"Youmgui Taivan? That's... Dzunturan, isn't it?"
Derring-Do climbed down from the side of the sarcophagus and turned to Dash, and frowned when she saw her tense, trembling posture. She turned to look at the object of her attention and froze in place herself when she caught sight of the mummified filly standing only a yard away. Her eyes fixated on the slick black viper emerging from the socket of her eye, hanging in the air with a hiss.
Derring darted forward, snatched the torch off the ground and smacked it square against the filly's head. Her skull smashed into a spray of sand and flakes, and her body stiffened and remained standing. Strips of linen cloth dangled from the edge of her neck and streams of silky-smooth sand poured out of the stump. A few sparks from the torch landed on her body, but they sputtered out harmlessly.
Dash and Derring stood side by side, gasping for breath. The air was thick with the smell of cinnamon, strong and spicy.
"Well," Derring said, "that was—"
The strips of cloth slithered and writhed out of her severed neck and wove back into the shape of a head. Sand filled it up from within, and as soon as it congealed it regained the gooey, fleshy texture it had before.
"Che yamaar bain?" she said. Her voice was soft and gentle, and yet it reverberated with the strength of a peal of thunder.
"She's talking," Rainbow Dash hissed.
Derring-Do stared at the dessicated figure.
Dash jabbed her side. "You're the linguist! Say something!"
She flinched. "Right. Right. Name. Who... who are... Tanii ner heng be?"
"Youmgui Taivan. Che ulsej bainuu?"
Derring-Do stared at her in alarm.
"What? What'd she say?"
"She wants to know... if we're hungry."
Dash nodded to the filly. "We're fine, thanks!"
Derring-Do cleared her throat. "Be... ulsuugui... bain," she said.
The filly took a dainty step towards them. Derring-Do and Rainbow Dash took a step backwards, huddling together.
"Che tsangaj bainuu?"
"No, we're not... argh!" Derring tapped the top of her helmet. "What's the word for 'thirsty' again?"
The filly peered at them. "Tanii ner heng be?" Her eyes, though empty, were still quite expressive.
"What's that mean?"
Derring bit her lower lip. "She wants to know who we are."
There was a moment of silence.
"Who are we?" whispered Dash.
"I haven't decided yet," she said, "but we're not thieves, right?"
"Nope. Definitely not thieves."
Derring-Do cleared her throat. "Bi toorchihloo."
The filly tilted her head to one side.
Derring nodded quickly. "Bi yaj galt teregnii buudald ochih ve?"
The filly frowned at her. "Getegür?"
"What? No!" Derring-Do shook her head. "No, we're not thieves!"
The filly's frown darkened. "Getegür."
Derring-Do waved a hoof, frantically. "No-no-no not at all! It was just a misunder—Uuchlaarai! Buruu oilgoltschih shig bolloo!"
The filly stepped towards them, scowling. "Yegüdel." Her sides and belly wriggled, and scaly black bodies began crawling out from between the bandages.
"No! We haven't... Bi buruu um hiig... uh... hiigee..." Derring-Do hooked a front leg around Rainbow Dash's neck and pulled her along as she ran to the nearest entrance. "Just run for it!"
Rainbow Dash bolted after her. "Why are we running!? We're acting like thieves!"
"She said 'Yegüdel': that's the Dzunturan word for death, misfortune and destruction!"
"Why would she say that? What did you tell her!?"
"I think she knows we're foreigners. I... may have inadvertantly asked her for directions to the nearest train station."
Dash glared at her, wide-eyed. "You what!?"
"I don't know how to pronounce Dzunturan words!" she shouted. "Nopony does! All I've ever seen is writing, and the tribe that rescued us wasn't exactly verbose!"
They reached the nearest exit, but Dash skidded to a halt.
Derring glanced back at the main hall and saw the mummified filly walking towards them at a brisk, elegant trot. "What are you waiting for? She's following us!"
Dash pulled some vines away from the wall and pushed a little stone block. A heavy grid of bronze bars slammed down behind them and sealed off the entrance.
"All right!" Dash said. "I think I'm getting the hang of these things!"
"You just locked us out of the only room with a known exit!" Derring shouted. "How are we supposed to get out!?"
"We'll figure something out later." Rainbow Dash turned to the Mummified Filly and waved at her through the bars. "Hey! Better luck next time!"
The filly walked towards them without pause or hesitation. Her body flowed between the bars, transforming into sand and cloth just long enough pass through. She reemerged on the other side without interrupting her gait.
"You gotta be joking," whispered Dash.
"Muurand togloom hulgand ukhel," said the mummified filly.
Derring and Dash bolted through the hallway and the filly's hoofsteps pursued them without fail. Now that water was flowing throughout the temple, all the traps and mechanisms had come to life: there were pressure plates and switches everywhere, forcing them to hop, skip and jump over hidden obstacles... with each pause or hesitation, the smell of cinnamon powder grew stronger.
They reached a large room with a fountain, much like the last, but filled with sand instead of water. Dash flew to the far-facing wall and examined the clusters of chains and cogs. "I think I can figure this out," she said, "but I need more time!"
Derring-Do glanced down the hall and saw a glint of gold jewelry. "We don't have time!"
Dash hovered back and forth across the machinery. "Here... this switch should close off the room!"
"That didn't work last time!"
Dash set a hoof on the switch and watched the entrance.
"What are you waiting for!?" shouted Derring. "Do something!"
Dash squinted, resolute.
The mummified filly stepped into the archway of the entrance. Dash threw the switch and a massive stone slab crashed down on top of their pursuer. She collapsed like an empty bag, and a spray of sand splashed across the floor.
"That should buy us a few seconds!" Rainbow Dash pointed across the room. "There's a switch over there: see what it does!"
Derring ran over to the wall and pulled the switch. She gasped as the floor rumbled beneath her: the stone block under her hooves raised out of the floor and clicked into place.
"An elevator?" she said.
"Dangit!" Dash pulled another switch back and forth several times, but nothing happened. "I think we gotta pull two of these switches at the same time!"
"How am I supposed to reach them?" Derring-Do said. "I can't fly!"
Dash hovered in place for some time, examining the machine. "Do you trust me?"
Derring clenched her jaw. "Let's assume for the sake of argument that I do!"
"Then do exactly what I say!"
She swallowed, but nodded.
Dash poked at the machinery, and the stone in front of Derring-Do slid up into the ceiling. Another block slid out from the wall, sideways, forming a platform.
"Move to the next block!"
Derring hopped forward and yelped as a stone block slammed down behind her.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing!?"
"That's why it's called trust!"
The massive stone blocks slid back and forth, up and down, in and out. Dash called out to her: hop across the gap. Climb up. Stay where you are. Derring-Do followed her instructions to the letter, watching the ten-ton blocks whip past her with the speed and strength of a freight train.
"Almost there!" shouted Dash.
Derring-Do glanced at the floor below, three stories down, and saw a slight ripple in the pool of sand. The mummified filly's head peeked out from the surface.
"We got company!"
"Don't move!" Dash shouted back. "I can't afford to lose track of this!"
She watched as the filly stepped out of the sand pool and glanced around the room, as curious as a child. She casually walked to the wall beneath her.
"I think she's onto us, Dash!"
"Dangit! Just... just stay put for now. I'll figure something out!" She pulled a switch.
A block lifted up in front of her, and a second one lowered down. The filly calmly stepped onto it and waited patiently.
"Okay now... oh, wait." Dash scrambled to find another switch. "No, we definitely don't want to do that. Let's try this instead..."
The blocks shuffled positions again, grinding against each other. When they finished moving, Derring-Do and the mummified filly were standing at about the same height, with only a few blocks between them. Derring leaned sideways to get a better look at her adversary, and saw the filly doing the same to her.
"Okay, now... as soon as the block in front of you moves out of the way, I need you to step onto the block directly in front of you. Got it?"
"What!? But she's right there!"
"Just do it! If you trust me, you'll do it!"
Derring flexed her muscles, trying keep herself from shaking. The blocks slid apart, opening a clear path all the way to the end of the wall. Derring stared at the filly, directly ahead of her, with a swarm of black vipers slithering along at her heels.
"Step forward! Now!"
Derring stepped onto the block ahead of her, coming face to face with Youmgui Taivan. The temple guardian strode towards her, stoic and displeased, but Derring-Do stood her ground. She could see a stone switch on the wall behind her.
A pair of massive stone blocks slammed down from the ceiling, directly in front of and behind Derring-Do. Youmgui gave a startled look, as if she'd twisted an ankle while trying to walk in high-heels. Her body collapsed again, sending a cascade of sand to the floor below.
A moment later, the block in front of her retracted. The sand and snakes were gone.
"Go for it!" shouted Dash.
Derring dove forward and went to the switch. "Pushing the switch on the mark of one. Three... two..."
"One!" said Dash.
They pushed the switches. The blocks began retracting all at once, and Derring leaped towards the middle of the room. Dash caught her in midair and they glided to the floor together. Moments later the room quaked violently: they braced themselves to keep from falling over.
Derring picked her helmet off the floor and put it back on. "That sounds bad."
"We didn't want to fix anything, right?" Dash said. "I hope we didn't fix it by accident."
There was a deafening explosion of shattered stone. The room shuddered violently and the floor tilted beneath them: Dash took to the air, but Derring-Do slid sideways and landed in the fountain of sand.
"I gotcha!" Dash flew down and hauled her back out again.
"I'm fine," she said as she stood up. "It's only a few inches deep."
The mummified filly leaped out of the pool like a shark breaching the surface of an ocean. She grappled with Derring's hind leg and her linen bandages flowed over the limb like a net of vines. Derring fell the floor with a scream and began kicking back: each blow sent a spray of sand flying, but the filly's head reformed in a matter of moments.
The room tilted again and the pool of sand splashed out of the shallow fountain. Derring and Dash braced themselves, but Youmgui tumbled back and landed against the wall. They scrambled to pull the cloth wrappings off of Derring's leg.
Dash nodded towards the filly. "Her mama certainly didn't raise a quitter."
"She is making things rather difficult for us," Derring-Do said. "I'm all out of ideas."
They watched as the filly stood up and shook her mane out: the bandages slithered up along her neck, and her elaborate hairstyle reformed itself. She was standing directly in front of the room's only exit.
Dash frowned. "Who the heck is she? How much do we know about her?"
"Not much. She was entombed in a place of prominence, and she's got gold jewelry... but she doesn't seem to be a priestess or a princess."
"What about her name? Youmgui?"
"It's not a name at all," Derring said. " 'Youmgui taivan' is Aduu. It means 'nothing in particular' or 'nothing of consequence'."
Dash called out to the filly. "Hey! Are you Dzunturan?"
"Jüün Turu'un," she said, mildly irritated.
"Oh. Sorry." Dash turned to Derring. "What was she saying before, when we first met her?"
"She asked if we were hungry. Or thirsty."
Dash watched Youmgui as she walked towards them. "...Do you think she was a slave? Like, the servant of a king or queen or something?"
Derring arched an eyebrow. "That... is quite possible. In some ancient cultures, the servants of royalty were entombed with their masters, to protect and serve them in the next life."
Dash worked her jaw back and forth. "...Tell her we're thirsty."
Derring glared at her. "We're what?"
Dash rolled her eyes, expansively. "Oh boy am I thirsty! I could drink a whole bucket of water!"
Derring glanced between her and the approaching filly. "I'm, uh... Tsangaj!"
Youmgui stopped in her tracks. "...Tsangaj?"
Derring nodded. "Be tsangaj bain."
They stared at each other for some time. The catacombs quaked all around them.
"Che yu uumaar baina?" the filly said.
"Water," Derring said. "Water's... uh... Be us ohmeer bain." She glanced at Dash. "What about you? Does water sound good?"
"Yeah, water's fine."
Youmgui looked at them, conflicted. "Uuchlaarai."
"No problem!" Derring said. "I mean... Zugair zugair."
The filly dissolved into a tiny whirlwind of sand that drifted across the floor and faded into nothing.
The floor quaked again. They bolted for the exit and ran through the corridor, following their path back to the central chambers. They skidded to a halt as the corridor began rotating around them: they slid along the floor and began walking along the wall, and then along the ceiling.
"This is crazy!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "The whole place is turning inside out!"
"We'll never find the central chamber like this! We need an exit, now!"
"Well whaddya expect me to do about it!?"
"You're the only one of us who can figure out these devices! You need to—"
The corridor came apart in the middle and pulled them apart. A flash of light blinded them, and a frigid gust of wind chilled them to the bone. Derring stumbled backwards and threw a hoof over her eyes. Eventually, her vision adjusted to the brightness.
But... but this is... impossible!
She saw sky and clouds all around. The stone corridor they were standing in was actually a hollow shaft suspended in the sky, like an air duct. She crept to the edge and looked around: she could see all the other halls and rooms they'd explored... a vast, three dimensional maze of narrow struts and beams. She could see mountains to each side of them and the ancient capital city far below. The massive buildings crumbled like sandcastles as the network of catacombs uprooted themselves from the depths of the world. Massive chunks of earth and rock shook loose and fell to the ground in an avalanche of destruction.
Derring-Do stared at the architecture of the temple itself, now fully exposed to the open sky: it was a maze of beams and arcs, arranged like a gyroscope. The shafts and platforms were moving and unfolding themselves into complex shapes and patterns of no discernable purpose. She took one step closer to the precarious edge of the corridor, risking the gale force winds to look upwards. She could see the same ziggurat they'd snuck into before: it was now the uppermost point of the flying structure.
Dash leaped into the air and flew to where Derring was standing. "We gotta find another way around!"
"You can fly!" shouted Derring. "Go to the top and stop them by yourself!"
"But you'll be stuck here!"
"Forget about me!" Derring shouted. "You have to stop this engine once and for all! That's all that matters!"
"You expect me to run off and let you die here, all alone!?"
Derring-Do shoved her shoulder. "What's more important? A friend, or the entire world!?"
"Don't talk to me about friendship!" Dash shouted. "A world where I have to abandon my friend is a world that isn't worth living in!"
Derring stared at the wild fury in her eyes.
"We've saved each other's lives," Dash said, "and neither of us even cares about keeping count of who owes who. Because friends don't care about debts. They'll always help you, no matter what, even if you don't believe in them. Well guess what? I'm your freakin' friend! Derring-Do, the meanest, bitterest, most insensitive pony in the whole world has a friend!"
Dash held out her hoof.
"We only got this far because we were together," she said, "and we only have a little further to go. I know you don't need me, and I don't need you... but we need each other."
Derring stared up at her, bewildered. "You're crazy."
"Sometimes, crazy works." Dash continued to hold her hoof out. "Let's finish this together. I promise, no matter what happens, we'll make it out of here alive. Both of us."
Derring reached out and clapped her hoof against Dash's. "I must admit... I'm curious to see how this ends."
Rainbow Dash grinned at her. "The hallmark of a good story!"
She lowered her flight goggles into place over her eyes. Derring-Do re-tied the chin strap on her pith helmet. They walked to the edge of the stone bridge and gazed out at the whirling maze of narrow platforms. The wind whipped their manes about, and Derring-Do squinted at the early morning sun.
"Now!" Dash shouted.
Derring-Do leaped into the air. Rainbow Dash swept over her, and they hooked their front legs together: they glided down at a steep angle, just as a narrow stone platform slid into place below them. Derring let go and tumbled onto the platform, running along it's length while Rainbow Dash wheeled overhead. The inside-out maze of stone shafts and pillars twisted and cavorted all around her: a massive slab swung past and Derring leaped onto it, clinging to the edge and climbing up. From there she leapt onto a stone disk covered with metal rods. She ducked and bobbed between the rods and leapt onto the side of a vertical gear, riding it up higher. She leaped sideways an instant before another gear crushed her: she grabbed onto the edge of a narrow ledge, but her hoof slipped and she plummeted down.
Before she could scream, Rainbow Dash swept out of nowhere and clamped her forelegs around hers, carrying her along to the next lower platform. Derring sprinted across the surface of the floating engine, leaping between cogs and struts and chains. The air buffeted her from all sides, and her head reeled with vertigo... but never once did she lose sight of the rainbow-colored trail following alongside her.
"Up!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Keep going up!"
Derring ran along the narrow edge of a metal ring, desperate to keep balance. "Do you see any controls anywhere? Anything you can use to move the maze?"
"There's... whoa!"
Derring glanced to the side and saw a massive, silver shape emerge from a nearby cloud bank: a familiar zeppelin was rising from the pearly wall of mist like a breaching whale.
"The HMS Imbrium!" Derring shouted. "They made it! Professor Walski must still be alive!"
"That's impossible!" said Dash. "How did they find us?"
Derring reared up on her hind legs and waved frantically. "Hey, over here!"
Three tiny shapes dropped from the belly of the zeppelin. They curved through the air and flew directly towards them, moving together in an arrow. Dash swooped down and tackled Derring just as a storm of incandescent sparks ricochet of the platform. The steel-grey fighter planes spread apart at the last moment and swerved away, buzzing like hornets.
Derring looked up as the planes wheeled around or a second pass. "They were shooting at us!?"
"I don't think they work for Perez," Dash said. "Not anymore, at least. Look."
Derring watched the zeppelin as it emerged from the clouds completely. There were a row of huge banners hanging along it's side: deep blue cloth emblazoned with a silver crescent that was crossed in the middle by a wavy dagger.
"The Lunatic Cabal," Derring whispered, harshly. "I swear, if they've done anything to Perez..."
"Either that, or Perez is trying to finish us off." Dash looked at the three fighter planes, swooping for another pass. "Move! Move!"
Dash bolted through the air, and Derring ran along the surface of the twisting machinery. The fighter plane's heavy cannons cracked like thunder, and a hail of glowing lead filled the air: Derring dropped down and hung from the side of the platform: after the ricochets stopped, she hauled herself up and continued running. One of the other planes went into a dive but swerved away when a trail of rainbow light crossed it's path: it turned sharply and chased after the trail.
Derring-Do ran on, watching as the first plane struggled to track it's tiny target. Dash flew in a straight, predictable line for just a moment, but that was enough: The plane opened fire, dead center, but Dash darted out of the way. One of the other planes flew out from behind a huge stone pillar and directly into the line of fire: the bullets tore into it's left wing with a fiery explosion, and the plane shook violently.
A shadow spread over the floating catacombs as the Zeppelin itself drew nigh. Derring looked up and saw a volley of cables launch out of the forward facing crew cabin. A dozen stallions in black longcoats slid down the cables and landed on top of a nearby wall, retracting the cables as they landed.
Those grapple guns... the leader of the security force was using one of those!
She watched as they began swarming over the catacombs, shouting orders. Derring-Do clenched her jaw and ran towards them at a full sprint: one of them glanced back at her and began shouting orders. The stallions turned to point their launchers at her, and the grabber-claws clamped together to form needle-sharp harpoons.
Derring quickened her pace. The stallions leveled their weapons but a blinding strobe of colored light dazzled them. Derring closed the distance and spun around, kicking one of the stallions square in the chest with both hind legs and sending him flying into two others. She reared up and boxed her front hooves against the nearest stallion's jaw, and sent him sprawling. One of the others leveled his giant harpoon gun at her: she threw a hoof-full of dirt in his face, charged forward, and headbutted him: he plummeted off the platform with a terrified wail, and landed on a lower platform with a painful thump.
"Wilhelm! No!" One of the other stallions took out a steel-framed compound crossbow and pointed it at her. "You'll pay for that, you sun-loving weakling!"
Derring charged forward. The crossbow snapped, and the steel bolt struck her helmet and sent a jolt all through her neck. She reared up to kick at him, and he raised his crossbow to block: they wrestled over control of the weapon until Derring finally pulled it loose. She bit down on the handle and swung it like a club, knocking the stallion out.
A hail of heavy cannon fire caught her attention. She turned and saw Dash weaving through the air with a pair of fighter planes right behind her: her evasive movements were frantic and desperate.
Derring snatched up one of the heavy grapple guns with her wing, aiming the bulky weapon with ease. She watched Dash's path, patiently, and fired the harpoon at the last second. The spike clamped onto a platform a few dozen yards away, with the cable hanging across the wide open space. Derring took the weapon and ran circles around a nearby pillar, wrapping the cable around it. Dash flew past, and one of the pursuing planes caught the wire dead on and tore off a chunk of it's wing. The plane tumbled wildly out of control and burst into flames. Derring saw a parachute deploy, but the cloth caught on the edge of a giant brass tube: the pilot slammed against it's surface and went limp.
Derring watched as the last of the fighter planes followed Dash through an obstacle course of stones, pillars and blocks. She slipped between a pair of giant pendulums and through the spokes of a giant wheel, but the fighter plane pursued her skillfully. She turned one last corner with a breathtaking ninety-degree swerve, tucked her wings close, and slipped through a hole in a wall less than a meter wide. The plane careened around the impossible turn and crashed into the teeth of a pair of giant gears: the vehicle exploded in a ball of wet, greasy fire and filled the air with a sparkling cloud of metal wreckage.
Dash glided over to Derring's platform, with a huge grin on her face. "Hey, slowpoke!"
Derring gasped and pointed at several torn feathers on her left wing. "Are you all right?"
"One of the volleys got a little too close for comfort, but all they got was feathers. I'll be just fine."
A metal claw slammed into Dash and pressed her up against the wall. She struggled to pull the clamp off her neck, to no avail. Derring-Do pointed her own launcher at the new threat, but gasped when she saw who it was: the black stallion in the black longcoat, holding Professor Walski in front of himself as a shield. He had a huge rotary-mounted harpoon cannon attached to the side of his saddle. Perez's outfit was ripped and dirty and she had a badly bruised eye, but she was still strong enough to struggle against him.
The black stallion grinned. "Professor Do, I presume?"
Derring leveled the weapon on them. "Professor? How are you feeling?"
"Don't give him anything, Miss Do. Not one thing!"
"Oooh, nooo!" The stallion said, "Not that! Anything but that! You wouldn't dream of giving me something, would you?"
Derring clenched her jaw. "Let her go."
"Because if you did give me something, I'd have to let all three of you live..." He pursed his lips in a mockery of extreme sorrow. "And then I wouldn't get to have any fun at all! Not even a little!"
"Just... tell me what you want."
Perez thrashed anew. "Whatever he says, don't believe it! Don't you dare!"
"Dare!" The stallion blew a raspberry. "You told Derring not to dare! Do you realize how funny that was? Do you?"
Derring bit her lower lip. "Let's not..."
The stallion's face twisted with rage. "Do you!?" he roared. He tightened his grip around Perez's neck and she let out a startled gasp. "When something is funny, Miss Do... you are supposed to laugh."
"Stop it! She can't breathe!"
"Laugh!"
Derring let out a nervous little giggle. The stallion joined in, louder and louder.
"Let go of her!" Derring shouted. "Just tell me what you want, and I'll do it!"
"He's faking!" shouted Rainbow Dash. "They both are! She's working with him!"
The stallion's eyes opened wide, and his mouth formed a perfect circle "Oooo-hoo-hoo! That's even better!" He locked eyes with Derring again, grinning giddily. "It really is an act! She's been on my side the whole time, from the very beginning! In fact, I'm not crazy at all! I'm perfectly... incredibly sane! I'm just pretending!"
"Blast 'em both!" Dash shouted. "You gotta!"
Derring glanced between Dash and Perez. Sweat trickled down her brow.
"It's all an act on the stage of life... isn't it? In the end, we're all court jesters. Every last one of us." The stallion tightened his grip around Perez's neck again, grinning giddily. "Some of us know it... and some of us like it."
Dash struggled against her restraint. "Don't listen to them!"
Derring-Do dropped the grapple gun and stepped away from it. "Stop it! Please just stop hurting her! I'll do whatever you want, I swear!"
The stallion sighed, unhappily. He let go of Perez, and she took out a tiny crossbow of her own and pointed it at Derring.
"Your saddlebags, miss Do. If you please."
Derring stared at her, aghast. "Perez... no! Don't you know who they are!?"
She scowled at her. "I told you before, I have investors to worry about. The saddlebags, Miss Do."
Derring-Do took off her saddlebags and slid them towards Perez. She picked them up and passed them to the Black Stallion. "Cutting it a little close, don't you think?"
"I didn't frighten you, did I sweetums?"
He reached over to stroke her hair, but she slapped his hoof away in disgust. "Take her bags to the sanctum and I'll study her journals later. I'll transport the prisoners myself."
"Really? Are you sure you don't want to study her notes as soon as possible?"
She shoved his shoulder and scowled at him. "After that inexcusable little 'prank' you pulled last time, it's obvious you can't be trusted to keep prisoners alive."
A troop of uniformed stallions marched towards them, weapons at the ready. The black stallion locked eyes with Perez for several seconds, meeting her stern look with a broad, rigid smile.
One of the soldiers glanced between them. "Kommandant?"
"Do as the lady commands," he said, "and then be sure to escort her to the sanctum. We have much to discuss."
Dash and Derring held up their hooves, grudgingly, and allowed themselves to be led off. One of the soldiers flinched as Derring walked past him. "The mark of death!" he said.
The other guards all gasped in horror.
Perez frowned at him. "What?"
She looked at Derring's left hind leg: there was an ugly purple bruise just under her cutie mark, centered around four neatly arranged pin-prick wounds. The injury bore an uncanny resemblance to a skull.
"The bite of the black lotus viper!" one of the other guards said. "She is cursed to die!"
Perez peered at the bite mark. "How long have you had this?"
Derring shook her head, perplexed. "It's the first I've noticed it."
Perez turned to the guards. "Have a doctor waiting for us when we arrive, and make sure he brings an anti-venom kit. One of our prisoners requires medical attention."
"But... but she is cursed! No medicine will—"
Perez grabbed hold of his collar and dragged him close with a scowl. "If I find out that either of these ponies have been killed or injured, you and your master will pray the curse gets you before I do. Am I perfectly clear?"
He nodded. "Jawohl, fraulein Walski."