//------------------------------// // An Empty City // Story: An Equestrian Journey // by Aslfrasle //------------------------------// As Twilight and Rainbow; atop the massive, flying scarf-beast named Fluttershy; made their way towards the tip top of the gigantic tower, Twilight began looking around at her surroundings. Adorning the walls around her were many shrines to the goddess of the temple, Pinkie Pie, though altars were worn and unused, and their candles were unlit and melted. They looked very disheveled and dingy, reflecting the loss of power she had suffered when everypony stopped wishing on her. Uttering a silent prayer for the forgotten goddess, she could have sworn she saw one of the altars almost return to it’s original state, and the candles became like new. Seeing this, Twilight called Rainbow over and urged her to make as many wishes as she could for the goddess in hopes that it would restore the temple. I wish for the safety of my companion Rainbow on our journey to the mountain. I wish for the safety of my companion Twilight on our journey to the mountain. I wish that Rarity will be safe and happy with Pinkie and Fluttershy, and that we meet up again in the future. I wish we get to the mountain soon…. The wishing continued the entire trip up the temple’s shaft. Once they had reached the top, the entire temple was surging with life once more, its bright and colorful walls shining brilliantly. They hoped this was an adequate thanks to Pinkie for her help. As if on cue, a specter of the goddesses head appeared with a smile and thanked them for all the wishes stating they had had almost single-handedly restored half of her powers. The only time the pair stopped their constant wishing was about three-quarters of the way up the structure. Rainbow had something strange floating around on one of the temples open platforms and raced over to see what it was, while Twilight called for Fluttershy to slow down and see what Rainbow was after. Twilight disembarked from the beast onto the platform and began cantering over to the Rainbow who was hunched over something she had found on the ground. When Twilight approached, Rainbow waved a hoof to come over and look at what she had found, steeping back to give her a better view. It was a creature of some sort, though it had no flesh, muscle, or organs, it almost looked like a constellation, similar to the ones she had seen in the sky when she was traveling at night. It was made of many white lines and circles that were glowing blue as it pranced around on top of the platform. It didn’t seem like it belonged in this world, almost as if it had been pulled here from another realm. The creature seemed to enjoy Rainbow’s company and chirped along with her, as if the two were singing. After allotting a decent amount of time to let her play with her new friend Twilight called to Rainbow waving her foreleg at Fluttershy, indicating it was time to go. Rainbow understood, and knew that where they were going was far to dangerous to bring the creature with them. With a regretful chirp, she bade farewell to the creature and the pair climbed back onto Fluttershy’s back, as she made her way to the top of the tower. When Twilight and Rainbow reached the apex of the tower Fluttershy stopped near the opening in the temples wall that was their exit. They made their way to the ground below and gave a hearty thank-you to Fluttershy, as she began making her way back down to where Pinkie Pie was. They made their way through the corridor that led out of the temple surging with vigor and prepared to finish their quest. They exited the temple’s corridor into a white world. At first Twilight thought they were having another vision, though she soon realized that the landscape around her was merely covered in a thick layer of snow. The temples exit had brought them close enough to the mountain that it was now looming high above them its shadowing blotting out the light where they stood. They looked towards the next leg of their journey, which was a large city that winded through the mountains trails as it ascended part of the way up. They made their way down the snowbank they had been standing in and headed towards the city gates ahead of them. The gates were more simplistic that others Twilight had seen on her journey. While the others were very thin and wiry, with many designs covering the surface, these gates were made of solid wood with strips of cloth hanging from it, worn from years of neglect. The ancient gate creaked open as the pair approached it giving them a view of the city beyond it. The city was massive to say the least. It stretched out to either side as far as they could see and was relatively long across as well. Upon better inspection, Twilight realized that the city seemed to encircle the mountain, a last obstacle for anyone trying to reach the mountain’s peak. Twilight and Rainbow made their way through the gate into the city, following a paved path towards one of the city streets. Upon reaching the street the pair gazed in awe, as before them stood an entire street of glass. It seemed that all the streets in this city were made of thick sheets of solid glass, as when Twilight kneeled down to inspect it She could see several dozen feet down to the desert sands below. As Rainbow wandered the street gazing at the glass, Twilight wondered how they could have pulled this off. There was plenty of sand around, though how would they have submitted it to the necessary amounts of heat to turn it into glass? Suddenly, it came to her, the scarves! She had seen them do incredible things like build cities using the power hidden in the scarves, and after that, was it really so crazy to think they could use that power to do this. Twilight shook her head, it didn’t really matter now. All that mattered was her and Rainbow getting to the top of that mountain and completing their mission, no matter what. She called to Rainbow to come join her as they trotted though the city, their hooves constantly clinking on the glassy streets. As they were traveling through the empty city, the pair had almost reached the mountain, and saw a pathway between two pillar that led up the mountain. They were about to head around a the building in front of them, when Rainbow heard a strange noise. It sounded like a the calls she and Twilight made, though more angry and primal, as if made by a beast. She wondered what it could be, as the only creature they had met that could do it was Rarity and her sounded similar to theirs. She looked in the direction of the sound and a gargantuan snakelike monster surge up into the sky as it coiled it self around one of the pillars near the entrance to the mountain pass. Rainbow immediately alerted Twilight to the monster that was currently soaring through the air. Twilight had never felt terror as she had when she gazed upon the beast, it was hundreds of meters long and seemed wide enough to gobble up entire buildings. They tried to run as fast as they could towards the nearest building, deciding to hide inside until the beast left. Once inside they carefully trotted over to the door near the other side, and looked outside to see if it had left. They immediately pulled their heads back in as a light flashed over the doorway, illuminated the inside of the building, though they managed to remain hidden. Twilight assumed this was how the beast saw, and that it was currently searching for where they might be hiding. It was at that point when Rainbow cautiously peeked out again, only to see something she hadn’t expected. Running across the open street in front of them was another one of their kind! This one had a cloak that was orange and brown, and it seemed to have small depictions of red apples around its trim. Rainbow also noticed that the creature didn’t seem to have a horn or wings unlike her and Twilight, which led her to believe that her and Twilight must be special since they had something it didn’t. She tried to think of what Pinkie would have named it, and given the color of her cloak and the apples that decorated it, she decided on the name Applejack. Applejack had almost made it to the other side of the street, when the light emitting from the beast’s eye discovered her. Once it noticed it had found something, the light turned red, as the beast surged forward to devour its prey. As the beast approached it maw gaping wide, Applejack managed to dodge at the last moment, though part of her cloak and scarf were ripped of in the process. The creature hungrily ate the pieces of scarf that had been ripped from her cloak, and Rainbow realized that was what it was after. Much like the citizens of this city, the beast greedily loved the scarf as well, and was attempting to eat them as a snack. Applejack did not seem like she would be able to dodge another attack, and Rainbow nudged Twilight with her hoof and pointed at the injured pony, calling out to indicate her desire to help. Twilight did not know if it was a good idea to risk their lives to help the injured pony, though she could have somepony’s death on her conscious. It didn’t seem right to leave her. Twilight chirped out an okay and the pair rushed out trying to distract the leviathan and give Applejack a chance to recover and escape. They waved chirped as much as they could to distract it and it seemed to be working as the beast turned it’s gaze away towards them, choosing two meals over one. Seeing that it had taken notice of them, they immediately swerved into one of the side streets weaving in between the buildings for better protection and cover from the beast, while it hovered over them, waiting for the chance to strike. Eventually, they came upon the gate to the mountain and had nowhere else to hide while the beast began to increase it’s speed, knowing they could not escape. They tried to run into one of the nearby buildings hoping they could make it in time. It was at that moment that they saw a flash out of the corner of their eye, an orange flash. They turned and saw Applejack standing near one of the pillars, with what was left of her scarf glowing with an orange light. She turned around and leaned forwards on her fore legs raising her hind legs up in the air. She waited until the beast was nearby, and then she used all her strength to deliver a massive kick to the pillar. There was a great cracking noise as her hooves connected with the structure and it began to creak as the top portion slowly fell over. The collapsing pillar fell and crushed the beast as it passed underneath. The light in it’s eye slowly died as it wildly flailed around, the weight from the pillar crushing the life out of it. After the beast was dead Applejack slowly trotted up to the beast and crawled inside it’s mouth. She searched around and managed to find the pieces of her robe and scarf that it had eaten. She then made her way towards the two adventurers, chirping to let them know it was okay to come out from their hiding place. Twilight and Rainbow made their way towards the orange pony and chirped happily to thank her for destroying the beast. Twilight tried to think of someway to properly thank her, noticing the ripped pieces of her robe and scarf. She did not know if it would work, though she tried using her magic to repair it. With a shine of light, the pieces seemed to float over and restitch themselves as her robe returned to its normal state. Applejack chirped a thank you and tried to ask if they would like to join her on her trip up the mountain as a group of three is usually better than two. They quickly agreed to teaming up, and the group began to canter over to the gates, now one pillar short, ready to climb the mountain and finally finish their long journey.