"Camera... camera...!"
Pinkie dug blindly through her pack, unable to take her eyes off the scene before her.
She sat at the leading edge of the third island, an order of magnitude larger than the last, and gawked. Flanking a wide main road were rows and rows of crumbling stone structures, some of which stretched three or four stories tall. A wooden wagon sat in the overgrowth nearby, missing a wheel on one side. The road stretched for at least a mile before splitting in two directions; the size of the place was hard to tell from her vantage point.
click
Still, a picture was clearly in order. Tucking the camera away, she started off down the grass-covered road, glancing this way and that as one thing after another caught her eye.
She stopped briefly to explore one building in particular, stepping around a partially fallen sign whose lettering had long since weathered away. As her eyes adjusted to the muted interior light, she found herself staring down a glass display counter, surprisingly intact - albeit completely bare save for a layer of dust. Shelves lined the wall behind it, equally devoid of features, and broken by a doorway at one end. A folding sign sat on the floor nearby, almost indistinguishable from the dust in which it lay; with a mighty breath, she cleared it off just enough to have a look at the bagels, muffins, and loaves of bread it featured.
She was standing in a bakery.
Immediately, Pinkie's gaze snapped to the door in the back. She raised a hoof to step forward, but hesitated and ultimately set it back down; if there were any treats left behind for her to scavenge, they probably weren't edible anymore. Stranger things had happened, sure - but it seemed wise not to get her hopes up. With a sigh that disturbed another pile of dust, she turned and left the derelict building.
A nagging worry began building up in the back of her mind as she returned to the road, only half noticing the weathered debris and the husks of buildings around her. What if these ruins were all there was to find up here?
She couldn't help shivering at the thought.
Five hundred years was more than enough time for a civilization to die off. Maybe they all got sick, or ran out of food, or started fighting each other for some reason! She wasn't sure how likely any of those were - she wasn't sure about a lot of things, if she was being totally honest with herself - but they were certainly possibilities. At the very least, the ruins she was in now meant that things might not be going great up here.
All the more reason to carry out her mission, then. She shivered again, this time from the cold... but steeled herself.
Besides, if the worst had happened, that at least meant she would get to enjoy all these delectable treats herself! So it wasn't a total loss. Though she would still definitely feel bad if that turned out to be the case. A whole lost floating pony kingdom gone? That would be a total bummer... no, more than that - it would be a super bummer! Her ears drooped as she imagined having to go back down and tell Moondancer there was nopony left to talk to... that all she found were tasteless berries, floaty rocks, and some dust...
Realizing she had been wandering for a bit while lost in thought, Pinkie stopped at the entrance to something resembling a courtyard - or maybe a small park? The tall grass made way for cobblestone, flanked by a row of trees on each side to give partial shade. A low wall stretched around the whole thing, crumbling here and there just like the buildings behind her.
She approached a round stone basin that had probably held water at some point in the past. A statue in surprisingly good condition stood proudly in the center, a pony covered in armor with her forehoof outstretched and a pair of flared wings sprouting from her back.
click
Two shots would have to be enough for the next island, because there was no way she was passing this up.
She trotted in a quick circle around the statue, but found no plaque or other obvious identifier to tell her who the winged pony was. Then again, would she even be able to read it either way?
"..."
A thought struck Pinkie. She had always wanted to do this back home, but the attempt had always gotten her yelled at. Not only was this statue even bigger than that one, but this time, there was nopony around to tell her 'no' - though she took a quick glance just to be totally sure.
She perched on the edge of the basin directly behind the statue and crouched. With an anticipatory wiggle, she leapt as high as she could and landed solidly on the statue's flank.
"Heeheehee!"
The outstretched wings made it a rather awkward seat, but she plopped down on her haunches regardless and grinned at her surroundings. To her moderate disappointment, there wasn't much to see from her new vantage point; unkempt as they were, the trees blocked all but the tallest buildings from view. Still, she giggled to herself in satisfaction and gave the statue an affectionate pat on the head before turning around and hopping back down.
There was almost certainly far more to see in this ruined city, but she really needed to get a move on; the sun had already begun its descent into mid-afternoon, and she was still on a time limit. Thankfully, this island was much longer than it was wide, and the clouds connected to it on that width; she was likely fairly close by now.
Sure enough, a mere few minutes of walking put her at the base of the Cloudy Path once more. The city itself ended just a few yards from the edge, a pile of crumbling stone sloping right up to it. At least there was nothing but empty mountains beneath, or these rocks could have caused serious damage falling from this high up!
Pinkie had to stand at the very edge to see the ground at all - she was so high up now that the sky above and clouds below completely filled the view otherwise. The sight made her hooves tingle again, and she shivered.
It was the perfect time for another snack break.