//------------------------------// // Silent Ponyville 3 - Intermission 2 // Story: Silent Ponyville Side Stories // by SamRose //------------------------------// “Nnnnngh!” The magenta unicorn grunted, struggling with her magic to lift the object. Her head was aching from how much magic she was forcing out, her horn pulsing rhythmically in pain as she continued to stress it. Her teeth were grinding, her eyes were forced shut, the room began to spin and her body was crying out for air. With a loud cry of exhaustion her concentration broke, her body collapsing to the ground. She took in several heavy inhales, before loudly coughing at the dust cloud she had caused to rise. She sat up and rubbed her forehead with a groan, looking at the fallen dresser in front of the door. All attempts at moving it out of the way had failed. No amount of physical or magical force seemed to be budging the wooden item. “Well, that was our last plan. It seems we really are stuck in this room now.” The earth pony behind her let out a defeated sigh. She raised her hooves to her face and groaned into them, pulling on it in frustration. “How did we even end up in this mess?” “I don’t know… I… I get the feeling we’re not the only ones in this mess though…” The unicorn bit her lip anxiously, turning to look at the earth pony, “Before we got stuck in here I managed to look out a window… the whole town’s been covered in some kind of fog. I think everyone’s in a similar situation.” “If everyone is… then I guess it’s just a matter of time till we get rescued then huh?” The earth pony forced a smile to her face, one that was anything but genuine as she let out a nervous laugh. “No doubt somepony is going to be looking for us. Yeah, that’s it. We’ll get the help we need soon and we’ll be out of this room before you know it.” The unicorn turned to look at the fallen dresser once more. It seemed unbelievable that a piece of large wooden furniture would be blocking them from leaving that room, but there it was before her eyes. The dresser didn’t even match with anything else in the room. Her eyes wandered around the rest of the room, trying to spy any other details that might help them out. Several shelves lined the walls, each one carrying a different type of object on them. She could spot a tool chest that was open but appeared to be empty of any kind of tools, a few cans filled with various kinds of paints and liquids, several cleaning agents lined up in a row, a few mops and brooms in the far back corner of the room, and on the wall opposite the shelves was a large poster that depicted Princess Celestia standing proudly before several royal guards that said ‘The Equestrian Royal Guard’. “Oh, do forgive me, we haven’t been properly introduced.” The earth pony spoke up suddenly, breaking the unicorn’s concentration. The unicorn quickly looked towards the earth pony, getting her first good look at her since they’d been trapped in that room. She had an immaculate white coat topped with a silver mane. She extended her hoof, “My name is Winter Withers, you might know me as the local weather reporter for the Ponyville Express.” “Oh, I’m Sparkler.” The unicorn took Winter’s hoof and gently shook it. “I just graduated from Ponyville High, so I don’t have a job just yet.” Sparkler let go of Winter’s hoof, before looking around the closet, “So… how’d you end up in here anyway?” “Oh… well I was looking for a key actually, or at least something that could unlock a door. When I woke up I found myself in this strange building instead of my home. I tried to leave, but the door at the end of the hallway was locked and I wasn’t strong enough to break it down. No one else was around so I came in here looking for SOMETHING that might unlock the door… when you showed up from somewhere and that dresser came crashing down, locking us both in here.” Winter’s sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Out of one locked in area and into another.” Sparkler’s ears flattened, “Sorry… I probably knocked it over without realizing when I came in.” she looked away from Winter in apology. “No, no… I don’t exactly blame you.” Winter let out a soft groan that seemed to contradict her words, “What I’d honestly like to know is what is going ON right now! There was most certainly no scheduled fog in the forecast. If I could get outside I could get my bearings and head to the weather station to figure out what’s going on.” Winter stood up from her spot, walking over to the wall with the Celestia poster on it. “If relocating ponies and covering the town in fog is somepony’s idea of a practical joke, then I’m not laughing. Somepony is going to get an earful from me.” She huffed lightly, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. “And you can certainly bet Rainbow Dash is going to get an earful from me too. As weather captain, letting this whole mess happen is her responsibility! Why isn’t she cleaning up all of the fog right now?” “Rainbow Dash? Didn’t she just get married yesterday?” Sparkler asked, remembering the joyous festivities that almost the whole town had participated in the day before. “Ah… oh that’s right…” Winter said putting a hoof to her lips and going over her thoughts with a frustrated look. “Guess it’s not fair to blame her for this then… whoever she left in charge would most certainly get the blame. Probably Thunderlane then… that slacker, I could see this happening under his watch.” Winter grumbled to herself. The room grew quiet then, Sparkler shifting a little uncomfortably in place. She wasn’t very good at starting conversations, or even participating in them. She looked around the room once more and got to her hooves. Her mind was telling her that she needed to find some way to escape, that she needed to go find her family again. Her whole morning routine had been thrown off by her waking up in this strange place. The morning ritual was repeating itself in Sparkler’s mind: wake up and prepare breakfast for herself and Dinky. Make sure Dinky headed off to school, then do the chores around the house. After that she’d need to head out into town and look for a job, perhaps do some grocery shopping if they needed it. She remembered that they were running low on milk the other day and it’d be nice to have something tasty for dinner. She shifted her hooves, walking over to the shelves carrying the various items on it. Winter lifted her head up, looking curiously at the unicorn investigating the items. Sparkler went over to the seemingly empty toolbox first. Nothing was sticking out of it, but it was hard to see inside from the angle it was at on the shelf. She raised her hoof and tilted the metal box, which proceeded to creak loudly from the rusted hinges before a metallic clinking could be heard inside. “Find something?” Winter asked curiously, not really wanting to get up from her leaning position against the wall. “Well…” Sparkler said, her horn lighting up to levitate the object out of the box to show Winter, “I think I found your key.” “Lovely. So if we can ever get our way out of here, we can get out of the following room.” Winter rolled her eyes a little, glaring down at the floor. She was trying to direct her anger towards anything but the other pony in the room. “Sorry…” Sparkler murmured, putting the key down next to Winter. Winter looked it over, before raising her gaze back up to Sparkler and letting out another sigh. “No… I’m sorry if I’m coming off as rude. I’m not normally so crass, but this whole situation has put me in a foul mood.” Winter grumbled, running a hoof over her face again before rolling her eyes. “I’m pretty much angry at the world right now, not you. Really I’m glad to have some company.” “I-It’s alright.” Sparkler gave a small smile, “I’m not really very good at being company, but I’m kind of glad I’m not alone either. I probably would’ve ended up panicking eventually if I hadn’t met you…” The unicorn carefully trotted around the closet taking a look at the various cleaning chemicals next. “My whole day has been thrown off too… I mean, I’m supposed to be helping my little sister get ready for school right now…” “Oh?” Winter perked up a little, looking over at Sparkler, “Wouldn’t that sort of thing normally be what your parents should do?” “Well, I suppose in a normal family… but our family hasn’t really ever been ‘normal’.” Sparkler chuckled softly, levitating various bottles around to check their labels to see what was inside. “We don’t have a Dad you see, and Mom has to wake up really early every morning, well before either me or my sister wake up, so that she can get an early start on her delivery route. She’s one of the local mail mares after all.” “So she leaves you with all the chores?” Winter raised an eyebrow curiously. “Well… sort of, I guess… she helps out when she gets home, but her job has her gone most of the day. She does what she can when she gets home, but she’s always tired.” Sparkler gently placed the bottles down, not seeing anything helpful. “She also works six days a week so that she can pay for the both of us. I’ve been looking really hard for a job just so that she doesn’t have to work so hard for us.” “A job hm?” Winter rubbed her chin in thought. “What’s your special talent? I see three diamonds there.” She pointed to Sparkler’s flank that showcased the trio of fine cut diamonds. “Oh, that?” Sparkler looked at her cutie mark before looking at Winter with a smile, “It represents my attention to details, the ability to see beauty and blemishes even in the most pristine of things.” The unicorn gave Winter a quick smile before walking over to the cans of paint to examine them next. “Certainly explains you looking at everything in here.” Winter remarked, causing Sparkler to lightly blush as she inspected the contents of the various paint cans. “Still though… a talent like that could certainly be useful. When this whole mess is over why don’t you come down to the weather station? I can probably find some temp work for you that fits your talent.” Sparkler nearly dropped the paint can in surprise, looking at Winter bewildered. Winter just returned the look with a mischievous smile, liking the look she was being given. “I… I’d really appreciate that!” Sparkler could barely contain her excitement, putting the paint can back down gently. “I promise I’ll be the best temp you’ve ever hired.” Sparkler saluted Winter. This just caused the earth pony to chuckle. “I like the enthusiasm. You’re going to need it, you’ll likely end up doing a whole bunch of boring paper work. We’ll see how long you’ll want the job when you’re pushing papers all day.” Winter chuckled, resting her head against the wall to stare up at the ceiling. “I-I don’t mind that!” Sparkler said, wanting to defend herself and not lose a possible job before she’d even started. “Anything to help my mother and sister, they need all the help they can get.” Winter looked at her curiously at this, the statement having caused Sparkler to gently bite her lip in worry and look away from the white pony. “I see… why don’t you tell me more about them?” Winter asked, stretching her front legs till she heard a small pop. “Huh?” Sparkler blinked in confusion. “As long as we’re stuck here we should do something to pass the time. Why don’t you tell me more about your family?” Winter waved her hoof a little dismissively, “Let’s hear the interesting tale of why you wish to work so hard for your family.” “…Oh…” Sparkler scuffed her hoof against the ground. Having checked everything of interest on the shelves she walked over to Winter, quickly sitting down next to her. She took a deep breath before looking up at the ceiling. “You’ve probably heard about our family, my mom’s name is Derpy Hooves. She’s one of the local mailmares who happens to be… accident prone.” “Derpy? …Oh, I know who you’re talking about, that ditzy mail pony? Huh. Surprised a mare like her has a kid your age.” Winter said sizing Sparkler up. Even though Winter had only been in town for two months she had made it a good habit to try and get to know as many ponies as she could. Though she hadn’t met Derpy personally she had seen the mail mare crash into a few things around town. “You know… Derpy didn’t look all that old to me. Did she have you when she was very young?” Sparkler visibly twitched, tilting her head and giving a bit of a sorrowful look. She thought over her words carefully, before putting on a small smile and shaking her head gently. “No… I’m not… Derpy isn’t my real mom… she adopted me about a year ago. Before then I was living at an orphanage in Canterlot, the oldest child there. Derpy visited about once a week to deliver mail from Ponyville to Canterlot and one of the places she’d often stop by was the Orphanage. She saw that every visit I was still there and… well… she decided to adopt me…” A smile appeared on the unicorn’s face as she closed her eyes, remembering the day Derpy had come into the orphanage, a smile shining on the gray pegasus’s face. How Derpy had come up and gave her the biggest hug she could remember and told her that she was finally coming home… “I see…” Was all Winter could say in response to that, running a hoof through her mane. “I suppose you must really love her then, if you’re so desperate for work to help her.” “Of course I do.” Sparkler chuckled, “She changed my life… I don’t know what I would’ve done without her… the very least I can do is help her out now.” “That’s certainly noble. Speaks wonders about your character.” Winter cricked her neck till she heard a pop, rubbing the back of it with her hoof. “As I said, I only moved here two months ago myself, all the way from Manehatten. I was living with my parents up until then, working at the weather station there as well. I managed to score a transfer here to Ponyville because I wanted to live somewhere quiet, somewhere more… rustic. Honestly, the whole city life was getting to me. Completely surrounded by ponies at all times, working endless hours for a pay that just barely affords you a place to live, harassed by coworkers and random street urchins…” Winter shook her head, pressing a hoof between her eyes again. “Ponyville has been such a welcome relief in comparison. It could’ve been any small town really, just Ponyville was the first one to accept my transfer request.” Winter smacked her lips, “I could really go for some cider right about now.” The room grew quiet for a bit after that. Winter ran a hoof through her mane as Sparkler fidgeted quietly in her spot. The world seemed eerily empty, as if the atmosphere itself was thick with the silence. Sparkler’s ears fidgeted at the sound of the building settling, a very low echo of wood groaning as it bore the burden of the heavy structure. She closed her eyes and listened more intently, the sound of a water droplet hitting her senses. “So what do you think this is? Some overly elaborate joke? Some unicorn spell gone horribly wrong? Or maybe it’s some kind of horrible flying creature that is shrouding the town in mist so it can attack the civilians.” Winter remarked offhandedly as a joke, turning to look at her unicorn companion who seemed to be deep in thought. “Uh… hey is something wrong?” “Just a moment Winter, I think I hear something.” Sparkler said standing up to try and get a better grasp of the sound. “You hear something?” Winter quietly remarked, before tilting her head up and trying to listen as well. The two ponies stood stone still, their ears open and trying to listen for whatever it was Sparkler had heard. The silence seemed to stretch around them, as if the sound wasn’t going to come again. Winter opened her mouth to say something, to break the silence, when she was interrupted by the sound of water dripping. “That, did you hear that?” Sparkler whispered, looking at Winter seriously. “Uh… it was water…” Winter let out an exhausted breath, rubbing her mane again, “So what? What’s the big deal about water?” “Well… think about it for a moment. We’re in a closet filled with a… fairly random assortment of items from cleaning material to paint… where would a source of water be dripping from?” Sparkler quizzed Winter. “…I uh…” Winter blinked, looking around the room quickly. “…You know, that’s a good point. Where would the water be dripping from?” Sparkler looked around calmly, taking a look once more at the items on the shelves. None of the bottles of cleaning supplies were open, so it wasn’t possible for the drip to be coming from them. Likewise, none of the paint cans were leaking either. Her ears flicked as she heard the droplet again, coming from the opposite direction of the shelves. She turned her head to look directly at the poster of Princess Celestia, gloriously depicted above several royal guards standing at attention. She carefully walked closer to the poster, before lifting up her front legs and pressing them against the poster. “Waaaah!” Sparkler cried out as she tumbled forward, tearing through the poster. She tried to land on her hooves, but her footing slipped and her chest smacked straight into the rough broken texture of the open wall. “Whoa, you alright?” Winter said quickly moving over to Sparkler and helping her to stand up. Sparkler nearly hit her head on the ceiling of where she’d fallen into, before pulling her head back and shaking it. “Yeah… I’m fine, thanks.” Sparkler nodded quickly before looking at the large hole she had torn into the poster. She quickly grabbed part of the broken edge of the poster and tore at it, quickly revealing what was hidden behind it. A large round hole had been dug into the wall, one that seemed to stretch deeper into the building. “What, really?” Winter scoffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face, “What’s that hole doing behind the poster? And how come I can’t see where it ends?” “Wait, there’s something in there…” Sparkler said, quickly grabbing the objects she saw with her magic. Levitating out of the hole were two things, a bowling ball and a slip of paper. Sparkler stared at the bowling ball confused, as Winter grabbed the paper, reading what was written on it out loud. “In case of Bowling emergencies… signed Pinkie…” “Well… seems like something Pinkie would do.” Sparkler chuckled a little, putting the heavy ball down onto the ground before looking back into the hole in the wall, “But how far back does this thing go? I can’t see the end of it.” “Well, right now it appears to be our only way out of this room.” Winter said looking down the hole as well, before looking at Sparkler, “And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be proactive then wait for rescue.” “I suppose… we can always turn back if need be.” Sparkler nodded, before closing her eyes and concentrating on her horn. The end lit up with a brilliant light, causing Winter to have to cover her eyes for a moment. “I’ll go in first and you can follow behind me.” “Lead the way then.” Winter smiled, waving her hoof for the unicorn to take the lead. Sparkler nodded her head and looked into the hole. Taking a quick gulp for courage, she carefully made her way into the hole. It was a bit of a tight fit, she’d probably be crawling most of the way through, but she could fit. Winter looked at the key that Sparkler had placed down earlier. She made sure to grab it in her teeth, before slipping into the hole behind Sparkler. The two ponies made their way down the dark, lengthy hole in the wall, unsure of their destination…