Gyro frowned at the papers Ruse had placed in front of her. “These came from the campsite?” she asked, gently nudging one with her hoof.
Ruse nodded. “They were buried under the sand. I’m just amazed that the weather didn’t destroy them if they’re years old. The sand must have protected them.”
“If anything, I would have thought it would have destroyed them faster. The sand would have held all the water and stuff from when it rained, and the moisture should have melted the papers into mush. For lack of a better term.”
“I’m not going to complain or wonder about our good fortunes,” Ruse said, shrugging. “That we even found something out there is a miracle.”
“But what does it mean?” Coals asked, squinting at the rubbings on the paper. “Why would somepony make these?”
“I was hoping you two would be able to figure that out.” The ventriloquist sighed and rubbed his horn. “We’ve just been doing all the dirty work out near that camp. It’s exceptionally difficult to dig through several inches of sand by hoof and horn. But we’re managing, at least. It’ll be low tide soon, so Ratchet is going to want to check out the shrine while we’ve got a few hours to do so.”
Gyro gingerly pushed the papers toward Coals, who picked them up in his magic. “Thanks,” she said, narrowing her eyes so she could start to read the glyphs now that they were held away from her by some distance. After a few seconds to study it, she proudly turned back to Ruse. “Oh, that makes perfect sense.”
Ruse blinked. “Really? What do they say then?”
“I have no idea, but I’m sure it’d be pretty obvious if I knew what they meant.”
Coals chuckled and Ruse could only groan and shake his head. “I’m not sure why I expected anything else from you, Gyro.”
“That was your first mistake,” the gray mare said with a wink. Then, frowning at the glyphs, she slowly tilted her head from one side to the other. “In all seriousness, though, I don’t really know what to make of these. You sure these came from the shrine beneath the island?”
“Well, where else could they have come from?” the stallion asked. “How else could they have ended up here?”
“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea,” Gyro said, pulling Uncharted Lands’ journal closer to her. “This dude set out years ago to map the seas, and he knew about Ponynesia. They ended up shipwrecked here, and he knew almost immediately where he was, even before he explored the shrine beneath this island. Don’t you think that’s kind of odd?”
“Maybe?” Ruse sat down opposite the two ponies and frowned at the journal. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
Gyro took the notes back from Coals and placed them on the ground. “You obviously didn’t look at the papers too hard, and my eyesight’s worse than yours.” She tapped her hoof on them when Ruse only cocked his head in confusion. “These rubbings are on waterproof paper, and they’re done with graphite. The order of those two is important; the waterproofing was done after the rubbings were made, which is why the moisture hasn’t washed away the graphite.”
Ruse blinked in surprise. “You were able to figure all that out just from looking at it?” he asked.
“I’m very observational,” Gyro replied with a smirk. “Airship maps and papers are all waterproofed to protect them from rain, and since I’ve served on airships for a while, I know all about that. And on top of that, airships are powered by boilers, and though they mostly use coal, simple furnaces use wood, too. I know what charcoal looks like, and that’s not charcoal.”
“So what does all this mean?” Ruse asked. “The papers were waterproofed after they were rubbed, but the ponies here before us couldn’t have done that. They wouldn’t have had the equipment.”
Gyro nodded. “Exactly. So that leaves us with a mystery: how did an expedition that ended up stranded here like… twenty-five years ago or something have rubbings from a shrine on an island surrounded by a barrier that prevents ponies from leaving it once they stumble their way in?”
The three ponies fell silent as they each pondered that puzzle in their minds. Gyro had to admit she didn’t know exactly how to feel. On the one hoof, she’d solved a mystery, but on the other, it’d only created an even bigger one. And try as she might, she couldn’t find a satisfactory answer to the question she’d just posed.
“Do you think that they’re completely unrelated?” Coals asked. “If this guy was an explorer, he could have had rubbings from any other ancient temple somewhere else in the world. It doesn’t have to be these ones.”
“I don’t know,” Gyro admitted. “But I just don’t see how these could have come from these islands.” She shot Ruse an apologetic look. “Your find might be a red herring. Sorry.”
Ruse shrugged and collected the papers again. “I suppose. That’d be just our luck; the one thing we do find turns out to be worthless in the end. Though maybe I’ll hold onto these, because I bet they’d fetch a good price at an auction or something when we get back to Equestria.”
“Celestia, don’t even say that,” Gyro said. “Going back to Equestria sounds like it’s so far away. Besides, I wouldn’t worry about that. I bet we’re going to get a nice compensation package from CelestiAir for the suffering we’ve gone through on their behalf.”
The ventriloquist snickered. “You know it’s going to be a package of lifetime free airship cruises and no actual money.”
Gyro sighed and laughed a little bit as she stretched out her legs and rolled her shoulders. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re probably right. I know I’m not gonna be able to fly on an airship for a few months after this.”
“I think I’m going to find a job on the ground,” Ruse said. “I don’t know how you can even stomach the idea of going back on an airship after this ordeal.”
“What can I say? I love flying, and I love my job.” Then she turned and nuzzled Coal’s cheek. “And if I get to take this guy along with me, then I won’t have anything to complain about.”
“You’ll still complain,” Coals teased her. “I know you too well to believe otherwise.”
“Eh, yeah, whatever.” Gyro shrugged and pointed to the journal again. “Well, I guess we better get back to reading this. There hasn’t really been anything useful in it so far, but it’s been kinda neat to read about all the stuff this guy and his crew did while they were stuck here.”
Clever Ruse nodded. “If you find anything in it, let us know,” he said, safely tucking the waterproofed but useless papers away in a nearby hut for safekeeping. “I’ll go let the others know about the papers. They’ll probably be disappointed, but what can you do?”
Gyro nodded and sighed. “Yeah. I just hope that Rainbow or Rarity are having more luck than we are…”