Lay of the Land
Chapter Four - Lay of the Land
Okay Sunset, just stay calm. A gust of wind swept by, tickling the bits of her mane that she hadn’t stuffed down her collar. The place looks abandoned, but that might not be entirely true. Ponies—or whatever they are—might just be … inside?
The reasoning felt hollow, and she gave her head a little shake, locking her fingers around the safety rail. Whatever. You can worry about that later. For now … water, food, shelter.
Food wasn’t as big a concern. She didn’t feel too hungry yet, and she’d grabbed a number of sandwiches and supplies from the kitchen. She’d eat the ones that could go bad early first. And even if this body needs more food, I’ve got enough for two or three days.
Besides which, with so many buildings around her, there had to be at least a few with some food in them that had weathered … well, whatever had happened.
She took a deep breath, drawing her eyes back to the courtyard down below and feeling a faint sense of exposure as the drop reminded her she was without a horn. “All right, Sunset. We’re up high,” she said, parroting the old Guard instructor. “So … what do we see?”
She ran her eyes over the city again, this time searching for details. “The buildings where I came out are closer together,” she said. “And the streets narrower. Looks like … a city center, maybe?” She brought one hand up, shading her eyes against the hot sun. “Everything around that starts to open up. So the city grew over time? Or town or whatever …” She gave her head another little shake. Focus, Sunset. Pick out some important buildings.
“So if that is the city center, then that’s probably the city hall,” she said, her eyes focusing on an ornate building flanked by a wide square. Large pillars dominated the front of the building, along with what looked like another park. It was the only wide, open space in the tightly-clustered center aside from the courtyard she’d found herself in that she could see. “Or some other important building.”
If it is a city hall, they might have an information booth somewhere, a small part of her suggested. With a map of the city, maybe.
And again, it wasn’t too far from where she had come out. There’s the road I followed, so if I head out of the courtyard opposite the way I left it ...
It’d get her close enough to be able to find her way there. The building did look fairly distinct.
Okay, that’s one place I need to stop. Who knows, there might be a way to contact someone there, too.
“Or maybe not,” she said as another gust of wind rolled over her. Some of her mane pulled free, trailing in the wind behind her. “So … what else can I see?” She moved her eyes on, searching for anything bright or distinct.
“That looks like a big store of some kind,” she said as her eyes fell on a large, squat building with tall front windows. A number of them looked to have been shattered, and she couldn’t read the sign, but the faded picture did look like a head of lettuce.
It was closer to the edge of the town, in a wide-open area that seemed to feature a lot of what she guessed were fountains and open spaces for the carriages. Though … the ground seemed damaged, like part of the open area had collapsed.
“A pair of binoculars would be nice right about now.” If there’d been more time to prepare, more time to gather what she could …
But no, Celestia had forced her out. Exiled her for merely trying to claim what was rightfully hers. What she had seen.
Why? Why would she—?
Sunset gave her head a harder shake, pulling the rest of her mane free of her collar and exposing it to the wind. There would be time for figuring out her former mentor’s exact jealousies later. Right now …
Right now I need to figure out where to go first. She pulled her canteen up and took another sip, giving it a small shake as she finished.
Halfway gone. She’d need to find a new source of water soon. Unfortunately ...
Given the state of the city, it was unlikely that the plumbing still worked. If they even had such. They have to though, right? part of her mind asked. But the buildings outside the city …
If they were anything like rural homes in Equestria, they often had their own, independent water supplies, either from rainwater, pumps, or nearby streams and creeks.
“Especially farms.” And the land outside the city did look like farmland. Except …
“If I leave the city, I leave the city.” Granted, she could always come back but …
Pros and cons. She brought her focus back to the large store she’d picked out, one hand corralling her mane.
If they were farms, and not just noble estates—also a possibility, and with the overgrowth and distance it was hard to tell which—then they would likely have useful tools in addition to independent setups. But some of those tools would have had to come from here.
Her eyes picked out a few more larger structures, though she couldn’t make out what they were. A few of them here and there across the city appeared to have been fortified for some reason, with what looked like hasty walls and fencing thrown up around them. Long ago, she noted, and unkempt. In some places the barriers had fallen over, leaving gaps.
One of them wasn’t too far from the storefront she’d spotted. At least, not that she could tell. It was hard to judge distances in her new body without a reference.
Unfortunately, it was also in the opposite direction from what she was guessing was the city hall. Which again … Could have a map.
She took another deep breath. Food and water are really important … but a map is really important too. And that building is the closest … She could already see a faint path to it, or at least one she could figure out. The “store” she’d spotted would be harder to get to, even with her knowing roughly where it was.
“All right, map first. If I can’t find one, then I’ll try to make my way over to the store.” If she was lucky, there would be other stores around it, just like in Canterlot, and she’d be able to find some useful things.
Like a tent. Or some lanterns. She eyed the position of the sun overhead. If it gets dark, I won’t have any light.
Or proper cover if it rained. There were clouds on the horizon. Then again, the inside of the building she was on had been dry ...
One thing at a time, Sunset. One thing at a time.
Getting down off of the tower was more difficult than it looked, but she managed to make it down without slipping and falling. Once at the bottom, she collected her pack and then the knife, took another quick look across the city, and made her way back into the dusty interior of the building.
What was this place? she wondered as she made her way back down the stairs, the metal creaking at every step. Faint pictures and bits of text framed on the walls told her nothing.
Metal was a conductor, wasn’t it? And there were those dishes. Maybe it had something to do with controlling the weather? She peered through an open door as she passed by, her eyes spotting some sort of console in the dim gloom. Maybe?
It was a relief to reach the lobby once more and step out onto the street, back into fresh air and away from the hot, muggy building interior. The breeze wasn’t as evident as it had been on the roof, but it was better than nothing.
She made her way back toward the courtyard, giving the buildings around her a closer look as she passed them. How long would it take for everything to look this overgrown and run down? Dusty, broken windows stared out at her as she passed what looked to have once been a home. Before the top floor had partially collapsed and nature had begun the process of reclamation. Still, she could make out what looked like old furniture: chairs, a small table, a lamp of some kind, bookshelves …
She stopped with a jerk. And on the bookshelves ... Books!
“Old books,” she said quietly, forcing herself to turn away. Mold and lichen had clearly spread across the spines. They’d likely fall apart at the slightest touch.
“Still,” she said softly, shaking her head as she continued back down the street. “Books are a good sign. If they have books, then there’s probably something like a dictionary I can find, teach myself their language.” It wouldn’t be easy, but she was Princess Celesti—a star student. She could do it.
The alleyway back to the courtyard was as empty as she left it, the only prints in the dust her own. Well, at least I’m not being followed by somepony. She increased her pace, reaching the top of the stairs once more, once again noting the strange, winged beings carved in stone that flanked the ste—
Movement.
She stumbled back, eyes going wide as she jerked the knife up to see … Another bird flitting between the branches of one of the trees. It landed on one of them, letting out a short whistle at her as if laughing.
“Sun above,” Sunset said, lowering the knife and letting out a long breath. “Great. Just great. That’s me …” She let out a weak laugh. “Sunset Shimmer: terrified of birds.”
The bird let out another whistle, cocking its head to one side.
“So,” she said, looking up at it. “I don’t suppose you’re intelligent enough to—” The bird let out another quick tweet and rocketed off through the trees, vanishing from sight.
“Guess not.” She blew back a lock of her mane that had slipped over her eyes. “Great. But on the positive side …” What was it that old crusty guard said about wildlife? Something about predators and prey? She paused for a moment, her new face wrinkling slightly as she tried to recall their words. Something about birds being a good sign, right? Animals avoiding a lot of noise? So most birds are a good sign there aren’t any timberwolves around?
Well … I’m not sure if this place has timberwolves, but he was probably right, right? “Which means if there was a bird here, or if I see other wildlife, it’s probably alright, right?”
The idea made her feel a little better. Carefully, she made her way down the stone steps into the courtyard, her boots scattering old, dried leaves and sticks, her hand scraping the handrail with her …
Palm? She paused as she neared the bottom of the steps. Sun above, I think that is why it’s called a handrail and not a hoofrail!
She let out a short, quick laugh as her mind caught up with the absurdity of the observation. “You’re exploring an alien city, Sunset, and you’re thinking about the handrails?”
She cut straight across the courtyard, moving with a bit more confidence and passing the bodies she’d found earlier by. Again she found her eyes drawn to the statue at the center, briefly wondering who the figure had been … and then she was in unfamiliar territory once more, steps rising before her and leading out of the park.
And onto what looked like a narrow footpath between the edge of the park and the nearest buildings. Not wide enough for one of the carriages she’d seen earlier, but certainly wide enough for hoof-traffic. Though it too had suffered the ravages of time like the rest of the city. Many of the bricks had been pushed up by tufts of grass, while others were covered by piles of rubble and debris that had broken free from the buildings around. To her left, a whole section of the path had collapsed into the park, erosion and likely water having done its job over who-knew how long.
At least the path ahead of me is clear. Sunset picked her way over the battered bricks. Well, mostly. From the look of the buildings around her, they had been apartment buildings once. Nice ones, probably. It was hard to tell with the vines and broken windows they now possessed.
This place must have been beautiful once, she thought as the alleyway ended, merging once more with a street much like the other she’d seen. Once.
The street to her right was dominated by a massive hole, as if a whole chunk of the earth beneath it had suddenly given way, dropping who knew how many feet. The collapse had taken some of the fronts of the closest buildings with it, little left of their walls but piles of debris and rubble.
Thankfully, the damage looked old, the bits and pieces she could see weathered and faded. Whatever had caused it had happened a long time ago.
Still, I can’t go that way unless I want to crawl over all that and … I really don’t. Instead, she turned left, following the road as it made its way … Well, wherever it goes. That big building I saw has to be somewhere around here, right? Somewhere … that way? Her gaze landed on another ruined building front. It was hard to tell what it had been originally, before one of the carriages had crashed into it.
Were they self propelled, maybe? She’d seen nobles hire unicorns to do the same with their own carriages. Some form of locomotive spell? Or maybe an engine of some kind?
Ahead of her the buildings on one side of the street stopped, and she slowed as the street widened, growing into a massive courtyard that at one point had probably been quite impressive.
Now it was home to more of those strange depressions. Boxes that had likely once held flowers or topiary had been smashed or broken apart. Wide steps were cracked and covered in more of the concrete barriers she’d seen earlier. They were chipped and broken.
Battle, she thought as she looked out over the courtyard. This was a battlefield.
And at the top of the steps, on the far side of the broken, battered courtyard, was the building with the large columns she’d seen from the tower, looking at once both regal and imposing despite the dirt, grime and damage across its face.
Another faint shiver of unease worked its way down her alien back as she took in the clear signs of some sort of battle. Not any form of battle she was familiar with … but battle all the same.
Except … I don’t see any bodies here, she thought as she moved into the massive courtyard. A faint bit of smudged blue caught her eyes, and she frowned. Well, almost. There were two behind one of the heavy barriers, slumped against the grey material, bone on clear display. She shivered again.
What if … there is no one left? Bits of cracked stone and dirt popped beneath her boots as she began to make her way up the long steps. What if everyone in this world is dead? What if I don’t find any water, or food? I can’t live off of the bits in my bag if there’s no one to sell them—
She shook her head, slowing her climb up the steps. “Easy, Sunset.” The sound of her own voice, quiet as it was, echoing across the open courtyard, was reassuring, the faint flutter of panic in her gut fading. “You’re here for a reason.” She grasped the straps of her pack with her … hands. “Ce— … She saw it.”
My destiny was through the mirror, she thought as she passed by another body. This one had slumped forward over some more of the tan sandbags, a smaller device that looked somewhat like the revolvers she remembered from the minotaur demonstration lying near the bony fingers of one hand. Her eyes stayed on it for just a moment, wondering whether or not it would be worth picking up … and then she moved on.
“Not yet,” she said as the front of the building neared. “You don’t know how to use it, you haven’t really seen anything dangerous yet—” Though there are plenty of signs that there were dangerous things. “—and you don’t even know how it works.”
Later. If she needed it, she could come back later.
The front of the building was in the lee of the sun, the entrance shadowed … as well as what were definitely a last ditch set of defenses. Defenses that, judging from the number of bodies, hadn’t held.
She’d been wrong in her earlier guess. There were bodies. And a lot of them.
Her stomach roiled as she took in the sight, but a small part of her was fascinated, drawing her eyes further across the tableau. It’s like “The Last Stand of the Spearspire Eyrie,” she thought, the famous painting coming to mind with its spread of dead griffons lying before the shattered barricades of their keep.
It hadn’t been a very popular painting. Even in the Griffon Empire. Which was probably why Prince—the Canterlot Museum had acquired it.
She pulled her gaze away from the corpses and their half-ruined protective walls, her eyes drawn to the massive, heavy doors behind them. Both were partially open, one moreso than the other. From the dust around each of them, neither had moved in a very long time.
“Well—” Her voice sounded abnormally loud reflected off the front of the building, especially among the number of long-dead bodies. It was like shouting in a mausoleum. She swallowed, lowering her voice before speaking again. “Well … at least there’s no sign that whatever did this is still around.”
She lifted one boot over the crumbling remains of a barrier, moving slowly around each of the bodies. Four … five … six … There were still more. At least a dozen beings died here, she thought as she counted each of the bodies. And yet, as she turned to look back …
There’s no sign of whatever did it to them. Was it more like that … thing … I found by the one body? Or something else?
Something skittered away from her boot, and she stopped surprise as it bounced off a nearby wall. Some sort of metal container? It was square and faded blue, about as wide and tall as one of her hands, maybe a little more, and about a third as thick. Stepping around another body, she knelt down and picked it up.
If it was food, it was heavy. But it didn’t feel like it. The metal was cool to the touch, and sturdy. It took her a moment to figure out how to undo the clasp on one end with her new fingers, but once she did …
Two smaller, boxy metal devices slid out of the box into her waiting hands. They were slightly oily, and smelled like metal and chemicals. Her nose wrinkled. One end of each of them was partially open, and inside were what looked like overlapping stacked rows of … Brass tubes?
Money maybe? No … She eyed the pointed tips. Some sort of weapon? Wait. Her eyes slid to one of the boxy weapons lying nearby.
What had that minotaur called them? Bulls, maybe? It was something like that, she was certain of it. And they did look like they’d fit in the barrel of the weapon … Maybe.
Whatever they are, I don’t have any use for them, she thought, setting the two smaller containers on the ground. The box, though …
She rose, still holding the larger container. It was a lot lighter now that it was empty, and she could see a rubber seal around the open top. Watertight, most likely. From the smell, maybe even airtight.
Useful. She swung her pack around, closed the container, and stuffed it inside. Definitely useful.
“Now,” she said, her voice still quiet. She eyed the dark gap between the two open doors. “Let’s see if there’s a map.”
She stepped inside, eyeing the heavy doors as she did so. It was good that they were already open, because they were truly massive. And thick. Not even the Canterlot Guard stations have doors so massive. Why? Was it a choice? Or was it something they simply had to do?
Either way, had they been shut, she wasn’t sure she could have opened them on her own.
Her eyes adjusted to the gloom inside to see a spacious lobby, now decrepit and aged. What had once been there however had clearly been impressive to behold. Large, ornate looking chairs with proud backs and heavy cushions, now dirty and sagging. Expansive desks with hardwood countertops burnt and scorched. Works of art on the walls shredded, punctured, or torn. Grand light fixtures smashed or dangling from broken wires.
Still, even in ruin there was a sense of almost regal beauty to it. Like an aged dancer who still held a glimmer of the pony they once were, standing tall beside the stage. This place must have looked amazing when it was new, Sunset thought as she walked further into the lobby, the coverings on her feet making soft thumps against—she glanced down. The flooring was marble.
Even with the poise of the lobby, however, it was the poise of the lost. Couches had been overturned or smashed into pieces. Bones littered the ground, the bodies long since gone but the skeletal remains persisting. But they were nowhere near as numerous as those outside.
That was the last stand, she thought. And this, the final slaughter.
But maybe not. She could see several ways further into the building, hallways and passageways that had been blocked by heavy doors, chains, or in one case what looked like a pile of heavy furniture and cabinets. None of them had been broken or battered down.
“Maybe they escaped?” The sound of her own voice echoing back at her made her flinch, almost dropping her knife. “Well … most of them.” She stepped around a set of bones, still heading for the main desk.
A faint shiver crawled down her back. It’s all right, Sunset. They’re just bones. Like in those old anatomy lessons you used to have to take. Just … old bones.
The desk was massive. Titanic, almost. The wooden top was charred and burned, and as she looked down she noted that her boots were leaving tracks in what looked like old soot or ash atop the stone floor. So someone set fire to the desk. She leaned over it on her arms, frowning as she noticed the soot staining her hands. Whatever had been behind the desk had been burned as well, though she spotted what looked like a wire rack of some kind lying near a strange, boxy device built into the desk.
That looks like something that might have held pamphlets, but if they all were burned, then I wasted my time coming … Wait!
The floor behind the desk was dirty and dusty, coated with what looked like other scattered patches of soot. But beneath that …
Pamphlets! Maybe.
Still, it was better than nothing. She made her way around the desk, wiping her palms on her … Pants, right? Soot and dirt crunched beneath her boots as she knelt down, dusting away several layers of grime and pulling up …
Well, it’s a pamphlet alright. Several of them. About … something. I wish I could read this language of theirs.
She moved books several slots up her mental list of objects to acquire.
None of these pamphlets look the same, either. She stared down at the faint images looking up at her. The images were faded and dirty, but one was … Hey, that’s that armor I saw those bodies wearing. Except it looked new. And the figure wearing it had a helmet that covered their face completely, save for two glowing eyes.
Do people’s eyes glow here? Or is that some sort of enchantment on the armor? The figure was holding one of the boxy weapons closer to their chest in a way that reminded her of how the Guard back home had held their spears. Formal and posed.
The next pamphlet had a less military look to it, the front nothing but text she couldn’t read. And the third … was identical to the first.
All right, well, that’s two. She ran her eyes over the floor. Maybe there are—Yes! Several more lay in the dust beneath a nearby chair, and as she followed their path, she could see even more under the desk itself.
Someone knocked over the wire holder, and they scattered them across the floor and somepony’s chair. Then when they got up, they pushed them under their desk. A print in the dirt across on pamphlet’s crumpled pages seemed to confirm her theory, and she sorted through the pile, pulling out any that were different than those she’d already found and discarding the rest.
Which left her with … five of the small leaflets. Better than nothing. She rose, her eyes going first to the faded, dusty windows along the upper rim of the room and then to the still-open door, the sunlight coming through it a golden beam of warmth and safety. And … I’m out of here. She moved across the lobby, stepping once more carefully over the bones and picking up speed as she neared the sunshine.
Breaking out into it once more felt like coming out of an icy tomb, a sigh of relief slipping out of her lips. She shaded her eyes for a moment, more than glad to trade the silent emptiness of the lobby for the warmth and wind of the outside world.
Still, can’t let myself get distracted. I need food. I need water. And … She peered upward checking the sky for signs of clouds. Shelter. Who knows how long this weather could last without anyone around to maintain it?
So … let’s see what we’ve got. She looked down at the clump of leaflets in her hand … and then her eyes slipped to the nearest body. Somewhere else.
Across the courtyard, away from the last stand, she spread the pamphlets across the front of one of the abandoned carriages, eyeing each of them in turn. She unfolded the one with the faded picture of the creature in armor first, the interior thankfully in one piece. She was rewarded with brightly colored images of … well, whatever the creatures called themselves, all jumping, firing weapons, scaling walls, and battling in forests. She couldn’t read the text, but the general layout and look was so familiar that she almost let out a laugh.
“It’s a recruitment brochure,” she said, shaking her head. “For their Guard.” And at the end of the brochure was a familiar symbol: a large, skinny, flat gear.
“Well, that sort of explains the necklace I found,” she said. “Some sort of symbol of rank, authority, or identity then.” Which meant … it was probably worth keeping. I might even be able to use it to convince someone to listen to me.
Though … that might count as impersonating a Guard. And that could go badly. She took one last look over the brochure, lifted her hand to toss it aside … and then paused. Might be useful later when I’ve got a better grasp on their language. She folded it back up.
The second pamphlet was … less useful. Nothing but text she couldn’t read. She folded it back up and kept it anyway. The third … was close to what she was looking for. Maybe. It was full of pictures of what looked like local landmarks. Historical details? Some sort of tourist guide?
The fourth, however, was exactly what she was looking for. Even as the aged, plastic-coated paper began to unfold, crinkling in the wind, she could see colored lines and squares that denoted streets and buildings, along with small print text and hexagonal symbols at what were probably various points of interest.
She let out a small sigh of relief as she saw the icons dotting the map. Thank the sun they chose iconography instead of text. If this is a map of the city, and I can just find a particular identifiable mark, I can—
“Aha!” The exclamation was out of her mouth before she’d realized it, echoing across the courtyard. But she didn’t care. Her eyes had spotted something she could identify: an icon of a familiar-looking gridwork tower, hovering above one corner of a building, block print of some kind beneath it.
She made a quick check over the rest of the map, her eyes hunting for any other signs of the same icon, but … Yes! That’s the only one! Which means … She craned her eyes skyward, peering over the ruined lip of the nearest building and just making out the tip of the tower from her angle.
“That has to be the same tower,” she said, a feeling of smug satisfaction filling her chest. This was going to work. No need to worry. Or panic. Or get scared. She had a map, and it was all going to work. “And that means … I’m right here.”
Next to an icon of several pillars. That lined up too. “Which means, for the store I saw over there …” She turned, peering down one of the nearby streets and glancing at the map, her mind split between her current location and the view from the tower. “I’d have to go … that way!”
It wasn’t on the map … but there was another icon after it, in the same spot she’d made out the large building. This one was of what looked like a book with spread pages. And a library! That meant books. Knowledge.
She smiled, peering down at the map once more, confidence flooding through her in a warm wave. It was going to work out. She’d find food of some kind, supplies, knowledge … It was all going to work out. She stuffed the extra pamphlets into her bag—no sense in getting rid of them, especially when they could be useful later—and after a moment’s hesitation, decided to carry her knife in one hand, since she still didn’t have a place to safely store it.
She double checked her new guide, eyed the street ahead of her, and set out. She had a guidepost now. She was on her way. The destiny she’d been almost denied was before her. She’d find food, shelter, and knowledge.
It was all going to work out.
Behind her, the wind whistled down the empty streets, and she tried not to shiver.
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I instantly knew where this fic took place just by the cover art alone. This franchise is severely underrated.
11089072
Your guess can't be the same as mine then. One of the most popular franchises of all time.
11089166
popular in central and south America? most definitely. everywhere else? not so much, or at least it feels like it since they barely ever promote it in the US.
11089187
It's in the summary now, so I'm gonna stop beating around the bush. Gears was one of best selling games on Xbox for years in the U.S.
11089190
preaching to the choir. I guess it's just me but it definitely feels like everyone forgotten about gears. what I mean is unlike halo where everyone still talks about it years later, gears is only popular when it launches it's next project only be forgotten after like a month or so until the next project, etc etc.
11089072
Amusingly enough, before Google retired Google image search, all it would have taken a determined sleuth was right clicking the cover image and doing a search. The user would have gone right to Gears.
But in the weeks before this fic was ready to come out, Google switched to "Google Lens" ... And it has no capacity, at least with that same right click that I've found, to lead a user to the result anymore.
11089195
speaking of your fic being ready, how long is this story gonna be? judging by the way you worded it, sounds to me like you already have a finished story and are releasing chapters daily like you said in the description. And seeing as how sunset plans on visiting multiple areas of interest, looks to me you're taking the slow world building approach before introducing certain elements/characters/creatures. seems to me we have a lengthy gears fic to look forward to.
11089193
I think that's mostly because after the original trilogy it kind of went downhill. I don't think Judgement deserved the hate it got but 4 and 5 don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as their predecessors.
11089212
yeah, kinda seems like gears is going through the early 343 era of halo phase. hopefully they can pull an Infinite on the gears franchise and rev it back to life again.
11089211
I won't spoil things, but it's not quick, that's for sure.
For a better idea, check the rest of my library. Even my "short" works are anything but.
11089232
oh I get it now, this is an experiment for an original idea except you substituted certain aspects like sunset and the gears universe to come together and play off each other to capture certain elements just to see how it turns out. well I'm a stickler for anything gears and the attention to detail, the descriptions of her surroundings, I can't get enough. I'm curious and excited to see just what she uncovers and who or what she encounters during her stay here, if she encounters anything.
11089341
That is exactly what I did here! You've got it figured! I saw a chance to test elements I wanted to write into another novel in the future and took it!
Edit: To clarify, the book won't have stand-ins for Sunset or Gears. It'll be an entirely different story. The test was conceptual and mechanical, not the story being told.