Backtracking wasn't as difficult as Twilight would have guessed. The party of three didn't encounter any werebears along the way, which made for relatively easy traveling. Though it was intimidating to cross over unmarked grounds, Twilight did remember the pivotal locations. That was where Twilight nearly tripped over an obvious rope just hanging there; Pinkie's incredible bank shot and that (rather ironic) bear trap weren't long after it. Even if Pinkie didn't realize she had been followed, the lavender pony gave her credit for being successful and creative enough to find their destination. Not that she would recommend doing it again.

Twilight was wrapping up a summary of thoughts that had occurred to her during the stealth run just before they approached Pinkie and got a view of the grand temple. She felt as though she hadn't done a good job capturing Applejack's attention, but she knew Rarity would be interested. "That's why I think Muzzo might have been mistaken. If they were resistant to magic, my Sleepytime spell wouldn't have been as effective as it was. I don't know what, but it must be something else. So if you need to, don't be afraid to rely on your magic, Rarity."

The pink mare had taken the liberty to duck behind a bush while waiting. Twilight was just thankful she had waited at all, as it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that she would have left for adventure all on her own... again. Approaching the pony also meant they were getting close to the ancient structure. As they got a better view of it, Applejack spoke the only thing she was able to: "Whoa, Nelly."

"Ready, Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked with a grin.

"Born ready."

In turn, the four leapt over a thorny bush and in between a thin opening between the trees. They were finally outside of the jungle for a little while and into the clearing. Crossing an open field might have been on the dangerous side of things, but they had no other way to reach it. Rather than wasting time figuring out if there were any local werebears around, they decided simply hoping there wasn't was a better alternative.

While trotting toward the temple's entrance, Rarity couldn't take her eyes off of it. The expression on her face told the world that she was mixed at best about it. "It has a... rustic charm, doesn't it?"

"They din't even waste their time tryin' to make this subtle, did they?" wondered Applejack, pushing the brim of her hat upwards to get a better look.

"All the easier for us," Twilight happily replied. "If there's something that screams 'werebear home' louder than this in the jungle, I'm not sure if I want to find it."

The other unicorn cleared her throat, her gaze now set on Pinkie. "Sweetie, I believe all of us owe you an apology for before. When you mentioned some temple of death, we didn't quite think you were being so serious."

Twilight Sparkle found it hard to be too upset about that. If Pinkie had a bit for every time she guessed something crazy and was wrong about it, she—actually, she's usually right about them. The unicorn sighed in her confusion, but perked up when Pinkie responded back to Rarity.

"Finding the reverstone is all the apology I need."

She was so determined when she said that, it was almost scary. She would never allow them to leave the temple before they combed over every inch of it twice. Twilight had hoped that maybe connecting with all of her friends again would have made her forget about the thing, but it only seemed to make her drive stronger.

As much as she couldn't stand admitting this to herself, Twilight knew that there was a very real possibility they were standing outside the doors housing an actual reverstone. If one of their princesses—even the one that had been sent away for a millennia—believed in that thing, there was a possibility it existed, science be darned. Twilight still had a hard time believing it. But what if it did exist? Would Pinkie really go back in time, and then just... stay there? It was painful to think that after all of this, she might lose the friend that had kept her going in Ponyville for the past month.

No, that wasn't important. Well, it wasn't too important. Time-traveling rock or not, they were here on clear orders from the princess. Anything else could just be dealt with after they were through with that.

By the time Twilight broke free from her reverie, she came to the startling realization she had traveled around the building's side and up the stone stairs. She found herself and her friends staring straight into the front door. The "front door," however, was actually a three-meter-tall cavity in the outside wall of the temple; it looked as though someone had set off an explosion to get inside a long time ago, and no one had bothered to fix it since. It was wide enough to accommodate a regular-sized werebear and then some.

"Well, Pinkie," AJ started, "if them adventure stories are much to go by, we found the right place for yer stone. No question there."

Pinkie hopped off to the side of the temple's porch. She had apparently caught sight of a small pile of thick sticks that were laying there. Showing no concern for their cleanliness, Pinkie stooped down and grabbed one in her mouth. She turned to Twilight and with her teeth full said, "Tw'ight, give me a light."

"She raises a good point," Rarity offered. "It doesn't exactly look bright inside of there. Unless you want to be everypony's flashlight, a torch may help."

That was sound enough logic. Now whether Pinkie was thinking along those same lines, or simply wanted to carry around a stick that was on fire, she didn't dare to ask. Instead, she conjured a modest fireball with her magic and launched it at the opposite end of the dry piece of wood. With that done, the group allowed Pinkie to lead on. It was time for the inside tour of the werebear's temple to get under way.

Almost immediately upon entering, Pinkie's two front hooves sank—then she started falling with them. Making use of her gifted reaction speed, Applejack lunged forward and grabbed the pony by her fluffy tail. Twilight's heart had missed at least one beat during that time period.

Looking at the floor, she found that an entire line of tiles had given way, far before they had arrived there. What remained was a black pit that not even the torch's light illuminated.

After pulling her back to safer footing, Applejack chanced a peek over the bottomless ditch. "Don' know what's down there, but I ain't volunteerin' to find out."

"Mm-hm..." Pinkie agreed. Physically she might be shaken, but Twilight knew that did little against her resolve. Trying one more time, Pinkie crossed the temple's threshold again, this time hopping to get over the entrance. The remaining three soon followed after her.

Now that they were actually in the place, they could take their time looking around it. The floor they were standing on was made of wood—rather uncared for wood. Some parts of it were squishy to step on, while other sections felt like they might give way entirely. Looking up from there, Twilight nearly screamed in surprise. Two statues stood up against the far wall; they must have been on sturdier ground, because they looked like they weighed a ton. The statues' tops were fixed with a roaring werebear's head, like a miniature version of the one on top of the temple itself. On the pillars themselves were designs, both of them unique to their own statue. One of the signs was an arrow pointing up to the ceiling, while the other showed what appeared to be uncoordinated lines. Just beneath those compositions were square holes carved far into the base. It wasn't hard at all to find cracks, scoffs, and especially dust all over the statues. Those things had certainly been there awhile.

Strangely, next to the pair of statues was what appeared to be a second set with one key difference: they weren't in one piece. The werebear head that used to adorn the far left one had fallen from its perch and was now laying on the ground next to it, while the next one in line didn't have a bust at all. Everything above the halfway mark was shattered beyond repair. If either of the pillars had insignias or inserts in them like their brothers, time had weathered and destroyed any trace of them.

Scattered in seemingly unspecific spots around the room were several blocks crafted from stone. The assumption to be made here was plain as day: shove the rocks in the openings on the statues. Twilight was a dedicated follower of the Daring Do series, however, and knew it was never going to be as obvious as that.

"I'm sorry for speakin' outta line here," Applejack spoke, glancing at the stones, then at the statues, "but ain't this just a little stereotypical?"

Twilight stepped farther into the room and closer to the statues before responding. "The princess said that the werebears thrive on deception. I'm not left very surprised that they laid out some puzzles to protect themselves." The fire burning next to Pinkie Pie's face must have sparked, as the room grew brighter for a flash of a second; that had been enough time for Twilight to catch sight of the inside of the wall. "Wait! What was that? Pinkie, come here for a second."

The pink mare and her accompanying rod of fire bounced over to Twilight's position. The unsettling statues became even more illuminated, but more importantly, so did the wall. Writing adorned almost every free inch of the wall. Unfortunately, it was writing she only recognized because she didn't recognize it. "All of this writing is written in werebear..."

"Some over there, too," Applejack stated, pointing to the opposite side of the far statue.

"Twilight, have a look at this."

Though the unicorn had summoned just one, all three friends wandered over to Rarity's position. She was idling next to one of the blocks that were resting on the ground, her horn activated to cast a faint light. She dropped that as soon as Pinkie's fire came around to help out.

Rarity pointed a hoof at the center of the block. "Look, there's some sort of design carved in it."

She spoke of a depiction of an arrow that had been engraved into the rock. It matched almost perfectly with the design on one of the statues. It was even pointed in the same direction. "Okay! So let's get this thing into that statue over there. If we match them up, I'm sure something will happen." She moved her gaze towards the pair of towers that had seen better days. Thinking of certain possibilities (for example, those two being critical for the success of the puzzle), she bit the side of her lip. "Err... just hope we don't get caught up on them."

"One problem at a time." Feeling more than capable, Applejack stepped up to the piece. After just a moment of preparation, she rammed into the cube using her shoulder—and came to an instant stop. "Whoa—!"

"You aw' 'wight?" Pinkie mumbled as the cowpony recovered from the blow.

She gawked at the object. It was only as tall as Applejack's legs, and as wide as a hoof and a half, yet it had showed not a single sign that it wanted to budge. Swallowing her pride, she turned to their local puzzle solver. "Twi, that thing is heavier than a bulldog at a buffet. What are we supposed to do now?"

"We'll just need to all try together. Ready, girls?" Twilight asked, flaring up her horn.

The unicorns both grabbed a hold of it the best they could using their magic. Pinkie Pie dug her hooves into the wood and started pulling the rock, while AJ stayed where she was and tried shoving it once again. With maximum effort (and a lot of grunting) from all four teammates, the tiny boulder allowed itself to be moved. Slowly at first, then picking up speed, they managed to slide it all the way across the floor to the front of the statue. When Twilight yelled stop, Applejack crumpled to the floor, panting, and Rarity nearly joined her. Twilight was too intrigued by the puzzle to feel much physical exhaustion, and Pinkie wasn't allowed to pant due to the flaming stick in her mouth.

"Okay," the lavender mare began, "Now we just need to lift it into that opening."

"Lift?! But we— "

Twilight silenced the earth pony via interrupting her. "Rarity and I will lift it from the ground. You two can help out as soon as you're able to."

"We will?" Rarity squeaked, daunted.

And so they began again. It took much of Twilight's concentration to lift the rock vertically; Rarity had little practice with such heavy objects, so the other wasn't going to blame her for anything. A massive wave of relief rushed over her when she felt the key getting much lighter—Applejack and Pinkie had squeezed their heads underneath it and lifted up. With teamwork, they got the small tablet started in its slot. The pair of earth dwellers were able to slide it farther in from there.

It didn't reach the very back of the statue's insert. Once it failed to do that, there was a distinct clicking sound.

Applejack and Pinkie felt a small tremor just beneath them. Not hesitating, they leaped away from the statue and over to their friends; as they did, the two floor tiles immediately in front of the statue broke apart. Nothing but blackness replaced them. Dropping down there would take them to that same, long fall Pinkie nearly had back at the entrance.

The cowpony huffed, "What a prize."

"I... don't think we won." Twilight fell back on her tried and true method of thinking: she paced. Back and forth, taking only a few steps in a direction before swapping sides to the opposite one, she constantly looked between the statue and the rock they had just put in it. It was still sticking halfway out. "But that doesn't make any sense!"

She quadruple-checked herself. The statue had an arrow blazoned on it, just like the stone key. Why wouldn't they match? Did this rock go to one of the broken down statues next to it? Her mind shifted uselessly back to the writing on the wall. For all she knew, they could be clear instructions for beating the puzzle. That was actually genius, once she thought about it, writing a cheat sheet in a language only werebears understand. None of that was very helpful to her right now, though.

"Hmph," Rarity tossed in, not helping Twilight think any. "I'm still not convinced this is so tough. If you want to see a real puzzle, try managing the finances of a business."

That seemed to lighten the farmer's mood by a bit. "That part ain't so bad once you get the know-how," she said, turning to Rarity. "You should make yer sister do all o' yer bank runs, like I do. Keeps 'em busy. Apple Bloom loves it, and I get more work done."

The torch held tightly in Pinkie's mouth was suddenly released; Rarity managed to catch it with her magic a millisecond before it hit the wooden floor and lit the entire place up. Though she breathed a sigh of relief, Pinkie hadn't even seemed to notice. Her eyes were wide as if a dozen light bulbs went off in her head simultaneously. "Twilight!" she shouted, strongly emphasizing the name. "The arrow's in the wrong direction!"

Twilight ignored the near-igniting of the temple in favor of Pinkie's suggestion. She looked at the arrow on the statue, then at the one on the rock. Both were pointing up in the same exact fashion. "Uh, you're going to need to help me out here, Pinkie."

"We need the reverse of what's on the statue!"

"Reverse..." Twilight echoed. Her face lit up in realization. "Reverse! Like the princess said! Pinkie, that's brilliant!"

"It ain't too brilliant," Applejack stated, perhaps a little upset her conversation with Rarity had gotten thrown off. "We have sort of a deep problem here."

She gestured towards the base of the statue, where literally nothing was awaiting Twilight's gaze. The floor had caved in, most likely having been a defense mechanism against incorrect guesses. Pinkie and Applejack would never be able to reach it on their own, and they had been the only reason it went in as far as it did. "All right," she stated slowly, giving herself more time to improvise. "I'll make a barrier over there that you two can stand on. It's up to you three to get the key out, rotate it, and put it back in. I really feel like we're on to something this time, so let's give it a shot. Ready? Go!"

The three ponies who were tasked with the heaviest job all shared a reluctant look with each other. It was pointless to argue with Twilight, though, they knew. The two manual mares stepped onto the purple floor created over the gaping hole, neither of them trying to look down. "I'm hauntin' you if you mess this up, Twi," AJ warned.

With a grand effort, Pinkie was able to pull the rock back out from its place while Applejack held it steady. Pushing her magic to the breaking point, Rarity managed to twist the direction of the arrow. Under a heavy strain, Applejack sounded out, "Hurry... up..."

It seemed like hours, though it wasn't even a minute. That was when Rarity spoke up. "There, the arrow's pointed down now."

No time was wasted. The earth ponies shoved the block with all of their remaining strength, sliding it back into where it had been. This time, there was a radical difference: it not only continued past where it had gotten stuck before, but also fell into its place there with far more ease. There was no death trap at the end of it, either. Already showing signs of tiredness, the two stepped off of Twilight's barrier, which faded thereafter.

"We did it!" squealed Twilight. "Now that we know what we're doing, let's get the second one!"

Pinkie, taking her torch back from the blue aura that was causing it to levitate, and Rarity both cantered off to look at the three remaining keys that were scattered around the floor. Applejack stayed back to voice more of her concerns. "So it's good that we're lookin' for the reverse of things and all, but what in the hay is the reverse of that?"

Twilight stared at the statue, which Pinkie's fire just barely reached from over in the corner where she was. Not that any extra light would have helped. Whatever symbol was written on the thing, Twilight couldn't even take a shot what the reverse of it was supposed to be. It sort of looked like a boot with a circle over it, then a line over that, and half of a, err... thing next to that.

"Pinkie, could you hand me that werebear book that we found?" The unicorn used her magic to grab a hold of the torch, preventing Pinkie from taking another go at burning the place down while she retrieved the book.

The pony trotted over to her friend, sifting through her bag to find the item all the while. When she revealed it, Twilight grabbed it too with magic. She wasn't able to even open it up before Rarity called out to them from the opposite side of the room. Her horn was glowing again, helping her see all the way over there.

"One of these things has a picture of the sun on it. I couldn't find anything on this one."

"The one over there has a mystic design on it!" offered Pinkie, pointing at the one she had examined.

"So, it'd be Pinkie's then, right?" Applejack asked.

That voice inside of Twilight's brain was wanting to yell again. "If you'd all just shut up and let me read, I might be able to answer you!" Of course, she fought back that urge. Levitating the torch on one side and trying to read a hovering book on the other, Twilight quietly flipped through several pages searching for a character similar to the one engraved before her. "I don't know," she finally responded to Applejack. "What if that means 'moon'? Or even just 'something'? Then either of the ones Rarity found could be it. Oh, this would be so much easier if the other two statues weren't in shambles..."

"Less liftin' I need to do, at least," Applejack said, apparently trying to cheer her up.

Finally, Twilight found it: a werebear character dead-on with the one printed on the statue. Not lifting her head up from the book, she moved the torch all the way over to Pinkie's side. "Okay, Pinkie. What does that insignia look like?"

The pink mare squatted next to the stone, racking her brains for any definitions she could use to describe it. "Uhm... It's sort of like a candy cane with a sword crossing over it."

That wasn't expected to be as useful as it was. Bringing the torch back around to herself, Twilight found something that looked like that straight away. She also found it plenty interesting that it appeared in the same line as the first symbol. "I don't like it much, but it's as good an option as any. Once more, ladies."

It wasn't like Twilight to throw caution to the wind like that, but she had no choice. There was no resources to turn to, no planning to be done. If running outside and asking the nearest werebear for a hand was the best alternative, she knew that a guess would just need to be made.

All four of them got in the same positions they were in the first time. Whether it was her imagination or not, this rock seemed to slide across the ground easier than the last one. Or maybe Pinkie was just putting her back into it. Once they lifted it into the air and set it on the very brim of the insert, Twilight gulped in fear. All she could do now was be prepared to catch both Applejack and Pinkie Pie if they happened to fall through the floor.

The key was shoved in. Farther, farther... it stopped. But not before touching the wall behind it.

Whatever the candy cane meant, it was obviously the opposite of the boot.

Before they had a chance to share their thoughts on the outcome, the entire ground shook. Or maybe it was the entire temple. Either way, it stopped after just a few seconds. The earthquake had revealed the way forward—a section of the right-hoof wall crumbled to the ground, leaving the hidden passageway behind it in plain sight. Dust exploded into the room they were in, but it soon settled down enough to not be a distraction.

"Perfect!" Pinkie exclaimed. "You're the best, Twilight!"

Applejack was the first to trot toward their new exit. "Well, c'mon, ya'll. Maybe we'll get lucky and somethin' will try to kill us next."

Rarity followed after her. Pinkie was about to be third in line, but stopped mid-bounce when she saw Twilight hadn't moved. She was still levitating the torch close to her face and looking back at the destroyed statues. "What's up, Twilight?"

"It's just that we really only fixed half of the puzzle," she stated. "I don't know why the door opened up like that. I guess it isn't very important, though."

The two in the lead, having been relying on the torch to see, waited for the last two to follow them. They crossed the threshold of collapsed rocks to reach the other side. To their surprise, the room they found themselves in was claustrophobic; it was nothing but a staircase that wound back and forth. The first thing Twilight noted was that all of the stairs were created using wood much newer-looking than the room they had just been in (at least their hooves weren't sinking anymore). The second thing she noticed was all of the walls still had writing on them. When she looked at a specific entry written to her left, her curiosity rose drastically. "Guys, wait a minute."

She put her hoof on the wall, blocking out the unimportant parts. The crude writing she was looking at was directly above it. "This part isn't written in werebear. It says, 'Day 5,026.'"

"'Day'?" Applejack parroted, "Is that some kinda journal entry or somethin'?"

"Five-thousand days..." Twilight spoke out loud, even if it was mostly to herself. "That's over fifteen years."

Pinkie rose an eyebrow. "But why would werebears need to keep a diary of something?"

In an attempt to intrude politely, Rarity cleared her throat. She glanced back towards the entrance to the temple, then back to her teammates. "I don't mean to be rude, but this passageway showing up wasn't exactly quiet. Maybe we should continue on soon, hm?"

The hint was taken. Chancing one last glance back to make sure they hadn't been found, the group of four traversed the stairs leading upward. After a short climb, they turned at the landing and continued upwards again.

The second floor of the temple awaited them.