Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

You and Izzy ended up wandering around the ship for a while. You found Pipp singing to herself in the lounge area by the galley as she trimmed her hooves with a file. You decided not to bother her.

Hitch seemed bored up in the surveillance room. He lied on his side while he absentmindedly tapped buttons and adjusted the cameras. His vigilance did not waver for nary a second. He seemed to have experience with this sort of thing, probably from late-night stakeouts or something.

Sunny and Zipp were going over the charts on the bridge, comparing them with the landmarks they could spot from the high altitude. They had made a few small adjustments to the map, but did not need to plot another course. The wheel remained locked on its heading, and the ship sailed effortlessly through the sprawling mountain valleys below.

You and Izzy are looking over the starboard side, watching the sprawling forests and hills pass by the ship. There is a crackle of static the intercom turns on, and Hitch says. “I got something. Looks like an old cabin.”

Sunny responds a moment later. “Where’s it at?” She says as she taps the intercom button on the control console.

“Uh, let me see here.” Hitch says into the intercom. “It’s about thirty-five degrees starboard. At the top of that ridge.”

Sunny quickly takes the throttle and powers down the engines. The hum of arcane energy from the stern fades and the ship starts to coast along without power.

Sunny grabs a pair of binoculars that are hanging inside the bridge and throws them over her neck. She rushes out the door over to the side of the ship where you and Izzy are standing, and leans over.

For half a minute she scans the hills far below, her ears tucked back and the binoculars to her face. You and Izzy squint and try to look too. Sunny perks up a bit as she spots it.

“Huh. Well, well.” She says, lowering the binoculars.

Hitch made it down the spiral stairs and trots over to Sunny.

“What do you think, Sunny?” He asks.

“Looks abandoned. The roof is collapsing in.” Sunny says. She holds the pair of lenses out to Hitch so he can take a look and slips the strap off her head.

Hitch takes a look. “Hm, so it is...” He says. You follow Hitch’s gaze and you see the ridge he was describing. Tucked into a rocky outcropping there’s a small brownish-gray abode sitting in the pines. There’s an obvious hole in the roof, and the wood is sun-dried and cracking.

For a moment, you think of your old ranch-style home. Thankfully, this one is on top of a cliff and not underneath it.

“Should we start a descent, Captain?” Zipp yells from the bridge. You glance back to see her standing in front of the helm.

Sunny turns towards her. “No, that’s alright! It’s probably just a vacation home or something. Maintain altitude!”

You scratch your chin. “Hm, I thought you said you didn’t know any ponies that lived out this far, Sunny.” You say.

Sunny looks up at you, her braid snaking around her shoulder. “Anon, I don’t think it’s worth it. It’s probably just an old pony home that got abandoned.”

“Yeah, but what if there’s trinkets down there?” You say, secretly hoping to prolong the journey with this detour.

“No, it's not worth it.” Sunny says, waving a hoof dismissively.

Sunny then walks over towards the bridge. “Turn the throttle up, Zipp! Full steam ahead!” She says in a friendly yet commanding voice.

You look back over at the ridge. Izzy is leaned over the side almost a bit too far as she looks at the cabin.

“Oh, what if it was a pair of secret lovers - from different pony races! And they ran away together to live in that place!” Izzy says, getting lost in a whimsical fantasy.

Hitch puts the binoculars down. “Yeah, well. Sometimes ponies do wander off...” He says.

“It’s never happened when I was sheriff, of course.” He adds. “But I have heard tales about ponies leaving and never coming back ever since I was a colt.”

“That’s the only explanation! It must have been true love!” Izzy says, reaching a hoof out towards the cabin as it start to slide further and further away from the ship.

You grab Izzy’s shoulder as her back hooves nearly lift off the deck.

“Or,” You say. “It was a criminal trying to run from the law.”

Izzy frowns and droops her ears, but she leans back onto the deck. Your hand slips off her shoulder.

“Yeah, that seems more likely to me,” Hitch says with a sigh. “Nopony would ever find them out here.” He raises the lenses up again and start to scan around more.

You look up at the long tails of cirrus clouds in the late morning sky and put your hands in your pockets. The whir of the engines kicks back in and the ship shudders forward.

“Well, I thought my idea was a lot more romantic.” Izzy says with a huff. “Boys just don’t get it!” With that, she walks over towards the bridge to meet up with Sunny and Zipp.

You turn around to watch her go. Hitch steps away from the side. “Hah, mares, am I right?” He says. “Life’s not always some fairy tale story. You know what I mean. Right, Anon?”

You shrug and nod. “Yeah. I do.”

You really do.

Hitch starts walking over to the surveillance booth, leaving you alone.

You decide to retire to your room until they call for lunch.

The porthole windows pours thick cylinders of yellowed sunlight into the cabin. The dust in this room is so thick you can make out the exact dimensions of the beams from the motes of dust alone.

You are relaxing on your back in the large bed, basking in the calm, quiet atmosphere.

You told the ponies you didn’t get a lot of sleep. You said you wanted to take an afternoon nap. They felt sympathetic and let you go.

The thick duvet on your body mixed with the warm air is an instant sleeping pill for your tired mind.

You are about to drift off when you hear a gentle tap at your door.

You groggily sit up in bed and rub your head.

“Who is it?” You ask.

“Hey, it’s me.” Sunny responds from the other side of the door.

“I’m trying to sleep, Sunny.” You say in an annoyed tone.

“Yeah, I know. Can I come in for just a minute?” She asks.

Dammit. The moment you were dreading is right outside your door. Now that you're alone, she might try to pounce on you again. Great.

“Uh, don’t come in. I’m naked!” You say. You stand up out of the bed and look down at the gray sweatpants and the white long-sleeved t-shirt you are already wearing.

“Well put some clothes on!” Sunny says impatiently.

God dammit. “Alright, hold on.” You say. You open and close the dresser drawers, making a racket to pretend to be dressing yourself.

Reluctantly you approach the door in stocking feet and hold your hand close to the handle. You consider just locking the door and talking through it, but you decide to just get it over with and turn the handle.

You open the door to see Sunny standing in the hall. Her nearly ever-present smile widens as she sees you. You keep the door open only wide enough for your head. Her pony-sized noggin can't fit through.

“Hey.” She says. She turns her head down a bit, but her eyes are locked onto yours.

“Hello.” You say. You look at her with a tired look on your face.

“Uh...” Sunny says, “So I was wondering if you could maybe go over some theories I have?” She slowly reaches up and undoes the latch on her teal knapsack.

“I dunno Sunny,” You say with an exaggerated yawn. “Ah. Can it wait until later?”

Sunny hesitates. “I mean, yeah, sure. If that’s what you want.” She lowers her hoof and flattens her mouth as she looks up at you. You swear for a moment her pupils seem to dilate.

“I just figured...” She says, darting her eyes away. “Since you’re not doing anything right now, and Zipp is at the helm right now, we could...”

“Talk?” You say.

Sunny smiles a bit and nods. “Just a bit.” There’s the most gentle hint of a peach-colored blush under her cheeks.

“Yeah, sorry. I just feel really out if it, you know?” You say. “Maybe in a few hours once I wake up, alright?” You say.

“A few... hours?” Sunny says, tilting an ear.

“Yeah,” You say. “It’s been nonstop the past few days, Sunny. I need to take some ‘me’ time. Recharge the old batteries, okay?”

You smile a bit at her and tap the door with your fingers.

Sunny raises her head up, opening her mouth a bit to say something.

“So. See you in a bit! Bye!” You say. You then close the door.

You hear Sunny walk back a step. “Uh, okay!” She says, her voice raised a bit, but not in an aggressive way. “I’ll check back later, get some rest, Anon!”

You lean against the door and hear her plod down the hallway.

Silently, you slip the latch closed to lock the door.

Whew. Well, that’s taken care of.

You amble back to the bed and collapse onto it.

Your body feels tired, yet your mind is swirling with the thought of another mare trying to jump your bones.

Whatever happened to not running, Anon?

Well, you can wait a bit longer. You’ll feel up to it next time, or maybe she’ll get the hint.

Your eyelids droop.

You drift off to sleep.

You are shaken awake from the jostle of the bulkhead. You hear the engines winding down, and the ship starts to sway towards the port side.

You sit up. The sky outside is banded with clouds of pink, orange and violet. The sun is setting, and for some reason the ship is slowing down and banking to the side. Did they find something?

You rub your eyes and stretch. Fuck, you really did sleep for a few hours. Your bones feel sore as you rise up from the bed and stumble a few steps on the hardwood.

You plod over to the door and pull on your shoes. You unlock your door and swing it open casually.

As you make your way up to the main deck, you see the ponies crowded around the port side of the ship. That is, excluding Sunny.

The ship had been listing gently to port, but it straightens out as you walk across the deck. With a sudden gust, the arcane engines reverse thrust and gradually bring the ship to a standstill in the air.

You walk over and try to peer over the group of ponies as they talk in hushed whispers.

The door to the bridge suddenly slams open and Sunny gallops out of it.

“Anon! Anon! I was just about to come get you!” She says. “Look!”

She slows to a trot and then rears up to plant her hooves on the gunwale.

There’s no way you’re close to a settlement by now. What could it be?

You peer over the side and see a wide valley down below. The land here is a lot less mountainous, and the sparsely forested area is quite flat. Yet there’s something about the patterns of clearings in the trees. From overhead it looks like there’s almost some sort of green veins growing through the woodlands, branching off to smaller capillaries that pattern the landscape in neat rows.

From what it looks like, it almost seems like those clearings mark where there used to be roads. The layout seems eerily familiar. It reminds you of a subdivision.

You then see something else near the center of the sprawling, overgrown roads. A concrete structure, immense in size and partially submerged in the pines, sits at the middle of the valley. Its greenish-gray surface might easily be mistaken for an exposed rock formation if not for the tell-tale signs of right angles and sharp edges.

“What is it?” Izzy says, peering hard.

“I dunno, but it definitely looks abandoned.” Hitch says. He’s looking through the lenses of the binoculars.

“Alright,” You say, tapping Hitch on the shoulder. “Let me see.”

Hitch removes the strap and hands the pair of lenses to you. He keeps looking in the direction of the building the whole time.

You raise the binoculars up, closing one eye to peer through a single oversized lens like a telescope. After a moment of adjusting, the structure comes into focus. It seems to actually be composed of several box-like structures clustered together. Some of them have caved in from age, but a substantial number are still standing. From what you can tell it looks like...

“It’s a... shopping mall?” You say. You lower the binoculars.

“What? No way, really?!” Pipp says with sudden excitement. She looks up at you.

“I mean, that’s what it looks like to me!” You say with a shrug. You hand the binoculars over to Zipp, who takes a look next.

Sunny turns and shoots you a challenging glare.

“A shopping mall? Did they have those back in the Ancient Equestria?” She asks.

“Well no, but who’s to say they didn’t invent them a few hundred years after I left?” You say.

It does seem quite odd. The closest thing you can think of would be the strip malls of Manehatten, or the recreation centers of Los Pegasus. You get a vision of the tranquil pony suburbs before the collapse. Rows of identical houses with perfectly kept lawns stretching across the village with a pristine, ivory shopping mall standing at its heart. Something about the image makes your skin crawl.

“Oh. My. HOOFNESS!” Pipp exclaims. She turns to Sunny, tapping her hooves with a barely contained energy. “We have to go, Sunny! Can we? Please?”

Pipp shows a pleading smile to Sunny, who is contemplating the prospect with a hoof to her chin.

“Hm, it does seem like it’s worth checking out...” She says.

Zipp speaks up. “Well, this might give us some clues as to what the old world was like.” She says. “Plus there might be stuff we can use in there.”

“Or treasure!” Izzy says, springing up suddenly. “Think of the booty, Sunny! Arr!” She snarls like a pirate.

“Oh! If there’s old school clothes in there we have to go, Sunny!” Pipp pleads. She grabs Sunny by the shoulders with both hooves. “If I can get get some pics wearing retro fashion I could get so many reflits! Think of the content!”

Sunny flattens her mouth and narrows her eyes. She glances over to Hitch, who just smiles gently and shrugs. Izzy leans in between them. “And the booty! We’ll be rich!” Izzy reiterates with manic glee.

“Well,” Sunny says. “We aren’t pirates, Izzy. We’re researchers. But Zipp has a point!”

She turns back to look out across the vista. “I have a feeling we’ll find something in there that will be worth the time.”

You feel uneasy about the prospect. Empty shopping malls always felt creepy to you. Plus, you’ve already seen enough of them on Earth.

“I think you should maybe reconsider...” You say.

Sunny cranes her neck to look at you. “Oh, and why would that be?”

Pipp silently shakes her head at you.

“It feels off. I just don’t like it.” You say.

“Tsk. What’s the matter, afraid of some old ruins?” Zipp says condescendingly.

You curl your lip at her. “No, I just don’t like it. It looks dangerous.” You say.

“I don’t see it, Anon. All I see is a chance to learn! Come on, everypony!” Sunny says.

You hold up your hands to protest, but the group follows Sunny’s lead as she walks back towards the bow.

You drop your hands and begrudgingly walk with them.

“What’s our time to descend, Zipp?” Sunny asks as she casually throws open the bridge door.

“I’d say about... hm.” Zipp says. “Twenty minutes? Give or take?”

Sunny, Zipp and Izzy walk inside the bridge, and Sunny then quickly takes the helm. She expertly grips the wheel with one hoof as she edges the throttle forward.

Pipp and Hitch walk up to the bow to get a good view as she ship angles towards the direction of the mall.

You put your hands in your pockets and lean against the side of the bridge. You sigh and rub the bridge of your nose. At least you’re well-rested, right?