It had taken a bit of time for Celestia to allow me to go out to one of the temples without her, I knew it was probably safer if she did come, but this was something I wanted to do without interference. I trusted Celestia enough to know she would honour my requests, there was to be no secrets from now on, everything had to be out in the open. She was just worried I'd end up getting hurt, physically and emotionally, but there were more important things to worry about. It would be safe enough in the temple, as long as it wasn't filled with traps or had me running away from a giant boulder on my way out. I wouldn't be alone though, Wasp and Zeri were tagging along, as well as the spider, who was given a name by Wasp. She had called it Scary. When one of the maids had found him laying on my bed she had become frightened and said something about spiders being scary. Wasp decided that would be a good name for him, and it seemed the spider liked it anyway, not like I could come up with something better.

A day later, Celestia had organised a carriage to take us to the first temple location, in a place called the Whitetail Woods. The Royal Canterlot Mages were currently at work translating the journal I had found, I knew it was in good hooves, they were nice enough guys, although a lot of what they said did go over my head most of the time. Anyway, when me and my three tiny companions boarded the carriage, Celestia was about to tell me to be careful when Twilight called out, running up to us and jumping into the carriage, knocking me down in the process.

Celestia used her magic to lift Twilight off of me as I pulled myself up, the pony may be little, but I'm not about to make a comment about a female's weight, I know better, my life's on a short enough time limit as it is. She apologised and begged Celestia to let her come along to do some research and to learn something new. Celestia just rolled her eyes at her former student and placed her down on the seat opposite my own. I didn't have any objections to having her tag along, besides, it would make Celestia feel more comfortable with me going if an alicorn was there to protect me.

So, after that little incident, Celestia closed the door to the carriage after whispering to me to stay safe and the pegasui up front took to the sky, taking the carriage with them. After a brief flight over the many open fields of Equestria, the carriage touched down just outside of the forest. I opened the door for Twilight and let all the smaller passengers get off before closing the door and knocking the side of the carriage, signalling for the pegasui to take off.

Once the carriage was out of sight, Wasp and Zeri climbed up onto my shoulders and Scary rested himself on my head before we all began to walk down the dirt path that led into the deeper areas of the woods. While we walked, the orange leaves of the trees fell around us, the leaves blowing gently in the autumn breeze, sunlight peeking in through the gaps of the trees. The land of Equestria was beautiful, with places like this being far more common than they were on earth, yet this was the first time I was experiencing anything outside of Canterlot. It felt good, I loved the castle sure, but I felt more freedom out here, like I could stretch further and move how I wanted to.

While we were walking, I noticed Twilight glancing up at me and taking notes of something. I asked her what she was doing, and she explained that she wanted to know more about how humans acted in different environments. Seems it wasn't just the temple she wanted to research. I asked if that was all, as I could have just tried to explain to her what humans did in different parts if the world. She said she wanted to see for herself, while also analysing my relationship with the two changelings that were always on my shoulders.

I just shook my head and shrugged, just letting her do her own thing. As we walked further and further into the forest, we noticed that it was getting darker. It was around midday, so the sun shouldn't be setting. It wasn't the sun, it was the area itself, whatever we were walking towards seemed to drain the light from the area around it. The atmosphere was uncomfortable, unpleasant even. Wasp and Zeri held onto me tighter, slightly lowering their heads as if to hide. Scary somehow managed to hide himself under my hair, making it look like he wasn't even there at all. I started to become nervous, and I could tell Twilight was too.

Soon, the dirt path we had been walking on was replaced by grey stone bricks, the trees became farther apart and the sky had turned a light grey. Finally, we reached a large open clearing, the grass dark grey and lifeless. In the centre of the clearing, a large dark grey structure stood, seeming to be a large doorway that I assumed was the entrance to the temple. Taking in a breath, I clenched my fists and began to walk towards it, Twilight slowly following behind. The stone structure had a small set of steps that led up to the door, which stood at about 25 feet. In the middle of the two large doors, there was a circular pattern with a small plaque in the centre.

I felt that pulling sensation again, and I let it lead me towards the plaque. When I reached it, it flashed the image of a swirling sun with a soft purple light. It took me a moment to figure out what it wanted me to do, but I reached into my pocket and took out my medallion which floated out of my hand and attached itself to the plaque before falling back into my hand. After a few moments of silence, the cracks in the structure began to glow purple, as did the sky, grass and leaves. The circular pattern turned with the sounds of gears turning with the doors. Suddenly, there was silence. Then, with a loud creeking noise, the doors opened.

Author's Notes:

Doing a little counter to show how much time is left every time I do a little skip in time. Now, Symbol has opened the first temple, what will he find inside?

Thank you for reading, if you spot any mistakes please point them out to me.