Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

Like some of the coastal cities you knew back on Earth, the mornings of Maretime Bay start covered in a thin blanket of mist that had crept in silently from the sea overnight, shrouding the streets in cold, pale fog.

You stare despondently at the town, hoping to glimpse the shadow of somepony moving in the hazy, yellow cones of the streetlamps. Your body is slumped carelessly against the gunwale at the bow of the ship. Your hands are hanging over the edge.

The light of dawn is barely edging along the horizon. You’re still not sure who is moving it, but damn, you wish they’d hurry the hell up...

The tunic and long-sleeved t-shirt you’re wearing helps protect against the chilly morning air. Zipp managed to get a few clothing essentials for you along with your new suit, but unfortunately, not a jacket.

You cup your hands and blow into them, rubbing your fingers a bit to warm them. You rest your arms on the bow and tuck your hands into your sleeves.

The bulkhead of the ship is rocking almost imperceptibly back and forth on some unseen current of air that ebbs gently from the sea. It’s so much more peaceful up here. Not like that damn “Royal Suite” they threw you in.

You don’t know how they expected you to get any sleep in there. The four-posted, extra king-size bed they put you in was so creaky and ancient, it groaned continuously as the ship swayed. Plus you were pretty sure there was alicorn jizz on it somewhere.

You managed to sleep a few hours, but there’s this pinging vibration in your chest that starts to act up sometimes just as you’re about to drift off.

It’s the anticipation of it all, you guess.

You’ve resigned yourself to your fate. You will gaze upon the crumbling, desiccated tombs of old. You will marvel at the ruins of the once-great cities. Eventually, some more awful shit from the past will crawl out to haunt you.

Just take the blows, Anon... You know they’re coming. This reality still has a lot more in store for you, and that letter sitting in your suit pocket is just the beginning. You have a veritable catacomb of skeletons in your closet just waiting to parade out...

And, let’s not forget, that you’ve been here for less than a month and you have already broken the heart of one mare, and you’re about to do the same again.

You sigh and rub the bridge of your nose.

What the fuck happened?

She runs up to you, knocks your chips out your hand, then pounces on you, yells at you, then she just... kisses you?

What ever happened to not getting tangled up in mares, Anon?

You grumble and lean your head into the crook of your arm. You close your eyes and let your body go limp against the gunwale of the ship.

You guess it was probably the “suspension bridge effect” at work. She seemed really worked up, all galloping through the streets like that. Probably thought you were going to just keep walking straight into the woods or something.

Then, when she found you, she misattributed her frightened feelings for arousal. Yeah, that has to be what happened. She thought you were showing her affection when you held her hooves off your chest.

Oh Sunny, you poor, poor mare...

It was hard not to feel a little sympathetic, honestly. It’s like she was using her one last-ditch effort to convince you. She was trying to say, “hey, don’t give up on me just yet.”

It truly warmed your cockles of your heart. You couldn’t just reject her right then and there. You gave her a hug just to show her she has nothing to be worried about.

That should have been it.

You’re not exactly sure what the nod was about, but you think you came to some sort of understanding...

You’re pretty sure you won’t have to friendzone her as hard as you did to Izzy, at least. She seems to be at least somewhat socially competent. Right?

She already knows you’re going back to Earth the first chance you get. She knows you were already banished once. She’s a smart mare. She’s probably not going to do anything dumb, but then again, it might be nice to try and think up a way to let her down easy, just in case...

“Hey, you’re up early.” A tomboyish voice says from behind you.

Your eyes pop open. You raise your head slowly and look behind you to see Zipp standing on the deck. She’s eyeing you with a calm, curious look as she steps across the length of the bow. She is wearing a sky blue scarf with thin, white stripes around her neck.

“Hey, yeah.” You say. “I, uh, had trouble sleeping.”

You blink your eyes and rub them a few times.

“Everything okay?” Zipp asks, walking over towards you.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” You give her a tiny smile.

Zipp tilts her head and sighs. She walks over to the low wall next to you and leans on it with her silver forehooves.

“You’re anxious. I can tell.” Zipp says. She slowly looks at you and then tilts her head. “It’s okay. I’m anxious too.”

“Oh yeah?” You ask. “What do you have to be anxious about?”

Zipp rolls her eyes, “Oh, I dunno. The ship falling apart, not being able to fix it, being hundreds of miles away from home with no way to contact anyone, accidentally waking up an humongous ancient beast that tries to devour me and my friends.”

She smirks at you. “That sort of thing.”

You shrug your shoulders. “Fair point.” You say.

You look out across the bay to the horizon. Dawn is still teasing the edges of the sky.

“So uh...” Zipp says. “I realize that I kind of... haven’t really gotten to know you very well yet.”

You glance at her. She sighs and quirks one ear to the side.

“What kind of things are you into?” She asks.

Shitposting on the internet. Smoking fat doinks.

“I uh...” You rub your neck. “I used to play video games a lot, back on Earth.”

“Video games, huh?” Zipp says. “You’re into computers, too, right?”

“Yeah.” You say with a small nod.

“Yeah, I could tell.” Zipp says. She smiles and leans forward more, resting her body against the gunwale. “Not a bad idea you had, searching on the web for diamond dog sightings.”

“Yeah, sure.” You say and tilt your head away.

“I mean, uh... despite what happened after that.” Zipp says.

She glances around for a moment. She shivers and puffs her wings a bit due to the cold. You drum your fingers on the bow of the ship absentmindedly.

You take a short breath through your nose. “You know, it’s funny. I never thought I would see a pony society so integrated with technology like your city is... it’s weird.”

Zipp turns her ears towards you and raises an eyebrow. “Hm, why’s that?”

“It’s just something I couldn’t really ever picture before. It reminds me of what it’s like back on Earth too much, I guess. All the smartphones and apps and live streams... it’s almost uncanny.”

Zipp rubs her chin with a hoof for a moment. “Hm, I suppose it would be strange. You lived with ponies in the past, way before we ever had any tech like ours.” Zipp says. “But when we lost our magic for generations... I guess we had no choice but to, you know, innovate?”

She shrugs with her wings. You tap the wall some more.

Zipp glances around. “At least that's my theory." She says somewhat awkwardly.

She suddenly perks up her ears and tilts her head at you. "So wait, you were into computers before you went to Equestria the first time, right?” She asks.

“Well, yeah. Of course. I tried to tell the ponies about them and their uses, but... I dunno. It’s not like I could just build one and show it to them. I couldn’t fabricate fuckin’... microtransitors out of raw silicon.” You say.

“Right, right.” Zipp says, nodding her head.. “And I’m guessing nopony had a magic spell to help you out with that sort of thing.”

“Nope. Not really.” You say.

“Right. Hm.” Zipp says. She thinks for a moment.

“But, now hear me out,” Zipp says, tilting her ears to one side and then showing an astute grin. “What... if somepony did actually listen back then? Hm? Maybe you’re the reason we do have all this stuff now?”

She pokes your shoulder with a primary wing feather. You shake your head and exhale through your nose in disbelief.

“Yeah right. Ponies back then didn’t want the internet or computers. They didn’t need it. They were fine living how they were.” You say, leaning against your arm again. “And honestly, once I got back to Earth, I learned to appreciate that way of living a lot more.”

“Really?” Zipp says, folding her wings in and leaning back. “So did you ever want to, you know, go on the internet and tell everyone you lived on an alien planet with creatures you’d never seen before?”

You shake your head and laugh a bit. “No... there would be no point. I didn't have a way to prove it, and the internet has enough schizos on it already....” You say.

Zipp exhales in a short laugh. She leans off the low wall and shakes her head before turning back to you. “Right, well, that might be one more thing our worlds have in common. After meeting our friend Patrice, that is.”

She starts walking across the deck towards the control room. “Any way, I’m gonna go check some things. I’ll be on the bridge if anyone needs me.” She says.

You lean up and watch her walk down the stairs to the main deck. You turn back to the sea and rub your chin on your arm. You see a small glimmer of light poking out above the rolling waves.

Yeah, you’re pretty sure you didn’t influence the technology that the pegasi have made for themselves. Live streaming and Twitter weren’t really a huge thing back when you left. Not that you would tell any ponies about that if they were.

You kept it to the basics. Word processing. Email. Photos. Better video games. There were a few ponies that were interested, but nothing ever came from it. This new stuff was most likely the result of convergent evolution. Somehow the conditions of Equestrian society grew to match the conditions of the electronic age in your own world. They already had a sort-of industrial revolution going on any way.

You sigh and lean up. You stand and rub your hands together in the chilly wind.

Just another mystery. You’re just glad you’re going out of range of their cell network soon.

You stretch out your back and crack your neck as you stand up.

Ah, shit. You’re a bit too old to be going on adventures like this, Anon...

You quietly shuffle back to the galley of the ship, looking to start boiling water for that cup of tea.

As you make your way through the back halls, you hear the sounds of some shuffling coming from some of the cabins. Some of the other ponies must be starting to wake up now.

You think they expected only servant ponies to be in the small kitchen, because the ceilings are pretty low. Still, it’s not so bad if you kneel down next to the counter.

You take a brass teapot off the shelf and fill it with some water from the tap.

You fiddle with the knobs on the magic-powered stove for a moment, trying to get it to start up, when all of a sudden-

“Good morning, Anon!” Izzy says cheerfully as she tilts her head around the corner.

You jump a little and almost lose your grip on the teapot.

“Oh, are you already making tea? Let me help you with that!”

“I got it, Izzy” You say sternly, but Izzy is already trying to levitate the pot out of your hands.

You reluctantly let it go, and for some reason she tosses it into the air and catches it with her hooves. She sits on her haunches and touches her horn to the teapot. She sticks out her tongue, summoning all the magical energies under her control.

Her horn glows for a moment and then fizzles out. It glows and then fizzles out again.

“Sorry, it does that sometimes.” Izzy says sheepishly.

You facepalm.