Unsure about where to go, Twilight decided that the best course of action was to explore the tremendous city and get her bearings. If she could find some taverns she might be able to ask the barkeep for information on this 'source' Silvery spoke of, but how would she broach the subject? Walking would help clear her mind. The city was more packed than those of Canterlot, and the ground somehow felt even harder despite being made of sand. The years of walking had compressed everything into its own stone-like material that intrigued the mare, but, again, she had a more important mission to focus on.
As Twilight and Spike continued through the streets, they often came upon a large opening in the street that led to what the unicorn assumed to be a temple sitting on an elevated piece of land. The architecture seemed to change with each and every one she spotted. One resembled the usual geometrical design of the city with the same bizarre haze as the one on the immense palace that made it look like it was underwater. Another showed creatures that seemed like a mix between ponies and griffins standing next to a pony with a fish tail as two statues standing over the large, bridge-shaped entryway with their forelegs outstretched over it. The temple was made tall and thin and resembled a fort at some angles, but other than the statues, Twilight didn't notice any significant ways for it to stand out. She just wished she knew what the statues represented.
More often than not, however, were the Saddle Arabians coming out of these temples grabbing something and mumbling under their breath the moment they spotted Spike accompanying the unicorn. Twilight thought they were abhorred by her precious assistant but quickly realized that these same equines were smiling or marveling at the dragon. Confused, she didn't want to look any further into their state of mind, worrying that this might become the same thing as in Canterlot, but inverted. There were many differences between being chased to be killed and being chased to be smothered. Worse still, she wasn't sure what would happen to Spike. The unicorn worried that they would take him from her and he wouldn't be able to find his way back.
"Miss!" a voice called out.
"Here it goes. They're going to do something bad, like the ponies."
"What is it?" Twilight asked as neutrally as she could manage.
The voice came from a young child that almost reached Twilight's full height. His body was completely black save for a tan spot over his right eye and his entire right flank. Standing behind him were his mother and father, but draped in so much colorful apparel Twilight couldn't figure out what they really looked like.
"Are you a servant of a death deity?"
Twilight slowly blinked, trying to register what she had just been asked. "What?"
"A death deity! You know! It bestowed to you one of its servants," The child continued with amazement. He passed by Twilight, marveling at the undead dragon that paid him no heed. "It gave you a dragon! That's awesome!"
"You must excuse my child," the mother apologized. "He wishes to become a servant of our God of the Dead, and seeing somepony accompanied by one is more than uplifting for him, I should say."
"W-wait, you all think I--"
The father stepped in and bowed his head. "Not everypony fears or despises the necromancers, but as with every gift, some become greedy." He looked up at Twilight, his eyes scornful. "But those that do tend to suffer the wrath of our god's followers."
The mare immediately jumped in front of Spike and raised a shield with her magic. "You aren't hurting Spike! I didn't come all the way here just for him to be taken away from me!"
Both adult Saddle Arabians looked at Twilight, completely baffled while the foal hurried back to them.
"But...it is your servant, is it not?" the mother asked.
"You named it?" the father added.
Twilight looked up at Spike staring at her and nodded. "Of course I named him, and he isn't my 'servant'. He's my assistant, thank you very much," Twilight said matter-of-factly.
The adults looked at each other, their eyes glowing with awe.
"Such a joyous occasion, to see one not corrupted by their own greed!" the mother celebrated.
The father approached Twilight and bowed once again. "You have come here from far away, I suppose?" he asked. "Do you have a place to stay?"
Twilight smiled sheepishly and raised her hooves. "N-no. That's okay. I still have much exploring to do."
"Of course. Is there anything we can do to help you, then?" the mother asked.
"Uh...I guess?" Twilight fiddled with some sand on the ground. "Somepony is supposed to meet me in the city, but I don't know who or where."
"Hmmm. Well, if you continue walking through the city, your 'assistant' should draw enough attention that whomever is looking for you will likely spot you personally or through an intermediary," the father explained. He smiled, as did his wife. "Thank you very much for inspiring our child, even if you did not do it on purpose."
Twilight smiled nervously and waved the family goodbye. It was the most uncomfortable and awkward moment she felt since the Crystal Empire. What exactly was their god of death, anyways? Equestrians had their own beliefs, sure, but they weren't as pronounced as what she saw here, and with the cultural mishmash she was certain that meant that other beliefs were here as well. Did everything combine into something new and these were the dregs? Or were they something new entirely? How did it work? Clearly not everypony here felt the same as some Saddle Arabians still looked at Twilight with disgust, but even then she still had more and more questions. Did they hate her because she was a necromancer or because of Spike? Did they hate her because she was Equestrian? Was there another reason entirely? Several?!
She shook her head, chasing some errant sand off. Twilight knew absolutely nothing about this place and it was causing her to come up with wild and fantastical ideas that were nothing short of paranoia and curiosity. A paradox if she ever thought so herself.
As Twilight continued moving through the streets, passing beggars and wagons, her head started to hurt. The words of the stallion kept echoing in her head, the unicorn felt like her head was collapsing in on itself and stumbled against a wall as her breaths cut short in her own throat. The world darkened as she looked upon an old, seemingly abandoned temple in the middle of a large plaza. It was completely made of gray-black stone and its ceiling and windows had all broken and collapsed. The only thing still standing was the statue of some sort of corpulent, bloated, bipedal giant with one disheveled arm contrasted by its other, massive and muscular limb that reached the floor with a mace in hand. Its body seemed to be twisted painfully as its torso almost snapped into a forty-degree angle towards its massive arm.
From the ground rose a black miasma that also contaminated the air and darkened the sky, and Twilight bore witness to two diamond-shaped lights coming from the statue's featureless head, staring down at her. Everything had become silent and she seemingly became the only thing left in the whole city as the buildings and ground around her started to crumble.
Words kept echoing in Twilight's ears as the lights came closer and closer, making it harder and harder to breathe or even move. "Succumb to greed and feel its wrath. Succumb to greed and feel its despair. Succumb to greed and join its flock."
The words repeated over and over as the lights grew closer and closer and everything around seemed to collapse and crumble around her. As the words became deafening and the lights had almost engulfed Twilight, her medallion started vibrating, and familiar rectangles emerged from it to stand in front of the lights. The oddities seemed to simply 'stare' at one another, if that was the right term Twilight could use. Whatever she was seeing was clearly but a mere fraction that her perceptions could even fathom.
She wasn't sure why, but the mare believed the entities were fighting, and it was harming her very soul. Did the rectangle creature lay claim to her in the city? Was it just tagging along because she amused it? Whatever it wanted was beyond her comprehension.
"Hey!" a voice called out.
Twilight was suddenly shocked awake, staring at the weird purple eyes of a yakilak. "What? What happened?!"
"You slumped against this wall and looked like you were having some sort of attack," the water creature explained.
The mare looked around to see that a small crowd had gathered, some displaying worry while others were just curious about Spike.
Grunting in pain and doing her best to stand up straight, Twilight rubbed her head and looked forward toward the strange temple. "What is that place?" she asked.
"The temple? It's a homage to a death god." Twilight shook her head again. It was throbbing. "Here. Let me hydrate you."
Not in a position to argue, Twilight felt a steady stream of cool water enter her mouth and somehow revitalize her whole body. "Thank you," the mare gasped.
"Looks like you were badly dehydrated." The yakilak looked in the direction of the port and grumbled. "You should have been given water to help you slowly rehydrate when you arrived." Her body sparked and steamed briefly. "I think I know who neglected their duties, the idiot."
"It was a hallucination?" Twilight mumbled to herself.
"What?"
"N-nothing."
Dehydration couldn't have happened that fast, Twilight thought to herself.
"It was that family that did this to you," a voice told Twilight. "They wanted to kill you and offer you up to their deity! Don't trust them."
"How did I get dehydrated so fast?" Twilight wondered groggily.
"Saddle Arabia does that to ponies like you who are neither dressed for the occasion nor used to the heat," the yakilak explained. "Your body goes crazy and tries to cool itself off faster than usual. You don't notice it much because of your fur, but you've been sweating a lot. I can tell." The creature grabbed two small, ceramic pots with wax lids and passed them to Twilight. "Here. Use these whenever you get thirsty. It's not normal water, so don't drink it all. It'll help your body adapt quicker to desert life."
Twilight looked at the pots with apprehension. "Are they going to prevent me from living anywhere else?" she asked.
The question was met with surprise. "What? Why would they do that? We give them to the merchants that come by. If we prevented them from going anywhere else then this city wouldn't last very long now, would it?" it asked with a laugh.
"Mmm..." The unicorn took a deep breath and tried to relax herself despite the heat. "Why is...Why is that old temple like? Is it supposed to be abandoned?" she needed to get her mind off the fatigue and pain she was feeling.
"It's not abandoned, at least not in the classical sense," the entity said with a shrug. When Twilight gave it a side-eye and groaned, the yakilak sighed and shook its body. "It's their way of giving homage to an old death god that some Saddle Arabians still praise. I don't really know how they work, but they like these temples to look disheveled and collapsed like that as a way to represent the inevitable end." The creature's body sputtered on the floor. "It's very morose a concept, but they adore the idea since their deaths are in its hooves, or claws, or hands. Whatever it's supposed to be. You know how it is: Most things that represent death tend to be either exaggeratedly evil or exaggeratedly good."
"I see," Twilight mumbled. She paused for a moment, taking the statue in. "So that giant thing is their god?" Twilight asked.
The yakilak shook its body again. "No no. Just one of its supposed guardians. The...The 'Tomb Guardian', I think it's called.," it explained hesitantly. "One of the 'big' things. I think there's a dragon, or at least something that looks like a dragon, that's also one of the big things, whatever they're called." Its body wobbled as it retook the shape of an equine. "Just keep that undead with you and you should be fine." It tapped the ground, the bottom of its 'hooves' turning to ice briefly. "There's water canals throughout the ground. If you still feel thirsty you can always get a drink from there, and don't worry about the quality. Everything is controlled extensively." Its body stretched out and it poked Twilight in the chest several times. "Just don't try to throw anything in or pollute it and all will be fine."
Twilight nodded and waved the creature goodbye when it left. The image of the lights approaching her and the words it spoke in her head disturbed her. Did she really hallucinate because of extreme dehydration or was she being attacked? Someone watched the mare from beyond a building corner, their body draped in thick cloth and their intentions unknown. The unicorn felt it and looked in their direction but there was nothing. It was a strange sensation that Twilight had, and she only recognized it from a hoofful of moments in her life. What was it?