The sand of the desert whipped around Ephemera and me as the wind blew. It’d been a tough journey through the inhospitable land where it often seemed like the sand and rock would never end, but we had finally reached our destination. A rockface loomed over us, a single carved opening marking where we needed to go. A hooffull of tents sat around the entrance, each flapping aggressively in the wind as ponies sat within for what meager protection they provided.

“Almost there.” Ephemera pulled her scarf away from her face with a relieved sigh as we finally got close enough to the rockface for protection from the sun and wind. Both could be utterly punishing as they incessantly wore you down hour after hour and could be lethal with extended overexposure, so any kind of relief from the elements was quite welcome.

“Just about.” I pulled my protective goggles from my face and grinned at Ephemera. “Now we get to the fun part.”

“Wait wait wait!” Kukri cried. “What’s happening?! You were just in that pyramid in the jungle with everyone but now you’re with Ephemera in the desert? This one’s so confused!”

Daring chuckled and patted Kukri on the back. “Hang in there, kid. It’ll all make sense soon enough, trust me.”

“If you say so.” Kukri sounded less than convinced, but let Daring continue.

Ephemera flashed me a toothy smile. “Or at least the part you’re good at. I look forward to seeing you in action. As nice as your company is, we do have a job to do here.”

“You bet. Hopefully the Transmidian Amulet is here like it’s supposed to be.” While I would have liked to take the time and explore the tomb of Grand Vizier Senet for its own sake, we desperately needed the magical amulet he had created. Many centuries ago he’d used the amulet in a ritual to seal up a nasty demon by the name of Daggoth, but after all this time the wards had seriously weakened. Unless we redid the ritual, it was going to get out again and wreak untold havoc on the world. Thankfully Ephemera had already discovered the location of Senet’s tomb, but she’d been stalled by its traps and defenses. Thus, why I was here.

Shame that there were still all sorts of things that could potentially go wrong with an expedition like this. Someone could have already looted the tomb centuries ago, or we could be in the wrong place entirely—it wouldn’t be the first time either of those things had happened to me. But I wouldn’t let past failures stop me now, and so I stepped up to study the entrance. It was flanked by a pair of dog statues that had been carved out of the rockface itself, next to inscriptions of a long dead language. I read them and found the name I was looking for: Grand Vizier Senet. Bingo.

“I think this is the right place,” I called back to Ephemera.

“Oh trust me, it's the right place. I didn't spend this long searching for it just to turn up empty now.” Ephemera wiped the sweat from her brow. “Mind giving me a drink?”

I offered up my canteen. There wasn’t a ton of water in it, but I could still hear splashing inside. “Sure. Is yours already empty?”

“Nah, just harder to get to.” Ephemera drained it dry, then scowled at the empty canteen as though it had somehow slighted her. “Dammit.” She shifted through her gear until she eventually retrieved a pair of fresh canteens. She passed one with red paint on it to me while keeping the other to herself. “Here, take my backup.”

“You could have just taken a minute to pull out your own fresh canteens.” Still, I was thirsty and I’d need my strength for what I was about to do, so I took a healthy drink before putting it to the side.

Ephemera rolled her eyes. “Let's just focus on getting past the traps. One mistake and...”

“Yeah, yeah, I know how to do this. This isn't my first rodeo.” I took off all the gear I wouldn’t need for this part and placed it by the doorway. My wings stretched out as I worked to limber myself up.

“Mine either.” Ephemera grinned as she watched me stretch. “Don't get all grumpy on me now, DD.”

I grinned up at her as I did some pushups. “I'm the one heading in there, I can be as grumpy as I want.”

“Oh don't worry, I'll be right behind you.” Ephemera took position behind me, keeping her eyes on me all the while.

I finished stretching and stood back up. “Just be careful about not being too close. You never know what you'll find in places like these.” I rolled my neck until it cracked. “I swear, it's like all the pharaohs were all trying to outdo one another with their deathtraps.”

“Everypony needs a hobby.” Ephemera nudged my side. “And if I'm not too close behind I might miss the view.”

I snorted and flicked her with my tail. “Just be careful not to get too distracted. It'd be a shame if you got caught in some boobytrap because your head wasn't in the game.”

Kukri interrupted the story. “Wait, you and Ephemera were hitting on each other?!” My apprentice stuck out her tongue in revulsion. “Why, Do-mare?! Why would you do something so horrible?”

Daring groaned as she rubbed her temple. “Because she was being nice to me and acting interested, ‘acting’ being the keyword there. But yeah, I’d come to like her. She could be a bit prickly sometimes, but she could also do a good job of pretending to like you and I got suckered in. My profession can be pretty lonely at times, and it was nice to have a buddy for once.”

“Feigning interest is a common tool of manipulation,” Puzzle added. “Pretend to be romantically interested in someone and you can get them to say or do all sorts of things.”

“Speaking from experience?” I asked.

Puzzle shrugged. “This one is an information broker. There are worse ways to gather information.”

“Just don’t let the Heartstrings-mare hear that, right?” Kukri grinned and elbowed Puzzle’s leg, causing him to groan in exasperation.

“Don't worry, I know what I'm doing.” Ephemera took a swig of her canteen before following me into the carved stone hallway of the tomb. “Least it's not as hot in here.”

“Heat’s about to be the least of our troubles.” I proceeded slowly, taking in everything around me. The pattern of the stone under my hoof, the feeling of the air, the sound of it moving through the hallway. The brief sound of stone grinding against stone was the only warning I got before the floor suddenly fell out from under me. My wings instinctively flapped to propel me over the new gap, and I rolled as I hit the floor. But my maneuver caused me to hit a trigger tile, and several spears launched at me from the ceiling. I kept rolling, dodging one spear and grabbing another as it flew past me. All in one motion, I rolled to my hooves and swept the spear, deflecting more incoming spears before they could hit me. My wild movements caused me to trigger yet another trap and a guillotine-like blade swept in on my side, its rusted blade threatening to chop me in half. I slammed the butt of the spear against the ground and with the power of my wings pole vaulted over the blade. It sliced through the haft of the spear, causing me to temporarily lose my balance. I tucked and rolled in midair to land on my hooves.

My head snapped back and forth and my ears swiveled as I watched for more dangers to come at me, but none immediately did. “Well that was exciting. You know, I think I recognize the engineer who made these traps. This is just like the tomb of Pharaoh Amenti.”

“Oh yeah?” Ephemera took a few steps back before running and leaping over the gap I’d just found, being careful to land where she wouldn’t trigger the same traps I’d just set off. “What'd you find there?”

I carefully picked my way forward and found additional pressure plates and other trap triggers, and I carefully marked them with some light chalk before continuing. “Not much, unfortunately. The place had already been long looted. Probably by some of the locals or even the guys who made it. That’s happened a lot, sadly—the laborers used to make it usually knew exactly how to get around the traps and guardians for the tomb, so they’d wait until the whole thing was completed to collect their pay, then break in again once the place was sealed up with all its treasure and whoever had just died.”

“That’s one way to collect a commission bonus,” Ephemera commented. “I suspect that may be why some pharaohs took to killing off anyone who helped build their tombs. Dead ponies tell no tales.”

I carefully picked my way over a trigger plate that ran across the whole hallway. “Yeah, a few did. The problem with that is that people wised up to that real quick, and soon no one wanted anything to do with building anyone’s tomb, which was kinda a problem when you wanted to take it all with you to the afterlife. So they started getting clever: building them in remote places that were hard to find, erasing everypony’s minds of anything relating to the tombs with magic, hiring different groups to build different sections of the tombs so no one group knew exactly where all the traps were, and finally placing wards and illusions over the tombs to make them harder to find. That, and undead labor was often an option in Selerika, especially for a spellcaster like Senet. Probably how this place managed to stay hidden for so long. Senet could have done a lot of this himself when you get right down to it.”

“Thus why we’re still finding tombs to this day,” Ephemera said as she continued following me. “Though I hope you at least found something interesting.”

“Oh definitely,” I said. “Pharaoh Pshent IV’s tomb was amazing. We managed to find his sarcophagus and those of his seven wives, plus a ton of artifacts.” I flashed my teeth in a grin as I found an opportunity to tease Ephemera a bit. “Including all the Pharaoh’s removed organs.”

Ephemera’s green eyes flashed, probably in excitement over the big historical find we’d just had. I could hardly blame her. “Oh, if we find anything half that good we're going to have one hay of a party to celebrate.”

“You can count on it.” I stopped in front of a sealed door and carefully examined it for traps, whether mundane or magical. “Though it's hard to say what we'll find in the tomb of a wizard-vizier. He wasn’t a pharaoh, but this guy was supposed to be pretty influential back in his day. Being at the right hoof of three generations of pharaohs will do that, and he was a really good spellcaster to boot.”

“Well, only one way to find out.” She waved vaguely at the door. “Lead the way, DD.”

“Just need to make sure this is safe before I crack it open.” Once I’d done that, I braced myself against the door and slowly pushed it open to the crackle of stone on stone.

There was the hiss of centuries-old air escaping the tomb, and soon we were in a new room. Four ornate sarcophagi sat in each corner of the chamber, along with four pillars decorated with elaborate carvings that dominated the room. On the far wall was a sealed door that blocked our way.

I carefully made my way inside, taking in every detail around me. “Hm, I wonder what this room is for?”

With a haste that made me cringe, Ephemera walked up to the door and tried to open it, though it didn’t budge an inch. “Looks like it's blocked. Think it's some kind of puzzle thing?”

“That’s what I’m starting to think.” My attention turned to the pillars. They were divided into layers, each of which had archaic symbols for different elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit. Or was that death? Aether? Metal was also a favorite. The fifth one was always different depending on the culture, and that was when they only restricted themselves to five elements. The zebras had twelve of them.

“I can get some of the workers in here with hammers to knock the door down.” Ephemera arched an eyebrow. “But I'm betting you don't wanna do it that way?”

I shook my head. “No way! Look at the engravings on those doors. They're priceless.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Ephemera let out a long sigh and leaned against the wall as she pulled out her canteen. “I'm sure you can crack this puzzle anyway. Show me what you got, hot stuff.”

“Can do.” I shook my hips as I returned to studying the pillars for any discernible patterns. I needed to get this right, otherwise I’d probably end up setting off yet another lethal trap. Perhaps sand would fill the chamber, or I’d be dropped into a pit of scorpions or snakes, or I could get the best of both worlds and be dropped into a spiked pit full of snakes and scorpions while the room slowly crushed us. Trapmakers and their patrons could be devious bastards like that.

After a few minutes of studying, I thought I had it. “Hm, looks like the sections of this pillar can be moved. I'm detecting an old elements pattern here. I think what I need to do is turn each element in relation to which elements beat them, and...” I proceeded to do so with each pillar until they were almost all correct.

Ephemera came up alongside me as I nearly finished. “Right, right. It'd go like this.” She pushed the last piece into place, and then there was the rumble of stone as the door slowly opened. She gave me a sultry smirk and hip bumped me. “Just like that.”

“Good eye.” I hip bumped her back. “Even if I did most of the work.”

Ephemera huffed in an exaggerated manner. “I just about had it when you solved it. Besides, you're the trap expert, I'm the brains.”

I scoffed at that suggestion. “I’m pretty sure my degree suggests I’ve got a pretty good percentage of the brains in this operation. Now if you want to talk about who has the looks in our little party I’d say—” Just then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye as the lid to one of the sarcophagi started to open. “Look out!”

I pushed Ephemera behind me, but then realized that wasn’t such a great move as the other sarcophagi also started opening. From within their confines a pair of withered old skeletons in ancient decayed armor emerged. The one in front of me hefted its rusty tipped spear as it focused on me with green pinpricks of light within its eye sockets. It spoke, its voice sounding like old cracking papyrus. “Why do you disturb our sleep?”

Ephemera rolled her eyes and pulled out a couple of hidden knives. “Because we want to steal all your master's treasure and sell it on the black market.”

The skeleton hissed and stepped towards us, his spear now raised to strike. “Intruders.”

Now she’d done it. I glowered and positioned my legs in a defensive stance. “Not exactly diplomatic, Ephy!”

“Like they weren't going to kill us regardless!” Ephemera raised her knives as the skeleton from behind us approached. “Way I see it, I’m just saving us time.”

“Doesn't mean you should provoked them!” Admittedly, she might have a point. It was hard to imagine that the skeletal guardians would have let us take their long-dead master’s amulet, but we wouldn’t have known unless we asked. After all, Senet had sealed away Daggoth to start with, and they might have allowed us to do so again. Shame Ephy had thoroughly burned that bridge.

That point was emphasized when the skeleton in front of me jabbed his spear at my face with amazing speed for something that hadn’t been alive in many centuries. I ducked my head to the side and dived in, hoping to get inside the skeleton’s guard before it could stab again. But with the cool efficiency of a warrior that trained for years on the practice field, he snapped the butt of the spear up at my jaw. I threw myself to the side in a roll to get on the skeleton’s flank, but with a precise step back it pivoted so that it had its spear back in position. The tip flashed forward time and time again in a series of quick and efficient attacks. It was a struggle to keep myself from being skewered as I gave up ground, buying myself time to gain a measure of my opponent.

I chastised myself for underestimating the skeleton. These weren’t the typical brainless undead monsters your average necromancer magicked up, who tended to slowly stagger towards you to throw clumsy attacks. Instead of seeing them as cheap minions, the magi serving the pharaohs saw their undead warriors as sacred protectors of their land, and they tended to retain a significant measure of their past prowess. That, and they tended to be a lot smarter. That much became clear as I found that the skeleton’s strikes were trying to force me into a corner where I could easily be turned into a shishkebab.

Ephemera had her own trouble. Her knives flashed and met her opponent’s spear repeatedly as the two of them tried to land a blow. Ephemera’s knives moved in a blur, and while they normally wouldn’t match the reach of a spear her telekinesis allowed her to strike at a deceptive range. One of her knives slipped through the skeleton’s defenses and scratched its leg. That was a problem. Those types of knives were intended for stabbing vulnerable parts of unarmored opponents, not an armored enemy that needed to be smashed to really be defeated.

But that wasn’t the whole story. The bone where Ephemera had scratched the skeleton started to rot, blackening and disintegrating into dust until the leg fell off and the rot started working its way up.

“You're already dead. Again,” Ephemera said with a cocky grin. “Or destroyed or whatever. Point is, I’ve already won.”

The skeleton continued to strike at Ephemera, who was content to fight defensively as the rot took hold. Once the skeleton became imbalanced she landed two more blows in quick succession, and the rot became even more pronounced until it fell apart completely.

The skeleton facing me was still very much active, though. Needing to reverse the momentum of the fight, I pretended to lose my footing and balance under that constant assault. Seizing its moment, the skeletal guardian committed to a strike aimed right at my heart. I dodged to the side, barely avoiding the attack, and grabbed the shaft of the spear. Before the skeleton had time to pull its weapon back, my hoof smashed through the shaft, and the ancient wood snapped. Following through with my momentum, I spun and cracked the skeleton on the side of its head, denting its helmet as it stumbled back.

Having bought myself a precious second of breathing room, I took wing and jumped up to hook an arm around one of the pillars. Using my wings to build up speed, I swung around the pillar and let go as I came back around again. The skeleton regained its footing just in time for my rear hooves to smash right into it. It went flying and struck the wall with enough force to break apart.

My head snapped back and forth as I sought more enemies, but none presented themselves. I let out a relieved sigh. “I think we’re safe for now.” I grinned at Ephemera. “That was a nifty trick with the skeleton. How’d you do it?”

Ephemera smirked as she waggled one of her daggers. “Always bring a dagger with some corpsebane when exploring old tombs.”

I checked out the as-of-yet unopened sarcophagi to make sure they were going to stay that way. “That’s some pretty potent stuff. Where in the world did you get something like that?”

Ephemera shrugged. “I killed a master alchemist and stole his notebook. All kinds of useful recipes in there.”

I blinked and stiffened at the offhoof suggestion. “Wait, what?”

“I’m kidding, DD.” She slapped me on the back before approaching the newly opened doorway. “You can buy this type of stuff if you know where to look.”

I tried to recover quickly, not wanting to look foolish. “Oh, right, I knew that. Still, we were pretty lucky. Looks like the magic on these guys was getting pretty thin after centuries of just sitting around. Two of them didn't even rise when they were supposed to.”

“Saves us some trouble then.” Ephemera put away her knives and dusted off her hooves. “C'mon, let's find our treasure.”

“And the amulet, don't forget that,” I said. “It’s why we're here to start with. We need it for the ritual if we're going to stop Daggoth.”

Ephemera waved me off. “Well yeah, that's part of the treasure.” Her hips swayed as she walked into the next room.

“Which you definitely weren’t looking at,” Puzzle teased.

Daring snorted. “Yeah, because I’m sure you’ve never looked at a pretty mare.”

“This one admits nothing.”

Kukri stuck her tongue out. “This one still thinks it’s gross anyone would like the Ephemera-mare.”

We emerged into what could probably be best described as a treasure room. The old grand vizier’s sarcophagus sat prominently in the center of the room, its surface elaborately covered with engravings depicting his various accomplishments in life. Chests sat along the walls, as well as a number of pedestals with a variety of items on display. One of them was an amulet, and my heart raced as I went over to examine it. We were finally here after a long trip, and it was totally worth it. This tomb was everything I could have hoped for and more. I could already see what it would all look like in a museum someday.

“Niiiice,” Ephemera called out, her green eyes flashing. She pulled out her bag and started weaving her way through the pillars as she looked everything over.

After making sure the pillar wasn’t trapped, I double checked the amulet against my memories of what the Transmidian Amulet was supposed to look like. “Great, I think this is it.”

“Yeah?” Her eyes lingered on a golden mask intended to look like the rising sun. “So what do we do with the rest of it?”

I carefully picked up the Transmidian Amulet, taking a moment to truly appreciate its historical value. It’d been used to defeat and seal up Daggoth, as well as a dozen other malicious spirits when Grand Vizier Senet had defended his kingdom from being ravaged by a would-be usurper of the throne. He had been a legend back in his day, and now I was in his tomb about to unlock dozen of secrets from a long ago age. It was so amazing. “Get it to a museum when we get the opportunity. After it's all been carefully studied, first. We want to preserve everything we can, and I don’t want to damage anything if we can prevent it.”

Ephemera let out a soft sigh. “Right.” Her hoof blurred and suddenly a knife shot out at me. Only pure instinct saved me as I threw myself to the side, causing me to drop the amulet. But even with my instincts a flash of pain shot through my shoulder when the knife still skimmed it, and a red line opened up.

All I could do was stare in open-mouth confusion. “What the hay?! What was that about?”

Ephemera sighed as she slowly pulled out another knife. “Sorry sweetie, I was hoping you wouldn't be a problem, but Ephy needs money and the black market just pays so much better than your silly museums.”

I glared at her as my teeth ground together. So everything had been a lie? She hadn’t really wanted to help me, but steal all the treasure here for herself? I felt a stab to my heart that had nothing to do with Ephy’s knives, and I had to fight back against the stinging in my eyes. I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of seeing how much she hurt me. “You backstabbing nag! So what, you plan on taking me out, and then walk out of here?”

“I hardly need to fight you to walk out of here.” Ephemera’s smile took on an evil light. “I’m going to let the poison do that for me.”

My heart sank as I realized then that the shoulder she’d hit had gone completely numb. Knowing I didn’t have any time to waste, I bolted into action and charged Ephemera. Or I tried to. My front right leg refused to even move and I landed right on my face. I tried to stand but I found that my body wasn’t responding to my commands.

Ephemera sighed and kneeled down as she addressed me with sickeningly sweet mockery. “I was hoping I wouldn't need to, but I did slip you the first part of the poison just to be safe.” She picked up the red canteen she’d given me earlier before tossing it to the side. “Now would you please be a dear and stay down already? I’d hate to have to hurt you even more just because you’re being willfully stubborn about all of this.” She picked up her poisoned knife. “Not that we can't have a little bit of fun this way.”

“W-why?” I demanded through clenched jaws.

“Weren't you paying attention, sweetie?” Ephemera started bagging up the artifacts on the pillars as though she were picking up groceries at the market. “Money. Bits. Ducats. I'd say it was nothing personal, but you don't believe that ... and hay, neither do I, really.” She stepped back over to me with an evil smirk. “Oh, look at you and your poor little broken heart. Isn’t that precious?”

I lay there, helpless and unable to stop her. My eyes stung and tears started streaming down my cheeks, probably due to the damned poison. “Y-you t-tricked m-me. You d-didn't c-care about...” I couldn’t say it, not to her, not now. I couldn't believe I hadn’t seen what she was really like, after all this time. She’d just been using me, and I’d been too stupid and lovesick to see what was right in front of my face. In addition to everything being stolen, ponies were going to get hurt because I’d been so stupid. Without the Transmidian Amulet we couldn't seal up Daggoth again, and there’d be consequences for that, bad ones. And it was all my fault.

Ephemera patted my cheek mockingly. “Don't worry, I'll leave you in here with all your precious artifacts. Or at least the ones I don’t care about.”

The backstabbing bitch hummed a happy tune as she opened up the sarcophagus and casually tossed its lid to the side with her magic. “Here, how about you get to know your precious grand vizier?” She dumped the mummy right next to me, Senet’s gross decayed face nearly touching mine, and all I could do was lie there impotently as Ephemera looted the rest of the treasures in the sarcophagus.

Once she was done there she turned to snatching everything off the pedestals. The storied artifacts of Senet’s long service to his kingdom and pharaoh were pilfered and dumped into the magical depths of Ephemera’s bag, all while she hummed some song to herself. She paused when passing back near me. “Oh right, I nearly forgot. I have a couple buyers in Zebrica who'll give me quite a bit for mummy parts. Mummy components are useful for quite a few potions, especially aphrodisiacs, and I know a painter who thinks a bit of ground up mummy gives him such a lovely shade of brown he just can’t get it any other way. Of course, none of them need the body intact, so...” Before I could tell her to stop she brought down a hoof to break off one of Senet’s legs.

“H-hey! Stop!” I growled through now painfully clenched teeth. But she kept right at it and tore the mummy to pieces. A one-of-a-kind historical artifact that was broken forever and would now be used like common components for some zebra’s potions. Despite my paralysis I trembled in rage. I hated seeing historical vandalism like that. More than anything I wanted to preserve historical artifacts for future generations, and Ephemera was grinding the mummy of a historically important figure into powder. What I would have done just then to get my hooves around her neck...

"Is that why you were so mad at the Greenseers?" Kukri asked. “Because they’re destroying all their artifacts?”

"Yeah," Daring answered. "Big shock, nothing sets off an archaeologist more than destroying history."

That done, Ephemera aimed a malevolent smirk my way. She lifted me up with her telekinesis and held me aloft. “Don’t worry, DD, I haven’t forgotten you. I know just how attached you are to these old things so I think I’ll let you get comfy with all this old junk.” She casually tossed me into the sarcophagus and moved into position to close it. “This should do nicely, don’t you think? Maybe when they find you in a few hundred years they'll think you're the original mummy.” She frowned as she tapped her cheek. “Well, probably not. I'm not going to bother extracting your organs or anything to make it look more authentic. I’ve got places to be, black market auctions to arrange, a fortune to spend. I always wanted my own island.”

I tired to move, but my body just wouldn’t cooperate no matter how much I willed it. “W-why are y-you doing this?”

“I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of the bits I'm about to make.” Ephemera started to close the lid before she paused and instead pulled me out of the sarcophagus. “Okay, tell you what, I'll make an exception.”

Ephemera held me up as she pointed to the sand-covered floor. “You see those grains of sand?” She scooped a hoofful of the sand up and let a slow, continual trickle of it fall away. “Imagine each one of those is a pony.” She caught one of the grains of sand and held it in front of my eye. “Now, what would you say if I told you I'd give you one hundred thousand bits to make one of those tiny little grains of sand go away? Just ... vanish.” There was a bright spark as the grain of sand was blasted from existence, the sudden light causing me to wince. “That's a lot of money, isn't it?” Coins from a nearby chest started to glow with Ephemera’s magic and they flew out of the chest and into her bag in a continual stream that mimicked the flow of sand. Her green eyes sparkled as one coin after another filled her bag, and her self-satisfied smile grew. All while the trickling sand barely held any of her attention. “Think about what you could do with it. And really, do you care that much about a single unimportant little grain of sand?” With a puff she blew the remaining sand from her hoof. “Ponies are so much like sand on the wind, blowing around, moving at random, going about their own business, always being everywhere, all the time, irritating. But gold, coins, magical artifacts? Oh yes, I can do many wonderful things with those.”

Was that all anypony was to her? Grains of sand? Did life mean so little to her? Had I always meant so little to her? “You're t-terrible.”

Ephemera scoffed and tossed her mane. “Should've known you wouldn't be able to get with the program. I must be getting soft, trying to recruit you.” She unceremoniously dropped me back into the sarcophagus. “So, any last requests?”

I glared at her as best I could out of the corner of my eyes. “Th-the chance t-to stop you.”

“Aww, you're cute when you're defiant.” Ephemera gave me a patronizing pat on the head. “Well, since you didn't ask for anything realistic, I'll make it up myself.” She leaned in and kissed me, the whole act doing nothing but mocking me after everything that had happened. The only way I wanted to kiss her now was with my hoof colliding with her face.

Once she was done with her fun she dropped me back into the sarcophagus like so much discarded trash. “Ta ta! Have a nice death!” She sealed the sarcophagus, leaving me in darkness.

“What a horrible, terrible, traitorous, backstabbing, horrid bitch!” Kurki cried out with an angry scowl.

“Kukri, language,” I lightly chided my apprentice.

Kukri turned to me with an imploring look. “What? It’s true! The Ephemera-mare is the worst. She’s an evil nag who hurt the Do-mare.”

I couldn’t argue any of those points. If I met Ephemera there was a pretty good chance that meeting would end with her on fire. But there was the issue of propriety, and I wasn’t about to encourage Kukri’s dirty mouth. “Be that as it may, as my apprentice I expect you to not curse.”

Kukri crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled to herself.

“Still, that’s pretty rough to go through,” I told Daring. “No wonder you really hate her.”

Daring’s wings twitched. “Yeah, I got her back later, but having your feelings strung along and then having being backstabbed isn’t something I wanted to go through. Meeting Ephemera was one of the worst things to happen in my life.”

“You shouldn’t feel so bad about being tricked by the Ephemera-mare,” Puzzle said. “She showed several symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, and was probably some form of sociopath. That type of person can very easily lie to you without showing the usual tells of a liar, and are inherently manipulative. Unless you know you're looking for, it can be very easy to be tricked by them.”

That’s how it sounded to me. I’d read up on the topic when one of my history books had suggested that my favorite magus Sunbeam Sparkle had probably been a high functioning sociopath. Listening to this story, Ephemera had checked her way right down the list of antisocial behaviors: No capacity for empathy, refusal to follow any of the rules of civilized society, not capable of having any relationship beyond short-term manipulation, prone to extreme violence at the drop of a hat, and incapable of feeling guilt or remorse for her crimes.

Daring sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know. We’ve already talked about this.” She shook her head. “How about we move past that nasty stuff?”

Kukri pulled on Daring’s leg. “What happened next, Do-mare?”

I didn’t know how long I was trapped in that sarcophagus, paralyzed, helpless, steeped in darkness, as close to being dead without fully having expired yet. Eventually the poison wore off, but that only made things worse. I pushed at the lid, but it refused to move. My hooves slammed into the roof and sides of the sarcophagus as I desperately tried to escape. I hit again, and again, and again, struggling to get out, get back into fresh air and stop being confined as the darkness started pressing down on me, tighter and tighter. I needed out. My heart raced, and I fought against my prison until I had nearly cracked my hooves and my body burned from effort. I wanted out more than anything, but I was trapped, and in the end all I could do was scream. I screamed, and fought, and screamed until my voice grew hoarse and exhaustion took me. It was all for nothing.

I was trapped for what felt like an eternity in an all consuming darkness. Then suddenly the lid to the sarcophagus was lifted. Light jabbed at me, and my swollen eyes stung. Eventually the blur in my eyes cleared to see the smiling face of Capital.

“Wait, what? This one’s confused again,” Kukri said. “This one thought you met the Idea-stallion way after you met Ephemera.”

“That’s right, but just work with me here,” Daring assured her. “It’ll all make sense eventually.”

“Remember how they fell asleep before all of this?” I reminded Kukri.

She blinked a couple of times as she put some of the facts together. “Oh yeah! This one thinks it knows what’s going on now.”

“Ah, Daring, there you are. Jolly Good.” Capital reached a hoof down to help me up. “It’s so good to see you. This place...” Something flashed behind his eyes that made his usually vibrant smile as brittle as thin ice. “Well, let’s not get bogged down in the details. I’m just happy to have found you. Wherever here is.”

Despite myself, I took that hoof and he lifted me out of the sarcophagus. I staggered as I put weight on my legs and I had to brace myself to keep from falling over. Why was Capital here? What was going on? My head felt ... fuzzy. There was a buzzing in my head I couldn’t shake that made concentrating difficult, and my hoof went to my head as a spike of pain shot through my brain.

Capital immediately moved to hold me and keep me upright. “Whoa! Careful there. Are you alright? You look like you’ve had a row of it.”

I felt a stab in my heart as I remembered everything that had happened with Ephemera. Her betrayal, like the betrayal of everyone else that had used me in the past, abused me, lied to me, tricked me. And it was all happening again, wasn’t it? I was falling into the same trap, the same circle of stupid decisions with the trip to Zihlius. Pretty soon we’d make it to something like a big treasure, and then...

“Get away from me!” I pushed Capital away, not wanting the future traitor anywhere near me. The effort nearly caused me to fall back into the sarcophagus, and I stumbled to my knees.

Capital blinked as he stared down at me. “Daring, what’s the matter? Are you hurt? I heard screaming earlier.”

Oh sure, he was playing the nice guy angle. I’d seen that before. Well I wasn’t going to fall for it this time. I looked up to glare at him. “So what's your deal?”

His head tilted slightly, as though the faker didn’t know what I was saying. “‘My deal?’”

“You know what I’m talking about.” I forced myself to my hooves and started stalking towards him. “What do you want out of all of this? Let me guess. You’re looking to make sure I get you to your big score before you stab me in the back too. You’ll probably shove me to the side as soon as I’m not useful to you and let the Dromaed deal with me while you run away with something bright and shiny.”

Capital blinked and took a step back from me as I got closer. “Daring, whatever are you talking about? I would never do something so uncouth. Especially not to a good friend.”

“Suuure we’re friends.” I started walking circles around Capital, and he stiffened as he watched me warily. “You think I haven't been onto you? You think I haven't played out this tired old dance before? You act nice, be all smiles and act all buddy-buddy as we face dangers together, and pretend to care about me and what I’m doing. But the second you get what you want—BAM!” I cracked my hooves together. “I'm disposable! You can't wait to get rid of me, and steal whatever you wanted.”

“I don't know what you're talking about, Daring,” Capital lied, almost convincingly. “All I wanted was to join you for an adventure!”

“That's what they all say.” I jabbed a hoof right into his chest. “That's what Ephemera told me, and she lied! So did all the others. Hay, half of me wouldn't be surprised to find out you're Ephy's big, mysterious patron we've been hearing about. That'd fit, wouldn't it? You work this side of things, fool me, herd me into getting you to your goal, and then wham! She shows up at the big moment, you turn on me, and I'm shoved into some deathtrap once again.”

Capital spoke in a calming tone. “Daring, I don't know what's gotten into you, but that's not the case at all. And you’re really not acting like yourself. Look, something’s wrong here. First we were in Zihlius, then I was back in Canterlot, and now we’re in the desert? Something very strange is going on, don’t you see it?”

The buzzing in my head grew worse and I winced in pain, and that only made me want to punch something all the more. “Don’t dodge the question! You’re working for Ephemera, admit it!”

He shook his head. “Why would I want to work with someone as detestable as Ephemera?”

I scoffed. “Take your pick. Wealth. Fame. Power. I've seen ponies that have wanted all those things and more. You want me to believe that you're the one unambiguously nice guy I've ever met? That you've got no angle? You’ve got secrets, everypony does.”

Capital’s ears dropped. “Okay, fine. I do have an ulterior motive.” He took a deep breath. “I was hoping to go into politics once I have an adventurous reputation. Truth be told, I tried to before, but ... nobody thought I was manly enough.”

My ear twitched as I processed that. “Oh come on! That's supposed to be your big, dark secret?! You? Not manly enough?”

“Yes.” Capital spoke with a slightly irritated voice. “I was somewhat sickly as a child, and many of my peers remember that. That, and I’m a bit too ... bookish for some. More prone to going on long walks through the countryside and cataloging nature than sitting around drinking with the guys.”

“You expect me to buy that?” I shook my head and started pacing around the tomb. The buzzing made my head hurt, and it was so damned hard to think straight. I had to be getting tricked by Capital, right? Everyone else had thought they could pull a fast one on me, why should Capital be any different? He was just too nice, too good of a pony. “Gah! I don't know what to believe!” I clutched my head, the pain getting worse. “I suck with people! I can't trust anyone!”

Capital watched me for a long moment before placing a hoof on my shoulder. “We're all on your side, Daring. Maybe you’ve been mistreated by some in the past, but I won’t do that to you. I’m here for you, right through to the end. I promise.”

My head snapped up to glare at him. “And why should I trust you?”

“Because you know me.” Capital smiled that hopelessly optimistic smile of his. It was frustrating to look at.

My wings slumped. “I'm just so tired of not being able to trust anyone.”

“So trust me.”

“And if you stab me in the back?”

Capital patted me on the back. “I won't.”

There was just something about that damn smile that removed my doubts. I knew I shouldn’t trust him, that I couldn’t afford it, but I so badly wanted to. I just wanted somepony I could depend on, just once. I let out a frustrated scream before I slumped over in defeat. My decision was made, whether I was just being a fool again only time would tell.

I forced myself back on my hooves, briefly swaying before Capital helped balance me. “I guess we better get going then.” My ears perked as I really looked at our surroundings. “Wherever this is.” Now that I was paying attention, everything just felt ... weird. I remembered this place, from back when I’d first met Ephemera. Why hadn’t I seen that before? This place was hundreds of miles away from where we'd been. That wasn’t right. Something was off. The stuff with Ephemera had already happened, I knew that. But it was like I’d just lived through it all again, in all its raw feelings. Like an old wound reopened with all the old agony surging up again.

“That’s what I was confused about as well,” Capital said. “Any idea on where we should go?”

I crossed my arms as I considered what our priorities should be. If we didn’t know where we were, then we had to figure that out. But first there was something else I wanted to do. “Let’s look for the others. Something’s wrong here, and if they’re experiencing what we’ve been going through...”

Capital grimaced and nodded. “Lead the way, Daring.”

Author's Notes:

Thanks to my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie for all their help, and to my pre-readers Brony Writer, wolfstorm56, Trinary, 621Chopsuey, Rodinga, PoisonClaw, and Swiftest for their hard work editing.