Hoofsteps.
Ariel looked up from where she sat in the middle of the common room, polishing a Cylindrimanian reconaissance sphere.
Rainbow Dash trotted into view, her mane evidently wind-blown. She glanced at Ariel.
Ariel glanced back.
"... ... ...got the local surveys back from the ancient probes?" Rainbow asked.
Ariel nodded. "Yes."
"Logan almost finished with his arsenal?"
Ariel nodded. "Yes."
"Flynn fixing up the wagon with hover-rock-thingies?"
Ariel nodded. "Yes."
"Kepler uncovered more notes from Ranort?"
Ariel nodded. "Yes."
"Wildcard's nearly got his left arm back?"
Ariel nodded. "Yes."
"Seraphimus kill anyone while I was away?"
Ariel shook her head. "No."
Rainbow exhaled. She looked across the room to where the former Commander lay shackled to pipework. She glanced at Ariel again. "Awesome. I'm going to go." She trotted for the nearest stairwell.
Ariel craned her neck. "Go where?"
"Go chillax," Rainbow muttered. "I made a promise not to kill myself."
"Okay! Cool!" Ariel smiled. She fidgeted. "... ... ...can I join you?"
"How did you ultimately decide to compensate forr the grravitational centerr?" Kepler asked.
"Well, that's the thing." Flynn pointed across the storage compartment to where the wide, flat metal cart hovered—anchored to the corner of the place. Several chunks of ancient manacrystals glowed across its undercarriage. "The piece of shit was just flopping about real willy-nilly. Hours ago, if you so much as sneezed on the thing, it would flip over like a motherbucker."
"Ach..." Kepler shook his head. "Most drreadful indeed."
"Maybe if we were a bunch of ancient Cylindrimanians nerds accustomed to the leylines, we'd be able to 'steady' it with a burst of telekinesis. But... we've got no luck in that area," Flynn explained. "They're all dead or gone or both and none of Ranort's notes are even helping with this crud."
Kepler smirked. "Not yet, brrotherr."
"Yeah, well, I can't afford to hold out," Flynn said. "So... I decided to modernize it a bit."
"How so?"
"I was remembering Rainbow Dash's notes on the technology that the Ledomaritans used. That stuff is leaps and bounds above the propulsion we can afford east of the Blight, right?"
"Rright..."
"So, I asked her to simply sketch what the stuff they used over there looked like. No details beyond that. Just draw how the glowing undercarriage of... uhhhhh... a Ledomaritan 'managlider' appeared."
"And did she?"
"She provided me a diagram. And I think I figured something out. But I didn't have any of the materials that the Ledomaritans do. And—come to think of it—neither did the Cylindrimanians back in their hayday. So I had to improvise."
"Let me guess. With Lunarr rrocks."
Flynn gestured with a smile. "Behold..." He galloped over to the edge of the room. There, he untethered the cart and stepped away from it.
The air vibrated with minor turbulence as the vehicle floated freely... levitating gradually upwards. Eventually, it ascended high enough to the ceiling that Kepler could see a "grid" of geometrically arranged lunar rocks. Spread between them in almost perfect homogeny was a thin layer of crystalline material.
"My starrs and garrterrs..." Kepler adjusted his spectacles. "You grround the crrystals into a fine dust!"
"And it's all enchanted!" Flynn remarked. "The same triply-entwined entanglement is being utilized, but I'm using the lunar rocks to control the distribution of the field. Observe." He cleared his throat, then hoarsely spoke: "M'shrynmh L'fynym!"
The vibration in the air intensified. A wave of mana flowed forward across the bed of the cart. Within a second, it was lurching forward towards the two Heraldites.
Flynn briskly said: "M'shrynmh L'vynyk!"
The cart stopped in mid-air, wobbled, then glided backwards.
"M'shrynmh Thymmk."
At last, the cart stopped dead in its tracks. Flynn gave the tether a tug and it slowly lowered like a giant balloon so he could tie it to the wall again.
"My worrd!" Kepler marveled. "You cerrtainly masterred yourr moonwhinny!"
"I took notes." Flynn winked his good eye. "I can move the hovercraft around by command. Navigating the wasteland of the Dark Side might just be as easy as yawning." He took a proud breath. "I gotta admit... Rainbow Dash's stupidity is as inspiring as it is contagious."
"How do you intend to contrrol the accelerration?" Kepler asked, raising a hairy eyebrow. "Whinny louder?"
"I'm... still working on that," Flynn said. "Rainbow's gonna need us to roll out sooner than later. But I'm almost close to a solution for carrying the bulk of our supplies."
"Fine and well done, my frriend!"
"You're telling me! I only wish I could operate it by manual controls like the Ledomaritans. Alas..." Flynn shrugged. "Maybe once we get back to the Light Side, I can work on studying abroad... adopting technology from all the civilizations that Rainbow's visited and then some."
"But, for now, we have ourr prropulsion."
"I can't wait to apply this to other stuff," Flynn said. "Toolboxes. Shields. Even spears? Hell... we could hunt game from a hundred yards away!" He smirked. "So long as we can speak."
"So, it'll be useful to everrypony but Wildcarrd."
"Exactly. But—pffft... the dude's overpowered enough as it is. What's it gonna change anyways?"
"Speaking of which." Kepler squinted through his spectacles. "How is the griffin doing?"