Somnambula stared grimly at Anatankha. She knew the sphinx was about to cast a spell to take away her flying, so she slowly closed her wings. Anatankha’s eyes glowed green for a brief second, indicating that she had used her magic, and Somnambula finally decided to act. At just the moment Anatankha began to swipe her paw in Somnambula’s direction, Somnambula pushed off the ground, leaping onto Anatankha’s head. She quickly ran down her back and surfed down her tail, safely away from the sphinx. Anatankha turned around to see Somnambula rush to a nearby sphinx statue that was holding a ceremonial staff with a two-pronged bit at one end and an ankh on the other. She bucked at the statue’s paws and crushed the stone, releasing the staff. She grabbed the staff with her mouth, put it in her hooves and spun it around before making a battle-ready stance. Anatankha began to laugh and then lunged. Somnambula leaped in the air and used the pole to strike the sphinx in the side of her face. Anatankha grunted and swung her wings and tail around at Somnambula. The tail hit Somnambula, but she grabbed a hold of it. As Anatankha swung her tail around furiously, Somnambula held on tightly and let go at just the right moment, heading towards some nearby pillars. Her wings would be no use so she kicked off the pillars and landed safely in the corridor between the walls and the pillars where Anatankha peaked in and gave chase.
Meanwhile, Flurry and Spike had found the rest of their friends and tried finding a way out as the battle raged on
“How in tarnation are we gonna get out of here?!” Applejack asked, frantically.
“The whole place is closed down!” Mrs. Cake yelped.
“I think it’s meant to lock Somnambula in,” Flurry explained. “Obviously Anatankha doesn’t want her to escape, but we have to get out of here.”
“So what are we waiting for then? Let’s help Somnambula beat that stupid sphinx!” Stormy cheered.
“Just hold on a second there, Squirt,” said Rainbow. “I know you’ve got your old mom’s genes and all, but we can’t get too brave with that monster.”
“Jeans? Uh…but Mommy, if we don’t do something, they’ll hurt her!”
“He’s right, we’ve got to help out somehow!” Flurry added.
“Maybe we should just go get help,” Pound suggested.
Suddenly a pillar was knocked over by Anatankha and began falling towards everyone. They scattered just in time and the pillar broke open the door.
“Well, there’s our ticket out of here!” Chip said as they all rushed out past the pillar and into the previous room.
“SOMNAMBULA!!” shouted Flurry.
Somnambula stopped what she was doing and looked to see that the way had been opened for her to escape. She was luckily closer to the entrance than Anatankha so she took her chance, leaving the sphinx behind. Anatankha ran after Somnambula, but failed to catch her before she went out past the door. She could not squeeze out of the door with the pillar in the way and Somnambula had just narrowly escaped her paw stretching through. Anatankha retracted her paw and then roared.
“SOMNAMBULAAAAAAA!!! I WILL FIND YOU!!!”
“We did it! We’ve got everybody, now let’s get out of here!” shouted Rainbow Dash as Somnambula caught up with them.
Anatankha’s roar echoed throughout the entire temple, causing rocks and dust to fall from the ceiling. Some torches began to light and the sounds of gears and large ancient machinery began to sound. The walls with the hieroglyphics started to move down to reveal small holes inside. They made their way to a bridge, but it started splitting apart. Before anyone with wings could fly across, their wings all closed up and the ones in the air plummeted to the ground. Rainbow Dash tried to open her wings to fly across, but all of their wings were closed.
“What the?! My wings! Rainbow said, catching Stormy as he fell.
“She’s used her spell to cancel out all of our flying!” Flurry cried.
“Well now what?! We can’t get across that bridge!” Mrs. Cake said as both ends of the bridge had already finished splitting and there was nothing but a pool of deep, dark water.
“We need to find another route,” said Somnambula. “Look, there is a passage up there!”
She pointed to a nearby set of stairs leading to a small doorway off to the side. They rushed up the stairs just as they heard the sounds of rocks tumbling and large footsteps. Anatankha had just made it in and saw them escape through the door. She slowly walked over to the door and began to laugh.
“You can run, but you cannot hide, Somnambula! This temple is under my control and I will find you!” she warned as she put her eye right in front of the door.
As they rushed through a corridor, they noticed holes in the walls. The walls began shooting small green blobs of a sticky material. Thankfully everyone was running quick enough that the blobs didn’t hit them in time, but Spike got one stuck to his foot and was unable to move. He tried pulling with all his might, but it did no good, so he blew fire at the blob until it melted away and his foot was free. He rushed forward to catch up to the others under a door that was starting to close. Spike dove just in time before the door hit the ground. Unfortunately Stormy’s hat had fallen off in all the commotion and was crushed under the door.
“My…my Somnambula hat…” he said with tears in his eyes.
The sound of Anatankha roaring shook the whole room and the floor began to move. They were all standing on a large tile that was moving upwards towards an opening in the ceiling.
“Well this would be a lot easier if we could just fly!” Pound complained.
“As soon as we get in there, follow me. I think Anatankha is waiting for us up there,” warned Somnambula.
The tile slowly moved up into the opening. A few moments later, they were in a higher level where it was completely dark. Spike blew his fire up in the air to light the room. There was a deep ditch carved in the floor before them, so they turned around, only to find Anatankha before them.
“THERE YOU ARE!”
The torches began to light and metal bars grew out of the ground in a circle around them. There was no lid to the cage, but no one could escape without the ability to fly. Before they could figure out how to escape, Anatankha had already reached in and pulled Somnambula out. She held her firmly in her paw, not enough to hurt her, but enough to keep her from escaping.
