>>103545>>103543Alright. Brie goes along a road that leads through the center of town. It's a well trafficked road with many ponies with carts - carts being definitely more popular than any mode of transport that is propelled by its own power - and past tall buildings, tenements, a library, and row houses, until the river front and a few derelict hotels are reached.
Here, at the riverfront, Brie encounters a bridge. There's something out of place, almost anamchronistic about this bridge, as one side of it has a set of turrets almost like a castle wall. Indeed, the red stone facade on this part of the bridge does have a couple low towers that makes the whole contruct resemble a medieval fortress. The bridge itself is a concrete or perhaps stone archway, about the equivalent of two lanes wide. Not much traffic passes on the bridge. At the center of the bridge, in a span perhaps two arches in length that lies between the bridge's two towers, the red stone turret stops, and the pavement of the bridge turns a subtly lighter shade of grey. This little span seems to mark a great change in the scenery moving forward. There are a number of buildings on the otherside, but these become increasingly likely to seem unoccupied, or perhaps even over occupied. A shop is abandoned and its windows broken, while a hotel seems to be converted into makeshift housing where more than one family shares a studio. Broken windows are common, as are buildings with great gashes and collapsed walls. Carts are fewer in number, but when they are seen, they are seen overloaded with grandfather clocks, suitcases, and farm animals, headed in the opposite direction. A couple ponies look on to Brie and company as the pass with evident curiosity or confusion.
As they progress further, they pass what was once the Red Fields Fire-station. Now, it has an automobile, and a small barbed wire barriacde around it, as well as a number of Griffins in military uniform. They wear a brown uniform that Brie has likely not seen before, as well as brown caps, and wear on their shoulders a green flag with yellow cross. This is hardly the last view of soldiers to be had, as Brie nears what seems to be the crossing point.
Just beyond a two story apartment building is what seems to have once been a road. "Once been," because there is now a wall spanning down its length. It's made of steel, including both plates and grated sections, and perhaps only 18 feet in height, but it's there. It's what's along this road that is more interesting. There is a guard tower on one end, and a number of ponies standing around. These ponies wear a light green uniform, and are accompanied by similar brown uniformed griffins. The Griffins stand around, sometimes bored, sometimes talking to each other, often smoking, but occassionaly taking careful note of the movements of a line of ponies in a fenced off section. It is this line of ponies that the uniformed ponies mind themselves with, as some uniformed ponies talk to the ponies, some shine lights in their eyes, and some look over papers, while still others search carts that are pulled through. The ponies themselves vary in appearence. Some look as anxious as a pony can be. Some are patient and look well off, often wearing relatively fancy clothing. More than a few look fatigued or even ill, though the ponies around them see no need to quarantine them. They may look famished.
Above this whole scene flies a flag that is not unfamiliar, though rarely seen flying. In some ways it resembles the Equestrian flag, the one with two princeses together in the center of blue field surrounded by stars. This one, however, has fewer stars, and the princesses are replaced by a pair of horse shoes. Whereas the Princesses of the Equestrian flag faced each other in evident unity, the two horsehoes of this flag face away from each other, though their backs meet in the middle. It's almost like a pair of horseshoe magnets back to back, polarizing that which is around them.
Brie himself heads towards a shorter line, mostly of better off ponies, heading towards a pair of ponies on the other side