Before long, the pyramid– and the statue above it– started to loom over us as we drew closer. If the pyramid was close to four hundred hooves tall, then the statue stretched up to five hundred fifty hooves, easily. That meant the entire thing was roughly the size of the biggest pyramid at Giza.
The statue was so…. Sad. Decrepit. Rotten. I had seen it in its true splendor in the vision; the royal was a faded maroon king. Where once swirling lines of gold, silver, and copper flowed around each other like waves across the statue’s surface, only small glittering specks remained. They used to form intricate shapes across the changeling royal, especially around his face. The only way I could have described it was something like ritual face paint, only painted in the finest of metals and encrusted with hundreds of jewels.
There were still hints of the green, especially on the slopes of the pyramid. As we drew closer, I wondered what material the green metal was. It couldn’t be Adamantium, there was simply too much of it. What else was there?
The rubble around us suddenly gave way to a wide open area that surrounded the pyramid complex. What was once the beating heart of an entire civilization now lay dead and cold, an artery that circled an unbeating heart.
In its heyday, it was the central plaza of the Third Hive. If there was commerce, then it would have taken place here. If there were gatherings, rituals, ceremonies, or even recreational activities, this would have been the prime place for them. It was the center of ancient changeling society, quite literally so.
We found it to not be empty. We immediately wished it was.
“Red flag after red flag,” I whispered, trying to understand what I was looking at.
Daring Do was at a loss for words, “That’s… uh… those are changelings, alright. But… what…”
“Hey boss,” One said, “I think we found the bodies.”
Thousands of changeling skeletons circled the pyramid on the open plaza. Some were little more than loosely arranged bones, with the majority of the skeleton missing. Many were completely intact. I even spied more than a fair share of what had to be some sort of elite guard, maybe beyond that of the Royal Guards that Officer Mosquito was part of. They wore crumbling armor, their helmets fashioned like the faces of wolves.
All of the skeletons were facing the pyramid, laying down on what once was their stomachs. They formed five concentric circles, each equally spaced from the next. From the size of the plaza alone, that meant there were thousands of skeletons here.
The group stopped before the skeletons. None of us dared to even cast detection spells; we just simply kept back and talked quietly.
“They were placed here after they died,” I noted. “Underneath those few over there, the material that covers the stone seems to have been violently stripped away, like a fireball hit that spot. However, only some of those skeletons are charred. All over the place, I see skeletons that are missing the majority of their body. They would not have been able to come here by themselves.”
“Somepony moved them?” Daring asked. “Who? Why? Do… do you know anything about this?”
“Sickness of the mind,” I wondered. “Something happened with an Ascension ritual. The former ruler looked… corrupted.” Daring looked at me strangely, “Visions, Daring Do. Visions. The ruler of this place got corrupted by something, and he– it brought the whole place down with it.”
‘I probably shouldn’t tell her this, but if this knowledge stops her from escaping then going around pressing buttons and poking dead bodies, the less problems she can create for me. She needs to understand just how out of her depth she is.’
“Visions? Do you… normally receive visions? Like when you eat dinner, do you suddenly see dead cities or something?”
I glared at her.
“... I’ll take that as a no, then. Well, I have to say, I did not expect a dead temple-city of changelings. Are you some kind of… changeling king?”
“Do I look like a changeling king to you?”
“No? Isn’t that their whole shtick? You know, not looking like themselves?”
I shrugged, “If you say so.”
Something pulled my attention back to the pyramid, “Something’s inside there. What we’re after… and more.”
“How can you tell?” She asked me, also looking at the pyramid.
“... Some things can’t be explained.”
“If you’re not a changeling, then how are you so connected to this place? I just don’t see any other reason. It makes sense that only a changeling could open this place– especially if you’re one of their kings or queens.”
“You think if somepony’s acting strange, then they can only be a changeling? Have you ever even seen any other species other than ponies? There’s a whole world beyond Equestria, Daring Do. Though a pony I may be, I have seen things you wouldn’t believe. Now, I don’t have the patience nor inclination to keep answering your questions. So unless you have something useful to say– like pointing out a trap or strange sound, then be quiet.”
“... What exactly are you looking for?”
Daring Do was certainly puzzled. She wasn’t really afraid of us. Nor angry. Just…. Confused.
“Something particularly shiny. And, if I’m feeling particularly foolish, the answer to the question we’re all asking ourselves.”
I tasted a sliver of fear as it worked its way into Daring’s mind, “What happened here?”
‘I don’t like this. Not one bit. I need to free up resources. I need everyone as focused on our surroundings as possible. I need Daring Do to not do something stupid. Better yet, I need the changelings keeping an eye on her…’
I stepped over to Daring Do and stared her in the eyes, “Daring Do. The last thing I need right now is dead weight that we have to keep an eye on. You seem to be smarter than most ponies, so I’m going to cut you a deal. I cut you loose, and you stay close and don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want you running off and awakening some ancient evil– that’s my job. I don’t want you backstabbing us at the worst time to get an opportunity to escape. I’m going to remove the bindings on your wings. You get a much better chance at surviving if we are attacked, and we don’t have to worry about watching over you. Deal?”
Her eyes flicked to the rope on her wings for just an instant, “... Deal.” Daring Do flexed her wings and the rope binding her fell off her back and flopped to the ground. “Ah, that’s better…. What? Of course I was trying to escape. You think I’m some kind of amateur who waits till the last moment to break free?”
I sighed, “Smarter than most ponies. Still, we have a deal.”
She smiled, “Glad to hear you’re a stallion of your word. Speaking of stallion, we skip ahead to my, or your, inevitable betrayal. If you are a changeling, then I can’t let you leave with magical artifacts. My boss would have my flank if I let that happen! And believe me, they always know. If you aren’t a changeling, then I can’t let you leave with magical artifacts. This is without a doubt the biggest archeological find in the history of… archeology! I can’t allow strange cultists to make off with pieces of ancient magic!”
‘I could just mind control you to force you to allow me to walk away with whatever I want. Better to keep that as plan B, though.’
I sighed, “You really want to do this?”
“No, I really don’t want to be doing this. The whole back and forth monologuing and backstabbing can be added in post, if I decide I want to keep that detail. I’m bringing it up now because that’s an issue that stops this whole temporary alliance thing. I can’t let you leave with artifacts, full stop.”
‘Why does she need monologing in her reports? What– nevermind, that’s not important.’
“You can’t let me leave, because either I’m robbing a cultural site of its important pieces of history…” Daring nodded. “... Or because I’m a changeling, and letting me have these items is aiding the war enemy.” She nodded again. “What if you just don’t tell your bosses?”
“As I said, they find out these things! There’s no way I could get away with it, even if I wanted to.”
“What if… I said I have backing within Division-P myself?”
Daring froze, “Division…. I’d say that’s a load of horseapples.”
“Backing from way high up….”
She shook her head, “Lying to me is pointless. I know you can’t have approval, because if you did, I would know!”
“Unless there are internal disputes within Division-P…”
“What are you talking about?”
I rolled a hoof, “Listen. You’re reporting to Division-P, right? Whether by choice or otherwise, you have to report to them. What if you give your report not to your direct supervisor or handler, but instead to my backer?”
“Shadiness aside, how would that even work? Unless your backer is Princess Daybreaker herself– in which case, we wouldn’t even be having this argument, then there’s no way I would walk away from this with my hide intact– again, if I wanted to let you go. Which I don’t.”
‘Mind control is looking more and more tempting.’
“And if I did have the Princess’s backing?”
“You don’t.”
“I do, actually.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed, “I would have been notified that somepony with clearance higher than mine would be in the area.”
“I don’t exactly work in the open, you know. More of a… contractor.”
“P doesn’t do contractors. They’re not S.M.I.L.E. anymore. So again, you’re clearly lying to me.”
“You’re thinking about this all wrong, Daring Do. After all, there’s more than one hoof involved in the leadership of Division-P.”
Daring blinked, “The director– no, you said a princess. Princess Cadence? Ha! You, you really think I’ll believe that? Princess Cadence has absolutely nothing to do with the day to day runnings of P, much less handle agents.”
I looked around us. Our quiet conversation did not wake the dead, thankfully. There really wasn’t a better place to have this argument, and unless we backtracked a ways, there was no point in moving elsewhere.
‘Arguing politics in a graveyard in a dead city, ain't this just dandy.’
I sighed, “I know. In fact, she is looking to change that. She’s no longer content with being shoved into an office, and she’s taking a more hooves-on approach. That means she’s looking into just what exactly is going on in Division-P. You think pissing off your supervisors is bad? Do you really want to try to go up against a Princess of Equestria?”
Daring scoffed, “The blood cultist is telling me, halfway across Equestria, down in the middle of an underground city, that he actually works for one of the Princesses. You expect me to believe you?”
“I expect you to watch your own back and cover your own flank. You do not want to be on Princess Cadence’s bad side right now.”
“It’s Princess Cadence, she doesn’t have a bad side.”
“She does when she discovers the manufacture and use of bomb collars right under her nose. She does when she learns about torturing prisoners and threatening to kill them. She does when everypony makes a mockery of her and her authority, right in front of her.”
Daring Do blinked, “Bomb collars? Torture? What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about an internal shakedown. Every level of Division-P is being looked at. Every action is under scrutiny. You think the Princess of Love doesn’t have a bad side? What reaction do you think she had when she learned about all this? You think she just shrugged it off? Forgot about it? Asked politely for Division-P to stop? She’s in charge of Division-P, and she’s the Princess of Love. She might not have had a bad side before all of this, but war brings out the worst in ponies. I’ll say it again, you do not want to be on the wrong side of things here.”
Daring thought about that for a moment. She frowned, rubbed the back of her neck, grunted quietly,
“How am I supposed to believe any of this?”
“I don’t have any proof, any identification, if that’s what you're asking. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Trust you…. Fine, let’s pretend you do work for Princess Cadence. Why would you be unsealing a temple in the middle of the jungle using blood magic? Why would you be here, looting a sealed, ancient city?”
“The war’s not over, Daring Do. For it to end, we need everything we can get our hooves on.”
“Why do you think they press-ganged me? Now you’re claiming to be my role!”
“Except I work directly for Princess Cadence. She doesn’t trust the Division anymore. You shouldn’t either.”
“.... No.”
“No?”
“No. I don’t buy it. It’s one lie after another, all hinging on me trusting you. I don’t. I saw what you did to my actual colleagues. You’re not somepony Princess Cadence would hire, let alone trust. You hurt ponies, just because you can. You’re involved with this,” she waved a hoof around, “creepy city and its magic and its death. You almost had me fooled, but I know Princess Cadence would never associate with somepony like you.”
I worked my jaw, suppressing a sneer.
‘So much for the truth. As much of it as I’m willing to say, at least.’
“I can see there’s no convincing you.”
“That’s right, I don’t believe you. Besides, I work alone. Don’t trust you. Don’t trust anypony, really.”
“... Now what?” I growled.
“Now we decide how we want to fight.”
It was my turn to scoff, “How about five on one, with us having ranged attacks on you, and you not even having your pack?”
“I’ve survived worse. Easy odds, I’d say.”
I glared at her, and she glared right back.
‘Wasting my time. All she did was waste my time and make me reveal information. I was so close to getting a potential ally, maybe even one that I could use after Daybreaker is ousted. Now we have to do things the hard way.’
“On my mark,” I commanded through the Weave, “get ready to attack.”
“Smart pony. Too smart for your own good, as it turns out. You’re really overthinking this, and now things are going to get ugly.”
“Is that so, King Ouroboros? I have to say, I don’t think changelings do all that well in the beauty department, so I’d say this was all ugly to begin with.”
‘Time for plan B.’
“Sir?” One whispered.
I bared my teeth, “If that’s really how you want to play this, then this is how we’ll fight. I attack. You lose. I then decide whether or not you die here. Is that what you want?”
“You head honchos all think you’re hot horseapples, you know that? I’ve been kicking flank like yours for decades, buddy. Four unicorns and one earth pony? I can take you all with my eyes closed! But really though, I’m up against five changelings. Considering the E.U.P. has been kicking your flanks all the way out of Equestria and out into some barren desert, I think I can handle five of ya on my own juuuust fine.”
“I’ll be a distraction. You all cast stun spells, be sure to watch your aim and make sure you’re not hitting friendlies.”
“Sir!” One begged.
“Pride comes before the fall, pony. You think–.”
“Sir!” One yelled.
“What is it, One? Kinda in the middle of something here!”
“Look around you, sir!”
I broke away from Daring Do to look at what One was freaking out about. Thirty of the closest skeletons had turned their skulls and were now facing us. Inky black liquid was slowly dripping from their mouths, and some tinted red liquid was pooled into orbs in their eye sockets. We all turned away from Daring Do to face the skeletons, who were now starting to awaken fully. The black liquid oozing from their jaws began to seep backwards, down their spines– if they still possessed them– and into the rest of their skeletal bodies.
“Your Weave, sir,” One whispered harshly. “They started awakening when you spoke over it!”
"... She started it."