Applejack took one step on the stairs, just one step, and then a solid wall of ice formed behind her. She continued her way down the stairs, her hoofsteps echoing down the staircase.
The staircase seemed to go on forever, but Applejack kept walking at her same leisurely pace, with nothing aiding or stopping her progress. Nothing, until the shrieks of the white pony-esque monsters were heard.
'This is it.' Applejack thought as she tensed up. 'My final challenge.' She continued walking down the stairs, tensed up, ready to run anytime the monsters encountered her. The shrieks continued, echoing throughout the staircase, the sound waves bouncing off the walls, and seemingly directed towards Applejack's eardrums.
Static came from Applejack's camera. Her flashlight flickered. The shrieks of the monsters were getting louder and louder by the second.
Applejack's pace sped up. She continued walker deeper and deeper in the seemingly endless staircase, with the constant sounds of static and shrieking filling her ears, and with the flashlight flickering light in front of her.
Another shriek was heard. This time, it came from right behind her! She ran down the staircase. 'How could they have come from behind?!' She thought. 'Are they even behind me?' She didn't know.
Although she didn't look all the way back, she looked to her left, to see herself, running. She looked slightly back to see what other reflections the ice would show. Just as she thought, the monsters were behind her. Somehow, they had appeared from the top of the staircase without climbing the stairs. Applejack shouldn't have been surprised. And she wasn't.
She turned her head back in front of her and continued running, praying for a flare, or a piece of lumber to beat them with, anything that could possibly aid her. But nothing. Just endless stairs.
After running for an even longer period of time, she saw something lying on the staircase. It was a flare! Her prayer was indeed answered. Without breaking pace, she bent down and picked it up with her teeth, smoothly tossing it into her bag. She would use it later. In a situation that was even more dire than this one.
Speaking of dire, just as she put the flare in her bag, one of the monsters managed to catch up to her and tackled her, it's forearms wrapped around her body. She instantly felt her body temperature dropping as it did so.
The tackle of the monster carried so much momentum, it caused Applejack to fall. She slid down the stairs, each step digging into her as she slid, with the monster latched onto her the whole time.
What a way to die. Rolling and sliding down a staircase with a white pony-esque monster latched onto you, being bruised at the same time as having your body temperature lowered. Oh, and also with many more of the same monsters chasing after her.
Applejack refused to let herself end like this. Somehow in the middle of rolling down the staircase, she managed to catch her balance. She rocked herself hard, causing the monster latched onto her to come off. It floated cartoonishly in the air for a second, giving Applejack enough time to buck it, causing it to fly into the crowd of the monsters behind it, sending them sprawling, and even causing many of them to fall off the staircase.
"Ha!" cried Applejack in triumph. She allowed herself a split second, just a split second of glorious, glorioustriumph, before she continued running back down the staircase.
The staircase finally ended, leading to a small hallway with a door at the end of it. She ran across the hall and burst through to the other side of the door.
On the other side was another hallway, the middle of it connected to another hallway, making a four-way intersection.
'Where to go?' Applejack thought frantically as she sped towards the center of the intersection. 'Where to go?!' Her thoughts were interrupted by a bang from behind her. The monsters had just burst through the door, and who knows how close they were to her?
Applejack made a break for it and darted to the left, burst through another door, only to end up in another four-way insected hallway.
She ran down and turned a right and burst through another door. Yet another four-way hallway. She ran straight down the hall and burst through yet another door. And yet, ANOTHER four-way hall.
'Ok, I'm getting sick of this.' Applejack thought to herself as she continued bursting through more doors and ending up in more four-way hallways. 'There's gotta be a clue somewhere.'
Right before she burst through each door, she examined them carefully. Well, as carefully as she could before bursting through it, but she examined them to the best of her ability, looking for clues. And she did noticed something.
'There's ice on the top of some doors, and nothing on the top of others.' She noticed. She burst through into another hallway, and then ran to the center. She stopped in the center, and used what precious moments she had to see which door had ice on top of it. 'That one!' She ran to the door and burst through.
She did the same thing for several more hallways, each time, using precious moments to find the door with ice on it.
She burst through one final door, expecting another hallway, and she got one. Only this time, it was completely dark, save for a door on the other side that glowed blue.
'I should drop the flare.' A sudden thought coursed through her mind. As she sped down the hallway, she took out the flare from her bag, and lit it. It sizzled loudly in her hooves. She dropped it to the floor, ensuring her some time to do what she needed to do.
She burst through this door into a small room, and immediately slammed the door behind her closed. There was a bookcase nearby. She quickly pushed it in front of the door.
She turned to examine the room she was in. It was small, cozy, and quaint. Or at least it would be cozy and quaint, if it wasn't frozen. There was a door on the other side that was frozen, as well.
In the center of the room was a small radio, soft static coming out of it, mingling with the static of Applejack's camera.
On a wall was a picture of some mysterious Dj Pony. It reminded Applejack of Vinyl Scratch, but it wasn't her. Beneath the picture was a channel to a radio station. Applejack assumed that she needed to tune the radio to the station in order to unlock her path.
Already, Applejack could hear the sizzling of the flare dying out. She hurried to the radio and changed stations as quickly as she could. One station. This wasn't it. The next. Not it either.
There was banging on the door. The bookcase barely budged, though. It was heavier than it seemed.
Applejack continued flipping through stations. She was getting frantic. Station after station after station, and yet it wasn't the right one. One more turn, and finally, she got the right radio station. It played a song. A song that Applejack didn't recognize. She didn't care, though. She solved the puzzle.
The ice on the door melted and evaporated away. The door glowed blue afterwards. Applejack burst through this door and emerged on the other side.
It was waiting for her. The masked white pony. It stood in the middle of a blank, featureless room. There was nothing. literally nothing in this room, except the white pony in the middle, waiting, waiting for her. And now it's wait was over.
"There you are, you little scoundrel." Applejack said. She took a step towards the masked white pony.
"You ran away after I found out who you were." She tooked another step towards it. It took a step back.
The white pony stepped back all the way until it's rear end touched the wall. Applejack walked closer still.
Applejack looked up at the white pony, smiling. "But now." She began.
"It ends here."
The door behind her banged open, with the monsters pouring in. One of them latched onto Applejack.
"No." Applejack said, and then the monster disintegrated. Every monster that dared to take a step in the room disintegrated into dust. It wasn't until there was only one monster left until finally it took the hint, and stayed behind in the room, not even thinking about taking another step.
"As I said." Applejack said calmed. "It ends here."
The white pony stiffened. It suddenly stood erect, straight as a statue. Ice formed slowly around it's hind hooves. The ice spread slowly up it's hind legs, then across it's body. It spread down it's frontlegs, and at the same time, around it's head. The pulsations of it's mask of darkness slowed down at first, then eventually stopped. The ice then spread over it's head.
The white pony shattered, the many pieces clinking on the floor. It was over. Applejack won.
A pillar of light formed where the white pony stood just seconds ago. The light was soft, warm, and inviting.
Applejack stepped slowly towards the light, then stopped. She turned back and looked at the last monster that stood.
"See ya." she said plainly, and then turned back to face the pillar of light.
"See ya never, that is." She stepped into the pillar of light, leaving behind Silent Ponyville for good.