"Don't touch anything!" The stallion snapped, frowning at the pair. Discord carefully put down a hawk skull and grinned, blushing slightly. Hurmphing to himself, the stallion turned away from them again, and began to dig through a pile of ancient scrolls, until he finally found what he was looking for. With a grunt of satisfaction, he smoothed the scroll out on the only free surface in the room, and began to inspect it. Peering over his shoulder, Discord soon saw it was some kind of strange map.
The pony poured over the map for a while, studying the strange runes and symbols, seemingly recalling the clues it held, then grumbled and looked at the two draconequui in disguise. "Are you at least familiar with the history of the object you seek?" He asked them, somewhat wearily.
"You don't know anything about it!?" The stallion asked, incredulously. Discord shook her head, timidly. "I'm afraid I wasn't there..." The stallion sighed and rolled his eyes. "You know the ring was designed to trick a female draconequus, yes? Well she went by the name of Karlenziah, and she came to this desert to seek the same item you do now."
Aborel blinked. "really?" she said, amazed at how similar, yet completely opposite their situation was
The stallion nodded. "Indeed. I believe she found the lair of the one responsible for her transformation, but she never returned." He stroked his beard, and looked back at the map. "This map marks said location, but there is a problem; this area is a dune sea, and the dunes are constantly shifting, covering any ruins there are to be found. I have spent my life searching them for the secrets they hold." He sighed, and looked out the window at the deep red sun setting over the sand.
The pony turned back from the window and looked at the map again. "Unfortunately, that map only gives it's position relative to towns and ruins which have all since been covered by the sands themselves. I have found that one circled for sure, but the others... I'm afraid I'll just have to wait until the winds uncover them..." Discord bit her lip and looked at Aborel. "What if... what if we could help you clear the sand?" She asked, hesitantly. "There's no way two unicorns alone could move that much sand," The stallion replied, sighing and looking back out of the window.
"how do you know that?" Aborel said. "maybe we can." she wondered if the stallion would help them if he knew they were draconequii
Discord looked over at Aborel, then gave her a nod. The room was small, and with a flash, a good portion of it was taken up by a female draconequus with a fluffy pink tail tip.
The flashes of light and sound caused the stallion to turn around again, and gasp at what he saw before him. "Celestia's horn!" He cried, sitting back on his haunches, flabbergasted.
"What about... wha?" The stallion stuttered, looking from one draconequus to the other. He blinked, then finally realised what she was talking about. "Oh, the sand? Yes, yes I believe it might...."
"Well... I, um... yes... I suppose..." The pony replied, standing up and trying to regain his composure. Much as he was shocked at the revelation that there were two draconequui standing in his home, he didn't want to waste this opportunity to complete one of his life's works. "The first set of ruins are already uncovered, only a short walk from here," He said, gathering up the map and leading them out of the hut, then following a well trodden path into the dunes.
Discord floated alongside her. Thankfully they were far enough away from the town to avoid attracting any attention, and they soon arrived at the half-buried ruins without incident. "Well... according to the map, there should be a ruined temple about half a league South of here..." The stallion said, scanning the horizon.
