Trixie concentrated; her horn glowed and magic touched the narrow ledge causing it to crumble, dislodging the giant boulder. It came down suddenly with an earth shaking thud with a few large pieces of rock breaking off from it. Trixie took off running towards the tunnel, teleporting past any problematic obstacles. The boulder teetered, and then to Trixie's shock started rolling towards Twilight's group; she hadn't wanted to crush them. She briefly considered helping them, but decided to push forward and reach the Ark.

The boulder continued to roll towards Twilight's group slowly picking up momentum. In a panic they turned and ran towards the tunnel they just entered from. Twilight caught a movement of blue out of the corner of her eye going in the opposite direction. They raced into the tunnel followed by the boulder which smashed into the entrance breaking apart but producing a smaller boulder which propelled itself forward and rolled at even greater rate. They continued to run as fast as they could, followed by the boulder that continuing to smash into various stalactites and stalagmites causing more and more pieces of the boulder to break off. As they raced back to the entrance the sound of the boulder grew higher in pitch and fainter and fainter in sound till Twilight couldn't hear it any longer. She managed to get the group to stop with a little bit of effort, while at the same time a small little pebble bounded down the tunnel and hit Fluttershy in one of her hind legs. This caused her to scream in panic, "Help, the boulder hit me! I'm being crushed!"

Applejack quickly moved to reassure her friend, "Fluttershy! You're safe now, you're okay! Nothing is crushing you." Fluttershy blinked away her tears, gave a little sniff and tried to give a brave smile.

"Well that was random." observed Dash.

Twilight shook her head, "No it wasn't. I saw Trixie back in the cave. She must have followed us in. We have to hurry!"

Trixie reached the end of the tunnel and entered the final chamber. There it lay on a stone pedestal, Pandora's Ark, a rectangular container made of gold, roughly three feet by two feet by two feet in size. The Ark was lit up, though faintly, from light that was coming from an air shaft that was situated above it which in itself indicated that there still was some daylight left. The Ark was covered with various inlaid images of unicorns, trees and zebras, giving the appearance of telling a life story. As breath taking as it was, the real prize was what was inside. She immediately started chanting a rhyme she was taught as a young foal as she slowly approached the ark.

The three fastest, Twilight, Dash, and Applejack all took off. Twilight teleported forward as fast as she could and quickly took the lead. Applejack ran as hard as she could trying to keep up with Twilight. Dash ran into difficulties trying to fly in the tight corridor of the tunnel and eventually gave up and took to the ground running.

The other three ran as fast as they were able but saw their friends quickly run out of sight, causing Rarity to grumble, "Well there they go again, running off without us." She then turned to Pinkie and gave her a rather quizzical look. "Why are you not running up there with them?"

"What do you mean?" asked a rather surprised Pinkie.

"With you using your super-speed and all."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." replied Pinkie giving a genuine blank stare.

Trixie pushed with all her might on the lid of the Ark, and it refused to budge. "I guess the Great and Powerful Trixie will have to take a more direct approach." She muttered under her breath. She levitated two rocks, one of which was wedge shaped. She magically hammered the wedge rock into the seal of the Ark repeatedly. Soon a crack opened, and then the lid shifted.

At that moment Twilight entered the chamber and saw what was happening. She let out a loud torrent of denial, "No, no, no, no, no! NO!"

"Yes!" said Trixie simultaneously. White wisps of gossamer-like energy slowly wafted up from the ark and approached Trixie. The wisps paused ever so briefly before suddenly moving at a very high rate of speed. They briefly split into two streams as they moved around Trixie without touching her and then recombining and making a beeline for Twilight, entering her. She let out a groan of pain as she flared up in a flash of light before she crumpled to the ground unconscious, the light gone.

Trixie was stunned; it took her a few seconds to truly grasp what just happened. Then it was her turn for the screams of denials as she crumpled to her back knees hoisting her forelegs skywards in anguish, "No! NO! It was supposed to be ME! ME!" as tears of frustration streamed from her eyes.

As that happened Applejack followed by Rainbow Dash entered the chamber and found their fallen friend. "Twilight! Twilight!" they called as they tended to her.

Soon Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy entered the chamber and joined the huddle, their faces full of concern and fear. Though it seemed like an eternity, it was just a few seconds that had passed before Twilight began to stir.

"Twilight? Twilight? Are ya okay?" asked Applejack.

Twilight responded in a voice that barely rose above a whisper, "I'm okay. I just feel a little weak, that's all."

Her eyelids slowly fluttered open as she looked at her friends that were surrounding her. Their expressions changed from worry to surprise as they backed off a bit. If Twilight had a mirror, she would have seen what they saw, that her eyes had changed and were now glowing brightly.

To Be Continued….