“What’s up? Why are we stopping?” Dash asked. “It's not even noon.”
Strider set Rainbow down without bothering to respond.
“Is there something here? What’s so special about this place?” Dash looked around, and found that they were in an old campsite. “Wait, is this your campsite?”
Moving a branch out of the way, Strider drew Dash’s attention to a large stone slab jetting up from the ground. “What is that?” Dash asked as she approached the stone. Although the stone itself was black, Rainbow could see herself in its polished surface.
Strider moved away from the stone and sat down. Brushing some leaves and twigs out of his way, Strider began to draw in the dirt using a stick. Sitting next to him, Dash watched as he worked.
The first image was of a simple figure, a biped with a circle for a head and lines for its body and limbs, inside a square with a triangle on top of it. Next, he drew the same figure with trees around it. After that was the figure standing in front of a circle, then the figure touching the circle, then a new circle with the figure on the opposite side as before. FInally he drew the figure meeting a second one, only the second figure was a quadruped with two extra lines rising out of its back.
Dash looked between Strider, his drawings and the stone. “Is… is that what happened to you?” she asked. “Is the stone what brought you here? Why not use it to go back?”
When Strider didn’t give her an answer, Dash tried again. “You.” she pointed at him. “Stone.” She pointed at the stone. “Home.”
Strider seemed to understand her this time, and walked over to the stone.
“Hey! Wait!” Dash yelled as he reached out and touched the surface.
“So, it doesn’t work anymore.” Dash stated when nothing happened.
With a heavy sigh, Strider sat back down next to Dash.
“Don’t worry,” she said, wrapping her good wing around him. “If we ever get back to Ponyville, I’ll have Twilight whip up some portal opening magic for you.”