Deer Me: Adwanee Sands

Chapters

A former dream
What's with her hair?
We know
Dust of Mountains
Who watched whom?
Hopes and Nightmares
Burning Glass
Into the Mixture
What is Honk?
No Time
Enough of that
A Deal
Clauses in the contract
Cultivation
On the road again
Now what?
What lives to the north
Light Quantifiable
Gitz Gitz Guak
Unfortunates
The dead shall know no rest
How?
Why does it bleat?
Weak Frame
Dead Relatives
Under Ice and Snow
We will go
Bargains

A former dream

Stelimus stayed attached to his throne and wished he could melt into it. Copper Blossom was not an exception to this same problem, either. Much like the room Stelimus had etched in his memory after his birth, the throne room was a mixture of roman and gothic architectures with the pillars carved directly into the walls, leaving an immense and free space for the throne room. The thrones, made from carved permafrost mixed with some vanilla coloring, sat upon an immense, black podium complete with ten high steps. When he got the confidence to do something, he would order a shorter podium, but now was not the time to do that. Tall, frost covered windows were built into the highest points of the walls and practically touching the ceiling. Due to their height, it was extremely difficult to clean them, but they did give bring in a nice, large amount of light.

"We have been demanding that Stelimus either separate from the filthy pony-song or that he step down from his position as king of the reindeer!"

The podium was flanked by Stelimus' two most trusted guards: The tiny Radivus and gigantic Tenyom. Having proved themselves multiple times, the siblings became elite bodyguards of the royal family. While the vast majority of the deer weren't very happy about it, the siblings were content, and that's all that mattered to them. At least, Radivus seemed content. His sister always kept a bland, apathetic expression and tone of voice that always perplexed everyone as to her true thoughts. It was really a two-sided blade as it hid her true intentions from her enemies but confused her allies.

"And why do you want this? Has he not done his job as your king to ensure your well-being?"

Stelimus had grown quite enormous over time, with his antlers being of great size his antlers were covered, almost permanently, in sparkling frost. His features became rougher and more angled and his muscle mass remained acceptably developed due to the viciousness with which Stelimus and the generals trained him in every form of hoof-to-hoof combat and using frost and spirit essence. His eyes also changed and grew a sheen brighter than when he was younger. The blue of his eyes has become nearly white and, because of how bright they were, blinded most not used to seeing them in that manner. The blinding, however, was mostly psychological as they weren't stars emitting light.. For Copper Blossom, her changes were less noticeable. While she had still grown, she was still drastically shorter than Stelimus but at least a hoof's length taller than the average mare. Her fur became fluffier and her mane and tail started growing at faster speeds than should be normal. It had been a rather tumultuous few years for all of them.

"Because the pony-song are corrupting and dominating! The only reason SHE'S there is to integrate us into pony-song society and destroy our own selves so we become more like them! We're not ponies! We're reindeer!"

The source of the yelling and the rulers' discomfort was an angry mob held back by guards and Grimliss. The only reason Stelimus didn't worry about the guards turning on him was Grimliss. With his infamous link with the world of the dead, every action and thought was whispered into his nonexistent ears, allowing him to intercept any threat to his nephew and niece.

"You're still on about that?!" Grimliss bellowed. "It's been what, five years? Seven years? I don't remember how time works..." he mumbled. "At what point have the ponies invaded the tundra or even attempted to expand further?"

The group remained silent, but another reindeer spoke up. "The pony-song take their time. I have personally learned that they have started expanding east to the seas and are planning to expand further in the tundras."

Grimliss scoffed. "Oh please. You 'personally' learned?"

"Yes," the deer confirmed with a proud nod.

"Then what are YOU doing?" He turned to face his nephew. "Stelimus!"

"Y-yes!" The reindeer bounced up, terrified.

"Haven't you been having the city expand into the tundra?"

"Y-yes?"

"Why?"

"For increased living space and infrastructure."

"And for the pony...what was her name again..." Grimliss grumbled and rotated his hoof as he tried to remember the name. "Summer Plains!" he blurted out.

Stelimus frowned and Copper corrected the god-king. "Winter Fields."

"Right. That's what I said."

"No, you said--" a protesting deer tried to say.

"SHE was given an immense dome for her work in botany. Without her help, your diets would have never improved and you would never become as healthy as you are now!"

"We were just fine without the pony-song's dishes!"

"Yeah, I can see that by the mange growing on your coat!" Grimliss spat out. "NOW GET OUT BEFORE I DECIDE TO LET YOU INGRATES SEE WHAT THE SPIRITS LIVE!"

Grimliss' outburst saw the purple mist around him explode outwards like an uncontrollable inferno. The deer were terrified and all scampered away as fast as they could. Two of the guards did the same thing, presumably because they weren't used to such a display and, without Anglacite there, they couldn't feel 'protected'.

"Wooo!" Radivus shouted. "Now THAT was something!" He faced his sister with a wide smile. "What did you think, Tenyom?"

The doe grumbled in response.

"Great! Me too!"

The other guards became extremely confused and the king and queen sighed in relief.

"It's been, like, eight years!" Stelimus shouted. "Why aren't they used to this now? I've been doing everything I can to appease them!"

Grimliss patted a still sparking 'flame' off of his shoulder and looked at his nephew with an apathetic expression. "Did you forget that they've been with your dad for several millennia? It's not as easy as you think to get rid of a link that stretches all the way back to the first deer of the world."

"But--"

"And being kind isn't how you'll win them over." Grimliss scratched the top of his skull. "They're used to a harsh regime with advantages. They're a harsh and stubborn people, Stelimus."

"That doesn't excuse the period of time that it's taken them to adapt!" The stag slumped in his throne and slammed his hoof onto the arm rest. He even groaned loudly in annoyance. "I didn't think being a politician would be so hard."

"Stelimus, we aren't 'elected' officials, however that works," Copper explained. "We have absolute power, and they're afraid we'll abuse it and remove what makes them deer." The mare looked down and smiled nervously. "Their deeply ingrained hatred of ponies is mainly responsible."

"But why would they hate you? Only Anglacite ever gave them arguments that were never founded. These ones are always spouting this nonsense and never have anything to back them up. They're always complaining!"

"They might have been never founded," Grimliss interjected. "but his age was enough for anyone to believe him. The only reason why that vegetable pony thing of yours can remain here is because she actually has improved the health of those lenient enough to accept it."

Sounds of cracking and screaming stopped the discussion and all gazes went to three deer wearing black hoods and armor. They had been beaten up and crumpled up, quite literally, together. Their legs were twisted with each other and their armor had been completely bent just as their hoods were torn. A warhammer dropped on top of them and left there.

"I found these idiots trying to plant pouches of poisonous spores in your bedroom," Yolumay said as she tossed four white bags of cloth to Grimliss.

Yolumay hadn't changed much from before. Her personality had not changed either, but she had warmed up to Stelimus and the corruption that Effervescence forced upon her. She flexed her forelegs and stretched her legs a bit.

"Eight years later and I'm still as agile and strong as ever," she bragged. The doe looked around and hummed. "Another group of whiners?" Stelimus nodded. "You know that they're led by the nobles that were closely linked to our father, right?"

"Yup. I also know that because of our dear uncle disowning them, they're upset...which I'm still confused about," Stelimus tapped his antlers as he thought.

"Why?" Copper asked.

"Well, Grimliss only removed them from the 'central' association that Anglacite was part of, but they retained everything else."

"That's because they no longer have a say on the development of the country," Radivus spoke absentmindedly. "They're just spoiled, rich brats now." Tenyom grumbled in agreement and Radivus gasped in horror. "Sister! Such language."

Grimliss lifted a hoof and, after stuttering a few times, spoke to the small reindeer. "What?"

"You don't need to know," Radivus answered and looked away. He appeared insulted.

Grimliss facehoofed and shook his head. "Aside from your comic book slapstick guards, I might have a solution to lighten the tensions between the pony-so-" Grimliss cleared his throat. "Between the ponies and reindeer."

"Oh?" Stelimus leaned forward in his chair.

"I've invite the rulers of the ponies."

"Shining Armor?" Stelimus pondered. "Well, it's true that we haven't him in a while."

"It'll be nice to see how he's doing after all this time. I have so much to tell him!" Copper cheered.

"No. He's the ruler of the Crystal Kingdom. I meant the ACTUAL rulers of the entirety of pony kind."

Copper's eyes widened and started glittering. "You don't mean...?"

"Yes. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna: The diarchs of Equestria."

"WHAT?!" Stelimus and Yolumay both shouted in abject horror.

What's with her hair?

"When are they coming?" Stelimus asked.

"Oh..." Grimliss made little circles on the floor with his hoof. "Tomorrow."

"But we won't have time to prepare anything!" Copper shouted with the same volume.

"Oh..." Grimliss pulled an hourglass out from between his ribs and mouthed 'Oh!' again. "Looks like I lied and they're coming today."

Stelimus' eye twitched.

"What's wrong with you?" Yolumay asked.

"You mean apart from him being a walking, talking skeleton?" Radivus asked.

Both Yolumay and Stelimus glared him down and, in response, the small deer chuckled nervously and covered his face with his helmet.

"I did this simply to get them to see what your kingdom looks like without preparations...Not that the others would say anything."

"But...If we're seen so broken..." He looked at Copper with worry on his face. "Wouldn't they see us as potential targets for a quick war?"

"Stelimus!" Copper scolded. "The princesses aren't like that!"

"I don't know about that." Stelimus gulped loudly. "I kinda...I kinda know about country leaders invading others under the guise of 'helping'."

Grimliss lifted an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Copper asked.

"I can't tell you."

"I'm your wife!"

Stelimus frowned at her. "We're not even married yet," he answered bluntly.

The mare became silent, crossed her forelegs, and pouted. "That's not a reason. I'm still your soon-to-be wife."

Grimliss rolled his nonexistent eyes.

"If you two are done with what will become your future, there's something standing in front of the throne room entrance." Yolumay pointed at the doors.

Two very tall ponies stood in the doorway. Both had the same horn and wings as Cadance but were white and night-blue respectively. Their appearances were quite strange compared to Cadance and even the other ponies. To be truly honest, Stelimus was quite terrified of the way they looked. They looked otherworldy and reminded him to much of the 'god-kings' he had grown to know. The reindeer guards moved out of the way, but was it because they were being professional or trying to show 'how much better' they were to ponies was a ebate for another time. Once in front of the podium, the two bowed respectively.

"Greetings, King Stelimus," the white one said.

"My sister and I have been bid an invitation from your uncle," the other added.

Both of them stood up and looked at the two directly. The white one had an uncomfortable smile on her face, something that made Stelimus feel like she was trying too hard to be a motherly figure. The blue one, on the other hand, looked very serious but somewhat lenient, something like the local goth kids of the schools Gregary's daughter would go to.

"No names?" Stelimus asked.

"We were getting to that," Luna said with an undertone of aggression.

The king and queen both heard and saw them mumble something but was the conversation was shot down by the white one who walked forward first.

"I am Princess Celestia of Equestria."

"And I am Princess Luna of Equestria."

"A diarchy?"

"Yes," Luna confirmed.

"So, why did my uncle invite you here? We weren't prepared for such a visit."

Grimliss stepped in front of the two, rather rudely, to answer. "I already told you why."

"No, you told Copper."

"And by association, I told you." Grimliss' smile crushed what would have been a face.

Celestia and Luna leaned to either side of the stag. "That is...basically it," Celestia added.

"I am also rather distraught to see a pony with a tundran deer."

"Luna!" Celestia scolded.

"What? It's true. They've never been kind once to our people no matter how many times we tried to open friendly relationships with them!"

Yolumay stepped in and cracked her neck audibly to gather the attention of the bickering mare. The sound made Stelimus cover his ears and cringe in pain.

"Yolumay! You shouldn't DO that! It's gross and can hurt you!"

"Pfff." The doe looked at her hoof. "With this corruption I can heal myself faster than normal."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've tested the extent of my new abilities personally."

Stelimus slumped in his seat and Copper forced back some vomit.

"That's too much information," Copper whined. "I don't want to think of what you inflicted onto yourself."

"Well," she let her warhammer flip and drop onto the floor and kicked the would-be assassins against the wall, allowing the guards to grab hold of them and pull them away. "I cu myself with various utensils, I--"

"THAT'S MORE than enough!" Stelimus complained.

"Can we focus?" Grimliss yelled.

"Oh! Right," Stelimus said. "Copper, let's get down there to meet them face-to-face. I don't like being on this podium."

The two did just that, but Luna still seemed suspicious of something.

"So, what happened to King Anglacite?" she asked.

Grimliss was checking his hooves to see if they had grown any. "He's dead," he answered as bluntly as always.

"Oh!" Celestia gasped. "I'm so sorry, Stelimus. I thought he stepped down."

Yolumay scoffed. "Like he'd ever do that."

"And I suppose one of you killed him then," Luna said. She chuckled in a taunting manner. "That wouldn't be too far from the way the tundran reindeer's society works."

"What was that?" Yolumay growled.

"You heard me."

Yolumay hopped down the elevated ramp on the side of throne room and went, quite literally, face-to-face with Luna to th epoint where they were now butting heads and horns.

"Is this more of the 'friendly aggression' of the reindeer I've heard so much about?" Luna hissed as she forced her head forward.

"Noooo. This is the 'friendly friendliness' of our society," Yolumay answered with a mocking tone of voice. "Maybe you should start 'singing' about how da mean deew wouldn't pway with you in da sandbox. You pony-song always start singing for the most mundane reasons."

Stelimus facehoofed.

"I'm sorry, Stelimus. I didn't know this would happen," Copper Blossom sighed. "Princess Luna was never like this."

Celestia chuckled. "You don't need to worry. Both of them seem to have similar personalities. They might become good friends in the future..." Celestia's assured expression quickly turned to worry. "I hope." She looked at Stelimus and realized that they were at eye level, something she found to be rather surprising. Then again, many deer were very tall compared to ponies, so she shouldn't really have been surprised by this. "Can I be so bold as to ask how he died? I worry because I don't know much about reindeer culture and am afraid I might insult you."

Stelimus opened his mouth to say something but didn't manage to even exhale that Grimliss spoke in his place. "I killed him!" he said with a raised hoof.

"WHAT?!" Luna shouted. She pulled away so quickly that Yolumay lost balance and faceplanted against the ground. "Why would you openly admit to that?"

"Because it's not something that concerns you. These were familial concerns. If you want to know more, you can always go to the Crystal Kingdom and ask Shining Armor."

"But--"

"Ask. Him," he insisted.

"So--" Celestia interrupted herself before speaking an unintentional pun.

"Princesses," Copper said. "I know this might be sudden, but perhaps you would like to come outside? There's a market this and today is its third day. I'm sure you would love to see the tundran reindeer culture and their baubles."

Celestia nodded. "I would be glad to see them."

"By the way," Stelimus asked as he leaned towards Celestia's mane. "What's with this stuff?" He passed his hoof through the pastel colored 'flag'. "Is this some type of holographic flag thingy?"

"N-no. That's my mane."

"Why does it flow like this? It looks like one of those 'Handsomen' that dramatically pose in front of power fans to make their hair flow behind them 'majestically' and entice you to think 'That's just beautiful'."

"What?"

Luna pulled her hair in front of her face to analyze it and ended up even more confused.

In the tundra, three figures wearing extremely thick, tan-colored cloaks approached the immense, frozen walls of the reindeer capital after trekking through the frozen wastes, and knocked loudly on the doors. Even with a blizzard raging the ringing of the metal could be heard for miles.

Author's Note

Wanna know what goes on in Grimliss' head on a constant basis?
[youtube=OZBWfyYtYQY]

We know

Author's Note

Das right. THREE CHAPTERS IN A DAY!

We know

Everyone but Grimliss had left for the market lining the streets. Several stands and 'floor stalls' with all manner of bits and baubles littered the floor. The road was the largest that connect from the palace to the central plaza of the city and spanned several blocks; All of which were occupied by markets and stalls. Tons of deer were walking through the streets, many which were just talking about the mundane events of their daily lives or even those trying to haggle with the merchants.

"This looks quite exciting!" Celestia clamored. She looked to the side to see Radivus and Tenyom looking at a stall where a large, metal box with a few dents sat. "What's going on there?" Celestia asked.

"The markets here also have some games as well," Copper explained. "With that one, you need to dent the box enough to gain either a gift of your choosing or some money."

"What do you think? Try your hooves?" the stall owner suggested.

"Sure," Radivus said. "Sister?" he invited as he slowly backed away.

The doe cracked her shoulders and gave a strong punch into the block of metal, denting it tremendously compared to the other shallow dents. The stall owner looked at the crater with wide eyes then shrugged. Accepting the situation, he passed the mare a bag of coins which she gladly cashed in on.

"Um...There are less 'violent' games here, aren't there?" Celestia asked.

Copper could only 'ehhh' and tilt from left to right. The deer in the area would become silence once they became aware of Stelimus and those accompanying him, and they could all feel a tremendous pressure on their psyche and bodies. While Luna and Yolumay found their calling in arguing about the best types of weapons and approaches to various situations, the remaining three observed the foods, clothes, and other house tools. Radivus and Tenyom were busy working on all the games they could find, with Tenyom doing the physical and Radivus doing both the agile and intellectual games. Tenyom was capable of the intellectual things too, but she didn't have the patience for it.

"So...I never did go to Cadance's..." Celestia trailed off.

"I know," Copper answered.

"How did you cope?"

"I had Stelimus with me." Copper cuddled against the giant stag who kept in the cringe he felt at the moment. "He helped a lot."

"And what did Shining do?"

This time, Stelimus answered. "He went a bit...berserk. Increasing guards and preventing deer and ponies from meeting. He even tried frying several of my people after the encounter."

"He was trying to find someone to blame," Celestia concluded.

Stelimus nodded. "I've seen these things before. In the end, Copper had to go with my uncle's guards to calm him down."

Copper chuckled nervously. "Those were some difficult eight months of my life."

"I'm still sorry I couldn't come to you and help your father in his time of need. I was having a bit of trouble of my own in Equestria and needed to aid the elements in their tasks. Then there was the aftermath..." she trailed off. "Still, I am proud you managed to help heal his wounds where I could do nothing."

"It's okay, Celestia. This was a family matter anyways. I was also feeling what he felt."

Celestia playfully punched Copper on the shoulder. "Oh, so I'm not family anymore?"

Copper giggled in response.

"And you, Stelimus," Celestia spoke. "How are you getting accustomed to your life as king?"

Stelimus coughed. "It's...hard."

"It's always hard to please everypony."

"It's not just that. These deer are...capricious, as some would say. I have Grimliss helping me out, but no matter what I try to do to make them happy, they get angrier and angrier! It's like a vicious cycle of ungratefulness."

Celestia scratched her chin and chuckled nervously. "Yes. I had to deal with such things myself. With my ponies, you need to be kind to them an apply just a little bit of authority to those who step out of line so that everypony knows that the power I wield isn't just for fun. THat there are consequences to their actions."

"Huh...I never really thought of it that way."

"True, but the deer aren't like ponies," Copper added. "They're very aggressive and were used to an aggressive approach." She looked at Celestia with a pleading look. "We don't have the heart to rule that way!"

"But isn't that how the tundran reindeer lived for the last few millenia?"

"Yes! But we aren't the late king!" Copper whisper-yelled. "We don't have the ability to be as harsh as he!"

"Nopony ever said you needed to remain that way."

Stelimus' ears perked up and he looked at Celestia with a tilted head. "What do you mean?"

"Start off aggressive like him and gradually go down to a more lenient way of ruling. You can't expect an animal stuck in a cage for its whole life to be able to run into the wild and survive once released, can you?"

"I would've used a detox comparison, but..." Stelimus shrugged.

"Detox?" Celestia wondered.

"Nothing."

Copper chuckled. "He does that sometimes. Mentioning things we never understand. He's creative, to say the least."

Celestia screeched and bounced away after seeing a windigo and other, non-shaped spirits fly in front of her."What were those?!" she squealed.

"They're spirits," Stelimus answered. "They fly around her and we live with them...as best as we can," he dropped off at the end of his sentence.

"Spirits? Even windigos?"

"Yes."

"But they feed on turmoil and negativity."

"Ah, yeah. That they do," Stelimus answered sarcastically.

"Then how come you haven't frozen over?"

"Because the city is ripe full of conflict. If they froze everypony they would starve, but just feeding off what we have here is enough to sustain them," Copper explained. "Why do you think they haven't been seen in Equestria anymore, Princess?"

"Because of the magic of friendship and the positivity I've helped grow in Equestria?"

"Magic of friendship?" Stelimus repeated. "What is this, a cartoon for little girls? Come on." He frowned.

Stelimus rolled his eyes in response. Further away, he could see three tall figures looking at the deer's wares, one of them grabbing an apple pie and paying the deer in something that caused her to scream in joy and bounce around. The others around all stared at the three figures not with contempt and rage as they were doing with Stelimus and his group, but with sheer stupefication. The deer didn't even resume their actions. They preferred to simply stare at these new figures. When Celestia caught sight of them, even she was confused. She had never seen anything like that.

"What are those?" Copper asked. "Minotaurs?"

"We have minotaurs in this world?" Stelimus mumbled to himself."Wasn't I already told this?"

"No. they're too thin to be minotaurs. Plus, their cloaks aren't minotaur in design and fabric. It's not even a style I recognize."

The closer they came, the more apparent Celestia's statement became. Around what could be assumed was the neck was a large ring separated in small squares, and for every white square, there was a brighter beige color. The waist was lined with horizontal streaks of gold designed to look like a river in a varied light. It was quite creative, actually. However, that was about all the decorative features the cloths had, and Celestia felt a sort of discomfort seeing them. Luna and Yolumay both returned when they saw the three figures while Tenyom and Radivus both stepped in front of the King and Queen to fulfill their duty. When the figures stopped, there was a feeling of unease, and there was nothing but a brisk silence. A long, bony black hand pointed at Stelimus.

"Are you King Anglacite of the Tundran Deer?" The figure spoke in a deep, gravely tone.

"No. I'm his son."

"Ahhhh, so the black snow melted another icicle."

"B-black snow? Black snow he knows about black snow what do you know about black snow HOW do you know about black snow?" Stelimus droned on.

The three figures lowered their cowls to reveal the bare faces of jackals with tall, canine ears. They all wore Egyptian styled make-up around their eyes; The two other figures had golden imagery painted around them with one having the lower extensions ending in a slight, downward curve and balls with the other having them end in an upward curl wrapping around itself. The most prominently positioned one's eye make-up was a deep-red with the upper-section curving up then inwards while the lowest line went straight and stopped as a hollow circle. The upper-frontal half and top of their ears was decorated with golden jewelry of some kind hugging the skin. The one in front, however, wore red jewelry that covered all but the interior of its ears.

"We're very well attuned with the black snow, dear deer."

"You punned?"

"I have the right to."

"So how do you know about the black snow?" Celestia asked. "We did our best to keep it hidden and covered up, and I'm fairly certain I've never seen your people before. Nopony outside the tundra except for my sister and I knew about it."

The jackals behind laughed. "Because," the red-eyed one explained. "We know the origins of the black snow." He raised his arms and looked up to the sky. "It's part of our whole culture and who we are!" His yell echoed through the city and made even those unaware of their presence further down the streets to become silent.

Dust of Mountains

Author's Note

Updated the end of chapter 2. Omitted a funny by accident.

Dust of Mountains

"Yes!" the figure added. "We know it came here and arrived to see just what it had been doing." He looked around and rubbed his muzzle. "Huh. Not what I was expecting. It hasn't spread?"

"We destroyed it," Stelimus explained.

The figure with the ball eye-makeup audibly growled and took a step forward but was stopped by the red one's hand.

"Really now?" he asked. "I'm curious to know how."

Copper stepped in front of the two and interrupted their brief discussion. "Perhaps we should do this back at the castle. I don't think the other deer here are going to take too kindly to what you said."

The creatures looked around to see that the reindeer were glaring at them with wide eyes and shrunk pupils. It almost looked like their eyes were completely wide, and each one of them had visibly started taking some steps forward.

"If you insist," he shrugged.

The three covered their heads back up, disappearing under them once more, and followed the group back to the palace to the throne room. Stelimus was expecting them to actually seem a bit impressed by the architecture and the spirits floating around, but they weren't even fazed when said creatures flew through their bodies. Either they couldn't see them, which was strange in a place like the tundra, or they were as used to these happenings as Grimliss.

"Guards, I need you to exit the throne room and watch the entrances," Stelimus ordered.

The guards complied and left the throne room. They didn't even protest the presence of the three new figures. Luna found they seemed to be practically brainwashed.

"Hey, where's Grimliss" Yolumay wondered.

"Probably back home for the moment," Copper pondered.

"Okay then," Stelimus took a deep breath then turned around to face the three figures. "Firth things first." He clapped two hands he conjured up with his antlers. "Who are you, what are you, and where do you come from?"

"Firth?" Copper repeated quizzically.

"Yes. I am also curious," Celestia said. "I have never seen your kind before, and I have lived a long time."

"You haven't seen us but we've always been here."

"Then why aren't you surprised to see my species?"

"Because you're similar to the Saddle Arabians that live next to the sea. Not the same, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut similar."

"And my questions?" Stelimus reminded them.

"Of course. We are Anyubinites from Niris from across the sea to the east of...the land of ponies," he trailed off.

"Equestria," Luna corrected.

"Equestria?" The red anyubinite looked down, somewhat disappointed. "Not very imaginative," he grumbled.

"And your names?" Luna asked.

"I am Hora, advisor of the king of Niris."

"Advisor? Then why are you here? Should you have sent a diplomat instead?" Stelimus wondered.

"And what about those two?" Radivus added. "No names?"

"Those without positions of importance don't receive names," Hora explained.

"Then how do you know who is whom?"

"We just do," Hora growled. "It's not something that you deer and ponies would understand, considering what you just t--"

Copper walked past Hora who stared at her with the most perplexed expression Stelimus thought imaginable. She looked up at the two wearing golden jewelry and audibly hummed as she worked her imagination. She then pointed to the anyubinite with an open smile.

"I'll call you 'Ball', and I'll call you 'Swirls'," she laughed.

The two jackals looked at each other, completely confused. Both Stelimus and Hora facepalmed and Celestia could only force a sympathetic smile.

"You told us the black snow is part of your culture," Stelimus said. "Do explain."

"That...is not something I'm willing to explain unless you decide to come with us to our own country as 'diplomats' of sorts." He joined his bony hands together. "A sort of 'Tour' of cultures, to let our people come together on account of our shared connection with what you call the 'Black Snow'."

Yolumay stepped down from her perch on the podium. "In-case you didn't notice, we don't exactly have good memories of that stuff, and the other reindeer weren't too joyful about what you said." She pulled a flower bud growing on her antlers off and flicked it in the direction of Hora. "I'm also not very happy to know you have something with the blight on our lands that have both tortured and destroyed our people."

Hora brushed the flower off the cloth. "Yes. I'm sure it was a big threat and that your fear has nothing to do with it."

"What?"

Celestia tried to defuse the tension. "If I might interject, I would also be more than happy to see your country. Perhaps we could establish culture exchange relations?"

Hora put a hand on Celestia's shoulder but didn't look at her directly. "I am sorry, pony, but I have no interest in that right now. We have more pressing things to attend to."

"Why is everypony so aggressive to us?!" Celestia blurted out. She covered her mouth and blushed.

"You misunderstand," Hora explained. "We can establish relations in the future, but I did not come to this continent for you. I came for the reindeer."

"Oh...Ooooooh!" Celestia shied away awkwardly.

"Stop being awkward!" Yolumay shouted.

Luna shot a glare at the doe who was only glad enough to reciprocate it by slowly panning her head and looking down at the alicorn.

An uncomfortable hissing noise filled everyone's ears as a mist flew over the floor. "Back already, nephew? You usually wander the markets for hours on end because of all the stalls."

"Umm..." Stelimus tapped his hooves together. "Hello, Uncle Grimliss. We have guests from a newly encountered people who came to meet us."

"I can see that."

Grimliss casually walked next to the anyubinites and ignored them. All three of them looked at the undead stag and Hora hummed in intrigue. He extended his fingers to touch the stag, but it was a bad idea, but not as everyone was expecting. Grimliss was about to speak when he was touched and stopped dead in his tracks. He was screaming in pain, his voice becoming an echo from cold mountains while the purple mist around him flared up like the contents of a lava lamp and started to dissolve. There were visible variations of light going from bright to dark and Grimliss' soul was starting to separate from his undead body.

While Luna and Celestia were too confused to understand what was happening, Stelimus and Yolumay jumped in. Yolumay's hammer stopped mere inches from the anyubinite's face and Stelimus' antlers were just a hair's width from his neck, not to mention the frost essence that was started to coat the jackal's black fur with a thin sheet of ice. Copper flew over to the stag and pulled him away from the touch of the jackal.

"Ahhhhh. I see." Hora applauded himself internally. "A unique being of extreme connections to the dead but still anchored to this world."

"What did you do to him? Is it the 'black snow' you're so fond of?"

Hora waved his hands from side to side. "Oh no. We simply have a...deep connection with death, shall we say."

"What are you talking about? You almost killed him!" Yolumay growled.

"Wow." Stelimus nodded in approval. "I thought you didn't care about him."

"I don't, but you need him to keep our country alive, so there's not much of an exception I can make regarding his well-being."

The jackals chuckled. "He can't be more dead than he already is," Hora shrugged.

"I'm not sure I can trust you now," Stelimus warned as he backed off.

"Maybe we should just kill them now," Yolumay threatened.

Hora raised an eyebrow. "If you want to battle, then I'd be more than willing to sate you. Why, if I win, you come with us to Niris."

"Deal!"

Yolumay didn't have a second to attack that the cloth over Hora was thrown onto her face, blinding the doe. She couldn't even take it off in time that she was hooked by something and thrown through Stelimus' throne. Hora was standing in a battle position with his legs arched forward and backwards and an arm folded forwards. Behind him was a staff with a blue and gold striped body and a golden hook at its end. The hook itself stopped at three points at its top and ended in a crooked 'beak' pointing inwards. The inner portion was a smooth, semi-circle until reaching the small 'beak' where it broke into a sharp, inward angle. Hora wore a shendyt: A type of kilt worn by ancient Egyptians. The 'belt' area was a pure, deep red topped by a thick, black line. The bottom linked with a scaly, beige-colored cloth that shined white on depending on the provenance of light. On his chest glowed a red tattoo that resembled an Egyptian cross with a broken, top ring and two smaller rings on either end of the arms. The jackal itself was quite bony with canine features. His feet were also very small and lanky like the rest of his body.

Stelimus rushed over to his sister. "Yolumay, are you okay?" he asked her while removing the debris of ice on her.

"Yeah," she groaned. "I'll be fine."

"Now I KNOW I can't trust you!" Stelimus yelled.

"Hey," Hora shrugged. "I was defending myself."

The jackal, despite trying to act 'cool', was visibly already starting to shake violently. Celestia levitated his cloth back to him and he thanked her, and she took this moment to trot over to Stelimus and give some words of advice.

"I know you don't like them, and I don't exactly appreciate what they did to your sister, but I still think you should go with them. They have knowledge on that substance that has been threatening all of us for a long time and destroying your people in the process."

"How can I even trust they'll tell us about the snow? They're not exactly forging a trust bond."

"You can't, but with the knowledge you'll acquire from their country, I could send some spies there to take what they can. We might be able to destroy the snow once and for all. Plus, if I suggested it to you, it would prevent them from thinking you're easy to push around."

"But we aren't allies and they'll think that if they push you around, they can push us around as well."

Celestia stood tall and looked Stelimus straight in the eyes with a bemused expression. "Let me deal with that," she threatened.

The stag calmly backed away and approached Hora again. "My ally has discussed the matter with me and will go to your home country."

"It had nothing to do with the 'deal' I made with that deer?" he asked.

"No. Plus, you attacked her before she could formulate a thought, and she doesn't speak for me unless I say so."

The anyubinite nodded. He was somewhat impressed at the stag's attitude.

"A few things to get straight first. One, stay away from my uncle. Two, don't EVER attack any of us ever again. Three, use any weird magic or 'essence' or whatever on us or my people, and we're either ignoring your request or returning home, depending on when it occurs."

"Why are you so intent on taking us with you, anyways?" Copper asked.

"For the same reason we came here. I already explained my intentions prior, anyways." Hora covered his head with his cloth and visibly shivered. "Now, will you come with us?" He asked.

Who watched whom?

A groan came from Copper's location.

"Grimliss!" the mare shouted. "Don't move."

The stag rubbed his skull and forced her off of him. "I'll be fine. It'll subside soon."

"So it IS sentient," Ball commented.

"They're not supposed to be, though," Swirls added.

Grimliss looked at the three anyubinites and frowned. "What in the world did you do to me?"

Hora looked at the undead stag for a moment and exhaled loudly. "Nothing. We just have a 'touch' with our gods of death."

"God'S'?" Grimliss emphasized on the 'S'.

"Yes, Gods. You honestly don't think there's only one, do you?"

"No, but per culture..." Grimliss rubbed his pseudo-face. "Almost lost track of myself. Um...You have a LITERAL touch of spirit absolution?"

The three 'jackals' nodded.

"What is a spiritual absolution touch?" Stelimus asked.

"Some creatures in this world, be they beast or plant, have the innate ability to send spirits to the other world and directly into the arms of their deity of death."

"And we all have that touch," Hora said. "Generations have allowed to be this way, but," He rubbed his chin. "We've never seen spirits as 'alive', so to speak. Ours tend to be wandering entities defined by a single emotion they felt before death. I'm honestly surprised you're still anchored to this plane," he nodded.

"I have more experience in these matters than you think."

"Of that I have no doubt," Hora chuckled. He faced Stelimus again and grinned. "Shall we away to newer lands, your majesty?"

Stelimus held up his hoof, forgetting for just a brief second that he had no fingers. "A minute, please."

"Of course," Hora nodded. "Take your time."

Stelimus was about to say something and got his uncle's hoof on his muzzle instead.

"I know. Don't worry. I'm great at multi-tasking. Plus, with me being a god-king AND linked to death, your nobles will not be so inclined to try and start a civil war that they won't win."

"So you're basically a Vampire Count with an endless horde of skeletons and wraiths?"

"I don't know what a 'Vampire Count' is," he pondered. "But yes."

Celestia and Luna also stepped forward.

"We will also work to the best of our ability to prevent any incidents between our two peoples," Luna assured.

"The nobles will be especially difficult to negotiate with, however," Celestia sighed.

"Then it's settled," Stelimus nodded. "The Black Snow will come back. It always does, and while I'm not entirely certain I can trust these three, I have no choice but to go with them."

Copper buffed up her face in annoyance. She jumped to the deer and grabbed hold of his foreleg. "I'm going with you. I'm your queen after all." Her eyes started sparkling and a stupid, open-mouthed grin grew on her face. "Why, this could be a great, romantic trip."

Stelimus frowned and looked at Celestia giggling to herself in the corner of his eyes. "I should take a contingent of guards. Perhaps--"

"No," Grimliss said.

"But--"

"I said no. Those imbeciles still don't trust you. They might be a 'well oiled machine," Grimliss mocked. "but the ones putting in that oil are the ones trying to get rid of you." He looked to the two that had already taken their places at the base of the podium. "Take those two. They're surprisingly competent and won't leave your side while you're over there."

"Are you sure?" Grimliss asked.

"Yes, Grimliss. I'm sure," Grimliss answered himself.

Everyone just stared at him with horrified expressions. Stelimus tapped him on the head several times to grab his attention. "What are you doing?"

"Having the conversation for you."

"I'd slap you if I wanted to, but I won't."

"Then you should leave. It's not nice to make the first contact waiting."

Stelimus nodded and looked at the anyubinites. "Should we take water or anything else to prolong our lives where you live?"

"We have large reserves of water specifically for you," Hora explained. "Being accustomed to the desert, we need less water than the average creature. You will require as much as possible." He pointed to their coats. "Unless you want to shave your coats off."

"No," the royal couple replied bluntly.

Hora raised his bony hands in defeat. "If you say so."

Stelimus faced his uncle again and grinned. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Stelimus," Grimliss started. "I've lived for five-thousand years."

"Yeah, and only three in society," Yolumay spoke aggressively. "Now let's go." She flicked her head to the side to gesture Stelimus to go. "I have a people to squash after I learn of their combat techniques."

"You two come as well." Stelimus gestured to the two guards who somehow teleported right next to him and Copper.

Hora took his guests with him and left the palace, leaving the royal pony sisters and Grimliss behind. While the two ponies didn't know or feel anything with spirits, Grimliss felt something large nearby and traced it to the thrones. A large, blue, shapeless cloud of morphing mist was hiding behind the right arm. Curious, the stag lifted his right hoof to start moving there, but the precise moment the magic coursing through his body reached his non-existent tendons, the mist dissipated.

"What was that?" he thought to himself.

"Something wrong, Grimliss?" Celestia asked.

"No. No, I'm fine." He clapped his hooves together enthusiastically. "Now, what should we start with in diplomatic discussions?"

The boat of the anyubinites was docked on a beach far to the south where the tundra no longer held domain. Gregary had been in the icy wastes for so long he had forgotten what the green plains looked like. Sure, he had the special garden that Winter Fields, but it didn't provide the same sensation, especially with the feeling of grass on his hooves. There no mountains in sight, save for a few very tall hills, and not much artificial to see either. The area had been practically left alone even with all the forests around that Stelimus thought would make a great amount of lumber for whatever insane amount of races existed in this bizarre reality. There WAS the sight of some smoke rising from over the hills, but most of the group considered it to be campers or hunters. At least, the pony and deer thought so. The three jackals didn't care. Despite what the Anyubinites had said, Radivus and Tenyom were carrying bags full of provisions they took from the market as the trip would last two weeks going from the tundra to the sea. The anyubinites gradually took off their cloth covers and wrapped them around their wastes to lengthen their 'kilts' to the ground. The hotter it became, the better they felt and the worse the deer and single pony felt.

After about ten days of traveling, the air started becoming cooler and more bearable, but the jackals started wrapping themselves in their cloths again. The air started becoming saltier as well and filling with the smell of fish and kelp. They were near the sea, and a small encampment complete with wooden stake barricades surrounded the single boat waiting for the group. Hora spoke in a language foreign to Stelimus, but the anyubinite guards lowered their body-sized shields and spears and backed away from the openings of the barricade. A single fire had been made in the middle of the camp and was easily wide enough to roast three pigs in a line if someone placed a spit there. Only two tents of red and white striped cloth had been set up, and underneath them were various chests and open, wooden containers filled with wood or stone. They were only there for material protection and the sailors lived in the ship itself.

As for the ship, it had been repositioned sideways after landing and was reachable via a little platform connecting from the sandy beach to the back deck. Just as Stelimus expected, the ship was akin to the 'banana' boats of Ancient Egypt complete with the curved ends, but the design was...off. The entire ship was black. On both ends were narrowing lengths curling inwards to point at the ship and whose ends were carved to resemble Lilies of the Nile, but next to them were two rods composed of two, thinner rods twisting three times until ending in a black ball covered by a blue flame. The central area where there was usually a little building protecting the entrance to the crew quarters was not a solid build of wood but more designed and extending across two-thirds of the ship. The walls were hollowed out, leaving various lines swirling and curving towards a central image identical to the symbol on Hora's torso. The roof of the construct was not a solid piece of wood intended only to cover the cabin. Instead, it took on a practically flat aspect all the way to the border of the cabin until the roof's corners extended outwards and ended in a single, open Lily of the Nile.

"What the...hell?" Stelimus thought.

Hopes and Nightmares

"Wrap up the camp and prepare for departure." Hora ordered. "We're bring those visited by it to Niris."

The anyubinites brushed their left pectoral with their right hands as a salute and immediately went to work. Hora stepped in front of the plank leading to the ship and gestured for the five to cross it. The closer Stelimus got to it, the bigger it became. If he was sure of the wee bit of history he knew; it would qualify as a triple-decked, quinquireme-sized vessel. The bottom of the vessel had been obscured by the rise of the beach dune it had pushed up while being repositioned on the land. Just stepping on the black planks made the group feel uneasy and quite nervous. They didn't like the ship, but they needed to go through with it.

"You okay, Copper?" Stelimus asked as he did his best to hold her up.

"Yes. I'll be fine," she reassured.

Yolumay groaned in annoyance and stomped to the bow of the ship. "Stop being such whiny calves," she scolded.

The two accompanying Hora had split from him and were currently engaged in the menial tasks to prep for sail, leaving him alone with his guests. "I trust you have no form of seas sickness?" he asked with a grin. The guests shrugged.

"We've never been to the sea before," Copper explained.

Hora shook his head. "That won't do at all, but if you do feel a bit queasy, our shipboard doctor has a remedy for that."

He was about to go into the cabin when Yolumay stopped him. "What path are we taking, exactly?" she inquired.

"We're going through the White Sea to enter Lahriin's Ocean."

Yolumay's vacant expression already entailed much to her understanding, prompting Hora to hold in his anger.

"One second," he said.

The anyubinite casually walked down the cabin and into the depths below only to resurface a few minutes later with a rolled up parchment in both hands. He set it on a stump that should have been the location for a mast. The contents of the map had nothing o the left side of the ocean save for a mark over the location of the tundra. On the right of the map were quite a few territories, and right across ocean was indeed 'Saddle Arabia' holding a large percentage of the land mass closest to the beaches that occupied the near entirety of it save for Niris and a tiny slab of land still left unconquered. The northern lands, separate from the Saddles, were painted over with a red hammer. It was a small territory, barely a few dozen square kilometers across, but its colors were spread about like chicken pox in the northern masses. This confused Stelimus, so he pointed to that area of the map.

"What's this?" he asked.

Hora did not budge from his spot and ignored the deer. "We are going to circumvent the coastal territory owned by the Saddle Arabians to reach this spot owned by my people," he explained.

"I asked a question," Stelimus insisted.

"This is the source of several deltas that flow through our territory and allow farming in the arid deserts."

"HORA!" Stelimus shouted.

The anyubinite slammed his hands and dragged his fingers along the surface of the map, almost tearing it up. "Do not assume that because we are going to reveal to you what the 'Black Snow' is-" He turned to Stelimus, both glaring and baring his sharp teeth at him. "-that we'll tell you everything."

Stelimus reared his head back in surprise and didn't dare say anything else.

"With this boat and a proper weather, we should reach it in three days. If not, we'll get there in a week."

Yolumay leaned over the map and rubbed her chin as she contemplated the names. "This is the Hexian Blue," she said as she touched the name of the ocean."

"No, it's Lahriin's Ocean," Hora spoke with a rising tone of annoyance.

Tenyom and Radivus both pushed the reindeer away from the anyubinite. Everyone felt extremely uncomfortable on the boat, as though their souls were being fought over by otherworldly beings and their lives were at risk. The lack of comfort was broken momentarily by Tenyom actually talking for once, and her voice was surprisingly feminine.

"Isn't this sea, whatever its name, currently occupied by the Mer-Auder?" she asked.

"Wait WHAT?!" Yolumay shouted in response.

Hora scratched the back of his head. "Yes, but we didn't really have to deal with it when we came through." He looked on to the vast blue that awaited them all and shrugged after a bit of inner meditation. "It's not a problem. We can deal with it if it appears," he grinned proudly.

"Are you insane?" Yolumay asked. She pointed behind her to the entirety of the vast sea. "Legends say that it and the kraken fought together and created the oceans and seas, and--"

"That the mer-auder lives in the seas and the kraken in the oceans," Hora interrupted. "Yes. I know. Everyone has that legend."

"Everyone?" Stelimus thought. He started thinking about the meaning of 'everyone' in this context. "That shouldn't be. That's a bizarre coincidence for two people so distant from each other and never having met to have the same legend." He turned to his queen to ask her a question. "Have you heard of this legend, Copper?"

"Of course I have, Cotton Candy!" she grinned. "Everypony has!"

"C-Cotton Candy?" Stelimus stuttered.

"Yup!" Copper kissed him on the muzzle, prompting him to blush in embarrassment. "It's because you're big, fluffy, and look like blue cotton candy."

Yolumay snickered at the display while Stelimus turned a deep shade of red, but Horas and the others were apathetic to the display of affection. Still, the 'princess' of the tundran reindeer wasn't about to let the words of the anyubinite slide that easily.

"How are you supposed to fight off something that practically CREATED the world as we know it? What'll you do if the kraken is there as well and they're fighting in our pathway?"

"We'll go AROUND them?" Horas mocked. "This isn't a painting. The sea is in three dimensions. It would exponentially lengthen our time to get to Niris, but we have provisions to last us three weeks if necessary."

"Then let's go!" Radivus shouted from atop the spiraling wood.

It took about two hours for the materials to be brought back onto the ship and for the vessel itself to be pushed back into the sea, but they set off immediately when everything was prepared, leaving little to nothing behind them but invisible vestiges of their camp hidden in the sands. The stumps where the masts and sails should have been sparked briefly, terrifying the guests of the ship. Seafoam green colored shapes grew upon those stumps while the torches at either end of the ship flared up violently in reaction to the growth. Masts coupled with sails had grown on both sides of the ships, stunning the deer.

"Is this magic?" Stelimus wondered aloud.

"I doubt it," Yolumay commented. She passed her hoof through the mast and observed her 'toes' while wiggling them. "It's not our 'essence' either. I have no idea what this stuff could be, and I doubt they'll tell us anything anyways. They seem rather insistent on that."

Leaving the forms be for the time being, Stelimus let his mind wander into the open blue both above and below. Gregary had completely forgotten what it felt like to be at sea; To have the wind blowing on his face, to have the soothing sounds of the waves flowing and the chirps of the sea birds dive-bombing into the water to catch fish. In fact, thinking back on it, the last time he went out to sea was with his friends back when he was twenty-four. That was a pretty long time ago, but he just couldn't quite put a finger on why he refused to go back to sailing across the ocean. The memory refused refused to come back.

"Don't you think this is romantic?" Copper asked Stelimus.

"Huh?"

"We're alone on the front of this ship." A loud crash echoed below deck when she said this. "The others went below deck to see how our accommodations would be like so we have alllllllll the time to ourselves."

"I was daydreaming that hard?" He was broken out of his trance once again by the mare giving him extremely affectionate and almost obsessive eyes. "Personal space," Stelimus said. Copper ignored it. "Gotta talk about our personal space again, Copper?"

The mare stuck her tongue out playfully.

"Geez. If I ever see Cadance's soul, I'm going to ask her what the hell she injected this pony with. This is WAY too excessive." Stelimus had to think of a quick way out of the situation and used the crappiest excuse ever. "Hey, what's over there?" he said as he pointed to the opposite side of the ship and slid away.

Copper nearly fell onto her face but caught herself in time. She glared at the deer and glared, nodding her head.

"Oh, it's going to be like that, is it? I do love a good challenge, but I'll get that kiss," she nodded. "But how do I not make it seem so obsessive?" she thought aloud. "I've managed to get kisses out of him, but he's so flustered when he demonstrates his affection. He's so cute when he does that!" she squeed.

The first day saw Copper respecting Stelimus' need for personal space as she devised a plan to sneak attack him and get the much-needed kiss, but on the dawn of the next day, a disturbing event occurred.

"The mer'auder is there," an anyubinite sailor shouted.

The guests and several anyubinites rushed on deck to see the monster in action. It was a gigantic white creature about a hundred meters in height with four tentacles ending in large clamps protruding from its back. Surprisingly, the muscular 'fish' had two pairs of strong arms ending in three digits; Two for one side and one for the other, and they were positioned in a way that allowed them to still grab things...provided their blade-like forms did not slice through what they were holding. The beasts was minding its own business, so it was difficult to see its face, but once it heard the wooden hull of the vessel pushing through the water, it turned its head to see the culprit. Its left eye had been completely gouged out by a massive horn which grew through the back of its skull, and it was somehow still alive from this. The top of its head was quite flat and the cranium itself quite large, but this didn't hamper the intimidation it gave off. Where there should've been only one eye, two were horizontally placed next to each other in the right eye socket. The intimidation was further driven home by the fact that it was currently chewing on a whale, but despite its somewhat humanoid form, its mouth was not at all opening as one would expect: It opened sideways, and the right 'jaw' split into two mandibles lined with teeth. It was a very bizarre creature.

"Should we be worried?" Stelimus whimpered.

Hora took a bite out of some dried meat while staring blankly at the giant. "No. As long as we don't aggravate it, the thing will let us be."

"Really? That seems strange for something huge like that. I mean, you'd expect it to use that to its advantage and try to destroy everything that bothers it."

Hora loudly exhaled. "Not everything that is enormous wants to kill, maim, and burn, King Anglacite."

"It's 'Stelimus'," the deer corrected.

"Oh?" He turned to face the deer with wide eyes. "You did not inherit your father's name?"

"I did, but--"

"Then your title is 'King Anglacite'," Hora insisted with yet another blank expression. He quickly added "Shortened, of course."

The mer-auder continued staring at the ship and, after several feet of separation had been acquired, started following the vessel. It gradually dived down then rose up very closely to the ship's left side to have a better look on the deck.

"Is it looking for something?" Radivus asked.

"No. As I mentioned, not everything has aggressive intentions. It is probably curious and assessing whether or not we're a threat."

"Oh. I feel MUCH better," Stelimus spoke sarcastically and crossed his forelegs.

Burning Glass

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay in updates. Stuff happened IRL, preventing me from doing this chapter. Also, heat wave. Can't stand temperatures above 20°C/67°F.

Also, I'm developing the future of my second novel: Lux Locus: Familial Troubles while working on here as well.

Burning Glass

Most of the time spent on the boat was uneventful, to say the least, save for what the Mer-Auder attempted to do, be it purposely or not. It nearly caused the ship to crash after reshaping the bedrock below it and raising it up for whatever reason that was known only to it. A storm also found its way onto the sea and delaying the trip by two days. Surprisingly, no one was lost and damages to the ship were minimal, if not nonexistent. The ghostly masts and sails helped with that quite a bit. By the fourth night, the ship had reached the borders of the territory of Saddle Arabia's waters. Atop an artificial mound upon a cliff stood a statue of a very thin horse wearing a cloth over its entire body and holding up a giant cup on its extended foreleg. The facial features were indistinct: A squarish muzzle, hairless head, clear eyes, and no mouth were left as the details for the stone.

"What is that?" Stelimus asked.

"That is one of the thirty-seven prophets of the Saddle Arabians' history," Hora answered.

"THIRTY-SEVEN?!"

"Yes."

"But aren't there supposed to be, you know, only one?"

Hora snorted in response. "No. What gave you such a stupid idea?"

Stelimus looked away and gnawed on his hoof a little bit. "Nothing." The deer tapped his chin briefly. "What are the thirty-seven supposed to be for?"

"I don't know. Ask the Saddle Arabians. I'm not here for that."

"But I thought, because you knew about that, that you would know the precise purpose these prophets had."

Hora raised an eyebrow and walked back to his crew, leaving Stelimus and the other guests on deck and making the deer king groan in annoyance. The closer they got to Niris, the hotter they became, and it was unbearable. Luckily for Stelimus, he had learned an interesting cast using frost essence several years ago and decided to use that to keep everyone cool. The frost on his antlers sparkled brighter and brighter until they erupted off the surface into a wide ball of blinding white and engulfing Copper and the rest of the deer. They all let out a sigh of relief as the 'micro-climate' Stelimus created allowed them to cool off gradually and find protection from the sun rays.

A few hours later, the boat started approaching the coastal line where a small port resided. Said port was pure white and made from various types of stone, but upon closer inspection, the stones turned black depending on the angle one looked at it. The pillars holding up the walkway appeared to be comprised of multiple vines of stone interweaving with each other on a large scale and leaving a hollow space within them. A large warehouse dug into the land to the right of the port received and released several merchant ships going in every direction and carrying whatever cargo the anyubinites made. The warehouse itself seemed just as hollow as the cabin of the ship Stelimus was on with the walls made from the entangling 'vines'. The four corners of its solid, black roof possessed elongated and smooth tiles that converged towards the corners extending outwards and ending in lilies of the Nile. They had a bizarre love for that plant, Stelimus thought. Multiple ships were docked either at the port or at one of the many micro-islands surrounding the area, giving a unique appearance to the seascape and showing that the anyubinites were capable of creating and using whatever it was they needed and wanted. The micro-islands had also been created by them as attested by the large ships of similar design using cranes and pulleys to drop sand and blocks everywhere on the sea. With a bit of force pushing everyone forward, the ship stopped and hit the pier slightly.

"We're here," Hora announced.

"Really?!" Copper shouted joyously.

She climbed on the edge of the ship, despite Stelimus' protests, and jettisoned herself onto the pier. Bouncing left and right, the mare noticed that something seemed off.

"Where's the welcoming committee?" she asked.

"They're over there, at the start of the desert," Hora explained as he pointed further outward.

Stelimus and Yolumay both shrugged as they followed Hora and the other two anyubinites through a hole between two rocky hills while the rest of the crew followed behind while carrying two wagons with four, thirty-gallon barrels of water in total. They had no issues carrying them and, despite the blazing heat, did not pant for even a moment.

"Wow," Yolumay said. "They're really made for this climate."

"Of course we are," Hora mocked. "What, did you think we came from some random area and somehow adapted to it? Like that's possible."

Stelimus coughed while Yolumay scratched her antlers. Once they passed the passage, they were met with multiple anyubinite soldiers wearing armor made some type of black scale that covered their torsos but avoided their arms that were, instead, covered in a semblance of sleeves by the same, seafoam green light. All the soldiers wore nemes headdresses of varying patterns and colors, yet they too were different than the Egyptian pattern Stelimus thought he had seen. Instead of solid cloth, they appeared to be made from an unknown, rough material that reflected black at any angle of the sunlight and did not move in the few breezes of wind that the desert bothered giving any of its inhabitants.

"Who are they?" Stelimus asked.

"They are our military escort."

"But...what about their own provisions?" Stelimus worried.

"It's included in ours."

"So we shouldn't worry about them?"

"No. Now let us away to the capital of Niris, where our Zaoris awaits to meet you."

Stelimus nodded and followed Hora once again, then it hit him: He was doing nothing but following again, just like way before when he was still a...well, he didn't really know what baby deer were called. He never went through basic schools like the others, at least, not in his pony form.

"He's very static when he talks, isn't he?" Copper noted.

"Yeah. Just point A to point B with him," Stelimus sighed.

"I hope his...Zoros is--"

"Zaoris," Stelimus corrected.

"Zaoris, isn't as static as him. I feel like I'm listening to a pre-made voice activated by a punch-card machine."

"I feel that this trip is going to be long and boring," Stelimus sighed.

"Adventure!" Radivus shouted atop his sister.

"Ugh..."

The blazing sun beat down upon the travelers in the desert and would have certainly cooked the 'tourists' were it not for Stelimus' spell, but the hotter it got, the more frost essence he needed to strengthen the spell, and it was getting very, very hot. Sand, sand, and more sand were the only things that were common landmarks here aside from the occasional broken monolith or what looked like the adjacent roof of a pyramid buried in the sand, pleading for help to get out of its prison, but its screams fell silent. The travelers continued their way across the dunes of gold, leaving the ruins and forgotten constructs to rest eternally in a tomb they never asked for. As if that weren't enough, even with their hooves and Stelimus' spells, the deer and ponies could feel their hooves burning up as if they were made of metal and being heated in a blacksmith's forge.

After climbing over dune number one thousand forty-seven, a city came into sight, in but a few hours, and what a sight to behold. Tremendous monoliths with the same design pattern as the support pillars of the pier were dotted at random around the landscape with several hundred buildings and homes surrounding the monoliths' bases. It piqued Yolumay's intrigue when she noticed this seemingly innocuous detail.

"Why do you all live around the monoliths?" she asked Hora.

The jackal raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked at the doe from over his shoulder. "You noticed?"

"Yes. Tell me," she ordered.

The jackal chuckled almost inaudibly. "Each monolith represents one god, goddess, or deity of death that we worship. Those who worship a deity live at the base of their respective monoliths."

"Are there those who worship several?"

"Yes, but we don't accept those kinds of anyubinites."

"What? Why not?!" Stelimus shouted.

The jackal growled, but not at Stelimus. "Those who worship many think they will have more chances to reach an after life if they please one god more, but by doing that, you condemn yourself to being without any afterlife and wandering aimlessly amidst the corridors between the gods' realities."

"But that's stupid," Copper complained. "What if they chose a god and discovered that their ideals aren't the same as theirs?"

"Then they must bend themselves to that god's ideals."

"Can't they change?"

Hora looked the mare straight in the eyes and spoke a single, almost death-implying tone: "NO."

Stelimus stomped in front of Hora and jabbed him hard in the chest. "Don't EVER talk to her or LOOK at her like that again, got it?!"

The soldiers around stopped and only watched the events quickly unfold before their eyes.

Hora shortened the distance between their faces and grinned. "Then don't ask questions you don't need answers to." He extended a finger and gently touched Stelimus' muzzle, then his grin faded. "Hm," he hummed as he looked at his finger. "Bizarre."

"I'm not my uncle."

"Oh, it wasn't for that."

"HORA!" Yolumay shouted.

"What is it?!" he growled.

Stelimus grabbed Copper and hugged her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Y-yes. Don't worry."

"I don't like these guys, and not just because of their culture."

"Why are you judging them all?"

"Because they all watched when Hora acted the way he did, meaning they approve in some manner."

"But that isn't a reason to hate them," Copper said.

"So why aren't there any deltas here?" Yolumay asked smugly. "You said there were deltas coming from the ocean and allowing your people to farm."

"The delta is underground. It opens up in many different areas rather than being a continuous line through the desert as the Saddle Arabians have."

"I see." There was a long moment of silence until Yolumay asked another question. "Anything we should know before reaching the capital...what's its name again?"

"Dreis." Hora wiped some sand off of his torso. "As for what to know, well-"

Into the Mixture

The streets of the city were crowded with anyubinites, but much to the surprise of Stelimus, there were no other species present. It was quite odd, especially with it situated so close to Saddle Arabia. Many of the normal citizens stopped their actions momentarily to see the immense army and strange looking guests walking down their streets. For Yolumay, it felt like they were parading and displaying their military force, almost as if they had been freshly captured prisoners.

"How come there are only anyubinites here, Hora?" Stelimus asked as he scratched his antlers. "I thought that the Saddle Arabians would've been here."

"Because our borders are closed. We still have limited trade relations with bordering countries, but that is it." The jackal pulled his staff from his back and thrust it violently downwards, pushing the hilt out from its retracted hold and into the sands below. "We have no need for outside interference and impeding of our culture."

"But what if we want to learn about your culture?" Copper asked. "I think it would be interesting to see cultural exchanges and historical discoveries with you."

Hora ignored the mare and continued through the street, making the mare puff her cheeks up in frustration. Rounding the corner opened the group up to an immense bazaar filled with a wide assortment of stalls, not too dissimilar to the one that was occurring in the streets of the tundran reindeer's capital. Stelimus' nose stung with the advent of various spices grown in and around the region being sold in the shops and on the streets. For Gregary, the spices displayed in such a manner always made him think of colored sand, and in some sort of sheer bit of surprise, there were just a few performers filling glass containers of various shapes and sizes with different amounts of colored sand, creating different types of artwork.

"You think we could get something like that when we get back home?" Stelimus whispered to Copper.

"Oooo. I'd love that. That looks so colorful!"

A few groups of anyubinites wearing long robes of different colors would often block the way, and much to the deer's surprise, their own escort would stop instead of force the way through like with the civilians. While the robes of these figures were single colors without decoration, the faces were far from being plain. Different kinds of makeup were applied to the faces, ranging from white paint creating different shapes converging to one point, to others displaying microscopic events on the skin. Their headware wasn't spared from this either: One such anyubinite's ears were half-way cut off, and the dried remains were wrapped together and placed atop a small pedestal of white wood sown into a cowl that wrapped around the wearer's head down to the neck while avoiding the face.

"Your people are very...'creative' with the worship of their 'gods'," Stelimus chuckled.

"Each deity has a specific manner in which they want their priests to display their faith. Some require simple make-up and clothes while others want physical displays, such as sacrifices of one's body. Each group created their methodology over time and the gods accepted them as it made each group unique compared to the other."

"Interesting," Yolumay hummed.

Stelimus was once skeptical about these tales of gods and goddesses, but after what he lived through, his own beliefs were put into shock. However, he's had more than enough time to cope with the changes and accept them for what they are. It might not be his home reality, but if Gregary didn't adapt, then those around him would suffer for it. At least, that's how he perceived it. He wasn't really sure how to go about everything.

"We're at the home of our Zaoris now." Hora looked at the group with a tight glare. "I would suggest behaving yourselves."

The palace was gigantic aberration in the eyes of the deer and pony. It resembled a blindingly white, 'step' pyramid with a flat top. A third of the way through, the body was spun in such a way that one of the corners floated over the entrance and a sizeable amount of the wide, stone pathway leading to it. The third part of the pyramid was parallel to the first portion. Strangely enough, the path to the gigantic pyramid was left bare. The lands it held were immense and without much in terms of decoration aside from a few domes, but that was it. On occasion, one could see a few guards patrolling around, but it was the only visible activity on the palace sands. Placed in a manner that allows one to see only one set, three arcs had been set up next to the pyramid and gradually shrunk to a third arc standing above the pathway. In the middle of these white constructs was the symbol that Hora revealed upon his chest when he attacked Yolumay. They had been sculpted in the material to allow the shadow they projected to make that shape, once again, upon the floors.

"What's with that symbol?" Stelimus asked when he saw it on the floor. "It was on your chest as well."

Hora chuckled. "It's related to your 'black snow'."

Lining the pathway large enough to accommodate two large, four-wheeled wagons side by side, were tremendous white monoliths whose bodies were formed of interweaving strands of rock and metal staring down at those who walked in their presence. Their interiors were hollow but glowed a faint, seafoam green. Solid, white pyramids were held by the 'vines' at the top of the monoliths, adding to their imposing appearance. All the white stones here, be they stone slabs for walking or part of the zaoris' temple, changed to a black color with the provenance of the sunlight. It was a strange but interesting material that Stelimus was sure would interest some of his more 'emotional' populace. He would have to try and tout a trade agreement if possible when this was all over.

"Ahhhh. The familiar soul comes closer," a familiar voice spoke.

Stelimus frowned and bared his teeth, an action that didn't go unnoticed by the anyubinites around him.

"Damnit. Not again," Stelimus mentally facepalmed. "I thought it was gone after the fight."

"Leaving never? Perhaps, but the soul is necessary. Grow in the world. Pull from another? Not necessary. Souls never anchored because of body."

Stelimus' face went from frustrated to horrified, and his fur became whiter than usual somehow. "You can...hear me? And spout random nonsense? You couldn't do that before!"

"Just by not doesn't mean can't. Speech not the end goal."

"Is there a problem, King Stelimus?" Radivus asked.

"N-no. Just caught up in my thoughts."

The group passed under the shadow of the pyramid's second half before entering the building fully. They were met with an immense hall with decorative tiles on the floor, and they were very triangle obsessed. Four corners connecting to mini-gardens were tiled with jungle-green while the rest of the floor was tan in color. The plants ranged from simple grass and bushes to palm trees and cacti, adding a bit of color from the cacti's flowers while the smooth walls themselves only added more tan. Three steps took everyone through an archway high enough that even a four-meter man would still need to go on his tip-toes to even attempt to touch the top of the arc. After a few hallways, another, even taller and wider arch opened up to an immense throne room where multiple anyubinites stood guard. The path leading to the throne appeared to float above a pool of sand that grew as more of the minerals fell from unknown locations above but shrunk as they funneled into various siphons below. A bright, white light shined from above, illuminating the room rather poorly. It was quite strange that such a bright light barely illuminated anything. The borders of the pathway to the throne were black in color and actually surround the little, octagonal-shaped platform the throne sat upon and ignored the direct path, almost as if it were holding everything up.

An anyubinite whose features were hidden by the darkness sat upon the gigantic throne made from stone and what could only be defined as 'black metal'. Hora approached him and started to speak. The two exchanged words for some time until the zaoris himself called for the stag.

"Stelimus Anglacite, King of the Deer, come to me." He spoke in an unsettling, low-pitched, and uninterested tone.

This was the start of Stelimus' very first true job as a king: Diplomacy, and it was the hardest thing he would manage. Hiding in the blinding light were three orbs of frost mist that watched from afar and appeared to be stalking Stelimus. How they could get past the Anyubinites was something only they could know, and whatever intentions they had were kept as a mystery. Good or bad? Stelimus and Copper would learn in the future, mayhaps, or the orbs would disappear as they appeared. Who could know?

What is Honk?

Author's Note

King Anglacite of the Tundran deer is always angry and rude. He's just a big 'ol meany mean pants, but no one knows why. Now they will!

This is TOTALLY canon to the Deer Me series (no it isn't). And it's a thing that REALLY happened (except where it didn't which is the whole thing).

This is Lunaexcelsior's fault, by the way.

What is Honk?

"Why?" King Anglacite stomped around in his throne room.

The icicles forming along his antlers were swaying and breaking off to hit the ground below in a loud thud. The large confines of this room felt as cramped as ever to him.

"I'm a GOD!" he shouted with his hoof raised to the sky. "I should be allowed such things! I have changed wives many times before," he rubbed his chin. "Even though that was because they always died and I wanted something new." He stomped the ground angrily, cracking it. "Why does she reject me?!"

"Is there a problem, my god-king?" a guard asked.

"No."

"But it sounds like--"

Anglacite looked down at the armored reindeer and pressed his face against it, pushing down harder and harder until the sounds of cracking stopped and the guard found himself embedded into the ice floor.

"What the...?"

"She keeps rejecting me, but I keep doing what the others loved before!" he repeated. He stopped atop the guard, squishing the deer's muzzle with his hooves. "Perhaps using the pelt of another intruder pony would help bring her to me."

The guard mumbled, prompting Anglacite to step off of him. "What?" the god-king asked.

"If you're really trying to get another queen, then why not try to appeal to other methods of romantics?"

"Because they're not tundran."

The guard looked at his king sideways. "What?"

"You heard me." Anglacite turned around and slammed a hoof to his chest. "If I don't do it my way then nobody will understand."

The guard could almost hear the chorus and see the sunlight shining gently down upon his 'regal' and 'patriotic' ruler.

"Uh-huh...And this has worked before because...?"

"Worked? I just took whomever I wanted to be my bride," he boasted proudly.

"Wh...THEN WHY ARE YOU TRYING ROMANTICS NOW?!"

The god-king grinned and stood proudly. "Because I like a good challenge."

His guard lost any ability to process what was told to him for the moment so he just stared blankly into the distance until system reboot.

"Now then," Anglacite wondered as a huge assortment of vertical containers rose from the floor. "Which one should I try this time?" He tapped each one of the containers -easily thrice his size- and passed them. "Kill all of her enemies? Naaaah. Too easy. Threaten to salt her lands if she refuses my proposals and advances?" He stopped for a moment and pondered on what he just said. The sheer thought of it all, the chance of such an action being performed...he needed to ask himself aloud and straighten his moral compass. "Doesn't that mean the same thing?"

"Not necessarily," the guard answered.

The god-king looked over his shoulder. "Oh, you're still there?" he spoke in an uninterested tone. "I thought you were dead."

The guard's eye twitched and he spoke in a quiet manner that hinted at a hidden undertone of pure rage. "I've been here the whole time. You JUST put me in here."

The god-king ignored the plight of his guard and continued fumbling through the order of things.

"Ahhh. This one is my favorite: Force into marriage using position of power..." Anglacite ripped the container out of the floor and tossed it behind him, letting the thing slam onto the guard. "But that's too easy."

The guard, now dead, floated next to his king with a disappointed and angry expression. "These won't work," the guard continued.

Anglacite groaned in annoyance. "You're dead. Leave me alone. Go to the other side or the 'Valley of Flowers' or whatever it is you mortals do." The god-king stopped for a moment and dropped his head against a container. "Romance is hard," he sighed.

"I know...I have some suggestions, though." The guard cleared his nonexistent throat. "What if you invited her for a little talk so you know what she thinks and you can discuss your lives and see what you have in common."

Anglacite looked at the ghost. He was utterly appalled. "Trying to learn about the other? Talking?" He glared at the guard. "If you weren't dead, I'd kill you again...Actually."

The god-king threw the container into a wall and picked up the squashed corpse from the ice, fixed it using frost essence, then started the guard's heart again. In no time at all, the deer rose up and started gasping for air. I'm alive!" he cheered.

His joy didn't last long because the god-king picked him up, stood on his hind legs, then threw the guard through a window. The stag wiped his hoofs and nodded as it was a job well done.

He sat dramatically upon his throne with his hind legs hanging over an armrest and a foreleg posed over the reindeer's forehead. "Can I not have someone to love truly? Oh, woe is my heart."

The doors of the throne burst open to reveal Princess Celestia.

"What are you doing here, pony-song?" Anglacite asked.

"I felt your love for me and came as fast as I could. I feel the same!"

"You do?" the god-king said as he fluttered down to the princess.

"Yes. Now let us kiss."

"I'll never hate the ponies again and they're all invited to my kingdom for the wedding!"

And then they kissed. Seeing the actions, Copper and Stelimus felt intrinsically romanticized and approached each other calmly and carefully, passion in their eyes. In nary a few seconds that felt like ages, they--

"Copper, are you in here?"

The pegasus yiped and threw her book in the air before grabbing it and clutching it close to her chest. Her heart was pounding in terror and she was sweating profusely...through her fur...somehow...biology? The couple's eyes met, but only Copper's was filled with anxiety as her chest heaved with each gasp of air. She smiled sheepishly as Stelimus narrowed his gaze and frowned at her.

"What's that?" he asked as he pointed to the blue book in Copper's forelegs.

Copper scrunched up her mouth and looked away. "Nothing," she answered.

"...You only act like this when..." His calm tone suddenly became a booming yell. "Were you shipping my dad and Celestia again?!"

"That's with PRINCESS Celestia!" she corrected. Realizing her mistake, she shrunk down.

"AGAIN?! That's the seventeenth time!" "Give me the book. It must be burned."

"No."

"Give me the book! Fire will purify the tainted literature."

Copper jumped off her chair and pushed it at the stag. "You can't destroy my fantasies!" she yelled. "Fire bad!"

"Fire good. It VERY good. NOW GIVE ME THE BOOK! No sane mind must witness what you write lest they lose their souls to a vortex of pain, confusion, horror...and other...bad...things."

Copper puffed up her mouth. "That's not very nice."

Stelimus tried to grab the book from where he was, but the mare dodged him easily and left the giant, king-size bed between the m.

"Stop running!" Stelimus ordered.

"You'll never get my fantasies!" the mare yelled before she jumped out a window and flew way.

Copper left Stelimus utter baffled at what had just occurred. "What is WRONG with you!" he shouted through the window while shaking his hoof.

No Time

A parchment fell from the throne where the zaoris sat, and Hora was quick enough that he grabbed the object and handed it back to his ruler. There was a moment of silence while the zaoris opened the parchment to read its contents. He then stepped off the throne and came into a brighter light, letting the guests see his details. This ruler was slightly taller than Hora and as thin as him. He wore a black robe with gold trims upon the lower half of his body while the upper half remained bare. The tattoo of Hora stretched across his entire upper torso, with the circular 'hands' of the cross being drawn upon the palms and back of the anyubinite's hands while the top had been painted over his face and ended at his forehead. A ring of cloth wrapped around his neck like a scarf and was decorated with thin stripes of gold and large, navy blue stripes in-between. A patch of cloth from the neck ornament stretched from the back of his neck and rested over his head like a flap of colorful skin. His eyes were lined with red make-up, much like Hora, and curved upwards to cover his ears and end in curls. Ears which were pointier than the other anyubinites and a muzzle followed the pattern with increased sharpness.

"You are the ones that were visited by the 'black snow'?" he asked with a stern voice.

Stelimus nodded. "Yes."

The jackal stepped forward and leaned over to have a better view of the deer, but as the seconds went by his face contorted more and more into an angry expression. He shook his head in disappointment and walked back to his throne, mumbling something to Hora to retrieve something.

"I am...disappointed. Truly, I am."

"Why?" Stelimus asked.

"You squandered a gift. I do not appreciate those who reject gifts."

Stelimus was insulted. "What gift?" he asked as he stepped forward. "The snow?!" The deer chuckled briefly. "That wasn't a 'gift'." the zaoris reacted to his words and his eyes widened slightly. "Do you have ANY idea what it's done to my people?"

"Yes. The same people who have rejected you outright and plan to either overthrow or assassinate you?"

Stelimus blinked a few times and couldn't muster up any words, so his sister spoke for him.

"He is not hated by his people. He stands proudly as ruler of the tundran reindeer."

The zaoris looked at her with a blank expression. "Do not lie to me," he spoke seriously. "I can tell simply by his behavior and the way he stands that he's uncomfortable with his position despite being in it for such a long time."

"And how would you know something like that?"

The huffed in response. "As Zaoris Oriyis, I have been in this position for seventy years. I know better than any one of you the telltale signs of good and bad rulers. And HE," Oriyis accused with a shout. "is NOT a good ruler. He panders the people too much and refutes their gifts from the greatest of higher beings no less."

"What higher beings?" Stelimus asked.

"Enough of this," Oriyis waved his hand. "Send them to the guest chambers while I think of what to do with them."

The deer king stomped forward in response to what had been said. "I asked you a question," he stated. "And you're the one who called us here. We were supposed to learn the secret of the Black Snow from your own mouth to help protect my people."

"Enough!" Oriyis bellowed. He stepped down from his throne to stand tall in front of the deer. "I don't have time for squabbles with some petulant child that thinks they're fit to make demands from the likes of me." He grabbed the deer from the antlers and lifted him off the ground, causing the deer king much pain and discomfort. His following did not kindly to these actions and prepared to knock the deer out of the grip. "Like I said, I don't appreciate those that squander their gifts." Oriyis, with his head tilted slightly to the left, glared Stelimus directly in the eyes. "Whether I tell you or not all depends on what I think about your chance of redemption and how I feel about the whole situation.

Despite his struggling, Stelimus couldn't break free, so he let his anger engulf him momentarily and passed a huge current of frost essence through his antlers, instantly freezing the zaoris' arm and causing him to let go in surprise. "Stop holding me up like that!" Stelimus shouted.

The anyubinites reacted to the actions and approached the deer and pony with their spears pointed at them, but the Oriyis stopped them from doing whatever they intended. The ice around the jackal's arm was already melting and he could already move his fingers.

"Very good," he said. "But this doesn't improve my thoughts about how soft you are towards your own people, now get out of my throne room."

Stelimus angrily turned around and his companions followed, the whole group being escorted by several guards around the corner outside the throne room.

"Will you recover?" Hora asked.

"Yes. It is only...a strange substance. It seems incapable of withstanding the heat." Oriyis sat upon his throne and flexed his arm to shatter the ice after it had sufficiently melted and checked his hand and arm for damages. "Good. Bring in the three quarreling about...what was it again?" he asked as he leaned against his throne.

"The inhabitants of a nearby village found a forgotten pyramid of a goddess of death unknown and to us and wishes to convert the village to her praise to bring her back. The priests have been refusing such a thing, as per our rules, while another group has been pleading to bury it once more as it was forgotten for a reason..." Hora rolled the parchment back up. "Or so they claim."

Oriyis leaned back in his chair and tapped the armrests. "Appealing to the villagers would be a wise decision and would bring back a forgotten piece of our history, but I would lose the support of the priests and the gods would surely look ill upon me allowing the conversion. Then there's the rebellious group. They've caused me trouble in the past and appealing to them would also enrage the villagers and lose us valuable agricultural lands." The zaoris splayed his fingers across his mouth and closed his eyes as he meditated on the matter. "How to solve this issue with a minimum of issues."

Stelimus and Copper were placed in a small, single room chamber on the fourth floor of the construct. Holes covered by curtains served as windows and let in a blinding amount of light. A single, circular bed with a fluffy white mattress and four equally fluffy pillows. A bathroom was to the immediate left of the entrance and only had a dry, floor hole to do thine business. The walls were painted sand brown with a golden stripe splitting it horizontally into two. Some lamps made from the black vines glowed faintly enough that they went unnoticed despite being embedded into the walls.

"I can't believe him," Stelimus complained while pacing back and forth. "I came the whole way hoping to find a solution to that thing, because it always comes back, but they brushed me off after THEY invited ME!"

Copper rolled around the bed three times to big for her like a happy dog. "Well, at least we got to see this place. That's nice for me. I mean, we never travel anywhere." She stopped on her belly then clutched her head and gave a wide, open smile emphasized by her sparkling eyes. "It's out honey moon!" she teased.

"I don't have time for that, Copper. He wants something and I want to know what." Copper's ears drooped down and she looked away sadly. "He clearly already knew about how we destroyed the black snow, so why would he call us here just to brush us off? No one would spend the resources for something so stupid."

Copper didn't say anything and sighed almost inaudibly. A miniature monolith embedded into the wall just under the window tore pieces of the wall out of its hold and almost engulfed the entirety of the room in black vines, but Stelimus didn't seem to even noticed and continued pacing back and forth whilst rambling. Copper curled up into a ball and started shaking violently in fear while the metal vines wrapped around her in a dome shape with quick speeds until stopping nigh instantly.

"Hello, pony," a feminine voice said.

"Wh-what?"

"Do not fear. I am a goddess of love and death. There are other traits, but they aren't important at the moment."

"A-a-and death is?!"

The voice ignored Copper and continued. "If you're willing to follow me, I would be more than happy to aid you in your romantic triflings," the goddess proposed.

The pony felt enticed for a moment, despite being terrified out of her wits, but--

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed that 'canon' non-canon chapter prior. Now for a bit of news:

Following my detox thanks to Inkitt and my writing of Lux Locus, I've started resuming many things I had stopped because I didn't get enough comments(This need no longer matters). One of these is the rewrite of The true Psychopath: The story that started the actual use of Psycho.

Back then, I didn't know how to use him and just made him crazy, but after the minutes that've gone by, I know very well how to use him now and will modify the story accordingly. As such, lots'o things are being retconned.

Enough of that

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long to update. I've already started burning out from writing this and rewriting The true Psychopath. I haven't been writing this often for about two years now, so the recovery time is significantly longer than before.

Enough of that

"That is enough of that!" a booming voice said. "Leave the creature alone, goddess. You have no claims over her." The vines started to recede back into the miniature monolith, freeing up Copper's view. "Return to your own followers!"

Copper rubbed her eyes to see Stelimus standing over her, worry in his eyes. To his right stood an interesting figure that she didn't have time to analyze before being glomphed in a big hug by the deer king.

"I was worried," he explained. "You fell asleep and I couldn't wake you up, then he came."

The anyubinite cleared his throat. "I am not a 'he'."

"She, then?"

"Nor am I a she."

Stelimus stared at him blankly then decided to ignore the problem altogether. "The important thing is that you're okay," he said to Copper.

"What happened?" the pony asked.

The anyubinite pushed the deer aside and looked closer at the pony quizzically. It was wearing a full body robe colored a blue so dark it seemed black, but etched into its cloth was the same symbol Stelimus had seen everywhere since coming to Niris. There was actually a surprisingly huge amount of pale, golden lines ending in dots interconnecting with each other all over the robe, and no matter how either of the couple matched them, no image would pop up in their minds. It was only aesthetic. His...its head was covered with a cowl following the same pattern and coloration. One thing the deer king noticed was that the lines were more focused around the openings of the robe, namely the cowl and neck. Metal plates covered most of its face where the bones protruded the most, such as the jaws, chin, and forehead.

"Who are you?" Copper backed away slightly.

"I am Naris the Innis Priest: Head of all the deific sects you have seen here."

"You're the head?" Stelimus asked as he helped Copper onto her hooves. "Of ALL those people?" he pointed to the window.

"Yes, and I can see that you're confused as to what happened." Naris grabbed the monolith in the wall and, with some effort, managed to pull it and some pieces of the wall from their spot. "They should have known better than to leave monoliths in guest chambers," Naris grumbled.

"What exactly DID happen," Stelimus said again. You didn't explain yet."

"Hm? One of the gods found interest in the pony and decided to try and reel her in."

"So they're aggressive?"

"Some are. Others are pacifistic, patient, impatient, and so on. All have their own reasons for doing something, with some being famished for souls as they have rivalries with other gods." The jackal's eyes gleamed at the two. "But with the arrival of you ponies, they see a new soul and will try to claim it and hold you aloft as a trophy amongst their peers."

"I'm a reindeer. She's a pony," Stelimus corrected.

"It matters not. Deer or pony, you aren't anyubinites."

"Then what can we do to protect ourselves?"

"Stay away from the monoliths," the jackal answered quickly and calmly. "I'm sure you were already told that they're the source of the god they've been modeled after, yes?"

"I know. I just didn't think they were that dangerous. I thought they were just edifices made for those gods as a source of temple or site of worship."

The jackal laughed a single time. "I would assume so."

"Um," Copper started while rubbing her head. "You don't seem as distant and, um, rude? Not to offend if--"

"I am supposed to be welcoming. If I was not, any new gods would see a purging that could very well spread to all established temples, and I have no envy to live through something like that."

The pony nodded in agreement. "One more thing, though. What exactly is that symbol?"

"Copper!" Stelimus scolded in a whisper.

Naris threw his arms into the air. "It is the symbol of the greatest of deities and the one that I worship!"

The two felt awkward for a moment until Stelimus decided to delve further into it. "Can we know their name and what they do?"

"No," Naris answered bluntly. "It is the only thing that we never share with others outside of our species."

"Why?" Copper asked.

"My patience has limits, pony," he grumbled.

"But--"

"Just drop it, Copper," Stelimus said. "He obviously doesn't want to talk about it." He hugged Copper again. "I know that you're used to the pony folk who are very open, but this is not the pony culture."

"Once again, I am not a 'he'," Naris said.

Stelimus turned around and looked at the jackal with a face beset by bemusement. "And what should I say, then? Ze? Xe? There are no third person gender neutral singular pronouns."

"'Ye'," Naris said. "We use 'Ye'." Stelimus blinked a few times, perplexing the jackal. "Ye? You know, 'Ye is', 'Ye was', 'Ye will be'? Yis as the past tense and possessive form?"

"He, she, ye, wombo?" Stelimus added.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The jackal readjusted yis' robe and stared at the deer. "I would suggest you curb your humor here, as it is not exactly well viewed by my kind, myself included. Especially when speaking of something so serious."

"But--"

Naris pointed behind him and frowned. "This is one of the reasons the zaoris refused to speak any further with you. I have minimum experience with two different cultures so I have a basic understanding of how such things work when both clash, but I would suggest that you come in, the next time he calls you, and speak in a less 'emotional' tone."

"You frown on emotions?"

"We only frown upon using them when concerning nobility, hence why the others have seen you in a poor light since you've arrived. They do not understand." Ye rubbed yis' chin. "Honestly, I also have no understandings of such things, but as it stands out, I have a ceremony to attend to."

Before Naris managed to go fully through the door frame, Stelimus stopped yem. "You know about the black snow, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't YOU explain it to us Everything here feels too hostile."

The jackal looked over his shoulder and stared at the deer with a widened eye. "Why would a king complain about such things? Surely you've lived in such conditions with your people and foreign policies before?"

Stelimus opened his mouth to rebuke his statements, but as he found nothing to say, he gradually lowered his foreleg and looked down with a sign. Naris did not respond in any manner and continued their way towards whatever chamber permitted their work. If Stelimus knew anything about his time in this world, it was that the characters that gave him information had a tendency to never go away.

Meanwhile, Yolumay had a monolith of her own which she was currently cleaning her teeth with. Whatever deity bugged her found it had failed tremendously and saw its monolith shattered all over the floor., but gods were fond of difficult changes, and considering how these gods of death acted, this one would be quite the trophy if one of them managed to line her to their own after life. As for the two guards taking a moment of rest before resuming their duties, they did not see any sort of deific intervention. They found the pyramid to be rather boring, honestly. Hours passed and the sun was starting to set outside, irritating Stelimus. Unfortunately, he had no real way of returning to his home without the help of the anyubinites, so he was forced to wait.

Finally, an anyubinite came to the couple's room and called for them.

"The Zaoris will speak with you now. ye has finished all of their tasks for the day."

Stelimus and Copper walked side-by-side in the corridors, accompanied by the guards and, eventually, both Yolumay and Stelimus' own bodyguards, ready to see the ruler of the anyubinites once more and hope that ye had the information so required this time.

A Deal

Author's Note

Don't forget the 'ye' pronoun.

A Deal

Stelimus and Copper found themselves back in front of Oriyis and gulped quietly upon seeing...yis' face.

"I have dealt with more important tasks of my people, so I now have time to play with you, little deer." Ye leaned against an arm rest and took a moment to breathe in deeply. "You want to know the source of the 'black snow'. This much has been established already."

"Yes," Stelimus answered. "And so far, you haven't been too..." Stelimus tapped his toes together. "-forthcoming with the information."

"Yes. Well..." Oriyis took some olives from a platter attached to the right arm of yis throne and threw them in yis' mouth. Ye was taking his time to chew, but Stelimus considered yis taunting to be a test. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you think I was testing you?" Ye coughed. "With my irritatingly slow eating." Stelimus did not respond. "Hm. If you are indeed intent on gaining knowledge to reject this 'gift', then I have an offer that might benefit us both."

"Do go on," Stelimus said calmly. He refused to break eye contact with the zaoris.

"Huh. I was expecting you to accept right away." The 'playful' atmosphere surrounding Oriyis immediately dissolved. "I need your aid in an affair concerning my people to the northern reaches of our lands." Hora whispered in yis' ear briefly. "And I have learned that, during your trip to my country, you caught a glimpse of the issue on the map."

"You mean those little dots with hammers over them?" Stelimus responded.

"Yes," the jackal growled. "The little 'dots' are 'lost' portions of my country that I want to recover. I lost them this year and I refuse to lose more."

"That's an awful lot of detail on a map for something seemingly recent," Radivus whispered in Yolumay's ear.

The deer king sat on his haunches and crossed his forelegs. "So what do you expect me to do about it?"

"If you want the information, you'll have to go up north and recover these lost pieces of territory."

"...What? How?"

"I want you to join in our 'debacle'."

"Wait, are you at war?!" Stelimus asked.

"I wouldn't call those things sentient, so I consider this as a hunt to recover territory lost wild beasts."

He gestured behind himself, pretending that his country was right there. "You want me to bring in the entirety of my people, who didn't ask for any of this, to enter a war in a territory they have no reason to be involved with and don't know?"

The zaoris said nothing.

"You want me to join your war?!"

"Yes," Oriyis replied blandly.

Back in the deer capital, Grimliss was standing within the 'secret' lab where the reindeer's finest worked diligently on improving their lives. Stelimus' mother was there, further working on the gunpowder's potential. She and a few other scientists were busy with a few prototypes working on a militaristic application of the substance while others worked on more peaceful aspects that could related to mining or farming.

"What are you doing with those tubes?" Grimliss asked.

"None of your concern," the doe answered harshly.

"Oh. Such an attitude." The dark miasma formed around his right hoof into an imitation of a dragon's claw which he used to grab her by the throat and slowly squeeze her trachea. The scientists around yelled and scampered as far as possible. "You know very well that it wouldn't be beside me to just take care of you like this right now. Your husband had no qualms before."

The doe gasped for air and kept trying to forcing the claws off her, but she couldn't. "W-what if..."

"Hm?" Grimliss hummed as he loosened his grip. "What was that?"

"What would...your nephew think...of you."

Grimliss pondered for a moment then let her go, letting the doe massage her throat and gasp for air after every cough. "You're right. And this isn't my method of working anymore. I don't care for killing randomly. It's just..." He looked at the mare with a curious glare. "Killing me."

"So what DID you come here for?"

"Well, Fyavr, I was curious as to what exactly you've been up to down here."

Fyavr was helped to her hooves by her colleagues who trembled in terror every time they looked at the god-king.

"I mean, you've been down here for eight years. What you've been working on certainly can't be that important." He examined the black powder on the white table. "I thought you were doing this as a way to cope with losing your husband, but I learned from the mouth of your own son that you didn't really leave the laboratories before then."

Fyavr glare at him as she massaged her throat, but she felt herself assailed by the grimy hands of some manner of 'evil' spirit grabbing onto her soul, and Grimliss' eyes started glowing as the miasma started forming a frown over his jaws.

"You haven't been actually experimenting on the Black Snow, have you?"

"Wh-what?! How dare-Erk!" The hands started crushing her insides.

"Do not lay to me, doe. The one thing I will kill anyone over is from the use of and-or corruption from the Black Snow. I am, however, curious as to the purpose."

The doe fell to the ground. "I swear!" Fyavr pleaded. "I don't have any of that here."

"The dead cannot lie, Fyavr."

"And the dead cannot enter these halls either without you being here."

The hands disappeared from the doe who was now standing upright, enduring the pain and staring a god-king straight into its face. She had courage, that was certain, but there was something else hiding behind it that pushed such a thing forward, and it was not her experience of having a god-king as her own mate.

"Fine. I'll leave you be, but if any of you are dabbling in such things, I won't let you corrupt the rest of the tundra. I've about had it with losing family."

"Then get out of here."

Grimliss almost took a step forward but refrained from doing so. "Speaking of family, you do have a strange relationship with your own son. During the first years of his life, you were always with him, then you stopped." He brushed some of the miasma off of himself. "Oh, how the 'motherly instinct' lasts so short."

With little care, he immediately left the facility and returned to the throne room where he started to ponder on what to do next. He had done all that he needed, and his suspicions were well-founded, at least to him. For now, however, he would need to get back to the tasks at hoof, and one of them involved sending the armor and weapon Stelimus had forgotten to him, but just how would he proceed with such a daunting task?

"M-my god-king?" one of the guards stuttered. "Where were you?"

"That's not important." He looked at the guard. "So, what is it?"

The guard gulped and mumbled under his breath. "What was that?" Grimliss asked. The guard mumbled again. "Speak up!"

"The armor and weapon of your nephew have disappeared!"

"They what?!"

In Niris, Stelimus sat on a bench surrounding a tall, white monolith and rubbed his temples. Copper kept away, but Yolumay and the other two did not.

"Time to think? You ponies have a strange tendency to take so much time into thinking."

The deer king was getting quite tired of all of this slander and stupidity surrounding him. These anyubinites were impossible to talk with. Even that pope thing was extremely aggravating to deal with.

"What now?" Stelimus asked aloud. "I can't decide on what to do."

"Well, what are our options?" Yolumay asked. "I'm a warrior. You're the king. You must make the tactical decisions based on what exactly it is you know and have."

"Well," the deer tapped his chin. "I know that if I go to war, it'll be against a people I've never met and for a people I do not know, all for the loss o my own people that don't like me. I don't want to go to war for that reason...but if I don't, they'll never tell us he source of the Black Snow and how to stop it, which will cause the future reindeer and ponies eventual death."

"The god kings are indeed few in number now, and with every encounter..." Yolumay spun her spear in place. "It's uncertain that Grimliss and Effervescence will ever be able to stop it if it comes for us again. The tundran reindeer will be lost forever, not to mention the chance that it doesn't at us and keeps gong south. The whole world could be engulfed by the black snow and warped...changed...Their souls essentially destroyed."

"You see things in black and white, Stelimus."

"I don't see things in black and white," Stelimus replied.

Yolumay twitched her head. "I didn't say that."

"Mix the two and you'll have a color that mixes in between."

"Copper?"

"I'm too far for you not to recognize me," she replied with a shout.

"Then who is talking to me?"

If you truly want to start negotiations, start mixing the colors. Only you can do that. Keep the essential basis of the proposal but modify certain aspects to be more profitable to you than to them. The importance is not what you want, but what you NEED."

"..."

"Stelly?" Copper called out.

"I think I have an idea about what is that I need to do."

"There's a good stag."

"Excuse me?" a voice asked.

"Yes?" Radivus replied as he and Tenyom stepped in front of the cloaked figure.

"You don't need to block my way to Stelimus."

"You know who I am?" Stelimus answered.

The tan cloak looked like it just imploded, revealing the colorful figure of Effervescence. The flowers on her head had started retaking shape, and the vines surrounding her body had chipped away, giving way for a new generation of vines to come forth.

"Effervescence?! What are you doing here?!" the deer king shouted.

The doe fumbled a bit and looked down, averting her gaze. "You forgot your armor and weapons," she said.

A large bud popped out from the ground and blossomed open to reveal the armor and spear Stelimus wore so long ago.

"I didn't really forget them, but--"

"I had them made to change size with you, nephew."

"Oh. Well. Thank you," he hesitated to say.

The stag took the armor and spear out from its hold, ignoring the crowd staring at them from afar. As he inspected his 'forgotten' belongings, something hit him mentally.

"Wait, how did you know I was here?"

Effervescence looked upwards and scrunched her lips inwards. "Well, I used...the plants..."

Stelimus pointed at her accusingly. "Are you stalking me?!"

"Well," she clapped her hooves together. "I wouldn't say 'stalking'. That's a vulgar term."

"You are stalking me! What's wrong with you?!"

The god-king started shrinking from Stelimus' yells and accusations while the anyubinites around stopped most of what they were doing and were now staring at the 'tourists'.

From the pyramid, Hora and Oriyis watched from up high, near the peak. They were observing the events transpire before them.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Having these outsiders intervene?"

"If they are truthful in their sayings of this 'black snow', then they will become our allies regardless. However, I must make sure that they aren't just fodder. Especially this young 'king'. I will know if he has the ability to improve when he comes back with his answer."

"What if he refuses?"

"HA!" the zaoris bellowed. "There is too much on the line for him to refuse, but he is most likely going to go through the possibility. All he can do is accept and go to war with them."

"If this is your plan then I hope it comes to fruition."

Oriyis started intently at the deer king and squinted. "There's something near him, but I can't see it."

"A mirage?"

"Perhaps."

Clauses in the contract

"I don't have time for your creepiness, Effervescence. I have something I need to do first, so let's go, guys."

He put on his armor and held his spear before going to the zaoris' pyramid and stood before the throne, the jackal waiting for yis long awaited answer. Effervescence, however, wasn't too happy of what just happened and was left standing awkwardly in the street. She was outside of her environment, but that wasn't the only reason she felt like crying.

"Already dressed for war?" Oriyis said. "Have you come to a conclusion?" He frowned and leaned forward in his throne. "Or have you come threatening me?"

"Yes," Stelimus said. "I accept your deal."

The zaoris smiled. "Good. I expect a fleet of your finest warriors here in two weeks."

Stelimus chuckled. "I hope I know what I'm doing. You didn't let me finish."

"What?"

"I'm not going to war with your enemies."

"Then you don't accept my proposal."

"That is false. I accept it, but with changes."

"And what makes you think that I would accept any sort of change?"

"Because I realized something interesting: Why else would you suggest such a thing if you didn't need us. If you're really as grand as you seem to laud yourself as, then you would have already recovered your lost lands. This 'enemy' of yous seem to have you stuck, and you need a second force to break the stalemate, am I right?"

"Go on."

"Furthermore, I also need you to explain the source of the black snow to me, but I can't refuse the offer because I need to know where it comes from. This is why we need a mutually beneficial 'contract' between us."

"You seem to have changed in just a few hours. That is unusual," the jackal spoke with a grumbling voice. "Then what can you propose to help alleviate the issues?"

"Let us go in as a 'forward operations' team. We'll go in, disable what you consider threats, then your troops can go in anyways."

"And what do you have to gain from something like this? There is no glory in such actions. No recognition."

"I don't seek glory nor do I seek recognition. However, since no one here knows what us reindeer are, the enemies there will not seek to war with my people if we're caught."

"And what will you do if they catch and kill you? What then?"

Stelimus looked down and clenched the frost essence around his antlers. "They don't exactly see me in good light, so they would be rather...ecstatic to know that I am dead."

"Stelimus," Copper exhaled.

There was a moment of silence. Stelimus was entirely knew to this whole 'negotiations' system, so he was incapable of thinking up a better method of proving his trustworthiness. Still, he hoped it was enough foe convincing.

"You do know that, by telling me this, you put your people in a position of weakness, yes?"

"I know that."

The zaoris nodded in approval. "You already learned to negotiate using a weakness as an advantage."

"Huh?"

"You know that you are weak, and that we are at war, but by stating that your people would be happy in seeing you dead, you put yourself in a position of strength. A--" Ye twisted his hand in circular motions. "position of sacrifice. If you succeed, you get the information you require. If you fail, your people end up better off because of it."

Stelimus smiled sheepishly. "Right."

"Very well. I accept the proposal. If you succeed in the tasks put before you, then you will get the information that you want. If you fail, well, the outcome is obvious."

"It is..."

"Well then. I consider this to be a successful negotiation, so you may continue walking around the capital and educating yourself on our methodology of combat. You will be summoned tomorrow...whenever the preparations to leave north have been completed. You may return to your chambers here whenever you are ready as well. They weren't given to you for only a few hours."

Stelimus saluted the zaoris and walked out proudly, refusing to slouch in the slightest. The anyubinites were unimpressed, although they were quite stoic for basically anything and everything happening around them. If anything, they had far more discipline than Gregary had observed in his own reality. Such a thing terrified him. No creature should ever be like a machine, just waiting for the opportune moment to grab him and throw him into the inescapable sinkhole below the throne.

The deer king took in a deep breath after getting outside of the pyramid and almost fell to the floor. It felt like his heart was blowing dynamite in his chest in order to escape his rib cage, and he could feel cold sweat pouring all over his body, and it had nothing to do with his actual association to the cold.

"Are you okay?" Copper asked.

"Y-yeah. I'm just...I never expected such a thing. It's incredibly stressful," he wheezed.

Copper took the opportunity to hug him and nuzzle herself under his neck. Unlike most times, he didn't fight what she was trying to do and she could hear his heartbeat slowing down.

"Congratulations, brother," Yolumay said as she walked towards him. "You stood up to another ruler of a country; One as dreadful -perhaps even more-than- as our father."

"It didn't feel good, I can tell you that," Stelimus gasped.

Effervescence was sitting on her haunches and fumbled with her forehooves, occasionally lifting a hoof slightly and opening her mouth a little bit, then retracting the actions. Stelimus noticed her and did his best to speak to her with his usual tone, but he was still reeling from the incredible amount of stress.

"What are you still doing here?!"

"Well...I just thought..."

"You just thought what? That'd you'd try to finish corrupting my sister?"

"I didn't--"

"Or that you would attempt to corrupt my mind as you did those kernels of corn you have scattered around your forest domain?" He pointed at Effervescence, poking her muzzle. "I remember you trying to kill me when I was about to leave. You tried to kill her, especially. Hell, you were toying with Yolumay the whole time."

"W-well, if it wasn't for me," She pushed forward a little more, but her voice was still trembling. "-you two would have never shed your differences and become closer!"

"AND THE SOLUTION TO THAT WAS TO MAKE US WALK CLOSER TO THE BOUNDARIES OF DEATH ITSELF,!"

"I--"

"No! If you want to hang with us, then go ahead, but I've had it up to Jupiter with the stupidity of this bizarre family." He backed away from his aunt and narrowed his eyes. "Only Grimliss and Yolumay are good members of my 'family', and it took Yolumay several years to change."

"But, I'm trying to change too!"

"No you're not," Stelimus spoke in a disgusted tone. "You're just trying to compensate for the feelings of inadequacy that you got when you discovered that you couldn't control me and when you lost to both my sister and I when we fled your realm. You can't stand that not everyone can love you, despite you actually brainwashing them to get to that point." He snorted. "You're trying to make yourself feel better by using artificial methods of winning back my trust." The deer king tapped his head several times. "That's not how this works. You can plug up mighty stone walls with little plastic toys." He walked back to Copper and put a hoof over her back and under her wings. "And Copper is one of the best ponies I've ever met, and even she is a better part of my family than you."

The mare was torn between feelings of guilt and pity for Effervescence, and feelings of joy and romance with Stelimus. "Should I say something?" she thought to herself. "...No. I'd best keep quiet for now. I also need to improve myself, and the way I am now, they wouldn't listen to me, and I would make things worse."

Yolumay glared at her aunt for a long time while the two bodyguards of Stelimus couldn't care less. The only thing they cared about was protecting their king and friend. Meanwhile, the god-king was left to fester in her spot. She made little circles in the sand with her hooves and sighed.

"I am too trying to improve. I'm just...bad at it."

Author's Note

As another note, as I mentioned to Wlam, Effervescence does indeed call herself 'god-queen', but the term 'god-king', despite it having a male term in it, is considered gender neutral title.

Cultivation

Author's Note

Getting a block on how to proceed. Hence slow update and a rather pointless chapter.

Cultivation

"So, where are we going, King?" Radivus asked.

"I don't know," Stelimus answered. He was withholding his bubbling anger.

"But we're just walking in a straight line through the city."

"It will help us SIGHT see and vent frustration and stress."

Tenyom stepped forward and decided to try and soothe the situation. "You shouldn't be so easily moved by personal anger. If you intend to return home a new stag, then you need to learn to control your emotions and find ways to vent them"

"I found a way!"

"Raging down the streets is not a discreet method of--"

Stelimus stopped in his tracks and glared at his guard. "You have no idea what she did," he spoke calmly. "So don't act like you have some sort of 'magical' solution to my problem. It's longer lasting than you might think."

Tenyom did not react nor did she flinch when her king walked away after that hostile response. Instead, she went immediately towards Yolumay to ask of the events that transpired. Unfortunately, like her brother, Yolumay refused to divulge the events, but it seemed far less unusual for her compared to Stelimus.

The group continued their unfortunate walk through the large, desert metropolis until they reached the outskirts. Instead of just being a vast field of sand, there were several patches of blue, bubble-like plants surrounded by white leaves.

"What are those?" Copper wondered.

She fluttered towards the objects in question and noticed that the plants were a full head taller than she was, and their leaves were like humid sponges. Poking the body of the plant itself revealed it to be a soft membrane full of water, much like a balloon.

"Finding our produce interesting?" a voice asked.

Copper spun around to see an anyubinite with crossed arms looking at her with a disappointed expression.

"I don't recall letting a Saddle Arabian walk through my fields."

"But I'm not--"

"She's not a Saddle Arabian," Stelimus explained. "She's a pony."

The jackal's eyes widened and ye looked at the deer in awe. "What manner of creature are you supposed to be?"

"I'm a reindeer of the tundra."

"Tundra? There is no such thing here."

"We came from across the seas upon invitation by your zaoris."

"Ah, yes. Yir."

"Yir?"

The jackal looked at Stelimus with a bemused expression. "Him, her, it, yir."

"Oh...I'm still not used to that gender neutral pronoun."

The jackal huffed. "So you were invited to our country by the zaoris? You must be extremely important. I recall him asking a king from a faraway place to come here, but he was brushed off."

"Excuse me," Copper interjected. "I wanted to apologize for intruding upon your lands."

The jackal looked at the pony briefly then back to Stelimus. Radivus walked up to the pony and nudged her gently.

"Did you forget that they aren't exactly the most 'sensitive' of people, Copper?" Radivus reminded.

"No, but I thought it would be wrong not to do so."

"So what exactly are these things?" Stelius asked as he poked one of the plants.

"Aquinif. Water balloon plants." Ye grabbed a leaf and squeezed it slightly. "Their leaves absorb moisture in the air and create their own water from the nutrients in the ground, the excessive sunlight, and the extreme heat."

"But I thought you didn't need much water to survive."

"We don't," the jackal answered. "Unfortunately, we still need some. I supply my people, but other farms usually export collected water to the Saddle Arabians," ye explained while scratching yis head.

"And...How DO you extract water from them? Just pull them out?"

The jackal took a large, cooked clay bucket and poked a hole in the plant with yis claw. The plant popped and a large quantity of water flushed out of the membrane and into the bucket. With the water gone, the thin membrane was left empty and on the floor, although the leaves did not change in their positions above the ground. The anyubinite ripped the membrane off and folded it.

"Like that. We even use the membranes," she said as she held the object up. "They can be used for covers or protection against heat." Ye placed the membrane on one of several hooks adorning yis shoulder pads. "Good for keeping the water fresh." Ye placed the bucket on the floor and observed yis guests. "So...Why are you here again?"

"Because my brother has had issues with a certain someone who shouldn't have come here." She snarled. "I'm not too enthusiastic about her being here myself."

The anyubinite waved yis hands. "That's none of my concern. Is there anything you really want to do here or will you be leaving?"

Before Stelimus could give an answer, he saw a group of other anyubinites praying to the plants either on their knees or standing up. He was terrified to see large worms wriggle their way out of the sand and devour scorpions that were infesting the garden before returning to their homes underground.

"What was that?!" Stelimus shouted.

"Servants of our god of protection and agriculture."

"Not the anyubinites," Stelimus rudely corrected. "The worms."

The jackal crosses yis arms and frowned. "I was talking about the worms."

Stelimus paled and shrunk. "Oh..." he squeaked.

The jackal shakes yis head. "You like to yell a lot. Are all reindeer like this?"

"Only Stelly," Copper said.

"You should learn to control that, or I might be inclined to have the 'worms', as you call them, 'escort' you from my fields," the jackal growled.

"How am I supposed to remain calm when I'm so stressed?!"

"I am also stressed, but you do not see me screaming to a god of war."

Yolumay's ears perked up. "You have gods of war?"

The jackal nodded. "Many, in fact."

"How much is 'many'," Yolumay attempted to inquire.

"Mmm...About thirty, give or take. There are too many for even we to follow entirely, but few of them have 'war' as a major aspect."

Yolumay carved a stray piece of antler off with her spear and looked at the tip. "Interesting," she mumbled.

Stelimus shook his head in disappoinment at his sister and rolled his eyes. "I'm not an anyubinite. I'm a h--reindeer," he corrected himself. "I'm also responsible for so much and it stresses me out so much."

"I can tell you have issues with such things."

"Oh? And how would you know that?"

"From your inability to determine when, where, and to whom you should share these details."

"Told you," Yolumay interjected.

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"The fact that you're still here determines that you did something to our zaoris."

Stelimus reared his head back. "Are you going to hurt me because of it?"

"Not at all. We would've known if you physically wounded him." Ye flicked something of yis shoulder before continuing. "This also means that you somehow bested yim somehow in a battle of wits." Ye nodded in approval. "I like that. Keep going and you'll have my voice if an alliance or trade relations become a discussion in the future."

"Oh...Thank you?" Stelimus stuttered.

There was a moment of silence until the anyubinite spoke. "If you want to relieve yourself of stress, I would not be remiss to have extra helping hands." Ye looked at yis guests' feet. "Or hooves, in this case."

Stelimus shrugged. "Well, learning more about you would help me a bit, so sure. I don't mind a bit of manual labor."

"Then get to the group over there praying near the plants. They'll get you started. I have some fertilizer to get."

Stelimus turned around to face the group. "This is just something I want to do. You can all do whatever you feel like or join me," he suggested.

Yolumay left without saying a word and the two guards remained for obvious reasons, but Copper remained with the stag, preferring to stay next to her 'Stelly' rather than wander alone, or worse: Wander with Yolumay.

The praying anyubinites actually brought something to Stelimus' attention. Something so obvious that he didn't even notice it except after introducing themselves.

"Is yer a child?" he asked the grown anyubinite in regards to a few smaller ones running around.

"Yes. They are our children," the jackal responded and looked into the field towards another.

"Children? But aren't you genderless?"

"Yes," the jackal answered casually.

"But then how--"

"That's not something we divulge outside of our own kind."

Stelimus' eyes twitched and Copper scratched her head and practically drooled in confusion.

On the road again

Stelimus and his group were standing in front of the zaoris and his contingent, with a large conglomeration of anyubinites there as a sign of respect to their ruler, and all stood near another monolith of one of the many gods of death. It was ominous and its hollow interior glowed with a faint mint green light, as if the gods themselves were watching.

"So what is it that we need to do?" Stelimus asked.

"You will go to Saddle Arabia," ye started "and then you will leave for the north. Our own soldiers will be stationed up there, awaiting your arrival provided it takes you two weeks."

"What if we're late or early?" Copper asked.

"If you're early, then you must wait. If you're late..." Zaoris Oriyis snorted and poked Stelimus in the chest. "Then you better not be late," ye threatened.

Stelimus looked down at his finger and slowly removed it from his chest. "Don't poke me," he said sternly.

Hora walked past the right of his ruler and gestured the five to follow yis, which they did. Oriyis glared at the ponies, and the people around yis were certain they saw yis eyes glow a threatening, purple hue before ye turned around to return to the duties awaiting yis in the pyramid overlooking the whole desert like a living sentinel. Hora kept yis arms behind yis back and did not speak. Ye seemed to be contemplating something important, and it worried Stelimus a lot. In his time as a human, this usually meant that the person might care about you, but conflicted with their ideals. His sour expression added to this assumption.

"As always, you will have access to a cart full of water tanks and dried fruits and vegetables of the local region."

"Are they toxic to us?" Radivus asked.

Hora blinked slowly and stared at the deer with a tired expression.

"Right," he chuckled. "You wouldn't have given it if you hadn't known."

"No. I couldn't know. Know knowledge of your physiology. You're going to have to make bets on it, but I doubt you'll last four days of walking through the sands with no food." Ye hit the cart's side, inciting the creatures attached to it to hop out of the sand.

"What are those things?" Stelimus shouted.

"Sablysts. Four of them are needed to pull this weight."

The deer king took a long gaze at the flaps of flesh flapping about the sand like fish out of water. "They look like sand-brown, side ways H's with the limbs folded inwards."

"It's how they swim through the sand."

"Swim?" Stelimus repeated skeptically.

"Yes. How else are you going to call it? Dig? You can't truly dig through sand."

Yolumay approached one and extended her hoof to touch it, but the sablyst didn't like that and snapped at her as best as it could from the confines of its harness.

"Hmmm," she hummed. The doe punched the creature out cold, letting it rest limply on the surface of the sand.

"What did you do that for?!" Stelimus bellowed.

"What? It tried to bite me."

Hora sighed and rubbed yis temple. "They don't have teeth. They have filters to absorb the thin particles of nutrients hidden in the sand."

"Then what was that attack?"

"Sablysts snap at perceived threats, and they perceived you correctly," he growled.

The deer king shook his head in disappointment. "Right, well, aside from my sister's requirements of full-blown violence, how do we control these things?"

Hora walked to the front of the carriage and held thick, black ropes attached to the sand creatures. "You simply use these to control them. Whip it to tell them to move, pull it to get them to stop, and pull in different directions to have them turn."

"Oh. So it's almost like horse carriages. Sounds easy enough."

"I should hope so, now get going. I have other matters of advisories to attend to. Have a 'fun' trip."

Hora's last words were paired with a capricious grin that hid something sinister, the stag thought, but so far, every single one of these people seemed to do that, so the deer king brushed it off and hopped into the carriage with his wife and companions. It took a few tries of whipping the cords and a bit of water to wake up the sablyst Yolumay knocked out, but the group had finally started their trip through the hilly dunes of the vast desert. Were it not for Stelimus' frost essence keeping everyone cool, it was a certainty that they would all cook in the scalding light of the sun. The hot winds also had some effect on the group, but the essence held strong. A few dust devils and cacti would appear in the landscape every now and then, but there wasn't anything significant hiding in the brown river. Something caught Yolumay's eyes, something blue and iridescent that hid in the corner of her eyes but disappeared when she turned to face it.

"What's that?" Copper wondered aloud.

Everyone turned to face what she was pointing at to see a few large mounds of glass jutting from the sand and reflecting light in all directions. They were quite a long ways apart, but were otherwise weren't anything substantial aside from being a bizarrety in the landscape. One thing that nearly topple the wagon over was the sudden appearance of giantic, mermaid-esque creatures erupting from the sand. Their tiny, multi-eyed, insect heads rested on a layered, elongated neck attached to a large body with a long, flap of skin extending from its underbelly. They had a long, scorpion's tail and two arms ending in large appendages resembling blocks of stone. Considering their past experiences so far, the group readied themselves for defense, but the creatures didn't do as expected. They cautiously sniffed the sablysts for barely a second, looked up at the wagon's occupants, then dove back into the sand.

"What were those?" Yolumay asked excitedly.

"I don't know," Stelimus hummed. "We could ask the Saddle Arabians when we get there...provided they talk to us," Stelimus mumbled under his breath.

"I met them before," Copper said.

The four deer turned to face her, disbelief painted on their faces. "What?"

"Yeah. They came to the Crystal Kingdom." She laughed loudly. "They looked like yetis with all the coats they were wearing."

"And?" Yolumay interjected. "What does that have to do with them?"

"Oh. Um, they're actually very nice, although a bit eccentric," she frowned. "They like silk and excessively strong colors."

"Well, every nation has its appearance, so, that's not to be unexpected," Stelimus scratched his head.

The sablysts screeched without warning and started wobbling in every direction they could, forcing Stelimus to fight with them to keep the creatures under control.

"What's wrong with them?" Radivus asked.

"If I knew this wouldn't be happening."

Tenyom pointed to the north-east of the wagon, revealing a sizeable, brown golem of stone. It was humanoid in appearance and bared eyes of green, lips jagged like teeth, and a mouth with nothing in it but the rounded end carved so long ago. Its wrists were surrounded by slowly rotating cuffs whose surface was coated with ancient curved runes. The cuffs themselves were linked to the creature's wrists via multiple bars of metal that carved and destroyed the regrowing stone whose chunks would be flung everywhere when the creature swung its enormous hands, easily twice the size of Anglacite.

"Grab the reigns," Stelimus ordered his sister.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to take care of this creature."

"My king, you cannot!" Radivus warned. "What if you are harmed?"

Stelimu shivered. "I'm still not used to be called 'my king'. Makes me feel like a douche..." he spoke quietly. The stag stepped onto the risen border of the wagon and stared at the creature trekking its way through the waist-high sand to attack. "Back then, I had no power. I was young and still getting used to my powers. When I did start getting better at controlling frost and spirit essence, the Black Snow far surpassed any of us, but now...This creature is barely thrice my size, and I'll show it not to mess with us!"

Stelimus stood proudly, his gaze filled with conviction. Copper looked at him in awe and watched his antlers glow. She didn't feel love so much as she felt amazement. The stag's antlers were slowly wrapped in a small blizzard filling with deep-blue spheres of ice, and the mass of ice was growing ever bigger. Stelimus started swinging his head around and around then launcher the creation at the golem of sand. Copper shielded her eyes from the flash that engulfed everyone briefly, tossing them into a storm of ice and snow where the 17pounder cannonballs of ice spun around the edges of the white typhoon just to be shot at the golem, destroying it after several hits. As for the storm, it gradually ceased after a minute, leaving the ice-ridden sand to thaw on its own.

Yolumay pounded on her brother's back cheerfully. "Great job, Stelimus. I didn't think you could pull something like that off," she teased.

"I didn't know you could do that," Copper added.

"I have to say I wasn't either," Radivus nodded in approval.

"Well, I've had help from my uncle and a few other...spiritual acquaintances," the deer king cringed.

"Looks like we're here, though," Yolumay interjected.

In the distance were several large buildings with shiny, red roofs and buildings that were well maintained, painted with various colors, and covered with a wide variety of tapestries all sorts of designs and shapes. There was even a large, two story water fountain complete with two levels of bowls to receive and pump back the water being sprayed in spirals above everyone.

"Seems like a waste of water," Radivus sighed.

"Yolumay, watch out for that pony," Stelimus warned.

The cart stopped just in time for the group of Saddle Arabians to walk past them with carts full of spices and creations of the city.

"AaAaAAaaaa NNHAAAAA," the foremost stallion chanted under his covers.

Stelimus narrowed his and lift a hoof. "Uhhhhhh..."

"What is it?" Copper asked.

"I don't know. I feel like hat was in bad taste."

"What was? The chanting? Saddle Arabians merchants and builders love to sing when they work. It helps pass the time in the heat."

Yolumay lifted an eyebrow. "You seem to know a lot about these people."

"Well," Copper shied away. "They did stay a long time in the Crystal Kingdom. They loved the architectures the crystals made naturally everywhere."

"So..." Yolumay started. "What now? How do we find our 'contact'?"

The group remained silent. Hora did mention the potential of a contact, unless it was the zaoris. Perhaps both. They had already forgotten, but they were still supposed to receive contact once inside.

Now what?

"So what do we do now?" Radivus repeated.

Stelimus scratched the back of his head. "Well, we can start walking around...I don't know. It's worked for us so far." He smiled sheepishly.

Yolumay facehoofed and groaned in annoyance. "Really? It's not good enough that we have to walk through unknown territory, but now we have to rely on sheer luck because we weren't told what this 'contact' looked like?! I can't believe this."

"I can't HELP it if I'm not that good at this whole endeavor yet. I wasn't given proper training for my position, you know."

"That doesn't mean you couldn't have asked him--"

"Ye," Radivus corrected smugly.

Yolumay and Stelimus bent slightly to get a better look at him. Stelimus and Yolumay's eyes were wide open and their lips pursed. The small guard shrunk away and almost buried himself under the sand.

"Where were we?" Stelimus asked.

"Talking about how you could've asked the zaoris about what the contact looked like."

"Ok yeah. That. Well, it slipped my mind. I was kind of stressed at the time, so give me some respite."

The discussion went from heated to calm very quickly, and all because of an awkward deer butting in for no real reason. A figure approached the group at the entrance of the city and cleared his throat to grab their attention.

"Yes?" Copper asked. "Do you need something?"

"Yes. I'm your contact."

"...How did you find us?" Stelimus asked.

"Well, one, you aren't ponies, and two, you're all bellowing so loud that ancient sultans must have risen up by now."

Stelimus rubbed his shoulder in embarrassment. "So, can we go?"

"Yes, and take your wagon and your sablysts with you. I do have need for a bit of water."

The contact was tall and thin; A detail shared amongst all the Saddle Arabians, at least when it came to average body shapes at birth. To Stelimus, they all looked like horses rather than ponies. Continuing with his observations, Stelimus noticed that the stallion's mane and tail were sprinkled a bit of golden sand that blended rather nicely with the chocolate-brown of both parts of his body. His coat was a mixture of a very dark black, almost vanta, but a pale sheen of green-yellow could be seen in certain angles of the sun.

The closely built buildings gave Stelimus an impression of a lack of experience concerning city expansion as every single building he saw so far was either one or two stories tall. No apartment-like complexes to accommodate multiple residents in a smaller area, which Stelimus was certain was going to create areas too large for the local law enforcers to cover, but having so many buildings allowed most of the merchandise to be kept safe and large stocks to be held and sold. The group had to dodge a mare barreling out of a restaurant and cursing at the owner in her native tongue, only to be met with the same verbal abuse.

"This place is so different from my 'home' and Niris. There's no open bargaining on these streets. It's like I'm seeing Earth's big cities again."

A few large carts were pulled through the streets, scraping against the one used by the 'tourists'. Others were being loaded with crates of various sizes or statues. Humorously, one of the loaders dropped a crate and both his boss and the maker of the damaged goods were having a fight about how the employee was either too clumsy or the box was simply too heavy for him to do on his own.

"This place is pretty energetic," Copper commented.

"Yes, but the streets aren't as lively as they once ere," the guide lamented. "I remember a time where the most beautiful and most enormous of tapestries and silk dresses were sold here. The sultan himself would come and enjoy the many wares of our own weavers and those abroad, but that sultan is dead, and our new one is too busy trying to uphold the law to promote our traditions."

Stelimus nodded in agreement. "I know what that's like," he sighed.

"If what the zaoris said is true, I would think so, young king. Eight years on your throne and you still cannot reign in your subjects, if I'm not mistaken." He lifted an eyebrow.

"Why does everyone keep TALKING about that?!"

The guide gestured his hoof to the king, telling him to calm down. "I am not judging you, young king. I have hear that some things happened in your homeland, thrusting you into a position you were not yet prepared to take."

"It wasn't one anyone was supposed to take," Yolumay growled.

"Y-yes."

"And your naivety coupled by your lack of willing advisors has prevented you from properly maintaining and ensuring your people's well-being."

"I wouldn't say that I'm naive, but yes..."

The guide looked behind him and glared at the deer. "I hope that you're prepared for your return, because I have heard of tales of young rulers killed by the subjects loyal to their fathers and mothers to secure the throne for themselves. If loyalty is not assured, then there is no true successor."

Stelimus and Copper both gulped nervously.

Meanwhile, in the tundra, Grimliss was leaning against a black wall crackled by glowing, sky-blue veins. The miasma covering his body flickered and fluttered in imaginary winds whilst he watched his 'show'. He seemed quite bored, however, and he wanted to spice things up a bit.

"So are you going to tell me where all the traitors have gone?" he asked.

Hanging precariously in the arms of a giant spirit was a heavily beat-up doe, with others, including stags, sitting bloodied and deceased in the corner. The spirit in question's body resembled the upper half of an hourglass with all the connections to limbs having long since been sheared off, a memento shared between them all being a bit of torn cloth. Its floating head was etched with a face devoid of eyes, and a mouth imitating sharp teeth with an empty void of a mouth. As for its four hands, they resembled torn and decayed cloth flowing in the water; Victims for the fish to nibble on. Two of them held the doe's forelegs up and hind legs down, and the other two were fazed into her body, occasionally pretending to pull something out.

"Well. It'll be easier on all of us if you cooperate. You will be released back into the city, but you will still be tagged."

The doe spat at the god-king who didn't react in the slightest.

"You know," he started. "I actually do have all the time in the world to do this, but I have no time to waste. Too many things happening all around for me to miss." The doe coughed. "Just tell me where the others have been, and I'll let you go and even pay for your hospital bill."

"I won't...rat them out."

Grimliss sighed. "I've already undermined multiple areas where you had all been stashing various weapons with which to overthrow my nephew, and your black market trades are being dismantled by my own guards as we speak."

"B-but...I thought they were just bone constructs."

The miasma around Grimliss' body flickered actively in response, and the doe understood right away what it meant.

"B-but I don't know where they are! I swear!"

Grimliss pointed at the dead deer behind the floating spirit. "They said the same thing, and I got quite a few things from them."

"So you'll kill me whether I tell you or not!"

The god-king shook his head. "I got it from them through other methods."

"Then why would you let me go?"

"Easy." He looked at the spirit who pulled at something in the deer, hurting and causing her to yell in unfathomable pain with each light tug. "To make you an example. For many others, doing such things would enrage the people and cause them to rise up in arms. If a ruler abuses his people's good will, then they inevitably find their heads going on vacation without their bodies, but I have no such fears. " He snorted. "What fear do I have of death? What reputation do I have to protect?" He approached the deer and jabbed at her chest. "Why would I ignore those intent on acquiring the throne not for the good of their fellow deer, but by cause of greed and jealousy?"

"...But he consorts with the pony-song."

"And it is for this reason that I would rather sieve through your soul than try asking you for what you know."

"W-Wait--"

The spirit audibly ripped a transparent, white substance from the deer then tossed her body into the pile behind it. The deer, now a ghostly specter, tried to make sense of her surroundings at first, but when she finally understood what was going on, she started screaming. Grimliss rolled what served as his eyes and audibly grunted.

"Yes yes. 'oh no, you killed me!'," he mocked. "I told you to cooperate. No second chances now."

After about half an hour 'negotiating' with his 'guest', Grimliss returned to the throne room to see that Princesses Celestia and Luna were waiting with hopeful smiles while the god-king's face remained ever stoic and dead of emotion.

"Grimliss. I was worried we wouldn't see you," Celestia said.

"I was rather busy with some vital, internal struggles. I had sort of...forgotten about our meeting," he apologized.

"I too have some trouble remembering appointments when something important arises," Celestia shared. "I don't think you should worry about that sort of mishap."

"I don't worry," Grimliss replied nonchalantly.

"Well, shall we discuss what we can do to improve the pony-tundran relationship?" Luna interjected.

"I want Stelimus to come back to a better home, and we already mentioned this before, so I have no objections."

What lives to the north

"So, aside from you traumatizing me, what's the plan?"

The pony fumbled through several parchments in shelves against the wall and finally took out a scroll that he laid out on a short table in front of everyone. The map looked practically identical to the one Stelimus saw on the boat to the anyubinite sands. The only real difference was the speckles up north. They were larger and some almost touched each other.

"I saw this before," Stelimus pointed out. "I still don't understand what these dots are?"

The pony chuckled. "They are spots of territory lost by the anyubinites: My payers."

"I guess that's why he wants me to help him."

The pony nodded. He put a hoof to a speck on the map and started to speak seriously. "This is where you'll be going first. It's the closest area and you can easily access it as it is nowhere near the mountains of the north."

"How is that important?" Copper asked.

"Mountains regions mean dangerous lands to cross, steep cliffs, narrow passageways, and the chance of an ambush by whatever enemy will attack us," Yolumay explained. Her eyes widened when she realized what she just said and looked at Saddle Arabian. "You didn't tell us who this enemy is."

The pony gestured to 'keep it down' and shushed Yolumay. "Quiet! We might be alone here, but people could still hear us from outside." He looked around and, after determining no one was listening, continued. "The enemy consists of Berbiers or Gitz-Gitz-Guak."

Stelimus blinked unevenly. "Gitz...gut...what?"

"We call them 'Berbiers' because they're situated on the ruins of the Berbiers Country, thus they inherit the name."

"That's...not how that works," Stelimus sighed.

"Whatever. They live here," he hit the map several times. "That's all there is to it."

"And so what? What're we supposed to do that you can't?"

"They don't trust the Saddle Arabians because of our close relationship with the Anyubinites. And, well, concerning our mutual benefactors, well, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now, would we?"

Stelimus shrugged. "Fair enough, but you only answered half my question."

The pony nodded. "We need you to get to this point here and relay everything you learn to me. They don't know deer so they'll be confused as to what you are and what you want."

"That's it? How am I even supposed to gather intel of any kind?"

"By looking?" the guide said sarcastically.

The group looked at the pony with bemused expressions.

"I thought you were supposed to serve a purpose," Stelimus spoke with a low-tune.

"I've never been in these pockets. I don't know what to expect. I just know where they are and the best way to get to them."

"What about supplies?" Copper asked.

"You'll still have your wagon and sablysts. It's still sand with some rock after all." He took out a pipe from under the table and started stuffing it with some colorful leaves. "You'll have some rations provided, but that's it." He checked the pipe for obstructions then pointed at the group with it. "Don't forget that the zaoris expects much from you."

"I'm aware of that," Stelimus whined. "So just where exactly am I supposed to go?"

The pony took two, tiny red stones in his hooves and placed them gently into the pipe, letting them burn the leaves. "You see this path to the northeast of the city? Take it and keep going diagonally to the rock formations here. You'll recognize them as they look like some kind of unfinished sculpture."

"What if we get lost?"

"..." The pony angrily slammed down his pipe, rolled up the map, and thrust it against Stelimus. "Here! Take the map and go!"

Stelimus was baffled and pointed at himself like he had been accused of something. "Are you getting pissed off at me because I don't know your country?"

"I'm angry because you aren't even trying to do what you were asked."

Stelimus shook his head in disappointment. "How can I follow instructions which have yet to be provided?"

"I--"

"Shut up. We're going." Stelimus gestured to his group. "Getting tired of all of the people having unjustified attitudes over here."

Radivus and Tenyom both saw some Saddle Arabians stocking their carriage with both food and equipping it with a cover to protect them from the sun as much as possible. Naturally, the two decided to start digging into the barrels to verify if anything had been hidden with them, much to the anger of the ponies who were brushed off easily.

"Say what you will about my people, Copper, but I feel more warmth coming from them."

"And they live in a tundra while these people live in a scalding desert!" Copper added happily.

Stelimus just stared at her blankly while Yolumay casually climbed the wagon. "That's what he was getting at," she said.

"Oh..."

Stelimus hugged her to get her out of her brief depression and helped her up onto the wagon, ready to go.

"How do the rations look?" Stelimus asked his bodyguards.

Radivus did a 'thumbs up' as best as he could with two toes. "Then we're off."

Copper cleared her throat and hesitated multiple times to say anything. "Do you know how to read a map?"

"Yes. I learned it when I was...ahh...with...with Grimliss. Yeah." The deer king started sweating nervously.

The trip up north took some work. Between getting almost lost and the sablysts being unwilling to continue forward at certain areas, it took much longer to get to the closest spot than expected. Four days of travel served its purpose, but there was one hitch: Standing triumphantly in front of the wagon was sand that had been hardened into a black, cement-like state, preventing the sablysts from traveling with the 'explorers' and stalling their travels.

"Is there any ways around?" Yolumay asked.

"Nope. This is the only way forward," Stelimus explained while analyzing the map. "Whoever placed this here did so recently." He lowered it and scrunched up his face. "Time to climb."

Yolumay groaned in annoyance. "Fine. Let's go," she sighed.

"Radivus. Tenyom," Stelimus started. "I need you two to guard our rations and the sablyst. If anything goes wrong, we need these to get out of here and survive until we reach the next town. Got it?"

"Are you sure? You need our protection. We're here for that. It's our job," Radivus said.

"Don't worry," the king assured. "We're going up there briefly to get the first bit of info we need to formulate a proper plan. We got no information on these guys, so we have to do this."

"All the more reason for us to go and you three to stay!"

The deer king put his hoof onto his small friend's shoulder. "I've come to learn that personal experience tends to help more than that brought by other people."

"Well...well, if you say so, but if anything happens, we'll be galloping to your aid as quickly as possible."

Stelimus gave a smile before going with his sister and wife to scale the cliff of sand and climb upwards. Left to his own thoughts, Radivus got to take in the surroundings more than he normally would have. The mountains in this area were no more than slightly elevated, sharp stones with an appearance of slabs placed atop each other and a somewhat resplendent, black surface. They were no more higher than a building of fifty floors, and there was no way someone could climb such sharp, angled elevations with no truly flat surface. The way they hung over the landscape even blocked out the sun, giving a nice bit of shade. Everything was as quiet as usual, yet something familiar lingered here. Even Tenyom could feel it, which was displayed so emotionally upon her distraught visage.

"You don't feel...uncomfortable?" Radivus asked her.

She turned to face him and nodded.

"Oh. I still can't read your face that well yet. Um, you know, the king hasn't come back yet. It's been a few hours, too."

"He said we should wait," Tenyom said.

"He said he was going to be quick. Three hours is not quick."

The doe rolled her eyes and conceded. She picked up the deer and chucked him onto the top of the wall, where he was given the chance to see this new landscape himself. A massive swath of invariably risen shards of cooked sand and irregular pathways and lower temperatures despite the scorching sun. The sand crunched beneath Radivus' hooves like dried bread, and Tenyom's hooves didn't fare any better.

"Alright then," Radivus started. "The first thing we need to do is start looking for any clues as to where they could have gone."

The giant doe ignored her half-brother and started tapping the ground while he went on with all the steps to follow for finding someone. Several minutes of searching led to nothing, then a bright light caught her eyes. The source sped around the corner of one of the leaning spires and brief glimpse of it brought her towards a large hole in the ground leading to a void of darkness.

"I found it," Tenyom shouted.

"Found what?" Radivus asked as he approached his half-sister.

"This is where they went...fell."

Radivus lied onto his belly and dragged himself towards the hole to better see into it without risking falling in. He started sweating nervously and his voice became much quieter and high pitched than usual.

"Okay. They're down there, but h-how do we reach them."

Tenyom picked up the deer and kept him under her foreleg.

"No! TENYOM WAIT!"

But she already jumped inside the pit. She did not fear what awaited them.

Light Quantifiable

"We're here," Tenyom announced casually.

"We're in the world of the dead?"

"No."

"Then why can't I see?"

"Because there's no light."

"...Oh."

The darkness made way for softly glowing blue light, revealing all the secrets hidden under the surface. Multiple, well-preserved murals and walls made from smooth, non-porous black sand. A few broken walls were scattered about, but with the presence of wooden tools around...

"This place is currently occupied," Radivus noted. "Be careful. Whoever took our king is nearby still."

Tenyom snorted and delicately walked over a few 'bricks' and shone her own antler light onto the murals.

"Hmmm. Interesting," she mumbled.

"What is it? The walls?"

"Yes. Old art, but taken care of."

The art in question was always displayed facing the observer, so there were no displays from profile or angular perspectives. They were a mixture of 'oozing', gooey styles with tiny tiles. Radivus nodded to himself at the creativity.

"Hey look; The god-kings," Tenyom noticed.

The five god-kings were placed next to each other in a rising arc on a white surface, a large glacier growing behind them. The water at their hooves 'melted' into grassy plains where they were seen walking away from a blackened landscape that became engulfed in the light of the sun, creating another transition to the deserts of...well, whatever they were called back then. There, they met up with what looked like creatures three times their size. The 'meeting' was creatively orchestrated with the art style using the goopy effect to swing to the giants right next to the deer, and if their size and the location of their many white eyes was an indicator, than the assumption of said size was well founded. The many, many giants seemingly collapsed like sand constructs, flowed over the ground, then reformed to show everyone fighting a massive giant and a swarm of dark creatures. Unlike the ponies, the giants were more than capable of cutting down the monsters with relative ease, but they still had no way of fighting off the colossus.

"Hey, isn't that the giant we fought during the most recent Black Snow?" Radivus wondered aloud.

Tenyom nodded and followed along the path. A black wall went towards a large, clawed hand slowly grasping one of the deer while said deer was surrounded by a multi-pointed star of light. The light faded to a scene where the smallest of the deer was on its knees, mourning the loss, but a 'zoom' to its white chest showed blackness trying to seep through it but being washed away by tears. This repeated twice more, the ponies having joined the second battle, but the colossi were absent in the second battle. In the third, another deer was quite literally disintegrated, and the ashes became the tears of the smallest one. Strangely enough, the tears were shown as black veins coming from the cervine's heart and rising upwards.

"You think this is Grmiliss?" Radivus pondered.

"Maybe. Stelimus did mention that he was the most heartbroken of the three."

"He said that to ease us when he's around, but I seriously doubt that to be true."

"Look at this one."

The mural showed the three deer turning their backs on angered colossi, one such deer being sloppily painted black like some sort of graffiti defacing. Afterwards, the murals only depicted the life of the colossi, but as neither deer knew who they were or what their lives were like, they couldn't discern what was being shown.

"Let's keep going," Radivus suggested. "I think we've read through history enough like that."

Tenyom nodded in agreement, and the two continued along their way, the images freshly inscribed into their minds for deconstruction. There was nothing relating to Stelimus that they could find. No matter how hard they looked or how much they searched, they couldn't find anything, and Tenyom growled in annoyance. She grabbed a hoof full of sand and let the porous substance slipped through her toes, some solid pieces breaking against the ground.

"This sand is too hard to analyze. I can't see where anyone has gone."

"So what are we supposed to do then?"

She shrugged, and Radivus through his forelegs into the air in disbelief.

"I TOLD him we should have stayed with him and not the cart," he complained. "Now look what has happened."

"In retrospect, the idea that we stay behind was not a bad one. He knows what we're capable of more than he knows the other bodyguards of his. If we follow the pattern, than we can deduce that these sands have some tunnel system hidden beneath the surface. We just need to find the least solid area and continue through." Tenyom looked around and scratched her chin.

"That's right. Look for the least solid surface you can. See if tapping them will--"

Radivus' first tap tore away a large chunk of the floor and blasted both deer's eyes with light. "What are the odds?!" Radivus thought. He was almost tempted to scream in pain because of the sudden blinding, but he managed to withhold himself.

The two deer slid down the hole and crawled along the ground to the source of the strongest light further away. They stopped at a corner next to several stairways leading all over the place, and right around said shape were multiple colossi holding the two deer and one pony hostage. They were absolutely titanic in size. Where Stelimus was now just about as tall as his late father, they were easily thrice that in height. One of them was holding Stelimus by his forelegs with one claw-hand and staring at him with its six compound eyes. While its arrow-head like cranium lacked any kind of ability to display physical emotions, the two bodyguards knew it wasn't happy.

It was slouched over slightly, accentuating its back plating. It only had two arms, but they were gifted with six fingers and two opposable thumbs on the opposite ends of their limbs, all ending in very thick, sharp, dexterous claws. Their torsos were large and covered were several layers of green chitin that grew back with every wound, creating a strange autumn-imitation by summer with all the varying shades of green. Their legs look like armored buildings, and thick, rough skin was present all over them. It even covered the reverse joints on their knees. As for their feet, they had four toes placed in a 'x' fashion, the ends of their 'toes' being extremely sharp claws digging into the porous sand sculptures. All of them had the same, flat head shape as the one holding Stelimus: Arrow-head shape with a horizontal, concave arc at the back of their heads. On both sides of their heads were three patches of yellow, compound eyes scanning their surroundings at all times.

They were standing in a well of sorts, the rounded, circular walls around them displaying water clearly flowing through them without any leaking onto the floor below. The light, confused from being that of a torch, was actually coming from most of the colossi here. They had natural phosphorescence strong enough to blind anyone when in a large enough group and illuminating the entry of a cave opposite Stelimus and the other two high above the water wall.

"Tenyom, there's about eleven of them in this well. If we can do this stealthily, we might be able to kill a few of these things, and in the confusion, save the king and queen and get out of here just as fast."

"What about the princess?"

Radivus waved his hoof and appeared disinterested. "Oh. Sure. Her too I guess."

They were as quick as they could be, using the various holes and tension strength of the black sand rings to climb along the walls and sneak up on two of the colossi. Once in position, they nodded to each other then jumped onto the necks of the creatures with the intent of breaking them. The colossi didn't noticed anything more than something on their necks. Tenyom was grabbed by one and casually slammed, back first, into the wall by aid of her hind leg. It was followed up by her being slammed quadrice into the ground then tossed against Copper and Yolumay. Radivus, being so small, practically fit in the palm of one of them and was held there like some kind of micro pet.

Despite being muffled, Stelimus still had to say what was on his mind. "Ah. Radivus. Tenyom. Nice of you two to drop in," he commented. "I would like to present to you our hosts: The big bugs. They feel like showing us the Berbiers."

The one holding the king hissed and its mandibles jittered. "Berbiers?! We aren't Berbiers!"

"That's what everyone is calling you," Yolumay said.

The others chittered in response to her straight answer.

"We aren't Berbiers, and these aren't your sands."

Radivus raised an eyebrow. "So it's only now that you've started talking with each other after so long? It's been three hours!" he yelled.

"Well, we weren't captured that long ago..." Stelimus chuckled. "Turns out ice isn't that effective on this sand."

The one holding Stelimus' head's chittering gradually degraded to screeching as it started to crush the deer's head in its grasp.

Gitz Gitz Guak

"Wait wait!" Radivus pleaded. "Why are you trying to kill him?"

The screeching lessened but didn't stop. "Because he is part of the three that betrayed us."

"Be...trayed?" Stelimus struggled to repeat.

"Yeeeessss. You betrayed us, god-king. I don't remember which one of you it was. All five of you looked the same."

"F-five?"

"Yes. Then you went to four, and then to three. You refused to aid us when we were being attacked when we aided you during the Early Hatching."

"Wait," Yolumay started. "You think he's our father? Ha!"

The colossi turned to face the -proportionally- itty bitty reindeer in unison. "Father?" the head crusher repeated. "Not king?"

"Well, he is the king, now, but he's not his father."

The colossi chittered together, speaking in a language only they understood.

"Doesn't matter. All deer are the same. Traitors to our people and long alliance and not aiding us during our own losses."

"Who even are you?" Radivus asked.

"The Gitz-Gitz-Guak of the Adwanee Sands."

"Adwanee?"

"I thought these were the Anyubinite's sands," Yolumay blurted.

A deafening volume of buzzing echoed throughout the chambers at the mention of the anyubinites.

"Owowow!" Stelimus shouted.

"Anyubinites! They steal from us! They remove us from our homes. These are OUR sands! OUR hives!" The colossus threw Stelimus hard against the water-wall, somehow not breaking it. "It's YOUR people that have allowed this!" the colossus accused. "I have no obligation to keep you alive after invading my home unannounced!"

"We weren't invading!"

"No? We saw you coming into the deserts with the pointy eared ones and talk with the small horse to come and spy on us."

"You saw us? We didn't even see you!" Yolumay shouted. "Why do you even HAVE green bodies?"

"Green?" the colossus repeated with confusion. The others looked at each other and at themselves. "We aren't green," it continued calmly.

"Then what are your 'not-green' bodies colored?"

"Bishuac."

"...What?"

"You only see green because your eyes are unevolved. You only see three spectrums. We see nine. It's why you never notice us when we're standing right next to you."

"Interesting." Yolumay smirked. "It can't even tell that I'm making it give me information."

The colossus pointed at the princess. "I bet you're thinking that you're making me tell you information about my people." Yolumay paled. "Stupid reindeer. We didn't survive this long because of our strength and bodies."

"Before you kill me," Radivus interjected. "Can you tell him to let me go?"

The colossus stared at the tiny reindeer for a moment before responding. "That's a female."

"Wait what?"

"You can't even tell the difference between males and females," the giant lamented.

"Uhhh, that's kind of difficult, considering we're MAMMALS and you're BUGS!" Yolumay shouted.

"EXCUSE ME!" Copper interjected as loudly as she could.

Everyone turned to face her and the silence died down. It turned out that she was trying to garner everyone's attention but, through fear and nervousness, she wasn't capable of forcing her volume up more than minus-one. Now she did it, and she was forced to go through with it despite the weight in her chest growing and her body starting to feel like a portable sauna.

"Ah...You're mad at the deer because they betrayed you?"

"YES!" the hive echoed.

Copper's ears folded against her head and she braced for the impact. "Well, what is it more specifically that they did to, well, anger you so?"

"You don't know? You don't remember?"

"Average deer don't live ten-thousand years," Stelimus grumbled whilst struggling to get back to his hooves.

"We don't either. We live around fifty."

The deer king blinked. "Then why do you say that you can 'remember'?"

"Memories are passed down from generation to generation. Each individual is granted the memories of their progenitor, and through actions of their own and the lessons given by these memories, become their own Gitz-Gitz-Guac, and then the cycle continues."

"It's like rebirth," Stelimus realized in aww.

"If we can get back on track," Copper growled. "What is it specifically that the deer did?"

"When they were threatened in the north, they traveled for help, finding us. Not having known any other race, we were excited and went with them as we too required proving of ourselves. The deserts are lonely and we had a chance to see something other than this vast brown." It growled. "Even after all that effort to destroy the black giant, their 'leaders' betrayed us to our fate when we dared clamor for their aid against the many-deaths."

"You mean the anyubinites?"

"Yes." It aggressively pointed to Copper. "Don't think your kind is innocent either. We still fought alongside the ponies and they still betrayed us as well. We thought we established friendly relations with them, then all communication ceased."

"W-well, we were a very different people back then. We have Princesses Celestia and Luna that have been helping us better ourselves. I'm certain if we tried to talk again, we could reestablish good relations." She looked at Stelimus. "Even my husband has been trying to improve his people." She looked down in sadness. "Even though it's been very hard right now."

"Husband?" The colossus lifted his head whilst the hive chittered. "A reindeer with a non-reindeer? Unheard of. You were very too busy lifting your noses so much that your heads would bend to your rears."

"We're not that flexible, but I don't think I'm doing my job very well anyways..."

The colossus clicked. "Just one uncharacteristic act won't have us see you with a different compound eye."

"Then how do we get out of this alive or change your perceptions of my group and I?"

"Help us get our lands back."

"More war?!" Yolumay shouted. Even she was getting tired of all the ideas of war.

"I can't do that," Stelimus averted his eyes.

The colossus chittered. "And why not?"

"Because only the zaoris of the anyubinites can tell me the source of the black snow, and it's the only way I'll be able to stop it and any future deaths."

There was a moment of silence before the colossus spoke again. "You speak as though you lived through the fight with the colossus."

"We did!" Copper shouted. She started to cry as bad memories resurfaced. "It was...awful. My mother was killed, his father as well. And so many ponies and deer lost their lives...Now my father is a shell of his former self, rarely ever doing anything himself and needing a group of ponies to run the country with the help of Equestria's guidance."

Stelimus stared at her, wide-eyed. "What? You didn't tell me this."

"I didn't want to..."

The insects in the chamber converged to one spot and started discussing what to do. The council didn't take long as the head crusher informed them of their plans: The 'guests' would remain in the chamber under the watchful of the others until the gits gits guak decided upon what to do with them. Many centuries of ancestral grudges were difficult to clean out.

"One thing I must point out, mammals," the head crusher started. "The anyubinites will never tell you the source of the black snow, let alone tell you the truth." It made a repeating, high-pitched noise reminiscent of laughter. "They don't know anything about the black snow!" it 'laughed'.

Unfortunates

Grimliss sat in the old chair his brother once sat in during meetings in the small, circular room. The shields with various family crests still adorned the wall, and deer sat along the edges of the round table. They all glared at Grimliss with contempt and frustration that they could not harm him, and to this, he smiled smugly. He put his hooves together and crossed his toes.

"So, we finally get to do things in a civilized manner," Grimilss said.

"Yes..." the others responded.

"Then what is it you wanted to discuss?"

The first of five slammed his metal hoof on the table. He had lost a foreleg and an eye in the fight against the Black Snow, and it showed. A face of brown and gray fur grizzled by war, death, and loss. He only had one antler that remained as the other would no longer grow, something he tried hiding with a piece of red cloth wrapped around that part of his head. He also wore an old trench coat of the same red over his back. The trims of the sleeves and inner sections of the clothing were colored golden and additionally decorated with fleece, and, unlike the others, his badges were on the back of his coat

"You've made it clear that you don't want us rebelling or killing your nephew," he spoke in raspy voice. "And since you won't leave us nor our subordinates alone, we might as well come to a more peaceful conclusion."

Grimliss' smile widened. "You wouldn't rather continue trying to trick one who has seen the tricks and even creates his own? Not even for my own amusement?" The old soldier frowned. "Fine." Grimliss took on a more serious tone. "What is it you want?"

A doe rose up. Much like the rest, here years were numerous, but she still had many pillars of achievements built up thanks to hard work to hold the floor she stood upon. Her antlers had been shaved down to give them a rounder, shorter, perhaps even 'cuter' appearance. Her coat of bright tan was hidden by formal wear of a blue-gray.

"We want you to take Stelimus away. We do not care for his rule."

Grimliss raised an 'eye'. "Do not care? Your attempts at his life and to create secret organizations to overthrow him when he returned say otherwise. Why, they don't even 'speak'. They scream at the top of their lungs in the most reverberate room that could ever exist."

The doe widened her eyes angrily. "WE only did what we thought was best for our people."

"Pfff. You only did what you thought was best because you hate his relationship with the pony-song, something my brother infested in your minds like a virus." He stood up briefly. "You can't even think for yourselves! You need the 'big words' from 'daddy' to tell you when to do your homework, and you STILL won't do them correctly!"

"What?"

Before Grimliss could continue, another Doe cut into the conversation. She had no antlers and was much younger than the rest, but that wasn't saying much. Her yellow coat was artificially colored, and her turquoise eyes were just as modified, most likely from a spirit. She had a ghostly aura emanating from her, something that would scare and chill a lesser deer, but Grimliss' connection was on another plane entirely.

"What are you talking about? Some of the reindeer did perform things of their own volition, but it had nothing to do with us!"

"You sure about that?" Grimliss pulled some things out of his body and threw them on the table. "All these pieces of wood, metal, and so on, bear your symbols. All those I discovered and, ahem, 'interrogated' did not have the means nor the intelligence to procure so many things." Grimliss noticed a movement in all five's bodies and raised a hoof to stop them. "Don't even try it. I have no qualms with killing you all and obtaining absolute supremacy in this little ice cream 'paradise'." The five reluctantly sat back down. And by personal research, I learned that you fools never gave my nephew a chance."

"He's tied to the pony song!" the war veteran complained. "He wouldn't have the capacity to deal with anything that reindeer need. They've corrupted him!"

Grimliss snorted. "I recall you lot already stating such things as 'facts' back when he was just born, when you learned what my brother was planning to do."

"That doesn't matter," the first doe interjected. "I know--"

"I don't care what you think you know, Meyda. The fact of the matter being that you lot decided to judge my nephew solely based on his purported purpose. Yet, when you were threatened, he still went to battle with the ponysong."

"But he stayed behind. He didn't do anything!" the war veteran bellowed. "He sat on the hill while we fought!"

"Because he had no true experience in war."

"But--"

"You can't build a wall out of mud, Grundyl. You need support frames, holding materials, and so forth. The mud won't do anything on its own, and when confronted with rain, it will melt. His father told him to stay behind and learn from the experience."

"Your colorful metaphors are all well and dandy, but it doesn't excuse his poor and unworthy position due to lack of experience."

The one who spoke was a smug deer with a blue-gray coat, a monocle over his empty left eye-socket, and a cap on his head. It clipped around his black, velvety antlers. His left eye was actually a ghostly rendition created by the monocle in question, although it didn't seem particularly in his control, much how his tail had the same problem of, for lack of a better term, being 'physically absent'.

Grimliss cocked an eyebrow. "What do you you mean, Fyovyor?"

"He has neither the maturity nor the knowledge to sustain a city of well over several million reindeer."

"He has much more knowledge, experience, and wisdom than you could ever hope to have. Who says this?" Grimliss looked around, curious. "You?"

"We all do. His father did not tea--"

"His father was immortal and did not expect to be killed--"

"By your hoof," Fyvyor interrupted.

"He did not expect to be killed, and he was going to banish Stelimus as soon as the colossus was killed."

The five started mumbling to each other.

"Then why is he still here?" Grundyl asked. "Why didn't he just banish him once the fight was over? I mean, I know the god-kings--"

"And queen," the antler-less doe corrected.

Fyovyor facehoofed. "We've talked about this, Kuj. The terms are gender neutral regardless of the title."

"CAN I CONTINUE?!" The others silenced themselves right away. "Thank you. As I was saying, I know the god-kings were wounded, but we've known King Anglacite for so long. I don't see why he wouldn't do it right then and there."

"Then perhaps he had a change of heart in the end. I don't know. I killed him and prevented the black snow from continuing." He expelled more mist from his mouth. "This doesn't excuse the fact that you, as the king's assistants, did not aid him."

"And what of you? Weren't you supposed to be his advisor?"

The last stag was the oldest of the five. He was, quite literally, as Grimliss would put it, at Death's door. His cripple and disheveled physique was only compounded upon by his colorless fur and antler stumps. Unlike most reindeer of the north, he wore a thick, fur coat of white to keep himself warm.

"I have my own kingdom to run. I was more of a guidance counselor than an advisor for long term. You five were supposed to help him for this precise reason, yet you put ll the blame on him." Grimliss cracked his jaw. "You reindeer disgust me. Millennia of poison dripped in your ears rotted away your minds, and now you put all blame on anything that isn't your now former king."

"That is not true."

Grimliss smiled evily. "Are you certain, Anfertyr? We've already established multiple times that what you did here was try to kill my nephew because he was married to a pony-song and that, due to your inadequacies, he's incapable of properly ruling his own people. I was only a councilor, not a full-on advisor, as is YOUR jobs! If you want him to keep an open mind about his own people and let him guide you as you WANT him to, then let him do so, but inch him in the proper directions. You did so with the father, so why not the son?"

Grundyl bared his teeth and narrowed his eye. "Because he is not open to such things," he grumbled.

"Not open? He's not open because you all openly hate him and he can sense that. I can sense that!"

The five looked at the god-king silently. Grimliss sighed and rubbed his forehead in annoyance. "Look. Your god-king is dead. The two that remain will NOT take care of you, and I've learned enough here to know that you all grew overly dependent of my brother. My nephew has a mind of another world, so-to-speak, and he knows full well how to do what he needs, but without guidance, you will never grow as a people. Your discoveries have already dried up as is, not to mention your advancements in technology have been appallingly slow. Introductions to new mindsets and ways of thinking would bring in a fresh breath of air to both you and the people, and the Tundran Reindeer will prosper as they did when we Five first founded this city up here." They continued to stare at him with wide eyes full of hatred and confusion. "I'm not telling you to submit. If you want your people to grow, then you must guide him."

"Say we still refuse?" Fyovyor hypothesized. "What then?"

"Then I would prevent the group that went with Stelimus from ever returning to the Tundra here and would take him in," a female voice answered.

The deer turned around and paled when they saw who it was.

"C-Celestia of the pony-song?! Luna as well?!" Kuj stuttered. She turned back to face Grimliss and was about to bellow at him, but she saw that he was looking at her with disinterested eyes.

"And," Grimliss continued. "Seeing as you five only have personal interests and continue your game of 'pretend' to reach the eventual conclusion of this 'rebellion', this would leave a massive gap of power to which you would all jump at, and then you would end up destroying each other in a five-way civil war." The god-king chuckled. "Honestly, I would like to see that," he added enthusiastically.

"Grimliss!" Celestia scolded.

The god-king laughed heartedly at Celestia's reaction and his 'eyes' glowed aggressively at the deer sitting before him.

The dead shall know no rest

With the same 'tact' demonstrated in the battle against the black snow, Effervescence used what desert plants she could summon to create mutant, carnivorous plants that occupied the soldiers as much as possible. Another unfortunate situation for the jackals were the mutated cacti shooting their sharpened needles like crossbow bolts at whatever Effervescence considered an enemy. Radivus slid underneath multiple anyubinites whilst slicing their tendons and following up with a spine-shattering elbow dive onto them all. Tenyom, on the other hoof, found more amusement in wrestling with five of them at the same time and pushing against the spear they were trying to pierce her chest with. As for Yolumay, well, she had no sense of self-preservation and reveled in slaughter every time she was cut or stabbed. Some spear heads remained stuck in her hide as her berserker rage over took her and allowed her to continue slaughtering what came across her field of vision.

The insect giants had a surprisingly hard amount of time fighting the guards reinforced with whatever dark magic coursed through them and their weapons. A few had already fallen to their adversaries, but the insects continued on. Head Crusher was rather adamant about fighting the anyubinites' zaoris and quite literally barreled through the empowered guards.

"You betray, like all mammals!" he bellowed. "You will then die like them all!" He grabbed a guard's head, raised him high, then crushed his head with a nauseating 'crunch' sound.

Hora remained next to Oriyis, but he did not move. He was observing.

"Then you wouldn't mind fighting these creatures before reaching me," Oriyis said. He spread his hands, and a trail of black goop followed. He started chanting in an unknown language and spun around, gradually reaching the floor and creating the strange cross symbol all around him. The goop sank into the sand, but it wasn't long before it had an effect. The sands shifted and bubbled like lava as the dead from centuries past rose up to continue the fight, their skin dried, eyes hollow, and shards of golden armor and randomly placed across their bodies. Two bone giants formed partially from sand and bone behind Oriyis and Hora, both with massive khopeshes in their hands crossed along their chest.

"All our gods are affiliated to death," Oriyis proclaimed. "Did you really think one of them wouldn't be for using the dead as soldiers?!"

"Oh great. Not he's a necromancer," Stelimus complained. "What's next? Mummies?"

"Stelly, why don't you summon some frost spirits to help us?" Copper asked.

"Because there are none in the desert..." Stelimus sighed.

Copper looked around and smiled sheepishly. "Oh...That's right."

"That being said." The deer king took a deep breath and exhaled mist from his nostrils and mouth. "They're still spirits."

He jumped at one of the undead and tapped its forehead with his right hoof. With all the spirit essence coursing through its body, the creature burst outwards with white energy.

"Princess Yolumay, are you okay?" Radivus yelled whilst snapping a jackal's neck.

The doe pulled a spear out of the side of her neck and patched it with a flower Effervescence tossed her. It grew into the wound and locked the flow of blood to its intended pathway.

"Yes! Don't bother with--Woah!"

Yolumay narrowly avoided five anyubinite warriors thrown at her and into a house behind her, shattering the walls into pieces. The doe nodded with approval.

"I think we should leave from here. We're stuck in the crossfire. They're bringing undead into this!"

Stelimus impaled and froze another skeleton, but not without receiving a slash across his side. He looked to Yolumay with a comically shocked expression. "What? Yolumay doesn't want to fight?" He huffed multiple times in mockery.

"We're stuck in a crossfire of two warring races and you still find the time to make jokes?"

"There's ALWAYS time to make fun of you." He smirked widely. "That being said, we can't abandon the Gitz-Gitz-Guak. They were allies of our people but my father was the one who abandoned them. I can't let them believe that all deer are of the same mind. It isn't right, and this is the best time to make them friends again."

The princess growled. "Your bleeding heart will kill you one day."s

Stelimus ignored her comment and dodged a few swipes from nearby guards and rushed to help his wife. "Copper," he said tiredly. "We need to reach that head crusher. If we can help him we can stop this whole thing."

"But how do we get to him?"

Stelimus poked Copper's wing. "They don't have archers, in-case you didn't notice yet. If you fly us above them, you an drop me down and I can create a bomb of ice and frost."

"And on impact you'll freeze everything around that's undead."

The deer king lifted an eyebrow. "So you knew I was going to specify it with spirit essence?"

"I know you enough to know how you think," she teased.

Stelimus nodded and let himself e lifted by Copper Blossom. He never could get over how strong she was despite her little size in comparison to his own. From above, everything looked like a massive sandstorm. Insect Goliaths were being pelted by tiny jackal Davids, and while the Davids could not fight individually, they could triumph in groups, and the deer could see where the plan succeeded with the black forms piling on a Gitz-Gitz-Guak and causing it to fall over. Others were not so lucky and found themselves using one anyubinite as a bludgeon to thwack away the others.

"Right here?" Copper asked.

"Yes." Once she dropped him, the Stelimus shouted. "BOB-BOMBS AWAY!"

Stelimus antlers were causing some wind resistance and, thus, announcing his presence with a loud whistling. Oriyis and Hora both started to look around, trying to identify the provenance of that noise.

"What is that? Where is it coming from?" Oriyis spoke.

"I don't know, Zaoris Oriyis. The Berbiers have a new weapon perhaps?"

Oriyis scoffed at the notion. "Like these barbarians could--" A sudden realization hit yer. "ABOVE!"

The two giants raised their weapons to hit the blue ball bolting towards them, but their weapons shattered a violent shockwave of ice and sand threw everyone in a one-hundred meter radius onto the floor. Taking a few minutes to recover, Oriysis and Stelimus both stood up and wobbled a bit, and the zaoris was the first to look around and see all his summoned creations completely frozen in some aberration of sand and water. He glared at Stelimus who was rejoined by Copper Blossom.

"Are you okay, Stelly?" Copper asked while hoisting him up with her wings and foreleg.

"Yeah. I just wasn't expecting that kind of impact even with that height."

"What is this?" Effervescence stuttered as she took in her surroundings. "Since when does he have that kind of power?"

"Since he and his wife have been training after the war with the Black Snow," Yolumay explained.

"But none of my brother's children ever had this kind of power before."

Yolumay snorted. "That's mainly because you and Grimliss amused yourselves with killing them every time you saw them."

"Be that as it may, it doesn't excuse the power he has now. I find this development interesting."

"How DARE you!" Oriyis bellowed. "You come to MY home for MY aid, and then you betray me and DESTROY my capital? I--"

The zaoris' throat was grabbed by the head crusher. "And then the mammal would do what? Your words ring false and your songs play sour. You will die for your transgressions and hatred towards our people." He looked to the side to see an exhausted Stelimus. "And then, perhaps, we can renew ties with the reindeer."

"H-Hora!" the zaoris choked. "Help me!"

Hora only stood and watched his zaoris getting his throat crushed. Oriyis' struggling and choking suddenly ceased, but not because he was dead.

"Fine," he accepted. "Then even you betray me."

"I don't like the road that you are leading our people down. We are not warriors born to kill and maim everything we don't like, and your disregard towards our gods is taxing for me."

Oriyis' body started thrumming with the black energies that had been bestowed upon yis guards and their weaponry and armor, and with a little squeeze, forced the insect giant to let go of yer. Ye walked calmly towards the light symbol created by the three constructs in front of his palace, and stood there. He took a deep breath and looked at Stelimus.

"You want to know what the black snow is and how we know about it?"

"ORIYIS, DON'T!" Hora shouted.

"Too late! You've forced my hand!"

The skies darkened with black clouds moving about like coiling snakes, and the light etched upon the sand became black as the void of space. Columns of spinning sand erupted upwards and started morphing the landscape into a veritable ocean of sand, much to the horror of even the anyubinites there as they saw the pyramid's center realign itself and the houses, temples, and monuments shatter and scatter into the unforgiving maw of the desert.

"The Adwanee Sands!" Head Crusher announced.

"The snow and sands of black are of the powers of dark and light fleeing from its powers. Fear leads and and fear powers all, and I am the source and herald of fear!"

"That voice..." Stelimus exhaled.

"Yes, familiar soul. The source of all. No form or shape or identity."

Oriyis' form started growing bigger and bigger until it towered over even the head crusher, yis body completely engulfed in swirling blackness.

"Size has no meaning if it cannot be used. Even the source of the adwanee sands will submit, much like its titans did to us in the past."

He entered a fist fight with Oriyis, and while both took the blows of the other and sent out more the former zaoris backhanded the insectoid into two separate pieces and jettisoned the two halves into the sand behind everyone. The zaoris stomped the sand, created more blackness that spread like colored water upon paper and corrupted the remaining anyubinite soldiers and civilians into massive snarling beasts of fear and terror.

Stelimus tried to stand, but fell over, and Effervescence's attempts to approach the creature met with failure as it blocked her attacks with the help of gusts of black wind.

"I can't stop it!" Effervescence cried out.

Oriyis turned around to face Stelimus and his wife, and grinned.

"You will be ended, and your soul collected, for fear and terror are its soul and syrup, and you are the much needed amusement to the millennia of monotony."

Copper stood in front of Stelimus and blocked the outreaching hand of the giant. "I won't let you hurt Stelimus! I love him, and even if he lives longer than me I'll die with him!"

"Then die with him you shall!"

The giant's hand was suddenly frozen mere millimeters from Copper's face. She turned to face 'Stelly', but he shook his head. He hadn't saved her. All eyes went to a glowing ball of light slowing floating past Oriyis and towards Stelimus before stopping, then a voice came from it:

"What is this? I see my son fighting the source of black snow with the gitz-gitz-guak and he refers to sleep instead? I thought I taught you better than that."

"It's not like your kid is any better than you are," a female voice scolded the first."

"Little brother always complaining about something," a second male voice joked."

"What?" Stelimus gasped.

How?

The white ball split into three, with one deflecting another attack by Oriyis and gusting him away into an inclined tidal wave of ice.

"That should keep him trapped a while," the orb said.

A hoof extended from the orb closest to Stelimus and laid on his shoulder. Little by little the orb took a ghostly white, semi-transparent form of a tall deer that gradually formed into king Anglacite looking at his son with a warm, almost proud gaze.

"I see my efforts were not in vain," he said.

"Dad?" Stelimus uttered. "How?"

Anglacite frowned. "Well, I was expecting a more happy reaction than just saying 'dad'," he mocked.

"Hey, give me a break! You were a maniacal despot!"

The ex-king gave pause to mull his memories and nodded in agreement. "True, but I was referring to my efforts in getting you strong enough to fight on your own with various abilities." He looked to his son's side and nodded. "And you must be the pony-song that he was to marry."

Copper tilted her head to the side. "You don't remember me? You hated the idea of needing to resort to an alliance with my people in the Crystal Empire because we were ponies."

Anglacite shrugged. "My memories during the fear influenced by the black snow are hazy and muddled, at best. I'm sorry for anything I did, but I managed to force my way out of that hole every now and then."

"Like...when you said sorry when Grimliss killed you..." Stelimus awed with realization. "That still doesn't excuse your behavior. You could've at least TRIED to fight it!"

"It wasn't his free will that allowed that, stag," an orb with a female voice spoke.

The orb landed next to Anglacite and formed into a female deer about the size of the former king. Her fur was just as white, but her antlers broke off in different directions and swirled around in a corkscrew shape all the way to a narrow point at their end. Her fur was extra fluffy, and her muzzle was a narrow, rectangular shape. Her eyes were rather small compared to Anglacite and Stelimus', but had a fiercer, more focused expression. Her hooves were covered in a glittering sheen of ice, and her antlers let loose a steady stream of icy mist from the end of their spiral points, reminding Stelimus of cloth decorations that fly in the wind.

"Give my brother a chance," she insisted.

"Wh--Brother? What?!" Stelimus clutched his head and yelled.

Effervescence bore through three anyubinites and approached the ghostly figures for a better view. "Sister Tyveda? Is that you?" she asked.

The doe turned around to view the god-queen and flinched. "Gah! What happened to you?!" she bellowed.

Effervescence frowned. "Yes. Only Tyveda would be so dramatic to everything."

"And you're still prissy and 'fawnceh' about your appearance." Tyveda blinked several times and stared at her sister. "What happened to you?"

"We don't have time for this," Anglacite complained. "If we continue with our familial pleasantries then he'll get free of the ice prison before we have time to fight him."

Stelimus and Copper remained silent at the bickering of the god-kings, moreso because they couldn't comprehend what was going on than the current situation of seeing them. The other orb landed next to Stelimus and started morphing into the shape of a deer much larger and slightly taller than Anglacite: The tallest deer Stelimus had ever truly seen. His features were quite a bit bulkier than what the deer king was accustomed to, but his face was a gently, more refined expression. If anything, he had a 'Mr. Handsome' air to him. His antlers ran along the side of his face and muzzle like tiny, velvet veins whilst the two main bodies rose up and curved forward, extending quite a bit. The whole left side of his torso showed hairlessness and massive scarring; An indicator of what he went through when he died.

"I think we have better things to do then bicker incessantly," he spoke with a level voice. "Focus on Zaoris Oriyis while he remains in the state between transformations, and aid the gitz. They need aid." He looked at Effervescence and spoke loudly as the winds picked up in strength. "Use your new abilities to summon as many plants sleeping in the sands to interlock and stabilize this sea of death."

"Y-yes, Gfefner."

Stelimus swore he saw her push back some tears.

"She's so emotionally unstable," he thought to himself. "Maybe I should've been more lenient on her, but--"

"I suppose you think that you should have been more lenient with my sister, Nephew Stelimus?" Gfefner asked him.

"Wh--How...?"

"I've...learned many things on the other side," he trailed off. "That being said, I'm certain that what you did to her was more than justified as I have seen brief glimpses of your personality. Straight to the point. She needed her perfect little world to be destroyed at one point. An island can only have so many resources."

"I'm so confused right now."

"Like my brother said, we'll explain afterwards and answer any questions you have." He bapped Stelimus' shoulder. "Stay behind and watch your pony-song wife."

"But what about my sister and my guards?"

"Effervescence will pull them back as well. You should stand back, too. Good work with using what limited powers you have, but with your body in that shape you might end up joining us before your appointed time."

Stelimus frowned at the -probably- unintentional offense. "Fine, I'll stay behind, but I want answers after this."

Gfefner nodded and joined up with his brother and sister into facing the zaoris having broken out of yis ice prison and wiping and remains of ice on yis body. Or, perhaps, was Oriyis an 'it' now?

"The dead wander the plains, but for why?" the creature wondered. "Interesting indeed."

Oriyis' form cracked and snapped as the black substance reformed his body into a form meant for terror: Long, sharp, dextrous claws extending from his fingers; Massive arms filled not with muscle but excessive sinew and bundled nerves; And a face with multiple, glowing eyes of white.

Anglacite huffed and stared at the giant. "Zelmar, I presume?"

The giant smiled, creating a horizontal line of white on the left side of its mouth and a vertical one on the right. "The antlers know? Even to the dead mysteries are created. The familiar soul hasn't heard or smelled. How did it crack this one?"

"Even the dead aren't immune to learning."

The entity remained silent for a moment as the black energies around it flickered outwards in a simulacrum of 'reaching out'. "They are not affected?"

Tyveda scoffed. "We're dead. There's nothing more for us to fear."

"And all fear leads to the unknowance of death," Anglacite added.

Oriyis took his time to build up a laugh after starting with a series of quiet chuckles. "Death is simple fear. Doesn't like. Much too easy to tread upon. True fear delves past the end of flowers." It left its arms at its sides while still lifting its forearms and opening its palms, engulfing the spirits in adwanee sand.

"How is he holding us?" Gfefner strained to say. "We're incorporeal!"

"Let them go!" Effervescence shouted!

She surfed towards Oriyis upon an absolutely titanic vine of intertwined thorns and cacti, but her emotions proved to be a mistake for one with no proper control over them. The creature leaned backwards, and, with a swipe of its left arm, smacked the god-king with a lariat and grabbed her in its other hand.

"What are the fears of this one? They wonder curiously. Losses? Shame? Or something other?" Zelmar pondered as it approached Effervescence's forehead with its hand.

Effervescence opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was air. Her pupils shrunk the more the black, spindly finger pressed against her. Mere seconds passed and tears started streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"Ah. Amusing. Common, but not uncommon, the fear of abandonment, but the river runs over outside. And the familiar soul is the cause!" It pointed accusingly at Stelimus. "The world had its apocalypse, and now what remains could crumble. The green fears the lands will burn and become salted because one patch was poisoned."

A playful, sinister grin grew on its face. "But what about the familiar soul itself? What are its fears related to the yellow cornucopia? Does it bleat?"

'Zelmar' moved away from Effervescence, yet its hands did not leave the god-king. In fact, it 'split' apart, giving the impression that its arms and torso melted off then reformed facing Stelimus and Copper while its 'original' limbs remained in place.

"Stay away from my son!" Anglacite roared.

"To see what's outside that door," the creature hummed cheerfully. "To pick and eat and play some more."

Why does it bleat?

Gregary suddenly found himself awake in the hospital room. He was still in the small white room and laid upon a bed surrounded by tubes connected to his body. A single window on the right let in damp sunlight piercing the cloudy skies outside. He was blinded by the doctors checking his eyes for proper activity.

"Don't...shine that directly into my eyes, please. That hurts," he groggily complained.

"Ah. Good news, nurse: The patient has awakened successfully from the artificially induced coma." The doctor in question was still wearing his white coat, but the nurse was different. The she was now a he. Nurses were needed everywhere, after all.

"Coma?" Gregary repeated. He sat up and grunted a few times. "So it was all a dream?" He checked his hand and did his best to refocus his eyesight, but it didn't help much. He sighed and thought about how real everything had been and how, were it real, he left Copper Blossom without explaining himself or even helping 'his people' back then. "Looks like gods didn't exist after all," he mumbled under his breath.

"What's that?" the nurse asked.

"N-nothing. Just thinking about my dreams." He looked up to face the two as best as he could. "Can I see or call my family? I'd like to know how they are."

The two looked at each other silently, leaving Gregary confused. "Look," he started. "I want to see them, or just call my wife. It's not that hard to understand!" His voice was started to get more aggressive and his face was glowing red.

"We...We need to tell you that, on their way here, your family died in an accident," the nurse started. "We weren't able to reach them in time. I'm sorry."

"That..." Gregary paled and hid his face in his hands. "That isn't...I don't believe you."

"Truth conceited and glorious? Amusing, isn't it? No. Not dead. Not real. Not here."

"What?"

The hospital room was now just an empty space of black in which the doctor, the nurse, and Gregary in his bed floated aimlessly.

"The familiar soul would better, off."

"So you're this 'god' then? Taking the form of two...of two people at the same time?" Gregary was still hiccuping from the traumatic prospect of his family dying before he could even see them again.

"We find it amusing and lethargic. Efforts don't abound to thinks like this," the nurse said.

"All beings fear loss of the barnacles on the ship's hull. Why do they bleat so for their safety and growth?"

Gregary pondered his words a moment then came up with an answer. "You think family is worthless?"

The nurse and doctor slowly approached each other then vanish in a flash of darkness. "Humans of apes grow in groups, but much like the progenitors, they see fit to leave and separate, the familiar souls."

The man couldn't help but feel a vice on his chest. "How do you know...about humans? Did you read my mind? Watch my memories?"

"The artist can't paint without familiar colors. Give it the mantis shrimp's eyes and what can it paint?"

"Are you trying to say that you already know humans?"

"A familiar can't be a witch's only detail."

"But how?"

"It strives for fear. For terror. For trauma. For phobias. It travels where the familiar souls are, but new things are far more amusing and teach much, for fear has many shapes and forms, and the most common are too easy."

Gregary looked around and tilted his head slightly, trying to locate the source of the voice. "You're starting to speak normally."

"Does it bleat because it fears, or knowledges because doubts? Let the windmill's grind the shredded heads."

Gregary clung to the sheets of his bed for dear life when it launched forward like a rocket through the darkness and towards an opening of white. Slowly opening his eyes, Gregary found he had returned to being Stelimus, and he was attending the funeral of Shining Armor in the throne room of the Crystal Kingdom's tower. Behind him was a massive amount of crystal ponies, and next to him was Copper, completely destroyed inside with posture limp and eyes devoid of light and life. A large painting of Shining and Cadance hung over the large black coffin where Shining was interred. His cutie mark was painted on the top of the object, breaking the contrast of darkness.

"What's going on? Stop this, Zelmar!" Stelimus shouted angrily.

"Stel...imus?" Copper stuttered.

"Is there a problem, King Stelimus?" the priest near the coffin asked.

"It would be wise to continue. See the blues surrounding the yellows."

"This is Copper's mind?" Stelimus thought.

"Yes. Let it grow and disinfect."

"N-no. I was just...aggravated at what happened. Some..." he rotated a hoof. "Release of pent up anger, I suppose."

"I understand," the pony nodded. "Would you like to come up and give a few words of respect to the late king?"

"Um, sure. Yes."

Hesitant, the deer king walked up to the podium to see rows-upon-rows of mourning crystal ponies, and suddenly, stage fright gripped him. He tugged at his neck tufts and cleared his throat.

"Even the most minor fissures can break castles."

"I didn't know my father-in-law much, but I know, through what...my wife has told me, that he was a great stallion who cared greatly for his people, even after his wife d...sacrificed herself for all of our sakes. I...I..." Stelimus started feeling woozy. "I don't feel good," he stuttered.

Before he could move forward any further, he collapsed upon the ground. A wet sensation came from his sides and, with a tap of a hoof, white and blue changed to red and purple. Copper saw and, without warning, collapsed upon the ground.

"Couldn't withstand the swarm, so the fields were eaten. What does it mean?" Zelmar spoke.

Stelimus was floating in the black almost as suddenly as he left it with Oriyis' body floating in front of him. "What was that?" the deer king gasped. "I literally felt myself die."

"Its fear of the lost and not found goes to birth of stars. To see its sun extinguish was one of its greatest fears. No backup pipelines. No more fuel."

Stelimus pondered the words, and his eyes shot open. "She died from grief?!"

Zelmar laughed. "More than a few short straws have been grabbed for that one time experience. wHy DoEs? Do they cry and make mince, or sleep and grow trees? The familiar soul has fears other than loss."

Gregary was his human self again, but standing in front of him was a woman with golden brown hair, wearing a shirt and pants of yellow, and sporting a somewhat innocent-yet-playful expression. She was strangely reminiscent of Copper Blossom.

"It fears the appearances and mindsets. Helped grow young while young and yet so strung. Ancient minds made new a body." The human shrunk to that of a little girl wearing a long dress of the same colors. "The familiar soul brings interest to the fears. One not known yet so apparent. They shall be used in the future when requited."

"But...I can't..."

"It is wrong, is it not? Fear death, fear sorrow. No way out. Death brings death. Departure brings death and chaos. Separation brings insanity. Any outcome is beneficial to fear."

"And you'll spread again."

"Forcing a square through a pyramid won't get anywhere. The pyramid will just become two-dimensional."

Gregary spent several minutes thinking, but he finally came with an answer after so long. "I was technically a very young child at the time, and now we're near each other's age. I spent eight years denying, and she was always so patient. I should be closer and warmer to her now, but that' ll take work. Hard work." The He looked upwards at Oriyis with determination. "Just because you're some entity of fear doesn't mean you have absolute power over anything! I'll just get through this fear and become more courageous and improved for it!"

Oriyis' silence became a booming laughter. "The river filled wants naught for water, but the water still flows. Anything 'covered' will bleed through again. There is no escape from fear, so what will the familiar soul do? It will never leave. It will never stop. Delaying is all that exists for a clock telling time."

Weak Frame

Hora kept a hand on Oriyis' shoulder and was mumbling something to the zaoris. Whatever ye was saying, Oriyis was grumbling and refusing the words.

"Hey!" Stelimus shouted. Oriyis and Hora both looked at him with curious eyes. "Your attempts to kill me failed, and it's clear you weren't under that...thing's influence." Ice started growing from under Stelimus' hooves and was slowly expanding outwards. "Either Hora does something about you or I kill you here."

Copper blinked in disbelief. Stelimus was absolutely enraged and with a bloodthirst in his eyes that she had never seen before.

"That's not Stelly," she thought to herself.

"Wow. He really takes from you, anglacite," Gfefner whispered to his brother. Anglacite shared a narrowed glare in return.

Hora put a foot forward to place yimself in between the two rulers, but Oriyis prevented yis guardian to do so. Struggling to get back on yis feet, Oriyis cracked yis neck and stared directly at Stelimus.

"Fine. Yes. I did attempt to kill you, but this is not what I expected." Oriyis brushed sand off yis legs. "It never did that before, and it wasn't long before I lost control of my own body." The zaoris looked around at the anyubinites' damaged capital city and splayed yis arms forward to emphasize it all. "Look at what happened to my people's homes! This is far beyond what I wanted. FAR beyond." Ye scratched at a scab on yis cheek, growled, then bared yis teeth angrily. "I'll have to dig deep into my personal coffers to repair everything."

"...You would dig into your own money to repair damages?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"But--"

"Deer King, I would appreciate that you drop the subject," Hora interjected. "Enough damage has been caused today."

"And what about you?!" Yolumay bellowed. She hopped down from the dried plants whilst the two bodyguards dug around the city for reasons known only to them. "You invited us here, and then you suddenly intervene when he turned into that THING!"

"I am not a 'he'," Oriyis corrected.

Hora exchanged stares with the princess at first, then ye continued yis explanation. "Because I am one of Oriyis' closest advisors and am of the actual very few to know about the secrets of my own people. What you thought was just a diplomatic envoy with some minor advantages on the echelon was more. Much more."

"Then what about that sudden transformation? Yolumay asked.

Hora looked down at Oriyis who shook yis head. "It seems that Zelmar, as my zaoris mentioned, took an interest in the deer king." Ye lifted an eyebrow in suspicion. "Zelmar has never done so in the past. Not to this extent. Whatever interest it has in the deer king seems to be known only between the two." Ye straightened yimself out and looked straight at Stelimus. "I trust whatever deal you made with it will be benign?"

Before Stelimus could add more, the remaining few gitz-gitz-guak emerged from the sands, unharmed. They all stomped towards Hora and lifted yim up violently by yis thin body.

"Put me down," Hora spoke with a commanding tone. This went over the giants' heads.

"You promised to return our homes and history to us."

"And they will. We have some issues of our own. I keep my word, even if I lose everything else."

Hora was dropped limply onto the ground and the creatures walked towards the intact pyramid whose middle half became ajar again. "We will wait in this palace," the giant said bluntly.

Once the bugs were gone, Stelimus took the moment of silence as an opportunity."This doesn't explain how your 'gods' managed to manifest themselves physically or how my father is here," he said.

"We can explain that," former god-king Anglacite said. He and his siblings floated towards the current deer king and Hora, although they didn't seem too pleased about being near an anyubinite. "It's because of the sheer concentration of death gods and agents of theirs."

"Huh?" Stelimus blabbed.

"He means that, with so much spiritual energies of godly proportions focused in such an area, the barrier between the living and the spirits is as thin as the velvet that falls from new antlers," Gfefner explained. "It's how we managed to get through and follow you around, Stelimus Anglacite."

Stelimus remained expressionless and pointed to the three. "You were stalking us?" he stated dryly.

Tyeda and Gfefner both coughed in embarassment and averted the stag's gaze. Stelimus frowned at both of them and grumbled, then he turned back to the two anyubinites. "That still doesn't explain why you would attack the one who supposedly brought you to where you were. How are you even still in control of yourselves? My father went crazy and violent after he became corrupted."

"Don't remind me," Anglacite said in the back.

"Because we found a way to limit its influence on us, but we won't refuse it entirely," Hora explained.

"By having a zaoris, we create a focal point where any anyubinite deemed worthy enough will intake the powers and forces of Zelmar and keep its influence in check," Oriyis added. "I'm busy both ruling my country and bringing offerings in secret to Zelmar so that things like this don't occur, or that we don't get any 'black snow', as you call it."

"I thought it was called 'Adwanee Snow'," Gfefner thought aloud.

"That is the naming convention of the Berbiers."

"They see it as a different color which they call 'Adwanee'," Hora added. "Their eyes are strange."

"Can we just go home?" Copper asked. Stelimus forced himself towards her and held her. "I just want to find the comfort of my bed and the soft, fluffiness of Stelly's pelt." She buried her face into the deer king's pelt and smiled in satisfaction with her eyes closed. Stelimus blushed in response.

"You will have to wait at least two weeks," Hora said. "You won't be leaving until we can repair everything."

"And I need to send out messengers to the quarries around our sands and to the Saddle Arabian sultan. I have much financial business to work with and some coffers to empty."

"Wouldn't using so much of your own money, including the actions you performed here, find you weakened in multiple aspects?" Anglacite asked.

"Yes, but if my people wish to judge me, then so be it. Another zaoris will take my place. We zaorii are only here to keep Zelmar's power in check and to maintain the country. If we are seen as unworthy, then so be it."

"You are not here to be kept on a leash by your own people. The pet does not walk the master."

Oriyis and Anglacite exchanged glares. Two different eyes from two different worlds.

"You and I both have concepts of ruling. While you were busy crushing your own people, I was busy instilling both fear of my abilities and respect towards the actions I undertook to keep them safe and to let them grow into a powerful country worthy of resisting any threats from the outside."

Hora nodded and helped yis ruler upon on yis own feet. "So you know the source of your 'black snow'. What now?" he asked Stelimus.

"I was expecting you to figure out how to keep it from attacking us again. I might not be there to live through it again, but the future reindeer will," Stelimus said.

"And I think we've all seen enough death over such long periods," Tyveda added.

"We will have something ready for you. You have my word that it will be delivered before you are sent back to your home country. Until then, I believe you have some catching up to do, and you are more than welcome to return to the pyramid for your rooms." Hora bowed and aided yis zaoris back to yis pyramid.

"Wait!" Copper Blossom's plea stopped the anyubinites in their tracks. "You aid that the walls between the world of the living and the dead is weakest here, right?"

"Yes."

She looked around nervously, her whole body trembling. "Where is my mother? Where's Cadance?"

There was a long moment of silence between the two save for the few gusts of wind blowing sand to-and-fro. "I never said anything about everything realm of the dead being here."

"What does he mean by that?" Copper looked at Stelimus then quickly darted back to the anyubinite who was already walking away. "What do you mean by that?!" she shouted.

"Copper. Leave it be. Relax. We're safe now."

Copper started crying. "You can talk. Your whole family is here. Even my biological parents aren't."

"If it makes you feel any better," Anglacite started. "Those that don't wander like us tend to actually be in the after life. They're most certainly watching for you and waiting when your time comes. Until then, they won't let bad things happen to you."

Copper's sniffle sound so phlegmy that Tyveda and Gfefner backed away and stuck out their tongues in obvious disgust. Anglacite approached his son and looked at him with melancholy.

"Well...it's me. Your father," he presented himself awkwardly.

"Eeyup," Stelimus responded whilst putting Copper on the ground to relax.

"Well...I was expecting a more surprised and maybe happy reaction from you."

"And I was expecting kiwi flavored ice cream to all from the sky."

Anglacite rolled his eyes. "Well, at least you're not behaving like Effervescence over there."

Stelimus leaned over to see his aunt hugging the two deceased god kings and crying about it.

"I can't believe you're both here. It's been so long!" She backed away and looked at them. "And you're still how you were so long ago."

"And you turned into a vegetable," Tyveda teased.

Effervescence looked at her with puffed up cheeks and an angry expression. "At least I made something of myself," the doe underlined.

"Yeah. A garden, and anyone can make those."

Gfefner shook his head and rubbed his face. "Can you two give it a rest? I'm more interested in how you even became like this."

"Consistant exposure to the energies of vegetation in a rich and powerful forest, amongst other things..." she trailed off.

"Really?" The god king rubbed his chin pensively. He scooped up a bit of sand and gradually let it slide from his hooves. "I would be remiss if I didn't say I would have loved to see such a thing happen to me with sand." He turned to face his other sister. "What do you think, Tyveda?"

"I don't like sand. Too coarse and rough. I'm content with the soft and cold feeling of ice and snow."

"We thought the same, and now we're like this," Effervescence hummed. "Although Grimliss didn't become like he is voluntarily."

"Oh yeah. Grimliss!" Tyveda shouted. "Where is he?"

"He's...not here..." Effervescence looked away.

"I see," Gfefner mumbled. "Well, eventually, perhaps. We'll spot him when we do, what with his obsession with potions and things."

"He...Sure." Effervescence forced a calm expression and gave a little smile.

"I wonder if we can't remedy the issue of not getting to live as long as we wanted. I'm really curious as to how much the world has changed and would love to see it physically." The god king looked over towards Stelimus and Copper and hummed.

Author's Note

The story is almost over. Normally, the next chapter should be a more 'calm' chapter with proper explortion of the surroundings and the people.

Dead Relatives

"And you haven't managed to rein them in?!" Anglacite half-shouted in an almost accusing tone.

"What do you want me to do? I was trying to rule them in a manner different from you!" Stelimus shouted in response.

"It's not dumping half an ocean on land that you'll create a gentle river! You're supposed to slowly eb the water in. You should KNOW this!"

"Oh. Yes. I forgot about that in the 'How to king' class." He tapped his head. "How silly of me."

Anglacite strained his forelegs and audibly strained his voice in anger. "I'd strangle you if I could touch you physically!"

The god-king casually floated in the air and waved his foreleg multiple times through Stelimus.

"Stelimus Anglacite, was it?" a voice called out. It was Gfefner.

"Yes. Why? You're my uncle, right? Um..." The deer bobbed his hoof as though he prepared to throw some dice along the floor. "Your name escapes me."

"I am Gfefner."

Stelimus frowned dramatically as though extremely disappointed in his uncle. "What kind of name is 'Gfefner'?"

"We were name by the deer that we took up north. Are you going to stop on your own people?"

Stelimus pondered sarcastically then nodded a bit too energetically. "Yeah. I might."

Gfefner facepalmed and shook his head, but Tyveda came to break up the tensions. "MEANwhile, I am your aunt: Tyveda."

"See? Now that's a proper name."

Gfefner grunted when he attempted to strangle Stelimus, instead only phasing through him much like Anglacite.

"You can't touch him," Anglacite grumbled.

"If I could o the MC Hammer dance, I would. As it limps, I can't."

"...What?" everyone spoke in unison.

"Nothing. Never mind."

"Well, we wanted to discuss things with you and-" Tyveda paused and bit her lower lip when she saw the tiny pony huddled up next to her nephew. "-the pony-song."

"What kind of thing?" Copper asked. It seemed being next to Stelimus let her calm down and take back control of her senses, but she was clearly still shaking.

"Rebirth things."

Stelimus and Copper looked at each other while Anglacite stared off into the distance, a massive frown of disappointment adorning his face.

"Please don't..." he sighed.

"What's wrong with him?" Stelimus asked.

"How can you be reborn? Spells or something s-similar?" Copper asked.

Tyveda bobbed her head left and right. "Mmmmmmmmmm-no."

Stelimus narrowed his eyes then looked at his father who dropped his head in acknowledgement.

"Oh hell no!"

"What," Copper asked.

"They want to be reborn as--"

"Your children," Gfefner finished.

Both Copper and the deer king's faces burnt to a crisp red.

Tyveda was smiling earnestly. "We wouldn't need to worry about being separated nor would we lose our connection with our own people."

"And I hear that cross-breeds have better lifespans and bodies than pure breeds." Gfefner turned towards his brother. "What do you think, Anglacite?"

"Leave me out of this."

"But you have a chance to return to the world of the living. Why don't you?"

"He's kind of my son? That would be extremely disturbing. I'll wait for his descendants."

Gfefner shrugged. "Suit yourself. We'll be here waiting for you."

"Where could you even 'hear' about the lifespan thing?!" Copper blurted.

Stelimus whispered what his experiences with Grimliss had taught him and she nodded in understanding. Unfortunately, it didn't alleviate what the two god kings were insinuating without even trying to sugarcoat it.

"How would you even know when to inhabit the body? Upon birth? You'd kick out the soul born there just to get a new body?" Stelimus asked.

"No," Tyveda said. "We'd be watching you and inhabit the new bodies as soon as it's over," she explained innocently and with a smile.

The two frowned almost to the point that it looked like their faces were going to fall off.

"Oh. That's SO much better," Copper spoke sarcastically.

The couple refused, but the ghosts wouldn't give up. Much like the other three, Stelimus noticed that they were extremely blunt and uncaring for those around them, preferring instead to further their own interests. What would they have been like had they lived just as long as the three? Just imagining it made Stelimus shudder viciously.

Niris took quite a lot of time to rebuild, and even with a week's time, the many buildings and shrines were still heavily damaged. The gods of death did not appreciate it, and so cursed their followers for their 'slow work' after having 'helped' them all. Oriyis was angered to no end and, despite the wishes of Hora and the Temple leaders, channeled the powers of Zelmar once more and freed his people whilst damaging his body even further.

Yolumay, however, found interest in walking around with her aunt whilst perusing the many wares of anyubinites, but, while she looked for weaponry and armor, Effervescence looked for things deemed 'beautiful' by her very picky and 'refined' eyes. One such stall was setting itself back up and wiping some sand off the valuables after a sand storm. It was a small assembly of weapon racks and armories under a large red tent that let the sun's light pass through, giving everything under the cloth's protection a darkened and red appearance. The anyubinite in question was a scrawny thing, even by anyubinite standards, and ye didn't seem very happy at all.

"Do we have to go in there?" Effervescence complained.

"Yes. We looked at those desert centered carnivorous plant giants you wanted to. Now it's my turn to look at something that I want to see."

Most weapons on the table ranged from slings of varying sizes to knives of different shapes and design. The weapon racks held several khopesh of the some variety as the knives, spears, lances, and halberds with crescent moon blades taking a good third of the wooden beam they were affixed to. Shields were also present, as were bows. The shields, however, were made of stretched leather over either a tall, rectangular wooden body or the tough chitin of whatever beastly insect existed in this desert.

"Finding anything to your tastes, deer?" the anyubinite asked passively.

Yolumay leaned towards a khopesh and hummed in interest. Its blade was worked black with the handle being covered by a white leather tape and painted over with curious symbols that meant nothing to the deer princess.

"Yes. This...thing intrigues me."

The jackal blinked a few times. "The Khopesh and Kutky? That's a very expensive weapon."

"Then why is it just hanging around here? Someone would steal it and sell it for big money."

The jackal crossed yis arms. "Do you really think they would recognize things like that? Additionally, a weapon having a name and history doesn't make it more valuable by money standards unless the wielder was held in high regard."

"So you're saying the previous owner was mostly unknown?"

"Yes. A shame, too, as ye killed fifteen of the insect colossi on yis own before falling." There was a long moment of silence. "That was a lot."

"Oh..." the two deer said in unison.

"And what are these symbols?" Yolumay asked.

"They are the words of Yhmjet: God of war, scripture, and death. They say: "The sword can be used for writing just as the quill can be used for warfare. Dip it within the red ink and 'write' what comes to mind."

"...I don't get it," Yolumay shrugged.

"Me neither," Effervescence agreed.

"You might in the future. You want to buy it?" the anyubinite asked calmly.

"How much?" Yolumay asked.

"Three hundred coin."

Effervescence casually pulled a golden nugget the size of her head from the sand, causing the merchant's eyes to sparkle and have a dumbfounded expression until the god-queen cut a large piece of the nugget off and dropped the rest back into the sand. The jackal grabbed the rock and placed it in a small strongbox behind yim. When ye handed it to Yolumay, the deer felt a brief shock course through her and the blade shimmered a deep blue for nary a second. Looking at it, the deer princess nodded.

"It has a history, and so I will add more to it. I must name it as well, however," she hummed.

"Perhaps later," Effervescence groaned as she rolled her eyes.

"I can't name it now. There's still much it must do to prove that it is worthy of a name."

Tenyom and Radivus did not want to play or shop, however. They were more interested in the military practices of the anyubinites, and with the agreement of Hora and Oriyis, were given as much time as they wanted to learn and train from the jackals. The most significant they learned, however, was the teamwork that they displayed. While reindeer had their own methods of doing such, they didn't have the same 'interlocking' methodology. Shield bearers would run through the line of archers and, with a shield in two hands and one on their back, plant a wall of thin leather and chitin to protect the ranged troops from counter fire or sling. Thin openings near the top and the middle allowed the bownites to see and fire as accurately as they possibly could. The two deer learned this firsthoof by testing its ability. Even Tenyom could not approach them nor use any stones she threw as they would simply bounce off the interlocked, stacked shields.

Other techniques involved the anyubinites having what they called a 'Wind Spinner' in their native tongue. It would involve pairing up a shield bearer and swordsanyu together. Both would carry two of their respective armaments and go to battle like this; Both requiring the protection and trust of the other. Without it, both would die. Stelimus' bodyguards volunteered for such a thing and found that, with Tenyom as the shield bearer due to her size, and Radivus as the sword user, the two became nigh impossible to fight...for the neophytes of the Anyubinite Army. There was much more for them to learn, and despite the two deer's seemingly innocuous and innocent expressions, they knew precisely what this meant when it came to defending their king, and so they trained. Their only true moment of respite were to learn fighting techniques of the anyubinite army.

Stelimus and Copper, however, took this time to both heal and mend some much older wounds. The two had gone to the outskirts of the damaged capital to rest upon a sand dune and amuse themselves with the various mirages the desert tried to torture them with. The two were just finishing to laugh at what almost looked the tundra with many kobolds waddling around.

"So..." Stelimus started. He had trouble looking Copper in the eyes. "I wanted to talk to you about some...stuff."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. I...Well, I guess I haven't been very kind to you these past few years."

"How so?"

"Not trading affection, not taking you to nice places, and dragging you into the death zone that is my home."

"Well, I did find that you acted strange when I was giving you affection, Stelly."

"Yeah..." Stelimus sighed.

"So what is it, then? Was it because I'm a pony?"

"No."

"Do you just not like me?"

"What?! Of course I like you," Stelimus quipped.

"Oh..." Copper looked into the distance and blinked. "Are you actually gay? I've heard of relationships like this."

The deer King looked at his wife with a face of disapproval.

The mare threw her forelegs up. "Hey. It's okay if you are. I'm not judging."

"No," Stelimus said dryly.

"Then what is the problem?"

"Well..." He scratched the back of his head and took a deep breath. "I can't really tell you the source of the issue, but, because I helped you when you were so young, I kind of saw myself as a surrogate father figure."

The mare tilted her head. "What? But we're barely a year apart in age!"

"Like I said: I can't explain the source, but I CAN tell you that it's what helped me get through all these events that should have normally been impossible for someone of my age and 'experience' at the time to have been able to overcome."

"So, what is it you're saying?"

"I have more life experience than most of the deer back at the capital, but they'll never know. This as much as I'm willing to tell you."

"So what does this mean for us?" Copper frowned sadly and her eyes began to glimmer.

"Don't do that," Stelimus growled.

"But--"

"Seriously. Don't. The start of my life here was so cliché I predicted every potential event. You doing the 'sad face' here just lacks a fountain, a single tear for me to wipe away, and a tiny rainbow created by the glimmer of the fountain's water spray floating gently in the soft, cool summer air." The deer king mimed the movement of some items he described with his hooves.

"That sounds so romantic," Copper cooed.

The deer king felt an upset churning in his stomach. "Just, I want to be able to start over. I had an 'epiphany' and I would rather we be able to talk about our feelings for each other and mend the marriage into a way that's better for both of us without it being a forced perspective."

"Forced perspective?"

"Yes. We didn't choose the marriage. Our parents chose it before we were even born. Or, rather, before I was even born." Stelimus rubbed his foreleg nervously.

"So you'd rather we work on our relationship, talk, and do things together, right?" The deer king nodded to Copper's question. "Yay!" The pony glomphed the deer king. "More time with Stelly!"

"This is going to be harder than trying to teach history to my daughter," he sighed mentally.

A week later, the visitors were once again on Hora's boat with Hora yimself. A gitz-gitz-guak had accompanied Stelimus to the port through the desert to discuss multiple things concerning the renewing of the alliance and multiple ways to ensure its stability after so long, but they would not be joining the visitors for their return trip. The three spirits had followed them as well to say goodbye, but something was missing.

"Where's the contraption you said would help us?" Stelimus asked.

"We are having trouble with it," Hora answered quickly. "We haven't managed to isolate most of the Adwanee that Zelmar lets out through Zaoris Oriyis. This is why I despise date announcements." Ye rubbed yis forehead. "That being said, another problem has come from the possibility of the 'black snow' being different than the 'adwanee sands'. We need more time. New problems and solutions arose during our research."

"So then we still have to wait?"

"Zelmar won't be back for another few hundred years," Anglacite explained. "You have time to wait."

"Are you sure about that?"

"We're unliving proof," Gfefner added. "Multiple hundred years separated us from death."

Tyveda approached her sister and whispered to her. "Never forget that immortality doesn't mean invincibility."

"I'm well aware of that, sister." she grumbled.

"Good! Then we can send you off."

"But wait! Come with us," Stelimus said. "I know someone--"

"We can't, Stelimus," Anglacite cut him off. "We can only manifest in this land, and it won't last for very long. We're going to have to return to the other side. If we ever find thin pockets like that again, we'll see you." He looked at the stag stoically.

Stelimus looked at the other two god-kings floating lazily in the air and frowned sadly. "But--"

"Your people need you, and Grimliss awaits. I am certain that he's done a good job while you were gone, but now it's your turn to put your hoof down. If you truly want to clean the deer of generations of my corrupted thought patterns, then you will have to ease them into it. Until then, you're going to be forced to be extremely aggressive with them." He brought Stelimus closer. "Got that?"

"Y-yes. I'll...I'll go. Thanks for the advice...d-dad," the deer king sputtered.

Taking one last look at the two dead god-kings, Stelimus walked back to his wife and onto the ship with his companions. Tenyom and Radivus both attracted everyone's attention.

"Where did you two get those?" Stelimus asked.

"Well." Radivus started.

Grimliss twiddled with a book made of thick slabs of marble tied together via white rope put through three holes on the "spine' of the book. It contained ancient spells that the god-king was transcribing to a sheet of parchment to better try translating the contents.

"This might have what I need. It's the oldest book of spells I know!" he strained under his breath.

The five members of the council quietly waited on the sides of the throne room whilst fidgeting nervously or just glaring at Grimliss who had better things to do than worry about the simple deer.

Grundyl whispered to his Fyovyor as they waited. "Are we still going to try and 'dispose' of him?"

"Of course we are. What a silly notion. Once he's gone, we'll have no problems with this childish leader."

Kuj cleared her throat, showing that she had arrived next to the two in secret. "When he tells us how to keep the black snow back, of course."

Tenyom and Radivus both burst through the massive entrance doors as regular palace guards followed them from the sides and, in a unified display, lined the walls of the throne room while Stelimus' personal body guards waited in the middle of the passage for him. After being given the all-clear, Grimliss wrapped up his work and stepped to the side to see his 'favorite' nephew. Grundyl approached the couple, intent on congratulating them, but Tenyom responded to this by a shield bash into his forehead and then his chest.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! This goes against your king's desires!"

Tenyom smirked in response to his complaint, causing the five deer's expression of certainty to change. They slowly looked to the deer king and saw that he was glaring at them from his seat. His wife was leaning against one of the arm rests and looking at them with a simple disinterest that sent shivers down their spines.

Fyovyor rushed to his colleague's aid and whispered to him as he helped him up. "I don't think we'll manage to kill this Stelimus."

"I should hope not," Yolumay chuckled. The five spun around to see the princess casually sharpening her new khopesh while Effervescence amused herself with maintaining and growing a large, tan-colored bud in a ceramic pot. "It would be a real shame if..." She looked up at the deer. "We needed five new heads at the same time."

"I'm glad you're back, nephew," Grimliss said. "I trust that your trip was a pleasant?"

The deer king looked at his uncle and exhaled quietly. "Yes. It was...enjoyable."

"Did they deliver on what they promised?"

"Not yet. It should arrive soon, but I know what the cause is."

An almost life-creating spark shone in Grimliss' orbits. "And what is it?"

"I'll tell you later. For now, I have a very important thing to do, and it involves running my country."

"I see," the deer pondered as he rubbed his lower jaw. "And how will you do that?"

"I'm not sure yet," he joked. "Maybe some executions of high ranking officials could help inspire me?"

Even with this empty threat, he kept thinking about the deal he made with Zelmar, and he didn't like it in the slightest. It had too much of a heavy consequence.

Author's Note

Dere we go. It's over, and I hope you all enjoyed this series (Normally, I have one more story for it. Normally. Not sure yet). Next is 'Lovie Dovey' :rainbowkiss: .

Under Ice and Snow

Author's Note

Iz slow news day today.

Under Ice and Snow

Grimliss stood proudly in the streets as all manner of social deer came to watch at what was unfolding. One of the nobles, a grumpy doe with no antlers, was being dragged out of her sizeable home in chains comprised of the shadowy essence that surrounded the god-king himself. His own guards were performing the act of 'escorting' the noble all the way to their master's hooves. One would wonder why the god-ling didn't simply use the guards of the north rather than his own, but that was how he preferred it: To have the dead serve the dead and little else.

"What am I being ripped out of my home for?" she growled.

Grimliss was a little different when not around his nephew. He wasn't as 'jovial' or 'amusing' and certainly wasn't 'playful' either. No. Outside of that small area of living, he was the Grimliss of old: The one who, like his sister, had no qualms with being 'over-the-top'.

He looked at the doe with a sharp glare in his eye sockets, and no manner of shadowy miasma could alleviate the pressure and fear she felt at the time. "So, I hear you've been plotting to assassinate my nephew," he said coldly.

"I-I-I would never!" the doe stuttered.

Grimliss grabbed a large pile of papers from one of his undead guards, looked at the top sheet briefly, then threw them across the floor in front of the deer. "These papers say otherwise."

The doe, squashed onto the floor by her captors, saw the documents in front of her, with some being blown away by the chilly winds.

"This one," Grimliss said as he picked a piece of paper up. "You were talking with one of the servants inside of the palace to plan a poisoning of sorts, but using the bed to kill both my nephew and nice-in-law." He dropped it and picked up another paper. "Here, you were trying to instill unrest amidst the farmers in trying to oust the lead agricultural expert: A pony, using old hostilities towards the pony-song." He shook his head and clicked his non-existent tongue multiple times. "And here. Thanks to this we have a group of smiths working in a smithing factory that need to be ousted and, perhaps, executed. They're wasting resources on selfish actions to get money and allow you to arm some would-be assassins." Grimliss tossed the paper and blew some snow off of his hooves. "Which I have captured, no-less."

"What are you going to do to me?" the elderly doe asked. "Please!" she pleaded. "Have mercy!"

"Mercy is for the living." He leaned towards the culprit and kept a stoic expression. "I am not one of those. But!" He shouted with a raised hoof. "I don't feel like executing you right now. I'll have you taken to the dungeons where the others wait. You might die, you might live...with some personal losses," Grimliss teased.

"No! Please!" The doe started thrashing about. "I don't want to die!"

"Awwwww," Grimliss teased again. "And you were trying to kill my nephew." He got close enough to her ear that she could hear the miasma swirling through his skeletal body. "If you can kill then you can die."

He gestured his personal guards to take her far away while she continued to scream, and, looking at the crowd, he saw an opportunity to use.

"Such a shame that you hate your new king. He's not a god-king, after all, however. Do not worry, though, for I am here, and things should be similar to how my late brother used to rule. I'm sure you'll be very jovial during my rule as a sit-in for your king. You needn't worry about anything ever again."

Grimliss walked away casually amidst the silence of the crowd staring at him with terror hidden within them, refusing to be shown. The stag had no qualms with what he was doing, either. In fact, there were even corpses draped around the central plaza, with some kept near the entrance of the palace. His tactics terrified both the guards and the populace, but, as always, there were those who opposed his methodology despite the victims being those who tried to kill Grimliss' nephew.

"He's a monster!" the stag overheard. "Anglacite was never like this, was he?"

He started hearing another conversation developing further down the street as well.

"I still prefer this method over having a pony-song lover."

"Are you serious?! He's killing us! At least Anglacite's son tried his best to keep us out of his dungeon! This god-king is just slaughtering us!"

"So then what? Get the other one instead?"

"Hmmm. Other one," Grimliss pondered. "Perhaps I should invite her. She's been depressed ever since my nephew brushed her off." He rubbed his chin. "Kind of a lengthy time to be depressed."

Once inside the palace, he sat in front of the podium where the royal couple's still destroyed thrones sat, and stared at the icy ceiling. Being immortal and practically invincible as well, the stag had no need for guards in the throne room and had them patrol the city for signs of assassination ploys, illegal activities, and the like. The main purpose of the guards. Grimliss rolled onto his side and groaned.

"I need coffee," he said to himself. "I hope my cousin is having a better time here than I am. All of these dissenters are quite irritating to deal with. At least the dead are calm and collected and usually keep to each other. The living are far too much of a hassle to take care of for an extended period of time."

"God-King Grimliss!" a small stag yelled. He ran to the god-king and pulled a saddle bag off of his shoulders to take several letters out of its pouch. "Why are you on the ground?" he asked.

"Because I'm both bored and tired."

"I thought you couldn't get tired."

Grimliss answered by tapping his skull, creating a resounding, hollow thunk with each tap. It would be rather humorous if it weren't for the source of the sounds.

"I see. Anyways, the pony-song have sent you several messages from Equestria. I think their false gods are going to come back." The messenger scratched his antlers. "Why did they leave, anyways?"

"Issues in their country or something. A magical incident. Let them deal with it. We have no reason to help."

The messenger shrugged. "I wasn't going to suggest helping them, but I'm glad we agree on that."

He passed Grimliss his mail and rushed out of the palace, leaving the stag to check on what diplomatic niceties he will need to deal with. The first involved, obviously, cultural exchange. It seemed that the ponies wanted to know more about the 'frost essence' and spiritual connections the deer had, but that wasn't something they would be getting just yet. Those were too important to deer society and losing those advantages could prove disastrous in the future, so Grimliss painted 'DENIED' in bold, purple letters across the letter and set it in a pile. Another letter suggested the same thing, but with custom exchanges and another suggesting historical inquiries. These weren't important and would remain as belonging to the deer, so Grimliss nodded and placed them into another pile.

One of the letters was from a would-be grand merchant who wanted to purchase deer paraphernalia made from permasnow for eleven bits the product, regardless of what it was. Grimliss laughed at the notion and crumpled up the paper. He might not know the exchange rate, but he knew that such a suggestion was a rip-off. He wasn't born in the last millennium.

"Ugh," he groaned. "I wonder if I can't bring Mix-Up here to change the color of the snow. I'm growing tired of seeing the same color every day." He scratched his jaw. "Can he even work on snow?"

We will go

The head crusher returned from the tunnels and cut off the rope binding everyone.

"Everyone here has agreed with your decisions, but we have conditions that will be underlined later on."

"If it involves me giving you my territory--"

"We can't survive in extreme cold. No. The first is that you escort my contingents and I to the capital of the Anyubinites to discuss the return of our territories. We aren't interested in reoccupying any farmlands they might have developed while there. We will only dig and recover any artifacts of our civilization past."

Stelimus looked at the giant 'bishuac' creature with reluctant eyes. "And I know you won't attack us in the back how?"

"You don't. We're not interested in backstabbing like your kind does," it pointed accusingly.

Copper brought Stelimus close and whispered into his ear. "We don't have much choice here, Stelly. They could kill us, and so far they're the only ones that seem to know what they're talking about. Those murals were proof."

Stelimus groaned in defeat. "We JUST came here, and already I'm caught between a rock and a hard place." He tapped his hoof onto the ground. "Fine. If we go, we can explain to the zaoris and nothing will happen to us."

The stag explained his position on the problem and the Gitz-Gitz-Guak agreed reluctantly. Despite what Stelimus was expecting, they didn't have any giant beasts to send them quickly to the capital of the anyubinites. They left the caves via a chain of exits that were hidden behind a wall of chiseled, black stone, and, much like the other times they traveled the desert, they found everything took way too long to get to Niris. Thank goodness they still had the wagon and the sablysts pulling it, which the Gitz-Gitz-Guak had no trouble following with leaps and bounds.

Copper looked back when they left the dark caverns to see the strange structure shrinking into the horizon, seemingly abandoned until she spotted a glimmer of light upon one of the inclined columns. By the time she focused on it, it had vanished, so she shrugged it off and cuddled next to Stelimus who hesitantly put his foreleg around her. He gulped nervously and tried calming his heart rate and his throat.

"So that's the Reindeer King?" a male voice noted atop the inclined column.

"Yes. Strange. I thought reindeer weren't fond of ponies anymore," a female voice added.

"Could be worse, honestly."

Another, younger male's voice chimed in. "Let's...let's keep following them. Just in case."

"Aren't we here for that?" the first asked.

The orb flickered a moment, as though in contemplation, then flew above the column and rushed forward back into the desert before vanishing in a puff of white light. Meanwhile, the deer's return to Niris was met with gasps and angered roars akin to famished, violent wolves. Anyubinites gathered in the streets and glared at their returning guests. The deer and pony felt themselves shrinking under the glares of these people, yet the head crusher continued forward, apathetic to those around it, and why shouldn't it be? It was taller than even they, and with the strength to go with it. This was put to the test when a few of the larger anyubinites attacked it, only to have their necks grabbed, smashed onto the ground, then used as projectiles against other would-be assailants. Demonstration of such danger caused the other jackals to back away immediately.

Zaoris Oriyis and Hora both approached the encroaching group with a massive contingent of a hundred armed anyubinites. Their weapons and armor thrummed with black energies and challenging the insectoid giant. Oriyis approached with a smile and yis' golden clothes, and put a hand on Stelimus' shoulder in good friendship.

"I see you captured one of these barbaric monsters. Good! I don't need them occupying our lands."

"Should be wary of the teeth that grind, familiar soul, but where is development in such?" the voice spoke again to Stelimus.

"I am not a prisoner," the giant declared. "I come to talk to you, mammal." He pointed aggressively at Oriyis.

"What?" The zaoris looked at Stelimus. "What is the meaning of this? You bring some stuttering monster into MY capital?!"

"We didn't have a choice," Stelimus said. "He was going to kill us."

"Then better you sacrifice yourself for us than bring them here."

Stelimus' eye twitched. Head Crusher tilted his head slightly to look at the deer king. "See? I told you they would not tell you, mammal. The anyubinites are deceitful, with lies and trickery. Their gods are not deities either."

Everyone around started booing the giant and proceeded to chuck things at him; Things that shattered on impact or bounced off his exoskeleton.

"Then why would you come to us, your enemies?" Hora queried.

"For negotiation. We do not care about lands. We only care about heritage. We will not take back lands you stole from us that have been turned into agricultural fields, but we will still take back some land."

"So you don't care about land...but you still want land?"

The bug's mandibles chittered in frustration. "No. I say that we don't vye for new lands, but we will take back those you stole from us that aren't agricultural fields."

Oriyis crossed his arms while his guards raised their spears and swords. "And why would I do this? I have no ties to the deer, and you are still an enemy."

"And enemy YOU made!"

The zaoris chuckled. "So now you're friends with the Tundran Reindeer? That is laughable."

"We are not allies."

"Well," Stelimus interjected. "I'm hoping to repair the links my family destroyed with the Gitz-Gitz-Guak."

The anyubinite nodded pretentiously. "So your people actually had ties with these beasts."

"We also have a better knowledge to the Black One which has invaded their homeland."

"And in ratifying the return of your lands, you would impart this information to them?"

"Yes."

Oriyis laughed loudly. While the two continued to argue, Effervescence snuck her way next to the wagon and coughed several times to grab her nephew's attention.

"Oh. Hello, aunt," Yolumay spat.

"Aunt?" Stelimus repeated. He turned to see Effervescence and frowned. "You're still here? Color me surprised."

"I've been staying with these anyubinites to better myself and my understanding of those around me, much like what Grimliss did in the past."

"Then you're doing it with the wrong people. If you want to learn proper behavior, then I suggest you go to Equestria for that."

She groaned. "But I don't want to go to the pony-song lands."

"But you have ponies in your forest," Yolumay shouted. "They can come to your forest but you don't want to go to their cities?" The princess tapped her forehead. "What kind of ridiculous notion is that?"

"STOP yelling at me. You've ALREADY established why you're upset with me, and I fully understand," she stomped angrily on the sand. "It's why my retainers will take care of my forest while I am gone. I'm going to stay with these people. They're taught me a great deal about patience and kindness." She reached into a saddle bag on her back and pulled out Stelimus' armor and weapon. "Grimliss sent this. You had forgotten them."

Stelimus tilted his head from left to right. "It's more a thing of me trying to display my good will to these people over wanting to look threatening," he explained.

"It doesn't matter. You should put them on."

"Why?"

Head Crusher tried to backhand Oriyis, but found his hand blocked by multiple, interwoven spears. "You hide behind the strength of others to exact your deeds of destruction, mammal. We will not have you destroying our history."

Oriyis growled. "Better to have your history wiped and you with it, than to let your kind continue upon these sands." He checked the sharpness of his claws briefly before resuming his speech. "In fact, I sent a contingent towards your home. I had my soldiers track the deer king over there as he did what he was told. He exacted the plan splendidly," he chuckled. "Always have multiple backup plans."

Head Crusher didn't even bother tilting his head. "And for what, to make me think you speak truth? I will judge one from another land by my own compound eyes than by an enemy sworn to destroy us, which also means--"

The giant chittered a strident screech that deafened everyone and made them kneel in pain. Several dozen Gitz-Gitz-Guak erupted from the sands and crushed oblivious guards. They further proceeded to destroy the homes of those around them whilst avoiding any unnecessary bloodshed of the civilians.

"Guards, kill these beasts, and the deer, too."

"WHAT?!" the group shouted.

"Why?! I only did what I thought was best. I have a people to take care of, and a wife to love." Copper turned to look at his desperate face. It was the first time he actually demonstrated genuine love outside of the palace, as sad as that may seem. "I can't just die like this!"

"But you will!"

"WE HAD A DEAL!"

"THE DEAL WAS THAT YOU DO AS I SAY, AND YOU FAILED THAT ONE. SIMPLE. TASK!"

Several guards jumped at the wagon with khopesh and spear, but the deer king made it pre-explode, showering the would-be attackers with shards of wood and freeing the sablysts who high-tailed it out of there. Using frost essence, Stelimus covered his neck and forelegs with thick sheets of ice to block the swords from hitting them, then followed up by shooting spikes of solid ice at the anyubinites, piercing their hides. he followed up by ejecting himself into the air thanks to a sudden uprising of frozen sand, and finished by exhaling a thick fog that froze the jackals completely. Copper followed up by smashing them to shards with her wings. Yolumay, the bodyguards, and Effervescence stared at them both with blank expressions and reared their heads.

"So a war we have to go through once more," Stelimus said.

"But this time, WE'RE the ones who will fight!" Copper added.

Bargains

Stelimus, Copper, and Effervescence were released from Zelmar's grasp suddenly, causing a sickening bout of disorientation. The cause of this sudden event was Hora thrusting yis staff into the skull of yis Zaoris. Ye was calm and collected doing so, but anger still leaked through yis much to Hora's dismay. Oriyis staggered backwards, its feet slamming erratically through the waving hills of sand.

"Betrayal? A fear of the golden crowns be they open or closed," Zelmar spoke casually.

"God-Kings of the reindeer!" Hora bellowed. "I will aid you in overthrowing this monster. It is no longer the zaoris that we anyubinites followed and went to for guidance." Several gitz-gitz-guak erupted from the sand, body-slamming into the giant and making it fall over. Hora pulled out yis staff and used the creature's chest as a

"Ambush from a vortex. The phobia of any stick holder."

"Kill it and free my people!" He faced the gigantic insects and pointed at them with his staff. "If we can overthrow this monster and banish it from this world, then I will acknowledge your plight. Your chosen lands will be returned and the pointless wars between our people will finally cease!"

The insects looked at each other briefly and chittered energetically. The four god-kings were released from the abomination's grasp and relaxed themselves. Yolumay, however, did not accept that she had to stay behind and escaped the plants protecting her, something Effervescence didn't like. Despite her protests, Yolumay slid down large cacti roots and used them to launch herself and her weapon at Zelmar, intent on stabbing it herself.

"Is insanity not the attempt of repetition without accepting the outcomes?" Zelmar asked her.

It ducked its deformed head and took a swing at the deer who somehow dodged by straightening herself out and jamming her spear into the former zaoris' arm. It tried to shake her off, but was unsuccessful. Instead, the black gunk on its arm started engulfing and swallowing the deer princess. Yet, just as she felt life fade away from her, something cold scraped across her torso: An icicle. More specifically, one shot from the spiral antlers of Tyveda like a canon.

"Nice aim," Gfefner commented.

"Just because we've been dead for so long doesn't mean I've forgotten the simple pleasures brought to me in life."

The stag stomped a hoof into the sand, freezing it in place. With effort, he dragged his hoof difficultly along the surface as though pulling something heavy, then threw his leg to the left. Massive spikes of frozen dust pierced Zelmar multiple times across the body it inhabited, raising it up in the air, but it wasn't enough. Zelmar laughed off the attempt to kill it. Bits and pieces of its body detached and remained on the spikes as though they had been rotting for weeks and were naught by flimsy, wet paper. Anglacite charged into the creature with his side, intent on freezing then shattering it, but the ice would not take. Worse still: The gitz-gitz-guak, despite managing to cripple the creature onto its knees several times, were not capable of keeping it down, and often would found themselves smacked down by an open palm.

"The bees flock around the hive in panic. No honey yet is made. For what do they buzz?" From its left shoulder came a swarm of black dots serving as dangerous insects to attack both living and dead.

The sheer size and tough carapace of the insect giants prevented them from being fully harmed, but the swarm was large and numerous, leaving Stelimus baffled as Copper held him up.

"What is this?" Stelimus whispered under his breath.

The funnel of sand around them started growing higher and higher. Wider and stronger. More violent and destructive and flaying stone into dust. Hora, however, was growing tired of this. Ye lowered yimself and spun around to create a golden circle imbued with anyubinite magic to protect yim from Zelmar's 'bees'. The anyubinite sat down and let the staff float on its own.

"I Speak not to one, but all our gods of death to protect their followers. We have worked diligently to serve your purpose, and without us, you will fade into obscurity. This thing will take the souls which are rightfully yours. What will you do; Let the followers die and fade into obscurity, or rightfully take control of the souls that belong to you?"

"What's he doing?" Copper whispered to Stelimus.

"I'm...I'm not sure. He's summoning their gods?"

"You think they'll answer?"

"Don't be si--"

A loud screech echoed in tandem with the head of Hora's staff glowing black and expanding. The sky started breaking as though it were just a brittle egg shell, and dozens of black entities appeared in the tumultuous chaos of white and black behind it.

"You are not welcome here, outsider," one of the gods shouted.

"Return to the world you came from!"

Zelmar continued smiling. "Even the king comes to kiss the hand. Is he not too important for such displays?"

The figures raised weapons and prepared to fight alongside the god-kings and insect giants, but Zelmar wasn't capable of such spreading without an equal measure of power.

"Even you can't do anything against them, Zelmar," Hora shouted.

"To make a vase, it needs heating and melting, and then it can be broken easily."

"What?"

The creature's body expanded to insane heights, punching into the gods of death that pushed against the fabrics of reality to face this one through its avatar. Dozens against one should have a very obvious outcome, and yet. Two black figures arose from the sands with lance and axe in hand, but Zelmar intercepted their attempted surprise attacks. One saw a large hand shaped like a clamp with four fingers -two on each side-, and grabbed it. The interception was followed by a scythe hooking around the neck of the entity and thrusting it downwards. Another was bashed in the head by a massive warhammer, but it fought back against the god of fear rather than let itself be knocked around like some toy.

"Impossible..." Hora gasped.

"It's pushing back multiple gods at the same time on its own?!" Anglacite shouted.

"Looks like it'll take a bit more elbow grease to get rid of this thing," Gfefner said with a twitch of the head.

Stelimus growled at the prospects, then pushed himself away from Copper.

"What are you doing?!" she shouted. The mare attempted to move back to him, but it was impossible to get to him quickly with her wounds and the violent sands.

Yolumay and Effervescence threw everything they could as they fought, with the god-queen letting loose mass volleys of spores like smoke screens to let her niece get closer for an attack. Anglacite and Tyveda were both summoning blocks of ice for the gitz-gitz-guak to throw at the monster while Gfefner attempted to shred Zelmar with gusts of sharp, freezing wind more than capable of altering the sky to a pale, frozen blue. Betwixt all this was Stelimus limping towards the creature somehow fighting off dozens of gods on its own and still finding time to analyze everything. Once it noticed Stelimus, its head slid down the body to meet with the deer king at eye-level.

"The familiar soul comes for fighting?"

"I want you to stop this."

"Words don't end a war without being dipped in a full container of blood beforehand."

"I want you to love."

"Wants aren't desires."

Stelimus sighed in annoyance.

"What's he doing?!" Anglacite growled.

"You can't stay here forever. You'll destroy everything!"

Zelmar's 'head' tilted.

"You'll kill everyone! Why do you think we've been fighting you for so long?!" Stelimus looked around. "Look at what you're doing! The people you made when you weren't trying to destroy everything."

"It made nothing. It destroys nothing. All is you, and all will strengthen regardless of location." It pondered momentarily, accentuating this by masticating loudly. "Departure will not be derooted. A bargain?"

Stelimus felt something clench his throat. "What kind of 'bargain'?"

Long, spindly hands and arms came out around the head and flexed their fingers before their owner resumed its speech.

"What is he doing?" Copper wondered aloud. "Is he talking to it? I hope he doesn't get..." Copper gulped loudly.

In an instant, Zelmar's body retracted and returned to it. It shook Stelimus' 'hand' via Gregary's soul and arose once more to speak in a loud tone:

"The bargain is accepted, but fear never leaves forever."

The sands calmed and quieted, and the gods -both in the sand and looking through the sky- slowly faded out of existence. All that was life was Zelmar 'evaporating' from Oriyis' body and letting yim drop next to Hora.

"Stelimus, what did you do?" Anglacite asked with a concerned tone. "Tell me." The stag refused to look at him, and the former god-king facehoofed and shook his head in disappointment. "I can't believe you would actually try to bargain with that...that thing."

Stelimus scoffed. "It's not like you were any better. In fact, I 'vaaaaaaaguely' recall you being controlled by it," the deer king reminisced sarcastically.

Tyveda snorted for laughter. "Looks like he took your 'sass', Anglacite," she said. She wrapped a leg around Anglacite and smiled. "So you made a bargain with Zelmar?" she asked Stelimus.

"Yes."

Gfefner walked up to join the reunion. "I hope the impact upon you is minimal," he started. "You are the only thing that Zelmar has ever truly listened to. Even the anyubinites haven't had such luxury. Speaking of."

Effervescence was currently exploding in anger and directing it at Oriyis and Hora. Thanks to this brief moment of respite, Stelimus noticed some things:
"The city hasn't been completely destroyed. I even see anyubinites crawling out of the homes. Everything was just buried in sand, it seems. Whatever Zelmar was trying to do, it wasn't intent on killing anyone." He rubbed his chin pensively. "I still need an explanation from both Oriyis and the three."