“Okay!! I take that back!! A lot of bad stuff just happened!!”
The first thing to assault Velvet’s nostrils upon reaching the top of the sizable staircase was that of decay and danger. That is, if danger really had a scent at all, but that was beside the point. She had a good feeling that this temple was incredibly dangerous to enter, but she could tell just by the expression she wore, and the stance she took, that Daring Do would not be dissuaded from her goal. The Pegasus looked over to Velvet, “You ready for this?” She asked.
“To be perfectly honest with you, Dare? No. I’m not ready for this,” Velvet said, “But I will follow you anyway. I said I would be coming with you on this, and by Celestia, I’m sticking with you to the end. No matter how idiotic it might seem.”
Her friend gave her a second’s worth of surprise, before chuckling, “Heh, I knew you had it in you, Velvet! Now come on. We have a statue to find, and spirit to tick off!” As she began to trot into the dimly lit entrance to the temple, Daring glanced back, “And did you just call me ‘Dare’? You know, I’ve always given ponies nicknames, but rarely do I get them. You’re the first to call me that, after my sister that is,” she grinned, “Keep it up, Vel!”
And with that, Daring continued on her way into the temple. Velvet let out a sigh, and followed her in. The entire temple was poorly lit, but just well enough that they could see. It was, to put it bluntly, frightening. Strange, skull like busts and sculptures were set into the walls, with gaping mouths and eyes, that gave Velvet the strange feeling they were being watched. The floor was littered with stone, and the dust hung heavy in the air. Beetles of various descriptions skittered across the stone floor, and to Velvet’s dismay, there were skeletons lining the walls that looked disturbingly close to those of ponies. She hurried in her pace to catch up to Daring.
The Pegasus seemed to be in her element with this temple. None of the aesthetics really seemed to be getting to her, at least on the same level as they were with Velvet. She trudged on past the beetles, bones and carvings with little thought. Velvet wasn’t sure if the adventurer was just that fearless, or if she was just being brash. Where Velvet was taking in every detail with horrified fascination, Daring was just trotting on through, looking at her surroundings every few seconds. Perhaps if she had been paying closer attention, like Velvet had been, the next series of events could have been avoided.
Daring Do’s hoof sank downwards by an inch, having stepped on a pressure plate. She heard something click within the walls, and glanced over in time to see a section of the wall hang down. The Pegasus quickly figured out what was happening, and she ducked. As she did, three dual headed axes were flung by some mechanism into the wall just behind her. Velvet, luckily, had been far enough back to avoid being struck herself. As the Unicorn galloped up behind her, Daring stood, wiping a hoof across her brow, “Well, that could have been worse, eh?” She asked, beginning to move forward again.
“Daring! Wait!!” Velvet had called out, but she was unable to finish.
The adventurer’s hoof once more struck a pressure plate and the section of the floor beneath her slid open. Through her own natural agility had Daring been able to keep herself from falling in. However, her expression quickly changed from one of triumph and into one of irritated terror. Deftly, she lifted herself entirely on her forelegs, as a bout of flame shot up from the opened section of the floor. It seemed as though her triggering of the first two traps had set into motion a chain reaction of various traps. The ceiling slid open, and bizarrely enough, a trio of crocodiles were revealed. The large reptiles would have fallen straight onto Daring, if it had not been for Twilight Velvet.
The Unicorn, who had managed to avoid being consumed in flame earlier by sheer luck, caught the giant lizard-like creatures by their tails, suspending them just above the two mare’s heads as they ducked. As Daring army crawled her way out from under them, Velvet heaved them back into their compartment, and slammed the hatch shut with her magic. She thanked Celestia that she had enough magical reserve to complete that.
But there was no rest for the weary, it seemed. No sooner had Velvet caught up with the now recovered Daring, a pendulum axe swung down from the ceiling above. Where Daring leapt over it with a concentrated expression, Velvet hung back, her face the epitome of sheer terror. As soon as the axe passed, she dashed forward as fast as her legs could carry her. The Unicorn would have kept running were it not for Daring grabbing onto her tail and yanking her back. Velvet stumbled and fell into a sitting position, “I hate this temple!” She exclaimed, panting.
Daring Do nodded, “I’m right there with you, sister. Come on, we’ve still got a prize to find. And we’re not going to get it just sitting around here cursing this place.”
“No, instead we’re just going to get killed by some insane trap. What were crocodiles even doing here?! And in the ceiling no less!! I swear, that spirit is watching us! He’s just toying with us now, and I know that he’s just going to get tired of it and kill us if we go any farther!” Twilight Velvet shouted.
The Pegasus had had enough, “Velvet!” Daring Do shouted, wheeling about and without hesitation, striking the hysteric mare forcefully across the face with her hoof, “Calm! Down! Look, I know you’re stressed. We’ve crash landed, been chased by big cats, and just narrowly avoided a series of bizarre traps, you have a right to be! Heck, so am I! But I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you again, sitting around here cursing the place won’t help us thwart Ahuizotl. Now, I want to see you grit those teeth, and get a move on!” She said authoritatively, and held out a hoof, “Or, you can turn back now and head back into the jungle. You either die out there, knowing that you ran away from potentially saving lives, or you can stick with me, and die knowing you tried.”
Velvet watched as Daring laid into her vocally, eyes wide and teary as she tenderly rubbed her throbbing cheek. She had not been expecting the Pegasus to take such an action. It had hurt both physically, and mentally, but if Daring had aimed to break her out of hysteria, it certainly worked. The Pegasus maintained her hard expression, hoof held out as she waited for Velvet’s answer to her ultimatum. Drawing in a deep breath, Velvet held it for a few seconds before slowly letting it out. She wiped a hoof across her eyes, and took Daring Do’s outstretched hoof. With help from her Pegasus friend, the writer stood.
The adventurer raised her eyebrows, “Well? What are you going to do, Velvet?”
Sniffing, Velvet sighed one more time before nodding twice, “I may not like it… But you’re right, Dare. I’ll stick with you. If I’m going to die, might as well do it with dignity, huh?”
Her friend grinned, “That’s the spirit. Come on.” And with that, Daring Do began to trot down the corridor once again. Velvet glanced back the way they had come, no longer able to see daylight, before turning and trotting after the intrepid adventurer.
/)*(\
Over the course of the next hour or so, Daring and Velvet made their way through the temple, encountering numerous more traps and obstacles, which involved nearly getting pin-cushioned by arrows twice, nearly cut in two by collapsing blades, impaled from below by floor spikes, and on various occasions nearly being squashed by closing doors, they had made it to the end of the winding corridors. Now, they stood panting in a large room, Velvet chuckling breathlessly in an effort to calm herself down, and Daring irritably knocking numerous arrows from her hat. How that thing had managed to stay on her head the entire time, while they had lost most of their gear to the traps, baffled Velvet.
Much to the Unicorn’s relief, there was a beam of sunlight streaming through a large hole in the ceiling of the temple. And as much as she wanted to, there was little time to speculate on the strange head hugging abilities of Daring Do’s signature cap, for as if by a supernatural force, the light streaming in began to move, “Dare, look!” Velvet said, jabbing her elbow into the adventurer’s side.
“What?” Daring replied haughtily, fixing her cap back onto her grayscale mane, “What is it... Whoa.” Her words trailed off as she caught sight of what Velvet was seeing.
The beam of light had shifted, and revealed to them their prize. It was the object that they had searched for the entire day, enduring many hardships throughout that period, and in Daring’s case, she had sought it for over sixty days and nights in, here in Caballo. It was the artifact of Ahuizotl: the Sapphire Statue. The statue was that of two, pointy headed dogs looking in opposite directions, and in the center of them, there was a large, glistening sapphire. The entire thing was carved from pure blue stone – most likely lapis lazuli – and was inset with gold. Velvet shook her head, awestruck, “You know, I have to hand it to those spirits. They sure know how to make a work of beauty.”
“It’s significantly less beautiful when you think about what Ahuizotl uses it for,” Daring Do said in a matter of fact tone, “But looking at it otherwise, yeah, it really is a gorgeous piece.”
She had begun to trot towards it, when Velvet caught her by the tail, and tugged her back, “Hold it now, Dare. You really think that this chamber itself would be devoid of traps? I doubt that Ahuizotl, or whoever built this temple would leave the chamber that held the Statue completely unguarded. In the off chance somepony, like us, made it through all of that back there, I’m sure that this place would be trapped as well,” she glanced ahead at the floor, “See those tiles? I’ll bet they have something to do with it.”
The Pegasus looked at her skeptically for a few seconds, then to the floor tiles, and then back to Velvet, “You’ve got a point Vel,” she said, shrugging, “But now all we need to do is figure out what it is…”
Glancing around the chamber, Daring’s eyes caught sight of numerous holes in one of the walls, much like the arrow ports from the other traps earlier in the temple. She tapped a hoof to her chin for a few seconds, before glancing down at the floor around her hooves. Spotting a fair sized stone, she scooped it up, and tossed it onto one of the tiles. The weight of the stone proved enough to trigger the trap, as the tile sank downwards and a split second later a hail of arrows streaked out of the holes, peppering the adjacent wall.
Velvet swallowed and coughed nervously, “See what I mean?” She asked, rhetorically.
“Yeah…” Daring replied, though it sounded more like she was talking to herself. The Pegasus lowered herself to get a closer look at the tiles, continuing to voice her thoughts, “There’s gotta be a pattern here… Look at these, Velvet. Each tile has the motif of some type of animal on it. Now… What could these mean...?”
Velvet lowered herself down as well, narrowing her eyes as she scrutinized the pictures. Birds of prey, large cats, wolves and various other predatory animals were emblazoned on the stones. Except, one of them stood out, “I’ve got it!” She said, happily.
“Oh? Would you kindly tell?” Daring asked, standing back up to her full height, eyebrows raised in curiosity.
Twilight Velvet cleared her throat before explaining, “Well, all of these animals shown here are predators. All except for one; and that is the rat, who is in fact a scavenger, not a predator. I have a feeling those might be the safe ones, if those exist.”
Daring hummed in speculation, casting about at the floor for another stone to throw. She found none, much to her irritation. Stepping over to the closest rat tile, she shrugged, “Well, there’s really only one way to find out now, isn’t there?” She thought aloud.
“Be careful, Dare.” Velvet said, unconsciously backing up.
Daring didn’t reply. Instead, she held her breath, and stretched out one hoof. Slowly, she placed it down on the tile, and applied pressure. Nothing happened. It didn’t sink; there was no clicking of a mechanism activating. The tile held its place. Daring applied a little more weight to it, and still nothing happened. She let out her breath in relief, before gingerly transferring the entirety of her weight to the tile. It was only big enough for her, “You hang back there, Velvet!” She called to her companion, “I trust you not to touch anything.”
It was a joke, but Velvet took it seriously. She stood still as a statue under observation. Daring Do leapt from tile to tile, taking her time and choosing her targets carefully. She dared not slip up, and become a pony dressed as a porcupine. Her escapade across the tiled floor and to the base of the Statue’s pedestal took but a minute, and soon she was standing safely on the stairs leading up. Eyes wide with filly like wonder, much like what she had felt the first time she had been this close to the Statue, she slowly began to reach out for it. Velvet’s shout stopped her, “Daring! Carefully! We don’t know what taking that from its place might do!”
Daring sighed, before calling back, “Good point, Vel!” She set to work, inspecting every angle of the pedestal for any sign of traps, and finding none, returned to her original place. Anxiously, she rubbed her forehooves together, weighing the best course of action to remove the Statue. Her patience, however, ran out, “Meh, what’s the worst that could happen?” she asked herself, and she just reached out, grasping her prize in her teeth, taking the Statue from its pedestal and transferring it to her hooves, and from there beneath her hat.
Triumphantly, she turned and began to walk back down the stairs. Velvet watched her, dumbstruck by the Pegasus’ brash actions, “Daring! What did you just do?!?” she cried.
“I got that Sapphire Statue, Vel! That’s what! Don’t worry, this hat’s special. I won’t lose it!” She called back, cheerfully.
“That is not what I meant! You just grabbed the Statue with barely any planning!” Velvet called back, her voice rising in pitch as her shock expanded.
“Oh, come on, nothing happened! Let’s find a way out of here!” Daring Do called back, rolling her eyes.
No sooner had the adventurer spoken, however, than there was a terrible rumbling, much like the one that had sounded the first time she had this prize. The entire temple shook, and the tiled floor that she was now standing on began to crumble. With a cry of dismay, she leapt back onto solid ground as the tiles fell into a rising pit of lava, “Okay!! I take that back!! A lot of bad stuff just happened!!” She called out.
“You don’t say?!” Velvet shot back, indignantly. She had little time to be irritated however, as the walls of the chamber began to crumble into the quickly rising magma.
One sizeable chunk fell beside her, and she clambered up onto it, Daring Do mirroring this by climbing onto the Statue’s pedestal. The Pegasus was on higher ground, and she could only watch in helpless terror as the lava rose nearer and nearer to Velvet’s hooves. The Unicorn was panicking, dancing back and forth on the stone, “Velvet!” Daring called out, unable to do anything. Not for the first time that day, she found herself cursing her injured wing. With a horrendous crash, more large sections of the walls and ceiling fell, cutting off her line of sight on Velvet. The writer’s hysterical ranting could no longer be heard either. The Pegasus’ jaw fell open in disbelief, and though her body tried, any tears produced were quickly dissolved in the heat of the rising magma, “Velvet!!”