Chapter 6: The Trap is Set and the Game is Won
=Gaia, Equestria, San Palomino Desert, The God Pyramid, 913 C.E. =
"How did you get here so long before we did?" The Doctor asked.
"I simply made another distance warp when I woke up that directly brought me here." Ahuizotl replied.
"And I suppose the signal leads to that energy ball from the original source of the power, which would be the ring on your tail. I figured that much out from the moment I saw it." The Doctor said.
"You remain very intelligent to this day, and this moment. I think I'll toy with you a little before I simply kill you." Ahuizotl sneered.
And with that, all five of the ponies (including K9) began shooting backwards in different directions as large walls rose from the ground around them.
"You are in a labyrinth, but not a maze." Ahuizotl's voice told all of them. "There are four clear passageways to my location from tour four corners of the pyramid. Unfortunately for you, the odds of reaching me before I pop your dog open as he reaches critical heat are vary slim, I'm afraid." Then the voice stopped.
"Wait!" The Doctor yelled. But it was too late. The Doctor advanced forward carefully. He knew the pyramid wasn't very big, and he knew that Ahuizotl wasn't lying when he said that the path to his location was clear, so he must've meant traps.
He stepped carefully as he tried not to set off any of the multiple traps. He wouldn't be able to disable them with his sonic screwdriver, as tracking the signal had depleted the battery power. He walked forward steadily, but the traps went off anyway.
Two Royal Guard appeared in front of him, but these ones were wearing white robes made to look like mummy bandages, and had golden cuffs over their neck and upper chest.
The Doctor sighed as he walked up to them. "It is a good thing I'm wearing a fedora right now." He said as sort of an insiders joke. "Come to think of it, it was a good thing I was wearing a fedora back in the Pyramid of Mars. All those traps and riddles were very Indiana Jones."
The Guards approached him with the intention to attack. "I hope I carried something over from my third incarnation." The Doctor sighed, knowing he didn't have time to talk his way out of the situation. And with that, he rushed directly at the guard at his left and grabbed him, flipping him over his shoulder and landed him on top of the other Guard, who he bucked to make sure he was unconscious.
"Well that was easy." The Doctor said as he smiled and walked off.
Elsewhere, Daring Do had made the same deduction as the Doctor about the traps due to previous experience. She was actually kind of frustrated that she hadn't seen anything yet or heard anything yet.
She kicked a wall with her foreleg slightly in her frustration. "Ugh, why won't anything happen?" she asked.
With that, the wall she kicked fell over, and the other wall fell over 2 seconds later and crashed into the next one and held it in place, forming a sort of a narrow triangle around her. Then there was a sucking noise, and then she realized: The passageway was sucking out the air around her.
She began crawling through as fast as she could, desperate to reach the end before she suffocated.
Elsewhere once more, Romana had figured out about the traps due to simple common sense. "Poor K9. Always getting severely damaged." She mused to herself. "I hope we all manage to make it in time."
Then, suddenly, she could feel the place becoming a massive distance warp. She tried to walk, but found that it was difficult to get one step forward. It felt like interspatial quicksand. This wasn't really meant to harm her, but it was meant to slow her down quite a deal. She attempted to jump out of it and get forward, but it didn't get her very far. She kept doing it, trying to get to the end as quick as possible.
In the final passageway, Sun Rider had figured out about the traps due to the fact that he understood the mind of the King Ahuizotl. He frowned. He wouldn't be King for much longer if he could help it.
Then sand began pouring from over the walls and piling up over him specifically. He made a heat burst to try to get it off, but this just made the sand harden into glass around him. He then knew that he wouldn't be able to use his powers against this trap. He would have to use strength, which he didn't have very much of. Using all his strength, he pushed through the glass and ran as fast as he could to the end of his passageway, ignoring the sand that shot at wherever he was standing.
In the passage The Doctor was in, he had made it to the end of his passageway without much trouble. He saw the door to the center of the pyramid, but he could tell it was locked. He went up to it. It appeared that you needed to solve some kind of puzzle to open the door. He examined it. "Hmm, it appears to be a simple rearrange the squares to fit a certain image kind of game. In this case, you need to arrange it into a straight wire so you can run an electrical charge through it to open the door. Should be very easy."
And it was. He had it open in about two minutes. He through to went where Ahuizotl was cooking K9 in his casing with his powers. Ahuizotl stopped, however, when he saw the Doctor. At this, he simply kicked K9 away. "So you made it here first. It appears I have no need to wait for your friends to reach their ends of the labyrinth." He snapped the fingers on the end of his tail and three doors opened and Romana, Daring Do, and Sun Rider popped out, all looking very exhausted.
Ahuizotl looked smug. Sun Rider looked up at him, angered. He breathed a blast of fire and shot it at the ring on Ahuizotl's tail hand, causing the gem in it to fall out and crack, with golden gas seeping out of the crack.
"What did you do?" Ahuizotl said in shock and anger as he picked up the gem. "You've destroyed it!"
"Yes, it appears I did." Sun Rider said.
Ahuizotl threw the gem directly into the energy ball, which flared up and got bigger.
"Oh no!" The Doctor yelled as he ran over to it.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Daring Do asked.
"You know how we're in a desert?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes…" Daring Do said.
"Imagine this entire planet as a desert…" The Doctor said grimly.
"Oh…" Daring Do said in fear. "Well how do we stop it?"
"I have no idea." The Doctor said, conceding. "This adventure sort of reminds me of the Pyramid of Mars. Especially how that space-time tunnel was a lot like the distance warps… THE DISTANCE WARPS!"
Everyone figured out what he meant to do. On of them figured out how to do it. Sun Rider looked directly at The Doctor. The Doctor looked at him sadly and nodded.
Sun Rider stepped up to the power source and extended his forehooves, allowing streams of golden energy to connect to him.
"What are you doing?" Ahuizotl said angrily.
Sun Rider just glared at him and opened a large distance warp right behind him, which almost instantly sucked him in. "Noooooooooooooo…" he cried as he was shot across the world.
Sun Rider used the power to open an even larger distance warp, with a portion of outer space being seen on the other side. He detached the ball of power from his body, letting it be sucked thousands of light years away in mere seconds.
The ball exploded in a powerful burst of energy that closed down the distance warp and left the explosion behind.
Sun Rider himself fell to the ground, his body collapsing into ashes in mere seconds.
The Doctor, Romana, and Daring Do looked at the ash pile sadly. It was over. There was nothing more that they could do.