"Wow, I've never seen something composed mostly of clouds and magic burn so well," Wade said with some amazement as he stared at the blazing remains of the airship, the very same one that he had been piloting mere minutes before. After hours of nagging, Twilight had finally succumbed to Wade's instance and allowed him to pilot the airship for a few minutes. That would be the first of many mistakes that she would make on that adventure. "Think my insurance company will be willing to forgive me for this?"

"I would kill you for this Wade, but I know that it would be a futile effort," Deathstroke snarled at Wade as he scanned the nearby area with his helmet. "So instead I will be devoting that time to figuring out where we are and how close we are to our destination."

"Oh Sladey, don't you know how these stories work? We didn't crash in the middle of nowhere, miles away from our destination. This is a comic slash magic story. We're right next to where we need to go," Deadpool replied before he grabbed hold of some foliage and ripped it down, revealing, much to Deathstroke's increasing frustration, that Wade was right about his crazy ramblings. The temple that the treasure map lead to stood before them, seemingly untouched over the thousands of years that it had stood.

"Another temple, huh? Man, the author must have loved Indian Jones as a kid to use so many of them in so many of his stories. Hey Twilight, how many stories of his have temples in them now?" Wade asked Twilight, who was buried, head first and up to her waist, in sand near the wreckage while Pinkie tried to pull her out. "Jeez Twilight, I know that stick in the mud is your default setting, but do you have to do it all the time?"

A gun shot tore apart Wade's head and left him bleeding out on the ground a moment later, telling Pinkie that Slade had finally reached the end of his patience for Deadpool's ramblings. As Slade walked towards the temple with his pistol out, Pinkie focused her efforts on Twilight once more. With another few tugs she finally managed to unearth Twilight from her ostrich impersonation, but she was far from conscious when Pinkie laid Twilight on the ground.

"Come on Twi, time to wake up and smell the roses," Pinkie said as she gently shook her friend, who made no indication that she had heard Pinkie.

"Oh, does Twilight need waking up?!" Deadpool asked as he raced over beside Pinkie, smacking the back of his right hand against his left. "I know a surefire way of waking her up. In fact, I woke Wolverine up the same way back when he passed out a few years ago. Huh, I also remember that he was knocked out in a plane crash and that I was the one piloting the plane. Must be a coincidence. Alright Pinkie out of the way, I've got a pony to wake up."

"Actually Wade, I think I've got this one," Pinkie said before she cleared her throat. "Oh Twilight, Wade managed to get his hands on your limited edition Daring Do book. And it looks like he's heading for the bathroom!"

"I'll kill him!" Twilight exclaimed as she suddenly sat up, before blinking her eyes twice and looked at the both of them. "Let me guess, Wade crashed the ship and knocked me out? Why am I not surprised?"

"See Twilight, this is why you and I aren't friends, because you have this nasty habit of blaming others for your mistakes," Deadpool pointed out, getting Twilight to look at him like he was nuts.

"My fault?! How is you crashing the ship straight into the ground my fault?!"

"Twilight, you knew full well who was asking you to fly the ship and you still put the wheel in my hands. Clearly this is on you," Deadpool replied calmly. Twilight opened her mouth to answer, realized what Wade was saying and closed it again as she realized that Deadpool was right. "Now come on, Deathstroke has gone off on his own and only God knows what that means for the rest of us!"

Within moments the three of them managed to catch back up with the Terminator, who was staring at a massive stone wall that blocked the path into the temple that they needed to get into. Twilight a look at the entrance to see numerous blast marks on it, telling her that Deathstroke had tried his usual approach to getting inside.

"It's locked by three layers of magic, twelve different locks and an ancient ritual that I know nothing about," Slade informed the rest of the group as they joined alongside him, without bothering to look at them. "Explosives won't work and I've solved three out of the twelve locks. Are you going to help me with the other ones or am I going to have to-?"

Before Slade could finish the doors to the temple swung open. For a brief moment he wondered what in the hell had happened, before the realization sunk in and he shot a glance over at Deadpool, who had crushed his arm into the shape of a key.

"What? We could stand around and use insight to try to get it open or we could cheat and just get to the parts of the story everyone is here to read," Deadpool said with a shrug. "After you."

Slade entered the temple first, but didn't go that far. Twilight went in next, while giving Wade a look, before it was only Pinkie and Wade left. "Y'know Wade, I'm sorry that the rest of my friends didn't come along. This would have been a good chance for you to bond with them," Pinkie said with a sigh as she entered in with DP. "But I guess that they couldn't get past their initial opinions of you to come with us on an adventure."

"Oh silly Pinkie, you really don't believe that your friends wouldn't want to get to know me, right?" Deadpool asked Pinkie with a laugh. "No, what really happened is that the author doesn't want to think about how I would interact with each and every one of them, so he thought of a BS reason to keep them out of the story and away from me just to make it easier to write. They shouldn't take it personally being cast to the sidelines for the sake of the story. From what I've heard Applejack should be used to it by now."

"If you're done being a lunatic, we've reached the first real trap," Slade informed the group, holding up a hand to stop their advancement. Before the group rested a set of stairs that went all the way down into what seemed to be endless darkness, where numerous sounds of monsters and other things could be heard. Deadpool let out a sigh before he took off his backpack and handed it to Pinkie.

"What trap?" Twilight asked as she scanned the place with her magic. "My magical sensors aren't picking anything up. Are you sure that-?"

Before she could finish Slade grabbed a hold of Wade and threw him down the steps. He had barely made it a few feet down before the walls, floor, sides of the walls, the stairs, and a skeleton all came crashing together in a rapid motion of crushing force. The ponies and Deathstroke watched as Wade went from a mercenary in a red suit to a red paste within a matter of moments. When the trap finally subsided, Wade was just a bubbling puddle of red on the floor.

"I'm surprise this still bothers you," Slade muttered with a shake of his head as he glanced over his shoulder to see both Twilight and Pinkie staring at the sight with horrified faces. "He's not dead. We wouldn't be that lucky. Thankfully his immortality will come in use disarming each and every trap in this place."

Deadpool grabbed hold of the back of his head and pulled himself back up a moment later, perfectly fine. Slade grabbed him once more and threw him into another hallway, which was illuminated a moment later by geysers of fire that consumed the mercenary. Pinkie and Twilight followed after the pair, neither one of them sure what to think of Slade's strategy.

"Should we really be letting him do this? I mean, Wade's my friend and I don't know how I feel about him being used to bait out the traps. Healing or no healing," Pinkie muttered in an unhappy tone.

"I'll give Slade some points for creativity, but I have to agree with you, no matter how much Deadpool annoys me," Twilight said in agreement, before she trotted forward to catch up with Slade, who was watching numerous saw blades rip apart the merc with a mouth. "Slade, this isn't the way we should be doing this. I'm sure there are numerous ways to get through the temple without throwing Wade at all of them."

"I am certain there are as well. This is just the fastest and most effective way of doing it," Slade replied in a cold, professional tone. "Besides, it's not like I'm causing any lasting damage to the fool, no matter how badly I wish it upon him."

"He's right Twilight, I'm just happy to be actually helping!" Deadpool called out from down below in the saw blades. Or rather his head called out, as the rest of him was being ripped apart by the blades. After using her magic to place all of his pieces back together, Twilight and a still slightly miffed Pinkie followed after the two mercs. Slade had his eye open and was on constant guard for any trap or trick that might lash out at them. Deadpool walked ahead like he was strolling through the park.

"Welp, here we are!" Deadpool said as the group reached the doorway to the main chambers.

"Wait, how did we get here?! A moment ago we were walking past the pillars of fire and the saws and-" Twilight tried to argue in confusion, but before she could start Pinkie put a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head with a smile. "Fine, sure. Here we are. Yeah, go us. Let's just get inside."

"Got it! Open says me!" Deadpool said as he pressed his hands against the door. Now normally there would have over a dozen different security features that would have activated to keep any intruders out, but due to the age of the temple, the fading of the spells and the general lack of foresight by the ponies that made the place (they didn't have modern, Equestrian tech so give them a break) the door simply fell over and allowed the group access into the main chamber.

There wasn't much to speak of in the main chamber. It had a green tint thanks to the green torches that lined the room, while in the center of the room rested a single slab of stone resting a top a stand. Twilight wanted to take a moment to gaze at the room, taking in the awe of ancient history and pay her respects to those that came before, but a moment later Deadpool and Deathstroke were already at the slab, along with Pinkie, all of which told her to hurry the heck up.

"So what's it supposed to be?" Deadpool asked as he picked up the slab and held it at numerous angles. Slade snatched the slab out his hands and turned it towards him, allowing Twilight to glance at what was on the slab. It was a large sphere, in the center of a room that was all too familiar to her. Fear clutched at her heart as she realized what Slade was looking at and a moment later she fired a blast of magic from her horn that destroyed the slab in his grasp.

"What the hell was that for?!" Slade asked Twilight with fury in his voice, getting Twilight to nervously smile as she stepped back from the merc. "We had the item that the fanatics had be so desperately searching for and you went and destroyed it. Why?"

"M-must have been one the magical spells around this place. Caused my horn to go off," Twilight tried to fib, but, even though she couldn't see it, she knew that Deathstroke didn't believe her for a moment. Yet, to her surprise, Slade let out a sigh and seemed to repress his anger.

"Whatever. All this trip has proven to be is a waste of time," Slade said with a snarl as he held a hand to his helmet. Sensing that this might be her only chance to leave alive, Twilight raced out of the room with Pinkie and Deadpool chasing after her. Slade waited until they were gone until he pressed a button on the side of his helmet, bringing up the image he had taken of the slab moments before it had been destroyed. "Fools. Thinking that I would allow it's destruction to hinder me at all. Now I know what I'm searching for. Which takes me one step closer to my goal."

"Hey Pinkie, look what I got," Deadpool whispered to Pinkie once they were outside of Slade's range, reaching into the backpack and pulling out the actual slab.

"Wow, when did you switch them?" Pinkie asked.

"Right before Slade took it from me. Fortunately, I was able to hide it with my little buddy here," Deadpool said as he opened the backpack to reveal Spike. "Thanks for holding onto that for me and sorry I hit you in the head with it."

"You forgot I was in there, didn't you?"

"Completely."