After sorting out my barrage of questions raised by my surroundings and circumstances, I decide to first find out where exactly I am. How am I going to do that? I guess I should start by seeing what this place is called in particular. That means I’ll have to walk to find my way around and search for anything that may point to this place’s name, seeing as how I don’t detect any ponies nearby. I begin up the hybridized staircase, hearing small crunches under one of my hooves for every step I take along the way, before I find a pathway that I never expected to see. Actually, make that three.

When studying the three paths, it seems that the railings around where I awoke are the only ones here. In every other structure I’ve been to, back during the invasions onto Equestria, all edges of the floor on an upper level always had railings. Did the developers of this building just decide to quit on copying the railings or something? Were they literally feeling edgy in their design choices? Okay, I’m gonna shut up before I die of negative emotion.

Inching closer to the intersection, I deliberate on which path I should go first. I can hardly think at the moment as the clipping of my hooves echo throughout this structure. The droplets are already enough, so I stop to think more clearly. And I’m lucky I do that, because trying to think almost rams me into the wall of four black arches, three on the left of which are (sort of) levitating. I walk closer only to appear to be in a dark, open, musty room, the negative emotion somewhat denser - and I never thought that was possible before - than it was on the hybrid staircase, so I immediately exit the room.

Looking again at the three paths, the two on the left seem to be darker than the one on the right, added by how the right one looks plenty safer, and longer, offering more of a chance to find out where the hell I am. But even with the two... “edgy” paths... by Chrysalis, someone zap me now... even with the two dangerous paths, I need to find some sort of information on what this place is. What little light there is on the far left path shows that there seems to be a wall similar to the one with the “JCPenney’s Outlet Store” sign on it. Even the middle path looks quite open for opportunity in its darkness.

Back to my right, I see what look like miniature structure skeletons. How I can see this somewhat well is because of the bright daylight that is coming through the ceiling. And there’s a little ways past that as daylight pours into a section too far away to see in detail.

Then I look at the middle path and see something that catches my eye. It looks to be an opening on one of the risen edges. On the second pit, the front has what looks like the end of a normal staircase, just without railings... okay. Edges on the second floor are one thing but at least that hybrid staircase I first woke up on had railings, even if they were only supported via molded glass panes. The lack of railings is ridiculous.

When I finally looks back to the left path and see the third, wider opening, there’s a vertically standing board on the left, and what looks like another staircase on the right, as if that stub was enough to conclude that, both of which end on the front of the edge. Looking somewhat elsewhere, there appears to be something hanging from the ceiling over the large opening. Finally, at the set of windows, it doesn’t look like there’s any sign around it unlike the one with “JCPenney’s Outlet Store”. Like at the end of the right path, there’s some daylight shining into the large opening.

Then I get curious. What is downstairs that these staircases lead to? I don’t see much, but it’s obvious that something is on the first floor. I just haven’t seen it yet. Yeah, it’s safer to go right. But I’m getting pretty curious. Plus I really want to know what the name of this place is. I’m seriously reconsidering the chance of finding the name on the safe path. Yeah, those stairs lack railings, but I could probably just glide down without a problem. Right now, my legs are still somewhat numb, but at least I could bend them just fine. Maybe I could jump to test it out.

Well, I underestimated my regain in strength. My wings work perfectly fine. In fact, I could actually fly... well, for a relatively short period of time. I don’t know exactly how long, but my flight lasts for a good chunk of time, or at least long enough to go downstairs with no problem. Of course, I’m exactly where I was before jumping. So, now I have four options, one of which I can enter now in six ways. Still as I look around, no sound sans the droplets reaches my eardrums. It is very obvious that there is absolutely no ponies in here, and that this place possibly hasn’t been used in years.

Well, I have no idea yet where to go. It seems like there’s a trade-off for all of these paths. If I go left, I have three ways to go downstairs, but I don’t want to trip on and fall off any of the edges. Who knows what’s downstairs that I’d land on if I did that? Plus, there seems to be a dead end, so I don’t have as much of a chance to find out what this place is called on this floor alone. If I go to the middle path, it’s going to be the same as the left. Going right might be safer and more of a chance to find the name on this floor, but will it be worth it in case I can’t even get out of here before I die? I don’t know.

Author's Note

Wow, coming up with titles is VERY hard.

Very early on, I named the chapter Locale. It didn't work out because of the whole choice of path.
Mid chapter, for a short time, I renamed it Edgy Paths. That didn't work out because it was too punny of a title.
When I did Off With the Railings, it almost survived into the final product. But I consider it too much of a spoiler.
Just after I was also considering The Choice. But again, too much of a spoiler.

Past the Hybrid is the final name I went with, and it actually fits. Not punny, not spoilery.

So, what path should I cover first? Left, middle, or right? Should there be a chapter dedicated to the downstairs area? Feel free to talk to me any way you want on the matter. This is comment driven after all.