Richmond almost tripped over himself as he galloped down the road. His heart was racing, his breath almost matching his pulse in rapidity. The Moon Pearl jumped around in his pocket with every step he took. If he had not been running, his heart would still be pounding in his chest out of fear. The creature had scared him even more than the first time. The sounds of the mobsters screaming in pain and fear still rang in his ears. Every sound Richmond heard made his heart skip a beat.

Suddenly, he heard a sound that almost made his heart stop. Looking up, Richmond saw a shadow flying towards him. He screamed ad something solid collided with him and sent him rolling to the ground, the Moon Pearl rolling out of his pocket. He covered his head with his forelegs and began begging for mercy. Surely the creature would finish him. But the shadow simply walked past him as he begged and it scooped up the glimmering pearl in a handkerchief.

“Richmond.” The shadow shook its head. “Quit your whining, it's hardly dignified. But I guess it suits you.”

“Professor Do?” Richmond raised his head out of his forelegs.

“The one and only.” Daring replied, tipping her had and starting down the road again.

“What are you going to do?” Richmond called after her, starting to get up off the ground.

“I'm going to put an end to what I started.” Daring growled, slipping the pearl into her pith helmet. She turned back for a moment to look at Richmond. “And then I'm coming back to kick your ass.”

Richmond fell silent and watched as Daring Do walked away. She didn't have time to deal with Richmond, she needed to get back to the tomb. The cool Egyptian night wind blew through her mane as she heard the creature shriek in the distance. As a sense of urgency filled Daring's mind, she started running. Adrenaline started fuelling her movements, her heart racing faster than Richmond's had been a moment before.

By the time Daring Do reached the tomb, her muscles were screaming. In the last few days, she had had to run to and from the tomb too many times. By the time she made her latest trip, her legs were still aching. But she had to keep going. She sweated and swore, her legs almost giving out as she descended the stairs into the familiar stone tomb. On the way from the town, the desert wind had picked up, as if the elements knew what events were to transpire that night. Sand had blown through Daring's mane and gotten into her pockets. Her eyes stung with sand and wind as she took off her pith helmet and poured sand from it.

Daring had no time to waste and hurriedly made her way into the burial chamber. It was just as she had left it, the lids of the sarcophagus strewn across the floor. Before anything else, Daring tested the weight of the outermost golden lid.

“Damn!” Daring groaned, attempting to lift the heavy metal. “It's too heavy!”

She tested the other two lids. With some work, she was able to lift the second lid enough that she could lever it on to the top. The wooden lid was the easiest to lift, though it was still heavy. Daring started to think about how she could seal away the Lunar Pharaoh if she could only lift two of the lids. Then she remembered the inscriptions on those two lids. The wooden lid kept the creature's soul bound to the earth, and the second lid kept the creature's magic at bay. So after those two lids were placed on top, the lid holding the body bound to the earth could wait until Daring could get help.

The sand-coloured Pegasus decided that it was the time to act, and took a deep breath. She removed the two gems from her pocket and pith helmet, holding them aloft. Softly, she unwrapped the Moon Pearl and gripped it tightly in her hoof.

A strong wind blew down the tunnel of the tomb and the creature materialized before her. It recognized Daring and the two gems she held immediately and started towards her. Before Daring could bring the two treasures together, she was tackled to the hard floor of the tomb and stared up into the empty eye sockets of the Lunar Pharaoh.

It screamed into her face and in doing so blew sand into Daring's eyes. Daring fought to bring the Moon Pearl together with the Disc of Ra, but the creature had her pinned to the floor. Daring pushed with all of her might to get free. The Mummy let out a sound like gravel scraping against stone coming from the creature's throat. It was laughter. The Mummy was laughing at her feeble attempts to escape. It brought a hoof down hard on Daring's right foreleg, causing her to cry out and drop the Moon Pearl, sending it rolling across the floor.

The creature stood up and used it's magic to raise Daring up to eye level. It laughed something in Egyptian before levitating the Moon Pearl teasingly in front of Daring's nose. Daring had one chance to save herself. She looked down at the Disc of Ra and said a silent prayer before throwing it at the beast.

It connected with the Mummy's face, causing it to emit an earsplitting shriek and drop Daring as well as the pearl. Daring dashed to grab the two artifacts, barely managing to get them before the creature regained some composure. She slammed the two gems into each other, filling the burial chamber with light and making the creature shriek even louder than before. Daring used the two artifacts almost like a lion tamer to move the Mummy around the room on her terms.

She manoeuvred the creature against the sarcophagi, turned around, and used her hind legs to kick the Mummy into the wooden box. To keep it from moving, Daring quickly reconnected the two artifacts in her hooves. She held them in place for a long while before making her move to grab the wooden lid of the coffin. Slamming it shut, she heard the creature begin to shake and thrash about in an attempt to escape. Daring put all of her weight against the lid to hold it in place. She realized then that she was hopelessly stuck. The creature would not stop moving to let her get the second lid, let alone wait for her to wedge it back on top.

Daring almost wept out of anger and desperation as she realized how hopeless her situation was. She looked rapidly around the room, hoping to find something that could hold this lid down for her. She found nothing that would be heavy enough. Praying to anyone who would listen, Daring begged the universe for help.

Suddenly, Daring felt another pair of hooves slap down on the lid of the coffin. She raised her head to see a glowing apparition of a Unicorn stallion wearing a golden headpiece and an Egyptian royal beard helping her. Then another pair of glowing hooves came down next to the first pair, and the spirit of a similarly dressed Unicorn stallion now stood to hold the coffin lid down.

Out of sheer surprise, Daring fell back to the floor. As she looked around the burial chamber, the ghosts of nearly a dozen Unicorn stallions all dressed the same, yet slightly different were scattered about. As the initial two held down the wooden lid, the rest worked together to lift the second lid to the stacked sarcophagi. The lid came down slowly as one of the spirits recited incantations. Shrieks of the creature could be heard as the apparitions moved on to the final lid of the sarcophagus.

Daring Do did not move. She did not speak. She hardly breathed. All she did was stare in awe as the spirits worked to put away the Lunar Pharaoh. They moved like dancing, articulated and accurate. Their actions were deliberate, but almost in slow motion, as if they were underwater.

As the final lid came down on the Lunar Pharaoh, the screeching ceased, and the room went silent. Daring dropped the Disc of Ra and the Lunar Pearl to the floor. As the disc clinked against the rock, the spirits of the pharaohs all turned to look at her. One of them walked over to her, though the steps it took did not match the leg movements. Daring continued to stare as the ghost picked up the Disc of Ra and the Lunar Pearl. It held out the disc for Daring to take, which she did. As soon as it was in her hoof, the ghost seemed to forget that she was even there and drifted over to the jar next to the sarcophagi.

Dropping the Lunar Pearl back into its original resting place, the pharaohs, like candles, all slipped back into the dark nothingness they had emerged from. Daring Do was once again alone in the tomb she had been searching for for years. All she had left from the encounter was the Disc of Ra. She hoped to have a moment to rest, but after only a few moments of rest, the entire tomb began to shake. The walls creaked and cracked. Sand began to sift through the cracks and into the burial chamber. Without thinking, Daring Do galloped out of the tomb and back out into the desert. Turning back, she swore she saw one of the apparitions in the entrance to the tomb as it collapsed and filled with sand.

Daring wiped her face as her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight.

“Sunlight?” Daring looked up and almost blinded herself as she looked straight into the burning sphere in the sky.

Her heart danced as she cheered. She must have looked very strange to anyone who could have seen her, if anyone had been there. They would have seen a sand and dust coated Pegasus sitting in the middle of the desert jumping around and cheering for what would seem like no reason. But no one was there, and no one could see, and it made no difference to Daring Do if anyone could see her or not. She had just been through the impossible, and no one would ever know. Even if they had known, they would not have believed. They would have been as sceptical if not more so than Daring had just a few days before.

But now, the tomb had been reclaimed by the very desert it had called home. The tomb and its contents were buried deep beneath the wrath of the Egyptian sands. The Lunar Pharaoh and its curse were now just as they were before Richmond and Daring had disturbed the eternal rest of the queen of Egypt. They were simple stories once more, and Daring hoped that they would never be any more than stories for the rest of time.

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust.

Author's Note

And thus ends the adventure, however there is still the Epilogue to come. Thank you for your support and continued reading.
-Cog out.