//------------------------------// // The Animarum Temple // Story: Flash Sentry, Defender of the Peace S9 // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// The sun was only just beginning to raise in the wastelands of Equestria, illuminating everycreature there. As they began to get up and began their days, a loud whistle blew through the air, terrifying them. It was a train, which shot through the rocky terrain toward an unknown location at high speed. Aboard that train, a quartet of ponies were sitting in one of the carriages. Flash Sentry, Twilight Sparkle, Iron Core and Fluttershy sat opposite one another, the two mares leaning against their significant other and sleeping peacefully as they did so. Flash was also asleep, his face pressed against the glass and looking rather ridiculous from the outside. This left Iron wide awake, the pony not wanting them to miss their stop after waiting up all night for the train that would take them here. He stared out at the still rather dark land, and then turned to the others. He couldn't help but smirk seeing the future ruler of Equestria, drooling in her sleep as she fell onto her boyfriend's lap. But then he looked down at Fluttershy and that smirk turned into a smile. Fluttershy just had this unnatural ability to look cute no matter what she was doing, including sleeping. She lay there, her body curled up in a tiny ball as she snuggled against him. Staring at her made Iron's heart begin to beat, joy flowing through him as he remembered how great his life was now that Fluttershy was in it. He had been in a dark place after his parent's death and Skybreaker had only ever managed to bring him partway back to the light. He had always felt like he was standing on the edge between the light and darkness, with only one horrible thing being all that was needed to push him back and turn him into the monster he swore to destroy. But then Fluttershy had entered his life and became the light he needed, acting as the shield that protected him from ever falling. Now he was happy and had been able to put the grief and anger of his past behind him. No matter what, he would protect her. He was then pulled from his thoughts by the overhead speaker, telling them the next station. Hearing it was their destination, Iron grabbed his Celestic Gear and used the butt to poke Flash. "Wake up!" Flash jolted awake, making Twilight slide off his lap and fall to the ground with a start. "Yah!" She hit the train floor and her cry awakened Fluttershy, the pegasus opening her eyes and seeing what was happening. "We're here," Iron grumbled before Twilight could complain. This statement made the princess forget all about her fall and she instantly got up and looked out the window with a grin on her face. "Really?" "Well, the station's coming up." Twilight deflated as they quickly got their stuff and headed for the doors, the train pulling into the station and to a stop. As they disembarked, they soon found they didn't see anything of note. "Are we sure we're in the right place?" Flash asked as Twilight took out a map. "This should be it. The site shouldn't be that far." As she said that, Fluttershy noticed something flying down, "Look." They followed her hoof and saw a pegasus, which was yellow in color with a graying pink mane and tail. As he approached, they saw he was dressed in a brown shirt with a blue bowtie and had a magnifying glass cutie mark. "Princess Twilight?" He asked while landing in front of them. "So good to see you." He bowed, "I was shocked when I heard about your interest in our little expedition." "And I was shocked when you invited me to tour your site," Twilight motioned for him to stand. "And I wouldn't call this expedition little. Finding the Temple of Animarium is the find of a lifetime." "Yes, and one I spent my entire life searching for." He turned to the others, "Greetings. I am Keeper. Professor Zoo Keeper. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." They all introduced themselves as Keeper continued to speak, "I'm sure you all have many questions, but we should get going. It's a long trek to the site." "Yeah," Flash glanced around, "Where is this site exactly?" Keeper used his wing to point to the distance, the four following it and saw something several miles away. "The great forest of Anima. Where the Temple of Animerium is located." "That's a long ways away," Fluttershy gulped, "Are we gonna be able to get there in a day?" "It's not as far as it looks," Keeper spread his wings. "We'll be there in an hour if we fly straight." However, the others turned to the one member of their group that couldn't fly, "Oh...right." Iron frowned at them, "I don't need a pity party. I can keep up with you on land." However, looking ahead, he saw the terrain wasn't exactly flat. If he tried to run, no doubt he would fall behind the others. But as this happened, a voice caught their attention as he chuckled. "Well, isn't this a conundrum." They all looked up to see one grinning Discord floating above them. "The mighty Iron Core, now the dead weight of the group." "Discord..." Twilight glared at him, "What are you doing here?" "How could I not come?" Discord laughed, "The Temple of Animerium is said to be the place where all animals are able to find peace. I'm a jumble of different animals, so of course I should get to come and see it." Iron raised an eyebrow at this, while the others looked accepting, especially Fluttershy. "Alright," the pegasus responded, "So long as you promise to behave." Discord replied by replacing his wings with angelic ones and forming a white cloak around his body, a harp and halo appearing as well. "Do you also think you could help us? Iron can't fly, and it's a long way to where we're going." "Of course," Discord strummed his harp and a flash of light appeared around Iron. "WHOA!" He cried, feeling something appear around his chest. When the light faded, it was revealed he was now wearing a harness connected to a parachute. "What's this for?" Discord smirked before taking a deep breath and unleashed a powerful gust of wind, which felt into the parachute and pushed it into the air. "GYAH!" Iron was pulled up with him, the others gasping as they took to the air. Iron was a good ten meters up by the time they reached him, the earth pony gripping the strings of the chute tightly as he looked down and felt like he was a million miles up. "I don't think that's what Fluttershy meant," Twilight growled at the spirit of chaos. "Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine." Discord had ditched the angel gear, and with a snap, a long rope came off the front of the harness and fell toward them. "Just pull him along with this." Flash rolled his eyes as he caught the rope and began pulling Iron along, the others flying alongside him. "So, do tell. What's the full story on this temple? I know the basics, but it's always good to have a refresher course." Twilight suddenly fell into full lecturer mode. "The Temple of Animerium was said to be a place of important to the Animerium tribe. They were a group of unicorns that had the power to transform into animals. Legends says that when a unicorn proved themselves ready, they could enter the temple and begin a series of grueling trials." "Indeed," Keeper pushed his glasses up. "It's said that those trials allowed the unicorn to connect with their spirit animal. And once they made that connection, they would be granted the magic needed to allow them to take that animal's form." "Doesn't sound that great," Flash grumbled, "Changelings can turn into any animal they want. Heck, Twilight could probably do the same thing. She turned us into Breezies." "True," Twilight nodded, "But that kind of magic was extremely rare in ancient times. A tribe that could do it would be something very powerful." "Which is exactly why they were destroyed," Keeper chimed in, "Other tribes saw them as a danger and took a preemptive strike, attacking the Animarium from all sides and overwhelming them. Even them in their animal forms couldn't beat something like that. As such, the Animarium Tribe was destroyed." "That's horrible," Fluttershy muttered. "That's history," Flash sighed, "To us, what happened was barbaric. To them, it was necessary to survive. They thought the only way to remain alive was to take the power for themselves." "Indeed," Keeper nodded, "But the destruction of the Animerium Tribe meant the loss of the ability. The magic's use vanished from history when they died out. They likely refused to give up the secret and because of that, the other tribes couldn't figure out how to use the magic and it was lost to time." "I see," Discord chimed, "Well, maybe we'll be able to figure it out when we get there." The others shrugged as they kept flying while Discord floated up to Iron. "How's it going, big guy?" "You could have just teleported us there." "I could have, but this way is far more entertaining." He summoned a bag of popcorn and started eating the bag, "Why exactly did you come? I can understand Fluttershy wanting to see the ruins, since the possibility of learning how to transform into an animal is probably her greatest wish. But why you?" "Why wouldn't I come?" Iron asked, "Fluttershy wanted to and if she wanted to see this temple, I want to go and make sure she can enjoy it." Discord smirked at this, "You really care about her, don't you?" "Of course I do," Iron replied. "She's the most important thing in my life." "Really? Then why not make it official?" Iron raised an eyebrow, "You wish to be with Fluttershy for the rest of your life?" Iron nodded, "Then ask her to do just that. If you know what I mean." Iron blinked at him, only to go wide-eyed, "You...want me to propose?" "Why not?" Discord asked, "if you love her that much. You've been together long enough. Why not take the next step?" Iron stared at him for a second, only to say, "Wait...why do you care if Fluttershy and I get married?" "Because you make Flutters happy," Discord admitted. "And I can tell she wants to take your relationship to the next level. I believe the thought of marriage first entered her head when Rainbow got hitched. And Pinkie probably pushed it into overdrive. She wants to get married, but she probably doesn't want to make you feel like you have to if you don't want to." Iron frowned at this, glancing over to Fluttershy, biting his lip. But as he did this, Keeper called out to them, "We're here." They all glanced ahead and saw a large collection of trees, tall and old, all likely hundreds of years old. "This is where the temple is located?" Twilight asked as Keeper pointed to an area in the very center of the forest. "We believe most of the temple is hidden underground, but the main entrance is located above ground in the very middle of the forest." They nodded and kept flying until they reached an area of the forest that was clear of trees. This was where a bunch of holes had been dug into the ground, with many archaeologist ponies working to carefully excavate what was beneath. Tents could be seen hanging from the trees around the site, likely where the ponies slept between shifts. The archaeologists looked up and saw the new arrivals, then spotted Discord and began to frown. That is, till they saw the Princess of Friendship along with two Royal Knights, the three soon making them calm down as Keeper led the group through the site. "As you can see, we've managed to unearth much of the tribe's village already. They lived quite close to the temple, acting as both its protectors and servants." "I see," Twilight nodded before looking ahead, "And is the temple nearby?" Keeper nodded and they flew through several trees, Iron running behind him after escaping the parachute. It didn't take them long to the temple, the five now amazed as they saw a roughly fifteen meters tall building just beneath the top of the trees. It was designed like a bunch of stacked boxes, with one flat stone section having a smaller flat stone section on top of each other to make a pyramid shape that had a flight of stairs running down it. They quickly went up it, soon finding a small stone building on top. They headed inside, finding a stone table in the middle of it. Cave paintings were etched onto the wall that showed many different unicorns with an animal either in front or behind them based on the size. There were rabbits, wolves, bears, snakes, lions, tigers, eagles and so many more. "Awesome," Flash whispered before looking at the table in the center. As he did this, he noticed an indent in the stone, which looked like somepony had cut a six-sided section out of the table, along with a hole on each of the six sides. "What's this?" Keeper saw what he was pointing at and sighed, "Honestly, we're not sure. We think it might have something to do with the ceremony that the Animariums used to undergo animal transformation, but we haven't found anything that could prove that." They nodded and all continued to glance around as Keeper added, "We've attempted many ways of finding the entrance into the temple, but nothing we do allows it to open up and reveal its secrets to us." "Well then it's good that I'm here," Discord cracked his knuckles, "When logic fails, it falls upon the spirit of chaos to break the rules." He snapped his fingers and in a flash, he was transparent like a ghost. "What did you do?" Twilight asked. "Just made myself intangible," Discord chuckled, "Now I can just float through the rocks and see what the big fuss is about." He dived down into the floor and vanished, the others staring at the spot, only for him to suddenly pop back out, "WHOA!" He yelped before slamming into the roof as he turned back into a solid form. "What happened?" Fluttershy gasped as the now pancake Discord floated down like a leaf. "I'm not sure," Discord replied before blowing into his thumb to return to normal. "The second I got down there, this invisible force suddenly pushed me back up. It even cancelled my intangibility." "You mean this place still has magic?" Iron asked, Twilight going wide-eyed. "Incredible..." Keeper nodded before crossing his hooves, "It seems magic isn't going work." He gestured them, "Come on, there's a lot of artifacts back at the site that you might be interested in. We can come back for a proper look later." They nodded and all headed back out of the temple, Discord frowning at the place that had actually stopped his magic. They went through the forest and back to the site, now seeing unicorns using their magic to carefully lift several objects out of the dirt. They slowly made their way over to a table and placed the objects upon it while Keeper led the others over. "Here we have a few objects unearthed from the dig." They all took a closer look and saw some bits of broken pot and other ornaments. "Not much to look at," Flash pointed out. Keeper shrugged, "Well, most of the artifacts they would have had likely broken down over time. Metal wasn't easy to come by in those days, so any that they had would have been forged into weapons and armor. So they would have had to use wood and stone to make tools." They nodded as Iron turned to one of the holes. As he stared at it, he suddenly felt something shining into his eye and flinched back. Fluttershy noticed this and moved over to him. "Are you okay?" Iron nodded and moved out of the light, leaping down into the trench, "Did you find something?" The others turned to this, now seeing Iron moving over to a patch of dirt that had something in it, only for the sun to shine down on it, allowing it to reflect the light into Iron's face. He used his tail to brush the dirt away, revealing some kind of metal object. Iron carefully removed it from the ground, seeing it was some kind of hexagon that had a bunch of different markings on it. But before he could get a better look, Keeper flew in and took it. "Be careful!" he yelled, "Objects like this are very delicate!" He carefully flew it over to the table and placed it down. "Fascinating. We haven't found anything like this before." "Any idea what it is?" Twilight asked, Keeper shaking his head. "No. The markings look familiar, but there's so much dirt and sediment on it, I can't make out what it could be." He frowned, "I'll have to place it in a cleaning solution for a few days before I can tell what it is." They all frowned at this, only to hear a cough, making them look up at Discord. "May I?" He asked, the ponies grimacing, only for Fluttershy to stare at him, seeing he was being sincere and turned to the others. "Let's give him a chance." "But-" "Trust me." Fluttershy replied, "Let Discord help us." Discord smirked and asked Keeper what was in this cleaning solution, Keeper explaining the recipe with Discord putting on a chef's hat and adding these things into a glass bowl. When he was done, the bowl was full of a clear liquid that Discord teleported the object into. "Now I'll just speed up time inside the bowl and a few days will become a few seconds." He snapped his fingers and everypony watched. Nothing happened at first, but then the dirt on the object slowly started disappearing. They all went wide-eyed, now seeing the box-like object become more and more clean. As the dirt and grime faded away, they realized the object was actually split into two layers like a sandwich, which likely meant it was meant to spin and turn. Eventually, Keeper determined it was clean and Discord snapped the object out of the liquid. Back on the table, Keeper dried it off and smiled at the many shapes and patterns that were now visible. He also found he could turn the top half, which caused a square section to pop out of all six of the bottom-halves sides. "So what is it?" Flash asked as Keeper squinted his eyes, only to gasp. "The patterns say this is a key to the Magic of Animerium! This box must be what allowed the Animariums to unlock the magic of the temple!" He then rushed back to the temple, the others chasing after him. They quickly went into to the stone structure, returning to the small building with Keeper staring down at the table. The others caught on at this as he turned device so that the six points retracted, then slotted it into the table. It was a perfect fit, everyone smiling as Keeper turned the top again and the six spikes slotted out again and they heard a pushing sound. Keeper grinned and kept turning the key, excitement flowing through them all as they watched it spin around. And when he did a full three sixty turn, the key stopped, and they waited...and waited...and waited some more. As they did, their smiles slowly turned to frowns. "Well...that was anticlimactic." Discord commented. Keeper moved to the key and tried to turn it some more, but it refused. He then turned it back the other way and all that did was retract the spikes back into the key so he could remove it. "I don't understand." "I guess it couldn't have been that easy," Flash added, "If it was, those other tribes would have figured it out and gotten the magic as well." "There must be something we're missing," Twilight continued, "Maybe there's another key hidden away and this one is meant to trick others." Keeper nodded back, admitting that could be a possibility. "Why don't we head back and see what we can figure out." He nodded and they all left the temple, Flash, Twilight and Keeper flying back to the site while Iron, Fluttershy and Discord decided to hang back and look around some more. They started examining the temple itself, mainly the stone blocks with the animal inscriptions. "So what do you think?" Iron asked Fluttershy as she examined an image of a unicorn with an otter. "This place as amazing as you always hoped?" Fluttershy smiled and nodded. "More than that. I just wish I could have seen the magic and learned if it actually worked. When Twilight told me about this place, a small part of me thought maybe I could find the secret of the magic and learn to become an animal." Discord looked down at her. "If you want to be an animal, why not ask me? I can turn you into any animal you wish." "It wouldn't be the same," Fluttershy replied as they moved around to the back of the temple. "The Animeriums were able to unlock the power through their own spiritual discipline. That's what I'd want to do." "Even if it could have made you go through a bunch dangerous trials?" Iron asked, only to chuckle, "You've certainly come a long way, actively seeking danger even though there's no guarantee of a reward. I'd say you'd been hanging out with Rainbow Dash too much." Fluttershy giggled at this, only to notice something in the corner of her eye, "What's this?" The others turned and saw he move over to the temple's lowest section. She brushed some dirt off the wall and revealed a familiar looking six-sided indent, with six holes in each side. "It looks like the same hole that key is meant to fit in," Iron pointed out. "Why's there one back here?" "Maybe the one at the top is a fake?" Discord guessed before a smirk appeared on his lips, a chuckle escaping it. "Oh, these Animariums were so sneaky. Putting a dummy one up at the top, but having the real entrance at the back where nopony would think to look for it." "So you think this is how we get into the temple?" Iron asked, Discord shrugging. "Only one way to find out." He snapped his fingers and the key suddenly appeared in his hands, which he offered to Iron. "Give it a try and see if you can open it." Iron took the key and frowned, thinking he should maybe tell Twilight about this. But then he saw how excited Fluttershy looked, making him sigh before putting his weapon down and placing the key into the slot, turning it as the spikes shot out like before. Continuing to turn the key, he also did a full three sixty until he reached the top. And this time, a clicking sound filled the air as something activated inside the temple. "Here we go," Iron commented as he expected the temple to open or something...only for the ground beneath him to suddenly throw him and Fluttershy forward as the wall in front of them disappeared into the temple. As such, he was suddenly flung into darkness and felt himself sliding down a slide. Both he and Fluttershy screamed as they slid while Discord just floated there with wide eyes. And before the creature of chaos could react, the ground spun around and replaced the side of the wall that had Iron and Fluttershy had just disappeared behind. He heard their screams for only a second before they were cancelled out. The Spirit of Chaos blinked for a second before he began to sweat, his voice yelling out a second later. "FLUTTERSHY!" Inside the temple... Iron and Fluttershy had just now reached the bottom of the passageway. They both cried out as they hit dirt, Fluttershy landing on top of Iron. "You okay?" He asked as they both got up, Fluttershy confirming she was fine as they stood up and found themselves still in absolute darkness. "Iron?" Fluttershy gulped, "What do we do?" They then heard a grinding noise behind them, making them jump back as the chamber was soon filled with lights, now seeing a bunch of stone pillars on either side of them. These pillars had a flame atop them, burning brightly and lighting their way. They were now in a stone tunnel, Iron turning back to the slide and seeing it was now blocked off by a wall. "Looks like we're not getting out the way we came in." Fluttershy bit her lip at this, "Now what?" Iron frowned as he now saw he didn't have his Celestia Gear, "Great. Guess we'll have to move forward and deal with whatever comes our way." He stepped in front of Fluttershy, the pair smiling at one another before Iron took the lead. It wasn't long till they reached the end of the tunnel, stepping through a doorway. They now found they were in a large square room that had no exit, spotting images of rhinos, bulls, bears, gorillas and other strong looking animals. "Now what?" Fluttershy asked, Iron wondering the same thing until the room started vibrating. "What's that?" Iron spotted four sections of the room open up before large round button-like platforms appeared. The second they were fully raised, the walls on either side of the entrance opened up before a quartet of stone cubes slid out. "Huh. Weird." He inspected the rocks while Fluttershy moved over to the buttons. She stepped on one, only to realize that the button was actually meant to move down, but she wasn't heavy enough. She let herself grow to twice her normal size, increasing her weight and causing the button to fall. This caused a clicking noise and they all turned to a section of the back wall that they saw it was a sliding door. Fluttershy then stepped off the button and it slid back up, another clicking sound following. "I get it," Iron commented, "The trial is to move one of these rocks over to the four buttons. When all four are pushed down, the door to the next area unlocks." He quickly started pushing a rock along the ground, groaning at the effort but managing to move it slowly across the floor. Fluttershy moved over to help, unable to grow much since the room was so short, so she would have to use her current size and strength. The pair managed to push the first rock to the furthest button from them, then had to push it over so it rolled onto the button and pushed it down. The clicking noise followed this and they did the same with the other three, the pair huffing and puffing as they pushed the stone cubes across the room. When the final rock was rolled onto the button, the clicking sound repeated and was followed by many more sounds. And as those sounds filled the air, the door leading out beginning to slide downward until the passageway was revealed and a flight of stairs could be seen. Iron and Fluttershy smiled at one another, both hoping the rest of these trials would be just as easy as they went through the door. One challenge down, who knows how many more to go. Back outside... Discord and magicked Twilight, Flash and Keeper to the true entrance of the temple. To say the pair were upset Iron and Fluttershy had been pulled inside was an understatement. "I can't believe you took the key without telling us!" Flash scolded him. "What were you thinking?!" "I didn't know this would happen!" Discord barked back, "What kind of temple sucks the ponies inside?!" Keeper and Twilight stared at the keyhole as the other two yelled at each other, Twilight now finding the ground where a stone section that would likely roll up and replace the current wall now stuck. She began to use her magic at this, only to find anything she tried with the holes was completely cancelled out. "It's no use," Twilight sighed, "Whatever magic is in this temple, it's cancelling out any magic that tries to open the entrance without the key." "I'm guessing that's why you didn't just magic them back here when they vanished?" Flash asked Discord, the draconequus nodding with a frown. "There has to be a way to get them out," Keeper added, "The Animeriums must have had a way to save ponies that failed the trials." "Unless this was a succeed or die kind of deal," Flash gulped, "There has to be something we can do." He turned to Keeper, "You've studied this tribe for years. Didn't any of the writings talk about how to help?" Keeper shook his head, "No. I dread to say...those two might be on their own." Iron and Fluttershy had just reached the top of the staircase, only to find themselves in another square room. This one also had animal images on the walls, showing snakes, foxes, weasels, crows, rabbits, mice and several other animals known for being sneaky or agile. And as they walked in, the door closed behind them before gaps in the wall suddenly appeared. From the gaps, a bunch of red lights flew out that hit the wall or floor on the other side of the room. The lights then started moving, going back and forth in the same direction and creating a minefield of sorts before the back exit opened up, showing another staircase. "Lasers?!" Iron asked, "They had lasers back then?! Great. How the heck are we supposed to get through this?!" He turned to Fluttershy, but found she was already gone. "Huh?" He glanced around, only to soon see that she had shrunk down to mouse size and began to fly around. Her tiny size meant she had no issue getting between the lasers, quickly getting to the others size before returning to normal. "Alright..." Iron grumbled, "Now how am I supposed to get through?!" Fluttershy looked around while putting a hoof over her mouth, "I thought there'd be some kind of button to turn them off of something." She glanced around at this, only to find nothing. "Oh dear." "Great...just great." Iron sighed before taking a deep breath. He then cut into a sprint, quickly zipping past the first volley of lasers before standing perfectly still, the lasers moving around him until a space opened up. "Oh dear!" Fluttershy used her wings to block her vision, "I can't look!" She continued to hear Iron grunt and groan as he struggled his way through the lasers. Somehow, not knowing what was happening was making her feel even more terrified. So she made herself look and watched Iron as he was about halfway through, only to appear to be stuck, the area he had moved into had no openings for him to move through. He groaned as he tried to think of how to get out of this, but wasn't even sure he could move back to where he had previously been. And Fluttershy looked terrified. However, as she shook in fear, she noticed something. "Iron, don't move." "Huh?" Iron muttered as Fluttershy shrunk down, "What the-what are you doing?!" He asked as she flew back through the lasers, soon reaching the spot she had originally been. "Fluttershy, if I can't make it through this, then you'll need to go on without me." A laser got awfully close to his nose at this, "I'm sure Twilight will find a way to free me. But it'll be harder to save two ponies then it would one, so just go and-" Before he could finish, the lasers around him suddenly vanished. "Huh?" "Iron?" He spun around and saw Fluttershy was back where they started, pushing a button that he hadn't noticed before. "I think this challenge is supposed to have somepony stay on this side and hold the button for the others, then make it across themselves." "Oh." Iron slowly replied before making his way over to the other side. Once there, Fluttershy let go of the button and the lasers returned. With one final shrink and fly, she got to the other side of the room, both sighing at this as the earth pony said, "I love you." Fluttershy giggled at this before giving him a kiss on the check, then headed for the staircase. "Let's keep going." "Let's." Flash, Twilight, Discord and Keeper were back at the dig site, Keeper and the other archaeologists hard at work. "You really think you're gonna find something here?" Flash asked, "You've been searching this area for ages. What makes you think you'll find anything that'll help you get Iron and Fluttershy out of there?" "You have any better ideas?" Keeper asked as they dug, "The Animeriums couldn't have had just one key. They must have had a second one in case the first got damaged or lost. If we can find it, we can get your friends out of there." In a flash, Discord appeared next to the hole driving a large digger. "Well then," a hardhat appeared over his horns, "Let's get digging." He turned on the machine, only for Keeper to flew up to him and waved his hooves. "Wait!" He cried, "Are you insane?! You can't use that to unearth the relics! You'll break everything! If there is another key in there, a single scratch could stop it from working right! We need to be careful!" Discord glared at him before snapping the digger away, instead taking out a brush and chisel. "Fine. We'll do it the boring slow way." Everypony sighed in relief, only for Flash to gesture to Discord to get working. Iron and Fluttershy had just reached the top of the staircase, only to find themselves in a much smaller room than the last ones. Despite its size, it was as tall as a giraffe standing on another giraffe's back and still have enough head room to wear a comical top hat. There were also animal drawings on the walls, these ones depicting dolphins, owls, elephants and other smart looking animals. As they walked in, they glanced around for traps, only to find nothing. Shrugging at this, they continued in, only to do their first step...and the entrance was suddenly blocked behind them. "What do you think this trial is?" Fluttershy asked as Iron stared at the pictures on the walls. "The first room had animals that were pretty strong. Ones that'd be able to move those blocks around pretty easily, right?" Fluttershy nodded at this as Iron continued, "The second one had snakes and rabbits and animals that could probably navigate the laser maze without a problem." "I...I didn't notice that, but you're right." She quickly caught on. "So the animals on the walls depict those that have the skills to get through these trials." "I guess," Iron shrugged, "You think these trials are meant to help those going through it realize what their spirit animal is?" Fluttershy hummed in agreement, "Yeah...I guess if you had an easier time with one trial than another, you're supposed to have that spirit animal." "You're probably right." Fluttershy replied as she stared at the pictures on the walls. "All of these animals here are known to be really smart. So maybe this trial is to test our knowledge and problem solving." "Great," he groaned, "What does it plan to do? Give us a pop quiz." But as he said that, the room started shaking and the entire floor opened up. It retracted into the sides of the room and as it did, a new floor appeared made out of a bunch of different tiles. Each tile seemed to have a shape upon it, all showing shapes that didn't fit with each other, making a giant mess of a picture. "What the heck is this?" Iron yelped as he and Fluttershy jumped down onto the new floor. "I...I think..." Fluttershy noticed that the corner of the floor had a tile missing, Fluttershy moving over to it. When she did, she saw an L-shaped groove running through it. And when she checked the tiles above and to the right of the opening, she realised they could move into place and doing so revealed more grooves beneath them. "It's a puzzle." Iron caught on and rolled his eyes, "Great. So we've gotta move them to make an image. That'll take forever." "Maybe," Fluttershy scratched her head, "But it doesn't seem that hard. Anypony could do it with a little time and patience. It's not exactly testing our problem solving ability all that well." But as she said that, a sound above the pair made them both look up...only to see that the ceiling was moving. It wasn't falling, but simply slowly making its way down. It would take a while, but they both knew what would happen eventually. "How about with a time limit?" Iron asked as Fluttershy gulped. "That...makes it a lot harder." They didn't waste anymore time and rushed to start working on the puzzle. Fluttershy flew up first, soon noticing a tile that looked like it was meant to go in the top right corner. "Help me move this," Fluttershy pointed at the tile and Iron grabbed onto it. Fluttershy began moving the other tiles around it, opening up a space for Iron to push the tile into it. Eventually, they managed to get it into a corner. As soon as it was in place, the tile glowed as if to tell them it was home. "Now we need to find the tiles that look like they go with this one." "Got it," Iron responded as he glanced around before spotting a tile that appeared to have connecting shapes, soon pushing it over, making it glow. The pair slowly started making progress at this, and by the time the roof was a third of the way down, they had about a quarter of the puzzle completed. "We have to hurry," Fluttershy told him. "I'm going as fast as I can!" Iron cried as they kept moving more and more pieces into place. But as they completed the image, the ceiling seemed to speed up. They managed to get the entire top half of the image done and found it showed the head of a shark above the head of a bull, but they didn't get much time to admire it since the ceiling was getting closer. They slowly started putting more and more of the tiles together, and within another minute or so, the head of a bird was completed in the very center of the room. They still had the wings and another shape to complete beneath it, but the ceiling was getting dangerously close. Iron frowned at this, wishing he had Piecemaker. With it, he would have been able to prop the roof up, but he was powerless. All he had was his own strength. This thought gave him an idea, Iron rushing to the center of the room. And as the ceiling got close, he leapt onto his back legs and thrust his front ones up into the roof. Fluttershy heard Iron groan and spun around, gasping when he saw him propping the ceiling up. "Iron!" She cried as the roof stopped moving. "Hurry!" he yelled, Fluttershy nodding as she continued pushing the pieces into place. And as she continued to complete the puzzle, Iron felt the force for the ceiling's mechanism continued to push down on him. Suddenly, his hoof slipped out from under him and he fell to his knees. The ceiling came down with him he quickly found himself getting pinned under it. "IRON!" "Keep going!" He told her, letting out several mighty grunts as he tried to keep the ceiling from crushing them. "Grr...raugh! Hurry!" He screamed as he kept pushing, "Augh!" Fluttershy was almost done with the tiles, only needing to slide a few more into place. As she did this, she realized the final image at the bottom of the floor was that of a tiger. As she completed that part of the mural, she saw she just had to slot the remaining outer edges into place. "I'm almost done!" She told him, as she started moving these last few tiles. Iron groaned at this, "Urgh..can't...hold it...much...longer." He felt like his entire skeleton was about to break, making him scrunch up as Fluttershy slid the second to last tile into place. As it lit up, she moved to the final tile that was in the corner that had been empty when this all started. She just had to move it up into place and the puzzle would be complete. But when she tried to move it, it wouldn't budge. "What?" She pushed, pulled, wiggled and did everything she could to move the tile...but it was caught on something. "IT'S STUCK!" Iron flinched at those words as he heard Fluttershy attempting to move it. But nothing she did worked. "NO!" She turned to look at Iron, tears in her eyes. "I'm not strong enough to move it." Iron couldn't bare to see her looking that sad, but he had more important thing to worry about as he lost some strength and the ceiling fell several more inches. There was now no room to walk, Fluttershy forced to crawl as she moved over to him. "I'm sorry," she squeaked. "No," Iron shook his head, "It's not your fault. This temple is old. It's a miracle a stuck tile is the only issue we've run into in here." He groaned as the ceiling continued to lower. Fluttershy shrank down to half her usual size, snuggling up under his chest as the pair remained together. "So this is the end." "I...I guess it is," Fluttershy nodded, "Unless the ponies outside can come up with a last-ditch solution that somehow saves us." Iron smirked, knowing that was a very likely possibility. But he also knew this very well could be the end as well. And as that thought entered his head, he knew what to say next, "Fluttershy," she looked up at him, "Will you...will you marry me?" Fluttershy's eyes went wide hearing this, "I know this isn't the best time, but I have to know. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?" Fluttershy went wide-eyed at this, her mind going blank as she forgot their current predicament. But slowly, a smile appeared on her face as her tears turned from ones of fear to ones of joy. "Yes," she nodded, "Yes, I'll marry you." She hugged him, Iron's heart feeling like it might explode from the joy he felt. But that feeling quickly vanished when the ceiling lowered some more. "Augh!" Fluttershy gasped as Iron started getting even more crushed under its weight. But the knight forced his eyes open and looked into her eyes, making him feel an overwhelming urge. Since the day they had met, Iron had felt the desire to keep her safe. First when they were just friends, then when they became a couple. And now...now Iron had more of a reason to protect her. She was his everything. She was his future. Everything that mattered to him, it all revolved around her. And he wouldn't let that future end before it had truly begun. "RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Using all the will and strength he could muster, The Metal Guardian pushed up into the roof. And no matter how much power this magic roof had, it paled in comparison to the power Iron could draw upon when protecting the one he loved. Fluttershy watched in amazement as Iron began pushing the roof back up. She didn't know how much that rock weighed, but she had to guess it was least a few tons. Eventually, Iron felt part of the rock's force give out and no longer felt the pressure pushing down on him. And with one final roar of effort, he pushed the rock upward, moving it a few feet. This freed him as he leapt over to the final tile, and with his blood still pumping, he kicked it into place, undoing whatever was trapping it where it was. As soon as it hit this, the mark began to glow along with the rest of the mural. Iron looked up as the ceiling began to fall again, only for the rock to suddenly stop in midair. Iron and Fluttershy shared a glance as the mural below them continued to glow. The image of the shark, bull, bird and tiger together also created a rather strange image on a lion's face, which the light flew off of to push the ceiling back up into place. As it did this, the far wall opened up and a new passageway appeared. The pair nodded to each other, Iron being careful to keep Fluttershy safe behind him as they moved over to the passage and onto another staircase. And as soon as they were both inside, the entrance closed back up, bathing both in darkness. Neither liked this, but kept moving forward until they reached what they assumed was the top. The stairs ended and they walked forward, still completely blind while being careful not to trip over anything. But the ground was completely flat. "You think we have to pass another trial?" Fluttershy asked, Iron really hoping that wasn't the case. That last burst of strength had completely exhausted him. But before either of them could say anything else, a brilliant light suddenly exploded above them and they both screamed as they covered their eyes. It took a full minute before their eyes stopped stinging and adjusted to the light, allowing them to look up and see the source of the light. That source was a blazing sun of rainbow magic, which hovered above them both. They could do nothing more put stare at it in amazement as the ball unleashed two tendrils of light. These tendrils moved down and wrapped around the pair, both wondering what was happening. But then the tendrils broke off the main body and continued to envelop them before wisping off. The lights flew above the pair at this, only to take shape. The light that came off of Fluttershy morphed into a rabbit, looking just like Angel but with more feminine features. It jumped around with amazing speed and agility, looking graceful as it did so. But then it came to the light that had come off of Iron, which finished transforming into a much larger creature. It was a tiger. A large and strong looking tiger, which let out a mighty roar that terrified the rabbit. The two animals continued to leap around the large room before morphing back into lights, which shot down toward the pair and slammed into their chests. They both gasped at this sensation as the light flowed into them, making them glow for a few seconds. And when it finally died down, the pair felt a new feeling within them. It was as if there was another presence within them, somepony standing beside them and supporting them. It was strange, but it felt good. The light sun above them began to glow again at this, blinding the pair. Iron grabbed Fluttershy at this, only for the two to start feeling themselves drifting off. Twilight, Flash, Keeper and Discord felt like they had expended all their options. "Isn't there something we can do?!" Discord cried, "I refuse to simply float here as Fluttershy remains trapped!" Keeper sighed and shook his head, "It's clear the temple was designed to not be entered while these trials were taking place. Likely to make sure nopony interfered with them." They all frowned, fearing that Iron and Fluttershy had been in there too long. But as they were about to admit defeat, a bright light suddenly exploded out of the top of the temple. "What the heck?!" Flash yelped before flying up to the top. The others followed, and as they reached the top, they found the light pillar was coming from out of the table and through the roof into the sky. And from out of the light, two forms appeared. The light continued to shoot into the sky, forming a swirl of energy above the temple that eventually formed a sphere. The light pillar the disappeared, only for the group to see that the forms were Iron and Fluttershy. The light sphere remained above the temple for several seconds until exploding in a wave of light. They all gasped at this, only to look down to see Iron and Fluttershy picking themselves up as they groaned, "Fluttershy!" Twilight rushed to her side, Flash zipping over to Iron. "Are you alright?" "I think so," Fluttershy nodded, "I'm...a little dizzy." "Same," Iron added. "What happened in there?" Flash inquired as they moved the pair out of the temple. And as they did this, Keeper spotted something on the table: The key. Iron and Fluttershy explained the trials they had gone through and how they had almost been crushed to death. They then explained what had happened when they reached the top of the pyramid's interior, amazing them all as they sat on the stairs of the temple. "So you found the magic?" Twilight asked, Iron and Fluttershy nodding. "Was that the light we saw shoot into the sky?" They looked up at the temple, only for Discord to suddenly phase out of the temple's side. "I don't know what you did, but there's no magic in there any more." "What?!" Keeper yelped. Discord nodded, "I was able to slip in and have a look around. I couldn't sense any magic inside. I can only assume that whatever held the magic inside the temple had weakened over time. And when it let the two of them out, the hold finally broke and it shot out of the temple." "You think it'll come back?" Flash asked, Discord shrugging in response. Keeper sighed and shook his head, "I spent all those years looking for this magic and now it's gone." "At least Iron and Fluttershy are safe," Twilight pointed out before turning to them. "So what happened after you found the magic?" Iron and Fluttershy just frowned, telling the group they honestly didn't understand what just happened to them. "You think this means they can transform into animals now?" Flash asked, Twilight shaking her head. "That magic was designed to let unicorns transform. I'm not sure if an earth pony or pegasus could use it." They sighed at this, Iron unsure if he was happy or upset about this. While the thought of turning into a tiger felt a little weird to him, he definitely wanted at least something out of this whole experience. He turned to see his Celestic Gear, which Flash had likely placed down near the stairs after they had been thrown inside. He got up and moved over to pick up the weapon. And as soon as he touched it, something happened. The light that had flown into him inside of the temple suddenly exploded out of the earth pony and took the shape of a tiger. This made everyone go wide-eyed, all looking up to see the magical tiger that was staring down at Iron. And as he stared back, his Celestic Gear glowed. The next thing everyone knew, the tiger shot down and morphed back into the light. A light that then merged with Iron's Celestic Gear, causing it to glow before the spear exploded into light and wrapped around Iron, everyone expecting to see him in his normal armored state. But instead, the light faded to reveal Iron was in a new set of armor. This armor was bright white with black stripes, covering his chest, shoulders and lower legs. A black bodysuit could be seen beneath it and on Iron's head was a helmet styled around the big cat with an opening for his eyes where the mouth would normally be. Iron looked himself over, feeling a new surge of power that he had never felt in his armored state before. He still had the spikes on his sides that would shoot the projectiles and his tail still had the arrowhead for making weapons, but his hoof armor had tiny claws on them, likely to act as cleats for running. And as he thought about them being bigger, his entire front white gauntlet turned into a metal liquid that increased in volume. When it solidified again, the gauntlet was larger and his claws were almost as long as Flash's swords. "Wow..." Iron gasped. "Okay, that's cool." Flash added, Iron nodding in agreement before swinging his claws around to test how well they moved. Despite being large and strong, they felt really light. He then removed his armor, reverting it back to his speared form and smiling as he turned to Fluttershy. She smiled back and looked herself over, wondering if she could transform like that. "I don't think it'll work the same," Twilight chimed in, "Iron had alicorn magic to channel it through." "True," Discord nodded, "But she has chaos magic within her. I bet if she focuses hard enough, she'll be able to transform as easily as she can change her size." Fluttershy went wide-eyed at this before closing her eyes, thinking hard about the rabbit she had seen in the temple. And in a flash, she was suddenly replaced by a small yellow bunny with a pink cottontail and a line of pink hair running down her head. She looked herself over and gasped, hopping around in joy before transforming back. "Oh, that was wonderful! I can't wait to use that around Angel!" "Amazing," Twilight added, "But it's too bad nopony else will ever be able to gain this ability." "You never know," Flash shrugged, "Maybe the magic's not completely gone. A few sparks of it might remain and in a few years, maybe it'll grow strong enough to give someone else that ability." They all nodded, hoping the same thing. Either way, they knew one thing. The temple wasn't magically charged at the moment, meaning it would be possible to magically enter and study it. Keeper couldn't wait for that to happen. And as everypony began to make their way back to the camp, Iron and Fluttershy were at the back of the pack. As they walked, Iron looked over at her and remembered what had happened inside the temple. "Fluttershy," she turned to him, "About what I said when we were about to be flattened..." "Yeah," Fluttershy blushed, "I understand. You thought we were going to die. You don't have to...you know, just because you thought you were about to die." Iron flinched at this, "You...you mean you don't want to get married anymore?" "Of course I do," Fluttershy replied as she glanced down at the ground, "But I know you only asked me because you thought we were going to die. It wouldn't be right to make you do something you promised under distress. We can just pretend you never-" She stopped when Iron placed a hoof on her lips, making her stop. "Fluttershy, will you marry me?" Her eyes went wide as Iron nodded. "You're right that I only asked because I thought we were gonna die. But when you said yes, I knew it was what I really wanted. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I want the world to know it. So...will you marry me?" Fluttershy looked ready to cry as she smiled back, "Yes." With that, she leaned in and they both kissed one another. As they did this, confetti exploded into existence above them and rained down as a floating banner unfurled with the words 'she said yes' appearing above them. "Huzzah!" Discord cheered, "Huzzah! Fluttershy, I'm so happy for you!" He spun into a tornado and when he stopped, he was wearing a dress and carrying flowers. "What do you think? Too garish? I know the maid of honor isn't meant to look better than the bride, but I've got to show the world I'm fun." The couple stared at him before both laughing, Discord smiling as Flash, Twilight and Keeper returned. "What's going on?" Twilight asked, seeing the banner. "She said yes to what?" "To Iron's proposal," Discord announced as he snapped his claws, more confetti appearing in response. Flash and Twilight gasped at this, soon walking up and congratulating the pair while Keeper just stared at them. "Said yes to what?" Keeper asked, only to get no response. Instead, all he got was the four ponies hugging each other before Fluttershy leaned against Iron, both showing shining blushing smiles. A few weeks later... The whole of Ponyville was gathered in a large field surrounded by trees, nature all around them as it presented the perfect place for an outdoor wedding. Animals were gathered around the edges of the field while the guests sat on chairs enchanted not to sink into the ground. Discord had even made it so that all the dresses and other clothes worn were completely impervious to getting dirty, which made Rarity very happy. Iron stood in front of everypony, dressed up in his formal Royal Guard attire with Grand, Skybreaker and Angel by his side. A bunch of song birds then flew down and started singing the wedding march, making everypony stand up and turn to see the Mane Seven walking down the aisle with their significant other. Flash and Lightning joined Iron and the others as they all turned to watch the mare of the hour walk down, dressed in a beautiful white floral-patterned dress. The sight made Iron going wide-eyed, a full blush on his face as he saw her true beauty. As for Fluttershy, she could hardly believe she was currently the center of attention as she and her father walked side by side. Normally, she would be petrified by everypony looking at her. But for some reason, she wasn't the least bit nervous. Mostly because of what was about to happen, as when her eyes met Iron's, joy flowed through her body. Cirrus Breeze led his daughter up to the altar and happily gave her over to Iron, the pair smiling at one another before he went to sit beside his crying wife and son. Everypony else sat down and watched as Mayor Mare perform the ceremony. Everyone remained silent, even the animals, as the vows were made and the wedding reached its end point. And eventually, the mayor said the words everyone had been waiting for. "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." They kissed and everyone cheered, the animals exploding into a frenzy of excited noises. And as this happened, Discord floated above it all the entire time, a camcorder in his hand. As Iron and Fluttershy pulled apart, he smirked and stopped the recording. "And that's a wrap."