Chapter 16 "And that, Love, was that..."

Harmony Citadel, Main research room...

There was a momentary silence, as the powered-up sphinx looked over the three ponies bound to the wall, thinking how to punish them for kidnapping her children, hurting her beloved mate more than a little, and murdering her youngest as some experiment... Her thoughts were interrupted by some muffling from Crimson Wing, so she removed the stone gagging from all of them. Might as well hear what excuses they had.

"Oh, did we hurt you by taking your bastards? Was that feather duster still breathing when you arrived?" red pegasus mocked, clearly not afraid of trios current situation.

"Quiet Crimson. You might inspire her to do things." Pure line commented in a calm and level tone. Stone Leg remained stoic as ever.

"Or what sir Line? Killing us won't bring the little shit back to life."

"When did I ever mention about killing any of you? That would be letting you off easy..." Hena asked, while tilting her head menacingly. This caused Crimson to laugh a bit.

"So? I've been stabbed and clawed more than you can imagine. And guess what, kitty cat? I frigging love the feeling of it all! Especially when any filthy beast looks confused when I just laugh after getting clawed by them."

"So you are simply a sense freak, who enjoys seeing others reaction a bit too much?"

"And what about it?! It just means you can't get back at me by causing me pain! Hah!!"

"Oh? You really think that? Well I have just a place in mind for you then." Hena said evenly, as she poked his forehead with her claw. Even a pegasus like Crimson could feel some magic in it.

"And what was that poke?"

"Oh nothing special. I just dulled your pain receptors and added a magical suggestion in you brain that stops you from ending your life by your own hooves. No matter what method you try."

"You really think I'd try to actually end myself?"

"We'll shall see... Have fun! Ad Albus Locus..."

Crimson did not have time to say anything back, when sphinx let him loose from his stony bindings as white portal appeared, and it sucked him in and disappeared.

"So, where did you sent him?" Pure line asked seemingly being polite, despite still being bound and to be punished.

"Nowhere that would interest you." was sphinxs answer.

???

Crimson Wing shook his head as he tried getting his bearings. Lack of any attacks meant that the sphinx had teleported him somewhere.

'Well, I'll just fly higher and find out what my location is.' Crimson thought with a grin as his vision got clearer and he saw... Whiteness... Just, whiteness.

"What in Tartarus?" he called out to no one, as he looked around, still seeing just whiteness in every direction. He did see his own hooves and wings while turning his head around, so that counted out of him being blind.

"Still not sure how this is supposed to punish me?" he thought aloud, while trying to hear anything in this otherwise perfectly silent surrounding of pure whiteness.
Eventually he would realize what kind of nightmare he was tossed into...

Back to sphinx...

"And I might have also slowed his aging, while making him needless. So he will be in that place quite a looong time."

"Needless? Are you perhaps meaning that he does not need to eat or drink? Fascinating." Pure Line inquired after hearing Henas words. She did not answer. Instead she approached Stone Leg, who was still keeping his stoic look as he stared back at her.

"Go ahead sphinx. Do whatever torture you have in mind for me. I've seen and faced monsters far more scarier than you, and never once even never felt fear before any of them. Even when I was a foal."

"Did you now? Your parent must have thought such behavior weird."

"They did. No magical beast have ever scared me in my life." Stone confirmed, not caring about the slight glow of sphinxs mirror-eyes, which seemed to stare at him more intensively.

"Magical eh? Well, I think I just found a good punishment for you then." Hena said as she poked him on the forehead, clearly doing some magic on him too, like she had done to Crimson.
"Here's a little tip for you. Get indoors and don't open the door... Or it will get you..."

Having said her piece of advice to Stone, she let his bindings break and pushed him through another portal. Only this one was not opened with a spell, but with some whistled melody...

????

Stone Leg was quick to get his bearings after being pushed through the portal. He was now one small hill surrounded by a snowy forest, with a deep river flowing near it. There was a higher reaching hill on the other side of it. Looking the other way, he noticed some treetops ahead, which made him conclude that there was a cliff.

Short walk to it, and he saw vast snow covered forest before him, stretching far as eye could see into the horizon. Looking down, he noticed that in a small clearing, some ways off from his current cliff perch, seemed to a cabin. No smoke meant it was most likely abandoned, but it would do as a shelter for now, as he figured how to get out of this forest. Luckily the weather was not too cold.

"Wonder what sphinx meant by 'something getting me'? No magical beast is a threat to me." he thought aloud. And then his ears heard movement on the snow somewhere behind him. Out of instinct and curiosity, he turned to see what was making the sound.

And there it stood, just across the river, staring at him... A wolf.

Not some elemental spirit, or magical construct, or a created hybrid of several animals in a shape of a wolf. Just a wolf. And it started to approach him slowly, stopping to gauge the rivers depth for a moment, before deciding to find another way across to reach him. It sniffed air for bit, before walking by the edge of the still staring at him. It clearly got his scent now somehow.

When the wolf disappeared further away, still following the river, Stone Leg had only one thing in his mind, while something warm dribbled down his leg, like he was some frightened prey animal.

'I have to reach that cabin... And fast!'

And so, the hunt began...

Back to sphinx...

"And that leaves you, mister Pure Line." the sphinx said after tossing the second pony somewhere through the portal.

"Well, if we should get technical, there is also the crowns who have given us plenty of funding and our main private financier. Although only the latter knows exactly what we are doing here. The crown simply would not understand." Pure Line said, still very calm, or perhaps he was just content with his situation. Somehow...

"Oh I might just do something to the latter eventually, should they try to do anything to me, my children, or the Guardians of Knowledge."

"We could have made something great, if they just shared their knowledge with ponies. Oh, the heights ponykind could have reached."

"Like with those four things guarding the door?"

"Mere prototypes, and a proof it could be done, even with material received from inferior subjects. Clearly needed some work, considering you made it past them. I assume you killed them?"

"They are gone, if that is what you mean. I did not lay a claw on them. Time just ran out on them, and now there's nothing left of them, except a fading memory."

"How symbolic sounding. So what do you have in mind for me then? I did try look and find what makes your potent hybrid progenies abilities tick. Unfortunately I failed at that task, but that is what the backups were for."

There was some silence, as Hena seemed to be in thought for a moment. Meanwhile Pure Line was just patiently waiting, as sphinx took a good look at him with glowing eyes, maybe looking for something.

"It would be too easy to just send you someplace, where you are treated as just an animal. But that would allow you to potentially to take an easy way out. But your mind had somethings that gave me a better idea. One of your deepest dreams was to be the oldest living pony around, but you gave up on it, didn't you?"

"I did. The average unicorn pony lifespan is just too short for that, even with an age-spell, which is not even a permanent solution. It would simply be impossible."

"Well, I have decided to do something about that. It will take only a moment."

With a malicious glint in her mirror-eyes began to weave some complicated looking spell, with a too mumbled sounding chant to understand, while letting the unicorn down from his stone bindings. There was some short flashes of some kind of web of golden threads, a pair of long sheep shears, an hourglass and streams of black sand. And with those images, it was seemingly done for now.
"So what was that, may I ask?" Pure Line inquired curiously from the floor. He obviously knew he was not able of escape with the sphinx present.

"I simply modified your time of death. Something I can do in my current state. Your time of death is now set as a mercy kill, out of love from your own child, who is born from a genuinely loving and natural companionship with a loving partner. And with a little curse I added, nothing else can kill you now."

"I see. And how is that supposed to be a punishment? I happen to completely sterile stallion, due to some mishaps earlier in my life."

"Then it just means you'll suffer much, much longer. You might not die of old age or decompose, but it won't mean you don't age. Oh, and the time thing I did does not keep you young or healthy." Hena said, as she began to weave her time-magics upon Pure Line, who was starting to visibly look a little bit nervous, as he thought over the wording sphinx had used.
As the time magic began to do its work, it made a clock face to appear before the unicorns face. And its hands were moving clockwise rather quickly, soon almost too quick to see their motion as nothing but some blur.

At the same time Pure Line noticed that he seemed to grow older, and older, and older, and older, and older, and older still. By the time his teeth were almost gone, along with most of his mane and strength in his limbs, his beyond wrinkly face and almost blind eyes were brimming with absolute fear.
He tried to talk, but only made a pitiful gurgling sound, while making his throat hurt more than a little. movement of his limbs, while instinctively trying to touch his throat after its pain, caused pain in all of its joints as his bones scrape against each other. Hena did not care, and kept the spell going a little while longer. This pony had once dreamed of being the oldest pony alive? Then let's fucking make him one...

After a while Hena finally started to stop her spell, slowly to make it linger a bit more, the assistant unicorn had returned with the bandages, oils and some other nondescript items and began to more than carefully follow instructions showed in his mind. Meaning he started to prepare sphinx mothers youngest for a proper burial without any use of magic. It was visibly difficult, but he feared consequences of failure more than he did just dying, or whatever torture sphinx might have in mind.
When Hena finally let her time magic to end, Pure Line looked like a dry, brittle, weakly shaking, barely breathing husk of a pony mummy. One eye completely blind, the other still able to see. One ear deaf, the other still hearing. Absolutely no muscle strength to move all that much. He was now just... Existing with a brain just barely being able to think complicated thoughts, but still plenty enough to know he was in constant pain.

"There we are. Now then, mister Pure Line... How does it feel to finally achieve your impossible dream? Oh, and one more thing..." Hena spoke, before drawing some etheral symbols in air, that then landed upon Pure Lines body.
"Just made sure no magic, other than mine can reverse your little aging. Can't have you being made younger by some misguided fool. And just to make sure you don't somehow try it." she continued, and proceeded to snap unicorns horn off with a snap of her clawed fingers.
Pure Line could only let out a pitiful wheezing sound from his now toothless mouth, being very much in pain from just the movement of air.

"Um, lady sphinx? I have done everything exactly as you tasked me to..." came the voice of the assistant unicorn, clearly still very much too afraid to even try running away.

Hena left the very withered Pure Line on the floor, and returned next to the table where her baby Orion still laid. Only now he was neatly wrapped in cotton bandages, dipped in oils and other ointments and such one would use to carefully prepare their dead. Only two thing remained for Hena to do.
First she took a seat next to the table, and proceeded to squeeze her hand enough let her claws sink in the flesh of her palm so her blood wet her claw tips. And then she used them to delicately draw several symbols upon the wrappings, like each claw tip was a quill dipped in ink.
After she was done drawing the markings, she took note of a single bar of gold, just left laying on one of the shelves for whatever reason. With a flick of her hand, she floated it towards, while psionically molding it into something else. By the time gold piece reached her, it had been molded into a fully head covering death mask. Just small enough to fit her baby boy.

The assistant unicorn simply stood there, merely watching as the sphinx mother proceeded to carefully put the mask on the little ones head, the mask making it look like the little one was just sleeping. He did feel some tears come up as the sphinx cave a silent kiss upon the masked brow of her little one, potentially for the final time.
And then she turned to look at the assistant.

"Now then. time for your punishment, mister...?" the sphinx asked with tilt of her head

"Steady Hold, lady sphinx... I was forced to serve in this room against my will via the band you destroyed." Steady explained, while sweating under the glowing gaze of the sphinx.

"Yet you joined this group out of your free will, believing they had a good cause. Aided them to imprison countless innocent creatures, and left them to be cut up and experimented upon. And you only tried leaving when they started their little 'god-kin' project, thinking it was heretical. After helping them to cause misery for years..."

"I... I did not know they where doing such horrible things to them..."

"And now those deeds and the victims faces will be the only thing you'll see in your dreams and while awake whenever ANY light touches you... Till the life and sight leaves you. May that be your milder punishment." Hena declared with a snap of her fingers, sending a small stream of black sand at the unicorn.
Steady Hold really had no ground to actually refute Henas words, considering his past deeds as a member of this pony supremacy group. Even more so when he started to see all of the victims he had helped the organization capture, followed by how they had been treated, before and after the table... Sometimes multiple times before the end...

Satisfied with the punishments, Hena proceeded to delicately pick up her little one and get out of that horrible room, leaving the two unicorns there, one weeping from nightmarish visions beginning to fill his sight, the other just struggling to draw breath in pain.

It took Hena little time to walk out of the citadel, past all the guards still struggling at the main door, then take a soft flight past the shattered gates, all the she hummed a soft lullaby. Maybe to soothe her own mind while gently carrying her youngest.
Finally she was past all of the citadel wall and landed on top of a nearby hill. Taking a good look at the citadel, she could not help but think how many had lost their lives within its wall... all for the sake ponies sense of supremacy. And how easily they might try to reinstate something else within its walls and just pretend it did not have such a horrid history, or that anything terrible done there was even real.

'Can't let them reuse that place. A curse should change that...' Hena thought as she took a seat on the grass, and proceeded to take a deep breath. And exhaled a black stream of smog, that flew towards the citadel, circling it like a flock of birds for a moment, until it descended upon it.
'There we are. If anypony tries using that citadels surrounding location, the wicked knowledge it may have published, or even its name after the next sundown, shall be haunted by unending nightmares and harrowing visions, until the citadel has crumbled to dust in its entirety and its location reclaimed by nature...'

Her thinking was interrupted by a sudden impact of magical bolt on her wing. It did not actually hurt, feeling more like weakly tossed pebble, but it still drew her attention. The shooter turned out to be some fancily dressed white unicorn mare, with black mane that was tightly combed and trimmed. Unicorn was accompanied by a group of mixed group of head-to-hoof armored ponies.
"Beast! What did you just do to our nations glorious research facility?! Speak, if you're able!" the mare yelled angrily. Hena was on edge if she should even bother with this one and hurry back home, but this one could be more serious trouble if not dealt with now.

"I am Hena, a sphinx. And do you perhaps have a name? Or are you too elite to bother using you own mouth to tell it?"

"My name is Lady Lavender of the house of Blood. Second progeny of Lord Blue Iron Blood, and the one who will benefit from the research done in this citadel. Especially when considering all the personal money I have poured into it." unicorn introduced herself with some pompous flair. The name mare had mentioned brought up some memories in Henas mind.

"Really now? I have actually met your father once, along with your grandmother. How is Lady Pyrite Blood doing by the way?"

"Don't you dare mention that one-eyed piece of muds name!! I will prove that she made a mistake making family going into food business, instead of gems market and improving the bloodlines of ponykind. And after I have proven my superiority in business, I will take my older brothers place as the family heir! Maybe even fund a way to remove her filthy mud blood from my veins."

And mares little spontaneous motive rant proved to Hena that it would be better deal with this brat with some level of superiority complex sooner rather than later. Even if it would risk some bad blood with Pyrites family line.

"Did you by any chance know what exactly they where doing in there? Or did you just threw money at them?"

"What ? You mean did I support their plans of creating a superior breed of ponies, using our divine rulers as a baseline, even if it meant taking parts from lower beings? Of course, for it is our kinds destiny to show lower beings their place! Even if we have to purge some naysayers after convincing the princesses and the rest of the nobility."Lavender said with actual pride, with her group of guards loudly agreeing. And that was it for Hena.

"You know, I am the reason why your family has its wealth. I indirectly aided your grandmother to start a good enterprise, that also benefits others. Might even say it even started a good family tree... But I think is time to prune some rotten branch off from it..."

"What! You dare to threaten ME! And even tell such lies!? GUARDS!!! Deal with this beast! With that armour, its false magic can't touch you!" mare shrieked out at the sphinxs clearly threatening words, making her guards draw their weapons in varying ways; by magic, hoof or wing, depending what they pony species was. unfortunately for them Hena had a spell ready for them. Or rather their heavy looking metal armor.

"Calor Metallum!"

Within seconds, the guards noticed that their armors started to get oddly warm, causing some confusion. It soon turned into panic and screaming in pain when armor started to turn red, and the internal padding started to smoke and finally burn, soon leaving all of the guards trying to get their armors off, which had started to literally cook them alive.
And with the tight armor-straps seemingly being made of much tougher stuff, they could not even try cutting them off. Lady Lavender was visibly shocked as she looked her hoof picked bodyguards eventually stopped moving, leaving only a light sizzling sound and a smell of cooked meat, which started turning into stench of burned meat.

Before Lavender Blood could go and start yelling at the sphinx, she found herself being lifted off the ground via some unseen force, which also seemed to keep her mouth shut. There would no yelling or bargaining out of this.
Soon she was face to face with the sphinx, who was using one free front leg to seemingly conjure something.

"Since you're such a superior 'lady', I think I just send you somewhere, where reigns a Lady who is more powerful than most GODS..." Hena said as she managed to open a portal, this one seemingly a bit tougher to call upon.
"Enjoy view of the city if you can..." and pony was tossed into the portal, which closed right behind it.

?????

Air was knocked out of Lavender Bloods lungs, as she dropped on a stony surface. After getting up and catching her breath, she looked where the sphinx had sent her. Surprisingly the location seemed to be city street, with some weird creatures moving around her, like a pony as her was nothing new. There even looked to be more streets up in the sky.
As she watched around more, seeing a bipedal thing with wings and skin like marble chatting with some snake thing with many arms, a floating biped with a squid for a head trying something offered to it by some floating eye with tendrils, some kind of cube of jelly holding a odd tentacle backed panther on a leash, just doing things and going by, she began to feel sick to her stomach. How dare tall these... Freaks just ignore her presence.

Before she could scream out her frustration, she noticed something seeming to loom over her, first noticing a floating hem of a cloak. Following the high quality fabric upwards with her gaze, reaching wearers sleeves held close, hiding its hands from sight, up to its covered chest, shape being that of a biped female. And finally things face came to Lavenders view.
Or it would have, since the tall creature was wearing a metallic looking mask, with some odd flat-like face in the middle, surrounded by a ring of many blades, seemingly supported by a round plate.

"What are you looking at you freak?!" Lavender shouted at the creature. And she... Just disappeared, while the masked creature simply floated away somewhere else.

Back to the sphinx...

"There we are. That should do it for now at least... Now to finally hurry back home." Hena thought aloud, as she took flight. After flying some distance, she felt safe enough to open another portal for quicker travel, this time somewhere above Wissen, and flew through it.
The town looked to be in order as sphinx flew closer, looking for a good spot to land near the local infirmary.

Locals made room when they saw Hena coming in for a landing on one of the park areas near the infirmary. Many were amazed by her current appearance, as she walked by with a purpose.

"Lady Hena, you're back." one of the nurses, a white griffin hen, outside greeted the sphinx, who currently had only one question in mind.
"Where are my mate and children?"

The nurse went silent for a moment, before waved sphinx to follow her inside. During the walk past several rooms and closed doors, nurse did her best to tell what had been going on during sphinxs personal mission.

"When Hermes was brought in, we did our best to stabilize and heal his injuries. Unfortunately we have only so many viable healing methods that could truly help with damage that serious. There was simply too much internal damage done to his organs, and he did not want us to use any healing magic that required sacrifices, no matter how potent they are... Your children echoed his decision..."

"... As would I... Is he...?" Hena asked when they stopped before one of the doors, that nurse proceeded to open.

"Your family is inside..."

With permission pretty much given, Hena entered the room while the nurse waited outside.

There on the bed laid her mate, covered in bandages, their four remaining children gathered around it, teary eyed. Much to her ever growing sorrow, Hena could see that her beloved mate had nearly faded. Just barely clinging to life.
"Hena, dear? You look amazing..." Hermes managed to wheeze out with a smile on his patched beak. "Kids... Told me what happened there... Did you... Give them hell?"

"I did... And certain four equine scums will be suffering for long time, without a sweet embrace of death. There was as extra one, who had funded that place..."

"... Good... Don't... Have long... Come here... Please..."

With no further encouragement needed, Hena gently gave the wrapped body her youngest to one of her children, who gathered together to give their farewells, and approached her dying mate, and carefully half-layed down next to him. Hermes managed to put his shaking arm upon sphinxs neck and mane visible under the nemes to partially give her a comforting embrace. Even with the liquidy metal mask on his beloveds face, he just knew her expression was beyond sorrowful.
"Hena... I... Truly loved our time together... as a family... my beloved sphinx...-"

...

...

...

Hena could not bring herself to break the silence, perhaps fearing she might break herself in several different way. Even her children stayed quiet, as their mother covered their now motionless fathers body with a blanket respectfully. No one stopped her, as she slowly walked out of the room head held low and started to head outside, clearly needing a moment alone...
Unfortunately for her, as she reached the park area she had landed earlier, a sharp pain stung her in... Well, everywhere. Followed by a soft voice from when she had requested aid from the artifacts...

"We are sorry, but the time is up..."

And then the pain followed. Feeling like something was pulling frozen substance out of her face, and like hot and sharp pieces of rock were being torn out of her body. Both of the agonizing feelings hitting her body in her current mental state was simply too much, causing Hena to simply black out, while her body convulsed violently.

Author's Note

Aaand triple-update done... Next chapter MIGHT get done faster (, no promises set in stone). This set was bit of a bottleneck for me due to... Well reasons...