Rainbow Dash flew into the center of the expansive cross-shaped room and looked around for any sign telling her what direction to go in next. If she saw stairs or something she’d just go to them cause she needed to go up, but there was probably still a ton of space and places left inside the top levels of the city. Searching through it all just to find a way to get up to Resin could take much longer than she wanted it to. Looking to her left and right there were more pillars leading all the way down to what looked like a row of elevators at both back walls. Directly ahead of her the long hallway ended in another room where Rainbow Dash saw stairs. So each direction would take her up.
When in doubt, just keep going the direction you already were. Rainbow Dash shrugged and flew on towards the stairs. After all she had no idea if those elevators still even worked.
Being Rainbow Dash she got to the end room in an instant and took a look around. It was a very tall room that looked like it went up several levels of the city with stairs and landings snaking all around the sides from their start at the very bottom. Rainbow Dash flew up a bit and noticed a gigantic “1” painted in white paint on the wall, flying a little above that was a “2” and so on. She didn’t know what each individual level may have held but at the moment it wasn’t an issue, she was here to get to the very top of the city and that was it.
The last level was “9” and the stairs ended at a wide mezzanine that Rainbow Dash floated down to and landed on. From here there were a few other hallways leading to other areas, Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure where to go at first until she heard voices coming from the right most hallway.
“Best place I can think to go,” she shrugged and flew down the hallway.
The lighting up here in these top levels was better than down in the housing blocks and maintenance areas. They didn’t flicker and she hadn’t noticed any broken ones yet. The sound of ponies talking also continued to grow the further she went until she emerged out into a large and open lounge area. It curved quite a bit around the mountain and had lots of sitting areas for ponies, there looked like there used to be some fountains too but the water wasn’t running in them. And where she spied places where there should’ve been couches all the cushions look like they had been torn out.
But still, it was the first place where she saw other ponies up in these top levels.
While they didn’t look dirty or exhausted from work they still looked bored and dead on the inside from what Rainbow could see. A few groups played cards or some other board games on the tables while others just walked around aimlessly and some stood off staring into space. It seemed even if you weren’t on the bottom rungs and forced to work all day it didn’t mean Resin cared about you. These ponies were just forgotten and ignored, with nothing left to do or care about when only the flame mattered.
Did they have jobs at all? The work day down below would have started by now.
Rainbow Dash walked on down the middle of the lounge, glancing at some of the ponies playing cards together. They all looked so bored and depressed. She walked a little further and finally stopped next to a pony sitting down and emptily staring at one of the fountains. It had grown dusty looking after not having water flow from it for who knows how long.
“Uh, you looking at something?” Rainbow Dash asked him.
“Hm?” He turned to look at her, he was a very light green earth pony with a sandy-gold mane and the Cutie Mark of a leaky faucet. His eyes were dead in the same way Night Reader’s and Brilliant Star’s were.
Rainbow Dash grimaced. “Do you like this old fountain or something?”
“Oh, sort of I guess,” he looked back at it. “When the water was still allowed to flow to it I used to come here to relax and think. Now I don’t really have anything to do anyways, so sometimes I just like to look at it and remember how it used to be.”
“Is it like this everywhere up here? Are all of you like this?” Rainbow asked him.
He looked over at her again and raised an eyebrow. “Are you… not from here?”
She shook her head. “No, I arrived here a few days ago.”
“I see. Well, yes, everywhere is like this. The lower sections of the city have been cut off to us and everything was taken away. No one up here does anything,” he nodded over to some of the ponies playing cards. “If it wasn’t for a few of us hiding stuff like that when Resin started her sweeps of the city we wouldn’t even have games to play to pass the time.”
“Sorry to hear about all that...” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head. She couldn’t imagine living a life as boring and empty as these ponies did. She’d have gone crazy long ago.
“Why’d you even come here?” He asked her.
“Well I kind of just stumbled on your city in the first place, I had gone a long time without any food and really needed something to eat so I came in here. And when I heard about Resin and what she had done to all of you I couldn’t just leave,” Rainbow said.
“Oh, well thanks for your concern,” he said but didn’t smile or really seem any happier.
“I mean… I’m trying to fix things and help you ponies,” Rainbow said.
He shrugged. “I get it, I’m just not sure if anything can be done about her. Look around you, do any of the ponies here look like they have much hope?”
“No but I’m kind of used to seeing that from the rest of the city,” Rainbow told him. “And it still isn’t stopping me or changing my mind. I can still do a lot.”
“If you want to fight Resin then no one here is going to stop you,” he said and looked into the empty basin at the bottom of the fountain. “I wouldn’t mind seeing this work again.”
“Then maybe you can help me out a little? What’s the best way to get to the top of the city where the ceremonial flame and Resin are?” Rainbow Dash asked him.
“Well if you just keep going up you can’t miss it. The only things at the top level of the mountain are the room where the flame is kept and Resin’s command center,” he told her. “Uhh, I guess I can show you where you should go right from here though.”
“Thanks, that’d actually be a lot of help,” Rainbow gave him an appreciative smile.
He nodded. “Mm, you’re going to want to walk down the lounge until midway and then you’ll see a set of open doors that lead towards the middle of the mountain, directly under the peak. Once you’re in that area you’ll see some stairwells and elevators every now and then. Just take whatever you want and you’ll get to the top floor quick enough.” He paused for a second before seeming to remember something else. “Also, if you’re looking for Resin specifically she supposedly spends almost all day in the room with the flame, just staring at it. That’s what I’ve heard at least.”
Rainbow Dash clapped him on the back with her wing. “Thanks for the help, with any luck things’ll be different for you by the end of the day.”
“It would be nice but I’m not exactly counting on it,” he said as he continued to gaze at his fountain and attempted to remember happier times.
She gave him a weak grin before flying off further down the lounge. “Oof… these guys need help quick.”
Rainbow Dash flew over the heads of many more despondent ponies in this lounge, this was probably the one or one of the only places they could visit and hang around in outside their own homes that still had a semblance of things to look at or do in it. Despite her probably being unusual and unfamiliar enough that they should be surprised to see her and looking up as she flew about, no one really did. Rainbow Dash was relatively ignored by the ponies in the lounge who were too caught up in their own melancholy.
Soon she spied where she was supposed to go according to that stallion whose name she forgot to ask and turned to go down another hallway that eventually led into a circular room with a staircase at the back going up and elevators at each side. Since she had been having decently good luck with the stairs she decided to stick with them and quickly flew up the hundreds of steps, following the banister all the way to the top. It was then yet more stairs, more empty or almost empty rooms, as she went higher and higher into the mountain.
The one real change she actually noticed was the lighting was even better up here, as was the ventilation and heating. It all started getting better and better the higher she went. Resin really kept the best just for the flame and the surrounding space around it.
Finally she came up another flight of stairs and ended up in a well polished and brightly lit hallway that looked like it curved in a circular path around the inside of the mountain’s peak. Rainbow Dash was definitely high enough where there wasn’t much room left, was this the top level? Directly in front of her was still a solid wall that followed the interior side of the hallway, taking up the entirety of the center of the top level. Since she wasn’t getting anywhere just floating here she dropped down to the floor and walked into the hallway.
There was a sign on the interior wall, directly in front of where the stairs ended, and Rainbow Dash peered at it.
One arrow pointing to the left with the word “Flame” under it. One arrow pointing right with “Control Center” under it. And at the bottom of that, in obnoxiously happy print, there was the message: “Enjoy our glorious city’s majestic peak and the ceremonial flame that we hold dearly in all our hearts!”
Rainbow Dash frowned and started walking left.