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// Prologue 
// Story: The Floating City 
// by Jesiah Is A Pony 
//------------------------------//

Dark Sunset mouth gaped wide as he looked down upon the world below. He stood at the front of a large circular room with a mirror set of curling stairs that led to the control console at the top as well as the archway to the main lobby. The view was splendidly magnificent. Lush fields of crops and forestry, a crystal ocean in the distance, and there was a straight, unwavering line separating it all from a frozen wasteland where not a single hoofprint was seen upon its virgin snow. Over the wasteland of ice and snow floated the colors of Celestia’s vibrant mane but, somehow, far more translucent and dreamy.
He looked through the massive curved window, struck with awe. He hadn’t even noticed the rather tall, blood red Pegasus walked up next to him. He was dressed in a blue, cotton shirt with its long sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a nickel-button vest, sleeveless and brown, that descended to his flanks where a pair of dark trousers covered his legs. The most peculiar aspect of his outfit was the sorely misplaced black fedora upon his head with his ears poking out the top and strands of black mane poking out from under the hat and curling, but never truly descending over his eyes.
“This place is called the Valley by every country and culture on the planet,” the Pegasus started, voice as soft, warm, and welcoming as Sunset’s mother’s own. “Many have tried to cultivate this place selfishly, but they all fail. Mother Nature has refused to let this place become a defilement against her, even before the time of ponies and magic.”
Sunset didn’t say anything but gawk at the beauty of colors as sunlight slanted downwards from its true source and upwards off the reflective snow.
“A thousand years and I’ve seen only two things on this planet…nay, the universe that compares to this.”
“Two?” Sunset finally managed to speak, disbelieving anything could be more magnificent as the land below him, but the Pegasus said nothing until Sunset noticed an absurdity in the Pegasus’s words and asked, “A thousand years?”
“One thousand sixty-six, to be honest.” The red Pegasus’s ocean eyes gleamed against the sunlight…no.
Sunset looked closely to the sky, noticing the moon completely formed in the sky but overshadowed by the sun, and then back to the Pegasus whose eyes reflected the moon as he stared at it.
“Why…why am I here?” Sunset asked, finally bringing up the topic that had been prodding his fragile, guilty mind.
“Life or here on this ship?” the Pegasus asked, faking confusion.
“Here as in on the ship,” Sunset responded flatly.
“Because…” Sunset watched the eyes of the Pegasus as it was lost in a moment of thought. They were so old while the rest of him looked so young. Eyes only an immortal could be granted by time, experience, and…loneliness. Those lonely eyes echoed misery and sadness that Sunset could not help but pity.
The Pegasus shook his head and said, “Because you’re not safe. You haven’t been for your entire life. I’m here to save you.”
But Sunset wasn’t sure if he wanted to be saved. He didn’t deserve the life that was granted to him…