-TERRARIA, ANUBIS’S PYRAMID-

The sun was starting to lower itself as a blanket of orange completely covers The Desert Biome, not to mention the pyramid that was placed within its epicenter. Various individuals of Home Town were catching their breaths as Anubis’s training had ceased mere moments ago. Humanoid changelings were bringing out refreshments for the fatigued trainees, Candy The Party Girl assisting with the service, as those in training were resting under the various tents set up by King Amidias and his merfolk.

Both Vinny The Demolitionist and Ceeman The Arms Dealer were laid lazily against their chairs in exhaustion. Gex, Ritsu, Steven, and Shroom could be seen conversing just behind them.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a workout like that in Terra knows how long,” The Demolitionist says as he holds an alcoholic beverage in one hand while holding a water bottle in the other.

“You never worked out in your life, Vinny,” The Arms Dealer responds with a deadpan expression. This earns him a very particular gesture from Vinny: A middle finger.

……….

Jeremy The Angler, Terralestia, and Sai Sahan were enjoying their own refreshments, under a different tent nearby. Due to exhaustion, The Angler looked as if he wanted to fall over and embrace the comforts of sleep as he tries to catch his breath.

“I feel like I’m gonna puke up my ballsack…” The Angler said.

Terralestia chuckles, “You’re a young man, Jeremy. You should be fit enough to handle this sort of training.”

“Celestia is right, youngster,” Sai comments before taking a gulp of his bottled water, “Don’t you fish for a living? That includes a fair amount of physical application.”

Jeremy raises his head and looks at the two terrarians with a raised brow, “Yeah, that’s right, fishing does include a lot of patience and physical fitness,” The Angler’s left eye then twitches, “But it’s not every day that I train with a freaking ANCIENT!”

The terrarian couple simply shrugs their shoulders in unison. However, Terralestia smirks mischievously as she gets off of her seat and places herself onto Sai’s lap. She wraps her arms around the back of his head and says:

“While we’re on the subject of ‘youngsters,’ I’ve been wanting to become a mother for some time, Sai~”

Sai chuckles in response as he gently places his right hand onto Terralestia’s cheek. She, in turn, leans her head into the gesture. looking his lover in the eye, Sai responds:

“That comes in time, my beloved,” As if it clicked in the duo, a saddened expression overtakes them as they lean into each other, foreheads gently connecting, “But we both know what needs to be done before we move to that stage of our life.”

“I miss him, Sai,” Terralestia responds while closing her eyes in sorrow, “Not a single day goes by that I don’t think about Lunaris.”

“We’ll get him back, Celestia,” Sai says as he now places his other hand onto Terralestia’s remaining cheek, clasping her face with both in the process while their foreheads remain connected, “And now we have allies to aid us in that pursuit.”

Jeremy winces at this as he learned all about Lunaris’s fate via a story Twilight Sparkle had told him. The Angler could read the situation and excused himself, walking away.

As those who were outside of the pyramid continued to converse and recover, there were others who entered the ancient structure and are currently positioned within Anubis’s throne room. There was however one interesting thing about this: King Amidias's merfolk was missing.

-ANUBIS’S PYRAMID, THRONE ROOM-

Within Anubis’s throne room, Celebes, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Linn, Pinkie Pie, Tori, Shadow Thunder, and Echo Silhouette were all present. The Ancient himself sat on his throne, conversing with certain individuals. Armored humanoid changelings were positioned throughout the room as they stood stoically, waiting to adhere to their lord’s will. Other changelings, likely acting as maids and waiters judging by their attire, were currently conversing with Linn, Shadow Thunder, and Echo Silhouette.

Tori remained high above everyone else in the room as the kenku enjoyed their meal while being perched on a tall statue of Anubis himself. From what one could see, the kenku feasted heartfully on spicy food with the use of chopsticks.

..........

“Not bad for nearly two days worth of training, pups,” Anubis comments while sitting on his golden throne, “Room for improvement is always present, no matter how strong you become. But you did well nonetheless.”

Rainbow dash confidently sticks her chest out, “So, when do we go to The Underworld to-”

“Woah there! No need to go rushing to your death, pride parade,” Anubis interjects with a smirk.

“Hey!” Rainbow exclaims with a slight offense, “How many times are you going to call me that?!”

“Until you finally stop being cocky, I might consider it,” Anubis then waves his hand dismissively, “Anyway, despite your improvement, none of you should just run down to The Underworld and go 'guns blazing' on all of its denizens.”

Pinkie Pie giggles in response. Seeing this, Anubis questions:

"Something funny, niece?"

"Sorry about that, hehe. I just thought about an amazing game when you said that!" She exclaims happily, throwing a forehoof high into the air before bringing it back down.

A sudden pink blur zooms by and a certain terrarian appears next to Pinkie Pie, "Oh! Pinkie, I have Doom Eternal setup on my X-Box back in Home Town!"

"Ooh! Make sure you don't overwrite my save file!"

Candy giggles, "No worries," She looks around and notices the shocked expressions of everyone else present, "Sorry for interrupting, later!"

[ZOOM]

Candy disappears before their very eyes in a pink blur, leaving behind a room filled with silence. Rainbow Dash could only facehoof as Applejack hides her laughter behind her hat. Fluttershy and Rarity giggle amongst themselves as Shadow Thunder, Echo Silhouette, Linn, and Tori looked on with varying expressions. Celebes's jaw was dropped as even a multitude of the humanoid changelings joined her current state.

Anubis breaks the silence as he laughs uncontrollably before saying:

"You've always been a random ball of energy even as a foal, dear niece."

The party pony giggles, "Sorry about that, everyone!" She tilts her head, “So, where do we go from here?”

Anubis smiles, “Camelot, dear niece. You all need to head there soon for trouble is indeed brewing and will show its ugly head,” Anubis gets off his throne and stands before it, “This training was to prepare you all to remain vigilant, and work on your strengths. However, like I told the flying rainbow parade over there,” Anubis points a finger to Rainbow Dash, “You’re not strong enough to carelessly face The Underworld.”

Fluttershy fidgets nervously, “So, um, do you think we can win?”

Anubis ponders on this with a hand to his chin, “To be honest with you?” He grins, “You bet your yellow flank you all can do it.”

Applejack’s ears perk up in response, “Ah’ thought you said that we ain’t strong enough yet to face The Underworld?”

Anubis clicks his tongue three times, “I never said you couldn’t FACE The Underworld, I said you couldn’t CARELESSLY run down there. Like your new girlfriend wanted to do.”

Rainbow grunts in annoyance as the cowmare places a forehoof onto the cyan pegasus.

“By the way, where's King Amidias and his men?” Celebes questions. “I couldn’t help but notice that they were absent outside of the pyramid while we were training.”

“Ah, yes. The King wanted to make good on his promise and went back with his army to aid the Giant Clam,” Anubis responds. “After the Crabulon fiasco, he went to search for that clam, not to mention the clam’s pearl, and has been down there ever since,” Anubis ponders on this, “In fact, The Wizard and The Bandit should be returning with them right abou-”

Suddenly, a portal manifests itself into being as the aforementioned individuals started to exit the anomaly. It was soon revealed that Magius The Wizard was responsible for the anomaly's creation. However, the portal suddenly doubled in size as Amidias’s men were using their magic to hover a very particular entity, who was sat upon a large platform: The Giant Clam.

Anubis himself seemed to observe this with a deadpan expression as he comments:

“Oh yeah… let’s just bring a GIANT CLAM into my throne room,” The Ancient narrows his features and conjures a ball of blue flames in his right hand, “I should slap you all silly for this affront.”

King Amidias chuckles nervously, “M-my apologies, Lord Anubis-”

Anubis starts to laugh uncontrollably, “I’m just busting your balls, King Amidias! Lighten up a bit.”

Pinkie Pie giggled, “That was a funny one!”

“Hah! You should see the pranks your old man and I used to pull on mortals. Heck, one time, Oblivion convinced me to trick an innocent man into believing he was being sent to hell once. For a ‘well deserved’ reason.”

Everyone else present dropped their mouths in response. Anubis shrugs, “What? We Ancients gotta have fun sometimes too, you know,” Anubis waves a hand dismissively, “Relax, I told the soul mere moments after that I was just kidding and sent him off to his proper place… although I couldn’t help but notice Oblivion’s disappointed face.”

Applejack ponders on something, "Is that what y'all were doin' when we were trainin'? Not the prankin', but guiding souls to their next afterlife? Ya' did send yer' clones out to train us rather than yer'self."

Anubis nods, "Indeed. I am the one who governs over death itself. Fun fact: Did you know that I once had certain positions that would enable agents to be brought back to life? It's a bit limited, of course, but it worked wonders."

Various individuals let loose their own reactions. Some were shocked, others were in awe at the prospect. Echo Silhouette in particular was all too familiar with this process as he comments:

"Lord Anubis would simply call it his Respawn System," Echo chuckles, "I still say you should workshop that name, Lord Anubis."

Anubis waves a dismissive hand, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. It wasn't the best name I could come up with."

Linn was most curious about this as she questions:

"Respawn system?"

Anubis turns his gaze towards the pink-haired terrarian, "It's a bit of a process, and it might even sound weird to you all. But I'll give you the short version: Me, Valencia, and Nightcrawler worked something out a long time ago. Before 'you know what' happened," Some among them wince in response as they knew what event Anubis was referring to, involving the Jungle Tyrant, "All it requires is a bed, dreams, Valencia's creational prowess, and a touch from yours truly."

..........

As this goes on, Celebes suddenly hears an echoing voice enter her mind, a motherly tone, as it says:

-Come to me, Tree Hugger. There is something I must speak to you about… and someone is here to meet you once more.-

Celebes was naturally thrown off by this as she then recovers her composure and suddenly shouts:

“Forgive me, everyone, but I must consult with Lady Terra.” She then vanishes in a whirlwind of leaves and green particles.

Character inventory/equipment:

Fluttershy: Statigel Armor(pony, equipped), Overloaded Blaster, Eviscerator, Crimslime Staff, Corroslime Staff, Slime Staff, Finch Staff, Snow Flinx Staff, Hornet Staff, Blood Clot Staff, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Healing Potion, Honey Comb(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Honeyed Goggles, Slime Mount, Staff Of Necrosteocytes, Purified Jam.

Rainbow Dash: Necro Armor(pony, equipped), Star Cannon, Minishark, Eviscerator, Aquatic Discharge, Bloody Rupture, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Healing Potion, Aero Stone(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Bone Glove(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Victory Shard, Slime Mount.

Zecora: Crimson Armor(zebra, equipped), Dune Hopper, Sausage Maker, Beenade, Tooth Ball, Aorta, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Various Potions, Rocket Boots(equipped), Honey Comb(equipped), Sand Cloak(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Bloodstained Gloves(equipped), Bone Glove(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Honeyed Goggles, Skeletron Hand.

Starlight Glimmer: Meteor Armor(pony, equipped), Space Gun, Starfury, Vein Burster, Purple Phaseblade, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Mana Potion, Healing Potion, Victory Shard, Rocket Boots(equipped), Aero Stone(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Bone Glove(equipped), Slime Mount, Book Of Skulls, Skeletron Hand.

Rarity: Meteor Armor(pony, equipped), Space Gun, Hornet Staff, Snow Flinx Staff, Ice Mirror, Blood Clot Staff, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Mana Potion, Rocket Boots(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Slime Mount, Book Of Skulls, Skeletron Hand, Staff Of Necrosteocytes.

Applejack: Crimson Armor(pony, equipped), Vein Burster, Orange Phaseblade, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Rope, Metal Detector, Healing Potion, Rocket Boots(equipped), Honey Comb(equipped), Flurry Boots(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Honeyed Goggles, Slime Mount, Bone Glove, Skeletron Hand.

Twilight Sparkle: Meteorite Armor(pony, equipped), Space Gun, Book Of Skulls, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Mana Potion, Ichor, Victory Shards, Aero Stone(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Slime Mount.

Pinkie Pie: Crimson Armor(pony, equipped), Vein Burster, Blue Phaseblade, Bloody Rupture x2, Aorta, Deathbringer Pickaxe, Blood Lust Cluster Axe, Metal Detector, Rocket Boots(equipped), Honey Comb(equipped), Flurry Boots(equipped), Brain Of Confusion(equipped), Mana Polarizer(equipped), Bone Glove(equipped), Honeyed Goggles, Slime Mount, The Blood Butcherer, Skeletron Hand.