"Is that...!" Echo breathed, squinting to get a good look at the distant pony.
In an instant, Echo took off and flew towards the pony, sailing over the large lake. She heard Night Watch grunt as she took off behind her, following with her own wings. Echo smiled, seeing the pony throw a friendly wave at them.
A short stone bridge flew past beneath them, leading from the pathway along the lake's edges to a higher point in the room. In almost no time, Echo and Night Watch had almost spanned the lake. She could make out the bat pony mare with a turquoise-blue mane, tied into a ponytail. A matching pair of bat-like wings flared out in excitement as she came closer.
Echo landed in front of the mare, Night Watch touching down beside her.
"Mosina!" Echo exclaimed. The mare smiled, her bright, yellow eyes wide with joy. "You're okay!"
"Echo! Night Watch!" Mosina exclaimed. She pulled in Echo for a brief hug, her leather armour squeezing against Echo's plates.
Night Watch chuckled. "Glad to see another friendly face."
"Of course!" Mosina said, pulling out of the hug.
"Woo... that makes three of us, now," Echo said, smiling. A shiny spear sat beside a pair of saddlebags on the ground, near them.
"You are alone?" Night asked.
"Yeah." Mosina exhaled. "I've been pretty lonely. Can't say how happy I am to see you guys."
Night Watch eyed her garments, taking note of the black leather that hugged her features. "Mmm, nice gear," she said, glancing to the shiny spear with envy. Mosina laughed.
"Heh, I got lucky. I had to fight some giant centipedes, but I got that cool spear afterwards." She scrunched up her nose and tilted her head. "I know you like spears a lot. I think it'd be better in your hooves than mine."
Night Watch's eyes lit up. "Heh! Well, if you insist." Mosina nodded, and Night Watch gleefully traded her worn spear for the nicer looking one on the ground.
"Have you encountered any of the others?" Echo asked while Night Watch swung around her new weapon behind them.
"No. Just several rooms with some hostile creatures, but nothing I couldn't handle."
The two of them stood side by side, watching Night Watch perform exercises with the spear.
"How did you get here?" Echo asked.
"Actually, from right over there," Mosina answered, pointing to the entrance of a tunnel nearby. "I've been lounging here for a good twenty minutes, until you two showed up."
"Mm."
The walls of the cave seemed to glow with the blue light from the crystals around the room. A sparkling sheen reflected off of the water whose surface was completely undisturbed.
"I think we could use a few more minutes of rest. Night Watch and I have done quite some walking and climbing."
"Of course," Mosina responded, nodding. She turned and eyed the crystal poking out of Echo's front pouch. "Those are pretty. I wish I had something like that—I had to rely on my echolocation until I got here."
Echo scrunched her face. She knew that they could rely on echolocation fine, but she felt uncomfortable with the notion of using it completely for something like the Trials.
"Apparently, they can summon guardian ponies, but they shatter if you do that," she pointed out.
"Oh."
"Yeah. One of them saved us from a monster that probably would have ended up killing Night Watch and I," Echo mused, giving a chuckle. Mosina remained silent, but visibly winced. "I hope we don't encounter those too often. We only have seven of these."
Echo let out an exhausted breath, sitting on the floor.
Mosina sat down beside her. "I wish I could map this cave out, but I don't have anything to write on." She pulled her saddlebags closer and opened them, taking out their contents. Echo promptly did the same to pool their resources.
Mosina pulled out a full flask of healing potion and set a bunch of small objects beside it. From the pile of items, a tiny black cylinder rolled back towards her.
"All I have is that flask, this piece of charcoal, what seems to be a necklace with a wooden ring for a pendant, and a pouch full of purple powder," she affirmed. Echo gave a curious glance to her items before pulling out the last of the leather-bound boxes from her saddlebags. In front of her sat two flasks of healing potions and three of the boxes containing the light crystals.
"Night's got five more of those boxes, but three of them are empty. Also, another healing flask. One of mine is half empty," Echo stated.
Mosina squinted at the boxes, curiously. "You think we can remove the leather bounding on those boxes? Maybe we can use them as paper, sort of, for a map."
Raising her eye brows, Echo pulled one of the boxes closer to her and pulled out her dagger. "Hmph, let's see..."
She examined the box before digging her blade into its side, slicing down its length. Sure enough, the leather peeled off easily. While the exposed surface of the leather looked hard to write on, the back surface seemed rough enough for the charcoal to imprint.
"There, is that good?" Echo asked, passing her the small square of leather. Mosina picked up the charcoal with her mouth and made a small scribble, her eyes lighting up when she could see the line it made. She dropped the charcoal, taking another of the boxes.
"It's perfect!" she exclaimed, pulling out a little dagger and cut the leather layer of the box. Echo shrugged and helped, taking the other box into her hooves. "We can use the string of the necklace to bind the leather pieces together. Then, I can draw a map of everything!"
Echo chuckled.