Chapter 6 A new day to meet some old faces.

"Thank you for the toll. You may pass alive." Hena said politely, receiving equally polite nod from the pegasus carrying some books in a bag with the familiar symbol she had seen couple of times during her stay. Namely a sword and a long rolled up parchment crossed over a round shield. After having taken carefully a little closer look she had seen It on the banners on some of the buildings in the fortified town on the other end of the pass, and after asking few non-riddle questions from ones carrying such symbol, she learned that they were members of an neutral order, dedicated on preserving knowledge of any nation they could, calling themselves "Guardians of Knowledge" and town apparently was named "Wissen", apparently meaning "Knowledge", which was chosen from one of the translated old scrolls they had gotten from other continent.

Apparently after having transporting issues on the main road, which went around some mountains following the coastline and finally to the end of the fjord where their base town was, from pony lands, either due to a cold weather suddenly arriving oddly early or even some bandits or hired thugs, more and more of their members had started to take the risk of taking the shortcut through the mountain pass, which even now officially named 'Pass of the Sphinx' by them, even if it did end up killing handful of their members, while losing few books to sphinx, the word spread among their other members, making them to make sure they always had something to offer as a toll for her for safe passage, usually in gold coins of varied amount depending on the individual, with few piece or two of different jewelry tossed in here and there.
While this meant that Henas personal treasure pile grew rather nicely, it also meant less of the 'easy meals' coming by. So it was most likely only a matter of time till she had to only hunt for her food, unless some complete outsider who had no early warning of her or had nothing to offer as a toll came by. Even the would-be-challengers had become a bit rare, some even backing off after she changed her form.

'I just hope I'm not going to get reduced into just some roadside show... Should I perhaps go to some riddle-only system on every other day or something like that? Could get more riddles done that way. It could be nothing but I have been feeling rather weakened in the past weeks, and I always feel some nourishing feeling when I get to test someone with a riddle... Maybe its due to me being a sphinx, and its kinda their thing to ask riddles from passer-by's.' Hena thought as she added the new patch of coin to the pile of treasures and other items given as a toll. She spared a glance at the two treasures, both still safe and sound on their spots. Only maybe a handful had actually used them out of curiosity after the first ones, and only just asking to use the mirror to see something, clearly not wanting to lose anything in a gamble for absolute answer to any question.

'Well, have think that later. The day is still young, so maybe someone asks for the riddle. And I think technically they can still pay the toll if they're quick enough or something, since that Starswirl did so many years ago. Doesn't fix this little loneliness I have though, and the bone theatre only goes so far until it gets boring.' she kept on thinking as she went back outside to continue keeping watch over the outside of her lair.

Luckily for our sphinx, she did not need to wait that long for someone to come down the path. This time it was a trio of creatures; one unicorn stallion pulling a small wagon with a chest in it, one griffin tom with full looking bags and one earth pony mare, the first two looking more youthful compared to the more mature white, yellow maned mare... Who was also missing an eye, if the eye patch, with a compass and rose design on it, she was wearing was any indication.

As they all stopped just a little bit before the pillars, Hena noticed that the mare was the only one of them with no fear in her presence, while the two lads had some fear coming off from them, but was mostly covered by amazement and awe. For the location or for being so close to an obviously dangerous creature.

"Good day to you, miss Hena. I know it has been a long while since our last meeting, but would it be polite to assume that you might still remember me?" the mare asked politely, slightly tapping her eye patch as if to hint.

"Ah yes, Pyrite Blood. Doing well I see... So how's the eye-hole?" Hena inquired.

"Quite well actually. Took some time to get used to seeing with the remaining one." was Pyrite's answer. "Oh and here is my firstborn son, Blue Iron Blood." she continued, pointing at the unicorn, who bowed politely while not taking his eyes off of the sphinx.
"A pleasure to meet you, miss Hena."

"And this friendly griffin is Hermes, who was just heading the same way as we were." Pyrite said, while nodding at the golden brown griffins direction, who had taken out some kind of sketchbook and looked like he was drawing something in it with an admirable speed.

"I'm not sure if you remember, but you kinda saved me and my mother little over two decades ago... By eating a zebra... Almost alive." the griffin mentioned carefully.

"Oh right, now I remember that piece of work. Went down surprisingly well despite being obviously a rotten one. So what brings you down to my pass? Surely the main road is safer for a time?"

"Well I decided to come this way, partially because we are little in a hurry and this pass sure saves us a lot of travel time. We intent to see some if some tomes Wissen holds within its walls might have something to explain this oddly early and harsh winter weather. The unicorn council is already blaming other tribes, who are blaming them back. But at least they have agreed on to get together for a meeting. Hopefully things will work out for everyone... And to hopefully thank you for the help you kinda had in the success of my family." Pyrite explained, sounding a bit worried about the upcoming meeting, changing to more positive tone when talking about thanking the sphinx.

"Oh? And what about you, Hermes?"

"Well I'm just heading to Wissen to apply to some work there. So really nothing too special." griffin said, sounding little bit embarrassed, maybe thinking his reasons being 'lesser' compared to the travelling ponies.

"I see. Any other business for coming this way?" Hena asked the group.

"Well I was hoping if me and my son could have a go at your riddles, while getting to go past you alive via toll. Is that perhaps allowed?"

"Hmmm... I'm not quite sur-" Hena started, but was interrupted by a popping sound, which startled all of them a tiny bit, bringing a little scroll in front of her. After opening it she saw it had only one word.

"Yes."

"Looks like it is." said the sphinx as the scroll just faded away. "I'm guessing you go first? Show these lads how it goes?" she continued, receiving a confirming nod from Pyrite, who stepped forward while taking out a small coin purse for the toll and gave it to the riddling feline.

"A golden liquid to burn the throat,
Thirst quenched, reason smote.
What am I?"

Pyrite hummed thoughtfully for for few minutes, before smiling.

"I think the answer is alcohol. After all, I have had a taste of it few times in my life, before and after getting happily married." she answered still smiling, receiving a smile back from Hena.

"Correct. Still keeping your mind sharp I bet."

"Oh I have to, if I wish to keep my family together and in business. There are still plenty of those who didn't like the heir of the House of Blue marrying a 'filthy mud pony', but are still forced to do business with us if they want to survive."

"That so? And may I ask what business that might be?"

"To put it simply; food business, both production and delivery. Its still for a moment a slow grow, but it sure as heck is a steady income for the long run. No matter how rich or powerful pony, or any other of the civilized creatures is, they all eventually have to eat. So basically a win-win in a way."

"I see. Now shall we see if your son here is as sharp as his mother?"

"I guess we shall. Blue Iron, if you would take your turn with her riddles. And don't forget the toll, as we are still on a trip. Might as well give her the gift we brought for her too."

"Yes mother." he said politely, proceeding to pull the small wagon behind him as he stepped before the sphinx, also offering her his toll, a small purse full of coins like his mother had offered. He then levitated the chest out from the wagon and set it next to the riddling feline, who looked a bit curios about its content.
"Ask thy riddle please, Lady Hena."

"Very well my dear boy..." she said back at him with a smile.

"What comes once in a minute,
twice in a moment,
but never in a thousand years?"

Blue Iron began mulling over the riddle right away. Even Pyrite clearly decided to think about it, if the obvious 'thinking-face' on her was any indication. And as for the Hermes... He was back to scribbling on his sketchbook, looking at the pillars and the doorway behind the sphinx. Probably just sketching some details of the architecture for later study comparisons or maybe something similar along those lines?

"The letter M!" Blue Iron finally answered, sounding sure about it. It also startled Hermes a little bit, making him adorably 'poof-up' for few seconds, which did bring a little smile to Henas face.

"Correct. Good luck finding the potential answer from Wissens library's... Unless you wish to try your luck in mine."

"You have a library? Or is it just some books in a toll pile of sorts?" Pyrite asked politely, not wanting offend.

"Oh its behind a portal in my lair, not sure if you noticed it during your last visit. And it holds within it merely all the knowledge of the the present and the past."

"I see... I think its better we take our chances in Wissen, despite the potential time saving possibility. I fear that both of us might get overwhelmed by the mere sight of the amount of knowledge you mentioned..." she said, while her son nodded next to her looking a little intimidated about the prospect of a library of such vast amount of knowledge existing. Mostly due to the amount of time it would potentially take to go through ALL of it.
"Oh and before we leave, do open the chest we gifted. I think you might like its content with the cold season approaching, especially if rationed a little bit."

This piqued Henas interest as she began to open the simple lock on the chest. As the lid loosened, she smelled something tasty, which urged her to open it little faster to reveal...
"Some of the finest meats from the Griffons we could fit in that chest, which also is enchanted to keep its content fresh. We hope it could eventually be in wider use, or maybe help develop something new one day." Pyrite commented as the sphinx was already taking the first smaller slice of meats, clearly enjoying their taste.

"Thank you for this gift. In fact, I think this might just deserve a little gift back." Hena said after swallowing first piece of meat, delaying the two ponies a bit. The sphinx inhaled slowly in a very focused manner, followed by moving her right paw-hand like she was grabbing hold of something invisible. Then she opened her palm like she was holding something on it, and slowly blew the inhaled air at the ponies direction. Only instead of air, she exhaled something akin to golden dust, that floated around the two ponies before disappearing.
"There. I just blessed you with maybe one weeks worth of good luck. Don't get careless though, blessed good luck does not mean absolutely everything you during its duration will succeed."

"Oh. Well thank you. Hopefully good luck comes to you too. It must get lonely here."

"You have no idea... Have a good trip."

After giving their farewells, two ponies continued their trip to Wissen, leaving sphinx alone with Hermes, who had once again started to sketch something. After waiting a full minute, Hena cleared her throat a bit to get the griffons attention, causing him to 'poof-up' again.

"So are you perhaps travelling past me, or just hanging here to draw something for the rest of your days?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Huh? Oh, yes. Yes I am. H-here is my toll." Hermes said as he gave a small bag of coins to sphinx, who accepted it with a smile.
"Úmm... May I also try my luck with your riddles on the side as well? I vaguely remember figuring out the last one I heard. Or that is what my mom told me."

"Why yes, yes you may. Hopefully you have gotten sharper with time." Hena said, still smiling warmly.

"I'm the beginning of the end and the end of time and space,
I'm essential to creation and I surround every place.
What am I?"

Hermes visibly started thinking over the riddle, still holding his sketchbook as he brought his claw to his beak, almost smacking himself with it. That drew a short gentle laugh from sphinx, but luckily it did not seemingly disrupt griffons focus, both the accidental self-smack and the laugh.
As the minutes seemed to stretch by, Hena started to absentmindedly fiddle her mane a bit while keeping Hermes in her field of view. For some reason, this seemed to catch the griffin youths attention for a short bit, causing hi to shake his head in order to get his riddle-focus back. He had no idea why, and Hena assumed he just dismissed a potential answer.

"I think I got it. Letter E is the answer." Hermes finally answered hopefully.

"That... Is correct. Good job, you can pass now. You did have business at Wissen, yes?" Hena said with a smile.

"Yes, I intend to eventually apply as a student there after some work. Maybe one day as a member of their order there..." he started before carefully checking the position of the sun, which caused his eyes to widen.
"Oh crap, I really need to hurry before sundown! Talk to ya later Hena!" he said before leaving in such a hurry that he dropped one of the pages from his sketchbook. Before Hena could mention that, the griffin was long gone.

'Well, he just might return if this is something important.' she thought as she went to pick up the dropped paper. As she looked at it, it turned out to indeed be a simple sketch of the surrounding pass. And it even included portrait her in it, being seemingly more detailed then the sketched surroundings in the page.
'Huh. He certainly has some good artistic skills. Could have used little more work on the surroundings.' Hena concluded as she took the chest and the tolls inside via simple psionic levitation, as she still looked over the sketch.

Later on the evening...

'Damn this is a tasty piece of meat' sphinx thought as she simply snacked on one of the meat pieces, this one being a bit chewier than the previous piece, but still tasty for her mainly carnivore taste-buds. She would have to rations remaining ones if the winter was going to be oddly cold and early, since some wild prey might get somewhat trickier to catch. But at least she now had a way of passing time while waiting for travelers, just laying there chewing on some meat like a big cat.

"Oh, am I perhaps interrupting your meal?" came a deep voice, drawing her attention away from the chewy piece of meat. There stood a blue ram with some impressive pair of curved horns, wearing a red collar with golden ornaments on it. The whole collar looked like it would look nice with a proper bell.
"Should I wait until you are done, or can we get on with the passage thing?" the ram asked, clearly knowing about the passage-rules already.

After thinking it over a couple of seconds, Hena decided to just swallow the remaining meat as it was. No way she was gonna waste a single piece of gifted food. Then she nonchalantly hopped in the middle of the four pillars, being now face to face with the blue ram, with a generous 'safety-distance' between the two of them.
"Yes, we can get on with the 'passage thing' as you said. So what will it be for you? Toll, Riddle or Combat?"

"Hmmm... May I perhaps see what combat would bring forth? Rumor and scuttlebutt tell that you take a different form depending on the travelers power or something along those lines." ram asked, seeming to be simply curious about the said part of sphinxs apparent power.

"I guess I can do that. Combat for now..." Hena said, as she closed her eyes anticipating the power boost for Combat-choice to come down upon her. And boy did it come down and HARD.

It began with the ground beginning to shake along with her eyes suddenly opening, now turning completely bright red, sparking with other-worldly energies with burst of something that looked like miniature lightnings. This brought forth a grey-ish, silvery-white aura that surrounded the sphinxs body, causing her to float up slowly, followed by a gathering storm of similarly colored energy beginning to surround her.
The ram merely observed the proceeding spectacle in an extremely well hidden awe, as the magical storm grew in size, with only things visible inside of it being the now glowing red eyes of the sphinx and her vaguely changing barely visible silhouette. As if it was taking on a bigger form, while seemingly gaining some manner of head-wear in the progress. It was rather hard to tell with all the wildly swirling energies covering the creature.

Finally the new form of the sphinx seemed to stabilize, now practically towering over the ram while sitting up, but still surrounded by the silvery maelstrom of magic, which now felt more like a cocoon, just barely holding an uspeakably powerful entity within itself.

"Well? Is this perhaps enough?" Hena asked with a whisper, that sounded like it was coming everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"...Yes, very much enough... I will just humbly pay the toll and maybe take the riddle on too. If it allows me to see the artifact you are rumored to guard here?" ram answered with even voice, while wiping away few drops of sweat, while taking out a coin purse out from some magic-pocket-dimension with a flash of gold and black colored magic glow. With the actual choice given, the sphinx reverted back to her 'basic-form', shaking her head a little bit after coming down from 'temporary power-high' of such magnitude.
"Very well. Other than being powerful, you must also be a sharp minded one." Hena said as she accepted some extra brighter and shinier silvery coins stamped with majestic ram-horns. Made of platinum perhaps?

"What can run but never walks,
has a mouth but never talks,
has a head but never weeps,
has a bed but never sleeps?"

The blue ram thus started to think the possible answer for given riddle, while Hena waited patiently, passing time by flipping one of the given coins with a soft *ting* every now and then.

"Ah yes indeed. The answer is river." the ram answered with confidence.

"Correct. You may pass safely, after you have seen the artifacts if you still wish." sphinx said politely, to which the ram nodded.

And so they entered the lair of the sphinx proper, passing the toll-pile-room in which Hena tossed the shiny coins after puffin some black smog on them for some curse-security, before arriving before the artifacts; the tall oval mirror with golden rim and gold lettered green stone tablet still in their respective platforms.
"Now which one you would like to perhaps use? The mirror can show you anything anywhere, no matter what might be in the way, magical or not. And the tablet will give you absolutely perfect answer to any question asked from it, for a price which can be absolutely anything... So which will it be, my good sir?" sphinx explained and asked still in polite tone.

This seemed to give the blue ram a short pause as he looked between the artifacts, looking puzzled about which one to choose to use. After almost a full minute of thinking, the ram walked to the tablet, putting his cloven hoof on it respectfully as if knowing that the item held enormous power within itself.

"How can I get a well enduring long-term revenge on ponies?"

After hearing the question, the tablet came to life with pure golden glowy tendrils coming out of it, planting themselves on the rams temples, pulsing slowly as they fed needed information to his mind. Soon enough the tendrils withdrew away from the ram, pulling a whisp of something with them. Maybe a thought process of some sort?

"So? Is the answer to your liking?" Hena inquired.

"Yes... Yes very much indeed. I think I take my leave and do something with this information. Thank you for this chance, miss...?"

"Hena. My name is Hena. And yours my good goat sir?"

"Grogar. Have a good day miss Hena." the goat, now named Grogar said as he took his leave from the lair of the sphinx, with the sphinx probably preparing for the approaching night. As he kept walking down the pass, Grogar had a lot in his mind.

'Hard to say what that tablet took from me as a price...At least I can still think normally and I don't physically feel different... Eh, maybe I figure it out eventually. And I most definitely was beyond lucky to decide not to challenge the sphinx in that combat-form aimed for my level of power... Almost felt like she could have erased me with a mere thought... Good thing I did not have breakfast or else I might have left something there... But now I have to focus, I've got lot of writing ahead of me, and some application to fill up...'

Now determined, he kept on walking down the pass and path leading to Wissen.

Author's Note

Here we are, a new chapter for you all. Enjoy
ps; had a hard time choosing between the music clips, so I ended up picking them both.