//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: A Dangerous Artifact // Story: Daring Do and the Iron Pyramid // by Unwhole Hole //------------------------------// The griffon in charge of watching the entrance to the Iron Pyramid was dreaming a dream so pleasant—concerning gold that had been forged into a table to hold up a chest, also made out of gold, so as to hold all his gold—that he purred too hard and woke himself up. For a moment, he was just sad to have lost all his dream-gold—and then horrified to see a largely featherless, one-eyed, fez-wearing face staring back at him. “Having sweet dreams, Gorber? Must be nice getting paid good company money to sleep! Why don’t you just go find some sticks, make a nest, lay some eggs and sit down and hatch them?!” “We’re cats in the back, we don’t do that--” “I’m about to make you do that, you lazy clump of good-for-nothing sod! I should have you plucked!” Gruff kicked the watchman, nearly dislodging him from his resting place on top of the crane. “First the day shift is too hot for you, now this? We’re getting paid to guard that hole! What are you, some sort of pony, with you’re ‘friendship’ and ‘sharing’? ARE YOU A COMMUNIST?!” Gorber sat up. “No, boss, no, I was just--” “Inspecting your eyelids? You son of a pony, you barely-feathered pullet, you sack of my own feathers! I should have you strung up by the tail and let the ponies beat the candy out of you! I should have you shaved! I should—I should revoke your nip privileges!” Gorber gasped. “Not my nip! Not my NIIIIIIIIP!” “Too late, already done! Am I going to have to deduct from your pay? Why, if I tried pulling a stunt like that back in the War, I’d be in a donkey camp wearing a saddle by the time Celestia got her fat horse butt out of bed and started to make it too dang hot out!” “But it’s the middle of the night! The only guy who came here was that pony that doesn’t shave!” Gruff bopped him one. “That was the lead archaeologist, you egg-sucker! You let him in in the middle of the night, all ALONE?!” “Well, it’s his job--” “He’s PONY! They’re fragile! They break if you drop them, or get bruised, or get sad and start crying! What if he slips? What if he gets his stupid face stuck in something? Huh? Then what? THEN WHAT?” “Uh...we get to stay longer until they replace him, and our contract gets extended?” Gruff opened his beak to say something, but then closed it. “Actually, that’s not a bad point...you know what, I like the cut of your jib.” “Thanks, boss---” “But if I catch you sleeping again, I’ll cut your jib clean off.” Gorber was about to protest, but was interrupted by the sound of screaming. “Great,” sighed Gruff. “Guess I was right, like always. Dang fool probably got a splinter, or someone didn’t give him a morning hug...” Almost on cue, the archaeologist came running from the tomb, disheveled and out of breath. In fact, on the verge of collapse from having been sprinting. He immediately collapsed into the dust. Gorber laughed at him, but Gruff immediately knew that something was wrong. Gorber had experience, but Gruff had forgotten more than the young cock had ever even known in the first place. He had seen a great many more things. The things that would eventually drive him mad, he supposed. He knew fear. He had seen it on the faces of many. He had seen true fear on the face of the pony who had taken his eye, and he saw it on the face of this one here and now. “Seal the tomb!” screamed the archaeologist. “Seal it NOW! For Celestia’s sake, SEAL IT!” Gorber froze, shocked from the shrill tone of the pony’s voice and the terror within it. He immediately started fiddling with the unbreakable chains that supported the block over the exit, trying to release them to no effect. “MOVE!” demanded Gruff, throwing Gorber to the ground and taking his sword. He then struck it against the winch that supported the chains, causing it to shatter and collapse. The block it supported fell to the ground with a nearly deafening thud, with the archaeologist barely managing to roll out of the way before it came down, sealing the opening with a massive black stone inscribed with a powerful magical seal. The scream followed by the thud of something enormous woke Daring Do. She sputtered awake, cold and shaking, and found herself alone and in pitch darkness. As torches were ignited around her, though, their light illuminated the inside of the tent through its walls. She saw Caballeron’s blankets pushed aside, empty. The felt a sudden surge of disappointment that. It was a feeling she would know many times later in her life, and that she would never quite grow accustomed to. As she got up, she reached for her jacket and stepped outside only for the palpable darkness to be cut by a sudden burst of light in the sky. Daring Do looked up to see the streaking trail of a flare fired from the Pyramid. The griffons were already responding to it, converging at the point it had been launched from and to where their commander awaited them. By then, though, Daring was already on her way to the point of origin. Her shaking legs made running impossible, so she had elected to fly, and quickly outpaced many of the griffons who were not in the process of securing the camp. She reached the edge of the Pyramid only to find that the block held up over the entrance had fallen down and blocked it. For a moment, she was horrified by the thought that it had come down and crushed somepony. Except that she had recognized the scream, and had known it belonged to Caballeron—and though incredibly pale and on the verge of collapse, he was not at all injured. “Pontracio, what happened--” He reached up and grabbed her. His green eyes were wild. He looked insane. “Not statues—oh sweet Celestia, they were never statues--” A second source of light flooded the camp. Daring Do turned to see that a thestral was rapidly approaching her. A thestral wearing what appeared to be an oversized, knitted tea cozy. Not far behind her was Wun, looking either terrifyingly amused or on the verge of disintegrating somepony. “What happened?” she demanded. Caballeron tried to stand to his feet, Daring Do helping him. “It—it—” He looked back to the tomb, and then at Wun. “We need to get out of here. Right now. The seals will contain it, but I don’t know for how—” Wun suddenly pushed him to the ground. Daring Do, likewise, was knocked back by a sudden surge of magic. As she fell, she was put in the exact position necessary to see the surface of the stone blocking the tomb suddenly ignite as a thin red beam of light passed through it. Then, as she fell, the beam expanded, suddenly becoming yards wide. The sand below was instantly vaporized, along with most of the camp in that direction as a perfectly circular hole was burned through it. Then she hit the ground, bouncing once and effortlessly turning to a standing position. As she slid backward across the sand, she looked to the entrance of the tomb, through where one of the black stones was now dripping with its own molten slag. Through this void, a figure stepped outward. Daring Do instantly recognized the mask—but hardly the thing it was attached to. It was the same mask as before, a piece of segmented material covering a long neck and a face identical to that of the sha: its ears square, almost like horns, and its snout long and disturbingly thin. Except that now it seemed to have small, illuminated eyes that slowly turned in their sockets, scanning the area. The body it possessed, though enormous, was somehow at least vaguely equine. Gray and muscular, with the last of its injuries rapidly regenerating into dark-colored flesh. The tail was thick and pure black. The head, though, was covered by the mask, and from the look of it the creature had a substantially longer neck than a pony would. Thunder exploded in the distance. Suddenly, the sands around the camp were whipped into a growing storm. Daring saw the lightning. It was deep crimson, and the majority of it directed to the point at the top of the pyramid. “Open fire!” screamed Caballeron. “Shoot it! SHOOT IT!” The griffon near the crane lifted his blunderbuss and, before Gruff could stop him, fired. The shot blast struck the mask of the creature, as well as its body—although whatever wounds it produced healed almost instantaneously. Its mechanical eyes turned, and so did its head. The mask was disturbingly articulated to the long neck beneath. Red light ignited around one of the massive bricks that sheathed the Pyramid. The seal on it burst, unable to contain the magic that surrounded it. Then the block was torn free and smashed into the crane, destroying it. Gruff managed to grab the younger griffon and pull him to safety, but with the stone gone the others began to tumble downward, sliding down and off the immortal iron shell beneath. Daring reacted almost on instinct. The thestral girl, staring dumbfounded, was in the path of some of the collapsing debris, and Daring grabbed her, throwing her to safety and barely making it past a hundred-ton brick in the process. Through the thunder and collapsing debris, Daring heard Gruff screaming at his mercenaries. “Open fire, you pullets! OPEN FIRE!” “Wait, stop—” The griffons fired their blunderbusses. This time, the creature did not bother being struck. Instead, the space around its head ignited with red light and a sphere formed around it. The sand below melted on contact, as did the lead shots from the griffon’s firearms. Their weapons proved to be harmless in the face of its magic. Suddenly, the thestral girl—who Daring Do was still holding—began to violently shake, releasing some kind of ultra-high-pitched sound. Daring dropped her, covering her own ears, and the girl continued to squeak wildly. She had no idea if this was some kind of involuntary spasm or convulsion, or if she was hurt—until from the distance she heard similar sounds descending from the hills. When she turned back to the creature, she saw that it had moved—and that Caballeron was directly in its path. The debris had trapped him—but not the creature. As it approached, even under constant fire from the griffons, it simply overturned the gargantuan stones in its way, flipping them over without any apparent effort. “Pontracio, look out!” He looked to Daring, and she saw the fear in his eyes. Then, from behind, he was suddenly grasped by translucent tendrils of magic. He screamed—rather girlishly—and was dragged across the sand toward the creature. Daring took flight, charging toward him, but it had already lifted him before it. A thin stream of magic reached out from its head to his, and Caballeron began to convulse. His eyes rolled back, and his mouth began to foam. He almost seemed to be growing thinner in response to the spell. Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. “You son of my own MOTHER!” screamed a griffon voice as several reloading griffons were thrown out of the way. Gruff, on the far side of the monster, lifted a canvas bag and lobbed it at the creature. “EAT IT!” The creature turned its head as the bag struck its shield. The canvas bag ignited as it was vaporized—and the spell struck the dynamite contained within it. Daring had only barely had a chance to cover her eyes, but was thrown back by the sudden explosion. It was louder than anything she had ever heard—and then quiet, a simple ringing replacing the deafening roar. One of the fallen blocks had protected her from the blast, but the force of it had still been substantial. She stood up, coughing, and squinted to find the creature already regenerating from the injuries it had sustained. In order to capture Caballeron, it had weakened its shield—the shield that now was fully sealed around Caballeron’s body, having protected him from the blast. It dropped him and reignited its shield. Around it, the sand suddenly ignited, a rune forming around it. A rune written in the same language Daring Do had seen inside the temple. The rune shifted and turned, part of it suddenly pointing in a particular direction. The creature adjusted course and began to walk that way. “Stop it! STOP IT!” The griffons obeyed their commander, but there was nothing they could do. Many of them had been deafened or temporarily blinded by Gruff’s attack, and the ones that remained had nothing that could penetrate the shield. Some of the more brazen threw down their guns and tried their swords—only to find the steel melt the instant it touched the protective dome around the sha-headed creature. Daring ignored it and instead ran to Caballeron. She was drifter of what she would find, but saw that although his eyes were open and blank, he was still breathing. “Pontractio! Hey, Pontracio!” She grabbed him, lifting him gently. “Wake up!” He did not move—and Daring Do felt a hoof on her shoulder. Wun had appeared over her. “No. He will not escape my wrath so easily. Wake up, sexy fool!” She summoned a spell and slapped him with great vigor. When that did not work, she slapped him harder across his face—and then again, and again, and once across the rump for good measure. Caballeron blinked and suddenly sat up, coughing and taking a deep breath. “Genetic divergence exceeding anticipated levels, host incompatibility manifest, cerebral electrical distortion above acceptable parameters, terminating process, living host not recommended, genetic incompatibility confirmed--” Wun slapped him hard across both the face and rump. Caballeron sputtered and fell to the ground, turning over and spilling his oats. “What in the name of...Celestia’s girth...” “You touched the Shiny.” Caballeron tried to sit up. “What?” “You touched the Shiny! This is why we do not touch the Shiny!” “You...you went after the jewel?” asked Daring, feeling abnormally hurt. Caballeron looked at her, and then looked away. “I have a job to do. But something triggered...” He pointed. “THAT.” Daring looked up to see the creature walking calmly through the camp, the griffon’s attacks barely noticed. The storm overhead was growing even more powerful, but seemed to be limited to just the upper atmosphere, beyond her range of sight. Somewhere out in the darkness. “What is that thing?” “What it is is irrelevant,” said Wun. “What matters is that I own it, and my possession is attempting to escape.” Wun lifted the thestral girl, who was still dressed in a cozy and still squeaking and vibrating. Wun shook her until she stopped. “What where why when how WHIIIIIICCCHHH!” “No. I am not. I require information. Daring, what direction is it heading?” Daring looked at its path. Even without stars, she had an instinct for its direction—and felt her strength drained. “North. But the course it’s going...it’s heading back to the town.” “It cannot possibly cross the desert on hoof.” “It seems to be doing a pretty good job of it right now!” Daring Do looked out at it. “If it gets there—” “It shall not. Curiosity, is there anything that direction with plants? Fields, farms, shrubbery, something green?” The thestral, Curiosity, looked up. “I think our oasis is that way. It’s where we get all our water. But that’s on the other side of the mountains!” “Then I will proceed to there. If you cannot stop it, I shall.” Wun removed the skirt of her dress and then ran forward, her form thin and graceful and capable of almost supernatural speed across the desert sand. It was disturbing to watch her move, but she did so with great purpose. “We have to catch up with it!” cried Daring Do, running after her sister and the creature. “I can barely even walk!” cried Caballeron. “That thing—it was—I don’t even know what it did!” “Suck it up!” “You suck it up, I’m not about to get in that thing’s way!” “I already sounded the alarm,” said Curiosity, in a panic. “The others, they’ll get here soon!” “Great,” muttered Daring, taking flight. “Now we have to deal with a three-way fight!” She began to race toward the creature, with Curiosity following, her small bat-like wings beating quickly to keep up. She quickly caught up to it, hovering overhead. The griffons had now largely retreated, not sure what to do. This was well above their ability, and they had depleted their personal supplies of both powder and shot. Some were already running lines back to the skiff, but most had stepped back or moved to secure the unarmed archaeological team, getting them out of the way. One pony, though, had not gotten out of the way. Cretin stood directly in the monster’s path, swaying gently in the breeze, several empty bottles lying around him. One of Cretin’s eyes slowly moved toward the approaching creature. “Hey! Hey you! You’re not Nightmare Moon, are you? They never taught me what she looks like, just to fly planes into her!” The creature did not stop, although slowed slightly. “I’m still an ossifer of the Equestrian...something. I don’t know what our military is called. Was called. Even if I’m retired. I think? Nobody left to give orders, can't find them. So I order you to...not do whatever it is you’re doing that’s making so much noise...I’m trying to listen to find that giant beetle that—” A sudden blinding snap of red magic appeared beside him, and Cretin was thrown to the side with such incredible force that, a fraction of a second later, in the glow of the lightning, Daring saw him impact the base of a massive stone pillar nearly half a mile away. The force of the impact was so great that she heard it over the thunder and, from the damage, the natural stone structure crumbled at its base and began to collapse. The griffons largely stopped firing at the sight of this. Their morale, it seemed, had taken an equivalent hit. Then, in the momentary silence, every shadow seemed to move at once. Suddenly, as if from everywhere at once, the thestrals emerged. Daring felt a momentary glimmer of hope—until she saw that they were barely armed, sometimes only with marginally pointed sticks, or perhaps rocks. They had no weapons. Except for one. An especially large thestral mare descended from above, plunging her broadsword into the shield spell surrounding the monster. Instead of melting, the runes upon its surface only ignited brighter, the dark iron of the blade able to withstand the extreme heat as it sparked violently. The shield spell cracked and split—but before Dignity could strike again, she was grasped by tendrils of magic. She was lifted into place, unable to resist, and a thin stream of magic reached from the creature’s head to hers. She began to convulse, just as Caballeron had, except that it did not drop her nearly as quickly. Then it dropped her, and she continued to shake and squeak on the ground. The monster stood for a moment, unmoving, and then a different spell activated. This one surrounded its body and then, after several seconds, collapsed inward. With a pop, it had teleported. Daring descended rapidly to Dignity’s side. Her eyes were wide, and she was speaking and chirping wildly in her native language—or what Daring thought was her native language, anyway. “What’s she saying?” she said to Curiosity, who landed beside her. “I don’t know! It’s just gibberish!” A shadow suddenly appeared to descend beside Daring Do. She heard a gasp, and then the sound of a sword being drawn. Suddenly Honor’s blade was pointed at her. “Let go of her! What have you done, outlander?!” “Stop!” Curiosity interposed herself between Honor and Daring Do. “She didn’t do anything, there was a monster!” “Get out of the way, I’ll have her wings—” “Have your own wings! She’s just trying to help!” “It’s worse for her than it was for Caballeron.” Daring Do looked up at Honor. "She's hurt. Pretty bad." “We have to get her to Wisdom! He’ll know what to do!” Curiosity tried to help Daring lift Dignity, but it proved impossible due to her tiny size and severe nutrient deficiency. “Let me help,” said Honor, sheathing his blade. “Take her left side. I shall take the right. Can your fluffy wings actually lift you?” “Just show me the way to go.” “We do not have much time. Keep up.” With that, the three of them took flight, headed toward the mountains that surrounded the Iron Pyramid. They could not have known just how little time they truly had.