Daniel Book Two

The team followed Daring, as she ran towards the beach. They kept running, far past the city, and into the more unused part of the beach, until she came to a stop at the base of the jungle that met at the beach. There was no way to get inside. Daring whipped out a map, and read out loud. "Hooves can not open the path, but the hand of the fifth will get us through. What the buck is that supposed to mean?" Daniel rolled his eyes, and held his hands out, brushing some vines away, he saw that there was a stone, with the imprint of a hand. Daniel put his hand in it, and found that it matched perfectly. The jungle cleared itself, and revealed a path.

"That answer you question." Daniel said, stepping into the jungle. The others followed. Standing in front of them, was a large temple, that went almost as high up as the canopies that stretched even further, it was also quite large in terms of girth, it stretched for what seemed like miles, Daniel just stood there and gaped at it.

"My fellow companions, I give you, the temple of war." Daring said, gazing at the temple. She turned towards the map. "Wings will help, but hooves will hinder, to open the gate one must grab the pearl, but magic cannot be used here." She finished. Daniel looked up, and sure enough at the top of the temple, was a large orb, most likely a pearl. Daniel grew out his ings, and flew up to it, he examined it closely, wondering if it was booby trapped, then taking his chances, he shrugged, and took it, flying back down, he got rid of his wings. there was a divit in the ground that was roughly the size of the pearl. Daniel set it in, and sure enough, the door to the temple opened.

"There's no turning back now." Spike said, and walked through the doorway, followed by everypony else.

Ditzy turned towards Daniel, and kissed him, then went inside herself, and Daniel followed in last. It got dark, quite fast, until, suddenly, a voice began to speak.

"I will warn you one last time, great fifth, what you seek is here, but you must be careful, for if you look for it, you will find it." The voice was gone, and torches began to light up the path. Daring held out a hoof to stop everypony.

"What does it mean, one last time Daniel?" She said.

"I think I heard it in a dream once." Daniel said, shrugging, Daring nodded. She then reached into her bag, and pulled out a small marble, and rolled it across the ground, and came to a stop.

"What are you doing?" Spike asked.

"I was checking for booby traps, you never know, I think we're fine." Daring replied, and stepped forward, everypony else followed, going by the marble, Daring picked it up, and they all began walking forward once again. Only to hear a very large stone dropping, and falling, and rolling directly towards them.

"Oh shit! Run!" Daniel yelled.

"Every temple has to have this exact trap!" Daring yelled, the giant rooling ball was gaining.

"What does the map say!" Daniel yelled.

"I don't know! It's in my pack, I don't have to grab it now!" Daring shot back. Daniel opened her pack, and reached in, grabbing the map. The boulder was getting closer. "What does it say?" Daring yelled.

"Uh, magic of a unicorn cannot protect, but that of an alicorn will help." Daniel said.

"That doesn't even rhyme!" Daring yelled.

"Does that really matter?" Daniel retorted, he instantly shifted into his alicorn form, and put up a defense shield, just as the boulder came down on top of everypony, but instead of killing them, it obliterated itself.

"Holy shit." Daniel repeated, morphing back into his human form.

"That was close." Ditzy said, getting up and dusting herself off.

"No kidding." Spike said.

"Never a boring day with you, is it Dan?" Gilda said.

"I guess not." Blaze said.

"What did I get myself into?" Applebloom said.

"Well, what does the map say now?" Spike said, Daniel pulled it out.

"The first task has been completed, but next will be worse, three paths there are, but only one will not hurt. You got your damn rhyme, Daring." Daniel added, now slightly annoyed.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Daring wondered outloud. Daniel looked ahead, and sure enough, there was three doorways.

"There is three doorways, and one of them won't hurt, it's simple. Yet, frightening." Daniel said plainly.

"Which one do we take?" Applebloom asked. Daniel shrugged, and stepped towards the one on the far left. He stepped inside, and called back.

"This one is fine, come on!" Daniel called over his shoulder.

"Oh, cool, how did you know this was the correct one?" Spike asked.

"I didn't." Daniel replied cheerfully. Gilda exchanged a worried glance with Ditzy. Nobody questioned Daniel's judgement outloud from that point forward.

"What does the map say next?" Daring asked worriedly.

"First of seven levels complete, step up the stairs if you wish to continue." Daniel read aloud.

"It doesn't-" Daring was cut off.

"I know it doesn't rhyme, and it doesn't have to." Daniel said, rolling his eyes. Daniel saw stairs, and began climbing them, followed by everypony else, the second floor of the temple now coming closer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N--Done with the first set of traps, consider this a warm up... Mwahahahaha