Lost in Time

Encouraging Terry to try leaving the temple had been very hard at first: Golden Glow had to keep nudging him about it, bothering him almost incessantly until he'd finally agreed to join her on a short trip to pick up some materials, likely only to get her to stop bothering him.

She had promised him they would be no more than fifteen minutes: a two minute walk to base camp either way, five minutes to buy materials,plenty of time to spare for when they inevitably got wrapped up in a conversation with someone.

Still, he had stalled and lingered and hesitated at the doorway, until Golden Glow had finally pushed him gently out and down the front steps to the soft, well-trod earth in front of the temple.

They had taken a minute in front of the temple so that Terry could just turn around and look at it for a little while, staring up at a sight he likely hadn't seen for centuries. He stared up at the dusty, weathered front of his temple for the longest time before he'd finally smiled faintly, murmuring: “I guess I wasn't taking very good care of it after all.”

“Shut up, Terry. You were doing just fine.” Golden Glow answered, maybe not as tactful as she could have been, but Terry smiled at her gentle tone and bowed his head in gratitude. He was quick to catch on, at least: he understood that how she said things mattered a lot more than what she said.

Of course he might also think at this point that was just the culture, since he hadn't really been exposed to much apart from her and Razz and whoever he ran into while he was helping them fix this or that up, and they were all kind of assholes a lot of the time.

Either way, though, he was adjusting, learning, and figuring out how the world had changed and how to deal with people. And the more she pushed him to actually explore the world, the more he seemed to realize that these ponies weren't going to hurt him, and there was a wealth of knowledge outside the temple, waiting to be discovered and learned.

The trip was short and easy: Terry had gotten a few stares, but by now the workers all knew to leave him alone if they ever saw him or Golden Glow would rain holy hell down on them. But more important than the trip going well was returning to the temple and finding that everything was still progressing smoothly, and that their fifteen minutes away hadn't resulted in the temple burning down or collapsing without Terry there to take care of it.

That was really what he needed, Golden Glow realized: it wasn't really that it was so hard to leave, especially for a few minutes where they never really lost sight of the temple, it was that Terry was terrified of failing in his mission, even if Terry was smart enough to know that mission was largely his own making now.

So that was what she concentrated on: getting Terry out, or away from work, to help him see and understand that the temple wasn't going to collapse without him, and that the workers weren't going to screw everything up, and her crew, while not the brightest, was very dedicated to ensuring that everything was properly marked and preserved according to the Explorer Guild's strict guidelines, which were probably even tighter than Terry's own.

Slowly, Terry's fears for the temple's safety and maintaining the sanctity of the artifacts within were being replaced by a desire to know more, by his thirst for knowledge: not adventure, per se, but Golden Glow could see how the allure of a new world was calling to him. He made a funny juxtaposition to her: she wanted to leap into the unknown, and he wanted to discover the known, to explore the plain and boring and already-discovered in their world... but she guessed to him, all of this was new and fascinating and a chance to see a future he had never imagined.

Plus there was the whole Patrons thing... they didn't sound precisely like they had been ponies. Equestria probably wouldn't have more than trace influences from whatever culture he had once been part of...

But he didn't seem very depressed by that. His feelings for his Patrons seemed very... complicated, Golden Glow reflected. He clearly respected them and wanted to uphold their tenets and laws, but at the same time, it seemed... not loveless, perhaps, but affection didn't seem like the first thing that came to mind when he thought about them.

So she did her best to avoid pressing that subject too much, partly because she didn't want to stir up any unnecessary drama, and partly because it wouldn't be productive to just upset him without a point. He wasn't dumb or blind, he just needed a push in the right direction now and then.

It wasn't really all that long before they got him onto a boat, sailing around the island with them, watching the passing landscape with fascination from the bow as Golden Glow took measurements of the cliffs and made Razz do calculations for her.

That took roughly half a day of them whizzing around on the water, but Terry stayed with them the entire time without any complaint. He almost seemed reluctant to return to the temple, as a matter of fact: he was starting to trust them enough to believe the temple would be okay in their hooves, at least for a little while, and there was just so much outside those walls to explore that he'd never even imagined existed...

So when Golden Glow received a communications from the Explorer's Guild asking her to make a formal report in person, she decided to ask Terry if he wanted to come along to what would essentially be show-and-tell for a bunch of eccentric rich ponies.

Terry was understandably very nervous at the thought of leaving his temple for at least a week, and didn't like the fact he was being asked to make a quick decision. He very clearly wanted her to make the choice for him, but as much as Golden Glow wanted to drag him out of the temple, she resisted her natural urge to take over: if he didn't make this decision himself, he was never going to understand that he was in control of his own life now, whatever it had been like before.

It took him until the very last minute, but he made the decision that Golden Glow had hoped to hear: he agreed to come with her for the week, as long as she promised that if anything serious happened at the temple, they would come right back. That was more than fine with Golden Glow: any excuse to wiggle out of doing reports or hobnobbing with rich crazy people was a good one to her.

It probably felt like they were headed off on a whirlwind of adventure to Terry, but for Golden Glow, this was a very boring, easy trip that she planned to spend the bulk of practicing speeches and grilling Terry for whatever information she could, since it wasn't like they'd had a lot of time to just sit down and talk thanks to all the work effort being put into restoring the temple.

But in spite of her curiosity and her desire to have something more to tell the Explorer's Guild about, she ended up just watching Terry for a lot of the trip, how he took in information but marveled over the simplest of experiences.

One of the few things she got out of him, however, was the formal name that the Patrons had called him: Memnonia. She found it sort of funny that Terry himself couldn't really tell her if this was his species or his actual name – and if it is his name how the hell does Memnonia shorten to Terry – but that also confirmed a few of the things she had been wondering about Terry's relationship to his former... well, owners, it was starting to sound more and more like, even if Terry himself was either oblivious to it, or just ignoring the implications of what he said.

He had basically been an indentured servant, if not an outright slave to these people. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe that was why he had never seen others of his kind: had they taken him from his birthplace, or did they just separate him from his parents at an early age, like ponies had used to do with dragons, so they could raise him as an assistant?

Well, not really an assistant, since it sounded like his main job had been maintenance of the library's effects and cleaning up after his masters. They had clearly taken how intelligent he was for granted: his ability to learn wasn't just supernatural, for example, it was goddamn eerie.

It was no wonder that he had so much trouble making choices for himself: his Patrons had determined everything for him from the very beginning of his life, a beginning that Terry couldn't even entirely explain himself. His earliest memories were of serving the Patrons: he had never lived a life where he hadn't been somehow under their control, doing what they told him to do.

He was self-conscious during their travels, but when the ponies didn't jeer at him, he seemed to settle into his own quiet space, continuing to marvel over the wonders of the outside world that he'd never seen before. That seemed to relate somehow to whatever he'd gone through with his former Patrons: he was used to keeping his head down and blocking out the rest of the world.

Then again, Golden Glow understood that: she was a C-list celebrity who had come from an A-list family, and as much as she wanted to be successful, she could do without the ponies gossiping loudly about her several feet away from her.

So they shared their quiet space, where they ignored everyone else, and it was just the two of them as Golden Glow tried to arrange her research notes, and Terry watched the world and studied every stupid little travel pamphlet and booklet that he could get his hands on.

“Did you know” became a frequent refrain during their travels, starting on the ferry to the coast and continuing on the long train ride that took them towards their destination. Some of it she knew, some of it she convinced herself she had probably known but just forgotten, and some of it was so esoteric that it made her wonder if Terry was actually just a computer like Aeiro.

But he was a little childlike, too: he had stared out at the sea, watching the foam spray against the ship for the longest time, and after they'd loaded into the train, he'd mashed his face into the window and just watched the world go by, stared in awe at the countless sights of Equestria that the rest of the travelers with them found pedestrian by now.

He reminded her that this was all amazing: from the natural beauty of their country to the towering cities, there was so much to see, so many wonders to marvel over. She was almost a little envious of the fact that he was getting to experience this as an outsider, as someone who had never imagined this kind of place had existed before, while for her it was something she had seen so many times before it was hard not to take it for granted even when she looked at it through Terry's eyes.

They were mostly left alone on their trip, although that was partly because Golden Glow was smart enough to have reserved a private cabin on the train, and Terry seemed to prefer avoiding people if it was at all possible. So naturally, he ended up wandering the train only late into the night, after most of the ponies had retired to their cabins or sleeper cars.

Thankfully, in spite of being made mostly out of snake and lion parts, Terry's shy nature overrode the instinctive terror such a creature would cause in most ponies. It was hard to be too scared of someone who poked his head into the room and visibly hesitated at the sight of you, or who nervously slithered past with his head down, carefully avoiding eye contact.

He acted like he was supposed to be a worker on the train, not like he was a fellow passenger. Golden Glow was pretty sure if any of the rich ponies had yelled for service, he would have immediately joined the rest of the wait staff on board in taking orders.

So Golden Glow took it upon herself to make up an excuse to walk with him any time she caught him leaving the cabin. She knew he was never going to ask her to accompany him, after all: he was so meek during their travels that he was barely able to ask her if she wanted anything while he was out. And that, of course, was only after she made it very clear to him that he could help himself to whatever he wanted in the food car and no one was going to bite his head off.

Weird choice of words for a pony to use with a lion-snake, probably.

It wasn't a terrible trip, though: maybe he did less exploring than she'd like and he'd expected to, but she kind of understood. Her first few trips out of Equestria, she hadn't really made the most of things either. You got nauseous from all the movement that your body wasn't used to, and nervousness and excitement exacerbated each other and all those unpleasant physical reactions. And of course she'd felt like a jackass, too: here she was, trying to take after fictional character, going out to explore the world and find wonders and fight bad guys and what had she found?

Not a monster. Not riches beyond compare. A librarian and the temple he wanted to keep safe but couldn't even properly defend by himself. Now she was a glorified babysitter for a dude who was probably smarter than her but had the social skills of an abused pet.

Golden Glow smiled all the same at Terry as they rolled into the station, the creature clinging to his seat as he stared out the window in awe at all the ponies who were just waiting around to get on board.

They disembarked, and while there were a few stares and gasps, thanks to Terry's fancy clothes and a little bit of encouragement on Golden Glow's part, they quickly got the crowd to think he was some sort of visiting noble from a far off land. He was as pretty as a princess, after all, so it wasn't like it was very hard to get the ponies around them to think that might be what he was. Uh, royalty, not a princess, although he still is even prettier than I am even after all that travel...

They headed out of the terminal and into the city, and once they were on the streets of Manehattan, most of the crowd ceased to pay any attention to them. Manehattan was a diverse city full of busy ponies, many of whom didn't have time to ogle weird pedestrians, or who were so used to the strange and bizarre that even the sight of Terry was nothing to get excited over.

That was part of why Golden Glow had left the city. It dragged you down and turned everything into shades of gray, and you forgot what wonder was like; beautiful things were only worth idle glances from the dismal windows of a bus or train, and magnificent sounds were drowned out by the hubbub of conversation between people and over personal comm links, and adventures were nothing but unwanted, unwelcome delays on your way to work or your way home after a dreary day pushing paper and pretending to be somepony you weren't.

She didn't want to live her life like that. She didn't want to be Golden Glow, who played Boldly Goes in the safety of a small studio, handling sedated, drunken animals and cheap 3D-printed replicas of ancient artifacts for her PonyTube show. She didn't want to live her life counting views and selling tour appearances and getting barfed on by kids every time she ran an educational exhibit.

Living like that just drained the life out of you. She knew it wasn't actually the city itself, she'd used to love the library, the wildlife center, the university's research wing, all that stuff she'd been confined to before she'd been able to go out there on her own.

She glanced at Terry, and smiled despite herself: he almost looked giddy as they stood at a crosswalk, surrounded by ponies. A foal stared up at him with awe, but while other ponies gave him space, only a few of them seemed to really acknowledge that Terry wasn't just another member of the metropolis' drabity.

“So what do you think?” Golden Glow asked, as they crossed a busy street with the herd of other ponies who were all busily ignoring each other.

Terry stared back and forth, at the people, at the buildings, and then he gave a shaky smile to Golden Glow that said he was both amazed and overwhelmed, and she chuckled as she said gently: “Hey, you're doing about as good as any other tourist. Let's get to the hotel. You'll be fine.”

They found where they were staying, thankfully in a nicer part of the city, right near a subway line that would take them straight to the university. While the train had been one thing, Terry wasn't ready to wander any further than down the hall to the vending machine on his own. He also had absolutely no concept of money, which led to Golden Glow having to stop him from dropping an entire handful of bits into an urchin's begging cup in the subway station.

She did allow him to give the kid a few coins, though, which made the foal smile, and well... that was nice, at least.

The subway was cramped, but Terry was very good at compressing himself, as if he was used to twining himself almost comically up as small as possible. A few ponies stared at him, but no one started a conversation with him: that was possibly because he had his own 'daemon' out, which actually probably helped ponies think he was some kind of noble considering how much the daemon looked like a personalized AI construct.

Said construct took the form of a predatory bird with teeth, something vaguely reptilian about it: an archaeopteryx of some kind, Golden Glow figured. It was very pretty and slender, with its body covered politely in the same fashion of clothing as Terry wore, the small spirit-like being generating a faint aura of magic around itself as it talked rapidly in Ionic with Terry. Oneiros, he had called her before: she seemed almost as clever as Terry was, but she was much more confident, making her seem like she was the one in charge of him.

They were friends, Golden Glow thought, but there was also a sort of awkward, manufactured distance between them, like they were so ingrained in their previous roles and culture that they couldn't quite forget who they had been told to be for all those years.

When they arrived at the university, where the Explorer's Guild wanted her to make her presentation to several council members and probably an audience of students who had come to gawk, Terry instantly seemed to recognize what kind of place they were visiting: she repeatedly heard one of the few words she could easily translate, Akadēmíā.

“I mean, basically.” Golden Glow finally interrupted, and both Oneiros and Terry looked at her. “I guess you didn't really expect it to be like this, huh? Defining it as a 'school' probably had a different meaning in your day.”

“I can't judge your ponies' ages very well, but they all look like adults to me... they would have already been done school in my day.” Terry said after a moment, giving a small smile to Golden Glow as they passed a knot of students in the hall. “Where I lived, at least, you went to school to learn how to be a good citizen, and then you went to a military school for training. Some of the ponies we passed would be that age, I guess... but it's funny, I've seen older ponies here, too... I think?”

Terry blushed, shaking his head as he confessed: “There's so many colors and you're all so different and unique, and it makes it hard for me to tell who's really old and who isn't.”

“Well, people from everywhere attend universities nowadays.” Golden Glow explained with a shrug and a smile. “You'll fit right in with the rest of the weirdoes here, don't worry. Now come on, we got a meeting to get to.”

Terry didn't seem to know whether to be insulted or not as Oneiros huffed, complaining: “We're not weird! You're the ones studying us, I'm just sorry to see what our culture evolved into.”

“I know that Ionic culture had a lot of influence on Equestria, but there's a lot of debate on just how much, especially these days.” Golden Glow replied with a shrug, winking at Oneiros as she idly tapped her own body. “You Ionic people were a lot more restrained than us Equestrians, after all. And Equestria's pilgrims originally came from the north, with more influence from places like Clydesdown and Shire than anywhere else.”

Oneiros grumbled a bit as Terry smiled awkwardly between them, and Golden Glow gave the two an amused look as she added, as always: “And yes, it's up for debate, but for now let's leave it at that, because you two have got to concentrate on shutting up and looking pretty.”

Oneiros scowled as Terry bit his lip, and then both stared in disbelief as they entered the lecture hall where the meeting was supposed to take place, Golden Glow smiling and waving easily to the Guild members sitting at the table on the lowest level, not allowing herself to look up at the audience of students: more than she had anticipated, but they weren't important, she told herself.

“Hey there! As promised, I'm here to deliver my report, and I've brought you some living, breathing Ionians to show you just how successful we've been out at Location 32-6!” Golden Glow said in her best Boldly Goes voice, before she stepped backwards and muttered over her shoulder: “Just come inside with me and be polite, I'll handle everything. If you're not comfortable with talking, just let me know.”

Terry nodded, and without even seeming to realize what he was doing, he reached up and grasped the end of her scarf, squeezing into it tightly. Golden Glow softened a little, then smiled as she reached back and gently patted him on the arm before almost hauling him inside, but keeping herself between the serpent-lion and the rest of the amazed audience as she said cheerfully: “This is Terry and his daemon, Oneiros! I'll take some simple questions for him later, his native language is ancient Ionic, so Aeiros and I will translate for you.

“But first, let me begin with the general assessment of the temple at Location 32-6...”

Golden Glow hated that her real talent was presentation, but being able to schmooze at the level she did made it a hell of a lot easier to convince the Explorer's Guild to leave her in charge of the temple for now and to allow her continue to look after Terry. It also helped that they were able to play up Terry's need to have her as his interpreter, for culture if not language, although Golden Glow wondered how much of this was Terry playing along and how much of it was true.

It was a good meeting, though. The Explorer's Guild was pleased with both their progress and the soundbites that the journalists in attendance picked up, and of course that they'd drawn in a good crowd of students, some of whom would hopefully tell their wealthy parents all about the good work the Explorer's Guild was doing and that they should send some donations their way.

Money, money, money. You were in this line of work for money or fame, or because you were crazy.

Golden Glow smiled a little as she looked over at Terry, who was sleeping fitfully, wrapped up all around himself in the little bed on the other side of their private cabin. He had wanted to leave as soon as possible for the temple: after just a day of Manehattan, he was already homesick. And she was perfectly fine with that: she was sure they'd be back here sometime in the future, hopefully after Terry got a bit more... acquainted with the new rules of this world.

He had loved the library, of course, and she'd been able to give him a tour of the museum and taken him into some of the back rooms to see some of the artifacts in storage. Terry had definitely felt a kinship with the curators, although it also seemed like he didn't entirely know how to feel about either the exhibits or the storage zone: he seemed fascinated with the idea that so much was just out on display, and yet he also seemed incredibly anxious about the dangers of leaving precious, timeless art and objects from another age protected only by thin glass and rope barriers. Not that he seemed any fonder of just locking them away forever, either...

This trip had clearly made him think a lot about what he really wanted, and what he should be doing now with his life. He had frequent conversations with his daemon when he didn't think Golden Glow was paying attention, and he had started asking her a few odd, pointed questions: how they moved fragile artifacts, what they did with things deemed 'dangerous' for whatever reason, just how safe these museums and libraries and other superstructures actually were.

On the ferry ride back to the island and Terry's temple, as they sat in the front passenger cabin and gazed through the tall glass windows out at the endless ocean, Terry finally asked: “Where am I going to live? What am I going to do?”

Golden Glow cocked her head towards him, and Terry blushed a bit, but continued on even as he looked away: “I still don't... I mean, I'm not really part of this world, am I? But everyone and everything else has moved on, and the temple is... it never belonged to me in the first place, and I can't really take care of it on my own anymore.”

“Terry...” Golden Glow started, but Terry shook his head quickly, then he gave a small smile to the mare as he looked at her with.... a hint of guilt, maybe? Fear? But also relief: not just of his burden, but...

“I'm not glad my Patrons are gone. But I'm glad that I don't have to listen to them anymore. That's been painfully hard to understand.” Terry murmured. “It feels like something that was almost programmed in me. To always honor their wishes. To love them. To do as they said... as they told me, even now, how many years after they've all... moved on. But I'm free now. Leaving the temple showed me that.

“I still want to protect it, though. I loved the art, the knowledge, the... everything, that was in the temple.” Terry continued, nodding firmly once to himself more than Golden Glow as the mare rested back in her seat, smiling a little as she realized he wasn't really telling her this: he was telling himself. “But I want other people to be able to see it, too, and maybe learn from it. Just like I want to be part of this Equestria, too, and discover... everything there is to know, but... I don't know how to make that happen. I don't know how to make that work.”

“Well, lucky for you, I do.” Golden Glow said with more confidence than she really had, and Terry glanced up at her with surprise. “We're obviously going to want to move some of the artifacts and archives for research and viewing purposes. But I think a lot of it's going to remain right where it is, at least for now. The rest will remain here in the temple... and we've given a lot of thought as to how we could repair your temple and maybe make it open to the public again. Turn it into a little museum. It's got lots of galleries and it was clearly meant for people to come in and see things... I think it'd be great if it could serve that purpose again.”

Terry smiled hesitantly at this thought, nodding as he murmured: “It used to be wonderful. The Patrons coming and going. The bustle of activity. But they told me-”

“And what do you tell you? What does your heart tell you?” interrupted Golden Glow, and Terry blinked as he looked at her, and then he hesitated before nodding once.

“I keep forgetting that. I have to... choose. It's very hard.” Terry admitted.

Golden Glow smiled and slid a bit closer, winking at the leonine serpent as she threw a companionable arm around his shoulders and squeezed him gently. “Tell you a secret, kiddo. It's hard for me too.”

Terry blushed a bit, but then nodded before dropping his head against her shoulder, and the two rested and enjoyed the rocking of the waves and the drone of quiet conversation as the ferry made its way to port.

Razzmatazz was waiting for them at the docks once they disembarked, eager to hear about what the council had said, and to get their instructions on what they were supposed to do next. The almost-a-week they'd been gone had seen a flurry of activity at the temple: they'd secured several rooms, repaired most of the superstructure, and they were now awaiting approval to start work on some of the more fragile rooms, and permission to enter some of the sealed sections of the temple.

Golden Glow glowered at Razz as they approached the temple steps: the last thing she wanted to do was ruin all the hard work they'd done so far with Terry by making it sound like they'd only worked so hard to gain his trust so that they could get access to whatever sanctuaries and storage centers he'd sealed off. But to her surprise, Terry said hesitantly: “Maybe... we can just take a look at it together.”

“You don't have to if you don't want to, okay?” Golden Glow said, and Terry gave her a small smile as he nodded a little.

“I know. But I also know that... at some point, you have to see everything. That... I have to see everything.” Terry said after a moment, nodding before he reached up and rubbed a finger over the jewel on his chest. It shimmered brightly before his daemon wisped out of it, quickly taking form and turning to Terry curiously as he asked: “Can you help me open one of the sealed doors?”

“Yes...” Oneiros said hesitantly, before she frowned a bit and said uncertainly: “But I'm not sure, Terry... the Patrons told us not to.”

“They've done so much work on the temple, Oneiros, and I trust them. And I trust that... we don't have to listen to the Patrons' instructions anymore. We have to learn to look out for ourselves.” Terry said after a moment, and Oneiros looked torn between disapproval and anxiety. “We need to think for ourselves, too.”

“Well, we never used to.” the daemon said almost pettishly, and Golden Glow couldn't help but snort in amusement. “What? What?”

“You remind me of someone, that's all.” Golden Glow answered with a wry grin. “Tell you what, though. Razz, why don't you take us to this door in question first so that we all know what the hell you're talking about. And you can tell us why you want to start with this one, too.”

Razzmatazz nodded with a smile, turning and gesturing for them to follow, the unicorn explaining: “Well, as you know, we've done a lot of repairs to the exterior of the temple, and we've been using mapping drones to discover places where...”

Golden Glow let Razz fade into a drone in the background: she instead kept her eyes on Terry, who seemed to be trying hard to listen to Razz, but wasn't really succeeding. He was clearly nervous, anxious... and something else, too.

It was like he almost seemed reluctant to journey deeper into the temple: he trailed his hand here and there against familiar walls and paused now and then to look at their handiwork or inspect some detail Golden Glow couldn't see, but it was like he knew now that there was an entire world beyond this sanctuary, this stone womb, this... prison, that he had spent all his life locked away inside.

When they reached the door that had been sealed, Terry inspected it, and Razz continued to ramble until Golden Glow politely kicked him in the shin, making him wince and then finally shut his mouth, clearing his throat and glancing away as Terry and Oneiros briefly argued in Ionic.

Golden Glow let her own eyes wander over the door, frowning at it: she couldn't make out all of the ancient symbols on it, but if she had to guess, this dusty stone door sealed off some kind of magic laboratory or workshop. She carefully sidled past the two creatures that were grumbling at each other, the mare studying the heavy slab thoughtfully before she asked: “Is this on a gemstone rail?”

Both Terry and Oneiros stopped arguing to look at her, then winced as Golden Glow pressed her hands against the slab door, testing it as she muttered: “Doesn't slide that way... maybe if I-”

“Hey, what are you doing?” blurted Terry.

“You're gonna hurt yourself doing that, you know.” Oneiros added, and then both she and Terry looked at each other before they both sighed as Golden Glow continued to prod and shove at the door, until the daemon said reluctantly: “Fine. I'll open it. But this leads to a workshop, where we were never allowed to go. Only Patrons and their acolytes were allowed in here. I... don't feel comfortable.”

Oneiros bit her lip, but Terry smiled at her and said something gentle in Ionic, and the daemon sighed before she murmured something back. Golden Glow frowned a bit, stepping away from the door as the daemon floated in front of it for a moment, then grimaced before she became a cloud of energy that floated into the door, making the ancient symbols across its face glow brightly.

The slab rumbled, then slowly rolled to the side with a terrible grating of stone on stone, Golden Glow wincing and covering her face to protect her eyes from the hail of dust that fell from the ceiling. She grumbled a bit as she waved the settling cloud away, muttering: “Must be the first time in a thousand years this thing's been open...”

She glanced at Terry, but he hesitated at the threshold, so the mare smiled at him instead and reached up to gently squeeze his shoulder before she walked past, heading into the room beyond as she instructed: “Aeiro, I need analysis.”

“Sure thing!” Aeiro said brightly as she blinked into existence, the little seahorse AI darting quickly around Golden Glow in a circle, her supernatural glow glinting off the strange, shrouded objects that sat around the dim workshop.

A moment later, Oneiros flitted inside, followed by the slow slither of Terry, and Razzmatazz last. Terry frowned uncertainly as Oneiros studied the room, while Aeiro rattled off: “Active magical materials detected, but no risk of biohazard! Structure appears to be overall secure, but damage detected in walls and partial collapse noted! Reading indicate still-actives lines of magic-conductive gemstone in the walls...”

“I can activate them.” Oneiros said after a moment, and a moment later, gemstone lanterns flickered to life, bathing the workshop in light.

Golden Glow smiled, before the expression froze on her face as her eyes locked on precisely what this workshop had been designed to build. She heard Terry gasp beside her, the leonine creature covering his mouth, his head shaking weakly as he stared in disbelief at the worktables at the front of the room, or more precisely, the malformed bodies that rested on them.

Damaged, serpentine body-tails connected to naked, half-formed chests with rough-hewn or entirely missing limbs. These bodies were made of petrified clay and crumbled mortar, forgotten and abandoned in this damaged workshop, nothing now but evidence of what the Patrons had been doing, and...

Golden Glow looked at Terry: Terry, who didn't look like any other creature she had ever seen before. Who couldn't remember a time before his Patrons, or when he had been a child. Who could turn to stone on command, and learned as fast as her AI...

Oneiros floated down, staring in horror, before she winced when Terry spun around and bolted out of the room, the daemon sparking out of existence as she was yanked back into the crystal by her invisible tether. Razzmatazz yelped as he was shoved aside before he called after the snake, and Golden Glow winced as she ran after him, followed quickly by Aeiro.

But Terry was too fast, knew every secret, every niche of the temple, and he vanished long before she could hope to catch up to him. Golden Glow was left standing stupidly at an intersection, a few passing workers staring at her in confusion before the mare cursed and headed quickly back to the workshop.

She found Razz standing over one of the bodies, the unicorn looking up and murmuring a quiet apology, but Golden Glow shook her head and muttered: “Garbage timing, but you didn't know. Hell, I was the one who tried to open the damn door.”

She sighed a little, then glanced at Aeiro, who smiled supportively before saying firmly: “Terry will be fine, I know it! He just needs time, and your support, Goldie! It's really important he knows he's your friend!”

“I... yeah. I'll try.” Golden Glow said after a moment, and then she sighed as she looked down at one of the clay bodies, silently rubbing a finger over a crumbled arm and grimacing as the dismembered, disjointed limb collapsed in a quiet puff of dust. “So do you think...”

Razz shrugged, then he said awkwardly: “We need to uh... I know it's... I mean...”

“We need to preserve what we can, I know, I know. Celestia knows that makes me feel terrible, but...” Golden Glow sighed and rubbed at her face, then she bit her lip before saying finally: “Let's let Terry come back in his own time, and... find out what we can here. Not for the Guild though, we can relate our findings afterwards to them, but... right now, let's try and concentrate on getting answers for Terry. I'm sure when he comes back, he's going to want to know what the hell was going on here.”

“You think-”

“Yes.” Golden Glow cut off, looking flatly at Razzmatazz, and he winced before the mare sighed and rubbed at her cheek, then smiled awkwardly. “Sorry. Yeah, he's... he's a tough little guy, believe it or not. He'll pull through. He'll want answers. I just... I just hope that he knows no matter where he started, it doesn't change the fact there's a whole world waiting for him out there, and... it doesn't change the fact he's a person. A weird little guy, but a person nonetheless. Not a...”

“Yeah.” Razzmatazz said after a moment, giving his own small smile.

Golden Glow nodded firmly as Aeiro gave a little cheer, but as the mare looked back at the constructs on their worktables, she couldn't help but wonder silently how Terry was going to recover for this, and if there really was anything at all she could to help him.