"Huh" Astral mummured disbelievingly. "Didn't see that one coming."
The 'that one' in question was, in fact, a sphinx. A baby sphinx.
Just . . . laying in the middle of the Everfree, glaring up at Astral like she had just woken it up from a nap.
"Huh" Astral repeated, bending low to examine it.
She had heard of Sphinxs before, when Rainbow and Pinkie told her about Somnambula and the Sphinx she had faced. In the legend, the Sphinx was giant and purple, with strange markings under her eyes and a crown on her head.
According to Discord, those markings meant that that Sphinx had actually been blessed by Ray, the God of Light. "Maybe Ray-Bae wanted her to protect something" he had shrugged carelessly, "a Sphinx's job is to guard treasures after all, and sice they are immortal, they're basically the best bodyguards you can get. I prefer to go the personal route, turn someone into a bannana, make them hear the Nyan Cat song on loop, you know, drive them crazy."
But even the myths agreed that Sphinxs were powerful, perceptive creatures that should not be trifled with.
This Spinx did not look like an immortal, powerful being. It actually looked kind of pathetic. It's silvery blue hair hung in curls around it's face, while it's pale grey coat looked thin and raggedy. The only sign of some sort of intelligence was it's pale yellow eyes, which stared up at Astral, curious.
Where was this things mother? Astral looked around, but there seemed to be no sign of it anywhere. Actually, it looked like she hadn't been here in a long time, the baby Sphinx looked terrible, all things considered. No mother would allow their child to look like that.
Still, it's not any of my business, she reminded herself, starting to back away. Gods know how this thing got here, but I can't do anything anyways. She slowed down slightly, but shook herself, and purposefully turned her back on the creature. It's best to let mother nature do her thing. It would only hurt it in the long run if I tried to keep it alive.
Overhead, she heard the very familiar sound of vultures.
"Oh fuck no!" She said, spinning around just in time to blast one of the annoying creatures out of the sky. Surprised, the Sphinx let out a squeak as it pushed itself as far back as it could go.
Astral bent down to it's level, and carefully picked it up by the scruff.
I slaughtered five creatures last loop. This is just . . . making up for it.
Kids were the absolute worst.
Astral wasn't sure how her parents survived it, she had just set down the beast for two seconds, and it was already stumbling towards the river, little paws unsteady.
And when Astral had saved it's life, it just mewled, and batted said little paws against the Unicorn's chest.
Did she happen to mention that said little paws have some not so little claws?
The beast let out a little high pitched squeal that actually hurt Astral's ears and made her want to teleport the thing as far away from her as possible.
Oh wow, would you look at that? Her headache had returned! Rejoice!
"I- is it- do you eat fish?" Astral asked, finally realizing what the brat was whinging about. "You're hungry! Right, right. Okay, well wait here and-"
Except that it decided that even though it was hungry, it also didn't want her to leave, so it let out the most ear piercing shriek that Astral had ever heard, and she had heard some shrieks in her life.
She stared down blankly at the tantrum child, before muttering "okay kid, it seems we're at an impasse."
The beast smiled.
Let it not be said that I didn't know how to multitask, she thought, smug as she watched the brat nibble on some fish. Thank Gods for magic. Had she not have been able to levitate a fish out of the water and snap it's neck, then there was no way the brat would be getting fed tonight.
Speaking of which, now that the brat was apparently full, it had decided to focus all it's attention on Astral's unicorn tail. She supposed it did look a bit like Sphinx tails, being long and thin with fluff at the tip, but it shouldn't be that fascinating.
Still, a petty part of her did admit to feeling incredibly amused by swiping her tail out of the way of the brats oncoming paws. Again, she had to wonder what a Sphinx, a creature native to hot, desert areas, was doing in a lush green forest without parents.
It occurred to her that maybe the brat was wondering the same thing about her.
The brat was a girl, which, of course she was.
Astral wondered how her mom would react when she saw her. Twilight had always been fascinated by Sphinxs and their close relationships to the Gods. "Some even say they can sense them!" She had told her daughter.
Most Sphinxes that had a special relationships with Gods seemed to have markings on them. The brat did not have any. The only change to her coat was the lighter grey muzzle and stomach and the blue wings.
Her mood, on the other hand, changed all the time. She went from somewhat complacent to downright unruly halfway back to Ponyville.
Astral knew you were not supposed to teleport newborns, but she was severely tempted when the brat kept chewing on her ears with a needle sharp teeth.
Once more she swung her head around to glare at the creature, only for the creature to-to dribble.
"Have mercy on me, please."
She was suddenly, consciously aware, of the fact that this was the last day of the loop.
Her last day with the brat.
She rolled a papaya fruit out to her, and watched as she tried to attack it, only to fail and roll onto her back and stare up at the moon that was almost directly overhead.
Astral shut her eyes, and when she opened them again, the brat was gone.
Inexplicably, her eyes started to fill with tears.
The stupid, stupid kid.
Astral started to cry.