G5 Adventures in Treasure Buddies

The unexpected betrayal of the century had finally been revealed.

Not only did Ubasti have her own agenda in mind, but Dr. Wellington had been revealed to be nothing but a grave robber, threatening Skye and Pete’s lives if Mariama and Thomas didn’t lead him right to Cleocatra’s tomb.

Of course, Mariama and Thomas both knew they had no choice.

They couldn't endanger the lives of their loved ones because they despised Dr. Wellington and all grave robbers... they would never forgive themselves.

So throughout that next night, Skye stayed huddled up to her mother, fearing for her life and all of their lives, hoping that the next day would provide them with a way out of this dastardly and quite sickening situation.

XXXXXXXX

That night was probably the best night of sleep that the Mane 6 and their friends ever had since this adventure started-- the desert night was cool, and the fact they were surrounded by their friends made things a lot more reassuring, especially for Violette and Mudbud, who couldn’t shake the fact that Thomas, Pete, Mariama and Skye were in some serious trouble.

By the time the sun began to rise the next morning, the tribe was already busy, and a hot air balloon was being set up a few yards from where the Buddies, the Mane 6, Violette and their friends were watching.

Eventually, Violette had to ask about the event. “What are they doing?”

“They are sending balloon up in sky,” Babi explained to the unicorn filly, “to look for bad man and cat.”

“And Babi thinks,” said Faith, “that this is the best way to find your friends. Traveling by air as a lot faster.”

“Now you’re speaking my language!” Zipp said, spreading her wings. “Let’s get up into the sky and find the others!”

“Hold on a second, Zipp,” Faith said to the white pegasus princess warily. “The winds up here in Egypt can be a little… much at times. It would be dangerous for you flyers to be up there without knowing these lands very well. You better ride in the balloon with the rest of us.”

“Aw, man…” Zipp groaned out of frustration. “Let me get this straight, monkey and fox dudes,” said Mudbud, wanting to clarify what Babi and Faith were saying. “You want us to fly up in that balloon?”

“Babi…” Rosebud looked over at the monkey warily, “...do you know how to fly that thing?”

“Babi is good pilot,” Babi said with a comforting nod. “The best.”

Faith then stuck her tail up into the air, waiting for a moment before smiling and nodding over at Babi. “The wind is blowing in the right direction.”

And once the wind’s direction had been confirmed, Babi and Faith snuck over to the hot air balloon and climbed into it. “Quick, friends!” Babi beckoned the others. “Come!”

“You heard the monkey, team!” Sunny said urgingly. “Let’s move out!”

The Buddies, the Mane 6 and Violette quickly climbed into the basket of the hot air balloon, even though it was a bit of a slight squeeze, and Babi then used his dagger to cut the rope holding the hot air balloon close to the ground.

Cammy and Tirako were there to wish their friends a safe trip, and Cammy looked up at the group as the balloon began to rise into the sky. “Buddies, I can never thank you and your friends enough.”

“Bye, kids!” Mala bid farewell. “Be careful!” Haruma warned. “And be safe!”

“Bye, Tirako and Haruma!” Misty waved cheerfully. “Bye, Cammy! Bye, Mala!” Rosebud bid farewell. “I hope we see you again!”

“Good luck, everybody!” Tirako called out as he waved to his friends, watching them go out of sight while many of the Bedouins, including Farah’s father, watched in shock as the balloon, their only key to finding the others, floated out of sight.

XXXXXXXX

Pipp sighed as she felt the wind blowing past her face. “I know we’re not actually flying ourselves,” she admitted, “but… it feels good to be up in the air again.”

“I’ll say,” Zipp said, smiling in agreement as she shook some sand from her body. “I’ll never be able to get all this sand out from under my wings.”

“Keep your eyes open, guys,” Hitch said as he tried to watch the desert sands below. “The vehicles that Babi mentioned back at the oasis must be down there somewhere.”

“Right,” Sunny nodded, keeping her eyes on the sands below as well. “And where those vehicles are, the others can’t be too far away.”

So that’s just what the group did-- they kept their eyes on everything, hoping for anything that might point to where their friends were.

And after a while of flying over the dunes, Mudbud eventually did see one of the vehicles below. “Look! It's the bad dude's Jeep!”

“You’re right, Mudbud!” Violette agreed. “And since the truck is gone, that must be what they took to keep going.”

“Hurry!” Izzy said, pushing against the side of the hot air balloon slightly to try and get it to go in that direction. “Follow those tire tracks!”

“Sorry, Izzy,” Faith apologized with a slight frown, “but Babi doesn’t control the wind-- Allah does.”

XXXXXXXX

It was a cold, stony silence down in the truck, and Thomas drove the criminals holding him, Pete and the zebra family hostage right to where he thought Cleocatra's tomb was resting. And then, after a while, they eventually stopped, with Thomas climbing out of the truck first. “I think this is it, Peter.”

“Thank goodness…” Skye muttered softly. “I really need to stretch my legs…”

But as they got out, Dr. Wellington didn’t see anything pointing to the tomb right away, his frustration steadily growing. “So... hmm? Where is it?”

“I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” Mariama said, trying to back Thomas up. “We can feel the energy.”

“But I have a plan too,” Zipp said, pulling out her magic whistle. “If we can get close enough to Mariama, Skye and the others, they’ll be able to hear the whistle, and they might be able to spot us!”

“Let’s give it a try, Zipp,” Sunny said before covering her ears with her hooves. “But everypony cover your ears-- this is gonna get loud pretty fast!”

XXXXXXXX

“The energy?!” Dr. Wellington said, shuddering mockingly before turning to Mariama and Thomas out of anger. “You worthless twits! You've led us nowhere!”

“Don’t call my mom a worthless twit, you big meanie!” Skye shouted in defiance as a strange sound got Pete’s attention. “If she thinks the tomb is here, then its… huh?”

Skye began to hear the same sound Pete was hearing, and as Pete got out his binoculars and searched around, he saw the same hot air balloon our heroes were riding in, and the sound appeared to be coming from it as well. “Skye, do you see that?”

“Yeah, and I hear it too,” Skye nodded. “It sounds like Zipp’s whistle! But since the others being in Egypt is impossible, it must be somebody else that's looking for us!”

“Grandpa, look!” Pete said as he pointed up into the sky. “A balloon!”

Thomas and Mariama soon saw the balloon and heard the whistle as well, but since he couldn’t let Dr. Wellington know that they were being searched for, Thomas knew he would have to stretch the truth a bit. “Oh, don't be silly, Peter. There are no baboons in the desert. I think maybe you and Skye have been out in the sun too long. You should drink some water.”

XXXXXXXX

Zipp panted tiredly as she finally put her whistle away. “Okay… that’s all the breath I can put into this whistle for now,” she said to the others. “We just need to keep our eyes open for anything out of the ordinary-- that'll lead us right to them.”

But after a few seconds, Violette gasped excitedly as she saw the truck, along with all of their friends and loved ones, right near the truck. “Guys! There they are!”

“You’re right, Violette!” Izzy cheered. “We found them!”

“Come on, dudes!” Mudbud urged excitedly. “Let’s land this puppy!”

However, this remark was enough to confuse Babi slightly. “Land?”

“Babi?” Faith looked over toward her monkey friend. “Please tell me you know how to land this thing.”

However, Babi shifted a bit uncomfortably to this. “This part Babi is not so familiar with.”

“Oh, great!” B-Dawg seemed extremely worried. “We're just gonna float away forever!”

“Don’t worry, B-Dawg,” Buddha said calmly. “Panic is a wasted emotion.”

“But Buddha, the wind is too strong for us to try and pull the balloon down ourselves!” Sunny argued as Hitch tried to catch his hat, which was blowing away in the strong winds. “If we don’t find a way down soon, the wind could pull us in a different direction!”

“Babi know what make balloon go down,” Babi then reassured after getting an idea. “Hold on!”

“Gee,” said Zipp sarcastically, “what else are we gonna do?”

Babi then put the handle of his dagger in his teeth, and then began to climb up to the top of the hot air balloon while Faith and the others stayed in the basket. And once he got to a good vantage point, Babi poked a large hole in the side of the balloon, causing the air to slowly start leaking out.

This ought to get the balloon down to the ground.

However, what Babi didn't anticipate was the balloon starting to descend a lot faster than anticipated, causing the Buddies and Violette to start getting rather frightened. “Forget about what I said before,” Buddha said to the others as Babi laughed nervously. “Time to panic!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” the others screamed at the top of their lungs, but even with Zipp and Pipp flapping their wings, they couldn’t get the balloon to slow down enough to make a safe descent. “Hold on, everybody!” Faith cried out. “We’re going in for a crash landing!”

And that’s just what happened-- the balloon crashed onto a nearby dune before rolling down the hill at a rapid pace, causing the group to scream again as they were thrown from the balloon’s basket and out into the sand, getting insanely dizzy in the process.

But, while they were dizzy, none of them were harmed.

Everyone groaned out of dizziness, and Babi sighed and put a hand on top of his head. “Babi is dizzy.”

“You can say that again, dawg,” B-Dawg groaned, causing Babi to sigh and put his hand on his head again. “Babi is dizzy.”

“He didn’t mean literally! He…” Pipp groaned to herself. “Never mind…”

“Come on, guys,” Misty said, getting onto her hooves and beginning to move forward. “The others aren’t far away-- there’s still a chance we can catch up.”

XXXXXXXX

Mariama hummed in thought as she felt her mane begin to blow around in a sudden gust of wind. “It feels like there’s a sandstorm coming in.”

“A sandstorm?” Skye’s eyes widened. “Have you ever got caught in one before?”

“Once or twice, so I’ve learned when to recognize the signs,” Mariama explained, but Dr. Wellington seemed a bit reluctant to believe it. “No, nonsense. Just a little breeze,” he dismissed the zebra mare's concern before turning to look at Seti and Tarik, gesturing to a nearby sand dune. “You two. Go to the top of that dune and have a look around.”

XXXXXXXX

The Mane 6, the Buddies, Violette, Babi and Faith were on their way to find the others, hiking across the desert sands once again, when all of a sudden, Sunny felt a strange sensation wash over her… and it seemed to be coming from the silver sun brooch that Mariama had given her back in Fernfield. “Huh?”

“Sunny, look!” Rosebud commented. “Your brooch is glowing!”

Sunny looked down and realized that Rosebud was right-- her brooch was glowing, and it was glowing rather brightly. “Mariama said that the brooch would glow if we were near danger, but… I don’t see anything around here that says ‘danger’... do you?”

However, when Faith looked around, she gasped, her ears folding back in fright. “I definitely see something-- look!”

The others looked where the little fox was pointing with her paw, seeing a huge cloud of sand rolling in their direction, causing Babi to gasp as well. “It is a sandstorm!”

“A sandstorm?!” Zipp groaned in anger as the wind blew Budderball’s fez right off his head. “Just great! Literally just what we needed!”

XXXXXXXX

Seti and Tarik had just finished climbing to the top of the sand dune by this point, and when Seti saw the sandstorm heading in their direction, he instantly began to panic, heading back down the dune as fast as his feet could take him. “Ahh! Run! RUUUUUUUN!!!!”

“Run for the truck, kids!” Thomas picked Pete up into his arms while Mariama and Skye ran for the truck as well, leaving Dr. Wellington to freeze in place as Seti and Tarik ran by. “Be safe, Mr. Wellington!” Seti cried out. “Run, Mr. Wellington!”

And seeing that he had no other choice, Dr. Wellington ran for the truck as well, getting inside just as the ;arge sandstorm began to get closer and closer to their location.

XXXXXXXX

“What are we gonna do, Sunny?!” Misty asked their leader in panic. “You know from experience we can’t outrun a sandstorm!”

“No, but maybe we can out-think it!” Sunny reasoned. “There has to be somewhere we can hide!”

That was when Faith spotted a small cave inside another sand dune, instantly getting an idea so crazy, it just might work. “Quick, guys!” she shouted, gesturing toward the cave with her paw. “We can take shelter in that cave!”

“In other words, run!” Zipp shouted to her friends, and the group immediately took off for the cave at a very fast sprint, with Violette and Faith trailing behind the group because of their smaller legs.

After a moment, they were able to get inside the cave, and they stopped once they were safely inside, with Misty, Izzy and Violette using their horns as temporary light sources. “This is most fortunate, my friends,” Babi told the group. “We shall be safe here until the storm passes.”

“Hey, Babi?” Hitch pointed out a lantern that was sitting not too far away. “Think you can light that lantern so we can have more light?”

“Absolutely!” Faith nodded. “Babi, maybe this is a good time to use those matches we, uh… borrowed a week or two back.”

Babi nodded and brought out one of the matches he had in his pocket, lighting it and using it to light the lantern before shining it around the cave. Turns out, this cave had a tomb-like interior, and on the wall was an entrance that looked like a giant snake…

…something that caused B-Dawg to scream, hiding behind Izzy in worry. “Dawgs! This is really freaking me out.”

“What… is this place?” Violette asked, not wanting to admit that she too was a bit nervous. “Call me crazy,” Pipp admitted, “but I think this is some sort of secret entrance used by those who built Cleocatra's tomb!”

“Yes,” Babi confirmed, “but this secret entrance is protected by a large serpent.”

“Serpent?” Budderball questioned. “What’s that?”

“It’s a really big snake,” Faith explained before shuddering. “Babi and I can’t stand snakes.”

“Ah!” B-Dawg groaned. For once can't something be easy peasy? Why can't it be protected by a bunny rabbit or something vegetarian?”

“Snake or no snake, we’re so close to finding the collar and sparing everybody from Ubasti’s evil scheme,” Zipp said. “But like Cleopatra’s tomb, we probably won’t be able to use our magic in here.”

“Oh, great,” Mudbud groaned. “So what’ll we do then?”

“We’ll just have to work together as a team, like we always do,” Sunny said gently. “And not let anything scare us, no matter how hard they try.”

Suddenly, a hissing sound reached Mudbud’s ears, and he and Misty turned to see a large serpent slithering their way, causing Mudbud to gulp nervously. “Uh, dudes, long, creepy, slimy thing at 12 o'clock.”

“Oh no!” Sunny gasped. “It must be the serpent!”

“I am afraid where you go, I cannot follow, Buddies!” Babi said before screeching in panic and running right out of the cave. “Babi! You get back here!” Violette called. “We need you to help us!”

“Uh… not to worry, ponies!” Faith reassured, though slightly panicked. “I’ll go get Babi, and then we’ll go and find help-- I promise! BABI!!! WAIT FOR ME!!!”

And just like that, Faith had run after Babi, leaving our group susceptible to the serpent closing in on them. But while the ponies seemed unsure of what to do, Buddha made the first move, sitting right in front of the snake. “Buddha?” Hitch seemed surprised by the pup’s calm behavior. “What in Equestria are you doing?!”

“Calm yourself, Hitch,” Buddha said calmly as the snake slithered up to him, looking Buddha right in the eyes. “I am Slither,” the snake calmly introduced. “The serpent protector of Cleocatra's tomb.”

“That… thing has a name?!” Pipp whispered to Zipp, who quietly shushed her. “We were hoping,” Buddha explained to Slither, “to secure your permission to enter the tomb.”

“It’s kind of important,” Sunny said. “All dogkind, humankind and creature-kind may depend on it!”

However, Slither was dead set in his ways. “I was put here to protect the tomb from all those who would seek its riches without wisdom. Only the descendants of Buddasi may pass.”

“But how do we know for sure that the Buddies are descendants of Buddasi?” Violette asked the older ponies with worry, but Slither, already looking at Buddha again, already had a challenge in mind. “You,” he told Buddha, “must look me in the eyes. If I can hypnotize you, then your intentions are not pure, and you will become my supper.”

Budderball couldn’t help but grimace at the sound of this. “That's the worst dinner invite I've ever heard.”

“And if I can hypnotize you?” Buddha asked, leaving Slither to propose another part of the challenge. “Then you are descendants of Buddasi, guardian of man, and I will let you pass.”

“...perfect,” Zipp smiled. “This might actually work.”

“What?!” Pipp looked stunned. “Sis, what are you talking about? Buddha doesn’t have hypnosis magic!”

“No… but you have something that might help us,” Zipp whispered back, gesturing to the flute Mariama had given her back in Fernfield. “If you can use that magic whistle to provide Buddha with some music, he might be able to charm the snake into submission!”

“Ohhhhh… I get what you’re saying!” Pipp said with a wink before looking at Buddha, getting out her flute. “Whenever you’re ready, Buddha.”

Buddha nodded to this, and then turned to face Slither again. “I accept your challenge.”

Hitch whimpered nervously to this, covering his eyes with his hooves. “I sure hope this works…”

“Believe me, Hitch,” Zipp whispered. “I do too.”

Pipp took a few moments to prepare herself, then began to play a snake charmer's tune on her flute, her eyes closed in precision as the tune continued. And as the tune played, Buddha stared right into Slither's eyes and began to chant to his own accord. “Shanti, shanti, shanti…”

The other ponies and Buddies watched this in slight trepidation, worrying that Buddha's calm nature and Pipp's musical talent might not be enough to charm the snake.

But, after a few moments of Pipp's flute playing and Buddha's calm chanting, Slither's eyes slowly closed, becoming completely entranced by the duo's calmness and talent.

Rosebud was the first to silently gasp to this. “He’s gone…”

“Buddha, Pipp!” Izzy gasped. “You won!”

“Way to go, dudes!”

“Yay, Pipp!”

“All right, Buddha!”

“That was incredible!”

Pipp giggled slightly at her friends’ praise. “Thanks, ponies… but Buddha was the real snake charmer. I just helped.”

Slither slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at Buddha, a smile now on his scaly face. “You are the descendants of Buddasi! I have been waiting so long for you. You and your friends may pass, but beware of what's ahead, for there are more tests along this path.”

“Trust me,” Hitch said with a nervous sounding chuckle. “We are well aware.”

Slither then turned back toward the entrance to the tomb, and fire spit out from the snake’s mouth, lighting the oil torches that lined the hallways, much to everyone's slight surprise and intimidation. And once the oil torches were lit, Slither turned his attention back to the group. “If you need Slither again, I will be here... waiting,” he said before slithering to the snake-shaped hole in the wall. “Good luck, ponies and Buddies.”

And with that, the snake had disappeared once more. “Okay, you guys heard the snake,” Misty said sternly. “We’ve gotta be careful.”

“Misty’s right,” Zipp nodded. “You never know what's around the next corner.”

“I-In that case,” B-Dawg stammered, “ladies first!”

“Collar of Cleocatra,” said Violette with excitement in her tone, “here we come!”

And so, the group made their way inside the tomb, and as long as they stuck close together, they were ready for whatever dangers lay ahead of them.

Or at least... this is what they hoped.