Author's Note

Okay, two things. Okay, actually three. First off, no excuse for the late update. Seem to be heading in the Going Deep Under direction of updates, really. Secondly, I apologize if any bad memories of the Tom Cruise version of the story are brought up, I'm just not trying to do a straight-up retelling of the 1999 film. I want to add my own twists and such to it, you know? Finally, huge thanks to Thunderclap for co-writing the marketplace chase and airport shootout with me.

Part 1: The Curse of the Medjai

“So, explain to me why we’re here again?” Target grumbled as she and Daring entered Luxor’s library, once again in their disguises knowing Caballeron could- No, make that would have agents everywhere. “I mean, shouldn’t we be making a break for you know where, not standing around in some dusty old library? I’m all for a good book every now and then, but not really the time I should say.”

Daring pulled out the star-shaped box Target had pilfered from that tomb back in the Valley of the Kings. “Know your enemy, that’s the simple fact of the matter. Why that tomb? What’s so important about it?”

“You mean aside from gold and riches beyond imagination to fund the Fuhrer's war efforts?” Target deadpanned, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes, yes. But they could go to any old tomb for that,” Daring pointed out as she began pulling books off the shelves in a frenzy, grabbing anything related to Baladi’s history. “Caballeron, he seemed awfully dead-set on pilfering that tomb in particular. There’s got to be something more here. Something we’ve missed. Hell, for all we know it could be staring us in the face and we may not even know it!”

“Or we could be on a wild goose chase, and we could be just running around like a pack of chickens with our heads cut off while Caballeron laughs his slimy head off at our stupidity.” Target remarked.

Daring tossed the star-shaped box once, it landing back in her hoof before she held it up to Target’s face. “Tell me, you ever seen an artifact like this before? I sure haven’t.”

“No, but I’ve been to quite a few tombs and I keep on digging up strange things that I generally don’t know what they might have been used for. I’m not a historian or a world-class archaeologist like you Dares,” Target pointed out, with a small shrug of her shoulders.

“Maybe not, but like I said, even I haven’t seen something like this before,” Daring replied, setting the box on a nearby table along with a stack of old books and scrolls. She groaned, this could take a while. She was hoping to be out of the city by noon, but right now this was more important. In the back of her mind, Daring swore she actually had seen something like this peculiar box somewhere before, she just couldn’t place where that where was exactly. “Here, read.” she stated in a tone that left no room for any sort of argument, hoofing a book off to Target, while Daring opened up another book.

Opening the book, Daring let out a small cough at the sheer dust stirred up. Looks like nobody had seen fit to read this particular volume on Baladi’s history for a while. She then heard Target let out a small squeak and looked at the earth pony.

“Okay, so let me get somethin’ straight here,” Target remarked, looking greener than normal if that were possible. “Okay, so these embalmers, they ripped out your guts and they stuffed them in jars?”

Daring gave her a flat look. “Wait, you raid tombs for a living and yet you’re seriously telling me you don’t know a damn thing about embalming?”

“Like I said, not a historian,” Target replied. “They seriously did this?” she asked, looking around for the nearest trash can.

Daring nodded. “And they take out your heart as well,” she replied, before smirking not being able to resist a chance to have some fun with her partner. “Oh, and you know how they took out your brains?”

“...Oooh, I don’t think I need to know this.” Target murmured to herself. Sadly, today or this week in fact as she was rapidly finding out was not going to be a good one for her.

“Too bad. You asked,” Daring grinned. “They take a sharp, red hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit, and then rip it all out through your nostrils! For the record, you’re dead when they do this, but…”

Target had fainted with a loud thud long before Daring even got to the ‘already dead’ bit. Daring sighed and shook her head. “Give me frogs, give me locusts, give me any sort of plague. They’d have to be better than this moron…” Daring muttered to herself quietly, quite tempted to plant her face in her book out of embarrassment. Suddenly Daring’s foggy memories about the mystery box as she started to call it, upon remembering the aspects of mummification began to clear themselves and she remembered something.

“Read up on ancient pharaohs and queens. Got a small hunch…” she murmured to herself, rapidly flipping through the pages of another book, tossing the first one aside. Her eyes widened when she came to a very particular passage about an ancient queen from long ago and she muttered: “Oh no… Celestia help me. Please tell me I’m wrong here. Celestia, just tell me I’m wrong.” she whispered to herself, praying skywards. If she drew any attention for her particular manner of prayer -and she was really- she wouldn’t particularly care at the moment. Right now she had far bigger worries.

It was a vain, faint hope as Daring was usually never wrong about anything. She hated being right all the time.

“...Right, figured you wouldn’t listen, not like you ever do with me...” Daring muttered to herself and set about reviving Target shaking the mare’s body fervently. “Come on girl, wake up! Wake up! Need you right about now!”

Target, moaning to herself slowly returned to the realm of consciousness. “...Oh for the love for Celestia, please tell me I didn’t faint about halfway through that little spiel of yours. Know I brought it on myself but-”

“Normally, I’d be making smart-ass remarks right about now, but something I just discovered put me off of it. Target, tell me. Have you ever heard of the Book of the Dead?”

“Yeah, sure I have. Pretty much like an idiot’s guide to the afterlife innit?” she asked. “Something every Baladi native used to get buried with, helped them find their way to whatever awaited them and to the halls of judgment where their heart would be weighed by Osiris and possibly devoured by Ammit.”

“Not that book of the dead, the Book of the Dead,” Daring stated seriously. “It was part of an old curse laid down by Ancient Baladi’s secret police of sorts, the Medjai, as part of a way to keep one very old and one very pissed off mare from returning to walk upon this Earth and bring chaos and discord with her.”

“...Okay, now you’ve lost me,” Target sighed. “Explain.”

“Right, well it goes like this…” Daring began.

It began in the New Kingdom, as the legend went during the time period of the pharaoh Seti the First of the nineteenth dynasty, whose name meant ‘of Set’ aka the Baladi God of chaos and storms. Fitting really, for what unfolded during his time as the pharaoh. Now, the actual time period of his reign was unclear really, as with almost all dates in Ancient Baladi. Varying historians claim different dates, ranging from 1294 BC to 1279 BC or more likely 1290 BC to 1279 BC. Now Seti had fought several wars during his 11 to 14-year reign, he was the conquering sort.

During that time, he’d claimed several mistresses. None of them really loved him and were only in fear or awe of his power and wealth, or perhaps maybe a few did truly care and love him as a stallion. Who was to say?

But the one everyone was most wary of was Cadence, a striking unicorn mare of great beauty hailing from Saddle Arabia. She’s probably the biggest victim of Seti’s reign, in some ways, and her tale is a tragic one to say the least. While she hadn’t been won in a war, she’d been part of a pact that the current ruler of Saddle Arabia had forged with Seti in order to prevent one. Seti had given up some of his finest jewels -And in no small part did he enjoy doing this- to the ruler in question, whose name is hardly important in this tale, and in return, the ruler had to give up his only daughter to Seti’s growing harem.

Needless to say, she was none too pleased about this. What was that old saying? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Yes, that was it.

In public, she kept up a front of being this mare that adored Seti, and catered to his every whim. But in private, that was a different story. Oh Goddess yes, so it was. She had been plotting for ages, ever since she was first shackled to Seti to kill the pharaoh.

“Beautiful, isn’t it…?” Seti asked Cadence, stroking her mane -Cadence shuddering all the while- with a hoof as the red-coated stallion looked up over the rising sun, Ra’s greatness casting a brilliant shine over the city below his palace. It truly was a grand city, with two massive statues of Horus flanking either side of the city gates, stone walls that had taken ages to carve and construct surrounding the city’s buildings and temples on all sides. In the middle of the city, in a small square stood an obelisk that seemingly reached to the heavens above, a gold-adorned capstone at the very top with the light of the sun shining off it brilliantly. Truly, the grand city of Abydos was possibly the pride of Baladi, the massive city gaining new additions to it as the ages passed and the power of the pharaohs grew.

“Not as beautiful as you, my king,” Cadence remarked, having to practically spit the words out past her lips. If Seti took notice of her tone, he must have dismissed it or he was used to it by now. Like I mentioned before, most of his consorts despised him anyhow.

“Come, I believe we are burning daylight as the commoners call it and our kingdom awaits milady Cadence. No sense in having a beautiful mare with you if you don’t get to show her off, right?” Seti asked, and Cadence nodded weakly as the two left Seti’s chambers.

She felt as if she wanted to puke as she felt Seti’s leering eyes gaze upon her with every step, every hour of the waking day even in day court with her chained to his throne by Baladi sorcery. While the chains themselves weren’t visible, she felt a scorching pain go up her back if she even tried to take a step away from Seti, dark red hieroglyphs covering her. Ma’at or Order as she’d heard it was called could be used for many things, and apparently, binding ponies to a madman of a stallion fell under its banner.

Yes, she would have to move quickly, and without hesitation sooner rather than later.

Night fell, and as Cadence swore to herself, her plans were advanced. Seti had called her to his chambers requesting she wear ‘something nice’, and Cadence had no illusions on what he exactly planned to do with her. But all the same, she kept up the illusion and dressed as a fancier version of one of the palace maids, with a veil over her face and clad in beads and fine jewelry with a thin fabric covering her flanks and hind legs. She’d hidden a knife in one of her golden horseshoes, out of sight.

As she entered Seti’s chambers, the pharaoh lay on a bed with sheets as blood-red as his coat. Soon to be even deeper red in color, Cadence thought to herself. Once this was all over, she would free the slaves Seti kept, and cast an illusion over herself and be Seti. Seti was a fool of a stallion, and at times had let his reach over her extend a little too far, and she’d managed to learn enough of the spells of Ma’at to be able to cast a believable illusion with nobody being the wiser.

Drawing some light blue hieroglyphs in the air, channeling the power of Ma’at, Seti darkened the room and pulled Cadence closer to him. She didn’t resist, her veil was lifted and their tongues battled for dominance briefly as Seti began divesting Cadence of her clothing. Well, what little there was of it anyways, as the two fell onto the bed, their motions becoming ever more violent as Seti lustfully took Cadence for his own. Suddenly, before he could react, just as his hips bucked in climax Cadence finally produced a knife and slashed him across the throat, blood oozing out of the wound with Seti dying almost instantly.

Cadence, as she pulled out and away from the dead tyrant, felt a sense of relief, freedom. She felt great joy, something she hadn’t had the luxury of feeling in two long agonizing years or an eternity to her. Drawing the hieroglyphs for illusion in mid-air, Seti then appeared to be merely sleeping, exhausted after his night of passion.

The plan would have been perfect, except for one small thing. Apparently, what Cadence hadn’t counted on was Seti installing an alarm system. Hieroglyphs all over the room burned a bright red, and Cadence screamed out in pain as she felt her whole body began to burn seemingly from the inside. The pain was only brief, but it lasted long enough for warriors clad in the mask of Horus -The Medjai- to break into the room and the pain was scalding enough for Cadence's illusion to drop. Gasps echoed from under the Medjai’s helmets as they saw the blood from Seti’s practically severed neck pool onto the floor and the commander ordered: “Seize her!”

Looking towards the window as the Medjai brandished curved swords made of pure obsidian and covered in gold hieroglyphs, the unicorn mare grimaced as she picked herself up off the chamber floors and ran towards the window. Breaking into a gallop, she covered herself in a bright cornflower blue aura of magic and leaped out the window, stars seemingly serving as stepping stones as she leaped down into the gardens below and landed in a pool with a splash. She heard the thundering of hooves coming from behind her, knowing the Medjai were not far behind. Screams erupted from inside the palace as news of Seti’s demise quickly made its way through the servants.

It was chaos as Cadence ran for the garden exits, brushing past crowds of ponies in her madcap dash for the exit. Now, you might think in a city full of guard loyal to a pharaoh alongside the Medjai themselves there was nowhere to hide from a swift wrath, but Cadence had heard rumors of a city below Abydos. The city of the damned and the dead, known only as Hamunaptra. It was spoke of only in hushed whispers, and many doubted its existence or more likely hoped it was merely idle gossip but Cadence knew better.

One of the palace guards, Steel Armor, who Cadence deeply suspected to be in the Medjai as well had taken a liking to her. He’d often sneaked her food from the kitchens amongst other things had told her of a secret door in the city’s main obelisk. She suspected this hidden door led to Hamunaptra or at least a passage out of the city and into the deserts where she could vanish never to be seen again.

As she galloped through the city streets, arrows whizzing by her head, Cadence rebounded off the walls in a form of ancient parkour and jumped over a market stall and a wall down into a lower level of the city sliding down a thatched roof as she did so.

As she reached the end of the roof, Cadence leaped off of it, and turned in midair to fire off several more Ma’at spells, each appearing as the hieroglyphs for ‘shatter’ and two ancient columns shattered at their bases before coming down and blocking the pursuing Medjai’s paths. Screams erupted as the Medjai eventually managed to find their way around the blockade and into the crowds below with khopeshes brandished.

Cadence did the only thing she could, and that was to keep running.

Eventually, she reached the obelisk, and once more created the hieroglyphic symbols for shatter and smashed through a bricked-up wall, a secret passageway leading to the tunnels below being revealed in its place. Cadence leaped through the small hole and into the passageway below, more arrows just barely missing her by a hair’s length.

Eventually, she did arrive in Hamunaptra. However, it was less of a city and more a tomb. It was comprised of a large central chamber, round in shape with skulls of ponies stacked on shelves all around her.

“No, no… It can’t be…” Cadence whispered to herself. “There’s… There’s no way out!”

“Of course there isn’t,” a deep baritone voice remarked, as the leader of the Medjai squadron, a gray-coated stallion wearing a mask themed after the goddess Sekhmet entered the room along with his squadron. “Hamunaptra, it’s a city of the dead yes. But a city of the dead for those who defiled the upper city’s laws which include committing treason of the highest order. And that includes killing the pharaoh.” he growled out. “Vir u oortredings plaas ek op u die enigste moontlike vloek wat daarby pas. The Hom-”

“No!” one of the Medjai cried out, even as Cadence was bound in chains and thrown up against a statue of Anubis, with scarab beetles beginning to swarm out of little holes in the wall. Her eyes widened in fear as she felt them beginning to nibble at every inch of her body. The Medjai who’d cried out, he drew hieroglyphics in mid-air with his wand, reading ‘flame’ and began incinerating the scarabs. “This… None of this is needed!” the Medjai cried, with quite a few of his compatriots nodding their heads. Cadence’s eyes widened, she knew that voice.

“Steel Armor…” she whispered.

The Medjai leader whirled on Steel and put his khopesh to the soldier’s neck. “And why, lieutenant do you believe this is not needed, and why do you defy me?”

“You’ve seen how Seti treated Cadence, we’ve all seen it! Treated her as a possession, not as a living breathing mare. He just treated her as another one of his conquests!” Steel shouted at his commander. Even as he said this, Cadence shuddered again leaving no doubt in anyone’s minds as to what he meant by conquests.

“Be that as it may, she murdered the pharaoh in cold blood, and the pharaoh's word is law. And the laws for treason of the highest order is the Hom Dai!” the commander barked, and threw up a wall of flame between him and his soldiers. A sarcophagus sprang up all around Cadence, and she began to scream in terror and pain as the scarabs began pouring in once more…

The Present Day

“The Hom Dai…” Daring whispered with a shudder overcoming her. “The worst of the Ancient Baladi curses. You were devoured, alive I might add, by scarab beetles and your body just kept on reconstituting itself only to be devoured over, and over for all eternity. Adding to that, this particular copy of the Book of the Dead kept you from arising, with the copy being hidden away somewhere in Egypt so nobody could ever find it by the leader of the Medjai. This curse…” Daring whispered in a tone that sounded as if she was barely holding herself back from vomiting. “It’s a horrible way to go out, and after it was performed in this instance it was outlawed by the Medjai, who rebelled against their commander and beheaded him on accounts of overtly cruel punishment. They supposedly sent, as the myth continues to state, one of their own to serve in Seti’s place with nobody being the wiser as to his death. Anyone who heard of his demise was silenced. I never believed this myth had any truth to it, even I dismissed it. Until you found that box.”

“What do you mean?” Target asked, having stayed silent throughout that entire story.

“That box, it’s not a box. No, it’s a key. It unlocks the book of the dead, and dispels the curse freeing Cadence from her eternal torment.”

“...And we don’t go looking for this Book of the Dead and free her why?” Target asked, an eyebrow raised. “I mean, Daring, for crying out loud she’s been trapped in a fate worse than Prometheus himself for thousands of years. I think she’s entitled to finally… y’know, die! Are you that heartless?”

“Listen, and you have to trust me on this. I’ve done my reading on this myth, and this is one tomb you do not want to uncover!”

Target’s only response was to pull out her revolver and aim it at Daring as ponies screamed and scattered as the gun’s hammer cocked

“Listen, I know you usually have your reasons for doing things, and you don’t always say why at first, but I think I have a right to know why we can’t just let Cadence finally be at rest here!”

“Because…” Daring whispered in fear. “Because there’s a second part to the legend. It’s said that after her imprisonment, Cadence managed to keep enough of her sanity to concoct a curse of her own on anyone who freed her, one that would unleash all ten biblical plagues all over Egypt as revenge against those who wronged her all those years ago. And when I’m talking biblical, I’m talking real old testament type stuff. Wrath of Faust,” she stated, slamming her hooves on the table. “And I do mean real Wrath of Faust type stuff. Fire and brimstone, seas boiling, cats and dogs living together. That sorta shit! You want to be the one responsible for unleashing that on this country, cause I sure as Hell don’t!” she hissed out, and Target said no more.

“You know, personally I don’t believe in curses,” a very familiar Austrian accented voice remarked as he opened the library doors. “But I do believe in ancient cities, and I do believe in a whole lot of gold… Daring, Daring, you’re getting stupid in your old age. Really, you should have just ran when you still had the chance…” Caballeron remarked as he walked into the room, a revolver of his own drawn.

“Shit!” Daring swore loudly as she and Target tossed off their disguises and ran for the side exit out into the alleyways, Target shooting out the chandelier with her revolver to send sparks flying everywhere as a distraction.

Making a break for Target’s old Bentley, now fully refurbished and fixed up from the chase the day before, Daring floored it tires squealing out on protest as the two took off down the cobblestone streets and into the marketplace smashing up stalls as they went.

They heard the roar of an engine and saw one very Dr. Caballeron in hot pursuit in his Mercedes with a hired native in the back holding a machine gun firing like a madman.

“Here we go again…” Target muttered to herself, as she ducked her head to avoid her brain matter being splattered all over the dashboard.

“Say, that carpet looks nice,” Daring joked, pointing at a colorful piece of rug that fluttered on the roof of their car as she made a sharp turn into a narrow alley. “Let’s see the good doctor follow us in here with that bulky car of his.”

“Oh no no no!” Target squeaked as she realized what Daring was about to pull. “You do realize my car, my car is just as big as his, right? You’re not just nuts, you’re crazy!”

The car screeched and sparks flew as the sides scraped against the walls. “Relax, that'll buff right out. You know, young mare your age, you need to get out and enjoy yourself more!” Daring laughed.

“This car was coachbuilt, coachbuilt!” Target protested loudly. “You know what that means right?”

With a final cry of protest, the car burst out onto the streets and Daring jerked the wheel to narrowly avoid a stall.

Then, angry shouts of Germane came from somewhere behind them, and both mares heads’ whipped around to see Dr. Caballeron and his car smashing through another selection of market stalls, fruits splatting his vehicle’s front window.

“Erschieße sie, erschieße sie beide, du Idiot!” Caballeron barked out to his hired gun. “Beeil dich, schnell jetzt!”

“Huh, looks like Caballeron sprang for the supercharged engine,” Daring commented lightly, turning back to face the road. “So Target, can you check the map to see if you can find a good place to lose him? I’d do it myself, but I’ve gotta keep my eyes on the road. Safety first!” she chirped merrily.

“We’re driving through a marketplace in a massive Bentley with a guy shooting at us with a machine gun, and you’re worried about safety?” Target exclaimed. “...Those shells you took in the Great War must have done something to your bloody head…’ she muttered to herself.

“Hey, have I hit any pedestrians or have any been shot?” Daring retorted, narrowly avoiding an elderly mare walking down the street. “This has been totally safe.”

“You and I have, must have different definitions of that word then.” Target deadpanned as more bullets whizzed by their head, a certain doctor still screaming angrily at his gunner.

“Was bist du, blind? Kannst du nicht eine Stute schlagen?” Caballeron shouted as the two vehicles passed a sign, that in Arabic read: ‘مطار’ or simply airport. “Step on it, pull up alongside them, maybe then you can actually hit something!”

Sure enough, Caballeron’s car was then right up alongside their own.

“Oh, hey Doc,” Daring greeted, paying no mind to the machine gun being leveled at her head. “Do you have any grey poupon?” she joked. “No? Then gotta go.”

Target smirked as she looked at the gunner, and gestured to somewhere behind her all the while thinking: “You gotta be kidding me, why am I doing this? Nobody’s stupid enough to fall for that old trick!”

Evidently, someone was, as sure enough, the gunner did look behind him only to receive a kick to the face by Target. “Huh, what do you know? Guess you can always count on the stupidity of the hired help…”

Daring grinned, pulling ahead of the Mercedes and turning down the road towards the airport. Smashing right through the gates, she pointed at an already chartered cargo plane whose pilots were readying the engines, the propellers beginning to spin up.

Leaping out of the car, Daring pulled out her revolver while Target went for her favored Lee Enfield as a massive truck smashed in through another gate, with Germane soldiers pouring out of it, Caballeron and his car not far behind.

That’s the problem with Germane roaches,” Daring commented, aiming her revolver at the front tire of the Mercedes and firing. “Smash one and dozens more come squirming out of the woodworks. Like a Hydra in some ways. Cut off one head…” she trailed off.

“Technically Caballeron’s Austrian.” Target corrected as she ducked behind crates to give covering fire. One, two, three. That’s exactly how many shots she took, and how many soldiers fell to her rifle, Target showing just why she was a famed sniper back in the English Army in the Great War and exactly why she was named as she was.

“Are we really gonna split hairs regarding nationalities right now?!” Daring shouted, rushing towards the plane. More shots rang out as she ducked her head, the side of the plane being riddled with bullets. “Here, toss me the box!”

Target nodded, and the small object went flying from one hoof to another, and as soon as it landed in Daring’s hoof Target resumed her shots felling two more soldiers.

“Can you not aim right, you dummkopfs?” Caballeron roared in anger, as he ducked his head to avoid a shot from Target’s firearm.

“Really should be asking yourself the same question Dr. C, just sayin’,” Daring smirked, as she took cover behind the cargo plane’s entryway door, and fired off a few shots of her own. A sense of satisfaction filled her, watching a couple of the krauts fall to the ground. The hail of bullets lessened, but not enough for either of the mare’s liking.

The pilot of the plane started shouting at her in Arabic, saying they needed to go now. He yelped as he poked his head out of the cockpit window to gesture to Target to climb aboard, only for a bullet to graze the side of his head. “...By Allah.” he muttered to himself as he very wisely decided to keep his head where it belonged.

“Target, come on!” Daring shouted, holstering her weapon and gesturing with a hoof. “We’ll worry about Caballeron later! We need to go, now!” she shouted over the roar of the plane’s engine, as it began taxing down the runway. “Can’t keep these stairs down for much longer!”

“R-Right…” Target murmured, before her eyes widened as she noticed what exactly she was taking cover behind. While she didn’t understand a word of Arabic, or know the language so it was impossible for her to tell what exactly ‘تحذير ، قابلة للاشتعال!’ meant she did know what a bright red barrel with a flame on it signified. “Oh fu…” she trailed off.

“Hasta la vista, Target Quartermane…” Caballeron smirked as he lined up his shot and fired.

A fireball enveloped the runway just as Daring’s eyes widened and she pulled up the staircase just in time as the remains of a scorched Stetson flew into the plane.

“Target…” Daring whispered, as she tipped the brim of her hat to hide her tears before letting out a growl of: “Caballeron…” before that growl turned into a roar, audible over even the plane’s engines. “Caballeron, you’ll pay for this, do you hear me you bastard? You’ll pay!”

Caballeron only chuckled and shook his head. “So sad you had to leave us so shortly Target, we barely got to know one another. Could have made excellent partners…” he sighed as he watched Daring’s plane fly off towards Cairo before gesturing to his remaining men. “Follow her. I want that box.”