Skyvale, a city that had earned itself the name “Heaven of Equestria”, originally for its celestial positioning as it watched over the world beneath it. It was to become a kingdom in itself that would rival even Canterlot some many moons ago. Originally constructed for the new found Princess Luna of the moon upon her return to Equestria; thus much of the city was adorned with immortalized versions of her in stone and metal. One could not glance left or right without her eyes always following you.

That was the city’s past though; today it was nothing more than an unfinished fortress shielded from the sinister poisons of the outside world. A safe haven from the hell outside of it.

Upon finishing the steel blanket over the city that was intended to protect it from harm, it couldn’t have begun to serve its purpose at a faster pace. All of us inside the city had no idea what was happening at the time, only that we were forbidden to leave the city, and anyone who left would not be permitted back in. I had showed up at the city mere days before the closing of the gates to the outside world. Originally I had come to visit to see the opening ceremony for Luna with my parents, whom would arrive at a later time. When the gates closed, all I could wrap my mind around was the curiosity of what was happening on the surface below. I never did get to see Luna, the ceremony of my parents arrival.

When the gates closed, they stayed sealed shut for nearly two long years; “No one in, no one out”, that’s what the guards would tell us. It was best not to bother with questions as to what was happening out there, as you’d never be able to squeeze even a meager hint from them. They assured us that it was all for our personal safety, and before long no one bothered questioning it anymore. After all they endured; they eventually began to accept their new life in their permanent home. I was no different, but a part of me always wondered what was happening out there, and why it was being kept from us.

Most of the citizens had come here with their families, thus adjusting wasn’t as difficult for most of them, but the few who were told they must abandon their families down below responded in hysterics. In time though, they too would come to accept their fate and settle down. I had only arrived with my sister, Torch. She was still but a child when we first showed up, and thus remembers little of life outside the city.

The city’s leader, Silver Hoof, was at least a generous creature. After the gates were shut he offered housing for all of the new citizens, and assigned them jobs as to give them a purpose in being here. It wasn’t perfect, but it was endurable for the most part. He was a very lenient leader for a pony that had to ration everything, and could take no chances.

After two years of solitude to the outside, the city’s advisers permitted the entry of one young colt, and no others, even to this day. They only instructed us that he was granted entry upon some kind of “trade”, we never did discover what he could have possibly brought to make the strict lord of the city to bend his otherwise absolute policies.

His name was Dipper; it came from a constellation in the heavens he had mentioned before. It was appropriate for him, as his branding was of a star. He was a skilled navigator, and mentioned that he used to draw maps and do “recon”.

Most in the city avoided Dipper as if he were death himself. They wanted nothing to do with an outsider, nor did they want any of their family to associate with them. Hypocrites, they had all forgotten that we were all outsiders at one point.

I had volunteered to allow Dipper to stay with myself and Torch, for some reason I was fascinated with this young colt.

He had many scars across his body as I recalled, I counted seven just on my first glance at him; I got the impression that he was a bit of a fighter from this. His silver coat seemed to have lacked the shine that it probably had at one point, as did his messy white mane. Everything about him seemed worn, except his personality. Possibly the most excitable pony I had encountered in my lifetime.

I remember he would tell the most enthralling stories with such vivid detail. Many times he would put Torch to sleep and share a bit of his tale with her, only to have the young filly demanding more in exchange for rest. He would laugh, tuck her in, and whisper “Maybe tomorrow”, to her. His sense of humor seemed to have remained intact despite being from the outside.

According to what he had informed us, the world outside was essentially destroyed by a giant war that started around the time that the gates were sealed. The opposition of society as it stood prior was something that he referred to as “the darkness”, and explained that it consumed anyone who allowed it to. It turned many to its power only to control them to fight for it. They would follow mindlessly, even to their own death. No one had seen where the darkness came from, or what its physical form was, but it created agents to perform its bidding. All Dipper claimed to know was that the darkness only wished to take this world from us, and would stop at nothing to do it. It took life away from anything it touched, and left much of the world below us coated in itself.

When it first appeared, opposition came to fight it. The military's best had gathered to fend it off under the Knights of Celestia. Warriors rose from the shadows, and powerful soldiers took up arms to fend off the oncoming darkness. There were many battles from there, and he mentioned specifically that he recalled one particular commanding officer from the fighting, one that he claims to have served under. Rainbow Dash, I recalled the name from many papers as the winner of many flying contests when I was young.

He spent many nights enthralling me in tales of her bravery and valiant efforts in the war. He depicted her as a Goddess on the battlefield; capable of speeds unmatched by any other, skill with a blade that was unimaginable. His stories gave me so much hope for the world outside; he had given me something to look up to; her.

The war would take a turn for the worse however, as only six months after the fighting began, armies of darkness had developed a new kind of weapon. Dipper never found out what it was, but it wiped out most of Equestria in one mighty blast. In only a fraction of a second the beautiful skies were turned black, and destruction swept over the land, leaving only bodies that it held no use for behind. It was as Dipper described, “the end of the world.”

That didn’t stop the fighting however, the Knights of Celestia continued to fend off the darkness, and even Rainbow Dash would continue to fight. Dipper had served as her primary scout, and was present for a majority of the battles that occurred.

After a life as exciting as his, I could not help but ask why he wanted to come to a place like this. His response: “I wanted to see what it was like here.” Nothing more than curiosity fueled him, he lived by the moment and for the moment.

Besides my sister Torch, he was probably the only friend I had in that entire city, probably the entire world. The truth is that I wasn’t much of a social pony, and it derived from my lack of a cutie mark. Despite my age, I had yet to find anything that I was particularly exceptional at; my sister even got her mark before I did. The truth of the matter was that I just couldn’t find anything I excelled at, and really I wasn’t trying too hard. Essentially I had given up on acquiring a cutie mark years ago, I was ready to accept being a full grown colt with a bare flank.

Socially, I was inept in the sense that I honestly didn’t care what other ponies thought about me. I had always been a loner, and it was a character trait that I think would be more favorable in some situations.

Sometime shortly after Dipper’s acceptance into Skyvale, the city council granted permission to all citizens of the keep to leave the city walls to the ground below, but at a price. You would be granted freedom to leave at the cost of re-entry. The moment a single hoof touched the ground below, you were not allowed back in. One way out, no way back in. This system warded away would-be adventurers from leaving the city, but we still had a few every year that would leave; of course we would never hear from them again. I assumed that most of these individuals would run off to join the Knights in the rebellion.

Around the sixth year of life within the city walls, everything changed for me. Dipper, had caught a terrible illness. We had taken him to every medical facility the city had to offer, to no avail.

I recall the last conversation I had with him.

“I don’t regret any of it, Flare.”

Flare, that was my name. My family had named us all after the element of fire, a tradition that had been in my family for generations apparently.

“The war may have changed me, but it did so for the better. I learned the meaning of responsibility, courage, and loyalty. Oh, so much loyalty…” He was lost in his memories it seemed.

I didn’t interrupt him. Waiting silently for him to continue, he tilted his head in my direction with a smile. There he lay on his death bed, still full of happiness, still content, still loving the world.

“I got to serve under the best damn warrior Equestria has ever known, and I loved every second of it. If I could go back and do it all again, I would. She truly is the greatest, and I hope you get to meet her one day. She made me stronger than I ever could have become on my own.” He extended a hoof in my direction; I cradled it while getting closer to the dying colt.

“You truly admired her didn’t you?” I asked.

He nodded. “I can die without regret because of all the joy that filled my life. Meeting her, serving the Knights, and of course meeting you…” He choked a little trying to speak.

“Me?” I replied.

His face lit up with a heartfelt smile, “The people here didn’t take too kindly to outsiders. I was fortunate to even be allowed in at all. I thought I would have to spend the rest of my days alone, but you extended kindness to me. You embraced me and allowed me into your home even though you had no idea who I was, or where I’d been.”

“None of that ever really mattered to me…” I admitted.

“I wish there were more ponies with your kindness…” He laughed.

I blinked. “Why’s that?”

He chuckled before answering, and then gave me an innocent look. “Maybe then we wouldn’t have even had a war to begin with.”

The next morning when I awoke, I had realized that I was alone in that room. The colt there before had been stripped of the last bit of life left in him. He lay still and silent, almost as though in a deep slumber. Even in death, a smile still played his lips, which he would take to his grave.

Nothing really happened in Skyvale from then on. Every day I hoped that another outsider would enter the city limits, but no such thing could, or would happen. Many left, but none entered. Life was stagnant for the time.

Within the seventh year in Skyvale I had grown restless of life within the steel prison. Torch was coming of age, and close to reaching adulthood. As she was entering adulthood, I was doing little more than getting older, but none wiser. I had no directive still, and an empty flank to prove it. I was probably the oldest pony that ever lived that lacked a cutie mark.

By the end of that seventh year, I knew what I wanted at last. I wanted to leave the city, to go down to the ground below. As soon as I proposed the idea to Torch she opposed, as I expected her to.

“Brother, you’ve heard the stories about the ground from Dipper, but how do you even know that they’re true, or rather still true? You forget that was almost seven years ago!” She protested.

“I understand your concern Torch, but this really is my calling. This is why I haven’t obtained my cutie mark yet, I haven’t found my talent. Surely there is something down there that is calling for me, maybe other ponies that need help. We take life in this city for granted, we’re blessed with all the things that make life easy, but not everyone is like that. Plus wouldn’t you like to be able to leave the city someday? To be able to come and go freely in a new Equestria?” I smiled as I stroked her fire red mane delicately.

“What will you do down there?” She questioned with a worried expression.

“I’m going to join the Knights of Celestia. I want to help build a new Equestria…” I explained.

“Let me come with you then!” She blurted out.

“No. You need to stay here where you’ll be safe. There’s no telling what’s out there, and it is best that you stay here. The ponies here need you, after all you’re on your way to becoming a doctor.” I responded.

I stayed firm on this decision, and eventually she had little choice but to accept it.

When the day actually came for me to leave, I recall my last sight of her being one of tears streaking down her cheeks.

The ceremony for leaving was simple. You entered the airlock with Silver Hoof himself, then he informed you of the conditions of this arrangement, then if you chose to accept, he let you leave the airlock alone. No one had ever seen outside that airlock except Dipper.

“Flare the earth pony.” He began. “You are about to leave Skyvale to the Equestrian ruins. As city council leader, and founder of Skyvale, I am required to inform you that the moment you set hoof onto the ruins, you are forever bound to them, and not permitted to return here to Skyvale. You will no longer be a citizen. Do you comply with these terms?” Silver had clearly practiced this speech several times.

I nodded. “I do.”

“Are you absolutely certain? This is a large decision you make, and it cannot be undone. I hope you have given this plenty of thought…” He said.

I bowed my head, “I understand. I have given this much thought, and decided this is the best decision for me. Life in the city has been a pleasant dream, but I can’t stay asleep forever. The time has come to wake up and face reality.”

He sighed and nodded in acknowledgement; a hint of disappointment smeared on his face. Begrudgingly he left the airlock and when the steel portal shut behind him, the elevator to leave the city opened its doors inviting me inside.

Without hesitation I stepped inside. I couldn’t afford to put any doubt into this plan. During those final moments in Skyvale, the thought on my mind surprised me. I wasn’t thinking about Dipper, or life in the city, or thoughts of what life down below would be like, or even Torch. The only thing on my mind was finding the Knights of Celestia. Whatever challenges faced me down there, they surely would be able to assist me in overcoming them.

The door had finally opened, exposing the mysteries of the outside world to me at long last.