Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

Just as Sunny said, you and the ponies gathered in the main engine room of the ship to power up the engines. Sunny produces the earth pony crystal, Izzy the unicorn crystal, and Zipp the pegasus crystal.

With the interlocking pieces in place in front of her, Sunny lowers her head as if reciting a silent prayer and the other ponies gather around. You watch silently from the sidelines.

“Let’s do this...” Sunny says, raising her head up slowly. “For our homes.”

The warmth of her smile is matched by those of the other ponies, and just as before, the crystals begin to glow.

Soon enough, the reactor is at full capacity and the ship is taking off. You watch from the main deck as Sunny pilots the airship flawlessly, letting it rise up over the tops of the concrete-and-steel structure with ease.

The ship gradually floats over the central courtyard, and from what you can see it appears to be about the size of a small city park.

You feel a bit of hesitation as they lower the ship down slowly into the space. The balloon won’t fit of course, but the hull of the ship will. Zipp hovers in front of the bow and motions with a hoof to help guide Sunny down into position.

Once the main deck is lined up evenly with the roofs of the surrounding buildings, Sunny balances out the buoyancy to put the ship in a neutral float. The craft hovers, suspended weightlessly in the air, and Zipp locates anchor points in the surrounding area to tie up the mooring cables to.

You notice Sunny lock the controls with a gold-colored key that she puts into her side bag. Shortly after, she is leading you and the rest of the ponies down into the cargo hold.

In the section at the very back of the lowest deck, there’s a hatch made from a heavy, hinged metal place. It takes Hitch and Sunny’s combined strength to raise it up and reveal the expanse of empty air below.

You look down. As expected, the courtyard below is overgrown. The tops of deformed, scraggly trees are scattered around the edges haphazardly, and the center has a giant crack running through it from where the earth shifted under the foundation. The area directly below the hatch seems to be clear save for some tall grass and exotic, broad-leaf plants.

“Alright, let’s get the elevator going.” Sunny says happily. She goes over to a dusty panel near the back wall and wipes off the controls with her fetlock.

“Stand back, everyone.” Hitch says. You and the other ponies move back from the hole.

Sunny flips a switch. A green light appears on the controls, and she pushes a button. A large metal bin with a mesh bottom descends from the ceiling, connected to a winch above. A spinning orange light blinks on, and a beeping alarm tone sounds off repeatedly.

Sunny lets the cargo elevator descend a bit through the gap in the floor before letting go of the button.

“Alright! Team one: Izzy and Pipp. Go ahead!” Sunny says.

“Yeah!” Izzy says as she leaps into the cargo elevator. She lands with a clatter of hooves and the bin sways ominously, but she doesn’t mind at all. Pipp gracefully flutters down to join her as Sunny hits the button to descend again.

Izzy holds onto the support cable with a foreleg and spins around carelessly on her back legs, singing a gleeful tune. The bin sways a bit, but the heavy steel cable holds them mostly steady. Once the bin hits the courtyard, the winch automatically turns off.

Izzy hops out and looks around with a hoof over her eyes. Pipp carefully steps out to follow her.

Sunny picks up her radio and turns it on. “How’s it looking down there?” She says.

A second later the radio static is interrupted by Izzy’s voice. “All clear, Sunny! Send the next team down!” She says.

Sunny perks her ears up and hits the button to raise the elevator again.

You and Sunny load into the elevator next. Zipp works the controls to lower you both down. You sit cross-legged and you try not to lean into her as the container swings slightly.

The air in the courtyard feels a bit humid and warm. It’s not just the morning dew being evaporated by the rising sun. You pick up the sound of moving water coming from somewhere in the distance.

The bed of the cargo elevator flattens out the tall grass below, and you and Sunny carefully step out of it.

Sunny gives the all clear, and Hitch comes down next. Zipp works the controls to lower him before flying down herself.

“Alright!” Sunny says to the group. “The west wing and northeast wings are both collapsed, so that means we only have three to search. Try not to get distracted, alright?”

“Remember, we’re looking for clue to Equestria’s past. Bring it all here and put it in the bin.” She says, pointing towards the bed of the cargo elevator.

“Team one, you’ll be taking the entryway wing on the east side.” She points a hoof over towards the multi-level plaza that you partially explored last night. “Be sure to check the stores on the higher levels, alright?”

Izzy salutes her captain. “Yes ma’am!” She says, puffing out her chest to look more important. Pipp giggles and salutes towards Sunny.

Sunny turns to Hitch and Zipp, who are somewhat awkwardly standing near each other. “Team three, you’ll be taking the southern wing and rotunda. Looks like there might have been a food court in there, but under no circumstances should you eat anything, okay?”

“Don’t eat the food that’s hundreds of moons old. Got it.” Hitch says with a disinterested expression. “We’ll try.” Zipp says with a smirk and nudges Hitch.

“Anon and I will take the northwest wing.” Sunny says. “Remember, stick with your partner and let me know if you run into any problems. Any at all, okay?”

Sunny grins and looks around at the other four ponies. They all nod.

“Alright! Let’s go!” Sunny exclaims.

You and Sunny make your way towards the northern section of the courtyard, slowly navigating through thick brush and vegetation. The area is slanted slightly against you, and you have to make sure you keep your footing on the spongy, lime-green moss.

This open area is alive with the sound of birdsong, but you don’t recognize any of their calls. There’s strangely opalescent flies that buzz in the air when you accidentally shake them off their perches. Your skin already feels a bit damp from the humidity.

You both make it to the center of the courtyard, and you hear the flow of a small stream.

Sunny stands at the ridge of a small gap, eyeing it carefully. It’s only about two feet wide, so she can jump it easily. She seems to be watching the flow of the water.

She looks back at you. “Watch your step. It’s flowing from where we’re headed.”

She hops down to a chunk of exposed concrete on the other side.

You carefully step over the gap and then follow her further northwest. The clearing here is flat and wide. Overgrown planters are filled with a mishmash of common flora and exotic plants. You think you also see stone benches, but they are so choked with greenery it’s hard to tell.

Sunny makes it to the northwest passage into the mall proper with you in tow behind her. A screen of vines and scraggly trees veils the entrance to the mall’s cavernous interior. The darkness inside is broken up with pockets of light that creep in through holes in the roof.

Sunny sits down and looks back at her saddlebag. This time she carries an olive colored double-bag along with her typical teal satchel. She’s got a length of hempen rope strapped to the side.

She pulls out her flashlight and clips it onto the shoulder strap of her satchel. She also pulls out her phone and quickly checks the time.

“Alright, you ready, Anon?” She says, turning back to you.

“As ready as I’ll ever be...” You say.

“We’ll start on the lower level first, like before.”

“Alright.”

She clicks on her flashlight, then walks up the short flight of stone steps. She swipes at the vegetation with her hoof to make a gap. You sigh, turn on your flashlight and follow her into the passage.

Immediately you notice the entire wing is lush with hanging plants and vines. They cascade from the railings on the upper floors and have a wide range of colorful flowers and berries attached to them. The light and moisture here is plentiful, and the sound of rushing water is definitely coming from this direction.

You and Sunny began walking along the first floor to see every store sequentially. This wing seems to have been designed so that window shoppers can ping-pong their way between both sides as they browse.

The first shop appeared to be a clothing store for female creatures. The dresses and gowns on display were all decayed and weathered. There were some sized for mares, but they were hardly recognizable as clothing.

Sunny checked the back rooms and the counter, but didn’t find anything worthwhile.

The next shop was a shoe store. Again, Sunny scrounged through the back while you paced around the shelves aimlessly.

She walked out and seemed a bit disappointed. She then sat down and radioed the other teams for the half-hour check in.

Izzy and Pipp radioed back saying that they already found some interesting stuff they were working to haul back to the courtyard. Hitch and Zipp reported that they hadn’t had any luck yet.

Sunny put her radio back in her saddlebag and you continued on.

The next shop in your wing was a sporting goods store. Sunny was initially intrigued, but then quickly disappointed as she noticed half of the ceiling was collapsed. Thick sections of concrete had crushed half the merchandise, and a thin trickle of water was running from the hole in the ceiling.

Sunny sighed and started walking around the store. You looked around at the metal racks and casually scanned around with your flashlight.

The shelves were mostly empty save for deflated balls, rusting bicycle frames and trampolines. You were about to give up, but you spotted an aluminum metal baseball bat wedged at the bottom of the back shelves. You dusted off the filth and picked it up.

It was sized for little fillies and colts, but with the right amount of force, it could still brain something pretty good. Hm.

You swung it around a few times. Sunny then came around the corner into your aisle, dragging something with her hooves.

“Hey Anon~!” Sunny says in a sing-song voice. You look over at her. She’s dragging what looks like a large nylon bag in her teeth.

She drops it and turns your way.

“I found- Oh!” She says. “I, uh... found a bag I think might fit you, but, what’s the bat for?”

You slap the bat into your other hand. “Oh, you know. Just a little assurance.” You smile.

Sunny shakes her head. “Anon, that’s not why we’re here. If we encounter anycreature that would want to hurt us, we’re not going to try to attack them.”

“Hey, you have hooves that can break bones. I’m not so lucky. It’s better to have it than not.” You say.

Sunny sighs. “Well okay. Sure. If it makes you feel better.” She says. “Just look at this.”

She hooks her hoof under the strap and lifts up the bag to you.

You take the bag and shake it out. It’s a faded black duffel bag that seems like it’d be home on a minotaur’s shoulder. There’s a small tag with a three-headed cerberus logo stitched into it.

You unzip it and put your bat inside. You throw it around your shoulder and tighten up the strap as far as it can go.

“Alright. Seems to work pretty well.” You say.

Sunny grins. “I also found some shirts that might fit you. They’re still in the plastic too!”

“Huh.” You say. “Sure, show me. Wouldn’t hurt I guess.”

Sunny shows you to the shirts she found. Plain gray t-shirts still in the packaging. They’re a size larger than you, but they’d still fit alright. You rip them out of the spongy plastic and put them in your bag, laying them loosely underneath the bat.

You both walk out of the shop after that. The next store over is closed with a heavy shutter, but Sunny doesn’t try to pry it open.

That sound of rushing water has intensified quite a bit, and you now see the source. About several yards ahead of Sunny, there is a huge split in the marble floor. The split runs up the western wall, and the sunlight illuminates a glittering white waterfall that pours out from the crack. It originates from some large, grassy hill that has pressed up against the side of the building.

Sunny carefully steps forward, testing the floor for signs of weakness in its spiderweb of cracks.

You follow in her hoofsteps as she leans over the side of the crevice and looks down.

“Well, this is a bit of an obstacle, huh?!” She shouts over the din of the waterfall.

Her gaze follows the stream of water as it flows beneath the nearby shops to the darkened basement of the complex. Time and erosion have worn at the concrete supports so much that the inner rebar is laid bare. Chunks of broken concrete lay half-submerged in the rushing white water.

“Looks too far to jump, Sunny.” You say loudly.

“I know! Let’s just swing over it instead!” She says.

“Swing over it? What?!” You ask.

“Yeah!” She says. “Look at that pole right there!”

She points a hoof towards a metal pole jutting out from the second floor walkway. It looks like it was once used to hold a banner or something.

You want to protest, but Sunny is already unstrapping the coil of rope from her pack. She also takes out what looks to be a metal hook out of her bag. She seems very eager as she ties the hook to the rope with a quick, sturdy knot

She steps over towards the side of the hall away from the waterfall to line herself up with the length of metal sticking into the air. You step back a bit to give her some space.

With a practiced motion, she grips the rope tightly in her teeth and tilts her head, letting the grappling hook dangle. She then begins to swing the hook in a circle quickly, letting it build momentum.

Her determined gaze is affixed to her target. With a flick of her muzzle, she casts the hook into the air, and it soars out towards the pole.

The rope coils around the pole a few times, and the hook catches onto the metal with one of its barbs.

Sunny tugs on the rope with both hooves. Once she feels that the connection is secure, she looks at you with a confident smile.

“Well?” She says. “You want to go first?”

You shake your head. “Are you-”

“Suit yourself!” Sunny says. She then dashes forward and takes a running leap, holding onto the rope in her teeth,

She swings in a smooth arc. Her hind legs grip the rope as well. There’s a strange elegance to the way she rotates slightly in the air before she lets go and lands on all four hooves.

She gives you a look as if she expecting some impressed comment from you. You don’t give one. Clearly she’s practiced this.

You move to the edge of the crevice and glance down. It’s a good twelve or so feet to the other side with nothing but rushing white water below. You try to shake off the uneasy look on your face and you extend your hand out.

“Come on, Anon. It’s not that far.” Sunny says.

Sunny throws the end of the rope back over to your side. You catch it. You grip it tightly with both hands and yank on the pole again just to make sure it holds.

It’s solid.

You edge your feet close to the precipice and take a short breath. Here goes nothing.

You leap. Your legs clasp tight on the rope along with your hands. You hear the strain of the rope’s fibers tightening as your momentum carries your body across the gap.

You let go and stumble a bit as your feet hit the other side. You wobble your arms a bit to keep your balance, but you don’t fall.

“Hey!” Sunny says cheerfully. “Nice job!”

She stomps her hoof in applause a few times.

You’d be lying if you said that wasn’t a bit exhilarating. You smile at the compliment and hand the rope to Sunny.

She takes it and traps the end underneath a chunk of concrete debris.

“We’ll unhook it once we get up to the second floor.” She says.

She then turns to look at the the vast number of stores in front of her hidden among the vines and the dewy grass. Streams of light pour down from skylights and broken sections of roof.

For the next hour or so, you and Sunny continued working your way through the lower level. You don’t know how many different clothing stores you saw, but it really started to wear on you after a while. Tediously combing through the ruins of this place is going to take a lot longer than just the afternoon at the rate she’s going...

More and more damaged stores started showing up the further you went it. The ground became uneven in many places, and the walls were sometimes dented inward from encroaching terrain. There were no signs of anything about to immediately collapse, but you made sure to tread very carefully.

The third to last shop turned out to be a novelty joke shop.

You scrounged through crates of rotting plastic junk along with Sunny, hoping to find at least some reference to Pinkie Pie or even Cheese Sandwich. All you turned up with in the end was a collection of plastic gag crap.

You groan and lean your head back, then rub your neck. You slap down the lid to the crate and lean back against the end of a rack.

Sunny glances your way for a moment, noticing your discomfort. She leans back from her crate for a moment, then smiles a bit.

“Hey Anon.” She says. “Check this out.”

She grabs something quickly and turns away from you, sitting on her haunches. You hear her tear open some plastic. Then the sounds of a balloon being inflated, and the sounds of a balloon quickly being twisted and turned in quick succession.

She turns back and grins wide. She extends a hoof, and perched on top of it is a little, sky-blue balloon animal. It looks bipedal with a snout and a tail.

“Heh. H-here you go!” She says nervously.

You snort and shake your head. “What’s that supposed to be?”

“It’s a dragon!” Sunny says, showing a slight grin.

“I, uh, okay? I mean I get the grapple hook, but...” You say. You gesture your hand at the balloon. “Where the fuck did you learn that?”

“Uh...” Sunny says. Her cheeks redden with embarrassment. She places her creation on the floor and looks down.

She rubs a hoof over her forelegs and says in a very quiet voice, “I worked as... a clown for a summer.”

You laugh. “Haha, no way, really?”

Sunny nods, she avoids looking at you and her cheeks flush harder.

“It’s not the worst job I ever had.” She says, sounding playfully annoyed.

“So was that your day job before you became an explorer, huh? Entertaining kids?”

“No...” Sunny says. “I had been doing my last job for a few years. Back in the Bay, I mean.”

She clears her throat and looks up at you.

“Last job I had before all this was working as a smoothie delivery mare.”

“Really, huh?” You say. You imagine Sunny pulling along an ice cream cart through the streets of the city. “Did you like it?”

“Well, yeah. It was a pretty alright job. It paid the bills, and I liked making smoothies and handing them to our customers.” She shrugs and flattens out her mouth. “And well, that’s about it, really...”

You see a distant sort of look in her eyes, like she’s recalling all those times when she was stuck behind a counter with a bitchy customer, or working overtime pulling a cart up and down the same streets again and again. The entire time she must have secretly wished to venture far beyond the distant streets, and well, now she’s here.

A dream come true. At least for her.

“Bet you never thought you’d make it this far from your village, huh, ‘Captain Starscout?’” You say, sarcastically adding finger quotes for emphasis.

“You know, I think about that sometimes...” She says with a sigh. “It was pretty lucky everything came together like it did. I wouldn’t even be out here if not for the friends I made.”

She laughs a little and smiles.

“It all happened so quick. And now I’m out here, finally doing what I always dreamed of...” She says.

“Hm...” You say.

“So uh, how about we take a break, huh?” Sunny says.

She slips her phone out of her saddlebag and checks the time. The screen lights up her face with a blue glow in the dimly lit space.

She then pulls her radio off her shoulder and turns up the volume.

“Team one and three come in. Over.” She says into the walkie-talkie.

The soft crackle of static fills the air for a few seconds before the response comes.

“Hey Sunny!” Izzy says through the radio. “We’ve got so much cool stuff! I can’t wait to show you!”

Sunny skews her ears a bit to the side and smiles. She depresses the button to talk again. “That’s great, Izzy. How’s Pipp?”

“Oh, she’s doing fine! We found a massage chair!” She says.

Sunny tilts her head a bit. “Wait, really?” She says.

“Yeah! We’re trying to get it to work with the ship!” Izzy responds.

Sunny snorts and shakes her head a little. “Okay, well I was just about to take a break here, too. Get some lunch while you’re up there, okay?”

“Roger that, captain!” Izzy says cheerfully.

The sound of static persists for a bit as Sunny waits for a response from the other team.

“Hitch? Zipp? What’s your status? Over.” She says.

There’s no response.

Sunny glances up at you with a bit of unease on her face. She tries again.

“Team three, come in. Do you copy? Over.” She says.

There’s another pause. Finally the radio crackles and Zipp’s voice comes through.

“Uh, h-hey Sunny! I read you.” Zipp says.

“What’s your status?” Sunny replies.

“We’re doing fine!” Zipp says. “We found some things... uh, nothing too interesting though.”

“Alright.” Sunny says. She lowers the radio for a moment, but then changes her mind. “Any problems so far?” She asks.

“Uh... Nope not really.” Zipp says.

There’s a somewhat awkward pause.

“Hitch, uh... we found an abandoned pet shop.” Zipp says quietly.

“Oh.” Sunny says, dropping her ears. “Okay, well, we’re about to take a break for lunch, why don’t you guys do the same?”

“Sounds good, Sunny. Team three out.” Zipp responds.

With that, Sunny slips the radio back into her saddlebag.

You feel a bit of relief at the promise of rest and food. You slowly stand up and put your hands in your pockets. You look at Sunny expectantly.

Sunny flashes a reassuring smile. “I hope you like cucumber and carrot sandwiches.”

“Eh, not my first choice.” You say. “But that’s fine.”