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// Regaining Self-Confidence, Part 3 
// Story: The Legacy Of Darkness 
// by Darkness 1 
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Snowshy and the others woke up early the next morning, and Snowshy had a lot on her mind from the night before, but focused on what she had to do now: support Twilight and her friends as they continue to try to rediscover their self-confidence. As everypony packed up the campsite, Twilight noticed Snowshy's expression, and she came over to her, and she said, "What's wrong Snowshy?" She paused for a moment, and then said, "Darkness, isn't it? I've seen you with that expression before. He told you something that's probably not good news is it?"
Snowshy looked at Twilight, and said, "You're right, Twilight, it isn't." She took a breath, and said, "But we should go to the others, they need to know this as well."
Twilight nodded, and they both went over to the others, and Twilight called everypony's attention, and said, "Everypony, before we get going, it would seem Darkness visited Snowshy here last night with some bad news, from the sounds of it."
Rarity said, "More bad news? How much worse could things get?"
Snowshy said, "Like one-hundred times worse, or more."
Rainbow Dash said with some sarcasm, "Well, this ought'd be good..."
Snowshy then began to explain what Darkness had told her about him holding back the time rifts as best as he can, and about Parallex, The Chaotic One, and how he was banished and imprisoned, by The Gods Of Equestria."
Applejack said, "Okay, I see, but from what you just said, Parallex is imprisoned, right? So we have nothing to worry about, right?" As she said this, she looked around at everypony, and she said, "Right?"
Snowshy shook her head, and said, "Wrong, that is just the thing, he may be imprisoned, but maybe not for much longer."
Rarity was the sarcastic one this time, as she said, "I should've figured, there is always a catch to things like this."
Snowshy then told them, about how Darkness had told her, that their time, to rediscover Twilight and the other's self-confidence, was now shorter than first thought, because Darkness cannot keep control of the time rifts forever, and that the time rifts might, by some small chance, connect to Parallex's prison world, and it would bring him here, because all the time rifts are tied to this world, in this present time, because of Arrovak, by him continuing to draw power from time, among other things, and Snowshy also told them what to look out for, and what Parallex looks like, if Parallex escapes, and what to do, if Parallex escapes.
Everypony was silent for a minute, and Twilight said, "Well, this is definitely a cause for worry, but at the same time..."
Rainbow Dash finished the sentence, and said, "This gives us all more reason, to keep pressing forward, as quick as we can! You all heard Snowshy, our time has just gotten a lot shorter, so that means we all got to try that much harder!"
Pinkie Pie said, "You know, I like the way you think!"
Applejack said, "Shucks, I'm in."
Fluttershy said, "We got to do this, this is no way around it now."
Rarity said, "It's all or nothing!"
Silver Sky said, "Let's do this!"
Twilight said, "You're all right, everypony ready?"
Everypony put their hooves together in a circle, and they all clapped each other's hooves, as they all said in unison, "Yeah!" And then, they put their hooves back down.
Twilight then turned Applejack and said, "Lead the way, you have the sword, we'll follow you."
Applejack nodded, and said, "Everypony! Follow me! Let's get going! We don't have the time for sightseeing! We need to regain our self-confidence, and get back to Celestia and the others, as soon as possible!"
Everypony nodded, and Applejack set off, and they all followed her deeper into the forest, hopeful, and more determined than ever. After an hour or two, Applejack suddenly stopped, and just stood there, looking up.
Twilight saw Applejack stop, and stopped as well, and said, "Applejack? What's wrong? What do you see?"
Applejack said nothing, so Twilight went around her, and stood beside her, and followed her gaze, and her mouth dropped.
The others except for Snowshy weren't paying attention, and bumped into each other, and then noticed that Snowshy had gone around Applejack and Twilight, and was looking up as well.
The others, then did the same thing as Applejack finally spoke, and she said, "Holy moly!"
Twilight could only say, "I don't believe it.......I never thought it was real...."
The others had similar responses, with Rarity saying, "That thing is huge!"
Rainbow Dash said, "It is pretty big, and I've seen some massive places before, but this...."
Fluttershy finished Rainbow Dash's sentence, by saying, "It is was bigger than that...way, way bigger."
Pinkie Pie seemed at a loss for words, and couldn't say anything, Snowshy only said, "Darkness would've loved to see this, he loves discoveries like this.."
Silver Sky said nothing, and Rarity only said, "Somepony please tell me, we don't have to go all the way up there? Can't we, oh say, go through it? Or maybe around it?"
Everypony looked around, as they fully began to examine the massive structure, and saw that there were huge stone walls surrounding the massive structure, and a massive stone bridge that lead to a large entrance, a little ways in front of them.
Rainbow Dash said, "Okay, it's huge, there's no way around it, so it seems we have no choice. We are going to have to enter it, but what the heck am I looking at here?"
Snowshy answered the question, "Thanks to being personally taught by my brother, in everything he knew, I was say, based on how big it is, and it's step-like appearance, all the way to the top. I would say, we are looking at some very old, perhaps ancient, temple, of some sort anyways, perhaps a long lost relic of the civilization that came before me and my brother's kind, the ancient ones. "
Twilight said, "Snowshy's right, it clearly seems to be some sort of temple, but that also means...."
Rainbow Dash finished Twilight's sentence and said, "Traps, lots and lots of traps, oh great..."
Rarity said, "Oh it can't be all that bad, some really old trap, what's it going to be able to do to us, being so old, and in disrepair? Besides, they probably don't even work anymore, so what's to worry about?" Rarity saw Rainbow Dash looked at her with a scowl, and said, "What?"
Rainbow Dash said with sarcasm, "Clearly you need to get outside more often."
Rarity said, "What are you talking about? I get outside plenty! I go from my boutique in Ponyville, and then to my other boutiques, quite often, so I think..."
Rainbow Dash cut Rarity off, and said with a scoff, "Ugh...never mind, clearly you missed the point..."
Twilight brought back everypony's attention, and said, "Anyways....we are wasting time here like this, we need to keep moving, we have already lost too much time bickering like this, Applejack, if you would please, let's keep going."
Applejack said, "Alright then, into the temple we go!"
Nopony said anything else, and followed Applejack across the bridge, and into the temple, as the large stone door, slammed shut on the entrance, preventing anypony from going back, and torches then lit up, illuminating a very long, but large hallway.
Silver Sky said, "Well, no going back now.."
Twilight said, "Well, when my friends and I regain our self-confidence, we'll have to find another way back. But we'll worry about that, as we are ready to head back, for now, let's just focus, and keep pressing forward."
Just then, they heard maniacal laughter, and a rather familiar voice said, "You won't leave this temple alive! Fools! You thought you actions have gone noticed? This place shall be your GRAVE!!! HAHAHAHA!!!"
The voice faded away, and Rainbow Dash actually broke into a cold sweat, and said, "Was....was...that who I think it was?"
Twilight said, "No, it was Arrovak, I'm not sure how he found out, but he seems to know what we are trying to do, and means to stop us or slow us down, but either way,  we need to get out of here quickly."
Everypony shook their heads in agreement, and began to run down the hall, and just then, the ceiling behind them opened up, and dropped large sharp rotating discs that were catching up to them, as well as the floor was falling apart behind them, was quickly catching up to them, and as they keep running, they all saw that as the floor behind them gave way, there was a massive pool of lava beneath the floor, and Silver Sky said, "Clearly Arrovak wants of us dead."
Applejack replied, "Don't let it bother you! Just keep running!"
Rarity said, "Easy for you to say! We also have very sharp, might I add, disc-like things coming straight for us! And fast!"
Twilight said, "Just keep going!"
Applejack said, "The door ahead is closing! We are not going to make it! It's already halfway closed!"
Twilight said, "We'll make it! We have to make it!"
Everypony ran with all they had in them, and Applejack said, and tried to slide underneath the door, but the door closed, and she slid and slammed onto it, and she quickly got up, and began looking around, while the others were catching up, and then she saw to the right of her, that there was an open door down another hall, and she said, "Everypony! This way!"
Everypony did so, and Silver was behind everypony else, and went to turn to the right, but the floor gave way, and he began to fall, but Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, were right there, on the other side, and caught his hoof, and pulled him up, and as they all got to the hallway, another door slammed shut behind them and almost smashed Silver Sky's left hoof, had he not pulled it in a second before. And as everypony regained their breath, Fluttershy asked, "The way is closed, how do we get out of here now?"
Snowshy said, "There has got to be another way out of here, and the only way we are going to find out, is to keep going."
Twilight said, "Snowshy's right, we have no time anymore to think on things, we need to get out of here, I don't even know how much time we have anymore, regardless, it can't end here."
Rainbow Dash said with a fierce look, "I won't let it end here!"
Twilight said, "That's the spirit! Shall we all keep going?"
Everypony shook their heads, and they all went down the hall, and through the door, which also slammed shut behind them as well. Rarity said with sarcasm, "Yeah, Arrovak wants us dead."
Silver Sky said, "Well, he's getting annoying."
Applejack said "You said it, no kidding."
They all were silent, as they began looking around the area they walked into: it was a massive and rather tall, labyrinth, with many doors going in every direction all around the room, and some door openings, were in the ceiling as well. There also seemed to be switches and stairs scattered around in the room, and scattered all over were large scales, with nothing on them, but had large onyx stones next to each of them, and a massive, closed square door with ornate carvings was in the floor of the center of the room.
Silver Sky now spoke with sarcasm, "Great......puzzles.....just what I always wanted.....dammit! I'm no good at these type of things."
Fluttershy said, "It's okay, we are here together, so we'll figure it out....eventually..."
Rainbow Dash was getting frustrated, and said, "Ughhhh!!! Wonderful!!! Just what we needed! A stinking labyrinth, with probably our way out of the freaking temple, is probably right in front of us, closed, so we are never going get out of here!"
Twilight said, "Rainbow Dash, calm down, it's okay, if we all split up, we'll figure out this puzzle quicker."
Rainbow Dash paused, thought about it for a moment, and said, "Hmm...that makes sense, I hadn't thought about that, oops, I'm sorry you guys, it's just with the threat of so many lives on the line here...maybe I'm losing my nerve..."
Twilight and the others went towards Rainbow Dash, and Twilight said, "I understand how you feel, and we all might be too, but if we give up now, and die here, who save the rest of Equestria? Or even an entire galaxy for that matter? The Princesses, and Luna's and Darkness's children, will not be enough to defeat the evil that's out there, on a rampage, they need us, and we need each other." Twilight paused, and then addressed everypony, and said, "I think I understand what Darkness was talking about clearly now, this is exactly what's wrong with us, for so long, we have relied on him to save us, to guide us, even protect us. We lost the one thing we always had before we met him: all we had was each other. Our friendship and us relying on each other, to always be there for each other, which always saw us though, no matter how bad things got, or how powerful any evil was, we conquered it, one after another. But I think after seeing just a glimpse of Darkness's power, I for one, felt very small compared to him, I felt like I couldn't help anypony anymore, that I wasn't capable of the task anymore, so I for one, just....I don't know, took a step back...I feel like we all did this,  I feel like we let Darkness do all the work, except for Snowshy, she gave it her all then, and she continues to do so now, even as these days look darker than ever, and the end seems very possible. So I for one, I owe Darkness so much, he died for us, he died so we could all live to see a better future, heck, even to see just a tomorrow. We have all let him down, by continuing to be like this.." A light seemed to flicker in her eyes, and she said with strong, determined voice, "Everypony, we must regain our self-confidence, here and now, if we don't, I am afraid we will never get out of here, think hard, reach deep inside of yourselves, and I want you all to see that we were never weak, we made ourselves weak in front of so many that have depended on us! I ask you all, think back to what we all accomplished together, before Darkness came into the picture: we have saved the world, time and time again, with elements of harmony, hey, we even because of everypony's efforts, we killed a villain, if anypony had faltered in their role, we wouldn't had lived to see another day, against any of the evils and dangers we have all faced together, over the years. So everypony, I for one, cannot keep going on like this, I must regain what I have lost, I think we should all take a moment, and find that self-confidence once more." It was at this moment, that the room was silent, and nopony said anything, as they all thought about what Twilight had just said.