//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Falling Action // Story: Daring Do and the Iron Pyramid // by Unwhole Hole //------------------------------// Cretin looked up. “Is that normal?” Wun, herself barely conscious, looked up through the dust and saw the blackness of the Pyramid overhead—and saw that it was getting bigger. She stood up. “No, it is not! Daring, no!” She started to run, but Honor tackled her. “Get off me, you filthy bat-boy! I will snuggle your family and bite their wings!” Wun struggled, her horn sparking, but she was already weak and badly overexerted. “My sister is in there!” “Ra herself could not stop it from falling, what are you going to do, unicorn?!” “I have to try! Daring! DARING!” Honor held her as the billions of tons of iron descended quickly back toward its original location. “That’s the fourth biggest thing I’ve seen out of the sky!” cried Cretin. “Because I’ve seen Celestia’s rump, and that was the first three! Hold on, comrades, I shall shield you with my softness!” He threw himself over them just as the Pyramid struck. Dust and stone erupted form the impact and the explosion propagated outward. The world was consumed in dust and noise. Wun pushed her way through the dust, limping and barely able to see. “Daring! DARING!” She had gotten close to the Pyramid. It was vast and beautiful, even more so than before, although it had not landed entirely straight. It now sat crooked, partly in the hole it had made when it had launched. Strangely, the top was missing. Where it had gone, Wun had no idea. Something moved in the dust, tumbling down the walls of the Pyramid. Wun held her breath, not sure what she would see. Instead of her sister’s shattered form, though, she was suddenly bowled over by a sphere of cemented changeling goo. “Daring?” Wun sat up. “Honor! Honor, you filthy griffon-snugger, get over here!” Other ponies appeared out of the dust. Wun began to tear at the concretions with her magic, but she was too weak to do any damage. Honor arrived and carefully poked it with his sword. After a few moments, it cracked and then, precipitously, burst. Hundreds of snakes poured out, all crying out for joy and slithering off to wherever it was snakes went when they were not busy. As they cleared, Wun found Daring Do, her eyes wide and her body shivering in horror, her hooves still pressed against the bandoleer belt around her torso that had formerly contained a number of changeling grenades. “S...s...snakes,” she moaned. “Why did it have to be snakes?!” Wun picked up her sister, only to herself collapse. “Wun!” “I am fine, Daring. Just out of magic. It is good to see that you were not smashed. It would be a terrible report to send to father.” “Where is Seht?” demanded Honor. “Gone,” said Daring. “You don’t have to worry about her anymore.” Honor collapsed to his knees in the dust. “Then finally, it is over.” As the dust began to clear, Daring saw other ponies approaching. Dirt-smudged archaeologists, confused griffons, and terrified thestrals. All emerging to see the Pyramid and at the destroyed landscape around it. Daring Do was not sure how to move forward. She felt a desperate need to sleep, but did not want to. Her mind was numb, but she did not want to rest. There was still so much thinking she needed to do. Perhaps an entire lifetime’s worth. For a moment, there was only silence and peace as they all stood together in the shadow of the iron Pyramid. Then, from above, she heard a droning sound--and the clouds and dust were parted by an enormous cloudbreaker. Hundreds of zeppelins followed in its wake, each one bearing Celestia’s insignia. Wun looked up at them and sighed. “Well, buck me in the teeth and all that, I suppose. Now I have to deal with this.” Ponies began to appear from above. Pegasi descended and landed while earth ponies and unicorns rappelled down ropes to the desert floor. All of them were dressed in black business suits, their faces covered with gas masks that obscured their identities. As the Pegasi cleared the dust, one of the group stepped forward, approaching Wun and Daring Do. He was much larger than the others, and not a pony. He was a griffon—although he stood twice the size of a normal one. The feathers of his head were gray-white, and his eyes were covered with reflective aviator glasses. At his side, curiously juxtaposed against his suit, he had a scabbard for a sword almost as long as Daring Do was tall. “One week from retirement, and then this,” he growled, stopping in front of Wun. “How in the name of Celestia’s butter-cream vanilla frosting could ANYPONY cause this much damage this fast?!” Next to him, space suddenly erupted with a plume of blue magic as a unicorn emerged. A white stallion, but not of house Twilight. He was thin, young, and greasy, his black mane brushed back over his high forehead. He was very clearly of House Neighsay—and he was levitating an earth-pony in a blue containment bubble. “See! Exactly where I said it would be!” cried Caballeron. “Excuse me,” said Wun, standing and wobbling her way forward to face the enormous griffon. “You are standing on private property. I must demand, with a maximum of of politeness, that you get your respective filthy selves off my land.” “This land is now property of Celestia.” “Under what authority?!” The griffon shrugged and leaned forward. “Eminent domain.” The unicorn beside him cleared his throat. “The procedure for seizing propery is a subsection of chapter eight of the regulations for the seizure of dangerous artifacts, concerning immobile and durable goods--” “Agent Neighsay, stop talking, I hate your voice. And put on your dang mask. I don’t like your face. You have the ugly. Plus, you’re not immune to disease and poison like I am. Why bother citing procedure if you're not even going to follow the dang protocols?” The griffon sighed and faced Wun. “We were ordered directly by Her Excellency Twilight Velvet of a magical anomaly. The Agency was dispatched immediately to compensate.” He looked up at the listing Pyramid, which shuddered slightly as the sand below it shifted. “And it looks like we got here just in time.” “Yes, he Horses in Black,” said Wun, grimacing. “Or should I say Horsesons in Black? You deal with monsters. And, as you can see, there are no monsters currently present. Only my archaeological dig, that I legally paid for with my own funds. Should not you working on catching a bugbear or somesuch?” Daring Do looked past the griffon. The other agents were already establishing a perimeter and were herding the thestrals into a pen marked with tape, prepping them for decontamination and medical treatment. The griffons, though, were more stubborn. Gruff appeared, clutching his blunderbuss. “Miss Perr-Synt,” he said. “I’m not a fan of any of this either, but as a mercenary, let me just say it, you don’t climb a hill you know you won’t be coming back down from. It’s not worth it.” “It is to me,” said Wun. “I will not surrender my land to a griffon. Especially not a filthy mutant.” The griffon looked over his aviator glasses, revealing two ancient and severely mutated eyes. Not those of a bird, but more like those of a cat. “I have a job to do,” he sighed. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here, but protecting Equestria is our job. I get paid for it, and my work is top quality every time. No exceptions. We’re going to contain this site, whether you like it or not.” Wun bared her teeth, and her horn flickered as she struggled to lift her rifle. “Wun!” hissed Daring Do. “Stop it!” “I will not surrender,” she said. “Not to you. Do you know what a caster does to a griffon? Even one like you? Would you like to see?” The griffon reached for his sword, pulling out the first inch of it and revealing that it was made of solid enchanted silver. At the sound of it, every masked agent stopped and turned to Wun. “If you’re threatening my agents, you’re forcing my talon. I’m faster than you are.” “Yes.” Wun’s smile grew. “I’ve heard it said you can knock an arrow out of the air with that moronic blade. But can you do the same with a bullet?” Wun raised the rifle—but as she did, the space to the left of the griffon began to crackle. Then, with explosive force, it burst open, knocking Wun down and the rifle out of her grasp. A pony dropped out of the teleportation spell, knocking several agents back with the immense force of her arrival. Her massive body dropped to the sand, her size nearly dwarfing the mutated griffon beside her. Her entire body was clad in mechanical armor forged from dark iron, built to an unknown but but distinctly Equestrian pattern. It was heavy and segmented, covering every inch of her skin save for her long, pale horn. Except not all of it was metal. Some parts were made of a darker substance. Daring Do realized to her horror that the unusual substance was in fact changeling chitin. It was spaced out over her, bonded to the heavy armor that covered her body, the empty skulls of changeling exoskeletons staring outward from several points. The immence mare's face was covered in an iron mask, and her pink horn had been sharpened to a deadly point. She turned slowly, the robotics of her armor quietly whirring as she faced Wun and Daring Do. Daring Do looked up at the massive pony and saw a pair of blue eyes through the mask. Eyes that were terrifyingly cold and disturbingly unempty. Wun, herself a tall pony, turned toward this enormous being and seemed small and tiny in comparison. She smiled, though, and then bowed. “Field Marshall,” she said. “I am honored by your presence, Daughter of the Moon. I witness your divinity, and gladly transfer the holdings in question to your possession, and the possession of you alone.” Daring sneered. “That fast?” Wun turned to her sharply, and Daring Saw that her sister was utterly terrified of the alicorn before her. An alicorn who did not even bother to show her wings as her aunt did. “This is the leader of the entire Equestrian military,” said Wun, carefully. “She has done us a great honor by manifesting and allowing me to save face by conducting the transfer to a worthy being. Do not be rude to her, sister.” “Hey you! Fatty!” Cretin pushed Wun out of the way, staring up at the Field Marshall. “Yes you! You with the face!” The agents all recoiled in horror, not at the offense toward the Field Marshall but at the sight of Cretin himself. “A Solarian Elite Guard?” The griffon turned to Wun in horror. “What have you done, you fool?!” “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you?” said Cretin, sitting in the sand and crossing his front hooves. “I’m tired.” His expression fell. “I don’t want to fight the war anymore. Can I please surrender?” Equine Annihilation stared at him, and the very tip of her pink horn ignited. Cretin was toppled over by unbreakable luminescent chains that suddenly bound his body, and every agent available leapt onto him in a pile to administer the necessary beatings per protocol for arrest. She instead turned to Wun, and Wun once again bowed. “If you will excuse me,” said Wun. “I have overexerted myself, and I need to be unconscious now.” She promptly collapsed, and did not get back up. “Right,” sighed the griffon. “Rich looters thinking they can do whatever they want. This is how ponies get hurt.” He sheathed his sword fully and turned over his shoulder. “Right, agents! Let’s get that perimeter up! Neighsay, unbubble that stubbly earthie-boy, we’re going to need him!” Two agents appeared at Daring Do’s side, throwing a blanket over her back and leading her to the holding space. She barely made it two steps before her shaking legs collapsed from beneath her. “Miss?” Daring trembled for a moment, totally depleated of energy. But she looked up at them and smiled. “It’s okay. I think it’s going to be okay.”