The darkness was heavy in this particular part of the temple. It created a blanket of weight over their shoulders as one by one they entered into the room. Having not a single idea of what to expect from, they all stuck together to ensure a higher chance of survival. Mario focused energy from his ring and created a fireball to make the room visible. When he did so, the room lit up and revealed a center area that was shaped in a square. In each corner of this square there were unlit torches, and against each wall in all cardinal directions there were doorways.

"Well great what the heck are we suppose to do now?" Sonic stated as he looked around.

Tails noticed that the door directly to their north was barred and was not passable but the other doors did not possess this same characteristic. It was then that he assumed the other doors were not locked.

"Let's try to open the other doors, maybe there is something in there we can use to open this locked door." Tails suggested to the group.

"Perhaps we should go in pairs as well, It would better improve the chances of our survivability" Aragonite chimed in.

"But we-a only have 5 in our-a group!" Luigi said in response to his proposal.

"Hmm, that does create quite a dilemma." Aragonite replied. "I shall go forwards alone then."

"C'mon then! Let's go check this place out, the longer we stay in here the greater the risk of those Discord punks finding us." Sonic stated.

Setting out in pairs the group split up and went different paths. Just as Tails had suspected the doors other than the northern one were all unlocked. Tails had paired up with Sonic and they had chosen to go down the western path. When they walked into the hall, they felt a strange presence. The walls and floors began to shift and twist, revealing to them a spiraling and warped path.

"Hmph, tricks like this won't scare me off." Sonic stated as he zipped down the new warped area in a burst of speed.

To the surprise of Tails, Sonic traversed through as if the hall was normal. The best kind of supposition he could ascertain was that this was just an illusion meant to halt trespassers from going any further due to fear. Tails made his way to where Sonic was waiting for him at and waving his hand.

"Hehe, Piece of cake." Sonic smile as he said that. "I would have thought this place would have better traps then that."

Just as he finished his sentence something caught the corner of Tails's eyes. It was that of a axe pendulum swinging down from the ceiling. A trap had been activated, and thankfully Tails caught wind of it just in time. Lunging forwards he tackled Sonic out of the way. Only a nick of his tail fur falling victim to the sharp axe.

"Shoo that was a close one." He sighed in relief. "Sonic you have to be more careful!"

"Whoa, Thanks bud, I could have died just there." Sonic laughed the incident off before standing on his feet once more. "Where are we now?"

The room they were in was a small room, with large pillars in it. Each pillar was large enough to hold 9 people on them, and there were a total of 6 pillars. Between the pillars were large gaps that held at their bottoms, a sea of spikes. Having gazed at this for more than three seconds, the two wondered how they would make it past this.

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The path that Mario and Luigi chose was the southern path. They had managed to traverse their hallway with no problems and soon found themselves within a room filled with gold colored water. Upon dipping his finger into the liquid Mario found that his glove had been dissolved in an acidic like agent. Mario's eyes then looked across the pool to find a doorway on the other side. The problem for them now was how to cross?

"It-a seems like we need to find-a something to help us get across this, but-a what?" Mario pondered.

As Luigi listened to his brother's suggestion as he examined the whole of the room. His eyes then flickered their attention towards something on the ceiling. Growing from the cracks were thick vines that looked strong enough to hold one person, and there were plenty of them for the brothers to cross the liquid. This was their solution to crossing, and because they were the Mario brothers, reaching them would be no problem with a little bit of jumping.

"Luigi, Let's-a do this!" He said hopping on to his brother's shoulders, who gripped his eager brother's ankles upon his landing.

Doing a running dash towards the edge, Luigi hopped to the nearest vine. Mario gripped it tightly, and then swung his legs forwards. Using the momentum of the swinging vine, and Mario's legs, Luigi then propelled himself towards another nearby vine. Almost missing the vine, Luigi started to drop from it before making a very lucky save, gripping at the tail end. Luigi then used this chance to reestablish some kind of attachment to the plant.

After that close-call the brothers then made their ways across the pool of golden substance and landed safely on the platform to the next room. They slowly opened the door and walked into their next destination.

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Aragonite had chosen the last path that remained after the others made their selections. He was a bit nervous about going down it alone, but he shrugged if off. Being alone all the time made one of his kind used to the solitude, and because of this he soldiered on. The hallway felt distorted. Almost as if another presence was there, but Aragonite had no way to discern this for certain. Upon reaching the first room he was greeted with varying pillars that had ladders attached to their sides.

From the view he got at his current position he could see a few of the objects on the pillars. He pulled himself up one ladder and climbed to the top for a better look. When he climbed over the edge of one pillar he could see some strange crystal-like structures. On the wall there was some sort of depiction. He could make out a pattern of some-sort. The first depiction displayed flames burning villages, the second depiction had waves of water flood what appeared to be fields of crops, and the third depiction appeared to be thunder raining havoc on animals.

Examining the room again, he noticed that each of the crystals held a certain color to them. One being red, another was blue, and the final one being of yellow.

"I wonder if the strange mural has anything to do with these crystals." Aragonite pondered to himself. "I must seek out an exit before wondering about such trivial things first though."

Doing a quick look, he found an exit, but it had bars in front of it. He was stuck in here, unless he found some kind of way to remove the bars. This reminded him of the crystal objects on each pillar. When he took a closer look at the one closest to him he found that striking it made it glow, and upon striking it a second time the glow dimmed and then vanished.

Looking at the mural again, and then to the crystals he concluded that they must be struck in the order the colors of the disasters appear in. The color of flames, red, was the color of the furthest crystal away from him. Lucky for him the distance between each pillar was a good hop away. Aragonite prepared himself for a jump, and hopped across each one with ease.

Arriving at the pillar of the red crystal, he soon swung his blade at the crystal and watched as it glowed brightly with the strong essence of burning red. A click echoed through the room and suddenly arrows began flying out from unknown locations. He had activated a trap upon striking the crystal, and now had to dodge arrows while jumping from pillar to pillar.

An arrow whizzed past his head, nearly scathing his cheek had he not moved ever so slightly out of it's way. Afterwards he quickly jumped to the middle pillar, striking the next crystal in the chain, and then dropping to a plank position to avoid a barrage of arrows. Rolling to the edge of this pillar he did another jump and jumped at the last crystal, slashing downwards at it with his blade. As soon as he did this another click happened, and the arrows ceased firing.

"Well, that was a rather intense situation I got myself into." he softly said to himself.

Seconds later the bars that blocked the door raised up and allowed him to continue on. He climbed down the ladder and walked over to the door opening it slowly and traversing into the next room. Aragonite's journey down this path ended when he entered this room.

"What is that?" He said as he approached what appeared to be a chest of some kind. Inside the container was a little sphere that contained that of a small little ember. It was very strong, and produced a vast amount of light.

Thinking about the situation they were in, he assumed this would be an important item to bring back to the main room and soon tucked it into one of his satchels. He then departed the room and began to make his way back to the others.

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Sonic and Tails were contemplating on what their next plan of action was for crossing this sea of spikes and platforms. While enveloping himself within deep thought, Tails peered over the edges and gazed at everything to seek out something that would help them cross. Sonic who hadn't any clues at the moment began to lean against the wall a bit to ponder on their problem. As he pressed against the wall, his rear end pushed into a button, and instantly invisible bridges made themselves apparent.

Sonic quickly jumped back a bit as he felt the moving of the button. Upon seeing the bridges Tails began to make a supposition. He let his foot slowly press into where he had seen the bridges when they were lit up. Just as he had hypothesized, these bridges were solid, but not visible unless the button was pressed down.

"Hey Sonic, Nice discovery! Now we can cross this pit." Tails congratulated him on his accidental achievement.

"Heh, I guess sometimes you don't have to think at all." Sonic stated with a smile.

"Don't get cocky Sonic, we still have to cross." Tails warned him as he began looking for something to hold the button down.

A statue was near the edge of the platform they were on and luckily for them it looked movable. Tails called Sonic over to the statue and together they pushed it until it was directly in front of the button. With one final movement the back of the statue soon pressed the button into the wall, making the bridges visible once more. This made traveling over the spikes a walk in the park now, that is until they got to the final bridge which led to their next destination. Suddenly the statue that was pressing the button down was pushed away by the retraction of it.

"Oh no!" Tails exclaimed.

"Just keep moving forwards, we know the bridge is still in front of us." Sonic said to him.

With a few steps of caution Sonic soon gained balance over the invisible bridge, Tails was hanging a bit on to him, nervous about the spikes below. Slowly they made their way over the bridge and after having passed that semi-nerve racking moment, Tails took a moment to relax. Sonic looked back at what they had came across, and wondered if it would even be wise to attempt coming back this way. He quickly refocused on to the room ahead of them as Tails regained his composure.

"Let's keep moving Tails" Sonic suggested, as he moved towards the door.

Tails followed him and entered into the room. Both of them discovered a chest, just the same as Aragonite had found. When they opened it up they received the same sphere that contained a small burning ember.

"What is this thing? Do you have any idea Tails?" Sonic asked his buddy.

"I have no clue, but I assume we might be able to use it in the main room." Tails answered him.

"But how on earth are we suppose to get back without being able to see the bridges?" Sonic inquired.

"Good question." Tails wondered.

As soon as they were about to make their way back through the spike trap room, a hidden passage way opened up. Hesitantly they both decided to take this secret passage. Hoping that it would lead them back to where they all split up at.

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Mario and Luigi came into a small little room that had a chest in it, but something seemed off about this. It was too short of a trip for them to just be handed a treasure chest. So they approached with caution. Each foot step was made with much calculation, their eyes peering from side to side to inspect everything that lay between them and the chest. When they arrived at the container they waited for something to spring forth but to their surprise nothing happened.

After having come to the conclusion that there was nothing here, they began to open the chest. This was just about the time that they let their guards drop. When that happened a cloud of smoke erupted from the chest. Out appeared a strange sort of creature. It's form was that of a gelatinous glob, that was able to float. The appearance of it's face was that of a skull, and out of it's back protruded a large spike of some sort.

"What-a is that thing Mario!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I don't-a know Luigi! But it-a has something from-a that chest!" Mario replied. "I wonder what it-a is!"

"It-a looks like its-a defending it!" Luigi pointed out. "Maybe it-a is important for-a opening the door?"

"In-a that case lets-a get it from him!" Mario suggested.

Mario and Luigi jumped back prepared to fight the thing. In it's hands it carried an orb, the same that both the other parties had found and were now taking back to the center room. The creature laughed at them in a creepy manner and then spun around until vanishing completely. This left the Mario brothers confused. Without anything else to do in the room they quickly headed back with the belief that the creature just traveled to the main chamber.

With that last encounter, everyone had accomplished their mission and were now heading back. All except the Mario brothers carrying with them an orb. The air was starting to fill with the familiar scent of battle.