Chapter Nine
What Lies Below
In which the reader is invited to speculate whether
a mouse that hides beneath a cat's food dish
is extraordinarily wise or exceptionally foolish,
and if the term "mixed blessing"
is applicable to the situation at hoof, or not.
May 4th - 6th, 1014
In the Dragon's Teeth range, Marezambique
I spent the remaining hours of light closely observing the airships far below us and making detailed notes about their movements. I was able to determine a pattern to their courses that could help us avoid them on the way down.
I showed my diagram to Fluttershy and she nodded slowly. "Yes, I can steer Nebula around them, but I might have to use her engines more. It'll be noisier."
"Can't be helped," I said. "Hopefully the sound of their own engines will hide our ours, but try to limit it, anyway. We're really low on energy."
I tried to avoid worrying about all the things I had no control over, but with nothing else left to do, I fretted over the multitude of "ifs" that lay between us and safety. If the airships flew pegasus patrols at night… If our descent became unmanageable because of unexpected winds… If our power crystals held out… If only I could fly, or use my magic….
As the last of the evening light faded from the sky, the crew went silently to their stations. All were carrying the weapons that I desperately hoped they wouldn't have to use. Pinkie Pie paused to give me a nuzzle as she went past. She didn't offer any empty words promising a good outcome, but the touch of silent support was exactly what I needed at that moment.
I turned to Fluttershy and Fairlead and nodded. Somepony had stuffed a rag into the bell of the engine telegraph, so when Fairlead rang for Slow Ahead, there was only a muffled clanking from within the housing. Fluttershy pulled back on the vent controls as gently as if she were scooping up an injured bird, and we began the long descent.
It was maddening. Since we couldn't see the running lights of the Marezambique ships from above, I could only assume that we were steering clear of them, and assume that they hadn't changed their search patterns after sunset. The light of the waning crescent moon lit the peaks of the mountains just enough to use them to navigate by. It limned the ridges of the great dragon skull sufficiently for us to make out the edge of the eye socket, but the bottom remained a pool of absolute blackness.
The air began to warm as we descended. As the gas cells compressed from the higher atmospheric pressure, we began to sink faster than expected. I opened the hatch in the side of the telegraph pedestal and threw the big knife switches to turn on the heaters inside the cells. I cranked the temperature control rheostat to the 75% mark, and the increased drain on our power crystals caused the engines to stutter a bit before they evened out again.
"The heaters pull a lot of juice," Fairlead said to me in a half-whisper. "Keep a sharp eye on the gauges."
I nodded and went to the rail to check on our descent speed again with my anemometer. We had slowed, but not as much as I would have liked. I went back and turned up the heaters to full, but then I could see the needles of the power gauges moving toward zero.
The air got hotter and our engines began stuttering again. I shut off the cell heaters when the power gauges went below the 1% mark and the engines steadied out, but we were still sinking too fast for comfort.
Mr. Fairlead signaled for the engine pods to be rotated from horizontal to 90 degrees straight up and rang for Half Ahead in an attempt to reduce our speed.
The two crewponies assigned to guide Fluttershy as we got near the skull whipped their little white flags back and forth. I turned to the rail in time to see the vast bulk of stone that was the edge of the eye socket rush upward past us as we fell into shadow.
Rarity lit her little bundles of twine, sailcloth, and tar and dropped them over the rail. I watched them fall and counted slowly under my breath. When they spattered on the sand below us, I did a quick mental calculation and said to Fluttershy, "Two furlongs, five knots!" We were still dropping far too fast, and didn't have much time to correct the problem.
Fluttershy's eyes went wide and she gasped out, "Full Ahead!" to Fairlead, who was already reaching for the telegraph handles.
The telegraph bell clunked and the engines roared in response. The deck pressed upward under my hooves for a moment.
Then the engines sputtered and died, our power crystals exhausted.
Nopony had time to curse before we hit.
There was a hollow boom as Nebula's keel hit the sand and some ugly cracking noises came from below deck. Those of us who hadn't had the presence of mind to hold onto something solid were knocked off our hooves.
Fluttershy hung from the spokes of the wheel, gasping out, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
The deck tilted to starboard as we settled, and the sound of our impact echoed around us for several moments. I went and hugged Fluttershy, shushing her and whispering, "It's okay. We're safe. You did it." Then everything was silent.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack heaved the boarding ladder over the starboard rail and climbed down to the sand, followed by two other crewponies. They spread out until they could get a good look at the night sky above and watched for anything making a black patch against the starscape above.
I organized the bucket brigade, and soon had most of the rest of the crew hauling sand up through the accessway to spread on the top of the envelope. Thanks to Gudgeon's brilliant design, the stiffening rods inside her shrouds wouldn't let Nebula's partially deflated envelope settle down onto the deck, and that gave us plenty of room to work below it.
We kept at it until dawn, covering as much of the fabric as we could to the point where the curvature caused the sand to slide off. Then we hung sails and spare canvas below that. There were still small areas of dark blue exposed, but it would be very difficult to spot them from any distance.
= = =
The first day, ponies worked at whatever came to hoof. Fluttershy went with the damage crew and inspected every bit of cracked and splintered timber below decks. She knew next to nothing about aeronautical carpentry, but ran her hooves over the beams and planks, making whispered promises to Nebula to "make it all better." Nopony laughed or even smiled at that.
Ket crawled up from the galley looking a bit gray. She was apologetic about being out of action, but I assured her that she could more than make up for it. She became a granite-colored pegasus with a sand-colored mane and flew up out of the eye socket to be our long distance lookout for enemy ships.
Rarity crawled through the sagging accessway and vents and inspected the gas cells and the inside of the envelope.
Rainbow Dash grumbled and complained. About twice an hour, she asked when the potion that Doctor Woundwort had given her would finish regrowing her flight feathers. The fourth time she came to me I gave up on telling her, "A half-hour less than the last time you asked," and threatened to pluck the rest of her if she didn't find something useful to do.
Applejack and I ventured out onto the dunes to the huge fall of stone at the bottom of the eye socket. She played pack horse for me as I collected mineral samples in the hopes of finding the right compounds to generate lifting gas.
Mr. Taleb led a team setting out block and tackle attached to sand anchors so that we could roll Nebula's hull to the best position to make repairs.
Others slung their hammocks and rested for their turn at nightwatch.
And all the while, in the back of our minds, we waited for the warning cry that would tell us we had been discovered.
= = =
I was almost hopeful by the dawn of the second day. We had been flown over by a couple of zebra ships, but they had been high in the sky and had held to their search pattern without showing any sign of having spotted us.
I had found some mareaposite and had given the bluish-green crystals to several crewponies to use as comparison samples while they spread out to search for more. Rarity had reported that Nebula's fabric bits were in excellent shape, and Mr. Fairlead had given me a very positive assessment of the hull repairs.
Pinkie Pie worked wonders at keeping everypony's spirits up, and even Rainbow Dash was in a much better mood. She had made several amusing shapes in the dunes around the ship, but was convinced she'd be able to reliably stay aloft, "tomorrow, for sure!"
It would have been nice if I had been able to say the same, but I'd been so busy that I'd neglected my wing and it had stiffened up to the point where moving it was pure torture. My horn wasn't much better. I could cast some light when I needed it, but even a little levitation made my head hurt after a few moments, which was beyond irritating. With my cobbled-together gas generator, I could have replenished Nebula's supply in a few hours if I hadn't been magically crippled. As it was, we'd need the unicorn crewponies working full time for at least a week to do the job, and that wasn't counting the time and energy they'd have to spend recharging our power crystals.
Add to that the fact that the rockfall we were mining for mareaposite seemed to have covered the opening to the dragon's optic canal, and it made for a very frustrated pirate captain.
I suppose I wasn't being the most cheerful pony around, and perhaps my nerves were a little bit on edge, so I think it's perfectly understandable that I got the slightest bit snappish when the big rumbling boom shook me out of my bunk on the morning of the third day.
"What was that?" I yelled as I ran from my cabin. "If Rainbow Dash hit the hull again, I'll strangle her with my own hooves!"
"Captain on deck!" somepony shouted. (Well, duh!)
"It was an avalanche, Twilight," said Rarity. She pointed to the cloud of dust rising over the broken zygomatic fragments in the distance.
"Celestia trample it!" I swore. "If that dust gets above the edge of the eye socket, the zebra ships could see it and come to investigate!"
Rarity put a hoof against my shoulder and I turned to see her frightened expression. "Applejack and Chestnut are out there."
"What?"
"They went to get more of the mineral about an hour ago, and…"
I was already over the rail and scrambling down the ladder. Rainbow passed me about halfway to the rocks and the muffled sound of hooves on sand grew behind me.
I skidded to a stop when I saw Dash dragging Chestnut away from a jumble of sharp boulders. The arrow wound in his side had reopened and was bleeding freely.
"Where's AJ?" I asked, dreading the answer.
Chestnut coughed and pointed to the new-fallen pile of rocks. "S—she's under there."
The smallest piece of stone in the pile weighed at least half a ton. Rainbow Dash threw herself onto it and began pulling. She somehow managed to dislodge a boulder twice her size and it crashed down, scattering those of us who were looking on in despair. Dash continued to frantically struggle with a slab that must have outweighed Nebula until I climbed up beside her.
"Rainbow, you're not going to…"
"Don't you dare tell me what I can't do, Twilight! I'm going to save her!" She turned away from me and pounded her hooves against the granite.
I caught the flash of pink out of the corner of my eye and dragged Dash aside just before Pinkie Pie hit the slab. Pinkie didn't have the incredible strength of her sister Maud, but she certainly knew her rocks. The slab split along its length and shifted under our hooves. Pinkie hit it again, and a smaller piece broke off and began sliding down the pile.
Dash struggled when I tried to drag her to a safe distance.
"Let the expert do her job!" I hissed into her ear, and she gave up and came with me.
Above us, Pinkie paused, eyeing the stone beneath her for a moment. Then she struck it with the edge of her hoof. It didn't look like a particularly hard blow, but the rest of the slab fragmented and the pieces rumbled down to the sand.
The rest of us cleared away the chunks as well as we could while Pinkie continued to work. More crewponies arrived and carried Chestnut back to Nebula. A few minutes later, Pinkie had tunneled down to nearly the level of the sand.
"Twilight!"
"What is it, Pinkie?"
"This rock is funny. I think it might fall if I break it."
"Hang on! I'll be right there!"
I scrambled up the slope and carefully lowered myself into the tunnel. Pinkie was standing on a flat piece of stone, frowning. She tapped a hoof against it and it rang hollowly, as if there was a void beneath it.
A moment latter somepony else knocked on the stone. From beneath.
"AJ, is that you?" I called.
"You're alive!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
"I ain't dead," came the muffled reply. "But I ain't exactly comfortable, if'n ya get my drift."
"Are you hurt?" I asked.
"Well, I got banged up a mite when I fell down the stairs, but there ain't no broke bones I know of."
"Stairs?"
"Yep. Looks like you were right 'bout the Labra-whatcha-call-it. Now all ya have to worry 'bout is gettin' that big ol' rock outta the way without dropping it on my head."
"Can you move away? Maybe down the stairs until you're out of the way of where the stone will fall?"
There was a long pause and then Applejack said. "I s'pose. But I gotta tell ya, Twi, If'n anypony told me before today that I'd be skittish of a buncha steps strung t'gether, I'd have told them they was nuts. But, this place…" There was another pause. "This place ain't right, Twi. It plum scares the sugar outta me."
"I understand, but the fragments of this rock could bounce quite a ways when it shatters, so you've got to get a good distance away from there. We'll be through as quick as we can, okay?"
"Alright, Twi." Applejack's voice became softer and more muffled. "I'm goin' down the stairs now. Gimme a minute and then bust 'er open."
I climbed out of the tunnel and gave the rest of the gang the good news. There was laughter and cheering and relieved sobbing. I gave them the few moments of emotional release they needed and then sent Rainbow Dash down to join Pinkie.
"She's going to crack the slab, but the place is so narrow that she's got nowhere else to stand. You need to support her until it's safe, okay?" I didn't bother to ask her if she thought she could do it. Dash's capacity for accurate self-assessment always erred on the dangerous side. I could only hope her nearly regrown feathers could support them both for the time it took the debris to settle.
I watched from the tunnel mouth but kept everypony else at a safe distance. It all went according to plan. At first, that is. With one precise kick from her left hind hoof, Pinkie Pie broke the slab into a couple dozen head-sized chunks. Rainbow Dash flapped furiously, keeping both of them from dropping into the darkness beneath until the fragments had stopped bouncing and sliding into the hole.
Dash set Pinkie down at the head of the stairs about the same time I made it down to them. I lit my horn, winced, and peered down into the area below us. The others all crowded behind me to get a look.
"Are you okay?" I called out to Applejack as I took a cautious step downward.
"I'll be better when I'm outta this place, I can tell you that!" came the echoing reply.
I couldn't see her. The meager amount of light my horn was shedding showed only a few lengths of the rock-strewn steps below us.
"Hang on. We're coming!"
Rarity thoughtfully took over flashlight duty from me and we carefully descended the steps until we came to a turn. Around the corner, the stairs ended at an uneven surface that acted as a landing. I realized we were standing on the orbital plate of ethmoid bone near the superior orbital fissure. It seemed the steps had somehow fused with the skeletal anatomy of the dragon.
"Applejack?" I called.
"I'm here!" came the answer. "Where're y'all?"
"Coming! Can you see our light?"
"Can't see much but this glowy writin'. I can't rightly tell which way I came down, neither."
That was worrisome. "Just stay where you are. We're coming for you." I assumed that the natural path leading further down would be through the orbital fissure and led the way.
"Don't trip over the edge of the lamina papyracea,"[1] I said as I carefully stepped over it.
-----------
[1] A thin plate of ethmoid bone forming part of the medial wall of the orbit and the lateral wall for the ethmoidal labyrinth. And no, the irony was not lost on me.
----------
"The what?" asked Pinkie Pie, a second before she caught her hoof on the bone ridge and face-planted. She bounced right up and turned to the ponies behind her. "Hey guys, watch out for this sticky-up piece!"
Much to our surprise, we discovered that a spiral wrought-iron staircase descended into the orbital fissure. The railings were stylized acanthus leaves lightly sprinkled with gilded berries. The thing wouldn't have looked out of place in a fashionable Canterlot townhouse, but in that place, it was decidedly creepy.
Since Rarity was creating the light, she had to go first. She did so without hesitation, and I followed close behind her. I could only make out dim shapes past Rarity's head when she reached the bottom of the staircase. Even the startled way she said, "Oh, my!" didn't prepare me for what I saw when I stepped out onto the landing beside her.
We stood at the top of a cavernous shaft that fell away into darkness below us. From side to side it was filled with a profusion of stairs and landings in every imaginable style. It was so confusing that it took a moment for me to spot Applejack, nearly a furlong away from us and a half-dozen lengths below, waving her old battered hat to catch our attention.
"How in the world did you get down there, darling?"
"I don't rightly know. I swear I couldn'ta gone down more'n a flight or two!"
I scanned the maze of steps, trying to figure out a way to get to Applejack from where we were. The place was far too crowded to fly though, but the stairs were also too far apart to risk climbing or jumping between them.
Behind me, Fluttershy gave a gasp of fear.
I turned and saw what had scared her. The spiral stairs behind us were gone. In their place was a heavy oaken flight, covered in a plush carpet. Beyond and above it were... more stairs.
= = =
=
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gravity-falls-oldies/images/0/00/Tumblr_inline_njxwaeiBvG1t1e5o0.gif/revision/latest?cb=20150411021713
Is this Sombra's vacation home? It is, isn't it. The stairs will lead up to the kitchen where Sombra is having breakfast and there'll be a big fight and ruin the house and all Sombra wanted was his toast, tea and scrambled eggs.
Man, I hate it when I accidentally wander into an Escher painting.
6658198
This made me laugh.
6635799
6644058 When the fuck did anyone ever care where Spike was? I just ctrl+F'd the whole story, and his name only appears about ten times. I'll bet he's there, and iisaw--like the average brony--simply didn't give enough shits to mention him.
I think I need a biology book to understand Twilight's description of the place. I gave up when I saw more three unknown terms, after I had check on three already.
6658170 This.
Also, them descriptions
I'm curious about the glowing writing AJ mentioned.
Neat detail about the gas heaters. :)
And another about the altitude over ground determination.
Oh. Dear. :D
My time's a bit limited at the moment, but another good chapter. :)
Oh god! It's the House of Leaves place!
I admit, I'm disappointed that you didn't do Cadance next and Twilight last, but eh.
No time to get into it right now, and I want to re-read CC and LC first, so into the Read Later shelf it goes.
Wasn't there something about changelings last chapter?
Yay! Escher stairs and non-Euclidean geometry?
6658198
Not the only one to be thinking that, that...!
img06.deviantart.net/6f5a/i/2015/032/6/2/twilight_sparkle_and_the_endless_stairs_by_thegreenmachine987-d80lqhm.jpg
6658170 This was my reaction, too.
6658170
6658364 Oh, but I do care!
6658368 It's not really important... Twi's just cluelessly obtuse sometimes.
6659324 The chapters alternate timelines... they'll be back!
6658468
They better be careful. There might be a Minotaur.
Inconsistent spacial topography. Great. If it can be figured out, Twilight will, but that's still a significant "if".
Really? Somepony has clearly been waiting for them! For what cause and to what end remains to be seen!
img.memecdn.com/ladder-on-stairs_o_464243.jpg
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/945/002/1b4.gif
I wonder if they thought of removing anything that could point at Equestria from the ship... Probably not.
Damn esher stairs.
Okay, well clearly we find out what is going on under that eye. And.. wouldn't it be funny if Twi was right about this... but ended up just flying into the wrong eye socket and thinking she was wrong? Still, knew she'd get in there, question is, will they make their stealth checks in the process.
Also, so figuring that the 1012 story ends with her finding out about this Stair in the first place. Be the most logical way to tie them together.
Ohhh rather meta... I tend not to like overly meta stuff in stories, but these opening blurbs are pure meta in the first place. Also this one I kind of like, doesn't give away anything we couldn't already suspect, but just kind of has a nice way of putting the issue at hoof so, yeah first one I wasn't just 'meh' about.
Poor poor soldiers, to used to following patterns.. they really stand no chance agsint somepony like Twilight.
True, and gotta figure a warship will have more engine output and hence more noise then... wait, how much noise could they make? They are running off pure magical energy aren't they? That shouldn't make a whole lot of noise, should be about the same as a sub moving under battery power. Less given the propulsion blades don't have to worry about cavitation. The real noise in a propulsion plant comes from whatever means is made to turn the raw fuel source into usable energy for propulsion. The magic should already BE usable energy, or at least able to be converted very easily. I mean yes, still a mechanical system so will be SOME noise, but really should not be that much. And yes anything regarding propulsion plants I'm going to be very nitpicky and precise about, you found the thing I've actually trained for and spent years doing.
Hmmm dilemma, do I go with "Like your entire life from your POV which is what compelled you in large part to start this whole thing in an attempt to make yourself feel in control." or "Twilight, why? We all know that is not going to work? But at least you think you are trying."
I will admit taking the flying out of the equation was fairly well done. Still might wanted to have at some point outright said she had dislocated her wing to make clear just how fucked she is in that regard for awhile.
Once again, there is much hidden wisdom in the Pink One.
Ohhh smart. "Rig for silent running" and why do I have the feeling this is not the first time they've done something like this? The having to be as silent as possible part at least.
This is another question, if it's all running off essentially magical batteries, why have this? Why wouldn't the control on the bridge control the engine directly? The whole point of those things is to tell the engineering section to increase speed by physically altering the throttles controlling steam flow to the engines.
No running lights on top? That seems really really dangerous. They ARE moving in three dimensional space. They should anticipate the issue of someone else coming down from above and have lights up there to let them know there is something in the way.
At least you luck out there with a tiny moon.
Ohhhh, that cant be good for your power consumption.
Oh it's not, good job there story. Still better then crashing. Hey you pick up any really really spicy things? you could just have Pinkie go up there and eat those.
Well given the lack of shouting and alarm sounding, guess you got phase one done. Now for phase two, land in the giant eye socket cave in a condition you can leave it again in.
Would it really be 'roaring' what is causing the noise? I wouldn't expect airships to be THAT fast that the shear wind of the propellers counts as roaring. Humming loudly sure.
Ouch.. hopefully it's nothing some tar and a few nails can't fix.
So, how flat is the bottom of Nebula? How secure is it just sitting on the ground?
Wait, something caught on fire?
OHHHH For that.
Plus who the buck would think to look in there in the first place?
I'm sure they more then know enough by now not to even try that.
Having a changeling on board can be very very useful. (Also yeah, betting next chapter is where Twi picks him up to join the crew.
And turn them into a gag to make her shut up! But yeah, hiding, unable to fly, enemies around and can't fight.. this like, the single worst position for RD to be in and it is going to be driving her nuts.
Not very flat I take it, but can't be TO bad if they are more or less stable.
Well you got in there safely, that's the hard part, and the longer the search goes on, the less likely they are check places this close.
At least the sand is a soft landing compared to what she's used to, but that can not be comfortable to grind against.
Well, start getting to work on that now.
Well if you have that long, hopefully your horn will heal before then. At least it is getting better. Really not looking to forward to a whole half story of Twilight without her magic given just how awesome this series is at her doing it.
And your chance to look for that staircase you wanted to pass the time. At least taking it out of the way also helps with that goal.
Well given what the story was just talking about, either you are being bombed from above, or that rock slide just collapsed and exposed something fun for you to take a look at.
Huh, I was right.. well right about what, maybe not where.
Okay, that would be the opposite end. Huh what caused that? They clip it on the way in and it took that long for things to shift? Or RD crash?
.... oh crap, yeah that would be bad. RD, feel up to flying yet?
Oh double crap! Well we know what caused it.
I thought Twi said the mineral mining was blocking the optical canal, that would be at the back, why were they going to the front?
Well dangerous yes, but we know the story isn't going to kill one of the Mane 6, was worried about Chestnut though. Still, Oh crap!
Where's Maud when you need her?
Oh SHIT! I.. I was NOT expecting THAT! And, Story... ummmm, well this is a bit creepy. Still GO PINKIE!
Likely with an AJ inside of it.
That would be a yes. So ummm, nopony did anything about that dust cloud then?
And we know how she survived, and, commence Twi geek out. Well after the "Oh thank Celestia you are alive!"
Ummm, the stone is likely to just roll down the stairs and crush her anyway, that might be difficult.
Steps strung together? that sound.. odd.
Oh great, Twilight are you about to go mess with stuff from a Great Old One? We do not need Cthul'hu added to your problem right now. Or any other ANYTHING that could be described as "Lovecraftian"
And she comes back as Taztljack.
Because no matter what, the answer would be 'yes'.
Because of course something had to go wrong.
Nopony thought to go get a few lanterns from the ship?
That works too.
Okay 1. Yeah I'd count that as creepy. 2. just further makes one wonder.... what the bucking hell happened here and the buck did you just find Twilight?
And of course it's a maze. Well this should be fun.
Whelp, there's your problem.
Twilight, you are such a NERD! But it's what makes you so adorkable. Also you know nopony is going to understand that.
That thingie over there. Also, case in point.
And things just got weirder.
So, More M.C. Escher then Lovecraft? Ah who are we kidding, Escher would fit in perfectly with that stuff.
Well congratulations Twilight, you just trapped them all. And who knows what is going on above ground with that whole dust plume alerting the Zebras. Hopefully this place kind of exists outside regular time so you can get back there and help. Still, yeah this is creepy and... I have no bucking clue what is going on beyond "Something Trippy!"
Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing that I wasn't reading this as it was being released. I'm sure I'd have died of suspense from having to wait two chapters between every cliffhanger.
7251262 Amen to that, my friend
Nothing like dropping from the metaphorical stratosphere to the desert below (hopefully) undetected.
Honestly, that's really a poorly thought out plan, just imagine how much she'd be complaining after that.
Oh crap.
Well hey, that why you bring a rock pony along, even if she isn't the equivalent of Maud.
Much better.
Steps down into the skull of a long dead gigantic dragon?
That's what you get for unplanned adventurous archeology. I blame AJ.
Sombra at it again with the damn stairs.
oh goodie reminds of the move labyrinth
Typo: our ours
So it looks like they found Sombra's summer home, huh?
Oh NOOO! Stairs! My only weakness!
7997443 Yup.
6658198 That sounds funny.
6661617 Yes yes... Wait... Only four lives? She should've learned the infinite lives trick.
Well, this is a lot like that place in Pokemon the movie: Black/White, with the whole "paths going in a weird circle except for the Chosen Ones" shtick.
Welp, here they are, at the lovely scenic House of Bones.
A/N picture broken again.
Oh boy, non-Euclidean architecture.
"What mineral would be appropriate for Twilight to find here?"
"So you want a mineral that's mare-apposite?"
"That works."
(this isn't a correction, just an observation of the humor)
¡May the 4th be with you! On May the 6th, we find something in the craincase.
6658198
No, the big fight will be over coffee. All Sombra ever gets is Folger's CRYSTALS.
10099316
That fiend!
Goodness, this descent is suspensful! I love how Twilight is paying attention to all the details and variables!
Oh noooooo poor Flutters ;-;
Hah. I love your little interactions with everypony.
I find this side of Pinkie Pie is often forgotten about, or at least not utilized in this manner. It's great to see!
Worrisome indeed. Glowy writing is never a good sign!
I knew it! KING SOMBRA IS AT IT AGAIN