Chapter 7 Sketches and loss of "Royalty".
Two months later...
'Looks like that the ordinary winter season is up now.' Hena thought as she looked across some the horizon, after having flown high enough up in the air to see far. There was some light snowfall coming to the nearby areas, which was probably a relief after a short lived giant blizzard that had reeked of olden magic. That had driven sphinx to seek some answers from the books and other text in her vast library.
It had taken a couple hours and some cross references, but she figured the cause of the storm being made most likely by a spirit called a Windigo, a cold spirit that feeds upon negative emotion to grow stronger and colder, or maybe even a several of them together for the storm to reach that level of magnitude. She also suspected that ponies might have been the source of their power, if it was connected to that meeting of angry pony leaders, but that was mostly just a hunch. She could ask Pyrite, but she probably had returned home by the main road, maybe even with some trading business done too.
'Welp, now to return to keeping watch over the pass. Maybe something interesting just might happen'
With that thought the sphinx began her descent back to her lair in a leisurely glide. As she kept descending, something caught her eye from the direction of Wissen. Looked like somecreature was coming towards her lair for whatever reason. Sphinx kept gliding closer to the movement, finally seeing some golden brown spot moving on the path at a steady pace.
'Well well well. Looks like something is indeed happening today. Let's see if it includes some riddles.'
After stealthily gliding closer, Hena saw that the traveler coming down the path was a certain golden brown griffon, Hermes. And it looked like he was carrying his sketchbook and a compact saddlebag adorned with the symbol of the 'Guardians of Knowledge' with him, and had not noticed her gliding up above him, maybe because of the still significant height she was still gliding in. The griffin lad must have been thinking or focusing on something hard as he did not notice the sphinx approaching him from behind, first by slow gliding and after silently landing by sneaking after him while laying low.
Finally Hermes reached the part of the path where it began to open up for the lair-area of the sphinx. And he still had not noticed that the owner of the lair was sneaking right behind him.
He peered around the currently empty pillared area with some bones, that had survived Henas little power-surge with the blue goat fellow, still remaining here and there, with the sphinx silently mimicking the peering around movement. Was he waiting for something or someone to appear?
"Hmmm... Guess she might still be sleeping..." he thought aloud to himself.
"Who might be sleeping where?" Hena inquired while being almost right next to him in the blind spot of his focused vision.
This was followed by a loud startled squak from Hermes, who even hopped up on top of an nearby stone like a cat who just noticed a cucumber. Hena had to admit her did look kinda adorable when it happened, even smiling warmly at the spooked and pooffed up griffin.
"I see you decided to come back to my pass. Any special reason to it?"
"By the Cardinal Winds, please don't do that! I think my heart almost stopped there..." Hermes exclaimed while trying to catch his breath from the sudden surprise.
"Well if you would have been a bit more vigilant, maybe you would have noticed me gliding down in your direction. Such a lack of attention to your surrounding might get you killed if someone flies in silently above you."
"I'll keep that in mind... And as for my reasons for being here is... To study you..."
This gave Hena a pause, making her tilt her head with one brow raised.
"Study me? And why should I, A: allow that? and B: why did you decide to try that? Oh, and C: WHY?" she asked, sounding more confused than angry.
"Well... I could pay a toll or some kind of a fee for that to you. And I find you a fascinating being to learn about, while even the library's in Wissen don't have much about your kind. Only things we have are mentions about you and a another one in a far southern desert regions. Only the one there is apparently much larger than you. And deep purple"
"I see. So that's what happened to that blood I guess... And as for your request, I have no interest for tolls or treasures all that much for the moment. Despite of me having a pile of things in my lair, it is still just a 'pile' of things, but its my 'pile' to keep... No idea where I was going with that... But still, why should I allow you to study me and how?"
"... I could maybe keep you company? I think you said something like that Lady Pyrite when she mentioned it getting lonely here. And it would just be some sketches of your build, like on your paws and claws, wings, your beautiful eyes-... I-I mean sketches of overall build of your body for safe study!"
Hena was about to say no to lightly tongue tied griffin, but was interrupted by a sudden rumbling of her stomach, reminding her of hunger, basically ruining the air of certain aloof dignity she seemed to have. It also reminded her about her now emptied meat-stash, while making her almost as embarrassed as Hermes probably was right now.
"I also have some extra meat with me. Its dried strips sort, but still tasty." he offered tentatively, taking out a package that did smell good to her, clearly holding said dried meat.
"Hnnnngg... Fine... One hour for sketching, some questions are okay if you come up any and no intrusive touching. Try to touch me and I WILL rip off your tail and make a necklace out of it. Are we clear?" sphinx said, giving in to the request.
"Crystal." Hermes said as he gave the meat package to sphinx, who did not waste much time opening it and digging in.
First minutes went on rather quietly as Hermes started sketching Hena who was currently laying down on her 'altar-spot' with her wings lightly spread, leaving out the meat package she was basically devouring, focusing more on the overall build of her predators body.
As the time flew on, this seemed to cause some focusing issues to Hermes, due to him slowly starting to find sphinxs leonine frame rather attractive, causing few errand lines here and there that he had to quickly erase, accompanied with few quiet annoyed sounding grunts from him.
'Come on Hermes, focus! You're here on purely academic business. Don't let yourself get distracted by her body... Her big, strong, beautiful body that could overwhelm yours with ease- Oh c'mon!! Get a hold of yourself!! At this rate the sketch will get ruined!' he practically screamed internally to himself, erasing yet another errand line. And his shaky wings were not helping his focus.
"Is something wrong? Your claws and wings are visibly shaking." Hena suddenly asked, tilting her head while correcting her glasses a little bit. Hermes could feel his face getting red for some reason, trying to hide it behind his sketchbook.
"No. Nothing's wrong here whatsoever... How much time we have left?"
"I think we're almost done, maybe minute here or there. Do you have any good sketch there?"
Hermes checked the his work, and despite some light smudges on the erased parts it did look enough for some study.
"Oh and while you're still here, I have something for you." Hena said as she got up and headed inside her lair. She soon returned with a page of some sort and gave it to Hermes, who recognized it as his sketch he thought he had lost somewhere.
"If you need some more sketches, I think we can negotiate about it some other time."
"Very well... I see you then I guess. Farewell." Hermes said before leaving back to town, face still lightly hued red. Later he would beat himself over not actually asking at least some academic questions about her.
"Well that was at least some change to my routine... And by the sound of it, its back to work then." sphinx thought aloud as she heard a group coming down the other end of the path.
It turned out to be a group of ten ponies, most of them unicorns. Six of them hornheads and four pegasi. All flyers were wearing armor, and five of the horned ones were in robes of varied quality, fanciest looking bearded one of them having actual little bells on his blue hat and robe. And then there was the fanciest one of them, a light yellow unicorn stallion who was wearing some VERY expensive looking fur-lined cape and a fricking fancy piece of a crown.
"Well aren't you all looking fancy there. And just what might bring you all around my pass?" Hena inquired while adjusting her glasses in a somewhat refined manner.
"Beast, you are addressing the King-regent of unicorns, King Gold. You should be bowing." one of the unicorns called out to her, sounding offended, while the Gold seemed to just nodded in "I am superior to everyone else" kind of way to that. The bearded one looked like hes fighting an urge to hit something when hearing that. He also seemed a little familiar to sphinx.
"Only one I would even consider bowing are my superiors, who are most likely beyond you by a unimaginably wide margin. And I don't bow to prey animals. Well expect when I'm biting down on their throats." was her nonchalant answer, which really seemed to piss of some of the ponies and especially one called Gold. Who actually names their kids after precious metals?
"We don't have to take this kind of behaviour from a beast like you, who just lets anypony pass for pennies or for answering some dumb riddles. I think any of us could answer one right now, as we in a hurry to talk that town beyond this pass to join our growing nation." crowned pony said in an obviously pompous tone. This brought a wicked sort of fang filled smile to sphinx.
"Ah, so you take a riddle at group-rate then?" she asked, receiving confident nod from Gold and few other ponies in the group. "Very well then, if any one of you who answers correctly, you will get to go past me alive." she continued, still smiling wickedly.
"Greedy and pompous,
I grumble and moan!
You know who I am,
I'm the one on the throne...
Who am I?!"
This seemed give a pause to everypony present. Half of them looking confused about the riddle, while the other half looked slightly worried about the riddle, almost like they where actually wary about answering for whatever reason.
"Well? Any idea what that is about?" Gold inquired from his entourage, clearly still baffled about the riddle. He seemed to even have a vein almost popping. Maybe he was thinking harder than usually?
"Just take your time there, I'm not in a hurry. Just don't hurt yourself too badly while thinking your answer." Hena commented nonchalantly, still smiling her fang filled smile. This only seemed to annoy some of the ponies more, especially the regent.
"Starswirl! Do you have any idea of this blasted riddle? You are one the most talented unicorns we have." Gold demanded from the bearded unicorn, who's name mentally reminded sphinx about their earlier meeting.
"Well I do actually... But I'm not quite sure if you want to actually hear it sire..." was his careful answer. This only seemed to make the regent even more angry, causing him to yell at the whole group of ponies, while the sphinx simply watched the whole thing, now looking clearly entertained.
"Does anypony have any smarts here?! How hard is to figure who is greedy and pompous, grumbles and moans and is on the throne?! Who is that?!"
"The king" came an answer from one unicorn mare from the back of the group wearing a rather shabby looking brown cloak. A silence followed her words as the regent was clearly embarrassed of the implications of the answer, along with some of the entourage.
"That is correct. Well done my good lass." Hena said politely. "And who might you be?"
"Clover the Clever..."
"A fitting name I'd say." she continued, before being interrupted by the regent.
"Well then, now that we answered the riddle, let us all continue our trip." he said as he tried to walk past the sphinx, who suddenly put her wing in front of him.
"What?! How dare you?!"
"Toll, Riddle or Combat?"
"But Clover answered your darn riddle already!" Gold yelled.
"indeed. Which means that SHE can go past me." sphinx said as she effortlessly pushed him back, looking at the said mare, who did began to walk past everyone present, looking a bit embarrassed about the whole situation and being center of attention.
"But... But you said that if we answer correctly, we get to pass!" regent Gold kept ranting.
"I said that if any ONE of you answers correctly, they get to pass and you did not bother to correct or inquire tiny details about it. So what will it be now then for the rest of you?" sphinx corrected with some smugness in her voice. The regent now looked like he might pop several veins.
"Starswirl! Do something about this!" he roared, making said bearded unicorn to step closer to the sphinx.
"So now you do have a nicely growing beard. Now what will it be for you this time?" Hena inquired.
"A toll please. We are indeed in a bit of a hurry" was only thing he said as he pulled out a fresh apple, offering it to sphinx, who surprisingly accepted it.
"Thank you. I was thinking of adding some fruity snack to my diet after my previous small meaty snack." she said while taking a hearty bite out of the apple after inspecting it for a short moment.
Following after Starswirl, the rest of the ponies chose to just pay the toll in some way. Around half offered food, while rest offered some coin, and all of them got to go past her. All except the King-regent Gold.
"Sire, just pay the toll to her." Starswirl tried reasoning with the unicorn royalty. Or maybe ex royalty?
"No. I absolutely refuse pay anything to some beast. And since you don't clearly want to have the honor, I just take care of this thing by myself!" royal unicorn ranted, now sounding rather insane with his apparent boast. Was it really that hard for him to just offer a simple toll? Apparently so.
"Ah, combat it is then..." sphinx said, her smile once again turning wicked. She did feel a tiny boost of power coming over her, visibly not changing all that much, seeming to only gain a bit more defined muscles if you really looked her over. The unicorn just kept on with his madness filled boasting
"Yes you freak of nature! I shall take you down for goo-!" he started, only get interrupted by the charging sphinx, who tackled him down on his side, pressing down hard with her claws. The other ponies could only watch on rather horrified as the feline creatures jaws descended on regent Gold's throat hard, silencing any pleads for help. They where either just frozen in place out of fear or something unseen was just stopping them from interfering with the results of regents poor choice.
After tearing at now very dead regents throat open with gusto, sphinx spared a glance at the rest of the ponies present.
"What are still doing here? You can go on now to your business, I have a meal to finish here. Well, I guess you can keep the cape." sphinx said, before picking up the regents now bloodied fancy cloak and psionically floated at the ponies general direction, before returning back to her meal.
Despite having greater numbers compared to the sphinx, the ponies in the end silently decided to just go along with their diplomatic task of trying to negotiate the town Wissen into potentially joining their growing nation if possible, by the request of their newly appointed rulers. One Queen and two princesses.
And so they took their leave while carefully picking up former king-regents bloody cape to take back home to his daughter Platinum, since it was rather unlikely that they would get not much then maybe few bones, and maybe even not those if sphinx decided to go all out on the body. But for now they will just try to get their given diplomatic task done in one way or the other.
"My good diplomats of Equestria. The Council of Wissen have thought over your suggestions at length, and have reached a conclusion. We have decided to decline your offer of being integrated to your nation. Here is your copy of the full list of our reasons, but the main one is our dedication to stay neutral for the sake of preserving knowledge from outside influences. While our community is open for trade, we hope you understand."
"Very well. We will deliver your answer to Queen Faust. She most likely will be understanding, but some of the nobles might try to pressure the royal family to try again in the future."
Now having received the towns answer, the equestrian ponies left by the main road to deliver it. And it most likely would not be the last time their diplomats would be sent to Wissen. Most likely travelling by the main road after the news of former regents death were delivered.