Its strange how everything can change in one instant.
One day you can be hanging out with your friends and family, having fun and playing games at a party. Then the next you hear the news that some great disaster is coming to your home and that everything you love is going to be wiped out in an instant.
What would you do if you were told that? What would you choose to save if you only had the time to save one thing? That was the situation that I faced, that we all faced in Equestria, but we had known it was coming, we had enough warning that we were able to get ready to survive the coming disaster.
With a combination of Unicorn magic, Earth Pony ingenuity, and the digging skills of the Diamond Dogs we started to build. I was one of the ones that were in charge of building the places that ponies would call home to escape the coming apocalypse, we called them Sanctuary Cities, places that ponykind will be able to live and thrive without fear of what happened to the world above.
So on that fateful day when fire rained down from the sky and Celestia's shining sun went behind the clouds never to be seen again, we were ready for it. I knew that it was coming, but I knew that I wasn't going to do a lot of good in the underground, there would be other ponies that could do that.
The Elements of Harmony were lost, taken from the tree and scattered to the distant corners of Equestria to protect them from what was to come. The fact was that none of us really wanted to think about what was coming, we didn't think it was real.
After everything we had survived, we were going to fall before the pure raw force of nature itself. But we wouldn't die without a fight, Ponykind was going to survive at all costs, so when the Sanctuary Cities were built, I placed the most precious thing in Equestria in the first one because I knew that it was the only place she could be safe.
I placed my family in the hooves of those I could trust, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to enter the Promised Land myself because I had a mission to complete above ground. I hated having to leave that which was most precious to me behind in Sanctuary Prime, but I didn't have a choice.
None of us had a choice, it was preserve the next generation, or we'd all die in the flames and the ice. We just had to make sure that they had the best chance we could give them.
00000
"Starling, you're going to be late for school again!" A mare's voice said and a young Pegasus filly that was no older than 12 with a dark blue coat with a light blue mane with strange blue-white spots that dotted it yawned as she stirred in her bed. "You know you can't get into trouble again, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, mom, I know," Starling said as she crawled out of bed and shook her head to try and clear the sleep from it, she had no idea why she had to keep going to school, she already knew exactly what she was going to do with her life, she was going to be one of the Engineers that kept the technology of Sanctuary Prime running. "Why do I have to go to school anyway?"
"Because the Council says that you are too young to not go to school young filly," her mother said with a sigh as Starling slipped into her uniform, a jumpsuit with a zipper that only covered the top part of her body, leaving her blank flank exposed.
Starling hadn't earned her cutie mark yet, she was the last in her class that still hadn't earned it and it made her a little uncomfortable when all her friends had already found what made them special. While Starling had gained a lot of skill in repairing and building things, she had never found what really made her special and that felt a little weird to her.
When you got your cutie mark in Sanctuary Prime you no longer had to go to school, instead you were put under the tutelage of another pony who had a similar talent and was trained by them as their apprentice. It meant that Starling was the oldest pony in her class because she still hadn't found what her talent was and it worried her a little.
She sighed a little and zipped up her jumpsuit as she opened the door to her room and looked up at her mom who pulled her into a hug.
"I know you don't like school, but everypony has to go, its the law," her mom said as she smiled down at the filly and shook her head. "Don't worry, you'll have your cutie mark in no time, I just know it."
"You really think so?" Starling asked as she tilted her head and looked up at her mom.
"Yeah, besides, I didn't get my cutie mark until I was thirteen," her mom said as she ruffled the filly's mane gently. "And your Dad, well I don't really know what his story is, you'll have to ask him at your next meeting."
Because of how many more mares there were than stallions, more often than not there were no married couples in Sanctuary Prime. The Stallions in addition to their normal duties were all expected to father children with multiple mares, Starling's father was actually a Unicorn stallion named Socket Wrench, they had met up a few times a year along with her brothers and sisters and he was actually really nice.
Sometimes she wondered what it might've been like to live life with a mother and a father, the history books talked about ponies living like that years ago but there wasn't much in it. The council didn't allow much to be known about history earlier than a couple of hundred years ago for some reason, which was kind of weird but they were the council, there wasn't much you could do to change their minds.
Starling ate a quick breakfast and gave her mom a hug before she headed out of the small house that was carved into the rock. When she looked up she saw the distant ceiling with Pegasi flying overhead and she sighed, she had never been able to fly more than a few feet in the air and that had made it hard.
Being a flightless Pegasus in Sanctuary Prime was not something that was common, all the Pegasi had the important role of maintaining the dome that protected the city from the horrors of the world outside as well as maintaining the underground farms in the more distant caverns. Being a flightless Pegasus limited your options, especially when you were only 12 years old.
Starling sighed a little and brushed her mane back as a spotted strand fell in front of her eyes. Her mane was something else that just set her apart from everypony else in Sanctuary Prime, it made her different and a lot of foals teased her about it.
She headed off towards the school where she was probably going to spend the rest of her foalhood at this rate if she didn't find her cutie mark soon.
00000
"Alright class, open your books up to page 26 and we'll continue the history of Sanctuary Prime," the teacher said and there was a rustle of papers as the foals opened their books and looked through them. "So, who can tell me who the first pony to find the caverns where our city was built was?"
Starling just rolled her eyes, it was the same thing every year when they had to study history. There was only 200 years of history to go by and everything was pretty much the same, but they had to do this for the new students since there was only one real class.
Being the oldest student in the class, Starling knew every lesson like the back of her hoof, but she didn't bother answering any of the questions that was asked of her. What was the point? Even if she was right she was just going to be ridiculed for that too given that she'd look like a nerd.
"Maud Pie and the Diamond Dog Rover," another foal said and she glanced behind her to see that the answer had come from a Unicorn filly that was just a few months younger than her, had a light red coat with a short purple mane and gave Starling a smile.
"Very good Ruby, did you all get that?" The Teacher asked as she looked over the students all in turn to make sure that they were paying attention, she sighed a little because not many of them where. "Now Maud and Rover were the first to reach the caverns as Ruby told us, having arrived from the surface world. They along with the other founders constructed the first buildings that would make up our great society. The city has since flourished under the..."
Starling had finally had enough, she was going to say something and she didn't care how much trouble she got in for saying it.
"What about before they arrived in the cavern?" She asked without even bothering to raise her hoof which made the teacher pause in the middle of her sentence.
"Excuse me?"
"Why did they even come searching for a cavern in the first place?" Starling asked, which caused the teacher to go speechless and the other students actually started to pay attention after that. "Why isn't any of that in our history books?"
"Because, the council forbids it," the teacher said as she looked at Starling harshly, she hadn't expected a student to act out like this. "Edict 002 of the Council Charter forbids the teaching or discussion of the..."
"Yes, yes, we all know the edict," another voice said and Starling turned to see Ruby had been the one to speak up next and she gave the Pegasus a smile. "But we've never been told why that edict is in place, the fact of the matter is that we don't know what's beyond the dome, and the council hasn't told us anything."
The teacher froze in place, she had no idea what she was going to do now that her class was starting to question this. She knew sure, but if she told them, the council would have her vanish like they did with anypony else who broke the edicts.
"I'm sorry, but that is not in your books so we will not be discussing it," the teacher said strictly as she eyed the class. "You should know better, both of you. You two have founder blood in you so you should be the last ponies to question the edicts. We will have to have a word with your mothers about this, yes, that is what we'll have to do."
Starling flinched a little, her mom was going to be furious about this to say the least. She was still wondering what the truth was and she wasn't going to let it go, even if she had to wait her whole life she was going to know what had really happened 200 years ago.
At least she hoped she would.
"Now, if there aren't any more outbursts, lets continue with our lesson," The teacher said and looked back at her book. "Following the formation of the first council, the edicts were set down as the basis for all law..."
Starling groaned and put her head on the desk, she couldn't believe that her teacher didn't care about this. She just wanted to know the truth, and getting at that truth wasn't going to be easy, but she would figure something out.
For now she would just stay in class and hope that something interesting happened again.
00000
"Hey Starling wait up!" A voice said from behind Starling and she turned to see Ruby from before running up to her.
"Oh, hey Ruby, so what are you gonna do to me?" Starling asked with a sigh as she looked at the Unicorn filly.
"I just wanted to talk to you, I mean, after everything that happened in there," Ruby said as she walked up next to Starling who sighed a little. "That was crazy you know that right? You could get into a lot of trouble for asking questions like that."
"I know, I know, but its been bugging me for a little while now," Starling said with a shake of her head. "I know that I could get in trouble and disappear or whatever, but these are questions that we need answered, right?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right, and I do agree with you, but Ms. Coal will probably report you to the Council you know," Ruby pointed out and Starling flinched a little at that. "You're still young, so they probably won't go after you, but..."
Starling's eyes went wide when she realized what Ruby meant, if she was questioning the government then they would probably go after her mother to make sure she hadn't been getting the ideas from her. Which she wasn't, she had reached these conclusions on her own, but the Council wouldn't care about that.
"I have to get home..." she said and galloped off towards her house, she had to make sure that they hadn't done anything to her mom and hope that everything would be okay.
When she reached home however her house was empty, her mom wasn't supposed to work that day, so that could only mean that she had been disappeared. Starling kicked herself, this was her own fault, she shouldn't have acted like that and it had gotten her mother into trouble.
She was surprised however to find a note in her secret hiding spot that she had kept all her stuff, it was in her mother's hoofwriting. Maybe she wasn't gone after all, it was just a matter of seeing what she had written.
Starling
I know that this isn't going to be easy for you and that you're probably wondering where I am, but you have to understand that I have a good reason for what I'm doing. I have to leave Sanctuary Prime for a time, probably for the rest of my life,
I'm leaving you in the care of the Crystal Family, they're old friends of mine and their daughter is in your class.
I'm sorry I have to leave you like this without much of an explanation, but in time you will understand. When the time is right, you will learn the same thing I did and you may have to leave this place too. Hopefully you won't, but in the meantime do what you think is right.
I love you Starling, take good care of yourself and keep challenging yourself to do better. There's a greater world out there than you will ever know, and hopefully in time we'll all be able to see it.
You'll find something inside here that may give you answers, but not until you're old enough.
Love,
Mom.
Starling cried as she crumpled up the paper in her hoof, this was worse than what might've happened if her mom had disappeared. If she had just disappeared, then she'd know that there was nothing she could do to see her again, but she had left Sanctuary Prime, she was still out there somewhere.
She rummaged around in the hiding spot a little more and was surprised to pull out a strange cube like device with markings and symbols on the side of it. She frowned a little and tried pressing down on it to trigger something, but to no avail.
She sighed and put it in her saddlebags, maybe if she went to find the Crystals they'd know something more about what was going on here.
00000
Starling opened her eyes and stared up at the dimly lit ceiling, it had been 6 years since the day her mom vanished. The Council had questioned her of course, but they had been satisfied that she had no idea where her mom had run off to.
Ironically that next month she had gotten her cutie mark, a wrench surrounded by three interlocked gears. She was a mechanic and an engineer, that figured really, but there wasn't much else she could do.
Ruby had become her foster sister she guessed the closest term would be, and she was nice enough, but everything was still going to be hard for them both.
"So, are you going to finally respond to me today?" Starling said as she stared at the strange looking cube that she had kept in her room ever since that day, it just sat there silently.
"Dumb device, was probably put there as some sort of practical joke or something," Starling said as she kicked the device lightly. "Its probably never going to do anything other than sit there and be stupid!"
She groaned and fell back onto her bed as she stared at the cube device for a long moment, what was even the point if it was just going to sit there? Why did her mom leave this behind for her? Why did her mom even leave to begin with? Did this box have something to do with it?
She sighed and looked at the box for a long moment as she tried to figure it out. Nothing on it even seemed to want to open up, it wasn't responding to her just like it hadn't been for the past 6 years.
"Whatever, I better go..." she started to say when there was a bright shining light coming from the box and she turned and stared as it opened up finally and a screen was formed like one of the ones used in the Town Square. But this one was smaller, like it had been built to hold in your hoof instead of be hung up on the wall.
She carefully picked it up and looked at it for a long moment as she tried to figure out what to make of the small screen before it suddenly turned grey and a rough figure appeared in it. It wasn't a pony, just its silhouette, but it looked like a mare with a short mane. When she spoke, Starling didn't recognize the voice as belonging to any pony she knew, not even her mother, this was somepony new.
"If you're hearing this, it means that the worst has happened and Equestria is gone. The good news however is that things aren't all lost, not as long as there are ponies that can open this box. If you're one of them that means you have my blood,
my genes somewhere in you that the Memory Cube was able to recognize and if you're the right age, open up for.
Now, you've lived your whole life underground in one of the Sanctuary Cities, I know, I was one of the ponies that helped build them. Yeah, I'm sure you've heard of us Founders all your life, but you never thought you'd hear one talking to you did you? Well, I've got some good news and some bad news for you.
The good news is that you're about to learn more about what happened to Equestria, you're the contingency plan we put together to help restore Equestria to its pristine state. You're probably wondering what Equestria is, I know I would be if I was in your horseshoes, but that's a question for another time.
The bad news is that you've got an adventure ahead of you, one that will test your abilities as a pony, possibly beyond their breaking point. There are things out there, things that need to be found. You'll need to find friends if you want to find them, that's the most important thing right now. You're going to have to leave your home, something I wouldn't relish myself, and find six arti...
The video cut off at that and Starling screamed in frustration, this was the first clue she had in 6 years and it was broken! She tried to get at it and fix it so the rest of the message would play, but the technology was beyond anything she had studied in her apprenticeship.
As she looked at it again, more questions went through her mind. Who was the pony that had recorded that message? Why would they leave this behind to begin with? Were they being honest when they said that they were one of the founders?
And most importantly, what was Equestria?
Starling had to make sure that she was ready to go before she left Sanctuary Prime. She sighed a little and picked up a picture of her and her mother as she looked down at it. Was this why her mom had left the city? If so, then was it possible that she was never going to come back either?
She sighed a little, she didn't want to never be able to come back to this place again, it was her home for better or for worse. Even if she wanted to see what the world above was like, being away from it was something she didn't really like the idea of.
She didn't have a lot of things to bring with her. There was also the problem of what to wear. She had always heard that the surface was inhospitable, even frozen over for some reason that had never been explained, and she had no idea what to expect or what she was going to do.
Her musing was broken by the sound of a hoof knocking on the front door of her house. She opened it up to see Ruby standing there and looking at her. "Oh, hey Ruby, what's up?"
"We were supposed to meet at the diner for lunch an hour ago, remember?" The red and purple Unicorn asked as she looked at her friend. "Are you okay Starling? You never miss our lunches together."
"Yeah, I know, but..." Starling started to say as she looked at Ruby who tilted her head a little. "Its complicated... I don't think I'll be making them for awhile."
"What are you talking about? Are you going somewhere?" Ruby asked.
Starling closed her eyes and then told Ruby everything she knew. There wasn't a lot to go on, but if she was going to have to leave she'd at least want to tell one pony where she was going and why she had to do it.
Ruby just stood in stunned silence as she processed everything Starling had just told her. "You're, really having to go to the surface then?"
"Yeah, I don't like it either, but I don't really have a choice," Starling said with a sigh as she brushed her mane back. "Well, I mean we always wanted to know what was up there right? I just never thought I'd actually have to do it alone."
Ruby sighed and then put her foreleg around Starling and gave her a smile. "Maybe you don't have to do it alone Starling."
"Who would be crazy enough to go with me?" Starling asked as she looked at Ruby curiously.
"Well... there's me for starters," Ruby said and brushed her purple mane back. "Starling, you're the best friend I've ever had and I don't want anything to happen to you. I've got the equipment and weapons we'd need to do it, we just need to get it out of the armory."
Ruby was part of the city's police force, she had a gift for keeping ponies safe and had done everything she could to help others. Starling smiled a little and nodded, at least that meant she wasn't going to have to do this job alone.
"Heck, I've got an idea," Ruby said and examined Starling's wings for a moment. "I'll go get that taken care of, you go talk with this pony, they owe me a favor."
She slipped Starling a piece of paper with a name and address on it. "What kind of favor do they owe you?" Starling asked.
"Long story, but tell them you want to see their, special merchandise," Ruby said with a wink. "Don't worry, its nothing illegal. We just have to make sure that you're properly armed before we can even get up there."
"Okay, I'll talk to them," Starling said and finished putting her stuff away in her bag. "Do you think we can do this? I mean even together as a team, this isn't going to be easy."
Ruby smiled a little and leaned in and gave Starling a quick peck on the cheek, making the Pegasus blush deeply. "Don't worry Star, we're going to be just fine, I know it."
Starling nodded and the two mares headed out to get their respective equipment ready. Starling sighed and looked back towards where Ruby had run off to, why had she kissed her? She didn't want to dwell on that right now since she had a job to do.
She headed off towards the house that she had been directed to, she just hoped that it was the right thing to do.
00000
Starling moved quietly through the streets of Sanctuary Prime as she went past a few ponies. There wasn't much of a point to trying to hide where she was going at least not yet, she wasn't sure what she was looking for here but she was at least going to check it out.
She sighed as she thought about the strange message that she had gotten before. It was weird, but it looked like it had been damaged somehow so that would at least explain why it didn't seem to make much sense. She sighed a little and went past a couple of mares who were talking about something but blushed a little and looked away when she passed by.
"Good day," she said with a smile and kept walking as she walked past them. She didn't really care that much if the two mares were in a relationship together, it wasn't even that uncommon in the city because there were more mares than stallions.
After all, as long as they fulfilled their obligation to keep the population going, the city didn't really care that much. Starling hadn't ever really thought that much about her own sexuality since she had been more focused on her job than worrying about relationships. Now that she was on her way out of the city, she probably wouldn't be having any foals of her own anytime soon.
She sighed a little as she reached the house and knocked on the door. She was a little nervous about what might be waiting for her on the other side, but she waited for an answer.
"Can I help you?" A stallion's voice said on the other side of the door as he pushed it ever so slightly open.
"Uh yes, I'm Starling, Ruby told me you owed her a favor and could help me out," Starling said as she looked at the pony strangely for a moment. "She said to ask about your, special merchandise."
"Alright, alright, just come in," the pony said and pushed the door open, they were an older Earth Pony stallion with a graying mane and a white coat. "Just don't tell anypony I did this for you, I'm only supposed to give this stuff out to the harvesting teams."
"What exactly are you talking about?" Starling asked as the earth pony closed the door and went into the other room and came back with a box.
"I'm in charge of making a lot of the equipment for the harvest teams," he said as he set the box down. "You know, your blades, your baskets, whatever they need to get out there and bring food back for the city. I don't know what a tech like you would want with them, but if Ruby wants you to get this, its all yours. As long as she knows that we're even now."
"Yeah, I don't think you're going to have much of a problem getting us to not talk about it," Starling said as she opened the box out of curiosity and looked in it. Inside where two nasty looking blades that were made to fit over the wings of a Pegasus, these wing blades were meant for defense and cutting down food when needed. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it, really, don't mention it, the sooner you get out of here the better I'll feel," he said as Starling did a quick check to make sure they fit over her wings. "Don't worry about it, you're going to be just fine. Just bring it back when you're done with whatever you need them for."
"Yeah, I'll make sure I do that," she said said and flinched a little, she would probably never be here again to give them back to him. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, just don't go flaunting those, I don't want to get into trouble," he said with a shake of his head.
Starling nodded and put the wing blades away. "Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome," he said and gave her a nod. "Just make sure that Ruby knows that this makes us even, okay? I'm putting my flank on the line here for you."
"Don't worry, she knows," Starling said and headed out of the house after making sure everything was secure.
00000
Starling took a deep breath as she met up with Ruby back out by her house and gave the red Unicorn a small smile. Ruby gave her a nod and ushered her inside once they were sure that there wasn't anypony around.
"So, what's the plan?" Starling asked as she looked at Ruby.
"We need to get to the main access shaft to the surface," Ruby said with a shake of her head. "And then there's the, well... other problem."
"What other problem?" Starling asked and blinked a little as Ruby shook her head. "What aren't you telling me?"
"Well, you see, we've been on the surface a few times, not for very long, but we've got the right equipment for it at least," Ruby said and brushed her mane back nervously. "We're going to need some special equipment, but I have it all set up. The thing is that, if we go..."
"We're not going to be able to turn back," Starling finished and shook her head a little. She reached into her bag and took out the memory cube as she looked at it and shook her head. "We have to do this, I don't know who left this for my family, but its why my mom left. Maybe, if we leave I'll find out what happened to her and we can do whatever the box wants us to... I just wish I knew what that was."
Ruby nodded a little as Starling shook her head. The information on the cube hadn't been helpful, there was still a lot of unanswered questions right now, so what were they going to do? She sighed and nodded.
"I'm sure we'll find your mom Starling," Ruby said with a smile as she gave her friend a hug. "Come on, we should get going if we want to avoid getting caught."
Starling nodded as they gathered up everything they were going to need and took one last look back at the house. It was weird leaving this place, but right now they didn't have a choice.
If there was something out there that she needed to find, then she was going to do her best to make sure she found it.
00000
As they stepped into the main access shaft, Ruby carefully closed the door behind her. They had made it through the city with little trouble, one advantage to your best friend being a member of the Police force was that nopony got in your way out of fear.
Ruby was a nice pony, but there was a lot of concern about the Police force among the population, which they took advantage of. Starling sighed a little as she looked up the shaft and into the darkness beyond, she couldn't make out what was up there, but it made her a bit uneasy.
It didn't help that this was the coldest part of the city. There was something about the coldness here, most of the city was warmed by geothermal power, but here? There was something about here that felt cold, it wasn't the first time that Starling had been here.
"Are you okay Starling?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I'm just... thinking is all," Starling said and blushed and turned away as Ruby started to remove her jumpsuit. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? This isn't built for life up there, so we have to put on some extra gear, I told you," Ruby said and gave Starling a chuckle. "What, are you embarrassed to see me naked or something? Come on, its not like you haven't seen me like this before."
Starling blushed deeply as she looked back at the red and purple Unicorn. She blushed a little when she found herself looking at Ruby's now bare flanks, she had a cutie mark of a golden shield with three silver crystals in it. She gave the Pegasus a smile as Starling. started to take off her jumpsuit too.
"Are you enjoying the view?" Ruby asked with a laugh as she started to take out the gear from a bags that she had set out for them.
"Look I..." Starling said and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I mean you and I have been friends for a long time, and I don't really know if I'm, you know, into mares."
"Don't worry about it, I'm just teasing you a little," Ruby said and shook her head. "We're about to go into the unknown, I know a little bit of what to expect but you're going in totally blind. Especially given that we don't know what's beyond the area around the shaft, I just thought maybe we could do something to help with it, a little. I don't know, was just an idea really."
Starling blushed and shrugged a little as she picked up the clothes. They were heavy and looked like they weren't built for life in the cavernous city. She blinked a little as she slid it on, it actually fit her perfectly and was pretty light when she wore them and fit them over her wings. She picked up the boots and found spikes in them, she recognized them as climbing spikes and carefully put them on.
"What's this for?" She asked as she picked up a strange mask with tubes leading into a pack on her back.
"Breathing mask, just a precaution," Ruby said with a smile. "Don't worry, we shouldn't need it right away, I hope."
"Do I want to know what we'd possibly use it for?" Starling asked.
"Trust me, there's a lot of dangers on the surface, and we don't really understand all of them," Ruby said as she nodded to the ladder that lead up towards the surface. "You're not afraid of heights are you?"
"I've been through the tunnels over the city on repair jobs, I'll be fine," Starling said, she gulped a little, but she wanted to sound more confident than she really felt. Actually she was terrified of heights, yeah, she was very aware of the irony that a Pegasus was afraid of heights. "Umm, are you sure there's not another way up?"
"Sure there's an elevator," Ruby said and nodded over to an elevator car. Starling was about to walk towards it when Ruby continued. "But there's an alarm attached to it so unless you want to tell them we're leaving, you might want to take the ladder."
"Crap..." Starling said under her breath as Ruby started to climb the ladder.
"Just don't look down," Ruby added and gave Starling a reassuring smile. She knew her friend well enough to know that she was lying. "And I'll catch you if you fall, there are advantages to being a Unicorn you know."
"Yeah, okay," Starling said with a nod as she waited for Ruby to get higher up the ladder before she started climbing up the ladder after her.
She gulped as she climbed the ladder rung by rung, trying not to look back down at the ground beneath them as they kept climbing up towards the top of the shaft. Starling flinched as the ladder shook a little, but it didn't fall apart at least, even if she was a bit scared.
"Are you okay back there?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I think," Starling said with a smile as she took a deep breath and started climbing more. She gulped a little as she kept climbing, blushing a little when she realized she was starring right at Ruby's flanks.
She didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't help but stare at her friend. Mind you right now when the alternative was looking back down she didn't have a choice, but other than that. She had a nice flank and she was a good pony that had done everything to help her.
Now she was here with Starling when she didn't have to be, she was here to help her when Starling could've just gone out on her own. Ruby was a good friend, she just had to hope that everything was going to be okay.
Ruby stopped up ahead and Starling stopped and held onto the ladder as a purple light was seen above her. There was a dim light coming in from above after a minute as the hatch leading up opened and they made their first steps out into the world above.
00000
Above the main shaft was a lot of white mass. Starling blinked a little as she looked around, they were in the middle of a town that was entirely covered in the strange cold white substance. Starling shivered a little, but after a moment the clothing she wore started to warm her up.
"What is this stuff?" she asked as she took up some of the powdery white substance in her hoof.
"Its called snow," Ruby said. "We had to do some research when we first found it, but, yeah its called snow we think."
"So, uh... where is everypony?" Starling asked as they looked around confused at the snow covered buildings. "I mean, this is a town or a city right? Like Sanctuary Prime?"
"I, honestly have no idea," Ruby admitted as Starling looked around and then up towards the rock ceiling that she expected to see above.
But it wasn't there, instead there was a swirling mass of black. It looked like the foggy mist that sometimes formed in the cavern, but it was all black as if it was some horrifying monster. She stumbled backwards as if dizzy and fell onto her haunches.
"What is this place?"
"Like I said... this is the surface," Ruby said and shook her head. "Come on, we need to get moving, those clouds are a bad sign."
"For what?"
Ruby didn't answer, they just walked forward as they went past more buildings that were covered in snow and ice. Some of them were caved in, others were somewhat intact, until they finally saw a sign that was covered in snow.
Starling curiously walked over to it and brushed the snow off of it. There were three words on it in big letters that were a little faded, but she could make them out anyway.
"WELCOME TO PONYVILLE."
