“C’mon… c’mon…” Yearling's words were muffled by the lanternin her mouth. Her hooves scraped against the fallen stone. Each strike hurt her more than it did the fallen debris. A loose pebble found its way to a sensitive spot in the frog of her hood, sending a jolt of pain up her leg.

Her pained yell filled the small space, and in a fit of anger threw her hat at the stubborn stone. It bounced off and narrowly missed her head, flying off into the  darkness.

She turned and rested her back against the rocks, slowly sliding down as her anger died and distress settled in. She should’ve waited until sunrise to enter the temple, but one really couldn’t hold themselves when finding the remnants of an ancient civilization, could they?

She sighed. Looking up, she saw her hat had ended on a rock a few strides away from her. She thought about picking it up, but energy was in short supply and she’d rather just wait until someone came looking for her.

“I really should’ve waited until morning.”

Her sore limbs and strained muscles forced her to shuffle, trying to look for a less uncomfortable rock to rest against.

Once more, her eyes settled on the rock with her hat on it.

“Don’t suppose you know a way out.”

Unsurprisingly, the rock did not reply.

Yearling rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I thought so. It’s odd that it took me this long to find an archeological site that actually fell apart, they’re usually in top shape. Though I suppose with the alpaca tribes being gone for the past two centuries there was no one left to look after this place.”

A shame, really. The last hidden fortress of the Alpaca Empire and the entrance falls on her as soon as she walked in.

Her eyes once more were drawn to the hatted rock. “Knew the royals back then? This was an imperial city, after all. Anything for the history books?

Silence.

Sigh.

Now that she really looked at it, the rock was quite mossy. It must have been part of that wall for centuries. That dull throbbing in her back came back, and she groaned as she tried to move around.

The fire of the lamp flickered, but didn’t go out.

“So… how’s the monotone life? Safe and boring?”

The rock didn’t react.

“I've been getting a lot of that back in Equestria. 'Settle down, A.K. You're not in your thirties anymore'. Blegh.” She huffed and laid her head against the rock. “I just don’t see myself as an old mare giving lectures at a university hall.” She punched one of the rocks behind her. “I’m kind of the opposite of this temple. Always in motion, and I’ll crumble the moment I stop.”

Shadows danced around them as she lifted the lamp with one hoof.

“I always pictured I‘d die on one of these journeys. That’s why all my books have self-contained plots.” She traced the edges of the rocks with her hoof, trying to find a loose one. “It’d suck for the readers to start an overarching plot just to be left hanging because I took an arrow to the side in some forgotten temple by the Marengeti.”

The rocks continued silence made her roll her eyes. Everyone’s a critic.

Once she reached the point where the carved rocks met the mountain, she saw many cracks running over its surface. There was some small solace to be found in knowing that, worst case scenario, she only sped up the collapsing of this part of the fortress instead of directly causing it.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but feel bad knowing it was going to fall down anyway.

She flexed her hurt wing a couple of times.

“I bet you didn’t see it coming, did you?” she asked the rock, her eyes not leaving the cracked mountainside. “It just caught you off guard.”

The rock silented in agreement.

“Better do your best to live without regrets before that time comes, huh? I bet you don’t have any of those.”

There was a thin space between one of the rocks and the mountain. It was small, but it let her slowly push it out of the way. It landed with a thud on the other side, but to her ears it may as well have been a fanfare.

She looked over her shoulder and looked at the rock.

“You can keep the hat,” she said and, smiling, got out of the cavern.