//------------------------------//
// Architecture Is Fun 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

No one was quite sure who should take point after Valey left. Gerardo, as a point of chivalry, seemed to want Starlight and Maple to stay in the middle, and it brought him no end of consternation that he couldn't lead and bring up the rear solely by himself. But Starlight wasn't enjoying the cave's atmosphere, was on edge every minute Valey was gone, and had no problems being up front if it helped them get through quicker.

"Starlight," Maple warned, sticking close behind as she approached a door, "if you feel something grabbing you like that again..."

"I probably won't," Starlight assured, leaving the ravine room into a passage parallel to the one through which they had come. "I hope I won't," she added, frowning.

This room was a short, narrow hall identical to the one beside it. The door at the end even had hinges and another moon glass handle. With careful teeth, Starlight worked it, shuddering through the yawning, yearning, thin-ice sensation that came with the contact. At least it wasn't sticky like when she wasn't glassed. The door opened easily... and she was back in the chapel where they had left Valey.

Starlight blinked, adjusting to the room around her. Valey's room had been an empty box, with a black tile floor and painted brick walls designed to look vaguely like mirrors, though the room they reflected had an altar and pews. The room this room's walls reflected was empty, and there was an altar shortly before her hooves.

Her face scrunched in unease. Two rows of pews faced her; she was at the head of the chapel looking down, administering whatever was to be done at the altar. None of the vague ponies she had seen in the wall were here; it was just her and her friends behind her. But this room and the last one were obviously side by side. It was like the painting wasn't so much an effigy of a mirror as that of a window...

The room in the murals to the side wasn't completely empty, she realized with a start. One pony was painted, sitting near the back of the room with nothing to do. She got an uncomfortable feeling the pony in the painting was Valey.

"I don't like this place," Starlight whimpered, too quiet for either of her friends to hear.

"Well, this is quite the unsettling display of optics," Gerardo muttered. "We must be next to the room where we left Valey..."

Yes, Gerardo, she'd figured that out. What worried Starlight more was that if Valey was in the mural to her side, that meant they weren't just painted but likely enchanted to show the other room... and in Valey's room, this one had appeared full of ponies. Now it was empty.

She had a sudden urge to draw her shadow cloak, and avoided it only for the sake of her friends.

"Can we not stay here?" Maple quietly asked, pointing to the other end of the room. "There's a door..."

Starlight was past the pews in a flash, trying her best not to think about invisible mural ponies. She touched the door, expecting it to open... but there wasn't even a seam in the wall. It was painted on.

She helplessly shrugged at Maple. "Well, that's a dead end, then, I presume," Gerardo remarked sadly, his headcrest drooping. "At least we've ruled one avenue out. To the bridge in the ravine?"

Maple wasn't terribly happy about the prospect of the ravine's narrow walkway, and it showed in her face. Starlight returned to the altar and gave her a comforting nuzzle, not wanting to see her brightness sad. "It's just a bridge," she advised. "You'll be fine."

The walk back to the ravine didn't hold any surprises; the parts of the cave they had explored so far seemed benign, eerie imagery aside. When Starlight actually reached the bridge, though, she gave it a long and skeptical look. It was wider than it had looked from afar, built of smooth bricks and nearly wide enough for a cart to pass by unhindered. While the ravine winds were heavy, she doubted even she was in danger of being blown off.

"We'll all cross as a group," Maple decided. "I don't have ballast, so Gerardo probably weighs the most? He should go up front, I'll hang onto him, and Starlight can hang onto me."

"Sounds like a reasonable plan," Gerardo decided. "Very well, then. Let us cross."

Gerardo took the first step, and then the second, Starlight biting Maple's tail just in case the gusts overwhelmed her. Then Maple stepped onto the bridge, the telltale hissing of moon glass against harmonic flame rising from beneath her hooves. They walked further out, Starlight frowning at the bricks below. What was hissing? These were ordinary stones.

Her eyes widened just before the bridge began to buckle. Moon glass was the bridge's grout.

"Back! Back, I say!" Gerardo spun in a flash, plowing into Maple and Starlight as the bridge actually sagged beneath them. Several bricks broke free and plunged into the abyss, and his paws and talons scrabbled for purchase on the changing, growing slope. But he found it, and the three were bowled firmly back onto solid ground.

"What was that...?" Maple asked, shaking, sitting upright with her eyes wandering over to the damage. Starlight looked too; the bridge sagged and contorted, like it was made of rope and wood slats instead of bricks and mortar. Some of the pieces on the edges had caved in, and she realized why it had looked so narrow from a distance: it might have been wide enough for a cart, but it was only one brick thin.

Gerardo scowled at the half-fallen bridge. "Now that's dastardly architecture if I've ever seen it. Granted, we knew there was obsidian in the floor, but still..."

"Do you think it can even hold us?" Maple murmured, staring at the bridge in nervous awe.

"Well, I'm willing to test for myself," Gerardo volunteered, squaring his shoulders. "However it absolutely won't take any more of your hoofsteps, and I'm trying to find a way we could get you across while preserving the route for our return..."

Maple swallowed. "You probably can't fly me in these winds, can you?"

"In a downdraft like this?" Gerardo sadly shook his head. "Not likely. And I'm dubious as to whether that thing could even support me carrying you on foot."

Starlight blinked at Gerardo's implications, a scowl growing on her face. "We are not leaving Maple behind."

Maple winced. "Well, Valey would appreciate the company, but I agree with Starlight. The whole point of me being here is so I can use the harmonic flame if we need it, right? I need to get it to the other side of this bridge. Me staying behind wouldn't do that, and if I got rid of it somehow so I didn't melt the bridge, that would defeat the point."

"Strictly speaking, it is a contingency," Gerardo admitted. "When our one and only goal is to find Harshwater and get her to leave this place without awakening or unsealing any evil monks, plans to fight such an evil monk are-"

"Are what?" Starlight raised an eyebrow. "How many times have we not had something like that happen? There were windigoes in Ironridge, remember?"

That took the wind out of Gerardo's sails.

"Okay," Maple declared, "decision. We're going back to Valey and getting her input. I don't like the idea of staying behind, and I want as many better ideas as possible."

No one objected to that, even though there was an unspoken assumption they were in a hurry. Starlight swallowed back her reservations, trailing the group as they made their way to the entry chapel.