Daring wandered through the darkness of the camp. She did not feel anything at all, except a dull and unfamiliar shock. Like the malaise of sickness, but with no sense of illness. An unreality, and a confusion. She did not know how to make it go away, because she feared that if she thought too hard about it she might break down then and there.
She found herself at the front of Wun’s tent. She was not sure how long she had wandered, because time seemed to have lost meaning. She had not seen another pony or griffon for some time, and the lights through the tent’s small netted windows had gone out.
Daring Do looked down at her shirt, and she saw the glow of the stone in her pocket. Or, rather, the weakened and failing glow of the fragments of what it had once contained. Then she found herself entering the tent.
The inside was dark, and Daring had to squint to see.
“Wun?”
She made her way to the back of the tent and pulled away a partition. By this time, her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, and for a moment she looked down at the moving blankets on the floor, not entirely sure what she was seeing. Then she suddenly understood and cried out in surprise and disgust.
Wun and Caballeron both sat up from the bed, the latter letting out a girlish squeal as he grasped the blankets to cover his nakedness. Wun, however, simply let the blankets fall. She did not care in the slightest if anyone saw her genetically perfect body unclothed.
“Wun—how—how could you--”
Wun cocked her head, smiling. “I may be a largely carnivorous mare with absolutly no capacity for empathy, but I still have needs, Daring. And that need, in this context, is snuggles. Look at him, he is adorable.” She levitated Caballeron, who cried out again, trying to cover himself with his hooves—even though, as a pony, he had nothing at all to cover.
“If you like, ” said Wun, her smile growing, “I can pay for a griffon to snuggle you. Or I can pay substantially less for a thestral to do so, if you do not mind the smell. ”
Wun set Caballeron down and stood up. Daring Do shielded her eyes and looked away.
“Daring. We are ponies. We do not generally wear clothing, as we have no external anatomy in need of covering.”
Daring stared at Caballeron, not sure why she wanted to cry, and he averted his eyes.
“And HIM--”
“There is something appealing to being held by a big, strong earthie-boy. They are so sturdy, and yet so utterly helpless. Born dying while I am eternal. And he did save my life, which endears me to him. She smiled even wider. “And if you had wanted him, you should have taken your chance.” Wun cast a ball of light that quickly popped from her horn and floated to a glass lantern in the center of the tent. She, in all her mossy-green glory, then passed to a small stand and poured some water from a pitcher. “And as prudish as you are about two ponies aggressively hugging, I cannot imagine you came to join as a third, which is unfortunate. Why are you here, Daring?”
“And why you don’t ever seem to knock?” snapped Caballeron. He was not reaching for his clothing at all, just holding blankets against himself. Clearly he was expecting more cuddling once Daring left. And perhaps a pay increase for doing so.
“I talked to Seht.”
“Did you,” said Wun, sipping her water, seeming mildly amused. “Did you convince her to become male so I can finally be held by pony who is not my genetic inferior and has at least some basic knowledge of how to properly stroke a mane sensually?”
Caballeron turned away, weathering the insult for the sake of his pay. It was a situation that Wun seemed to take endless amusement in.
“This,” said Daring, holding up the necklace. “She told me that this...that the revenite...this was a phylactery. That these were...were their souls...”
Even Caballeron grew pale. Wun, though, set down her water and crossed the room, lowering her head to stare at the necklace. Then her eyes flitted to Daring Do.
“Of course they are. I had assumed you knew that already.”
Daring Do felt her eyes widen, and wondered if she was somehow dreaming. There was no way the way she felt in that moment could be a possible, reasonable thing that a pony could experience.
“You...you knew?”
“Yes. Obviously. Hence ‘revenite’, from the root ‘revenir’, to return.” She pointed at the cut gem that Daring Do was holding. “And that one is special. It was the first and only specimen, until now, that had been recovered whole.”
Daring Do felt sick. She wanted to turn and run, but instead looked down to what had once been a pony named Sobek, whose bones now lay permanently inert on the floor of crypt where he had gone to sleep expecting to be reunited with his friends and a pony who would surely declare her love for him. “No...no...you didn’t….”
“Myself, no. It was our father’s decision. To attempt to access the information stored within the crystal. The mind, you might say, although that is not truly correct.” Wun smiled softly. “How did you think we knew this pyramid was here, Daring? Did you not question why we came here specifically to find more revenite?”
“I...no...no, that’s not right. There’s no way--”
Wun sighed. “Unfortunately, the process is imperfect. When the gem is occupied, damage occurs to the soul within during the reading process. Or so the mages told us. Although I do not believe a soul can feel pain, because a soul represents a superior thing. Devoid of the limitations of the body, like pain or love. Although of course the extraction is severely traumatic regardless, I suppose. However...” She tapped the gem gently. “When the soul attempted to resist the memory extraction, the gem warped and eventually ruptured. So rather than waste it, I had it carved. I oversaw the carving process personally. To make it into something useful and pretty. It served no purpose otherwise.” She extended her hoof. “I will take it back now.”
Daring Do took a step back. “You knew he was a pony, you knew there was a soul in there—and you did it anyway?”
“Daring—”
“WUN!” Daring herself was crying now, although she was not sure why. She was feeling too many emotions at once. “Answer the question!”
Wun cocked her head, frowning. “I already did. Of course I knew. I even oversaw the cutting. It made such a pretty sound.”
Daring took another step back. “How could you?”
“Daring,” sighed Wun. “What you are experiencing now is simply teenage naivete. An excess of hormones. This is normal behavior at your age, but frowned upon. You are a daughter of House Perr-Synt. Ponies exist to serve us as we see fit. Their bodies, or their souls. You wanted to search for artifacts in the tomb, did you not? To go on an adventure? That stone is what allowed this to happen. And now we have so many valuable things in our possession to take home.”
Daring Do stared at her sister, unable to form words. She looked to Caballeron, but he looked away. He was complacent in it so long as he got paid—but Daring had been worse, and she knew it. She had not done it for the money, and she had not asked any questions. She should have known. She was complacent not out of the thought of gain, but of pure, willful ignorance.
She ran. Running out of the tent, retching the instant her hooves touched the red sand outside as tear ran down her face and into her mouth.
“Daring,” she heard behind her. “Do not go. You are not being rational.”