Rainbow and Applejack had made it through the extended outdoor queue and were now standing just outside the entrance to the main show building for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Yet even with all the time they'd had to discuss, the argument they'd begun nearly the instant they'd entered the line was still at a stalemate.

"Oh come on, Applejack, just admit the only reason you like Indiana Jones more than Daring Do is because he wears a fedora instead of a pith helmet!"

Applejack scoffed. "Now, while I'll certainly admit he's got the superior fashion sense, that's hardly the only thing that makes him the better character-"

"Puh-lease!" Rainbow said as they entered the indoor queue area. "You just can't get the kind of depth into Indiana in those movies that you do with the Daring Do books! Her adventures feel lived-in and exciting, like something that really happened to someone no matter how crazy it gets! You get to feel the energy of everything she does! Indiana Jones is just a fun action blank slate! He barely even does anything to change the plot in Raiders!"

"That's just plain ol' bupkiss!" Applejack replied. "For one thing, Marion would've been killed by that creepy hat guy if Indiana hadn't gone to the bar, and who knows what would've happened to the Ark if they weren't there when the Nazis opened it! Second off, Indiana's got plenty of character, it's just shown to us through performance rather than spoonfed in overly-detailed silly first-person narration!"

"Silly!" Rainbow looked appalled. "Don't pretend you don't like those books too!"

"I like 'em fine, I just don't get as weirdly defensive about 'em as you do. And quit actin' like you weren't just as excited to ride this ride, which, in case I need to remind you, is an Indiana Jones ride."

"Well, yeah, because I just pretend it's a Daring Do ride."

"Aw, for the love of... will you just keep up with the line, please?"

"Huh?" Rainbow Dash noticed the line in front of them was practically in the next room, and the patrons behind Applejack were staring daggers at her. "Ah, heheh, sure thing," she said as she sheepishly backed toward where she was supposed to be standing.

They continued to wander slowly through the extended, highly detailed queue, which weaved around detailed sculptures and murals and through tight hallways of rock and bamboo. Further down, they entered a cavernous area with stalactites hanging from above and ominous warnings posted around. And all the while, the argument went on.

"Now, I'll admit I'm not really qualified to judge the attractiveness of Harrison Ford," Rainbow elaborated, "but you can't deny that Chestnut Magnifico-"

"You can't say that one's a better character than the other just because she's played by your celebrity crush, Rainbow," Applejack groaned.

"It just makes it a bit easier for me to put myself in her adventures!"

"I know. I found some of your little 'self-insert' stories where you 'met' Daring Do."

"WHAT?!! Those were private!"

"You read my diary when you were supposed to be helpin' me set up the stage for the school play!"

"I was helping you set up the stage for the play! And I didn't read the whole diary..."

"'Least I know I write better than you," Applejack snarked as Rainbow fumed.

They had walked past a hallway filled with skulls impaled on spikes and were now entering the preshow room. "Don't think you've heard the end of this," Rainbow hissed before they turned to watched the video projected on the wall, featuring Sallah from Raiders and Last Crusade.

"Welcome, my friends, to the Temple of the Forbidden Eye! Here, in your transportation devices, are ingenious pouches for safekeeping your earthly treasures when the journey becomes a bit... bumpy!"

"That means your hat, AJ!" Rainbow explained facetiously.

"Thanks."

"Your offroad journey is high-speed and turbulent, going over rough and rugged terrain, and then suddenly you are turning sharply and dropping suddenly! It is unlike anything you have ever experienced, I assure you!"

"You took your motion sickness meds, right?" Rainbow asked, and this time the concern was sincere.

"Yeah, I'm good," Applejack replied.

"Oh, I am envious of the wonders that await you -- if you avoid the eyes of Mara." After a moment, the show looped back around to the start.

"Huh. I figured that would be longer," Applejack mused.

"Yeah, it kinda feels like there's stuff missing."

They passed through the rest of the room, went up the steps and were then directed to their ride car, styled as the kind of grungy offroad vehicle you usually see in adventure movies, and, true to instruction, Applejack placed her hat in the safety bag attached to the seat in front of her. With a jolt and a final seatbelt check, they were off.

Sallah's voice returned. "Ah, hello, hello! Oh, my friends, the brakes may be needing a little adjustment, easy on the curves!"

The car swerved into the darkness, which was then illuminated to reveal three gates before them; they were headed for the central one. An ominous voice boomed: "You seek the treasure of Mara! Glittering gold! It is yours..."

"I gotta bad feelin' about this..." Applejack whispered.

"That's the wrong Harrison Ford series!" Rainbow replied.

The gate opened, and the car climbed up towards the giant image of a face -- the Mara that had been teased throughout the preshow, Applejack deduced. Dramatic music blared over the speakers as the spooky voice boomed again. "You looked into my eyes... your path now leads beyond the gates of doom!"

"Well that's not fair, how are we supposed to avoid looking when the ride parks us in front of it?" Rainbow noted.

"Pretty sure you're missin' the point of a ride, Dash."

The car jolted left into a dark hallway lit with streaks of lightning across the wall; the hallway expanded to reveal giant images of snakes bearing down on them. At the end of the hallway was Indiana Jones himself -- well, the animatronic, anyway -- though his voice was distinctly not that of Harrison Ford.

"We've got a problem here! Up to the left!"

The car followed Indy's command, which seemed like less-than-stellar advice given they then emerged into a large, cavernous room, of which only a small segment contained any flooring. A monstrous version of Mara's face loomed before them, a presumably dangerous beam of light shooting from the sculpture's right eye. Across from them, another ride car was driving across a rickety path, its interior bouncing up and down even as the wheels stayed solidly on the ground, revealing the mechanism for how they were jolting so much in a basic-safety-standards compliant ride. They were flung to the left as the ominous Ark theme from Raiders blasted around them, and the car shook violently as they passed through several spooky scenes in quick succession.

"Bumpy ride, huh?" Applejack mused.

"Applejack," Rainbow whispered, "I think I'm gonna need you to fix my spine after this..."

After a few more turns, they suddenly found themselves in pitch blackness, before the car headlights revealed a section of wall lit up with the image of tons of bugs. The noises evoking the insects made Rainbow Dash's skin crawl, before they turned again and found themselves on the bridge they'd seen from across the room earlier. Jets of flame erupted from beneath them as they zoomed across the bridge, then turned into a room filled not just with images of giant cobras, but also a gigantic cobra animatronic.

"Snakes... you guys are on your own," the voice of "Indiana" unhelpfully piped in.

"Bet Daring Do could handle some silly snakes," Rainbow snarked.

"Not the time!" Applejack hissed as the giant snake bore down on them, before the car sped off to the next sequence. The car continued to jolt and bounce as they barreled downhill through areas lit with red stones and ghostly images, before being deposited in another dark room. This time, the car only stopped briefly before continuing on in the darkness, hurling them around while Applejack and Rainbow could only guess which direction they were going to be tossed next. Finally they came to a hallway lit up with skeletal images; as they passed through, jets of air passed around them, evoking the image of poison darts launched from the walls narrowly missing them.

They came to a stop in front of Indy, who was dangling from a rope above them. Unfortunately, accompanying him was the gigantic boulder from Raiders, which started to roll towards them -- and the car moved forwards. They suddenly went downhill just in time for a near-miss with the boulder, which loomed large before them in several flashes of light before they apparently escaped being crushed.

"Does that thing just follow him around everywhere?" Rainbow asked.

The Raiders March played triumphantly as they met Indy a final time, standing before the now-stationary boulder. "There. That wasn't so bad... was it?"

"I think he's talkin' to you," Applejack hissed as Dash rolled her eyes.

They returned to the loading area and disembarked; once they got to the ramp leading out to the exit path, Rainbow leaned over and did a quick stretch to pop her spine back into place.

"A little too much shakin' there for you?"

"Maybe a little," Dash replied sheepishly.

"Was it awesome enough for your standards?" Applejack said with a wry smile.

"Well, sure it was awesome... but just imagine how much more awesome it could've been if that was Ahuizotl chasing us instead of some random statue face?"

"Here we go..." Applejack strapped herself in for more as they began the long trek back to Adventureland.

Taking a short hiatus after this chapter for some necessary relaxation and to work on some other stories. Hoping to be back with another batch of 16-17 rides by April!