The psychotic gentlegriff

‘Mortal, we have a situation.’

“Zodiac? Not now I’m trying to hide these feathers, Celestia is about to walk through that door any moment now.” The anxious griff hissed out.

‘Anubis, lives are in danger….’

“Fffuck~ so what’s the problem?”

‘400 meters west near that college, a Dream spirit is present. Given enough time, it’ll take physical manifestation in this realm and wreak havoc.’

“How strong is it and how long do I have?”

‘I can’t tell the strength yet and you have roughly 10 minutes or so, which means we need to go now. I’d like to test how you do against one.’

“Shit…. Well this is my priority, if I fuck off now. Celestia will only be more pissed at me and I need her to be level headed with what I’m about to show and tell her….”

‘Very well but if you leave it unattended it’ll only get stronger with the more souls it consumes.’

“What?!?”

At that specific moment a not so regal Alicorn, with bags under her eyes walked in and locked eyes with Anubis.

They stared at each other with trepidation and a thick silence filled the room, then Celestia broke that silence.

“Um A-Anubis…. Who were you just talking to?”

The griff was taken aback by the question and stammered out a response. “Um oh ah…. I was…. Sigh* just trying to get my thoughts straight….”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at him. “O-okay…. Well I’m sorry for freaking out yesterday, I was scared okay…. I-it’s just that biomancy is extremely dangerous, not only to yourself but to others. I-it’s.” Anubis silenced her by standing up and smiling.

“It’s alright, I wasn’t thinking straight either and shouldn’t have ran away but you shouldn’t have mobilised the entire guard Celestia. You know I can take care of myself…. Sigh* look I need to show you something later but! You can’t be upset or mad at me, promise?”

She gave him a questioning glare and walked towards him. “Anubis…. What do you want to show me?”

“Woah woah it’s nothing bad just something that I’ve been working on for some time now, ah how to explain it? Argh look I’ll take you there when you have an hour free swan neCK!!” Celestia nipped his ear and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Fine I promise.”

Anubis pulled away from her and gave a look of surprise followed by relief. “Thank you.”

“But as for your biomancy, you are only allowed to practice it in my presence. I’m not risking anything bad happening to you or my little ponies.”

“Sigh* I don’t know what experience’s with biomancers you’ve had in the past but I can assure you that I’m not going to kill my self or go on a mass murdering spree, okay.”

“Anubis listen…. I need you to promise me that you won’t use it for evil then.”

“I promise I won’t use it for anything evil, I’ll only use it in dire situations or to benefit others.”

Celestia breathed a sigh of relief and smiled softly as she brought him into a warm, feathery embrace but she failed to see the double edge of his words.

“So where did you go?”

“I stayed at…. The Whitetail woods….”

“Sigh* I checked there Anubis, now be honest with me. Where did you stay?”

“C-Cloudsdale, in Captain Sky’s house….”

“Well it’s better than having you on the streets…. But I will be having a conversation with her for not informing me.”

“Wha? Why, I’m the one who asked her not to and you don’t have the right to know my exact location at any given time either. That’s got to be an invasion of privacy!”

“Normally yes but because you’ve got blood on your claws, it isn’t the case. Not to mention that you’re a one of a kind and might even be endangered.”

“Okay sure~, so what’s the real reason?”

“I love you of course, so I need to make sure you’re safe.”

“Sigh* I thought so…. But I can look after myself, hell I can survive having my head chopped off!” Anubis immediately covered his beak.

The solar Alicorn tightened her grip and looked him in the eyes. “Is t-that how you g-got this?” Pressing her muzzle against the deep scar around the griff’s neck he flinched.

“I-I don’t want to talk about it….”

“Sorry, t-then…. Could you explain all the things in your journal please?” She hesitantly asked.

“….” Anubis stiffened up.

“Sigh* look I’m sorry for reading it but I was curious and I’m just concerned is all.” This defused the tension in Anubis’s body.

“Gulp* the Dreamscape…. Is the place I disappeared to when I suddenly went missing a few months or so back, I originally thought you’d think I was crazy so I lied about it…. But it’s dangerous, filled with horrors beyond comprehension and so on and so forth.”

“And you actually went there?!” The solar Alicorn almost yelled.

“Not by choice, it just happened okay!”

“S-sorry for that outburst…. Sigh* but I’ve only ever heard of myths and legends as well as the occasional book but the creatures are always consistent in each account….”

“I’m not the first? That’s good to know but I couldn’t imagine those before me met a pleasant fate, from what I know I’m the only one that can navigate it without losing my mind or getting myself killed.”

“Anubis? What do you mean?”

“It’s just that I have a…. A feeling when something dangerous is approaching or in the near by area….” He trailed off and stared out the window, Celestia was confused at first but soon grew worried.

Originally he was trying to come up with a believable lie as to why he could sense them but his eyes shot open as Zodiac spoke up.

Mortal, you need to move now!’

“What’s wrong?” As she asked him, a loud crash echoed through the city and Anubis shot off toward the noise. Celestia followed shortly after him with a golden war hammer.

Upon arriving she saw two squads of guards, the first trying to evacuate the civilians and help the injured and the second were fending off a large centipede with eyes covering it’s head that had been occupied by something just out of view.

Anubis landed in front of the monster, taking an odd fighting stance. Raised up on his hind legs with his scythe like bone blades extended, then suddenly out of nowhere they were enveloped in a bright blue light that almost hurt to look at.

This caught the centipede’s attention and Celestia’s stomach sank upon seeing what it was distracted by.

In its mandibles hung the bloody remains of a pony’s lower half, the rest had already been consumed by this thing.

It dropped the corpse and attacked Anubis but the griff held his ground and Celestia took action, she swooped in and brought her hammer down with enough fury to completely eviscerate the monster’s head. Leaving a crater.

Turning to a stunned griffon she smacked him with a wing. “What are you thinking!?!?”

But before the Alicorn could continue Anubis slammed into her, pushing the mare off to the side.

SHING!*

Splat*

Thud!*

She was confused but that quickly turned to horror at the sight before her, Anubis was missing his left foreleg. Blood gushing from the fresh wound and just out of focus, the dismembered limb laid limply in front of her whilst the monster chuckled in glee.

But before she could even utter a single word, the limb became blood and began reconstructing itself onto the griffon. Looking over at the centipede she was horrified to see it had completely regenerated and was now in a stand off against her griff-friend.

“Celestia get up and help evacuate the injured, I’ll take care of this.” A sinister smirk appeared on his beak.

She grabbed her hammer in her aura, the golden war hammer glowed from the sheer amount of soul magic Celestia embezzled into it. But she was not conscious of the action, she was subconsciously using soul magic and Anubis took notice of this.

“Very well then, like you’d let me fight it on my own…. But if you get hit, get to safety immediately.”

“Anu.” She was cut off by the centipede attacking her, thankfully her hammer had taken the brunt of the blow, the solar Alicorn didn’t even have a scratch.

Anubis was impressed but swiftly shook the thought and jumped into the air using his wings to spin, he cut into the body of the overgrown Arthropod.

Veeeeeeeum*

It screeched in agony as it lashed out wildly, slamming into buildings as Anubis and Celestia avoided the armoured bug. Gooey black blood sprayed from the wound but soon slowed.

Celestia took this opportunity to smash her mighty war hammer into the monster’s head.

CRASH!*

Splat*

Then Anubis followed up by sinking his claws into it and rapidly deconstructing it atom by atom, causing the headless arthropod to implode.

Covering the streets in a thick inky blood, Celestia deflected the substance with a barrier spell whilst Anubis got caked in the gooey remains. Some got in his beak, he thought nothing of it until he began to feel a sense of euphoria and started stumbling toward the regal Alicorn with a wobbly grin on his beak.

Celestia noticed the blood beginning to evaporate and she let out a sigh of relief, she turned to her left and found a wobbling griffon inching towards her. She thought nothing of it until she saw his eyes, Anubis’s pupils were dilated beyond a natural level and his grin was goofy to say the least.

As Anubis made his way to Celestia, the black blood dissipating from his coat. His vision was warped and obscured, he started to feel light and just allowed his body to carry him.

Celestia rushed over and grabbed him with her hooves, she was worried for him so she pulled him closer to her as the griff giggled and looked around with a dopey expression on his face.

“A-Anubis?” She hesitantly called out to him.

“Hehehe~, hehehehehehehh.”

Lifting him onto her back she trotted towards the shaken guards and issued them orders. “Listen up, I need the injured to be treated or taken to hospital immediately. Set up a perimeter and don’t let any pony in, I’ll be back shortly with Captain Graceful for the damage control.”

The guards all saluted her and with a curt nod she took off with a trilling griff burying his head in her mane, running his claws softly through it.

Landing in the castle courtyard with the griff she told a maid to send Captain Graceful to the college. Then Celestia rushed into the medical wing and dumped the lucid griffon on a stretcher and ordered the nearby nurses to fetch Dr Tender Care.

Once she saw the stallion and gave him a brief account of what happened, she took off out a window and shot off towards the scene of the battle a few minutes prior.

She left behind a very confused Dr Tender as he watched Anubis giggling like a school-filly at his own claws.

“Sigh* I need a vacation….”

Meanwhile Celestia landed and was met with a very alert Graceful who had his wing guards on and a sword strapped to his flank.

“Princess what happened here? Some of my guards are muttering something about a giant centipede and a dead pony…. Or half of one…. But I’ve already identified the victim and a clean up crew is on the way.”

“They’re not lying Captain, a giant centipede did attack but me and Anubis dealt with the monster. Although I had to rush him to the castle afterwards, he got covered in its blood and started acting strange…. Stranger than usual for him at least…. But he’s got a lot of explaining to do.” She trailed off and looked over to the crowd of ponies.

A blue unicorn mare broke through the crowd and tried to get past the guards but they stopped her, she was calling out for a pony named Medicinal Moon.

Graceful sighed upon hearing the name and turned to the princess, with a frown he began. “Your highness, that was the name of the deceased stallion…. We managed to identify him by his cutie mark, he was only 20 and studying to become a doctor…. Would you like me to take the mare somewhere private and brake the news there?”

“No…. I’ll do it Captain, you focus on cleaning up the rubble.”

“Of course your highness. Oh and I believe the mare to be the stallion’s mother.”

“This is going to be painful….” Celestia stole herself and approached the frantic mare.

“Where’s my baby!?! Sniffle* p-please somepony tell me! H-sniffle* he’s got a light blue coat with a purple mane and tail! Please anypony?” The guards struggle to hold the mare back and they all failed to notice the pure white Alicorn approaching.

Celestia cleared her throat and began. “Excuse me miss, but please would you follow me?” She gestured for her guards to release her, the worried mare’s eyes widened before she bowed.

“O-of course your highness b-but why?”

“I need to speak with you in private regarding Medicinal Moon.” At this the mare’s eyes went even wider.

“D-did my boy do something w-wrong p-princess?”

The regal Alicorn just gently guided the mare with a wing and teleported back to the castle, the mare blinked a few times and Celestia casted a sound bubble for what was about to come.

Draping a wing over the confused mare, Celestia began in a soft voice. “Miss Moon, I’m sorry to inform you that your son…. Regretfully has died in the recent incident, I’m sorry I didn’t make it in time but I’m here if you need me.”

The wide eyed mare let out a shaky breath, she didn’t cry or move for that matter. She just stared off into nothingness, Celestia pulled her little pony closer and understood that the mare was processing the words that she just said.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, in silence before it was broken by a weak and laboured sob. Which was followed by a wined whaling from the now devastated mare.

It really pained the princess to see one of her subjects like this and she had to hold back tears of her own.

She began to ponder about how familiar Anubis seemed with the monster and was going to question him about it, she needed to figure out how to prevent this from happening again.

———————————————————————

Anubis’s POV

Everything went dark and I was just floating, then zodiac began to speak to me in a language I didn’t recognise. I think he must of realised because as suddenly as the ramblings began it ended and was replaced with English.

“Mortal, how are you feeling?”

“Ha! Bloody wonderful, why’d you ask?”

“Sigh* a little heads up for your next encounter with a Dream Spirit, don’t swallow the blood. It’s an extremely powerful hallucinogenic substance.”

“So I was tripping? Ffffuck that’s like…. Totally not cool bro~ but like it felt good.” I don’t even know why I said it like that, it still must be effecting me now.

“Just relax and I’ll explain some important details, please try to listen.”

“Yeah…. I’ll do my best.”

“Okay, well I’ll begin with Dream spirits. They are a disembodied soul that are trapped in the Dream realm but want to enter the waking world. They feed off of the nightmares of living creatures but were sealed away over 4000 years ago by an extremely powerful soul mage. Dream Spirits can grow stronger by consuming the souls of other creatures, death by one of these Dream spirits will mean the complete death of your soul. But unlike lesser gods, Dream spirits tend to be weaker but can in some cases be stronger and they can’t be tamed once killed.”

“Oooooooookay…. I’m following.”

“Good mortal, now keep listening. The Soul mage who sealed away the Dream spirits was named Kenpaw Gavewalker and he was so powerful that he rivalled H’aaztre.” Anubis interrupted.

“Sorry what?”

“Sigh mortal, the king in yellow. Anyway this soul mage was a threat to the king in yellow and even tried to kill him but they were both sealed in the Nightmare realm.”

“Wow…. So this Kenpaw died then?”

“Maybe or maybe not, I honestly don’t know but the king in yellow has left his throne empty, probably because he is trapped and Kenpaw’s soul has not died as far as I’m aware.”

“Mhmmmmm interesting…. So.” I was cut off by a bright light that dragged me out of Zodiac’s void. “Cough* Cough* fffffffffffffaahh~.”

“Morning Anubis, how are you feeling?” Nurse Sweet tone asked.

“Hissssssssssss* close those blinds please, curse Celestia’s burning ball of nuclear fusion in the sky.”

“So you doing much better I take it then? And what’s n-u-clear fusion?”

“Yeah I’m fine and forget about it, it’s nothing important…. So what’s for dinner?”

“It’s the morning Anubis, you’ve been asleep for a day…. Her highness was quite worried when Dr Tender said that he had to keep you under until your body got rid of whatever was make you….”

“Bug out?”

“Y-yeah…. So I’ll go get you breakfast.”

“Thanks….” She left and I sat up. “Sigh* I guess you learn something new every day, the black blood is a major hallucinogenic.”

“Is it now?” I spun to my right and found Celestia sitting by my bed with a blank expression. “Morning Anubis, so how do you know of nuclear fusion?”

“Hey~ Swan neck, my love…. I…. It’s complicated but I kinda got curious and started theorising and came to the conclusion that the sun was splitting atoms in its core…. But I don’t know what atoms it splits.”

“Sigh* sometimes you’re too smart for your own good you moron…. So you’re feeling fine?”

“Yep, I’m all good now! But how are you doing?”

“I’m f…. Actually I’m not doing so good Anubis, I-I had to console a mother who lost her son after yesterday’s incident…. Y-you said you could sense them, do you think that you’ll be able to inform me when another one of those monsters appears?”

“That’s horrible…. But only one fatality? it could have been worse, a lot worse. Sigh* look I’ll let you know when another Dream Spirit appears.”

“Dream Spirit…. You’re right…. but it still hurts to see one of my subjects like that.

“You really do act like their mother.”

Celestia just shook her head. “Oh shush, just let me rest my head on your shoulders.”

“Nocreatures going to stop you and it’s not like I’m physically injured, huff* I can just heal any way.”

Celestia flopped against my side and I awkwardly wrapped a wing around her. “Thanks…. I needed this, so what did you want to show me?”

“I’ll show you later today, I think you need a day off.”

“But I have.” I cut her off.

“Shhhhhhh, I’m foalnapping the princess for the day.” Celestia let out a wistful sigh followed by a weak giggle. “I’d like to see you guard try and stop me.”

“Oh play nice Anubis, so what do you have planned?”

“Mhmmmm you’ll see.”