Learning
Chapter 9 - Learning
Day Four - Holton
Sera. The world I’m on is named Sera.
The language is, thankfully, very similar to our own. Almost word for word, in many cases. The few that are different seem to be for items or concepts that we Equestrians have no need for. Or words that have taken on a new meaning.
A “lancer” for example. The closest term I can make of it from Equestrian is a somewhat rare definition for a style of armored combat. Here however … it stands for a very dangerous type of firearm. The ones I’ve been seeing across the city.
They have pictures of it in their childrens’ books. They teach these things to their foals.
Our language is so similar—spoken even sounds similar, though some of the accents and inflections are different. My own voice will sound strange, I think, to those I meet. Maybe.
Starswirl may have been a pompous, overbearing pain in everypony’s plot, but he was a genius. An incompetant one. Only he could make a portal to other worlds that would be so similar and yet so terrible.
They had a war here that lasted eighty of this world’s years. Eighty years. Four or five generations living and dying in a battle that consumed the whole planet. Like the Breaking. But with tools and methods most in Equestria couldn’t imagine.
Though it wasn’t their Breaking. I’m still rough with my translation, but some of the children’s books seem to reference a thousand years of war, conflict of the sword and shield so bloody they nearly wiped one another out.
Serans, they call themselves. After the world. I share a body with them now. That is what I am. That is what I’ve become. A seran.
A species that seems destined to war, like the griffons before the Empire was founded.
“The Coalition of Ordered Governments.” That’s where I am. They know their whole world, all of it mapped out in a childrens’ book. Split down two lines: The Coalition, or “COG,” as they refer to themselves often as, and the Union of Independent Republics, or “UIR.”
Two sides at war for so long they teach children war so that they can contribute to the war effort. When I first read this, my thought was that they lost. That’s why the city was evacuated. But … they didn’t. Unless these books lie—and in fairness, such lies exist, and any government as absolute as this “COG” seems to be likely wouldn’t hesitate to do so—they won. They won this “Pendulum War” with something called “The Hammer of Dawn.”
I don’t know what it is, save something similar to a solar flare. The picture shows a beam of light descending from the sky to annihilate their foes. Magic, perhaps? I’ve found only scant mention of magic in their history, so perhaps it is wielded only by those that rule? Their “chairman?”
At first I thought this … imulsion … they went to war with their foes was some form of magic. But no, it’s fuel, like the gel used in some steam boilers, only pumped up from deep within the ground. Everyone wanted it. So they fought over it. The COG won, at least according to every one of these books.
So why does it look like they lost?
Sunset let out a sigh as she put down her pen. It truly was a marvelous writing instrument, but her hands and fingers hurt after being cramped in such a difficult pose for so long.
You’re not used to it, she thought, pushing the journal back and glancing over at the pile of books next to her on the sofa. All of them were open to various pages. One of the most important ones was the book that spoke when a button was pressed. Not only was it invaluable in reminding her that their spoken languages were almost identical, it was nice to hear a voice other than her own.
She hadn’t left the building in two days.
Next to it was a child’s history book, the one that had filled her with alarm on almost every page. Currently it was open to a map of their entire world. Every ocean, sea, and continent. The pages beyond it were even more astounding: Views of Sera, their world, from space. And of its moons, with much more detail than any telescope in Equestria ever could have provided.
Cars. Trucks. Imulsion. Lancers. COG. UIR. Hundreds of new terms to learn and digest.
It was almost too much.
She popped the lid off of a can of nuts and ate a few more, though she was sick of the flavor. Learning to decipher their written language had given her a good idea of what she could eat from the home’s pantry, though it wasn’t much, and the nuts were still a good source of proteins and salts. Though I’m pretty sure I don’t need as much of those now. She didn’t seem to crave them the way she once had.
Thankfully, to help her with identifying each new term, the other book she had sitting out, a heavy, text-laden tome she’d found first at the school, had indeed turned out to be a dictionary. Any word she wasn’t certain of the meaning of, she could look up—slowly, as she was still getting used to the symbols in their alphabet—and identify.
Sunset let out another sigh and sank back against the cushions of the couch. Her hands hurt, and her head ached. Ached from two days of continuous study. But … she was already feeling like she had a passable grasp on their script. It was like learning code. The only thing slowing her down was the unfamiliar terms.
Lancer. Bayonet. Holton.
That last one was the name of the city she was in. Small city, really. More like a town. An agricultural stop in the middle of nowhere, from the world map she’d found. Not a large one either. Just … one of many.
And empty. Completely empty.
I need to go find more water tomorrow. The buckets of rainwater she’d collected were good for washing her hands and keeping clean, but she had already gone through two of the jugs of drinking water. I need to find more. Or find something that’ll let me clean the water I get from the roof.
Now that I can read, it’ll be a lot easier.
A pump would be nice too. Something to make getting water out of the jugs a little easier. With less spillage.
I should make a list. Things I need to find. Unfortunately, her map wasn’t detailed enough to tell her exactly where she would need to go to find some items. But there were a few places that were helpfully marked as stores and commercial districts. It’s a start.
Food was her biggest worry, now. Even though she could now identify a lot of what had been left in the pantry of the home she was staying in, much of it was no longer edible. Or required cooking tools she didn’t have access to.
Yet. I need a list. Plus new clothes. Hers were getting grimy. And … I need a plan. Or at least, the beginnings of one. A plan for what to do next.
She stared down at the words she’d written in her journal, before reaching out and adding another line: I need to find out what happened.
The line added, she sat back and closed her journal, staring at the cover where her own cutie mark gleamed up at her. This “COG” won the war. Did the UIR start it again? And then win? Did they have some way to negate this “Hammer of Dawn” the books talk of? She’d tried searching the dictionary she’d found for more information on the weapon, but not even the name had been inside its pages.
After eighty years, I suppose it’s possible the war could resume once more, she thought. However long their peace was, it clearly didn’t last. Some of the books she’d found spoke as if the war was still going, and they appeared older than the ones that claimed the COG had won. So long enough done that they still left out books about it.
And where did the monsters come from? While the images in the children’s books of UIR soldiers had been given artistic liberties to look monstrous, she was sure they were just that: Liberties. Actual pictures, some from the dictionary, as well as what history she’d been able to gather, painted them as serans, not monsters.
Maybe some side effect of the Hammer of Dawn magic?
She let out another sigh, blowing a bit of her greasy, limp mane away from her cheek. If it is magic. The dictionary says that magic is a myth, an imagined explanation for the powers of science.
Though to be fair, she thought, eyes slipping to the flashlights arrayed on one end of her table. They seem to have an explanation for how all these things work that doesn’t require any magic. Nothing past electricity and combustible materials anyway.
In fact, it was impressive what they’d accomplished without magic. Electricity combined with magic was a growing field of study in Equestria, but still young, though magilectric lights were rapidly expanding. Here however, the inhabitants had somehow used electricity to transmit sound and images through the sky, and make devices that could perform an impressive number of functions.
But I can still feel my magic. She sat up, closing her eyes and focusing her attention inward. There, deep inside her, she could feel her magic, just as she always had. Once more she pressed her will at it, pushing for the most basic of spells.
But nothing happened. Her magic slipped away from her like a soap bubble before wet hooves, sliding out from beneath her grasp and refusing to mold itself to her wishes.
Enough. She’d already spent an hour earlier that day trying to get her magic to do something—anything—to no avail. Without her horn to channel it …
Even as a griffon I could channel magic, she thought, scowling. It was just different. If this body has magic, then I can use it. I just need to figure out …
With a groan of frustration she pushed herself up from the couch. “Forget it, Sunset. You’ve got other things to do.” While there was still sunlight. After her encounter with that … thing … at the school, the last thing she wanted to do was be out after dark. She’d kept the blinds tightly closed once the sun had gone down too, and the doors locked. It was still possible for something to break in, as she had, but as lightly as she’d slept the last few days, she hoped not.
Right now, however, the blinds were open, and she wandered over to the windows, peering out and down at the street below. The day had been cloudy, with a bit of wind, but it hadn’t rained, and the upstairs of her temporary domicile was plenty warm, almost muggy.
Not even noon yet, Sunset thought, eyeing the position of the sun. Plenty of time for today’s excursion. She’d found, tucked against a back wall in the shop, a single pair of binoculars. Not good ones, and judging from the tag, for bird watching rather than serious distance observation … but that would do.
Today, she thought, eyeing her map sitting folded in one corner of the coffee table. Today I get a better idea of where I need to go in the city.
And then from there and with a little luck, she thought, where I need to go next. She picked up her hatchet from its place nearby—she never went far from it now, not even in her temporary shelter—and strapped it into place.
Markers, she thought as she gathered the items she was taking with her on her jaunt across the city. Map. Flashlights. Always two of those, since she still didn’t know when the power source would run out, only that it would at some point. But with some help from her language lessons, she at least knew how to swap out the power source for others in the shop, now. That had been the weird metal cylinders she’d found nearby. Batteries.
One can of nuts. Her canteen, full.
She peered out the window a second time, eyeing the clouds drifting in scattered clumps through the sky. It doesn’t look like it’s going to rain today, she thought. Across the street, some of the green vines were rustling in a faint breeze. But it is windy. Her eyes slipped to her jacket, lying on a nearby chair.
No, I’ll leave it. It’s warm enough out there, even with the wind. Satisfied that she’d packed everything she’d need for her excursion, she slipped the backpack onto her shoulders and headed for the stairs. A few moments’ work later, and she was out in the back street, her wagon empty behind her and the door locked once more. The missing pane of glass she’d knocked out had been replaced by several layers of tape, a quick attempt to seal the door once more. A precaution. Especially if another of those … things … comes looking, Sunset thought, one hand falling to the hatchet at her waist.
She kept her pack on her back as she walked through the streets, wagon rolling over the stones behind her. Even though the lack of airflow quickly made her back sweaty. If I have to run and leave the wagon, I don’t want to lose the pack too.
The city felt smaller now that she was starting to learn her way around. Being able to understand the map certainly helped, and she found her eyes drawn to the signs in front of businesses and homes as she walked, her mind struggling to match the symbols there with the ones she’d spent the last two days memorizing.
“Alfred’s Diner,” she said slowly, sounding out the letters as she passed a decrepit storefront. At one point, it had probably been colorful and charming, with large booth seating and huge paned-glass windows. Most of the glass had long-since shattered, the interior covered in dirt, dust, and the ever-present vines.
“Foot-wise Shoes?” she said as she passed another business, this one boarded up and sealed against the elements. Save for an upper window that was open just a crack. She glanced down at her own boots. “Probably won’t need to shop there anytime soon.”
“Azure Way?” She stopped as she looked up at the weathered street sign. “So then that would be where on the map?” The plastic-coated map crinkled as she unfolded it, the surface catching the sunlight and sending flashes of glare across her vision.
“Azure way … Azure way … Azure—There!” The tiny letters stared up at her, and she followed the line next to them with her eyes. It ran through a good chunk of the city. “All right, so if I’m here somewhere, then I need to find …” She turned her gaze up at the weathered sign once more, but the matching sign that would have been beneath it marking the other street was gone.
Well, not entirely gone. Part of it remained. But not even enough to give her a single letter to work off of.
Fine, Sunset thought, folding the map up once more but leaving it in her hand. Then we do this the hard way. She continued down Azure Way toward the next intersection, towing her wagon behind her.
There! The sign on the next street was still intact, if bent from a large impact of some kind. Of what had made it there was no sign, but the dent was old and dirty. It hadn’t been recent. Probably a carriage—I mean “car”—striking it during the evacuation, Sunset thought as she peered up at the still somewhat unfamiliar letters. “Okay … Gar … Gar-den … Garden Road?”
She glanced back down at her map, checking the intersecting streets. Garden Road … Garden … Garden … Garden … “Yes! Found it!” There, beneath her finger, was an intersection between the two streets. “Which means …” she said, glancing back the way she had come and counting the intersections as she pulled one of the markers from her pocket. “The garden shop is … here!” She glanced back once more to check before putting a simple circle around the section of the street her shelter was located on.
“And … okay, that’s not that far from where I want to go. Maybe … a mile?” She shook her head. “Assuming that even means anything anymore in this body.” There was a scale on the map, but like everything else it was hard to say how accurately it had matched with her limited knowledge of her new form.
“Okay, so I’m not that far from it,” she said, looking at her destination on the map. “And actually … that way actually looks like it might be quicker.” Though in fairness, I guess I did make a roundabout route to the garden shop the first time, since I would have been following these streets here, and … Yes. She pulled her gaze up, looking down the street. “If I go left ahead, instead of going straight …” I might even end up near that courtyard that brought me here in the first place.
A nervous shiver ran down her spine despite the heat. What if I do get near it, and she has sent Guard after me?
Then again, I can’t imagine they’d get very far here, she thought with a smirk. They’d probably leave the moment they saw those bones.
Or not … They are Guard. The smirk faded. They might have set up a camp of sorts, even. And could even be looking for me.
No. She shook her head again, her bedraggled mane flipping around her face. Be realistic. The portal was only going to be open for a few minutes, and she would have known that. She wouldn’t have sacrificed her Guard to keep me from my destiny, no matter her jealousy.
Still … There was a route she could see that would avoid all of the small, open courtyard spaces, and it wasn’t that convoluted. Just to be on the safe side.
She could go back and find the courtyard later. When she wasn’t busy. But for now. Right now I have something I need to do. She took another glance at the map then folded it and put it back in her pack. All right … That way!
Now that she was starting to understand the symbols and letters around her, she had to focus to keep her thoughts on the path to her destination. You’re getting the lay of the land all over again, she thought as she cut across an intersection, avoiding a nasty collection of blackened, twisted metal that looked to be the result of at least three or four vehicles striking one another directly.
Eyes on the destination, Sunset. There will be time enough to start looking at possible points of interest after you get to the tower. She could see it now, faintly poking here and there above the rooftops as she walked.
Before long she was standing in front of it once more, her mind drifting back to that first day when she’d been fresh out of the portal. Except then, she hadn’t been able to read the sign that hung out front, the numbers meaningless.
“C-W-T-9 Broadcast Station? What does that even mean?” A station? For what? Like a Guard station, but for “broadcasts?” What are broadcasts? Is that word similar to ours, or is one of the different ones. Broad means covering a wide area or scope, and cast is throwing … wide area throw? She tilted her head to one side as she looked up at the letters. That … doesn’t make any sense.
It must be a word without an Equestrian equivalent. The handle of the wagon clattered as she set it down on the steps. And what do those letters and that number mean?
Still, despite her confusion and curiosity as to what the building actually did, the entrance was identical to her memory of when she’d last left it, and she moved into the lobby with a sense of ease. At least no one else has been here. Not that I can see anyway, and— She stopped as she saw the letters written along one of the walls, sounding out the letters.
“Holton’s premiere ray-dee-eye-oo station?” If the rules of the grammar are similar, than that would be ... “Radio station? What in Equestria is ‘radio?’”
Whatever it was, it must have been important for them to build a whole building for it. It has to have something to do with the tower. Though what, she had no idea. Something to look up later in the dictionary.
Still, it was easy to retrace her steps from a few days earlier, especially with a flashlight to shine light over the imprints of her boots in the dust. Barely a minute later, she was back on the roof of the station once more, the ladder of the large metal tower before her.
And this time, once she reached the highest platform, her mane dragging in the breeze, she was ready. She set her pack carefully on the metal platform and pulled out the binoculars.
“All right, Sunset,” she said, standing up and holding the binoculars to her face. “Let’s see what we can find!”
This, she thought as the distant city around her leapt into sharp clarity with its rubble and vines, is a much better way to get a look around. Perfect, in fact!
I came up that street there, turned there, and … Well, I can’t see it, but the shop should be over there. And there’s the town hall at the city center. With the binoculars, she could even make out the signs of combat around the front entrance.
That would have been useful to know in advance, I suppose.
Still the goal of looking out across the city with the binoculars wasn’t to look at where she’d been. She pulled her gaze away, remembering the locations she’d picked out from the map and counting through the streets until she was looking at the rough area.
Carriage—I mean car—dealership, she thought, her eyes catching sight of the large, open space, still visible despite the buildings around it. Plenty of people in Equestria had caravans for traveling in, surely these people did … as … well … Hmm … She lowered the glasses for a moment. That doesn’t look great. Most of the dealership seemed to be consumed by a giant sinkhole.
Still, there are a few things left. Might be worth the trouble. Carefully, slowly, she lowered the glasses and sat down atop the tower platform, taking out her map and carefully putting a question mark next to the dealership on her map.
Okay, that’s that. What about food? She rose again, this time looking for what the map had identified as several other food stores.
Most, from what she could see now that she was looking out over the city, looked like old restaurants.Two did have the look of a more ordinary grocery, however, and she noted both of them on her map.
Warehouses all seem to be on … the south end of the city, she thought, noting the long, flat structures. Or at least, what would have been long and flat if most of them hadn’t collapsed. An industrial district, maybe. The map hadn’t labeled it, instead leaving everything unmarked and conspicuously wide and spread out.
No train lines though. I guess they used their carriages for that. Which meant … One of those could be a temporary holding location for food before it went to the stores. Possibly worth a look. She marked the location on her map with a question mark and went back to her search.
Now, where is that camp supply store? That was the one she was most interested in. The map had listed it as a good place to get camping supplies if one wanted to go camping at a nearby lake, and though it hadn’t offered any clues as to the location of the lake, it had marked the store on the map.
Let’s see … Green-covered buildings panned by beneath the binoculars, their surfaces almost a blur. No, that’s too far to the west. Back a bit. An intersection flashed by and she slowed. That’s … could that be that intersection right there, where the streets fork? A glance down at the map showed that there were two such intersections nearby … So it has to be close. The second, more north of the two intersections came into view a moment later.
That’s not that far from here. Maybe a half-hour’s walk or less if the streets are clear. And there might be similar stores nearby. Maybe.
The campstore was her primary concern. Water purifying tools if these people ever invented them, camping stoves, firestarters, tents, sleeping bags, outdoor wear.
Everything she would need if she were to leave Holton. Which she was already fairly certain she would need to. Unless my destiny is to wander around here like a hermit.
Even putting the mental image aside, the city didn’t feel safe. There was something … wrong … about a city with no inhabitants. It was eerie.
Especially when the only other inhabitant so far has been a monster that had tried to claw my face off. She shivered as the memory of the thing’s eerie, keening cry echoed through her mind.
And I had to kill it. Which was why she was now looking for one of the other two locations she’d wanted to find from the tower: a local police station, and a COG military outpost that was supposed to be near the edge of the city.
It was. Or rather, had been. The brief description she had gotten—from the pamphlet she had found about the military service, not the map—had described it as a hardened facility capable of withstanding even direct missile strikes.
Whatever the missile they had gauged that upon had clearly hadn’t been large enough, as the building now was a battered ruin, half of it gone. Even with however many years had passed since whatever calamity had gripped the town, she could still see the clear signs of devastation that had ripped the outpost apart.
Still … there might be something worth scavenging. The mark she gave the outpost on the map was a question mark. She wouldn’t skip it … But it sure doesn’t look like I’ll find much there of use. I might have better luck finding a weapon from one of the dead soldiers around the city.
That was another thing she needed to do: Learn how to use one of the weapons of the world. If another one of those things found her, using a gun instead of her hatchet would be a lot safer.
The police station looked as though it had suffered an attack as well, in addition to being one of the reinforced checkpoints she’d seen across the city … but it also didn’t appear nearly as damaged as the military outpost had been. It got a circle.
All right, that’s most of the obvious things taken care of. Making sure the map was thoroughly wedged under her backpack so the wind couldn’t carry it away, Sunset rose once more and held the binoculars to her eyes. Let’s see what else we can find …
Food. Water. Those were the two most vital things on her list. Even if the camp store had methods for acquiring both … It may not be reliable. I need to take advantage of whatever I can find.
Water, at least, there had to be some good supply of out across the city. Nopony would make something like the jugs she’d found and then not sell them to as many beings as possible. Especially with the mass-manufactured look the strange jugs had. All I need is to find more places that have water dispensers like the one I found, she thought, panning her gaze over the city. And … I can’t see that from up here.
But if there was a central location that most of the jugs came from … That I might be able to see from up here. Maybe.
Or perhaps once she got better with the alien language she could find a directory of some kind. A mass-produced water jug being brought to businesses all over the city would have to leave some kind of paper trail. Bills, schedules, addresses … I guess I could always go back to where I found the jugs in the first place and look there.
If so, it’d have to be soon. She still had half her water left, but it was a dwindling supply.
Food was her other pressing concern. She adjusted her view through the binoculars as she caught sight of a small, nearby storefront that had the look of having once been a grocery. Before damage to the street had collapsed half of it.
It’s only two streets over, and if the inside is intact there could be something sealed that’s survived.
Just hopefully not raisins. Her estimation of the single package she’d retrieved from the Food Barn had been accurate, but she’d quickly tired of the dry, sticky fruit, even if it was good for her.
Then again, I’m not likely to find fresh fruit anywhere inside this city unless it’s wild, she thought as she counted the streets and marked her map with another question mark. Dried fruit is probably the best I can hope for. Or canned foods. Those last for a long time.
Though how long it’s been since this place was abandoned … She pressed her teeth together, grimacing. What in Equestria happened here? They won the war! It was over, and they had their super sun-hammer thing to make sure it stayed that way. Another small storefront caught her eye. It looked like a streetside market, the kind where the proprietor brought out their wares on small tables and displayed them to passerbyers.
Except at some point during the evacuation one of the carriages—cars—had swerved off of the street and onto the sidewalk, crushing most of the tables and crashing against the front of the store.
Couldn’t have been going too fast though, Sunset thought as she eyed the scene. It didn’t go through the storefront, and those carriages look pretty tough.
Definitely one to check out. It only took her a few moments to gauge its position relative to the tower, and she circled its location on the map. Today, maybe. It’s close enough. I think both of them are.
Between those two and the campstore, that’s probably all I want to take the time to search today. She eyed the map, her eyes charting a path between the twin groceries and the camping store. A little roundabout, but doable as long as I keep an eye on where I am.
Well, let’s see what else I can find. She held the binoculars up once more. Let’s see … ruins … more of those odd sinkholes, a checkpoint, another checkpoint, more holes … Wow, that section of the city almost came apart. I wonder what did that? It looked as though several blocks had simply slumped into the earth.
Some kind of weapon maybe? She pulled the binoculars away, running them across rooftops … but noting that she was looking at buildings far enough away now that unless they were large, were completely unidentifiable.
Still, it didn’t mean she was completely at a loss. She marked the section of the city that was slumping, crossing it off on her map. Any place that’s literally sunken into the earth like that could be unstable. Whatever’s in there wouldn’t be worth the risk. And though what she’d seen of the construction of buildings so far had made them very solid, far past what Equestria would have considered standard … I’d rather not find out how far that durability extends the hard way.
Checkpoints went onto the map as well, since they were generally bottlenecks that slowed her down. Especially with the wagon. There were a few checkpoints that were realistically closed to her, the carriages—Cars—packed so tightly against one another that she would be unable to pull her wagon past.
That, she thought as she eyed her newest additions to the map, and if I can map the checkpoints out I might be able to find a pattern. Figure out where they everyone was going when they left the city.
Maybe I should stop inside one of the checkpoints, too, she thought as she lifted the binoculars once more and fixed on a particularly large one on what she was guessing was the south end of the city. It was at the bottom of the map, anyway. See if I can find orders. Maybe a pamphlet. Something to explain what happened here.
There was something … odd … about the checkpoint she was looking at, something strange she couldn’t quite put her hoof—Finger?—on. She stared at it, eyeing the heavy concrete barrier walls. There were layers of the walls, all clustered around what looked like weathered tents—though far too heavy to be of any use to her—and hastily erected towers.
Sunset frowned. Something about it was definitely off. And it’s not just that it looks like it didn’t see much fighting. It’s not like the others I’ve seen, but …
She lowered the glasses and shook her head. Maybe I’m just jumping at shado—No, there’s definitely something strange about it.
Pinning down what though was like trying to catch a dragon openly staring at the jewels on her m—she had worn during diplomatic meetings. Everyone knew that they did, but you had to look very closely to catch them doing it.
But there was something calling at her attention, something storming from the back of her mind … What am I missing? She panned the binoculars over it once more. Barriers, towers, tents, open space, towers, barriers … wait …
She panned back, then over it once more. No, I’m right.
This checkpoint is laid out to defend from an attack in either direction. Like they didn’t know where it was going to come from.
Could the COG have suffered a revolt? Maybe even a military coup?
It didn’t explain the monsters, however, unless … Some part of the rebelling element created them as a way to even the odds?
It was grim … but then again hadn’t Itzpapalotl done the same thing after The Breaking? If someone knew they’d lose against a larger foe, like the COG, could they have made monsters to fight for them?
UIR sympathisers maybe? She ran her view back over to one of the other, smaller checkpoints, eyeing its design and noting that once again, it was laid out so that those who’d been holding it were defended from both directions up and down the street.
No, that doesn’t make any sense. If there were enough people in the COG sympathetic to their enemies to force the evacuation of a whole city like this one … the UIR wouldn’t have lost, hammer or not.
Which left the other option that came to mind: A civil war. It didn’t explain the monsters—Maybe they were a COG weapon of some kind? One that had gotten out or been released?—but it would explain why the checkpoints had been designed to cover both … What had that old Guard veteran called it?
“Streets of approach?” It had been something like that anyway.
Almost all the checkpoints she could see from her vantage point showed signs of it, too, now that she knew what she was looking for. And I’ll bet if I were to go look at the other side of the school, I’d find signs of … Well …
Actually, no, I don’t want to do that. After what she’d seen of the gymnasium … I don’t want to see that at all.
Still, it was another clue in a building puzzle. If she could only find enough data …
A book would be nice. Unfortunately, this seemed to be one situation where books couldn’t help her. For someone to write a book about it, someone has to survive, she thought as she took a wider look over the city, noting a few more locations of possible interest but nothing that she was specifically looking for.
“Okay,” she said, mostly to hear the sound of a voice. “That’s pretty much everything that stands out in the city. So … let’s see what I can see outside Holton.” She changed her focus, lifting it to the rolling hills of the horizon.
“Farmland,” she said as she took in the rolling, almost golden fields. No … that was brown. “Untended, wild farmland.” Maybe it didn’t even count as farmland anymore. There were what looked like young trees growing here and there, and the plant life she could see certainly didn’t have the look of being cared for.
Atop one distant hill a titanic machine loomed. Probably farm equipment. And abandoned, like everything else. Some green had grown over it.
“And that dot is a house, maybe? Or an equipment shed?” The rolling fields seemed to go on for miles in all directions, broken up here and there by clusters of trees and the like large, spinning metal windmills she couldn’t see a purpose for.
Granted, they are pretty far away. Maybe they’re for pumping water or something? Odd number of blades, but then … different world, and their technology is far more advanced.
Why use wind then? Besides, some of them aren’t moving. Why not?
She continued turning, taking in the landscape around her. Far off to what she assumed was east she could see mountains, just poking above the horizon, while to the south the sky and land merged into a single line, miles upon miles of rolling hills and what had once been farmland stretching out before her.
To the west through … Is it just me, or does the world look … greyer? Maybe it was the towering clouds that seemed to fill that end of the sky, from a storm or just passing by she couldn’t say, but the land looked …
Wrong. The trees she could see through her binoculars were fine for a while, but as the horizon neared, the forests began to look … Ill was the best word for it. I’m not an earth pony, but … the horizon looks like it’s … dying.
The best comparison she could think of was if some painter had smeared ash all over the distant horizon, a dead, dying grey compared to the vibrancy of the world around her. A scar across and otherwise healthy palate.
There was more, too, though it was hard to make out. The binoculars she was using weren’t exactly the most powerful, and there was the inevitable curve of the horizon, though it was slight. But there was definitely something toward the middle of the grey, a darker, almost blackened, charred blur.
A wildfire, maybe? She lowered the glasses, shaking her head. “No … that’d look different.” She’d seen the aftereffects of a wildfire before. This was … something else. What, she couldn’t say, but … Something had marked the land to the west.
What’s to the west anyway? Her eyes dropped to her map, but it only included some of the features outside of the city, not the actual landscape. But there was a major road that went to the west. She frowned, then lifted the binoculars.
It wasn’t too hard to spot, now that she knew it was there. A winding ribbon of broken grey that was already being reclaimed by nature as it headed out of the city, winding through trees new and old … and right toward the grey horizon, where she lost track of it.
Well, that’s not a good sign, she thought, lowering the glasses and squinting at the distant, grey smear. Wouldn’t that road logically be heading to another inhabited place?
The thought left her with a growing pit in her stomach as she packed up the binoculars and her map and started back down the tower ladder. The metal rungs rang with each step, the sound echoing out across the silent city.
“I need more information,” she said as her boots met the roof at last. “Maybe I should give that library another shot.” The place had been a ruin … but there was bound to be something she could glean from it. Especially now that I can read. The door to the inside of the station opened with a faint squeal, and she took a moment to pull one of the flashlights from her backpack and flick it on. Her eyes would adjust; the interior of the station wasn’t that dark but ...
I never did take a close look at what this place did, she thought as the door swung shut behind her. In fact … they might have water! The thought hit her like a bolt of lightning, and she almost bolted down the stairs toward the second level, the beam from her flashlight leading the way.
I didn’t even think about it the last time I was here. But then again, she thought as reached the second floor, shining her flashlight up and down the small hall. Last time I was here I didn’t even know why there were bodies everywhere.
Okay, technically I still don’t, she thought as metal glimmered beneath the light of her flashlight. A door plaque, dusty but still legible. But I know a little bit more now … Okay, let’s see … That’s an L, and that’s a C … Custodial?
She turned away. Not what I’m looking for. There was another glimmer, this one further down the hall on the same side. There were three signs on this door, one plain but the other two in faint colors under their coating of dust. Red and yellow.
The first took her a moment to decipher and sound out. “Electrical?” Apparently it had something to do with an unfamiliar word, “Voltage” because the sign below it seemed to be a warning that whatever “Voltage” was it was “high.”
The lowest sign, the red one, simply read “Dangerous area: Safety equipment required.”
And … that’s my cue to look for a different door, Sunset thought, turning the flashlight to the other side of the hall. I doubt they’d keep their water jugs somewhere with “dangerous high voltage.”
Though they could be in the custodial, she thought as her flashlight hit another door, this one across from here and nearby. She stepped up to it and peered at the dusty letters.
Con … conference room? Yes! She stepped forward, her hand rattling the handle. It was unlocked. Let’s see what they— The door swung open and she paused. Oh.
The conference room was better-lit than the hallway outside, owing to two of its four walls being glass windows to the exterior. All of them were whole, if covered in dust, dirt, and in one pane’s case, a long, leafy vine. It almost overpowered the flashlight … but not enough that she was tempted to turn it off.
But what had made her stop was the absolute disarray of the room. Clearly it was a conference room, almost like any in Equestria. The center was occupied by a large table, elongated and with some sort of glass and metal boxes built into it. Chairs surrounded it as well, simple but elegant.
Or at least, had surrounded it. From the look of it, the room had been abandoned in a hurry, binders and folders scattered across the tabletop and floor, chairs upended as if someone had fallen over them. A paper cup lay flat on the floor, crushed beneath someone’s foot.
On the plus side, there was a dirty, dusty water dispenser at the far end of the room, with a algae-choked jug otherwise identical to the ones at the garden shop sitting atop it. The sight sent a surge of hope through her. Behind it against the back wall was a row of cabinets. Cabinets just large enough to hold more of the jugs. Her mouth suddenly dry, she stepped forward, the door swinging shut behind her. I may just grab those and call it a day.
Come on … The cabinets rattled at first as if locked, and she almost reached for her hatchet when one abruptly gave, opening outward to reveal a familiar shimmer.
“Yes!” Several jugs sat inside the cabinet. One, two, three … Well, three is good!
“Three’s very good,” she said aloud as she checked the other cabinets. They held empty boxes of paper. Useful, but not as useful as three more jugs of water. It does more than double my current supply.
Plus, there might be more downstairs. Now … She took another look around the room. It look like they all left in a hurry … I guess it would mean that if they evacuated, the call came quickly?
There was a stain on the table’s surface where someone had knocked over a cup of dark liquid and then just left it to soak into the wood. She picked up one of the binders and leafed through it but most of it was abbreviated enough that she didn’t want to spend time deciphering it. However, none of it looked like the kind of thing that would warrant a panicked rush from a room. The strangest thing she could see was the collection of metal and glass boxes built into the tabletop, and a strange raised slot in the middle.
With a slip of yellowed paper poking up out of one end. Is it … a printing machine of some kind?
Curious. But not helping solve the mystery. Still, there was water to add to her wagon and take home, and that was more than she’d expected when she’d set out. She stepped back into the hallway, shining her flashlight to check for any more doors.
There was one, right at the end of the hall. Next to a painting of a Seran figure she’d seen in one of the children’s books. The leader of the COG. Chairman Dalyell. In the painting, he looked stern, but not cold.
The door perpendicular to the end of the hall where the painting hung had a plaque that simply said “Manager.”
All right. The door was unlocked, and she pushed it open, her flashlight leading the way. So maybe—Sun above!
The manager, or what was left of them, was still sitting at their desk, their remains slumped over in their chair. One bony hand was resting atop the desk, a firearm still clutched between the fingers. The other held a yellowed slip of paper.
The top half of the figure’s skull was missing, the window behind them spiderwebbed with old cracks and covered in a long-since dry residue that could have only been the figure’s brains.
Her stomach heaved, and for a moment Sunset thought she was going to vomit. He … He killed himself. Why?
She crept forward, and with a frantic, darting movement, snatched the slip of paper from the figure’s decaying fingers. The answer was printed on one side of it, printed in plain, if faded, block text.
COALITION OF ORDERED GOVERNMENTS EMERGENCY BROADCAST TO BE AIRED IMMEDIATELY. MAINLAND LOST. CHAIRMAN PRESCOTT INVOKED FORTIFICATION ACT. ORDERED STRATEGIC DEPLOYMENT OF HAMMER OF DAWN GLOBALLY AGAINST ALL CITIES, BASES, INDUSTRIAL TARGETS IN THREE DAYS TIME. CITIZENS URGED TO MAKE FOR JACINTO PLATEAU.
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Wow, this is getting more intense.
i wonder what are the chances that she'll bump into Marcus or JD?
So I'm guessing this is around when the Lambent outbreak started.