The forests rolled beneath Rainbow Dash for miles. Although she was intent on following Lancie's senses to the source of the shards, she couldn't help but stare down at the landscape below every so often. Upon further inspection, she realized that the one clearing filled with ancient ruins wasn't a singular anomaly. In fact, several patches of exposed earth loomed beneath the pegasus, revealing all sorts of crumbled streets, pathways, and rectangular foundations to long-vanished structures. Every now and then, she'd stumble upon actual buildings, but very few of them stretched taller than two or three stories in height. It would appear as though centuries—if not eons of erosion and overgrown vegetation had blanketed the detritus of a past civilization completely. It was curiously serene, and Rainbow was slightly surprised to not spot a single monster in all of her flight.
"I guess there's nothing around these parts that attracts them," she murmured aloud. "Not anymore, at least."
"I doubt hydras have developed a diet for trees during my absence," Lancie mused.
"Meh."
Eventually, the treeline did fade, but only partially. The forest gave way to sporadic vegetation, and only because the earth began dipping into steep valleys—trenches that grew deeper and deeper. Soon, Rainbow found herself soaring over deep, semi-arid canyons with ancient, crooked trees leaning over cliff faces and promontories. The grasslands grew more and more eroded, with white sheets of rock poking through the emerald edges of the shallow dips and ravines.
Then, in some of the deeper canyons, Rainbow saw—or thought she saw—hints of gravel and crumbled stone. She spotted what looked like beds of broken rock and granite, as if various structures had plunged over the edges of the ravine and collected in the bottom as dusty, abandoned debris.
"I wonder if something happened here," Rainbow Dash murmured.
"Yeah. Ya think?" Lancie belched.
"No, for realsies!" Rainbow jerked her eyes away from an orange figure trotting across a clifface and flew on. "What if—like—some ancient civilization tampered with the alicorns' domain or something?"
Lancie smirked tiredly. "I am doing my darn best not to laugh my antlers off at such a statement."
"You know what I mean!" Rainbow pouted. "Like... they experimented too heavily with magic or some crap and then a whole bunch of crap blew up and their entire empire went 'bye-bye.' Maybe... like... that explains where all the monsters came from? And... uhhhh... why the griffons had to shut them out to begin with?"
"Since when did you become so eggheaded?"
Rainbow sighed, staring forward as she flew over the uneven landscape. "You're right. My heart and soul's compensating for... stuff." She swallowed hard. "I... I can't believe I'm saying this, but it suddenly feels super... super weird that I haven't seen my friends in so long."
"And just why is that supposed to sound weird?" Lancie shrugged. "You're a pony. You're entitled to dabble in the mush-mush."
"Yeah, but... it's not like I've abandoned my friends!" Rainbow said, voice cracking. "I'm... I'm still there for them..." Her pupils shrank as she scoured the landscape. "...aren't I?"
"Forgive me for sounding heartless, Sparky, but this is hardly the time and place to get existential over your friendships."
"Yeah... yeah..." Rainbow sighed. "I've just been... been so obsessed with getting this cure to Apple Bloom. Everything's been a super bright spotlight on one task and one task alone." She clenched her teeth. "Well... once I've gotten Apple Bloom fixed up, I swear—I'm not gonna get into any messes. I'm just gonna stay in Ponyville, chillax, and hang out with my marefriends like I always used to."
"And what of Princess Frecklestasia, hmmmm?" Lancie leaned in closer. "Will a certain pegasus be putting another draft of a letter to paper?"
Rainbow bit her lip. She dared to look down.
Through the bouldery dip of another trench, she saw an orange body wandering, pausing, looking up. Two fixed points of glittering emerald stabbed Rainbow from afar.
The mare clenched her eyes, inhaling the breezy air as she continued drifting north. "... ... ...one thing at a time."
"Heh. Fair enough."
"Just... gotta get to the source of the shards, Lancie."
"You mean like that?"
Rainbow's eyes flew open. Her vision followed his tiny, pointed talon.
A shadow crossed over Rainbow's figure, and her ears folded back.
High above, the rectangular foundation to a massive structure loomed. Rainbow Dash drifted to the left, and she watched as the light caught several tall bastions, towers, and pale spires on the thing's top surface. It took a great deal of long-distance inspection, but Rainbow could spot what looked like a chunk of floating earth as a foundation—as if something had been ripped straight out of the ground entirely. Atop this foundation was a square-shaped barrier, forming tall walls that scaled for half-a-dozen feet from the chunk of earth upon which they were erected.
It took a while for the wheels in Rainbow Dash's head to grind against one another, but she soon realized she was staring at what could only be described as a flying castle with thick granite peaks, complete with an inner keep and several imposing cylindrical fortifications. Around this massive, levitating sight, she spotted no less than three dozen draconian figures taking wing, circling in close orbit of the stronghold and breathing fire.
"Well, then..." Rainbow and Lancie blinked. "That's a thing."