Gazing at it with a half-lidded expression, the light from her hardhat washed across the surface, and soon her hoof did the same. She explained in that same emotionless voice, “A vast majority of this rock is dolomite. With enough sheer force in one precise location, the rock will fall apart.”

She began tapping against the wall’s surface, listening intently for any potential hollow points deep within the rock. Soon enough, the curiosity of T.I.T.A.N. got the better of them, and they made attempts to listen closer as well. But she hesitated. Maud froze her hoof hovering over a particular center point in the wall.

“You might want to stand further back.”

Realizing their error, the expedition team quickly backpedaled. Mere seconds later, Maud planted her hoof firmly and flatly against the rock with a solid smack that echoed across the cavern.

It wasn’t all that echoed.

The world began to tremble. Small cracks twisted and turned and grew into monumental veins that separated the wall from one end of the cavern to the next. From the floor to the ceiling. A tremendous roar only grew louder as the foundations of the obstruction quickly fell apart, and the expedition team realized they weren’t far enough. And so, they ran back, clearing a big enough distance from them and the crumbling wall.

In the dust and rubble that followed, flashlights burned to life and scoured the fog. Voices cried and called out for Maud, who they had just witnessed be consumed under the falling wave. To their shock, she remained standing in the midst of crumbled absolution. Not a scratch on her. Her flashlight was the blinding torch they followed in the darkness.

And to their continued shock, they witnessed the softest signs of lights glowing in the distance.

Not just Maud’s flashlight, but something more. Flashing every color of the rainbow, swirling against the ceiling and cascading further across the walls the deeper they traversed. It left everypony speechless, silent in their journey until they all came to sudden halt by Maud’s extended hoof.

They joined her and stared where the light of her flashlight fell.

Far below, farther than they ever could have imagined, the light of a thousand rainbows came clear to their eyes. Reflecting from their gazes, washing over their agape expressions, the light encompassed them in a glow that was hauntingly beautiful. At the bottom of the great abyss, spanning a burrowed hole that was several hundred feet around and possibly hundreds deeper, a vortex swirled and glowed violently.

The closest scientist on Maud’s right whispered with fear drenching her tongue, “We must contact the directors at once.”

Maud said nothing, even as their voices around her questioned with unfathomable curiosity at what they were witnessing at the bottom of the abyss. She simply stared to it, the mildest rise of her brows following, as they all stared down at the wormhole.