Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

You are Sunny Starscout.

You’re resting your head against your forelegs on the small desk at the corner of the bridge. You have one ear perked up towards the pressure gauge, and you have a nice cool smoothie next to your muzzle.

You didn’t think this part of Equestria would be so... muggy. It’s already getting hot and it’s only mid-morning.

You let out a prolonged breath. Your neck and head relax along the slant of the desk.

With a sudden ping, the hissing sound coming from the pipes below the gauge stops.

You slowly lift your eyelids open and glance towards the dial. The needle is all the way at the bottom, pointing at zero.

Perfect.

You slide off the desk and lean towards the dial, tapping it with a hoof.

You didn’t expect it to take this long, but the engines are finally cleared. You’ll have to ask Zipp about that again...

Still it was pretty cute seeing them all passed out in their bunks when you got up bright and early.

You smile to yourself and think about how much fun they had hanging out together. You feel a little regretful that you couldn’t be there with them, but you had a duty to catalog what you found and draw up the plans for today.

Your crew needs their captain, after all...

You sigh and take a long gulp of your smoothie.

Whew, alright. Time to lay everything out and go through it one more time, just to be sure. Then you’ll wake up the others and run them all through it. No problem!

You grab your saddlebag and start tucking the rolled up maps underneath the strap.

Sure, Anon will probably complain about it and try to ask if he can just stay on the ship. You know he’s going to. But hey, he’ll probably be paired with Izzy, so what’s the big deal? He’ll manage. Plus, your crew has your back. You got this.

You turn and march out towards the deck with determined steps. Your head held high, you remind yourself of all the progress you’ve made so far with confident resolve.

This plan is gonna be great!

You are Anon.

You are dozing in the large bed in your cabin, your mind still in that hazy state between waking and sleep.

You’re so comfortable right now. You remember the bed was cold when you got in, but now it’s so cozy and warm. The thick duvet traps in the heat well, and this fuzzy pillow you’re holding onto certainly helps a lot.

Wait... did your room have a fuzzy pillow in it?

Your eyes pop open. The cabin is lit up from the bright morning sky outside the windows. There’s a lump in the covers right in front of you. A stream of blue hair is spilling out from the top.

You slowly retract your arms from the sleeping form of Izzy, and the feeling of comfort turns sour in your gut.

Izzy stirs. She lifts her head up and lets out a big yawn.

She brushes her mane back over her shoulder and then cranes her neck to look at you. You’re glowering at her.

“Good morning Ano-aah!!” She says before you promptly push her off the bed with your hands and feet.

She topples out and lands on her back, her hooves raised in the air. “Oof!”

You sit up in bed. You were sleeping in only your underwear, and your bare chest is now covered in bits of lavender fur.

“What are you doing, Izzy?” You say with displeasure.

Izzy rolls up to her hooves and stands. Her mane is a frizzy mess of curls.

“I was just cuddling!” She says.

“I don’t remember asking for you to cuddle me!” You say.

“Well sheesh.” Izzy says. “What’s the big deal? You seemed cold! I was pretty cold too, so I thought hey, I’m sure Anon wouldn’t mind a nice- ack!”

She ducks the pillow you throw at her head.

“You indecent wench! Begone!” You say.

Izzy lets out a sharp, prolonged gasp and slowly lifts her head up.

She looks at you incredulously. Her mouth twists into a snarl. She starts to say, “Why I-”

Suddenly stomps a hoof and glances away. “You know what, Anon? Fine. Hmph!”

She starts walking away with her snout lifted up in the air. She moves around the foot of your bed towards the cabin door.

She stops before she gets there and whirls her head around.

“But you just lost pants privileges. I’m taking these!” She says abruptly. Her horn glows and both of your pairs of pants levitates up into the air with a fuchsia glow. She smirks at you.

“Don’t you dare!” You say.

You throw off the covers and leap off the bed. Izzy immediately dashes to the door and kicks it open with a hoof.

“Izzy!!” You shout, but she’s already gone, giggling as she runs down the hallway.

You quickly grab your shirt from the dresser and pull it over your head, then run after her.

Izzy bolts up the stairs, taking them three at a time. You hurry after her, your bare feet slapping against the metal steps. She makes it to the landing at the top and barrels into the door to the main deck. You’re only a few steps behind her as she runs out into the open.

Sunny is there, sitting further down the deck. Her eyes open very wide as she sees you stumble out, accidentally hit your toe on the doorjam and faceplant onto the deck.

Izzy spins around, her mouth wide with mirthful glee as she laughs the hardest you’ve seen her laugh yet.

You slowly rise on your forearms and leer at Izzy as your cheek stings with pain.

Her horn stops glowing and the levitation spell ends. She tosses your clothes casually on top of your head and continues to laugh.

You peel your pants off your face and move up to your knees, grunting with pain.

By the time you’re standing, Sunny is walking over.

“My my, you two.” She says, grinning. “I’d say you’re getting along pretty well.”

She stops a few yards away. She tilts back her cup of smoothie and smacks her lips loudly afterwards.

“She cuddle raped me and then stole my pants for absolutely no reason.” You say, pointing at Izzy. “Why don’t you keep your first mate in line, Sunny?!”

Sunny just giggles. You angrily stand and hold your pants in front of your lower body.

“Pff... It’s okay, Anon! You don’t need pants any way!” Izzy says, trying to catch her breath. “Your legs have plenty of fur on them!”

You realize your cheeks are flushed. Sunny quirks an eyebrow at you.

“Back to your cabin, sailor. Go get dressed.” She says cooly.

“Alright, but for today, keep her away from me.” You point accusingly at the violator of personal space.

“Meanie!” Izzy says, sticking out her tongue.

Sunny shakes her head and chuckles.

“Alright then...”

You retreated back to your suite to dress yourself properly. You stayed there until you heard the rest of the ponies getting up, and only then did you venture back out to the main deck.

With the rest of the crew roused from their slumber, Sunny laid out a series of sketched diagrams she had made of the mall on the deck. She then started to give a briefing for today’s agenda.

“Alright, team!” She says with a bright smile. “Today, we’re going to be finishing up our search of the mall. But don’t worry. I have a plan that will make sure we get every single last piece of research in there, and do it all... three times as fast!”

She taps a hoof on her diagram of the area surrounding the mall. It lands near the airship’s current position.

“First, we’re going to all work together to power up the reactor.” She says.

“Then, we’ll fly the airship over to the main courtyard of the mall’s structure.” She traces a hoof over to the square patch of open space near the central part of the building.

“We’ll anchor there. After that, we’ll all break up into groups of two and search each one of the remaining wings of the mall. Each pair will pick up anything that might give clues to Equestria’s history.”

She taps her hooves together as she lists off her requests. “Movies, books, video games, posters, post cards, phones, computers, laptops. Anything you can find!”

She leans forward and smacks the courtyard on the diagram again. “Then we bring it all back where we started.”

She looks back up at the group. “Last but not least, we’ll hoist up the cargo into the cargo hold and be on our way.”

She grins as she leans up tall. “I expect we’ll be done by the afternoon. Are there any questions?”

She glances around at each of you, sitting in a semicircle on the other side of her folded-out maps.

Hitch raises a hoof. “Uh, how are we going to communicate if we all break into pairs? What if something happens?”

Sunny smiles. “I’m glad you asked, Hitch.” She says. “First off, each group will be given one of these.”

Sunny pulls out three plastic walkie-talkies out of a bag on the floor. She slides them across the deck over to you all. They’re black with red trim, and seem to be toys made for colts.

“I picked them up in the toy shop when we were looking around. Pretty useful, right?” She says.

Hitch picks up one of the walkie-talkies and looks at it. He twists the knob on the top, and the sound of static crackles forth.

“Huh. Well, it seems to work.” He says.

Sunny nods once. “Yep, they all have rechargeable batteries. I already charged them up and tested them out last night. Pretty useful, right?” She says.

“Still, in the interest of safety, try not to wander too far. The radio signals have a limited range. Also, we’ll be doing check-ins every half-hour. Be sure to report in right away if anything happens, okay?”

She looks around at all of the ponies and you.

“If your group misses a check-in, head immediately back to the courtyard. The other groups will also head there and we’ll immediately organize a search party if anyone’s still missing.”

Well damn, she seems to have this planned out pretty well. Perhaps you weren’t giving her enough credit before...

Pipp pipes up, “Soo... what will the teams be?” She asks.

Sunny tilts her head and shrugs a bit. “I think you’re all perfectly capable of figuring that out yourselves.” She says slyly.

Izzy immediately glances at you, furrows her brow and then leans towards the closest pony next to her. “Pipp!” She says. “Be my team member, please?”

You cynically smirk at Izzy. What, is she trying to make you jealous?

Pipp looks at Izzy with surprise for a moment, then she smiles softly. “Of course, Izzy!” She says. They share a friendly hug.

Zipp notices that her sister is already taken as a partner, and glances around at you, Sunny and Hitch.

“Uh...” She says anxiously. She notices Sunny motion her head towards Hitch, who is trying to clip the walkie to his shoulder strap with limited success.

“Hitch, you wanna pair up? Let me help you with that.” She says. She walks over and to assist the sheriff clip the walkie.

“No, no. I got it.” Hitch says.

Oh, wait. Your blood turns to ice as you realize that only leaves you and Sunny. You’ll be alone together in the mall. She slowly looks over at you. Her eyes peer into yours for a prolonged second.

You furrow your brow and start to open your mouth, but she turns back to the group. “Alright, sounds like we have our teams, then!” She says enthusiastically.

Great. Just great.

Pipp grabs one of the walkie-talkies and looks at it along with Izzy. They whisper to each other and giggle. Hitch is adjusting his shoulder strap while holding out a small hand-held mirror out in front of him. He flashes a handsome grin at himself. Zipp momentarily rolls her eyes back.

“Uh, yeah. Is there any chance I can just stay here and watch the ship?” You ask. You take the remaining radio and slide it back towards Sunny.

She stops it with a hoof.

“Yeah, if you want her to die out there.” Pipp says sarcastically.

“You need to be a better friend, Anon.” Izzy says critically. She sticks out her tongue at you and makes a face.

Sunny looks at you and quirks an eyebrow.

“Fine...” You say.