"So he's independent of this whole thing and you can confirm he's got nothing to do with the cube, right?" Twilight asked to Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie nodded in response.
"What cube?" the stallion asked, looking up from the tree he was focusing on.
Pinkie opened her mouth and Twilight decided it was more efficient to just let her explain it all. "Stellaria gave Twilight this black cube that she needs to figure out how to open and she has a week to do it starting yesterday and if she doesn't open it in time then every day starting today at sunset she will blow up a city and kill everyone inside and she has already trapped five of those cities inside bubbles with no way in or out and Twilight has already tried anything she could think of and gotten together a bunch of others to help but the cube still isn't opening or doing anything and we're all really really worried we're not going to be able to make it in time."
"So it's like a puzzle?"
Pinkie thought for a moment. "I suppose so."
"A puzzle we're not going to be able to solve while we're stuck here," said Twilight. "But we can't just walk back to the laboratory if Stellaria is really waiting for us there. I suppose this answers the question of how she did everything she did. And why I had such a weird feeling when interacting with her, it did feel like something didn't line up. How come you're able to see-" Twilight cut herself off as she saw what the stallion was up to.
He pulled on a random branch on the tree he'd been staring at, and the whole thing opened up like a clam, revealing a passage inside with stairs leading downwards. He gave a tap to a stone jutting out of the ground next to the tree, and lights began to glow along the staircase. "This should take us back to the laboratory," he said, looking at the mares.
Twilight approached him and the tree, enough to confirm what she was seeing was real and not an illusion. "A coil?" she asked, with little doubt as to what the answer would be.
The stallion looked perplexed first, then like he'd realised something. "Is that what you call those things coiled around your heart? Yeah, it's that. Stella has one too. Wick as well."
Twilight frowned and blinked, then looked at Pinkie. "Is that why they're called coils?"
"Well, of course, silly. It makes sense."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know."
"But you..." Twilight shook her head. She had better uses for her time than questioning Pinkie Pie, especially at that moment. She turned to the stallion again and walked up to the staircase. "You say this will take us inside the laboratory, right?"
The stallion nodded. "Most probably. I don't know for sure, but most probably."
Twilight swallowed. "If Pinkie trusts you, then I trust you. Let's go."