Chapter 1 - In Which Thoth Opens Many Boxes
Ra stood near the bow of his tiny vessel and tapped his foot, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his nemesis. If all went well, tonight would be their last encounter and the sun god could finally look into getting a hobby. While ridding himself of Apophis would drastically cut down the time it would take to raise the sun in the morning, it would still take him a good few hours. Ra had never had any spare time and didn't want to put it to waste. He had been considering getting into reading, but the amount of stories the mortals had come up with since the beginning of time simply wasn't enough. Perhaps he could take up writing himself. He had a special fondness for bringing life and was sure that Thoth would grant him a few lessons on the subject.
"He hasn't shown himself yet," Set announced as he chomped on a lettuce leaf with his unidentifiable animal jaws. Ra was unsure of what would become of his guardian after Apophis' defeat. While it was Ra's duty to raise the sun into the sky, Set was appointed to guard him from from the creature as punishment for murdering Osiris. Nobody really thought it was that big a deal, as Osiris was partially revived by the end of the week. Still, murder is murder. Perhaps he would be forced to spend a week with Isis. Ra considered himself to have nerves of steel. He deals with a giant water snake who wants to end all of existence on a nightly basis. A few days of cold-blooded torture later and Ra knew that Isis was a goddess to be prayed to out of fear. "Do you think he knows what we're up to?"
"Do you think that would keep him from trying anyway?" Ra asked in response. There wasn't much to know about Apophis. Darkness. Chaos. Earthquakes. Evil. Snake. While he does command an army of demons, Ra, Set, and Thoth made sure that the area around the Nile was barren of spies before retrieving their weapon from the river.
"Still, we made it to the Underworld hours ago," Set said. "He usually shows up by now." He bit into another leaf.
"Maybe he's as bored with me as I am with him," Ra suggested.
"I wouldn't blame him," Thoth said under his breath, not looking up from his book. The ibis-headed god had never joined Ra and Set on their nightly boat ride and was very clearly not impressed. Of course, he never looked impressed, but now more than ever, he was bored. Beside him sat an iron box which he promised held the solution to Ra's troubles.
"He's waiting for us to let our guard down," Set said as he turned to Thoth.
"You're sure of this?" Thoth raised an eyebrow, his eyes still glued to his book. The title read The Jewel of Seven Stars.
"I know Apophis as well as I know my salad." Set lifted another lettuce leaf from his bowl and bit into it. Thoth chuckled to himself, just loud enough for Set to hear. Immediately, the desert god's eyes widened. His hands shook and he threw the bowl to the ground, which, sadly, didn't shatter. Thousands of years of having to fight Apophis at the drop of a hat and even more bowls lost resulted in Set switching to plastic. "Stop laughing! What was in my salad?! Did you let Horus anywhere near it?!"
"Gentlemen," Ra interrupted Set's flashback. "We have company." He pointed to a swell in the river ahead of them, which rose until it could no longer rise with the monster it concealed. Out of the water ahead of them rose the head of a colossal serpent. Its scales, greener than an oasis and darker than the night, glistened in the light of the sun which hovered just above Ra's head before the heat of the celestial body restored them to a state dryer than Thoth's sense of humor. The monster stared at Ra with eyes redder than the hearts that it loved to eat. This was Apophis.
"Before we begin," Ra started, "I'd just like to express my sadness that this will be our last meeting." The snake brought its head down to Ra's level and spoke to him, beak to snout. Ra closed his eyes before he could meet Apophis' hypnotic gaze.
"Don't tell me you've finally given up, Ra," Apophis spoke in a deep, echoing baritone.
"Don't worry, I haven't." Ra looked back at Thoth, who had finally put down his book and grabbed the gold box, and nodded. Before anything could progress, Apophis' head lumbered past the sun god and stopped at the book god.
"What have we here?" Apophis turned his head to Ra. "You believe that adding a third god to your little party boat is going to be enough to destroy me? Have you forgotten that I can't be killed?" He turned his attention back to the third god, who focused on the lock on his box. "I hope you've enjoyed your existence, because tonight will be the night I-"
WHACK! The god of darkness and chaos was suddenly silenced by a downward strike delivered by Thoth, who remained as stoic and dry as a stone as he inspected the side of the box that he had hit Apophis with. On the bottom of the iron box was an impressive dent. That's what Thoth got for using a metal as weak as iron to hide his spellbook. "I'm busy," he said dryly as he returned his focus to the lock on the box.
Apophis briefly recoiled from the unexpected attack and quickly attempted to retaliate. He thrust his fangs forward with the hopes of either injuring Thoth or swallowing him whole, only to be stopped by Set, who leaped in front of the serpent and clamped his jaw shut with his bare hands. He then mockingly looked into Apophis' eyes, reminding the snake that his hypnotic gaze meant nothing to him. "Thoth, now is a good time to hurry up with that box!" Set shouted to his boating companion.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the struggle," Thoth said. "Could you repeat the obvious?" With a sudden burst of strength, Apophis forced his mouth open and thrust forward at Set, who grabbed the monster again, this time by his fangs. Mustering all his strength, Set lifted Apophis' body out of the water by his fangs and flung the miles-long snake like a frisbee into the river behind them. The resulting waves rocked the boat and knocked the exhausted Set off of his feet.
"Not bad," Ra said and helped up his wheezing companion.
"I... I need my sword," Set huffed and sprinted into the cabin just as the lock on Thoth's iron box broke.
"Got it," the god of knowledge declared. He lifted the iron lid off of the box and pulled out...
"Another box?" Ra asked. Thoth dropped the iron box and proceeded to work on the lock of the bronze box in his hands. Before Ra could ask any more questions, he suddenly found himself between the jaws of a giant snake. While the gods had been concerned with their swords and their boxes, Apophis had slithered under their boat and attacked Ra while his back was turned. "Ow! Cheater!" Ra shouted at his nemesis. Fortunately, Ra had narrowly avoided being pierced by Apophis' fangs, which oozed with venom strong enough to paralyze Set for a solid week.
Ra didn't have the strength or skills Set had or Thoth's intelligence and coldness. He did have one thing, however. He had the sun. A beam of while-hot flames exploded from the ball of light that hovered above Ra's boat and struck Apophis in the neck. Apophis, in pain but not letting go, recoiled forward toward the boat, just close enough for a rejuvenated Set to grab onto his nostril, stab the serpent in his right eye, and hold on for dear life. Apophis reeled back and opened his mouth, releasing both the god of the sun and a hiss of pain. Blood as black as the snake's heart flowed from his eye and dried and flaked in the heat of the sun.
"Got it," Thoth declared and opened the lid of the bronze box which replaced the iron box and pulled out yet another box, this one made of wood. He then immediately snapped the wooden lock and pulled out another box made of ivory and got to work on that lock. He briefly looked up at Set, who struggled to keep his grip onto the face of a giant flailing snake. "Does he need help?"
"What?" Ra asked and turned to the battle. "Oh, right!" More beams of fire burst from the sun and struck Apophis in the head and neck, taking care to avoid Set, who managed to climb to the top of the monster's head and had unhinged his sword from his right eye. He lifted his sword and thrust his blade into Apophis' skull. In response, the snake reeled so far back that Set, hanging onto the hilt of his sword, was submerged up to his shoulders, and quickly flung his head back forward, sending Set rocketing through the air and skipping across the river. Set was out of the fight.
"Got it," Thoth said yet again. He opened the ivory boxy and pulled out a silver box, equal in shape and size to the previous boxes.
"For goodness' sake!" Ra shouted. A fiery beam shot down from the sun and struck the silver box and Thoth's hands. The god of knowledge did not respond. The silver melted in seconds and evaporated just as quickly, revealing a gold box behind it.
"Ouch," Thoth said stoically before simply ripping the gold lock off of the box and opening the lid. He pulled out an emerald-bound book that was far too large to fit in any of the boxes and began skimming through it, stopping on a seemingly random page and tapping the page with his index finger.
Apophis recovered from his skull-stabbing just in time to notice a bright green aura enveloping his entire body. "What's happening?!" he demanded. Neither god gave Apophis an explanation or even a response. Suddenly, the aura contracted and squeezed him into a tangled ball of snake. "Stop it! Let me go!"
Ra turned to Thoth and nodded. Thoth turned a page and placed his hand on another cluster of words. A bright green light filled the underworld, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything anyone had ever seen. After a minute the light had faded and Ra's eyes had adjusted well enough to see what was left of Apophis: Nothing. The god of darkness and chaos was finally gone. Ra breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. "Why didn't I think to do that earlier?" he wondered. "Hey, where did that send him to?"
"Who cares?" Thoth pulled out his old book and found his place. "Let's just hurry this up. I'm getting tired."
In another world, another representative of the sun was preparing to raise another sun. Princess Celestia stood on the balcony that came off of her private chambers and looked upon her night-shrouded kingdom. Hundreds of thousands of tiny ponies relied on her and her sister to raise the sun and moon each day and night. She had never missed a morning, and she never intended to. Celestia wielded great power and, as costumed heroes have taught her, with that power comes responsibility.
She lowered her head and pointed her horn towards the horizon. Over the ocean to the east rose the sun, bright and warm as always, and never harsh. Celestia had complete control over this celestial body. During droughts she would move the sun just a bit away from the planet to help her little ponies cool down. If a particularly nasty flood hit, she would move the sun directly over that area with the intention of speeding up the evaporation process. If she needed to, she could even destroy the sun and everything with it.
Celestia paused, the sun pausing with her. That was a strange thought. She had been raising and lowering the sun every day for thousands of years, and never once did she ever consider ending the world as she knew it. As frustrating as the world could be with all its curses, monsters, wacky demigods, and occasional evil individuals, the good of the ponies below vastly outweighed the bad of everything else. The only reason destroying the sun would ever cross her mind would be if a powerful psychic had planted the thought in her. She was not alone.
Princess Celestia turned around, hoping to see her sister playing a prank on her or her student practicing a new spell. Instead she found herself locking eyes with a monstrous serpent, whose body was coiled all along the outside of her palace. Its eyes seemed to glow red with burning hate. Celestia immediately wanted to do something. She wanted to strike out at this clearly malevolent creature on her doorstep. She wanted to protect her palace and her ponies.
She couldn't move. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how hard she strained, she couldn't do a thing. She couldn't spread her wings, she couldn't break eye-contact with the monster, she couldn't even tap her hoof. All she found herself able to do was to meet its gaze. The snake moved its head backwards into a striking position. It remained in that pose for what felt like hours, taunting Celestia. It was savoring its victory, as if it had been holding a grudge against Celestia for centuries. She didn't recognize the monster.
Finished savoring, the serpent bared its fangs and lunged forward.
