Chapter Twelve: Unsafe Delve

The somewhat-overgrown trail ahead and around us was lit by Twilight's horn and my flashlight. Being in a dark forest at night was unsettling to me, even with light. I'd done it once or twice before. A chill ran down my spine as the eerie feeling sunk in ever deeper. It was almost completely silent, and nobody, pony or otherwise, made noise. All that could be heard was the rustling of long vegetation as we pushed it aside, punctuated by the hushed noises of distant crickets, and the occasional owl's cry. Even with our light sources, the scene was dim and gloomy. This was, after all, the Everfree Forest, the dimmest, gloomiest place to my knowledge in all of Equestria. This silence continued for what seemed like hours; we were all alert, and all of our attention was to the trail and its surroundings, should anything that could be a threat come along. Daring in particular was highly vigilant, watching each and every step, tree, vine, bush, anything. I just kept scanning the area ahead of us with my flashlight, laser rifle in one hand, letting it rest on my shoulder.

Twilight's directions were correct, and we soon happened upon the archeological site of Temporal Temple. Overgrown by now, the exterior of the site was thoroughly examined before anyone spoke.

"This must be the place! Zach, open the portal!" Daring urged. I took this opportunity to present my point of this being more dangerous of an adventure than was required. I was scared, admittedly. I didn't want to allow my friends to enter harm's way just for fun.

"Now, in my opinion, this temple-delving expedition is far too dangerous to go on, and I urge that we turn back now and not run the risk of one or more of us getting-"

"Come on, Zach! This'll be fun! There's four of us and only one temple, how bad can it be?" Rainbow interrupted. I sighed.

"It can be lethal, that's how bad it can be," I said.

"Don't be a silly filly! Nopony's dying on this expedition. Nopony has, and nopony ever will, or my name isn't Daring Do!" It had been clear from the start that I couldn't stop my two teammates from doing this, but it never hurt to try.

"Daring is right, you know. In the books, all of her companions walk away from the adventure alive and well, and as you said, this will be just like the books," Twilight reasoned. Well, she had me there. In this situation, I wasn't the leader of the group, I was really just tagging along for Twilight and Rainbow's fantastical journey in Daring Do-land, and Twilight knew this universe perhaps more than Daring herself. There was no chance to dissuade them now.

"Fine," I said with some distaste, "let's go."

I opened the portal, and placed my flashlight in my pocket, readying my laser rifle in case something was waiting on the other side. On the other side of the portal was a drastically different scene when compared to the one I just left. There was absolutely no noise, and the whole area was surrounded in a faintly-visible spherical yellow shield, only visible because of the pinkish-white light Twilight generated, centered on the temple. Through the shield, it could be seen that corpses of many creatures- ponies included- dotted the perimeter of the sphere. Some sort of freezing barrier that was difficult to see? That would explain the lack of successful expeditions. The creatures looked like they were petrified upon attempting to breach the barrier, the expressions on their faces betraying varying degrees of excitement. It was truly a creepy sight.

"I guess that's why nopony's ever reported to have found this place... how awful," Daring said. Twilight and Rainbow's mouths were open in surprise. They hadn't been expecting this place to be cursed with an instant-death trap because of which ponies had lost their lives- at least, they looked like they were dead.

"Well, at least we're on the inside of that shield," I said.

"I don't know of any sort of magic that can just do such a thing to a pony..." Twilight said, mortified.

"...And the fact that we're inside it allows us to go in," Rainbow finished. Our attention turned to the temple itself. This one was less boring-looking than the ruin on the other side of the portal. It looked almost brand-new, as though it were left undisturbed by time since the day it was built.

"Well, that's quite the ruin," Daring remarked. I couldn't disagree with her; statues of some impressive griffon adorned the entryway, and the structure itself was ornate, with carved pillars and all sorts of other features associated with old ceremonial buildings.

"I wonder why it was built," I said.

"To hold the time gem, probably. It is called 'Temporal Temple', after all," Twilight said.

"Right, let's head in!" Rainbow flew into the open entrance, and we followed quickly.

Shining my flashlight down the corridor leading from the entrance of the temple, and saw that it had tiled flooring, each tile a different color than the one next to it.

"Hold up," Daring said. I knew why. Color-coded traps were not uncommon. I shone my light on the walls and ceiling. Nothing.

"Alright, let's move."

The entryway led to a larger chamber, mostly empty. In the center, upon a pedestal, was a glowing blue object, surrounded by a fainter blue field of what I presumed to be the same type as the one surrounding the place. Closer examinations revealed burned-out candles, books, and other objects, all of them looking rather recent, having collected almost no dust. Either someone had been here recently, or time was just not the same here as it was in other places. The structure had to be ancient, like it had appeared in the other Equestria, but this temple had the look of something completely new. No dust covered any surface, unlit torches lined the walls, there was even a skylight above the pedestal that was perfectly intact.

"Look at that!" Rainbow was excited at the sight of what could easily be the 'time gem' we were seeking.

"Hold on a second. Something isn't right." Daring approached the pedestal, taking care not to touch the blue field. She stared at the glowing object for a few moments.

"A fake. This can't be the real deal if there is one. It looks like a simple magical light enchantment on a pretty blue stone, surrounded in the same time-field or whatever we saw outside. A foal's trap," Daring declared.

"If everything that tried to get in here didn't make it inside, then what is powering this magic? The field out there must have a powerful source, and this field is different, meaning it has a different source..." Twilight trailed off. This magic was blue in hue. What used magic of a blue hue? What was powering the yellow field outside? Those were things we'd just have to find out. We spread out to search the chamber. I examined one of the books. 'Ancient Ruins of the Everfree', it was entitled. It was the exact same book we had brought with us.

"Did you drop this book, Twilight?" I asked. Twilight produced our copy from her saddlebags. She looked at me, confused.

"I don't think we're alone here," I said. A rumbling shook the chamber. We looked around, trying to see what was going on.

"Hey! I found something!" Daring called from across the room. We all came to her position, and found that a spiral staircase had opened up through a stone trapdoor.

"How did you find that?" I asked.

"There was a switch," Daring answered, non-chalantly. Sure enough, on the side of one of the pillars facing away from the pedestal, was a lever.

"Let's get going, shall we?" I said. Now, this was intriguing. Someone was in here, and something had put up a barrier strong enough to stop the poor creatures in their tracks outside, and another thing was powering the field surrounding the object in the chamber. I didn't like it, but now I was interested, and driven to get to the bottom of this.