Izzy trotted after Sunny as the little earth pony mare led her back into Maretime Bay.
Memories of her first visit came flooding back and she kept a wary eye on the ground in front of her, though Sunny was doing a good job of leading her around the metal squares.
“So why did ponies agree to having these installed?” Izzy asked as she hopped over one.
Sunny’s face darkened slightly and her ears went flat. “We didn’t. They were installed at some point before the presentation on them at Canterlogic.”
“Canter…?”
Sunny pointed to a tall building on a hill ahead and slightly to the west. Izzy gazed at it, then frowned. “Doesn’t really seem like what they did was logical.”
“At the time, to the pony in charge, it was.” Sunny’s voice was… It reminded Izzy a lot of the voices back home, just before they started shouting angrily at her, and she went quiet, ears low.
Sunny kept going for a few steps, then stopped and looked back at her. “What’s wrong?” She saw Izzy’s expression and stepped back towards her, lowering herself – rather unneeded given her stature compared to Izzy – and slowly reached out for her. “Hey, hey...it’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong. I’m not angry at you, I promise. Only at the ponies that did this.” She sighed heavily. “And at myself, I suppose, for not being good enough at trying to unify the races.”
“You were just one pony,” Izzy said softly, staring at Sunny’s hoof, leaning towards it ever-so-slightly. “That isn’t a burden you should carry yourself.” The unicorn pulled back and looked around the street, at the structures, the shops and homes, the livelihood of a community. “They were just doing what they thought was right at the time.” Her tail twitched from side to side. “We all were.”
“Were you scared, coming out here by yourself?” Sunny asked.
“A little. But I knew I had a friend waiting for me at the end, which made it not seem as scary,” Izzy said. “Although immediately running into you certainly helped.”
“There was a lot of running involved, wasn’t there.” Sunny shook her head. “Probably the most lively the town’s been since…” She trailed off, ears flicking, before shrugging. “I really can’t say when. It’s usually pretty quiet here-”
“Ugh.”
Both ponies jumped in surprise, before turning to see Posey Bloom staring at them. Which was a pretty impressive feat given her nose was also in the air.
“What is she doing here?”
Sunny stepped in front of Izzy as the unicorn shrank back, despite being larger than the yellow earth pony. The two ponies stared at each other, before Posey snorted again, ears coming forward even as she stepped back.
“You better watch yourself, unicorn. We don’t want another crazy pony running around in our town. We don’t want to have to rebuild another building due to a wayward laser blast.”
“Pretty sure that’s not even a thing unicorns can do,” Sunny pointed out through gritted teeth.
“Have you tried?” Posey shot back. “You can turn into one, can’t you? And fly? Haven’t you been learning their secrets and powers?”
“Erm...no? I...don’t really know...how?” Sunny said meekly. Posey stared at her blankly. Abruptly, she turned on her hoof and stomped off, sparks flashing from her hooves as they kicked against the stone.
The street fell silent and Sunny sat down, entire body going limp.
“She seems upset,” Izzy remarked, stepping closer. Sunny twisted an ear in her direction before letting out a shaky laugh.
“Posey’s... usually not like that. Prickly, sure, but...” Sunny replied, watching Posey stomp away. “We’re all jumpy, it seems. We don’t know where we’re going, or really what we’re even doing. There’s nothing in the books about this, since no one wanted there to be, so…”
Izzy’s hair brushed against Sunny’s neck and back as the unicorn leaned over the earth pony’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t your father have something in his notes? Or that journal of yours? Historical documents? Surely those would be tucked away somewhere?”
Sunny looked at her in surprise. “Maybe…” It had been a while since she’d looked, and with everything that happened, it had slipped her mind. “Probably gonna be a while before we can unearth any of that though. No one’s going to want to sift through history until all this is cleared out, cleaned up, and things settle down.”
Sunny slowly got to her hooves with Izzy’s support and shook her hooves one at a time before flicking her tail. “So...where were we?”
“Hitch, I think?” Izzy suggested.
Sunny wanted to smack herself. “Right, right, of course.” She looked around, reorienting herself. “This way.”
Hitch had finished up with his task and was making his way towards the station when the mares caught up with him.
“Hey Sunny. Izzy,” the sheriff said, blinking blearily at them before looking at the unicorn again. Izzy watched him tense up before visibly forcing himself to relax, with a painful-looking smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, though it came closer than most ponies she’d seen. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Izzy’s come to visit, and might... need a place to stay?” Sunny looked at Izzy, who shrugged.
“Hadn’t really thought that far ahead, to be honest. ‘Visit Sunny’ was the only real thing on my list.”
Hitch bit his lip in thought, eyes focusing inwards. “Pretty sure there’s a pull-out couch in the apartment.” He looked at Sunny, who nodded, vaguely remembering the layout. “Hotel’s always an option-”
“I’d rather stay with Sunny,” Izzy said quickly, hooves twisting on the ground.
Hitch blinked, eyes darting towards Sunny, who coughed into a hoof as her ears went flat and turned a soft pink. Hitch bit back a smile. “That’s fine.”
Sunny cleared her throat. “Glad that’s settled then.” She paused, looking at Izzy for a moment. The unicorn’s eyes were darting around nervously, and she could swear the mare’s mane was starting to curl. “We’ll leave you to your work.”
They bid Hitch farewell and Izzy followed Sunny once again, shortening her steps so she wouldn’t overtake the other mare. Despite Sunny’s small size, there were times she was all Izzy could see, and she wasn’t sure why.
The earth pony was... something special, even that much was plain to see, yet there was also something there under the surface that reminded Izzy of herself.