//------------------------------//
// I began my descent into darkness... 
// Story: It Sleeps Beneath Foal Mountain 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

The enchantment I'd placed upon Daring Do, while harmless in the short term, would be detrimental to her health if left alone for too long. I left her to slumber long enough to finish what remained of the tome's pages, a feat I managed to accomplish just as the beginning of the sun's rays peeked out over the sand-strewn horizon. 

I myself hadn't slept an ounce during the night but found I was no more weary for the lack of rest. On the contrary, it almost seemed as though I had more vigor than the day before—a surprising, if not unwelcome development to be sure, but all the more proof of my strange and ominous changes. Setting my worries and ruminations on what I'd read aside, I stowed the tome away, released my sleeping enchantment from Daring Do and roused the mare to full wakefulness. 

According to Daring Do's map, there was still a little less than half a day's journey by flight until we reached our destination. Unfortunately, it would take us much longer to make it there, as no more than two hours or so after we'd taken wing, we were nearly ripped from the skies by a sudden and vicious sandstorm. We managed to avoid such a fate thanks to Daring's foresight, but we were grounded as a result and had to continue on hoof from that point. The sandstorm lost most of its rancor not too long after it began, but what remained still made flight all but impossible.

I was able to shield Daring and myself from the majority of the whirling, stinging sand through the use of a modified spell, but it was not a permanent solution, and I prayed the storm wouldn't last too long, lest the feat drain me to exhaustion before we even arrived. For the next few hours, the sandstorm raged on and by its end, we had no choice but to stop so I could rest and restore my thaumic energy. It took far more time than either Daring and I would've liked, as my magic reserves ran fairly deep. It took so long in fact, that we both decided it would be best to move on though I was only at about half strength. The rest of my magic would accumulate on the way so long as I didn't do anything to magically strenuous.

With the sandstorm gone and our coat and feathers newly cleaned of any excess dirt, we were once again able to take to the skies and did so with all haste. The rest of the trip went by without any more incidents, but we hadn't made good time as a result, and it was nearing evening by the time the ancient structure we were looking for came into view. Just seeing its silhouette in the distance, I could tell that Daring Do was right in that the temple was something out of place in this vast empty desert. It reminded me somewhat of the illustrations I'd seen of the massive ancient cathedrals once erected back when ponies still practiced religious worship of Princess Celestia, though the axis tower in the center was far taller and more pronounced than the other four towers surrounding the structure on each side.

As we made our way closer, I could see that the structure was slightly tilted, and there was evidence that much of it had long since been buried in the sands of the eastern Saddle Arabian desert over many years. That any of the building remained above the surface at all was a miracle, or perhaps it may have been a testament to just how large this temple truly was. I was even more surprised to find that the dark grey stonework, while discolored and chipped with age in some places, was still largely intact with little deterioration. The design of the temple had been incredibly ornate in its day, though the luster and majesty had long since faded now. 

Still, my astonishment didn't end there, for as I followed Daring as she circled around the building, I could see that most, if not all, of the windows dotting the ancient stone walls retained the stained-glass work. Of what the windows depicted within the weathered glass I could no longer discern, but something about the temple's preservation made me uneasy and suspicious. Looking at the structure from every angle, the temple could hardly be called a ruin! And yet, though I was no architect, there was a strange sort of beauty I could see in its design—an appreciation or a kind of... respect for how the place stood so firmly against the ravaging hoof of time.

In contrast, Daring Do's expression was tense. The mare looked as though she wanted to be anywhere but here, and I couldn't blame her for that. It was certainly an ominous place, and my strange respect for it didn't change that in the slightest. We continued to circle around the temple until we came to one of the very few broken windows near the top of the center tower. We carefully made our way inside through the window, and upon entering the tower itself, I was immediately struck with several unpleasant sensations at once. Amidst the arid haze of dust and ash doing its best to clog my lungs, there was another smell permeating the air—something foul and old and cloying, like the stench of a long rotted corpse. 

While this terrible odor assaulted my nose, my heart was struck by an odd, but overwhelmingly strong sense of nostalgia. Truthfully the sensation had been there since I laid eyes on the ruin, but it was minor enough that I hadn't registered it until now. It was almost like being back in the Golden Oaks Library after all this time, but the experience, strange as it was, was marred by a familiar and unwelcome pull at my thaumic senses. It was the same feeling I'd gotten from the Tree of Harmony and the nameless tome, which could only mean that whatever was here in these ruins had to be related to this ongoing mystery. 

The combination of this strange nostalgia, the unplaceable shift in the thaumic field, and the abhorrent stench altogether was a sickening mix, but in a way, it also gave me hope in the form of answers to the questions plaguing my thoughts and quite literally driving me insane.

Looking about, a single ray of sunlight lit the interior, but it was enough for me to see that we'd landed in a surprisingly small circular room of some sort. The air was choked with sand, and large piles of it had built up in a few corners of the room, no doubt blown in through the broken window. I swept my disbelieving gaze across the room and it took me an instant to realize that there were several things wrong. All around me I could see the grim results of what may have been some kind of terrible struggle. Among the many piles of sand and debris left from the crumbling walls and ceiling above were the scattered, blackened, ashen remains of what I believe was a large desk, an ornate chair, and several old bookshelves strewn across the dirty stone tiles that made up the room's floor. 

Daring Do had mentioned the remains of twisted creatures that were not entirely equine so I had prepared myself to see the same. What I saw splayed out around the blackened wooden scrap were indeed remains—skeletal remains to be exact—but these were without a doubt, very much the remains of regular equines. Looking a bit closer, I could see several black stains marring the floor and walls of the room and bits of worn and tattered cloth here and there. Also scattered about the room along with the few cracked and bleached skulls, ribcages, femurs, bits of tibiae and the like, were objects that I felt ought not to be there—namely blades and armor rusted dark red with age. 

I slowly trotted about the room, taking in the scene and pondering the meaning behind the barding that covered some of the more intact skeletons. Once again I found my dream returning to me, and with that in mind, it didn't take me long to arrive at few conclusions. I stopped my wandering and grimaced at the wanton destruction, feeling a horrible sense of dismay and letting the smell of ash and dust fill my nostrils. The sight, taste, and smell all began to paint a gruesome picture in my mind of a grim and futile struggle for survival, and the countless ancient tomes that had once filled the ruined bookshelves all being put to the torch. With all the sand and the fact that most of the skeletal remains were separate and spread among several other bits of debris, it was impossible for me to tell exactly how many ponies had died here—impossible without a thorough search at least.

So lost in my own musings about what could've transpired so long ago was I that I'd nearly forgotten Daring Do was present. I only realized once more that she was there when she bade me follow her through an empty doorway and out of the room. I could tell she wasn't eager to be here, but rather than follow right away, I took one last look around the room. Aside from the ruined desk, bookshelves, sand, and skeletal remains, there was little else of note... and yet I felt there was something I was missing—a nagging sensation that I'd forgotten something important. 

I turned to ask Daring her opinion on what I'd seen, but the mare was already making her way down a darkened hall and towards an old spiral staircase that led further down. I frowned as I watched her go, feeling again that sense that something wasn't right. The mare's face was set in a grim line that gave almost nothing away, but she moved as though she was being stalked by a demon right out of Tartarus. Looking back into the room we'd just come from, I tried to figure out what it was that held me there, but nothing came forth. The room was silent save for the distant howl of the wind outside the temple, and the air was dusty and hot, and yet I felt something cold suddenly settle over me, causing me to shiver involuntarily.

A soft whisper reached my ears then—a whisper so quiet and incomprehensible that it could've been my own imagination. I wanted to believe it was my imagination, but I knew it wasn't, and that was enough to finally pull me out of whatever hold the room had on me. With another small shiver, I turned and quickly retreated from the doorway before following Daring Do down the old crumbling spiral staircase. Whatever may or may not have happened in that room, I knew it had little to do with the answers I sought. 

No... what I needed to see was much deeper below the surface, I was all but certain of it.