//------------------------------// // Open Up Your Eyes // Story: Ofolrodi // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// "Rremarrkable..." Kepler stood on Logan's shoulders, running a claw over the pale etchings against the surface of the black monolith. His spectacled eyes reflected a sea of ancient characters. "Absolutely... positively rremarrkable..." Logan looked over at Rainbow Dash. "So you're certain you've seen all this shit before?" "Not all of it, Big Show," Rainbow Dash said, pacing in mid-air. "But definitely most of it." She waved a hoof at the immensity surrounding them on all sides. "The architecture... the technology... the symbols..." "And you think whoever made this city also made the Machine World?" "I... I don't know..." Rainbow gulped. "But it's all looking the same. Right down to the durable metals and long-lasting building material. I honestly... legitimately think that this city's as old as the heart of Urohringr." "If you're right..." Logan peered up at the skyscrapers surrounding them. "...then this place is older than every civilization on the Light Side." Rainbow nodded. "Uh huh..." "Older than Rohbredden... older than Equestria... older than the Divines... older than the—" "Remember..." Rainbow pointed. "...the alicorns arrived here from far out there... originating in the Harmonic Plains." She took a deep breath. "Which is older—the alicorns or Urohringr? I'd say the jury's out on that." "Would you be surprised if you ended up finding out that the alicorns were pubescent punks in comparison to this place?" Rainbow Dash sighed with a slight shudder. "Not much surprises me anymore, Big Show..." "Here's the golden question," Logan muttered, gazing all around the suspended platform. "We've got a giant-ass city abandoned for eons. Just... who in the Hell actually lived here?" "Is it not obvious?" Kepler hopped off Logan's flank and glided to the metal street. "None otherr than the Angels themselves!" He stood in place, curling his scorpion tail. "The verry souls upon which the essence of the Herrald was orriginally founded... countless generrations ago." "A... lot has happened since then and now," Rainbow remarked. "Not herre, it hasn't! Herre we stand within the shadow of an absolute rrelic!" Kepler dramatically gestured with his wings. "To think this is wherre the Angels—the ancient pegasi—actually lived and brreathed and went about theirr daily business! Long beforre chaos and darrkness overrtook this landscape! Long beforre Divines and Alicorrns sought to maintain orrderr in a plane tossed adrrift in space!" He exhaled. "Long beforre therre was everr a Sunderring, this place must have thrrived! Bustling and humming with life!" "Couldn't have been very harmonic life," Logan said. "What makes you say that, brrotherr?" Logan shrugged. "Well, what the Hell got them to split the ring up to begin with?" Rainbow bit her lip. Before she could say anything— "Hey, guys..." Flynn trotted up, levitating several tools alongside him. "Uhm..." A gulp. "Holy shit." "Well, that's a nifty report," Logan droned. "Any luck, frriend?" Kepler craned his hairy neck. "What have you discoverred from the dorrmant vehicles?" "I... I've no words," Flynn exhaled. "Humor us," Logan said. "Well..." Flynn's mechanical eye rotated as he gazed off across the platform. "...I've no friggin' clue what once powered the stuff up. I mean... there simply is no manacircuitry to be seen in any of the machines. Nothing that would house circulating leylines in the way that we traditionally understand them." "Maybe they didn't run on mana?" Logan remarked. "I thought of that," Flynn said. "So I looked for steamworks... electrical conduits... even combustion chambers." He shook his head. "I still can't figure it out." "Did you actually see what was inside all those things?" Logan asked. "Essentially... a porous metal core," Flynn said. "But... there were no moving parts. No sign of a filtration system. Just... dead, seemingly useless metal. I mean... maybe they resonated with something once upon a time. But—if so—then... it's quite simply a source of energy I've never seen or read about before." "So..." Logan scratched his stubbled chin. "...nothing we can power up ourselves." "Ha!" Flynn grinned wide. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Heheheh... ahem..." He gulped and smiled nervously aside at Rainbow Dash. "S-sorry..." Rainbow shrugged. "Don't mention it." "Uhhhhhhh..." Flynn slapped errantly at the metal street below. "Trying to power up any of the shit lying around this place would be like a worker ant attempting to wrap its head around alicorn magic. It's just... far too beyond me." He gulped. "Far too beyond any of us." "Can you tell what the function of the machines werre?" Kepler asked. "Oh—automotion," Flynn said. "Most definitely transportation. Movement. Heavy freight. But that's just scratching the surface of it." He pointed at the multiple platforms lingering all around them. "The architecture of this place is something out of a goddess-damned miracle. If we built this stuff? As in we mortal ponies of modern day?" He grimaced. "That shit would be falling apart within a decade. But whoever built this stuff knew something we don't. How this stuff is still standing in spite of the sheer weight is unfathomable. I might be able to learn more, but..." A sigh. "...I'd have to take a look inside some of the buildings to find out more, and even then I'm not so sure I'd be lucky enough to figure it out." "Admit it," Logan muttered through a smirked. "You've got a total brain boner right now." Flynn fidgeted. "Maybe..." "Well, I wouldn't mind snooping around the innards of this place some," Rainbow Dash said. She gestured. "I already sent Ariel and Wildcard to the lower levels to have a look-see." "Do you think..." Logan's brow furrowed. "...there could be a Machine Layer beneath all of this?" "Ach!" Kepler beamed suddenly. "Imagine if therre was a rruby flame to discoverr at the hearrt of all this!" "I... don't think so," Rainbow Dash muttered. "Yaerfaerda hasn't appeared to me since I visited the Last Seed past Bleak's Plummet." "You're only seeing the location of the Midnight Armory, now, right?" Logan asked. Rainbow nodded, nostrils flaring. "Yeahhhhh..." "Well, if you ask me..." Logan looked at the others. "...we shouldn't spend too much time here. I mean... if we can find something that'll help us in our journey—that's fine—but if there's anything we've learned from this trip so far is that the older something is the deadlier." "I dunno, Big Show," Flynn remarked. "Doesn't look like any trolls or changelings or anything else dangerous has dwelt in this place for millennia!" "I know." Logan's gaze hardened. "That's what scares me." Flynn bit his lip. "I say we starrt looking inside some of the local strructurres," Kepler said. "See if we can learrn morre about this extrraorrdinarry culturre." He looked at Rainbow Dash. "With the Austrraeoh's perrmission, of courrse." "Sure thing, boys..." Rainbow smiled faintly, gesturing with her hoof. "Knock yourselves out!" "Hell yeah!" Flynn galloped off across the platform. "I'm checking out that skyscraper over there!" "What for?" Logan shrugged. "It looks like all the others!" "Yeah! But this one's shinier!" Logan rolled his eyes while Kepler took a running start and glided after the unicorn. All three shuffled across the platform, investigating the entrance to the nearest structure. For a moment, Rainbow Dash sat in silence. But she wasn't alone. She sensed a shadow looming above in the dim twilight. She tilted her head up. "Sooooo... what are you still doing here?" "... ... ..." Seraphimus said nothing. She hovered in place, staring all about the metropolis in a pale stupor. "You're free now," Rainbow Dash droned. "Don't you want to go off and enjoy your ascetic journey of self-discovery or some crap?" "... ... ..." Seraphimus' charcoal eyes finally blinked. In a noticeably nervous jolt, she glanced down at the petite pegasus. "Uhm... what...?" "Wow..." Rainbow's ears twitched. "...I think that's the first time I've ever seen you drool." "?!?!" Seraphimus brushed a talon across her beak. To her surprise, she felt nothing. "Snkkkktt... hahahaha..." Rainbow slapped at the metallic street. "Wow, girl! You've really fallen off your cloud, haven't you?" "I... I have certainly drifted..." Seraphimus looked limply at the urban surroundings. "This... this is all..." "Yeah...?" Rainbow nodded. "Crazy, huh?" "I... I don't very well understand..." Seraphimus' beak tightened. "I just..." Her headcrest drooped, and there was more than a slight trembled to her limbs and lion's tail. "...none of this makes any sense..." "Stuff from 'beyond the blight' is a great deal bigger than you expected, huh?" "... ... ..." "Tell me, Sera..." Rainbow cocked her head to the side. "...did Verlaxion ever have an explanation for crap like this?" Finally, Seraphimus rediscovered her trademark scowl. "All that lies outside the Goddess' blessing presence is banal and pointless." "Uh huh." Rainbow nodded. "Then why are you still hanging around?" She smirked. "Looking like a dumbstruck foal in a candy store?" Seraphimus didn't answer. She simply stared at the spires towering around them. Gawking. "Y'know..." Rainbow Dash's tail flicked as she spoke. "...a giant metropolis lying on the opposite side of the world, abandoned for all time, is pretty crazy, huh?" "Mmrmmmmm..." "But here it is, right before your eyes." Rainbow leaned her head to the side. "So... like... just how much harder would it be to believe in a harmonic kingdom where royal sisters raise the sun and moon?" She blinked. "Or draconic immortals who possess the magic to shape-shift and deceive entire civilizations?" "You are making your most pathetic attempt to convince me of your falsehoods yet." "So, you tell me, Seraphimus," Rainbow spoke. "How can you truly explain all this crud?" She blinked. "Or the Gondola that brought us here? Or the existence of Darkreach? Or the crazy extra-sensory knack I have for perceiving the environment, our foes, and you?" "Your logic fails you yet again," Seraphimus stammered, tail flicking in sickly circles. "I am... unconvinced." Rainbow Dash bore a cheesy grin. "You're lyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingggggg." Seraphimus' headfeathers stood on end. "Maybe... just maybe..." Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and hovered in the direction that Flynn and the others went. "...you're running out of excuses for everything you don't understand." "And what about you?" Seraphimus hissed. "I suppose you understand all of this—" "I don't." "... ... ..." "I've been learning for my entire friggin' journey," Rainbow Dash said calmly. She looked back over her shoulder. "And still I haven't put it all together. That's part of the reason for why I keep on going." A breath. "You wanna fly off and discover yourself? I've danced to that song before, Seraphimus. And lemme tell you—it kinda sucks on your own." Rainbow Dash flew off. Seraphimus didn't. The former Talon Commander lingered in place... gazing all around... drinking it in... Anchored to that spot. That moment. Thinking.