Making Good Time

I have to go do stuff tonight, but I've been writing a lot and thought I'd share a little hint of the next chapter (Interlude Two, where we see the Equestria side of things), since I don't know how busy I'll be in the next couple days:

Wanting to prime her courtiers with the exceptional nature of the situation, Celestia decided to forgo the traditional circular meeting table and instead called forth five planes of concentrated force to flash through the marble floor, liberating a long rectangular slab which she then raised and bound firmly to the very space of the room, leaving it to hover, ominously inert, at a seated pony’s chest level.
No fussily dressed maids entered with trays of confectionary or sumptuous, palatial cushions. Instead, Luna, reading her sister’s intentions, conjured a mat of black, utilitarian padding trimmed in silver, to bridge the pit left by the floating table, and two rows of similarly spartan black and silver drinking bowls, filled with clear water.

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They exchanged a polite nod with a circle of ponies and one diamond dog sharing a hookah made from an old municipal censer, then turned another corner to arrive at the surprisingly plain and unadorned entrance to the most ancient part of the tunnels. Upper Reaches had expected a sign, or a curtain, or at least some kind of frame around the threshold, but it was simply a rough circular shaft sunk into the face of the rock, sloping gently downward and swallowing the light as if it were stuffed with ink-stained cotton.

It's been a while, so here's Interlude One in case you missed it.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Yeah, nothing says "serious business" like slicing off a piece of the floor and exempting it from gravity just to use it a conference table. Yikes...

[Parametric Ponymorphism]

They exchanged a polite nod with a circle of ponies and one diamond dog sharing a hookah made from an old municipal censer, then turned another corner to arrive at the surprisingly plain and unadorned entrance to the most ancient part of the tunnels.

Are they going to visit some kind of underground gathering place of Canterlot potheads?

"Okay guys, who mailed this letter? Really, the old 'send random junk to Celestia' prank? First, the ads for horn enlargement pills and now this..."

[Balthasar999]

1316525
It's especially cool if you imagine the sound effects.

1317333
Hahaha I didn't even think of that. It was mainly coming out of how, since horses have such sensitive noses, Equestrian cities would probably be full of all sorts of things to control or mask odors. There's a bit early on about rations of incense.