Hope!” Somnambula answered with confidence.
The Sphinx wailed, her comparatively enormous eyes darting about in panic she was careful not to voice. This had been the hardest riddle she ever made! Her rule was over and yet it was not the rule itself that she feared losing. Her control and demands upon the ponies was her desperate attempt to get something else...how could she attain it now that her control had been lost?
A lightbulb went off in her head. This pony! She could make one last demand. She would make it so desirable that Somnambula could not say no. The pegasus was clearly concerned now that the deal would not be kept, so the final request would readily be taken.
“Very well,” the Sphinx purred in a calmer and more pleasant tone. “You solved my riddle. I will release your prince and no longer make demands of your people-”
Somnambula’s face lit up in joy, a smile spreading on her face.
“-under one condition!”
The pony’s expression faltered.
“You must live with me and serve me for the rest of your life. For this, I relinquish control over your prince and your people.”
Somnambula paled at first but her giving personality did not waiver. She turned her lost smile into a determined flat line, her eyes serious. “I will do as you ask!” she answered with no more hesitation.
The Sphinx’s cat-like face beamed. “Excellent!” she exclaimed and in a short moment she had flown to the bound prince and used her sharp cat claws to slice the rope holding him. “Be on your way and inform your people they are free. But do not bother me for Somnambula. She agreed to her part.”
The prince, with a sorrowful and downcast face, left the temple. He paused next to the mare who had saved him and his people. To her, he gave a parting blessing. “Your name shall be cast into every pylon,” he explained, “and your life will be looked upon favorably by the stars. May your years be no less than that of the Sphinx and your happiness twofold.”
It was after he left that a teary Somnambula looked back to the Sphinx. The remainder of her life was here: a servant to a once-tyrant. Even so, kindness could not flee her heart and this large goddess-like being had upheld her bargain. Perhaps in time, she might even impart this selfish creature with a spirit of giving if only she could prove such a life by example.
They did not stay at the temple, however. The Sphinx walked up close to her new servant and told her of another place. “I did not always live in this temple,” she explained, her feline voice purring with a special interest in the small pony. “It would not do to remain after losing my place above these ponies. Besides, this place is not suitable for one such as yourself. We must travel to my old home. It is far from other ponies but has all we will need to live there in peace.”
“In peace?” Somnambula could not believe such a word coming from the large intimidating creature.
“You have much to learn, my little princess,” the Sphinx grinned wide. She led the way out of the temple and into the hot sun. After crouching to the sands, she added, “get on my back.”
Honoring her agreement, Somnambula did as she was instructed.
The massive cat hybrid stood up with ease even with the pony on her back. Her majestic wings fanned out and she took off into the sky. The power of her wings made Somnambula fearful at first, for she thought she might get tossed off. However, once they were in the air at a sufficient height, the forceful wing beats turned much more refined and they glided smoothly for long distances to the East.
It was during this journey and as the pegasus mare held onto the Sphinx to prevent falling that she discovered something. The Sphinx was impossibly soft! Her body was covered in a feline fur that made her own pony fur pale in comparison. The longer fur was as soft as silk and yet as warm and inviting a royal’s plush linens and fleece. Without giving it much thought, Somnambula found herself cuddling it. The closeness was desired out of a concern for safety and the warmth was desired out of a concern for the cooler winds of the high flight.
Where they landed was just outside of the sandy dunes, separated by a protective desert mountain which sheltered a deep green jungle so dense that little light entered beneath the trees. They landed where a few trees spread out for a clearing where there laid a moss-covered temple. It looked much the same as the other temple on the outside but, upon entering, was quite different within.
The air was not too humid but did hold some water to it that was quite obviously lacking in the dry climate Somnambula was used to. This place was foreign to her, since she had never ventured so far from her place of birth before. Exotic bird calls could be heard from outside and then echoing faintly within the carved stone walls of the temple.
The foyer opened up to a kind of throne room that took up the entire forward potion of the pyramid-shaped temple. A small waterfall of clear water trickled down the back wall into a decorative pool. There was no traditional throne, however. Instead, the place for the large Sphinx was in the center of the room on a massive dais that had a shallow set of four steps radiating out from it in a circular fashion.
There they stopped. The Sphinx laid down on the platform with a yawn. “Such a distance. You may come down if you wish. For your hunger you may find all you need outside. There are many trees of fruit and nuts around the temple and a garden in the back room open to the light we receive. For your thirst, the pool is clean and crisp. This home was blessed long ago by my ancestors...”
Somnambula did indeed come down. She was not so cold now and instead quite warm enough. This temple, though old, was even more majestic than the last. No doubt the lack of a green slime-filled pit helped its image. It made her wonder, though, what she had been desired for to begin with.
“If you have all you need here, then why did you come to my people?” she asked bravely though not angrily to her mistress.
“I could no longer contain my frustrations,” she answered with a pout. “I have been alone for such a long time now. None have visited me here in so long and I was feared when I tried to visit them on my own. I had to be aggressive.”
The pony mare was true to her spirit. She cast aside her dislike of the Sphinx’s behavior and hugged the large being from her front. Though she could not wrap her relatively small forelegs around the creature, she did her best to show her unconditional love.
“Thank you,” the Sphinx purred in response, which vibrated through her fluffy fur on her chest to the pony who was there.
“For what?”
“For showing kindness towards me.”
Somnambula smiled. “You need not thank me for that. For we should all be kind to each other.”
“Perhaps I may be demanding of only one thing?” the Sphinx decided to ask and lowered her head to the mare.
“I will serve you, my Sphinx,” Somnambula happily replied.
“Might you scratch me behind my ear?” the Sphinx requested with a blush.
The mare paused only a moment before responding.
“Yes, Sphinxy,” Somnambula answered with a giggle.
