The sun was on its way down by the time we reached Ponyville's walls.
Once I was finally able to get my mind off the mystery that was the dragon, I took a moment to really look at the walls of the supposedly small fortress town.
They... were in terrible shape.
The walls of Canterlot were well maintained by some of the best engineers in Equestria.
Both Anti-Avidaeus walls and Daeus Arms were built with gargantium, a metal that—aside from its unparalleled hardness, was the only metal that could effectively resist the breakdown of matter caused by an avidaeus's tooth or claw.
The metal didn't make a perfect shield by any means, but it got the job done, and it got it done well.
Most of the minerals used to create the metal for the walls and weapons were imported from the Dragonlands and sent all over the world, making the Dragonlands a rather wealthy country by today's standards.
Convincing the Dragon Lord to part with the ore had been a task.
The continued survival of all the races of Equus apparently hadn't been enough of an incentive for Torch to part with his precious ore.
In the end, Celestia had managed to get Torch to agree to worldwide trade by reminding him of the profit his nation would see in return.
It took some time, but Dragon Lord Torch hadn't been disappointed by the results. Rather than sit on the hoard of riches like any dragon would've done so long ago, Torch opted to put the country's wealth into their cities and weapons development.
Nowadays, the Dragonlands boasted the most powerful and deadly Daeus Arms on Equus, and many of its cities were comparable to that of Canterlot itself in terms of comfort and defense.
If I had been a betting mare, I would've put all my chips on the dragons being the last race left standing against the avidaeos threat if it came down to it.
In any case, the Princesses spared no expense in the construction of Canterlot's walls, and they were strong enough to withstand an attack by an avidaeus twice their size without too much wear.
Ponyville was an entirely different story.
Unlike the tall, pristine, smooth, and seamless silver walls of Canterlot, Ponyville's walls were an ugly patchwork of dark grey layered metal sheets.
The quality of gargantium ore that was used to build Ponyville's walls was obviously much lower than that of Canterlot's, and a lot of others places most likely by the looks of it.
It had also been clear that the walls had been attacked several times, given the many scratches and dents I could see here and there along the sides of the walls.
Looking above, I could see makeshift watchtowers on either side of the large gate, as well as the few ponies patrolling them.
I grimaced at the sight of the walls before me, that small knot of worry in my chest growing larger as we approached the gate.
"Buck me," Vinyl muttered with a low whistle, "this place has gotta be in bad shape if these walls are anything to go by."
"Ponyville has seen better days, yes," Harshwhinny agreed without looking back, "the town gets a lot of avidaeos activity for reasons we haven't really pinned down yet."
"According to what I've read," I said, keeping my eyes on the gate, "the increase in avidaeos attacks may have something to do with the Everfree Forest nearby."
"I've heard that too," Shining added with a small nod as he slowed the truck to a stop next to Luna's, "it's a strong possibility. That place is all kinds of dangerous."
We were all silent for a moment as we waited for the massive metal gates to slide open, which they did with a loud metallic groan I found rather disconcerting.
Neither Shining nor Harshwhinny seemed all that worried as the trucks once more pushed forward through the gates.
"Frankly, I think these ponies were crazy to build a town all the way out here next to that freaky forest," Vinyl commented, breaking the silence, "I warned Octavia about it, but she insisted the place was perfect... crazy mare."
"Why would she want to move here out of all places, though?" I asked with a curious raise of my brow, "I mean, now that I'm seeing this place for myself, it's kind of..."
"I know what you mean," Vinyl finished with a nod, "but Octy is... well, she was a bit sheltered growing up, and that's made her..."
She paused and waved a hand absently as she struggled to find the right words.
"...I don't know. Naïve, I guess. She's always been a bit stubborn, but once she left home, she got this weird... adventurous streak. Said Ponyville would be an exciting place to live."
"Huh," I replied after a moment, "well, that's... weird."
"Yeah," Vinyl replied with a heavy sigh before turning to look out the window, "...hope she's doing alright out here."
"Hm."
With that absentminded reply, I turned to look out my own window at the town. To my slight surprise and dismay, many of the structures we passed were in just as bad a shape as the walls outside, if not worse.
There was just as much greenery inside the wall as there was outside, which was to say there wasn't much at all.
The landscape was all dirt and rock, and the buildings were cramped and dilapidated. Many of them were single houses made of some kind of wood, brick, or lesser metal.
I also saw one or two lodging houses and at one point we passed over a bridge sitting above a small, fenced off river.
Where the river originated and where it led I had no idea, but at the very least the water looked fairly clean.
As rundown as the homes obviously were though, I could also tell that the structures were surprisingly sturdy and well-built for what they were—or at least they had been at one point.
That either meant that this part of town hadn't always been like this, or that the ponies here had some talented carpenters that only had third rate building materials to work with.
Or both I suppose.
Still, the place was a far cry from what I was used to. Even the poorer part of Canterlot didn't reach these levels, and it was with that thought that I realized this must've been what we were passing through.
Of course there'd be slums like these in the towns and villages outside of the city. Resources were scarce all around, and I was fairly certain the no doubt constant avidaeus attacks didn't help either.
The ponies living here were much the same as the buildings they lived or worked in. Much of what I saw of their attire, while surprisingly tasteful, was worn and somewhat threadbare.
Despite the sorry state of their homes however, the ponies living here seemed... well, not happy exactly, but content... at least for the most part.
Foals still played in the streets under the watchful eyes of their parents, working stallions laughed and joked with each other, housewives chatted and gossiped, and there was an overall air of friendliness about the place.
My eyes widened slightly as I spotted a pink coated mare with a darker pink and extremely poofy mane sitting on a bench surrounded by foals. They were all gathered in a small clearing that might've been a small park of sorts.
I watched in slight confusion as the bright eyed, smiling mare pulled something from... somewhere, then in surprise as the mare put the objects to her mouth, puffed out her cheeks, and blew.
The objects turned out to be five long balloons and my mouth dropped open as the mare proceeded to twist the balloons into some kind of undefined shape almost faster than the eye could see.
In a matter of seconds, the mare was holding a large serpentine Wendigo... made up of balloons. The foals cheered at the mare's antics, but I was focused on other things.
Her balloon animal skills were certainly... extraordinary, but what caught my attention was the familiar black and white armlet just above her wrist, and the navy blue military jacket she wore over her sky blue blouse.
She wore the uniform of a Daeus Hunter.
As I stared at the mare, she gave the foals the Wendigo balloon and stood up from the bench. The mare watched the foals run off for a moment before giving a long, languid stretch.
By chance, she happened to glance over to where our truck was passing by. Her eyes widened comically and she let out an overly exaggerated gasp of surprise, something I felt was a little unwarranted for an average transport like ours.
She waved a gloved hand at us with more enthusiasm than was probably necessary... then we passed by a large utility pole... and she was gone.
I blinked.
One moment she was there, then she just... vanished behind the pole, like she'd never even existed at all. I turned to see if any of the others had seen the mare, but none of them were paying any attention.
I looked from them, to the window, and blinked again before shaking my head. I wasn't going to get anywhere thinking about it now, so I put it out of my mind for the moment and focused my attention back on the town itself.
Even under their rather harsh circumstances, it was clear that Ponyville had a positive, close-knit community—or at least that seemed to be the case in the slums.
Oddly enough, I found myself envying them for some reason. I felt a bit like I didn't belong—like I was intruding on their lives even though I hadn't yet done anything or talked to anypony.
Still, despite the friendly atmosphere, there was also wariness. As we drove close by the older ponies, I could see that there was a sharpness in their eyes, as though they were watching for something.
It was as though they were waiting for some kind of attack to happen any moment. If the town was attacked as frequently as Harshwhinny claimed, then it made sense the ponies closest to the walls would be on edge.
I turned my attention back to the ponies I was riding with, only to see that they were all just as quiet and contemplative as I was.
Vinyl had her face turned away from me, her headphones blaring as she gazed out at the town. Shining silently drove down the dirt road without a sound, his expression somewhat inscrutable.
Harshwhinny had rolled down her window and was lazily leaning out of the side, cigarette in her mouth and a thoughtful frown adorning her face as she stared out her window.
I suddenly felt like we were on our way to a funeral.
Trying to ignore a slight shiver, I turned back to my window and could see that we were starting to draw some attention from the townsponies.
Some of the foals stopped what they were doing and pointed before their parents pulled them away, they themselves giving the trucks a wary look.
I raised an eyebrow at the display, but didn't comment on it to anypony.
"Look alive," Shining announced, "we're getting closer to the center of town. The Wendigo building shouldn't be too much further out."
I looked ahead and sure enough, I could see a cluster of tall, rectangular white structures rising in the distance, the cyan Wendigo emblem clear near the top of the largest of the buildings.
Along with that, I could also see that the quality of the homes and shops were getting better as we passed out of the slums and made our way deeper into town.
Rusty metal, rotted wood, and chipped brickwork gave way to clean plaster, smooth cement, and lustrous steelwork. The dirt roads vanished and were replaced with asphalt, and everything just looked... better overall.
The ponies wandering the streets were better dressed, and looked to be a lot less... wary, than the ponies in the slums which again, made sense given that they were further from the wall and closer to the Wendigo building.
There was still that air of friendliness, and that closeness that made me feel strangely isolated though. I got the feeling that was another thing I'd have to get used to for the time being.
"You okay back there, Twily?"
I turned to meet Shining's worried eyes in the rear view mirror and rolled my own in exasperation.
"I'm fine, Shining," I replied with a small huff, "yes, I was worried before, and I guess I still kind of am, but I think I'm finally starting to calm down."
I let my gaze drift towards the towering monster that was the Wendigo building further ahead. My thoughts went back to what I was supposed to do and I frowned slightly before turning away.
"I mean... this is the first time I've been out of Canterlot," I continued in a quieter voice, "things are gonna be different than what I expect, and I can't keep getting shocked, worried, or horrified by every little thing I see, or else I'll never get anything done."
"That's the spirit," Harshwhinny cut in, turning to look back at me with a small smirk, "just keep your eye on the prize and things will work out fine."
"Just what is the prize exactly?" Vinyl asked, raising an eyebrow at the orange mare, "aside from the whole 'making Equus a halfway decent planet to live on' thing I mean. Is there even another prize?"
"The pay is pretty decent once you get out of training and make a name for yourself," Shining replied with a smirk of his own, "food still sucks though. Rations, rations, and more rations."
"Fantastic," I replied flatly, "I can't wait."
"Hey," Shining replied with a small shrug, "if you do well, you get better rations, so there's that. If you're lucky, maybe you'll get actual corn-on-the-cob instead of the chunky, smelly creamed variety."
"Shining, just... no. Stop," I said, chuckling a bit, "you're doing a terrible job of selling this whole Daeus Hunter thing. And besides, I already know Daeus Hunters in Canterlot get better rations than that."
"True," Shining conceded, before his expression turned dead serious, "but this isn't Canterlot, Twi. Nasty creamed corn is a very real possibility."
"Oh, Celestia, you're terrible," I replied, laughing out loud at my brothers straight-faced delivery, "seriously, stop. I don't wanna think about that right now."
I heard Vinyl laugh along, and even Harshwhinny gave a small chuckle of her own. It wasn't really all that funny, but I think we all needed the distraction.
I know I did.
Despite what I told my brother, I was still fretting over what I'd have to do. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first couple of days after I had found out about the reassignment, but the fear and uncertainty were most definitely still there.
As the Wendigo building grew near enough that we passed beneath its shadow, I felt an odd sense of anticipation well up within me alongside the worry.
As we reached the large gate surrounding the perimeter of the Wendigo buildings, I turned and gave one last look back towards the town behind me.
Whether for better or for worse, once I passed through this final gate, my life was going to change drastically.