PyraohXBlaze - Well, it's one way to keep their mind of the thought of him dying... Besides, who wouldn't like a threesome?

DragonLovingBrony - Which would just so happen to be now ;)

Guest - Yeah, I can understand not being interested in it... That reminds me though; I think I forgot to put up warnings for the last two chapters that had it... Whoopsie...

centaurus2 - There's nothing wrong with wanting to do something special for your partner to make them happy :D

Zero the Warrior of Chaos - Well, it's time to see if you were right

darksoul78 - Lol nah... not yet at least ;) I'll try to remember that warning at the beginning of chapters that have clop so you can know to avoid it next time :D

xel101 - Now you get to find out what's next!

Fusion Blitz - Lol I don't know about an insight into the future... but I'm glad you caught on to that ;)

TurnupGrain43 - Hmm... guess you'll just have to read and find out if Freddy and the gang are harassing our hero... Oh, and Quickhoof

KillerWoW - :O How could you do such a thing?! Lol jk... I think you're kinda screwed at keeping Pinks away from your pie though...

Mikalzilla - Lol have you even read the rest of my story? Something sexy is almost always going on :P

DragonLord RyuKizoku - That is, of course, unless Applejack decides she'd rather not...

A/N - Howdy everypony! We're back with another installment of everypony's favorite pony-tale! I'm feeling better now, and the creative juices are flowing again, so I think I'm going to try to get a little extra work done this week so that I can hopefully give you guys and gals the double-update that I've not only been promising, but that you all so rightly deserve for being so understanding in recent months! I can't make any guarantees, but I'm hoping to shoot for either next week or the week after for the first of them. As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

I stood there, stunned. Twilight had told me that a magical barrier was all but impenetrable by anything that you didn't want to pass through it, as long as you had the magical strength to maintain it, yet here was this creature that neither Quickhoof nor I could see, flitting through it almost as if it wasn't there.

"What do we do now? If that thing can pass through your spell, how can we stop it?"

I was about to tell him I had no idea when a thought struck me. "Wait… you can see it?"

He nodded and flicked his head to the right as it passed through another barrier. "Yes. It makes ripples in your spell, like a stone cast into a pond."

I paused for a moment and thought about that. "Well… at least we know where it's going… but, how does that help us?"

Right as Quickhoof opened his mouth to respond, I felt the creature breach one of the walls surrounding us. My companion jerked several times, like he was having a seizure, then slumped to the ground for a moment before getting back to his hooves. The color of his body had changed from a pale red color to a sickly yellow one. "Leave this place human, you are not worthy to be here!" That voice was definitely not Quickhoof's.

I took a step back from whatever this thing was, bumping against the barrier behind me. "Who are you and what gives you the right to tell me to leave… or possess my friend for that matter!? You don't even know what we're after here." I could feel my heartrate picking up as the thought of having to fight this thing while it was still possessing Quickhoof.

The creature narrowed Quickhoof's eyes at me. "Who we are is not important, nor is what you seek. You are not worthy and must leave this place."

I looked around the room. "Umm… I don't know if you've noticed, but you kind of sealed this room off."

A hiss echoed around the room, but it didn't sound like it came from the possessed stallion in front of me. "You cannot be allowed any deeper into this temple! I will open the door and you will exit… or you will DIE!"

There was a flash of magic, and Quickhoof collapsed to the floor. I looked behind me and noticed that the creature had indeed opened the door we had come though. I helped my companion to his feet and he shook his head, trying to clear it. "What happened? It felt like I was dying."

"Considering what just happened, that's probably not far from the truth. Whatever is in this room possessed you and used your body to tell me that we need to leave the temple."

My warrior companion straightened up and set his shoulders. "We came all this way, too far to turn back now! We will find a way to defeat this creature, and then we will find the flower you seek to restore your sight to you."

"But, how? That thing can pass straight… through… my barriers…" I leaned in close to Quickhoof as an idea came to me. "Ok, here's what we're going to do; I'm going to charge up my magic while you act like you're convincing me to leave, distracting the thing. Then, when the creature moves through one of the barriers again, I'll release my magic into it. That might be enough to at least trap the thing, and if we're very lucky… well, we won't have to worry about it possessing one of us again." Quickhoof arched an eyebrow at me, but didn't say anything.

"If this creature says we must leave, then we must leave."

I started pooling magic in my core, letting it build up as I waited for the right time to strike. I felt the creature flit through one of my barriers, but I wanted to let more magic build up. "This is my quest, and if I say we stay and finish it, then we stay and finish it!"

Quickhoof grunted at me. "You can stay and finish your fool's errand if you wish, but I am leaving. Now, release your spell and let me out of this cursed place!"

"You forget Quickhoof; if you leave this temple without me, your chief will have you killed!" I realized as soon as the words left my mouth that that was a low blow.

"It would be better than staying here and dying for a fool who seeks a pretty flower!"

I wasn't sure how much of what he was saying was an act and how much was the truth. "You know why I need this flower! And you should also know that neither one of us are leaving until I find it!" The creature passed thought another barrier, but it still wasn't time.

It passed through a third barrier a moment later, and I could tell its movements were growing more and more agitated. Quickhoof walked over and bucked the barrier closest to the open door and scowled at me. "I am leaving this place! If you grow some sense and come with me, I am sure you will make it out in time for my execution!"

The magic flowing through me was starting to become uncomfortable as it built to bursting, and I knew I had to release it soon. "You're not going anywhere unless I say so, colt!"

Quickhoof's scowl deepened as he pulled his knife from the small sheath around his neck. I felt the now familiar sensation of the creature passing through my barrier. With a simple thought, thanks to Twilight's teachings, I sent the pent-up magic flowing out of my body and surging into the barrier through the magical connection I shared with it. I knew that if I had waited much longer to spring my trap that the magic coursing through me would likely have caused some other form of permanent damage, and I wasn't willing to find out what that would be.

The room filled with a terrible screech as the spirit, entity, whatever it was, was mercilessly squeezed by my strengthened barrier. I felt as the barrier cut into it, slicing it in half as it screeched in pain. The two halves of our tormentor fell away and I dispelled the barrier as we heard a pair of muffled 'thumps'.

We walked over to the area, and I finally got a look at it; it appeared to be some sort of eel, only from what my aurasight could tell, it was composed entirely of magic, with no physical form to speak of. I had no idea why we could see it now, but not before, but I also didn't care overmuch. I knelt down and poked the upper half of the severed being, and my suspicion was confirmed when a jolt of magic leapt into my outstretched finger and caused my entire arm to tingle.

I watched as the creature's remains evaporated in wisps of multicolored magic, dissipating into the air and disappearing entirely. "Well, let's hope we don't have to do that again…"

"Yes, let us hope…" I could hear the irritation in Quickhoof's voice.

I stood up and looked around, noticing that the other three doors had reappeared. "Yeah… sorry about that, I kind of went overboard there…"

My companion let out a frustrated sigh. "It is alright. It did make for a convincing argument at least. Now, which door should we explore next?"

I shrugged. "Well, the easiest thing to do would be to keep going straight and explore the side rooms on our way back."

We continued through the various rooms of the temple, and I began trying to find a pattern in the rooms that contained the 'tests'. I racked my brain through the next three rooms, but still came up with nothing; the rooms we would be attacked in seemed to be random as far as I could tell.

The fourth room turned into a dead end, and we turned back. After backtracking to the room where we'd faced off against the strange eel creature, we decided to take the door on our left first. The first room seemed to be some sort of barracks, being a large room holding the decrepit remains of what used to be bunk beds, with a few still being partly intact. There were remains of several trunks at the ends of some of the beds, but many of them seemed to have been either been looted or removed when the temple was abandoned. "Hmm… seems odd that a temple would have a military barracks… I wonder what this place actually was…"

Quickhoof looked to me. "What is a 'military barracks?"

I stopped and placed a hand on the sole completely intact bunk bed in the room. "It's a place for warriors to sleep and store their belongings. You would think a place like a temple wouldn't need something like this."

Quickhoof looked at one of the piles of debris that marked the resting place of one of the completely rotted sets of beds. "Is a temple not a place to honor the spirits?" I nodded to him. "Then you are right; this place should have no need for such a thing as a military barracks. Perhaps the next room will hold answers for us."

We headed through the long, narrow barracks room and through the doorway that led to the next area. I nearly facepalmed as I realized that the room we'd just entered was an armory, with several intact swords, axes, maces, and a variety of other weapons. "Welp, looks like we figured out where the next test is going to happen…"

The thrice-cursed temple didn't waste any time in proving me right as every intact weapon remaining on the racks came to life, floating up from their resting places and bearing their surprisingly sharp-looking edges at us. Quickhoof pulled out his small knife and I brought my gun to bear, lining up the sights with a sword that was making particularly aggressive motions towards us.

I motioned to Quickhoof to turn around and put his back to mine, and the stallion complied, fortunately understanding my hand signal. The blades and bludgeoning weapons started slowly spinning around us, as if they were being wielded by invisible owners who were now circling us, looking for an opportunity to strike.

I kept my gun leveled at whatever weapon passed in front of me, waiting for something to attack while I kept the range of my aurasight wide, watching for an attack from any angle. "Ah'd sure feel a whole heap better 'bout all o' this if y'all had yer sword." AJ's words bounced around in my head as I watched the deadly weapons circle us, and I suddenly wished I actually had brought it with me.

Suddenly, a mace came rushing at me from the right as a sword shot at me from the front. I stepped to the left and then forward, dodging out of the mace's path and inadvertently putting myself in the perfect position to grab the sword's hilt. My hand shot out and wrapped around the decayed fabric wrapping surrounding the metal beneath. The instant my armored hand touched the ancient cloth and metal, I felt the full weight of it drop towards the ground, as if whatever magic holding it aloft had suddenly dissipated.

I didn't have time to ponder how or why, as the mace that had shot at me before turned around and made to lunge at me again, only for another blade to swipe at me from behind in an obvious distraction ploy. My reflexes were too slow to dodge both this time, and I felt the aged, steel blade impact against my armor and shatter, leaving me somewhat off-balance from the blow, but otherwise unscathed.

Quickhoof had his own work to do, dodging blades, bludgeons, and even a shield in an impressive show of agility. Seeing the shield he was dodging reminded me that I had a shield of my own. I fumbled the sword and my gun, holstering the latter and switching the former back to my left hand when the gun was safely away. I sent a quick mental command to the amulet and called the shield, which appeared instantaneously over my right arm, providing another level of protection from the onslaught.

Quickhoof looked back to me and saw the newly formed shield. He seemed to like the idea, since he almost immediately lunged for the decrepit shield that had been harassing him mere moments before. As with my newly-acquired sword, the shield seemed to go limp in his grasp, and he rolled back upright with the shield planted firmly between himself and the weapons that were now focused on him.

A pointed dagger, that looked to be made specifically to pierce armor, pointed its tip right for Quickhoof's shield and zipped forward. Before I even had time to react, the blade impacted the shield, shattering, but also piercing the decayed metal in the process. Quickhoof flinched as the tip stopped mere centimeters from his nose, the remainder of the blade still buried in the shield. I had a feeling that his shield wouldn't protect him nearly as well as my own would me.

My temporary distraction cost me, as I was suddenly sent sprawling backwards and nearly toppling over my brother-in-arms as the mace that had been harassing me took advantage of my inattention and smashed into my shield. I managed to find my footing again just in time for another, rather large sword to sweep through the air towards me. Instinct took over my actions, and I brought my shield to bear, angling it to deflect the blade and absorb most of the impact without sending me further off-balance.

I brought the sword I had grabbed to bear for the first time, and only then noticed that the thing was horribly off balance, and would be next to useless to me in its current state. I raised it anyway in an attempt to block an incoming flail, the chain of which wrapped around the blade of my sword while the steel head of the thing nearly collided with my own.

I felt the tip of the blade snap off as I pulled it free from the chain entangling it, causing said chain to crumble to pieces. I swung it once and noticed that the missing tip actually improved its balance. I focused my attention behind me for a moment and noticed that Quickhoof wasn't in much better shape than I was, being forced to switch between ducking and weaving around the myriad of weapons trying to slice him to ribbons and hiding behind his rapidly shrinking shield.

I spread out my aurasight and looked for a way out of the room, hoping we could escape the cursed armory before our bones were made into new additions to the racks. Something caught my attention almost immediately; an orb of some sort, set into the ceiling and radiating a faint magical signature. It clicked in my mind almost instantly what was happening, and I pulled back my sword arm, my body going into action before a plan had even formed in my head.

I sent the blade flying, and it struck true, the edge striking the orb and shattering the blade to dust. The orb however, seemed completely unfazed by the trauma. I growled and opened a slit in my left greave, drawing my pistol and taking aim. The report form the gun rebounded through the room even as the bullet struck its mark. I watched as the bullet bounced off the orb, which still seemed utterly uncaring of the attacks against it.

"What are you doing?!" Quickhoof was rubbing his ear with a hoof.

I pointed up towards the ceiling. "I think that orb up there is what's controlling these weapons; if we can destroy it, we should be fine."

He followed my pointing finger and looked at the spherical structure set into the stone. "If your weapon cannot damage it, what will we do?" He was attacked by a longsword almost as soon as he finished, and the mace tormenting me crashed into my shield yet again.

"I have an idea." I told him as I regained my footing from the blow.

I set my shield and lowered my stance to make myself harder to move as the magically-controlled weapons continued their assault. I did indeed have a plan, but I needed to use my shield spell in a way I wasn't entirely familiar with to pull it off, which meant it was going to take time to get right.

I called on my secondary magic like Cadance had taught me, and formed a small barrier with it. I only then realized that I could have formed a barrier around the two of us and kept the weapons away from us altogether, but that wouldn't work now; the constant battering against a magical shield would have been more distracting than the assault on the physical one I was defending with.

I had formed a small barrier in front of me and slipped it inside the barrel of my gun. I began shaping it into a small cone with a tail, so that it almost looked like an arrowhead in profile. It took time to get the shape just right, but I eventually managed to form it so that the tail would fit inside the cavity of the chambered round, leaving the cone exposed, but not touching the barrel.

Quickhoof was doing his best to dodge his attackers, but his shield, while making a valiant effort to stand up to the punishment, was all but destroyed and nearly useless. It only took a glance to realize that he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, and though my armor was better, I was starting to wear down as well.

Once my bullet-propelled miniature barrier was complete, I thrust forward with my shield, smashing it into the mace as it was readying for another attack, knocking it aside. I leveled my sights with the orb, and squeezed the trigger back.

It felt like my heart stopped for a brief moment as the bullet left the gun, zipping through the air, carrying its magical payload with it. I watched as it collided with the orb a split-second later, too quick for me to actually follow. The soft lead and copper of the bullet split and gave way under the impact, but the tiny, pointed barrier held strong, boring into the orb. I watched as streaks of light covered the orb's surface, and, a moment later, it exploded, sending dust and fragments scattering in all directions.

I only barely noticed as all the weapons, and even Quickhoof's shield, which had been whittled down from the size of an average kite shield to that of a buckler, followed suit and began disintegrating into a fine dust.

Quickhoof flopped onto his haunches and let out a sigh that was both tired and relieved. I couldn't say I blamed him; the fight, if it could really be called that, was pretty taxing. "I am glad that is over. You humans have some nasty tricks with your magic."

"I wouldn't even have a clue where to begin setting something like that up… Maybe we can find something about it if we can find a library in this place."

Quickhoof cocked his head at me. "What good would that do us? Are you planning to use this magic yourself?"

I gave him a shrug. "Not really… though they would make some nice defenses against intruders in my house…" If Quickhoof heard my under-the-breath comment, he made no indication. "A wise man from my world once said; 'if you are to fight your enemy effectively, you must first understand him'. I think that applies here; if we're going to survive this, we need to have a better understanding of how these traps work and how to beat them, otherwise we're just fumbling around in the dark."

The Kokello warrior nodded and got to his hooves. "This sounds like a wise stallion indeed. Come, let us find this 'library', I wish to leave this place and seek to reclaim my status as a True Warrior."

I dismissed my shield and holstered my gun, looking around the armory for other doorways leading out. Seeing none, we headed back through the barracks and into the previous room, which only had one other route for us to take.

The two rooms beyond were as barren as the majority of the rest of the temple had been, with the only exception being sets of dust-laden shelves set into the walls of these rooms. As we headed back to try more areas, I couldn't help but wonder if this was a temple at all, or if it was something more… and what that something might be…

Twilight

I could feel the worry building in my chest as I watched the light from Princess Celestia's sun fade, giving way to Luna's equally beautiful night. Blake had been inside the temple for the better part of a day already, and I had no idea when… or, Celestia forbid, if, he would come out again. Applejack tried her best to help me stay occupied, but I knew she was just as worried as I was… she was just better at hiding it.

Chief Wanate assured me that everything would turn out just fine, but I had no idea where he was getting all his confidence from; was he really that sure of the stallion that had gone in with Blake, or was it something else? I just couldn't be sure…

Applejack seemed to be fitting right in ever since the shaman had brought each of us a necklace like the one he had given Blake, talking about farming with the locals and trading knowledge with them. It seemed he'd used his experience making the first pair to improve on these, making them so that only one was needed for two-way communication. As much as I wanted to study the curious form of magic he had used to make the thing, I was too worried about Blake to really focus on anything, even how Applejack had been able to communicate with the tribesponies before she'd gotten her necklace.

"Hey Twilight, look at this!" I looked up from the small fire crackling away merrily and watched as the very mare I had just been thinking about plopped down next to me. "Them fellers what do all tha farmin gave me some new seeds ta plant! They say it'll grow inta a tree called a poma… poma-somethin… Tha fruit is full o' little balls o' juice, and it's mighty tasty; Ah even brought ya one ta try! Ah got a whole buncha seeds, so Ah was thinkin' about givin some ta Blake once we all got back on tha trail back ta Ponyville so's he can plant some around tha house." Applejack passed me a curious looking fruit with a waxy, red rind that almost looked like an apple as she talked, and I simply stared at it as it rested in my hooves.

I looked over to her. "Applejack…" I felt hot tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. "We might have to face the possibility that Blake might never come out of that tem-" Applejack cut me off mid-thought when she brought her hoof across my cheek.

I stared at her dumbly, more in shock that she had actually struck me than in any sort of pain. "Ah don't wanna hear none o' that Sugarcube! Ah hate mahself already fer havin ta do that to ya, but Ah ain't gonna let ya start thinkin like that." I knew I should have been angry at her for slapping me, but I was strangely… grateful… "Blake's gonna come back ta us, ya hear?! Ah seen 'im fight, Ah know what he c'n do… if we're gonna worry about anypony, it's whoever or whatever tries ta keep 'im from getting back ta us!" I stared at her; I wanted to say something, I really did, but no matter how hard I tried, the words wouldn't come.

Applejack got up from the ground and wandered off without another word. The strange fruit fell from my hooves, and I got up as well. I headed off into the forest to clear my mind. I knew in my heart that Applejack was right; Blake would never let anything keep him away from us, but my mind kept presenting me with all kinds of scenarios where he didn't come back. I felt a pain in my chest at the thought of losing him, and it struck me that I hadn't even realized until very that moment that he had become more important to me than even Princess Celestia.

I stopped and sat by a small, clear pool of water to clear my head. Night was quickly falling, but I didn't mind, I could still clearly see the lights from the Kokello's fires after all.

As I stared at my own reflection in the tranquil pool, I started getting the feeling that I was being watched. I suddenly felt myself go slack, and my mind went foggy as something touched my right shoulder. I could vaguely feel something's breath against my neck, but when I managed to turn my gaze back to the pool, there was nothing there.