Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

You are very sure this place didn’t exist when you were around. There shouldn’t be any big towns between Baltimare and Canterlot. Not in a straight line any way. Plus, you’re too far south to be near Hollow Shades.

No this doesn't add up.

The lack of houses in the roads is a bit disturbing. Perhaps they are all hidden behind the encroaching trees, or perhaps they crumbled into the soil a long time ago. The roads are so overgrown they have become fields of grass and scrub brush. Young trees desperately try to gain footing where they can.

As the ship hovers close to the structure, you start to get a better idea of just how massive this thing is. It’s easily the size of some of the malls you’ve seen in some upper-middle class neighborhoods. There’s at least three levels inside, and there's huge sections dedicated to what you can only assume are department stores. Much of the structure is collapsing from disrepair. You can see giant chunks of concrete poking out at odd angles, and the rusted latticework of rebar poking through.

Zipp takes off to scout the area unaccompanied. She skirts around the structure in a big loop before returning a few minutes later. She explains to Sunny that there’s a flat open area on one side that would be a perfect landing spot.

The airship touches down on a wide open area with relatively few trees. It’s about two hundred feet from the building, in which you can see a towering entrance with a dense grid of empty window panes built into it.

The ship touches down with a heavy thud, and immediately after the ponies get to work securing lines to anchor the craft.

You shield your face with a hand and watch the sun dip below the tops of the distant mountains to the west.

You walk up to Sunny, who is tightening one of the clasps on the mooring lines.

“So, let me get this straight. You want to go into a collapsing, derelict structure at night and snoop around for clues? You aren’t fucking Daring Do, Sunny. Someone could get hurt.”

Sunny sighs and looks at you. She stops ratcheting the clasp for a moment.

“Anon, we have flashlights. We have six pairs of eyes, two pairs of wings and one unicorn horn. We’re just going to look around, alright? I don’t know who ‘Daring Do’ is, so I don’t know if I should be happy that you’re comparing me to him or not.” She says. She then resumes tightening the latch.

“Well, first of all, it was a she, and second-” You say, but pause as you realize you made a poor choice in referencing her.

With a final, strained pull and a heavy grunt, Sunny finishes tightening the line. She sighs and hops off the gunwale.

She looks at you with a criticizing glare. “Come on.” Sunny says, “Where’s the Anon that survived a week in the woods, huh?” She smirks and tilts her head. She walks past you, bumping your knee with her flank intentionally.

You turn to scold her, but Zipp abruptly appears over the side, flapping powerfully with her wings. She looks over at Sunny as she hovers just over the edge of the gunwale.

“Vessel secured, Captain.” She says cooly.

“Excellent work.” Sunny says. “What’s the status on our fuel?”

“We’re getting pretty close. At best we can only do thirty-five percent power right now. We’re going to need to vent out the excess spell energy overnight before we can recharge it.” Zipp says. She shrugs. “At least, that’s the safest way. I don’t want to risk overloading the grid.”

“Well then,” Sunny says, glancing at you with a smug grin. “Sounds like we’re gonna be grounded ‘til morning.”

You shove your hands in your pockets and shake your head. This mare must have a death wish.

“Make way for the ladder!” Hitch yells as she carries the front end of the long, metal side ladder. Izzy and Hitch help him carry it from the other side.

The silhouette of the mall looms against the dusk sky as you and the ponies walk towards it. They geared up with a flashlight and saddlebags each, except for Izzy, who instead uses her horn as a vibrant neon-pink lantern.

Hitch is wearing a heavy, tan-colored saddlebag. Along with the military-style flashlight on his shoulder strap, he is also carrying a thick coil of nylon rope, a string of steel pitons, and a spare brass lantern.

You sweep the wide beam of your flashlight over the ground in front of you. There’s a spongy layer of moss that covers the asphalt in most places. Collected piles of dirt grow scraggly, dry tumbleweeds. There’s also strange haystack-like lumps dotting the field, which seem to be piles of trash covered with heavy vegetation.

As you get closer to one, you drag your flashlight over its surface and you see the dull glint of metal within the pile. Upon closer inspection, it seems heavily rusted tubes are bent all within the mass.

“What is it?” Izzy asks.

“Anon, any ideas?” Sunny says as she approaches the pile.

“Beats me.” You say matter-of-factly. You notice chunks of faded plastic and decomposing paper in matted clumps within it.

“Just seems like a lot of litter, doesn’t it?” Hitch asks.

Izzy steps forward to join Sunny. Her neon horn bathes the debris in magenta hues as she looks around it.

Izzy sits down on the moss as Sunny carefully prods the surface. There’s a small creak as the pile dents inward, and suddenly Izzy perks her ears and stands up.

“Wait, wait! I think I see something!” Izzy says.

Sunny turns to her. “Hm? Where, Izzy?” She asks.

Izzy’s horn fades, and you all keep your flashlights pointed to the pile. With a gradual hum, a section near the top is bathed in a different kind of magenta hue as Izzy concentrates on a spell.

There’s a loud creak and groan of metal as Izzy wrenches something up with a telekinetic pull.

“Woah!” Sunny exclaims and quickly steps back.

“Wait, Izzy!” Hitch say, leaning his head forward and his eyes going wide. “You’ll tilt it over on us!”

Izzy glances back with a grin, her horn still aglow. “Relax, Hitch! I’ve done this plenty of times!”

Hitch leans back. “What?”

“Yeah!” Izzy says. There’s a hideous shriek of metal scraping against metal as a heavy chunk of something rises up from the heap. “It’s a big pile of trash! This is my bread and butter! Cha-ching!”

With one final pull, the object of her desire is freed. Rusty bits of metal, chunks of soil and grassy root clusters spill down among the vines, and there’s a slight shift in the heap as it shrinks to fill the gap.

Izzy brings the object down and sets it a few feet away from the group. The ponies lean their flashlights up as Izzy rotates it in the air.

With what’s left of the pipes and rods, it seems to be shaped like...

“A chariot.” Sunny says.

With a high-pitched squeal, the ancient vehicle comes to rest on its bent axle. The wheels have a modern design made from stamped metal. They have sweeping curves instead of spokes. There’s hardly anything left of the outer hull, but you would recognize a pony-pulled chariot design like this anywhere. The only thing is - this one doesn’t have any draft poles. There’s just some strange, oblong extension on the front of it.

“How... odd.” Sunny says, walking closer as she inspects it.

Zipp floats up on her wings and zooms around it from different angles before leaning close to the extension on the front.

“Well, it’s a chariot alright, but not a type I’ve ever seen." You say, glancing around the desolate area. "I guess this field used to be their parking lot.”

“Izzy.” Zipp says, lifting her head up. “Tip it on its side. I want to check underneath."

“Okay!” Izzy says. She quickly envelops the whole thing in an aura and thoughtlessly tips it over.

With a loud groan of metal, the undercarriage of the chariot is revealed. It has a cylindrical case underneath the front part of the chassis. Rusted pipes lead in and out of the front extension. They seem to be connected to a gearbox at the back.

Zipp wipes away the grime from the casing and inspects it. “Hm. No markings.” She says. “But if I had to guess... this looks like a grid conduit.”

“Uh, say what now?” Hitch asks.

“It’s a device that harmonizes with a magic amplification grid. It allows a machine to tap into the power supply. It’s like wireless electricity.”

“Huh.” Hitch says.

“Wow, how'd you figure that out, Zipp?” Pipp says. She’s raises up her phone to take a quick picture. At the last moment, Zipp forces an awkward smile. After the flash, she goes back to a neutral expression.

“Because it looks like the ones on the ship.” She says plainly.

“That’s our chief engineer for you, hah!” Sunny says and throw a hoof around Zipp’s neck. She smiles and hugs her from the side. She then reaches into her saddlebag and pulls out her journal.

“I can’t believe it. This changes so many things!” She says, sitting down and opening her journal to a fresh page.

“Well, there she goes.” Hitch says, rolling his eyes. He sits down as Sunny frantically writes in her journal.

“Self-propelled chariots. Wireless power! Huge shopping malls! This is totally different than the Equestria I had imagined!” Sunny says, holding the pencil to the side of her mouth as she cradles her flashlight with her neck.

Yeah, it sucks. From the way things are looking, you'd hate it here. It was probably filled with rich, snobby unicorns or some shit.

For a while you let Sunny take notes. Pipp documents the discovery and makes a quick video of it. Hitch tries his best to keep Izzy from pulling more chariots out of the pile, but ultimately fails. She manages to lay out about a dozen in total. If you combine that with all the other piles it could be about a hundred or more. You notice many of them share the same design - an obvious indicator of a mass-produced product.

Sunny finishes writing her notes and snaps her journal shut. “Well then, shall we?” She says with a confident grin.

Sunny then led the group up to the entrance.

The massive, dark portal before you stretches inward to a multi-story interior. The concrete planters and balcony railings inside stretch into a cavernous oblivion.

You search around for signs of movement, but see nothing. The air is calm and still. The hoofsteps start to echo as the ponies traipse onto the laminated tile floors past the doorway.

“Just look at it...” Sunny says, completely enraptured with it all.

The rows of shops seem to mostly have their shutters drawn, save for a few here and there. You try to read some of the faded signs sitting around the entryway plaza. Of the metal frames still standing, only a few still contain placards. The paint on all of them is too weathered to make out except for a few pieces of letters here and there.

You stop and raise your light to the ceiling. At one point there were skylight windows that spanned the entire building, but they’re all gone now.

“Alright,” Hitch says as he steps ahead of Sunny. “If there’s anypony in here, it’s better if we let them know we’re coming.”

He plants his hooves firmly and shouts. “Hey! Is there anypony in here?!”

His voice echoes and reverberates within the expanse of old, forgotten halls.

Silence follows.

“We come in peace! We aren’t here to hurt anyone!” He yells again.

He whips his barrel around to flash his light in some corners. Once again, his call is answered with silence.

“Guess nopony’s home!” Pipp says. She looks a bit relieved and flutters her wings. “We got the whole place to ourselves, guys!”

“ECHO!” Izzy yells loudly. She grins as her own voice comes back to her a half a second later.

“Well, Captain.” You say with growing impatience. “What next?”

Sunny nods. “Alright. Let’s stick together and take this one store at a time. Everypony with me?”

All the ponies respond affirmatively. Sunny moves to the first shop, closed with a sagging, rusted shutter.

After the ponies struggled with it for quite a while, Sunny concluded that the only way to get the first shop open was by wrenching the shutter off its guide rails.

Izzy used her magic to peel it off like a sardine lid, and this served to release a small rush of revoltingly smelly water from within. It spilled over the dusty marble floor, and the ponies all coughed, gagged and backed away.

The shop used to be some kind of bakery. Now the smell of rotting, water-logged dough filled the air around it. There must have been a leak in the ceiling somewhere to let in all that rainwater.

You and the ponies agreed to write it off as a loss, with none of them daring to venture inside.

The shop across the way already had its shutter already opened a bit. Sunny carefully raised it up as Hitch stood ready, whipping his flashlight around to scan the interior.

It seemed completely gutted, with empty, metal shelves lining the walls and free-standing racks pushed up against the sides. Even the letters of the sign above the shop had been pulled from the wall.

The next shop down had a metal gate that was bent down at one corner. Your flashlights revealed the glimmer of dark lenses sitting in racks beyond the gate, and baskets filled with small plastic clips. It appeared to be a shop for sunglasses and other accessories.

Eager to collect a souvenir, Pipp coerced Hitch and Izzy to work together to bend the gate further down.

With a big shove from both Hitch’s and Izzy’s combined weight, the ancient gate snapped off its hinges and rattled to the floor. The space inside was pitch black, but you felt a bit more comfortable as the party of mares made their way inside, lighting up the interior. They cooed and gasped as their flashlights revealed various styles of mane clips, eye wear, scrunchies, buttons and saddlebags. Hitch followed them and methodically searched around the perimeter.

“Oh, wow! This stuff is perfect! I can’t wait!” Pipp gushed as she quickly collected a hoof-full of hair clips. She cupped them in the fold of her fluffy wing and made her way over to a dusty mirror to wipe it off.

Sunny and Izzy are giggling to each other quietly as they try on sunglasses, and even Zipp seems happy as she strolls around.

You sigh and lean against the wide doorway to the storefront. You glimpse out into the cold, still plaza as moonlight paints squares of pale blue upon the old marble planters and overturned, broken stalls.

Well, they certainly found their “booty.”

Suddenly, you glimpse something at the edge of your flashlight’s beam. It looks like a pair of yellow eyes across the way.

You center your beam on them, and just as you do, you see the slitted irises narrow. The eyes dart away out of view behind the corner of the shop window.

You scan around the shop with your light, but it’s too far to get it very bright. You don’t notice any movement inside.

You turn back and say in a raised voice, “Sunny. Hitch. I just saw something.”

Sunny turns her head, holding a clutch of glossy buttons in her hoof.

Hitch immediately trots through the racks over to you.

“What, where?” He says, he narrows his eyes and takes his flashlight off his strap with a slide of his hoof.

You point over to the shop across the way. “I saw eyes coming from that shop.” You say.

Hitch pans his flashlight over the shop as Sunny walks over towards you.

“Eyes?” Sunny asks.

“Yeah.” You say.

“What’d they look like?” Hitch asks.

“Yellow. Slitted like a cat’s eyes.” You say.

The rest of the mares pack away their treasures and walk slowly up behind you.

Hitch clips his flashlight to his shoulder strap and slowly loosens the belt for his heavy saddlebag. He slips out of it and it crumples into a heap on the entry gate.

“Alright, everypony. I’ll check it out first.” Hitch says in a hushed tone. “If we see anything, we run for the ship, alright?” He glances back at you and the four ponies.

You all nod and Hitch carefully starts to walk across to the other side. His hoofsteps are silent. He carefully angles each hoof and shifts his weight to eliminate all sound.

The mares follow him in single file, and you walk alongside the line.

“Ohh... this is so creepy.” Pipp says in a quiet voice as her wings shiver.

“Shh...” Sunny glances back and shushes Pipp. Izzy also stares back at Pipp with widened eyes as if to reiterate her point.

As you near closer to the shop, you see that the front entrance is lined with white, stone cubes. There’s letters carved into them like giant alphabet blocks. The walls are lined with painted red shelves, and the floor is covered in tearing, faded carpet, which once had a array of colorful shapes patterned across it.

Hitch lowers his body as he pulls ahead from the line. The mares gradually slow down and come to a standstill about thirty feet from the doorway.

Hitch slinks inside, his neck bending silently around the corner like a slithering snake. You keep your own flashlight trained on the window where you saw the eyeballs.

“Aha!” He exclaims and then lunges forward out of sight.

Pipp gasps a little too loudly and covers her mouth.

There’s a painfully long pause before Hitch rears up onto the windowsill. He’s holding a stuffed bear in his forehoof with oversized, circular yellow eyes.

“Is this what you saw, Anon?” Hitch says with a tender smile.

“Aww!!” Pipp says, holding a hoof to her chest as she adores the sight. Izzy snickers to herself quietly.

“What? No!” You say.

You quickly jog into the shopfront and whip your flashlight around. You don’t see anything pony sized or larger among the toys scattered around the shelves and the floor. Further back there are tipped over racks, desks and tables but there’s no trace of any movement therein.

You rotate around, darting your flashlight between darkened corners, and your entire body tenses up for an imminent attack.

“Hey, it’s actually kinda cute, huh?” Sunny says from the shop window.

You shoot her a look. She’s holding the stuffed bear and looking at it. She glances at you with an earnest smile.

“I swear I saw something moving, and it wasn’t that.” You say. You shake your flashlight beam on it. “The eyes looked completely different.”

Sunny blinks in response to the glare of your flashlight.

“Well, just look around then. It’s probably one of these.” Hitch says, sweeping a hoof over the array of slightly soggy plush animals scattered around the floor.

You recognize the shapes of dogs, cats, crocodiles, sharks, pigs, dragons...

“How do you explain it moving, then?” You ask. You whip around and scan the ceiling.

Hitch shrugs. “Probably the wind.”

“The wind?” You ask critically. “Really?”

Zipp walks past you with a serious expression on her face. You glance over your shoulder for a second and she disappears into the store racks.

“Look Anon! I found you!!” Izzy says frantically. She slides in front of you and Hitch as she raises up a stuffed toy over her head.

Perched atop her hooves is a stuffed monkey wearing a black suit. It has brownish-gray fur, oversized lips, round stub-like ears coming off the sides of the head, and little, black, beady eyes.

You exhale angrily. “Very fucking funny, Izzy...”

Pipp trots up and looks at the toy in Izzy’s hooves. “Oh my feathers! That is so perfect! It even has a little suit and everything!” She gushes. Sunny, now standing at the doorway, suppresses a laugh with a hoof to her mouth.

Your cheeks turn red and your grip on the light trembles. The fear in your gut turns to rage.

“We had a term for that, you know. That’s speciesism. Back in the old Equestria, you’d get tied and quartered for stereotyping me like that.” You say, jabbing your finger towards her angrily.

Pipp seems a bit taken aback by your hyperbole, but Izzy keeps smirking at you regardless, her belly rumbling with tiny giggles.

“Hey.” Zipp says from the back of the shop in a neutral tone. “Come check this out.

Izzy and Pipp alight with grins and Izzy drops the monkey. They rush past you and Izzy lights her horn up to see.

You sneer at Izzy and resist the urge to trip her as she passes you.

Hitch follows them, and Sunny walks up to you. She smiles sympathetically.

“It’s okay, Anon. I don’t think Izzy was trying to be... speciesist against you, she was just making a joke.” She says.

You shake your head and exhale through your nose. “Whatever. I still don’t like this place.” You turn from her and walk along with the others, tilting your body to fit through a tight gap between the shelves.

You pass into a small aisle that reaches towards the back of the shop. There’s a heap of stuff piled against the far wall, and Zipp is digging around in it with her hooves.

You catch up to the rest of the ponies and suddenly Zipp grabs hold of a large, white box and wrestles it out of the pile.

“Ooh!” Izzy says enthusiastically. “What is it?”

Zipp pushes the box across the floor with her hooves. It’s got a bright printed graphic on the top, only somewhat faded from time. There’s an image of what appears to be a round light-gray video game console with large pony-sized paddles. It says “Mooncast 3” in futuristic block letters.

“It’s a game station I think.” Zipp says, tilting her head to look at it. “It’s not a kind I’ve ever seen...”

“Can we play it?!” Izzy says, jolting her body up so hard she nearly springs off her hooves.

“Video games? That’s why we have phones, Zipp.” Pipp says.

Zipp shakes her head abruptly. “No. This means something. They had computers back then. Technology just like ours.”

Sunny steps forward. She brushes past Izzy and Pipp to look at the box.

“Incredible...” She says. “This is an amazing find, Zipp!”

She grins and quickly look at Pipp. “Quick, Pipp. Take a picture!”

Izzy and Sunny crowd around Zipp and then point to the box with hearty grins. Pipp turns and takes a group selfie with all of them in the shot.

After the flash, Izzy begins walking in place, overloaded with excitement. “Open it! Open it! I wanna see!”

“Eh...” Zipp says as she tilts her head and examines the box. “I suppose we might be able to get it to work...?”

Zipp works a hoof carefully into a seam on the side of the box to try and pry open the flap. It is swiftly enveloped in a magical aura and ripped open by Izzy.

“Ooh-”

“Izzy, be careful!” Sunny says, putting a hoof protectively on the box. “We can’t risk damaging it.”

Izzy’s smile disappears. “Sorry.” She says very softly.

Izzy watches as Zipp very carefully removes the device and its accessories from the box. The console itself looks sleek and contemporary, with swooping curves on the sides. In the center of it, there’s a polished white orb embedded within a circular groove. The paddles seem pretty standard, but they match the device’s design. They are crescent-shaped with pony joystick on one side and a cluster of buttons on the other.

Zipp turns the console in her hooves, inspecting it. “Well, there’s ports for the controllers, one for the game cartridge, but I don’t see where you could plug it into power or a television...”

Sunny already has her journal out and is tapping her pencil against her chin. “Hm. Well, we already know they had wireless electricity from the chariots. Maybe... it will resonate with the power on the ship?” She asks.

Zipp shrugs and smiles. “Hey, it’s worth a shot.”

Zipp then turns to Izzy. “Hey Izzy, go find us some games for this, will ya?”

“Yay!” Izzy says, she then scrambles up to the pile and starts immediately sifting through it with her hooves.

Sunny and Hitch helped Izzy comb through the piles of toys scattered through the shelves.

You might as well help them out. You figure it might be interesting to see if video games evolved differently over time here. Plus, having a night to relax and play video games would be pretty comfy...

The uneasy feeling in your gut starts to fade as you dug around through collapsed shelving, lifting up each board to reveal forgotten toys once intended for a generation of fillies and colts a long time ago.

“Woah!” Sunny says suddenly. “Anon, look at this!” You glance over your shoulder to see her holding a gray plastic game case up to her face.

“What?” You say, turning to her.

She holds out the case to you. On the cover is an imposing silhouette of an equine form with piercing green eyes. She has a curved, gnarled horn, and she’s standing on the balcony of a white castle tower. It is unmistakably her. The changeling queen herself: Chrysalis.

The title of the game reads “Equestria Legends: War for Canterlot”.

You tilt your head and chuckle a bit. “Huh.”

“It says ‘Legend’ on it. Is this a game about the past?” Sunny says with rising enthusiasm.

“I mean, yeah, that does look like it...” You take the case in your hands carefully. You notice in the corner the logo for the Mooncast 3. It must be compatible.

You smirk a bit. “Hell, I might even be in this one.”