Pleasant Smell yawned and pushed away the cushions she had laid on during her storytelling. “Well, this should be enough for tonight.”
Raising a hoof Twilight said, “Wait, you can’t let me hang here. How did they react to her story? If she told them about her abilities, ponies would have known about them during that period of time, wouldn't they? And what was it with the secret service of Griffonstone? There shouldn’t be one in that time period.”
“That's a good thing to be told by Climber tomorrow,“ Pleasant Smell said, stretching and gracefully hopping out of the bed. “I showed you that she isn’t just a murderer. How this all ended and how she became the phantom of Canterlot after that, well, that is for my husband to tell you.”
Now Twilight rose too and hopped next to her. “Can’t you at least tell me what her teammates did? I assume they got her out of the ruin?”
“No, Twilight, no more spoilers for you tonight,” Pleasant Smell said while she picked up a little pillow the princess had kicked out of the bed inadvertently.
“And, if the princess insists?” Twilight asked with a begging smile.
“Mother's duty comes before baroness’ duty, I have children to attend to in the morning, so no more time for stories,” Pleasant Smell said giggling ,while she trotted to the door. “And I have to speak with my husband too.”
Twilight sighed. “But I have so many questions now.”
“And Climber will be more than happy to answer them for the curious princess, instead of the annoyed one,” Pleasant Smell said from the door, smiling. “Goodnight Twilight.”
“Goodnight, Pleasant Smell,” Twilight said a bit unsatisfied.
***
Twilight slept a few minutes longer than usual the next morning. She had tossed and turned around in her bed, all her questions spinning through her mind. More so, the lack of ability to use her magic properly broke her pre-bed routine, not adding to her sleep much. She wasn’t even able to use her toothbrush correctly! She was woken by a gentle knock at the door coming from a maid. Upon gaining the permission to enter, she cleaned up the room and also asked if the princess wanted to have her breakfast in her room today. Twilight denied and prepared herself to move to the main hall, so the maid promptly left with the dishes from the night before, promising to inform the baron that Twilight would be at the table in a few minutes.
When she entered the main hall, Twilight could easily tell by the many already empty plates and some servants collecting dishes, that most residents of Castle Dragonbite had already finished their breakfast and prepared to leave the hall to get to their daily duties. When she thought about it, she got the feeling that they all have just waited for her to appear, be it because of personal interest or by the baron’s order, Twilight didn’t know.
She headed for the table of the baron’s family, where a seat was reserved for her. For a noble it was absolutely unthinkable to not wait for the princess to wake up. Twilight was a little bit ashamed that they had waited for her, but it was nice of them nonetheless and while trotting over, she gave the present ponies a closer look. The face of Climber was more or less neutral, his children both seemed to be up to something and Pleasant Smell gave her a smile.
“Good morning, Twilight,” Pleasant Smell said, rising from her chair. “I hope you slept well?”
“More or less,” Twilight responded, “I still have to get used to this anti-magic phenomenon.”
“I see,” the baroness waved off a servant who had laid his hooves on Twilight's chair to draw it forth for her and did it herself. “A good breakfast will take care of the lack of sleep.”
“Your Highness,” Climber, who had risen too, greeted, followed by a more enthusiastic greeting from Cave Light and Distant Shine.
“Good morning baron, Distant Shine, Cave Light,” Twilight greeted back while she took place, giving a thankful nod to the baroness.
After the others had took place again too, Climber started, “I want to apologise for my treasurer again, Your Highness and of course that I have left you uninformed of the… the possible incident concerning Her Highness.” His gaze a bit ashamed as he threw a quick look to his wife.
“It is okay baron, I think I overreacted a little bit too.” Twilight accepted his apology with a nod. “Still I would prefer it if you would be a bit more chatty about such matters.”
“I doubt that would be possible,“ Climber began, but received a certain look from his wife and with a stroke over his chin he corrected, “Of course Your Highness, of course. I will inform you about possible negative events from your viewpoint in the future earlier.”
“Thank you, baron.”
After this, the breakfast was served and the conversation was going for more casual themes, but it didn’t slip Twilight's attention that the two young ponies gave their mother impatient looks again and again and whispered to her often. The baroness on the other side, did her best to calm them down and keep them away from Twilight.
Curious what that meant, Twilight asked, “Your children seem very impatient this morning, Pleasant Smell, is something wrong?”
“I am sorry Twilight, Cave Light had the idea to accompany you while you search for the source of the phenomenon and of course her brother wanted to go with you too.” She turned her attention to the mentioned two again. “Alright you two, now you have disturbed our guest’s breakfast and I told you what happens then,” Pleasant Smell addressed her children with an reproachful look. “No trip with the princess for you.”
Both young ponies begged her mother instantly to let them go nonetheless and also pleaded Twilight to take them with her.
“Cave Light! Distant Shine!” Climber said a bit louder than usual. “What kind of behaviour is that? You should be ashamed to act this way in the presence of Her Highness.”
Indecisive what was more important at the moment, they fell silent for a second before Cave Light said, “We are sorry daddy.” Her brother turned to their mother at the same moment. “But you said we can go with the princess if we are good foals.”
“I also said, don’t disturb her breakfast,” Pleasant Smell stated.
“Why do you want to go with me anyway?” Twilight asked. “You can search for the phenomenon everyday, I mean, you live here.”
A sheepish grin was appearing on their faces, but not a single word got over their lips.
“The princess has asked you something,” Climber said after a moment of awkward silence.
“We… we want… to…” Cave Light tried to find words.
“Yeah, “ her brother supported her, “yes... we wanted to… help?” The questioning tone of his voice made it clear that he hoped to get away with this.
Their father just raised an eyebrow.
“And this has nothing to do with being near to a flying princess?” Pleasant Smell asked, knowing what the true reason was.
Distant Shine and Cave Light gave her an innocent smile. “No?”
“What has this to do with me flying around?” Twilight asked, shifting an curious look between them.
“My children have gotten the idea that…” Pleasant Smell started but was interrupted by Cave Light.
“Mommy! It is a secret!” Her cheeks reddened a bit.
Pleasant Smell thought about it, then decided. “Okay, but if you simply ask Twilight, she may help you, don’t you think?”
“Helping with what?” Twilight asked.
“Nothing fancy, don’t worry,” Pleasant Smell answered, turning to her children as she went on. “You really should ask her.”
“N-no, no, there is no need to,” Distant Shine said.
“Now it is enough,” Climber decided. “Pleasant Smell, my dear, what is it that our children are up too?”
The baroness gave her children a strict look. “You have put yourself into this, I can’t help you with it. Tell your father what you were aiming for.”
“But, we, we are…” Cave Light started but with the look of her mother still on her, she gave in. When she rose from her chair, Distant Shine gave her a poke in the side. “You can’t tell him!” he sharply whispered.
“Either him, or you say it aloud,” she whispered back.
Trotting over to her father, she leaned closer towards him, bringing her mouth close to his ear. He stopped her head with a hoof and addressed Twilight again, “I am sorry princess.” He was fully aware that this was very impolite of his daughter, but family comes first.
Twilight just waved her ok, so Climber lowered his head to listen to Cave Light whispering in his ear. When she had finished, he turned his face to her and gave her an amused gaze.
“That is all?” he asked. “For that you made all the fuss?”
Cave Light gave him a sheepish grin.
Climber ruffled through her mane. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I am sure I can help you with this.”
Placing her hoof quickly on his legs she whispered with haste, “You can’t tell her daddy! It is embarrassing!”
He just grabbed her head and pulled her nearer for a quick nuzzle. “Don’t worry, I will handle this most diplomatically.” Releasing her from the hug, he added in normal volume, “But we can’t ignore that you disobeyed your mother's orders. So you two will go back to your chambers after breakfast and do some homework,” he raised a hoof to suppress the unhappy reactions, “while I go with the princess and do my best to make this little ‘diplomatic mission’ a success.”
Twilight gave them a curious look, her gaze gliding from Cave Light to Climber. “May I know what’s going on?”
Climber gave her a little smile. “Of course Your Highness, I will tell you on our way out, it is a matter of high sensible diplomatics. This isn’t to be discussed at the breakfast table.”
“Well, if you say so, then we will speak about it later.” Twilight agreed, she had at least learned a bit about being diplomatic herself.
***
“Barksurfer and Chisel will meet us outside of the Castle walls,“ Climber explained when he and Twilight left the main hall. “Together with Summer Breeze and Winter Breeze.”
“The two pegasi to carry them?” Twilight asked.
“Indeed, I gave Winter Breeze the ground plan of Castle Dragonbite. I also ordered a table and some basic non-magic measure equipment to be ready at your disposal.”
“Oh, that was very nice of you, baron.”
“My pleasure, Your Highness.”
During their walk, a few servants passed by them, eagerly busy to remove the remains of the breakfast from the main hall and already preparing it for lunch. A kitchen cart, filled with dessert, including some of the delicious muffins, slowly rolled by them.
Twilight pointed at the sweets. “You are really lucky to have such a skilled chef, those are delicious.”
A wide smile appeared on Climber’s face. “Yes, we are lucky to have him and I see my wife already showed you our newest secret weapon.”
Twilight gave him a look.
“That's how she calls them,” he explained, motioning to the pastries. “I just call them tasty raspberry muffins. Do you want some?” Climber added, courteous.
“No, I just rose from breakfast.” Twilight declined, but it was clear to see that she was not so sure about it.
“Lemon Tea!” Climber called. “Hold on for a second and give us two of the muffins.”
The mare who pushed the cart stopped and fetched two muffins from it. With a bow she hooved one over to Twilight and the other to the baron.
“Thank you Lemon Tea,” Climber said and Twilight did the same. With a curtsy, Lemon Tea returned to her cart and pushed it forward again.
“So,“ Twilight started, after she took a bite of the muffin, “why do you bribe me with another muffin?”
“Was it so obvious?”
“You covered it very well behind your good manners but your little happy smile revealed you had something more on mind with it.”
Climber nodded. “Again your eye for details is very sharp, Your Highness. Indeed it was on my mind that a muffin would benefit my request.”
“A request?” Twilight took another bite. “Has this anything to do with the ‘high sensible diplomatics’ you mentioned before?”
“Yes, Your Highness, exactly.”
“Go ahead then, I promise I don’t bite,” she gave the half-eaten muffin a look, “or at least not you.”
“You see, Your Highness.” Climber was still a bit unsure how to handle it. “Cave Light and Distant Shine are… they collect feathers from the most popular pegasi and also from alicorns, like Her Highness and her sister.”
“Really?” Twilight thought about it. “A bit uncommon as a hobby, but I don’t see what's wrong with it.”
“There is nothing wrong with it,” Climber said. “It is just hard to get an unbroken and pristine feather of some ponies. I know they both have one from Her Highness Princess Celestia, Cave Light also has one from Princess Luna and Distant Shine has one from Princess Cadence.” He made a pause and gave Twilight a look.
“What?” she responded to his gaze.
“Now… at the moment the fourth princess happens to be in our family's castle as a guest,” Climber explained.
Twilight's eyes widened a bit in sudden realisation. “Oh right, that's me.” She smiled, then froze, “Wait, that means…,” she gave Climber a wondering gaze, “they want a feather from me?`”
“Yes, Your Highness, if that isn’t offending you of course.”
Twilight was a bit confused that someone wanted feathers from her, but she said, “Alright, I don’t think it hurts to give them each one. I can give them to them when we get back.”
“That would be very kind of you, Your Highness, but if I may ask, could you give them to my wife instead?”
“Ahh, sure,” Twilight said a little bewildered, “but why?”
Another cart, pushed by a pony made its way along them, so they trotted aside before the baron could answer. “I think my children should get them as a reward for something and my wife can judge that best.”
“Well then, I will give her two of my feathers when we get back,” Twilight promised.
“My thanks, Your Highness,” he said with a nod. Then he made a gesture with his hoof, politely ushering Twilight to continue their way out of the Castle.
It was a few minutes later that they crossed the forecourt, for Twilight, the hurly-burly on it was still more or less familiar from her times in Canterlot. For a pony that didn’t grow up in a castle however it would have been very confusing to see so many ponies moving around, the guards, the kitchen staff, one or two gardeners and many, many others. The great difference from Canterlot was that they all paid more attention to Twilight, having a princess around was nothing common here and with their work for a noble family, the ponies here were very well-caring for her royal status.
Twilight on the other side did her best to make a good impression, waving to a few ponies and giving a smile here and there.
“It seems not only your foals are most elated about having a princess around,” she said to the baron.
Climber nodded. “I know we are quite a bit away from fancy Canterlot, Your Highness, but my people are all quite aware of our noble duty.”
“I see.” Twilight kept an eye on the activities around them till they reached the castlegate. It was wide open and the guards above were just giving them a short look while they passed through. Peaceful times caused them to go easy on trespassers, not that in the case of the baron and the princess anypony would have interfered at all.
Suddenly the gaze of Climber went a bit surprised, then annoyed, before it became neutral again. For a moment Twilight was confused why, then she saw it herself. A bit down and besides the road that led out of the Castle’s exteriors and towards the next village lay a blanket with three ponies on it. It looked like a family picnic, there was Pencake, the mare who had served the refreshments in the kaminzimmer the day before, either sleeping or relaxing, Twilight couldn't tell. Together with her was her foal, playing around her, both surely not the reason for Climber’s annoyance and… then there was Fang, the impolite treasurer.
A good distance behind the small group Chisel and the other ponies had gathered, far enough to not disturb them.
“Of course it has to be today,” Climber said quietly to himself.
“Sorry, what did you say?” Twilight asked.
“Nothing, Your Highness. I just had forgotten that today was a high chance these three would be here.”
Twilight gave the three another look, they haven’t seen them yet. Pencake was still lying with closed eyes and Fang was too occupied by the little foal sitting on his head and chewing on one of his ears. The treasurer shook his head slightly, so the little foal grabbed his head harder, flapped his wings to stay balanced and giggled.
“Well, he can’t always be an impolite ruffian,” Twilight thought. Aloud she said, “I wasn’t aware he and Pencake were…”
“Oh, they are not,” Climber answered her question before she had finished it. “Fang would wish it was so but Pencake hasn’t accepted his offer yet.”
“Elaborate, please,” Twilight said.
“Well, since Pencake arrived at our castle, maybe a year and a half ago, Fang started to court her. She however only cares to rise her foal, Colorful Wings. She was showing him the cold flank at first, but he didn’t give up so easily. With the month passing by he did something right, showed good behaviour and father qualities towards Colorful Wings, Pencake liked that and so she first tolerated his presence and now also seems to enjoy it to a degree.”
"So, there might be something more serious between them in the future?"
“Maybe, Your Highness, I would think so.”
“I see.”
As they walked nearer, Fang noticed their presence. He shot them a displeased gaze and put Colorful Wings down from his head, wrapping a foreleg around him.
“Good morning,” Twilight said after an unpleasant moment of silence between the two stallions.
“Your Highness,” Fang replied quietly, “my lord.”
Standing near enough now, it was clear to see that Pencake was sleeping, her chest rising and falling rhytmically. Climber also spoke in quiet voice, barely nodding his head. “Fang, Colorful.“
Giving the princess another displeased look, Fang said, “I heard you’re trying to find the source of Dragonbite Castle’s influence on magic.”
“That is correct,” Twilight replied.
“You shouldn’t do that,” Fang said, grabbing Colorful tighter. “Some things better stay untouched.”
“Stop it already Fang,” Climber said firmly. “The princess has my permission to search the source and you shall not interfere.”
“But I do, the origin of this effect has stayed undiscovered for ages, why risk something by changing that now?”
“What do you think we risk by discovering it now?” Twilight asked. “It doesn't seem dangerous to know more about it.”
Fang took a moment to handle the now struggling little foal before him, Colorful had started to try to squirm free and it took Fang a bit of attention to keep hold of him.
“Lower your voice, princess,“ Fang reminded her. “Pencake had a double shift including a night shift in the kitchen and needs her sleep.”
Said mare however didn't seem to care, not even her ears were flickering at Twilight's words. If at all, she only had snored a bit louder.
“And about your question,” Fang continued, “I come up with a question myself, how do you benefit from finding the source? Disturbing something that lasted for over two hundred years just because of curiosity?”
“Enough of this Fang,” Climber ordered. “The princess wants to search for the source and I confess I am curious too what she will find, so this discussion is over.”
“I am not on duty my lord and we are not in the castle at the moment, so this discussion is not over. Instead I demand an answer. Princess, what do you expect to get from more knowledge about the source?”
“Fang!” Climber said indignantly. “What do you think you are doing?”
“Asking the right questions, my lord, somepony has to think about the possible consequences.” Turning his head down to Colorful he made a ‘shhh’ sound, the little one had started to make noises of displeasure, nibbling on Fang’s foreleg.
It came to Twilight's notice that Pencake indeed didn’t show a reaction to their talk but by the sounds of her son, her ears perked up and turned in his direction at once and her face had turned unhappy, even if she was still asleep.
“Mother senses are tingling,” Twilight thought for a moment before she answered his question, “Finding out where the source lies and also how it works can be a benefit for everypony, that is how science works, you examine a phenomenon, write your knowledge down and everyone can benefit from what you found out.”
While Climber did a polite nod, supporting Her Highness, Fang was not convinced. “And for your scientific curiosity you risk to damage or destroy whatever caused this all? Science was always a pest and will ever be, not paying respect to things that are not to be interfered with!”
“Science isn’t a pest,” Twilight said, she even managed to stay calm. “If I found out how this field works for example and if I am able to reproduce it, there might be many application possibilities in social life.”
“Didn’t I tell you to not confront Her Highness with your opinions?” Climber said, annoyed. “She is guest at our place, keep that in mind.”
“I do, my lord, still I am not on duty so I can say what I want.” He turned back to Twilight. “You can get hurt or set the contained magic free in one big explosion or worst of all, let the effect vanish and make Castle Dragonbite a castle like any other.”
Now Twilight was a little bit surprised, she lifted her head a bit back and raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think the magic would be contained?” she asked more curious. “It also could be simply suppressed or vanish as quick as it was summoned.”
“I am just assuming it,“ Fang said. “I don’t know however, but the risk is still there.” He lowered his gaze again to Colorful whose tries to escape had intensified. “Colorful, be a good colt and stay quiet for a moment.”
It didn't have the desired effect, instead of being quiet, Colorful started to bawl. Fang’s face went a bit pale by that and he lifted the colt up with one hoof and with the other he stroked over his mane. “Everything's fine, no need to cry, we don’t want to wake your mother,” he said with worry in his voice, pulling the foal closer to his chest and rocking him from side to side.
It was too late, just a few seconds after Colorful had started to bawl, Pencake woke up. She gave the situation a very short look and was already on her hooves. She rushed over to Fang, took her son from his hooves and started to nuzzle him. Like any other foal, the little one was more than happy to get his mother's attention and stopped bawling, instead, he giggled and put his tiny hooves on Pencake’s snout.
“I am sorry, I…” Fang started but Pencake turned around and kept her attention on her son. By ‘happenstance’ she hit Fang with her tail in the face while doing so.
“Really, I am sorry,” Fang repeated with a hoof on his cheek. “I just held him for a moment, I didn’t want to make him upset.”
Pencake pulled her son to her chest and snuggled him while she turned her head to Fang, “Don’t you have work to do or something?” she asked angrily.
“I told you I am sorry, really,” he explained but it didn’t help. Without a word, Pencake pointed at the Castle.
Lowering his head, Fang acknowledged his fate and turned around to move back to the Castle. “This is all your fault,” he whispered to Twilight while he trotted past her.
“I know I say this very often, but I am sorry Your Highness,” Climber said.
Twilight looked after Fang while he trotted away for a moment. “It’s okay, anyway...” She turned back again. “Good morning Pencake.”
The yellow mare just waved with her hoof while her mouth was buried in the orange coat of her son and blew air on his belly. Even a princess had to stay behind mother's instincts, Twilight got to know, already the second time since she arrived here.
“Good morning Pencake,“ the baron said, but he didn’t even get a wave of her hoof because Colorful had escaped the tickling of his mother with a flap of his wings and now was hovering around, followed by his mother. Both nobles smiled at the view before them, the giggling little colt trying his best to keep out of hoof range of his mother who chased slowly after him, always letting the foal escape her attempts to catch him in the last moment.
However, Twilight wondered a bit that Pencake, as a servant of the baron simply ignored him. In her opinion, it was as well cute as disrespectful. She mentioned it to the baron and he explained, “Well, when it comes to her foal, Pencake never pays much attention to others anymore.”
“But shouldn’t she?” Twilight asked. “I don’t think it is bad that you don’t hold it against her, but considering how your family holds up traditions, it seems a bit strange to me.”
“Oh, I have held it against her back in the days but she managed to, somehow, get under the protective hoof of my wife.” He shook his head unpleasant. “I don’t want to sleep in the guest rooms again.”
Twilight moved a hoof to her mouth to suppress a giggle.
“It's not that funny Your Highness, there is a longer story to it but we should move on, the others are waiting and the day is moving forward too.”
“I guess you are right, baron,” Twilight said. “Good bye, Pencake.”
“Oh, yes, good bye princess,” Pencake responded, now with her foal balancing on her head. Colourful Wings had one hoof between his mother's ears and tried to chew on one without falling down. He wasn’t very successful, but his wings kept him barely in place. “And also to you, my lord,” she said to Climber.
It was a few minutes later that they reached the others. To Climber’s pleasure, they all greeted the princess correctly and showed their best behaviour.
“Your Highness, baron, good morning,” Barksurfer said with a light bow, “we set everything in place, if you wish we can start right away with your examination of the effect, Your Highness.”
Twilight gave the prepared equipment a look and checked everything present from her mental checklist. Satisfied with the result, she agreed and they all discussed the procedure. It turned out, there were some unexpected hindrances. The present unicorns were indeed able to use their magic, but besides the very basic spells, like levitation, they didn’t know much else. Twilight hadn’t expected that they would be experts in magic like herself but one or two spells like a simple magic light ball, which could be fired at the Castle and vanish when it reached the effect of the phenomenon would have been not too much to ask for in her opinion. Not to mention a spell to measure distances.
So the start delayed a while till Twilight found a proper solution for that, but in the end she was able to find one. It was a bit costly though. The siblings Summer and Winter Breeze would hold one of the unicorns and fly around the castle while the unicorns would levitate several small objects in front of them. The pegasi would fly closer and closer to the castle till the levitated objects would start to fall down. Then Twilight, who took position a longer distance away from the castle, would cast a distance measurement spell on the remaining objects in the air and Climber finally would write the results down on the map.
They would have to repeat that a lot of times and also change the angle from which Twilight would cast her spell around the castle, because she couldn’t measure through the effect, but in the end, with a lot of mathematics, it would give them a really good overview how high the range of the effect reached. Checking the extent of the effect on ground level would be a breeze afterwards.
Even with a plan and good will, it took them the whole morning and also a good bit of afternoon to complete their task. Finally they all gathered around the table and discussed the results.
“Well, that wasn’t what I had expected,” Twilight said. “The outline looks more like someone had dropped some ink on the map and it spread randomly around.”
“The Castle itself is completely inside,” Summer Breeze said, hovering above the table, “and so is the west-field and the cemetery.”
“But it stops at the river in the north,” his sister, Winter Breeze said, “other than that, it seems to end and start very randomly.”
Indeed, the surroundings of Dragonbite Castle were, with the mentioned exceptions, sometimes in the field and sometimes not. The line was curved like a snake in some areas, going back and forth, so a few locations were half inside and half outside.
“That is really strange,” Twilight thought out loud, “I had expected a more round extent.”
“It doesn't really have a center,” Chisel commented, “but if one wants to determine the middle, it would be somewhat around the west side of the northern wall.”
“No, more like the the north side of the western wall,” Barksurfer corrected.
“Actually it is eighteen and a half hoofsteps under the surface,” Twilight said.
“Excuse me Your Highness, but how is that possible?” Winter Breeze asked. “We only measured above the ground, how can you know the middle is beneath it?”
“Yes, how can you know?” her brother asked too.
“Basic mathematics,” Twilight said and explained, “We know how high does the phenomenon reach. If we look at the angle between the southern tower and the highest point and compare it to the alternate angle at..." Twilight trailed off, seeing the other ponies rubbing their heads and scraping the ground with their hooves.
Twilight heaved a sigh, “Fine, I’ll try to explain it more simple.” She pointed at the castle on the map. “Here, there is the highest point of the effect.” After she got everypony’s attention, she moved on to the other marked spots. “It gets lower and lower till here, that's the lowest point of a center of the effect range atop the area. By comparing the maximal extension and heights of the effect above the main Castle, I was able to determine a factor for height versus extension.”
Looking into the faces of the others, she saw they had only a very, very loose idea.
“Your Highness, I am afraid your knowledge of advanced three-dimensional mathematics is something we are not capable of keeping up with,” Climber said.
Approving mumble followed his statement.
“Alright, even if I wanted to teach you more about it, this time you will just have to trust me,” Twilight said. “If this phenomenon has a center from which it starts then it would be here,” she lay the tip of her hoof a little bit outside the northern wall of Castle Dragonbite, “eighteen and a half hoofsteps under the surface.”
“Ha!” Chisel shouted out, “I said it!”
Barksurfer just rolled his eyes while Chisel exchanged a brohoof with Summer Breeze.
Examining the map, Twilight asked, “So the question is, what lies there?” She looked at Climber who gave the map a look himself.
“I would be surprised if there would be anything besides earth, Your Highness. It doesn't make much sense to build something outside the protection of the castle walls, even if it was underground.” He thought about it for a moment. “Well there could be an old escape tunnel… maybe.”
“Could also be an old kind of pipeline,” Winter Breeze added, “it headed towards the river.”
“Or the sewerage,” Barksurfer said with a disgusted face.
“Whatever it is, we should be able to find out,” Twilight said confident.