//------------------------------//
// Nightmare in Silver 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Applejack walked through the frozen wasteland. Jagged spires of blue ice rose around her like trees in an orchard, catching what little light was there and twisting it. The ground was covered in snow, almost sand-like in the way it moved beneath her hooves. A soft, gentle breeze blew over her coat and through her mane. The sky was cloudy, a uniform curtain of grey blue nothingness.
It should have felt cold. And by all means, it was cold. And she could tell it was cold. But it wasn't uncomfortable, for some reason. It felt cold, yes, but not colder than her own skin or body. And the snow wasn't wet, not as it usually would be. It didn't melt against her skin. Instead it stayed the same, and even as she tried to pick some up and breathe on it nothing changed. Even her breath, despite how cold the air was, was invisible, and breathing in didn't hurt as it should have.
She tried looking around, searching for any sign of anything that wasn't ice or snow. But there was nothing else. Nothing more than the cold and frozen world surrounding her in all directions, as far as her eyes could see flat plains covered in snow where ice rose from the ground. Uncertain, Applejack kept walking around, wondering what else she could do.
Suddenly, she felt something. Like a pull on one of her hooves, stopping her from lifting her leg. She immediately turned her head towards it, but couldn't see what was blocking her there, the base of her hoof buried in snow. Quickly she brought another hoof there to move away the snow and see what else was beneath it. But all she found was ice. Ice on the ground, ice beneath her hoof, and ice crawling up her hoof and enveloping it. She tried to pull again and saw how the ice kept its hold on her, and terrified she realised she could no longer feel anything in her hoof.
As she desperately kept pulling, trying to think of a way out, her two other hooves were locked in place just as the first one had been, leaving only the still raised one she'd used to move the snow free of ice. And then, adding to her dread, the ice began to crawl up legs.
She'd thought, at first, that she could no longer feel her hooves. But as ice spread higher along her limbs, she realised that was not the case. She could still feel her hooves and legs. Merely, they were different now. They weren't simply encased in ice. They were being turned to ice themselves.
Suddenly she felt what she thought was a touch on her back. But turning towards it, she saw one of the pointed branches of the twisted trees of ice around her had extended, and was now piercing through her flesh, as ice spread through her body from there as well.
Turning her head from side to side, all she could do was pant as more and more of her body turned to ice, both crawling up from the ground and from new spikes piercing through her. Until the ice reached her lungs, at least. Then her breathing became calm. Her throat was turned too, and she could no longer scream. And finally, her head was transformed, leaving her in darkness.
Applejack slowly opened her eyes, seeing the Moon shining through her room's window. She remembered the nightmare, yet she felt nothing over it.