//------------------------------// // Trapped // Story: Back To The Past // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Ancient bricks slowly moved to the side as a passageway thousands of years old was opened once again, allowing three ponies to look into the dust and cobwebs to find that their path inside ran deep down into darkness. Jack raised an eyebrow at the condition of the secret passageway, but Cloudburst didn't waste a moment in grabbing the lantern and racing down into the darkness. "HA! I knew that there was a secret passageway into the temple, but none of the other guys listened to me!" he laughed with glee while he quickly raced into the darkness, the others only able to keep track of him due to the lantern's light. "Come on, let's go get our wish!" "That foal is going to get himself killed," Hurricane snarled as she cracked a glow stick in half and used its light to follow after her colleague, leaving Jack alone at the entrance. He shook his head before racing after the pair, using their lights to find his way. "Will the two of you please slow down?!" Jack called after them while he stumbled down the ancient stairs, snarling at how there were more vines that obstructed his path. Yet, to his relief he found that both sets of lights had stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and without much effort Jack caught up to the lights...to see that both lantern and glow stick had been dropped and the two ponies were being chased by a tiger made of stone. "GAH! Bodyguard, do something!" Cloudburst called over to Jack while he leapt over a claw strike that severed some of his tail. The stone tiger let out a roar as it lunged at the pair...only to stop in midair when its head was severed from its body. The stone guardian collapsed without another sound as Jack sheathed his sword beside it. "Now that's what I'm talking about! Good job Jack, now we can move in further!" "Are you kidding me?! You just nearly got your face ripped off and still you're going to race headfirst into danger?!" Hurricane roared at him while she grabbed him by his mane and yanked his head around so he was facing her. "You are going to get both of us killed with your antics and-" "Silence." Both Hurricane and Cloudburst glanced over at Jack, who was giving both of the ponies a stern stare that made the two break apart. "The two of you were nearly killed and we are just at the entrance. There are still many more tests for us to overcome, and you are arguing like children. Focus or I will make the two of you wait outside while I find the talisman." The two ponies hung their heads slightly as Jack walked over to the closest door and raised an eyebrow with confusion when he found that it opened at the slightest touch. He motioned for the other two to join him while he slowly stepped into the room, half-drawing his blade in case of any danger. The moment he set his hoof down on stone though, dozens of torches illuminated along the walls across a large room. Jack and the other ponies looked on in shock to see that a large stone bridge extended from one end of the room to the other, with a black pit beneath them. "Well, this seems pretty straightforward," Cloudburst said as he took a step forward, but before he could take another Hurricane grabbed him by the mane and yanked him back into the doorway. "Idiot. If the last room had a trap, what in Celestia's name makes you think this one won't?" she scolded with fury. The two started to argue again, not noticing when Jack took the glow stick and hurled it onto the bridge. The second the green light struck the stone, dozens of black tipped arrows spewed from the walls and sliced across the air over the bridge, imbedding themselves deep into the walls on the other side. "Okay. Arrow traps. Magic countering arrow traps," Cloudburst muttered, getting him a look from Jack. "See those black arrow heads? Those are made of anti-source, a tip of metal that can be used to cancel out anything with magic. I'm guessing those arrows are there to stop any unicorns from getting across." "I think I see a lever on the other side," Hurricane muttered as she squinted, glancing at the other side of the room. "If I had to wager a guess, it seems that lever is how we shut down the arrows. Any suggestions on how to get over there aside from using Cloudburst as a pony shield?" "Please. Allow me." Before either of the ponies could react Jack launched himself onto the bridge, eyes like slits as he ducked under the first arrow that shot past his mane. He then kicked off the ground and spun like a top to dodge three more arrows, all the while moving forward while more and more arrows tried to end his journey. Yet, with a precision that had been passed down through the Xiaolin, Jack ducked, dipped and dodged past each arrow, through every gap in their firing pattern, until he touched own on the other side. The jaw-dropped ponies could only watch as the samurai brushed the slight dust off of his kimono before he pulled down on the lever, causing a metallic sound to echo while plates covered the openings. "I have stopped the arrows. Now let us continue on into the temple." Hurricane and Cloudburst picked their jaws off the floor and walked across the bridge to join the samurai, with a smile crossing Cloudburst's face as he turned towards the mare. "Doesn't look like a bodyguard huh? Won't last more than five minutes in the temple, HUH?" he smirked at her, earning him a hoof to the face as Hurricane pushed past him. "Fine. So I was wrong for once. You're still way ahead of me on the scorecard." The two joined Jack in the next room, where they found the samurai sitting in the middle of the floor under a beam of light. One half of the room was painted orange and the other half was midnight blue, with images of two alicorns on the ceiling with colors matching the room. "I admit that this room has puzzled me," Jack confessed as he glanced from one side to the other before looking at the other door, where ponies in strange armor were carved into the door. "This...looks like carvings from the ponies that inhabited these temples thousands of years ago," Cloudburst muttered while he walked over to the door, placing a hoof on the carving with awe in his eyes. "And this carving is from one of their most famous battles, where the followers of Celestia and the followers of Nightmare Moon battled for dominance of their land." "Who are Nightmare Moon and Celestia?" Jack asked with curiosity, but when he saw the looks on the pair's faces he realized that he may have blown his cover. "I am not from these lands, so my knowledge of events that has transpired here is lacking," Jack admitted as he hung his head, hoping that he had managed to correct his mistake. "Celestia and Luna are the two rulers of this land, but a thousand years ago Luna, who was filled with jealousy and hatred for the praise that was given to her sister, took on a more sinister form to strike her sister down and claim the throne for herself," Cloudburst muttered while he narrowed his eyes at the carvings before glancing up at the images of Celestia and Nightmare Moon. "The ponies that used to live within these temples worshiped the two as deities and battled with each other over which deity was supreme." "But that only ended in one way," Cloudburst continued as he waved Jack out of the light and stood under the beam himself. "Can I borrow your sword for a moment. And that was," Cloudburst finished as he lifted the sword and cut the beam of light in two, causing each beam to strike each side of the door. "A split in their way of life that could never be repaired." As he said this, the door slid open revealing the way into another room. "That was, according to what we know about them, when one of their leaders discovered the Wish Master Talisman and used it to finally end the split by wishing the two sides together again...but the wish took his meaning a different way and fused both sides into a monstrous pony that nearly ended Equestria. Ashamed of what he had done, the unnamed pony hid the item away here, never to be found." "According to your story, it sounds like the Talisman is more of a curse bringer than it is a wish giver," Jack muttered with doubt starting to enter into his mind, having dealt with numerous items like that in the past. "Perhaps he hid it away to keep others from using it, not to hide his shame." "Well, whatever the reason is, we've finally found it!" Cloudburst laughed with delight as the three entered into the next room, all of their eyes being immediately drawn to a large pedestal in the center of the room with a strange, wooden looking item resting in the center of it. "What do you think Jack? Anything?" "I...do not see any traps in here," Jack muttered while he glanced around the room. Jack's word was good enough for Cloudburst, who after hearing that raced up to the pedestal and started to look over the item that rested there, leaving Hurricane to sigh in frustration at her colleague's antics. "I swear that pony can be so dense sometimes. Of course there has to be a trap in here, of some sorts," she said through gritted teeth. "I swear, some days I wish I could just leave his flank behind and move on with my life in a way that didn't involve me having to deal with this idiot." "And yet you have stayed," Jack pointed out, getting a sigh that was half frustration and half amusement. "Yeah, well...I kinda owe this idiot a lot. After my own career in history fell through, no other pony would give me the time of day, much less work. Cloudburst was the only one who gave me another chance and while he is...airheaded, he's got a good heart," Hurricane admitted. Jack gave her a small smile before her face set like flint again. "I just wish I could say the same thing about his brain. Come on, I think he's waving us over." "Have you discovered if the talisman is cursed or not?" Jack asked the pony when the two of them reached the pedestal, but in an act that shocked both Jack and Hurricane, Cloudburst grabbed hold of the talisman and tore it right off the pedestal. "Are you an...you idiot! That pedestal was probably booby trapped!" Hurricane roared at the pony as he held his prize over his head with a smile. And just like Hurricane said, the moment the artifact left the pedestal the whole temple began to shake. "You idiot! I swear that if this temple doesn't kill you, I will!" "There is no time for death threats. We must leave now if any of us are to escape alive," Jack ordered, his words immediately getting the ponies into gear and racing towards the exit. Jack kept his eyes on the ceiling in case any part of it decided to crush the group, and twice he had to slice through a large chunk of ceiling to keep the ponies from getting crushed. "Crap! The way we came in got caved in!" Hurricane roared at the other two when they all came skidding to a stop in front of where they had entered, the boulders that covered the door preventing them from leaving. Hurricane and Cloudburst began to tear away at the stones in vain, yet Jack's eyes were already glancing around the room for a different exit. His eyes narrowed when he spied a collapsed part of the room that seemed to lead somewhere else, and with a call to the other two he raced towards the collapse, a thin smile creasing his face when he spied another room on the other side. "A second secret entrance?" Cloudburst muttered with surprise when they all fled through the crack in the wall, and found themselves standing at the bottom of a large staircase, one that spiraled into darkness. "This wasn't in any of my research notes. I'll have to-" "Less talking more climbing!" Jack ordered as he raced up the staircase, slicing through any of the large chunks of rubble that had landed on their only escape. The ponies raced up the stairs while the whole temple shook and stone flew everywhere, with only Jack's keen eye keeping either of the ponies from getting hit by the larger pieces. They climbed higher and higher, with seemingly no end, until rays of sunlight began to shine through onto them. Yet, one of the smaller pieces of debris managed to sneak past the samurai's eye and struck Cloudburst in the side of the head, causing him to stagger before he slipped to the side and fell off the stairs, barley managing to catch himself on a shattered stone. "Cloudburst!" Hurricane called out as she came skidding to a stop, but in a moment Jack raced past her. "Head towards the surface! I shall get him!" he ordered her, stopping above where Cloudburst was dangling. "Hold on, I will have you in a moment," Jack promised as he threw himself to his stomach and reached out towards Cloudburst. "Forget about me! Get the Talisman!" he ordered Jack as he glanced over beside him, where Jack could see the wooden object dangling precariously on the edge of the stairs. For a brief moment Jack looked over at the talisman, knowing that if he grabbed hold of it, he would have his wish. He would be able to return home. "Please. It's the only way to get Hurricane her job back." Jack snapped out of his thoughts while he glanced down at the dangling pony, who was staring into the darkness below him as stones tumbled past the pair. "I won't deny that I'm not the best partner. I'm idiotic, impulsive, and just dumb in general. But this talisman might be the only chance to get her her reputation back. She's been so kind to me...it's the least I can do. So please...get the talisman." Jack's face set like steel before he reached down and wrapped his hoof around the pony, pulling him up onto the staircase with a mighty pull. Jack then glanced over at the talisman to see it tip over the edge and fall into the darkness. Cloudburst let out a cry when he tried to dive after it, but Jack pulled him up and tossed the pony onto his back. Then Jack hurled himself up the stairs, running as fast as he could while slicing through every obstacle in his path. The ceiling had nearly completely buried the sunlight, Jack's exit, and left only a single beam left, giving him one last chance to escape. With one final push, Jack leapt into the light, slipping through the hole in the wall right before the wall collapsed behind the pair of them. Jack kicked up dirt as he skidded to a stop, taking just a moment to glance behind him at the destroyed temple before he crouched down so Cloudburst could get off his back. "Jack..." Cloudburst whispered slightly before Hurricane tackled him in the flank, tears streaming down her face as she pounded on his side. The two then held each other for a moment, Jack smiling at the pair as he slid his blade along the top of his scabbard before sheathing his blade. "Jack...why me?" Cloudburst asked again when the samurai began to walk away, stopping Jack and causing him to glance back at the pair. "I told you the reason that I wanted you to get the talisman. And what about your own wish? You told us that you had a wish that you needed to have granted. It was the whole reason that you came with us. So why did you save me...why give up your wish?" Jack stared at the ponies for a long moment, looking at the confusion on Cloudburst's face before glancing at Hurricane to see the fear and relief in her eyes. Then, as the samurai turned away from the pair, who still had their hooves on each other, he answered. "Because as much as that wish mattered to all of us, there was something there that mattered to the two of you far more than the wish. So if losing my wish was the only way to save that...then I can accept that loss." Jack then walked away from the pair with his head slightly bowed, already considering where next he would head to find his way home.