Chapter fifty nine, Times will change: By marching ever forward.
-Airship Mauled, Sekhet-
“Help… me…” I rasped out and tried to poke a paw out of the pile of paperwork crushing me.
“Well, where did you expect all your paperwork to go when you were gone for the last few years?” Fresh stated blandly.
“I think... it all might be sucking the... immortality out of me.” I waggled my left paw helplessly from underneath the weight of a thousand papers.
“Look, you’re the secretary to mayor Kuril, you need to do your backlog of paperwork and I’m not doing it for you. Stop being lazy.” Fresh was definitely a treasonous mare, how dare she call someone of my gloriousness lazy? “Also you’ve been crushed by heavier things Sekhet.”
“Oh what a world, when even the lovely maid won’t lift a hoof to save the beautiful secretary!” She rolled her eyes and walked away from me.
-Three hours later-
Okay, I finished a quarter of the paperwork and was taking an hour break to see if anyone needed anything from me. So far nothing was more urgent than the paperwork and I was beginning to get paranoid that Celestia’s revenge against me was sending a painful amount of bureaucracy my way.
I went to lay on my side outside in the sun to snooze, when I woke up I would be back at it or doing a physical educations class. I would rather be teaching physical education, it is less mind destroying than paperwork was and was actually fun to see mortals grow stronger under my tutelage.
Once my eyes slid close, they’d open to a strikingly familiar voice minutes later.
“Whatever you are doing sphinx, I will make sure that you bother these nice folks no longer!” Wondering if Somnambula and the prince actually had children and I was now being bothered by her ancestor, I slid one eye open to see a familiar face.
She looked good for a thousand year old pony.
“Oh… you… thank you for helping me out all those years ago.” I plainly stated to Somnambula’s face and she blinked in confusion. “You’re a wonderful mortal.”
No clue what she was doing here in Airship Mauled, but Somnambula apparently thought ill of me after our last encounter. I could understand why she might think me horrible, I was actively starving the ponies out until I was freed up from the territory to go do whatever I wanted.
“Wait… why are you thanking me?” Since nobody apparently saw fit to give Somnambula the memo, I might tell her for old time’s sake. “I’m confused.”
“Do you remember the first time we met?” I sat up and looked at her. She still had those dusky grayish blue, almost purple, eyes with the nice eyeliner and her mane was still short and bluntly cut turquoise hair. I kind of wanted to bat the ends of her mane around with one of my paws, at a smaller size of course.
The mare looked good for her age, provided she lived the last thousand years like Celestia has.
“Yes, you kidnapped the prince, asked me a riddle and I answered it correctly.” Somnambula apparently remembered it clearly as if it was yesterday. “Then you disabled my ability to fly and made me keep a blindfold on while I went to rescue him!”
“Yeah and I bet the prince is no longer alive for you to make affectionate gestures toward.” Well I just seemed to upset her on a number of levels with just saying that. “Quick question, how are you still alive mortal?”
“I was taken outside of time and have returned to hear that one of my old foes was bothering this town!” Okay, judging by what Somnambula said, that only meant one thing.
“Celestia put you up to this didn’t she?” It could be the only reason for Somnambula to show up when I was trying to get a nap in.
“Yes, she told me of your cruelty in ingesting a whole towns worth of food!” Okay, that wasn’t a lie, it was just that Somnambula wasn’t told I consumed Celestia’s entire stock of cakes from her cake vault. Which was actually enough cake to feed a whole town and me.
“Yep, all that food came from Celestia’s cake vault, even shared it with the other people that live here.” I didn’t feel like acting threatening at the moment, so I just continued to be lazy in front of Somnambula.
“Oh right, I forgot to thank you for all those cake the other day. Thank you oh might goddess of physical education!” One of the hippogriffs that recently moved in stated with a happy tone, he came to this place after Mount Aris fell.
Flamberge had some good words for our fair town a few years back and the hippogriff remembered them well enough to come here.
“Aren’t you the same goddess of war that consumes the people’s food and ask for tithes in ever increasing amounts until no one could possibly pay them?” Somnambula asked a little confused about a random hippogriff being friendly with me over Cake-A-Palooza celebrations.
“Hey, I can be a teacher too! Also don’t bother with asking for the highest authority in town to boot me out, you’re currently looking at her.” I rolled on to my back and started to ignore her until she planted herself on my nose and glared me in the eyes.
I rolled my eyes at the slightly aggressive mare. I just lifted a paw, gently plucked her headdress off her head and set it to the side. I begin to pet her affectionately, enjoying the feeling of her silky hair beneath my paw as it stroked her.
“Stop… stop that…” She was already blushing as I continued to softly stroke her head, she was an adorable little mortal.
“How about no… your too cute and being falsely aggressive with. That would take too much effort this time.” My words had the poor mare looking confused, but she didn’t bat away my paw gently stroking her head. I soon started going from her head down to her back and tail with each long stroke and the gasps she let out were sweet sounding. “You see, all those years ago there were some things you didn’t know about me personally. I have a very good reason to say thank you and if you wish to know, all you have to is ask about what you missed during our little episode together.”
“What did I… can you please stop that…” Somnambula shivered and whined as I ran a digit in a tight little circle on her back. “I want to know why someone I defeated is thanking me!”
“Do you want me to stop petting you? You’re protesting a little too weakly to be outright saying no to this.” Giggling at the mare’s misfortune to meet me when I’m not under any constraints, I tried to ease off on petting her. “The reason I wanted to thank you is because I owe you for freeing me from being the guardian of that temple.”
“What?” Somnambula said flatly and in confusion.
“It was ever so boring to be cooped up in there, also you wouldn’t have died if you fell into the slime. Sure you’d be humiliated and would have had to answer another riddle, but the bubbling slime pit was mostly for show and not truly lethal. There was no heat in it, just air blowers in the slime to make bubbles.” I was receiving a fairly disturbed stare, which soon became worse because of what I said next. “I took a few baths in it because the slime was actually quite cleansing. I want you to recall something, did you notice the statues in the temple?”
“Yes, what of them?” Somnambula managed ask while panting slightly and my continued gentle ministrations to her tiny squeaking body.
If she didn’t want me to tease her, then she should have left the nice sphinx alone.
“Did you notice anything odd about the statues while I was talking to you?” I was wondering if she had noticed.
“Aside from that fact that their eyes were… you were being watched?” Somnambula seemed mystified as she finally realized that we were performing in front of a live audience at the time.
“They were there to make sure I was fulfilling my duty to the temple, also you ponies settled on the lands close to where I lived and I was there first. At most I thought you’d save me from boredom, the best thing you ever did was free me from the service to that temple.” Seeing the curious gaze, I expanded on what I just said. “You see I was the last standing member of the civilization that owned that temple, you ask me to leave the realm as it was and to never return. Since said realm would no longer exist without me in it and I counted as a member of it…”
“You could have come back at any given time to terrorize us with impunity…” I poked her serious wide eyed form in the belly and it made her giggle. She started swatting at me with a hoof after several more pokes leading to her laughing hysterically on her back, I eventually relented.
“Says a lot about me that I didn’t do that though, I wasn’t exactly attached to my job as gaurdian of the temple. Doing something drastic like kidnapping the prince finally got someone to do something about my captivity.” I stretched out and put my paws behind my head, Somnambula even looked a little sad when I stopped caressing her. “You set me free from my obligations when you legally defeated me in the eyes of my watchers, of course I made things a bit easy for you. I could have put you on a winding pathway, instead I gave you a task where you had to walk a straight line while blindfolded and the princes wasn’t exactly gagged now was he?”
“You failed… on purpose...” Somnambula seemed to be looking at me in a new light now.
“Oh no, I didn’t do it on purpose, the riddle was very real and so was the challenge afterwards. I just did enough to not acquire the ire of my watchers for failing to give out a decent enough challenge, they made sure I did my job properly and everything.” Hey, I wasn’t called on it and history says I was a vile and vicious food grubbing monster, so I just let people believe what they want. I’m not evil, just quirky. “Hope is what set me free that day, the hope that someone like you would come along.”
“I… I have no words… I apologize for my assumptions noble sphinx.” She bowed to me and I just sighed audibly.
“Please, call me Sekhet.” I picked her up and placed her off to the side. After I magically cleaned her headdress, I placed it back on her head. “I don’t mind having more mortal friends.”
“Sekky, if you’re awake, then you’re capable of working on your paperwork!” Fresh announced to me loudly.
“You’re off my friend list for forcing me to do paperwork!” The mare just stared at me harder for saying that, I rolled to my paws and set off to go back to working on it. “See you around Somnambula, I have work to do.”
“You think you know someone, then they turn out to be friendlier than you remember them being after a thousand years have passed.” Turning a smile back at Somnambula for saying that, I waggled my rear end at her and set off for my pyramid leaving a blushing mare behind. “The things in this day and age continue to surprise me…”
Somnambula might have ruined my nap, but it was nice seeing her.
My revenge for a missed nap would be swift Celestia, and in triplicate!
-Some time later, Palicoast, Fizzle-
I stepped off the ship took in a breath of fresh air and looked at the slightly rebuilt town.
“The Storm King is dead!” That caused some relief for quite a few of the wary Abyssinians who saw a single foreboding airship land at their town. “I am here to make amends and wish to help whoever has need of it, I promise you I will leave if asked to. I just want to make up for the things that that tyrant did and the Storm Creatures are no longer a threat or your enemy!”
“Can you give me a lift to Equestria for free?” I looked to see an Abyssinian holding a little white griffon cub, her fur was dark blue with a starry pattern of white dots that shifted with each movement. She was fairly nice looking and was wearing a magical amulet. “Also if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, how did the Storm King meet his end?”
“Sure thing, free food too, no expenses necessary.” I looked at the few Abyssinians gathering, most of them were busy working on the new buildings. “The Storm King was brought low by a spell that turned those struck by it into stone, obsidian stone to be specific. I was the one that did it, I took a hit meant for a group and managed to get him with his own spell to push him over a balcony while we were turning to stone. He shattered against the ground and I… I was saved by Princess Twilight of Ponyville.”
“Well Gavin, it looks like we've got a ride to Equestria!” One good deed down for this Abyssinian, a few hundred more to go. “I’m ‘Savannah, the Wild’. If you could drop me off at Airship Mauled, I would be quite thankful for that and will spread the word of the Storm King’s defeat. Can I know your name?”
“I’m… Fizzlepop Berrytwist, but just call me Fizzle. If you know of anyone I can help while we’re here, just point me in the right direction.” I bowed low to her. “Airship Mauled is a nice place to live, I’m sure you and… Gavin was it? You'll love it there, we’ll leave in a day or so.”
I had trotted off the ship without the anti-magic armor on and was just wearing the simplistic cloak and scarf I got from Rarity. I never knew when I might need the armor next, but I was definitely removing the Storm King's symbols from it before I would ever put it back on.
Savannah’s name sounded familiar somehow, but I don’t think I’ve ever met her before.
-A few months later, Crystal Empire, Fizzle-
Strange things were happening in the world, things like Twilight starting a school of friendship. I had come to the Crystal Empire to see Jade’s old friend Cadence, who had lured me into a post-traumatic stress disorder ursa situation.
At least I made up with an old friend named Glitter Drops, not that anything would come of it. While I was willing to forgive my past grievances, I was not going to forget or fall in love with the mare as it has been many years since I was filly and I’ve mostly moved on.
Still, it was nice to see her and I’ve been feeling a bit drained lately. In fact, the magic all around Equestria was seemingly more muted than ever.
I would eventually learn of a rather major situation that involved someone I cared about, I would have to seriously thank the elements of harmony for it.
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
1,018 users online
2,010,841 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Calling it now: that leader is a death god of the "wants to kill literally everything" variety who, unusually for that trope, isn't a hypocrite about it. And the actual god empowering Dispel Grace, because he has exactly the right kind of attitude for a paladin of death and absolute justice (used in the One Piece sense of "anyone so much as jaywalks, kill them and everyone remotely associated with them")
9976550
Thats the kind of guy that needs a Blazing Saddles workover.
Aww, Sleepy and Kitty are together again.
We have seen petty kitty now see petty Sphinxy (sorry not sorry)