>>168398Mason continues along this street until he comes to another checkpoint, staffed by ponies in khaki uniforms who hold metal pipes that must surely be the weapons of this future the living have created, but Mason develops a sudden aversion to the checkpoint, places the car back in gear, and turns right, and gling his head to the left. He turns left and moves up, with a dark factory to the right and a row of lights in a diner to the left. Going up block further, he slows down as they pass a brick barrier. "They are walling it off" he says with some degree of astonishment and worry. He goes north a block, and then turns around to pull into a diagonal parking space on the left (now right) side of the road. He gets out and tells Posey "Come with me." He behaves a bit like a parent with a child, holding Posey's hoof if necessary. So close to Posey, Posey can tell that he is no form of undead, just a regular magical unicorn. He seems to have some aversion to the road, especially as a white and black car passes, where he places her on the opposite side of him, though the passage is uneventful. They walk towards a door, where Mason tells Posey "Here" and drags her in. It's a restaraunt in a kind of shotgun-shell design, longer back than it is wide, with the left side having tables and the left side having the bar, and he walks past a golden feathered and a white feathered griffin making his way in. He encounters a large, grey unicorn with a white mane, who is smoking a cigarette inside. His coat is a little darker than Mason's, and he is much larger.
"I need passage to Commanche." He says. The grey unicorn responds in some sort of accent Posey can tell isn't local.
"The military have started blocking it off."
"Are they planning something?" Mason asks
"Probably not, but our friends at Commanche do not know that. They are spooked, as everypony is. They think the fascists will come in and clear them out."
Mason looks back to Posey with a grave expression, as if this somehow means something.
"And what are you going over there for? I've never seen you take interest." The big unicorn asks
"To say farewell to old friends."
"You have friends there? Haha-" He cuts off, as if realizing what this means
"I see. Well be discrete, and keep your head low" He tells him
Mason says "That won't be easy" and again looks over at Posey. Then Mason looks back to him and says "And of course, we were never here"
"Of Course not." The unicorn says. "Good luck"
Mason goes past this unicorn, and to a stairway going down. He goes down it into a vaulted room with electric lighting, beige bricks, and many more dining tables. Posey may notice that it's dimensions don't quite match the upstairs, being even wider to the left, and much bigger overall. But Mason doesn't linger, and drags Posey to the back of this, through a door, and through what must be a kitchen, with several griffins working, big steel pots over gas fires, white cabinets, big sacks of onions and potatoes and so forth, and then past them, to another door that goes into a long, dark hallway. He opens this door, to find it to be the back entrance to a new weird world.
It almost looks like a mirror of the above street, but underground. It isn't quite a mirror, because while you could perhaps pull a cart through it, it is obviously for hoof traffic. To either side of the cobblestone paved pedestrian street are little business, or sometimes just a wall. To the left is a bar with plenty of noise, where Posey can see several of what she can recognize as diamond dogs. She walks past a street vendor zebra with numerous purses. Then further along, a pink earthpony mare in an aquamarine skirt smoking a cigarette says "Hey there" to Mason as he walks by. Mason says "hey" almosty absent mindedly to her as he walks by. Posey can see she has on too much makeup, and her eyeshadow is bleeding. Next to this mare is another creature Posey mare have heard about, but never seen in person - one of that scally, two-toed equiniform creatures from the far south and east. She is green with silver scales, and likewise has on too much makeup, and far more black eyeshadow. She looks "out of it."
To the left a little further up is another shop that has numerous woven baskets for sale, and a female creature inside picking them up and placing them around. Posey has never seen one of these. She's tan with brown stripes, mostly resembles a dog, and has a white head scarf that lets the ears poke up. Past this, Mason looks at the writing on a stairwell, before going up.
They enter on a street more than a little darker than the rest.
"Here, more or less."