//------------------------------// // Temple // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// Godfrey zoomed low over the top of the green jungle as he made his way to the volcano. Now about halfway there and he hadn’t heard or seen anything of note on this entire island so far. The Smoking Island should be renamed the Dead Island if it was like this. And the closer he got to the volcano, the sense of foreboding danger from it increased. But for Godfrey that merely made his blood pump harder, There was a great thrill to be had here for certain, any day he defied death was a good day for him. Choosing to go into the Strip of Storms was a decision based on the same thing. “If only there was something in this jungle to hunt on my way to the volcano, I could use the brief excitement,” he grinned. The stores of The Scourge were low after they had been at sea for a while, especially where meat was concerned. He was actually kind of hungry. The Smoking Island should’ve been a good stop for getting some meat—but since it was now the Dead Island he wasn’t going to get any by the looks of it. Fruit and vegetables maybe, gathered up by his crew later, but nothing else probably. Boring. And even he wasn’t the type of creature that would eat pony meat. That was just plain gross, so Rainbow Dash and those others couldn’t help him there either. “Hehe… bet I could scare them good about that when I see them though,” Godfrey laughed. He looked up at the sky to see if he could tell the time of day, but the heavy clouds of smoke above didn’t allow him to figure out anything more exact than it being sometime in the afternoon. “What a pain.” His sharp eyes then looked to the jungle below him—looking for a few certain types of plants in particular. He grinned as he saw what he was looking for and flew down to the trees, pulling his cutlass from its place. Dropping through the canopy, he stopped on the roots of a particularly large and overgrown tree. The branches and leaves from it spread out over a wide area and long vines dropped down from it to the jungle floor. One of those vines he grabbed with his talon and cut it in two with his cutlass. The bottom fell to the ground while the top half started to leak water out from within. Godfrey brought it to his beak and started to take a few big gulps of it—it was refreshing considering the humidity of this place. “Ahhh… surprisingly good stuff,” he said as the vine went dry and he let it go. It swayed back into place as he stretched and looked around the heavily-wooden jungle he was now in the middle of. Looking for fruit or the apparently unlikely possibility that he’d see an animal. He did see some bananas. But no monkeys scurrying up the trees to get them. “Whatever,” Godfrey shrugged and put his cutlass away before flying up to the banana tree. “A snack before I go say hi to my brother.” “Looks like the jungle thins out ahead, from looking at the volcano I don’t think much vegetation grows on or around it,” Rainbow Dash said as she and her friends made it near the end of the road. It seemed to come with a stop along with the jungle several hundreds of feet from the base of the volcano. “What’s it look like out there then?” Daylight Gleam asked her. “I’ll check,” Rainbow said and flew up to take a look at the next area they’d have to travel through. Grey. Grey and ash covered dirt. The jungle came to a full and complete stop all at once and transformed into what looked like an empty wasteland. It might as well have been the burned remains of trees and grass for how desolate it looked. The road even disappeared into the ashy ground and left them with no clear path to the volcano. Of course since there was no jungle blocking their way anymore that didn’t really matter so much. Looking at things, Rainbow thought at one point there might have been a lava or ash flow that was responsible for the stark difference in the landscape. It must’ve come down from the volcano ages ago. Her eyes drifted to the mountains that lied around the volcano. They didn’t have such a barren landscape around them, the jungle actually reached them. But that’s not where they were going. Rainbow Dash flew back down to the others, who were close to reaching where the jungle fell away already. “How’d it look?” Breakwater asked. “Well we’ve got a straight line to the volcano—see for yourselves,” Rainbow said and pointed ahead. The four of them now also took their first look at the volcanic landscape and got an eyeful of how unwelcoming it was. “Not a very charming place, is it?” Gilbert said as he looked at the ashen ground. “I dunno, I think it still beats climbing through a jungle,” Daylight shrugged. “Perhaps,” Gilbert nodded. “Did you see the temple anywhere?” Breakwater asked Rainbow Dash. “Uh… no. Kind of forgot to look. Should just be somewhere on the volcano, right?” Rainbow asked. “Actually I thought it was on one of the other mountains and not directly built into the volcano itself. But looking at how the road went and the situation here… everything kind of points to the temple being on the volcano,” Breakwater said. “Walking into a volcano—certainly a swell idea. And not even the first time I’ll have done something so stupid,” Daylight shook her head. “Let me check it out again, I’ll find that temple,” Rainbow said and flew up a bit. “You guys can start walking towards it and I’ll come back and get you!” From her first glance at the volcano it was clear that any temple wasn’t on its western face, but hopefully they didn’t have to navigate too far around it. She didn’t know if the temple would be seated directly at the base or further up its slopes but she figured it had to still be pretty easy for her to spot. After all it was just a barren volcano otherwise—any building on it had to stick out like a sore hoof. Rainbow Dash decided to fly to its south side first, glancing up every now and then at the dark smoke that continued to billow from its mouth. She couldn’t keep her eyes off it for long no matter how many times she told herself there was nothing strange about it. Nothing had changed at all about it since the first time they had seen it from the ocean though. It may have not been a dormant volcano but it at least hadn’t gotten any worse. There was one thing Rainbow Dash could say was lucky about today though—she spotted what had to be the temple sitting on the south side of the volcano. Right at the foot of it and directly facing true south. “Bingo,” Rainbow grinned and went back to tell the others. Her flight was quick as she practically rocketed down over to them while they were still midway to the volcano, stepping over ash and dirt. A rainbow flash settled down right in front of them with a wave and a smile. “Yo! I found it!” “So what’s it look like?” Breakwater asked. “Uh… didn’t really take a close look at it. Just wanted to find it,” Rainbow shrugged. “But whatever, we can all check it out together now, just follow me!” She started flying away again back towards the temple, this time at a lower altitude. “You heard the mare,” Daylight sighed and followed along. As a group they all walked in the direction she had went, to the south face of the volcano. Every now and then their eyes as well would journey up to the top of the volcano to take in the smoke rising into the sky. That’s what they were walking inside. They all knew it was a horrible idea, yet none of them spoke up to try and convince the others to not to. It was the path they had chosen on their search for Merlantis. It only took a few minutes of walking from where they already were to make it to the south side of the volcano thanks to how flat and unobstructed the ground was. As they approached closer, the temple Rainbow Dash spotted became clearer to see. Or more accurately, the entrance to the temple became easier to see. It became very obvious that the temple of the ancient civilization was largely built inside the volcano and what was on its exterior was a mere entrance. Large stone pillars—as gray as ash—held up a stone archway that jutted out from the side of the volcano. The pillars and archway were cracked and dirty, looking like they were ready to collapse if someone touched them the wrong way. A few carved steps leading up to them were equally dilapidated, chunks of them missing and bits of volcanic rock sitting around of and on top of them. It looked like at one point it might have been painted over with something, or had some more intricate carvings along the top of the archway, but time and ash had worn all of that down. With the five of them now standing in front of it, they noticed a couple of other things that didn’t belong and were most certainly the result of the scientists and archaeologists who had more recently lived here. The first was a sign hammered into the ground right in front of the steps that they were now all looking at. It was about as simple a sign as one could possibly be. DANGER: DO NOT ENTER “Well it’s not like that’s a surprise,” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “I wonder if they put it up after too many archaeologists and treasure hunters didn’t come back out,” Daylight said. “Likely,” Breakwater said and looked behind the sign at the entryway. “That would also explain that.” The entrance beyond the pillars and archway was all boarded up. Strong planks of wood had been nailed in place to seal the entrance to the temple. The wood wasn’t rotted or falling apart at all, it must’ve been done very recently. Especially long and thick nails, closer to railroad spikes, had been used to gouge right into the stone of the entryway and hold the boards in place. The ponies on this island really didn’t want anybody else going in here. “I guess we’re still going in though?” Rainbow glanced over at Senax. The merpony nodded. “Yes. We have to.” “Okay-” Rainbow Dash nodded and raised an eyebrow at Daylight. “Hey, want to help me pull those boards off the temple?” “I suppose there isn’t anyone better for it...” Daylight said and the two went up to start their demolition. As Rainbow and Daylight started on that, Gilbert and Breakwater wandered around in the ashy dirt, looking at the other mountains and up at the volcano some more. If the island wasn’t so eerily empty it probably would’ve been a nice place. But the lack of absolutely anything around them now made it supremely uninviting. Gilbert glanced around the ground and around the temple’s entrance to check if there was maybe anything else left by the current inhabitants or some sign of the old civilization while Breakwater kept his eyes on the sky for the remote possibility that he’d at least see a bird or something. All the while, Senax stayed completely focused on Rainbow Dash and Daylight Gleam as they tore down the blockade to the temple. “This is not what my magic is specialized for,” Daylight grunted as a powder blue glow slowly yanked one of the large nails from the stone. “Well we don’t have a hammer or crowbar so unicorn magic is the next best thing!” Rainbow said as she tried to ply the side of the board away at the same time. The nails were too flush against the wood for her to actually try pulling one out herself. It took some time and effort but they did manage to steadily pull each board away, tossing them and the nails down the steps and out of the way. By the time they reached the last one, Senax, Gilbert, and Breakwater were standing right behind them and eagerly anticipating the opening of the path into the temple. The board was pulled away and clattered down the steps—as soon as nothing obstructed the way into the temple any longer a blast of heat seemed to emerge from inside the volcano like the breath of a dragon. The ponies, merpony, and griffon had to shield their faces as the hot air billowed against them and ruffled their manes and feathers. “Not a bad sign or anything...” Breakwater said. “It’s just some hot air, it’s a volcano after all,” Daylight said, frowning and perhaps not entirely believing her logical explanation. Rainbow Dash peered inside the temple, seeing the stone walls stretch deep within and eventually the entire hallway ended in darkness. Not like she didn’t expect that. There couldn’t still be any torches lit in there, and the light from the sun outside was already low thanks to the clouds of smoke from the volcano. It really was hot in there too, no fires to make any light, and yet the heat was almost oppressive. The humidity in the jungle didn’t remotely compare. “Well it’s not like we have a torch or anything for this buuuuut, we kind of have the next best thing,” Rainbow said as she looked over at Daylight. Daylight rolled her eyes and stepped forward into the temple’s entrance. “Yes, this is what my magic is specialized for.” The unicorn put a bit of magic into her horn and the powder blue glow switched over to a bright light that easily lit up the walls around her and spread deeper into the temple. With a slight narrowing of her eyes, Daylight focused the magic like a flashlight so it almost entirely faced forwards and wasn’t blinding anybody behind her. That allowed it to illuminate nearly the entire hallway and for them all to see a series of steps going up at the end of it—maybe just one or two hundred feet away. “I figured we’d be going down, not up,” Gilbert said. “Guess the ponies who built this place thought differently,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “What would you consider the heart of the volcano? The middle of it or the magma pool at the bottom?” “We have no idea if that’s what they were thinking in the first place,” Daylight sharply said from the front. “We have no idea what the purpose of this temple even was at all,” Breakwater snorted. “Let’s just go in and keep our eyes open, what we do know is this place is dangerous.” “Yeah, don’t worry about that, I’m keeping a lookout,” Rainbow Dash said, her eyes roaming across the walls just in case there was anything irregular with them. She adamantly refused to be taken off-guard by centuries old booby-traps in this volcano. “We’ll be fine, I have faith in all of us,” Senax said and took a step into the temple. “Right on,” Rainbow grinned and started flying right behind Daylight as well. Gilbert and Breakwater brought up the rear and now the entire party was heading inside, in search of the treasure within.