Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

By the time Sunny makes it down to the first floor to retrieve her pack, she is already buzzing with anxious energy. Her satchel lies open on the hard marble floor, the contents of which are strewn about. Her collected knickknacks and notebook pages are scattered everywhere.

“No, no, no, no!” She says as she approaches them.

She reaches down and picks up the radio. The plastic casing is cracked and the speaker is hanging on a thin pair of wires. She desperately tries to turn it on, but the sound of static never comes.

“Ugh!” She says and tosses it to the floor in frustration.

You catch up to her, and look around awkwardly to make sure you aren’t being spied on by another pair of eyes.

Sunny quickly scoops up the contents of her satchel and throws it back inside. She then throws her bag over her shoulder loosely and looks up at you.

“Well, no time to waste. Let’s go find them!” She says.

“Alright, but wait-” You say, but she is already galloping past you.

You turn and run after her, your shoes slap against the hard floor as you follow the swift beat of her hooves.

She makes it back to the crevice. The roar of the waterfall bears down upon you, and you feel it mist your skin as you approach.

Without hesitating, Sunny grabs the rope and swings back to the other side.

She lands and turns back to you with a determined gaze.

You step up to the edge and look at her. “Maybe I should stay here!” You say, thinking of guarding the creature in case it tries to get away.

“Anon.” Sunny says in an tone that tells you she’s serious.

You sigh, shake your head and then reluctantly extend both hands.

Sunny throws the rope to you. You catch it.

Your legs are tense. You grip the rope tight. Something about all this makes you feel really uneasy inside. You’re not sure if it’s the hostile creature or the fact that there’s now guns in Equestria, but for a moment you second-guess yourself.

You push off and swing on the rope, but you didn’t get as much momentum as you thought. You’re going to come up short! At the last moment, you extend your leg and the toe of your shoe taps onto the floor on the other side.

“S-shit!” You say. You press down with all of the weight you can possibly muster on your foot to try and anchor yourself. Your body threatens to twist and turn, and your arms shake from the strain.

Sunny rushes up to you. “Wait, Anon! Hold on!” She says.

She extends a forehoof towards you. “Okay. Stay calm.” She says. “Just slowly grab onto my hoof and- AH!”

Sunny shouts as the ground beneath her other hoof suddenly gives way. She steps back quickly, and the chunk of ground you were planted on crumbles down into the ravine. You feel the tug of gravity in your gut as your body is swung back to the other side. Your body spins around in a disorienting manner.

Somehow you manage to keep hold of the rope. You swing like a pendulum, slowly coming to a stop in the middle of the ravine.

You turn to Sunny with a look of helplessness on your face. The sides of the ravine are now too far to reach, and you have white water churning below you.

Sunny looks at you. Her eyes are wide and alert, but she looks decisive.

“Anon. Can you climb up?” She says.

You look up at the twenty feet of rope above you to the thick metal pole. It doesn’t look like you can reach the second floor walkway even if you did climb up there.

“I... I don’t know.” You say.

“Okay. You just need to lower yourself into the water then.” Sunny says calmly.

You look down. It’s not that far. It would only be a four foot drop if you shimmied all the way down the rope.

“A-alright.” You say.

Carefully you go down the rope, loosening your grip little by little. You get to the end, and your shoes dangle over the water. You let go and fall to the wet concrete. The rocks under the water shift a bit, but you keep your balance. You are soaked up to your knees now.

You look up to see Sunny staring down at you. “Stay there!” She yells over the din of the falls. “I’ll have Izzy get you out!”

With that, she turns and starts to gallop away.

You shiver and try to make your way towards the shallower water that spills into the basement of the mall. You have to plant every footfall very intently on the wobbly concrete rubble, but you make it over without falling or twisting your ankle.

You make it to the threshold of the cavernous interior. The insides of the basement are pitch black, and all you can see is a few thick support pillars before the inky darkness extends into nothing. The resonating sound of the water makes it seem quite vast.

You feel around for your flashlight and find it in your front pocket. You hold it up and click on the light.

You see a widened corridor leading south. The walls are solid concrete, and there’s streaking brown stains on the wall from where the water rose up higher in the past.

There are no signs of movement among the many support pillars.

You lean against the earthen wall behind you, letting out a sigh. You turn out your light and cross your arms tight to your chest to try and keep your warmth.

You really hope they’re all okay.

Five minutes go by.

Ten minutes go by.

Then fifteen.

You start to pretty chilly. You notice the sun has now shifted out of view beyond the overhead skylights. Your feet feel sore and practically frozen. At this rate you’ll die of hypothermia.

Fuck this.

You turn on your flashlight again and check the basement. Still nothing there, but you confirm the water is indeed flowing through the tunnel to the south.

You take the flashlight in one hand and pull out the revolver in the other. You then trudge forward, stepping into shallower water and the dark cave of the mall’s forgotten lower level.

You are Sunny. You are galloping as fast as you can to the courtyard.

You don’t stop when you get to the entrance covered in vines. You close your eyes and leap through.

You land and keep going, shaking a few leaves out of your mane.

You weave your way between the thorn bushes and jump over a fallen tree.

The stream is up ahead. Then you’ll be in the center, right under the ship. Izzy and Pipp should still be there.

You leap over the gap and stand on the raised ridge. You spy the cargo elevator sitting motionless in the grass. There’s nopony around it, just a heap of stuff they found.

“Pipp? Izzy?” You call out.

There’s no response.

You look around carefully. You walk forward. They should be here if the elevator is down. Where did they wander off to?

Then you hear the scream. It’s loud and shrill. Pipp!

You whip your head over to the bushes near the eastern side. Your body tenses. Your hooves dig into the dirt, ready to spring forward.

There’s so much rustling, but you don’t see a thing.

“Pipp!” You shout.

“Sunny!” She shouts out. “Help!”

You then hear a zap. There’s a flash of pink magic behind some trees to the right. Izzy!

“S-stay away! I don’t want to play with you!” You hear Izzy say.

You look both ways, unsure who to run to first.

Just... JUST MOVE!

You command your hooves to run. You run towards Izzy. You feel your eyes start to tear up in regret instantly. No time to think! Just go!

You make it to trees, only to see Izzy being restrained in the arms of a creature you’ve never seen or heard about before. Izzy is struggling but her hooves can’t touch the ground.

“Hey!” You shout in the must intimidating voice you can muster. “Let her go!”

The creature looks at you and growls.

You feel a shiver run down the length of your body, all the way to your tail.

You stammer a bit. “L-listen! We’re sorry if we’re trespassing but please don’t-”

“What are ya gonna do about it, pony?” You hear a voice behind you say. It’s low and angry. It’s so sudden it makes you gasp.

You turn to see Zipp standing by the feet of another creature. There’s ropes pinning down her wings. Your eyes widen with terror. You try to talk, but no words will come.

You are Anon. You are alone.

You go quietly but purposefully through the flooded corridors in the underbelly of the mall, seeking out the hallways and opened doors that seem the most promising.

Most of the doors are essentially fused to their frames with a thick layer of rust, but some of them have caved inward or fallen from their hinges. Unfortunately, none of them contain stairs leading up.

The halls grew quiet as you get further from the waterfall. The water starts to get stagnant and murky, and you nearly lose your shoes in some mud. The only sounds are the occasional drip from the ceiling or the thin trickles of water that spring out from the cracks in the wall.

You think you see something down one of the side passages. A hint of sunlight that warms the upper walls.

You shine your light down the corridor to see a collapsed section of ceiling at the far end. It forms a ramp leading up to the ground floor.

Hell yes. Now you can finally get out of here.

You start to wade closer, but you notice something that stops you in your tracks.

Ahead of you, illuminated in your flashlight’s beam is what appears to be a pile of moss-covered green rocks. Yet there’s a distinctive shape to the mass of stone. You recognize the shape of an alligator. Then you see the reflective yellow eye.

There’s a god damn cragadile in the middle of the passage!

It’s stretched out length-wise across the passage. It’s body is half-submerged in the opaque water, but you know it has to be at least ten feet long. It’s so incredibly still that if you weren’t paying careful attention, you would have easily trodden right onto it.

For a moment you stare at the beast, keeping your flashlight leveled on its head. You think of the revolver, but you know it probably won’t pierce its tough hide. Plus, you don’t need to fuck with a cragadile right now.

You take a second glance at the glow of sunlight beyond the reptile, and think.

You haven’t ever been close enough to one to know if they’re like the alligators from Earth, but you know that if you don’t mess with them, they usually don’t mess with you.

This thing is big, obviously well-fed from the fish and local fauna around the area, but you figure should be able to just creep up and step over its tail.

You shuffle your feet forward through the muck. Tiny ripples extend out from your legs, disrupting the still waters and lapping at the body of the reptile.

The cragadile does not make a move. It seems to be almost in a trance. Good.

You make it to the tail. You quickly scan the waters nearby and confirm there aren’t any more of them. Thank god.

With the patience of a thousand monks you step over the tail of the beast and start to shuffle towards the ramp.

You realize you’re breathing a bit erratically, unconsciously waiting for some great rush of water and for it to lunge at you, but it never comes.

Your shoes suddenly hit a bit of concrete in the water. With a sigh of relief, you quickly splash out of the shallow water and onto the ramp of the collapsed ceiling.

Your legs feel the relatively dry air of the rainforest as you make it up about half way. With a groan you sit on a patch of moss to take your shoes off.

You wring out your socks one by one. Your feet feel sore and look as wrinkled as prunes, but you are thankful to be out of that basement.

After letting your feet dry a bit, you shine your flashlight up to scan the interior of a store in heavy disrepair. The shelves are all empty and turned onto each other. There’s a multitude of dark green vines snaking along the rafters.

You stand up and walk up the ramp a few more steps. Then you peek up towards the front of the store.

Sure enough, there’s sunlight coming through the windows. It streams in through a screen of hanging plants and vines, but it’s there. You must be somewhere close to the courtyard if your estimations are correct.

You turn off your flashlight and sneak up to the windows. The glass inside them had been shattered a long time ago, but you still plant your feet carefully to avoid anything that looks like it might be sharp.

You crouch next to one of the windows and peek out beyond the vines.

To your front is a collapsed store covered in slabs of broken concrete. To your right, you see a wide open clearing, and the bulkhead of the airship hovering above. The courtyard!

You guess you somehow ended up underneath the collapsed section of the west wing. This store is located right where the wing would have connected to the central area. Pretty lucky!

You look and listen for a moment before moving.

There’s nothing. Just the whir of the engines and the occasional call of an exotic bird.

Suddenly, you hear a voice. It’s quite far away, and you can’t pick out the words, but you would recognize that louder-than-necessary volume anywhere. Izzy.

Quickly you make your way back to the ramp. You pull on your damp socks and shoes. You take the revolver in one hand and carefully climb out of the front window. You start to stealthily make your way forward through the overgrown courtyard.