I was soon back on my way the next morning. The early morning light was beginning to pierce the treetops, and I knew that this meant I had to start on my way again. Who knew how much time had passed in this place and the regions around it whilst I'd been here.
I headed down to the bar and made sure to pay my bill in full before setting off into town. The landscape around me was buried in this curious glow that was produced by the sun in its current position. Whereas last night when I had headed back to the tavern to spend the rest of the night the landscape had looked almost threatening and ominous to my sight thanks to the darkness, now it looked more positive and friendly thanks to the light pouring in from the other side of the world.
The sun seemed to be doing pretty well for itself seeing as it was moving by itself, no magical energies propelling it along )or so I thought). That had always been one of the big complaints about this generation of the show. Well, there's a pretty simple answer to that question of how do the sun and move move by themselves. Physics is the answer to that one, as it seems to be for a lot of other things in this world.
But enough of that. I had to continue on my journey, and find my friends. I made my way through the lands, the landscape slowly shifting from green lands to something that resembled scrubland and other ruins. Odd bits and things stuck out of the ground in places, and indicated various leftovers of numerous lost civilisations and other places. Based on my knowledge of maps I suspected it was unlikely this was where the Neighyptians had hung out, and Cloudsdale had always been on the move in the skies, so for it to have a definite place was a nonsensical concept to begin with. No wonder the pegasi moved operations to Zephyr Heights after the magic vanished. Without the ability to walk on cloud a city made of clouds would quickly become about as useful as a chocolate teapot. No wonder they went for having solid land underneath their hooves.
I continued onwards, seeing more wrecks of military equipment and other items poking out of the ground. Armour, helmets, some weapons, and even some vehicles that just been left here and never recovered. It made we wonder what else could be out here, just lost in the land. Ancient artefacts? Weapons of incredible power? A statue of a bug queen, a small wing horse, and a four legged thing with arms?
Odlly specific, I know. But imagine of those three got loose again in our day and age. Scary thought, huh?
I continued deeply on my way into the depths of the unknown, and made my way around the lands, trees and bushes punctuating the landscape as I continued to approach pegasus territory.
On my journey, I ran into something very odd, which although it would pale in comparison to the other oddities I would encounter on my journeys across G5 Equestria, I found that it stood out enough in my memory to warrant some attention that day.
I came across a group of prospectors, excitedly looking at the ground. "I found it first!" shouted one.
"No, I did!" said another. "You know the story; wherever you find ancient equipment, riches shall surely follow you!"
"No, it was I who found it first!" said a third, producing a gun in the process.
I charged in before anything got too heated. "Now, let's not do anything silly, shall we?" I said, looking at each of them in turn and making a point of showing them my badge. "Now then, what do we have here?"
They all began talking at once. "One at a time," I said. "One line of enquiry at a time. Otherwise we'll end up in a mess and won't know who said what."
The prospectors nodded at me, and then one of them turned his attention to the art of speaking. Which is pretty much a given around here; imagine how most humans would freak out at the thought of talking horses!
"My friends and I were digging for coal or oil out in the badlands when, at this very spot, we came across this." He invited me forward and pointed to the object currently sitting on the floor before him.
My eyes widened when I saw it. How had this survived given what happened to Nightmare Moon in the second episode of Friendship is Magic? "It could be a potential artefact," I said. "Possibly one with magical power. It's not safe to keep it out here. I shall take it to safety in earth pony lands where it cannot be tampered with."
One of the prospectors nodded, then snorted. "You should consider yourself lucky you aren't surrounded by unicorns right now!" he laughed. "Otherwise they'd be bing bonging all over the place! It's a miracle they manage to leave their houses, no less launch an invasion of our land!"
The others joined in laughing about it, and I had just gotten another example of how deeply embedded into earth pony culture this sort of prejudice was. It unnerved me a bit to hear it being thrown about so casually, but then again I had to try and blend in with the society.
I secured the helmet amongst my equipment and prepared to head out on my way across the land. "Well, glad to help out," I said. "Best of business to you three, and happy prospecting."
"Thank you!" said another. "May you blaze many trails, Sheriff Hitch!"
Hilarious. Seems they somehow figured out my surname from the badge. Clever folks, if so. I needed to push on, however, and I soon left the area and continued to trek further north through these desolate lands, shattered by the effects of years of war.
As I continued towards the border, I suddenly heard a loud rumbling noise nearby. I dashed into a nearby bush and hid to wait out the loud rumbling noises coming from nearby. It continued, and was soon joined by the sound of marching hooves locked in step.
I stuck my head over the bush to see something I hadn't expected to see. Passing me was some sort of tank column with infantry support. The heavy treads rumbled and caused the ground to shake. The infantry were presumably there to assist against the effects of enemy infantry.
But the designs surprised me. The tanks looked oddly British- I'd seen a machine similar to these in a museum collection once- so to see them out here was pretty surreal.
"Patrol duties out here sometimes make you wish for rain," said one of the soldiers, glancing about across the terrain.
"Tell me about it," said his fellow. "But at least we've got the tanks to cover us. Considering how old a design it is, it's impressive the Crusader IIIs are still frontline work, eh?"
I ducked out of cover as I watched them pass, and then headed again for the next section of landscape. I hadn't seen a sign telling me I was in pegasus territory, so that was interesting to say the least. It seemed the pegasi were actively probing our territory, which whilst not technically an invasion is still legally quite dodgy.
I continued past the scene and across more land. I passed a small military outpost with a selection of smaller vehicles and other soldiers watching the landscape. I clearly had walked into a blind spot as they didn't see me. I continued onwards, determined to get to Zephyr Heights no matter the cost to myself or others.
At last, I reached the border. A massive pair of border fences stood there, with gates to allow troops in and out. It seemed to be two sets of fences running in parallel, blocked off by tank traps and iron bars welded together. Every hundred feet or so was a bunker, though the one closest to me seemed to be empty at the moment. Was there something similar blocking off unicorn and earth pony territory? I snuck to one side and then spotted a tunnel beneath the walls.
I dived into it and began to climb through, when I suddenly noticed something else- there had been a gap in the fence. I dug my way back out, walked into the fence, and then slid through to the other side of the fences. There was a notice sitting there to greet me- YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE PEGASUS EMPIRE. UNICORNS AND EARTH PONIES KEEP OUT.
I turned my head, and spotted a similar sign on the other side. YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE UNITED EARTH PONY STATES. UNICORNS AND PEGASI KEEP OUT.
Presumably they just made one sign to save money. I headed through into the next area of land. From what I'd seen so far, this might just be one of the most heavily militarised borders on the planet.
I was in another land. And I had to move carefully to avoid getting into danger.