The inside of the chamber was moist, and smelled odd. Perhaps it is hard for one to understand what it smelt like, but it would be similar the smell of grass clippings coupled with some compost and the smell one gets after rain has hit the pavement on a summer's day. As the pony landed on the side of what appeared to be some kind of stone water duct, the oppressive scent filled her nostrils and she wrinkled her nose.
"Yuck, this thing probably hasn't been dredged out in centuries," said Daring, speaking to herself, "It's a wonder it still functions."
The pony shimmied further inwards as the side walkway grew thinner and thinner. Her left side was pressed up against the stone wall, while she felt the spray of water droplets on her right as the water rushed past. Without sufficient lighting she couldn't tell if there was anything significant for markings on the wall, and as an archaeologist she felt that she was missing the opportunity to investigate a lost part of this ancient culture. However, her desire to survive and hide from the gryphons outweighed her curiosity.
She reached a point where the water turned to the right, and there was no walkway. There appeared to be some kind of walkway to the left, but a quick investigation revealed this to be unusable. A cave-in further ahead had blocked the path off entirely. Sighing, Daring did the only thing she could, and stepped into the waist-deep water.
Though it reached halfway up her side, Daring was able to keep from getting washed away. A level of muck had built up in the bottom of the duct, and by digging her hooves in she was able to work against the current, slowly making her way upstream and going down the right tunnel. Cracks in the wall revealed bits of sunlight, and Daring was given a dim visibility as she waded on. She turned another corner, and continued wading through the murky water until she came to an are where the paths branched again. This time, the water went to the left while there was a walkway to the right. Daring was more than glad to get out of the water and up onto the stone floor of the walkway. Her entire side was covered in mud, and Daring shook it off as best she could, scraping her hooves against the cold stone to clear herself of the muck.
Now Daring could see some kind of an upwards slope. Again, cracks in the walls and ceiling revealed bits of light and made it possible for her to see inside the area. The walls, ceiling, and floor were in poor shape. The stone was tinged green with moss, and jungle vines had long overtaken anything resembling carvings and made them illegible. Mosquitoes buzzed around the pony's head, and Daring swatted at them as she made her way up the slope. The sound of rushing water faded behind her, and she reached the top of the slope. If she wasn't mistaken, this was some kind of hallway inside of a temple or some kind of important building. The walls were cramped in some places, and spacious in the other, and there was a sense of twisting and turning. Daring's progression was hindered by the presence of a very large rock in the middle of a hallway.
Daring attempted to look over it. Ahead, the hall sloped down, though there was not enough space to simply fly over the rock. The rock itself presented her with some curiosities. For one, it was spherical. It didn't seem to be there naturally- some pony had carved this long ago and had placed it here for a reason. Perhaps it had been intended to keep ponies from travelling through. But then- how would that work? What would it do, keep ponies from acessing the water? Perhaps it had been placed there to prevent one from doing what Daring herself was now attempting to do- enter the temple from the outside. This made sense, but it didn't help Daring at all. She had to be able to get past.
Frustrated, Daring threw herself against the rock. To her surprised, it budged, scraping the sides of the wall and rumbling. Daring blinked. She was getting an idea now. She pressed against the rock again, though harder this time and tried to sustain the motion. The rock moved even more, and once it had been pushed off from the flat surface and onto the downwards slope it began to move on it's own, picking up speed and rolling down. Daring had half expected it to bounce off the wall and become lodged in the corner up ahead, but it actually went right through. A sudden bright beam of light blinded Daring as the rock crashed through the wall and rolled out into some kind of courtyard. It crashed into a small statue in the center, and came to a stop.
Daring approached the statue with some caution. For one, the courtyard was out in the open, and even though all four sides were enclosed with either a stone wall or some kind of barrier, the fact that the skies above her were open made Daring feel uncomfortable. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but when someone has attempted to take a pony's life that pony has every reason to watch out.
The statue ahead of her was clearly in the shape of a pony. It appeared to be some kind of unicorn, as the vines and the mossy growth could not completely hide the horn carved into its head. More interesting was the position of the statue itself. The back hooves were firmly planted on the ground, while the front hooves both were in different positions. There were two stone boxes in front of the statue, and its right hoof was firmly planted on one of them. The left hoof and the left box were not together, with the hoof left standing on the ground.
Daring squinted at the box that was empty. It appeared to have some kind of indentation in the top of it that was meant for the hoof to go in. A closer look showed that this was not the case. The edges were too sharp compared tot he more rounded front of a hoof. Instead, the indentation seemed to be in the shape of a pentagon.
Daring struck a hoof against the ground as her eyes lit up. She knew exactly what this was for! She had studied this kind of a release system when she had visited the ruins of an ancient city back in 1928. What anypony would have to do would be to press down on the completed set of the hole and the key. The key (should it fit the shape) would then press down on some kind of peg and release some kind of hanging weights (usually not seen out in the open) to allow a section of wall to slide up or down, allowing passage. The one she had seen was cleverly used as part of an entrance to a throne room, so that only those who had access to the correct keys (stone or metallic geometric shapes) could open the door and gain access to the king.
The pony recalled the pentagon she had been given by the mare in the village. Digging around in her bag, Daring was able to produce it easily. The pentagon fit the slot perfectly, and Daring slid it into place. She licked her lips, and then pressed down on top of it with a hoof. Nothing happened for a moment, and Daring let go. As she let go, she heard something shift, and a moment later the sudden drop of a rock weight led to the sound of scraping stone, and Daring turned to see that a small section of wall had given way, revealing a passage into another chamber that led deeper into the side of the earth. Daring re-adjusted her gear, and carefully trotted through the open passageway.
The next chamber she encountered was a little tight, and smelled musty. Though plant matter and vines had invaded, it was clear that nopony had set hoof in this area for longer than any of the previous sections. Daring eyed what was beyond, and to her dismay it seemed to be a dead end. No, that couldn't be right, thought Daring, there was a small crevice in the wall. Perhaps it was a double set of doors.
To test this out, Daring stepped towards the door. Her hoof struck a circular plate that was level with the rest of the ground, pressing it in. This caused a reaction and the pony paused, eyes darting around. The room rumbled, and dust fell from cracks in the walls and in the ceiling overhead. The dark stone wall split open as a set of double doors swung wide, allowing Daring to access the area beyond. She grinned, shifting her pith helmet and walking forward into the chamber. She passed beyond the doors, and began looking about the chamber. There were cobwebs covering the walls, and some of the walls were covered in carvings. Stepping further down the passageway, Daring peered at one of these for a moment. It depicted many ponies (most of the stallions) lining up at the start of something. Large pseudo-alicorn figures towered over them, and their edges seemed less well-defined. Daring could see some kind of text, which she translated to mean "highest point" or "culmination". This meant something to her, as the word used to describe that term was "Zenith".
Daring was distracted from her desire to hide herself by the revelation that she may very well have been at the spot she had sought to find. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a loud slamming behind her. Daring wheeled around sharply, but she was too late. The doors had shut on her, trapping her in. The pony even tried to press up against them, but the heavy stone would not budge. Defeated, Daring turned back in the direction the tunnel would take her. It was dimmer then it had been before, but it was possible to see what one was doing.
The path ahead slanted downwards, and the floor was rather slippery. She dug her hooves into the hard-packed soil in the cracks between slabs of stone. By doing this, she was able to slow her descent and maneuver carefully around the areas where piles of rock were piled. However, she soon came to a place where she faced a dead end. A small pillar that had kept some kind of archway up had fallen and blocked the exit into the next chamber and the staircase beyond. There would be no way to get through or over it. Additionally, a large stone craved in the shape of a unicorn's head was suspended from the ceiling, and swung like a pendulum on a thick piece of rope.
"It's a wonder this thing is still moving... there must be some kind of rigging with a water duct to keep the pendulum moving," Daring said aloud to herself. She thought about this for a moment. Perhaps the pillar, as heavy as it was, was loose.
Daring wanted to test this out, so she carefully stepped out, wanting to time a jump so that she didn't get hit by the pendulum. Unfortunately for her, the stone she placed her hoof on was slippery with algae, and so as she slipped forward the heavy unicorn's head slammed into her side, sending her painfully crashing backwards. Daring's head was spinning wildly, and she laid down for a few moments until the dizziness faded away.
That wouldn't work, thought Daring. She though for a second, slowly getting back onto all four hooves. If she could get the pendulum to stop, then she's be fine to cross. Daring struck a hoof to the ground, getting an idea. She reached back into her bag and produced the old bullwhip that had been her grandfather's. She had been carrying this thing for just over a year now as part of her normal travel gear, simply because of situations like these. She never knew when she would need some kind of rope, and the whip's ability to firmly grasp once it cracked around something made it a versatile tool.
She slid the chain around over the end of her right hoof, and brought the whip up. She swung it in a large arc over her head, cracking it back at the right moment. The end of it grasped the rope that held the pendulum. With a tug, Daring was able to get the pendulum to swing off from its course. Pulling backwards, Daring made the pendulum stop completely, and held her whip taught.
Taking a step backwards, Daring pulled the pendulum back with her, tugging harder and harder until she felt she could not bring the pendulum back any more. With a sharp motion, she sent a shock along the whip, which made the end of it uncurl from the rope holding the pendulum. Almost immediately it swung in the opposite direction, smashing through the stone pillar and causing the broken bits to fall aside, leaving a gap where Daring could move through. Grinning, Daring adjusted lifted the brim of her pith helmet and stowed the whip back into her bag.