//------------------------------// // Grandeur in Gold // Story: Surviving Sand Island // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// It was massive. Rarity could scarecely comprehend what she was looking at. To her, it didn’t seem real. It was impossible. The mountain couldn’t have been that big… right? The heart of the temple rose higher and higher. Rarity could count three balconies overlooking a massive central chamber, each one ringing entirely around the open center space. Every wall had been cut perfectly flat and inscribed with thousands of runes. Murals ten feet tall decorated different walls, their colors faded but still recognizable. They depicted towering gods of different races: pegasus, unicorn, earth, and crystal alike. In the middle of the temple, a statue of the familiar sun god reared up on its hind legs, fifteen-foot wingspan fully outstretched. A golden disk Rarity supposed represented the sun was carefully balanced between his wings; it was so much larger than her and Rainbow were. Gold accents decorated the statue’s features, and they glinted and shimmered with brilliant reflected light. And then Rarity looked up. At the very top of the temple, a round oculus let the daylight filter into the heart. The rim of the oculus had been lined with gold, tarnished and deteriorated as it was after so much time spent in the elements without care. The gold motifs continued throughout the upper levels of the structure, causing the light to bounce around and reflect across the heart of the temple in dazzling displays. To Rarity, it looked like she were standing inside the sun. She could only imagine how brilliant and fantastic the display became when the sun was directly overhead. “So much gold,” she cooed, her eyes wandering over the architecture. “Have you ever encountered anything as splendid as this on your occasional escapades with Daring Do, Rainbow?” Rainbow shook her head. “Nothing like this,” she said. “Daring would have a field day if she found this.” “I wonder how long it took them to make all of this,” Rarity wondered. “This whole temple must’ve taken generations of work. And where did all the gold come from? I haven’t seen any signs of mining anywhere on this island.” “Maybe it’s on another island,” Rainbow said. “We still have two we haven’t been to.” “It would certainly explain it…” Rarity took a few steps deeper into the temple, the clopping of her hooves echoing across the ancient stones. She could see doors and stairways scattered around the outer ring on the ground floor; who knew just how many more rooms were connected to this one? “What do you think the ponies could’ve used all these rooms for?” “Worship, priests’ quarters, meditation places?” Rainbow shrugged. “We saw a bit of that stuff back where Gyro is. I can’t really imagine what they could use all this extra space for.” “I just hope that blasted statuette is here,” Rarity said. “We certainly have a lot of rooms to check.” “That’s for sure,” Rainbow said. She stopped in front of the statue of the rearing pegasus and tried to imitate its pose. “Rrraaargh! Look at me, I’m a mighty and powerful sun god! Bring me your virgins!” Snickering, she dropped back to all fours. “I’m gonna guess that the Ponynesians weren’t too happy with their gods when they all disappeared whenever ago.” “They obviously put a lot of faith in them,” Rarity said. “Whatever happened to them, I’m sure that they felt they’d angered the gods in some way, not the other way around.” Rainbow shrugged. “Sucks to be them, I guess.” She turned her eyes towards the far wall, where an immaculate gold-covered door stood in the shadows of a stony overhang. “When in doubt, go for the shiny thing, right?” Rarity’s eyes flitted around the temple. “Rainbow, everything is shiny here.” “Yeah, but this door’s the shiniest!” “You can’t even see the doors on the upper levels from here!” “Damn it, Rarity, stop ruining the fun!” Rainbow skirted around the sun god’s statue and moved to the door in a huff. “You’re no fun exploring ancient temples with, I swear.” “I’m just trying to remain the realist, darling.” With a shake of her head, Rarity followed Rainbow over to the door, stopping at her side. Unlike the other doors in the temple, this one was round, and instead of carrying sun motifs inscribed on its surface, Rarity realized it was the sun motif. She could imagine just how brilliantly it would glow if the sun shone down on it, the rays of light scattered throughout the dark, stony back of the temple. It wasn’t too hard to imagine a crowd of ponies gathered in its glow, standing where her and Rainbow stood now. Which led her to an important question: why wasn’t the sun door positioned so the sunlight could actually hit it? While Rainbow inspected the door, Rarity turned around and faced the interior of the temple. Sure enough, the oculus that let in the sun was hidden by the floor above them; sunlight could never touch this door. “Hey, uh, Rares?” Rainbow asked, catching Rarity’s attention. “Am I just stupid, or is there no star thingy on this door for the medallion?” Rarity blinked and turned around. She hadn’t even thought to look for that. But sure enough, the door was just a solid sheet of flat gold. There weren’t any markings or signs anywhere on its surface. The only way Rarity could even tell that it was a door was by the crease between the gold and the stone surrounding it. But how did they get it to open if their key wouldn’t work? Frowning, Rarity tried the simplest solution first: brute force. Straining and heaving through her horn, she tried to force the door open but only succeeded in rattling it in place. Next, she tried to reach her field of magic through the cracks around the edges of the door and manipulate any mechanisms that might be holding it closed. Stone arms and latches stood out in her mind’s eye as her magic scanned across the backside of the door, but she couldn’t force those open, either. They remained resolutely locked in place, but not by mere force and friction. As she passed her magic back and forth over the locking mechanisms, she could feel the telltale buzz of magical feedback vibrating the tip of her chipped horn. “There’s a spell keeping the latches in place,” she announced, letting her magic fizzle away. “I can’t move them from this side, and I’m nowhere near strong enough to break stone with telekinesis alone.” “A spell?” Rainbow groaned. “Great! I that’s just what we needed to deal with now.” Frowning, she nevertheless shot a hopeful glance in Rarity’s direction. “But you can dispel it, right?” “Do I look like either of the neurotic purple mares we know?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow. Rainbow sighed. “We need to get you some training from Twilight when we’re off this island.” “Unfortunately that won’t help us at the present.” Rarity sat in front of the door and studied it. “There has to be some way to trigger the spell’s effects and cause the doors to unlock. And if I had to fathom a guess, I think it’d have to do with the sun.” She turned around and once more studied the interior of the temple. It made sense, at least; what else would cause the sun door to open but sunlight? But as she’d discovered earlier, there wasn’t any way for sunlight to reach the door given where it was positioned. So there had to be another way to get the sunlight to strike it. But how? Her eyes fell once more on the statue of the sun god. She tried to think like one of these native ponies, a pony whose family had likely dedicated generations to constructing this temple. How would they go about redirecting sunlight to hit the sealed door? Then she noticed something odd about the statue. Could that be the answer? It looked so obvious from here… perhaps a little too obvious. Rainbow glanced at Rarity. “You thinking, Rares?” Rarity nodded. “Yes, darling, I am.” She stood up and started walking over to the statue, leaving a befuddled Rainbow Dash behind her. “And I think I have an idea…”