When they reached the top of the stairwell, a room half the size of the one below it was there to greet them. The left side wall contained the aftermath of an explosion, much like the entrance had. The reason why wasn't as obvious, but it at least allowed sunlight to enter the chamber. On the opposing side of the room from that was a second staircase that led higher into the temple. Naturally, getting there wasn't going to be easy.

Resting on the wall—which was scribbled with more werebear notes everywhere—was a pair of pipe-like fixtures. One end launched a sharp-tipped arrow; the other received one. These tubes were scattered around the entire room, aiming in nearly every direction imaginable. From one wall to another, high and low, to a ceiling's corner all the way to the complete opposite side of the room. Arrows were being flung everywhere, but that didn't stop Twilight from stepping out of the stairway and examining the white-colored spouts.

"It's... an auto-reloading arrow mechanism!" she announced to her group. "That's amazing. Every one of these must have been made by hoof! Err, paw."

The other three poured into the room with the relative safety that they had near the entrance. Apparently deciding it was no longer needed, Pinkie trotted over to the "window" and chucked the torch down to the ground. Judging by the sound it made, it must have hit the inflammable stone steps. Applejack, meanwhile, was glancing around, likely disconcerted with all of the clicking noises and shooting bolts. "Not really in the mood to compliment these guys, Twi. Can we break 'em or somethin'?"

"That would take hours!" Pinkie whined. "There's hundreds of these things!"

Hundreds might have been an exaggeration, but to an extent, Twilight agreed. It was Rarity that offered a suggestion next. "Sure, there might be a few of them, but they are only shooting one arrow at a time. I can already see a path to those stairs over there."

Rarity to the rescue again—her eagle eyes could spot anything they were challenged to. Twilight grinned, an inner part of her glad they wouldn't need to destroy such grand technology, even if it was trying to kill them. "Great, Rarity! Could you lead the way?"

She seemed most pleased with the reception she got. "Most certainly. Just, do be careful. Wait until I say—"

"Hey, guys?"

The group turned their attention to Pinkie Pie, who still stood next to the shattered wall. She was smiling back at them in return. Not her usual half-circle Pinkie smiles; those were nice, but the smaller, shy grins were wonderful in their own right. "Thanks. For coming all this way, I mean. I know we're doing this for the princess, but you're also helping me. I could never have gotten as far by myself as we have together."

"Shucks," Applejack responded. "Can't say I don't owe you a favor or two, Pinkie. And since it's from you, I'm not even surprised it involves finding a rock."

Twilight couldn't hold back a smile of her own. Even if she didn't put much effort into trying it. "Pinkie, I was with you way before this became a royal quest. We're helping because we're your friends! And because we know you'd do the same for us."

Under slightly different circumstances, a group hug would have been inevitable. Something about being in a room full of deadly traps, however, didn't set the right scene for it. "As Twilight said," Rarity added, "we'll be around to help any time at all that you need it. Even for your insane journeys like this one. Now, let's get moving. We do have mystic treasure to find, after all."

The fashionista gave herself a moment to study the pattern of the arrows in front of her. There were two sets constantly going back and forth with each other: one aimed low at the legs, and the other wishing to pierce a neck. With as much grace as one would expect from Rarity, she dashed underneath the high one while the lower one was recharging. "See? Nothing to it."

She continued on, and one by one, she was followed. They stayed in a single file, knowing that trying to push anymore would undoubtedly end with somepony being skewered. Twilight volunteered to take the rear. If she could stay alert enough, she might be able to use her magic to stop an arrow from injuring one of her friends, should something go wrong.

Moving wasn't going very fast. In this case, it might be worth not rushing it, though. While Rarity took her time on a four-way arrow crossing, Pinkie decided she was bored. "Do you think all of these arrows are constantly shooting like this? Seems like a waste to me."

Twilight looked behind her. She could tell by the sun's position that in roughly ten minutes, it was going to fall underneath the trees for the remainder of the night. That wasn't related to the question, but knew that if they were to run into any werebears, it might serve to be a problem. "I don't think so," she eventually replied to Pinkie. "All of the components inside would get worn out too quickly. My guess is something we did downstairs triggered them."

As the other three moved on, so did she. Timing was everything; she released a breath she had been holding when her hooves landed in the next safe zone and she didn't have an arrow sticking out of her. "The more I think about it, the more worried I am that they have traps like this. This is some really advanced stuff."

"We're gettin' through it," AJ stated. "Can't be that great."

"What I mean is, what if this isn't all that they've built?"

The librarian didn't get a response from any of them.

After exerting just about all of their sunlight, Rarity finally reached the last safe spot, which happened to be in the doorway leading to the staircase. Applejack, Pinkie, then Twilight all met her there safely. When they looked back, they saw that the arrows weren't about to stop because they had been beaten; if the group of ponies wanted to come back through this way, they would be retracing their very careful steps. With a glance of shared determination, they turned around and raced up one more flight of steps.

-TRS-

They were in a temple housed inside of a muggy jungle that was in one of the warmest parts of the world. As they reached the room before them, a chill crept down every one of their spines.

Four lit torches were hanging on the walls, two on each side. It looked like age had gotten to the ceiling, as there were a few holes in it that let fresh air inside. As it was so dark out, the pre-lit fire was still the only way to see. It was enough to illuminate the object of attention; sitting in the middle of the floor was an ancient altar. It looked like it was crafted with marble eons ago, only to fall victim to time's cruel effects. A short trio of steps led up to a main platform, where some sort of containment unit rested. Though weathered, the altar's solitary appearance was haunting.

The torches' light didn't extend to the near corners of the room, and did nothing to fend away darkness past the shrine. Three ponies wandered in without many nerves; a fourth swallowed that fear and charged up to the altar.

Twilight looked up through the missing patches of roof tiles. Pushed up against a pale purple sky, she could identify the outline of a familiar statue. "Girls, that's the werebear head that was on top of the tower. This must be the highest floor."

"No... no, no, no!"

The lavender unicorn took point in finding out what was troubling Pinkie. She traced her friend's steps up the stairs, trying hard not to look at the unsettling darkness waiting on just the opposite side. Pinkie didn't seem to mind it that much. She was more concerned with searching everywhere on the altar for something than she was anything else. Twilight had a feeling she could guess what that something was. "What's wrong, Pinkie?"

"Look, look!" She put her two front hooves up on the centerpiece. It almost looked like a table of sorts with a small concoction in the middle of it. The trinket had tiny marble arms extending upwards at an angle, unquestionably perfect for holding onto a small object of any shape. It was currently protecting the air rushing between its limbs. "The reverstone was right here! I know it!"

Twilight stared at the empty container trying as hard as she could to understand what Pinkie was feeling at that moment. Shock, frustration, maybe even denial. She had truly believed her goal was sitting in this exact spot waiting for her. It must have been crushing. Even the thought of gloating that she had been right all along made Twilight feel bad about herself. "Oh, Pinkie..."

"It still must be around here. Maybe it rolled off, or... or there's another puzzle we need to solve or something!"

"Pinkie, I don't think..."

Something made her stop that sentence prematurely. Nothing physical—it just simply didn't feel right finishing it.

Pinkie Pie glanced behind her. Rarity was standing near the entrance, uncomfortably watching the scene before her while knowing she could do nothing about it. Applejack's attention had been driven toward something on the wall. After confirming one of those two things, Pinkie laid her forehead on the table, covering her eyes up while leaving her mouth free to continue talking to Twilight. "This entire time," she started slowly, calmly... not very Pinkie-like, "I've been thinking of all the places I could go. We could go, if you wanted to. Like when Applejack and Rainbow Dash had that pie-eating contest. They were the best buds in the world that day... nothing like what happened on the way to Canterlot."

Twilight's mind couldn't help jerking towards the much more recent brawl she had caught the two in. Right now, she decided, was a horrible time to bring that up.

Disappointed. She was trapped in a world that, just minutes ago, she was getting ready to escape from. From Pinkie's perspective, the sadness made sense. For awhile, she said nothing more.

The other broke the silence that had come between them. She did it asking a question she should have asked a long ways back. "Why did you want to travel through time at all? Were you going to change something?" She gulped, fearing the answer to her next question. "Were you... really going to stay in the past?"

Pinkie shook her head no. It was a second before she elaborated any farther than that. "There's nothing at all I wanted to change. I don't think I would have stayed there forever, either. I would have missed present-me too much. And the reason I wanted to do it hasn't changed. I miss our friends."

"Pinkie..."

Twilight had a response to that completely lined up. It was just given to her. But before she could get it out in the open, a nervous-sounding southern accent called out to them. "Uh... Twi? Pinkie? Ya'll might wanna come here and tell the princess about this."

It was difficult not being frustrated at that. Twilight watched as Pinkie peeled her face off of the table, put on a half-hearted grin, and trotted down the stairs. Seeing the mare trying so hard to put on a brave smile in the face of personal devastation was almost painful. With some effort, she followed after her friend.

Applejack was standing next to one of the torches; it was an unsurprising discovery when Twilight noticed writing plastered on the walls up here, too. Rarity was also at the meeting spot, scanning over the message. That's when the purple unicorn discovered something unique about this writing: none of it was written in the foreign werebear language. As the two remaining mares approached, AJ began reading, using a hoof to follow along with the words she spoke.

"'Day... somethin' somethin'. The moment has come. Our wrath will be swift. Ponykind will fall this day.'"

Twilight stared at that "somethin' somethin'." The calculator in her brain was working overtime. She gasped when the calculator finally hit the equals button. "The 'day' is over one-thousand years old! The first entry they made on all of these walls must have been before Nightmare Moon was banished!"

Applejack pulled her leg away from the wall. The group noticed the last two words were now somewhat smeared on the wall. Without thinking much about what it meant, the cowpony looked at the bottom of her hoof. An ink stain was seeping into her hoof.

Twilight watched that small area on AJ's hoof with saucer-sized eyes. By this time, her heart rate had already doubled. "Guys. This journal log was made today."

From inside the shadows on the distant side of the room came some clinking noises. After that, some grinding noises, like something was being turned to fit inside something else. Then, a click. Finally, a daunting pound. Another one. The first one shook the ground, and the second one quaked it. It was getting closer, but wouldn't be visible until it stepped onto the altar. The team of four equines stood side by side with one another, innumerable emotions running through each of them. An unlikely mix of fear and bravery were the prominent ones.

They needed it to step into the light. It obliged.

Twilight's gaze scanned continuously over the beast's form; it took several of those revolutions to finally realize what she was staring at. Werebears were already bigger than life, and this one was even bigger. It stood a full head taller than any other werebear they had come across. The species' physical traits were there: perfectly dark fur that shunned the firelight that was cast on it, terror-inducing red irises, and of course their massive girth. This one went out of his way to be slightly unique from his brethren, though. Unlike most others, he had no problems at all stamping on just two feet as he approached the group. More noticeably, a large mechanical contraption was attached to his backside. Details were hard to make out from the angle they faced him at, but it looked like it weighed a ton.

Even more unsettling than that was what he carried with his two free legs. It was made from steel, long but thin. Capped at the open end of the tube was a head of what looked suspiciously like a miniature explosive rocket. The only thing Twilight felt he was missing was armor covering his entire body, rather than just that chest plate that the bulky machine was attached to. She gulped when she realized afterwards that he probably didn't need it.

"Let me correct you, pony." He hissed that word like it was poison. His voice wasn't much like Sam's, or any other werebear they had heard for that matter. It was booming. The sound penetrated the ponies' ears and refused to leave. "That was written just moments ago."

Rarity took a step backwards from intimidation alone. She didn't mean to do it, but couldn't stop herself in time. "And who are you supposed to be?"

"I am Leader!" he roared, angered as if she wasn't supposed to ask that question. "I have seen werebears through one thousand years. You have trespassed on the day of your own demise."

Pinkie blinked. For now, at least, it appeared that the missing reverstone had been set in the back of her mind. Facing down a creature that was literally double their own size, Twilight could see why that had happened. "So... You just sit up here waiting for ponies to bug you?"

Leader breathed heavily. Then again. He was practically frothing at the mouth by the time he finally responded. "Allow me to inform you, ponies. Do you know what the letters on the statues downstairs stand for?"

Twilight and Applejack were on the same wavelength. Both of them crouched down. If a fight was going to break out, it was going to happen soon.

The werebear king tapped a series of buttons on the metal harness over his chest. Putt-putt-putt. The machine on his back stuttered, then surged to life. A fan inside must have been spinning around hundreds of times a second judging solely on the sound it was making. Things started getting loud, but his voice had no problems reaching over it. "The sign on the statue says, 'werebear.' Can't you guess what the opposite, the reverse is?"

The fan moved from hundreds of revolutions to thousands. Smoke began pouring out from the contraption's exhaust. A moment after that, a huge rush of boiling hot air followed it. Dust that had laid on the altar vanished near instantly. Leader's two grounded feet slowly lifted from the ground, and Twilight instantly realized what the machine was for.

Within little time at all, Leader was hovering two meters from the ground. That gave him an even more central point in the room in which to echo his own thundering voice. "The opposite of werebear is death!"

He lifted up the weapon in his arms. Looking through the reverse end of the attached scope showed the ponies they were being watched by a single red eye. The amount of ease in which he wielded the toy with was near unbelievable. Without even showing something that could be mistaken as hesitancy, Leader pushed down on the trigger with his claw.

The capsule at the end of the weapon was released at an incredible velocity. Twilight, and undoubtedly every one of her friends, looked on in paralyzing fear as a homemade rocket flew straight toward them.