The journey to the rocky spire took most of the day. The area between them and the spire was just as grassy and windy as the rest of the hills they had been in, and they were lucky enough not to attract the attention of any gigantic snakes. Any lesser reptiles they came across quickly got their heads crushed, and after a time the snakes stopped appearing. There was no way for them to know if they had left the snake's hunting grounds or if the snakes were avoiding them on principle now.

As time went on, the grass around them shortened, the winds dying out to lesser gusts that tended toward a single direction instead of all over the place. The emerald sea eventually ended, giving way to a browner landscape with rocks and shrubs dotting the landscape, and the occasional tree. The spire itself was before them now, and while from a distance it had looked like it might be natural the staircase going up its exterior clearly told them otherwise. It was all made out of a single granite-like rock and it was very rough and worn on the edges.

The staircase looked in-tact, though.

"I'm going to climb it," Pinkie said.

"That's a lot of stairs for a mare with a bad leg."

"So?" She pointed at the sun nearing the horizon. "Not like we have time to get anywhere else, really. Might as well see what's up there and then set up camp. I assume you have a tent in that pack of yours?"

"Yes."

"Good! We're close enough to the grass if we need to use it as bedding, and close enough to figure out what this spire thing is! It's perfect!" She trotted over to the spire and set her front hoof carefully on the steps. "Come on! I'll be slow!"

Crypt got the distinct impression she could climb the spire faster than he could even with the broken leg, but even he had to admit, it was probably best to get to the top of the tower. After all, what else were they going to do? It's not like they really had a goal.

Twenty minutes later Pinkie was whining.

"Why... are there so... many STAIRS!?"

"There had to be a way to get up."

"Thank you captain obvious," Pinkie said with a roll of her eyes. "I just have to ask, how much longer until we get there?"

"It could be a while."

"We're here!" Pinkie declared, stepping up the last step.

Crypt blinked. How had they gotten so high without him noticing? Had he really been watching her so closely he didn't notice their progress?

He shook his head - focusing on the top of the spire. It was relatively flat, even though it looked pointed from the ground. There was a single stone pedestal in the center, about the height of a pony. The two explorers walked up to it... and saw a hole where something round had used to be.

"Huh," Pinkie said, furrowing her brow. "Welp, looks like the treasure's gone. Bummer."

"The journey was not worthless," Crypt said, standing up on the pedestal and looking around. "We can plan our journey from up here."

"Oh yeah, high vantage poi- BY CELESTIA!" Pinkie's jaw dropped. She couldn't just see a few extra miles, she could see hundreds. To the west, she could see not only the entire field they had journeyed across, but also the forest, and beyond the forest to a much denser section of vegetation with a greenish smoke around it. The smoke was massive, but she could see that it took a vaguely circular shape. To the north, a seemingly endless desert, but she could see dozens of little rivers of green cutting through it, including so many oases that her sense of scale itself was confounded. To the east, there were massive snow-capped mountains that blocked the view beyond, but she had no doubt the lands beyond would be varied and almost beyond her. At the southern edge of the mountains, she could see oceans that didn't come to a sharp point at the horizon but vanished into the blue of the sky itself.

And then south... south she could see settlements and roads intermingled with dense jungle-like forest. She thought that maybe, just maybe, in the furthest distance she could see ANOTHER ocean.

"How...?" She asked nopony in particular.

To his credit, Crypt was not completely unimpressed. There were settlements to the south. Numerous ones. How could enough ponies have gotten out here?

Pinkie turned back to the mountains - and saw a dark, thundering cloud just behind one of the taller peaks. She looked at it with an expression Crypt had not seen on her before - anger. Perhaps even hatred.

Pinkie shook her head, returning to her cheerful self. She glanced once more at the pedestal, noticing something etched into its side. "What's this?"

It was a crude drawing of a face with two swirling circular eyes and wild, disorganized spikes that were probably supposed to be hair. It was smirking at her.

"...The mark of the Technician..." Crypt said, surprised to see something he recognized out here.

"What?" Pinkie asked.

"A strange being that... vanished."

Pinkie rolled her eyes, deciding not to ask. She looked at the swirling eyes of the face, and then looked in the same direction it was. "There. That settlement right there, that's where it's pointing."

"...And we're going that direction?"

"Not like we have a goal, right?" Pinkie said for a shrug.

"No. I just need to move."

"And I need to find my friends," Pinkie said, trotting back down the stairs. "Might as well start there."

She has friends... Crypt narrowed his eyes - he hadn't known that. He wondered who they were, and why she needed to find them.

Or, perhaps a better question, why she was separated from them and lost in the first place?

Even better, why did he suddenly feel like he wanted to know? She had her secrets, he had his. That was the way it should be.

He followed her down the stairs, contemplating how to set up camp once they got to the bottom.