The city did not end quite as suddenly as it had begun for the group. While their discovery of the metropolis was made possible by exiting a mountainous cave, it turned out that the Curveside portion of the sprawl was very gradual in its dispersement into the rest of the twilight-bathed landscape. The spires rose lower and lower and most of the elevated platforms vanished—giving way to pure space between fewer and fewer skyscrapers. The group followed an elevated road that slowly lowered, passing through thinning highways as the path coasted towards what the group could only assume was "sea-level." The closer they approached the ground, the more they realized that they had exited the central hub of the Spindlers' nest. They approached depths that—far back Edgeside—would have been chock full of spider webs and arachnid colonies. As they progressed, they found the buildings growing more and more sparse. Large towers were replaced with stout structures with greater widths and broader foundations. There were more courtyards here—or perhaps they were once parks. In any case, all traces of grass or trees or vegetation had been vulcanized to ash and rock long ago.
The structures grew exceedingly smaller. As such, they were more fragile... and the group mostly encountered the hollow husks of steel structures that now lay in tatters along the outskirts of the urban sprawl. Even the bridge itself—which they had been traveling since their last dialogue with Merula—finally crumbled to pieces between two enormous warehouses. With help from Kepler and Wildcard, Flynn had to glide the hovercraft down a five-story descent. At last, they were gliding the wagon over a roughly even earth. It was a good thing they weren't relying on wheels, for much of the ground was littered with rocks, pebbles, debris—and beneath all of that a malleable layer of uneven sediment. It soon became clear to Rainbow and her friends that all of the miniscule effects of the Sundering—battered bits of anything and everything—had been blasted towards the Curveside edge of the sprawl. This made trotting over the bare landscape very hazardous, and the group had to veer the craft slowly around innumerable clusters of junk and debris.
As they all progressed further—angling slightly towards Omega—the dirty landscape grew remarkably flat. In fact, the terrain was so evenly-leveled that it struck Rarity as rather curious. After excusing herself, Rainbow Dash decided to ascend briskly—flying high over the wagon's position. Wildcard and Ariel joined her, and soon the three were surveying the topography ahead of them. They were surprised to see a vast array of evenly-arranged geometric lines, stretching towards the visible horizon. The group was confused at first—even all of Rainbow's ghostly friends—until Rainbow brought news of their observation back down to Kepler. Kepler surmised that the landscape was once purely agricultural; the original denizens of Urohringr must have built a vast network of perfectly-tilled farmland just outside the city limits. However, because of the cataclysmic nature of the Sundering, all of the soil had been completely vaporized. The only thing that stood out was the impression of paths and roads through the fossilized cropfields—roads that must have been used for countless thousands of generations before the Circles were broken. As the journey wore on, the group noticed the faint traces of what must have been farmhouses. It was haunting to think that an entire valley of fertile green terraces had long been reduced to a charred black sterile mess, lingering eternally beneath unfeeling stars.
This was what greeted the group—with every waking blink—for the next three days. The flatness was so vast that it took them nearly half-a-week to scale. Logan, Flynn, and Kepler took it in stride. Ariel nearly lost her mind on multiple occasions, and so Rainbow sent her and Wildcard off on countless "reconaissance" runs... just so they could stretch their wings while everyone waited for the wagon to navigate the lifeless plain. This proved frutiful at the start of the third day, for Ariel and Wildcard confirmed the existence of mountains towards Omega—including a deep ravine that must have once housed a river. After consulting Kepler, Rainbow decided that they would continue their trip through the canyon—in hopes that the path might more naturally lead them towards the Grand Ocean. All the while, Rainbow constantly removed Axan's dragon stone, studying its surface to judge the angle and nature of their trip.
It was flickering constantly—of course. That meant that they were more or less aimed in the general direction of the Bloodwings. Up until the ravine, Rainbow had the luxury of guiding the group slightly off-course from the supposed location of the Dark Vigil's lair. Now—for the sake of arriving at their destination—they were at the mercy of the ravine's path... whether it was a winding one or not. Rainbow promised herself to make sure they didn't go too deep towards the red flicker of Axan's stone. Rarity and Fluttershy easily volunteered to assist her with that. The rest was simply a waiting game—for there was no telling how far the ravine would lead... or for how long they would be shadowed by the looming mountains flanking each side of the wide trench.
As often as she could, Rainbow Dash took the time to observe Seraphimus. She soon discovered that she didn't have much to observe. The former Talon Commander was quiet most of the time. Hauntingly so. She had completely switched from being surly and hostile all the time to being... noticeably docile and melancholic. For one thing, it was good to have her acting so compliant. But—at the same time—Rainbow struggled with this gnawing fear. If she didn't look after Seraphimus... then Rainbow felt that somehow she would be the first one out of the group that she stood to lose. So she kept her eyes on the griffin and her ears tuned into Applejack. Between her senses and her most loyal friend... she monitored the Rohbreddenite from a distance.
It made for a tense, somber journey into that pale... pale twilight.