Inside the dimly lit ruins, the only source of light inside being the lit sconces hanging on the stone walls, Twilight, Pinkie, Mario, and their companions stepped inside as the sun had set through the dark clouds as they slowly disappeared. Twilight lit up her horn for a bit more light, finding the atmosphere a little creepy with what they might expect to find in an ancient temple.
"Ooooooooh," Pinkie said in awe. "Scary temple. I wonder if we'll find mummies in here."
"Ooooouuuuuuuuuuhhhh." The eerie wail rang out through the temple, startling Pinkie and Twilight as they froze in place.
"O-Or ancient haunting ghosties," Pinkie added as she trembled. "And I don't think that's the kind of ghostie I can giggle at to make it go away."
"I am the dreaded Tutankoopa, remorseless king of this desert," the voice said, the two mares quickly huddling beside Mario while the others looked around for where the sound of the voice came from. "You who dare set foot in my domain, begone from my palace! Or you will suffer my curse!"
When the voice's echo died out, Mario gently pat the mares on the head to calm them down. "A-Are there actual ghosts that exist in this world?" Twilight asked. "Some my be superstitious, but we have had spirits called Windigoes back in Equestria that fed off the anger of our ancestors while we weren't a unified species."
"There are some ghosts that do exist, though the ones that live in the Mushroom Kingdom are Boos," Goombario answered. "Those kinds of ghosts aren't that dangerous; just a bunch of mischievous spirits that love to scare anyone around them. Though, Tutankoopa is not a name that comes to mind in any ancient Dry Dry Desert lore I've read."
"Yeah, that goes double for me," Kooper agreed. "And I've read plenty of books on this temple's culture. If Moustafa said his family has been preserving this place from outsiders, and those statues of the Chain Chomps outside are any indication, only the Chain Chomps and mostly Nomadimouse lived in this temple. Not a Koopa."
"This Tutankoopa must be trying to scare us off, but we know Bowser has soldiers running around this place," Bombette pondered.
"And we can stop them...Right?" Parakarry asked.
Mario nodded, letting Twilight and Pinkie know if there were any danger, he'll keep them safe. The plumber lead the way with the alicorn, earth pony, Goomba, Koopa, Paratroopa, and Bob-omb trailing behind. Twilight and Pinkie were a bit cautious as they entered the first hallway, where they saw three yellow coffins with a face matching those of the Pokeys out in the desert leaning against the walls. As they passed by the first one, the coffin opened up, revealing a green Pokey shuffling out and lunging for them.
"AHHH!" Pinkie screamed. "Green prickly mummy monster!"
"Pokey Mummies!" Goombario warned. "Don't touch their spikes! They're poisonous!"
The other coffins opened as two more popped out, joining their friend in attacking the group. Kooper reacted fast, tossing himself in his shell as he slammed into the first one, knocking off a segment of its body as it groaned in pain. Parakarry hid in his shell, aimed straight for one of the back two Pokey Mummies' heads and shot off, knocking its head off its body as it fell in a daze. The third one took one of its three spherical parts off, knocking it in the air, then headbutted it at Twilight. Yelping in surprise, Twilight used her magic to grab the body part, stopping one of the spikes from touching her by mere inches.
"I hate how these things can just throw themselves at us like this!" Twilight exclaimed, tossing the body segment back at its owner, smacking it in the face.
Mario gripped his hammer, his glove glowing purple as he threw his hammer at the first Pokey Mummy, smacking it in the face as it fell over in defeat. Levitating his hammer back in his hand, he ran forward to take care of the last one, spinning around beside it and knocking its other body segments off, then smacking the head into the wall. The trio of Pokey Mummies were out for the count, everyone stepping carefully over the strewn out poisonous spike balls on the ground.
"Pokeys are weird," Pinkie said. "They can just keep going and going until they're only a head."
"There might be more if we head deeper. Best be careful of any coffins," Goombario warned. "And the ceiling for Swoopers since they like to live in ancient, decrepit places like these along with caves."
"What's a Swooper?" Twilight's question was answered as a purple bat with squinty eyes and a red nose swooped down at them.
They quickly ducked as it missed, swerving around to try to attack them again. "That's a Swooper!" Goombario jumped up as the Swooper came back down, headbutting it hard in the abdomen as it floated unconsciously to the floor. "I'm betting coins there's probably a group of them somewhere deeper in the temple they use as their home."
"How can something that cute be dangerous?" Pinkie asked. "Fluttershy could tame one in a heartbeat! But, I don't think she'd like to find one here in a spooky ancient temple with a ghostie who is or isn't a ghostie and works for Bowser."
Continuing down the hall, they found two stairways at the end, one leading up to a locked passageway and one down that was opened. With the only way to go being down, they entered a room that held a key standing on a small platform. There was a passageway forward, but it was elevated to the way they entered, the stone stairs leading down to the lower floor of the room.
"That's weird," Twilight noted. "Why isn't there a stairway leading up there?"
"Hey, there's a key!" Pinkie bounded over to the lone key, taking it, then stood on her hind legs as she held it up above her. "Da, da-da-da daaaaa!...Oh, wait, that's the wrong jingle."
"...Well, at least it wasn't booby trapped," Kooper noted. "There was a locked door by the other staircase. Maybe there's some kind of ladder there."
"Can't Parakarry and I just fly everypony up to the next room?" Twilight suggested.
"If we're in a dangerous place like this, I don't want to get exhausted carrying anyone up and over gaps all the time," Parakarry pointed out. "I'd rather save most of my strength for self-defense against anything else in here and this Tutankoopa."
"...I guess you're right," Twilight said. "I hope we don't end up getting lost if there are multiple passageways in these ruins."
"Knowing how crafty ancient civilizations can be, there just might be hundreds of ways to go, included with dead ends." They headed back and entered the room above after unlocking it, the doorway a moving wall that rose up and opened the way.
The room inside was a dead end that was filled with sand, the only thing worth noticing was a pressure button and a small platform on the other side. "Oooh! A button! I'ma press it!" Pinkie bounded over the sand and jumped onto the button. It slowly sank down to the ground under her weight, causing the room to shake suddenly. The sand suddenly began to sink, everyone standing on the sandy ground running back to the hall as they watched it fall through a hole that used to be blocked by something. Now the sand pit was empty as it filled up the room below them, which was enough to make them a floor to walk across to the elevated passageway. "Hey! It's like quicksand, but the sand sunk instead of us!"
"Pinkie, let's be cautious," Kooper said. "What would have happened if that switch set off some kind of trap that locks us in here?"
"Well, seeing as the way down was the only way to go, and there was a key that was needed to unlock the door to this room, and the only way forward was to push a button, it obviously wasn't a trap." After Pinkie's long-winded logic was explained, the others actually did see that she had made a good point.
"...Just don't go pushing anything shiny or out of place until we know it's safe next time. Ok?" Pinkie nodded her head, then joined back with the others as they headed back downstairs.
With the sand poured into the large gap of a room, there was indeed enough sand for them to walk on to continue onward. They soon heard the eerie groan of Tutankoopa's voice ring out in the temple.
"Fools! You have ignored my warnings!" Tutankoopa moaned. "You will soon feel the wrath of my curse and be lost to the sand for all eternity!"
"If he wanted to curse us, he would have done it the moment we entered the ruins," Goombario uttered. "Did this guy get his spooky curse speech from a horror movie or something?"
"I guess it was a little silly being frightened by a voice," Twilight said. "Although, if there are any Chain Chomps in here, then we have a reason to be scared."
As they looked around, they saw a couple flights of stairs, one leading up to a floor with a gap across the way to a wall with a crack in it while the other lead further down. There were a couple passages that were opened up, one of them unfortunately locked, which must mean it was the way to go to find the Star Spirit. There were also some Buzzy Beetles wandering about, more of Bowser's minions that had a stronger shell than a normal Koopa Troopa, though they were just as susceptible to being flipped over like one.
They took the pathway on the floor they were on, where they found a key resting on a raised platform, looking up at the ceiling to see sand leaking down onto the floor. The room above must have had a switch to drop the sand in the pit to walk across and reach the key. Since they had no time to waste, Twilight simply flew up to the platform and grabbed the key, not wanting to spend the whole night wandering around the temple. Heading back out, they made their way down the stairs, taking out the Buzzy Beetle down on the floor as they entered the opened room.
In this next room was a shrine of sorts, a green, triangular stone sitting on an altar on a higher platform. There weren't any stairs leading up to it, though they saw a large gray block that looked similar to the big yellow ones Mario smashed with his hammer, though it seemed to be made of stone. On the wall was an image of the temple and two Chain Chomps looking at it, one on each side.
"Lookie! I spy some treasure!" Pinkie said.
"A pyramid gem?" Kooper uttered. He hummed in thought as he looked around the room. "Something's fishy about this room. A colorfully-shaped gem on an empty altar like this?"
"You think it might be important?" Bombette asked.
"I can't exactly see it from down here to know if it's a priceless artifact or not." While Kooper pondered what secrets or traps awaited them in this room, Parakarry and Twilight hovered up on the ledge and examined the gem.
"Looks like a glorified stone in the shape of a pyramid," Twilight said. "But, I have heard that some ancient cities or temples have hidden passages that require specifically shaped objects to be placed in certain locations. This might be a piece to a puzzle if the Star Spirit's being held in the deepest part of Dry Dry Ruins."
"Maybe we should leave it for now, just in case," Parakarry said. "It could be one of those reverse pressure traps I've read in an adventure story, but the trap was a giant boulder that rolled down a slope that nearly crushed the explorer."
"Good idea. Moustafa also told us not to take any treasures out as well." Deciding to leave the stone where it was, Twilight and Parakarry flew back down to the others, unaware of one of the Chain Chomp's on the wall staring at them as they left the room.
With the next key, they unlocked the next door, entering another hallway with more Pokey Mummy coffins against the wall. Above them was a platform with yet another one of those stone blocks, though the red-colored stairway lead up to a different platform with another pressure button. Seeing nothing of major importance above them, not noticing an old artifact hidden behind the large block, they made their way to the other end of the hallway. The coffins didn't open up as they crept past them, which was a good thing, only to find the way forward was locked by yet another lock. The only thing nearby was a floating question mark block by the door.
"Ok, we need a locksmith if we keep running into anymore of these locked doors," Bombette grumbled.
"What's strange is that these locks are more recently made," Kooper noted. "Guess Tutankoopa wanted to make sure we didn't make it through and find that Star Spirit."
"But we haven't seen a key just lying around here," Goombario said. He looked up, wondering what was inside of the floating block. "Maybe it's in there?"
"I don't think anyone would be crazy enough to-" Twilight was interrupted as Pinkie Pie cheered and jumped into the block, smacking her head underneath it while surprisingly not getting a bump on her head. The block disappeared with no item or coins popping out of it. Suddenly, they heard the door on the other end close shut on them, along with the coffins as Pokey Mummies shuffled out of their cases, their derpy eyes looking right at them. "That was the same trap the Koopa Bros. pulled on us!"
"Oops. I thought there would be goodies inside," Pinkie said. "Curse you, fake mystery boxes! Your mystery of goodies was all a lie!"
Mario was beginning to lose his faith in trusting what lies hidden in those blocks after getting tricked by a second one. Pulling out his hammer, he knocked back a piece of one of the Pokeys' bodies they flung at them while the others prepared to fight for their lives. They kept as far away from their poisonous spikes on their bodies and dealt with them just like the group of Pokey Mummies they fought earlier. Once they were defeated, the closed door slid back open and a key dropped down by the locked door behind them.
"Ok, let that be the last of those things," Twilight said. "And the last of those stupid trap blocks."
"At least we got the next key," Parakarry said.
Mario picked up the key and unlocked the door. The next room had another stairway leading down to another floor, finding another pathway across a sizable gap. Deciding to look there first before moving further down, Mario jumped over to the other side, Pinkie following suit as she mimicked the plumber's jumping stance, while Twilight and Parakarry carried Goombario, Bombette, and Kooper across. In this room, they saw several flights of stairs, two colored red while the other two were green, more pressure switches with the same colors on the several platforms, finding a sign nearby with a picture of a treasure chest.
"Hey, wait! You're not supposed to be in there!" Tutankoopa shouted in a panic, which wasn't in the creepy voice he was making earlier. "Uhh, I mean, ooooooooooooooh! Uhh, turn back, thieves!"
"Oh, brother," Kooper groaned. "Give us a break."
"If neither of you retreat, you most definitely will suffer my curse!" The room was silent as everyone looked up at the ceiling with an unamused expression. "I mean it! I will do it!...Just don't go in there!...Please?"
"Whatever's in here must be something good for us, and Tutankoopa doesn't want us to have it." Twilight walked past the stairs, noticing the same stone block that was in the room with the pyramid stone blocking what appeared to be an entryway to the other side of the wall. Looking up, there was an opening that lead to the other side at the top of the room. She flew up and peeked over the edge, finding a large treasure chest on the other side. "I see a big chest on the other side!"
Hearing some sort of mechanism going off, Twilight looked back to see Pinkie up on the middle platform, pressing her weight down on a green pressure switch. Once it was fully pressed, the green colored stairs flipped around to climb up the other side of the upper platform.
"So that's what those switches are for," Kooper said. "I don't think those stairs are necessary to switch around when Twilight could get the chest, Pinkie."
"I know, but I want to see what's inside that chest, too!" Pinkie said, bouncing up the steps and pressing another green pressure switch to flip the stairs back in the previous position. She then leapt over to the other side, flipping the red stairs around using the red pressure switch at the top-center of the room. "Yay! Now we can all climb up and see!"
As the mare bounded up the steps to meet up with the alicorn, Mario shrugged his shoulders and jumped up the steps to join them. Goombario, Kooper, Bombette, and Parakarry stayed behind, just in case there was another trap and they needed to get them out if they got caught by something.
"You think I should go down first, Mario?" Twilight asked. "I can fly out since that's the only way out of this room...I highly doubt your hammer can break that gray block." Mario looked at his wooden hammer, not willing to try to test its durability against the stone block down below. He gave the alicorn a nod, letting her go down and check what was inside the chest. Twilight hovered over the wall and landed in front of the treasure chest. "Ok, let's see what's in here...and please let it not be booby trapped."
Twilight slowly opened the chest with her aura, keeping her distance and a small magical barrier ready in case darts flew at her or spikes shot out from the walls. Once it was fully opened, she didn't hear anything go off, which meant the treasure must have been safe. Looking inside, she wasn't expecting to find what laid inside: a hammer, though it seemed a lot stronger than Mario's as the head was made of steel instead of wood.
"What's inside, Twilight!?" Pinkie asked. "Gold!? Jewels!? An old recipe for desert cake!?"
"...It's a hammer," she said. "Why hide a hammer in a chest?" Mario jumped down to the floor, Pinkie following suit as she bounced on her tail before landing on her hooves. He took the new hammer out of Twilight's telekinetic grasp, feeling a bit more weight to it than Goompa's hammer, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle carrying. "It looks a lot stronger than your hammer."
"Let me see!" Pinkie swapped the metal hammer, giving it a few test swings as she held it in her mouth. She then exchanged the new mallet with the old, flailing it around more easily than with the other one. "Hmm...Yup! Feels stronger! Can I have this one while you use the new one?" Mario nodded, chuckling in amusement by the pony's cute face as she held the wooden hammer in her mouth. "Yay! Now I have my own weapon in case we find anymore of those evil spiky cactus monsters!"
"But that begs the question of how we get out of here," Twilight reminded, pointing at the stone block barring their way out of the room. Looking down at his new hammer, Mario decided to test its strength against the stronger block. Gripping the handle with both hands, he reared his arms back, then slammed it down hard, shattering the block to pieces. The rest of their friends were surprised when they saw the stone block suddenly break apart, finding Mario with a new hammer in his hands. Pinkie poked her head out from the side and waved to the others with the wooden hammer held in her curly mane. "...Huh. I guess that hammer was strong enough to break that block after all."
"It was no wonder Tutti Fruity didn't want us in here," Goombario said. "He had an upgraded hammer that could break those stone blocks."
"It's Tutankoopa!" the mysterious Koopa exclaimed irritably, only to stammer before getting back into his "spooky" tone. "Speak ill of the great Tutankoopa, and you shall face a fate worse than death!...Along with stealing my greatest treasure!"
"Well, he's not going to be needing it." With Mario's new, stronger hammer, everyone regrouped and headed out of the treasure room.
Dropping down to the next floor, Pinkie bouncing on top of a Buzzy Beetle that almost began shell tossing itself at one of her friends, they noticed a crack in the wall behind them. Leaving it alone for now, they continued into the next room, another hallway, but thankfully with no more Pokey Mummy coffins. There were five stone pillars lined up in a row against the wall with carved Chain Chomps on top of them. The pillars had an indentation in the center, where something can be placed in them, Twilight and Kooper guessing something like the pyramid stone could fit inside one of them. They decided on studying the pillars later and continued forward, hoping there would be something up ahead that might give them a clue.
Another set of stairs lead up and down at the end of the hall, the top doorway locked while the bottom was opened. With no choice but to go downstairs, they walked into the next room, where a large pit cut off a passage on the other end. There was a key on a ledge, the drop down not too far of a fall, where they saw yet another stone block in a corner.
"Whoo, boy," Bombette sighed. "Ancient ruins really do have so many complicated passages. How much deeper does this place even go?"
"Not sure, but we must be getting closer," Kooper said. Looking down into the pit, the Koopa could see a passage beneath him. "There's a way down there, too. Twilight, you and Parakarry check across the gap and see where that path leads."
"Ok. We'll also grab that key for that door back in the other room." Twilight and Parakarry grouped together and flew across the pit, the Paratroopa nabbing the key before they entered, the rest carefully dropping down to check what was down the other way.
Mario lead Pinkie, Goombario, Kooper, and Bombette down the long, narrow hall, where they saw a dozen Swoopers hanging on the ceiling. Spotting them, the bats screeched and swooped down to attack them. They ducked low to the ground, avoiding their body slams and sharp claws, Mario swatting a few down with his hammer. Pinkie tested out using her melee weapon, holding it in her hooves like a baseball bat, sticking out her tongue and wiggling her rump as she readied her swing. One Swooper flew down at her, only to get thwacked hard by the wooden hammer, getting sent flying across the hall as it spiraled out of control.
"Whoo hoo! Home run!" Pinkie cheered. "Now, where are the bases to run around!?" She yelped as she didn't notice another one dive bomb on her, getting tangled up in her curly, poofy mane. "AHHH! Bat in my mane! Get it out! Get it out! It's going to suck out my blood!"
"Pinkie, Swoopers don't drink blood!" Goombario exclaimed, headbonking on one as it swooped down at him, bouncing off of it and landing on the flailing mare's back. "Hold still! I'll get this thing out!"
The Goomba grabbed the Swooper, kicking the flailing and squeaking bat as it kept getting itself tangled to knock it out. After it finally stopped moving, he pulled the Swooper out, tossing it off Pinkie's back. Kooper used the walls to ricochet and bounce off of, smacking into the group of purple, squinty bats out of the air, where Bombette body slammed into them to finish them off. As soon as the last of them were out cold, the Koopa dusted his hands off.
"Took care of those flying pests," he said. As he looked around the hall, he noticed a carved map of the ruins hanging on the wall. "Hey, guys. Look at this."
The others gathered around and stared at the map. Though it was a simple kind of map that was made, it did show a definite layout of the rooms they had mostly been to, a red arrow at the bottom showing them where they were and the entrance up a few floors. What was interesting about the map were four colored points on the brown map in four different locations: one where the treasure room was that held Mario's new hammer with a purple square, and three different rooms with a green square. One of those rooms was the altar where they found the stone pyramid earlier.
"Hmmmmm," Pinkie hummed in thought as she stepped closer to the map. "If I had any bits to bet, I'd say these four rooms are veeeeeeery important."
"They must be," Kooper said, pointing to the room where the stone pyramid rests. "That room is where that pyramid rests. And these other two rooms must have something similar."
"Twilight and Parakarry are heading for that one room on the right," Goombario said. "I wonder if it's another stone pyramid."
The alicorn and Paratroopa walked into the hall after looking through the room, a little surprised seeing all the unconscious Swoopers laying on the ground. "Guys, we found another altar," Parakarry said. "But there was a blue crescent moon stone on it this time."
"The room was just like the one with the pyramid," Twilight added. She noticed the map on the wall, noting the marked rooms where they had already been in, the last altar on the same floor as them on the left. "Then that must mean this room must have a third stone. They must really be important to something after all."
"Looks like we might have to backtrack for them once we find out what's in that locked door." Parakarry pulled out the key he picked up back in the previous room. "And now that we have a layout of the ruins in here, it'll be a little easier to navigate...even though we've been through almost every single room."
"Let's just hope there's a way to back to the upper floors from here at the other end of this hall," Twilight said.
They continued onward, finding a spring that can help them make it back up to the upper floor with the five Chain Chomp pillars. There was also a bombable wall before them which lead to the third altar that held the third stone. Bombette lit her fuse and blew the wall up as she walked up to it, everyone able to see the final stone was a pink diamond. Using the spring to jump back up, Pinkie happily bouncing on it like a trampoline as they waited for Bombette to blow up the other wall leading them back out to the main halls of Dry Dry Ruins, they made their way back to the Chain Chomp pillars and unlocked the next door.
The room was filled with sand just like the other room, and seeing the switch on the other end meant that pressing it would make it sink down into the pit below for everyone else to walk across to one of the altar rooms. There were also five stone Chain Chomp carvings sticking up on pedestals buried in the sand, similar to the ones in the previous hall, but a bit smaller. Mario walked across the sand and pushed the switch down, draining the sand out of the room and fill up the pit beneath it. Now that the room was cleared away, they could see the pillars, having the same indents like the other ones, only this time, three of them had a carving of a shape in them: the far left one a pyramid, the middle one a diamond, and the far right one a crescent moon.
"So, those stones really are important after all," Kooper said. "So far, we haven't found the Star Spirit yet since we've searched in every single room down here. But, those pillars and stones must unlock a mechanism to open up a way further down."
"I think we should split up to get those stones," Goombario suggested. "It would be a lot faster to gather them and meet back up in that hall."
"Sounds like a good idea since we've dealt with all of the enemies in the ruins," Bombette said. "Nothing much standing in our way except for how late it'll be by the time we're done."
"I'll go with Twilight to get the pyramid stone," Kooper said. "Pinkie, you, Parakarry, and Bombette get the crescent stone, and Mario and Goombario can go for the diamond stone."
"Sounds good. Everypony, be careful," Twilight warned as they left the room and split up to gather the stones.
Twilight and Kooper made the longer trek back up to the altar room that held the green pyramid stone. She carried him up to the ledge, ignoring the stone block as they stepped up to the pedestal.
"So, if this might be a reverse pressure switch, what do you think will happen?" Twilight asked.
"Either trap us in the room until we put it back, or something dangerous like a slowly moving ceiling, poisonous darts, or another ambush like with that question mark block." Kooper brought a hand to his chin as he used his archaeological mind to ponder the possibilities that might happen. "We need these stones, but it's clear something bad will happen...We won't know until we take it."
The Koopa let out a heavy sigh, holding his arm out and flexed his fingers. He was a little nervous from the anticipation, but also a little thrilled to see what trap they'll set off once they take something used as a key to help them delve deeper into the ruins. Slowly, he reached out to the stone, quickly grabbing it and swiping it off the pedestal. The two of them flinched, expecting something to happen as they waited a few seconds, but thankfully, nothing did. Twilight and Kooper let out a sigh of relief, the latter holding the stone up for them to see.
"Well, I guess it was just a false trap," Twilight said. Suddenly, they heard a growling sound in the room, the two of them slowly looking at each other. "...Was that your stomach?"
"No. Yours?" The alicorn shook her head. They heard the growl again, even louder now. Kooper began to sweat nervously as his pupils shrunk to pinpricks. "...Uh oh."
"What's 'uh oh' mean for us?" Twilight questioned worriedly.
"I know what kind of creature makes that growling noise." Kooper turned around, noticing the carving that was on the wall in the room was different. One of the Chain Chomps was missing, which meant his explorer intuition was right earlier when he felt something was off about the room. "...Oh sweet, suffering Snifits."
Kooper carefully crept over to the edge to look down at the ground, only to yelp and leap back as something barked and jumped at him, barely reaching the higher platform. "W-What was that!?"
"I think it's a Chain Chomp, but it's made of stone!" Confused, Twilight approached the side, finding a living stone Chain Chomp looking up at her as it leaned against the wall.
"What the hay!?" Looking over the strange dog-like sphere of stone, it barked and tried to jump at her, unable to reach high enough on the platform they stood on. Its body was craggy, completely made of stone, including its teeth and the chain attached to it. "I thought you guys said they were made out of steel, not stone!"
"Well, this is news to me, too!" Kooper said. "Maybe Chain Chomps have evolved with metal bodies as time passed, and they were originally made of stone. They may look a bit weaker just from the cracks it has, but that doesn't mean they're not as dangerous as the ones we knew."
"At least it can't reach us and I can carry us over it." The Stone Chomp was smarter than it seemed, grunting as it looked back at the exit, then bounced over to it and blocked their only way out. It let barks as if it was laughing at them mockingly. "Or these things actually listen and is smart enough to block the way out of here. And I haven't recovered enough to teleport us on the other side of it. Curse Bowser and that Star Rod."
"Guess we have no choice but to beat it up." Kooper jumped down, prepared to fight as he stared down the stone guard dog. "Alright, you old dog...or however old you might actually be. Time to put you down."
The Stone Chomp growled and lunged forward, chomping its sharp, stone teeth at the Koopa. Kooper shell tossed away from it, bouncing off the wall and ramming into it as hard as he could. He did manage to slam the Chomp's side, but that only angered it as it barked madly, lunging forward with each bounce as the chomp chased the spiraling blue shell.
"This is bad," Twilight uttered as she helplessly watched her Koopa friend getting chased around by the Stone Chomp. "Even if it's made of stone, it's still tough. Ugh, if only Mario was here with his new hammer. That could easily take care of it." She looked around, trying to figure out a way to stop the Chomp or knock it out. Twilight glanced over at the stone block nearby, looking a little bit stronger than the body of the bouncing stone sphere with teeth. "That might work."
Lighting up her horn, Twilight grunted as she summoned all of her magical energy around the stone block. She had regained enough magic to lift up bigger objects, lifting up the heavy block and hovering it over the ground. It wasn't as heavy as an ursa minor back when the baby constellation bear ran through Ponyville no thanks to two colts who believed Trixie's story when she first came to town, but it still took an effort to lift it.
While the alicorn hovered the block up in the air, Kooper continued to flee, avoiding bouncing around the walls and into the maw of the Stone Chomp. It was so focused on the Koopa, it didn't pay attention to the stone block hovering above them. Kooper ended up tripping over the Chomp's stone chain as he bounced off the wall, flipping him and throwing him out of his controlled spinning. He tumbled across the ground as his limbs popped back out to manually stop himself, smacking his back into a wall.
Shaking his head and snapping out of his daze, Kooper gasped when the Stone Chomp approached him, growling menacingly. It reared itself back to lunge at the Koopa, but before it lunged for him, Twilight dropped the stone block down on it. The block smacked the top of the Chomp's head, letting out a yelp as it froze in place, the impact shattering the block to pieces. Slowly, the Stone Chomp lowered its head, its eyes turning to crosses as it let out a groan. Twilight jumped down and ran up to Kooper, helping him back up on his feet.
"Thanks," he said. "I thought it had me for a second."
"Good thing that block was there," Twilight said, rubbing her head as she felt a small headache. "It was a lot heavier than I thought it was...You still have the pyramid stone?"
Kooper pulled his arm into his shell, pulling out the stone he hid on him before fighting the Stone Chomp. "Still in one piece. Let's get out of here before Stony over there wakes back up."
"Yes. Let's." The duo made their way out of the altar and headed back to meet up with the others in the hall with the five Chain Chomp pillars. "You don't think everypony else is going to end up finding one of those stone Chain Chomps in the other rooms, will they?"
"I have a bad feeling they might," Kooper said.
Mario and Goombario jumped down the long drop to the floor that had the map of the entire ruins. They passed through the blown up wall into the altar where the pink diamond stone rests. Mario could easily jump up onto the platform, but he didn't want to leave Goombario by himself if there was a trap once they grabbed it. He saw a stone block in a corner near the raised platform, just like the one back in the first altar with the pyramid stone. Using his new hammer, he smashed the block to pieces, only to leap back in shock as a Stone Chomp was hidden inside of the block and lunged at him.
"Whoa!" The Chomp barked and lunged forward, only to be met with a hard smack in the jaws by Mario's hammer. It was sent flying into the wall, some of its teeth broken off by the harder mallet's head as it fell unconscious. "A Chain Chomp made out of stone!? By Goompa's fez, that's new. I didn't think they could be made of stone. It must have been a protector of the stone, or the ruins itself."
While Goombario pondered the odd Chomp, Mario noticed there was a stairway hidden behind where the block used to be. There was a way for others without flight or his jumping ability to reach the pedestal, it was just blocked off by those stone blocks. He climbed up and approached the stone, taking it off its altar. Luckily, there didn't seem to be a trap, the only surprise being the Stone Chomp that was guarding it. Mario and Goombario began heading back to see if the others got their stones as well, hoping they didn't run into a Stone Chomp as well.
Pinkie hummed nonchalantly as she bounced over the sand covering the pit on the way to the crescent stone with Parakarry and Bombette. "Pinkie, don't you get exhausted bouncing around all the time?"
"Nope!" Pinkie answered.
"Do you ever get exhausted?" Parkarry asked.
"Of course, silly! I need to sleep sometimes!" she said.
"I think we're going to just say Pinkie has a limited supply of unlimited energy before she eventually crashes," Bombette theorized. "...Or we should stop wondering how she works for the sake of reality."
They entered the room with the blue crescent stone, Parakarry flying up to take the stone for the five pillars. Right as the Paratroopa picked up the stone, Pinkie's tail began twitching erratically, making the pony gasp.
"Uh oh! Twitchy tail!" she warned.
"What?" Bombette questioned.
"My Pinkie Sense is going off!" Pinkie exclaimed. "And when my tail starts twitching, that means something's going to fall!"
"Umm, how exactly does that make any sense?" Parakarry asked. "Body spasms can't tell what's going to-"
Bombette gasped when she looked up, spotting a Stone Chomp moving off a ledge of the wall above where the altar lies, falling straight toward the unsuspecting Paratroopa. "Parakarry, watch out!"
"Huh?" The mail carrier looked up, yelling in surprise as he spotted the Stone Chomp falling down on him. He flew out of the way in time, the Chomp smashing and breaking the pedestal. "Holy Monty Moles! Where did that thing come from!?"
"See!? Twitchy tail!" Pinkie reminded. "A statue fell, just like I said!"
The Chomp moved, which made Parakarry back away, thinking it was some kind of statue that fell over due to wear and tear of time. "Uhh, this isn't a statue! I think this is a real Chain Chomp, but it's made out of stone!"
It barked and jumped up at Parakarry, the Koopa fluttering high in the air to avoid its jaws. "I didn't know they could be made of stone! Pinkie, throw me up there!"
"Ooh! Good idea! We'll see if the stone doggy can play fetch!" Pinkie grabbed Bombette, lifting the Bob-omb up over her head. "Here, boy! Fetch the pink explodey ball!"
Bombette lit her fuse as she was tossed up on the platform. The Stone Chomp heard Pinkie, letting out a confused growl, only to whimper as it saw the Bob-omb stand in front of it. Bombette released a powerful blast, hitting the Chomp at point-blank range. When the smoke cleared, it was covered in soot as its eyes were the size of pinpricks. It coughed out smoke from its opened maw, then fell over on its side unconscious. Parakarry let out a heavy sigh of relief, holding out the crescent stone he grabbed.
"That was close," he said. Parakarry hovered back down to Pinkie and Bombette, the Bob-omb joining them after falling back down from her explosive blast. "Wow, Pinkie. I guess you were right about your...Pinkie Sense. Thanks."
"You're welcome, Parry!" Pinkie said, pulling the Paratroopa into a hug. "And my tail's stopped twitching. No more stuff's gonna fall on us."
"I hope so," Bombette said as she looked up. After seeing just how accurate Pinkie's randomness in foresight was with her Pinkie Sense, it made her and Parakarry a but curious to what else the mare was capable of telling just from her random body spasms. "Soooo...That Pinkie Sense of yours. Does that just happen randomly?"
"Sure does! Even I don't know what to expect, but I always trust my Pinkie Sense! I even have combos!" Bombette and Parakarry looked at each other in shock, hearing Pinkie had several involuntary motions and twitches that could mean anything rather than just one to warn of something. "Just watch out for when I do an ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch in that order." Pinkie acted out the involuntary motions in that order to show the two what it looks like. "That means watch out for opening doors. Twilight learned that the hard way when she tried to figure it out how my Pinkie Sense worked. Sometimes, you have to believe in things, even if they can't be figured out."
"...I think with you, we'll believe anything you do or say," Parkarry said. With the crescent stone kept safe in Parakarry's mail bag, being mindful that his bag was completely closed and in a separate pocket from his letters to deliver, the trio headed back to the hall to meet up with the others. "So, Pinkie, you think you have a Pinkie Sense to warn us about weather conditions?"