A very tight hallway.
By the time I realized how close the walls were and how high the ceiling was, Daring noticed my entry. She was a meter ahead with Milky Way at her right, surveying the dust tray that constituted the entirety of the floorwork. Just making it up here gave her the idea that I was ready to dive right into the maelstrom of madness - she would consider it a pot of adventurer’s gold - when all my instincts voted for a hasty retreat back to sunlight.
“Stay put where you are,” she curtly notified me before returning to her idle behavior. Not to say there was not time to turn around and make a dash down the staircase, but she was literally the guide to navigating this puzzling world. The image of the void behind us on the path reinforced my reasoning; I would not get far before stumbling off a cliff.
Just leave it up to the dream to fill in the gaps with, well, nothing. I obeyed Daring’s command, watching contently from the temple’s entrance. In the case that either she or Milky Way activated a trap, I would be only a heartbeat from sunlight. The thought of having such a close emergency exit was the only reason why I was not losing my mind like I was in the last dream.
Though the pile of bones with an Equine skull sitting nearby hardly helped me keep my resolve. I did not even want to know how that poor soul’s skeleton ended up like that! And the two ponies in front of me were planning on transversing what was essentially every way to have one’s joints snapped and mutilated?
And I was content to let the only two ponies I knew (saying that I knew the Alchemist was a far stretch from truth) be the first ones caught in this ancient pony grinder. It was either I convince them out of this or I join them hoof in hoof to our deaths. One option was impossible for them, and the other was impossible for me. Why did I have to dream of Daring Do’s adventures and not of a pleasant session in front of a fireplace?
Given that no order has been given to move forwards yet, I had ample time to absorb the surroundings. The walls were practically giant slabs of faded red stone separated by tiered, black columns. Each pillar had its own attached statue of some kind of chimera made from an owl and a monkey. In the outstretched arms of the hybrid, flames flickered in clay bowls. The inconstant lighting cast a scratchy glow on the slabs’ engravings, giving them the illusion of animation.
The torches cast the same glow on my companions, exaggerating Daring’s uncompromising composure and Milky Way’s sidelong glance. Wait. Milky Way was not just staring at the adventurer but examining every single twitch of movement with unwavering focus etched on his face - he was analysing her like a cryptic manuscript. His golden eye suddenly centered on me, and sure enough Milky Way gave me a smile before turning forwards again. What was he just doing?
“Rule one of archaeology,” Daring suddenly interjected; the hallway was happy enough to amplify her words. “Watch the ground at all times. Stay close behind me and follow my steps.” She did not turn around, throwing herself to the task of surveying the floor with the scrutiny of a floor inspector.
Forget I made that analogy; Daring checked the ground carefully.
Still facing forward, Daring tapped on her spear, and Milky Way trotted into place behind her. Once he stopped on all fours, she followed up with a stomp of her hoof and a flick of her tail. Hoping to avoid violating rule two of Daring’s ground rules, I dared not ask and simply got into position behind Milky Way. Soon, we were snaking along on a serpentine path Daring navigated through the hall. It was only when the natural lighting of the entrance was behind us did I start to freak out. Just a little.
Each step echoed somewhere in the back of the temple, taunting us for our refusal to heed its warnings. It was like the whole building was just waiting to come down and extinguish the feeble flames - we would drown in the darkness and cramped space!… But at least it would rid me of the symbols and pictographs on the walls. Under the torches, the lines and shapes shifted with each flicker of the glow.
The crude drawings of what I assume are equines bared their teeth, shooting me hungry grins. The worn portions of wall between the lines slithered throughout their frames like the darkness in those monsters I ran from last nightmare. Empty eyes. Malicious predatory smiles.
An illusion of animation right? It has to be an illusion - my imagination just conjuring beasts that are not there! Yet if they conjured out of nowhere last time, what is not to say it could happen right now? For all I know, those things from last time could pop right out of the picture with its knife drawn-.
My lower body exclaimed in alarm at the reminder. A wound that should not have been there opened and disappeared after departing another attack on my conscience. The nerves near my cutie mark were rattled, caught wondering whether their deaths were reality or a dream. I clamped down hard on my tongue; the sting there at least distracted me from my flank.
“Guergh.” A slither of my suffering made itself vocal. And when the only sounds to be heard were my haggard breathing and our slow clops on the floor, my outburst was the equivalent of a trumpet in a muted orchestra. At least two pairs of ears raised themselves at the offending noise.
What are you doing, brain! I cannot disturb Daring; she is the only thing keeping us alive in this deathtrap! It was an effort enough for her to lug me this far, but my weakness was only making it harder for everyone here.
What do am I supposed to do when I start to panic? Breathe? I suck in a waff of the awful air here, and immediately choke on the dust. Quietly. I get through at least one convulsion before the foul intruder is routed, leaving behind fuzzy carnage in my throat. Just to confirm, breathing in and out in the face of death: bad idea.
Come on. Keep composed, Intimus. Rule two. Do not question it. Do not question the strength of your guiding adventurer in an ancient temple full of traps. Do not- who am I kidding? This place is a living colossus with all intent to kill us! The walls could very well be its intestines, closing in to snuff our lives out! The shifting texture of the wall, the way it flows into itself without order or pattern, was testament to that theory.
Abominations growled impatiently in the crevices where the faint light failed to cover. There was water dripping somewhere, speeding up with every grumble emitted from the hidden beasts. Suddenly, the walls were closer than they had been before, closing in to give the abominations a chance to tear us apart! The climax was approaching: The shadows jumping at us, the walls closing in, and our assimilation to become the sustenance of this living-!
“Psst, Intimus. Can you hear me?” came the blessed words needed to break the silence! I was aware of my senses once again, stopping to double check the walls on either side of me. The pictograms and symbols were there - not moving. Our clops were the only sounds reverberating through the hall - not a single peep from any shadows. We were still walking stoically into the depths of the temple along Daring’s imaginary path.
No monsters wielding knives. No intestines for walls… What made me think of that? No reaction at all from the building. We were safe. We were safe. Oh, thank you-
“Intimus? You there?” the voice came again. It did not take me long to recognize Milky Way’s mellow voice with its signature bravura. Ah, he must have heard me practically breaking down in my panic.
“Yeah. I’m still here,” my own voice sounded parched and paled as it faded into espirando.
The stallion in front of me whispered through the side of his mouth, “I just wanted to ask you something: are you really unable to remember anything?” Rows of teeth scraped against one another as his lower jaw left and right without thought. After what seemed to be a moment of reconsideration, he added, “Sorry if that came out a little forceful. I just wanted to know.”
Just keep talking, please. Once I was sure a full ponylength was between us, I gave my reply: “No, it’s a question I’m comfortable answering, but I can’t remember a thing from that first day.”
The back of Milky Way’s head tilted to the right. We walked in dreaded quiet, save for the beat of our synchronized hoofsteps, for a few seconds longer. The pegasus continued just as I began to question his silence, “No vague hints? No flashbacks or sudden epiphanies?”
“Can’t say I have had any.” It was the honest truth. I was not ready to reveal anything important beyond what he already knew, but then again, I did not have anything to reveal - only a name everyone here would recognize. And when the whole world is working against me, what does it matter if I give up a little information? My own subconscious was more dangerous than this dishonest stallion!
The liar in question, Milky Way, tapped his chin and looked upwards to the ceiling abyss. “That’s a shame, but it’s not a huge problem. Repressed memories have a way of returning with time.” If the knowledge let him down, he made no show of it. With a swing of his muzzle, Milky Way shot me half a smile and a reassuring, or extremely naive, expression of confidence.
He was trying to reassure me, but his attempt only made me dwell further on the horrors that awaited me. How long would it take for me to even recall those memories?
I barely survived last night and nearly became another animal’s meal in this dream. My survival up to this point was thanks to a slim bit of luck and Daring’s intervention; in a couple more nights, what is not to say I might get a knife slit across my throat? If my experience on the second day was anything to go by, chances were the shock might be more than I can handle.
And… I might die without ever knowing who I am - well, was. I had a life before this whole mess: maybe a family, a house larger than that small hotel room, ambitions, an identity. Just a fatal injury could take that all away from me. What would be taken away? Would anyone miss me?
I want to know. I want to know what I have to lose!
In my short-lived revelation, I had somehow stopped in my path. Already, Daring and Milky Way were within the threshold of the next room - several meters away. Shaking my head, I trotted at a moderate pace to catch up to them.
Time. Milky Way said it would come in time. Out of everything he has told me so far, I will hold that statement as an indisputable truth. Even if it turned out to be a lie meant to keep me calm, it was something to keep me going.
If I ever wanted to escape that prison and remember who I was, I would have to survive.
My weight shifted as one of my hooves lost level with the others. I shot a look downwards. There was a edged depression where my foreleg had pressed down a tile. Within a blink of an eye, the creaking of mechanisms deep within the infrastructure resounded through the room.
Daring and Milky Way only then discovered I was still a couple meters behind; they looked at me as though I were a petulant weed and the harbinger of destruction respectively. That was the last moment of peace we would have before the whole temple came crashing down around us.
Rule one of archaeology: watch the ground at all times.
The floor shook with the roar of complex machinery grinding through dust and time. Before the first chunks of the ceiling landed around me, I was already a tail behind my two companions. We entered the next hallway just as the temple unveiled its ancient armory.
A portion of the wall to our right flipped around to reveal a wall completely riddled with evenly spaced holes. As though driven by instinct, Daring tackled Milky Way to the ground as a screen of darts blurred onto the other wall right above them. I stopped right where I was, gaping at the precise placement of each shot from the broadside. What possessed the architects of this deathtrap to make such an elaborate barrage?
A sharp click echoed overhead. I shifted my head upwards in time to see two tethered logs swinging in from both sides on me. Fortunately, a vicious slap to my forelegs threw me to the ground; I came within inches from becoming an Intimus-sandwich… I got up and looked for Milky Way and Daring.
The former was helping the latter to her hooves as she scrambled to pick up the makeshift spear - right next to where I fell from death. One mental thank-you later, I was running past the two towards the other end of the hall. Their clops soon joined mine as we covered a good meter without falling prey to any sort of-. An eldritch abomination’s scream grew steadily louder and increasingly shrill from the shadows.
“Incoming projectile from-!” Milky Way managed to yelp before some sort of dull thud cut him off with a gasp. I turned around to see what had taken him down, earning me yet another smack to the side of my leg. Just the jolt of shock was enough to throw me to the unfortunately uncushioned floor.
My skull embraced the stone with no grace whatsoever. My head cracked open upon impact, inviting a complete breakdown in my brain. Besides the screams in my ears (it could be the abomination’s or mine; with a headache of this intensity, it does not really matter, does it?), the most I could do was stare unfocused at the towering form of Daring with the improvised weapon.
She ducked just as the screams flew overhead and past her. The source of the tortured symphony was a flailing fireball - a beach ball sized furry projectile with four scarred appendages. A monkey - an alive one at that - on fire. Shot at a ridiculously ballistic speed. Ancient civilizations are downright cruel; actually, the writer of this adventure is cruel.
“On your hooves, Intimus!” Daring nudged me hard with the spear once she was up. Without so much as turning around, she used her undamaged wing to snap a pair of incoming arrows mid-flight. Right afterwards, her hindhoof half-bucked the still recovering Milky Way out of the path of a spinning chain. Her eyes never left my lying form as all of it happened. “You have five seconds before that tile underneath you converts into a plate of spikes.”
Without needing to shout, she got me standing once more despite the chaos in my rattled head. Sure enough, as Daring foresaw, the tile flipped over to reveal some perfectly cut spikes. Daring darted past me; my mind was not clear enough to do anything more than follow.
I think Milky Way was keeping up from behind. Then again, I was a bit too occupied to check. As for the flaming monkey who probably suffered the least enjoyable death by flaming splatter, there was honestly no time for sentimentality.
And there was really no time for any kind of thinking. We just ran and pushed through the next creative way to die. The pattern repeated with every trap we encountered: flamethrowers, razor-edged wires, spikes, bottomless pits, crushing plates, crushing plates with spikes attached. Daring reacted before the temple could even reel out its surprises and saved both Milky Way and me from grotesque deaths via a rough shove or whack with her trusty spear.
My head and lungs pounded in sync; the ground became ice under my light hooves. I glided across the surface with the threshold of the next room in the center of my hazy focus. Of course, I would have to realign my attention every second or so after Daring snaps us into safety.
By the time we cleared the closing doorway, my body was covered with stinging bruises, synchronizing their swollen beating with my taxed heart. Wait, she just saved me with those brutal strikes! I could have become a mangled corpse if Daring had not whacked me around like rotten produce! What do I have to whine about? My mind is just rambling at this point. Just calm down… Recover your breathing, Intimus…
Okay. Okay. Steady breathing. Thinking rationally again.
In my adrenaline rush, I had completely forgotten about Milky Way. The half-buck Daring had unleashed on him to save his life must have left a considerable impact on his chest - he grimaced with every breath he took. Like me, his coat sported a multitude of pink, polka-dotted bruises.
Once the connection between mind and body was restored, a flood of neural complaints overwhelmed my conscience. I was unable to do anything more than lie down on the temple floor.
Head beating. Bruises beating in sync. It seemed as though someone had implanted my mind and soul into a clock. Each breath came in dry and unfilling; each beat brought me one inch farther from my adrenaline-induced anesthesia. My eye-
Something hard connected with the back of my head.
“Ow! I got it! I-I’m getting up now,” I managed to utter as Daring’s hoof hooked itself around one of my outstretched forelegs. With unnatural strength, she pulled me up in one swift motion onto my own hooves. She stared at me with an expression that just screamed how excited she was to see me napping around in a dangerous death trap.
Preceding the apology with a subtle gulp, I began, “Sorry about that-”
“Forgiven.” And just like that, Daring had pardoned me of my weakness… Or was she pardoning me for nearl getting us killed back there? Oh. Best not to bring that up then.
“Wait? You’re not angry at all?” She rolled her eyes at that question. It was as if she had seen this scenario already and knew all the motions.
“Angry? You think I’m angry that you nearly got us killed back there, because you couldn’t follow simple orders?” I only became aware of my shell-shocked facial expression when Daring’s ego personified itself in a smirk. I was a fool for thinking such an event could slip her mind; now, she was going to have fun with me.
“You can relax, Intimus. I’m not going to pin you down and humiliate you twice. For somepony of my caliber of awesome, a hallway of death is a walk in the park.” The adventurer stretched a leg and feinted with her good wing to resemble an effortless wipe of her brow. On the other hand, I did my best to resist staring in awe at her lazy brush with death.
Daring eventually dropped the “Cause I’m awesome” facade and fixed me with a neutrally bored expression. I must be getting good at this hide-your-feelings thing! Hopefully, these ponies will stop staring right through me with enough practice.
She cleared her throat and got to the exposition: “Alright, so only part of what you saw back there was thanks to my skills. Fact is, you can’t expect to meet a titular character who isn’t aware of what goes on in her own story. I know every surprise this temple throws before it activates - right down to the timing and the area of effect.
“The one - well two - things I didn’t count on though were you and Milky Way here.” The pegasus mentioned was barely standing on his four legs, huffing off the adrenaline drain.
I had completely forgotten about him the moment my own injuries registered. To be honest, that was a bit jerkish of me. Even if prone to blatantly lying, Milky Way still made for good company and an optimist of all things. Now, he was struggling for breath due to an incident that would not have occurred if it were not for me.
“Don’t fret… I’ve taken harder hits before… anyways, it was a mare-.” That was about as far as he got before a pair of purely virulent magenta eyes deviated his train of thought. “I’ll recover. No harm done, Intimus.”
It took me only a moment to figure out how he had read my thoughts. My face had fallen at my slight change of feelings! I would have never noticed if Milky Way had not shot me one of his warm knowing looks. So much for having a firm control over the exposure of my thoughts.
“Well, seeing as you two are now fit to get a move on, we should get a move on. The sapphire stone’s a hoofball throw from here. All we need to do is transverse the treasure room.” On cue, her hoof pointed past us to a larger area just a few steps from the doorway. Demonic (why do ancient civilizations adore that kind of stuff) totem poles acted as support pillars on the shadowed sides of the room. A checkered floor, covered in simple drawings of various animals, took over as floorwork.
But the ceiling light set its beam on the real eyecatcher of the whole room - the sapphire stone atop its pedestal. The azure radiance it emitted was blinding in the semi-dark setting we occupied. It was just a moment’s trot away at this point!
“Rule two of archaeology,” Daring halted me with her sharp tone. “If it involves tiles, then you’re looking for patterns.” Guidemaster Daring Do took over from here, setting herself at the front of our ragtag group. She approached the checkered floor on the tips of her hooves. Her pith hat bobbed left and right as she studied the pictures. What she was looking for was beyond me.
Suddenly, her hoof shot out and smacked a nearby pebble onto the tiles. It landed with a polite clack and promptly brought that part of the floor down. All three of us stepped back at the sound of an activated deathtrap.
Arrow fanatics be appeased! The curtain of projectiles from some hidden compartment on the left wall went beyond overkill with its payload. We stared collectively at three dozen or so arrows stuck in a precise bunch on the right wall. Daring just rubbed her chin with a practiced hoof.
“Now, what is the pattern here? All symbolic and idolized animals…” she whispered to herself. The transition from Daring Do into an actual archaeologist left me transfixed. What I was watching felt like a presentation of an event in another plane of existence. Fancy wording aside, I guess this is how a spectator, like a reader, would feel like. Daring was in her natural element; Milk Way and I were just… there to observe.
I hardly noticed a pair of legs wrap around my mid-body and lift me into the air.
It was like falling again - only up this time! Once I was off the ground, my legs flailed wildly at whatever was holding me. I felt my hooves connect several times with a warm, furry surface that retracted with each blow. I realized soon enough who I was hitting.
“Please refrain from thrashing the pilot with your legs sir,” Milky Way answered with a hint of exertion. My efforts to break free were only exacerbating his efforts. After reining in my appendages, I swallowed down the disorienting sensation. There was nothing more jarring than having the ground taken from under me, but I was reassured somewhat by the pair of legs around my chest.
His wings were so close I could hear the individual feathers rustle with every flap. Milky Way grunted a couple times, yet he gained altitude and began sailing over Daring Do and the checkered deathtrap.
“But there’s got to be an odd one out-” she cut herself off to watch us I suppose. Although my position prevented me from looking backwards, my ears picked up her mumbling: “Wouldn’t be any darn good without those wings of yours.” She added on a louder note, “Or you could you that! Don’t do anything once you’ve reached the pedestal. I’ll be there in a second.”
Milky Way and I continued hovering towards the artifact’s island, rendering the whole trap useless. As soon as we came upon the sandstone steps, he relinquished his hold on me. Luckily, the drop was a short one; however, a second of imbalance brought me within a breath of falling on the checkered floor. The only thing that managed to keep me from tumbling backwards was my own heart slamming against my rib cage in the opposite direction.
I guess it was my body’s way of scolding me for nearly suffering severe injury… again. No guarantee on whether avoiding that will be possible.
Milky Way landed with a little more grace. Promptly after landing, he contorted his body in an attempt to stretch out the strains from carrying me. “Sorry about the rough dropoff, Intimus. I’m a bit out of shape! Do you think you could will your weight to be lighter next time?” It was a question asked out of good intention, so I shoved the offensive implications out of my mind.
Wait, could I actually do that? Could I lighten myself just by thinking it? It only took a replay in my mind of the tempest brewed up by my abuse of that power to cast the question aside.
I turned to Milky Way as a central character came to the front of my mind. “I know you’re tired, but is it possible for you to ferry Daring across too?” A raised eyebrow in response made me wince under his stare. I had already neglected his physical condition just minutes ago, yet I was still asking more of him. Any moment now, Milky Way would chew me out for it.
He chose not to call me out on it; instead, he pointed a leg behind me and replied without a hint of contempt, “Doesn’t look like she needs one.” His eyes had been looking past me. One half turn later, I saw what he meant.
With unnatural precision, Daring Do leapt from tile to tile - somehow without activating the arrow hailstorm. Each square offered about the same surface area as a piece of paper, and still she managed to plant all four of her hooves inside the boundaries upon landing! The lack of hesitation between each jump only made the feat more impressive.
The titular explorer’s face wore a stoic mask void of fear or doubt. If I had not known better, I would have suspected that she was simply concealing it. But after watching her approach every other dangerous trial with the same expression, I knew now that she had just seen all of this too many times to be intimidated. True to her legendary boasts, she was a fully embodied adventurer.
Within seconds, Daring made the last jump and landed right next to me on the island. I was too busy wrapping my mind around the act to give any applause for her, but she barely appeared hurt. Instead, catching my face from the corner of her eye, Daring shot me a half-smirk: surprisingly more genuine than amused.
All three of us were rested enough to face the next danger - seizing the idol. The sapphire stone atop the pedestal had been blindingly brilliant from across the room; now that I was right in front of it, I could see the masterful craftsmanship that went into its creation.
The idol resembled a two headed jackal with attentive eyes scanning both to the left and to the right. It was guarding an unblemished and perfectly trimmed gem close to itself with two criss-crossing arms. The sharp edges created intentional shades of the aqua blue that permeated through the gem, embellishing the stone with a naturally induced color scheme. Whoever designed this thing must have spent an eternity creating a crystal structure that could refract light into a visual enhancement.
Sporting not a single blemish from age, the sapphire stone sparkled in its sun-powered spotlight. This idol was probably the epitome of an entire civilization’s artistic genius - now just a memento in the husk of its time. In a way, by taking the sapphire stone and reintroducing it into the world, we would also be immortalizing the brilliant civilization that crafted it! At least then, others would remember those ancient architects for something more than their obsession with deadly traps.
I guess from that point of view, stealing is pretty justifiable. But then again, we probably need to steal the idol to progress the story. Milky Way seemed to have reach that conclusion quicker than me - he was already sizing up the treasure with eager hooves.
Frolicking from one angle to another, Milky Way examined the stone with the expression of a child staring into the window of a candy store. He inquired with a hushed voice, “So how do we go about grabbing this find? Replace it with something of equal weight?”
He slinked close to the pedestal with eyes scanning the sides of the room. I did not think it was even possible, but Milky Way has managed to get into the story more than the main character herself. “Or do we gun it once we snatch the stone?” Both of us looked to Daring for advice on the next course of action.
The adventurer in question had her focus captured by the hole in the ceiling. A couple clouds hovered lazily in the opening, surrounded by a murky yellow and green sky. After the initial irritation from the glare, I knew what I was looking at - our way out of this airtight death trap roulette. Things must be looking up for me, because Daring was already planning our exit strategy!
She confirmed my hopes when she asked, “Can you carry us up to that hole, Milky Way?” The question still carried her self-bestowed authority, but it came out lighter in tone than previous orders. It seems that she is finally seeing Milky Way, with his ability of flight, as something more than chauvinistic luggage.
Part of me hoped she was reevaluating me as well - my performance the past couple of incidents has not painted me in a good light.
Milky Way gave his wings a few flaps. There was strain in his movements, but he answered anyways, “Sure can do, so long as it’s one passenger at a time though.” Daring nodded without a word, briefly inspecting Milky Way’s flying capability.
“That’ll do. Just get us up that opening into fresh air and grab the stone so-” Daring had to pause to catch a distinct click that hardly registered to my own ears. The air was filled with an escalating hiss of burning rope before a loud clap erupted among the three of us.
The disturbance came from the idol. I caught glimpse of a skeletal claw, which was attached to a taut rope, gripping the sapphire stone by its jackal body before it disappeared in a blur. The hissing sound returned, reversing into a decrescendo as it ascended towards the hole in the ceiling…
“What the Goddess?” Daring yelped as the gleaming statue flashed into the… hand… of a blue-coated dog-ape hybrid - the hand attached to his monkey tail. With a majority of his body hidden by the shadow of the outside sun, the only part that was clearly shown was his canine snout and his elated grin.
“Au revoir, Daring Do and companions! I’ll be taking this, if you don’t mind,” Ahuizotl eloquently spoke with a deep, foreign accent. And despite using a tone that was clearly meant for one-on-one conversation, his voice reverberated through the chamber with the echo of a grand speech. I did not care whether this was show or not, it struck me with the intended effect.
To say Daring Do was flabbergasted would be a severe understatement: “A-a grappling hook? What happened to no cheating the story, Ahuizotl!?” As if to mock her, Ahuizotl waved mentioned grappling hook out of the shadows. Fit exactly to his multi-limbed leg, the three prong claw completed his arch-villain complex.
To be honest, I had expected Ahuizotl to be something like an evil without shape or comprehensible form. Yet seeing the antagonist for the first time, my imagination paled in comparison. His appearance looked as though it had come out of the dark recesses of a surgeon-biologist’s nightmare. The unnaturally green-tinted irises did nothing to ease my conscience; it was like he was dragging me to him with just his eyes!
Thankfully, Ahuizotl paid no heed to me; his crazed gaze was directed solely at the adventurer. “You’re allowed to have your dreamer friend. I only leveled the odds so we’re both on par,” he emphasized the last word. Behind us, stone clacked against stone as ancient machinery once more roared to life.
It turned out to be his signal to leave. As Ahuizotl reached over to something next to him, he mockingly uttered, “And now I bid you adieu, Daring Do.” With that last bit of cryptic fancy, he left our vision and replaced the hole with a boulder. We were sealed in the temple.
That was the moment when the floor cracked into pieces. “You dastardly, son of a hydra hypocrite!” Daring futilely shouted after the demigod. She narrowed her eyes and gritted her pearl teeth at the destruction around us. “On your hooves, this place is coming down!”
Milky Way and I did not need further encouragement to snap out of our trances.
Milky Way took to the air for the sealed exit but ended up dodging pieces of the ceiling instead. Daring eyed the nonexistent floor - replaced by a pit of bubbly lava. I pranced in place, dancing on my hooves in the maelstrom of falling debris.
And just to spite us, the lava was slowly ascending to our pedestal high ground. Crabapples. I could feel the hair of my coat singeing at the tips! Our escape route was cut off. Our pegasus companion was flying for his life. Our time was running out. Now, it was only a matter of which way I wanted to die: crushed in a messy manner or melted in an excruciating manner.
A sudden acceleration in the ceiling’s crumbling sealed my choice. Screeching from both ends of the room, the support poles on the sides of the chamber tumbled out of their fixed positions, falling inwards to the center of the room.
Scorching liquid was splashed within centimeters of where Daring and I were standing. I looked to Daring in anticipation of a miracle escape strategy. The sight of her faltering facade upon meeting my stare dashed that hope. From the way she bit her lip, I could read the grim implication.
Daring did have a plan - one SHE could execute without difficulty. It just did not account for me.
Wordlessly, she pointed to the totem pole least submerged, sticking out directly underneath the blocked hole. There were support beams scattered in the lava at all sorts of angles - no guarantee of firm footing - leading to the topmost pole. However, the only alternative, as Milky Way was struggling to hold his own, was letting myself burn on this island.
Daring always had a solution; whatever she had planned on the highest pillar was our best bet for survival. There have been enough close calls in this dream that have shown her ability to cheat death. It was evidence enough to trust her, so why was I not jumping?!
At the moment, this was the only chance I had. Drown and burn in molten rock or make a dash to escape at the risk of drowning and burning in molten rock - survival or not survival, Intimus. No other option. Hushing my protesting heart and rebellious mind, I jumped for the nearest pole.
My hooves never even registered with the beam. I was hopping off of its surface before the thought formed in my mind! In fact, I was practically gliding across lava with these quick reflexes! Even the haphazard slopes were proving beneficial for larger distance leaps, and I was never on a single pole long enough to lose my footing.
What was my body doing?
Are legs even supposed to move and exert themselves this fast?
What was Daring looking at?
Maybe if I kept my mind occupied and let the process keep me alive - oh no. Recover. Slipping. Contact. Contact!
The texture of the ceremonial pole’s engravings bumped against my hooves for only a second before they were impressed into my skin. I felt muscles contract and store a buck’s worth of energy into my hindlegs. The spring was coiled, and the angle was set. With a light kick, I soared through the air!
My vision tunneled onto a single pictogram of a rat on the target beam as it rushed to meet me within a heartbeat. I hit the pillar with two unsynced thuds and promptly swayed on a tightrope made of stone. I swung my body back and forth to fight gravity as it attempted to drag me into the lava.
After a slight struggle on my hooves, I had stable footing! My mind was disoriented, pounding with what must have been a clocktower condensed into the size of my skull. Any attempt I made at formulating my thoughts was interrupted by its punctuated ticking. Thankfully, Daring’s own hoofsteps on the pole shattered the beat and helped my mind return to normal thinking.
She stopped on the topmost section of the beam and gazed straight up. By instinct, I followed her eyes and found the blocked off exit… Wait, we were under the exit? How did that happen? Turning around, I spotted the platform and pedestal where I was previously accessing whether to let myself die or die attempting one of Daring’s crazy aerobics.
Miraculously and fortunately, I somehow crossed an entire room of boiling magma! And best yet, I felt like doing it again! Crabapples. That statement sounded like my first step into insanity. Honestly, I cannot not help it! There was this kindling vibration running through my legs and chest; it was almost as if the lava’s blazing warmth was running through my veins!
This must be… adrenaline. I had never noticed it until now, but wow, this stuff did wonders like an instant rechar-
“INTIMUS. FOCUS. DYNAMITE ON THIS SPEAR NOW!” Then, there was dynamite on the spear! Explosive sticks bundled together by rope on the broom handle. Wires attached to the ends of the dynamite coiled together into one neat fuse. Colored bright red for visual danger.
When I faced the adventurer again, I was sporting a rigid expression stuck mid-gape, not too different from Daring’s. In her left hoof, she was holding an ancient civilization’s equivalent of firecrackers - even appropriately colored. Even with the whole chamber collapsing and the lava rising to engulf our beam, we shared a moment of quietude.
She was the first to break the silence by adding, “Turns out you respond better when you’re stuck in a trance.” Wasting no time, Daring lowered the dynamite-strapped spear near the lava’s surface and plucked it back up with a spitting spark attached to the fuse.
Wait, I willed that dynamite into existence! Balance. Oh no, we gave ourselves an advantage!
I retreated from the ascending fire and shouted, “Daring! The balance! Ahuizotl’s going to will something else into existence because of the dynamite!” The last sentence came out with barely enough volume to count as a shout. A streamline of smoke was clogging my lungs.
Standing with an almost graceful stance, Daring replied in a leveled tone, “Ahuizotl gave himself a grappling gun. A grappling gun of all things! Well, if he can have his gun, then we can have our dynamite.” She tossed her head towards the ceiling and exclaimed, “Stand clear, Milky Way!”
Our flying acquaintance paused for a moment before continuing his mid-air struggle far from the ceiling exit. It was a clear shot, just some dozen meters above our heads.
The spark was now two-thirds of the way through the fuse, sizzling with a whiney static that may as well have been raucous roar of an incoming fireball. Daring was just looking my way with one eyebrow raised.
“Daring,” I spoke without taking my gaze off of the hungry spark. It was nearly through the coil.
“Yeah?”
“You are going to blow up the boulder up there with the dynamite right?”
“Duh. What do you think I was going to do? Read a book to it?” It was like a ticking bomb in her hoof was the most natural possession she could have!
“Then throw it!” The coil was eaten up now, and the spark had split into several sparks to continue its journey into the explosive sticks.
Daring turned her stare to the ceiling and waited. I was ready to dive into the lava when she finally upchucked the spear in one swift motion. I wrapped my legs around the pole and closed my eyes; this was going to be-
AAAAGGGHHHH!!! BROKEN EARDRUMS. MY BRAIN. POPPING. MY EARS. POUNDING. NEEDLEss to say, the explosion shook the entire room! What must have been the shockwave flattened me against the pictograms and slashed my back coat with a saber made out of pure condensed air - practically tossing an open cauldron at my back.
Squinting one eye open, I was instantly blinded by the addition of an overhead light.
Wait. Overhead light from outside!
Despite taking an arguably unhealthy dose of explosion like me, Daring was able to stand on her trembling legs. Her form was covered in grey filth, camouflaging perfectly with her monochrome mane. She spotted me with her bewildered, and now highly conspicuous, magenta eyes. Fortunately, some part of me managed to command my abused body to stand up.
“Wow! What an explosion!” Milky Way jubilantly yelped as he flew over to us. Without even needing the question, he squeezed us together between his forelegs against his chest (somepony squeaked in the process. I am sure it was not me.) and began pumping his wings. “I would… love to say something… cool… but we have an escape… to complete!”
It was either just the sheer effect of the explosion or the fact that I could feel Milky Way’s chest heaving against me, but I went limp in his forelegs. As the outside world came closer and engulfed my vision with magnificent light (oh I missed you sunlight), the strain in Milky Way’s efforts became more audible.
What started as intermittent grunts evolved into perpetual panting. But inch by inch, we were raised off of the totem pole just as the lava swallowed its peak. Just a couple meters from the ceiling, the prestissimo power in his wings began to diminish and slow.
His chest, on the other hand, continued its frenzied beating, unwilling to stop despite the glaringly obvious strain it was going through. Milky Way let out a piercing yell that crescendoed with piercing stimulation and de-crescendoed with the cringe-inducing echo of an extinguished flame. It brought us a few more precious centimeters closer to the way out. Just a little more, Milky Way. Please, just a little more.
He complied. We finally flew level with the hole in the ceiling.
Instantly, Daring and I gripped the rims of the cleared exit and supported a limp pegasus between us. As soon as we left his embrace, Milky Way simply stopped moving. My forelegs were screaming from the weight, but I was willing to disobey their orders for reprievement.
Daring and I pulled the knocked out pegasus onto the roof. He was left splayed out on the temple’s stone like a disregarded bean bag. With relatively little strain, I joined him with my back against the stone.
Wisps of cloud drifted by themselves against a lime-green and teal sky. A wider world where the only things I had to worry about were a demigod and his obedient predators. A sight without ceilings or walls. I was safe out here - a statement I never thought I would say again in my amnesiac life.
To say breathing in jungle air, instead of the vile gases inside that treasure room, was a joy would be the grandest of understatements. I could just lie here and allow my future self to deal with the damages. A nap was in due order. Was it possible to dream within a dream? I guess I was going to find out.
“No, wait, I know this part…” Daring muttered with a hoarse breath obviously lacking sufficient oxygen. The gasp came just a moment later. “Oh for feather’s sake! Off the-”
The tunneling steam from the temple never registered over our fatigue. When the roof began to rumble, I had enough time to raise my head before the stone disappeared from underneath me. My scream became the one thing from that moment on that I was able to keep track of.
Jungle. Sky. Earth. The dominating blur in my vision kept switching among the three - while rotating. Unable to even process what I was seeing, my eyes closed shut. With both hearing and sight overburdened and unreliable, my instinct became the only sense still functioning enough to give me a sense of where I was.
From the way my body was slicing through the air like it was a cookie cutter to batter, I had to be midair. And considering how it has been pushing from one direction for the past couple of seconds, I must be on my way down.
…Not again. Please.
Alas, my eyes opened at the last moment and now ground utterly dominated my vision. One second later, my left side crumpled against my spine. Vitals and bones shifted way too far to the right, practically rendering one half of my body into a deflated pancake. Unfortunately for me, the impact was not as bad as the ensuing struggle to breathe with half my lung capacity disabled.
In comparison to the lower body, my head only received the equivalent of a brick to the skull. The numbing distraction only persisted for a minute before my nerves remembered the carnage that occurred in my torso. I must have hit terminal velocity at some point in the trip down to Earth!
My head swerved around in search of another distraction. As far as I could tell, Milky Way and Daring had not taken any lighter injuries; they were cracking bones back in place in their attempts to stand up. Well, at least Milky Way was conscious again.
Daring, as expected, was the first to recover from the fall. The sand we kicked up on impact clung to her dusty coat, restoring some patches to their mustard purity. Other than that, not a single bruise or cut or deformity was to be seen! If it was not for the cringing scowl on her face, I would have thought she escaped the punishment I received.
Milky Way, on the other hand, preferred the comfort of the ground. But in his defense, embracing the ground was a more appealing idea than trying to stand against whatever injuries we sustained. Add his recent efforts to get us out of that treasure chamber, and the result is a thoroughly worn out pegasus.
Daring mumbled incoherently before addressing us with gritted teeth. “Err… I never get used to that. You okay, probie?”
No. Not at all. “I-I think I broke something… through my whole right side,” I answered in between the stabs in my innards. Daring looked at me quizzically, as if trying to figure out if I was being authentic about my glaringly obvious suffering.
“Intimus,” a deliberate and accented voice spoke.
“Okay. Okay. Intimus, alright?” Daring turned to face Milky Way. “How many times are you going to remind-?” She halted mid sentence when she remembered that Milky Way was too incapacitated to speak that clearly.
Daring and I knew exactly who was not incapacitated. We turned around and came face to face with the villain himself.
Ahuizotl sported a giddy smirk - the crocodile smile of a winner. He continued his dialogue, “As expected Daring Do. You prove once again the law of adventure literature: the heroine must escape certain death no matter what.”
“You know that neither of us can change the narrative, Ahuizotl.”
“True” the demigod admitted. Oh no, he was looking at me. Those eyes only seemed to brighten once they had me in their spell. “But he can, as well as the Patriot.” He emphasized the last words with clicks of his accented tongue.
The Patriot?
Daring voiced the question out loud. Ahuizotl only grinned further with his draconian teeth, obviously taking glee in our confusion. Luckily, he was willing to fill us in on what we did not know.
“Of course! He’s the one who gave me the powers of a god! This pony’s dream is a sandbox that readily bends to my will!” He stood on his hindlegs and threw his arms into the air. Above us hovered a sizeable storm cloud. Given its cue, the mass shot two streaks of lightning behind Ahuizotl and bellowed an ear-splitting roar that strangely suited the villain’s maniacal laughter.
It was overly dramatic, but it was effective. Just the display of his “god” powers startled me onto my back, in spite of my ravaged body! I laid stunned, deciding whether to ignore the injuries and run or will myself into non-existence. However, once he got into that laughter, amplified by the storm cloud effects, both choices were thrown away in favor of watching without the power to do anything else.
~~~
Wait, what just happened?
One moment I was out in a clearing, observing the insanity of a demigod. Now, I was staring at an all-too-familiar ceiling. I was inside again! Where were Daring and Milky Way? Why can I not move my forelegs?
My struggles to move were obstructed by a tightly bound and pricked band. I recognized the chains of rope even before I lowered my muzzle to see the restraints. Without even realizing it, I had been tied up and thrown on a stone platform in another one of these temples.
The room I was held prisoner in was a compact version of the death trap hallway. The walls were faded variants of swamp green and brown, decorated with more cracks than any stable structure should have. The only dignified ornament in the chamber was an amulet of something resembling a grumpy octopus with a stache - hung high on one of the walls.
Hopefully, in the time I was out, Daring and Milky Way were able to escape Ahuizotl. They would come and get me out of here! That outcome was ruled out as soon as I turned my head to the left. It turned out I was tied up at the edge of the platform, for two more bound ponies laid struggling against their bonds next to me.
Milky Way brought his head up from chewing at the ropes around him to stare across Daring, who was placed between us, and get my attention. “Intimus! You’re up! I know this sounds abrupt and strange, but we got captured and placed into this convenient edifice that also serves as an execution chamber.”
What?! When did anything like that happen?
“We just experienced a jump cut, which is why you cannot remember how we got here,” Milky Way clarified the jarring change in our situation while fighting to open his wings. The rope refused to give, holding them right against his sides. “The way Daring explained it was that the author of this story was lazy and decided to cut out the part that readers would not want to know - like how we got tied up and how Ahuizotl transported us here.”
And speaking of the villain, the deliberate voice of Ahuizotl suddenly made itself apparent to my right. “Precisely right. According to the narrative, we are now at the part where I must make you three countdown to your demise!”
Do not turn to your right, Intimus. Not this close. I would not be able to stand another staring contest with him! And besides, I needed to keep my wits in case Daring came up with another plan. I could will in the right tool to get us out of here!
I looked to Daring, strangely lacking her pith hat, but she was too occupied with glaring at Ahuizotl to notice. Suddenly, my view was obscured by a falling curtain that strapped itself against my face. Everything was painted black; I was effectively blind!
“Don’t think I forgot about you, dreamer.” Oh please, someone wake me up. He was whispering right into my ear! My efforts to break free were stifled; the only ponies who could get me out were lined up next to me; there was nothing I could do but lie helpless at the mercy of a ruthless antagonist - stripped of my ability to see too.
I have to wake up! Come on, this is MY dream! Wake up! Please, wake up!!!