I wasn't exactly sure what I was expecting when I entered the tower doors. Maybe some large set of stairs heading upwards. Maybe some large hall similar to the one in the main building. Either way, I kept my expectations open.

Which is why I was surprised when I saw nothing but a large perfectly cylindrical room with a large metal pole in the center. The pole led straight up towards a hole in the ceiling which led to another upper chamber. There was nothing in the room, just dust and the stone walls that went directly upward. The only light that was visible came from the hole in the center of the ceiling, a golden light that could very well indicate some sort of treasure.

Despite the light, the rest of the room was still too dark to see in, so I cast the Candlelight spell. Only for the magic to vanish, heading instead towards the hole in the ceiling. When it passed through, the light on the other side brightened considerably before dimming back to its normal glow. Frowning, I cast Candlelight again, only for the same thing to happen. I next spread my wings, making them burst into flames, but as with the spell, the flames vanished, their magic heading up towards the open circle.

But that's not all I saw. Before the flames from my wings vanished, they illuminated the walls, showing three long lines of glowing bright green writing on the walls, which vanished the moment my flames did. Curious, I reached into my backpack, pulled out an LED flashlight, and turned it on. To my relief, the light didn't vanish, which gave me my first clue. Apparently, any form of magic was forbidden in this room, so it was also likely I couldn't just fly up to the apex. I did try just to be sure, and unsurprisingly, I failed, coming back down hard on the hard stone floor.

I tried looking for the writing once again with my flashlight, but there was nothing there. I tapped on the wall, trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary, but I wasn't Daring Do. I didn't exactly have the skills or knowledge necessary to maneuver ancient relics.

After circling the entire room, I walked up to the metal pole, but the closer I got to it, the more resistance I felt. It felt at first like I was walking through water, then through mud, and only a few steps from the pole, I hit a wall. I quickly retreated, taking a few deep breaths. The closer I'd gotten to the pole, the more the air around me seemed to congeal. It gave me a sense of being encased in concrete. I had to take a few long swigs from my canteen before taking out a few of my plastic bottles of water and refilling it, crushing the plastic in the process to make more room in my bag.

I sat against the walls of the cave, trying to think about what I should do next. The flashlight didn't illuminate anything, and I couldn't just approach the pole. After a few minutes of thinking, an idea struck. I opened my bag again and dug through it, looking for something that I could burn. I sighed in relief as I pulled out a long forgotten lighter and a set of matches from when I used to smoke. I wasn't sure how they'd remained in my backpack, but I was glad they were there.

Approaching a spot on the wall where I'd remembered seeing a few letters, I flicked the lighter on. I was both surprised and relieved when the green letters returned, albeit with a lower hue. I flicked the lighter off, then pulled out my phone. Turning on the camera, I aimed it at the wall, then flicked the lighter again and took a few quick snapshots. Flicking the lighter off, I opened my photo album. I grinned when I saw the words in the picture, clear as day. "Now, let's just hope I have enough to read everything," I muttered to myself as I began.

It took me a bit longer than I had anticipated, flicking the lighter on and off while snapping picture after picture, but eventually, I had one line of text completely recorded. I went through, pulling up my notepad app and writing down as best of a translation as I could, and from there I got this: I am a grain, but not of sand. I am spread, but not on land. Me you can see, but not know me. What am I?

Great. Riddles. I groaned. I hated riddles, but there had to be a reason for them. I closed my eyes, allowing my normally English mind to be overwhelmed with the knowledge of the Old Draconic language. I focused mostly on the word GRAIN, and ran through the various definitions. In that moment, a part of me was incredibly impressed with just how thorough Athena had been when it came to implanting or downloading the various languages of the races of Equestria into my head. It was as if she imprinted entire lexicons into my brain.

Finally, an image appeared in my head. I smiled as a vast starry sky appeared in my mind's eye. One of the lesser-known definitions of grain in Old Draconic referenced the stars as appearing like sparkling grains of salt on a black surface. I didn't quite know the context, but it sounded poetic. I opened my eyes, then spoke, in old Draconic, "Stars."

Instantly, something in the room changed. The writing on the wall, which held the first riddle, suddenly blazed into existence with a bright blue light. Then, the piece of the wall that contained the writing began to rotate all around, making a whirring sound.

And then the ground moved.

I fell flat on my stomach as the ground below me began moving up towards the level of the circling blue letters. The door vanished as well, until finally the rumbling stopped. A full third of the room had vanished, leaving two thirds left.

I stood up, brushing off the dust that had fallen onto me from the sudden motion. Aside from the ceiling now being only about seven feet away from the ground, nothing else about the room had changed. I decided to try to approach the pole once more. To my delight, it went a lot more smoothly at first. Before, I had been a fourth of the way towards it before I felt resistance, but now I felt the resistance start about half of the way there. However, I still couldn't reach the pole before I felt encased in the metaphorical concrete and I had to return to the edge of the wall. I sighed before realizing a horrifying truth.

If I managed to solve the other two presumable riddles, how was I supposed to get to the small entrance before I was squashed like a bug?

A shiver ran down my body, abject fear passing over me. "No, no wait, calm down," I said to myself, swallowing a bit. There was no way that the Dragons who made this would make the puzzles next to impossible. As I thought, I began to hypothesize that if the magical resistance went away the more I solved the puzzle, the closer to the opening I'd get.

Feeling more determined, I grabbed my lighter and phone again and quickly and carefully repeated the process I'd done before. However, as I did so, I noticed that the lighter seemed to be running low on fluid. In fact, it got so low that by the time I made an entire revolution around the room it would only light up every ten or so flicks.

Putting the now empty lighter back in the backpack, I opened my phone's photo album and read the following: A cloud am I, but not one of rain. I never move, but move all the same. Me you can't see, but through a lens you can take claim. What am I?

"Huh…cloud that doesn't move…not made of water vapor, doesn't but does move…through a lens you can claim? What?" I walked around the circumference of the room, once more looking through the large dictionary of words in my head. First, I looked up CLOUD, but that didn't help since I got the standard answer. Then I looked at LENS, but that was just another dead end. Frowning, I then thought about the two main words together. "Lens…claim a cloud through a lens…hang on…" I thought about CLAIM next, and focused on some of the less widely known Draconic definitions of the word. Something stuck out when I felt the sentence form in my head: Another word for 'See', made popular by Dragon Cantabiles. Example: "I took claim of her beauty with my eyes; she was my own."

"You can see it through a lens, huh…?" I muttered, absent mindedly looking at the three camera lenses on my phone. "Lens…lens…" I pulled up the image on my phone that focused on the word lens and studied it more closely. "What kind of cloud can only be looked at through a lens? What kind of lens? Microscope? Some kind of magnifying-wait!"

When I thought of a magnifying glass, another type of lens popped into my head. One I had back home. Immediately, memories of the stargazing event I had with Zecora and Luna flooded into my head, and I smirked. I searched the Old Draconic lexicon for astronomical terms, once more feeling more and more impressed by how apparently advanced the old Dragon civilization must have been if they had a word for nebula. After a few moments, I found the appropriate word, and smiled as I said, "Starmist."

The words on the wall blazed to life, this time a bright red. I braced myself, and as expected, the floor began rising up until the words on the wall were hidden. I had to kneel now since even at five foot seven the roof was now around four feet away from the ground.

When I tried to approach the pole once again, I managed to get about three fourths of the way there before I encountered resistance. As with before, I didn't even get within reach of the edge of the circular opening before I was unable to breathe. I retreated to the edge of the room, panting heavily. The air in the room now felt oppressive and muggy, like that of a warm summer's day.

I pulled out the pack of matches and opened it up, counting how many remained. I sighed in relief when I saw that it was pretty much full with nineteen matches. Despite that, I knew I had to make them count for something since the light they emitted was less than that of the lighter itself.

Once more, I looked through my bag to see if there was anything that could burn brighter. Paper, or fabric, or something. I was extremely hesitant to tear into any of the spare clothes I had, but I found one of my older t-shirts with Rarity had altered so my wings would fit through. I brought out my dad's hunting knife, then began cutting up the wing sleaves. When that was finished, I grabbed two of my flattened plastic water bottles, squeezed them tightly and did my best to wrap the small bits of cloth around, creating a makeshift torch.

After that, I headed to where the writing started, then plucked out two matches. I got into position, sitting on the floor this time and struck them. The green writing on the wall was barely enough to be illuminated by the small matches, but I was focused more on lighting the temporary torch. I held the flames up to the fabric, holding very still as I waited. The matches burned, but the flames were too small to light the fabric, and they died out in seconds. Cursing, I pulled out my lighter again and shook it, listening to the small amount of lighter fluid remaining. I gently began to squeeze it, hoping to create a crack in the chamber which held the remaining liquid so I could pour it on the fabric. After a few moments, there was a snapping of plastic, and the smell of lighter fluid permeated the air. I quickly poured it on one side of the fabric, but only managed a very small seven or eight drops. Before it could dry, I grabbed another match and lit it. To my relief, the fabric caught fire right where the fluid had fallen, and slowly began to spread through.

Grabbing my phone, I began snapping pictures fast. I scooted forward on my ass slowly as the torch quickly burned from one side to the other. I was happy that it was bright enough to illuminate the words, but was worried that I wouldn't make it to the end before the flames began to dim. I was three quarters of the way through when the fire began to dim. I slowed down a bit, trying not to move too fast or risk the flames going out prematurely. Unfortunately, the flame quickly died out and the words vanished.

I frowned, quietly cursing as I grabbed my matchbook. I pulled out one match, struck it, and began snapping pictures. Unfortunately, the light from the match was barely enough to illuminate one or two letters, so I had to be quick. Sadly, I barely got to one word before the match went out.

I continued repeating this process until I began approaching the end. I looked at the remaining match in my hand, then at the matchbook cover. "Fuck it," I said, lighting the remaining match, the holding the flame up to the thin cardboard. Fortunately, it caught and I began snapping the remaining pictures. When I reached the end, I began moving backwards, snapping more pictures of what I'd already seen just in case I missed anything. Draconic lettering was very precise, and if I didn't illuminate it just right, I could very well miss a small piece of a letter that would drastically change the meaning of the word. The lettering for fire and darkness, for example, were so nearly identical thanks to a small tilde right over the second letter in the word for fire. I could very well have missed one of these small discrepancies. Of course, I didn't make it back too far before my matchbox was turned to ash.

It took me a while longer to sort through the images, and I was glad that I had gone back over the last remnants of the message again, since I had indeed missed a letter. However, when I finally translated the message, it made less sense than the first: Rotation. Dirt. Follow the sun. I break bread when the world runs. What is it?

I just gaped at the translation, trying once more to figure out what the hell I was seeing. For the next fifteen minutes, I went back over the pictures, scrutinizing them as best as I could. "I'm missing something," I muttered as I made my way back to the spot where the riddle started. I spread my wings, grabbed my phone, then hit video record after selecting the slo-mo setting. I poured as much magic as I could into creating a large blast of fire. To my surprise and relief, my wings burst into flames, and lasted for a full five seconds before they began to quickly dim. In that time, I moved the video along the wall, taking in as much detail as I could before the green lettering vanished.

I immediately felt weak, almost as if I had been drained of a large portion of my strength. I quickly drank some water and splashed my face in an attempt to stay awake. It helped a little bit, but my concentration felt like it had taken a beating. I opened my photo album once more and played the five second video. As I watched the screen move and slowly zoom in on the letters, my mind began translating, and came up with something completely new: A rotation of earth, with roots eternal. I break stone when the inner fire runs. What am I?

I looked over the video over and over again, just to be sure I was reading it right. I was just glad that my iPhone camera was a decent quality. "Rotation…rotation?" I began, once more pouring over the translations of that in my head. I opened the video and compared what I saw to the image I took earlier. No denying it: it was the word rotation. I focused harder on the definition of the word, and after a few minutes of deep reflection discovered that a very early translation of the word could also mean cone.

With that, everything else fell into place, or so it seemed. I had a feeling the word they were looking for was volcano, since it was a cone of earth, with roots that dug deep and that didn't easily go away, and the inner fire was definitely referring to magma. But it just didn't quite feel like I was right. It felt too easy.

I decided once more to use my Phoenix flames to illuminate the walls so I could take a panoramic shot instead. Opening my wings as far as they could go in this cramped space, I focused all of my remaining magic into them. Once again, my wings ignited, but this time only at about half brightness. I hit the red button and began moving the camera as carefully as I could. My flames began diminishing almost right away, but I kept on pouring magic into them, slowing the drain. My vision began to fade after a few seconds, but I blinked hard and continued going. Finally, I reached the end and fell backwards, collapsing on my back. I felt like I was about to pass out, but I bit my lip as hard as I could. The pain shocked me awake just enough so that I could sit up and lean against the wall. Opening my photo album once again, I read over the text.

Nothing had changed. The translation I had come up with was the same as before. I sat against the wall, reaching into my bag and grabbing some of the remaining jerky. Eating helped me regain some of my strength, and soon I felt strong enough to move again.

I grabbed my bag, then moved towards the center of the room. The resistance I felt came back once more, and when I was just barely able to move, I moved back a bit, took a deep breath, and said, "Fire Mountain."

The floor began moving upwards once more, and I pushed forward with my remaining strength. The closer the ceiling came, the less resistance I felt. It was as if a cylinder was shrinking the higher I went. Soon it was only three feet…then two feet. I was on my hands and knees, crawling desperately towards the opening.

One and a half feet.

One foot.

I reached out and managed to grab the pole finally. I yelled out a cry of desperation as I utilized all my Earth Pony strength to pull myself towards the hole.

I barely made it just as the floor met the ceiling with a large crunching sound, like eggshells being stepped on.

As the noise died down, I found myself clutching the pole with both arms wrapped around it, eyes closed and panting heavily. My bag was still strapped tightly around me, having made it by the skin of its fabric. My heart was pounding heavily, wings held tightly at my side and my body was trembling with the release of adrenaline. I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself down as best as I could. Finally, I forced my body to relax and I opened my eyes.

And they kept on opening as I saw the contents of the next room. There were only two words on my lips as I gawked at what I saw.

"Holy shit..."