Chapter 1

In a remote part of Equestria, a trio of pony adventurers made their way through the dense underbrush of the jungle. This particular jungle lay far to the south of Equestria's borders; this land was mostly uninhabited and unexplored. Many legends surround these lands, but so too were the dangers which were all too true. Many brave adventurer ponies risked these lands to make their great discovery of a life time. The few that did brave the jungles came back with tales of exotic animals and plants. Even more rarely was the tales of ancient ruins of a civilization long since lost to time and the jungle. No one knew who built these ruins, and no known record of their existence remains.

The rumor of these ruins lead to the rumor of treasure housed within. The first explorers returning home with saddle bags full of gold and gems lent credit to these rumors. Which in turn lead many brave, or foolhardy depending on whom you ask, ponies to the jungle. Many never returned, but the promise of easy riches kept many coming despite the dangers. So it was with the three now. One was an earth pony; his short cropped dark gray mane was tangled and knotted from moving through the dense brush. His auburn coat had cuts and bruises all over, his cutie mark was that of a spy glass; signifying his destiny as an adventurer. His two companions were in no better shape than he. The aquamarine colored pegasus wore a small opal beaded necklace and had her left wing bandaged from an accident from a few days before, her mane was teal colored and she sported a trio of overlapping gold coins as her cutie mark. Finally the rust colored male unicorn had his right foreleg wrapped from an injury from only a few hours earlier, his mane was an orange red color, an astrolabe (a classic tool used for sea navigation) served as his cutie mark.

The earth pony lead the way, cutting a path through the thick brush with a machete gripped in his teeth. The pegasus behind him paused to take a drink from her canteen with her good wing.

"How much further are we going today Wanderer?" She asked the lead pony.

Wanderer chopped a thick brush out of the way, before sheathing the blade on his side. "A little further, we still have some daylight left." He said, continuing on ahead.

She rolled her eyes, but the unicorn behind her spoke up. "We've maybe an hour left before dusk. We need to find a place to set up camp for the night."

Wanderer snorted dismissively. "That is an hour yet to use. Come on Tormod, Tourmaline, there is something up ahead, I can feel it." Wanderer said confidently, the underbrush seemed to thin out some and the going became easier.

The other two huffed but followed their leader. Wanderer had led them this far with only a few mishaps, mishaps not of his own fault. His charisma and strength of character drove them on, even if he could be stubborn at times.

They continued on but all they found in that hour was more brush. As Celestia's sun began to set, even Wanderer had to grudgingly admit they had to stop. They had found a small clearing that made for a perfect camp site. With a quick buck Wanderer had his saddle bags and machete off. His friends followed suit and camp was quickly made. As Luna's moon began its rise, Wanderer took the time to update his logbook; keeping track of their progress. The other two were unrolling their bed rolls for the night, as bone tired as they were, it would not take long for sleep to find them.

Tourmaline, the pegasus, glanced over to Wanderer as she applied a fresh bandage to her wing. "I didn't think 'nothing but brush' would be worth writing down in the log book." She remarked sarcastically.

Wanderer looked up from his writing, the pencil still in his mouth, and gave her a flat stare.

"Though I'm sure whoever finds us in this forgotten jungle can happily read about the flora we've see, if they haven't already figured it out for themselves." She said, giving him an impish smile.

He rolled his eyes at her and jotted down his final thoughts, likely something not too flattering about his companions.

"We actually managed five miles today, despite the misstep." Wanderer remarked, glancing to the rust colored unicorn. "How is that cut doing Tormod?"

The bandage the unicorn lifted from his leg had a red colored aura surrounding it. The unicorn's magic lifting it from its place to reveal the recent, but healing wound. "Sore, but thankfully not infected." He said, taking time to apply a healing balm and a fresh bandage to the wound.

"That rock python caught us by surprise, we are lucky that cut was the worst of it." Wanderer said, referring to a magical creature that was, literally, a python made of rock. Its body made of sharp edged stone. "We'll let you take last watch, give you time to rest."

Tourmaline furrowed her brow. "So who gets mid watch?" Referring to the watch where the pony on mid watch gets the least consistent sleep.

"Flip for it?" Wanderer asked with a grin.

"Not with your bit." She countered.

"I got rid of that trick bit a long time ago." He protested.

"Not taking a chance with you again." She chuckled.

Tormod rolled his eyes at the two's banter. "Closest to a number?" He offered. Both readily agreed to the game of chance.

"Got it." He said after a moment's thought. "Between one and twenty."

"Fourteen." Tourmaline said quickly.

"Eight." Wanderer countered.

"Fifteen." Tormod stated.

Wanderer sighed in defeat, shoulders slumping, while Tourmaline celebrated her victory.

"First watch is yours." He said to her, a smirk on his face.

Her victory was short lived as she realized that sleep would have to wait.

It was well into the night when Tourmaline woke him for his watch.

"Anything?" He asked as he tried to shake the grogginess away.

"Nothing. It's quiet out." She reported, exhaustion clearly seen in her expression.

He shook his head one last time. "Alright, get some sleep Tourmaline. We'll find something tomorrow."

"Right." She didn't sound convinced, and curled up on her bedroll and was quickly asleep.

Wanderer stood apart from his sleeping companions, the dying campfire's light was hard on his night vision. As he kept alert for danger, he couldn't help but agree with Tourmaline that it was quiet; unusually so. Even the wild animals seemed subdued. Yes it was the middle of the night, but the nights previous seemed the jungle was no less quiet at night than day. Not so this night, it almost seemed as if the jungle was afraid to make a sound here. Why that was, he didn't know, but he intended to find out come day break. A few hours into his watch, he caught himself nodding off, and slapped himself to keep sleep at bay. This is why he and his companions hated middle watch, interrupted sleep was the worst.

As he looked around, he noticed the clouds were beginning to thin out. This allowed Luna's moon to shine through the jungle. Mayhap it was a trick of the moonlight, but a glint off to his left caught his eyes. He squinted trying to see better, his ears alert for danger. When nothing made itself known, he stood and gathered his machete and went to look. He made sure not to go far and leave his companions without a guard. However true to his namesake, he could not help but wander.

Fortunately, he did not have to go far to find the source of the glint. As he made his way through the jungle, his hazel colored eyes widened in wonder at the sight he found. The jungle gave way to an old ruin, a rather large one, perhaps a temple of some sort. Wanderer was elated at the discovery. Finally they had found something! Something that would put their names in history books and be remembered as the great adventurers he and his friends were destined to be.

He made his way back to the camp at a brisk pace, his excitement would not allow for less. He paused frequently to mark a tree with a simple mark with his machete to show the path back to the ruin. When he made his way back to the camp he could see that his hurried commotion had already woken his friends who were chasing the last signs of sleep from their eyes.

"Wanderer? What in the name of Celestia are you doing?" Tourmaline asked sourly, not pleased at being woken suddenly.

"I found something in the woods, a ruin! It's not far from here, come on you two, get your things and let's go." He said excitedly, practically prancing like a colt so excited was he.

Tormod sat down heavily on his haunches. "Are you sure it is a ruin and not a figment of your imagination?"

"Tormod, would I be this excited if I wasn't sure? It's the real thing, get off your rump and move."

The rust colored unicorn yawned. "Can it not wait for morning; it's not going to go anywhere."

Wanderer gave him a dubious look. "You expect me to wait and try to sleep knowing what we've been searching for is nothing but a buck's toss away?"

"Get up Tormod." Tourmaline said, already gathering her gear to go. "If he said he found something, I believe him."

With a defeated sigh, Tormod started collecting his stuff.

Less than an hour later, the three stood before the entrance of the ruin, weariness now forgotten with the elation of the discovery. The ruin appeared to be a large square shaped building that had the appearance of a place of worship, though not to any figure the three knew of. The jungle had taken part of the temple grounds back, though strangely the temple itself seemed untouched. It almost seemed as if the plant life was hesitant to touch it. The animal life also seemed to be entirely vacant of the area, as it was almost gravely quiet.

Fearlessly, Wanderer gathered his lantern and began moving for the entrance.

"Wanderer, wait, I don't think we should go in yet." Tourmaline said, obviously nervous at the stillness of the place.

Talking with the lantern still in his mouth, he turned to her confidently. "It is all right Tourmaline. The three of us together, there isn't anything that can stop us. We can't let fear get the best of us."

"But this place feels wrong somehow. It's…still." She explained, looking around nervously.

"It is only scary because we haven't conquered it yet. Once we go inside and learn its secrets, there won't be a thing to worry about anymore."

She didn't appear entirely convinced but Wanderer came back and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

"Come on, we've got this." He said to her reassuringly.

She smiled softly to him; blushing a little, and nodded. Tormod waited a moment more before following them inside.

Inside the temple they found that it consisted of a large central room, with a pedestal in its center, ringed by rows of low stone benches. The place was in a state of disarray. Though the jungle refused to touch it, time and the elements had. A portion of the roof had collapsed and many of the stone benches were cracked or broken. The walls and pillars were adorned with images of ponies, all seemingly genuflecting before a stallion that stood above them all. The worn stone etching made details hard to come by, but they could see that the stallion carried a scepter of some sort.

As they looked around, Wanderer noted one of the etchings of the stone glittered in the lantern light. He peered at it closer.

"Tormod, can you give me some light?" He asked as he sat down his lantern and dug into his pack for a chisel and hammer. Using one hoof to brace the chisel and his teeth for the hammer, he pried away a small gemstone from an indention in the stallion's chest. Setting his tools down, he scooped up the gemstone and looked at it closer by the light offered from his friend's horn.

"Amethyst." Tourmaline said before the others could. The violet gemstone was about an inch long and wide, shaped in the traditional style of a diamond.

"This alone makes our venture here worth it." Tormod said with a wide grin, using his magic to place the stone in his bag.

Wanderer smiled, it was more than the riches that made this trip worthwhile he thought. He then noticed that Tourmaline was removing the wrapping from her wing and was stretching the appendage.

"You're sure you can fly yet?" He asked, concern in his voice, perhaps unknowingly.

She smiled reassuringly at him, stretching her wings to full width. "Don't you worry, I'm not about to miss a chance to see this place from above." With that she sprung up in the air to get a better view from above.

He watched her fly around the temple, despite a wince here and there, she seemed to handle it as well as she always did. Through the broken roof, Wanderer could see the beginning of daylight washing over the ruins. A welcome change to the oppressive gloom the place seemed to hold like a thick cloak.

Wanderer's eyes then settled on the altar in the center of the room. Set in the middle of the altar was a gold crown. As he got closer to it, he could see that it was made of two intertwining snakes in a loop with the heads of the snakes facing outward, each of them having an amethyst gemstone set in their mouths.

Remembering the many lessons of the Daring Do books he read in his life, he suspected a trap and called to both of his friends to be ready. He approached cautiously, looking for any sign of traps surrounding the crown. Finding none, he braced himself and quickly removed the crown from the altar and hopped away expecting to be crushed, shot at, or any number of ways to meet an untimely end for taking treasure.

To his relief nothing happened. He let out an explosive sigh and looked to his prize. The crown strangely reminded him of the stallion depicted on the murals.

"That was…easy." Tormod remarked.

"Too easy." Wanderer agreed.

Just then a low rumbling was heard and the ground began to shake.

"You had to say it." Tourmaline remarked dryly from the air.

Thankfully the ruin did not collapse in on itself, but a small section of wall depressed in and slid out of the way; revealing a hidden passage. When nothing came out to devour them, they relaxed and approached the passage.

"What do you think is in there?" Tourmaline asked as she landed next to Wanderer.

"Only one way to find out." He said with a wide grin. Placing the crown into his saddle bag, he retrieved his lantern and went inside, followed by Tormod then Tourmaline.

The passage was narrow, allowing only one to pass at a time. If the atmosphere of the temple's main room could be called gloomy, then the passage was best described as dead. Nothing moved here, not vermin, not the light, not even the air. A feeling of oppression fell upon them as they moved deeper in. Tormod and Tourmaline hunkered down as they walked, but followed Wanderer as he put on a bold face for them and moved ahead confidently, albeit at a slower pace.

The passage finally ended and widened out to a small room. In its center levitated a scepter made of gold and standing five foot tall. At its head was the face of a manticore with its mouth open in a roar. A large hoof sized amethyst gemstone was set in its mouth. Looking upon the scepter the three ponies could not help but wince, looking on it made them feel dread. Surrounding the scepter was a magical bubble extending six feet from it.

"What do you think?" Wanderer asked his two companions.

Tourmaline was at a loss of words, but Tormod spoke up.

"We should try to get it out of here. If we can get it out in the light, we can study it in better detail." As he approached, he studied the magical bubble. He cast a small spell on it in an attempt to dispel it. When nothing happened he shrugged helplessly and lifted a hoof to touch it. Upon doing so, an unseen force threw him across the room to crash heavily against the wall.

His two friends cried out in alarm and ran to check on him. Despite being sore he was all right.

"A force bubble. I don't think I'll be able to dispel it." He said as he accepted Wanderer's hoof to help him up.

"Do you know another way?" Wanderer asked.

Tormod shook his head, but Tourmaline spoke. "Perhaps we should leave it. Come back for it when we are better rested."

Wanderer looked to the scepter that still hovered in the air.

"Let me try, if it doesn't work, then we'll leave and come back better prepared."

"Do you want to make an indent in the wall too?" She asked him archly.

He grinned at her. "I bounce better."

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not prying you out of the wall."

He laughed and approached the bubble and slowly lifted a hoof to touch it. Fully expecting to be tossed aside, he tumbled forward as the bubble flashed then disappeared as he fell through it.

Both of his companions had shocked expressions on their faces.

"Wha, how?" Tormod sputtered.

"Nothing to it!" He shouted back triumphantly.

He then noticed the scepter float gently down to him then paused before him, waiting for him to take it in hoof.

Smiling his confident smile to his friends he took hold of the scepter.

Too late did he or his friends take notice that the crown in his saddle bag was glowing.

The moment he took hold of the scepter, a dark miasma seeped forth. It began to swirl and enveloped around his body.

"Wanderer! Let it go!" Tourmaline cried out in fear for her dear friend.

"I...I can't!" He yelled back, his eyes wide in fear. He was then elevated above the ground as the miasma swirled faster and began to glow.

His eyes were soon nothing but glowing orbs of light and he screamed to his friends in total panic.

"Run! Get away!" He yelled frantically before the fog completely covered him.

"Wanderer!" His friends both cried out, his words unheeded.

After a short time there was a bright flash that had both ponies covering their eyes. When they looked back, there hovering two feet from the ground, was not Wanderer, but a vastly different pony. He was a stallion, two hands taller than Wanderer. His coat was dark velvet, his mane a lighter purple with a single gold streak down the middle. Wanderer's spyglass cutie mark was replaced by a gauntlet held upright in a crushing pose, and his eyes, once hazel, were now an amber color and full of malevolence. Resting on top of his head was the crown Wanderer had taken from the altar. A gold plated chest plate adorned his muscled chest with a large amethyst gemstone in its center. The stallion looked around the room slowly and paused to look to the scepter in his left hoof.

"Wa…Wanderer?" Tourmaline asked in a quiet voice. Tormod was unable to speak.

The stallion slowly looked from his scepter to the two stunned ponies. How they cringed under those awful eyes.

"You should have listened to your friend." He said in a sinister voice.

In an eye blink he shot out his right fore hoof and a beam of energy shot towards Tourmaline.

"Look out!" Tormod screamed before jumping in front of the beam. As the beam struck him, his body was instantly turned to stone, and it feel heavily to the ground.

With a fearful scream, Tourmaline tore down the narrow passage, tears flowing freely down her face. The stallion did not pursue, nor attack the fleeing mare. He only looked to his scepter and began to chuckle, slowly at first but then loudly to almost ear splitting. His laughter was the only thing that followed Tourmaline as she took wing and fled to the skies.

In Canterlot, Celestia sat comfortably before her throne. A cup of warm tea floated nearby, as did a parchment that she was reading from. She quietly considered her tasks for the day; an envoy from the Crystal Empire was expected this day carrying news from Princess Cadance, as well as new trade agreements from the merchants there. She also expected a report from her favored student. No, not student anymore she corrected herself, but adopted niece. Twilight Sparkle's coronation was only a week past. It was a happy day for her, and so many others. Twilight's becoming a princess was a surprise to many, most of all to Twilight, but not so to Celestia. She knew the mare's potential the day they first met, the day the younger one earned her cutie mark and her place as Celestia's student. Potential realized was one of the many joys Princess Celestia savored in her subjects.

With a thought, the cup of tea hovered to her to sip. That was when the sound of the laughter reached her ears, carried on ghostly winds that she and few others could hear.

Caught completely off guard, she spit the hot tea out over the parchment and gasped in shock and fear. The guards posted at the foot of her throne turned suddenly, surprised and worried at her action.

"Princess, are you all right?" The earth pony guard asked in concern.

She did not immediately respond, the laughter was ringing in her ears, until it faded.

"No, not him. Please, not him." She pleaded inside her mind.

"My Lady." The guard repeated obviously not for the first or second time.

She gave him a reassuring look, one that she did not truly feel. "It is alright sir, a spell that will fade."

He gave his fellow guard a dubious look, but would not question the princess.

"Yes my Lady." They both turned back to their posts.

Princess Celestia thought to herself a moment more, she could not be certain of anything but that laugh was hauntingly familiar. However, without solid evidence, there was nothing that could be done until the danger made itself known.

She looked up as her sister, Princess Luna, ran into the room. Her expression no less worried than her own.

"Sister!" Luna cried in alarm. No doubt she too heard the laugh as Celestia had.

"Be calm my sister. We must learn more before we act." She assured her.

The two guards shared a look; words like that usually meant dark times were ahead.