I had left into the night in such a rush I had later realised I had made a rather severe mistake when leaving. I had been relying on staying overnight in places when the sun was down, but seeing that alarming broadcast had made me realize I had to hurry up if I was going to prevent a potentially planet destroying war from breaking out and killing everypony. You can probably guess that, thanks to my awesomeness, it didn't break out (or else I wouldn't be telling you the story), but I didn't know that at the time.
I continued on my way, realising that travelling at night required a flashlight. And this was something I hadn't packed. Which was a bit of a worrying oversight on my part. Oh well. I'd have to stick to lit roads and hope nothing too bad happened. But if it did I was up a creek without a paddle, so to speak.
Once the night time journey was over, I stopped in another town on the edge of somewhere and spotted some pegasi talking together. They seemed to be complaining about something.
"I know lying to the people wasn't the best of things to do," said one. "But General Gulfstream is far, far worse! He's conscripting citizens into the army and sending them off to pointless wars! And for what? To satisfy his own ego? I don't want my daughter coming home in a plywood box just because some madpony fancies playing war games!"
"But they are our enemies!" Said another. "If we don't do something they may come and kill us!"
I made sure I was out of sight as I listened. Couldn't afford to get killed now, could I?
Another pegasus chimed in. "Apart from the lying, they treated us well. Gulfstream sees us as cannon fodder to serve his dream. And the racial purity laws he's proposing bringing in- these are disastrous! They'll prevent most of us from getting work!"
"Hear hear!" said another.
So, the first began to speak again. "I say we reverse the coup and fight back to restore the monarchy! What say you?"
The crowd, it seemed, were swayed. "VIVAT REGINA HAVEN!"
OK... they were now speaking some weird fancy language I don't understand. What is it with these places and weird foreign languages? At least the ponish spoken here seems to function very similarly to English!
But as I snuck out of the area, I had learned a valuable clue from the experience. That General I had seen on the TV earlier was a coup maker and an unpopular one at that. The average pegasus didn't like him, it seemed, and wanted the Royal Family back.
Well, that's an interesting turn. I mean, they didn't harm them in the movie, so I guess it makes sense, kinda. This was information I could use to my advantage if I had to, but I wasn't in that position yet. I still had a lot of ground to cover and plenty of things to do as part of my mission.
Speaking of mission, I soon found moving forward through the Equestrian hinterlands a little difficult as Gulfstream had decided to make things difficult for ponies like me. I became aware of it when I noticed the ground shaking, so hid in a bush to avoid being spotted by whomever was in there.
Up ahead, I poked my head slightly out so my eyes were barely visible (and hopefully my mane or forehead were not either). As I watched ahead, a large formation of tanks suddenly rolled by, each painted dark green with some sort of camo pattern.
They looked very different to the tanks we were building, that's for sure. Presumably they had different design needs for them. I couldn't tune into the radio chatter as I lacked a device with which to do this, but soon after they were followed by choppers fitted with searchlights and broadcasting messages.
"LOYAL CITIZENS OF THE NEW PEGASUS EMPIRE WILL HAND OVER ANY AND ALL INFORMATION OF THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE FALSE QUEEN AND HER SPAWN IMMEDIATELY, OR YOUR LIVES ARE FORFEIT!"
Spawn? It's a bit rude to call Pipp and Zipp spawn. They're her kids, for Celestia's sake!
Oh, Celestia? She's a mythical figure from long ago. I'll tell you more later.
Before long, the path was clear through the hinterlands of Equestria, and I could finally press on and continue with my journey. I continued to head onwards into the darkness of the land, the sun's race doing little to balance out the negativity and shock that I felt within my heart at how such a peaceful and cheerful looking world seemed to be on the brink of such an ugly war.
The coup news concerned me as well. Had the General launched his coup as a response to the military build up brought about in response to the bill that I had lobbied Congress for? Had I, without realising it, brought this place to the brink of a global war and destroyed the hopes of all here?
If that was the case, then how could I forgive myself? The title of that bill was a big problem, but if we ended up clashing on the battlefield that would help nopony whatsoever.
I shook my head and kept going. There was time. Time to fix this. Time to put all of this right, and built a better, brighter tomorrow on the ruins of the old world I trotted over. Damaged homes and abandoned villages remained sitting around as I made my way into the landscape and further north and west. I recalled from the map that Bridlewood was somewhere in the west of the continent, which was a place I was yet to go. Off I continued, covering the land as fast and efficiently as I could before arriving somewhere. The ground seemed to have changed somewhat, with the seeming foothills of mountains somewhere nearby, and some rocks being scattered amongst the boulders and grasslands of this wild terrain.
I pushed aside two trees and my mouth fell open at what I saw. Standing there, seemingly untouched even after all that had happened, was the Palace of the Two Sisters! It was on the other side of a rope bridge, so I crossed that and stepped into the ruins. Considering this place had been a ruin back in the previous Generation, the fact the ruins were still standing thousands of years on from that was nothing short of remarkable. And back in my old world we have buildings that are thousands of years old and still in one piece!
I looked in my saddle bag and suddenly spotted a camera in there, so took it out. Odd. I couldn't remember packing a camera. Had it somehow teleported into my bag without me knowing?
"This place is proof we used to live in harmony," I said. "Probably a good idea to get some photos of this!"
So, I went around and took snaps of the interior of the place to assess what sort of shape the area was in. The building was, well, a ruin, and hadn't entirely stayed together. Many roofs were missing, and a few walls had fallen over and covered the pathways inside with rubble and rock.
But the central throne room was remarkably intact. Two thrones sat there, along with a back wall and what looked to be the ruins of some sort of machine with six slots. I trotted over and looked inside, spotting six emblems.
This was the device that had contained the Elements of Harmony, when Celestia had banished Luna to the moon over two thousand years ago! It was all still here! If Sunny was here she'd be beside herself with excitement!
Speaking of Sunny, she was probably with Hitch. I kinda owed her an apology for being a jerk to her. I was about to leave when suddenly I spotted an intact book case, with books on it. I trotted over and looked closely at it, before noticing one of the books.
A complete history of Equestria, Revised and Expanded Edition - Includes the reign of Twilight Sparkle the title on the spine said.
A complete history would be invaluable, so I picked it up and took it with me. Sunny would no doubt have the skills to interpret this information better than I did.
Eventually, I left the old ruins behind and headed away in the direction I had been coming, which required me to head further north and west. The terrain was beginning to feel a bit foreboding, but at the same time I felt that I was fully prepared for what was to come.
Equestria was a fictional land I knew very well. True, much of it had changed since Friendship is Magic, but at the same time it was also exciting to see what had changed in the landscape.
And up ahead would lie some of the greatest discoveries of all time!