-Outside the prisoner pyramid, Jade-
“Nice to meet you Baast and thank you for agreeing to meet with me outside by yourself.” Hearing her name, I already knew this was a goddess I was talking to. She was Sekhet’s sister Bastet and she was currently in the middle of a war that I’d help see an end to, but first we needed to haggle. “As I told Sandy, I am Jaded La Perm, just call me Jade. In any case, the first thing you can do is ensure at least some food and water for me as long as the war effort is going on. I don’t exactly do well in deserts.”
Being stuck in a desert for what amounts to the past five years for me outside of time and space being the major reason for that.
“I will easily accept that.” Baast stated with a nod. “What more though? That can’t be all you would ask for.”
“You are right, I would also ask that you help me get home to where I belong. Tell me, do you have enough magic as you are currently to create a visual representation of the planet or world?” I received a curious gaze from Baast. “You may be running around in a mortal form, but don’t insult my intelligence Bastet.”
She narrowed her eyes at me immediately.
“So you know… please, as I am, call me Baast.” Nodding to Baast, I looked about to make sure no flail-tail or jackal was nearby listening to our conversation. Baast was also doing the same thing. “Yes, I can create a representation of the world as it currently is, but I would like for you to keep the truth about me a secret. I will also see to helping you get home if you aid me, my anugyptian felines need all the help they can get.”
“Can do.” The goddess wasn’t asking for much from me here yet, but our negotiations just jumped a level in tenseness because I knew who Baast truly was. She quickly created a magical representation of the world and I had her zoom in on two spots, where Canterlot and Airship Mauled would eventually be. Nothing was in either spot, no ruins either. Since nothing was in either spot, either I was in the distant future or the more likely thing, the far distant past given the lack of ruins in both locations. “It seems like you’ll have your work cut out for you if you want to get me home alive.”
“Why… because you’re from the future?” Baast stated as she looked me over. “It will be troublesome, but if you can do this great task for me, then I can work out a nice boon for you. Tell me is Chaos, or more importantly, a being named Discord the reason you are here?”
“No, I came here after I was knocked outside of time and space by someone trying to kill me. As you can tell oh great and beautiful one, that didn’t stick in the slightest.” I shook my head as I recalled what she just asked me. “Did you say Chaos as in…? Let me guess, Discord’s going around looking like a winged blue cat with a scraggly black beard and a smooth speaking tone for a chaotic nuisance?”
“He’s not a chaotic nuisance… he’s a wonderful deity that I want to spend more ‘quality’ time with.” Baast swooned as flopped onto her belly while putting her paws under chin, she looked quite smitten with the idea of spending more time with Discord. “He’s quite handsome as an anugyptian sphinx and he prevents the stagnation of this world, he’s quite dreamy.”
“Sure, whatever you say Baast, something tells me I will run afoul of him eventually being another mortal he can mess with as much as he wants.” I would be correct in that statement, but it wouldn’t happen until long after I was done helping Baast out with King Anubis.
-Break-
“To be fair, I’m holding up my end of the deal we struck, but that’s for later as I’m sure you’ve already told everyone. Oh, you haven’t… my bad then.” Discord stated and everyone else jumped back from him suddenly being among us, Jade just gave Discord a flat look as she drinks some fruit juice. “Oh don’t worry, I won’t do anything. There’s already enough chaos here as it is. You don’t actually need me to push things along and besides… we still have a deal Jaded and I am keeping my word to my name. To the very letter of it even.”
Several letters spelled Discord’s name appeared in the air and then they started to bounce around crazily for a bit before disappearing.
“Discord, so nice to see you again.” Baast grinned at the Draconequus. Discord immediately went ramrod straight, wide eyed and paled to the point of turning several degrees whiter when he felt the velvety soft fur of Baast pressing against his chest. “How has the last few thousand years been for you? I’ve just been freed up from my obligations and it would be so nice to hear how you’ve been lately.”
“Been stuck as a statue for the last thousand years or so, it’s been quite boring.” Now Discord was sweating a bit even as Baast snuggled up against him even more affectionately. “I might have went a little overboard with my chaos.”
“Oh my poor big baby, so what was this about a deal you made with Jade?” Baast sounded more focused as stared Discord down. “She has a tendency to get the better of everyone if left even a little room to plan for things.”
“As I said, I’ll be around to help explain that later. Though suffice it to say, I was quite angry that she not only got something over me not once, not twice, but eleven times within the span of three years.” Discord glared at Jade, all she did was smirk at him. “Now continue you’re story, you have my word that I’m not about to do anything problematic around here… but Veles never promised not to bother you and we’re like old friends that only talk once every hundred thousand years or so.”
“Did someone call for a pizza delivery?” Veles stated as he walked in with a taco restaurant uniform. His distorted dragon form had a head at the end of one of his front legs, his butt on his opposing back leg and the rest of his body was hard to look at. It was confusingly off putting with how it was put together. He was carrying a Chineigh takeout bag with his tail where his neck should be.
“I could take him.” Jade stated confidently. “But he’s already taken with Grace.”
“Dating a god… wow Grace, you’ve certainly moved up in the world without me or Callie.” Maggie lightly tapped Grace’s chest with an elbow.
“I wouldn’t call what we are doing dating, but he’s a nice enough guy that dating him would be fun.” Grace answered with a friendly smile.
“Next Friday at five?” Veles suddenly stated with his complete attention on Grace.
“Make it seven, I’m doing something until six thirty that day.” Grace said with a friendly smile.
“Okay, woohoo, I’ll be right on by at three!” Veles disappeared with a loud pop.
“Yes, how quaint, still as confused as ever and a thing for lovely dairy cows a mile wide. I can’t say he’s made a poor choice in bovine beauties either.” Discord muttered, he was trying and failing to ignore Baast licking his cheek affectionately. “Okay back to your story, I believe you were finishing up negotiations with Baast here and she was going to tell you about the city of the moon being the final goal to defeating Anubis.”
“Aww, you were watching me…” Baast purred out as snuggled against Discord and looked to Fluttershy with a grin. That grin soon fell when Fluttershy didn’t seem jealous of her getting affectionate with Discord in the slightest.
“Is anyone else disturbed that there’s a crazy confused god wanting to date my aunt, is it just me that feels upset about this?” Arizona looked fairly annoyed and Maggie slowly put a hoof around her back.
“Look Zone, don’t worry about it… Grace can take care of herself, even if she gets herself into trouble far more often than any cow has a right to.” Maggie tried to sooth her daughter’s worries, it clearly wasn’t working. “It was what always made bounty hunting fun when she finds the targets we were after before Callie or I could.”
“Maggie… do you suppose I’m still queen of the pirates?” Grace asked calmly. “I ask because I need something odd to wear to my date with Veles and I think I still have my clothes from that time in Turtle Toga.”
“Yeah, I think you’re still Turtle Toga’s queen of the pirates Grace.” Jacky answered that question pretty quickly. Gene was currently dealing with Gavin and getting him to do his wing exercises. “You’re stuck with that title, at least until the pirates can come to an agreement on who to pass it to.”
“Can we get back to my story? Mmm… godly noodles and shrimp… Veles has good taste in food.” Jade slurped up some noodles using a pair of chopsticks from the bag of chineigh food that Veles brought with him.
“I swear you have some unknown power for usually coming out on top of things.” Discord groused out. “When you do it, it is even more annoying than when Twilight Sparkle does it!”
“Eh, call it a ‘special talent’ of mine.” Jade grinned at the mish mash being that was Discord as she chewed on a mouthful of noodles and shrimp.
“Is Discord my dad?” Nefer asked out of the blue.
“If you want him to be sweetie.” Baast had an evil grin on her face as she attached herself to Discord with her claws. “I really don’t have a clue who led to you… to save on your innocence, I’m just going to say you could have a lot of daddies.”
“Excuse me, look at the time, I think I am needed somewhere else. I have to bring chaos to the parts of the world that need it most you know!” Discord disappeared in a quick flash leaving a slightly upset, if still smiling, Baast to fall to the floor.
-End Break-
“Okay so you’ll help me get back to the right time period with my friends and family if I help you out with the war effort.” I looked to Baast as she held out a paw to me. “I’ll make this deal, but I will want more information on where Anubis currently is and what the current state of the war is like. I know you are currently limited in actions, so we mortals will have to pull our own weight won’t we?”
“Yes, I will do everything I can to get you back to your family with the boon I’ll owe you for this if you will become my champion for a temporary amount of time involving this war.” Baast continued to hold her right paw out to me.
“Just so you know, I’m a rogue priestess of the sun. You’re getting the deal of a lifetime here Baast, so don’t squander me or my talents, I want in on any plans you make so that I can tell you where you might go wrong with them.” I reached out and shook her paw, our deal was struck. I’d earn a boon from Bastet the goddess and all I had to do was help end a war, that'll be easier said than done. “No plan survives contact with the enemy, except for when my plans account for what they will do in response.”
“I believe it will be interesting working with you Jade.” Baast stated with a genuine smile, she eventually pulled out a sheet of papyrus and rolled it out on the sand. “We are currently here, Anubis is here in the north at the 'city of the moon'. It’s where the jackals have impenetrable walls and it is fairly hard to assault and where Anubis is concentrating the most of his power. Before we can attack that city, we need to hit several pyramids and other places where my anugyptian felines, the flail-tails as they are called, are being held or forced into slavery.”
“Alright then, let’s get to it, but what about the jackals I set free here? They could join us.” I looked at Baast and she looked a bit reluctant to let the jackals that I freed from possession help us. “Look, you need all the help you can get and if you can get help from the jackals without hurting them too much, then your forces will increase in numbers while dwindling that of your opponents… also did you say ‘city of the moon’?”
“Yes… why? Is there something you know about it?” Baast asked in curiosity. “Some important future knowledge that I should be made aware of?”
“Just something that came to mind… it’s entirely surrounded by walls built on sand right?” Seeing the nod given to me, a slow grin formed on my face. “We’ll need as many flail-tails and jackals as we can free up for something I have planned for when we get there. Also I’m going to need six female felines to train for something important, where do most of your forces come from right now?”
“My current forces and aid comes from Princess Clarity, the beauty of the sands.” Okay, the name that Baast just spoke sounded oddly close to being Rarity. I had a hunch about the six I’d need to gather.
“We’re going to need this Princess Clarity on the front lines then, she is one of the six I’ll need to achieve something incredible. Speaking of Discord bringing stuff from the future, did he bring someone else to the past?” I was quickly informed of the Cutie Mare Crusaders and Fluttershy having some fun history lessons with Discord, given they were brought before Anubis before Baast was to launch a mostly successful attack on his forward base that pushed Anubis back towards the 'city of the moon'. “Interesting… okay, as I said we’re going to need a lot of people to meet us at this ‘city of the moon’ if we’re going to bring it down. We’re also going to need to do so by saving as many jackals and flail-tails as we can.”
“Clarity actually already is on the front lines, she refuses to stay behind where it is safe.” A princess that was actually on the field of battle? Well that was going to be one that I didn’t have to search for. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear that you have need of her.”
“Good, good, tell all your female flail-tails that a priestess needs to train a few of them for one thing, I’ll be picking out some to train my personal way and we’ll go from there. Once we reach this ‘city of the moon’, they’ll be quite ready for what’s to come and will all be close friends.” I planned to throw them into several situations and have them all work together, my first meeting I picked would be with Quiet Voice. If there ever was an ancient form of psychologist, she would be it and I needed that quite badly. “Let’s get to it!”