//------------------------------//
// Curiosity can Kill 
// Story: When Two Hearts are Daring 
// by Pigeonsmall 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 8 


It didn’t take long for the two pegasi to move the overgrown plants that covered the pit. The more they removed the more sunlight poured in, giving the dark depression several beams of much needed sunlight. Rainbow Dash peered further in again with only the slightest air of caution. The first time the angry red face had caught her eye, she had nearly leapt twelve feet back in fright, but she managed to stop herself before doing so. Looking back again, Rainbow Dash could clearly make out the craggy outlines of the  face petrified permanently in a war like snarl. The red painted lips curled down in an arc, posing as the entrance to the temple. The chiseled eyes were also painted, appearing as little more than angry pinpricks staring fiercely down at the two pegasi that landed on the hard steps in front of it.

“Something tells me whatever used to live here didn’t like having guests.” said Rainbow Dash, stepping cautiously towards the angry face of the temple. It was actually hard to look directly at it, so she lowered her gaze to the open archway. 

“Yeah, seeing this monstrosity was usually enough to turn away unwanted visitors.” Dumbbell lacked Dash’s hesitation and walked into the tunnel, Rainbow Dash quickly followed, casting a last fervent glance at the faint light that filtered in through the through the hole they had cleared above.

She was already losing sight of Dumbbell who cantered ahead without fear. She swallowed and steeled herself. This was no big deal, Daring Do did this kind of thing all the time.

‘And if she can do it, then so can I.’ The two pegasi traveled down the tunnel side by side, the air felt thick and cool as a perpetual breeze whistled gently past, no other sound greeted them besides the sound of their hoof steps. 

“I can barely see five feet in front of my nose.” Rainbow Dash complained. “How do you know where we’re going?”

Dumbbell nodded but didn’t turn to look at her. “Well for now this is the only way to go, but don’t worry, we’ll get light.”

“I packed a lantern,” said Dash. “just let me get it out so we can se- WOAH!” Rainbow Dash felt heat, and saw the burst of light from the side of the tunnel. Several bursts as one by one the formerly unlit torches flared along the tunnel wall until the entire area was clearly lit.

“What just happened?” she asked.

Dumbbell chuckled. “Try not to freak, they just… do that.” The tunnel continued for several more yards until it rose up into a  open space. The structure resembled an atrium though it lacked a ceiling. In fact several chunks of it had collapsed into piles of rubble that obscured the way forward.  The sky could be seen above through the gaps, providing a fair amount of light despite the overhanging trees. 
“This is just the entryway, lets keep going.” Dumbbell said. Another tunnel of bewitched torches took them to a new enclosed space, but this one lacked the open ceiling. Balconies and extended platforms sprang from the walls with narrow stair ways leading up to each.

“Where do those lead?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Dumbbell tilted his head upward after jumping over a substantial pile of rubble. “Those lead into different parts of the temple, but I wouldn’t bother going through any of ‘em if I were you, you’ll get lost.”

The brown pony instead lead Rainbow Dash down. The floor quickly bottomed out and became a series of wide trenches, wider than the entrance tunnel. Their surfaces were dry but covered in moss and a dead plant like material resembling sea weed.

“In the book weren’t these filled with water?” Rainbow Dash scraped at the slimey stuff in the trench and sniffed it, immediately regretting the action. 

“The toads swam through these for the most part, but they lost their water amulet, if you believe what the book says.” Dumbbell said.

“Yeah, Daring stole it from their leader and smashed it.” Dash mused as she walked the narrow aisle between two of the trenches. They all swayed away from a central canal like branching channels of a river, leading to different places altogether.  

“There’s probably a dried up river somewhere that used to run into this place.” Dumbbell muttered. He jumped into the central trench and trotted down to the point where it turned into an underpass.

“Ugh, another gloomy tunnel.” Rainbow Dash slid into the trench indolently, not wanting to appear hesitant. 

“Yep, if we want to get to the Moon chamber then this is the fastest way,” Dumbbell paused. “ And probably the most trap free way.”

“Hah, probably?”

“Well... I fell into a pit of ravenous piranha snakes once. Lucky for me though, they hadn’t been fed in a long time. A long long time.”

Rainbow’s ears perked at that notion. He was talking about the very chamber where Daring Do had her climactic battle and escape from Crimsoncroak Temple and its savage inhabitants, who had been under the sinister influence of  Ahuizotl. As they went, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but admire Dumbbell’s confidence navigating the passage ways, including the ones not conveniently lit by torch light. 



“So how much further?”

“Actually, we’re already here.” Dumbbell announced as he passed back into light. 

 For the past several minutes, they had been walking down a long, gradual slope. Now, as the path started to level out the tunnel ended. The ground just ahead fell away completely into what looked like a massive empty pool or basin. They stood high in a chamber so big it could easily house three of Twilight’s libraries and still have room to spare.  Rainbow Dash was taken aback by the ambience, the interior emanated a faint, mysterious aura that washed her in a sensation of calm. 

“Moon rocks...” Her attention lingered on the luminous carvings and etchings that traced the walls, accented by a multitude of traveling vines forcing their way through every crack and crevice. She could only guess that the dimly glowing stone had something to do with the accelerated growth, the bulkier coils already forcing part of the neglected structure to crumble and lash inward like the massive irritated tendrils of some beast. It were as if the forest itself was determined to snare the entire thing and drag it underground. But what took both of them by surprise was something else entirely.

“What in the world is that?” Rainbow Dash asked, she flew the length of the chamber to the highest balcony where a large, jaggedly cut statue sat on a lonely pedestal. Squat and amphibious, the most obvious of its details were rendered with frightening detail, mirroring the very discontent stone face they were greeted to before entering the temple. 

“No way.” Rainbow Dash circled the object fervently. “This isn’t what I think it is, is it?”

At first Dumbbell was silent, gazing across  the chamber in the low light.

“I don’t believe it!” He met Rainbow Dash at the balcony and leered at the rotund statue so hard his nose was scraping against the floor. 

“It’s the Idol of Renewal.” Dash said, her eyes practically glittering. “I’d recognize this anywhere!” She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the Daring Do novel, flipping to the appropriate page she already had bookmarked. “Yep! Right here!” A vivid illustration of the idol sat at the top of the page, undeniable proof. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m seeing it up close!”

“But that’s impossible.” said Dumbbell he brought up a hoof to touch it just stopping short. “It was destroyed. It should be busted all over the floor in dozens a pieces!”

“You-you make a good point.” Rainbow Dash stopped gushing for a moment to consider what this meant. If the idol had been destroyed then how was it sitting in front of them perfectly intact?

“Theres a piece missing..” she said to herself, giving the idol another round of close consideration, which took time given that it was at least ten feet tall. “Maybe it’s a replacement.” she offered.

“That don’t make sense.” Dumbbell complained. “It’s definitely...”  He reached into his saddlebag and pulled out the cloth covered idol fragment. Above him there was a clear spot on the giant toad statue, just above the left eye, where a piece had yet to be restored. 

Rainbow Dash stood surprised, not even knowing that her traveling partner actually had a piece of the idol , and by the fact that it fit perfectly like the last piece of a jigsaw.

“Woah.” Rainbow Dash was beside him, gazing at the complete idol. “You had a piece of it with you this whole time?” 

“I had to prove to you that I’d been here, right?”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop the broad smile from spreading across her face. It was so evident that  Dumbbell could only shift under her stare uncomfortably. 

“You are such a nerd!”

Dumbbell went rigid like a startled deer, or for an even more apt comparison, Fluttershy when her shadow caught her off guard. Rainbow Dash’s gratified chuckle permeated the chamber, echoing slightly off it’s walls, and every time the sound bounced back their way, Dumbbell’s ears turned just a shade redder. He pressed them back and grunted in offense.

 “Yeah, well-”, but before he could respond with some scathing remark, there came a sound from below, a faint sound rustling from the inside. It struck back against the laughter that had surrounded them, and pulled their attention  to the darkness underneath them.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash leaned over the edge trying to pinpoint the source, the sound of something shifting and crumbling and smacking against the cold ground  somewhere in the distance amidst the crevices and dull beat of glowing rock.

“It’s too dark to see whatever it is, hope it can’t fly.” Dumbbell said simply, gaining a quick derisive glance from the blue mare. “What, are you scared?”

 “No.” Dumbbell scoffed and met her at the edge of the platform, they jumped off at the same time, landing near a pile of stone where the strange sound was coming from. Heavy slabs had fallen on top of horizontal cleft in the wall, through the crack Rainbow Dash could tell there was a room on the other side. 

“Do you know what this is?” asked Rainbow Dash as she stepped towards the block doorway, trying to peek through the empty spaces. The sounds had ceased and she took this as a signal to move forward, wings half spread, ready to sprint if anything decided to push its way out. While Dumbbell initially was just as eager to investigate the noise, he became reserved soon after they landed, hanging back from the rock pile.

“Don’t stick your nose too close.” He warned while circling around  at a wide angle. 

“I don’t think anything is down here. And if there was we probably scared it off already.” Rainbow Dash said. Though in her thoughts, Rainbow Dash was convinced that there had to be something. Her curiosity couldn’t be tampered now, what else lay in the ruins of this place?  In the new found quiet she could hear the faint chirp of crickets and maybe wind from the upper levels, or was it footsteps?

 As she approached the wall, the sound of her hooves scraping against the ground was interrupted by a soft thud. She put her forehoof down and heard it again, she stamped down and realized that the floor she was standing on was covering something hollow.  “They’re might be something under here!”  As far as she knew she was standing on a trap door  or a basement, silly as that sounded. 
“Hey, come over here, I think there’s something under the-”

Without warning, the ground buckled beneath her. Everything exploded in a shower of rocks and furious squawking. Something massive emerged, paying Rainbow Dash no heed as it beat the air with stretched wings. She felt her head connect with something broad, and ferociously sharp looking, the last thing she remembered was Dumbbell shouting at her just before she fell into the pit below.