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// Chapter 1 1/2 If you give a dog a bone. What do you give a cat? 
// Story: A Collaberative Conundrum 
// by Not Professor Kokonoe 
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I yawned loudly stretching out while I thoroughly enjoyed the flexibility that my feline body had. Though I was fairly flexible before, being able to rotate your torso one hundred and eighty degrees as you bend over backwards and pop each individual vertebra was disturbingly satisfying. Though the sounds that were coming out of me were not as embarrassing as they should have been. I then stretched out my wings one at a time taking them through a series of movements similar to how I would stretch out my old body’s arms.

    Figuring that starting up a solid stretching and physical training regime early on would dramatically benefit me in the long run. However, no longer being human and having only a minor understanding of how my new body worked caused a few problems. Though, stretching things I didn’t have and stretching things in ways I couldn’t anymore resulted in pulling a muscle and that happened far too many times to count.

Seeing that I am now a Sphinx of all the possible things that I could have ended up as. Though I’m impossibly grateful for the stroke of luck that landed me in the body of a predator as high up on the food chain as a mythical magical flying cat. But in the back of my head I often complain about the fact that if I wanted to I could see this as one hell of a racist joke. But I digress.

It has been 10 years in this world since I showed up. Or was born… again. I try not to dwell on that as much as possible. Though my mother gave me quite the interesting name which happens to come out of my mouth each time I say my original birth name out loud. Though if I said the name itself it came out no problem which I honestly found quite infuriating. Yet nowhere near as infuriating as my mother found my riddles. The fact that I had a whole world's worth of cultures and innovations to make them out of tend to make them generally unsolvable and since I could be as vague as I wanted to be with the explanation of the answer it was easy to keep my original origins a secret.

To be frank about my new life up to this point was quite interesting once the shock of having it in the first place wore off. Though much to my chagrin my mother noticed that for a newborn I was far to aware and sentient and not the drooling crying mess most should have been. When I think back it ended up being a good thing as she took it for some sort of prophecy sign and I was at least treated with some manner of respect. Well as much respect that a mother would give their newborn child anyway.

Growing up at that time was quite relaxed in comparison to my old life of living in Kaibito. Though the whole single mom aspect that was going on this time around was an interesting touch. I never asked about my sire and she never brought him up so, being the thirty year old adult I was already mentally, I moved on. Till my vocal cords worked properly I talked to her a lot with gestures and charades till I had the fine motor control required to be able to write. Or draw in case of the traditional language of the Sphinx which turned out to be actual Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

It was at this point that I started putting random pieces of what I knew about this world from the designs of the stone building we lived in to the fact it has literally just been me and her and no other living soul together. Even her having the name Sekhmet should have rung a bell sooner but to be fair I was barely out of infancy and my knowledge of Egypt’s first few dynasties   and belief structure was understandably rusty. Though, being referred to as The Lion god of Slaughter, Execution, and Blood Shezmu was a level of edge that predated the very concept of being an autistic edge lord was a weird line to walk on.

It of course took time and as I was growing and no longer an infant but a child and thus old enough to learn and be taught. Much to my dismay and embarrassment because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was taught and trained in the duties expected of the Lord of Blood which involved butchering sinners. I also ended up killing demons in the underworld and prepared them and the unjust alike as food. If I wasn’t already a full grown person mentally I’m quite sure growing up like this would have really fucked me up in the head.

    However it was nice to be able to interact with other beings than just my mother but demons, other hellish spawn, and the damned were not what anyone would call ideal. Especially so when they are generally screaming at me for one reason or another. Aside from them I only interacted with other sphinx and quite few in number as well. But, those who I did interact with claimed to openly worship me as a god among their kind. It was nice to be appreciated for the work I did and the gold and jewels they offered me were well crafted and set. If I can’t be a little vain what kind of god would I appear as to them?

When I was finally developed enough to be considered pre-teen I had slipped up before I could even have realised it. I had spoken out loud around her in English even though the only language I was writing and communicating to her was a weird blend of Demotic and Coptic called Sphinxian. She had looked me dead in the eyes and demanded how that I knew Equestrian and it was at that moment that everything that I learned came into focus.

    Thanks to quick thinking and sheer dumb luck that the magic of the Sphinx could be abused in such a manner I quickly presented her with a riddle. A riddle that I boasted she could never solve but if she did I would explain everything to her complete satisfaction. But if she was not able to get it she would forget everything associated with what she wanted including the want she had. For several tense seconds we were both motionless as I feared that she would descend upon me as the Goddess of Fire and War that she was for daring to defy her. Yet, when she grinned and accepted my terms and challenge I had hope. I was but a child after all, how could I ever outwit a thousands year old goddess at her own game right?

    “Alright… I accept your challenge. But know you this my son Shezmu. Upon my success, and your failure, your existence will be in great peril.” I admit it. With that grin and her confidence and the fact I was basing this all on a gamble I was absolutely terrified. With a gulp I started. “What walks on four l-.” I had cut myself off immediately because if this was Equestria in any capability that I knew from the cartoon minotaurs would count as a correct answer and started over feigning a cough. “What walks on four feet in the morning… two during the day… three in the evening… and none at night?”

    For a short while she pondered my rather simple and, as far as Earth was concerned, well known riddle before she moved to speak but stopped before any sound managed to escape. Her look of contemplation deepened and I mentally sighed in relief already knowing that she just went for the Minotaur card and stopped herself from playing it at the last second. It was also at that moment I knew I had won. But still I knew gloating about an early victory could easily be a death sentence based off what I was doing for a living already.

    When she finally looked up at me her eyes were wide with shock but there was a small smile there as well that looked like it was conveying that parental pride mixed with being bested by the young. Her expression relaxed before she looked my small frame in the eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “I... don’t know.” It was at this a gold light glittered around her head above her ears and she laughed a bit and gave me a sardonic smile, “Before I forget all of this ever happened… what was the answer?”

    I couldn’t have stopped my relieved laughter if I tried falling over onto my back and staring up at the darkened ceiling of the room. There is no way I would ever be able to look her in the eyes as I said this. I would be admitting to a mother that her child was never truly her own after all. “The answer is Man. When humans are born they crawl around on all fours. When they are fully grown they walk about on two feet and when they are old they use a cane and are on three much like Minotaurs. When they are dead they are no longer standing.”

    Placing my paws over my ears and using my magic to shut out all sound. I just laid there for a while thinking about nothing. She was clearly a very wise and smart goddess. She would figure out the hidden meaning quickly. I don’t even want to imagine her being capable of fulfilling the role of a childless mother. Since I died I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to Earth, but still, I guess from now on I’ll be the child she should have had. If only I was a dick instead of an asshole I wouldn't have to deal with caring.

    It has been a few years after that moment and true to the magic of the Sphinx my… mom completely forgot about everything and I never slipped up again. Only based off the prerogative of random chance did I bring up Equestria and other lands that this world my hold claiming a demon spoke of it causing me to be curious about the world at large. I still after all could be called a kid by human, and possibly every sentient race other than dragon, standards. So, being curious about the world at my age would be perfectly acceptable. When Sekhmet mentioned she was wondering when I was finally going to ask I just played momma’s boy card after momma’s boy card saying I loved her and I didn’t want to be too far from her but I was clearly becoming too old to be around her all the time.

    Using it all as a ruse I said that I wanted to explore the world and perform my duties not just here in our lands. If there is so much for me to deal with here alone then surely just taking stock of what the rest of the world had going on would not be a bad thing. Seeing my reasoning as just that and to be honest that was partly true she agreed. It was not like the dead, demons and guilty were going anywhere. After all what was a Sphinx without wisdom and what is wisdom without knowledge.

    In reality I was actually deciding to take up both my role as Shezmu and what I wanted to do before coming here. Because just like the Earth I left behind this world was perfectly fine with stagnation. I was not fine with that at all and being known to the rest of the Sphinx as ‘The one who can see in front’ would mean that being a forward thinker and wanting innovation would not be odd just interesting that I would be doing that faster than my Earthen counterpart. The real question I would be answering is not who I would see as worthy but who I would see as being in my way. It just so happens that what can be gleaned from the show would put pony culture right at the top of that list.