I stumbled slightly as the teleport deposited me onto the second terrace of the temple. In all honesty, it was likely from the change of environment than anything else. Midnights teleport had been smooth, relatively speaking.

...Smoother than when I did it thirty meters in line of sight to be honest.

She had dropped us across kilometers of jungle. Even if she didn't want to do more than two ponies with precision like this, that's impressive.

"You okay?" I asked her as her wings drooped slightly.

Midnight nodded, "I'm fine," she answered and took a slow deep breath, raising her head again and gave me a weak smile, "Just glad we didn't try to move everypony like this. Teleporting is exhausting."

"Speaking of which," I said and flicked one ear as I looked to the pile of supplies she brought along with me, "What happened to you after you scattered us across the jungle?"

"I passed out for something like twelve hours," Midnight admitted and scraped her hoof against the ground, "Even without precision, teleporting takes a lot of power."

I nodded and looked at the wounded laid out along the level of the temple, ponies tending to them, "How far can you go? Ponyville to Canterlot?"

Midnight frowned and then shrugged her wings, "Not in one jump," she explained, "And I wouldn't do it with passengers. But I have done that before. It's just such a pain that I rather take the train or fly."

I could definitely see that.

Teleporting line of sight across a training ground wasn't that difficult and I think most unicorns that put in the practice could do it. Most just didn't bother learning it.

Because how useful is being able to teleport thirty meters if you couldn't even chain it?

It took a lot of effort to get good at it and if you didn't have the hornpower to back it up, it wasn't worth it.

"One more trip?" I asked her.

She nodded, "Two more guards," she said, "Then that's everypony and we can get moving."

"Take a couple of minutes," I told her seriously, "You're tired."

Midnight nodded, "Five minutes, then I'm good. It's only three more trips."

I had wanted to stay with the group that was trekking through the jungle, they might need me. But it would have been stupid to try with a injured leg. I couldn't cast, I could barely walk and like this I definitely couldn't fight.

I was completely useless to the group right now so the best I could do was to try to stay out of their way.

...As much as it pained me to think. I wanted to help, damn it!

"You want some water?" I asked her, "I could get some."

Midnight shook her head, "I'm good, I'll get something when I get back to camp. Just need a couple of minutes of rest."

I nodded and moved away from her as I moved towards the entrance of this level of the temple. The tents weren't here yet, they weren't critical to set up so the injured were out in the sun right now which made it important to clear the inside for potential traps so we could get them properly into the shade.

This was somewhere my eyes could at least help. I may be slow and my magic was currently not working unless I wanted to try to knock myself out, but I could still see, damn it!

Dee exited the shadows and smiled when she spotted me, "Page! There you are. You got to see this!"

"What did you find?" I asked as I limped up to her.

"Something you have to see, come on!" she said and turned, leaning the way into the dark temple. I followed her inside, somepony had put torches every couple of meters and it wasn't far inside.

The first chamber was mostly empty and kinda small, maybe four meters a side. Other than some pots, it was empty but the walls were carved into some sort of image I couldn't make out as the colours were gone, only the shapes remained.

She led me through that into what looked to be the main chamber on this level and it seemed like it took up most of the pyramid all the way to the top. It was pyramid shaped and contained a pyramid in the middle too, but only as a dias for some sort of altar.

On the altar was a pyramid of pony skulls stacked. Mostly unicorns going by the horn, but some without and could have been earth ponies or pegasi, I couldn't tell. But there were a lot of them there, the altar was wider and longer than a pony and it was almost covered with them, six layers tall. If there was nothing but skulls there...

Over it all towered a massive statue, it's wings spread.

It was a thestral, the statue towering over the chamber and the altar, the wings seemingly encompassing the room. It's body was made from an almost obsidian-like black stone and rubies shimmered as the eyes where the light from the torches hit it. It was inlaid with silver, the fangs, trails along the ears and wings. The spiral of it's horn.

I looked up at the alicorn thestral statue for a long moment before I slowly sat down. I looked at it and then down to the pyramid of skulls.

"Dee?" I finally said as I scanned the chamber. We weren't the only ones in here, some ponies were still looking for traps, "I think that maybe we should look to house everypony at the lower level instead."

She slowly nodded, "That might be a good idea," she agreed.

"And Dee?" I then said as I looked up at the statue.

"Yes, Lord Page?"

"I think the history we have learned about thestrals so far may have been... distorted... with time."

She was silent for a long moment before I felt her hoof on my shoulder, "I think so too.”