The sun beamed down. The sky was bright and clear, pure blue except for the thinness whips of cirrus clouds far to the east. Daring took a breath, savoring the smell of spices and sand.
The official story had already been circulated throuogh the town. There had been a freak storm which had arrived from the south, a kind of sand tornado. It was only by the actions of a heroic merchant and his wife that the town had managed to get to shelter in time, and many ponies had been saved. Stories of black-clad, bat-winged ponies appearing in the southern section of town were easily dismissed and derided as fear-driven hallucinations or tricks of the wind.
The damage to the airstrip had largely been cleared, and new zeppelins had arrived to replace those that had been relegated to highly valuable spare parts. A surprising number bore the sign of Ra, and the ponies below were excited by their presence. Many gathered at the edge to see the ships arriving and docking, just as they had before when Daring Do and Wun had first arrived in the city. Except now, instead of arriving from above, Daring was watching from below.
The Arabian merchant stepped forward to the base of a spire where an equally tall Arabian earth-mare emerged with her entourage. They bowed to each other and spoke, although Daring Do could not hear them due to distance. The merchant pointed at a group of passengers, all swaddled in thick cloth to protect them from the sun. The earth-mare smiled and nodded, guaranteeing them passage. To where, Daring Do did not know.
Others took different paths, spreading outward in every direction. A few, somewhat nearer, stood by a large dark-colored ship. It had been sent far from the north, courtesy of the Field Marshal herself. It was crewed by her elite Nightguard, and many of the smaller, sickly thestral mares stared in blushing awe at the impressive hooded thestral soldiers who smiled to them kindly.
A pair of ponies appeared at Daring's side, both dressed in heavy cloth. One was Honor, his gaze cold and empty, and the other Wisdom, his eyes downcast. He looked utterly broken.
“What will you do?” asked Daring.
“Because of your actions, our home is destroyed,” said Honor. “There is nothing to go back to you.”
“Some will stay,” said Wisdom. “I...I will remain.”
“All alone?”
Wisdom sighed. “There is no place left in the world for me. I know the caves well enough, I don’t think they will be able to drive me away for however long I have left. Honor...”
“There is no reason for me to remain,” he said, coldly. “The old traditions are destroyed. I have nothing left to bind me here.” He pointed at the Nightguard. “I am a soldier. I can be noting else. So I will join them, and preserve what remains of the last thing I retain which is still mine.”
“And the others?”
“Our society is gone. They will scatter to the wind.”
“There are other thestrals out there.”
“I see that, Daring. But our home is gone now.”
“It was gone a long time ago,” sighed Wisdom. “We were just too much of fools to see it. I no longer sleep. I keep wondering if...if she was right...”
Daring Do looked out across the way, where she saw Curiosity running and laughing with some of the younger ballast boys and children of the dockworkers.
“And her?”
“I believed she mentioned sneaking onto an airship. That one, I think." He pointed at one. Daring saw that it was a badly listing banana barge. "The world is open to her now, as it has been for ponies like yourself.” Honor sighed. “I do not know if I should thank you or despise you, Daring Do. You ended our entire culture, but you have freed us as well. Perhaps it is for the better. But this day will always be the saddest of my memory, and I will carry it with me for how long I remain.”
He nodded to her, and then unceremoniously departed, passing other thestrals. Some staring in wonder, others weeping. Daring Do, likewise, felt sad—but she was not sure if there had ever been a possible good outcome.
Wun approached her from behind. She was limping, but elegantly dressed and levitating a potted cactus and parasol. “Daring Do,” she said.
“Wun.”
She pointed up at a luxury liner docking at the nearest spire. “We have tickets aboard that one. It is time to go home.”
Daring looked up at the luxury airship, and then at Wun. “Wun...I’m staying.”
Wun frowned. “Staying, sister?”
Daring Do nodded. “I’m going to stay a little longer. I have a lot of things to think about. And...I think I need to do it alone.”
Wun seemed somewhat shocked, but retained her composure. She nodded. “You have never been alone before, sister.”
“I know. But I think I need to be. At least for a little while.”
“Of course. I shall let father know you will be remaining a bit longer.” She smiled. “Making a choice for yourself. My little sister is growing up, I suppose. When you do return, father and I shall be waiting for you.”
She nodded one more time, and then walked past toward her airship. Daring watched her go, and watched for much longer, even after Honor as Wisdom left.
Much later, she wandered through town and eventually found herself back in the Get Out Inn. The amount Wun had paid had been more then enough for a longer stay.
Daring looked out the window, toward the south. The sky was alight with the earliest glow of a brilliant scarlet sunset, and the air was already starting to grow cool. She could hear the sounds of patrons moving on the lower floors, the gurgle of the small oasis outside, and the silence of the desert out beyond. In the distance, a sha lifted its head from a termite mound and warbled before departing swiftly into the emptiness.
Daring sighed, and lifted a blank book, the failed start of a story scribbled out on the first page. She took a quill in her lips, dipped it in ink, and began to write.
In a particularly luxurious state room abourd a particularly luxurious airship, Wun sat alone and in the near darkness of the room. A potted cactus sat beside her, and she was holding a small glass canister in her grasp, staring into it.
A knock came to the door.
“Enter,” she said.
As the door opened, her magic reached out to each of the lamps in the room, lightning them with blue-green fire. Caballeron, steeling himself, entered the room.
“I trust your new employers are treating you well,” she sighed, leaning back in her chair.
Caballeron smiled. “To an extent, I suppose, although the position is assuredly temporary. Simply to take account of every artifact present so that they might be brought to a containment institution. Being the only archaeologist who had set hoof in the pyramid, I was placed in charge of creating the manifest.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning paperwork, and then I will return to Canterlot to complete my doctorate.”
Wun smiled coldly. “How wonderful.”
Caballeron, likewise, smiled. He produced a small burlap sack and, from it, produced an enormous octahedral crystal. Wun’s magic wrapped around it as she lifted it from him.
“How excellent,” she said, holding the crystal to the dim light. “And they will be none the wiser?”
“All examples of revenite unfortunately looted millennia ago,” said Cablleron, his smile growing. “It is a terribly unfortunate thing.”
Wun smiled over the crystal, and then passed a small box to Caballeron. Caballeron stared at it, almost looking disgusted—until he opened it and saw the rhenium coin inside.
“This...this is...” His smile grew. “Adequate.” He lifted it out, finding the second item in the box. A simple rectangle of paper. He raised an eyebrow. “And what is this?”
“My card. Money is a pointless thing that I have a great deal of. I believe this is the start of a fruitful business relationship.”
Caballeron tucked the card into his shirt pocket. “I will let you know when it is time for the next bid, my dear.”
“Bidding. How impudent.” Wun chuckled. "And do realize that our relationship is purely of a business nature. May your language reflect that. Or you will not be the first earth pony I have...broken."
Caballeron cleared his throat, then eyed the crystal. “There is no soul in it.”
“There does not need to be. Souls are worthless things, very common. It is the crystal that matters.” She leaned forward, holding out the gem. “In fact, it is probable that most of her memories remain, intercalated into the very structure of the stone. Without a soul, there is nothing to warp the gem should they be accessed. The memories contained in this gem could revolutionize Equestrian magic and technology entirely.”
“And you intend to access them, I suppose.”
“No,” laughed Wun. “Of course not! This is the last piece of its kind. I would never risk damaging it. I intend to place it on a special shelf as the centerpiece of my gem wing, where I shall admire it. Such is the purpose of all artifacts.”
She set the stone down on her desk, next to the tiny glass canister. A canister that contained something her sister had collected from Seht’s body before her resurrection, something that she had then assumed was mummy bitumen—but was now a caterpillar-like piece of gray, fuzzy tissue that wriggled around the bottle, curiously looking at the gem beside it.
“The mission was not ideal. But I do not regret it. It was...fruitful.” She smiled broadly, showing her teeth. “The value of what was retrieved is more than enough to compensate.”