Very cool and Final Fantasy-like, but laughably over designed. Forget engineering, just look at how vertical everything is. Anyone other than pegasi would either spend half their life just going up and down ramps, stairs and trains/trams.

I recomend listening to “The Balefire Symphony” for this picture.

It will be Princess Twilight 2.0’s project to upgrade her now owned castle after all.

Wow

The tag “artist:kcajd” was removed because:  
The original art was posted in 2013 by Balthasar999, while the other “artist” just reposted it.  
The link also was changed for the original one.

@bahnpirat  
Ba-dum-tis!  
xD

@Autumn_Shy  

 
Nonsence. You can still use the telescope to look inside the tower, where Luna lifes. ;-)

“No pony”
 
Well… There ARE pastel colored blobs within the Canterlot limits,  
I’ma call dem poines. ^^
 
 
@MadVillain  
True,  
The surronding buildings, not to mention the lights of the city, would greatly limit lunar observations.

Awesome landscape, terrible spot for an observatory though.

Neo Canterlot

It has two things it reminds me of. Lindblum, from FF IX, and the more rounded parts give off a Balamb Garden vibe from FF VIII. If you ask me, this is Scenery Porn at its finest.

@Mugen Kagemaru  
Ponyville like may look the same from a distance but Princess Luna thinks of all of her subjects.  
Ponyville now has Wi-fi,chrome covering on every free hoverboard and a Moonbucks…with over 70 sizes of coffees.

Canterlot, 1000 years after the return of Princess Luna from the abyss of Nightmare Moon.

This reminds me of Kagutsuchi from Blazblue.  

Nice

@Nightweaver20xx  
I prefer to think Canterlot was just a small village and it expanded after Luna was Spaced.

@Nightweaver20xx  
that’s what i meant by retreat(or am i misusing it?)

@Hypastpist  
I think she did it because she couldn’t bear to live in the castle where she and her sister had ruled. It was simply too traumatic, filled with too many memories.

@Nightweaver20xx  
or maybe she carved it out as a retreat to get away after banishing her sister(i forgot canterlot castle was built AFTER NNM incident)
 
her subjects just found her and built canterlot castle

@Hypastpist  
I always thought that Celly carved the entire city out of the mountainside with her magic a milennium ago after she left the Castle of the Two Sisters after she banished Luna.

Headcanon: before canterlot was built and the princesses put on the throne, celly and luna, lived up there in a small cottage where they raised and lowered their respective celestial bodies undisturbed for unknown amount of time until they were discovered by a group of explorers who found out about their special talents
 
eventually a religion then a cathedral soon followed, not very long after Canterlot castle

This city was intelligently designed ,you pull into canterlot station where you take the walkway up,observing the beauty of the cities majestic waterfalls until you reach the grand plaza,there lies the market district where foods,goods and wonders from all across Equis are brought by airship into the docking ports below to be stored in warehouses till there are needed . At the balconies you see the great floating pegisi city Cloudsdale and near the summit ou see the quant village of ponyville . soon you will enter the royal gardens to meet the other dignitaries for your summons with the diarchy but afterward perhaps you will visit the towers of the institute of equestrian science and technology to see what great advances the finest minds in the sovereign kingdom of Equestria have created .But first You need to find your royal apartment ,you believe it was near the Cathedral of light.If you have free time you might that company that gives tour guide of the inside of canterlot mountain ,your cousin told you about it and you always try to-GLORRRP … hmmm looks like your hungry ,you didn’t eat on the train….you see a donut shop”ponyJoes” best doughnuts in Equestria…well you haven’t had a donut since that bake off in fillydelphia you muse as you hear the bell above his door ring as you go inside.

Oh look at that,you can see cloudsdale and pony vill on the left,this artist made a masterpiece

@SeraphimDawn  
Ah, that game. Good times.

This fits my SciencePon fics so well! It even has the layers!