The valley was filled by the city.
The valley was the city.
The closer Rainbow Dash flew over the towering spires, the more and more of them she saw stretching upwards from their indiscernible foundations. It was as though the dimness of the Dark Side was a dark gray fog and more and more building faces bled through the obsidian canvass, twinkling with their blue-tinted reflection of the stars overhead. The grand immensity of the metropolis was magnified—hauntingly so—by the sheer silence lingering throughout. In a way, Rainbow Dash felt like she was descending upon an exposed array of giant bones—discarded countless eons ago.
The lower she drifted in altitude, the more layers Rainbow saw of the urbanity below. The city had levels to it—multifaceted platforms that swam and wrapped around the giant smoothe skyscrapers. There was an ornate pattern to how the suspended courtyards and steel pathways clung to the vertical buildings. From a distance, the platforms resembled spring leaves and lily pads, wrapping around and spiraling both upwards and downwards to afford access to the multiple floors. The levels were designed with both elegant and practical purpose, so that maximum light from the heavens above could reach as far down into the vertical depth of the city as possible. Peering from above, Rainbow Dash counted no less then ten layers of suspended courtyards, roads, and walkways. Even at that point in her flight, she could not discover where the actual ground level began—if there was one.
Rainbow kept her flight slow and deliberate. Even though Fluttershy hadn't sensed any major life signs to be concerned with, she approached this inexplicable urbanscape with extreme caution. She wasn't alone; Ariel and Wildcard floated on either side of her. They were protective wingmates, strung halfway between guarding their leader and gawking stupidly at the spectacle below them... and soon to be all around them.
At last, Rainbow's descent braved the topmost layer of platforms. She could see her own reflection in the windows of the buildings, and she marveled at how shiny the glass and steel had remained after... after...
There was no telling just how long these structures had been here.
There was no telling anything about them.
The city was unlike anything Rainbow Dash had seen before. Even Blue Nova was a miniscule speck compared to the likes of this place. In terms of land acreage, Rainbow Dash figured that Silvadel's capital was probably larger, wider, and grander—but the buildings there were paltry compared to these architectural marvels, and none of Silvadel's buildings had truly remained intact.
But this place...
Rainbow Dash lowered even further. She hovered directly above a platform, and upon closer inspection she found that the suspended streets were full of debris. It was difficult to tell what she was looking at specifically: metal shrapnel? Concrete detritus? Organic residue?
No...
Even here—on the topmost layer and christened with twilight—there were no bones. No bodies. Not even a layer of ash to indicate the place's prior inhabitants. Rainbow Dash drifted past a series of concrete enclosures, and it was Ariel who suddenly signaled her... pointing at the rigidly-shaped basins.
Narrowing her vision, Rainbow Dash hovered above one of the enclosures. She discovered that the basins were filled with dark, dark sediment... some of them clumped together in crumbling patches.
Soil...
She and Wildcard looked at another platform, suspended opposite a space from where they were hovering. They saw more enclosures—some of which possessed rickety stalks of splintery, dead, carbon-based matter. Practically coal.
Wood... ...
Rainbow's lips pursed. She looked about the upmost level of the city—spotting more and more remnants of dirt and wooden debris scattered across the courtyards.
Gardens...
Horticulture... ...
... ... ...civilized harmony-with-nature, planted squarely in the shadow of the Dark Side.
And it was all dead.
Rainbow brushed her bangs back. Shuddering, she glanced at her marefriends. But Twilight and Applejack and the rest were dead silent... dumbstruck with awe.
There was a metallic tapping sound.
"!!!" Rainbow Dash and Ariel spun.
They saw Wildcard levitating above a collapsed metal structure in the middle of a platform. He was poking it with Bard's staff. His goggles flickered with twilight as he glanced at the two mares, then motioned them closer.
Rainbow Dash and Ariel approached the object. As they came close, they realized that the streamline chunk of metal had a purposeful shape to it... and multiple signs of mechanization. There were four outstretched pylons with hollow ends—like wheel-wells—and the inner chamber resembled a series of seats within the central compartment of a carriage. But—for the life of her—Rainbow Dash couldn't spot where a quadruped might hook itself up to the vehicle... or any sign of mana-powered leyline circuitry.
Wildcard whistled.
Ariel and Rainbow Dash looked at him... then past him. They craned their necks and ultimately discovered that several of the platforms, courtyards, and roads suspended alongside and below them were likewise littered with multiple mechanisms—just like that one—of various shapes, designs, and purposes. All were dormant. All were empty. All were abandoned.
The group shared a collectively anxious breath. They looked back at the mountainside where the rest of the Herald lingered. Wildcard hand-signaled from afar, and Flynn flickered his light back before trotting back into the tunnel along with Kepler to retrieve the wagon.
Seraphimus and Logan remained in place... two statuesque figures still locked—mesmerized—on the spectacle below.
Rainbow Dash took a breath, turned around, and dove even deeper into the phenomemon... until she was practically swimming in it.
Fuckin'.
Rad.
But this place just raises far more questions than it answers, that's for sure. From the description of its size, it feels like it should be active. And yet, given Fluttershy's senses of this place and the long dead biomass around the structures, it isn't.
...Perhaps this is another long-lost civilization from the dark side that died out after the sundering? Or maybe those inside can't be detected...
This whole thing could be a trap...maybe that creepy music has something to do with it? Like a hallucination or illusion maybe something else I dunno....
I don't feel like this place is safe.
Creepy. I'll just wildly guess and say the city is pre-sundering.
A city in the dark, being explored by a Rainbow in the Dark Hope future chapters answer the questions that I have, that have been added by the description so far.
If there's no sign of bodies... then did the denizens leave on their own or against their will?
Or maybe they got eaten.
Like 8552058, I can't help but wonder if this is a remnant of some pre-sundering civilization. It seems be really, really old, and yet it doesn't seem to have any ties to the major forces of the Dark Side that we know of. Plus, in a way it would make sense. If Urohringr was once a sort of enormous tube, it seems logical that the inside of it - therefore, the inside of the curved pieces - would be the inhabited area. The existence of plant life without any apparent artificial lighting set-up also suggests something like actual sunlight, which would probably pre-date alicorn involvement.
But I have a feeling this place has more than merely archaeological significance. There's the music, for one. Also, even if these are some ancient-as-balls ruins, it would only make sense for later factions to make some use of it.
This reminds me of Stratopolis, though I prefer to see one of the other factions rather than the changelings.
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Thirding. There's just something about the description that feels like it's pre-sundering. I guess it's the size. It makes it sound like this places dwarfs anything even the light-side civilizations have built. And if they haven't done it, I just can't see anybody living over here getting that big.
There's also this:
A car is just so completely out of place with anything we've seen before. Whatever happened, there is a very large break between these guys and what there is now.
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I'm also gonna agree with that which means there is just about 0 chance that anyone is left from it. Hopefully, though they can find something useful in the remains.
I'm just gonna wait until the music starts up again. Nothing like a single violinist in the middle of a desolate and abandoned urban wasteland to strike that wonderfully eerie mood.
This reminds me of that -Appledashery spoiler- village in Appledashery that Rainbow and Lancie found when they were going into the dragon lands to find the last of his pieces. It has that same kind of timeless feel to it. Like the ruins were made to last forever, and so they outlived the people that were lost in the sundering.
Intersting. Archeantus has been talking about the Spindlers in the present tense, suggesting they are alive currently. However their city is abandoned. How did this happen? Did they leave for somewhere else? Do they hide from something? I guess Rainbow's civilization restoring abilities are needed here.
Trippy, yet beautiful.
Familiar materials, alien designs.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
I fee like the X-Files theme should be playing right about now.
Its almost pointless to speculate what happened in this city, or how long ago. The suggested tech level would seem to be much higher than anything achieved on the Light Side, but also above what little we've seen of the Dark Side as well. As others have said, this might be a remnant of a civilization that pre-dates the time when Urohringr was one giant space hotdog.
Although now that this makes me think of that, a thought occurs to me:
If civilization back then existed on the interior of Urohringr, that means the exterior of the cylinder, where the Light Side is now, was never meant to nor designed to support life. Which begs a very important question: what happens to the Light Side when Urohringr is fully reactivated again?
Is it possible that by "saving" Urohringr, Dash will inadvertently doom the Light Side as the pieces of the cylinder try to hook up again, yet in a fashion that makes the Light Side uninhabitable?
Judging from those wrecked cars, I'd say that some sort of bipedal race built this city. I wonder if any of them are alive at this point...?
Rainbow exploring an abandoned chunk of the world? We back to basics boys
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When are abandoned locations ever safe in this series? This is Austraeoh we're talking about: If you're not encountering horrific monsters every time you find an abandoned location, you're doing it wrong
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Bipeds from before the Sundering, later devolved by chaos into the trolls?
Didn't a map some chapters ago show a picture of towers with the name spindlers on it. I'm betting that it's them. Maybe they are like the tolls and flutters can't sense them.
Abandoned elevator, abandoned fort, abandoned city. Next comes the lost continent and then the forgotten planet.
28 millenia later?
Maybe the music of the glass harmonica thats been heard is just the wind blowng strongly enough through the city to vibrate buildings.
Or Doomsdays cousin beathing over the spires.
You know what creeps me out? It's neither the city nor its emptiness.
There are complete passages written in italics.
8552275
How about the Sanctuary Fortress from MP2?
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Im kinda with you there, didn't the italics usually mean that it was a dream, memory, or otherwise non-physical event happening/being described
We post-sci-fi now.
(Suggested soundtrack for ambience)
My crazy theory is that the humans were one of the races that built The Rings and that this city was abandoned when just before the sundering occurred. I would suggest that they all probably evacuated to a shelter of some kind. As that would be normal City evacuation standards in a crisis, however I just doubt that many, or any, of them survived post sundering. I guess I never believed that the sundering was an event that happened suddenly. I mean sure it was quick, but I think the world had a moment to realize what was happening before it went off. That wasn't enough time for everyone to escape, however I believe some or even most did. With so few people left on the abandoned piece of the Rings. It would make sense for them to consolidate their resources much more easy to manage. A city like this may have been abandoned due to the sheer scale being too much to deal with. Given how large machine layer is there's a really powerful chance that there's something still down there. Sorry to say but if my spaceship suddenly had a piece break off that was left floating in the middle of a chaotic space. I would have retreated underground. Use what technology I have left to try to make contact and hope for rescue. There can be an entire culture in the machine layer that was told eons ago to never leave because it was dangerous and must have no idea what's going on in the real world. Though right now I'm getting into crazy conspiracy theories, but that's why Im called Crazy Scion. I actually think that entity Rainbow Dash contact with before she crossed to the dark side was the ship's AI. The thing that really trying to run some kind of emergency protocol to fix itself. I would not be surprised that if the ring itself eventually started moving itself to aid Rainbow Dash's Quest once it's powered up enough.
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It did start as soon as they broke the topmost layer of the city. Though she was also remembering silvadel, so you could argue that.
Question: Didn't fluttershy once say she could sense where life once was, too? Or am I just mis-remembering?
Alright, forget about the Trinary factions.
There's only two species in the history of the world that could be capable of such architecture as far as we know: the proto-pegasi and perhaps the alicorns. Given the location on the world's dark side, the alicorns' low number and their status as visitors to the world, I really don't see how this city could be anything but primeval in the strongest sense of the words.
I would join you in being willing to bet it predates the Sundering.
Holy crap.
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Yes, they did. It was used massively in Eljunbyro during the mind sequencing arc. I think it also happened a few times after Rainbow touched the red flames, but I could be mistaken.
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You mean like some type of inner thought process with a flashback?
It's quiet.
Too quiet.
8552483
That's possible, and if they are bipeds I'd say that kind of scenario is very likely
Perhaps it belongs to a pre-sundering race. One of the ancestors to the modern races. The spindlers are the most obvious choice, as there have been hints to them as far back as dark reach. I would assume that with three incredibly hostile armies they would not live in an obvious and incredibly accessible city. Perhaps they are hiding underneath it.
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I actually began speculating about it being a Pre-Sundering city last chapter, but didn't post my mullings. Ah well. On another note, I would bet that there were elevators designed into Urohringr, as otherwise there would be no way to travel between inner and outer faces of the rings (due to the Skystone fields blocking off the rings' edges).
On the other hand, the Dark Side has this sense of ancientness about it, as fewer beings have come along to change it during the long millennia. And its history has been almost completely lost in a shroud of darkness.
What must it have been like to live there, in those days when Urohringr was still whole? What happened, how did they act when everything started to go dark? Who were the heroes that held things together when the panic set in and the riots began? Who were the visionaries who saw what had to be done, and did it? What hectic, panic-driven migrations occurred, and who stayed behind in stubborn refusal? Who reached the edges, and cursed their impassibility? How did any endure the endless night, the disintegration of all they had worked for? It is a lost saga, of impossible virtue and vice juxtaposed under the ominous inevitable apocalyptic end. And we can find but faint traces of this saga, the barest shadows of who was there, of the things they built and strove for, and what happened when it all fell apart. Long eons lay in oppressive silence, and now we can just barely begin to lift a small segment of the veil on the history of these fascinating realms lost in perpetual shadow.
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Christ, as if we didn't have enough world ending cataclysmic events in the story, now we have to ask if rainbow's gonna kill off entire civilizations accidentaly
The abandoned city beckons with ominous italics and dark portents.
Be here for our next episode "Broken City, Broken Dreams" or "Pre-Sunder Now and Get a Free Bonus Map!"
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>tfw you're the first one to propose the idea that it might be pre-sundering, but get completely ignor-
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Ah...welp. Nevermind, then. Carry on!
Just remember, Fluttershy can detect life, but non-magical automated systems may not be detected by anyone... until activation. Machines on this scale (size and time) aren't dead. They're just waiting the power switch.
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Whoa you gotta get spookier than that my fella
Have they found a car?
Think there's a broken italics tag here.
This city is mind-blowing. What kind of civilization would you have to be in order to build this kind of place? And how could that kind of civilization exist (not to mention arise) on the dark side? That makes me suspect that the city is old enough to predate the Sundering.
And suddenly another theory. I've been puzzling over what "Spindlers" meant, but a spindle is a central rod or axis around which something can turn. It's the kind of shape that might be used to light the inside surface of a cylindrical megastructure like the original Urohringr. And if so, maybe it could inspire a demonym for the people who live on the inside of that cylinder.
Way off, probably. But still.
Maybe they were around before the Dark Side was Dark.
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Your post is greatly improved by your profile pic.
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Perhaps the spindlers are partly named so because they live around the city, which is skyscrapers - potentially known as spindles?
And the scenery porn takes center stage.
An advanced society, that for all of its advanced capabilities, could not even save itself. Question is, why? Question is always what happened, and why?
11/27/2017
00:23 UTC
Definitely smart here, Flutters has been fooled before, way to learn from her mistakes.
01/03/2018
21:42 UTC
I was going to say this place reminds me of Silvadel but the story beat me to it. I’m assuming this is the beginning of civilization on the dark side. Eventually we’ll find the Trinary War, and this might be where the edge of civilization is.
Whaaaaat
Reminds me a bit of Neruzavin from Pathfinder (Strange Aeons book 5).
Calling it now! This was the goblin city!