"What." Scootaloo's eyes were open wide as she stood at the foot of the winding path down, taking in the contours of the passage before her, illuminated only by Even Later's green magical hornlight.

"I know, isn't it quite something?" the green-coated mare said with a wink. We were pretty amazed when we found it already here—it's in the perfect location and it's just about the right size for what we need."

Kevin cocked his head. "I'm gonna echo Scootaloo: what."

Flight nodded. "I'll third it: what indeed."

"Fourthsies!" Mochi exclaimed. Then, she blinked. "Wait, what? Why does this hallway look like... like... that other place?"

And indeed, it did very much resemble a place in which the four ponies had been in, underground, only several hours earlier. The walls seemed to be composed of the same immaculately smooth white material, sloping upwards and downwards to meet the ceiling and floor, stretching out in front of them into a longer hallway that split off into different halls to the left and right. And, of course, just barely visible in the low light, they could make out the distinctive shapes of letters etched into the surface of the walls.

"Other place?" Clove Hitch asked, raising an eyebrow. "You mean you've seen something that looked like this before?"

Scootaloo nodded. "It was back a ways away from here, somewhere in the forest where we first stopped and went to go looking for berries. The three of us," she said, pointing to herself, Kevin, and Flight, "fell down into a cavern that eventually led into a passage with these same white walls. It wasn't until we got into this big part where it opened up until there were any words on the walls, though."

Even Later stepped back, clearly surprised. "You're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"No, that's definitely what we saw," Flight chimed in. "I even got pictures of the words on the walls." She lifted up the comlink on her wrist and then, once the filly had pressed several buttons, she showed the screen to the awaiting eyes of Even Later and Clove Hitch.

"Well, that's... interesting, to say the least," Clove Hitch finally said, looking back up at the others. "I'm sure Turnip will want to hear about this; if there are more parts lying around, that could be... interesting."

"Parts of what?" Scootaloo leaned forward.

"We're... not entirely sure," Later explained. "From what we can tell, this used to be part of a space vessel of some kind, though it's now been here for thousands of years at least. Although we knew it was incomplete... until now, we thought this was the only part that had survived. Obviously we were wrong."

"Then what's up with the writing?" Flight asked, putting her hoof back down. "Can you ponies read it?"

"None of us speak bikuduk-libuulad very well, but we can read parts," Later replied. "From what we can tell, it wasn't here originally and it was added much later than the vessel was built, with tools much more crude than those used to build it. And what we can read seems to indicate that the text is an early written history of the planet, some of which may have been used to write the Asterismos. But it's not really clear what point of view it's written from; we don't have any way to know who wrote it."

"Weird..." Scootaloo said.

"It's definitely weird," Clove Hitch stated. "But I think what you've just shown us makes it even weirder..."

"Should we go tell Mr. Acres now?" Cotton Fluff asked. Everypony turned to look at the mare, who previously had kept quiet. "Erm, what?" She eyed the rest of the group warily.

"Nothing, nothing... I just forgot you were standing there," Clove Hitch replied. "But to answer your question, not yet. I don't think it would be prudent to interrupt if he's in a meeting with Cinderblock and Nerves; they're probably discussing something important."

"What now, then?" Kevin asked, looking somewhat bored.

"Distractions!" Even Later exclaimed. "Or, as I like to call them, 'waiting in style'." Grinning, she ran up ahead and took a hard left out of sight. Everypony else had no choice but to follow, led by Clove Hitch in the front.