In the halls of the museum, among collections of other antiquities, sat the museum's newest acquisition: a green gemstone, set within an ankh, suspended from a gold chain. The pendant had been recovered by the Anugypt Expedition less than a month ago, and was proudly on display in the Hall of Ancient Cultures. Not much was known about it, and it was assumed, pending further research, to be a simple necklace, likely belonging to a noble.

If only they had known the truth.

This war had gone on for too long, and it had taken her far too long to realize she was losing.

Anput had kept up the war with Baast's cats long after the fall of her husband, King Anubis, and had continually been on the run with the Crown of Anugypt since the day the capital fell. Now an aging jackal, she knew that her resistance would fail. It wouldn't be long before she either died or was killed, and the once-proud jackal kingdom would be absorbed into the ever-growing feline empire. But if it was time for this fight to end, Anput thought, she was going to end it well.

She had her remaining soldiers set the trap perfectly: they would lead the cats' pursuing force to the old temple of Jackal Barkal, where a gruesome battle had taken place some months before. Anput would be waiting there. The bodies of her fallen warriors still littered the ground where the battle had been lost, their bones bleached by the desert sun and picked clean by vultures, but that played perfectly into her plan.

Saying a prayer and turning to face the temple, Anput removed the pendant from around her neck, holding it aloft as the last vestiges of sunlight left, and a full moon began to rise.

As the light struck it, the green gem set within the ankh began to glow.

"O great gods and fallen kings, hear my plea." She spoke aloud. "Anugypt has fallen. The hated felines have all but stamped us out, and I know that the time of our demise approaches soon. But let our ancestors not say that we did not die a proud warrior's death."

The gem began to glow brighter and emit a low hum as the moon rose in the sky.

"Let me shed my blood for Anugypt. Let these warriors, brutally slaughtered by the enemy, live again to fight for Anugypt. Let us fight to avenge our fallen, our glory, our king... my husband."

The gem refracted the moonlight cast upon it, reflecting it with a green shade over the field of skeletons laying before the steps of the temple.

"Let the curse placed on this gem last for all time! That every full moon it sees, it shall raise the dead to fight with vengeance! So sayeth Anput, Queen of the Jackals and Lady of the Desert Winds!"

Indeed, the desert winds had nearly whipped up a sandstorm around the temple as the curse Anput's priests had crafted did its work. Just as her diversionary force arrived, they witnessed their fallen brethren live again. Bleached skeletons stood and shook sand from their bones. They re-equipped their weapons, clothing, and armor as muscle, sinew, organs, and flesh reformed around their frames. Finally, their eyes lit with a red, devilish glow, as they turned to face Anput on the temple steps, and she turned to face them.

The once elderly queen had become young again, her skin taut, her muscles firm, and her hair no longer white. With steely determination, she spotted the army of cats on the horizon. She drew her khopesh and saluted her army.

"Tonight... we will die for Anugypt."

The army roared to life, and, with a flick of her wrist, charged forth to meet their hated enemy. Anput stopped to hide her amulet beneath a stone in the temple's walk before going out to join in her final battle.

Fluttershy slept soundly, nestled in her plush sleeping bag on the smooth floor of the planetarium. She wasn't aware of anything beyond her dreams until a small hoof began nudging her shoulder. Slowly, she wakened, turning her head and eyes towards the blurry disturbance.

"Fluttershy?" Scootaloo asked in a whisper. "Can you come with me to the bathroom?"

Reluctantly, Fluttershy emerged from her cocoon of warmth, the air around her chilling her skin and igniting her senses more fully. "Alright, Scootaloo, come with me."

As the two made their way for the doors, Fluttershy glanced about at the sleeping fillies, each adorable in her own right. Sweetie Belle was curled up in her sleeping bag like a lady, whereas Apple Bloom was slowly wriggling out of hers. Toola Roola and Coconut Cream were practically sharing a sleeping bag via proximity. Tag-a-Long still held her book in her grasp. Cherry Sweet nibbled her hoof in her sleep like a foal.

"You know it's perfectly safe in this museum." Fluttershy said once they'd entered the hallway.

"Well, I know." said Scootaloo. "It just seemed like a long ways to go alone. This place is a little... eerie when the sun goes down."

"Most public places are, because you're used to seeing ponies in them." Fluttershy held the door to the mares' room open. "I'll wait out here."

Scootaloo rushed inside and her chaperone took a seat on the floor, staring up at the ceiling and counting the decorative tiles. While she waited, one of the Vanhoover fillies came by and asked where the vending machines were. Though Fluttershy usually discouraged midnight snacking, she pointed the way and the little one trotted off.

The Amulet of Anput sat behind glass, displayed among other relics of ancient Anugypt in the Hall of Ancient Cultures. Above, glass panes in the ceiling let in the light of the rising moon.

A full moon. The first one it had seen in countless centuries.

As the light filtered down through the night air, it slipped silently into the museum and cast itself upon the halls.

Upon the exhibits.

Upon the amulet.

The green gem set in the golden ankh began to glow.

After some time, Scootaloo emerged from the restroom.

"Alright," she yawned "let's get back to sleep."

Fluttershy put a guiding wing around the diminutive Pegasus and began in the direction of the planetarium.

"So, how did you like the tour of the museum?"

"It was fun! There's definitely a lot to learn here; if I didn't have my Cutie Mark already, I'd have to try being a historian!"

"If you like learning, Scootaloo, you'd probably get along great with Tag-a-Long, if you'd give her a chance."

The orange filly sighed. "Fluttershy, it's... more complicated than that. The girls and I, in the past, have tried to--"

Suddenly, a great noise echoed from somewhere down the halls. It sounded as though metal were being wrought from its place, something torn out of the wall and thrown to the floor. Whether or not anypony else had woken up, Fluttershy didn't know, but she was certainly wide awake now.

"Good gracious, what was that?!" Fluttershy said at full volume.

"I don't know..." replied Scootaloo, looking vexed "...should we go look?"

"We might as well, since we're closer to it." Came her response "The janitor or the guard might need help."

The hallways past the bathrooms were less well-lit, so Fluttershy briefly returned to the sleeping area to retrieve a flashlight. Holding it under her wing, she and Scootaloo spent the next several minutes searching the connected halls together for the source of the clamor.

"We've looked just about everywhere in this part of the museum." Scootaloo pondered, her small legs taking several steps to Fluttershy's few. "Are you sure it's in here?"

"It's got to be, don't you think?" She replied. "That sound wasn't so far away as to come from another part of the map. It has to be in one of the halls near where we were."

"Still," the younger pony continued "you'd think we'd have found something by now. That noise was way too loud to just be the pipes or the vents or the--"

Scootaloo abruptly stopped talking; her eyes widened and her jaw fell open.

"Scootaloo?" asked Fluttershy "What is it?" Suddenly, the mare turned to look where her flashlight was shining, and she took on a similar expression.

Standing in the beam was a massive beast covered in smooth scales. It had ripped a water fountain out of the wall, and, in doing so, ruptured a pipe so it could quench its thirst. Many animals can smell water, Fluttershy thought, but its nose must be exceptionally adept to detect it from within plumbing. Water pooled at its three-toed feet, equipped with giant claws. Further up its powerful legs was a sturdy torso, bearing arms with two-fingered hands; disproportionately small, but very muscular. A thicker neck than Fluttershy had ever seen carried a truly massive skull, bearing jaws that could grab her in one bite. A long, muscular tail swayed behind the animal as it knelt to drink. Its scales were a tannish color, but it bore red markings around its eyes and down its body in the form of stripes.

Neither pony could believe what they were seeing. It took a moment for the realization to hit: this was Tyrannosaurus rex, in flesh and blood, standing not 100 feet away from them.

Fluttershy gave a small gasp in fright, and the beast looked up. Its eyes burned as red as hellfire, and seemed to glow from out of the darkness. With a low rumble in its throat, it raised its head curiously. It was inspecting them.

Scootaloo screamed from a place of sheer terror. Without another moment of hesitation, she began to flee in the direction she'd come, and Fluttershy followed less than a second later. The great beast lurched its foot forward in a step towards them.

In its mind, the hunt had begun.

Author's Note

In the next chapter...
Things get real.
You have been warned.