"Alarming update: He who would be Lieutenant Warhol has spotted something.
"Fragmentary assessment: Those who would make up the expedition of he who would be Lieutenant Warhol discovered what appeared to have been a non-organic floating object towards Alpha. The construct was described as artificial in nature. It is not to be confused with wooden zeppelins theorized to have been constructed by they who would be Bloodwings, last evidenced towards Omega. It is also not to be confused with the levitating rocks observed towards Curveside. Instead—from the statements given by he who would be Lieutenant Warhol—the object resembled a geometrically perfect series of glass planes forming a rectangular solid that floated under its own unknown propulsion over the wasteland of the Dark Side. The planes possessed a singular glow, emitting a bright crimson light visible to all who would make up the expedition of he who would be Lieutenant Warhol.
"Personal reflection: I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort do believe that we are now dealing with an unknown faction of sapient entities in possession of remarkable magic. It is a shame that those who would be the expedition of he who would be Lieutenant Warhol were not capable of approaching the curious phenomenon any closer. No doubt the technology that empowers this object is a level of perfection that those who would be the divine purveyors of progress in that which would be Cylindrimane have only dreamt of in all their years of dedication to their craft.
"Concluding thought: We who would be the Verdestonian Expedition set out upon the Dark Side in expectation of chaos. I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort now believe that we have discovered a new definition of order. It is difficult to put into words the emotions that I am currently feeling. There has been so very little to hope for. And yet now—in the bleakness—a sense of wonder draws me Curveside. I who would be Chief Engineer Ranort can do nothing more in that which would be called Darkreach but waste away, and yet I must not share these unprofessional feelings with she who would be Commander Gwen."
Rainbow Dash descended.. hovered... but didn't quite touch down. She stared down at her own reflection... glinting off an immaculate plate of ruby-tinted glass. Stars and nebulae hung like a canvas behind her own image.
"Twilight...?" Rainbow gulped. "Rarity...?" Her eyes searched her own reflection and beyond. "Front and center."
Ariel nervously hovered behind her. The dimensions of the collapsed plate of glass afforded them a teensy bit of space where they could fly free of the living stalks on all sides. A solid path of open air swam up the mountain side from which they descended. It was quieter than a library upon the fringes of the living forest of flesh-eating kelp.
"You... uh... you going to touch the stuff or what?" Ariel asked.
"Just a sec," Rainbow muttered as familiar colors hovered parallel with her. "Consulting my friends."
"Whew-wee..." Ariel shook her head with a smile. "What I wouldn't give to have a cabal of handy mares to float tightly around me at a simple beck and call." She blushed slightly. "Erm... you know what I mean."
"Uh huh." Rainbow looked aside at Rarity. "What is it made of, Rares?"
"Hmmmmm..." Rarity tapped her pale muzzle, squinting hard at the reflective material. She remained silently contemplative like that for a while.
"Oooookay. I'll get back to you." Rainbow turned towards Twilight. "Is it gonna zap me if I touch it?"
"Not even remotely," Twilight said. "Whatever it is—it can most definitely channel mana-energy, but right now it's inert." She looked up, blinking. "It's been that way for a long time."
"Yeah? How long?"
Twilight shook her head. "Unclear."
"I wouldn't suggest we stay here too long, Rainbow," Fluttershy said, nervously eyeing the quivering stalks on all sides of the fallen plate. "I somehow feel that these things might be able to sense our proximity. It'd be awful if they snatched up you or even Ariel for dinner."
"Yeah, I'm with Fluttershy on that," Applejack said. "I've seen enough bad dreams to know where this is going."
"It's okay. We won't be long." Rainbow looked aside once again. "Rarity...?"
"It's... glass," the fashionista said.
Rainbow face-hoofed. "Jee. Thanks."
"But don't get me wrong!" Rarity looked up with bright eyes. "It's not the same as the kind of glass you'd get in a mirror! Or set upon a vanity! Or manufacture a window with!"
"So... what? It's super chaos glass?" Rainbow looked up the mountainside. "How the heck did it form? Not like there's something that would have spilled it out of the rock."
"Oh, it's definitely artificial," Rarity said. "At least... I-I think it is."
"Huh?"
"Just... t-touch it," Rarity insisted.
Rainbow looked at Twilight once more.
Twilight nodded.
Exhaling gently, Rainbow stopped flapping her wings. She landed nimbly in the middle of the ruby sheet.
Pl-Plonk!
"Oooh!" Pinkie smiled at the others. "Makes a nice sound effect!"
Ariel also touched down. Plonk! Breathing calmly, she and Rainbow exchanged looks.
"It feels..." Rainbow blinked. "...dull."
"And yet it's glossy," Rarity said. "Polished, even. No sign of dirt. Not even a speck of dust."
"Maybe it's built out of somethang that resists impurities?" Applejack suggested.
"It's... built out of something, alright..." Rarity sighed. "The... the closest I can come up with is... is..." She looked squarely at Rainbow. "... ... ...the shards we found in Darkreach."
Rainbow's brow furrowed. "You mean the stuff Flynn's using to power up the core?"
"I-I think what Rarity's trying to say..." Twilight's lips pursed as she thought aloud: "...is that it's less like glass and more like crystal?"
"Precisely!" Rarity gasped, phasing chest-deep through the polished floor so she could examine the material even closer. For as solid and unbreakable as it was, the material was no more than three or four inches thick. "It's almost as if the entire thing is made out of the same substance as that which powers up Darkreach! But... perhaps... a slightly different composition. More..." Her ears drooped as she searched for the word: "Concentrated."
"Imagine if you could attach leylines to this," Fluttershy said.
"You could power up Darkreach forever!" Applejack said with a smile.
"That's... not likely how it would work," Twilight remarked, shaking her head. "I think we're dealing with something we've never seen before."
"Maybe we haven't!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "But what about Dashie?"
The mares looked at her.
"I've... never seen anything like this," Rainbow said, shifting her weight across the panel. "I mean... well..."
"What?" Twilight asked.
"There's skystone," Rainbow said. "The Noble Jury was powered by a huge friggin' chunk of the stuff. But it was like a literal turd of glowing red crystal. Also, I've taken glimpses of the skystard fields to the north of where I've flown... not to mention the stuff that the Naga used to power their own airships." She shook her head. "I've never seen it carved up into a perfectly flat plate of glass."
"What marvelous engineer," Rarity cooed. "It couldn't have been the brutish Dark Vigil! Or could sarosians somehow have progressed far enough to carve something like this?"
"Can skystone form on the Dark Side?" Applejack said.
"I don't see why not," Rainbow said. "It just likes to form along the horizontal edges of the plane. I've always assumed it has something to do with how Urohringr was once connected... and then savagely broken off by the Sundering."
Twilight looked at Rarity. "Are you detecting more pieces of this kind of material nearby... or in the distance?"
"Funny you should ask, darling," Rarity said, rubbing her skull in concentration. "I'm already attempting to search for it."
Pinkie grinned. "Who wants to vote for Rare-Rare as ghost-pony-mvp?"
Fluttershy smiled. "She gets my vote."
"Silly Flutters. We might need you yet when something tries to eat us."
"Oh. Uhm..."
"Ahem..." Ariel trotted closer to Rainbow. "Sorry to interrupt, but..." She arched an eyebrow. "Any revelations?"
Rainbow glanced at her. "It's made out of crystal. Not glass."
"Crystal?" Ariel made a face. She gawked at the transparent material beneath them, spotting nothing but solid black grit and grime beyond the sheet. "Who the heck built it?"
"No clue," Rainbow said. "We're dealing with new, freaky stuff."
"Oh, joy."
"I've got it!" Rarity exclaimed triumphantly. "I sense... I-I sense other sheets!"
"You do?" Twilight grinned. "How many?"
"Five! At least... yes. Definitely five." She turned around, pointing at various spots along the Alpha, Omega, and Curveside "horizons." "There... there and there... and there and there." A shuddering breath. "They're... so randomly placed. It's a bit hard to judge, but one of them—Curveside—appears to be located in an 'epicenter' so to speak."
"Five plus one," Twilight said. "Six plates... six sides."
"Huh?" Rainbow turned to face her.
"I... I think we're dealing with some sort of cube," Twilight said. "Or a rectangular solid."
"Oh yeah?" Rainbow squinted. "Powered by what?"
Twilight merely stared at her. Ultimately, she shrugged.
"Uhm... if I might add something?" Fluttershy spoke up.
"Out with it, girl."
"I'm sensing five things too," Fluttershy said. "Or—more specifically—five absences of things."
"What?"
"Ahem..." Applejack floated closer. "I think she means wherever these other five plates landed, there's nothin' growin' on them or beneath them."
"It's just like with where we are right now, Rainbow," Fluttershy said. "Whatever happened with this sheet, it landed here a long time ago and crushed all the ground beneath it." She shook her head. "None of the stalks around us can grow beneath us."
"Well, lucky for us," Rainbow said. "I... uh..." She scratched her chin, gazing west to where the sheet ended before a wall of stalks. "...I don't suppose they can help us leapfrog our way across this gunky forest of willies."
"Perish the thought!" Rarity clenched her teeth, shivering. "There's simply too much perilous distance between the plates."
"Still..." Rainbow scratched her chin as she looked at the steep mountainside cascading down into the glass plate. It was almost a perfect slope—free of crags and shoals. "...we just might have the next best thing."
"What?" Ariel caught Rainbow's gaze. "What's the next best thing?"
"Wuh oh..." Pinkie Pie clutched her curling tail. "I detect something stupiddddd!"
"Heh. Maybe the king of all stupidz." Rainbow flapped her wings and flew safely away from the flanking stalks. "Time to finish our patrol. Come, Ariel."
"Heh..." The Heraldite gladly flew after her. "You know the magic word."