With a swift hoof, Rainbow Dash kicked a cluster of granite pebbles up the inclined corridor leading to the inner sanctum. Almost immediately, they darted back in an eerie line and stopped dead against the metal floor.
"Are they doing it each time?" Pilate asked.
"Well, yeah, but... y'know..." Rainbow shrugged. "Gravity."
"Carry them further into the temple strudture," Pilate suggested from where he stood. "Beyond the adjacent hallway's corner, perhaps."
"Yeah, I feel you." Rainbow scooped up half-a-dozen tiny pieces of granite debris. Holding her breath, she flew up, turned a corner, and stopped dead-center in a corridor full with etchings. Kneeling in the lanternlight, she squatted down and "released" every pebble. Without hesitation, they rolled forward down the hall, then zipped around the corner. Rainbow followed them, gliding. "Pilate, they're headed your way!" she shouted down towards him.
He switched on O.A.S.I.S. just in time to scan them upon approach. When they reached the layer of metal floor, they stopped dead, not rolling any further. "Hmmm... interesting." The zebra tilted his head up. "Did they move around the corner like predicted?"
"Yup. It's gotta be more than just a matter of rolling down an incline."
"I'm intrigued that they stop dead right against the metal here," Pilate said, pointing. "It seems like they would naturally roll further along the even surface. Instead, it's almost as if they're sticking magnetically to the metal as soon as they come into contact."
"Stone being magnetically attracted to metal?" Rainbow's face twisted. "When did that ever make sense?"
"It is the righteous glory of the Valkyrie Silver," said Fawful's voice.
Rainbow turned to see the mare casually strolling down the granite corridor.
"What you're witnessing isn't exactly new," Fawful said with a calm smile. "Even Duranda's scrolls speak of the power that the inner sanctum has over the stone." She pointed inwards towards the helmet and the glowing Gold Lights. "The majesty of the Valkyrie's aura commands respect from both ponies and nature alike."
"Does the 'Valkyrie Silver' attract anything else?" Pilate asked. "These pebbles appear to have once been part of the granite structure's walls."
"Indeed, the hallowed hallways before the inner sanctum aren't as immaculate as the place where the Gold Lights are made manifest," Fawful said. "We've known that for eons."
"Hmmm..." Pilate scratched his chin. "From what I'm discovering, though, it seems as if the machine world here has a particularly strong attraction to the material that makes up a Sentinel."
"You mean Stratopolis?" Rainbow said to him.
"Rainbow..." Pilate tilted his head towards her. "I would like to conduct another experiment, but this needs to be done outside."
"You mean on the surface?"
"Indeed." Pilate pivoted towards Fawful. "Assuming, of course, that the Gray Feathers will graciously allow us to take some of these granite rocks outside..."
Fawful curtsied. "I will talk to the elders concerning the matter..."
Eagle Eye sat quietly at the ship's stern, his violet eyes glazed over with a dull sheen. Slowly, he exhaled out his nostrils and stared at the emerald tree canopy of Durandana. Every once in a while, athletic pegasi would fly up through the foliage, slicing the sky with their colorful wings. The ex-mercenary was hardly enthused.
He heard a slight commotion from behind him. He turned to look, spotting Zaid in conversation with three winged mares. The stallion said a few words, and the mares all exchanged glances, giggling mischievously before nodding in one accord. Zaid smirked and bowed, then reached a hoof up towards one of them.
Eagle squinted—
"You know, the wind here really carries your perfume a long way."
"Gah!" Eagle nearly fell off the ship.
Josho steadied the petite stallion with his magic. "Relax, kid. Didn't meant to knock any of the fruit out of the basket."
Eagle exhaled, glaring past Josho. "For the thousandth time, I don't do perfume."
"Then just what's your secret, huh?" Josho smirked tiredly. "You could tell me."
"Mmmmm..." Eagle bit his lip, squirming slightly. "Sometimes... B-Belle's kind enough to let me borrow her conditioner."
"For real?" Josho grunted as he squatted his fat self down beside Eagle. "But that mare's been sporting the Sinead O'Canter look for a while. I figured it'd be the other way around."
"Meh..." Eagle sighed into the warm winds of the basin.
"Aaaaaaaand now you're back to being a mare. Well that's find and dandy." Josho was silent for a while. His nostrils flared. "But, for real, kid. Just what's been sucking the color out of you lately?"
"Don't bother, old stallion," Eagle said, sniffling. "It's nothing for you to be concerned with."
"What, you think all I do each day is sit around, eat, and fart?"
"It has occurred to me..."
"I wouldn't be on this friggin' pleasure cruise if it wasn't for a certain little girl in Franzington clothing."
"You know..." Eagle gritted his teeth. "I'm starting to get really sick and tired of you calling me a—"
"Level with me and I'll knock it off." Josho's gaze was firm.
Eagle looked at him. He sighed and stared back out into the jungled basin. "You ever feel like you have everything figured out, and then life decides to blow up in your face and remind you how truly out of control everything is?"
"Sounds like the first three times I almost got married."
"How does somepony your age keep sane?"
"Sanity's overrated," Josho grumbled. "If I ended up keeping a 'level head' back in Ledomare, then I would have remained a guilty murderer and criminal forever, just like all the other 'sane ponies' that served the Queen."
"It wasn't that bad..."
"Are you kidding me, kid?" Josho squinted. "Turning my back on Shell and the Council of Ledo is the best thing I ever could have done. It so happens it was also the most insane thing I could have done."
Eagle rolled his eyes. "You've told me all this before..."
"Then give me something new to work with, ya filly stain!" Josho nudged him. "What's life done to you that's so terrible? I mean, besides giving you a father that doesn't love you, ditching you as a fugitive in Foxtaur, chasing you towards the ends of the earth with changelings and zombie pegasi and mutant talking fox-furries and—"
"Stop it! Just... put a cork in it!" Eagle's voice cracked. "Spark, you suck at this!"
Silence... until Josho murmured, "It's because your mommy clock has gone off, isn't it?"
"It's Ebon, okay?!" Eagle screeched into Josho's ear, frowning. "I'm upset over Ebon! I've laid my heart down for him to see every squishy satin fold, and he buries me in the dust!" Eagle panted and panted and panted.
Josho reached over, patting Eagle's shoulder. "Now... that wasn't so bad, was it—?"
"And it's not that I'm mad at him, I'm m-mad at myself!" Eagle whimpered, burying his face in two hooves. "Grnnngh... I-I thought that I could protect him, that I could reach out and give him a place to feel safe, secure, and loved. But Ebon's wounds run too deep! And it's n-not about him being shell-shocked or having daddy issues or swimming in pools of remorse over the war—he's got something so secret bottled up inside him that it's gonna keep him alone and isolated forever! I thought I could help him, and that what we'd share together would be precious and special but I was wrong! Stupid and wrong! So... so friggin' stupid!" Eagle finished his rambling woes with a sniffling sound. He wiped his eyes dry and hugged himself as he stared out into the forests.
Josho took a deep breath. "It can't be easy to puch that much stock in love."
"Pffft. Jee... thanks for rubbing it in," Eagle muttered.
"Hey, I wasn't dissing you," Josho said. "If anything, I envy you."
Eagle sniffed again and glared at the stallion. "Bite your tongue..."
"No, I mean it." Josho gazed at him softly. "You've never been a pony to do things the easy way. When your family got pissed at you, you went to war anyhow. When the Ledomaritan Confederacy reared its nasty head, you deserted. When Rainbow Dash stumbled in on you and your war buddies in Foxtaur, you immediately took her side."
As Eagle heard all of this, his expression softened beneath folded ears.
Josho smirked. "When you and I got joined at the hooves, you didn't kill me."
"I wanted to," Eagle muttered.
"Well, you could have tried harder."
"Whatever..."
"Not whatever," Josho said. "In everything you've ever stumbled upon, you've always tried the friggin' hardest path to trot. It's as if you've been doing nothing but trotting uphill all your life."
"Yeah, well, maybe I'm a glutton for punishment."
"Or perhaps you just believe in doing that which is good," Josho said. "Because you're a good pony, kid."
Eagle bit his lip.
Josho exhaled heavily, glaring out onto the tree tops. "And... all things considered... you would... nnngh... be the best possible catch for Ebon."
Eagle did a double-take. "Huh...?"
"And we both know that ain't easy."
"You believe that?" Eagle remarked.
"Sure, why not?"
"You." Eagle squinted hard. "You of all ponies believe that."
"Look, I just said it, didn't I?!" Josho growled. "Do you need me to draw you a diagram in my own feces or something?!"
Eagle Eye shook and shook and shook his head.
"Hrmmmm..." Josho scratched his chins as he said, "I've always believed that ponies deserved that which they work hard for. I just never practiced what I preached because I always had ponies around me—like Secchy—who could do it way better than I could. At some point, I just got tired of trying all the time. What's the point in aiming towards life's goals if somepony somewhere is just gonna show you who's the real boss? It's shameful, not to mention stupid and pointless."
Josho glanced down at the metal surface of the Jury's stern.
"But then... y'know... I met you, kid. And suddenly it was okay to believe in something again. And to be proud." He gulped and looked at the smaller unicorn. "You make me very... very proud, Eagle Eye. And it sucks the Queen's tits to think that anything in life can still manage to make you sad."
Eagle Eye gulped. Though his cheeks burned slightly, he sadly murmured, "Yeah, well... your pity added to mine isn't gonna do much."
"It ain't pity," Josho muttered. "Unless... all you've got stored up for Ebon is pity too."
Eagle grimaced at that.
"Well, is it?"
Eagle sniffled, rubbing a tear off his cheek. "N-no..."
"Then I guess there's only one outcome to this," Josho murmured, staring out onto the trees again. "Somepony's gonna keep fighting."
Eagle Eye shook his head, fighting back a sob. "There's nothing to fight for. It's a lost cause."
"Heh..." Josho shrugged. "If you say so." With a grunt, he stood up and shuffled towards the far end of the airship. "But I used to believe in lost causes before..." A glaring eye. "Until I met you."
Eagle gazed up at him.
"But... seriously, though..." Josho gave the stallion's shoulder one last slap. "Just buy your own friggin' conditioner, ya feel me?" And he trotted off.
Eagle Eye looked after him, then gazed forward. Sighing, he hugged himself tighter, his face melancholic... yet contemplative.
"Here goes nothing!" Rainbow Dash soared straight up, scaling the heights of Central D. Her wings flapped harder than usual, for she was carrying a heavy burlap bag in her forelimbs. Looking straight down in mid-ascent, she could spot the tiny specks of Pilate, Fawful, and other ponies down below.
At last, once she was level with the summit to the tower, she angled her wings and strafed westward a bit.
"Okay!" she shouted down for posterity's sake. "I'm a little to the left of the entrance! Ready?! Here goes!"
Then, holding her breath, she turned the bag over and emptied its contents. No less than two dozen granite pebbles spilled out. Before they could even be caught in the winds of Durandana, they took a sharp right and flew diagonally downward through the air like a serpent.
"Whoah!" Rainbow exclaimed. With a devilish smirk, she dove down and flew after the rocks.
As fast as Rainbow flew, the rocks somehow descended faster. What's more, they accelerated, causing the air around them to whistle.
"Uhhhh..." Rainbow cupped two hooves around her muzzle. "Look out below!"
Several of the ponies flinched. The First-Borns "guarding" the wooden latch to the inner sanctum actually jumped out of the way. Cl-cl-cl-clackk! Every stone embedded itself into the wooden beams acting as the floor to the basin at the tower's summit.
"Great Sp-Spark!" Pilate stammered as Fawful helped him regain balance.
Fwoosh! Rainbow nimbly touched down. "Did you see that?!"
"Rainbow—"
"You know what I mean. Whip out O.A.S.I.S. already, ya melon fudge."
Holding his breath, Pilate floated his manasphere out and scanned where the stones had landed.
"You saw that, though, right, Fawful?" Rainbow gestured towards the elder. "They took a sharp turn in the air, moving over from where I released them!"
"Unlike the natural stones you gathered from the crater's wall," Pilate murmured in mid-scan.
"Totally!" Rainbow grinned. "Those fell straight down, but these flew directly towards this spot right here!"
"What's more... th-they're still moving," Pilate said as his manalight streamed over the rattling rocks. "Or, at least they're trying to move... as if they can somehow manage to squeeze through the wooden lattices."
"Forgive me if I sound unenthused," Fawful murmured with a curious expression. She shrugged. "But this isn't exactly an alarming discovery—at least not to us." She gestured at the rocks while onlookers gathered around in a circle. "We've always known that the rocks from the outer sanctum were attracted to what lies beneath."
"Yes... but why?" Pilate tapped his chin in thought. "Hmmm... perhaps if—"
"What?" Rainbow hovered in front of him. "Tell me what your zebra eyes see!"
"If the machine world of the rings and the sentinels that orbit them are all cut from the same cloth of Urohringr..." Pilate tilted his head up towards the pegasus. "Then perhaps that might explain the purposeful attraction between them."
"So, in other words, any piece of Stratopolis would be attracted to the metal surface below?" Rainbow said.
"Precisely."
"Then—like—why would the dislodged temple structure land here?" Rainbow shrugged. "I mean, the metal surface is beneath the whole earth and everywhere, right? So wouldn't the temple that Duranda and company were on just slam into any continent? Or the ocean floor for that matter?"
"Uhm..." Fawful squirmed where she stood. "Any chance you ponies could slow down? I'm having a hard time followi—"
"Rainbow, take a look around you," Pilate remarked. "I imagine this basin is far too vast for the average eye to see in its entirety."
"You have a point there, Pilate. But so what?"
"Do you honestly think that a single building from Stratopolis could have made an impact crater of this magnitude?"
"Well... s-sure!"
"How?"
"What if it flew down here really really fast?"
"Then we'd be talking rather astronomical speeds, Rainbow," Pilate said. "Not to mention improbable. Tell me, just how would Duranda and the rest of Commander Hurricane's soldiers have survived?"
"Uhhh..." Rainbow gulped, then grinned awkwardly. "Lots and lots of pillows...?"
"I believe that something else caused this crater, Rainbow," Pilate said. He began pacing across the wooden beams. "I'm talking about something long, long ago—eons before the likes of the Ledomaritans and the Xonans blasted open a piece of the earth to give Nightshade access to the Machine World. I'm willing to bet it was something that happened long before even the founding of Equestria—so long ago that it afforded nature the time it needed to form a perfect tropical niche in this very basin."
"But—like—how far back are we talking?!" Rainbow shrugged. "The way you put it, it's almost as if we'd had have to go all the way to—" She paused in mid-speech, blinking.
Pilate scuffled to a stop and pivoted towards her. He tilted his head up.
Rainbow murmured, "The Sundering."
"The what?" Fawful stammered.
"Rainbow, since our run-in with the Herald, we've had every reason to believe that the sundering of the ring—Urohringr—was something that was forced to happen by malevolent parties."
Rainbow gulped. "Or just one bunch of bad eggs."
"Right. Regardless, we can't even pretend to guess how the rings are to be properly separated. But if it was all done forcefully—even unnaturally—then it's safe to assume that the process was anything but smooth." Pilate gestured all around him. "I'm willing to believe that whatever caused this crater was something transpiring on such a large scale that it would shatter our comprehension."
"Like..." Rainbow gritted her teeth. "Like maybe this crater was caused... b-by another piece of the ring?"
"Just try to imagine," Pilate said. "Several large objects, aloft in chaotic space, suddenly separated from one another. This was long before the alicorns came upon this plane and blessed it with harmony. Beforehand, everything must have been subject to the rampant laws of nature and physics. I'm willing to bet that the pieces of the ring collided with one another due to the force of gravity... perhaps even more than once! It would certainly explain a crater of this size."
Rainbow gulped. "It might explain something like the 'Grand Choke' too."
"Now, that's pushing it a bit, don't you think?"
"Hey, just trying to be ahead of the curve."
"And an impact like that could have been sufficient enough to expose the machine world's surface from beneath the geological topography," Pilate thought out loud. "That's why there's no door down in the Inner Sanctum, Rainbow. It was never built to be accessed. It was simply dug up by unforeseen events. And then, over the millennia that passed, an ecosystem developed here—but the machine world was still exposed in the very center of the crater. And when a piece of the sentinel that Commander Hurricane discovered was separated from the rest—without any means of its own propulsion—"
"It shot its way here like a bullet!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Attracted by the energy of the machine world n'stuff!"
"And yet both the structures of Stratopolis and the Machine World are mutually responsive to the energy force of you, the Austraeoh," Pilate said. "Which explains why you and Commander Hurricane both cause the Gold Lights."
"Uhm... pardon me..." Fawful leaned her head in, squinting. "The Austraeoh?" She gawked. "Just what is that?"
Pilate twitched visibly. He turned towards Rainbow. "Rainbow...?"
"Uhhhhhh...." Rainbow gulped. "Eh heh heh..."
"Rainbow..." Pilate sighed, his ears folded. "Please... please tell me you've told them..."
"Told us what?" Fawful's head darted back and forth. Her ears flounced from the heaviness of her heartbeat. "What is 'Austraeoh?'"
Pilate tapped his hoof, jaws clenched.
Rainbow bit her lip. "So... uh... h-how 'bout lunch?" She chuckled nervously, hovering on drooped wings. "A nice... long... informative lunch? Heh heh heh heh..."
Props strolled into the cockpit, yawning. "Mmmmmm-nyupppp... 'Afternoon, Handsome."
"Hey hey hey," Floydien muttered while digging into several metal conduits.
"Hmmm... still pulling apart Nancy Jane's guts?"
"Floydien has nothing better to do," the elk said. "This basin gives Floydien the shimmer jimmers, and these winged boomers are too cheerful for their own good. Yes yes yessss."
"Awwww..." Props smiled. "I bet you'd like them if you'd get to know them."
"Kera."
"Huh?"
"The little boomerette, Kera," Floydien muttered. "She says the same thing. Grnngh... sometimes I think the Nancy Jane boomers are out to turn Floydien's skin another color."
"Heeheehee! It's just because we care so much about you!"
"Then it's best to leave Floydien alone with Floydien's skin."
"Pfft. Where's the fun in that?" Props glanced all around with bright blue eyes. "And speaking of fun, where did Zaidy Waidy run off to?"
"Hmmmfff... blonde boomer means the one with hairy brown brown?"
"Yupperooni!"
"Grfff..." Floydien's antlers sparkled as he fused a few wires together. "Lavender boomer saw him earlier on the top deck..."
"Ahhhhh." Props turned and trotted out the cockpit door. "Okay. Thankies!"
"Yes yes yes... apparently he was flying off with three winged boomerettes to their tree house."
Props skidded to a stop, her eyes twitching wildly while her coat went pale.
"They were certainly full of the giggle glimmer, lavender says. Hmmmf. Must be something boomerettes all share in the same same." Floydien looked over his shoulder. "Yes yes yes?" Silence. "Blonde boomer?"
Props was gone, nowhere to be seen.
"Hrmmm..." Floydien turned back to the consoles with a neutral expression. "Blood blood blood."