamed out of disgust for obvious reasons. Even her friends and other passer-by's looked more than a bit iffy about the little accident.

"It's all right Twilight. We can head to the spa to get you cleaned up, then we can relax at the hot springs there." Rarity managed to calm purple alicorn down after they had fished her out from the inset.

"Hi there! I was told by your friend to find you here." someone called out, making them all turn to see Shera and Spike using a wheelbarrow to bring a little ill looking Pinkie back from the restaurant's challenge.

"Hi! So how did the challenge go Pinkie?" Rainbow went to ask, sounding curious.

"I will... Beat it... One day..." was all she could croak out, while weakly shaking her hoof to the sky.

"She tried rushing it, not even making it to the third of the bowl done, I think... Then her tummy registered that it was full." Spike filled in.

"And don't worry. The stomach ache should pass after a half an hour or so. Uncle Dreins brother's, daddy Cid's, favourite tea works wonders to that."

"Nope, he's a big time mechanic and a pilot ex-ordinaire. Which reminds me, he needs my help with something big. So, see ya later!"
With that, Shera left with the wheelbarrow, after helping Pinkie get off of it.

"It's okay, I'm starting feel better. Now let's get going! Whooo!" Pinkie commented, and started bouncing alongside the others in her usual bouncy way. Guess the tea did work well.

Hot springs spa, massage parlor, large creatures section.

"Ooooooooooh, yeeeeeeah... That's the fluffing spot..." Naja moaned out, clearly enjoying the treatment she was receiving on her back. All of it no less.

"That is pleasant to hear Lady Naja. We take great pride in our service, and it is an honor to have you as a patron here." said one of the two minotaur masseuses, working on mariliths humanoid back. The rest of her was worked by a group of ponies, using their hooves to treat the muscles rather nicely. They had plenty of experience in this, having done this for some other large creatures before.
Hera was following this from the side, already having her massage already done.

"In fact yes, miss Hera. Just have to get this one portion... DONE!" masseuse said, then proceeded to make some moves, that caused an audible crack in marilith's back muscles. Alongside with a small grunt of pain, followed by a pleased purring-like sound.

"Ifrit's horns... I had no idea my back was this much in knots. You sure as heck have my thanks for the treatment." Naja said, after coming down from the relief-high.

"Yes indeed. They are almost the same as they where before your departure. You still might need a little help there. Mostly to wash a bit before entering."

Hot springs, Co-Ed area.

"Wow, these are huge!" Rainbow commented when seeing the springs, others also looking amazed.

"Indeed they are. Now please proceed to wash up before entering them. It's the rule." they where told by the worker. "And remember, these are for relaxing, not swimming. I hope that is clear, miss Pinkie?"

With that, all six mares started with their washing, alongside of few other patrons either coming or leaving the area.
"These springs sure look relaxing spot." came Spikes voice among them.

"SPIKE! What are you doing here?" Rarity called out, sounding little startled, while covering herself.

"Uuh... This is a Co-Ed area, so I'm allowed here." he answered nonchalantly, while pointing at the sign, which red "Co-Ed" in big letters. "And like I think AJ once said, you lot don't normally wear clothes?" he added, while Applejack nodded.
"Oh, right..." white unicorn said, sounding a bit embarrassed.

After that little thing was settled, all seven of them entered the springs proper, found good spot to relax together. Twiligh and Rarity sat on the good spot to lean against the warm natural stone-wall, which led to the higher part of the springs, which was usually given to bigger patrons. The rest of them found a spot right opposite of them.

"Say Rainbow. I'm a bit surprised you would be ok of being here. Aren't you too cool for that?" Spike asked, while getting comfy.

"Weeeell... I still need to take care of my wing's. Sometimes they just need a bit more than the usual preening to keep in shape. It's a pegasus thing." cyan pegasus answered, trying to sound convincing.

All of them took their time relaxing, letting the spring work it's magic so to speak. This was slightly interrupted by a spa worker talking to someone in the upper-pool of the spring, sounding like she was giving directions to someone.
"This way miss. Easy with your mass, we don't want to cause too much spillage here. No offence..."

"None taken. I'm perfectly comfortable with my figure." came another voice, that sounded somewhat familiar to Twilight, but was a little bit dimmed by the relaxing warmth of the spring.
This was soon followed by a steady stream of warm to hot'ish water from the upper spring, right down on top of Twilight and Rarity, breaking them out of their relaxation with a startled scream. Especially loud screaming came from Rarity.

"Sorry, my tail is rather large and it's displacing a surprising amounts of water."

"Oh it's not that big of a deal We just got..." Twilight started, lightly yelling over Rarity's screaming, that luckily was quieting down, until she saw who had arrived on the upper spring. A huge humanoid, with six arms and a massive looking purple serpentine tail. And the creature looked very familiar, despite only having a large towel and a choker on.
"You... It's you... YOU LEFT BEFORE ANSWERING MY QUESTIONS!!... Naja, right?"

"That's my name. And yes, I did move my ample frame away from your question-based threat. It was just a self-preservation-instinct."

"That sounds about right." Rainbow piped in, while taking in a look of the marilith in po-... person, trying to rate her awesomeness percent.

"WHAT?! My questionnaires don't cause a self-preservation-instinct on any-...body."

"I dunno... You did kinda drove off those few ponies a while ago, after asking them over two hundred questions." Spike mentioned.

"Well I'm going ask at least some questions, right now!" Twilight said, sounding really determined, even preparing to summon her quill and parchment.

"Uh, miss. We do not allow questionnaires in the spring or the spa, in case you missed the sign over there." spa worker informed them, while pointing at the sign, saying the following:

'No swimming in the spring, rough housing, horse play, rough play, horse housing, magical horn blasts, item summoning, hanky-panky stuff in present of a minor's, overly aggressive flying, physical/mental/magical violence or questionnaires of any kind to other patrons, even if there is an emergency, police arrest, the end of the world or a burning desire for knowledge going on.
Mentioned thing's may be changed on a whim of the management.'

"Quieter, please. Otherwise loud yelling might get added to the list. You can converse normally if you like."

"...Ok, we don't yell or do questionnaires" Twilight finally complied, a little sad that there where no question-list's to be had here.

There was a bit of an awkward silence between Naja and the elements and Spike, only broken by the sound of water flowing when marilith took a more comfortable position, leaning on her stomach, upper torso leaning on the edge of the upper pool of the springs, leaving the towel on the side.
"So? Here we are. Relaxing, while naked, in the waters of the hot spring, that was here when I started living around these parts. So how are ya liking the place?" Naja started, while moving her tail a little bit, causing some water to spill right on top of Rarity. Although not as much when entering.

"It has been nice, if not counting you spilling water on us, accidental or otherwise, no offence." Rarity said, trying to fix her mane.

"Hey, girly, you try move a around with a huge about two ton'ish tail without causing some level of unintentional mishap." was mariliths counter.

"Just so you know, maybe around three percent or so of my weight is in form of a healthy fat. The rest is muscle, plus the necessary intestines. So this baby here is quite a crusher." Naja said, also giving a few pats on her tail. This revealed a barely visible scar tissue on one of her arms, which got noticed by Rainbow.

"Hey, how you got that scar on your arm? The upper... Left one." she said pointing at it.

"Oh, that? Did not even notice that. Well to answer that, it's just an harpoon wound. Probably it mostly healed on its own during my thousand year hibernation."

"So you really are from over thousand years ago? I thought you descendant of the sketched one in the book." Twilight managed to pipe in, remembering the book they found before the trip.
"It was written and sketched by the Starswirl himself too."

"Oh? Who was he? Only one who seemingly studied me, was the first pony I ever met. Or rather saw, thanks to stick snap, and then lifted by the tail to have a closer look."

"I guess. I did not really ask him, partially because I could not talk. That would require this choker, which I didn't have at that specific time.. And before you ask, it allows me to speak common language, and NO, you absolutely cannot study it or anything similar... Ever..." Naja said while pointing at the said choker on her neck, and proceeded to give purple alicorn a warning, with a "touch it and they'll never find your body"- leer.
This made Twilight go sheepishly silent, even sinking down in the water, down to her nose.

"Why thank you... What is your name?" marilith asked, not having heard most of the groups name before leaving Ponyville.

"Oh, I'm Fluttershy. These are Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Spike." shy pegasus introduced herself and her friends, pointing them all in turn. She must have had a sudden bout of bravery of sort. Or maybe it was the casual setting they where in.

"Pleasure to meet you. Even thought I did meet three of you earlier. Which reminds me, Pinkie? Keep that party you have planned on me still in the stand-by-phase, if you could, please? I have some things taking up my schedule quite full."

"No problemo. It just lets me fine-tune it more. Already have measured ingredients for a proper muffin size for you. And Derpy helped out a lot in that too. She knows a LOOOOT more about muffins than me..." pink party pony said with a polite salute, proceeding to half whisper the part about having help from this muffin-loving pony.

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to turn on my back for a bit. It's not always as easy as you might think." Naja warned, before starting to turn her whole body on its back. This caused once again little bit of water spillage, and once more Raritys mane got some of it on it. This time the fashionable unicorn managed to not scream out.

"So about that arm scar. How did it come from a harpoon? Was it from some battle or just a fishing mishap?" Rainbow asked, wanting to continue her earlier question.

"Simply put, a mercenary who was geared towards trapping larger creatures, with a harpoon cannon. And there where many more of them present at the same time too. Only this injury gave the rest of them an opening to bind me. And would you move too much if you have a sharp piece of metal, say in your wing, risking even worse injury?" marilith queried, while lazily spilling some water on her body.

"... No, I probably would not..." the cyan pegasus answered carefully, tugging her wing a bit closer, as if to make sure they where safe.

"Why where they after you? You seem so nice." Fluttershy asked, fluttering next to Naja. This received her a gentle pat on her head from Naja.

"Well, a thousand years ago, I was pretty scary sight to many ponies. Admit it, your kind are kind of a skittish lot. Unless you had lot of confidence, skill with the horn-beams, weapons and a team or an army behind you, to face off with a creature like me. Times where different back then, that much should be obvious."

"Yeah, they sure where. I red some stuff about it. There was no mention of ya though, or anything like ya." AJ joined in the conversation.

"Not surprised. Most in power probably would not want to remember their losses or something like that. Now, I think this is enough soaking for me." Naja said, and started to get up from the spring, causing yet again some spillage, even hitting Raritys mane again.

"Wait. Who sent or hired those mercenaries? If you know who that is..." Twilight finally got up again, asking out of normal curiosity.

"Why the Princess of Equestria of course. She seemed to hold a grudge against me back then, considering she cut my face with a halberd, leaving behind this mark on my face, tried to burn me alive and petrify me, before just locking me up somewhere. Luckily for me, my blades swallowed up the flames, attempted petrification did not work on me and I just hibernated my time in the slammer." Naja answered in a rather nonchalant tone, while drying herself up with the given giant towel, and just left the springs.
She did leave jaw-dropped purple alicorn behind, with her friends, who where also rather surprised about the answer.

Evening, Tanah kahijian main street, start of the Festival...

The streets where packed full of small booths of many sort and creatures, waiting for the festival to begin. Among them where Twilight, her friends and Spike.

"Twi? are you still stressed about what miss Naja said? About Celestia, I think, holding a grudge against her?" Spike asked in a worried tone.

"A little bit, yes. Though there is a chance she was talking about a different princess. I mean there have been few unnamed royals who did things in those days. Right?" Twilight said, not sounding that convinced about her own words.

Twilight could only nod to that, before the local festival seemed to start. They saw a large wheeled construct, carrying what looked like a rather badly made wooden lookalike of Celestia, which stopped in the open square.
"Huh... I thought the locals had sour relations with Equestria. Why would they have have a festival with her image in it?" Rainbow wondered aloud. Twilight was also getting confused by this point. These thoughts where interrupted by starting speech from a white hippogriff, wearing a sash with round gems on it.

"Greetings everyone! It is good to see so many present here, despite the recent passing of our eldest... But we must also keep looking forward, if we wish to keep up our shared independence, which was tested on this date... Or a day close to this one, due to a calendar system change at some point during the last millenia... We still decided to keep up with this little tradition, which was partially in a way started by our late eldest." the hippogriff spoke out to the crowd, receiving some applauds from them.
"And now, we even have one the original locals present here. Whom many of you have already seen, but lets give a small applause to Lady Naja."

As if on cue, marilith slithered between two buildings, giving a polite wave to the applauding crowd, while having several of the local kids riding on her tail, having a basket full of visibly overripe mangoes. She stopped right in front of the 'woodlestia'.
"And now, let us start this little event. Kids, if you'd like to begin..."

The little ones gave hippogriff an enthusiastic nod and picked up a mango each... And then proceeded to throw them right at the wooden Celestia-lookalike.
"Oh... Well that explains it." Rainbow commented, rest of them nodding lightly. Twilight on the other hand was very wide-eyed at the sight. Especially when one mango splatted right on the cheek of the wooden lookalike of her mentor, thrown by a thestral filly.
The cheek shot seemed to activate some built-in mechanism, that caused a small flag to rise up in the wooden constructs back part.

"And we have a winning shot!" the sash wearing hippogriff called out, along with few applauds. Twilight wished that this was the only thing this festival. If something more would happen, she just might-.
"Now bring out the torch!"

With this, few creatures brought a rather nice looking torch and gave to the bat winged filly, who looked very excited.
"Lady Naja. Would you do the honors?"

With those words, marilith conjured a small flame between her hands and offered it towards the filly, who proceeded to use it light up the torch.
Next thing Twilight saw, really set her off. The filly set the wooden Celestia on fire! And looked happy, along with all of the locals.

"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!!!" Twilight yelled very loudly, while starting to cast a spell. Specifically a rain-summoning spell and proceeded to put out the fire.

"WHAT IS THIS?! AS THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP I TELL YOU TO STOP THIS BURNING THING!! ITS OFFENSIVE TOWARDS MY MENTOR!!!"

Twilight took a moment to look around, and indeed, EVERY creature was staring at her, looking angry in many ways. While turning, she came face to face with the sash wearing hippogriff, who looked absolutely furious.

"SILENCE!!" hippogriff interrupted loudly, causing Twilights spell to fizzle out almost instantly, even putting out light in purple alicorns horn.

"I am the Head Sage of The Materia keepers, Hera. And I would like you to STOP interfering with our home towns traditions, which my family line partially started, which is to remind us of our founders burning desire of being independent from alicorn's rule." Hera introduced herself, while casting another magic from the materia on her sash, causing purple alicorn to freeze still like her very time was paused, leaving only her eyes able to move.
"Don't worry, it will wear off in few minutes or so. But I'm afraid I have to send you away from our towns for this offence. And it might just include the rest of you, due to you nationality. I can tell that the all seven of you are from Equestria."

"Y-yes... Can we just get our luggage from the hotel?" Rarity managed to ask politely, while looking rather nervous from all of the stares.

"You may. And there should be a carriage ready to take you to the Equestrian side of the border. Hopefully anyone does not have anything against this?" Hera called out to the crowd, receiving few head shakes. Even from Naja, who looked mostly disappointed on the equestrian group.

It did not take long for the six ponies, one of them still in time-stopped state, and one young dragon to head back to the hotel, gather their luggage, which was partially shoved at them, and head to the carriage station.

Spike turned around to see a familiar kirin, Shera, running towards them, carrying something.
"I just wanted to bring you this." Shera said while giving him a little package, that smelled good. Some homemade snacks for the road.

"It's ok. It was not your fault. I hope you can come visit again sometimes. And remember to try some fish, or some meats if possible. It should help with your growth." she said while giving Spike a friendly hug, before leaving either back to the festival or the restaurant.

"...Let's get going. We don't want any more troubles, right?" Spike asked, receiving nods from the rest, sans still time-stopped Twilight.
Soon they where on their way back home, with more than several questions in their minds...

"I just wish that the invite is accepted this time... I truly wish to talk with her..."

"We can only hope sister... She has denied at least thirty or so of those invites."

Serpent of the south

by J-90

Chapter 15 Hot springs meeting and a festival mess up.