After 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."