The sands burned like hot embers, baked by the blazing Saddle Arabian sun that hung in the cloudless sky like a large, yellow-golden eye.
Daring Do grunted as she threw another spadeful of compressed clay over her shoulder. She had been toiling under the sun since before it had arisen, digging and hauling tons of earth up, and her wings were aching fiercely from the strain.
But she only paused to take a mouthful of cool water that her guide, Hutter, had provided her. She was far too interested in this new site for care about stopping, after all, it wasn’t every day that a pyramid and half a sphynx appeared out of nowhere; Daring wasn’t sure what kind of spell had brought them, but she guessed that she would find out soon enough, she always did.
At the moment she was digging out the sand-filled entrance that led into the pyramid. It was hard labor, the sand and clay having been hardened, probably as a result of whatever magic had brought it here in the first place.
It was also interesting in terms of how large the whole structure was: the few remaining pyramids in Saddle Arabia were at least five storeys shorter, and the entrance that she was unblocking was also far larger than was necessary.
Daring felt a rush of excitement sweep over her at the prospect of the pyramid being of alien build. She had uncovered many ruins of magical build, but she had never uncovered something alien made.
This idea made her work double-time and, after another hour had passed, the last of the compacted clay fell inwards and Daring stepped through the entrance.
To her surprise the room that she found herself in was lit by torches, but that brief shock died away when she remembered that the whole place probably still held some traces of whatever magic had brought it here.
Though, for a second it seemed like the torches were burning silvery-white, but then she blinked and the flames were yellow as the should be.
“Miss. Do, are you alright?!” called Hutter, his deep voice echoing off of the dusty stones.
Daring turned back and called back, “Yeah, I’m fine! C’mon down, Hutter, the air’s actually breathable!”
There was a pause, followed by an annoyed grunt, and then Hutter leaped spryly into the chamber.
“I’m so glad my guide can keep up with me this time.” she thought with a small smile, remembering her past guides and how many times they’d have to be rescued and how much they whined. But Hutter was fast, strong and far more intelligent than she was willing to admit to herself.
“So,” said the stallion in question, shaking the loose sand off his pinfeathers, “what have you found?”
“Not much.” said Daring, her eyes leaving the pegasus and scanning the area, “But did you notice how tall everything is?”
“Yep.” said Hutter, looking around before his eyes settled in on something that interested him, prompting him to walk past her and stride towards something at the center of the chamber, something half-obscured by the shadows cast by a massive pillar.
Daring followed Hutter a ways before she noticed something on one of the pillars.
“Wait a second!” she called, moving closer to the pillar, “Come look at this.”
She heard Hutter heave a long-suffering sigh before he trotted over to her.
“See these hieroglyphics?” she asked, pointing a hoof at the myriad of strange characters that had been etched into the ancient stone, their paints faded and peeling, but still there.
Hutter looked at them and blinked in confusion, “These don’t look like any language that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen most of them.”
Daring felt an excited smile start to form on her lips, “D’you think-”
“It wasn’t aliens, Daring.” said Hutter, dismissively.
Daring huffed and pouted, earning a small smile from the stoic guide.
Hutter reached into the pack that was slung around his side and pulled out a piece of paper and a lump of charcoal. Daring found her attention being drawn back to the shadowed thing at the center of the room and she began to trot towards it, knowing that it would take Hutter a few minutes to get a good rubbing.
When she was close enough to see it properly, she realized that it was a large sarcophagus with golden plating set with shining jewels, bright paint that had barely been touched by time and a carved face at the top.
Most of these details were ones that Daring recognized from her many adventures: the Saddle Arabians, the Kopteks and many other ancient civilizations had crafted sarcophagi not unlike the one that she stood before now, but the death mask was different, wrong in many ways.
For one thing, the eyes were too close together, and far too small to belong to a pony; the snout was also unnatural, being tiny to the point of being almost nonexistent and oddly-shaped, overhanging a thin, small mouth set in a grim line.
Daring felt a cool tendril of unease slither up her spine as she drew nearer: she knew that the old civilizations were wonderful carvers and they made sure to make their dead look as good as they could manage for the Afterlife, so it didn’t make sense for any of them to carve something so hideous unless…
“Unless this pony did something bad, something Really bad.” she thought, looking down into the faded blue eyes of the death mask.
Well, either that or they really were aliens.
“I’m done copying the hieroglyphs.” said Hutter from behind her. Daring instinctively spun around and saw him rolling up his rubbing before sliding it into his pack. Daring cleared her throat and gestured to the sarcophagus, “Shall we get this sucker open, or do you wanna head back?”
“I suppose we should open it.” said Hutter.
Daring smiled, “You’re the best.”
Hutter smirked, “I’m only doing this because I know that you won’t shut up about it if we don’t do it right now.”
Daring stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to the sarcophagus and checking it for traps. When she was satisfied that it was trap-free she nodded to her guide and they both threw their combined weight against the lid.
There was a loud, grating sound as the ornate lid began to slide away. The sound set Daring’s teeth on edge and the sour odor that began emanating from within made her eyes water, but she powered through regardless.
After a full minute of heaving and panting the lid slid off and fell to the stone floor with a loud BANG!!
Hutter flew up to one of the nearby torches and pulled it out of its bracket, then he brought it down and lifted it over the lip of the sarcophagus, allowing it to illuminate what lay inside the stone coffin.
It was a mummy-that much had been expected-but one that was utterly different than the ones that Daring had seen before. It was bipedal, bound in yellowed bandages that had fallen away in areas to reveal dusty patches of gray fur and dried muscle pulled taut over a vaguely familiar-looking skeletal structure.
Daring’s eyes moved up the decayed body, noticing how small it was in comparison to its final resting place and how its body was ever-so-slightly contorted, like it had died in pain; finally she saw the long, pointed ears and short snout.
“A diamond dog?” said Hutter, looking surprised.
“No.” said Daring with a shake of the head, “Its snout it too small and its ears are too big, see?” she gestured at the oddly proportioned extremities, “It looks more like a jackal to me.”
“I diamond jackal? I….don’t think I’ve ever heard of them before.” said Hutter, sounding unsure of himself.
“That’s because there’s no such thing.” said Daring, gazing at the mummy with the same uncertainty. There was something about the shriveled carcass that unnerved her; It wasn’t just that it appeared to be a new species, it was the odd scale of the sepulcher surrounding it and the disturbingly hateful look that was etched onto its desiccated face,
“It feels so...wrong.” she thought as she watched the light from the torch cast shadows in the mummy’s sunken eye sockets, “I think we need to get out of here right now.”
Daring turned to Hutter and voiced her thoughts.
Hutter did a double-take and affixed her with a scrutinous gaze. “You’re joking, right? We can’t just leave now, I need to take more rubbings and-and we need to take stone samples and test for spores and-”
“I don’t care, Hutter!” snapped Daring, “We need to leave, now!”
She felt heat rise in her chest as the shadows around her lengthened.
The torches went out, then flared back to life a silvery-gray color.
A gust of icy wind blew into the chamber from the massive entrance way, its coldness made Daring’s teeth chatter and her skin break out into a field of goosebumps.
Then they heard it, a low humming that gained in volume until it had made itself heard over the moaning wind.
Daring took out her binoculars with shaking wings and held them to her eyes, wanting to see what lay outside the door. Unfortunately, she didn’t need to look far, as her eyes fell upon a dark cloud that was heading for the doorway; a dark cloud that was humming-no...buzzing.
“Locusts.” she said aloud, her eyes widening as the swarm of insects came into her line of sight.
She turned to Hutter, a command to take shelter rising in her throat, a command that died when she saw what Hutter was doing: he was looking down into the sarcophagus, the light from his torch reflecting off of his wide, terrified eyes.
“Hutter? What’s wrong?” asked Daring running over to her partner, who was quaking and trying to form words that wouldn’t come.
She came up to him and placed a hoof on his back. Hutter made a low moaning sound and gestured a wing to the inside of the sarcophagus.
Daring felt the chilly unease inside of her become full-blown dread as she got closer and looked into the dusty sarcophagus.
A pair of silvery eyes stared back at her from a wrinkled, skeletal face.
Daring screamed, and her scream broke through Hutter’s haze of fear and he turned and bolted for the entrance; Daring didn’t have the mind to call out to him, she was transfixed by those silver eyes, which now gleamed with a malice and hunger so strong it made Daring’s eyes tear up.
Then the Mummy began to move. Slowly at first, moving his claws, his pointed ears and his thin arms, bandages tearing and ripping a she did.
Daring moved backwards as the movements continued.
The Mummy sat up, his ancient spine cracking like dry timber and his disused joints popping loudly. He turned his head towards her, slowly, keeping his eyes on her as she continued to move back.
A dry paw wrapped around the lip of the sarcophagus; Daring noticed that one finger bore a ring inset with a black gem.
Then the Mummy spoke, his voice raspy, but also deep and authoritative.
“What fool has awoken me?”
That did it. Daring Do turned and ran as fast as she could, ran out the entrance, ran into the locust-shrouded night, ran from the undead horror that lurked within that dusty tomb.
Ran from the Mummy.