"Hey!" Pinkie Pie chimed, floating alongside Rainbow Dash with a smile. "Wanna bet that the moment we get up there, Flynn will be shocking himself and cussing?"
"Huh?" Rainbow glanced aside at her.
Just then, she entered the lofty compartment that made up Darkreach's HQ.
Bzzzzt! "Gaah!" Flynn jolted backwards from an instrument panel he and Kepler were working on. "Goddess damn ass nuggets!"
"Heeheehee!" Pinkie giggle-snorted. "Soooooooo predictable!"
Rainbow shook her head. "Why can't you... like... hone in on that sense and make it more practical?"
"Make what morre prractical, Rrainbow One?" Kepler asked.
"Never mind." Rainbow cleared her throat and approached the two stallions. "Just talking to Pinkie Pie."
"Ah!" Kepler nodded, adjusting his spectacles. "That's the lavender one, yes?"
Rainbow glared at Kepler.
"Ahem!" Flynn butted into the conversation, suckling on the edge of his burnt fetlock. "Mmmfff..." He spat his limb out and stood beside the wyvern. "So nice of you to join us, Rainbow."
"Uh huh." Rainbow arched an eyebrow. "Am I too early for the funeral?"
"I wasn't trying to kill myself, honest!" Flynn frowned at the instrument panel where several frayed wires had been pulled out. "It's just this damnable old leyline array that's pissing me off to no end!"
"Say, guys..." Rainbow pointed at the loose wiring. "I thought the whole idea was to settle here in Darkreach for a bit... not pull it apart by the seams."
"I assurre you, ourr good brrotherr Flynn has no interrest in dismantling this wonderrful base," Kepler said.
"Then why is he dismantling this wonderful base?"
"I needed extra juice to power up the device you discovered yesterday."
"Device?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "What device?"
"What yesterday?" Pinkie chirped.
"I do believe he is rreferring to this!" Kepler raised a metal slab with several wires connected to it.
"Oh!" Rainbow smirked. "The briefcase! I remember that thing!"
"Uh huh..." Flynn's good eye narrowed accusatorily. "Probably because you kicked it halfway across Darkreach like a piece of junk."
"Because it is a piece of junk!" Rainbow roughly slapped the side of the metal slab. Clang! A blink. "... ... ...isn't it?"
Flynn sighed.
"Not... entirrely, Rrainbow One," Kepler said. "You see, it began a few hourrs ago when Flynn and I kept coming acrross these peculiarrly shaped crrystals that refused to channel enerrgy into the colony's centrral corre."
"Okay..."
Flynn continued for Kepler, "The material of these crystals were designed for permanent mana imprints. Within the inner structure are layers and layers of finely etched fissures—like microscopic runes—that either impede or allow the flow of magical energy."
"Yeesh..." Rainbow's ears folded. "That sounds complicated..."
"And cool!" Pinkie said.
Rainbow waved her off. "So... what... are these crystals meant to be some sort of... storage device?"
"Prrecisely what we thought!" Kepler said. He held one crystal up and displayed its triangular shape. "And so we starrted looking forr a housing unit that might storre these sharrds and allow forr mana-data trransferrence!"
"And one of us tripped over your damn briefcase thingy and that's when we noticed a perfectly-fitting chamber," Flynn said. "So... we stuck one of the crystals in and tried powering the thing up."
"Turrns out that it's enerrgy corre is badly corrroded."
"So we're using the mana-node here in the HQ as an external power supply. I was just now tweaking the powerflow so as not to overload this thing—"
"Wait wait wait wait..." Rainbow waved her hooves. "... ... ...so exactly what is this thing?"
"We... uh..." Flynn looked at Kepler, then back at Rainbow. "We believe that it might be a recorder of some sort."
"Recorder of what?" Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "... ... ...journals of the Emeraldinians?"
"That is what we're hoping."
"Okay, well..." Rainbow took a breath. "What are we waiting for?"
"You! Ha-hah!" Kepler smiled. He smiled some more.
"... ... ...soooooo." Rainbow fidgeted.
"Ahem..." Kepler cleared his throat. "A thousand apologies."
"Just needed to get it out of his system!" Pinkie said, giggling.
"Now, then..." Kepler fished around through a pile of crystals and found one. "Let us see..."
"Does it matter what order you put them in?" Rainbow asked, pointing.
"Forr a simple demo, I highly doubt it!" Kepler nodded aside. "Brrotherr Flynn! Prrovide a stable enerrgy flow!"
"On it!" Flynn cranked a lever attached to the open instrument panel. The walls of the HQ hummed as the lights above flickered.
Kepler placed a triangular crystal into the heart of the "briefcase." He then pressed two buttons with his claws and turned a dial.
Bzzzzt! Sparks flew from a nearby console.
"Whoah—!" Rainbow flinched.
"It's alright!" Flynn exclaimed, reaching in with a electrode of sorts to fix the power surge. "Bound to happen!"
"Well, could you make it bound less?!"
"There's nothing to be concerned about—"
"Shhhhh!" Kepler hissed. "Please, frriends!" He leaned forward, staring into the dim shadows of the room. "I am getting audio!"
Everypony froze in place, including Pinkie Pie.
A whining sound came from the slab propped against Kepler's figure. The triangular crystal strobed and fluctuated.
"Uhm..." Rainbow bit her bottom lip. "Should I put some tinfoil on my skull and do ballet?"
Pinkie giggle.
"I do believe..." Kepler pricked his hairy earlobes towards the ceiling. "...I am getting some inforrmation..."
"It sounds... like singing," Flynn murmured.
"It's the playback," Rainbow remarked. "It's at too fast a speed!"
"A noble obserrvation, Rrainbow One!" Kepler adjusted his glasses and studied the dials and buttons on the metal slab in his grasp. "Let's see, now... ... ...something to adjust tempo..."
"I see what looks like a slider," Rainbow said.
"Good catch," Flynn said, smiling. "You certainly know your way around advanced technology!"
"Forever and a day in Ledomare will do that," Rainbow droned. "I can't count how many managliders I struggled to outfly."
"Mana... gliders...?" Flynn rolled his good eye. "Pffft. Sounds stupid." Bzzzt! "Ow! Dammit!"
"I have something!" Kepler triumphantly boomed.
"Bbbbbbbbbbb-crkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk-ttttttttttttt—" the speakers of the slab crackled.
"Can you get it to... unbuck itself?" Rainbow muttered.
"Adjusting..." Kepler licked at his tusks.
At last, the "briefcase" made a far more discernible sound: "Pppppppppppp-p-p-p-p-please-please-please-please input requiredddddddd command into that which woulddddddddd be the Crystalline Auditoryyyyyyyyyyy Informational Neural Emitterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr—"
"Crystalline... Auditory..." Rainbow grimaced. "...what-now?"
"Holy crud..." Flynn nearly danced in place. "I live for this shit!" He swatted Kepler with his tail. "Quick, Keps! Adjust that lateral knob!"
"What forr?"
"Just do it!"
"Ach!" Kepler's claws went to work. "Discoverry is a brrothel and you arre the most impatient virrgin!"
"Damn proud, too."
Meanwhile, the briefcase: "Bbbbbbbbbbbbbb-bringing more supplies frommmmmmmmmm Heaven's Landinggggggg—" Static. "Cccccccccccc-coming backkkkkkk from Omega with the expeditionnnnnnnnn of he who wouldddddddddddddd be Lieutenant Warholllllllllll—" Static. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-required to avoiddddddddd the lunar sights of the Bloodwinggggggggggggggggg colonyyyyyyyyyyy—"
"Uh... guys?" Rainbow fidgeted.
"I cannot seem to find a stationarry point in the inforrmational feed!" Kepler said. "The leylines have no focus!"
"Could it be interference from the rest of Darkreach?" Flynn asked.
"Unlikely," Kepler muttered, still fiddling with the device. "It was built inside this place, yes?"
"Well, as far as we know."
"I think that the innerr worrkings arre jostled."
"So... unjostle them!" Rainbow said.
Kepler gulped. "I do not know how."
"It's simple!" Rainbow looked at Flynn. "Just smack it around like I did in the first place!"
"Yes—" Flynn flinched. "No—!"
"Zoop!" Rainbow gave the device one heavy swat of her fetlock. WHAP!
Bzzzzt! The crystal stopped fluctuating. It took on a steady glow as the speakers smoothely poured forth: "Achievement unlocked: successful startup of the Crystalline Auditory Informational Neural Emitter. Imperative introduction: this is the voice of he who would be Chief Engineer Ranort of that which would be Cylindrimane. You, who would be the listening audience, shall bear witness to the audio log of the Verdestonian Expedition that would be called Darkreach."
Flynn and Kepler listened, dumbstruck.
"Woo! Achievements!" Pinkie pumped a hoof. "What kind of trophies do we get?!"