Chapter 6
They just took a quick look at their rooms before they returned downstairs. Twilight decided to simply take her saddlebags along with her, as most of the things inside could potentially be useful for an expedition into ancient ruins. She put on the pith helmet, earning her a lopsided grin from Rainbow Dash.
Manehattan Silver also got up and put on his fedora as well as a saddlebag. “Are you ready, ladies?”
“Wait, so we’re just walking into the jungle? What if we get lost?” Twilight asked, slightly worried. “Can you at least show us where we’re going on the map?”
“Don’t worry, Miss Sparkle”, Manehattan Silver reassured her with a charming smile. “I’m sure that between Do here and me you are in more than capable hooves. And it’s just a short walk anyway.” Twilight forced herself to smile back at him, but inside she cringed at his patronizing attitude. She remembered finding him quite attractive when he had first been introduced in the Daring Do series, but for some reason, now he only seemed sleazy and rather unpleasant. But since he and Rainbow were already leaving the bar, she had to postpone these thoughts and catch up with the others instead.
“So what’s the deal with those goats?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What are Hornmeyer’s minions doing here?”
“Ah, that’s a most unfortunate story”, Manehattan Silver explained almost apologetically. “The Goat Empire has struck a deal with the local government, and apparently they have also contacted DeBridles and are trying to get their hooves on the old ruins in this area. You see, this land here, and also the spot where they found the ruins, is contracted to DeBridles on a mining concession, and they can legally exploit it in any way they want.”
“And are DeBridles going to give them access?” Twilight wanted to know.
The stallion shrugged. “I really don’t know. Foreman Pico seems like a reasonable pony, but out here things can be a bit, well, unclear. Maybe they have already bought somepony, I don’t know. At least nopony seems to mind them walking around in town.”
“They have a base nearby, or so we’ve heard”, Twilight mused.
“Interesting. That would be an explanation.”
Manehattan Silver led them out of the town and into a jungle. A narrow footpath snaked through the impenetrable green of the rainforest, apparently only cleared a short while ago. It was barely wide enough for one pony.
This close to the underwood, the noise of the various wildlife in the jungle was almost deafening and the sheer foreignness of the screams, the cries, and the hoots made Twilight shiver a bit. She made another mental note to study up on Neighcaraguan fauna so she’d at least be able to tell which one of these cries originated from a vicious predator.
The “short walk” Manehattan Silver had promised turned out to be a three-hour hike. Before long, Twilight’s coat was soaked in sweat due to the immense heat and oppressive humidity. Rainbow and Manehattan Silver, both better athletes than Twilight, seemed much less fazed by the strenuousness. And she had also insisted on taking the stupid saddlebags which seemed to get heavier by the minute. Rainbow somehow seemed to notice and looked back to give her a sympathetic smile.
Finally the path opened up into a clearing, or rather an area of less dense underwood. In the center of the clearing a small, irregular bump rose. Only on second glance Twilight realized that it wasn’t just a hill or some jungle tree that had fallen over, but in fact the topmost remains of a stone structure. The visible masonry was almost crumbled beyond recognition, except that the arrangement still looked too regular to be a natural occurrence.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash took off and shot up into the dense canopy. She came back to the ground only seconds later and offered Twilight a bite from a freshly picked mango which the unicorn accepted with a grateful smile.
“Thanks. What was that all about?”
“Just needed to stretch my wings before we go in there. It’s not like caves make me nervous or something.”
Twilight giggled. In the meantime, Manehattan Silver had progressed to the ruins and was peeking inside, holding a lantern in his mouth. He quickly turned his head to the two mares and gestured them to catch up.
Almost hidden between a thicket of bushes and vines, a few remains of walls made from surprisingly regular brown building blocks were visible. Under the dense brush, a dark passageway opened, leading down between the ancient masonry. The orange light of Manehattan Silver’s lamp didn’t reach further into the darkness than a few paces.
“Here it is”, he announced unnecessarily. “Do you have an extra light by any chance?”
Shooting him an impatient look, Twilight lit up her horn, casting the clearing in bright purple light. “Would that be enough?” she asked sweetly.
Manahattan Silver just smiled at her and nodded. “Then follow me”, he said and began crouching into the narrow entrance. Twilight noticed that Rainbow did two nervous somersaults, and gave her an encouraging pat on the withers.
“You know, it’s really fine if the cave is big enough to quickly take wing.”
They squeezed into the small opening and found themselves in a narrow corridor which led downwards in a fairly steep angle. Vines and mosses grew along the walls. The draft coming from below was cool and damp and didn’t smell very good, but at least it was breathable.
After one or two seemingly endless minutes in the monotonous tunnel it suddenly returned to a horizontal orientation and widened enough so that two ponies could walk abreast – or so that one pegasus could stretch her wings and let out a satisfied sigh. Just like the entrance tunnel, this one was square and completely barren, the walls featuring the same uniform brown masonry. Only instead of vines there were now little pale mushrooms growing in the corners.
Not a long time later, they reached a T-junction. Manehattan Silver took some time to shine his lamp into both directions. “Hmm. If this here is any similar to the Great Temple of Teneightitlan, then there should be a fake burial chamber to the right, and the sanctuary should be to the left.”
Thanks to her newly gained knowledge about Alpacan culture, Twilight knew that Manehattan Silver was right. Although – “But if this is structured like the Tomb of Coltláuac, it would mean that the way to the right leads us to the fake burial chamber, behind which we would find the real burial chamber, while the left tunnel will lead us into a water pit, or worse.” If she was completely honest with herself, she didn’t have any reason to assume these ruins would rather follow the design of the Tomb of Coltláulac than that of the Great Temple. There was just something about Manehattan Silver that provoked her to argue back.
“Let’s go right first”, Rainbow Dash decided and immediately turned into the corridor. Manehattan Silver and Twilight followed; the latter feeling unreasonably giddy because Rainbow had sided with her.
Only a few dozen paces later the tunnel opened into a big rectangular chamber with an arched ceiling, thus proving that this structure was different from both the Great Temple and the Tomb. The room was barren and empty except for some mushrooms and spider webs. Unlike the corridor whose floor had consisted of the same building block as the walls, the room’s floor was covered in irregular stone tiles, many of which were cracked. On the opposite end, a doorway led way into the next room.
They gave the walls only a cursory glance as they trotted through the vault, Rainbow hovering in front, Manehattan Silver taking the back. Behind the doorway there was another room, for all they could tell exactly the same as the one before, with the same doorway at the opposing end.
Rainbow Dash took the lead and hovered through the doorway into the next room which, for all intents and purposes, looked like an exact replica of the room they were in. She stopped right above the threshold and closely examined the floor tile right in front of the threshold. Not looking up, she held out a hoof to stop Twilight and Manehattan Silver from stepping onto the tile.
“That’s a trap”, she said with unwavering confidence.
Twilight looked at the tile more closely and noticed that it protruded from the ground by the tiniest margin. It was conveniently not cracked and looked very innocent.
“Good job on finding this. You’ve read way too many Daring Do novels”, Twilight joked.
“Hah! I’m just that awesome! What do you think happens when you step on them?” the pegasus asked. “Collapsing ceiling? Poisoned darts?”
“I really don’t want to find out”, Twilight said resolutely and jumped across the tile. Manehattan Silver followed them into the next room.
The next room was almost the same as the two before. Unlike the others though, on both sides the room was lined by little alcoves which were framed by statues of stylized upright-standing crocodiles. In their claws they held long-dead torches.
The tile in front of the threshold to the next room was cracked in several places. Rainbow carefully hovered through the archway and closely examined the first tile in the next room while Twilight extended her head through the passageway to give her light. The tile in question was not cracked either, and Rainbow Dash just pointed her hoof at it. Twilight nodded, took a few steps back and leapt over the tile, closely followed by Manehattan Silver.
The air had grown damper, and now they could hear the sound of water somewhere ahead. More mushrooms than ever were growing in the corners. The next room was longer, almost another corridor, and they couldn’t see its end in the light of Manehattan Silver’s lantern and Twilight’s horn.
After several dozen paces they could see another archway. The water they heard had to be behind it. Carefully watching the floor tiles they approached the archway. Rainbow took the lead and flew into the next room carefully. Twilight craned her neck through the passageway and saw a room unlike any room in any of the known ancient alpacas’ ruins.
The room was actually more of a pit. It was almost round. Its ceiling was a few meters above them, and it extended far into the depths. A steep ramp lined by a chest-high wall descended into the pit. It looked like, unlike the other parts of the temple, it had been carved out of the bedrock. In the center there was a waterfall disappearing in the abyss.
“I’ll have a look what’s down there”, Rainbow said. “Gimme the lamp, Silver!” The stallion handed her the lamp, and the pegasus flew into the darkness, surrounded by a small sphere of yellow light, leaving the other two ponies outside the passageway. “There’s another tunnel down here! You can just walk there on that ramp!” Rainbow yelled from below after a few seconds.
Manehattan Silver and Twilight stepped through the archway, and the unicorn just had time to think ‘What if there is a trap?’, when she felt rather than heard a click underneath her hooves. Startled, she jumped forward onto the top part of the ramp, the low wall saving her from falling down. Manehattan Silver followed her and looked around suspiciously.
“Did we –“ he began.
Then suddenly the floor they were standing on sagged with a mighty jerk, strong enough to knock them off their hooves and make them tumble down the ramp like on a huge albeit rocky slide. Twilight desperately tried to hold onto something, but the walls and the ramp were too smooth to grab. As their wild ride went on, they were smashed into the walls of the ramp repeatedly, the two of them falling over each other not helping at all in trying to stop their descent.
“Rainboooooooooow!” Twilight screamed.
Rainbow heard Twilight’s panicked scream. She darted upwards to see what was going on and saw Twilight and Manehattan Silver rolling down the ramp like a pony avalanche. Not wasting any time, she flew back to the passageway, put down the lamp and held onto the doorframe with grim determination, waiting to catch her companions. When Manehattan Silver shot past her, she grabbed his hind leg and yelled, “Catch her!” praying he’d be quick enough. Another fierce tug told her that, thank Celestia, he had been quick enough.
Twilight tried not to think about what waited for her at the end of this slide, when suddenly something yanked on her rear hoof with full force and brought her to a halt. Dazed by the countless times she’d crashed into the rock wall, she momentarily couldn’t see anything of her surroundings except for a trace of light. Then she was slowly dragged upwards.
After a few moments she found herself being pulled through a passageway. Next to her Manehattan Silver was lying on the floor, breathing heavily. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the floor too and stared at her with big, worried eyes. Twilight started to speak, “Rainbow – “ but didn’t know how to continue. Still, that seemed to be enough for the pegasus as she jumped forward and pulled Twilight into a tight embrace.
“Are you alright?” she asked..
“I’m okay”, Twilight replied, holding on to Rainbow for a moment longer.
“Is anypony hurt?” Manehattan Silver asked. “That was quite a wild ride!”
Before anypony could react, suddenly a large gush of water streamed past outside of their archway and down the ramp. The ponies quickly jumped away from the small amount that flowed into their tunnel. The water continued thundering past them.
“Water, to make sure we’d be flushed down there even if we managed to stop somehow”, Twilight said with a strained voice. “Lovely.”
“Hah, they didn’t count on the speed and awesome rescuing abilities of Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow boasted, still keeping one wing wrapped around Twilight.
“Thank Celestia they didn’t”, Twilight agreed. Shakily she got back on her hooves. “Alright, let’s continue.”
“That was still pretty close”, Manehattan Silver mumbled to himself.
They continued down the corridor, leaving the roaring of the water behind. Not after long, they reached another doorway. Being extra careful after the pit trap, Twilight checked the threshold. There was again a suspicious tile on their side. “Look out here”, she mumbled and carefully jumped over it.
The door gave way to another huge room, much wider than the corridor. The opposite wall was only barely visible even in Twilight’s magic light. A line of square columns ran around the room, each one seemingly ornate with intricately carved reliefs. In the center a pedestal rose from the ground on which lay a shiny item.
“The sanctuary”, Twilight whispered.
“The Golden Princess”, Manehattan Silver added. “Careful now.”
“The floor between the columns”, Rainbow Dash immediately observed. The stones directly in between the columns protruded again, but luckily were small enough to just carefully step over.
The pedestal was adorned by stone carvings as well, but their attention was immediately drawn to the shiny object on top of it. It was the golden statue of a rearing female alpaca wearing the traditional alpaca headdress whose hind legs were wrapped in the body of a large serpent that seemed to have feathers instead of scales.
“Watch out, maybe the pedestal is rigged to the weight of the statue”, Manehattan Silver quietly advised.
Twilight fought the urge to roll her eyes – that particular trap had already been used in Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. Nonetheless, she scanned the pedestal closely – after all, the ancient alpacas had probably not been avid readers of Daring Do – but the plinth appeared solid and completely un-rigged. “I think it’s safe.”
“Good”, Manehattan Silver said, stretching the word. “Give it to me.”
“Wait a second”, Rainbow protested. “Why should we give it to you?”
Something clicked. “Because I will shoot you if you don’t”, Manehattan Silver replied softly. Only now Twilight and Rainbow turned their gaze from the golden statuette and looked at Manehattan Silver. The earth pony held a revolver pointed at them and was slowly stepping away from the pedestal. “Sparkle, levitate it here, or your girlfriend dies.”
“You – you – you traitorous bastard!” Rainbow yelled at him. “When we get outta here, I’m gonna kick your flank to Tartarus and back!”
“Relax, Rainbow”, Twilight said with unease, afraid the aggressive pegasus might provoke Manehattan Silver to shoot. She levitated the statue over to the stallion who snatched it with his mouth and put it into his saddlebag. “So who bought you, Manehattan Silver? DeBridles?”
“It is really none of your business”, the stallion replied, “but since you won’t get out of here anyway, there is no harm in telling you.” He had now reached the doorway and stopped just in front of the supposedly trapped tile. “I have started a very fruitful cooperation with the great Goat Empire. Hauptmann Hornmeyer has a strong interest in powerful artifacts, and I have a strong interest in getting paid by him. It is a deal where everypony wins. Well, except for you.” He shook his head and looked at them, an expression of insincere regret on his face.
“I’ve always respected you, Do”, he went on. “You are almost as good an archeologist as I am, and I’ll give it to you, we had a lot of fun together on our past adventures. I didn’t mean you to get caught up in this, but you’re a liability, and I have to deliver this statue. So, well. Sorry, I guess. And farewell.”
With that, he quickly stepped on the trapped tile and galloped away.
There was an ominous cracking noise.
Then the ceiling above the doorway collapsed, blocking the entrance under tons of rocks. The room started to shake violently and almost threw Twilight off her hooves.
“That was the most clichéd villain speech ever!” she yelled after Manehattan Silver, almost more angry that he had got to have final say.
Then the floor began to sink.