...and the ship levelled out, parallel to the planet's surface, as they pulled a hard right. Instead of a green mass coming towards them, the view out the window instead was that of a black-turning-blue sky with the rounded edge of the Kindred planet peeking out below them, growing a manageable rate rather than the incredible speed of before.

Scootaloo exhaled in relief; Kevin, on the other hoof, remained focused as he carefully shifted the wheel back to the centre as the ship levelled out.

"Do you know where you're going?" Scootaloo asked. She gazed out the front window as they passed large patches of what appeared to be jungle, tops of leafy trees visible below them. Occasionally the thick mass of trees was interrupted by the snaking arm of a river, visible as the trees shied away from where the water flowed. But not once did Scootaloo see any sign of civilisation.

Kevin didn't look away from the window, but he still replied. "Yeah, it's definitely this way. Not that far, even; it should only be an hour or two."

Scootaloo said nothing—her gaze too was trained out the window, taking in the lush jungle sights. But the lack of any visible signs of pony inhabitants was at the very least quite concerning to the filly. Finally, she voiced her concern.

"Um... can I ask a question about the Kindred planet?"

"Yep, definitely. I'll answer if I'm able to."

"How come we're not seeing any civilisation? Towns, cities, farms, boats, any of that? There's just so much land here that's open..."

"Heh, yeah, I bet it does seem like that. Ponies live on the surface where you're from, probably. There are definitely some above-ground settlements, even in this region—in fact, where we're going is one of them. But it all goes back to the history of our planet... back in the old days, there was a lot of pollution because of factories and overproduction and stuff like that. Then it became a health risk to live on the surface, so the ponies moved underground and decided to use the above-ground land as a sort of nature preserve, nurturing it so that it could get to how it is right now. And they've decided to keep it like that, for the benefit of the planet, so most of the large cities and stuff like that is underground and we use a lot of cleaner energy."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," Scootaloo replied, still looking out the window. "Back where I'm from, we didn't have any pollution, really. Or at least not that I knew about."

"You'd probably know," Kevin said. "It's usually these awful thick grey clouds that come down to the surface and make ponies cough and get sick."

"Hmm, yeah, nothing like that."

Scootaloo and Kevin continued looking down upon the vibrant world below as it flashed past them at an alarming rate. With each kilometre they flew, the comrades grew closer and closer to their destination.