Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

The ground turned to a field of barren gravel. The air became thick with humidity. The humongous crater and its sprawling lake grew closer.

Yet the ominous landscape ahead did not bother you as much as you thought it would. You felt a rising sense of purpose as you walked along with Sunny.

She waited for you both to get a good ways away from the group before she spoke up.

“So... why did Zelina pick you?” She asks while raising up her ears.

“Well...” You say.

You look down as you shove your hands into your front pockets.

“She wants me to kill you the moment we’re out of sight.” You say in a deadpan tone.

Sunny rolls her head back and laughs. “Hah! Yep. That sounds about right.”

“Yeah. She gave me a gun and told me that I’d get a cushy job in her army if I did it.” You say.

“So what’s stopping you, huh?” She asks with a smarmy grin.

“Hey, I’m still mulling it over. I’d be dining on finest cat food in this side of Equestria. It’s pretty tempting.” You say jokingly.

Sunny snorts and shakes her head.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll have to think about it long and hard.” She says.

You feel the revolver in your pocket. It’s weighty for such a small thing.

“So, you want me to throw this thing away?” You say.

Sunny keeps walking in silence for a bit, seemingly focused on the lake ahead.

“Actually. You know what, Anon?” She says as she stops walking and looks up at you.

“You keep it. I’d rather you have a way to defend yourself.” She says.

She keeps walking. You figure she doesn’t care any more. Not after all she’s seen.

Eventually you both find the supposed “outpost” Zelina mentioned. The old building is merely a shack made from rusted sheet metal. You find a garage door on the front of it, and with a bit of straining you manage to pull it open.

The metal shutters roll up, revealing a motorboat. It looks like a crappy aluminum boat, but it’s something at least. The outboard motor looks like it’s seen better days.

“Great.” You say. “Just go through a raging storm on a dinghy. Why not.”

“Can you figure out how to work it?” Sunny asks.

“Probably.” You say. You notice a rusted can of fuel near the far side of the small garage.

Sunny looks around the inside of the shack while you fuel up the motor. It looks like there’s just enough gasoline to fill up the old thing.

As you screw on the fuel cap back into place, you notice Sunny looking at a box on the shelf labeled “contraband.” Among the various mechanical gizmos in the box, there’s a small picture frame. Inside the picture frame is a stylistic rendering of a very familiar six-pointed star.

You sigh and walk over to Sunny.

“Come on, Sunny. The sooner we do this, the better.” You say.

“Right. Sorry, Anon.” She says, shaking her head. “I’m just...”

“Distracted?” You say.

“I feel like there’s something wrong here. I don’t believe for a second that Twilight Sparkle caused this. Do you?”

“I don’t know. Listen, it’s been a long time since I last saw her. We know that much. I’m not sure what she might have gone through or what kind of mare she became.”

Sunny lowers her ears. She thinks for a moment before saying, “It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would my father never mention this if it’s what she’s really known for?”

“Maybe he tried to just focus on the good parts?” You say with a shrug and an awkward smile. “I mean, not all of her decisions were that popular back in the day...”

Sunny sighs.

You notice that there’s some folded, dusty tarps on another shelf. You take one and unfurl it. It seems in alright condition.

“Hey, looks like this could help with the rain.” You say.

Sunny looks at the tarp and nods. “Nice. That will definitely work.”

She walks up to the boat and places a hoof on the side.

“Hm, but you won’t be able to see if you’re under it too.” She says.

You walk up to the boat, folding up the tarp half-way to condense it again.

“I suppose so.” You say. There’s no scaffolding to secure it as a makeshift roof.

She glances to the side and notices something on another shelf and her eyes light up. “Wait! I got it!”

She rushes past you to dig through a pile of old clothing.

Soon you find yourself wearing an oversized rain slicker, boots and rubber gloves as you pull a boat along the rocky beach.

You are tugging it from the front while Sunny pushes from the back. You grip the tongue of the trailer with both hands, glancing behind you occasionally even though there’s never any obstacles in your way. Sunny helps to keep the boat balanced on the trailer as she pushes with both hooves. She’s able to contribute pretty well despite how small she is in comparison.

The outpost is only a few hundred feet away from the shore of the lake, but you and Sunny have to slowly walk the entire way. It feels like ages.

The lake is calm as you arrive. The waves lapping at the gravel-covered beach are hardly noticeable. The roiling clouds in the sky above threaten to disrupt things at any moment, but for the first leg of the journey you’ll avoid the worst of it.

You carefully land the boat in the shallows with the motor raised. The water is murky and has that acidic, sulfur-like smell.

As you help Sunny inside the boat, the sheer scale of the lake comes to the forefront of your mind. It encompasses not only the entirety of the Ponyville township, but also the outlying farmland around the area. It must be at least a dozen miles in diameter.

You climb into the boat and grab an oar to push off into the deeper water. As you grunt and strain, you try to look on the bright side. At least you’re not getting yelled at by a bitchy centaur.

Sunny stands on the bow. She looks directly towards the center of the lake, which is shrouded with a wall of fog, mist and rain.

Once the vessel drifts out into the water, you lower the outboard motor and give it a crank.

It takes a few tries, but eventually the old thing sputters to life. You let out a sigh of relief.

You start to pilot the boat towards the storm, glancing the other way at the retreating shoreline. Sunny scouts ahead at the bow, calling back to you with directions on how to proceed.

You pass the toppled, concrete facades of old building that stick out part-way from the surface. You navigate around twisted towers of gnarled, black rocks.

Then the rain started, as you knew it would. Thick drops made tiny craters in the water at they splashed down. Sunny covered herself in the tarp, and you angled your head down.

“Are you doing alright?” You yell to Sunny over the din of rain.

“I’m doing fine! How about you?” Sunny replies.

“I’m okay but it’s hard to see!” You say. Sheets of rain pelt you as the wind blows in short, erratic bursts. The way ahead is obscured from the sheer amount of rain and mist in the air.

Yet you continue all the same.

The areas where the rain seeped past your clothing started to burn and itch. Your wrists, your ankles and the front of your neck all felt tingly and irritated.

You ignored it. You kept the throttle cranked and silently prayed that you wouldn’t hit a submerged rock.

“Wait!” Sunny says out of nowhere. She spins around under the tarp and lifts up the other side to look at you. It surprises you so much that you let go of the steering handle and the engine sputters out.

“Shit. What? What is it?” You say as you grab the handle again.

“Do you hear that?” She says.

Her eyes are shifting around. Her ears are twitching underneath the tarp.

“Yeah, I hear a lot of rain and thunder!” You say, a bit irritated.

Sunny focuses on a spot towards the starboard side of the boat.

“No... I hear something else. It’s like... a voice or something. It almost sounds like a melody.”

You strain your ears and look around. All you can hear in the rain.

“It’s coming from over there.” Sunny says, motioning with her head.

“I don’t hear anything, Sunny. What are you talking about?” You ask.

“I don’t know, Anon. Just trust me. Let’s go in that direction.” She says.

You grumble but turn back to the motor. You tug at the pull cord, trying to get the thing back to life. You pull it again and again. Then, you start to hear it too.

For a fraction of a second, you recall a memory. A time long ago you would stroll in the fields outside of Ponyville all by yourself. You could sometimes hear a melody whistling through the wild and untamed grasses. There was something about the way the wind moved across the land. Something that shaped it into that graceful, delicate tune. A song sung without a voice.

That melody is here now, but in a different form. Instead of being molded by grass and rolling hills, the wind is shaped by jagged rocks and decayed buildings. There is a deep, melancholic longing to it.

You get a tingle of recognition. This has to be a sign. This will lead you in the right direction.

You give one might tug on the pull cord of the motor, and it immediately snaps off at the handle.

You watch in horror as the pull cord snakes back into the shroud of the motor and disappears.

“Fuck!” You shout.

“What?” Sunny asks, turning to you. “What happened?

You turn and show her the detached handle to the pull cord.

“Guess we have to row now. Dammit.” You say.

Sunny frowns and sighs.

You toss the pull handle to the floor of the boat and pick up one of the oars.

“It won’t be far.” Sunny says, trying to sound hopeful. “Trust me.”

You raise up the motor and put the oars into the handles. You sit backwards in your seat and begin to row.

You keep rowing, stroke after stroke. Your arms begin to burn. You know you don’t have the strength for this sort of thing. You probably won’t be able to make it back to shore.

As you keep pulling with long, strained strokes, the rain actually starts to die down. Then it stops altogether. The ever-present noise of rain gives way to a silence interrupted by distant rumbles of thunder.

Not only that, but it seems... brighter. You put down the oars for a moment and pull back your hood. Sunny peeks out from under the tarp before throwing it off.

You look up to see a column of sunlight coming down through a circular hole in the clouds. The eye of the storm. The center!

Yet as you scan the calm waters around the boat, you do not see any landmarks. Not even any of the jagged rocks are around. You also no longer hear the melody on the wind.

“Well, this looks like this is the center, Sunny. So where do we go from here?” You ask.

Sunny glances around with quick turns of her head. She covers her eyes with a hoof and leans forward.

The boat keeps drifting slowly towards the middle as she looks. Sunny eventually gives up and turns back to you.

“I swear I thought something would be here. There should be a source, right? It all can’t just be coming from nothing!” She says, sounding somewhat exasperated.

You take off your gloves and scratch your chin. You then scratch the itchy parts on your wrists.

“Well.” You say. “You could try... using your magic again? I guess?”

Sunny exhales through her nose. She purses her lips, thinking it over for a moment before taking her bag off her shoulder.

“I suppose it’s worth a shot.” She says as she opens the flap and starts to take out the crystals.

Just as she does so, you hear a deep and resonating thump. It seems to come from the water. A large stream of bubbles flows up from the depths in the center of the lake.

“What the...” You say, staring in disbelief. Sunny notices and looks over at it with you.

There’s a vibration in the water. Below the surface, something is rumbling. Ripples flow out from the middle of the lake. You look to the crystals and notice that there’s a faint spark in each one that pulses in time to some rapid, inaudible beat. It makes an awful, tense feeling rise up in your gut.

You and Sunny both watch in awe as a shape crests the surface of the water. It’s made of purple crystal and has an unmistakable shape: a six-pointed star. It is perched on the turret of a tower that begins to rise up out of the murky, sunken depths. It keeps rising up until it is towering over you. The top is at least sixty feet up in the sky.

No.

“I can’t believe it!” Sunny exclaims. “That’s her symbol!”

She’s leaning off the boat slightly, her eyes are alight with wonder. You lean the other way to balance her out. “Easy, Sunny!” You say.

Sunny leans back. She looks at you

“There’s a landing there!” She says, pointing off the port side. “Can you get to it?”

You notice that there’s a sort of balcony close to the bottom. There’s a staircase running up to it.

You scrunch up your face and shake your head slowly. “I don’t know, Sunny. Do you really think this is a good idea? Why would she build this thing here?” You say.

“Well, yes, but!” Sunny says, her eyes darting around as she quickly thinks. She then slaps a hoof on the gunwale of the boat.

“But we’ve already come this far!” She says, shaking a hoof at you in exasperation. “Come on, Anon. We have to see!”

You rub your aching shoulder. You have some serious doubts about this.

“Fine.” You say.

Sunny sits down and motions with a hoof at you. “Come on, Anon! I’d do it but I don’t have hands! You can do it!”

You take a long, deep sigh and pick up the oars again. You start to row once more, cursing your opposable thumbs.

Sunny keeps looking to the tower with eyes shining in wonder as you approach. She steadies herself on the bow, then picks up a rope in her teeth.

As the staircase draws close, you stop rowing and brace yourself. Sunny leaps over to the staircase and quickly wraps the rope around one of the decorative crystal spires on the small, carved railing.

You carefully reach out and grab onto the staircase as the boat drifts up to it. You pull the boat flush to the staircase from there and step out carefully.

You wait for Sunny to finish tying the knot with her teeth. A rotten feeling turns in your gut, but you are too far past the point of no return.

You and Sunny carefully make your way up to the small landing, making sure to plant your feet and hooves carefully on the crystalline steps. In front of you, there’s two huge, arched double doors that almost seems to be carved out of the mineral itself. There are symbols and decorative lines in them, but no seams that you can see.

There is, however, a circle with a heart symbol etched into the door at about pony height.

Sunny steps forward tentatively. You notice her knees are trembling slightly as she raises a hoof toward the door.

“Go on, Sunny.” You say. “I’m... with you.”

She presses her hoof onto the door. Immediately, the sound of mechanisms click and whir behind it. The door lights up with a glittering array of sparks at the seams. With a sudden jolt they begin to swing inward.

Sunny takes a few steps back as a dark room with a vaulted ceiling is revealed. The inside is unremarkable, but there is a spiral staircase leading down.

“What is this place...?” Sunny asks. Her eyes scan the room, and she seems to have fallen into a daze.

“It’s almost like the top of a castle tower.” You say. “But that would mean the rest of it is under the water. Really deep under the water.”

Sunny stands up straight and nods once. “Well... come on, Anon. Let’s keep going.” She says. She takes a step forward, and with renewed courage and a flick of her mane, she steps into the dark interior.

You follow her, staying a few paces behind. You pull off the soaked rain jacket and gloves and throw them off to the side.

As Sunny puts a hoof on the landing to the stairs, the double doors start to close on their own. They shut tight, and you and Sunny are momentarily thrown into absolute darkness. Then, a series of torch sconces on the walls light themselves with bright pink flames. The sconces line the walls of the staircase as well, and you can see that it goes down for dozens of stories.

“Huh. Well that’s convenient!” Sunny says.

“Yeah.” You reply bluntly.

Sunny carefully descends the stairs, looking around at everything with a whimsical expression. You follow. At least you’re going down the stairs and not up them.