Velvet stopped and looked into the mist. The trees here were stunted, the grass turning brown either from the lack of sunlight or an early frost. It was cold enough that it might dip below freezing overnight.
“Not that there’s much sunlight now,” Velvet muttered, looking up. The mountains hemmed them in on all sides with cliffs so sheer they’d be impossible to climb, the peaks casting everything into shade. It wasn’t dark, but the lack of direct sunlight explained why the mist was lingering for so long.
“Stay on the path,” one of the guards warned. “With visibility this low, it’ll be easy to get lost.”
“I hope we’re going the right way,” Cadance said, her ears folded back and head low as if trying to avoid hitting her head on a low ceiling.
“What’s wrong?” Night Light asked, watching her slink along.
“I don’t know,” Cadance said. “The air just feels wrong.”
“There’s something up ahead!” Sunset yelled back. She stopped and let everypony catch up to her. Just visible through the mist, a low building loomed on the road. A sign hung overhead, wordless and showing a full tankard drawn in black paint on stained boards.
“Must be a rest stop,” Night Light said. “I know I could use a drink after that walk.”
“I wouldn’t drink anything I found around here,” Sunset said. “Monster lairs are always full of poison.”
“There’s a fire inside,” Cadance said, nodding to the glow in the windows. “That means somepony must be there. They might be able to tell us if we’re really in the right place or not.”
“I should go first,” Velvet said. “We don’t know how they’ll react if they see armored guards or, well, a princess.”
“Uh, excuse me?” Sunset coughed. “Clearly I should go. I’m the only one here who can defend herself.”
“That’s why you need to hang back,” Cadance said. “If there’s a trap, you’ll have to be the one to pull them out of danger.”
“Oh!” Sunset blinked. “You’re right. Maybe some of my tactical thinking is starting to rub off on you!”
“I’m definitely learning the way you think,” Cadance agreed.
“Fine, you two go, and I’ll cover you.”
Night Light smiled. “If we need help, we’ll scream. It comes naturally to me.”
“Come on,” Velvet sighed, pulling Night Light with her. She probably wouldn’t have been able to walk there alone. There was a heaviness to the air like they were being watched from the impenetrable mist around them. Velvet felt like a mouse trying to sneak around under the gaze of a hungry cat.
The tavern they were walking towards didn’t help put them at ease. The building looked abandoned. The windows were broken, the front door was ajar, and there was a stink hanging around everything, a sickly sweet rot like spoiled fruit.
“Hello?” Velvet asked, knocking on the doorframe before pushing the door open.
Inside was a wreck. The tables that weren’t overturned were covered with dirty plates, like everypony had walked out in the middle of a meal days ago and just left everything behind.
Almost everypony, anyway.
A stallion stood in front of the fire, staring into the flames and muttering softly to himself.
“Excuse me,” Velvet said. “Hello?”
“So cold,” the stallion whispered. “Why can’t I get warm?”
“Do you need help?” Velvet asked, stepping closer. “We’re not from around here and, uh, we were wondering if you’d seen any strange ponies lately.”
The stallion turned to look at Velvet, working his jaw and not saying anything.
“Stranger than us, I mean,” Velvet laughed. “Not that we’re really that strange…”
She looked at Night Light.
“I think the pookas did something to him,” Night Light whispered.
“You aren’t… you aren’t welcome here,” the strange stallion said. “You’re not one of us…”
“We’ll just be going, then,” Velvet said, backing away. “We’ll leave.”
“No!” The stallion snapped, as if suddenly alerted. “Nopony can leave! Nopony can escape!”
He lunged toward Velvet, and she nodded to Night Light.
Night Light swung the chair he’d picked up at the strange stallion’s head, hitting him hard enough to shatter the wooden chair and hammer the stallion to the floor in a heap.
“He’s not dead, is he?” Night Light asked. He dropped the remains of the chair and craned his neck.
“Nah. Look at this, though,” Velvet lifted one of the stallion’s hooves. The frog and fetlock were blackened and blistered. “I think this is frostbite. If he does wake up, he might lose a hoof or two.”
“Watch out, he’s doing something!” Night Light warned, pulling Velvet back.
The unconscious pony shuddered like he was seizing, back arching in pain and jaw stretching wide. Smoke poured from the stallion’s mouth, a thick plume that curled like a black snake and escaped through one of the broken windows, merging with the mist.
“Okay, that was more than a little creepy,” Velvet admitted.
The door exploded in. Sunset jumped through the embers.
“I’m here! Where’s the monster?!” The filly scanned the room and found, instead of a monster, just Velvet and Night Light standing over a stallion. “Oh. You took care of it already. Without me.”
“You can have the next one,” Velvet assured her. “Cadance! It’s safe!”
Two guards marched in ahead of Cadance, one of them remaining outside at the door.
“I think we should take this as proof that we’re in the right place,” Cadance said. “Well, assuming that ponies around here aren’t just crazy. You hear stories about mountain towns.”
“But if this was Breathless, why does he have all this frostbite?” Night Light asked.
“Princess, we found something,” one of the guards called out.
“What is it?” Cadance asked.
“You should see for yourself.”
Velvet followed Cadance over and paled when she saw what the guard had discovered behind the bar. Four ponies were piled up like garbage, half-frozen and rotting.
“What is it?” Sunset asked, trying to get around them.
“You shouldn’t look,” Cadance said, moving her wing to block Sunset’s view.
“I can handle it!” Sunset yelled, shoving the wing out of the way. She got a good look at the scene and immediately paled and backed away. Her cheeks bulged, and she ran to the corner and threw up.
“I know how she feels,” Night Light said. “Do you think the whole town is going to be like this?”
Outside, somepony started shouting.
Sunset wiped her mouth on her hoof and ran to the window, thankful for the distraction. A haggard-looking pony in rags was running down the path.
“I have to get out!” he yelled. “I saw ponies coming in! That means ponies can get out!”
“Wait!” Sunset yelled.
“I’m not waiting for anypony!’ the rag pony yelled, running into the mist, laughing. “You can be stuck here if you want! I’m finally free!”
He started coughing as he ran past them, slowing and then stopping, the coughing fit growing stronger until he collapsed in a silent heap.
“What was that?” Velvet asked.
“I don’t know, but he didn’t seem to be under any kind of magical control,” Cadance said. “We need to help him.”
“I’ll get him, Princess,” the guard outside said, running into the mist. After a few steps, he started choking on the air.
“Come back!” Cadance yelled.
The guard turned and took half a step before collapsing himself. The mist closed over him, hiding him and the rag pony from sight.
“It isn’t going to let us escape,” Velvet whispered.
“The mist didn’t reach very high,” Cadance said. “I’m going to try and get to them from the air. If I’m fast, I should be able to grab them and get back here.”
She ran outside and jumped, spreading her wings and flapping hard to gain altitude. She only barely got above the roof of the building before something went terribly wrong. The air temperature dropped like a brick building in Cloudsdale, and the air turned gelid and thick. Ice instantly coated her feathers, and her lift vanished.
Cadance lost control, the ground rushing up to meet her.
She opened her eyes after a few moments of not crashing, and found herself hovering a few inches above the ground.
“Are you okay?” Velvet asked, straining to hold the alicorn up with her magic.
Cadance flipped over and Velvet set her down on her hooves.
“My wings completely iced over,” Cadance said, wincing as she stretched one out to look at it. “There’s a layer of incredibly cold air over this whole valley. It’s like a lid on a pot. That must be why this mist won’t go away.”
“Well, that’s probably not the only reason why the magical death fog that kills ponies trying to leave town is here, but it can’t be helping,” Velvet said, shrugging. “Will your wings be okay?”
Cadance nodded. “I think so.”
“Since we can’t leave, we have to go into town,” Sunset said, walking out of the tavern slowly. “There’s nothing we can do here.”
“We stay together,” Cadance said. “We have to find where everypony went. If those monsters took my people, they have to be here. I have to bring them back. I can’t fail them again.”