Well horse clumps.
The owner of that charming mental curse, an ember orange Earth pony mare with wild, fire-red and white mane and tail carrying a saddlebag on either side of her and nothing else stood in the center of a now shaking room deep within an ancient temple that had stood for who knows how long. The thick cobwebs residing in every crack and corner were one guess. Other than that though, the place had been untouched. Ribbons that were once tapestries adorned the two, maybe three story high walls, all so ancient that their own weight had pulled their holders from the walls and likely they had disintegrated upon hitting the floor. The few left minutes ago had fallen apart with the wind created by the massive front doors being open since again, who knows when. The floors were pristine under the layer of dirt and dust that had accumulated, depicting faded, hoof-crafted designs that alone would fetch thousands. Currently, the only thing seen were a few swipes where this temple's first visitor had taken the time to look underfoot at the designs, once the dust was swept aside, and her hoofprints that shown her path. She had taken her time in viewing the ancient place of worship, and then found herself a sidelong direction to follow. Her hoofsteps never wavered in their direction, but from the steps alone, one could not tell how each step had been slow, meticulous, and very careful of where it fell. The temple was still in perfect condition, or at least as close as it could be for as old as it was. It was pristine, beautiful, and untouched.
Traps included.
~ ~ ~
The curse had left my mouth the moment there was a sound of a massive crash and the room began to rumble. Well horse clumps. In places this ancient, I had hoped the traps wore away or got jammed or something, but that's just not my luck. No, they last much better than the artifacts they're protecting, and often are much, much more dangerous.
My hooves pound against the hoof-painted floors as several crashes jar the entire construct. Something – and I swear to the Sisters it wasn't me – had activated a trap somewhere, and it was tearing the whole place down. I rushed into motion without a second thought, galloping past chest-high pillars on either side of the long room, each one a pedestal for an artifact, but none were the one I was looking for. It was a shame to see them go, but the temple wasn't holding up well. Whatever had been activated, and not by my hooves I guarantee, was rocking this place apart. I kept one ear forward to my destination at all times, but all around me I could hear as chunks of ceiling broke away and came crashing down, destroying the floors I had walked upon moments ago, and ponies long ago thought quite worth their hoofsteps.
Ahead of me was my destination, and behind me, my deliverance. It was a matter of how quickly my hooves could take me and how well my hearing aided me as to whether or not I would leave this temple alive. Lucky for me, this was not my first time in such a situation.
My heartbeat was rapid, but steady as my hooves. My direction had to veer several times to avoid falling stone many times larger than myself that would have easily crushed both me and the floor beneath me like we were nothing. It was a frightening thought, if you allowed yourself to think. I didn't. My entire focus was on getting into the next room and hope the roof there was lower, leading it to be more sturdy. If my information was correct, there would be the object I came here for.
Just as I was almost getting to the door of the next room, I hear the largest piece of stone roof yet partially break loose, and it was positioned to fall right in front of the doors. If I had to slow for any measure of time to open the large and surely heavy doors, I would be crushed for sure. However, as I have said before, I am no stranger to these sorts of things. From my saddlebags, I am able to nose in and find what looks at first like a wooden rectangular box, but as I bite the corner, it comes loose from the rest of the box.
It is merely a matter of me throwing my head with everything I've got, that one corner clamped between my teeth, to bring one of my many tricks into play. What once was a box becomes a long tether of small wooden planks that snap together into a long pole. In the same thrust as to bring it out, I aim the far end for what I now see is a small gap between the doors. Somehow in this mess, the left-hoof door has come slightly ajar. That leaves a gap just long enough for my pole.
The chunk of stone roof has broken free now. I have all of about three seconds to get myself inside or cleared out, and at this point and speed, there's no turning around. I pour on what more I can, putting all my muscles into this one mad dash for life and freedom.
One.
My now several meters long pole is thrust into that small gap between the doors, hitting on something inside, stopping it. I release the pole, throwing it up as I take one last step and then jump.
Two.
My front hooves connect with the ajar door, then my back. I push off from them with everything I have, throwing myself backwards into the pole behind me. It presses just underneath my shoulder blades and flexes back, amplifying my energy and forcing the door before me open. I now am midair right below the falling mass of stone a second away from crushing me.
Three.
The door before me is half way open as my pole flexes back, throwing me with even more force than I threw myself against it. I can feel the air pressure changing above and now slightly behind me as the pole leaves my back and my hooves connect with the door once more. My front click and my back pound, the force shuddering up my thighs as I push off once more, this time, launching myself at an angle. My body sails through the opening between the two doors just as the chunk of ceiling comes crashing down, shattering the floor underneath and blasting the doors wide open behind me.
I tumble and roll the best I can with the harsh blow, lessening the damage caused by the blow and subsequent rough landing. Bits of broken floor and roof fly past me like death-driven shards and a few make contact with my body, but none cause more than some minor scratches. The fall, however, I will admit, hurt. The floor sloped upwards in this room and gave me less time to react, causing an incomplete roll that jerked my right shoulder into the ground. It would not cause permanent damage, but it still hurt nonetheless. Pain radiated from my shoulder down my leg and across my back, momentarily paralyzing my reactions. The spread dimmed quickly, however, and left only an aching throb in that shoulder.
Once the shards stopped flying past me and I could safely take a look at my new surroundings, I was pleasantly surprised at what came to my vision. My information had been correct, after all. I had made it to a room with only a single artifact, and that was a golden idol. The aforementioned upward sloping floor continued up into a set of round stairs that led to a table of sorts, and on it stood a small obelisk, though it was made of gold and vaguely shaped like a pony standing on it's back legs and pointing skyward. It stood only about as tall as my knee. I couldn't see it from where I was at, but based on the description I was given, it would have a horn pointing between its hooves and wings wrapped around its midsection. Many stories surrounded the idol, but many I know to be untrue and the rest I am pretty sure are fake as well.
The stories, however, are not on my mind at this moment. Once I realize where I am and bring myself to my hooves, more detail comes into my vision. The room is mostly bare, except in the wall opposite the side I landed on, there is a battering-ram sized column of stone on some sort of lever stuck in the wall. Cracks spread out from it like spiderwebs, and that is when I realize what caused the temple to begin falling apart in the first place. What I was seeing was half of one of the temple's defenses. Stone columns like that were built and set up in pairs and their function was to literally swing and crush ponies between their flattened ends. It seems only one side deployed, leading to it crashing into the wall and destabilizing the entire place.
About the same time, I notice two other things. One, the rumbling has died down some, although not completely and it would start up again the instant something shifted and fell, restarting the whole process of things falling and crushing priceless artifacts. And two, it was not the temple falling apart that caused the door to be cracked open, nor was it coincidence that the half of a trap went off when I entered the temple. No, both theories were unceremoniously chucked away as my eyes fell on a chocolate brown pegasus, with red and black hair lying at the bottom of the first set of stairs. My tumblings had gotten me over that first set, which I now ran down, ignoring the burn in my shoulder from my poor landing.
“Hey! Buddy, you alive?” I call as I slow just enough to not trip on the stairs. I couldn't see the pony's face as it's back was turned to me, but I could see packs like my own half dumped on the floor and a wing held at an angle it shouldn't be held at. If he had been hit by that stone pillar, chances of being alive were slim, but a glancing blow was survivable although painful. And by the distance away the pony was from the pillar now stuck in the wall, it had barely hit him if it even had. So there was a chance my mind clung to as I approached, slowing a little as some wariness about the type of pony he or she was crept into my mind.
As I approached his prone figure, my mind was constantly thinking back to a thought that questioned: Is he dead or alive? With every step I take, I get increasingly worried at the fate of this pony. I stop just behind the pegasus, eyeing his unmoving form for a moment before I poke at his stomach, “Hello?” I call softly, my worry growing at his still form. Then, the figure shifts slightly and utters a soft groan.
“Ughh…” the figure shifts again and turns sideways, thus giving me a good look at his face though his eyes are still closed. The pony I could now describe as a stallion with his black mane with a red tipped forelock swept to the side and around his neck, a gray bandana was wrapped. I now noticed that we are of similar age, that of almost twenty, and he has a shooting star for a cutie mark.
He started stirring just as I finish looking him up and down, which was a massive relief to me, signaled by a slight sigh. His eyes opened and scanned the area within his range of vision, and then his gaze fell upon me. He stopped then and just continued to look at me like he was trying to figure out what in the pony universe I was. His maroon eyes clearly held a look of blurry confusion, likely partially caused by the blow he suffered. Suddenly, his eyes shot wide open, now staring a focused hole through my forehead. He shot up to his hooves and tried to flare his wings, but failed as he further injured his bad wing, though it didn't seem to hamper his aggressive stance any. “Who are you?!” he asks loudly.
“Hey, easy there! I mean you no harm,” I reply quickly as I take a step backwards, giving the thankfully living pony a bit of room. “You’re hurt. You need help,”
He seems to relax some from his startle and takes the time to look back to his injured wing, which was somewhat crushed against his side and looked to be at a slightly wrong angle. His face cleared of his momentary confusion and realization set in. “You’re right,” he replies before he moves to picks up his saddlebags, which in turn he had to refasten once his possessions were placed back inside. Without any other explanation, he starts going up the steps towards the dial at the highest point of the room. Not allowing to be left behind, I follow right after him until I am beside him. However, he speaks again before I can. “What’re you doing here?” he asks.
“Looking for something important,” I reply, my ears pricked in waiting for his reply. If we are here for the same thing, this could pose some trouble.
“May I ask, what is this thing that you are looking for?”
“Ancient relic. What about you? What are you doing here?” My words rush a little as I speak. Pony interactions were never my strong suit.
“Me? Just doing some adventuring,”
This caught my attention, How’d he find this place if he’s just adventuring? I wonder, but I quickly push the thought of doubt out of my mind, now believing my work was secure and the both of us are in decent condition, despite the happenings of the place. I allow the conversation to fall while we speedily reached the top of the steps. In front of us lay a pedestal with the golden idol that I sought after. This was the part I always feared. The worst traps were always set up in with the big ticket item. Considering the place was already falling apart, I took a careless swipe at the item, swiftly backing back down the stairs as I shoved it into my saddlebag. However, as I backed away from the monument, I noticed a panel underneath of where the idol once stood raise up. As it did, the rumblings that had settled down returned with a vengeance, rocking the entire place to the point I had a difficult time holding my stance. At the same time, a new set of rams came out of the walls, but luckily we had already backed away and they crushed the spot the idol once stood.
“We need to get out! NOW!” My newfound companion shouted as pieces of the ceiling began crashing down again. I waste no time in looking at him. My ears weren't the only thing trained by my years of experience. It takes me but a moment to discover a deep fissure going up the wall on the far side of the room. The middle was just big enough to fit a pony, and that was our ticket out of here.
“This way!” I yell over the roar of crashing stone as I leap into a gallop, pushing him once to get him going. Both of us start running towards our small chance of escape. However, bad luck strikes as a chunk of stone falls not far to our side and giant cracks open up in the floor, swallowing much of the painted tile and one of the stallion's hooves.
“Help!” he shouts. I skid to a halt and immediately turn tail, returning to his side. As I do so, I pull out a small pickaxe from my saddlebag in reaching his side, strike the tile surrounding his stuck fast hoof. I hit it twice, the second one harder than the last. More cracks creep out from the first and I can see his leg moving, trying to pull out. “It’s coming loose, I can feel it!” he says as he tries to pull free. It was then that I heard something that made my racing heart stop. My always active, heightened sense of hearing led my focus to notice a sound coming from above. A part of the ceiling directly above us, one of the most massive chunks yet, was breaking free, and I knew it would crash down right on top of the both of us if we didn't move.
I didn’t have much time to decide, or else. It would have been an easy thing for me to dash clear and be safe, but I’d be responsible for this stallion's death, and that was something I would never be able to forgive myself for doing. Nor was it a thing that ever even crossed my mind.
Taking my chance, I dropped my pickaxe, took two fast steps back, and jumped towards him with all the might my strong earth pony body could muster, pushing him out of harm’s way. His hoof is yanked from the crack and our bodies tumble together in the air. I grab him and brace for the landing, rolling us in midair to have my form beneath his, hoping to not further injure him. The giant stone crashed to the floor behind us, crushing the stone that created the crack that stopped us. Splinters of rock flew everywhere, once more creating several small gashes across now both of our forms. As we land, I once again land on my bad shoulder, causing me to cry out in pain, which is quickly cut off as he lands on my chest, cutting away the breath for my scream. Either way, the crash and rumble may have hid my cry.
I let go of him as soon as I felt the pain and start coughing, trying to get my breath back but the dust in the air just makes me cough again. He recovers from the fall before me and gets up, allowing me to catch my breath, and turns a worried but thankful gaze toward me. “You alright?” he asks worriedly.
“Fine. I'll be fine,” I choke out as I roll over my good shoulder and get to my hooves. I meet his eyes as I put weight on that leg and I grunt as the pain continues to surge through my body, but I ignore it, knowing that now was not the time to consider my position. “Come on. We need to get out of here,”
Both of us make haste towards the exit. The entire place is still shaking, debris is falling all around us, and the wind is blowing through the newly made cracks in the ceiling and walls. The nearly blinding light of day is also coming through these cracks and through the exit, shedding light on a place that hadn't seen it since ancient times. I can see the dust being blown around due to all the movement around the room, thus making it hard to breathe. I look to my right to see the pony I met earlier place the bandana he had around his head, covering his nose and mouth. I at least am glad to see him still on the run, his hoof entrapment seemingly not affecting his running. “We’re almost there!” I declare as we get closer towards the exit and the stallion starts pulling ahead of me. The floor around us is starting to crack with the weight of the falling ceiling, and who knows what's underneath these ancient floors. We jump a few cracks that cross our path, knowing better now.
He gets out first. I watch him jump through the crack in the wall, the light framing his already dark coat and making him a silhouette until he drops on the other side. I still see the shadow of his ears, so there is ground not far down. It is only a few steps left for me and I prepare myself to make the jump as well. However, those preparations are instantly stopped as the floor ahead of me suddenly breaks, a crack turning into a chasm far greater than where I planned my jump. I manage to skid to a stop just before the ledge and step back as a few small pieces of floor fall into the gaping hole. My gaze then rises to the gap in the wall and the slight shadow of the pony beyond. My only way out.
Leap of faith, I thought to myself. I take a few more steps back, watching my footing, and then burst into full gallop. My shoulder screams and my lungs cry, but my heart is as steady as my hooves. I make my leap at the edge of the chasm. Sailing over it, I cannot see the bottom, but my focus is in front of me, in the light of day.
My front hooves barely catch the ledge. I am able to get a grip, but my bad shoulder makes my grip weak and I begin to lose my hold on the edge. Just as I realize this could be my end, a shadow looms over me. I feel hooves wrapping around my legs and an instant later, a voice.
“Gotcha,” the pegasus says as he pulls me up through the hole and I land on the other side. I stand there for a moment, hooves once more on thankfully solid ground, simply catching my breath in heavy gulps now that we are free of the dust filled environment.
“Thanks,” I say in between my breathing. We both step away from the exit, getting a safe distance between us and the building, which was by now mostly collapsed in on itself. It was more a pile of rubble than anything, and with only one surviving artifact. I looked up at the other, hoping to ask for his name, but I see he is looking back to his injured wing. My previous question is put away for later and instead, I say, “Let me help you with that.” Reaching into my saddlebags once more, I grab things used to make a wrap and sling. I then approach him and start fixing up his wing, not standing for any possible 'no's' he may bring up.
“Ow,” he says as I wrap his wing in gauze and make a sling to support his wing.
“There. That should hold,” I say as I finish fixing up his wing and step back, giving him room. “Did you injure anything else back there?”
“No. But now I guess it’s my turn to say thank you,” he returns and I can't help a slight smile that creeps onto my face.
“Don't mention it. But you can repay me by giving me your name, stranger,”
“Oh, the name’s Eclipse Monsoon. Yours?”
“Naga Tear. Introductions out of the way, why don't we get out of here? You could use a hospital for that wing of yours,”
“Sure, where you headed?”
“Ponyville. You?”
“Same, c’mon. Let’s get out of here,”
“Agreed.” We turn down what may have once been a garden path, but the stone walkway had long since been overgrown. It takes us back around front to the forest path I had come here by, and down through the forest we would find ourselves eventually back at Ponyville.
Eclipse, huh? Wonder what a pony like him would be doing all the way out here,' I thought to myself as we began the long journey back, a smile on my face. 'I have a good feeling about this one. And I got the idol, too. Mission accomplished.