Author's Note

The "Final Part" was starting to run on a bit, so I decided to make this a ten-parter. I'm also publishing this one a bit earlier than normal as recompense for the delays.

Island Adventure a Go Go: Part 9

After Miss June, Crazy Joe, and a roundaboutly directed Gyre found their way into the now unsealed chamber, they found that a block in the exact center of its ceiling had descended, revealing itself as a lift into another room above. After a brief debate on whether or not they should investigate, especially after securing their objective, Gyre hopped on and it rose up faster than Crazy Jane could object to being called an objective.

A few minutes later, she came back down, visibly excited. “You guys NEED to see what’s up there! I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m pretty sure I’d need a bit of help to understand it!”

Assured that the way ahead was perfectly safe, the group boarded the wide lift and rose up beyond the ceiling. Above the ceiling, they found another room, a bigger room with one big peculiarity: A scale model of the entire island. Around the edge were several grooves for thin posts carrying lenses to be rotated to look at the model from different angles.

Sloop approached this map with his natural eye for cartography, amazed at the level of detail right down to the distinct varieties of trees at different climate zones on the island. Then, he decided to look through one of the lenses, and after his eyes went wide, he looked away to rub his them. Gyre approached, concerned. “What’s the problem?”

Sloop turned to her and rotated the lens to the front of the model. “See for yourself, sister.” Gyre approached and looked through, and was amazed as she saw the island take on a completely different yet very familiar form. Through this looking glass, the model had changed from one of the island to one of the lake and hills zone. Every sea stack was a perfect replica, from even the log bridges connecting parts where there were no land-based ones.

Gyre practically bounced in excitement. “This is amazing!” She pulled a few other lenses into place, getting a model of the marble buildings and lava zone, as well as an ant farm-like structure providing a multi-sided view of the winding underground pathways they were currently in. “This would have been really useful early on! I wonder why I never found it until now…” Upon pulling another lens into place, her excitement turned to mystification as her sudden energy gave way to concern. “Huh. Never saw this one before.”

Sloop raised an eyebrow at that. He gestured for Gyre to pass him that lens and he beheld an entirely new sight: Across the circumferences of several large mountain peaks and a dozen smaller ones were elaborate structures with the sophisticated engineering of a city, buildings with windows running up and down their sides had wide terraces, squares, and streets connecting them, along with bridges of at least two different types liking the different mountain tops. Sloop turned to Crazy Jane. “Didn’t you say that you saw a city before you dropped off the boat?”

Crazy Jane’s brow raised, and she strutted over, exclaiming as she peered into the lens Sloop passed to her. “That’s it! That’s exactly what I saw! Minus the clouds and stars above, of course.”

Gyre looked startled. Scratching the side of her head. “I’ve never found a city-based zone before. It usually takes me months and a few concussions to stumble on an entrance to one!”

Sloop furrowed his brow and gave this model a scrutinizing look, sweeping his gaze all around it. “Maybe… If this thing can show the zones themselves, it can also show their entrances…” He eventually stumbled upon something sticking out of the side of the table-like platform the model was sitting on. He bent down, gripped it, and pulled, revealing a single faceted crystal of light on a handle.

He scratched his chin with his free hand, looking at it for a moment before getting an idea. He held the crystal right up to the lens that showed the lake and hills zone. After a moment, the lens began to glow before letting off a beam that bent to point at the side of the island’s lake that they first entered. Then he did it for the lens showing the lava and marble zone, the light pointing to the part at the base of the mountain where the archway would be. Nodding with a confident smile, he pulled the lens for the new zone back into place and held the light up to it. The beam that emerged bent slightly to point at a specific angle just below one of the mountain’s peak.

Gyre’s eyes went wide, and she quickly pointed. “Oh! Oh! I know that place! There’s a cliff right there that curls down and back up just like a ramp!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. “Uh… How big a ramp we talkin’?”

Gyre spread her hands. “Huge! If you go fast enough, you could probably fly all the way to the next mountain!” Then she dropped her hands as her excited smile faded. “If… You know… You survive the landing. That’s kind of why I never attempted it myself.”

At that, Crazy Jane gestured upward, striking a pose. “Well, show me the way, and I’ll make the leap myself if you’re all too scared!”

Rarity gulped and made a confident expression of her own. “She’s right! We haven’t time for inhibitions now, especially after everything we’ve done so far!”

First Applejack gave a hearty hoo-rah! at that, followed by a roaring from Crazy Joe, and double-forearmed fist pumping from Percival. The group, in total agreement but varying levels of enthusiasm, went back to the lift. As they sunk back into the floor, Sloop gave a look as he noticed that there were at least four other lenses they’d yet to inspect.

***

“Uh… Sloop? Are you sure this is a good idea? Or maybe... Is this the best approach to this idea?”

Sloop pressed on, keeping his eyes on the rocky ascending path before him. “What do you mean this time, Gyre? We finally have all of our urgent objectives in place, and now that we know where our most important, final objective is, we’ve got to secure it!”

Gyre rolled her eyes around and waved a hand back and forth. “Well… It’s just that every time you saved one of your crew, you rested for a night before going to save the next one. We’ve had good results that way so far, so… Why change it up now?”

Rarity huffed, scowling at the wheel elemental as she passed her on the path. “I’m sure Sloop knows what he’s doing, dear! Besides, you saw his mark! Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Roux have gone into the red! We can’t afford to hesitate!”

Up ahead, Percival bent his head to the mare next to him while he held his arm ahead as his bright, flaming focus floated a distance ahead of his open hand. “I think there’s a difference between hesitating and just being smarter about something, but it’s been a long time since I’ve dropped my battle form. I’ve noticed we’re all going a bit slower than normal, regardless of the incline.”

Applejack spared a moment to look back at the tail of their train of travelers. “Didn’t ya tell me one time that fire tribe elementals have neverendin’ stamina?”

Percival’s eye holes widened completely round, then he held out his other open hand and shook it a bit. “There’s always a bit of nuance to these things, even moreso on a case-by-case basis. Bottomless stamina doesn’t really mean anything if you’ve got a broken arm and it's the one you hold your weapon with. Wear and tear without rest just means that even if you don’t stop moving for anything, you won’t be able to move very far or very well. Kris learned the hard way early on that even the greatest warriors ever need their rest.”

Finally, they’d made it to the side of the peak with the cliff Gyre mentioned. The light of the evening sun revealed that Gyre’s words were true. Minus a few extruding boulders, the land smoothly sloped downward before ending in a steep upward incline at the bottom. It was hard to tell if this formation was a natural one like the path they took or something hewn artificially. The shadows under the sunset gave it an air of foreboding, making the dip in the land look much steeper and the gap to the next peak look like a pit with no bottom.

Applejack, elected foremare due to the nature of the plan they came up with to get the zone all at once turned to the group and raised a hoof. “Alright, y’all! We gotta lotta’ work to do, so let’s giddup and go! Positions everypony and everybody!”

At this encouragement, Miss June stepped forward as everyone stood back. She firmly planted her feet, pointed her hands forward, and squeezed her eyes shut. With a series of loud snap-like cracking sounds, a broad, long, concave shape started appearing on the ground in front of her. Once it got to the right size and shape, she loudly gasped for breath, and Rarity helped her sit down on a nearby rock.

Next, Percival stepped up. He placed his hand on the shape and furrowed his conceptual brow. His body shook a bit as the brittle glass chassis turned into a heavier, softer, but less brittle solid wood. Applejack trotted up and gave the chassis an inspection, then took an improvised sheet of sandpaper and began smoothing out the external surface.

While Applejack worked her role, Gyre acted next. She extended a hand making a distinct sign and waved it around as she chanted. What looked like a simple spoked wagon-wheel appeared before her, and a couple seconds later, another one plopped down on top of the previous one.

Sloop then took position at the top of the inner slope. He summoned his arrowguns and combined them into their composite bow form. He took aim at the very top of the far end of the slope and let his arrow fly, trailing a row of runes like a ribbon which snaked its way back up the slope down the middle.

As Rarity floated around some improvised rulers, protractors and yardsticks, she made a few marks all across the chassis with a handcrafted pencil. Percival, growing his hands and muscles big, went to one side while Crazy Joe went to the other and the both of them lifted the chassis up. Applejack took one wheel in her jaws and slung another over her back and went to the marks on the outside, placing them against the wood while they attached just like Gyre said they would. After this was finished, Applejack and Crazy Jane carried over a pair of dark red solid rocket constructs conjured by the latter, affixing them to a pair of key points on top of the rim of the chassis.

Finally, all of them took positions on the outside of their hodge-podge vehicle and wheeled it over to the line of Sloop’s runes, the whole thing suddenly affixing to it like a monorail to its rail. Percival nodded and stretched a hand to the rim of the chassis and the ground. “All right! Time to board! Express one way to the children and the zone they're in, plus whatever hazards await us there!”

Whether it was the situation or the joke itself, Percival’s attempt at tension-dissolving humor went over like a lead balloon. When Sloop approached, he reformed the top of his arms and shoulders into what looked like the steps in a short length of stairs. Once everyone went in the chassis with greatly varying degrees of strain on Percival’s person, he circled around the back and began pushing it forward. Once it looked like gravity was about to take effect, he pulled himself aboard by his arms.

Once the funny-looking cart went over the bend in the mountain, it quickly began picking up speed. A bit earlier than Crazy Jane expected, she snapped both fingers as they nearly passed the midway point down the slope, picking up a much more radical speed that had them hanging onto one another and the cart alike for dear life. Finally, several of them felt like they left their guts back on the slope as they finally took flight. They quickly climbed high into the sky at a forward angle, a few of them breaking out into screams.

Once they reached the apex of their ascent halfway to the next peak in the mountains, their jury-rigged vessel and the tops of their heads alike started trailing the bright sparks indicating the approach to a nearby zone entrance. Right when they were thinking they were about to plow straight into the very solid, very huge mountain, they finally disappeared in a flash that lit up the surrounding evening like a second sun.

At the very least, most of the group had now gotten used to the utter mindbender that was the process of going into and out of the space between the zones and the island itself. Emerging out into a dark, flat area, their vessel came to a screeching, sliding halt. Everyone waited for a moment, still clinging to whatever they could grab for safety.

A moment later, Percival was able to form a part of the side of the hull he touched into an opening for everyone to get outside. Sloop got out first and scratched his chin. “I guess when we warped, the phenomenon killed most of our momentum.” Gyre got out next and he turned to her. “Did you know about that?”

Gyre screwed her eyes around haphazardly like she often did when trying to find the right words for her thoughts. “I guess I never thought about it that much. But now that I have, it is strangely convenient that no matter how fast I go to get into a zone, I’m always able to gently touch down on the ground.”

Then, Crazy Jane practically barreled out of the improvised hatch, pushing Sloop and Gyre aside. A distance outward, she made a few unpleasant retching sounds, but thankfully they were mostly dry heaves. Finally getting a chance to compose herself, she looked around. “Yep. This is definitely the place we crash-landed all those days ago.”

The rest of the vehicle's occupants made their way out one by one. Miss June looked around herself for a moment. “I suspect that since Miss Jane led the way out and Mister Joe was protecting our rear, she must have seen a lot more of our surroundings before we fell.”

They landed in some kind of flagstone square part of a larger structure built around the apex of a mountain high in the sky. The stars and moon illuminated their terrain minimally, but the details were revealed by street lights high atop some metal poles and built into the tops of some of the architecture.

The whole place was the closest they’d seen yet to something with modern construction sensibilities. On their peak was one tall building that resembled a skyscraper with the darkened glass windows running up and down its sides. Surrounding them were different levels in the structure leading to smaller buildings with windows and doors of their own, sometimes dividing up different levels of one taller structure. For the most part, the different levels of the foundational architecture were divided by either inclined roads or stone stairways depending, with a few buildings having metal scaffolding and ladders extruding.

Sloop extended an arm and pointed down a way to the other side of the mountain. “I can feel it! The kids should be that way! From what I remember, there’s about two or three interconnected peaks in that same direction! Come on!” Hinting at how he knew that they had no idea what to expect, Sloop summoned his arrowguns and took the lead with Rarity cantering behind him. Percival summoned his focuses and advanced alongside Applejack. Miss June conjured her evocation locus again followed by both Crazy Joe and Crazy Jane with her bright red cannon taking point at the rear.

Taking a path to the other side of the mountain, they came to a truss bridge to a nearby, much larger square built around its mountain. A few of them looked down to see a solid layer of vapor, but they couldn’t tell if it was fog or cloud.

This one had a much more straightforward path to the other side. Unfortunately, this one was a movable bridge, and it was raised. Miss June pointed at a structure on their side that looked built into the bridge. “I believe that’s the control house, the means to lower the bridge should be in there.”

Gyre raised a hand. “We should probably approach with caution. We haven’t even seen any sign of the endemic beasts, so I’m beginning to think that they may dwell only indoors.”

Keeping this in mind, the group stayed together as they climbed up a scaffolding criss–crossing to the top of the tower-like structure. They entered past the unlocked door and paused, staring at the sight of the many, many buttons, switches, and meters. Sloop cleared his throat. “Um… Miss June? Would you mind taking the lead? I’ll do what I can to help figure out how to lower everything.”

Miss June gave her boss a Yes sir, and moved to the long control panel in front of the surrounding length of glass windows. Though they flipped and pushed lots of things here and there, Miss June found something and called for attention. “I believe this is our present obstacle, Mister Masters.” She pointed at an empty ignition keyhole in the center of the control panel facing the bridge proper.

Sloop swept his arm out at the greater part of the group. “Alright everyone, look for that key! Hopefully, it’s not all that far away!” The whole group moved out, scrambling to find the missing key. Crazy Joe dumped out what looked like the contents of a wastebasket while Rarity shone her horn’s light into every nook and cranny such a small object could be wedged into.

As the search was dragging on, Sloop grew worried about the childrens’ circumstances and moved directly to the ignition again. He traced a glowing finger in a few circles around it, leaving behind his red and blue runes. With a final flicking gesture, the runes swirled, converging right on top of the keyhole, before a light pulsed for about two times a second, and a sensation appeared inside Sloop’s head.

Sloop pointed out the window in the direction they came to the bridge from. “The key is a few blocks that way. Since I can feel it hanging in the air, it’s likely that it’s one of the high-rise buildings”

Percival turned to his old friend, his virtual brow raised in sympathy. “Did… You just improvise a sympathetic magic-based locator spell with runes?”

Sloop indignantly raised an eyebrow and laid a hand on his hip. “So what? We’re kind of in an emergency and short on time, aren’t we?”

“Well… I think that’s precisely why we should prioritize the long-term! What if you bust out right when you need your magic the most?”

Applejack interjected into this argument with a good old throat clearing, nice and rough. “I beg your pardon, but what the hay’s this all about?”

Turning his white improvised face to his close friend, Percival gestured to Sloop. “Well, like I said earlier, we’re running on fumes and sheer adrenaline to begin with! And he just did something that likely took as much magic as nine or ten of his normal spells!”

Sloop just crossed his eyes and jerked his head away from Percival. “Well, I don’t see the point of saving for the future if it’s one where the kids are-”

“Stop! Both of you just stop!” Gyre silenced both the arguing friends and stepped between them in a rare display of genuine frustration, her hands extended. “The only thing worse for our present mission than wasting unnecessary energy or taking too long would be to lose our cohesion and forget our cause entirely!” She then began gesturing to each of the surrounding group before pointing out to the other peak. “If time really is of the essence, I could fly a group of three, four including myself, across the gap and go directly to the kids and the boat! The rest of the group should stay behind and go the proper way, because if they can open up obstacles like this bridge and any other along the path, it’ll serve as a good path to leave!”

Everyone thought about that for a moment. Crazy Jane stepped forward first. “I haven’t been using much magic the last day or two since I was trapped in that chamber, so I could probably be handy in the thick of it.”

Percival’s eyeholes widened and he raised a hand. “Even if transforming that flying deathtrap’s chassis took a bit more out of me than I’d like, my abilities would probably be for the best in facing the unknown.”

Applejack and Rarity approached one-another. The earth pony reached into her saddlebags and brought out a bit in her jaws. Rarity scratched at her jaw before pointing with a hoof. “Flip for it, dear?”

The unicorn floated the coin between them with her dark blue magic, freeing Applejack to talk clearly. “You flip, I call?” Rarity nodded, then with a small glint from the tip of her horn launched the coin spinning upwards. At the peak, Applejack abruptly declared “Heads!”

With a soft plink sound, the gold coin hit the floor, revealing the back hooves of a pony with their tail curving downward. Applejack adjusted her hat, wearing an odd mixture of pride and mild disappointment. “Well, if it had to be one of us… I suppose we both have a big stake in this.”

Rarity gave a sincere smile and shook her head. “It’s only natural to help somepony just to help somepony. I would have done it for any who’d need it.”

Their formation set, they made their way back to their side of the raised bridge. Gyre hoisted up her wheel weapon and took flight. Hovering over the volunteers, she summoned her purple wheel configuration and sent three of them looping around the three of them and back to tether on the spokes of the side of the wheel she was holding onto. Guided by another brand made by Sloop, Gyre and the advance rescue party disappeared into the darkness directly towards the boat and the children it carried.

Finishing his wave goodbye, Sloop turned back to Miss June, Crazy Joe, and Applejack, getting their attention with a single, loud clap. “Okay! This isn’t exactly the time for tearful goodbyes. We have our own part in this mission!” This sudden enthusiasm got an And how! out of Applejack and another one of Crazy Joe’s enthusiastic roars. Miss June would later wonder if she should have added something to this fervor, but Sloop believed even presently that her deeds so far had spoken for themselves.