"Something's different," Scootaloo said, interrupting the silence whose midst the trio had been walking through for some time.

"What do you mean?" Flight asked from behind.

"Do you feel that, with the floor?" Scootaloo reached out a hoof to the side. "The wall, too." She waited to allow Kevin and Flight to do the same.

"It's... smooth," Kevin replied. "Huh. That's way smoother."

Scootaloo heard a hoof scraping gently against the wall. "It's curved, too," Flight commented. "The wall curves right into the floor."

"That's so weird, though—how didn't we notice that?" Scootaloo wondered aloud.

"I'm... not sure. Kevin, could you please—" Flight started but she was interrupted by Kevin's horn being once more illuminated. "Thank you."

The green glow brought their surroundings back into view and the first thing any of them noticed was the colour of the walls; unlike the dark grey stone of the tunnels before, these smooth walls were an immaculate milky white that in contrast looked extremely unnatural. As Flight had mentioned, the walls and floor curved together—as did the ceiling, placing them in some sort of rectangular tube.

Flight tapped the wall and the sound reverberated through the tunnel. "It's kinda like porcelain."

"What's porcelain?" Scootaloo asked.

"You know, what they make toilets and stuff out of," Flight replied. "It's really white and smooth like this."

"Hmm, maybe," Kevin said, eyeing the wall closely.

"Oh, that's what that stuff is called. Well, it doesn't really matter what it is. I'm sure we'll find out more if we keep walking," Scootaloo resolved. "The breeze is still coming from in front of is, so we're still going the right way."

"I guess we don't have any other choice," Flight said. "Soldier onwards."

"Light yes or light no?" Kevin asked.

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder. "Do you feel up to it?"

"Not really... still feeling pretty worn out," Kevin replied. "I had it on for a pretty long time."

"Then I think we can make do without it." Without another word, Scootaloo stepped forward and, as Kevin extinguished his light, he followed suit with Flight right behind.

For a few more minutes they carried onwards. Then—

THUD!

"Ow!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Kevin and Flight stopped in their tracks.

"What happened?" Flight asked. "Are you okay?"

"Should I turn on my horn?" Kevin asked.

"Aaaugh... y-yeah, I'm fine," Scootaloo said. "And no, I don't need the light. I just ran into the wall here. With my face."

"Oof," Kevin said, cringing. "You sure about the light? There could be more walls up ahead, and it'd be better for you to avoid them..."

"Nah, I'm all good," Scootaloo replied. "I'll use, like, echolocation or something. C'mon. And watch out for the turn."

Kevin could hear the filly start trotting again so he followed, making sure to feel ahead for the turn. As he rounded the bend, Kevin noticed that Scootaloo was making a bunch of odd clicking noises with her mouth. Raising an eyebrow, he turned his head over his shoulder to face Flight, even if he couldn't see her in the darkness. "She can't actually do that bat stuff, can she?" he murmured.

"There's no way," Flight whispered back. "Ponies train years learning how to do that. She's just messing with you."

"I wouldn't be so certain of that if I were you," Scootaloo said loudly ahead of them. "Right turn ahead, by the way."

Kevin didn't believe her but, just to be sure, stuck a hoof out anyway. Much to his surprise, it hit a wall. "Oh my goodness! Flight, she—wait." Kevin suddenly realised that the wall was soft and fuzzy rather than rigid and smooth, and he facehoofed.

"What?" Flight asked, but it was drowned out by Scootaloo's giggles.

"Heeheehee! Holy Tartarus, you totally fell for it!"

"Scootaloo stood there pretending to be the wall," Kevin explained.

Flight snickered. "Of course you fell for it, dorkface."

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay, enough messing around," Scootaloo said. "Let's go." She started trotting again, still making the clicking noises.

"Watch out for any walls," Flight whispered. Kevin merely sighed as he walked. With nothing else to say, a veil of silence hung over the three of them.

Silence. Kevin had grown to dread it over the past few... hours? However long they had been roaming the tunnels, going in some random direction in the hopes that it would lead them outside. Briefly he wondered if Mochi or Cotton Fluff had started to worry but decided that Mochi was probably still wandering and Cotton Fluff was probably still sleeping. Silence. At least the making fun of his mistakes had involved chatting and laughter; without it, silence was all they had. Kevin had had enough of silence in his time on the islands and as a stowaway; now that he was surrounded by friends, he felt pretty strongly that he shouldn't have to bear so much silence anymore.

Just as Kevin had resolved to say something... anything...

There was the sound of hooves tripping over each other.

"Aaaaaahhh!" Scootaloo exclaimed. And then—

THUD!

"Scootaloo!" Kevin shouted and, without hesitation, lit up his horn. As he stepped forward through the glowing green light, he could see the path ahead had a curved drop off and, as he trotted up to the edge, it was immediately obvious where Scootaloo had tripped and tumbled down the curved cliff of immaculate white. The orange pegasus filly lay sprawled out in the centre about ten metres below and as Kevin looked up, he was taken aback by what she lay in the centre of.

"Aeneus above," Flight breathed from behind him. "What is this place?"

The tunnel opened up into a large ovoid hewn from the same smooth white material, a veritable alien vessel placed seemingly randomly in the earth. As Kevin looked around for any sign of a flaw in the surface, he found what he was looking for; beyond another tunnel entrance on the other side, there were what appeared to be markings all along the side walls, although he couldn't quite make out what they were from his distant perch. However, he was interrupted from thinking about how to get over to them by a voice from below.

"Urgh... a little help here?" Scootaloo asked weakly, looking up at where Kevin and Flight stood.

"Sure thing," Flight said, nudging Kevin out of the way. She stepped forward and, once she reached the edge, hopped off, extending her butter-yellow wings. Kevin watch as the filly glided downward through the air, her feathers rustling slightly in the breeze, until she touched down on the curved surface below.

"Here, take my hooves," Flight said, reaching down to Scootaloo. With some effort, she brought the orange filly to a shaky standing position, allowing Scootaloo to lean against her side. Then, Flight looked up. "C'mon, Kev," she said. "The water's fine."

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Erm, how?"

Flight smiled. "I'm sure you'll figure something out."